Stephen Taylor is also an asshole - Week 215 - June 1-8

This fucking asshole tried to astro-turf Tim Hortons because they pulled Enbridge ads from their internal TV system.  When did we change from actually talking about issues, to just throwing out as much shit as will stick?  Trying to sell pipelines by hyping up rail disasters?  Sorry, that's a rail safety issue.  Trying to guilt David Suzuki for not caring enough about the native population because you're begrudging them cushy pipeline jobs?  Christ, what an asshole.

Steve kicks another one to his granddaughter.  We're going carbon neutral by 2100.  What a proud day.

This looks bad.  $1 Billion underspent by the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs.  Year in, year out, not hitting their budget.  And...The government is yet to comment on the Truth and Reconciliation process.

Way to go Canada.  We're going to try to kick out thousands of refugees from Zimbabwe and Haiti.  Their homelands just aren't horrible enough any longer.

Another report, this one from the EPA, suggesting fracking can lead to water pollution.

Oof.  $200,000 to host a re-opening event for Canada House in London.

More from the copyright assholes.  Accessing US Netflix is stealing.

This is interesting.  Protest environmental destruction.  Potential terrorist.  Protest and threaten abortion providers.  Well...that's fine.  You have a right to present your opinion.

How stoked must these guys be now!  Mounties toting sub-machine guns on Parliament hill.

This article speculates that the PM can ignore spending limits just by calling an election with a really, really long time frame.

Conservative MP Andrew Saxton has been implicated in an offshore, tax dodging episode.  He helped a former client send his money offshore.

An analytics company "analyzed twitter" to determine that likely voters won't care if Harper skips the traditional debates.

Here's some anti-Islamist fear mongering.  Millions are pouring in from foreign sources!  We have no idea!

Of course Peter MacKay will collect his full pension.  He's been an MP forever.  It is interesting to see that they gain a windfall for skipping out on the next election though. 

Budget Details - Week 209 - April 20-27

I kind of love Joe Oliver.  He's just such an idiot, I think it's going to work out well for Canada in the next election.  Funding TFSA's will be a problem for Stephen Harper's granddaughter to solve.  Bloody hell.  Why is this not an attack ad yet?  Please tell me the NDP and Libs are both working this in to their attack ad strategy.

Oh the budget.  More and more details emerge on how the Cons cooked the numbers for their magical surplus.  GM share sales.  Robbing from EI.  A serious cut to the contingency.  Even with all their slashing, it was still not enough.  Can't wait until they vilify the unemployed for taking advantage of the now underfunded EI system.

Hidden in the budget - Copyright terms for sound recordings have been extended from 50 years to 70 years.  Because struggling artists are going to benefit from that extra 20 years of copyright that most likely will kick in after they're dead.  Big content lobbyists are happy though...as no more works will be "lost" to the public domain where everybody can use them.

Vice points out all the windfalls our spies and police are receiving with the new budget.

IMF policy suggests the government should be spending more to create jobs.

Rona Ambrose - Chief Reefer Madness cheerleader.  Marijuana is not a medicine and how dare you Vancouver!  Love it how she totally embraces the expertise of Health Canada when it suits her purposes.  And think of the childredn!

The Mike Duffy trial drags on.  Was Mike Duffy the facilitator for contact between Enbridge and the Prime Minister?  Or was it all Mike Duffy working on his own accord?

We always said we would act on climate change when the US did, and follow their policies.  Until they acted on climate change.  Now we're not going to follow their policies.

Omar Khadr will receive a bail hearing.  Cons are, of course, fighting it.  Why are they so scared of this kid?

More paid Conservative ads in the form of CRA letters?

Details on the ridiculous land sale by the BC Liberals.  $43 million under market value.

The details of the BC Lions rental contract with PAVCO have finally been released.  So, the Lions pay a pittance in rent.  PAVCO experiences a huge loss (which taxpayers pay for).  And the Lions receive a profit.  Weird how that works.

Some interesting history on Iraq and the rise of ISIS.  This guy feels a bit too Zero Dark Thirty, but whatever.

Oh.  Shit.  This is what a good blog looks like!  Graphics!  Analysis!  Fuck this guy.

A short one to follow up on a long one - Week 203 - March 16-23

It's funny that when you criticize Harper everybody assumes you are pro Trudeau.  Can't I just be anybody-but-Harper?  I am kind of pro Trudeau, just because he seems like the most likely choice to make anybody-but-Harper happen.  But, it does kind of feel like he's screwing things up.  Please just cooperate with the NDP, put forward some meaningful electoral reform and call it a day.  Please?

The government has been forced to buy $4.3 Million worth of marijuana.  Medical marijuana.  For veterans.  My friend Slippin' Jimmy probably could have sourced it for a few hundred thousand and use of a warehouse.

Not to worry though.  Even though we wasted that money on pot for Veterans, we put $24 Million to good use, advertising on behalf of our Energy Industry in the US of A.

The argument is made that there are potentially Billions to be saved with a National Pharmacare program.  I heard Rex Murphy say something this weekend along the lines of "but can the taxpayers afford it?"  I'm not really sure if he gets it.

Conservative MP Larry Miller figures that immigrants should "stay the hell where you came from".  Which is bad English and a horrible sentiment.  He actually thinks that terrorists can sneak into the country by...I think by impersonating another person and hiding their face during a citizenship ceremony?  I'm not sure how that works, and As it Happens pointed out that he probably doesn't either.  And sorry...I went on a bit of a twitter tirade against some jackass Realtor, agreeing with this garbage while proudly flying his Century 21 employment.  I assumed they might care that their name is being attached to a horrible set of thoughts.  But they didn't.  Unless I made them aware by phone.

Looks like the knee jerk public reaction to Bill C-51 has shifted in the opposite direction.  I mean, if you're going to base things on the opinions of people, many of which have not taken the time to research or understand the issue, I guess this is good news.

Microsoft is opening up a new office in Vancouver...and plans to staff it entirely with foreign workers.  Well.  Not entirely.  20 of the 400 jobs would go to Canadians.

The two Libs accused of...who even knows at this point...will be booted permanently from caucus.

Old news, but more detail on how companies are abusing the new Canadian Copyright rules.  Because corporations never try to push the boundaries on legislation solely created for their benefit and always tell the truth in the process of pushing for their creation.

TERROR! - Week 199 - Feb 16-23

Of course, the week has been dominated by proposed "Anti Terror" legislation.  I'll let you know once we're done talking about it, lower down.

What does this say about democracy?  After several weeks, Thomas Mulcair announces that NDP will pointlessly grandstand as the Cons jam through their anti-terror legislation.  Good for him, for sure.  But at the same time the Liberals are on the other side pointlessly supporting it.  All so they can essentially cause no real change or input and then grandstand on one side or the other come election time.  

Joe Clark, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and John Turner have all called for more oversight of security agencies.

The Cons claim "rigorous oversight" but these appear to be empty words.  Watchdog staffing levels and budgets are on the decline.  14 people work in the SIRC office!  14 people are watching the watchers.

Michael Geist outlines just how Big Brother crazy the new "anti-terror" law actually is.

May as well limit debate on the fucker.  Why the fuck not?

And the slippery slope begins.  The RCMP warns of the growing environmental terrorist threat.  Could it be growing because under new laws we'll be able to call a whole bunch more people terrorists?

It is kind of absurd that a bunch of white kids trying to kill a bunch of random people is not considered "terrorism" in the eyes of Peter McKay and his new legislation due to lack of "cultural motivation".  Fucking code words.  And then he turns into a pouty asshole and refuses to answer questions about his answer.

Al-Shabaab makes a threat against the West Edmonton Mall that nobody is taking seriously.  Our Minister of Public Safety suggests that this proves that we need to strengthen our anti-terror laws and "fight against ISIL".  Do the new anti-terror laws give us super Youtube sleuthing powers?  Have our troops started fighting in Somalia?  Am I missing something?

Steve's insistence on appealing his loss of the niqab ruling is kind of insane.  He says Canadians are "offended".  I would hazard that most really don't care.

Trudeau calls Harper out for his anti-Muslim fear mongering.  Over the wearing of a niqab.  Not, you know, in stoking fear over terrorism.

And I think that brings to the end this weeks discussion about foreign radicals and terrorism.

Oh.  Maybe that's why they didn't want to tell us how much the ISIS mission is costing?  PBO pits cost of Iraq mission as much as $44M more than estimate

This brings up an amazing point.  The government has been including Temporary Foreign Workers in their "jobs created" stats.  This is really misleading.  As many as 1/5th of the jobs "created" by the Cons went to TFW's.

This may have been a good decision, but the optics are tough.  Over $350,000 to fly Luka Magnotta back to Canada.  How much would an extradition hearing have cost?

The Cons are pumping $11 million more into their advertising budget.  By "their advertising budget" I mean "our money used to advertise on behalf of the Conservatives".

The Cons continue their crusade against Palestine in the UN.

Who are our resources here for?  Should companies be allowed to extract them for pennies and turn around and sell them for dollars?  Is "providing jobs" and paying taxes enough?  Or should people demand more?  A new BC government policy will charge Nestle $2.25 for a million liters of water and the government is claiming it will aid in "conservation".  Because when I think "conservation", I think of handing a company millions of liters of water for nothing so that they can put it into tiny bottles and sell it for a huge profit.

Wow.  These right wing imbeciles, the Macdonald Laurier Institute, have some knowledge to pass along:
- More railway regulations would be a bad thing!
- Judges are evil!
- A public inquiry into violence against women is the last thing we need!

I guess we're in trouble then.  The Cons are changing the law so that rail companies have a bit more responsibility if they blow shit up or leak shit all over the place.

Progress!  Oil train derails, doesn't explode!  Merely catches on fire.

The Cons never met a strike they didn't like.  To end via back-to-work legislation.  CP gets the treatment.  Until they don't need it.

Cons have more problems over taxpayer funded mailouts.

Hollywood hopes that part of the TPP will include sending people to jail for file sharing.  The US Government might be on their side.

Big words about vaccination.  Little money.

Don't worry.  There's a loophole that says this Con MP hiring her daughter's fiance is okay.  He's not "family" quite yet.

Using the wrong words - Week 198 - Feb 9-16

It's amazing how worked up the opposition parties are getting in forming their inconsequential stances on the new terror bill.  The NDP is going to vote against it.  Probably.  And smart people are starting to point out that the criminalization of language is a scary thing.  And here.

Venezuela is accusing us of participating in a failed coup attempt.  Silly Venezuelans.  Don't they realize that if we had actually participated, it would have been successful?

Leona!  On fire!  Calling Don Cherry out for a joke about seal hunting.  The nerve of that man.  How dare he turn his machine of offense against something we proud Conservatives believe in.  For some reason.  I mean we don't give a shit about the aboriginal population otherwise, but fuck you if we're not going to come to their defence if you're going to talk about a commercial seal hunt that way!  Oh fuck.  They rip her to shreds with replies.

Mohamed Fahmy is not happy with our dear leader Steve and John Baird.  He blames them for his long stay in prison.  Fuck.  That's enough to get you labelled a terrorist.  And get your Conservative talking points straight.  He's a "whiner" and "Canadian of convenience".

Speaking of which.  In Baird's departure, somehow Poilievre gets a promotion.
Interesting take.  The spin the Cons have put on Eve Adams (we didn't want her) doesn't really stand up.  She was still parliamentary secretary.  If she was so awful, why not shuffle her to the outer fringes of the backbench?  As well, in the run-up to the last BC Election, Bill Tileman wrote an article about how the BC NDP needed to fight dirty.  I wasn't sure if I agreed with him at the time.  But he ended up being right.  I think Demetri Soudas is an asshole.  But he's probably going to help the Liberals.  And it looks like Eve Adams is to run against Joe Oliver?  Oh man.  I like it.  Will they turn it into Kerrigan/Harding, only to have an un-hyped 3rd Party steal gold?

The TPP negotiations are moving ahead.  Next steps: Expansion of copyright terms and criminalization of file sharing.  Seems important for the good of the world.

A Conservative minister embraced science!  Rona Ambrose lashes out at anti-vaxxers.

Joe Oliver decided to lecture Greece and Europe on how to fix things.  Which is truly amazing.

Lawyers won't have to spy on their clients finances on behalf of the government.

Details of how terrible a veteran has it in dealing with the government.

Damn whippersnappers!  Wanting everything for free!  I didn't get anything free in my day!  After I graduated high school, it took me weeks to find my management job.  And it took a full 3 years salary to afford my first house.  Damn whippersnappers.  Probably want to scale back the CPP and healthcare next.  Wanting everything for free!

Fuck you, America!  You got nothin' on us now.  Sun News shuts down.  Blames the government for not forcing it upon us.

Russian Bank faces sanctions.  Russian Bank hires John Baird's former chief of staff.  Russian Bank no longer faces sanctions.  Granted, he was chief of staff for Baird a long time ago...and was hired for the sole purpose of accomplishing this very task...it kind of stinks a bit though, no?

Peter McKay's friends and wedding guests are all going on to extremely successful government sponsored legal careers.

Gun nuts continue their freak out over High River flood temporary gun seizures.  So...RCMP taking firearms bad.  RCMP and others as secret anti-terror police good?

We paid $180,000 to run an office that didn't do anything.

Some info on how questions get formulated for the Prime Minister at his press conferences.

Thanks - Week 180 - Oct 6-14

I love Tom the Dancing Bug.  This is a pretty good one.

Jason Kenney uses his government staff to create anti-Trudea graphics.  But of course, they're doing it on their "spare time".

Oh fuck these clowns.  More pandering to gun owners.  Fuck off.  Nobody cares about your stupid "Swiss Arms rifles".  All announced at a shooting range.

The Europeans are upset about the Stephen Harper Airlines free flight to Europe as well.  Turns out bureaucrats accepting an unnecessary $300,000 flight has ruffled some feathers.  And they've pointed out that the whole thing was unnecessary and the excuses are probably bogus.

Joe Oliver thinks changes to EI premiums will create 25,000 jobs.  The PBO thinks it will cost 9,000 jobs.  Hmmmm...that's a bit of a spread.

Another Harper law will be challenged in court.  A group is suing to overturn the new election laws.  As well, they won't provide information on how much it cost to make changes.

Patrick Brazeau has more problems.  He has been arrested again.

Evidence for Democracy has released a report detailing the muzzling of Canadian scientists.  Basically, it's way, way harder for Canadian government scientists to present their research and speak out than it is for US government scientists.

The Cons new regulations on TFW's have no teeth.  Remember the Victoria area McDonald's caught abusing the program?  They were denied more TFW's twice...then phoned and complained and had the decision reversed and the TFW's fast tracked.  As well, a cafeteria on a reserve that suffers from high unemployment has brought in temporary foreign workers.


Let's just ignore your thoughts on the Harper Government response to global warming.  Not enough regulation?  Weak targets?  Needs to go further?  Irrelevant.  As this story details, the Environmental Commissioner thinks we aren't even on a path to reach our insanely low goals.  And even worse, the actual regulations are a secret!  And the reductions we have made have come primarily due to Provincial programs, not Federal.  Jeffrey Simpson is onto it as well.

An organization involved with treating addiction has come out in favour of legalizing marijuana.

Wow.  American TV networks are suggesting that if their business model isn't propped up by forcing their channels on people that don't want them, they're going to lose money and have to pull out of Canada.  I guess I see their point.  I mean, who wants to be forced to keep customers by offering them something they want for the money they're giving you?  And I would also be upset if people no longer wanted to give me money for something that they didn't want in the first place.

This is really interesting.  The Cons want to be able to freely use copyrighted news in political ads.

Great news.  There's not only a 1 percent for money...there's a 1 percent for booze consumption.  People wonder why macrobreweries still exist.  It's to service those guys.

Two cops responded to a noise complaint, entered a house illegally, beat a bunch of people up and kept their jobs.  The people they beat up won their court case...but the City won't pick up their $66,000 in legal costs.

Well of course we're not going to support the Hong Kong protestors!  That would take balls.

This is sad.  The pot smoking mountie has been found dead.  Just a really sad, tragic story.

I'm going to be super fucking pissed if refusing to support a plan to bomb ISIS with six fucking airplanes results in 4 more years of the Cons.  Super pissed.  Here's my bold prediction: As the Cons receive a boost in support for their bombing the shit out of terrorists, an election is called.

Getting Lazy over Christmas - Week 139 - Dec 23-30

I wasn't going to...but I did it anyway.  A Christmas post!

You know all those greedy scientists making tens of thousands of dollars researching climate change and how it's all just a plot to keep the gravy train rolling?  Lucky we have the fighters for the truth on the other side of the story who are only in it for the good of humanity.  And billions of dollars in donations from billionaires with oil interests.


Christ, this pope is awesome.  His new thing?  Atheists are a-okay, as long as they "do good".

I thought this UK porn filter was one of those crazy right wing dreams that will just go away.  But it's real!  That's insane!

CSIS lied to get warrants.

In Japan, they've recruited homeless people to clean up the Fukishima disaster.  And they're stealing their wages (and paying them less in the first place).


Once again it is winter time.  Time to demand that lost skiers pay for their own rescue.

This is a tremendous Slate story that tracks the life of Ronald Reagan's "Welfare Queen" scapegoat that he used to demonize poor people and push through welfare reform.  Why doesn't somebody do this with the most egregious of Wall Street criminals and push through some sort of Finance Reform?  Matt Taibbi, I'm looking at you.


This is one of those non stories....I mean, of course the NSA has more data than they can possibly analyze.




Iron Maiden apparently used music piracy data to target where they should go on tour...except they didn't.  They just happen to sell out lots and lots of concerts in those places.

South Dakota has supposedly created a tax loophole (on purpose) for rich people to get out of the obligation to pay inheritance taxes in the hopes that it will "create business".  Which it does...to the tune of hundreds of jobs.  So they've given up millions and millions and millions of potential USA wide tax revenue to create hundreds of jobs.







They polled Brits (In England, just in case you were wondering) about why they don't vote.  Well, it's not because they don't care.  It's because they hate politicians.

A lady in Texas is fighting the loss of her land to the Keystone XL pipeline.

Music publishers are still using bots to claim ownership to music that they don't own.

Some people are the worst - Week 136 - Dec 2-9

It's kind of terrible that with Nelson Mandela passing away I'm focusing on a terrible human being like Rob Anders.  "Sleepy Time" Rob Anders.  But this guy needs to be called out.  The voters of Calgary West need to be called out for voting for such a useless human being.

An angry Conservative Senator blames Thomas Mulcair for a hundred or so years of Parliamentary tradition.  How dare he call out law-breaking Senators when he, himself, enjoys a house at taxpayers expense.  Legally.

Speaking of terrible Senators, this one calls out his (elected) NDP MP as "useless and powerless".  Why don't these people hop on board the gravy train and vote Conservative?

A nice summary of Duffy-gate and why we have a right to be pissed off.

Things are just getting surreal now.  Patrick Brazeau is hired as a Parliament Hill reporter.

Can you believe that "World Class Spill Response" is actually a sales tactic for the Northern Gateway Pipeline?  That's like selling unprotected sex with "World Class HIV Treatment".

Gizmodo talks about the Alberta plan to create toxic sludge lakes, rather than actually treat effluent from the tar sands process.

Who can even keep up with this stuff?  The "Truth in Sentencing" Act?  A $200 victim services fund?  No wonder judges are pissed.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer points out the obvious: It's easy to balance a budget when you alleviate the burden of responsibility from yourself (through artificially high EI rates, amongst other things).

People seem to really be rallying behind this backbenchers "Fire the Leader" reform attempt.

This rash of soldier suicides suggests that we really aren't doing enough to support our soldiers who come back from combat.

The Conservatives are still convinced that the Government of Canada is their personal re-election vehicle.  This time - partisan remarks posted on the Finance Canada website.  Since removed.  And even the NP thinks all this ad spending might be getting out of hand.

Canada is (maybe) about to claim the North Pole.  But of course they are.  We are.

A Tyee story about how our "strongest in the world" banks are actually really messed up.  We just hid our bailout a bit better.

It looks like ACTA is coming, whether we like it or not.

This is mostly about the United States, but the CSEC/Brazil kerfuffle shows that similar things are happening here.  Basically, state security apparti (FBI, etc.) are operating on behalf of corporations.  The amount of effort put into defeating legal, peaceful activist organizations (Greenpeace etc.) is staggering.

I was thinking I had missed something last week when I was putting my list together but I couldn't put my finger on it.  Alas!  The NHL/Rogers deal!  What exactly does this mean to the future of the CBC?

A leaked UN document shows that there are many countries out there that want an end to drug prohibition.

Nothing to talk about besides the Senate - Week 134 - Nov 18-25

You always know you're on the wrong side when your folk heroes are a bunch of fucking assholes.  George Zimmerman.  Rob Ford.  Nothing more to say.

This is a really great essay on being poor.  And of course people have a problem with somebody holding down several jobs with no idea how to change their situation.  What a freeloader.

Well this is pretty damning...Of course, our Prime Minister had nothing to do with the misdeeds of his hand selected employees.  Old Steve is the most loyal of friends.  Until you become a liability.  Irving Gerstein should be a bit worried.  Oh.  Wait.  He's throwing him under the bus already.

Stephen Harper officially and totally hangs Nigel Wright out to dry.  I really, really hope Nigel kept some paperwork.  The oddest thing about this whole thing: Why on earth would he use his own money to bail Mike Duffy out?

A story about the missing 3.1 billion.  I initially mispelt "story" as "tory".

A Liberal Senator is accused of sexual harassment.

Some of these by-elections are getting hot and heavy.  Stephen Harper is apparently personally sending out mails to one riding.  Yes I know he isn't really signing them.

This is what our government fights for.  Our right to hunt seals, mine asbestos and build pipelines.  Imagine if they put all this money and energy into industries that didn't enrage half the world?  Of kill them.

Imagining half of North Korea addicted to crystal meth makes the place seem about 100% more terrible.

I wonder if in 50 years time we'll hear about Karl Rove sneaking up to Canada to help the Conservatives get elected?  JFK's pollster infiltrated Canada many moons ago.

A story about Stuxnet that provides a lot of information about cyber warfare and international espionage.

Rob Ford continues to be a walking, talking cartoon.  He hired a former steroid dealer as his personal trainer.  To be fair, I'm sure lots of personal trainers have dealt steroids at some point and time.  Rob ford gets interviewed, makes shit up. People take his "billion saved" as gospel, though.

Christy Clark staffer takes job with Kinder Morgan lobbyist.

This is precisely what people don't understand about copyright legislation and "piracy".  Man buys TV.  TV sends all his information to LG.  Man asks LG to make this stop.  LG tells man that he clicked on the terms of service so he should just go pound sand.  So...with proposed copyright legislation, it could go like this.  Man attempts to reclaim own TV and is arrested for breaking factory installed DRM.  We're entering a world where we no longer own the things in our houses.

Every time we take a trip to a major US city, we see massive billboards for movies that will never be released in Canada.  For a recent trip to LA it was Best Man Holiday.  This story explains the phenomenon.

War on Expensive Cheese - Week 129 - Oct 14-21

So a train derailed and then exploded.  Again.  I guess we couldn't even get that barn door closed after the first horse left.  We're still talking about it in the throne speech.

The Globe rounds up the throne speech.  More "tough on crime" and a highway to the arctic.

Great news everybody!  The Conservatives are on our side!  Un-bundled cable TV!  Cheaper cell phone plans!  They're saving the world and all about the "middle class"!  In additional "Stephen Harper Saves the World by Making Things Marginally Cheaper" news, now they're going to tackle the US/Canadian price gap.  Slashing tariffs?  No, no.  Nothing like that.  After all, it's all the fault of suppliers.  Good luck on that one, buddy.

I feel like somebody is trying really hard to make us think the EU trade deal is nothing more than an easier way for us to buy cheese and send more pigs and cows to Europe.  Perhaps there is more to it than that?  This guy suggests that they're coming to steal our water, and points out the always lovely "Corporations can sue the Canadian government if they pass harmful (economically harmful, that is) environmental legislation".  Call me crazy, but if I'm running a country, I don't sign anything that allows people to sue us if we decide to better protect our environment.

This sounds like a reality show.  Come up with a great business idea, win permanent residency in Canada!

I had no idea the Federal Information Commissioner was such a radical.  She must be, because she's suggesting that our government is doing bad things with access to information.

Edward Snowden points out that people that suggest that China or Russia have stolen his files seem to be full of shit.

I have no idea who Darrell Dexter is.  But I wish I lived in Nova Scotia, just so I could have not voted for him.  Always classy when you blame voters for "not understanding" when you lose.

Liberal MP's have started posting their expenses.  People have started questioning every single thing.  Why do people become so irrational when talking about politicians expenses?  They have a job that requires lots of travel.  That will cost money.

The Senate is hoping to suspend Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy.

Some protests in New Brunswick have erupted over fracking of shale gas.

Unfortunately, when you're a blowhard, people will work to tear you down.  As Rob Ford mobilizes to fire a sleeping City worker, a photo is dug up of him sleeping while on the job as a City worker.  I'm sure his situation is totally different.

This is just the coolest thing I've heard in a while.  For anybody who doesn't know Greg Gillis/Girl Talk, he's awesome.  He's a musical genius that justifies the mash-up craze of a few years ago.  And...a study was just released that tracked sales of songs that he sampled both before and after he released an album in 2010...and...sales went up after his album came out!  So much for the has been musicians suing the shit out of samplers.

This is great.  A journalist followed up with several people that Sean Hannity interviewed about "Obamacare being a disaster" and pointed out the holes in their theory.  Of course, absolutely not one single person that watched the Sean Hannity piece will read this debunking.

Buried in Laura Dzendri story...Police used an undercover operation to illicit a confession from a murderer.  Would be interested in hearing the details of that.

There's some definite legalese here...but the MPAA seems to be arguing that a judge shouldn't consider actual damages to their bottom line in awarding them a judgement, just the imaginary ones that they made up.

Thanksgiving - Week 128 - Oct 7-15

This is pretty awesome and we're going to use it to start our week.

Great news everybody!  The Conservatives are on our side!  Un-bundled cable TV!  Cheaper cell phone plans!  They're saving the world and all about the "middle class"!

Man.  This Brazilian spying thing is going to get ugly.  (can we just start calling it The Brazilian?  That's what I'm going to tag it as)  The denial sounds suspiciously like a confirmation.  It's going to get really, really ugly if we find out that a taxpayer funded spy organization is working on behalf of Canadian mining companies.  And here's the other shoe.  CSEC met with energy companies?  What about?  Sharing some Brazilian intelligence perhaps?  Other corporate espionage?  The head of CSEC says a whole lot of nothing.  The ex-Director of the SCEC claims that it needs the oversight of an MP.  Which is a troubling statement...but honestly...which Conservative MP would you want to oversee your national spy organization?  And supposedly more to come.  Speaking of Glenn Greenwald...here he takes a BBC reporter to task about government spying.  There's things to be learned here.

Judges are already starting to defy Stephen Harper's minimum sentence legislation, pointing out what people have been saying all along - It's not going to work, it's not going to help, and it's not fair.

Our "Science Minister" sent out a fundraising letter asking for money to combat "radical ideologue" scientists.

Mike Duffy is in more trouble for hiring a friend to do a waste of time job.

The Tyee puts into words the ridiculousness of Rona Ambrose and her crusade against prescribed heroin.

Apparently Columbus was a real dick.

Russia and China both have legions of...god...what to call them?...trolls?...writing comments on behalf of the motherland on online news articles.  Stephen Harper probably has the same thing.

Prepare for "Real Estate is on the Rise!" articles.  The long view...shit's been pretty flat for 2 years.  Another great Garth Turner post where he points out that all these Real Estate statistics are really, really suspect.

A lady in Saskatchewan phoned 911 because she thought her neighbours fire pit was out of control.  The fire chief showed up and yelled at her and told her to go back to Quebec.  Which is bad, yes.  But then read the comments (I know.  A mistake).  People seem to think it's justified because "Quebeckers treat anglo-Canadians badly all the time."

Leave it to Matt Taibbi to explain just how fucked the United States is.  With American politics run by wealthy donors, it seems nothing is going to get fixed and income disparity is going to really take off.  In this example, a public pension is gutted and money flows to Financial organizations.  Shocking numbers here as well.

Malala Yousafzai points out to Barack Obama that bombing the shit out of people with drones doesn't bring them over to the American way of thinking.

More US Law Enforcement Entrapment.  This time, an undercover cop encourage an autistic kid to buy drugs for him.  Then arrests him.  Fucking hell.  Thankfully, this kid was re-instated in his high school and got off with only some community service but "he other special needs students arrested remained expelled and at least one served a year in jail."  Posting Onion stories seems cheap and easy.  But this one about cops seems on point.

Is this not a lesson that our copyright laws are plunging towards absurdity?  Harvard Business Review has determined that professors are not allowed to assign things out of their books without a specific license.  Just wait until they start employing undercover students to help enforce their copyright.

We sold our souls for rock and oil - Week 127 - Sept 30 - Oct 7

In a way, I get it.  We use Malaysian money to build an LNG plant and then we sell it to Malaysia.  But wouldn't we be better off building our own plant and then selling the LNG to whomever pays the most?  I thought everybody was begging us for the stuff?  Why do we have to let foreign companies own our resources?

So we used one of our spy agencies to spy on the Brazilian Mining Ministry and we got caught.

Oh these fucking assholes...Enbridge seems to think they'll have their pipeline up and running by 2018.  What a bunch of fucking cocks!  Arrogant cocks.  "Let's disregard all these people that fucking hate us and are accusing us of being a shit company that can barely run an office, let alone a pipeline, and just kind of show them that we don't give a fuck what they say because we've already bought and paid for the decision from the government."

Who knows best about prescribing heroin for a clinical studies?  The doctors who designed the study, hoping to find some specific results that will in turn help society in general?  Or a bunch of ignorant politicians?  Doesn't really matter.  Politicians get their way.  Fuck.  She actually lectures them about treating heroin with heroin.  Because everybody knows cold turkey is the only way, right?

There's not too many things/people in this world that blindly inspire me to think that the other side of the story is the correct one.  Fox News.  The NRA.  Chris Brown.  Anyhow.  The Canadian Gun Lobby thinks we should not sign a UN arms treaty.  So we probably should.  I also love that they think Harper signing this thing might cost him votes.  Yep.  I can just see that Albera farmer voting Mulcair because Harper caused his ammunition prices to go up a bit.  And the fuckin' shitheads caved in and didn't sign.

John Baird continues to tilt at windmills.  No shit we shouldn't blindly accept everything that Iran is selling.  Is anybody suggesting that?  Meanwhile, you're grandstanding at the UN while our fearless leader attempts to marginalize our place there?  What's the point?  Nobody is listening to us anyway.

Another Conservative MP steps out of bounds with letters to the CRTC on behalf of...I think on behalf of Sun News?  And the Province classifies it as "Entertainment".

Don't they know that it's the will of the lord? Christian Paradis announces that Canada won't fund programs to provide abortions to victims of war rape or forced childhood marriage.
So we've decided to take a human rights stand against Sri Lanka.  I'm guessing they don't sell us much stuff or want any of our oil, lumber or natural gas.

And Harper might be trying to blacklist a journalist that asked him a question.

Oh boy.  Our new Supreme Court appointee is a 64 Year Old White Man, who argued strongly against repatriating Omar Khadr.  And then lied about getting drafted by the Detroit Red Wings?  This is roughly the Canadian equivalent of claiming you walked on the moon.  What an idiot.
An 89-year-old lady is going to court after refusing to fill out the census.  Kind of an interesting story, actually.

Awesome!  Pirate Joe's won his legal fight!

Rob Ford continues to be Toronto's main carnival attraction.

Patrick Brazeau still exists, is taken to hospital.  May have done something stupid beforehand.  Maybe not.

Another Conservative Senator is in the shit.  This one accused of illegal fundraising in Quebec.  Kickbacks from Construction companies, really.
The London School of Economics has determined that piracy isn't hurting the entertainment industry.

Alex Pareene has an interesting take on his appearance on CNBC.  He seems to have generated a bunch of positive news though, contrary to his own opinion that he botched it.

Should Canadian public archives be stored behind a paywall?  Probably not.

Dominoes - Week 107 - May 13-21

What a crazy week.  Has it only been a week?  Gosh.

First up.  Mike Duffy.  Should I remind everybody that up until very recently (last week), Mike Duffy was a Conservative star.  And they seemed to think it would be worth $90,000 to bail him out of his expense problem.  Now he's in trouble for inproper influence during the Sun News bidding process.  As well as double billing both the Conservative Party and taxpayers for partisan campaigning on Senate time.  Which has caused him to resign from the Conservative caucus.  Isn't it crazy that it seemed fine when he was just campaigning at the expense of the public, and he was forced to leave once the party figured out he had stolen their money?  Taxpayer money, no problem...but Conservative money is another story.

Imagine how shitty this is for Nigel Wright?  First up, he has to pony up $90,000 to "save the party".  Then, the guy he bails out is forced to leave the party.  And then he has to resign as well?  Even after Stephen Harper pledged his full support. Man. That's some bus.

Pamela Wallin is out, too.


Senator Bozo is going to fight his expense repayment finding as well.  May as well go out in a blaze of glory.  What do you bet we get left with his legal bill as well?

The Harper Government is going to spend over $16 Million on advertising trying to convince America that we're not a band of knuckle-dragging oil burners.  Are the Conservatives invested in some sort of advertising agency ETF that I don't know about?

Peter Penashue is sent Packing.  Of course, the Conservatives are claiming victory.  Because the Liberals didn't win by as much as they should have?  Even with vote splitting.

Remember when the Conservatives promised that the new Copyright legislation wouldn't be about prosecuting average citizens for downloading a movie here and there?  Ya.  That was bullshit.

A Boingboing follow up to our link last week on Industry dictating the course of science in Canada.

I didn't read this article but the headline is awesome: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Bolts From Meeting to Put Fridge Magnets on Cars

Another great Rob Ford Headline: Ford denies crack video

Congratulations Toronto!  Your mayor has gone from local sideshow, to national disgrace, on to international punchline.

Flaherty thinks the housing market is just fine.

You remembered wrong.  House prices weren't supposed to level off and grow more slowly.  This 3% drop in house prices is exactly what we expected.  It's a good thing.

Bob Rennie suggests that it doesn't matter if young people are too poor to buy housing.  Their rich parents will just buy it for them.  So, logically, there's no threat to housing prices and you should buy, buy, buy!