He’s in the homeland, Italy, and the Postmedia people tell us that Canada’s associate minister of national defence is praising the Italians for their great military yadda, yadda, yadda.Italy, of course, is the only country to lose World War Two twice, …
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Any Port In a Storm, Even the NDP
How does somebody who has been a Dipper for six months get to lead the NDP? Better yet, how does someone who was a separatist supporter just six months ago rise to NDP leadership?Is the NDP so bereft of leadership talent that it has to appoint so…
Continue readingThe World Famous Dan Shields: 3963…We Got A Good Immigrant Here
Have, got, whatever.And we are trying to force him back to where he is from.His name is Matt Bonner and he is special. As in a special athlete, NBA player and a scholar.Check this from TSN, The Sporting News: “Bonner never received less than an “A” a…
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Aaaaaand they’re off!
A favourite strategy of the Conservatives is to deflect discussion of the issues and instead try to make it look as though even an opponent’s participation in the conversation is somehow illegitimate. The best example was the focus on Michael Ignatieff’s years abroad but it’s a ploy they’ll use whenever the opportunity presents itself. It’s interesting to see the Globe and Mail doing it’s part by blasting the news that interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel was a member of the BQ for several years — as if it was a closely guarded secret that somehow implies something deeply significant. And it will be equally interesting to see how many other media players are quite happy to reinforce the frame while indulging in their favourite game: speculating about all the possible negative consequences for the opposition. It must be a slow news day. Of course, as Greg Fingas points out, the force of this shocking revelation would be somewhat blunted by the fact that prior to 2006, Turmel was deeply involved in NDP politics over a much longer period. So while the Globe story provides a brief history of her career with the PSAC, her previous association with the NDP is…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Economic Disaster One Averted. Economic Disaster Two Unfolds.
There are two types of economists at work today. There’s the A Team, guys like Krugman and Stiglitz. There’s the B Team, guys like Harper and the people advising American politicians. The A Team win Nobel Prizes. &nbs…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: The Edible is Political
Many thinkers and activists who are deeply concerned about the scope and gravity of the environmental crisis pay too little attention to how far the production of animal flesh and fluids for human consumption is implicated in global ecological degradat…
Continue readingThe New Kids in the Bloc
This is the real reason that an NDP/ Liberal merger is impossible. The Liberal Party of Canada, if nothing else, is the party of the “NO” vote, the party of two official languages, and the party of the constitution.As long as the NDP favours aban…
Continue readingThe bald truth about Chavecito’s new look
Something’s missing in this picture of the president of Venezuela. But what? Oh, I know. It’s his hair! Like many a chemotherapy patient, Chavecito has opted for the quicker, tidier solution of simply buzzing it all off, rather than waiting for it to fall out in clumps (which can be a disconcerting experience even when […]
Continue readingThey Call Me "Mr. Sinister": Liberal Witch Hunt
Shorter Rob Silver: Have you now,or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party Bloc Quebecois? According to Mr. Silver, once you have tasted from the well of separatism, you are no longer qualified to hold office in another party. Oh Liberals,…
Continue readingPample the Moose: Nycole Turmel, meet Jean Lapierre
Gosh, the Twitterverse is atweet today with spin and counter-spin on Daniel Leblanc’s article in the Globe and Mail about interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel’s very recent membership in the Bloc Quebecois. Some partisans are crying foul and alleging that…
Continue readingMarried lesbian couple saved 40 people during Norway shooting massacre
News to you? Another example of your liberal media hard at work.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Linda McQuaig notes that the same financial actors who caused the global economic meltdown that’s being used as an excuse for austerity measures around the world are themselves making out like bandits – even tho…
Continue readingYou know NDP, you could have at least shared with us Turmel’s Bloc membership up front
Is that too much to ask?
Continue readingLeDaro: US Debt Ceiling Fiasco
American exceptionalism and equal opportunity for all!!!!
Continue readingwmtc: dear u.s.: tax corporations, tax the rich, end the useless wars. there, problem solved.
Letter to the Globe and Mail, July 30:It’s remarkable how in the current debate about the U.S. debt ceiling, the extravagance of American military spending is seldom even mentioned. In its fiscal 2010 budget, the United States gave $685-billion to the …
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Shi(f)t Work
Wanderer over at Lost on the Floor makes a point: My manager remarked to me that night-shifters tend to, “have a bit of chip on our shoulders, almost like the world owes you something.” Damn right I do. I’m up when most sane and rational people are asleep. I sleep when the rest of the […]
Continue readingPolitical harassment of Nycole Turmel
First, a disclaimer: I have known Nycole Turmel since 1985, and worked with her closely as an executive vice-president of the PSAC from 1994-2003. Over the years we had many disagreements, and I can’t say we were the best…
Continue readingSchmuckraker Breitbart caught doctoring video AGAIN?
Legendary media charlatan Andrew Breitbart does it again. One of his blogs put up an edited version of a video seemingly showing MSNBC talking head Norah O’Donnell saying, “…you gave them everything they wanted and we got nothing” in a question to the WH’s press secretary. Makes it sound like O’Donnell is using . . . → Read More: Schmuckraker Breitbart caught doctoring video AGAIN?
Continue readingCritical Brain Candy: Yay, more debt!
Congrats to the USA for raising the debt ceiling. Wait, is that a good thing? No, I’d say it isn’t. I think the fight over reigning in US spending is a good one to have, but doing it over the debt ceiling seems like the wrong issue. As many people point out, the debt ceiling […]
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Debt, electricity rates and Muskrat Falls #nlvotes
The editorial board at the Telegram understands the point exactly. It’s a point your humble e-scribbler has been harping on for six years to one extent or another. And it’s one of many major problems with Muskrat Falls and the plan to double elec…
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