Canada's new standard for clean cities?

One thing we hear a lot here in the US of A is that Canada's big cities are so much cleaner than ours.
Yes, we have our Filthydelphia, but as bad as Philadelphia may be at times, we don't have anyplace with quite the situation that Vancouver, B.C., now has.
From the Canadian Press:
VANCOUVER — The ripe stench of human excrement is getting stronger in downtown lanes, curling the stomachs of workers who no longer want to relax by the back door for smoke breaks.
The primary source of this shitty in the city problem in the central business district and the Downtown Eastside area?
The 10-block city slum (Downtown Eastside, I presume) is swollen with up to 5,000 injection drug users who have less control of their bowels. Many are homeless and have nowhere to go to the toilet. Often the drug users roam out of the neighbourhood into alleys linking downtown businesses.
And, you may ask, just what is official Vancouver's take on drugs?
According to the Stop the Drug War site, Vancouver is "on the cutting edge of drug reform in the Western Hemisphere.... Part of the Four Pillars program was the September (2003) opening of the hemisphere's first safe injection site for needle users, located in the heart of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, long notorious as the largest congregation of hard-core drug users on the continent."
Hmmmm. Isn't that the area that smells like crap?
Also, Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell is pushing for legalization of marijuana. Campbell is an interesting character... a former Mountie in drug enforcement who has apparently turned Vancouver into the drug use capital of the Northwest. If you don't believe me, read the interview he did with Stop the Drug War. He was also a script writer for the Canadian TV series "Da Vinci's Inquest", which chronicles the life of a Vancouver coroner, which Campbell also was for a few years. [Does this look like a poor man's "Quincy M.E." to you? I can't imagine that whoever played DaVinci was anywhere near as good as Jack Klugman.]
The official reaction? In the CP story, a public health protection officer (duh) is quoted as saying, "Defecating and urinating in the street is not something that's healthy for individuals."
Pardon my french, but no shit, Sherlock.
The solution? There are a few offered...
Public toilets. OK, that's not such a horrible idea... Not surprisingly, though, they have to study the hell out of it. As the CP report said,
Vancouver is set to commission a study to map the size of the problem and is considering spending more money on maintaining public toilets in the downtown entertainment and business districts.
But that's typical of a left-wing city - and make no mistake, Vancouver is far left-wing. Campbell and his government are ruling with the support of the Coalition of Progressive Electors (there's a real hint, huh?), which is supported by the socialist NDP. No more Librano left for them, no siree.
Open urinals. Yes, that's right. Open urinals. Like that's something a person should have to see. "I'm not sure our culture is ready for that," another clueless Vancouver city functionary told the CP reporter.
Housing for the addicts. Yes, "Let's spend the money on toilets on houses," says another typical lefty who suckles on the public teat.
What's missing?????
How about trying to help these poor souls break away from their addiction? Nothing at all on that, huh?
So compassionate.
* Feed their addiction, and the hell with the community that has to suffer with the stink. Shit.
* Keep those people marginalized and in need of the benevolent hand of government. More shit.
* Fund more programs to ensure that these people stay marginalized until they're dead. Even more shit.
Defining deviancy down. Thanks for the catch phrase, Mr. Moynihan. God knows we can find more examples of it every day.

SHOUTOUTS: Dust My Broom, Mitchieville, and ProudToBeCanadian earn shoutouts for their work inspiring this post.

Good news, good news

THE PHANTOMS WIN THE CALDER CUP!
THE PHANTOMS WIN THE CALDER CUP!
THE PHANTOMS WIN THE CALDER CUP!

We now return to our regularly scheduled sanity.

The tapes are real, but you'd never know it...

Germant Grewal's tapes aren't fakes. But you'd never know it from Canada's MSM.
As I write this, shortly after 9 p.m. EDT, there's no sign of this report on the Red Star; no report on Canoe. The reports were from CBC British Columbia (at Captain's Quarters) and Nealenews (at Angry in the Great White North).
In fact, my old friends Just Thinkin' and Fubar at Crittermusings had this release up about 24 hours ago.
But you won't find it in the MSM, web version. (I haven't been able to check the Chained and Nailed to the Libranos; it crashes the computer on which I'm now working.)
Nor will you find what Walking Eagle posted as a comment on Angry: "The MSM is calling Randy Dash, "the Tories' audio expert". He is not the Tories' audio expert, he is/was the Liberals' audio expert. According to Minister Valeri in Question Period 6 June he (Dash) claimed the tapes were altered. Now The CPC lets him analyse the originals and he says they are clean. How will the Libs explain that in the next QP?"
Who you gonna believe: someone who listened to copies or someone who listened to originals?
If you're a moonbat, you don't have to answer that question.
Grewal didn't fake the tapes. Dosanjh and Murphy did what they did. The credibility gap widens. (No wiseacre remarks about how that can't be done.)
And will the ghost of Ron Zeigler descend upon Ottawa?
For those of you too young to remember, the late Ron Zeigler was Richard Nixon's press secretary, the man who came up with the line "Those statements are now inoperative."

Er, Mr. Lawrence Martin...

A columnist for Canada's Globe and Mail (or is it Chained and Nailed to Libranoism) wrote on Thursday (it's behind a firewall) that Canada's "U.S. Security Blanket Is Unravelling."
Mr. Lawrence Martin offers a set of points in support of his theory. For each, I intend to offer a rebuttal.
The rise of China: U.S. dominance is threatened by an economic superpower that has four times its population. Through the last century, Canada lived next door to No. 1, and all the eggs naturally fell into the one basket. This is likely to change. Our trade volumes will diminish south of the border and move to the new economic magnets -- China and, perhaps, India.
That trend has already begun, thanks to your Desmarais-Strong-Martin axis of power. But what does Canada have to offer, other than the oil sands, that the U.S. can't provide for itself? I'd venture to say that Canada depends a hell of a lot more on the U.S. than we do on Canada.
U.S. fiscal and trade deficits: They are deplorable, the dollar is in decline, and the social security net is headed for crisis. Most experts will tell you that the long-range 20-year fiscal U.S. picture has seldom been so bleak. In these circumstances, Canada would have to start offloading some of its cross-border trade dependence. It's already happening, due to the declining American dollar.
The Canadian dollar hasn't exactly been tearing up the fiscal charts, lately, either. I would also note, per David Frum's latest article in the National Review, that Canadian workers are making less per hour when compared to their American counterparts than they were 12 years ago, when the Librano dictatorship began... and that the typical Canadian family, according to Frum, had a flat income through most of that time, while inflation ate away at the loonie.
Globalization: It may not be dying, but it's hardly the big wave any more. The anti-unification votes in Europe, the rise of American nationalism and the signs of a return to nationalism elsewhere will have an impact on Canada. Pressure for more market consolidation in North America is petering out. Quebec, formerly a leader in the free-trade drive, has soured on the United States.
Mr. Martin, what evidence do you have to support your Quebec analysis? I've not seen anything to back up that theory. Yes, globalization may well be on the downswing, but that is probably a good thing for freedom in the long haul.
Values: Most studies, including one on religion this week, show that Canadians and Americans are no longer converging. They are, in fact, diverging. If anything, conservative forces are in the ascendancy in the United States, while Canada remains on its soft-centrist liberal track.
As if conservatives are some sort of evil force. Of course, that's how outlets like the CBC and the Chained and Nailed see them because conservatism doesn't believe in rights without responsibilities, a hallmark of contemporary liberalism. Soft-centrist liberal? What kind of hoi polloi is that? It implies to me that there is no core belief system there. Hell, even our U.S. liberals have a belief system, misguided and wrongheaded as it may be.
The American model: This no longer has the appeal north of the border that it once had. Canadians like the American people and admire American ideals. But they see a society moving further away from those ideals. The laundry list includes egregious human-rights abuses, a war brought on by the peddling of false information, treaty-breaking unilateralism, arms spending at fiscally ruinous levels, and a fraying democracy that sees a 99-per-cent rate of return for incumbents in the House of Representatives.
Egregious human-rights abuses, Mr. Martin? Abu Ghraib? Gitmo? Come on. Let's talk about the Iraqi regime that Canada helped to prop up with its Desmarais-Strong-Martin connections popping up repeatedly in Oil-For-Food. People were killed there, sir. Thousands of people. And there can be no more egregious human-rights abuses than killing (unless, of course, it's trying to flush the Islamic holy book down a toilet, right?) What about China, a Desmarais-Strong-Martin favorite? Human rights don't exist there, but that's OK with you? As far as going in to topple Hussein, even Jean-Francois Kerry was on board with the evidence that was available at the time. Treaty-breaking unilaterism? Examples, please. (And don't talk to me about softwood dumping.) Arms spending at fiscally ruinous levels? Ask the Poles, the Czechs, the Slovaks, the Hungarians, the Ukrainians if our arms spending didn't push the Soviet Union over the edge into oblivion. Ask them if the spending didn't help bring along their freedom after decades of serfdom to Communism. And since your Canadian government doesn't even want to go along with plans for the defense of its own land, you are basically telling America that only American tax dollars are good enough to defend Canada. A fraying democracy? At least we have it; your current government thought nothing of trashing almost 140 years of parliamentary precedent to hang on to power long enough to "induce" a key opposition member to switch parties and barely save their bacon in a confidence vote.
Yeah, maybe the security blanket is fraying. But take a look in the mirror, too, Mr. Martin. The direction Canada appears to be headed certainly has a lot to do with it.

A health care system to be proud of?

Back in the mid-1990s, when Hillary WroughtIron Clinton was making her move to take over 15 percent of the U.S. economy with her bold - and fortunately failed - scheme to take over health care, supporters of the putsch were pointing to Canada's government-run health care system as what the U.S. system could be like.
From this corner, thank God (yes, you can say God on this blog) Hillary's hijacking attempt failed.
Many Canadians, mostly of the leftist persuasion, tend to look at the system with the kind of reverence usually found only in houses of worship.
"A crowning achievement," is typical of the kind of praise foisted upon this system.
Well, let's take a look at how wonderful this system is and how effective it is in doing what it's supposed to do - provide needed health care to the good (and not-so-good) people of Canada.
Habamus Rodentum has been watching the health care system north of the border in the past few months. H.R. uncovered a report that says that a significant number of medical errors, some of them deadly, were a regular part of Canada's health care.
Then came the story of John D'Amico, the Hockey Hall of Fame linesman who recently died... after going an unconscionable 28 days without an experimental treatment that he was supposed to have received. More than half of the delay came because the hospital where he was getting the treatments couldn't staff the wing where he had to be to get the treatment.
Now, there's a story out of Montreal about a hero who is fighting for his life AGAINST the health bureaucracy. The story at JewishWorldReview.com is headlined "Will Canada's socialized medicine kill a hero?"
Are you not outraged yet? If you're not, why not?
Now, it appears that the Supreme Court of Canada has found that at least one province's medicare system is a farce.
Government-run health care, while a noble idea, has one big, big problem. In the U.S. system, you can always fight a decision made by a not-for-profit or for-profit health care provider and get the government on your side. In the Canadian system, you're fighting... the government.
Looking at this particular government, you don't have a chance.
U.S. folks -- are you sure you still want to emulate Canada?
Canadians -- are you sure you still want to emulate Canada?

Returned for regrooving

In the late 1960s, from the wilds of Los Angeles, came a bizarre comedy group known as Firesign Theater. Their verbal dislocations still reverberate in my mind more than three decades later.
One of their greatest lines had people who were not necessarily "groovy" enough "Returned for Re-Grooving."
So, here is the first installment of people deemed by the research staff of this blog as needing to be "Returned for Re-Grooving."

* Bill Clinton. The paperback version of "My Life" is being released. Many innocent trees will be killed for this. That's enough reason to return him for serious re-grooving.

* Hillary WroughtIron Clinton. For this quote: "It's very hard to stop people who have no shame about what they're doing." And this quote: "It is very hard to stop people who have never been acquainted with the truth." (Shoutout to the not naked princess, E.M.) Speaking from first-hand knowledge, no doubt. Re-groove, por favor.

* Irwin Cotler. From CNEWS: "Liberals will tweak their contentious same-sex marriage bill but can't guarantee ironclad religious protections, admits Justice Minister Irwin Cotler." Cotler and his Godfather, PM Paulie Librano, once stood and guaranteed that religious freedom would not be limited by SSM. They lied. Return him for re-grooving.

* Sharon Fraser. Poor baby feels hurt because her online magazine ran a totally tasteless cartoon about Pope Benedict XVI and she got called out for it. "How DARE (emphasis mine) they write to me, calling me names, demanding a public apology and, at the same time, have such an aggrieved tone about them?" (Sorry, I refuse to link to this rabble.) Take her and re-groove her, please. (Shoutout to Kathy Shaidle.)

* Philip Paulson. Paulson is the guy who complained about a cross placed atop Mount Soledad in California by private citizens to honor Korean War veterans. He's now suing five people over the language of a ballot proposal in San Diego. What a guy, eh? Get him re-grooved posthaste. (Shoutout to Jay for this one.)

* William Schulz. The USA director of Amnesty International has committed an act of treason by calling for the "kidnapping" of US officials, including President Bush, for the so-called "gulag" at Guantanamo Bay. This guy is such a moonbat that he needs immediate re-grooving. (Shoutout to Cap'n Ed).

* Guy Taylor. He is one of the complainants against Saskatchewan resident Bill Whatcott in a human rights attack on free speech. Taylor testified that he "cried" when he read a flyer Whatcott distributed. Whatcott may be on the fringe, but he has a right to speak, just as much as the moonbats do. Taylor is getting money. He can afford to be re-grooved.

ULTIMATE SHOUTOUT: Ed at Maple Leaf Blog is responsible for the inspiration for this post. He had the audacity to quote Firesign Theatre on his blog.

Paulie Librano & Tricky Dick

There are several important differences between Paulie Librano and Tricky Dick:
1. Tricky Dick never "induced" a politician to cross the aisle with "implied" offers of Cabinet jobs, judgeships, etc., etc.
2. Tricky Dick never siphoned government money in a way that it wound up in his political party's coffers.
3. Tricky Dick did a helluva lot less than Paulie Librano and didn't get away with what he did.

Wisdom in two sentences

Paul Greenberg's CV is impressive - Pulitzer Prize winner, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the man who coined the phrase "Slick Willie."
In two sentences at the end of his June 7 column, which dealt with battles over wills and massive bequests, Greenberg hits the proverbial grand slam about contemporary attitudes of the left on both sides of the border...
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Respect and disrespect for the past are really a kind of gratitude or ingratitude for those who have come before us. And a society that shows no regard for its past may not have much of a future, either.
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All due credit to Mr. Greenberg.

Answer sought

Last week I posed a question to a visitor to this site.
I'm still waiting for a response.
The question: How does the NDP like its budget deal with the Libranos, knowing that a big chunk of it is coming from the money that was supposed to be going to settle the claims of Canadian aboriginals shafted by residential schools?
Any takers?

Death penalty - the right way

I'm not a big fan of the death penalty. There are very few cases where immediate termination of a scum's life can be justified. I believe in what the L.A. cops call "L-WOP" (life without parole). None of this 12-year stuff (the only time Karla Homolka will be mentioned on this blog). You do the crime, you don't come out alive. We won't snuff you prematurely, but you'll never breathe free air again.
But what if the death penalty could be meted out by the same means in which the scum took another life? What would that be like?
* That would mean that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh would have been secured inside a van with a bomb attached. When the bomb goes off, McVeigh becomes history.
* That would mean that serial rapist/murderer Ted Bundy would have been raped, then strangled, instead of electrocuted.
* That would mean that if that joker who chainsawed the head off that fellow in New Brunswick would have his head chainsawed off, too.
Might that sort of punishment make the death penalty more of a deterrent than it is now?

Northrop Frye, thank you.

The Fraser Institute's report on anti-American bias on the part of the CBC explains, at least to this Yank, a heck of a lot more about the mindset of that uniquely Canadian creature, the Liberal.
The report cites famed literary critic Northrop Frye's theory of the "garrison mentality."
From Frye's "Conclusion to a Literary History of Canada":
“...communities that provide all that their members have in the way of distinctively human values, and that are compelled to feel a great respect for the law and order that holds them together, yet confronted with a huge, unthinking, menacing, and formidable physical setting – such communities are bound to develop what we may provisionally call a garrison mentality....In such a society the
terror is not for the common enemy....The real terror comes when the individual feels himself becoming an individual, pulling away from the group, losing the sense of driving power that the group gives him, aware of a conflict within himself far subtler than the struggle of morality against evil.”
So the US of A isn't the real terror here. It's leaving the bosom of the Liberal universe that frightens these "garrison mentality" folks so.
The "garrison mentality" doesn't strive to provide a uniquely Canadian identity based on positives... instead, it focuses on certain USA characteristics which are not shared. An identity based on negatives isn't a very secure identity, now, is it?
This explains a lot.
This explains why a dramatically failing Medicare system is defended with the vigor of the Crusaders of yore; why the "conscience" promises hundreds of millions in aid in tsunami relief (most of which is no doubt tied up in the NDP budget promises, 'coz not a penny appears to have made it into the disaster zone); and a lot more.
This explains why corruption that would make Tammany Hall and the Chicago machine look like exemplars of public service is tolerated.
It's almost as if because blunt honesty is an American trait, stealthy dishonesty must be a Canadian trait in the minds of the "garrison mentality"-bound.
Can anyone come up with a better explanation?

We're not perfect

From the Associated Press comes this sad tale of U.S. border patrol incompetence:

BOSTON — On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres.
Then they let him into the United States.
The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres’ hometown of Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on Fulton’s kitchen floor. His head was in a pillowcase under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed to death in a bedroom.
Despres, 22, immediately became a suspect because of a history of violence between him and his neighbors, and he was arrested April 27 after police in Massachusetts saw him wandering down a highway in a sweat shirt with red and brown stains. He is now in jail in Massachusetts on murder charges, awaiting an extradition hearing next month.
At a time when the United States is tightening its borders, how could a man toting what appeared to be a bloody chain saw be allowed into the country?
Bill Anthony, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the Canada-born Despres could not be detained because he is a naturalized U.S. citizen and was not wanted on any criminal charges on the day in question.
Anthony said Despres was questioned for two hours before he was released. During that time, he said, customs agents employed “every conceivable method” to check for warrants or see if Despres had broken any laws in trying to re-enter the country.
“Nobody asked us to detain him,” Anthony said. “Being bizarre is not a reason to keep somebody out of this country or lock them up. ... We are governed by laws and regulations, and he did not violate any regulations.”
Anthony conceded it “sounds stupid” that a man wielding what appeared to be a bloody chain saw could not be detained. But he added: “Our people don’t have a crime lab up there. They can’t look at a chain saw and decide if it’s blood or rust or red paint.”
Er, hello????
On the same day Despres crossed the border, he was due in a Canadian court to be sentenced on charges he assaulted and threatened to kill Fulton’s son-in-law, Frederick Mowat, last August.
Mowat told police Despres had been bothering his father-in-law for the past month. When Mowat confronted him, Despres allegedly pulled a knife, pointed it at Mowat’s chest and said he was “going to get you all.”
Police believe the dispute between the neighbors boiled over in the early-morning hours of April 24, when Despres allegedly broke into Fulton’s home and stabbed to death the musician and 70-year-old Veronica Decarie.
Fulton’s daughter found her father’s body two days later. His car was later found in a gravel pit on a highway leading to the U.S. border. Despres hitchhiked to the border crossing.
After the bodies were found on the afternoon of April 26, police set up roadblocks and sent out a bulletin that identified Despres as a “person of interest” in the slayings, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The bulletin caught the eye of a Quincy police dispatcher because it gave the suspect’s Massachusetts driver’s license number, missing a character. The dispatcher plugged in numbers and letters until she found a last known address for Despres in Mattapoisett. She alerted police in that town, and an officer quickly spotted Despres.
In state court the next day, Despres told a judge that he is affiliated with NASA and was on his way to a Marine Corps base in Kansas at the time of his arrest.
After the case was transferred to federal court, Despres’ attorney, Michael Andrews, questioned whether his client is mentally competent.
To the good folks in Minto, N.B.: We owe you one. But don't bet on getting it any time soon. Our judges are just as lame as yours.

Going tagging

I have decided to do nothing about tagging other people on the books issue that's been cycling around the 'hood lately.
Instead, I am going to open another game of tag.
This one deals with music.
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Five LPs/CDs you can't do without: The Band's Greatest Hits; The Very Best of Poco (LP); Decade (Neil Young); CCR's Chronicles; Best of J. Geils Band (2-CD set from Rhino).
Three LPs/CDs you own that people wouldn't expect you to own: Merle Haggard's Greatest Hits; A Little Night Music soundtrack; Rock Xing by the Other Side.
Three songs that make you roll down the window and crank the radio/CD player full blast: "Up Around the Bend" by CCR; "Nothin' But a House Party" by J. Geils; "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads.
Three songs that struck too close to home at one point: "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" by the Casinos; "WOLD" by Harry Chapin; "It Makes No Difference" by the Band.
Three songs you never want to hear again: "Always and Forever" by Heatwave; "Colour My World" by Chicago; anything by Broccoli Spears.
---
I will tag only two people with this...
Canadianna and Regular Ron.

Pat O'Brien: Hero du jour

Pat O'Brien is my hero of the day.
The MP from London, Ont., has bolted the Liberal caucus over the same-sex marriage issue.
He has done so, even though it could put him in an extremely difficult situation come the next election.
According to Canadian Press, O'Brien's decision was based solely on the same-sex marriage bill.
"My goal is to defeat Bill C-38."
Now, there's already a Conservative candidate ready to stand in O'Brien's riding. As for his Liberal party, the president of the party in O'Brien's riding said: "There's no shortage of people interested in representing the riding in Ottawa."
O'Brien's defection has now put a confidence issue back into play, especially if like-minded Liberals opt to walk to Independent status and see the upcoming budget votes as the only way to stop same-sex marriage. O'Brien himself admitted that he "...won't rule out any democratic means to do that."
Now, expect over the next few days that O'Brien will be smeared to hell and back by the Librano mudslinging brigade.
Remember, though, in the stream-of-reality posting that flew between here and Ed's Maple Leaf Blog, the Liberal Party isn't really the Liberal Party any more. It's the Martinite Party.

NOW's latest MoonBattery

As if the US Democrats don't have enough problems, part of their looney left fringe is raising a stink because the party is moving on at least one front toward the center...
From the NOW web site (link deliberately NOT provided):

We have very disturbing news to report—some Democratic leaders are actively recruiting anti-abortion candidates and forcing out pro-choice Democrats!
Action Needed: Tell Democratic leaders that moving to the Right is the Wrong strategy.
Sign our email petition to DSCC Chair Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Pa. Governor Ed Rendell.
Democratic leaders recently forced winning pro-choice candidate Barbara Hafer out of the 2006 Pennsylvania Senate race against extremist Republican incumbent Rick Santorum, so they could run an anti-abortion Democrat—the same losing tactic they used against Santorum in 2000. Speak out!
Feminists and progressives must speak out to stop the Democratic Party from becoming "Republican-lite" on women's issues and undermining its own women candidates.
Barbara Hafer is a strong advocate for reproductive rights and was the frontrunner to take on extremist Republican incumbent Rick Santorum in the 2006 Pennsylvania Senate. She has just been forced out of the race by Democratic leaders and consultants in favor of an anti-abortion candidate they recruited.
Who did top Democrats pick to run against Santorum, one of the leading anti-abortion, anti-women's rights and anti-gay senators?
Top Democrats recruited Robert P. Casey Jr., a staunch abortion opponent in the mold of his father, the late Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey Sr. You may recognize his name from the 1992 Supreme Court case of Casey v. Planned Parenthood, in which the senior Casey defended Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act, which was so extreme that the Supreme Court struck it down.
(FALSE... From my recollection, only one clause was torched; the rest was upheld. As a result, Pennsylvania's abortion restrictions are among the toughest in the USA.)
And who made sure that Hafer would not run? She was pushed out by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who previously supported Hafer, then made the call forcing her out of the race; Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who serves as the top Senate recruiter for the Democrats (as head of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee); and political consultants who are already lining up with the Casey campaign.
Send a message to each of them now—and tell them what you think.
To run another anti-abortion candidate against Santorum, as the Democrats did in 2000, will result in sure defeat. Hafer has won four statewide elections in Pennsylvania (TRUE BUT: I believe all of Hafer's election wins were as a Republican. She just bolted to the Dems in the past two years. She also got her hat handed to her by Casey Sr. in a race for governor....) and is the strongest possible challenger to Santorum (ONLY in your dreams. The Casey name still carries tremendous cache in Pennsylvania). A recent Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates poll conducted on behalf of Hafer showed that 60% of Pennsylvania Democrats, 54% of Independents, and 40% of Republicans are pro-choice. (If you believe that the poll wasn't skewed to draw that response, I have some wonderful swampland in the Sahara to sell you.)
Don't mistake this for a random act—it is a calculated effort by party leaders to build a so-called "bigger tent" at the expense of women's rights.
For equality, (YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!)
Kim Gandy, National Organization for Women PAC
Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority PAC
Martha Burk
Dolores Huerta
Marie Wilson
Faye Wattleton
Gloria Steinem
(THE SEVEN DWARVES)