Stephen Harper's Insane Caucus Photo-Op

OMG. I knew it wouldn't last. Just the other day he was tweeting his horn, playing with his chinchilla, pretending to be Mr Nice Guy Leader.

Today he was back to his usual self, Mr Nasty Crazy Leader, and playing with the Con caucus.

The great man thus entered the room to a standing ovation, the chanting of his surname and rhythmic clapping. Apparently we are to assume the government caucus reacts this way whenever the Prime Minister arrives to speak to them.

Soaking up the sweaty adulation of his hapless stooges, like a Third World dictator. Posing for the media, puffing out his flabby tits, and declaring that what Canadians need is a new Great War on Crime. 

The Unspeakable Horror of Sun News

You have seen them on their grubby channel assaulting the decency of Canadians.

Attacking the weak and the vulnerable, like a pack of filthy cowards.

Smearing native people, Muslims, the Roma, even those who would defend bullied children in our schools.

Now they're begging for money, trying to force the CRTC to make us pay for their ugly, evil programming. And look who is answering their desperate call. 

Jimbo Flaherty's War on Kevin Page

As you know Jimbo Flaherty, the Con man now posing as a Finance Minister, really hates Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer. 

And for all the right reasons.

For proving him wrong over and over again, and making him look like he doesn't know what he's doing.

Kathleen Wynne and the Gay Kids

I haven't written about Kathleen Wynne becoming Ontario's first woman and lesbian Premier, for a couple of reasons.

One, I hate writing the words "openly gay." You're either gay or you're not.

And two because at this point in the 21st Century I didn't think it should be a big deal.

But sadly I was wrong. For the flood of articles and blog posts claiming it doesn't matter, clearly show it does.

The Scary Re-Imagining of Stephen Harper

I still can't believe what Stephen Harper chose to do today, on the first day of the new session of Parliament. 

But it was outrageous, and it said so much about him and his Con regime

For as hundreds of Idle No More supporters, men, women, and children, demonstrated outside in a blinding snow storm, demanding justice and a new beginning. 

Inside the Commons the Prime Minister would only mouth platitudes, because he was too busy tooting tweeting his own horn.

Stephen Harper and Our Dead Parliament

Well I see that Great Batty Leader will be flying back to Parliament later today.

And I'd like to think the pundits are right when they predict turbulence ahead.

But all I see is more of the same.

A lot of sound and fury in a dead Parliament, where the Cons do what they want, and the opposition can't stop them.

Why Rob Ford is a Useful Buffoon

He was so sure he was going to lose, they had to hire a squeegee kid to mop the sweat off his ample brow.

And when he found out he had got off on a technicality, he was so relieved he sounded like the new and improved Rob Ford.

He stood at the podium, grey faced. With a choking voice, he read from a script. “This has been a very, very humbling experience,” Ford said.

For about ten seconds.

Robbie Burns and the Rebel Voice

Well today was Robbie Burns Day, the most sacred day of the Old Scottish Calendar.

And no doubt all over the world the Tartan Army was drinking heavily, and eating the horrible haggis.

But not me eh?

Because although I'm extremely proud of my Scottish heritage, I don't drink, I don't touch the awful offal. 

Harperland and the Racism Monster

Sometimes these days when I look at the horror that is Harperland, I can't help feeling like that other Simon in Lord of the Flies.

Who realized that The Monster the other boys were hunting with their wooden spears didn't exist. 

And that the real monster was THEM.

My Thank You Letter to Chief Spence

Dear Chief Spence

I was so happy to hear that you will be ending your long hunger strike.

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence has decided to end her six-week-long hunger strike after members of the Assembly of First Nations and the Liberal and New Democrat caucuses agreed to back a list of commitments supporting aboriginal issues.

For you have endured enough, your people need you, and you don't need to die for your great struggle to go forward, stronger than ever.

How To Stop the Sun News Money Grab

Golly. Call me Nostradamus eh? Almost three years ago I wrote this about the outhouse gang at Sun News Network aka Fox News North:

They don't have the money, or the infrastructure, or the talent, to compete for even a small part of that tiny news market. Or even to be taken seriously. This is going to be the biggest bomb in Canadian network history.

And sure enough, it was a bomb or a lead balloon. Nobody was EVER able to take those Con Klowns seriously, and now they're trying to save themselves by picking our pockets. 

The Slow Death of Ashley Smith

It is without a doubt one of the worst things I have ever seen. The slow death of Ashley Smith.

While her guards watched.

Read that and weep.

Or watch the video here.

If you can bear it.

Obama and the Shrinking of Stephen Harper

What a fairy tale day it was. What an awesome spectacle of democracy. What a great day to be a progressive.

A black President on Martin Luther King Day standing up for freedom, justice, and equality.

A solemn President Barack Obama took the oath of office for the second time in as many days on Monday, this time before an estimated 800,000 jubilant citizens who cheered on his appeal for Americans to come together and fight for cherished U.S. principles of justice and equality.

Hockey Night in Harperland

A couple of my friends came over this evening to watch the Habs-Leafs game on my big screen TV. 

And they were surprised to find out that I hadn't been planning to watch it, until they turned up.

And that I wasn't the least bit excited that the season had finally started.

Stephen Harper and the Lincoln Complex

OK. I hope you're sitting down eh? Because I wasn't when I heard the news, and I practically collapsed. 

So great was my shock, and my outrage.

For it seems that Great Ugly Leader has stopped comparing himself to Stalin, or Napoleon.

And now believes he's Lincoln.

Before Christmas, Prime Minister Stephen Harper took along a large number of Conservative caucus members to see Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, now nominated for 12 Academy Awards. Afterward, there apparently was a discussion about the film, led by Mr. Harper.

The Con Assault on the Dutch Disease

Nothing Tom Mulcair has ever said scares Stephen Harper more than his claim that the Dutch Disease is killing jobs all over Canada. 

Especially in vote-rich Ontario where the next election will be decided.

Because if the people in that province ever realize how much Harper's Alberta First economic policies are hurting them and the future of their kids, the Cons will be out of power sooner than you can say howdy cowboy.

So the Cons and the right-wing conspiracy are always trying to claim that the Dutch Disease is just a myth, and here they go again.

Why We Should Thank Idle No More

I was glad to see that Idle No More's Day of Action took the movement's message to Canadians.

Loudly but peacefully. 

From downtown Toronto to Vancouver Island, protesters ramped up weeks of demonstrations to another level, still peaceful, stopping traffic on busy highways and major rail lines, forcing Canadians to stop and listen.

Steve Harper and the Con Bandidos

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Julian Fantino and the CIDA Scandal

Last night I wrote a post about how the Harper regime is turning CIDA into the Con International Development Agency. 

I was also planning to mention how the Harperites have turned the CIDA website into another branch of the Con Ministry of Propaganda and Disinformation. 

With the picture of Julian Fantino, and the ads for the Porky Action Plan, and "Responsible Resources Development,"  and even the War of 1812.

But I had to cut it out for length reasons, and now I see others have beaten me to this scandal.

Why is Stephen Harper Promoting Christian Values?

It was a bizarre sight. Stephen Harper standing in front of a giant poster for Dragon's Den, appearing to be deep in prayer.

Although he was only at a newser in Montreal, trying to figure out what to say, after being asked an embarrassing question:

Why is your government promoting Christian values?

Idle No More and the Bigot Bullies

Once upon a time when I thought about the plight of our First Nations, I used to think that George Bernard Shaw was right:

"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them but to be indifferent to them. That is the essence of inhumanity."

But now I see that in Canada we've managed to do both. We were indifferent to them for so long, and now that they cannot be ignored, the hate is extraordinary.

Idle No More and the Ugly Canadians

One of the many things the Idle No More movement has done is force many Canadians to stare at the face of the real Canada.

And in the process take a good look at themselves.

But what I can't help but wonder is now that they have, do they like what they see?

Because I don't, I'm horrified. 

Idle No More and the Great Day of Protest

Oh boy. I sure picked the wrong day to be felled by the flu eh? Because I wanted so much to be there.

But even on the small TV in my death bed bedroom, it was an awesome and inspiring spectacle. 

As members of the federal government and First Nations community met behind closed doors today, demonstrators marched in communities across Canada in support of the Idle No More movement, echoing calls from a hunger striking Ontario chief for indigenous sovereignty.

The Media Assault on Idle No More

There was an incredibly revealing moment today. A moment that summed up the way many in the MSM have been going after Chief Spence and the Idle No More movement.

And like it has been all along, it was both banal and brutal.

Idle No More and the Great Confusion

Well I think it's safe to say that it was quite a day in my home and native's land eh?

As if the great Ojibwa Mishipeshu of Lake Superior was thrashing its tail around and causing a great confusion. 

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence says she won't be at a meeting Friday between First Nations leaders and Prime Minister Stephen Harper because Gov. Gen. David Johnston isn't attending.

Idle No More and the Racist Backlash

As the great rising continues, I see that a Global TV crew has been kicked out of Attawapiskat. 

A Global News crew was escorted off the Attawapiskat reserve in northern Ontario and threatened with arrest after trying to do a story on living conditions in the community. 

And while on the one hand I'm sorry about that, because I want as many Canadians as possible to see how many First Nations people live. So they can better understand why they are rising.

On the other hand I can't blame Chief Spence and the people of that poor little community for being angry at the media.

The Harper Cons and the Big Smear

Well it's not in the Book of Chaos, the 200-page handbook the Cons once put out to disrupt the opposition, and shut down committees.

But it clearly comes from the same cesspool of depravity.

From the same Con operatives who brought you Stephen Harper's catalogue of dirty tricks.

From those in the PMO who would produce along with their talking points, a handy guide to follow in case of an emergency. Or the sudden need to smear an opponent. 

Stephen Harper and the Sounds of Resistance

Well say what you like about Stephen Harper. Call him the Crime Minister or the devil himself.

But nobody can deny that he's consistent eh?

One moment he's waging a war of wills with a starving woman who represents some of the poorest people in Canada.

Or boasting about the eleven thousand government jobs he has killed.

The next moment he's waging war on the unemployed.

Beginning Sunday, people on EI face stricter, more complex rules for keeping their benefits, with the goal of getting unemployed workers back into the workforce sooner.

Even though that could cause mass misery all over the country, especially in Atlantic Canada.

The Atlantic premiers say the new rules could have a devastating effect on fishery, farming and tourism industries which are all seasonal jobs. And they're concerned that if people are encouraged to leave home to take other jobs, they won't come back.

For if the NDP asks how low did the Cons go in 2012? The answer is you ain't seen nothing yet.

And I just hope that Canadians understand that it's all ONE struggle. 

That everything the Harper regime does is aimed at achieving the same thing. Killing government, scrapping environmental regulations, attacking unions, turning us into a low-wage economy, making Canada safe for Big Oil, and selling us out to foreign interests.

And that if the moment of truth has arrived for Canada's First Nations.

No one in Canada knows better than its aboriginals that a moment of truth has arrived for both them and the land. For good or ill, an explosion of development quivers over the West and the Arctic. Huge fortunes will be made by a few, great change will be ushered in, and the environment will be altered forever. Either the aboriginals make their stand now, or they will be eternally bypassed.

The plain fact of the matter is that aboriginal anger builds slowly underground before the volcano of frustration erupts. These are patient — not docile — people.

It has also arrived for the rest of us. For unless we speak out now as loudly as the Idle No More movement is doing, we too will wake up in a country we don't recognize. A country with poisoned lakes and rivers. A country run by foreigners that looks like a jungle.

Oh sure. I know a lot of Canadians can't relate to the struggle of our First Nations. But they will, they will. 

For the revolt against the Con regime has begun. Fate has determined that the Idle No More movement should lead the way.

And until the rest of us hit the streets with our banners and our drums. 

Because I'm ready eh?

These are the glorious sounds of the great Canadian resistance...


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Idle No More and the Real Terrorists

If Stephen Harper thought his grudging offer to meet with the AFN Chiefs would defuse the Idle No More movement, he couldn't have been more wrong.

From Sydney to Cornwall to Vancouver.

Because you can't stop a movement whose time has come eh?

Or it seems stop Christie Blatchford from smearing those in the movement as terrorists. Or suggesting they could threaten the future of Canada, by comparing what is going on to Douglas Bland's third-rate apocalyptic novel Uprising. 

How Idle No More Humiliated Stephen Harper

In all my years of watching Stephen Harper I have rarely seen him looking so frustrated and so humiliated.

But there he was today at a ridiculous photo-op in a Ford factory, looking like was about to implode.

And no wonder.

Why Idle No More Will Make Harper Eat Crow

For some ghastly reason I couldn't help wondering tonight what Stephen Harper is eating while Chief Theresa Spence dies of hunger. 

As Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence continues her hunger strike, a critical care doctor is warning that the human body begins to break down after such a long period without food.

Jones said after three weeks with no food, a person is "very vulnerable" to infections in the lungs and stomach, which can turn "rapidly fatal."

Because you know he does LOVE to eat, and he just gave his personal chef a raise.

Idle No More and the Anti-Harper Revolt

One can only imagine what Stephen Harper is thinking as he watches Chief Theresa Spence getting weaker and weaker.

Is there even a flicker of sympathy in his cold dead eyes, or is it all false pride or cold calculation?

Is he appealing to the racism of his rabid base?