Obfuscated Thoughtlessness Inversed

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

I posted back in November a few links in my job search. Amazingly, I'm still not employed.

I've spent the day, in the Spectrum Job Search Centre in downtown Victoria and I have found some new resources:

• Spectrum Job Search Centre
• Charity Village
• Canada.com Classifieds
• WorkInNonProfits.ca
• Monster.ca
  

I will repeat the previously posted links:

• BC Ferries - Victoria Opportunities
• City of Victoria Jobs
• Innovation and Development Corporation - UVic
• UVic Postings
• Shaw Cable
• NDP Jobs
• Google Canada
• Government of BC - Victoria area jobs

Feel free, to let me know about other great job sites in the comments.

Labels: annotation, link

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

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

Thanks to Crooks and Liars my other useful blog - Leftytube - got hit with a massive round of hits this morning.

Although LeftyTube isn't hosted on my home server like Obfuscated Thoughtlessness Inversed it still created a chain that overwhelmed my D-link router causing it to reset and come back up with the OTI server DHCPed to the wrong IP address. The result was OTI was down this morning for a few hours, third time in a week because of the same router. I guess I should fix that already.

On a positive note, the hits are up and the grail of 1,000 unique visitors is within reach this month.

This is in part because of OTI being added to Progressive Bloggers, Vast Left Wing Conspiracy, Sense of Irony, Tall Poppy Syndrome, Dipper Chick and as always Blogging Dippers Everywhere, Brine Bubble's blatant promotion and my favourite ping tool Ping-o-matic. Thanks!

Special thanks goes out to Blue Gal who arranged the anti-creationism hit parade in the first place.

Labels: internal, leftist content creation, link, opinion, tools

	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

Prime Minister-in-waiting-Dion's attempts to remake his Liberal caucus as left-wing and ignore the 13 years of failures to act, continues. This week, parts of the useless anti-terrorism laws that the Chretien government brought in, while Dion was a minister, are up for debate. A couple of the many illegal and immoral sections of the law are set to expire on March 1, 2007.

The Dion led caucus has taken a stand, to vote to do nothing and allow the expiration of these sections, along with the NDP who opposed them in the first place and the Bloc. The problem for Dion is his party loves these laws. Several prominent members of the Chretien administration, Dion used to be part of and Bob Rae (who also happens to be co-chair of the platform committee for the next Liberal election platform) have all been critical. Apparently, so have 20 of Dion's backbench.

Now don't get me wrong, I'd be delighted if for once the Liberal party:

1. imploded through internal conflict over past-guilt,
2. went all crazy and right-wing and kept supporting the passage of the kind of laws they did in the last 13 years thereby destroying any chance of getting elected in lefty Canada, or
3. went all lefty and actually started arguing for the kind of change we need, like the repeal of security certificate legislation (also brought in under Chretien).

All of these are unrealistic expectations of a party almost as divided as our country itself. Instead, it will tow some bizarre and incomprehensible middle line through opposition into government where it will govern completely differently than it says it will in the next Red Book (or will it be called the Rae Book this time around).

At least some people are standing up for basic Human Rights and critically needed electoral reform.

It is hard to forget at moments like these that:

"It took 89,296 votes to elect each NDP MP — but just 43,339 votes for each Conservative, 43,490 for each Liberal, and 30,455 for each Bloc MP."

Labels: anti-war, human rights abuse, leftist content creation, link, yay immigration

"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

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

The BC Government's on-going conversation on health continues to suck. Only 5,000 people, so far are talking to the provincial government about their plans for privatization of health care. The public appears to be wise enough to realize that anything they say to the Gordon Campbell Liberals will likely be used to justify a pre-determined course of action.

A petition, against health-care privatization, I ran a few years ago received nearly 40,000 responses on a near-zero budget. When you compare this with 5,000 participants on a multi-million dollar public relations fiasco (normally not even a slightly fair comparison but...) it is clear there is a massive credibility gap on the Conversation on Health. Oh yeah, it's true I am finally and publicly admitting that Alfred Young is a pseudonym for me. Take that privatization and no longer being afraid of recriminations!

The BC Health Conversation is another matter. This excellent subvertisement sponsored by the HEU is a great way to impact future health policy. Check it out.

The HEU also had their website voted into the 2007 Top 10 Labour websites as announced today by Labourstart. The LHMU, the union I spent much of last year working for in Melbourne, also made the list. Congratulations to them and the other 2007 winners.

Labels: canada, democracy, health, historical, hospitality, human rights abuse, link, online campaign

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

"Abbas also confirmed the United States is sending aid to boost the Palestinian security forces loyal to him. U.S. officials said Friday that President George W. Bush is asking Congress to provide $83 million US for those forces." CBC Online

When I wrote that the "Economic and Financial Blockade of the Palestinian people must be stopped" I wasn't calling for funding one side of a developing civil war.

Bush's decision to test the Democratic Party on the key question of the Palestinian people by requesting $83 million for Abbas's presidential military forces is a clear sign of Bush's continued contempt for any democratic outcomes in the middle east and possibly in the US. The timing is intriguing as the Democratic Party will be forced to quickly declare their position.

It is simply ridiculous to assert that a Hamas government is an ideal scenario for this territory, at this time. However, they won the election. Unlike in the United States where the executive is appointed by the President, in the Palestinian system the government reports to the legislature and is not led by the President Abbas. Where Bush is the commander in chief, no such clarity exists within the Palestinian authority. To fund an insurgent military against a democratic government in another territory is a path no democracy should go down; even though this will certainly not be the first time the United States has done this.

Given that Hamas has won a democratic election putting it in charge of the legislative and executive branches of government, to fund a military force led by Abbas is to encourage civil war against a democratic elected authority. This shortsighted policy can not be supported and I sincerely hope (but have little faith) that the Democrats turn down this new direction of the US Administration. It is very hard to know where the Democrats will go on this question, try this link to search the Democratic Party website for the Palestinian, you won't find much at all.

Here's also hoping that the strength of the opposition in the Canadian Parliament is enough to sink any plans Harper might have of following the Bush lead on this one. We'll have to watch this unfold.

Funding should be restored, a dialogue reopened, but monies flowing from other countries, as always should not be used to kill people or to destabilize what little democratic governance there is. No doubt this is a difficult delineation in this complex territory.

Labels: anti-war, democracy, internal, leftist content creation, link, opinion, unfolding

Don't do it for the money - do it for the fun (ie. telling the decision-makers what you think).

Angus Reid Forum is an on-line survey site that is designed to test products and ideas on you.

They claim they will pay $1-5 a survey 2-5 times a month. Do the math and that's $2-25 a month for your opinion. Once you have done $50 worth of surveys you can take it home or donate it to a Canadian Charity.

Ok, you can reach more people by ranting on your blog and make more money using Adsense. However, this will go straight to the marketers so they can better sell you stuff.. and what could be more the Canadian dream.

Bahahha. Enjoy.

Labels: annotation, link

Ok, this isn't my new hobby, but, I do think the Google Image Labeler is an excellent way to increase the relevance of searches of web content.

The Image Labeler works on sites that are marked on Google Webmaster Tools under Enhanced Image Search.

The way it works is you and a randomly selected other person are shown images. You are asked to to label the image. As soon as your label matches the label given by the other random person you are on to the next image. You get points for describing an image in a way that matches the keywords your secret partner also chooses. There is a time-limit and the faster you identify the image with a common keyword the more points you can potentially get.

Fun, fun, fun.. well at least entertaining for a few minutes.

I guess it is kinda like volunteering to put library books back on the shelf in the right place, but in Google Image Labeler's defense you get points for it! No librarian is going to trust the likes of you with points for doing their job for them. Woo hoo!

Give it a try... you will be improving the body of knowledge of the world or at least the searchability of randomly selected images.

Labels: annotation, link, tools

So I'm looking for work.. and I'll be keeping some of the Victoria Job sites I'm looking on listed here:

• BC Ferries - Victoria Opportunities
  
• City of Victoria Jobs
  
• Innovation and Development Corporation - UVic
  
• UVic Postings
  
• Shaw Cable
  
• NDP Jobs
  
• Google Canada
• Government of BC - Victoria area jobs
  

Labels: link

On November 1, 2006 working people all over the world received a new voice of democratic representation and organizing. Check it out: ITUC-CSI-IGB - International Trade Union Confederation


"The Confederation is inspired by the profound conviction that organisation in democratic and independent trade unions and collective bargaining are crucial to achieving the well-being of working people and their families and to security, social progress and sustainable development for all."


Already the ITUC-CSI-IGB "represents 168 million workers in 154 countries and territories and has 306 national affiliates."

Yay!

Labels: anti-war, link, online campaign, union