Would somebody like to sing "Do They Know It's Christmas"?

From Dec 27 to 29, 2008

Israelis : 5 dead, 31 wounded

Palestinians : 375 dead, 1500+ wounded

Haim Ramon, the deputy to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert :

"The goal of the operation is to topple Hamas. We will stop firing immediately if someone takes the responsibility of this government, anyone but Hamas. We are favourable to any other government to take the place of Hamas."

In 2006 Israel jailed one third of the Hamas cabinet, democratically elected by a majority.

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Yossi Alpher, a former Mossad official, on the economic blockade :

"It has not manipulated Palestinians into hating Hamas, but has probably been counterproductive. It is just useless collective punishment."

Haaretz :

"Israel has always believed that causing suffering to Palestinian civilians would make them rebel against their national leaders. This assumption has proven wrong over and over."

Robert Fisk :

"One and a half million Palestinian refugees crammed into the cesspool of Gaza, 80 per cent of whose families once lived in what is now Israel. This, historically, is the real story: most of the people of Gaza don't come from Gaza."

Center for Strategic and International Studies via the G&M:

"Israeli leaders synchronized their retaliatory attacks to the political calendar in the U.S., thinking it was better to strike before President George W. Bush left office on Jan. 20 because they weren't as sure about what president-elect Barack Obama's reaction would be.

The governing Labour and Kadima parties are believed to want to improve their odds in coming national elections, demonstrating that they are as tough as hawkish Likud Leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently ahead in the polls."

Steve to Bruinooge : STFU

Steve's spokesthingey reminds Bruinooge that making a meal out of fetus fetishism is not the way to a majority government :
"We will not introduce or support legislation on abortion."

All kidneys aside, the first NaPo link above inadvertantly sets the record straight when giving some background on ongoing ReformaCon forays into managing women's bodies for the good of society :
"To pro-life advocates like the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, P-207 seems all-too-similar to the controversial private member's Bill C-484."

Pro-choice is indeed the actual pro-life position. Thank you for noticing.

Con MP inexplicably goes on and on about auctioning off kidneys on eBay...

and issues a challenge ...
"Mr. Bruinooge said that it is illegal for an individual to have a kidney removed and auction it off on eBay.
“The bottom line is that people like myself are not going to stop until, at the very least, unborn children have more value than a Canadian kidney,” he said.
“Your kidneys have more protection than an unborn child until the moment it is out of the woman,” Mr. Bruinooge said. “I challenge anyone to debate me on that point, because I don't think you can. It is very true."

Ooooh, pick me, Mr Bruinooge, pick me.
It is not permitted to auction off kidneys on eBay.
It is not permitted to auction off fetuses on eBay.
Therefore kidneys do not have more protection than fetuses on eBay.
Next.

Mr Bruinooge, recently elected to head a secret "pro-life" caucus of federal Lib and Con MPs, would also like to see the abortion debate reopened. Hell, yes. And what about slavery? Has anyone seriously debated the pros and cons of slavery recently? Because I'm guessing eBay doesn't allow slave auctions either.

Hysperia, Impolitical, deBeauxOs, Cathie, JJ, LuLu, Antonia, and Scott

"SPP : Kill it, recast it, or rebrand it"

is the recommendation of Sarah Ladislaw, member of the North American SPP Energy Working Group and fellow at CSIS - the Center For Strategic and International Studies. She was speaking at a CSIS book promo/discussion group in Washington DC last week for The Future of North America 2025 : Outlook and Recommendations, edited by Armand Peschard-Sverdrup.

You'll recall the public outcry up here in April last year when the CSIS NA2025 panel convened in Calgary and director Armand B. Peschard-Sverdrup was quoted as saying :

"It's no secret that the U.S. is going to need water. ...
It's no secret that Canada is going to have an overabundance of water.
At the end of the day, there may have to be arrangements."

According to comments they made last week, the panel has not changed its position on that.
"Canadians have no water management, " said Bill Nitze, adding that while "North America is water-rich, southern California and Mexico are not." He recommended setting up "water markets and water banking", plus expanding the powers and budgets of the International Water Commission(US/Mexico) and the International Joint Commission (US/Canada) to "manage water in all three countries".

Noting that "the SPP has gotten a bad name on the centre-left in Canada" where it is "seen as a vehicle for business interests to exploit resources, including bulk water exports from Canada" he further advocated the importance of "a game changer" and "giving it a different flavour" by "getting people to talk differently". In a recommendation from the floor, Diana Negroponte of the Brookings Institution suggested adopting the word "coordination" in place of "integration" and panel members duly noted her advice to "avoid the word integration".

Answering a question about the current stagnation of the SPP, Ladislaw advised expanding the focus from the federal to the state/provincial level, a tactic we have already seen in groups like PNWER and Atlantica.

"Based on the EPA experience," said Bill Nitze, "if you provide money, lots and lots of money, for local needs, then you can get co-operation. Federal governments have enough money to make this happen".

This was easily up there as the most boring hour and a half I have ever spent so you guys out there owe me big time. Conjure up, if you will, a high level discussion of Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938 discussed entirely from the point of view of making the trains run more efficiently.

Best of the merry happy jolly

These two little guys, a young raven and a deer born late in the spring, have been taking turns at the bird feeder. This year my Christmas tree was a dozen or so feeders hanging in the brambles and saplings outside the window in front of my computer, the ornaments the constant flutterings of tiny birds. Best tree I ever had.

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And the little kid gets to keep his pony

Remember this? Little kid with cerebral palsy, his pony Emily, and the asshat neighbour complaint?

Hello all,
I want to thank each and everyone of you for your love and support, your letters, petitioning, fundraising came through today.
Short after 1pm this afternoon Sam and I appeared before The Caledon Committee of Adjustments and plead our case, the out cry of support from everyone across the world was heard loud and clear by everyone there. It was determined that Emily could stay here on the property with Sam ...

Letter from mom Antonia Spiteri continues at RC Rublik.

Caledon councillor Annette Groves : "While you have to enforce the rules, there are times when you have to use discretion and have to remember that you’re a human being and have to have some compassion."

With thanks to Dawg and PSA at Canadian Cynic for linking.

A round for ponies for everyone!

Six mil poly

on clothsline.

In a perfect world

it would not have been necessary for Stephen Harper to eat a baby....

Go.

And yes I have stolen Ottawonk's entire site logo here but he's off on Perogies and besides I'll put it back before he gets home.

Steve's Big Stocking Stuffer Senate "Reform"

"It's a sad day," said Harper as he set a record for the most Senate seats filled in a single day, certainly the most seats ever appointed by a government in hiding.

Nat Post : All appointees "had to first pledge allegiance to Conservative policies on Senate reform in the future while promising to oppose any coalition of opposition parties that included the Bloc Quebecois ... as the pre-condition for their appointment."

So it's more than a little ironic that Harper has just appointed Michel Rivard, a genuine former separatist under Parizeau , to a Senate seat in order to stave off the entirely fictional possibility of a Bloc member ever accepting one. Especially as Steve's only elected senate envoy, Bert Brown, said only yesterday :

Brown said Harper was particularly worried that the coalition might appoint separatist senators - a scenario denied by all three opposition parties.
"I think Harper got a little bit spooked and decided that he didn't want to see separatists in the Senate," said Brown

Well ok, you might be thinking, but people change. And you'd be right! Rivard switched from Parti Québécois to the Alliance and lost.
Ok who else we got?

Michael MacDonald, Con Party vice president, ran for office and lost

Fabian Manning, Con MP defeated in last election

Yonah Martin, Con not elected in last election

Leo Housakos, Alliance candidate, ran for office and lost, *issues*

John D. Wallace, Corporate Counsel for Irving Oil, ran for office and lost

Stephen Greene, Reform Party chief of staff, ran for office twice, lost both times

Seeing an electability pattern here yet?

Mike Duffy, Con pointman at CTV

Pamela Wallin, CTV, CBC, Council of the Americas

Nicole Eaton, National Post columnist

Irving Gerstein, Con fundraiser, *issues*
Suzanne Fortin-Duplessis (Que.) ProgCon MP
Richard Neufeld, Socred, then Reform, now BC minister of Energy Mines and Petroleum
Fred Dickson, QC , Legal expert on offshore resource development, P3 booster
Percy Mockler, Con MLA in the New Brunswick
Hector Daniel Lang, Yukon Legislative Assembly
Patrick Brazeau, big Harper fan and National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples. off reserve
Nancy Green Raine, Go 2010 Games Go!

Steve : "It's the only option. Does the government Canadians elected appoint those senators or are they going to be appointed by a coalition that nobody elected?"

I dunno, Steve, only 6 of your 18 were ever elected to office at all and another 7 have run for office under one C.R.A.P. banner or other and have already been rejected.
Sure is a lot easier running a government without any sitting opposition though, isn't it?

So the question now is : Will Governor General Michaëlle Jean ratify Harper's party hacks and fans and unelected fundraisers without the confidence of the House?

Harper's CTV Christmas Special

I tuned in ten minutes late for Steve's hour long CTV Christmas Special and over the course of five minutes he said :
"There's no justification for trying to suggest that Canadians would put into power a coalition where the Bloc Quebecois would have a veto over the affairs of the country."
"Having the Bloc Quebecois have a veto over the decisions of a national government would be very dangerous for the long run interests of the country."
"Government cannot function if it is always looking over its shoulder to see if the Bloc Quebecois will veto."
"Canadians did not vote for the Bloc to have a veto over the government."

Dear Steve
Allow me to quote from the Coalition's Accord, signed by the three opposition party leaders including Gilles Duceppe on Dec 1:

"The [Coalition] Government will not request a dissolution of Parliament during the term of this agreement, except following defeat on an explicitly-framed motion of nonconfidence presented by the Opposition...[that would be you, Steve]... or any vote pertaining to the speech from the throne; or on a budget vote at on any stage in the House; or on any bill to implement a budget at any stage in the House; or on any motion in the House to concur in, restore or reinstate any Estimates; or on any supply bill at any stage in the House.
The Bloc Québécois will neither move nor will it support any motions of nonconfidence in the Government during the term of its support for this agreement, and will vote in favour of the Government’s position with respect to all matters referred to in the immediately preceding paragraph."

Could that be any clearer? The agreement actually binds the Bloc to vote with the coalition on all matters of confidence and to support all budgets, throne speeches and money bills.

Steve knows this of course, but he went on Corporate Television Vehicle™ and bullshitted the Canadian public about it four distinct times anyway, because presumably he hopes to unite the country behind him in a little redneck frog bashing. Fucking appalling. And neither host, Lloyd Robertson nor Robert Fife, called him on it.