Harper's War Agenda

From Rabble.ca by Derrick O'Keeffe

Expanding foreign military bases serves Harper's war agenda

"Canadian fighter jets have flown more than 400 sorties over Libya thus far, and NATO's air campaign is intensifying. The Canadian planes have been operating from a NATO base in Italy. To fight wars from the air, you need to have the use of foreign bases.

Last week, Le Devoir broke the news that the Canadian government had completed agreements for new foreign bases in Jamaica and Germany, with talks ongoing to establish bases in Kuwait, Tanzania and several other countries."

The piece includes a link to the Canadian Peace Alliance and a statement against Canada's garrisoning of the planet.

"The Canadian Peace Alliance condemns the plans of the Harper government to establish new foreign military bases for Canada. This is a policy that has been in the works for some time but, like so much else about Canada's foreign policy, it was completely excluded from the discussion during the recent federal election

...The announcement about new foreign bases came at the same time as a request to keep Canadian Forces on the ground in Richelieu, Quebec to help with flood relief was being ignored. The Harper government continues to encourage costly and unnecessary deployments of the Forces abroad, while showing little interest in using its resources at home for disaster relief.

Foreign bases have nothing to do with Canadian security, and everything to do with the Harper government's desire to be able to participate in future military aggressions like the ones ongoing in Afghanistan and Libya."

Robert Kennedy Jr. blasts Harper

Some days the news is so depressing, the hypocrisy so thick and motives are so murky that it is hard work to see any light on the horizon at all.

And then this inspired piece from Robert Kennedy Jr. made me smile for one of the few times in the last five years when I consider the state of this country under Prime Minister Stephen Harper's malign influence.

Kennedy sees what we have running the place and isn't afraid to say it.

"...[C}anada['s] regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada's right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news."

There is already considerable leeway on "ads" during election campaigns. Basically, you're allowed to libel and slander to your heart's content. The HarperCons have taken it to new heights. They've launched attack ads without any official announcement of an election, delicately circumventing the financing rules and probably using taxpayer money to do it. But if they aren't election ads, then the Cons should be prosecuted under libel laws.

In my dreams...

But Robert Kennedy Jr. comes to the rescue again:

"...[H]arper, often referred to as 'George W. Bush's Mini Me,' is known for having mounted a Bush like war on government scientists, data collectors, transparency, and enlightenment in general. He is a wizard of all the familiar tools of demagoguery; false patriotism, bigotry, fear, selfishness and belligerent religiosity.

Harper's attempts to make lying legal on Canadian television is a stark admission that right wing political ideology can only dominate national debate through dishonest propaganda..."

Music to my ears, heard as a long gloomy winter is finally coming to an end...maybe. Weather gurus are forecasting a colder than usual spring.

Canada and the F-35's

From the wonderful Dr. Neil Kitson and his blog Canadians in Afghanistan

Canada's Purchase of the F-35 explained

They also did a wonderful explanation of the subprime mortages.

The First Law of Economics

Harper once called himself a "trained economist" on a CBC interview. For the record, he has a master's degree from the University of Calgary, has never taught, run a business, met a payroll or had any direct connection with the Canadian economy - but he still knows how to run it. He was the head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a mild-mannered sounding group whose real objective is reducing government to the size of something you could drown in the bathtub. All taxes are bad, according to these guys, although they and their appointed friends in the government are living high off the hog thanks to these taxes. Hmmmm...a slight disconnect here.

Harper was in Germany on Saturday - stunningly bad timing considering it was VE day - to demand, along with his sidekick Angela Merkel, that the rest of the world "rein in its spending". Astonishing hypocrisy considering the growth of non-elected Con partisans on the company payroll in Ottawa.

Today I read that Angela Merkel's party lost an election in the north of Germany on Sunday, which puts her party in a non-majority standing. She won't be able to force through her tax cutting measures. Looks like the German government is in as much disarray as everywhere else.

As for the "trained economist" blather, here's a wonderful quote from an Australian podcast called Ockham's Razor on the problem of peak oil.

The peak of oil production is past

The flat oil production plateau of 2005 to 2008 was a brilliant illustration of the fact that the predictive powers of economic theory are very limited. In spite of its technical jargon and its liberal use of mathematics, economics is more art and guesswork than a science. That's why the First Law of Economics states that for every economist there exists an equal and opposite economist.

Most of the economic policies and bank regulations were in place before Harper took command of the ship. He was busy trying to deregulate everything, including a push for zero down/forty year mortgages and allowing U.S. mortgage lenders and their lack of any checks or regulations to operate in Canada.

It was sheer luck and fortunate timing. The world started to melt before Canada had boarded the ice floe. To think that Harper has anyone to thank for it but his Liberal and Progressive Conservative predecessors is a fantasy.