A Consummation Devoutly to be Wish'd

So Stephen Harper, only 6 weeks after being denied his majority, finds himself on the cusp of being thrown out of a job by a feckless and fractured opposition. Quite a demonstration of leadership, wouldn't you say? He joins that other Tory with a minority who, to prove his manliness, decided that the people were wrong to deny him a majority and would proceed as if he had one: Joe Clark. To share this distinction with Clark must turn Harper's spit to vinegar. And all because he couldn't resist the temptation to try to destroy his political opponents, something that looks like he is more interested in than in doing anything about the economy, which the last three years have shown he had sadly mismanaged, burning through more than $60 billion in tax cuts for his well-heeled friends.

Thomas Walkom of the Star called it right. While the world is plunging ahead with massive stimulus initiatives, Harper chooses to do essentially nothing. That is actually a defensible enough strategy, given that much of what needs to be done must wait til after Obama takes over. So what do Harper and his Harrisite Flaherty do? Give in to the yahoo howlings of their base and go for predictable red-meat targets. Target public service pay and their right to strike (the public service in Ottawa has been running at a record profit clip over the last 10 years, delivering gigantic surpluses), pay equity, and while they're at it, destroy their political opponents.

Having got used to daring the opposition to kiss his posterior and seeing them dutifully pucker up, Harperbot figured he could cow them into going out of business, daring them to plunge the country into another unnecessary election. Having already run one unnecessary election himself, forcing another one was something Harper figured the opposition parties could not afford to be seen doing, let alone afford, period. The opposition, dispirited as they settled into their seats for a long winter in the political wilderness, were instantly galvanized by this gratuitous bit of pissery and in the blink of an eye, a unite-the-left movement had formed, lured by the heady prospect of instant governing. They may just find they like it. Welcome to a new era of coalition governments, brought to you by your unfriendly Conservative party.

This is another classic example of the Reform-party nastiness that curdles in the Tory soul. Like the neo-cons he idolizes, Harper and his hyenas prefer to campaign rather than govern and simply cannot keep themselves from waving their dicks in front of people when they think they can get away with it. In the current crisis, the proposal to essentially kneecap the other parties bespeaks an adolescent, video-gamer opportunism.  

Today, Little Stevie has gone into his sweater drawer with a vengeance and said he won't try to eliminate the funding for the other parties under the current arrangement after all. Old Milky Eyes, however, may find that everyone has moved on and decided that he cannot be trusted to be a leader, and that he will be asked to spend Christmas in Stornaway. Given his predilection to sulkiness, though, he may just decide to take his ball and go home. 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd. 

So here we are at the end of 08, Harper has failed to get his majority against a fractured and poorly led opposition, and is looking at being tossed out on his ample keister by them. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Now Jim Flaherty will be free to pursue his dream of becoming Premier of Ontario and doing what really wanks his crank—jailing the homeless.

Shocked Disbelief

Still awash in the sea of endorphins unleashed by the accession of Obama, and waiting for the Big Shoe to drop on the economy. Part of the giddy hope that grips us is no doubt a reflection of the passing of Oedipus Tex from the scene. George Wanker Bush grows paler and more insignificant every day, filling his days issuing regulations and orders to ruin as many things as he can in his final 60 days, jetting around warning all those A students that regulating the markets is bad, this while we were treated to the  spectacle of Alan Greedspan admitting to Congress and the world that one of the linchpins of his economic philosophy was, how to put this? W-R-O-N-G.

“Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief,” he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Greenspan has been a life-long disciple of nutjob pseudo-philosopher Ayn Rand, a favourite of adolescents desperate to show their worldliness and to find deep meaning in an all-encompassing philosophy. That he would continue to cleave to Rand's undercooked gumbo of ersatz libertarianism in his later life does not recommend him.

We have, with the great help of Randers like Greenspan, been told that of all the fields of human endeavour—making cars, building houses, tending to the sick, representing parties in court, farming—tending to others' money should, alone among them all, be unencumbered by rules and regulations meant to curb abuses by mere mortals. Working in finance bestows infallibility, it seems. Markets are self-regulating, they take care of themselves, their self-interest (paging Ayn Rand) provides the necessary corrective.

Except, of course, when it doesn't. And then there is a state of shocked disbelief.

Although Daniel Gross in Slate tells us that analogies to the Great Depression are over the top, Nobel winner Paul Krugman on Friday wrote: "nothing is happening on the policy front that is remotely commensurate with the scale of the economic crisis. And it’s scary to think how much more can go wrong before Inauguration Day."