The Debate I Missed, and Klein on the Paulson Plan

I was very disappointed that I had to work on Monday night and wasn't able to ask my question of Conservative candidate Lisa Raitt in person. Happily, the event was recorded and the video should hopefully be available sometime soon.

In the meantime, here is a rather disturbing quote from Halton's new Con Queen:

"This to me, going through the electoral process, is nothing more than a job performance review and it is about whether or not you adhere to what the company’s goals were or what the party’s goals were, and how well you executed what you did in the community of Halton. and that’s what you should be judged on and that’s how you should move forward."

This, to me, is the essence of the Conservative approach to democracy. It's not about representing the people to the government - it's about representing the government (or the party) to the people. It's about convincing people that they should adhere to the party's position rather than adjusting the party's position to reflect the wishes and the interests of the people.

It's about falling in line, people. Write that down.

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In other news... like everyone else, I have been watching the economic horror show south of the border and have been asking myself (as I'm sure you all have), "What does Naomi Klein think?"

Today, we have our answer:

Now Is the Time to Resist Wall Street's Shock Doctrine

by Naomi Klein

I wrote The Shock Doctrine in the hopes that it would make us all better prepared for the next big shock. Well, that shock has certainly arrived, along with gloves-off attempts to use it to push through radical pro-corporate policies (which of course will further enrich the very players who created the market crisis in the first place...).

The best summary of how the right plans to use the economic crisis to push through their policy wish list comes from Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. On Sunday, Gingrich laid out 18 policy prescriptions for Congress to take in order to "return to a Reagan-Thatcher policy of economic growth through fundamental reforms." In the midst of this economic crisis, he is actually demanding the repeal of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which would lead to further deregulation of the financial industry. Gingrich is also calling for reforming the education system to allow "competition" (a.k.a. vouchers), strengthening border enforcement, cutting corporate taxes and his signature move: allowing offshore drilling.

It would be a grave mistake to underestimate the right's ability to use this crisis -- created by deregulation and privatization -- to demand more of the same...

Or, as I explained it to my son today, it's all about reverse privatization. Instead of government selling off the most profitable portions of public assets and leaving us with the dross, they want to take indebted private business interests and sell the shitty end of the stick to the public. And it all has to be done now. Now! NOW NOW NOW!!!

He got it. I have the most politically astute sixteen year old on the planet.