Jim - Week 154 - April 7-14

Man.  What a depressing end.  Serve as Finance Minister to an asshole, retire and then die a few weeks later.  Poor Jim Flaherty.  Garth nicely sums up the good and bad of Jim Flaherty.

Pierre Poilievre is doubling down on awful.  He's accusing Marc Mayrand of a power grab in his opposition of the "Fair Elections" Act.  Is it really a power grab if you want to keep doing the job that you are paid to do?  Can you believe these Conservative jagoffs have decided that the talking point needs to be that Elections Canada shouldn't be in the voter turnout game?  As well, looks like the guy who is supposed to take over investigations from Elections Canada wasn't consulted either.


These people are children.  One Conservative minister makes a "shooting a gun" gesture at an NDP MP, and then another runs over and trots out the beautiful "Say it outside of Commons!" refrain.  These people are idiots.

This is awesome.  "Sleepy Time" Rob Anders lost his nomination battle.

It's remarkable the job Stephen Harper has done of shirking any responsibility for Patrick Brazeau.  Not to kick a man when he's down, but it seems like it's all really unravelling.

Another tough on crime bill doesn't survive scrutiny by the courts.

In Australia, government employees aren't allowed to criticize the government online.  "Shit, what a great idea!" somebody in Ottawa just said.

More companies taking advantage of the temporary foreign workers program.

Why are MP's allowed to accept paid travel from companies/organizations/countries?  If it is important enough to go, Canada should pick up the tab.

Trudeau took shit for not letting his bullying candidates run for nomination.  Steve has no problems with his bullies...shit...it might be a prerequisite.  Eve Adams is allowed to continue.


Greenpeace is asking for an investigation into the ties between the Conservatives and "Ethical Oil" from an election finance perspective.  Interesting response from the "grassroots" Ethical Oil.

An interesting idea.  CBC asked people to tweet their stories about vouching/getting vouched for.  Of course Conservative commenters point out that these people are all probably lying about it.

Kitimat decided that it doesn't want a pipeline.

More bad news for Attawapiskat.  And Theresa Spence.  Her partner/the co-manager of the first nation, has been charged with fraud.

There's some fallout from decreasing subsidies and no more Hockey Night in Canada.  600+ at CBC are out of work.

Huh.  This guy talks a bit about the potential speed restrictions coming to the de-restricted sections of the Autobahn.  He equates it to the gun control argument in the US.

A bunch of yahoos that work for the Minister of Public Works have been accused of interfering with access to information.

More Quebec corruption with ties to Stephen Harper appointees...or attempted appointments...or something.

Vic Toews Returns - Week 90 - Jan 16-25

Well.  We changed things up a bit and had a mid-week post.  Which is good.  Because the rest of the week was pretty busy.

Are you fucking kidding me?  Mr. Fucking Law-and-order, Vic Fucking Toews, is suggesting that policing costs are too high?  And he is actually talking about the drop in crime rate?  Holy shit.  I mean, just when you think this guy is the most gigantic fucking idiot in the entire fucking world he comes out and says something like this.  I'm actually imagining the fantasy world that Vic fucking Toews lives in right now - More things are against the law.  Criminals get put in jail for longer.  And there are no police to do any of this.  CBC points out how much of  a dipshit he is.

I live in British Columbia.  Our Provincial Liberals treat the Government like it's their own party publicist/campaign arm.  So, to me, Julian Fantino posting some letters on a Government website that are critical of the opposition doesn't seem like a huge deal.

This article is interesting for two reaons.  First, it points out that this certainly isn't the first minister to pull a Flaherty and use their ministerial role inapropriately.  Next, if you scroll through the comments, it seems to illuminate the official Conservative talking point for this: That if a minister doesn't break this rule, we're actually punishing the businesses in ridings that happen to have a minister for an MP.  Sooooo...how old is Canada?  I didn't realize that for over a hundred years we've been punishing businesses in the ridings of Ministers.  I mean, there's never been a case where a minister has unfairly handed out boatloads of cash within his own riding, has there?  We really need to address this grave injustice.  Jim Flaherty is a hero, really.  And what the fuck?  Is it honestly the job of an MP to write recommendations for businesses in his riding?  Is there some sort of daily line-up outside of MP's offices where local business owners stand, cap in hand, waiting for the good word of their MP?

Wow.  The National Post is on it today.  First, an opinion piece taking Jim Flaherty to task for not simply admitting that he made a mistake.  Next, they question the Prime Minister for his attack on a journalist who exposed sketchy election spending by the Conservative party.  Well done National Post.

And...There is an opinion piece written by Patrick Brazeau.  And I really, really hate to say this, but I think I might actually agree with him on this.  Whether you think First Nations receive too much support or not enough support, it's impossible to make any sort of determination without a better idea of where the current batch of money is going.  I realize that Idle No More is about more than money, and opponents are trying to make it all about the money.  But...well...he raises some valid points.

I'm not sure if I talked about this guy before.  Was this before the last election?  Anyhow, an Edmonton MP was pulled over by the cops one night and refused to provide a breathalyzer sample.  And was a total dick.  Guess which party he's with?  I don't think the article actually states this.  Perhaps in Alberta "MP" and "Conservative" are synonyms?

A Salon book discussion raises horrifying thoughts on the war in Vietnam.  It's a pretty long read.  It's very depressing.  But it warrants your attention.

The headline of this article states "GOP memo brags party kept the house by gerrymandering".  I didn't take this at face value.  I expected some subtle interpretation whereby the author read some innocuous phrase as an endorsement of gerrymandering.  But no.  It really is a memo bragging about redistricting to best support election of GOP congressmen even wihthout a majority of the vote.

Another Liberal leadership candidate has come out in support for some sort of election reform.  This time a ranked ballot.

Looks like there may be some identity theft related to lost student loan data.

You heard about the maple leaf on the new bills?  Me too.  Does it really matter?  Stupid botanists.  I actually heard one of them talking on the CBC about how we would never put a baboon or a palm tree on our bills, so why would we put the wrong maple leaf.