Rick Mercer drives one home

From 22 Days of Snow Days:

"It is ironic that while our parliament has been suspended we are a nation at war. On New Year's Eve we greeted the news that five Canadians were killed in a single day with sadness but not surprise. We are at war because ostensibly we are helping bring democracy to Afghanistan. How the mission is progressing is open for debate but this much is certain – at present there is a parliament in Afghanistan that it is very much open for business. Canada has no such institution.

In Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's government faces fierce opposition at every turn; many of his cabinet choices have been rejected in a secret ballot by the more than 200 parliamentarians that sit in the legislature. Simply closing parliament down and operating without their consent is not an option for Hamid Karzai; to do so would be blatantly undemocratic or at the very least downright Canadian. If Hamid Karzai suspended parliament on a whim we might be forced to ask why Canadians are dying to bring democracy to that country.

Stephen Harper doesn't have that problem. The Parliament of Canada has been suspended for no other reason than the prime minister simply can't be bothered with the relentless checks and balances that democracy affords us. He doesn't want to have to stand in the House of Commons and hear anyone question him on any subject. I don't blame him. Parliament is filled with jackals, opportunists and boors. The problem is, like it or not, they were elected.

I also don't blame the Prime Minister for wanting to keep his ministers out of the spotlight. This is a prime minister who could argue he is Canada's greenest PM simply because he's the only one who has gone out of his way to give potted plants key portfolios.

The problem is he is the one who appointed Cabinet and like it or not they are supposed to be accountable. A minister's job is not to hide in their riding; it is to be accountable in Ottawa – or at least that was the promise. This prime minister has gone from the promise of an open, accessible and accountable government to a government that is simply closed.

It is too bad that prorogation isn't something that our soldiers have in their arsenal. When faced with the order to head out on a foot patrol in the Panjwaii district of southern Afghanistan, to risk their lives to bring democracy to that place, wouldn't it be nice if they could simply prorogue and roll over and go back to sleep. Soldiers don't get that luxury. That is afforded only to the people who ultimately order them to walk down those dangerous dusty roads in the first place."

Thank you, Rick Mercer
I would quibble with "we are a nation at war" and that we are "helping bring democracy to Afghanistan" - but let those who use those words in defence of our rogue prime minister eat them now.

Media blackout in North America

You would think that 528 people from 17 countries in a 150-vehicle convoy carrying hundreds of tons of humanitarian supplies all the way across Europe to Gaza would rate at least one line somewhere in the North American press, wouldn't you? But you would be wrong.

You can read about the Viva Palestina convoy in Europe, China, Iran, Malaysia and Brunei; you can even read about it in Israel and Egypt; you just can't read about it in the North American press.

The story has hardly lacked for drama.
In December Egypt refused the convoy entry to Gaza unless it first obtained permission from Israel. 85 year old convoy participant and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein began a hunger strike in protest.

There's a nice business story in there too - Israel and Egypt held the #1 and #2 top spots for US military aid until Iraq took over that honour in 2004. Israel must spend 75% of its $3-billion a year in US aid on military hardware made in the USA.

And for a local angle - as related in comments at Creekside, a Canadian from the Gulf Islands is on that convoy and yet I can't find the expected CBC interview anywhere.

Crickets. Why is that?
I'm guessing that business angle above has trumped every other possible viewpoint and trickled down to put everyone off.

The convoy is due to enter Gaza tonight to deliver its 150 vehicles filled with medical and humanitarian aid.
Unlike the North American press, you can follow their story here, with detailed updates from the UK contingent here.
Buy a t-shirt in support here.

Once more unto the breach...

Last posting from me for some time.

For some reason I have an urge to spend some time crashing through northern ocean gales in Winter.

OK. I have no such urge. But it feels better if I think it's my own idea.

So, anything I was going to do to update the blog and perhaps perform some general maintenance won't happen until sometime in the future.

Stay warm.

Wish you were here

Via Impolitical, who suggests a companion pic of the opposition parties showing up on Jan 25th as originally scheduled to fill the opposition benches would make a very strong statement against the rogue PM.

Travers, today :

"Last year ministers threatened to go over the head of the de facto head of state if Governor General Michaëlle Jean allowed a coalition of "Liberals, socialists and separatist" to use their Commons majority to topple his minority.

[That would be Baird here]

This winter Harper is essentially making the argument that Parliament is getting in the way of his government governing."

Responding to news of the prorogation in his New Years letter, Michael Ignatieff writes :

"Canadians are rightly starting to wonder if Conservatives intend to shut down government whenever things don’t go their way.

I’ll be spending the first few months of the year reaching out, travelling from coast to coast, holding town-hall meetings, web forums and small gatherings to hear from Canadians first-hand ...

On March 26 to 28, 2010, some of Canada’s leading progressive thinkers and doers will gather in Montreal for a conference entitled Canada at 150: Rising to the Challenge. They will be part of a national conversation about the Canada we want to be in 2017 when we celebrate our 150th birthday..."

Dear Iggy, Wish you were here too.
.

At the going down of the Sun, and in the morning...

With condolences and respect to the families and friends of Private Garrett William Chidley, 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry; Corporal Zachery McCormack , The Loyal Edmonton Regiment; Sergeant George Miok, 41 Combat Engineer Regiment; Sergeant Kirk Taylor, 84 Independent Field Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery.

All killed due to enemy action.

Also killed in this action was Michelle Lang, a civilian journalist accompanying the Provincial Reconstruction Team and who died in the same light armoured vehicle. Our sympathy and the pain of her loss is no less than that which we sincerely extend for those with whom she shared a bond.

Ric-A-Dam-Do*

Fears no foe

Ubique

Quo fas et gloria ducunt. Ubique

* The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry has no official motto. Those who are and have been members will understand.

Dear Stephen Harper

We're with POGGE.

Goodbye HaloScan

Apparently it's "Give us ten bucks or we'll disappear your comments section".

Bye bye, HaloScan!!

Honestly, I didn't need this at this time. Blog maintenance, (as evidenced by a hugely out-of-date blogroll), has been virtually dropped due to other much more important issues. Getting euchred by some half-baked comment widget trying to become the next Twitter just adds to the level of decay of the structure.

So, bear with me. Past comments may, in fact, vanish. My sincere apologies since quite often the comments are so much better than the post itself. I've looked at two apps which suggest comments can be imported from another system. I'll try, when I find a little more time.

Comments will certainly be off for a short time until the next freebie is installed. Maybe I'll go with Blogger's comment system, although I would hope not.

Stephen Taylor - Harper's house-elf

Stephen Taylor. This Bud's for you.



You want constitutional you miserable little failure? No problem. You can be the first one dragged out to the wall.

Go . . . .

Check out pale.

A picture really is worth a thousand words . . . .

For reasons of national security...

The prime minister and his yapping dogs refuse to disclose whether Canada is still a democracy.

In a telephone briefing for Parliament Hill media, Soudas confirmed that a new throne speech—launching a fresh parliamentary session—will be delivered March 3, and a budget the following day. That means the present session must be ended, or prorogued, by the Governor General sometime before then. And Soudas did reveal that the PM spoke to the GG today, presumably on that very matter.

But what did they agree to do? On that seemingly straighforward question, Soudas was strangely evasive. “You know,” he said, “discussions between the Prime Minister and Governor General are private, they’re confidential. I’m obvious not aware of the conversations between the Prime Minister and Governor General.”

If you really want to know, you have to have the right contacts.

How, then, are we to find out? I asked. “Feel free to call Rideau Hall,” Soudas helpfully suggested.

Let them eat cake, one might say.

You don't elect a federal government

You elect members of parliament. For those in the aisle filled with grade 11 social studies failures, that means the only real voice you actually have ... is in parliament.

Harper doesn't much like the idea of you having a voice. It bothers him. Democracy bothers him.

How is he planning to deal with that?

Easy. By abusing you and eliminating that pesky democracy.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper would neither confirm nor deny reports Wednesday that he will move to prorogue Parliament this week until March.

A little Coyne to chew on:

Question: In what other democracy is it permissible for the government of the day to hide from the legislature for months at a time? To ignore explicit parliamentary votes demanding the production of documents? To stonewall independent inquiries? Perhaps the rules allow it elsewhere, but is it the practice? Does convention not still forbid it? Is it not viewed in other countries as dictatorial behaviour, and therefore, you know … not done?

Yes, well Andrew, are you trying to tell us something we haven't been providing warnings about all along?

12:50 Fort Fumble on the Rideau time: Harper's praetorians have announced that he will officially seek to close the doors of Parliament until March.

If you read nothing else today...

You will read Montreal Simon.

You will be disgusted.

I offer something in the way of an apology. Not for Simon. For forcing you to accept that the government you allowed to exist, under Steve Harper, is so blinkered by its own ideology.

It will kill us as a nation.

We used to be so strong. People would come to us to seek answers to the most difficult questions this world could ask.

Now, we have Jason Kenney. Harper's mouthpiece.

Call him a racist, a pig or anything you like. But a Canadian, willing to act as an honest broker? Never!

Canada's gone!

Once we had a seat in the back row of the World Stage. But we used to have one helluva marker.

Enjoy your hockey game. That's the only thing that separates you from being an American now.

"Out of Context" My A_s . . . .

So, according to the AP, Janet Napolitano is claiming her words on Sunday's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" regarding the airport security screening system were "taken out of context." Huh.

Here's the Secretary of Homeland (In)Security on the "Today Show" this morning:



Well, Gang. Here's the transcript:

(Georgie was off this week, so there was actually a decent reporter handling the show - Jake Tapper.)

JANET NAPOLITANO, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Good morning.

TAPPER: I want to get your reaction to a comment from the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who said in a statement: "I am troubled by several aspects of this case, including how the suspect escaped the attention of the State Department and law enforcers when his father apparently reported concerns about his son's extremist behavior to the U.S. embassy in Lagos, how the suspect managed to retain a U.S. visa after such complaints, and why he was not recognized as someone who reportedly was named in the terrorist database."

Madam Secretary, how do you answer Senator Lieberman's questions?

NAPOLITANO: Well, I think, first of all, we are investigating, as always, going backwards to see what happened and when, who knew what and when. But here -- I think it's important for the public to know, there are different types of databases.

And there were simply, throughout the law enforcement community, never information that would put this individual on a no-fly list or a selectee list. So that's number one.

Number two, I think the important thing to recognize here is that once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have. The passengers reacted correctly, the crew reacted correctly, within an hour to 90 minutes, all 128 flights in the air had been notified. And those flights already had taken mitigation measures on the off-chance that there was somebody else also flying with some sort of destructive intent.

So the system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days.

TAPPER: Well, let me ask you a question about intelligence-sharing. When the suspect's father went to the U.S. embassy in Nigeria and said, I'm worried because my son is displaying extremist religious views, how was that information shared with other parts of the U.S. government, or did it just stay at that U.S. embassy?

NAPOLITANO: Well, again, we are going to go back and really do a minute-by-minute, day-by-day scrub of that sort of thing. But when he presented himself to fly, he was on a tide (ph) list. What a tide list simply says is, his name had come up somewhere somehow.

But the no-fly and selectee list require that there be specific, what we call, derogatory information. And that was not available throughout the law enforcement community. He went through screening in Amsterdam as he prepared to board a flight to the United States.

The authorities in Amsterdam are working with us to make sure that screening was properly done. We have no suggestion that it wasn't, but we're actually going through -- going backwards, tracing his route.

But I think important for the traveling public recognize that A, everybody reacted as they should. We trained for this. We planned for this. We exercised for this sort of event should it occur.

And B, we have instituted additional screening in what we call mitigation measures that will be continuing for a while. And so we ask people perhaps to show up a little bit earlier at the airport during this heavy holiday season, and to recognize we're going to be doing different things at different airports.

So don't think somebody at TSA is not on the job if they're not doing exactly at one airport what you saw at another. There will be different things done in different places.

TAPPER: But, Secretary Napolitano, you keep saying everybody acted the way they were supposed to. Clearly the passengers and the crew of that Northwest Airlines flight did.

But I think there are questions about whether everybody in the U.S. government did. And here's a question for you, how many of -- so many of us are subject to random security searches all the time, how come somebody who is not on a terrorist database isn't subject to more stringent security when they check in to a flight to the U.S.? Why does that automatically just happen?

NAPOLITANO: Well, if he had had specific information that would have put him on the selectee list or indeed on the no-fly list, he would not have actually gotten on a plane.

But those numbers pyramid down. And they need to, because again, there is lots of information that flies about this world on a lot of different people. And what we have to do in law enforcement is not only collect and share, but do it in the proper way.

Now once this incident occurred, everything went according to clockwork. Not only sharing throughout the air industry, but also sharing with state and local law enforcement, products were going out on Christmas Day, they went out yesterday, and also to the industry to make sure that the traveling public remains safe.

And I would leave you with that message, the traveling public is safe. We have instituted some additional screening and security measures in light of this incident. But again, everybody reacted as they should, the system -- once the incident occurred, the system worked.

As FoxNoise would say: "We report. You decide." Out of context or not?

(As a sidenote, does anyone else abhor the idea of joe LIE-berman having yet another excuse to have his Droopy Dawg mug in front of a camera? Gag, choke, gasping for fresh air . . . . )

Watch those "revisions," Janet. Might make it a bit difficult opening doors, using a tissue, applying makeup, etc.

Man, this "hope" and "change" stuff is workin' out just great, isn't it ? ? ? ?

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Say, how's that 2010 North American security perimeter coming along?

Yet another article PR piece telling us how the Canada-US border can become 'wafer thin' again, if only we just agree to get inside the North American security perimeter ...

Canada warms to the idea of a tougher 'perimeter'
reads the Star headline while providing no evidence to support it.

Apparently, however, "the more knowledgeable watchers of the cross-border condition suggest Canadians are ready".
Like the director of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, concern-trolling about Canada's pig-headed insistence on remaining Canada :

"Perimeter is no longer a dirty word. It's beginning to come up again, at least in academic circles," says David Biette

... whose 'academic circle' includes fellow University of Calgary academic advisor Robert Pastor, Vice Chair of the Council on Foreign Relations 2005 Task Force on the Future of North America:

"The Task Force's central recommendation is establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community, the boundaries of which would be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter."

Back to Biette in The Star :

"Canada has done so well by NAFTA and we are seeing the emergence of a new generation of more confident, culturally secure Canadians. The old Toronto nationalists of the 1960s were essential to building the idea of a postmodern Canada, but now they're starting to die off."

Nice.

Former US ambassador to Canada Gordon Giffin, whose "one security perimeter" proposal met with a very chilly reception in Canada in 1999, also gets trotted out :

"Those old Canadian worries now sound soooo 20th-century, says Giffin.
"Those old cultural arguments sound like dinosaur-speak today. The world just sort of passed them by," Giffin told the Star.

Whereas by comparison, the deep integration fans are just bristling with fun new ideas.
Here's David Biette in June 2006 :

"Being different from the United States for the sake of being different is irresponsible and an abdication of the national interest. Letting foreign policy be driven by public opinion (particularly when public opinion is an emotional reaction to whatever George W. Bush does) shows a lack of leadership. This was particularly evident in the debate over Canada’s potential participation in ballistic missile defence, something the government had requested before it let the public opinion tail wag the foreign policy dog. If the government changes policies at the whims of public opinion, how reliably will Canada be viewed?"

Let's have that one more time :

"Letting foreign policy be driven by public opinion shows a lack of leadership.
If the government changes policies at the whims of public opinion, how reliably will Canada be viewed?"

Ah, public opinion and all that democracy stuff. Sooooo '20th century'. Sooooo 'dinosaur-speak'.

I'm guessing a militarized NAFTA in the form of a North American security perimeter would be the end of all that whimmy Canadian public input nonsense.

Canada warms to the idea, indeed.

With thanks to West End Bob for the heads up.

Look who came for dinner!

This fine fellow showed up on my roof late this afternoon, peering in the windows no doubt in search of Christmas leftovers. I threw him up some grain which he seemed to appreciate. The picture I missed was of Max the Cat peering down on him from above, his little legs pumping furiously up and down as he tried to make up his mind - dinner or nemesis? I didn't much fancy Max's chances but fortunately our visitor sauntered off down the roof before Max suffered any kitty embarrassment.

What an amazing inspiring sight.

And for the connoisseurs among you - it was not as gamey as bald eagle but a bit stringier than sandhill crane.

Santa Visits Stevie . . .

Merry Christmas to all!

At the going down of the Sun, and in the morning...

With condolences and respect to the family and friends of Lieutenant Andrew Richard Nuttall, 1st Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. Killed due to enemy action.

Ric-A-Dam-Doo

Brace yourself. Here comes a federal carbon tax...

The signs are certainly there. Harper is saying he won't rule it out and Flaherty is telling us there won't be any tax cuts. The combination of the two should cause more than a few ears to perk up, especially since this pair is responsible for delivering politically delicious and fiscally irresponsible tax cuts in the face of a recession which has led to a ballooning federal deficit, the likes of which hasn't been seen since days of Brian Mulroney.

Real economists disagree with the Harper/Flaherty fairy-tale approach to eliminating the deficit in "four or five years".

At the risk of digressing a bit, Harper and Flaherty have suggested that the deficit will be eliminated through strengthened economic growth. In short, if the economy grows at a regular level over the next 1/2 decade and federal spending is locked at 2009 or earlier levels, the growth-induced increased tax revenue will eliminate the visible fiscal deficit.

In order for the Harper/Flaherty whimsical method of tackling a deficit to actually work the economy would have to remain rock-solid stable, with a predictable rate of growth, for at least five years with absolutely no financial interruptions - at all. Previous Canadian governments have learned the hard way that such a process almost never works.

As a result, we were handed the GST - by a Conservative government. Subsequent Liberal governments, despite large promises to eliminate the much-despised consumer tax, learned quickly that it would put federal financing in jeopardy, particularly if the economy went sour.

Even an incompetent like Harper knows he can't sustain diversified Canadian economic growth for five straight years without some kind of event kicking his ideas in the crotch. He cannot raise the GST, for purely personal reasons. His particular and obvious personality disorder will not allow it. It would amount to the admission of an error and Harper is simply not capable of that.

However, as Harper flings us headlong down the path of an environmentally devastating bitumen-based economy, a new consumer tax, disguised as a carbon tax, (which will be spun as revenue neutral and not imposed on exports), is more than a little likely. As much as it would become little more than yet another domestic consumer "fuel tax", it would be falsely sold as an environmental initiative which will do nothing to encourage the development of clean, renewable and available sources of energy. It would however, serve to rebuild a crippled revenue stream which Harper and Flaherty previously throttled with their thoughtless dogma.

The point here, is the way Harper and Flaherty are speaking. We've seen this before. And, as virtually all psychologists will point out, when you're dealing with sociopaths like Harper and Flaherty, the best indicator of future behaviour is past behaviour.

And with these two, there is a distinct pattern.

Mentarch lays it out perfectly. It is a "must read".

Need a Job? Here 'Ya Go . . . .

Times are tough all over, and folks are in need of gainful employment.

How 'bout a job with lots of pluses?:

Travel opportunities;

Paid benefits;

Stress reduction techniques;

Multiple skill categories.

What more could you ask for?





Well, maybe not having to support the military-industrial-congressional complex for one thing . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)