Harper Trying To Convince Brazil To Destroy Its Economy

Harper's busy these days. Seems the life of a Neocon knows no rest:

A free-trade deal with Brazil would be the fastest route to unlocking business opportunities in what is now the world’s eighth largest economy, but a deal won’t be reached in the short run.

Mr. Harper’s first job, then, is winning over Brazil as a strategic partner and helping Canadian companies go after the slew of rich opportunities that already exist for foreign investors, from infrastructure spending to mining and oil-and-gas development.

Nothing like being complicit in the devastation of one of the most ecologically-sensitive regions on Earth.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/stephen-harper-hopes-to-woo-brazil-for-trade-deal/article2120298/

Gerald Caplan On The Loss Of Jack Layton

The NDP will survive without Jack. Unlike the Conservatives, the NDP does not rely upon a Cult of the Self to convince voters:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/gerald-caplan/the-ndp-isnt-over-with-or-without-jack/article2114411/

What Harper Thinks Of Environmentalists

Hundreds of Environment Canada employees facing job cuts will have to wait up to three months before they know what is in store for them.

The Union of Environment Workers says the department plans to eliminate 776 positions as part of a government-wide initiative to cut costs.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/hundreds-of-job-cuts-loom-for-environment-canada-workers/article2119833/

Brian Topp On The Hysteria Over Nycole Turmel's Past Politics

All of this lunacy over Turmel's past politics evokes a sense of disunity amongst Canadians, and certainly a sense that anyone who has ever voted for, supported, and/or sympathized with the Bloc is somehow unworthy to be involved in Canadian federal politics or have their opinions seriously heard. It's any wonder the Bloc still lives on nearly 20 years after it was vomited up by mutual ignorance and hatred on both sides of the fence:

Separatists in Quebec are a slightly happier bunch this week. Courtesy of the Bloc Québécois' clever leaking of NDP Interim Leader Nycole Turmel's correspondence to the Globe and Mail, they have learned how much the eastern English-Canadian establishment really, really misses them.

This is so for two good reasons.

First, from the perspective of Canada's two conservative parties (the blue real one and the reserve red one), if they can't make any headway in Quebec -- and they likely can't -- then the best possible victor in Quebec is the Bloc Québécois. For all practical purposes, a strong Bloc removes French-speaking Quebec from the Canadian political calculus. Toronto- and Calgary-based parties can then focus on competing in English Canada without any inconvenient need to compete in, think about, or build in Quebec. Perfect!

Second, a strong Bloc keeps those Quebec seats away from a competitor. As modern Canadian history shows, winning big in Quebec can provide a federal party with an excellent base for future national victory. If our blue and red teams can't have that advantage, they don't want a competitor to have it.

In particular, they don't want the New Democrats to have that advantage.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/brian-topp/the-turmel-noise-is-about-fear-not-national-unity/article2119334/

New IMF Chief Being Investigated

Well, that took long:

A French court on Thursday ordered an investigation into new IMF chief Christine Lagarde's role in a much-criticized $400-million arbitration deal in favour of a controversial tycoon.

Ms. Lagarde was France's finance minister when magnate Bernard Tapie won a settlement in 2008 with a French state-owned bank over the mishandled sale of sportswear maker Adidas in the 1990s.

In a sane world, between Strauss-Kahn and Lagarde, the IMF's international credibility would be a joke. However, in our Neocon hell we refer to as the West, this is of course clearly not the case.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/europe/court-orders-probe-of-imf-chief-lagardes-conduct-as-french-finance-minister/article2119378/

Harper's Arrogance Continues On

Take it away, King Harper:

In a Youtube video of Harper's speech to invited guests in the suburban Etobicoke backyard of Ford's mother, the prime minister claims that he and the Toronto mayor are each cleaning up a "left-wing mess."

And with an Ontario provincial election coming in October, Harper told the Tory crowd it is time to "complete the hat trick and do it provincially as well."

It wasn't clear what left-wing mess Harper was referring to federally, as his Conservatives inherited a $13-billion federal surplus when they came to power five years ago and have turned it into multi-billion-dollar deficits.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/126713878.html

There Are Christian Terrorists Too

Chris Hedges on the natural end result of Right-Wing lunacy:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/fundamentalism_kills_20110726/

Also note Sam Harris' pathetic foot-in-mouth reply.

America: Land Of The Enslaved, Home Of The Timid

Another great article from Chris Hedges:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/americas_disappeared_20110718/

The Coming Police State

Barack Obama once again shows his utter lack of scruples and decency. Truly, he is the greatest Uncle Tom in American history:

On May 17 at 5 in the morning the Chicano activist Carlos Montes got a wake-up call at his home in California from Barack Obama’s security state. The Los Angeles County sheriff’s SWAT team, armed with assault rifles and wearing bulletproof vests, as well as being accompanied by FBI agents, kicked down his door, burst into his house with their weapons drawn, handcuffed him in his pajamas and hauled him off to jail.

Montes, one of tens of thousands of Americans who have experienced this terrifying form of military-style assault and arrest, was one of the organizers of the demonstrations outside the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., and he faces trial along with 23 other anti-war activists from Minnesota, as well as possible charges by a federal grand jury.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/carlos_montes_and_the_security_state_a_cautionary_tale_20110710/

Let The Pork Barrel Soar

Looks like our resident tyrant, Mr. Harper, has consistently ignored adhering to one of the very stances he once campaigned on. What a surprise.

Here’s a sampling of just one day’s work by the Harper cabinet last week:

• Transport Minister Denis Lebel hands $225,000 to the Gatineau, Que., hot-air balloon festival as part of an effort to “raise the visibility of Canada’s attractions on the international stage.”
• Treasury Board President Tony Clement drops into the Thornloe Cheese Factory near New Liskeard, Ont., to hand out $1.2-million to a smattering of local small businesses.
• Revenue Minister Gail Shea attends the opening of a new tourist attraction in Cap-Egmont, PEI, called the Bottle Houses – a clutch of small structures built entirely of empties – to check in on last year’s $49,000 federal grant. A sum of $49,000 apparently buys a lot of empties.

Earlier this month, Ottawa gave a total of $2-million to a New Brunswick doughnut maker and a Quebec coffee roaster – in both cases, so the businesses could buy new equipment.

          ...

What’s different is that Stephen Harper once vowed to end the practice. He even ran an election on it, promising to get out of the business of business subsidies.

Campaigning in Toronto in 2004, Mr. Harper challenged the business community to stop receiving government subsidies, making it a condition of lowering business taxes.

“I won’t lower one without lowering the other,” Mr. Harper assured members of the Toronto Board of Trade. “That is what I mean by low-tax solutions rather than high-spending solutions.”

It hasn’t quite worked out that way. Once in government, the Conservatives cut the corporate tax rate from 22.5 per cent to 16.5 per cent, with a further reduction to 15 per cent slated for next year.

Business subsidies weren’t cut. Instead, they soared, partly as a result of the government’s Economic Action Plan, designed to offset the impact of the recession.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/a-broken-vow-and-wasteful-excess-on-business-subsidies/article2115668/