Willy Loman

Napoleon XIV aka Jerry Samuels, a sound engineer, released They’re Coming to take me Away in 1966. It reached number 1 in a week, but quickly fell as radio stations were forced to pull it due to protests from mental illness advocacy groups. The B side of the single was called aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT and it played the song in reverse. Samuels who is now 70 years of age, still writes songs and runs an entertainment booking agency , primarily for retirement homes. When it came out you couldn’t stop singing it over and over in your head. I sang it to my kids when they were young and now to my grandkids when their parents aren't around and I’ll probably still be singing it when I’m finally sent to a home. Or maybe just the B side.

Probably a good idea. Despite his healthy lead in the polls, Obama is imploring his crowds of supporters not to forget to vote and asked them to take five friends along and "dig deep and make history". With ever increasing internet and email traffic the GOP and their operatives are increasing the rhetoric about Obama's, religion, past associations and hidden agendas. The rumours include claims that he is a Muslim, does not have a US birth certificate and resembles the anti-Christ. The latter and most outlandish slander is based on Chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation presaging the end of the world. A poll for the Houston Chronicle meanwhile found that 23% of Texans thought Mr Obama follows Islam. McCain might be running out time, to find any shred of innuendo that he can hang a big enough lie on. However with the validity of their last two elections in question, it is probably a very idea to keep the pressure up. The Americans need to get this one right fo...

A scary double entendre. Happy Halloween Masks from Ethan Persoff here .

Yesterday, unbelievably, crazy Christians, gathered around and laid their hands upon the The Wall Street Bull to pray for God to turn the stock markets around. Apparently the 700 Club declared October 28th a Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies and asked followers to go pray at the statue of the bull. We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the 'Lion’s Market,' or God’s control over the economic systems, she said. And sure enough these crazy, horribly confused people showed up. I am not a Christian, but aren’t there some rules against worshiping at the foot of an idol. Like the third, fourth and fifth ones. More pictures and video from Wonkette here .

Apparently North Carolina is in play this time around, so this video produced by Daily Show alumni and a group called Aqua Teen illustrates some of the crazies that are going to vote. Some reveal they vote for the glory of Satan or to keep whites in power while other prospective voters are shown drunk or huffing paint. 
 Please, vote, a narrator asks. "It's the only way to cancel out your neighbors. It's a non partisan video but many look like Palin followers to me. H/T Raw Story here .

Apparently Sam the Wurzelbacher, AKA Joe the Plumber has decided to extend his two weeks of fame beyond the current election cycle. He has signed a management deal to to hopefully become a show business personality “Joe the Plumber is fast becoming a brand,” his opportunistic agency said. “He is a dynamic speaker and an everyman who has become an overnight celebrity. It’s going to be our job to find Joe’s strengths and give him some options.” To continue the immediate exposure Joe is now appearing on stage with Palin. “He’s a fellow Alaskan, and he’s a fellow military man who served our country proudly,” Ms. Palin said. “I’d like you to meet him! Please welcome Joe the Plumber!” But his agency can see a good future for him after the election. “It wouldn’t be far afield to have Joe be the spokesperson for Home Depot, for example, representing the shoulder-to-the-wheel working stiff,” “He really isn’t selling out in any way, shape or form. We just want to see where he can have a po...

"The issue of economics is not something I've understood s well as I should." John McCain December 18, 2007 "I might have to rely on a Vice President that I select for expertise on economic issues." John McCain, November 28, 2007 His Choice?

So much for that old, cold hands, warm heart, adage . Researchers at Yale University have discovered that people holding warm objects in their hands become more friendly, generous and trusting, making them see others as warmer people as well. For the first study they presented half the unwitting participants with a hot or ice cold coffee and then asked what they thought of a stranger after a brief meeting. People holding the warm coffee found had a more favorable impression of the strangers that they met that people that held the iced coffee, did. In the second study the researchers had people, who thought they were evaluating a product, hold either a warm or cold object and then given a choice of reward for participating in the study: either a gift for a friend, or a reward for themselves. The study found that people who held the hot pad were more likely to choose the gift for a friend, and people who held the cold pack were more likely to choose the reward for themselves. The researc...

Apparently the original idea was that Australians who wanted uncensored access could select that option from the ISP and I imagine pay extra money.  Now the Government has decided to make the Internet blocking filters mandatory.   The Government's $44 million internet censorship plan would include two tiers -- mandatory filtering for all, and an optional level that will provide a "clean feed" censoring adult material, said Communications Minister Stephen Conroy. Despite planning to hold trials before the end of the year, Senator Conroy said it was not known what content the mandatory filter would bar, but euthanasia and pro-anorexia sites may be on the chopping block. "We are talking about mandatory blocking, where possible, of illegal material," he told a Senate estimates committee. It looks like their Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, of the left of center Labour Party is more of a Social Conservative than the right of center John Howard that he replaced. Apparentl...

A supporter of Sarah Palin shouts "He's a niger" in reference to Obama while Palin herself attempts to continue her attack on Obama. It's obvious in the video, that Palin heard what the person said, because the racial slur broke her stride and caused her to pause. Yet she says nothing about the racism she is reveling in. McCain's probably just thankful, that she didn't wink.

While plugging his new book yesterday, Paul Martin our former PM came up with an interesting point about Canada’s future role on the world stage. Unlike Harper, Martin believes that the G8 should expand to include more countries and he believes that Canada should lead the way in expanding it. Martin’s logic is that once China and India are invited in, Canada will not be among the world's leading top 10 economies, so the way in which you guarantee that you’re part of it is to you take the lead in expansion. "This new world grouping could easily be put together without Canada being part of it,” When you recall the last G8 meeting where Harper centered out both China and India as the reason why setting new emission standards should be delayed, it seems that Martin’s warnings bear some weight. With Obama coming on the scene next year, it should be expected that he will be much more inclusive than Bush was, when it comes to accepting new members and embracing new initiat...

CBC: here and Telegraph UK here  .

The only positive thing about next year’s recession, that Harper and Flaherty keep telling us we are not going to have, is that this time around there is enough time to plan for it. This will be the my third recession and I’m actually getting used to them. My first one, in the early eighties was tough (young family and all), but in the end I got to start over in a new emerging industry. The last one in 1990 worked out great. I was used to the pressure and ended up starting a new business and having fun for the last 18 years, Recessions might be man made but they are a recurring natural phenomena in the business cycle, so you might as well get used to them. If this is your second one, you know what I getting at and you will probably do better than you did last time. However if you are under forty years of age, this will most likely be your first one. So here’s what I wish someone would of told me back in the eighties. Realize that there is going to be one Don’t wait for the government t...

Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, and Darrell Hammond doing Bush's endorsement of McCain and Palin. Well written, well performed but I don't think Ferrell was there for laughs.

They said the Obamma campaign had money for advertising during the last few weeks. Well here is some money well spent. The ad was released yesterday, it's on 169 sites and had over 282,000 views so far. Some 2008 US reality from the wassup boys from the bud Superbowl ad.

Big hubbub today, about Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) being banned from entering Israel where he was to perform at 10th anniversary of the Peres Centre for Peace, next week. Turns out it was just the overactive British press. "This is a storm in a jam jar, because in fact I had already put a cap on this matter. I'd given apologies to the Peres Centre some time ago, due to the date of the event coinciding with a scheduled trip to the United States. "That's not to say that I didn't appreciate the invitation from the Centre, and I am of course supportive of initiatives for peace," Yusuf said in the emailed statement. Storm in a jam jar, now there's a saying you don't hear that often. Good to hear that Yusuf can travel to the US again. Hey, it's good just to hear Cat Stevens.

According to this puff piece from the Globe , Harper is going to “project competence” in his cabinet choices this time around. Although competence would be a refreshing change and certainly a much better choice than incompetence, it is probably still setting too lofty a goal for this group. But get used to the terminology, because competence will be the key message as they try to project that the electorate has somehow selected this experienced team. Here’s an unnamed CPC official, fresh out of a marketing planning session. "The overall message for everything that we are doing is that we're carrying on with competent government," a senior Conservative official said yesterday. "We have real strong people, and we elected really strong people as well. That's what you're going to see." I mean who knew. All I thought they had a was an arrogant, ideological leader with a patchwork of western reformers and former, failed Ontario ministers, the odd a...

Our finance minister Jim Flaherty should be starting his news conference about now, before the financial markets open where it is assumed he will finally: Guarantee loans made by banks to other financial institutions Raise deposit insurance levels (currently capped at $100,000) I guess Jim's original plan of continually reminding us that the Canadian banking system is the best in the world isn’t working out as well as expected since the TSX lost over 550 points yesterday and the dollar dipped below 80 cents US. Hey Jim, I was just starting to warm up to your original plan...

Apparently since I am old and only had black and white TV when I was a kid, I dream in black and white, twenty five percent of the time, while younger people dream in colour most of the time. It has something to do with the effects of media exposure during our formative years of 5 to 10 years of age when we were starting to dream. At least according to this article from the Telegraph UK . Well that would explain a lot. It seems that I have a tendency to dream the same way that I blog: Quantity over Quality. Good night and happy dreams. via Boing Boing .

The price of a barrel of oil fell below $70 US yesterday and in fact has fallen 53% since July  .  Why the hell are we still paying over a buck a litre?

Today a federal judge threw out the Friends of the Earth (FOE) lawsuit against Baird and Environment Canada. The suit which was first presented before the court back in June of this year, asked the court to compel the Conservative government to follow the then year old KPIA climate-change law. The KPIA (Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act) was a private members bill put forward by Liberal Pablo Rodriguez, which passed into law in June 2007. The law requires the government to meet its targets under the Kyoto Protocol and submit a plan showing how it would do so, as well as provide ongoing progress reports. FOE submited that Baird defied the will of Parliament and dispensed with the rule of law by refusing to comply with the mandatory requirements of the KPIA. Their suit raised the fundamental question of whether a Minister of the Crown, in this case Baird, the Minister of Environment, is accountable for ignoring the will of Parliament. The government argued that the issue of C...

“We must look beyond leadership to understand what went wrong in the campaign. ... and begin to fix our problems so that we can, I hope and I am confident, form a Liberal government again for all Canadians,” Mr. Dion said.  

I always thought these two seventy year olds looked alike (Dalai Lama is 73 and Powell is 71).  In fact I've often mixed them up when scanning images. As Scott states, I too hope that Powell's thoughtful, convincing endorsement of Obama has a positive affect on "the undecided" voter  or some centrist republicans. Unfortunately for me, he still has no credibility. Like the Dalai Lama though.

Sarah Palin was on SNL last night. I don't know how many months pregnant Amy Poehler is, but she is friggin awesome. One talented woman. I think TV could be a good be a good career choice for Palin after McCain looses the election. She can deliver scripted lines as well as anyone. Maybe a Fox show. Strange election in the US, it now looks like McCain is hurting Palin's chances of be elected.

Probably a good choice, since he was a chief economist for the Royal Bank of Canada and that could be handy right now. Of course he most likely, is also the only elected Liberal west of Quebec that isn’t going to make a run for the leadership of the party. From CTV here  .

Like many other much more established and experienced bloggers, I have just spent the last seven months attacking Harper, his ministers and his ideological governance on almost a daily basis. Sometimes brilliantly (I would not so critically proclaim), when I had truth, morality and facts on my side, sometimes foolishly when I was just plain pissed off, misinformed or just didn’t take the time to research the details. Hell I’m a generalist not a specialist and it’s a bitch to do one post a day at five o’clock in the morning (sorry about the whining, it’s been a tough week, work wise). Anyway, not being a party guy, left, center or right, I was somewhat relieved by the results of this past election. We collectively denied Harper a majority. And although there has not been a lot of celebration this week on the progressive side of the blogosphere (well except for Buckdog), it was nice take a breath and somewhat relax (attack wise) and pause for reflection. Well at least until Thursday morn...

Having now given up almost all of my youthful endeavors I refuse to change my music. After all sudden withdrawal can be extremely dangerous, Cold Turkey was released as a single thirty nine years ago today by the Plastic Ono Band.

McCain finally went on Letterman last night. During their segment Letterman questioned McCain's continuing attacks on  Obama's past relationship with Ayers a 60's radical (now a professor). "You will also admit that we cannot really control who we interact with in our lives, a hundred percent," said Letterman, referencing McCain's ubiquitous attack against Barack Obama that ties him to a 60's political radical. "I mean, you have ... You have ..." McCain interrupted. "Depends on how long we interact with them and how we interact with them." Letterman tried to cut in several times, but he was cut off by the candidate.  "The point is ... The point, the point of this whole campaign, the economy, the economy ..." trailed McCain, counting with his left hand, but ceeding to Letterman on his third 'economy.' "Did you not have a relationship with Gordon Liddy?" asked the host. "Um, I've met him, uh, you...

Sleazy retail chain closes unionized auto shop.   The hell with the cheap clothes, this company remains boycotted by me. Reference CBC here  .

The Bank of Canada has increased the amount of cash injections into our financial system. Yesterday they injected $10 billion, an increase of $6 billion over $4 billion they previously announced. The cash injections are done through PRA (Purchase Resale Agreements) transactions where the government buys securities and commercial paper from participating banks with an agreement to resell them back to the banks at a fixed date, in this case on Nov. 13. It’s like a short term loan with varying fixed rates in this case averaging 2.808 percent. The reason for all this of course is because the banks, including all the foreign banks are not lending money to each other. And all this is over and above the $25 billion plan announced last week to buy mortgages from Canadian banks. The real question becomes how long can the government continue to do this and how large will these required cash injections become. In order to increase cash availability, the Bank of Canada is considering l...

With his strengthened mandate in hand, our prime minister has announced his new six point plan to deal with “this period of economic uncertainty”. Hold a first ministers meeting to discuss the global financial crisis. ( But not  the one that the provincial ministers are having next week , apparently he is busy. It will be another one, some time in the future) Continue to work with other G7 nations to take "appropriate actions" to support Canada's financial system. (Well that’s good, I’m glad we’re still a member) Summon Parliament to meet in the fall. Harper did not give a date for the resumption of Parliament. (OK?) Send Harper to meet with European Union leaders later this week to discuss the economic crisis and strengthen Canada's economic partnership with the EU. ( I believe that meeting was already scheduled and Europe is necessarily open to Harper’s ideology  ) Attend a summit of G-20 finance ministers in Brazil in early November. (The weather should be nice) Co...

No majority as summed up by the New York Times and CPs prediction of the financial mess we are in

This report from CTV twists out of context statements from the report handed in by the Liberal tape expert and then implies that it casts doubt on the authenticity of a taped conversation between Harper and Zytaruk. Basically the reporters scoured the report to find these three paragraphs. "it can be postulated that the original ... tape recording was digitized, edited digitally and the electronically placed on the evidence tape associated with this dispute." Postulated as in assumed that the original tape was recorded on a digital device, which would be the recording device, Zytaruk used to make the original recording and then “electronically placed” as in copied from the original tape on to the evidence tape. Well that sounds about right. Isn’t that what happens when you digitally tape a conversation and then digitally make a copy of that tape. But then the CTV article jumps to an unrelated paragraph about an alteration, implying that there was one, when in reality ...

Would of been nice to know this earlier. H/T Take off eh

Harper’s finance minister was at the White House for the G7 meeting, and apparently Flaherty is even more proud about his economic stewardship. "We are on the positive side and it's anticipated by the IMF that we'll have the best economic growth in the G7 next year, albeit it small economic growth - 1.2 per cent," said Flaherty. Of course back in April when the IMF first warned that bankers should react more aggressively to the movement in housing prices. Flaherty said Canada didn’t have to worry about the US housing crisis, it won’t affect Canada. And then spent $20 billion last week to bail out the banks. And in June when the IMF specifically warmed Canada that it should cautiously curb spending or risk falling into deficit. Flaherty rejected their warnings proclaiming that Canada was an “oil producing superpower”. Only to end up reducing the forecast a month later down to the 1.1% increase the IMF has accepted. Yep Jim says not to worry, we are going to enjoy his ...

The Alaska legislature, ethics committee, report that investigated Sarah Palin’s abuse of power, during her beverly hillbilly like tenure as Governor of Alaska found that her husband Todd, the self described “first dude of Alaska” was in there running things, sort of like a "two for". Todd Palin spent about 50 per cent of his time in the governor's office, making phone calls, participating in meetings or just hanging out. We're having it (a meeting Todd called with officials) in the governor's office, and he's not the governor. I think he was trying to use state trappings to handle a personal issue. He had a significant influence, in that he was always interacting with the employees there, Any time I needed to get information to the governor, I would always go through Todd. The governor and her staff kept Todd Palin in the loop on a wide range of issues, copying him on e-mails about union matters, public relations and a bill requiring parental consent for abor...

It's the insidiousness of Harper's western based, reform party, neoconservative like ideology that has always pissed me off. It is a somewhat holier than thou attitude where responses to questions are delivered with arrogant innuendo that barely conceals contempt for inquisitor and the subject matter. It is the main reason that Manning could not get a base in Ontario, Quebec or the Maritimes the first time around. The best example that I can recall from Manning's run was his response to a CBC reporter about whether he would censure an Ontario candidate who had made a racial slur about an opposing black candidate. It went something like this. "Well you know he's (the reform candidate) a very impassioned and direct man. He always calls a spade a spade." Manning replied with a smile. Harper had a similar unpolished, arrogant moment when he first took over. During his first electoral run as head of the Reform Party he was asked on the first day, wheth...

Harper's 1997 speech as then vice president of the National Citizens Coalition, to a June 1997 Montreal meeting of the Council for National Policy, a right-wing U.S. think tank. I'm sure you all have your favorites, here's mine: About Canadians It may not be true, but it's legendary that if you're like all Americans, you know almost nothing except for your own country. Which makes you probably knowledgeable about one more country than most Canadians. About Canada First, facts about Canada. Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it. About unemployment recipients In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don't feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don't feel bad about it themselves, as long as they're receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance. About our head of state However, our executive is the Queen, who doesn't live here. Her re...

The PALINdrome site is back up.  The Palindrome is a site that allows you to select words, create sentences, paragraphs and speeches that then gets recorded in Palin's voice. They give you about 100 words to choose from. There's a library of completed ones, they are hilarious, witty.  Check it out it's free and fun. Update: Sorry I was typing like Sarah talks.

Despite the misleading description in this Globe article the Tories are now going to buy some mortgages held by the banks and you can be sure they are not the most secure ones. A plan originally earmarked for Friday morning would see the government assume some mortgages currently held by the banks by giving them to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp., a Crown corporation. Apparently Harper and Flaherty have just discovered that some urgent action might be required after all and that the crashing stock markets are not necessarily, just good buying opportunities. Last week Harper had argued that the economy is strong enough not to require urgent action, and that the stock-market plunge was a buying opportunity. Apparently that messaging has come to an end, however, as the Conservatives try to appear more sympathetic in helping put an end to the turmoil. As the election campaign comes to its conclusion, Mr. Harper has argued that Canadians should re-elect the Conservatives because th...

I've had enough of reading things by nuerotic-pyschotic-pig headed politicians all I want is the truth. Give Me Some Truth God How do you Sleep Yer Blues, with Clapton, Richards and one kick ass drummer I get angry when I think of how much we lost. But screw it, celebrate get mad and vote ABC.

Apparently our Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is taking credit for the Canadian banking system where our five monopolistic banks have to maintain set ratios to remain sanctioned. The rules have been there long before Flaherty even started screwing up Ontario's finances. This is basically the same as Tony Clement our Minister Heath taking credit for universal health care. Anyway in typical Flaherty style he then placed his other foot in his mouth by taking a shot at the other industrialized countries as he was a boarding a plane to meet with them at an emergency G7 meeting. “I can say with confidence (to) Canadians that today our financial institutions are well-capitalized in Canada, which cannot be said in a number of another countries in the world,” he assured reporters in Toronto. Sorry Jim, somehow this week’s 1% increase in my TD equity loan or the fact that banks aren’t lending money to anybody, might be the real problem here and I don't really think the G7 appreciate your...

Maple Leaf has come up with four new positive tests for listeria. The Toronto plant which has run over 5,000 tests since it reopened in September has reported 4 positives. "We've just received results related to these four positives," Paul Mayers, associate vice-president of the CFIA, told the Globe. "The plant is operating. The product isn't reaching the marketplace. In fact according to the CBC article here , the CFIA has withheld all food manufactured by the Maple Leaf plant since it reopened. The CFIA and Health Canada (who at least showed up this time) are going to determine whether additional measures are necessary at the plant. Although the renewed precautions are appreciated, it isn’t as if Canadians are clamoring to get their hands on Maple Leaf packaged food products right now anyway. With 20 deaths confirmed to be related to the Listeria break out and another 6 being investigated, you would expect the CFIA and Health Canada to take our food safety more...

It might of been nice to hear about this a little sooner. More than 120 of Canada’s top internationally renowned scientists released a letter yesterday urging Canadians to vote for the environment and support a carbon tax. This group of scientists has been insulted by the Conservatives, said David Schindler. The Tories, treat the science department with disdain, slashing budgets, muzzling federal scientists and ignoring the threat of climate change. What the Conservatives propose is absurd. It’s the foolish way to go he said. A carbon tax is the most effective economic tool to deal with global warming, their letter states. Earlier in the week 230 of the countries top economists banded together calling for an economically coherent action on climate change, that includes a carbon tax. It’s remarkable how much agreement there is among economists on this key point,” said Nancy Olewiler, an economics professor at Simon Fraser University. The best climate change policy is to put a price on c...

I just can't get over how ridiculous this is . Tourism Canada's bobble headed spokesperson is called Steve.  Anyway here's a quick movie from their site showing Steve in action. I keep thinking about Harper's interview yesterday where he said he wouldn't remain in the public eye after his run as politician is over. Maybe this some sort of digital, psycho, Wii, job experiment where Steve gets to see how he would look doing actual work. It's very strange.

Imagine with seven days to go in the election, your party finally releases it’s economy platform in the midst of the biggest market crash since 1929 and on the same day we learn about how your government has just spent a bundle on Steve the bobble head doll. Sun Media reports that Tourism Canada has launched a Meet Steve campaign to lure unsuspecting Americans to hold conventions here. The campaign includes the Book of Steve, a web site, a cross country tour highlighting some cool watering holes and Steve the bobble head doll. Please, please let this be a prank by Sun Media. Even Kory Teneycke couldn’t be this stupid.

The Tories released their quickly assembled party platform at 2:30 this afternoon. They are promising $345 in tariff relief to small manufacturing, $200 million to aerospace and another $200 million to the evaporating auto industry. Forestry gets promised $20 million. Oh and he changed his mind on eliminating the film and TV tax credits. There that should fix things. Well not quite as the TSE started to gradually climb in anticipation of Harper’s grand announcement, it quickly resumed it’s decrease as soon as he started talking. As a wise old stock trader once told me, the market always knows. The TSX crashed through 10,000 ending the day at 9,780. It was probably this line that did it for them. “As the saying goes”, Harper said, “it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. Which is why when the rain came, Noah didn't need to panic and he didn't switch boats." Sorry Steve, Noah was a fictional character and no one wants to sail around in a boat full of shit.

"And" -- she paused and sighed -- "I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America, as the greatest force for good in the world. Sarah Palin was spewing her hate down in Florida today. Apparently Lincoln was wrong, 2,000 sun baked, terrified, republican rednecks can be fooled all the time.

More information came forward today about the changes that Harper’s Tories secretly made to our food inspection back in March. Under the new CVS (Compliance Verification System) the inspectors became auditors of the companies' paperwork and only check records for listeria tests twice a month. In the past the inspectors would of been notified immediately of a recurring positive Listeria test. From the CBC. "Prior to April 1, [any positive listeria tests] would have had to have been, not only brought to the inspector's attention, but the inspector would have been involved in overseeing the cleanup," said Bob Kingston, head of the union representing CFIA inspectors. "The CFIA would have been doing their own testing to validate the success of the cleanup. But after April 1, with the changes they brought in, none of that happened. They weren't required to bring their cleanup activities to the inspector's attention, [and] they wouldn't have been required to...