The Simplest, Best Example

At the various anti-ReformaTory Facebook pages/groups, people are talking about annual visits with the fambly and being energized by what the oft-vaunted 'ordinary' Canadians are saying. They're saying that the census idiocy is senseless, the G8/G20 spending is shameless, the G20 police state is shameful. And so on. Ordinary Canadians are starting to geddit.

In the depth of summer yet.

I think this is the clearest and simplest example of how the ReformaTories operate.

The federal prison farm system is not broke. It has a lot of evidence-based research supporting it. It is cost-effective. It is humane.

Therefore, in teeny ReformaTory brains, it is SOSHALIST STATIST EVUL and must be destroyed. (Not to mention the cows.)

Even the faaar right (for the wrong reasons of course) supports the prison farm system.

And oooo, looky here. My close personal Facebook friend has posted a link to the poll.

ASIDE (well, mostly): A commenter at the CBC link said something like: 'Gee, that's great the PM showed up for the photo-op. How'd you convince him to wear the sign?'

More on Harper, The Great Uniter

In a discussion on Why Harper thinks he's smarter than the experts at Macleans no less, a commenter at the Freaks named Fabulous Fred had this to say:

Harper had potential to be a good.P.M. if he didn't have so many personal flaws like being a control freak, having an ego so large that it allows him to do anything, anything at all to get a "majority" (never going to happen), and to stomp out opposition with fascist tactics and repressive government bureaucracies.

Stephen is yesterdays man. If the liebral party wasn't so incredibly pathetic, Harper would be gone by now. He isn't that good, they're that bad!

Indeedy-do, even his base base is tiring of King Stephen I.

Harper: The Great Uniter? UPDATED with interesting development

From the Stooopid on Crime file.

Fill up those new jails by designating more offenses as 'serious' thus meriting long sentences. But call it getting tough on organized crime, because these are gangs' 'signature activities'.

The crimes now designated as serious offences include:
* Keeping a common gaming or betting house.
* Betting, pool-selling and bookmaking.
* Committing offences in relation to lotteries and games of chance.
* Cheating while playing a game or in holding the stakes for a game or in betting.
* Keeping a common bawdy-house.
* Various offences in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act relating to the trafficking, importing, exporting or production of certain drugs.

Whatever one thinks of this bright shiny thing move, there are two points that should unite left and right in disdain for this government.

First, the changes were made to the regulations not to the law. See, this way the government can avoid any pesky discussion as we used to have when Canadian democracy had a bit of life in it yet.

Shouldn't that distress democracy-loving Canadians on the faaar right? If this goes unchallenged, all future governments will avail themselves of this little side-step. Including the loathed Lie-berals (as they are styled on the Dark Side) because someday, the Lie-berals will get back in power.

Next, the changes were made quietly by order of cabinet on July 13. More than four weeks ago. Yet this nugget of lawnorder was held back from the usual public razzle-dazzle. Maybe to be trotted out to distract from some spectacular Ministerial face-plant?

The righties should be just as disgusted as the rest of us. Do the HarpoCons really really really really think we're that stoooopid?

Apparently.

To recap some of the issues left and right can agree on:
Doris's hypocrisy -- not to mention idiocy -- over the prisons issue

keeping the prison farm system

the suspension of civil liberties and police over- and under-reaction in Toronto during the G20

being treated like suckers -- the so-cons that is -- the Cons take their votes for granted then and ignore all their issues

repeatedly suspending democracy by proroguing parliament

stacking the Senate and


just generally crapping all over democracy

It's true. It may turn out that Stevie really is the Great Uniter.

UPDATE: Connie starts a discussion. *evul grin*

More Sheep Looking Up

Continuing to work on my scheme of getting getting left and faaaar right working together to rid us of King Stevie. . .

At least one Blogging Tory has the sense and grace to be embarrassed by Doris's performance yesterday.

The blogger takes Doris's various idiocies apart, then goes on:

But I'm not done.. no, not by a long shot. Because at the end of the day, one of the major complaints that we, as conservatives have regarding previous Liberal governments is that they embark on questionable social programs, costing the tax payers billions of dollars, for purely political reasons - because it helps capture votes from their base.

Remember the Gun Registry?

So - as we let that sink in for a moment, it becomes abundantly apparent that our current Government, under Stephen Harper, is embarking upon a program to reach into my wallet and spend my hard-earned tax dollars, without any statistical or verifiable evidence that this new social engineering is necessary, or that it will have any impact on addressing the issue of crime in any event.

No - they are doing the same damn thing we complained the Liberals did with the Gun Registry.. and that makes us worse.

Because it's one thing to be stupid.

It's worse to be a stupid hypocrite.

Over on the Dark Side, on the same topic of building prisons for perpetrators of unreported crime, my Facebook friend (she is! we friended each other!) Connie said:

This government is giving me the creeps.

Another poster named LAR said:

The logic escaped me as well. I'm sure there's a lot of unreported crime but spending billions for more prisons isn't going to do anything about it.

Let's celebrate the solidifying union of lefties and righties, who agree -- for vastly different reasons of course -- that these ReformaTories are poison.

And let's celebrate it LOUDLY.

(Doncha love the smell of piss-soaked Conservative undies in the morning?)

MORE: Another Blogging Tory who thinks Doris is wrong on crime.

The problem is that it is very unclear why exactly crime is going unreported. Does it represent a lost faith in the police or the criminal justice system in general? Is it due to an immigrant population that have a natural mistrust of authority? Is it due to increased gang activity and the fear of reprisal? It would take a number of very comprehensive studies to discern the true cause of the decrease in crime reporting.

So if we don’t know the cause then how the hell do we know the solution?

Does increasing the prison population help to prevent crime that is not going reported? I can’t imagine any theoretical argument or empirical evidence that would support a claim that it would. If the Conservative government is really concerned about crime in Canada they should look into the causes and solutions to unreported criminal activity.

Imagine that. Another fan of facts among the BTs.

Pssst. Click the linkies, so the bloggers can feel the love from the left.

Can Left and Right Work Together?

Well, I dunno if this will amount to anything, but it's fun. I'm hoping to prove JJ wrong when she says she despairs of the human condition because we can't seem to work together.

I was visiting the Dark Side earlier today and saw this thread about the protest supporting the prison farms that Stevie Peevie wants to axe. It included this link.

Hundreds of farmers, local residents and prison-rights advocates who want the Conservative government to keep Canada's prison farms open set up a blockade to the regional headquarters of the Correctional Services of Canada in Kingston, Ont., on Friday morning.

About 250 people showed up for the three-hour protest, which started at around 6 a.m. along the busy street. Campaigners said they want the government to reconsider its decision to close the farms, which are being phased out by the end of this fiscal year.

"We see the farm as an effective rehabilitation and job-training program that also provides food for the prison system," said Dianne Dowling, a member of the Save Our Prison Farms committee and local representative from the National Farmers Union.

The prison service currently operates six farms — each located in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and two in Ontario.

About 300 prisoners work at the farms, operating machinery, taking care of animals and growing food for prisons.

The farms, which the prison service has operated since the 1880s, cost about $4 million annually. The government has said the money will be used to provide more relevant employment skills to rehabilitate prisoners in contemporary trades.

Several of the commenters at the Dark Side support the prison farms. For the wrong reasons of course, but nonetheless. . .

So I sent a message to my close personal Facebook friend, Connie Fournier, owner of the Dark Side, to tell her that there was another issue we could maybe work together on. In addition to the G20 insanity. I included a link to a Facebook group supporting the prison farms.

She sent a message back saying she found it creepy that we were agreeing on so much. She also said that she'd joined the group and posted the info at FD. And indeed, she did.

Anyway, I joined a facebook group to save the prison farms. It looks like Stephen Harper has managed to find yet another issue that I can agree with the lefties about. He's a uniter, for sure!

If we can't divide the Right, maybe we can work with them.