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.

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.

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.

I have to stop myself from reading comments on news stories, it’s just too draining, too maddening…too much hatred.  I read a comment on a story about the Cons near majority territory where the guy (I’m assuming) said something to the effect of ” if the Cons get a majority than our country can finally go back into God’s hands”. WHAT? WHAT?

I assume a male said this, because, I also assume that most people who want to live in a God-fearing nation, are men who hate women and love to control them… you know a very common, yet accurate stereotype found amongst the religious fundamentals.

Back to the main point, that line of thought scares me. That is not Canada. First of all, whose God is he referring to? The Christian one? The Pagan one? The Muslim one? The Jewish one? And what about the Goddess? Who’s to say that his “god” is the one that needs to rule Canada? Who is he to say that his “god” speaks through Sleazy Stevie and his Cons? Who is he to imply that his “god” is the only one that matters and the one we must all be afraid of and let rule us? Does he not know that this is Canada?

Under Sleazy Stevie and his Cons I do worry about us regressing even more; I see this every day on the comments from people. As a nation we have regressed under the Cons. People are angry, say mean things to each other, jump the queue to get a freakin’ shot of poison in their bodies (yeah I’ll probably still get it). Under the Cons healthy people made it harder for unhealthy people to get a shot that they need more.Why is that? Because the Cons and the media made a mockery of hype over a somewhat serious situation, one that the Cons were ill equipped to handle (shock! I have a feeling Sleazy Stevie planned this because he wants to get rid of our health act).  Under the Cons our country has become more selfish and just plain regressive (see Gun Registry or the upcoming bill whereby the Cons will now have ammunition to make abortion illegal).
So yeah, ca va faire alright. It’s enough. We need to progress, not regress.

• why do anti-choice people KILL abortion doctors?
• why do anti-choice people believe in violence for living humans but think that a zygote is too precious to harm?
• if these anti-choices love kids so much, why aren’t they adopting them in droves instead of yelling outside of clinics and meddling in other people’s business?
• why do anti-choice people use children as a propaganda weapon in their fight to take away choices that affect women’s health?
• will sleazy stevie work towards removing our women’s health choices here?
• why do the ultra “religious” and right-wing conservative men hate women? WHY?
• why are the ultra religious always the most hypocritical and hateful?
• will Canada go blue?
• when will I stop being able to sleep at night for fear of Canada going blue?
• if I ever met sleazy stevie, would I do something that could land me in jail?
• what would I do or say to sleazy stevie if i ever met him, besides possibly spitting on his shoes?
• can we start a petition to oust Jane Taber from the Globe and Mail?
• can we get a big batch of pork rinds and dump them on Duffy and sleazy stevie?
• when will sleazy stevie GO AWAY?

Yeah there’s more floating around in there but you know… those are the ones I’m sharing.

I have to say this whole H1N1 chaos is amusing when on the sidelines but also sad and upsetting if this is what our feds consider an effective pandemic plan. Last week they complained that not enough people wanted to get to get the vaccine and this week they complain that too many want it all at once. Well guess what feds, you’ve had since March to come up with a plan and you failed… miserably.
When I look at clinic locations for Montreal (my area of Montreal, which consists of downtown, Westmount, Outremont and Mont Royal) there is NO CLINIC. NOTHING. We’re talking about an area of Montreal that has numerous CEGEPS, Universities and Hospitals, on top of a dense population and not 1 freaking clinic? And then you can’t understand why people are lining up in droves at the very few clinics that are open?

This is how they should have set it up:
Clinics set up at schools so that parents and their kids can go there
Clinics set up across the city (even if they move every few days to different locations) for people who do not have school-age children.

Yes that was hard. So hard. And why weren’t teachers on the priority list? They’re stuck in rooms with kids who do not cover up their sneezes and coughs, nor do they wash their hands on a consistent basis. This was very very poorly planned. As someone who is in the healthy group, I have to wait over 1 month to be eligible for a vaccine. I don’t mind the wait so that other people who are more at risk can get theirs, but I do mind that they started these vaccinations so late into the season, so that we have to go through most of the season without a vaccine.

To be honest, I’m not even sure if I’ll get the vaccine. The day H1N1 broke in March, I was actually sick at home with very, very similar symptoms. Was it H1N1? Most likely not but it was eerie to have the same symptoms. Plus since I reside out of province temporarily, I’m not even sure if they’ll give me one here. One more thing, I’m a bit leery of signing a consent form for a supposedly safe vaccine. If the government and the pharmaceutical company really stand behind this vaccine, why do I have to sign my life away?

I may regret my bitching in a few weeks if I get sick but to be honest, standing in line for 7 hrs with hundreds upon hundreds of people doesn’t seem like a good idea either, if we’re talking about prevention. Hell, I don’t even want to go see some friends’ band tonight because I don’t want to be in tight quarters with people unless necessary.

Yes we should all be taking extra precautions right now, but we shouldn’t be clogging the ER’s and clinics. The pandemic right now, is the culture of fear that has been propagated.

So I leave you with this…
Remember Harper in his sweater vest stroking the cat (not a euphemism). It was pointed out to me that he sorta looks likes the villain from Inspector Gadget.
Here’s both pictures, what do you think?

But here’s the kicker, they always, ALWAYS do the opposite. See for instance:
1) Harper’s deficit
2) Harper blowing our surplus to buy votes
3) their tough on crime laws that will restrict your freedoms
4) they are in the bedroom when they vote against things involving personal choice i.e. abortion, gay marriage, marijuana possession etc…

Well here’s the latest:

The federal justice minister is considering a new law that would allow police to conduct random breathalyzer tests on drivers, regardless of whether they suspect motorists have been drinking…
…The issue for civil libertarians, however, is that changing the law to allow random testing would be a violation of a person’s right to protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

“It has no real place in a democratic society,” said Richard Rosenberg of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.

“Giving police power to act on a whim is not something we want in an open democratic society.”

The House justice committee that recommended the amendment in June said such a change might be challenged under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but said it would be up to the courts to decide whether the search could be considered reasonable.

Wow… ok so it seems they’ve already implemented some legislation that makes it illegal to drive while high on pot and they can test for it but the tests are very inaccurate. And now we have this? So people who vote Conservative, are you getting what you voted for? Do you really want your freedoms taken away?
I mean hey, the Cons don’t believe in registering guns but it’s ok for the police to test your sobriety without any indication that they need to.
What the hell is wrong with the right-wing parties and those who vote for them? This does NOT make sense to me at all. They are so full of hypocrisy.

We have a Charter of Rights for a reason! The Conservatives are doing everything they can to take our rights away because of a few rotten apples. Why should the few bad people create the rules for the rest of us?
Stand up for your fucking rights people, because pretty soon they’ll take that away too.

The description provided w. this (that got cut off) said:The bottom of this says: Conservative MP Mississauga Erindale’s staff *accidentally* reply all. A fairly nasty reply about the Canadian Arab Federation and the University of Toronto Students Union.

I’m thinking of e-mailing this MP to let him know that racism and uninformed opinions make him a very irresponsible MP.  His e-mail address is at the top but in case you can’t read it  here it is:Dechert.B@parl.gc.ca

To my knowledge the CAF is not a terrorist organization of any kind. Check it out yourself and make your own decision.

Establish and rely upon fall-back positions. Using a minor matter or element of the facts, take the “high road” and “confess” with candor that some innocent mistake, in hindsight, was made — but that opponents have seized on the opportunity to blow it all out of proportion and imply greater criminalities which, “just isn’t so.” Others can reinforce this on your behalf, later. Done properly, this can garner sympathy and respect for “coming clean” and “owning up” to your mistakes without addressing more serious issues.

Health Minister – Body Bag situation
Here’s a quote from her apology:

“It was insensitive and offensive,” she said. “As minister of health and as an aboriginal, I am offended. To all who took offence at what occurred, I want to say that I share your concern, and I pledge to get to the bottom of it.”

Ok so the Cons got the first part of that right… now onto the blown out of proportion site by the Opposition?
Oh this is just making my writing too easy:

Aglukkaq said anyone suggesting body bags were the government’s solution to H1N1 was “sensationalizing this situation.”
The results of the inquiry will be made public, she said.

Look at that! They followed number 11 to a T. She apologized, made it personal, said the Opposition was out of line, and they’re going to make the results public. By her making it personal she garners sympathy. I mean come on, she’s a female rookie MP from Nunavut and she speaks quite softly for a politician, so getting sympathy is easy for her to do.

Another situation that shows this is the whole Raitt sexy isotopes issue.
She didn’t apologize at first, but when she did, she laid on the water works and made it personal by speaking about her personal experiences with cancer. She blamed previous Liberal governments for not doing anything for 10 years (even though the Cons had been in power for like 3 yrs at that point and could have acted) and she even fired the staffer who left the recording behind! Talk about garnering public sympathy!

One last example of this is John Baird apologizing to Toronto for telling them to fuck off. He really hit the nail on the head with this one. Let’s look again at the beginning of this tactic:
“take the high road and confess… it was an innocent mistake”
Now look at Baird’s apology

“I was speaking out of frustration, and I certainly expressed that,” John Baird said in the House of Commons on Tuesday. “This morning I phoned Mayor Miller and apologized. The mayor and I both agreed — let’s look to the future. Let’s continue to build on the important investments that we need to make in public transit and we committed to work with them over the next two weeks to make it happen.”

BANG!

The Conservatives really work with this one, which makes sense because they USE IT A LOT. They make a lot of mistake. There’s a reason why Harper controls what they say so much and this is why. Most instances where they do apologize it’s because a tape or some documents were leaked. So this is how they speak behind closed doors. I’m not saying the other parties aren’t guilty of it either but the Cons get caught quite a bit. Plus they make a lot of mistakes in public too.

Point being the Cons know how to work an apology to their political advantage while denying us the truth the whole time. Seems like a lot of the public falls for it hook, line and sinker.