Excited Delirium

Tony Clement Caught ‘Selling’ for Someone Other Than Canada

It’s like the famous ‘Ichiban’ ad by Joey in Friends.  It’s the ad that no one was supposed to see.

Tony Clement’s original YouTube video can be found here.  Watch around the two-minute point for our famous minister-for-hire, previously made famous by being at the wheel when people were dying from Listeria and when Walkertonians were dropping like flies.

Once again, another Conservative minister seems to be caught in the act, with his hands in the cookie jar, promoting something other than the Government of Canada.

A blatant conflict of interest?

This is good timing, as Tony Clement is preparing to introduce the most draconian set of copyright laws since the term itself came into existence.  If you want to fight the ACTA laws, visit this site and join any of the groups listed.

This potential for a conflict of interest begs questions about other potential conflicts that he and other Conservative ministers might be involved with.

So what can we do?  Lobby to get Tony Clement fired.  It would be a severe blow to the ACTA regulations that they want to bring in.

The Big G – the G8 and G20 countries – are subjects of a massive spending spree.

So what’s the big deal?

Would you rather spend a billion dollars to protect 20 guests or spend a billion dollars to protect every single Canadian.

D’uh.

Somehow, the Conservatives will find a way to make this Michael Ignatieff’s fault.  Or mine.  Whoever.  It just won’t be their fault because they’re slippery eels.

It’s time for an investigation of the Big G Spree, before the Cons waste any more taxpayer dollars on trumped up expenses.

The first question we should ask:  who received all the money?  Odds are, it’s someone connected to the Cons.

I’m late in the game about critiquing the various shenanigans of Geurgis and Jaffer, but I’m noticing one important trend:  if you work for the CPC, be prepared to be thrown under a bus if you even remotely come close to f***ing up.

It’s a pretty ballsy thing to suggest and I would be the last person on the planet to actually defend the likes of Guergis or Jaffer, but look at the press releases that have come out in the last week or so:

• Rather than quietly accept a resignation, a major press release and whirly circus-like routine is launched, including a threat that there are ‘impending investigations’, simultaneously causing the Libs and Dippers to chase after said ’shiny object’ like a dog after a laughing squirrel.  Good luck, Helena with your next job hunt.  Try explaining the investigation that no one will launch!
• The release of expense reports related to a big whopping $1000 or so on ‘other expenses’ by Guergis, along with what I can only assume are officially sanctioned flights and trips made on behalf of Canada but charged to the public.  Are these people supposed to pay for flights out of pocket?
• Jaffer’s questionable business dealings and accusations that he was lobbying other ministers with his environmental business while in office.

BUT HOLD ON …

I heard Jim Prentice on the radio today say that he was approached by Jaffer A YEAR AGO with solicitations related to his business.  If it was such a big issue, and has instantly become such a big issue, why the hell wasn’t this reported A YEAR AGO?

Which opens up a bigger question:  if this wasn’t reported A YEAR AGO how do we know the entire caucus isn’t running around making other business deals behind the backs of Canadians?  What other conversations in the hallways happened A YEAR AGO (or more or recently) that we should bring to light? Are other MPs of the governing party working with businesses on the side pitching to their buddies for sweet, no-questions-asked contracts?

Is what we’re hearing just the tip of the iceberg?

Do actions, regardless of how questionable they were A YEAR AGO, only get publicized when you’re out to lampoon people that work for you and screwed up?

I’m not one to support the Liberals with their AdScam program, but isn’t this activity in the halls of Parliament just as disgusting?  Have I missed something here?  Have I misunderstood what’s supposed to be happening in the halls of Parliament?

How many scandals are enough, Canada?  How many?

In an interview with the CTV (does he ever talk with the CBC?), Stephen Harper has indicated that he will not rule out a carbon tax, simply because he’d be more than happy to drop his pants for the US (again).  This is a complete 180 from his original position that destroyed the Dion Liberals in the 2008.

Brilliant.  Sycophantic slippery Steve has lied to us again.

In fact, we’re all about to be ‘Harpooned’, much like Baby Boomers and other savers were Harpooned when the Conservatives killed the value of Income Trusts back in 2006.

We’re all going to eat the cost of carbon capture and carbon sequestration all so that the companies in Alberta can continue to belch out unprecedented volumes of crap.

Yay!  I can’t wait until the next election.  Please Santa.  Please bring me an election for Christmas

I’ve been saying/thinking this for a bit, and I feel a little relief to see someone more ‘mainstream’ voice concerns about the level and intent of bailouts, the intended recipients and the ultimate point of capitalism.

Yes, we’re at that moment where it’s now time to wonder if we’re entering a game-changing period era (not month, year or couple of days like the Cons might want you to believe).

If that’s the case, why the f**k are we giving a penny to a group of companies and ‘captains of industry’ who don’t know their asses from a hole in my wallet unless, of course, it’s all intentional?

The Rolling Stone piece titled "The Big Takeover" is long, but well worth the read.  The conclusions helped me and my limited attention span:

As complex as all the finances are, the politics aren’t hard to follow. By creating an urgent crisis that can only be solved by those fluent in a language too complex for ordinary people to understand, the Wall Street crowd has turned the vast majority of Americans into non-participants in their own political future. There is a reason it used to be a crime in the Confederate states to teach a slave to read: Literacy is power. In the age of the CDS and CDO, most of us are financial illiterates. By making an already too-complex economy even more complex, Wall Street has used the crisis to effect a historic, revolutionary change in our political system — transforming a democracy into a two-tiered state, one with plugged-in financial bureaucrats above and clueless customers below.

The most galling thing about this financial crisis is that so many Wall Street types think they actually deserve not only their huge bonuses and lavish lifestyles but the awesome political power their own mistakes have left them in possession of. When challenged, they talk about how hard they work, the 90-hour weeks, the stress, the failed marriages, the hemorrhoids and gallstones they all get before they hit 40.

"But wait a minute," you say to them. "No one ever asked you to stay up all night eight days a week trying to get filthy rich shorting what’s left of the American auto industry or selling $600 billion in toxic, irredeemable mortgages to ex-strippers on work release and Taco Bell clerks. Actually, come to think of it, why are we even giving taxpayer money to you people? Why are we not throwing your ass in jail instead?" (ED Editor:  I added the bold)

But before you even finish saying that, they’re rolling their eyes, because You Don’t Get It. These people were never about anything except turning money into money, in order to get more money; valueswise they’re on par with crack addicts, or obsessive sexual deviants who burgle homes to steal panties. Yet these are the people in whose hands our entire political future now rests.

Good luck with that, America. And enjoy tax season.

If you’re into something a little shorter that has pretty much the same point, check out this piece from Salon .

A spin on what they advise: all the Facebook pages in the world won’t save us from this gluttony. It’s time for action.

Compare this:

"The opposition has every right to defeat the government but Stéphane Dion does not have the right to take power without an election," Harper said. "Canada’s government should be decided by Canadians, not backroom deals. It should be your choice, not theirs."

Stephen Harper, November 28, 2008

To this:

"We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority."

Stephen Harper, September 2004

Which is true Steve?  Which truth benefits you the most and which lies will you tell them Canadian public in order to preserve your lock on Canadian power?  Is ruining democracy in Canada that important to you?

And when you talk about backroom deals, Steve, are you talking from experience, where you let Canada’s corporate elite dictate our economic strategy as you head into talks with the other 19 countries of the G20 ?  Why were you pimping yourself (and Canada without our permission) in this fashion?  Did you consult with other public institutions in a public manner before going to the G20, lying about how you and the Cons would spend our way out of economic crisis only to have you come back and deliver a round of cuts ?  Just curious.

Backroom deals abound, yes, but I’m pleased to see that the representatives of the majority of Canadian voters are taking the lead.  From you.

Cry-baby capitalism is making me sick to my stomach.

Why is that when things are on the way up, we’re all told to buckle up and suck it up and keep up with all of the others that are racing ahead of us as we stumble in our careers or other activities, while on the way down, the world’s (once) largest companies are the first with their hands out for OUR cash?

I have had enough of all of these over-paid stuff-shirts bitching and moaning about how poorly their companies are doing while they do nothing to actually give the market what it wants.

GM was the company that cancelled the electric car years ago.  GM and Ford sat on hydrogen technology until everyone forgot about it.  Lehman Brothers is just sitting on billions in US taxpayer money that it received last month.

Why is this allowed to continue?

Months ago, I wrote in a separate blog that the Ontario government should just buy the whole lot of the North American car manufacturers and fire everyone in the corporate office.

Well, I’m revisiting that idea as a serious proposal because there doesn’t seem to be any other way to make these buffoons move forward with serious and valuable products for Canadians and Americans.  With their track record, giving them ANY of our cash to keep themselves afloat would be a severe waste of money.  Spending it on ownership (and I mean 100%, no holds barred, no execs allowed) would be a better route to letting this charade go on.

I almost (but not really) think that Jim Flaherty is on the right track by not offering cash for the auto sector in Canada, but one has to look at the bigger picture.  We can’t just hand out money because it would expose that the Harpies HAVE NO PLAN.  They ran in the last election without a plan, they’re getting together this weekend to talk about what might make up their plan, but to this point, they’ve had no clue how they’re going to tear up this country (of course, we know they will, claiming it’s hard times and we have to scale back and we can’t create a deficit and all that other neo-con bullshit they fling around).

And then I say to myself, ‘Boy, did we elect the wrong government’.  Oh yeah … most of us DIDN’T .

And at no time is this looking more obvious than when they go down to the US to talk about the plan that they don’t have with someone who obviously does have a plan.  One of three options will emerge:

1. We won’t support car companies, the US will and we’ll be fucked most likely because any conditions will be set to favour US locations.
2. We will support car bailouts along with the US and we’ll be screwed because it’s our money that’s getting wasted on lobbyist and crony capitalists.
3. No one supports the auto manufacturers and at least one of them goes under and we’ll be in a mess because media will whip everyone into a frenzy about the death of manufacturing in Canada.

Of course, we should be making space cars that float along on hydrogen and the $75 billion of our money used to prop up Canada’s ‘oh so unstable banks’ could be used to create the world’s fastest commuter train and get us off fossil fuels forever, but that would require just a mere fraction of vision, a commodity which is more rare than the dodo these days.