The Real Majority vs. Harper Majority

From Joyce Arthur of ARCC, 19 items we sane people can expect from the Harper Regime on Steroids (HROS) on the reproductive rights agenda. Plus her assessment of how likely they are to arise.

Private Member's Bills! Lots of PMBs! One as early as this fall, according to fetus fetishists. She lists the ones they've already tried -- and will try again. Then adds the innovations from the Excited States as possibilities: mandatory ultrasound, parental consent, mandatory counselling from religious Fake Clinics etc.

Next, defunding abortion. There are four gambits, all of which she rates as 'highly likely'.

Four ventures under defunding of reproductive health and rights, some of which -- like the inaction on the Planned Parenthood funding request are already being carried out.

Under Parliament, Senate, Supreme Court, and Legal Measures, there are five 'likely' moves and one unlikely one. Remember, SHithead's appointments could have a huge impact on the Supreme Court for years to come.

Finally, under public policy, she cites funding of research into abortion drugs or technologies, injecting anti-choice restrictions into all kinds of policy areas, and the influence of the as-yet mysterious Office of Religious Freedom.

As we know, the Fucking Useless Opposition® will be of no help to us. We'll have to remain vigilant, make alliances with other groups, pressure MPs who may be Con but not anti-choice.

Here's an interesting analysis of the 2011 vote, exploring where votes moved from and to.

CES [Canadian Election Study] data doesn’t show much evidence of widening and deepening of Conservative support over 2008; for example though they were hoping to improve their standing amongst women, there was still negative gender gap for the Conservative Party in 2011 though not quite as severe as before. In fact it was the NDP which improved its performance with men. The Conservatives also had a significant age gap, falling very behind amongst young people.

We need to let them know that women -- especially young women -- will NOT tolerate even minor infringements of our rights.

Oh Yeah?

Calgary Herald: Harper's not so scary after all.

“You can see in him some change. He’s no longer scary. He no longer has a hidden agenda, and I think we all* believe that now,” said Frank Atkins, a friend of Harper and adviser on his master’s thesis, which examined whether incumbent governments spent money to buy votes as elections neared**.

This video was shot in September 2009. A year and a half ago.



It inspired the group PROUD TO BE A MEMBER OF THAT "LEFT-WING" FRINGE GROUP CALLED WOMEN, which has ^NOT^ declared: 'Oh, well, then. Guess we should just go back to minding our knitting.'

Happy Mother's Day.



*If 'all' is defined as 40%.
**I didn't know the subject of this 'trained economist's' thesis. How long is this thesis? Longer than one word?

^NOT Reopen, Just ^NOT Fund

Well, big mouth fetus fetishist Brad Trost has unleashed a shitstorm.

Lying POS Dimitri Soudas summoned journalists in the middle of the night to dismiss Trost as a mere backbencher without access to government policy.

But as cathie reminds us, he's a backbencher with a source on matters dear to the Canadian Christian Taliban.

The odious lying Oda hustled out a statement.

International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda issued a statement insisting Planned Parenthood would get funding if its application "falls within the government's parameters."

IPPF has been waiting for over a year to find out if its application falls within the parameters.

Let's help Oda out, shall we?

Here is the Muskoka Declaration on Maternal Health. Note point 8 mentions 'voluntary family planning'. But zip zero nada on abortion.

Now have a look at IPPF's website and note second batch of bullet copy, last point.

There. IPPF, you are shit out of luck.

Today, on the campaign trail in Conception, NL, (would/could I make that up?), SHithead is all 'no we will not bring any legislation on abortion, nonononono'.

He dodged a question on private members' bills.

To which kady responded:

If Stephen Harper intended to say that he will whip his caucus and/or cabinet in any future vote, he should say so, explicitly.

But really, all this is beside the point. He doesn't need to legislate. Just ^NOT fund it.

Visit Alison for a view of the current Canadian Fetus Lobby.

DJ! Poll: Which of Stevie's Bitch Slaps Galls the Most?

The best ShitHarperDid video yet.



For me, the most low-down, dirty-rotten, despicable thing done to women by the Harper Regime was killing Sisters in Spirit. Pick the most disadvantaged group in the country and stomp them. Way to go, Stevie!

DJ! poll: Which of Stevie's misogynist moves galled you the most?

Here's a bit of a refresher from the Feminist Alliance for International Action, as if we need one.

Harbingers of a Majority

For Canadian readers of DJ! who may not be following events in the Excited States, two matters. And they do matter, because if Stevie Peevie gets a Majority, this is exactly where Canada is headed.

Item 1

This week Rethugicans stole the Wisconsin Supreme Court election -- I know, weird to elect judges, but hey, otherwise they might be 'activist' judges.

A little back ground: when Rethug Gov Scott Walker pulled his TeaBag-, Majority- and Koch-feuled union-busting attack on the middle class, a number of recall efforts started, but democrats (small and Large) saw an early chance to rebuke (at least) the Thugs in the Supreme Court election on April 5. The good people of Wisconsin campaigned hard for a woman named JoAnne Kloppenberg (D) against incumbent David Prosser (R).

And for a heady but short time, it looked like they were winning a little. Kloppenberg held a 204-vote lead.

Then, ooopsie!

The Political wing of the Tea Party Terrorists have found 7,582 votes for their pet Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate.

The Clerk involved took her computer systems off the State network so vote tallies could not be verified. Some history:

Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus’ decision to go it alone in how she collects and maintains election results has some county officials raising a red flag about the integrity of the system.

Nickolaus said she decided to take the election data collection and storage system off the county’s computer network – and keep it on stand-alone personal computers accessible only in her office – for security reasons.

Check the link for Nickolaus's history of electoral oopsies.

And, oddly enough, the 'found' votes are just enough to avoid a state-funded recount. So, if anyone wants to investigate, it's gonna cost big time. Remember Al Franken's long drawn-out ordeal?

When Michael Moore said: 'They may have the money but we have the numbers', perhaps he should have added: 'But then again, they have the money to corrupt the numbers'.

Sad and disheartening as that is -- not to mention the precursor of much more to come -- dig this.

Item 2

The entire US federal government is about to grind to a halt over Planned Parenthood.

Yes, ladies, the greatest country in the world will stop paying its bills and its soldiers, teachers, and public servants because you sluts insist on having some say over your own bodies, or to use the latest swear word, 'uterus'.

Negotiations on the federal budget failed yet again last night, with reports coming out of Washington that the two parties are more or less in agreement on the numbers, but that they cannot agree on several “social” issues:

Republicans are threatening to shut down the government unless Democrats agree to cut funding for Planned Parenthood. They’re also demanding the de-funding of the UN Populations Fund and the Environmental Protection Agency, because if you’re slutty enough to get accidentally pregnant, your unplanned children don’t deserve to breathe clean air.

Here’s what the Republicans are demanding, in convenient and infuriating bullet point form, thanks to the New York Times:

• No federal financing for Planned Parenthood because it performs abortions. Instead, state administration of federal family planning funds, which means that Republican governors and legislatures will not spend them.
• No local financing for abortion services in the District of Columbia.
• No foreign aid to countries that might use the money for abortion or family planning. And no aid to the United Nations Population Fund, which supports family-planning services.

'More or less in agreement' except for UTERUSES GOING ROGUE!!!!!

(Aside to skeptics: Yes, at DJ!, we do occasionally exaggerate. Check the bloody links. This is true.)

OK, the Excited States have always been particularly insane when it comes to abortion and women's rights. But they gone totally batshitoverthetoploco BECAUSE last November's elections gave the Tea Baggers a Majority.

Majority, as in 'we can do whatever the fuck we want and you can go suck lemons' or bleach or Lysol or other creative concoctions.

Again, we are taught that women's rights are always negotiable.

Coincidentally, a gang of NeoTheoCons here in Canada, who happen to number way too many fetus fetishists among them, want the very same thing. A Majority.

And they need us wimmins on their side -- or the sidelines -- in order to get it.

We cannot let this happen.

Vote. Vote strategically.

And drag every woman you know -- and every friend of women -- to the polls.

There's a saying: 'When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and waving a cross.'

Well, when it comes to Canada, it will come wrapped in apathy and waving a double-double.

Yo! Ladies!

Feel a laser targetting beam on your back?

Stephen Harper embarks on his fourth national election campaign in seven years with a mission: to finally secure a majority government. And he plans to achieve that majority by convincing more women to vote Conservative.

Above anything else, this election is about Mr. Harper, a determined if extremely partisan leader whose personality earns the respect of some and the distrust of others.

Messrs Ibbitson and Friesen have provided a pretty short continuum of responses there.

Let's extend it a little, shall we? To include fear and disgust.

Unfortunately for Stevie Peevie, but fortunately for the country, a good many women regard the Cons with some combination of distrust, disgust, and fear.
The Proud Fringers, for example, whose number is over 5400, formed when an amateur video of Stevie crowing to what he thought was a private gathering about his accomplishments in silencing 'feminists and other left-wing fringe groups' surfaced.

An offshoot, Women Against Stephen Harper, numbering over 600, formed to WASH that man right out of our collective hair.

More than 1200 women joined a group called Women Who Are Creeped out by Stephen Harper. 'Nuff said there.

And when Senator Nancy Ruth counselled a bunch of women angry over the Cons' refusal to include family planning -- let alone safe abortion -- in his cynical G8 'Maternal Health Initiative' to 'shut the fuck up', another Facebook group sprang up. I don't need to tell you what it's called. (That audio clip is NSFW or children, by the way.) This group has more than 2800 members.

Granted, there is a lot of overlap in those numbers. (I think I belong to all of them. I have some strong -armed -minded Facebook friends.) But still, there are lots of Canadian women who wouldn't vote Conservative even if that target on their back were actually bleeding.

But what of the other thousands and thousands of women the Cons need for a *shudder* majority? What can we say to women who might be swayed?

Let's look south to the Excited States, where a wave of Tea Party victories in various states has unleashed an unprecedented orgy of misogyny. All manner of programs intended to benefit women and children have been slashed to ribbons: family planning, child care, violence against women, and, most importantly in this time of fiscal trouble and job losses -- abortion of course.

Ah, but Canada is a kinder, gentler place than the US, you say.

Oh yeah? Let's take a look at what Stevie Peevie has already 'defunded'.

1. Aboriginal Healing Foundation
(cuts affected several healing centres that focused on providing support to abused women, such as the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal)
2. Action travail des femmes
3. Alberta Network of Immigrant Women
4. Association féminine d’éducation et d’action sociale (AFEAS)
5. Canadian Child Care Federation
6. Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW)
7. Centre de documentation sur l’éducation des adultes et la condition féminine
8. Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
9. Child Care Resource and Research Unit, SpeciaLink
10. Conseil d’intervention pour l’accès des femmes au travail (CIAFT)
11. Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women Toronto
(funding cut by CIC in December 2010)
12. Feminists for Just and Equitable Public Policy (FemJEPP) in Nova Scotia
13. First Nations Child and Family Caring Society
14. International Planned Parenthood Federation
15. Marie Stopes International,
a maternal health agency, has received only a promise of "conditional” funding IF it avoids any & all connection with abortion
16. MATCH International
17. National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL)
18. Native Women’s Association of Canada
19. New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity
20. Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH)
21. Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care
22. Réseau des Tables régionales de groupes de femmes du Québec
23. Riverdale Immigrant Women’s Centre, Toronto
24. Sisters in Spirit
25. South Asian Women’s Centre
26. Status of Women Canada
(mandate also changed to exclude "gender equality and political justice" and to ban all advocacy, policy research and lobbying)
27. Tri-Country Women’s Centre Society
28. Womanspace Resource Centre (Lethbridge, Alberta)
29. Women for Community Economic Development in Southwest Nova Scotia (WCEDSN)
30. Women’s Innovative Justice Initiative – Nova Scotia
31. Workplace Equity/Employment Equity Program

(Note that immigrant and Aboriginal women are ˆNOT spared.)

That's what Stevie and his gang have done to Canadian women and children -- with a MINORITY government.

Imagine what he'd do with a majority.


(cross-posted at Unseat Harper blog)

Fucking Liberals

So there I was, having a quite pleasant day, happily anticipating the Liberal abortion gotcha -- backed by the NDP and the Bloc -- designed to force the TheoCons to show their true colours over family planning and women's rights.

Earlier, after an 'emergency' caucus meeting, the ReformaTories had come up with an absolutely brilliant counter to it -- the motion is 'anti-American'.

No. Really. They went with that. I was laffing my ass off all over the Intertoobz.

I was enjoying the witty comments at the various sites that reported the Cons' genius move.

Like this one from the Globe site:

I suppose its Anti semitic as well.

The Freaks were exercised too -- always fun to watch.

The CBC's Question of the Day was: Should access to safe abortion be part of a maternal health plan? The sane answer to that was doing very well indeed.

And, extra bonus! Kady was going to liveblog the latter part of the debate and the vote.

I mean, it was a no-brainer, done deal, all the Opposition would vote for it and the Cons would look like ijits. Poifect! Non-binding but at least Canada wouldn't look quite so stooooopid on the world stage.

Well. If you haven't heard yet, the MOTION WAS DEFEATED.

BY THE FUCKING HARPER LIBERALS, to wit, Dan McTeague, Paul Szabo, and John McKay, who voted with the TheoCons against family planning.

Yes, indeedy, in the 21st century, there are people who have the gall to call themselves Liberals and yet vote against their party in order to tell the wimmins -- yet again -- what we can do with our lady parts.

Two other Harper Liberals -- Albina Guarnieri and Gurbax Malhi -- abstained.

And here's Kady on the other Liberal no-shows:

Curiously absent from the Chamber, despite having been there just a few moments earlier: Derek Lee.

Other Liberal absences, some of whom, at least, were simply not in Ottawa and would almost certainly have supported the motion had they been around, from a list provided by the ever helpful PMO: Anita Neville, Gerard Kennedy, Andrew Kania, Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Alan Tonks, Marlene Jennings, Joe Volpe, Lawrence MacAuley, Stephane Dion, Mario Silva (paired with B. Calkins), Jim Karygiannis.

Just when I was developing a smidge of respect for the Liberals. . .

Just when I was not quite so despairing of Opposition cooperation . . .

Well. That shows me, I guess. Women's rights, here as in the Excited States, are always negotiable. At least for Liberals.

Here is Sister Pale's take complete with a reminder of where that other great Liberal leader, Stéphane Dion, was when another assault on women's rights was passing second reading. When the Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill was being voted on, Dion was absent, eating little pink hamburgers in celebration of -- are you ready for it? -- International Women's Day.

Ah well. As the Liberal boyos are saying today, 'no big diff'.

You look like absolute, complete idiots, Liberals. You couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery. And the Cons are crapping their pants laughing at you.

You deserve every snide snigger and gloating guffaw.

This is what TheoCon maternal healthcare looks like -- UPDATE

I was wondering what happened to Amalia, the pregnant Nicaraguan woman who has cancer. Doctors were afraid to treat her because it might harm or kill the fetus and expose them to the draconian law prohibiting abortion for any reason.

Her case was to be reviewed by a panel of some sort.

No follow-up in the English press but I found this, alas in Spanish.

I ran it through Babel Fish and got the gist, but being the responsible blogger I am, I wanted to make sure. So I zipped the link to Beijing York, who translated the relevant bit:

Despite international and national pressure from various human rights groups - arguing that women should have the right to abort in order to save their lives, the Nicaraguan Medical Association produced a statement saying (more or less):

"An abortion is not going to cure this woman of her cancer or metastasis, for which she needs to receive appropriate treatment, be it curative or palliative and ensure her quality of life."

After 10 days of debates from when she first entered the medical system at 12 weeks gestation, the doctors have agreed to start chemotherapy.

First, Amalia had to sign a form taking full responsibility should any harm come to her fetus during the treatment now that the medical team has stated that they would not perform an abortion.

On Feb 26, the Health Ministry approved the chemotherapy. The doctors officially advised that the fetus would be impacted and might not survive the treatments.

According to some doctors (who remained anonymous), this young woman has very little chance of recovering from her cancer. The Ministry had no comment.

So. There. Dead woman. Dead fetus.

And she gets to torture herself for whatever time remains for her with thoughts of what the chemotherapy is doing to her fetus. After all, she was forced to take 'full responsibility' for it.

Could it be any more twisted?

And this is the kind of no-abortion, no-contraception, no-family-planning maternal healthcare that Motherhood Steve is promoting for poor countries.

In our name.

No Family Planning, No Contraception, No Abortion = Maternal Health, Public Version

What was behind the subscription wall at Embassy Magazine is now publicly available.

That great friend of women and limousine-hopper, Bev Oda confirms: No abortion or contraception for developing countries because our fundy base wouldn't like it, unless the racists thought about it and then they might.

The federal government won’t add contraception and abortion to a package of initiatives aimed at improving women and children’s health despite pleas from the Opposition to include the practices.

International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda said Thursday that Ottawa isn’t changing its policy on what measures will be part of a major initiative with G8 countries to improve the lot of women and children in the world’s poorest countries.

“Canada is not currently going to be changing its approach to improving maternal and infant health,” Ms. Oda said in Halifax, where she announced the port city will host a G8 development ministers meeting in April.

Ah, but, you see, that's a great big porky pie. Canada -- under the ReformaTories -- is changing 30 years of foreign aid policy that, in consultation with the receiving country of course, did include the full range of reproductive services for women and men.

Now, have a gander at this swerve:

“The Prime Minister has been clear since we became government that there’s no intention on regenerating any debate on abortion.”

That is true -- but only for Canada. And he had to say that when Ken Epp's private member's bill, aka the Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill, was about to bite the Cons on the butt before it was tossed under the bus just before the last -- or was it the one before that? I'm losing count here -- election.

(Read the comments at the Globe link -- over 450 when I was there. Just about universally appalled.)

Now, go read Joyce Arthur who has a slew of facty-truthy thingies about how hellyeah access to safe abortion is an integral part of maternal health.

Conservative politicians and commentators have heaped scorn on Ignatieff's concerns, however, and condemned him for turning women's health into a "political football." But most of the politicking is actually coming from Ignatieff's critics, who have launched attacks without the benefit of any facts, and even less compassion for women. Some of the coverage is so shockingly ignorant that it qualifies as being misogynist. Please, if we are going to have this discussion — and we should — please, let's pay attention to some key facts:

* 19-20 million women in developing countries resort to unsafe (usually illegal) abortions every year. 98% of unsafe abortions occur in countries with restrictive abortion laws (generally archaic laws passed by former colonial powers). There are 42 million abortions a year in total.

* 68,000 women die every year from unsafe abortion. 8 million women experience complications serious enough to require treatment. Of those, 3 million never receive medical treatment.

* Thirteen percent of all pregnancy-related deaths are due to unsafe abortion.

* Unsafe abortion is the only cause of maternal mortality that is entirely preventable.

* The highest abortion rates in the world are generally in developing countries with strict criminal laws against abortion. Laws don't stop abortion; they only drive it underground and make it dangerous. (Abortion rates are lower and have been declining in countries where it is legal and widely available.)

* 220,000 children worldwide lose their mothers every year from abortion-related deaths. (Most women in the developing world who have abortions are married with children.)

* When a pregnant woman dies from unsafe abortion, her existing children are 10 times more likely to die within the next two years.

* 215 million women in the developing world have an unmet need for modern contraceptives (meaning they want to avoid a pregnancy but are using an ineffective family planning method or no method).

* Lack of contraception contributes to high rates of unintended pregnancy, which in turn contributes significantly to the maternal death rate. That's because childbirth is dangerous in many developing countries. For example, the lifetime risk of maternal death is 1 in 17 in West and Central Africa, and 1 in 8000 in industrialized countries.

* Additional consequences of unsafe abortion include loss of productivity, economic burden on public health systems, stigma, and long-term health problems like infertility.

* The costs of treating the 5 million women who are hospitalized every year after unsafe abortion is at least $460 million. In Africa, complications of abortion account for 30 to 50 percent of maternal deaths, and hospitals' maternity wards and budgets are often largely diverted to treating these complications.

* Safe legal abortion saves women's lives. Without exception, every country that has legalized abortion has seen dramatic decreases in deaths and serious complications due to unsafe abortion. In western industrialized countries, death from unsafe abortion has been virtually eliminated.

Let's hear from somebody else who knows a thing or two, Keith Martin.

Liberal MP Keith Martin, a doctor who is an expert on the sorry state of maternal health around the world, is one of those supporters. Martin has travelled to Africa dozens of times, and worked there as a doctor several times. He has also been involved in previous attempts to get the G8 to take strong action on improving maternal mortality. He has chaired pre-G8 summits on international health, including maternal and childhood mortality.

Martin says the federal government must articulate exactly what it is going to do when it comes to the G8 maternal health initiative and access to reproductive technology. "I hope they don't take an ideological position."

Harper will be "turning back the clock," Martin says, if the initiative does not include reproductive health: "I can't think of another country that would take that position."

Yeah, well, the Excited States went down that foreign policy abstinence only and screw people vulnerable to AIDS road under the influence of their ChristoTalibaners. And now Motherhood Steve is taking up that slack now that grown-ups are in charge in Washington.

So, I say again: Yo, Iggy, Jack! Ride this horsey!

No Family Planning, No Contraception, No Abortion = Maternal Health

When (un)R.E.A.L. Women speak, Motherhood Steve listens.

Jeff Jedras at A BCer in Toronto helpfully copies and pastes from behind the subscription wall at Embassy Magazine.

CIDA Minister Bev Oda says the government's child and maternal health strategy will not address unsafe abortions in developing countries or support access to family planning and contraceptives. Rather, she said that to ensure the aid agency remains effective, "it's the lives of mothers and babies that we are focused on."

But with nearly 15 per cent of all maternal deaths being attributed to such abortions, and up to 40 per cent of maternal deaths preventable with access to family planning and contraception, experts and critics say support for these areas is essential.

On Jan. 28, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that rallying support for maternal and child health would be a major focus of Canada's G8 presidency. In developing countries, more than 500,000 women die each year in pregnancy and 9 million children die before the age of five.

(snip)

When asked about support for contraceptives and family planning in an interview last week, Ms. Oda said: "In order to maintain our focus, again our focus is on maternal and child health and mortality rates.

"We want to make sure that mothers, pregnant women, are healthy and can have safe births, and that the birthing process is made safer because if you look at the number of births during the actual birthing process, that's where a number of maternal deaths happen," she added.

"We also want to make sure when babies are born, they are born as healthy as possible so that they can live through their early age, up to the age of five, with as strong and good health as possible."

The fetus fetishists are crowing and claiming credit. They report further confirmation from ReformaTory Shelly Glover. (Go read if you want to read Glover repeat word for word what Oda said.)

When Canadian foreign policy was developed by grown-ups, it was considered a good idea to listen to experts and people on the ground.

Now, our foreign policy is dictated by Christofascists and misogynists.

I'm no kind of politico or wanna-be political advisor. But if the so-far pretty useless opposition parties don't RIDE THIS HORSEY HARD, they're total fucking idiots and I'm gonna think about emigrating.

BONUS TRACK: Go read Antonia. She's PISSED.

MORE BONUS: Go read Joyce Arthur. She's PISSED too. (And, if you're a blogger, her piece has a ton of juicy links.)

AND EVEN MORE: Oh. Look. A poll on whether maternal health includes access to safe abortion.

That Abortion Debate? Bring It On!

Seriously. I'm having too much fun with Iggy's Abortion Gambit/Gauntlet/Grenade.

First, cast your minds back to the brouhaha over Ken Epp's private member's bill, C-484, or as we followed one of its proponents in calling it, The Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill.

Back then, people with more than one functioning neuron saw it -- as its supporters did, despite the mewling of Ken Epp et al. -- as a sneaky, backdoor attempt to open the abortion so-called debate with the aim of restricting and ultimately outlawing abortion.

We, the sane people, said: 'NO. We are not debating women's rights.'

Well, many pundits -- I'm too lazy to go back and find all the links but you know who and where they are -- opined: 'We need to reopen the debate.'

To which, we, the sane people, said: 'FUCK the debate.'

Welly-well-well.

Look who's saying FUCK the debate now.Lorrie Fucking Goldstein in the Toronto Fucking Sun:

Is this really what Ignatieff wants pre-occupying Parliament when it resumes? To roll back the clock and reignite the debate over abortion?

Hee. What's that acronym floating around these days? Something like: IOKIYAADSHA -- it's OK if you are a desperately spinning Harpocon apologist.

That Abortion Gambit/Gauntlet

Jane Taber asks 'Will Michael Ignatieff's abortion gambit work?'.

I'd say yes, it's working quite nicely.

Calgary Bishop Fred Henry on Friday called Mr. Ignatieff’s proposal “pathetic,” while on Thursday Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto labelled the Liberal leader’s position on abortion and the developing world “sad.”

Really. That's the best they got.

DAMMIT JANET! and Antonia Zerbisias are enjoying the hell out of this.

Here's AZ summing it up:

The irony is, the Con men are caught between a rock and a hard place here. If they say they don't want to re-open the abortion debate -- as if it ever closed -- they'll anger their socially regressive base. If they do start talking about abortion, and let all those caucus members, overwhelmingly anti-choice, start yapping, then the Cons will drive away the fiscal conservatives who are socially progressive.

Heh.

BONUS TRACK: More from AZ.