An example of Taxpayers dollars being used for Conservative propaganda

This turned up in my worplace mailbox in the Riding of Don Valley West. It's from Peter van Loan whose riding is actually York-Simcoe, which is a considerable few ridings away. These are known as the 10 percenters and the Conservatives are blitzing ridings at taxpayers cost with these. Its a propaganda campaign for the Conservatives and you have no choice about it. They are not using their money, they are using yours. Besides abusing taxpayers dollars with this, they are also causing financial issues at Canada Post because Conservatives are abusing this so much they can't afford to subsidize the postage. The cost being incurred is quite shocking.

There is really nothing that can be done except kick them to the curb if an election is ever called. They are not breaking the law because they are utilizing loopholes, but they indeed have shredded the spirit of the law.

For your amusement and disgust I present your taxpayers dollars going down the tube.













And its not like they have a shot in hell of winning this riding, these constituents wouldn't even elect a moderate Tory leader named John Tory. Pissing in the wind at your cost. Todays Conservatives and Canada's Ailing Government™, makes you proud doesn't it? Recommend this Post

More Conservative Intolerance towards minorities.

Calgary MP and Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity Jason Kenney, in an 8 year old video, suggests members of an ethnic minority will use "the race card" to win arguments.

No surprises there. This is typical neo-conservative thought. The very reason none of the Harperite MP's, except a couple, are allowed to speak. Those who can, cannot stray from a set list of topics. For good reason obviously. Tom Lukiwski's comments were unacceptable and Mr. Kenney's is equally repulsive. They tried to write of Tom Lukiwski's comments as insignificant due to it being 17 years old even though he was a 40 year old man at the time. One does not grow up after that point. Sorry. Lets see how them to try and right off something recorded since adscam, the favorite red herring of the neo-cons.

The Hidden agenda has not gone away. It is still easy to find snippets of full neo-conservative thought from current MP's to compare and contrast with their poorly thought out policies. Mr. Kenney's comments are indeed scary when you look at the immigration bill the neo-conservatives buried in the budget. Even scarier, he's the Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity. Obviously to him Canadian means white and Multiculturalism is just a dirty liberal idea. Any questions about that means you are using the "race card".

1+1 still equals 2.

Personal Note: I may not be blogging much, even less than I have. I am currently working through 3 major blows dealt to me by life. Stay tuned. Recommend this Post

Thoughts on Monday's By-Elections in Toronto-Centre

Last night I had a gathering at my home with friends. One of the many topics that came up were Monday's by-elections as we are in Toronto-Centre. There were 11 of us present and I know that 5 of us vote liberal, with the other 6 voting NDP. In the past of course. Monday I believe will show some problems for the NDP. Only one of the 6 of my friends who vote NDP will be doing so in the by-election. Three seem to be leaning Green and two to the liberals. The main reason that I could get from the discussion about changing vote was mainly from the strategy the NDP are using. We are all familiar with how Harper bully's the Official Opposition, something that would happen to any party if they were the Official Opposition in this parliament, it is what we all hate most about how Harper governs, no matter which party, one time or another all the opposition parties have felt this.

The government staged a whole set of confidence votes to cause an election that frankly right now would possibly bring in a conservative majority. If your a partisan hack sure you could spin it as something needed to be done but the average progressive sees it as pranks that risk the progressive society we have and could care less right now about party politics. So what do we see occurring? The NDP are also trying to play these games of setting traps and wants to trigger an election because it thinks it can get some of the liberal vote. On top of that its blatantly obvious that Layton is making good use of the Conservatives giving them a free ride. The possibility that in a single election cycle the NDP could get enough votes to secure a majority and save our progressive society is a pipe dream. It's impossible, so people who could care less about party politics are seemingly moving to either back the liberals to block the conservatives or are moving to the Greens because they are disturbed by the campaign literature that has been handed out by the NDP which I am told is along the same lines as the stuff the Conservatives are using. The "not a leader" type stuff. The now former dippers say thats what they hate about the Harper government, the negativity, so why would we support it in the NDP? We want it gone not more of it. The new Greens say they want a new voice, a new party. The new reluctant new liberals say they want Harper out, even if it means they have to vote Liberal. (Not flattering but hey its a vote!)

It seems other Dippers are moving to the Greens for other reasons.

Now, of course, this is just commentary from a group of people and may in no way reflect on what happens on Monday. I believe, though, we will see something interesting. On Monday, the Liberals will increase the amount of the vote from the last election for Toronto-centre and the Greens will come in a strong second. Where the NDP will place I don't know. I think the Conservatives and NDP will be battling for third and fourth. Hopefully the Canadian Action Party comes in dead last. Really, who would vote for a party that has "911 was an inside job" posters and various other conspiracy theories you see on the far left but at the same time they are anti-semitic and anti-immigrant like you usually see on the far right. What a f**ked up mixed bag of kookery.

What happens in the other three ridings having a by-election, I have no idea. Recommend this Post

Cash for Souls: Missionaries nothing more than parasites?

I called this one long ago and had a freak claim otherwise and get nasty so imagine my surprise last night when CBC showcased what has happened in Thailand since the tsunami.

Missionaries swarmed the country post tsunami supposedly to help end the misery but instead they brought more. Promising no more Tsunamis if you convert, giving cash to people so they would convert, approaching entire towns and denying assistance unless the whole community converted. Makes my stomach turn.

Besides peddling delusional lies, they have destroyed many people's traditional lifestyles in the process.

These groups should be banned completely worldwide. If we look at our past we can easily see they haven't changed their wicked ways one bit. Despite the claims of the terribly delusional Adam (commentor from the post linked above)

Anyhow, the video is available here and I think its about 15 minutes.

And to you religious crazies, don't bother to comment. You exist in a realm where facts are considered false and the most delusional thoughts are the truth. I have no desire to have a "conversation" about your baseless fabrications thank you. Recommend this Post

Fortier has no authority to criticize the senate...

...especially when you yourself were appointed and have only showed up for 5 votes out of 34. Not to mention having a Minister porfolio without being a minister or even elected.

If you want to fix the problem you say is there then stop being a part of it. If it matters so much then resign. Staying in a place you hate is not something sane people do unless its for the public money and not having to work for it or face the electorate. Recommend this Post

Harper on Obama on NAFTA

Mr. Harper you should not be interfering in another countries political process. We all know you wanna fight for the Republicans as members of Republicans International.

Besides, its just pre-election talk. Obama is using NAFTA to score points like you used accountability and cleaning up government and we all know you didn't mean that. The difference is Obama hasn't run a nation-wide Presidential campaign on lies yet.

You, Mr. Harper, apparently did. Recommend this Post

What the New Tax Free Savings Account achieves

The new tax free savings account must have conservatives drooling. It allows for the rich to sock away money at the expense of those who live month to month. Other types of savings such as RRSP's, RESP's etc. allow you to save for a specific reason. This one doesn't, in fact there are no strings. Put away cash and use it whenever you want and avoid paying taxes.

The only thing this new savings account will achieve is to undermine our progressive income tax system where those making the most pay more taxes.

Now the the rich can hide excess cash interest free in the ideologically driven idea of a tax free savings account. They may have finally hit the holy grail of conservatism and that is to allow the rich to pay less tax. Recommend this Post

1912

This year is very significant. Besides the Titannic disaster something truly monumental happened, the Conservative Government of Canada, headed by Sir Robert Borden posted a surplus.

Now posting a surplus is nothing new, if you are a Liberal but for a conservative its quite the task. How much of a task you ask? Well 1912 was the last time a Conservative Government posted a surplus. You can argue that Harper has also but he inherited the great financial situation we Liberals put this country in and rumour has it that the current Conservative one may have a deficit on the way, which is why we saw Mr. Prentice out and about yesterday debating facts. When one has to debate facts in order to make their budget next week look somewhat okay its not the sign of a good budget.

It is also interesting to note that Flim Flam Flaherty wasn't the one discussing deficits and surpluses. Great idea as he wouldn't know what a surplus was even if it flew up his ass judging by his time as Finance Minister in Ontario. Also smart not to have Flaherty criticize Rae's budgets because Flaherty was way way worse and actually was a finance Minister. Recommend this Post

Memorial honouring Gay Holocaust Victims to be built.

This has been a long time coming. Homosexuals, originally, were not considered victims of the holocaust and Between 5000 and 15,000 were held in concentration camps as members of an anti-social group. 60% of these people died while in camps. Many Nazi soldiers would use the pink triangle tattoo forced on them as identifiers as a target to shoot at.

Unfortunately it didn't stop there. After WWII, Gay men were not recognized as victims of the Holocaust and were re-imprisoned by the authorities because of their sexuality and were denied the reparations and state pensions available to other groups.. In 2002, the German government pardoned the gay men who were imprisoned by Nazis.

The design of the Memorial to homosexuals will be similar to the one picture above for the Jewish victims.

Many on the right (wingnuts) frequently reference the Holocaust as the reasoning for supporting the Jewish people and Israel, yet cannot afford the same respect to other victims of the holocaust. Bigots such as SDA come to mind but no one expects much better of such people. In one post she pays respect to the Victims of the holocaust and the next she is making jokes out of the tattoos that were forced on the victims of the Holocaust. See how that works? Its an attempt at inoculation. I have also read a couple posts at the Blogging Tories about a so-called "brown threat" and insinuating all Muslims have a secret agenda. Thats how the Nazi's turned its population against Jews. Spreading falsehoods about a minority group of people and because the average person doesn't know much about said group they are more likely to believe what others tell them.

Governments on the other hand shouldn't be ignored when acting similarly. The current government has taken to trying to rescind same sex marriage rights or play little games with age of consent. Treating gays and Straights differently when both are equal citizens of this country. They seem to have found more votes in their bigoted core voter base than they could ever get treating people equally but then again fascism does come from the right side of the political spectrum and the current one does employ some similar techniques when it comes to dividing a population and turning it on itself for political gain. I'm not saying that our current government are fascists but they seem to have no qualms about where they get their techniques (blaming a group for everything they fail at or are unable to do) in their continually failing attempt to secure a majority government. We have division in this country now that is the worst I have ever seen for Canada and its not over an important issue facing the nation like free trade or GST. Its more McCarthyish with Communist replaced by Liberal. Recommend this Post

Yes We Can

All I can say is wow. What a powerful speaker and a powerful song.



This is the change that America needs and hopefully a little will rub off on our population because we also need change from what we currently have taking up useful space at 24 Sussex. Oh and in this video, an Ontarian named Esthero (a self described liberal and Humanist) makes a contribution to the vocals.

Why Change?

The change these people are singing about is not necessarily a new face. Change refers to the end of divisive politics. You know those tactics adopted by the Republicans and the Conservative Party of Canada. The tendency to speak in black and white, never admitting blame, preferring instead to blame a perceived enemy (liberals) for everything. If you don't agree with conservatism its because the liberals have ruined the country and everyone is tainted instead of admitting their policies stink. Basically how we've been governed these past 2 years.

The question is do we prevent it from getting worse or do we let it go on until we are begging for it?

I prefer to be proactive. Harper gotta go. Recommend this Post

Stick by your plan Mr. Dion

Do not sit on your hands and abstain from voting against the governments confidence motion. The neo-tories do not have the default preferred stance on the Afghan Mission. Neither does the NDP. The population will not support an open ended war nor would they support sheer cowardice. The people of Canada wants a realistic mission that works and accomplishes the goal. Your stance Mr. Dion seems to fit what the population wants. Stick with it even if it brings the government down. The election will not focus only on the mission. There are many other issues such as the economy, the environment, and the unending list of Harpers broken promises and surprise social conservative ones. Not too mention he's made government more unaccountable and even less transparent in direct opposition to what he promised and campaigned on.

Let the writ drop and lets win the next election. We want a Canada thats richer, cleaner and fairer not the broken mess and division we see today, nor the lies on climate change repeated by this government and its cohorts, or the attacks on seniors incomes and tax cuts for the rich.

Mr Harper thinks leadership is being an asshole but we can show him its bringing great policies, consensus building and co-operation that makes a leader. All things he has failed on, especially with the lost opportunity to bridge partisan divides and work together to hammer out a future for the Afghanistan Mission. Instead he builds his firewall, keeps with his unwanted open ended war and then makes it a confidence vote. All this for a view that barely 1/3 of Canadians feel is appropriate. He's like a child sulking in the corner. Some leader.

Please do take your ball and go home. Recommend this Post

Self Fulfilling Delusions

It appears Harper's got his undies in a bunch once again. A fundraising letter sent out to his faithful continues the trend of blaming everyone else for their woes but this time with an added begging for cash to fix it. This time the finger points at the CBC

It appears the greatest delusion in the conservative grassroots is coming true. the A Reporter for the CBC allegedly has written questions for a Liberal Mp to ask at the Shreiber-Mulroney circus.

The horror.

First of all allegedly. Like the supposed gay agenda, socialist money sucking schemes, every Muslim is a terrorist Far Right Conservative/Republican conspiracy theorist sort of allegedly. These guys/gal make the looney left conspiracists look sane.

They conveniently leave out CBC reporters wrote questions for them to ask during the sponsorship inquisition. damn facts never seem to work well with CPC propaganda.

This is just to rally their most delusional in the wake of crumbling support. The never did get rid of the gun registry, gay marriage, fully return the death penalty or put children as young as 12 in jail so I guess they think they may be losing them.

This liberal media bias needs to be put to rest. It simply is not true. The fact is ,in general, what the conservatives have to say and what their policies do is abhorrent and in no way is news to majority of Canadians. Same old story from the party with the tag "Tory times are hard times". It seems the majority is interested in solutions and modern ways of thinking about issues. If thats what people are interested in then obviously the media reports it. To do otherwise specifically is nothing but party propaganda. Luckily for the liberals and other left we are on the "right" side of what they are looking for politically.

Suck it up.

Let me offer up a scapegoat. The Conservative Appointed Head of the CBC? Doesn't matter he has nothing to do with it but thats the thing about those pesky facts, they can be optional for everyone for blind partisan means. Recommend this Post

Der PanzerKardinal Addresses his loyal At Christmas...

...And in the process tells his most loyal to spread catholicism worldwide. Forgive me if I am appalled, but when a former member of the Nazi Youth tells an audience to spread any ideology I get a little nervous. Especially with an ideology that has a history of Crusades and other horrors. Not too mention the anti-gay, anti-Jew, anti-Muslim, anti-Atheist, and censorship stances this pope has taken in modern times (John Paul must be rolling in his grave).

Apologists for the pope will tell you he had no choice, etc, etc. Most people stood up for who they were and unfortunately died in the process.

Capitulation is cowardice and NOT a leadership quality.

You sir, had a choice. Recommend this Post

By-election in 70 days. Whats wrong Harper are you...

'nuff said. Recommend this Post

The Jack Ford Story: Newfoundland's POW in Nagasaki

This book is an account of my Great Uncle Jack's time spent as a POW in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb known as "fat boy" was dropped. It was written by Jack Fitzgerald and the interviews took place over the last couple of years and Uncle Jack is still around today.

It covers his enlistment in the Royal Air Force where he joined with the British (Newfoundland was a colony still) and was eventually stationed in Singapore. The Japanese military captured him and many others when they took over Asia and he was ultimately transferred to a prisoner of war camp in Nagasaki.

The account of his time in the camp , during the nuclear blast and his ultimate freedom is quite heart wrenching.

A must read for anyone interested in World War II history.

The Book is published by Creative Book Publishing, ISBN 1-897174-23-3. Recommend this Post

Conservatives, Liberals Statistically tied

A new poll suggests Stephen Harper's Conservatives have lost their big lead over the Liberals, plunging six percentage points in popular support in just one week.

The actual numbers
Liberals: 32
Conservatives:30
NDP: 15
Greens: 12

Margin of error of 3.1 percentage points 19 times in 20.

Possible Reasons given for the drop:
- Former Tory PM Brian Mulroney's admission he had accepted cash-stuffed envelopes
- Canada's position at the climate-change summit in Bali.
- Medical isotopes shortage due to the shutdown of the Chalk River nuclear reactor and their assigning of blame to everyone but themselves.

Breakdowns:

Ontario
Liberals: 41
Conservatives: 31
An increase for the Liberals

Quebec
Bloc Quebecois: 40
Liberals: 23
Conservatives: 17 per cent
an 11-point drop for the Conservatives

Alberta
Conservative support plummeted almost 20 points to 45 per cent

British Columbia
Conservative support dropped 17 points to 31 per cent.

Atlantic Canada
Liberals: 36
Conservatives: 33
Conservatives were leading

Among male voters
Conservative support dropped to 32 per cent from 40 per cent.

Rural Voters
Conservatives sank eight points to 35 per cent.

----

Looks like its across the board regionally and in traditional strongholds and among groups usually most supportive. Lets hope this holds. Stephane Dion in interviews last night said he's saving his policies for the election campaign.

Smart move, Steve has a knack fro stealing Liberal policies. Recommend this Post

NDP: Not only baseless smears but intolerant too!

I guess we can dispense with the notion that the NDP are a party for minorities completely. In their rush for the centre they seem to have overshot and landed to the far right. It seems that the NDP has dumped a Qubec candidate because she was transgendered. Who would have thought THE NDP, progressive, tolerant, principled, do-gooders of parliament would discriminate based on sexuality? Well. Not surprising really. They have been taking part in smear campaigns as of late so I guess this was a logical next step for a party stuck in the gutter.

Is Jack Laytons still leader? It seems he's never available for comment these days. Maybe its due to all the feet thats been shoved down his throat. Which private clinic is he attending to have those removed I wonder?

Thats okay Jack, the liberals can fill the void you leave plus we can actually form a government.

So I guess when Libby Davies says this its just rhetoric. She obviously does not know what the T in LBGT actually stands for. As a lesbian she should be ashamed to be associated with these people. I wonder if she has ever thought of sitting as an independent or maybe shes just fine with being a sellout to our community.

My advice to Micheline Montreuil is sue, it worked for everyone else and it seems that is all the rage these days with regard to the NDP. They seem to be showering every other party with apologies so why not one of their own?

I guess the real question should be who the hell still supports the NDP and why pray tell? They have violated all they claimed to be and I am left wondering whats left except the cheesy moustache. Recommend this Post

Basket full of lemons and they all taste the same

I find this poll by CTV and Strategic Counsel quite curious. It would appear that the Conservatives are on the wrong side of all the issues Canadians hold dear.

If you look at these results its hard to understand what the current government is thinking and even worse they have completely wasted 31 million dollars in polling firms since they have done exactly opposite of what this poll turned up.

* 1/3 Canadians says that climate change is the biggest threat facing the world today
* 39 per cent think that Canada's foreign policy is less independent than 50 years ago
* 25 per cent believe that Canada's relationship with U.S. is the major factor influencing domestic foreign policy today
* Only 5 per cent say that the Canada-U.S. relationship should be the major factor influencing Canadian foreign policy today
* 33 per cent believe saying 'no' to involvement in Iraq is Canada's greatest foreign policy achievement
* 10 per cent say signing NAFTA was the greatest foreign policy achievement while another 10 per cent say it's the current mission in Afghanistan

The Conservatives have
* Screwed us all on the climate change file, killed what programs that were in place and working and made us a global laughing stock
* The Conservatives have tied us to American foreign policy which influencing our actions on everything. Even selling out our softwood industry.
* Conservatives wish we were in Iraq
* Claim the Afghanistan mission is our defining role currently in the world to no other and not too mention the abandonment of our peacekeeping role. Where was the commemoration for Lester B. Pearson's Peace Prize?

Very sour indeed. Recommend this Post

Lock, Stock-well and Barrel

Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety Has shelved plans to mark legitimately sold guns in Canada, a measure that would help identify where all our guns on the street are coming from. I know the Harper government wants the gun registry scraped because they claim it mistreats legitimate gun holders so why are they protecting people with illegitimate guns? Who are they protecting/ furthering the cause of? Whats the purpose of denying our Police the tools they need to ensure law and order? They want to know personally.

There is no reason in my mind why this would be shelve, except for money from the National Rifle Association, or wanting to give criminals guns. Which is it? Who gave Harper all that cash he refused to disclose the source of?

I do believe we have the answers. Recommend this Post

The more things change the more it stays the same.

I see the Catholic Church is still involved in censorship, they just downloaded it to the fundamentalist supporters to do their bidding. Having been involved in the past with this subversion of public interest you'd think they'd step back and let people make up their own minds. How fragile is their grip on a child's mind they have to ban a book of fiction?

Then you have Pope Benedict latest screed against atheists saying they are responsible for the "greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice in history" while not even mentioning how the Catholic Church was in bed with fascists in the 1930's. Nor does he acknowledge the millions killed by the combined horrors of the Inquisition, the Crusades, cash for souls programs, continued repression of women, gays, and lets not forget the epidemic of paedophilia flowing from this pious and righteous institution and abstinence programs and misinformation leading to increased HIV infections

If this "entity" wants to retain public dollars for its public school then it should make the same literature available that is found in the real public school board, otherwise pull its funding, and tax the church for advocating on the public dime something no other group can do that receives the same breaks.

Seriously do people actually still think this antiquated bloated propaganda spewing business has any answers relevant to todays life? They have ducked all responsibility for their horrors inflicted on humanity every step of the way without once being sincere and they continue to whitewash their sordid history to this very day.

Sorry Benedict its not the atheists that are evil, we've been exposing you since day one. We're not evil we're just a thorn in your money grubbing ass.

Yes Benedict I know what goes on in your semen seminary schools. I have many gay friends who have quit and told me how much sex fun they had. As much fun as you get in all these male focused religious training schools.

UPDATE (Dec 6, 2007)::Judge suspended for upholding Italy's laws on secularity. Crosses were introduced during Italy's fascist period when as mentioned above the Catholics were cosy with fascists. CBC has a great documentary on this story here (video on side runs approx 17 mins) It is quite disturbing that the Catholic Church would subvert Italy's laws by manipulating the government. No shame and respect for peoples institution, but no surprise. They should have their seat at the United Nations taken away.

UPDATE 2: Be sure to check the comments where a social conservative argues about how the Catholic School Boards are justified in banning "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman though he admits he has never read it. A problem common among the bible thumpers. All high and mighty but ignorant on the subject at hand. Relying completely on rhetoric and NO FACTS OR PROOF of anything he said. But don't worry, he's full of faith (aka shit). Running out of baseless rhetoric he attacks EGALE. It ended with a vicious personal attack which I removed.

George Carlin on religion in general. Very amusing and very true.

Recommend this Post