what about the baked potato?

so here's a brain scratcher for ya in the politka-semantika kind of way, if that's the kind of brain teaser you like..which...you know...i sort of do...so...well yeah ok here it is.

say you're the defense minister of a country. say that country is canada. say you're Gordon O'Connor. say recently you've come under fire about the DND's lackluster providing of compensation for families of soldiers killed in action. say you get a barrage of angry questions during question period today about whether or not all families will be compensated when it's been made public knowledge that this is indeed not the case. now say you get all these questions.
now your response, oft repeated over the course of twenty or so minutes, is along the lines of:

"When I took this cabinet post I directed my department to provide full compensation to familes I did not say they will be getting full compensation, I directed my department that they should get full compensation. If by some anomaly they did not receive it it's not my fault because when I took this position I directed my department to provide full compensation to families but I did not say they would."


At this point I'm all for starting up a "Fix Ourt Senile Defense Minister" petition because I'm not really sure what the point of that was. I'm all too aware of the fact that you always get cryptic answers during QP but this is like...I want to come up with something clever to do with cryptic but it's so goddamn stupid that I cant.

It's a disgrace to this country when our government has to scramble to make a big media show out Cpl. Dinning's death. You'd think when the Minister of National Defense says "im getting the job done" it didn't mean ""We have not been fully reimbursed for Matthew's funeral despite that Mr. O'Connor stood up in House of Commons and told the Canadian people the exact opposite." (ganked from cbc)

I guess though his actions pretty much run along the lines of the Tories thinking. As long as you say you're getting the job done and constantly point your finger at the Liberals then you're fine. case in point Kyoto. John Baird continually says that Canada's new green policies are better then Kyoto and more realistic and blames the Liberals for signing a treaty that would cause a recession. Ok....but, hey John, isnt Canada now being sued for breaching the treaty? or the fact that the UN is claiming that Canada is abandonning it's position as a leader of combating climate change? oh no, it's all good, because you know Paul Martin didnt do anything about it so blame him and we'll just go on not giving a fuck.

gimme a break.

oh and then there's this tactic...Opposition party member asks scathing question to which Canadians would like a real answer...Tory minister "HEY LET'S TALK ABOUT HOW THE LIBERALS DONT WANT 8 YEAR SENATE TERMS!!"....um...yeah cause we were so just talknig about that...

today there was a big debate on amendments to the Elections Act to combat voter apathy. in this case i hope it passes just so these assholes get their asses booted out of office.

what about the baked potato?