Monday, June 18, 2007

More on Harper's Guide to Fuck-up Parliament

From Alison at Creekside:

Faced with the prospect of testimony hostile to the Con environment plan from a witness previously expected to be 'friendly', Environment Committee Chair and Con MP Bob Mills attempted to change the witness line-up, and when over-ruled by the rest of the committee he promptly resigned as committee chair. No other Con agreed to stand in for Mills, thereby effectively shutting down the hearings.


Now, the CPC spin-meisters have attempted to explain this away as just standard operating procedure for all parties in Parliament. "Everybody does it." "It's just politics." Blah, blah, blah.

When was the last time you heard of Liberal MPs storming out of committee meetings as per a Liberal guidebook of obstructionism? When was the last time that you heard Liberal whips praising MPs who paralyzed a hostile opposition in a minority government while berating those who tried to make it work?

No, as bad as the Liberals are, ... the CPC is unquestionably worse. They're inspired by the loathsomely stupid and hideously corrupt Republican Party of the USA. Both parties where their contempt for democracy on their sleeves. As well as their contempt for their precious "rule of law." The law is only to be respected when it can be used against their enemies.

There will come a time when the "conservative" contempt for the rule of law, for democratic procedure, indeed, for all the standards of a decent society, will become ingrained in the beliefs of the population at large. That day might come that will see these cynical morons reap as they have sown.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"No, as bad as the Liberals are, ... the CPC is unquestionably worse."

Rhetoric's just a tad overheated there, thwap. Perhaps you cannot recall the Liberals giving government grants to advertising firms for the purposes of "national unity" only to have the money miraculously return to the Liberal Party as campaign donations?

Yeah, you're right, on second thought it is worse to shut down hearings when you don't like what you think is going to be said.

Oh, wait again, I forgot about the APEC and Somalia inquiries...who shut those down?

But, you're right, the Conservatives are worse.

thwap said...

Good points. I'd actually forgotten APEC and Somalia. Then, the Liberals had majorities and so they could just set the terms of discussion anyway that they wanted.

I do remember AdScam actually. That was a nauseating bit of theft of government dollars for partisan gain. It's quite indefensible.

I'm sure that given Harper's swiss-cheese style ethics legislation, the Cons will soon approach their own levels of corruption.

What my post is referring to though, is the Cons use of tricks and procedures to stall the workings of a minority government.

Your comment has reminded me how bad the Liberals are, but this 200 page guidebook to subverting democracy makes me think that given a majority, Harper would be far, far worse.

I do hate both parties though.

Unknown said...

What about Haiti!!!!

"Cons use of tricks and procedures to stall the workings of a minority government."

The other parties use the same tactics when they can, the CPC were dumb writing it down.

I just wish that kind of crap would stop, I will agree with you there.

thwap said...

What about Haiti?

You're right Wayne. That too was revolting.

But Harper has made things worse for us in Afghanistan, with his naked, aggressive militarism.

I've no doubt if he were told to help destabilize Haiti (and he's done nothing to reverse course on Martin's disgusting policies) he would have done it with extreme prejudice.

Unknown said...

"But Harper has made things worse for us in Afghanistan, with his naked, aggressive militarism."

How else do you fight fanatics???

This is a UN approved NATO action, so it makes it right.

What Canada is doing in Afghanistan is noble, we do not want to take over the country or take their oil, we have our own.

We just want the Afghan people to be free of the Taliban, and live long, healthy peaceful lives, like we do here.