Buckdog

" ... the party's over,''
Tony Clement, Health Minister

Canada's Conservative government has decided to borrow from the politics of the 1930's and 'get tough with reefer smokers'! Stephen Harper's crew of fundamentalist right wingnuts are going to announce a $64 million anti-drug initiative next week that aims to get-tough on 'illegal' drugs in Canada.

So while we have record levels of REAL crime in the nation, precious police resources are going to be dedicated to chasing Canadians who may use a little recreational marijuana. Harper needs scapegoats to blame the ills of the nation on. Pot smokers likely will fill that bill for the Tories.

-CBC
-CTV

CTV News reports:
"Afghan President Hamid Karzai has offered the Taliban a position in government and says he will meet personally with the militants to discuss the proposal. [...]

Karzai offered Saturday to meet with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister and factional warlord leader -- saying he would even meet on their territory.

"If I find their address, there is no need for them to come to me, I'll personally go there and get in touch with them," Karzai said.

"Esteemed Mullah, sir, and esteemed Hekmatyar, sir, why are you destroying the country?"

If a group of Taliban militants came to Karzai and offered to halt attacks in exchange for a role in government, he would accept, he said."

CTV News


Oh and by the way .... here is a humble and heartfelt message to every Conservative or Liberal who ever referred to Jack Layton as 'Taliban Jack' !!!



taliban
afghanistan
taliban_jack

Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty demonstrated how the conservative mind works by the way in which they dealt with Canada’s $14Billion budget surplus. They took the entire amount and gave it to the banks. Period. No other option was considered.

During the years that Roy Romanow was Premier of Saskatchewan, he operated with a very popular model for utilizing surplus budget dollars. With a policy called ‘1/3 - 1/3 -1/3', all surplus dollars went one third to debt reduction, one third to tax cuts, and one third to program creation or enhancement. The model worked well and is one of the reasons that Saskatchewan New Democrats have been able to remain in power for 16 years.

Harper proved again yesterday how limited Conservative vision is. With the luxury of a surplus that could have been used for infrastructure spending, student loan relief or tax cuts, Harper knee jerked towards typical right wing ideology and handed the entire $14Billion to banks. No vision. No creativity. No concern for the citizens of the nation.

How are you liking ‘government by right wing ideology?’

Canadian Press

Photo courtesy Conservative Party of Canada

If you are a member of Facebook and are concerned about what is happening in Burma, there is a Facebook group that is growing massively by the hour. As I post this the total number of members is well over 65,000.



-04/10/2007 349,000 Members
-03/10/2007 315,000 Members
-02/10/2007 291,000 Members
-01/10/2007 255,000 Members
-30/09/2007 217,000 Members
-29/09/2007 172,000 Members
-28/09/2007 127,000 Members
-27/09/2007 65,000 Members
-26/09/2007 12,000 Members
-25/09/2007 6,000 Members
-24/09/2007 3,500 Members

To join, log into your Facebook account and search on Support the Monks' protest in Burma or try this link:
Support the Monks Protest in Burma

This was the scene in Victoria Park in Regina, Saskatchewan today as demonstrators protested against the violence currently going on in Burma.

More Photos From Regina Demonstration - Sept. 27th
(Photos courtesy Dave Mitchell)

During the last Federal election, the Conservatives promised to create 125,000 new day care spaces in the nation. Monte Solberg now officially says "Oops! - no can do!"

Never mind that Stephen Harper has a $10 Billion surplus of our tax dollars ... which he is going to give to the banks to 'pay down debt.'

At the time that Harper made the promise for 125,000 new child care spaces, many Canadians were skeptical. Deep down, right wingers believe that child care should be provided in the home by a parent who does not work outside of the home.

When it comes to Conservatives, they simply say whatever they have to to win votes.

Shame on Canada's not so great Government!

Canadian Press

Burmese military units moved on a number of Buddhist monasteries in Myanmar and arrested hundreds of monks in the pre-dawn hours.

-Globe & Mail
-CTV News
-AFP
-CBC News

Former Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau is walking away from politics and has told supporters that he will not be seeking the Liberal nomination in the riding of Westmount-Ville Marie or any other riding. Marc Garneau quit his job as the chief of Canada's space agency and ran unsuccessfully for the Liberals in Vaudreuil-Soulanges during the 2006 Federal election.

Mr. Garneau had approached the Liberals earlier this year about being their candidate in the Outremont by election. Stephan Dion hand picked the candidate and we all know how well that worked for the Libs.

National Post

Federal Access to Information documents reveal that Canadian military personnel prepared an initial draft of Karzai's speech, delivered on Sept. 22, 2006.

New Democrat Member of Parliament, Dawn Black quoted a report from Task Force Afghanistan which states: "Team prepared initial draft of President (Karzai's) address to Parliament 22 Sep."

Black said Gen. David Fraser reports in the documents that "key statistics, messages, themes, as well as overall structure (of the speech) were adopted by the president in his remarks."

"What Canadians heard was not the voice of the Afghan people, but the talking points of the Department of National Defence," Black said.

-From CBC News
-New Democratic Party News Release
-The Star

"I think it puts the Liberals in a position where they're going to have to make a decision and a choice about whether they mean what they say or are they going to try and wiggle out of it if they don't want an election."
Libby Davies, MP
NDP House Leader

I agree totally with Federal NDP House Leader, Libby Davies. If we are going to have a federal election this fall, it will be the Liberals who make that decision.

Clearly the Bloc Quebecois senses Dion's weakness in Quebec and they want a federal campaign to try and capitalize on that weakness.

The NDP sense Harper's weakness on the Afghanistan file and the environment. NDP troops are flush with enthusiasm after the Outremont by-election and seem anxious to hit the federal hustings.

The Liberal party of Canada would nose dive in a political 'death spiral' if they let the current parliament fall and go into a campaign without internally understanding and addressing the reasons for the Outremont result.

There is also the possibility that Stephen Harper could decide that it is time to go to the polls and pull the plug on his own government. That in itself could bite him politically for bringing on a federal election on the heels of the Ontario and Newfoundland & Labrador provincial campaigns.

My prediction - NO FEDERAL ELECTION THIS FALL!

National Post

Slow news day. Not much to blog about ....

Iran's president stepped off a plane today in New York City to a less than formal reception.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will address the General Assembly of the United Nations as well as a speaking engagement at Columbia University. This is going to be an interesting state visit.

ABC News

There are few institutions more 'conservative' than the ranks of the country music industry in the United States. Starting with the 9/11 attack, a number of country music stars have been singing about the 'red - white and -blue' and giving complete support to President Bush's idiotic foreign policy.

It turns out that with the plummeting popularity of Bush and his failed strategy, many of his former supporters are now having to 'cut and run' to salvage their own careers. No more so than with the country music industry which now realizes that an ideological attachment to George W. does not play well with music sales!

Telegraph.uk

MACLEANS COVER STORY: Its strategies shattered, a desperate Washington is reaching out to the late dictator's henchmen.
Patrick Graham - September 20, 2007

Great Feature Piece By Macleans.ca

My fellow blogger - (and defender of the truth from right wing assault) - Jonathan Hutson, has a great post on Daily KOS.

Writing as the Legal Affairs correspondent for the September 19, 2007, issue of Human Events, propagandist Ann Coulter smears trial attorneys, especially former Senator John Edwards, and also initiates a blatant falsehood.

Coulter sweepingly asserts that trial attorneys are heartless and greedy "charlatans" who prey on doctors and that Democratic presidential candidate and noted trial attorney John Edwards in particular is a "parasite" because he has championed patients' rights and has sued to hold doctors accountable for malpractice. Coulter contrasts her claims with the fact that doctors show they care about improving society by working for organizations such as Doctors Without Borders.

Coulter asks, "Has anyone else noticed the nonexistence of a charitable organization known as 'Lawyers Without Borders'?"

So Coulter asserts. However, in fact, there IS a U.S.-based charitable organization called exactly that. Yet Coulter did not bother to check her facts.

Lawyers Without Borders bills itself as "the world’s largest group of volunteer lawyers from around the globe who stand ready to offer pro bono service to worldwide projects and initiatives."

Coulter, who holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, ought to know that law firms, nonprofit legal organizations, and individual attorneys from the U.S. and many other nations donate time and services to Lawyers Without Borders. Currently, the organization focuses on advocating for human rights and supporting the rule of law in Ethiopia, Liberia, Cameroon, Namibia, Palestinian Territories (Israel), Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, and Mozambique.

Al Franken and others have previously documented shoddy research, mischaracterizations, and misleading statements by polemicist Ann Coulter. Perhaps it's time she forfeited her claim to being a conservative columnist and instead be known as what she is: a reckless calumnist.

But the baseless smear of trial lawyers is not the biggest whopper that Coulter tells in her latest column. The biggest whopper is her lede: "The only 'crisis' in health care in this country is that doctors are paid too little." Go back and check your facts, Ms. Coulter.

How To Get Involved

To join Lawyers Without Borders, contact Luvean Myers at 860-541-2288 or mail a check or money order to:

Lawyers Without Borders
750 Main Street
Suite 1500
Hartford CT 06103 USA
Attn: Membership

When members of the Opposition Saskatchewan Party talk about their policy on the privatization of crown corporations, they have a customized message for you whether you favour a sell off or not.

If they encounter a ‘pro-privatization’ individual, they simply point out a Sask Party convention policy resolution, passed in 2005, that is titled "Stopping Provincial Government Competition with Private Sector Businesses," which calls for a complete review of areas of government (including Crowns corporations) which compete with the private sector.

If they encounter a voter who likes the current configuration of Crown corporations in Saskatchewan, they quickly move to Message ‘B’ where they assure you (repeatedly) that they have NO intention of reviewing or privatizing any crown assets or enterprise.

Into this mixed message environment comes the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union which represents employees at SaskEnergy, SaskWater and part of SaskPower. The CEP wants the Saskatchewan Party to get their story straight as this province prepares for an upcoming election.

“At a press conference Thursday, Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union officials from locals representing SaskTel employees said they needed "clarification" after recent comments by Saskatchewan Party MLA Dan D'Autremont that SaskTel subsidiary SecureTek could be wound down because it competed with private businesses.

Party leader Brad Wall had quickly said D'Autremont had misrepresented the party's position and that it fully supported keeping the Crowns -- and all of their subsidiaries whether they compete with the private sector or not -- public.”
Regina Leader Post
September 21, 2007

Regina Leader Post

Ken from kenoncanpolitics has a great blog post today which connects the NDP win in Outremont this week with the election of Phil Edmonston, the only other New Democrat ever elected to the House of Commons from Quebec.

"Edmonston's advice for growing the (New Democratic) party in Quebec: "Go for the radical middle. Stay away from the crazies, the one-issue candidates or the people who have agendas that are not really agendas mainstream, average Canadians can identify with."

kenoncanpolitics

POSTSCRIPT:
Uncorrected proofs provides a Quebec target list for the NDP - Thanks!!

-"Albertans do not receive their fair share from energy development,"

-"Albertans own the resource. The onus is on the government to re-balance the royalty and tax system so that a fair share is collected."
ALBERTA ROYALTY REVIEW PANEL

-Associated Press
-Globe & Mail

Join Brad Wall and Stephen Harper for a little Saskatchewan Right Wing Hula action!!


NOTE: if your computer cannot get the video to play, you can download an Adobe Flash Player

Although she probably hopes that we don't make a big deal out of it, I want to wish Elizabeth May all the best in her surgery booked for this Friday. Since it is out there in the news, there is not too much to do but to wish here a rapid and speedy recovery. Politics is a hard business and for those who live in the goldfish bowl like Elizabeth does, it is hard to get some private time.

Wishing you all the best Elizabeth!

Leftdog @
Buckdog

CBC

In May of 2007, the Regina City Police launched an investigation to determine how confidential police investigation reports ended up in the hands of the Official Opposition, Saskatchewan Party.

To date, neither the Regina City Police NOR the media have provided an update.

We are still waiting!

-Saskatchewan Party Had Stolen Police Records In Their Possession

-Regina City Police Investigate Leak Of Confidential Police Reports

NDP candidate Thomas Mulcair has been declared the winner over Liberal Jocelyn Coulon in the Montreal riding of Outremont.





-Elections Canada:Outremont Results
-CTV News
-La Presse
-CBC
- Radio Canada

Well, it is NOT the kind of universal, publicly funded health care system that Canadians know, but it is revolutionary to the American way of thinking.

Already, Republicans are condemning the Clinton plan as 'removing' choices from individuals in their 'free market' health model.

"I believe everyone — every man, woman and child — should have quality, affordable health care in America,"
Senator Hillary Clinton

Associated Press

Almost symbolic of the right wing mentality that has settled into the direction of Canada's military, Tim Hortons, Pizza Pizza and Subway outlets are opening up on Canadian Forces Bases.

"What bothers us is these private sector companies are selling on Crown property to provide services to a captive market, the military troops and their families, without being publicly tendered. It raises the question of how many small businesses would love to put in a bid for such a captive market,"
John MacLennan, President
Union of National Defence Employees

Montreal Gazette

For the first time in recorded history, seafarers can sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific by way of the Northwest Passage.

And yet, those who deny the fact that Climate Change is occurring, continue to spout their contrary political rhetoric.


-Melting ice clears Northwest Passage

-Northwest Passage Open

-Arctic Ice Melt Opens Northwest Passage

-Arctic Sea Ice Continues Decline As Temperatures Rise

Click on the above cartoon to see ... (or) Link here to 'Working For Change'

From the Affidavit of Rick Swenson
Leader, PC Party of Saskatchewan
March 7, 2007
Presented to the Court of Queens Bench For
Saskatchewan - Judical Centre of Regina


During the 2003 Saskatchewan Provincial Election, it was generally predicted that the New Democrats would fall and the opposition Saskatchewan Party would form government. As a result of these predictions, the Sask Party spent like drunken sailors in an effort to put themselves over the top.

Funny thing happened. The NDP won a 4th term and the Sask Party was left with a huge election debt!

The story could end there except for one little tidbit of historical information. After the 2003 election, the leader of the Saskatchewan Party approached the leader of the tiny, discredited (but cash rich) Saskatchewan Progressive Conservative Party and SOUGHT A MERGER OF THE TWO PARTIES!!

This new information is contained in a sworn affidavit by Rick Swenson, leader of the Saskatchewan P.C.'s:

The main stream media in Saskatchewan have NOT reported on this aspect of the political scene and you have to ask yourself, why?

-Saskatchewan Party Members use procedural tricks to prevent PC's from getting access to their cash fund

Canada's publicly funded health care system has many enemies. Those who want to turn health care over to the corporate 'for profit' sector use many arguments to try and convince Canadians that the current system is not sustainable.

Those who champion the public system have new ammunition to deal with the 'free market' detractors. A comprehensive report entitled, How Sustainable is Medicare?, released Thursday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives argues that Canada's Medicare system is completely sustainable.

The key argument used by those who oppose the public system is that our aging baby boom population will 'bankrupt' the system. 'Not so', says the policy paper authored by the CCPA.

CBC

The Federal Government of Canada wants to look over your shoulder as you type on your computer keyboard. Public Safety Canada is proposing legislation that forces telecommunications providers to provide personal information about their clients to authorities with no questions asked.

The government document states, "Modern telecommunications and computer networks such as the Internet are a great source of economic and social benefits, but they can also be used in the planning, coordination, financing and perpetration of crimes and threats to public safety and the national security of Canada. By extension, the rapidly evolving nature of these technologies can pose a significant challenge to law enforcement and national security officials who are entrusted with combating these threats, and who employ lawful access to communications and information to do so."
Federal Information Consultation Document

Privacy experts aren't so sure we need to give new massive powers to the Harper government, "We know from history that the more powers you give law enforcement agencies and the government, the most potential there is for abuse," said Philippa Lawson, of the Canadian Internet Public Policy Interest Centre.

While I have no problems with giving Canadian courts more discretion in ordering the information to be turned over on application in matters concerning child pornography or fraudulent behaviour, I am not prepared for those who differ with Harper politically to have to watch what they say online.

CTV

A candidate for the Opposition Saskatchewan Party has been challenged to explain comments he has made concerning the Charter of Rights And Freedoms:

"But LeClerc, a former career criminal who reformed to become a motivational speaker and the director of the faith-based Teen Challenge substance abuse recovery program, said he supports the charter and his harsh words were aimed at how it can be used by criminals at the expense of victims of crime. "I do not believe the charter of rights is a piece of garbage on the whole. What I was speaking on was a particular issue," he said in a telephone interview.

But NDP Justice Minister Frank Quennell said LeClerc's 1997 comments were troubling given the many protections afforded by the charter, such as free speech and religious freedom.

"That shows a lack of respect I think for due process, the rule of law, respect for minorities and even respect for individual personal liberties," he said in an interview from Saskatoon.

LeClerc's comments were made in a speech in Kelowna to an International Crimestoppers convention.

The Oct. 4, 1997 Vancouver Sun article says LeClerc took shots at the media, parents, and Canada's Charter of Rights for forcing more young people to commit suicide and break the law.

It says he blamed the charter for giving one person's rights more weight than the majority's.

LeClerc, who received a full national pardon seven years ago, said he was talking about issues such as the charter's impact in areas such as organized crime."

-Regina Leader Post
-Saskatchewan NDP Caucus

Police have arrested one person for having made a death threat against Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach. The arrested man is facing 31 charges in relation to the threats.

The Edmonton Sun has more ...

"More details have been released on the man charged by police over alleged threats to Premier Ed Stelmach.

A 57-year-old Edmonton man has been charged with numerous offences after city cops investigated a report that threats were made against Stelmach last week.

Police identified a suspect and on Friday executed a search warrant on a home near 129 Avenue and 122 Street.

Police arrested a man without incident and say they also located 14 rifles in the home.

Ronald Edward Labelle has been charged with three counts of uttering threats, 14 counts of careless storage of a firearm, and 14 counts of possession of an unrestricted/unregistered weapon."

CBC

Notoriously stubborn, Lord Conrad Black has finally digested that fact that he may be facing a US Federal prison sentence of up to 30 years. With that in mind, the good Lord is trying to settle a $425 Million (US) lawsuit with Hollinger International Inc., in hopes that the presiding judge will see fit to lessen his pending sentence.

All of the pompous bluster displayed by his Lordship during the trial seems NOT to have worked very well for him as a strategy.

Toronto Star

"Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work. In a simple experiment reported today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists at New York University and UCLA show that political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information.

Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.

The results show "there are two cognitive styles -- a liberal style and a conservative style," said UCLA neurologist Dr. Marco Iacoboni, who was not connected to the latest research.
Los Angeles Times
September 10, 2007


"David Amodio, of New York University, writing in the journal Nature Neuroscience, says conservatives were found to be "more structured and persistent in their judgments"; in tests they had "higher average scores" on measures of the personal need for "order, structure and closure". (However), Liberals showed "higher tolerance of ambiguity and complexity".
The Guardian
September 10, 2007

American General David Petraeus will release his report on 'progress' in Iraq later today. The report is expected to reveal that the surge of US troops in Iraq has been an 'effective' strategy.

Should we be surprised? Not really! General Petraeus will publicly praise Bush's strategy in Iraq because he was one of the key architects of the "surge" strategy to send thousands of additional troops to Iraq!

Q: Is the report phony? A: You bet!
Q: Will the American public fall for it? A: You bet! (they elected Bush TWICE didn't they??)

-CBC
-CTV News
-L.A. Times

tag general petraeus

Challenging the 'logic' of: the Conservative Party of Canada - smalldeadanimasls - Ezra Levant - etc, etc, etc .....

H/T to My Blahg!

SYDNEY: Even for someone as gaffe-prone as US President George W Bush, he was in rare form on Friday, confusing Apec with Opec and transforming Australian troops into Austrians. President Bush’s tongue started slipping almost as soon as he started talking at a business forum on the eve of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Sydney.

“Mr Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction,” he told Prime Minister John Howard. “Thank you for being such a fine host for the Opec summit .”
As the audience of several hundred people erupted in laughter , Mr Bush corrected himself and joked, “He invited me to the Opec summit next year.”Australia has never been a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Later in his speech, Mr Bush recounted how Mr Howard had gone to visit “Austrian troops” last year in Iraq. There are, in fact, no Austrian troops there. But Australia has about 1,500 military personnel in and around the country.

Economic Times


Bush At APEC

The following is an excerpt from the Regina Leader Post:

"Regardless of the moderate direction leader Brad Wall has so diligently tried to steer the Saskatchewan Party rank and file towards, the membership of this party have always been red-meat-eating Tories.

And Dan D'Autremont (MLA) -- one of the four former Progressive Conservatives who helped found the Saskatchewan Party -- has always been their red-meat-eating poster boy (who, apparently, seldom passes over the dessert tray, either). [...]

So when D'Autremont told CBC radio reporter Geoff Leo that a Saskatchewan Party government would consider winding down businesses like SaskTel's home security subsidiary Securtek so that it no longer competes with the private sector, the veteran MLA may have created a problem for Wall that goes beyond lending credibility to the NDP wolf-in-sheep's clothing campaign. [...]

"Dan is wrong," Wall said Friday morning, adding that this isn't party policy and he had no idea where D'Autremont got his idea.

Wall added that D'Autremont would even publicly acknowledge he was wrong in his comments to CBC and D'Autremont quickly did just that Friday morning.

End of story, right? Well, maybe not.

While acknowledging Friday morning he was wrong, D'Autremont initially explained he was wrong because was informed that the party's "policy changed two or three weeks ago." According to the veteran MLA, he was out of the country when Wall unveiled the policy change at an Aug. 21 news conference. Ironically, it was at the same event that Wall exposed the NDP campaign suggesting that he had a hidden agenda. At the time, Wall told reporters there were no plans to change the status of private-sector-competing SaskTel subsidiaries like Securtek and SaskTel Max.

D'Autremont said Friday that his opinion on winding down Securtek was based on resolution CC05-6 in the Saskatchewan Party Policy Book entitled "Stopping provincial government competition with private sector businesses". The resolution states that a Saskatchewan Party government would:

"immediately review provincial government competition with the private sector through government departments, agencies and Crown corporations in the delivery of services."

However, he phoned back later Friday and said that he actually misspoke twice. While the Saskatchewan Party resolution was headlined "Stopping competition", the body of the resolution only calls for a review -- consistent with Wall's position, D'Autremont said."

You would think that by now, Saskatchewan's Right Wingers would have realized that 'Deny - Deny - Deny' is an unwise political stratgey!!!

-More from the Saskatchewan NDP Caucus Website ....
-And another article from the Regina Leader Post

I was a huge fan of James Brown and I also completly enjoyed the songs of Luciano Pavarotti. Eclectic? Perhaps. Both are gone now.

As a tribute, here they are together in concert LIVE - Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown

Oh ... you are going to love right wing nutbar Coulter's take on the arrest of Republican Senator, Larry Craig, in an undercover sting in a Minneapolis washroom:

"Despite the 9/11-level coverage, Larry Craig is merely accused of "cruising while Republican." There is nothing liberals love more than gay-baiting, which they disguise as an attack on "hypocrisy." [...]

Assuming the worst about Craig, the Senate has not held a vote on outlawing homosexual impulses. It voted on gay marriage. Craig not only opposes gay marriage, he's in a heterosexual marriage with kids. Talk about walking the walk! Did Craig propose marriage to the undercover cop? If not, I'm not seeing the "hypocrisy."

Yahoo.com

"The news that Facebook will be making its member list available to Internet search engines is sure to send a shudder of fear through its users. In the coming weeks, anyone, even those without a Facebook account, will not only be able to search for friends via the Facebook homepage but also through popular search engines, such as Yahoo! and Google. While Facebook insists that these public listings will include only names and profile pictures, some members fear it's the beginning of a slippery slope."
Telegraph

Telegraph.UK

As Saskatchewan prepares for the next provincial election, it is important to expose the extreme right wing ideology of the Official Opposition, Saskatchewan Party. Their words come from a politically illiterate concept of history and reality:

"Well, Madam Deputy Speaker, it’s clearly obvious to me that the communistic policies of the NDP are really what’s creating this."
- Sask Party MLA Yogi Huyghebaert: March 17, 2006


"Tommy the commie set our province backwards 50 years"
- Sask Party MLA Jason Dearborn: April 1, 2003


"I would even go back to as far as originally starting even with a little bit of communism even starting in, when they started with that old CCF [Co-operative Commonwealth Federation], and then they kind of smooth it over. But they were still heavy socialists at that end of it."
- Sask Party MLA Greg Brkich: April 25, 2006


"Mr. Speaker, that member of the revolutionary, socialist party is dealing totally and solely in rhetoric on a continuing basis"
- Sask Party MLA Yogi Huyghebaert: November 25, 2005


"This whole shell game which the NDP government plays of 'now you see it, now you don’t', reminds me of an analogy that I’ve read on governments. In communism you have two cows; the government will take both of them and give you part of the milk. "
-Sask Pary MLA Donna Harpauer: April 4, 2000


"The people of this province know that the main priority of this government is to build a socialist Utopia here at their expense — an island of socialism, Mr. Speaker."
- Sask Party MLA Lyle Stewart: March 26, 2004


"Here we spend millions of dollars — billions worldwide— put lives on the line to stop and arrest the spread of communism, and lo and behold, here in Saskatchewan we vote in a party that has the same ideologies. [sic]"
- Sask Party MLA Yogi Huyghebaert: March 26, 2001


"In the next election, all of us who care about our children will put an end to the NDP’s socialist master plan once and for all, Mr. Speaker"
- Sask Party MLA Lyle Stewart: April 3, 2000


"This is really an age-old socialist trick. Use the Crowns to bleed the people, and then use their existence to prove that socialism works."
- Sask Party MLA June Draude: March 26, 1997


"I do not trust this socialist government because history has shown, history has shown, Mr. Speaker, that this socialist government right over there, if they can devise a way to take nuts from a squirrel they’re going to do it and they have done it"
- Sask Party MLA Alan Kerpan: April 12, 2004


"We were at the door to the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), to the Soviet Union, to protect from the expansion of their ideology. And yes, I was there….Because the wall was built not to keep people out, Mr. Speaker; the wall was built to keep people in. People were escaping the oppression of an ideology. And that is essentially what’s happening in Saskatchewan. "
- Sask Party MLA Yogi Huyghebaert: March 23, 2004


"They are more committed to the socialist doctrines of Tommy Douglas and the Regina Manifesto than they are to the success of this province."
- Sask Party MLA Lyle Stewart: March 26, 2004


"What we're seeing today, Mr. Speaker, is the socialist attitude for democracy, the attitude that what's yours is mine and what's mine is mine. Or to put it another way, that anything that furthers the socialist agenda is sacred and any method used to thwart the socialist goals is a sacrilege. …Mr. Speaker, this reminds me of the action taken in the legislatures of Russia during the years of Stalin and in the legislatures of Germany prior to world war II. The legislatures there were dominated by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis."
- Sask Party MLA Dan D'Autremont: July7, 1992

In his August 29th column, Regina Leader-Post political columnist, Murray Mandryk wrote the following:

"The NDP TV ad contains the words "the Sask. Party stands for PRIVATIZATION OF CROWNS". Those capitalized letters quickly fade, and, for a split second on the screen, the message is "the Sask. Party stands for P-O-R-N". Of course, this was coincidental and not intended to be a subliminal message, the NDP says. Yeah. Right."
Murray Mandryk
Leader Post
August 29, 2007

This is a clear alteration of what the TV screen actually showed.The word 'stands' is NOT on the screen. Mandryk has substituted the word 'stands' for 'stood'. An error, or is this simply a subliminal message meant to denigrate the New Democrats? Only Mandryk knows ... and he's not saying!

I wrote to the Regina Leader-Post and pointed out the changed words to the editors. I have heard nothing since that day and there has been no correction in Mandryk's column. And the main stream media wonders why they are losing their traditional reading audiences.

Shame on Murray Mandryk for faulty research, and for not correcting an obvious error - if it truly was an error!

The American Civil Liberties Union has obtained documents through a federal Freedom of Information Act application which detail numerous cases of death caused by interrogation tactics used by the American Army in Afghanistan and Iraq. The ACLU obtained the information after requesting any documents that indicate U.S. military involvement in the death of civilians.

"The documents, released by the American Civil Liberties Union ahead of a lawsuit, total nearly 10,000 pages of courts-martial summaries, transcripts and military investigative reports about 22 incidents. They show repeated examples of soldiers believing they were within the law when they killed local citizens. The killings include the drowning of a man soldiers pushed from a bridge into the Tigris River as punishment for breaking curfew, and the suffocation during interrogation of a former Iraqi general believed to be helping insurgents."
Ryan Lenz
Associated Press

Associated Press

He should stay there and do us all a favour!










Photo courtesy CBC

THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive air strikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,”

Alexis Debat
Director of Terrorism and National Security
Nixon Center

-The Times Online
-Will President Bush bomb Iran?
-Bush Puts Iran in Crosshairs

"Not by Capital alone is the world built;
but by the Hand of Labour!"

-To my Canadian friends - "Happy Labour Day!"
-To my American friends - "Happy Labor Day!"