Saturday Morning Links

Assorted material for your weekend reading.

- Yes, Tabatha Southey's latest is on the hilarious side. But sadly, it's worth noting that even giving the Cons credit for being willing to tell the truth only in response to the correct question (which requires specific knowledge of the answer) is too generous: is there really any evidence that their response even to the right question is anything but to repeat their pre-fabricated talking points?

- The Mound of Sound posts on state capture by corporate interests:

Corporatism is now insinuating itself between legislators and the voting public whenever and wherever that suits its interests. None of this could happen without a willingly and thoroughly corrupt political class which is pretty much an apt description for America's "bought and paid for" Congress. As we transition into a full-fledged petro-state we too will have to be constantly aware of the susceptibility of our own political classes to Corporatist corruption. But being aware is not enough. This has to be fought back because it won't go away on its own.

- Meanwhile, there doesn't seem to me much doubt which needs and values are being utterly ignored as the Cons look to cater to the corporate sector:

With so many recommendations and so much time and thought put into developing them, how can the Harper government justify tossing it aside with barely a glance?

They’ve had practice, for one. In 2009, a Senate subcommittee released an anti-poverty plan, which, if anything, covered too much ground with 74 recommendations. The government took no action on that report despite its chilling conclusion that, far from lifting people out of poverty, many of our existing programs are so badly designed that they hold people down.
...
No one is disputing that Ottawa already puts substantial funding into programs that help the poor but the fact remains that more than 3 million Canadians are still living in poverty.

That makes it astonishing that the Conservative government is so ready to dismiss any thoughtful advice on what it can and should do to help those suffering Canadians achieve more productive, happier lives.

- And at the end of an otherwise gloomy column, Gerald Caplan suggests that now may just be the time for the NDP to run a successful campaign by highlighting the issues that the Cons have been working so hard to ignore:

There’s a powerful, exciting and unanswerable campaign to run against Mr. Harpergovernment, especially by the NDP. The target is broad as a battleship, the issues irresistible – a government that can neither be trusted nor afforded. The examples are legion; there are almost too many to keep track of. But me, I’d begin with inequality and the multiple ways it’s increasing, thanks to corporate tax cuts, tax havens, tax loopholes, tax evasions, tax subsidiaries and government subsidies to corporations. There’s a very explicit class war being waged out there, with the government as enthusiastic enabler of the filthy rich getting even filthier at the direct expense of the rest of us. This is the perfect NDP issue since the Chrétien-Martin governments were active collaborators in this unrelenting war against the middle and lower classes.

What a campaign Mr. Layton could run on these issues. He could easily produce a new case every day throughout the entire campaign that would shock and outrage most Canadians. Jaded New Democrats would be revitalized. The many progressives disgusted with the present political system would be re-inspired.

This is why the NDP was founded. This is what the NPD exists for.

An election? Bring it on!