A Precipitous Turn to the Right?

Leo Panitch certainly things so as he says in an interview with Real News' Paul Jay.

http://premiere.whatcounts.com/t?r=1664&c=905375&l=36646&ctl=168EFB9:DAE159C4C9D0D30DD6052EDC9F87083FEDC3615173C7E546&

Leo Panitch is the Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and a Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University in Toronto. Panitch is also the author of "Global Capitalism and American Empire" and his most recent release "American Empire and the Political Economy of International Finance". In addition to his university affiliation he is also a co-editor of the Socialist Register the latest volume of which is The Crisis This Time

Our Party Has a Forum - PARTICIPATE!

Good morning,

Must admit, I've not been participating in the party forum either but today, I registered and now join Mireille and Esther as contributors.

What a great opportunity for everyone to have a say, to express our political interests and to generate discussion.

Registration is very easy. Simply go to our website www.womensallianceparty.com
click on Join the Conversation (one up from the last entry under Issues) and follow the easy instructions. Don't forget to confirm your registration by returning to your email and following the direction to "click here".

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Dennis Kucinich Just Says No

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/282-98/6025-saying-no-to-permanent-global-war

Saying No to Permanent Global War
By Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Reader Supported News
23 May 11

The House is expected to vote soon on a bill that hands over to the president Congress' constitutional authority to declare and authorize war, substantially altering the delicate balance of powers that the Founding Fathers envisioned. The annual reauthorization of the Department of Defense contains unprecedented and dangerous language that gives the president virtually unchecked power to take the country to war and keep us there. This bill significantly undermines the Constitution, the institution of Congress and sets the United States on a path of permanent war.

The Fiscal Year 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) declares that the United States is in an armed conflict with not only al Qaeda and the Taliban, but "associated forces" and individuals, organizations and nations that support such forces. The president could then have the full legal authority to send American troops to engage in acts of war anywhere - Yemen, Somalia, Iran, even the United States - without constitutionally required Congressional authorization and, consequently, without any restrictions or oversight from the American people or Congress. This bill would also make permanent the degradation of law and human rights which has become Guantanamo. It imposes bans on the transfer of any detainee held at Guantanamo, including those who have been cleared of any charges. This means that the United States would be forced to keep imprisoning men who are known to be innocent or are not a threat. This bill not only allows the imprisonment of innocent people, but could mandate it. The bill also prevents the use of Article III federal courts for the trial of most terrorism suspects. This circumvents our system of justice and our protections under the Constitution, showing a lack of faith in US law enforcement and courts which are the constitutional venues for stopping terrorism. Our federal courts have a long history of trying terrorist suspects, while military courts are untested, lacking in legitimacy and of questionable effectiveness. Since 9/11, federal courts have prosecuted over 400 terrorism-related cases, while military courts have convicted only six.

It's as if the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan never happened. These wars cost thousands of lives of our men and women in uniform, and perhaps a million civilian lives, with long-term costs approaching $5 trillion. Yet, in light of the attempt to try to make permanent an authorization for war, it is as if the consequences of the wars we are in have not occurred. It's as if our "humanitarian" military intervention in Libya, which has helped create full blown civil war and which has ensnared us in yet another military stalemate in the region, never happened. It is as if centuries of evidence of the ramifications of the military overreach of empires never happened. It's as if the Constitution, which requires Congress to have a say in when and where we go to war and which guarantees U.S. citizens the right to a fair and speedy trial, was never written.

Congress must protect the American people from the over-reach of any Chief Executive who is enamored with unilateralism, pre-emption, first strike and the power to prosecute war without Constitutional or statutory proscriptions. Permanent, global war is not the answer. It will not increase our national security. Far from ridding the world of terrorism, it will become a terrorist recruitment program.

Now They Tell Us

Almost half of Canadians would prefer some form of proportional representation to our first-past-the-post system, which has allowed the Conservatives and Liberals to form majorities with less than 40 per cent of the popular vote.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/decision-canada/Poll+National+election+jolted+Canadians+passion+politics/4787635/story.html

WAP Welcomes Ms. May to Ottawa

Good morning Elizabeth!

Congratulations on being the first Green MP to hit Ottawa!

Also for being one of the first woman party leader!

We, as women, are thrilled to have you come to Ottawa. One voice that speaks truthfully, with focus and integrity, is all we need to start reversing the awful trend we are now in.

WAP/PAF offers you our support in Ottawa. Just let us know!

Esther Matharu
www.womensallianceparty.ca




Dear Esther,

Thank you so much for your kind, supportive words. On May 2nd, we made history and proved that Canadians wanted change. I am honoured to thank you as Canada’s first elected Green Party Member of Parliament.

There is no way to thank all of the people who made this historic win possible. Across the country, Green Party candidates worked hard in their ridings, canvassing, attending debates, and articulating the Green vision for Canada. In my own riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, we had a team of 2000 volunteers working on the ground to deliver our message. It has been incredibly inspiring to see people join me, whether at 6AM in the pouring rain to wave at morning commuters, or to go door-to-door canvassing with me, or joining me at the all-candidates debates. Without our team of dedicated volunteers, this win would not have been possible.

With my election, the people of Saanich-Gulf Islands have committed to rejecting the politics of cynicism and fear, and have embraced the politics of hope and cooperation. We need to bring respect back to the House of Commons.

Our work has just begun, and now I am going to need your help to prove that one Green MP with a different approach can remain free from hyper-partisanship and cynicism brought to the House by Canada’s old-line parties.

One MP, free from negative politics can make a difference, and I promise you that I will never shirk from speaking truth to power, nor will I embrace the politics of spin.

Thank you again for your support,

Elizabeth May, O.C.

MP Elect for Saanich-Gulf Islands

Leader

Green Party of Canada

greenparty.ca

1-866-868-3447

Oh Canada, What Have We Done?

Prime minister Stephen Harper – Canada's own George Bush – during a 2008 speech in Ottawa. Photograph: Chris Wattie/REUTERS

Canada's Cold New Dawn

by Heather Mallick

published in The Guardian London

Canada woke up to an election shock this morning. It was a self-inflicted jolt, and all the more painful for that. After three minority governments in seven years – all following inconclusive, forgettable elections that never gave the Conservatives the solid majority they were sweating for – a man of the hard right named Stephen Harper finally has his win.

He triumphed over Michael Ignatieff – known to the British as a fine writer, historian and BBC talking head – who had returned to Canada to lead the Liberals, often described as the country's traditional party of government. Instead, Ignatieff got whacked, and the left-leaning New Democratic party did very well indeed, astonishing even themselves. To put this in British terms, the Liberals (New Labour) were humiliated, the New Democrats (the Liberal Democrats) came in a powerful second and a Canadian version of George W Bush, minus the warmth and intellect, is now prime minister.

What happens now is the full-scale Americanisation of Canada, hinted at over the past seven years by Harper – he fired people who talked too loudly about this – but not acted upon because Canadians have always valued their distinctiveness from the angry country in decline south of the border.

Please read rest of the article here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/03/canada-stephen-harper-american-politics

Esther Matharu on Election Blues

I don’t know about you but after the elections, a great tiredness came over me. The idea that we had to continue to fight for such elementary things as votes that count (electoral reform), child-care support (why should something be run as a business when the majority of Canadians see child care as a national human rights issue like the right to health care), and the sheer offensiveness of the guns, jails and wars that the current PM will exact from our purses at the expense of our poor, is staggering. Enough to send anyone to bed with an acute headache!

After a few days of numbness, time to lick our wounds, as eloquently wrote David Julianan Wightman in the X-Ray Magazine (http://xraymagazine.ca/22/) editorial, we pick up the pieces and start thinking of what now?

Post mortems are sometimes fun, but it all adds to the fatigue. I personally am very selective with my post mortems. I’d rather not think about the elections. I’d rather think about nice things, spring, for example.

But it won’t go away. Is there any other angle to this? Happily, we can thank women for most of the good news.

There are more women in the House than ever before – a jump from 20% to 25%. That means every fourth person is a woman, instead of every fifth. Thanks to NDP.

Elizabeth May will be in Parliament, and she has already indicated that the moment they start ‘bickering’ to use a now infamous word use by a contemptuous person, she simply walk out. What a powerful message! I hope that every woman in the House will follow her out. I hope they will all go and have a cup of tea and discuss how best to run our country. I hope they will talk about issues and not parties, about families and not money, about peace and not war.

How about we envision what we would like to see happening in the next years?

Certainly the ridicule that Canada has heaped on its head - an unpopular leader backed by less than 40% of the electorate is now sitting in a place of practically unbridled power because of the weakness of our constitution - is something we would like very much to see reversed. To quote the late Eugene Forsey’s excellent ‘How Canadians Govern Themselves’ (7^th edition): The constitution still contains not one syllable on prime ministerial qualifications, the method of election or removal, or the prime minister’s powers (except for the calling of constitutional conferences).

So who writes up and/or protects the Constitution? The Supreme Court. It is this body that interprets the written Constitution and defines the limits of federal and provincial powers. Who appoints the nine judges who sit on the Supreme Court? The Governor General on the advice of the national cabinet. Ah yes. But who appoints the Governor General, or for that matter the national cabinet members? Her Majesty the Queen, accepts the advice of the Prime Minister on who should be the Governor General and he/she chooses the cabinet . There you have it, full circle. The PM appoints the cabinet members, the Governor General and the Supreme Court judges, who are the only ones who can interpret the constitution and define the powers (of the PM!).

Maybe I am wrong, and please correct me, but I think something is very wrong with our constitution which gives so much power to one person. One only hopes that in our current leader we will have a benevolent dictator who will rule us with benevolence.

But back to the future. The Women’s Alliance Party says stop spilling soup over who split the votes and how, and get down to having a major constitutional reform. Call out the lawyers, the pundits and the wise women and men. Now is time to put democracy back on the agenda and see what needs to be done to protect it. Obviously it needs safeguarding