Toronto Sun Columnist Demands Inquiry

Like most people, I'm still processing the G20 mayhem, but I wanted to share this. Toronto Sun -- yes, Sun -- columnist Joe Warmington is demanding an independent inquiry. While he's defending ordinary cops and quotes unnamed police sources, he's got some interesting information and some damn good questions.

Read the whole thing. Here are a couple of tastes:

Who made the decision for police to stand down despite the fact the city was under attack?

And why?

Was it a police decision or political?

These should be the cornerstone questions of an external review surrounding the chaos of the G20.

While the ninjas were looting on Yonge Street, there was indecision, confusion, and finally a clear order not to engage them.

"It was awful," said an officer. "There were guys with equipment to do the job, all standing around looking at each other in disbelief ... The Montreal riot guys were livid ... They just wanted to get in there and do the job but were told they are too intimidating."

Warmington asks: 'who made that order?' Bloody good question, Joe. I'd like an answer to that too.

Of the brutal kettlin' in the rain at Queen and Spadina, there's this:

Toronto Police so far have offered no apologies for the bizare incident at Queen and Spadina, but my sources say that may be the easiest option for them.

"The chief is rattled because he knows that circus at Spadina and Queen was unlawful and it is going to come back to bite him in the ass," said one copper. "If one of us had detained people like that, we would be hammered with Police Act charges."

If it's deemed criminal, who investigates? The very people who ordered it?

Another bloody good question.

As I say, read the whole thing. Not just for the information, but for the bizarre sensation of agreeing with a Sun columnist.

Me and Connie Again, Demanding an Inquiry into Toronto G20

Remember about a month ago when I blogged about belonging to a very exclusive (for a minute) club -- just Connie Fournier and me?

I've just returned the favour. She's very big on freedom of expression, albeit from the waaaay rightwing end of the spectrum, so I sent her a message suggesting that if she found the events over the G20 protests in Toronto as appalling as any right-thinking ;) person would, she might consider joining the group, Canadians Demanding a Public Inquiry into Toronto G20.

She thanked me for the heads-up and said she would join.

But alas, it's not such an exclusive club this time. Membership just zoomed past 16,000 to nearly 16,500 from just over 11,000 this morning.

And there are some real movers and shakers in the group. Already a rally is planned for Canada Day.

Rally for a Public Inquiry Concerning the Actions at the G20

Date: Thursday, July 1, 2010
Time: 2:30pm - 11:30pm
Location: Queens Park (in front of the legislature)
Street: Queens Park Crescent
City/Town: Toronto, ON

Feet on the street time again.

TIME CHANGE: Rally begins at 5:30 p.m.

No. We Will Not Forget.

As usual, our lords and masters are betting on the fact that we'll forget about the travesty that was the G20 in Toronto.

The inevitable Facebook group, Canadians Demanding an Inquiry into Toronto G20, has been created and it is already attracting attention. CBC reports that as of this morning it already had a membership of 11,400. Just now, when I joined, the membership stood at 11,785.

Let's zoom up the membership on it and get some more attention.

Agents Provocateurs, 3

Anybody got a photo of an undamaged 3-digit Toronto cop car?

Are they working some kinda insurance scam? Just askin'.

From here.

I am Spartacus!

I'm (somewhat) Italian. I'm of a certain age. Ergo, I wear black.

But wearing black is a provocative act in today's Toronto.

Via Stageleft, we learn that even the neo-cons get hassled when wearing black. (And they don't like it. Hee.)

So. I propose that tomorrow be Men and Women and Children in Black Day. Everybody wear black. Even if you're not in Toronto.

I am Blackacus!

What's the difference between a krusading berserker kop and a blak blok anarkist at the Toronto g-20?

The krusading berserker kop has "special powers" that this regulation gives him.

Other than that, they're both bullies hiding behind a black uniform, weapons of destruction, an organization and the fury they unleash upon people and property.

Their fear and loathing of the "enemy" is the fuel for their violence; the target of their rage shifts in accordance with their allegiances.

Neither is necessarily aligned with a political orientation; they're opportunists, pragmatists and followers.

They're killer ants.

Agents Provocateurs, 2

Via Fillibuster, we get a link to someone who knows from boots -- Terry Burrows -- who recaps the Montebello Boot Incident and proceeds to suggest similar hanky-panky was going on at the G20 'riots'.

Me, I don't know from boots, but having lived in Toronto my whole life, I've seen a few cop cars and the one that 'anarchist' is bouncing around on at Terry's place looked odd to me.



Toronto is divided into police divisions -- all two-digit numbers, the lowest number is 11, the highest is 55. Cop cars are numbered with four digits, the first two being the division, the second two, I assume, the number of that vehicle.

Note number on bouncy-car -- 766 -- which, by the way, is the car that got torched on Queen West and featured in all those rivetting photos and news clips.

As they say, it would be irresponsible not to speculate. Is this a real, regular, everyday type cop car? Or some kinda special cop car?

Agents Provocateurs

There are only two possible explanations for the shocking spectacle that Toronto witnessed yesterday: stunning incompetence -- braindead decisions from start to finish -- or despicable calculation -- meant to fail, punish Toronto, and justify the billion-dollar boondoggle that Steven Harper's ego demanded.

Look, even Peter Kuitenbrouwer writing in the Natty Po admits it:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has something to answer for tonight. It is hard for this writer to escape the feeling that this summit was designed with every possible star aligned for ugliness to occur. The summit is held on a summer weekend, after university and high school exams are over; all the students are out and free and have time on their hands. Summer weather is perfect for a march. The summit takes place in the heart of Toronto: everybody in Canada has a friend in Toronto where they can stay during a protest.

And can we not say that assembling the greatest number of police in one spot in the history of Canada, and spending more on fences and security than Canada has ever spent before, has a provocative effect?

The authorities were following the so-called Miami Model.

First, ramp up the information war. Label protesters anarchists and terrorists.

Next, intimidate everybody but especially known leaders of protest groups.

On the day, claim 'they' started it, even if agents provocateurs have to be used or irresistible targets -- like abandoned cop cars -- left lying about.

Then, the authorities pat themselves on the back for a job well done. (This bit isn't going so well, however.)

So, incompetence or calculation? Here is David Langille, who was sitting in Fran's at College and Yonge:

As an academic and an activist, I have participated in numerous demonstrations in Canada, the United States, Europe and South America, and I have never seen such a dereliction of duty.

Normally, there are buses full of riot police right in the downtown core, ready to move at a moment's notice.

The police knew that they should focus their energies on the Black Bloc, especially so late on Saturday afternoon.

But when the rioters came smashing their way up the main street of Toronto, the police disappeared for half an hour.

Here's another vote for incompetence:

Asked whether police were slow to respond to the violence, [Toronto Police Chief] Blair said a mob had emerged from the initially peaceful protest and broke into several groups of vandals.

"It did take us some time to move our resources," Blair said.

Blair later said police are reviewing their tactics, "what worked and what didn't work as well."

And now Judy Rebick weighs in:

But it is the police that let the handful of people using Black Bloc tactics run wild and then used the burning police cars and violent images as a media campaign to convince the people of Toronto that the cost and the excessive police presence was necessary. They knew what would happen and they knew how it would happen. It is the police that bear the responsibility for what happened last night. They were responsible for keeping the peace and they failed to do it.

Me, I blame Stephen Fucking Harper for dumping this insanity on us AND the cops for coming up with this Reichstag ploy to justify it -- agents provocateurs all.

Are you for us or against us?

This lovely little pallid-skinned family learned the hard way that the law a temporary regulation as enforced by police officers is a rough and blunt instrument.

It was a raid scripted straight from the cliché template of some Hollywood hack writer -
Opening: cops descend upon a crack house, break doors down, kick the residents awake, cuff them and lock them up.

Except the purpose of the warrant was to pre-emptively charge, arrest and detain community activists planning protest strategies during the G-20. That was the purported crime targeted by police.

As John Booth writes here, respect of citizens' civil rights was not on display last night.

[He]was woken at 4 am this morning to find police pointing a gun in his face. He was handcuffed and brought outside. Thirty minutes later police apologize to him. Booth is the upstairs neighbour of some G20 protesters, but he lives in a separate unit with his wife and six month old child.

“You hear all this stuff in the news about this one billion dollars' worth of security which is supposed to protect the public - well I am a great example of an innocent by-stander who has been violated despite this very claim. And this is allegedly our tax payers dollars at work.”

What did Stevie Spiteful purchase with the 1,100,000,000. dollars he spent on G-20 and G-8 public government security. A whole lot of weapons, fences, overtime, contracted-out services.

Not much in the way of serving and protecting the public, and very little in the way of skills, competence and discernment.

They're above "man-made" laws, don't you know?

For many people who are unfamiliar with the ideological premise of canon laws, the resistance of the catholic church with regard to accepting accountability for pedophile priests is a mystery.

In this blogpost, we provided a short explanation for the Vatican Taliban's sense of entitlement and privilege.

Today when police raided the Brussels headquarters of the catholic church in Belgium, the home of a recently retired cardinal and the offices of a commission established by the church to handle abuse complaints in order to search for documents, shrieeeks of outrage were heard. According to the NYTimes:

“The police came in and said the house would be searched because there were complaints about sexual abuse on the territory of the archdiocese,” he [Eric de Beukelaer, a spokesman for the Belgian archbishop] said, adding that he was present during the raid and that the police had temporarily confiscated his cellphone. The search continued past 7 p.m., Mr. de Beukelaer said.

No arrests were made, and no charges were announced. The Associated Press reported that the bishops had been prevented from leaving and even from making phone calls.

The authorities are investigating accusations that Belgian clerics sexually abused children, according to officials. Hundreds of such claims have been raised since April, when the bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, admitted to molesting a boy and resigned.

This sort of activity “is extremely rare, very rare, especially in the house of a cardinal,” said Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican expert at Il Giornale, an Italian daily newspaper. “It’s enormous.”

Yes, one might even say it's a MASSIVE step for non-religious, civil authorities to refuse to play along with Pope Maledict and his minions' rules. Few of the news reports include comments from survivors of alleged sexual abuse by Catholic priests, with the exception of the NYTimes:

Barbara Dorris, outreach director for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said in a statement that the raid was “precisely what’s needed, not just in Belgium but in other church offices across the globe.” Ms. Dorris added, “Police and prosecutors need to step up, and promptly and thoroughly investigate allegations against predator priests and corrupt bishops, and use their full powers to gain access to and control over church records that likely document the crimes and cover-ups.”

Indeed, documentation regarding the MASSIVE cover-ups, obfuscation and misdirection by catholic clergy complicit in these crimes against children and families needs to be examined.

Who Stole Toronto?

And replaced it with Saskatoon? (I spent the longest day of the year -- and my life -- in Saskatoon.)

It's downright eerie here. There's more traffic in the dead of night.

I just walked from College and Spadina to Dundas and Yonge and back. I've never seen my city like this.

Lunch-time. Gorgeous day.

Vacant restaurant patios. Closed up businesses. Empty streetcars. A few taxis roaming around.

There is a fuck of a lot of money not being made today. By regular people, I mean: waiters and taxi-drivers and hot-dog vendors and restaurant owners. You know, the people who need every dime to get by.

And what an impression to make on such visitors as do manage to escape from the Red Zone. It looks like an unaccountably huge hick town out there.

This bloody shindig can't be over soon enough.

Police arrest Red Green - what's next?

Alison at Creekside (crossposted at Dr Dawg's) writes about the G-20 security theatre that played out yesterday.

The faceless members of the Integrated Security Unit quickly faded back into the shadows, satisfied that the arrest of some sad schmuck and his little dog will have fed the media hunger for gripping Law & Order drama. (Those free cocktails provided around Lake Con-Begone will slake their thirst.)

Up next. It appears that Governor Premier McGuinty and his star chamber passed a secret regulation that gives the Toronto police some very interesting powers. Like deadly virus swapping bits of DNA that render them resistant to antibiotics, the municipal police are being coached by the RCMP in the fine art of abusing civilians.

It seems inevitable that the police will arrest the families participating in the CLC demonstration under the pretext that adults are using their children as human shields.

After that, it's just a short retroactively-legislated hop to declaring them unfit parents and placing the kids in evangelical christians' homes for the purpose of re-education.

Update: Good news - again, from Alison at Creekside, we learn that one RCMP officer was removed from a Ryerson building at the request of lawful campus members.

Altogether now! (with update)

1, 2, 3, 4, can I see a little more?

Nooooo!

Oxfam’s Big Heads arrived earlier Thursday, bearing surprises and calling on G8 world leaders to keep their promises. To illustrate the importance of maternal health care for third world countries, the leader lookalikes wore faux nude pregnancy suits adorned with maple leaves in the appropriate spots. [...] “There are a thousand women around the world who die every day in pregnancy and child birth. Most are living in abject poverty as it is already,” said Victoria Harnett, the G8/G20 coordinator for Oxfam Canada.

The low-key protest was one of a few planned for Thursday as leaders from Canada, the U.S., Japan, Britain, Italy, France, Italy and Russia prepare to gather here. “The message we want to get across today is that it is absolutely essential that G8 leaders start keeping their promises,” said Harnett, noting that many of the promises made at the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland are nearing deadline.

She said among the broken promises is a $50-billion pledge to help the world’s poor by 2010, “and by Oxfam’s calculations they are falling short by $20 billion of that.”

From here. And. Also. The other protest event was staged by 12 members of the Council of Canadians in four canoes, headed for Peninsula Lake inside the G-8 security perimeter.

Minutes after the canoes set out, a helicopter began circling overhead and they were surrounded by an armada of police boats—including two menacing black RCMP Zodiacs—not to mention three other boats carrying media. [...] “We tried to deliver a ‘Scrap the summits’ message to the G8 leaders. We believe the G8 is an undemocratic, illegitimate body and that it is much better to have a meeting like this at the United Nations,” Brent Patterson of the Council of Canadians [...] said since the G8 is sealed up like a drum and protected by thousands of police and soldiers, the water route seemed a good way to make their statement.

“The point of today’s exercise was to try to tell a much broader audience … that a club of eight of the richest countries in the world should not be making decisions that impact the whole world. So that’s our concern and that’s the message we wanted to deliver,” he said.

To echo the sentiment expressed in fern hill's post, I predict that there's going to be a short trip up S**t Creek without a paddle in Stevie Spiteful's future.

UPDATE: Oxfam Canada's blogposts regarding the Big Heads' presence at the G-8, with more photos.

Radical Anti-Harper Group Strikes Again

CRUSH, that radical anti-Harper group, has done it again! Just in time for the billion-dollar boondoggle, we've raised enough dough to put an ad in Saturday's Globe and Mail.

Here's Pam Allard, one of the admins making the announcement:

Because of the generous support and commitment of our members, we are pleased to announce that our latest ad will appear in the Focus section of the Globe & Mail on Saturday, June 26th to coincide with the G8/G20 summits. This ad will stress the economic mismanagement of the Harper government surrounding these summits.

We should all take great pride in this achievement!

It's the ninth ad in what we hope will be a snowballing crusade.

Catch up with the achievements of the totally grasssroots, multi-partisan, all-volunteer gang here. Donate if you can. And check out the de rigeur protest gear.

To Protest or Not to Protest?

Fake lake, billion dollar boondoggle, unbelievable security measures -- I'm terminally pissed off, but also just so weary.

But, I've been turning my butt out for these things for going on 40 years.

The planned Canadian Labour Congress rally and march is supposedly family friendly. Big negotiations with the cops, yadayada. Good. I'm waaay to old to get water-cannonaded or pepper-sprayed.

I should go. I don't wanna.

But, but, but. Look at the sneaky way those soshialists are guilt-tripping us.

Women Take the Lead

Women will gather at the Sir John A MacDonald statue on the south part of the Queens Park lawn, to give voice to the impact of G8 and G20 decisions on women. Take the lead for maternal health with full reproductive rights, for an end to women's poverty, for women's equality at home and globally!

Join thousands of people on Saturday, June 26th, at Queen's Park in Toronto to let the leaders of the G20 nations know their Summit must be about working people.

So. What do you think? Do I go? Are you going?

The invasion continues.

25 years ago, when gay icon Bette Midler married Martin Von Haselberg, she would joke that she and her husband enjoyed kinky sex. "I dress up like Poland and I ask him to invade me," was her provocative one-liner, meant to underline their geo-political and cultural differences. As far as I know, they are still (heterosexually) married.

Neither Bette nor Martin will be speaking at the mini-G-20 Alison writes about at Creekside. In fact, there are no women in the line-up; only the voices of male, pallid-skinned, rightwing fundamentalist christian (and a token non-perfected jew) zealots will be heard. Karl Rove. Michael Coren. Grant Jeffrey ... Canada's "most prolific" writer? Snerk. News of Margaret Atwood have not reached inside Dokter McVety's protective bubble?

Some do enjoy the smell of fire-and-brimstone in the morning.

Bodes Badly

I live hard by a fire station. While I don't know precisely what my waking in the middle of the night siren threshold is, it is surely more than three or four. In fact, the last time I woke to sirens was the MASSIVE fire a couple of years ago that took out an entire block of Queen Street West.

So when my eyes popped open last night at about 3:30, I knew something was up.

And this morning I found out what. Some yahoo in the nightclub district decided to let a couple of shots fly.

At least four shots were fired into the air early Tuesday just outside the G20 restricted traffic zone in downtown Toronto.

Police say that at about 3:30 a.m., ET more than a dozen off-duty RCMP officers witnessed the shots being fired by the occupants of a black sports car.

Ah but with nine trillion cops, snipers, water cannons, sound cannons, and fifty miles of barricades fucking up my city, they caught the asshole in a trice, wrestled him out of the car, and whapped sixteen pairs of cuffs on him, right?

Um. No.

The car sped away from the scene, a parking lot in the King and Peter streets area. Police gave chase but lost the car somewhere in Etobicoke, in the city's west end.

So, fellow and sister Torontonians -- how bloody secure are we feeling this fine morning?

BONUS! From reader k'in, we learn that the LCBO is closing seven downtown booze stores -- including mine on Spadina north of Dundas -- for this jumbo jamboree. We beleaguered downtowners will have to hike our worthless butts a couple of extra kilometres if we want to get legless.

And we do.

You know, I'd just say fukkit and head off to the cottage I have access to. But it's near Huntsville.

Well, what goes round comes round, I guess. I hate Stephen Harper and it seems he hates me right back.

California (State University) Wants Her.

After months of requests from reporters, a California university has agreed to allow members of the media to attend a fundraiser next week featuring Sarah Palin.

Officials with California State University, Stanislaus issued an e-mail advisory Friday announcing that the June 25 gala at its Turlock campus would be open to the press. The Associated Press has been requesting access to the event since mid-April.

Palin's appearance has generated widespread coverage and criticism since it was announced in March. University officials have refused to divulge the terms of the former Alaska governor's contract or her speaking fee for the event, where the least expensive tickets cost $500.

From here.

$arah Palin continues to feather her nest with wide-ranging speaking engagements as well as to demonstrate some pickiness with regard to which Republican candidates (and for which political office) she will actively support. This has not pleased some of her supporters.

In choosing Branstad, Palin skipped over businessman Bob Vander Plaats, a tea party favorite, in favor of a former governor with a strong chance of returning to office - and wielding political power when the Iowa presidential caucuses roll around.

"She's playing her cards, and trying to set herself up" for making a push, should she run, said Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire who is watching to see who, or whether, Palin endorses in his state.

Palin also backed former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina in the California Senate primary, and got a backlash on Facebook, a preferred way for Palin to communicate with supporters.

To critics who said Fiorina was a Republican in name only, Palin countered: "Most importantly, Carly is the only conservative in the race who can beat Barbara Boxer. That's no RINO. That's a winner."

For some conservatives, that's also a problem. Shelby Blakely, executive director of the Tea Party Patriots' online publication, New Patriot Journal, said Palin's endorsement has become "so undependable, it's marginalized itself." While she once thought highly of Palin, Blakely said that during the past two years the "Going Rogue" author has gone more establishment, and Palin's failure to criticize her own party is bothersome. [...]

Whatever the impact on her wider public, Palin's endorsement translates into crowds and valuable media attention for her preferred candidates, and her message - flowing via her social networks - reaches millions of people.

From here.

It will be interesting to watch, from the outside, who will come out in support of Palin, if she is indeed planning to launch a run for the presidential nomination in 2012. Truthiness, expediency and opportunism are the guideposts she consistently follows. Whether that spells trustworthiness for potential supporters remains to be seen.

Then they came for the trees ... (Updated)

The Integrated Security Unit is planning to clear-cut all trees (and presumably, MASSIVE shrubs too) from the RCMP-controlled zones during the G-20 in Toronto.

The trees could be ripped out of the ground by demonstrators “and then you’ve got a huge bar,” said Constable Wendy Drummond, a spokeswoman for the Integrated Security Unit. [...] Organizers would not say which trees or how many will be hauled away.

“If they’re removing any trees, it’s because they don’t want folks to jump over and launch things from above,” said local city councillor Adam Vaughan.

Mr. Calzavara says the thought that a sapling could be turned into a weapon is “outrageous.” “I would challenge the police to get a couple of burly officers and try to pull one of these trees out of the ground,” he said. “You’d need an axe to cut the thing down. And if you’ve already got an axe, you wouldn’t need a tree.”

Uh-oh. I predict that Mr Calzavara will be visited by the forces of public government order shortly and that all the sharp implements in his home will be confiscated. He might be even arrested for providing the terrists with instructions on weapons deployment.

The only sane response to this insanity is: "Pitchez la vache!"

Update from "No Stone Left Undisturbed" News.

More from Constable Drummond, spokesthingy for the Integrated Security Unit.

But it’s not all about keeping the trees from becoming projectiles, she said. “Trees in full bloom have obscure views and observation is key in a lot of our policing.”

Trees: gone. Next: rocks.

It beats super-gluing every stone to the ground. Summit security are having fences erected around Lake Shore Blvd. to enclose the piles of landscaping stones so the rocks can't be picked up during protests and used as projectiles -- you know, like a sapling can be.

We couldn't make up such idiocy. Tranna residents should thank Stevie and his New©™ Government for these experiential opportunities inspired by the surrealistic theatre of Beckett, Ionesco and Pinter.

Un grand merci to our reader and buddy k'in for the original headline and the source. She is a most appreciated contributor to this blog, in the comment section.

Jesus wants you to know He's not that into you.

After attending this event last Friday, I puzzled and procrastinated for a week about how I'd blog about it.

Part of the challenge was finding the perfect photo to grace my observations. Thanks to Edstock at The Galloping Beaver, I was finally able to bring forth a worthy post. The picture above is the 'before' one, since "Touchdown Jesus" was struck by lightning and burned down this week.

That raised-arms pose was ubiquitous at the Ottawa Civic Centre as 99% of the crowd - most of them pallid christians of European ancestry - swayed to soft rock melodies whilst chanting lyrics such as "Jesus' blood washes white as snow" & "worthy is the Lamb of God" and. It felt like a watered-down rave for middle-aged pentecostal evangelists and assorted charismatics.

After the religious entertainment portion of the evening was done with (including a bizarre choreographed version of first contact between Aboriginal and European folks that glossed over the history of forced religious conversions), Elijah Harper was invited to the stage. His words brought tears to my eyes and elicited a rousing Hallelujah! - he spoke powerfully to the reality of the First Nations people living conditions, spirituality and strength. It was the highlight of the evening, imho.

And. Also. Too. A lot of money was on display, in the state-of-the-art television recording and broadcasting installations. Before the religious pageant started, Faytene Kryskow sauntered through our seating area, in not-kewl hoi polloi territory. Apparently the group sitting in the seats below us had not been given the VIP status they deserved.

David Mainse established the nation's first Christian television show, Crossroads, in 1963. In 1977 he launched 100 Huntley Street, now Canada's longest-running Christian TV program.

As Faytene led Mainse and the dozen or so people in his entourage to reserved seats close to the stage, she apologized for the oversight, blurting out that the Aboriginal volunteers involved in the organization of the event "did not know who the important people were".

Oh really, Faytene? Shouldn't Jesus be the Most Important One to know?

The difference between inflammatory and defamatory.

The Toronto Police union is calling for Sid Ryan to resign after the labour leader suggested police may plant agent provocateurs among the G20 protesters to incite violence. “It’s a totally irresponsible, inflammatory and idiotic thing to say for someone in his position. Nothing could be further from the truth,” said Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association. “It’s a total insult to police everywhere.”

At a Wednesday news conference for the “People First!” rally, Ryan said he had concerns the police would use disguised agents to cause chaos in order to provoke a violent response from security forces. “They’ve done it before,” said Ryan, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour. “I’m concerned about that as a tactic to justify police presence and justify the spending of $1.3 billion on security.”

From here. Notice McCormack said inflammatory and not defamatory. An explanation for this would be, as the letter from the Council of Canadians to Harper illustrates, there is cause for such concerns.

“Three undercover police officers attempted to incite violence in 2007 at the Montebello protest against the Security and Prosperity Partnership. The proof of their actions was caught on film,” adds Barlow. “The Sûreté du Québec was forced to admit that they were police officers, dressed in black and holding rocks. Yet, to date no one has been held accountable and through his silence, Harper appears to have given tacit approval of the use of agents provocateurs.”

It was the above incident that came to mind when this occurred in Ottawa, shortly before Stevie and his bullies disclosed the billion dollars (and rising) budget anticipated for the G-8/B-20 held in Ontario, much of it dedicated to public government security.

You don't have to be batshit crazy to run for US office. . .

But it helps. (And a peculiar name seems to go with the territory too.)

Meet Zack Wamp, Rethuglican candidate for governor of Tennessee. The blog Nashville Scene calls him the Democrats' favorite spittle-flecked Republican.

Zach Wamp says if Tennessee will only outlaw abortion, God will give our state new jobs and a booming economy. According to Wamp, God already has blessed the economy of his hometown of Chattanooga for keeping abortion clinics out of the city.

"Let me tell you one of the reasons why Chattanooga is a very blessed city today, why we have so much new economic development and why we're really an anointed city," the eight-term congressman said at a Tennessee Tea Party convention this summer inGatlinburg.

"There are no abortion clinics in Chattanooga. We made a decision. We made a decision a long time ago that we were going to work as a community to not allow abortion clinics in our city, and I got to tell you we're trying to be after God's own heart. I mean it's hard to say that. Lincoln said, we don't claim to have God on our side but we strive to be on his. And that's the deal here. People who seek righteousness and the right thing are blessed and anointed. Our city is blessed. Our state will be blessed as we remove this scourge and plague of killing innocent children in the womb."

Pro-choice Tennesseeans seem to take such ravings in stride.

Two abortion clinics operate in Nashville "so maybe that's why we had this thousand-year flood," Planned Parenthood's Jeff Teague says.

Teague was asked how Wamp could claim the god-botherers had kept abortion clinics out of Chattanooga.

"He's probably talking about the usual intimidation and terrorist tactics" employed by abortion foes all over the country, Teague says.

Wamp is a Tea-Bagger, of course, pro-gun, anti-immigrant, pro-armed insurrection, anti-climate change, yada-yada.

Oh, look here:

Shortly after leaving college, and after a stay in a substance abuse program, Wamp married his wife Kim and, switching denominations, became an active member in one of Chattanooga's more politically active Baptist churches where he began to hone his political skills and build his religious right political base.

Substance-abusing, anti-abortion, gun nut. And one more thing -- a C Streeter.

In April 2003, the Associated Press reported that Wamp was one of six Congressman living in a Capitol Hill townhouse subsidized by The Family, a national Christian organization.

On July 10, 2009, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that Wamp admitted in an interview that he and his fellow residents at C Street have all pledged that they won't talk about their private living arrangements, adding that he intends to honor that pledge. When Rachel Maddow repeated the story on her show, Wamp complained, but the Knoxville News Sentinel stated that Wamp did not call them to correct his comment. Maddow responded strongly to Wamp's complaints on air.

Now, from Nevada, running against Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, is another Tea-Bagging whackaloon, Sharron Angle.

Honorable Tea Party voters might ask why Karl Rove has thrown his corrupt, Bush-style politics behind the Sharron Angle campaign for Nevada senator. Honorable Tea Party voters might also ask why Angle comes to Washington, in virtual secrecy, hidden from Nevada voters, to meet with old-style Bush-friendly Republican insiders to study the tricks of the dirty political trade.

I have always tried to be fair to Ron Paul. I agree with Paul on some matters, such as auditing the Fed, and disagree with Paul on other matters. But let’s be clear, agree with him or not, Ron Paul is the real deal, a serious thinker with serious ideas on serious issues.

Sharron Angle is just a political kook who takes weird positions on issues and has been seeking high office unsuccessfully in the past. Can any serious person believe that abortion causes breast cancer? Even many Nevada Republicans are running away from Angle.

Besides believing abortion causes breast cancer, she has a number of other, er, interesting ideas. A homeskooling nut, she wants to dissolve the federal Department of Education. This, apparently, has something to do with the fact that one of her children failed kindergarten.

Gun-nut, pro-armed insurrection, anti-immigrant, anti-climate change, you know, the usual.

I'm guessing, though, that if the good people of Nevada take leave of their senses and elect her, she won't be a C-Streeter. That's exclusively a boyz club.

Beggar Me

Or, make me spend $100.

In my circles I'm known as a tightwad*.

But, over at the CRUSH (Canadians Rallying to Unseat Stephen Harper) Facebook page, it was just announced that a donation challenge issued by Lexy Cameron had been met. She had offered to match $100 in donations from NEW donors and now she's going to have to pony up.

I thought that was a good idea, so I just renewed it. Donate here and when the total gets to $100, I'll match it.

You remember CRUSH, that radical anti-Harper group.



*One memorable phrase is 'commitedly thrifty'.

In a nutshell, Stevie's maternal health initiative.

One of our great readers provided a link to this graphic; the moment to display it has arrived. The text says

"Abortions cost Canada millions per year. The Conservatives will do it for less!

Our women's maternal health policies ensure murderous mothers get abortions the way God intended: in back alleys and garages by car mechanics, veterinarians and other beasts of the underworld.

In African conflicts, rape is an effective weapon for genocide, so long as we don't fund abortions.

A woman's life is second to an unborn child. Let God solve complications, not medical professionals.

What choice do you need? a message from the [Harper] government of Canada."

Divide the Religious Right

Canadian (Catlick) LifeShite sniffs: 'Trend Shows National Association of Evangelicals Joining Contraception Bandwagon'. Oooh, contraception is a bandwagon, is it?

The National Association of Evangelicals appears to be shifting away from its neutral stance on contraception in favor of a qualified endorsement of a practice. A new survey released by the NAE, which claims to represent 45,000 evangelical churches, reveals that Evangelical pastors overwhelmingly believe in artificial forms of contraception.

Qualified? Ninety (90) per cent of evangelical leaders are 'open' to both barrier and hormonal contraception.

“Most associate evangelicals with Catholics in their steady leadership in pro-life advocacy, and rightly so,” said Leith Anderson, president of the NAE, in a press release. “But it may come as a surprise that unlike the Catholic church, we are open to contraception.”

They did their own survey and released the results. Another poll, by Gallup in 2009, supports the numbers.

Evangelicals are overwhelmingly OK with contraception. Who knew?

Also this past week, Ted Haggard, past-president of said National Association of Evangelicals and 'survivor' of a narsty homo paid sex and drugs scandal, announced his new church.

Since the scandal, Haggard has undergone intensive therapy and has emerged as someone who claims to be heterosexual with "homosexual attachments" or urges that he says are now under control. With that kind of background, it made sense for reporters to ask whether his church would welcome gays and lesbians. Haggard was adamant that yes, they would be welcomed, saying: "I would tell them to study the scriptures. I would tell them to explore that with God. It is an individual walk for them."

Zow. Contraception- and gay-friendly. This ain't your Old Timey Religion. Though WTF it is remains to be seen. But, hey, anything to divide the right is okey dokey with us.

Jesus, He's Everywhere

Images of Jesus turn up in the darnedest places. On toast, potato chips, grilled cheese sandwiches. (Hm, what is it about Jesus and food, especially junk food?)

He's also been known to appear on small household appliances.

And, of course, who could forget Dog-Butt Jesus?



Now Christianists in the UK have stirred the abortion advert pot with Ultrasound Jesus.



Supposedly a Christmas campaign (the text reads: He’s on His Way: Christmas starts with Christ), some see it as a not-very-subtle anti-abortion message.

'It's not', the Christianists say and add: 'Like, what's up with you secularists, seeing anti-abortion messages on everything -- toast and Cheetos and dog butts? Are you nuts?'

Fake Lake = Fab Fun!

Even the NatPo is spanking Stevie over Fake Lake. Tasha Kheiriddin:

But have the Conservatives finally jumped the shark? As with any party in power, even a minority, arrogance and complacency eventually set in, this time, in the tragi-comic form of the now-notorious fake lake. The lake symbolizes everything that is wrong with this government: a focus on optics, rather than reality. It’s what they want you to see, not what is really there, like scripting Message Event Proposals for Afghan aid workers, stonewalling on freedom of information requests, or cutting government cheques with big Conservative party logos on them.

Altogether, the best thing I've read in that rag for years. But just let me fix something in that last paragraph, Tasha.

The Conservatives should be mindful that it’s not just the rest of the world that is watching; voters at home seem to be finally waking up as well. After riding high in the polls for months, Conservative poll numbers are starting to slip, and talk of a Liberal-NDP Coalition is in the works. Let’s hope the combination of these factors will bring this government down to earth. Mr. Harper should remember that governing Canada isn’t a reality TV show; for voters, it is real life, unscripted.

There. Much better.

3 points about this putative Lib/NDP merger.

1. It's an awfully messy and convoluted way for the Libs to dump Iggy, doncha think? I thought their backroom boys kept a stash of well-sharpened knives for any and all occasions.

2. Math deficiency meets magical thinking. What strategist in his or her right mind would assume that the outcome of a Lib/NDP mashup would equal the sum of their polling numbers? NDP's 17.4 + Lib's 26.2 = 43.6 .... who's been smoking crystal meth?

3. "Secret" talks are usually kept in the backrooms. There's a whole lot of yapping going on; loose lips sink ships. The usual suspects may be deliberately trying to scuttle Iggy's leadership but the potential for this bad science project to blow up whatever is left of the LPC should be an urgent concern for any rational thinker who hasn't deserted. As for the NDP - does anyone there with two brain cells to rub together think this will enhance their credibility with voters? Are they simply so thrilled they're being courted by The Big Boys that they've taken MASSIVE leave of any good sense they may have once had?

Lake of Nightmares ....

Emperor Stevie the Flatulent First believes if you build it, they will come.

It should be interesting to read what the international media will say and write about Lake Ersatz (which a member of Bread'n'Roses adroitly pegged as a shallow pool of ReformaTory talent) and all the attendent perks and hoo-haw.

It's another way for Stevie and his cadre of bullies to manage and massage their message. And the fact he's using money slashed from CIDA funding previously granted to organizations like MATCH International is just the whipped cream on his sundae.

I tend to think about this 2 million $$$ exercise of lunatic largesse in hopeful terms - as Lake ConBeGone. Stevie thinks he knows about feeding sharks but once there's blood in the water, nobody in the water is safe. He has fed a number of his opponents - and members of his own New©™ Government to those yawing jaws.

He could be next. Indigestible though his reign as Supreme Leader was, he will be a choice morsel chunk when his time comes.

Making a Withdrawal from the Karma Bank

I just have to share this.

About six months ago, a dear friend who lives far away had a nasty health surprise that necessitated him quitting his job. In fact, he can't work at all and maybe never will be able to. He has a great network of friends and family, though, who sprang into action to help him out.

He's poor as a church mouse and always has been, but he lives on just about air. So, while the network was collecting the paperwork to get him some kind of disability payment, we were given his bank account number and asked to contribute what we could. So we did that for a while.

Then, spaniard in the works. In order to get whatever measly disability the gov was willing to fork out, the gov needed to look at his bank records and we were told that our contributions would be clawed back.

Plan B. Faraway friends asked to send cash by mail. I have a Scottish grandmother who has strong genes, so this made me very uncomfortable. But I did it. And asked to be told if/when it arrived safely.

No word.

Then, one of the network members fessed up. The mailing address was WRONG and here's the correct one.

I was pissed. It was a largish amount of dough for me. So I put out an appeal to local network members, asking for someone for whom it wouldn't be a burden to provide his or her mailing address and I'd send her or him cheques to be spent as need be.

Someone stepped up and that's what we've been doing.

(For thems as might get sniffy over our gaming the system, the 'emergency' disability the network managed to get, after months of running around mind you, amounts to $650 a month. Not even my pal the church mouse can live on that. Soon, apparently, there will be an update on what the 'regular' disability amounts to. All this takes an amazing amount of time.)

So. Today, I checked my mailbox. In it, with a little yellow sticker on it from Postes Canada Post, was my cash-stuffed envelope returned to sender. Still cash-stuffed.

I mailed it March 30. Today is June 7.

Yay Canada Post!

Or maybe good deeds do attract good karma.

Where's Steve-o?

So, where is Motherhood Steve?

Not here.

The Washington meeting, titled Women Deliver, is timed to bolster the G20 agenda for pumping up funds for maternal health. There are 3,300 advocates and politicians attending from 140 countries, including the heads of major UN agencies, government ministers, parliamentarians, celebrity campaigners and former heads of state.

“It is a surprise that Stephen Harper didn’t come,” said Women Deliver president Jill Sheffield. “He and Laureen Harper were invited and they didn’t even reply. This is his legacy issue. We thought he might at least have sent a message.”

Didn't even reply.

“It’s really astounding,” said Maureen McTeer, a women’s advocate and wife of former Tory prime minister Joe Clark. “Historically Canada has been looked up to in the world, because we believed in issues like this. But (Harper) can’t even take a one-hour flight to Washington to show his solidarity with the world’s women. By not going, he is taking a negative stand.”

. . .

Canada’s presence in Washington so far has been limited to NGO efforts. International co-operation minister Bev Oda, who made a last-minute agreement to appear at the conference, will join a dialogue Wednesday with Tore Godal, a special adviser to Norway’s prime minister, and leader in the campaign for reproductive health. But the Prime Minister’s place at the table remains empty.

Any questions?

How do you spell hypocrit?

In general, I try to avoid reading the Comments section after CBC news items. They are frequented by knuckle-draggers, fact-challenged ideologues, freepers, ReformaTory Attack Parrots™© dutifully re-posting Con speaking points, sociopaths and, occasionally, a few sensible & rational human beings.

Bureaucrats may also be adding to the general confabulation by contributing so-called factual information from Harper's New©™ Government.

Nonetheless, the following comment jumped up when I glanced down from perusing a short article about the public outcry against the destruction of a small forested area in Kanata.

savant1 wrote:Posted 2010/06/06at 11:41 AM ET"Kanata North councillor Marianne Wilkinson said she has explored the area with her grandchildren and, like hundreds of others, has come to appreciate the forest trails." ---------------------- On May 26 she pushed through a Special Tax Levy against her constituents (without a vote) while claiming the taxation per household would be reduced as further new homes were constructed in Kanata. How do you spell hypocrit?

Um ... you spell hypocrite with an "e" at the end. With one word, this commenter's rhetorical flourish became a big, embarrassing FAIL.

We are all fallible. Tpyos and spelling mistakes happen in this blog too; fern hill and I will correct each other's posts when that happens. My particular bugbear: words in English that will differ from the French ones by one letter. Example: aggression and in French, agression.

But. There are occasions and opportunities when correct spelling counts. I don't believe I'm a grammar snob, but when I encounter error upon error in a blogger's text, I tend to stop reading that particular author. I tend to wonder if they're as sloppy about their information as they are about their composition.

And I loathe cutesy, deliberate mistakes such as "teh" that are used by people who unconsciously condescend, as mawkish expressions of their need to connect with hoi polloi or to be "teh" edgy.

Bonus reading: Go immediately to balbulican's brilliant post Are You A "Citizen Journalist", or Just An Asshole?



PS: Speaking of mistakes, it appears that my accidental double click or slip-up with the "enter" key caused my post to be prematurely published, and thus to show up at Progressive Bloggers before I officially released it. Oops.

June 5: Kill the Pill Day

In the midst of perhaps the worst-ever environmental catastrophe, the fetus fetishists are jumping on the enviro-bandwagon.

Really.

Stirring their usual brew of prurience, misogyny, and homophobia, the batshitcrazies are linking the evul birth control pill to intersex fish. Poor fishies turned gay by feminazis killing their pre-born one-celled eggs bay-beez!

And the target audience of batshitcrazies are eating it up, so to speak.

Dig this from a Freak named Hodgson:

The Pill has done more damage to Western Civilization than Hitler, Heroin and Pierre Trudeau combined.

Woo. More damage than PET! That's saying something on the Dark Side, where PET is evul incarnate.

So, to recap: the pill kills bay-beez, turns fishies gay, outstrips a genocidal fascist, a drug, and a Canadian PM in destruction and, of course, 'harms' those vulnerable women the fetus fetishists are so keen to protect as long as they're preggers.

Funny. The sciencey-facty folk at the British Medical Journal reported just the opposite. In a MASSIVE study that followed 46,000 UK women for up to 40 years, here's the conclusion:

Women in the UK who have ever used oral contraceptives are less likely to die from any cause, including all cancers and heart disease, compared with never users.

There are many potential reasons for that result, of course: more contact with the healthcare system, less exposure to the dangers of pregnancy and childbirth, higher income, and so on.

But primarily, we would humbly submit, because these pill-popping women have avoided the toxic and life-threatening effects of consorting with batshitcrazies.

Hm. Maybe I'd better stop visiting the Dark Side.

But not just yet. BONUS lunacy from Hodgson, who asks:

If abortion is made illegal again, would we retroactively round up every woman who's had an abortion in Canada and jail them?

We're talking millions and millions of people!

Also, all the doctors and nurses who participated would have to be tried.

Well, first, butthead, the entire legal system would have to be turned inside-out in order to prosecute people retroactively.

Ah. Hodgson has a kinder, gentler side. Viz --

If abortion is made illegal again, I would recommend amnesty for practical reasons.

But a particularly loathesome character over there named Edward Kennedy has no such wussy inclinations:

...with exception...the workers of iniquity who knew it was murder but practiced it for the love of the damned dollar should be prosecuted and partlal [sic] birth abortionists executed.

Remember, they call themselves 'pro-life'.

Slapping Kids Around, Alaska-Style

As the late philosopher George Carlin said: 'If you're pre-born, you're fine. If you're pre-school, you're fucked.'

Another stark example of TheoCon hypocrisy and cruelty today from Alaska.

The guy who took over from $arah vetoed an expansion of state health care coverage for poor children and pregnant women because it covers abortion.

His veto of Denali KidCare money drew by far the strongest reaction, with Democrats saying it was outrageous. Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bettye Davis, who sponsored the Denali Kid Care money, said it would have allowed 1,300 children and 225 pregnant women to receive care.

Ethan Berkowitz, one of Parnell's Democratic opponents for governor, called the decision cold-hearted. "If you want to be tough, you don't be tough by slapping kids around," he said.

Hollis French, a Democratic state senator who is also running against Parnell, said the decision was depriving hundreds of children of coverage "because you're afraid a few women might make a choice you don't agree with." The courts made it clear the state has to pay for "medically necessary" abortions for poor women and the program doesn't fund elective abortions, he said.

Officials with AARP Alaska and the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Head Start program said the governor's veto will hurt people struggling to raise children.

Parnell said he wanted to offer the health care to more women and children. But he said he couldn't bring himself to do it after recently discovering Denali Kid Care also funded abortions. Parnell said he couldn't believe it when he found out.

SHRIEEEEEEK! HE COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!! HE COULDN'T BRING HIMSELF TO DO IT!!!!

Such delicate sensibilities, yet he can quite blithely deny healthcare to a bunch of poor kids and women.

If I were within slapping distance of this prick, he'd get a faceful.

Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome?

OK, anything with the word 'syndrome' in it is suspect, as far as I'm concerned. (Though I definitely had chronic fatigue syndrome about twenty years ago and it was a drag. So to speak.)

But this was the money shot for me:

Generally patients who present with adrenal fatigue can often be heard saying, "After______, I was never the same."

So, with the three-and-a-half year ordeal of the Eviction, Exile and Return, I figured it would take me a while to recover. But I'm not.

I got shaky. I cut out caffeine. I was getting amazing stomach cramps about half an hour after eating dairy products. Cut them out. Out of the blue anxiety attacks. Started yoga again. Light-headed, heart palpitations. Didn't know what to do about those.

Today, lightbulb moment. Several years ago docs found I have an enlarged adrenal gland. ('Twas incidental discovery from CAT-scan for something else.) Got sent to an endocrinologist who in turn sent me for biannual ultrasounds to see what was going on until we both got bored.

Lightbulb: anxiety/shakiness = adrenalin! Googled.

Symptoms:

Common symptoms of most adrenal gland disorders include lightheadedness; tendency to gain weight; lack of energy in the mornings; difficulty concentrating; poor memory; chronically high stress levels; reduced sex drive; mild depression; dry and thin skin; unexplained hair loss; heart palpitations; dyspepsia; constipation; hypoglycemia (low blood sugar); food allergies; and high frequency of the flu or infections.

I don't have all of those, thank the goddess, but a lot of them.

As I read more -- and from the iffier side of the intertoobz -- I was thinking: hell, this is flaky, sounds like something my sister-in-law would get and bore the shit out of everybody talking about.

The remedy is très flaky too.

So. Anybody got experience? Opinion?

The anna project

This is good.

The anna project is a letter-writing project with a difference, conceived out of outrage by Sylvia Bews-Wright, a Victoria artist and social activist (www.sylviabewswright.com). It gives voice to the many faceless and nameless girls and women in developing countries who die each year due to lack of access to safe abortion.

The anna project was prompted by a recent government decision to exclude access to safe abortion as part of its new maternal and child health initiative announced for the G8 summit meeting in June 2010.

This decision puts Canada at odds with the global community by contradicting our previous commitment – along with 191 other countries – to the UN Millenium Development Goals, which recognize that abortion is one of many components of comprehensive maternal health programmes necessary to reduce the unacceptably high rate of maternal mortality in developing countries.

The anna project tells the stories of three young women. These stories illustrate that women and girls are often unable to control the conditions under which they have sex, or even when and if they do. Access to safe and legal abortion could have saved the lives of two of the three annas. The third anna was lucky enough to be born in Canada. CLICK HERE to understand our choice of stories.

Canadian women have the right to safe abortion. How can we deny this same right to women in developing countries, particularly now, when rape is often a standard tactic of war?

The anna project reaches out to unite people in their displeasure at this abrupt change in Canadian policy. We are asking you to sign a string of anna paper dolls to express your disapproval.

Instructions for paper-doll making -- for those of us who haven't done it for a few decades -- at the site.

Also links to petitions. One from Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada and one from International Planned Parenthood Federation.

Pass it along.

h/t my Facebook friend Antonia Z.

Cons too tough on crime for Black's taste?

First it was David Frum disassociating himself from the likes of Sarah Palin and the Hatriots - the Tea Party Patriots aka teabaggers.

Now it's Lord Black himself, gently castigating Stevie Spiteful and his bully boys for their "Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety."

It is painful for me to write that with this garrote of a blueprint, the government I generally support is flirting with moral and political catastrophe. My respect for the Prime Minister prevents me from being any more explicit here about the implications of failure to reconsider the government's course on this issue.

The Roadmap is a bad plan to take Canada to a destination it should not wish to reach. [...]

The whole concept of prison should be terminated, except for violent criminals and chronic non-violent recidivists, and replaced by closely supervised pro bono or subsistence-paid work by bonded convicts in the fields of their specialty. Swindlers and embezzlers, hackers and sleazy telemarketers are capable people and they should serve their sentences by contributing honest work to government-insured employers.

Canada would save a billion dollars annually in prison costs and the employers of the penitent-workers would save $2-billion annually, a tremendous shot in the arm to national productivity. Many of the prisons could be recon-figured as assisted housing for the homeless and slum-dwellers. Canada would again be a model of the innovative public policy pursuit of institutionalized decency and social reform.

The principle that the rape of the rights of the least is an assault on the rights of all is attributed to Jesus Christ and is at the core of Judeo-Christian civilization and the rule of law in both common and civil law jurisdictions. And it is not just a tradition; there are several million Canadians in families that have bitter memories of personal or close relatives' encounters with the vagaries of justice.

According to this, Darcy Sheppard's father is not bitter that his son was pilloried while Michael Bryant won't be held accountable for his homicidal actions on the night of August 31, 2009. Too bad. I'm sure he could have done excellent pro bono work, advocating for the rights of cyclists in Ontario.

And. Also. Read fern hill's 'Stupid on Crime' blogpost again. See? There's a scary convergence happening; some of the Cons are catching onto Harper and his bullies tactic of playing to the stupid, authoritarianism-loving base.