April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

election

Harper Smoked in Welland

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Harper offered further proof of his inability to care about or understand the needs of the average Canadian on his recent stop in Welland.

Welland recently hit by the loss of manufacturing jobs and a likely severe “downturn” in the local economy was treated to a promise by Harper that he would get tough on ‘kiddie’ smokes. I’m sure that was a great comfort to Welland residents. It will do wonders to provide jobs, income security, stave off mortgage foreclosures and…… well Harper thinks everyone should just get over it;

A local reporter pressed the prime minister about his party’s plans to deal with staggering job losses. Harper replied: “I know it’s tough for some people, but it’s not all doom and gloom. We have to stay the course.”

The Spec

Take note Harper thinks that a part time job making minium wage is just as good as a job that lets you feed AND shelter your family at the same time. After all if stats can prove there is work that is all Harper cares about.

Canada Harper has dedicated this song to you,;

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Mike Harris the Sequel

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Great post at Interrobang’s Internationale on what we can expect from a Harper government.

Here’s what you are voting for, if you mark that ballot for your local CPC candidate:

* fewer and less stringent food and water inspections — Walkerton: The Sequel, coming soon to your town!

* the further demotion of women to a “special interest group” (Does The Smirking Corpse not have a mother?)

* allowing the continued abrogation of the Treaty of 1814 by the US government without so much of a murmur of protest (Hey, Corpsey, you’re all about northern sovereignty; what about southern sovereignty? What about that “longest undefended border” thing? Are we not into doing that anymore? If so, I demand you arm the rest of the border, to keep the Americans out.)

* an economic plan guaranteed to cause further rising income inequality

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Lets not forget Harris also ran besweatered father knows best, aren’t I just the most docile little thing ads before he got into power and kicked everyone and their kids who didn’t belong to the right income group. In fact Harper has already begun this process, see list of just some of the Harper cut & run government decimation here.

Harper on Health Care;
In his 2002 Throne Speech Reply, Stephen Harper said: “A government monopoly is not the only way to deliver health care to Canadians. … It (the federal government) must remove any barriers, any chill to increase private capital investment plans that the provinces have for our health-care system.” Parkland Institute

Harper on Kyoto;
“Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations,” CBC

Harper Government on Women;
Took out equality from SWC mandate, banned lobbying and research for SWC, originally cut budget by 5 million, called Belinda Stronach a dog by McKay further fueled by Norman Spector saying “Bitch is a word I would use to describe someone like Belinda Stronach.”

Some background on the real Harper
It’s amazing what you can persuade them (party members) to do once you convince them it’s the leader who is telling them.”

The Conservative leader is totally enamoured with the U.S., supportive of the Iraq war and ballistic missile defence (despite his coyness), admires U.S. President George W. Bush, detests social programs and the equality principle that drives them, and is a proud believer in America’s culture of possessive individualism. As such, he is more at odds with Canadians’ values than any national party leader in 60 years. Handing over the reigns of government to a man who has contempt for his own country would be a catastrophic mistake. Scandal or no scandal, Canadians need to keep their eye on the prize: the future of their country.{NOTE:and there has been scandal}

There is a war on Canadian soil. It is a war to replace traditional Canadian social values with neocon disregard for justice, for rights and for community. Fight back with your vote.

Cross border neoConservatism

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Two excellent examples of why we must guard against allowing neoconservatives to achieve positions of power.

First a post by skdadl at pogge which includes a youtube of a Biden speech. Well worth 30 minutes out of your day. He outlines the total disregard for the average American that both the outgoing Bush administration and the hopeful McCain administration share. Though it deals with the American government it is a window into the thinking of the Republican wanna-be that is Harper.

One of my favorite lines from the speech is this; “We’ve seen this movie before and we know that the sequel is always worse than the original.”

You can bet that the sequel to a Harper government, most especially if there is an increase in seats, will be much worse than the original. And this line is particularly significant to those of us here in Ontario struggling to regain ground after the Harris debacle. And let us not forget that Flaherty, Devolin and others were part and parcel of that governmental fiasco.

The second example is a post written in the Hamilton Spec by Tom Cooper (I don’t usually and don’t like copying large passages but hope Cooper will forgive me as it is just so important that this message be heard.)

Three and a half million Canadians (including 800,000 children) live in poverty, and yet there is no sign of the creation of a national anti-poverty strategy.

Tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs have been lost in southern Ontario over the last several years. In just the last week there were 800 job losses in Welland, 500 in Oakville and 93 at Hamilton’s Coppley’s Apparrel.

Hundreds of thousands of laid off workers cannot access Employment Insurance benefits after losing a job because criteria discriminate against those, notably women with young children, who work irregular hours.

Many low- and middle-income families don’t have access to affordable child care. And no, a $100/month benefit doesn’t cut it.

A national housing strategy is nonexistent, and homelessness remains dire in many urban centres. The federally funded Homelessness Partnership Initiative is set to expire March 31, 2009, which will have a dramatically negative impact on homelessness in Hamilton and across the country if it is not renewed.

How many of the people affected thought politics didn’t affect them? How many thought–perhaps still think–that their vote doesn’t matter? How many have lost so much there may be no regaining even what they had?

In Biden’s speech he talks about how poverty isn’t just a lack of money. It means a lack of respect, of confidence of ability to properly care for your family or keep your home.

When asked about social programs Harper opines that we can’t afford them. BUT we can afford 5 BILLION dollars in welfare payments tax cuts to corporations? Easy to see where his priorities lie. Easy to see that he like the person mentioned in Biden’s speech could be one to say that middle class is someone making less than 5 million a year.

This is not a time to turn away in apathy. Your country needs you. VOTE!

So that what all the talk of a Mandate is about!

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Harper giving an election speech at a vegetable processing plant is asked what kind of vegetable would he be? Surrounded by vegetables he still couldn’t come up with an answer.

However, after a few minutes it occurred to him that he wouldn’t be a vegetable at all. No. He would be a fruit — sweet and colourful. *gag*

A fruit eh? Well I’d say probably a peach since his logic is fuzzy and he’s the pits.

*Blogged from the local library*

Sarah Palin: Not Pretty in Pink

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Photo Credit:(Matt Sullivan/Reuters)
Photo Credit:(Matt Sullivan/Reuters)
Sarah Palin aka McCain’s running mate.

Though much seems to center on her private life; questions of Trig’s parentage and name, whether she is trying to get her ex-brother-in-law fired are all voyeuristically amusing but allow far more serious personal and political concerns to be swept under the rug.

People who believe strongly that a woman’s place is in the home and that babies are meant to be raised by their mothers and who called Hilary a ball breaker for daring to aspire to the highest office of the U.S. are now touting Palin, mother of 4 month old Trig, as the Saviour of the GOP.

“We know from recent voting patterns that women are the key voting group that will elect the next president of the United States,” Cindy McCain says on her husband’s Web page for outreach to women. “So it is vitally important that Republican women get involved. . . You can’t win this election without the women’s vote.”

SOURCE
Having suddenly discovered the importance of women the GOP in the twisted way they so excel at, choose a woman bent on setting women’s rights back to pre-right to vote era times.

Palin is part of the extremist anti-choice crowd and an affiliate of Feminists for Life who believe that abortion should be outlawed regardless of any extenuating circumstance including life of the mother. They also believe that all forms of contraception should be illegal.

The decision to have a baby can be wonderful. A woman may feel more in touch with herself than at any other point in her life. The act of giving birth can give you a whole new appreciation of life and of your own strengths and abilities. And even with all that 1 in 5 women will experience post partum depression.

Photo Credit:Photohand.com
Photo Credit:Photohand.com

Imagine then forcing this process, which is fraught with dangers on someone who has not made the choice. A young teen exchanging sex for love, a college student whose birth control failed, a wife and mother already struggling to house and feed the children she has, a victim of rape or incest or a woman with a medical condition for which pregnancy would kill her.

People like Palin believe biblical allegories to be life truths;
“Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” (Genesis 3:16)
“The bible teaches that women brought sin and death into the world, that she precipitated the fall of the race, that she was arraigned before the judgment seat of Heaven, tried, condemned and sentenced. Marriage for her was to be a condition of bondage, maternity a period suffering and anguish, and in silence and subjection, she was to play the role of a dependent on man’s bounty for all her material wants, and for all the information she might desire… Here is the Bible position of woman briefly summed up.” –Elizabeth Cady Stanton. And here is the position of evangelical anti-choicers like Palin summed up.

Hand in hand with her anti-choice sentiment is her desire to force her particular brand of religion on everyone with her belief that creationism should be taught in school, and other beliefs of dominionism.

Dominionism is summed up thusly by George Grant;
“Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ — to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness. But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice. It is dominion we are after. Not just influence. It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time. It is dominion we are after. World conquest. That’s what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish.”

This is not a time to think we are seeing politics as usual. America while it forces it’s citizens eyes toward scary brown people over there, is in the midst of a holy war from within. The bible quotes Jesus as saying to his disciples “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.” Dominionists set their disciples out as wolves in sheep’s clothing seeming to be “just people of faith”.

Those who at any other time decry sisterhood are asking why feminists aren’t rallying around Palin, why they don’t recognize her valuable contribution to women in politics. Well the simple answer is because though we support her right to advance her political career we don’t condone her doing so by stripping other women of their rights. Just as men don’t vote for men they see as being antithetical to their beliefs and best interests.

To the disappointed Hilary supporters who are giving any thought to voting for this anti-woman anti-democracy duo–please please do not let your disappointment cloud your judgment.

The ‘Pink Elephant’ campaign not only cruises on the back of dumbing down women’s politics like pink lego™ it, by hiding the true intent of the GOP, conforms completely to the definition of the term;

Something so large and obvious (like a pink elephant), but nobody says a word- like it doesn’t even exist, making the the whole circumstance very akward.

Their desire to take away your rights does exist. Ignore that at your peril.

Canada’s n00b Government

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n00b
1) A person who is new to a game <–this would actually be a newb
2) A person who, regardless of experience, lacks the skill or competence to be competitive in a certain game
3) Someone who tends to whine or complain when being beaten at a game – often done by accusing more skilled opponents of hacking
4) One who may talk trash, claiming to be elite at a game, only to be beaten down by a better player, or will turn down any games when challenged by better players.
5) Overall, a real jerk.

If the current election ads for Harper are any indication, either an election has already been called in his mind, or he is jealous of the 3 year media-whore fest that the American election process has become.

One of the things supposedly off the table in this election bid is the contentious fetal personhood bill, aka Bill-C484. Harper has said he is not interested in reopening the abortion debate.

And once elected, faster than Chris Angel can pick your pocket, Harper announced all women to be already fully equal and therefore no longer in need of advocacy or women’s issues no longer in need of study and universal childcare to be satisfied with a cheque resulting in taxing lower income Canadians.

So when Harper says he has no interest in reopening the abortion debate what he means is that if elected to a majority government he will reward his fundamentalist friends with the passage of anti abortion laws. There will be no need for debate as such a bill would pass easily through a Reform government majority. And Presto Change-o no reopening of debate. Promise kept.

Make no mistake. Like a certain ring bearer Harper sees the brass ring of the PM’s office as belonging rightfully to him.

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For every Liberal scandal of which Harper & Co. have railed on about they have equaled and surpassed themselves. Yet they continue to presume moral superiority in a way that only those lacking it can.

This will not be an election fought under traditional Canadian terms. This will be fought with all the dirty tricks of the Bush Republicans. Cheney, Rove, the Swiftboaters. This will be a war fought by Christians who do not follow the teachings of Christ. By Conservatives who don’t believe in conservation. A class war fought from the top down. A battle to wrest the rights that the majority of Canadians believe in from them while they allow apathy and disillusionment with the system to lull them in a false sense of security that things will always be pretty much the same.

This will be an historic election. It will be the election that decides if Canada survives.