Get tough on crime, put Stockwell Day in jail.

It's a good thing Stephen Harper has decided to crack down on criminals because apparently there is one in his own cabinet. It seems that in 2000 Mr. Day had just become leader of the Alliance party but was without a seat. It was decided that Mr. Day should be given a safe seat in the southern BC bible belt. MP Jim Hart was willing to take one for the team and give up his seat in Okanagon-Coquihalla. He was hailed as a hero for sacrificing his seat. But was it a sacrifice? It turns out Mr. Hart may have been paid to step aside. The Tories tried to say this was old news and that the RCMP had concluded in 2001 that no wrongdoing had taken place. The RCMP however almost certainly did not have in its possession then, documents which have surfaced recently showing correspondence between Mr. Day's office and Jim Hart which discuss his compensation for giving up his seat. See today's Toronto Star for details. Scott's Diatribes also has an excellent article on the subject. When Harper was first elected I crossed my fingers and said "please put Stockwell Day in the cabinet". Everything that tool does eventually ends up hurting Conservatives. This scandal is gonna be huge. It should be the only thing any Liberal talks about in Question Period and on the news until it brings down these backward trolls who currently run our gov't. My only concern is that the RCMP will try to bury it or exonerate Mr. Day, (I think we know what side those guys are on). Liberal MP Mark Holland is all over this scandal and I don't thing he's gonna let it go. Stephane Dion should stop talking about supporting Harper's super-fascist crime bills and start talking about this scandal. My favorite part of this whole story is how it was the Conservatives' own documents left behind in the opposition offices that are gonna be their undoing. Right wingers just have to write everything down. Maybe it's all the self help books they read? I don't know but I'm sure glad of it. Harper is going down over this or at the very least Day will be the scapegoat and get turfed. Either way, go get 'em Mr Holland.

O'Connor wears clownshoes.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor showed he's right on top of the situation in Afghanistan again yesterday. Mr O'Connor said he would make a point of meeting with one Abdoul Noorzai, an Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission official. Mr Noorzai signed an agreement last month to monitor the condition of detainees who have been turned over to Afghan authorities. "I want to look the man in the eyes and I want to confirm that they are going to do what they say they're going to do, I just want assurance from him that he will monitor and he will inform us of any abuses." said O'Connor on Sunday. Sounds great, only one problem, Mr Noorzai didn't bother to show up. I guess he was afraid to look O'Connor in the eyes. I thought Canada was punching above its weight now and demanding respect. This total dis is only the latest in a string of embarrassing incidents for O'Connor. His meeting with Mr. Noorzai was an attempt at damage control already because it came out this week that the Red Cross was not monitoring Afghan detainees on behalf of Canada like he has been saying in the House Of Commons for months. Oops. It has also been reported this week that the family of a soldier accidentally killed in Afghanistan was kept in the dark about what happened for over 8 months. I'm not ready to put the blame for that on O'Connor yet but it did happen on his watch. Why are we handing over combatants to people we don't trust not to torture them? Oh yeah we couldn't hand them over to the US because we knew they would torture them. Why can't we hold them ourselves? Oh yeah because holding these dudes at all just might be a war crime. What a sad day it was when Paul Martin let himself get talked into this silliness by one Rick , "Decade of Darkness", Hillier. What an even sadder day it was when Micheal Ignatiaff stood up and voted with the government to extend the mission. Twenty-four other weasels did too. The saddest day of all of course would be a Harper majority. Then we could look forward to perpetual war with incompetent men like Hillier and O'Connor who obviously know nothing about the history or politics of the region leading boys off to die so they can sit at Uncle Sam's knee and play war games.

Kennedy Kicks Ass

Watched Duffy Live last night like I way too often do. I'm glad I did however, because I got to watch Gerrard Kennedy deliver an absolute verbal ass-whooping to Bernard Lord on the environment and a few other topics. Kennedy easily countered Mr Lord's attacks on Stephane Dion and himself and left Lord stammering and grinning his stupid grin. If the Liberals want to win the next election Kennedy should be on TV more often. Ralph Goodale has been good lately too, feisty. Even Ignatieff with whom I disagree on almost all topics has been effective. (Yes I watch too much Question Period.) Stephane Dion has yet to score big points with Canadians but has done the right thing when it comes to protecting their rights. He also plans to pull the troops out in 2009 when the current mission is over. This isn't fast enough for me but I predict that come this summer it will be a wildly popular idea among Canadians who will feel we have done our share and that other NATO countries should step up. In short there is lots to be positive about if you're a Liberal. I do think however, that there are many challenges ahead. Steven Harper and Karl Rove's attack and wedge election strategy can be very effective and attack adds can influence the weak-minded. Liberals should respond in kind if they must. This ain't no disco, this is war for the soul of Canada.

Big Daddy Harper will protect us.

Now that Stephane Dion and his band of freedom hating terrorist enablers have voted against extending two provisions of the Anti-terror act which allowed police to arrest and hold people for 72 hours without a warrant or force people to testify at secret hearings I don't know what to do. I'm that scared.What will stop the terrorists now? I'm sure there are many terror cells operating right now about to strike. The RCMP and CSIS know all about them but darn it, they just cant get an arrest warrant. I guess we'll just have to let them strike. Curse those Liberals and all their human rights talk. If only we could have make all the Muslims in every Muslim community testify about their neighbors in secret hearings we could find out all the nefarious plans of those who hate us for our freedoms. Or if we could just get everyone in the Indo-Canadian community to testify we could finally get to the bottom of this 25 year old Air-India investigation. Thank God we have big Daddy Harper and the Conservatives in charge. They understand that in a post 911 world all personal freedoms are trumped by Americans, (and dumb-ass Canadians) need to feel safe. If you want to feel safe demand the government get our troops out of Afghanistan. Poking at a hornets nest is an excellent way to get stung. If you want to feel safe stop hanging out with the worlds biggest state sponsor of terror, the USA. These are the reasons there is any danger at all of an attack on Canada. How come they don't hate Sweden for their freedom? People hate you when you kick in their door, or drop a bomb on their village, or shoot their Father for driving to close to your convoy. Security is an illusion. The idea that you can be safe from a group of people who are determined to harm you if you just take enough precautions and if you just limit your own freedom is a myth.

Mark Holland is a friend of Alberta oil patch.

There is an interesting little article from the Canadian Press that ran in The Winnipeg Free Press today under the headline " Brash MP risks wrath of Albertans " The story concerns Liberal natural resources critic Mark Holland and his upcoming visit to the province of Alberta in early March which will include a tour of the oil sands. The entire premise of the article is that Mark better watch out because he might get tarred and feathered by Albertans upset that he plans on nationalising the oil sands or shutting them down should the Liberals come to power. Premier Ed Stelmach and Ralph Klein have both warned Holland to stay out of Alberta's business. Many fear a " hidden agenda to take control " I wish. The Alberta Oil sands are an environmental nightmare destroying the land, exhausting Alberta's water supply, burning massive amounts of natural gas in order to create a product that when burned does even more damage to the environment. American oil companies run the place and take an ever increasing amount for America's glutinous need. They care not for the future of Alberta or for Canada and take our natural resource for a relative pittance. The oil industry should of course be nationalized immediately. This unfortunately has never been what Mr Holland has said. Holland like his boss Mr Dion pitch a policy of sustainable development. He is going to Alberta in an effort to work with the industry to clean up the carbon emissions. This doesn't have to cost the industry. On the contrary the idea is to get ahead of the curve and profit from new clean technologies that can be marketed to the world. The Liberals seem to think that this is where the future lies. The oil sector would be wise to embrace this future rather then a business as usual approach that denotes a future where more and more people ( Including in Alberta ) are talking about making some changes. In other words Holland seems to be saying work with us to clean up your act and maybe we can even profit from it or Canadians will force you to clean up your act.

Dion shows leadership

Stephane Dion is refusing to back down from his decision to let two provisions of the Anti-terrorism act die next week. He does this despite massive and hysterical opposition from the Conservatives, many in his own party and even the senate. The absolute panic shown by the powers that be is a little bit concerning. Clearly the security establishment was caught off guard when Dion decided to let these draconian powers sunset and have gone on an absolute offensive in the media and in the house to have the Liberals change course. Dion to his complete credit has steadfastly refused to bow to this pressure. The fact that there seems to be so many who think that we need to keep these provisions and that they are so able to dominate and influence the debate is the scary part. Why are they so concerned? Are they afraid of looking soft to America? Do they see this as a setback to achieving their integrated security state? Regardless of these fascists both within and without of the Liberal party, (those within should be purged.) Dion stands tall. That's leadership. Harpers attempts at tying this in with the Air-India Inquiry are laughable and it smells like the RCMP is in bed with the Conservatives again trying to make the Libs look bad. Suddenly they needed to use this provision? The Supreme court didn't rule last week. The've known for awhile they could use these provisions and haven't felt the need. This is BS and it will come back to harm Harper among Indo-Canadians whom he seems to think are completely gullible.

Swing voters let down Canada.

I've long been an admirer of Canada's middle. The long suffering moderates patiently sitting through long winded rants from partisans of all sides and trying in most cases to reach some sort of middle ground. Now I'm not talking about the "what are you gonna do for me voters". Those who care little for politics and simply vote for whomever will give them the biggest tax cut or handout. Every democracy is burdened with such folks. I'm talking about the genuine fence sitter. The voter who says "tell me your platform and if I think it has merit and it's good for Canada and it's better than the other guy's platform, I'll vote for you. I don't care about labels, I don't care about left or right ." These people are sincere and generally very well informed. In most cases they are very adept at sniffing out ideologues. Although I admire these people I cannot be one of them. I am what I am and feel very strongly that without Conservatives in the world we would all be holding hands and singing and basically enjoying our Utopia. I don't even want to hear the other side. I am an Ideologue. Just like Stephen Harper. If I were Prime Minister I would immediately pull all the troops out of Afghanistan because I would need them in Alberta where I would be totally nationalising the oil patch. I would stack the courts and the senate and the committees that select the judges with people who thought exactly like me. And I would end free trade. In other words the stock market would crash and the US would invade almost immediately. That is why swing voters tend to stay away from guys like me and historically from guys like Mr. Harper. And make no mistake Harper is an ideologue. From his reckless trashing of the wheat board because he doesn't like monopolies, never mind if it's what farmers want, to his cancelling of Liberal Environment programs because he didn't believe in the science only to renew many of them later when he saw the light or maybe the polls. Stephen Harper is way out there. Don't forget he doesn't even have a majority. His Idealism is perhaps most obvious when it comes to law and order issues. His disdain for the courts and those he considers activist judges is well documented. And now he is stuffing the courts full of conservative activist judges. Mostly they believe that everyone should go to jail forever. Especially poor people. Also he is stuffing the committees that recommend judges full of, you guessed it, conservative party hacks and cops! Yeah cops picking judges, great idea. Mr Harper isn't stopping there though he's also stuffing the parole board with Tories including the wife of Vic Toews' Buddy. Listen I understand why you guys may have voted for Harper at first. You wanted to punish the Liberals and with the grand old moderate PC party gone you didn't have much choice. Besides Harper was acting all "look at me I've gone to the middle". I think now it's obvious he hasn't. Canada's swing voters have a job to do. Don't let him buy you with a tax cut. You're better than that. Canada is great because you don't let me run it and because you don't usually let guy's like Stephen Harper run it either.