Wright Quits, Wallin & Duffy Half-Quit, May Lashes the PM #cdnpoli

What dirt does Duffy have on the Prime Minister, that would have had him order his Chief of Staff to cut Mike Duffy a cheque for more than $90,000?

Mike #Duffy and Nancy Greene, #senators raising money for CPC. Corruption and sponsorship #cdnpoli #revolting. en: youtu.be/FJUCugE8ZZQ—
Susan (@SusanFelicity) May 19, 2013

It’s not this video with Duffy and climate change denier Greene-Raine fluffing the Olympics for partisan gain.

Is it this one that has a clue in it? Did the Prime Minister promise a journalist (Duffy) a Senate seat if he helped throw the election? Remember the unconventional airing of the do-overs that Dion did? That was Duffy that determined that damaging display of dialogue.

One question put to me yesterday, was of legitimacy Wallin, Braz Man, and Duffy have for remaining in the Senate at all, after the Prime Minister who put them there has caused or accepted their removal from the Conservative caucus. I would suggest that a Prime Minister who appoints, then fires partisans, to the Senate, calls into question their own legitimacy to govern. As it stands, we’re entering unheard of territory, and so far as I know, there’s nothing written in our Constitution about what to do. We’re writing that unwritten bit of our Constitution now by what we let this rogue Prime Minister get away with.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May said Sunday that, regardless of Wright’s resignation, important questions are still outstanding about why he would have offered his own money to save a floundering Duffy.

“Why would Nigel Wright do something that was so obviously wrong? Intuitively, it would make sense to ask ‘Did the prime minister ask him to do it?’ as opposed to ‘Did the prime minister know he did it?’”

The Garlic: Interview With Carbon Dioxide

The Onion hasn’t lived up to its journalistic standards of fake news, so I’m writing a piece for The Garlic, and interviewing Carbon Dioxide to get its thoughts on surpassing the dangerous 400 parts per million mark.

John Klein (JK): So, Carbon Dioxide, do you mind if I call you Carbon for short?

Carbon Dioxide (CO2): Sure John, no problem. I’ll even let you abbreviate my name to CO2 without making the two subscript.

JK: Very kind of you, Carbon.

CO2: No problem, it’s my pleasure to help out. It’s the least I can do, for helping to destroy your climate.

JK: It’s really humanity’s fault though for burning so much fossil fuel. You can’t take responsibility for that, you’re just a molecule created through oxidation of carbon.
Let’s get to the questions. How do you feel about surpassing 400 ppm in the atmosphere for the first time during human civilization?

CO2: I feel pretty negative about the whole situation, right down to my electrons. I was quite content at levels under 300 ppm, and it seems like only a few years ago that I was at 350 ppm.

JK: It was only a few years ago you were at 350 ppm, before 1988.

CO2: Anyway, I feel really burned out by all of this talk about sequestering me. I’d rather spend time at the ocean.

JK: You mean you by becoming carbonic acid in the Earth’s oceans, and harming shell fish and other aquatic life?

CO2: There’s no malice intended, I’m just a molecule, as you’ve already pointed out. If you had a choice between taking a soak in the ocean, or being put into a high pressure situation under the Canadian plains, what would you choose?

JK: I see your point.

CO2: It’s not easy being humankind’s most despised molecule, with some many millions out to reduce my levels. I can count on some support from misguided, or well paid carbon fluffers, but it’s not easy being anti-green. At least plants (and potted plants in Congress) love me.
See:

Another twisted and scientifically bad #climate piece in the #WSJ. Deceptive from the first paragraph to the last. online.wsj.com/article/SB1000….—
Peter Gleick (@PeterGleick) May 09, 2013

JK: The plants that don’t end up underwater from flooding, or burned from drought, love you?

CO2: Yes.

JK: My city has been trying to cut back on creating Carbon Dioxide since the early 1990s. Here’s a sign from 1999′s Cool Down The City Challenge:

They installed one bike rack for ten bikes. There are over 220,000 people in Regina. It would appear people don’t take Carbon Dioxide very seriously.

CO2: My influence on human civilization and daily life is vastly underestimated by most people.

JK: Indeed. It was a pleasure speaking to you, I should let you get back to warming our atmosphere too much.

CO2: Thanks for asking me to talk, John. I think I’m going to chill for a bit (as a liquid, naturally).

JK: Poor Carbon gets such a bum rap. There are so many good politicians on its case.

Atmospheric CO2 levels breached 400ppm for first time in history of human civ. A sad milestone. A call to action. bit.ly/10ztcQU—
Al Gore (@algore) May 10, 2013

Conservatives Stopped Conserving

It’s frustrating to be a Canadian, with such terrifically stupid and dishonest political representation. Sure, our insecure ‘strong’ leaders don’t send the police to your door (unless you’ve written them a mean letter), but that mildly redeeming trait isn’t enough. They have to stop denying that climate change isn’t killing people, and they must stop pretending that there is more wildlife in less habitat (particularly polar bears).

We don’t have until 2015 to piss away a chance to reduce air pollution. We’ve wasted 30 years already, we’re out of time.

“Hostility to expertise in all of its forms is the closest thing that Canadian conservatives have to a unifying ideology.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/defence+sociology/8317722/story.html#ixzz2RzLVxko5
“

ConCalls: Well, That Didn’t Work. Queen Steps Back

A week ago, Elizabeth May finally got a response from the Queen of Canada regarding the sovereign’s position on election fraud in our country. Her opinion is that Harper’s appointed Governor General is the suitable person to decide if a Royal Commission should be held to investigate the Prime Minister’s party supporters who fraudulently robocalled thousands to mislead them on where to vote. Thousands more calls were made pretending to be Liberals or NDP who were rude.

If the Governor General decides not to investigate why it took over 701 days to charge a single man with an elaborate cross-country conspiracy to criminally cheat Canadians out of their rights to vote, the Queen really doesn’t care. Our military still swears to protect her though. This, despite her uncaring response to information that Canada’s democratic system is in doubt, and its ability to respond to the internal problems are crippled by conflicts of interest due to appointments by the Prime Minister of the party most closely associated to the election fraud problem.

Throw National Post a Lifeline

I haven’t encountered a Kelly McParland article that I can say I agree with. His latest, about Elizabeth May’s attempt to subvert the stalemate in Parliament amongst the opposition parties, is missing the point. May isn’t just out to help the Green Party, which of course is a given, despite McParland’s ridiculous claim that he’s revealed a dastardly, secret trap that the NDP or Liberals could fall into. May’s insistence that she’s putting the country before partisanship isn’t hot air, she’s attempting to win the next election using co-operation. Co-operation was not tried on a grand enough scale the last 3 elections, and the Liberals, NDP, and Greens have come out the losers in them as a result. (Widespread election fraud by Conservative supporters, didn’t help either, of course.)

“Should the other parties agree to pool resources with her in some ridings, as Ms. May suggests, her troops are likely to gain far more than they can contribute.”
This notion that McParland puts forward is built upon the opinion that it’s unfair for Canadians to be represented proportionally in the House of Commons, based upon popular vote election results. May isn’t only out to help the Greens take seats from Conservative MPs, she’s offered to help Liberals and NDP MPs win in place of Conservatives also. The result from another First Past the Post (FPTP) election could very well be totally unbalanced, where the NDP, Liberals, and Greens win all but a dozen seats, and the Conservatives end up under-represented in the House. The next step isn’t to hold onto power unfairly, but to change the electoral system so Canadians can decide and feel more satisfied with the resulting Parliament.

The dull, partisan point McParland is trying to have people agree with, is that it’s better for Canadians to be subjected to FPTP perpetually, than it is to support Greens who oppose it. May is seeking a functional, practical solution to overcoming the system, but McParland wants to protect that system, along with Mulcair, and other power hungry political leaders who think they are better off with all or nothing. The Greens hold a sort of ‘nuclear option’ as does any other national party that can get a million votes or more. If co-operation isn’t reached in time, the Conservatives can basically win by default (or so it seems). This means the NDP and Liberals have more to lose by failing to talk with the Greens, than they have to gain by ignoring co-operation. If it’s more important to Mulcair that May’s Greens not pick up any more seats, than it is for him to win his party a fair amount of power, then McParland and the Conservatives get what they argue for.

So how does a national newspaper writer get national politics so very wrong? Probably intentionally, right? It’s hard to see how his analysis supports the progression of a fair democratic country, unless we assume that’s not his mark.

Elizabeth May’s Diabolical Plan to Change Canadian Politics

Elizabeth May’s diabolical plan was tucked away in plain sight, in a tiny publication on Vancouver Island:

“What I want to be able to do is get better research and support and make it available to backbenchers who don’t get much help from their own parties.
‘There are lots of MPs in a parliamentary committee hearing, with an expert witness giving evidence, who have their chance to ask a question but they basically tread water. They’ve got nothing useful to say; the reason for that is they don’t have the resources to know the issue very well, they don’t want to look like buffoons but their party isn’t supporting them to be effective. So, our party can support them to be effective, but I can never take credit for that because that would ‘out’ somebody.”

The compliant media has been running cover for her since then, downplaying the plot:

“A single seat in Parliament isn’t much; it’s somewhat laughable to suggest, as she did on election night, that she’ll be able to use it to change Ottawa’s culture.”

But now the Government House Leader admits that May can hold the entire Parliament “hostage” by asking questions and submitting amendments to bills! Imagine the gall, in a place known for expediency and unanimous consent!?

Some of the compliant media let the secret slip, however. The cat’s out of the bag. They named May as Parliamentarian of the Year!

One morning this session, at the start of parliamentary business, Elizabeth May and Liberal MP Frank Valeriote ran into each other in the House of Commons. They had both been there late the night before for a debate. Valeriote apparently assumed that May had had the misfortune to be assigned a morning shift in the House. “He looked at me and he was so tired he forgot that I didn’t have somebody ordering me around,” May recalls. “He said, ‘Oh jeez, did you get House duty again?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, my leader’s such a bitch.’ ”

By-election Monday; Plan to Fix Democracy

Well, the polls are closed in Victoria, Calgary, and Durham, ON so it’s time for some results. Since the voters of Durham were foolish enough to stick with Oda after her first waves of scandal until she burned out from too much $16 orange juice, they obviously stuck with the party of election fraud, and voted another Conservative drone into Harper’s harem. In Calgary, things were much more interesting, as the Liberals and Greens both have returns thus far as well over 30% and 24% respectively. The Greens last time got 10%, so this may signal that Chris Turner is awesome, or that Calgary isn’t as the Conservative ‘majority’ suggests it is.

What the results in Calgary also show is that the Liberals, Greens, and NDP are going to have to co-operate before the next general election in order to game the system as the Conservatives have. Why pretend the old traditions matter, when doing so ensures national defeat and disgrace? As Brandon explains, it’s not like Canada is a functioning democracy right now anyway. It can be again, with the right people in power, willing to fix our democratic institutions upon election.

Before you get indignant and say, “We can’t ‘game the system,” I have to remind you that Harper did with election fraud, statistically demonstrated, with audio recordings and reporting in the media of the resulting crimes. By comparison, co-operating to decide using votes which candidates party leaders will authorize to run in specific ridings, is not a crime. We actually expect our politicians to work together to make our country better, except now they have to do it outside of the House, and where the personal stakes are higher. Are they up to the task?

Eye of Scheer over Peace Tower of Sauron #LordOfTheBills

What’s going on inside the House of Commons today is no laughing matter. In fact, Minister Tony Clement told me that if I don’t like his joking about the step back from democratic debate in Canada, I shouldn’t read his tweets. Seriously.

@saskboy @kady Don't like my sense of humour? Don't bother with my tweets. Thx.—
Tony Clement (@TonyclementCPC) June 12, 2012

-Artists are hitting back.
Here’s a good one I found on a facebook page. It inspired the following adaptation of Lord of the Rings. Stephen Harper is now Lord Of The Bills.

In the Land of Ottawa where the Shadows lie.

.@amirightfolks @kady #LordOfTheBills One Bill to rule them all (C-38) #Omnibudget—
Saskboy K. (@saskboy) June 14, 2012

.@CdnPolly @MeganLeslieMP #LordOfTheBills One Bill to find them, (C-30) #TellVicEverything—
Saskboy K. (@saskboy) June 14, 2012

.@LexyCameron @pmoharper #LordOfTheBills One Bill to bring them all (C-31) openparliament.ca/bills/41-1/C-3…—
Saskboy K. (@saskboy) June 14, 2012

.@fem_progress @ElizabethMay @cfhorgan #LordOfTheBills One Bill to bring them all and in the darkness bind them (C-10) openparliament.ca/bills/41-1/C-1…—
Saskboy K. (@saskboy) June 14, 2012

–

Bill C-38 is a very good reason to #DenounceHarper as he'd have done to himself if it was still 1994 when he opposed Omnibus Liberal bill.—
Saskboy K. (@saskboy) June 14, 2012

See Stephen Harper rise against an Omnibus budget with arguments Elizabeth May put again to the Speaker?

I Spill, You Spill, We all Spill for Oil

The Canadian Press had a rather disappointing effort in presenting the true harm to the Red Deer area animal (and human) system. I know they’re short on time, so why not just publish the press releases from Midstream Oil Gusher Co. Ltd. instead of pretending like they’re journalists? After all, we know we can trust Midstream “officials” how?

Note the commenters like Ann Compton on CTV with paranoid delusions that the pipe was sabotaged underwater to coincide with an Alberta visit from the leader of the NDP. That’s about as insane as adding thousands (to hundreds of thousands by other estimates) of litres of oil to the main water supply of Red Deer, AB.

Despite the company’s optimistic tone, the Johnstons believe their health will be adversely affected if they return to live on the land they once called home.

“I believe my property is done, like this stuff is full of all kinds of toxins and carcinogens, how can my kids, my grandkids . . . how can we come back to this and live here and swim, fish and boat,” Gord Johnston said.

“Where are we going to be in five years? Are we even going to be alive if we stay? I highly don’t think so,” he said as oil-coated rushes behind him wavered in a breeze, but looked more like a row of automobile dipsticks.

He doesn’t know much about maintenance on the pipeline, but Johnston said he’s positive it had a similar problem a few years ago.

“We flew directly to the spot we figured it was and we could see it bubbling out of the Red Deer River,” he said.

Bonnie Johnston said she’s devastated by the spill and said it’s likely she and her husband are still in shock.

“I don’t think we’ve come to truly understand what this is going to do to us,” she said.

Gord Johnston said the company promised security for his property the night of the spill after they decided to leave, but that help never arrived.

Smart man. Too bad his home has been ruined in a way he’d be risking his life to return to.

==

Here’s a fun trick by the Yes Men

==

@DDickin No, Cons were accused of withholding information members needed to perform their duties. Big difference—
Grant Bowen (@bow_en_arrow) June 11, 2012

Black Out Speak Out

I’m speaking out in defence of nature and democracy #BLACKOUTSPEAKOUT

Bill C-38 is not democratic; it’s an attempt to hide legislation changes that most Canadians would not agree with. Write your MP, even if they are Conservative and are not allowed to listen to you, and let them know you’re not happy with their type of governance.

Wilks says he’s not able to do anything as one MP. Elizabeth May would disagree.

ADDED: Coyne’s thoughts on Wilks’ shaming by his own party. I also learned something, I didn’t know that MPs used to run in by-elections once appointed to Cabinet. That’s not even a trace memory in the Canadian political psyche anymore.