A Most Opportune Death

well, it wasn't for Flaherty but it most certainly is for Harper.

We will all die.  Every one of us.

But let us consider Flaherty's CONvenient demise and how Harper will play it out.

All in all, Flaherty's sudden death after dumping Harper and his party, is awfully CONvenient for PMSHithead - if he needs to strike fear in his partisans.

Paul Wells, a most rigorous and understated political reporter, gives us an insight into the internal gears of Harper's CPC that are grinding Canadians down as well as a portrait of a corporate conservative, here.

Flaherty's death offers Harper's Politburo glorious, flashy opportunities to display him in a *good* light which is a tactic that PMSHithead badly needs to deploy right now.

So, let's watch how Harper plays the Canadian and international media in order to exploit Flaherty's death for his own purpose.  It can be his new sweater-and-kittens schtick!

Will Harper insist that Flaherty receive a state funeral, with all the pomp and protocol, and the attendant bells and whistles? I bet he does exactly that. PMSHithead's government needs a MASSIVE sparkly diversions from all the attention the lies, the fraud and the corruption that Harper has facilitated.

As tweeter @dexterdyne asked: The Harper government has cut programs and funding for our veterans, scientists, health care, unemployed, the CBC, the public service.  So what exactly are they spending it on? 

In order to evade such probing questions, Harper's Politburo in currently in full War Room mode.  Right now its richly-paid communication flunkies are spinning tactics to best exploit Flaherty's death for maximum benefit: to make PMSHithead look *good* to voters and to the media.

They are probably looking to North Korea, as they did when they wrote the *Fair* Elections Act, for inspiration on how to shine up Harper's image.

Perhaps Harper's Politburo will claim C23 was Flaherty's brainchild; thus any critic of any word of the Elections Reform Act could be smeared (or worse?) for "disrespecting" his memory.

I suggest instead of listening and watching a week of disgusting and crass CPC Con glurge, Canadians might view _Angel Heart_ or any film that explores what happens when someone sells their soul to the devil.

Once you start thinking of Harper in THAT light... 

A Modest Proposal: Subvert (Harper's) Democracy

I think it's fair to say that PMSHithead has hit some stormy seas lately. The details hardly matter; what matters is that the pundit class seems to have woken up to the little matter of Canadians' widespread loathing for the man, his lies, and his puppets. Even some of his puppets are tiring of his hand up their butts.

Here's Chantal Hébert:

That Harper is more isolated and less in control today than a year ago is not in doubt. Consistently mediocre poll results; heightened caucus unrest; public cabinet squabbles; a poorly handled Senate scandal and what has turned out to be a bad hire for the top party job indicate as much.

A more interesting question is whether, after a decade at the helm, the Conservative leader is inexorably becoming detached/distracted from the business of running the party and the country.

Evidence that the government is adrift is accumulating and the responsibility for that can be traced right back to the top.

More often than not over the past eighteen months the messes that the prime minister has had to mop up have been of his own making. The Soudas episode is just one case in point.

Here's Lawrence Martin, writing under the title, "Harper machine in is in disarry":

Few expected this. The bet would have been that the Prime Minister would have gone to the wall to protect Dimitri Soudas, as he has many other loyalists after acts of folly.

But just four months after having been appointed, the Conservative Party’s executive director is out the door. He joins a lengthening list. In recent months, Stephen Harper has also lost his chief of staff, his finance minister and a Supreme Court nominee, plus several senators as a result of the expenses scandal.

Here's Susan Delacourt from last July on Harper's enemies:

“Creepy” was one of the words used this week to describe the existence of those enemy lists inserted into the briefing binders of new ministers in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government.

Here’s something potentially creepier, however. What if the government kept its list of friends and enemies on a huge, computer database, with names, addresses and personal information about millions of Canadians? And what if you had no right at all to see how you were listed?

Such a database exists. Up to now, it’s been called the Constituent Information Management System, CIMS for short, though the Conservative party is reportedly in the midst of building a better machine, called C-Vote.

And yes, CIMS does organize the political universe into friendly and not-so-friendly people. If you’ve been a friend to the Conservative cause over the years, volunteering, donating or even writing nice things about Conservatives in letters to the newspaper, a yellow, smiley face appears beside your name in the database.

If, however, you have put up lawn signs for rival parties, slammed the door or hung up the phone on the Conservatives, your name appears in CIMS with a frowning red face.

Friend: smiley face. Enemy: frowning face. It’s as simple as that.

And here is my hero and as far as I and many other are concerned, the only one who truly gets what a sick basturd the PM is. Meet Michael Harris:

Someone described Stephen Harper as a Sphinx without a riddle.
...
In Calgary, I ran into Bill Phipps, the former moderator of the United Church. Phipps, a lawyer, churchman and social activist, ran against Harper in 2002 as the NDP’s candidate in the riding of Calgary Southwest. Harper refused to debate Phipps and won in a landslide.

“I went over to congratulate him at his headquarters and he wouldn’t shake my hand. He told me he despised me! I couldn’t figure out how he could despise me, since he didn’t know me.”
...
The Fair Elections Act is almost like one of the dark novels of Evelyn Waugh. How absurd is it that the party that cheated in the In-and-Out scandal is now redesigning the voting process? What are they trying to fix — the system or the next election?
...
Have you noticed how everything to do with government in Canada these days is either secret, under investigation, or in court?

As Bob Rae put it, “Harper can be nasty, cynical, and has a deep authoritarian streak. If there is something these guys don’t like, they must pass a law to stop it. He destroys the freedom people should have to express themselves.”

Be advised. That will soon include elections.

(Read every word he writes. His work can be found at iPolitics and The Tyee and you can follow him at @HarrisAuthor.)

Given all this, it's not surprising to see this yesterday.

Fascinating: Harper says he's running #2015, but today CPC is calling Cdns to ask; "Wd you vote for *Harper?" Note NOT CPC! Harper #cdnpoli

— Red Mitten (@2010redmittens) April 2, 2014

The CONs are polling to see how viable their fading, out-of-touch psychopath leader is for the next election.

Here's what I propose. Whether you are friend or foe, more especially if you are foe, voice your solid, unqualified support for Harper.

In polls. Phone polls, online polls, whenever you are asked by professionals your opinion of Harper, show him some love.

In other words, lie your ass off. (As a point of pride, I always lie to pollsters anyway.)

He wants to suppress our democracy. Let's subvert his.

Let's fuck up his beloved CIMS database.

And the beauty of this is that even if his operatives get wind of the effort, they won't believe it. They will believe their own poll numbers if they are moving in the direction they believe they should. They will not believe that a few determined Canadians would or could subvert the process.

Further beauty: It may panic the FUCKING USELESS OPPOSITION®. "Whoa", they may think, "Maybe we'd better rethink our age-old game of slamming other Opposition Parties rather than cooperating to preserve what little of Canada is left."

(To this end, I have a new Twitter policy. I am unfollowing all Opposition members, professional or amateur, who prefer to denigrate other Opposition parties over rallying to defeat the vandals currently in office.)

Of course, this won't work with über-partisans. And it may confuse your less political friends and relations.

You'll have to explain that you are engaged in a campaign of disinformation, feeding bullshit to the bad guys, in order to encourage them to continue in -- indeed double down on -- their blithe democracy- and environment-destroying ways only to wake up on election morning with a Kim-Campbell result.

I can't think of anything else for ordinary Canadians to do. Petitions, letter-writing, rallies, demonstrations, fah! They don't give a shit.

What we can deliver is false confidence.

Then, when they least expect it, a totally gratifying knee to the nads.

I leave the last word to co-blogger deBeauxOs, speaking of Harper.

@SusanFelucifer @fernhilldammit His violence is ideological, not personal. He will eliminate his enemies if we are a threat to his projects.

— deBeauxOs (@deBeauxOs1) April 1, 2014

We will not appear to threaten his projects; we will subvert his most important one -- getting reelected.

Why PM's Security Costs Have Doubled

So nobody does this.

Source.

The cost of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s RCMP personal security team has more than doubled since he took office, according to records obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.

RCMP numbers, obtained by the Citizen under access to information legislation, show the annual operating budget of the Prime Minister Protection Detail (PMPD) has increased 122 per cent between 2006 and 2014 — to almost $20 million annually.

There is a mightily growing number of Canadians who would love to "snatch him bald-headed."

I'm one.

A peace exhibition that highlights warmongers and some peace activism...

On Monday I posted this about the damage that Harper's CPC Con revisionists are about to wreak upon the Museum of Civilization now Canadian History.

On Thursday I toured Peace: the Exhibition at the War Museum.

It was Dr Lotta Hitschmanova's birthday - over 104 years ago; she had a small place in one of the vignettes that acknowledge her role as a post-WWII refugee to Canada, and her contributions to reconstruction work.

More about Lotta, whose voice and brilliant *branding* of the USC through her public service announcements on the CBC, is acutely remembered by people who grew up in the 1950s and 60s.

I found the exhibition to be superficial; the focus was on war and from my perspective, peace was presented as an occasional inconvenience to the all-important military industrial complex and weapons manufacture corporations.  The political machinations that enabled these business interests to thrive were given a shiny gloss and spin.

Since the perspective was Canadian, some of the politicians featured are: Diefenbaker, Pearson, Trudeau and astonishingly, Harper.  Or perhaps that was pathetically predictable.

Most of the graphic displays are modest in scale, reproductions of photographs, and documents, artifacts on display and so forth.  Not so for the two pictures of PMSHithead which are of course MASSIVE.

It was curiosity that drew me to this exhibition; I had heard much valid criticism of it, particularly with regard to the elements emphasized, and most relevant, all that was absent.  However, the curator for this exhibition surely deserves some recognition for her defense of the paltry statements in support of peace that survived what must have been grueling negociations with ideologically-driven, CON-staffed program committees.

Did I mention that the greatly admired participation by our Canadian troops in UN peace-keeping initiatives is given a minuscule place?  No surprise; that history doesn't jive with Harper's remake of Canada.

This review brings a thoughtful and positive perspective, reflecting upon the importance and the history of making peace instead of waging war.

Sorry for your loss and for our PM, Venezuela

If you, like the people of Venezuela, are appalled by PMSHithead's sanctimonious anti-condolence message, you can send your own.

First, what he said. Note no mention of Chávez's family.

Harper said in his short statement on Tuesday that he hopes the death of Chavez brings a more promising future for the Venezuelan people.

"At this key juncture, I hope the people of Venezuela can now build for themselves a better, brighter future based on the principles of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights," Harper said in a statement Tuesday evening.

Harper also said that he looked forward "to working with (Chavez's) successor and other leaders in the region to build a hemisphere that is more prosperous, secure and democratic."

Translation: My buds hear you got a shit-load of oil and they want it.

It's Louise McKinney's (Proud_Libtard) idea. She sent an email to the Venezuelan consulate in Toronto and it bounced back. I did the same with the same result. She suggested we send our messages to the Venezuelan embassy in the US. So I did that.

Or we could just send Venezuelans -- and everyone else for that matter -- here.

PMSHithead hires big guns ...

... to fight Helena Guergis' civil suit against him and other members of the Harper Regime©™.

In December, lawyers for Guergis filed a lawsuit in an Ottawa court against Harper, the Conservative party, and several other people for $1.3 million over her 2010 ejection from the Tory caucus over allegations of improper conduct.

The allegations in the statement of claim — none of which have been proven in a court — came after a lengthy period during which Guergis publicly complained she had been mistreated by her former boss and political colleagues.

Now, as the plaintiff in a civil lawsuit, she is seeking compensation for damage she alleges those actions inflicted on her public reputation.

Specifically, with regards to Harper's actions, her 31-page statement of claim seeks damages from the prime minister for his alleged "conspiracy, defamation, misfeasance in public office, intentional infliction of mental suffering, and negligence." [...]

In the lawsuit, Guergis alleges those being sued conspired to present various allegations about her behaviour — including fraudulent activity, extortion, association with prostitutes, and cocaine use (including "snorting" the drug off a prostitute's breast).

All the allegations are false and defamatory and have "resulted in damage to the plaintiff's reputation," as well as her "political career, health, and well-being," says her statement of claim.

Guergis was in Harper's cabinet as minister of state for the status of women. That ended suddenly in April 2010 when Harper announced that his office had become aware of "serious allegations'' regarding her conduct which he was forwarding to the RCMP and to the ethics commissioner.

Harper did not publicly identify the nature of the allegations, and Guergis says she was not told by the prime minister.

Guergis was booted from cabinet and the Tory caucus, and the party later removed her as its candidate in the southern Ontario riding of Simcoe-Grey.

In the statement of claim, lawyers for Guergis allege the allegations about her behaviour were put forward as a method to remove her from the Tory fold.

Above, Stevie Grudgiepants and Guergis, in Happier Days.

Here at DJ! we have produced much criticism about Guergis and her role in the roiling incompetence of the ReformaTory Cabinet. But we've also noted that the CPC old boys' club is quick to withdraw privileges, entitlements and protection from its honourary female members when it's CONvenient.

We want Guergis to have her day in court - thus the manner in which PMSHithead conducted his vendetta against her is entered in the public record, and stands as one more element of this repulsive man's political legacy.

Update: Stevie's former head bully-boy has retaliated in court.

Time flies when you're ^NOT having fun.

So it was one calendar year ago today that the majority of voters said WTF? as they took stock of what would eventually be known as The Great CON electoral fraud.

On Twitter, the numerous critics of The Harper Regime©™ vented, expressing some amusing and scathing observations about PMSHithead's first year of rule.

Here's a sample of #Harpers1stYear:

There's a lot more of those, naming the numerous anti-democratic *accomplishments* of this fraudulent governement.

My own CONtribution:

More about the CON elxn41 voter suppression and electoral fraud, here.

Stephen Taylor gets Twitter smackdown

Nobody deserves it more than he does, and nobody is better equiped to smack down dickheads than @kady is.

This, of course, is all about the PMSHithead MASSIVELY mispoken observation that triggered the #HarperHistory hashtag.

More at the Toronto Star, via @SusanDelacourt and others, here, here and here.

Click on small pic to get enlargement.

Stevie's Alleged Electoral Fraud

Go read Alison at Creekside: Steve's Margin of Victory - revised for the latest figures on those critical ridings that allowed PMSHithead and his CONtempt Party to grab his 39% "majority" government.

And then go to Dr Dawg's for a good howl.

As one of the commenters at DJ! said: "Harper's "prove it" response in the House. All he sees is the opposition parties attacking him, not the Canadian people wanting answers. No leadership, no class."

Aaron Wherry observes how Stevie Spiteful goes on a Baird-like bullying bombast in the House of Commons.

Added: This picture from @0lddutch in answer to question "What do you get when you cross a Con with a root vegetable?"

Woodworth's dog & pony show.

Yesterday, while Stevie's Contempt Party government fêted The Queen's Jubilee, Con MP Woodworth "went rogue".

Or at least, that's what we are meant to believe.

In which parallel universe would the MASSIVE micro-manager Harper allow a backbencher to break away from the official party line?

So, it's probably safe to assume that even if Woodworth and PMSHithead were both to claim plausible deniability regarding the K-W MP's initiative, somebody in the PMO∕Politburo had a little chat with the backbencher to map out the tactic and to rein him in if he started dancing outside those lines.

I'm listening to Radio-Canada's phone-in political program; all the callers see through this little ploy.

Let's accept, for the sake of argument, that Woodworth's project to consider the status and the wellbeing of the zygote, embryo and fetus were sincere. Why not strike a Royal Commission and consider it from that perspective, as well as examining what the quality of life should be for potential and actually born infants? But then, it would become apparent that the reformaTory imperative to control and punish women is a minority view that should not take precedence over the rational and heartfelt arguments that pro-choice organizations like the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Bar Association would present, as well as the perspectives multitudes of women's groups would express.

It's not happenstance that Woodworth is attacking women's right to choose through the Criminal Code. Ken Epp tried it in 2008 and Harper voted in support of his private member's bill C-484, as Hélène Buzetti reminded us.

The Harper government's agenda includes the criminalization of abortion. This is now clear, though the Cons lie about their intent. This is the first step in a campaign strategy based on the incremental erosion of women's access to contraception and the right for each woman to stop a pregnancy or to carry it to term.

Human zygote, embryo, fetus are potential human beings. During gestation, pregnant women give life. They are not passive breeders. The Cons want to use the Criminal Code to award nascent beings rights that will trump those of pregnant women.

We will not let them do this.

UPDATE: Parliamentary procedural information from Kady O'Malley, here.

Stevie Spiteful comments on MacKay's marriage.

Oh my.

Whatever is he trying to tell us about his CabMin?

To know him is to . . . laugh at him

If you're not on Twitter you may have missed this bit of fun. Someone posted a machine translation of an incident involving PMShithead and the president of Brazil.

And a bathroom.

Canadian Prime Minister goes to the bathroom and back with only requirement met

The Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, has caused constraints in Brazilian diplomacy on Monday, demanding a change in the ceremony and only go to the salon for lunch with the President after Rousseff met.

The speeches and toasts are common in this type of event can be both before and after lunch. Dilma prefers it that later, but Harper made sure they were done before the guests start eating at the meeting yesterday.

He had already angered aides and diplomats at the presidential palace, telling reporters that Canadians speak there, breaking the rule that such interviews always occur in the Foreign Ministry.

As the Brazilian side denied the request, Harper has reached the Foreign Ministry, for lunch, showing bad temper and demanding the reversal of the freebies. Then locked himself in a private Minister Antonio Patriota, while waiting for an answer.

Stunned, Brazilian diplomats did not know what to do if you meet a desire of the Brazilian President or surrendered to the whim of the Canadian visitors.

Only when we have confirmed that he would be met is that Harper went to Brasilia room where the banquet took place, with palm heart salad, guinea hen and "pineapple delight". Toasts are made with wines.

A less amusing but not substantially different translation is provided here.

Yes. Our PM actually had a snit and locked himself in a bathroom. While on a state visit.

So, the officials were obviously pissed, but what did the 73 commenters on the story have to say?

Here at DJ! we live to serve, so we ran some likely looking comments -- for example, with 'infantilidade' in them (which means about what you'd expect) -- through the translator.

Here's a sampling:

But that arrogant foreigner, desinteligente. In the other house elegance recommends that one should submit to the host. Come so far to shame here, the hope is to forget the path that does not return soon. And if you do, it is with a position of ruler of the 1st world. You know that song poor, the Naiara Azevedo; ecomendar it would be for her a song response to this bumbler.

I DO NOT KNOW WHY THIS Greasy satisfy the request, should have given the toilet DISCHARGE AND HAVE LET HIM DOWN TO THE PLACE.

Here in Brazil things are kids do not want to take medicine when they lock themselves in the bathroom.

He left the bathroom after it was taken care of? But what is it? The illustration of the Brazilian populace to know: This is cag ... ing and walking to Brazil, literally ahahhahahahahahah

Should it be with diarrhea and invented this excuse to relieve themselves.

Someone in government had to have taken a more energetic attitude in this case. Should take the pink bunny doll, and put him jolhos in maize.

But just what was missing was this ... Our president has even muitaaaa patience, I would put to wash dishes. Now let the fresh man!

The next one is gonna leave, er, a mark.

Hahaha ... It is not the first time that this guy runs to the bathroom in meeting offices. In April 2009 he appeared in a photo go because G20 was in the bathroom. This news came on the BBC and The Telegraph ...

The next commenter has taken the measure of the man.

Lets get this straight: the visitor arrives at the host and gently before being subjected to the customs of the recipient well, require its rules in the most awkward possible. Therefore, these facts lead me to suppose that the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Stephen Harper, besides acting as a spoiled brat, is a tremendous rude, arrogant, rude and their attitude, therefore, should shame the great people of Canada. Would have done a favor if you had not come. Get out of here.

As does this one:

THAT'S WHAT MAKES A PRESIDENT VISITS CHOOSING NOT DILMA. MARKING LUNCH WITH AMATEUR WORLD THAT THINK FIRST. PAPER Kid A LACK OF RESPECT TO THE WOMAN IS A NATION. On the other hand is very weak CEREMONIAL WHY SHOULD HAVE NEVER MET AN APPLICATION whim, HE WANTED TO SHOW POWER. FAILED The ceremonial.

And some good advice for presidential hosts and parents everywhere:

They should have left him there and followed with other affairs of state.

And now, my fave.

Spoiled ... fresh in the Portuguese right. I know not, but the world is in the hands of people at this level. Or is this a nerd or the arrogance of Obama. Now, let's see, what did we come to Canada? Salmon, tuna, train ... my! In fact, he is the face of MAD, remember?

This is how our PMShithead appears to Brazilians.



Gratifying, isn't it?

ADDED: The MSM is on it!

ADDED: More MSM. Everybody loves a bathroom story.

ADDED: Even the Washington Post loves a bathroom story!

UPDATE: At last look (couple of hours ago), there were more than 330 comments at the original Portuguese story. When time allows, I'll run some more through the translating machine.