America has increasingly been turning itself into an outlaw state. It practices indefinite detention without charge or trial. It resorts to torture. It violates foreign sovereignty to kill as it sees fit. It even kills its own citizens on executive whim. It is within this context that we have to
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: They Have Re-Elected Their "Liberal" Lapdog – Now They’re Coming For Our Coast
It will probably be sooner rather than later before we find out whether Christy Clark will become British Columbia’s Judas Goat to the Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan pipeline/supertanker fiascos. Steve Harper, Alison Redford and Enbridge just need to buy or coerce Clark’s capitulation, make her sell-out the province and
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Could You Become a Victim of Car-Hacking?
It’s not carjacking. Nobody with a gun jumping into the driver’s seat and speeding off with your ride. It’s car-hacking. A cyber criminal hacking into a car’s computer systems to wreak havoc. Senate Commerce Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, said while he’s excited about safety improvements through
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Of Bitumen and Pirates
The Harper government never ceases playing up the terrorist threat that Canada faces. They’re here, they’re there, they’re everywhere. Supertankers heavily laden with bitumen. How vulnerable are they to terrorism and just how do you protect them? Vancouver’s inner harbour might seem a terrorist’s dream. There are places where you
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Follow the Piggy – He Might Lead You to Sussex Drive
So, let’s run this scenario, Mound’s favourite passtime. How might the timeline of Mike Duffy’s expense woes play out now that we know a few more details. It begins (for our purposes) when senator Mike Duffy has a brown hemorrhage on realizing there is going to be a forensic audit
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Duffy Campaigned on Taxpayer’s Dime
This could explain why the Prime Minister’s Office told Duffy to refuse to cooperate with the forensic audit into his expenses. Not only was Duffy pocketing tens of thousands of dollars in living expense allowances but he was also claiming expenses while on the campaign trail for the Conservatives. The
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The North Pole – It’s a Moving Target
The north pole is on the move and, according to scientists, it’s moving because of climate change and the loss of Arctic ice. From 1982 to 2005, the pole drifted southeast toward northern Labrador, Canada, at a rate of about 2 milliarcseconds —or roughly 6 centimetres — per year. But
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Oh, To Be a Fly On the Wall
CBC’s Kady O’Malley sums up the Duffy audit/expense controversy quite nicely. Why did Stephen Harper’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright, cut a personal cheque to repay Senator Mike Duffy’s controversial living expenses? Are all the Senators implicated in this controversy being treated equally in the process – or are the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: On Rare Birds and New Democrats
BC NDP leader Adrian Dix is a rare bird. Or at least he would have been a rare bird if he’d actually won last night. For that would have been his party’s fourth win in the 15-provincial elections staged since they were formed in 1960. As things stand this morning
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: One Anonymous Might Not be Enough
Any politician knows that information is power. Digital information is power on steroids at the speed of light. Privacy is the best possible defence you have against enslavement and oppression. America’s founding fathers knew that all too well when they enacted the Fourth Amendment, the one against unreasonable search and
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Britain Backs Bitumen
Sideshow Steve Harper and his British counterpart, Austerity Dave Cameron, may be widely disliked by their citizens, but they are taking care of business. Cameron, according to documents leaked to The Guardian, is running interference for Steve with the same E.U. his party is constantly threatening to divorce. The E.U.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What Does Tonight’s Disaster Say About the NDP?
It was the New Dems’ election to lose and that’s just what they did. They lost to a government that was roundly despised with a record rich in corruption, scandal, manipulation and dishonesty. Tonight the public’s distrust of the NDP trumped its disgust for the Liberals. Tonight the NDP showed
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: WIPEOUT
Canada learned a lesson tonight on how fiercely negative campaigning can salvage the electoral fortunes of even a dishonest and corrupt government. The British Columbia NDP, by everyone’s assessment, was to win a strong majority government tonight. The governing BC Liberals were to be left with a weak minority. Upset.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You – "Rumsfeld’s Rules"
He’s back. Donald Rumsfeld has written a leadership guide entitled Rumsfeld’s Rules that is being released today. Wired has a review. Who better to impart life lessons than the only defense secretary in U.S. history to screw up two wars at once? True to confident form, that’s what Donald Rumsfeld
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It’s No Wonder the Beijing Politburo and our Harper Parliament are Best Friends Forever
It turns out that the Chinese Communist leadership and the Canadian Conservative leadership believe in a lot of the same stuff. They both want economic liberalism but political conformity and suppression of dissent. China’s leadership has now sent out a notice to crack down on the introduction and spread of
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Today’s Global Outrages
There doesn’t seem to be a day that passes anymore that doesn’t bring some but today we have two outrages to pass along courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald. First up is the mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto. Hashi, in a moment of splendid Japanese cultural sensitivity, chose to deliver
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: An Old Brit War Vet Laments the Death of the Democracy He Fought to Preserve
Harry Leslie Smith says he’s too old to fight those who today would wreck the civilization he and so many others fought and in too many cases died to protect. In his closing years Harry sees his civilization again imperiled only, this time, not from some distant fascist monster but
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Spectacular Video – Nature at Work on the Saskatchewan River
The Saskatchewan Water Security Agency recorded this amazing video of a massive ice surge along the Saskatchewan River.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Maybe There’s More Sarah Palin Than We’d Like to Admit in Our Own Politicians.
An eye-opener in today’s Guardian reveals that, before she jettisoned the Alaska governor’s office to join John McCain’s presidential campaign, Sarah Palin was actively involved on the climate change front. In September 2007, a rising star of Alaskan politics dared to take on one of the toughest, most challenging issues
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Is This Our Civilization’s Obituary?
From the New Yorker. Nicholas Thompson, on the crossing of the 400 ppm marker, tries to put our civilization’s future in perspective, to show the moral collapse that we work so hard to ignore, and the brutal prospects we bequeath to our children and theirs. It’s something of a pre-mortem
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