The Conservative View of Unreported Crime

From a Star story dated August 3, 2010 (emphasis mine).

Opposition critics are scratching their heads over Stockwell Day's claim that Canada needs more prisons in part because many crimes go unreported.

Day, president of the Treasury Board, was asked Tuesday why the Conservative government intends to spend billions of dollars on expanding prisons at a time of falling crime.

“People simply aren't reporting the same way they used to,” he responded. “I'm saying one statistic of many that concerns us is the amount of crimes that go unreported. Those numbers are alarming and it shows that we can't take a liberal view to crime.”

The old questions arise: What did they know? And when did they know it?

Ladies: Send your menstrual detritus to MP Woodworth!

To quote the fightin' words of JJ at unrepentant old hippie, that would be: CPC MP Stephen Woodworth, Pride of Kitchener’s K of C and another crotch-nosing fetus fetishizing Womb Cop who believes government should be juuuuust small enough to crawl up your vagina and police your uterus.

Woodworth, who is a fundamentalist Catholic who believes "life" starts at the moment of conception, wants to police Canadian women's sexual and reproductive autonomy by criminalizing abortion. This is what we should all do, so he can determine through forensic analysis how many zygotes & embryos we are sluttishly allowing to slip out of our bodies every month.

Depending on the "strength" of your menstrual flow, you should be able to cram all your pads and strained uterine detritus - such as suspicious clots - into one 9 x 12 bubble-wrap-lined enveloppe.

Mail it to Stephen Woodworth, c/o the House of Commons, Ottawa K1A 0A6. You don't have to pay postage to send MPs or the PM (hint, hint) mail.

It sounds gross, but if we don't ACT UP and speak out against Woodworth's project, this is what may soon happen in Canada.

Workers at the Stamford wastewater treatment facility on Harbor View Avenue discovered a dead human fetus while sifting through sewage Saturday morning.

Police do not know exactly how old the fetus is or its sex.

The fetus has been taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, where an autopsy will be conducted, Lupinacci said. Police plan to investigate further after they have received a report from the medical examiner.

"We're hoping on some DNA and we're going to have to somehow check pregnancies and whatnot," Lupinacci said. "It could even possibly be a miscarriage. We don't even know if it's a legal fetus at this point."

A fetus is considered viable if the pregnancy lasts beyond 24 to 25 weeks, said Dr. John Morris, a gynecologist who practices in Stamford. A fetus that is about 4 inches in length is probably pre-viable, meaning it most likely could not survive outside the mother's body, he said.

"Viability is kind of a gray area," Morris said. "Most people will give you between 24 and 25 weeks as an age limit. Before that, the lungs won't be developed enough and you have all other sorts of issues."

Nobody in their right correct mind would want this investigated, you say? You would be wrong.

We cannot allow the CONtempt Party to criminalize women, health care providers and abortion.

Paging Poll Wonks!

Here's my reaction on Election Night 2011, titled 'Totally Fucked'.

I can barely type for tears. Thanks, to vote-splitters, conscience voters. Thanks. Canada is now Tea Party North.

The comments on that post and my (dimming) memory indicate that there was a fair amount of shock at the result. How wrong did pollsters get it?

Or, to put it another way: did pollsters more or less accurately reflect voter intentions MINUS criminal skulduggery?

So I went looking for immediate reactions. Here's ThreeHundredEight from May 3, 2011:

Well, at least I got the order of the parties right.

Clearly, the final projection was wrong. It under-estimated both the Conservatives and the New Democrats and over-estimated the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois. While I was not alone in making this error, I humbly recognize that of all the projections mine was among the worst.

Of the 308 ridings in the country, ThreeHundredEight.com correctly called 234 of them. That's an accuracy rate of 76.0%, which is absolutely unacceptable.

However, it was not the seat projection model that failed. The seat projection model actually performed very well - or would have had the popular vote projection model not missed the mark so completely.
. . .

I should be clear that the polls were not terribly inaccurate. They were actually quite good in pegging the support levels of the Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Québécois. But they under-estimated the Conservatives, arguing for a strong minority rather than a relatively strong majority government. This was especially problematic in British Columbia, Ontario, and Atlantic Canada. On the other hand, full marks go to the pollsters in unpredictable Quebec. They were all very close to the actual result.

Hm. Of the 92 ridings with 'hoax phone calls' The Sixth Estate had listed as of yesterday, I count 74 in British Columbia, Ontario, and Atlantic Canada, where Conservative strength was under-estimated by pollsters, but where allegations of manipulation or suppression abound.

Here's another post-mortem from May 4, 2011.

Stephen Harper achieved his long-sought Conservative majority last night, leaving many of us gobsmacked and dumbstruck.

Pundits quoted there blame vote-splitting.

KICKER: There's also this:

Now Harper (3 May) tells us that in majority, he will adopt a no-surprises approach to government, with no radical shifts in policy: “One thing I’ve learned in this business is that surprises are generally not well received by the public and so we intend to move forward with what Canadians understand about us and I think what they’re more and more comfortable with.”

No surprises, indeed. Long-form census, 'Royal' everything, OAS. I could go on.

I am no poll wonk. But it would be très cool if a number cruncher could take a look at this stuff.

Aside: From my trip down memory lane just now, it is QUITE remarkable how many contemporary reports of 'dirty tricks' were noted by us -- mostly by deBeauxOs. Viz today's Creekside.

h/t @stignasty for the threehundredeight link.

Creekside: RoboCon Time Capsule

Or, What We Knew and When We Knew It.

Spoiler alert: Way back.

Pssst: If you don't have Creekside in your blog-roll or bookmarks, why the hell not?

Just because I can

Tarsands rap with *ethically oily* puppets.

Awesome, full of awesome gravy for the WIN!

Really, we have all the brilliant, funny folks on our side.

ADDED: Unsurprisingly enough, it appears E-Z rant doesn't have a sense of humour, choosing to attack The Tyee for its delightful production.

We Will NOT Go Back

We have a date, April 26, 2012, for a one-hour debate on Stephen Woodwank's Motion 312 on the ever-popular topic of 'When Do Women Lose Their Right to Autonomy'?

The Fetus Fetishists are stoked. More on that in a bit, but first some history, or 'just how long has this been in the works?'

Woodwank, who represents Kitchener-Waterloo, put out a media release on his little notion on December, 21, 2011.

But way back on May 22, 2011 (just after the federal election), the Ontario Knights of Columbus vowed to find and work with an MP to 'introduce a Parliamentary Bill seeking the restoration of full legal protection for the lives of the unborn.' Woodwank is a Knight of Columbus.

On October 23, CTV had a story about an Ontario anti-choice group -- located in Guelph(!) -- launching a campaign called 'We Want the Debate'. It was to be a four-month campaign. Website here.

Four months would take them to mid-February, just around Woodwank's press conference. (I don't know what came of the campaign; I've seen no coverage of it.)

Coincidences? Sure, why not?




Woodwank is now promoting a site called Not Yet Born where you can download and print and harass your neighbours and co-workers with glurge like this.




Nope. No loaded language there, is there?

More reactions from the Fetus Lobby. Faytene of 4 My Canada, a fundy nutbar group, is pumped.

Campaign Lie's got a special-edition website called I Am a Human Being which demonstrates yet again their staunch but mistaken faith that images of miraculous fetal development will change hearts and minds.

When Canada de-criminalized abortion in 1969, technology did not exist to let the world see inside the womb. To a certain extent, abortion advocates in that era of scientific ignorance who honestly believed the unborn was merely a “blob of tissue” might be excused. But thanks to modern microscopic imaging and video technology, we can now see the newly created human being inside the womb.

Pro-tip: Such images have little effect.

In addition to cheerleading and waving around the same old pix, some fetus fanciers are doing happy dances to thoughts of the pro-choicers driven insane by finally having to debate their AWESOME science and logic.

Here's Mrozek.

Should be good–I’m sure a number of pro-choicers will be lighting their hair on fire with the contrived sort of fake anguish that only MPs in the House of Commons can muster.

And sob-brother Kelly McParland.

It’s diabolical. An arrow straight at the deliberate self-deceptions used to justify abortion. Abortion supporters will be up in arms.

In fact, even PMSHithead acknowledges that the debate is 'not the priority of the Canadian people'. (There he goes again, telling us what we think, but twice a day even a broken government clock. . . )

As we've argued countless times here at DJ!, there are a bunch of excellent reasons NOT to reopen the debate.

First, of course, is that the state has no business in the uteri of the nation.

Also. The Fetus Lobby lies, moves goalposts, and just generally argues in bad faith.

And. Most people are sick to death of hearing about it.

But mainly, because WE WON.

The game's afoot nonetheless and here's what could happen. One hour of debate in April, with a bunch of self-selected MPs flapping their gums. Then another hour sometime later and a vote. Simple majority wins and Woodwank gets his loaded committee to hear testimony from a bunch of fetus fetishists and whichever sane people think this is worth their time. Then a report to the House.

After that? Dunno.

First line of resistance is the MPs' debate in April. I'd like pro-choice MPs to stand up and say: 'I refuse to waste the House's time on a settled matter,' and sit down, leaving the floor to a parade of pious, prattling Attack Parrots®. Let Canadians get a load of that.

Ditto for the future debate. Then I want this sucker defeated.

Here's where we have a bit of work to do. Do you know if your MP is anti- or pro-choice? Find out here. Whichever way they roll, let them know you are NOT pleased with time and energy wasted on a settled matter.

Yesterday on Twitter, a few pundits (Kady O'Malley for one) deigned to admonish us pro-choicers as alarmist, over-reacting, yadayada. We were told to consult the numbers. This motion will never pass, they said. Don't worry your purty little heads.

Right. Remember Epp's fetal rights PMB? That passed second fucking reading because we weren't bothering our purdy little heads soon enough and hard enough. Only an election call stopped it. Not us. Nor the MPs.

Not the fucking pundits.

We will NOT get caught with our panties down again.

UPDATE: More Strategery. Like the idea of adopting an anti-choice MP.

Creekside: RoboConduct unbecoming

Alison at Creekside: RoboConduct unbecoming has more, and more coverage of the CONtempt Party election fraud.

Today's CPC election fraud news.

Excellent investigative journalism from the CBC's Terry Milewski. Yes, that Terry.

An investigation by CBC News has turned up voters all over Canada who say the reason they got robocalls sending them to fictitious polling stations was that they'd revealed they would not vote Conservative.

Although the Conservative Party has denied any involvement in the calls, these new details suggest that the misleading calls relied on data gathered by, and carefully guarded by, the Conservative Party.

Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand announced Thursday that he now has "over 700 Canadians from across the country" who allege "specific circumstances" of fraudulent or improper calls. CBC News examined 31 ridings where such calls have been reported and found a pattern: those receiving those calls also had previous calls from the Conservative Party to find out which way they would vote.

Tim McCoy of the riding of Ottawa-Vanier was one of those who complained to Elections Canada. He received a bogus recorded message pretending to be from Elections Canada — but he also had two previous calls from the Conservatives.

"They did call me back from the Conservative Association and ask if they could count on my support," said McCoy, who declined to pledge his vote. He thinks that's why someone tried to mislead him.

"It looks like a hijacking of the democratic process," he added. "I would like to know who made the call pretending to be from Elections Canada and I don't really care which way the finger points. I would like to know."

Elections Canada says it never calls voters at all. However, it is only now emerging that calls impersonating Elections Canada followed previous calls by Conservative workers asking which way voters were leaning. That suggests that the "Elections Canada" calls, which are illegal, came from people with access to data gathered by the Conservative Party, which carefully controls access to it.

Asked about that, party spokesman Fred Delorey had no comment and declined an interview.

More, at the Globe&Mail.

Oddly enough, the Sun newspapers have not provided similar in depth coverage of Elections Canada investigations into complaints of voter suppression. StunTV midiot Levant's notion of "hard news" is to rant about the legitimacy of the 31,000 complaints filed with EC.