Sister Sage's Musings

Archive for the ‘What’s old is New again’ Category

I can’t say this is surprising. I knew that Jean Charest would jump at the chance to attempt to buy himself some love again from the Quebec voters.  Yesterday, he committed 180 million dollars for this project in addition to what Quebec City mayor, Regis Lebeaume has already committed. In all, 400 million dollars is necessary. Since this is Quebec, where our infrastructure projects are known to be finished way over deadline and way over budget, count on it going above and beyond 400 million smackers.

That’s just great! I mean, Charest got himself in trouble with his last budget , implementing user fees and a nasty zombie; the health care contribution which starts this year. Those super hospitals that were supposed to be long built are still empty lots.

Our public schools are suffering. For Gawd’s sake, did you know that parents are obliged to send their kids to their public schools with their own toilet paper? That’s right, kids. Kim Fraser on CJAD did a whole segment on her show about how much parents have to cough up these days just to send their kids to public schools and all the supplies they have to purchase. Amongst that long shopping list, was toilet paper.  Pathetic!

But, golly gee, Charest, who finds himself mired in scandals, which honestly, if they didn’t exist, they would had to have been invented–that’s just the way it goes in Quebec. When French Quebec generally deems the Liberals have been in power for too long, a ‘crisis’ pops up like magic! Trust me, my readers from the province of Quebec know exactly what I’m talking about.  The Parti-Quebecois ain’t so squeaky clean,neither. Particularly, not that shrew Pauline Marois when she held various ministries under Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry.

It’s been a rough spring and summer for Charest and the death of  MNA Claude Bechard  of  Temiscouata-Kamouraska, no doubt,  would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. But really, Jean, a hockey arena? For an NHL team that doesn’t even exist?  NHL commissioner Gary Bettman certainly hasn’t committed to anything. From what I understand, he’s saying, build the arena and we’ll see.

I’m surprised Charest is pledging this tax payer money, though. I never would have imagined him doing such a thing as a fed  under the old Progressive Conservatives years ago. I thought he would be smart enough to know that this arena won’t curry favor with him. Gilles Duceppe and the separatists will use the hypothetical Nordiques Part deux to promote sovereignty as Kelly McParland explained not long ago.

“That’s right! If we were independent, we’d have a great big arena in Quebec and our team would only speak French and we’d win the Stanley Cup eight times out of 10, because when you’re independent, you win the Stanley Cup.”)

As silly as that sounds, McParland is correct, that is exactly how the separatists will paint this. Remember, the separatists had used the Quebec Olympic athletes’ performances to promote sovereignty as well; the precedent certainly exists.  Thus, Charest would not be seen as having been the savior of Quebec hockey. In fact, those scandals which he faces will still remain front and center and he will continue to wear his last budget.

As I’ve pointed out in previous posts and on other comment boards, after fifteen years, we’re due for another referendum on sovereignty and this one better count; Quebec’s place within or without Canada needs to be resolved one way or the other.  Sorry, Premier Charest, you’re the big loser here; you should have taken the high road; either way, your days are numbered; the least you can do is just say “No!” to paying for that new arena. After all,  John Molson didn’t use tax payer dollars to build the Molson Center (now the Bell Center); neither did any other Canadian jurisdiction. The precident simply isn’t there. The very least you can do with whatever time you have left in the Premier’s chair is to try fix public health care and education, seriously! If the schools can’t supply even the cheapest of toilet paper, there is a serious problem here.

It was argued over the week-end by Norman Spector that Pierre-Karl Peladeau was working feverishly hard to fight the CRTC to get his Harpercon infomercial channel on a “must carry” license so he can lobby Master Steve for the bucks to pay for the majority of that new white elephant.  Here’s a thought, if Peladeau is the billionaire, why doesn’t he foot the bill for this arena the same way Molson did in Montreal for the Habs?    I had provided examples of Juinior’s business past that may indicate that Peladeau may not have quite the midas touch in business Big Daddy Peladeau had.

After some Harpercon puppets were seen sporting old Nordiques jerseys about town, it seems to be more likely that Stevie spiteful will be engaging in some of his trademark pork barrel politics in Quebec City.  As Don Martin pointed out, his puppets would not be running around like cheerleaders in the Nordiques jerseys without orders from the Master hisself.   So Stevie spiteful, in not only a desperate attempt to keep his existing Quebec seats, but perhaps an attempt to buy more, is also trying to buy himself some Quebecois lovin’ with this bloody arena. Jean-Pierre Blackburn has said that federal funding cannot be accomplished without some kind of private partnership.   Not to mention, if Stevie spiteful coughs up the dough to buy that Quebecois lovin’, it could cause a backlash in the rest of the country for him, especially from places like Edmonton and Hamilton who seek to either build or upgrade existing arenas in their own cities.

And so, the elements are converging to create a political squeeze play pitting West against East, fiscal prudence against profligacy, vote buying in Quebec against voter backlash everywhere else.

Waiting and watching from the sidelines are NHL owners in Calgary and Edmonton who occupy the league’s sixth and second oldest rinks respectively, eyeing this as a funding precedent which the Conservatives will have a hard time ignoring in their Alberta fortress.

Just wait until Regina demands federal help for a domed football stadium or Ottawa extends its palm for a stadium handout to refurbish its inner city park. And if Quebec gets a returning NHL franchise while Jet-less Winnipeg waits in vain, well, what a mess

A mess? Now, that’s putting it mildly.  However, like the Quebec Liberals tend to take for granted that Anglophones will always vote for them, thus they tend to ignore them  & they pander more to Francophones, I suspect that Steve may feel the same way about the west, namely, Alberta. Look at every poll, consistantly, the Harpercons poll above 50%,  many times, over 60% in Alberta; thus,  perhaps, like Charest with the Anglophones, Steve may well take Alberta for granted. Another problem is that old myth that Alberta and Alberta alone supports Quebec and the have not provinces.   If federal money is awarded for this arena while Edmonton may go without, won’t go over well.

In addition to potentially losing in the rest of Canada, there is no guarantee he will win more seats in Quebec or even keep the ones he already has. Remember, Duceppe has been lobbying Steve for awhile now. If Steve does decide to kick in the rest of the cash for this white elephant, one can be sure that Duceppe will be sure to be front and center, in front of the microphones and cameras taking credit for all of this, and let’s face it, when it comes right down to it, Duceppe has more credibility in Quebec than Stevie Spiteful ever will.

So no, I, for one, don’t want the tax payers funding a new arena in Quebec City. I just wished that many of my fellow Quebecers felt the same way and had bigger fish to fry like health care and education, rather than to worry about arenas for non-existant teams.   There is no precedent for this as pointed out earlier. Sports stadiums and hockey arenas are privately funded solely.  Peladeau wants an NHL franchise so badly, let him build the arena on his own dime.  We hear governments at all levels saying we must cut back; there’s no money for health care and education and other programs and such, then it stands to reason, there is no money for white elephants.

Wouldn’t it be a kick in the pants if after the all 3 levels of gov’t committed the funding for this arena, and it got built, only for Bettman to say “no” to Quebec City, either because the arena took too long to build (like most of our infrastructure projects as mentioned above) or whatever other reason.  A further outrage to the tax payers, but oh the irony!

Well, the Reseau Liberte Quebecois, aka The Tea-bagger hit parade, the Quebecois edition, as I’ve mentioned, is having their launching luncheon at Hotel des Gouverneurs Ste-Foye in Quebec City come October 23.  For those who haven’t caught the details of this extravaganza, details here.

Now, if I were catering the event. I think the most fitting meal that can be served would be….

Feeling green around the gills yet?

That meat, green; moldy and oldy just like Steve’s and those tea-baggers’ politics and ideologies. That oughta war their hearts (if they had any) and stick to their ribs.

Only fitting a meal, naturally. For the extra 10$ the meat won’t be as green, perhaps.

The pork is, of course, cured at the same butcher shop as  Steve’s meat baloney.

Whew! After creating that monstrosity and having seen the package of Steve’s baloney over at Pale’s, am I glad I don’t eat red meat! Yeah, I know, pork is considered white meat. It crawls on four legs, it’s gross; I don’t eat that neither.

It ain’t a political party…yet! But, when one of the six founders is, get ready…Blogging SupposiTory, the Rancid Dr. Jabba the Roy, hisself! And he’s just all ga ga giddy over it!  I guess the Lucides movement was just too Progressive Conservativise-ish/not enough soCon-ish tea-baggy enough, was it?  What a circus! Here’s the site if you dare! If Jabba the Roy is involved, as well as the .ca, the Reseau Liberte Quebecois – Quebec Freedom Network. Now don’t that just sound Tea-baggish?

I remember Jean Lapierre telling Andrew Carter quite often on CJAD that there is now a vaccuum in Quebec politics and he believed that this one would get filled, however, he has his doubts this particular far-right movement will warm the hearts of Quebecers. I believe that he’s correct, but then, I never thought that Canada, east of Manitoba, would embrace Steve’s sharp right socon tea-bagging bull-shit. Lapierre,  too, believed that any new party that may have come to light would be a more centered party. 

What’s even more bizarre is that Lucien Bouchard of that clear eyed movement is endorsing this motley gang of misfits which touts among other tea-bagging goodies, climato-skepticism. Hmm, wasn’t Bouchard an environment minister in Brian Mulroney’s cabinet before going off to form the Bloc Quebecois? But then, Bouchard has proven, over the years, to be a walking self-contradiction.

Prepare for shale gas exploration, I mean, don’t let facts and truthiness like  pesky reports, warning of environmental concerns like  carbon-dioxide emissions, encroach on wildlife habitat and sap freshwater resources get in the way of that tea-bag agenda, now.

They’re going to “redefine nationalism”. I would tell you what they mean, but, frankly, that is indicated on their site, that it is “to come”. I wonder if they even know?  If Jabba the Roy is involved, the pro-monarchist, with his love of titles like “HM PM” (what a brown nose!), count on it pushing for Quebec to be beaten to submission by Steve and the Harpercons.  Insidious ways of decimating the Bloc Quebecois would definitely be on the menu.  After all, if  King Steve can’t win Quebec even by pork barreling,  they’ll find other ways to cheat, right?

Jabba the Roy is involved with five others: Andre Pratte of La Presse, a Harpercon friendly writer; Ian Senechal (please note, I had site translated via yahoo Babelfish, so language would leave something to be desired); Joanne Marcotte, who Radio Canada’s Simon Durivage referred to as Quebec’s Sarah Palin; Gerad Laliberte and Eric Duhaime; who worked as an advisor to the now near-decimated Action Democratique Party of  Mario Dumont and in a previous life, worked under ol’ Stock Day when he was leader of the Canadian Alliance.

As much of a monarchy suck up as Jabba the Roy is and I will guess that, like most French Quebecers, his partners in crime are anti-monarchy; as well as other differences to come, I’m sure, I wonder when this will collapse like a house of cards?

Another part of their mandate? To “defy the media establishment”; yes, they must do something to  get Quebec media to work in their favor; it’s too slanted to the left for their tea-bagging sensitivities;   not to mention, their aversion to things like balanced journalism and actually facts and data.

Perhaps like Steve, they would like a media monopoly a la Pierre Karl Peladeau? A French version of Fox North? They will be holding a shindig  come October in Quebec City and the keynote speaker will be none other than Kory Teneycke hisself! I wonder if he speaks joal?

“It is a great pleasure for me of collaborating with the team of the Freedom-Quebec Network”, affirmed Mr. Teneycke, who intends to explain to the audience the importance of the project that it sets up at present at English Canada. “A fall of the Canadian audience of news televised uninterrupted, a mentality of herd among the journalists and a frankly skewed cover of the topicality explain well that the Canadians are badly served by the media “mainstream”, he adds. “It is time to offer an alternative and it is what we intend to do with SUN TV News.”

Getting cocky, aren’t we, Kory?  There might be a little snag with your mentor’s appointment of Luc Lavoie. Once again, a little problem with legalities here. Details.

Here, of course, are  more of the their tea-bagging goals:

“We all agree on one common ground — the fact that the state needs to be smaller in many many ways,” Duhaime said.

“Some of us are going to push on health-care reforms, some others are going to talk about tax reforms.”

Well, tea-baggers, no matter what language they speak or where they live; they’re nothing, if not predictable.

Yes, for about 25$ or 35$ you can get in to watch Kory lead the clown car brigade at it. I wonder though; what does one get for 10$ more? Poutine? The peas are unfrozen? The rubber chicken is actually cooked? Or one gets to not get touched by Jabba the Roy?  Scary that we would want to be led by idiots who look like their mommies dress them every morning.

Each of the six founders, apparently, coughed up 500$ to start up this little tea-bagging cult.

And folks, if you’re in the Quebec City area and if you wish to crash the party, it is being held at Hotel Gouverneur de Ste-Foye on October 23. Their site is here, but in French. No, they don’t have an English version. Funny, given that Jabba the Roy is one of those idiots who shriek about English rights in Quebec.

I wouldn’t be too surprised if these clowns actually actually made it easier for Duceppe to promote sovereignty in Quebec. As mentioned before, Quebecers are center. Some, particularly in rural areas may even be socons to some degree. However, most of them are elderly and do remember living through the hell that was the Periode Noirceur of Maurice Duplessis. I’m sure they don’t want to live through that again and they certainly wouldn’t wish it on their children and grandchildren.

What is is it with white conservative losers when they don’t get their way invoking Martin Luther King? We, in Canada, saw it not long ago with the bimbo, Sa-wah Palin look-a-like, Sarah Landriault when she discovered she couldn’t jump to the top of the employment ladder with no marketable skills, certificates, education or experience. That was nothing short of dispicable.

Then, we saw not only Glenn Beck and Sa-wah Palin, herself, scheduling their wingnutty hate festivities on the anniversary of Dr. King’s march for civil rights in the US, but actually invoke him to push their all white, Christian, intolerant, far right agenda. Man, Dr. King must be turning over in his grave about now. As Boris over at The Galloping Beaver describes this ironic message of Palin (and Beck’s):

It doesn’t need to be said that Palin’s “restoration” would seek a return the America that squeezed the trigger on MLK.

Disturbing doesn’t even begin to describe the theme of “Restoration of Honor”.  What I don’t get is why Alveda King would’ve even entertained the idea of speaking at Beck and Palin’s hate festivities. She must be the relative they don’t talk about.

However, unlike the 9/12 festivities of last year, I don’t think this tea-party had the energy. In fact, it’s to the point where I wonder if the tea-bagging movement is becoming a passing fad.

As yet another Glenn Beck extravaganza drew nearer, this time with Sa-wah Palin, I was looking forward to checking out the colourful misspelled signs of all shapes and sizes with such hateful, yet such stupid slogans as to be somewhat amusing. Call it morbid curiosity, much like the way many will stop to watch the aftermath of a car crash or train wreck.  I would learn that Glenn Beck had banned signs for the occasion, but that didn’t seem to stop a few from doing just that. Check out the link: a great diary with some amusing slogans.

I was checking the Twitter feed and the American blogs as well as some online media pages for some mishap or misstep, but, again, not much. Checked out Sa-wah Palin’s speech; but turned it off as I felt a migraine coming on. Honestly, she just has one of those voices that can feel like she’s drilling nails in your head.  She was just boring this time. Stupid can be funny, but Sa-wah has ceased being funny since comparing herself to William Shakespeare last month.

For me, to summarize the Glenn Beck / Sa-wah Palin extravaganza; boring! One big snore! And I don’t seem to be alone, neither. So much for all of Beck’s predictions of this extravaganza being the “turning point” and  “defibrillator on the heart of America”. I suggest you click that link and read Glenn’s predictions on how “miraculous” this event would be: I think that’s the most entertaining part of it: it all just went to snoozeville from there. Much of the audience looked like they could use a jolt of that defibrillator. So boring!

Other than the fact that Glenn Beck was wearing a kevlar vest under his shirt, his speech at first didn’t seem to offer anything of entertainment value and the audience was quite subdued. Then I read Jymn’s piece last night, where he observed Beck changing directions; one toward the more evangelical. I listened to the speech again and I have to say that Jymn is probably on to something.

He has turned his evil upside down so that it looks smiley face Stepford wive-ish. He has presented his rally as an open book (mostly the bible) for all people to join. The only stipulation it would seem is that you are all very, very religious, preferably Christian. He asked attendees to leave their signs at home (like true Beckbots, most did – great response from NAACP: “Dr. King never had to ask his followers to leave hateful signs and guns at home”.)

Beck made pains too to make the rally about the troops, of course. All immaculately planned and organized, Beck’s rally positions the tea party and the radical right to further their goals in turning the US into a theocracy.

Well, if as Jymn suggests, Beck is going from pathetic pundit to Revvin’ Reverend, I don’t think even that will succeed for too long. Hell, his message might have sounded outrageous and hateful, but he didn’t say anything different than what other American televangelists over the years have been spewing. He offered nothing original.  He bawled his eyes out, as usual. Big Deal. He has always done that.And by the by, the secret to Beck’s crocodile tears, apparently, is Vicks Vapo Rub. Take a look a the video here, if you dare, you will see that even his eyes and nose are starting to develop a tolerance toward the strong smelling cold remedy.

I remembered growing up, on Sunday mornings, before the days of satellite and digital cable; the days when we could access but a handful of channels and Sunday tv was pretty dismal, my partents would tune into American Televangelists like Popoff and Ernest Angley for the entertainment of it. We used to laugh at how these people would miraculously ‘rise from their wheelchairs’ or their ”cancer and diabetes and blindness was mysteriously cured’. We would chuckle at how these buffoons would hit people on the forehead, as it was suppposed to be a ‘touch from God or Jesus’ and they would all drop and faint on cue. Couldn’t Glenn Beck at least have done that? Would have made it more entertaining.

The point I’m trying to make here is that while there will always be an audience for evangelism and the preaching to bring America back to “fundamentalist values”, I think Beck may well have shrunk his own audience.

This brings me to my next point. After watching this non-event; Sa-wah playing the mom of a vet which was nothing more than her parading her kids into the spotlight, as she usually does, and Beck turning into Reverend Beck and sucking badly at it, the seemingly much lower than projected turnouts, I have to wonder if the American tea-bagger hit parade is becoming a passing fad?

There will always be that fringe Christian Evangelical far right element who will always attempt to push their agenda on everyone else and in American politics. There will always be tea-baggers whining that same refrain of “less taxes-smaller government”, grossly misusing words like ‘socialism’. They’re never going to go away completely and yes, they will more than likely make a splashy come back as they did when President Obama was about to introduce health care reform, but for now, I think they’re just a tired, pathetic movement.  As this Daily Kos blogger, who was at the ‘restoring dishonor’ festivities  put it:

In giving credit where it is due, they were mostly well-behaved and teh crazy was at a minimum.  They may like to speak of “revolution” and “replenishing the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants and patriots,” from the safety and comfort of their dial-up internet, but I don’t see that happening.

I would say that would sum it up best. I think the numbers have dwindled. Perhaps because they are tired of being shown to look like idiots when they can’t answer even the simplest of questions when asked by reporters as we’ve seen on YouTube at various Tea-bagger events in the past.  Maybe  they’ve (with the exception of those usual wingnuts where hope springs eternal and will die trying; those must be kept an eye on; very dangerous people)  even discovered that they can never move back to ‘restoration’ or ‘fundamentalism’ or ‘Christian reconstructionism’.

This time last year, Sa-wah and the newly self-proclaimed Reverend Beck along with bloated bleached buffoons like Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Bachman, were all brainwashing an already paranoid, uneducated American population with the impending end of the world if President Obama passed health care reform.  That was the main catalyst (certainly one of the tops) for the surgence of the tea-bagger hit parade.   Now, Obamacare, such as it is, has passed and I think most, no matter how against health care reform they may have been and still may be, they have seen that the sky hasn’t fallen down.

Sure, many Rethuglicans are planning to repeal the reform following the 2010 elections, but first, this motley assortment of misfits the tea-baggers have voted through various primaries have to get elected.   With the exception of the bible belt and states like perhaps Kentucky, I can’t see too many of them getting elected.  If anything, the tea-baggers are victims of their own success…or failures, depending which way you look at it.

I expect that mainstream Americans rude awakening is already happening, as they begin to see exactly what the shrieking of “smaller government and less taxes” brings them–paved, unlit streets in their cities and towns, as well as a rapidly deteriorating public education system.

I suspect that many Americans, after extended periods of unemployment and no prospects of future employment despite all efforts to find work, are now seeing that that whole “Anybody can achieve the ‘American Dream’ of prosperity if they simply worked hard and didn’t rely on their government” is nothing more than bull-shit propoganda.

Again,  while Beck transforms from potent pundit to roarin’ reverend representing the evangelical Christian far right sub-culture, while worrisome and never to be underestimated; I would also take this as a sign that  the weepy Glenn Beck may well be on his way to becoming a has been, as mentioned above, the Vicks Vapo rub ain’t even working anymore. I noticed that in Sa-wah as well during what little of her speech I heard; don’t know about you, but I got the feeling that she was straining to stay relevent. She talks about being the parent of an Iraq war vet. Big deal, so are thousands of people in America today. Many of whom have lost their children in these senseless wars, yet we don’t hear most of them shrieking her stupidities. They’re too busy trying to somehow pick up the pieces of their lives.  She offered nothing new. Not even any fun stuff like cheat notes smeared all over that white suit jacket!

The blogger from Daily Kos concludes this:

Put simply, this is a crowd of mostly older, white-folks-in-lawn-chairs™ who fear change, even if for the benefit of themselves, their families, and the country at large.  They are the heels in the sand of progress and like it or not, we progressives will drag them forward, kicking and screaming, to a better day, as we have always done.

I wish them all the luck in the world with this endeavor.   Lord knows they’ll need it.

Go read Apost8′s diary at Daily Kos, many fun pics and a poll over there.

Sidenote: Good to see that there was another group led by Reverend Al Sharpton, who not only continued to honor Martin Luther King’s memory and reminded the next generation of what he did and how they must continue his fight for civil rights and equality for all, but also   didn’t  allow Beck’s and Sa-wah’s  desecration  and perversion of  Dr. Martin Luther King’s memory. Turns out, both events simultaneously happened with little incident, other than the usual taunting between the two groups. Little skirmishes like:

“One woman from the Beck rally shouted to the Sharpton marchers, “Go to church. Restore America with peace.” Some civil rights marchers chanted “don’t drink the tea” to people leaving Beck’s rally.

Sharpton basically appealed to his group to take the high road; to not take their bate.

“The folks who used to criticize us for marching are trying to have a march themselves,” he said. He urged his group to be peaceful and not confrontational. “If people start heckling, smile at them,” Sharpton said.

After reading the above quote as well as the rest of that passage in the Huffington Post story, I got the feeling that Sharpton as well as the other civil rights’ marchers,  may almost (“almost” being the key word here) feel sorry for Beck and the tea-baggers.  I could be wrong, but that’s my impression, thus further giving me the idea that the tea-bagger hit parade in the US may well have hit its’ peak and is dwindling, that is, until their next crisis, whatever that may be.

Now for something entertaining. No, no painful videos of either Glenn Beck or Sa-wah Palin. How about a little segment of Psycho Talk with Ed Schultz , demonstrating how both Sa-wah and Beck have a combined IQ in the single digits.

Well, I remember how the Blogging SupposiTories were mercilessly chiding Iggy for getting down and boogying in front of the Much Music building during the Liberal Bus tour.

Now, Stevie Spiteful does it in the Arctic; some native dance. Betcha Hunter, Sandra Dee Crux and the rest of those  Shrieking cheerleaders known as the ‘ladies’ of the Blogging SupposiTories are going to fawn, faint and perhaps cream their panties over their Steve is oh so dreamy over the following video:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/video/stephen-harper-dances/article1685888/

Sorry, couldn’t find a copy on YouTube. Just click the link above. You know ya wanna!

Perhaps this is his way of scaring those evil Russians from flying near our air space?  Yes, must fend off those evul commie spirits now!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted an edition of nostalgia. Not really sure why, perhaps I’m getting lazy. Summer does that to one.

After what happened to Brunaud Moise earlier this week, getting banned at Laronde, a ‘family values’ Six Flags owned amusement park in Montreal, for sporting a Bob Marley t-shirt emblazoned with green marijuana leaves, I thought I would put on some Bob Marley videos, as well as Peter Tosh’s “Legalize It”. The latter for Joey Elias having the idea of perhaps sporting such a t-shirt and attempting to get into Laronde with the tech producer, Mike Babins. I hope they do take the trip over to Laronde and provide feedback on how it went. It would be more telling if what happened to Mr Moise was really racially motivated.

Also, summer is drawing to a close. Reggae for some seems to keep summer in the minds of folks.

I’m too lazy to come up with trivia stories about them or find quotes this fine evening. They deserve better, I know.  If you want to know more about Bob Marley and/or Peter Tosh, click those links.

Enjoy!

I thought the first video would be appropriate for us in this day and age, not only for Brunaud Moise, but also for us.

“Exodus” from Santa Barbara, 1979

Bob with no dreadlocks; “Stir It Up”

Now, of course, “Legalize It” from Peter Tosh; An accoustic version.

Happy Saturday Nite!

According to one of Jane Taber’s many “Deep throats” inside Parliament Hill, her latest gossip is that Stevie spiteful thinks we’re annoying; that, and our reaction to the scrapping of the mandatory long form census is an “irritant”.  Poor Stevie will have to tough it out. Many of us think Jane Taber’s columns are an annoying irritant, but we deal with it. Some, like Maclean’s Scott Feschuk  deal with it by compiling her super special finds revealed to only her by her extra-secret unnamed deep throats in parliament. More about the darling gossip columnist and irritable Steve over at Alison’s.

Why is this a surprise? Even Stevie’s former boss, Deborah Grey,  said that Stevie Spiteful’s people skills left a lot to be desired.

People skills? He was more fond of policy. Constituency work seemed like a grind for him.”

- Long-time Reform and Alliance MP Deborah Grey on Conservative leader Stephen Harper.

Hell, even his former mentor, Preston Manning, another one who thinks the Flintstones are a documentary,  had less than glowing reviews of his former protege.

“Stephen had difficulty accepting that there might be a few other people (not many, perhaps, but a few) who were as smart as he was with respect to policy and strategy. And Stephen, at this point, was not really prepared to be a team player or team builder.”

Lest we forget:

“Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it. Canadians make no connection between the fact that they are a Northern European welfare state and the fact that we have very low economic growth, a standard of living substantially lower than yours, a massive brain drain of young professionals to your country, and double the unemployment rate of the United States.”

And:

“Canada appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status, led by a second-world strongman appropriately suited for the task.”
- Stephen Harper in his article “It is time to seek a new relationship with Canada,” December 12th, 2000.

Nowadays, particularly with the census debacle and the hard right agenda in full view, thanks largely in part to columnists/bloggers like Stephen Taylor, one really gets the sense that Stevie is fit for the rubber room; fit to be tied. He is losing it. We see it in the ever increasing buffoonery of Tony Clement, who I think is burned in politics by now.

Furthermore, Lawrence Martin, in his “hail to the 50s” column, he points out what Harper’s advisor says about Stevie’s true blue ancient views:

I was talking to one of his former close advisers recently and, reflecting the Prime Minister’s view, he launched into a tirade about how good Canada used to be until Pierre Trudeau came along with all that “hippie bullshit.” He spoke of how Mr. Harper was in fact a very old-fashioned type and how he had immense pride in the country.

Oh and another appeal for Stevie about the 50s  for the  tea-bagger north? McCarthyism!  Speaking of which. Here’s what approved viewing is on movie night at the Harper’s.

Yes, because, to be a Harpercon in the land of Harpercon, means life is always dangerous. Ironically, life in Canada has never been more dangerous on so many levels than with the Harpercons and will continue to be that way. When a master tactician becomes a mad man, there is always hell to pay, to say the least.

I wonder what the next derogatory thing about Canadians/Canada will be to come out of Steve’s mouth? There will be a next time, as Steve is losing it and his frustration is shining through these days.  You can be sure it will be a doozy and it would be nice if we could hear about it from a credible source rather than from one of Jane Taber’s “deep throats”. Perhaps we’ll really need to “duck and cover” when it comes.

Just came back from Montreal Simon’s post,  Stephen Harper and Daddy Knows Best in response to Lawrence Martin’s latest effort regarding sweater vest Stevie and his backward puritanical wet dreams of how Canada should look in his view.   I agree with Simon, this really isn’t one of Martin’s best efforts, in fact it’s one of his worst I’ve ever read. For one, I have to ask Martin if he’s only figuring this out now?  The evidence has been around for some time now. If Steve, himself ain’t pushing it, then certainly his MPs or cheerleaders have. Cheerleaders like Kory Klan’s pride & Joy, Lorrie Goldstein check Jymn’s comment at the bottom of this post).  I’m surprised Martin hadn’t noticed the pattern with Steve on so many issues.

Tough on crime comes to mind.  Harpercon flunkies attempt to push their big-assed super prisons while crime stats go down. I mean, before ol’ Stock nearly gave himself a nosebleed, coming up with the brainstorm about all that ‘unreported’ crime. Columnists like Goldstein, pundits and MPs were saying that our crime rates were still much higher than those prior to the 60s.

Then there is the appointment of David Johnston, someone who stepped right out of  ”The Man In The Grey Flannel Suit”, a novel and movie starring Gregory Peck.

Not to mention,  blogging Suppositories like FrmGrl (I mean, how much more backward can you get with a title like Chasing Apple Pie?), Hunter, or from those too insane to be a Blogging SupposiTory like Wendy “Girl on the Wrong” Sullivan all longing for days when women and other visible minorities ‘knew their place’ and no one dared to speak against their government.

Yes, many want things the way they were during the era of “Leave it To Beaver” or “Petticoat Junction”. Why is Lawrence Martin only catching on to this now?  More importantly, why would Martin say that the 50s were a ‘better era‘? One almost gets the feeling after reading that column that Martin feels nostalgic longing for the “good ol’ days”; that Steve could easily sell it if he weren’t executing such bullying tactics.

Martin also points out a few inaccuracies: Steve would be the most intrusive government (Bill C-42, airport underwear scans or G20 police State Toronto anyone?) and yes, Stevie spiteful will raise taxes, particularly on the middle/working class; not his rich friends.  At the end of the day, somebody has to pay for his communications, F-35s, G20 costs, pork barrelling, and undoing everything previous governments and generations had built.

Mr. Harper’s priorities bring back images of a 1950s Canada. There’s a big focus on family values, pride in the armed forces, the monarchy, the Arctic, law and order, hockey, unintrusive government, low taxes. The vision is the true north strong and free and – with respect to its supreme ruler – on bended knee.

Martin did, however, confirm something most Canadians already knew though, through a Harpercon flunkie.

I was talking to one of his former close advisers recently and, reflecting the Prime Minister’s view, he launched into a tirade about how good Canada used to be until Pierre Trudeau came along with all that “hippie bullshit.” He spoke of how Mr. Harper was in fact a very old-fashioned type and how he had immense pride in the country. This is hard to square with some of his derisive remarks about the place, but many of those did come while Canada was under Liberal rule.

The above statement also confirms why Steve wanted to be Prime Minister in the first place; to undo all that “damage”  Trudeau, Tommy Douglas (introduction of medicare) and others did to move Canada forward. Things like legalizing homosexuality and the beginnings of legalized abortion. Social programs like universal health care. All those terrible things that tend to get Stevie spiteful’s intestinal tract tied like a pretzel.  We also read and hear of those bitching about how Trudeau spent money on those social programs; just ruined the country; just ruined it, I tell you! Ah, the hypocrisy! They benefit from programs like medicare and other progressive measures Trudeau and other subsequent policians put into place.  As I’ve pointed out on several occasions, unleash Steve with a majority and he will undo all and those Harpercon cheerleaders will be the first to whine and bitch when they’re no longer there for them to access when they need them.

And guess who these con idiots blame this dastardly progress and advance on?  Yes, boys and girls, Quebec; la belle province.  That dastardly Quiet Revolution under the evul Jean Lesage.  Quebec, in Steve’s view, it would seem, started that trend of  turning Canada into the “European welfare state of the worst kind…” Quebec is stopping Steve from bringing Canada back to Maurice Duplessis’s Periode Noirceur. Perhaps Steve is channelling Duplessis these days. Love how Quebec becomes a convenient scapegoat.

What’s happened this past decade is that Quebec has lost its long-time leverage. No one cares much about its priorities now that the separatist blackmail threat, the sword of Damocles, has been removed.

A telling statement, really.  It further confirms that Steve doesn’t care as much to keep Quebec within Canada as much as his predecessors did. I daresay, after reading many comment boards and the blogging SupposiTories, that quite possibly, Steve would boot Quebec out of Canada if given his majority so he can continue pushing  his “Back To The Future” agenda. Yikes!

I agree with Simon, Stevie spiteful is more like the Godfather than “Father Knows Best” or Ward Cleever.  We must get Steve out of office, or at the very least, shrink his minority significantly before we end up in 1950s hell. No, wait! Never mind that; think Depression Era 30s hell or better still, back in the days of dinosaurs, just the way ol’ Stock likes it.  Stevie Spiteful ain’t no right on Daddy-O.

Indeed. I found this letter over at Susan Delacourt’s blog. We should be amused at this letter, the arguments are just that tired and old and seriously, just don’t reflect today’s reality and in all likelihood, shouldn’t deflect an angry base from why they’re pissed with the Harpercons-the abolition of the census.  It smacks of desperation. In spite of the best efforts of  Sun Media, Natty Po, Blogging SupposiTories and other Harpercon cheerleaders, the Liberal bus tour is getting positive response and Master Steve is worried and it appears to show more and more.

Here is the letter with the feeble arguments that should be scaring us …or amusing us…

Sent: Fri, July 30, 2010 4:11:33 PM

 Subject: Getting things done. 

Getting things done… In English |  Friday, July 30, 2010

 Dear XXXX, 

The “dog days of summer” are with us, and Michael Ignatieff’s “Just Visiting Express” is making its way across the country. It’s clear Ignatieff is on the road for one reason only…to improve his image. He is desperately trying to change his image from elitist visiting professor to man of the people. 

But while the Liberal leader grasps at style, your Conservative Government is focused on getting things done. We’re working hard to bring prosperity, security, and a bright future for Canadians through our efforts at home and abroad. In recent weeks we’ve announced: Investments to deliver our armed forces with the tools they need to get the job done overseas. Agreements with the US, strengthening our commitment to open borders and free markets with our largest trading partner. Strategic investments in research facilities and equipment at colleges and polytechnic institutes across Canada. Improvements to our security by imposing increased sanctions against Iran. Re-affirmed support for abolishing the long-gun registry. The launch of a review of affirmative action hiring practices to ensure federal hiring is fair. Continued strategic investments across the country to create jobs now, and jobs for the future. 

While Mr. Ignatieff continues his awkward pursuit of photo ops, Prime Minister Stephen Harper continues his solid leadership. His steady hand has already brought us through an economic crisis that swept the entire world. His continued leadership means a united Canada with low taxes, freedom, and prosperity at home and a higher standing in the international community. 

The alternative is almost too scary to think about-a Coalition government in Ottawa. Canada would be put in the hands of socialists, separatists, and Liberals, “led” by a visiting professor after 34 years away. Meddling government, high taxes, and weak leadership would be just the beginning. There’s only one way to prevent this nightmare from becoming reality-a Conservative majority government. And there’s only one way that this can happen-through the support of Canadians like you. The stakes are high and your help is crucial. Please, make a contribution of $200 or $100 right now by following this link. Your support is greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Irving R. Gerstein, C.M., O.Ont. Chair, Conservative Fund Canada Conservative Party of Canada 1204-130 Albert Street, Ottawa, ON K1P 5G4

I thought it needed some work so I took the liberty of reworking it some:

Dear XXXX,

Here we are in the middle of summer and the Liberals are out travelling across Canada meeting average Canadians, you know, the kind we just don’t care to listen to?  That’s the real reason why we axed the mandatory long form census, you know. 

It looks like that Ignatieff is here to stay, so we can’t use the “Just visiting” ads anymore and we’re running out of ideas for attack ads, so we’re hoping we can continue using the old ones and that Canadians will be gullible enough to still fall for them.

Yes, that Ignatieff, he’s going to form a coalition with the Russians and the Chinese!  Can’t you all see what a traitor he is!  You can’t trust a guy with one eye-brow!

Yes, we’re going to raise your taxes, but look at it this way, your tax dollars won’t go on those wimpy social programs that are a total drain on Canadian society like health care, pensions ane employment insurance.  No, no,  we still have to pay off the G20 police for doing such a bang up job for removing all those hooligans, thugs and anarchists and breaking  down that spirit of defiance.   How dare they show disrespect toward their king!  W

We also have to pay for those beautiful shiny new fighter bombers so we can be at war alongside our betters, the United States of America.

I will also need to hike taxes to push other items on our conservative agenda to make Canada a respectable place.

Speaking of  our superiors, the Americans, we need to be more respectful of  our superior friends, the Americans, better free trade with them, that means, we give them the keys to Canada. I know what you’re thinking,  but that Kenyan Marxist won’t be in charge for long. Soon enough, the Alaskan beauty queen will be in charge and gentlemen, she has legs to boot! Whooeee!

And yes, remember those pesky polling stations that would open up in your communities where you would have to fill a ballot about every four years? That thing Canadians scream about not wanting to go? Well,  a Harpercon government will put a stop to that wasteful excercise. Who needs it?  Only an election when  the king dies or gets tired.

Only King Stephen can keep you safe from the Communist Muslim boogie men that hide under your bed, and yes, they are hiding under your beds and in your closets..  That’s why he wants to scrap gun control.  We get rid of the long gun registry to start and then proceeding to get rid of gun control will be that much easier!  The liberals want you to adopt them as pets.

Not to mention, only a Harpercon government can get crime back down the way it was before 1862.  In fact only a Harpercon government can bring life back the way it was before 1862. No abortions, when women were barefoot and pregnant and simply squatted in the fields to give birth and the kids didn’t do anything blasphemous like go to school, they worked on the farm. Let’s bring those good ol’ days back.

Protect Canada from anymore progress! Let’s go back to the  good ol’ days when blacks were kept in their places and ignorance was bliss! Donate now, or that Russian  one eye-browed spy is going to further corrupt Canada!

Remember what happened when Eve ate the apple! We’ve seen the evil it causes when our children are taught things like math, science and languages.

HELP NOW!

See? That was easy.

On a serious note though, due to the media being mostly slanted to the right, will those tired old “just visiting” and “coalition with the separatists and socialists”  attack ads still win out in the end? Sadly,  given that many are content to not think for themselves and allow the likes of Natty Po and Sun Media do their thinking for them, that could well happen.

What is with that magic year 1962 when it comes to comparing crime statistics in Canada? Better still, what is with this longing for the so-called ‘good ol’ days’?  I mean, with anything; be it crime rates; be it women’s issues; gay rights; immigration; etc.

Oh someone is sucking up to his new boss these days.  And Goldstein ain’t alone.  Apparently, it is now in vogue, among other things for wingnut columnists to write about how Canada is a dangerous place to be and how Canadians are just very bad people.  And they are all a comin’ out a swingin’ for Master Steve’s very expensive tough on Crime bills. And they all like to play amateur statistician to boot.  The rancid Dr jabba the Roy has so proudly compiled a few of them today. However, Lorrie Goldstein had to have come up with THE dumbest conclusion and comparison at the end of his already abysmal column. Besides, he’s long overdue for one of my bitch slapping rants.

Well, lowering crime rates are probably one aspect as to why Sweater vest Steve has zero respect for Statistics Canada. And these wingnut columnists playing amateur statistician with their confusing math as to raise the blood pressure of any math teacher must be oh so pleasing to the master.  Yet, they seem to enjoy harping on one common thread; our crime rates are still oh so much higher than they were in 1962. Ok, let’s look at this, shall we?

Since 1962, unwed women and girls, and only them were blamed for unwanted pregnancies no matter the circumstances; whether the sex that resulted in these pregnancies was consensual or not. The man/boy never ever shouldered the blame or very little of it.  Especially in the case of girls and young college aged women, they were whisked off to special homes for unwed mothers, generally convents, where they were forced to have their babies and put them up for adoption in a hush hush manner, while their families back home can pretend all was right in their world; that their daughters were simply away at college or visiting relatives across the country while they still kept up with the Jones’s. We have evolved since then. Pre-marital sex is no longer the taboo it once was.

Many of those pregnancies were also the result of rape and/or incest. Again, the victims were blamed; a very high stigma attached. No one, but no one reported those crimes. It didn’t mean they didn’t happen more or less. In fact, we hear more of adult survivors reporting their suffering either at the hands of their family members, clergy, teachers, aboriginals who had survived the horrors of  residential schools, etc.

I really don’t have to bring up abortion in 1962. Back alley flop houses done by non-medically trained crooks with unsanitary tools in filthy conditions.  Or old wives abortion methods such as knitting needles and wire hangers.

What about the men? Boys were raised at that time (many still are) that they didn’t cry and that they were to be tough; to be a man and fight back. Reporting a crime such as a mugging would certainly have gone against their male pride.

What about other crimes?  Surely being the victim of other crimes prior to 1962 must have had a stigma attached to them, thus preventing them from reporting them.

So, when I read the dumb argument from idiots like Goldstein saying the reason for the crime rates in Canada going down is that fewer people are reporting them, wouldn’t it stand to reason that perhaps many didn’t report crimes prior to 1962?

And what is the deal with these cons longing for the good ol’ days? And I’m not talking only about crime rates neither.

Our new Governor General is someone who stepped out of the era of “The Man in The Grey Flannel Suit”

We have columnists like Babs Kay who devotes her columns to lamenting the invention of  Birth Control and the sexual revolution and in an effort to spread her own misery, tries to force down the throats that not only was the sexual revolution and legalized abortions are immoral, but continues to try in vain to continue to convince readers that they too should be unhappy about this and feebly attempt her readers into longing for the good ol’ days’.

Back in the ‘good ol’ days, women weren’t on the work force as much and the fields of work women took on were more limited as were their post secondary education opportunities.  I remember Diane Finley making some offensive statement awhile back basically saying that two income households were not a necessity but a choice. I remember thinking that she was hinting at wishing for more to stay home.

Those are just some major differences between prior to 1962 and 2010. I didn’t touch on evolving technology.

My point is that in comparing crime statistics or anything else to 1962 or prior to that against today is comparing apples and oranges. The results would be flawed, no matter how hard they try as they might to skew it in their favour.

Back to Goldstein’s idiotic argument in favour of Master Steve’s tax payer paid big-assed prisons. It is a goody, indeed:

…the knee-jerk argument from the hug-a-thug crowd that a (slightly) lower annual crime rate automatically means we don’t need as many police or prisons, is akin to arguing a lower mortality rate automatically means we don’t need as many doctors or hospitals.

In other words, it’s painfully simplistic and dumb.

No, Lorrie, you’re painfully simplistic and dumb-assed. I have one word to respond to that idiotic quote: Huh?

Of course we need more doctors and hospitals because they are needed to heal the sick so people could live longer.  Doctors (in principle, anyway) not only treat the illness and the patient, but they do much research in an effort to find out what causes these illnesses as to be better able to prevent them in the future in addition to finding cures for them. If doctors can successfully prevent more illnesses, then maybe eventually, they would need fewer hospitals.

The same goes for crime.  Look at crime as a sickness. Try to find the causes so as to better prevent them to begin with.  We know of some of the obvious culprits; poverty and unemployment.  Why don’t we try to find the causes of poverty and unemployment (well, I think most of us know that too, but you get the idea) and try to fix that? Create jobs. Create better training programs. Find ways of getting to those who are most vulnerable to slipping through the cracks and offer programs to help them get on their feet like vocational training.  Educational programs for children at risk.  And yes, better community relations between law enforcement and its’ inhabitants because right now, especially in more impoverished neighbourhoods, distrust is strong.  These ideas are just crazy enough to actually work! If we were to implement just half of these ideas, then I think we would see crime rates slide even faster and there really wouldn’t be any need for those big-assed prisons; not that there was any need to begin with.

But of course, this is Stevie Spiteful, Vic Toews, the Colonel Sanders look-a-like and their wingnutty columnists like Lorrie Goldstein who for whatever reason, seem to get their kicks from watching people suffer, while their fat cat ‘friends’ continue to get fatter.

Also, let’s not forget, these are people that, if they had their way, we would go far back in time, using Maurice Duplessis’s Periode Noirceur as a model for their utopic Canada.  No, never mind that,  Duplessis was probably too liberal for them.