Election fraud? The Harper Conservatives? Oh, say it ain’t so, Joe. But apparently it is so, very much so. Elections Canada launched its investigation after it was inundated with complaints about election day calls in Guelph, Ont., one of 18 ridings across the country where voters were targeted by harassing
Continue readingAuthor: The Mound of Sound
The Disaffected Lib: F-35 News, This Week’s Fiasco
Barely two months ago, F-35 boosters were thumping their chests as Japan announced plans to buy about 50 of the aircraft. That “done deal”, they argued, virtually ensured other prospective buyers would set aside their reservations and also take the leap. Now it seems the Japanese are getting F-35-itis. Japanese
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Yeah, Right Mounty Monty
RCMP Corporal Monty Robinson, of Robert Dziekanski killing fame, says he wasn’t trying to obstruct justice when, after striking and killing a motorcyclist, he drove home and got into the vodka. Mounty Monty was driving his kids home from a Halloween party at which he’d quaffed five beers. He’s testified
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What Shows Up in Our E-Mail
As an avid motorcyclist I get plenty of e-mail from suppliers of bike parts and accessories. Some of them throw in freebie teasers. Today I got a taser teaser. Really. California based A&S Powersports is offering a combo-flashlight/stun gun free with any order over – wait for it – twenty
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Judge Lenient Because 11-Year Old Rape Victim Was "Willing"
When is this madness going to stop? This time it’s Britain. There Judge David Farrell sentenced two men convicted of raping an 11-year old to just 40-months imprisonment. The judge accepted their claim that she “looked 14” and gave them a reduced sentence on finding the child was a “willing
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Well, This Is Awkward
Israeli F-16 Showing Seven Syrian Aerial Victories and the Bombing of Iraq’s Osirik Reactor. Iran has warned it may strike pre-emptively in the face of persistent threats of imminent attack by Israeli or the United States’ forces. It sort of sounds like George w. Bush’s reasoning when he
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Timeless – Sarah Palin’s Stupidity
When it comes to rank stupidity, Sarah Palin takes even Dan Quayle off the hook. In the runup to the release of the HBO docudrama “Game Change” based on John McCain’s decision to revitalize his flagging presidential campaign by naming Palin as his running mate, new morsels of Palin ignorance
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Republicans’ Unlikely Champion or The Lord Blesses Obama
Judge Not that Ye Be Not Judged – Matthew 7:1. Apparently Rick Santorum somehow missed that sermon. The current Republican nomination frontrunner positively delights in judging, and invariably condemning, his fellow Americans for conduct that doesn’t meet his medieval standards. The only thing that has propelled this religious nutjob to
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Crime & Punishment – Schoolyard Edition
There have been several news accounts lately of a new trend in US law enforcement. Police officers arresting juveniles on criminal charges for typical childish schoolyard misbehaviour including swearing, wearing inappropriate clothes or even being late for school. Now The Guardian has released video of what this actually looks like.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Harper’s Dirty Little Tar Sands Warning
Steve Harper has been warned – the Athabasca Tar Sands pose a “significant environmental and financial risk” to Alberta. That warning came in a secret report prepared for Wayne Routers, the clerk of the Privy Council Office, the federal government’s top civil servant. The industry has suggested that a shift
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Tar Sands – Environmentally Inconsequential
University of Victoria professor Andrew Weaver has supposedly dropped a bombshell – the Athabasca Tar Sands are inconsequential to the problem of global warming. Or that is at least what the reporter who crafted the story wants you to believe. I have linked to the story from the Globe &
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Were Woodware & Bernstein Played by a Man With An Axe To Grind?
Washington Post scribes Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein have, for decades, been widely credited with taking down Richard Nixon. The popular narrative goes that they were fed their story by a shadowy informant they called “Deep Throat” who wanted to stop a corrupt president and his aides. A new story
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What? Grandpa Hitler?
Adolf Hitler’s son may be dead but his grandkids are alive and well and living in France. It’s all the result of a romantic interlude when Adolf was a German soldier in France in WWI. Here’s Adolf Jr. and dad:
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Greece a Goner But What Is the Lesson for Us?
In all likelihood the 21st century will be marked by a succession of dramatic upheavals. The rise of radical conservatism and the true warfare state followed by a decade of democratic suppression and futile conflicts was the opener. The same gang hatched the era of casino capitalism that, despite the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Is Vic Toews Blowing a Smoke Screen?
Vic Toews, apparently desperate to divert attention from his lurid past, is now saying that he’s been the victim of “criminal acts and threats of future criminal acts” against him. He subsequently expanded that to include his brand new wife and his new child too, the one he sowed while
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Scientists Attack Harper Ventriloquist Act
A convention of scientists has asked our Furious Leader to be less of an authoritarian, undemocratic asshole. There, I said it. In an open letter to His Majesty, King Steve, the American Association for the Advancement of Science has asked that he stop muzzling federal researchers. “Despite promises that your
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Tutu Targets Tar Sands
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and seven other Nobel laureates have written British prime minister David Cameron warning that Athabasca Tar Sands bitumen “threatens the health of the planet.” The group is urging the UK to support European moves to classify Athabasca bitumen as highly polluting. Last November, the Guardian revealed that
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Has American Aristocracy Created a Monarchy?
Is the American presidency being transformed into a quasi-monarchy? What else do you call it when 196 enormously rich people can use their money to elect the president of their choice? At a time when it’s become a cliché to say that Occupy Wall Street has changed the nation’s political
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: But Not For Want of Trying
An integral part of America’s decline is its faltering ability to impose its will on the world, by force if necessary. Its colossal failures in both Iraq and Afghanistan are proof positive. For Washington, and the Pentagon, that’s going to take some getting used to and it’s an important shift
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: FOX News Mouthpiece Dismisses Rape in US Military
This FOX News correspondent has a message to US women soldiers who fall victim to rape – enough already. And, of course, she kept her job at FOX.
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