Didn't take long

The feds came through with $600 million last week for LRT and the jury decided on the winning design from the International Design Competition for Lansdowne. You would think that there would be universal cheers from City Hall (Doucet excepted because he only cheers when he wins) but no.

Morality Mayoralty candidate Cullen has decided that the transportation study for the Lansdowne project is wrong.  Surprise, surprise.

For ten days every year, says the study, the traffic around Lansdowne will increase by 120 vehicles, each way, per hour. Not possible says Cullen. I suppose that he will tell us that it is more like 120 million vehicle per hour, or something.

Afghanistan too long?

If there was ever an indication that we have been in Afghanistan too long, it was given a face in today's Ottawa Citizen newspaper. The report of the death of Sgt. Martin Goudreault, killed by an IED, was a side column on page 3. It garnered less inches than a report on the Cons getting tough, yet again, on immigration.

When the death of one of our men or women becomes a page 3 subject, then it is time to come home.

WHAT??

Let's get this straight. If a ministerial aid screws up or interferes with the function of the ministry, they cannot be questioned by parliament committees who are looking into the screw-up. The Minister will take the blame for the screw-up because of the joke term ministerial responsibility. Not too friggin' likely.

Two major problems. A minister can claim to have no first hand knowledge of the infraction... therefore plausible deny-ability. Second... a minister cannot be compelled to testify. Maybe legally he/she has to appear but in reality there are ten thousand ways to get out of it.

And what about the current case wherein the minister is in fact the prime minister. Is he going to testify? Not too friggin' likely. He doesn't even need an excuse - he just says, no thanks.

So what's next for Harpo and his band of cretins? They can pass a regulation to eliminate ministerial responsibility. Think that they can't? Just wait.

Maybe they could cancel the G8 and G20 and use the $930 million earmarked for security to set up a new government department. It could consist of five hundred Con patronage appointees who are charged with taking the fall when ministerial aids screw up. They could be put on contracts so that when they are fired for things that they did not do -they get no severance pay.

Spontaneous riot

Take two!!

This has GOT to be a joke.

Congratulations to the CON Party of Canuckistan. They have completed a bloodless coup of Canada and no one raises a voice. Have we gone so far stupid in Canada that we do not even raise an eyebrow when the government says that they own the country rather than just represent its citizens?

We don't deserve a country such as Canada. Our forefathers and foremothers fought and died for our democracy and we just gave it away.

SHAME ON US!!!!!

Cons on trial

I have to admit that I am not much of a fan of Peter Milliken, the Speaker in the House but he was recently between a rock and a hard place and he did the best he could with a rotten situation.

The issue that he was deciding was whether Canadians and parliamentarians have a right to know if the governing party can treat them like sheep.

The issue was the detainee issue. I am not going to go into the issue because I figure if you are smart enough to read this blog, you will already know the issue.

Milliken's ruling was that the government was in contempt of parliament but he did not o as far as to say that. He told the government to get their act together and work out something with the opposition with in the next two weeks.

Of course, if the government had any integrity at all they would have worked this out long before Pete's ruling.

Have I suggested in the past that the Cons are corrupt, bereft of ideas and fundamental decency? If not, I will say it now.

Funny coincidence?

When Larry O'Brien was being questioned about his questionable affair with respect to the Kilrea stink, one name in particular popped up. The Cons patronage boss for the Ottawa area was John "Screamer" Baird. It as alleged that Baird met with O'Brien at Hy's to discuss Kilrea. Baird denied it of course but it turned out that they did meet, however informally.

In 2009 "Rehab" Jaffer claims he met with a representative of a cabinet minister to discuss $135 million in infrastructure money for one of his clients. The minister was... Screamer Baird.

A coincidence?

Where are the Tories taking the country?

In the 2008/09/10 economic meltdown, the boogieman under the bed and the thing that we knew but did not talk about, was derivatives. It is estimated that there are $2 trillion (that is TRILLION) in derivatives that have been ignored by Wall Street, Bay Street and governments and those derivatives are going to come back to bit our collective butts.

And let's not be too smug about this, our Canadian banks are just as exposed to the toxic derivatives as any one else.

So what does the collected brain trust on Parliament Hill do about it?

They propose that derivatives should be sold on the open market just like IBM or Apple. That was they can spread out the pain when derivatives get called?

This is LUNACY!!!!!

Nuts? You don't say!

If it wasn't for the fact that city council is playing with $2.2 BILLION of tax dollars they would almost be laughable.

What a sweet job it must be to run a city. If you run out of money or just want more, you pass a budget that raises taxes. And the suckers that pass for citizens just pay it. If you ever run into a situation where you have more money that you need you just create some new way to spend it.

The largest line item in the 2010 budget is salaries and benefits. If you wanted to cut costs that would be a logical place to do it. But no... council votes 12-8 to keep the status quo and everybody is happy except a few hundred thousand taxpayers. But who cares about them? Right?

Even if you flat-lined the salaries of all city employees, including unionized ones (which will never happen in my lifetime), the costs will still go up because, low and behold, the 2010 budget states that the number of Full-time equivalents will raise from 13,966.65 to 1 4,122.86 from 2009 to 2010. Since 2008 the number of FTEs has gone up by 380.71.

Can you say dumb???

Easter has it right

Wayne Easter asked a question in the Commons on Friday.  It went something like this:  "Why, when a senior diplomat like Richard Colvin comes forward with information on the Afghan detainees, does the government dismiss him as dealing in innuendo, but when some third rate private dick make a statement that a junior minister may have done something wrong, the government not only takes it at face value but you dump the minister?

Wayne has asked the crucial question that brings into crystal clear focus the complete lack of credibility of President Steve.

What's that you say?

Helena Guergis has stated that the allegations leveled at her are "baseless and unfounded".

What allegations would that be, Helena?

From the CBC, "In an email to The Canadian Press on Sunday, Guergis said she requested that the allegations are dealt with "as quickly as due process will allow."

Due process?  Funny words to use for state secrets?

Bye, bye Steve

Good move Steve.  Helena was an anvil around your ankle and she had to go.  Too bad you didn't come clean when you announced her ouster in your press conference.

You can be said to be strategic by your minions but, in reality, you are sapping out.  By referring the issue about which you just learned to the RCMP, you think that your no comment will be sufficient.   Wrong!

For the sake of clarity, the RCMP has to one day announce what they are investigating and if they find no evidence then they will be accused of a cover up. And given their track record of late, the allegations will be justified.

Mr. President -  Steve - you are a one-person wrecking ball.  It is time for you to go.  Please.

Worse than Helena?

The Helena/Rahim Affair misunderstanding(s) are out of control.  As sordid as their lives are, the real BIG loser in this whole thing is President Steve.  It is one thing to be perceived as supporting his ministers but when do you give it up?

I can't help wondering what Bill Casey thinks of Harper's defense of Helena?  After all, Bill was banished from the whole geesly party for voting against a government bill.

Harper is looking like a real loser.

Now comes the story that Steve's reaction to the pardoning (three years ago) of a sex offender flies in the face of a plan put in place, also three years ago, by Stockboy Day.

Not only does Harper see parliament as irrelevant, he now sees his own government as irrelevant.  Sounds a bit familiar to historians.

UNCLE!!!!

At some point in time Helena and Rahim need to call UNCLE and slink off back to Alberta, from whence they came.

Between the two of them they share the IQ of a dead badger and that may be an insult to the badger.

And while I am at it, let me send a note to Liberal Marlene Jennings. Helena is down for the count and is starting to look a little sympathetic. Let her up off the mat for a few seconds before you slap her down again.

At least someone's relieved

The story out of the rarefied air at RCMP HQ is that Bill Elliot, the only Mountie that doesn't wear red, is staying on as Commissioner for a bit longer.

That is good news for the folks at Transport Canada.

When Billy was ADM at TC he set about to screw up the department and seemed to relish in the role. He ruined the careers of many a fine public servant by treating them as cattle. He ignored internal problems and created new one all by his lonesome.

Bill Elliot - the Peter Principal personified.

Conundrum!

At the same time as the US and Russia are continuing to get rid of nuclear weapons to make the world a bit safer, the Cons are getting rid of the Gun Registry for the same reason?

Environmental screw-up?

If today's Grope and Flail has it right in a story, then the Cons are granting the right to pollute to anyone with a lobbyist.

The story today is that Jim Prentice is about to announce that his department will no longer require environmental assessments for big projects such as pipelines and oil sands and anything else that the lobbyists can dream up to make exempt.

I can only hope that they make me exempt from filing taxes, while they are at it.

Connecting the dots

The Anal Coulter affair here in Ottawa is just the tip of a plot to turn North America into a military state. The controversial, and slanderous (according to me)talking head comes into Canada to spew her outrageous spittle and cries censorship when Ottawa University activists try to shut her down. What did the press do? They branded activists as opposed to free speech.

But at the same time this is going on in Canada, the friends of Coulter are threatening lawmakers in the US with violence and death because they had the audacity to pass a health care law.

Coulter and her right wing loonies need a wake-up call and maybe U Ottawa delivered it. Now the press should wake up also.

What is the real number?

Cpl. Darren James Fitzpatrick of the PPCLI died yesterday from his wounds received in Afghanistan. Fitzpatrick encountered a roadside bomb that detonated while he was on patrol in Afghanistan on March 6.

He died 17 days later - in Canada.

There are lots of men and women returning from Afghanistan with scars and open wounds - some physical and some emotional - that are as much casualties of this war as was Fitzpatrick and any of the other 140+ who have died in this conflict that cannot be won.

Just remember that when the government tells you the toll that this war is taking on Canadians. And remember it again when the government caves to a US "request" that 600 Canadians remain in Kabul after 2011.

Also remember the date of September 17, 2009, when six Italian soldiers and ten civilians were killed by a car bomb in the so-called safe haven of Kabul.

If you ever wondered...

If you need one reason why Anal Coulter should be discouraged from speaking in Canada, look no further than her comment in Ottawa.

The report on her aborted attempt to speak at U of Zero, in today's Ottawa Bird-cage Liner reads, “It confirms my idea that you also need more liberal gun laws,” she said. “Guns lead to a polite society, as we like to say in the United States. And I think that all of western Canada would agree with me."

According to Her-Wisdom, if protesters get in her way, out comes her gun.  And that is polite?