The Conservative Corpse

[liberty]

Here's an excellent article explaining what happened to Japan since 1980:

http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/quinn/2009/0128.html

We are basically following the same path, and will experience the same results.

[Fransisco]

That article Liberty just posted is a must read.

[LWeber]

Tom:

Flaman abandons the principles he was elected on and is labeled an asshole and a heretic. Whether he used this approach to cling to power and get re-elected is a question only he can answer.

This week we witnessed the same.

Principles are non-negotiable. Period.
There is no BUTs IFs or because.

If you condone what was done this week, phone Flaman and apologize to him because anything else is hypocritical.

[cottonpicken]

Great article,i follow the site mainly for the saturday radio news cast but had never read anything by Quinn.

Pulplava is the founder and a very interesting person to listen to.

If your getting really into this stuff and can handle the technical end of the jargin i would also recommend jim willie.He has no peers.I believe you access his archives from the financial sence site.

And if you need a sort of simplified,and very entertaining version of events i would go to the mogambo guru(aka richard daughty).He is definatly worth it.

[cottonpicken]

I would love to see a new Preston Manning resurection.I bet his phone is ringing off the hook.

[liberty]

Judging by what Preston wrote in a nationally published article recently, he unfortunately seems to have swallowed the stimulus "koolaid" as much as Harper.

[haveapulse]

Andrew Coyne is not on the Senate appointment list.

Altruistic Preston is a team player, and would not say shit if his mouth was full of it.

The question of the budget is not just a what did it do for the west quesion, it is: DID IT STIMULATE ANY NEW JOBS?
That it the only question that matter to Canada in the end.

[haveapulse]

and
Ditto to LWeber.

[parsley]

Jobs?

The only thing that should be important to a Conservative budget is that they follow the principle of free enterprise.

Principle

They didn't.

pars

[TOM4CWB]

AND the options were?

We need personal responsibility to rebuild the trust and confidence that will create prosperity.

I don't understand how you folks dwelling on the negatives...helps anyone except the left wingers....

Canadian Democracy is not pretty... but it is still the best system of governance yet adopted...

Respect for each other... and a common peaceful nature that believes 'peace order and good government' is much better than any of the alternatives!

WE DO LIVE in the best country in the world... I am proud to be able to share this with my children and family.

NOW...
Personal example and responsibility... trumps anything else going.

So... lets go and build a BETTER Canada... by building a better democracy!

How involved are each one of you?

How much time do you spend each week doing your duty?

God Bless Canada... and each of you... as we work to make Canada a BETTER land for our Children to build upon our strengths!

[Fransisco]

http://thecanadianrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/01/word-to-pragmatists-from-so-called.html

<b>A Word To The Pragmatists From A "So-Called Conservative"</b>

The right-wing blogosphere has witnessed a massive polarization over the question of the proper assessment of Stephen Harper's recent budget. In response to the dissent that many tories have shown over the complete capitulation of the right to the demands of the socialists, many bloggers are meeting dissent with condemnation.

The following entry, found at the Conservative Reporter's blog, provides an excellent example of this trend:

"I don’t know about everyone else but I am getting very disgusted with all the so called conservatives who are giving the PM and this budget a hard time. It doesn’t have this, it has too much of that.

Wake up and smell the facts.

What do you think the coalition would have done. The media was on their side, they love iggy, he can do no wrong.

Give this budget a chance to get some results. It is a use it or lose it budget. There are strings attached."


As sorry as I am to 'disgust' you, I cannot help but take issue with the alleged factiness of your position.

The welfare state is built on the assumption of a constantly expanding population, a model which is currently in the process of breaking down in a big way. This means that, within the next however many years, the Baby Boomers will begin to retire and expect the next generation to pay off their debts. But the population has stopped expanding. Add to this the measly little $85 billion deficit that Harper has so bravely incurred to keep himself in the seat of power and we have what is referred to in crass circles as a 'serious f***ing problem'.

We are condemning ourselves to financial crisis on a large scale with the short-term thinking that is evident in Harper's 'pragmatic' approach. The Prime Minister has the luxury to do this because he doesn't expect to remain in power long enough to catch the brunt of the long-term consequences. It is, in fact, the citizens of Canada at large who will have to deal with the implications of this budget. And those implications will be profoundly unpleasant.

The global economy's current state of crisis was caused by similar short-term thinking and left-wing economics. "Government intervention in the economy," exclaimed defenders of Bill Clinton who supported increases in subprime lending in the late 1990s, "is the safest bet. Capitalism is fine but it needs a little help from the government to stay on track." Today's defenders of the budget and the bailout economics that it represents assume, even if only implicitly, a similar kind of reasoning.

The root of this problem seems to be the way that many conservatives look at the very purpose of politics. We are told to stand by our Prime Minister while he sells us down the river because it's only temporary. Allow me to remind you that nothing about the government is ever 'just temporary'. Most programs that are touted as nonpermanent stick around for years after their intended sunset and those that do expire on time leave trails of consequences that reverberate for decades down the road. This is especially true of deficits.

Harper is playing clever politics with money that doesn't belong to him. I don't recognize Harper's right - nor anybody else's right - to a minute of my life or a cent of my money. I have supported the Prime Minister in the past because I believed that he had the good sense to fight for economic freedom. This was not an unreasonable belief to hold given the statements that he had made before becoming Prime Minister, particularly regarding the importance of property rights in a free society, the limited role of the government, and the deleterious effects of welfarism on the economy and the state's citizens. But, instead of living by his words, Harper has confirmed the old bromide that politics attracts the power-luster and repels the man of principle.

The budget's conservative defenders have gone out of their way to cite the pragmatic political sense of Harper's decision but they have conspicuously failed to mention or defend the pragmatic financial sense that all budgets should be expected to make. This is because, were they to take their support to its logical extension, they would find themselves defending Keynesianism. As little as many conservatives may know about the economy, they are aware of enough to recognize that this is a bad thing. (Don't believe me? Ask Henry Hazlitt: 'The Failure of the "New Economics": An Analysis of the Keynesian Fallacies' - PDF)

In a recent article, Andrew Coyne pronounced the Canadian conservative movement dead and I disagreed - to a certain extent, anyway. However, the conservative movement truly is dead if we fail to reclaim the principles that we once defended, foremost among them capitalism. Defending man's inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property and, accordingly, defending the only economic system that is consonant with those rights (i.e. capitalism), should be what makes a person 'conservative'; these are, in fact, the very principles that we ought to be focused on 'conserving'.

By cowing to the threats of the coalition, Harper has taken capitalism completely off the table as an option for Canada - there is nobody left in power to defend it. So, before sneeringly labeling all of those who reject Harper's pragmatism as "so-called conservatives", please ask yourself precisely what ideas you are effectively preserving in the process of defending the budget.

The answer to that question may surprise you.

[liberty]

If Harper is truly betting that this deficit will only be temporary and that the economy will recover in a year or two, he is betting on the wrong horse.

The economy of North America is suffering from an inability to compete with nations like India, China, Mexico and many others. That's essentially why we're having a recession. Harper's "stimulus" package does nothing to rein in the ability of organized labour to hold our economy hostage to their whims, nothing to decrease the size and scope of the public sector, and nothing to lessen the regulatory burden on business. Instead, we are supposedly going to "compete" with India by building more hockey arenas, museums, and money-losing rapid transit systems.

It's inevitable that the three levels of government involved in doling out this stimulus will not be able to simply borrow all the money they need. The Bank of Canada has already begun to print whatever is necessary to finance this spending orgy. This will result in an inflationary spiral not unlike what we went through in the 70's.

For those who think that this will be a harmless distraction, think again. Many investors were sheltered from the ravages of the inflation of the 70's by thirty year mortgages. My parents' farm was financed that way, so that when inflation hit they suddenly enjoyed a windfall from what came to be seen as ridiculously low interest rates.

That won't happen again. I'm not aware of anyone offering mortgage terms longer than five years before the rate has to be re-negotiated. So if you think you are going to "invest" in this stimulus, make sure the loan gets paid off before five years are up. Otherwise, you may find yourself "stimulated" by 20% interest payments. By the time this nonsense settles down, I doubt that anyone will be able to get a mortgage for more than one year at a time. When that happens, the debt bubble will have truly burst, although this time it will be all three levels of government that will be bankrupt.

[parsley]

There are a other factors to consider.

1. Quality of work. Companies cannot build a car that rusts and ratttles out within two years. Or pay labor exhorbitant wages to build inferior products.

2. Consumer backlash agianst China made products. It's there.

3. Political stability.

4. The rise of organized crime.
Pars

[parsley]

Tom, you know what Ritz said. Lead, follow or get out of the way.

This government did not lead using conservative principles.

Should they follow?

Or get out of the way?

As well, many of our intellectuals and ceo's are suffering from chronic dishonesty, and downright crookedness.Even stealing body parts from the dead. That's the leadership in evidence.

There needs to be tough penalties for the likes. A "Betrayal of the Public Trust Records Branch" where those in charge who have breached miserably will be publically listed and hopefully will not run a public company ever again. I dislike hanging.

Pars

[cottonpicken]

All in the name of profit.