Pimp my vote

I have never been a very prolific blogger, averaging only 1 post every 2 weeks in my first year of blogging. However lately I haven't been writing at all. I just haven't had the zest for it. I attribute this mostly to Dion's capitulation on Afghanistan and the crime bill. This same malaise has come over me regarding the election.
I live in Winnipeg South Centre represented by Anita Neville and I voted for her last election. This has traditionally been a safe Liberal seat. This year however it is being targeted hard by the Conservatives. Neville is leading by about 5 percent according to a poll done by the Winnipeg Free Press. The Tories are running an ex-Blue Bomber place kicker named Trevor Kennard and feel they have a real shot. The NDP have a lot of supporters in this riding and usually do very well also. If there was ever a time to support Ms Neville this is it . I don't think I can do it however and look myself in the mirror. That's right, "themilitantliberal" won't be voting Liberal.
I watched live as Ms Neville cast her vote to extend the Afghanistan Nightmare and it was my personal worst moment in politics. I cannot in good conscience risk putting blood on my hands again by voting for a Liberal Party that still contains way too many Ignatieffs. I don't however want to put another Con in the House of Commons by splitting the progressive vote in my riding.
Until recently this was my dilemma and the source of my depression. I think I may have discovered an answer though. There has been a lot of talk in the blogosphere and in the media over the last few days about a Facebook group called "Anti-Harper vote swap Canada." For those of you who don't know what it is about, it is basically a site where those of us on the broad left can swap votes from different ridings to try to assure that the party with the best chance of beating the Conservative candidate gets enough support to do it. For example, an NDP supporter in a riding that has no chance of an NDP victory could swap his vote with a Liberal in another riding where the Liberal has no chance of winning. This way your vote can count somewhere where it makes a difference. I think this is the greatest idea ever. I haven't joined the group because I'm not on Facebook and really don't want to be on Facebook but I thought I could express a similar notion here.
I have decided in this election I would like to support the Green party. A Green party vote in my riding won't do anybody any good. However, I am still willing to cast my vote for Anita Neville in my riding if there is a liberal in Central Nova who will vote for Lizzie May in my name. There must be many Liberals in the riding who would like to vote Liberal but are unable to because of the arrangement between Ms May and Mr Dion. I can give you that Liberal vote in a riding that could really use one. It is win,win. We get to vote our conscience and hopefully keep the Tories out of two seats. Now truthfully there is a pretty good chance Ms Neville will win with or without my support and there is a pretty good chance Ms May will lose with or without your vote. Obviously it would be much better if the idea caught on with other individuals in the same boat as me. It also may be very close in my riding and as for Central Nova, I can think of no better way of making my vote count than unseating the evil and treacherous Peter McKay.
So if you live in Central Nova and are willing to vote Green and want me to vote Liberal let me know. I will also consider trades with Liberals in a dipper riding. Like I said it's win,win. Vote strategically and follow your heart.

Please not Judge Toews!!

Recent speculation has ex Justice Minister and current Treasury Board President Vic Toews accepting a patronage appointment as a federal Judge in Manitoba. It seems he may have a tough time getting re-elected in his ultra Conservative riding. Apparently these folks may have a problem with his recent divorce and an even bigger problem with the fact that he knocked up another lady out of wedlock. Vic and his boss, of course, rallied against patronage appointments while in opposition. To most Canadians, this may seem like good riddance but what about us Manitobans who may have to be subjected to the tender mercies of Vic Toews and his Spanish Inquisition outlook on justice. This is the man who campaigned for re-election to the Manitoba Legislature with a great plan to snuff out drugs in schools by randomly deploying sniffer dogs to terrorise children. A practice the Supreme court recently outlawed. This Steinbacho-fascist has no business judging a pig calling contest never mind deciding the punishments of unsuspecting Manitobans who run afoul of the law. Mr. Toews, when he was Justice Minister, appointed some of the very people who would be approving his application to become a Judge. That is a move worthy of Stalin.

This is exactly the reason the Libs and everyone else need to force an election sooner rather than later. While everyone has sat around acting like Harper hasn't done anything too ideological and waited for the polls to get better, Harper has appointed 165 judges. At least that is what some Conservative Asshole on "Duffy Live" was saying the other day. 165! We better start building some more prisons. Harper has even announced some crazy plan to elect the next Supreme Court Justice. He, of course, would still have the final say. Losing the Supreme Court would be worse than a Harper Majority. Wake up and smell the police-state, these incremental changes and appointments don't seem like much until you add them all up and you turn around and you're living in America.

Three Amigos? ...How about Three Cheaters !

Frances Russell is one of my favorite writers and represents the entire left wing of the Winnipeg Free Press. Her column today "Were the 2006 election results tainted? " talks about the Conservatives and the " In and out scandal ". Russell seems to think that the extra million the Cons allegedly had to spend on advertising may have changed a few minds.

This along with the RCMP announcing during the election that they were investigating the Liberals may have made the difference in who would form a minority. The RCMP, as Russell points out, seemed to have deliberately changed their policy on announcing criminal investigations during elections.

Could it be true? Could the state police have colluded with the party they favored and attempted to subvert democracy? Did the Tories deliberately overspend beyond the advertising limits also subverting democracy? I hope not because just as Lizzie May says, "Canada is not a banana republic".

All of this talk about subverting democracy got me thinking about George Bush, elected in two questionable elections himself. As a matter of fact Mexican President Calderon was elected under massive protest and allegations of vote rigging. It's nice to know that these three can get together in our name and discuss NAFTA and SPP and sell out all our interests to a small corporate elite and turn all three countries into Oligarchys.

I feel like Lady Macbeth

During the last election I cast my vote for Anita Neville the liberal MP from my riding. She won. To my absolute dismay I just watched her stand up in the house of commons with the rest of the Liberals and vote to extend the nightmare in Afghanistan until 2011. Why can't I get this blood off my hands. I suspect that most of the Liberals who just betrayed Canada know in their hearts that I am right. They may comfort themselves with whatever Ignatieff told them or tell themselves that they achieved a compromise but they achieved nothing(accept drive the entire left-wing of the party to the NDP). Let's look at this so called compromise. The combat mission will absolutely end in 2011. Ya until you all vote to extend it again in 2010). NATO must supply 1000 more troops. Unless there is a miracle those troops will be American putting even bigger fucking targets on our soldiers back. It may be nice to have a 1000 Americans on your side in a fire fight if you can withstand all the friendly fire but our troops for the most part aren't dieing in firefights, they are dying from roadside bombs which by the way there will be many more of now that there are a 1000 more American targets standing beside us. Probably more villagers will get killed in the air strikes called in constantly by said Americans. What a recipe for success. Were gonna get some helicopters woo-hoo! now instead of running over roadside bombs our soldiers can be killed by the bushel from RPG fire. That's of course if we ever get these helicopters. They will probably be ready to go right around the time Parliament is voting to extend the mission to 2015. I give up, I guess the powers that be have decided this war is a go no matter what a majority of Canadians think. Now I know how people in England felt when the Labour party abandoned them over Iraq. This country is broken, this democracy is broken. How many of those dickheads that voted to extend this war live in ridings that are hugely against this war? All say it again, Democracy is fucking broken. Dion you were originally against this why did you cave? You know this is fucking wrong, out damn spot indeed. Fuck why cant I get this blood of my hands?

Dion lets down Canada

I just finish up carpentry school for the year in time for the latest scandal to come out of Stephen Harper's scandal free gov't. As we all know by now, it looks as if the conservative party may have tried to buy a dying man's vote with a million dollar life insurance policy. Now that's classy. I have no idea if these allegations are true but I actually hope they are not because they're just that slimy. It really doesn't seem to matter much if dirt sticks to Harper or not on account of the absolutely spineless behavior displayed by the Liberal leadership and Stephane Dion. I've been blogging for a year now and have defended Mr Dion many times. I supported his plan to leave Canadian troops in Afghanistan till 2009 even though I wanted the troops out immediately because I thought it was a plan that Canadians would support and anything was preferable to the Conservative plan which calls for Canadian troops to fight and die in the Middle East until the end of time. I believed like many Liberals that he would pull the party to the left. For awhile it seemed that he might, he was prepared to let the most offensive parts of the Anti-terrorism act die by refusing to support their renewal. A position he has since sadly reversed. He was sticking to his guns on that 2009 withdrawal date and he was properly instructing the senate to pass nothing. Unfortunately this is no longer the case. The last few weeks have been nothing short of shameful for anyone who is Liberal. Is Ignatief a Jedi knight? Does he just wave his hand in front of otherwise sensible people and they loose their fucking minds and start getting into bed with conservatives and extending bullshit wars that half the people in this country want over like right now. Who the fuck speaks for us now? Jack Layton? He's the only one talking any sense when it comes to this war. The Dippers also make sense when they accuse Liberal Mp's of caring more about their seats then they do about doing the right thing. "Boo-hoo my riding has a military base I can't run an election campaign on the war." Not only did Dion drop his pants when it came to the war, he and the Liberal leadership have failed miserably by letting Harper's Crime bill pass. The number one job of all Liberal Mp's, Senators and judges is to make sure that no Conservative anywhere at any time passes a crime bill of any variety. These people have an outlook on crime rooted some where in the middle ages and should never be allowed to subject Canadians to any of their backward social engineering. If you don't get that and you think Harper's crime bill was "moderate" you are a Liberal in name only. Then of course there is the budget. It's true that it didn't contain any poison pills but the last two sure did. If Dion doesn't like this budget he should vote against it. Fuck Harper's threats. I hate to agree with Rex Murphy but he was completely right last week when he said "at some point the opposition has got to well, oppose." Harper might as well have his majority because he is getting away with everything he tries. Mr Dion stop listening to the people around you who's greatest fear seems to be an election and stand up for Canada.

What's up with the flag?

So I guess Conservatives want us to know exactly what country they are ruining. They have a flag the size of a barn door dwarfing our beloved Prime Minister, (insert your own joke) at their celebration for being in office for 2 years. (Shudder). The flag looks like something out of an Orwell novel or one of those hysterical rallies the Nazi's used to throw back in the 30's. What jingoistic nonsense. My favorite part is the giant shadow cast by Mr. Harper on the bottom left corner. Besides casting his shadow over Canada, Harper used the occasion to agree in principle with John Manley that Canadian troops should stay in Afghanistan until the end of time provided we get some helicopters and a thousand more NATO troops. I must say I find it hard to believe that Manley and Harper would be in agreement. Sure their both continentalist American lapdog, war mongering, supply side economist, big business friendly dicks, but Manley is far more to the right then Harper. Ok you got me , you can't be more to the right than Harper but Manley is certainly no Liberal. Bi-partisan commission indeed. Bring home the boys, toss out these bums and let's go back to showing our pride in Canada, not by waving really big flags and taking sides in tribal warfare, but by showing leadership on the environment and on achieving peace through negotiation and diplomacy. You know like adults.

Here's to a better 2008!

Happy New Year everybody. Here's hoping 2008 ends with a different Prime Minister in Ottawa than it is beginning with. It could be Stephane Dion. But I'd settle for Jack Layton, Elizabeth May, Satan. Anyone but the current man in the job. Here's hoping in the mean time that Harper and his minions stop embarrassing Canada on the world stage. 2007 was the year the rest of the world said, "What's up with Canada? They're acting like dicks." Whether it was John Baird making us look bad at environmental conferences, Stephen Harper flying around South America signing trade deals with countries like Columbia, (which just happens to be a Narco-State with a president who has reputed ties to right-wing para-military groups who just happen to kill trade unionists), or our RCMP acting like Nazis and killing an innocent tourist in Vancouver. Or our soldiers running around someone else's country kicking down doors and calling in air strikes, it's been a shameful year for Canada's reputation. Here's hoping that Progressive's stop fighting with each other in 2008. Liberals and Dippers and Greenies spent 2007 at each other's throat, completely ignoring the 250 pound fascist in the room, Stephen Harper! Here's hoping The Blogging Tories read a book in 2008. No, the Bible doesn't count. Here's hoping the Cons never get anywhere near 40 percent in 2008. Every time they do I start looking at houses in Sweden. Here's hoping Mr. Dion gets his swerve on 2008. I really feel this man could be very good for Canada and the Liberal party but the people haven't warmed to him enough yet. Here's hoping the Red Tory comes back to stay in 2008. And finally, here's hoping your family has a safe and prosperous new year. Even the Tories.