Well, as Canadians get ready to "choose" another government, about the most apt metaphor that occurs to me is - well, here we go again, Charlie Brown! - I'm sure most people will figure it out - Lucy telling Charlie to kick the football just ONE more time, and she'll hold it for SURE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA - and then poor Charlie winds up on his back again - just like Canadians are going to do, with most of them voting Bay St Boys 1 or 2, as programmed (the analogy is only a bit twisted - Lucy tells Charlie kick the ball one more time!!! I won't move it!! You'll have a great time!!!! - and here, the entire Elite are telling Canadians ONE MORE TIME DO NOTNOTNOTNOTNOTNOTNOTNOT VOTE FOR THEM DAMNED SOCIALISTS WE'LL BE REALLY GOOD TO YOU THIS TIME IF YOU ELECT US ONCE AGAIN EVEN THOUGH WE'VE FUCKING DESTROYED YOUR COUNTRY THE LAST 20++ YEARS!!! - and Canadians appear to be buying it. You'd think people would learn sometime. But I suppose, being brought up since childhood, anyone alive now under the age of 55 or so, as are most of us, to be pretty much told what to do by people on the tv and in the newspapers, for those few who read them, they don't even realise what it is they are doing, or what it is they DON'T know - like Charlie believes Lucy again and again because he trusts here, Canadians believe their media and leaders again and again because they trust them, and refuse to vote for the NDP - and again and again, they lose. Bill Moyers has known for awhile - he writes about the US, but it applies, it would seem, to most Canadians -

The Fight of Our Lives - ".... I thought the mass media might awaken Americans to the reality that this ideology of winner-take-all is working against them and not for them. I was wrong. With honourable exceptions, we can't count on the mass media...".

So it's another Charlie Brown election. Like Lucy, the Bay St boys must laugh long and loud behind their closed doors at the top of their Toronto Barad Durs at the simplicity and naivete of their victims - the Canadian people.

Here's a place worth a boo - Secret Trials - and then thinking about when was the last time you read much about THIS stuff in the Great Free Democratic Canadian Media (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA) - awards and all? Did any of the prizes the last couple of times I've talked about all their self-praise tell us about these guys being locked up for years, can't even find out what the charge is??? Naaaaaa. I think it was that crazy commie Jesus who said something like "What ye do unto the least of yourselves, ye do unto me..." - at least according to the King James translators who apparently have made some errors - but the sentiment is good enough - and if YOU can sit back and say or do NOTHING about these people in prison (and these are only the ones we KNOW about - obviously the idea is to keep the whole thing as secret as possible, so it's a pretty sure bet there's lots more in holes in the ground somewhere we DON'T know about....) - then exactly who do you expect to help YOU if the RCMP or CSIS come along with either a trumped-up warrant about your contact third hand with some terrorist or outright lies from some secret phone call from somebody who doesn't like you for whatever reason???? (did you read RM lately???? You just gotta KNOW that bad dudes like THAT MUST be in cahoots with terraists who HATE our country!!!! - so if you ever READ RM (and we can tell by your computer you do!!!!!) - then by golly, that's a good enough reason to drag you into some secret cell on a secret warrant on "suspicion of terraist activities!!!" - crazy, eh??? Well - I bet most of the guys in jail right now thought the same thing.

One of the things they always talk about about places like Stalin's Russia was the terrible "secret trials" - and now here we are doing the same thing. And nobody seems to give a shit. Charlie Brown don't know, don't care bout that stuff man - long as they leave me alone, everybody look out for themselves, right man??.

The government is all for this secrecy too - Ottawa 'acted appropriately' over Arar: statement - ".... "There are significant aspects of this case that cannot be heard in public," the federal statement filed today says....". Right. Charlie Brown. You believe me just this ONE more time, don't you?!??!?!? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHsucker.

Related - I CAN'T REMEMBER," SAYS JUDGE BLAIS - the Zundel case - odd things like this don't manage to get any attention in the election - SOME of us might like to know what our great democratic leaders would think about this shit - what's gonna happen to ANY of us they decide they don't like, and accuse of "terrorist" activities on "secret" information, and lock us up and throw away the key??? And the media, bless their little elitist hearts, aren't gonna say shit about it! (very interesting that the rightwingers at Canwest and elsewhere were SOOOOOO fucking offended last week at the decision of the supreme court somewhere to NOT let them spend unlimited amounts of money on candidates of their choice during an election claiming it's a violation of their right to free speech - have sweet fuck all to say about this Zundel guy being locked up for over a year now because HE tried to speak his mind about something he believes in ...... if you're gonna have credibility, ya gotta be consistent, and not flipflop here and there depending on what suits your particular interests at a particular time - people like the Aspers, and their Canwest minions, lost all credibility a long, long time ago, for this among other reasons....

It's all part of the "creeping" fascism (racing I guess would be a better word) - a couple more dots in the picture for those who are able to stand back a bit from the big fray and see the emerging picture (and haven't yet - which, I suppose, would be to say if what has been happening the last 20 years hasn't clued you in already, a few more dots aren't likely to make much difference - your mind, as the saying goes, is pretty much made up and you don't want to be dragged away from the great tv lineup tonight to be bothered with a few facts....) - anyway - does anyone here know the word "soma"? What about "zombie"? - Bush plans to screen whole US population for mental illness (and this from the British Medical Journal, not exactly a freakie lefty commie internet conspiracy theorist...) - the thing is - reading, as always, between the lines, and understanding that what is NOT said in stuff like this is usually at least as interesting as what IS said - is that the underlying assumption has to be that the people running the US - Bush and the gang - are very models of psychiatric health!!!!!!!!!!!!! Think about it!!!!! - there's nothing in the article that would suggest the drugs will be administered to people who go around the world using the US military to bomb the fuck out of whoever they want, and lie and lie and lie and lie about it all while doing it, and those who support this kind of shit in the media and whatnot!!!! - nosiree bobsyerfuckingunclejack!!! - THESE folks are just fine!!!!!!! - but (a bit deeper between the lines) - you can be preeeeetttttty darn sure that those malcontents who get together in crowds to protest the actions of these psychotics will be tagged for little psychiatric evaluations, and force-fed some of these fine meds to make them happier with life, and more understanding and accepting of what their fine leaders are doing to bring democracy and freedom to those poor underprivileged people in the world who have resources the Bushies need HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA sorry!!!!!!! need their help. The rationale is pretty obvious - aside from removing a growing physical threat to the dictators, like justice, democracy must not only be done, it must be seen to be done - and streets full of people saying they don't think their government is legitimate just doesn't LOOK very good, does it? - the western media sure as fuck screams loud enough about such demonstrations in countries they want to invade and need some excuse to do so!!! - So let's get them fuckers off the street!!!!

And if it's coming to the great old USofA - it won't be far behind in Canada HAHAHAHAHAHAA - just ask ol Stephie there, who you're about to elect - all things American ROCK baby!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA

- and here's another one for ya too - Sweeping stun guns to target crowds - "....Weapons that can incapacitate crowds of people by sweeping a lightning-like beam of electricity across them are being readied for sale to military and police forces in the US and Europe...." - nowhere do they ask the "police forces" involved exactly WHY they need such weapons for "crowd control" - that is to say, all of these countries are supposed to be democracies, right? - and in "democracies", people DO have the right to gather in crowds to protest things they don't like, right?!?!?!?!?! - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA - rhetorical question!!!! Don't call for the Mental Health Assessment Unit just yet, ok?!?!?!?! - but it's pretty obvious the governments in question are looking forward a bit into the future (something most of the "citizens" around here (I enclose that word in quotations because it seems to me that to qualify as a "citizen" in a democracy implies some responsibility to take an interest in what is going on in your country and government, which it seems to me most people in this country are NOT doing....) seem to be completely unable to do....) and seeing a time when the demonstrations against their activities are going to become even greater than today (now why would that be, one might wonder?!?!?!?! HAHAHAHAHAAA) - and are planning for it with great modern new "crowd control" measures - we can think back - people like Stalin would have LOVED shit like this - although brutally murdering people has its uses too, of course, as the Americans show they understand so well in Iraq, as before in the Nam - but ya need stuff like this, or you face the danger that someday, somewhere, that damn crowd is just gonna get SOOOOO big that it overthrows the fascist government - and THEN the guys who were running it usually lose a lot of power and stuff - their heads, for instance.

They will eventually claim that all of this shit is for fighting "terrorists" - but really?!?!?!?!?! - how fucking stupid do they think the people really are?!?!?!?!? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA - another rhetorical question!!! - they KNOW the people are pretty fucking stupid overall, especially after the last 20 years of lies and thievery, and the people not doing a fucking thing about it, except buying the lies and going back to the tv -

isn't that right, Charlie Brown?????? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

New ballot option: None of the above - now, this is a good idea overall, one I've suggested many times, leave people the option to say they don't care for ANY of the people who want to "represent" then - try again Jack!!! - but ol James here, usually a pretty astute guy, throws in this line - "...Quebecers can dismiss Liberals by handing what now looks like the balance of power in the next Parliament to the Bloc Que'be'cois, a party created to destroy Canada..." - now that is, of course, the modern Canadian mythology, that Quebec separating would "destroy" Canada, that people accept without even THINKING about questioning it, sort of like "Canada is a GREAT democracy!!!" or "governments printing money cause horrible inflation" and other shit like that - but let's do a WHOOOAAAA-jack-let's-back-up-a- minute minute, here, and just look at that popular myth. Wouldn't it be just maybe a bit more accurate to say that it would CHANGE Canada, for sure - but not necessarily "destroy" it??? When you have a family with mom and dad and a few kids, and mom has a fight with one of the kids and the kid leaves home - the family is only destroyed if it lets itself be - if there are some mature people in the family (not necessarily a given in this dysfunctional society), it could easily hold together - shit happens, and you either get through it or you don't - you let the vagaries and nasty people in the world run your life - or you run it yourself, and recover from the shit - don't, as someone once said, get mad - get even. Don't fall apart - the best response to people who throw shit at you is not to fall on the ground whining about how dirty you are and how your life has been wrecked, but to wash it off, and carry on even better than previously (and smash the fucker who threw the shit at the FIRST opportunity HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA but I digress....)

Anyways, about Quebec - I just don't get why people think Canada would be destroyed - we'd lose some tax money, and lose a lot of federal tax obligations at the same time. We'd lose a lot of programs that a lot of people didn't like requiring people to speak French where very few French-speaking people ever came. We'd have one less province in the country, and a few million less people - but we's still have 9 provinces and 3 territories, and stretch from sea to shining sea (to shining sea), and have oceans and mountains and prairies and forests and way over 20 million people, most of whom were pretty well educated, and had a pretty good infrastructure to work from, and a pretty good government (yea yea the last couple are pretty damaged right now after the last 20 years of neocon rule, but the basics are still there, and COULD be fixed - not saying they will be, but they COULD be...) - and on and on and on - not "destroyed" at all, unless you're one of those hysterical small-brains who falls apart at the first sign that your world may have to change, or may not even be what your little fantasy said it was in the first place (a lot of people going to have to wake up to that one day soon, after they vote for Harper, and then go to the hospital next year and find out they have to give credit card info and pass a test to get in.... but I digress...) -

Me, I say work it out amicably - never mind this all or nothing shit, 50.1% take all crap - let's divide the place up! - get the Separatists to draw up some boundaries of what they think would be fair (we get this, you get that sort of thing...), and those who want to stay in Canada to do the same, and then the people in Quebec get to vote on which plan sounds best (if neither plan gets strong support, try again, or call it a draw and quit the separation talk...) - the winning plan gets adopted - that is, maybe the Separatists get to keep Quebec City and and northern Quebec and the Gaspe, and the non-Separatists get to keep the townships and Montreal and some land around Ottawa - I don't know, whatever - but never mind this mentality of "winner-take-all" - let's be civilised and divide the place up in a civil way - what's the point of keeping the kid locked up in a closet all his life if he wants to be free, and strike out into the big bad world on his/her own???? It's gonna be a bit hard for the Separatists to claim ALL of Quebec, when around half of the Quebecers don't even want to leave Canada. (It is also gonna have to be dealt with at the same time that the Cree Indians have a pretty serious claim to most of the good hydro-producing land around James Bay and have said they'd like to form their own nation apart from the Quebec and/or Canadian govs, and if it's ok for parts of Quebec to separate from Canada to please the Separatist Quebecers, then it's pretty much gotta be okay for the Cree to take their land and separate from Quebec (it's not clear to me if they want to start their own country too, or stay with Canada rather than go with Quebec - but we could sort it out).

Seems to me that most of the Maritimes wants to stay in Canada, although maybe the Newfs would like to go it alone too, and live off their oil revenue, if so, same deal as Quebec! - so we'd have to work out some transportation things - maybe the Eastern Townships of Quebec and the south shore of the St Lawrence or something to keep a transportation link open, whatever, although Quebec will probably want a solid link with the US so we'd have to work something out there - or maybe we could work out a deal with the US, and part of Maine could join Canada (Stephen King's income would probably do nice things for our GDP - but we could leave Kennebunkport - allowing the Bush family into Canada would be very, very, very, very, very bad in every conceivable way...), and in return maybe we could let southern Alberta join the US, since they seem to want to - I THINK most of BC wants to stay with Canada, but not sure - but whatever, a realignment of a bunch of stuff like that would be ok, I mean it's crazy to keep country borders writ in stone - EVERYTHING in life changes, and it's just unrealistic not to have some re-arrangements sometimes of countries, to keep more people happy - and what we would wind up with, is a Canada where the people who stayed here wanted to be fucking Canadians, supporting our "look after each other" social programs with their taxes willingly, and maintaining a peaceful society and stuff like that, and the warmongers and "every-man-and-woman-and-kids-for-themselves"-ers could join the US, where they like that kind of stuff (I expect a goodly part of the west coast of the US would want to join us here in return, which might complicate things - but hell!!! -we could work it out!!!) - of course, those of us remaining in Canada would be looking at re-negotiating things like the NAFTA and WTO shit, and keeping our resources for ourselves, or at least the income to be made from them - you know, the oil that we're currently selling most of to the US at cut rate prices while paying world prices ourselves, and our water and forests, things like that - but hey! we could work it out.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA enough!!!!!!!

But seriously - there's a BIG difference between "destroying" something, and "changing" it - and it doesn't help the debate at all when we let hysteria take over. Hell, what I figure is, let Quebec go on their own for a few years, trying to tell the US they all have to learn the French language before they can do business there, and they'll pretty soon see that they had a far better deal here than they're going to get anywhere else, and come knocking back at the door pretty soon, like the wayward teenager so many families have who goes stomping out the door one day in a hissy fit "YOU DON'T LOVE ME!!!!" - and then a few days later heads home again when he or she finds out that the rest of the world thinks even less of them - and yea, we let em back - why not? - that's what you do with family ......

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

- and THAT'S the TRUTH! - something else you ain't gonna read much about in the Canadian media, for whatever reason - figure it out yourselves, I gotta go now.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I'm really starting to think the fix is in here, and this has been the case since at least Mulroney (I can't imagine the Bay St Boys got Trudeau elected HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA - although I think they got to him somehow during the 70s when his gov started the deficit shit that turned into the huge scam it became under Mulroney - he probably didn't understand how bad it was going to be - but the BCNI started in the 70s, at least partly, I expect, due to Trudeau's Just Society vision - a "just society" for We the People is pretty much the LAST Fucking thing d'Aquino's bunch want....

But think about small things and connect dots - think about amazingly well run campaigns, with all the media behind them, and momentum leading to virtual crownings, such as Mulroney in 84 and 88 - then that very same team falling to pieces in 93 with a campaign as amazingly pathetic (remember Kim "I don't think an election is any place to talk about important things" Campbell? fuck hahahahaha - actually I agree with her on that particular idea, but for rather different reasons, having to do with the whole fixed "party politics" system) as the previous had been professional, as Chretien was ushered in with a great campaign and great media support, and now that same Liberal team looking like a bunch of self-destructive, doped-up amateurs - sort of like the team that won so handily for Harris in 95 and 99, looked so pathetic ("kitten-eaters"?!?!?!?! fuck!!!!) last fall against McGuinty - and the same media presence, writing off one leader or party and crowning another, before the election - same thing here, all the media are falling all over themselves to crown Harper and write off Martin as a stumbling old man (while marginalizing Layton and the Green Party as much as possible) - I have yet to see a word of election coverage that I would call "impartial" - it's all opinion and spin and prodding the voters to think a certain way dressed up as "news" - not unlike most everything else in the media, come to think of it HAHAHAHAHA.

So when I say "fixed", I mean in the sense that gambling dens in Vegas are fixed - they don't mark the cards or load the dice or micro-manage every game on every table, far from it, pretty well every deal is honest and every throw is natural - but they rig the odds just enough - the "house edge" - so that they win in the end and win big, inevitably - which is, I think, what we have here - it doesn't matter which of the Bay St parties get elected, they take their orders from Bay St - but it is imperative that some wild card like Jack Layton does NOT get in (the way Rae did in 1990 - remember the panic after that? and they fought back hard and quick, but I expect learned a lesson, that that kind of surprise will not be tolerated in the future) - thus the way the people are encouraged to swing back and forth between the Bay St Parties every few years when they are sick of the obvious corruption and sick of being lied to about the gov doing good stuff (well, it's really good stuff for the corps, just not janejoeaverage), and things like that - so we get a little Bandwagon Effect underway with the media making Harper look not so bad, and pretty inevitable, and a big whack of the undecideds will jump there for various reasons, and keep the really dangerous people (goldarned socialists!) on the edges where they belong - another reason we aren't talking about PR this election, and will not see it during the next session (the excuse is being formed even as we speak - I can hear it now - "Well - I don't recall hearing of any great movement asking for PR during the election campaign we just went through, so I don't really think Canadians are that interested in it, and we have far more important things to be thinking about right now...." blah blah blah de blah democfarcy is SO fucking great in Canada HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

- and as always, I find the acceptance of the fact that we are "electing" (rather loose usage of the word, as they say HAHAHAHAHAHAHA) a King here amazing, never even questioned - EVERYONE says "Harper will do this" or "Martin will do that" - but fuck, doesn't it say somewhere in the "How Canada is Governed" book that the 308 REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CANADIAN PEOPLE!!!!! get to vote on things and that is how policy is decided in Canada?!?!?!?!?! - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA - another one of my completely idiotic ideas, I know I know ...... christ, we could save a lot of money if we just fired all these people, since they don't have any say anyways - although I suppose as long as nobody understands the scam they are needed for the sake of appearances, and what's a few hundred million in expenses when the prize is in the hundreds of Billions....

Yeah the health care issue is important but it's not the only one - I'd like to hear some talk about Biometric ID cards, or PR, or FTAA, or Homeland Security, or the National Debt Scam, or legalising marijuana or - lots of stuff like that. Fuck what have YOU been smoking already???? HAHAHAHAHAHAA

It's interesting the "sponsorship scandal" is playing so heavily, given the amount involved - I'm not a Lib supporter at all (YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE GUESSED THAT WOULD YOU?!?!?! HAHAHAHAHAHA), but this is petty thievery, they all do it (remember Harris giving stuff to his buds, Mulroney?) - and they're ignoring the TRILLION dollar bank scam for some reason that continues to fuck us all over so big - but this sponsorship is allowed to dominate, while much more important issues are left uncommented on.... odd that HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

But wait, now, you - you say the gov wastes money, and that's why we need to run it like a business!!?? Maybe it does waste some - but the private sector wastes a hell of a lot more in huge admin fees and investor profits and outright theft - can we say Enron?!?!? (odd the Nortel scam is getting so little press compared to "adscam") - and we might point out that it has only been since Mulroney was elected and private money got so involved in OUR government that corruption has been a major force in Canadian politics and "waste" started being felt as conscientious bureaucrats were fired and pay-off piggies hired in their place, whose talent was minimal and whose main interest was in seeing how they could milk the system for they and their masters rather than in providing the best service possible at the best price for Canadians - prior to the Mulroney years, the Canadian government was one of the most honest and respected and efficient in the world - that it is now so corrupt and fucked up is not a reason to be mad at our government in general, but a reason to be very mad at the influence of private business in our government (quite a lot of people might have a boo in the mirror and ask themselves just why they continue to vote for such people as they do as well... - I DON'T think the voting system is corrupt in this country, at least yet, and we have ALWAYS had the option to vote for good people - so WHY do we vote for crooks and conmen so much - as "we" (again I just can't include myself in all of this!!!!) appear to be about to do collectively again?!?!?!?) - and a good reason to start making some corruption laws and taking them very seriously - I would suggest, for instance, that Tom d'Aquino's CCCE should probably all be investigated for starters.... odd we don't get that perspective EVER in the CORPORATE press in Canada HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA - then add on every major politician for the last 30 years, major figures in the banking world, and in the media - strap em all in a big chair one by one, give em a little shot of scopolamine - and let em hang themselves, which I have NO doubt whatsoever that about 99% of them would do.

For the current election campaign, why aren't we seeing a bit more creativity from the media, rather than letting the Bay St Conmen set the agenda (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no I'm not that naive!!! what a stupid question though!!!) What about some questions on what the would-be kings would do if there was a major terrorist incident in Canada this year, since the gov has been screaming about the danger of one for months and months??? (hmmmmmm - you may recall I used to comment on such stories - rather odd there haven't been any during the campaign or the couple of weeks before!!!!!!!!) - but I suspect that "IF" HAHAHAHAHAA there is one afterwards, and Harper is PM - there will be no question at all about some pretty serious "Homeland Security" shit going down, as there is in the US right now - no debate, no questions asked, just the Canadian Gov becoming Nazi Germany lite, with brownshirts and id cards and PROVE YOU ARE INNOCENT CITIZENS shit all over the place.... and guess what????? not a fucking thing you will be able to do about it!!!!!!! CITIZEN HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (the Libs will do the same, they'll probably be just a bit more circumspect, less in your face, about it all....

Where was I on the fixed campaigns? What about the notion that the media uses, the notion of not covering the NDP (or Greens or whoever) because they are not a player - well - it's the cart and the horse idea, isn't it? Or the self-fulfilling prophecy - keep them out of the news - like the Greens didn't even get an invite to the debate, although they run candidates in every riding while the Quebec separatist party, with candidates in only one province, gets invited??? - and you guarantee they won't be a player....

Speaking of the Quebec debate - PM fails to push Quebec links - now columnists can do as they please, of course, and ol Chantel is a known con-pusher, but it is all part of the picture - supposedly commenting on the debates, all she talks about is Martin, Harper and Ducette for about the first 90% of the piece, then gives only a dismissing ref to Layton and the NDP waaaaaay down in the longish piece (and as anyone with any idea of "reverse pyramid" style journalism knows, the idea is that most people are not going to read a full article, so you put the "least important stuff" at the end) - it's just another small part of the picture - the death of a thousand cuts, denying credibility by not talking about them - nothing obvious to point at, like an editorial from Asper or someone telling the truth (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA (I know I shouldn't use those two words - Asper and truth - in the same sentence!!! just seein if you were watching!) - "Dear Canwest Staff - just thought you ought to know, anyone who mentions the NDP favourably in a Canwest publication will be looking for a new job the next day - and you can be damn sure that as far as we have anything to say about it, you won't get one in THIS country ever again. Have a nice day -Dizzy Dog" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA (HOLY FUCK IXXY WHERE'D HE GET A COPY OF THAT?!?!?!?!?!!! GET THAT DICKHEAD FROM CSIS ON THE LINE RIGHT NOW!!!!!)

And a "good" column (sure we still got a few good writers, mostly with the Star!) - Harper: Think Harris, but smarter by THOMAS WALKOM - "....Sometime this year, whoever is running the Canadian government will have to decide whether to join the U.S. missile defence system. It's probably one of the most important decisions of the past 40 years.... However, in this campaign, it is nearly invisible. The Liberals don't mention it at all. Harper has said he hasn't made up his mind.... Only the NDP and Bloc Que'be'cois have staked out positions in formal opposition to the scheme..." - and this IS a very important issue this time around - rather "odd" (NOT HAHAHAHAHAHA) the major media en masse are ignoring it, as are the politicians - a pretty obvious indicator, I would say, that the fix is in, and within weeks after the election, regardless of which Bay St Party wins, we'll be signing up with the Americans on this one - once again without being seriously asked, at an opportune time like an election, if we want it or not (for good enough reasons - they all KNOW that if given a choice a pretty solid majority of us would say a loud NO FUCKING WAY JOSE!!!!! - and ain't democracy fucking grand!!! - like marijuana, like the biometric ID cards, like MP salary raises, etc and etc - they CAN'T ask us how we feel about these things, because they know - and they also know they are going to do the opposite of what we want, and we're already pretty pissed at all the lies, so why intentionally create more?

Speaking of getting closer to the Americans - Naomi Klein has been quiet for awhile, but has a good column on this very thing in the Globe a couple days ago - On Being NOT American - "...It is a privilege not to be hated for your nationality, and we should not relinquish it lightly. George Bush has denied that privilege to his own people, and Stephen Harper would cavalierly strip it from Canadians by erasing what few small but important differences remain between Canadian and U.S. foreign policy...." - this is so very true - the Americans under the PNAC are hated all over the world - most countries are drawing away from them because of this - it's nothing short of insanity to say we want to be "closer" to them - except for the psychophantic few who think they will be given a special seat in the king's banquet room for betraying their country or something, I guess (by the way - did everyone hear that good ol Stephen Harper was at the Bilderberg meetings in Europe early this month? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA -

"Holmes' eyes shot open, and he regarded his trusted companion with a somber look; "My word, Watson, that's a serious development indeed.... All of the recent Canadian leaders who have been so central in the nefarious plot we are dealing with here also attended a Bilderberg meeting shortly before their ascension to the throne of their fiefdom....")

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

And more news of why more of the same isn't such a great idea, just maybe - Health survey: Millions can't find family doctor - "...More than 3.6 million Canadians didn't have a regular doctor last year, and many of them suffered a lack of basic preventive care, winding up in emergency rooms at far higher rates than those with doctors...." - 10 years of Martin's cutbacks combined with Harris-Klein governments and clones. Another ten years ought to finish it off, if Harper gets in - although he may well be able to fast-track it in one term, given exponential curves and the additional incentive of having to act fast with less supervision after the next big "terrorist" attack - and the question is, of course (that for some very strange reason noone in the media is actually addressing) is - Who do you want in charge of your health care system? The people who have been in charge for the last ten years, and have created this situation through huge cutbacks and mismanagement? - or - the people who say that in their opinion Canadians still have it too good, and ought to have less and start paying for more of what they DO get????? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA - the thing is, there IS a Box C - but you're not hearing about it much in the media - Jack Layton, Romanov Report - google em and check it out for yourself. Worse - or better? What do you want?!?!?!?!?! Why are you going to shoot yourself (and the rest of us) in the Healthcare System Head by voting for people like this?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Boy the sellouts from places you just don't expect sometimes, although one shouldn't be surprised given the history of such things - money and comfort in the old age, I guess, along with the recognition that the world is fucked and there's nothing they can do about it so they might as well see that their families have a comfortable seat for the last few years of ever-increasing excitement - here's Tom Axworthy, used to be a fairly decent Lib when Libs were fairly decent (think Trudeau) - now selling theory and pretending it has something to do with reality - Trudeau's Canada at risk - Who will speak for Canada if Harper wins and pushes for a radically decentralised country, asks Thomas S. Axworthy - well, exactly Tom - who WILL speak for Canada - the problem is, it sure as hell won't be Martin's version of the Liberal Party, who have become just another branch office of Tom d'Aquino's Bay St Boys CCCE the last 20 years .......

Well - I thought they just went through one of these! - but I guess you can't get too much of a good thing, and a little trip to Vancouver as well - Globe and Mail wins five National Newspaper Awards -

- the thing is, when you KNOW they are covering stuff up like the Debt Scam and the Bush complicity in 911 - then you can't not ask - what ELSE are they covering up? I didn't check it out, but I will accept any and all wagers that they weren't giving out awards for Biggest Hypocrite or Best Coverup or shit like that. Which they ought to have been doing - industry-wide awards, at that.

- now, my two cents worth HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA for those just toying with the idea in the furthest back back back of their minds that they do NOT want to vote for Martin and the Libs again, and the NDP look like they're not going to do that great again, so JUST MAYBEEEEEEE one might consider voting for Harper - think about this - first, think where you are hearing the stories about both Layton and Harper, and just ask yourself if there's just MAYBEEEEEE a bit of press manipulation going on here, directed at Canadian brains who have been conditioned over their entire lives to be influenced by tv (and to a lesser extent the press) - and then!!! - think of Harris and Mulroney, both of whom were presented in their first elections very much as Harper is being presented now - underdogs, rapidly gaining respectability through great press coverage combined with lousy campaigns by their rivals - and then think what they did after getting elected.

Key word - THINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- actually, this is always about "THINK" - and almost as always about how the "media" encourages everyone to actually leave that to them - citizens are so darned busy these days, they really ought to let the "experts" decide stuff - but just to make sure, of course, that the general desires of those allowed to think around here are followed by the people, the "news" has to be slanted JUST a bit HAHAHAHAHAAA - like this little giveaway here - Green party leader decries fast food - wherein one person notes "... "Might as well support them now so they can make things better in the future," she said, admitting she has no idea what policies the party is campaigning on in this election.... "I'd like to know a bit about their platform. What's their focus in this election? I have no idea, they're not in the newspapers...." - well, you could say that about quite a lot of other things as well.

Have we heard a single WORD the last little while (this sort of mysteriously found its way OUT of the "news"papers a few weeks before the election call, so people could forget about it - unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, some of us ain't "people" HAHAHAHAAA - but wouldn't it be nice if somebody was being a bit open about what they planned to do re for instance Biometric ID Cards after the election?!?!?!?!?! Most people would say NO to this shit, I think, given a choice - HAHAHAHAHAAA - which is exactly the point, exactly why we are NOT being given a choice - there's some sort of new terrorism act being whipped up by the Americans this summer, according to all sorts of sources, and once that happens - in comes the Biometric ID card in Canada - no vote, no questions, no choice on the part of We the People if we want to turn Canada into a police state - our King will do it for us. And the media will keep everybody so confused that they'll reluctantly let it happen - sort of the way the Germans "reluctantly" let Hitler take over Germany a few decades ago, not that either Martin or Harper compares to Hitler - but the Canadian cops have shown they are completely willing to be a smalltime gang of Brownshirts with their pepper spray and guns that they've been practicing with the last few years. Like the way seatbelt legislation was snuck in with no election campaigns, or this new round of NO SMOKING IN PUBLIC shit.

Not with a bang but a whimper - the end of something that could have been great. The lemming rush to the sea. Goldarn it martha where'd that darn gun come from they got to our head? We didn't vote for that, did we?!?!? I hope to hell I'm wrong. But I don't think so. We'll know soon anyway - have a nice summer. While it lasts HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA.

More on the press, and the media, and propaganda - here's an interesting sort of story, points out very clearly some of the things we are NEVER told that it's ok to think about - Toward a Universal Declaration of Human Wrongs - "...Such rights as the right to freedom of thought (Art. 18) and freedom of assembly (Art. 20) would be of little use in a society in which it had never occurred to anyone to interfere with these things. "[T]he right to take part in the government" and the right to "periodic and genuine elections" (Art. 21) apply only where there is an organised "government" that is to some degree alienated from "the people". Again, "the right to work", the right to "equal pay for equal work" and the right to organize trade unions (Art. 23) have meaning only in a society where the system of wage labour, with its potential for exploitation of the worker, has been introduced...".

Two interesting related stories - Report: Wal-Mart growth often subsidised by taxpayers - and - The True Cost of Things - Why Wal-Mart S.U.C.K.S. (Senseless Uneducated Consumerism Killing Society (summer 04 issue if the link changes).

Operative word again - think. I have heard this everywhere I travel - "Wow! Let's go down to (fill in the blank) superstore - great cheap prices!!!!!". Right. Like bullets are cheap too. The ones you use on your own head.

Think.

Advertising Damages Mental Health. Before you sit down to the tv after dinner - read this. And

THINK!!!!

Boy - being more and more like the US and their really great anti-terraism programs and stuff would be really, really neat, eh Stevie??? Welcome to America - "...When writer Elena Lappin flew to LA, she dreamed of a sunkissed, laid-back city. But that was before airport officials decided to detain her as a threat to security ..." - yea but them goldarned terraists gotta be stopped man.....

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA

THINK!!!!!!!

They really are scared shitless of Layton. Every time there's a story about him - they have to cover him and the NDP to give the appearance of being some sort of "free and democratic" press - they ALWAYS diss him one way or another, usually by referring to his "flamboyant" (polite) or "flashy" (less so) way of doing things - i.e. here - NDP prepares campaign against Harper - "... The NDP broke from tradition when it picked flashy Jack Layton as leader..." - but with the underlying message ALWAYS there to be slirped up by the well-prepared subconscious - "This man is cute, maybe amusing - but NOT fit to lead the country - ANYBODY but Layton!!!" - and the polls show the people are buying it. So far. At least with what they tell the pollsters. But the pollsters are also hearing that the people are pretty fed up with the Libs, and not at all sure about Harper's New Republicans - and that doesn't leave a lot of choices, and - so they are scared shitless of Layton. Here's another - they get so obvious that any really awake and aware citizenry would laugh them off the stage - Volatile electorate's desire to hurt someone makes this campaign a weird one - this guy - one Roy MacGregor, who seems to be a normal sort of guy - but by FUCK he is NOT going to mention Layton or the NDP when he talks about the volatile electorate maybe electing Harper to punish the Libs - maybe even on an odd day the Greens!!! (but we ain't even gonna TALK about maybe electing you-know-who!!!!) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA ya I watched Harry the 3 last week - the best yet, really well done, fantastic sets and scenery - ought to break through that ol Oscar barrier for that if nothing else - the "blackness" I read about in some reviews was not really a factor - Harry's getting a bit older now, and Hermione's getting little tiny tits, but - geez, that happens when people grow older, doesn't it?!?!?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - SURE AS FUCK DID TO ME !!!!! HAHAHAHAHA NO NOT THE TINY LITTLE TITS THE NOT SO TINY LITTLE TEMPER HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I still have a limited sort of tolerance for idiots. You may have noticed. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA I gotta watch it though - SOOOOOOO easy to spend all day every day fuming at idiots, there's so MANY of them these days in positions where they get a lot of media attention.

Arbour ready for U.N. role - People think this is a big deal, in the good sense, for reasons that completely escape me - this is the lady who was central in the railroading of a guy called Milosevic a couple of years ago, as a blatant American puppet. And now she's head of the UN Human Rights Commission. Talk about credibility problems. Sort of like naming George W to be the head of MENSA or Adolf to head the JDL or something HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA. Seriously - ya either got credibility or ya don't - ya can't just say we're gonna railroad some guy we don't like, whether or not there's any real evidence, but by golly we sure believe in "human rights"!! - no lady, you can't do that at all. At least not in MY world - I guess you've all made it pretty clear that in yours, you do what you want.

And yet MORE history we NEVER hear a word about in school, for some odd reason - The Federal Election and the U.S. Factor: Part One - by the GREAT Robin Mathews.

PM: No AdScam answers coming soon - "... a Commons committee looking into the issue became mired in partisan bickering..." - and how often do we see this? A perfect example of the uselessness of "party politics" - and it happens all the time. House of Commons every day - no matter what the "governing party" does, be they Libs or Cons, the "opposition" party says it's no good. It's just a big game - but our lives and communities and planet are, I would think, too important to be controlled by people who regard the whole thing as just a big game.

Wouldn't we be a WHOLE lot better off if we elected independent representatives from every riding whose interest was, first, the people in their riding, and second the interests of the people of the country, and third, the interests of the people of the world - rather than first, their own personal gain, second the party (perhaps a very, very distant third, if it didn't conflict in any way with the first two, the interests of the people in their riding or something)????

Of course it would. But it would very much be AGAINST the interests of the people running the place now (see Bay St Boys) - and THAT is the single reason you will NEVER see this even mentioned in the mainstream media (some things are just too obvious, and if the people are ever alerted to such ideas, they're apt to start demanding changes - like the debt scam shit - and thus must not even get mentioned in the papers....)

Serendipity follows along as always - the next story I look at as being a perfect example of what party politics is all about - Tories livid over sale of phoney Ontario licences - about phony Ontario driver's licences being sold on the net one Ontario PC says "...But Runciman later derided Takhar's answer as "pitiful" and denounced him for not being aware of the website's operation...." - and rather obviously this has nothing at all to do with the Libs who have not been in power in Ontario for something like 15 years - if any party was responsible, it would be a great deal more likely that the PCs themselves were, having run the place for the last 9 years until a few months ago - but party politics doesn't think, it just reacts hysterically like this to everything about "the other" party - mindless in the extreme - and in a big, complex world, about the very last thing that is going to help is thoughtless knee-jerk reactions like this.

Party politics has GOT to go, before we get decent government of, by and for We the People - not of, by and for The Party (which can also be taken to the next level - who controls the major parties? - the Bay St Boys, of course - but whoever it is, it sure as fuck ain't We the People) - actually the germ of an idea floating around here - the "government" side of the House of Commons ought to be renamed the Bay St side - no matter who wins the most votes or seats, they get to represent Bay St - and the "opposition" side, those sad sacks getting the least votes, no matter who they are, would become the We the People side - destined to remain forever powerless, nothing better to do than complain about the bad stuff the gov is getting up to, and get taunted and jeered at by those with the real power.... true, ain't it???? - and that's why the tweedledee-dumers put on such a good show, they really DO want to sit on the side with the most perks and stuff ......

Layton, of course, is the fly in the ointment here, which is why he and the NDP have to be dissed at every opportunity - even low in the polls (insofar as we can trust them in the first place), there are still a LOT of undecided voters out there - they are all biased at a deep, unvocalised gut level already against them "darned tax-and-spend commie-socialists" after decades of full-out propaganda against them - but they are also about fed up to the ears with the Liberal lies of the last ten years (and McGuinty's little "coincidental" health-care tax didn't help much) - and still somewhat untrustful of the new-look Republican North party of Harper (proving that you can only do so much with propaganda - we are still a few steps short of Orwell's 1984 world, meaning we have a chance, there is still hope, slim though it may be) - and were Layton's ideas to start getting some fair attention, Canadians just might start turning there, since it's hard to deny that he is talking about all of the things most Canadians want and believe we should be doing, whereas even when the Libs and Harper start talking about similar things to con the voters into believing they AREN'T reptilian kitten eaters, they have a lot of baggage to carry around, previous lies or contrary statements notwithstanding (hearing Harper try to deny he would have sent Canadian troops off behind the Americans in Bush's invasion of Iraq last year is quite amazing, or Martin telling everyone how he would take steps to partially decriminalise pot after letting the last bill die out (not that it was very good at all), or how he supports renewed democracy after killing the NDP attempt to give Canadians a choice on PR last year, or how much he LOVES our health care system after gutting it the last few years - I am personally just amazed still at how things are going here, at how both of these people and their parties aren't somewhere around 10% hardcore support each, with the sane people of the country just laughing out loud and completely refusing to listen to their total bullshit anymore - that is the power of propaganda though - the person so influenced gives the object every benefit of the doubt - they hold a gun to your head, but you don't believe they'll pull the trigger - and when they do - well - it's a bit late to complain then, or change your mind - you will of course see a light, but it ain't gonna help much here.

Saving Private Ivan - "... Remember Normandy's heroes - but also that the Red army played the decisive role in defeating Nazi Germany..." (Friday June 11, 2004, The Guardian) - quite interesting that we NEVER hear about this during our school days and the teaching of "history" or all the somber dedications to the great brave Brits and Canadians and (most of all, according to Hollywood) Americans who saved Europe from the scourge of Hitler and the Nazis - one would not want to disparage our soldiers of that time, who undoubtedly were very brave and courageous - but why the more-or-less lie that they were the central force in it all? Well - as we see throughout history - and as Orwell tried to show in 1984, although evidently most people have no idea of what he was talking about - those who would rule through fear and force require an enemy - an enemy who is always threatening the "homeland" in order to justify their huge militaries and police forces - and all sorts of repressive laws that they can use against the people, again with the justification of "protecting the homeland" - and propaganda must be simple, and trying to have it both ways - the Russian soldiers were certainly very brave people, at least as brave and sacrificing as our own (evidently considerably moreso, actually) - but just after that, their country became a baaaaddddd place - and obviously no GOOD people could come from a BAD place (the tv cartoons we are taught to believe are suitable metaphors for the real world don't get into that kind of depth or subtlety - so those reared on them have a hard time going there as well) - all them damn commies are evil and we just hate them all and all the people in their countries - so I guess that's why we never heard about it all in "school", with our wonderful "education" system -

- all worth a thought or two anyway. Since we're up to the same game now, with them damn terraists - a much better enemy for those who would be dictators, as they are much more shadowy, much more bogeymany - we truly are regressing - we all believe in bad monsters ready to bite our toes off under our beds when we are young, but of course there are no monsters and as we get older we stop believing in them - but now the Department of Homeland Security pretty much has everyone believing in equally imaginary monsters lurking in every shadowy place in our society - and demanding we all base our lives on fear, and let them do anything they want to control We the People, in the pretense of controlling these bogeymen.

And most people seem to be buying it. Amazing. I am personally quite shocked and disappointed at the success Bush et al. have had in selling this story in Canada - there is a GREAT deal more skepticism, especially now almost 3 years later - in rather more civilised and less brainwashed countries in Europe - living close to the Americans is NOT good for your health. Or your brains HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA - that FUCKING tv.

HAHAHAHAHA - here's another laugh - McGuinty's High Noon bravado makes Grits targets - "....Mr. McGuinty seems to take his battering as evidence of his leadership. He has talked repeatedly about the "tough choices" he was forced to make..." - they've been doing this for the last 20++ years, talking about "tough choices" - what I can't figure is why these "tough choices" always, without fail, means We the People get shafted, and They the Corps rake it in - I mean, wouldn't it just be so fucking nice some day to hear an elected Canadian politician saying something like - "Goldarn it, we had to make a tough choice, so we decided we'd just have to raise the corporate tax rate a couple of percent, sort of back towards where it was before this crazy tax-cutting nonsense started...." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA - or how about - "Yep, we saw it was gonna be a tough decision, but by golly, we thought it was time the Canadian workers got a break, so by golly we told George Bush and the Americans and their "lets-make-all-workers-poor-while-making-all-our-corporate-tax-donors-rich" so-called trade agreement to just shove it where the sun don't shine. Yes siree bob's yer uncle, that's what we did" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA - man, that's good beer tonight HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA - or how about the biggie - "Y'know, we had to make a really tough decision this time, so we decided that rather than pander to the banks and make the national debt and the service charges on that debt even bigger during this budget cycle, why, we'd go to the Bank of Canada and start just writing off that debt, you know how it is, and start spending the tax dollars of Canadians on Canadians, rather than handing so much of it over to the banks year after year after blessed year - you know, that was a really tough decision, because, well, we had some secret communications with the BCNI-CCCE spokesperson a few hours ago, and they're really pissed, and have promised we will never work again in this country - but by god, we just felt it was time to make a tough decision for Canada and Canadians that favored THEM rather than foreign investors. Yes sirree, that's what we did." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - you wanna believe they'd never see another public paycheck after the banks got through with em HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA

But boy, me son, it sure as fuck would be nice to see a Canadian politician with that kind of guts, eh????

But the good ones die young - John and John and Robert and Martin to name but a few, while the truly evil hold on forever and ever - there's a message there of some sort - I almost took a trip to Ottawa last week to inform Mr. Paul in fucking PERSON that "ALL" Canadians most certainly were NOT mourning the death of a great leader - but I figured why fucking bother. And Bush the elder is still kickin and killin around the world, Nixon was ancient when he kicked it, Kissinger is still performing his grossly evil manipulations around the world - and when one of us gets too noisy they die. And on and on and on we go. As long as the lion lays down with the lamb and eats it while the lamb says "Please sir may I have some more" - that's the way she'll stay, kiddies, that's the way she'll stay.

God I'm a grumpy old fuck some days - I think I need a Scrooge Experience. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA - after rereading all the above and thinking what a lot of Stooges experiences there are to write about every week actually. Maybe I'll settle for another beer HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

happy summer!!! (nononono there's no summer vacation here HAHAHAHAHAHAAA - long as the beer and the elecgrricity hold out I'll be screamin at someone HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA)

man I gotta find a sarcasm font ...... (nonono - the day you see one of those-little-round-things-some-people-put-in-emails on THIS page, you can be sure that the RM has been disappeared and some evil fuck is trying to feed you full of disinformation of SOME sort. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA)