Doin' the Twitter Block!

It happened to JJ. It has happened to fern hill.

And now, I'm proud to report that many right-wing, religious zealots that people Twitter have also made me the target of their hissy-fit blocking.

It happens of course when prochoice activists ask too many inCONvenient questions and point out CONtemptuous fallacies in the tweets of abortion-criminalizing fetushists.

So, I've been blocked by cpc MP Stephen Woodworth.

In his *parting* tweet, Woodworth even had the chutzpah to throw back at me the words of the brilliant Molly Ivins that I quote on my Twitter profile page.

There are two kinds of humor. One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule -- that's what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful.

I responded to his tweet by pointing out he had no idea who Molly Ivins was. He also appears aggrieved and to consider himself victimized by prochoice activists who can think faster and better on Twitter than he does.

Appealing. . .

I've had some recent experience with the legal system. I and some other long-term tenants fought our gentrifying landscum over our eviction. (Someday I'll tell the whole tale.) We lost at the kangaroo court known as the Landscum and Tenant Board.

We appealed. The advantage of this move is that one's case is heard by actual trained judges -- not by politically appointed stooges -- so we went for it. (Cost a bomb but sent landscum loco. That was satisfying.)

The disadvantage is that one is at the mercy of a) lying Big Swinging Dick Lawyers and b) incredible-til-one-experiences-it class bias in judges.

We lost.

Now, if we had dropped the appeal before it was heard, what would that have meant?

It would ^NOT have meant that we agreed to disagree with the landscum.

It would have meant that we accepted the decision of the kangaroo court.

It would have meant that we accepted that we had LOST.

Ah, but that's how it works for us little people.

Now looky here.

The Conservative Party of Canada has repaid taxpayers $230,198 for the "in-and-out" election financing dispute and dropped its appeal at the Supreme Court of Canada.

The party, currently fending off allegations of wrongdoing in the 2011 election over misleading telephone calls to voters, notified the Supreme Court last Friday that it wouldn't proceed with its case against Elections Canada.

Remember the old 'In and Out' scandal? And its current iteration?

[The Contempt Party] won the case in a lower court ruling, but in early 2011, the federal Court of Appeal unanimously overturned that ruling, saying Elections Canada had every right to deny the expenses.

The Conservatives brought the case to the Supreme Court, which granted the party leave to appeal in October.

They had a date set in May, but now they've quietly -- on a Friday, natch -- dropped the appeal.

So that means the Contempt Party accepts the decision of the lower court, yes? Accepts that they LOST?

Of course not.

"This has been a long-standing administrative dispute with Elections Canada over whether certain campaign expenses should be counted as local or national," Fred DeLorey, Conservative party spokesman, said in a statement to CBC News.

"We are agreeing to disagree and will be dropping our appeal to the Supreme Court. We are amending our return under protest to reflect this."

Right. Fiddle the books, get caught, fight, fight, fight, lose, appeal, then drop appeal, pay back some dough, then claim victory.

Anyone have any doubt that this is how the current investigation will play out? Like in 2018 or so?

But telling, innit, that they've dropped the appeal now. Hmm. Maybe because they've got stinkier bigger fish to bury fry?

Plague rats

are vicious when they are forced into a corner. And that is exactly what the Opposition has done to Stevie Spiteful and his cabal of Cons in the Harper Regime. If the minority Conservative government falls as a result of losing a confidence vote in the House of Commons, an election will follow.

Harper's rightwing party which had the hubris to campaign on a platform of accountability, ethics and transparence has surpassed its predecessors in evasion, corruption and opacity.

These folks have never taken the high road; they are dedicated followers of Rovian tactics and their leader is the nouveau Tricky Dick.

The cornered Con rats will deploy every nasty strategy and parrot any vile lie to win; their political operatives function as though an election campaign is a blood sport.

Solberg regurgitates Con speaking points.

Monte Solberg may be the first ReformaTory Attack Parrot™© to get his party's propaganda in print, but he won't be the last.

The Con-fabulators can also rely on services provided by Blatchie - she who lectures journalists who presented first-person accounts of what they experienced at ground zero during the G-20 at the hands of riot police goons about professional standards - to repeat the truthiness that's fed to her.

Here, for example. And most memorably this report, where Blatchie submitted with impunity the big fat lies 'leaked' by her overlords.


Grand merci to our much-admired commenter Niles for the heads-up and his observations, always judicious.

Fire Michaëlle Jean!

Your Majesty, we entreat you. Fire your representative. Michaëlle Jean is allowing Canadian democracy to become a joke.

Can we petition the Queen?

Or, maybe Ms Jean will admit she's not up to the job of resisting bully boys and resign.

What would happen then?

Oh, look.

A governor general may also resign, and two have died in office. In such a circumstance, or if the Governor General leaves the country for longer than one month, the Chief Justice of Canada (or, if that position is vacant or unavailable, the senior Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court) serves as Administrator of the Government and exercises all powers of the Governor General.

Hmm. I'd betcha Madame Justice McLachlin wouldn't get pushed around.

And she has experience as Administrator of the Government.

When Governor General Adrienne Clarkson was hospitalized for a cardiac pacemaker operation on July 8, 2005, Justice McLachlin served as the Administrator of the Government and performed the duties of the Governor General, including giving royal assent to the Civil Marriage Act, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage in Canada. She relinquished that task when the Governor General returned to good health in late July.

And if the Queen did step in, wouldn't it be lovely to hear the shrieks of 'Butbutbut, Canada is a DEMOCRACY!' from the Reformatories?

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.

'God help you if you're not white. . . and childless'

The mainstream media -- OK, mainly The Toronto Star -- have woken up big time to the issues surrounding Suaad Hagi Mohamud. Here's Christopher Hume who asks: 'Is citizenship now defined by the colour of your skin?'

Indeed it is, he concludes.

And in Canada today, God help you if you're not white, because the federal government sure won't. Indeed, that government creates these problems in the first place.

Then he speculates:

Had Mohamud been a white mother from Leaside, you can rest assured that Harper himself would have led the charge to have her repatriated.

Meanwhile Canadian Cynic has another question -- one that hadn't occurred to me (emphasis mine).

BY THE WAY, has anyone considered what would have happened if Mohamud hadn't had a son for DNA comparison purposes? What if she'd been single and childless? What then? Because if the assclowns in the Harper government take the position that it was the DNA results that clinched it for them, then they have to address what would have happened if that test couldn't have been done.

Chilling, innit?

Drat

Tim Hudak is the new leader of the Ontario Conservatard Party.

I much preferred the Campaign Life Coalition-endorsed Frank Klees.

Klees is a real fetus fetishist. Woulda been fun.

The ignorant, the zealots and the haters will reveal themselves.

Earlier this evening, a Radio-Canada journalist was trying to interview Dimitri Soulas, the PM's media spokesman. Michel Picard, I think it was, became increasingly frustrated with Soulas' evasiveness and his overbearing rote declarations that ran roughshod over the reporter's attempts to get him to actually answer the questions asked.

The speaking points issued by Harper play over and over again in a never-ending audio loop, emerging from those who still march to his beat.

On discussion boards and blogs, such as those associated to Stephen Taylor's Blogging Tories, Harper supporters - the knuckle draggers, the religious ideologues and the lunatics have been free-styling and embellishing the party line.

Over the last four days, they have been savaging members of Parliament and the political parties who were elected by Canadians to serve them and govern their country.

Next they will direct their ignorance, their zealotry and their hate towards Governor General Michaëlle Jean. She is a woman, she is of Haïtian ancestry and she is progressive. She is also the most powerful person in Canada at the moment, invested with the legal and political potential to determine who will be governing our country in the year to come.

Pay attention to what they'll write about her, the lies they'll concoct, the venom they'll spew, the rage they'll direct towards this intelligent, powerful woman who represents the sum of all their irrational and toxic fears.

We Demand. . .

Hot off the wire: Tories relent on public sector ban.

We got 'em on the run, folks.

Tomorrow (this afternoon?), they'll reinstate pay equity.

What do we want next?

Let the demands begin. . .

ETA: I hadda make a cig run. This song popped into my head.

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.

Back to the Barricades!

Remember this guy? Mr. Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill, in whose honour we nicknamed Ken Epp's private member's Bill C-484, the bill that was Totally Not About Abortion, until the Cons threw it under the bus because it 'might' reopen the abortion 'debate'.

Well, it seems the FFs at the recent Conservatard Convention may have learned something.

They passed a resolution verrrry much like the Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill but looky here:

Although the resolution does indicate a pro-life sentiment among Canadian Conservatives, in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com, John Hoff, President of Campaign Life Coalition B.C., reminded pro-life activists to take this resolution for what it really is – one seeking to protect pregnant women and not unborn babies.

"As the President of Campaign Life Coalition of B.C., P-207 is not a resolution I would propose to protect unborn children. As much as I stand up for the lives of pregnant women, this resolution doesn't do anything for unborn children," said Hoff.

Hoff said the resolution is one which he wholeheartedly supports and that it is a great step forward in protecting pregnant women. However, he indicated that pro-life supporters should keep their mouths shut about it being about recriminalizing abortion feet on the ground.

However, someone's whose feet were actually on the ground at ConCon, liveblogging as much as they'd let him, Dr. Dawg, put it like this:

It became pretty obvious that the "protecting pregnant women" resolution (P-207) was all fetuses all the time.

Yup. That's pretty much what we expected.

Bookmark this page again. *sigh* We're going back to the barricades.

ETA: Check out Danielle Takacs who was also there liveblogging. She has the down-and-dirty details.

When everything old is New™ again!

Transparency. Who would have imagined, in their wildest dreams, that Stevie and his Harpocrites would succeed in changing the meaning of that word to its complete opposite?

“The way we can protect our democracy is through openness and transparency, and when the important political debates take place in public. To close access completely to their debates on their policy issues, says that they are not proponents of democracy, and have no interest in being open and transparent, that their concern is controlling the message to the point of stifling democracy, even it is from within their party,” said Jennings.

Indeed, they have. After a day of in-camera workshops that excluded all accredited media (those were the ones allowed inside the Winnipeg Convention Centre and permitted to remain corralled inside one room) from access to the delegates, a number of resolutions have made it to the plenary for open debate and voting. No surprises there. Two propositions that betray their anti-feminist agenda will be debated; P207, and P213. From here:

Protecting Pregnant Women / The Conservative Party supports legislation to ensure that individuals who commit violence against a pregnant woman would face additional charges if her unborn child was killed or injured during the commission of a crime against the mother.

Women / The Conservative Party supports gender equality through all policy and legislative considerations the full participation of women in the social, economic, and cultural life of Canada. i) The Canadian workforce has evolved to include more women than ever before. The Conservative Party believes all Canadians have the right to freedom from discrimination in the workplace and equality of opportunity.ii) Individuals should be judged on skills, qualifications and merits. Women must be entitled to equal pay for work of equal value equal work.

Note what has been removed and what has replaced it. We await news of the debate, via the conventional (Kady O’Malley and her colleagues) and the blogging media.
First posted at Birth Pangs.

Will Zygote Zealots Rule at the Con Con?

Back in July, Le Devoir disclosed that members of the Québec CPC were unanimously opposed to a resolution that was presented in the slate of policy resolutions for discussion and ratification at the November convention.

Some party members from the West have inserted a proposition to integrate Bill C-484 into the Conservative platform. C-484 is a law that would recognise the fetus in a case where a pregnant mother is murdered. In such a case, the murderer would be charged with two murders instead of one. This is, in fact and despite what the bill itself says, a backdoor way to outlaw abortion because it
recognises the fetus as a legal person. It isn’t a far step to go from that to claiming the termination of the fetus in an abortion to be murder as well. And this isn’t just an over-reaction, similar laws in the United States have led to the outlawing of abortion in certain jurisdictions.

From here.

In the interval between then and now, Stevie and his Harpocrites threw Ken Epp and his Bill C-484 under the bus in a miscalculated bid to placate Québec voters and remove any obstacle to their desired majority rule. Now it has been revealed that a modified version of C-484 is among the hundreds of resolutions up for approval next week at the Con Con.

Is anyone actually surprised? I hope that there are fireworks and MASSIVE confrontations between the fundamentalist religious Cons and the pro-choice Cons.

First posted at Birth Pangs.

Onward Christian Soldiers to the RepubliCon Convention

Among the pages and pages of policy resolutions that the Con rank-and-file members will be considering for approval at their convention in Winnipeg next week there’s this:

PROTECTING CANADA’S HEALTH AND SAFETY Policy Floor Resolutions - Conservative Convention 2008 RESOLUTION P-118 … Foreign Affairs Principles i) The Conservative Party supports a foreign policy that protects Canada’s sovereignty and independence, promotes our national interests (political, economic and strategic), contributes to collective security and defence, promotes democratic principles and human rights, and assists in international development. ii) A Conservative Government will recognize the importance of an ethical dimension in foreign policy and will advance the values broadly supported by Canadians. iii) A Conservative Government will coordinate Canada’s international relations, trade and foreign aid policies to advance the country’s economic interests while promoting human rights and individual freedom. iv) A Conservative Government will integrate our foreign policy with policies on trade and national defence. Foreign Policy Social Values Proposed by Ottawa-Vanier: iii) A Conservative Government will coordinate Canada’s international relations, trade and foreign aid policies to advance the country’s economic interests and social values, while promoting human rights and individual freedom.

Those who can hear the dog whistle know that from so-cons, the expression “social values” is RepubliCon-speak for no-choice, anti-contraception and anti-abortion. It is no accident that this resolution came from the Ottawa-Vanier riding Cons where a number of fundamentalist organizations and associations have established residency, including the National House of Prayer.

First posted at Birth Pangs.

C-484: The Bill That Is Totally NOT about Abortion

Except that a lot of people -- Conservative Party people -- think it is.

Remember when the 8,000-member strong Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec (FMSQ) came out in opposition to Bill C-484, aka The Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill?

Well, according to the Canadian Press, the president, Dr. Barrette, is taking some heat for it. Apparently he is getting hate mail from English Canada hoping he'll «brûler en enfer».

But there's also this:

Cependant, il ajoute avoir aussi reçu confirmation de gens du Parti conservateur dans l'ouest canadien que l'objectif du projet de loi C-484 était bien d'établir une reconnaissance des droits du foetus dans le but d'interdire l'avortement.

Translation:

However, he [Dr Barrette, President of the FMSQ] adds that he received confirmation from people from the Conservative Party from Western Canada that the objective of Bill C-484 was clearly to recognize rights of the fetus with the goal to ban abortion.

OK, we glad that's cleared up.

Check out our newly updated Activist Page to see who else may be getting hate mail. The Canadian Bar Association? The Society of Gynecologists and Obstetricians? The YWCA?

h/t choice joyce at Bread and Roses

(First published at Birth Pangs.)