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Blogging Tory Jabba the Roy is terribly, terribly concerned about the fate of the National Post:
A group that includes Ray Heard, Senator Grafstein and Beryl Wajsman (among others) want to buy the National Post, Montreal Gazette and Ottawa Citizen. Wajsman was on Tommy Schnurmacher's show yesterday. I asked him about 3 grits owning the conservative NP. He assured me that these were atypical, conservative? grits. Wajsman insists the character of the Post will notchamge. I certainly hope not.
Apparently, the fact that you purchase something doesn't mean you then have the right to, you know, do with it what you want or anything. Because even if some Liberals buy the Post, they really have a moral obligation to allow it to continue to be a festering, right-wing sinkhole because, well, Canada's conservatives would be heartbroken if it wasn't.
I had no idea that it was the Liberals' responsibility to subsidize Canadian conservatism. When did that happen?
BY THE WAY, for someone who seems awfully heartbroken over losing the voice of Canadian right-wing batshit craziness and useless hack journalism, Jabba always seems perky when it's an allegedly left-wing media outlet that's having problems.
Go figure.
Cost of tickets to let BC Liberals indulge themselves at the Olympics: $940,680.
Being able to kick Canada's actual artists to the curb to take centre stage: Priceless.
There's this (all emphasis added):
RALLY [AGAINST PROROGATION, OTTAWA]
Date: Saturday, January 23rd
Time: 1:00 pm
Location: Parliament Hill
And, via 900ft Jesus, we are amused by:
You are cordially invited
to join
Mr and Mrs Scott Reid, M.P.
And Mr and Mrs Randy Hillier,
M.P.P.
At the following
New Year’s levees:
From: 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
January 23, 2010
Napanee Lions Club
57 County Road 8
Napanee, ON
Is anyone else seeing little get-togethers put on by Conservative MPs that just ever so conveniently happen to clash directly with the local No Prorogue Rally?
Huh. It was just over a couple weeks ago that I pondered what all this was costing us:
Given the recent funding cuts to the ecumenical social justice group KAIROS of all of $7 million over four years and how this was justified in the name of fiscal restraint, it behooves one to ask just how much of the taxpayer's money the Harper government has absolutely wasted [because of prorogation]. And I do mean wasted, so if anyone has the time and inclination, perhaps an accounting is in order.
And, lo and behold, we have a ballpark accounting:
The bill with a few mints is placed at your table, turning the carbon copy over in your hands you read, ‘One order to prorogue parliament - $130 million.’ All I can say is I hope you brought your wallet.
Come March and the new budget, we will all be told that belt tightening is in order. And all of the above will have been forgotten.
More information here, but some words of warning. As others have suggested, do not show up brandishing posters of Stephen Harper as Hitler, or Stephen Harper feasting on live kittens, or ... well, you get the idea.
In fact, I would go one step further and suggest that nothing you bring should have a party affiliation on it of any kind. This rally is not to support your particular party. It's to show support for the far more fundamental principle of a democratic and accountable Canadian Parliament. No one will give a crap if you're a Liberal or Dipper or whatever, and this is not the venue for you to pimp your party.
It's for you to pimp your country. Got it?
Over at the CBC, commenter "CatherineF" has no patience with all that new-fangled book larnin':
And that whole "Earth going round the Sun" thing? Well, I've never heard such nonsense in all my days.
Ugly speculation to be sure, but here's a question for Canada's whingers: If things go badly awry at the Vancouver Olympics and there's a terrorist attack and people end up dead, whose fault will that be?
After all, you folks have been in charge federally for four years, you've had all this prorogation time to allegedly get prepared, you're the "law and order" party, you'll have loads of Canada's military backing you up and so on. So if things don't work out, I'm curious as to exactly how that will be the Liberals' fault. It will be, of course. I just want the actual rationale. Call me curious.
P.S. Replacing the federal Minister of Public Safety only three weeks before the start of the Games? Yes, I'm sure that won't have any adverse effects on planning. What could possibly go wrong?
Ouch ... that's harsh:
Hostile to Haiti: Rush Limbaugh is classless in attacking hemisphere's poorest country
Wednesday, May 20th 2009, 7:25 PM
Reacting to ex-President Bill Clinton's appointment as UN special envoy to Haiti, radio personality Rush Limbaugh had this to say yesterday:
"I'm just gonna tell you, if I was named envoy to Haiti, I'd quit government. Envoy to Haiti? You can't even pick up a prostitute down there without genuine fear of AIDS."
And if anyone knows third world, immuno-compromised hookers, well ... I'm sure you see where I'm going with this.
Commenter "liberal supporter" draws our attention to this, well, total clusterfuck:
Response team trains as Haiti suffers
While the humanitarian crisis rages in Haiti, Toronto’s highly-skilled emergency response team is stuck on Bermondsey Rd. in a mock training session.
Instead of being on the ground in earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince — doing what it is they are trained to do and eager to do — the modern-equipped, taxpayer-funded Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR) team is on the sidelines while people suffer...
Imagine, with all of the horror in Haiti, we have highly-trained Toronto Police officers, police dogs, firefighters, paramedics, Sunnybrook doctors and public works and water professionals all ready, willing and able to lend a hand but feeling stifled as they stare at their packed bags.
There will be efforts to sweep this under the carpet as the government pats itself on the back. But make no mistake, this mess up is not one of Canada’s finest hours. Since 9/11, the taxpayer has invested more than $20 million into this HUSAR team...
If ever there was a time to make their first trek internationally, this Haiti crisis would have been it.
Mayor David Miller understood this and quickly offered the 65-member team last week. A week later, they are still here and wondering how many lives they could have saved?
Some are trying to pass this off as HUSAR not being properly prepared. Shockingly, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told Sun Media’s Kathleen Harris, “when you deploy Canadian armed forces, they can hit the ground and they are literally capable of sustaining themselves, not only through food necessity but they do have the equipment required to camp there, to set up there. My understanding is that these capabilities aren’t necessarily there for the group that you are referring too.”
Wrong! It’s nonsense. He should know better.
In fact, Toronto Fire Division Chief Doug Silver and Toronto Police Insp. Bill Neadles said the HUSAR team cannot only respond within six hours of the call, it can also sustain itself anywhere for 10 days without re-supply. They possess their own water supply, provide their own power, have their own food, shelter, transportation, equipment and medical services — precisely what was needed in Port-au-Prince.
Read the whole thing. Read it and weep.
AFTERSNARK: It's amusing to read Cannon's assessment of the HUSAR team and realize he's making it up as he goes along (emphasis added):
"My understanding is that these capabilities aren’t necessarily there for the [HUSAR] group that you are referring too. [sic]”
Is it possible to get any more weaselly and evasive than stating that your "understanding" is that those capabilities aren't "necessarily" there for the HUSAR team? Here, let me translate that for you: Cannon has no clue. None. He's just covering his ass with weasel-speak. I'm betting he never even heard of HUSAR before that interview.
Seriously, this is hilarious. Childish and hilarious.
The recurring argument: "Hey, Harper prorogued Parliament but so did the Liberals. So what's the big deal?"
You come home from a weekend of hunting, with a deer strapped to the roof of your car. While you're bragging about it in your driveway, I pull out a handgun and blow away your dog in front of you. Hey, you shot an animal, I shot an animal. What's your problem?
Sometimes, context matters.
... how odd. Whassup with that?
OH, DEAR: You can see why Wendy's suddenly made herself scarce. Ladies and gentlemen, your Canadian conservatives in action. Aren't they adorable?
Having mocked us here at CC HQ for our amusement at how often we get links from the New York Times "Blogrunner" service, Canada's wankers notice that some of them are now getting links and, suddenly, they're all pants-wettingly excited about it:
So, yes, CC HQ really is the standard by which Canada's Idiot-sphere now measures its success. Is that cool or what?
And away we go. Is this massive reassignment an example of "tweaking", "recalibration", "realignment" or simply "fine tuning"? Discuss amongst yourselves.
As God is my witness, really, what to say about this?
Who are the actual bidders for Canwest newspaper chains ??
We must know the facts. Especially after reading what happened at FoxTV, we the Canadian citizens have a right to know who will be the ultimate buyer(s) of the segments that Canwest has put up for sale.
Really? We, "the Canadian citizens," have an inherent right to the internal details of that business transaction? Seriously? When exactly did Canada's conservatives suddenly abandon their whole "let the market decide, capitalism rules, laissez faire, let the highest bidder win" approach to the free market? Why is Maria "Dodo" Nunes so terribly, terribly concerned about this? Oh:
Let's not be blind like the Britishers who have sold chains over chains of their media to the Saudi oil millionaires and whose editors are now enslaved to the Middle East's point of view and whose editorial pages and staff are of muslim origin with a muslim agenda...
Do we as Canadians want our media to be sold to the Saudis? That would be the start of the end for this country. The worst form of islamisation comes from there and their dirty money is polluting every nook and corner of the world.
Read the rest. I got nuthin'.
Stephen Taylor must be incredibly proud.
WAIT, I HAVE A PLAN! It's fiendishly clever, and would stop those nefarious Saudis in their tracks. What if we create a national media outlet, totally funded by public money, that would be free of foreign influence and bias, answerable only to the Canadian taxpayer? Surely that would assuage Maria's hysterical fears, would it not?
Oh, wait ... we've got one of those. And all of the Blogging Tories hate it with a passion and want to see it dismantled.
Pity. It seemed like a good idea, didn't it?
... it's never pretty:
Thank God Obama isn't running Canada...
Canada's projected budget deficits are 1000% smaller per capita.
Wow. 1000% smaller. That's ... that's ... impressive. Truly. We are so lucky.
First, you need to read Alison. And follow that up with a healthy dollop of non-mainstream media:
Book Review: Canada and Empire
Waging war on Haiti’s poor majority: Canada and [sic] Haiti by Yves Engler and Anthony Fenton
Review by Harold Lavender
“In both their writing and activism, Yves Engler and Anthony Fenton have done some of the most important work in exposing Canada’s shameful role in Haiti,” writes Naomi Klein about Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority, co-authored by Fenton and Engler.
This pointed 120-page book is essential reading for those who wish to hold the Liberal government accountable for its anti-democratic, imperialist intervention in Haiti.
In the wake of an invasion by heavily armed paramilitaries, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide says he was kidnapped and removed from Haiti by US forces on February 29, 2004. Supporting both the coup and the repressive new regime were Canada’s Liberal government and NGOs cooperating with anti-Aristide forces.
In challenging Canada’s so-called “peacekeeper” role, Canada in Haiti reveals how the Liberal government propped up and provided legitimacy to the anti-democratic Haitian regime currently engaged in massive human rights violations...
George W. Bush barred more than $500 million in aid and loans to the elected Haitian government and his administration launched a destabilization campaign. However, when the US became embroiled in Iraq, Washington was happy to let Canada take a leading role in Haiti. Canada, with its cleaner, supposedly democratic international reputation, was better able to pull the wool over people’s eyes.
But Canada is no force for democracy in Haiti. In 2003, Fenton and Engler write, “Denis Paradis, Canada’s Secretary of State for Latin America and La Francophonie, played host to a high-level roundtable meeting dubbed the ‘Ottawa Initiative on Haiti.’ In a manner that would foreshadow future meetings hosted by the Canadian government, no representatives of Haiti’s elected government were invited.” L’Actualité reported that same year that Paradis and the French Minister of the Francophonie discussed a potential trusteeship over Haiti and the return of Haiti’s military. Paradis would later deny the report, saying the issue fell under the “Responsibility to Protect.” ...
The book asks why the Canadian government is so directly implicated.
Haiti, unlike Iraq, doesn’t have vast strategic resources. But the authors say that those who stand to gain from slavery, racism and colonialism, imperialism and today’s neo-liberalism have sought to undermine Haiti as an example and block the promise of its independence. And in 2004 they believed they could get away with it again.
The authors do not idolize Aristide or the record of Lavalas, the pro-Aristide party. However, they make a case that the regime (despite lack of funds and IMF strings) served the poor majority better than previous dictatorships or the new regime. They argue Aristide did not kowtow sufficiently to the neo-liberal agenda. His removal has led to attempts to fast-track a drastic program of privatization.
So-called future economic development in Haiti will be based on sweatshops utilizing the cheapest labour in the hemisphere. Canada is a player in this global sweatshop game, particularly through Montreal-based Gildan Activewear, a large supplier of T-shirts. Gildan plans to employ up to 5,000 people in Port-au-Prince, including work subcontracted to Andy Apaid, the leader of the G-184 opposition. Two Canadian mining companies, KWG Resources and St. Guinevere Resources, are planning to mine copper and gold on very favourable terms.
Aristide’s efforts to mobilize the poor majority were threatening to elite interests. In response, the Haitian elite want a strong military to protect their interests. So do Washington and Ottawa.
I think it's safe to say that, if you can believe even a fraction of the above, the chances of Haitians ever getting their country back fall somewhere between nil and zero.
AFTERSNARK: And in the above context, the following should creep you right out:
Harper says Canada in Haiti for the long haul
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada is in Haiti for the long haul and an expensive international effort will be needed to rebuild the country that was devastated by this week's earthquake.
"I think important long-term progress had been made, I think it's safe to say that has been virtually wiped out and we are starting from scratch," Harper said.
Starting from scratch, indeed. Beginning with a compliant government, I'm guessing. Or am I just being cynical again?
