Oh boy. What a difference a week makes. It seems like just yesterday when I was waiting for the fog to lift, and wondering who will save us from Stephen Harper's ghastly regime?
Because I really don't want to live in a country like this one.
What matters in the budget is not the immediate impact of $5.2 billion in annual spending cutbacks announced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. Rather, it is the attempt to gradually transform Canada, from a country in which private and social needs live in uneasy balance to one where the urge for profit dominates.
In the ideal world of Stephen Harper, social programs — including public pensions for the elderly — would not exist. Retirees would be expected to get by on their own savings.
A country where there is not enough money to help old people live in dignity, but gazillions for killer planes we don't need.
Hoily oily. I can't even do my own taxes eh? But it only took me about five minutes to figure out Jim "Jimbo" Flaherty's ghastly budget.
And all I can say is that Jimbo and his fellow Con man Stephen "Greasy" Harper should be arrested for fraud. For trying to fool Canadians into thinking that the budget has anything to do with jobs and prosperity.
The budget is called “Jobs, Growth and long-term Prosperity,” yet it outlines plans to cut 19,200 positions in the federal public service – including 600 executive jobs.
When of course it doesn't, unless you live in Alberta or Saskatchewan. Which figures eh? Because it was clearly written for and by the cowboys from Big Oil.
OK. So let me get this straight. The Con stooge Christian Paradis is stumbling though an ethical mine field.
The opposition is calling for a fresh ethics probe following new allegations about the conduct of federal Industry Minister Christian Paradis.
The call comes less than a week after Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson found Paradis had broken government rules by granting privileged access to former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer's business interests.
Stepping on one mine after the other.
In addition to the new allegations, Dawson confirmed she's already opened an additional inquiry into the matter of federal government offices being moved into a building owned by Paradis's father's business partner in Thetford Mines, which is in Paradis's riding, from Rimouski.
And making Stephen Harper look like an idiot. Or a greasy mobster.
As you know I have long been concerned about the mental state of the Con zombie Vic Toews. And whether he's fit to remain in office.
First he came crawling out of his crypt, the one with the large bed and the mirrored ceiling, claiming that anyone who didn't support his fascist internet snooping bill was siding with child pornographers.
Then he demanded that they bring him the heads of Adam Carroll, the author of Vikileaks, and the person or persons responsible for Anonymous. Claiming that they had "degraded" him, violated his parliamentary privileges, and he was so hurt he couldn't do his job properly. Boo hoo zombie.
Although they only published material that as sordid as it might be, was on the public record. They were reacting to his grotesque slur for which he has never apologized, as well as his plan to turn our country into a police state. And Toews himself is a notorious internet bully.
Well I see that even before Thomas Mulcair rose in the Commons today, the Cons sent out one of their attack chihuahas to try to "define him." Or in their mob lingo, bite his ballskneesankles.
“This hug-a-thug, soft-on-crime leader will return Canada to policies favoring the rights of criminals over those of victims,” said Mr. Watson who labelled Mr. Mulcair an “opportunist” with a “divisive personality” and “ruthless ambition.”
But since the designated chihuahua was the Con wingnut Jeff Watson, and he probably said worse things about Nick Kouvalis.
Justice Lloyd Dean acknowledged testimony by two campaign workers who told the court they heard Nick Kouvalis say, "If I could ... kill Jeff Watson with my bare hands and get away with it, I would."
It was the result I was hoping for, the only real choice the NDP could have made.
For Thomas Mulcair is the only leader that can win back support in Quebec from the Bloc, without which everything else would be in vain. He is the only one who can make the NDP more popular in the rest of Canada, and take it all the way to power. And above all he is the leader Stephen Harper fears the most.
Which is why, like many others, I was disappointed by his victory speech. For it was not the Mulcair I know. Mulcair the fighter who takes no prisoners, and will give the Con thug Harper no quarter.
Well this is as close as I got to the site of the NDP Leadership Convention. I briefly thought of crashing the party, but I was afraid I might bump into Ed Broadbent. Call him an old asshole.
Former party leader Ed Broadbent, who has endorsed Brian Topp, said on CBC's Power & Politics with Evan Solomon that he thought Mulcair "bombed."
And be unceremoniously ejected from the building, for causing a ruckus at an NDP event. Which is about as low as you can go eh? Sort of like farting in a church.
But unfortunately it was too late, because by the time Uncle Ed was finished blowing his fog horn, or acting like old man Potter in It's a Wonderful Life...
I was thinking the other day, as a thick fog hid Toronto from view, that ever since I arrived in this city, it's like a curse has been hanging over me.
The Nightmare in Harperland.The G20 police state in my backyard, the death of Jack Layton, the crushed dreams of Occupy Toronto, the horror of Rob Ford.
I mean really...
This city owes me eh?
But then this evening I saw that they were painting my neighbourhood orange.
What with the fog hanging over the island, and the usual run of depressing stories, it hasn't been too easy to write about politics in Harperland this week. Or even celebrate the arrival of Spring.
But isn't it great to see the Con fluffer John Ibbitson begin his day with this story?
There is a reason the Conservative Party launched an attack ad against Bob Rae on the same week as the NDP leadership convention.
The Conservatives are convinced Mr. Rae will lead the Liberal Party into the next election–an increasingly safe assumption. And they fear him more than they fear whomever the New Democrats choose on Saturday.
Trying his best to make Harper's grotesque attack ad against Rae sound rational, and the NDP appear doomed.
As you know I've had my doubts about Andrew Scheer, the Speaker of the House, ever since he ruled that Vic Toews' parliamentary privileges had been violated by Anonymous.
Boo hoo zombie.
After ruling last December that the disgusting misleading phone call campaign aimed at Irwin Cotler did not violate HIS privileges.
Well I see the politicians may be on a spring break, but the sinister Con War Room, like death, or Great Ugly Leader.
Never takes a holiday...
Golly. I have to admit when I first saw that attack ad it struck fear into my heart. I was afraid I might have to plod through the Book of Stephen Harper's Moods and Disorders, to see which one of his multiple personalities was responsible for that one. And it's a big book eh?
It just didn't seem to make sense. Why would the Death Machine go after Bob Rae, the leader of the third party, THREE years from an election?
But then I realized it's only TEN days to the budget. This other new Con ad, is a mirror image of the other...
Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent is standing by his sharp criticism of party leadership front-runner Thomas Mulcair, saying he has a “responsibility” to highlight the shortcomings of the Montreal MP before the race concludes.
Because old Ed is obviously so worried about the fate of his cabin backroom boy Brian Topp, that he is willing to say ANYTHING.
Which I suppose is his right eh? He's been around so long he's even comparing himself to Tommy Douglas.
But he really shouldn't be allowed to get away with this:
Broadbent revealed the tipping point for his decision to speak out was twofold: Mulcair’s criticism of people at party headquarters, and how he took credit for the NDP’s success in Quebec in last year’s election — in which it increased its seat count to 59 from just one in the province.
Broadbent said that Mulcair was a good candidate but that, in fact, the campaign was developed by officials at party headquarters and a team in Montreal.
“They developed a brilliant campaign, adopted language in Quebec for the campaign that was appropriate for a province with a different language and culture. But Tom had virtually nothing to do with it.”
Because that's absolute bullshit, or merde as we say in Quebec.
I wasn't planning to write anything about the NDP leadership race today, but after yesterday's attack on Thomas Mulcair by Ed Broadbent, I feel I have no choice.
For that attack was ill advised, intellectually dishonest, and cognitively challenged. And mark my words, if the NDP rejects Mulcair it will not only condemn itself to irrelevancy once again, it will help re-elect Stephen Harper, and threaten the very future of this country.
Oh. My. Gravy. I don't know if the Chief Electoral Officer likes poutine. But it's good to know that even if he doesn't, he's got a heap of complaints to munch on.
“Immediately following the 2011 general election, the Commissioner of Canada Elections deployed resources to investigate complaints of fraudulent or improper calls. Since then over 700 Canadians from across the country have informed us of specific circumstances where they believe similar wrongdoing took place.
And unlike the Cons he's ready to talk to a parliamentary committee.
Well, I guess this Gable cartoon kind of says it all. I mean what more can you say eh?
That's what the Cons have done to our Parliament.
But since this is after all a four-ring fascist circus, it's a quiet day, and I'm feeling a bit idiot, I thought I'd bring you some of the other lowlights.
The debate isn't over yet for the Harper’s government’s criminal justice legislation – at least not in Quebec.
The provincial government announced Tuesday that it would do everything in its power to limit the clout of the legislation that passed a day earlier.
And why wouldn't they? When this fascist bill makes absolutely no sense.
Similar legislation has failed in both Britain and the United States:
Republican governors and state legislators in such states of Texas, South Carolina, and Ohio are repealing mandatory minimum sentences, increasing opportunities for effective community supervision, and funding drug treatment because they know it will improve public safety and reduce taxpayer costs. If passed, C-10 will take Canadian justice policies 180 degrees in the wrong direction, and Canadian citizens will bear the costs.
On a grey, wet, day in Harperland it wasn't too hard to imagine myself in the last scene of The Planet of the Apes. Or imagine myself giving up blogging. For it was the worst of days.
Golly. I see the identity of the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel Blue Poutine is about to be revealed.
The news that Elections Canada investigators are aware of the IP address that “Pierre Poutine” used to set up the Guelph, Ont., robocall account has convinced a suspect to step forward and accept responsibility for the deceptive calls, sources say.
And before him/her/them goes to the guillotine Senate, I'd like to ask these questions.
(1) Who paid for those calls? And where are the receipts?
(2) Who wrote all those scripts?
“Where did he get the script?” the source said. “He didn’t come up with the same script in 30 ridings.”
I had to work today so I wasn't able to make it to any of these rallies. But I was with them in spirit, I really liked their signs and their message.
“We need an independent inquiry right now so it can be dealt with and the crooks should be put in jail,” one protester told Global News.
And it was great to see Canadians taking to the streets, because that's the only way to keep the RoboCon scandal alive, and put pressure on the Harper regime to call that public inquiry.
Oh sure, the crowds weren't huge. But they were everywhere, and they'll be bigger next time, because the message is popular.
Lordy. I see that Preston Manning, the Big Daddy of the ReformCon movement, thinks that the robocall scandal is deplorable.
The patriarch of the modern-day conservative movement in Canada is calling for better ethical training for campaign workers in the wake of the robocall scandal.
Which would be a lot more believable if he wasn't an apologist for the Harper gang, and this kind of stuff hadn't been going on at his hallowed Con temple.
Well I see that John Baird's Screaming Buffoon World Tour has arrived in Burma. Only to have the stench of hypocrisy follow him all the way there.
Canada will be monitoring Burma's elections next month with a keen hope to see reform amid allegations of voting "irregularities," Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Thursday, on a historic visit to the isolationist country.
And make what Aung San Suu Ky said sound disturbingly familiar...
"We have just discovered there are many, many irregularities on the voters' lists, and we have applied to the election commission to do something about this," she said."A lot of dead people seem to be prepared to vote on the first of April. We can't have that, can we? And other things like that."
“Mr. Speaker, I gave clear answers regarding the activities of the Conservative party of Canada,” he professed. “All this information has been available to Elections Canada since the beginning. Now is the time for the opposition, which has spent millions of dollars to make hundreds of thousands of phone calls, to give all its information to Elections Canada.”
As did his robot poodle cow Dean Del Mastro.
“The opposition paid millions of dollars to make hundreds of thousands of phone calls,” Dean Del Mastro read aloud from the script on his desk. “Before continuing these baseless smears, they should prove that their own callers are not behind these reports.”
Holy Bossa Nostra. I didn't think that Dean Del Mastro could be more of a Con buffoon than he already was. But I guess I should have known better.
Dean Del Mastro, the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, stood repeatedly in House of Commons Monday to answer questions from opposition MPs who accuse the Conservatives of making calls to suppress votes for other parties. Over and over again, Mr. Del Mastro blamed the Liberals for the calls.
But when asked later by reporters if the Conservatives were prepared to release their own records, Mr. Del Mastro said: “No, because obviously our party is not behind the calls. We know that. We believe the Liberal Party has in fact made these allegations and they’ve made these allegations knowing full well that they’ve paid these companies millions of dollars to makes calls to hundreds of thousands of households across the country.”
Mon Dieu. I see that Jeffrey Simpson wishes that Hercule Poirot was handling The Case of the RoboCon Calls and the Stolen Election.
Where’s Hercule Poirot when we need him? The victims – defeated opposition party candidates – are known. The weapons – computerized telephone calls designed to infuriate voters – have been indentified. But whose hand, my dear Poirot, was wrapped around the knife?
Clearly, someone with an inordinately shrewd knowledge of individual candidates from the opposition parties did the deed. Calls were of a particular nature, depending on the riding, hinting at things related to an opposition party candidate. This kind of information doesn’t come from a telephone directory.
And like him I wonder whether Elections Canada and the police are up to the job of probing the Cons, like Vic Toews would like to probe us. For they have taken their time in starting an investigation, and stories like this one are troubling.
For that makes it sound like the RoboCops are investigating the RoboCons, and that can't be good eh?
But on the other hand this is a promising development.
Well I can only imagine the scene in the Con War Room tonight. The hum of shredders, the mumbled prayers, the muffled screams. The sight of Vic Toews dressed in a bloody butcher's apron.
As the hunt continues for those accused of the ultimate Con crime. No, not stealing an election.
The far more serious crime of making both Stephen Harper AND Dean Del Mastro look like blithering idiots.
Well there he was in the House of Commons today, claiming that Joe Volpe paid an American company to make robocalls.
Voters were upset because they were being contacted and asked to support Mr Volpe or take a lawn sign, and the calls were based in North Dakota. What we've learned is that Joe Volpe paid more than $25,000 to Prime Contact, a calling company with offices in North Dakota.
Only to go on the Evan Solomon show a few hours later, and end up looking like an idiot.
When I hear Vic Toews howling that he's being victimized. WAAAAAAAH !!!!
Because he can't do his job after being "anonymously degraded" by Vikileaks.
"I take strong issue with the idea that House resources would be used to attack secretly a member of the House," Toews said, adding that the anonymous account was degrading his reputation and obstructing him from carrying out his duties.
Without mentioning the boiling anger over his fascist Bill C-30, from where Vikileaks sprung. Or ever apologizing for calling decent freedom-loving Canadians kiddy porn perverts.
When I see Dean Del Mastro trying to make Vikileaks sound like more of a threat to Parliament, than the conspiracy to steal an election. While straining his large sphincter to see how many times he can use the word "sleazy."
“I find it very distressing when we actually have an individual who was caught by an investigation by the Speaker .... who was forced to come forward and acknowledge the dirty, sleazy underhanded tactics that he undertook,” Mr. Del Mastro said.
Mr. Carroll has got a lot to answer for, Mr. Del Mastro added. “Did he use House resources for this? Was he being paid by the taxpayers when he was conducting this dirty, sleazy attack on a sitting minister?”
Because Cons don't do sleaze eh?
When I hear Stephen Harper claim that the RoboCon scandal is an opposition "smear campaign"
Because the Cons don't do that either. Just like they don't do dirty tricks.
When I see all of the above, and I see how some in the media are swallowing that phony plot.
I can't help thinking of a great new ad from The Guardian, where they take the story of The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.
And give it a new narrative...
The Harper Cons. Where reality is whatever they say it is. The Big Lie is focus group tested. Internet freedom is a threat. Whoever controls the message controls the world.
Stephen Harper is a maniac. And Big Brother meets Karl Rove....
