Monday, September 29, 2008

When the chickens come to roost, the shit usually hits the fan

At 1:24 pm

Reuters reported that the White House claims that they have the votes required to pass the $700 billion bailout bill.

At 2:36 pm

Reuters reported that the bill failed to pass by 23 votes (228 against the bill, 205 for the bill).

The vote ran as follows:

Democratic votes - 140 yeas and 95 nays, Republican votes 65 yeas and 133 nays.

This is the same House of Representatives and the same Republican representatives that overwhelmingly supported and voted to spend $600 billion on the Iraq war, and all with no oversight.

And when voting on the revised 166 page bill with added oversight and additional provisions for the 5 million plus Americans who are about to loose their homes, they decided to draw their line in the sand.

Apart from the fact that it looks good on Bush, who’s enhanced deregulation for deregulation sake and general negligence in everything, is partly responsible for this mess.

The problem now is that the weakness in the US banking system has grown legs, becoming a crisis which is now spreading throughout the rest of world.

To some extent I can understand why the American public and these members of the House would say no.

I mean, imagine the gall it takes for the Bush administration to originally produce a three page plan to spend $700 billion to bail out their countries financial system.

Whether the situation was as bad and the consequences as dire as Paulson and the Bush administration stated a week ago, their sloppy, inept handling of the situation and presentation of the solution have now destroyed the confidence in their institutions.

There is no money available for investments, growth or to maintain corporate cash flows as the world’s banks and governments tighten up lending and spending rules even between banks.

Investors, including the big money funds have responded by selling their stocks and moving to cash.

This Bush backlash by the House has now placed not only the US but the rest of developed nations on the verge of depression.

This is like 1928 and a half, or at least the closest thing to it in my life time.

And the last I heard from Harper and his Finance Minister is that Canada can weather the storm.

But here’s what Bank of Montreal economist Doug Porter and Don Drummond, chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank to the Globe today at 4:14 pm

Q. What are the implications for Canada?

A. “Canada definitely is at risk of getting sideswiped in two ways if this bill doesn't go through. One is that the U.S. economy will be even weaker than what we expected and also there is the potential of much slower global growth to undercut commodity prices in a more meaningful way,” Mr. Porter said.

“So, Canada's definitely got a big stake in this vote as well.”

Mr. Drummond agreed.

“You could argue Canada might even get hit worse, because the slower U.S. growth prospects bring down commodity prices and that hits our income and brings down our stock prices.”

Bush is now proven himself to be even worse than being the worst president in American history if that is at all possible and Harper and Flaherty are in way over their heads.

Or as Ignatieff said today that $12-billion dollar surplus that Harper and Flaherty inherited and then frittered away might of come in handy right now.

Or as Tank said to Neo, "Very exciting times".

Ritz is just the fall guy. Its Harpers ideology that is the threat.

As expertly pointed out here and here Gerry Ritz became the PMO’s appointed and unprepared dupe to act as the front man and now it seems the fall guy for the Listeria outbreak.

But the points to remember are

The Tories planned their deregulation schemes back in November but decided it would be best not to tell us.

In March they implemented the new plan at Maple Leaf and other plants (we still don’t know how many others).

The new Tory deregulation plan had the inspectors focus on processes used and reports prepared as opposed to doing actual tests on the cutting floor.

A new plan that had the inspector at Maple Leaf be responsible for six other locations.

The union released confidential documents in July exposing the changes to food inspection and the outbreak was discovered in August.

Then we have learned that the safety inspections of other industries have also been deregulated.

Although Gerry Ritz our Agriculture Minister might be totally inept, as most of Harpers minister’s are, it is Harper that should be held accountable here.

It was Harper’s secretly implemented deregulation, of food inspection for that allowed the Listeria to go undetected on the cutting blades at Maple Leaf.

It is Harpers’s withdrawal of funding for Mad Cow (BSE) testing that continues to threaten our food supply.

It’s Harpers deregulation of air craft inspections that threatens air safety.

It’s Harper’s deregulation for deregulation sake ideology that threatens our country.

It is Harper's ideology that is responsible for 19 deaths.


Sunday, September 28, 2008

The pathos of apathy over ideology

According to Frank Graves the president of EKOS Research, who studies such things there is a big difference between Canadians and Americans when it comes to the importance they place on ideologies, with regards to the political process, party affiliation, or political leaders in general.
“Americans are much more ideological than Canadians. They tenaciously hold on to their ideological orientations and they are much more conservative, much more moral, with more religiosity and so forth.”

"Canadian voters on the other hand can’t really define left or right, or in reality care. More and more of us apparently think of ourselves as non partisan and non ideological."
To some extent I think Graves is right.

Most of the people I communicate with on a daily basis (present company excluded) do not look at issues with a political vent or veil.
Their reaction to the Listeria outbreak is to stop eating cold cuts, not get upset at Harper for deregulating food inspection.
Arts funding cuts, no big deal really.
Other than a few Canadian bands, most are not really aware of Canadian artists, or go out of their way to read Canadian authors or watch a Canadian movie.

They demonstrate more surprise than pride when they discover that the writer, director, artist or actor is Canadian.
As for the environment, they have a more fatalistic approach.
They all have children, nephews etc. and would like to see the human race continue after their death, but the main concern in buying a more efficient vehicle would be the price of gas used as opposed to to amount of carbon emissions created.

Purchasing a new furnace, or windows or longer lasting light bulbs saves money on heating and electrical costs, not the environment.

And when it comes to the tar sands development. Hey it’s Alberta’s boom or bust economy. Right now they are booming so let them make money. Bust always follows out there.
Although they suspect that oil is what Bush, Cheney and Iraq are all about, they do not see a comparison between the PNAC and NCC (let alone know what they are) or consider the idea that Harper is implementing the same oil led corporate ideologies in Canada.

When it comes to political leaders a majority of Canadians, believe that the parties pretty much look alike, with Jack Layton on the left and Stephen Harper on the right as an identical pair of suits and according to Graves this trend is increasing.
In the late 1980s, early 1990s, 40 per cent of Canadians self-identified left of center, 25 per cent identified as right of center and 35 per cent said they were neither.

Today, he says, 28 per cent identify more towards to right, 24 per cent more towards the left and a whopping 48 per cent say they are neither.
According to the article a conservative party insider last week put their party's core support at 27 per cent which somewhat matches Graves estimation of the number of Canadians that ideologically lean to the right.

As for the smaller number of left leaning Canadians, their numbers are fractured between competing parties.

So as we sit here, half way through the election, the polling numbers are starting to make sense to me. 

With a majority of voters not really giving a shit, a combination of attack ads and puppy dog tales can produce an apathetic majority for Harper.

Well screw it. I ordered my lawn sign yesterday and have signed up for going to door to door next week. All I can worry about is my own riding right now.


Have a good weekend.







Saturday, September 27, 2008

RIP Paul Newman 1925 to 2008

Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as an activist, race car driver, popcorn impresario and the anti-hero of such films as Hud, Cool Hand Luke and The Color of Money, has died. He was 83.

Here's a You Tube composite made in 2006 of some of his roles.


US political humor on steroids

Finally got around to revisiting US sites today and found my way here to 23/6. This site is hilarious. Part of Huffington that I've been ignoring. I won't anymore. Here's a few examples.

Sarah Palin drives her handlers nuts



Charlie Gibson's Sarah Palin interview redux



Sarah Palin's Daughter's Baby This is about as close as you can yet to going over the line. It seems sick until they do the mock interviews of Americans, then you get it.



The one minute democratic convention Here they even take shots at the dems.

Globe announces Harpers imaginary oil embargo to imaginary countries


Let me get this straight, Harper is going to cut off exports of bitumen from the tar sands to countries that have lower standards for greenhouse gas emissions than Canada.

Even when considering the fact that the majority of developed nations have higher standards than Canada, he really is not prohibiting any country from buying Alberta's oil.
  • Transporting bitumen over long distances is a difficult process that requires substantial infrastructure, so right now such exports are confined to the U.S.
  • Countries like China would still be able to buy crude oil that had been transformed within Canada, like they are doing now.
Well thank you Mr. Harper for instituting a new imaginary trade embargo to imaginary countries.

It goes nicely with your imaginary plan to reduce tar sands greenhouse gas emissions that are actually allowed to increase under your plan as the tar sands production expands.

Oh and thank you Globe and Mail for so unwittingly reproducing this bullshit.


Friday, September 26, 2008

Well its alright even if your insides out

Some Wilburys for my fellow progressives. Relax it's Friday night.


 





This is just way too convenient

According to this Star article Harper has received threats against his life.

For this reason he only makes announcements before small, hand-picked groups and addresses political rallies where every person in the audience has to register with officials from the local Conservative party organization.
"Certainly, my security situation changed radically once I became Prime Minister," he told reporters at a event, surrounded by young people wearing light blue Conservative T-shirts.

Looking a bit uncomfortable, he said: "Unfortunately, we live in an era where the Prime Minister of Canada faces strong security threats. I'm not informed about all of them.

"Obviously, there's always been potential security threats to people in high office. But when we're dealing in an era of global terrorism and these kinds of things, there are a disturbing number of threats to the country and specifically to whoever occupies the office of prime minister. This is unfortunate but it's reality."

Citing standard security precautions, aides to Harper declined to answer questions about how many death threats he has received as Prime Minister.
Let me get this straight, yesterday two writers from the Star here, finally take the conservatives to task about the limited access anyone outside of the invited few have to Harper speeches and even access to local Tory candidates.

And today we get the Star telling us that this is because Harper’s life is at risk.

I don’t buy any of this.

We are living in a dangerous time and there is a disturbing threat to our country, specifically from an ideological political party that is far too willing to distort the facts and a media that can so easily be manipulated.



Thursday, September 25, 2008

If you grew up in Halifax you grew up in a different culture than Lee Richardson

Conservative Lee Richardson who was actually born in North Battleford Saskatchewan was in his riding in Calgary Centre today, when he decided to explain who the criminals really are.
"Look at who's committing these crimes ... They're not the kid that grew up next door," Richardson told the Calgary newsmagazine Fast Forward Weekly.

"Particularly in big cities, we've got people that have grown up in a different culture," he said.

"And they don't have the same background in terms of the stable communities we had 20, 30 years ago in our cities and don't have the same respect for authority or people's person or property. CBC here.
"
Well very few us would of the had the same experiences that Richardson had back in the 80’s in North Battleford or where ever he was dancing disco in those days.

And as for Calgary, shit I feel like I’m entering the US, every time I go there.

All said though I wouldn’t really want to call him a racist, he just seems to like your typical conservative to me.

But then again, according to Wikipedia (which must be true):
“Richardson is one of a few MP's to indicate his support for Keith Martin's motion to remove the hate speech provision of Section 13(1) of the Canadian Human Right's Act on the grounds that it violates free speech”.
Okay so he not your typical conservative, but I still don’t think his racist attitude is really his fault.

It is most likely the culture and neighborhood he grew up in.

The emperor has no clothes

It has taken the press two years and three weeks into the campaign to finally notice that Harper might have Bush like tendencies. 

The Star, has finally decided to comment about the controlled access used at Harper's rallies.
Harper's rallies are off-limits for any member of the public who just shows up. Nobody gets in unless they have been pre-registered by the local riding association. Even local media are asked to sign up in advance.

Anyone wanting to attend an event featuring Harper has to have his or her name vetted by the RCMP, said a source at Conservative campaign headquarters, who would only talk on background yesterday.

He said this rule applies even outside the campaign period, so no one – even a staffer not scheduled to be there – can show up unannounced at a Harper speech and expect to be let in.
And the same rules apply to access to high profile, local candidates.
When reporters tried to speak to Cadman this week, Harper's staff ordered the RCMP to block journalists, and she was whisked away.

"Keep them out!" an aide shouted to the police officers.

There was no need for the national media to interview local candidates. "Local candidates' priority is in the local ridings and not talking to the national media," Kory Teneycke said.
An election being won by TV ads. Ads attacking Dion and ads showing Harper with his family wearing sweaters. 

A party with this much controlled access, results in a secretive dishonest government. 

Give me a break, Harper is Bush incarnate. 

I really thought the Canadian press and the Canadian public were smarter than this.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Methinks Mr Harper is hiding something


On Monday Statistic Canada sort of released their monthly report on Investment in New Housing Construction for the month of July.

The only problem with the report is that there are no statistics listed or even a summary of the findings.

Typically with most of the Stats Can reports I’ve looked at in the last six months you at least get a summary, usually a couple charts and you can then drill down through the data.

But not this month, at least not for housing starts.

All you can do is review the definitions and a list of sources used and then send away for the report.

At the time, I thought that this was somewhat strange considering the whole purpose of Statics Canada is providing statistics and interpretive summaries and that is what you usually get.

Then today Merrill Lynch Canada came out with a report warning that Canada could be headed to a housing and mortgage meltdown, similar to the US. CBC here.
Household net borrowing in Canada amounted to 6.3 per cent of disposable income in 2007, which is more than households in the U.K. and not far off the peak reached by U.S. households in 2005.

The report also said housing prices are now falling and inventories of unsold homes are rising sharply in Canada, suggesting that this market turnaround will not be a transitory phenomenon.
And Harper immediately jumped all over this one.
"I don't accept that conclusion, not at all," Harper told reporters on tour in British Columbia.

"We have seen the housing market and the construction market much stronger in Canada than in the U.S.," he said.
One of the first signs, if not the first sign that our somewhat smaller real estate bubble is about to burst, is a reduction in housing starts in the middle of the summer.

A large decrease in July would be a very negative sign that prices are about to dramatically fall.

Lower real estate values on existing homes that are heavily mortgaged via equity loans or initial low down payments lead to pressure on the banks.

Not to mention stress on the owner and caution by the consumer.

I think recessive times are a coming and Harper doesn't want to talk about it right now.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Im loosing some confidence here Mr. Flaherty

A deregulated US financial sector issued high risk mortgages that perpetuated a US housing bubble which increased housing starts and the price of real estate. As the price of real estate went up the financial institutions expanded their high risk investment into commercial financing ventures.

The mortgage and financing portfolios were then sold by brokers to other financial institutions, including foreign institutions along with assurance policies to counter any losses.

Then the bubble broke.

For the last six months, US, Canadian and other foreign governments have responded by propping up the financial sectors in their perspective countries by injecting money into stocks, bonds and guarantees.
With the pending defaults, the US government moved in and has either bought or allowed the disposal of the leading perpetrators of the schemes and is now proposing to clean up the balance sheets of the their remaining financial institutions that hold these over financed properties in their books.

The $700 billion corporate welfare plan will be used to buy these over valued assets and then over the next two years sell them off at expected bargain basement pricing.
Canada’s financial institutions along with other foreign institutions are now at risk as the value of assets that they will now share in ownership with the US government will be reduced in value.
Although the Federal Reserve has proposed to include foreign institutions operating in the US, the US Senate Banking Committee is balking by demanding that the foreign governments participate in the bail out to cover their own institutions.
The US has now asked the other members of the G7 to to remove illiquid assets that are destabilizing financial institutions in their countries or in other words participate in the bail out.

In commenting to the Financial Post yesterday on the G7 call our finance minister said:
“There is no secret that the U.S. would like other jurisdictions to emulate their course of conduct -- that is to remove illiquid assets that are destabilizing financial institutions in those countries where that is the case. That is not the case in Canada.
However according to another Financial Post article, Canadian institutions share between them billions of dollars in credit exposures that could be impacted by the scope of the bailout and they have been lobbying the U.S. Congress to approve the inclusion of "foreign-flagged" firms in a historic U.S. plan.
The lobbyists representing Canadian firms including TD Financial Group, Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank of Canada and Manulife Financial Corp. were part of an industry-wide effort that won the support of Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury Secretary, over the weekend to allow foreign-headquartered institutions to sell assets to the government.

But the plan met with resistance yesterday on Capitol Hill, where members of Congress said they were reluctant to sign off on extending to foreign firms a US$700-billion bailout underwritten by U.S. taxpayers.
Somehow I think our finance minister is refusing to tell us the truth about the problem or does not have a plan to address the problem or in the worst case, is not aware that there is a problem.

Which is it Jim?

Monday, September 22, 2008

Canada’s largest marijuana infestation of a cornfield found in Ontario



In a news release the Ontario Provincial Police reported that it took an undisclosed number of officers all weekend to seize 40,000 plants, which they valued at $40 million, growing between rows of corn.

There was no mention of how much time was spent counting the plants and with no arrests in the case, I personally find it a bit pretentious for the OPP or the CBC here to call this Canada’s largest marijuana bust.

Deliverance or why Harper needs to take a time out

In December 2006 the Supreme Court reported on the Youth Criminal Justice Act and determined that the existing act has been successful in rehabilitating youths that have been charged with violent crimes.

The report went further suggesting that the act should be expanded with even more focus on rehabilitation.

In the latest Statics Canada Report for 2007 youth crimes have actually decreased by 1.5%.

Leading experts on youth justice such as Nick Bala of Queens University advise that “studies have shown that deterrence – stiffer sentences to send others a message that they should not commit the same crime – does not work for youth.”

“It would be nice if it did, but it doesn't,” he said. “That's a rationally-based theory that ignores the fact that young people have bad judgment and are not thinking rationally. They're not thinking about getting caught.”

Which is why our Supreme Court in May of this year struck down Harper’s first pass at resetting the age limits, ruling that “youths under 18 must always have a presumption that they will be treated as young offenders, unless a court approves adult treatment”.
Ignoring all this, Harper our authoritarian cultist is proposing to change the Youth Criminal Act and put 14 year olds away for life if they are convicted of violent crimes such as murder.
In fact sentences for all juvenile crime (14 to 18 years of age) will be increased.

Sentencing for other violent crimes will be increased to a maximum of 14 years in prison from the existing 6 year terms and Harper will also remove the law protecting the identity of young offenders over 14 who are convicted of a serious crime. The Globe here.
In order to appease Quebec (and thank god, allah and Jean Lesage for their distinct society) which has always favored an emphasis on rehabilitation, particularly for young criminals, Harper is proposing to let the provinces select their own age limits.

So what is the point of Harper’s proposal, if the provinces can decide to opt out and set their own age limits.

Quite simply Harper is fulfilling a commitment to his Reform Party base by instituting a key policy right out the 1997 Reform Party platform.
As explained by the Liberal Candidate and former Regina Police Chief Calvin Johnston

“Nothing in today’s announcement will actually help police fight crime and reduce crime levels throughout our communities.

In fact, the only real outcome from this new policy would be to weaken the opportunity to rehabilitate young offenders,”
So here we are with a supposed law and order government that objects to the banning of handguns by the city of Toronto, or any other gun by any other other city for that matter.

A government that has secretly declared they will abolish the registering of rifles

And now they have decided to change the Young Offenders act even though it will surely fail any Supreme Court challenge, just to appease some rednecks from a defunct racist party.

It must be time to get a pickup truck, I think I'm starting to hear banjo music.

Flaherty was on TV yesterday, making things up

Harper’s finance minister Jim Flaherty was on CTV yesterday, to discuss the $700 billion take over of the over valued assets by the US federal reserve.


In a statement that sends shivers down the spine of anyone that lived in Ontario during Flaherty's reign as provincial finance minister.
He doesn't expect the type of crisis that battered the American financial sector to occur in Canada and that the government has taken steps to make sure the country's financial sector will not end up in a precarious situation like that of the United States. CNEWS here.
That’s usually the first sign that anything can go wrong.

First off he doesn’t know what effect the US federal take over and expected “fire sale” type, disposal of the up to $700 billion of over valued assets will have on Canadian institutions (banks, mutual funds, insurance companies) that may or may not own a piece of those assets. No one knows yet.

Secondly, what steps did the Tories take. If sitting back and crossing their fingers counts, they are there.
He noted that the U.S. financial crisis was spawned by risky mortgages. "You know 40 per cent of the people in the United States with sub-prime mortgages were sold this product in their own homes," Flaherty added.
Well thanks for that Jim, however one of the main reasons that the US banks, investment brokers and assurance companies were able to put together a scheme of issuing risky mortgages and then issuing policies to spread that risk was deregulation.

Deregulation of the banks, deregulation of brokers and deregulation of insurance companies, where the government steps back and lets industries regulate themselves.

The same deregulation mantra that Flaherty’s own party believes in and has already demonstrated with food inspection and airline safety.
The finance minister also suggested that the tax on income trusts has helped Canada weather the economic tough times ahead. "Thank goodness we made that decision on income trusts," he said, “the move helped to make the economy "stronger today" to withstand the turmoil affecting global financial markets.
However, as the CNEWS article points out, the decision to tax income trusts doesn't actually take effect until 2011.

Way to go Jim, I can see you are right on top of it.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

There goes a good idea up in smoke

The Liberals have decided to attack Layton over his alleged deal with Marc Emery and his BC Marijuana Party.
It appears quite clear through the work and financial support Mr. Emery gave to the NDP, he believes he has lived up his end of this agreement. However, when asked about this deal in Edmonton, yesterday, Mr. Layton denied there was ever a deal.

The questions that Mr. Layton still needs to answer are: Why did Mr. Emery raise money and work so hard for so long for the NDP? And what was he promised in return? Liberal Press Release here
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. This is the most ridiculous political move I’ve seen in years. You are foolishly inserting marijuana decriminalization into the election from position of weakness.

It was the Liberal Party that has twice proposed to decriminalize marijuana possession and it is the Liberal party that has twice failed to do so.

It raises the question of where do you stand on decriminalization now.

Focus, on the enemy here. Let Harper attack Layton then counter with a more realistic approach to our drug laws and real crime prevention.

It’s Harper’s ideology that threatens this country, not Layton’s.

One of Harper’s main platforms is his law and order stance with it’s harsher mandatory sentencing for possession of marijuana plants. His draconian approach threatens to fill our court rooms and jails and move us back to the early 60’s.

It needs to be attacked, and the importance of decriminalization should be presented as part of a more realistic law and order strategy, not brought into the fray as part of an opportunistic attack on the NDP for cutting a deal with the Marijuana Party. 

As for Emery, if he thought the NDP could or would defend two candidates with YouTube exposure or admit that they made a deal, he’s been smoking too much pot.

He should of kept his mouth shut, but that has always been his problem.

Apparently in Harper’s Canada criminals don’t use rifles


If you live in the city, Harper’s party is going to be tough on crime, if you live in rural Canada, he’s going to abolish the long gun registry.

The Conservatives have quietly sent out brochures to specific rural ridings across the country promising that the gun registry will be dumped. CNEWS
"We're scrapping it" says a brochure sent by Gord Brown, Conservative MP for Leeds-Grenville, a largely rural Ontario riding between Kingston and Ottawa.

"This Conservative government is scrapping the useless Liberal long-gun registry. We are taking real action to crack down on gun crime. We will not harass law-abiding hunters and farmers," it reads.
Even though Stockwell Day, Harper’s Safety Minister has continued to extend the amnesty on new long gun registration and waived renewal fees for rifle and shotgun owners, our police forces across the country actually use the gun registry everyday.
Despite the amnesties, the registry is still very much being used by police forces who access it 8,000 times a day, says Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control.

Many detachments access the registry on a daily basis, confirmed an RCMP spokesman in Calgary.

"It is extremely useful, especially in domestic situations and an essential part of the checks before you arrive on the scene is to check for possible weapons," says Sgt. Patrick Webb.

"If it was abolished it would impact on the safety of attending a lot of these violent calls."
Meanwhile as the Liberals and NDP have proposed an outright ban on assault rifles Harper has to remain obscure, falling back on his generic tough on crime rhetoric. 

When the mayor of Toronto called for a ban on hand guns in the city, after an extremely violent week, Stockwell Day showed up in town, like the NRA after a high school shooting.
A handgun ban isn't the answer to Toronto's gun violence. We want to go after the people involved in the smuggling. We say this is the way to see gun crime reduced, Day informed us.
It's not just the gun registry that is a problem for Harper, any form of gun control will not be popular with his core support base.

So the conservatives will continue to obscure where they stand on gun control and just hope that the increasing number of gun crimes in our cities, aren't committed with unregistered rifles.




Saturday, September 20, 2008

In Harpers Canada artists will have to jump hurdles

The Globe and Mail has just completed a study of arts funding that challenges Harper’s claim that his government has increased funding to the arts in Canada.



In excruciating detail the Globe went over federal funding and budgets from April 2004 thru March 2009 that reveal two key facts in his deception.

Overall spending in reality declined under the conservatives.

Due to the timing of accounting entries when the government switched from Martin’s Liberals to Harper’s conservatives actual expenditures made by the Liberal government were entered into the conservative balances.

Although Harper can factually claim increased spending during his first partial year in office, it was actually Liberal expenditures that make up the increase.

Secondly and more importantly the report details where the conservatives have provided funds and how Harper’s defines the arts in Canada.
Heritage Canada is divided into two main areas.

The first (SO1) supports Canadians in expressing their cultural experiences to each other and the world, detailing spending on arts and culture.

The second (SO2) promotes Canada as an inclusive, diverse society, focusing on such objectives as intercultural understanding, citizen participation and sports.
If you are an actor, designer, musician, painter, writer or the like, you are in group one.

If you are an athlete, a local ethnic association, a youth group or the YMCA you are in the second group.

Harper’s supposed increase in arts funding has been to the second group and his so called strategic review and resulting cuts have been to the first group.
Spokespeople for Canadian Heritage confirmed, when approached by The Globe this week, that every program cut under strategic review has come from the department's arts-and-culture arm, leaving untouched the branches devoted to sport, youth, citizenship and identity, and diversity and multiculturalism.

Such a revelation certainly hints at a targeted approach to arts cuts, which would contradict the government's assertions that programs were axed based on efficiency reviews - and without ideological motivation.
In Harper's not so hidden ideological view of Canada, funding artists and artist programs is simply part of the socialist web that weakens our country.

Funding athletes, athletic associations and sporting events provides opportunities for Harper to promote the Canadian brand.

And funding regional and local multicultural groups and associations increases the popularity of his party in a targeted segment, which is important when at the same time, he is tightening up on immigration rules and opportunities that allow more immigrants permanent status.

Basically if you run, jump or shoot you are an artist in Harper's Canada.

If you paint, write, sing or act you should move to the States, or Ireland or the UK or any other country that values it's culture.


From the Globe here.




Friday, September 19, 2008

Baird must be in trouble as he gets the first preplanned spending plum


On Wednesday, Environment Minister John Baird unveiled a $1.9 billion extension of three homelessness and housing initiatives in his Ottawa West-Nepean riding.

The three programs: the federal Affordable Housing Initiative, the Homelessness Partnering Strategy, and the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance were all due to expire in March 2009.

These programs were not part of the $19 billion pre-election spending spree that Harper went on prior to his election call and contrary to claims by the prime minister they were not listed in the 2008 budget.

Instead they were approved by a special Harper cabinet committee at a meeting just days before the election was called.

The fact that Baird who is in charge of the environment was chosen to announce the spending at a youth housing project in his riding means that his polling numbers must be weak.

Way to go Nepean (I lived and worked there for seven years) and while you’re at it get rid of that little pissant Pierre Poilievre too.

You remember Pierre, he is the one that gave the second apology to Canada’s native people.


Reference from Globe here.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Hey did you hear the one about Harpers new deregulation plan it's a killer

On August 30th Agriculture Minister Gary Ritz had a conference call with scientists, communications advisers, and senior public servants to discuss the mounting death toll of the Listeria outbreak, the trends in the spread of the disease and how to frame the government's message.
He started the call by asking “Are there were any more more bombs out there?” referring to any more politically damaging news, as in more people dying, I would assume.

He then went on to express his concerns about the political dangers of the crisis, saying.

"This is like a death by a thousand cuts. Or should I say cold cuts."

Then when told about a new death in Prince Edward Island, he said:

"Please tell me it's [Liberal MP] Wayne Easter."
The Harper government secretly implemented changes to the food inspection rules, in March at the Maple Leaf plant.

Those changes no longer required nor allowed time for the meat inspectors to do physical tests for Listeria on the cutting blades on the Maple Leaf processing floor.

Under deregulation, inspectors only verify processes used by the industry and check reports. The inspector responsible for the Maple Leaf plant also had five out facilities to manage.

The Listeria outbreak is suspected to have been caused by accumulation of Listeria on the meat cutting machines.

And at the height of the Listeria outbreak and 17 confirmed deaths, the Minister in charge has a conference call to determine the political risks and to discuss how best to frame their message and deems it best to tell jokes.

The Harper government has also deregulated the inspection of slaughter houses and withdrawn funding for the inspection of BSE (Mad Cow) which Ritz originally informed us was the main intent of the program changes.

Deregulation is also coming to airline safety where inspectors will no longer actually check the aircraft but only verify processes used and resulting reports.

The opposition parties are wrong in asking for Ritz’s resignation. Forget about Ritz, he's just an under qualified idiot that Harper put in charge.

As the Canadian Medical Association Journal stated on Tuesday, Harper's Conservative government has reversed much of the progress previous governments made in relation to public health.

It’s Harper’s government that has to be removed.

Even in a minority situation, Harper’s secretive government is dangerous to the lives of Canadians.


Reference from Ritz's meeting from CBC here.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Mr Harper what do you have against this innocent Canadian stranded in Sudan

Amnesty International has reported that yesterday, Canadian Foreign Affairs again failed to issue the promised travel documents for Abousfian Abdelrazik.

Thus preventing him from boarding the flight that would finally return this stranded Canadian citizen.

In case you are getting the stories of Canadians stranded by the Harper Government mixed up, Abousfian Abdelrazik is the Canadian citizen that has been stranded in the Sudan since 2003.

In brief Abdelrazik, came to Canada in 1990. He became a Canadian citizen in 1995, got married and had a daughter.

He knew Amed Ressam, the Canadian immigrant that got caught trying to cross the US border with explosives, back in 1999 (known as the New Years Eve bomber) and voluntarily testified at the Ressam’s trial in the US.

However upon his return to Canada CSIS put him under constant surveillance.

In 2003 he returned to the Sudan to visit his mother who is sick and while there CSIS labels him as a known associate of al-quaeda and he is arrested by the Sudanese government.

You can view a summary and timeline of the events here, as originally published by the Globe here

After being arrested by the Sudanese twice, he was finally released in July 2007 with the Sudanese “declaring that he is clear of all terrorist links and they no longer want to incarcerate an innocent man”.

However he was prevented from coming home because the Americans put him on their no fly list. The Canadian government could of bypassed the US no fly list by flying him home, in fact even the Sudanese offered to do so, but he needs to have a new Canadian passport to enter Canada, which the Harper Government has continually refused to issue.

So Abdelrazik’s lawyers in Canada sued the Harper government in June of this year and it appears that the government quietly decided to relent and issue travel documents.

And yesterday it appears that by failing to issue travel papers they have screwed him over one more time.


Reference the CBC here.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Apparently Harper doesn't read his own governments economic reports

Harper was in London yesterday toting all that he has done for Ontario manufacturing and telling us how his government prudently managed the economy through the recessive threats of the US meltdown.
"The hard-working people of this region want to know this government is on their side," he told about 1,000 enthusiastic supporters at the London Convention Centre.

"And between now and Oct. 14, they will choose between the certainty a Conservative government provides and the risk represented by the Liberals, Green Party and the NDP." Harper said.

"My own belief is if we were going to have some kind of crash or recession, we probably would have had it by now a year into the (financial) crisis."
In reality his government has sat on the sidelines during his stewardship as Canadian manufacturing has been decimated by the combination of a rising Canadian dollar that has decreased revenues and lowered exports of our manufactured goods and services and the high cost of oil which has raised production costs for this already weakened sector.

Harper’s focus has been on the exploitation of resources, predominantly oil.
While the auto industry was announcing their shutdown of Canadian plants, his finance minister was busy attacking the Ontario government for being bad place for investment.

Instead of supporting the Ontario government’s search for new manufacturing facilities from Toyota and other auto makers, Harper’s, then Minister of Trade, Emerson was in Europe telling the world that Canada ’s north was opening up for oil development.

And when Harper’s government finally did act just prior to calling the election, it was too little, too late with investments in upgrading two Ontario auto parts plants.
Meanwhile Harper’s claim that the he has managed us through the worst of it, contradicts the report from his own leading economic agency released back in July.
The EDC (Export Development Canada) released it’s report in July predicting the price of a barrel of oil to decline to under $100 by year end and drop to $84 next year.

Although they also predicted that the Canadian dollar will drop to below 90 US which will help the manufacturing sectors of Ontario and Quebec we would not see a turn around in those sectors until 2010.

Next year, 2009, will be hard for both the manufacturing and resource sectors of the economy in Canada.
Harper’s short sightedness in only focussing on one segment of our economy is going to come back to bite us all in the ass next year.

Harper has done a good job of managing Alberta’s economy through the boom.

Unfortunately he just hasn’t done so much for the rest of us.

Reference: Harper in London from CNEWS here.



Monday, September 15, 2008

The National Post does free Tory advertising


The opening paragraph of this attack piece from the National Post is intentionally misleading and is nothing more than an extension of the Tory attacks ads.
From the article: The leading economic organization of the industrialized world is being advised to condemn attempts by countries to impose carbon tariffs on certain imported goods -- an initiative that the Liberal party advocates in its key election-campaign policy, the Green Shift plan.
But when you read the article it is actually about 36 (well oiled) business associations from around the world that are working on a draft for a report that is fearful of the possible protectionism that US government might impose when they move to an expected combination of carbon taxes and or cap and trade,

The argument used by these organizations is that as a country moves forward to impose carbon restraints upon it’s own industries it will be obligated to both protect and even the playing field by introducing tariffs on imported goods produced by countries that are not imposing carbon restraints. Well, that seems logical and actually makes sense.

The fear here is not Dion’s Green Shift or Layton's Cap and Trade, it is what the Americans will do, since they are still the largest consuming market.

However from the title of the piece and the opening paragraph the reader is mislead as it is implied that the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) is coming out against Dion’s plan.

This is a straight, partisan, hack job by the Nation Post, and although expected, it is still disgusting.

Unfortunately for the Liberals, their strength in just sitting on the bench


There is a lot of press about and a few polls illustrating that Dion is considered to be a weak leader by a large number of Canadians.

There are three reasons for this:
  • The conservative attack ads.
Brilliantly the Tories started attacking Dion right after the hard fought Liberal leadership race with it's surprising result.
Dion in winning the leadership was probably the third or even fourth choice amongst the pundits and the party membership.
By attacking his leadership abilities early, before he had the opportunity to actually start leading created doubt and has continued to work brilliantly.
  • Dion is not leading in this campaign
Although Dion appears to be more intelligent, honest and sincere than Harper, he also seems to suffer from pride, vanity and single mindedness (actually the same traits that appear to be admired in Harper). 
Dion or his Liberal strategists seem to be determined to have Dion single handedly take on Harper and prove that he is a strong leader and that the Tory ads are wrong.

However one of the Liberal's strengths is the experience, popularity and professionalism of their candidates. 
One of the Tories weaknesses is the inexperience, and unprofessional behavior of the ministers they have placed in charge
Leadership is also about assembling a team and effectively using the skills of the team members to run the country.
  • In politics as in business you sometimes win when your leader or boss fails
Quite frankly I would question whether every Liberal shown in the above picture personally wants Dion to win the election. 
Too many of them have too much to gain if he fails to get a minority and the Tories believe that too.
The picture above represents all the Liberals that I recognize by name and/or have seen on TV in action. Compare these people to Harper's arrogant team, and his incompetent ministers. 

This is the Liberal's strength.

If the Liberals want to turn their first week's performance around, they need to make the incompetence of the Tories ministers, the people Harper has placed in charge, the issue. 

Give us an alternative to Baird, Clement, Day, Flaherty, Findley, Kenney, Lunn, McKay, Prentice, and Verner.

Get your team off the bench and in front of the media, (with or without Dion) and start attacking Harper's team.

And make sure the first thing out of their mouths is praise for their leader and then attack the policies, performance and arrogance of their assigned minister. 

It should be easy, it is done everyday at the progressive web sites.

Just a thought.


Saturday, September 13, 2008

In the end I only have one vote and this year it might actually count

In federal elections I usually end up placing, what I guess you could call a protest vote.
In the past I have voted for the Rhinoceros Party (not the year that Zappa ran), some obscure independent a couple of times. Went for the Communist Party of Canada, once. It was a tough choice that year as the Marxist-Leninist Party also had a candidate, in my riding, basically splitting the ultra socialist vote.
In 2006, similarly to Kevin Newman of Global TV, my vote went to a Green candidate with a sign on the lawn and all.

However this year my riding of 160,000 only has two candidates running, so my vote might actually count.
One candidate is a 50 year old white guy, born nearby. He’s a senior partner in a fair size international law firm working on US, European and Canadian deals. He actually looks like me a bit, taking away the hair, and adding ten years and about 40 lbs.

Politically, this is his third try for the riding. He has been a stalwart party member actually managing another candidate’s campaign for the leadership of the party. Although that candidate was unsuccessful.
Overall he seems like a well balanced family type guy and one that both culturally and professionally I probably have a lot in common with.

Certainly a lot more than the incumbent candidate.
He was born in Saudi Arabia of Syrian parents, the same year as Woodstock and isn’t even 39 yet. He was educated in Canada as a mechanical engineer and got an MBA out of York.

Prior to running and winning in 2006 he was the president of the Canadian Arab Association.

He too was politically active, working for a leadership candidate in his party, also not successfully.

I have absolutely nothing in common with this very young candidate, certainly not culturally nor professionally.
I mean have you ever tried to make small talk with a mechanical engineer.
So this year, since my income taxes are current, I tend not to vote when I’m behind on my income tax. It is sort of an ethical thing with me. Anyway this year I will have to vote for one of the main stream parties.
So I’m voting for the Arab kid.
The main reason that Omar Alghabra is getting my vote is that he doesn’t trust Harper any more than I do. He told me that in a telephone call a couple months back. He actually phoned me to reply to an email that I sent him that was berating the leader of his party.
I like the kid, he’s got moxie, as my mother would have said.

Hey, Omar let me know if you want to put a sign on my lawn.



Friday, September 12, 2008

Remembering Harpers response to 911

Yesterday, in remembering the 911 attacks, our Prime Minister “warned of the dangers of doing nothing”.
"If we sit back and allow our fellow human beings to descend into a situation of brutality and anarchy and ignorance, this will come back to haunt us," he said.
Here’s what Harper said in the House of Commons in March 2003 in support of the American invasion of Iraq.
"It is inherently dangerous to allow a country such as Iraq to retain weapons of mass destruction, particularly in light of its past aggressive behavior. 
If the world community fails to disarm Iraq, we fear that other rogue states will be encouraged to believe that they too can have these most deadly of weapons to systematically defy international resolutions and that the world will do nothing to stop them."
If Stephen Harper had been the leader of a majority government in 2003, Canada would have been a full participant in the invasion of Iraq and as culpable as the Bush administration is for the brutality, atrocities and misrepresentation of facts for that invasion.
Bush and his neocon PNAC (Plan for the New American Century) supporters used the 911 attacks as an excuse to invade Iraq and obtain oil rights.

Similar to Bush, Harper has the same ideological base of support from the still active NCC (National Citizen’s Coalition) for which he is their former president.
Fortunately in 2003, Canada had cooler heads, without a predefined, well oiled, right wing ideology running the country.

One of the objectives for this election is to insure that we do again.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Converting one voter at a time

Apparently our evangelical prime minister is a big fan of Rosh Hashanah. For the second year in a row the conservatives, well actually Steve, his wife and the two kids, who are featured on the card are sending out Jewish New Year cards to complete strangers.

However one Jewish person in Montreal was upset, since she doesn't vote conservative and isn't a member of any Jewish organizations. She is a little concerned about the privacy issue, that she is on some unknown government database that is sorted by ethnicity or I assume religion.

Meanwhile Karla Kaminsky, another Montrealer wasn’t upset at all when she received her New Year’s card last week, but then she isn’t Jewish.

Apparently the conservatives send out Xmas cards and Chinese New Year cards also.

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner has investigated and determined that the lists do not break any privacy rules, but will be presenting some recommendations later in the year.

There was no mention of happy Ramadan cards for the muslims or Pancha Ganapati cards for the hindus being sent out by the prime ministers family and I assume it’s God help you if you’re an atheist.

Reporting from the campaign trail, day three, via CTV here.

JAWL


Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Deregulated finger pointing at Maple Leaf

Maple Leaf Foods believes that the listeria contamination was caused by accumulation of bacteria deep within the meat-slicing equipment.
It wasn't until two meat slicers, were disassembled that areas were found deep within the machine where listeria bacteria may have accumulated and "avoided our rigorous sanitization procedures," Mr. McCain said.

"Certainly the disassembly that took place here would be outside the scope of anybody's normal, routine consideration for sanitization," Mr. McCain said.
However the machine's manufacturer insists its product was not to blame.
"There has never been a serious food safety issue associated with any of the S-180 slicers - including the machines at the Maple Leaf facility, which have been in production for more than 11 years," Mr. Sandberg said in an e-mailed statement.
Basically Maple Leaf is claiming that they did all their required cleaning and that the cause was really a design flaw.

Of course prior to the changes that Harper’s government made to food inspection, we would actually know if the cleaning was actually done everyday.

Now under Harper’s deregulation the CFIA food inspectors just read reports and review processes and don’t actually get to verify, as in testing for listeria on the cutting blades right on the floor.

So far 14 deaths have been confirmed to the outbreak and another six are under investigation. In total 38 cases of listeriosis have been confirmed and 22 more are suspected.

Thank you Mr, Harper.



Reference: Globe and Mail here.



Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Well thank you Mr Stelmach, Exxon appreciates your efforts


Ed Stelmach, the Premier of Alberta came out yesterday to let us know what the oil industry is looking for in this election.
"If there's ever a time we need a strong majority, it's now. Many of the investors around the world are looking for some stability and predictability in policy and we won't get that unless we have a majority government."
The many investors in this case is good old Rex Tillerson, Chairman and CEO of Exxon who is holding back his decision on the starting date for the Kearl Tar Sands project until the new year.
In case you forgot the Kearl project is the next expansion of the Tar Sands. In this case replacing the existing boreal forests with a $8 billion open-pit, mining operation, with trailing ponds expected to be the size of 20,000 football fields.
The majority Ed is referring to is obviously a conservative one, but he did have some advice for the Tories about just trying to get by on negative attack ads.
He suggested that attack ads aren't the way to win that majority, when asked about the federal Conservative ads. 
"Albertans want to know what you're going to do for them,"
That's a tough one there, Ed.

When you consider the fact that the Harper government has basically delayed placing any environmental restrictions on the existing tar sands projects until well after 2015, promised to pay a third of the development cost of the Carbon, Capture and Storage technology (if it could ever be deployed on a such a large scale), and even redesigned the country's immigration law so that temporary workers headed to Alberta could by pass the queue...

I mean short of moving the physical capital of the country to Calgary, I don't think there is much more Harper can do for you.

At least right now.





References: Advice from Alberta from the Globe here, Carbon Capture Reality Check from Discovery here.


Monday, September 8, 2008

The Tories start off the election lying, which I guess is fitting

While the new conservative ads feature the soft spoken Harper farting out puppy dogs and kittens, the real Tories showed up on Election Day One at their new multi-million dollar campaign headquarters in Ottawa.

Their idea is to hold early 6 am news conferences from their new command center where they can set the daily news agenda for the media's election coverage.

So they bring out two of their most arrogant attack dogs, Jason Kenny and Lawrence Cannon who summon the press corps to release their "latest in a long series of ads attacking Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion".

Except no one bites, as in free media sound bites of the ads (of course Global National might).

Kenny did get to throw in some more of his outright lies, I mean the guy just makes this shit up.

Their tag line for the day is that the Liberals will reverse popular policies.

The Liberals will raise the GST, take back the $100 a month child care (which actually covers about a day and half of daycare if you could find a spot) and roll back popular Tory policies.

What popular Tory policies? 

Certainly nothing to do with health, the environment, food safety, woman's rights, aid to the poor and homeless, airline safety, arts funding, decriminalization of anything (one of my favorites) ...

Only the CBC and CanWest showed up and the reporters went after the two Tories with questions of their own on gas prices, tax policy and reports of the conservatives attempting to prevent some of its candidates from talking to the media.

However Dion was forced to answer their attacks and his message was simple the Tories are lying. 
"I call on Mr. Harper … to not try to win an election by lying, and to be honest for once," Dion said at a campaign appearance in Saint-Lambert, Que. "He's afraid to debate honestly, but for once he will have to do so."
Don't hold your breath Mr. Dion, lying is just good politics to these assholes. 





References: About the their conference from Macleans here, lies about Dion from CBC here and Dion's response to the lies from the Gazette here.


Harper’s new rules allowed Listeria to go undetected on the cutting blades at Maple Leaf

As a progressive reader you already knew this, you read it here and all over other progressive blogs.

However other Canadians, your friends, your co-workers or your relatives are not aware of the simple fact that the Tories implemented their deregulation of food inspection back in March at the Maple Leaf plant.

The CFIA inspectors no longer were allowed to run Listeria tests on the cutting blades used in the Maple Leaf plant. They only verified the company's paperwork outlining the processes.

That's the principle of Harper's deregulation and he secretly (withholding the changes from the public and parliament) broke the food inspection system in March and by August we had the first death.

What can you do to stop Harper? Tell everyone the truth about Harper's "deregulation for deregulation's sake" ideology.

If they want proof send them here to this Gazette article from yesterday where the president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada's Agriculture Union places the blame squarely on Harper's shoulders and the changes his government secretly implemented.
"We already know the problem is too few inspectors ... in a system that relies too much on the food industry to police itself.

The Tories are desperate to keep it off the table because they have too much to answer for.

I hope Canadians hold the Tories accountable," Kingston said.
Or send them here to the Globe article that originally announced the fact on August 27th, because Canadians, your friends, colleagues and relatives that are upset about the Listeria deaths believe it was just the fault of the workers at the Maple Leaf plant. 

They don't read the paper everyday and only get their news in filtered sound bites from Canwest Global or CTVglobemedia.

Also tell them that Harper has started deregulating the Transport Canada inspections of the aircraft industry and removing funding for BSE (Mad Cow) testing. 

While Harper and his neocon ilk claim that deregulation will simplify regulations,  leading to higher productivity, more efficiency and lower prices, they continually ignore the fact that the regulations were in place to protect lives.

So far Harper's ignorance and reckless implementation has caused 15 deaths and put us all at risk.

Anyway that's what I am telling my colleagues, relatives and friends.




Thursday, September 4, 2008

AWOL

  • My MacBook blew up, it will be 3 days to get fixed if I'm lucky!
  • Haven't been able to get posted on Progressive Bloggers for a week because my feed somehow isn't getting through.
  • And now I'm on the road for three days.

Going to spend the next four days, removing the wool from my eyes. I saw one of Harper's ads last night.

Leadership, my ass.


The sketch above is Aldous Huxley just before his death at age 69.

He was a humanist and pacifist, but was also latterly interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism. He was also well known for advocating and taking hallucinogens and is considered by many to be the "spiritual father" of the hippie movement.

He travelled back and forth between the UK, Canada and southern California with a brief case full of acid in the late 50's and early 60's spreading the word.

Oh and he wrote numerous articles, books of poetry and philosophy and 11 novels including Brave New World.