I Hate LOVE
Mondays!

That Other House

In the heat of the campaign Uneven Steven has disclosed that apparently all along he has had the formula for SUCCESS in Afghanistan! I guess he was saving that disclosure until he could use it to garner votes for his Canadian Republican Party.

Dave, over at our Galloping Beaver, sez:

The metric here is important. The previous benchmarks, as loosely identified as they were, were based on some level of accomplishment and success. Now, it's based solely on a date and the length of the involvement. That's not an effective exit strategy - it's a fixed date on a calendar - like a dental appointment.

Putting it another way, success is defined as making good travel arrangements. Of course how can even Steven predict if the airline will still be in business by 2011?

Between Both Houses

For residents of British Columbia, it seems as if there is an election for every jurisdiction above the cellular level. Here we have municipal, regional, provincial, federal and then to distract the low-information crowd, the vote for Big Daddy of the Universe at full throttle to the south. This overlapping and interfacing of various levels of electoral aspirations leads to charming little tidbits like this below, from the Globe and Mail, daily of record from the riding of Universe-Center-Central.

After all, what's not to like when provincial Republicans and Canadian Republicans have a spat, and make each other pout. So far, Gordo the Gangster seems to be biting his tongue and not responding to his federal ally/rival. Of course, I figure that our local premier, who should only roam free on a day pass, is just trying to keep his head down and not become collateral damage in the war between Stephen Harper and Civilization.

VICTORIA -- Federal Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn slammed the B.C. government's carbon tax yesterday, abandoning the stand his party has nurtured for months that it can criticize the federal Liberal proposal without also attacking Premier Gordon Campbell's initiative.

To continue reading this article, you will need to purchase this article.



I guess the old Globe and Mail ain't just running out of, and running off, journalists, but has no clue about making money with advertising online, either. Oh well, the Goober and Maul can leave that to Google, youTube and the rest and quietly die, to many sighs of relief from many trees.

If you don't have $5.00 or just don't want to send it to Toronto, check out the CBC/Canadian Press or Vaughn Palmer in the Sun, for more than the Globe and Mail was willing to share, even for five bucks!

Closer to Our House

Before I forget, I should explain today's headline regarding whether I like or hate Mondays. Once I heard the news this morning about more banks and more airlines were going under, I felt it was going to be a good day. When we are having elections at every level and at almost every level the incumbents are from the Greedy Evil Privatize Everything and Run Off with the Ill-Gotten Gains Party - bad news is GOOD NEWS, and hopefully we will have enough jolts to awaken even the most blissfully unaware voters among us in time for our pilgrimages to the polls.

Our House

According to BC Mary, who may be one of the few who remembers there ever was a BC Rail or BC Rail Trial, the BC Rail trial actually, maybe, is supposed to shudder and creak into action this week. With so many elections, natural disasters, the World Series and the onset of hockey mania, the Campbellites can hope for no better time for letting the trial move forward. With all the distractions and the eager help of the compliant Canned Wasteland, nobody will be any the wiser, even if it turns out that the Ferret was using Basi's cell phone to call the Drug Lord to arrange drug deals (using Harmony Airlines to move product)- the local headline will be about Carole James' visit to the Beauty Salon.

Then again, maybe Gordo will decide he had better break his fixed election date also,just like Big Daddy Harper and try for a new mandate before the Republican brand at all levels becomes totally discredited - with the onset of the Great, Great Depression and/or DubyaDubyaThree - the Biggest One (apologies to Dobie Gillis' Father).

Not So Great News for Capitalists


TSX falls more than 500 points
Worrisome economic reports add to market fears in Canada, U.S.


That old Republican, Conservative, Reform/Alliance and BC Liberal Economic Management - IN ACTION!

Subverting
Democracy

The OTHER House of Infamy

This minority government leader has not seen fit to allow parliament to work. He has made every effort to impede the workings of the house. His party has filibustered committees, even circulated manuals for the disruption of the nation's business in those same committees. He has now declared, through some magical foresight of his very own, that a parliament that is not currently in session is somehow dysfunctional. His issue seems to be that the opposition opposes his will. He is not prepared to wait until the house reconvenes, until a confidence vote fails or until the elected representatives get to represent. He whines that his government is blocked at every turn, yet the record would indicate otherwise, he has been quite successful in moving his legislative agenda forward. That is clearly not the issue. He declares that the opposition parties have no confidence in the government, yet he has survived every confidence vote he has been able to manufacture. For good or ill, democracy is a pesky and fractious means of government and a minority rule is even more contentious. It is founded in disagreement, argument and compromise. It is more than obvious that Harper is utterly unwilling to compromise, to reach or even seek accord. He is an autocrat lost in an unfriendly system that denies him his every whim.

from Electability, by psa at the Canadian Cynic

This blog is primarily concerned with the Legislature in Victoria and the unprecedented police raid there, lo so many years ago, and the subsequent lack of any sign of justice resulting from the boxes of evidence collected that day. However, it is clear that the title House of Infamy also fits well that other legislative building in Ottawa, especially now that the Parliament of Canada is being abused by the Psuedo-Con government of St. Stephen the Large.

This abuse of parliament AND all Canadians is evident in the junk mail filling the mail boxes of innocent Canadians across the whole country. Just last week, on one single day, my post office mail box was crammed with TWO pieces of garbage from Chuck Strahl, where ever the hell the riding he represents may be, and a couple more PsuedoTory junkmails from MPs I don't recall because I don't detest them personally as much as I do Chuck Strahl. Even the staff of the Post Office feels abused by this exploitation of the Parliamentary franking privileges by the Psuedo-Cons, which obviously was designed for MPs to be able to communicate with their constituents, not as a cheap (free to the party but not to the taxpayers) way to distribute misleading and especially cheesy electioneering garbage.

Of course this flurry of junk mail shouldn't be surprising as it is pretty obvious that St. Stephen, with his complete lack of understanding and/or respect for Parliament is itching to trigger an election before he has to face Parliament and questions from anyone who would deign to "oppose" him and his mission from God. Perhaps St. Stephen should spend some time perusing the dictionary and studying the parliamentry traditions that have been evolving for a few centuries. I would give Stephen a hint if I had the chance - they're called the Loyal Opposition because THAT IS THEIR JOB - you dumb fat waste of skin.

There are many reasons that Pee Wee the Puffy One may prefer to face the electorate before the fixed election date he so arrogantly declared law with his brand new minority government even more recently than the raid on the BC Legislature.
Of course it is likely that the Fat One also wants to go to the polls before risking what are likely to be discouraging results (from his perspective) in the bye-elections scheduled for later this month. It is likely the the likely new American president will not only highlight Stephen's deficiencies in comparison, but Obama may understandably feel entitled to interfere in St Stephen's election like St. Stephen (well his erst-while Chief of Staff) did in the Ohio primary earlier this year. With the economy headed for the toilet and all the simmering scandals on the back burner (bribing dying MPs, interfering in supposedly non-political agencies, questionable election financing and an impending publication date for Julie Couillard's tell all book ) plus a surrounding cast of idiots that could any day make Maxime Bernier seem smart by comparison, it certainly seems that Harper is convinced that things will only get worse for him as time goes by. Hopefully the Liberals and everybody else will get lots of airplay for the speech Harper gave explaining why he so arrogantly made one of his first actions in government an American style election date, that of course isn't due for more than a year.

St. Stephen has been whining that he needs to have an election because the nasty Liberals are obstucting the ability of Parliament to get anything done. Mr. Stephen Large-Pants really should have to sit in the corner for a few months for even suggesting this and hopefully the Canadian populace will be perceptive enough to see through his complete lies. Anyone who believes this should perhaps look into something that came to light over a year ago when it was discovered that the PsuedoTories had published and distributed a 200 page "handbook on paralyzing Parliament."

The handbook, obtained by National Post columnist Don Martin, reportedly advises chairs on how to promote the government's agenda, select witnesses friendly to the Conservative party and coach them to give favourable testimony. It also reportedly instructs them on how to filibuster and otherwise disrupt committee proceedings and, if all else fails, how to shut committees down entirely.

Anyone who pays the least attention to the news knows that even now, one and a half years after the disclosure of this "handbook," Harper's Christian Soldiers are still following its instructions. This was evidenced by the recent appearance of a government witness before a parliamentary committee two or three days before he was scheduled to appear and his refusal to appear when scheduled. They obviously study or confer with the criminal Bush Administration about tactics for dealing with any type of "accountability." It is dishonesty of the highest degree to blame the opposition for the failure of Parliament to function. In fact it has been functioning pretty well, in spite of the fact that control freak Harper can't quite rule like a Hitler or Stalin. Indeed, has any minority government lasted this long before?

So considering that even Fatboy has expressed his lack of confidence that he can win a majority now, why the rush to the polls, other than the fact that Dion probably can't get any less threatening and things seem poised to go sideways for the government, economically, in Afghanistan and if any of the simmering scandals can climb out from their lawsuit limbo or committee obfuscation status? Well, according to the Canadian Press, the object is nothing less than the destruction of the Liberal Party of Canada. Since they already destroyed the Progressive Conservative Party, why stop now?

"My expectation is that we will have another minority," Harper said Wednesday in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., where he's on a three-day, campaign-like swing through the Arctic.

So why have an election?

...../snip

Tom Flanagan, a political scientist at the University of Calgary, believes Harper would be satisfied to return with a strengthened minority -- a result that would throw the Liberals into chaos, thereby advancing the prime minister's longterm strategy of destroying Canada's so-called natural governing party.

"I don't think Harper has to be thinking about a majority at all," Flanagan said in an interview.

"Strategically, this is sort of a prolonged war of attrition."

As Flanagan sees it, the first major battle in this incremental war occurred in 2004, when Harper managed to reduce Paul Martin's Liberals to a minority. In the second clash in 2006, Harper won his own Conservative minority.

The third skirmish, which Harper appears set to launch next week, likely won't kill what Flanagan jokingly refers to as "the evil empire." But, if the Tories can win a few more seats at the Liberals' expense -- an outcome Flanagan considers realistic given Harper's superior campaign skills and the Tories' fatter war chest -- he predicted that would be enough to throw the Grits into a longterm tailspin that could eventually lead to their demise.

"You can fight a war with some objective less than total victory," he said of the coming campaign.

If the Liberals lose even a handful of seats, Flanagan predicted they'll immediately dump Leader Stephane Dion, a forecast echoed privately by plenty of Grits. The party would have to embark on a costly leadership campaign before most contenders from the last contest, including Dion, have paid off their leadership debts.

Hopefully Canadians will take advantage of this opportunity to send Stephen Harper and his Canadian wing of the Republican Party back to being to being a small rump of discontents without even the status of Official Opposition. After all, opposing the elected dictator is just SO WRONG!


Leadership material? NO THANKS!