Harper is a bit right and a bit wrong

PM Harper says that the opposition will not play ball with his on his fall agenda (which is?) and, in the case of Layton and Duceppe he is right.   The NDP and the BQ have made it their mantra over the past two years that whatever the government proposes, they oppose.  They have left it to the Liberals, and the Liberals only, to keep this government alive.  Layton and Duceppe can't back down now and they can't blame this on Dion.  You make your own bed and lie down on it.

Harper, however, has to be blamed for a large portion of this mess.  His autocratic style; his decision to blame everyone else for his failings; his lack of policy for the future; and his complete disregard for the majority of Canada - who are not his constituents, have all come home to roost with the country not interested in another election.

Canadians do not care about this government or any new Canadian government.  They want change.  They want clarity.  They want ideas.  What do they get?  Same old, same old.

When defending the In and Out Scandal, the Cons say, "Everybody does it!"  If they are trying to represent change, they (the Cons) should not be doing what everyone else does.

Dion needs to represent change, but proposing change is only valuable if people understand the changes you propose.  He needs to make his plan simple and his message clear.  Can he do it?  I am not sure.

Bonehead move

In an election campaign you can do three things.  Good things, bad things and bonehead things.  John McCain just did a bonehead thing.

The Republican have been hammering Obama on his supposed lack of international experience.  They were making their point.  Then they shot themselves in both feet.

They selected Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as the VP running mate for McCain.  They have selected a person with absolutely no experience to be within a heartbeat of the presidency.  And with McCain's age and medical history, that is a serious concern.  .

Why select her? 

She is a darling of the religious right as an anti-abortion zealot and an attractive young (44 years) women.  The Republicans need to appeal to women and an old-white guy just can't do it.  She's a mom with five kids including one with Down's Syndrome and one about to deploy to Iraq.  She loves hunting and fishing,  She has spent two years as Alaska's Governor during a time that oil and gas royalties hit the roof and she thinks of  herself a fiscal magician.  She has a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and wants to drill for oil in the Alaska Wildlife sanctuary, all the while saying she has fought big oil and wants to see the US go in a new direction.

Where do I sign up?

How will the Cons get out of this one?

On August 22, a nuclear reactor in Netherlands went off-line for maintenance. This action put the amount of radio isotopes in the world at a deficient level. Upon learning of the outage, the mighty-mite Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn immediately contacted the equally effective Health Minister Tony Clement to implement a protocol for notification and information sharing among AECL, Natural Resources Canada and Health Canada that came into place after the December 2007 shortage of medical isotopes occurred after the MDS Nordion shutdown.  The Canadian people will not be without their isotopes!

But, Oh Oh, on August 27 the NRU at AECL also went offline, as did three additional reactors across the world.

Greg Weston of the National Bureau reports it this way, "Five nuclear reactors in Canada, Europe and South Africa produce almost all of the world's radioactive materials -- called "isotopes" -- that are used in medical scans and cancer treatments.As of late yesterday, all of the reactors were shut down for reasons unrelated to one another -- what one Canadian official called a "perfect storm" of bad timing and technical mishaps."

The latest response from Canada's Lamest Government (TM)?  Nada.  I expect that they are behind closed doors trying to figure out how to blame this on the Liberals and how to use the issue to be seen as forcing them into a fall election.

Hypocrites.

Cons with their pants on fire.

Remember this quote?  “As I indicated, we have passed Bill C-16 on fixed election dates through the House of Commons. Never again will the government of the day be able to play around with the date of an election for its own crass political motives.”  It comes from Peter Van Loan in the House of Commons on February 12, 2007.

As the Cons try to force and election part way through their mandate, the question becomes, did Van Looney lie then or is he lying now?

Suits R Us

There is an old exchange that goes as follows -

Computer Geek: If cars were like computers, a modern car would go 1000 mph, get 1000 mpg and cost $1000.
Car Geek: But they would also crash 1000 times per day and the windows would not work.

I don't know why I mention that, it just popped into my head as I prepared this entry. Maybe it applies?

I was reading today that Ottawa-based Wi-LAN, a failed WIFI development company from Calgary that was bought by a couple of lawyers and converted into a patent-troll, is suing everybody and his dog (well maybe just 22 companies) whom they claim have violated one of their patents. They claim that those 22 companies are swiping its technology related to WiFi and power consumption in DSL products. So anybody making or selling a router, modem or laptop is a target. The suit names Apple, Belkin, Best Buy, Dell, HP, Intel, Netgear, Sony and pretty much any other major electronics manufacturer or retailer.

Can you say fecal matter on a vertical surface.

The point of this entry is not Wi-LAN. It is about the effects of Wi-LAN and the effects of patent-lawsuit heaven in Marshall, Texas.

The patent-trolls, like Wi-LAN buy up and represent obscure patents on speculation and then move them through the legal system like a hot knife through butter. They spend a few bucks harrasing companies in a little courtroom in a little town in Texas, where a little judge sits behind a big desk and then awards anything that the troll asks for - cause the big bad developers can afford it.

It is estimated that between one and eight percent of the cost of a new computers, peripheral and software devices and enhancements are tied to legal procedures such as those involving these trolls.

I am not too sure why this topic screws up my knickers. It maybe because I think that the system stinks OR it may be because I didn't get a patent on patent-trolling so that I could take the patent-trollers out behind the wood shed in Marshall, Texas.

Olympic pats and FUs

Pats on the back to our Olympic athletes. Pats on the back to journalists who supported them. Pats on the back to Canadians who supported them.

FU to the journalists who did not support the athletes. FU to the government who could not give a rat's ass about our athletes. FU to Canadians who felt cheated by the athletes and NOT by their government. FU to the PQ for the flag flap. That bears repeating. FU to the PQ for the flag flap.

Did we do well? Yes we did. Could we do better? Yes we can. Can the government do a better job supporting athletes with subsidies and better and more professional facilities? Yes they can. Can Heritage Canada spend more on sport than they spend on Francophone summits? Yes they can.

Can Harper see beyond his limited horizon and realize that the Olympics are a chance to support our athletes rather than just making a statement about foreign affairs? I hope so.

'nough said.

Shooting pool with a string

I try to support our troops and I think I do a better job of it when I complain than does the Wear-red-on-Friday hoard who gloss over details for the rah-rah.

We are constantly being told by the military and civilian leaders of out country that we are winning in Afghanistan, the Taliban is on the run and civilians are flooding to our side. The numbers do not seem to bear that out.

In 2007, 232 NATO troops were killed. In 2008, the number is 193... but we are still in August. Since Canada joined the fray in 2002, the NATO soldier death toll has gone from 69 to ???.

I am not so sure that the relatives of the 93 Canadian soldiers , one diplomat and two aid workers killed in the deserts so far away are really consoled by the rhetoric of our leaders.

Skunks on a bus!

For once in a blue moon, a city council committee told an special interest group to take a hike. A bunch of well meaning dog, cat, ferret and skunk owners wanted to take their pets on city buses. That caught the attention of the two biggest ferrets on council, Doucet and Cullen. Let's give it a try for six months they demanded. Drop dead said the transportation committee... and rightly so.

I have empathy for pet owners who need to get fluffy to the vet, but if our cat is any evidence, a vet bill is always much higher than a cab bill. If you can't afford the cab, maybe you can't afford the pet.

Tough talk but maybe it's about time someone said it.

Papers please!

I was watching a TVO program the other night on Stalin's crack down on subversive art in the Russian past. Matisse, Picasso, Monet, and many more painters' works were called "capitalistic, depraved art". As far as Stalin and his little band of cronies were concerned, they knew more than the millions of Russian citizens and their arrogance drove art underground.

How far are we away from Stalanist rule when PM Harper tells Canadians that certain movies, books and/or art will not be supported by Canadians because they do not fall within the restrictive sphere of what is moral to him and his small group of cronies?

McCain should stick to curly fries

I almost felt sorry for John McCain, the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party, in a televised debate on Sunday night. Asked about useless government spending he decided to pop a blood vessel over a $3 million expenditure to determine the DNA of black bears. Scientists say that this research will aid in the preservation of the species, while John says that it's just pork-barrel.

Funny that. The US spends over $200 million PER DAY in IRAQ. But McCain criticizes $3 million on a project that he says is in Alaska... but is actually in Montana.

Maybe the solution is to send the bears to IRAQ, then the military could do the research as a blackbear-op... and no one would be the wiser. It may be cruel to the bears but... hey... it's better optics.

Bridge over troubling waters

Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Moving thing from from A to B, has announced, during a Montreal area by-election that the feds will build a $1 billion bridge across the St Lawrence River. Bribery, you ask? Pandering, you wonder? NOPE. Just good planning. If the bridge wasn't announced right away then it would delay the 10-15 years project by a few days. Hypocrisy, you muse? Right.

How stupid do politicians think we are? Well, quite frankly, we are that stupid. Cannon knows how to make hay when the sun shines. And we are the cows that eat up that hay.

So $1 billion for a Montreal bridge. There was no mention in Cannon's release about the province or city contributing to the cost. Just the feds - by themselves.

Wouldn't it be nice if the feds could extend that largess to Ottawa, the nations' capital? We have a $4-5 billion LRT/transit plan that is designed to draw us into the 20th century, at minimum, and possible into the 21st. So far the feds have earmarked $200 million for the project. We need a byelection in Ottawa to get that contribution up. I suggest that Pierre Poillievre, the Perfect PP, resign to trigger that by-election. Then Lawrence can dump some needed cash into Ottawa.

Dog-gone it!

The nightly news cast sounded like this: "There was a altercation today at the corner of Walk and Don't Walk that led to two women beating each other to death with curling irons. Our reporter, Viviane Mouthoff was a witness to the event and files this story." I am sure that the story was a good one, considering that the reporter was a witness, but a large question looms. If the reporter was a witness, why did she not put down her video camera and try to break up the fight before both women died of curls and flips?

This brings me to a sad story in the local Ottawa news rags. "Beloved dog in SUV when it was stolen." An 83 year old man went to a store and parked his car, with his dog inside. When he returned, his SUV was missing... so was his dog. The man collapsed later due to the stress of the incident. The man's son was reported as theorizing that the vehicle was stolen by professionals who stripped it for parts. "...the dog is probably dead", states the son.

Oops. The reality of the story is that the man forgot where he parked the vehicle and it sat in the shopping centre parking lot for four days... with the dog inside. This SUV had very unique plates so it should not have been difficult to find if someone had taken the time to look. It must have been visible for three evenings in that parking lot.

This is a sad story in many ways. The fact that an 83 year old man forgot where he parked is tragic. But the real tragedy is that two reporters and the man's son did not even investigate the scene of the incident before chalking it up to theft. Is that objective reporting? Was the theft reported to the police? Did the police even bother to investigate or go to the scene?

I am glad the man's dog was returned safe, if not a little thinner. I am more concerned with the low level of professionalism of our so-called journalists.

PP self-promotes himself into a hole

A local free rag, the Barrhaven Independent, on page 2 of the April 15 edition, has a news story entitled "Olympic Games reflect Canada's achievements". The article is by Pierre Poilievre, the dynamic MP for this area, a man who never misses a chance to shove both his feet into his mouth.

In 1984, Canada won 44 Olympic medals (OK the Russians were not there.). In 1996, we won 22 medals. In 2008... bupkis to date. According to PP's logic, Canada is worse off today than in 1996. Strange coming from a government mouth-piece.... but then again you can't argue with his conclusion.

His arguments are laughable in the article. For example, "Canadians are more unified than it has been in the past forty years", says PP. Forty years ago, and I know that he was not born at that time, Quebec was our major unity problem. Today, add Alberta, BC and Newfoundland to the list. There are even pockets in Ontario who want out. Now that's unity!

Military funding has gone up and the debt has dropped. But are Canadians better off now than 2 years ago? Has homelessness disappeared or child poverty been wiped out? Is there a plan to revitalize the crumbling infrastructure of our cities and towns? Is unemployment a thing of the past? Do the Russians care about our claim to the north? Are the three icebreakers you promised ready for delivery or have you reneged on that promise? Where are the new helicopters you promised? How much money are you investing to control the pine beetle infestation in BC. Are we on the verge of returning to fiscal deficits?

I could go on but what's the use. Politicians do and say what will get then elected and then re-elected. They do not give a hoot about Canadians as a whole. Pander to the influential... that is what it is all about.

It is time to think about voting for independent candidates in the next election. Screw party politics. It is time to strike back at the political parties.

Olympic support is a joke

Let me say right at the top that I know that our athletes in Beijing are trying their best. I know that there are only tenth and hundredth of second between first and fourth. Don't tell me that I do not support the athletes - because I do.

What I do not support is the way Harpo's government and many governments before this one treat the whole idea of Olympic sports.

Let me lay one fact on the table that seems to have eluded the bright spots on the hill. THE OLYMPICS ARE NO LONGER AMATEUR! The notion of amateur Olympics disappeared years ago, but no one in Ottawa noticed... or cared.

Kobe Bryant is in Beijing playing the same game that he gets paid millions to play. Roger Federer and Williams sisters are playing the same tennis game that they earn millions playing outside of the Olympics. Australia gives scholarships to athletes to spend time at the Olympic training facilities in Melbourne. I visited the Melbourne site a few years back and witnessed kids as young as 8 or 10 bouncing and flipping on gymnastic mats.

China identifies kids at the age of four and trains them at government expense until they win Olympic Gold.

Canada gives up to $20,000 to a very select athletes and tells them... good luck. By a very few, I mean that the maximum stipend goes to less than 500 Canadians. Most get little or no financial support. Those same Canadian athlete then go to their local olympic size pool to practice. NOT! Ottawa, the nation's capital, has no facility like this. There is no inside track facility (and don't try to convince me about the joke at Lansdowne Park). So off the athletes go to seek facilities in foreign territories where $20,000 is the cost of rent.

According to Sport Canada, they spend $23 million to support 1,900 athletes (that works out to about #12,000 on average). But the Sport Canada budget is over $111 million. Where doe the rest of the money go? Could it be to support an entire building dedicated to the beauracracy of Canadian sport? How about international travel for non-athletes to warm desitination in the winter months to view "best practices"? How about just pissing it away?

There is an article labelled news in the current Barrhaven Independent, the organ of the less-than-independent Con-sniffer, Jeffery Morris, that quotes the Perfect PP as saying "Olympic Games reflect Canada's achievements". How right he is... Canada hasn't won a gold, silver or bronze medal; or even Miss Congeniality.

Maybe the person at the right should be made head of Sport Canada?

Time to fight back?

On July 10, 2008 the price of oil peaked at $146/barrel. On that date the average price of gasoline in Ontario was $1.36/litre.

On August 12, 2008, the price of crude was $115/bl (a drop of $31/bl or 21% from July 10). The average price of Ontario gasoline on August 12 was $1.25 (a drop of $0.11 or 8.5% from July 10).

Can you say screwed? Vote Harper! NOT!

(all figures from gasbuddy.com)

The Bubble in Alberta

I lived in Alberta in the 70s and 80s. I went there just before the economy began booming and left just after it went bust. Ah, good times. I went back there recently and it came back to me why I left.

Calgary isn't a city... it is a parking lot. Things are so widely spread that you enter the city limits before you leave the country. Like it's sister city, Houston, if you live in the northwest, you have to pack a lunch to get to the southeast. There are very few local stores and almost no local pubs or restaurants in the newer sections of the city. Want a loaf of bread? Be prepared to travel for 10 minutes to the closest big box store.

But it is not just the travel time or size of the city. Just try to find a bottle of aspirin in a London Drug store. Hint? It is just past the electronics section between youth clothing and lumber.

What I experienced in the past is beginning all over again. I talked with a fellow in the north of the city. His house has been on the market for almost 3 months. His asking price is above what he paid for it but not by much. He admits that if he has to, he will take a loss just to unload the property. The real estate market is slowing to a crawl. I wonder if it will implode.

The guy driving the F350 at the FasGaz was livid when I told him that gas prices at the pump in Ottawa were on average three cents per litre lower than he was paying. Thankfully his gun rack was empty or there is no telling what might have happened.

I was out in the country on my trip and was confronted by a good ol' boy in jeans and a big straw hat. He was telling me that Albertans were rugged individualists... no need for government or hand-outs. I thought he was going to burst a blood vessel in his head when I asked him why Alberta had a Social Credit government for so long and why it was the home of the country's largest Co-op chain.

The bubble in Alberta has not burst, but the walls are thinning just a bit.