Thursday, January 12, 2012

The Conservative week in review

Wow, Stephen Harper's had quite the week. First, one of his minion could keep his yap shut about Kitimat pipeline, pissing off the very people who, if not fully convinced of the benefits, must be persuaded to at least not hate the project. Then another one of his dungpumps gunged up the idea that same-sex marriages performed in Canada weren't valid if same-sex marriage was not allowed in the couple's home locale. 

What these useless people don't quite understand is that some things, once out, cannot be put back again. There's no going back on the corruption of process in the Joint Review Panel hearings and Oliver's arrogant utterings will echo in the ears of every single follower, attendee and intervenor at the hearings. There's a lot of rednecks out there in Northern BC who also happen to hold some progressive environmental views. None but the handful of the blinkered actually believe climate change is bullshit or that oil isn't without serious risks. This could ultimately cost the project.


Same-sex marriage, like the neutering of kings and tyrants in favour of democracy, the end of slavery, and universal suffrage is the latest advance in the long process of shedding the dark and brutal ideas driving of our development as a society and species. It represents true progress and resonates deep within the souls of newly freed and those who support them.

Oil pipelines and trade agreements cannot do this and in many ways represent one of the remaining shadows of our past. Foreign wars do this, but only for the cowards who get misty-eyed starting yet send others to fight them.

People will risk their lives to defend their homes and livelihoods from encroachment by a malevolent government attempting turn the clock back to an age we'd long rather forget.

Millions of us understand and reject the oil economy killing our future. Exxon-Alaska, BP's Deepwater Horizon are well within recent memory. The entire world watched these disasters unfold. Lesbians, gays, and the transgendered have far more allies and support than active enemies. 

Harper's government stood up this week and declared itself the enemy of a great many millions and the deep conveyor of social history. It will cost them.

22 comments:

West End Bob said...

One can only hope that this week is the beginning of a trend, Boris . . . .

Boris said...

One hopes. But I think there's something to it. Their full agenda is nothing short of devolutionary and then some. There are some nasty monsters in their closet and they want out. We're finding they can barely contain themselves and we're just going to see more this sort thing. People notice and say "hey, wait, that's me Harper's minister is talking about!" Even slow of the mark, apathetic Canadians. The more they vomit up, the more intensified the resistance becomes. The Harperites have such a multifaceted disdain that they're going to eventually hit on something personal for most of the population. Sure they might solidify their grip on parliament and the federal government, but they're going to run into serious problems when they overstep. You and me and most readers of this blog won't let them get away with it.

bcwaterboy said...

Couldn't agree more Boris and the more I think about it, the more I want those frothing at the mouth vermin to speak their minds. The skeptic in me also sees some of this as a calculated means to have harper come out smelling like a rose. Certainly he's not that stupid to not have his finger on the pulse of what HIS gov't has it's tentacles into as to not have known about this marriage equality publicity stunt. I firmly believe that environmental issues are going to be the downfall of the reform party, they are in way over their heads when they label those opposed to the pipeline as "ideological radicals". Lots of people in northern BC will not take kindly to that. Unfortunately, here in the Okanagan people would kiss harper's excrement.

Carmichael said...

I think you guys are dreaming in technicolour. With a "u".

If the LPC and NDP don't put their differences aside and work together we're in for at least a further 5 years of Harper or his clone after 2015.

He's got the left and centre left split that is the mirror image of the one the LPC enjoyed for all those years and he has no plan to waste it...he'll decertify his own sitting members as candidates if he has to, but he won't waste the split.

There's one chance and one chance only to get rid of the fat, little fuck and that involves the NDP and LPC caucuses deciding that Canada is more important than their partisan fiefdoms.

And we already know that's not going to happen so...

Canada is fucked and the eulogy can begin to be written right now.

Just don't let any Liberals or Dippers write any of it...it would be criminal to let the murderers write the eulogy.

The following is for the shitheels who will show up to proclaim their purity.

Yeah? Fuck you, you shit for brains...you know who you are...

bcwaterboy said...

No dreaming here Carmichael, I agree totally that the LPC and NDP desperately need to get their shit together, literally. The surge of the NDP is virtually over now, they've done nothing since Jack's untimely death and have lost most of their momentum while harper craps all over everything the country stands for.

Edstock said...

Take a pill, Carmichael, it's 3 years til the next election, and that's a long, long, long time in politics. Trust Stevie to sell his demise.
Next up for Stevie: the collapse of the Canadian real estate market? Garth Turner seems to think so.

Carmichael said...

Oh my yes, Garth has been hammering away at that for at least 3 years.

I don't follow any fool let alone the greater fool. And if you don't know what I'm referring to you have to stop using Garth Turner's name at once.

3years is indeed a long time but that's a door that swings in 2 directions.

It could equally hit the LPC and/or NDP in the ass as it could the Cons.

And given current states of being I'd bet on the 2 former rather than the one latter. Of course as always YMMV.

Scotian said...

I'll believe it when I see it, not before. Harper should never have been able to even be a minority PM, let alone elected as a majority PM right after he and his government became the first one in history to be found in contempt of Parliament. I spent a DECADE pointing our the dangers he represented to our process/legal /power issues of government to little/no avail, that no government stealing tax dollars was even close to as dangerous to the Canadian way of life than a government that would steal powers and legal rights away as this one. Indeed, the ONLY thing preventing Harper from simply taking all our rights away by legislative fiat is Trudeau's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, for which I am ETERNALLY grateful to right now, because this government would do such if it could!

There is too much of a "it can't happen here" mentality going on in the public combined with the belief that if Harper really was so bad those stalwarts of progressivism (aka NDP) would have teamed up with the Libs long ago to stop him so really how bad can he really be. That this will just be a short period of correction and then things will go back to normal, not understanding that once certain things are done they cannot be undone, which was why stopping him from ever getting here was so important in the first place.

Yes, I know this is basically "I told you so", but at this point it is all I've got left to do, he has the majority, we can do nothing to stop him until the next election several years off, no matter how many protests, media accusations whatever happen in the meantime, all they can do is hopefully make this a one term majority and if we are really lucky there still might be some things left to salvage. That *IS* the reality now, it *IS* why from the last election I became as openly angry and bitter to Layton and the NDP as I now am (btw, my wife went from ardent NDP to the same because of the way they let Harper use them to gain power instead of stopping him, she saw his dangers too, before this I was the only swing centrist voter here), and why I have essentially stopped blogging. No one listened before, and I am tired and my health is less than strong, and it is too painful to watch in detail my nightmare coming true.

Granted I still follow a little bit, and will comment from time to time, but ultimately I recognize the futility for the moment of anything more, the damage is done, and until we start getting nearer to a election or Harper somehow manages to trigger a real backlash within the wider public all that can be done is the partisans of both the NDP and Libs find good leaders, recognize the real dangers Harper represents to all of us, and finally stop fighting each other so much and place getting him gone as the only worthy goal for each, as I kept trying to get for years prior and watched Layton especially piss all over, which is why I said he won the battle to lose the war.

Sorry, I know how I sound, I know I sound bitter, and that's because I am. All I ever wanted out of the last decade was to stop Harper before he got to this point, because I *KNEW* just how bad it would get with him, and now I get to watch it play out. It is so frustrating to be a nobody on medical disability who could see all this coming from so far away while so many so called highly paid experts in politics somehow missed it or thought it was a price worth paying to suit their own narrow partisan goals. That really stings for me.

the regina mom said...

Most progressives knew it would come to this if the HarperCons ever got their majority. That the NDP are in Opposition is significant. I don't agree that their rise is over. How they play the Opposition card will determine their future. And ours.

As for the Liberals, well, I've always believed the old adage Liberal, Tory, same old story. I don't care how awful Harper is, I will not vote for a Liberal.

Carmichael said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Scotian said...

TRM:

And you are exactly why I am pissed with Dippers, you placed your partisan axe ahead of the good of all with Harper. When you talk about the Libs and the PCPC, then yes, Lib Tory same old story has more than a little truth to it. HOWEVER, and this was immediately obvious if one cared to look, the Harper CPC was another breed altogether, and even if you didn't believe that in 2006 when Martin lost by the last election is was painfully obvious, unless you can show me a Liberal government that ever dared to claim it was superior in power to Parliament in complete defiance of our Constitution and in turn was held in contempt of Parliament for it.

Seriously, it really is you and those like you that Harper most banked on to get where he did, and goody for you for being so fixated in the past to be blinded to the reality of the present regarding the Harper CPC, at least you were blinded by your clear animosity towards the Libs, I have to believe Layton was smart enough to know better but simply placed his own lust for power (whatever his noble motives may have been for it doesn't change the underlying fact that he placed his ambition ahead of the good of the nation and the progressive principles, programs and ideals the NDP had always stood for until his leadership) ahead of stopping Harper from power, the best example of winning a battle to lose the war I have ever seen.

Lib Tory same old story is true when you have Tories, but if you had any understanding of what the word Tory really meant you would have understood just how deluded you are for saying that regarding the Harper CPC. You clearly don't understand your own political culture and history as well as you appear to think you do.

Carmichael said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Boris said...

Carmichael,
I always appreciate the message of your commentary and is good to see you posting again, but decorum please! Knock off the abuse and name calling.

Regina Mom makes her point well and says nothing in content and tone to warrant that kind of response and is more than welcome to post here.

Scotian said...

Carmichael:

While I may agree with your general arguments, I do not agree with the way you just presented them. One can be quite pointed in making clear one's disagreement without having to resort to profanities and personal attacks as you just did with TRM. I have to agree with Boris on that one, you took it too far in your last comment. While I may hold her and those like her responsible for electing Harper through their own blindness and narrow partisanship and am more than a little angry and bitter that even now they do not understand what they have done that does not mean they deserve to be abused in the manner you did. One can show one's anger with such thinking as hers without resorting to the level of personalities and profanity as you did.

Boris:

Sorry, felt I needed to add my 2 cents here as well, while not my blog or anything he was someone who clearly was writing in support of the position I have on the topic, and I wanted it clear that I do not share in the manner in which it was presented. I am one that does not use such profanities and personalities against those I oppose, I try to never forget that one can be passionate in one's views without having to be offensively disagreeable. That said though, I do agree with his overall point about it being people like her that will enable the continuation of the Harper regime more than almost anyone else, because it was for the past three elections the Dippers that refused to see or felt it was worth the cost for their own partisan gains to not go after Harper first, foremost and intensively as his record/history truly showed he deserved. It was bad enough when it happened to knock out Martin, but by the last election Harper's colours were vivid enough for anyone with half a functioning brain that was paying any attention that the old maxim of Liberal Tory same old story was patently untrue where the Harper CPC were concerned.

I was saddened to see how much the modern NDP had become the cult of Jack instead of actually fighting to defend their core beliefs as they used to...sure it may not have gotten them as many seats, but they did have respect of the courage to stand for their convictions first, but after Jack it became a eat your cake and have it hypocrisy sad to say, and too many Dippers in the trenches clearly didn't notice, care enough, or were so enamoured of any chance to take down the Libs no matter what else the cost to see that the Harper CPC were going to be far worse than anything the Libs had ever been on being against the NDP principles and values.

That TRM *STILL* fails to grasp this point underscores a dangerous partisan blinder within the Dipper community even now, and is something that Harper has been relying on for years...there is far more unwillingness within the Dipper community to work with the Libs against Harper than there was the other way around, all because it was easier to take this route than to continue the long path of slowly increasing voter support by being true to convictions first. Layton did incredible damage to the legacy of his party, he may have given the Dippers a short term gain, but I suspect at the cost of their long term credibility, for he essentially made the NDP into another expediency driven first party over the last 6 years, and unlike the Libs they do not have any track record for governing federally while the Libs do and still have a brand name for good government despite their recent reversals.

Carmichael said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Holly Stick said...

Boy I am sick of the partisan BS here. Carmichael and Scotian, the NDP did not cause Harper to win the election. The Conservative fools who voted for him did.

And it is ridiculous for Liberals to blame the NDP, because the Liberals were completely inadequate. They should have opposed Harper much more when he had a minority government instead of cooperating on the warmongering, etc.

I don't belong to any party, but the NDP is closest to my Canadian values and the Liberals have gone too much to the right.

Boris said...

Carmichael,
I disliked deleting your posts but I asked you to knock it off, and you persisted by calling people who disagree with you, 'idiots'.

By all means let's make sure we don't offend the idiots. Or their enablers.

While some might agree with your general views, it is offensive and disrespectful to the other commenters and well as me to see that sort of abuse levelled at others in my comment threads.

Carmichael said...

Buh Bye.

karen said...

I have been hearing a lot that it was the Dippers who gave Harper his majority because they would not come around to the Liberal side.
Notice that the Liberals insist that the Dippers change, but do not offer to change themselves. That's a lovely compromise: If I adopt your values you will be happy, but I should not ask you to adopt mine it seems.

In the last parliament, it seemed to me that everyone was caving to the Conservative agenda- not standing up when they should, not showing up when they should, not walking out and saying this is contempt and a mockery of our system when they should.

Who, I ask, should we have voted for? Because frankly, I didn't have a local candidate worth more than a boat anchor and I didn't see very much integrity in that last parliament.

Scotian said...

*SIGH*

I've never said the Libs don't own their share of it, but watching as someone who was not a partisan of either party whose only goal was the prevention of Harper as a PM whose written record shows this I place more blame on the NDP for the reasons I have repeatedly laid out. You Dippers fail to understand the makeup of the voting demographic, how many of you in the last election went on about how the blue Liberals cost you the government and gave it to Harper after all?

There is no such creature as the 2 million blue Liberals I saw Dippers blame last election night for their not becoming government either, you divide the electorate up the same way as the CPC, either they are with you or against you and with your enemies, you have a hard time understanding that the single largest voting group is the uncommitted swing centrist voter, they are the true core voters in this land and the ones all governments have had to speak to to win, which is why I might add after his loss in 2004 on his open agendas Harper suddenly transformed himself into the centrist/moderate image he claimed and was allowed to develop thanks to the heated warfare between the Dippers who hate the Libs (the fact you all still thought Lib Tory same old story was true even after the death of the PCPC meant there were no Tories anymore federally underscores that) and the Libs who had a hard time understanding the changing reality under their feet.

I blame the NDP far more than the Libs because of the two parties from 2006 onwards the NDP and Layton were far better positioned to expose Harper beyond his ability to hide it from the disconnected politically shallow/unobservant centrist middle. After all, the media stayed focused on the fight between Dipper and Libber, and for the voter that pays superficial attention because they have more immediate concerns and after all this is Canada where the extreme can never really thrive without being pointed out right..(that it can't happen here mentality I've mentioned in the past, as has Dave of this blog) saw this instead of a united front to defeat Harper then most to all of the really scary things he hears about Harper being wanting or even doing had to be partisan empty rhetoric for the most part right (dry sarcasm)? Layton was far too competent a politician and party leader to not understand exactly what he was doing and he clearly felt it was worth the price of Harper as PM, even a majority PM if it allowed him and his party to surplant the Liberals in the end which is another reason why they get the majority of my ire.

I'd said it for many years now, I'd have been fine with that approach if it had been the PCPC it was done against, but shouldn't one place defeating the lesser evil secondary to the greatest evil first? Not to mention that while the Libs may have been seriously defeated in the last election, they retained a rough 10% of the seats in Parliament, which gives them more than enough nugget to come back from, and since the NDP surge last time was not support for the NDP policies but for the cult of personality surrounding Layton...well

It is the simple partisan blindered way to whine that anyone making this argument is obviously a Lib supporter, and that is also where a lot of my personal anger and bitterness towards online Dippers has come from. You all have dismissed me as such for 7 years now, it was easier than actually taking the concerns and issues I raised seriously, well that is how you and yours helped put Harper into the majority PM position he is now and you all cannot escape your moral responsibility for it no matter how much you like to deny it. Truth and reality is what it is, and you and yours are a major element for why we have Harper the majority PM. Deal with it instead of pretending you didn't for a change, this was the price to pay for gaining the position over the Libs you currently have, and it clearly was Dipper srategy from the outset since the fall of Martin.

Carmichael said...

It appears I'm not going to go away quite so passively and quiescently as some may have heretofore presumed.

I also don't anticipate that the powers that appear to be in charge of this kiddies room will let this post remain visible for much longer than it takes to read.

Rocks are hard and water is wet.

Idiots, assholes and perverts are forever.

I adore being a participant and enabler in empowering reflexive, rigid minded people who represent passive, non-active, non-strategic solutions to problems that they don't really recognize, are incapable of acknowledging and are utterly unequipped to struggle against.

"It is very important that the naive, rigid and unthinking among us be validated. Always treat them as though they were as smart as Einstein." Internet Etiquette Manual

That is my idea of fucking heaven.

What's yours, chuckles?

I'm so the fuck out of here.

See ya around, Dave.

Edstock said...

Jeez Carmichael, try something else if Preparation H doesn't do the job for ya.