Did ALL Con candidates have to post $1000 bond?

Yesterday it was revealed that not only is the process to select Contempt Party candidates rigorously controled by the ex-PMO politburo, but that candidates also have to post a $1000. *good behaviour*, held in trust until the next federal election. Yes, you read that correctly - until the next federal election. One wonders: did Contempt leader Harper have to post this bond too? Or does it suffice that his physician provided an affidavit that Stevie Peevie is taking his mood-control meds regularly? How about Rob Anders? I'd bet nobody made the guy Harper describes as "as a true reformer and a true conservative" post that bond. So ... is there also a detailed pledge of *good behaviour*, a legal document that candidates must sign when they hand over their $1000? What's in it? No adultery, no necrophilia, no cannibalism, church attendance every Sunday ... what exactly must candidates do, or avoid doing to get their bond money back? It sure would be fun to get a copy of that document. Just saying.

Harper is a Victim. Really.

Poor, sad Stevie Spiteful.

Harper says he didn't want an election and now he has to run for it.

Harper was betrayed, betrayed! by Bruce Carson, he the PMO tells us.

Harper and his Harper Regime©™ were found in contempt of Parliament for these actions - although these are the same old same old tactics the Cons have been exploiting since Stevie became leader of the *new* ReformaTory Conservative (NOT progressive) party in 2004.

And now this damning G20 report, calling for a MASSIVE inquiry.

Oh. Wait. Could Stevie be playing at being a victim, a role-reversal trick that bullies typically like to pull?

In the words of our esteemed blogging colleague Alison @ Creekside:

The Cons' contempt for Parliament was just a part of their contempt for all of us.

The Cons' contempt. It's why we call them Cons.

Adieux, cons et le roi des cons.

"Après moi, le déluge" ... ? Not likely - Emperor Stevie Spiteful the 1st - since your reign has been one raging incompetence and/or scandal after another.

At this point, a democratically functional government is required.

For the first time in a while, I'll be actively participating in a federal election - to ensure that Anyone But a Con gets elected. And I will offer help to those in other ridings, too.

Political caricature from here.

Showing the Pink.

Now, now. Keep those minds out of the gutter.

The women of DAMMIT JANET! are proud members of the constituency Stevie has labeled "left-wing fringe", along with francophones living outside the province of Québec and - of course! - gay and lesbian equal rights-seeking organizations. That's quite a number of citizens the future 'former prime minister' has managed to offend in one go.

Isn't it interesting how progressives get labeled that way, more proof the ReformaTories are no longer even pretending to court our votes. Add up all those so-called "special interests" and "left-wing fringe" groups and you've got a considerable number of Canadian electors riled up at you and your party, Stevie. A majority of them, I'd say.

And though rightwing lunatic fringe groups might whip up the fury and the fear once more on your behalf, Stevie, I'm predicting they won't. In your desperate attempt to re-brand yourself as some sham 'conservative moderate', you didn't deliver the goodies you promised to your fundamentalist religious base.

So fuck you, Stevie. And fuck your blue-boy sweater. Look for me at election time. I'll be one of the hundreds, perhaps thousands of women flaunting a pink T-shirt. I won't be voting for you. I'll be voting for a party that will cure this country of the Con curse and pestilence.

The money raised by T-shirt sales should be channeled towards the organizations whose core funding you slashed when you savaged Status of Women Canada, that bone you threw to R.E.A.L. women.

The photo of a sculpture by Kate Carr is from this website.

Never Again! unless the Catholic Church has its way ....

The above political cartoon was first borrowed to illustrate a blog about meddling bishops posted at Birth Pangs. It comes from a short opinion piece that was written in 2007 but it remains relevant, given the political activism of the Roman Catholic Church clergy during the 2008 Canadian federal election (no, the RepubliCons' Opus Dei candidate did not win) and especially during the US presidential elections where Cardinals spewed ideological diatribes against the Democrats because of their pro-choice position.

We are sad that Bloc Québecois Raymond Gravel was not a candidate for re-election. He received a letter from Vatican officials that told him to withdraw from politics or he would no longer be allowed to perform sacraments. The Le Devoir article above is much more critical than this mild report from the CBC.

In spite of claims to the contrary, it would seem that the spirit and practice of the Inquisition is still alive and kicking at the Vatican.

Two by two, to procreate as intended …

Thank the goddess that BigCityLib is keeping an eye on the Lifeshite fetus fetishists. We learn from his blogpost that the abortion criminalizers have compiled a list of the candidates that they consider to be in their camp.

That, along with April Reign’s reflections upon Stevie’s little parable about Noah and his ark, made Birth Pangs think that this approach, where sex = breeding has become a most unsavoury meme in this election campaign. Especially since since Lifeshite clearly labels its procreation political stance as one for “Serious Christians”, aka zealots.

Meanwhile in the US, Repulsican rightwing rhetoric cranked up the fearmongering to such a degree that even some ideologues are starting to panic over the ’stormfront’ that may have been unleashed. Good luck with that.

First posted at Birth Pangs.

The advantages of abortion: the Cons and C-484

On August 25th - shortly before calling this election - Stephen Harper shoved his low-profile Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson into the media spotlight:

to introduce a government-sanitized version of that bill to protect “pregnant
women” and not dwell on references to “unborn children”.

It was

Stevie and the Harpocrites’ way of removing the albatross that Ken Epp inadvertently hung around his party’s neck. No way the Cons were heading into a fall election, with freshly declared opposition to C-484 still breaking in the news.

One could call this tactic a political abortion; though C-484 had cleared its first and second reading, it was never allowed a complete gestation period. Yes folks, Stephen Harper aborted Bill C-484 in its symbolic ‘third trimester’ because it was politically expedient to do so.

Call them culture-killers, crime-fighters or mediabashers and they would happily cop a guilty plea, but being tagged as anti-abortion is the last label the Conservatives want plastered on their re-election resume. … While he described the need for the bill as “urgent”, Mr. Nicholson ducked repeated questions to produce statistics on the number of fetal assaults in Canada.

And if there was any doubt this move was election driven and not a legislative priority, he could not produce a text of the proposed bill, background documentation to explain the legislation or provide a date when, if ever, it would be introduced in the Commons. “We’re bringing forward a bill that makes a very clear statement on where this government stands,” was all he would say. Translation:
Nowhere near abortion.

MASSIVE public demonstrations against C-484 continue (5000 in Montréal); the aborted Bill has become a symbol for the secretive, prevaricating, manipulative and optics-controlling maneuvers of the Conservatives. Read more.

First posted at Birth Pangs.