Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Banning phrases for 2009

Lake Superior State University has issued their 34th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for misuse, over-use and general uselessness.

Here is their list for 2009 .
  1. GREEN
  2. CARBON FOOTPRINT or CARBON OFFSETTING
  3. MAVERICK
  4. FIRST DUDE
  5. BAILOUT
  6. WALL STREET/MAIN STREET
  7. MONKEY (apparently a chat thing where you add a Monkey to proper nouns?
  8. <3 (another chat thing meaning heart something. I really try not to chat a lot)
  9. ICON or ICONIC
  10. GAME CHANGER
  11. STAYCATION
  12. DESPERATE SEARCH
  13. NOT SO MUCH
  14. WINNER OF FIVE NOMINATIONS
  15. IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN
Which got me to thinking that we should ban some over used, abused, misleading, out right deceptive, phrases that our politicians have plagued us with this year.

Here are the one’s that irk me the most.

  • our Government is addressing the needs of
    • as in the conservatives have used more public funds to either buy votes from ethic associations or do some seeding in conservative regions
  • steady hand upon the
    • as in Harper has leadership
  • permanent deficit
    • as in federal government will run a deficit -- but not a permanent one
  • streamlining
    • as in strengthening regulatory cooperation, streamlining regulations and processes, which means turning the regulation of standards, safeguards and processes over to the private sector.

Bought any cold meat lately.


Feel free to add your own.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Rev asked what Willy Loman did

Heh heh, I think that’s funny. 
Anyway what the Rev asks for, the Rev gets. Here’s the list of jobs that this Willy Loman got paid for
  • Peeled potatoes on Thursday night
  • Delivered Fish and Chips on Friday night
  • Delivered the Globe and Mail on Saturday morning
  • Manufactured things that are now made elsewhere or no longer made at all
    • Bic pen tubes and caps
    • Circular rotary file card systems
    • Timex display stands
    • A pulper at Facelle
  • Horseback trail guide and Garbage man at Blue Water
  • Sculptor Assistant for projects at the CNE and Pickering Power Station
  • Packer at a Dominion Store Opening
  • Room Service Elevator operator at Chateau Lake Louise, met with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
  • Dish washer in Banff, met narcs pretending to be born agains
  • Sold the Straight, got chased by US sailors and some other strange folk
  • Sold mens wear at Towers Dept Store
  • Sold mens wear at Miracle Mart Dept Store
  • Ended up selling everything at a bunch of Miracle Mart Dept Stores
  • Sold Great West Life life insurance until I ran out friends
  • Sold Rustcraft Greeting cards
  • Sold portraits of kids, dead people and poorly coloured cats
  • Ran Tobacco Books, which sold books and cigarettes since I wanted to smoke and read books
  • Delivered the Gazette when John Lennon got assassinated
  • Sold pens, stickers and smelly erasers with Canadian flags on them
  • Ran airport and hotel gift stores
  • Ran the Den for Men which sounds better than it was
  • Sold Apples Lisa’s Macs
  • Sold everything that plugged into Macs to people who sold Macs
  • Ran a MSRO which if you know is really selling your soul
  • Painted for a year and took care of my mom
  • Worked on Windows for six months, got fired, I was grateful
  • Software manufacturer
And to take someone else I'd like to bug Buckdog and Steve V 

I going on a road trip next week and will be posting about the end of the world .

JAWL

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Meet the Bloggers, The Green New Deal, Van Jones



Meet the Bloggers is a online video show created by Robert Greenwalds Brave New Foundation which is broadcast online every Friday, focusing on unconventional political opinion and analysis, which I think I signed up for once. This is their last episode for the year, aired on December 19th.

It features Van Jones, author (The Green Collar Economy), environmental leader and founder of Green for All. He is one of the hope driven, change is possible Obama inspired activists. Positive, inspirational, almost cultist sounding. much like Cory Booker, the major of Newark, New Jersey (another inspiring politician that Americans will hear more from).

As per it’s title the show talks about the “Green New Deal”, getting America back to work by not only creating new technologies, but also dealing with getting back to work greening existing buildings (office towers, homes, etc.).

Their conversation incorporates green technology, unemployment, poverty, racism, the corporate media, life in Kansas and a positive plan for rebuilding America, all paramount upon the belief that Obama will fund, inspire and mandate economic environmental change.

Simran Sethi, an environmental, media expert and Huffington blogger, is currently a professor at the University of Kansas and her input is interesting as she talks about addressing the non acceptance of climate change by the American midwest and how to move the conversation towards a center of common ground.

Chris Rabb, brings up a major point about the corporate control of the media, a problem that we also have in Canada. His pessimistic view is that change will be hampered by the media and will not occur until the “movement” gains access to mainstream messaging.

And that is what this sounds like, a movement. A movement that has not reached Canada yet, maybe a movement that has not reached the majority of Americans yet, but you can certainly see the beginnings here.



You can sign up for Meet the Blogger feeds here.


JAWL

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Asteroid Impact: The Great Gig in the Sky



Cgi asteroid impact to the music of Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky" (Dark Side of the Moon)



JAWL:

A message from John Lennon

With the approval of widow Yoko Ono, former Beatle and peace activist John Lennon, who was killed 28 years ago, appeared digitally in a 30-second television ad in support of the "One Laptop per Child" campaign. With the approval of widow Yoko Ono, former Beatle and peace activist John Lennon, who was killed 28 years ago, appeared digitally in a 30-second television ad in support of the "One Laptop per Child" campaign. JAWL:

Harold Pinter's Art, Truth and Politics Lecture

Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory [of the artist] since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed. From Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture on 7 December 2005. Harold Pinter died of cancer on Xmas eve at the age of 78. Pinter was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, director, poet, political activist, and president of the Central School of Speech and Drama who is best known for his work on The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, Betrayal, The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Trial and Sleuth. More on his web site here.

Hardcode 1

This first episode of Hardcode is a preview of our first project: Hacking a remote controlled car to allow us to control it with a wii controller, a wii fit balance board and the touch screen of an iPhone. JAWL:

9

Here's the short animated 9 from Shane Acker, that is about to be released as a full feature film next year on 9.9.09. JAWL:

Friday, December 26, 2008

Bill Maher's Religulous: Grow up or die

Bill Maher's final comment from Religulous, which is of grave importance to the society in which we exist. A belief in a magical being should not be a requirement to become the leader of a country, in fact it should be the reason for disqualification. JAWL:

Monday, December 22, 2008

I want a coalition for Christmas

The same overwhelming majority of Canadians who believe that Bush is a criminal and have cheered the election of Obama have turned a blind eye and deaf ear to the ideological social conservative transformation of their own country.

Instead they believe US styled political attack ads that warn about the evils of a potential socialist, separatist alliance that is out to destroy our Canadian democracy.

The truth unfortunately is the opposite.

We now have a cabal of social conservative, PMO politicos that have run rough shod over the ministries of our government.

Similar to the destructive infection of neo conservative ideologies into all facets of the American political process, Harpers coterie of PMO agents in three very short years have infiltrated our governmental, departments, institutions and bureaucratic decision making processes.

Their influence has redefined, weakened and in some cases eliminated safeguards, funding and rights that protected the health of Canadians and provided social freedoms that used to proudly define our country to the rest of the world.
Defunding of women’s rights groups, reduced funding for the arts, limiting the access to government information, transforming immigration into a two tier system designed to provide preference to low cost temporary workers, not to mention their greatest achievement in their first year, the creation of an anti-environmental ministry.

Where once we led on the world stage, we now impede, obstruct and confuse.

Our health ministry has buried two major reports outlining in detail the increased health risks caused by air pollution and ignored the world wide acceptance of safe injection sites in a spiteful attempt to reverse the decision of a provincial court.

Deregulation for deregulation sake has weakened our food inspection agency, defunded BSE controls at slaughter houses, reduced airline safety by turning over pre-fight inspections to financially struggling airlines and created our own made in Canada $75 billion sub prime mortgage market.

A sub prime market of underfunded, risky mortgages which have now been bought from the our banks with fabricated bravado and Canadian tax dollars.
These rights and safe guards were not some ideological gifts from a previous Liberal government these were hard fought for concessions and protections that Canadians have lobbied for or in some cases gone to courts to achieve.

Instead we now have a government that uses the courts against our parliamentary democracy to silence parliamentary opposition to their illegal acts such as offering a bribe to an independent member of parliament, and boldly sues it’s own institutions when it is caught circumventing electoral advertising rules.

A government with the sole purpose of the transforming Canada into their narrow vision of social conservatism.

A government who recklessly rushed the country into a federal election to secure majority power on the eve of an ensuing world wide economic crisis.

A crisis that their own economic departments had forecasted six months before.

Failing to achieve a majority mandate during this wasteful election this social conservative junta in one last desperate attempt tried to cripple any political opposition and create a virtual one party system by rewriting the electoral funding rules for political parties.

Despite their new found interest in performing the job they were elected to do, this is not a government that Canadians should trust to lead us through the next two years of economic hardship.

They had their opportunity and they have failed us miserably.

My Coalition banner is hanging by a thread in the hope that both the Liberals and NDP take the chance, no matter how slim to bring this government down.

I want a coalition for Christmas.




JAWL

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Make it illegal to allow homelessness


I have an infrastructure plan.

We have bailed out the banks to the tune of $75 billion by buying the conservative made sub-prime mortgages that were created over the last two years. We are paying $800 million for roads in Alberta and $200 million as our share of the Asper family National museum in Winnipeg of all places.

We have just temporarily bailed out GM and Chrysler by providing $4 billion in loans, which I agree with if it will save jobs and Harper’s new found interest running a deficit and saving the economy is also expected to include additional bailouts of forestry, mining and at some time I guess the oil companies.

Well I think it is time that we bail out the homeless.

When I was a kid, in my late teens you got hassled by the cops if they found you on Yonge Street after the bars closed. You couldn’t sleep in a doorway or over a grate wrapped in blanket. If they found you in an alley or sleeping in a park they arrested you.

When you arrived in a new city, you had to find some where to crash, moving in with like minded souls, or some middle aged entrepreneur that was running a flop house. There were no shelters or hostels, just the Y which you stayed away from at all costs.
Now the cops hand out sleeping bags and organizations, nightly, send out volunteers to assist homeless individuals providing coffee and nourishment or transportation to shelters.
In San Francisco they even pay homeless people (or at least the entrepreneurs that are managing the service) weekly fees, to sleep in the doorways of retail stores, as an added form of security.
At my comfortable age of sixty I have no idea what the inside of a shelter looks like and whether the environment after the lights go out is too physically dangerous or mind altering to one’s soul, a humane offering or a degrading solution.

But it appears that we either do not have enough sheltered spaces or there are too many homeless individuals who can not or will accept the environment provided.
Yesterday morning a 47-year-old woman's body was found burning in a makeshift shelter built around a shopping cart, near the corner Davie and Hornby streets in Vancouver. She had started a fire to keep warm. 
Apparently today the police can not force people off the streets no matter how cold the weather.
We need to make a change.

Toronto for example needs to build homes for 40,000 people, affordable, houses, townhouses and/or apartments. Homes not shelters that can be purchased, rented or given to Toronto’s homeless.

According to the Homeless Nation there were just over 30,000 homeless individuals in Toronto in 2003, including 4,800 children and the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee estimates that 4 to 6 homeless people die every week on Toronto's streets.

Calgary has put together a ten year plan to eliminate homelessness and one of the key elements is to eliminate the morale bureaucracy that places in some cases unacceptable burdens on the homeless to qualify.
We must break the bureaucratic stranglehold that bedevils our current system—a system in which the homeless cannot be housed until their situation has improved, but their situation cannot improve until they are housed. 
Traditional models place requirements on the homeless that limit their ability to establish a more stable and sustainable lifestyle. We need to embrace a Housing First model, where the first priority for programs serving people experiencing homelessness is permanent housing with the support necessary to sustain that housing.
The housing first model is the answer and there is no better time to implement it than now, nationally across Canada.

It looks like a $10 billion bailout of the construction industry to me, that should get people working and hey it help out the forestry at the same time.


I think, I am turning into a socialist. Jack about the support the union thing, is that still a prerequisite.



JAWL

Friday, December 19, 2008

for the insufferably, pious



The sponsors of Proposition 8 asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to nullify the marriages of the estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who exchanged vows before voters approved the ballot initiative that outlawed gay unions.

Such hateful people.

Kumbaya


Nice to see that Flaherty has expanded his circle of advisers beyond the passerby walking down the street.

Harper’s finance minister has broadened his sources of economic advise to include a provincial finance ministers meeting this week in Saskatchewan, a quickly formed advisory council of CEOs from various Canadian corporations and even advice from the Liberals.

Of course all of this is to show that Harper and Flaherty are reacting to the dramatic changes to Canada’s economic fortunes that have occurred, apparently over the last two weeks.

We are being asked to forget that all this was projected last summer by the government’s own EDC (Export Development Corporation) as well as every other economic forecaster and that Harper’s November Financial forecast was not an ideological attack on the financial foundation of our electoral process but instead a cautious approach to steering Canada through rough waters.

It is now the new partisan approach to governance and even Preston Manning has climbed down from his pedestal to warn westerners to cool their rhetoric about Quebec and to advise liberals across Canada to write their MPs about the danger of the Coalition.

Yes sir Mr. Igatieff row that boat ashore because the conservatives now respect you.




JAWL

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Did you know 3.0



This is the latest version of the Did You Know video, filled with amazing facts. well maybe not amazing, but certainly interesting.
Did you know 3.0 for 2008 - Newly Revised Edition Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod; Globalization & The Information Age. It was even adapted by Sony BMG at an executive meeting they held in Rome this year. Credits are also given to Scott McLeod, Jeff Brenman

JAWL:

Canadas leader says depression possible

At least that is the headline in the Taiwan News .

For a guy who has been so hesitant to use the R-word for the last 4 months, maybe Harper should of chosen his words with more care during his CTV interview, and stayed away from the D-word.

The Taiwan Herald has pieced together different Canadian economic stories, about Harpers uncertainty, the automotive bailout, half a million potential job loses, and cancelled tar sands projects to paint a very grim picture for the Canadian economy.

Probably not a good thing for foreign investment or the Canadian dollar since Taiwan has the worlds fifth largest foreign reserves.

Then again maybe that is how it looks from the outside.

Or more likely the Taiwanese just want to rub Canada s nose in it for being so arrogant at the last couple of world conferences.



PS: They also have a picture of Ignatieff and a side bar piece about him next to the article. Yep, don't think they like Harper in Taiwan.




JAWL

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

No contrition, no plan, just more arrogance

If Ignatieff was looking for any contrition from Harper for presenting his ideological financial update in November there was none demonstrated last night on the Conservative Television Network.

Last night Murphy and the Atlantic CTV affiliate, basically got their payback interview for harpooning Dion during the last days of the election campaign.

There was no stumbling by Harper or twisting of language and semantics by Murphy during this interview, it was a scripted message from a still arrogant prime minister.

His opening review of his government’s own economic performance set the tone for this partisan piece.
In fact if you actually look at the performance of the Canadian economy it was actually a better year than I thought it was going to be we’ve actually net created jobs, one of the few western countries that has, although we have recently started to see some job loses particularly in Ontario...

He then goes into deep thought to give us his new found prediction for negative growth at the beginning of  next year and better performance towards the end.
Which is exactly what the government’s EDC (Export Development Corporation) predicted five months ago, but unfortunately before the US went into complete meltdown.

A wise man would project that it would probably be worse based on the current situation, but even if Harper had heeded their message at the time, we would have at least, already started taking steps to lessen the impact of the recession that we are now in.

So does Harper have a plan.
There are some, as you know, efforts being made on stimulus packages world wide so I think we can afford to take a few weeks to consult with Canada and make sure we get it right...
That is the problem Steve, you should have already had the plan in place because in reality it might take more than two weeks to put one together, even with the Liberals help that you are now asking for.

The interview goes on as impolitical pointed out earlier, with more posturing from Harper.

However the most telling quote for me was when Harper was asked about the finance statement and what would he take back if he could.

Harper responded with continued arrogance and out right lies.
These are all things we believe in (pointing to himself) some we are prepared to delay for the opposition but the rest we are going to proceed with....

Of course we only found out later that they were planning to over turn the results of the election, ever since election night....
No Mr. Ignatieff there is no contrition being offered from this arrogant prime minister which does not bode well to alleviate future attacks on your parties very existence.

And unfortunately for the rest of us there is a lack of economic reality and prowess that does not bode well for ours.




Reference: CTV videos here

JAWL

Monday, December 15, 2008

New Bushs Boot camp


Here's a new Flash Game from T-Enterprise about Bush dodging shoes.

Players of Bush's Boot Camp take on the role of a gun-toting security agent, and must shoot shoes out of the air before they can hit the hapless president.

Click Start, then click the guns and shoot the shoes, not the president.

Now we know what the 75 billion was for

The lies we have been told by the conservative government have been piling up at a faster rate than the time my two dogs ate the chocolate cake.
Yesterday we found out from the Globe and Mail that the conservatives implemented their own subprime mortgage scheme in Canada in their first budget in 2006.

US mortgage insurers AIG, PMI, and others moved into the Canadian market to compete with the government run CHMC and were welcomed by our Finance Minister.

Flaherty announced that not only would Ottawa guarantee the business of U.S. insurers, it was doubling that guarantee to $200-billion.
Think about it, this was the ideal neoconservative, free enterprise wet dream, allowing the free market to take over the government’s role of mortgage insurance and regulation.
So as the warning bells were just starting to go off in the US about the subprime mortgage crisis, the conservatives opened the Canadian market up to the same risky business practices and by October 2007 Canadians could now get insured for 40 year term, zero down mortgages.

From January of this year until June when the conservatives finally headed the warnings of banking officials and banned the offering, an estimated $56 billion of risky 40-year mortgages, more than half of the total new mortgages approved by banks, trust companies and other lenders during that time took advantage of this scheme.
And here is where it really gets shady.
In September as the shit hit the fan in the US with Paulson armed with a three page plan asked for his $750 billion, Flaherty quickly stepped in with a $75 billion mortgage shuffle moving mortgages from the banks books to ours.
And guess which ones he is buying with our money.

Because if Flaherty didn’t take over those risky subprime assets our banks would be screaming and sometime in the next six months facing failures as their balance sheets fell out of ratio by holding over valued assets.
Contrary to the lies we have been told by Harper and Flaherty, Canada does have a subprime crisis, one that they created and one that will increase as the real estate prices continue to fall and the interest rates adjust.

We are already getting warnings from the head of the Bank of Canada about forthcoming defaults on under financed mortgages.

Meanwhile Harper and Flaherty have been able to hide their culpability in moving this neoconservative, free enterprise, loan sharking scheme into Canada by avoiding any discussion of their economic plans in parliament and continuing their mantra that Canada has the most regulated financial institutions and the problems are not as big here.

Well anyway you look at it, Canada with less than 10% of the population of the US and a great deal less than 10% of the GDP has just spent $75 billion or 10% of the $750 billion Paulson originally asked for to clean up the US.
I would say that is at least the same size problem and one that was made in Canada by Flaherty and Harper.

Originally I wanted Harper removed, replaced, sent back to Alberta, because of his ideological social conservative policies but the real threat posed by his ideology is on economic policy not cultural interference.

The Harper conservatives deregulated our mortgage insurance, and created a Canadian subprime mortgage crisis that should start to hit our economy in about six months and they are lying about.

The economy is going to get worse than both Harper and Flaherty have forecasted and it would appear our government's finances could be in worse shape than they have reported hinted (since they have to date avoided and discussion or disclosure in parliament).

Regardless of the plan presented in January the Coalition needs to replace this government, we can no longer afford their ideological incompetence or believe a word they are saying.





JAWL

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Four lists of ten things

I like this time of the year, you get snow, food, alcohol and lists of things from the previous twelve months. Here are few top tens for 2008 list from Time.

 The top 10 discoveries from 2008 
  1. Snow on Mars
  2. Mystery insect in London
  3. Foetus in a man
  4. Melamine in Chinese milk
  5. Virgin-born shark
  6. iPhone "kill switch"
  7. Seven human feet washed up on Pacific Northwest coast
  8. Red Sox jersey in Yankee Stadium concrete
  9. Marajuana in 2,700-year-old Chinese tomb
  10. Lost Beatles interview from 1964

 The top 10 fuel efficient vehicles for 200
  1. Toyota Prius, 46.65 mpg
  2. Honda Civic Hybrid, 42.25 mpg
  3. Nissan Altima hybrid, 34.1 mpg
  4. Toyota Camry hybrid, 33.45 mpg
  5. Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner/Mazda Tribute hybrids, 32.2 mpg
  6. Toyota Yaris, 32.15 mpg
  7. Toyota Corolla, 32.05 mpg
  8. Honda Fit, 30.7 mpg
  9. Honda Civic, 29.6 mpg
  10. Nissan Versa, 28.25 mpg
The timely absence of GM and Chrysler from the list is obvious, but it would be interesting to see the volumes of cars sold to get some idea how important fuel efficiency was in the buying decision.

 The top 10 Quotes for 2008 
  1. It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America. Barack Obama
  2. So you'll walk me down the aisle? Ellen DeGeneres, to John McCain
  3. Think of us like a coast guard. Somali pirate spokesman
  4. If I had perfect foresight, I would never have taken this job in the first place. CEO of Fredie Mac
  5. Only God who appointed me will remove me. Robert Mugabe
  6. It's the longest Hail Mary pass in the history of either football or Marys. Barney Frank about John McCain
  7. So. Dick Cheney, when told that most Americans did not support the Iraq war
  8. I thought I'd host an end of the world party, but the media might take it seriously. Stephen Hawking
  9. The path will be a little easier next time. Hillary Clinton
  10. They needed a small, victorious war. Putin accuses US of starting Georgia conflict

 The top 10 bank’s marketing slogans 
  1. Whoo hoo! Washington Mutual
  2. Where vision gets built Lehman Brothers
  3. The strength to be there AIG
  4. You can count on us IndyMac
  5. What's in your wallet? Capital One
  6. No family left behind World Financial Group
  7. World wise Morgan Stanley
  8. Smarter Money Security Pacific Bank
  9. Protection Nationwide
  10. Invest with confidence T. Rowe Price

Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers, IndyMac and Security Pacific have all filed for bankruptcy, AIG is now owned (79.9%) by the US federal reserve.

Someone at time has a dark sense of humor.


JAWL

Friday, December 12, 2008

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes



Here's some very cool video editing from the folks over at Over Thinking It they have great website too.

Here's the transcript:
Shame on you. This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you're going to let it be the worst. And I guarantee a week won't go by in your life you won't regret walking out, letting them get the best of you.

Well, I'm not going home. We've come too far! And I'm going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause.

A day may come when the courage of men fails... but it is not THIS day. The line must be drawn HERE. This far, no further!

I'm not saying it's going to be easy. You're going to work harder than you ever worked before. But that's fine, we'll just get tougher with it!

If a person grits his teeth and shows real determination, failure is not an option. That's how winning is done! Believe me when I say we can break this army here, and win just one for the Gipper.

But I say to you what every warrior has known since the beginning of time: you've got to get mad. I mean plum mad dog mean. If you would be free men, then you must fight to fulfill that promise!

Let us cut out their living guts one inch at a time, and they will know what we can do!

Let no man forget how menacing we are. We are lions! You're like a big bear, man!

This is YOUR time! Seize the day, never surrender, victory or death... that's the Chicago Way! Who's with me? Clap! Clap! Don't let Tink die! Clap!

Alright! Let's fly! And gentlemen in England now abed shall know my name is the Lord when I tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our Independence Day!
And now can you name the forty movies. The answers are below.


JAWL

Post it notes

Been a bit light on posting this week as I'm kind of busy, you know trying to sell stuff while we are in a recession. Sorry about that.

Here’s some notes from posts I was planning on doing.

 Prentice stumbles on to the world stage 

While spewing conservative rhetoric at the UN climate summit in Poznan, Poland, our new Environment Minister Jim Prentice stated:
We must bring to these negotiations a sense of urgency and a shared vision for long-term co-operation ... And we must ensure that our vision is informed by the best science and also by the traditional knowledge and voices of aboriginal people.
Unfortunately Jim's department refused to let one of it’s Senior Scientists, Don MacIver attend the meeting.
MacIver was to act as chair of the organizing committee for the World Meteorological Organization's climate conference and speak at the talks, with his travel costs being covered by the WMO, was refused permission to attend by Ottawa.
MacIver has since resigned. Yep way to keep informed there Jim. I really think you need some management training.

 New Rule for Taser Deaths 

A CBC investigative news report last week showed some police Tasers can discharge a more powerful electrical current than their manufacturer says and so various policing forces across Canada are now testing these lethal weapons.

New rule, from now on when someone dies after being tasered, before we start blaming the victim or the cops, will someone please check the voltage of the weapon used and then sue the hell of Taser International.

 Harper leading from behind 

The big story for the end of the week is the forthcoming meeting between Harper and Ignatieff to supposedly go over the budget details that will be presented to parliament in January.

Of course both sides are saying the other should go forth on making the proposals first.

I can understand Ignatieff, with no access to actual numbers and only being the liberal leader for three days. not having all his homework done yet. But come on Harper you’re the guy that went to Peru comparing this crisis to the Great Depression and you don’t have your plan ready yet.

Here’s a hint Steve, hold the meeting off until January 6th and then you can use Obama’s.

After all you are used to leading from the backside of US presidents.

 And lastly Ashcroft worked better stoned 

Apparently former US Attorney General John Ashcroft did an interview this week, where he spoke for the first time about the hospital bed side meeting, when he was asked by Gonzales to re-authorize a controversial domestic spying program.

Ashcroft refused to reverse the Justice Department's decision and soon after resigned.
So, I think the system worked, he said. And I'm glad that it did. 
It may not prove a whole lot about a lot of things. It may just prove that when I have a lot of morphine in my system, I make the right decisions.

Maybe I should have kept one of those at my desk throughout my administration. Make better decisions.
Ashcroft was always my favorite neocon, and this probably explains his Eagles song .








JAWL

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Hey Iggy whats it going to be the coalition or me

Our sanctimonious prime minister is offering an invitation to the new liberal leader to sit down with him to discuss the economic situation and even present some proposals.
I'm optimistic that the next leader of the Opposition may want to look at different kinds of arrangements in the best interest of the country,'' said Harper.

I hope the next Liberal leader, the first thing he'll do will be willing to sit down with me and have that kind of (economic) discussion,'' said Harper.
Although splitting up the coalition is a self serving move for Harper, it’s such a big step for our proroguing prime minister that I am sure he wants Canadians to believe that he is now acting somewhat like a parliamentarian.

After all he is now offering to talk to at least one member of the opposition.

Of course the conservatives do need time to change their radio ads and get the new message out to their storm troopers.

Meanwhile being prorogued apparently doesn’t prevent our government from worrying about the small stuff like bailing out the Canadian auto industry,

You can expect Clement and Flaherty to offer up some portion of the $6 billion that the big three are asking for after the Americans finalize the $15 billion US bailout this week.

It’s makes you wonder what the big stuff is that Harper and Flaherty will finally propose when they present their economic recovery budget in January.

If Iggy continues his reticence towards the Coalition and fails to reaffirm the alliance it will most assuredly consist of more ideological cuts similar to the leaked $200 million reduction in funding to the CBC.

So we are all waiting patiently Mr. Ignatieff.

Harper to see if he actually needs to start doing his job and this old salesman to see which Blogger template goes best with orange.





JAWL

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Liberal if necessary, not necessarily Liberal


Congratulations to the Liberal party for selecting a new leader quickly.

By the early reports coming from the MSM, Mr. Ignatieff seems to be getting a very favorable welcome with articles about his ascent to power, a pictorial slide biography and a special presentation tomorrow night on Canwest Global.

Now if the Liberal party could just as quickly start working with the NDP on proposing some detailed economic proposals that they will immediately implement as a Coalition government, it will set a bar of acceptability and a comparison for the proposals that Harper will present in January.

Right now Harper is getting a free ride on setting the economic strategy and is throwing down a tongue in cheek gauntlet, inviting the opposition parties to offer specific suggestions for managing the economy.

Take him up on his offer and ask for formal meetings with the appropriate ministers, force his hand to cooperate, show Canadians that the Coalition is putting the economic emergency ahead of political opportunism.

I obviously disagree with Mr. Ignatieff about the importance and necessity of the Coalition. The threat of defeat is the only way to force Harper to put his ideology aside, even for a short while and start respecting the role of parliament.

However I also agree with him when it comes to a wait and see what Harper has to offer before making judgement.

Avoiding an election is not only important for the country right now, I believe that Mr. Ignatieff realizes that it is also important for the Liberal party.

In this new coalitionist environment voting Liberal is no longer the only way to stop Harper.




JAWL

Monday, December 8, 2008

Eleven fifteen



28 years ago. Instant Karma.





JAWL

If the Liberals have any closed doors, please use them


The federal Liberal party has been a soap opera for the last three days and personally I am not a big fan of soap operas or washing one's dirty laundry in public.

It must be some carryover from the Martin regime

The cons must be laughing their asses off, although that really doesn’t matter since they are mostly assholes anyway.

However Jack Layton and the NDP might be getting a little concerned.

I would assume that the Liberals must be communicating with him since the NDP have been respectfully silent, while all this supposedly back room maneuvering plays out in hourly press releases.

At this precise moment in time, it looks like it will end with Michael Ignatieff as the new leader, but who knows by the time I spell check this post.

Being a non party member and just plain lazy I have no idea whether Ignatieff will make a good leader. I have never heard him speak or seen him in action, other than the conservative ads where Dion said governing was a tough job. Oh and he was for the Iraq war.

I like Bob Rae’s image, in fact I would vote for Bob Rae, but I doubt that he could win mayor of Mississauga (assuming Hazel ever retired) let alone lead the Liberals to a majority of seats in Ontario.

So if Ignatieff is your guy get it over with and start getting ready for a January election.

Then start working on a strategic voting strategy with the NDP that will eliminate the vote splitting.

You have the numbers by riding and you know which riding each can take. So even up on the ones you are going to go strategic on and fight for the rest.

Sorry 308 guys but it is either that or the two parties merge.

If Harper is truly wounded put a spike through his heart, because wounded or not he going for a majority.

It might not sound that democratic, but there hasn’t been that much democracy around here lately, anyway.



JAWL

Fiddling while Rome burns


I have added Paul Krugman to my American blog listings this morning.

This is Paul Krugman the Princeton, Professor of Economics and International Affairs who is picking up his Nobel prize for economics this week.

Unlike his weekly New York Times, political opinion pieces his blog entitled The Conscience of a Liberal consists of shorter posts on economics and the economy.

Economics by definition is the branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth, so I figure if you are going to listen to any of these economists it might as well be a liberal one that looks at the numbers and mathematical equations with some concern about workers and not just balance sheets.
Here’s Krugman’s Saturday post on November’s unemployment numbers released last week where everyone is in shock at the 500,000 plus jobs lost last month in the US (70,000 plus in Canada),

He brings up the point that the way we calculate the unemployment rate does not take into consideration the number of people who are no longer looking for work.

These are people who no longer qualify for unemployment insurance. After all not everybody gets a new job after the 26 weeks in the US or the 33 weeks in Canada. Therefore the unemployment rate is understated.

To illustrate this he reproduced the chart above from US Bureau of Labour Statistics showing the employment-population ratio, the ratio of employed Americans to the adult population.

Krugman’s take is that it’s been a weak economy all along and now it’s falling off a cliff.
Hey, I didn’t say it was going to be a fun read, but the point is that it has been bad for a longer period of time than our current political leaders will admit and it is going to get worse.

The same economic assessment applies to Canada, when you take away the inflated oil prices for the last two years and similar to Krugman’s focus in the US, our Canadian politicians need to start looking beyond the balance sheets of corporations when considering a bailout and start focussing on keeping Canadians employed and supporting them if they aren’t.
Bailing out the automotive industry, the forestry or which ever industry lines up next is about jobs, not corporate executive compensation and perks.

Expanding the capabilities of the BDC (Business Development Corporation) to provide domestic small business loans instead of just those dealing with export is about saving small Canadian businesses and lots of Canadian jobs.

Expanding the terms of unemployment insurance coverage beyond thirty three weeks is about supporting workers until we get through this mess.
But, unfortunately this rant is falling upon deaf ears as we are now entering the second phase of our last election and by all signs, starting the third and final phase upon the return of parliament in late January.

Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.

Meanwhile check out Krugman's blog if economics are of interest.



JAWL

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Surprisingly Taser International misses rare marketing opportunity

The CBC ran tests on 41 Tasers used by the majority of policing organizations in the world and found that ten percent of the tested weapons fired a stronger current than the company claims.
The tests' designer, University of Montreal biomedical engineer Pierre Savard, says they provide a rare glimpse at the effectiveness of Taser's weapons, which are not subject to rigorous independent examination.

"When you use a cellphone, well, cellphones have to respect a set of standards … for the electric magnetic field that it emits. The Taser, well, nobody knows except Taser International."

The four faulty stun-guns were all manufactured before 2005, raising concerns that the weapons deteriorate with age. The RCMP they will be pulling a sample of their own Tasers for testing based on the results.

Savard says weapons that fire a too strong current present a dangerous situation because officers are trained to fire the Tasers directly at a target's chest.

"When you combine an increased current intensity with a dart that falls right over the heart for somebody who has cardiovascular disease or other conditions such as using drugs, for example, it can all add up to a fatal issue," he told CBC.
Surprisingly in response Taser International who are usually right on the killing edge of marketing techniques , completely missed the opportunity to expound on “the built in obsolescence” feature.

A rare opportunity to be replenishing every police force every two years... planned obsolescence equals planned sales growth etc.

Instead they stuck to their old "shocking criminals is less harmful than whatever police forces did before" gambit.
TASER International appreciates the continued interest in TASER technology, and sincerely hope that the CBC report will focus on the proven injury reductions law enforcement experience with this technology, rather than using engineering minutiae to confuse the viewer and create a false sense of controversy over a test that confirms the output of TASER X26's are consistent, and well below acceptable safety thresholds.
No wonder Taser’s stock remains under four bucks with such shoddy marketing gaffes.

Meanwhile 26 Canadians and 380 Americans have died after being struck by a Taser.





Reference: Raw Story here and the CBC here .

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Maintain the coalition and Harper has lost



I heard my first conservative ad today.

The ad claims that Dion is trying to overturn the results of the last election and is being supported by the separatist party that is out to destroy Canada.

Although your first reaction is outright anger over the arrogant distortion of fact, hell the outright lies...

in the end it is the ridiculousness of their attack will come back to bite Harper and his conservative followers in the ass come January as long the coalition of the NDP and the Liberal parties remains in tack.

Regardless of whether Dion remains interim leader of the Liberals and therefore the Coalition or is replaced, the die has been cast for Harper's eventual removal and at a time when the opposition parties decide they can overthrow him in general election.

Come January when the legislature resumes the Coalition can maintain it's non confidence stance and the Bloc who are not part of the coalition can vote in support of the conservatives and can continue to do so until all three opposition decide it is time to throw him out.

Unfortunately now Mr. Harper your future now rests in the hands of the Bloc and I truly believe that Mr. Duceppe will enjoy supporting you at his whim, until he decides it is time to throw you out.

Meanwhile here's John Lennon recording Gimme Some Truth, since it is non existent right now.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Some Kind of Wonderful



Grand Funk for my wife of 38 years today.

And she is, yeah yeah yeah yeah.



JAWL

Ed Broadbents warning

As a follow up to his television interview where he outright accused Harper of lying to the Canadians, Ed Broadbent has written a scathing article on Harper’s reckless power grab.
Excerpts from the Globe and Mail

Since first being elected to the House of Commons in 1968, at a time of great national unity, I have never witnessed a Canadian prime minister consciously decide to disunite the nation. Until now

Now, for the first time in our history, we have a prime minister prepared to set a fire that we may not be able to put out, for the paltry purpose of saving himself from a confidence vote on Monday.

In almost every sentence, paragraph and page coming from Mr. Harper, his ministers and Conservative MPs, we're getting distortions intended to delegitimize a democratically formed coalition, proposed in accordance with normal parliamentary practices, between the Liberals and the NDP.

Instead of focusing on accommodation, on the need for early action on the economy, Mr. Harper is launching hypocritical attacks that can lead to a national disaster, and, with the time prorogation has granted him, he will no doubt continue to promote disunity.

Instead of following constitutional precedent and allowing a democratic confidence vote to take place when it should, we have a power-hungry man who will be recorded as the first prime minister in Canada's history to deliberately create a political crisis and set the fire of national disunity.
Although there is much consternation among progressives, myself included, about yesterday’s proroguing of the legislature, rightly or wrongly granted by the governor general, it is also part of our parliamentary process and presumably an opportunity to refocus.

Our country needs leadership in preparation for the oncoming economic meltdown and personally I don’t care if it comes from the minority government working with the opposition or the majority coalition working despite the minority.

However all Canadians should take heed of Mr. Broadbent’s warning.

We now have a power hungry ideologue as prime minister who has been rebuked and similar to a wounded animal he will continue to attack regardless of the consequences.

Mr. Harper wants to turn this rebuke of his ill conceived, partisan, ideological, economic update into a referendum of parliamentary procedure, national unity and another untimely, wasteful election.

It is with little wonder at times like this that I have more in common with the sovereignists in Quebec than I do with the conservatives in Canada.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Well why the hell not


Not only did Harper convince the governor general to give him a do over today and therefore weaken our democracy for years to come, he also won an award from the Conference of Presidents (of Major American Jewish Organizations).

Now please make sure you are sitting...

The award their first ever International Leadership Award .

But wait it gets better...

Here’s Harpers acceptance quote:
Canada stands with Israel, and will stand with any nation willing to put its trust in its people and follow the principles of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
That’s it for me. I'm taking the cynic's advice and drinking scotch for the rest of night.



JAWL

Sit wait and prepare

To Mr. Dion and Mr. Layton,

Respond to the torrent of lies that will be broadcasted by Mr. Harper’s conservatives over the next seven weeks with economic leadership and social empathy.

Prepare, plan and propose economic stimuli projects, industry focussed support and the necessary social assistance for the increasing number of Canadians that will be loosing their employment, homes and livelihood.

The objective is to survive a world wide recession with the least amount of hardship for Canadians and our businesses.

The country needs leadership, not ideological scheming nor hysterical fear mongering so leave that to Harper and continue to force him to act responsibly.

And if he fails to do so in January or at any time during this parliament bring him down.


JAWL

Prorogue This



JAWL

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Heres something we can stop doing with a coalition


Another U.S. Iraq war resister has been ordered to leave the country.

Dean Walcott says Immigration officials have said he must leave Canada by Jan. 6 or face deportation.

This is something we can immediately stop doing with a coalition government.





JAWL

Prorogation delay will only hurt more Canadians


The prorogation of parliament will only delay the implementation of the economic strategies outlined by the new coalition government.

Even if the Governor General agrees to Mr. Harper's expected request to prorogue this session of the legislature, the prorogation will not nullify the confidence vote on the Economic Update presented last week.

In fact it would have to be brought down, or voted upon at the resumption of the legislature in late January.

It would be highly unlikely that the conservative government could present a revised economic action plan prior to addressing the existing confidence vote on the update and also highly unlikely that the coalition would or could vote in favor of the update, which they have emphatically stated non confidence in.

In other words Mr. Harpers ploy and only reason for the prorogation would be to stall for time and then upon the return to parliament immediately disband and call upon the Governor General for an election.

The two options being presented before Canadians have now become whether we want a government that can and will immediately start working on an existing economic plan to assist Canadian businesses to prevent more of us from loosing our jobs or do we want to delay any actions until after another unnecessary election takes place in March.

At this time, I believe we can no longer afford to satiate Mr. Harpers vanity and ego.

The Governor General should refuse Mr. Harper's request for prorogation and allow the confidence vote on the matter presented before the legislature to proceed

If you have not done so yet, please sign up to support the coalition and pass the information along to non bloggers.



JAWL

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Like fish in a barrel

I just spent the wee hours of the morning silently shooting down the outrageous statements made by the outraged Tories quoted in this mornings newspapers. Try it at home, it is fun and quite uplifting.

Here’s some to get you started:
Defence Minister Peter MacKay says he does not believe the opposition parties are acting in the best interest of democracy or the country by agreeing to form a coalition government.
Excuse me Peter, think back now... what exactly did you do in 2003, after winning the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
Mr. Harper stated , I would certainly not want to find myself governing this economy today … under a situation where I was required to follow socialist economics and be at the behest of the veto of the separatists
Actually Mr. Harper that is the make up of the House of Commons that Canadians voted for and you sir by not winning a majority government were expected to govern under those same circumstances.


Instead your government ignored the economy, ignored the will of the voters and decided to play petty political games. But don’t worry about it. As the majority of our representatives have now lost confidence in your ability to govern, so it will not be your problem anymore.
Mr. Stelmach said in a reference to the separatist Bloc., Canadians did not vote for a minority coalition that will govern with the support of a party whose agenda is by definition opposed to the national interest,
No Mr. Stelmach Canadians actually voted for an individual to represent them in parliament and the majority of those representatives including the ones from the Bloc, have now lost confidence in the ability of the minority government to govern in the best interests of the nation.


It’s a called a Parliamentary system sir, and in Canada according to Section 17 of the Constitution Act, 1867, parliament consists of three components: the sovereign, the Senate, and the House of Commons.


There are 308 members of the House of Commons who are directly elected by the people, with each member representing a single electoral district, frequently called a constituency or a riding and the majority of those members have lost confidence in your guy.


So suck it up.


Gee, I love the parliamentary system .



JAWL

Monday, December 1, 2008

You got to know when to fold them

Harper was in parliament today, accusing Dion of playing the biggest political game in history and is claiming that the decision to hold a non confidence vote should wait until the end of January.

Harper had the gaul to try and defend last Thursday's fiscal update, saying it included help for seniors hit by the worldwide financial turmoil and other measures to stimulate the economy, such as doubling infrastructure spending to record levels next year.

Sorry this is a government that committed $75 billion plus to the banks without as much as a nod to the opposition parties that they said they would work with let alone presenting it to people’s representatives in parliament.

A government that then had the arrogance to stand before the Canadian people and claim that it’s plan for the impending “great depression” like world wide collapse, that it's leader was so concerned about in Peru, consisted of eliminating the right to strike for government workers and withdrawing funding for political parties.

No Mr. Harper it was you who thinks political leadership is a game and Canadians are loosing their jobs and have lost their their patience with your gamesmanship.

You loose walk away.




JAWL

Other than the separation thing, I would vote Bloc

Over the last couple elections, I’ve heard both my liberal and closet conservative friends claim that it was too bad they couldn’t vote for Duceppe.

When you listened to some of the English debates he came across as the most confident leader and usually the one with the best social agenda.

Which makes sense since he has had a seat in parliament longer than the other leaders and he is trying to meet the needs of Canadians living in La Belle province.

He was he first Bloc member elected, back in 1990, when the Quebec coalition put together by Mulroney broke up.

Plus most of the Bloc’s platform and initiatives would be supported by at least 60% of Canadians.

  • Wants economic aid to manufacturing
  • Wants economic aid to forestry
  • Supports Kyoto
  • Protests violence against women
  • Supports rights for Indigenous People
  • Concerned about aboriginal health issues
  • Wants to protect unions
  • Wants to repatriate Omar Khadr
  • Supports Firearms Registry
  • Voted against extension of Afghan mission
  • Had a plan for dealing with soaring oil prices
  • For the decriminalization of marijuana

During the last election Duceppe can certainly take his share of the credit for blocking a Harper majority and now his support of a coalition government can remove Harper from office.

You’re having a great year Mr. Duceppe keep it up.

Socialists, separatists and god less Liberals, my kind of coalition, I feel thirty years younger.

Viva pour la democratie!






Reference: just killing time until the next Tory story breaks