Trashy's World

OK. Can someone explain to me why our southern neighbour takes lying to legislative authorities so much more seriously than we do up here in the GW North?

Really. Former pitcher Roger Clemens could be in for some hard jail time if found guilty of lying to Congress about his alleged steroid use. Americans apparently put value on saying things under oath to elected officials.

Not so here in Canada. Here, a Minister of the Crown can go before a Parliamentary Committee, be asked point blank about certain conversations, lie about what transpired, be shown irrefutably to have lied, and suffer not a single consequence for his actions. What gives? Are Parliamentarians granted some kind of immunity while before a Committee that allows them to say whatever they damn well please?

Disgusting.

So mixed martial “arts” are coming to Ontario – thanks to yet another reversal by the McGuinty government. This decision has been framed as a good-for-the-economy type of thing. Mayorlarry is looking forward to it!

What a bunch of b.s.

The Libs in Ontario are doing exactly what the Harperites have done in Ottawa- pander to the lowest common denominator in a pathetic attempt to buy votes.

These spectacles of sub-human testosterone spraying are a single step above Gladiator matches and should be censured everywhere. We don’t need our kids growing up thinking that acting out the fantasies of a Mad Max addict is appropriate behaviour in a civilized society.  I used to respect Dalton (he IS my MPP), but after this, and cowering to the religious right on the sex education changes AND fumbling, then backing off completely the perfectly fine Eco fees… well, the respect is gone. Poof!

Though I still hold a great deal of admiration for his brother David and hope that he one day takes the reins of the Federal Grit stagecoach.

The sacking of a couple of high level officials by the Reformatories shouldn’t surprise anyone.

OK – so the RCMP dude in charge of the Gun Registry wasn’t technically “sacked”, but he did suddenly need to go on language training right before delivering a report that praised rather than buried the value of the Gun Registry… not what the ReformCons want to hear…  whatta joke!

And now the Minister responsible for Veterans Affairs has pissed off a significant core of Con support…

Anyone that has read any of my posts before knows that I’m a major Peacenik, but J P Blackburn has dissed all vets by defending a compensation system that puts dollars and cents ahead of injured soldiers’ long term financial well-being.

While the treatment of Canada’s wounded should be improving with the climbing casualties from the decade-long deployment to Afghanistan, it has actually gotten worse in some respects.

Paul Franklin, who lost both legs in a January 2006 suicide bombing, was actually one of the lucky ones.

Back in Canada, he was offered a choice between the outgoing system for disability payments – $4,000 a month for the remainder of his life – or compensation under the new system, a $250,000 lump sum payment.

“I did the math real quick and $4,000 a month works out to $2 million if I live 40 more years,” he said. “It was a no-brainer.”

Michael Barnewell, 29, injured just 10 months later, never had Franklin’s easy choice.

“With a lump sum payment, the problem is that it’s not enough. You either try to use it now and then it’s gone so you don’t have it for the future, or you try to invest it for the future and what do you do now?” he said. “Under that old system, when you get those payments, you’re just taken care of. It’s just such security. It’s always there. It just comes.’’

But that security has been eroded by tight-fisted officials and a Conservative government that promised to honour the country’s soldiers and veterans but has left them feeling abandoned, Stogran said.

Stogran chose against an outright attack on his elected political masters, but did circulate a 2002 Canadian Alliance political pamphlet in which then-leader Stephen Harper promises to defend Canadian soldiers the way that they have defended the country.

Speaking in Mississauga, the prime minister sidestepped the strident criticism from Storgan in recent days and said the government is open to suggestions that could improve future programs.

But like other federal watchdogs who have either been fired or undermined by the government, the Tories may just bide their time until Stogran’s term expires in November and his pulpit evaporates.

Does this government have no shame? Even a Peacenik like me has heaps more respect for these guys than do the Harperites. There has been some attempt by the right to deflect the blame on to the public service staff and away from the politicians. But let me be clear – bureaucrats take their directions form the government of the day. And especially with the Soviet style of government practiced by the PMO, you can be damned sure that senior bureaucrats MUST do as told… and if they cannot do so, then resign with honour.

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Further to my post yesterday about the state of Harper’s health, it seems though I am not the only one who thinks that he may be spending more time lunging a windmills than he should be. Inventing his own reality of the day seems to be the direction that Steve and his henchmen have taken.

I mean, how else can you explain a number of recent decisions taken by the CPC government? A lot of them simply did not and do not make sense and have seemingly little value from a political vantage point. Harper et al have been masters at seeing and exploiting  political advantages. Even I admit this.

But suppose for a second that something is seriously wrong with the PM. I am NOT wishing this on the guy – as much as I cannot stand him or his policies, I would never wish illness on him. He is a fellow father after all. Yet, if he is ill and hiding it from all of his caucus, some of the back-benchers must be whispering amongst themselves by now about how the Boss just does not make bad judgments when it comes to strictly political decisions. It’s out of character and damn, he looks like shit. Is he OK?

Even if his inner sanctum is “in the know” about there being something amiss, they sure as hell aren’t going to say anything about it. These guys know that when the lead wolf in the pack is hurt, the rest of the alphas sense this and take advantage. Some of the alphas MacKay, Prentice, Flaherty want to be the lead wolf and would love to see an ill Harper try and run an election campaign this fall when he is not up to it and the party itself is tanking in the polls. After all, anything less than a majority would mean that the ol’ Dead eyes would be left to buzzards.

But the rest of the wolves should not get sick to the Vested One – even if he is sick, he is still dangerous.

Maybe I’m seeing things that aren’t there. But what if I’m correct?

This will bear watching.

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Judge for yourself.

Doesn’t he look a lot paler to you? Like he has had his blood sucked clear out of his system by his evil, undead masters?

Man, doesn’t he get into the sun at all in the summer? He could grow mushrooms under that chin!

And what’s with those specs? They look kind of intrusive to me… maybe x-ray lenses looking into homes of honest Canadians and counting how many rolls of toilet paper we all have in our vanities!

Just sayin’….

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“Stock, Johnny, Jimbo, Vic, Pierre! Go find Igantieff’s bus and slash its tires… we need a diversion! Quickly!!!”

“What have we done to deserve such depths????”

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

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I cannot believe THIS is just a coincidence!

I mean, what are the odds of something like this going down just at the time where there is increasing attention on the Cons’ sole source purchase of brand new fighter jets at a cost to the Canadian taxpayer of 23 gazillion dollars?

Pretty long, eh?

Cool! But I wonder if we need them...

I’m not saying that this is a made up news item or that somehow during the Gee-Ate or Gee-Score Stevo passed Dmitry a C-note to “make it happen”. But what I am saying is that these “close calls” are likely pretty commonplace – DND just isn’t in the habit of telling the public this. And they shouldn’t – for diplomatic reasons. Sure we should huff and puff at the bear when it happens, but through the appropriate channels so as to not piss them off in public. That is the way diplomacy works.

But leave it to The Robot to spin these things to his own advantage, right?

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Haven’t seen a picture of him in a while. Due to the cancer treatments, I think he has been laying low. Hopefully his re-emergence is an indication that things are going well.

But man, he has lost some weight… and he was not a hefty man to start with.

Keep at ‘er, Mr. Layton… might not always agree with you, but I hope to hell that you beat this thing!

And yeah – Harpy – listen up and meet with the guy! Maybe, just maybe, someone might have opinions on the latest issues that are better than yours!

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As the summer trudges along, the Iggy bus is making it’s stops in Ontario with reports of several dozens of well-wishers along the way.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff delivered a feisty election-style speech during a mainstreeting stop in Stratford Sunday.

He took aim at Prime Minister Stephen Harper over plans to change affirmative action programs in the public service sector and ridiculed the Conservative plan to do away with the long-form.

“I never thought in my political life in this country I’d have to defend knowledge, I’d have to defend information against a government that seems to want less of it, that prefers ignorance to knowledge,” Ignatieff said.

Righteously indignant sounds he. But the line “defend information against a government that seems to want less of it, that prefers ignorance to knowledge” does resonate with me. Unfortunately for M.I., I doubt if the Timmies crowd really gives a rat’s ass about knowledge. They prefer the Robot, who, in the words of someone I overheard on the bus last week “is at least doing something…”

Grrr… I hate that.

Meanwhile, back at the factory, the Chief Robot is nowhere to be seen – leaving his minions to to the dirty work for him. A bit cowardly, of course, but what does one expect from this guy anyway?

Any bets on how many times Clement says the words “jail-time”? I say 11. Any takers on the over/under?

The hearing today might be interesting as we may, just may get some of the truth out in the open. Especially the part about the experts not wanting anything to do with the ideologically-driven decision to shorten the form…

And here’s hoping the Grits pounce on this. But I’m not holding my breath.

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In case any of you forgot this when it was reported in May.

OTTAWA (NEWS1130) – The Harper government has been monitoring political messages online, and even correcting what it considers misinformation.

They spent 75K to track discussions about the seal hunt… one can only guess what they have spent monitoring the discussions about their latest shenanigans.

So for those of you who think that certain things a certain government department may choose to do are “intrusive”, please re-read this story, k?

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Banner on TORONTONAMO site.

Interesting to listen to the battle for the minds of Canadians being waged by, in one corner, the Harperites, Queen’s Parks and the T.O. cops… and in the other corner, the activist groups, community groups and individual Canucks.

At issue -- did the cops step over the line during the Gee-Score protests?

As with most of these issues, the truth likely lies somewhere in betwixt and between. While I am sure that, cops being cops, some did get too rough, covered their badges and name tags, and acted as agents provacateurs. No doubt. And there is video evidence of this.

I posted a vid of a little lady blowing bubbles in the direction of the line of cops where one guy about 56 times bigger than her was being a real asshole and harrumphing that she would be charged with assault if one of the bubbles landed on the big guy. Then the vid cuts to the bubble blower being loaded into a van.  Yeah, I know the what-happened-in-between was edited out, but my point was that some members of the security forces were getting way overboard and letting their power go to their already inflated heads.

As for the demonstrators? For sure some of them went waaaaay over the line too. There is no excuse for vandalism and violence. As a pacifist, I believe that protests need not be violent and more sympathy can be garnered for the “cause” if one demonstrates civility. I personally despise those who destroy for whatever the cause may be.

But - and again, there is video evidence -- the vast, VAST majority of the protesters were indeed civil. They didn’t throw things aside from epithets. They stayed within the rules. They acted civil. BUT, this god behaviour was not respected in several instances where the police broke up -- often violently -- groups that were clearly not doing anything wrong. They were exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly.

As The Clash said:

Know your rights
These are your rights
Wang
Know these rights
Number 3
You have the right to free
Speech as long as you’re not
Dumb enough to actually try it.

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Makes one sorta wonder why any polling is being done. Seems to be a waste of time.

Thanks to ThreeHundredEight for the graphic and the analysis. The hard work put into that site will pay off once we see some issues that provoke some real voting intention swings….

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