Sunday, October 12, 2008

Daily Digest October 12, 2008


The DAILY DIGEST: INFORMATION and OPINION from ST. JOHN'S to VICTORIA.
ARCHIVED at http://cdndailydigest.blogspot.com/

EDITORIALs

HALIFAX CHRONICLE HERALD -
KANDAHAR COSTS Fog of war over figures

TORONTO STAR -
Health-care issue won't fade away

CALGARY HERALD -
What cost the Afghan mission? 

It's time to give thanks for the gift of friendship

EDMONTON JOURNAL -
Next Parliament likely much like the last

This is no time for governments to loosen the purse strings

VANCOUVER PROVINCE -
Canada needs a steady hand in Ottawa

VICTORIA TIMES-COLONIST -
Keep pay sane for public office

War on Drugs is killing our soldiers


ISSUES

AFGHANISTAN -
US wants to arm Afghan tribes against Taliban
US wants to reduce dependence on government by arming militias
http://quqnoos.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1776&Itemid=48

 Afghan president offers Taliban a role in governing country
President Hamid Karzai has offered Taliban leaders the possibility of positions in his government if they agree to a peace deal which could bring fighting to an end.

ISAF repels attacks in Helmand, launches strike into Pakistan
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/10/isaf_repels_attacks.php

Afghanistan's best hope is for controlled warlordism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/13/afghanistan

 Talebin stage audacious 'Tet-style' attack on British HQ city

Afghan president offers Taliban a role in governing country
Telegraph, UK (10/12/2008)
[]
Taliban leader killed by SAS was Pakistan officer
The Sunday Times (10/12/2008)

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
European leaders agree on bank support plan


POLITICAL OPINION -
Tories closing in

Harper launched a final appeal to Quebeckers

Harper: "I am not a devil with a cowboy hat"

  No elected in Quebec, not ministers, warns Harper

  Harper urged Quebecers not to isolate itself

Harper makes final push for Quebec votes

When strengths turn out to be weaknesses

Once invincible Tories fail to take stock

Dion's rise as swift as economy's fall

Layton makes last-minute stops in Ontario's manufacturing sector

  Harper tries to shore up support in Quebec

Alberta Tories on autopilot

Feared but not much loved

Infamous tape back to haunt Harper

May giving MacKay 'a run for his money'

A vote with heart

 
OPINION AND INFORMATION
MARGOLIS: The Canadian and U.S. election races look like passengers fighting over deck chairs on the sinking Titanic. The terrifying financial panic that has engulfed the entire globe seems to make all other human pursuits seem trivial. MORE...

How to vote for none of the above

Debt and repayment through a mythological view


INFOS 
Harper lance un ultime appel aux Québécois
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/elections-2008/200810/12/01-28894-harper-lance-un-ultime-appel-aux-quebecois.php

[  Le Canada en Afghanistan  ]
Forces armées : le recrutement tourne à plein régime
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/dossiers/le-canada-en-afghanistan/200810/11/01-28767-forces-armees-le-recrutement-tourne-a-plein-regime.php

Liste électorale
Jamais trop tard pour voter
http://elections.radio-canada.ca/elections/federales2008/2008/10/12/004-inscription-scrutin.shtml

Affaire Cadman
Harper garde le cap
http://elections.radio-canada.ca/elections/federales2008/2008/10/10/026-cadman-enregistrement.shtml

Duceppe courtise Québec, Dion invite les verts à se rallier aux rouges
http://info.branchez-vous.com/Nationales/081012/N101232AU.html

Le ministre Flaherty se fait rassurant face à l'avenir économique du pays
http://info.branchez-vous.com/Nationales/081011/N101115AU.html

 Harper a abandonné la classe moyenne, dit Layton

Un conservateur condamné pour chèque sans fonds, toujours membre du PLC

Duceppe traite un député conservateur d'«imbécile»


Harper lance un ultime appel aux Québécois


Dion compte sur l'appui des Verts

Dion gaining traction, but it may not be enough: senior Liberals . MORE...

An election with no voters? MORE...

Treatment of Dion unfair and unethical MORE...

Caught flatfooted.. MORE...

Robotic politics
If Harper doesn't win majority this time, he likely never will.  OK, so Steve Harper isn't quite in the same league as Marie Antoinette. Not nearly as pretty, for one thing. MORE...

Voters' Guide
He never technically panicked. But with the polls turning sour in the final week of this craziest of volatile campaigns, Stephen Harper's invocation of his rival as a potential prime minister was the closest.. MORE...

Stephen Harper: Double-edged sword MORE...

Next Parliament likely much like the last.. MORE...

No time for carbon bombing
Green taxes and cap-and-trade schemes are an insane 'cure' for a faltering economy. .. MORE...

Choosing the best from a bad lot. MORE...

Harper predicting minority
 
Green party says leader not calling for strategic voting to block Tories

May optimistic she can defeat MacKay in riding battle

May won't parachute into ridings taken by Greens

May giving MacKay 'a run for his money'

Replace 'perverse' electoral system: May

May's confusing us, Green candidate says

Peter Kent wants more private medicare
A Conservative candidate's suggestion that a private clinic be used as a model for health delivery across Canada prompted opposition charges that Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to expand for-profit health care outside the public system.

Tory crashes Duceppe campaign event

Duceppe calls heckling Tory candidate an `imbecile'

Harper cautious about possible European plan

Europe would guarantee inter-bank loans: draft declaration

Harper says next government won't last 4 years

Dion wants to stay, win or lose

Harper ignored warnings signs of economic turmoil: NDP

Tories closing in, despite gaffes

Vote red to 'go green'

Liberals cut lead, but Tories solidly out front

Tory majority possible: poll

Leadership on line

Harper hints he may step down if Tories lose election

Stage is set for dramatic Vancouver Island vote

Down to the wire in T.O.

Time to tally ballots

PM's final pitch to Quebec

Make vote count, Dion pleads

Angry Dion finds his stride

Layton woos Quebecers with anti-war message

 Layton: we're ready to govern

Tory Reform roots: withered or blossomed?

Harper still pursuing defamation lawsuit

Infamous tape back to haunt Harper

Harper must explain Cadman tape, Dion says

Voters should ignore opinion polls, Harper says

Green supporter Elizabeth May has sold us out. Senator May? Environment Minister May?


BELOW(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)30)(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)30)(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)30)(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)(30)30)(30)(30)(30)(30)

Yield not to temptation.
Too often I do, I confess, but not to-day.

Rather than posting the following article it's being drawn to your attention.

You may agree or disagree with its conclusions.

I do and would be pleased to debate with those who do not.

         Joe.

MARGOLIS: The Canadian and U.S. election races look like passengers fighting over deck chairs on the sinking Titanic. The terrifying financial panic that has engulfed the entire globe seems to make all other human pursuits seem trivial. MORE...

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From: Ron Thornton
Subject: Re: Daily Digest October 11, 2008

Howdy Joe:

First, in regards to your opening comments for the October 11th Digest, I don't think Harper is the type of guy who can dish it out but can't take it. I think, during an election campaign, every one makes all sorts of noise over the damnedest things in the hopes of persuading public opinion. It is just theater. In the end, for me, the alternatives are so utterly unpalatable, I would have to see the photos of Harper with those sheep before I could even consider placing my vote with any of the others. Even then I'm not so sure.

Nancy Clarke had a few comments in regards to the possibility of a core group trying to destroy the world's economy. While I'm not quite in agreement that it might be Harper's way of opening the door for each of us to get the chance to vote in future American elections, the thought of a core group being involved is an interesting point to consider. I wonder just how this issue has affected Iran, Saudi Arabia, the wilds of Afghanistan, the frontier of Pakistan, to mention a few.  How have some folks not so friendly to us in the west been affected by this meltdown, and I wonder if there is an upside for them?  Meanwhile, greed did set up the situation. While most of us regular folk are locked in to our investments, those who are jumping ship, and driving down the markets, seem to me the same parasites that caused the mess in the first place. Just one more point on the subject. If the Americans are going in to the tank, why is the Canadian dollar falling like a rock in comparison to the beleaguered greenback? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

It is good to see James Christian Parsons still active. I did not think my previous offering, as Jim Boy commented, was all that obnoxious. Hell, I can be much worse.  For instance, ole Jimmy figures those comments I made as some kind of blast (good, as I find Jimmy C a real hoot, myself), and that they in some way open the door to the devil and his evil horde. It got me to wondering if I'm really such an SOB, or just maybe Jimmy is nuts, so I went back to see what I wrote to send my friend in such a tizzy.

I stated that rather than seeing Harper as a scary fellow, I actually embrace some of what he proposes. Nothing too evil there, just a difference of opinion. I mentioned that I do not find the alternatives palatable, and I do not, but that does not seem to be all that offensive or Canada hating. I did mention that due to past governments and the present opposition using Alberta as a scapegoat, to place us as some sort of wayward province that should be punished, that I should be forgiven for feeling more like an Albertan or a western regionalist than a pan-Canadian. This is, sadly, also true, but I think understandable for anyone who is not a masochist. Maybe that is Jimmy's thing, but it really is not my own.

Is it obnoxious to believe the Constitution should be followed, that provincial rights should be respected? If so, then I agree that I am obnoxious, and believe all law respecting Canadians should be equally so. I stated my support of the government's course of action when compared to questionable pie-in-the-sky nonsense thrown together by the opposition parties. What a terrible guy I must be.  I stated that I could not care less for a 15-year old killer, holding far greater sympathy for the victims. Jimmy might love to coddle such monsters, but I find my reaction to them to be the same should they kill one of my loved ones or one of yours. I believe that when one withdraws from a combat zone, they should take in to consideration the consequences of when and how this is done. Some might think it alright to pull out in a matter of weeks, leaving a vacuum and a greater blood bath behind. I do not. If I am expected to support those in the arts, I want to support those worthy of such support, not every self-indulgent twit who comes along looking for a handout. I want value for my money. I want a Prime Minister who might represent my Canadian values.  Harper, though far from perfect and deserving of some criticism, comes the closest.

Then again, you have guys like Jimmy who seem to believe that in stating such things it somehow causes me to be a person  who does not love his nation, one who is not worthy of living in it, nor willing to fight for it. Jimmy, my friend, you are wrong or an ass, or a bit of both. If people like Stephen Harper and those of his ilk are the scary ones, why is it that it is people like you who attempt to censor, marginalize, and limit the freedoms (such as the freedom of speech) of others? Maybe next time, you just might offer up exactly how you and I differ, something that might fall under the guise of an intelligent exchange of viewpoints. Give it a try, Jimmy. You might find that you like it.

Thanks again for the use of this forum, Joe.

Ron *

===================================
From: "James Christian Parsons"
Subject: For Below (30)
 
Dear Joe:
 
Stratos says:
 
"But then I remember my 2% rule: at least 2% of each party's candidates are dingdongs who can't help but say something stupid in public leads. Two percent of 308 means 6-7 dingdongs attracting the media's attention, disrupting a national campaign, and tarnishing a party's reputation...".
 
Indeed. What is troubling, though, is that Harper's gag order seems to cover all of his candidates. Harper appears to be following a "100% Rule", presumably on the assumption that all of his people are "dingdongs". He may be right, and that's something voters need to take very seriously.
 
Stratos says:
 
"[T]he problem that the CPC has had throughout this election is that it hid its platform..."
 
...or that someone left the cocktail napkin upon which the platform had been written at Julie Couillard's, necessitating a return to the blackboard.
 
My guess is that the CPC brainstrust simply assumed that a platform was unnecessary, given all the other more devastating "communications" arrows in their quiver: photo-shopped images of birds crapping on the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, incessant, contemptuous ridicule of his "professorial" background (since, as we all know, teachers are useless), evisceration of grieving fathers as "Liberal hacks", etc.
 
Oh, it was all going to be so easy...
 
Stratos says:
 
" Mr. Layton...has come across as a believable politician".
 
...which is one of the reasons why this election has been one of the dreariest and most depressing in living memory.
 
Let's be clear. The NDP has run the most effective campaign, with the Bloc Quebecois not far behind. The Liberal and CPC efforts have been sufficiently amateurish as to disgrace a bunch of drug-addled juvenile delinquents running a spoof student-council campaign at an inner-city vocational school.
 
The fact that a socialist with an irredeemably used-car-salesman personality has out-campaigned the other federalist leaders is a sobering fact and a stinging indictment of our current political culture.
 
Stratos said:
 
" Canada's foreign policy was MUCH more driven by US policy by the simple fact that Liberal governments made it a point to advocate its opposite...Thus, the US would set or state a policy and Liberal Canada would push for the opposite ... in a twisted way, the US called the shots ".
 
No. This is the stock-in-trade of right-wing critiques of Canadian "anti-Americanism". It is pure myth.
 
The record shows that Canada fell in line with the vast majority of America's geo-political objectives and priorities during the "golden years" of Liberal hegemony (roughly from the Mackenzie King era to 1984). During World War Two, King and C.D. Howe virtually turned Canada into a U.S. powder-monkey and allowed its industry to be re-configured according to American needs. Later on, both King and St. Laurent took foreign-policy dictation directly from the White House--our participation in the Korean War, our disposition towards the new state of Israel and our anti-British stance regarding the Suez Crisis stand out as glaring examples.
 
Later, Mike Pearson violated his anti-nuclear principles and allowed American tactical nuclear weapons onto Canadian soil (and destroyed John Diefenbaker in the process, which was the real objective anyway), thereby caving into the American view of continental air defence (in which Canada would be an expendable "collateral" loss in the event of a Soviet strike).
 
Even the allegedly "anti-American" jihadi Trudeau allowed the U.S. to test its Cruise missiles on Canadian soil, and, during the entirely of Trudeau's tenure, he never once raised a public objection to America's shameful involvement in a variety of Latin American "dirty wars", during which it funded and trained numerous right-wing juntas and "freedom fighters" and contributed to the violent deaths of tens of thousands. No, Trudeau was a good, submissive little boy, in his fashion.
 
What did the "anti-American" Paul Martin do when the U.S. helped an anti-democratic, machete-wielding mob depose Jean-Bertrand Aristide? Why he smiled benignly and even sent an RCMP contingent to help the victors trample on their own people. Today, Haitians are literally eating dirt, under our careful supervision, of course.
 
The two most significant Canadian departures from the American foreign-policy consensus--recognition of Cuba and trade with China--were occasioned by a Conservative ministry (Diefenbaker's). True, we later opted out of the Vietnam War, but so did all of America's NATO colleagues. That was an act of sanity, not of "anti-Americanism".
 
We haven't been nearly independent enough, but, when we have, it's been for the right reasons, not through "anti-American" spite, all FOX-news inspired views to the contrary notwithstanding.
 
Yours,
 
James Christian Parsons (aka Sir Francis)
( http://www.dredtory.blogspot.com/)

===================================
From: "Jacob Rempel" <yasch@telus.net>
Subject: FW: Ignore it, and it will go away. Or not.
 
From: Elaine Hughes  Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2008
To: Layton, J. NDP; Dion, S. LIB; Duceppe, G. Bloc; Fogal, C. CAP; May, E. GPC; Prime Minister Harper
Cc: GlobalResearch.ca; Council of Cdns
Subject: Ignore it, and it will go away. Or not.
 
QUOTE:  "In Ottawa last Monday night before 400 people, the National Anti-Poverty Organization sponsored a debate, inviting all the major parties to participate. Four of the five did, bringing with them their parties' anti-poverty action plans.  Stephen Harper's Conservatives did not show up.  
"I was very disappointed, though not surprised," said executive director Rob Rainer, who thinks the Conservatives are just not interested. "They seem to be barely comfortable even  mentioning poverty in the Canadian context. They have blinkers on, and they just don't seem to grasp what we're talking about.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Janice Kennedy The Ottawa Citizen         Sunday, October 12, 2008

Poverty is ugly, its images all dark and gritty and grainy. No one likes looking at it. We don't like to think of the tough lives of the homeless, the despair of neglected aboriginal communities, the almost unimaginable daily strains on the working poor.
 
We don't like to picture the small pained faces of kids who go to bed with hunger gnawing at them. (Melodramatic, you say? Take a closer look into some of our darker corners.) We don't like to worry about all that social nastiness that spreads out poisonously from the root of poverty's
rough desperation.

===================================
From: Zeb Landon
Subject: Important to notice!:   'How Harper Gov't Pushed Financial Deregulation Here, Abroad'

Dear Joe,

"Mistakes in collective wisdom"  of our talking heads caused the international financial meltdown.  Or was it a bad early Hallowe'en joke?
Let's learn our lessons.

#1    Our Canadian government has been dead wrong in that until quite recently it was pushing for 'financial deregulation'. 
       Just check the record below -- Ellen Gould's article,

    'How Harper Gov't Pushed Financial Deregulation Here, Abroad 
    /  Way cleared for US mortgage firms and easy credit, insured by Canadian taxpayers'.)

            http://thetyee.ca/Views/2008/10/08/HarperEcon/

#2    David Orchard and Mel Hurtig and other Canadian economic nationalists ought to have been treated with more respect
when they warned for decades about the risks of handcuffing Canada to global and continental integration,
whereby we basically abdicate proper control over the directions taken by major and key institutions. 

If we can have any hope of safety from the storm now,
it is by virtue of the limited extent to which we had not quite yet thrown everything overboard,
as was wanted by the bullies and talking heads,
- - so many of whom perpetually push to reduce Canada's sovereignty to next to nothing.

-- We ought to ask ourselves, which leaders ought we to rely on and support?  
-- Those trendy politicians who are ever following the short-sighted group-think,
-- or the ones with a more cautious long-term view? 

(I say, get behind the latter instead of despairing.  And hurry up.)

Zeb Landon, Simcoe

==================

http://thetyee.ca/Views/2008/10/08/HarperEcon/
- - - - -
News and Views for British Columbia
How Harper Gov't Pushed Financial Deregulation Here, Abroad
Way cleared for US mortgage firms and easy credit, insured by Canadian taxpayers.

View full article and comments here http://thetyee.ca/Views/2008/10/08/HarperEcon/
By Ellen Gould
Published: October 8, 2008
TheTyee.ca

Listen to Stephen Harper and you might think Canada plays to our national stereotype when it comes to the world of finance. We might be boring but at least we don't stand for the risky policies adopted by our American cousins.

In response to a pessimistic Merrill Lynch report on Canada's housing market, for example, Harper said "We don't have the same situation here with the mortgages as was the case in the U.S. with the subprime mortgages there. So, therefore, I think that our market is in a much stronger position."

There are differences in the Canadian and U.S. housing markets, differences that can generate sharply contrasting points of view on whether Canada will experience a housing meltdown comparable to the one in the U.S.

The thing is, the Harper government is responsible for pushing the envelope on deregulation both domestically and internationally despite cautionary events in the U.S. clearly indicating what could go wrong.


Related Tyee stories:
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