Very entertaining pics of Stephen Harper

[Nev]

I can't tell if he's trying to say "neocons vote here" or "ah wish ah kewd quit yew".

<img src="http://data1.blog.de/blog/c/corrisblog/ ... harper.jpg">

<img src="http://www.breadwithcircus.com/harper.jpg">

[SineSwiper]

Who?

[bovine]

Who?

BOVINE SMASH!

he may not be the most amazing Canadian Prime Minister..... but he's doing a good job keeping the 51st state in check.

[SineSwiper]

Ahhh, okay. Canadians keep up with the US and Canada. The US only keeps up with ourselves. Or, to put it logically, Country X keeps up with the US and Country X, where Country X is not US (because that would be repetitive).

[Blotus]

"Counrty X"... Sine.... is there really a need to be so retarded?

[bovine]

there is very little to follow in American politics right now. Let's give the current premature presidential candidacy run as an example. Here is a hypothetical debate between the two parties...

Democrat - I love god. Also, I do not so much entirely agree with the non-war in iraq (not occupation). That is to say that regardless of how we got there or the amount spoils our glorious corporations are reaping from the action, things are not going "superamazingWOW!" and regardless of our lack of any ideas on anything, things could possibly change with me, Democrat Jimmy/Hilary Clinton, in charge.

Republican - Your love of god is weak and frail in comparison to my love of god. God is amazing and great, and like me he hates mexicans very much. Only white people are allowed to live in America, if people come here illegally, they would take our jobs! They need to realize that we have to find a way to actually move the job over to them. The Indians (I'm talking about people from india here)were able to wait patiently enough, same with the Chinese. Bush is alright, and I can't say anything bad about Cheney or he'll hurt me again. Iraq's alright, gotta spread that democracy to those oil hoarding savages.

Mitt Romney - I am a mormon. My love of god is different from yours.

I cheer for Obama because I was behind Clinton until I remembered her hatred for the videogames. If I was an American she would have lost my vote.

[Nev]

"Counrty X"... Sine.... is there really a need to be so retarded?

I agree. Sine, you're batshit. I try to keep up with at least Canada, Mexico, and Britain, and I reasonably ought to be trying for as many countries as I can help. The world is getting more expansive, and "we only need to worry about us" is one of the viewpoints that's going to have us absolutely screwed within about twenty years.

[Nev]

there is very little to follow in American politics right now. Let's give the current premature presidential candidacy run as an example. Here is a hypothetical debate between the two parties...

Democrat - I love god. Also, I do not so much entirely agree with the non-war in iraq (not occupation). That is to say that regardless of how we got there or the amount spoils our glorious corporations are reaping from the action, things are not going "superamazingWOW!" and regardless of our lack of any ideas on anything, things could possibly change with me, Democrat Jimmy/Hilary Clinton, in charge.

Republican - Your love of god is weak and frail in comparison to my love of god. God is amazing and great, and like me he hates mexicans very much. Only white people are allowed to live in America, if people come here illegally, they would take our jobs! They need to realize that we have to find a way to actually move the job over to them. The Indians (I'm talking about people from india here)were able to wait patiently enough, same with the Chinese. Bush is alright, and I can't say anything bad about Cheney or he'll hurt me again. Iraq's alright, gotta spread that democracy to those oil hoarding savages.

Mitt Romney - I am a mormon. My love of god is different from yours.

I cheer for Obama because I was behind Clinton until I remembered her hatred for the videogames. If I was an American she would have lost my vote.

Romney's just terrifying. He said in the second Republican primary debate that he thought we needed to double the size of Guantanamo Bay.

I do give the Democrats a bit of credit though. The Republican P.R. machine does its best to make them look weak, but some of them are sticking by their guns. Harry Reid did his best to stand in the way of the time-limit-less withdrawal bill, it's just that the rest of Congress is still too full of neocons.

[Julius Seeker]

I think it is just pointless to look ignorant in a day of websites like Wikipedia.

[SineSwiper]

Hey, I'm just trying to explain how the world works. Everybody pays attention to the US, but the US doesn't really pay attention to the rest of the world, at least until we have a reason to. In terms of which world leaders are well known in the US, this would include:

POTUS, duh
Britain (starting to become less well known, since Blair stepped down)
Iran
Chavez (Venezuala, I think)
Iraq (we started it, so we should at least know their leader)
Israel (another middle east friend of ours)
Russia (especially with their attempts to restart the Cold War)

That's about it. Canada isn't in there, because Canadians tend to stay quiet, out of the news, so we aren't likely going to remember, or even know when you guys change leaders. Sorry, but if your leader started bombing more countries, pissing off people, repressing your citizens, or start visiting our president more often, then maybe we would notice him a lot more.

[SineSwiper]

Romney's just terrifying. He said in the second Republican primary debate that he thought we needed to double the size of Guantanamo Bay.

Nobody is going to vote for a Mormon in office. On the odd chance that he gets past the primary, people will realize that Mormonism is just a small step above Scientology. (Forced donations, check. Totally racist and bigoted, check. Completely unbelievable creation story, check.)

[Zeus]

Sine's right in his original post. It doesn't matter what country it is, they usually know something about the US whereas the US couldn't care less about what happens outside of its borders. It wasn't a shot at Canadians, if anything, it was a shot at Americans

[Zeus]

Who?

BOVINE SMASH!

he may not be the most amazing Canadian Prime Minister..... but he's doing a good job keeping the 51st state in check.

What? How? By becoming Bushper and trying to do in Canada what the Bush adminstration has done in the US?

He's nothing more than a Canadian version of Bush with no real power...thank God. Sadly, he's also no worse a choice than any other waste of skin and bones politican we have.

We really should just waste them all and start over.

[Julius Seeker]

I think the reason why people are getting at Sine is that he is perpetuating the stereotype that Americans love to be ignorant.

[bovine]

What? How? By becoming Bushper and trying to do in Canada what the Bush adminstration has done in the US?

He's nothing more than a Canadian version of Bush with no real power...thank God. Sadly, he's also no worse a choice than any other waste of skin and bones politican we have.

We really should just waste them all and start over.

It's just because he has no power that he is a more solid Prime Minister. He's pretty much the poster boy for minority governments and after his example, frankly I wish we have them until the end of time. He gives the country a little conservative sprinkling and can't get away with anything beyond that. Remember the green plan? It's gone and now because the lower house overpowered the government (oh, and the fact that all governments must continue their international obligations regardless of change of government, under international law) and brought the conservative party back on track with Kyoto. Regardless of if the Harper government will actually bring us in line with the targets, the fact that the other three parties can pull them back into line is exactly what I like to see. Minority governments give us more discussion and reflection into discourse before decisions are made by the government, and even if the Prime Minister of Canada does have way too much power, when put in a minority government situation he (or she in the case of Kim Campbell) must get along with other parties or face an election. So if Harper had a majority government and could freely get all of his policies passed, then I might not have so many good things to say about him. The state of Canadian politics is interesting with the NDP not being able to function under the current "first passed the post" style of electoral system, the Bloc being seats the liberals can't win in Quebec, the Liberals being in shambles, the green party unable to get enough focused support to win even a seat, and the Conservative party exploiting western alienation to spread conservative values.

I agree that no one really cares about Canadian politics outside of Canada. Although we are a growing economy, we are based too much in resource exploitation and branch plants to matter to anyone. Our population is also probably the most sparse per square kilometre in the world. Also, we like hockey too much and I'm sad the senators are losing

[Kupek]

My first thought was Australia, but apparently it's Greenland. Australia is 7th, Canada is 12th. But Australia's 20 million people is significantly more than the 6 countries ahead of it, and Canada's 32 million is the largest total population until Russia's 143 million, which is 22nd on the list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... on_density

[Zeus]

What? How? By becoming Bushper and trying to do in Canada what the Bush adminstration has done in the US?

He's nothing more than a Canadian version of Bush with no real power...thank God. Sadly, he's also no worse a choice than any other waste of skin and bones politican we have.

We really should just waste them all and start over.

It's just because he has no power that he is a more solid Prime Minister. He's pretty much the poster boy for minority governments and after his example, frankly I wish we have them until the end of time. He gives the country a little conservative sprinkling and can't get away with anything beyond that. Remember the green plan? It's gone and now because the lower house overpowered the government (oh, and the fact that all governments must continue their international obligations regardless of change of government, under international law) and brought the conservative party back on track with Kyoto. Regardless of if the Harper government will actually bring us in line with the targets, the fact that the other three parties can pull them back into line is exactly what I like to see. Minority governments give us more discussion and reflection into discourse before decisions are made by the government, and even if the Prime Minister of Canada does have way too much power, when put in a minority government situation he (or she in the case of Kim Campbell) must get along with other parties or face an election. So if Harper had a majority government and could freely get all of his policies passed, then I might not have so many good things to say about him. The state of Canadian politics is interesting with the NDP not being able to function under the current "first passed the post" style of electoral system, the Bloc being seats the liberals can't win in Quebec, the Liberals being in shambles, the green party unable to get enough focused support to win even a seat, and the Conservative party exploiting western alienation to spread conservative values.

I agree that no one really cares about Canadian politics outside of Canada. Although we are a growing economy, we are based too much in resource exploitation and branch plants to matter to anyone. Our population is also probably the most sparse per square kilometre in the world. Also, we like hockey too much and I'm sad the senators are losing

I couldn't be happier than a pig in shit that the Sens are losing. The only professional sports player I dislike is Alfuckssen and while he's in Ottawa, I'll never cheer for that spoiled brat. I was cheering for Anaheim yesterday as I was flipping back and forth between baseball.

I love minority governments for the same reason. But you're assuming that the parties wanna make it work. Look at what the Conservatives did with the Liberals had one. They spent the ENTIRE time bitching and complaining and trying to force an election rather than trying to actually make it work. And you can bet the only reason we haven't had another election 'cause they know the people just don't want another one.

But what he's also done is brought up the idea of the Republican PR machine to Canada. I fucking despise attack-style politics, fear-mongering, and doubt-filling talk all in the name of making the other side look bad while you grand stand. So he gets no respect from me...but then again, neither did the Liberals for their back-stabbing, look out for #1 bullshit they pulled.

There is no partisanship to my bitching about politics. I hate the system. I think it's severely broken and needs to be fixed....now. Accountability needs to be forced back into the system and politicians need to fear the people and not the other way around. As it stands now, they don't. This is not an easy solution and will require tons of research, but it needs to be done. We really only live in a veil of democracy.

But I do agree, minority is FAAAR superior to majority. This is something the Americans are severly lacking, which is why I keep saying they need to give Nader 5% just to have a third party recognized and funded federally. Who cares if he's a waste of time and couldn't lead you out of a paper bag? You need a third party, period.

You guys down there have no idea what you're missing. With a two party system, you have even more people than we do who aren't represented by their political leaders. At the very least you'll have the tree huggers represented. Who cares if you agree with them or hate their guts, they get a say.

You're supposed to live in a democracy after all. But that's the biggest fallacy of all.

[SineSwiper]

But I do agree, minority is FAAAR superior to majority. This is something the Americans are severly lacking, which is why I keep saying they need to give Nader 5% just to have a third party recognized and funded federally. Who cares if he's a waste of time and couldn't lead you out of a paper bag? You need a third party, period.

You guys down there have no idea what you're missing. With a two party system, you have even more people than we do who aren't represented by their political leaders. At the very least you'll have the tree huggers represented. Who cares if you agree with them or hate their guts, they get a say.

You're supposed to live in a democracy after all. But that's the biggest fallacy of all.

Yeah, except the only reason you guys have a 4 party system is because Canada's party lines are split by regions. While we have the "red/blue" states, it's no where near as diverse. The only way we are going to have a 3rd party is if we change the voting system, and neither party in Congress would ever vote for that.