Taking Them On

Wikileaks’ founder is again being framed for a crime he didn’t commit in Sweden. You can read how I know he didn’t commit a crime there, here. The co-incidental timing of the charge with Wikileaks largest release of top secret American documents, is too great for people to brush off. The CIA or whoever orchestrated this is counting on the smear tactic sticking even after it’s formally discredited.

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Also, Atwood is taking on the Prime Minister, so of course Blogging Tory Stephen Taylor comes to Harper’s rescue. The result? Very amusing.

ADDED: Akin objects to Sun being called what it does.

Reduce Harm in the Media

Canadian Press should think about reducing harm done by the media. Heaven knows we need help with the coming Sun “Meida” Fox News North.

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A good chunk of my daily traffic comes through The Jurist’s blog. Liblogs, Miss Cellania, and Progressive Bloggers are the other regular contributors to my daily traffic.

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I’d like to burn some figurative rubber in one of those hemp cars. You could even power it with hemp oil.

Leak?

I can’t help but love Wikileaks. Are they run by an arrogant collection of people? Sure. But they’re on the side of truth and justice, and right now there aren’t enough arrogant loudmouths speaking out against others of their ilk in corrupt governments.

When the DoD throws insults and lies at WikiLeaks, Wikileaks tosses witty insults right back. It’s great! More bloggers are noticing that WikiLeaks can be trusted, but the Pentagon cannot be.

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On the weekend, authorities issued a bogus charge of rape against the head of WikiLeaks. The timing suggests it’s nothing more than a plot by the US and its allies to tarnish the name of a journalist who has done more damage in short years to corrupt governments, than other professional media has done in decades.

Tory Hit List

It’s just not fair for the Prime Minister, he has to do so much chair re-arranging to create his Titanic government. And there are people who continue to stand up to him and his silly Fox News North dreams.

Also on the hit list is First Nations education. Massive layoffs at FNUniv were announced today. The layoffs come from a partial reinstatement of funding after a complete removal of funding by the provincial SaskParty, and federal Conservatives. Stephen Harper is content with First Nations people not having access to a post secondary education. Though to be fair, he’d probably be content with most Canadians not getting a post secondary education.

“Learning is one of the Liberal Party’s three priorities for addressing Canada’s core challenges. That’s why Liberals share Chief Atleo’s passion for wanting to improve the lives of Canada’s First Nations Peoples through education,” said Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

“Stephen Harper doesn’t have a plan to invest in the future of Aboriginal peoples in Canada,” said Liberal Aboriginal Affairs Critic Todd Russell. “Over four years, his Conservative government has cut vital funding to First Nations University, scrapped the historic Kelowna Accord, and refused to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

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There are some journalistic agencies doing their jobs well. And they aren’t even properly paid for their efforts to expose injustice and crime, either.

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Hat tip Skdadl

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But never mind all that, because there are Stormtroopers and Jedi dancing to Ke$ha’s Tik Tok.

Mislead

Tony Clement joins the chorus of other Conservatives ministers to totally disgrace themselves in front of a camera.

Paul Wells sums it all up in a Tweet.

Years ago I’d considered working on a project to document all of the lies and broken promises of the federal Conservative Party. I then realized that was a full time job, and would go unpaid. The journalists paid to do it are barely keeping up, and some have thrown up their hands and only talk about Ben Mulroney or Justin Bieber. Bloggers are helping to keep liars feet to the fire.

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Hat tip to The Jurist

Conparison

Take a look at today’s headlines:

The related news has a close association with the first headline (and the second).

“Economy too fragile for election: PM” = “Conservative lead dries up, poll suggests“

“PM touts economy as census furor ignored
Harper gives Tory caucus pep talk on economy, achievements”

And while the economy is too fragile for a democratic election, it is boast worthy, apparently.

The hilarious coverage from the media continues…

Geese Have Been Eaten

I worry more about the media’s misuse of the word “euthanasia” than giving free geese to homeless. Culling is not mercy killing.

It’s unclear though in the reports I’ve read if the New York Canada geese were eaten after 400 of them were CULLED (not “euthanized“, as CBC first reported, then changed, in their headline). That would be a darn shame if hundreds of pounds of fowl was wasted due to short sightedness or lack of government cooperation. Birds are a threat to airplanes, and Canada geese have few natural predators in urban parks, so it’s up to us to deal with overabundance as we see fit. We created the “problem” of perfect goose habitat, so we should “fix” it. Culling isn’t the best solution, but it’s a valid one.

Also, alliteration is not the way to go in a headline if it sacrifices accuracy. “Deadbeat deer” doesn’t really explain the situation very well in a place where deer are at unwanted numbers. Deer “steakholders” is a good URL though.

As far as worrying about the welfare of non-endangered urban wildlife, there are bigger fish to fry than Canada geese. There’s only an entire area devastated by a massive oily mess, and then there’s the Gulf of Mexico too. It may seem like Canada geese are worth fighting for, but there are much more important battles to be won and focused on.

Regina is plagued/blessed with a lot of geese, and gophers, and pigeons, and this sort of debate comes up here too. Should we cull, or let the geese/deer/gopher populations grow in our cities until our gardens are gone?

Remember “Climategate”? ; And Twitter Glossary

My letter to the Wall Street Journal’s editors:

“The WSJ’s continues to publish misinformation about climate change. Normally this accusation would be gravely accepted by the WSJ’s editor(s), but after such dishonesty or willful blindness to the truth, the editor(s) hardly seem to care about truth and justice any longer.”

(via @RepowerAmerica {Whose website unhelpfully says that a postal code needs 5 numbers})

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And you could be forgiven if you’ve never heard of “Climategate”, when emails were stolen from prominent scientists, as an effort to find a supposed conspiracy among scientists to falsely present evidence around the earth’s greenhouse effect and pollution levels.

Many people in the world are unfamiliar with commonplace buzzwords on the Internet. The Times gives a guide for those Facebook has left behind.

I’ve published glossaries for Twitter previously, explaining the following:

Tweet = a 140 character (maximum) comment made on the Twitter user’s website, which their ‘Followers’ can easily find and read.

Followers = any Twitter user that keeps track of a specific Twitter user’s account. Followers are the first people to see what you Tweet on Twitter. They are similar to “friends” on Facebook.

RT = ReTweet – which means to resend a comment made by someone else using Twitter, so that your followers see the Tweet you read and liked.

#tag = a “Hashtag” – which means other people can search for a ‘tagged’ subject on the Twitter website. The symbol ‘#’ is followed by a word which the writer is classifying the comment under.

@username = a Twitter user’s name on the Twitter website. Comments with a user’s name preceded by ‘@’, can be quickly seen by the ‘@username’ mentioned user.

On CJTR

I’ll be on CJTR Community Radio in Regina this morning talking about the Regina Car Share Co-operative and car sharing.

They Aren’t Stopping the Oil Correctly

BP is not protecting the coasts from oil coverage by using correct “booming” techniques, claims an expert on the subject. They don’t have enough booms to funnel the oil, are only laying out booms in incorrect configurations to make it appear that they are doing something useful, and aren’t collecting it to take it out of the water.

There is strong language in the following video (which really gets going in the last half) because BP isn’t “fucking” doing anything right at a crucial time in human history.

This is Big Oil’s Chernobyl event. It’s an entirely preventable, and unexpected (by the industry boosters), massive and uncontainable disaster that will kill countless humans and animals.

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Hat tip Violette and Borris

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CSIS is slandering activists in their investigations that are probably part of the $1.1B price tag for the G20 meetings in Toronto.