We're Mad as Hell and we're Right

Over at the Mad As Hell Right Whing Nut Blog; Canuckastan Chronicles
you would be forgiven for thinking that this was NOT a Canadian Blog considering all the American flags and images and issues plastered on the page. But it is. Which sorta of proves what I have been saying about the Canadian Right its not Neo-Con its Neo-Republican or Republican Lite.

However in his blast against yet another liberal progressive blogger he does say something I agree with...gasp.... "That our country isin't (sic) as socialist as they think or would like to believe. " He is right it is a mix of classical liberal and social democracy, which is far from socialism as you can be.

However to the pea brains like Canuckastan and his American Idols that still spells 'socialism', though if they actually read someone like Murray Rothbard they would discover that he too is a classic liberal of the Mills and Bentham school of utilitarianism.

So just remember when reading the rantings of these Right WhingNutbars they are all mad of course, mad mad mad....and not just angry....it clearly shows the downfall of our public education system that these guys never got a chance to have a classical eductation. Or perhaps they could have been directed to the library where there these things called B O O K S, cause they have spent too much time with their comics or smoking something in the boys room.

The Market Fazers Taser

Take that Taser, not only is this a dangerous weapon which kills but like other greedy corporate types Taser is caught with its hand in the cookie jar. What public pressure and outrage may not succeed in doing, the stock market may, that is getting Taser out of cops hands.

Shares of Taser International Inc. dropped as much as 14.2 per cent Friday after the stun-gun maker said the Nasdaq stock market had changed its status because of its failure to file a quarterly report with U.S. regulators. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is currently investigating possible manipulation of the company's stock. The regulator announced in January that it was probing Taser's safety claims for its stun guns and the booking of a year-end order, news that sent the company's shares down 77 per cent.

America's Right Wing Turkey

It seems fitting that on the American Thanksgiving the proverbial old man of the Yahoos and Know Nothings on the Right should be celebrating his 80th Birthday.
I am of course refering to that startling intellecshual William F. Buckely.

I for one have regreted that this intellectual giant of the American Right never got a chance to debate the intellectual giant of liberalism in North America. I am of course speaking of Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

If such a debate had happened between Buckley and Canada's philosopher king on Buckley's PBS Firing Line program it might go something like this;

WFB; Ummmm, ummm, err, well Pierre , uhhhhmmm how do you reconcile the uhhhmmm contradiction of being well, uhhhhmmmmm a classical liberal of the Bentham, ummmmm Mills school, with your er ah ahhhhemmmm ummm Jesuit upbringing, hmmmm while being a ahemmmm Prime Minister of a country that still ummmmm ahemmmm recognizes the Monarchy? Hmmm?

PET; Well Bill let me say that our country maybe Catholic and we may have a Queen but you want to be Catholic and a Queen.

Yep thats a showdown I would have loved to seen.

Rescuing Lord Black

#666-666-666


Black wants Canadian citizenship back: report
Only Canadian citizens can request a transfer to a Canadian jail from a jail elsewhere.
Nope, Nyet, No way, Hit the highway, get lost.

Lord Black made a stir at an otherwise less than eventful book launch for Rescuing the Right, see articles below, by appearing and hobnobbing with Hog Town Tories, including Warren Kinsella, in hopes I suspect that he would be rescued from his pending doom in the US.

Bwahaha I say in my voice of doom not a chance buddy.

Or maybe he was hoping Kinsella would say something nice about him since he is married to Barbara Amiel.

And speaking of dearest Babawa, she is the main reason for Lord Blacks downfall as Peter Newman points out. But of course the little woman behind the Lord is not being charged with any crime. Unlike her role model Marie Antoinette.

Just as Conrad's troubles began to mount, Barbara wrote an article in FQ magazine, in which she described how her personal priorities had escalated into never-never land, ignoring her husband's troubles. "For some people," she wrote, emphatically including herself, "jewellery is a defining attribute, rather like your intelligence or the number of residences you have." She boasted about owning "a fantastic natural-pearl and diamond brooch," which languished in her safety deposit box because it was simply too big to wear. The contents of her London closets became common gossip, including more than a dozen Hermès Birkin bags and 30 to 40 jewel-handled Renaud Pellegrino handbags. But it was her collection of Manolo Blahnik shoes that attracted the most attention. These are not boots made for walkin'. Their Spanish designer, who calls himself "a sculptor and engineer," carves each last by hand out of beechwood, "giving special thought to toe cleavage." They start at about $600 a pair, and Barbara had well over 100 in her London house alone, some with kitten heels. ("Buckingham Palace floors don't like stilettos," she explained to the uninitiated among us.) The arrangement they had was that Barbara paid for her off-the-rack purchases while the hubby sprung for her couture.

According to Richard Breeden's special investigative report, Barbara was paid US$1,141,558 between 1999 and 2003, for which there was "no meaningful work in return." That included her retainer for editorial advice to the Chicago Sun-Times where, employees claimed, she had not set foot for more than four years. On top of that, she received more than US$1 million through a company named Black-Amiel Management. Black has launched a libel suit as a result of the Breeden report, and Amiel has denied the allegations.

Meanwhile, on April 12, 2004, Amiel cashed in options to buy Hollinger stock for nearly US$3.1 million, some US$2.25 million below market value. That meant she was profiting from her husband's downfall, since that's what was driving the stock price higher.

Love's labour not lost

So why was Rod Love on tour with Ralph Klein this last week? It's not like he is the Premiers executive assistant any longer. And who paid for his touring with his pal Ralph? Inquirying minds want to know. And so should the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Hang Him High

King Ralph said he would be hung and quartered, driven out of town etc. if his government was a scandal ridden as the Federal Government. Albertans wouldn't stand for it, he said.

We should take him at his word and look at this months list of scandals.

For the record;

Klein dismisses lobbyist registry cause it might impact on his pal Rod Love, and all those ex Tory cabinet ministers now lobbying the government.

Well there is that contract with the AON Consulting, that was an inhouse tender, and to a company with a recent conviction in the US for Fraud.

There was the governments insider land deals in Fort McMurray.

And then there is the OSC charges against the newest appointed Alberta Securities Commission boss for insider trading.

There is scandal downunder in New Zealand with Kleins newly appointed executive assistant and his wife.

The deputy leader of New Zealand's National Party says Peter Kruselnicki and his partner Paula Tyler should repay some of the nearly $57,134 Cdn spent to recruit them and relocate them from Edmonton because Tyler is leaving in mid-contract. Gerry Brownlee says Tyler, a former deputy minister of Alberta Children's Services, should have to repay the New Zealand government for plane tickets and household furnishings because she is leaving early from her post as CEO of the country's Child, Youth and Family Services Department.

And now.......RCMP to follow up on alleged tainted investigations at ASC

You get the horses I'll get the rope.

Go Here for a complete list of the Krimes of Klein.

NDP Election Messaging

Getting results for people...with a common sense compromise.

This WORKS!

Just drop the 'compromise', that was yesterdays tag line.

Going into the Election "Getting results for people" works.

Identifying Jack with the Party works, we did that in the 97 election in Alberta identifying the popular party leaders, Pam Barrett with the party. And it worked, people connected the two.

The issue:
Privatization of Health Care.
Klein has made it the issue and put it front and centre on the agenda. The Liberals have not protected public health care from Klein, Charest and Campbell. This gives the NDP the opportunity to differentiate themselves from the Liberals while bashing Harper for his silence.

The other issues:

Ethics and electoral Reform.
The NDP ethics package is an excellent foil to the Liberals and Conservatives. Even without Ed running, he can hit the national hustings promoting the package with his statemans charisma. You get two for one on this Layton and Broadbent. Layton is strong on prop rep and the need for electoral reform stick to that and avoid Torontocentric issues like housing.

The Environment
Not Kyoto but a New Industrial Policy.
Brush the dust off the hybird Green car plan that the NDP, Sierra Club and CAW raised two years ago in the last election.Layton raised it in the house last week, it was a good sound bite. Good stuff saves jobs, ties auto funding to new cars, and creates a Volkswagon for 21st century Canada.
Kyoto nice in Toronto lousy in the West. Useless period won't really impact climate change, just changes the way the numbers are shuffled. Kyoto is old news, we need a made in Canada Sustainable Industry policy, like the Green Car plan. Its a mouthful but it steals the thunder from the Conservatives. Greens are not a factor in this election. However a made in Canada Environment plan could sell well in the West.

IT'S A MINORITY
Either way its going to be a minority government, Quebec is sewn up with the BQ and Alberta is sewn up with the Conservatives. The latest polls show the battleground is B.C. and Ontario. Even though the Ekos Poll is predicting a Liberal Majority (heavens forbid).

Two Decima polls this past week give us hope that the urge for change by Canadians will result in more votes for the NDP. A poll done for the Ottawa Citizen found:

The second has to do with the dynamic between the Liberal, Conservative and NDP choice.
For months, it’s been clear that a “desire for change” is the major catalyst for rising
Conservative and NDP support. That desire acts as a virtual ceiling that Liberal support seems
unable to penetrate. When people hear that Liberal support is rising and a majority government
may be possible, the desire for change is aroused, and Liberal support starts to drift downward.
So, for months, between 33% and 39% of decided voters indicate they will vote Liberal at the
next opportunity. Maybe enough not to lose the election, but not enough for a convincing win
either. What keeps it from falling below 33% is the other part of the equation: anxiety about a
Conservative government led by Stephen Harper. This anxiety acts as a ceiling for
Conservative support, a floor for the Liberals, and soft NDP supporters are those that have the
most to do with moving the numbers around.

More importantly Decima found that the NDP support has steadily increased in four out of five of its last polls!

Even some died in the wool NDPbloggers are saying the unthinkable. Time for a change says fellow Edmontonian , Idealistic Pragmatist

"Like James Bow, Andrew Spicer, and Greg of Sinister Thoughts, I'm hoping that the upcoming election will bring us a new Prime Minsister named Stephen Harper"

Oyy Vey. But in the NDP world this is the message that has to get out to pink liberals; either a Liberal or Conservative Minority government, with the NDP holding the balance of power is OK with us. Even a Harper minority would actually have to deal with the NDP and BQ and that would temper their extreme wing with the harsh reality of pragmatic parlimentary politics.

Liberals face voter backlash over spending spree

survey: Race tightens More become comfortable with idea of Harper as next prime minister

Ipsos-Reid president Darrell Bricker said yesterday one of the apparent reasons for the declining Liberal support is a backlash triggered by the pre-election strategy of promising billions of dollars in tax cuts and new spending programs.

"It underscores the fact that people believe the Liberals are willing to spend money to buy votes," Bricker said.

"It's one of the things that came out of the sponsorship inquiry, so it highlights the character elements of the Liberals that people don't like.

"For opposition voters, it's throwing a log on the fire for them and steeling their resolve to kick these guys out.

"For people who are voting for the government, it's making them nothing but squeamish."

The poll found that after 12 years of Liberal government, there is a widespread desire for change.

The poll also found a growing number of voters are becoming comfortable with the idea of Conservative leader Stephen Harper becoming prime minister, provided a Tory government is kept to a minority.

Moreover, the poll found the Liberals are in trouble in two key regional battlegrounds: Quebec, where the popularity of the Bloc has surged, and British Columbia, where the Conservatives have suddenly soared in a close three-way contest.

In order not to have the Liberals pull off an eleventh hour Hail Mary pass to win pink liberals from the NDP, Layton has to balance his attacks to against Martin as much as against Harper. He has to remind voters its not who governs but who holds the power in the upcoming Minority government. A plague on both their houses, vote NDP for real change.

Hey Brad just put my cheque in the mail for this advice.

Canada's Right Wing Union

And guess who really likes this new right wing book? Rescuing Canada's Right
This week in Comment, WRF Senior Researcher Russ Kuykendall posts a thorough review of the new book by Adam Daifallah and Tasha Kheiriddin, Rescuing Canada's Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution.

Well none other than the research arm of CLAC the Work Research Foundation,

WRF was founded in association with CLAC (Christian Labour Association of Canada), and their parent body the Christian Reformed Church of Canada as an arms length research lobby group promoting its conservative ideology of comprador labour relations, and like CLAC promotes the open shop (right to work) and opposes the Rand Formula.

CLAC continues to urge governments and the industry for reform and more openness in the industry. The objective in these representations is to create full freedom of association for workers and open the industry to different ways of operating. Certainly, a monolithic, one-union model is uncompetitive and unresponsive to the needs of the industry and its workers.

It's founder was the head of CLAC's Research Department. While an independent research foundation, it was and is in effect an extenstion of CLAC's research department.

In 1972, its research department was established to help the union develop its philosophy and to aid representatives in the field. For many years, up until 1997 when he retired, Harry Antonides capably served as the director of CLAC's research and education department.

The Work Research Foundation (WRF) was incorporated and registered as a charitable organization in 1974, with Harry Antonides as the first part-time research director. Antonides argued for a view of work rooted in the European Christian tradition.

In 1983, Antonides launched the WRF Comment, a bimonthly journal devoted to issues of work and public life.

Between 1987 and 1994, Antonides published two books through the Work Research Foundation. Servant or Tyrant? was a collection of papers presented at a joint conference between the Christian Labour Association and the Work Research Foundation, with contributions from Christian luminaries such as Paul Marshall, Michael Novak, and Al Wolters. Servant or Tyrant? explored and analyzed the main trends of contemporary politics, and discussed ways in which Christians can actively preserve and enhance freedom and justice in the political realm. Three Faces of the Law, by Ian Hunter, was based on a series of lectures to the Ottawa Summer School of Biblical and Theological Studies, and critically examined the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and its subversion of justice, liberty, and life.

WRF runs a consulting firm which works with CLAC and CLAC organized workplaces like Save On Foods.

The Work Research Foundation embraces a unique, Christian approach to leadership: values-based, relational, and practical. Our partnership with the De Pree Leadership Center promotes the leadership philosophies of Max De Pree, one of North America's highest-profile business leaders. From his lifetime of experience at the Herman Miller furniture company, De Pree pioneered today's discussion on organizational culture, leadership values, intimacy, community and corporate renewal.

The WRF promotes what it calls a Conservative Alternative to Labour Representation which is what CLAC is. Ray Pennings who is a researcher staffer at WRF was a rep for CLAC.

After years of hiding their Conservative politics behind the term Christian values and the open shop the WRF has come out as the political lobby for CLAC and its real agenda of working with the bosses to bust the union movement particularly in Western Canada's volatile Construction industry.

Collective Representation

A Conservative Defence

Author: Ray Pennings

Having independent organizations dedicated to representing workers' concerns is an important good worth promoting, and this reflects a probable point of departure with the thinking of many. Compassionate conservatism may work as a slogan, but the term "compassion" needs to be imbued with meaning if it is to go anywhere.

For eleven years, when asked my occupation I responded "Union Representative." This usually made my conservative political friends and business acquaintances squirm uncomfortably. They knew me well enough to know I advocated a different type of labour relations than the stereotypical adversarial relations that are associated with contemporary unionism. In our discussions, they would usually concede the historical contributions of unions, and often would recognize a business or two that they would not want to work for without union protection. But still, publicly advocating for a positive union role made them uncomfortable. To listen to their conversations, it would seem that the fewer workers that were unionized, the better it would be for everyone.

If we continue to view labour relations as a battle between labour and capital, and collective bargaining is just a protective mechanism available to workers to prevent the abuses of capital power, then all the public can do is pick sides. However, I believe that view is flawed. We should take a broader view of industrial relations. Productive economic activity ought to be viewed as the interaction of physical, human, social and intellectual capital, and our structures to support economic activity ought to recognize and promote the interdependence and common interests of them all.

I would make the case that Canadians must develop a renewed labour relations system that promotes the role of independent work institutions, provides for worker choice between various models of representative institutions that are flexible and provide services suited to the industry, and promotes a broad-based collaboration and partnership in support of shared economic and social goals. To be sure, such a system will also provide opportunity for adversarial-minded unions to represent workers when they are chosen, just as any free economy worthy of the name will have the space for less than ideal employers to form businesses and hire workers.

There is support in the public opinion marketplace for this. Since 1997, the Work Research Foundation has been conducting public opinion surveys monitoring the views of Canadians towards trade unions. In the WRF's most recent survey, conducted by Environics at the end of 2001, the 64% expression of approval for trade unions was at its highest known level since 1961. Still, as with the previous surveys, the questions surrounding various union practices demonstrate very negative assessment of the options available to workers. Workers approve of unions - they recognize that in our shareholder economy - it is important that institutions are available to represent the interests of workers. But when surveying the landscape of available union choices, they disapprove of most options. Canadians are looking for a different kind of unionism, but most of the current providers of labour representation, for reasons of ideology, established practice, and systemic reinforcement, are not ready to provide it.

There is no question that the organization of work, and the institutions that are required for this, will be a significant question in the upcoming decades. How we answer this will go a long way to shaping our economic and social performance. The relevance of the question today is are conservatives going to sit out this discussion, except to wish there were less collective organization, or are they going to involve themselves and shape the debate? The case can be made that worker organizations can promote freedom and choice, participation in institutions, and looking somewhere other than government to solve social problems. Workers and management will be both benefited when they work together for economic efficiency, and working with the laws of economic nature and work rather than against them.

Deja Vu: Gen XYY Neo-Cons

Another book on the neo-con youth revolution has been released.....Sigh.
Cute couple on the cover...thought it was a Women are from Ottawa, Men are from Medicine Hat kinda of advise book.

Another call from the right wing youth movement is just well so boooooring. If the right hasn't gotten its shit together after years of us suffering the earlier generation of neo-con youth revolutionaries that unholy cabal of Ezra Levant, Jason Kenney and Robert Anders, all Fraser Institute interns and Reform/Alliance/Conservative party hacks, then its never going to get its shit together....thank the gods of war for that.

So lets see Ezra published his manifesto for the conservative youth generation Youthquake back in 1997, published by the Fraser Institute with an introduction by Jason Kenney then President of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The recent Fraser Institute publication Youthquake, by Ezra Levant, has been receiving quite a lot of attention from book reviewers. Here are some excerpts from the book:

On Government Charity:

"Too many programs designed to be social safety nets turn out to be hammocks: they trap people instead of getting them back to work."

On Pensions:

"Where the Canada Pension Plan is contributory—you have to pay into it to collect it—Old Age Security is pure gravy. You get it just for being old. It’s like a giant birthday present for every Canadian turning 65."

On Health Care:

"Sounds like a list for Santa: ‘I want free health care everywhere, all the time, plus peace on earth and my very own pony.’"

On Politicians And Pork:

"[I]n politics, only two things have value: money and votes. And where you find those twin political currencies, you’ll find government gravy."

On Youth And Debt:

"Just because we’re young doesn’t mean we should get free education. . . . We’ve been living in this fantasy world for so long, living off our credit and a smile, but now it’s catching up to us"

History will likely record Baby Boomers as the one anomalous generation to receive transfers from both its parents and its children.

Now almost a decade later another round of neo-con whiners come up with, well more of the same. And they are dopplegangers of the Levant/Kenney/Anders gang.

Tasha Kheiriddin (Toronto, ON) became the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in February, 2004.

Adam Daifallah (Quebec City, QC) is a Canadian author and journalist. A native of Peterborough, Ontario, he is currently a law student at Laval University in Québec City, where he is the recipient of the Richard J. Schmeelk scholarship. Adam was a member of the editorial board at the National Post, as well as the newspaper's curling columnist, from 2003 to 2005

In Rescuing Canada's Right, the authors examine the problems facing the Conservative Party and the broader conservative movement, and offer concrete solutions on how to fix them.

Hey what are ya saying that Levant, Kenney and Anders and the rest of the conservative youth movement failed? If thats so what makes these two think they have anything new to say, let alone that their prescription for change can succeed.

Some of the issues the book will address:

• Why the Conservative Party and its predecessor parties have such a poor electoral record;
• Why today's Conservative Party is not really conservative.
• Why a new political vision is necessary to inspire Canadians--and what it should be.
• How the Liberals use public money to entrench an unhealthy reliance on the state--and how the right has failed to challenge it
• What Canadian conservatives can learn from the American and British experiences
• How to build a Canadian Conservative counter-culture in the media, academia, and the law
• How the right can break through to the young, and to immigrants in Quebec
• An action plan to end Canada's democratic deficit and level the political playing field.

Rescuing Canada's Right will be a hard-hitting and groundbreaking work that will introduce new ideas and a passionate call for change for 21st century Canada.

Ho hum heard it all before, hey isn't this what the Reform Party was all about before it sold out to get elected, and then wasn't this what the Alliance was all about and now.....well you get the idea. The Conservative revolution failed due to the internal putsch like politics of Alberta Tories over Preston Manning. And the young Turks behind that putsch were Levant/Kenney/Anders.

Nothing hard hitting here, nothing groundbreaking, lets see a Canadian Conservative Counterculture already dominates our media, academia and the law.

Their new vision for Canada is Republican Lite. The only difference between this 'new generation' of conservatives and their youthful elders; Levant, Kenney and Anders, is these two are from Ontario.....

Monte's Crocidile Tears

Oh this is rich, this is really very funny, and I thought that Monte Solberg was just another dry wit...Considering that he was part of the mudsliging in the house....but then Monte is a historical revisionist.....

"Question Period yesterday was hideous. Think ultimate fighting, but without the rules. No, worse than that. It was like watching the snarling and snapping wickedness of a dog fight. It was all just so ugly and sad and I am glad to be going home. I might just tunnel down under my basement and stay there." Please do, its not like you actually have to campaign, this is Alberta after all. And don't come out until February to see your shadow.

Hey if all the Tories stay home maybe the government won't fall on Monday.....