White Privilege and American Politics

So I could write another biting and clever post about Sarah Palin and the tragedy that is the American election right now.

Or I could let Tim Wise do it ten times better than I ever could.

I'm going to stick with that.

Oh and do yourself a favour. When you follow the link to his article, DON'T read the comments. They just reinforce the need for these types of articles in the first place.

Blogger Hates Me

I've been having some major issues with Blogger as of late. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that it's the Man trying to get at me, but I know I'm not that important.

Anywhoo, please stay tuned for an update soon as I think I might have the kinks worked out.

Keep on keepin' on!

Who is Afraid of Elizabeth May?

I'll tell you who. It's three old white dudes from Canada.

Elizabeth May is the leader of The Green Party; a once marginal party that now has a seat in Parliament. You can thank the green agenda in general for that I’m sure. People are paying attention to environmental issues and the result is the Green Party slowly coming up the ranks.

So last election, May fought to be included in the televised debates. The televised debates are a big deal (well, as big of a deal as can be in a country with a shitty voter turnout, but I digress). But last time around, May was denied on the basis of the fact that she had no seats in Parliament. A slippery slope, they said. Let her debate then you’ll have to include the Marijuana Party, The Rhinoceros Party and every other fringe party out there. Makes sense.

This time, however, ole May’s got herself a seat in Parliament. But that ain’t good enough for three white dudes called Harper, Layton, and Duceppe. They fought her inclusion tooth and nail. They had different excuses, including the idea that May had talked to Dion and decided not to run a member in whichever riding he had. Basically a tag team against Harper. Whether or not that was true, we will never know. Either way, May fired back with the allegation that Harper and Layton said behind closed doors that if May was included, they were boycotting the debates.

Well now it seems that Harper and Layton are “willing” to include May in the debates. Thanks for your fucking generosity, boys.

It’s clear that they really don’t want her there. Why is that? Do they think that their overall dismal environmental records have steered voters to the Green bill? Are they worried that she’ll slam dunk them in the debate? Or do they think she’s just that pesky student in the corner who constantly waves her hand in the air, asking for their attention? Who knows.

But this is what I do know.

I think that not including May in the debates and then threatening to back out if she does join is a slap in the face to democracy. The democratic process is about letting people have their say and letting voters decide what they want. People want to know their options and as far as I’m concerned, leaders should have to attend these things. Question period is a joke and it isn’t until the leaders are on full display in a televised debate do real arguments come forward.

And lastly, how is it a big deal to let Elizabeth May debate but its kosher beans that the Bloc is there and have been since the beginning? They don’t even run any candidates outside of Quebec.

Let’s be real here. If anyone is running a fringe party, it’s Gilles Duceppe. (And this man is an ardent feminist, so it pains me to say this because I love the guy. But let's cut the bullshit).

Oh and as someone who bleeds orange, I’m disgusted with you Layton. Seriously, dude. Get with it. This whole debacle has you looking as childish as Harper and there’s nothing creepier than a kid with a mustache.

Why I hate Sarah Palin

So I’ve done my best to stay away from American politics because well… that shit is ugly. And complicated. And well, let’s face it, there are a bajillion other blogs out there that tackle it so I figured, why bother?

But this Sarah Palin business has got my La Senza’s in a twist, so I have to add my voice to the mix.

I want to love Palin, I do. She’s a SHE, she’s young, she’s a mother and she’s from freakin’ Alaska. Nobody cares about Alaska! But then, she’s also anti-choice, a homophobe, a creationist and pro-gun. Now I understand being pro-gun and from Alaska; I’m from Northern Ontario after all. I’ve been hunting, I know these things. But you can’t take a pro-gun attitude into the White House. Washington is nobody’s Alaska.

And when the shocking announcement was made that Palin was going to be McCain’s VP, Obama had plenty of opportunity to knock her down a few pegs by bringing up this anti-womyn, anti-gay, anti-science, anti-logic business. But no, he chooses instead to call her to task on having “no experience”.

Paging Obama: Don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house.

And now it seems that Palin has a 17 year old daughter that is *gasp* PREGNANT and of course, unmarried. Well this has sent the “journalists” into a frenzy now hasn’t it? Is she a good anti-choicer for having a daughter who kept the baby or is she coveting a slut? (Forgetting of course that this is the same womyn who cut funding to young mothers and who is a creationist and therefore anti-sex education).

I hate talking about Palin’s private life but I suppose that as long as we can cut up McCain’s rehabbing wife and Michelle Obama’s mothering skills, then everything is up for grabs, like it or not.

But of all the Palin talk of late, I could care less about her daughter, and not just because she has a horrible name (Bristol? Really?).

The latest Palin-ism is her speech at the Republican National Convention where she went on a tirade against Obama for having attacked her lack of experience. Admittedly, she had every right to. But the way in which she did it seemed so… childish. A very “I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I” kind of attitude.

In response to being accused of lacking experience, she took a stab at Obama’s days as an activist. Her exact words

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

Really Palin? Honestly? That’s your response?

I’d give you my response but I will choose instead to let the delicious Jay Smooth to do it for me instead, because I couldn’t have said it better myself.

“The difference between a community organizer and a politician is that community organizers are the ones who take the responsibility upon themselves to help their fellow citizens without the benefit of a government budget behind them.”

Amen.

**Thanks to Feministing for the IllDoctrine heads-up**

Update: This Daily Show clip is a must-see.

Meat Slices and The Canadian Way

I spend a lot of time here sarcastically yapping about the "Canadian Way" of doing things. One of the big Canadian stereotypes is that we're awfully polite and apologize quite frequently.

Well, when it comes to Canadian politicians, as I've said before, they apologize alright but it's half-assed, scripted and completely insincere. So imagine my surprise at the latest developments in the Maple Leaf Foods recall.

The whole thing is a complete disaster, with over a dozen people sick and many who have died. Class action lawsuits are in the works and everyone is pointing the finger at everyone else.

Except for Michael McCain. Who is Michael McCain?

He's the president of Maple Leaf Foods. So, in following the Canadian way, he's the last person you'd see sincerely apologizing but he is. On Wednesday, he held a press conference where he took full responsibility for the outbreak and went beyond that to say that it was nobody else's fault but his own. That people are upset and they should be, because well.. they fucked up.

Not only is this an incredible example of accountability at its best, but it's also an incredible smart business practice. Maple Leaf is losing millions of dollars over this outbreak but something tells me that they will recover because he probably restored a lot of faith in the mind of Canadians by being outright about the whole thing.

You know, researchers and politicians have spent a lot of money and resources into finding out why few Canadians vote. And I bet you if what McCain did was the norm and not the exception, then people might have better faith in their leaders.

But something tells me we're not going to see Harper making a press conference of:

"War in Afghanistan? Cuts to Status of Women? Reopening the abortion debate? Keeping homophobes and misogynists on the payroll? Cutting arts funding? Yeah.. my bad."

Something tells me that's not happening anytime soon...

And The Feminists For the Win!

Today, a Canadian feminist rejoices.

Yesterday the Conservatives announced that they were revoking Bill C-484 and wanting to replace it with another more appropriate Bill after the (inevitable) Fall election. This new more "appropriate" Bill will be worded much more clearly and will place the focus on preventing violence against pregnant womyn as people and not as incubators.

BOO-FREAKIN’-YA

If you’ve been following my musings here or the news in general really, you will know that Bill C-484 hasn’t sat well with feminists, lawyers and the medical community alike. Well it seems that us rabble rousers scared the Neo-Cons just a wee bit, so they are backing down on this Bill in order to win some votes in the election. I guess they figured that if we can mobilize quickly around this, then we can mobilize people to vote, too.

This hasn’t warmed me up to the Tories one bit and I don’t think the battle is over, quite yet. I mean, the very root of a Conservative platform is anti-feminist, in my opinion. But I think it is safe to say that this is an excellent example of Canadian democracy in practice.

Let’s face it, politicians of all stripes (with the exception of the Bloc) dropped the ball on this Bill. The Liberal Party has a pro-choice platform and yet the party was divided on the Bill. But the pro-choice community mobilized and demonstrated that we know what’s what.

And now you can see the results.

Canadian Feminists: 1, Conservatives: 0

I Give Up.

The world in general is rather awful at times but Canada is taking the cake for me today.

We have Car Dealer Ownerships in Canada complaining that they have to close until 12:30pm on Remembrance Day.

And then we have someone posing as a murder victim's sister to solicit faulty donations. Tim McLean, the slain Greyhound bus passenger, was the target of con artists who posed as his sister and took money from people who thought they were assisting his family through economic hardship.

I realize that this is the ultimate Debbie Downer post and that there is a slew of fabulous things happening in this country (including, but not limited to, the fact that we now have Olympic medals under our belts!) But I just can't help but get downtrodden at times.

Humanity is pretty sick and twisted and when people are complaining that they're going to lose money because they have to close for 3 and 1/2 hours one day out of the year and other people are capitalizing on a horrific tragedy, it really makes you reconsider how you feel about your country.

Canada: Today I am ashamed to know you.