Bad day for libs all round

First there was the popcorn and beer brouhaha. That you heard about. Now they have a plagiarism problem:

MONTREAL -- Barely a day after the federal Liberals launched a new series of TV ads in Quebec, that marketing campaign was under attack by a theatre executive who complained yesterday that the spots were an inappropriate parody of a type of stage performance he had created.

Yvon Leduc, a co-founder of the Ligue Nationale d'improvisation, a popular form of theatre improvisation in Quebec, wrote a letter to Liberal Leader Paul Martin, demanding that the spots be withdrawn.

"I nearly fell off my chair when I saw on television the ads of the Liberal Party of Canada that plagiarized the improvisation game that we created," he wrote in the letter.

Hmmm, theft by Liberals. Who'd of thunk it?

But, just in case that wasn't bad enough, this is floating around the internet:

-----Original Message-----
From: Gregory M Lang
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 1:23 PM
To: Gregory Lang
Subject: Random acts of political support

Greetings,
I have included you in this missive because I believe you to be a Liberal Party supporter. if not feel free to delete and disregard now - sorry to bother you.

If you are indeed a Liberal Party supporter or know some, please read on and pass this along..

A number of us are going to contribute our time and efforts in support of the Party by forming a SWAT-TEAM like crew that will descend on different campaigns and provide huge impact through "one-offs" in neighbourhood blitzes, event swelling, or other appropriate activities. I am hoping that you might be interested in joining us for one or many of these occassions. We are currently putting together the complete schedule and destination ridings, but have already scheduled an intervention of support in Etobicoke-Lakeshore for Michael Ignatief for tonight, Monday December 12th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. We will be meeting at [EDITED]. Rides will be arranged for you at your request.

Generally, per the Party Campaign tactics, we will be volunteering in a low-key fashion until after the new year when we will pump up the volume to deafening levels, id est more often, and remember, if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem.

I hope you can join us. Please email me if you intend to come.

Please let me know if you are generally NOT interested, so i may remove you from this distribution list, otherwise you will continue to receive "like-message" emails from me.

Thanks, Gregory Lang.

Think we should go? Really it's not a big deal, but it starts to look bad. Especially after being caught out having phony 'real' Canadians on the TV ads (the unplagiarised ones).

What is really going on here? Are these guys really this messed up? Maybe. If so, this may be the worst campaign in years (or since Stockwell Day).

Or maybe it's a bait and switch. You know, "look at all the little dumb errors we're making, just don't notice that big income trust thing in the corner."

Time to go tighten the straps on my aluminum foil helmet.