Harper as a Work Place Bully

Good post over at http://politiquevert.wordpress.com/2007/03/22/harpers-hooliganism-deflect-deride-deny/.

Our Taxes

Our taxes in the famous "13 years" before Mr. H. used to go to paying down the debt incurred by the Conservatives, programs for the less fortunate, legal institutions that protected the citizen from excesses of the state, the equality of women, institutions that ensured democracy, arts and culture, fairness to the First Nations people whose land we illegally claimed as ours, the health and well-being of all our citizens (care when we are at our most vulnerable) and it was just starting to be used for the most precious part of our society, our children. As poll after poll showed we as Canadians never regretted paying our taxes for these purposes.

Then along came Mr. H. Now our taxes, which went up, are going to warfare, undermining our democratic institutions, pitting one part of the country against the other, and vote buying (and don't forget paying thug-like types to spy on the opposition). I am so disgusted words fail me.

You can be very sure that come the next election there will be many very active citizens.

OK Now I Am Really Pissed

Reading the various Globe and Mail analyses of the budget sent me into a rage. I am not smart enough I guess to realize that this budget was not just about buying votes in Quebec but about also about buying targeted votes in Ontario and who knows where else - with billions of our tax payers dollars. Harper is hell-bent on getting himself a majority. While he was supposed to be governing, he has been devoting all his energies and our money to unfolding his scheme. To continue the metaphor, it's diabolical.

Did This Budget Do Anything for Your Family?

I use the word "family" in its most inclusive sense, not only in the narrow "blond soccer mom, two kids, lawn-mowing dad" sense. I thought it would be interesting to get some responses to see if indeed any Canadian families will actually benefit from the billions in spending. The comments section here will serve as an open forum, an ad hoc cross section, if any one would like to leave a response.

Do You Think You're Dumb?

One says to oneself after an overdose of Mike Duffy, "Thank heavens for Don Newman". Then you watch a show like today's and you know we've hit bottom: intelligent and media can never again be used in the same sentence.

First Newman goes on and on about how complicated Dion's new environmental policy is, then they discuss whether the public will be able to understand the difference between caps and intensity targets, and then they wax eloquent about M. H.'s incredible ability to "dumb down" ideas for the electorate and how Dion needs to learn to do the same.

So, the real public - the ones who are clearly more astute and intelligent than Mr. Newman and his guests - where do they go for political commentary?

Behind the Smokescreen

Behind a smokescreen of re-packaged Liberal environmental programs, Harper is not so quietly disbanding the very infrastructure and expertise that resulted in these programs. And this after the Environment Commissioner in the office of the Auditor General was not long ago mysteriously let go and not replaced. According to the Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070315.CLIMATE15/TPStory/TPNational/Politics/?cid=al_gam_nletter_thehill

"The Conservative government has eliminated a section of Environment Canada that played a key role in shaping climate-change policies now being announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. . .

Frustrated bureaucrats said the move is an example of the government's zeal to wrest control from public servants over an increasingly politicized issue.

"The [policy] work now is being done by a very small handful of people under the direct supervision of [the Privy Council Office] and PMO." . . .

"Environment Canada bureaucrats said they don't even know who's responsible for climate-change policy any more. They said the now-defunct directorate was specifically in charge of overseeing all new climate-change policy, and that its 10 employees are being reassigned to various quarters.

"Even the people working here say, 'Who's really accountable for making climate-change policy any more?' They don't even know," said one bureaucrat who requested anonymity. "Right now we don't know who's accountable.""

Everything that Mr. H. does on environment in the public domain are Liberal policy and programs while he systematically pursues his no longer hidden agenda of becoming an autocrat (and that's putting it nicely) and dismantling our democracy.

Legislative Committee on C-30 - Certainly Not an Exchange of Ideas

The media keep saying that the Liberals created the spin on Harper of a hidden agenda, but they're wrong on two counts: the agenda's not really hidden and the everyday citizen doesn't need it spun, they can see it.

It's ironic that Harper is trying to create fear of a 'world without Harper', when he and his gang are a source of legitimate and genuine fear. I just caught a glimpse of the Legislative Committee on C-30 Canada's Clear Air Act on CPAC and watched Brian Jean's McCarthy-like attack questions on his rather astonished victims.

Brian Jean is a Conservative Parliamentary Secretary and he was supposedly asking questions of a number of representatives from interested parties. Instead he came out like an attack dog and put words in their mouths and then demanded yes or no answers. I didn't catch the names of the witnesses but one was a man from Quebec and the other a woman from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. He accused the man of being part of a group that marched for Kyoto and wanted to give North America's riches to the south American poor, echoes of Harper's socialist plot theory. He tried to force the woman to admit that the Clean Air Act fulfilled everything her group wanted and that they were salivating over the money promised for transit.

It would seem that this government does not really believe in democracy - they are utterly lacking in the concepts of respect and responsibility. Just watch Mr. Jean in action and tell me, you're not dismayed.

Bush's Boy Yet Again

So back to those goofy CFRA ads using little laptop images of Harper and touting his biofuels initiatives. The ads are sponsored by mostly US companies and hit the air just as Bush was moving on his ethanol initiative in Latin America which unfolded this week in Brazil in what the media are describing as an OPEC-like ethanol cartel.

At the same time a $400 million biofuel (including ethanol) refinery was recently announced in Alberta, to be open by mid-2008. The companies backing it are Dominion Energy Services and the Carlyle Group/Riverstone Holdings. As everyone knows, the Carlyle Group is based in Washington and is intertwined with the US government.

In January Harper announced $1.48 billion (over 10 years) to boost Canada’s supply of clean electricity from renewable sources such as biomass (including ethanol). I wonder if the $600 million to farmers just announced will require them to produce certain ethanol producing crops?

Under Klein Alberta became part of the US oil empire, now it's being positioned by Bush and Harper to be subsumed in a possible US ethanol empire.

The Liberal Chatty Kathys

I'm saddened by the apparent mucky muckying that some Liberal caucus members appear to be doing with the media and the leaks. Perhaps it is only one or two, but whoever it is, they need to be dealt with now. That kind of disloyalty can only be increasingly detrimental to the party as we move towards an election. It also shows that whoever is doing it is kind of stupid, since it's unlikely to enhance their own career prospects. It just amazes me that anyone would even want to have a conversation with Mr. Fife or any of the others circling for blood.

Everyone's a Strategist

The media and the blogosphere are buzzing with criticism of Dion's lack of decisive policies. I can no longer resist adding my perspective. First, whatever Dion is doing I'm sure it's intelligent and well-considered and will surprise people.

Second, if you watch Harper's methods, they're all about watching what the public respond to in what the Liberals have said, then taking their concept, reshaping it so that it is far less, but sounds the same, and then throwing money at the greatly downsized version. So the more Dion reveals, the more Harper pretends to believe in Liberal policies. Clearly it does not help the Liberals for Dion to lay it all out for Harper.

Were Harper to win a majority, which is highly unlikely because I think the Canadian citizenry is too astute for that, he would drop all his fake positions, and proceed full tilt with the ones he really believes in, and those are clear from the policies he has actually created himself: control of the judiciary, downsizing the role of the charter, expanding the military and its combat role, getting women out of the work place, etc. etc. but most of all he would try to turn Canada into an authoritarian state, by concentrating all the power in the hands of a few.

If you're not convinced, make two lists, one of what Harper has initiated, the other what he has copied from the Liberals. It will be very telling.

You Know Those Goofy CRFA Ads?

At first I thought these goofy ads were Harper advertising himself and I thought wow! that's a waste of money. Then I saw the little CRFA logo, so I checked them out. Is it not illegal for a third party to advertise for a political party during an election? Oh right, Harper doesn't want an election. I guess these guys have so much money they've spent it on their boy just in case. Here are all the green giants who make up the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association:

Full Membership
Monsanto Canada
General Motors of Canada Limited
World Energy-->
Archer Daniels Midland
BBI Biofuels
Biox Corporation
Bunge Canada
Canadian Bioenergy Corporation
Canadian Renderers Association
Canola Council of Canada
GreenField Ethanol
Iogen Corporation
Suncor Energy Products Inc.
Associate Membership
Agricore United
Canadian Canola Growers Association
CASCO
Ensask Biofuels Ltd.
Ontario Soybean Growers Association
Pioneer Hi-Bred
Rothsay
Shell Canada Products
West Coast Biodiesel Limited
Honourary Membership
Canada Clean Fuels Inc.
Blackstone Energy Services
Degussa Canada Ltd.
Greenstock Resources Inc.
Lignol Innovations Corporations
Societé Generale
Sylvite Group of Companies
Terragrain Fuels

What's Really Happening in Afghanistan

This is a PBS interview with Malalai Joya, a female member of the Afghanistan parliament. So much for our presence there.

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/309/joya_interview.html