Saturday, November 29, 2008

Major, MAJOR Hat Tip

If I wore a hat that is, but I may just start just so I can give a major hat tip to Sir Robert Bond Papers for his finding a letter from (among others) then Leader of the Opposition Stephen Harper asking for power without an election as he's complaining the Liberals/NDP are doing now.

http://bondpapers.blogspot.com/2008/11/taking-power-without-election.html

This is yet another example of Conservative Hypocrisy. Everything is OK as long as they're doing it.

Good show SRBP! Good show!

Contact the Governor General

Contact the Governor General here info@gg.ca and request that she refuse Harper's request for an election.

If you like you can use my pre written letter, in any event you should address the GG as "Excellency"

Your Excellency,

As a citizen of Canada I would respectfully request that if the current government falls you refuse the Right Honorable Prime Minister's request for an election. As you are no doubt aware, Canada is in the worst financial crisis the country has faced in 70 years. Spending another 300 million dollars on a new election when the opposition is ready and willing to form a government would be irresponsible and dangerous for our great country.

Yours humbly,
Your name here

Also email your local MP, regardless of political stripe (mine is an NDP) and request they vote to bring down the Government. The Conservatives are going to make an all out blitz this week to try to put public pressure on the opposition. We need to counter that or else our country is going down the tubes.

You can search for your MP using your postal code here.

Same old, Same old at Conservative TeleVision

Nice to see CTV is starting to mask their bias a little less these days. I happened to be channel surfing a little while ago and despite my better judgement I stopped on the CTV national news for a moment because they had a story about the current Parliamentary crisis.

What was I rewarded with? Robert Fife describing Stephane Dion as "The Accidental Leader who wants to become the Accidental Prime Minister."

He also took another shot at the Liberals by telling viewers the Liberals had caved in to a demand by the NDP to cancel billions in corporate tax cuts which Fife said "sounds good, until you realize that would create massive unemployment."

He also tried to sew dissent in the Liberal party ranks by saying Dion wants to be Prime Minister but people inside the Liberal party say that will never happen.

And he was only on for about a minute! That's 1 slimy slam every 20 seconds!

Update: Here's the vid

Friday, November 28, 2008

Who Are You People and What Have You Done With the Liberals?

Spine, something that the Liberal party hasn't had in a long time, is now back in Ottawa and it's threatening to finally end this sad chapter of Canadian history.

When I heard after the election that the Liberals were going to actually be an opposition instead of a rubber stamp (and I understand their reasoning for being so) I thought "Yeah, and if someone believes that I've got this bridge in Alaska to sell them." But it turns out to be true.

Perhaps we will see a Prime Minister Dion after all, which would be great news for the vast majority of the country that didn't vote for the Conservatives. And I think this can only be a good thing for the Left. It's time for us and the NDP to stop fighting each other and start working together. It'll be hard, there's a lot of animosity on both sides, and I'm not a fan of Jack Layton, but I do think the NDP have the best interests of Canada at heart, and if we can keep them on a tight fiscal leash we both can do a lot of good for Canada.

However, there are two dangers to this plan. #1 it risks elevating the NDP to a prominent player in the country, which if we can't merge with them would spell permanent Conservative majorities. And number 2: The Bloc. It's dangerous to give a separatist party so much power.

I think the best plan would be to take control, start working to fix the economic mess, come at it intelligently like only we Liberals can, and then subtly engineer our own defeat and hopefully win a majority mandate.

But regardless, I think Emperor Harper is starting to realize he can't govern as if he has a majority a la Joe Clark. I expect him to do anything to keep his hands on the reigns of power, you think the David Emerson thing was seemly, you ain't seen nothin yet. And remember, he wasn't even desperate then.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The Righties Want Milliken out

Well, at least Rob Anders won't be our Speaker. *shudder*

But doing a search for "Speaker" at Google Canada's news site I found three of the top links were from Conservative rags (The Edmonton Journal, The Globe and Mail, and the National Pest) saying that the current speaker needs to go because of the tone in the House.

Translation: They want a Conservative patsy there.

Gone are the days when they at least pretended they weren't above shilling for the Conservatives.

National Pest: Lately, though, he has been criticized for not being tough enough on MPs and has taken some blame for the decline in civilized behaviour in the Commons.


Civilized in this text is taken to mean "Not spouting Conservative talking points."

The Globe and Mail: But the pressure for change has increased to the point where more and more members want an authoritative voice in the chair. Their reputation and the reputation of Parliament have been hurt by the tumult that has been allowed under Mr. Milliken. It's time the pandemonium ended. It's time someone else was given a chance.


Yeah, it's the Speakers' fault Conservative MPs act like children.

Edmonton Journal: It's become positively commonplace for Ottawa observers to relate daily stories of shocked constituents and visiting school tours appalled by the infantile, embarrassing dog-and-pony show that often passes for question period these days.


WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

Thursday, November 06, 2008

One Word: WHEW!

Still hung over from Tuesday's victory for progressive thought? (Well except in Alaska, Minnesota's 6th district, possibly Minnesota senate, California's Prop 8, etc.)

Say hello to President Obama... Fuck that's got a nice ring to it doesn't it?

I'm not going to be calling him President-Elect Obama either, #1 it's too much of a mouthful, and #2 I want to turn the page on Dubya as soon as possible.

Some random thoughts from Election night.

#1 it was kind of surreal pretty much knowing for like an hour that Obama was going to be the winner but still not being %100 sure just because I was so paranoid from stolen elections in 2000/04.

#2 I knew John McCain had no chance in PA, I called PA months ago and I stuck to it. I just wish I had done it publically...

#3 When Ohio went that was the ballgame, it was all over except waiting for the West to close.

#4 I watched the election on MSNBC for the first time ever, I've always watched elections on CNN, and honestly I regretted my decision. I like MSNBC but CNN is still the best in terms of being on the cutting edge, like the freakin holograms!

#5 CNN seemed to take a lot longer to call races than other news outlets, except for declaring Obama elected. For a lot of major states CNN called way after MSNBC and Fox, but I like it this way. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

#6 When the call was made I can't really describe the emotion. It was sort of a mix of joy and elation and relief that our 8 year long nightmare would soon be over. Also it was a sense of pride that the most powerful nation in the world moved past their racist ties.

#7 After Obama had been declared the winner I was happy to see John McCain win Arizona. No need to embarrass a man who served his country honorably in uniform.

#8 I thought McCain's concession speech, though marred by idiots in his crowd, was very good.

#9 I liked Obama's speech, but he's done better. His Yes we Can speech the night of the New Hampshire primary and his Convention speech were better, but still this was a good one. A bad Obama speech is still tons better than a good Dubya one. He really got me with the talking about the 106 year old woman though, made me wonder what I'd see if I were to live that long (Which I know for a fact ain't happening)

#10 THANK GOD Sarah Palin won't be Vice President.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Like Rats off a Sinking Ship...

She's Goin Rogue Baby!