Election Round-up #7 - Aug 25-31

Conservative candidates have been told not to talk to the media or attend debates during the election campaign.

My comment was going to be "hopefully we respond better than the US government to killing Iraqi civilians."  But seeing as it happened in January and we covered it up until now, that isn't likely.  And Jason Kenney claims nobody told him about it (but they did tell Rob Nicholson).

I don't remember this story.  But it's reared it's head again.  First off, Leona Aglukkaq approved a plan for Shell that allows them 21 days to cap any leaks in their underwater drilling systems.  Worry not though, it still needs final approval...from a board with an ex-Shell member on the panel.

Where did all the props for the background come?  A crane.  Dozens of people in matching high viz vests and hardhats.  Probably a dancing bear.  Justin Trudeau announces infrastructure spending based deficits.

Manufacturing is not recovering with the decline of the loonie.  It's weird that massive factories don't spring up immediately as the dollar drops.

The Duffy trial moves in to semantics.  What exactly did PMO aide Chris Woodcock mean when he said they had to "force" Mike Duffy into accepting their repayment scheme?  I'm starting to feel like the Duffman is going to skate on all of this.

A PMO staffer was seen talking to a witness at the Duffy trial.  Purely innocent conversation though, the Conservatives tell us.

Some more details have emerged about the Saudi Arms Deal.  It only happened if Canada promised to not say anything about it.

Fracking caused an earthquake in Northern BC.  How dare you question this magical technology though.

Fly at it, you fucking imbecile.  Scott Walker thinks the US should build a wall between itself and Canada.  Also wonders why everybody was so down on the Maginot Line.

You'd think Patrick Brazeau would just be happy that nobody has arrested him lately.  But no.  He's speaking out.  Against Harper, mind you.

When you have to rely on Chilean ships for your Navy to function, it feels like it is hard to claim that you're great at supporting your military.

It's hard to fault somebody like Elon Musk for his success.  But Stephen Colbert hosting CEO's on his talk show?  On one hand it's great to celebrate people for not just being good at acting.  On the other, this feels like it could be a giant CEO ego inflation used to push for even higher CEO salaries.

Shortest Week Ever - Week 222 - July 22-27

Steve loses another court case.  His "safe country" list for refugees just didn't work out.

Rob Nicholson wants "3 terrorism-related statements" spun every week for him to grandstand on. 

Macleans points out the opportunism of Stephen Harper giving up on the Senate a few months before an election.

This article rips government policy a new one with respect to Vancouver Real Estate prices.

Eve Adams did not win her nomination.

Job quality ratings are at a 25 year low.

I feel like there hasn't been much news about the Nexen pipeline spill.

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. 

Tonnes of stuff - Week 201 & 202 - Mar 2-16

Stepping away from a computer for a few weeks is illuminating.  You come back, and the same people are talking about the exact same things.  And the majority of people don't care at all.  I was out at trivia the other night, and a question came up about Bill C-51.  The question being, "A recent anti-terror bill has been announced.  The name of that bill is Bill C *blank*."  Please name the bill.  And people were shocked when I got it!  Like...what the fuck?

Onwards we roll.

Ha ha ha.  Refugees are claiming more Canadian income than millionaire, line jumping, investor immigrants.

Another oil train derailment.  And no, this is no an argument for pipelines.  This is an argument for rail safety.

Brian Williams gets some stories wrong 15 years ago.  Total shitstorm.  Canadian government makes up confrontations in the Black Sea with Russia.  Nothing.  Jason Kenney said the Russian jets "buzzed" the Canadian frigate..  NATO officials say it was 128 kilometers away.  He's also a bit confused about viral images on the Internet though, too.

More TFW awfulness.  Facebook, who are supposedly in Vancouver because of all of our computer talent, ended up hiring a bunch of TFW's to fill Software Engineer positions.  So, it seems like their office here is really just about skirting US labour law.  Ant the Parliamentary Budget Officer suggests that there is no accurate information on TFW's, that the numbers have gone up substantially and we really have no idea what this means for Canadian workers.

And then...fuck...and then...a Conservative MP says it makes no sense to pay "whities" to stay home while giving their jobs to "brown people".  This has somehow not generated a massive controversy.

A Canadian soldier has been killed...but we're somehow still not in a combat mission in Iraq.

For some reason, a bunch of white dudes hell bent on creating race war aren't as scary as Muslim terrorists.  CSIS internally highlights the threat of white supremacists over Muslim terrorism, but that's not what we end up hearing about, is it?  Meanwhile, Conservatives are definitely trying to stoke up fear of Muslims, doing lots of work publicizing threats by terrorists (and perhaps violating their own law in the process?).  And another MP is creating some "with us or against us" type rhetoric in his mailouts.

Michael Geist talks Bill C-51.  Surprisingly, not a fan.

Trudeau admits that they're supporting C-51 so that the Cons won't yell at them.  This is pretty terrible.

Even Christy thinks C-51 might be a bad idea.  But she's more of a "give money to corporations" kind of Conservative than a "control your citizens" kind of Conservative.

Our Privacy Watchdog won't be allowed to speak during the C-51 hearings.  Because it's about terror, not privacy, right?  I guess they already know he's not a fan.

The former Security Information Review Committee chair suggests we're in for a Constitutional mess with C-51.

A Conservative MP ignores the facts during a C-51 hearing, throws out a lot of general Muslim fear mongering and guilt by (perhaps non-existent) association.

Meanwhile, 300 criminal investigations have been sidetracked by terror investigations, according to the RCMP.

We're going to have police guard the soldiers at the National War Memorial.  But who is going to guard them?

We're letting FBI agents testify under pseudonyms in terror trials.

Our good buddy Vic Toews is back in the news.  He's been accused of inappropriately lobbying, and his wife may have received a huge chunk of money from a First Nation in the deal as well.

Another Conservative Minister, Diane Finley, committed a conflict of interest, awarding her own riding $1 Million in funding that she shouldn't have.  Brazeau suggests she's been up to other things too, pulling funding from ridings after NDP wins.

Stephen Harper thinks that guns in the hands of citizens play an important role in keeping people safe in rural communities.  Because....well...just because.

Maclean's looked at the potential impact on greenhouse gas reduction policies on Oil Sands profitability.  Surprisingly...the impact would be fairly low.  Meanwhile, Obama hasn't bought in to the Oil Sands greenwashing.

Several people have pointed out that forcing women to not wear a niqab is hardly a form of liberation.  And then he runs around claiming he has the support of moderate muslims?  Based on?  And he claims the overwhelming majority are with him too.

After years of battling it, the Cons are going to provide a bit more support for disabled veterans, just in time for the eleciton!

Conservative MP thinks he's a member of the tea party.  Argues against the "theory of evolution" with the time worn "It's just a theory" argument.

We're cutting funding to a program to treat sex criminals and prevent them from re-offending.  Because somehow, cutting off your sexual predator to spite your citizens makes sense.

The Mike Duffy trial witness list is pretty juicy.

Pamela Wallin's expenses are going to receive even more scrutiny.

It's a Milestone! - Week 200 - Feb 23 - Mar 2

200 weeks!  Holy shit!  I mean, I've probably gotten my math wrong somewhere along the way, but it all sounds impressive.  I can't wait for the next election.  So I can stop having to do this shit.

An MP admits that omnibus bills are so large, they seldom have any clue what is in them.

Law professors.  What do they know about such things?  100 academics speak out against Bill C-51.

The Cons aren't really interested in hearing from experts before voting on C-51.  I see their point.  I mean, if you have your mind made up already, why bother with more than a couple of days of listening to experts?

Some documents have been released showing that our Security apparatuses were on "high alert" prior to the October attacks.  But weren't able to do anything.  And wouldn't have been able to do anything with their new powers.

Steven Blaney insists that families know all about their radicalized children and their beliefs before they head oversees.  Except for all those times when they have no idea.

FactsCan is checking up on some of the statements Conservatives are saying to get C-51 passed:

Daryl Kramp: “You have to commit a criminal offence” to fall within the scope of C-51 powers - False

Jason Kenney: “Bill C-51 does not add new powers to CSIS, it adds new powers to our independent judiciary, to the courts, to judges.” - False

This sounds ominous and terrible but it's sort of one of those "What did you think they were doing?" kinds of things.  CSE monitors visits to government websites and e-mails to government.

Some details on the RCMP treating environmentalists as criminals.

We're really taking this terror think a little too far.  Somebody built a giant hole!  Kind of near a stadium!  It's just a hole...but it could be more than a hole!  It could be a terror hole.  Or just a hole that some 20 year olds built because they were bored and wanted somewhere to hang out.  Can you imagine if they hadn't of been white guys?

A nice article on election reform and proportional representation.

Elections Act changes are finally being challenged in court.

This is a few years old, but gained traction on boingboing.  Anyhow, a man exhaustively details Conservative cuts and attacks on science.

The Cons are scrambling to figure out a way to appear to be helping Veterans.

We paid for a bunch of Conservatives to fight allegations of voting fraud.

The Conservatives have added some trans-phobic language to a bill designed to give Trans-gendered people more rights.

These fucking children.  Our Natural Resources Minister sticks his tongue out at Liberals in the House.

Oh boy.  The reasoning the Cons are giving for no National inquiry into missing aboriginal women?  They're just all victims of domestic violence.  Yikes.

More Coast Guard closures will hit British Columbia.

The Cons, those pillars of public communication, are thinking that maybe they should have a whole pile of debates for this upcoming election so that they can try to embarrass Trudeau.

Finally.  Inside the mind of Stephen Harper, thanks to an exclusive interview in the Costco Connection, conducted by the hard hitting editor of that well respected rag.

Chicken Hawk Steve is working hard to deport American deserters back to the US.

SNC Lavelin is turning into a smear on our entire country.  The World Bank highlights all it's corrupt subsidiaries, and it's a huge chunk of their "corrupt companies" list.

Student loans are a hot topic in BC.  First, the Advanced Education Minister conducted an interview where he made up some numbers about student loan rates.  Nobody cared.  Next, the BC Government is proposing to not issue you a drivers license if you have unpaid student loans.

The transit referendum in BC is making me very nervous.  It shows just how easy it is to torpedo an idea with a bit of fear mongering.  That's not to say that criticism of Translink is not valid...but to torpedo public transit in Vancouver over CEO salaries?  It reminds me of how election reform was torpedoed...and the HST was torpedoed...basically, if you want a policy to not be enacted, put it to a public vote.

Translink Transit Police are no longer going to phone the CBSA on illegal immigrants.

I think I might start highlighting one story every week that contains the most clueless comments.  This week "Calgary students disciplined for wearing KKK robes" - shit...let's take this further.  Let's highlight one particularly ignorant comment.  Oreillia Hoover of Calgary Alberta:

Most White teenagers don't tend to have guns... Most White teenagers as a rule don't go out and shoot people just to see how it feels like or for bragging rites or to pass initiation in a gang...! I don't believe I've ever heard any comments regarding black youths in Calgary/Canada...! These teenagers ARE in Calgary...! 
You want me to keep going cause I could...! And please spare me your terms of endearment...!

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.

Big News! - Week 197 - Feb 2-9

This was a week when all of the stories are so big, there's almost no point in posting.  Yet...here we are.

Steve re-shuffles the deck in the wake of John Baird's departure.  An interesting article on how John Baird was a master of blowing smoke up peoples asses.

Eve Adams is now a Liberal.  Man.  This seems like bad news for everybody.

The Cons lose another court case.  The ban on wearing a niqab during a citizenship ceremony is struck down.  Fuck.  Can you believe that any of that was necessary.

This wasn't a law created by the Cons...but they certainly aren't happy about losing this case.  Supreme Court to allow limited physician assisted suicide.

The Liberal MP loses his bid to re-instate the long form census.  Here's some details, not that it matters.

A disproportionate amount of infrastructure funding for disabled access has gone to Conservative ridings.

A former soldier is asking why the government is giving details about the mission in Iraq.  Because details are what could jeopardize soldiers.  Not telling people the cost of the mission.

Who is in charge of Parliament Hill security seems to be a big political deal, somehow.

The Libs confirm that they will follow the Cons on anti-terror legislation.  And we've totally misunderstood.  We shouldn't worry about people getting swept up in terror accusations if they're just "teens messing around in the basement".  In Steve's world, those fuckers belong in jail!:
asked how to distinguish between teens messing around in their basements and someone who is radicalized, Harper said it would be a serious offence "no matter who you are."  "It doesn't matter what the age of the person is, or whether they're in a basement, or whether they're in a mosque or somewhere else," Harper said Friday in Richmond Hill, Ont.

Because he thinks all this terror shit will get him elected.  Worked for George Bush, I guess.

A BC businessman received a huge settlement after  having his business destroyed by a misguided "terror investigation".  Over two boxes worth of electronics.

Andrew Weaver wins a defamation suit against the clowns at the National Post.

And Trudeau announces some sort of plan on carbon reduction.  It might not be a great plan, or much of a plan yet.  But it's more than the Cons have given us.

This is just a nonsense article that is tough to follow.  Don't begrudge the 1% attaining half of all the wealth...people making $40,000 saw an increase of 3.9% over 4 years.  That's nearly a percent a year!  Fuck, hope Wal-Mart party supplies are on sale because we're going to celebrate the shit out of this.  With quotes from the Fraser Institute!Just a reminder.  The Fraser Institute receives huge amounts of funds from pro-oil billionaires from the US.  Foreign Radicals indeed.

Wow.  Rich.  Harper suggests that Trudeau has it in for the military.  I guess if you think that committing the country to wars where soldiers can go off and get killed and then cutting support for veterans is "pro military", than yes, he may be right.

What a fucking mess.  The Feds allow some TFW's to stay in Alberta, because they might be on track to stay anyhow, but the rules are so convoluted it probably won't help anybody anyhow.

The NDP is going to have to pay back $2.75 Million in salaries due to the satellite offices controversy.  Yikes.

BC raw log exports have increased dramatically under the Liberals.  From 200,000 cubic meters in 1997 to 6.5 Million in 2013.  Much of that jump coming from 2009-2013.  There's really no justification for this.

Copyright has been for life of author, plus 50 years.  That's been wholly and totally adequate.  Except all the pouting entertainment companies are demanding an extension to cover a handful of their franchises.  So now it's life + 70.  Fuck these people.  Why do we need to keep changing laws to support their business model?

Fuck.  Alberta.  You don't want a sales tax.  And corporate taxes are off the table.  What are you going to do?  I love it though.  "If we charge taxes to all of these oil companies, they'll take their business elsewhere."  Because oil is an incredibly mobile resource.  I drink your milkshake?

These are the stories that get me up in the morning.  "MacKay once backed intelligence oversight now rejected by Tories"

I didn't read the full story, but I'm extremely troubled by this.  A lady in her mid 30's attacked a pipeline worker in Alberta.  But how was she radicalized?  I mean, she's a terrorist, right?

The Port Metro truck driver dispute is a total shitshow.  Drivers strike because they're paid shit and have to wait for hours and hours (unpaid).  Well fuck you then.  We'll just create a new licensing system that puts a whole bunch of you out of business.  In the name of "fairness".

Trapped in the Closet - Week 183 - Oct 27 - Nov 3

Stephen Harper feels bad that he hid in the closet.  I actually don't blame him for that.  

We're officially arguing over the semantics of the word "terrorism".  Mulcair thinks that because the man was mentally ill, it might not be terrorism.  Russell Brand points out that when a white guy shoots 3 cops, that's not terrorism.  Which makes me a bit sad.  This isn't even his country.  How does he come up with these amazingly relevant things to say?

The Information and Privacy Commissioners are encouraging us to not over-react with draconian laws in the wake of last weeks incidents.

I love that we're using domestic attacks by Canadian citizens who never left the country to justify a global spying enterprise.  Among other things.

I always root for the underdog.  I have no idea why.  I can't remember the last time that a team that I cheered for won a major championship.  Hell, half the time I'll switch allegiances if my underdog team starts winning.  So,today we'll talk about Dean Del Mastro.  Don't get me wrong, this man deserves no sympathy.  But I can't help but feel a bit sorry for him as all his buddies skitter away and leave him holding the bag.  How does Steve not get tarnished by all the buffoons that he has surrounded himself with?

How badly does the RCMP suck?  In Stephen Harper's Canada, the RCMP thinks that environmentalists are a greater threat than "religiously inspired terrorists".  That must have been some argument, trying to sort out which Boogieman is scarier.  As well, the RCMP have kept no records of their warrantless requests to snoop on Canadians, so have no idea how often it happened or if it breached privacy.  Lastly, it looks like up to 4 RCMP officers slept with witnesses over the course of the Surrey Six investigation and trial, throwing the verdict into question.  Four!

Canada won't be granting visas to people from "Ebola ridden countries".  Many people point out that this won't stop the disease from spreading.

Because it's nearly impossible to achieve one legally, women in New Brunswick are inducing their own abortions.

We don't have the budget to build all the arctic ships we are expecting to.

Income Tax Splitting could be really, really messy.  A dream for accountants.  We know that income splitting favours people that have high incomes.  So limiting the tax credit to $2000 is a step in the right direction.  But why is it limited to people with kids?

This is really embarrassing.  We've started photoshopping logos onto the Canadarm.

The overall best selling car.  In all of Norway.  Is the Tesla Model S.  Some people point out that it is hypocritical of Norway to make buying a Tesla cheap through funding provided by their Oil industry.  But I think that's awesome.  If Canada decided to jack oil and gas royalties and use it to fund clean energy programs, that would be a good thing, no?

An opposition Commander in Syria points out that 6 fighter jets isn't going to accomplish much against ISIS.  Biased opinion?  Sure.  Mysterious source?  Of course.

You know who doesn't have confusion about whether or not to buy in to an overly expensive, unproven fighter jet program?  Russia.  That's who.

Buried way, way in the back of an already long bill are some provisions to control working conditions within the CBC.

Hooray for Canada?  A student staged a fake act of racism and filmed it as a social experiment.  Somebody sucker punched the fake racist.  Somebody else pointed out that Islam isn't a race.

It's official.  Communication from Revenue Canada makes no sense.

This is a really great cartoon that explains Obamacare and what is wrong with US Healthcare.

Every once in a while, an issue comes along that is so confusing, you're not even sure which side you are on.  #Gamergate is just such a thing.  If you use that hashtag are you a sexist?  Against sexism?  What if you're criticizing #Gamergate?  Are you allowed to use the hashtag then?  Who the fuck knows.  Anyhow, this post is beautiful.  Not just for #Gamergate, for life.  Read it.

Terrorists Win - Week 182 - Oct 20-27

It's been an interesting week.  Of course, everything has been over-shadowed by the most Canadian of terrorist attacks.  A French Canadian turned West Coaster turned Muslim attacked a War Memorial and Parliament with a rifle before being stopped by a retired gentleman.  I don't want to diminish the seriousness of this.  It is indeed a terrible event.  A soldier is dead (a soldier in place to prevent teenagers from spray painting a war memorial) and, well, two soldiers are dead, but one of them has already been largely forgotten.

But there's been a lot of "this changes everything!" going on.  I will admit that this does suggest we need better security at Parliament Hill.  Guards with guns, perhaps.  But if one crazed lunatic with a gun and one crazed lunatic with a car "changes everything" ...man, we're in trouble.

The response has been muted a bit more than I expected.  There's the right mix of discussion about "increased security" and "not caving in to terror".  But some of the first words out of Stephen Harper's mouth were about giving law enforcement more tools to do their job.  What does that mean, exactly?  Do we really need more surveillance?  Worse?  The hit and run terrorist was already being watched.  And the Parliament Hill terrorist had been denied a passport and was on somebodies radar.  Is "more tools" the answer to not doing a very good with the tools that we currently have?  "Making it illegal to condone terrorism online" certainly isn't a step we should be taking.  What does that even mean?

As well, we have this.  The PM got shoved in a closet and MP's were wielding flagpoles as spears.  And are keeping the spears as trophies.

CBC actually has this as an "Exclusive!".  The Parliament Hill shooter used a piece of junk mail as a license plate.  Conservatives set to announce new legislation seeking enhanced penalties for using junk mail as a license plate.

The Cons have decided that now isn't the right time to unveil legislation to make it easier to buy a gun.

This was written before the attack on Parliament hill.  Greenwald points out that we've been at war for 12 years and shouldn't be surprised that there are repercussions.

Of course, all of this is somewhat related to our "taking it to ISIS".  This Tyee article points out that most of the wars and/or saber rattling that we've completed over the last 10 years has been a disaster (Libya. Afghanistan. Ukraine).  Trudeau thinks it's Stephen Harper's ego that is the cause of our mission.

This is fairly damning.  Canada is ranked last of OECD Nations - 58th overall! - in dealing with climate change.  We beat Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia though!

A pretty fascinating interview with Pierre Polievre on partisanship.  It would be similar to interviewing Gretzky about scoring goals.  If Gretzky was a bit delusional and had insane ideas on how to score goals and painted himself as a non goal scorer.

I'm not super excited about the Christy Clark plan for LNG.  Accepting a pittance from multinationals making billions off of our resource seems like a terrible plan.

Home mail delivery for 74,000 addresses stopped this week.

The Conservatives have a new batch of out-of-context quotes/attack ads.

Great news!  Another Quebec only political party.  That will sort things right out.

Somebody points out that we're putting more effort into silencing bird watchers than we are into catching tax cheats.  This is a good point.

The Cons commissioned a "health report" on the effects of Marijuana.  It's fairly one sided.

There's another nomination skirmish over an easy Conservative seat.  In this one, the battle is against one guy selling Conservative party memberships out of his fathers Canadian Tire, and another guy who lives far, far away from the riding.

A story summarizing all of the companies that have recently pulled out of the Oil Sands.

There were warnings that our ability to deal with stranded ships on the North Coast is terrible.

Kinder Morgan doesn't really get it.  Tries to prove First Nations don't actually eat all that much fish, so why should they be so concerned about an oil spill in the Fraser, right?

America!  Fuck Yeah!  The Koch Brothers have a new batch of dirty tricks.  Now, they're running pro-pot ads to entice liberals/Democrats to vote for a Libertarian candidate so that their Republican candidate can win.

Vic Toews! - Week 114 - July 2-8

Well...We won't have Vic Toews to kick around any more, as he announces his resignation (shortly before getting kicked out of cabinet?).

So a train full of crude oil derailed and levelled a town in Quebec, if you haven't heard.  Which has logically prompted some questions about our practices of hauling crude oil in trains.  At first, I was taking the position that it is easy to blame the government after a disaster, but that perhaps we shouldn't jump to conclusions.  But then on the CBC I heard a man from Greenpeace explaining the history of hauling oil on trains:  Train companies lobbying to use obsolete cars, self regulation, etc.  And ya, I think there might be some blame for the government here.

So now that the RCMP are digging in to things, a whole lot more information is coming out about Mike Duffy and Nigel Wright.  The party had originally agreed to make the payment?  And then decided not to?  And the PM didn't know?  Ya right.

The Conservative Senate Leader is stepping down.  And another MP is announcing that she won't seek re-election.  Rats from a sinking ship?  Polls suggest maybe so.

Peter Kent thinks his upcoming demotion is going to be awesome!

It seems like the majority of failed terrorist plots, especially in the US, reek of entrapment.  A disillusioned loaner is spurred along to act in a violent manner by a police informant.  They tend not to catch to not catch the ones with the ambition and ability to truly act on their own (see multiple school shootings, Boston bombing, etc.).  The bumbling idiots are encouraged and caught.  The scary ones follow through.  We've talked about this before.  So why is there so little information out there about the BC Legislature bombing?  Yes, it's only been a few days, but this Tyee article speculates that perhaps something like this is going on with this case.

More on the bombing suspects.  Sounds like there were a number of people who continually met with them leading up to the bombings.  But nobody else has been arrested.  Were they police?  How responsible were they for the actual plot planning?  How does a guy, described as broke and a bit slow by friends, pull this off?  I'm all for stopping terrorists.  I'm not for creating boogiemen to justify our state security apparatus.

Something about this really pisses me off.  Not only are you cutting funding to Environment Canada...but you're bringing in communications experts to provide advice?  This suggests that you know it's not the right thing (or at least the popular thing) to do.  Are they providing spin control as well?

Like a deadbeat parent, Patrick Brazeau is going to have his wages garnished to pay back his expenses.  Which sounds awesome, but when you think about it...essentially he's just getting a bit less taxpayer money to screw us over in the future.

Oh man...we're still talking about flood residents guns?  This is a story?  "Onus on law enforcement"?  Here's a new headline: "Idiots don't properly look after guns"