“We cannot afford to continue to respond to disasters and suffer impacts — particularly looking at large-scale catastrophic disasters — under the current program. It will fail.” That little ray of sunshine comes from Craig Fugate, head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. What Craig was trying
Continue readingHappy Women’s Day. Have you found YOUR feminism today?
Don’t you love that ad? I sure do. It’s a timely reminder of just what we’re all up against. Here’s another: ThinkProgress was being a little low-ball on the count there, because I spotted WAY more than just 70 sexist smears coming out of that juddering piehole. Didja notice that
Continue readingthe woodshed: But…but…lefties use bad words on the internet
Dear people who like to claim “both sides do it” and bemoan the use of strong or obscene language on the part of the lefty and progressive bloggers and claim that calling people “fascists” is hyperbolic vilification.Go read what Dr. Dawg has brought back from the conservative swamp and then
Continue readingBlunt Objects: The Cullen Plan
I don’t like it. I think its a stupid idea that only benefits the NDP in most ridings, and us in fewer ridings, and the Greens in zero ridings. The fact is that the NDP ended up in second place in more ridings than we did. Yes, in ridings around
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: “Globalization” and Unions
Last weekend I participated in a labour law conference at the University of Western Ontario, speaking on a panel which was asked to weigh in on the impact of trade and investment on labour rights. I weighed in somewhere between my co panelists Kevin Banks and Marley Weiss, arguing that
Continue readingCalgaryGrit: Extra! Extra! No New Taxes!
With an election call expected within weeks, the Alberta PCs are blanketing the airwaves with advertising touting their pledge to not raise taxes. Well, let me rephrase that – the Alberta government is blanketing the airwaves with advertising touting their plan to not raise taxes: The Redford government is under
Continue readingMike Lester presents the south’s take on Obama and Sandra Fluke
From Georgia’s Rome News Tribune. Yeah, let that sink in. You’ve got the African-American President is a 70′s pimp angle, the Sandra Fluke is a whore angle, the “evil light-skinned brother” angle, the white girl subservient to the black man angle, a complete misrepresentation of Ms. Fluke’s statements to boot
Continue readingImpolitical: Conservative phone call harassment on tape
Listen to the tapes here. A former employee of RMG said things like this: «Oh, vous n’êtes pas un conservateur? Nous ne voulons pas parler à un socialiste ou à un séparatiste.» The former employee of RMG has been let go, here are the apologies: Le collecteur de fonds Don
Continue readingArt Threat: It’s International Women’s Day – And we’re digging through the Art Threat archives
Sarah Maple — Signs, C-Type Print, 2007 As today is International Women’s Day, I thought it would be worthwhile to dig though our archives and offer up a selection of past content focused on women and feminist issues. Also, here’s a worthy read from The Guardian a few years back:
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Iceland and the Loonie
Dean Baker has weighed in on the weird idea that Iceland might adopt the Canadian dollar. It is their decision to make, but I also don’t see much to recommend it.
Continue readingSomething to do on International Women’s Day
The political degeneracy of our country continues. Even for Stephen Harper, this is truly disgusting: a homophobic far-right fringe group, REAL Women of Canada, has been enlisted by the Conservative government to decide who should receive Diamond Jubilee Medals, struck to honour Queen Elizabeth’s 60th year on the throne. Warren
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Remembering Lea Roback on International Women’s Day
One of my heros has always been Lea Roback, a Quebec feminist and union militant, who died at 97 in 2000. A film was made about her life which is exceedingly hard to find, Des Lumières dans la grande noirceur, but is worth ferreting out. She is an example of
Continue readingFrom Orangutan: Dear Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army,
I learned about you from this video on the Internet, and I am wondering what happened to you to make you want to commit atrocities against your fellow human beings in Uganda? I read you justify your actions by claiming to defend ten commandments given by your Christian god. This
Continue readingAung San Suu Kyi to John Baird: When it comes to voting, today’s Myanmar a lot like Harper’s Canada
She didn’t say that in those words of course but her sly mention of voter irregularities could not have been better timed and said to a better person. “We have just discovered there are many, many irregularities on the voters’ lists, and we have applied to the election commission to
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: My Girls on IWD
There are a lot of posts today about important things: women’s safety, rights, equality or lack thereof all around the world. But this morning, I was talking with my 13 year old, who is just a few months from high school. I spoke about what she’s going to start seeing
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: They who lived by the bullshit… #nlpoli
Regular readers of these e-scribbles will know that the quarterly Corporate Research Associates poll is cause for nothing if not a fair bit of derision. They aren’t polls anyone should use to judge anything serious. They are just a marketing device for CRA. Nonetheless and despite seven years of solid
Continue readingRoboscam: who should investigate?
If Elections Canada had the will, the resources and the powers, clearly Canada would be in the midst of a major, comprehensive probe of electoral dirty doings last year. At this point I would concede that I have no idea about the will. I am told that resources should not,
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: CBC pulls controversial soft-porn web show
Radio-Canada has pulled the web-TV series, Hard, from its Tou.tv website.
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Key Report Highlights Strategies to Fix “Broken Cell Phone Market”
openmedia_logo.jpg Groups OpenMedia.ca, CIPPIC, and PIAC release comprehensive report, as Industry Canada prepares rules for wireless infrastructure auction March 8, 2012 – Adding to the pressure of a 63,000+ signature “Stop The Squeeze” petition launched earlier this year, grassroots group OpenMedia.ca, University of Ottawa legal clinic CIPPIC, and the Public
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