Sorry, Rocco

You know I love you, man... but you lost me at "fire sale":

The latest contender for Toronto's mayoralty said he would whip the city's finances into shape by selling Toronto Hydro and other city assets if elected.

"I'm big, I'm bald and I've got bold ideas for this city," said Rocco Rossi, who until last week was the Liberal party's national director in Ottawa.

..."We're going to sell assets," Rossi told reporters. "We're going to start with Toronto Hydro."

Nope. Sorry. Been there, done that, didn't like it.

Happily, I don't live in Toronto.

Michael Moore Strikes Again

Premiering at TIFF:

Naomi Klein, and Agreeing to Disagree

Nice piece in The Star today on Naomi Klein, who is presented as typical of a Canadian who is "a celebrity abroad but is mostly ignored at home." I'm not sure how true that is (although her tour schedule lists three U.S. dates and no Canadian ones), but it's nice to see this sort of high profile recognition in Canada, especially now that so many of her 'crazy ideas' are proving to be prescient.

She is a once hopeful and skeptical about Barack Obama and his economic plan.

"Obama is an important change from Bush, and the reason why he is important is that he is susceptible to pressure from everyone. He is susceptible to pressure from Wall Street, to pressure from the weapons companies, from the Washington establishment. But unlike Bush and (Dick) Cheney, I don't think he'd ignore mass protest.

"The irony is that just at the very moment when that kind of grassroots organizing and mobilization could have an impact, we are demobilizing and waiting for the good acts to be handed down from on high, whether it is the withdrawal from Iraq or the perfect economic stimulus package."

I found it interesting that one of the first comments on this piece (9:57 AM) challenges the characterization of Klein as a "Star Left-Winger" and indeed the entire notion of left-vs-right as overly simplistic and dismissive in today's complex political and economic reality. Indeed, Klein's own concerns about Obama and her dismay at how Americans seem to have forgotten Bill Clinton's own pro-corporate policies seem to defy traditional notions of 'left' and 'right'.

I am finding more and more that words like these serve as an excellent excuse to stop listening to one another. We are so keen to label writers, pundits, ideas, and even whole media outlets as left or right, socialist or capitalist, conservative or liberal, that we end up separating into ideological camps made up of people who already agree with us and simply shutting the rest out.

Ironically, one of Klein's chief complaints against Obama is his choice of former Clinton advisor Larry Summers to his economic team - a man with whom she strenuously disagrees. And yet, Obama has said from day one that he wants to surround himself with people he disagrees with so they can challenge his ideas and assumptions to see how well they hold up.

It's an approach I'm learning to appreciate.

(crossposted from Canada's World)

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.

__________________________

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.

My Personal Political Focus Group

I sing with the Milton Choristers, a local community choir of about 30-45 men and women here in Halton. When I first joined 14 years ago I was the youngest member by about a decade, and the only one wearing jeans. These days, it's not quite the blue-haired crowd it once was, and we actually have a wide range of ages, incomes and even ethic origins represented now.

Consequently, the Choristers have become my barometer of the political climate of Milton, as we sit and drink beer and engage in animated conversation about a wide range of topics at Bryden's Pub after rehearsal every Tuesday.

This evening I was conversing with my rather conservative friend Jim. Jim reminds me of a younger version of my dad: professional, moderate to high income, old school family guy. Intelligent. Well informed. Traditional Conservative.

Despite this (or maybe because of it), I consider him a friend. Which is not to say that he doesn't make me want to tear my hair out sometimes.

Jim is of the opinion (and I'm paraphrasing here) that Canada really only needs two political parties, and that they just need to trade places every few years so they don't become overly entrenched and corrupt. Right now it's the Conservatives' turn at the helm, and that's probably the best thing for the country right now as it will clear out the deadwood of too many years of Liberal rule.

Twenty years ago, I might even have agreed with him.

What traditional Canadian Conservatives like Jim fail to understand - and which I cannot for the life of me manage to convince them of - is that the Conservatism they have known all their lives does not bear the remotest resemblance to what Steven Harper and his ilk are calling Conservatism.

They are not moderate. They are not fiscally responsible. They are not patriotic. They do not believe in smaller government - they believe in NO GOVERNMENT AT ALL. In fact, Harper calling his party 'Conservative' is a little like Hitler calling his party 'Socialist'.

I am further convinced of all of this because I finally got tired of waiting for Milton's sole pathetic chain bookstore to stock copies of Thomas Frank's "The Wrecking Crew" and got mine by mail order. I'm one chapter in and already I'm getting a much clearer view of the coming apocalypse should Steven Harper win his majority.

Here is just one excerpt:

There are plenty of good conservative individuals, honorable folks who would never participate in the sort of corruption we have watched unfold over the last few years...

But put conservatism in charge of the state, and it behaves very differently. Now the "values" that rightist politicians eulogize on the stump disappear, and in their place we can discern an entirely different set of priorities - priorities that reveal more about the unchanging historical essence of American conservatism than do its fleeting campaigns against gay marriage or secular humanism.

The conservatism that speaks to us through its actions in Washington is institutionally opposed to those baseline good intentions we learned about in elementary school. Its leaders laugh off the idea of the public interest as airy-fairy nonsense; they caution against bringing top-notch talent into government service; they declare war on public workers. They have made a cult of outsourcing and privatizing, they have wrecked established federal operations because they disagree with them, and they have deliberately piled up an Everest of debt in order to force the government into crisis. The ruination they have wrought has been thorough; it has been a professional job. Repairing it will require years of political action.

Frankly, I fear for both our nations. Because even if the Democrats win there and the Liberals (by some miracle) win here, the damage may well be so extensive and so deep-rooted that it will take years or even decades to repair, and the price to be paid for reversing so many years of irresponsible reductions in federal revenue and mortal blows to our respective democracies, may well be more than the electorate is willing to bear.

In which case, I may not see the end of this within my lifetime. Pray Gods my son sees it in his.

Baghdad Still a Hellhole and...Oh Look, a Bunny!

Just when you start thinking that Naomi Klein might be just some wigged out doomsayer, the corporatocracy goes and pulls something like this:

Disneyland goes to war-torn Iraq, with a multi-million dollar entertainment complex, to be built on a 50 acre lot adjacent to the Green Zone. ("Fun park rises from ruins of Baghdad zoo", The Times, London, 24 April 2008)

The American-style amusement park will feature a skateboard park, rides, a concert theatre and a museum.

The occupation forces are of the opinion that Baghdad is "lacking in entertainment". General David Petraeus, is said to be a “big supporter” of bringing Disneyland to Baghdad.

...Supported by the Pentagon, an unknown Los Angeles based holding company C3 of unnamed private equity investors, will be developing the "Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience". The park will be designed by Ride and Show Engineering (RSE)

In other words, they are going to be turning this:



...into this:



They're trying to make it sound like they're just rehabilitating an area that was destroyed in the invasion, but that isn't quite correct:

The 50-acre (20 hectare) swath of land sits adjacent to the Green Zone and encompasses Baghdad’s existing zoo, which was looted, left without power and abandoned after the American-led invasion in 2003. Only 35 of 700 animals survived – some starved, some were stolen and some were killed by Iraqis fearing food shortages.

In the years that followed, the zoo and the surrounding al-Zawra park became an occasional target for insurgent attacks. But in recent months, families have begun to return cautiously for weekend picnics. Renovations have already begun on the zoo, with cages being repainted and new animals arriving, including ostriches, bears and a lion.

That's not good enough, apparently. So instead of continuing to rehabilitate an existing public space that is part of the fabric of Iraqi society, let's just raze the whole thing, hand it over to an American corporation and start over with a shiny new American-style FOR PROFIT theme park.

Call me crazy, but I'm going to make two predictions here. One: that a significant percentage of the park's patrons are going to be residents of the Green Zone. And two: that the rolling blackouts and brownouts that still plague Baghdad are somehow not going to be a problem there.

Because we wouldn't want our Iraqi friends to get trapped in the 'Carousel of Progress' or anything.



(H/T to Dana at The Beav)

Get Out of My Head, Naomi Klein!

There was a somewhat cheezy but strangely memorable science fiction movie back in the ‘80s called ‘They Live’. It was about a guy who finds a pair of sunglasses that allows him to see subliminal messages in billboards and magazine ads, as well as the true faces of the yuppies and power elite who turn out to be hideous aliens trying to take over the world.

That’s what I feel like after reading Naomi Klein’s ‘The Shock Doctrine’.

I can’t read or watch the news any more without zeroing in on terms like ‘public/private partnerships’ or asking myself which multinational corporations are going to make a killing this time.

Even watching that ‘Killer Wave’ mini-series last week, I immediately recognized that the likely culprit behind these man-made Tsunamis had to be some mega corporation that stood to profit from providing reconstruction services to devastated coastal communities. Because really, it’s not that big a stretch to go from disaster capitalism to disaster creation, right?

That's not paranoia, right?

Or take this bit of news:

Ottawa's demand for review 'crazy,' Miller says

The "ideology" of the federal Conservatives is needlessly delaying the extension of the Spadina subway north into York Region, Mayor David Miller charged yesterday, accusing the government of demanding a "crazy" financial review of the project.

Last March, Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised $697-million for the $2.1-billion, 8.6-kilometre subway expansion, already approved by the province and by York Region.

But no cheque from Ottawa has been signed, Mr. Miller said, because the federal government is forcing the Toronto Transit Commission to review the project in order to determine whether the private sector could be more involved in a so-called public-private partnership.

There’s that word again: ‘private’. Meaning corporate. Meaning the use of millions of our tax dollars to enrich the shareholders of whatever corporation gave Harper the most money last year so they can sub-contract the job out to the lowest bidder who will pay the lowest wages they can and use the cheapest materials available to do the most half-assed job they can possibly get away with. It’s just like the IMF did in Bolivia when they demanded the privatization of their water system as a condition of…

Grrrr… See? I can’t stop myself. It’s everywhere!

Put on the glasses, man. It'll change your life.