“lack of sense of inner self-restraint”

If you only read one article on Canada today, I hope you read this.

The University of Ottawa's Ralph Heintzman, who created and headed the federal Public Service Office of Values and Ethics, provides an important insight into what’s happening here: There is a “lack of sense of inner self-restraint on the part of the prime minister, a sense that it is some kind of war and therefore anything is legitimate, that it's quite acceptable for a prime minister to lie, for example, about how our parliamentary democracy works.”
Many good, direct, indisputable examples to support Caplan's arguments.  Read them for yourself.

Caplan tells us what we face, and why.  What we need to add to this is how we can fight this very hostile takeover of our democracy and our identity.

As Caplan, Lawrence, and several other journalists have pointed out recently, the regular systems of keeping such a prime minister and his mouth pieces in check are not only helpless to stop the devastation of Parliament and our institutions, those very systems serve as fodder to promote hate, confusion, and diversion as harper lies about them and re-shapes them into costly or commie gremlins in the minds of the less-than-informed.

If harper and his CONsorts are indeed treating their rule as a war against anything that doesn't promote their narrow ideology and goals (and I have no doubt this is the case), then the rest of Canada - the sane part - had better wake up to the fact that our own government is waging war on us and act accordingly.

I'm not suggesting we break the law.  I am saying we need to get far more creative, we need to be far more vocal, and we need to find legal ways of stopping harper's destructive acts and takeovers even if our efforts fail.  The efforts themselves will draw attention to the issues and to the fact that in many case, if not most, the majority of Canadians don't approve of his changes to our country and will not sit passively by.

The hell with politeness and verbal restraint.  In this, I'm not saying use profanities as a point (although it took one little potty word to finally draw attention publicly to the CON's sick actions and words concerning banning delegates from Durban), but I am saying that any rules - informal or not - of respect for government simply because it is government do not apply.  In a state of war, we aren't expected to say please or thank you as our front doors are being kicked in.

But our counter attacks should be fact-based, and I am proud to say that's not a problem for those currently expressing their outrage against this government.  Hell, harper gives us enough ammunition without having to invent a thing.

Better networking, coordinated efforts, high profile petitions to the GG, more involvement in well organized groups that offer resistance...what else?

One thing is certain: we can't afford to sit back passively with the excuse that this takeover is just to big to take on.  Every voice silenced gives a bigger platform for the hostile CONs and their mindless followers.  And dammit, really rip into those who say all political parties are corrupt, so why bother getting involved?

So you voted conservative because you hate taxes...

You believe your hard earned money should not go into government coffers.  You are outraged at being gouged by governments through taxes.  Harper is supposed to fix all of that because harper believes there is no sch thing as a good tax, and you believe him.  Harper keeps his promises, right?

May 2004:  Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper said he wouldn't apply the GST to the portion of gas prices that exceeds 85 cents a litre.  The move wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime, he explained, because there's no way budgets were calculated with such high prices in mind.

"These are revenues that no one foresaw even a few months ago. We are only depriving Ottawa of a massive windfall it didn't count on and that it doesn't need," Harper said in Winnipeg on Monday.

A Conservative government would also eliminate the tax-on-tax that drives many motorists crazy, he said. The federal excise tax currently rolled into pre-GST fuel prices would be made GST-exempt.  "I think the main thing is that Canadians know that their government isn't trying to gouge them at the same time they're having trouble affording the cost of filling their tank."

Sounds good.  Problem is, we passed the 85 cent marker a long time ago.  I know steve has been busy undermining democracy and all, but now that he has a majority and doesn’t have to spend so much time creating attack ads and finding ways to circumvent legitimate Parliamentary opposition or legislation, he’ll get right on that 7 year old promise, right?  The 2% GST cut doesn't come close to relief on gas prices that have nearly doubled since his promise was made.

If the Conservatives keep their promise to balance the federal government's books by 2014, they'll have to give partial credit to drivers paying plenty to fill their gas tanks.

"It's not just the oil companies that are doing well out of this thing," says economist Andrew Graham of Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.  "It's the government (too) because its tax revenues are going to increase because of what we're paying (to fill) the gas tank."  Graham suggests that shot of revenue is part of the solution to the $40 billion federal deficit.

Oh...

So remember every time you gas up and are outraged at what you have to pay, you voted conservative.

At least call him on it.

And of course, there’s no point in asking the press why they aren’t reminding harper of this promise.  After all, they endorsed the prick.

Love the new Conservative accountability ads

Oh wait...those are news headlines.  From today.

Opposition parties: Scandals could topple Conservatives

Kenney faces new accusation of partisanship  

Jason Kenney’s performance shows some ministers aren’t created equal 

  Conservatives’ in-and-out scheme: applying smell test to facts

Stephen Harper finds his Dingwall

A government for all Conservatives

Access-to-information woes grow ever more absurd 

Kenney fends off demands for resignation over fundraising letter

Justin Trudeau takes Jason Kenney to task for alleged abuse of ministerial office    


Looks like the Liberals and NDP agree that  the so-called in-and-out election spending scandal and other missteps (should be) the springboard to Election Day 2011.

Nice to see unity on that from opposition.  The CONs can say all they want that Canadians don't care about those issues, but they would like us to forget that they beat the Martin Liberals pretty much on the accountability issue alone.  And pompously promised they'd be different.

Oh, they're different, all right:
During the Chrétien government years, I reported extensively on malfeasance by the Liberals. To do the math on the Harper government is to conclude that, while it has no sponsorship scandal on its books, it’s already surpassed its predecessor on a range of other abuse-of-power indices. (Lawrence Martin)

And for those people who really don't care that the harper team has beaten even the eternal ADSCAM (!!!!!), the CONs provide headlines today about other things, those things dealing with budgets, finance, and the economy, those things harper says are really what Canadians care about:


Critics slam feds’poverty plan 

Commons committee keeps MPs' legal fees under wraps  

Federal spending rising in areas where Tories vowed to tighten belts: budget watchdog.

The feds are spending billions without looking at the bill

A month of Harper

Been sick for a month and there was just too much to cover, so here are some headlines from February, 2011 -