Finance expert says speculators are behind high oil and gasoline prices, David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — Financial speculators are gambling on oil the same way they gambled on the housing market a few years ago — a frightening prospect for the fragile economy, a Democratic congressional committee was
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Cool wind map
H/T Doug Coupland. Follow him on Twitter. Surface wind data comes from the National Digital Forecast Database. These are near-term forecasts, revised once per hour. So what you’re seeing is a living portrait. Live version HERE.
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Breaking Bourque! MacKay Tossed From Helicopter! Paradis meets Paradise! Toews phased out! Fantino Basically Fucked! Bernier Back In, Cleared To Date Bikers!
BREAKING: Bourque insiders are reporting late this afternoon that Prime Minister Stephen Harper may soon shuffle his Cabinet. It remains unclear at this time if the move will be a major re-jig involving several known political figures or if it will be a more modest housecleaning to address certain deficiencies.
Continue readingFar and Wide: NDP "Honeymoon"
The latest Harris Decima poll is being reported as a “surge” in publications, which may be a bit of an overstate, at least in a truly national sense. I don’t like comparing pollsters, but I think it quite instructive to compare poll to poll within a particular outfit. In this
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Trans human rights Bill C-279 Second Reading debate begins tomorrow
Second Reading for Bill C-279 comes up on Thursday April 5th, There will be an hour of debate at around 1:30 EST (11:30 MST). This is only the first part of Second Reading process, and there will likely be another hour of debate in May or possibly June. Three things
Continue readingBlunt Objects: Two New Federal Polls May Confirm the "Mulcair Bounce" Is Here
As noted by my co-blogger Teddy, there was a federal poll released by Harris-Decima today which shows a close Con-NDP race with the Liberals far behind. Another poll from Forum Research, who released a poll just a week ago showing a tied race, now shows a very slight advantage for
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Canada Lacks Political Immune System – #RoboCon
If you think of Canada’s democracy as a living organism, right now we’re suffering from cancer. RoboCon is a growing problem, and the electoral fraud will multiply further as punishments are avoided by the guilty cells. If this society were an organism, it would be one with an immune system
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Young Americans Sue Government to Stop Global Warming, Polluter Interests Granted Intervention To Defend
Screen shot 2012-04-03 at 4.37.19 PM.png Last May, a group of young Americans, fed up with government inaction on climate change, decided to sue to protect their future. The group, led by 16-year old Alec Loorz, founder of Kids vs. Global Warming and the iMatter campaign, filed legal actions against
Continue readingBlunt Objects: New Federal Poll
Hot off the press.http://www.harrisdecima.com/sites/default/files/releases/2012/04/04/hd-2012-04-04-en1342.pdfThe graphic on the first page is not a pretty sight for Liberals…
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Ads on Radio 2? No thank you!
The Globe is reporting that, in response to the $115M funding cut in last week’s federal budget, the CBC will start advertising on CBC Radio 2. (link) Lovers of CBC Radio 2, you have to speak up now to protest this move. Contact information is here: http://www.cbc.ca/contact. CBC has a
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Olbermann: A $10 Million Chandelier
Appearing on Dave Letterman’s show last night, Keith Olbermann talked about being fired by Current TV the other week. “I screwed up really big on this,” he said. “It’s my fault that it didn’t succeed, in the sense that I didn’t think the whole thing through.” “I didn’t say, ‘You
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Federal Job Cuts…the Real Numbers
Thankfully the federal budget has started to fill in some of the details of its latest round of cuts. In particular, it now estimates 19,200 positions lost due to its latest round of cuts (Federal Budget 2012, pg 221). Although it is nice to have an initial estimate, this hardly
Continue readingTrashy's World: No! Really???
No way! Can’t be true! Before a long weekend??? C’mon! You’re pulling my chain!!! Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Has dam protecting the Libs now broken?
Ex-MLA expensed over $2,000 to attend party fundraisers, Jonathan Fowlie, Vancouver Sun “VICTORIA — A former B.C. Liberal MLA now working as a director at Simon Fraser University has been giving public dollars from his university expense account to the B.C. Liberal Party. “Documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun show
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Offshore Board Lays Charges Against Suncor #nlpoli
From CNLOPB (with some style edits): The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) has laid three charges against Suncor Energy Inc., Operator of the exploration drilling program at the Ballicatters M96-Z well located in the Jeanne d’Arc Basin on Exploration Licences 1092 and 1113, for alleged offences related to
Continue readingThe New(er) Christy Minstrel…
What,SheWorry? AlfredE.PremierVille “I will only preach about that which I cannot do anything about*.” Shorter C.Clark Re: FauxTranslinkExecBonusOutrage Ian Bailey, in The Globe, has the story: B.C. Premier Christy Clark says she is opposed to TransLink awarding bonuses to its executives, but her transportation minister says there may not be
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Geist: Justice Committee recommends expanding online spying bill despite outcry
By Michael Geist The government has placed Bill C-30, the lawful access/online surveillance bill on hold, but there is no reason to believe it is going away. In fact, a recent report Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights suggests that the changes coming to the bill may not address
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Joe Fresh & Loblaws: Perpetuating the Early Marginalization of Women
Not so long ago, my friend Becca was shopping at her local Loblaws store (Real Canadian Superstore, for those of us who live in the West.) Like many people I know, Becca approves of their Joe Fresh clothing line, which offers Canadians the opportunity to buy stylish and seasonal clothing
Continue readingNorthern Insight: The word is malfeasance, AKA theft
http://saveourrivers.tv/powerplay_player5.html Protect salmon habitat? Protect BC consumers? Protect BC taxpayers? No way. H/T John W.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Federal Budget Impact on Jobs
The Budget estimate that a new round of cuts will eliminate up to 19,200 jobs has been widely cited as fact, but it cannot be taken at face value as argued in an analysis released by the Public Service Alliance of Canada. An extract follows: The government claims the
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