HST Reduction Shuffle....Mr. Smyth Really Starts Shovellin'

AllTheCrapThatFits
ProvinceVille


We have fully recounted Michael Smyth's willful wurlitzering of the faux HST Reduction Rumour that, according to him originally at least, had nothing to do with the Zalm, but instead surfaced because of the by 'red-hot' nature of the codswallop being flung all over Victoria earlier in the week.

So, when fingers start pointing back at him what does Mr. Smyth do?

Well....

He just starts diggin' a new hole so that he can start shovellin' an entirely new brand of sh*t with a different smell that is still putrid, regardless. Here is the kicker from Mr. Smyth's most recent 'column' in The Province:

"....The government angrily denied Vander Zalm's prediction that Campbell would announce a one-point cut in the hated tax today as a way to soothe public anger.

The premier's office called The Zalm "deceitful." And Finance Minister Colin Hansen said Vander Zalm lives on "Fantasy Island."

Hey, you can't blame the Liberals for being angry. How dare Vander Zalm predict that the government would actually do something popular on the HST!

Just watch though: Campbell will reduce the tax. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but he will. Because as the mud flows and the insults fly, the people will still need to be bought off."

Notice how there is no mention by Mr. Smyth of his own role in the pimping of the 'prediction'.

Notice the back-tracking, self-justifying, not mention fully open-ended new prediction that the reduction "it's a coming".

Meanwhile, real news about really harmful things that the HST has ALREADY done to British Columbia's economy is left completely unsaid.

Sheesh.

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HST Reduction Shuffle: Bill Tieleman Says, (almost) Unequivocally, That....

...Michael Smyth Was NOT The Zalm's Source

Specifically, when asked by CKNW's Sean Leslie on Sunday afternoon why the 'Fight The HST' braintrust sent out their 'Rate Reduction Rumour' press release prior to Premier Gordon Campbell's speech to the UBCM last Friday, Mr. Tieleman said that folks should go ask Michael Smyth because he, Smyth, ran with the same rumours without, according to Mr. T., speaking to the Zalmoids about it.

Mr. Leslie, whose history of palling around with Mr. Smyth we have noted previously, did not go there.

And neither, of course, did Mr. Leslie attempt to get to the heart of the matter while he wrung his hands and went on and on and on (and on) about the sleaziness of the shooting of messengers rather than messages themselves (which Mr. Tieleman was happy to abide).

And what is that heart that matters that Mr. Leslie so assiduously avoided?

Well, if you ask me, the real story here is that there was a serious attempt at media manipulation goin' down in Victoria on Wednesday....Mr. Smyth took the bait and started the Wurlitzer crankin' on Thursday not understanding that the Zalmoids had already set the thing up for the spiking.

Which they did, as fully evidenced by what Mr. Campbell did NOT say on Friday.

Now.

As I've noted a number of times already....

I figure that, in the main, these are all relatively bright boys who know and fully understand what really went down (Mr. T. even suggested as much to Mr. Leslie himself during their Sunday afternoon radio chat given that the latter is based in Victoria).

So, ask yourself this......

Why won't these people tell us what they really know?

Do they think we're stupid?

Or.....

Is something else going on?


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And while I'm not averse to stroll or seven down memory lane with Mr. Vanderzalm's historical record (as long as, say, Mr. Campbell's get's the same treatment), if you want something a little less political and a little more personal, you couldn't do much better than this, from Alex Waterhouse-Hayward.

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HST Reduction Shuffle...Playing The Media Morans For Saps

AndWe'reLookin'AtYou
MikeyVille

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Updated at the bottom of the post: The Morans are now Wurlitzering the demands of unnamed sources for the names of...Wait for it..... Other unnamed sources....Ha!
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Last night I forgot to switch the long-wave back to the MotherCorp after listening to Dan Russell on the way home from work (don't ask....once again it's the bloody grants).

So, anyway.....

That meant that when I hopped in the VW (notso)Microbus this morning, up popped Michael Smyth blabbing on breathlessly (with that frostiest of ratings-killers P. Till) about the red-hot 'rumours' that Gordon Campbell will today announce a 1% drop in the HST and that he will also roll back the date of the referendum on the biggest Corporate Welfare grab in British Columbia history.

Now, before I could puke while Mess'rs Smith and Till joked around about the 'sources' of the rumour, I instead stuck two fingers straight up my nostrils and twisted my way down the dial to the Cluffmaster Flash, and.....

Voila!

There were Jeff Davies and Stephen Smart going on and on and on about the very same two rumours.

****

Look.

These suckers are being played in a game of spin and counter-spin.

And I assume they know it (although I'm not so sure about Mr. Cluff).

Here's the way I see it....

The 1% cut rumour was the 'Spin' - coming from the PAB-Bots to drum up anticipation for Mr. Campbell's stunning 'game changer'.

And the roll-back the Ref Date rumour?

Well, I figure that was counter-spin from the Zalmoids - designed drive up expectations so that the story could be spiked when Mr. Campbell doesn't deliver on that half.

****

So.

Why didn't the Morans tell us what was really going on?

The Evils of Access, perhaps?

Maybe, especially in the case of the rumor monger extraordinare from The Province, but I dunno for sure.

One thing I do know for sure is that they're all perfectly happy to be played for saps if it gives them something to Wurlitzer as their own.

And don't forget, regardless how it actually went down this particular time 'round, there is always the sheep-herder effect* that the PAB-Bots and other Spinmeisters count on with these people.

OK?


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*See the CluffMaster's producers, for example, who, presumably, saw Mikey's big splash in the TheProv when they stumbled into work this morning....
Update: 2:00pm Thursday.....It would appear that the spin is reaching counter-revolutionary proportions....And now the Canadian Press is playing the Wurlitzer game to to tell us that unnamed sources are saying that that the Premier's office is 'infuriated' by all the rumour mongering going down and wants the Zalm to name his unamed sources....On the plus side, nobody has blamed the Bloggers.......Yet!


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HST Reduction Shuffle Revisited....It's All The Zalm's Fault

WhoseIrresponsibleNow
ProMediaMoranVille


Well, well, well.....

As we noted this morning all kinds of proMedia folks were running off at the mouth wurlitzering up rumours about a coming HST Rate Cut and a Referendum Date Rollback.

Well, now the spinmeisters that wind-up Colin Hansen every morning have him out front of the thing blaming the Zalm for all of it because of the voices in his head.

But here's the thing.

This morning, while he was flinging the codswallop on P.Till's little radio show, Mike Smyth distinctly said that the Rate Cut rumour was red-hot yesterday, not in Fantasy Gardens (or on Fantasy Island), but instead in....

.......Victoria.

Looks like Mr. Smyth might have some 'xplainin' to do for handing the PAB-Bots a potential wedge rumour on a silver platter.

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Kicking The HST Can Down The Long And Winding Yellow Brick Road...

AllTheBribesThatStillFit
FedConGordoVille



Kevin Falcon says there will be extra exemptions added to the PST later.

Why later?

Well, apparently, it because he simply doesn't have the space or time to deal with them now.

Or, put another way, paraphrasing what we imagine the Wizards behind the Birdman's curtain just might, perhaps, be saying:

"Actually, we haven't quite figured out what kind of targeted tax breaks we can give to those that need them least that will help us win the most electoral support in the game of demographic slice 'n dice that will begin in earnest when we roll out 'The Christy Party', v2.0, in the fall."

Sound too cynical to be even halfway true?

Are you kidding me?

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As for the date - April Fools 2013, almost another whole year down the road....

Well, of course, that means good news they (think*) they can trumpet just as the election campaign heats up for real.

But there is something else, little talked about by the puffed-up pro-punditry so far.

And that is the fact this will allow the Campbell/Clark government to get through one more budget without paying back the remainder of the FedCon deficit reduction bribe that allows them to keep on spouting codswallop about what great and prudent fiscal managers they are.



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*Personally, I think folks will be madder than hell when this is used cynically by the Christy Party to pretend they are really on our and Chris Olsen's side....Or some such balderdash...


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