State of the Union Corporation

Where I am, there is a small blizzard and the girls are joyously rioting in the snow.

But for me, to paraphrase Shaky, this is the winter of my discontent.

The political landscape that is emerging from the cold here is one of catastrophic, epic shithole proportion.

Stephen Harper have decided that he doesn't need parliament to have a good time after all and decreed - by some imaginary superhero' s omnipotence - that they can all go take a hike until March... because the economy is getting better and he needs to think!

In my birth country, the judges of the Supreme Court have decided that corporation needed free reign on every political aspect of governance and could flux and influence as many 'guns-for-hire' they wanted to make sure their satisfaction was guaranteed.

And Haiti, birth place of my mother and her 12 long-exiled siblings, is oozing and burning like an infected blister in the sun, while every doctor on the planet is making promises of doing something very soon about it.

Obama - and this is no typo - Obama lost Massachussetts' election AND the Kennedy seat (!) because he believed- unlike every single voter that choose his name over McPalin - the right-wing dream pairing of the century- that he must represent the center and keep the Bushes' legacy alive. Even if it means taking the blame for all their failures, excesses, ugliness, law breaking craziness and their deficit.

Somehow, change meant not rocking the boat.

Believe me, I know he must feel pressured from all over to keep quiet, lay low and let the Big Boys handle it. He actually, like Colin Powell before him, spent all his political capital, credence and reputation for the status quo so as to make those Big Boys as comfy as possible.

All the while, the middle class and Main Street were ready to follow him anywhere as long as it wasn't to More of the Same.

But he's not the only one that should be blamed.

Those famous blue dog Dems should all be called teh 'We're in the Pockets of the Healthcare Industry ... and They're in Mine! Tee-Hee!' stupid coalition. They're exchangeable monkeywrenches needed to grind everything to a halt.

And the Supreme Court just gave them a raise. Indirectly, of course...

Now what?

What is wrong with this pictures? The entire population wants Obama to create jobs while keeping government spending low. Most gave a blank check to the private sector and are still waiting for the trickle down thingy to take effect. (Jobs? From the private sector? They have jets and bonuses to think of!) They want the Golden Days to come back but without any rules, unions, taxes, trade barriers and a war that eats 70% of all the government's budget.

Yeah... Right...

Mr. President. Good luck. And forgive the Middle Class because they just don't know in what mess they're in. Too bad they'll blame you for all of it.

But I can't help it, I still hope for you.
Read a lefty someday. Better yet: take one in your administration.
They might surprise you. Maybe even help you. You would need a friend.

The Choice was Between This and a Weasel...

For 42% of the Canadian population, it all but kill their enthusiasm...

And You Thought That Canada was a Progressive Country: HA!!

Seriously, most of the time, we talk about Madonna. That's the impression you get anyway by glancing over national newspapers and web sites here in "next to Palin" country. (I'm sure she can see us from her window, just like Russia!)

We just had one of the most exciting exercise in democracy Canada has ever seen - before it was killed off very adroitly by Stephen "The Automaton" Harper. Evil Stephen called in the Great Gal herself - governor general Michaelle Jean - to stop a perfectly logical coalition to be formed out of the 3 opposition parties. It would have been fantastic! It would have opened new ways to articulate and created political pressure when a political party is barely viable but have non proportionate yield of power in the commune.

Harper only got 37% of the popular vote and the opposition combined have more than enough seat to create a majority: his is a very fragile minority indeed. But Harper could count on Stephane Dion incredible bad luck (or false hope syndrome).

If another guy- Layton, for example - would have taken the lead of this non-confidence vote and hired an army of intelligent, articulate PR bunnies to explain it to the slumbering Canadian population in a calm, adult voice, the opposition might have had a chance to topple Harper's repug wannabees. But they had Stephane Dion: a man that look and sound like Looney Tunes' Foghorn Leghorn's weasel. The catch is some of his ideas on environmental issues are actually worth an attentive ear but most won't listen as The Independent resumed here:

" Dion's campaign was hindered by his unpopular plan to tax all fossil fuels except gasoline and by perceptions he is a weak leader. A former professor from French-speaking Quebec, Dion also suffered in other regions because he frequently mangles English grammar and his accent makes him hard to understand."

So the word on all media was a Conservative friendly "the opposition wants power while we're an economic crisis!" tape on an eternal loop. And the opposition was not even strong enough to make the case that this was all legitimate and logical political option. It was a sound, wise even prudent action that would benefit the population since the coalition policies were aimed at the middle class and not at "Drill, baby, drill" Alberta nutcases.

In the end Canadian were afraid of the untried, of the unknown and the different. The coalition didn't know how to defend their ideas and position and lost credibility in the eyes of a majority of the population. Worse of all, the coalition bargaining chip was diminished and they , not Harper, will have to show a willingness to cooperate with the Conservative agenda which is a carbon copy of Bush lite Rovian Paradise Creation guide but highly concentrated.

The only good news in all this is that the guy that should have had the job to save us from all this mess - Michael Ignatieff - is still a candidate to the Liberal Party Leadership. He'll get it as soon as Dion finds the door.