I hear a voice say that it hates my heart

So I’ll probably post a few times on here today because I have a lot of time to kill and my head is running non-stop.
See it’s been a rough few months for our dog and we can’t seem to figure out what is wrong with him because other than 1 little problem he is perfectly healthy.
So today he’s having something called a barium xray taken so we can figure out what is going on in his G.I. tract. It could be something as simple as food allergies to a tumour (which we really do not think is the case). Needless to say it’s very stressful and I am probably in worst shape then he is. I’ve been a nervous wreck for months now and my focus is shot.

So now he’s at the vet and we wait for them to do the xrays and to find out what’s going on with him. I mean they could find nothing or well…something.

It just all sucks. A.Lot.

Sookie Stackhouse Books

This list will be updated as necessary.

You know you’re reading too much True Blood when…:

1) You are out in public and smell other people’s perfumes, scents etc… and call it tracking
2) It’s a dark, dreary day and you say to your dog “ooh the vampires would be out early today”
3) You know you’re a true blood fan when you are “doing it” with your bf and you call him ERIC!
4) You now think that shifters are normal
5) Your hatred for Debbie Pelt feels real
6) You think you see actual bottles of True Blood at the grocery store
7) You expect Vin Diesel to turn into a tiger
8) You will sit in a cold bath because you just can’t stop reading
9) You googled Bon Temps, Louisiana to see if it was a real place
10) You get excited over casting news for the TV show

Y’all know that I can’t stand him…

so why not compare his political actions to 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism?

Here goes nothing!
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
An example, last year before Harper prorogued gov’t the first time, he made a big fuss that the leaders from the other parties did not have a Canadian flag behind them during a press conference (he was wrong, it was there).
A current talking point for CRAPpers is that you do not support the troops if you want an investigation into the Afghan detainee scandal.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society… It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this is very scary stuff. - Stephen Harper
He has also banned certain words from being used in the Foreign Affairs dept. Examples include: child soldier,
human security, international humanitarian law.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
He’s known to try and make the other parties fight each other in order to prevail. If you watch Question Period everyone is their enemy. He’s big on fighting other countries and at using fear to remain in power. Last year, he used the concept of “do you want separatists running this country?” when talk of a coalition was on the table. He turned ROC against Quebec.

4. Supremacy of the Military
I believe he has put more money towards the military than any other (recent) PM. He wanted us to fight in Iraq just because the US was. Case in point: “I don’t know all the facts o-n Iraq, but I think we should work closely with the Americans.” Harper

5. Rampant Sexism
This is harder to prove BUT he does use women as tokens. He is against abortion and has cut funding to women’s programs. He has called woman’s rights groups “left wing fringe groups”. He is against a National ChildCare program. I believe REAL women also are a group he listens to. Scary.

6. Controlled Mass Media
Rarely gives interviews to the media. During press conferences only allows certain questions asked. Controls what the press can ask him during Q/A (if he even does them). Speaks more on the US news channels than he does to Canadian ones.

7. Obsession with National Security
Definitely uses fear to keep people in line. The airport body scanners were ordered before this current Xmas day attempted attack. He claims there have been ‘terrorist talk’ as of late but it’s hard to tell if it’s true or not. It could just be their way of making it look like they are working.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
He doesn’t really do this but he has been quoted (I can’t find the quote) saying something about God is the only to judge him. He is also against same sex marriage and abortion.

9. Corporate Power is Protected
Tax cuts for his buddies while the economy tanks and we need big corporations to pay more taxes to help us. He supports big business.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed
He would love nothing more than to get rid of unions so that his buddies can screw over their employees.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Let us see, he cut funding to the arts and then recently decided to sing some Beatles song at a NAC gala. He claims that ordinary people don’t care about the arts and yet his wife is an Honourary Gala Chair for the NAC. Just recently one of his cabinet minister, Tony Clement had this to say about intellectuals:

“I know it’s a big issue with the Ottawa media elite and some of the elites in our country, but I got to tell you if reaction in my constituency is any indication, I’ve had maybe three dozen emails,” he said…”It may not be what the chattering classes want, but we’re not here to govern on behalf of the chattering classes,” he said.

Last but not least, the Conservatives like to pretend that Dion and Ignatieff are out of touch with Canadians because they are academics. That’s one of their fall back tools. They see it as, how can an academic understand Canadians? We’re real Canadians, we understand the people because we go to Tim Horton’s. So they play up academia as a bad thing in order to look better. If I’m not mistaken, the Cons have the least amount MPs who have graduated from University/College.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Oh yes, lots of crime bills were going to be passed but have now died on the table due to the prorogation. The Cons like to say that they are tough on crime, unlike those “dirty socialists”. But the fact is, their bills do nothing and are more talk. When they do have something in it, it’s about taking away the freedom of the normal citizen who has a joint on them, instead of getting to the root of the problem.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Senate Reform… where did that go Stevie? Instead he appoints his friends to the open Senate positions because he knows they will do what he says. The same works for who he puts into Cabinet (although his picking are slim!)

14. Fraudulent Elections
He has not done this… yet. But he has broken his own election law in order to call an election when he wanted it, claiming that the other parties wouldn’t work with him (not true, no one but him wanted an election in fall 2008).

So there you have it. His actions/words fit the characteristics, maybe not to a T but they fit nonetheless.

Our pro-rogue(d) PM

Yeah I realize that there is a LOT to cover lately in politics, but to be honest, I don’t even know where to start. In fact it’s taken me about a week just to start typing something about it. So let me try and be coherent and logical.

First let’s begin with the list of reasons Stevie Harper has chosen to prorogue our parliament again. This list is by no means definitive as every day the Cons or MSM come up with new reasons. Who knows if these reasons are legit or not but it’s what is being floated around:

1) So he can stack the senate with CRAP supporters once the current Lib appointed senators retire

2) To run from the Afghan detainee scandal

3) According to him: to help the economy (not sure how them not working and being paid helps the economy)

4) According to him: so that he doesn’t have to deal with the peskiness of being accountable and working with other parties

5)To focus on the budget

6) So that his government doesn’t face any heat during the Olympics (like a true Dictator!)

Here’s my opinion:

He thought he could get away with this but he was wrong. He does want to run from the Afghan detainee issue because they did screw this one up and the Opposition was not going to let him get away with it this time. He also wants to start selling this upcoming budget, which I am sure will have plenty of poison pills. At which point, the House could fall and we’d have an election, just as he wants (or should he?).

He realizes that whoever causes an election this spring will take the fall for it from the voters. He could be right on this or he could be wrong, I think it will depend on the mood of the country (currently angry at him) and how bad this budget is.

Let’s not forget the last reason: to look good during the Olympics. Didn’t the Chinese restrict the press during their Olympics? Aren’t the Chinese a communist country? Isn’t proroguing a democratically elected parliament during the Olympics in order to run and hide from an Afghan detainee scandal, similar to what the Chinese did?  Just wondering. Either way, it points to him being very controlling and in my opinion, acting like a dictator.

Most importantly he does want to stack the senate with his CRAPpers because that way he can pass WHATEVER HE WANTS. Scary, very scary.

This quote alone should scare any sane Canadian who has more than 1/2 a brain cell:

In an interview on BNN yesterday, the Prime Minister suggested that prorogation gives him the opportunity to do the serious business of the nation without the distractions of democracy – Commons committees and having to answer those pesky questions from opposition MPs in Question Period.

Oh wow, I’m so sorry Harper, that as an elected MP and leader of the Cons (i.e.PM), you must deal with accountability and transparency. May I remind you, that you have campaigned on those 2 characteristics in the past 2 elections (2005/2006 and 2008, in case you need a reminder Stevie). I am so sorry that you feel our democracy and parliament distracts you from getting work done. If that is the case why you are an MP? Or worse, PM? If you can’t handle the job, get out.

Again Stevie, I’d like to bring up some quotes from your past, in case you have forgotten what your job and our democracy is all about:

If you want to be a government in a minority Parliament, you have to work with other people.
Stephen Harper

It’s the government’s obligation to look really to the third parties to get the support to govern.
Stephen Harper

And I think the real problem that we’re facing already is that the government doesn’t accept that it got a minority.
Stephen Harper

Maybe you should remember those quotes Mr.Harper. Maybe it will help you to govern as an elected official. Need I remind you, that as a Canadian citizen, I am one of your employers, and most of us are not happy that you have chosen to prorogue government yet again.

I can only hope that this leads to your downfall. Make no mistake, the day you are no longer PM I will do a dance like no other in the streets of this country, for it will mark the return of our country returning to its progressive roots and no longer being regressive and seen negatively across the world.

Little bit of this, little bit of that

So much has been going on in Parliament lately and  yet I don’t even know where to begin. Disclaimer: With all of this negative CON press, why doesn’t any of it stick? Can someone answer why they are still leading in the polls when they keep proving time and time again that they are incompetent liars?

First issue: the detainee issue

It seems to me that we need more information on this before we can truly understand what happened. With that bipartisan statement said 2 things make me believe Colvin’s testimony.

1) He wouldn’t blow the whistle on this if he didn’t have proof nor would he blow the whistle on this if he were wrong.

2) The Cons must have something to hide if they refuse an inquiry and are tarnishing Colvin’s image (a very CRAP thing to do).

Second issue: NS MP who called unemployed people “lazy bastards”

Who is he to generalize that? I’m sure there are SOME unemployed people who are ‘lazy bastards’ but I am sure that most want to work and they want to work at a job that is a challenge to them and at a job where they can afford to live off of the money they make. What a generalization to make!

I cannot believe that an MP would say this, and in his own province! This is precisely why Sleazy Stevie muzzles his MPs.

Third issue: Harper and freedom of speech.

Here let me just put in this headline. It speaks volumes:

PM lauds press freedom in speech, avoids reporters

What else can one say to that? Moving on…

Fourth issue: Conservative leaflets

Political parties are given a certain amount of money to send out pamphlets to Canadians, these are called ‘ten-percenters’ and are paid for by Canadians. The MPs do not have to send them to Canadians in their riding but have the privilege to send them anywhere across the country.

The latest CON partisan leaflets were send to Liberal ridings that were predominately Jewish and called the Liberals anti-Semitics.  The Cons lied:

Montreal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler said on Power Play that the leaflets are “false on the facts.”

He said the Liberals spoke out against the anti-Semitism at the first Durban conference and noted it was the Liberals that banned funding for Hamas and Hezbollah.

“What the Conservatives have done is political identity theft,” he said. ‘This is astonishing.”

Fifth issue: The Cons in and out scam

After 3 yrs, the Cons finally had a lawyer go to court on their in and out scam. After 3 years of using avoidance tactics and a change of lawyers (I think their previous one(s) quit?), this is what their lawyer came up with:

Michel Decary told the court Tuesday that even though the radio and television ads promoted the party’s slogan for the election and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, it was legal under federal election law for local candidates to claim the expenses.

For those who do not know the story, Elections Canada says that the Cons broke election laws:

The question of whether the contested ads should have been claimed as expenses by the party or local candidates is one of several key issues in the two-year-old battle between Chief Electoral Marc Mayrand and the Tories.
An adverse ruling in Federal Court could put the party more than $1-million over its legal expense limit for the election.
Mr. Mayrand ruled in April, 2007, that 67 Conservative candidates would not get reimbursements for the expenses. The elections agency argues the expenses were incurred by the party and the advertising was produced for its national campaign, which has a separate accounting system under the Canada Elections Act…
…Whether the party attempted to skirt its legal limit of $18.3-million by diverting the expenses to candidates is at the heart of the dispute. Nearly all the candidates who took part in the scheme stood little or no chance of winning their contests. Low levels of donor support gave those candidates ample room for campaign expenses.

It’s crazy stuff and the Cons keep trying to avoid going to court, which basically tells me (and most rational people) that they have something to hide.

Sixth Issue: Stephane Dion’s wife and Facebook

I am all for freedom of speech. 100% behind but I have to disagree with what Janine Krieber did. She has every right to state her opinion, but on Facebook? She claims it was just for friends to see but did she really think it wouldn’t leak? I mean come on!
Her husband is a public figure (and she is a bit of one too) and she goes and spouts her mouth on Facebook? I know 5yrs old that know better than to give away too much information on Facebook or the internet for that matter.
She is only hurting herself, her husband and the Liberal party by doing this. If she really wants to share her opinions, she should get a blog and use that as a medium to express herself on a daily basis instead of just doing a general rant. The Liberals are already hurting (I still can’t figure that out when you compare them to the Cons) and her actions just aren’t helping the matter.