Small Mercies: Fetus Freaks NOT Running in 2015

Boo-hoo-hoo. Today, on what is the last sitting day of the 42nd Canadian Parliament, about 50 MPs who have declared they are not running in the next election are making farewell speeches.

Some, no doubt, are good people who represented their constituents honourably and responsibly. Maybe even stuck up for Canadian values and fought, however vainly, against the wholesale havoc Herr Harper has been wreaking nationally and internationally.

About 30 -- and counting -- of them are, however, Conservatives.

The list from Wiki (at the moment):

Diane Ablonczy, Calgary—Nose Hill, Alberta
Mike Allen, Tobique—Mactaquac, New Brunswick
Rob Anders, Calgary West, Alberta
Leon Benoit, Vegreville—Wainwright, Alberta
Ray Boughen, Palliser, Saskatchewan
Garry Breitkreuz, Yorkton—Melville, Saskatchewan
Rod Bruinooge, Winnipeg South, Manitoba
Patricia Davidson, Sarnia—Lambton, Ontario
Barry Devolin, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, Ontario
Shelly Glover, Saint Boniface, Manitoba
Peter Goldring, Edmonton East, Alberta
Dick Harris, Cariboo—Prince George, British Columbia
Laurie Hawn, Edmonton Centre, Alberta
Russ Hiebert, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, British Columbia
Randy Kamp, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, British Columbia
Gerald Keddy, South Shore—St. Margaret's, Nova Scotia
Greg Kerr, West Nova, Nova Scotia
Ed Komarnicki, Souris—Moose Mountain, Saskatchewan
Peter MacKay, Central Nova, Nova Scotia
Colin Mayes, Okanagan—Shuswap, British Columbia
Rick Norlock, Northumberland—Quinte West, Ontario
Gordon O'Connor, Carleton—Mississippi Mills, Ontario
Christian Paradis, Mégantic—L'Érable, Quebec
LaVar Payne, Medicine Hat, Alberta
Joe Preston, Elgin—Middlesex—London, Ontario
James Rajotte, Edmonton—Leduc, Alberta
Gary Schellenberger, Perth—Wellington, Ontario
Joy Smith, Kildonan—St. Paul, Manitoba
Brian Storseth, Westlock—St. Paul, Alberta
Maurice Vellacott, Saskatoon—Wanuskewin, Saskatchewan

I note that this list does not include fraudster and notorious weeper, Dean Del Mastro, already resigned in disgrace. Also missing is Patrick Brown, now leader of the permanently doomed Ontario Conservative Party.

Not one of them will be missed and the absence of all will be celebrated for various reasons.

Not least because just about every last one of them is at least a fellow-traveller fetus fetishist, if not a full-blown abortion- and woman-hating promoter of 1950s values.

Compare that list to anti-choice MPs here.

A few, like Benoit and Vellacott, are particularly odious in their misogyny.

Regular readers will recall that DJ! named its prestigious anti-feminist award after Maurice Vellacott for his long-standing mission to denigrate and demean women.

While we have no doubt that there are legions more zygote zealots frothing in the wannabe CON wings, for now at least, we're taking solace in the departure of so many loathsome dinosaurs.

Ya take yer jollies where ya can find them in HarperLand.

Rules, Shmules: CONs Flout 'Em Again for Religious Pals

We know this: the Contempt Party of Canada breaks rules. Actually, more often they don't even acknowledge that there might be rules that apply to them or their pals.

The examples are legion, but here at DAMMIT JANET! we pay particular attention to transgressions relating to reproductive rights and/or religion (and it's drearily often "and," isn't it?).

Back in December, we reported that the Dominionist Association for Reformed Political Action got "special permission" to stage their garish little gasline flag stunt on Parliament Hill. (This MASSIVE event was intended to call attention to underground gaslines -- both male and female -- cruelly bunched together on a side lawn of Parliament Hill. Or something.)

Here's another more recent flouting of the rules, this time involving Jason Kenney, Patrick Brown, and Pakistani Christians, a key voter demographic, we assume.

A religious conference held earlier this month on Parliament Hill that featured Defence and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney as a speaker appears to have breached the rules governing House of Commons facilities.

The Conference on Religious Freedom, organized by International Christian Voice, was held March 11 at 1 Wellington Street, a building with committee rooms that is part of the Parliamentary precinct.

Link to conference. Link to organization.

According to the rules, events may not include conferences, tickets may not be sold, and the sponsoring MP must be in attendance throughout the entire event.

The sponsoring MP was Patrick Brown, multitasking his job as MP with his campaign to lead the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.

This was clearly a conference, tickets were sold, but it's uncertain whether Brown took time out of his busy schedule to sit through the whole thing.

Because he was busy. Four tweets from March 11 informed followers of four events he attended that day, including the Pakistani Christian one.

And gee, guess what! Patrick Brown is also a double-plus-good fetus fetishist endorsed for PCPO leader by Campaign Lie, which is hedging its bet by also endorsing Monte McNaughton (Rob Ford's choice).

Here's another odd twist to the story.

According to the bylaws, applications for room use must be approved by the Sergeant-at-Arms in consultation with the party. The Sergeant-at-Arms position, however, has been vacant since Kevin Vickers left to become ambassador to Ireland.

We remember Kevin Vickers, don't we? The hero of the October Parliament Hill shooting -- part of the ostensible urgent need for the fascist Jihadi Terrorists Under Every Bed bill -- whisked off to his reward in the Emerald Isle before he could add any useful details to what actually happened that fateful -- for civil liberties in Canada -- day.

Patrick Brown did not deign to return the Ottawa Citizen's call for clarification but International Christian Voice's chairman said he was unaware that ticketed conferences were not allowed.

Who approved the event? Will anyone take responsibility for or try to explain the irregularity?

It's unclear whether any further investigation is underway.

In case you were wondering, besides Jason (The Virgin) Kenney, attendees included Andrew Bennet, Ambassador for Religious (Only If Christian) Pandering and former headmaster of a finishing school for home-skuled precious little souls, Don Meredith, ordained minister with some dodgy credentials and Conservative Senator, and Raymond de Souza, ubiquitous fetus fetishist who needs no introduction here. Bal Gosal, cited by Brown as co-sponsor, did not tweet that day aside from retweeting Brown's.

The (ongoing) lesson?

To paraphrase Leona Helmsley: "We CONservatives don't follow rules. Only the little people without important Christian and/or anti-choice connections follow rules."

Help Stop (or at least embarrass) CPC Cheaters

Remember the 2010 Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament movement? Then, before Twitter was as omnipresent as it is now, the CAPP Facebook group built more than 200,000 followers.

Now that the CONs have their majority and have had 4+ years to fuck the country -- and doing an excellent job at it -- we have a chance next year to get rid of the bastards.

But. They're going to do everything they can to stop us.

Including of course cheating. In each of the past three elections, CONservatives have been caught cheating.

With the absolute minimum cost or penalty.

You think they won't do it again? What or who can stop them?

Us.

Here's the petition.

It was started on December 5. When I signed about 5 p.m. yesterday (Sunday, Dec. 7), it had about 660 signatures. By 11 p.m., it had over 800.

This morning it has over 900.

These things are maddeningly slow at the beginning. But they soon start to snowball.

Let's get this Big Canadian Snowball rolling.

It's a delicious win-win for us. If it gets a respectable number of signatures, questions will be asked and the issue of election fraud(s) gets re-aired.

If it gets an impressive number of signatures, it will make CONs squirm as more questions are lobbed at them.

If it goes, as they say, viral, it will make international news. Mockery and finger-pointing will ensue. More squirming by CONs.

And Harper wins too! He gets to add to his Enemies List. :)

Well, 'tis the season. You wanna be on a List, don't you?

Poifect!

The latest so-called householder touting the CONtempt Party's supposed efforts to help Canadians with disabilities get jobs has a message in Braille on it.

Yabbut, the message is printed, not embossed as it must be for blind peeps to read it.

Isn't that the most perfect example of CON compassion and comprehension?

All bullshit. No substance. No understanding.

Self-Censorship

Friends of the CBC are fighting back on the Harper Regime's political interference with a very clever ad, which also serves as a quick summary of this government's crimes against democracy.




While the group has the dough to pay for broadcast, the CBC won't air them.

A new ad campaign to “Free the CBC” from political interference will not air on the public broadcaster’s programs, say representatives from the non-profit media watchdog group that created the commercials.

“I’m a little surprised and disappointed that they wouldn’t take our money for the ads,” said Friends of Canadian Broadcasting spokesperson Ian Morrison. “It proves our point a little bit about the nature of the problem.”

I'd agree with Mr Morrison there.

Or, as William Burroughs put it: 'A functioning police state needs no police.'

Canadians don't want to see the government meddle with our CBC either.

Morrison adds that results from a recent Nanos poll – also released Monday – show that Canadians care about the CBC and its independence from government. In an online survey of 1,000 Canadians, respondents were asked about their views on government’s intentions to “take direct control of the wages and working conditions of all CBC employees.” The majority — 81 per cent — said the CBC should remain independent from government while 12 per cent said they agreed with the government’s intentions. The remaining respondents were unsure where they stood on the issue.

Shame on you, CBC.

Rathgeber and Warawa Sitting in a Tree

Interesting development in the House of Commons.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has suffered another blow as a Tory MP quit the Conservative caucus Wednesday night, decrying the Conservatives’ lack of progress on open government.

Alberta MP Brent Rathgeber made public his decision on Twitter, saying he had informed the board of directors for his riding association and the Speaker of the Commons that he had resigned from the Conservative caucus.

“My decision to resign from the Caucus is because of the Government’s lack of commitment to transparency and open government,” he announced on Twitter.

Rathgeber was first elected MP for the Edmonton-St. Albert riding in 2008 and then re-elected in 2011.

Immediately-- and rather hilariously -- there was a call for Rathgeber to step down from the PMO.

Harper’s office reacted quickly, saying that Rathgeber should face the voters again.

“The people of Edmonton-St. Albert elected a Conservative member of Parliament. Mr. Rathgeber should resign and run in a byelection,” Harper aide Andrew MacDougall said in his own Twitter posting.

This was not the position the Conservatives took, however, when former Liberal MPs David Emerson, Wajid Khan and Joe Comuzzi defected to the government party over the past few years.

Frankly, DJ! doesn't give a rat's ass over one Contempt Party member's finding his 'nads, but there was this intriguing -- and quick -- reaction.

@brentrathgeber Brent, you are a man of integrity and will be missed.

— Mark Warawa (@MPmarkwarawa) June 6, 2013

Yep, that's our Mark Warawa, he of Warawa's Wank and he who got miffed enough at his own party to at least float the notion of a Backbench Spring.

Now that he has seen how it's done, might he follow Rathgeber's trailblazing lead and quit the party?

And might some of the one hundred anti-choice CON MPs join him?

We live in hope of an implosion.

ADDED: Rathgeber in his own words.

UPDATE: List of eight CONs who have 'bucked' the party. How many do they need to lose to get back into minority status? Six? Come on, boys, just how much do you care about those fetuses?

One of These Things Is NOT Like the Others

Let's get something straight. 'Robocalls' is NOT a generic term for electioneering or marketing techniques that piss us off.

A robocall is a phone call that uses a computerized system to call targetted numbers and deliver a recorded message.

It is not unlike a flyer in your mailbox or an ad on your telly.

In Canada, robocalls are legally used for political purposes and are subject to regulation by the CRTC.

Sometimes, operatives misuse them -- knowingly or not -- and, when the system works, they get caught and fined by the CRTC.

As was reported last week.

Robocalls are the tie that binds politicos of all stripes — in trouble, that is, to the tune of $369,900 in fines for leaving voters in the dark on who was making the telephone sales pitches.

Running afoul of federal rules on the controversial calls is clipping the finances of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party, Montreal Liberal MP Marc Garneau, the federal NDP and Conservatives, Alberta’s Wildrose Alliance Political Association, Alberta Tory MP Blake Richards and Edmonton telemarketer RackNine Inc.

Scripts for their automated, pre-recorded telephone messages did not say which political party or candidate was behind the calls, nor did they leave a phone number, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said Tuesday.

Some of these may indeed have had fraudulent intent or effect, but this 'robocalls' matter is a wholly different kettle of fish from the ELECTION FRAUD case.

The Federal Court has found in no uncertain terms that widespread election fraud took place during the 2011 federal election. The ruling clearly states that "there was an orchestrated effort to suppress votes during the 2011 election campaign by a person with access to the [Conservative Party's] CIMS database."

"This Federal Court decision is a major indictment of the Conservative Party of Canada," says Garry Neil, Executive Director of the Council of Canadians. "Either senior leaders of the Conservative Party were directly involved in election fraud or they were astoundingly negligent in securing access to their voter database. Illegal or incompetent -- just like in the Senate scandal."

Or as Andrew Coyne put it:

Someone is trying to frame the Conservative Party of Canada. Either that, or the party is the victim of a theft, possibly by its own supporters.

Someone, at any rate, hacked into the party’s closely guarded voter database in the closing hours of the 2011 election, using it to call thousands of voters across the country whom the party had previously identified as non-Conservatives, telling them, falsely, that their polling station had been moved. Someone, that is, committed massive electoral fraud, in a way that could only benefit the Conservative party and making use of proprietary party information. But they did it without the party’s knowledge or participation.

The means may have been automated dialling, but the resource was the Conservative Party of Canada's 'closely guarded voter database'.

And the beneficiaries were solely the Conservative Party of Canada.

And yet, said Conservative Party of Canada seems strangely sanguine about it.

Asked about the database breach, Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said: “We take security very seriously.”

So. The Cons' only plausible defence is that the database was hacked, yet that's not what they're claiming.

If anything, they are celebrating.

We are pleased that this baseless case by the activist Council of Canadians was dismissed by the court.

— Fred DeLorey (@FredDeLorey) May 24, 2013

And yes, they fight all investigations tooth and nail. And yes, they are trying to conflate ELECTION FRAUD with the CRTC's robocall probes, which they are pleased to note nabbed actors from several parties. And yes, they are deflecting as hard as they can onto the Duffster's greed and vainglory -- who is leaking all those damning emails to the media, by the way?

But they seem quite unconcerned about their precious database.

Susan Delacourt is almost alone among the media wondering why.

Or as a famous detective wondered, why aren't the dogs barking?

I'll leave you with this because we are knee-deep at the moment and it's going to get waaaaay deeper.

The Issue Is ELECTION FRAUD

Dan Gardner has an excellent question:

Somebody using the ruling party's database tried to subvert an election. Why isn't the country on fire about this? huffingtonpost.ca/2013/05/28/rob…

— Dan Gardner (@dgardner) May 30, 2013

Let's turn our tiny, distractible minds away from the Senate train-wreck and the escalating Ford fuck-up.

The Contempt Party of Canada cheated to win its 'strong, stable majority'.

And doesn't seem the least bit concerned that their own database was used to commit fraud.

Asked about the database breach, Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said: “We take security very seriously.”

He refused, however, to elaborate on the CIMS’ safeguards. Sources have told HuffPost, however, that the CIMS’ safeguards include passwords for need-to-know access and tracking of individual accounts.

Chris Selley:

The Federal Court refused to overturn any election results from 2011 because the onus of proof was on the plaintiffs to prove that an actual outcome was altered. And the plaintiffs, quite honestly, did a sorry job of this. But the court did affirm that election fraud had taken place, fraud almost certainly perpetrated by someone having access to the Conservative CIMS (Constituent Information Management System) database. Moreover, Justice Richard Mosley castigated the Conservative MPs defending the suit for attempting to “block these proceedings by any means” and making “transparent attempts to derail this case.” He actually used the phrase “trench warfare” to characterize their attitude.

The Tories don’t seem too worried that CIMS has been compromised, which would be their single worst election-readiness nightmare not involving an alien attack or dirty bombs. They are not even pretending to tell us how they intend to guarantee that this sort of election fraud will never happen again. The general attitude of their defenders outside caucus seems to be, “Ha ha, we introduced a horrifying dirty-tricks virus into Canadian politics and got away with it.” But, sure: ain’t that Senate terrible?

Yo! Fucking Useless Opposition®! THIS is the issue.

And FFS, stop calling it Robocall.

Your Assignment, Should You Choose to Accept

Loyal DAMMIT JANET! readers, I have an assignment for you today.

I want you to send these two links to your cranky Uncle Bob and your tax-hating Cousin Laura and ask them if they are OK with this spending by the CONtempt Party government.

Item 1: Secret spending on consultants.

A Star investigation has found 90 per cent of the $2.4 billion paid out in the past decade comes with no description of the work done — and more than a dozen departments refuse to provide details when pressed.

Item 2: Economic Action Scam.

Those TV ads are still airing more than six weeks after the budget was read in Parliament.

Liberal MP Scott Brison said his research shows each single ad spot on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada is costing taxpayers about $95,000.

That's enough to pay the federal contribution toward 32 summer student jobs for the season, said Brison.

According the government's annual advertising reports and recent cabinet approvals, the Conservatives have spent at least $113 million on EAP-specific ads since 2009.

And that's not even counting the $3.1 billion missing in anti-terror spending, the egregious costs of War of 1812 commemorations, F-35 and other military boondoggles. Et fucking cetera.

If your fiscally conservative relllies start blubbering about AdScam, show them this.

[Sheila Fraser] found that $100 million was paid to a variety of communications agencies in the form of fees and commissions and said the program was basically designed to generate commissions for these companies rather than to produce any benefit for Canadians.

So. A hundred million dollars in AdScam brought down a government. Wanton and secretive misuse of BILLIONS of our money creates nary a blip in the Canadian consciousness.

I don't understand. Do you?

Image sources.

Science: The Tipping Point?

Warawa's Wank, aka M408, or the Motion to Pretend Conservatives Give a Shit about Women, is a classic political gotcha.

Frame an anodyne sentiment in such a way as to make it difficult to oppose. When critics try to expose it for the sham it is, the trap is sprung!

'Gotcha! You support discrimination against females! You are in favour of sex-selective abortion! SHRIEEEK!'

Cue up the video editing machine and commence production of attack ads.

So as this pig-ignorant government muzzles scientists, shuts down world-renowned research facilities, and just generally behaves like illiterate vandals, we thought a science-related gotcha! from the Fucking Useless Opposition® would be fun.

Look! The FUO put their pointy little heads together and came up with one all on their own. This past Wednesday, Kennedy Stewart (NDP, Burnaby-Douglas) put forward this modest proposal.

That, in the opinion of the House: (a) public science, basic research and the free and open exchange of scientific information are essential to evidence-based policy-making; (b) federal government scientists must be enabled to discuss openly their findings with their colleagues and the public; and (c) the federal government should maintain support for its basic scientific capacity across Canada, including immediately extending funding, until a new operator is found, to the world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area Research Facility to pursue its unique research program.

Basically: a) science good, b) communication good, and c) please, pretty please throw a little interim dough at ELA.

The facty-sciency version of mom's apple pie, yes? Who would vote against that?

Who’s against science, open communication, and very modest funding for basic research? Every Conservative MP. parl.gc.ca/HouseChamberBu…

— Dan Gardner (@dgardner) March 22, 2013

Every single one of the blockheads running this country including creationist chiropractor and Minister of (Destroying) Science and Technology, Gary Goodyear, and former bingo-caller and Minister of (Destroying) the Environment, Peter Kent, voted against it. And the Prime Sinister himself, of course.

Doesn't your maple-leaf imprinted heart swell with patriotic pride?

I keep whinging asking: Where is the goddam tipping point? When will people wake up to the fact that, in the words of co-blogger deBeauxOs, 'Toxic Harper killing everything that is Canadian?

Is this it? Dunno, but here are some relatively new initiatives that look like a good beginning: Unmuzzled Science, Evidence for Democracy, Science Uncensored and Death of Evidence.

Check them out. Get involved.

Pretty please?

The Cost of Crime

But does this report include unreported crime?

A new report says per capita spending on criminal justice — including federal and provincial jails, court costs and policing — has climbed 23 per cent over the past decade even as Canada's crime rate fell 23 per cent.

Funny thing about the Canadian constitution: Feds make criminal law, provinces pay about 75% of the cost of enforcing it.

Or, as our pal Kev says:

@fernhilldammit @matthew_barlowAt this rate we can't afford to reduce crime any further

— trapdinawrpool (@trapdinawrpool) March 20, 2013

What we can't afford is much more of this gang of corrupt, lying vandals.

What's for Dinner? . . . Who the Hell Knows?

OK, I get that most (normal) people are not interested in politics. As long as all is relatively well in their little worlds, people don't much care who's in charge.

But what I DO NOT GET is how people can be unconcerned about the food and water they ingest.

Oh yeah, there are recalls and scares and stories, like the horse meat 'scandal' and the more recent revelation that tuna ain't tuna.

84% of fish samples labeled "white tuna" were actually escolar, a fish that can cause prolonged, uncontrollable, oily anal leakage.

Then there are bigger fish to fry, so to speak.

Alberta shit-beef

Listeriosis

Walkerton

Some of these are stupid mistakes, compounded by failures of the regulators whose budgets are being merrily slashed all over the world.

Right now there are 42 products listed on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's website. How many would there be if the agency had better resources?

Don't know, do we?

But most of the mislabelling and contamination, I would submit, is attributable to sheer corporate greed. Again, compounded by lack of oversight.

Here is a interview by Amy Goodman of Melanie Warner, author of a book I'm not sure I'm brave enough to read called Pandora’s Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal.

Warner is talking about the nutritional value (ha) of processed food, specifically cereals. She's talking about vitamins being added to them. (This is a transcript but I'm tempted to go listen to it to hear Goodman's tone of voice.)

MELANIE WARNER: And I was really surprised to learn where some of these vitamins come from. I never really thought about it in much detail, as probably most people don’t. But it turns out that they’re—these vitamins are not coming from the foods that contain them. Like vitamin C does not come from an orange, and vitamin A does not come from a carrot. It’s very far from that. They come from things that really aren’t actually foods. Vitamin D, for instance, was probably the most shocking. It comes from sheep grease, so actually the grease that comes from sheep wool. You have giant barges and container ships that go from Australia and New Zealand over to China, where most of—a lot of our vitamins are produced. About 50 percent of global vitamin production comes from China inside these huge factories, very industrial processes. A lot of vitamins are actually chemical processes.

AMY GOODMAN: Wait.

MELANIE WARNER: And they’re very technical and complex.

AMY GOODMAN: A lot of people, if they’re with someone, they’re looking at them right now. Wait a second. So, China gets all these shipments of sheep wool from Australia, and they’re pulling the sheep grease off of them to make vitamin D?

Yep. China is doing that.

China, where some of the world's most enthusiastic capitalists have made literal killings in the food biz.

Remember the pet food recalls?

And the absolutely horrifying case of infant formula adulterated with melamine to fake up the protein content?

And yet people seem to be OK with allowing the private sector to monitor and regulate itself?

People are OK with greedy bastards putting lard-knows-what in our food to make a few more pennies or yuan?

People are OK with governments cutting science and inspection budgets and muzzling the scientists whose work we pay for?

Why isn't this a HUGE issue?

I don't get it.


Image source and scary blog from the University of Guelph.

Propaganda: Haz We Had Enuff Yet?

This is what set off my rage-o-meter yesterday.

Canadians may be growing weary of - even hostile to - all those Economic Action Plan ads the Harper government has been pumping out for the last four years.

Eight polls the Finance Department commissioned between 2009 and 2012 suggest the TV, radio, print and Internet ads are starting to fizzle - and annoying some people.

. . .
The eight surveys, commissioned from four polling firms for almost $300,000, have asked the same core questions of random samples of 1,000 people contacted by telephone.

'Even hostile'? Everyone I know is thoroughly and MASSIVELY enraged by the ads and billboards and website badges and and and. . .

It is, quite simply, propaganda.

And clearly not very smart propaganda, because it is not working.

But, in a move that tells you everything you need to know about this truth- and evidence-averse gang of vandals, they're going to keep pouring our dough down that money-pit.

The Harper government continues to buy ad time for its Economic Action Plan, including for Super Bowl Sunday football just last month, when Human Resources and Skills Development bought a series of pre-game ads featuring the EAP logo. The coming 10-week ad campaign by the Finance Department, which launches Monday, will reprise last fall's version.

Today's rage-o-meter was set off by spending yet more dough on focus groups to tweak the CONjob tarsands propaganda.

Focus-group testing on what the Harper government calls its Responsible Resource Development campaign found the advertising to be light on facts but uplifting and patriotic, according to a government-commissioned study.

The fruits of that taxpayer-funded labour will again be on display this spring as a second wave of ads — designed to persuade Canadians of "the importance and impact of Canada's energy sector" — hits the air.

Natural Resources Canada has budgeted $9 million in the current 2012-13 fiscal year for ads that show a cross-section of resource industries in a job-friendly and environmentally sensitive light.

What? The oily companies we fund with corporate welfare can't afford their own fucking propaganda?

The ads repeat and repeat and repeat ad nauseum.

But mostly they are INSULTING.

Yes, fellow and sister citizens, they really do think we are that stupid.

For the full picture of how this government is pissing our money up the propaganda rope, look at this.

Surely this bullshit has far outstripped Adscam by now.

I'm not great at naming things, but this needs a catchy title. Suggestions? #CONprop?

Also. Paging Stephen Lautens for a suitable Demotivational Poster on Propaganda.

Like Shit to a Blanket

A few years ago I was debating the role of government with a young guy from Alberta.

Smart guy, not well educated, but very keen on small government and personal self-reliance.

He was holding his own, countering my arguments in favour of government services and functions that I considered not suitable for private-sector delivery or individual initiative.

Until I got to food and water safety. (I threw in restaurant inspections too. We'd just had a local brouhaha about dirty restaurants and as a young guy, he ate out a lot.)

He paused, thought about it, then agreed: we do need enforceable, arm's-length regulations for water and food. (This was after Walkerton but he hadn't lived in Ontario then.)

I've been thinking about this exchange as the tainted beef recall grows.

And I'm wondering, can we help make this scandal stick?

The Listeria 'scare' ('scare'? 23 people died) didn't stick, despite the incredible callousness of Agriculture Minister Ritz -- who still holds that portfolio.

Remember this?

The Listeria scare was undoubtedly a low point in the political career of Ritz, who faced calls for his resignation after The Canadian Press reported he was making jokes during a conference call with scientists, bureaucrats and political staff.

Ritz later apologized for the remarks, which included describing the political dangers of the crisis as "death by a thousand . . . cold cuts" and expressing the hope that one of the victims of the outbreak would turn out to be Liberal MP Wayne Easter.

Let's go back to the Walkerton inquiry.

According to the local medical officer of health, it all could have been prevented. Dr. Murray McQuigge stunned the country with his revelation on CBC Radio on May 25, 2000 that the Walkerton Public Utilities Commission knew there was a problem with the water several days before they told the public.

But the problems went back even further than that. Contaminated food and water are inevitable, given the neo-con view of government and government workers.

The public inquiry into the water tragedy in Walkerton, Ont. heard a strong condemnation of the Ontario government on Monday.

Dr. Richard Schabas, a former chief medical officer of health for the province said the government of Premier Mike Harris turned its back on public health by failing to tighten provincial water regulations.

Schabas says he resigned his post as Ontario's top medical health official in 1998 in frustration. He says during the late 1990s, the Conservative government of Mike Harris was bent on cutting the size of the bureaucracy, and getting rid of so-called 'regulatory red tape.'

Schabas says he was not consulted and recalled one meeting in which the premier literally turned his back as Schabas tried to voice concerns.

"This was a government that I think really held public institutions in contempt," he said. "And was contemptuous of people who worked in public institutions."

In 1997 Schabas called for a new law to force private labs to report water problems directly to health officials.

But at the time Ontario's minister of the environment refused, saying voluntary guidelines were adequate.

Contempt. Where have we heard that before?

The Harper government too is keen on deregulation, privatization, and voluntary guidelines.

So what did bring an end to the catastrophic government of Mike Harris in Ontario?

The combination and cumulation of a bunch of outrages, no doubt. Ipperwash, Kimberly Rogers.

And Walkerton.

It didn't take long for a political battle to ensue. On May 29, 2000, a clearly shaken Ontario Environment Minister Dan Newman called a news conference to say changes would be made to ensure that the province's water supply remained safe.

"If there is something positive that can ever come out of an event like this, it is that changes be made to ensure that it doesn't ever happen again," he said at the Ontario legislature.

The Ontario Tories lost the next election to the Liberals, who campaigned, in part, on providing safer drinking water.

The majority of Canadians may not be interested in the many outrages perpetrated by the Harper government, but just about everybody can get behind 'no shit in my food or water'.

Can the Fucking Useless Opposition® make this stick? I'll do my bit to help.

ADDED: Food safety workers among hardest hit by Harper budget cuts.

ADDED: Thomas Walkom agrees. *buffs fingernails*

Image source

Black Out, Speak Out

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Dred Tory: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's Warren Kinsella*

Dred Tory: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's Warren Kinsella*

This is the most recent smackdown of a certain junkyard dog, whose most annoying yapping had previously been addressed here, in the manner one tweet described as being "the Beethoven's 9th of fisking".

And do check out this earlier post which may require that you settle down with your favourite potable to fully savour its amusing and scathing points.

Harper's history with Elections Canada

Part of the reason none of the incompetence, mismanagement, corruption and scandals stick to the Harper Government is that the public seems to suffer from collective amnesia.

Remember this?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's hostility toward Elections Canada is long-standing and visceral. As Elections Canada starts its investigation into harassing and misleading phone calls in the 2011 election, it's uncertain how confident Canadians can be the Conservatives will co-operate or that Elections Canada can proceed without consequence.

As head of the right-wing National Citizens' Coalition, Harper fought Elections Canada all the way to the Supreme Court over the ban on unlimited third-party election advertising and lost. From today's vantage point, that court case has an eerie if not prophetic title -- Harper vs. Elections Canada.

And this?

A judicial inquiry or a Royal Commission would be empowered to unearth the tracks of election fraud engineering by the CPC. So it's unlikely Stevie Spiteful will create either of those, and will deal instead with Elections Canada which he has applied himself to making toothless and thus ineffectual in stopping his steamroller of CONtempt for Parliament.

More about the CPC election fraud here and here.

Illegitimate Majority = Illegitimate Legislation

The Sixth Estate is doing its usual fabulous job of keeping track of the (at the moment, 48) ridings where 'unprecedented' allegations of electoral fraud have been reported.

By my count, 32 of the 48 were won by Cons, in some cases narrowly. Dr Dawg does the math on how Stevie's long-lusted-for majority is constructed.

The majority, as we are all aware, that he is using to shut down debate and ram through legislation that Canadians do NOT want -- like online spying. (And the dissolution of the Wheat Board, destruction of the long-gun registry, etc., etc.)

Clearly, the Contempt Party is praying for Canadians to ignore the current outrage as they've pretty well ignored the whole slimy Con track record of abuse of democracy and accountability.

Let's help keep this pot boiling, shall we?

Illegitimate majority = illegitimate legislation.

Not short and snappy, alas. We welcome improvements to it.

Legacy

The Harper Government is well on its way to being the Government of Firsts.

First, contempt of Parliament.

The contempt finding is unique in Canadian history. In a wider context, it is the first time that a government in the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations has been found in contempt of Parliament.

This morning on The House, former Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley was asked what the penalty for electoral fraud is. He said, 'a fine of $5,000 and/or a prison term of up to five years'. Asked whether anyone had ever gone to prison, he said not to his knowledge. But then added: 'But there's a first time for everything'.

There's a legacy for ya, Stevie.

ADDED: Niles asked in the comments but others may have the same question: Who orders an investigation?

As I understand it from this morning's radio program, the Commissioner of Elections Canada orders an investigation by Elections Canada staff who then take the findings to the Director of Public Prosecutions, currently this guy, who decides whether there is a case to bring. Note date of appointment. Yup, 2007, post-Harper.

^NOT standing with Vic Toews

This is all over the toobz, but I wanted a copy here. You know, just in case.



Added by deBeauxOs:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

Joseph Goebbels