let's talk decoupage

Umberto Eco - Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt

12. Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters.

This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality). Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons — doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.

Brigette DePape - Thinking Outside the Ballot Box

“When a government’s agenda does not reflect the true values of its people – as is the case with the Harper government – it is up to every one of us to act to stop it. As Henry David Thoreau explained in his classic 1849 text titled Civil Disobedience, people have a duty not to permit their governments to overrule their consciences, and to not stand by while government makes them agents of injustice. As citizens of Canada during the Harper majority, we are agents of injustice so long as we are silent.”

THIS SATURDAY IN VANCOUVER

Report Election Fraud

This week we’ve seen mounting evidence of widespread fraud in the 2011 election. Now we need your help to find people who were directly affected, and lay the groundwork for possible new elections.

Over the last week we have seen mounting evidence of systematic fraud in the 2011 election. Now we need to learn the whole truth. Nearly 35,000 Canadians who have already taken action to protect our democracy. Together we can form a powerful fact-finding network, and lay the groundwork for possible new elections in the affected ridings.

Canadians’ confidence in the fairness and legitimacy of the last election has been deeply shaken. The news keeps getting worse. Call center employees have reported they were instructed to send misleading messages seemingly designed to stop non-Conservatives from voting. As the list of potentially affected individuals and ridings continues to grow, the NDP, Liberals and Greens have called for full investigations in all affected ridings.In response, the Conservative government has dismissed allegations of systematic election fraud as a mere “smear campaign”.

We need to help find the truth about what happened in the last election and use this knowledge to choose the best ways to restore the integrity of our democracy.

When this story broke last week, it started a 30-day count-down to begin court proceedings that could lead to new elections in the affected ridings. Our strategy may include legal challenges.

Were you, or was anyone you know, the target of any voter suppression tactics, or do you have any information about electoral fraud in your riding? OR, would you like to learn more about how you could challenge the result in your riding?

30 seat fraud:

The “robo-call” and voter-suppression scandal is rapidly threatening to become a full-blown political crisis for Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, with the number of ridings where dirty tricks are alleged to have skewed races in the last federal election climbing to almost 30.

The New Democrats and Liberals on Sunday both listed 29 ridings in which they claim voters were either misled by automated calls purportedly from Elections Canada about where to cast ballots, or where live callers misrepresented themselves as working for rival parties. In some cases, voters allegedly received harassing late-night calls.

30 seats targeted:

Be it coincidence or political calculation, Rickford’s Kenora riding also sits squarely on the Conservative’s list of 30 ridings that are at risk of being lost or possible to steal away. The list of so-called targeted ridings is central to Conservative Leader Stephen Harper’s national campaign, which started the election holding 143 seats, a dozen short of a majority government.

what a coincidence

demand a full public inquiry

While the pro-surveillance spin campaign whirs into gear here in Canada, it’s interesting to note that Western governments all happen to be pushing this shit at the same time.

• United States: Internet Providers to Save User Data Under Child-Porn Bill
• Australia: Phone, net watchers fuel ‘surveillance state’ fears
• United Kingdom: Phone and email records to be stored in new spy plan

do something

…and if you haven’t read 1984, this might be a good time to do so.

“either stand with us or with the child pornographers.”

– Harper Government

“The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.”

– Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf

do something

CBC News - Harper says no decriminalization of pot on his watch

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says his government will never agree to the decriminalization of marijuana.

Harper’s comments came Friday in Vancouver in response to a question at a brief news conference following an event at a downtown science centre.

“No, it will not happen under our government,” Harper said. “We’re very concerned about the spread of drugs in the country and the damage it’s doing and as you know we have legislation before the House [of Commons] to crack down.”

This week, four former Vancouver mayors endorsed the Stop the Violence Coalition, which is comprised of former police officers, a judge, medical leaders and B.C.’s former chief coroner.

The coalition’s founding principle is that regulation and taxation of marijuana would stop most of the violence associated with the drug trade and make pot less accessible to children.

Current Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has said he agrees with the coalition’s goals.

“We see the impact on the streets. We see the gang activity that’s largely funded by the marijuana trade, a huge industry here in B.C.,” Robertson said. “There’s no tax revenue flowing from [it], so I think it’s time for reform.”

thank you Gregor, fuck you Harper

G

The Globe and Mail - Harper to pick former B.C. premier as Canadian envoy to Britain

Now he’ll have a whole nother side of the road to drink and drive on (or “drink-drive” on, in the common parlance of all those newly at-risk Brits out there). And with diplomatic immunity no less!

Honestly, what does it say about the state of representative democracy when a man loathed out of his own job as premier (“single-digit popularity”, according to the same Globe article) and, by the same token, out of his own political home (British Columbia), is whisked overseas to take up a governmental sinecure? Not only do we residents of British Columbia demonstrably not want the man representing us at home, he is now going to represent our entire country abroad. Shouldn’t a public figure’s track record of indefensible personal judgment count for something?

I seem to recall the same Gordon Campbell chiming in on the case of Ray Lam, a provincial NDP candidate who was shamefully shamed out of running for the Vancouver-False Creek seat after a picture of him cheekily touching a woman’s breast with his (gay-man) hand was discovered on his Facebook (see: this CBC article). Yes there were other pictures, but yes, they were between consenting adults, and consenting adults should be pretty much allowed to do whatever they want so long as it doesn’t hurt or risk hurting anyone (i.e., a whole colourful spectrum of non-drinking-and-driving activities).

Quoth envoy-elect Campbell on the case of Ray Lam:

“This was public information. It was on the NDP website and they have some responsibilities in terms of that. … They were totally inappropriate pictures and the NDP has some questions to answer for,” he said Monday while campaigning near Vancouver.

Well how about the above pictures, eh?

G

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, June 3, 2011

Senate Page disrupts throne speech
Harper’s disastrous agenda needs to be stopped with creative action and civil disobedience

Ottawa — During the reading of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s throne speech today, a young page was yanked from the Senate Chamber as she tried to hold up a stop-sign placard reading “Stop Harper.”

“Harper’s agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation,” Brigette Marcelle says. “We have to stop him from wasting billions on fighter jets, military bases, and corporate tax cuts while cutting social programs and destroying the climate. Most people in this country know what we need are green jobs, better medicare, and a healthy environment for future generations.”

Brigette Marcelle, 21 and a recent graduate from University of Ottawa, has been a page in the Senate for a year, but realized that working within parliament wouldn’t stop Harper’s agenda.

“Contrary to Harper’s rhetoric, Conservative values are not in fact Canadian values. How could they be when 3 out of 4 eligible voters didn’t even give their support to the Conservatives? But we will only be able to stop Harper’s agenda if people of all ages and from all walks of life engage in creative actions and civil disobediance,” she says.

“This country needs a Canadian version of an Arab Spring, a flowering of popular movements that demonstrate that real power to change things lies not with Harper but in the hands of the people, when we act together in our streets, neighbourhoods and workplaces.”

-30-

G

well then, gonna get all my abortions and gay marriages in this week before it’s too late

G