Not so good at this social media thing - Week 145 - Feb 3-10

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.

The Senate Shocker - Week 144 - Jan 27-Feb 3

The story of the week is, of course, Justin Trudeau's "Senate Shocker".  It's amazing how many people who know absolutely nothing about what this means are able to jump to some stupendous conclusions.
Liberals - This will solve all our problems with the Senate and proves that Trudeau is a political genius.
Conservatives - This is a disingenuous move that will never work.
NDP - This was our idea.
Preston Manning - Oh...who really cares what Preston Manning thinks these days?

The Harper Government has decided that Canada doesn't really need to know the truth about CSEC spying on Canadians (via airport Wifi), and crafted a rambling, information-less, wrong on many accounts, non-denial of the CBC story.

Let's talk about conflict of interest, because the Conservatives seem unaware of what this means.  Leona Aglukkaq held a fundraiser where she took money from the people that receive funding from her Ministry.  And, this one is a bit murkier...Mark Strahl's wife is an investor in her father-in-laws (or, Mark Stahl's Dad) consulting company which is engaged in lobbying on behalf of Enbridge?  Or something like that.  These people are dirty.

The Conservative Government has declined half of the Parliamentary Budget Officers requests for information.  Which is an interesting interpretation of "open and transparent".

Keystone XL moves one step closer to reality, as the US State Department gives it the environmental okay.  With temporary foreign workers hauling the oil out of the earth and foreign companies shipping it to the USA to be processed, this doesn't seem like a big win for Canada.


Not only are the Conservatives destroying libraries, they're spending money to make it happen.  Not a lot of money...but it still seems crazy to spend $22,000 to get rid of a bunch of resources.  Elizabeth May thinks the whole thing might be illegal under the Library and Archives Act of Canada.  And as we dig deeper and deeper in to this sordid mess, we find out that over 12 ministries are having their libraries cut/destroyed/culled.

How do you explain an MP proposing a simple, rationale bill to give Canadians some kind of idea as to whether or not mining companies are propping up despotic governments or supporting foreign wars...only to have it laughed out of Parliament?  Even though many mining companies are on board with the plan.  And even though similar regulations already exist in the US and many Canadians already report this under their regulations.  And even though PM Harper promised that Canada would introduce a law to this effect.

Garth Turner, whose blog you should read if you are in to investing or thinking about buying Real Estate, points out that Canada didn't create 21,000 jobs in November.  It lost 27,000 jobs.  Which is a bit of a swing.

A study has determined that income splitting will help the rich more than the poor.  I think they're going to study the effect of yacht and luxury car prices on the poor next.  Perhaps the same people behind that study are behind this one?  It's just as useless.  If you project out the last elections voting patterns, the Conservatives majority would grow.  No shit.  Of course the Conservatives created more ridings to benefit themselves.  And...who cares, because the voting landscape is totally different.

The Conservatives foreign University student dream doesn't seem all that well thought out.

Stephen Harper linked a Canadian Muslim group to Hamas and "terrorism".  Sounds like without proof.  They're kind of pissed about it.

Oil fumes around tanks in Alberta are causing families to move out of their homes.  But I'll bet they have jobs!

An Oil Lobbyist was hired to oversee the transfer of the Experimental Lakes Area?

Dean Del Mastro has decided to start criticizing the Conservatives on monetary policy.  Which is pretty interesting.

Speculation that Stephen Harper's trip to Israel could help the Conservatives in 10 tight ridings come the next election.

You'd probably think this one should be higher up...but I'm not sure what to think.  The Conservatives have started closing Veterans Services Offices, but claim they aren't cutting services.  There was reference to some offices only seeing a handful of veterans every month.  If it is true that they can actually up services by closing offices and investing the funds in other ways, then I'm okay with that.  But is that the truth?  I don't trust these guys.  And neither do veterans.  And they certainly aren't fans of Julian Fantino, who skipped out on a meeting with key veterans to discuss these plans.

This sounds like a pretty lame way to make a point, but I know protesters in the Ukraine have asked governments to do so...Canada has decided to ban certain high level Ukrainians from traveling to Canada.

More Americaland links.  First, if you've ever flown through the USofA, this story will make you hate the airport pornoscanners even more.  TSA agents gawking at your junk?  Yes.  Making fun of fat people?  Yes.  Afraid of all the "safe" radiation?  Yes.  A very interesting read.  Make sure you click through to the main article.

And then there's this guy.  Just a meth-addicted White Supremacist with a large cache of automatic weapons who likes to fire them in the Baker National Forest.  Fuck...I'm going to Whistler instead.