Political History . . . .

An archaeological team, digging in Washington DC Alberta, has uncovered 10,000 year old bones and fossil remains of what is believed to be the first Republican Harper Conservative.

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

End our national nightmare now

Dear fellow Canucks,
I know there is a distracting spectacle south of the border what with the minority elitist who was raised by a single mother on foodstamps running against the son-and-grandson-of-admirals, 11-house owning everyman for leader of the pack and all, and that whole global financial meltdown thing happenning, but we have an election going on too. I read the polls every day and I have to ask-- what the hell is wrong with you people?

Watching things in the Excited States over the last eight years, we've all seen what happens when you put a bunch of proudly ignorant neoconservative dingbats in charge for an extended period. Given Stephen Harper's propensity to crib from the Republican playbook, do you really think its a good idea to give him a majority? Really?

Aside from the apology for the Residential School tragedy, name one thing he's done right in the last two years, name one promise he's kept -- no, really, I'll wait, you go ahead and google around and tell me all about his successes with the nuclear safety watchdog, with the Arar affair, with ongoing, neverending war in Afghanistan, his environmental record --- and let's not forget about his insatiable hunger for the flesh of innocent children. The more you look, the more reasons you'll find to dump this chump.

The most recent scandal over bad meat has Tory fingerprints all over it, but the media seems more concerned about a few tasteless jokes by the minister in charge rather than his removal of inspectors from meat plants.

Recently he's been beating the usual conservative drum about "getting tough on crime" by sending 14-year-olds to prison for life, except in Quebec. I've addressed this kind of brainless pandering before. It's all part of the usual conservative obsession with talking tough and striking macho poses. A key element of right-wing politics is the notion of a "strong" leader who will "act decisively." Yes, well, we can see how that has worked out in the past for Germany, Italy and Spain and how it is working out now for the United States. Strength and resolution are all well and good, but if you make stupid, wrongheaded or just plain evil decisions and then stick to them in the face of all evidence, that doesn't make you a maverick or strong leader, it puts you somewhere on the spectrum between stubborn fool and diabolical meglomaniac.

I know Stephen Dion is not Pierre Trudeau and Jack Layton is no Tommy Douglas, but for the love of Lester Pearson, Maurice Richard and Laura Secord -- would you all just pick one of the two and stop Dead-Eyes from getting re-elected by dividing and conquering yet again?

(crossposted from the Woodshed)

Here you go Stevie. This is for one of your "late" candidates

The ChrisReidDoesn'tSpeakForUsButWeReallyLikeHisIdeas editon:

The OLDEST profession

Right here.

So I'll say a rosary for him. I'm willing to overlook that the same way I am willing to overlook people who shack up, or are divorced and remarried.

Aren't we magnanimous!! And just so, oh so, tolerant!

You just told us what you're all about. Hitler tolerated Ernst Rohm and Edmund Heinse in exactly the same way. Overlook until inconvenient.

Send your cockroaches. We'll be happy to expose them to the light.

Bring Chris Reid back!

From Fern Hill at Birth Pangs :

"In another coup for the blogosphere, a Conservative candidate who was outed as a right-wing. gun-totin’, fetish fetishizing nutbar by Big City Lib has withdrawn from the campaign.
But that’s not the end of the story.

Blob Blogging Wingnut and her unsavory pals want him back.

Chris Reid is pro-life. Proudly pro-life. I’ve seen him publicly defend unborn children in facebook debates.
But Suzanne, he’s gay…
So I’ll say a rosary for him.

So, there we have it. Nutopia priorities. Gays marginally tolerable if anti-choice.

We at Birth Pangs agree. Bring Chris Reid back! He’s the perfect example of the havoc the Conservatards will wreak if they get a majority.

UPPITY-DATE: From the You Can’t Make This Stuff Up Department: Some staunch homophobic nutbar Conservative supporters do not want him back. Seems he represents a ‘homo plot’ to torpedo the Reforma-Tories. "

Will the Canada-EU Free Trade Agreement out-NAFTA NAFTA?

EUtopia - Be careful what you wish for.

Melvin J Howard, CEO of the Arizona-based Centurion Health Corporation, is in the process of filing a NAFTA Chapter 11 complaint against Canada's public healthcare system. Although our government has repeatedly assured us that Canadian healthcare is protected under NAFTA, recent tinkering with private clinic P-3s and privatization by the Quebec, BC, and Alberta governments has led Mr. Howard to believe he has a case, as argued on his blog :

1. Canada claims to have exemptions on their public health care system.
2. Canada has registered health insurance at the World Trade Organization as a financial service.
3. The World Trade Organization allows governments to exempt any service provided "in the exercise of government authority," as long as such services are not also available commercially.
4. Canadian private companies are already in the health business in Canada.
5. NAFTA dictates that Canadian, US, and Mexican businesses must have equal opportunities in all three countries.
6. Centurion has been barred from having the same investment opportunities private Canadian companies enjoy because it is based in the US.

Enter Chapter 11.

Mr. Howard is claiming $4 million in expenses and an additional $150 million in lost profit after a failed attempt to invest in the BC health care system. Although he has put his claim on hold until after the Canadian election, he states his intention to proceed "after the new Government is installed" if private negotiations with the federal government do not satify him.


Yesterday Red Tory was rather amused by my post about Harper's insistence on keeping his upcoming secret squirrel Canada-EU Free Trade Agreement negotiations out of the public eye till after the election. A "yawning non-story" and a "conspiracy theory", says Red, in spite of the fact that the EU negotiators have already pressured Canada into accepting, as a precondition of their participation, a stipulation "which would require that Canadian governments allow European companies to bid as equals on government contracts for both goods and services and end the favouring of local or national providers of public-sector services."

I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this.
After, say, a company in Liechtenstein wins the bid to run the CBC on a for-profit basis, how long do you think it will take Fox News to file a Chapter 11 complaint at the WTO? An extreme and unlikely scenario? To be sure, but I submit it to all of you who automatically assume that a free trade agreement with the EU would naturally provide a much-needed corrective balance to NAFTA and our trade dependence on the U.S.

Under the corporate-friendly conditions Canada has unfortunately already agreed to in the EU talks due to begin three days after the election, I see no assurance that the balance will necessarily tip in our favour.

As Christos Sirros, head of Quebec's mission to the EU explains : "Europe views such a relationship with Canada as a precursor to entering the U.S. market."

And Harper doesn't want to talk about it.

Cross-posted at Creekside

Special rules?

Of course there have to be special rules. Let's not forget that as far as the Republicans are concerned, Sarah Palin is a dainty, not-to-be-treated-equally female first, and contending understudy for president second.

I would have given her more credit than her own party seems to have done... until I found out about fungible molecules.

Chris Reid - Gone with his blog

Oh... looky here.

The Tories have lost a candidate in downtown Toronto who was running against Liberal incumbent Bob Rae.

The Conservatives say Toronto Centre Tory candidate Chris Reid resigned this weekend after telling them that he couldn't commit to serving four years in government.

What?! He didn't like the pension plan? Aside from that, suggesting that he would have lasted four years is somewhat presumptuous... don't you think?

The Liberals, however, are alleging it was controversial comments posted online by Mr. Reid that led to his departure.

The Tories distanced themselves from Mr. Reid's online writing on Sunday and refused to discuss it.

Sounds to me like a real poor job of vetting. That or they never expected anyone to resurrect his amazing prose from the memory hole. The ideology was apparently fine with them - the fact that he actually wrote it seemed to make them nervous. Give away too much of the game perhaps?

Mr. Reid, an openly-gay environmental engineer, was also a candidate for Toronto City Council in 2006. A blog written by someone identifying themselves as Mr. Reid has been shut down but copies of its web pages, archived by search engine Google, indicate the writer had strong ideas about how to change Canada. (Emphasis mine)

Yes, that writer did.

Recommendations posted on this blog under the title “Political Thoughts by a Gay Conservative” include: closing the CBC; ending Human Rights Commissions and hate speech laws; ending abortion; allowing “qualified and trained” citizens to carry concealed handguns; and ending the Indian Act and the reservation system.

“These policies just keep Indians and their corrupt leaders dependent on the state and unable to ever have the freedom to succeed,” the blogger wrote under the name Chris Reid.

As for his recommendation that Canadians be allowed to carry concealed handguns, the blogger wrote: “It's the only proven way to reduce violent crime and murder. If women and gays really wanted to stop being victims of hate crimes, they'd be in support of this, but judging from discussions, they'd rather be helpless and rely on government.”

Yup. That's what's in Google cache alright.

Excuse me. I have to do this. HIGH FIVE buddy!!! You da man!!

When you were still in middle school, Stevie...

The Cold War was in full throw. There was a whole group of us out there on the wall. Let me tell you about the "glory". There wasn't any. We lived day in and day out with our fingers on the trigger knowing that if we screwed up, it meant the end of civilization. It was actually a crappy job, but because it was so far from home, we relished in it. We loved it because, well, we were right out there on the edge - on the world stage.

You, Stevie, were dealing with teenage politics and I'll take good odds that you weren't one of the cool kids. That's why you're such a nasty little prick now.

Well, Stevie, take a look at what's happening while you fritter away this country's defence dollars on a wasted effort.

Russia's lower house of parliament, passed a 25 per cent increase in defence spending next year from $40 billion to $50 billion. Russia's three-year budget forecast includes further increases to $54.5 billion in 2010 and to $58 billion by 2011.

Yeah, that doesn't look like a lot compared to the US defense budget.

Russia's military budget remains barely a tenth of the $480 billion spent by the US Pentagon this year. Mr Medvedev told defence chiefs last week that the Georgian war showed that Russia had to modernise its military as "one of our top priorities".

Booming oil revenues allowed his predecessor Vladimir Putin to quadruple defence spending, with $189 billion earmarked to upgrade army and navy equipment by 2015.

Right. Except that the US government just had to bail itself out of a financial mess of its own making. Where does the money come from to fund their military adventures now?

And the big question is, who's got the money now?

Are you sure you middle school superheroes didn't just undo all of the work we did in the last half of the 20th Century?

This is for you. The OhMyGod!They'reDoingItAgain! edition. Enjoy.

Thanks to Cheryl

Damn . . . .

David Eby lost by 17 votes his bid to run for Vancouver city council on the Vision slate. There is a re-count scheduled.

An advocate for the Downtown Eastside's homeless for years, his contribution to city council operations would have been a welcome change.

His blog post on the results is here.

fabula's take is here.


A class act to the end . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Grumpage

LIKE, I'M WATCHING a YouTube video of Carla Bruni, and in the background, on TV, there appears Stevie. The sound's off, so Carla prevails. It's all opinion, a solipsist's by-product, but mine is that she is a delightful musician, and technically, pretty good on guitar (should be, considering E.C.'s positive influence) in the clean-and-simple school.

The video ended, but Stevie was still grinding on, concluding his pitch, and that got me to pondering. What was Mrs. Stevie all about? I didn't even know her name — Laureen, as it turns out.

So, I went and found some pictures. You will note that I refrained from any Carla "glamor" shots. Perhaps one should not judge a book by its cover, but that's publishing for you. You can probably figure out who's who.

Aw, to hell with it.

FWIW, if you can't afford to race sportscars or powerboats, playing rock n' roll is just about the most fun you can have with your clothes on. That's just my opinion, of course, but at 59, I still get the same rush I did at 20 when I plug into that 200w stack with my Telly and crunch out that first chord. As the song goes, it's only rock n' roll, but I like it. Speaking as a heterosexual middle-aged guitar hacker, I know who I want to play with, but that's just me. I'm sure Laureen does great chicken soup, though.

In honour of the Queen of Skeena-Bulkley Valley

The SharonSmithIsUs edition:



And tonight... we have a little bonus.

Isn't THIS interesting

Did you know about this? I didn't know about it. Apparently it's a deep dark secret.... just like the the Security and Prosperity Partnership.

Now, I happen to think a much more robust trade deal with the European Union is a good idea. This country needs to get out from under the economic dependency of being strapped to the US. But given the conditions that seem to come with it, it's not the right way to do it. And since it's being driven by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, you just know the average Canadian is going to get thoroughly and properly screwed. That and one other important and salient point:

Harper is preparing entering into major trade negotiations without consulting Canadians. He's checked it out with big business but he's afraid to put it on the table for the Canadian electorate. And he has the perfect opportunity to do so in an election campaign.

So, why isn't he doing it? Easy. He has polls which tell him it is politically unpalatable. In other words, the political impact is negative and the communications strategy has not yet been formulated. The "jelly bean" lines have yet to be properly refined.

You see, this will set off a firestorm of protest:

The proposed pact would far exceed the scope of older agreements such as NAFTA by encompassing not only unrestricted trade in goods, services and investment and the removal of tariffs, but also the free movement of skilled people and an open market in government services and procurement – which would require that Canadian governments allow European companies to bid as equals on government contracts for both goods and services and end the favouring of local or national providers of public-sector services.

Yes, you read that correctly. Governments - plural. Even provincial and municipal governments.

If Harper goes ahead with this, having had it in his pocket during an election and doesn't put it to the electorate, even if he wins a majority, he will have no mandate to proceed. Witholding this kind of information is patently dishonest. And Harper needs to learn that those CEOs have the same number of votes as every other Canadian over the age of 18 - one each.

Go read Alison.

Really Sharon? No problem?

Like Unrepentant Old Hippie we suddenly started to get a lot of traffic looking at this post about Houston BC mayor and Conservative candidate for Skeena-Bulkley Valley, Sharon Smith. Oddly, the traffic was coming from one of our friends in Nevada, Coyote Angry.

Accidental Deliberations provided the explanation by pointing out this story from CTV, and as AD points out, CTV is burying the greater of three stories - specifically the one related to democracy corrupted by the Conservative Party of Canada.

The Conservative candidate for B.C.'s Skeena-Bulkley Valley insists naked photos taken of her in her office are not an issue for the party.

Sharon Smith, the mayor of Houston, B.C., grabbed worldwide attention five years ago when pictures of her wearing nothing more than a smile and her mayor's robes were widely circulated on the Internet.

Copies of the pictures were allegedly copied from her computer and circulated around the small mill town.

In one full-length photograph, Smith is seen seated naked with the mayor's medallion around her neck.

Speaking from Smithers, B.C., Smith told CTV the Conservative party is aware of the pictures, and they were never an issue in her bid for office.

"They've known since I put my name forward for the riding and the federal candidacy," she said.

Well, they should be an issue, but we'll get back to that.

Appearing at a luncheon with Smith in Smithers, Conservative Gary Lunn says the photos don't matter to the party.

"This election is about leadership. Sharon has shown leadership in the riding and on council so we're very proud to have her as our candidate here," he said.

Gary Lunn. There's a real prize. This is a guy so incompetent that he didn't have a clue what was happening in his own ministry, lost track of the condition of a nuclear reactor and then had the country's nuclear regulator fired to cover up his own shortcomings. Leadership? Lunn might want to take a course. In any case, he's wrong. This election is NOT about leadership. It's about Harper breaking promises and ignoring his own legislation.

Machterschleichung (sneaking into power)

Smith is a different issue. The crux of the issue surrounding her was her appointment by the Conservative Party of Canada as "liaison to the federal government" and the blatant effort to sideline the duly elected member of parliament for Skeena-Bulkley Valley. In effect, Smith's appointment was an affront to Parliament and a dismissal of the democratic process. In fact, Dick Harris, chairman of the Conservative British Columbia caucus made it clear that he considered the democratic process a complete waste of time:

I and other BC Conservative MPs will work closely with Sharon Smith as she represents constituents of her riding to the government members. It will be a bonus for people of Skeena-Bulkley Valley to have direct representation to the government on so many issues,” continued Harris

Harris concluded, “Having an MP from the fourth party in the House just doesn’t cut it when it comes to actually getting things done for the folks in Skeena-Bulkley Valley .

So, Sharon Smith, obviously the annointed candidate for the Conservatives in any future election, was given the job of representing constituents, a role which belonged to Nathan Cullen of the NDP. And then Harris made his reason for the appointment based on his belief that the Parliamentary system really wasn't aligned with the way his party did business. In order to talk to government, a "representative" had to come from the government party. All others, despite the choice of the constituents, were ignored.

The Germans actually have a word for it - Machterschleichung.

That Sharon Smith accepted the role shows one set of a variety of colours. She went along with this whole idea. She too, clearly believes that democracy is inconvenient and standing in the way of her diety-provided position with a Conservative government.

That was the first, and most important, of three issues.

Schlafenzeitungen (Sleeping newspapers)

The uproar that followed Smith's "appointment" by the Harper government developed into another issue. That uproar was coming from the report in one local newspaper and a wide array of blogs, where all the research and digging was taking place. The affront to democracy, although obvious, was being totally disregarded or completely missed by the major media in British Columbia and, to a much greater degree, Canada at large. At least six blogs, with moderate readerships, were making regular posts and sending emails in an attempt to get the major news outlets to wake up.

It took four days. Four days to get a story of major significance out into the light and into the public arena. And once that happened, didn't the Conservatives immediately backtrack. Yes, and a name appeared which surfaced again during the current campaign: Ryan Sparrow.*

What became evident however, was the fact that the major media outlets were paying little or no attention to the skullduggery of the Harper government and, as self-declared public watchdogs, were not doing their jobs. They were quite comfortably asleep.

The Germans have a word for that too - Schlafenzeitungen.

Der nackte Bürgermeister (The naked mayor)

It was the digging around to find out what Harris and Smith were up to in Skeena-Bulkley Valley which dragged out an older story and the third issue surrounding Smith. In 2003 photos appeared, all over the globe, of newly-elected Houston, BC, mayor Sharon Smith posing in her publicly-owned municipal office, wearing nothing but her publicly-provided chain of office. At the time Smith refused to apologize (and she still hasn't), criticized those who published them and claimed that the photos were private; not intended for public viewing.

I'm quite certain they weren't, but those photos exposed more than Sharon Smith's body.

Take this comment from the latest CTV story:

Let's not forget that the pictures were private and were stolen from her computer. It would be nice if some of you righteous Liberals would remember Mr. Trudeau's comment that government and (for that matter the public) have NO place in the bedrooms of the nation.

Alright. Let's not forget that these photos were taken in the mayor's office at Houston, BC. Let's not forget that they were taken shortly after Smith had won the election to the mayor's post. Let's not forget that Sharon Smith is now running for the party of "family values". Let's not forget that Sharon Smith treated her ascent to the Houston mayor's chair with complete disrespect. Let's not forget that Sharon Smith presumed to treat the symbols, accouterments and fixtures of the mayor's office as her personal property rather than something entrusted to her to safeguard for the public as required by Letters Patent. Let's not forget that Sharon Smith participated (obviously) with secret intent in an event which would have caused outrage had she announced she was going to do it, and then saved them without regard to consequences.

Let's not forget that in most business offices if you take a picture of your naked ass on a photocopier and are discovered, your fully clothed ass usually gets fired.

Taken as one, Smith presumed to own the trappings of her office and abused them without first considering the consequences of her actions. That's just plain bad judgement. Then she refused to apologize. That's just plain arrogant. Then she dismisses the whole thing by claiming a level of priviledge to which she is not entitled because of the public venue. That's just plain imperious.

The truth is, Smith will fit right in with Harper's Conservatives because their behaviour is no different. She's the perfect Harper Conservative.

And let's not forget that her defenders, those who are saying photos taken in a mayor's office, wearing a mayor's chain, are private and not an issue which should be public, are the same ones who went into fits of apoplexy over Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky because, you know, that was different.

No problem? Right. The Germans have a word for that too - Hypokrisie.

========

* For Kady... because we know how she loves to read his name.

Makin' a List

I suggest everyone list the things we're going to enjoy most about a Harper majority.

After all we're going to be just as responsible for it as the people who vote for him will be.

We might as well acknowledge our complicity and try to get some pleasure out of it.

For me the most enjoyable thing will be the end of the CBC as a public broadcaster.

Followed closely by the surge of across the board de-regulation .

Have to do something to combat despair so let's try to find the bright side.

Wanna Buy $700 Billion Worth of Liabilities?

What does it mean that the US taxpayers are buying $700 billion of liabilities?

They're not buying assets, you know.

If these mortgages were assets the financial institutions carrying them would not have collapsed.

These mortgages are liabilities.

So the Fed wants to borrow about three quarters of a trillion dollars from China, India, the EU and ,for all we know Canada, in order to finance the purchase of increasingly worthless paper.

This is genius.

Now I understand that it is no one's interest that the US economy collapse.

But if you're being asked to bankroll an enormous amount of money to someone, aren't you at least the teensiest bit curious about exactly what they plan to do with it and precisely what they plan to put up as collateral?

If they tell you they're going to buy a bunch of stuff that's really only worth a fraction of it's former worth and being further discounted almost by the hour, aren't you going to be nervous? Aren't you going to ask for a lot of collateral? Real value collateral? Like bullion? Or oil leases?

Or the keys to Capitol Hill?

Or all the above.

You're being asked to finance a vast liability by people who haven't succeeded at anything they've put their hand to in eight years.

I wouldn't do it.

What you write on Friday may come back to haunt you on Monday

John McCain should know this. It is taught at the US Naval Academy to every midshipman. This often refers to late-night letters impetuously written about a specific policy which, once dawn breaks, is best burned rather than delivered.

We bloggers often get caught in this trap and I stand as living proof of one who sends a series of irate words down the "publish" t00bs only to regret them eight hours later. But then, I'm not running for President of the United States. In fact, I'm not running for anything.

John McCain, who I am sure understands the principle of re-reading those bits of conservative ideology sent out for publication, is running for POTUS and in that regard should be aware of events going on around him, particularly when the country he's asking people to let him lead has been in a year-long and increasingly dangerous financial melt-down.

So you have to ask, what the hell McCain was thinking when he wrote this in the latest edition of Contingencies, the journal of the American Academy of Actuaries. (Emphasis mine)

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

The evidence of the runaway corruption and excesses of an unregulated banking system has been laying in a bloody mess on the public sidewalks for at least a year now. Anybody with a functioning synapse could see that it was only a matter of time before the corpses of the American banking system, let off the leash by Republican free-market ideology, would start to pile up on the Main Streets of America.

Yet, McCain's comparison was published in the September/October 2008 edition of Contingencies with no regard to the financial mess that was going on all around him while he wrote.

As of today the 12th American bank was closed by regulators this calendar year and more if you go back twelve months.

Would you want to put the health care system in the hands of this cognitively challenged fool?

More from Paul Krugman.
H/T Crooks and Liars

McCain and the POW Cover-up

Melinda Henneberger is a contributor to Slate. This lovely woman found a very interesting article at the Nation Institute, by Sydney H. Schanberg, "McCain and the POW Cover-up". Callous deals, indeed.

Throughout his Senate career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed into federal law a set of prohibitions that keep the most revealing information about these men buried as classified documents. Thus the war hero who people would logically imagine as a determined crusader for the interests of POWs and their families became instead the strange champion of hiding the evidence and closing the books.

The sum of the secrets McCain has sought to hide is not small. There exists a telling mass of official documents, radio intercepts, witness depositions, satellite photos of rescue symbols that pilots were trained to use, electronic messages from the ground containing the individual code numbers given to airmen, a rescue mission by a special forces unit that was aborted twice by Washington—and even sworn testimony by two Defense secretaries that "men were left behind." This imposing body of evidence suggests that a large number—the documents indicate probably hundreds—of the US prisoners held by Vietnam were not returned when the peace treaty was signed in January 1973 and Hanoi released 591 men, among them Navy combat pilot John S. McCain.

What a can of worms.

Bridge Done. Send in the Clowns . . . .

Sorry.

Couldn't resist . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

But seriously, folks . . .

We've seen a lot of these around.

Do visit the gallery at oldamericancentury.org — great stuff.