April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

Harper

Harper is…The Bubble Boy

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Hiding behind sweater vests and the RCMP, Harper has made it clear he suffers from cantrelatetoaveragecanadian syndrome. This has been shown time and again by his aversion to questions from media, accountability for his actions and an inability to see the 2×4 in his own eye whilst decrying the sliver in a political opponents among other symptoms.

Rallies are off-limits for any member of the public who just shows up. Nobody gets in unless they have been pre-registered by the local riding association. Even local media are asked to sign up in advance.

Anyone wanting to attend an event featuring Harper has to have his or her name vetted by the RCMP, said a source at Conservative campaign headquarters, who would only talk on background yesterday. He said this rule applies even outside the campaign period, so no one – even a staffer not scheduled to be there – can show up unannounced at a Harper speech and expect to be let in.

The Harper campaign keeps a short leash on national and local media, limiting questions and access to local candidates, sometimes calling on RCMP security to block reporters from doing their jobs.

The Star

Sure sounds like open and accountable government to me….or not.

Harper is not a leader

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But he is a whiner and a bully.

Support us on Afghanistan or we’ll call an election. Support this bill or we’ll call an election.

Call me dear leader or I’ll call an election.

A leader doesn’t need to bully, threaten and carry on. A bully though…

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told the Senate committee on legal affairs that it should pass the bill in February. If that doesn’t happen, he said he would tell Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the bill is a confidence measure and let him deal with it appropriately.

“We say to Liberal senators, and we say to (Liberal Leader) Stephane Dion, tell your Liberal colleagues to push this through,” said Day.

Day called on the public to contact senators to push the bill through.

But senators counter that they don’t understand the government’s rush all of a sudden. They said they are constitutionally required to consider the bill fully and they won’t be strong-armed into speeding up their decision to fit a government-imposed schedule.

Manitoba Senator Sharon Carstairs told Mike Duffy Live that the Tory government is trying to bully the Senate.

“Unfortunately, for Mr. Harper, senators can’t be bullied,” she said.

“We want to hear from the public … particularly on two issues. I am very concerned about the impact of this (bill) on Aboriginal people. Reverse onus bail conditions, for example.”

Reverse onus would require people accused of violent crimes to state why they should receive bail, rather than put the onus on prosecutors to prove why the accused should be kept in jail.

“We do have Charter rights and one of them is to be silent, but you can’t be silent if you have to, in fact, prove reverse onus,” said Carstairs.

CTV

Free Khadr

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From the CBC;

A U.S. soldier at the battle said in sworn testimony that two al-Qaeda fighters were alive after the fatal grenade attack.

The unidentified soldier says he killed the first al-Qaeda fighter before spotting Khadr, whom he said was wounded, on his knees and facing away from him. For reasons he does not go into, he says he shot him in the back twice.

The Pentagon says American soldiers fired on Khadr in self-defence after he tried to attack them.

Khadr’s military lawyer Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler suggests that the U.S. military may have been involved in a coverup.

“The U.S. government had a problem on its hands when it found that it had a 15-year-old Canadian on its hands with two gaping bullet holes in his back that had been facing away from the fight,” said Kuebler.

{emphasis mine}

So here we have a 15 year old shot in the back, imprisoned, tortured, denied basic human rights and dignities and Harper can’t take Bush’s dick out of his mouth long enough to demand Khadr’s immediate release and return?

Harper is not a leader. He is a school yard bully who got left in charge in of the class, and it is time the class pulled their heads out of their books and got a teacher back in charge.

I’d leave off by asking that Harper look deep inside and do the right thing. But he already has his head as far up his ass as it will go.

Message to Dion

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Don’t follow the lights!

harperg.gif

OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada will extend its mission in Afghanistan beyond 2009 only if NATO is able to find an additional 1,000 soldiers to fight with the Canadians in Kandahar – and he reached out to Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion for his support.

Reacting to the report by former Liberal foreign affairs minister John Manley on the future of the Afghan mission, Harper also said he would work to secure transport helicopters and unmanned surveillance craft, or he would end the combat mission when the current commitment wraps up in February 2009.

Harper said he spoke to Dion on Sunday and will talk to him again in a few days.

CAPs: The final episode?

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The government seems bent on destroying access, even as more and more government programs and educational programs move to online access only.

For immediate release

The end of Public Access to the Internet?

Ottawa, November 19th, 2007 -Despite the obvious needs and
demonstrated success of Internet community access programs, there has
been no announcement concerning their future funding or renewal. All
requests sent to the Honorable Minister Jim Prentice of Industry Canada,
ministry responsible for this program, have gone unanswered. Without any
renewal budget, these programs will end March 31st.

The Community Access Program (CAP) ensures the maintenance of computer
equipment and the training of employees and volunteers in the non-profit
sector. The CAP´s Youth Initiative (CAP-YI) provides employment
opportunities for countless young men and women while also offering
affordable Internet access to thousands of Canadians. Training sessions
are given by young facilitators in schools, libraries, community centers
to promote the development of basic skills in the use of information and
communication technologies (ICTs), enabling many people to become active
members of society in the Information Age. The PAC also offers special
training programs to people with disabilities and people with literacy
issues to take into account their special needs.

The Community Access Program provides access to those people who might
not have computers or Internet access in their homes or workplaces.
These people are mostly senior citizens, First Nations, immigrants, the
unemployed, people facing literacy challenges, the homeless, people with
disabilities, people living with mental health issues, in short, a large
segment of the population facing exclusion in part because of new
technologies.
[Read more…] about CAPs: The final episode?

Gangs or… “Torture? What Torture?”

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This is the write up on gang signals from wiki. Bolded text and links are mine.

Gangs often establish distinctive, characteristic identifiers including graffiti tags[18] colors (red, white and blue), hand-signals, clothing, jewelry, hair styles, fingernails, slogans[911,support the troops,], signs such as the swastika, the noose, or the burning cross[20], flags for example the Confederate flag, secret greetings (or meetings), slurs(terrorists, liberals), or code words (freedom, WMD,intelligence) and other group-specific symbols associated with the gang’s common beliefs, rituals, and mythologies to define and differentiate themselves from rival groups and gangs.[]As an alternative language, signs, symbols, and slurs in speech, graffiti, print, music, or other mediums communicate specific informational cues used to threaten, disparage, taunt, harass, intimidate, alarm, influence[23], or exact specific responses including obedience, submission, fear, or terror. One study focused on terrorism and symbols states: “… Symbolism is important because it plays a part in impelling the terrorist to act and then in defining the targets of their actions.”[24] Displaying a gang sign, such as the noose, as a symbolic act can be construed as “… a threat to commit violence communicated with the intent to terrorize another, to cause evacuation of a building, or to cause serious public inconvenience, in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience…an offense against property or involving danger to another person that may include but is not limited to recklessly endangering another person, harassment, stalking, ethnic intimidation, and criminal mischief.”[25] [Read more…] about Gangs or… “Torture? What Torture?”