Obfuscated Thoughtlessness Inversed

Filmmaker Michael Moore said he disapproves of copyright laws. It’s a stance, he admits “I’m sure is different than that of Harvey and Bob,” referring to the Weinsteins, whose Weinstein film company is releasing the movie nationally June 29.

“I think the music industry’s response to Napster was misguided … and for me, it’s about getting people to see the movie and that’s what I want, so they will talk about it,” Moore said. -June 18, 2007 from Brandweek

You have to see this film. I recommend the theatre on opening night June 29, but I certainly couldn't wait that long. Given Michael Moore's high profile support for you downloading it, this might be time to up and do what he says.

You'll need a BitTorrent client like Azureus or BitTorrent and then to make a quick visit to a website like ThePirateBay.org. After you download it you will need to install an MPEG4 codec.

Caution, I am not suggesting you break your local copyright laws, I'll let Michael Moore do the suggesting there. However, as you are probably aware this activity is not illegal in Canada (where I reside) as you already pay a fee when you buy storage media.

“As a moviemaker … I created a work of art that is meant to be seen on a screen that is 40 by 20 feet. It’s a big-screen experience that is to be shared in a movie theater, where people love to boo and get mad.”

Moore added that the number of theaters the movie is distributed to is determined on the opening weekend, meaning that if too many people opt to download the movie instead of seeing it at the theater, it may not see as widespread a screening.

“That said, I would never want to prosecute anybody who would download it,” he added.

Sicko is available on a number of P2P sites for free download. One site, thepiratebay.org, lists at least roughly 2,000 downloads of the flick, and the Web site p2pnet.net, which tracks torrents, or P2P downloads, writes that the movie “is already thoroughly entrenched on the p2p networks.”

Labels: alternatives, health, leftist content creation, new media critique, opinion, pro-choice

Sometime ago I noted that Facebook was now the #5 most used website in Canada in terms of Alexa's reach. Incredibly, Facebook has now moved up to #4 ahead of Google.com but still behind Google.ca.

No one would seriously ignore Google in terms of internet presence. These days no one in Canada should ignore Facebook either. If you are implementing any kind of visibility or internet strategy you must now take Facebook into account in your plan.

I have been having some good fun with Facebook Activism. It appears to be an excellent platform for building commonality around issues and lobbying government.

Some of the groups I have started are:

• Oppose the 29% Pay Increase for MLAs
  : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2322485417
• Against Nuclear Energy: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2315031616
• Miners' Memorial - Cumberland: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2303218290
• NDP - Julian West for Saanich Gulf Islands: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2343496213
• Oil Free Coast!: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2379666338
• Support Canadian Electoral Reform - Make Every Vote Count!: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2247059467

If you aren't on Facebook you should at least know what it is.

PS: Don't forget to find me on Facebook

Labels: alternatives, leftist content creation, online campaign, shilling

We could believe all kinds of things as a result of reading this poll including that Bloc voters aren't really hard-core federalists or that all the Bloc is, is a coalition of anti-Liberal voters. I don't think there is enough data to make any such assumption clear.

I love the accuracy of the research SES does, however, if you ask people a fictional question you get a fictional answer. It definitely is interesting to get a sense of the political unknown fantasy world of all Canadian federalists in which a separatist option didn't exist for Quebec voters.

That option does exist and it will continue to no matter how much Dion and May would like to eliminate voters options to gerrymander an outcome.

Labels: alternatives, canada, cons, democracy, leftist content creation, ndp, opinion, quebec, tools

VICTORIA - In the hopes of shaming Stephen Harper's continued inaction on senatorial reform, Victoria resident Morgan Stewart has announced his intention to seek a senate seat from Prince Edward Island at the first possible electoral opportunity.

"I don't really expect to enter an election any time soon. The Senate just hasn't been reformed despite Harper's promises," said Stewart. "Stephen Harper promised an elected Senate with term limits. His bill to get term limits still isn't law let alone instituting the basic democracy of elections."

"It isn't just that I'm against people from PEI having seats in the Senate, I'm against anyone having a seat in the Senate - I'm against the Senate," said Stewart. "This is why I've decided to seek election if there ever is one. The unelected unaccountable institution of patronage should have been abolished before I was born. Instead, there are senators who have been sitting in the senate since before I was born, without ever having to face an election."

Prince Edward Island, Canada's 23rd largest island and 7th most populous, but the only one that is a province unto itself, has a population of 138,632 residents and has 8 federal representatives -- 4 seats in the House of Commons and 4 more in the Senate. Vancouver Island has a population of over 700,000 people, is Canada's 11th largest island, has the second highest population behind the Island of Montreal and has no representatives in the Senate. With a population more than 5 times that of PEI, Vancouver Island gets 6 representatives in the House of Commons. If Vancouver Islanders had the same level of representation as Prince Edward Islanders based on population they would have at least 20 Members of Parliament and 20 Senators.

"Senator Pat Carney, bless her hardened old Mulroney Conservative heart, lives 'near' Vancouver Island on Saturna Island (population 359)," continued Stewart. "From Port Hardy to Saturna Island is an equivalent travel time of driving from Toronto to Quebec City if you arrive just as the ferry to Mayne Island is leaving. If you have to wait overnight for the ferry the travel time is equivalent to driving from Toronto to Charlottetown, PEI. It isn't that Pat Carney doesn't want to represent more than just Saturna it's that the territory is so vast and it has been so long since she was elected to anything that she can't possibly do it. So, Saturna Island gets their own senator with a population of 359 people, but Vancouver Island is short more than 30 of the federal representatives it deserves."

"We have some excellent Members of Parliament from Vancouver Island, but some aren't so great," said Stewart. "How can the rest of Canada expect the 6 members of parliament to do the work of 40 PEI representatives? At the very least their riding offices should be funded for the area and population they have to serve."

The latest census makes some single Vancouver Island House of Common's ridings nearly as populous as Prince Edward Island. Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca now has a population of 120,669 and neighbouring riding Nanaimo-Cowichan now has a population of 125,149. This area in BC is represented by just 2 federal Members of Parliament. PEI has an entire provincial legislature and 8 federal representatives for an area with 55% of the population.

"My candidacy in the PEI Senatorial election may have to wait a while, as Stephen Harper doesn't seem like the kind of guy who keeps his promises. Hopefully, common sense or the House of Commons will prevail and the Senate will simply be abolished instead of a creating an elected Senate," said Stewart. "However, if the time comes for Senatorial elections in PEI, I am announcing today, that I will enter the race to be the Senator from PEI from Vancouver Island."

Stewart noted with some consternation that generally Senatorial elections, if they ever come, will likely be a provincial matter held in line with provincial elections and may require six months residency in the Province before being elected. This makes today's announcement as likely to happen as any other Stephen Harper promise.

Labels: alternatives, blogosphere, canada, democracy, opinion, personal story, unfolding

Today, at 17:30 EST will be a critical vote for the federal Liberal caucus. Anti-Scab legislation that has existed with much success in British Columbia and Quebec is coming up for a vote. Bill C-257 has passed first and second reading but in a move designed to destroy the Liberal Party's left-wing credibility Dion has ordered his caucus to kill this legislation.

Dion appeared to be extremely happy that the government was going to fall, this bill would die on the order papers and that he would be able to avoid voting on this key motion. Instead, the Bloc has kept the sitting alive and Dion's Liberal caucus can't hide behind another unlikely to be fulfilled future promise to introduce a $10 minimum wage.

I hope you can take a few minutes in the next two hours to send a message to your MP and to Dion to encourage them to rethink this and support the legislation. Anti-Scab legislation saves lives, improves working conditions and is international law.

Take this action now:

Bill C-257 is now back in the House of Commons for debate on the Committee Report and a final vote at Third Reading.

A strong majority of MPs supported the bill last October because they agreed that ending the practice of using replacement workers during labour disputes would provide the balance required to bring better labour relations. They also supported it because so many of their constituents asked them to.

I'm asking you to support C-257 at Third Reading.

The Standing Committee on Human Resources, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA) heard from many witnesses during its study of C-257 – 13 representing unions, 32 representing employers, and various technical experts. What stood out from those hearings was the many ridiculous things big business put forward to confuse and scare MPs.

A good deal of the big business fear mongering about C-257 focussed on the continuation of “essential services” during labour disputes. No doubt your Ottawa office has received some letters or phone calls about this in recent weeks.

Essential services are already protected by both the Canada Labour Code and other statutes that deal specifically with federal public services. Passing C-257 does nothing to diminish those protections.

While it is unfortunate that the Committee's attempts to make direct reference to those protections (contained in section 87.4 of the Canada Labour Code) were ruled out of order by the Speaker, rest assured that ruling should not be taken to mean these protections are gone. Quite the contrary.

In fact, the one amendment the Speaker did allow (because it has always been part of the legislation) anchors C-257 to the strict safeguards that are already in place to guarantee the essential services upon which Canadians depend are not interrupted by a labour dispute.

The bottom line is that C-257 provides a much-needed balance to labour relations that take place under the Canada Labour Code. A balance that goes much further towards the protection of essential services by eliminating the threat of tactical lockouts by employers or strikes that happen because a few rogue employers refuse to bargain with their workers.

Bring balance to labour relations and reduce the risk of labour disputes that put essential services at risk in the first place. Support C-257 at Third Reading.

Labels: alternatives, cons, democracy, leftist content creation, link, ndp, online campaign, opinion, union

Ok, so it has been a while since my last blog entry. It may be quite a while longer until the next post, as I am now employed, for at least the next couple of weeks.

Other than getting a job, my last week has been very busy installing Mac OS X. Thanks to the extremely useful tips at www.osx86project.org it was a procedure but not impossible. My Dell Dimension 2400 is now running Mac OS X. My only problem with the Broadcomm 440 on-board ethernet. It worked under 10.4.1 but doesn't under 10.4.8. Instead of messing with it excessively, I've just dropped a Realtek card into a PCI slot and that works like a charm.

For your enjoyment I have tried to keep track of some of the software, I have been installing, since I bootstrapped up a clean operating system. Much of this is open source, available for Unix (can you say AIX? cause I know you can say Solaris) also as in Linux (y'know like Ubuntu and Red Hat), but don't forget BSD is/was Unix too (like OpenBSD, my favourite FreeBSD and Mac OS X). Most of this software even runs on Windows, if you have the stomach for it, I have even been doing a little messing around on Vista in the last couple of weeks. You guessed it.. it sucks.

Feel free to add your favourite applications, that you think, I should download in the comments below.

I recommend all these fine pieces of software:

• Firefox with GoogleToolbar
• Adblock for Firefox
• OpenOffice.org Office Suite
• Fink
• aMSN, MSN Messenger or Adium.. I couldn't decide so I installed them all. In the end i will probably add Gaim too
• FlightGear open source flight simulator
• Chicken of the VNC
• Azureus bit torrent client
• GIMP graphics extraordinaire
• VLC for watching video in spite of my new love for Totem
  
• Alarm Clock Pro (I said I have a new job.. now I have to get up).
• SWF & FLV Player - what's that you say? Full Screen Leftytube, yup, watch flash full screen
• Bandwidth Usage Widget
• Google Earth
• Amarok - although it is still compiling, see more words about my love of Amarok here
  
• As usual, I am heavily reliant on web based applications GMail, Docs & Spreadsheets, Google, Blogger and Google Reader.

PS: Dontcha just love that Canada:

The Copyright Board of Canada issued a decision on private copying last Friday that set new levies for fixed recordable media, such as that found in portable MP3 players, and asserted that downloading copyrighted files from peer-to-peer networks does not break Canadian copyright law as long as the copying is done for private usage. - from DRM Watch

Labels: alternatives, anti-microsoft, anti-war, blogosphere, canada, democracy, internal, leftist content creation, link, macosx, nationalization, opinion, osx86, personal story, photoshop, tools, youtube

"One was an ardent defender of segregation, the other a passionate advocate of civil rights. But for Strom Thurmond and the Rev Al Sharpton, it seems the battle began long before they were born." - from The Independent Online

Today is the last day of Black History month. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the formal abolition of slavery in the British Empire. It also happens to be as good a day as any to blog about our collective racist past. This incredible story of how Strom Thurmond's family once enslaved Al Sharpton's is a poignant reminder of that past.

"Thurmond still holds the record for the longest Senate filibuster, a 24-hour-18-minute effort on 29-30 August 1957, against a civil rights measure of the Eisenhower administration." - from The Independent Online

The story gets even more interesting when you read about Thurmond's 81-year old secret daughter.

History doesn't always come directly from the history books. Sometimes stories must be given an intriguing angle or even a touch of fiction to bring them alive. A friend of my father's has recently had a piece of historical fiction published about the most intriguing of civil war heroes, Harriet Tubman.

I found [Home, Miss Moses: A Novel in the Time of Harriet Tubman] inspiring and enriching. It's a novel, but I learned a lot from it. It's a suspense story in some ways and a history lesson too. An intriguing, complex book, it follows a vast sweep of American history that this one woman's life covered in reality. Harriet Tubman was no ordinary woman. And you get an up-close and personal glimpse of her spirit and stunning courage and fortitude in these pages. The horrific injustice of slavery as she lived it and saw it leaps off the page. You get a window onto both the remarkable cunning and the deep heart of this visionary American patriot who sacrificed everything to end this shameful episode of our history. Although it's a bit of a struggle to get used to the "patois" of her voice (a slave dialect) and there are also a lot of people and places to keep track of as you read, keeping you on your toes, it's well worth it." - from A fine work, honoring this extraordinary African American

Labels: alternatives, human rights abuse, in memory of, leftist content creation, link

The Conservative Government and its backers in the Liberal Party should be ashamed of themselves. Canada's last government brought in an abandonment of basic civil liberties with the so called anti-terror act. Thankfully, after five long years two parts of the act are being allowed to sunset.

In the end, 12 Liberal MPs didn't show up for the vote, with some excused by the party whip for other parliamentary duties.

But at least four no-shows were known to oppose killing the powers: Keith Martin (Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca), Don Bell (North Vancouver), Derek Lee (Scarborough-Rouge River) and Roy Cullen (Etobicoke North).

Only one Liberal – Tom Wappel (Scarborough Southwest) – outright defied Dion, voting with the Conservative government to renew the powers.

Wappel was a member of the Commons subcommittee that last fall supported their extension.

Another Liberal – MP Irwin Cotler, a former justice minister – showed up, but abstained from voting because he supports renewal of the powers, but only if they are accompanied by a comprehensive review and reform of the act by Parliament.

Cotler (Mount Royal) said he expected no discipline for doing so, and Dion didn't indicate what if any consequences Wappel or the no-shows would face. - from The Star

With friends like Keith Martin and Irwin Cotler who needs enemies? If Dion hopes to be Prime Minister he had better show he can discipline his caucus now. Speaking of which why is Ignatieff sitting down during the standing ovation for Dion?

"The two measures, introduced by a previous Liberal government in 2001, have never been used." - from CBC

"Prescription drugs are 16,400% more deadly than terrorists" - via Rational Reasons

Dion should get his caucus together and vote to repeal the rest of the ridiculous Anti-Terrorism Act. In the end though - both the Liberals and the Conservatives are right about one thing - each other:

Leading up to Tuesday's vote, Conservatives ... accused [Liberals] of flip-flopping on a law they'd written themselves.

Liberals have responded that governments cannot be trusted with too free a hand over people's rights, especially the current Conservative government. - from CBC

At least we still live in a multi-party democracy even if the only two parties that have ever held the federal government don't act like it.

Labels: alternatives, anti-war, cons, day, democracy, leftist content creation, ndp, opinion, spy-watch, whale rights abuse, yay immigration

OTI hit 1000 unique visitors for the month of February last night. But, ultimately despite all my efforts to make this blog the better one, it is LeftyTube that gets all the hits. Maybe that's because I don't fill LeftyTube with prattle like this post. Ok, I know why it is, it's because of crooks and liars referring all that traffic.

Anyway, I have had half a dozen posts on the back-burner that haven't materialized in to full posts. Here are few in short form.

---

"Any truly effective senior manager and executives of a sizeable organization know they must delegate to, and trust, those managers who report to them in order to run an organization effectively. A general manager cannot double-check every activity and transaction a senior manager like Sharma undertakes." - Doug Ausman in an op-ed response in the Martlet in 2004.

I left the UVic student union before Vivek Sharma's reign of thievery. The links above tell a bit of the story about the financial disaster that the Student Union would become in the time after the three years of surplus that signified my involvement.

---

As the blogosphere argues our way against climate change and increased emissions I find myself extremely intrigued by the means of rhetoric employed.

I'm too lazy to do the kind of full rhetorical analysis I intended (as a post to both review basic rhetorical style and provide links for those arguing against climate change). Maybe it will happen sometime in the future.

I did note with incredible pleasure that the L'Alliance's Lights Out campaign was extremely successful in France. The campaign managed to reduce consumption of electricity by 1% during 5 minutes on February 1, 2007.

For other daily climate saving tips I recommend: CoolMove.org

---

The continuing unacceptable inequality between men and women will be the topic of a rant not yet written. This article in the Toronto Star highlights this on-going ridiculousness in Canadian Universities.

---

I have added a script to the blog margin that let's you read items I've read and intentionally shared. I'll try and keep them interesting.

Labels: alternatives, human rights abuse, internal, leftist content creation, youtube

And while the tourism folks are selling sex, the city is taking aim at those who pee in public with an anti-urination education campaign.

I wonder, what kind of education, short of a PhD, could possibly convince drunken downtown bar flies to hold their water? Hard to blame the problem on women though. The late night, drunken leak against a wall in an alleyway is a uniquely male ritual, as old as beer itself. This is because, and I’m sure premier would agree with me, “all men are boars.”- Leftovers Reheated by Brennan Clarke Newsgroup

After having worked a four month stint on the Friday and Saturday night shift downtown, with my desk near the glazed window of an alcove, I can tell you with absolute certainty that urinating in public is not a male only pursuit in the downtown core.

Line-ups in night clubs are known for being much worse at the sit-down washroom than the stand-up one. This results in a requisite need to relieve, that although requires some more choice in locations to achieve privacy for the squat, does not free one set of plumbing's need for action.

This alcove near my desk acted as a full-time washroom from midnight until after 4 am. Usage was so high, that squatters seemed to get priority as a result of the slight privacy gained from the extra two walls. The only time business seemed to slow was when the alcove became shelter and was occupied with a different activity that required either a needle, sleeping bag or a rock and a lighter. Through the glazed glass, I was not privy to much detail (although way too much for comfort) but I could certainly make out the difference between a squat and a stand.

There is a simple solution to this problem. Most of the people urinating do so because of lack of access to appropriate facilities. For hundreds of years we have known that public health is linked to public sanitation. Not only should their be public washrooms accessible and available in the downtown core, but also downtown business should be required to make clean washrooms in a number appropriate to their customer base, available to their patrons, at all hours that they are open.

PS: This post made it in as a Letter to the Editor in the Victoria News.

Labels: alternatives, bcmedia, hospitality, link, opinion, unfolding

Firlotte said the Vancouver Police Department didn't want to find the truth.

"I've never been interviewed by the VPD," he told CBC News on Monday. "How can you have somebody die who was in the custody of the VPD … and I'm one of the principals, and I've never been interviewed?

"I think they did what they felt they had to do to protect the department's reputation."

The surprise timing of the retirement announcement of Jamie Graham, Vancouver Police Chief and the nearly simultaneous reversal of the wrong-headed decision by the provincial government to overrule the Police Complaints Commissioners intent to investigate the death of Frank Paul gives the appearance that these two events are linked.

An internal police review concluded that a police van driver dumped Paul, 47, in the alley. The van driver was suspended for a day.

The fact that this investigation was so severely botched in the first place is nearly as much of a scandal as the horrific decision to allow Mr. Paul to die from exposure in an alleyway in the first place. In our racist country it is of substantial significance to have the opportunity to examine this heartless police conduct and cover-up.

This decision by the provincial government and response by Jamie Graham, opens the door for other investigations and resignations. There have been many deaths in custody in this province that need further examination, including a complete review of the circumstances that lead to Anthany Dawson's death in Victoria Police custody.

More on this story:

• Government Orders Inquiry into Death of Vancouver Man
• Inquiry finally called into death of man dumped in Vancouver alley by police
• Inquiry called into death of man who Vancouver police left in alley

"In my view, the issues in the Paul case are so serious that an inquiry is necessary in the public interest ... and best suited to arrive at the truth and make recommendations for future conduct," Ryneveld said in a summary of the Paul case in his annual report. But then-Solicitor General Rich Coleman refused to oblige, saying that he had yet to be convinced that it would be in the public interest.

Stand up, all victims of oppression
for the tyrants fear your might
Don't cling so hard to your possessions
For you have nothing, if you have no rights
Let racist ignorance be ended
For respect makes the empires fall
Freedom is merely privilege extended
Unless enjoyed by one and all
- from Billy Bragg's version of The Internationale

Labels: alternatives, bcmedia, copwatch, human rights abuse, in memory of, leftist content creation, opinion

"Conscription: involuntary labor, especially military service, demanded by some established authority."

A new low in decency has been achieved by our Prime Minister. Unlike the rest of the blogosphere, I'm not talking about the mildly annoying linking in the house of the terrorist Air India bombing (Canada's own per-capita equivalent of the World Trade Centre attack) and the federal Liberals. In this rant, I am complaining about something that will likely see Stephane Dion and 100% of his caucus vote below the belt with Harper.

What am I talking about? Conscription.

I understand that we are at war, but, like the goalie who mooned the refs in this hockey game, "I['ve] had my fill." The war must end, but, it isn't like the conscription I'm complaining about only happens at wartime in this country.

The conscription that has me mooning mad, is the ubiquitously named back-to-work legislation proposed by the federal government to conscript striking UTU workers back to work at CN Rail.

Shame on you Harper and Dion. If you want workers to work, pay them and negotiate in good faith. Clearly, no company will negotiate in good faith if they know they can have a contract imposed. Don't overrule the labour board that sees no basis to force workers back.

The one upside to this story is it appears that Canada's border guards are using their powers positively, by preventing scabs from illegally crossing the border.

Labels: alternatives, anti-war, canada, cons, conscription, democracy, leftist content creation, union, yay immigration

It wasn't guilt or astonishment I felt, as I biked home after the bar, past the Emergency Shelter.

Shame? Angst? Fear? These don't quite describe the feeling either. Just a flicker in my gut as I saw the half dozen folks within a block, in sleeping bags outside and under doorways. It isn't a lack of compassion just a numbness from seeing it every day in downtown Victoria. Two of these people were camped in separate doorways of the shelter itself.

It wasn't until after I stopped at the Canadian branded Wendy's, ate a rainbow glazed donut and after I cycled past the hockey rink at CFB Esquimalt and saw all the activity (keep reading) that my pilot light of feeling grew to an all out flame I recognized.

The feeling by then was unmistakable. It was anger. I was downright mad. I took it easy then, road slowly up the railway tracks (for those of you not from the island, don't worry, even in my semi-sober state it would be hard to get hit by a train that only runs because the Canadian constitution says it must and even then it only comes by once in each direction per day during the busy season). I'd never been up this section of the tracks. I really haven't spent that much time in my parent's home in View Royal, where I moved back to, two days after quitting my Aussie job and leaving that country for what I thought would be a short period of unemployment and eating the parental cooking. Maybe that's what people think when they move on to the street in the first place. "I won't be here long." I am very lucky I have my parents to stay with.

You see, I live in a city where the regular shelter is so full we built an Emergency Shelter 10 years ago down the block. This shelter has been so full since before it even opened, that when I worked on databases around the place, 8 years ago, one of the most important projects was on how to individually identify the homeless in a way that determined who was staying in the emergency shelter beyond the maximum 3 nights per month.

My friend who is doing a social work practicum at a day drop-in centre writes that there have been six deaths amongst the street community since he started in early-January. That's about a death a week.

I started Jack Layton's book Homelessness last weekend. I read half of it in a single night, but then I didn't pick it up again. I just haven't finished it and it is this inaction that makes me the most angry. It isn't that I haven't tried to help. I lived on the lawn of the legislature in a camp of the homeless, dubbed Camp Campbell, for nearly a month in February 2002. But, like the camp's name sake and his latest budget yesterday, I am too much talk and not enough action:

"Rather than making a long-term investment in housing for the homeless, this government’s solution is to create more shelter beds – temporary beds that do not provide the homeless with a place to call their own."

In front of me on the screen are postings for jobs working at the Cool Aid shelter. I'm not working and I haven't been for a couple of months. Its been a peaceful and healthy time in my life. I've had time for much reflection and stoking of the burning fire in my belly (and the creation of this blog). I don't know why I haven't applied yet, I've known about these postings for almost as long as I've been unemployed. It isn't like I'm collecting some kind of benefits -- just temporarily retired on credit.

That anger though, it kept growing. The burning in my belly is unbearable as I write this. The knowledge that it takes more money to house people in substandard emergency shelters than a real home. That the federal government is giving you the chance to rate your top five budget priorities:

a) Debt
b) Spending
c) Personal Tax
d) Corporate Tax
e) Other

Ok, so that wasn't the order I chose, but did it matter? I realized when I filled it out it probably didn't. What I meant by spending was more. When Flaherty reads the statistical summary of my submission he isn't going to be motivated to raise taxes and spend more. When I put Corporate tax anywhere in the list he is going to take that as a vote to cut them, despite my comments.

While the military is buying laser guided killing devices for $40 million and 80 new tanks the social deficit in this country is growing crazily. As I cycled by CFB Esquimalt up the tracks, bumpy bump, the military port was running full steam ahead. It was past three am and there were lights, dry-docked ships, workers and a helicopter. This is where our federal taxes our going and I'm pissed about it.

We need more than just emergency shelters, we need the kind of thinking that realizes that money spent killing people in Afghanistan doesn't make it safer for the people dieing on the streets of Victoria.

Labels: alternatives, bc ndp, bcmedia, leftist content creation, ndp, opinion, personal story, shilling

The NDP is being incredibly effective in the balance of power position. Movement is happening on NDP priorities without capitulation.

This all happened today:

Layton's announcement yesterday that there is a "Prosperity gap continue[ing] to grow for new Canadians" and that the NDP has a plan to help, saw headlines across the country, today. Montreal Gazette, The Star, Toronto Sun, The Globe and Mail, CTV and many more headlines headlines abounded.

It met with some incomprehensible, yet hilarious criticism from the likes of these guys. That's right weirdos, Layton wants to help immigrants use their skills ipso facto he is having an affair, has a love child and ... ... ... you guessed it: Thai food in Alberta. Everyone else seemed to like the ideas presented including these conservatives who claim it coincides nicely with the Ontario Conservatives plan.. whatever..

Then Catherine Bell, had the opportunity to introduce and speak to the importance of Bill M-262. Correspondingly, you have the opportunity to sign a petition supporting this excellent motion for electoral reform in Canada. Back in 2005 Ed Broadbent pushed a motion through that was adopted unanimously calling for electoral reform. Today's motion picks up where that motion left off. It's necessary because the other parties aren't moving on this critical priority at all.

A motion calling for a $10 minimum federal wage was also moved in the house today by the NDP:

Today one in six Canadians live in poverty and nearly 1.2 million of these are children. Many adults living in poverty work for rock-bottom wages. One quarter of poor families now have someone working full time and two million families are unable to find shelter they can afford. The federal minimum wage was abolished by the Liberal government in 1996.

And finally, as South of the border, folks come up with a surefire way to get argue for troops to come home from Iraq. North of the border superstar MP, Dawn Black, uncovers military plans that have not been approved by parliament despite what O'Connor's department says. Check out this magic exchange from Question Period:

Ms. Dawn Black (New Westminster—Coquitlam, NDP) : Mr. Speaker, the government needs to come clean on this. Will the Royal Canadian Regiment be returned in February 2010? Will the PPCLI be returning in August 2009 for their third or fourth rotation? And will the Van Doos return for their third rotation in August 2010 as General Hillier's planning documents indicate? It is hard to see where civilian oversight is taking place at DND. How can the military plan rotations that Parliament has not approved?

Hon. Gordon O'Connor (Minister of National Defence, CPC) : Mr. Speaker, the government has said that we are committed to the end of February 2009. No further decision has been made. The government, when it finds it appropriate, will make the decision on what happens if and when the events occur after 2009.

Has the NDP uncovered the military reporting to someone other than the executive? Maybe it is like that time, the RCMP deported Arar to be tortured in Syria because they gave information to US Authorities but not their own political leadership. Nope, no convenient fall guy (can you spell Z-a-c-c-a-r-d-e-l-l-i) will be available this time (H-i-l-l-i-e-r), Dawn Black received these documents through a Freedom of Information request.

Here's the entire exchange:

Ms. Dawn Black (New Westminster—Coquitlam, NDP) :
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence has refused the NDP request to set a time for debate and a vote on whether or not to extend the mission in Afghanistan beyond 2009. Documents I have obtained through access to information show that the Chief of the Defence Staff is already way ahead of the government. The CDS has detailed plans going until 2011 for deployments.

Will the minister tell the members of the Canadian Forces and their families what General Hillier has planned for them?

* * *

Hon. Gordon O'Connor (Minister of National Defence, CPC) :
Mr. Speaker, I have answered this question a number of times. The member is confusing the military internal plan which is based upon the Afghanistan compact and government direction. If she reads the plan in detail, she will notice that the military acknowledge that they are committed to the end of February 2009, however, they plan beyond those dates because the Afghan compact goes until 2011.

* * *

Ms. Dawn Black (New Westminster—Coquitlam, NDP) :
Mr. Speaker, the government needs to come clean on this. Will the Royal Canadian Regiment be returned in February 2010? Will the PPCLI be returning in August 2009 for their third or fourth rotation? And will the Van Doos return for their third rotation in August 2010 as General Hillier's planning documents indicate?

It is hard to see where civilian oversight is taking place at DND. How can the military plan rotations that Parliament has not approved?

* * *

Hon. Gordon O'Connor (Minister of National Defence, CPC) :
Mr. Speaker, the government has said that we are committed to the end of February 2009. No further decision has been made. The government, when it finds it appropriate, will make the decision on what happens if and when the events occur after 2009.

Labels: alternatives, blogosphere, leftist content creation, link, online campaign, opinion, personal story, spy-watch

	Alexa.com Canadian Rank	Alexa.com World Rank	Google Pagerank	Technorati
Conservatives NDP Liberals Greens	1:6,371 2:6,470 3:11,108 4:11,154	3:230,398 2:192,757 1:166,558 4:435,101	2:6 1:7 2:6 1:7	3:9,072 2:8,501 1:7,528 N/A

I bet you didn't guess those ranking.

Before I looked it up, I certainly didn't expect the Liberals to be behind in several significant ways except blog links. The Liberals are even behind the Greens in a couple of measures. The methodology might not be perfect but it is a very interesting look at what is going on on the web for the main party sites.

What does all that mean?

It means that the Liberal Party's blogging strategy is working best, yet, they just aren't reaching internet users in Canada. Despite this blogging strategy the Conservatives have the most reach right now. The NDP is consistently doing well across the board with a great deal of interest being shown on the web in what the NDP is up to.

A part of the NDP strength may come from the fact that the provincial NDP sites are for the most part, sub-domains of the federal site (ie bc.ndp.ca and ns.ndp.ca). The strongest of these sub-domains ontario.ndp.ca is attributed 13% of the NDP.ca traffic by Alexa.com. However, to see NDP.ca ahead of the Liberal.ca in some ways and ahead of Conservative.ca in others, when they are 10-15 points behind in polls, is astoundingly positive. The sub-domains are not substantive enough to explain all of this reach, instead this shows the NDP has the best overall web strategy to date.

The following graph shows the last three months on Alexa. The Liberals obviously got a gigantic bump during their leadership convention, visible on the left of the graph:

Labels: alternatives, canada, cons, leftist content creation, link, ndp, new media critique, opinion

With a speech from the throne and the crack of an enabling act, the BC Legislature is back. It only took three seasons, made up of the normal two month hiatus for winter, a four month "cancellation" because democracy makes the Liberals look bad often called autumn, and the regularly scheduled four months off for summer before that. Finally, we have a democratic legislature in session once again.

And, fancy that, it looks like Gordon Campbell has gone from being a drunk driver to a hybrid driver. No idling limousine outside for Campbell, I guess no one told the Lieutenant Governor about the contents of the speech she was about to read. She still idled her limo outside the legislature while she read it.

My favourite quote in response to the throne speech has to be:

"I'm pleased that the speech mentions climate change, but one has to wonder why the premier is suddenly embracing his Inner Eco-Warrior when his government has paid virtually no attention to this area," says CUPE BC president Barry O'Neill.

That comes from this press release. Here's another gem from the CUPE BC release and O'Neill:

"Once again, like last year, there are platitudes about 'unacceptable' homelessness, but no recognition that it's the government's own policies and cutbacks that have led to the crisis in Vancouver and other cities. They talk about 'sunshine legislation' for school district companies' business practices. Maybe they should consider 'sunshine legislation' for their own public-private partnership agenda, which is notorious for its secrecy."

Meanwhile, talk of the future of BC was the hot criticism of Campbell's hot air filled throne speech. After cutting $50 million from Child-Care the question had to be asked, why is Gordon Campbell seriously jeopardizing the future of BC by putting the lives of BC's youngest last on the priority list. Items like this from today's headlines really bring the point home: For today's family, time's not on their side [as] hectic schedules, longer work weeks contribute to less togetherness than in 80s and Canada mediocre about child welfare.

This BCGEU press release hammers the point home so many times you could have built it into a house:

"Gordon Campbell has done nothing to restore the cuts to child care let alone provide funds to improve the system," said George Heyman, BCGEU president. While the government talks about communities being caring places for children, the government says nothing about improving our child care system. They have the money to improve and expand child care. The premier’s own Progress Board, parents, and others have all said that the improvements are necessary."

Now, I don't want to hear any whining about how it was the federal Liberal government that didn't get re-elected that resulted in the $50 million not being available either. Dion had 10 years and his Liberal buddies had 3 more to deliver on the child-care promise they made in 1993. The money never arrived. period. end of story. You lost the election and you never delivered on the child-care promise. Let's refresh, in 1993 that promise was:

"Quality, accessible child care is an economic advantage for Canada...The objective of the Liberal policy on child care is to create genuine choices for parents. A Liberal government, working with the provinces, will implement a realistic and fiscally responsible program to increase the number of child care spaces in Canada." - from The Red Book, 1993 via Voices for child care Canada

And, when those same Red Book Liberals presided over the largest cuts to social programs in Canadian history the BC NDP government protected those same social programs by cutting elsewhere. The Campbell Liberals instead are running a surplus and cutting the $50 million.

So this leaves it up to the NDP to hold the government accountable and get results. It looks like they are up to the challenge:

“It’s clear that Gordon Campbell read the climate change plan put forward by B.C.’s New Democrats,” said James. “The question now for British Columbians is can they trust Gordon Campbell to deliver. Every year, Gordon Campbell picks a new priority for his Throne Speech and every year he fails to deliver. Last year, Gordon Campbell’s priority was health care, but 12 months later all B.C. saw was more cuts, longer ER waits, and hallway medicine.

Stay tuned to your local parliamentary channel, for the full response to the throne speech, by the NDP official opposition, later, today.

Labels: alternatives, bc ndp, bcmedia, democracy, environment, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, health, leftist content creation, ndp, opinion, union

"Women's pay has dropped significantly under the new [Industrial Relations] laws with real average earnings for women in the private sector falling by 2.0% and a majority of award workers suffering a real wage cut averaging almost 1% under the new minimum wage setting process." - from a a summary of Brave New Workchoices - What is the story so far

The new Labour laws aren't even a year old yet, but they have caused a major transition in the Australian workplace. The changes are broad and characterized by a few of the headlines from Austrlian unions this week.

Some examples from this week's union press releases and labour news in Australia:

• As the old ways of working out workplace conflicts are falling apart the Melbourne-area Paramedics are forced to threaten to withdraw services over the lack of due process in the firing of a colleague: Melbourne ambulance paramedics to take historic stop-work action.
• Dick Cheney is coming to Australia for a visit and meanwhile his old company Halliburton's construction subsidiary uses the new workplace laws to justify preventing free speech and the display of a union flag on a construction site.
  
• The minimum wage officially went up on December 1 for Australia's lowest paid meanwhile real wages fell.
  
• Workers' paradise yields to new reality as union owned vacation spot for workers with a capacity for 2,000 per night is sold to fund the campaign against the new laws.
  
• Australian federal treasurer Peter Costello says the new laws have resulted in a lower unemployment rate of 4.5%. The Australian Council of Trade Unions rightly points out that the 30 year low in unemployment is a result of a fall in the participation rate and that there has been a net loss in actual jobs.
  
• Unions have virtually ruled out taking strike action over the proposed Qantas sale because they fear being penalized under the tough federal industrial laws.

You can always find the latest Labour headlines at Labourstart where trade unionists start their day. The latest news is even sortable by country as in Australia and Canada.

Labels: alternatives, human rights abuse, leftist content creation, link, opinion, union

It isn't that the provincial police used in Ontario, Newfoundland and Quebec are any better than the RCMP. However, the enforcement of the criminal code is jurisdictionally a provincial matter in Canada. Why is it that the BC Attorney General continues to pretend he has no control over the policing of our province.

The BC office of the Police Complaints Commissioner has had a rocky ride since its inception nearly ten years ago. A limiting budget and a more limited mandate from the start got much worse when the courts over ruled the first significant Public Hearing into the riot at the Hyatt. I remember the police's actions that night vividly and a public hearing was absolutely warranted. The courts however, stated that the commissioner acted without jurisdiction in calling for a hearing. Although Commissioner Morrison was eventually successful in overturning this ruling, 4 years had now passed since the incident. Morrison himself was finished as commissioner long before there was a final outcome. Now, a series of suggestions for improving the complaints process have been brought forward by Justice Wood.

From Opininon 250:

• Strengthening the oversight powers of the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) to ensure that serious complaints are properly investigated and resolved.
• Shifting from the current model where the OPCC oversees a complaint after police have investigated it, to contemporaneous oversight where the OPCC can be involved throughout the handling of a complaint. This would involve the use of new software to track complaints across all municipal police departments.
• Increasing the police complaint commissioner's powers to include the ability to provide advice or direction to a police department during an investigation; the power to issue guidelines that are binding on police; and statutory responsibility to monitor non-lodged or oral complaints (complaints made by a member of the public who does not want to commit the complaint to writing).
• Compelling police by law to co-operate both with internal and external investigators, including providing a statement and submitting to an interview. Failure to co-operate would constitute a new category of discreditable conduct under the Code of Professional Conduct regulation.

Of course, no Canadian can forget how much worse the RCMP's Public Complaints Commission is. Their handling of the complaints related to the injured protesters at APEC will go down in history as a massive blunder almost as bad as the actions of the RCMP in the first place.

For those of you who don't live in British Columbia, or who do and don't follow policing jurisdiction closely, I should give some background. The RCMP is a federal police force reporting to the federal government. The BC Government and all but a few BC municipalities contract the RCMP to provide policing. This arrangement is used instead of provincial police forces in much of Canada. Cities like Surrey, Kamloops and Kelowna don't have their own police forces. Many smaller cities, districts and municipalities do, like Central Saanich and the District of Oak Bay. It gets weirder though, districts like the UBC endowment lands and the Naval Base at Esquimalt are policed by the RCMP on contract but surrounding areas like the Esquimalt municipality and the City of Vancouver have their own policing arrangements that don't include the RCMP. Federal legislation stops any kind of real oversite of the RCMP by the provincial governments, civilians or municipalities. However, the option exists to negotiate a new policing regime or simply do away with municipal and provincial policing duties by contract with the RCMP.

Today's call from the BC NDP Opposition that all communities should benefit from improvements to police complaints requires extending a new kind of civilian over-site to the majority of the province is one I hardily support. The RCMP can no longer operate by a different set of rules than the rest of the police in BC.

If Stockwell Day and the RCMP continue to insist they should have their own set of rules; then we should simply call their bluff and stop using the RCMP in BC.

Labels: alternatives, bc blogs, bc ndp, cons, copwatch, day, democracy, human rights abuse, link, ndp, opinion, rcmp

"There were 469,685 sick and wounded, of whom 53,753 or 11.44%, were wounded, injured or sustained concussion and 415,932 (88.56%) fell sick. A high proportion of casualties were those who fell ill. This was because of local climatic and sanitary conditions, which were such that acute infections spread rapidly among the troops. There were 115,308 cases of infectious hepatitis, 31,080 of typhoid fever and 140,665 of other diseases. Of the 11,654 who were discharged from the army after being wounded, maimed or contracting serious diseases, 92%, or 10,751 men were left disabled." - Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan from Wikipedia

The latest headline screams "Iranians 'at highest levels' meddling in Iraq War".

If it is meddling to provide bombs to Iraqi insurgents, wtf was the United States doing in Afghanistan prior to and during the Soviet occupation.

Oh, you know, at the highest levels - meddling. Presidentially approved meddling in fact, as revealed recently by Robert Gates and admitted as a US trap to bring the USSR into Afghanistan. The trap was effectively the arming of the Afghan Mujahideen. These same people, including Osama Bin Laden, are the people that Canada is at war with in Afghanistan. Of course, the USSR actually committed a large number of troops (620,000 total 80,000-104,000 at a time) to their war effort, unlike the US in Iraq or the NATO forces in Afghanistan.

You don't win a counter-insurgency war by fighting. But you know that story... and if you don't, you'll go read about it from historians, not me, while I'm commenting on current events. Here's a little more about that current event:

"Over the last year there has been a major about-face in the Canadian military's view of the usefulness of tanks.

Last fall, after originally denying that it was going to send Leopards to Afghanistan, the military confirmed the armoured vehicles were indeed headed for that south Asia war zone. "Tanks produce a certain amount of shock action," army commander Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie said at the press conference confirming the deployment of the Leopards. "They can be extraordinarily intimidating."

In the late 1990s the Canadian Forces spent $145 million to equip the tanks with new computers and heat-sensing equipment to improve their fighting capability." - Canadian military hunts for new tanks from Canada.com

By the way, tanks aren't cheap:

"In May 1976, DND received Cabinet approval to purchase 128 Leopard tanks at a cost of $187.1 million to replace the aging Centurion tanks that were used in carrying out Canada's commitment to NATO. The purchase also allowed DND to equip an operational squadron at the Combat Training Centre, CFB Gagetown and to provide tanks for use in the Armoured School in Gagetown and the Land Ordnance Engineering School at CFB Borden." - 1984 Report of the Auditor General of Canada

These current tanks cost $641 million plus the $175 million in CPI inflated dollars that it took to re-equip them. Meaning the commitment of tanks is more than a $800 million commitment of assets to this war. Given the survival rates of the Soviet equipment that was committed to Afghanistan this is one asset we may never see again.

No clear amount has been quoted for the newest 80 tanks, but let's say they are each worth about the same amount as the first 128. That would mean another $500 million committed on the next 80.

It is time for Canadians to make it clear that they are not willing to fund a potentially never-ending counter-insurgency war in Afghanistan. We must let our elected representatives know that $1.3 billion on tanks is an unacceptable expenditure.

Population estimates put Afghanistan's population at about 30 million or very near to the same population as Canada. These tanks represent an expenditure of about $40 per person. That's more than the cost of two chickens for a family in need from Oxfam, but two chickedns would also have the desired effect of "produc[ing] a certain amount of shock action." The chickens, however, would be unlikely to kill anyone. Although, I'm not sure Oxfam can provide 60 million chickens as quickly as Germany can get 80 tanks to Kandahar, I think we should get Gen. Hillier to make the call. I hear he is a man of his word and a very persuasive Newfoundlander:

A few months ago General Rick Hillier promised me a Christmas I would never forget; turns out he is a man of his word.

This year, on Christmas morning, I was in Sperwan Ghar in the Panjwai district of Afghanistan sitting around a single-burner Coleman stove with a dozen Canadian soldiers. Rush was on the stereo and we were watching a pot of Tetley tea bags threaten to boil. Outside it was wet and muddy, but inside the sandbag bunker where these Royal Canadian Dragoons ate and slept it was warm and as comfortable as one could expect under the circumstances. Corporal Frank Farrell was in charge of the pot and there was no top on it this morning - this was not to be rushed.

Gen. Hillier is a very persuasive man. He is also a Newfoundlander. And while he is the chief of the Canadian Forces it has been suggested that he might think he is the chief of all Newfoundlanders. He'll call you up and suggest to you that on Dec. 25 there is only one place you should be and it's so special that by agreeing to go there you render your life insurance null and void. You aren't asked so much as you are voluntold.

... On Christmas morning, the convoy headed to Sperwan Ghar. The troops here sleep in dugouts with sandbag perimeters. ... The trip carried on. We visited more forward operating bases. Gen. Hillier made good on his goal of shaking hands with practically every [Canadian] soldier in harm's way this Christmas. And by late afternoon we took the convoy back through "ambush ally" to the main base in Kandahar for the prime show of the tour for about 800 soldiers in the newly opened Canada House. - A Christmas in Flak Jackets from Rick Mercer's Blog

Maybe next Christmas... by then maybe we will all be voluntold how to support this developing world war.

It isn't enough for us to sit passively by and watch our tax dollars be spent. We need to actively oppose this war.

We must express our disappointment with the direction of our government. In part this means being extremely clear that Rick Mercer and other people who think it is ok to entertain (or for that matter arm or supply) the Canadian Forces are participants in and contributers to war. The Guardian has an excellent piece on the trouble the US Forces are having getting quality entertainment.

Ultimately it is up to Canadians to avoid being trapped into a war in Iran, the one country that separates Afghanistan from Iraq. Our neighbours to the south seem trapped already. Robert Gates sometimes takes 27 years to admit the truth about traps so don't read too much into this denial of an intention to attack Iran:

“I don't know how many times the president, Secretary (of State Condoleezza) Rice and I have had to repeat that we have no intention of attacking Iran, that the second carrier group is there to reassure our allies, as well as to send a signal that we've been in the Persian Gulf for decades and we intend to stay there." Robert Gates quoted on the Pentagon's website.

Labels: alternatives, anti-war, blogosphere, canada, cons, democracy, historical, human rights abuse, in memory of

"The talks, mediated by Saudi King Abdullah in Mecca, resulted in an agreement on the distribution of cabinet positions, with nine posts going to Hamas and six to Fatah. Three key ministries — foreign affairs, finance and interior, which controls security — will be held by independents. Haniyeh [of Hamas] will stay on as prime minister." - from cbc.ca's Fatah, Hamas agree on unity government

I am the first to admit that my limited knowledge of middle-eastern politics means that I can easily put my foot in my mouth when criticizing violence and the anti-democratic tendencies of the region. Maybe it's hubris, but I feel the need to comment some more on the latest news out of the Palestinian Authority.

Is defying democratic will really a reasonable price for peace? Will this agreement actually lead to peace within the Palestinian territories?

I can't happily accept an outcome that results from the inclusion of three non-aligned and unelected minister's within a government. By the way, I am not talking about David Emerson and Michael Fortier. I am further annnoyed by the agreement being brokered by King Abdullah, an unelected dictatorial monarch whose family was installed in Saudi Arabia by the same British forces who decimated middle east peace for generations by imposing borders for their own purposes, George W. Bush style.

I have written before about how the blockaders of the Palestian Authority should rethink their route towards peace and stop the blockade. However, I do think that the Israeli Prime Minister's demands that the new Hamas led government immediately "Accept and respect all three of the international community's principles, ie, recognition of Israel, acceptance of all former treaties and a clear renunciation of all terror and violence" is more than reasonable. At the same time Israel should get on with it and do the same. Immediately respect international law, recognize the Palestinian Government, accept all former treaties and issue a clear renunciation of violence.

We should not forget that the workings of democracy are very fragile at the best of times. I post this here with the hopes it will be a constructive contribution to the debate about how people can support non-violence and democracy across this extremely violent and anti-democratic region.

Labels: alternatives, anti-war, leftist content creation, nuclear waste, opinion, unfolding

The news that anti-whaling heroes Karl Neilsen and John Gravois were found safe after 7 hours adrift in Antarctic waters is exhilarating and relieving.

The Sea Shepherd's two anti-whaling ships (and as a result Greenpeace too) have finally caught up to the Japanese Whaling fleet after searching since early December in the Antarctic, will hopefully mean significant interruption to the slaughter of whales.

"Japan plans to harpoon up to 935 minke whales and 10 fin whales under what it calls a scientific research program this year. However, it admits that whale meat from the hunt ends up on restaurant tables." - Lost whaling activists 'lasso iceberg' from Melbourne's The Age

That is Japan is up to, but what of Iceland you ask? After ceasing whaling in 1986 as a result of Paul Watson's critically important direct action sinking of Iceland's entire factory whaling fleet has returned to commercial whaling. Iceland killed 36 whales again for the first time since 1986 under scientific auspices in 2003.

Send the following note, today:

Prime Minister of Iceland Mr. Geir H. Haarde
Prime Minister's Office
Stjornarradshusinu vid Laekjartorg
150 Reykjavik
Iceland
Tel: +354-545-8400
Fax: +354-562-4014
E-Mail postur@for.stjr.is

Dear Prime Minister Haarde,

I write to express my disappointment at Iceland's recent decision to resume commercial whaling and international trade in whale meat.

Iceland now joins Norway and Japan as the world's three rogue whaling nations. Your country has become the North Korea of whalers displaying complete contempt for international conservation law and total disrespect for conservation and world opinion.

Iceland's announcement to kill 30 Minke and nine fin whales defies the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling - a decision accepted by your government in 1982. It was Sea Shepherd Conservation Society that convinced you, in 1986, to finally stop your illegal whaling.

Twenty years ago, on November 16, 1986, Sea Shepherd crew sank half the Icelandic whaling fleet and destroyed the whale meat processing plant in Reykjavik. That action was taken in response to Iceland violating the global moratorium the first year it was imposed.

Icelandic authorities refused to charge the Sea Shepherd crew despite Captain Watson turning himself in to the authorities in Iceland to demand that they lay charges. Your country refused to charge Sea Shepherd because Iceland knew it was in violation of international law and it knew Sea Shepherd were put on trial it would be putting Iceland's whale killing on trial in front of the watchful eyes of the world.

Sea Shepherd is making plans to return to Iceland next year to confront these ruthless Icelandic pirate whalers once again and I fully support this. Whaling has no place in the 21st century. It is cruel, unnecessary, and immoral.

I reiterate my opposition to the Government of Iceland's plans to resume commercial whaling and meat trade. I urge Iceland to focus on developing its far more lucrative and sustainable whale watching industry.

Please, make sure that your country doesn't need to stand trial to the world's opinion again.

Sincerely,


Your name here

Labels: alternatives, environment, go veggie, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, historical, leftist content creation, link, online campaign, opinion, whale rights abuse

"Since 2001, the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act has exacerbated the systematic racism, discriminatory criteria and arbitrary decision-making of Immigration Canada, creating more obstacles for people to qualify as refugees and permanent residents. Additionally, the asylum procedure for refugees lacks an appeal process, and bureaucracy has created an enormous backlog. Yet, day by day, this growing underclass of exploited clandestine workers, deprived of all rights, fuels the Canadian economy." - The four demands of Solidarity Across Borders

The on-going genocidal and xenophobic practices of the Canadian government must change now.

"[Ahmad Jaballah] said he believes security certificates were issued - the first in 1999, from which [Mahmoud] Jaballah was released after seven months and then the second in 2001 - because his father had refused to work for Canada's spy agency.

"CSIS has their own agenda. I believe they're out there to get my dad," Ahmad Jaballah continued." - from Inside Toronto

The on-going hunger strike by security certificate detainees must be stopped by creating a positive resolution to the crisis it highlights. Mahmoud Jaballah is on day 78 of this courageous stand against the injustice of detention without trial and without the opportunity to see the evidence against him.

"Mr. Jaballah, Mr. Almrei, and Mr. Mahjoub have been detained for over five and six years without charge or conviction, under the provision of security certificates." Conservatives vote against Siksay’s motion seeking an end to Kingston hunger strike

Don't forget, if they can do this to "them" they can do this to you and I. Some slopes are much more slippery than others.

"dem come for de rasta and you say nothing
dem come from the muslims you say nothing
dem come for the anti-globalist you say nothing
dem even come for the liberals and you say nothing
dem come for you and will speak for you? who will speak for you, who ?"
- Asian dub foundaton

Labels: alternatives, anti-war, canada, day, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, human rights abuse, ndp, online campaign, spy-watch, yay immigration

Aboriginal people are younger on average, their unemployment rates are higher and incomes lower; they are more likely to live in crowded conditions; they have higher residential mobility; and children are more likely to be members of a lone-parent family. They also have a lower level of education. - Statistics Canada

Today, the Assembly of First Nations announced that they will be filing a Human Rights Complaint against systemically discriminatory underfunding in Canadian indigenous child welfare; unless this funding imbalance is immediately corrected.

Canada is still apprehending children from their parents at an astounding rate. One in ten first children are in foster care. This compares to one in two hundred amongst the non-indigenous population of Canadian children. Our country's genocidal policies of generational theft have not been stopped. Thinking Canadians should take this opportunity to stand up to this on-going racism. The devastating consequences of chronic underfunding and an over-focus on apprehension will have repercussions for our collective future.

According to CBC, the Assembly says that, First Nations children serving agencies, are funded 22% less than those that deal with non-aboriginal children. The Assembly calculates that equalizing funding would only take $107 million.

The long-term consequences of a failure to act now, are far more than the $3.27 per Canadian that correcting this potentially genocidal and obviously systemic discrimination would cost.

"It's not because we have a Conservative government in power that has caused us to take this action. This has been building up over a number of years and successive governments," said Phil Fontaine, who has often been criticized as a closet federal Liberal. Mr. Fontaine was forced to deflect accusations that the timing of this announcement could have political overtones.

This criticism can easily be assuaged by pointing out that, a human rights complaint:

• will not be resolved within the electoral time-lines,
  
• is before a commission that can not force the government to act even if they find systemic discrimination, and
• is a political issue and only the election of a government the likes of which we have never seen in this country, will result in justice for first peoples, young and old.

Overall, the proportion of Aboriginal people among provincial/territorial sentenced custody admissions has remained stable at 21% since 2001/02. The proportion of Aboriginal people among sentenced admissions to federal facilities also remained stable at 18%. - Statistics Canada

Justice must be achieved now! Not against one youngster who steals... we must do justice as a country, even though Canada has never before shown it feels.

Labels: alternatives, anti-war, canada, copwatch, democracy, health, human rights abuse, leftist content creation, ndp, opinion, yay immigration

The end of hunger is nearby. Nearer than your fridge. Nearer than your country's continued obesity. It is right under your nose and above your chin. It is as simple as what you cram into your mouth.

Stop eating meat. I will even be happy with you eating one less meat centred meal a week. Or even spending some time reading about the impact of your meat addiction...

The livestock sector is by far the single largest anthropogenic user of land. The total area occupied by grazing is equivalent to 26 percent of the ice-free terrestrial surface of the planet.

The livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalent. This is a higher share than transport.

Livestock are also responsible for almost two-thirds (64 percent) of anthropogenic ammonia emissions, which contribute significantly to acid rain and acidification of ecosystems. - from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Livestock's Long Shadow (thanks Stolen Moments)

You make a choice about what you eat every day. For the sake of the more than 825,000,000 people who are undernourished make the right choice, today.

There are 209.5 million undernourished people in India and a further 153.7 million in China. These two nuclear powers alone account for an undernourished population more than ten times that of Canada's total population. A Diktat from our country criticizing their governments choice to fund nuclear weapons before completely establishing food security could be issued, but given our complicity in providing Candu Reactors that helped both China and India go nuclear it would be hard to expect that to lessen the anger of those without enough to eat. Instead, just try to stop eating meat.

Labels: alternatives, anti-war, canada, go veggie, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, health, human rights abuse, nuclear waste, opinion, public power

No deal has been cut with the Tories, but balance of power pressure is making a difference.

The Great Bear Rainforest, a series of beautiful and largely pristine watersheds up the BC Coast has some new funding to develop sustainable industries within the forest.

Saved permanently? Nope. Our world is still at risk. We need to keep up the fight but, for the short-term and for a just transition this is an incredible sign of the recognition of climate change. A realization that this is a gigantic intact tract of a disappearing and irreplaceable part of the world we live on.

18,000 km2 of protected area and 46,900 km2 to be sustainably managed forest. A government that 6 weeks ago wouldn't acknowledge climate change was anything but bunk science. Today, we have a Prime Minister forced into actively working against climate change and I don't mean just by replanting Stanley Park.

I'm not going to start blogging about how I like this government but, I sure like this house of commons and its balance of power.

Brad Lavigne's quote attributed by catprint yesterday, on Mike Duffy, sure seems apropos. Hey Dion.. "So you only needed 14 years, then it would have been done right?"

The NDP has shown that a couple of weeks in the pole position is enough to "Take the lead on climate change."

Thanks LeftCoastRant for the inspiration for this post.

Labels: alternatives, blogosphere, cat, cons, environment, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, leftist content creation, ndp, public power

Today's press release from the federal NDP reminded me just how shocking our treatment of refugees and new immigrants is in this country. No wonder we are one of the least densely populated countries on earth.

What happened to the open armed welcome into our communities, that we should be delivering to people who newly arrive here, as a nation of of mostly immigrants and their descendants. (It would of course be better to welcome people to land on which certainty over land claims existed-if only our governments would hurry up and settle)? And I'm not talking about the kind of welcome these people received or the kind of welcome this community is trying to give.

Anyone notice that skills shortage that is looming? Anyone notice the baby boom? Anyone notice the melting ice and the unpopulated plains? Actually, I guess the Canada West Foundation did...

But that won't get me off my rant. No way.. No single think tank from Calgary saying something somewhat sensible is going earn a moment's silence.

Instead, let's say it loud and proud, "welcome to Canada."

Now, I will quote others. Here's some select sections from press releases by the NDP on immigration issues from the last six months:

“We are breaking a promise to new Canadians when we cannot provide them with secure employment, steady income and a stable quality of life,” said Bill Siksay. “Immigrants are hardworking new Canadians who are trying to provide for their families. We must not turn our backs on them.” - NDP concerned over new Canadian's growing income gap

“The people who work directly with immigrants and their families have been telling us for years that this is the kind of legislation that we need,” said Peggy Nash. “The aim of this bill is to reunite families that in many cases have spent years apart. Let’s not miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to do the right thing.” - Peggy Nash introduces a “Once in a Lifetime” bill

“Many of these refugees have been living in limbo in the Philippines for over 17 years after fleeing the Vietnam War and its aftermath, said Siksay. “As stateless people they live an insecure existence. They can never fully be integrated into society and communities, they are unable to work legally, and they and their families are denied basic necessities like education, and health care.” - Siksay calls on Conservative government to settle last of Vietnamese boat people

"Mr. Speaker: This afternoon, refugees who are seeking shelter in Canada will be out in the cold on Parliament Hill. They are mostly women and children who are struggling to survive. They are vulnerable, they are hungry, most are very poor – and many of the women are trying to escape domestic violence or the sex trade. But the previous liberal government and now the conservative is exploiting and punishing them further by applying a modern day head tax – the refugee fee of $550 per refugee and $150 per child. I have tabled a motion in this House – to drop these fees - this head tax – this blood money on the heads of the most vulnerable…if this government does not act, then it is saying to the world and the ten thousand Canadians who signed a petition that children should be made to suffer and women should indeed be treated like dogs. Mr. Speaker, we must end this cruel practice now." - Chow and Siksay renew call for government to drop fees

"All immigrants face the risk of being made to feel like second class citizens. This summer, during the war in Lebanon, we saw the loyalty of many dual citizens questioned most inappropriately during a time of crisis when Canadians were actually dying. That is shameful,” said Olivia Chow. Chow also noted that at that time, two young girls from her riding were visiting relatives in Lebanon. "Fortunately, they were safely evacuated. Ensuring the safety of all Canadians should never have been an issue. There is only one class of Canadian citizen so citizens are citizens, no matter where they were born. And they should receive Canada's assistance during a crisis." - Dual citizenship a bonus for Canada, says NDP

"This is not just an isolated tale of abuse by a Liberal crony appointee, but a stain on our country for which the Government must hold itself responsible. It is a terrible indictment of our tattered and frayed immigration and refugee system. This sordid episode is a sign of a badly broken immigration system in Canada, which was neglected by four successive Liberal governments. Clearly, the neglect continues with the Harper Conservatives. Enough is enough!" - Refugee board sex scandal demonstrates need for independent appeal: NDP

Labels: alternatives, annotation, human rights abuse, leftist content creation, ndp, new media critique, opinion, yay immigration

For five minutes. Tomorrow at 10:55 am PST and then again at 6:55 pm PST.

Why you ask? Does the OTI server need critical maintenance? Are you going to install Windows Vista?

No and No! The OTI server is a FreeBSD install and has no need for silly downtime during upgrades. As if you could install and test Windows Vista in five minutes.

Instead, the reason is that Obfuscated Thoughtlessness Inversed and conjoined twin sites (like http://morganstewart.org/) have been arbitrarily deemed to be participating in this Facebook/Chain e-mail event started by L'Alliance pour la Planète.

To quote:

Everybody to extinguish all their lights and illuminations and turn off equipment on stand-by on the 1st February 2007 from 18h55 until 19h00. (GMT)

The purpose is not just to save electricity for 5 minutes that day, but to draw the attention of citizens, the media and the authorities to the waste of energy and the need to initiate action! 5 minutes respite for the planet: that's not long, it costs nothing and will show our politicians that climate change is something which should figure prominently in political debates.

Why the 1st February? Because that is the day on which the latest report of the United Nations Panel of Experts is to be released in Paris.

Although this event is scheduled to take place in France, we should not miss this opportunity of drawing attention to the global climatic situation.

If we all participate our actions will have great public and political resonance, at an important moment in our political life!

Please make this appeal as widely known as possible in your own circles and networks ! please also publish it on your websites and in your newsletters.

So don't just stop after this little event but carry on everyday being aware of the little things that you can do to save our world.

There seems to be some confusion about the exact right hour to do this at. OTI will participate twice at both 6:55 pm and 10:55 am PST...

For a daily tip on stopping climate change try coolmove.org.

Labels: alternatives, blogosphere, environment, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, leftist content creation

"Individual actions do make a difference. We all have a role in protecting the health of our communities and reducing greenhouse gases. Project Porchlight is accomplishing both goals - one light bulb at a time." - Dr. David Suzuki

Given that Nuclear Power isn't my choice for an environmental solution, I'd like to refer you to an organization that does have a simple solution and workable solution. Won't fix everything, but it is a place to start with one change: Project Porchlight.



These guys are going door-to-door to drop off a Compact Fluoro Light at your house. The theory is that even changing a single light to a CFL Bulb will result in significant power savings.

From their website:

Project Porchlight staff and volunteers have delivered almost a quarter-million CFL bulbs this fall! To make some very conservative calculations, that'll mean more than $10 million in energy savings! And just to sweeten the deal, Ottawa residents will stop 100,000 tons of greenhouse gases from being emitted into our atmosphere over 5 years.

Labels: alternatives, environment, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, leftist content creation, public power, scary technology, tools

This morning I was introduced to my new favourite MP. Paul Steckle.

You guessed it, that's him in the picture, with his family and their firearms. This was the Christmas card he sent out to his constituents in 2004. As he puts it in this recent article "people are still talking about that one."

Apparently this Christmas card is old news, but sometimes Members of Parliament distinguish themselves in ways that shouldn't be forgotten. Whether that be Darryl Stinson's infamous "Do you have the fortitude or the gonads to stand up and come across here and say that to me, you son of a bitch? Come on." Or Jean Chretien's "For me, pepper, I put it on my plate." These two however have moved into the past and are gone from parliament with Stinson retiring at the last election.

This pro-life, anti-gay marriage, gun-toting (yup that's him and his family in the picture), Christmas wishing-in-fatigues Liberal is still an MP for the riding of Huron-Bruce.

To the great delight of the anti-choice freakazoids Paul Steckle went so far as to introduce a motion into the house last June (2006) attempting to further restrict abortion.

As Stéphane Dion tries the inevitable lefty-reinvention we have seen every time the Liberals are in opposition, we should ensure that we don't forget the likes of Steckle. Scary guys like this one end up damn close to the back room and cabinet if the Liberals win.

Labels: alternatives, canada, cons, human rights abuse, pro-choice

"Purely from an environmental perspective, we must look at nuclear energy as a key source of energy in Canada. We know it's clean, it produces zero emissions, [and] it produces no greenhouse gases." - Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources.

Yesterday, our natural resources minister alienated himself from reality.

Apparently, Lunn thinks nuclear energy is an emission free form of energy creation. We know the opposite is true. Over the life-cycle of nuclear waste the long-term consequences to our environment are extremely detrimental. More than that, emissions from construction of plants, storage of waste and decommissioning far outstrip that of other sources of power.

Nuclear is not an option to solve the massive crisis in our world's environment.

Labels: alternatives, anti-war, faith, nuclear waste, online campaign, scary technology

This site is still up. Fuckers. I haven't held office as Chairperson for the UVic Students' Society since 2000, but these anti-choicers are still suggesting you e-mail me and tell me how wrong-headed I am.

To top it all off, you guessed it, they are the ones who are wrong.

They lost a democratic vote of the membership to establish the policy, another in 1999 to protect it and apparently it was revisited for the third time recently and the idiots lost again.

The issue was simple. They thought the student society shouldn't have any control over itself and e-mail the The University President's Council to that effect. They also thought policy set by democratic meetings of over 500 people should exempt them for no reason.

Oh how my e-mail box used to whine under the barrage of their incessant insanity.

Happy Pro-Choice Blogging Day everybody!

May the anti-choicers shrivel and die soon... if not here is some Bill Hick's to live by:

"If you're really pro-life, here's what you do. Don't block med clinics. OK? Lock arms, and block cemeteries. Let's see how fucking committed you are to this premise!
'She can't come in.'
'She was 96, she got hit by a bus, what?'
'There's options.'
'What? stuff her? What're you talking about? She's dead!'
'We're pro-life; get her out of that casket! Get her out! We're pro-life, there will be no death!'
...look, a three-month old baby in a woman's belly is not a human being, OK? It's just a congregate of cells. You're not a human being, 'till you're in my phone book." - Bill Hicks

Yay for Roe v. Wade!

Labels: alternatives, bc blogs, canada, democracy, health, leftist content creation, link, online campaign, opinion, personal story, pro-choice

The announcement by the Journal Nature that a part of the brain known as the posterior superior temporal sulcus is responsible for altruistic feelings, makes you think.

Am I too altruistic? Do I have an over-sized sulcus?

Is George W. Bush a warmongering fuckwad because he has the wrong sized brain? Wrongly apportioned? Generally damaged?

The answer might be yes, however there will be no Eugenics on this blog.

George W. Bush is evil because of who holds his purse strings. Capital is the cause of war, not one man's brain function.

I have a large size posterior temporal because I grew up in a place that needed more altruism and community spirit. My education and upbringing grew my brain. I think we all need to get out there and build for collective gain.

And this study definitely doesn't refute that idea, nor am I refuting this study. We likely are extremely complex chemical machines with no choice and a chemical will. But, don't give in to your inner chagrin. Choose the life you want to lead. Lead the change you want to see. Definitely don't worry about your chemicality as we can all be free.

So, help your superior sulcus grow and do right for your community, bro.

Labels: alternatives, anti-war, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, health

A brief reprieve from the serious, let's talk about how to maintain high productivity through musical interlude and multi-tasking. Let's talk about how to get the lyrics to your favourite songs at your favourite moments so that you can turn any workplace into your best Karaoke performance ever. Let's talk about Underwear outside the pants and policies not strictly enforced. Let's talk about Amararok a great MP3 player developed in concert with the folks who brought you KDE.

LAZYBOY LYRICS

Underwear Goes Inside The Pants

Why is marijuana not legal? Why is marijuana not legal?
It's a natural plant that grows in the dirt.
Do you know what's not natural?
80 year old dudes with hard-ons. That's not natural.
But we got pills for that.
We're dedicating all our medical resources to keeping the old guys erect,
but we're putting people in jail for something that grows in the dirt?

You know we have more prescription drugs now.
Every commercial that comes on TV is a prescription drug ad.
I can't watch TV for four minutes without thinking I have five serious diseases.
Like: "Do you ever wake up tired in the morning?"
Oh my god I have this, write this down. Whatever it is, I have it.
Half the time I don't even know what the commercial is:
people running in fields or flying kites or swimming in the ocean.
I'm like that is the greatest disease ever. How do you get that?
That disease comes with a hot chick and a puppy.

The schools now: It is all about self-esteem in the schools now.
Build the kids' self-esteem, make them feel good about themselves.
If everybody grows up with high self-esteem, who is going to dance in our strip clubs?
What's going to happen to our porno industry?
These women don't just grow on trees.
It takes lots of drunk dads missing dance recitals before you decide to blow a goat on the internet for fifty bucks.
And if that disappears, where does that leave me on a Friday night with my new high speed connection?

Masterminds are another word that comes up all the time.
You keep hearing about these terrorists masterminds that get killed in the middle east.
Terrorists masterminds.
Mastermind is sort of a lofty way to describe what these guys do, don't you think?
They're not masterminds.
"OK, you take bomb, right? And you put in your backpack. And you get on bus and you blow yourself up. Alright?"
"Why do I have to blow myself up? Why can't I just:"
"Who's the fucking mastermind here? Me or you?"

Americans, let's face it: We've been a spoiled country for a long time.
Do you know what the number one health risk in America is?
Obesity. They say we're in the middle of an obesity epidemic.
An epidemic like it is polio. Like we'll be telling our grand kids about it one day.
The Great Obesity Epidemic of 2004.
"How'd you get through it grandpa?"
"Oh, it was horrible Johnny, there was cheesecake and pork chops everywhere."

Nobody knows why were getting fatter? Look at our lifestyle.
I'll sit at a drive thru.
I'll sit there behind fifteen other cars instead of getting up to make the eight foot walk to the totally empty counter.
Everything is mega meal, super sized. Want biggie fries, super sized, want to go large.
You want to have thirty burgers for a nickel you fat mother fucker. There's room in the back. Take it!
Want a 55 gallon drum of Coke with that? It's only three more cents.

Sometimes you have to suffer a little bit in your youth to motivate yourself to succeed in later life.
Do you think if Bill Gates got laid in high school, do you think there'd be a Microsoft?
Of course not.
You got to spend a long time in your own locker with your underwear shoved up your ass before you start to think,
"You'll see. I'm going to take of the world of computers! I'll show them."

We're in one of the richest countries in the world,
but the minimum wage is lower than it was thirty five years ago.
There are homeless people everywhere.
This homeless guy asked me for money the other day.
I was about to give it to him and then I thought he was going to use it on drugs or alcohol.
And then I thought, that's what I'm going to use it on.
Why am I judging this poor bastard.
People love to judge homeless guys. Like if you give them money they're just going to waste it.
Well, he lives in a box, what do you want him to do? Save it up and buy a wall unit?
Take a little run to the store for a throw rug and a CD rack? He's homeless.
I walked behind this guy the other day.
A homeless guy asked him for money.
He looks right at the homeless guy and says why don't you go get a job you bum.
People always say that to homeless guys like it is so easy.
This homeless guy was wearing his underwear outside his pants.
Outside his pants. I'm guessing his resume isn't all up to date.
I'm predicting some problems during the interview process.
I'm pretty sure even McDonalds has a "underwear goes inside the pants" policy.
Not that they enforce it really strictly, but technically I'm sure it is on the books.

How did I know that these were the Lyrics you ask?

Because much of the world's best poetry is simply a random shuffle away. Downloading is simple, the necessary components of the KDE (desktop) will be installed by using your package manager (whether that be Synaptic Package Manager, yum, FreeBSD ports or Adept) if you are a Gnome desktopper or something else. If you are using KDE you probably already have Amarok under the multimedia menu.

Load it up and shake it down. This music machine is going to rock your town.

The context menu allows constant great selections from your MP3 collections. The Lyrics load with the touch of a button and if it was a tiny bit more stable I'd go into production.

Get this thing and put your underwear on like you just don't care.

A perfect MP3 player for humanity and best of all its open source and free!

There are come caveats though..

1. it isn't quite as stable as I'd like, as it crashes occasionally while rebuilding my music collection,
2. isn't available in a binary distribution for windows or MacOSX, so you windows users will have to compile it yourselves, and
   
3. has trouble understanding that when I plug in a peripheral like my camera it doesn't need to manage it (although apparently this is a feature that I can fix through excessive meddling with the settings).

On the plus side,

1. random mode keeps track of whether you skip music part way through playing, and scores files in a artificial intelligence style learning process about your collection,
   
2. intuitive gui interface allowing for substantial updating of your collection's tags while listening, and
   
3. Amarok's motto of "rediscover your music" accurately describes how I have renewed my interaction with an old collection of music as a result of Amarok's excellent features.
   

The feature list as described by Amarok's creators:

• Quick and simple drag and drop playlist creation
• Super eye-candy interface
• Multiple backends supported ( xine, helix and NMM)
• 10 band equalizer
• Automatic cover art download using Amazon services
• The unique and powerful Context Browser
• Automatic play-statistics generation (iRate style)
• Full lyrics download
• Read about your bands with embedded wikipedia browsing!
• Funky visualisations from libvisual and XMMS
• KDE integration
• Streaming MP3 streams, including Last.fm streams.
• Crossfading
• Podcasting Support
• Fully configurable translucent OSD for track changes
• K3B (CD-burning) integration
• Style your Context Browser with custom CSS styles
• Save space in your Context Browser with collapsable boxes
• Show the Context Browser without Amarok open through the Konqueror sidebar!
• Full support for Last.FM! Share your music taste with friends on the net
• Generate dynamic playlists based on last.fm suggestions
• Support for SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases ensuring fast collection access
• Support for your iPod, iRiver, PlaysForSure, NJB, and generic USB device with the all new media-browser
• Powerful scripting interface, allowing for easy extension of Amarok
• Complete DCOP access
• Translated into more than 50 languages, thanks to the KDE localization team.

Wow all that for Free!

PS: If you are addicted to random consumer expenditures, Amarok comes with its very own music store, where you too can spend more and more and buy the tunes you hear pumpin' next door or Not!

Labels: alternatives, leftist content creation, new media critique, opinion, tools

This article about how Democrats want the draft reinstated needs substantial follow-up and research. Democratic policy inconsistency should be clearly examined and critiqued and what better time than now, two years out from a Presidential election, with a new house and senate majority. No one should fall into the trap of expecting Democrats to be intrinsically against the War machine. We need to know now where Democrats stand and where the Democratic presidential hopefuls stand on the draft and the continuation of war.

The following quote "Smart Border Declaration of 2001 provides for U.S.-Canadian cooperation to return American citizens stateside" from this article had me wondering if this was true. This sourced document from FactCheck.org says this claim is a hoax. Although, it does go on to state that 14 Democrats co-sponsored Democratic Representative Rangel's pro-draft legislative bill referred to in the story in the first paragraph.

A clear unequivocal statement from the Democratic leadership opposing the war both in Afghanistan and Iraq and distancing itself from a draft would be very welcome. One way to do this would be to introduce legislation into the senate repealing the Military Selective Services Act the draft empowerment legislation. Watching to see the stances of democratic presidential senatorial potentials Obama, Clinton and Edwards will be very interesting indeed.

Labels: alternatives, anti-war, democracy, opinion, unfolding

Most people hold beliefs, ideas and concepts that are clearly wrong when tested logically. Skeptics and humanists have often pursued rigorous logical examinations of these clearly false ideas to encourage the scientific method.

This kind of strict logical analysis is often unacceptably harsh on those who have spent most of their lives believing that which is obviously false. It is hard to admit that you have made decisions without logic as a base. Many people would rather cling to ideas that are incomplete, wrong or wrongheaded than allow themselves to be educated with the cost of ridiculing their past.

The following eight questions about whether you are really a Christian from Way of the Mind:

1. Do you believe homosexuals should be killed? Not just “they’re going to hell”, but actually executed?
2. Do you believe women are inferior to men, should remain submissive, and can never be allowed to teach men or have authority over them?
3. Do you believe slavery is OK?
4. Do you believe disobedient children should be killed?
5. Do you believe that, when waging war, it is proper to commit genocide, killing every man, woman and child in the enemy nation — except for, in some particular cases, female virgins, who can be taken as “spoils”?
6. Do you believe that anyone who suggests to a Christian that he follow other gods should be killed?
7. Do you believe that an old grandmother, who lived a life of caring for others, bringing joy to dozens, will be condemned to an afterlife of eternal suffering if she didn’t accept Jesus as her savior?
8. Do you believe that there are cases in which a raped woman should be killed along with, or even instead of, the rapist?

Is a dangerous way of changing people's minds. Of course the questions are both funny and apropos. The strict teachings of Christianity are no longer acceptable in our world. Those who believe a watered down version can rightly be asked:

1. What do you really believe and why?
   
2. Aren't there substantial internal contradictions within your faith?
   
3. Don't these contradictions make you doubt your entire faith?

A progressive teaching of Christianity and for that matter a modern teaching of Islam and Judaism don't openly accept the above listed tenants. Using the logical fallacy of thinking in extremes may question the hypocrisy of the majority of believers, but those who do it should realize that there is a danger that the people confronted with in the extreme may blindly go back to their religious teachings and accept a more absolute and arbitrary renewed belief in their faith as an answer. Many people believe ideas without having ever examined why or how they came to these beliefs. Many more do not have any capacity to undertake such an examination. It is extremist understandings of faith that ultimately are much more dangerous to truth than debatable ideas that can come as a result of a respectful conversation in which forms of gentle logical persuasion may be established.

So, the alternative is a middle path. While skeptics must continue to ask tough questions and not abandon that which is clearly true to avoid offending. These questions should not be asked without teaching an alternative at the same time. It isn't enough to remind believers in the idiocy of an arbitrarily pure interpretation of faith. Those who have had access to alternate interpretations of our existence must make every effort to establish rigorously how that alternative exists.

We should understand the tenants of faith that those around us hold in a compassionate and in-depth manner while gently ridiculing our idealogical opponents towards understanding.

Labels: alternatives, faith, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, opinion, scary technology

The idea is simple enough. Import your list of contacts from GMail / Yahoo / Hotmail / AOL into MySpace and see who is already a MySpace member.

Too bad it doesn't fucking work.

You give the man your password, wait a while and then boom, crash, down goes the system. 404 errors all over the place and links to who knows where.

Then there is the second and third try where it finally figures out that it should load your address book without sending you into the nethers of cyberspace. First few people are displayed you go to the next bunch and wait for 10 minutes while it moves like mummified molasses.

I'm all about overloading your server, but damn, I run on a free server at home, not a multi-billion dollar News Corp flagship.

Oh, and to top that off you get all these people you added to your addressbook in high school, and no new friends cause everyone you like is obsessed with Myspace as you and has found you already.

Stupid Address Book import....

BTW: The same function on Facebook works great! Now all I need is one to import my friendster "friends" into myspace, that list into hi5 and that into facebook and it will appear to those who are looking that I have friends again.

I have a real friend, she uses hyves.nl.

I don't want any friends at all on Digg.com, Technorati, Windows Live or anywhere else with a social networking component so you won't see me importing stuff there...

Ok, enough of this blogging, time to go drink with real people.. maybe they'll be my real friends and leave comments on this blog after they are good and drunk with me. Maybe I need a Second Life this one is cyber-lame.

Labels: alternatives, anti-microsoft, health, opinion, personal story, tools

Google News has numerous effective uses that enhance a news watchers ability to keep up with what is going on in the world.

I have been using Google News for many years as my own personal clipping services, to track specific stories and to get an international perspective on stories that appear to have an excessively narrow view expressed in the source that brings the piece to my attention. This week, I realized that one of my close friends had never used Google News. This is despite having been given explicit instructions to use it a number of times in the past.

I am guessing it is possible you to have not used Google News or at least that you have not made use of it with the advanced features that make it the powerful tool it is. If you have never used Google News you should go there now, and come back to this article to read about the advanced features later.

If you have been a regular Google News reader spend a moment considering these uses.

Google News - Your own clipping service

Let's say you are working on an election campaign, planning on highlighting a specific issue in a community campaign or you are simply completely envious of that cool kid from junior high school and want to track her every move on her way to another dozen Junos. Google Alerts has for a long time been a part of Google News and has recently expanded to include all web content.

Let's go back to the cool kid from high school scenario. In this completely ridiculous scenario, I would add an alert for the search terms "Nelly Furtado", of the type Comprehensive (this includes blog content, news content and web content). Given that I really don't want to think about her more than once-a-week I would then choose that option as how often I would like to receive an alert by e-mail, summarizing new cool kid from high school content. By the way this alert is fictional and I do not receive weekly e-mails with updates of Nelly Furtado from Google News, but I could...



A more likely use? Let's say you are a not a Nelly Furtado stalker and were thinking of working on an election campaign in the City of Victoria in 2008. You could add Google Alerts for local city electables "Dean Fortin", "Pam Madoff", "Alan Lowe" and "Ben Isitt" with the setting as-it-happens. You would then immediately be notified if any of these folks made the news or were written up in a blog. The alert gives you a brief summary of the article and a link to the full article.

Really need to make it your own clipping service? Set up a 2 GB Gmail account to receive the alerts and keep them in a searchable form there.

Google News - Your own anti-censor

When reading an article that appears to show an extremely narrow point of view, choose a few key words, who, what, where, and type them into Google News.

You will instantly be given a screen of all the articles on that topic.

Today, was the fifth anniversary of the opening of the Guatanamo Bay Gulag - the US Government's illegal torture camp. Let's say you happened across a US Government News Release reproduced in a major news source on how Guatanamo Bay was doing wonderfully and almost complying with the law. Thinking to yourself, wow, this seems a remarkably one-sided story you can then do a search for the term Guatanamo-Bay in the Google News search bar. This gives a whole group of stories about illegal detainment, torture, and the protests against the open illegality of the US Administration's on-going breaches of the Geneva convention.

Additionally, let's say in protest against the on-going illegal detentions you decided to set-up a website supporting further protests. You could use Google News to generate an RSS/Atom feed of all stories with the keywords Guatanamo Bay and add that to your website.

Google News - A tool for democracy

As we change this world for the better, sites like Google News will be a powerful means by which to track an expanding dichotomy of debate and to increase your voices potential to be heard at the right time to impact the world.

A discussion like today's freak announcement that; the main strategy scientists had to keep nuclear waste with a 24,000 year half-life safe for 250,000 years, can actually only keep nuclear waste safe for 1400 years, can be tracked on a single website.

Watch the media for your favourite politicians, issues and writers. Post the RSS on a website where other people can read through the content.

But, most of all read the news, read the blogs and don't forget to read the wind!

Labels: alternatives, anti-war, democracy, leftist content creation, nuclear waste, online campaign, opinion, public power, spy-watch, tools

It is time to dump Photoshop for the more stable and functionally equal GIMP and not just because it is free!

GIMP is available for MacOSX, Windows and Unix-like OS's (Linux, FreeBSD etc). The source is open. The price is great as GIMP is a GNU Project distributed under the GNU General Public License. You may even already have it installed if you are using the Gnome Desktop it was probably installed at the same time as the rest of your desktop.

What are you waiting for?


Ginger is waiting! This image was animated in GIMP and below are some screenshots.

Ok,
1. stop reading this.
2. go download GIMP, and
3. start editing images at a professional level, for free, right now.

Labels: alternatives, photoshop, tools

Back on October 13, 2004 shortly after the now infamous debate between Kerry and Bush wrapped up CNN held a poll with the following question: Who do you think won the debate?

This of course is a relatively innocuous question. Unless you plan on doing what CNN did that night. I don't know why, but I did catch them at it. Why you ask haven't I posted this on the web sooner? Well, I actually did, I posted it on Victoria Indymedia and Indymedia internationally at that time. I just felt like resurrecting this story for my blog. Particularly, since it didn't gain any particularly exposure at the time.

If you look closely at the pictures above, what you will see is two screen shots captured 2 minutes apart showing the results of the poll. In the top part of the image you will see Kerry is leading by 83% to 17%. In the bottom screen, taken, just two minutes later you can see Kerry is leading by just 56% to 44%. Now this isn't that amazing unless you consider:
a. that the poll had been open for more than half an hour at this point,
b. that in the first half an hour more than 20,000 votes were cast with a result favouring Kerry 83% to 17%, and
c. then in 2 minutes an additional 29,000 votes were suddenly "cast" favouring Bush 63% to 37%

Here's those numbers again for you in long hand:

	8:34 pm	8:36 pm	Diff.	Perc.
Bush	3449	21698	18249	63%
Kerry	16852	27498	10646	37%
	20425	49413	28988

I'll be the first to admit that CNN polls state right on them that they aren't scientific in nature and are unlikely to reflect anything about the viewers or the populace of the United States. However, I'd say this poll definitely showed something. It showed something about the political bent of CNN.

Labels: alternatives, anti-war, blogosphere, democracy, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, leftist content creation, opinion, pro-choice

I hate to admit it, but this blog posting about how Stephen Harper is to the left of Hilary Clinton is largely correct.

I have held the view that elected Canadian politicians, even of the far-right variety like Ralph Klein, are to the left of the vast majority of the Democratic Party in the US, ever since I heard this idea espoused comically by Jello Biafra as part of his routine going into the 2000 election.


Anyway, check out where you stand at: Political Compass (thanks Paul).

PS: If this posting gets lots of hits from Australia before the Victoria State election I'm pulling it, because I do actually want Bracks to win (not that this post won't help him)..

Labels: alternatives, leftist content creation, opinion

First, my sisters and brothers of the SEIU were attacked and now peaceful protesters outside the State Parliament in Melbourne.

Check out this total bullshit: http://melbourne.indymedia.org/uploads/g20parliament.mov

My one line critique of the G20: G20 leaders should be criticizing not only North Korea for nuclear tests, but also the other nuclear powers of the world for still having them.

Labels: alternatives, democracy, leftist content creation, online campaign, opinion, union

Racist, violent police on horseback attacked a group of peacefully protesting janitors yesterday.

Don't like how I called these cops racist and violent have a look for yourself: Download the podcast or watch it on YouTube.

Today, a thousand janitors held another protest at the same site.

“Houston has to make a decision whether they are going to use their power to grind workers deeper into poverty or use their power to lift workers out of poverty,” said Tom Balanoff, President of SEIU Local 1. “We hope the aggressive tactic employed against the janitors last night was a regrettable mistake on the part of the police and it won’t be repeated.”

Of course this story isn't about police aggression on one day in one city. This story is about the aggressive attack capitalism takes on the lowest paid workers doing the dirtiest crappiest jobs every day. Today, you just get to see how threatened the state becomes when a small number of these workers stand up for their rights.

In the words of NWA:

"To the police I'm sayin fuck you punk
Readin my rights and shit, it's all junk
Pullin out a silly club, so you stand
With a fake assed badge and a gun in your hand
But take off the gun so you can see what's up"

This isn't just the police either, this is also the property owners who had them called out.

Please take a moment to stand with these workers and send a note to the boss's boss.

Take a page from NWA's lyric book and let them know what you really think.

Labels: alternatives, copwatch, democracy, human rights abuse, online campaign, union

The BC Government is examining the possibility of allowing commercial development in BC Parks. I took a moment to express my views on this and here I share them with you (aren't you lucky).

To: Gordon Campbell, Premier premier@gov.bc.ca
Barry Penner, Minister of Environment barry.penner.mla@leg.bc.ca
CC: Carole James, Leader of the Official Opposition carole.james.mla@leg.bc.ca
Subject: 13% Commercial Free Please

Dear Gordon & Barry:

I am writing today on the topic of commercial development within BC Parks.

Your current proposal to allow development in the wonderful protected areas of our province is akin to the City of Victoria allowing a McDonald's in Beacon Hill Park. Allegorically, I'm not saying you should shut down the Beacon Hill Drive-in, just that you don't need a McDonald's overtop of the duck pond, or at the top of Beacon Hill.

Having trouble picturing what I am talking about? It is a five minute walk from your office. I know you Gordon and Barry personally aren't likely to be reading this e-mail, but may I suggest to the person who is, that you get up from your desk and take a field trip for the next 15 minutes and walk through to Beacon Hill park to think about this. It might not change your mind or the decision maker you report to, but I guarantee that it will be an enjoyable, quiet walk away from hubbub of commercial development and the office you work in.

An entire generation of British Columbians sacrificed economic growth to set aside the 13% of our land base that makes up the protected areas of British Columbia. This was the right decision and it is incomprehensible that you would allow private development within these parks. If we had wanted to develop these areas we could have. British Columbians made a reasonable choice to set these areas aside as parks free from commercial use. All of them were created with the possibility of building commercial enterprise on their edges. Accessible yet external. Once land claims and sovereignty issues are settled in British Columbia there would be few opponents to commercial interests building a "drive-in."

Sure, my generation could have grown up with a higher level of income in our province if we had allowed the kind of forestry and mining that had been proposed. We all would have benefited from increased spending on textbooks or teacher's salaries. Instead we got the chance to visit beautiful areas like the Carmanah Valley on field trips and the hope to be able to do the same with our grand children.

Please let me remind you of Judge Begbie's decision from 1884 about Beacon Hill Park. "The park alias the pleasure ground, is to be used for recreation and enjoyment; and therefore, I think, in no other manner; not for general purposes of profit, or utility, however great the prospect of these may be. A trustee cannot go beyond his "express trust at least cannot do anything inconsistent with it."

Let the intent of the public good guide you as you think of the future stewardship of our BC Parks.

You both know what Judge Begbie's nickname was! I am certain that the BC electorate's judgment could be equally severe at the next election if you make the wrong choices on such key issues.

-Morgan.


PS: My advice to the faceless reader of this e-mail at the Premier's office could also be given to you (or me for that matter).. it is always time for a fifteen minute walk through Beacon Hill Park.

Labels: alternatives, environment, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, leftist content creation, online campaign, unfolding

With the sudden announcement of Bob Gates as the new secretary of defense and Bush's own family connections to the intelligence community (daddy Bush was the CIA director before becoming Vice-President and then President). Is it that improbable that Bill Gates might be a relative (likely distant) of Bill Gates of Microsoft Corp?

Is it possible that Microsoft's early financial dominance could be because of spying? Did someone slip their cousin some source code?

I'm sure there is someone out there that can rule out a family connection; that is if there isn't one. I know I don't have the research capacity.

But, I do love to wonder whether billionaires can keep themselves from influencing politics closely. More than that it will be interesting to know whether they had access to the corridors of power long before the money started to flow to them.

What we do know is Robert Gates's appointment is going to be rushed through congress in apparent defiance of the will of the American electorate. Defying the electorate probably isn't anything new for this veteran of the CIA, given his involvement with the Contra in Nicaragua. I wonder what the recently re-elected Ortega thinks of the Gates appointment?

It is worth noting that the departure of Rumsfeld (see prior post) from Ford's administration roughly coincided with daddy Bush's appointment as Director of Central Intelligence in the mid-1970's.

• Billy Gates
• Bobby Gates
• Daddy Bush
• José Daniel Ortega Saavedra

Labels: alternatives, anti-microsoft, spy-watch