They say the days are getting longer, but in Canada it's so hard to notice, because it still seems so dark.
Great Ugly Leader toys with the country, like a cat plays with a ball of wool. And to make matters worse there seems to be nothing we can do to puncture his balloon.Or so the Con media says.
The Harper government might not lose many votes over its controversial stance on climate change even though half of Canadians disapprove of its policies, says a new poll.
But don't believe them. I don't. All I know is that three years ago I was just about the only one calling Stephen Harper a monster. And now many in the MSM are calling him worse names than that.
The extent of Harper's misuse of power becomes clearer when you realize that the Conservatives are replicating some of the worst practices of the Republicans under George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Or smear artist.
Like the Bush administration, the Harper government uses Karl Rovian tactics to smear and intimidate not just opposition critics, but parliamentary officers, heads of quasi-judicial agencies and tribunals and even Canada's seven major Christian churches.
Who's next?
And don't forget the best is still to come. The Auditor General is investigating the Porky Action Plan. Which promises to be a pig roast. Yum. Yum. The Afghanistan issue won't go away. Sooner or later Canadians will start to wonder what IS Stephen Harper trying to HIDE? And when it comes to torture ...what is his heart of darkness?
Just like they'll wonder whether the Cons are planning to use their reckless porky deficit as an excuse to destroy government.
Like the Con dwarf Jimbo Flaherty once did in Ontario.
And left it in RUINS...with more poor people than you could count. As for climate change...Harper's pathetic performance in Copenhagen will also come back to haunt him. As the debate heats up over the next year, it will force him to decide whether he is the Prime Minister of Canada, or the Prime Minister of Alberta...and a stooge of Big Oil.
Who is setting provinces against each other, and threatening national unity.
Yup. I think we can work with that. Of course we'll have to be a lot smarter and bolder and try some of the things Chantal Hébert talks about here. Over the past 25 years, the Liberals have lost all but one (2004) of the campaigns they fought against a united Conservative party. They are now a spent force in large areas of the country. The dice are loaded against their return to power, especially with a national majority. Instead of responding with new original moves, the Liberals and, to a lesser degree, the NDP have persisted in playing checkers on what had become a chessboard.
Because doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result, is the very definition of insanity. But we can do it. We can save Canada. If we hit the Cons harder than we ever have. We can pop the Great Dictator's balloon...
If he doesn't pop it first. Because you know what they say eh? Con times are grim times. But it's always darkest before the dawn...
I see the Afghanistan committee met today without the Cons, who would rather sabotage our democracy or slurp eggnog.
Than allow the truth about how we treated our prisoners to come out. But there's one thing about this Torture and Rape Scandal. Just when you think it can't get any worse it does.
More horror stories.
A transcript of one of the interviews with the Military Police Complaints Commission investigators reveals the army police compound in Kandahar could do nothing as the detainee baked in 140-degree heat in a detention centre designed to hold a handful of prisoners for a maximum of 96 hours.
The man, later released to his family with gifts intended to make amends, was suffering to the point his screams prompted soldiers in a nearby compound to ask the police if they were keeping a dog in the detention centre.
More evidence the war was being micromanaged from Ottawa.
A military police officer told the commission investigators that commanders in Ottawa repeatedly denied pleas to release the man, and his plight became a "nightmare."
"They could not release him," Sgt. Utton said. "They wanted to release him but we got orders from CEFCOM (Canadian Expeditionary Force Command in Ottawa), the task force commander, that we could not release ... I mean, we did everything we could, it was just our hands were tied between, it was the political stuff in Canada...
More evidence that the generals didn't care about the fate of our prisoners.
Military police Maj. Rowcliffe suggested to the commission investigators he did not get a positive response from Lt.-Gen. Gauthier when he raised concern over the lack of information about detainees after Canadians transferred them to Afghan forces. He likened Lt.-Gen. Gauthier's response to the lack of interest he received from the Kandahar base police commander.
And neither did the Cons.
"As his [Lt.-Gen. Gauthier's] adviser, I was making him aware of these concerns as well, that we're handing them over but we don't know what happens afterwards, and the message I was getting back, that we need to hand them over, I think it's in 72 hours, that's the maximum and basically (censored). I was a little bit skeptical of that whole scenario, but that was the position of the Government of Canada and that was the position I was getting from the military." Even though they knew what was going on.
Officially, the Red Cross would only say the talks focused on topics including Afghanistan, humanitarian law in modern conflicts and co-operation with Canada.
Unofficially, sources in Geneva said the international agency, whose functions include monitoring the treatment of prisoners, was growing frustrated over Canada's tardy notification of its handover of captured suspected Taliban to Afghan authorities. The delay could often be as much as 34 days, making it difficult to track the detainees.
And easier for the Afghans to torture them or KILL them.
Oh boy. You know the other day on my way home from work I came across this sign.
And I couldn't help thinking that if Stephen Harper was prepared to allow a badly wounded Canadian kid like Omar Khadr to be tortured in a place like Guantanamo.
Would anyone really be surprised if it turns out he was a torture enabler in Afghanistan? I realize a lot of Canadians probably wish this story would just go away. And from what we know now, I also understand why the Cons are doing their best to stop the truth from coming out.
But they must not be allowed to get away with it. Because some stories are a measure of the kind of Canadian values most of us still love and believe in.
And this story is one of them. Which is why now more than ever, for the sake of our soldiers, for the sake of our country. We need a public inquiry. ------------------------------------------------ P.S. And Omar Khadr does live here. So bring him home TOMORROW..
I've been trying to get in the mood for Chrissymas, but it's not easy when the homophobic vultures are all over the place squawking out their message of hate. Are religious liberties in Canada under threat? Pew does not say so. But I think it is fair to say they are, particularly from human rights commissions intent of subjugating religious practices to gay rights. It seems only a matter of time before one province’s or another’s commission attempts to make churches marry gay couples, regardless of those churches’ doctrines.
Oh sure. I realize that one should try to ignore The Grunter. Because he's not just a feathered bigot, but a climate change denier AND one of the Free Hate Speech Gang. Which means if he loses any more I.Q. points they are going to have to water him eh?
And if he gets any crazier they're going to have to lock him up. But even a dumbass like him isn't going to get away with that vile nonsense. Because gay people aren't victimizing ANYONE. We are the victims of the hatred and intolerance of others.... just because of who we are. Nobody should have the right to attack us for that. And nobody but NOBODY is going to tell us how to live or love.
Besides, who are these so-called defenders of free speech anyway? I'm not an expert on crawling life, so I asked this Con buffoon to shine a light on them.
And what a scary sight it was. Connie and Marc Fournier, Deborah Gyopang, Barbara Kay, Joseph Ben Ami, Randy Hillier, Brad Trost and only Jebesus knows how many other right-wing kooks and homophobes.
The kind of people who guard freedom, like a fox guards the chicken house.
Oh well, Bruce at Canuck Attitude has some fine words on The Grunter.
And Dr Dawg sums up the right-wing kooks and the Free Hate Speech crazies as only he can.
Defending vicious homophobes and neo-Nazis against the fearsome Human Rights Commissions is, we are told, a matter of principle. It's all about freedom of expression, not the substance of that expression. Odd, then, isn't it, that those who crush that freedom with guns and truncheons attract the cheering support of these erstwhile libertarians? But I just want to add this eh?
If any of those feathered bigots come anywhere near my back yard in the next few days.
I'll set my cat on them...
Because NOBODY is going to ruin my Christmas.
In fact, I just asked Santa to bring me one more gift: the slow and agonizing death of the National Post. Because I've been such a good boy and I soooooo deserve it.
Two years ago I started writing about how a group of religious fanatics were quietly taking control of Stephen Harper's PMO. And how nobody in the MSM was writing about it, because they didn't want to mix religion and politics. Even though these SoCons were using their narrow beliefs to shape government policy. So I was glad to see today that The Star has discovered the God Squad. "Harper has given the religious right a welcome and access in Ottawa and government they've never had before – and they've become used it." Because every Canadian should know that the PMO is being run by Christianists who believe that protecting gays from hate crimes is something the Nazis would do.
Or that gay rights should be scrapped, abortion should be severely restricted, and that their God has called them to remake this country: "Only God can make Canada a truly Christian country... We are called to speak biblical truth to seek justice – and that obviously has implications for our political life." Of course, it's an even bigger conspiracy. And this strikes me as a bit naive: It's unclear whether Harper shares their social Conservative – or theocon – beliefs. That's the big question that only one or more majority governments can answer. How far would Harper go on the hot-button social issues of the religious right, including abortion, same-sex marriage, easy divorce and public day care? Because Harper has been one of THEM since his breakdown meltdown born again experience in 1993.
And now that we know what he's like with a minority, how far does anyone think he might go with a MAJORITY?
Right. Which is why I don't agree with this: "Is he really a fanatic?" she asks in an interview. "I do not believe he is. I think he's a very wily strategist... I see him as tacking on a sailing course." Because he is a cold hearted fanatic who is ripping the soul out of this country. Why I'm afraid of this: However, if he were to do something, McDonald concludes, it would be irreversible by the time it was detected and "would change Canada in a profound way... People seem to wake up to what Harper is doing too late." And why I believe that if Canadians don't see the danger, or understand how these theocons are shaping policy. And the opposition doesn't have the courage to confront this religious right agenda. And doesn't do whatever it takes to drive these sinister Cons from power.
We really will wake up some day, in a country we don't RECOGNIZE...
It's hard not to be depressed about the way the Copenhagen summit ended in chaos, failure, and shame. Or angry like George Monbiot. First they put the planet in square brackets, now they have deleted it from the text. At the end it was no longer about saving the biosphere: it was just a matter of saving face... This has not happened by accident: it is the result of a systematic campaign of sabotage by certain states, driven and promoted by the energy industries. Corporate profits and political expediency have proved more urgent considerations than either the natural world or human civilisation. Or bitter like Johann Hari, over all the good ideas the summit leaders discarded. Discarded Idea One: The International Environmental Court. Any cuts that leaders claim they would like as a result of Copenhagen will be purely voluntary. If a government decides not to follow them, nothing will happen, except a mild blush, and disastrous warming. Canada signed up to cut its emissions at Kyoto, and then increased them by 26 per cent – and there were no consequences. Copenhagen could unleash a hundred Canadas. And their failure to accept the obvious. We will have to pay higher taxes and fly less to make the leap to a renewably powered world – but we will still be able to live an abundant life where we are warm and free and well fed. The only real losers will be the fossil fuel corporations and the petro-dictatorships.
But our politicians have not chosen this sane path. No: they have chosen inertia and low taxes and oil money today over survival tomorrow. It's all true and beyond disgusting. But strangely enough I also feel encouraged by what I saw. The rich nations and the poor ones may have screamed at each other, but at least they're fighting over the future of the planet. Talking about the REAL problems that threaten our common survival. And that will inevitably lead to the trial of a global economic system that allows some to live lives of greedy luxury, while condemning others to lives of poverty and misery. A world where a billion human beings go to bed hungry every night.
Because we won't be able to save the planet, from climate change or anything else, unless we change that inhuman system. Change the system, save the world, save the poor, save the children...
As John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace U.K. said tonight: It is now evident that beating global warming will require a radically different model of politics than the one on display here in Copenhagen." If Stephen Harper and the planet destroyers think the battle is over, they should know that it's just BEGINNING. This time there were tens of thousands in the streets. Next time there will be MILLIONS...
He came. He hid. He bombed. Canada’s 2020 target is among the worst in the industrialized world, and leaked cabinet documents revealed that the governments is contemplating a cap-and-trade plan so weak that it would put even that target out of reach. Canada’s performance here in Copenhagen builds on two years of delay, obstruction and total inaction. This government thinks there’s a choice between environment and economy, and for them, tar sands beats climate every time. And Canada was embarrassed. Again. Once we were seen as a decent people, who tried to help heal the wounds of this world. Now we're seen by many as greedy planet destroyers, dirty oil pimps, torture pigs, and the last of the Bush Cons. Nice eh? Think of it...in thirty years when the betrayed generation looks back in anger at this pitiful deal. "The city of Copenhagen is a crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport...It is now evident that beating global warming will require a radically different model of politics than the one on display here in Copenhagen."
There will be Stephen Harper's bobble head staring back at them, at the Colossal Fossil Awards... that Canada WON. Oh well. At least there was some comic relief. The desperate attempts by the Harper Gang to get a photo-op, a pat on the back, a doggie bone, from Obama and his people.
And the equally desperate attempts by the Obama people to avoid being photographed with the Calgary Oil pimp.
And who can blame them eh?
How can they hope to spin failure into victory, with Harper in their corner...or in their pocket. They know a Kiss Fossil of Death when they see one.
When will Canadians see the same danger ? Recognize the terrible damage Harper and his hideous Cons are doing to the reputation and soul of this country.
Which reminds me... at least we have this to look forward to next week..
Because after this disgusting Con performance it should be obvious, that if we're going to help save the planet.
Well I see my hero Richard Colvin is a WINNER. He must be if even Don Martin says so. His 16-page rebuttal, running up against a Conservative boycott of a committee probing the Afghan detainee controversy and curt "no comment required" from the Minister's office, suggests a Richard Colvin public relations victory is possible, if not probable.
So watch the government's behaviour in the months to come. If it keeps obstructing documentation, boycotting committees or even proroguing Parliament, those will be the sure signs Richard Colvin's one-man battle to free the truth is triumphing over a government cover-up.
Even if he practically CHOKES on it. But who cares eh?
I LOVE war crime stories with happy endings. Or is it just a dream?
The Prime Minister is now in such command that he can get away with pretty much anything. And he is lauded for his conquests. The key is that once you've established such a pronounced degree of control over the levers of power, you're in position to strong-arm your way past anything. And so the government has halted hearings on the detainee file by boycotting them. And so the government is threatening to prorogue Parliament again so it doesn't have to face more detainee music.
It's more evidence from a stockpile of how the system's been brought to heel. It's democracy Canadian-style. Oh boy. From a parliamentary democracy to a banana republic...or Big Brother's House of Shame ... in just 1,410 days. Never has a great country gone down the toilet faster. Will the left ever unite .... or form a mighty coalition...to sweep these sinister Cons from power FOREVER? How soon can we have a public inquiry?
Believe it or not, that's the outrageous question the BBC thought was worth debating. So they shouldn't have been surprised by comments like these: Totally agree. Ought to be imposed in the UK too, asap. Bring back some respectable family values. Why do we have to suffer 'gay pride' festivals? Would I be allowed to organise a 'straight pride' festival? No, thought as much!! If homosexuality is natural, as we are forced to believe, how can they sustain the species? I suggest all gays are put on a remote island somewhere and left for a generation - after which, theoretically there should be none left !" "Bravo to the Ugandans for this wise decision, a bright step in eliminating this menace from your society. We hope other African nations will also follow your bold step." Just ashamed of themselves for asking that question in the first place, and for trying to defend their disgracful decision. Liliane Landor, the BBC World Service acting head of Africa region, defended the radio programme and talkboard post, saying it allowed gays and lesbians from Uganda, whose voices have never been heard in the UK, to talk with dignity about the impact the legislation would have on their lives.
And for inviting guests like these, for a "dignified exchange" on whether gay people should be murdered. The show also included the opinion of those who supported the anti-homosexual legislation, including religious leaders, she said. "The programme was a dignified exchange between people who have differing beliefs," Landor added. Because NOBODY has the right to debate the existence of gay peopleT. Or whether genocide is justified. Would they have written that headline if it was Jews, or blacks or any other group? I don't think so. Why did their gay and lesbian employees have to beg their managers to change it ? The BBC Pride board, composed of gay and lesbian staff at the corporation, lobbied the World Service to change the headline and close discussion "to minimise negative reflection on the BBC". And of course the Big Question: why do so many straight people hate gay people so much? Not just in genocidal Africa, or supposedly civilized Britain. But right here in Canada.
Good for the Globe for disabling the comments, so gay people didn't have to read even more homophobic garbage aimed at them just because of who they are. But when the Globe is forced to do that, you can only imagine how ugly those comments must have been. And all over a picture of two gay guys and their dog. Oh well. I guess we'll have to fight them FOREVER. What a sick world...
He was a reluctant whistleblower. Just a quiet, professional doing his job, and telling the truth about torture. The Cons tried to silence him, and when they couldn't do that anymore they smeared him and tried to destroy his career. But today that quiet Canadian came back at them, and blew their dirty criminal cover-up to pieces. Former Afghanistan diplomat Richard Colvin slammed back at some of the testimony heard from witnesses at the committee investigating the Afghan detainee affair, insisting that he had warned Canadian officials that prisoners were being abused. In his letter, Colvin highlights six reports sent to Ottawa in 2006, including one he said noted that "torture is rife" in Afghan jails. My hero Richard Colvin. There are so many stunning revelations it's hard to know where to begin. But this is what we now know: We handed over all kinds of prisoners to the Afghan authorities, including many on the battlefield so they wouldn't be classified as our detainees, and we could wash their hands of them. Even though the Generals should have known they might be tortured. It was generally known that prisoners in Afghanistan are routinely tortured or abused. In Kandahar, the risk is even higher than in the average province. Kandahar is on the front lines of the insurgency. Each side treats the other with brutality, and NDS officers and their families are regularly targeted and killed. About half the NDS's staff formerly served in KhAD, the KGB‐trained Soviet‐era intelligence service, which also had a well‐deserved reputation for ferocity. Lieutenant‐General Gauthier commanded Canadian troops in Kandahar in 2002, and General Hillier commanded ISAF in Kabul in 2004. It is implausible that they would not have known how Afghans treat their prisoners.
But still we rushed these prisoners into the hands of the NDS and then took as long as possible until we notified the Red Cross. According to testimony to the Military Police Complaints Commission, it was CEFCOM in Ottawa, not military officers in the field, that made decisions about each detainee, and urged the field commanders to transfer them to NDS as fast as possible. It was also CEFCOM that created the artificial delays that kept out ICRC monitors during the critical first days when detainees were being interrogated by the NDS.
So the NDS could have more time to torture or rape them.
And how did CEFCOM respond to Colvin's warnings? I informed an interagency meeting of some 12 to 15 officials in Ottawa that, "The NDS tortures people, that's what they do, and if we don't want our detainees tortured, we shouldn't give them to the NDS." (The NDS, or National Directorate of Security, is Afghanistan's intelligence service.) The response from the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command (CEFCOM) note‐taker was to stop writing and put down her pen. And how did the Cons react? Interdepartmental Coordinator for Afghanistan David Mulroney suggested that the only reason reports were edited was to remove 'opinion' or 'non‐fact based' information. This is not correct. Instead, embassy staffers were told that they should not report information, however accurate, that conflicted with the government's public messaging. By turning truth into propaganda. And by trying to smear the messenger. On the question of credibility, some officials have suggested that I only left the PRT once and was mostly confined to compounds. For the record, I went "outside the wire" in Kandahar at least eleven times, including attending a shura of 300 elders in northern Kandahar (which was widely covered by the media), visiting villages in Arghandab, and spending the night at a forward operating base in Panjwayi. In Kabul, I left the protected embassy zone (presumably "the wire") an average of twice a day ‐‐ probably 500 times in total. Which is more than those Cons, or those Generals, or that chickenhawk Christie Blatchford ever did. So how are the Cons reacting to Richard Colvins's demolition of their cover-up?
By parroting the Big Lie, and trying to hide behind our soldiers. The miserable sleazy COWARDS. Enough of this criminal charade. We need a public inquiry NOW...
I don't usually enjoy seeing anyone brought down by Amerika's draconian drug laws. But I think I'll make an exception in the case of this ugly homophobe. Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton is facing charges that he attempted along with others to buy a large quantity of cocaine from an undercover law enforcement officer. Banton, 36, faces a charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, which carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. Because a thug who sings about how gay people should have acid poured on them...or should be shot in the head.... (Boom boom boom) Boom bye bye Inna batty boy head. Rude bwoy no promote the nasty man Dem haffi dead Boom bye bye.... Or burned alive.... Dis is not a deal Guy come near we Then his skin must peel Burn him up bad like an old tire wheel. And has a background like this one. Banton was charged in connection with a 2004 incident in which he, as part of a group of about a dozen people, allegedly beat six men believed to be homosexuals, after forcing entry into a house in Kingston, near Banton's recording studio. One of the victims lost use of an eye in the attack. Charges against Banton were dismissed by the judge in the case in January 2006, for lack of evidence. Deserves to do some REALLY hard time...in a jail full of gay thugs. And certainly doesn't deserve to win a Grammy. Oh yeah, guess who his idiot supporters are blaming for the Buju bigot's arrest? On Monday, in South Florida and Jamaica, callers burned up radio airwaves, calling the arrest a ``conspiracy'' to get him after his recent controversy that included protests by local gay-rights advocates over a Halloween concert in downtown Miami.
``What they are saying is that he got off that time and they are fixing him now.'' Right. The batty boys. Because in the U.S. gay people are so powerful they tell the police what to do, and can hypnotize bigots into wanting to buy several kilos of cocaine. And then lick the blow off a knife... while the cameras are rolling.
Which reminds me...since unfortunately I love reggae music...how dare this homophobic thug call himself a rasta?
Buju. Bigot. Bumbaclaat. Real rastas don't do that nasty shit cocaine.
They sing about love and revolution not crazy hate. And they only do the holy herb...
May the real rastas like Peter and the Great Bob live on forever. May the evil homophobes rot in jail. Boom Boom Batty Buju. Bye Bye BIGOT...
