NDP: normal is being undemocratic

NDP leadership candidate Peggy Nash recently stated that Canada was not 'normal'.

NDP leadership hopeful Peggy Nash says Canada is no longer a "normal" country under Prime Minister Stephen Harper's direction.

The Toronto MP describes Harper's Canada as a country of growing inequality, record personal debt, hopelessness among youth and a federal government that continually tells people to expect less. 

"I don't think that's normal," Nash told The Canadian Press in a wide-ranging interview Thursday. "I think that's wrong."

Being from the NDP she is obviously left wing politically and while she won't identify herself as being left-left, centre-left or right-left, she likes to see herself described as a "practical radical".

I can only think that she looks to that political left bastion of hope, the European Union as inspiration and hope. If so, that's a bit scary. I mean, its the EU that represses democracy by not allowing the people to vote on inclusion or departure from the Union. It is the EU that forces democratically elected governments to change their budgets to meet the Union's needs rather than the needs of the country in question. It is the Union that forces democratically elected members of government to resign and then replaces them with unelected officials without any say from the people.

If that is what she considers to be normal, I want nothing to do with her.

Bankster Obama

President Obama ran on program of change underscored by the slogan, YES WE CAN.

In retrospect it seems foolish that ordinary people believed that he was speaking to them.

In order to get elected Obama raised $750 million and spent approximately $735 million of it during the campaign. Given the astronomically high amount of money it took to achieve victory and his subsequent actions in protecting Wall Street from rightful prosecution it should come as no surprise that three of the top ten single contributors to the Obama campaign were Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase.

And so we see this:

A protester handed President Barack Obama a note while shaking hands along a rope line in New Hampshire today. AP photographer Charlie Dharapak smartly zoomed in so you can read the note for yourself.

People aren't stupid. They can understand what is happening. They see a real unemployment rate of nearly 25%, a further economic contraction on the horizon, banks being protected by the government, investment firms stealing from their investors and being protected. They watch as people protesting these things are beaten and arrested while the people that imploded the economy are given bonuses and protection. They watch as the Obama administration tries to pressure state Attorney Generals to keep from prosecuting those responsible. 

When Obama was saying YES WE CAN, people thought he was talking to them. He wasn't, he was talking to the banks and corporations that funded his presidency. YES WE CAN steal from the people. YES WE CAN get away with it. YES WE CAN oppress the masses. YES WE CAN!

Adding my voice: Occupy Wall Street

I'm not the first nor, I hope, am I the last to add their voice in protest against the shameless and criminal actions of the police state currently occurring taking place against those who would peacefully seek a way to have their voice heard by a rapidly unlistening governmental system.

The actions of UC Davis Campus Police Lieutenant John Pike and his ilk are deplorable and criminal. While this incident may have occurred at UC Davis, it is not an isolated incident nor is it solely an American issue. Crimes like this are being committed by governments against their people in the US, Canada, Europe and elsewhere.

The people have gone along with the notion of our democracies actually being democratic long enough. They are tired of the lies, the deception, the corruption, the theft and the abuses of power that have come with increasing regularity by those who are meant to serve the people, not rape and pillage them.

Their criminal actions have not stopped at assault with pepper spray, but have escalated and now include murder.

“I was standing in the middle of the crowd when the police started moving in,” she says. “I was screaming, ‘I am pregnant, I am pregnant. Let me through. I am trying to get out.’” At that point, Fox continues, a Seattle police officer lifted his foot and it hit her in the stomach, and another officer pushed his bicycle into the crowd, again hitting Fox in the stomach. “Right before I turned, both cops lifted their pepper spray and sprayed me. My eyes puffed up and my eyes swelled shut,” she says.

From Forbes Magazine:

The point is, I think, that the police have been operating pretty indiscriminately in their response to these protests. It doesn’t matter if you’re pregnant,elderly, or just sitting there, the cops have been responding to protests with overwhelming and entirely unnecessary force.

The powers that be don't want to listen to the people and this can be clearly demonstrated by the actions of those in power to the simple actions of those protesting here in this video and elsewhere. The right to assembly, the right to free speech, the right to speak truth to power are all being trampled under the boot of power, greed, and arrogance.

We are increasingly living in a police state, where there is 24 hour video surveillance on every street corner in major cities, where your internet activity is monitored, where your emails and phone calls can be recorded and traced, where censorship is on the rise and where peaceful protest is met with violence.

I think Orwell was prescient when he gave O'Brien these words, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever."

Whether you agree with Occupy Wall Street or not you should not be able to sit back and calmly see the actions that democratic governments are taking and be okay with it.

These actions are wrong and people of conviction need to make their voice heard that such actions will not be tolerated.

I'll leave you with two quotes. You might be tempted to simply brush them off but don't. Think about them and then think about what is happening. In a world where Muslims in Cairo, Egypt can be protected by Christians while they pray, shouldn't the people of America have their constitutional rights respected by the very powers who are sworn to protect and uphold that very same constitution? Shouldn't the people of any democracy be safe from the oppressive powers of their governments?

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." Desmond Tutu

"In order for evil to flourish, all that is required is for good men to do nothing." Edward Burke

Technocrat - autocrat what's in a word?

In a move designed to bolster 'confidence' the new premier of Italy, Mario Monti, has named his cabinet which is completely devoid of publicly elected officials, or as he likes to say, politicians.

Mr Monti took on the economy and finance portfolio himself. 

Corrado Passera, CEO of the Intesa Sanpaolo banking group, was named to head the new ministry of development, infrastructure and transport. 

Another key appointment was that of Antonio Catricala, head of the anti-trust authority, who was made under-secretary to the prime minister's office. 

Despite reports that Mr Monti had sought to include politicians in his cabinet, there are none.

So nobody that the people of Italy had elected to represent them in government is part of ruling authority that will lead said government. Instead they get a group of people who are tied to banks, including Mr. Monti himself who has ties with Goldman Sachs (as do the appointees to lead Greece and the European Central Bank). All this was done to restore confidence in the markets, not the people, but the bankers who have raped and pillaged the people for the past decade and more.

I can't help but draw some parallels with China of the early 1990s. After the massacre in Tienanmen Square on June 4, 1989, China's ruling elite were split between continuing economic reform which had helped to bring about the economic disparities that had helped to fuel the movement leading to Tienanmen and a conservative return to more traditional Marxist and Maoist economic and foreign policy. Deng Xio Ping, supreme leader of China at the time wagered that people would basically keep their mouth shut concerning politics and the Communist Party so long as they brought them a better standard of living. It would seem that he was correct. Economic reform continued throughout the nineties and the Communist Party was able to secure its power base, something that was very precarious in the few months following June 1989.

Its not surprising to see the Socialist leaning European Union basically make the same wager, that they can violate the democratic principles that they claim to stand by just so long as the economy improves. I guess its just ironic that it is happening in the birth place of democracy, Athens, as well as that great killer of Republican style government, Rome.

Optimism is in the air

I had a rare opportunity to talk with a young Egyptian man the other day. After exchanging the usual pleasantries and some small talk I couldn't resist asking him about the Egyptian uprising which happened earlier in the spring. He said that he had been present for the uprising, that he was proud that Mubarak had been removed from power and that he was optimistic that Egyptians would finally get the government that they wanted.

We talked a bit about the uprisings in Syria and Yemen as well and he was saddened by the actions of those respective governments. He pointed out that on paper each of these middle eastern and north African nations that had and are experiencing revolutions are supposedly democratic nations. Each country has fixed term limits for their leaders and that this has been abused for decades in these countries.

He spoke about how the main stream media in both the west and in Egypt paint a false picture of what is actually happening when it comes to such things as Muslim and Christian violence.

It reminded me of this picture:

The thing that caught my attention the most during the conversation was when he said that the movements that found their culmination in the Arab Spring began with 9/11. He talked about how it was that event that got people thinking and talking and while it took time, the catalyst that brought about this revolutionary zeal was one that I had never heard anyone else link to the events of 2011. 

Representing the people

Abraham Lincoln ended his famous Gettysburg Address with the line "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Many cite this as the epitome of what modern democracy is all about. A government made up of the people, chosen by the people and working for the people. It is the ultimate of political representation, expression and responsibility.

Unfortunately too often our modern governments, while claiming democratic hearts, shy away from such principles. One might look to the current situation in the European Union.

Greece will hold a controversial referendum on a European bailout plan in early December that European leaders said Wednesday will determine whether or not it stays in the eurozone. 

Greece won't get any new international loans until then, European leaders said after heaping pressure on Greece's prime minister at emergency talks Wednesday. "The referendum ... in essence is about nothing else but the question, does Greece want to stay in the eurozone, yes or no?" said German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a press conference. 

The statement, echoed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy at her side, was the clearest acknowledgement to date that pulling out of the eurozone is a possible outcome.

How dare Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou give the people of Greece the right to say whether or not they support a plan that would provide the Greek government with money at the cost of extensive and long lasting austerity measures that the people of Greece will need to bear?

What the leaders of France and Germany are saying is that if we give you money then we call the shots not the people of Greece. All this in the birth place of democracy. How ironic, but I guess it should come as no surprise that it is France and Germany leading the un-democratic charge as both countries have a history of autocratic regimes seeking to impose their will on other countries.

In Canada "a private member's bill that seeks to ban Members of Parliament from crossing the floor is being debated Wednesday." This is, in my opinion, a good thing and helps to support democracy as Lincoln famously espoused it.

Controversial floor-crossings have taken place on Parliament Hill in past. Notably, Belinda Stronach made waves in 2005 when she ditched the Conservatives for the Liberals and received a cabinet post in Paul Martin's government. 

A year later, David Emerson outraged many after he made his defection from the Liberal party known when he appeared at the ceremony for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's new Conservative government.

In Canada's 'first past the post' parliamentary system of governance featuring five major national parties, one candidate getting the majority of the vote is uncommon if not unheard of. In addition, Canadian's don't get the opportunity to vote directly for who will lead the nation. That is determined by the individual parties in selecting a party leader. If their party wins the majority of seats, that party's leader is the new Prime Minister. So it is not uncommon for people to vote for a particular party in order to influence who will be the Prime Minister of Canada.

Canadian democracy has enough problems without having people running for election under one party and then changing parties while elected. There are rarely any free votes in the House of Commons and so the people's elected representatives are encouraged through the auspices of the party whip to vote along party lines even if it might conflict with the will of their constituents. One is forced to place the will of the people at odds with their own political ambitions. So in effect its simply four people, the heads of the parties holding seats in the House of Commons, that can and often do dictate the policies and actions of the Canadian government.

Very undemocratic.

However, I do think that there should be a way for a person who is at odds with their party to leave and if so desired switch parties.

If a person elected (for the sake of this scenario) as a Liberal wants to leave the Liberal party while serving a current term in office, they should have two options.

The first option is to declare their intention to leave the Liberal Party and sit as an independent. This would trigger a referendum in their riding with a simple question to determine whether or not the people of their riding support the switch. If the vote is in favor, the move is made and the person sits out the rest of their term as an independent. If the vote is against, then it would trigger a by election.

The second option is to declare their intention to leave the Liberal party and to switch to a different party (for the sake of this scenario), the Green Party. This would automatically trigger a by-election with the incumbent running for election under their new Green Party banner. This would ensure that the people's will is protected and enforced, at least when it comes to the party affiliation of the riding.

Democracy is dying and we must struggle to keep it alive as best we can.


Aside:

His announcement also sparked a rebellion among his governing Socialist lawmakers. A crucial test of party loyalty will come during a vote of confidence on Friday in parliament, where the Socialists have a two-seat majority.

Shocking that the socialists in the government would be against the referendum. They have worked so hard to invest power in themselves and their socialist brethren in the EU, to have it so flippantly given away is absurd. Don't worry they are looking after the people's interests, they simply know better than the people themselves what is best for them.

Update: Wow, those on the left simply hate democracy it would seem.

Two Thunder Bay-area New Democratic Party MPs have been punished for voting in favour of the abolition of the long-gun registry. 

Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Bruce Hyer and Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP John Rafferty will not be allowed to make statements or ask questions in the Commons chamber. They were also removed from their critics' roles. 

The term of their discipline is unknown but Rafferty said it will last until the gun registry issue has been dealt with in Parliament. 

The two went against the NDP's official position and voted with the government this week during the second reading of the bill to abolish the controversial long-gun registry.