beginning of the end for Harper's reactionary 'democratic dictatorship'/letter to my MP

My letter to my Conservative MP, Daryl Kramp

Congratulations on showing some backbone recently by standing up to Mr. Harper's ongoing smear campaigns. It took guts to stand up to a power tripping tinpot like Stephen, & you showed some
guts for a change. So far I'm not esp. a fan of Justin Trudeau, but Big Steve's bully campaign
was just TOO MUCH, TOO SOON - & you recognized the unfairness of this slandering & maligning.

'Big Steve' is about to fall, & fall hard! You were politically astute in realizing this before most other
Conservatives, & your own political credibility has benefited from your independent stance.

I am also writing about another matter which has the general Canadian population (and electorate) upset, & I hope you will also object to the proposal to undermine the CBC’s editorial independence contained in Budget Implementation Bill C-60.

No public broadcaster anywhere in the free world faces the degree of political interference that is proposed for the CBC in Bill C-60.

This Bill would give the government the opportunity to turn the CBC into a political propaganda machine rather than a public broadcaster.

For the sake of our country and our democracy I urge you to work to have provisions concerning the CBC removed from Bill C-60.

Again, congratulations on being one of the first Conservative MPs to stand up to Mr. Harper's
bullyragging. The way forward is clear to a high percentage of Canadian voters - it's time
to throw 'Big Steve' under the bus, as he's done to so many of your fellow Conservatives to save
his own cowardly hide. 
Please get back to me.

Chris Faiers
Marmora, Ontario


Our Godly Prime Minister:



Dear Christopher,

Stephen Harper is in more political hot water than he’s ever previously experienced!

As I write this, the Prime Minister’s most senior and trusted political aide has resigned, claimed by the growing Senate scandal that could do lasting damage to the Harper Conservatives’ reputation.

With the House of Commons set to resume tomorrow, Harper will be motivated to put out every political fire in sight in order to re-establish control of the political agenda and staunch the Conservatives’ drop in popularity.

That’s why right now is the perfect moment to turn up the heat to stop the Harper gang’s assault on the editorial independence of the CBC.

Please send a message to your Member of Parliament right now:

http://www.friends.ca/free-cbc-from-harper

I have been invited to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday to comment on Bill C-60, Harper’s most recent Omnibus Budget Implementation Bill.

Buried deep in Bill C-60 is an insidious plan to take control of the lion’s share of CBC spending, a move that will undermine the national public broadcaster’s editorial independence.

I am convinced that we can stop this plan in its tracks if we are able to mount a huge public outcry.  That’s why I am urging you to please send a message to your MP right now and invite everyone you know to do the same.

Stephen Harper's inner circle is intent on controlling the media to their advantage.   They are brazen enough to try just about anything and their naked manipulation extends beyond the CBC.

A few days ago, CTV News reported that disgraced Harper-appointed Senator Mike Duffy allegedly intervened to improperly influence a CRTC decision.  At issue is whether all cable and satellite subscribers should be forced to pay for the SUN News Network whether they want it or not.  This would give the Harper-friendly network the resources it needs to deliver his government’s message far and wide.

The stakes are huge and the opportunity to stop Harper in his tracks is real.

Please send a message to your MP right now:

http://www.friends.ca/free-cbc-from-harper

Our state-of-the-art online action system will deliver your message straight to your MP’s email inbox, with copies to the Prime Minister and the other political party leaders.



Yours sincerely,



Ian Morrison
Spokesperson
FRIENDS of Canadian Broadcasting

P.S. Please use the tools we have developed to share this campaign on social media:

   



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On Becoming Seventy: Gail Taylor

Guest essay by Gail Taylor:

HearOurWords

Monday, May 13, 2013

On Becoming Seventy

Becoming 70 now is knocking on my door at night reminding of his eventuality with aches in my back and stiffness in my joints. Even though I protest vehemently that I am not ready, he chooses to turn a deaf ear or at least remind me that my ear in fact already does not adequately catch all the subtle nuances of the spoken word.  And what will he do, I ask you, if I stubbornly dig in my heels and wrap my arms around the banister?  Perhaps just to prove my point I will go to the very top of that banister and ride it to its base.  Alas Becoming 70 reminds me that I traded in that ounce of spunk and self determination back when I was in my fifties for a ride on the merry-go-round instead of the thrill of the roller coaster.  So here I wait for the inevitable, its odds of close proximity increasing like the labouring of my breath with each step I take.

Surely, there must be advantages to Becoming 70.  I pause and ruminate about the subject in hopes of some inspired thought, but alas back when I was in my twenties, logical thought was traded off in a deal worked out with hands of greed.  Is there nothing that I have not already sacrificed on the altar of living life to its fullest?  Perhaps I left a bread crumb trail that will allow me to retrace back my steps to another time when some promise lined the road ahead.
 

The guest not wanted on this trip surely must be fear.  Since the unknown is not some newly created creature suddenly ready to pounce when I am least expecting it to do so, I do not understand this newly found trepidation. That being the case, this fear must then be a different creature, an ear worm whose haunting chant just beckons there for me, lulling me into an hypnotic stance, a stance from which some day I will not awaken.  
 

Becoming 70 hears my cries of confusion and gently holds my hand as we stand atop that escarpment peering back those many years. Interestingly, I can see that not only unease lays among the fallen leaves; there is love and possibility lurking in the gentle knobs that will become the buds of tomorrow's spring branches. Still wasted moments of bitter words hang like curing carcasses from the limbs and I can see that how I choose to spend what is left of my journey is still largely up to me.  There is much that I know can now turn a blind eye to such as the dust bunnies under my bed.  I can continue to research and rant about  the injustices I discover or I can toddle off to tea parties. Three guesses which route you think I will take.  Yes indeed, I have retired to take up ranting and raving and

so far it sure beats working, except for the pay that is.

1 comment:

Chris Faiers/cricketMay 13, 2013 at 8:45 PM

Gail, I'm laughing & crying, ruminating,ranting & raving along with you : )

At the end of last June I was able to sing the Beatles' song "When I'm 64" as a member of a club
I never thought I'd join!

Guess we're still living the '60s experience in our sixties!
peace & poetry power!
Chris ... & Chase (who is well into his 90s in human years)

Middle-aged May Day

middle-aged May Day
I stain my backyard fence
RED!


 


I wrote this haiku after I bought my starter house in 1985
in Toronto's termite-infested east end. After years of
living the lifestyle of a committed leftist, I had done the
unthinkable and bought into the capitalist dream.

All my lefty friends friends had roundly criticized me for
doing such a thing, and almost to a person over the years,
each of them has quietly come up to me and thanked me
for showing them the way to the good life.

The haiku seems very obvious, requiring no explanation.
But this is Canada, & most Canucks are blissfully unaware
of International May Day & its world-wide significance.
After all, every Canuck IS middle-class, right? Celebrate
May Day?  Huh?

The funniest interpretation was published in a well-meaning
review. The reviewer assumed I was a typical self-absorbed
Canuck - that the haiku refers to a middle-age crisis (!) -
& that my realistic & ironic comment about spending May
Day staining my backyard fence, rather than
attending a May Day rally as in previous years, never
remotely occurred to them.

So 28 years further down the pipe, how am I spending
this May Day? Filling in government GAINS forms with
hopes of getting my meagre Old Age Security payments
upgraded to the Canadian poverty level    :  (

If I had a fence, I'd stain it bright red yet again!

peace & poetry power!
Chris Faiers
May Day 2013 
 

old fart
turning pink
in May Day sun

old age May Day
I beg bureaucrats
for survival

                    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Conrad DiDiodato has left a new comment on your post "Middle-aged May Day":

May Day--
Faiers turning RED
in the sun



Posted by Conrad DiDiodato to Riffs & Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens at 1 May 2013 09:32 

                  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ed Baker has left a new comment on your post "Middle-aged May Day":

red fence
red pole
same dance

and
on May 5th
we can ALL
be Mexican

and get drunk
with cute girls



Posted by Ed Baker to Riffs & Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens at 3 May 2013 04:26

                    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Ed Baker piece on Fats Domino's "Red Sails in the Sunset"

here is a just now done piece:

b




thinking now of Fats Domino and his (version of)  "Red Sails in the Sunset " …


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_t_zMaoK_8


Whenever The Fat man was here playing at The Keg down on Wisconsin Avenue we used to go down to see him.
Margie Feldman's dad was a part owner in the place and we used to get in
as long as we didn't drink any beer. This was around 1958 / 1959/  early '60's

I just got tears in my eyes listing to this  song…   banging on this table …. thumping out Memories of (…)


best, Ed