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".

Sick of This - Week 73 - Sept 17-24

Awesome.  Let's start the week by highlighting the $750,000 that Stephen Harper's government spent fighting disabled veterans over their pensions.

In further "Let's not worry about the law" news, a judge has struck down part of the Conservative's 2008 tough-on-crime legislation.

More on the dismemberment of the National Archives.  Who needs history or culture?  We've got England!

Will and Kate fever continues.  We're going to start sharing embassies with the British.  I guess we're hoping we get a few more invites to Harry's wedding?

And then let's highlight some of the dueling stories about the upcoming real estate meltdown.  The rest of the world seems to think we're kind of fucked while we bicker over the extent of the problem.

I don't think people truly understand what wealth discrepancy is.  Here it is.  The top 400 wealthy individuals in the US hold 1/8 of the wealth in the US.  Got that?  0.00016% of the US population controls 20% of the wealth.  Their wealth has grown 13% in the last year.  They don't need a tax cut.  They don't need loopholes.  They don't deserve a disproportionate voice in politics just because they can spend their opinion into prominence.

This is why we hate the Census!  Families are shrinking.  Not shrieking.

Gah!  Canada agrees with Stephen Harper?  We agree that the Iranian embassy should have been shut down?  Well.  I guess that proves Canadians don't know shit about International Relations.


If they're so eager to reform their own pensions, why don't they stick it in their next Omnibus?  In fact, why don't we just write all of the laws that we plan on passing in the next 20 years down on a piece of paper, sign that shit and just get this done?

Election Violation Beatdown - Week 58 - June 4-11

Too easy.  The Conservatives decide not to celebrate the birthday of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Hey!  Assholes!  Your pipeline is leaking into your river.  Spin this, Enbridge.

Vic Toews.  Man.  Vic Toews.  So, he gets absolutely beat down when he suggests a Canadian Internet surveillance bill.  So, what does he do?  He creates another piece of legislation and decides to allow the American Government to have unfettered access to Canadians information without a warrant.  What a guy.

So...after months of the robo-call scandal and after an election result is cast aside due to improprieties, how do the Conservatives respond?  With sketchy robo-calls that stretch the truth.

The "steady hand" of Stephen Harper is looking a bit shaky.  Jobs numbers have come way down.  And buried in the article is a note about a huge jump in the number of self-employed people.  Which kind of suggests something to me.

Remember those ads that used to come on every once in a while, about how proud we were about our UN peacekeeping participation?  Well, we now have 42 active peacekeepers (the UN says 33, but you can't trust those guys).

Stephen Harper has taken all of this "too big to fail" stuff to heart.  He'll probably still help out some banks and mega-corporations if they get in trouble, but he doesn't feel Europe is something that deserves attention or any of our money.

Wow.  This is really great.  Stephen Harper is announcing larger fines for tainted food producers.  Of course...there won't be any inspectors to catch anybody so we'll have to wait until people actually die.

Bob Mills, an ex-Conservative MP, is speaking out on some of the Conservative's environmental ideas.  But he can't be trusted because he's a part of the liberal global warming conspiracy.

I think we've found another reason why Stephen Harper hates the Census.  It proves that Conservative voters are old people.

Elections Canada is laying the boots to not just the Conservatives, as the NDP is forced to pay back some money to unions that paid for some events.  And I'm sure this will be used as justification for Dean Del Mastro overspending on his campaign.

This is why all of this Copyright stuff is BS.  This is why you can't trust the Hollywood and Recording Industry groups that are pleading poverty.  This is why it's ridiculous that the US calls Canada a "haven for piracy" at the behest of industry organizations.  Canadians buy tonnes and tonnes of online songs.  Third in the world.  And that's not per capita, that's real numbers.

Turns out the Canadian 1% isn't even all that rich.

Remember the guy that was "high on bath salts" that chewed the other guys face off?  This story suggests that might not actually have been true.  I have no idea if this is real though.  Good thing the Conservatives are on the case though and are going to get bath salts banned.

Remember the shitstorm that happened when that BC Conservative MP suggested that the budget was flawed?  Yet somehow a backbencher was able to introduce anti-abortion legislation to Parliament and Stephen Harper is "putting heavy pressure on members of the Conservative Caucus to vote it down"?  How did it get to this point if he's so against it?  He usually hauls guys that he doesn't agree with out behind a dumpster and kneecaps them.

This just sounds like a chance to pile on Peter McKay.  I'm not sure it's that big a deal.  But, they did spend $47,000 on AV equipment for their Fighter Jet press conference.  That's to rent AV equipment.  I'm pretty sure if you gave me $47,000 I could buy all of the equipment necessary to run a press conference.  So maybe it is fair to pile on Peter McKay for this.

A bunch of websites went dark in a protest against environmental regulation changes.  And a bunch of idiots went crazy making stupid comments about it on the Internet.

Here's a petition to stop the destruction of the National Archives.  I guess it's hard to re-write history with all of those troublesome documents and records hanging around.

The NDP is going to bring the filibuster to Canada, and is planning on holding up the budget bill.

Stay away from news article comment sections.  People out there are crazy.  Just look at this article about an EU "adviser" commenting on Canada's energy plan.  Crazy.

And then look at this story about the Fish Lake mine.  Apparently anybody who thinks we should look in to things a bit before we create a mine on top of a lake is a jobless hippie.

A Crazy Week - Week 57 - May 28 - June 4

 Doesn't this look like a guy who takes the opinions and ideas of other people seriously?

What a crazy week for Canada.  Honestly.  A male porn actor murders a man and ships his body parts to several political parties?  And he somehow escapes to France?  How does that happen?

This made my week.  The Globe and Mail celebrity editor/caption maker/guy inserted some political commentary into this weeks celebrity photos.

Thomas Mulcair seems to be bowing to the pressure.  I'm not sure how a tour of the Oil Sands could so drastically and instantly change your talking points.  Perhaps there were 4 burly men with pipes following him around on the tour?

Oh, and apparently the fact that Thomas Mulcair has a whole bunch of mortgages means that he can't run the country.  Honestly.  How does this matter?  It's not like he's a million dollars in debt.  It's a series of mortgages that add up to $300,000.  I think the fact that he qualified for 11 mortgages actually suggests that he has a pretty good credit rating.

This is why Copyright reform angers people.  Honestly.  You're going to charge people for playing music at their weddings?  And what I love, it costs you $9.25 if your wedding is less than 100 people.  It costs you $39.  It costs you double that if you allow people to dance.  And then, if you hold an event with 100,000 people, it only costs you $42.  No word on whether or not that doubles if some people get out of hand and decide to dance.   In other Copyright news...well...see my other post.

The Conservative jackasses once again tried to shift the focus from themselves on to others.  They pointed out that the NDP hired 1 or 2 failed candidates.  Compared to the 30+ Conservatives.

Sometimes at work, when I get behind, I decide that I'm just not going to do any of the work that was assigned to me more than a few weeks beforehand.  It seems like the Conservatives think this is a pretty good idea, and to clear the backlog of immigration applications, they're going to ignore all applications made before 2008.  Essentially punishing persistence and forward planning.

There was also some talk this week on the census results and what that means to Canada.  How the distribution of different age groups will have serious impacts on the Provinces.  You know, really interesting and important information that will help plan into the future.  Thank God Stephen Harper is doing something to get rid of this!

How do you defend shutting down a probe in to your own wrong-doing?  Wait.  Lets back up.  How come the Conservatives have the ability to shut down a probe into their own wrong-doing?   Even the National Post seemed to question this.

Our good buddy Vic Toews is back in the news.  I'm not even sure what he is saying here, but he is talking about RCMP inquiries.  Which caused me to do some research.  I had no idea that he impregnated the babysitter (allegedly) which lead to his divorce (allegedly).  How does this guy get voted in and then elevated to the level of Minister?  What kind of stuff is in the closets of the other guys?  And then he tops it all off by suggesting that if he had his magic internet spying bill would help find the Porn Actor Dismemberment Killer.  Way to use a tragedy for political gain.

I will admit that it is unsettling that the UN is doing anything with Robert Mugabe.  But the fact that John Baird is just totally making things up about his reason for pulling Canada out of specific UN organizations is just as unsettling.  He said that Robert Mugabe was named a "UN Ambassador".  He wasn't.  It doesn't seem that hard to not make things up.  And I will agree that there are problems with the UN.  But that doesn't mean we should ignore everything that every UN organization has to say.  Like when we point out that we've sent people off to be tortured.

Peter Kent never seemed like the sharpest knife in the drawer.  It's pretty amazing that he has become the Conservative climate change expert and actually seems to suggest that there might be something going on.  Well done, Peter Kent.  Well done.

Exxon defeated the Canadian Government in a NAFTA challenge.  Apparently we wanted too much environmental testing from them.  Which is totally unfair.

Some guy bought CBC Vancouver's record collection.  Yes, this seems worth the cost savings.

Meh.  Robocalls...proposed regulation...whatever.  Who can even keep track any more?

We talked about this last week but it is a done deal.  Stephen Harper sends CP Rail back to work.

Isn't it sad that the only thing politicians seem to be able to agree on is that it's too hard to buy Canadian wine?  And then they screw it up by jumping all over themselves trying to attach themselves to the feelgoodness of the story?

Laying Waste - Week 21 - Sept 19-26

It's the first week back in Parliament and Stephen Harper isn't even there.  He is busy in New York trying to prove that he is relevant on the international stage with his comments on Palestine.  He even earned a thank-you from Israel.

He also took some time to talk about the Keystone pipeline, and explained that it should be a "no brainer" for the US to approve it.  He's right.  Why wouldn't the US want a pipeline that magically gets filled with our raw, un-processed oil products?  Why would we agree to do this for them?  This is crazy, for so many reasons.  "Ethical Oil" and all that.  On a similar note, the Saudis are getting a little bit tired about the whole thing and the Canadian Government proves that they're nothing more than an industry mouthpiece.

First on the agenda, the Omnibus Crime Bill.  Stats Canada just revealed that our crime rates are the lowest that they've been since the 1970's.  Sounds like a good time to announce sweeping "fixes".  There's a good editorial here.

As well, the Tories have announced a $20-Million dollar contract (or $90,000 a day,as the Globe puts it) to "save money".  They didn't really follow standard government tendering protocols either.  Sometimes you have to spend money to save money...so I won't be too critical.

The former Chief Statistician comes out swinging over the decision to scrap the mandatory long form census.  Pssh.  Experts.  What do they know?  I mean...this guy probably only spent years in school and his entire career working on statistics and demographics, determining the best way to formulate a coherent picture of the make-up of our country so that we can best design government policy.  Why would his opinion matter?  More here and here.

Government waste doesn't count when it's your government doing the waste.  Apparently Peter Mackay used a search-and-rescue helicopter to fly home from a vacation at a remote fishing lodge.  But it's okay, because he was participating in a "search-and-rescue" demonstration.  A demonstration put together at the last minute.  At his request.  But he cut his vacation short because of it.  Oh...And a Challenger jet flight home on the same day.  I think Peter McKay is one of the better Conservatives out there...although it's kind of his fault we had the merger, isn't it?...it sounds like he had some support from military brass based on this link.  But it's still kind of stupid.

The Conservatives start to get serious on their talk about reducing/eliminating funding for the CBC.  I love that they go on Sun News to talk about it.

And speaking of dismantling...I don't really understand what the wheat board does.  I can wrap my head around the basics of why it might be desirable.  I can't for the life of me decide why somebody would put energy into getting rid of it.

The Final Quiet Week - Week 20 - Sept 12-19

It's kind of sad that it has taken this long for the Conservatives to "get down to business".  Week 21 will probably be a busy one.

Why is it always the Conservative politicians involved in sex scandals? (well, not always) And haven't they learned...never lie. You'll just get found out. Oh well. Harper, Baird and their buddy deserve what they get.  It's kind of ironic that one of Harper's only redeeming qualities (unflinching loyalty) could prove to cause him the most trouble.  China seems to be reading from the Stephen Harper playbook as well: Get angry at everybody else and deny that you've done anything wrong.  And then take your ball (person) home with you.

This is fairly direct evidence that "tough on crime" isn't that great of an idea.  And all you people upset that we haven't followed the UK's lead and immediately imprisoned all riot participants?  All those new prisoners has overwhelmed prisons and are leading to increased gang violence.  "Who cares if a bunch of prisoners beat up on each other?"  Well, they do have to leave prison at some point.  Your petty riot criminal is now a gang member with a taste for blood.  Like the seal on Arrested Development.

Just after September 11th is the perfect time to renew big brotheresque "anti-terror" laws and announce that, this time, they won't be going away.  There will be no sunset clauses in our next batch of police state laws.

It seems like the short form census participation was good.  But no word on the long form yet.  The short form is still mandatory, right?

Stampede of Ridiculousnous - Week 10 - July 4-11

We start this week with an "Oh my god! They're talking about us!" article from Salon. It talks about Canada's experience with the recession as a rebuttal to an incorrect (surprisingly!) statement made by Michelle Bachmann about our fantastic unemployment numbers even though we lacked a stimulus plan. And this really got me thinking. It's hard to argue against this article. It's an unbiased viewpoint of how our country weathered the recession. It's sober and honest and could probably only be written by somebody far removed from all the yelling and anger and, quite frankly, by somebody that doesn't care all that much about what is going on here.

So here's my new theory for fixing democracy. Rather than voting for our own government, we allow our neighbours to vote for our government. Washington State can vote on behalf of British Columbia. Montana or somebody else handles the prairies. New York can do Ontario. Or Michigan maybe? Maine handles the Maritimes. We could tell them what our problems are, show them who we have to pick from and they can calmly and rationally decide who would be best to fix it. It makes nothing but sense.

With that, we move on to broken campaign promises. The Conservatives are starting to indicate that user fees are about to rise in a number of areas. But it's okay. They didn't break the promise. They aren't raising user fees as part of the "Strategic and Operating Review Process". They're raising user fees because 13 completely different government departments have just all of a sudden decided that they need to be raised. See. Promise kept. You're all a bunch of idiots for even asking a question about this.

A new round of government job cuts are announced, but not necessarily campaigned upon.

A BC Native Band accuses the Conservative Government of holding up the treaty that they (the Conservatives) negotiated. Sorry. Awkward sentence.

Early reports on the non-mandatory long form census don't sound very positive. Interestingly, The Huffington Post has the exact same article. Word for word. Globe & Mail cites "The Canadian Press". Huffington Post cites...absolutely nobody.

I really have to break away from the Globe & Mail. Nobody else really has anything of substance to add though, over and above what they provide. But take a look at this article. It makes no sense. None at all. It seems to be complaining about a loan provided to a small donut maker to expand their business. It brings up past ralings against "corporations" receiving government loans and handouts. This is the example that you can come up with as a strory about "corporate welfare bums"? A small donut maker in New Brunswick? I realize that a headline like Stephen Harper's Conservatives to pony up $190,000 for doughnuts is supposed to grab some attention. But isn't that precisely the kind of small business expansion loan that everybody and their grandma has been encouraging for the last 400 years? Maybe do a story on the massive tax breaks for Oil Companies? Banks? Etc? It's not even coherent in it's wrongness.

And this article...well...this is why people think Stephen Harper is a dick. He heads out to Alberta. He says stupid things to his rabid base of Conservatives. But it doesn't really matter because nobody really pays much attention. Except other politicians. And they just get all angry and sad.

Jason Kenney complains about the entrepreneurs immigration system being broken and of having "huge backlogs that we inherited." Well Mr. Kenney...you've had a few years to get that sorted out, haven't you?

If/When the long gun registry gets scrapped, the Conservatives have vowed to not offer any help to Provincial governments looking to create their own plan. They won't even turn over their records. Seeing as, if memory serves me correctly, one of the prime Conservative problems with the whole thing was the cost...why wouldn't they help a Provincial Government save some money in setting up their own registry? Their "re-purposing" and "privacy concerns" argument is a bit weak.

It's Really Happening - Week 5 - May 30-June6

This really makes me angry. One of Stephen Harper's top campaign managers just made a speech claiming the Conservatives won the election because they spoke directly to the average Canadians and didn't pander to the "elites". Hey, I guess if it works for Sarah Palin... Why bother with all that policy and question-answering nonsense? He also blames Michael Ignatieff for not responding well to all of their attack ads. "His failure to define himself was his choice." So, roughly "Sure, I guess it's my fault that I shot you in the face, but you didn't do a very good job of going to the hospital to get it fixed."

As well, we have the Conservatives dropping hints of new things to come out of their next policy convention. We'll have the Omar Kadhr Rule, whereby you'll lose your citizenship if you're accused of high treason. How will that work? Seems like a bit of a catch-22 if the government that you hope will support you in your defense walks away before you can formulate a defense. As well, rumblings about explicit rejection of euthanasia and a "severe crackdown" on prostitution, in order to "declare that human beings are not objects to be enslaved, bought and sold." Ya, forcing prostitution further underground is going to dramatically improve things for those that are enslaved. And why are the religious right so concerned about somebody ending their own pain and suffering?

Moving along, Chuck Strahl pen's a ridiculous piece of tripe posing as "advice to my son, the new MP". I guess the Globe and Mail is hard up for content. Let's read between the lines:
"you made a decision to run for office" - I retired after getting my full pension so that you could have an easy seat while the getting was good
"charted a course" - did exactly what I did
"worked hard" - avoided debates and towed the party line
"and got yourself elected" - because even a coat rack could have gotten itself elected as the Conservative candidate in this riding
And that's just the first sentence!


Building on that, the Conservatives are going to start adding seats in the areas where they are strongest. I'm all for distribution of Parliament seats based on where the population actually is, but I'd like to think that it is more scientific than this. As the article points out, there is already an automatic redistribution initiated by the census. So why is this required? Why would you make this announcement before seeing the results of the census? How can you make these decisions without having the most up-to-date information? It's pure speculation at this point. At least this explains the decision to scrap the mandatory long form census. Why bother if you're not going to use the information? On a side note, we completed our census form a few weeks back. I was kind of hoping to volunteer to fill out the long form census, as a form of protest. But we couldn't figure out a way to do that. I guess the only way to non-mandatorily participate is if you are non-mandatorily selected to voluntarily fill it out.

In support of last week, here's a link to a great Tyee article talking about Stephen Harper's international policy shortcomings. It touches on some points raised last week, but summarizes things far more coherently than I ever could.

Lastly, the Throne Speech happened. There were no real surprises...but most of those probably won't come out for a year or two. Say goodbye to the long-gun registry, vote subsidies and Canadian Wheat Board Monopolies (not sure if that is good or bad). Say hello to longer prison terms and harsher punishment, as well as "shared border security" with the US, Alright Canada! Way to pave your own way!

Worst of all...and honestly, this is one of my biggest problems with the Conservative Government...Copyright Reform. US Copyright Reform is a failure. We are letting the same companies that pushed that crap on the US write our legislation. Internet "piracy" has caused problems for many dinosaur entertainment companies. But look at the explosion in concert revenues. Look at the explosion in independent music. Past bills have ignored feedback from artists groups and consumers and focussed on a bunch of near-criminal music companies that robbed us for years and years. I fear that with a majority there will be no consultation. It could be grim. Three strikes? Criminalization of digital lock breaking? Who knows. It won't be good. And it really won't stop anything.

And the (lady) cojones on that page that held up the "Stop Harper" sign...impressive indeed.