Willy Loman

Sun Media’s, Canoe News has just released the government’s reaction to the Toronto Star’s front page article about how strippers and escorts are being added as new job classifications to the federally controlled national job classification system. The Star article claims that the government wants to help unemployed Canadians find careers as strippers and for-hire escorts. Apparently, it was only a draft version created by Finley’s office, that was sent to the provinces and according to her PMO assigned, spokesman, Ryan Sparrow, nor would it ever have been a policy under consideration by our government. Which then begs the question, why put the jobs on the list going to provinces for consideration. Well so much for that expected increase in tourism from those Chinese businessmen .

French president Sarkozy rolled out all the pomp possible, with a red carpet arrival for US president Obama, with full military honors from a company of soldiers at the majestic 18th-century Rohan Palace, once home to the bishops of Alsac. The visit will be much watched, especially for the encounter between their wives, Carla and Michelle, who were to share a sumptuous lunch prepared by a two-star chef while the presidents met. Obama will use a U.S.-style town hall meeting with French and German youths in Strasbourg later today to appeal directly to the European public for support for the Afghan mission after which Obama will be heading to Germany to meet with Chancellor Merkel who is co-hosting the 60th NATO meeting with Sarkozy. . Canada’s prime minister will arrive later in the day and would, I expect be given an agenda of when the official photo opportunities will take place and a map showing where the various facilities are located. JAWL

The traditional photo of the G20 leaders will be reshot after Prime Minister Stephen Harper missed his opportunity Thursday to be in the first snap. The BBC is reporting that Harper was in the bathroom while the photo was being taken. The other leaders initially waited for Harper but then went ahead with the photo without him. In a sincere effort to assist the prime minister and possibly save time at these very important G20 meetings (after all the world is falling a part) I have taken the liberty of photoshopping the prime minister in next to the German Chancellor where he was originally scheduled to stand, using one of his more popular images from the web. There everyone back to work. JAWL Reference CBC here .

In a display of tough tory love, a conservative party source said today that Brian Mulroney is not a member of the party and directed further questions to the Prime Minister's Office. Mulroney issued a statement a short time later saying he is a member and will remain one until the day he dies. JAWL

Unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda resigned on Monday over a political deadlock. Mr. Fukuda, 72, has been struggling to cope with a divided parliament where opposition parties have the power to delay legislation. His sudden departure has deepened doubts about his conservative party's ability to cling to power. Apparently in Japan when the Prime Minister throws in the towel he has to leave office permanently. I wish we lived in Japan or better yet, Harper did. From National Post here .

Bush calls his pal Steve over to meet the President of Nigeria. At least he didn't call him Turd Blossom, or Harpey like most us do around here.

Looks like Steve is going to teach Day and his buddy Charles McVetty a lesson: STFU. There is a Globe piece this morning here , where Liberal senators say Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was wrong when he told reporters last week that a bill to deny tax credits to makers of violent or pornographic films and TV shows is necessarily a matter of confidence and must not be changed. "A tax credit is not a taxing measure as such," Mr. Fox said. "It's not something that really affects the fiscal framework of the government." The Finance Minister sees things differently. "This bill should not be amended," Mr. Flaherty said after his appearance before the Senate committee last week. "A tax bill is a confidence bill. We all know that." But the senators are clearly signalling their interest in amending the provision. The article goes on about the line up of who has appeared and who is going to appear before the Senate. But the end of the article is all in...

This morning the Globe reported here . That the National Capital Commission has told the auditor general's office that the Prime Minister's official residence at 24 Sussex Drive, hasn't had major renovations in 50 years and needs $10 million of work and that the occupants would have to move out for 12 to 15 months to get that work done. Harper's office responded that the prime minister has no intention of moving out of the official residence until his term is up At a time like this we should all put our differences behind us, especially us progressives. I think that it is important that the whole country comes together and support Steve in his decision and as quickly as possible end his term as Prime Minister. I'm behind you Steve and I solemnly promise that I will do everything I can to end your term as soon as possible. It is the right thing to do for this treasured Canadian landmark and the right thing to do for our country. You're welcome.

Thanks to Steve I now know what a "Juicy" is. It's not like I  was naive about drugs (after all my somewhat mandatory Friday music post is called the Acid Test) , but I wouldn't consider myself to be a drug user, at least not under the old Liberal government. And I could certainly pass a Olympic Snow Board blood test with the six month residue and all.  But I never knew what a "Juicy" was and now unfortunately every kid that sees our government's new drug ads with sombre, wasted, looking 12 year olds explaining the different street names for drugs, also knows.  But Steve's not worried about that. No these ads have one purpose and one purpose only and that is to scare us. Despite reports to the contrary Steve wants us to believe that drug use is on the rise with teenagers. Our schools are full of heroin users. There is no difference between marijuana and heroin. If you have children you need to be afraid, very afraid. Just like the neocons in the...

Harper has jumped into full damage control over the death of the ducks. Prime Minister Stephen Harper says there's no doubt that Canada's environmental image has been hurt by the deaths of 500 ducks on a toxic oilsands tailings pond in northern Alberta. Harper says this loss of wildlife should not have happened and he says federal officials are investigating. A little bit late to worry about our environmental image Steve. You see Steve, there is this big black hole in Alberta about the size of Florida that is currently spewing 27 megatonnes of Greenhouse gases each year and is expected to leap to over 100 megatonnes by 2015 as the Tar sands expands. Because it is taking up to 7 barrels of water to extract 1 barrel of oil, the water levels of the Athabasca River and the MacKenzie Valley watershed are being seriously depleted . First Nation lands are being destroyed without their permission. There is a giant pond of sludge that is the byproduct of the extraction process that is...

Fox News North National Post has a new puff piece framing Harper's traditional conservative support for what I assume are the declining number of Progressive Conservatives that the neocons need to diversify their base. They had to dig pretty deep, coming up with Kim Campbell. I guess quoting Mulroney's praises just won't cut it anymore or more likely were no longer being offered. Anyway the best Kim could come up with was that " Harpers competent but too controlling ". Not quite sure what basis Kim is using for comparison, but Harpers team certainly seems as inexperienced as hers was during her short as Prime Minister. Just as inexperienced, but a lot more arrogant. Kim sugested that " Harper needs to be a little bit franker about what he would do if he got a majority government. " Sure Kim, asking a Neocon to be open and honest about their agenda is the same as asking a leopard to change it's spots, or little Johnny to quit swearing in class or a...

As promised by Baird, when announcing his plans to save the environment, Canadians are going to have to make sacrifices in order to lower our carbon emissions. Harpers government wants to reduce smog-causing additives in paints, stains and varnishes.  According to CNEWS : Baird is proposing limits on volatile organic compounds, which are found in everything from house paint to nail polish and vehicle coatings. Baird says the compounds are the second largest contributor to smog in Canada, after vehicle emissions. Apparently they are not quite as concerned about the Tar Oil Sands. At least not in the same way. PS: In all fairness Baird probably saw the word "Organic"and thought is was a Liberal additive.

Right on queue here's the Fox News Canada National Post framing of the neocon spin on the forthcoming Bill C57. The  article  is about a Roman Catholic doctor: Dr. Levia "who refuses to prescribe birth control pills, though he will talk about natural family planning; and no patient should expect him to give a referral for an abortion because that, he said, would be akin to "co-operating with evil". When you read down the article you find that Levia is member of the "Canadian Physicians for Life" . This organization headed by a Williard Johnston MD defines something called the Hippocratic Tradition (apparently not the Oath that we have heard some much about) as being against abortions and birth control.  The Post article basically steers it along the Roman Catholic argument, even mentioning the Pope's recent visit and of course no mention of C57. I mean Catholics still represent a large portion of voters in Canada and especially in Quebec, you know the...

Interestingly the winner of last Friday's Neocon Scandal of the Week: Harpers, In and Out Scheme, dominated the media throughout the early part of this week.  There were numerous articles and newscasts about how the neocons tried to circumvent the messaging of the raid by holding a private meeting with select representatives from friendly, media, corporations and how candidates were unaware of the tricks used in funding.  Some conservative candidates in the last election claim that they were dropped by the party because they wouldn't agree to the shady accounting. There were even charts showing how the scheme might have unfairly influenced the actual results of the election. But hey, they are neocons and as Harper said upon his return from praising Bush in New Orleans, if our interpretation of the rules was wrong, we won't do it next time. With so much press, I  was concerned that we would have to run with the same story. But leave it to those crazy Neocons, there's a...

Just in from the Canadian Press : Harper while defending NAFTA "Canada is the United States' No. 1 supplier of energy. We are a secure and stable supplier," said Harper, standing at a lecturn next to Bush and Calderon. As Bush chuckled into his microphone,..." Great now Bush knows that we have oil.

More War News from the Globe: Apparently Maxime Bernier, Steve's point man on Foreign Affairs got carried away with our country's new role of running a war (I mean we are very new at it). Bernier urges Karzai to replace Kandahar Governor Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier dropped a bombshell Monday when he effectively called for the ouster of Asadullah Khalid, the controversial governor of Kandahar province.  "There's the question to maybe have a new governor," Mr. Bernier said when asked what Karzai could do about the perception of political corruption in Kandahar province, where Canadian forces are based. "I think (Karzai) can work with us to be sure the (new) governor will be more powerful ... (and) will do what he has to do to help us." Kind of pissed off the Afghans. I mean if one of the objectives is that Afghanistan is going to become a democracy, that should include self rule. Or if Karzai really wants to get rid of one of his corrupt drug l...

War News from the Globe & Mail Our top political war manager, Trade Minister David Emerson, has determined that "Ottawa will start releasing progress reports every three months on the mission, a move that should begin before the Commons rises in early to mid-June." Well that sort of makes sense as Emerson is an ex-CEO of one of the largest lumber companies in North America and everyone knows progress and success should be measured quarterly. But the war is being managed by the Trade Ministry. We are new at this One goal of these reports will be to shift the focus away from casualties – the only broadly watched benchmark currently tracked by news media – and toward other measures. Well that would explain the not lowering the flag thing and we better get those people off the 401 over passes every time a dead soldier comes home too. What kind of way is that to support a war. Mr. Emerson said new benchmarks aren't ready yet but acknowledged reducing Canada's proportio...

Neocon Marketing 101: Hide the intent of your policies by claiming they do the opposite and give them names, slogans if you like so you can win popular support. They call it framing and it is expertly explained by the The Harper Index A great site to keep track of the Neocon con and should be a prerequisite for every Canadian that is concerned about the corporate, right wing, takeover of our country that is now being implemented by Harper and his rebranded Reform Party. As Canadians we are all aware of the numerous examples from the US. Ignoring the marketing of lies that went into Iraq, it was the social and environmental policies where the Neocons really got creative. In education "No child left behind" left more children behind , in environment, they assigned a former oil Industry lobbyist as head of the environmental protection agency who opened the national parks to the lumber industry , increased the burning of fossil fuels (coal which apparently will be clean somed...

That's right it is not NATO's war anymore, it is ours. We have ownership. Steve stepped forward and set down the conditions that had to be met to be successful in Afghanistan (see 1,000 below) . Yup, Steve went to Romania and laid claim to the war in Afghanistan. And according to old Lloyd at CTV, the US as our ally is now going to step up and send a 1,000 additional troops. Oh and France is sending a battalion, roughly 700 more troops to help Canada out. They are going to east though, not the south where the Taliban currently is, but hey they are French (sorry France just practicing my US style war rhetoric) . Steve even got to talk to the world press on a podium with Karzi right beside him and explain what is needed and Karzi acknowledged Canada's role. I'm so proud, we finally have our own war. Way to go Steve! This one's for you.

Apparently Canada led the pack last night in support of the ceremonial "earth Hour" according to the CTV article here . "More than 100,000 Canadians registered via the Internet for Earth Hour -- another 775,000 signalled participation via Facebook website -- putting Canadians at the top of the global participation pack." Meanwhile our Prime Minister didn't participate according this Star/com piece here . Harper snubs Earth Hour "But two ground-floor rooms in Harper's house stayed on and inquiries to a PMO spokesperson were not returned. The third-floor offices on Parliament Hill that house the Prime Minister's Office were also among the few lights that stayed on..." Well, what should we expect from a reform party hack whose environmental plan ignores the tar sands for the next ten years.