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.

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.

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"

Senate Redemption - Week 113 - June 24 - July 2

I'm reminded of Dumb & Dumber right now.  "Just when I thought you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this...and totally redeem yourself!"  The Senate votes to send the union finances bill back to the House of Commons.

If you constantly have to spend a lot of money telling everybody how great you are, how great everything is and how great of a job you are doing...chances are it might not be so.

Is it common for elected officials to issue politicized talking points to bureaucrats?  About another bureaucrat?  Man.  What a bunch of assholes.  The Conservative encouraged diplomats and bureaucrats to talk shit about the Auditor Generals report on fighter jet procurement.  What a bunch of stupid assholes.

Too bad.  I had hoped Vic Toews leaving politics would have been the result of pitchfork wielding farmers.  Not retirement.

A new report on drug use in Vancouver suggests some not-all-that-surprising conclusions:  One, Vancouver's "harm reduction" strategy seems to be resulting in more treatment and less jail time.  Two, federal drug supply strategies (i.e. the "war on drugs") seems to be having little to no impact on drug pricing or availability.

The Conservatives are seeking a shitpile of money from the Council of Canadians to pay for the robocalls trial.  Didn't they basically lose this trial, but it was found there was no proof that the election outcome was affected?

What a pandering asshole...can't have a gun lover angry at the Prime Minister.  How is this deserve comment from the PM?  The RCMP in High River picked up some unsecured, out-in-plain-view guns when they were searching houses for flood victims and this is some sort of tragedy for the PM and his gun lobby buddies.

This Tyee article blames Calgary flooding on climate change and hopes that the oil industry will see the error of their ways.

Quebec seems to have lost their court case to try to hold on to Quebec long gun registry data.

Convenient.  The trial of a former Harper aide has been delayed due to health concerns.

An interesting Slate article linking up statistics and studies into gun violence.  In the US.

Perp Walk - Week 111 - June 10-17

As in...the Conservative caucus meetings are turning into a bit of a perp walk.

Nigel Wright is under investigation by the RCMP for the Mike Duffy payment.

Dean Del Mastro is demanding to be either charged or cleared by Elections Canada.

Irwin Cotler catches a break!  Lost in the shuffle of the mayor of Montreal getting arrested...also arrested was Saulie Zajdel, infamously hired by the Conservatives as a "shadow MP".  Nice candidate selection, guys.

Conservatives just don't seem to understand election expenses.  And it seems to be somebody elses fault every time this happens.  Eve Adams attempts to claim personal campaign expenses way over and above what is allowed.  Including Salon visits.  And a cupcake.

Some of the records related to Conservative MP elections expenses are missing/not publicly available?  I'm not clear here on who the CBC seems to be blaming.  Elections Canada or the campaign?

So Peter McKay launched his own secret surveillance program a few years ago.

Why is Stephen Harper not interested in International Tax Evasion cooperation?  As well, the CRA seems to be making things up and including non offshore tax evasion arrests in their statistics.

Crikey!  Mac Harb may owe up to $240,000 in improper expenses.  And the Conservatives jump for joy!  Surprising that they seem so eager to get this information out there.

How come every spill or disaster related to Oil and Gas comes with some sort of "The new stuff is going to be totally different!" disclaimer?  Another bad leak in Alberta.  Whose fault?  I'm guessing anybody but the company responsible for all the chemicals or the government tasked with regulating it.

Big moves on "transparency".
- The Conservatives defeated a bill that would create more independence for the Parliamentary Budget Officer
- Rumour has it that the next Parliamentary Budget Officer is going to perhaps be a Conservative party flunky (former Chief of Staff to Peter Van Loan)

Vic Toews!  Rejects the idea of a civilian management board for the RCMP as recommended by a federal advisory panel.

A fart in a windstorm.  The Harper Government announces $12 Million to fund "history education" in Canada.

Don't worry about the expense scandal or leaking pipelines.  Thomas Mulcair didn't stop at a security checkpoint!  That's the real tragedy.

What a schmozzle.  It's actually kind of absurd that QuebecSoccerHeadwareGate has reached a level where it requires comment from our Federal Politicians.  And even sadder that there are actually people defending their decision.  And that this has anything to do with language relations in this country.

So this is why governments are so pissed off at Snowden.  His leaks have compromised the shady world of international, government on government espionage.  I'm sure Britain isn't too happy about their G20 spying efforts made public.

Nothing is Anyones Fault - Week 104 - April 22-29

Isn't it great that people like Vic Toews can now throw you in jail with no charges and then hold a secret trial?  I feel better already.  Seems like he can decide who gets to talk to the media as well.

How on earth did I miss this story/picture?  Bieber shaking hands with Steve-O in overalls.

Steve-O is defending his right to use taxpayer dollars to send out attack ads.  Adrian Dix made some comments in an interview earlier this week when questioned about seeking corporate donations.  Paraphrasing, he said something along the lines of "These are the rules now and we will play by them.  But if we are elected, we will change them."  There's something troubling about the Prime Minster, who has the ability to change these laws, using a similar "these are the rules" argument.

Peter McKay is sick and tired of people asking him about the stuff he's supposed to be overseeing.

The Ontario Government is stepping in to support freshwater lakes research facility open.  The Conservatives are going to have to work extra hard to muzzle that research now.

This is just the funniest thing I've read in a long time.  George Bush: World Savior.

Have no fear!  Jason Kenney is on the case!  He's going to look in to the accused VIA train terrorists botched deportations of many years ago.

Oh fuck these people.  Fuck all of them.  It isn't bad enough that the "news story" about the persecution one of the accused VIA rail terrorists families contains a whole lot of editorialization...but the comments degenerate into a "ship them all home" lynch mob of "true Canadians".

Stephen Harper suggests that now isn't the time to "commit sociology" with respect to terrorism.  So when is the time to actually think about why this stuff happens and what we can do to reduce it?  Oh.  I forgot.  We're talking about terrorism.  All we can do is stick our heads in the sand, condemn it unconditionally, and pass more laws.  We should never try to understand something that we don't agree with.

Peter Penashue still claims nothing is his fault and dangles the "official voice in government" carrot in an attempt to win votes.  He also claims polls are wrong.

The EPA thinks Canada needs to improve things at the oil sands.  Joe Oliver thinks otherwise.  And can't figure out why they won't approve our pipeline.  Strange when a bully finds out his tactics don't work everywhere.

But it's all now going to be the fault of unions that the Keystone XL doesn't get approved.

Sometimes I hope that Matt Taibbi is just sitting at home, making things up.  How is it that he can so consistently track down these insane stories of banks and governments screwing people over so very, very badly?  How is it that he can uncover these stories and absolutely nothing happens?  This one sounds familiar (banks rigging interest rates).  These stories make me want to just stay in bed.

So.  Yes.  When a UN Human Rights council starts criticizing Canada's human rights record and some of the voices include North Korea and Iran, it might be a bit hard to take.  But lost in all of this...There's 81 other countries criticizing us as well.

The Canada Revenue Agency seems to have a hard time collecting taxes.  The amount of taxes owed to the CRA has jumped significantly in the last 7 years.

A symbolic victory for the Liberals?  The Conservatives defeat a motion to provide "free speech" for MP's in the House of Commons.  Nothing says irony like your members of Parliament voting against their own free speech.

The Conservatives are pursuing tougher sentencing on some specific violent crimes.  The sole purpose of this legislation seems to be about avoiding parole hearings.  None of the people convicted of these crimes end up getting out of jail (your Pickton's and whatnot).

Canada Post is trying to claim trademark to the term "postal code".

Good Week, Bad Week - Week 103 - April 15-22

I don't feel like this is a good week for Stephen Harper.

First up, his Justin Trudeau attack ad seems a bit uninspired.  Is he losing his cynical edge in his old age?  It actually resulted in a boost in donations to the charity featured in the ad.

Then, he has MP's openly complaining (again) about a lack of a voice in Parliament.  I actually feel for the Prime Minister here.  He knows things are going to go very badly if he lets some of these guys speak their minds.  The Globe and Mail has the count at 9.  Is this the start of a new Reform party?

Oh boy.  So, one of studies commonly used to justify austerity spending has been shown to hold some serious errors.  Once corrected, the major finding is no longer valid.  Way to go, guys.

Stephen Harper has made the former head of his security detail the ambassador to Jordan.  This is roughly the equivalent of a CEO making the security guard the branch manager of a far off store.  Perhaps he saw something in him that he liked.  But you'd think things like experience, education, etc. might factor in to who becomes an ambassador.

So what happened in Boston is terrible.  But it got me thinking...I plugged "bomb" in to google news (3:50 PM, Wednesday April 17th).  These are just the stories that popped up about bomb attacks around the world in the last few hours.
Terror Strikes Bangalore, 16 Injured in Bomb Blast
Bomb Attacks Kill 4, Injure 18 Across Iraq
Bomb Kills 7 Civilians in Western Afghanistan

Justin Trudeau condemned the actions of the Boston bomber but then made some comments about understanding the "root causes" that would drive somebody to this kind of action.  Apparently, this is not condemny enough for Stephen Harper.  I guess in a good/bad, black/white world, there is no attempts to understand.  Seeing all the difficulties that Ignatieff had when he parsed issues, I'm not sure this was worth the risk for Trudeau.  Even though Obama just said something similar.

Vic Toews has decided that the Boston attacks really show that we need stronger anti-terror laws.  Okay.  So a bomb goes off, in another country, and the perpetrators are quickly apprehended.  And this shows that Canada needs more anti-terror laws?  How is that? (The NP agrees that this is stupid)

Steady hand on the tiller!  Oh wait.  We're actually seeing the slowest economic growth in the G20 outside of Europe?

Letting the Conservatives handle election reform is like handing over financial reform to Wall Street.  Start by not consulting with the Chief Electoral Officer, end with delays!

And about those delays.  The Conservatives were about to table an election reform bill.  But the Conservative caucus freaked out.  So the bill was pulled before it was tabled.  And the opposition cried foul because the Conservatives aren't supposed to see these things ahead of time.  But the Conservative Speaker of the House (totally unbiased) says there is no evidence that they saw it.

Canada has actually made some progress in reducing GHG emissions.  Except for the Alberta Oilpatch.  And Peter Kent is claiming it's all his doing (just like the decades long drop in crime).  Contained in the report - Industrial facilities in Alberta are responsible for half of all industrial emissions.

Out with the Environment Canada logos, in with the Economic Action Plan advertisements!

Mike Duffy promised to pay back his housing allowance.  That was in February.  He still hasn't done so.  And he might not pay it back at all.  But then he did.  Maybe.  I mean he said he was going to months ago.  I think we're going to have to see some paperwork this time.  Even though he's a "man of his word".

I haven't talked about this guy much.  This gem of a Conservative MP (from Edmonton, up for drinking and driving charges after refusing a breathalyzer and locking himself in his car).  I am with him on not believing everything that the police say, but his explanation for why he refused a breathalyzer doesn't really add up.  Oh well.  I'm sure he'll get re-elected in Edmonton.

The Conservatives have released a number of letters from NDP and Liberal MP's asking the government to consider foreign worker applications.  The article dwells largely on one from Trudeau.  This seems bad on the surface.  But is helping a CHINESE restaurant bring in chef's from CHINA for assistance on developing a regional Chinese menu the same thing as trying to staff a Canadian mine entirely with Chinese workers after eliminating all Canadian applicants with trumped up language requirements?

Justin Trudeau has raised the point that the Conservatives and the NDP do not respect and have not celebrated anniversaries of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  I must admit that I've been somewhat ignorant of criticism of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and I'm having a hard time even figuring out what the arguments against it are.  It seems like some left wingers don't feel like it went far enough.  Right wingers feel that it is a power grab?  They don't want everybody to share in these rights?  I don't get it.

The Government of Canada opened a food truck in Mexico City, in an effort to create some sort of Canadian Food Brand identity among Mexicans.  Why not start in Canada?  Or New York?  Basically anywhere but Mexico City.


An interesting analysis via Gizmodo.  Contained within the data:
- The 225 richest people in the world have a wealth equivalent to the poorest 2.5 Billion people in the world
- The median US income is about $50,000 per year
- Which puts that earner in the top 1% of the World
So.  Stop bitching about your life because there are probably several billion people that have it worse than you.

Is fracking causing earthquakes in Oklahoma?

Thieves in the Night - Week 96 - Feb 25 - Mar 4

Our Week 95.5 post covered a lot of ground.  The second half of the week seemed a bit slower.

Like thieves in the night...The Kits Coast Guard base is already being dismantled, to ensure that nobody can ever change the decision made by the Conservatives.  Do you know how much planning it would take to organize a Construction crew to take on a job of this magnitude?  It certainly wouldn't happen in a matter of days.  So, somehow, a closing of a Coast Guard base 3 months from now has turned into an immediate closer with decommissioning starting 3-4 days later.  Somebody had a very specific plan a while back.  It's pretty disingenuous that they shared one plan while fabricating another.

On a more personal note, Tony Clement is now following my Twitter feed (which followed shortly after two tweets making fun of Vic Toews and Jason Kenney.  Perhaps he's a bit disgruntled).  I searched for something amazing to engage him with, but he doesn't appear to have been up to much lately.

Speaking of Vic Toews!  Back with a vengeance!  This time, he's suggesting that the opposition parties didn't work hard enough to challenge the government in 2008 when they appointed Arthur Porter as the CSIS watchdog.  Amazing!  Basically "If you had worked harder to overrule our terrible appointment we wouldn't be in this predicament."

The NP is painting Jason Kenney as some sort of all-seeing, immigration god.  They actually congratulate him on "eliminating a backlog of 280,000 would-be immigrants".  Ya.  I guess if you decide to just cancel the applications, that is one way of eliminating a backlog.

Canada feels that the Keystone pipeline is critical to our oil sands development.  I mean, it has to be, right?  Why else would everybody be so worked up about it?  Yet the State Department claims it won't have an impact on Oil Sands development?  Something doesn't add up here.

Oh.  This is beautiful.  Jonathan Kay over on the National Post has come to the defense of Tom Flanagan.  I see his point (that we shouldn't destroy an individual over a few poorly worded sentences in response to a question).  But his justification is awesome.  He suggests that anybody could make a similar mistake when faced with the prospect of answering questions in front of a group of people without adequate time to prepare.  And then he uses himself as an example. "During public speaking events, I myself have several times mistaken “Osama” with the last name of the current U.S. president, and once held forth on the need to 'kill Obama.'"

Quebec Senators don't take the train (for free) either.  Their ride is only 2 hours though.  So, ya, maybe they should be taking the train.

The Senate is trying to get in front of the scandal and have announced changes to their housing allowance policy.

An interesting take on why Wall Street is fucked.  Nothing new here, but it lays out nicely how traders are incentivized to take massive risks.

Vic Toews Returns - Week 90 - Jan 16-25

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2012 Best Of - Week 87 - Dec 25-Jan 1

The whole purpose of this blog is for me to be able to track all of the crazy shit that the Conservatives are going to do over their 4 year term.  As I look back over the past year...Gawd...I'm just overwhelmed by how much crazy shit they've done.  It's too much for me.  I think that in order to understand how crazy this year was, we need to look at some of the stories that I had to gloss over as I made my list.  Allowing two major Canadian oil companies to be purchased by foreign state controlled enterprises?  Didn't make it.  Allowing a northern British Columbia mine to ship in all of its employees from China at a discounted rate?  Didn't make it.  Closing down a groundbreaking freshwater research station (perhaps because of some troublesome research into the oil sands)?  Didn't make it.  Stripping a layer of environmental protection from our lakes and rivers?  Didn't make it.  What about their continual re-introduction of anti-abortion laws?  Their no questions asked support of Israel?  Looking back, things are way, way worse than I thought.

Lessons in short-sightedness
After years of a ridiculous pro-asbestos position that was mocked by the rest of the world, the asbestos mine responsible for this ridiculous stance closed down.  And somehow the Conservatives are trying to blame the Parti Quebecois for this reckless swerve towards acceptability.

The War on Terror reaches new levels of awesome
A Muslim man in Quebec sent a text message to some work colleagues encouraging them to "blow away the competition" at a trade show.  He was arrested on suspicion of terrorism.  Reddit agrees that this is awesome.

Government cuts lead to a pretty good idea for a comedy sketch
Did you know that Canada is surrounded on three sides by oceans?  I don't think the Conservatives do.  Coast Guard and other naval safety cuts seem to be a favourite of theirs.  In addition to closing the Coast Guard base in the largest port in Canada, they also seem to be struggling to provide effective services in the places that remain open.  This poor Newfoundland fisherman had his emergency medical call transferred to a non-English speaking doctor in Italy when he phoned in for help.

Model citizens
Have you heard about these Queen's Jubilee medals?  Ya, there's something like 60,000 of them being awarded and it sounds like it is largely at the discretion of individual MP's.  One Saskatchewan MP has decided that a pair of ladies who have continually been arrested for anti-abortion related harassment.  He's praised them as "heroines of humanity".  Surprisingly, he's a Conservative.

Limits to democracy
It's actually hard to keep track on the amount of times that the Conservatives limited debate, jammed through mountains of legislation via Omnibus Bills and just kind of messed with democracy by preventing people from asking question.  These are only three examples of a worrisome trend.

War on Crime

Look at that graph above.  See how there has been a steady decline in the crime rate since the early 90's?  See how we're basically at levels not seen since the 70's?  Ya, me too.  But even with all of that, the Conservatives decided to jam through a whole bunch of "Tough on Crime" laws (like mandatory sentencing) even though a whole bunch of people told them that it's a bad idea...And then, they actually have the balls to take all the credit for the last 20 years of dropping crime rates...even though there was a dramatic spike in homicide rates this year.

Not only that, they've decided to:
- Cut prison inmate reform programs - because what we really need is convicts getting out of prison with no real world skills or training
- Close a few prisons even though before their new mandatory minimum sentences can have an affect there are already overcrowding problems...honestly...double bunking!
- Decided that convicts earning between $10 and $69 every two weeks are living high on the hog and they're going to charge them more in rent money
- Created a law whereby it's illegal to riot in a mask...even though it's already illegal to riot in a mask.  Great prioritization, guys!
- Supported a bill to outlaw gang recruiting...ya...that's really going to put the brakes on gang activity

Enbridge and their Magic Pipeline
I actually can't believe that there is still a chance that this Northern Gateway pipeline might get built.  There is just so much wrong with this whole story, I don't know of any other way to tackle it but point form.
1. The Federal Government has suggested that opponents to the Pipeline are terrorists
2. They've also cut so many research positions over the last few years that there probably aren't enough people remaining to adequately research the effects of this pipeline
3. Enbridge created a promotional video that has a map that conveniently ignores all of the nautical hazards that will be faced by the hundreds of tankers steaming towards Kitimat
4. Their clean-up plan submitted to the government is for crude oil, not bitumen
5. While all this was going on, one of their pipelines in Wisconsin started leaking...and they didn't do a particularly good job in responding to it
6. A report came out that crucified the Enbridge response to a 2010 pipeline leak in Michigan...I don't think governments generally throw around terms like "Keystone Cops" lightly
7. After the above mentioned Michigan oil spill, Enbridge executives gave themselves some hefty bonuses
8. They've created a limited liability partnership that will, you guessed it, limit their liability in the event of an oil spill
9. And while all this was going on...while Alberta was screaming at BC for being selfish about not allowing a pipeline...leak after leak after leak after leak popped up across Alberta.
10. Is it a surprise though, seeing as people connected to big oil have had upwards of 2733 meetings with public officials over the last 4 years?

Honestly.  How are we still talking about this pipeline?

Robo-Calls
What is the worst thing about this Conservative government?  The fact that they might not even be legitimate.  The robo-call scandal continues to roll along.  Even worse is the Conservative response to the whole thing.  They demanded that Liberals release all records of "all calls made on their behalf" during the last election, but refuse to release their own records because, obviously, there's no possible chance they have done anything wrong themselves.  That didn't work, so once the cases finally made it to court, they attempted to shirk responsibility through a series of loopholes, smoke and mirrors.  First, they claim the cases were filed too late.  Then, they suggest the complainants should be ignored as they are made by "professional agitators" and the bills are paid by people with a "political bias".  Last, even though a pollster dug up information suggesting that there was voter suppression (they actually tried to have this evidence thrown out), they claimed that everything is okay because even if there were robo-calls, they didn't actually have an effect.


The next section I'm going to call the 2012 Conservative All-Star Team.  With guys like this, how can they possibly get re-elected?

Vic Toews

Where do you start with Vic Toews?  He's accomplished so much in a one year period, it's difficult to know what to talk about.  First, his fingerprints are all over the "tough on crime" section above.  But I think his crowning achievement for the year really was his internet snooping bill.  First, he suggested that if you didn't support his bill then you were "with the child pornographers."  Then, he freaked the hell out when somebody (well, a Liberal staffer) started posting (completely, 100% true) information about his messy, messy divorce (the babysitter?  really?).  At this point, Anonymous started threatening him and, despite his bluster, he actually admitted that he was powerless to stop them and temporarily threw in the towel on the whole thing.  Until he saw an opportunity to use the horrific Luka Magnotta murders for political gains and then reintroduced an even worse internet surveillance bill.  To heap further awful onto an already giant pile of crap, when a journalist asked a pointed question about a particularly over-the-top portion of the bill he became surprised and confused; It was almost as if he had no actual idea about the contents of the very bill he was championing.  (This is a bit of an aside, but I'd like to point out that while the Conservatives are all about using the forces of Government to eavesdrop on citizens, they don't believe that Canadians deserve any government help or protection from identity theft or other cyber-security matters.  That would be government over-reach)  I know you're thinking.  At this point, an ordinary man would sit back and be happy with his accomplishments.  But not Vic Toews.  He was just getting started.  He was the point man for Canada refusing to bring convicts back home via prison transfers.  He actively worked against bringing Omar Khadr home and then made a series of crazy statements once he finally did make it back to Canada.  And he allowed the RCMP and Canadian Border Agency to use information obtained from torture.  Nice job, Vic!

Jason Kenney

Jason Kenney didn't have enough actual immigrants for his press conference.  So he decided to have some of his staff dress up as as "immigrants" to celebrate their "citizenship reaffirmation".  As well, his department decided that the way to deal with the crazy backlogs of applications was just to ignore all applications made before 2008.

Rob Anders

"Sleepy Time" Rob has been caught sleeping several times on the job.  I know, I know, we've all dozed off for a few minutes at work.  But, I bet your little nappy time didn't come in the middle of a Parliamentary Question Period or during a presentation from a group supporting homeless veterans.  Of course, it all would have been alright if he had apologized.  But no, he doubled down and called the homeless veterans support group a bunch of "NDP hacks."  He did eventually apologize.  And then later in the year, he claimed that Jack Layton's death was Thomas Mulcair's fault.  And yes, that is a screen capture of one of his Parliament naps.

Bev Oda

Every time I see the above photo of Bev Oda, I'm actually a little bit sad that she left politics.  Poor Bev had a problem with her expense account.  It all came to a head when it was found she'd racked up crazy bills living it up in London during a conference on the immunization of children in poor countries.  She moved from one luxury hotel to another, charged thousands to have a car and driver at her beck-and-call and then washed it all down with a $16 glass of Orange Juice.

Patrick Brazeau

Doesn't that guy look like a Senator?  As well, he has an atrocious record of attending Senate sittings (you know...his job).  He's absent about 25% of the time.  And when somebody pointed it out and asked some questions, he called her a bitch.  He also may be fraudulently claiming a living allowance.  I will give him credit for his charity boxing match with Justin Trudeau...and his excessive pre-match bragging made it even funnier when he lost.

Hooray for Wal-Mart! And Exclamation Marks - Week 82 - Nov 19-26

Let's start the week by revisiting the 1%.  The Wal-Mart heirs - 6 people - have the equivalent wealth of the bottom 41% of America - Roughly 49 Million Households!  As well, somebody has compiled an interesting theorem.  Wal-Mart is essentially subsidized to the tune of 2.7 Billion per year due to government support of its ill-paid workers.

Here's a fantastic article about Gary Bettman.  It contains this fantastic analogy - Imagine your neighbor knocking down his house, then rebuilding it from scratch as his family lived in a hotel. You had to listen to the construction guys hammering, sawing and banging for a solid year. Finally the house goes up, the family moves back in … and seven years later, suddenly they're knocking the house down again. You ask the neighbor what happened and he says, "Yeah, sorry about that — we screwed up when we rebuilt the house, had too many flaws, we needed to do it over again."  Fantastic

An interesting defence has been raised by the Conservatives over robo-calls.  They're now claiming that everything is fine because there's no direct evidence that anybody was actually deceived by their misleading calls.  Goodness.  Basically "You can't prove that we did something.  But even if we did do it...it didn't really work, so there's no problem here."

And, just to prove that they aren't one trick election fraud ponies, a bunch of people in Quebec have shown up on the Conservative donors list.  The problem?  They claim then never made a donation.  And, I love this...to defend themselves, the Conservatives have produced cheques from some of the individuals who claim they didn't donate.  Except, the values of the cheques they've produced don't necessarily correspond with the values claimed!

Doesn't this whole system seem a little arbitrary?  So, a person deemed not responsible for a murder based on reasons of mental defect has their case analyzed once per year to see if they are healthy enough to be released.  That will now become once every three years...Why is there a timeline on this in the first place?  Shouldn't this be based on whether or not a person is "cured" and the opinion of medically trained individuals?  I know it sounds a bit crazy when you say something like "these people stand a chance of getting out every year."  But another way to look at it, maybe, is "once a year we take a look at their case to see if they've made enough progress to be released."  It feels like locking mentally ill killers up for longer is a cheap target.

Ummm...Call me crazy, but I don't exactly see anything terribly wrong with what David McGuinty says here about MP's "Going Back to Alberta".  Okay, for a backbench MP, yes, they do represent their riding and should be able to take a regional point of view.  But the government as a whole is supposed to represent the country, right?  Is it not reasonable to question the government on whether or not it has the entire countries interests in mind?

The Conservative candidate the Calgary center by-election skipped out on a debate.  This prompted a pretty amazing comment from the NDP candidate in the riding - "We don’t see them between elections. In fact, we don’t even see them during elections either".  Sadly, only 200 people were there to hear it.


What exactly does this bozo Brazeau do and how did he get appointed to the Senate?  It looks like he may falsely be claiming a Senate housing allowance.

This would only be better if it had been Bain Capital that had done the buyout.  It looks like Hostess had been subject to a past Romneyesque takeover that resulted in huge amounts of debt that ate away at profits.  The unions already rolled their salaries back once, several years ago.  One guys wages had gone from 48,000 per year, down to $34,000 and under the new proposal would be $25,000.  Yikes.  The executives?  Yep.  Bonuses and pay raises.

Justin Trudeau thinks that we should let China buy our companies because the USA is dieing and trade with Asia is our salvation.  Oh brother.  That's okay though.  Once the Chinese FIPA is in place, we probably won't even be able to decide this on our own.

This article says - Federal health minister Leona Aglukkaq (I think I may have spelled this wrong) says she is compelled by law — specifically, Canada’s Food and Drugs Act — not to withhold approval for a drug that is otherwise considered safe and effective for its intended use.  There are just so many holes in this argument.  First up, the only thing that we need to consider when approving drugs is whether or not it is safe for its intended use?  Even if there's drugs out there that do the same thing with a lower chance of addiction, we still have to approve it because it's "safe for its intended use"?  And what about marijuana then?  It could probably be argued that marijuana would be safe for a whole number of medical uses.  Why has it been a crazy political shitstorm to make any sort of progress with medical marijuana if the government is so against politicizing drug approval?

Sigh.  This is a story about how the average global temperature - i.e. the temperature of the entire planet, taken as a whole - has been higher than average for the last 332 months.  I will admit that there is some information missing here and it's not particularly well written.  What exactly is the average temperature that we're comparing this too?  Over what time period was that taken? (of course, you could click through the link and see that the temperatures have been taken since 1880)  But read through the comments and you realize what sort of battle we're up against.  There's one guy saying that of course it's rising, it always rises between ice ages.  And another guy that points out that Australia has experienced many cooler than average months so this is bogus.  Hey fuckface!  He didn't say that every point on the entire planet experienced higher than average temperatures!  He said that the earth as a whole did!  Anyhow.  There's numerous excuses for ignoring science, I guess.

Here's a good round-up of US Election stories from Slate.

Did Vic Toews actually do something productive and not step in it for once?

Time to go out and buy!  It only takes 42% of your pre-tax income to own that house of your dreams.  Bargain!

Why won't Harper attend a Premiere's meeting?

Giving Thanks - Week 75 - Oct 1-8

This seemed like an incredibly slow week in Canadian politics.  Perhaps everybody was just excited about the US Presidential Debate?  Speaking of which, what a horror show.  Every time Obama spoke I was thinking "Okay...here it comes...coherent words..." but they never came.  Romney seemed absolutely certain of what he was speaking, even if it had no bearing on reality.  The worst moment for me was right after Romney launched into a passionate attack on Obamacare and I thought "Man...here it is.  A perfect chance to sell this program.  Talk about the millions of people that can't qualify for insurance and the bankruptcies and the fact that the US Government already spends more per capita on health care then other nations with fully nationalized health care and that it's insurance companies that are driving up the costs and all that."  But no.  A ramblingly incoherent spiel about...who even remembers?  Gosh that was terrible.  Anyhow, I think Obama needs to just Sara Palin the shit out of the next debate.  Memorize a series of 2 minute speeches on his key talking points and just ignore all the questions and talk about what he wants.

Somehow I don't think that this was big news.  The Canadian Government accidentally ran some ads on the Pirate Bay.  Which is sort of awesome.

Seems like the Conservatives have learned something from the Copyright Lobby.  If your immediate proposal isn't approved, tweak it a bit and keep trying.  Heck, even if you get exactly what you want, tweak it a bit and keep trying, but we haven't gotten there yet.  Anyhow, there's a new backbench motion to outlaw "sex selection abortion".  Don't worry.  They have reams of data to back up the need for this.  What?  They don't have any data?  They've only mentioned one study?

I know I promised to try to elevate the tone of political discourse by refraining from name-calling and such.  But "Sleepy Time" Rob Anders is throwing me off my game here by suggesting that Thomas Mulcair contributed to Jack Layton's death.  Who votes for these people?

Keeping going, it's like a rogue's gallery of Conservative incompetence.  Vic Toews makes comments about Omar Khadr that a government minister probably shouldn't.  Maybe he thinks he's a talk show host and not a government minister?  The comment of the story:  pointing out that a decade in prison had "radicalized" him.  Soooooo....because we kept this kid in prison for so long without charge or trial, we can't possibly let him out because he hates us too much for what we did to him.