I like Kinsella on a general scale, but if you need proof that the man operates outside the bounds of normal, sane practices that will help the Liberals in the longer term, look no further than his website and his quoted bit in a Hill Times article: Warren Kinsella, a
Continue readingSpin Doctors – Green Party priorities for 2012
Happy Monday! After a holiday hiatus, the Hill Times is back this week, and so is Spin Doctors. Our question today is the following: “What will be your leader’s top priorities in 2012?” The Greens had a record year in 2011. Elizabeth May became the first Green MP elected to
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Advice: Harper Regime “Streamlines” its Own Policy Advice Office
Hill Times is reporting that the Prime Minister’s Office has “streamlined” by merging its two main previously separate branches, the policy analysis unit and the public relations and lobbying unit known rather ambiguously as “stakeholder relations.” (It’s worth asking who is awarded “stakes” in the Canadian Prime Minister, and I’m
Continue readingKeystone XL: Dirty oil barons threaten Obama
The clearest, most concise explanation yet of why the Keystone XL pipeline project, which would ferry dirty tar-sands oil from Alberta to Texas, must not proceed. Yes, all this talk of “ending our dependence on foreign oil” is a LIE. Shocking? Wait, it gets worse. The pipeline would also threaten
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: How to Get a Liberal to Deny Climate Science (Yes, It Can Happen)
geoengineering_diagram1-660×439.jpg Regular readers of my posts will know that I’ve often focused on the work of Yale’s Dan Kahan and his colleagues, who have published fascinating research on how our political and cultural views about how society ought to be ordered skew our perceptions of scientific reality. In particular, Kahan
Continue readingRick Santorum and the Right to be Weird
Make no mistake: the frothy Rick Santorum is weird in ways that go light-years beyond grotesque. But when he obligingly provides so much material for his opponents to work with, I wonder if this aspect of his weirdness is appropriate fodder for televised political debate: During a segment on Fox
Continue readingArt Threat: An ugly and remarkable tale about iEmpire – Storyteller turned investigative journalist learns what happens in an Apple factory
What do you get when you combine a master storyteller and investigative journalist? Mike Daisey is one answer, a storyteller and performer whose story about what happens inside an Apple factory is touching hearts and minds. After his visit to China, tours of factories, and meetings with union organizers and
Continue readingWise Law Blog: 140 Law – Legal Headlines for Monday, January 9, 2012
Here are the leading legal headlines from Wise Law on Twitter for Monday, January 9th, 2012: Geist: Are Canada’s digital laws unconstitutional? – Toronto Star Maple Lodge Farms hit with 60 criminal charges Judge rules that Twitter must hand over information on WikiLeaks supporters | The Raw Story Study: 96%
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: A familiar, fishy tale #nlpoli
Scientists told some American fishermen before Christmas that the cod the fishermen depend on for their livelihood are in danger of disappearing unless the fishermen change their ways. Frig off, say the fishermen. People from this province will recognise the drama. Evidence says one thing. A whole bunch of people
Continue readingNext time some ‘Ethical Oil’ salesperson gives you the ‘foreign influence’ bunk on the pipeline hearings, mention Alison’s post on the subject at Creekside
I watched in mild horror ‘Question Period’ yesterday. Horror, not because CTV is too cheap to broadcast the show in HD, but because of the nonsense delivered on behalf of Alberta’s ‘Ethical Oil’ lobby by Huffington Post’s Kathryn Marshall. Her spiel was more about trying to trap Eric Swanson of Dogwood Initiative
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Star’s Gloomy Assessment of Corporate Depradations
Today’s Star editorial offers a gloomy but apparently realistic assessment of the direction Canada’s manufacturing is headed in. Abetted by the federal and Ontario McGuinty provincial governments’ seeming indifference to the corporate depredations underway, the most recent occurring at Electro-Motive Canada, and unions that are hamstrung by the refusal of
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Mobile Syrup: Big Telecom CEOs among the highest paid
When the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives came out with its report on the 100 highest-paid CEOs in Canada, the pro-Internet community saw some familiar names from Rogers, Bell, and Telus. This hammers it home: these are *big* companies we’re dealing with, with high-paid execs and armies of lobbyists working
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Passion For Politics
There has been a lot of talk over the last couple of years about reforming Canada’s democratic institutions — electing the Senate, moving to proportional representation, and cleaning up Question Period. Changing all that machinery might make things better. But, as Robert Asselin points out, none of those changes carries
Continue readingMorning guffaw from @cselley | #TOpoli #TeamFord
Selley: Nothing will force the mayor into a retreat on the Sheppard subway. He will insist on its viability and impending ground breaking until the day he leaves office, and thereafter he will claim that it exists even though it does not. He will fill his leisure hours driving up
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Just Dab Your Ant with Hormones and *Poof* husky He-Ants!
“Canadian researchers have discovered they can induce supersoldier ants — whose bodies react to stress by expanding in size with huge oblong heads and giant vicious jaws — in the Pheidole ant species. The findings are significant because they show there is dormant genetic potential that can be invoked by
Continue readingSo, how did that war go for you in Iraq, George?
Added by Timbotron via Blogdilla And to think if Stephen Harper had been PM at the time, we’d be party to this. The percentage of Iraqis who are suffering in 2011 is among the highest in the Middle East and North Africa region and the percentage who are thriving is
Continue readinggay persons of color: Rick Santorum on hypothetical gay son
“I would love him as much as I did the second before he said it, and I would try to do everything I can to be as good a father to him as possible.” That is Rick Santorum’s response to Andy Hiller’s question, “What if you had a son who
Continue reading350 or bust: Fresh Meat: A New Perspective On Meatless Monday
It’s Meatless Monday! The Meatless Monday campaign encourages people to give up meat at least one day a week, for their health and the health of the planet. This hilarious yet thought-provoking video demonstrates how far removed from the sources of our food many of us in the developed world
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Hugs Versus Inequality: Investments in Social Programs Are Essential to Equality of Opportunity
More about the increasingly unequal society that is the US: Today Paul Krugman rails against those who are bent on making the playing field even more bumpy. After pointing out how Mitt Romney disparages President Obama by lies and inuendo he adds: “someone who really wanted equal opportunity would be
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Dr. Dawg views the latest attacks on workers by employers in Canada as a new front in all-out class warfare. And the New York Times notes that some of the main policies being pushed by the anti-worker side serve absolutely no purpose other
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