Wednesday, October 01, 2008

What he said. No, really.


In which Stephen Harper finally reveals himself to be an empty vessel, waiting to be filled with other peoples' thoughts.

16 comments:

Romantic Heretic said...

I don't believe a neo-conservative has ever had an original thought.

mauser98 said...

iggy wanted war in iraq.bob rae,jack layton constantly steal lines from the communist manifesto. this is an attack by bob rae on iggy for the leadership. "green shift" term was also stolen. trudeau stole his whole life.

LuLu said...

Can you say "fall guy", boys and girls?

From Lippert's bio page at The Fraser Institute: Owen Lippert holds a Ph.D. in Modern European History from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. Following his graduation in 1983, he worked as managing editor for the Asia and World Institute in Taipei, Taiwan. Returning to Canada in 1984, he worked first as a caucus researcher for the Social Credit government and, then as a policy analyst for the Office of the Premier until 1991. He joined the staff of Kim Campbell as press secretary during Campbell's tenure as attorney general of Canada and minister of Justice. In 1993, while an advisor during Campbell's leadership campaign, he taught at Carleton University and the University of British Columbia and he was a senior policy advisor in Industry and Science Canada during Campbell's tenure as Prime Minister. In 1994, Dr. Lippert worked on contract for the Canadian department of Justice before going to work as a senior policy analyst at The Fraser Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1996, he joined the Editorial Board of The Globe & Mail in Toronto. His specialties are public policy and legal reform.

I hardly think this is a man who would be stupid enough to plagiarize a speech.

CC said...

Shorter "mauser98":

"But ... but ... but ... other people .."

Man, that's getting old.

Romantic Heretic said...

It's always a give away when the poster's handle is a firearm.

Especially when it was the main weapon for German infantry in both World Wars. :rolleyes:

Niles said...

Actually, what I'm morbidly interested in is, at the time of the speeches, did anyone notice the cloning? There are lots of people out there who analyze political speeches of national leaders. Did everyone official drop the ball, or were they told to put it down?

This discovery is, by the Liberals' own account, a result of blogger-like Google research, so they are at least learning the search function of the internet record is verrrry useful.

I'm blackly amused by the 'we are SO NOT parroting the Republicans' Conservatives claiming discoveries like this speech plagiarism is 'Gotcha journalism'.

Really.

Didn't McCain start the use of that accusation some weeks back? So, are the Conservatives cloning the Republican talking points, or are they uncritically repeating MORE plagiarism by their speechwriters? Someone talented should make a list of the phrases echo-chambered up here and ask "Repeated Stealing or Repeated Stupidity?"

I'm also interested in hearing from the exalted David Frum on this. He was a speechwriter to the Republicans. What's his take on a speechwriter of that cv STEALING for such a prominent press piece and making such bloodless excuses for it?

pierre poutine said...

“Pressed for time, I was overzealous in copying segments of another world leader's speech,” Mr. Lippert said in a statement issued by the Conservative Party, five hours after the Tories accused the Liberals of “desperation” and “gotcha journalism” in revealing the plagiarism.

I love this new neocon meme. Catch Lippert plagiarizing, catch Palin saying she'd support Obama's, not McCain's position on incursions into Pakistan, and they dismiss it as gotcha journalism. Gotcha? Damn right, you weasels!

Unknown said...

CC, you might be interested in an interview today on the Metro Morning program in Toronto, where Jim McLean, a former political speechwriter for John Turner and several provincial politicians, described the process the speaker and writer would go through to craft a major policy speech. No way would Harper have just been parroting whatever words he was given. That micro-manager? Not bloody likely.

I describe it here, with a link to the Metro Morning site. You can still listen to the interview for the rest of today, and it may be part of a podcast for the week, later on.

Canadian Hegemon said...

The cons speech writer excuse is total bullshit. Especially considering the speech writer in question has published books on intellectual property rights.

Mike said...

"iggy wanted war in iraq ..."
Mauser98 gets one thing right, before going off the rails with nonsense.
Iggy did support the illegal, immoral invasion of Iraq. Liberals should remember that when they're picking a new leader.
The big deal with the Harper speech isn't plagiarism, it's the support for something that was indefensible. That's how I see it. Canadians should never forget that. By itself, it's reason enough to vote anything but Con.

Mike said...

Look a brand spanking new sock puppet with 2 posts!!! Good boy Mauser98.

The Seer said...

Forget Mauser98. Look at what lulu & phyl said. Puts Iggy in the Bush League.

Ti-Guy said...

Iggy did support the illegal, immoral invasion of Iraq. Liberals should remember that when they're picking a new leader.

I believe they did. And Iggy has recanted..not that I care.

The Seer said...

and it's a small point, but who's ever heard of a "junior staffer" who pulls the coop du year but "ask[s] not to be identified?"

Somena Woman said...

Can you imagine what the shreiking blogging tories would do with the name of the currently unidentified staffer?

Come on.
Who wants in on that kind of action?

No - the unidentified guy is playing it smart. He's keeping the Con-Blogger panty-sniffers and creeps at bay by holding onto his identity and keeping himself and his family out of the line of fire.

Smart move.

The Seer said...

somena woman wins the thread