The times, they ain't a-changin'

Let’s see if we can add up all of the liberal change this new [i.e. Obama] administration has brought to economic issues so far:

1. The president has appointed the very same people who screwed up the economy to “fix it.”
2. Efforts to increase regulation of the financial sector appear to be in trouble, even as Wall Street continues to game the system.
3. Health care “reform,” with the public option in trouble, is beginning to look like “The Heath Insurance Company Relief Act of 2009.”

Don’t get me wrong. Obama has done a lot of good things and God knows he’s a thousand times better than what we had. Still . . . I can’t say I’m exactly pumped. Original post here.

Greens get it.

"We get that (as a wise man once said) the economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way round. We get that the pursuit of economic growth at the expense of environmental security is a fool's bargain that betrays the health and prosperity of future generations of Canadians." From here.

War / No More Trouble

Thanks Nancy S. for the link.

Afghan reality

Diplomacy, your hour has come. There is no way soldiers will find an exit from Afghanistan. They can deliver defeat or they can deliver bloody stalemate. They cannot deliver victory and every observer knows it. This conflict will end only when the courage being daily demanded of soldiers is also shown by politicians.

Simon Jenkins, the Guardian (UK).

History Making in Tehran?

In a way we've reached a bit of a deadlock. The government can't work out how to deal with the unprecedented demonstrations. But the opposition is disorganised, it has no co-ordination, no strategy.

Read the BBC piece, incl the sidebar by Jon Leyne, here.

Most important element of tomorrow's vote in BC ...

.. STV.

Excerpt from 1/20/2009

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

More positive statements and ideas in BHO's proclamation.

Harper propping up the big banks without debate in House.

Ottawa is putting more money into the banks on a per capita basis than Washington’s entire giant $700 billion bailout package. In that country, elected politicians got to debate and vote on the deal. In Canada, forget it. Parliament is closed.

...so taxpayers are giving $75,000,000,000 to the banks for a return on investment of half of one per cent, and for the highest-risk mortgages in the land. Last year the banks made a collective profit of $19,500,000,000.

Angry? Read more.

Mercer dissects the coalition attempt.

The truly astounding thing was, in the middle of the whole fiasco, the Dominion Institute did a poll and they found out that a majority of Canadians had no idea what was going on and in fact lacked a basic understanding of our parliamentary system. This is a crisis.

A funny man, Rick Mercer also has his sh@t together and shares some with us here.

Mercer on Harper - funny & accurate

Canada makes the NYT

“This really has been a blow to parliamentary democracy in Canada,” said Nelson Wiseman, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto. “It has lowered the status of the elected Parliament and raised the status of the unelected prime minister.”

Read it here.

Refreshing clarity and perspective from the Greens.

OK, Stevie: 'the people' are speaking.

[PM Harper] has lashed out against unions, against the opposition parties, and most recently--and fatally, in my view--against Quebec. (Good luck with any attempt to form a majority after that foul little effort.) He's made ten enemies for every friend over the past few days. Even if his party survives, he will not.

Thanks blogger - a busy day today!

Harper Burns The Reichstag ... er ... Locks The Doors Of Parliament

We now are a nation run by Order in Council from the Federal Conservative Cabinet table. Democracy has been set aside in the Dominion of Canada. The voice of 62% of Canadians is no longer heard. We have a functioning arrangement where representatives of 36% of the people are running the nation - with no public scrutiny.

This is a sad day for Canada.

[Thanks Buckdog]

Canada, meet the dictator your GG gave you.

Let's suspend the democratic process in the midst of a financial crisis, mKay?
That is the case for now; see you in January.

Constitution and precedent are on coalition's side

The first rule is that when we hold an election we do not directly elect a prime minister. We elect a House of Commons. It is this elected chamber of Parliament that decides who governs the country.

The second rule of parliamentary government is that it is the leaders of the party or coalition of parties that have the confidence of a majority in the House of Commons who have the right to govern.

The rest of the details, in all glorious accuracy here.

The Yes Men Distribute Fake New York Times: “Iraq War Ends”

It's a spoof paper, but over a million copies were printed and distributed. See reaction of readers in this video. Then do what you can to make it happen for real.


New York Times Special Edition Video News Release - Nov. 12, 2008 from H Schweppes on Vimeo.

Raining again (not Supertramp, either).

Voting by the numbers - a win (sort of) for Greens.

On election night Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was happy to see more Canadians finding a home with his party. In reality, the number of people who voted for the Conservatives was down by 168,737.

The Green Party may not have won any seats in this election but it is still the only party which actually saw the number of people vote for it go up. The Green Party saw its raw vote increase by 276,679 people. The Greens garnered 6.8 per cent of the total votes cast nationwide. In 2006, the Greens got 4.5 per cent of the national vote.
The Greens also saw 41 of their candidates achieve more than 10 per cent of the vote in their riding. In 2006 there were just seven Green candidates who hit that point.

Five Green Party candidates also finished second in their riding. Three of those were in Alberta where overall the Greens got 8.8 per cent of the vote. Their best finish came in B.C. with 9.4 per cent of the vote, but they didn’t finish second in any B.C. ridings.

Data and more here.