“It doesn’t have to be true. It just has to be plausible and it strikes me as plausible.” This statement was made back in September of 2009 by Tom Flanagan, a University of Calgary political scientist and former adviser to Stephen Harper, in reference to the sudden resurgence of the
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Thus Prate the Pundit » Social Critique: First Take on the Public Domain Manifesto
Communia published its Public Domain Manifesto. The manifesto identifies the public domain concept with respect to historical development and more urgently, its relevance to culture today. I think it makes an important statement, in terms of offering a level, common understanding that could be used widely across society, government, and
Continue readingPop The Stack: Canada 2.0
Today’s protests around Canada against the Conservative’s reckless abuse of power were a great success, look here, even the Globe and Mail is impressed. So, how did a little ‘internet protest’ turn into over 25,000 feet on the ground in over 60 locations across the country today? Two reasons. First, Canadians are awesome! Second, Facebook […]
Pop The Stack: Today, we stand for democracy.
Throughout our land today, we raise our voices for democracy. We march in peaceful protest to send a message to you who claim to lead us, be you blue, red or orange. The message: This shall not stand. We raise our voices today to remind you that you serve at our leisure, not your own, […]
Thus Prate the Pundit » Social Critique: Angus Asks for Answers to ACTA Secrets
Charlie Angus (NDP) penned an open letter1 (.doc) (26 January 2010) to Peter Van Loan (Conservative Minister of International Trade) regarding the ongoing secretive ACTA negotiations and Canadian copyright issues. Considering the ACTA negotiations have occurred largely in secret but collide head-on with copyright issues widely discussed over the last few years, it’s reasonable to expect
Continue readingPop The Stack: In Defense of Reasonableness
What make’s us Canadian? Its an oft asked question. Its unavoidable that whatever it is will be cast in some way relative to our neighbours to the south. But there is a core quality that Canadians have, that permeates our history and explains why we chose to structure our society and our democracy differently than […]
Pop The Stack: Michael Ignatieff Talks at UBC – but will he Say anything?
UBC is being visited today by the Liberal party road tour, Michael Ignatieff will be talking about his and our dreams for Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017. I’m planning on going, hopeful there is room for questions from the audience. If so I’m going to ask him this: Will your party commit to working with […]
Pop The Stack: Liberals stand out like a raisin in a raisin muffin.
Its clear that the with the prorogation of parliament the Conservative party has wasted most of its ‘benefit of the doubt’ support that was keeping it ahead of the Liberals. A new poll shows the two parties are neck in neck in national support. Just as clearly, this statistical tie has not come about because […]
Pop The Stack: Canada Needs to Become a Real Democracy
Full repost of letters from Fair Vote Canada to Stephen Harper and Opposition leaders about the importance of democratic reform now, more than ever. FVC sends open letters to Harper and opposition leaders: it’s time to fix the problem Jan 12, 2010 Fair Vote Canada sent and issued open letters to the Prime Minister and […]
bastard.logic: “Roger Ailes as Howard Hughes”?
by matttbastard Let’s hope the ugly SOB still clips his toenails. Seriously — producing daily crypto-fascistic dispatches carefully crafted to rile up the rubes while scoring mega ad rev? Understandable. Poor hygeine? Absolutely unforgivable. h/t Krugman (who, speaking of unforgivable … Continue reading →
bastard.logic: Slacktastic Placeholder Post
by matttbastard Busy busy busy lately, kids (and by ‘busy busy busy’ I mean ‘lazy lazy lazy’, as my always-obsessive Twitter output will attest — 140 characters is a lot less daunting than 140 words, sadly). But we can’t enter … Continue reading →
A. Picazo: Citizens say Yes to democracy, No to Harper’s Prorogation
By proroguing Parliament, and thereby subverting Democracy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has succeeded where others have failed. He has galvanized Canadians from across the political spectrum, including many who were formerly apathetic citizens, in a common political cause: To stand up for democracy, and demand political accountability. More than 150,000 Canadians have
Continue readingPop The Stack: Really? That’s the Conservative Response?
The Liberals have released some video ads attacking the Conservative government over its prorogation of parliament. What is more interesting though is the Conservatives response to the ads. I just thought there were a few very odd points about these comments, so don’t mistake me for a liberal hack, I think they are sorely lacking […]
Pop The Stack: Andrew Coyne’s Modest Proposal
The Canadian Interwebs are ablaze with anger over the recent prorogation of parliament and polls tell us that even the general population is quite upset. Hopefully the fast growing Facebook protest group “Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament” will tranlate into feet on the ground during the nationwide protests against proroguing on Jan 23, the Saturday before […]
Pop The Stack: Senate and GG Reform : A Simple Solution
A great article on the Globe and Mail about Harper’s Senate reform plans. As always, Senate reform is a more complex issue than it first appears. Harper likely knows this and knows that his overly simple solution will never be implemented anyways because as the author points out, there are a lot of drawbacks to […]
Pop The Stack: You should read this about senate reform
You should read this about senate reform, espeically Jim Q’s comment on a PR solution http://ow.ly/TKs3 #cdnpoli #senatereform #fairvote
Posted in Politics Tagged: democracy, fairvote, parliament, Politics, reform, senate
bastard.logic: Why Does Rep. Pete Hoekstra Hate America?
by matttbastard Shorter Pete Hoekstra: “It’s totally Obama’s fault that unsuccessful terror attack was indeed unsuccessful”: Shame, that. Maybe one day Hoekstra’s vibrant wet dream of death and destruction will actually come true. And then Darth Cheney (who already co-owns a successful terror … Continue reading →
bastard.logic: War is Over (OK, Not *Over*, But…)
by matttbastard Was going to pick up on what BooMan, Jed Lewison & Jeff Fecke had to say re: Jane Hamsher’s unholy alliance with Grover fucking Norquist and the more-progressive-than-thou campaign to unseat that notorious corporate shill, Bernie Sanders (and … Continue reading →
What it means to be a progressive.
Happy New Year everyone. Welcome to 2010. Is it everything you thought it would look like?I remember the new year of 1990 very well. I was 10 and it was the first time in my memory that we were celebrating the start of a decade. I remember vividly thin…
Continue readingThus Prate the Pundit » Social Critique: Secret Copyright Negotiations Disregard Canadian Consultation
Because of recent leaks, the public has learned that the minority Conservative government is engaged in at least two sets of secret negotiations to bring forward new copyright and “intellectual property” regulations without the consent of Canadians. The Conservatives got their first two attempts at copyright change wrong. Later, the government set up
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