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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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

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

Last night I posted about how I received visits last month from the Canadian Military. Tonight, I have the dubious honour of posting about a visit to this blog from a US Military computer/human operator.

I was hoping they were reading about how to flee war and go to Canada. But after reading the log-file I realized they were simply reading about being Welcomed to Canada.

Meanwhile, the US Military announced by declassifying a document that they were engaged in electronic disruption against their enemies, apparently including blogs like this one.

To quote from a BBC report:

The operations described in the document include a surprising range of military activities: public affairs officers who brief journalists, psychological operations troops who try to manipulate the thoughts and beliefs of an enemy, computer network attack specialists who seek to destroy enemy networks.

The fact that the "Information Operations Roadmap" is approved by the Secretary of Defense suggests that these plans are taken very seriously indeed in the Pentagon.

Thanks to Blogging Change and Verbena 19 for the heads up.

Labels: anti-war, canada, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, internal, leftist content creation, opinion, scary technology, spy-watch, tools

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

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

Some posts are long.. others are short.

Tonight, we bring you a reference to a long story in a short form: Denise Savoie doesn't just rock the Literacy; she rocks on.

Education has the potential to increase our capacity exponentially. Let's get on with it and stop acting like the debt creating Liberals and the future hating Conservatives.

I Love my Member of Parliament.

Labels: anti-war, canada, democracy, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, opinion, personal story

We live in dangerous times, where doing your job as a civilian in the fashion of conscientious objection can lead to personal repercussions for your employer and you.

This scary report on the outcome of answering a request to ship to Iraq with this response:
We would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq, highlights how the all-consuming American military machine is reaching into civilian lives and with catastrophic consequences.

The scariest part about this story, is not the fact that a person can be fired for conscientiously objecting to military uses of civilian resources and definitely not the fact that this person saw fit to deny a military serviceman access to supplies. It also isn't that the US Military is so badly supplying their troops that those troops are busy trying to set-up their own supply lines. The scary part is that a group of thugs used their blogs to threaten the owner of the store's life, posted photos of his home and have put his on-line portal out of business.

Although I have not gone so far as to participate in the Boycott of the United States, yet, over their anti-democratic military aggression, I highly support people's right to abstain from participating in the war machine. I am opposed to conscription and support the campaigns to allow desertion and conscientious objection amongst those in the military.

We must stand together to protect those who are vulnerable in our society. Today, we can fight the nasty aggressive incitement to violence with words. Tomorrow, we may have to take more drastic actions... like electing a government that opposes illegal war.

Freedom comes at a price. Any other way would not be so nice.

If you are a currently enlisted person who wants to avoid killing people illegally, and is looking for support, we have a history in the anti-war movement of being able to:
a) get you out of the United States safely,
b) rally support for your conscientious objection, and
c) materially support you in Canada and support you in a refugee claim.

Contact the War Resisters Support Campaign. Need some inspiration? Watch this:



If you are not currently enlisted, take action to support resisters today!

Labels: anti-war, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, iraq, leftist content creation, online campaign, opinion, tools

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

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

What the ....?

A 10% increase and they still don't have enough money to perform the basic functions they are instructed, by our government, to carry out. Functions like run the regularly scheduled patrols of our ocean borders?

We need to get out of the Persian Gulf part of the Iraq War mission. We must get out of Afghanistan.

The United States (the world's largest military power and supposedly our largest ally) continues to threaten our human rights. Is our military prepared to defend the environment? Why is it that illegal fishing such as drag-netting is a lower priority than enforcing an oil-embargo against a now deposed Iraqi regime (the reason given when we sent ships to the gulf)?

We may not even have the basic patrols to assert sovereignty over our territory that the United States is fundamentally changing with their intolerable disregard for our Earth. Meanwhile our government re-announces programs cut from the agenda of a prior governments that did nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Check this campaign at ceasefire.ca:

Dear Prime Minister Harper:

I do not agree with Canada's military role in Afghanistan. I urge you to end Canada's combat mission, and work with our allies and the Afghan government to establish a comprehensive peace process for the country.

A 10% increase in military spending is a shameful legacy of your new government. Please do not allow this excessive increase in military spending to threaten other vital programs.

Thank you.

Labels: anti-war, democracy, environment, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, human rights abuse, leftist content creation, online campaign, opinion

Chilean office workers told to shun neckties to ease air conditioning costs is an idea that is anything but the Oddity that the CBC has labeled this story as. The idea of forcing people to wear clothing appropriate for a British winter in the middle of a southern hemisphere summer is ridiculous. What is worse is then air conditioning to make up for it.

If we are forced to chose between planet earth and the fashion norms of the past I choose a future with creative new ideas free from global warming. Now if only we can give up coal, gas-fired and nuclear as power generation sources. Not in British Columbia. At least the NDP are calling Gordon Campbell on this insanity.

Labels: bcmedia, democracy, environment, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, health, nuclear waste, opinion, public power

According, to intensive research done on you the reader only about 50% of you are idiots. Busy beaver stats created by Awstats show that exactly 49.7% of the hits on this blog were from people using Internet Explorer.

Now, I can forgive the 2.9% of you who are using Internet Explorer 7. You are clearly a thinking person, wrong in your ways, but a thinking person who has made a choice is sticking to it like a Liberal voter and upgraded recently to fend off the inevitable attacks from well publicized security holes and breaches.

But those 42% of you using Internet Explorer 6.... what are you thinking? You must just be lazy not as stupid as you appear. Maybe it is your employer. Are they making you use IE 6? Quit. Find a real job.

Luckily, I have a better solution for you Internet Explorer users that will smarten you right up.




It is free and better than smoked wild salmon... what are you waiting for. Don't be one of the idiot majority, be a part of the great minority. Download Firefox today.

Labels: anti-microsoft, internal, opinion

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

"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

Dear Bono:

A Grammy, a knighthood, an album of the year award or a free tour of developing countries, you should take. But don't tell me you have done anything for the world or the poorest people in it. You are in the same category as Bill Gates, Bob Geldoff and the one giving you your latest rich man's kudo (the Honourary Knighthood) the Queen of England.

You are and continue to be irrelevant, annoying and the last person who is actually or actively helping make change for the better.

You're a musician whose music has lost its soul. You sold-out on a scale that no one had ever thought possible.

So, I'll say it again. Fuck you Bono. At least Madonna adopted a kid into her family. What have you done? Kissed Laura Bush on the cheek? Whacked off to the sounds of your own apologism for the anal entry hole the size of Antarctica the world is taking it through from the likes of you?

When Bangladesh floods due to global warming, are the things you asked Tony Blair to do, going to make a bit of difference to the death and destruction that ensues?

Bono, wake up, stop supporting the warmongering of Paul Martin, the Pope, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and George Bush. Even these guys are cooler than you. They at least have the guts to happily wallow in the shit they created.

Everytime you meet with them you give them cred. Cred they don't deserve. You publicly recognize they suck, but privately you meet with them over and over again. Apparently you can't stop yourself.

To take a disgusting award, that is so archaic it doesn't even bestow the title Sir on you simply because of you were born Irish, from a Queen who personally could finance the end of poverty for millions, just from the money her clan stole from your homeland, is a sick joke approximating the spread of AIDS you claim you oppose.

You had better redeem yourself by using the perfect opportunity this award creates, for you to act like a real rock star and spit in the Queen's face.

Maybe the Pope wouldn't meet with you again. Maybe a future Liberal leader in Canada wouldn't have a heart-to-heart with you or let you headline his convention.

But newsflash. The developed world has barely scratched the surface of the fundamental problems of poverty on Earth since you awoke one day 6 years ago and realized there was a problem. The folks you apologize for and meet with regularly, spend more on a futile war in Iraq and Afghanistan in a day than they do on projects that build sustainable alternatives in a decade.

You could reject the system that keeps people down the world over. Or you can keep on being the poster boy for apologists and their wholly owned subsidiary governments inc.

Redeem yourself, really go down in history, spit in the face of the Queen as she knights you. Grab her sword as she taps your shoulder and walk out of there. Change your name to Sir Bono legally. Or better yet call yourself King Bono of England, Ireland the colonies and make a statement calling for her royal highness to royally abdicate the fuck off your throne.

Or continue to earn my wrath. I'll say it one more time. Fuck you Bono and the album you rode in on.

Labels: opinion

"Douglas has been known personally by and has associated with leftists, peace movement workers and (Communist Party of Canada) members for years. He has allowed his name to stand publicly on many occasions in relation to support of issues sponsored by leftist groups. On the basis of information contained in this file, it is difficult to determine the full depth of sympathy and involvement or influence, if any, these groups or their philosophies have over him. It is felt, however, there is much we do not know about Douglas and the file should be maintained in order to correlate any additional information that surfaces which might assist in piecing this jigsaw puzzle together." - A late 1970s RCMP memo suggesting Douglas's file be kept active.

Today's story from the Canadian Press that Tommy Douglas was spied on by the RCMP from 1939 until his death in 1986 will come as no surprise to RCMP watchers out there. The fact that much of the file is still a state secret, has not been released combined with the revelation that a Justice reviewed the file in the late 1970's and allowed the spying to continue are all of serious concern.

This does beg the same question I started to ask in a personal way with my Dear Commissioner Zaccardelli letter. I wonder, if I will ever receive a reply to my freedom of information request now that the Commissioner has resigned :-) ..

I'll let you the reader(s), know if I do. If I don't, it might be left to you to file the request for twenty years after I die (when the fun secret files might get released).

Labels: annotation, copwatch, leftist content creation, opinion, rcmp

Dear Commissioner Zaccardelli

Please excuse me if my letter to you today is not 100% accurate. You see I have been reading more than 1200 websites in the last few days and I am in a rush to clear my name before I am deported to be tortured in another nation within Canada.

I am concerned that there may have been some transfer of knowledge from what I have read to what I now know. I want to say upfront that I may not be clear on when, I learned what or how. Like you, this lack of clarity in my knowledge concerns me and I am writing to you at this, the first possible opportunity, to clarify what happened when and why.

The thing is, I'm not the commissioner of the RCMP. I am at this time a private citizen and it is ok for me to not know what I knew when. But commissioner your admission today that you did not know what, about who (and particularly Mr. Arar), when, makes me very concerned that: you are the commissioner of the RCMP. What you or your force may know about me or may incorrectly think they know about me, could result in me being asked questions in another nation's prison, within Canada.

You see, I was born in Victoria, British Columbia. I have also recently visited Victoria, Australia. I am concerned that the complexity of my travel history and birthplace may result in me being deported against my will to Victoriaville, a town within a recently recognized nation within Canada, where I may find myself tortured by the agents of a recognized nation within Canada or said newly recognized nation of Canada.

Now, this fear may seem bordering on paranoia, but our country has been gripped by paranoia before. So, please keep in mind that my testimony may change in the future, particularly after consultation with the Minister of Public Safety, who unlike yourself before your last public testimony in September, I have not had the opportunity to consult.

Let's review the transfer of knowledge at this point:

a. You didn't know what you were talking about when you testified at the end of September. You are the top cop. The folks in serge below you look to you for leadership and direction.
b. You guys have the guns.
c. You guys have the connections with the guys with the guns south of the 49th.
d. You tell the guys with the guns south of the 49th what you know.
e. The guys with the guns south the 49th don't necessarily follow international law.
f. You don't know what you know.
g. Your organization surveilled the former leader of my political party, David Lewis, for 53 years including during the entire time he was an Member of Parliament.
h. I have been detained for my political activities and held against my will.
i. Your force doesn't understand legitimate public dissent (heard of APEC?).
j. You don't know what your force is doing, when they are doing it or why.
k. Your organization has publicly bragged that it kept extensive files on dissidents within Canada leading and up to the APEC meetings in 1997 in Vancouver and the 2001 FTAA meetings in Quebec City.
l. Your organization or members of it have on a number of occasions made it known to me that you were concerned with my legitimate political activities. An example of this is when on a date in 1997 an officer identifying himself simply as an undercover RCMP officer approached me, showed me his gun and badge and asked me, by name (believe me, I hadn't had the opportunity to introduce myself), what I had planned for a protest at a Liberal Party rally at the Stratchcona Hotel in Victoria, BC.
m. I know a guy, who talked to a guy who was convicted of blowing something up (albeit 30 years ago). I'm not saying that guy did it and in case you don't know who I'm talking about I'm not going to tell you who I know who knows this guy. But, at the time your guys said he did and this resulted in him being convicted, he's served his time though. Now, I'm not related to this guy (nor was I born when the thing blew up), but he has the same last name as me and I know that sometimes the RCMP has trouble telling names apart. I think you do a lot of keyword searching in order to facilitate transfer of knowledge. Today, this appears to be more than Mr. Arar was suspected of. He just knew a guy, who talked to a guy, who you guys thought might might blow something up in the future. To sum up, I know a guy who talked to a guy who was convicted of blowing something up.

This letter is a formal request for a complete copy of all information held by the RCMP about my person. Because of the danger of me being detained elsewhere in the world because of this information this request extends to all information held in any format by the RCMP (you might not even know you are giving this information to a third party, given the way transfer of knowledge seems to work, see patriot act). It also extends to any information the RCMP may have held in the past and knowingly transfered with to any other police force or security force elsewhere in the world.

I have a legitimate concern this information may be incorrect or may be found in the future to have included "transfer of knowledge" that would lead to determinations based on this information that could be incorrect. I deserve the opportunity to correct any information held by your force and in order to do that I need a copy of that information.

In particular, I would like a copy of any threat assessments that name my person or relate to a position I have held. Let me give you an example: During my tenure as Chairperson of the University of Victoria Students' Society, an organization of more than 15,000 students, your force recommended to the current Minister of Public Safety's political party that both myself and the entire membership (all 15,000 of us) of this organization be prevented from entering a rally at the Victoria Conference Centre. This decision having been made is not at question, your officers briefly detained a member of this organization on the grounds of his membership within the UVic Students' Society and his intent to purchase a ticket to this rally.

What I would like is a copy of all documents relating to me, whether they name me directly or refer to me using a name relevant to a position I held or a position your force assumed I was holding. (ie: if your force decided I was in a class of people determined to be pacifist terrorists or whatever it is you call NDP members and then made a decision to arrest all pacifist terrorists and I was arrested, I want a copy of all documents relating to pacifist terrorists that directed your force to arrest them). I am seeking to know What motivated your force's course of action. I want a copy of any and all notes taken, any and all background files prepared and any and all documents be they electronic or paper. As I have stated, this is because of current knowledge transfer and is to protect myself in case this information is shared with a foreign government's agents.

This is a formal request. Please provide me with a copy of these documents within the timelines prescribed by law. Any failure to do so may be referred to the Public Complaints Commission.

With true patriot love, may some other son command the RCMP soon,

Morgan Stewart
Address withheld pending further transfer of knowledge

By e-mail: giuliano.zaccardelli@rcmp-grc.gc.ca

Labels: copwatch, leftist content creation, opinion, rcmp

As an ever credible source of future prediction in politics, I am going to take this opportunity to predict the outcome of the Liberal leadership race.

Dion on the third ballot.

"What?" you say.. well let's look at this Liberal leadership race seriously for a second.

You've thought about it seriously for a moment?

Ok good, so you've dismissed all the candidates from your mind except Dion.

Right, well there you are then.

Rae and Ignatieff just clearly aren't serious candidates for the Liberal leadership. One is a war mongering ex-pat flown in from US acadaemia and the other is a failed NDP premier who's idea of good social policy was laying off government employees without pay for 10 days a year. One is a right-wing hawk and the other an Iraq security consultant. These guys aren't politicians, they are like fans wearing the CCCP jerseys at the 1972 Soviet-Canada game 4 in Vancouver. The fact they can put together a team at all and field delegates says much more about the interests they represent than themselves.

Having said that, Dion will still have to beat them. But, they have both been so far 'ahead' for so long and they are both so unpalatable, it's clear. Dion will win it on the third. Of course this says nothing positive about Dion, other than maybe he really is a Liberal, but who needs positive in politics.

This outcome is annoying though really, don'tcha think. I was looking forward to the NDP minority government that Rae and Ignatieff would have brought about through the political demise of the Liberal Party.

Oh well I can only hope I'm wrong... I usually am.

Labels: opinion

I highly doubt they are seriously going to combat spying, but I am encouraged by the latest quote from Blair (one of my least favourite fellow members of the Socialist International) on the Litvinenko poisoning. In this the Independent article Tony Blair was quoted as saying, "that there would be no diplomatic or political barrier" to the inquiry into Litvinenko's death.

This is of course akin to a nuclear first strike in diplomacy as it signal to at least the FSB and probably to the rest of the world's secret services that anything they have done may become public. The killing of a former spy is not something that normally is allowed to hit the front pages of the papers anywhere in the world. Exposing the activities of a foreign spy service leaves your own services open to public criticism. The uncomfortable side of espionage is usually dealt with secretly and through diplomatic back channels. I think the repercussions are already being seen in the public reporting of the arrest of Paul William Hampel.

Of course Bush has always been a fan of secrecy, however, I have to look back and applaud ole' K. Christian Rove for his public naming and shaming of Valerie Plame. Not that his reasons were even slightly laudible, but the shear act of opening to public criticism and allowing public debate about the actions of a Spy was worth it. Everyone needs to know that they are accountable for their actions. This includes the employees of the CIA, CSIS, the FSB and the military intelligence agencies they work with.

The spy services of the world have taken a significant leap in size over the last 5 years. I think it is definitely time that their activities start coming under increasing public scrutiny. There is no justification for hiding the activities World War II/Cold War era holdovers any longer. Of course this still needs to be handled very carefully as the world's spy organizations are domestically very powerful. I believe the secrecy they currently operate under is no longer justifiable and more likely to start wars than stop them. I think it is worth noting that Igor Gouzenko would never have been able to defect if Prime Minister King had not been defied by his own staff.

How many times have legitimate law authority organizations been forced to abandon long running and effective investigations because of the kind of diplomatic interests that Blair claims aren't going to impede the Litvinenko inquiry? How many times have legitimate political parties been suppressed because they accidentally received support from another countries spy service and then found themselves on the wrong side of their domestic agency?

How much safer would we all be if no one was allowed to get away with subverting a common set of laws?

Labels: opinion, spy-watch

Take that elected representatives. What you can't do with a job description that includes solving problems in the world, Michaelle Jean has done with a job description that reads do nothing. It certainly seems that Michaelle Jean has more siblings in Mali than the position she occupies in Canada has supporters.

What am I talking about? The rousing and internationally significant reception that Jean received in Mali, yesterday. Tens of thousands of Mali's people waited on both sides of the road from the airport to her hotel. Then she became only the second foreign leader in the history of Mali to address the country's parliament after Nelson Mandela.

The position of Governor-General is a largely redundant hold-over from past colonial times. Having said this, Jean's use of the position to come to grips with historical wrongs like slavery, forced deportation and the loss of your historical ties to the country of your ancestors birth is nothing but awesome.

After having posted earlier this week about support for a democratically elected Governor-General-like role, I have to say, the next step for Jean personally is to run for election in a role that does exist. Let's get her a constituency that would allow for a significant critique of the conditions that much of the world's poor live in.

I can't wait to see the documentary on this one.

Labels: democracy, opinion, spy-watch

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

This just in. . . Terrorists have been caught red-handed counterfeiting clothing.

Well, that's the impression you would get from Sgt. Patrick Webb if he provided any evidence for this ridiculous assertion: "The funding for this is just like drug deals where the funding has to come from somebody with deep pockets, and that normally is organized crime and/or possibly terrorists."

Sgt. Webb has said some other zingers in the past like: "Whether this was a factor in this collision still needs to be determined but it probably was." In relation to the death of a British Soldier on Canadian soil. Rob Huck on the blog WesternStandard.ca has Sgt. Webb jumping to the conclusion that a group of teens randomly committed this assault.

Back when Sgt. Webb was only a Corporal he defended the $100 million dollars spent on the G8 summit's security in Kanaskis like this: "We have to communicate back and forth with our command centre. It's all part of our security requirement and we're not about to tell you why we're going to use it." [source]

I think it is worth wondering out-loud if the kind of logic that Sgt. Webb uses above, is the same logic they teach at RCMP school in Regina. That might be the reason why the RCMP purchased $28 million worth of equipment for the G8 Security during the Kananaskis summit in 2002. The outcome? A few charges against members of the RCMP for acting inappropriately during the summit.

Anyway let's have some fun stringing together some of these comments:

"The funding for this is just like drug deals where the funding has to come from somebody with deep pockets, and that normally is organized crime and/or possibly terrorists. Whether this was a factor in this .. still needs to be determined but it probably was. We have to communicate back and forth with our command centre. It's all part of our security requirement and we're not about to tell you why we're going to use it," Sgt. Patrick Webb as reported in the media with only one word left out.

Ok, seriously, I'm sure the guy is just doing his job.

However:

1. if you ever end up on a jury,
   
2. listening to wiretap evidence,
   
3. with your job to determine,
   
4. beyond a reasonable doubt,
   
5. just take a moment and wonder,
6. if a word might just have been left out.

Labels: anti-war, historical, leftist content creation, opinion, rcmp, spy-watch

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

Canada and Spain are the targets of a recent Greenpeace flash animation featuring 4 underwater South Park like creatures. Check it at: weblog.greenpeace.org

As a willing participant in destroying the economies of whatever countries destroy these delicate underwater ecosystems through bottom trawling I fired off the following missive to Stephen Harper:


To: Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Subject: Canada: It’s time to support deep sea habitat protection
(how would you like it if your habitat got scooped?)

Re: Canada joining the majority of the international community in support of a UN moratorium on high seas bottom trawling

To: Prime Minister Stephen Harper,

I am concerned and disappointed that Canada's new government continues to support high seas bottom trawling.

Just for a moment imagine how you would like it if a giant net came down and scooped up all of the Ottawa area (including the toxic mud at the bottom of the Rideau canal). Then dumped you and everything else in the net that wasn't an allowable catch (ie. a Chretien era sponsorship scandal linked Liberal) in a muddy pile. I bet you would be pretty happy to have a ban on these giant nets in place, wouldn't you. I think you would be pretty mad about your civil rights being trampled and your eco-system being destroyed.

Given the analogy I think you can see that destroying entire underwater eco-systems is not the right way to support fisheries in the long term.

This type of fishing is ludicrous. Given the known impacts of bottom trawl gear on the ocean floor, our lack of knowledge about deep-sea habitats and species and the complete lack of regulation on an estimated 75% of the high seas, it is essential that Canada take action.

I urge you to join responsible nations like the United States, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. in their support of a UN resolution establishing a temporary "time out" from destructive bottom trawl fishing. Canada does not have any bottom trawlers fishing on the high seas, thus supporting a moratorium poses no threat to the livelihoods of Canadian fisher. It does, however, have much to gain. A moratorium on high seas bottom trawling would solve the long-standing problem of unregulated bottom trawling on the nose and tail of the Grand Banks.

In June of this year, your Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn said that, "bottom trawling does damage to the stocks, and it does damage to habitat". Having acknowledged this, Canada has a responsibility to take leadership on the international stage and support a moratorium. By joining with nations like Spain (which is responsible for most the high seas bottom trawling) in opposing the moratorium, Canada is allowing the destruction of un-charted habitat in unregulated seas to continue unabated.

Prime Minister, please reconsider your position on high seas bottom trawling. Listen to the scientists, fishermen, Canadians and the global public who are calling for protection of deep sea life. Become a deep-sea defender and support a UN moratorium on high seas bottom trawling.

Damn!


PS: Now it's your turn. Don't worry there is a form letter if you aren't feeling creative.

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

The Liberal Party leadership race is heating up and the members and their wannabe future leaders are melting under pressure.

Oh it is a good season for those of us who aren't members and never will be members of the natural governing party of Canada.

Evidence you ask?

Check this blog entry by a "finished" future Call me Bob staffer on how much Ignatieff shouldn't have used the word ghetto.

I quote:

"NDP voters? Ghetto!?!?!!?? Did he seriously just say that? Mark my words: Iggy is finished."

Iggy eh? Need I say more.. well yes.. here's some more...

What Bob & Iggy shouldn't have done is allowed these lame front pages on their web sites:



Wow. Who designed this crap?

Real - Vrai - Call me Bob - Appelez moi Bob - Canada good - Canada bon.. ack!

Are the designers going to get the ad scandal style contract for the www.gc.ca portal if their respective leader wins. I sure hope not.. and that's not because I like how it looks right now or how I'm still pissed off that www.canada.com belongs to the one of largest Liberal Party donor of the 1990's and former leader of the Manitoba Liberal party. It is because it is illegal to give your incompetent friends contracts damn it.

But I digress. Do you remember NDP Debate Bingo? Well - I propose a new game: Spot the turncoat!

The Rules

Once the Liberal leadership convention goes on tv. Watch it (don't hurt yourself though, feel free to turn it off if it makes you puke). Every time you see a former twit member of another Canadian political party or a disgraced Chretienite on the television, add a comment to this blog, including the person cited, the party they used to be in and whether or not they ran for leader of that party. Extra points for extremely obscure patronage appointments if you can name what they were appointed to and by whom.

An example entry worth extra points for "mating on screen" sighting would be "Trudeau's biographer and former Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski appointed by Chretien and charged with fraud in March of this year seen walking off the convention floor at Saturday afternoon 2:34 pm on CBC Newsworld behind an interview with Dave Haggard (see link to see what he was appointed to and by whom) formerly of the BC NDP."

Former failed leadership contenders from other parties such as Keith Martin (Canadian Alliance), Ujjal Dosanjh (BC NDP), Chris Axworthy (Saskatchewan NDP), Scott Brison (Conservative Party), Bob Rae (Ontario NDP) and Belinda Stronach (Bill Clinton's Canadian Fan Club Party) are all also worth tons of extra "loser" points.

I will ceremoniously award you these points (worth nothing more than bragging rights) for the quality of the turn coat sighted (make sure you include the time and the channel/live website coverage in case we need to verify the winner).

Good luck. May the best amongst you win. Or at least make the judge extremely happy with political obscurity annotated.

Labels: annotation, leftist content creation, nuclear waste, opinion

I recently realized our community had lost two very influential people from my childhood.

Those of you who've known me a long-time will remember I was a gauche precocious youngster with a penchant for geekdom. Nothing has really changed with me of course, but two of the people who helped ensure that these traits were by choice and that I understood how to live differently, passed away in the last few years.

I only recently noticed the loss as I had not maintained direct contact with them. As the pace of my life slows a bit; I wanted to take a moment to remember the contributions they made to making my life and our communities better.

Reynald "Ren" L'Ecuyer, May 21, 1940 - July 23, 2005, when I knew him, was the SysOp of the Farwest BBS. After I got my first modem I was a regular on his bulletin board system. Running downstairs to take my own Atari ST based BBS off-line I would log-in with my fingers to a world he created. When I could afford it, I found a safe social space on his site and enjoyed the community that he created with 10-20 modems in his living room. His system was a predecessor to the web's magnificent global communities. From atop a building across the street from my future workplace at the BC Ministry of Health. This former Canadian Air Force pilot watched over a team of half-pint nerds in cyberspace, some of whom I learned to call friends, playing ridiculous nerd games, telling ridiculous nerd stories and chatting up a carefully controlled storm. Ren succumbed to typhoid fever in July of 2005 and will be sorely missed by the not so young nerds of Victoria, BC and many others.

Joyce Rafferty, January 14, 1929 - August 20, 2003, was a wonderful friend, and mentor to me, when I was growing up. I met her as her paper deliverer in 1987. As one of 60 pseudo-bosses on my route, she made an indelible impression on me as she convinced me to make all work a vocation and to take advantage of every moment working as a time when a lesson could be learned. She taught me to read between the lines of the newspapers I was delivering, and lent me the first Steinbeck I ever read (The Grapes of Wrath). She signed me up to the Socialist International's local branch - the New Democratic Party when I was 12. Shortly thereafter she quit as Mike Harcourt won the provincial election and failed to deliver on what she wanted (or at least failed to deliver at the speed she wanted it). This didn't slow her encouragement for me as an activist, a worker and a member of the NDP. I will forever remember her lessons on what it meant to be from Liverpool and a worker of the world. A registered nurse and a volunteer gardener at Government House, Joyce left many peoples lives far better than when she found them. She loved to plant ideas and watch them grow. I was lucky to be tended to as if I was one of them.

Many of the people who influenced me as a child were always encouraging and supportive no matter what I did. Although, this helped me develop my self-esteem it didn't help me learn from my many mistakes. I now view this nonconstructive lack of criticism and the gigantic gap between it and the constantly critical view professed by my own peers towards me as a part of a larger generational conflict of ideas.

Joyce & Ren were old school. These two magnificent teachers never hesitated to criticize. They understood that a youngster could grow from mistakes but only if they understood a mistake had been made. They were always pushing for a better life for them and the people they came into contact with. Although both were significant innovators in their own way and undeniable geniuses, the unregimented world that I lived in perplexed them. They were used to rules, seniority, rank and a style of discipline I had no other contact with. I miss 'em both even though for a long time I had no idea they were gone.

On a lighter note.. the STS, a much more raunchy and modem-mediated yet uncensored room of my childhood randomchattarama is still online.. check it at the STS.

Labels: democracy, in memory of, ndp, opinion

I admit it. I'm a vegetarian. But you know what is even more unlikeable about me (other than my hippie-critical hate/love affair with squid, mussels, octopus, eggs and milk). I'm an on again off again member of PETA. That's right People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

You know PETA, the bling-bling of social causes, the scientology of the environmental movement, the folks who have a magazine as glossy as a ranch in Garden City, Long Island is ridiculous.

Well, they called me out again for another campaign. Being the willing foot soldier in the PETA army of rich white girls that I am. I rose to the challenge.

What was the challenge you ask? Cancel the Elephant Polo in India!

Or at least embarrass the sponsor Cartier Diamonds good. (Not this Cartier by the way).

All 'cause, what's a 14 year old vegetarian girl's best friend?

That's right: a stinky, old, enslaved elephant being abused by a diamond company.. (and the polo players who work for them).

Of course this campaign has nothing to do with Conflict Diamonds. This has to do with the conflicted nature of the future diamond consumer.

Doesn't matter, get out your ink blotters... it is time to feel good about buying diamonds because it is time for you to join the army of suburban basement vegan anorexics and send Cartier Diamonds a note telling them what you think - using the PETA e-activism page. Admit it.. you read this far down this rant, you have time to send a form letter.

BTW: If you feel like harassing a celebrity, apparently you can do it about their choice of clothing. Check out Beyonce getting bossed around by an anti-fur crusader over dinner.

Maybe PETA isn't solving the world's most important problems, but damn are they good guilt relief.

So stop eating, wearing and killing animals. Stop feeling guilty. Then actually feel better about yourself! Move on to stopping the killing, abusing, underpaying and the trafficking of people.

Labels: human rights abuse, online campaign, opinion

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

This is from an e-mail I sent to a friend yesterday... reproduced for you the reader:

Ok let's seriously talk bathrooms. And not just because I think my 6 bits worth last night maybe offended. I'm not worried about offending..

The socially accepted descriptions of gender identity and the roles that go with them are flawed.

The little cut-out people on the bathroom door are the extreme examples of the doors that you and I are forced to walk through. They clearly aren't acceptable to us and they aren't because of the implications for the rest of our lives. These gender roles are defined through a series of social controls that definitely don't fit for a few and clearly can't fit for more.

It isn't enough to redefine the little cut-outs like some restaurant owners do. The idea of only two choices or even only three choices just simply isn't enough...

People shouldn't be confined in where they urinate and they shouldn't be forced to hide themselves.

And when I say people, I mean you and me.

Thankfully the things said at a party aren't enough to define the full belief system of a person.

I hope you had fun last night and that forever the doors you walk through are the ones of your choosing and you are able to flush other people's interpretations of what those doors define when they narrowly take away your identity or those you care about.

nb: In celebration of my newly unemployed status I was charging $.75 (or 6 bits) to hear my drunken rants at a party. Clinton did it first only he charged $80 for the cheap tix. I won't be reproducing my sweater rant, so stop asking.

Labels: mea culpa, opinion, personal story

The Mactas (that's the McMaster University Teaching Assistants of Hamilton, Ontario for those who haven't been preparing the barricades for the latest academic strike) have voted 61.5% to accept the university's "Best Offer." Meanwhile binding arbitration has resulted in a 21.5% increase for Uranium miners just up the road at the McArthur River and Key Lake uranium mining operations.

I'm reporting this here because I think the contrast is interesting.

Check out a Canadian government report on anti-discrimination in big operations in the northern prairie provinces. One win, that can carried forward in contracts around the world is to ensure that the language freeing workers from discrimination on the basis of: "transsexual transition status, gender expression, and gender identity" is added in to contracts. Given the economic base nature of discrimination though, I'd take a 21.5% increase over that language any day. Especially since most existing anti-discrimination language should be argued to ensure no discrimination on the basis of gender, gender identity or expression.

Generally though let's just say Uranium miners have a much better deal than TA's and it is getting 21.5% better over four years.

Now, if we just stop mining uranium through a just transition to well paying teaching assistant jobs...

Labels: online campaign, opinion, union

The Internationale is a great song, but did you know you can tell the affiliation of a singer by the way they know the words?

Check out this wikipedia article including the different English translations...

Then raise your fist in the air and sing it the way you want, just make sure you sing it.

Other songs to raise your fist in the air and sing like you just do' care:

• I Dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night
• Love me, Love me, I'm a Liberal
• Barrett's Privateers

Labels: anti-war, leftist content creation, opinion

A tip of the hat for those who serve Down Under is an article about how Jim doesn't tip in Australia.

Like me, until last week, he was being a Canadian leftist in Melbourne. I hope he is enjoying himself and the not tipping. I'd still recommend a little something here and there, but don't try your usual 20% from home.

Last week I finished up 7 months working for the union that represents Hospitality workers (LHMU) and I can tell you that when Jim says "if Australia's current right-wing government has its way, their restaurants will soon look more like Canada's" it is a dramatic understatement. John Howard's attack on the industrial system is far-reaching and evil. Have a look at the award (like a collective agreement for the whole industry) that covers the Hospitality industry. This is the wage rates section, divide amounts by 38 hours to get the hourly rate (these all go up about $27 on December 1). We're not talking incredible wages. But they are living wages. Now look at the section on penalty rates and imagine losing these from your wage rates.

More about the Australian Labor[sic] movement and its enemies later.

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

Pico (text editor) is my favourite. I like it better than wordpad, notepad, word, openoffice, wordperfect, emacs and pretty much anything else you can put word process with.

Ok.. this post isn't really about why I love Pico. This is just a post saying that I do love Pico.

I'm a simple person, with simple desires and yet, I am the master of these simple things. Let's tell the truth.. I'm blowing my own horn here but, I'm good at Pico. I even like Pine.

I'm going to go compile them on my windows box...

I know I need a real job.

Labels: anti-microsoft, opinion, tools

As we say a political goodbye finally to Rummy, let's take a moment to remember something about Rumsfeld from his earlier positions.

1. As Nixon said in 1971 ".. at least Rummy is tough enough" and "He's a ruthless little bastard. You can be sure of that."^[5]

2. After Nixon resigned it was Rusmfeld's job to head the transition to Gerald Ford and he was the White House Chief of Staff thereafter from 1974-75.

3. Shortly thereafter one Frank Olson was allegedly dosed with LSD without his knowledge and committed suicide. It has been further alleged that Olson tried to resign from his position as a CIA doctor and this was his punishment. It was Rumsfeld's responsibility to cover this up. I wonder whether anyone will spike the cool aid at Rumsfeld's going away party?

4. Rumsfeld was heavily responsible for strategic support for Saddam Hussein during the Iran - Iraq war in 1983-1984.

He said it: "These events occurred on my watch as secretary of defense. I am accountable for them."

Let the war crimes tribunal begin.

Labels: anti-war, leftist content creation, opinion, spy-watch