When politicians persist in stubborness and being wrong

My blood boiled over again today at the stupidity of Conservatives over law and order.

Harper is planning to spend hundreds of millions, which will climb into the billions very quickly – a year from now? two? – on building more prisons to lockup more people for longer periods of time to crack down on crime.

Presumably Harper intends to scare people into going straight. “Mess with us and we’ll put you in jail for long periods of time. Almost no time off for good behaviour and no mercy and no judge’s discretion either, boy. Your arse is ours and will be for a long time.”

Of course if this really was an effective deterrent, we wouldn’t need to build the prisons, right? There will aways be some dip sticks who don’t get it but we could build our own Alcatraz in the Arctic area, ship ‘em off there and get on with using our tax dollars for something useful, like research into and treatment of post traumatic distress, something a grateful nation owes to our soldiers who fight in foreign wars. There are no end of uses we could put the billions to, but prisons not so much.

And of course, if you want cockamamie stupidity you’d have to go far to beat Timbits Hudak who, if elected Ontario premier, is going to send criminals out into our communities to work on chain gangs. It is somewhat difficult to treat this brain cramp with the derisiveness it deserves because we can’t stop laughing. What we have here is a failure to communicate. Hudak you dummy – where are you going to find the money for guards and guns? And once the  inmates in Maplehurst have finished cutting all the grass and picking up all the crap in the ditches in the highways for 20 miles in every direction, then what? In month four, what’s the plan?  What do you do with all these guards and all these chain gangs?

And remind me how all the families you so desperately try to curry favour with are going to react to dangerous criminals working in the ditches and streets your family passes through each day? Happy are they? Not worried about an escape try or guards shooting out the lights when someone tries to escape? You won’t put those types out on the chain gangs? Then where’s the benefit if you only put good criminals out on the chain  gangs?

It’s stupid, so brain frying ridiculous that laughter is the first mechanism against losing your sanity in the face of such determination to press on regardless. But after the laughter comes the rage.

What do we do when politicians are elected and everyone – every expert in law enforcement, every expert in bringing about changes in behaviour, every expert in jurisprudence  – everyone with the slightest knowledge of what works and doesn’t has tried to tell these two politicians that what they are about to embark on, or will embark on if the peabrain Timbit is elected – everyone has said repeatedly that what they want to do doesn’t work.

And its going to cost us billions. And for what? Because these two refugees from responsible government are going to prove that when it comes to dumbness the Tea Party and Fox News are going to give them a run for their money.

So what to do?

I have a suggestion. I think this would work.

I  don’t believe you penalize people for mistakes or for being dumb, provided it is clear that in both cases it was inadvertent. But when all of the experts disagree, and all the other political parties disagree with you, and people are making it clear that even though they voted for you because of the economy they don’t support you at all in this prison poison, then when it proves to have been a dumb thing that is costing tax payers a bundle and the crime rate was going down before and is still going down so your prisons have had no effect – then what?

Then we take action.

How? We immediately kick out of office every single member of the government Party that voted on the government bill that started this whole thing. They are also barred from ever again standing for public office.

In addition, the prime minister, deputy prime minister and minister of finance are all fined $4,000,000. All other cabinet ministers are fined $2,000,000 each. Back benchers and aids to ministers will be fined $250,000. All of the money will go back into government revenues as a small token of pay back to the Canadian taxpayer. Where does the money come from? From their cushy pension benefits which are clawed back 75% per year until the whole amount is paid back. And they cannot default and  bankruptcy will not expunge it from their debt.

Now if you’re sitting in the far back row of the Harper government, were there is really only one sun allowed to shine  and you’re not it, and you are facing never being able to run for public office again (no job!!!!) and your pension being clawed back, are you prepared to go along?  I don’t think so. I think you say “Steve, my man, you’re on your own. I’m voting against.”

Works to a T doesn’t it? If about 10 or 15 of them say no way, then the bill is lost. Ergo, no one is kicked out of office and no is fined and best of all, we don’t spend billions on unnecessary prisons and chain gangs. If they do stand up and vote as they’re told, their days are numbered.

Works for me.

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