Election Round-up #8 - Sept 1-3

The Syrian refugee crisis has been a disaster for a while, but the images of a tiny child washed up on the shores has been enough to galvanize some kind of support.  Unfortunately, it gets worse and worse for Canada:

The young boy had ties to Canada, and a local MP had approached Chris Alexander to plead their case. Update - It's still a little bit unclear on exactly what happened here.

Of course, Chris Alexander has been ignoring refugees in Syria for quite some time now.  And he is further embarrassing himself.  Please watch the video in that link.  Oh wait.  More embarrassment.  This is probably part of the reason Conservatives grant less than 5% of interview requests.

And just to counter what we're doing vs. what other countries are doing.  Germany is planning on taking on 800,000 refugees.  To our 2300 so far.

Jesus Christ.  Worse and worse:
The boys' father, Abdullah Kurdi, also said today Canadian officials offered him citizenship after seeing what happened, but he has declined. But Citizenship and Immigration Canada released a statement Thursday afternoon saying "Canada did not offer citizenship to Mr Abdullah Kurdi."

Macleans figures we can do a lot more.

The amazing thing is that the Conservatives seem to be touting their "taking it to ISIS" as some kind of justification for doing nothing about refugees.  US documents reveal that we killed up to 27 civilians with our airstrikes.  And we aren't taking it very seriously.  So we're screwing that part up too.

Where is Joe Oliver?  You'd think the Finance Minister would be front and center in talking about financial policy and reaction to the announcement of a Recession.

Oh Laureen...you're off message!

Macleans dismantles the mineral exploration tax credit and all the benefits it supposedly provides.

Steve has been cleaning up anti-Conservative Instagram comments.

A former DFO employee did an analysis and determined that enforcement and charges have dried up in recent years.  There's nobody on the ground to protect our waterways.

A great article about sports stadium construction shakedowns, using Calgary as an example.  It's amazing that these buffoons waited for the oil price collapse to announce their intentions.

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.

Myths - Week 195 - Jan 19-26

Can we kill this myth that Conservative governments are good financial managers?  They didn't do well in the US.  They haven't done well in Alberta.  And all of Canada isn't looking so rosy.  Cutting taxes to the detriment of society and the economy is not "sound financial management".

We'll expand on that by looking at oil revenue.  You know who isn't having a bad time due to a decrease in oil revenue?  Norway.  Probably largely due to them taking 10 times what we do in royalties from their oil.

And what about Tom Mulcair?  Is this not exactly what he warned us about two years ago?  They made fucking attack ads about this!  Why isn't he singing this from the rooftops?

Joe Oliver is now lecturing us on the semantics of his statements, and lessons on the passing of time.  “We said no earlier than April so by definition it could be later.”  Can you believe this asshole is our Minister of Finance?  And you're doing a bang-up job, Joe.

He also suggested that the budget won't include "massive, costly bureaucratic programs".  Does he mean other than income splitting?


The attack on Trudeau for "the budget will balance itself" seems to have gained traction.  I can't find the full interview...but the full sentence seems to be "the commitment needs to be a commitment to grow the economy and the budget will balance itself".  So he seems to be saying that if we have a great economy, we won't need to worry about balancing the budget because we'll have enough revenue to fund the programs that we enact.  Seems unfair to not give it full context.

Veterans are pointing out how fucking stupid Stephen Harper's definition of combat is.

OXFAM suggests that the 1% will soon control half of all the worlds wealth.

Vice details how the RCMP continued to warrantlessly spy on Canadians, even after the Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional.

Once again, our government is inferring that criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.


John Baird feels like a potential investigation of war crime accusations is a "huge mistake"?  Oh.  I get it.  Only certain people are allowed to talk about potential war crimes.  And why isn't he going to an important meeting about Syria?

A detailed analysis of what Pot Prohibition costs Canada.

Canada Revenue has targeted another charity with beliefs that counter what Conservatives believe: Dying with Dignity.  They've lost their charitable tax status.  CRA is basing this on mistakenly giving it to them in the first place in 1982.

When even the wing-nut right wingers don't want you, you know you've made some poor choices in life.  The Wild Rose Party doesn't want Rob Anders as their leader.  At least that was a good decision.

We're no longer going to pay refugees to leave Canada.  Don't worry though.  We're going to make up for it by not following the Supreme Court decision that we need to offer them health care.

Kinder Morgan has an awesome, great, really fantastic emergency plan for their pipeline.  They just don't have to share it with anybody.

Some history on Saudi Arabia, and how Canadian LAV's could be used to crush dissent.

There's a couple of stories about Target management payouts.  The CEO of Target - who you could conceivably blame for billions in losses and 17,000 people to become unemployed - got a $60 Million dollar payout to go away last year.  People are just now realizing how ridiculous that is.  And managers within Target Canada are getting huge payouts relative to the pittance the working stiffs will receive.

Legally Challenged - Week 151 - March 17-24

How many court challenges did the Conservatives lose this week?

#1 - Marc Nadon's appointment to the Supreme Court is overturned.  By the Supreme Court.
#2 - A BC judge grants a reprieve for previously legal, home grown, medical marijuana.
#3 - They aren't allowed to retroactively eliminate early parole.


The Conservatives refuse to release the information that Pierre Poilievre used to come up with his election reform laws.

Remember all those ads over the last few months about cheaper cell phone rates?  That we spent millions of dollars on?  Ya...cellphones are getting more expensive.

Russia laughs at our sanctions.  "Sleepy Time" Rob Anders thinks we should go to war.

Flaherty is out and Joe Oliver gets a promotion.  Every time I think of Joe Oliver I can't help but think of drunk Joe Namath.  This article points out that Joe Oliver's riding is linked to the robocalls scandal.  This article points out that he's a bit of a dinosaur.

It's funny when the Conservatives launch an attack ad, and it makes you think "Hey, that's actually a pretty good idea!"  Somehow, I think the Conservatives spending a lot of money to convince us that Justin Trudeau will legalize marijuana might backfire.

Yet another reason to legalize pot.  Illegal outdoor grows are destroying forests in California.

An article about Stephen Harper's obsession with the original Trudeau.  Clouding his judgement perhaps?

I don't know why this never came to me before.  It took wolf killings to do it.  Christy Clark is the Canadian Sarah Palin (this is good news!  I actually tried to put the "h" in the last name, not the first.  Things are good when you can't remember how to spell "Sarah Palin").  Now, I know this is a pretty unfair comparison to make to any human being.  But hear me out.  The simplistic folksy sayings.  The love of natural resources.  The unexpected rise to power.  Quitting politics to become a political pundit.  A distrust of science.  Killing wolves.  It all fits.

I know StatsCan can get things wrong.  But I like that they're so directly contradicting the Conservatives "lack of skilled workers" claims.  I wonder how temporary foreign workers fall into this though?

Military supply companies are sensing blood in the water.  A French conglomerate is pitching fighter jets, and jobs, for Canadians.


A Conservative Senate Staffer has been accused of fraud and breach of trust, after promising influence over contracts.

This article highlights how much funding has been cut for Cities from the Feds and Provinces.

I haven't read an article on Quebec in quite some time that makes me feel good about that place.  They seem to be making it difficult for students to vote in the upcoming election.  Perhaps I'm a closet Conservative?  But then again...now they're talking about banning burkas.  This must really be a tough one for the Conservatives to figure out which side they are on.

This is what happens when you ignore science.  Wait.  No.  This is what happens when you use some science to create a frankenstein monster and then ignore warnings that science presents with you.  Big Agriculture made a rootworm "proof" corn and it turned out badly.  There was another way, though.  There's always another way.

I like articles that cut through the noise about corporate taxes and how corporations game the system.  This Salon article highlights how tech companies transfer patents to offshore holding companies and use that to siphon profits in to low tax countries.  It's not a fair system.  It doesn't create jobs when a company skirts tax law.

Not Happy with the Media - Week 124 - Sept 9-16

The Tyee has determined that the Robocalls saga stinks.  Which is a pretty undramatic revelation.  This Michael Sona thing is getting complicated.  Lucky for us, the Conservatives have dug up witnesses that are able to blame the entire thing on Michael Sona!  Good thing they don't have a vested interest in making him a scapegoat or anything.  Heck, he may have made the whole thing up!  He is prone to exaggeration.

Stephen Harper hired a new spokesperson.  Man.  Who would want that job?

I think Joe Oliver is taking over for Largest Conservative Dipshit now that Vic Toews is gone.  "Hey guys.  All these things we announced we will do just happen to be similar to what the US asked of us.  They're not concessions though.  We just didn't plan on doing them before we were asked to.  By them.  In exchange for things."

What a loony country we live in.  Quebec continues to discuss their "Charter of Values" that limits peoples freedoms...and the Conservatives are going to be the voice of reason behind stopping it.  And then the BQ expels an MP for criticizing it.

This Sun News guy thinks Trudeau is incapable of governing because his stats on Pot arrests don't add up.  Well none of Stephen Harper's stats on crime add up.  What does that suggest?

Pretty staggering information on income distribution in Canada.  Staggering in how little (relatively speaking) it takes to bust into the top 1%.  Staggering at what "average" is.

I know that this is a train disaster, but this is precisely why we need to be careful with who we let build pipelines and where we put them.  As we learn more about Lac Megantic, we learn that this company really cut corners, broke rules and didn't have the public's interest at heart.  Then, before they could be held accountable, they threatened bankruptcy.  I realize that there is a lot of red tape in this country for starting a business, but at some point businesses have got to be held accountable.  This country seems to be all about just letting companies do whatever they want, claiming a pittance in taxes and then yelling at anybody that complains that they're going to cost jobs.  We need a system that:
a) Makes it easier to start a small business.
b) Requires more out of large business (insurance, procedures, trusts, etc.)
Oh.  What am I talking about?  The Lac Megantic train was carrying crude that was far more explosive than labelled.  It should have been classified in a more stringent category.

So many stories about rape chants, so little information.  I commented last week, alluding to stupid things said by University students.  But after seeing some of what was chanted, this whole thing seems even more puzzling.  I never really liked the whole organized frosh/school spirit bullshit that happened when I was in University.  It all seemed a bit too forced.  This whole thing seems so, so odd.  How can similar chants pop up on opposite sides of the country?  What kind of idiot would be putting together a large group event and think that this was a good idea?  We said stupid things, but not quite this stupid.  Not as a group.  Not as a chant.  I do remember somebody leading a busload of students on a pub crawl with a song about beastiality...but that seems a lot more harmless than this.  I don't think anybody went out and raped a goat though, afterwards.

Oh boy.  This article is just kind of sickening, talking about the insane practice of re-adopting kids by people that can't deal with them.  And I totally, totally realize that I'm doing something I hate hear, assigning some sort of master blame to an issue.  But honestly, if there was ever an argument for what government does, why we need governmental organizations and what taxes should be used for, this is it.  No.  I know.  The free market will figure it out.

Why you shouldn't believe everything that you read.  I personally know Mike Zupan and the insinuations of this article are ridiculous.  Can't believe that I'm even linking to this story.

Here is different than there.  Harrison Ford is nearly deported from Indonesia for speaking too directly to a government minister about illegal logging that he witnessed.

I stumbled upon this article when the author was complaining in another story about death threats he had received after writing it.  I read the original piece and all I can think is "This is why people hate 'Liberals'."  I understand what he is saying - Blindly aping the "Support Our Troops" mindset does us no favours.  But come on.  His stance is just such over-the-top, academic, hoity-toity, look-at-me-I'm-a-professer garbage.  You can just see this guy going to every single party, letting a conversation carry on for 10 minutes, and then interrupting with an ill-timed "Well...actually" that just kills the participants will-to-live.  Okay fuckface.  We get it.  War isn't good.  Soldiers are the instruments of war.  Etc.  But you do realize that the average soldier really has no control over these decisions, right?  You realize many of these guys end up in the Army through less than ideal circumstances?  You realize that some of us recognize that these guys are doing a hard job and facing death due to the machinations of corrupt politicians and that perhaps it's not a bad thing to express a degree of support, no matter how hollow, towards that idea?  So fuck off with your pedantic lectures.  Even though that's your job, I guess.