I really have to hand it to John Ibbitson, his timing couldn't be better. As the bloated capitalist pig stumbles around in its final agony. And threatens to plunge us into another devastating recession.
He's scribbling away furiously, urging Stephen Harper to give in to his wild side.
The past five years suggest that Cautious Stephen will keep Wild Steve in check. But if the Prime Minister does want to let his inner über-conservative twin loose, this is the time to do it.
As if this is the time to mutilate E.I., screw the poorer provinces, and start privatizing the medicare system, when Harper's Teabagger plan to cut taxes for the rich, and slash jobs, is leading this country to economic catastrophe.
As if Stephen Harper has ever been held in check, or needed any encouragement to morph from Mr SweaterMr Hockey DadMr Kitten Lover Mr Mini-Golf.
Into Mr MANIAC.
Gawd. It's enough to make you scream Ibbitson you IDIOT !!! Or I want my money BACK!!!
This June in Canada, 10,000 more jobs were created than in the U.S. But before tax cuts are given credit, consider these facts: Part-time jobs outnumbered full-time by three to one; construction and manufacturing jobs didn't increase; 51,000 new jobs were in the public sector while only 22,000 were in the private sector; the unemployment rate didn't drop.
Or ask the nasty Con gnome Jimbo Flaherty to give back the "Finance Minister Championship Belt" the Ford gang gave him.
But then he's the one who wants Canadians to prepare for retirement by putting their non-existent savings into an office pool, and playing the stock market casino.
He's under attack from the savage right, and the racial dog whistle blowers of the Fox Nation.
The disappointed left is threatening to abandon him.
So I think it's probably a good time to think about what it might be like if he wasn't the good people's President. And remember his many small victories.
The federal health care plan will cover all FDA-approved contraceptive methods, treatment of sexually transmitted infections, cervical cancer screening, breast feeding support, diabetes tests during pregnancy, annual "well woman" visits and counseling for domestic violence.
Federal officials said the new guidelines, which go into effect by 2012, could benefit as many as 34 million women 18 to 64 years old who aren't covered for such services.
Because in an America torn apart by religious bigots and right-wing extremists determined to lynch the first black President, every victory is a big one.
So please join me in celebrating this one.
With the good people from Planned Parenthood...
Woo hoo. Excellent. I HAVE to learn to dance like that.
OMG. The plot thickens. In my last post I told you how a video of Jimbo Flaherty getting a "Finance Minister's Championship Belt" from Rob Ford had mysteriously disappeared.
And how I assumed it had been taken down after this.
Because after that calling Jimbo anything but a loser would be practically fraud. Or FROD.
But it turns out I was wrong. The video was apparently taken down because the PMO didn't like what it revealed about Stephen Harper's plan for total Con domination.
So, to recap — there was surprise guest Harper, telling the crowd about a heretofore unknown fishing trip with Ford, lauding the mayor for cleaning up the NDP mess at City Hall, patting himself on the back for cleaning up the leftist mess in Ottawa, rooting on Tim Hudak (without specifically naming him) to complete the “hat trick” by ousting Dalton McGuinty on Oct. 6.
Golly. I don't blame them eh? That Con Uber Alles stuff is enough to scare ANYONE.
Although I wouldn't be surprised if somebody out there made a copy of the video before it was taken down.
And if that's the case I certainly intend to get my hands on it.
So I can make my own version...
Oh sure. It may not be the classiest video I've ever made eh?
Not with the Fordzilla in a starring grunting role.
Holy hobbit. How ironic eh? There was little Jimbo Flaherty the other day at Rob Ford's millionaire redneck BBQ. Being hee hawed as a financial genius, and awarded a "Finance Minister's Championship Belt" by the Fordzilla himself.
Only to wake up this morning, to find himself considerably diminished, the belt around his ankles, and a ratty little dunce cap on his head.
Because once again, he didn't see it coming, and he doesn't know what he's doing.
His Cons have spent billions of dollars on dubious vote-buying projects, with no long term economic benefits. They have allowed the dollar to rise and finish off our manufacturing and tourism industries.
They have turned us into a nation of hewers of commodities and drawers of dirty oil. Even though the historical record is clear: what goes up usually comes down...
(clic pic to enlarge)
And now with inflation rising, job creation stalled, a shrinking economy, and a tanking stock market, they are planning to throw thousands of Canadians into the street.
Even though that will almost certainly cause another recession.
So why are they doing this? Answer: because they are rabid Con ideologues like the Teabaggers in the United States. They want to destroy government, and they only know two ways to do that. Cut taxes for the rich, and slash spending for the poor.
And how do they get away with it ? Answer: Because you CAN fool enough of the people all of the time. Just like you can make the video of Flaherty receiving his Championship Belt, mysteriously disappear.
Oh yeah. Jimbo Flaherty is a champion Finance Minister. Stephen Harper is an economic genius.
Canada is back baby !!!!!
And it's morning mourning in America...
Now the lights are about to go out in Canada. Now we're about to pay for the greatest and dumbest mistake in Canadian history.
As the Liberals continue their fevered pathetic assault on Nycole Turmel.
No doubt hoping that out of her ashes, their shrunken party will rise again, like some fleshless phoenix. Or some charred scarecrow.
Even as they help fuel comments like these in the pages of the MSM:
It probably wouldn't hurt if they read this column.
Because then they might, hopefully, ask themselves, what the hell are they are doing?
Do they really believe that by bashing a 67-year-old granny, whipping up a Red Separatist Scare, and encouraging anti-French feeling, that they can win back Quebec? The province they absolutely need to recover, if they are ever to become a viable party again.
And where else do they think this tempest in a cracked teapot will help them? In Manitoba, Saskatchewan, or Alberta?
Or will it help bring the real separatists to power, help the Cons win another majority, and maybe even contribute to the destruction of our country?
Gawd. Never has the Liberal Party stooped so low. Or acted so dumb.
They lost Quebec because they couldn't understand it. And now because they STILL don't understand it, they are about to lose it all over again.
And worse they can't seem to understand that granny Turmel, and her gang of young Quebec MPs, have dealt the real separatists the hardest blow they have EVER received.
Oh boy. For years I have tried to be as non-partisan as possible, and avoided being too harsh on the Liberals, hoping against hope that progressives would unite to defeat the Cons. But not any longer.
"I do think Canadians will find this disappointing," Harper said. "I think Canadians expect that any political party that wants to govern the country be unequivocally committed to this country. I think that's the minimum Canadians expect."
Because it can't be easy to say that he is just "disappointed" by the Turmel tempest in a tea pot, when he's so delighted he probably wants to kiss a Liberal. And hypocrisy can be so debilitating.
Because it must also be hard to admit that when it comes to managing the economy he's a dismal failure. Or even harder to explain how the economy has been tanking ever since he was re-elected.
But then I realized he was probably just recovering from his fishing trip with his buddy Rob Ford.
Rob Ford’s new fishing buddy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, says the Toronto mayor didn’t live up to his reputation during a recent fishing trip when he caught a 39-centimetre-long smallmouth bass but refused to “kill it and eat it.”
Because that's grotesque. Considering that the Fordzilla is trying to kill and eat Toronto.
And this is enough to make anyone VOMIT.
In his surprise speech to the crowd, Harper thanked Ford’s mother, Diane, for “giving us this great Conservative political dynasty.”
“Many of you may remember Rob endorsed us in the election. That helped a lot,” Harper told the crowd in the video. “Rob is doing something very important that needs to be done here. He is cleaning up the NDP mess here in Toronto.”
But what do you expect eh?
Fish of a feather flock together. Canada is on its way to becoming a third world Con Banana Republic. If progressives don't realize that they must unite to defeat this right-wing conspiracy, rather than fighting themselves, they'll be gutted like fish. Over and over again.
Golly. Who knew you could combine the McCarthy hearings with Alice in Wonderland and make a non-story sound so alarming?
“We all support our friends — that doesn’t mean we buy a membership for five years with a party that wants to break up Canada,” Dimitri Soudas, director of communications for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, posted to Twitter on Tuesday.
“This is yet another worrying example of the NDP not (being) up to the job of governing Canada.”
As yet, there has been no official statement from the Bloc Quebecois, but I suspect it would consist of nothing but the French version of "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA".
Because if I was a Blocker I'd laugh too eh? Declaring that former separatists can't become federalists may or may not win an election... in English Canada. But it's a sure way to lose a country.
Oh boy. Look, for the record, Canada is a complex country not a simple one. Just about every Québécois and Québécoise is a soft nationalist. i.e. a member of the Quebec Nation, in Canada.
A lot of people vote voted for the Bloc because it's a social democratic party, that couldn't do ANYTHING to make Quebec independent, being a federal party in a federal Parliament. Duh.
And as for Québec solidaire... it's a tiny feel good left-wing party/movement, the kind of group you would expect a decent social activist like Turmel to join.
Rather than working for independence for its own sake, QS works for an internationalist independence - an independence based on principles of social justice. For QS, independence is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Because even in Don Cherry's dumb Canada, nuance is important eh?
Which makes me wonder why so many Liberal bloggers seem to be jumping on the Con bandwagon.
Do they think that bashing Turmel will resuscitate their party in Quebec? When it will only make her TWICE as popular.
Are they mad or just DESPERATE?
I mean do they REALLY want to help the Bloc make a comeback? Who do they think stands to gain from painting the roses NDP as separatists? Or watching progressives fight each other.
And who do they think put the cat among the pigeons?
Well I see the ghastly game is finally over, and many progressives are accusing Obama of caving in to the fanatical teabaggers. Settling for a Satan Sandwich.
Now I love Orwell. And after reading Krugman's column I'm seriously considering stocking up on food, water, and video games to prepare for the darkness ahead.
I understand their disappointment. It's not easy to see The Great Black Hope Captain America looking so diminished...
But here's the thing eh? Obama had no choice but to give in to the teabaggers on the question of spending cuts and taxing the rich. He couldn't play Russian roulette with the global economy. But he hasn't lost yet.
When the time comes to decide what to cut, and more Americans realize that the pound of flesh they were screaming for is being carved out of their buttocks, Obama can make his case for raising taxes by asking the American people to decide between Mary in her wheelchair, or her hospital bed, and Bernie in his corporate jet.
Politics is the art of the possible. Timing is everything. And the teabaggers just made his job easier by sticking it to the Republican hawks.
So I wouldn't be too hard on Obama eh? Because those progressives who call him a Republican are underestimating him. And those who would abandon him are living in a fantasy world.
I am not blind to Obama's shortcomings, or to the group of Democratic Senators beholden to corporate America...
But those people are not our problem right now. The real issue is simple: you can not negotiate with sociopaths. All you can do is minimize the damage before you vote them out of office.
Angry at Obama? Fine. Glowing with the white hot hatred of a thousand suns at what the GOP is doing to our country?
No?
Then you're part of the problem.
The good news? This was only one battle, and the only thing that counts is who wins The War.
The teabaggers have shown their ugly face, and are sure to further divide their party
Boehner got boned. Obama lives to fight again.
It may be a Satan Sandwich, with a sideorder of "Satan Fries" as la Pelosi said. But in the end the RepubliCons will EAT IT.
And best of all, Stephen Harper's Cons and Rob Ford's gang will now more easily be seen by even the dumbest Canadians as Canada's very own teabaggers.
The Canadian chapter of the tax cut fairies...
And hopefully one day be driven swatted from power, by the power of almighty reason.
Hudak thinks it’s sufficient to promise he won’t reopen the debate on abortion rights, although such a debate is not occurring in Ontario and the fact that he thinks it is says a lot about his views.
A politician’s promise means nothing, especially since Hudak has to answer to a hard-right caucus that may well demand that since abortion can’t be banned, women seeking abortions must be tormented.
Mallick gives credit where credit is due.
The story about Hudak signing the petition emerged on a blog by a smart woman who keeps an eye on things. She noticed that Hudak’s stance, or lack of one, was reported on the ARPA website.
And explains to the Christianist who complained, why he doesn't know what he's talking about:
The blogger “had a chip on his/her shoulder,” Penninga said.
And yes, she did. But what he and Hudak and Harper should understand is that abortion is not a “chip” on a woman’s shoulder, it is her body and her life, her internal sanctity and her choice.
I am warning those who want Canadian women to lose their right to abortion that this will not be a skirmish. It lives in the hearts of girls and women. We will fight you on this.
You know Hudak can shrug off the controversy over his plans to put dangerous criminals on our streets and in our parks. And he can try to explain why he seems obsessed about chicken houses.
The Conservatives have egg on their faces after claiming there's so much red tape in Dalton McGuinty's Ontario that egg farmers are told what colour to paint the insides of their barns.
The feathered IDIOT.
But the abortion issue will haunt him all the way to the election.
Well now we know that when he's not flipping the bird at people, or belching loudly, Rob Ford can shake his massive butt in the street. As long as it isn't at a gay event.
Even though Pride Week brings at least five times as much money into the city as does this Carnival.
At its launch July 21, Ford praised the festival’s contribution to Ontario’s economy and arts scene, saying it brought $483 million to the province in 2009.
And now that we know that him and his gang have no intention of listening to the people of Toronto.
At the press conference called Friday afternoon to debrief the media on next steps, budget chief Mike Del Grande was clear the emotion of deputants the night prior had changed nothing.
“Just because everything is on the table,” Del Grande said, “doesn’t mean it’s going to be cut.” That’s why Del Grande has been carrying around a piggybank and warning about the coming “tsunami.”
And now I know that the millionaire Con the piggybank is modelled after is a grotesque bully:
Rob Ford, the football coach, has this thing he does with his players when they step out of line. He makes them roll the length of the field in full equipment until they puke.
And you know how I hate bullies.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could roll him out of City Hall, and make Margaret Atwood the new Mayor of Toronto?
Oh sure I know it's just a symbolic protest, and the best way to stop Ford is to put pressure on the city councillors who are shamelessly kissing his ass. And organize massive demonstrations.
But wouldn't it be lovely to give the city a touch of class again?
And send this message out to the whole world: Rob Ford is NOT our Mayor.
