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Haha, even thepiratebay is getting in on criticising Harper’s proroguation of parliament…

The cost of health care around the world Boing Boing.

Apparently people aren’t very happy with Obama. They elected some Rebuplican nut in a typically very Democrat state, or so I’ve heard. I think Dr. Dawg summed it up pretty well:

We have minority governments in Canada that govern like majorities. Obama had–and still has–a legislature with a rock-solid majority of Democrats in both houses, but he’s governed as though his party were in the minority.

…

Obama was sent an ultimatum by the electors in one of the most liberal states in the union. It wasn’t: please compromise more. It wasn’t: don’t forget to track down all the nuances before you make the slightest move.

We wanted accessible healthcare, they said. You handed the legislative process over to a gaggle of conservatives, and ended up with two patchwork bills that promise a windfall for insurance companies.

We wanted an end to ceaseless war that drains our resources and kills our young men and women, they said. It’s not stopping terrorism. But you sent a whack more troops off to Afghanistan instead–clutching the Nobel Peace Prize as you did so.

We wanted no more torture and extra-Constitutional measures and atrocities, if only because our country is getting a black eye over them. But Guantanamo is still there, a year after you took office. Prisoners may have been murdered there, and the cover-up is happening on your watch. The Blackwater killers in Iraq got off after your Justice Department threw the case. And you have embraced the same notion of Executive privilege that shielded your predecessor from Constitutional restraints.

We wanted a recovering economy and appropriate punishment for the Wall Street malefactors who did our country infinitely more harm than the terrorists. Instead, 2009 was the Year of the Bonus for the very people that got us into the recession in the first place. Bonuses that we effectively paid for ourselves with bailout money.

We wanted change. We got the same old, same old, same old, same old.

Yes, we’re pissed off enough to put a homophobic Cosmo nudie with a taste for waterboarding into the Senate. Did that get your attention?

I think Obama lost his lustre quite a while back. Will he actually do something after this warning shot? Knowing politicians – hell no.

This is a great list of events & articles showing the Conservative’s anti-democratic moves. A very small excerpt:

CONTEMPT FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
Ottawa moves to block detainee-transfer hearings [2008]
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/article722656.ece

Redactions hamper Afghan detainee probe [2009]
Unreadable documents make meaningful inquiry ‘almost impossible’ and reflect government efforts to keep record a secret
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/redactions-hamper-afghan-detainee-probe/article1383375/

Ottawa won’t release Afghan documents
Harper government says it will not comply with Opposition motion passed by Parliament, setting stage for legal battle
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/article/737634–ottawa-won-t-release-afghan-documents

Tories to ignore vote on releasing prisoner reports
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091211/afghanistan_motion_091211/20091211?hub=TopStoriesV2

Parliament in showdown with Harper government over Afghan documents
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/national/091211/n1211113A.html

Tories refuse to release uncensored documents on Afghan detainees
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Tories+refuse+release+uncensored+documents+Afghan+detainees/2330193/story.html

Tories force shutdown of hearing on torture [2009]
Opposition blasts boycott as whistleblower readies rebuttal to Ottawa today
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/article/739427

(via Dawg’s Blog)

Scary commentary from Dawg’s Blog:

Under Harper we have seen what I have referred to before as a veritable war on watchdogs. Blatant political interference in the workings of supposedly independent agencies–the CNSC, the SSHRCC, Elections Canada–is almost the order of the day. High-handed ministers of the Crown, acting more like princelings than representatives, have been actively involved in exiling Canadian citizens and more recently defaming and scapegoating an upstanding public employee and the respected charitable organization KAIROS-Canada.

Democracy in this country, always a stitched-together affair, is under increasingly serious threat, all hyperbole aside. As I have noted recently, this downward slide did not begin with the Conservatives: Pierre “Just watch me” Trudeau set the tone, and Jean Chrétien centralized all meaningful power in the PMO, ruling the country with an iron fist and the odd burst of pepper-spray.

But Harper has taken this trend through a quantum leap in four short years. His contempt for democratic process is never far below the surface. And now, once again, Parliament–Canada’s supreme elected body–is about to be flicked away like a mosquito.

We’re watching political accountability and responsible government melt away before our unbelieving eyes. As one commentator noted not long ago, “The Prime Minister is now in such command that he can get away with pretty much anything. And he is lauded for his conquests.”

If you’ve been as confused as I have about all those “Stop the TV tax” and “Local TV Matters” ads, here’s a YouTube video explaining it. I only wish it had been highlighted before the CRTC comments deadline had closed! (via BoingBoing)

A great essay putting in one place all the smart things Bruce has said about security theatre and terrorism over the years:

Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy a country’s way of life; it’s only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage. The more we undermine our own laws, the more we convert our buildings into fortresses, the more we reduce the freedoms and liberties at the foundation of our societies, the more we’re doing the terrorists’ job for them.

I’ve posted a few times before about Lenore Skenazy’s book Free-Range Kids (she has a blog, too). I read Tim Gill’s book “No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society” which basically has the same point. Mr. Gill is a lot more… British… in his writing, but is even better researched (or at least, footnoted). It is a damning indictement of the culture of fear we have built up, especially surrounding the impossible – and incredibly harmful – attempt at creating a perfectly safe world for children.

Since his book was (and perhaps still is) available for free on the Internet, I’ve attached it to this post. I also quote some of my favourite sections below.

No Fear by Tim Gill [PDF]

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