We'll show you - Week 220 - July 6-13

The military went out of their way to write to the parents of a soldier who committed suicide to let them know that he didn't deserve the medals he was awarded.  They're going to let them keep the medals though.  They've only taken away all the meaning behind them.  And no, it didn't have anything to do with the family embarrassing the military by loudly asking for things which they were owed.

Steve is getting the spin out on this "downturn".  Global trends!  Not even a steady hand on the tiller could fix this mess!  Until the election, of course.  I mean...somehow, we're the only G7 nation in recession...  Remember whe Joe Oliver claimed we'd only have one bad quarter.  Now he's claiming all will be well by years end.  Don't rock the boat!

Fine by me.  US threatens to keep Canada out of the TPP.

Another cluster with military procurement.  A radar procurement is abruptly cancelled.

Gatecrashers in the Canadian embassy during the Ukraine uprising?  A tale of two headlines:
CBC - Canadian embassy used as safe haven during Ukraine uprising, investigation finds
National Newswatch - Canada’s embassy in Ukraine used as pawn in 2014 uprising

I understand this argument - If we start charging for water, we open the door under NAFTA for all kinds of bullshit.  Still.  There has to be some way to structure this deal so that we get more than a few hundred dollars per year out of massive water users.  I mean...we'll lose all our water if we start charging for it so better give it away for free?

Christy inserted a nice poison pill into the Petronas LNG contract.  Compensation to Petronas if royalties or specific taxes go up in the next 25 years!  Holy fuck!  What a deal!  For Petronas.

Pierre Poilievre has somehow started to argue that Stephen Harper will prevent us from becoming Greece?  You may have to translate the link.  He also claims that the increased child tax benefit is going to be a huge boost to the economy.  What a wizard.

The Senate Security and Defence Committee wants to ban 'ideological radicals' from Canada.  Love to see who they think should create the list.

An interesting article on how Seattle is being ruined by the tech boom.  Vancouver is mentioned in the boingboing link.  Interesting that we have no corresponding boom to go along with the ruination of our City.  I also like this thought:

if a government presided over a doubling in the price of food, it would be viewed as monstrous. If it doubles the price of housing, it it lionized for “increasing property values.”

 

The new refugee health care programs are so convoluted, nobody is getting treatment.  And I'm pretty sure increased bureaucracy does nothing to drive down costs.

 

Details of Rona Ambrose running fast and loose with her comments about marijuana and the Supreme Court.

 

Over 2 days in June, the Cons made 70 appointments.  Not sure how this usually works. 

Get yer guns - Week 167 - July 7-14

Well this is frightening.  The OECD predicts the fall of the Western World.  Recommends austerity and worker flexibility.

Peter MacKay rushed an unveiling of an Afghan war memorial so that it would take place while he was still minister.  This was deemed more important than giving the families of those memorialized notice and time to attend the opening.  Because Peter MacKay is turning into one of the biggest dicks in the Conservative party.

Morningstar, via Macleans, has bad news about Canadian Real Estate.

Omar Khadr wins the right to be transferred to a Provincial prison.

A "flood" of calls to the Revenue Canada offshore snitch line has resulted in 80 new leads...Call Noah, I guess.  Since March, 800 people have called.  And 251 were "actual" calls.  And only 100 of those were actual, actual calls.

I guess you have to argue something...Dean Del Mastro's attorney suggests a power surge may be the reason for why he looks guilty as hell.  That could possibly explain the data trail.  Maybe the same power surge altered the memory of the guy who said Del Mastro told him to change it?

An organization has put together a report suggesting Canada does a terrible job of managing its parks.  "Short sighted" is the description, I believe.

More court cases.  Remember the end to the Navigable Waters Protection Act?  Yep.  Lawsuit.

Religious groups in Alberta are responsible for teaching some of the sex ed programs in High Schools.

CNRL admits that they caused the strange bitumen seeping issues in Northern Alberta.  Will they have to fix it?

This meathead makes a lot of strange claims about Canada's greatest scourge: foreign mothers giving birth in Canada!  Hundreds of them!

The NSA targets innocent vs. "guilty" people at a ratio of 9:1...

Killing it softly - Week 163 - June 9-16

I feel like a few months from now, a psychiatrist will be able to look back on this blog and track my slow descent into madness.  Or apathy.  Slow descent into apathy.  As each post gets shorter and posted later.  Oh well.

This story perfectly shows how Steve goes about his business.  Quietly make shit difficult for people until they reach a point where they can't compete/complete and laugh as an enemy is quietly defeated.  It's no secret that Conservatives hate the CBC.  And you can spend a lot of time talking about privatizing the whole thing.  Or you can just slowly turn back their funding, until they can't compete for important show contracts and just slowly disappear.  Maybe the end of Hockey Night in Canada isn't a big deal?  Maybe Don Cherry will finally just disappear into a basement to yell at his TV?  But I think this is a turning point.  And a montage.  I feel Steve must be at lest the tiniest bit torn about this one.

Should I just end it there?  One post about hockey and we're done?

Steve and his Australian buddy have decided to double down on their anti climate change agenda.  Their distant relatives held a similar press conference years ago about refusing to kill jobs with a response to the nay-sayers and their made up asteroid impact.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association makes a fatal assumption when they say things like "Back to the drawing board" with respect to privacy legislation.  That assumption being that the Conservatives give even one fuck about what anybody thinks or whether or not something is legal.

Justin Trudeau is setting a bit of an odd precedent.  He suggests that male legislators shouldn't be making decisions on a females right to abortion.  Which I kind of agree with.  But what other responsibilities is he going to try to shirk off next?  Is he just going to sit in an office with a giant stamp that says something like "Sorry, I can't deal with this because I'm white and male"?  Shit.  If only Steve had a similar attitude.

Click through on this sucker and listen to the full interview.  Chris Alexander is a master of not answering questions.  And he sounds so hard done by.  And then he hangs up the phone.  Jason Kenney is also a master at not answering questions (about Temporary Foreign Workers).

The Robo-calls trial has given an insight into how political campaigns act in Canada.  Like children.  I'm surprised they aren't ordering dozens of pizzas to show up at the opponents campaign office.  Actually, that would be a bit of a morale booster, wouldn't it?

I feel like I'm slowly descending into madness with respect to Vancouver real estate.  It's easy to feel stupid for not buying a shitty house as values continue to rise into the stratosphere and an entire industry works to convince us that we're incompetent humans for not over-paying for a house already.  So, the 2013 breakdown of incomes in Canada is very interesting.  If you make more than $191,000 per year, you're in the top 1% of all income earners in Canada.  So....if you are just barely in the top 1% of all Canadian income earners, you can barely afford the average Vancouver detached house (at $1,000,000+)?  What's considered affordable?  5 times annual earnings, right?  Less?  It gets way, way worse when you look at median individual income ($27,600) and median family income ($76,000).  Of course, you're thinking the median Vancouver income is higher than the median Canadian, right?  Sorry.

MacLean's points out that we're really, really terrible at protecting our marine habitat.  Like worse than Russia and China bad.  Worse than the US, even.

Australia - Week 162 - June 2-9

Man.  I haven't been this excited about something in a while.  A comment was left here last week that I just loved.  I'll share it with you, so that I don't have to write anything myself this week:

Orstralia calling here. Just wanted to give you the hands up that our recently elected PM is winging his way towards your bonza country on what can only be fact finding mission on the wonders of conservative government in Canada. Now Tony Abbott is the leader of the Liberal party of Australia but don't be confused because that's our version of the conservative party in Oz ( might be because we live in the opposite hemisphere).
Unfortunately for Tonnes his recent budget hasn't gone down to well with the general public. Those lower class types are getting upperty about inequality between the rich and the other ninety percent of the population. Even the septic tanks south of your boarder have made fun of him.

Now if Mr Harper could just show him some of the nuances on how to rule within a conservative framework, just some pointers well....it would be much appreciated. Having said that he does have a handy guide put together by the Institute of public affairs of Australia, a prestigious group of Bankers, Miners, Captains of industry all thought to be under the guiding hand of our very own Rupert Murdoch.

Even though Rupe has gone on to bigger and better things ( now an American citizen by crickey ) I like to think he still reminisces of his early days at the Adelaide Advertiser. Just wondering if your fair country is lucky enough to have any News corp publications or is it just us with wall to wall Murdoch media. Anyhow I better get out of your way now. Oh! If you do run into Tonnes he's the kind laconic bloke who will fell right at home with a cheeky greeting of ' Cheers big ears '.

The second link is a work of magic, and perhaps the work of a sociopath.  Who else could spend the first few paragraphs talking about all the wonderful left wing changes of the past and how they've become thoroughly appreciated (Universal Healthcare, free tuition, etc.)...and then prescribe these changes as the way to move Australia forward?  Banish the carbon tax, pull out of Kyoto, abolish the Department of Climate Change and the Clean Energy Fund, abandon parental leave, privatise, privatise, privatise.  I mean, it's some kind of Koch Brothers wet dream.  Anyhow.  Thanks TaxiLurker...I really needed that.

On with the real news.

Perhaps this was the plan all along, but it seems like the Robocalls trial is coming to the conclusion that Michael Sona is guilty as hell, but not capable of executing without help.  And probably some help on a National level from the party.

Ha ha.  I almost just pasted this link in.  And I'm going to share it anyhow.  Because who doesn't want to read about the trainwreck of the Kimye wedding?  A lesson in the excesses of the 1%.

Damned scientists.  Getting in the way of progress again.  Here pointing out that the science used to justify the Northern Gateway project is "flawed".  The logic too.  And again with the Scientists....Great news on Fracking in Canada.  A University of Waterloo report finds that wells are poorly capped, barely monitored, and leaking all over the place.  Thank god our decisions aren't peer reviewed, says Steve.

Jesus.  This is a bit troubling.  The "Government" is imploring its departments to track every protest across Canada.  The Optimist would assume they want to keep their fingers on the pulse of Canadian opinion...

So the Cons have unveiled their prostitution bill.  The "Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act".  Man.  What's their budget for thinking up over-the-top bill names?  Anyhow.  I'm not sure people are going to buy into this one.  It seems to make everybody angry.  I guess I have some Libertarian in me.  It seems like making things that people really want illegal is kind of stupid.  Doesn't it make sense, as New Zealand has done with prostitution, to accept that things will happen and bring it out in the open?  This Nordic model sounds like a step in the right direction, but seems to add an unnecessary shroud over things.  How can you ensure things are safe when people are still forced to do it in secrecy?

More veterans more angry with the Conservatives.

Don't worry.  Nigel Wright is going to be okay.  Mike Duffy probably won't be.

Vice chimes in on our "You're not a citizen any more" legislation.  Pointing out that it sucks.

There's just so many links about why we shouldn't buy the F-35, I don't even know where to start.  But apparently, we're going to.  Okay.  One link.  Basically, this airplane is so complicated and compromised because of the vertical takeoff/landing requirements.  Which Canada doesn't need.  So in summary.  We're spending insane amounts of money on an airplane because some variants require something that we don't, and the whole design is kind of compromised because of it.  Well done.

Somebody from Peter McKay's office is most likely behind the "bozo eruption" recording.  More Peter McKay (christ, what an asshole).  The Conservatives still seem intent on making the Marc Nadon fiasco about anything but them.  Peter McKay suggests documents were leaked?  How does that in any way impact what happened? 

Harper found an actual Quebec judge to appoint to the Supreme Court.

Quebec has passed some form of right-to-die legislation.

Steve seems to have "ruthless dictatorship" confused with "communism".

Elections Canada hasn't made up their mind about NDP guilt with respect to mailouts.

People give Garth a tonne of shit.  But this post is really beautiful.  He lays out quite clearly how our Real Estate costs can have an impact on where businesses set up.  And that we shouldn't be excited when a factory closes down and we build over-priced condos on the land.  "In Canada, this is progress. Who needs useless, noisy, downscale factories full of people with rough cuticles and bad tats when all we need is to sell real estate to each other at ever-higher prices with ever-larger mortgages? Then everyone benefits. Obviously we’ve found a new economic reality. It’s so good to be different. And smart."

I really don't understand what Steve is going to accomplish with his Russian saber rattling.  Send more troops to Europe?  To do what?  With what?  It's a bit of a symbolic sham of a gesture.  Especially when we still seem happy to take the money of Russians when we really need it.

A study has shown that states that primarily vote Republican have a far higher dependency on Federal funding than do states that vote primarily Democrat.  Damned Liberal freeloaders, keep wanting to give money to real 'Merican 'publicans.

Regicide - Week 160 - May 19-26

Huh.  Regicide obviously wasn't the term I was looking for...we'll leave it though.  Make you think it's some sort of cryptic commentary on something.  I was certain Regicide was correct...

It seems like the Conservatives can't even play by the rules with their own elections.  The Eve Adams nomination battle gets nastier, and the nomination election is called off.  It's okay though.  Demetri Soudas did it all for love, so it's fine.

We often play second fiddle to the US military, but we've now proven we can be contenders with the best of them...Sexual assault within the Canadian military is out of control, just like in the US.

Some current Conservative MP's have been busy developing an app for the next election.  To help the Conservatives get re-elected.  Not helping society or anything.

With world leaders like this, I think everything is going to turn out great...The US House Science Committee has banned the US Military from studying climate change.

The Harper Government has definitively proven through a self funded study that the Canada/Columbia free trade deal has had no negative impacts on human rights abuses.

The Straight explains why the Conservatives new citizenship rules might not be all that great.  Beware dual citizens who commit crimes.  Or are accused of committing crimes by shady people.

Lots of Canadians have just given up on looking for work.  Which is odd as the number of Temporary Foreign Workers has tripled in certain areas.  These people need to run as Conservative candidates or something...This former (failed) candidate received several government contracts, both before and after she ran.

I feel like I'm missing something here.  The wife of the soldier that Omar Khadr killed is suing him for $50 Million.  I mean...say what you will about the craziness of soldiers families suing people over deaths and what that might mean for society.  But do Guantanamo inmates make a lot more money than I think they do?

To expand on last weeks link about oil spill clean-up costs...A 1 Billion limit to liability...an expected 10 Billion cost for clean-up.  Insane.  Also sited in this story, recent trade deals promised the EU and India that they could import as many temporary foreign workers as they wanted if they establish business in Canada.  This is a problem.  With that, we have an interesting behind-the-scenes on a farce of an Oil Sands Spill clean-up project.

Garth shows a diagram from the Georgia Straight that shows non-resident ownership in Vancouver is quite low.  But doesn't link to the article.  Which is pretty lame.

Interesting research on global morality...things such as drinking, premarital sex, contraceptive use and abortion.  Diving in to abortion...only 26% of Canadians think abortion is immoral (and is roughly the same amount of people that think gambling is immoral).  And I'm betting the Venn diagram of Conservative Voters/Immoral Abortion Judgers is two nearly concentric circles.  So maybe Trudeau will be alright?  Because the Catholics hate him.

This is a bit rich.  Maxime Bernier speculates that the Liberals coming to power could cause Quebec to separate.  Because the Conservatives have done so much to make Quebec feel welcome.

Up to here - Week 159 - May 12-19

Well.  It doesn't really matter now, does it?  After all, the Antarctic ice collapse has started and probably can't be stopped.  Think of the business opportunities!  Glad I don't own Real Estate in Richmond.

Hooray!  The next election is going to be so fair!

Canada broke ranks with the US and refused to sanction a couple of Russian bigwigs.  Of course it has nothing to do with their significant investments in Canada.  Wouldn't those actually be two of the best guys to sanction if you were actually trying to prove a point?

This guy figures Trudeau has lost the Catholic vote with his abortion proclamation.  Probably had already lost them on gay marriage, anyhow.


The new pipeline rules and regulations are far from "world class".  And why a 1 billion cap on liability?  1,000 people out to an anti Enbridge rally is nothing to sneeze at.

Canada may be subsidizing energy companies to the tune of $34 Billion.  Per year.

This is pretty much straight from the Stephen Harper playbook.  Find a crime that happened once or twice.  Ensure that it is something nobody can argue on behalf of.  And put resources into creating a law against it.  Voila.  Tough on crime.  Who doesn't love police dogs?

There's something kind of funny about an old dude like Julian Fantino defending spending $100,000 to promote a twitter account.  I wonder if he knows what it is?

Garth lays out the sad state of employment affairs in Canada.  Yikes.

Rafe Mair raises a good (and familiar) point.  How is it a "jobs plan" to just dig shit out of the ground and put it on a boat?


Dean Del Mastro doesn't give up.  Wants the RCMP to investigate Elections Canada.  Charles Manson makes similar demands of the people that investigated him as well.

The NDP sent out lots of mailings using government resources.  The Conservatives do this all the time as well...but Elections Canada is investigating.  As well, the Thomas Mulcair grilling over NDP satellite offices has devolved into a bit of a sideshow.


A full swat team came to arrest the engineer on the train that exploded in Lac Megantic.  I mean, when your crime is perhaps being negligent in operating a train, of course you should be considered armed and dangerous and have your entire family hauled out onto the front lawn at gunpoint after you offered to just come in on your own volition.  Meanwhile, the owner declares bankruptcy and walks away.

This story reveals how silly government secrecy rules are.  David Cameron's name has been redacted from documents about his official visit to Canada.  The photo is pretty great.

Jason Kenney to the rescue!  Somehow, we're going to tie the number of temporary foreign workers to the unemployment rate.  Even though our ability to collect stats is bad.  Another company swindled temporary foreign workers out of money.

Hold on a second.  We have a "Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime"?

A nice long read on the history of the Experimental Lakes Area and the impact of bad government management.

This article lays out the case for a London housing bubble...and sounds oddly familiar.

This story highlights all the changes to other countries laws the USA wants.  Canada and Japan need to get rid of privacy laws.  Mexico can't put taxes on junk food.  Canada needs longer pharmaceutical patents.

Everybody should use the word "Realtor" - Week 149 - March 3-10

Been a while since we started with a photo.  Two thumbs up, Steve!

Hey.  Nothing to do with Canadian politics, but there is some happiness in the world.  Readit IAmA with a survivor of Mengele's medical experiments.

John Baird thinks this is an argument on the Internet...compares Putin to Hitler.

This Crimea thing is pretty crazy, no?  I kind of wish there was some large, world spectacle that Russia was holding that we could not go to in order to drive home how inappropriate it is to take over your next door neighbours country.  Oh.  Wait.  There is?  Two of them?  And we're still going?  We're just not going to send "government officials" or participate in the planning?  That seems a bit stupid.  It's kind of okay though, because nobody really cares what Canada thinks any longer.

Honestly, this "don't politicize the Olympics" thing has got to stop.  If the IOC didn't hand the Olympics over to despotic regimes looking to prove their political might then we wouldn't need to "politicize the Olympics".

Opposition to the "Fair Elections Act" is really heating up.  Marc Mayrand finally gets to speak and tears the bill a new one.

Try to make sense of this one...Conservative MP makes some shit up to justify additional voter ID laws...Conservative MP admits that he didn't actually see the shit that he made up, somebody just told him about it...Conservatives decide that the issue doesn't warrant any more investigation or discussion.  Here it is, people.  Proof that majority governments don't work.

Not only are we going to make a sex offender registry, we're going to pull funding to treatment programs that seem to be working pretty well.  Can't have people getting better on the Government dime.

So maybe Jim Prentices talks about more environmental protection weren't really what they appeared to be...as he joins up with Enbridge to foist their pipeline on the First Nations.  Sorry, to "negotiate with the First Nations".

"When the pipeline leaks/tanker sinks, we'll just clean it up."  Looks like the area around the Exxon Valdez has finally recovered.  It only took 25 years...but it recovered.  Mostly.

This guy does not think Vic Toews should have been named a judge.  He suggests that the $288,000 per year salary, plus full MP pension, should help pay for his messy, expensive divorce though.  Love the quotes of opposition MP Toews complaining about the Liberals appointing Liberals as judges.  Totally different this time.


It must suck to realize that people so thoroughly disagree with what you believe.  Peter McKay suggests that loosening of marijuana laws might be in the cards.  I thought anybody who even talked about that kind of stuff was a child hating monster?

Just so awesome.  The CREA has told Garth Turner that the use of the word "Realtor" is trademarked/copyrighted/whatever and he can't use that word in his blog posts.  He responds with a takedown of their ridiculous system.  How can you post a number last year for February sales, and then post a number this year for February sales that is lower than last years number, and claim sales have gone up? (just testing to see if you read far enough down to understand the headline)

Hey.  This is shocking.  A former Conservative is accused of improper lobbying.  Gawd.  Doesn't he know there's other ways to get on the gravy train?

Oh boo hoo.  Gun owners aren't allowed to own one specific type of gun.  Sounds like the beginnings of tyranny to me.  You know, the kind of tyranny that takes away your guns.  Not the type of tyranny that arbitrarily ends debate on issues, forces through gigantic Omnibus bills, changes election laws to suit themselves, perpetrates voter fraud, etc.

This story about the mother of a soldier who committed suicide receiving a $0.01 cheque from the government really lays bare Internet commenters true prejudices.
Conservative - Shame on the incompetent bureacrat for allowing this to happen.
Liberal - Shame on the incompetent Harper Government for allowing this to happen.

Joe Oliver thinks it's a good idea that we live up to our G8 commitment to ensure mining companies disclose money paid to foreign governments.  I think the doings with SNC Lavalin (I know...not a mining company) prove that Canada can be a world power with corporate corruption.  Time to require more of Canadian companies.

An American general points out that you need fancier, more expensive planes to protect the fancy, expensive planes we're thinking of buying from the Americans.  If not, they're kind of useless.

I've often wondered how banks can screw up, hand people's money to scammers, and not immediately be fully responsible.  This guy fought BMO for months over money they handed over during a pretty blatant scam.

Astro-Turf - Week 148 - Feb 24-March 3

Why the War on Drugs isn't a great idea.
 
I'm sure this is just correlation without causation, right?  Vicente Fox has a good point to make.  The US War on Drugs is really a war on mexicans.  He wants all drugs legalized.

Did you know the Fair Elections Act will give incumbent MP's the power to appoint key election workers?  What a terrible idea.  On a similar note, Preston Manning has even suggested that taking away Elections Canada's "get out the vote" abilities is dumb.  And another voice suggesting that bad things will happen if Elections Canada can't investigate.

Brad Butt, the MP who said he saw voter fraud taking place in the form of campaign employees pulling voter ID cards from the trash and then using them to fraudulently vote, now says that he saw no such thing.  Is this not troubling?  Is this a statement you can just back away from by saying you "misspoke".  Were new laws not drafted to prevent this from happening?

Oh.  This is fresh.  It's not enough to claim that it's American money funding the anti-pipeline coalition in BC.  It used to be the evil American hippies with no skin in the game that want to see the pipeline fail.  But now...now somehow it's worse.  It's American big oil tricking Canadians into scrapping their own pipeline because they want the oil for themselves.  The same American companies that control the majority of the Oils Sands, right?  So...they don't want this pipeline so they can sell the oil in the US rather than they sell the oil in China?  Interesting.  Note that the author of this article is pretty much a BC Liberal Government shill who seems to be the driving force behind the astro-turf "British Columbians for Prosperity".  Where do you get your money, assholes?  Looks like somebody has followed their money...straight to the long term Oil Industry folks who started this organization.

Similarly, a nice little Tyee story that highlights some of the ties between big oil, US right-wing think tanks, "grassroots" oil supporters and Canadian politicians.  Weird, scary stuff.  It also asks the question - why is the 100% political "charity" The Fraser Institute not held to the same standard as other charitable organizations participating in political work?  And points out that all these outside organizations currently "own" 70% of Canada's oil and gas production and siphon off the majority of the profits.

I love behind the scenes views of talking points for Conservative politicians.  Here we have a look at what they were all told to say with respect to Justin Trudeau and the Senate.

Not only Rex Murphy, but Peter Mansbridge has been caught taking money from the Oil Sands.

The IMF, that crazy bunch of liberals, has a report showing that increased taxes on the rich has no impact on economic growth.

I know that nobody ever said anything positive about child sex offenders and made it out alive.  But, especially since we seem more than eager to make kids that forward pictures of classmates "child sex offenders", I worry what this legislation might mean.  I just don't think that making it impossible for a certain breed of criminal to re-integrate into society might not be to the benefit of anybody.

Garth Turner shows why Justin Trudeau is correct - The StatsCan report on middle class wealth increasing is solely based on real estate values.  Yes, some people are sitting on fat (on paper) Real Estate values.  This hardly defines the return of the middle class.

The Conservatives shutting the opposition out of the trip to the Ukraine is just one of many ways the Conservatives are using foreign policy to take advantage of their position.  Poor Irwin.

Is Jim Prentice making a move to be the next Conservative PM?  He's coming out in favour of more environmental protection.

If you complain about everything, people will stop listening.  This story points out that taxpayers have paid for $130,000 in meals for Conservative staffers since 2010.  Who cares?  What kind of deadbeat employer doesn't pick up the tab for employee meals at specific work events?  $7000 for pizza for 330 people during a professional development event?  So...$21 per person?  Who cares.  This is not the sort of thing we should be worried about.  More Conservative lunch expenses, this set directly linked to the Prime Minister.

Their analysis makes almost no sense...and they were kind of dicks when I asked for clarification...But Ross Kay Consultants lays out how the MLS double counts home sales and how badly it distorts sales numbers.  Over 10% of "sales" disappear.

There seems to be some agreement between the Feds and the Provinces about the Canada Job Grant plan.  Nobody seems too sure what it is though.

I've been thinking a similar train of thought to this story over the last few days.  It comes from the question "Will NHL owners allow NHL players to compete in the next Olympics?"  It just seems absurd.  I understand that NHL owners are paying NHL players obscene amounts of money to play hockey for their team.  But the statement seems to imply some kind of ownership over the very being of the person/athlete.  It's strange to me.  Further to that, this Grantland article points out the near impossibility of athletes to protest much of anything due to their meager earnings and subservience to corporate sponsors.

An interesting Snowden/Greenwald article outlines how western intelligence agencies (the British GCHQ in this case) use dirty tricks to discredit political activists and protesters.  As somebody says somewhere, it's pretty scary that the full might of the government can arbitrarily decide that you're a bad apple and your life should be ruined.  Okay.  That's my paraphrase.

Blame the Chinese - Week 146 - Feb 10-17

Even the Conservatives don't think buying your way into Canada via an $800,000 loan is a good idea.  But what about Real Estate values!  Here's a story on how this program has already been suspended (as Garth Turner points out) for two years.  But of course, it's going to have a now immediate impact on real estate?  (hint...it might already be broken)

When everybody hates you, use your wife to win the next election.  I'll tell you what, Steve.  You let Laureen run in the next election in your place and you have my vote.  Isn't it bad form to hijack another parties convention, though?  Of course, a newspaper is up to no good if they publish secret documents that make a government/party look bad via their own actions.

I think this is beautiful.  Parliament is supposed to be a negotiation, not a heavy-handed attempt to jam through legislation.  The NDP has used one of the only tools in its arsenal - approval of committee travel - to fight back against the Conservatives elections bill.  Well done.  Of course, anything the Conservatives don't do is "anti-democratic".

This story outlines the gigantic, Con friendly loophole in election financing the Conservatives are trying to create.  In essence, anybody that donated even 20 dollars to a campaign is allowed to be contacted "free of charge" during an election campaign.  This is a large portion of what a campaign does (20-25%).  I guess this will free up dollars for more attack ads?

Remember when Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway blamed the conductor for not setting the brakes and causing the Lac Megantic disaster?  Turns out they had a prior 10 years worth of Transport Canada brake related violations.

Matt Taibbi does it again.  Just crawl off into the woods and die because there's no point in trying anymore.  Here he outlines how investment banks have bought up commodities firms and are using them to manipulate prices and drive up costs.  Just way too complicated to explain.  Go read.

Just to drive home the point of how bad Justin Trudeau is and how he wants to give all the kids pot...Hey!  Federal anti-pot advertising money!

Of course...the budget.  Jim Flaherty isn't actually going to introduce income splitting.  And there's not much for anyone, except for a massive jump in seniors benefits.  Most of the budget is just vague promises with little detail.  Such as random cuts to "military procurement".  The Conservatives love the military so much that the Snowbirds have to miss shows due to not enough training time.

Kevin Pages suggests the Conservatives efforts to "balance the budget" and cut spending have hampered Canada's economic growth, jobs, etc.

Canada's spy watchdog doesn't think CSEC has done anything wrong in collecting Canadians data and tracking them.

 Quebec really is different, isn't it?  The CEO of Canada's Bridge Corporation (a government entity) is accused of taking $1.5 Million in kickbacks from SNC Lavalin for a bridge repair contract.  But don't worry.  The swiss bank account that he opened and that all the money was deposited in was for his sister-in-law.

I wish I could blame Jason Kenney for this, but I can't.  I guess I can blame his parents for raising dick children?  Anyhow, people are suing Jason Kenney's brother over his nightmare treatment facility.  He sounds like a real asshole.

Here, our good buddy Jason points to the fence and promises good jobs for Canadians.

Rex Murphy is an oilsands cheerleader.

What?  Hunting Polar Bears is unregulated?

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.

Just Warming Up - Week 126 - Sept 23-30

Thank goodness nobody posts any comments here.  Popular Science is taking away comments on news stories because it's been proven, scientifically, that assholes in the comments section really do ruin it for everybody.

Oh man.  What a jag-off.  I'll bet Dean Del Mastro is regretting all of his "poor me...either charge me or let me go" speeches.  Well.  He's been charged.  Let's celebrate with a photo.

The Harper Fanboys at the NP think it's great that he isn't addressing the UN.  "Harper takes a pass on UN blowhard opportunity"  Like Stephen Harper has ever passed up an opportunity to blowhard.  And yes.  Let's celebrate our lack of participation in the International Community.

Yeah.  We're fucked.  Just thinking about the premise that fighting global warming will cost too much.  How much has the US spent on "Homeland Security" in the last 10-12 years?

I love this:
Harper - "When it comes to Keystone XL, we won't take no for an answer!"
Obama - "No."
Harper - "Well okay then!"

Thomas Mulcair has officially announced his intentions to include election reform in the next NDP platform.  Huh.  Perhaps this will become his ask when Trudeau approaches him to form a coalition?

A trio of Tyee articles.  A bit more on the bitumen leaks in Alberta that nobody knows what to do about.  Some speculation that the Canada Job Grant will be a spectacular failure.  And a postulation that Vancouver's housing situation is worse than the numbers indicate.

The RCMP will be investigating Pamela Wallin.

Want to feel worse about how you relate to capitalism?  Well, it's actually just computers initiating trades and fortunes won or lost based on a millisecond or two.

This is a news story?  New Brunswick sees its population drop by 1000?  I could see if that was all caused by some sort of food borne illness, that might be a story.  But that doesn't seem to be the case.

Two stories that struck a similar, kind-of-awesome, vein.  First, Russell Brand makes fun of Hugo Boss (well, points out their past links to the Nazis) while receiving some kind of ridiculous GQ award, and is then thrown out of said awards show.  Next, Godspeed You! Black Emperor...I don't even know...just kind of point out how stupid music awards are, shortly after receiving the Polaris Music Award.  And from a while back...this story actually made me want to hang up my writing hat.  In this stirring tribute to Margaret Thatcher, Russell Brand creates and discards a better idea for a movie than I will ever have.  Sorry.  The Hugo Boss story just reminded me of this.

When I first read about the AIG chief talking about "lynch mobs" and everybody getting upset, I started thinking that perhaps we need to cut him some slack.  Although it may be insensitive to the plight of other, "lynch mob" is a relatively common phrase and using it doesn't necessarily suggest that you're diminishing horrendous things that happened in the South.  But then I read his actual quote.  Man.  What a fuckin' idiot.  "was intended to stir public anger, to get everybody out there with their pitch forks and their hangman nooses, and all that -- sort of like what we did in the Deep South . And I think it was just as bad and just as wrong,"

Another "go kill yourself article".  In this one, big pharma keeps the meth epidemic alive by squashing any attempt to legislate tighter controls on pseudoephedrine.

I've always enjoyed Steve Albini's rants and ravings.  This one (a letter to Nirvana about recording In Utero) is just absolutely fabulous.  Just the antithesis of greed.  Amazing.  And Steve Albini made an unused recording of In on the Kill Taker for Fugazi?  The things you learn on the Internet.

Bored Stiff - Week 121 - Aug 19-26

I've got to admit something, folks.  I'm just bored stiff doing this.  Every week.  Just the same sad stuff.  Anyhow.  Here goes.

Blowback!  Trudeau the pothead has really inspired the Conservatives.  Says Peter McKay: "By flouting the laws of Canada while holding elected office, he shows he is a poor example for all Canadians, particularly young ones. Justin Trudeau is simply not the kind of leader our country needs."  I guess drunk driving is okay?  Embezzlement of public funds?  Ignoring Canada's election laws?  All this is fine, but smoking pot is unforgivable?  Fuck these guys.  I love how there are commenters blasting him for breaking the law, and at the same time blasting him for only admitting this to win votes.

Don't get me wrong...I love Quebec.  It just seems like there are a band of idiots running the place that are ruining it for all.  "Special treatment for us, fuck all the rest of you."

This is a really weird story.  But two questions come to mind...why are Stephen Harper's security agents enforcing who and who can't talk at a press conference?  And this whole language around "allowed to ask a question"?

Stephen Harper...Putin junior with his ridiculous military photo ops.  The shirt is probably coming off soon.

Jim Flaherty thinks the Real Estate market is fine.  Marked down and noted...August 21st, 2013.

It's a prorogue!

I thought it would be a short one - Week 112 - June 17-24

But no.  The stories just keep piling up.


This doesn't surprise me.  But it's still interesting to see some of the behind-the-scenes action as the Harper Government slowly turns itself into the marketing arm of large oil companies.  I understand that Governments are, by definition, supposed to set the strategy for a country.  But there's something very wag-the-dog about this.  Deciding on something and then using PR tactics to vilify opponents and change public opinion?  Shouldn't they be acting on the public opinion that is already there?

Certain people are questioning why the Prime Minister is launching attacks on Justin Trudeau using his taxpayer funded office.  There's a certain irony in using criticizable tactics to criticize your opponents.  The Tyee expands on this and shows the crazy extent to which the PMO's office is involved in political slagging and partisan story creation.  Taxpayer funded PMO's office.

The Tyee lays out the depressing story of Canada's submarines.  Why are we so incapable of buying military hardware?

Conservative Senators don't like Stephen Harper's union finances law.  It's taking some work to get them to vote for it.  I had never thought about it much before, but one of them mentioned the double standard of pursuing this but not pursuing doctors, lawyers and engineers professional organizations.

The RCMP investigation in to the Mike Duffy payment seems poised to unleash a shitstorm of awesome as records for nearly a dozen Conservative candidates have been seized.

Man.  How meta is this?  Dean Del Mastro called out Elections Canada and a witness against him for "sullying his good name" last week.  So the witness speaks out this week about the "sullying of his good name."  It is pretty chickenshit for Del Mastro to use his speech protected parliamentary privilege to suggest a witness is lying.  Or, as phrased in the CBC story, "a privilege to slander".

Another reason to hate the Census.  New data points out that 40% of native children live in poverty.

The biggest thing for me about building new pipelines, is that the companies looking to build these new pipelines do a terrible job of managing their existing pipelines.  The Tyee points this out that this is how it works in Alberta as well.


Sounds like Shelly Glover has caved in to Elections Canada expense demands.  Was this really all it took to get them off her back?

It seems sad that defeating a frivolous bill to strip the citizenship from "terrorists" is something to really celebrate.

I will admit that it seems pretty stupid for a sitting MP to collect speaking fees from a charity.  Perhaps some fees to cover travel expenses?  But $20,000?  From a charity (I'll admit, they do seem to be a pretty terrible charity).  And paying the money back once there is an uproar seems like a pretty disingenuous move.  This article outlines many of the bizarre allowances for MP's and Senators to earn extra income.The charity that requested money back from Trudeau is concerned that they created a giant political mess.

Oh Senate!  So, somebody thought it would be a good idea to bring in a bunch of high paid motivational speakers to boost the low Senate morale due to all of their expense scandals.  Gotta spend money to spend money, I guess.

Canadian Real Estate professionals are insisting that all is well with Canadian Real Estate.  Not sure which statistic they're using this time around.

I have a personal theory that no male children are born any longer.  It's all females.  Turns out that there might be something to this.

Things fall apart - Week 110 - June 3-10

 So.  How does one refuse to give a breathalyzer sample, and then get found not guilty of refusing to give a breathalyzer sample?  Peter Goldring must have had some good lawyers.  Stephen Harper is "happy to welcome him back."

A Conservative backbencher has quit the caucus and will sit as an independent.  Why?  Well, they gutted his civil servant salary transparency bill.  I love that his idea of an "open and transparent" government rests on knowing salaries of senior civil servants.  His team didn't follow with him.

Two other Conservative MP's are in trouble for improperly filing their election expenses.  Elections Canada says they over spent (Obviously, they think it's Elections Canada's fault).  And the speaker seems to be making it up as he goes along.

There is something delightfully odd about Conservatives picketing a Justin Trudeau announcement on Parliamentary expenses.  Anyhow...Justin Trudeau promises that Liberal Parliamentarians will post their expenses online for everybody to see.  And the "Young" Conservatives picketed the announcement and suggested he "loves the status quo".

This is what happens when you draw attention to yourself.  Not only was Mike Duffy stealing taxpayer money...he was doing a terrible job at the same time.  Missing half of his Senate Committee meetings.

The Conservatives insist that the Mike Duffy payment didn't come from a Nigel Wright controlled slush fund.  Here's my wild-ass guess - Nigel Wright paid Mike Duffy with his own money...and then the slush fund paid him back.  In fact, they are claiming that there is no secret account to pay for expenses.  Well...there is an account...it's just not secret.

What the fuck?  Pamela Wallin continues to pull fat bank while sitting on the Board of Directors for many, many companies?  Oh well.  Her corporate filings reveal that she is not a resident of Saskatchewan and   shouldn't be a Senator.  And she resigned from one of her Board of Directors gigs.

A Liberal MP is pushing a bill that would mandate party leaders endorse attack ads that they create.  I think this is a tremendous idea.

Psh.  Real Estate is fine.  Buy, buy, buy.  Don't listen to the OECD when they say Real Estate in Canada is over-valued by 30-60% based on income and rents.  Those guys are biased!  Unlike our banks and real estate boards.  And Federal Government.

The Conservatives are going to make it more difficult to open up safe injection sites.  Seeing as it's been near impossible to open one up in the last few years, I wouldn't expect a rush on getting these opened in the next few years.  Hey!  Shut up, hippie!  Government regulation is only bad when it does things I don't like.

65+ countries signed a UN treaty in an attempt to limit the flow of cross-border arms sales.  Canada did not.

Once again, the Conservatives are not cooperating with the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

Thank-you Quebec Soccer Federation for making Canada seem like a bunch of bigoted imbeciles.  Oh, turbans and other headgear are not allowed due to "safety"?  Yes, fabric on heads has been known to cause serious injury.  This is not going to help people like you, Quebec.  Special rules for you, no consideration for the needs of others.

This Tyee article comes to a similar conclusion to the one I made a few weeks ago: Alberta doesn't charge much money in tax on Oil Sands producers.