Steve’s Solution – Eat The Poor

I was floored to read Harper’s quip about the ongoing stockmarket meltdown when he said that he figured there’d be some real bargains just waiting to be snapped up soon.

Yes, Steve, those are the shares that the little people once banked their retirement security on and which they’re now being driven to sell off to salvage what they can. Oh I get it, their misfortune is a glorious opportunity for your kind, eh? Their loss is your gain, right Steve?

Oh, that’s right. You get a hefty government paycheque, don’t you Steve. Not to mention that cushy pension that’ll be coming your way. No problems, no worries and, for the most egocentric leader in memory, that seems to translate into no action either.

Enter, stage left, Mr. Dithers. I guess you could call him the Ghost of Effective Government past, eh Steve? He surfaced yesterday to help us remember those good 0ld days. From the Toronto Star:

Martin reminded the crowd how Liberal governments turned a $42-billion deficit into a $12-billion surplus that created a “surging” economy.

But under the Conservatives productivity has sagged and job losses mounted and Harper delivers a “lecture on how fiercely committed he is to doing nothing,” Martin said.

“Who will act on your behalf to protect our economy, protect our jobs,” Martin said.

I’m guessing Paul that it won’t be Steve. He’s been pretty much busy the last two years electioneering, leaving the country under wraps on cruise control while he stayed in permanent campaign mode.

 

Speaking Freely About Harper – An Indepdent’s Voice

Bill Casey knows a thing or two about today’s Conservatives and their leader, our very own Fuhrious Leader Steve Harper. A former Tory MP who stood on principle against Boss Harp on the Atlantic Accord and was booted from the caucus in retaliation, Casey has a pretty good idea of what Harper has in mind if he wins a majority and warns that we won’t like it – not a bit. From the Toronto Star:

“I think Mr. Harper will make changes to a lot of things that Canadians don’t want changed – and I think he’ll do them fast,” said Casey, 63, the Independent incumbent candidate in the Nova Scotia riding of Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley.

“The minority government has restricted what he can do, but if he has a majority – let me just say I certainly would not want him to get a majority.”

A Tory, standing on principle? Of course he had to go. No room for the likes of Casey in the most secretive, undemocratic government perhaps in Canadian history.

Apparently the good folks of Amherst, Nova Scotia like their representatives principled. The newspaper reports that Casey lawn signs dominate the riding. The local Conservative riding association wasn’t able to muster anyone to run against Casey on the Harper label so the party fired in a former New Brunswick MLA, Joel Bernard. How pathetic is that?

Casey still chafes at his draconian mauling by the Harpies. “In my first seven caucuses we had great arguments. We talked about things like GST, free trade, abortion, gun registries and things like that and they were hashed out in caucus, but in this caucus decisions are made,” Casey said.

 

How Soft Is Harper’s Support?

A week ago it looked all but certain that Stephen Harper would win a majority government. Now, so we’re told, he’s back in minority country and trending downward.

I guess that’s what you get when your only pitch is stay the course when the voters see what you don’t – trouble coming. It’s what happens when your plans to run a no-issue campaign get derailed by a landslide next door.

Now Harper is looking awkward, even a bit panicked. Old Sweater Vest seems to have dropped his McCainish “the fundamentals of the economy are strong” line to say that he’s ready to help Canadian banks if the meltdown spreads north.

Helping the banks, which have logged year upon year of massive profits, is all well and good, Steve, but what are you going to do to cushion the blow for small business and small people, those most vulnerable to economic retractions. That’s the Canadian way, Steve. The people of Canada, Steve, that’s who you’re supposed to be working for but all you can come up with in your wooden, lurching style is talk of bank bailouts.

Steve, 99% of us already have 100% insurance for our deposits. That’s the great Canadian way, Steve. So a banking bailout would be to the benefit of who exactly? The very rich and those who own the banks? And you’re going to use tax dollars we’ll be needing for the most vulnerable to shore up the riches of the least vulnerable?

Have you noticed, Steve, that our retirement investments, our mutual funds and stocks, are evaporating before our eyes? Nothing to say about that Steve, no way to stop it?

Steve, that’s not a plan. Steve, you’re not a leader!

But don’t let me put you off your arrogant, oligarchical scheme. I think it’s just what you need to further weaken your support. Go for it, Steve.

 

Canadian Business – Do Something!

Everybody’s in the mood for some serious talk. Canadian troops in Kandahar are waiting for the politicians to have an honest discussion about their role in Afghanistan and how it’s going to end up.

Canadian businessmen, likewise, want some straight talk on the economy instead of endless Harper drivel about how “the fundamentals are strong.”

Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and former Tory cabinet minister Perrin Beatty told CBC that good times politicians are in denial:

“It’s clear that something profound is happening, yet the politicians up to now have wanted to talk about everything else,” he said.
The politicians are living in one universe, while media reports of the international financial crisis paint a different picture, he said.

“Ordinary Canadians, people who are middle aged today, planning for retirement, have seen much of their retirement savings evaporating this week in the stock exchange,” Beatty said.

Harper, in his by now old routine of whistling past the graveyard, continues to hope he can stall this one until after the October 14th vote. How unfair it would be to expect him to face up to this one right now when he’s so busy campaigning on the issues – whatever he decides next week those might be.

 

Harper’s Gagging Kandahar Now

It seems Harper has put the war on Kandahar on hold so it doesn’t spoil his election campaign.

The CBC’s Melissa Fung says, even as the insurgency picks up steam, Kandahar has sort of fallen quiet – and mute:

The last time I was here, in June and July 2007, field operations were going out every week. And there were offers from the military to get the reporters who are embedded here with them out on those missions.
This time, for the first few weeks anyway, there wasn’t a single mission leaving the base.

Kandahar Airfield hasn’t been completely quiet either, despite the Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr period, which traditionally sees a drop in insurgent activity. To the surprise of the military, there was actually an increase this year — including a spike in the number of rocket attacks at KAF — at the beginning of Ramadan. There were 80 incidents involving Canadian troops in the holy month’s first 18 days.

The first indication that things were going to be different here during the campaign came with a new directive out of Ottawa.
The public affairs officers who work with the reporters here at Kandahar Airfield told us that they cannot grant interviews for the duration of the campaign. They said they were told that all interview requests with forces members must be cleared through the Privy Council Office in Ottawa. And it could take days before we get an answer to our requests.

It’s all been rather frustrating for some of the troops who are here. Several soldiers I’ve talked with say the politicians — and the public — at home need to be addressing Canada’s mission here as a real election issue.

If Canada is indeed pulling out in 2011, what’s the point, they ask. If Afghanistan is not ready by then — as the new governor of Kandahar province has said may be the case — will every Canadian soldier lost between now and then have died in vain?”

This is the way Harper “supports the troops,” by putting his PMO Commissars in charge to stifle their voices, to make them disappear from public view, to keep them out of the minds of voters. And all those rightwing nutjobs will pour into the Legion and salute Harper for the great job he’s doing for the Canadian Forces!

 

Pssst – I Almost Hope Steve Wins

In a way, I almost hope Steve Harper wins on October 14th. Not a majority, mind you, that’d be disastrous. I hope he wins about the same number of seats his Conservatives had when they called the election.

Rough times lie ahead and I’d like to see Steve stuck with them. He’s reshaped the federal government these last two and a half years. He’s made it more brittle, weaker, secretive. Steve and crafted something of a lean and mean “good times” government but, in the process, he’s hobbled its ability to respond to the needs of Canadians in a downturn.

If Steve doesn’t get a majority, he’s made his mark as the guy who got the reins of power and couldn’t go on to close the deal, couldn’t make a majority happen. The conditions he orchestrated to trigger this election are as good as they could get for Steve Harper. The timing was perfect. The circumstances were as ideal as he could make them. I’m pretty sure that even Mr. Dion is on to him now and that no one will give him that chance to game an election again.

We appear to be heading into a tough time where we’ll face, at the very least, the tail end of the fiscal hurricane that’s expected to sweep through the United States. Of course our circumstances are better, our institutions stronger, but these guys purchase about 85% of our exports. That little gravy train has been very good indeed for Canada and we will feel it when it contracts.

You see, I think Steve is a one-trick pony. As Paul Martin said the other day, he’s “clueless” about what to do in an economic downturn. With GST cut baubles, he’s seriously defunded our federal government and left it vulnerable to a recession when Canadian government is expected to step in and cushion the landing.

Fair enough, but why should another party be saddled with Harper’s electoral chicanery? Give him a minority and a taste of what it’s like to have to govern Canada when everything isn’t rosey. Harper, like Bush, was handed a government operating well in the black and turning healthy surpluses. He chose to play Good Times Steve with that revenue stream which I suspect explains why he’s done nothing to prepare for an American meltdown and doesn’t even want to discuss it.

Give him a minority, let Canadians see Bad Times Steve, and let us decide when to bring his government down next time, not him.

 

No Platform, No Problem

Apparently the Harper Conservatives are going to unveil a platform – in the final week before the election. They’re the government. They called the election, it wasn’t triggered by the opposition. And they’ve dummied up until they were safely past the debates. It’s just plain creepy.

Stephen Harper is shrewd. He’s undemocratic, authoritarian, hyper secretive, cynical, manipulative, and more than a tad creepy himself – but he’s shrewd.

Last time around Harpo fed Canadians a bagful of lies about how he’d govern on principles. Why he’d turn things around. There’d be accountability and transparency and a bunch of little trinkets like fixed election dates – and anyone who believed him must wonder what’s that taste in their mouths today. Here’s the answer – he fed you a load of shit and you swallowed it. And he’s getting fixed to feed you another load of the same this time.

The fundamentals of the economy are strong. That’s crap straight from the prime ministerial horses ass himself. Here, help yourself to a shovelful if you can get another one down.

In that grotesque parody of a newspaper we call the National Post, Don Martin writes that it makes sense for Harper not to release his platform because, after all, that would only give the other parties the opportunity to attack it. And, yeah, it also gives Harpo the chance to tweak it up (as in make it up) at the last minute. Yes, Don, and it also gives Canadians next to zero chance to evaluate it and look through it and figure out they’re being hoodwinked by the same Con artist who got’em last time.

The height of Don Martin’s cynical apologia for Harper came in this final line of his piece: “If voters really knew what a government was planning, they would never vote for them, confessed one candid politician whose identity I cannot find in Google (although I’m thinking former finance minister John Crosbie).” Right Don, thanks.

 

Steve, What Have You Done To Us?

Pierre Trudeau was the first, and only, Canadian politician I’ve ever seen who wasn’t scared shitless of – of himself.

PET knew who he was. He knew what advocated and what he defended and he knew what he stood for. It was why he never feared public scrutiny, why he invited public questioning and debate.

Chretien came close – in fearlessness at least – but he was a distant second on reason and debate. I’ve often wondered whether David Frum’s bolt to the extreme right wasn’t driven by the horrible drubbing his mother would get when she interviewed Trudeau and constantly failed in her bid to get one up on him. Sorry, David, Pierre just kept making your mom accept she lost. She did, after all, constantly set out to skewer him. He was always fair, even gentle, with her.

Now we have Stephen Harper – Steve – Our Furious Leader – who, for all his righteous indignation can only govern by muzzling the environmental scientists our taxdollars pay, by gagging our very armed forces while they’re in the midst of a hopeless war he’s chosen to extend for his personal, political advantage. Yes, Steve, I’m tying those wreaths tightly around your neck!

It’s not like this miserable, pathetic little bully invites or even accepts public discourse. He disgracefully abuses the power we’ve entrusted in his office to distract, confound and even deceive us. The man is exactly like the very worst of George w. Bush. He’s Bush and Cheney in one.

Canadians have always loved their country, not just an ideology transplanted from elsewhere. We love Canada which is why we can support a variety of political views – but always within pretty clear limits. Most of us know we can’t keep our Canada if we go far to the Left or Right.

Steve is to progressive as Dracula is to sunlight. He can’t stand the idea of a “progressive ” conservative movement. He wants, he needs to be well beyond the limit or range of our traditional, collective belief. That’s why he has to gag people, to be unaccountable and to avoid even basic discourse with his supposed constituents on the extremely urgent and pressing problems of the day.

He came in riding the calm waters the Liberals of Martin/Chretien had created out of the Maelstron Mulroney. He (Harper, Kindrid Spirit of Bush and Cheney) did nothing – nada – zip – to adjust our affairs to meet the looming American political and economic crisis. Now this man – who we haven’t yet begun to comprehend for the ways and degrees he’s already grievously failed us – wants us to vote for him, no questions asked.

I’m sorry if I’m wrong. I want one Conservative, one Harper supporter, to explain why Harper didn’t see a year ago what Angela Markel so publicly foresaw and stated and then tell me why he’s sat mute and immobile on this since then. You can’t answer that, you deserve not to be elected but run out on a rail.

 

C’mon Steve, Talk to Me

Timing was at the top of his mind when Steve chose to call this election. Sure he’d have to break his word – flaunt his own law even – to do it, but the timing was near perfect.

Parliament wasn’t sitting. Everybody had eased away the summer months while all the scandals pretty much receded in the voters’ minds. He could run an election by remote, by long distance. There wouldn’t have to be any issues to defend, no inconvenient record to fudge – he wouldn’t even need a platform which is a good thing when you’re fresh out of ideas. No by-elections to lose, no American election to get in the way. Throw up some lawn signs, put out some goofy pictures of Stephane Dion, and – boom – instant majority or at least a good chance of one.

Then the shit hits the fan on Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Damn and double-damn! Hmmm, WWGD? That’s right, What Would George Do? I know, say something like, oh, like the fundamentals of the economy are strong and then dummy up, pretend like nothing’s happening. George w. did it. John s. McSame did it.

You’re too close to voting day. Let it slide. Don’t screw things up when you’re this close by actually discussing the meltdown next door. Our single greatest trading partner – THE one and only – is going up in flames and your bosom buddies, George & Company, are finally getting tagged with it. This is no time to have to present policies, no time to discuss what the hell we’re going to do with what’s coming our way as sure as a tropical storm beating up the Bay of Fundy.

The fundamentals of our economy are strong. The fundamentals of our economy are strong. The fundamentals of our economy are strong. How very Rovian. Stick with that mantra. So long as your lips don’t stop moving, it’s still your turn and no one can get a word – or worse, a question – in edgewise. Besides, say it enough and the weak of mind will start to believe it and a lot of the rest will just fall asleep.

But Steve, Angela Merkel is talking to the German people about this. Nick Sarkozy is talking to the French people about this. Even Brown is talking to the Brits about it. The Australians are talking about it. The Belgians are talking about it. Why are we the only country whose government isn’t talking to its people about this?

According to one U.S. government web site I checked, Steve, the Americans buy EIGHTY SIX PER CENT of Canada’s exports. Damn, Steve! We sell 86% of our stuff to this country that has just 5% of the world’s population, apparently because it happens to be the only country right next door.

The French don’t rely on the Americans for 86% of their export trade Steve and yet they’re still pissed. The Germans don’t rely on the Americans for 86% of their trade either and they’re still pissed. The rest of Europe is pissed. All of Asia is pissed. The Latin Americans and the South Americans are pissed. Everybody’s pissed off with America except you Steve. You wouldn’t say “shit” if you had a mouthful (and, in case you’re wondering, he does).

C’mon, Steve. As Fareed Zakaria puts it, this problem is only going to get worse until the adults take over. Be a grownup, Steve, and talk to us. Tell us what your vast array of bureaucratic experts say is coming and what they say is the best way to respond. Tell us what you plan to do about it if only we give you the election result you want. Explain to us how this happened and how the blowback happened on our side of the border. Angela Merkel clearly saw this coming a year in advance. Did you, Steve? If so, what did you do to protect us? If not, why not?

Okay, I’m beginning to understand why you’re reluctant to talk about this, Steve. You were asleep at the goddamned switch, snoring away safely in the arms of Morpheus and George w. Bush. Questions this close to an election would be – er, inconvenient. Sort of like convening a Coroner’s Jury, eh Steve? Best to let those things ride or maybe make them disappear altogether.

The fundamentals of the Canadian economy are strong. The fundamentals of the Canadian economy are strong. The fundamentals of the Canadian economy are strong…

Goodnight, Steve. You’re one hell of a Canadian – not.

 

Mending Fences

Whoever succeeds George w. Bush is going to have his hands full cleaning up after the Wrecking Crew. Literally everything Bush/Cheney have touched has turned toxic. The US economy, its foreign policy, its military, its environmental policies – the lot. That’s why you don’t let the ignorant – like Bush and Palin – into the top ranks of your government. There’s simply too much damage they can cause before anyone can stop them.

The next president already had atop his agenda mending fences with America’s traditional allies. Germany’s Merkel and France’s Sarkozy had already shown themselves amenable to American overtures. Of course that was then, this is now.

Whatever goodwill George w. Bush managed to restore in his last two years in office has been thoroughly trashed in the current economic meltdown. Read any of the English-language European papers. Read accounts of the leaders’ session at the U.N.

Even America’s closest allies (Boss Harp excepted) are furious with the United States. It’s as though Washington had sent them shiploads of counterfeit currency. France, even Germany are feeling the sting of bogus commercial paper floated by American securities giants. Worse they see the global economy headed for a crunch caused by wantonly reckless American regulatory negligence.

America’s Savings & Loan fiasco was internalized. So was the Enron/Worldcom corporate fraud scandal. The Dot.Com debacle was largely confined within the U.S. The “Made on Bush’s Watch” meltdown is not only much larger but vastly more widespread and its impact reaches to the core of the global economy.

Europeans are hopping mad about this. Latin and South Americans are hopping mad. Asians are hopping mad. Everyone, it seems, except Stephen Harper, is hopping mad. That Steve stands out is kind of curious. He’s not only extraordinarily silent on the subject, he doesn’t even want to discuss it with Canadian voters. Better yet, he’s adopted John McCain’s line that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” What’s the message in that, folks?

Steve, one of the core fundamentals of our economy is a strong US economy. When the US economy heads into the tank, the economy of our one and only major trading partner is in the tank. When our sole major trading partner goes in the tank, the fundamentals of our economy are no longer strong. You know that Steve so why lie about the biggest immediate threat to Canada’s economy? This is no time for fanciful tales, Steve.

But I digress. Just how angry are America’s friends in France and Germany? Here’s the take from Spiegel Online:

“Even America’s closest allies are distancing themselves — first and foremost the German chancellor. When push came to shove in the past, Angela Merkel had always come down on the side of the United States.

…There was no mention of loyalty and friendship last Monday. Merkel stood in the glass-roofed entrance hall of one of the German parliament’s office buildings in Berlin and prepared her audience of roughly 1,000 businesspeople from all across Germany for the foreseeable consequences of the financial crisis. It was a speech filled with concealed accusations and dark warnings.

Merkel talked about a “distribution of risk at everyone’s expense” and the consequences for the “economic situation in the coming months and possibly even years.” Most of all, she made it clear who she considers the true culprit behind the current plight. “The German government pointed out the problems early on,” said the chancellor, whose proposals to impose tighter international market controls failed repeatedly because of US opposition. “Some things can be done at the national level,” she said, “but most things have to be handled internationally.”

The German magazine contends that America, as we’ve known it for six decades, is kaput:

“This is no longer the muscular and arrogant United States the world knows, the superpower that sets the rules for everyone else and that considers its way of thinking and doing business to be the only road to success.

A new America is on display, a country that no longer trusts its old values and its elites even less: the politicians, who failed to see the problems on the horizon, and the economic leaders, who tried to sell a fictitious world of prosperity to Americans.

Also on display is the end of arrogance. The Americans are now paying the price for their pride.”

The author contends that the Bush Doctrine of perpetual American omnipotence is now in ashes scattered around Bush’s feet. As Reagan transformed the United States from the world’s largest creditor nation to the world’s largest debtor nation, Bush has completed the job, transforming his country from the sole superpower that he inherited from Clinton into a global pariah scorned even by its closest allies.

Can this be undone? Certainly not by John McCain. He still believes in an America long past. This problem is way over his head. Can Obama undo this? Perhaps in part but I doubt that there’s anything in his playbook that can restore America to the pride of place it enjoyed so recently during the Clinton era. That said, he has to do as much as he can. This is a tough pill to swallow for the “We’re Number One” American people. Reality won’t come easy.