Obfuscated Thoughtlessness Inversed

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

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

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

"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

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

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

Alright, I have to admit it, I watch the stats page on my blog with a severe addiction. Since I set this blog up, about 70 posts ago, I have been glued to the unique visitor count provided by my awstats.

The truth of the matter is I really want to hit 1000 unique visitors by the end of this month. As I write this, 900 unique visitors (ie. IP addresses) have happened this month including bots, worms and other automated annoyances.

Crappy post eh?

Here have a look at some recent posts with interesting content:

• Project Porchlight - Or one bulb to save the world
• Steckle's my favourite
• Gary Lunn is confused - Thinks Nuclear is a solution not a problem.
• Take that student debt!
• The right to conscientiously object and brownshirted bloggers
• Yup that's me.. why I'm pro-choice!

Labels: blogosphere, leftist content creation, opinion, personal story

I don't know how I stumbled on to these racist freaks.

But, they have a whole coalition against Illegal Aliens.

They need some intense scrutiny, a little myth debunking and a fair bit of anti-fa political action against them. Too bad I'm laughing way too hard to provide any that.

Have a look and laugh along with me.

Labels: annotation, blogosphere, human rights abuse, new media critique

"Seven Oaks magazine is a publication which stands outside the realm of false consensus, in unapologetic alliance with those in this country and around the world dedicated to social justice, world peace, gender and racial equality, as well as equality of language rights, self-determination, environmental sustainability, and the celebration of cultural achievement and critical thought." from the Seven Oaks Magazine manifesto.

It isn't just the blog that has created a political stir this year. Even as new mediums allow instantaneous publishing power for anyone with access to the technology, a hard-core of experienced propagandists spend countless hours disseminating the in-depth written arguments and ideas that create the platform on which this freedom is built.

The failure of victoria.indymedia.org and its counterpart at vancouver.indymedia.org to live as long as our foggy memories of Seattle '99, ushers in a new challenge to the left, to create content in open forums, that leads discussion without debasing the debate to the point of irrelevance. Even bc.indymedia.org, created in the ashes of vic & vanindymedia and seen as a way to bring together a province with alternate forms of debate seems abandoned with no new posts in nearly 8 months.

Let's hope these same brilliants writers and activists who are creating on-line places like thetyee.ca and sevenoaksmag.com move quickly to adopt the use of new forms of media. Check this attempt of what I hope for by some local film-makers, now viewed over 5,700 times on YouTube: Guantanamo Bay.

Labels: bc blogs, bcmedia, blogosphere, indymedia, leftist content creation, new media critique, youtube

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

So, Garth Turner is going to say something. He has a press conference scheduled for tomorrow morning, can't say it today, gotta wait until tomorrow.

As he puts it in his weblog he is going to say something: "about what our political leaders promise and deliver, and what I’ve just learned."

The country is in a tail spin. What could it be?

What could Garth Turner know about our prime minister that everyone else doesn't know.. or that the Candians who do know, can't tell us. What is it that he is going to tell us that is so exciting?

It was obviously exciting enough that, unconfirmed, unpublished and before Garth realized what it was that he knew, it got Garth kicked out of the Conservative Caucus. I mean c'mon what kind of caucus confidentiality did he break, given that he hasn't even told us what he is going to tell us tomorrow, and he got kicked out of caucus on October 18?

Well we just don't know do we. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

In the meantime any guesses? Any leaks from within Garth's brain that want to confirm themselves right here.

PS: Please stop contacting me about the Garth Turner bites it tonight betting pool. You know I'm not a betting man. For those of you who are punters and looking for some advice on which way to bet, don't look to me, look to history.

Labels: blogosphere, leftist content creation, new media critique, opinion, unfolding