I'm depressed

Go read Gerald Caplan and you will be too.

A taste:

Oh Canada. Do the travails of our closest historic allies give us comfort? Will the Olympic-sized burst of patriotism give us solace in the face of an impossible political conundrum? We may be stuck with the Harper government forever, once the Prime Minister prorogues the next election. The opposition can't risk defeating him because neither the Liberals nor NDP are likely to benefit at all from another election. So Stephen Harper is left with a virtually free hand to do as he chooses, some of which is quite clear.

What Would You Do to Unseat Stephen Harper?

Would you vote for a non-ReformaTory candidate?

Would you come out to a rally?

Would you write a cheque?

What will be the tipping point for Stevie Spiteful and his band of thugs?

Steve V at Far and Wide thinks it may be a turn by the National Post. We at DAMMIT JANET! hope it might be that travesty of the Canada Pavilion.

What would you do to help tip the damned useless opposition into forcing an election?

The people of C.R.U.S.H. (Canadians Rallying to Unseat Stephen Harper) need money to publish nationwide ads calling for an election.

The goal is $30,000 to $40,000.

My goal is to get one DJ! reader to write a cheque and mail it.

Mine is on the kitchen table, in an envelope, stamped and ready to go.

WE ARE NOW READY TO ACCEPT CHEQUES BY MAIL
PAYABLE TO: UNSEATHARPER.CA
ADDRESS: UNSEATHARPER.CA

BOX 1284

LAKEFIELD, ONTARIO

K0L 2H0
******************************************************
THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO CONTRIBUTE BY MAIL
*****************************************...***************
PAYAPAL ANNOUNCEMENT TO COME LATER.
*******************************************************

Please.

'Shrinking Democratic Space'

This is a hoot.

Peter Kent, a Canadian minister, recently expressed concerns over the supposed “shrinking democratic space” in Venezuela. He was referring to measures against several TV stations. On one of these, Noel Álavarez, president of the bosses’ union FEDECAMARAS, called for another “military solution” to the political situation in Venezuela. How would Kent like it if a Canadian boss suggested Canada’s military intervene to remove his government?

The Venezuelan government recently sanctioned three TV stations including RCTV, the network that played a key role in organizing the coup that briefly overthrew the Venezuelan government in 2002. The three TV stations refused to comply with Venezuela’s broadcasting laws and had their licenses temporarily suspended. The broadcasting laws in Venezuela are similar in scope to CRTC regulations in Canada; they establish standards for child and adult programming, prohibit racist, sexist or inflammatory content and incitement to violence, place limits on commercial advertising, and require stations to broadcast important government announcements. As recently as three weeks ago, RCTV had aired an interview with Noel Álavarez, the president of the bosses’ union FEDECAMARAS where Álvarez had called for another “military solution” to the political situation in Venezuela. Surely, the CRTC would have suspended any TV or radio station that sanctioned a “military solution” to the Stephen Harper government!

While passing through Venezuela Kent said, “Canada is concerned over the Venezuelan government's recent suspension of broadcasting of [three] television stations and the death of two students in protests related to this action. These events are further evidence of a shrinking democratic space in Venezuela.”

Kent’s concerns could be laughable if it were not for the real threat that countries like the US and Canada pose to Venezuela. Many will remember that it was the same Peter Kent that was the most vocal supporter of the military coup d’etat that overthrew democratically-elected Mel Zelaya in Honduras this past June. The dictatorship that was installed in Honduras has killed scores of people. However, the Canadian government did not even cut off military aid to the Honduran dictatorship!

Kent made further accusations, claiming that President Hugo Chávez “has a history of concentrating power in the executive.” Kent’s hypocrisy knows no bounds! At the same time as he made this claim, Kent’s Conservative government has prorogued Parliament for the third time in as many years. Last year, the Conservatives suspended Parliament to prevent a Liberal-NDP coalition from coming to power. This year, the Tory government needed to suspend Parliament to prevent further details from coming out on how the Canadian mission in Afghanistan was responsible in the torture of innocent people there. In the past couple of weeks, tens of thousands of ordinary Canadians have come out to protest the shrinking democratic space in Canada.

Hugo strikes back:

The government of Hugo Chavez has responded to Canadian criticism it is "shrinking democratic space" in Venezuela by saying it will take no lessons from an "ultraright" government that "closed" Parliament to avoid an investigation into the handling of Afghan detainees, statements the Canadian government dismiss as "unacceptable and completely inaccurate."

If we have to listen to Kents, as someone at Facebook said, let it be Arthur.

Stevie: Looking for love in all the wrong places.

Over at Strategery! The tactical brilliance of Stephen Harper, C.C. lists those Blogging Tardies who are licking one another all over in a paroxysm of ecstatic relief that (less-popular-than-fried-onion-ring) Leader has turned his cylon gaze back to Parliament.

Meanwhile, Montreal Simon spanks and flogs Stevie teh Spiteful in public, marvelously.

Valentine's Day is approaching. May I remind you all about this brilliant idea, following up on the momentum of the Pro-Democracy Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament rallies.

And. Also. Our very own DAMMIT JANET! notion for curing what ails the Lardy Leader of the ReformaTories.

This is an effigy. Make it as minuscule as its subject deserves or as bloated as your penetrative tool of choice allows. Have fun.

Dang!!!!!

I missed it by 1.

Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament.

Now, to get boots on the ground. Find your rally here.

No Prorogue! Thursday Round-up

Polls, polls, polls. Good grief, they even got me today. For the first time in my life, I was called by a political polling company. Ekos robo-called me and asked do I think the country is going in the right direction and which party would I vote for if elections were held tomorrow, both federal and provincial. Then a bunch of demographic questions. It was all very straightforward, no clues as to who is paying for it.

(Question for poll-geeks: Robo also asked: 'Of the people in your household, are you the one with the most recent birthday?' WTF are they going for there?)

Here Susan Delacourt blogs on recent polls (emphasis mine).

Ekos weighs in today with its findings, showing that yesterday's Strategic Counsel poll is no rogue poll. The two surveys are showing that the Conservatives are being punished in public-opinion terms for the shutdown of Parliament.

Journalists had been expecting this, because of a less-scientific survey method, based on comments to blogs and websites over the last week or so. The simple science is this: the nastier and more juvenile the comments, the more trouble the Conservatives are probably facing. In my occasional role here as comments moderator, I've realized that the appearance of certain lines of attack (some of them unpublishable) are a sure sign of panic. It's like that old rule of political reporting -- if a politician or a flak says to you "that's not a story," it probably is. And if critics are going to ferocious and personal lengths to tell you that no one cares about Parliament being shut down, well, you can probably figure that people do care. So keep those cards and letters coming -- by their shrillness, they will be measured.

Must be fun to call somebody -- not a woman, not a feminist -- shrill.

In related news, we reported back here on our gobsmackedness over sharing a revulsion over the prorogation with Connie Fournier of Free Dominion.

She started another thread on Janaury 8, titled 'Someone tell the CPC to stop it . . . it's embarrassing'.

She's referring to the pro-prorogue Facebook group.

I went to look at the facebook group called |I SUPPORT the Prorogation of Parliament and the Prime Minister of Canada", and it is really embarrassing.

First of all, the group has barely 500 members (compared to the 'anti' group which has around 100,000). But, a quick search of the members of the group shows that many of the members are not even real people. A lot of them have no friends, or they are just friends with one other person (usually another member of the group). They are simply shell characters that have nothing in their profiles but a bunch of groups they have joined.

I don't mean any disrespect to any of you who have joined this group because I know that some of my friends are, in fact, members.

But, the organizer of the group is obviously a fake identity being used by someone affiliated with the CPC, and they are doing such an amateurish job that they are probably hurting the cause more than they are helping it.

If they are going to hire someone to do social networking for them, they should hire someone who has a clue what they are doing. d'oh!

On January 13, she posted:

Today is it called: "I SUPPORT the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper".

They must have decided that having "prorogation" in the group title wasn't doing the trick.

They have 843 members now. I wonder if the name change will help them catch up with the "No" group. They've narrowed the gap to less than 182,000 now, anyway.

Go, Steve, go! Laughing

(Big City Lib is also amused by this.)

So, as a very newbie Facebook user, I was fooling around today and got into searching for friends and entered 'Connie Fournier'. Got her. Sent her a message. Something like: I saw how angry you are about the prorogation at FD, why doncha join the group?

She replied: *big grin* I joined several days ago.

My reply: Cool. Is this public knowledge?

Her: Yes. I put a banner for the No Prorogue site up at FD, which, by the way, is the easiest way to find out about rallies in your city/town.

High fives all round. Non-partisanship to the max!



In other other related news, membership growth is slowing at Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament, so it's time to bug your friends and relations again.

And finally, everyone should bookmark this excellent piece of work by Thor at Driving the Porcelain Bus on the many, many crimes against democracy, accountability, transparency, and decency by the ReformaTories. Thank you, Thor.

Woohoo! 150,000!

Boy, did I call it wrong here. I predicted that the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook group would hit 150,000 members by noon today.

It just blew by 150,000 and stands at over 150,400 now.

One of the discussions -- well it's not really -- asks people their age. All ages are represented, but it seems to me that most are over 40. These are voters -- real, live, breathing, committed, pissed-off voters.

CAPP for Coalition?

I floated this idea on the Facebook wall, but things are still moving there at lightning speed and no one responded.

So far, no opposition leader has taken notice of the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament (CAPP) movement.

I proposed that whichever of Layton or Ignatieff publicly announces that he and his party fully supports CAPP, that he's ready to work with the other party leader (and the Bloc) to form a coalition, and that he'll organize a non-confidence vote at the earliest opportunity gets ALL of CAPP's support.

And that all -- at the moment over 140,000 -- CAPPers go out and work their butts off for that party and the coalition.

Personally, while I'd have to hold my nose to vote or work for Iggy and many Liberals, I'd do it to get the Refomathugs out of MY government.

Realistically, it can't be May. And logistically, it can't be Duceppe.

What think?

No Prorogue! SUNDAY (Evening) UPDATE

Membership in the Facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament now stands at 137,347 -- more than 10,000 more than the Reformatories' much vaunted anti-coalition Facebook group. It was -- repeat, was -- the largest ever Canadian Facebook group. Now CAPP holds that record.

This is quite an amazing spectacle as commenters keep adding links to stories about Harper and his puppets' complete disdain for democracy and Canadian values.

I was resistant to the idea of joining Facebook (and I've been getting snarked by internet pals now that I've relented) and I doubt I'll do anything with my account after this is over, but seriously, this really may be the beginning of something MASSIVE.

If you don't belong to Facebook, consider joining. At least, check out the wall.

And if any of your friends need further convincing, send them a link to this excellent column, Prorogation redux: Harper in contempt of Parliament, by Errol P. Mendes, professor of constitutional law.

A taste:

The highest duty of a Prime Minister of Parliament is to uphold the Constitution of Canada, which includes the rights and privileges of the House of Commons and the duties owed to the Queen's representative in Canada. Stephen Harper keeps on failing in his duties on both counts as evidenced by the second prorogation of Parliament on Dec. 30.

ADDED: Susan Delacourt on Popular protest.

UPDATE at 1:10 p.m. EST: Just blew past 139,000!

UPDATE at 2:30 p.m. EST: 140,000.

UPDATE at 4:30ish p.m.: 141,376.

UPDATE at nearly 8:00 p.m.: Over 144,000. Taking bets here. When does it hit 150,000? I'm taking noon tomorrow. Jump into the pool.

Raging Grannies

I'm on dial-up here, so can't see this. I'm taking it on trust. Lemme know what you think.

No Prorogue! UPDATE

When I joined the No Prorogue Facebook group late this morning, there were about 105,000 members. Just now, at 4:52 p.m. EST, there were 112,372!

One of the commenters said it's growing by 1,000 members an hour!

In related news, even Andrew Coyne is impressed and backs off, sorta, from his shitty little column of a couple of days ago, calling Canadians apathetic.

MORE UPPITY-DATE: It's more like 1,500 an hour. Just about 2 hours later, count stands at 115,129. Wow.

EVEN MORE: At about 10:20, pushing 119,000. Also a poll at CBC asking what we want them to ask politicians. I was torn between 1 and 5, but in the spirit of the day, went with 5.

AND EVEN MORE: Now (11:10 p.m. EST) nearing 120,000. And I liked this comment

Erik Snyder I don't know of any governmental body making such a big deal about the Olympics since, well...1937.

OK, well, I'm kinda into a Leni Riefenstahl mood.

No Prorogue!

The online effort to give Stevie the Skeert the virtual and actual finger now has a website (I just added it to our blogroll too) in addition to the (in)famous Facebook group. Which *sigh* I just signed up with Facebook to join.

Until now I haven't seen the point of Facebook. But if the numbers joining this group is getting the MSM's knickers in knots, I'm all for it.

By the way, the No Prorogue site has a blog and look who's already posted there -- our pal, pale.

ADDED: And from Dr. Dawg we learn that CFRA is running a prorogue poll.

The Economist Spanks Spiteful Steve

Fun read. Here's a taste:

Canadian ministers, it seems, are a bunch of Gerald Fords. Like the American president, who could not walk and chew gum at the same time, they cannot, apparently, cope with Parliament’s deliberations while dealing with the country’s economic troubles and the challenge of hosting the Winter Olympic games. This was the argument put forward by the spokesman for Stephen Harper, the Conservative prime minister, after his boss on December 30th abruptly suspended, or “prorogued”, Canada’s Parliament until March 3rd.

It gets even better.

Holy. Freakin'. God.

I've nicked CC's title for a post on the same subject.

More madness sanity from Free Dominion's Connie Fournier:

Well, Harper is setting a lovely precedent for the next Liberal government. When the next Liberal PM decides to prorogue Parliament every time he wants to shut us up, I don't want to hear anyone complaining about it.

No more complaining about the Liberals stacking the Senate, either.

Can I quote you on that, Connie?

Oh. I just did.

And intend to keep it for fucking ever for use when, inevitably, the Reformatories set to SHRIEEEKING about Libtards's antics.

Fire Michaëlle Jean!

Your Majesty, we entreat you. Fire your representative. Michaëlle Jean is allowing Canadian democracy to become a joke.

Can we petition the Queen?

Or, maybe Ms Jean will admit she's not up to the job of resisting bully boys and resign.

What would happen then?

Oh, look.

A governor general may also resign, and two have died in office. In such a circumstance, or if the Governor General leaves the country for longer than one month, the Chief Justice of Canada (or, if that position is vacant or unavailable, the senior Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court) serves as Administrator of the Government and exercises all powers of the Governor General.

Hmm. I'd betcha Madame Justice McLachlin wouldn't get pushed around.

And she has experience as Administrator of the Government.

When Governor General Adrienne Clarkson was hospitalized for a cardiac pacemaker operation on July 8, 2005, Justice McLachlin served as the Administrator of the Government and performed the duties of the Governor General, including giving royal assent to the Civil Marriage Act, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage in Canada. She relinquished that task when the Governor General returned to good health in late July.

And if the Queen did step in, wouldn't it be lovely to hear the shrieks of 'Butbutbut, Canada is a DEMOCRACY!' from the Reformatories?

Breaking News: Canada Becomes a Banana Republic.

Democracy has been bloodlessly subverted and Parliament prorogued, through Stevie Spiteful's tricky maneuvers.

And soon enough, thanks to Stevie's stellar performance in Copenhagen, we'll have the appropriate climate to match our government.

Emphasis on Peace and Order. Good Government? Not So Much.

Well, one good thing came out of this constitutional totally manufactured crisis -- my kitchen floor got washed. I was so antsy waiting for the GG's verdict that I had to do something.

So, like everyone else with more than one functioning neuron, I think this is a terrible precedent. And I really really really hate it that Stevie 'won'. There is no more disgusting sight than a gloating bully.

But I've chilled a bit. And now I think that this decision is soooo Canadian. I think the GG weighed how loud the shrieeeeking would have been in the various scenarios and I think she went for least shrieeeekiest.

Think about it.

Coalition? Horrible hateful divisive well-financed shrieeeking from the Right.

Immediate election? Mewling and whining and grumbling from Everywhere.

Prorogation? Huffing and puffing and head-shaking from Political Elites and Sandal-Wearing Lefties.

Really. This is how we do things in Canada.