Sorry if I got a bit grumpy earlier in the week. Times are difficult, you know?
Oh boy, Steve. You really can't win these days, can you? I'd expect
this kind of stuff out of your buddy Rob Ford. Anyhow, the drummer in Stephen Harper's band has been charged with sexual assault. That guy is
going to fast learn the definition of fair weather friend.
Of course everybody is still talking about the farce of an "election reform" bill. I can't not put it in quotations. Also not a fan? The Chief Electoral Officer. He's wondering why he's no longer allowed to encourage people to vote and what his remaining job is. Why didn't he speak up when they didn't consult him about it? He also speculates that up to 100,000 voters could be impacted by the voter ID law, most of them aboriginal. And of course, this is another great opportunity to cap debate on a bill. Gotta ram that shit through, no? Maybe another candidate for a Senate hold-up? Nobody seems to think this bill is good. Except the Vernon Morning Star.
This one is new to me, but this site breaks down the arguments put forward in Parliament. Brad Butt, who is a real Conservative MP and not a made up person, suggests that during his last campaign they just went around and collected discarded voter cards and then went in and voted on behalf of those people using the vouch system. Oh. Sorry. "Some other campaigns" were doing that. My apologies.
Another Conservative MP has settled his dispute with Elections Canada. Funny how most of the disputes between MP's and Elections Canada involve Conservatives and now there's all these laws to take away authority from Elections Canada.
This is not new news, but seems to be new news now that the BC Civil Liberties is on board. Think of just how insane this is. The national
spy apparatus, which is legally prohibited from spying on Canadians, not
only spied on (relatively) law abiding Canadians, but did so at the
behest of a corporation running a publicly reviled project. It's
totally insane.
Sticking with pipelines, a report about an explosion in a TransCanada pipeline was administratively buried. Of course, that was never the intention. I mean, it only showed that their entire inspection program was inadequate.
The new plan for Canadian military procurement is to create some kind of Canadian military-industrial complex. We can't seem to buy even a trash can properly for the military, now we're going to require it to be designed and built in Canada?
Several dozen oil patch workers were laid off and replaced by Croations.
Of course, nobody is responsible. The government has no control over
Imperial Oil. Imperial Oil has no control over its contractors. I'm
surprised any of these people were able to make it in to work today, seeing as they're not responsible for anything.
The Conservatives have decided that they don't need tougher conflict of interest rules for themselves. But public servants certainly do.
Another example of military boostin' Steve not really giving a shit
about the actual soldiers. Veterans are being discharged for medical reasons and don't qualify for benefits. In other news, a story about how the government ignored PTSD in Canadian soldiers.
The Conservatives have decided to target the "political activities" of
charities they deem to be terrorists. Of course It's much easier to be deemed a terrorist when you do something the government doesn't like. I would imagine church groups are still going to be allowed
to do whatever they want politically. And if you can't get 'em that way, subject them to Revenue Canada audits.
Another Conservative attempt to solve a problem that doesn't really exist: reigning in public sector employee sick leave. And then of course all our problems with immigrants. What better way to weed out the riffraff than to make it more expensive for people to become citizens? I wonder how these new rules are going to affect ministerial
personnel who pretend to be new Canadians for photo ops?
This is a sad and scary story. Tyrone Hayes is a scientist who did
research into a chemical sold as a pesticide. He started this research
at the behest of the company that sold it. When they didn't like his
findings, they set about attempting to discredit his research and ruin his reputation. They followed him and purchased advertising based on
search terms related to his name. This needs to be a new type of crime.
Justification for ending Canada Post home delivery doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
Of course, now that a few trains have blown up, the Conservatives never would have considered this plan from the rail industry to cut inspections on trains carrying dangerous goods.
CNRL continues to have a giant bitumen leak that they can't stop.
Job creator Jamie Dimon gets a fat raise after presiding over billions in fines to JP Morgan Chase for illegal activities. As Matt Taibbi points out, the rank and file received pay freezes after the fines were announced.
There were some jobs created in January....for now. See if there's a major correction to the stats a la November.
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