Woo-hoo! The Tories Suck!

I have had an extra spring in my step the last couple of days, in spite of working outside in some ridiculous heat and humidity. I'm pretty sure it's a case of "schadenfreude", a German word that means taking pleasure from someone's misery and misfortune. Who's misery? The CPC and Deceivin' Stephen Harper.
Decima's new poll has the Libs back in the lead at 32%, and the Cons. 29%, NDP 18%, Greens 9% and the Bloq 9%. Yes, polls don't mean much, but it is still good news and the trend is in the right direction.
Tories are tanking in Atlantic Canada! Nova Scotia Premier Roddy McDonald has joined my boy Danny Williams, the Premier of Newfoundland, in bashing Stephen Harper for what they say is a broken promise not to change the Atlantic Accord. (Side note: Why do I see so many posts bashing Danny Williams? Who cares if he wants his cake and eats too. He's a one-man Stephen Harper trashing machine. He's like a constant free negative ad.) Conservative MPs in Nova Scotia certainly have some 'splaining to do. MP Bill Casey did the right thing and voted against it. Harper, who is falling apart like a '78 Pinto, responded to complaints from Premier McDonald, a Conservative, by basically saying sue me. Huh?! Harper has never liked Atlantic Canada, "culture of defeat", but now he is actively picking a fight with Newfoundland and Nova Scotia voters. I suspect they will show Conservative MPs what defeat is all about. Elizabeth May is looking even better in Central Nova. The thought of Peter McKay losing makes me giggle.
On the Afghanistan front, two-thirds of Canadians believe we should get the fuck out in 2009 at the end of our current mission. I personally believe we should have gotten out long ago. I have advocated for the 2009 withdrawal before though because I believe Canadians will get behind this position. I was right about that. I'm no Nostradamus, I predicted Stockwell Day would go down for buying his way into his riding and boy was I wrong. The RCMP couldn't wait to exonerate Mr. Day. I am concerned however with the new anti-war protests in Quebec. Protesters are sending letters to Canadian troops (Van Doo's) explaining their anti-war position and soliciting them to refuse to go. Everything they say in their letters are right, but I am concerned about their timing. Mr. and Mrs. Mushy-Moderate are on our side right now and this is exactly the kind of behaviour that may send them back into the arms of the fascists. It happened in Vietnam, but I digress. Afghanistan has turned into a nightmare for Stephen Harper and Stephane Dion has just the right position politically, and almost, morally.
There are rumblings that the Senate might block the budget from passing, at least until the end of June, which would effectively kill it. This might actually be good for Harper. If his budget were to pass, Harper's only achievement when he runs back to Calgary after his stunning defeat in the upcoming election, will be passing a budget that gives Quebec enough money to pass a billion dollar tax cut and still maintain more social services than any other province. They must love that in Alberta!
Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert announced today that he'll be taking Harper up on his offer to sue him as Mr. Calvert is also apparently unhappy with being lied to concerning Saskatchewan's equalization take.
Lumberjack Chuck Strahl is facing a court challenge from the "friends of the Wheat Board" and others who say the federal government cannot remove barley from the Wheat Board monopoly without an act of Parliament. Duh! The Supreme Court already ruled on this when Mulroney tried to pull barley out of the single-desk in the '80's. He must go the the House and he certainly doesn't have the votes there. The Wheat Board is gonna live, baby! These thugs are done! It's over! Bring on the election! (Anyone else notice how much better Dion's English is getting?) Even Adler is depressed, now that is "schadenfreude"!

O'Connor Still Wears Clownshoes

On March 13th I posted an article entitled "O'Connor Wears Clownshoes". Mr. O'Connor and Canada's not-so-new government continue to prove that they are not fit to run a lemonade stand, never mind our country or a Middle Eastern war. Gordon (I can't believe I'm still Defense Minister) O'Connor continues to embarrass his boss by making statements in the House that are later contradicted. O'Connor said that since becoming Minister he directed his staff to cover the "full cost" of soldiers' funerals. Lincoln Dinning, father of Cpl. Matthew Dinning, found this offensive and was compelled to hold a press conference to announce that he had, in fact, not been reimbursed for his son's funeral. Obviously Mr. O'Connor wants Dinning to get his money, this is probably more bureaucratic bungling than it is bad policy. But it is symptomatic of a government that likes to make announcements but has very little idea how to implement their agenda. O'Connor and his department have dropped the ball again. He and General Rick Hillier said today that the department will do "what has to be done" to ensure families are reimbursed. No kidding! Everybody from every end of the political spectrum who is not an asshole thinks the government should pay for these final expenses. Like Mr. Dinning said, "it's a no-brainer". So make it happen!

Szabo gets it. Why not other social Conservatives?

Liberal MP Paul Szabo is considered by many to be among the more socially conservative members of the Liberal party. He's pro-life, anti-divorce, anti-gay marriage and worst of all, he supported Michael Ignatieff for the leadership of the Liberals. He did however vote against extending the mission in Afghanistan. I thought this was his only saving grace until I watched him on CPAC today. Mr. Szabo is an exceptionally good orator and a very convincing debater. Members were being heard on one of the Conservatives' new law and order bills. Bill C-10 I think but I could be mistaken. The conservatives have so many law and order bills it's hard to keep track. This one involved mandatory minimums for offences involving firearms. I, of course am completely against mandatory minimums of any kind. I think Judges are the ones best left to decide sentences and shouldn't have their hands tied by politicians. Mr. Szabo isn't against minimums altogether. He supports the idea of using them as a deterrent but rightly points out that long minimums have no more deterrent value then short minimums. This sounds odd until you consider that for those who are going to be deterred, a short time, say, 2 years is enough to do the trick. Most people are not thinking about the consequences and act out of passion or rage or desperation, or for many other reasons. Mandatory minimum sentences have zero affect on their thought process. ( My words, not Szabo's) Mr. Szabo thinks they should be used to deter but not be so long as to interfere with the judges' discretion. He also points out that these are only minimums, the judge is free to sentence bad dudes to much longer. Judges should be allowed to make the sentence fit the crime. I would think many of the law and order types out there would agree with me when it comes to the case of that Saskatoon father who shot his daughter's drug dealing boyfriend. Probably think the judge should have given him a medal. Unfortunately he will be spending the next ten years in jail without parole. A mandatory minimum. Minimums have been in place for years in the U.S. and they have much higher crime rates. Many groups have formed in opposition to them and the Supreme Court of the U.S. has ruled them unconstitutional. Those guys aren't exactly bleeding hearts. Szabo also pointed out the importance of rehabilitation and how our system is pretty good at it and how our contrasting system to that of the Americans seems to be working better. Crime is down and and has been for awhile. All this bluster about getting tough on crime is getting tiresome and it's about time those of us who recognise it speak out. The Democrats in the USA decided to give up this issue in the 90's in order to win centrist voters. It worked, they won, then they passed a completely Republican crime bill helping to turn the U.S. into the police state we now know it as. More people went to jail for smoking pot while Clinton was president than under Reagan and Bush the first combined. I, of course am not speaking for Mr. Szabo and I'm sure he and I would agree on very little. Here is something he and I and every reasonable person should agree on. Mandatory minimums should be used very carefully if used at all.

Love that Elizabeth May

Boy oh boy did the Conservatives have a bad week. Their massive incompetence in Afghanistan and their lies to cover up their massive incompetence have been getting them in trouble all week. They are down 10 points in the polls with only their base left supporting them. The opposition parties and for once the press have not let this scandal die, so in an effort to change the channel Conservatives across Canada tried to manufacture their own little scandal. Last Sunday Elizabeth May delivered a sermon in a church she was invited to speak at. During that sermon Miss May quoted an environmentalist who compared the Conservative government's lack of real action to address climate change with Neville Chamberlain's infamous appeasement of Adolf Hitler in 1938. Tories across the country seized on this and immediately tried to turn it into a scandal. Miss May was comparing Stephen Harper to Hitler. Miss May was invoking the holocaust and using it in the context of Canadian politics. What an insult to the Jewish people and blah, blah, blah. There are only two problems with these ridicules accusations. Number one, Miss May never said a word about the holocaust. She quoted someone else who quite rightly compared Conservative inaction on climate change with English inaction on Hitler taking over his neighbor. Secondly, if it is so wrong to use the Neville Chamberlain incident to illustrate a modern point why do Conservatives do it constantly? Conservatives in Canada and the US compared people who were against the Iraq War to Neville Chamberlain. Peter McKay and Stockwell Day have both been caught by Hansard using the Chamberlain analogy in the House of Commons. Miss May pointed this one out herself on Mike Duffy yesterday. I guess Mr McKay and Mr Day have no respect for the magnitude of the holocaust either. What hypocrisy. Nice try guys but this scandal is not going away yet.

NDP Wrong By Doing Right Thing

The NDP has been consistent and absolutely right regarding the mission in Afghanistan from the very beginning. We should not have gone in and we should get out as fast as we can. The latest today from the Globe and Mail has dozens of Afghan prisoners claiming they were treated very well by Canadian soldiers, but were tortured as soon as they were turned over to Afghan authorities. This may be a war crime and is just another reason we should end this colonial nightmare. Now I'm not trying to start yet another debate about Afghanistan. I can talk about sovereignty, war lords, and Russians. Or Pushtuns, corruption, opium, and oil pipelines. I can talk about American hegemony, questionable elections, and puppet ex-patriots, but I'm unlikely to change many minds. If you are for this mission, you can talk about nation building, girls in schools, the tyranny of the Taliban, or how the sacrifice of brave Canadian soldiers cannot be for not. You can talk about Canada punching above its weight, the war on "terror", and American leadership until you are blue-liberal in the face and you're not going to change my mind. This is about convincing the NDP that they must support tomorrow's motion to pull the troops out by 2009. The NDP say they will not vote for this motion because they believe and have always believed that our troops should be pulled out yesterday. This is a very principled position, however it may end up keeping troops in Afghanistan for years to come. If this motion fails and the wheels are not set in motion for a 2009 withdrawal, Harper may get his majority and commit our troops for ever and ever, amen. That is certainly not what the NDP wants! Also, if this motion passes, Harper could not allow it, Bush wouldn't let him. He would have to fight an election on the issue. An election fought on the war in Afghanistan could be very good for the NDP.

So Long Peter McKay

Stephane Dion stole my idea. I Swear to God I've been procrastinating since Tuesday on a post that was to be entitled "Liberals, NDP should back May in Central Nova". What do I read in the paper this morning? Dion will not run a Liberal candidate in Central Nova. This is awesome news. Last election the voting went down like so, Con-17134, NDP-13861, Libs-10349, Greens-671. May would still have to pick up much of the NDP support to win but this stealthy move puts her much closer to victory. Jack Layton do the right thing and pull the Dipper in the riding too. I know this arrangement will not sit well with fierce partisans from any of the progressive parties but we all need to keep our eye on the ball here. This is the potential end of Conservative cabinet minister and Condaleeza lover Peter McKay. The man who sold out David Orchard, the PC's and the whole country by going back on his word and merging with the Alliance there bye spawning the evil, twisted and sitting in fucking government CPC. All three progressive parties, hell even the Bloc should look at other riding's where a little co-operation might bring down a fascist. Dont worry Peter you'll still have your dog.

Softwood Lumber already?

Oh, oh get out the K-Y jelly the Americans are unhappy with the softwood lumber agreement again. International Trade Minister, party jumper and chief bender over for the Canadian govt David Emerson announced late Friday that "The United States has requested that we consult on federal and provincial government forestry programs and the interpretation of the surge mechanism." In other words the Americans have a problem with assistance programs offered by the Ontario and Quebec governments to the Canadian lumber industry saying it amounts to subsidies. (That old chestnut.) They also object to federal grants, loans, loan guarantees, and tax credits awarded to Canadian lumber producers. Lastly, (for now) they have a problem with our interpretation of the surge mechanism which is essentially a taxation and duty scheme that ties the tax rates paid on Canadian lumber exports to US lumber consumption. They don't have a leg to stand on on any of the above counts but when has that stopped them before? Why would it? Emerson seems quite ready to bend over already saying, "This is a good opportunity for Canada and the United States to once again work closely and to work through our disagreements in a constructive manner." Translation, thank you sir may I have another? The Softwood Lumber deal, made law less then six months ago was already hugely one-sided and essentially rewarded the Americans for breaking the rules of NAFTA. Emerson pretty much admitted as much at that time saying that the deal wasn't ideal but that is was a better alternative to costly litigation and that it would bring "stability to the industry." What stability? Less then six months and the Americans are complaining. These, "consultations" are the second step in the grievance process and amount to nothing more then a shake down. Canada will either capitulate, (don't put it past Emerson) or the next step will be guess what, litigation. We'll be right back where we started from accept with less of a legal leg to stand on. In the Softwood lumber Agreement we negotiated away our rights to use all legal rulings in our favour in the past in any future legal proceeding. More great negotiating. Conservatives shouldn't be allowed to make deals with Americans. They love them so much and want to be them so bad that they essentially give away the farm every time they meet. Each time David Emerson or Micheal Wilson make a deal with the US my bum feels sore. Jesus I think these guys were the negotiating team for the Manhattan Indians. One billion dollars bought us less then six months of lumber peace . It is exactly what critics of the deal said would happen and it would be funny if it wasn't so sad.