Before we return to regular programming, one more posting on the what-did-Garth-Turner-say topic that has so fascinated so many Conservatives this week. For background, see the previous post and the one two days prior.
You will ascertain, in short, that during a meeting I had with religious leaders in Halton, I mused about our collective priorities, when we can find government money for bombs but not kids of need in our community. This was ultimately taken by partisans as me accusing Canadian troops of murdering civilians, which is what the Conservative Party of Canada officially alleged Thursday night.
The genesis of it was an out-of-context quote in the local paper, which read:
“These are contradictory times,” said Turner at the conclusion of the meeting. “We don’t have funding for youth centres but we do have $150,000 for every shell bought for the sole purpose of destroying a village in Afghanistan. We could buy each Afghan a condominium with that money,” he added.
Those words were written by local reporter Melanie Cummings, and her editor at the Milton Canadian Champion – when questioned by a prominent national Conservative blogger – backed them as being accurate. To date I have not commented on the accuracy because my comments were unscripted, impromptu and – at least, I thought – unrecorded. Frankly, I did not recall my exact words, but the sentiment was about right. Thus, I did not try to correct or amend the published story.
Based on that paragraph, a local attack dog Tory, Cam Battley, wrote a letter to the editor saying I had come “perilously close to accusing them (soldiers) of purposely murdering civilians.” This absurdity was ratcheted higher by the PMO, when the Conservative web site stated, unequivocally of me that, “it is ignorant and outrageous for an opportunistic Opposition MP to accuse them (our troops) of targeting and killing civilians.”
So, we have come to a point where a sentence written by a weekly newspaper reporter, and unverified, has turned into a partisan attack on an MP who now stands accused of saying our soldiers kill civilians. Scarier still, it is the government party of the country saying that. And nobody checked.
To date, it all rests on the words of one Melanie Cummings, who was writing as fast as she could.
So, what did I say?
Here is a recollection by another person who was actually in the room, Rev. Jeff Ward, of Oakville. He sent me this copy of a letter that went to the editor of the Champion on Friday:
I am very concerned with the letter printed in the Champion concerning this meeting. I believe that every meeting hosted by a member of parliament is an “open” meeting and the representative is accountable for all of his or her remarks and positions.
However, I also believe that we are all held accountable for our remarks and we should always take care when taking comments out of context and projecting those comments into a policy statement or one that captures the entire position of the representative in question.
Mr. Turner took great risk–more than he bargained for it seems–hosting this meeting and as a participant, I was very impressed with his demeanor and his openness in the meeting. For the most part, he did not skirt the questions asked or avoid stating his positions on issues.
I certainly remember the comment and the context surrounding the comment, and at no point in my recollection did Mr. Turner make a comment trivializing the efforts or mission of our troops in Afghanistan. My impression was that he held only high regard for our armed forces and the sacrifices that they make on a daily basis. The comment that he made, that has been “quoted” in the letter was not made lightly or in jest or as a comment about the mission. My recollection of the moment was his highlighting that when we are establishing and prioritizing funding for government spending, we seem to find it very difficult to allocate funding to the youth of our country, but we don’t question the cost of artillery.
There is irony in the situation that the person took a position attacking Mr. Turner and trying to paint him as anti-armed forces but did not take a stand with Mr. Turner when it comes to supporting the youth in our own communities. I pray that we would all support peace in every part of the world, that we will always think twice about when and where we used armed intervention, that we will all seek the best possible care and nurturing of our children, and that we will have appropriate political debate about issues and be honest in our debate of the issues. There is much to be done in our communities and in the world to make them better places to live; political smear campaigns will not advance those pursuits.
Peace be always with you.
Rev. Jeff Ward
Meanwhile, on Friday afternoon my office received a call from Stuart Service, another local reporter for the larger circulation Halton Compass, who was also in the room. (Originally I had thought Stuart was the author of the words in question, which is why I’d referred to the reporter in the masculine.)
Stuart told Esther that he’d taped the meeting and, after reading this blog, offered to bring a copy over so that clarity might prevail. So he did. And here is what I actually said at the conclusion of that meeting:
“As you know we live in a time that is complex and is contradictory. You know our country is at war. Our country is spending $150,000 on every artillery shell that we’re shooting in Afghanistan. Those artillery shells have GPS. They’ve got computers in the tips of them. And those computers fulfill no function but to guide that shell from our Canadian Army howitzers into villages to kill people. I mean that’s a reality.
“We’re there for a defined set of seasons. But, this is a contradictory time that we live in, when we don’t have enough funding for your youth centre. You know you could almost buy everyone in Afghanistan a condominium, right, for the dollars that we spend. So it is a very contradictory time.”
I did not say our Canadian shells are “bought for the sole purpose of destroying a village in Afghanistan.” I said the computers onboard the shells “fulfill no function but to guide them” to targets, “into villages to kill people.” If I erred, it would seem, it was in not adding the obvious words, “who are Taliban.” After all, why shoot those expensive shells, if not at the enemy?
The faith leaders seems to understand that without problem. As Rev. Ward said, “There is much to be done in our communities and in the world to make them better places to live; political smear campaigns will not advance those pursuits.”
Amen.
268 comments ↓
Garth, theres no difference between this and what you were reported to have said. They both say the Canadian army is destroying Afghan villages. Thanks for clearing that up for us.
You are very correct Garth, we do indeed live in contradictory times. While B.C. imposes its carbon tax on its citizens so we can hopefully live a more carbon neutral lifestyle, B.C. exports large amounts of coal to India and China and other markets to be burned for energy. The greenhouse gases produced in the burning of the coal is reported to be 55 million tonnes of C02 into the atmosphere per year. Good thing we are cleaning up our carbon footprints while we continue to export greenhouse gas emmitting coal at near record numbers. Will a Liberal carbon tax scheme tackle this issue?
And those computers fulfill no function but to guide that shell from our Canadian Army howitzers into villages to kill people.
Actually, you’re wrong like just about always. Those computers have a function to guide those shells accurately to MINIMIZE collateral damage. To guide them to the enemy while helping to keep them away from friendlies. Do you see no value in that?
The bigger picture of what went down was that it shows how you pander to special interest groups to garner votes. Not that you were disrespecting the military. You’ll say anything to anyone. In a room of anti-war people… you make ant-war remarks. When tin foil hat wearing 911 truthers talk to you about Bush being responsible for taking down the towers, you humour them and nod your head knowingly while inside you’re thinking, “I hope they get their medication soon.”
Pathetic. — Garth
Garth
As I said this morning , you were right & they were wrong!!!!
The Conservatives are so pissed-off at you that all they can see & hope for is to have you mashed into a motionless puddle on the floor rendering you unable to be a pain in their backside.
As a life-long Conservative supporter , I find these people immature & lacking in the the smallest of social graces–they have no business running a flea farm let alone the government.
All you have to do is look at the way they respond to opposition queries during Question Period–the trick is to never answer & attack the questioner.
This is a sad day for all Progressive Conservatives.
Hang in there Garth—you have all the right people on your side.
Dr Mike Popovich.
I was going to ask you how long you thought it would take for the anti-Garth crowd to jump in with some new spin, but apparently there’s no need… They’ve got the same old spin all ready and don’t see any reason to stop using it just because inconvenient facts get in the road… *le sigh*
Anyway. Will you now be asking for a correction from the paper and an apology from the Conservative twits who’ve been attacking you?
Only the manufacturer claims pin-point accuracy with any type of artillery. The operator knows that the only guarantee is that the projectile will indeed return to the earth, in one or more pieces, hopefully as close to the aiming point as the many variables allow. It is not even guaranteed that a high explosive shell will indeed detonate when it is supposed to.
Just ask the farmers in France about that.
“And those computers fulfill no function but to guide that shell from our Canadian Army howitzers into villages to kill people.”
posted by Garth Turner on 05.16.08 @ 4:07 pm
Maybe those computer guided missiles are intended to strike the enemy where they are at and not specifically villages.
Of course that comment makes it sound like we are there bombing villages with women and children and elderly. Target practice for when the real fighting starts.
Yes you erred. You should have said they were intended to strike the Taliban. Not blow up a village where it would have been cheaper just to build them condos.
There is a saying, there is plenty of slip between the cup and the lip. That doesn’t apply to you. You say whatever is expedient for your audience. No grace, no diplomacy, just venom for whatever the listener wishes to hear.
Yes, of course, you are right. I will follow your lead on grace and diplomacy. Please forgive. — Garth
Garth, theres no difference between this and what you were reported to have said. They both say the Canadian army is destroying Afghan villages. Thanks for clearing that up for us.
By Tory@York on 05.16.08 4:23 pm
——-
This personal smear or whatever you’d like to call it, while distracting from the facts, still does not change the fact that we have the money to shoot a 150k shell while apparently trying to help another country but are unable to help our own in this country.
Jeesh, this is starting to feel like small-town USA circa 2002-2003
It seems clear now that the innuendos made on the blog about the suggestion of legal improprieties in the Chuck Cadman Affair were unwarranted.
Is Garth going to withdraw his innuendos now, or wait until later?
Dion’s advisers may have misled him on this one, and many of us now feel duped.
We need to attack the CONS on a real issue that does not backfire instead of these phoney issues which get us nowhere.
Well Garth … it looks like your political career is on thin ice … between your comments about Canadian soldiers bombarding Afghan villages …. and now as reported on today’s CTV Duffy Live that Dion had to admonish you for your ‘tasteless’ presentation in Liberal caucus that appalled Liberal women MPs … something to do with Bernier and Couillard.
Perhaps you should explain your thoughts and actions now that your political career may well be affected. Doesn’t look good for you Garth … better state your case and offer apologies, otherwise you may be in deep doodoo … sorry to say ……
It appears we now all need to keep a tape recorder running so what we say is not taken out of context?
Garth…I just heard on Mike Duffy that you had a dressing down from your leader and many women in your caucus found you distasteful and insulting. Apparently you were smearing this woman who was involved with Max and showing some lewd pictures of her and women.
I’ll give you a chance to comment before I give my opinion. What happened?
Leasa
No, just go ahead and give your opinion of the caucus meeting. — Garth
The fact of the matter is, that the Taliban don’t wear military uniforms with a Taliban crest on the shoulder and they don’t march in a line with a superior officer telling them where to aim. These people will attack and kill Canadian soldiers however and whenever they can for the simple reason that we are in their country. Hell, they don’t even understand fully why we are there. This goes to show that we have a done a terrible job in communicating with them.
If you haven’t watched this, you should:
Talking to the Taliban
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/talkingtothetaliban
These Taliban don’t even know where Canada is. They just think we are invading their country! Not just that, but the command and control of the Taliban is in Pakistan.
Today a child blew themself up wounding two Canadian soldiers:
Child suicide bomber wounds two Canadians
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080516.wafgkid0516/BNStory/International/home
How sophisticated an enemy is a ten year old boy? How educated do you figure he is? So now we have ten year old boys as a potential enemy threat. I think the point is that we are spending $150,000 per round on a ’smart’ munition, which is fine, but the Canada can’t afford to defend their own at risk youth from the evils of the world. We need to defend the women and children and innocent people of Afghanistan from the evils of the world, but we also need to defend our own children and youth from the evils of the world and if we can afford $150,000 for ’smart’ munitions, then we can surely afford $150,000 every time we fire one of these destructive things for something constructive in Canada to help youth in Canada, but it doesn’t appear to be this way.
This is Garth’s whole point I believe. If you con simpletons want to distort this message to discredit Garth, then you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
There are two bright sides to this story:
1. there still are reporters who care enough about the truth to come forward with the evidence to prove it; and
2. the neo-Republicans once again have exposed themselves for what they are, the Vandals who have captured Rome and are destroying our previous way of public life.
ERASE THE DISGRACE – ÉCRASEZ L’INFÂMIE!
No, just go ahead and give your opinion of the caucus meeting. — Garth
Observing caucus confidentiality now, Garth ??
To bad the story about being “admonished by Dion” has hit the CTV network … and your sexist attack on Julie Couillard that repulsed Liberal women MPs, according to G&M Jane Taber …!!!
Looks like your Liberal caucus buddies are feeding you to the sharks circling in Ottawa and soon in Halton … now about those “24 faith leaders” … do you have the list for us yet ..???
Dear Garth
Well it is certainly is silly season. So Mike Duffy floats a rumour about your photo collection.
Do you think the old Duff is running for an elected Senator position?
Or do you have history with the old Duff and he is more than willing to slam your reputation?
“I just heard on Mike Duffy that you had a dressing down from your leader and many women in your caucus found you distasteful and insulting.” – Leasa
I can hardly wait for the facts on this one. Canadian politics is getting more interesting by the hour.
Elizabeth May has issued a press release regarding the misleading statements of the Conservatives on the pathetic and childish website.
Quite frankly, I think there’s a case for a libel suit…….something to think about.
Harper makes me sick to my stomach – literally.
No, just go ahead and give your opinion of the caucus meeting. — Garth
Wow Garth. Obviously I wasn’t there. I am asking you for your side, before I comment. That is the right thing to do. It was reported, it is public. Did you do what they said?
Leasa
“Hell, they [the Taleban] don’t even understand fully why we are there.”
Neither do we, Geoffrey L., neither do we.
You’re in a hole. Stop digging.
By Bonnie N on 05.16.08 6:07 pm
Duffy didn’t break this story. Jane Tabor did. Duffy confirmed it. I think before we roast or toast Garth, we should hear his version. Then we can take it from there. Leasa
Checking back on the original “Anatomy of a Smear” post for a reply from Ed the Hun, I find this a late addition from Cam Battley. Hope Garth will allow me to bring it forward so it is not missed:
QUOTE
Dear Mr. Turner:
I’m a Halton constituent, and I wonder if it might be possible that there is a problem with your blog software. I’ve been posting responses to your comments about me, and they appear on your blog, but then they disappear. It’s as if someone is deleting them. Do you know why this is happening?
In any case, I’ll re-post here, the comments that somehow disappeared. And I’ll copy it for future reference, in case this should continue to be a problem for you.
Yours truly,
Cam Battley
**************
Hi, Mr. Turner:
I posted a comment to your blog last night at 11:14, responding to your mention of my name in your article.
There must have been some kind of technical foul-up (?), because my comment is gone now. So I’m reposting it for you here.
Yours Truly,
Cam Battley
************
Hi, Mr. Turner:
I’m the Halton resident who wrote the letter to the Milton Canadian Champion, calling for you to apologize to our troops.
Did you just accuse me of “smearing” you? I don’t think the people of this riding would consider my repeating your own awful words, and condemning those words, as “smearing”.
The reason I sent that letter to the Champion is that I was mad. I felt that you had finally gone beyond just promoting yourself and seeking constant attention… to saying something untrue and indecent, in an offhand manner, to try to score some political points.
Canadian troops do not set out to destroy villages. Period. To claim that they do so, with artillery shells of whatever price tag, is wrong. And cruel.
So who is really guilty of a “smear”? In my opinion, it is you who have smeared the young Canadians who are putting their lives on the line to help the people of Afghanistan.
You should be ashamed of these comments, Mr. Turner. And you should apologize immediately and publicly.
Yours truly,
Cam Battley
By Cam Battley on 05.13.08 11:14 pm
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By Cam Battley on 05.14.08 9:24 am
By Cam Battley on 05.16.08 12:59 pm
I have to wonder if there is something neurologically wrong with some of the above posters, specifically Tory, Reid, Janice, and Harry S. Are they allergic to facing truth? Once they’ve made up their minds about something, does something like this cause them to go into seizures, banging away illogical claims on their keyboards?
Artillery shells exist to kill people. Much like Gen. Hillier said, to similar overreaction from the left, the military exists to kill people. Garth didn’t say anything about destroying villages, we now find out, but rather people in villages. How, exactly, is that incorrect?
Yes, they have computers in them to guide them with pinpoint accuracy to try to kill the right people. That’s exactly what Garth was saying. If people like to pretend that the Taliban aren’t people, don’t take it out on others who challenge your imaginings.
“I just heard on Mike Duffy that you had a dressing down from your leader and many women in your caucus found you distasteful and insulting.” – Leasa
Say it ain’t so Garth, say it ain’t so.
Gord.
Just remember that playing with words can work both ways. For example, one could say that Stephen Harper has characterized a period, the Cold War, when Canadian soldiers were not being killed and maimed by a foreign enemy as a “decade of darkness for the Canadian Forces.” He considers periods of violence, death and destruction as “milestones in our nationhood” which “remind us of who we are, what we believe in, and why we stand on guard for the True North Strong and Free.”
By C. B. Innes on 05.16.08 6:26 pm
I believe it was Hillier who said this.
The country’s top soldier was branded as being a “prop” for the reigning Conservatives after he depicted the 1990s as a “decade of darkness” for the military
Gord.
By Harry S on 05.16.08 5:37 pm
By Leasa on 05.16.08 5:40 pm
………………………………
I scooped you on this story by 3+minutes, Leasa … and Jane Taber’s words were “.. Turner was admonished by Dion..”
We can catch CTV Duffy Live at 8PM EDT .. or wait for ctv.ca to post the video of the program.
I hope our MP Garth is preparing his mea culpa .. that, or his political hara kiri …!!!
By C. B. Innes on 05.16.08 6:26 pm
I believe it was Hillier that you are quoting.
ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070216/hillier_prop_070216/20070216?hub=Canada
The country’s top soldier was branded as being a “prop” for the reigning Conservatives after he depicted the 1990s as a “decade of darkness” for the military.
Gord.
Good for you, Mr. Turner! You’ve been vindicated, and the Cons have once again been shown to be exaggerators, obfuscators and downright liars.
You’ll have to make sure all future Town Hall meetings are recorded.
I expect an apology from that reporter to you very soon.
Have a great long weekend!
Hang in there Garth. All of that hatred bottled up inside the Conservatives will eventually make them destroy themselves from within.
Another Politician that has his own Blog and accepts comments from the Public. Truly amazing! Spread the word. Make your voice heard.
The Parallel Parliament
Glen Pearson’s Take on Parliament Hill
Yes, they have computers in them to guide them with pinpoint accuracy to try to kill the right people. That’s exactly what Garth was saying. If people like to pretend that the Taliban aren’t people, don’t take it out on others who challenge your imaginings.
By Abattoir on 05.16.08 6:21 pm
You’re more accurate as one of those spiky things, Harry keeps refering to.
And its interesting to note, that while the Talibhan remain a faceless enemy, the likes of Bush and Harper can continue the war based on fighting ideology. When these people are recognised as people, albeit with a completely different perspective on the world, then its not a case of fighting ideology, but of fighting people.
The whole Afghan mess is because of ideology, dating back to the Russian occupation and the US. supporting Bin Laden, and probably before that as well.
Time to put ideology aside… and talk!
Rare be the man who measures every word, every moment of every day. The words are now clear, and if they contain some politicin’, so what? They come from a Politic man. What did ya expect?
Now faced with the actually words, Mr. and Ms. Conspinners still can’t back away from previously stated conjecture, based on a previously published summarized interpretation from a reporter of a small time publication.
I gotta say folks, you are the one’s looking pathetic. Desperate too. You are coming across like a dog that was salivating over a piece of raw meat, and someone took it away. Stop being so petty and embarrassing yourselves.
Hi Charles Oxley on 05.16.08 2:20 pm,
‘The Saudis — aren’t they dubya’s friends? — have rejected requests to boost oil output, so as to lower the cost of fuel here.’ thanks for the link to the story.
The Saudis can’t increase production!
There oil feilds have peaked!!!
You need to rent the movie, and watch the extra stuff ob the DVD.
‘A Crude Awakening The Oil Crash.’(2006)
http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/
If you would actually try to comprehend Garth’s words he said that the computer on board’s sole purpose is to guide the shell into villages to kill people.
Is this not an accurate statement?
Where in the statement does it even suggest that Canadian soldiers purposefully kill civilians?
Once again the Cons are guilty of selective reading. They pick out the nouns and forget the verbs.
Well my last 2 comments/questions have been deleted even though I said nothing to insult you. I thought this blog was uncensored?
May 16,2008: Mike Duffy is a has been. We are blessed in Montreal as he never appears on our TV stations. The Conservative MP never answer a question which is posed to them. They rant on and on about nonsense. When the P.M. attitude is to lie, lie, lie they follow suit. “I will not change Income Trusts if I am elected P.M”. He should be forced to have tattoed on his chest so he won’t forget how he lied. It is unfortunate that we allowed this despicable government to continue the war in Afghanistan. I know my fellow Quebecers would like to see our troops brought home NOW. rr mONTREAL
Hi Reid on 05.16.08 4:37 pm,
You seen to be blinded by the beauty of our weapons. Their only purpose is to kill other human beings, and take control of their land through brute force. And then there are the few that make money selling these thinks for killing. They have hug profit margins.
Have you see this WARNING?
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/main.html
A BCer In Toronto
Friday, May 16, 2008
Cadscam isn’t over
All the RCMP decision means is there isn’t enough information to support criminal charges. That’s no surprise, I said that months ago. Heresay isn’t legally admissible, Chuck Cadman can’t testify, and those that made the offer/s to him have no reason to fall on their swords. The RCMP didn’t say the charges were false. They said they can’t be proven in a court of law.
The fact remains, the behaviour of the Conservatives during the Cadman affair, and since it came to light, is sketchy and unethical at best.
The fact remains, the Conservatives have yet to come clean and answer very basic, simple questions about their behaviour and their actions. Instead, they have deflected and obfuscated.
The fact remains, the Conservatives have yet to offer a explanation for just what sort of offer they made to a man on his deathbed that makes any sense at all.
The fact remains, the Conservatives have not explained what Stephen Harper meant on that tape when he said “financial considerations” and they haven’t told us what Harper knew, and when.
And why is Dona Cadman still a Conservative candidate if the party thinks she made the whole thing up?
There are many unanswered questions, and Canadians are still owed proper explications. Here’s what we do know. The Conservative Party made some sort of offer involving “financial considerations” in an attempt to secure the vote of a man dying of cancer. I don’t think that’s in dispute.
Was there any illegality involved? I don’t know. Clearly, at this point there isn’t sufficient evidence to support any charges. This thing was never going to be settled in court though. The public will have its say in the next election, and the public doesn’t need the RCMP or the judicial system to tell it offering a dying MP “financial considerations” for his vote is disgusting and morally wrong.
And as for the Conservative libel lawsuit against the Liberals, why would it be dropped? First of all, even if it looked like the case would be lost, frankly I think the spectacle of discovery, a public jury trial, and Stephen Harper on the stand testifying about the Zytaruk tape, would be worth whatever the libel award would end up being. Pass the hat for donations on that one, I’ll chip in $20 to see Harper et al on the stand, under oath.
However, this libel suit won’t hinge on the merits of the allegations; it’s whether or not statements made inside the House of Commons can be repeated verbatim in a news release under the shield of immunity. The argument there is as strong today as it was yesterday, and frankly, with the potential ramifications of the Conservative opinion for new media and bloggers (could be we sued for reporting on debate in the HoC?) the issue shouldn’t be abandoned.
Cadscam over? Far from it. With the RCMP investigation out of the way, now there’s absolutely no reason why the parliamentary ethics committee can’t begin to look into this. I trust that, like some of their blogging supporters, the NDP will now support such parliamentary investigation.
Trust me, this thing is far from over. Canadians need answers.
Wow Garth. Obviously I wasn’t there. I am asking you for your side, before I comment. That is the right thing to do. It was reported, it is public. Did you do what they said?
Leasa
By Leasa on 05.16.08 6:12 pm
You have no side in this you arrogant brain addled .
Well my last 2 comments/questions have been deleted even though I said nothing to insult you. I thought this blog was uncensored?
By Trevor on 05.16.08 7:28 pm
It is censored for stupidity .
Hey where has the troll patrol been?
It is nice to see posts from Harry, Leasa, and the other crackpots again.
I guess with all the bad press concerning their hero Harper latley they have been staying away.
Plus they are even posting stuff thats not on the con website with MY Campaign.
It is too bad for them that the rest of the country is not paying attention to this story, just the hardcore party followers .
Hi Reid on 05.16.08 4:37 pm,
One more think to think about.
Naomi Wolf: Fascist America, in 10 easy steps.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/24/usa.comment
or watch,
Talk by Naomi Wolf author of “The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot” given October 11, 2007 at Kane Hall on the University of Washington. 48min.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc
By Greg on 05.16.08 6:51 pm
Its a conditioned response, no meat … see Pavlov’s dog.
By Gord G on 05.16.08 6:41 pm,
If it was Hillier who said it Harper “borrowed” it without attributing it to anyone specifically for his May 12 speech.
If you read that speech you would get the impression that Harper’s focus will be on creating a massive military complex that will increase the numbers of regular troops and reservists, recruit and train a new generation of soldiers, sailers and airmen; renew our aging fleets of aircraft, ships and military vehicles with next generation state-of-the-art equipment (something difficult to assign any price tax); improve surveillance of our land and coastal border; bolster our capacity to provide support for the civilian authorities; provide security for major international events; meet commitments for continental security with increased obligation for what he refers to as “a fair share of the burden of defending North America”; respond to global threats and international crises such as our current involvement in Afghanistan; and create a military defence complex “to build commercial capacity in the relevent knowledge and technology industries” employing tens of thousands of Canadians in weapons production.
Estimates for the cost of this policy is close to $100 billion dollars. Harper himself admits $30 billion will be the normal operating budget and an additoinal $50 billion will be needed for equipment purchases.
What he did not say was that his government is currently lobbying the U.S. in order to get support for Canada to engage in the enrichment of uranium which is needed for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
This kind of military policy is just as radical as any carbon tax plan and just as radical transfer of wealth from peacetime production to a neo-militarism.
There are radically different, and expensive, visions of Canada that are beginning to emerge between the Harper and Dion.
I don’t think that’s what supposed to be meant by “making the news”.
It’s not? — Garth
Now here is something that is a lot more important in my view than rumormongering.
“The government was equally dismissive of another opposition question about Bernier.
Rae asked why he reportedly spent $22,573 for a flight to Laos, when other staff members travelling with him claimed between $2,676 to $18,500 in airline expenses.
Rae suggested the figure seemed exorbitant.
To which Van Loan replied:
“The (Liberal) party has been saying . . . that it is concerned that it wants to see Canada stand tall on the world stage and now it is being critical of the concept of the foreign affairs minister actually representing Canada at international forums,” he said.
“We have every intention of continuing to stand up for Canada on the world stage.”
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080516/bernier_report_080516/20080516?hub=Politics
Leasa,
Are you still defending Ms Couillard now that La Presse is reporting that she had a third criminal boyfriend dating to 2005, only months before she started dating Bernier.
It is one thing to claim she had no criminal record but it does raise questions as to why someone who was so attracted to criminals suddenly started dating a high level politician.
What he did not say ……
By C. B. Innes on 05.16.08 8:06 pm
Saskatchewan has lots of this stuff (Uranium)come by some time and I’ll give you a chuck. We’re going to build a reactor here, then we can mine it, enrich it, and use it in our nice new reactor. Then when we shut down our Coal Station in Estevan, we will all breath better. Nuclear weapons are not the only use for Uranium, ya know.
Gord.
By DoryD on 05.16.08 7:43 pm
Yes lets get to it.
And yes let’s hope May has a libel case.
“Stuart told Esther that he’d taped the meeting and, after reading this blog, offered to bring a copy over so that clarity might prevail. So he did. And here is what I actually said at the conclusion of that meeting:
“As you know we live in a time that is complex and is contradictory. You know our country is at war. Our country is spending $150,000 on every artillery shell that we’re shooting in Afghanistan. Those artillery shells have GPS. They’ve got computers in the tips of them. And those computers fulfill no function but to guide that shell from our Canadian Army howitzers into villages to kill people. I mean that’s a reality. ”
Garth, killing people in villages? You may want to spin this Garth, but if this was truly your words, you should certainly apologize for your poor choice of wording. Especially, you Garth, as a journalist, should realize that wording is EXTREMELY important. It certainly looks like you chose your words to make an some kind of impact. But, it certainly has backfired on you.
Oh, so you’re saying the Taliban are safe once they enter a village? I thought that’s what the smart bombs were for – to blow up their individual locations. No? — Garth
By Gord G on 05.16.08 8:51 pm,
It is a costly investment in technology for one reactor!
It is one thing to claim she had no criminal record but it does raise questions as to why someone who was so attracted to criminals suddenly started dating a high level politician.
By C. B. Innes on 05.16.08 8:42 pm
Hello, C.B. I thought you, of all people, might be better informed in this age of ‘instant news.’
I believe, although I haven’t discovered the evidence yet, that Maxime Bernier, working under the auspices of the SECURITY MINISTER, StockYard Day, has been trying to infiltrate the Hells Angels for a long time now, in his quest for total control of both FOREIGN and DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. Beyond that, there is definitely no mistaking who is paying for his extravagance.
Bernier’s trip cost taxpayers $70,000
http://www.thespec.com/article/370019
May 16, 2008 – Tory cabinet minister Maxime Bernier has a taste for expensive travel, government records show.
I’ve also sent a copy to Leasa and Mike
Duffy, with the request that they “get right on it” … FIGURATIVELY … NOT LITERALLY!
By C. B. Innes on 05.16.08 9:24 pm
Your point.
Gord.
Well Garth it seems that you Liberals have some explaining to do…
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080516.wcadman0516/BNStory/National/home
“The RCMP say no charges will be laid in the Chuck Cadman affair”
Me thinks Liberal open their mouths before using their grey matter between their ears.
So Mr. Turner referred to ‘villages’. Big deal.. yes sometimes coalition forces attack ‘villages’, because, well, there are enemy fighters there!
The US have had some dandy fights in ‘villages’ in Iraq too!
U.S., Kurds take several Iraq villages
Islamic militants routed from remote valley
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/03/29/MN10668.DTL&hw=pilotless+drone&sn=004&sc=959
Looks like you cons should all go down to the pentagon and protest
U.S. Jets Bomb Taliban Villages
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-47886398.html
Good Lord.. Taliban are in ‘villages’!!!
Taliban Take to Tough Training
August 28, 2006: The Taliban have been trying to increase the combat capability of their tribal warriors. Some Taliban groups appear to have undergone professional infantry training, and are led by men who also appear to have received training. Several groups of platoon (20-30 men ) and company (50-80) size have been performing to much higher standards than the normal run of ‘martyr fodder’ that Afghan and Coalition troops have been encountering in Afghanistan.
There have been reports of Taliban training camps in Pakistan. Nothing permanent. These appear to be portable, with trainers and equipment moving around to safe (pro-Taliban) villages, and training young men willing to join the fight. The Taliban is paying good wages, to the more promising warriors, but still allowing many volunteers to tag along and take their chances.
The focus of attacks in recent weeks has been on NATO forces. The Taliban apparently hopes it can kill enough NATO personnel to create problems back home. They haven’t been doing very well, even though the Canadians lost eight men in less than a month. But at the same time, Canadian troops killed over a hundred Taliban, and appeared to have no trouble dealing with what they encounter, even the new, improved, Taliban troopers.
The main problems the Taliban have is with Coalition air power, and Afghans willing to rat them out. One reason Coalition units often travel with a dozen or so Afghan soldier or police, is so they have the ability to get tips from villages they pass through, or travelers they encounter.
Air power, especially UAVs, are a another major advantage. Once Taliban are detected in an area, UAVs and manned aircraft are out looking for them. Once found, the Taliban are in big trouble, especially if there is no forest, caves or friendly village to hide in. The Taliban have been developing tactics to deal with the air power, but these usually involves ditching the weapons and dispersing. That temporarily destroys the usefulness of a Taliban group, but it preferable to getting blasted by a smart bomb.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htinf/articles/20060828.aspx
Anytime that I see a reference to ‘villages’ and coalition troops, I’ll be sure to let the PMO know!
Good gracious.. the US use mock ‘villages’ to train in their fighting!!!
Mock Iraqi Villages in Mojave Prepare Troops for Battle
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/world/americas/01insurgency.html
Al Qaeda’s War of Villages
Signs that the terrorists are losing in Iraq.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110010704
Say it isn’t so controlls! US are waging war on villages!!
Tough New Tactics by U.S. Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns
By DEXTER FILKINS
Published: December 7, 2003
ABU HISHMA, Iraq, Dec. 6 — As the guerrilla war against Iraqi insurgents intensifies, American soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in barbed wire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/international/middleeast/07TACT.html?ex=1386133200&en=b502ae4c549da2f4&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND
When U.S. warplanes strafed [with AC-130 gunships] the farming village of Chowkar-Karez, 25 miles north of Kandahar on October 22-23rd,killing at least 93 civilians, a Pentagon official said, “the people there are dead because we wanted them dead.” The reason? They sympathized with the Taliban[1] . When asked about the Chowkar incident, Rumsfeld replied, “I cannot deal with that particular village.”
The U.S. Bombing of Kapisa Villages
Photo: Agence France Presse, October 28, 2001
On Monday, October 29th, citing Reuters, The Times of India reported from Kabul, “A US bomb flattened a flimsy mud-brick home in Kabul on Sunday blowing apart seven children as they ate breakfast with their father. The blast shattered a neighbour’s house killing another two children . . . the houses were in a residential area called Qalaye Khatir near a hill where the hard-line Taliban militia had placed an anti-aircraft gun.”
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/kapisa.jpg
That’s right folks, the US military, our coalition partner in the ‘War on Terror’ is bombing villages in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister should be insane with anger at the Americans in comparison to the unjustified attacks on Garth Turner’s words.
The U.S. Bombing of Kapisa Villages
Photo: Agence France Presse, October 28, 2001
So maybe having precision weapons is a good thing after all even though they cost more.
Gord.
Garth,
Be pleased. You are honored by the very fact of the hostile attention. Consider yourself the foe — kinda like a WWWF bad guy. You’re a guy those guys need to be justify — in their own minds.
There’s worse you could be doing. Life’s short. And it’ll be shorter under the American style healthcare that Harper wants for us. No matter. Be happy. Be Canuckie nice, eh?
Garth:
With the clarifications and empathetic responses of both Reverends John Benham and Jeff Ward to your victimization by the CPC smear and fear crew, you have been raised high above your attackers.
On page 10 of Tom Flanagan’s book, “Harper’s Team”, Flanagan, Harper’s campaign strategist through two leadership campaigns and two elections,
quotes Cicero’s brother thusly, “Last of all, see that your whole campaign is full of show; that it has a fine appearance and dignity; furthermore, if it is by any means possible, see that your competitors are smeared with an evil reputation — which fits their characters — for crime, vice or bribery.” He make his point that the essence of campaigning is timeless. This seems to be the strategy they have used even in opposition — only the attack dogs have changed– less Kenney and Jaffer but still a lot of MacKay and newer pit bulls, VanLoan, Flaherty, and even guys like Prentice and Solberg, who
have descended into smear tactics.
BTW, did you hear the CPC M.P. whispering to the parliamentary sect’y.
for the Defence Min. today in Q.P.? The parl. sect’y. was defending the Harper/MacKay military spending plan and it seems he forgot, this time up, to finish with the propaganda line of the week, so his colleague was reminding him, whispering, “carbon tax, the carbon tax”.
These little tag-ons have graduated from “Canada’s NEW government”, to blatant lies and fabrications.
Hi C. B. Innes on 05.16.08 9:24 pm,
I would disagree with you.
Nuclear power is very cost competative!
Clean and safe! You even get lots of electrical power when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun is down.
(It is often not windy in Onario on the hottest and coldest days and nights.)
For info. on CANDU nuclear power take a look at these sights.
http://www.aecl.ca/
http://www.cna.ca/
You should get these book to read:
Power To Save The World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy
By: Gwyneth Cravens
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Power-Save-World-Truth-About-Gwyneth-Cravens/9780307266569-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3a+%2527power+to+save+the+world+nuclear%2527
Kicking the Carbon Habit: Global Warming and the Case for Renewable and Nuclear Energy
by: William Sweet
You have heard about Global climate change and peak-oil?
Canada will be out of Natural gas about 2028 and the world out of oil in about 2050-2060.
Were do you get your food, water, heat and energy for other things link air conditioning?
Are you aware that the last few CANDU’s built were on time and under budget!
It only take about 4 year to build a CANDU, if your at the front of the line.
And have the enginnering and skilled trades people to build them.
The newest CANDU reactor design ready to go the ACR-1000. We just need to get an order from someone.
Tim Flannery, the author of the book,
and Recommended by David Suzuki,
The Weather Makers: How We are Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life On Earth
By: Tim Flannery
Tim is also saying we need to stop burning fossil fuels in time to stop the realy BRUTAL effects of Global climate change. He say the only technology that we have ready to go to reaplace the amount of energy we now get for Fossil fuels is Nuclear power.
If you have limited time and funs, I recommend you get the first book I suggested,
Power To Save The World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy
By: Gwyneth Cravens
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Power-Save-World-Truth-About-Gwyneth-Cravens/9780307266569-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3a+%2527power+to+save+the+world+nuclear%2527
Link to book,
Kicking the Carbon Habit: Global Warming and the Case for Renewable and Nuclear Energy
by: William Sweet
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Kicking-Carbon-Habit-Global-Warming-William-Sweet/9780231137102-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3a+%2527william+sweet%2527
and
The Weather Makers: How We are Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life On Earth
By: Tim Flannery
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Weather-Makers-How-We-Changing-Tim-Flannery/9780002008310-item.html?ref=Books%3a+Search+Top+Sellers
Skip 05.16.08 5:31 p.m.
“It seems clear now that the innuendos made on the blog about the suggestion of legal improprieties in the Chuck Cadman affair were unwarranted.”
I guess the RCMP had difficulty knowing whether to believe Mrs. Cadman and her daughter and son-in-law or the denials of CPC MP Lund and Doug. Finley. However, Stephen Harper’s remarks to the effect that he knew they were offering Mr Cadman “financial considerations” has never been clearly and forthrightly explained by Harper.
Moore’s oft-repeated explanations that it was just an offer to a man (who knew he was dying) to help him with campaign expenses if he’d run in the next election, defy credibility. How could he have campaigned? Mr. Cadman barely made it back to the HoC to cast his vote with the Liberals to save the government.
I believe Mr. Cadman’s wife, to whom he would naturally confide even while being politically astute enough to realize you don’t confide in the news media if you don’t feel well enough to make waves. She said that Chuck was angry.
Mr. Cadman ended up being the ethical and honourable person. Not the transparent P.M. and his henchmen.
Garth, there is no justification for Canadians killing people in Afghanistan;
the mess was created by others.
Read Australian journalist, John Pilger.
http://pilger.carlton.com/page.asp?partid=470
We are PEACE KEEPERS and the mess needs to be cleaned up by those who caused it.
We do not need smart bombs.
Revenge is a delightfully sweet dessert, best served slightly warmed with a dollop of whipped cream for topping.
The main thing is don’t get mad, get even — show Cdns. from coast to coast how CRAP is slowly disintegrating as a federal party.
Turn the mirror around, and show the undecideds how our country is being sneakily undermined, by a group of elitist business people — a minority, no less.
****************************************
A couple of weeks ago, there was a typical “Get Rich Quick” full page color ad in the KDC, and I wondered how folk could be taken in by this glitzy, professional looking job.
In today’s John Thompson column on castanet.net, this is what he had to say:
“Did any of you attend the ‘How To Get Rich In Canada!’ promotion last week? The promotion, which seems to come out of St. Albert, Alberta is doing a tour of Western Canada at the moment.
“I went to the company’s web site and they certainly do make a buck from selling their get rich quick ideas in books and on disk. The How To Make Millions Without A Cent In Your Pocket was temporarily unavailable.
The Cashflow course was $240 for 101 and $150 for 202. How To Increase The Income From Your Real Estate Investments at $170. Canadian Tax Strategies for Business Professions for $499.
“I don’t know this man Darren Weeks or Canadian Rich Dad as he likes to call himself but his promotion operation runs in high gear.
“I know I have many readers that look at these promotions that go through this valley every year making people richer from real estate, not paying taxes, or some fabulous way to make more money.
“It makes you wonder why these people, who say they have made all this money, just don’t live comfortably on the lake, relax and enjoy life?
“I can see how they can make money but surely they don’t want all of us selling our make-more-money wares to the public”…
Pity the poor suckers who buy into this garbage. There never has been, nor will there ever be a free lunch here.
A different topic, but further,
Arizona foreclosures almost double the national average. Arizona now ranks as the third hardest hit state in the nation. 27,404 filings have been registered.
This Cam Battley sure seems like an interesting fellow. Pharmaceutical industry lobbyist AND semi-professional letter writer. Wow. Where does he find the time?
according to G&M Jane Taber …!!! -end quote
Bawhahahahahahahahaha……
Desperate CONS
Garth and readers.
Click on the John Pilger link and read about the wonderful return of the heroin trade following the attack on Afghanistan.
http://pilger.carlton.com/page.asp?partid=470
By Greg W., Oakville on 05.16.08 11:16 am
LOL! I do skip the links, dude, cause I know them already (well most of them and I’m at dialup at the moment which doesn’t help), but take in your written words just the same and to compliment you one more time, I like the way you handle yourself on this site and what motivates you because the environmental issues really are that important.
And to all the rest:
The future, in case people haven’t caught on, doesn’t look good for us. The population is 6.3 billion and growing. World production has flatlined with food, peaked with energy and gas, will peak with high grade coal within 10 years, and metals overall within 20. Forests world wide are being devastated. 2/3rds of the Ocean floors have been dragged (most of it more than once) and its wreaked untold devastation people aren’t aware of, because no one tells them, or its too disturbing to want to face. Coral reefs are dying world wide. The ocean is acidifying with deadly consequences. Ocean currents have slowed 30% in the last 30 years. 48 out of 50 states have fish bans on their fresh water fish because they aren’t fit for human consumption. The fertilizers pouring out of the mississippi have created a dead zone 600 miles by 1,000 miles in the ocean just beyond the gulf of Mexico the size of Saskatchewan. There’s a plastic island floating in the ocean, something like 2/3rds the size of Florida now. Large fish, whale and mammal species are a mere tenth of what they once were in pop, we’ve over fished and overpolluted to such an extent. Wild salmon stocks are a mere tenth of what they once were, folks. Thats right, a mere tenth! Cod? Almost an endangered species. The list goes on. And on. And on.
The drift from the coal fired power plants in china have toxins that are contaminating all the fresh water runoff in North America as we speak. In most of North America, as we search and drill for oil and gas, fresh water tables are mixing with other fresh water pools and tables and fresh water as a whole is rapidly deteriorating. 30% of the worlds farmlands are deteriorating rapidly and as fertilizer shortages begin within 10 years and chemicals begin to turn the soils sterile and climate change creates droughts that see’s top soils blow, crop land deterioration will accelerate.
Our food supplies created by food manufacturers are so full of preservatives, estrogen, antibiotics and harmful chemicals for color and taste, digestive cancers have gone through the roof. 7% of all Canadians are now diabetic. Within years, people will know the ugly links between subclinical deficiencies of Vitamin C and Hyrdogenated oils, but meanwhile, corps and yes, goverments, suppress this knowledge through lobbyists running the show. 3/4’s of of all the food in a grocery store is, in my humble opinion, unfit for long term human consumption and risky in the short.
Everywhere one looks, environments are failing, both macro and micro and people on this site have the audacity to suggest that this Harper government is doing its job? Greed, in case people haven’t noticed, Greed and sheer lack of any kind of sustainable future plan for our human health and well being, is running the show. Transparency and democracy is becoming a fast casualty as we speak for every and any diabolical reason from mongering for war, to burning/consuming carelessly the oil we’ve got left, to doing absolutely next to nothing in terms of green initiatives and numbnutters like Harry S rail on about leadership? Mental examples of such blatant disconnects are a prime example of why this nation is falling to pieces before our eyes. Far too many of us really are that ignorant.
And all the while, goverments are doing nothing to curb population growth because they know that the more consumers there are, the more the economy grows… at the major expense of the environment. What a fraud for an economical plan… consume it all so the last of it will be worth more and more, until most of us kill each other out of desperation for the crumbs that are left. Its way beyond dumb, dimwitted, dullard and duncical… and people actually believe it makes someone like Harper “smarter” to be brainwashed with such failed ideologies? Contrary to dumbassed so called popular opinion, (no offense, Garth, you define politician differently than I do) Harper is about the worst politician I’ve ever witnessed, his policies and principles are the worst I’ve seen from any politician in a long, long time.
A Rapa Nui is coming. Within 15 to 20 years, barring a nuclear holocost, a spanish flu or major famine, the human population will be around 8 billion and it is at this time that our environments will be crashing world wide. Even if human populations merely plateau and remain the same as they are today for the next 20 years, the end result will be the same. We are depleting valuable non renewable resources while environments, be they air, earth, water or life, continue to rapidly degrade. Its only a matter of time before entire ecological systems collapse and by that time, folks, it will be too late.
The saddest truth is… most governments are doing very little, if anything, to prevent it. We aren’t regulating to conserve what we’ve got left because of greed, market forces self interests of supply and demand. Too many of the wrong people hold too many positions of power, while the ones who really know how bad it is, are being muzzled. This is happening in nations everywhere world wide but most especially here and the sad part is that if the greedy, rich and powerful get their way, everyone including the rich and powerful will suffer monumentally as a result. The majority of the population will die outright from all that follows chronic shortages of the basics we need to survive. In the end, the monetary system itself will collapse and its anarchy, every person for themselves or forming groups for the goal of survival and the majority of us will fail….
Unless…
We change our ways.
Elect honest leaders.
Become politically activist and environmentally aware, because if we don’t, we’ll be in that lineup of lemmings following each other off a cliff with no angels to catch them. Impotent as the Harry S’s of the world who is so illiterate with common sense, can’t read between the lines.
I/we can’t control whats happening in China. But we can control whats happening here and now. Electing U.S. puppet plant corporate multinational lobbyists (Harper) isn’t the solution to the problem, but rather, the problem to the solution.
What will it take to get it through Harpers supporters that even if they win, they lose? That a victory today, could cost us our lives 20 years from now? Just like every other criminal, I suppose, they believe it will never happen to them. You know, “I won’t get caught.”
This isn’t fear mongering, here. The stakes really are that high. As populations grow and environments decline, will money trump survival? The rich shouldn’t even remotely pretend to be this stupid. Survival trumps money and it always will.
Lil’ ol’ mere someones like me fear mongering? Is that what a numbnutted few will initially think when they read this? People don’t get it. I fear for us all and why? Because I know things most of us don’t. Because I really am that aware. Because I know the truth about where we are now, where we are headed, and where it will all end if we don’t change our ways and its an ugly truth because it shows just how weak, fat, slow, stupid, blind, gutless, and unnecessarily ignorant most of us truly are.
The next time you see a really beautiful landscape, a breath taking wonder of mother earth that fills you with that feeling of serrendippity… engrave it into your brain and soul. Its unlikely to last long enough for our children to enjoy as adults.
Back to you, Greg and thanks again for your efforts and I must say, I like the fact that you are a gentleman! (wish I had that trait. And then again…)
Catch you on the flip
Did you do what they said?
Leasa
By Leasa on 05.16.08 6:12 pm
You and your biker buddy Julie seem to have similar agendas, you both want to get confidential information from high level federal politicians. Since you are the country clown rep of the Harpo Troupe I doubt you will have much success using your neo con charm on Garth.
Julie I fear has fared much better with Maxime.
Just don’t call them villages okay, or the Stephen Harper will attack you..
American Bombing kills dozens of Civilians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh3ECSFhr4U
bombing afghanistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weMIO072OUI
USAF B-1b drops 4 2000lb bombs on a Taliban target for Brits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL6vFnD8vk4&feature=related
1000 lb bomb afghanistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEPtW3FU_jg&feature=related
Welcome to the Future – Bombing Afghanistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMXOSkIBpms
AC-130 Gunship On Mission In Afghanistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n383NGFl-ps&feature=related
U.S. Bombs Killing Afghanistan Civilians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Rws2VLqpY&feature=related
Geez, it looks like a village!
War Footage of Canadian Soldiers in Afghanistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niwF6TEsw5w&feature=related
I hope this isn’t a village!
Canadian firefight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxSmkwWNsOE&feature=related
To bad the story about being “admonished by Dion” has hit the CTV network … and your sexist attack on Julie Couillard that repulsed Liberal women MPs, according to G&M Jane Taber …!!!
..Oh, say, there’s an ace reporter for you.
I can’t believe all the attacks and hype over a town hall meeting – pathetic.
Hey, did you watch the glint in Duffy’s eyes over the Coulliard affair? Duffy and Taber are gossips – no better than reporters for the Inquirer – I take what they say with a grain of salt.
There are more things coming out about Coulliard – and it’s disturbing to say the least. It goes far beyond just being nosy here – like it or lump it.
No doubt you could have chosen your words better Garth, I’m pretty sure you would agree with that, but I don’t see any apology necessary. You are quite correct in your statement… Perhaps to correct. Politicians are not known for their honesty you know. Speaking of honesty:
“The government was equally dismissive of another opposition question about Bernier.
Rae asked why he reportedly spent $22,573 for a flight to Laos, when other staff members travelling with him claimed between $2,676 to $18,500 in airline expenses.
Rae suggested the figure seemed exorbitant.
To which Van Loan replied:
“The (Liberal) party has been saying . . . that it is concerned that it wants to see Canada stand tall on the world stage and now it is being critical of the concept of the foreign affairs minister actually representing Canada at international forums,” he said.
“We have every intention of continuing to stand up for Canada on the world stage.”
That is one kick ass super spin right there. I dunno where these shit heads get their writers, but they should be in Hollywood.
Bush and Harper both attacked the left during the 60th Isreal anniversay speeches – a little rich from Bush isn’t it? Harper follows Bush even to the point of sharing speeches;
Bush certainly has nerve:
George Bush’s grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company’s assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.
The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator’s action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
The debate over Prescott Bush’s behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the “Bush/Nazi” connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis’ plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler’s rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.
Remarkably, little of Bush’s dealings with Germany has received public scrutiny, partly because of the secret status of the documentation involving him. But now the multibillion dollar legal action for damages by two Holocaust survivors against the Bush family, and the imminent publication of three books on the subject are threatening to make Prescott Bush’s business history an uncomfortable issue for his grandson, George W, as he seeks re-election.
While there is no suggestion that Prescott Bush was sympathetic to the Nazi cause, the documents reveal that the firm he worked for, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), acted as a US base for the German industrialist, Fritz Thyssen, who helped finance Hitler in the 1930s before falling out with him at the end of the decade. The Guardian has seen evidence that shows Bush was the director of the New York-based Union Banking Corporation (UBC) that represented Thyssen’s US interests and he continued to work for the bank after America entered the war.
Tantalising
Bush was also on the board of at least one of the companies that formed part of a multinational network of front companies to allow Thyssen to move assets around the world.
Thyssen owned the largest steel and coal company in Germany and grew rich from Hitler’s efforts to re-arm between the two world wars. One of the pillars in Thyssen’s international corporate web, UBC, worked exclusively for, and was owned by, a Thyssen-controlled bank in the Netherlands. More tantalising are Bush’s links to the Consolidated Silesian Steel Company (CSSC), based in mineral rich Silesia on the German-Polish border. During the war, the company made use of Nazi slave labour from the concentration camps, including Auschwitz. The ownership of CSSC changed hands several times in the 1930s, but documents from the US National Archive declassified last year link Bush to CSSC, although it is not clear if he and UBC were still involved in the company when Thyssen’s American assets were seized in 1942.
…hmmm….there’s that Thyssen name again.
For Leasa and Catherine, who will miss this unless they read French: La Presse reported yesterday that Julie Couillard was living with, and was a business partner of, another man involved with bikers’ gangs. After unsuccessfully courting the federal government for a contract on biometrics technology, she broke off with him. Robert Lepine, heavily into debt, was found dead, hanging in his office in 2007, apparently a suicide.
It is also reported that she had a few more organized crime boyfriends than was originally thought.
La Presse also claims that Julie Couillard is going about town trying to sell her story to the highest bidder.
IS THE RCMP WONDERING WHO THE CANADIAN PRESS IS?
http://www.thestar.com/fpLarge/video/308179
http://www.thestar.com/fpLarge/video/308220
“UHHH …. UMMM … UHHH …. UMMM I DON’T KNOW THE DETAILS UHHH UMMM” …
By C. B. Innes on 05.16.08 8:42 pm
Defend Julie? What I am defending is her right to privacy and her born right to live in this country without harassment. She has been convicted of no crime. Yet, she has been charged, tried and convicted by the media, and the Liberal Party. This could have all been handled on the Q.T. There was no purpose for destroying this woman’s life with this media circus other than using her life to gain political points. You and I do not even know her personal story, no one does right now. Yet, there are certain politicians that wouldn’t care if they drove this woman to suicide if they thought it would hurt Mr. Bernier or the CPC. Pathetic.
By Loraine Lamontagne on 05.17.08 6:46 am
Hi Loraine, that is an awful lot of ‘claiming’, isn’t it? I hope she does tell her story, and if she goes to the highest bidder…good for her! Why should she give it away? The LP and media created the frenzy to sell themselves, so why shouldn’t she benefit? It’s her story isn’t it?
If she is guilty of any crime, she should be charged and allowed the right to defend herself. Seems some people are digging very hard to have the court of public opinion rule on her.
Leasa
SJ,
give poor Van Loan a break – the devil made him confuse “flying high” with “standing tall.”
PMSH … “CADMAN? … CADMAN? UMMM …UHH …UMMM UHHH … NEBAH EBAH HEARD OF THE GUY!
http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20080310_093557_2860
By Geoffrey L. on 05.16.08 9:56 pm
So maybe having precision weapons is a good thing after all even though they cost more.
Gord.
By Gord G on 05.16.08 10:10 pm
Only if they are pointing at the correct target. And that is what Groffrey L. is getting at.
If not, they just hit the wrong target more precisely.
Bernier ’standing tall’ while riding high
http://www.thespec.com/article/370820
OTTAWA (May 17, 2008) – Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier has to travel first-class in order to “stand tall” on the world stage, Conservative government House leader Peter Van Loan*** says.
*** Wiarton Willy’s CUZZ
The latest has to do with his spending $22,573 on return airfare to travel to Laos to attend a Francophonie conference when one of his own staff made the trip for $2,676. Bernier’s flight was the most expensive taken by a government minister since the Conservative government came to power.
HELLS ANGELS … I coulda got the guy a MATS flight, baggage class, for the same trip.
The current PM, aka PM-SH, said at an Oakville meeting January 2006:
“Instead of making phoney promises of huge benefits that never happen, we will deliver genuine, practical benefits that people experience,” Harper said, adding, “I believe it’s better to light one candle than to promise a million light bulbs.”
Deloitte puts the lie to the tax leakage purpose
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/francis/archive/2007/12/09/carney-flaherty-harper-sell-out-canada-deloitte.aspx
I have concluded, in my MOST GENTLE, INIMITABLE WAY, PMSH IS THE BIGGEST GODDAMNED LIAR WHO EVER WALKED WITHIN THE CHUCK MCVETY CIRCLE.
Leasa – for heavens sake. Yes, people have a right to privacy until such time they are involved in crime and possibly a security threat. She made her bad choices in life – it’s her own self-made headache. Did you feel this way about Belinda Stronach by any chance?
I agree, the MP’s lives, wives, children, etc. should be private. I don’t think it should be news if they’re getting a divorce or have personal problems – but “crime” is a whole different matter.
She had to have known her past would come back to haunt her when she got involved with such a public person – she wears it.
It is interesting to note how Conservatives like Leasa consider long term association with criminals, or even living of the avails of crime, as a privacy matter. It is all about “not getting caught” while profiting from that kind of activity. This gives self-interested individualism a whole new level of meaning.
Why should she give it away?
By Leasa on 05.17.08 7:15 am
Sorta like dragging the news to Coalcastle, ain’t it?
Yet, there are certain politicians that wouldn’t care if they drove this woman to suicide
By Leasa on 05.17.08 7:10 am
If Bernier was ANY kind of a man he would have answered the question about her SECURITY status so that this whole matter would have gone away. But did he do it NO, he refuses to answer the question about her security status to attend secret briefings with him and BERNIER the gutless and clueless Harpo Con starts the media circus of speculation and public opinion.
If she is guilty of any crime, she should be charged and allowed the right to defend herself. Seems some people are digging very hard to have the court of public opinion rule on her.
By Leasa on 05.17.08 7:15 am
No one but Ms Couillard chose her path and that path included the close association with criminals. In fact, if she is trying to sell her story I suspect that she is enjoying her position at the moment. She is evidently not the poor little innocent victim you have been trying to make her.
At one time Conservatives pretended (and we now know that it was merely pretense) to have higher ethical values than Liberals. Now they constantly remind us that they have no ethical standards beyond conviction for a crime.
“The government was equally dismissive of another opposition question about Bernier.
This government has become known for not answering questions. People who don’t answer questions are not accountable. So much for an accountable government.
Voter cynicism could reach new heights
Harper considers appointing Toews to judicial post
Don Martin, National Post
Published: Saturday, May 17, 2008
OTTAWA -To become Ottawashed is to acquire a sense of inflated self-importance, warped parliamentary perspectives and tax-funded entitlement.
It invariably contaminates even politicians who initially swear to humbly serve their voters and act on real priorities.
The Liberals perfected it and readers accuse some journalists of having it (including me), but symptoms suggesting the Conservatives have caught it went epidemic this week.
There are little signs here — and a billboard-sized indicator there.
A second bout of runaway travel costs, specifically her $1,300 one-day limo rental in Toronto, suggests Heritage Minister Bev Oda believes in hosing taxpayers.
The outrageous $22,573 airline ticket for Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier to attend a two-day conference in Laos with three staff last November was a signal he’s willing to take taxpayers for a ride.
Sticking with Mr. Bernier, news that his former gal pal was dating shady characters with biker gang connections as recently as 2005 — not 1999 as originally reported — sheds a harsh new light on this as a potential security risk and, as such, rates a serious government investigation instead of a shrug.
The government’s stalling over a promised inquiry into the Mulroney Affair, and the PMO’s slow release of an investigation into a diplomatic leak are troubling signs their political conscience has gone missing.
But nothing — NOTHING — will bolster voter cynicism about the Conservatives more than if Prime Minister Stephen Harper elevates former justice minister and current Treasury Board president Vic Toews to a Court of Queen’s Bench judge’s job.
Winnipeg Free Press reporter Mia Rabson has discovered that a federal selection committee is checking Mr. Toews for an imminent appointment.
The mind reels. If the Conservatives under Mr. Harper stood for anything while in Official Opposition with Mr. Toews as the justice critic, it was a clean bench kept clear of patronage deadwood.
Whenever a loyal Liberal was rewarded with a courtroom to call their own, nobody screamed louder than MP Vic Toews.
“It’s just one more illustration of how who you know gets you to the bench,” Mr. Toews fumed after former justice minister Irwin Cotler appointed his chief of staff to the Federal Court.
Mr. Toews demanded judicial appointments derive from provincial recommendation lists because, he sniffed, “the evidence is overwhelming that politics plays a significant consideration” in judicial appointments.
For the Conservatives, with law and order as their policy signature, tainting a senior bench with a sitting Cabinet minister would represent a betrayal of political ethics.
It’s difficult to fathom why they would risk so much political karma on such a move. While the former Crown prosecutor is arguably qualified for the job, there are plenty of card-carrying Manitoba Conservatives with untainted credentials salivating for a bench seat.
About the only decent theory for Mr. Harper’s apparent desire to rid himself of Mr. Toews is, frankly, an area I’m loath to tread.
But the 55-year-old Mr. Toews’ public face of self-righteous morality is now clashing with his troubled private life. An MP dubbed the “minister of family values” by Liberals is embroiled in a messy divorce after fathering a child last fall with a much younger woman.
That’s his business, frankly, yet it might explain why Mr. Toews was demoted to the Treasury Board and immediately cloaked by invisibility, stewing in Question Period silence while his junior parliamentary secretary juggles tough questions on election financing irregularities.
But if a judicial appointment is being used to ease a problem minister out of government, it only makes the patronage more galling.
And if they brazenly go ahead and hand him the $232,000-plus job and announce it in the dead of summer when nobody’s looking, it will underline the optics of this government behaving no differently than any other.
Justice Vic Toews would be a huge sign this government, even having become thoroughly Ottawashed, is still dirty.
If much in life did not consist of “not getting caught”, we’d all be insufferable saints.
I do believe that the NDP has taken the right approach to the Bernier-Couillard affair: go after him for incompetence in Foreign Affairs, and forget the lady. Since we know squat about her real person and life, nor about how the affair started, ran and ended (Bernier would look like a hero if he had ended it because of what turned up), we are engaging in “National Inquirer” speculation that Harper can dismiss as an invasion of privacy and personal and political smear.
You don’t have to use Mme Couillard to hit Bernier – what he has and has not done as Minister of Foreign Affairs should be sufficient.
I can’t believe all the attacks and hype over a town hall meeting – pathetic.
Hey, did you watch the glint in Duffy’s eyes over the Coulliard affair? Duffy and Taber are gossips – no better than reporters for the Inquirer – I take what they say with a grain of salt.
There are more things coming out about Coulliard – and it’s disturbing to say the least. It goes far beyond just being nosy here – like it or lump it.
By slg on 05.17.08 4:37 am
Couldn’t agree with you more slg. Mike Duffy & Jane Taber work for CTV. That should tell you something. National Post & CTV, the two most partisan Media outlets in Canada.
I see bad Leasa is back in full force. What she & her Reform friends don’t seem to want to understand is that if Harper had answered Yes or No to the simple question asked ” Was there a security check done on Ms. Julie C
for the sake of National Security” this whole Bernier affair would have been put to rest. Now they are using it for all its worth. Typical Reform mentality.
BTW Leasa, Harry, Reid,Catherine etc, why would you think you deserve answers from anybody when you & your dictatorial party have perfected giving non-answers bordering on blatant lies & innuendo’s? Do you think people aren’t noticing?
Regards,
Time out and now for something truly to the point. Something of ‘value’ to each of us.
Now here’s a reality check!
The next time you hear a politician use the word ‘billion’ in a casual manner, think about whether you want the ‘politician’ spending YOUR tax money.
A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.
1. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
2. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
3. A billion hours ago our ancestors were Living in the Stone Age.
4. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
5. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.
While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let’s take a look at New Orleans .
It’s amazing what you can learn with some simple division.
Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu, is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans . Interesting number, what does it mean?
1. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.
2. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.
3. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.
Washington, D.C., Ottawa, Ontario……hello!!! …. are all your calculators broken??
Tax his land,
Tax his wage,
Tax his bed in which he lays.
Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes is the rule.
Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.
Tax his ties,
Tax his shirts,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he tries to think.
Tax his booze,
Tax his beers,
If he cries, Tax his tears.
Tax his bills,
Tax his gas,
Tax his notes,
Tax his cash.
Tax him good and let him know
That after taxes, he has no dough.
If he hollers, Tax him more,
Tax him until he’s good and sore.
Tax his coffin, Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in which he lays.
Put these words upon his tomb,
‘Taxes drove me to my doom!’
And when he’s gone, We won’t relax,
We’ll still be after the inheritance TAX!!
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
No taxes existed 100 years ago. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
What is happening?
Can you spell ‘politicians!’
And I still have to ‘press 1′ for English.
I hope this goes around the US and Canada at least 100 times.
Time to find out what the hell’s happening.
(Humming the Eagles song ‘Kick ‘em when their up, Kick ‘em when their down!’ dedicated to Prime Minister Howard during their Melbourne tour)
Did you do what they said?
Leasa
By Leasa on 05.16.08 6:12 pm
You and your biker buddy Julie seem to have similar agendas, you both want to get confidential information from high level federal politicians. Since you are the country clown rep of the Harpo Troupe I doubt you will have much success using your neo con charm on Garth.
Julie I fear has fared much better with Maxime.
By Calberta on 05.17.08 1:48 am
And there you have it folks – Calberta is an excellent example of what these so called Liberal have morphed into.
Julie C. is an innocent Canadian citizen who has been dragged though the mud, thanks to Stephane Dion and his troops. I fear for Canada if Stephane Dion and his gang ever get into power.
Innocent people will be carted off and have their reputation devasted under Stephane Dion and his Liberals.
EDITORIAL
TheStar.com
Cheap shots rule in Tory Ottawa
May 17, 2008 04:30 AM
Conventional wisdom has it that governments have the tough job in politics, because they have the ultimate responsibility of finding solutions to difficult – often seemingly intractable – problems. The opposition, on the other hand, typically does little more than criticize from the sidelines. And in Canadian politics, cheap shots and hyperbole are too often substituted for critical assessment.
But those roles seem to have been reversed in Ottawa in what passes for our national debate on global warming.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has refused to take this critical problem seriously. Relying more heavily on rhetoric than on careful analysis, the plan it has devised to combat climate change is widely seen as being ineffective. Instead of a rigid timetable for reducing greenhouse gas emissions targets, the government proposes “intensity” targets, which allow firms in growing industries to keep increasing their emissions, albeit at a decelerating pace. It proposes a cap-and-trade system for industrial emissions without hard caps. It opposes binding international obligations that would require Canada to do its part. Although the Conservative plan is infused with all the right jargon, it has no real teeth, and it is presented as a relatively painless solution to a problem that requires fundamental change.
By contrast, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion is taking a much more serious approach to global warming with a policy designed to drive that requisite fundamental change. He is proposing to rewrite Canada’s tax law in a way that penalizes all carbon emissions and rewards those who cut back on their use of energy. In effect, he is talking about shifting the tax burden away from incomes and toward carbon products.
It’s an approach that is supported not only by environmental champion David Suzuki but also by the likes of Tom d’Aquino, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, and Jack Mintz, former head of the C.D. Howe Institute, who now makes his home in Alberta. They can hardly be described as tree-huggers.
But while there is a clear gain from this approach – for both the environment and the economy – it also involves a certain amount of pain. That is why Dion has said he hopes “the Conservatives will join us in this debate in an honest way.”
Instead, the Conservatives, behaving like an opposition party, are resorting to hyperbole to scare Canadians about Dion’s plan by focusing on the proposed carbon tax while ignoring the accompanying reduction in income taxes.
Environment Minister John Baird calls Dion’s proposal “the mother of all tax increases.” Conservative MP Rick Dykstra echoes that Dion intends to “punish hard-working Canadian families. … (with) a massive tax on gasoline, a massive tax on home heating fuels, a massive tax on electricity bills, and believe it or not, the tax hikes do not end there.”
The question for the governing Conservatives is one that is usually put to opposition parties: What is your alternative proposal?
Innocent people will be carted off and have their reputation devasted under Stephane Dion and his Liberals.
By Catherine on 05.17.08 9:47 am
If she is so innocent then why don’t you CPC trolls just answer the security question instead of changing the channel or stereotypical name calling.
JUST ANSWER THE SECURITY QUESTION
What was this poor innocent babe doing in a secret government briefing if she has no secret level clearance? Or does she? Canadians have a RIGHT to know how safe we are from criminal and terrorist groups. Jail is an upgrade compared to what the Conservatives are serving up to Canadians right NOW!
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.17.08 9:37 am
If only:
If the numbers were true for New Orleans, that the people received that money, New Orleans would be a ghost town; they’d take their money and run.
As for the 100 years ago, no taxes. You’re correct, income tax was first brought in as a temporary measure to fund a war.
But if you’re suggesting that women stay at home, raise the kids, have the slippers warm and the tea made for when the men get home ….. you’re risking having your vas deferens removed sans anaesthetic. Ouch!
This isn’t the first time Garth used the $150,000 a shell type comment. He used it in a different context when he was talking about immigrants in his blog titled “Almost Equal” on 04-12-08 @8:46pm when he said quote:
“We apparently have $150,000 for every new artillery round we fire in Afghanistan, but we lack the money to hasten the arrival of new Canadians we will all benefit from living with.” Unquote
This particular blog is located at:http://www.garth.ca/weblog/category/canadian-politics/page/13/?submit=GO
Is Garth developing a pattern here which appears to be a vendetta against the current government’s military spending spending? Decide for yourselves whether this is the case or not.
…the Conservatives, behaving like an opposition party,… BY KPN.
I agree on some issues.. However the Liberals are not acting like an opposition party., Some feel they are actually acting like they are still governing.
Wow Garth. Obviously I wasn’t there. I am asking you for your side, before I comment. That is the right thing to do. It was reported, it is public. Did you do what they said?
Leasa
By Leasa on 05.16.08 6:12 pm
Gee, you spoke truth Leasa. we are proud of you. Was that painful? Perhaps you need to realize all you have is an OPINION like most of us.
In a Court of Law it is called ‘hearsay evidence.’ You heard it (or read it), you repeat it, but you have no actual knowledge of WTH happened.
Then you retract by actually asking Garth a question? How fascinating!
BTW, the Black Flies are OUT too!
And there you have it folks – Calberta is an excellent example of what these so called Liberal have morphed into.
Julie C. is an innocent Canadian citizen who has been dragged though the mud, thanks to Stephane Dion and his troops. I fear for Canada if Stephane Dion and his gang ever get into power.
Innocent people will be carted off and have their reputation devasted under Stephane Dion and his Liberals.
By Catherine on 05.17.08 9:47 am
Catherine, Quebec (French) papers have been covering this lady long before she became involved with Bernier. She is not an innocent Canadian by any standard. The only reason you and Leasa are proclaiming her innocence is that English (Liberals) Canada has finally caught up with her history(it is a pretty mudddy history) and it reflects badly on the Conservatives. The Conservatives could have saved themselves and the lady a lot of air time if they had answered a question with a simple honest yes or no.
Food for Fuel – Ethanol 101
Is ethanol worth the investment?
Well, the Conservative government thinks so and is very excited about the possibilities for farmers. So let’s follow the lifecycle from crop to the tailpipe.
1. Farmer buys seed from ADM or Monsanto. In the U.S., genetically modified seeds designed to produce yield but not food grade output.
Question could GM product cross contaminate food quality product?
Apparently PEI thinks so, they put the brakes on a sugar beet ethanol plant project using GM beets. * Sugar beets provide the best ethanol yield of any food crop grown in Canada.
2. The type of crop will determine inputs such as nitrogen and fertilizer and the amount of water for crop yield. Corn gives the worst ethanol yield of any food crop – most corn is grown in Ontario.
Question so why would the government include corn as part of their crop strategy?
Husky Oil owns two ethanol plants in Lloydminster and Minnedosa most of their crop comes from corn grown in the U.S. The other crops included in the Conservative plan are wheat, barley and oilseeds.
3. Crop yield trucked to ethanol plant. Water use varies in production depending on crop. Output is denatured alcohol. Ethanol trucked or shipped by rail to oil company distribution centre tanks. Product is blended with gasoline.
Question why not build a pipeline to distribution centre?
Ethanol cannot run through pipelines because of molecular structure.
4. Consumer fills up tank with 10% blended gasoline. According to Environment Canada tailpipe GHG emissions of E 10 is the same as 100% gasoline GHG emissions. Oh and your litres per kilometre performance drops slightly.
Question why are we doing this again?
Ask Gerry Ritz, the government is partnering with farmers to build an ethanol plant in his riding – maybe he has shares in the project or more likely he is too stupid to look at the entire lifecycle. I don’t think farmers will benefit unless they have shares in the plant. However, this will be a windfall for ADM and Monsanto.
And we haven’t even discussed the ethics of food crops for fuel. It’s butanol not ethanol they should have invested in.
How smart do you think these Conservatives are?
They create a tricky food for fuel plan but have no intention of doing anything on the Climate Change file because they do not believe in the science.
Canadians wake up!
Not a single objective announced by Flaherty and Harper was achieved:
The above was in printed in bold in that MOST neo-con of news??? papers the National Post.
It says it ALL about the Income Trust “Tax Fairness” plan of these torys.
Spin that jerks.
Perhaps we should all stop and pause and look at what is happening south of Border, for once there is a candidate (Barack Obama) who appears to represent true change. Barack is taking the high road reminding Americans (and the world for that matter) that the years of scare and smear tactics must come to close because in reality the proof is that once these types (NeoCons) gain power they have not worked for the people as nation. Their corporate interests now expand the world and have only one operational agenda, attack and smear having no evidence, never admitting to anything and to dominate and waste time on clock when talking to the media because they know the media has only a few minutes for each question. Sound familiar? of course it is North Wing politics at it’s best. Yesterdays news that a $500,000 contract was given to a company to spin defence spending is right out of Donald Rumsfeld’s play book as are embedded journalist in Afghanistan is out of Victoria Clarke`s play book….plus the media game plan, the party play book of controlling the inner circles of government. Republican politics modern day style 101, what a shame that many (32%) of voters buy into it. A local journalist once wrote here on the East Coast that should Stephen Harper ever get elected PM:`May Heaven Help Us` how insightful he was then and is to-day.
A man I admire very much and one of the best programs on TV.
Moyers: ‘Democracy in America Is a Series of Narrow Escapes, and We May Be Running Out of Luck’
By Bill Moyers, Doubleday. Posted May 17, 2008.
For all of America’s shortcomings, we keep telling ourselves, “The system works.” Now all bets are off.
The following is an excerpt from Bill Moyers’ new book, “Moyers on Democracy” (Doubleday, 2008).
Democracy in America is a series of narrow escapes, and we may be running out of luck. The reigning presumption about the American experience, as the historian Lawrence Goodwyn has written, is grounded in the idea of progress, the conviction that the present is “better” than the past and the future will bring even more improvement. For all of its shortcomings, we keep telling ourselves, “The system works.”
Now all bets are off. We have fallen under the spell of money, faction, and fear, and the great American experience in creating a different future together has been subjugated to individual cunning in the pursuit of wealth and power -and to the claims of empire, with its ravenous demands and stuporous distractions. A sense of political impotence pervades the country — a mass resignation defined by Goodwyn as “believing the dogma of ‘democracy’ on a superficial public level but not believing it privately.” We hold elections, knowing they are unlikely to bring the corporate state under popular control. There is considerable vigor at local levels, but it has not been translated into new vistas of social possibility or the political will to address our most intractable challenges. Hope no longer seems the operative dynamic of America, and without hope we lose the talent and drive to cooperate in the shaping of our destiny.
The earth we share as our common gift, to be passed on in good condition to our children’s children, is being despoiled. Private wealth is growing as public needs increase apace. Our Constitution is perilously close to being consigned to the valley of the shadow of death, betrayed by a powerful cabal of secrecy-obsessed authoritarians. Terms like “liberty” and “individual freedom” invoked by generations of Americans who battled to widen the 1787 promise to “promote the general welfare” have been perverted to create a government primarily dedicated to the welfare of the state and the political class that runs it. Yes, Virginia, there is a class war and ordinary people are losing it. It isn’t necessary to be a Jeremiah crying aloud to a sinful Jerusalem that the Lord is about to afflict them for their sins of idolatry, or Cassandra, making a nuisance of herself as she wanders around King Priam’s palace grounds wailing “The Greeks are coming.” Or Socrates, the gadfly, stinging the rump of power with jabs of truth. Or even Paul Revere, if horses were still in fashion. You need only be a reporter with your eyes open to see what’s happening to our democracy. I have been lucky enough to spend my adult life as a journalist, acquiring a priceless education in the ways of the world, actually getting paid to practice one of my craft’s essential imperatives: connect the dots.
To continue reading check out:
http://www.alternet.org/democracy/85521/
By Cam Battley on 05.16.08 12:59 pm
By Herb on 05.16.08 6:19 pm -end quote
Sometimes it is better to keep one’s mouth shut or in your case – not write because once the letter is written and published all doubts that you are an idiot have been verified.
…the Conservatives, behaving like an opposition party,… BY KPN.
I agree on some issues.. However the Liberals are not acting like an opposition party., Some feel they are actually acting like they are still governing.
By Van on 05.17.08 10:22 am
Why, because the Libs haven’t given Harper the election he has so desperately wanted?
Van,
in the approved troll manner, let me answer your leading question with another leading question –
Is it your task to insinuate that Garth is an unpatriotic SOB who does not support the troops and wants to divert defence spending to importing immigrants to boot?
Don’t you just love the no-limits neo-Republican style of political discourse!
The leaders of the two major political parties have come out with a vague concept of vastly different, but radical policies: Both require a major reallocation of capital: Dion’s through some kind of carbon tax and Harper through a massive public investment in making Canada a military power.
There is no indication that either party sought the input of their members before putting forth these radical “visions.”
Donald S. Savoie has suggested that we need a massive reform of Parliament and the political parties are the means for debating and achieving that objective. He claims that power now rests with the Prime Minister and his selected “courtiers.”
What Savoie does not apparently realize is that is the way the major political parties are structured: the leader and his courtiers have all the power. The leader and his selected courtiers make the policy and the party members are obligated to follow. I this concept working here every day: “my party leader is right no matter how wrong he might be.”
The party is no longer a “community” working to solve problems but part of the “machine” for empowering the leader.
Political parties are not the solution unless the membership wants them to be and struggles to take back control which I don’t see happening any time in the near future.
But if you’re suggesting that women stay at home, raise the kids, have the slippers warm and the tea made for when the men get home ….. you’re risking having your vas deferens removed sans anaesthetic. Ouch!
By James- Chatham on 05.17.08 10:18 am
James,
Hello? have a cup of strong coffee…wake up, and think. First of all, I did write that prose, I merely shared it.
Secondly, to assume I was referring to women in that way is ludicrous. Of course I was not, but that WAS the way things were 100 years ago. It is called factual history.
What has this world become?
It seems some are so hair triggered and confused that to even state factual history is now deemed politically incorrect. I say this to those who respond that way, and not in particular to you who I respect, Get a LIFE!
100 years ago women did do the cooking, the housekeeping, the child rearing simply because it was an all day, and night job. We lived in a primarily agrarian based society. No microwave overs, Hell not even gas fired ovens in most areas. No indoor plumbing, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, TV, or any other modern convenience like electric lights, central heating, air conditioning, refrigeration in homes, and most were getting about by horseback, carriages, and trains, or that eternally popular method…walking. CHildren were primarily born at home, no fancy hospitals and maternity suites. Doctors made this crazy thing called a House Call beinging the medicine to the patients, instead of the sick, feeble patient to the medicine. That was even around when I was a kid. That was the way life was for all but those in the largest cities.
It took all day to just make the meals for a family, and while to wife was doing that the husband and older children were out tending the fields, or with the advent of the Industrial Revolution working in the mills and factories.
How quickly we forget from whence we have come. My parents were born shortly after the turn of the previous century. I have personally witnessed massive changes in our lifestyles in my 60+ years, and they used kerosene lamps, firewood, and lived through two world wars.
Does anyone read history anymore or just listen to their bloody iPod all day long?
Have fun Sheeple…you are bound to repeat what we Old Farts already have dealt with.
Sorry James, but that begat a flurry of thoughts about just how ill-informed people of 2008 are about the people of 1908…a mere century ago.
Slg, there IS that Thyssen name again. All pieces of the same puzzle imo. Catherine and anyone who thinks Cadscam is a non-issue, PLEASE re-read Doryd from May 16 743pm- and the point I note is that now the Parl. Ethics Comm. can be free to look into this. Many questions remain. C.B. Innes-May 16 806pm- I found the whole piece very good and especially the part about Canada LOBBYING the US to buy? our uranium. We have a mining company near where I live- Sharbot Lake area- that is trying to mine on disputed Native land. A Grandmother in a community here was hunger-stiking in protest along with many others. Native and non-Native people side by side. I’m not sure how many are in prison right now but there are also some people from another land dispute near me in Deseronto, imprisoned for standing their ground in protest.(Their land is being trucked away as it is a quarry.) This summer I’m moving back to Mr. St. Amand’s riding of Brant where Caledonia needs help settling their land dispute with housing (McMansion?) developers on Native land. This will be a very active summer and I hope I can act in some small way to help or show support. Oops, back to the uranium thing- I thought your piece was very important C.B. and makes alot of excellent points. Do we want to spend massively on neo-militarism or doing something radical for the environment? Harper’s plan or Dion’s?…p.s.Brain May 17 126am~ catch you on the flip!! Have a great weekend! Pyotr Petrobitch~ yaaaaa!! Thanks for all of your links Geoffrey L.~ hard to argue with that!? Peace, people. linda.
When this fiasco is all over what will people remember? Harper, aka Caesar Disgustus, thought he was our King, and Dion abstained, walked out, failed to vote and be the Official Opposition, and sat on his arse time after time, and allowed this MINORITY Goobernment to continue.
All the rest will be forgotten. Only the embarassment and pain to individual Canadians will be in vogue…right as they mark their ballots. Their wallets, and stability as people and families will be the real deciding factor in who they hate the most, trust the least, and as usual, any other party will be OK.
The cycle continues..the one last stable thing to count on. Oh Canada! Have ya’ll become West Virginians?
We need some Truthsayers like Keith Olbermann who has the true courage to say it like it is. watch his presentation on YouTube (it is currently overloaded) or Mr. President, the war isn’t about you — or golf on MSNBC.
Whilst we ponder the essence of the lint from various navels, and new occurrences of marketing ones assets, the debacle continues. $22,573 for a flight to Laos,(The Laos meeting, planned months in advance, was part of Canada’s commitment to the Ministerial Conference of La Francophonie, a group that fosters relationships between French-speaking countries.) etc. etc.
The Feudal Lords, or more specifically the descendants of, continue to live the lives of royals and prosper from the fat of the land and the toil of the peasant classes. Meh! Same old, same old.
When the extravagances, waste and foolish expenditures on worthless programs ends, and that money is put toward energy conservation and emissions reduction, and there is a shortfall in properly spent funding; then talk to me about more tax. Until then, clean up your ways Oh great gods of government, as there is no sale among the elders for another scheme to provide gigantic slush funds for the process.
Ditto to Harpco and the winds of war.
Before posting I read Bill’s post, and thought a moment longer. A voice from the right yesterday said, “they finally figured out a way to tax the air”.
Yes Comrade Herb, and Jesus Wept.
Garth. If you want to protect your constituents, if you want to show liberal leadership, if you want to make a difference for our environment, read on:-
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/17/9017/
Brain:
Thank you for your diligence, logic and knowledge which you have taken time to share with us. It is so urgent that this is brought out to the public and thankfully, there are quite a number of groups trying to address our situation on this planet. I will try to put some links up soon. Greg of Oakville does keep us well-supplied and this is very good.
Thanks again. These are the kinds of posts that help stimulate our brains and hopefully, action.
By Calberta on 05.17.08 10:15 am
No – why don’t you – wannabe Liberals – prove that she is a security risk. In Canada – one is presumed innocent!!!
There’s no need for the Liberal Party of Canada to give in now because Harper can’t win. The rules are different in civil court.
think OJ
Sorry James, but that begat a flurry of thoughts about just how ill-informed people of 2008 are about the people of 1908…a mere century ago.
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.17.08 11:07 am
Bill,
try decaf! You missed the joke! Must be the dry British humour most NA’s don’t understand, although this is more Benny Hill than I would admit to! Look up Vas deferens on Google!
Stupid neo-con bots can’t write law/legislation that will pass the SCOC .
Their latest blunder was the reverse onus portion of their assinine Youth Justice bill that said the accused had to prove why they should not be raised to adult court .
Morons think that anything they dream up can become law .
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again these idiots are out manned and out gunned and haven’t a clue on how to write law .
By Geoffrey L. on 05.17.08 2:32 am
If anyone bothers to check Geoffrey’s links, the smear will die with it. Nice work, Geoffrey. If I had the time and wasn’t on dialup, I might have done the same thing myself. Glad you’re on it!
By kpn on 05.17.08 9:53 am
Tell’s all, eh, KPN? When Thomas speaks, all CEO’s listen. And the prez of CD Howe to boot? Political junkies and informed jounalists and bloggers alike, that is one tidbit y’all don’t wanna miss. The the long and short is…
Bay St. is backing Dion on carbon tax shifting! I just don’t see how it could be interpreted any other way.
Have a great weekend yourself, Linda! Last day of seeding out west for me, folks… I’ll be thinking of y’all as I drive around in circles, lol…
Hey you Libbers – have you sent in your 1,100$ cheque to help Stephane Dion pay off his leadership loans – it’s only 800,000$ – surely, there is at least 800 of you that want to help out your leader.
Thanks, Pat. Encouragement does help
BTW Leasa, Harry, Reid,Catherine etc, why would you think you deserve answers from anybody when you & your dictatorial party have perfected giving non-answers bordering on blatant lies & innuendo’s? Do you think people aren’t noticing?
Regards,
By Irene on 05.17.08 9:37 am
Further to what Irene has written .
Get over yourselves morons .
Garth does not owe you a damn thing.Least of all an explanation of any kind.Yoy friggin’ bunch of losers .
Who gives a shit what some rain dead G&M writer thinks about anything .
Taber is well known for getting the story wrong and has had several lawsuits filed against her .
Sorry James, but that begat a flurry of thoughts about just how ill-informed people of 2008 are about the people of 1908…a mere century ago.
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.17.08 11:07 am
I was brought up here in Canada in the 1950s and 1960s and you are correct in saying the women did all the things you suggest but they were also in the fields with the men. One of the major myths of our time is that rural women did not work in the farm enterprise. In fact, on many farms income from the sale of certain types of farm produce was the woman’s income, such as the sale of butter and eggs.
You don’t have to go back a century to find that out because there are many farms today that the women are just as involved in the farming enterprise as the men. Unfortunately, too many farm wifes tosay have to hold down non-farm jobs to keep the enterprise viable in bad years.
Tell’s all, eh, KPN? When Thomas speaks, all CEO’s listen. And the prez of CD Howe to boot? Political junkies and informed jounalists and bloggers alike, that is one tidbit y’all don’t wanna miss. The the long and short is…
Bay St. is backing Dion on carbon tax shifting! I just don’t see how it could be interpreted any other way.
Have a great weekend yourself, Linda! Last day of seeding out west for me, folks… I’ll be thinking of y’all as I drive around in circles, lol…
By brain on 05.17.08 12:11 pm
You can be sure that when these people support a policy like this they understand that it is in their interests not in ours.
Isn’t it efficient that AECL has blown $500 million on their failed replacement reactor design for medical isotopes? Yes, there is the Harper Government at work Canada.
Special thanks to the Minister of Sickness Two-Tier Tony Clement.
Scrapping of troubled reactors worrisome
But HEY! Not to worry because Garry Lunn has answers Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn yesterday told reporters that unnamed private companies were proposing unspecified solutions to the long-supply of medical isotopes. He did not elaborate.
“The government is absolutely committed to ensuring the medical community has the isotopes it needs in the future,” he said.
At least that is a reassuring answer according to Steve and his Goon Squad of LIARS!
Say goodbye to Canadian innovation. Like Kentucky ‘Mr. Peabody’s Coal Train has hauled it away!’
Stop the Globalist Whores, NAU and SPP NOW! Stop Harper from descimating Canada to a into a slave of the U.S.
Hey you Libbers – have you sent in your 1,100$ cheque to help Stephane Dion pay off his leadership loans – it’s only 800,000$ – surely, there is at least 800 of you that want to help out your leader.
By Catherine on 05.17.08 12:11 pm
Hey, BEANPOLE, “avec merde pour le cerveau,” you are merely humming the constant refrain from Skippy, Boticelli Boy, Poi-Poi Poilievre.
It is completely within the latitude of Elections Canada to grant an extension, if required, by each of the candidates.
BTW, are you a SadUCKsee or a PharUCKsee or just a plain old M/f’n Control PFHREAK?
Bay St. is backing Dion on carbon tax shifting! I just don’t see how it could be interpreted any other way.
By brain on 05.17.08 12:11 pm
Why of course Bay Street supports Dion’s Carbon Tax. That is government’s solution to everything. TAX! TAX! TAX!
Only this sweetheart deal is really designed to create another unregulated commodity market which shoves it up OUR arse by more unaccountable inflationary pricing.
Study what New Zealand has done. They got their head out of their arse and rejected the U.S. centred Globalist view. Their nation and peope are prospering.
Brazil, and most of South America are following suit. Likewise India is China’s second largest trading partner, but they are doing it as a nationalist based trade, not free-trade whereby the country’s money and assets are handed over to foreign interests with a hemmorage of money flowing out of their countries.
You missed the joke! Must be the dry British humour most NA’s don’t understand, although this is more Benny Hill than I would admit to! Look up Vas deferens on Google!
By James- Chatham on 05.17.08 11:58 am
LOL OK James. I drink tea, not coffee, so now, after four delightful cups I shall ‘feel’ that ‘dry’ British humour in the vein it was intended. My cup is dry…that helps somehow I am sure. LOL
You, of course, were correct in posing your warning. It’s the Zeta rays this morning being focused by the Nexus of the atmospheric electric charges mitigated by the polar aurora flux you know?
And I ran out of aluminum (aluminium to Brits) foil last night…May last hope of protection.
Besides, Benny Hill is not known for his dedep respect for the gentler sex…unless they are running aorund in bra and panties. LMAO!
I’ll be thinking of y’all as I drive around in circles, lol…
By brain on 05.17.08 12:11 pm
SO! You are the one making those mysterious Crop Circles, eh? LOL
By linda on 05.17.08 11:13 am
Yes, there’s that Thyssen name again. Then there’s ThyssenKrupp. Krupp munitions. Read about Krupp and see some extraordinary things too. When you pry the lid off of this, you will understand much better just how it all works.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krupp
In the articles posted yesterday, the most significant question is in the lawsuit which asks why the rail lines into Auschwitz weren’t bombed by bomber command?
When you are done reading up on Thyssen and Krupp, let me know what you learned and how it affects your perspective on the bigger picture and how it makes you feel about your place as a citizen of the world?. Don’t forget about Oncle Karl in your deliberations.
Remember the link I posted yesterday, about how the Saudis refused to up production of oil to lower prices here? A friend sent an e-mail this morning.
****************************************
Prices are quoted in US dollars per gallon for regular unleaded, March 1, 2008.
Oslo, Norway — $6.82; Hong Kong — $6.25; Brussels, Belgium — $6.16; London, UK — $5.96; Rome, Italy — $5.80; Tokyo, Japan — $5.25; Sao Paulo, Brazil — $4.42; New Delhi, India — $3.71; Sidney , Australia — $3.42; Johannesburg, South Africa — $3.39; Mexico City — $2.22; Buenos Aires, Argentina — $2.09.
– WAIT — YOU’RE GONNA LOVE THIS –
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — $0.09; Kuwait — $0.08; Caracas, Venezuela — $0.12; Chester, West Virginia — Who Cares? Not going anywhere!
****************************************
This — not the above — is the joke!
One day I met a sweet gentleman and fell in love. When it became apparent that we would marry, I made the supreme sacrifice and gave up beans.
Some months later on my birthday, my car broke down on the way home from work. Since I lived in the countryside I called my husband and told him that I would be late because I had to walk home.
On my way, I passed by a small diner and the odour of baked beans was more
than I could stand.
With miles to walk, I figured that I would walk off any ill effects by the time I reached home, so I stopped at the diner and before I knew it, I had consumed three large orders of baked beans.
All the way home, I made sure that I released all the gas. Upon my arrival, my husband seemed excited to see me and exclaimed delightedly:
‘Darling I have a surprise for dinner tonight.’
He then blindfolded me and led me to my chair at the dinner table. I took a seat and just as he was about to remove my blindfold, the telephone rang.
He made me promise not to touch the blindfold until he returned and went to answer the call.
The baked beans I had consumed were still affecting me and the pressure
was becoming most unbearable, so while my husband was out of the room I seized the opportunity, shifted my weight to one leg and let one go.
It was not only loud, but it smelled like a fertilizer truck running over
a skunk in front of a pulpwood mill. I took my napkin from my lap and fanned the air around me vigorously.
Then, shifting to the other cheek, I ripped off three more. The stink
was worse than cooked cabbage.
Keeping my ears carefully tuned to the conversation in the other room, I went on like this for another few minutes.
The pleasure was indescribable. When eventually the telephone farewells
signalled the end of my freedom, I quickly fanned the air a few more
times with my napkin, placed it on my lap and folded my hands back on it feeling very relieved and pleased with myself.
My face must have been the picture of innocence when my husband returned,
apologizing for taking so long. He asked me if I had peeked through the blindfold, and I assured him I had not.
At this point, he removed the blindfold, and twelve dinner guests seated
around the table chorused:
‘Happy Birthday!’
I fainted!!!
Poor Rodney [DANGERFIELD] MacDonald … It takes a long time for him to react to changing circumstance in his own neck of the woods.
…An icebreaker here … another icebreaker there … pretty soon, no icebreakers anywhere in the HRM. Maybe DANGERFIELD is trying to ‘live up to’ PM-SH’s “defeatist” moniker.
I say he’s not ONLY missed the boat, he’s also missed the bus!
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Editorial/1056305.html
By C. B. Innes on 05.17.08 12:35 pm
I agree, but it depended on the farm and community as well. My family were farmers (Uncles and Aunts) and I worked summers with them. Yes, the women were out in the fileds as well as the men, mostly before machinery replaced human labour and horses/oxen. Yet, where the family was large the women were very busy making the food for the work crews as well. It was a ‘family’ thing. Every one did their part to contribute to the whole. same with the Aboriginal people.
Today we have the migrant workers who come, pick, stay, and then some get upset when they refuse to go home to a lesser life like Mexico. Same for the nannies and maids, hospitality workers, taxi cab drivers. Jobs that pay Jack Sq1uat, promote crime, and are the way out for the white Elite to go showoff their latest Gucci acquisition..
In fact, back in the 1900’s 90% of people were self employed. That dorpped to 10% after the Industrial Revolution, and has now returned thanks to the instability of Globalism taking over corporations by merger after merger, thereby depriving people of things like pensions, and benefits.
Today we have the ‘contract worker’ who is still being denied a place at the corporate table of benefits. in the U.S. the primary benefit denied is Healthcare. How advanced, eh? Even a farmer will make sure their livestock is healthy, but not American Globalist Corporations. They have ‘friends’ to support by a ridiculously inhumane ‘for profit’ healthcare system. Stockholders before employees always.
Having to make the choice between enslavement, bankruptcy, and life is a choice no civilized people should have to make. Especially in the West with its plethora of abundance. It is solely due to apathy and greed. Both supported by a whiney MSM, but that may be changing…very slowly.
Note how much coverage is goiven to the Burma and China devastation, but what of Canandians? How much coverage is there of people in dire straights on our own soil? Almost NADA, unless it is some politically based blurp like an aboriginal settlement where people refuse to use their brains and face reality!
By Greg on 05.17.08 1:29 pm
The movie ‘Lord of War’ says it clearly. Want to stop wars? Banish the arms manufacturers, especially those making ammo. When the guns and RPG’s are out of ammo, they can decide about the old fashioned way called mano-a mano, i.e., face to face, hand to hand, combat. That tends to wean even the most ardent Hawk from their ways.
Until the arms manufacturers are banned there will never be peace.
Gee, Bill-Muskoka – you sound like one of those protesting hippies.
I have a picture of my grandparents, some aunts and uncles when they were kids and my great-grandmother and great aunt from 1906. No running water, living in the country – long dresses, etc. My grandmother used to down to the river to wash her clothes (and she was so tiny – about 4′10″ and 90 pounds soaking wet. She had 7 kids (my dad when she was 50). She did all her cooking on a wood stove, etc.
I think most of us are very aware of 100 years ago.
I even have a tinplate picture of my great-grandfather who came over approx 1860 from the US. I wondered if he was a draft dodger or something, but as the story goes – in New York a bunch of men came to Canada because they were angry that if you were rich you could buy your way out of the war – got so ticked off they left.
Thank Geoffrey L. on 05.17.08 2:32 am
For the links.
The last 3 were really worth seeing and THINKING about!
Could you tell who the human beings were that the AC-130 was killing?
I couldn’t.
Were they just people running for their lives! Could you tell who was in the building?
I couldn’t.
If you own a vehicle does that mean you could get kill them from the air?
What kind of person thinks it is ok to kill 29 civilians to get a ‘supposed’ bad guy?
Might that me a Sociopath? Why do We letting them insane mass murderers stay in office as our so-called leaders, and on our streets?
Here again are the last 3 links you gave, for others to see.
Welcome to the Future – Bombing Afghanistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMXOSkIBpms
AC-130 Gunship On Mission In Afghanistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n383NGFl-ps&feature=related
U.S. Bombs Killing Afghanistan Civilians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Rws2VLqpY&feature=related
Are you a critical-thinker?
Are you well informed?
What kind of world do you and your family want to live in?
If they can do it to ‘Them’ they can do it to ‘You’ and ‘Your Family’!
Who is borrowing the money in YOUR behalf to make these weapons to kill human beings? Who is making money selling these killing machines?
Re: “Belief in myth avoids the discomfort of thought.”
Hi brain on 05.17.08 1:26 am,
It seems I misunderstood your first comment a few days ago, about my comments on this blog.
I was told that e-mails/written words could sometimes be misunderstood. Sometimes a phone can is much better, since you can often quickly detect in their voice if the person on the other end understands what you are trying to say. And make correction at that time.
Communication is not always simple, it has at lease 3 part: telling, listening and understanding /comprehending what you’ve been told.
I suppose the stuff I write is more easily understood since I usually use the spell checker.
By Calberta on 05.17.08 10:15 am
No – why don’t you – wannabe Liberals – prove that she is a security risk. In Canada – one is presumed innocent!!!
By Catherine on 05.17.08 11:57 am
Catherine, Harper is the governing party. Not Mr. Dion, Duceppe, or Layton. That’s not the job of the opossition. Get after your hero Harper to do his job.
Hey you Libbers – have you sent in your 1,100$ cheque to help Stephane Dion pay off his leadership loans – it’s only 800,000$ – surely, there is at least 800 of you that want to help out your leader.
By Catherine on 05.17.08 12:11 pm
Catty, Nice try but I would suggest you mind your own damn business.
Cheers
By Geoffrey L. on 05.17.08 2:32 am
If anyone bothers to check Geoffrey’s links, the smear will die with it. Nice work, Geoffrey. If I had the time and wasn’t on dialup, I might have done the same thing myself. Glad you’re on it!
By kpn on 05.17.08 9:53 am
Tell’s all, eh, KPN? When Thomas speaks, all CEO’s listen. And the prez of CD Howe to boot? Political junkies and informed jounalists and bloggers alike, that is one tidbit y’all don’t wanna miss. The the long and short is…
Bay St. is backing Dion on carbon tax shifting! I just don’t see how it could be interpreted any other way.
Have a great weekend yourself, Linda! Last day of seeding out west for me, folks… I’ll be thinking of y’all as I drive around in circles, lol…
By brain on 05.17.08 12:11 pm
I don’t get what you are saying Brain.
Catherine on 05.17.08 11:57 am,
‘No – why don’t you – wannabe Liberals – prove that she is a security risk. In Canada – one is presumed innocent!!!’
Of course she is ‘presumed innocent’
And she has not been change with anything.
But since she has opportunity to come into close contact with potentially sensitive Government information.
Wouldn’t you want her and anyone else in that position to get checked out by the RCMP and the Canadian secret service? Just to be sure they weren’t still connected to organized crime and criminal organization.
She hopefully was and still is a law-abiding citizen, but since she has some very close connections to known criminals.
She shouldn’t been screened by our security people.
(There no sense closing the barn doors, after the horses get out.)
I have not herd this PMSH gang in QP say she was cleared by or even check by our security persons before she had potential access to sensitive Government information, be it written, oral, in meetings or parties she may have attended., Through computers and documents that might be in private homes of the Government members.
Wouldn’t you want all person screened first?
I know I would!
By C. B. Innes on 05.17.08 12:44 pm
Contrary to your opinion, not all CEO’s and business leaders are corrupt. Some are… and some aren’t.
You continue to amaze me in terms of seeing it all with black and white when there are in fact, obvious shades of grey. Take for an example, the stalwart message the right aways poses. Jobs, jobs, jobs, industry comes first. This is at best, a half truth. Jobs mean nothing without the preservation of the environments that sustain the workers themselves. Economists seldom factor in the damage to the environment. Having said this, the half truth still exists. We do need jobs. But just what kind of jobs is it that we need?
And what makes you believe your own favorite pick would deliver? Have you not seen the blind eye provincial governments with your flavor of brand have done to the environment themselves?
Again, this isn’t just about the system or the allocation of resources or fair/unfair trade or even the environment. Its about human nature itself and someone like yourself should start bucking up the fact that people shouldn’t be judged because they are haves or even have nots. They should
be judged on their morality and you of all people should know this. But thats not it, is it, C.B.. Your rage button is quickly seeing red with the mere mention of the word globalization or Corporation. Have you no understanding that its not trade thats the problem, but unfair trade that is the problem?
Again, I’ll repeat myself to you and its getting annoying. Any functional plan should be heeded regardless of where it comes from, be it Liberal, NDP, Green, Con or otherwise. To rail against a tax plan of which you know next to nothing in detail blows my mind. To rail against people like Tomas D’Aquinlo because he’s in a position of authority without giving us a remote reason as to why that is, also blows my mind. If you are going to shoot the message because you don’t like the messanger, or attack a plan because you have a major corporate bias as in “they are all corrupt and bad”, let me remind you that you are no different than taking a flawed personal example and painting the whole works as corrupt. This kind of thinking, by the way, is the way of the scapegoat. If you wish to pursue it, vote for Harper and flock with the birds of the same feather. Otherwise, grow up. (yeah, yeah, you lost all respect, thats getting old quick too, about as old as your own pride and bias. Hate to break it to you, but your not always right and you aren’t perfect. Live with it)
By C. B. Innes on 05.17.08 12:35 pm
I have a neighbor 4 miles away that farms 2000 acres on her own. The examples are there.
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.17.08 12:57 pm
You won’t get an arguement out of me other than the nationalist governments aren’t any better environmentally than democracies in their rates of consumption. They just aren’t as industrialized and consumer brainwashed… yet… and in China, they are almost there, as capitalist as anyone.
Back to you, C.B..
Again, any government is only as good as the people that run them, regardless of the type of system. Otherwise, which would you prefer? Democracy? Communism? Socialism? Dictatorship? Theocracy? Or the hybrid we have now. Think long and hard about it, C.B.. And think long and hard about this.
While I, like you, prefer a nationalist government and an internalized economy over what we have now, the transition won’t come without major pains, especially considering who our largest trade partner is.
My question is this. Do you want a trade war to try to achieve this end knowing that it could fail and even lead to an outright war that spills blood? Think long and hard about cost of that christmas wish list of yours before you answer. Peace has been known to turn to war, after all, on the drop of a dime. And thats the root of it. Money.
In the meantime, I’ve got work to do.
Friends, fellow tin-hatters and general no good leftist scum, I here offer for your enjoyment and edification a summary of:
GOEBBELS’ PRINCIPLES OF PROPAGANDA
Based upon Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda by Leonard W. Doob, published in Public Opinion and Propaganda; A Book of Readings edited for The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.
1. Propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion.
2. Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority.
a. It must issue all the propaganda directives.
b. It must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain their morale.
c. It must oversee other agencies’ activities which have propaganda consequences
3. The propaganda consequences of an action must be considered in planning that action.
4. Propaganda must affect the enemy’s policy and action.
a. By suppressing propagandistically desirable material which can provide the enemy with useful intelligence
b. By openly disseminating propaganda whose content or tone causes the enemy to draw the desired conclusions
c. By goading the enemy into revealing vital information about himself
d. By making no reference to a desired enemy activity when any reference would discredit that activity
5. Declassified, operational information must be available to implement a propaganda campaign
6. To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.
7. Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.
8. The purpose, content and effectiveness of enemy propaganda; the strength and effects of an expose; and the nature of current propaganda campaigns determine whether enemy propaganda should be ignored or refuted.
9. Credibility, intelligence, and the possible effects of communicating determine whether propaganda materials should be censored.
10. Material from enemy propaganda may be utilized in operations when it helps diminish that enemy’s prestige or lends support to the propagandist’s own objective.
11. Black rather than white propaganda may be employed when the latter is less credible or produces undesirable effects.
12. Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige.
13. Propaganda must be carefully timed.
a. The communication must reach the audience ahead of competing propaganda.
b. A propaganda campaign must begin at the optimum moment
c. A propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness
14. Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans.
a. They must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possesses
b. They must be capable of being easily learned
c. They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situations
d. They must be boomerang-proof
15. Propaganda to the home front must prevent the raising of false hopes which can be blasted by future events.
16. Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level.
a. Propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat
b. Propaganda must diminish anxiety (other than concerning the consequences of defeat) which is too high and which cannot be reduced by people themselves
17. Propaganda to the home front must diminish the impact of frustration.
a. Inevitable frustrations must be anticipated
b. Inevitable frustrations must be placed in perspective
18. Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.
19. Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it must offer some form of action or diversion, or both.
May it inform our readings of those who would have us lose all hope in the face of overweaning intellectual prowess, bicker amongst ourselves as to which end of the egg to cut, and engage in futile name calling and knee jerk reactions.
Let us, as well, enjoy this weekend, hopefully free from our labours and in the bosom warmth of friends and loved ones.
Oh, in case you missed it way back when and have never had a chance to read this essay, originally published in Adbusters magazine, I offer it now for your further delight and intellectual amelioration:
http://www.wairaka.net/ubinz/IR/items/199907JonathonRowe.html
Bill-Muskoka, you should really pop over to Small Dead Animals and check out what the response has been to the Olberman editorial about Bush giving up golfing. Quite informative in its own way.
No – why don’t you – wannabe Liberals – prove that she is a security risk. In Canada – one is presumed innocent!!!
By Catherine on 05.17.08 11:57 am
Catherine,
many years ago, I worked for a telephone company that had contracts with the British MOD. The department I worked in had a safe were information was kept. While I had no access to that safe, because I was in that building, unbeknown to me, I was negatively checked by security authorities.
Now, the safe is akin to to the Minister, the combination akin to his conscience and care in not talking to said woman about his day.
Needless to say, if I had had the background this woman had, with her relationship with the biker gangs, I would have been escorted from the building. (I saw this happen to one young lad within 15 minutes of him casually saying he used dope!)
So as has been asked before, and a simple yes/no will surfice, has this woman been vetted by CSIS/RCMP given her access to the Minister of Foreign Affairs?
I suspect the answer is “no.” If they answer was “yes,” that would have been the end of the matter. But the CPC won’t answer the question because they’ve been caught with their trousers down!
No – why don’t you – wannabe Liberals – prove that she is a security risk. In Canada – one is presumed innocent!!!
By Catherine on 05.17.08 11:57 am
Ah, Catherine – it’s Stockwell Day, our so-called security protector, and the RCMP’s job to prove she’s not. You have it backwards as usual. After all, it’s the Harper government’s responsibility to keep a check on things.
Yours truly
slug
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.17.08 2:06 pm
Right on Billy. The immensity of all of this is obscure for most, and much of it is obscure for me too. It’s only by reading, disseminating and applying logic and experience that individuals can begin to understand the game. Names of corporations change, politicians come and go, but at the end of the day those who participate in the acquisition of wealth for the blue bloods and their accepted apprentices, are rewarded handsomely. It takes a great deal of money to make this big wheel go around.
Can you now better understand my position on Conrad Black? Don’t bite the hand the feeds you. Don’t think yourself one of us. Think Spitzer and 5000 wiretaps to catch him doing the dirty deed. Does it really matter? What was he going to expose? The entirety of the mortgage ponzi scheme Garth referred to.
These are very unpleasant people. Very unpleasant indeed.
And they prey upon the beauty of innocence. Feed it, nurture it, use it.
I have no innocence left. They took it all away.
Change how we choose candidates. Change how much money they can spend for electoral purposes. Change how this can be spent. Create democracy. Reject the facade.
Bring your Helmet.
Catherine on 05.17.08 11:57 am,
‘No – why don’t you – wannabe Liberals – prove that she is a security risk. In Canada – one is presumed innocent!!!’
Of course she is ‘presumed innocent’
And she has not been change with anything.
But since she has opportunity to come into close contact with potentially sensitive Government information.
Wouldn’t you want her and anyone else in that position to get checked out by the RCMP and the Canadian secret service? Just to be sure they weren’t still connected to organized crime and criminal organization.
She hopefully was and still is a law-abiding citizen, but since she has some very close connections to known criminals.
She shouldn’t been screened by our security people.
(There no sense closing the barn doors, after the horses get out.)
I have not herd this PMSH gang in QP say she was cleared by or even check by our security persons before she had potential access to sensitive Government information, be it written, oral, in meetings or parties she may have attended., Through computers and documents that might be in private homes of the Government members.
Wouldn’t you want all person screened first?
I know I would!
By Greg W., Oakville on 05.17.08 3:23 pm
Catherine & Greg W. – The other day I read a Let to the Editor in the Chronical Herald stating that when her DH was posted to Iceland (?) as a soldier posted to NATO, IIRC, their whole family was subjected to a background check. I’ve tried to find it on the CH site, but their search engine is the pits.
As I stated previously, I, my whole family and friends, back in 69 or 70 were subjected to an RCMP background check. Shouldn’t the Govt. have done a check on Bernier? We’ve now learned that she was affiliated with the Hell’s Angels as recently as 2005 and has been seen with Bernier as recently as Feb. or March this year. As well she has tried to be involved in confidential governmental meeting, IIRC. And what is this about Bernier declaring her as a ’spouse’. Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire. So much for accountability and transparency!!!
BTW I have 2 bros. & a BIL who served in the military. I don’t support our military extension in Afghanistan, but that doesn’t mean I don’t support the soldiers. But, I definitely don’t approve of where Harper wants to lead this nation, re the military and creating an American style weapon mfg. sector.
you should really pop over to Small Dead Animals and check out what the response has been to the Olberman editorial about Bush giving up golfing. Quite informative in its own way.
By persona sine ingenio on 05.17.08 5:03 pm
Purportedly, on Ronald Reagans’ first day as President, an aide woke him and said, “Mr. President, its time to get up now”, to which Reagan replied, ” do I have to?”
ou, of course, were correct in posing your warning. It’s the Zeta rays this morning being focused by the Nexus of the atmospheric electric charges mitigated by the polar aurora flux you know?
And I ran out of aluminum (aluminium to Brits) foil last night…May last hope of protection.
Besides, Benny Hill is not known for his dedep respect for the gentler sex…unless they are running aorund in bra and panties. LMAO!
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.17.08 1:04 pm
Bill, you forgot the white poison powder that all high flying jets are dumping on us.
(or was that a pentagon planed chemical test????)
By brain on 05.17.08 3:43 pm,
This is not the first time you have put words in my mouth in order to attack me.
At one time I thought your comments were rational but now I am beginning to consider you just another agenda driven wingnut whose comments should be ignored.
Hi Garth – Can you explain why my posts never reflect the time that I actualy post them. Just curious.
You don’t post them, I do. Comments go into a moderation queue, which I review before releasing them. — Garth
By Greg W., Oakville on 05.16.08 10:32 pm,
You then agree with Gord that Canada needs to become one of the countries permitted to enrich uranium.
Should enrichment be left to the private sector as it is in the United States or should it be under the government? I understand that the private sector in the U.S. is running into financial problems because of the high costs of maintaining and replacing centrifuges.
C.B & Brain – I strongly recommend that you two do not spend time in the same room without a moderator – the trouble is that both of you have something to say that is worth listening to and reflecting on.
I understand that the private sector in the U.S. is running into financial problems because of the high costs of maintaining and replacing centrifuges.
By C. B. Innes on 05.17.08 6:07 pm
So in other words, nuclear energy is cheap because we’re not paying the full cost of production, which includes the replacement and maintenance of said centrifuges.
How will government control prevent this? Guess we will end up paying through our taxes instead of the electricity bill!
in New York a bunch of men came to Canada because they were angry that if you were rich you could buy your way out of the war – got so ticked off they left.
By slg on 05.17.08 2:23 pm
The cost was $500. At the beginning of the Civil War a Union Soldier received $13 per month as his pay.
Our Food – Its 2010 (8:10 pm) here and we just finished eating. BBq’s some pork chops. DH said they had no taste. Agree, even with a bit of Bulls’ Eye BBQ at the end. Does anyone find that the food we used to eat 20 yrs ago has lost all of its taste. We had our ‘French’ family here back then and they couldn’t get over the taste of our BBQ steaks – minus sauce – just au naturel. Our eggs, even organic or free range ones taste nothing like those of my childhood. Now even the Jumbo ones today are the small or medium size of that I remember not too many years ago. Guess its all about making food cheaper & cheaper. Sorta like $tores. Great prices, but nothing lasts.
Before anybody gets on my case, I buy meat at various stores, even from a local farmer whose cattle feed on the grass, and the meat just doesn’t taste the same. Could pollution have anything to do with it???
Hi Garth – Can you explain why my posts never reflect the time that I actualy post them. Just curious.
You don’t post them, I do. Comments go into a moderation queue, which I review before releasing them. — Garth
By kpn on 05.17.08 5:58 pm
Thanks Garth. I realized you moderated them, but still thought they would reflect the actual time we posted them. Duh on my part
persona sine ingenio,
I defined Bush Derangement Syndrome on SDA over a year ago: mistaking a Shrub for the Burning Bush.
Sadly, for Kate and her winged monkeys its incurable, progressive and terminal. But it will self-destruct around 20 Jan 2009.
Bill, you forgot the white poison powder that all high flying jets are dumping on us.
(or was that a pentagon planed chemical test????)
By A.R.Wainwright on 05.17.08 5:42 pm
Shhhhhh! Like Fred Thompson said in ‘The Hunt for Red October’ (a slight modification) ‘They don’t take a dump without a plan, son!’ LOL
Ah, I love the smell of Nitrous Oxide in the morning…a fine by product of gas turbine combustion. Come fly with me…!
Bill-Muskoka, you should really pop over to Small Dead Animals and check out what the response has been to the Olberman editorial about Bush giving up golfing. Quite informative in its own way.
By persona sine ingenio on 05.17.08 5:03 pm
I tend to avoid the stench of dead animals, large or small, and besides, if I want to visit an Insane Asylum I will go on the tour at Penetanguishene. LOL
I have plenty of Road Kill here to observe without purposely visiting a site dedicated to such refuse.
(Humming ‘Dead Skunk in The Middle of The Road’)
Garth, if you are POd about energy prices get the Canadian Parliament to demand a stop to the wars of aggression.
The “war on terror” is bogus.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/17/9017/
See new comments since I posted this earlier today.
Thanks Greg for the wise comments you put up on Garth’s page.
Everyone!! Demand Parliament kill C-51
I think most of us are very aware of 100 years ago.
By slg on 05.17.08 2:23 pm
Actually, that was for the benefit of the younger generations who come here to learn from all of us, to give them a perspective of the last 100 years.
I have pics too. Some back to the late 1800’s of my family members. When my 10th generation grandfather came to the Jamestown Colony from England back about 1655, all they had was a small village, a community of hope, and a darn hard go. Before then they were Hugeonauts migrating through France to England for freedom. Before that they were in Switzerland eeking out a living in the merchantile trades..
The members who have served in the military go that far back as well. But what of the younger generations from split homes where the history is no longer taught? We need to remember, and that is the task of the senior generations.
Lest we forget!
By brain on 05.17.08 3:43 pm,
This is not the first time you have put words in my mouth in order to attack me.
At one time I thought your comments were rational but now I am beginning to consider you just another agenda driven wingnut whose comments should be ignored.
By C. B. Innes on 05.17.08 5:53 pm
Point taken. That was one comment I would have ordinarily not sent. I was rushed, impatient, and nagged out of the house before I could proof it, regretted sending some of it.
Nevertheless…
What you said was this and it wasn’t rational either:
You can be sure that when these people support a policy like this they understand that it is in their interests not in ours.
By C. B. Innes on 05.17.08 12:44 pm
Remember it? It was in response to this.
“Tell’s all, eh, KPN? When Thomas speaks, all CEO’s listen. And the prez of CD Howe to boot? Political junkies and informed jounalists and bloggers alike, that is one tidbit y’all don’t wanna miss. The the long and short is…
Bay St. is backing Dion on carbon tax shifting! I just don’t see how it could be interpreted any other way.”
And your response hit a nerve. Why? Because there is no other way to take it than if the Canadian CEO representing all Canadian CEO’s likes something, or the prez of C.D. Howe likes it, it must be bad for everyone else.
So if you don’t like it when I disagree and dismiss it with another statement like this, “At one time I thought your comments were rational but now I am beginning to consider you just another agenda driven wingnut whose comments should be ignored.”
Then by all means, please explain to us why you believe we should axe Dion’s plan because the CEO of Canadian CEO’s is willing to support it.
Keep in mind what Dion has said publically (with good English, I might add). He will put a consumption tax on pollution/energy, stuff thats harmful to the environment and use that revenue to give personal income tax cuts as well as corporate tax cuts. I’m assuming this now, I don’t know for sure yet because I haven’t seen the details of Dions plan, but the main is a tax on energy/carbon and a tax cut on personal/corporate taxes. And what I’m assuming is that Dion and Thomas talked it over and Dion told Thomas what he had in mind. Mabye it was a 2% corporate income tax reduction? If it was, or something similar, this would more than offset the expenses of energy to most businesses other than businesses that are in transportation of goods/people. Within the last 20 years, based on current working tax models, a 1% tax corporate tax cut is a 2% gain in corporate profits and that means growth. In such a case, this plan won’t fly without certain industries getting some tax relief directly such as the trucking industry, maybe airlines, taxi’s, industries that will have their profit margins most hurt by a major tax on energy consumption. Otherwise, and I’ll be extremely clear about this, this is a good thing not just for Canadians or the environment, but the world because, pass or fail (and I believe it will be winner), this world needs a working successful tax model, something to encourage other nations to conserve energy from the consumer on up, to the producers on down, a paradigm shift in thinking, to willfully support energy conservation and development of green tech that won’t put economies into a free fall because if we don’t…
By brain on 05.17.08 1:26 am
It’ll get real ugly. My earlier comment spells it out and my agenda, wing nutted or no, is not hard to miss. I want to do whatever I can to stop it. And what gives me that axe to grind is when I read a comment like the one you gave. You simply can’t shoot down a good message because you don’t like the messanger and yes, its true that Thomas speaks on behalf of the interests of Canadian corps. Its not his position to speak for all of humanity. He sees it in terms of whats best for Can corps and there are numerous cases when those interests aren’t in the best interests of ordinary Canadians but in case you missed it, what is sometimes in the best interests of Can corps is also in the best interests for us all. Its doable and you are saying its not. Sorry, but that reeks of shooting down the message because you don’t like the messanger and its not all that hard to extrapolate as to why that is.
As well, I would like you to show me a recent post (or any other post for that matter) that didn’t have something other than criticism in it yourself. I’ve got money that says you won’t find one. Should I start to judge you with your own standard C.B.?
By Geoffrey L. on 05.17.08 3:11 pm
Hope this helped.
Could pollution have anything to do with it???
By kpn on 05.17.08 6:56 pm
It could but maybe you could check into what Monsanto is up.
Just a thought.
To get a liberal’s attention, simply start talking about spending taxpayer dollars defending your country and the interests of your country through its military.
Nothing wakes up a liberal faster than spending money on the military and defense.
Liberals can’t spend your money fast enough on:
- “women’s rights” (in 2008 yet)
- another new national socialist universal program like their state-run child daycare programs (to stop families blowing after-tax cash on “beer and popcorn”)
- their bogus “human rights” commissions and tribunals
- their push for continued free unlimited abortions for no reason
- their taxpayer-paid sex change operations for anyone who wants one
- their free heroin injection sites
- their Rifle Registry / handgun banning rhetoric
- and urban subsidies for their constituents
- and Billion$$$ for sham ‘hot air’ carbon credits
- and Canadian “artists”
- and of course their beloved CBC
- and a multitude of welfare schemes to dissuade folks from working and taking responsibility
- and their biggest boondoggle of all, their absolutely-no-taxpayer-funding-is-enough North Korean-style healthcare system.
But spending on the military? Question it—fast !!! Every penny must be examined and doubly accounted for !!!
But of course our fiscally conservative MP Garth will stand up for us against those fiscally-irresponsible tax-and-spend “liberals”.
Exploding Pyrex cookware?
Generally, I eat everything in sight, but Pyrex made a change to their cookware some years ago, and now it produces something else in ovens.
http://tinyurl.com/26yljo
****************************************
There is always something new to learn each day — feeding jailbirds down south doesn’t seem to cost an awful lot!
http://tinyurl.com/43jf4r
****************************************
Interesting, only because US soldiers — and Cdns., I suppose — are dying because dubya hears voices in his head.
Could this not be classified as psychotic, abnormal or delusional behavior? McCain, of course, is a clone of dubya, except he is a lot more trigger happy.
Obama may get the nod as President, but because he can be an effective leader, look for the same behavioral patterns to emerge that led to JFK and RFK’s short-lived triumphs.
http://tinyurl.com/4o4mb7
Harry S. Flaherty has set a record for spenidng. He and his ilk almost broke Ontario, and now he is working on the whole country. Diefenbaker, recession, Mulroney, recession, and it is now looking like another recession with a Conservative government at the helm. The GST cut is useless unless you are buying large items. My income tax was initially increased by this government then the much touted cut was just a restoration of an earlier Liberal cut. Just who are the tax and spend guys.
The cost was $500. At the beginning of the Civil War a Union Soldier received $13 per month as his pay.
By Greg on 05.17.08 6:38 pm
Gee, now I don’t feel so bad. Thanks Greg. When I was a mere E-1 in the Marines our pay was a whopping $81 per month…before taxes. We got room, board, medical and dental (experiment) coverage, and a clothing allowance, plus free transportation to training and the world’s Hot Spots. Such deal.
Guess inflation had not quite caught on yet back in the ’60’s. Well Shuckeederms!
http://impolitical.blogspot.com/2008/05/harpers-new-military-spending-is-96.html
Garth is this accurate? $100 BILLION for military spending?
“Le Devoir’s report has a senior military official indicating the real amount, close to $100 billion, is being kept from the public due to the difficulties that would be faced in selling this figure”
Hi C. B. Innes on 05.17.08 6:07 pm,
CANDU reactors fuel is only ~3% uranium.
Nearly the same concentration the come out of the ground when mind.
The light water reactors in the states use ~90% uranium fuel. If I have my numbers right? It takes lots of energy to enrich the fuel for light water reactors. Light water reactors can be used a breeder to make the uranium that’s not fissionable useable.
You really need to get this book, it will answer the many question you have about nuclear power.
Power To Save The World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy
By: Gwyneth Cravens
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Power-Save-World-Truth-About-Gwyneth-Cravens/9780307266569-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3a+%2527gwyneth+cravens%2527
Also go to;
http://www.aecl.ca/
http://www.cna.ca/
One other book that’s informative is,
Kicking the Carbon Habit: Global Warming and the Case for Renewable and Nuclear Energy
By: William Sweet
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Kicking-Carbon-Habit-Global-Warming-William-Sweet/9780231137102-item.html?ref=Search+Books%3a+%2527william+sweet%2527
Hi kpn on 05.17.08 5:30 pm,
I’m with you on back ground checks, they should have been done before hand, in the first place!
By Harry S on 05.17.08 9:17 pm
Bigoted true colors emerging once again, Harry?
You missed a few items on the New Conservative wish list.
End the wheatboard so U.S. grain handlers can set up their monopolies and control the price of grain.
Bust all unions.
Remove all gag laws so elections can be bought more easily.
Deregulate the insurance sector, specifically in health care so U.S. multinationals can have their way.
Deregulate the banking industry so U.S. banks can buy out Canadian banks.
Keep Canada at war to feed U.S. defense corps.
Decentralize federal powers to assist in balkanizing Canada making the pieces easy prey for U.S. assimilation.
Feed the separation of Quebec or Alta, take your pick.
Abolish the senate or get them elected with crooked regs to make it easier for corps to bribe them towards U.S. corporate will.
Freeze immigration of all immigrants looking for political asylum from nationalist or dictatorial goverments and all Muslims into Canada.
Privatize all penal systems and policing.
Remove FOI acts and bury all information that makes the Conservative party look bad or crooked.
Destroy Bill C-32 (I believe its the one that heavily changed the way parties are financed, dramatically lowering financial contributions from private/corporate/union/organization sources and funding parties with government money based on $1.75 per vote with restrictions placed on voter percentages of at least 5% of votes in the riding to qualify for the subsidy
and 2% to qualify for the party nationally.
Empower ministers with power over the purse, taking away this power from civil servants.
Open up the constitution, creating the new nation of Quebec.
Get rid of bilingualism and multiculturalism.
In short, make the Canada the U.S., a corporate bought undemocratic military controlled state that spends 14% of its GDP on defense and is run by corporate lobbyists where the largest corps, their largest shareholders and crooked CEO’s run the show, with idiots like you doing their spin for them. Does that about sum it up, numbnuts?
Could you tell who the human beings were that the AC-130 was killing?
I couldn’t.
Were they just people running for their lives! Could you tell who was in the building?
I couldn’t.
If you own a vehicle does that mean you could get kill them from the air?
What kind of person thinks it is ok to kill 29 civilians to get a ‘supposed’ bad guy?
Might that me a Sociopath? Why do We letting them insane mass murderers stay in office as our so-called leaders, and on our streets?
Here again are the last 3 links you gave, for others to see.
Welcome to the Future – Bombing Afghanistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMXOSkIBpms
AC-130 Gunship On Mission In Afghanistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n383NGFl-ps&feature=related
U.S. Bombs Killing Afghanistan Civilians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Rws2VLqpY&feature=related
Are you a critical-thinker?
Are you well informed?
What kind of world do you and your family want to live in?
If they can do it to ‘Them’ they can do it to ‘You’ and ‘Your Family’!
Who is borrowing the money in YOUR behalf to make these weapons to kill human beings? Who is making money selling these killing machines?
Re: “Belief in myth avoids the discomfort of thought.”
By Greg W., Oakville on 05.17.08 2:30 pm
Whatever you do people, just don’t call this a village.. Harper will go ballistic.. also, avoid the mosque, whatever you do.. don’t hit the mosque..I wonder if there were any women and children in those buildings? Hard to say isn’t it.
Okay folks.. what if I told you that I am applying for a job with CSE or CSIS.. and my girlfriend used to hang out with Hells Angels.. do you think that they would hire me if I told them that?
What Harper and Bush don’t want you to know? Maybe this is why Harper went ballistic Garth..
Foreign forces killing too many civilians: UN
Carlotta Gall in Kabul
May 17, 2008
A SPECIAL investigator for the United Nations has accused foreign intelligence agencies of conducting night-time raids and killing civilians in Afghanistan with “impunity”.
The investigator, Philip Alston from Australia, would not specify the nationalities of the agencies. But the descriptions he gave of units operating out of two US bases in southern and eastern Afghanistan suggested he was accusing the Central Intelligence Agency or US unconventional-warfare units of operating without accountability to the Afghan Government or the foreign military command.
Afghan forces working with foreign units were not under the control of the Afghan Government, he said. US officials in Afghanistan declined to comment on the accusations.
Professor Alston, who directs a centre for human rights and global justice at New York University’s law school, spoke at a news conference after a 12-day visit to Afghanistan as the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. He reports to the UN Human Rights Council and is the brother of the former Howard government minister Richard Alston.
Professor Alston said he had concluded civilian casualties in Afghanistan were intolerably high, and often could be avoided.
The lack of accountability and complacency at so many killings by the police and international forces was staggering, he said. His comments seemed at odds with NATO’s claims that civilian casualties had been greatly reduced.
He said international forces killed as many as 200 civilians in the first four months of this year, often in aerial bombings, but also in operations with Afghan forces. The Taliban had killed 300 civilians in the same time. They might be attacking military targets, but 95 per cent of their victims were civilians, he said, citing figures compiled by the UN.
His strongest criticism was for the two US bases – Camp Ghecko near Kandahar, and one in Nangarhar, an eastern province.
“It is absolutely unacceptable for heavily armed internationals accompanied by heavily armed Afghan forces to be wandering around conducting dangerous raids that too often result in killings without anyone taking responsibility,” he said in his report.
The New York Times
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/05/16/1210765174205.html
By Jim Goodwin on 05.17.08 9:31 pm
Accompanied by the CASCADE EFFECT arising from the ABCP SCAM, Sub-Prime Mortgages and other financial misadventures.
TROUBLE IN LI PARADISE
FORECLOSURES LOOMING FOR THE HAMPTONS’ POSHEST PADS
In the first three months of this year, banks have launched preliminary foreclosure actions – known as lis pendens proceedings – against a record 120 borrowers in East Hampton and Southampton towns.
Twenty percent of those borrowers live in homes that are worth more than $1 million, according to figures from the Suffolk County clerk.
And the list gets longer every week.
“This problem didn’t even exist before,” said John Brady, a broker with Coldwell Banker in East Hampton. “They used to pop up once in a while, and you wouldn’t even pay attention. Now you expect to see new ones every week.”
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05122008/news/regionalnews/trouble_in_li_paradise_110497.htm?page=0
Who will fly me onto the deck of the HMCS Bonaventure? … So I can DECLARE, “Mission Accomplished!”
http://corrigan.ca/may18-08.gif
Can you sneeze and say HORSESHIT at the same time? I CAN.
Evening, or morning, Greg. What a day! What reading and thinking here today…ThyssenKrupp…I learned they merged in 1999; Krupp being a munitions company/convicted Nuremberg war criminals- the family, that is Alfred; and Uncle Karl…yes, of course. We all must include him in our deliberations, I think. I have more reading to do on this, thanks for more pieces in “my” big picture/puzzle. As for my perspective, it is enhanced and enlarged by coming here (thanks Garth) and meeting with you all. It hurts my gut and breaks my heart too, will a helmet even matter with this foe? I’m there anyway Greg. FOR REAL. The fight MATTERS. My feelings with regard to the criminal LOBBYING, manufacture of war on all it’s various levels and my “place as a citizen of this world”?…ah, I was at one time, cosmopolitan, now my chosen Truth- We HAVE no everlasting city here!! I take comfort in that, keeps the melancholy at bay and the despair from overwhelming me. How else could I bring myself to learn some of this? PS Greg, today, I mean Saturday at 521pm you wrote about innocence, (you’re a bitter-sweet writer, person) so sorry about to hear that. I still have a little…I laugh when I see or think of Butters’- a fine comrade- “Professor Chaos”,(south park?)- humour is a saving Grace for me, too…have a wonderful Queen Victoria Day, friend. Thanks for your lessons. CREATE DEMOCRACY-REJECT THE FACADE!!
By William Laidlaw on 05.17.08 6:28 pm
I hear you William, but…
I’m having doubts about who C.B. Innes represents and what her own agenda is. I dearly hope I’m wrong (and I’ve had a past of being wrong before) as she’s obviously gifted with intelligence and her will for the most part is good, but in short, I don’t have much trust at this point in who she claims to support.
I believe she’s a lefty (left right labels do suck to be truthful, but I’m going to use it this time round) and I don’t mind, thats not it. Ultra left, no biggie, the Libs need a left component to balance the party, the Libs are rebuilding, its good to look inward with criticisms and a leftist view rounds things out… unless one proposes nationalizing all foreign owned resources in Canada creating economic damage here and abroad and creating the very risk of war by the ones south of us, not to mention put millions out of work, lefties are ok with me.
(wups, looks like a rant coming)
Nationalizing assets? It can be done over decades with principles, logic and transparency in mind, but not overnight and I’m akin to a plan for such an end in the long run in terms of the goal of 50% Can owned resources in energy and mining over decades long timelines, which we own what… 15% of our energy? Less? I’m high on an expanded fed/provincial tax base and lower taxation for all, domestic ownership, expanded GDP, is there a better way to do it? Some righties say there is.
Can corps participate in globalization majorly just as much as the rest of the western world, one quick look at the markets tells all in terms of where we mind and drill for resources. And then there’s our own private investment as shareholders (and that goes both ways too, as a good chunk of Canadian corps are majority owned by foreign investors, but we get the tax revenues, a very huge point!) We go 100% nationalist, and it gets awefully hard if not impossible to have it both ways. 50% domestically owned, yes. 100%? No… its completely unfair to foreign investors abroad who’ve invested here already, but aside from this complete lack of principle in doing so, theres a major risk in losing the percentages of GDP spinoff our participation in ownership of other nations assets and pure lefties don’t want to admit the risk to losing such revenues, but the risk in going 100%nationally is there (if it doesn’t get us all broke in a trade war or worse, shot up in an ugly war by a nation who spends 14% plus of its GDP on defense first).
Trudeau was dead on with his vision of an NEP when one really thinks about it. Brainwashed tards like Harry don’t know it (that politeness thing, should I work on that?), but if Trudeau would have had his way, this nation would now likely have created enough internal federal taxation to erase the entire national debt, have Albertans living like Saudi’s, or both. But Trudeau made two fatal mistakes. He didn’t have the public will of Alta before introducing his vision because he needed to create Alta ownership of Alta’s own resources and that wasn’t his plan. And he lost the media war badly directly as a result of the same swamp that Harper crawled out of in his 5 years before late 01′ and that same organization that was pumping propaganda out west in the 70’s against the NEP was none other than Harpers National Citizens Coalition. That media war spun it West vs East and the west got so brainwashed by U.S. oil corps and NCC propaganda and so worked up with a venomous hatred for the east, that the U.S. lobbyists won.
No surprises here as to what Harpers agenda is… still. Same old same O.
And I’m a social Con/Lib/NDP/Green/other at heart, whatever human and life right component they offer that is fair and functional is my own goal, I’ll be unabashed about it. Haven’t got much time for bigots like Harry and his NCC led talking points.
But I have a self defined rigid set of principles, logically am ultra centrist when it comes to the economy, am a patriot through and through, especially when it comes to fighting against crooked trade, trade wars and U.S. foreign policy corporate led incessant want to own us outright, (could use the word “hate” to describe their coup of the Conservative party) and what I have little to no tolerance for is someone who uses false info to smear a party, any party, in a quest for power, don’t care who it is, its completely undemocratic… and in this age, people even some of the most intellectually gifted are sometimes surprisingly not what they seem.
And thats what saddens me. Lets just say that some things don’t add up with C.B., its a matter of record, and I can jump back two to three weeks to prove my suspicions any time I like. And if my suspicions are correct and come election time, things don’t wash with history repeating itself, I’ll make them very well known.
Like I said, its all a matter of record.
Hope I’m wrong, sometimes am. But right now, I don’t think so. Regardless of what happens, the future, as always, will unfold as it should.
And one last thing in keeping with the theme of Garths piece.
There is only one way to handle liars that smear…
Smear them right back with the truth. Publicly. And let democracy prevail.
Predictions… Harper is on his way out of the PMO before years end. Remember remember the fifth of November… October maybe. Can’t guess how the seats will break down ’til I see the candidates running and would like to see how Dion does in the debates. If May is there, that’ll be interesting for sure and cost all the parties to a degree if she is not. I believe Dion will support her presence and then look out! But must I have an opinion on everything? (wups) Tomarrow (make that today) is another day. Appreciate your thoughts as always, William.
Greg-was Mr. Coderre using the right words to describe a former Defence Minister as an “arms dealer”? I know all I care to about Iran-Contra, too…
those fiscally-irresponsible tax-and-spend “liberals”.
By Harry S on 05.17.08 9:17 pm
LOL I love this, its like the golden goose for the cons. It’s a great start to a bad ending, what more can you say or add to the conversation when someone says “fiscally irresponsible” and tries to lay it out on the Liberal table. lol
Well there con folks, perHAPs, perhaps….perhaps…. this is the time you looked at the last budget, you know the one, right? Where this neat little POS government spent us into the poor house? Hmm, strange how you can’t correlate CONservative with LIBERAL on that one eh?
Another minor detail in the con propaganda pay roll.
Mr Garth TurnerMP,
Worth seeing again! 2 1/2min
President Eisenhower Gives Fair Warning
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YDJnUi011ok
Mr. Garth TurnerMP,
I notice that the House of Commons is not sitting next week. Is this correct?
If so, are you holding any Town Hall meetings next week? Will they be posted on your blog town hall meetings page?
Ester commented here that there are mailing being hand delivered to homes in Halton whom don’t get home mail delivery to there door.
Is the hand out new information from you?
If so, could you post a link to the hand out on your blog so I could also have a change to read it?
Or are there some available at your Halton office for Halton residents?
Thanks in advance.
No the House is not sitting, and I am holding ome Town Hall meetings – but in the Vancouver area next week. As for the information being taken door-to-door by volunteers to new subdivisions, it is about the Liberal platform and my plan going forward, and you receive the same in your mail in the next few days. — Garth
GST cut, I have mentioned it before but what the heck, how much do you save when most stores have sale signs saying “We pay the GST” Yesterday it was cold and damp so off we tripped to the “Mall” of course I saw a couple of items: a nice watch and a sharp spring jacket (both fairly expensive) although I was only window shopping, I mentioned to the friendly sales person, “not now thanks perhaps when they go on sale” to which they both said (two separate stores) “I can knock the HST off for you”…..so that says to me the 2% GST drop was almost pointless compared to lowering taxes, y’all can still bargain but it is far better to bargain with cash in hand….then what the heck do I know being an retired person? My first job paid 25 cents an hour working form 7 am to 7 pm in the field of Wentworth county and loving every minute, so my penny saving on my morning coffee is fine, thanks Stevie bye!
Addendum:
Look South for a glimpse of an attack and smear CONservative election campaign all without foundation comming to your area and country soon.
Harry S. Flaherty has set a record for spenidng. He and his ilk almost broke Ontario, and now he is working on the whole country. Diefenbaker, recession, Mulroney, recession, and it is now looking like another recession with a Conservative government at the helm. The GST cut is useless unless you are buying large items. My income tax was initially increased by this government then the much touted cut was just a restoration of an earlier Liberal cut. Just who are the tax and spend guys.
By Jim Goodwin on 05.17.08 9:31 pm
Maybe it is Dalton McGuinty (Liberal Ontario Premier) who needs to wear Ontario’s economic problem. Examine his first four years of government. See anything prudent (policies or expenditures) there to help Ontario’s economy? Hardly!
See anything prudent (policies or expenditures) there to help Ontario’s economy? Hardly!
By Catherine on 05.18.08 6:22 am
Hey, BEANPOLE, merde avec pour cerveau, we’re all aware of your attempts to DEMONIZE Ontario’s premier. Maybe you could check with Flim Flam Dim Jim Flaherty to establish a more strict ‘talking points’ regime … perhaps a couple dozen pages smeared with the finest animal waste.
Even though you might adhere to Leasa’s admonition, to ‘not give it away for free,’ I still think you would have a major problem attracting bidders.
It’s bad business when your pimp discovers your yield for the evening was $2.10 … only to later discover each ‘client’ paid $.10 I hope you find that vial you mentioned in the past.
You should canvass Windsor to assess the impacts at the GM tranny plant and the Ford Essex engine plant, but DON’T fail to include that Hyundai Corporation has been made an offer of $1 Billion to locate an assembly plant in one of the southern “right-to-work” states, with a potential assembly workforce of 4,600.
Someone mentioned the Cadman affair above:
Looks like Harper is looking for revenge, and this time he wants blood spilled. His two well manipulated lap dogs, Poilievre and Moore have sent notice:
“very soon liberals will see….”
http://watch.ctv.ca/news/latest/no-charges/#clip53505
http://watch.ctv.ca/news/mike-duffy-live/friday-may-16-2008/#clip53519
All of Canada will be able to witness Harper’s rage in full affect.
stay tuned…….
Garth:
I guess that only leaves you with on choice……sue the Conservative Party of Canada for their defamatory comments attributed to you on their website. I understand that has become the proper government procedure in situations like this.
Brain
Bay St. is backing Dion on carbon tax shifting! I just don’t see how it could be interpreted any other way.”
Let me help you to see how it could be interpreted another way.
What’s good for Bay St. is good for the old guard party. Dion has a very large debt to satisfy in just a few weeks just as an example. I would love to use a phrase a family member used to say, but it’s a bit risque for public consumption. The essence of it is no-one does anything for free.
You should canvass Windsor to assess the impacts at the GM tranny plant and the Ford Essex engine plant, but DON’T fail to include that Hyundai Corporation has been made an offer of $1 Billion to locate an assembly plant in one of the southern “right-to-work” states, with a potential assembly workforce of 4,600.
By PYOTR PETROBITCH on 05.18.08 7:22 am
Good point.. especially the Ford Engine Plant. Unless things changed in the negotiations, thanks to the economic policy of McGuinty, that is being in the game with the US., they are going to reopen it!
What has Harper’s government done to help us compete against the US. states that offer $millions of incentives to the auto industry for them to relocate to their state? The real answer is not repeatable in front of pleasant company, but the jist is absolutely nothing… and the high dollar policy is a negative to ALL Canadian manufacturing, auto included.
Hey you Libbers – have you sent in your 1,100$ cheque to help Stephane Dion pay off his leadership loans – it’s only 800,000$ – surely, there is at least 800 of you that want to help out your leader.
By Catherine on 05.17.08 12:11 pm
Maybe it is Dalton McGuinty (Liberal Ontario Premier) who needs to wear Ontario’s economic problem. Examine his first four years of government. See anything prudent (policies or expenditures) there to help Ontario’s economy? Hardly!
By Catherine on 05.18.08 6:22 am
…gee folks – do you suppose Catherine just spends time trying to make partisan shots before checking things out?
Unbelievable, really it is – slug.
Bill-Muskoka – you’re probably right. Why does it take getting a little older to become interested in genealogy. I just started a couple of years ago to work on my family tree. When an elderly aunt died there was all kinds of stuff she had. When you are a kid and you hear things you don’t pay attention and now I’m racking my brains trying to remember the conversations of the elderly in my family. It’s truly an interesting journey. I’m trying to put together a binder/book sort of thing for my nieces and nephews so the info is there for them. I’ve traced my family back to 1634 in the US so far.
Hi John Duddy- “the war on ‘terror’ is bogus”…thanks for your perspective, I notice you use the term “Peacekeeper”, in your writing, bless you!! linda
Brain and C.B.,
having re-read your exchanges in the cold light of morning, have you considered the possibility that one of you was being sarcastic and the other too sensitive?
Save the cudgels for the “enemy”.
US to build vast prison in Afghanistan
WOW, Transnational Prisons are the latest investment opportunity. All courtesy, to be sure, of the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton megacorp. And you thought the Imperial Empire was only a fictional entity in Star Wars?
Yet, there are still a few honest, objecvtive folks around who know the difference between true need and politcal whorimongering.
Ohio township to feds: We don’t want your money
All we need to do is follow Nancy Reagan’s advice and ‘Just say NO!’
Ah, Sunday, the world still is rotating on its axis, Dion is still living in a dream world of intended success, Dion exudes confidence on green plan as we go about are lives sounding like the Soviet Admiral ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah!’
His message, in essence, is that it’s time for Canadians to put their money where their mouths are if they are serious about saving the planet.
…
“I am convinced that far too many political elites underestimate Canadians,” he explains. “When you speak to the minds and big hearts of our great people, good policies translate into good politics.
Eh? Stephane, tell you what…When you nationalize the damn oil companies who are raping us at the pumps and reduce the taxes YOU TAKE from us at the pumps, and regulate the commodities markets, give me a call. otherwise…BUGGER OFF!
You might try getting about the business of Canada as well and act like the Official Opposition by actually OPPOSING the assinine MINORITY Goobernment of Steve. Oh, and tell your friends, the ‘political elite’ we never elected them, and they are not going to run the show from behind their closed Ivory Tower doors. As Obi Wan said ‘There is another!’
You have it bassackwards Stephane, it is time for you to put your mouth where OUR money is to save the planet (yeah right, here is reality…We can do OUR part, but WE are not going to save the planet. Like George Carlin said ‘The planet’s doing just fine…It’s the people who are f—ked.’
BTW, we invested over $20,000 in new fuel efficient vehicle…Where is our REBATE? Oh yeah, so sorry, you were all in bed with the auto makers, and we missed out on that hard to get deal by 0.1 litre/100 kilometer. Another ‘deal’ from ODDAWAHAHAHAHA that evapourated faster than the gas we are forced to buy to continue our life and livelihood.
It’s so comforting to know that we now pay more for the damn car payments than we paid for for a mortgage on a home. add to that the insurance and operating costs and we are just Ducky Poo super finely unable to afford both. But then, we are realists who understand that thing called a balanced budget.
And as the Queen would say ‘We are NOT impressed!’
Hi Geoffrey L. Thanks for your 203am info re civilian Afghanee casualties. BTW, the first Hunter Thompson book I had the eye-opening pleasure to read was ‘Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail’. That was during the ‘Ken Starr prosecution’ time. I must re-read that someday… It helped me become the interested student of politics and life,I am.
Cadman questions linger
May 18, 2008 04:30 AM
According to the RCMP, there’s no evidence Conservative party officials broke the law back in 2005 when they tried to persuade Chuck Cadman, an independent Member of Parliament, to rejoin their ranks and topple Paul Martin’s Liberals in a confidence vote.
But that doesn’t mean Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his cohorts have no questions to answer. Now that the Mounties have closed their probe, the House of Commons ethics committee should open one of its own to shed some light on this sordid affair.
Just what did Conservative officials offer Cadman, who was dying of cancer, for his support? His wife, daughter and son-in-law say Cadman told them he was offered a $1 million “life insurance” deal.
The Conservatives deny any wrongdoing, but Harper has confirmed that party officials had discussions with Cadman about “financial issues” and “financial insecurity.” And Harper has said Cadman was made an offer, but “only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election.”
What financial issues? What insecurity? What exactly was Cadman offered and on what terms?
These are legitimate questions to put to politicians in power, even if the episode does not clear the higher hurdle of criminal wrongdoing, provable in a court of law.
In March, Jack Layton’s New Democrats teamed up with the Conservatives to prevent the ethics committee from looking into the Cadman affair on the grounds that the police should be left to do their work. Well, they have, and they came up empty-handed.
The New Democrats should now join the other opposition parties in backing an ethics probe into this murky affair.
….right on. Funny, isn’t it that the NDP make a big issue out of Moore looking at a picture of his girlfriend and his dog on his computer and yet when it comes to important things they back off – why? Because they want the Liberals to look bad so they can try to win a “few” seats rather than what’s good for Canadians. How pathetic can that be?
All of Canada will be able to witness Harper’s rage in full affect.
stay tuned …
By Daryn on 05.18.08 7:50 am
Fangs … A lot! Nobody, repeat like Mel Lastman would … NOOOOBBBBOOOODDDY believes what Harper, Moore or Boticelli Boy Poi-Poi Poilievre have to say on the matter. Meantime, I’m reviewing James Moore’s ‘lady and dog on the beach pictures,’ before I pass them to the NDP member in a London-area riding.
Linda,
the “arms dealer” as MND was O’Connor, who actually had worked as a lobbyist, not arms dealer as such. For a smear, though, it’s close enough. (He got a raw deal as Minister, in my opinion.)
Of far greater concern is the goodly number of generals and senior officers who get trained and experienced in developing requirements and buying things for the CF, then make the seamless transition to corporations selling things to the same CF.
Legally, there is no problem because the “cool-off” rules apply only at certain levels, but as a matter of integrity and objectivity, it stinks and, in my opinion, should be made impossibe.
Pyotr,
if you really want to park your butt on a razor blade made of HMCS Bonnie steel, I am sure that the Troll Patrol would be happy to arrange the flight.
Good that finally these vets get to tell the real story.
Published on Saturday, May 17, 2008 by OneWorld.net
Iraq Veterans Describe Atrocities to Lawmakers
by Aaron Glantz
WASHINGTON – Antiwar veterans of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan took their case to Capitol Hill Thursday, baring their souls with stories of killings of innocent civilians, torture, and wrongful detentions.
“On several occasions our convoys came upon bodies that had been lying on the road, sometimes for weeks,” said Marine Corps veteran Vincent Emanuele, who served in al-Qaim near the Syrian border in 2004 and 2005.
“When encountering these bodies standard procedure was to run over the corpses, sometimes even stopping and taking pictures, which was also standard practice when encountering the dead in Iraq,” he told the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which organized the hearing.
Emanuele also said that U.S. military personnel often took “pot shots” at cars passing by.
“Our rules of engagement stated that we should first fire warning shots into the ground in front of the car, then the engine block, and the windshield. That is if the car was even moving in the first place,” he said. “Many times cars that actually had pulled off to the side of the road were also shot at.”
Thursday’s hearing was an outgrowth of an event in Maryland earlier this year called “Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan – Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations.” For four days in March, dozens of veterans of the two wars testified about atrocities they personally committed or witnessed while deployed overseas.
At the time, many of the veterans expressed a desire to take their case to Capitol Hill. Thursday they got their wish.
Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, addressed a panel of veterans at the start of the hearing.
“We now have an opportunity to hear not from the military’s top brass but directly from you,” she said, “the very soldiers who put your lives on the line to carry out this president’s failed policies.”
Nine veterans of the Iraq war told their stories before members of Congress and a packed gallery. One of the veterans had also served in Afghanistan. About 40 veterans were in the audience.
The veterans spoke about extremely lax rules of engagement handed down by commanding officers, which they said virtually guaranteed atrocities would be committed, and which in turn created a violent backlash among Iraqi people and a continued cycle of violence.
To read more see:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/17/9026/
It just gets worse folks.
THE NEW WORLD DISORDER
7-year plan aligns U.S.
Rules, regs to be integrated
——————————————————————————–
Posted: January 16, 2008
1:00 am Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com
Six U.S. senators and 49 House members are advisers for a group working toward a Transatlantic Common Market between the U.S. and the European Union by 2015.
The Transatlantic Policy Network – a non-governmental organization headquartered in Washington and Brussels – is advised by the bi-partisan congressional TPN policy group, chaired by Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah.
The plan – currently being implemented by the Bush administration with the formation of the Transatlantic Economic Council in April 2007 – appears to be following a plan written in 1939 by a world-government advocate who sought to create a Transatlantic Union as an international governing body.
An economist from the World Bank has argued in print that the formation of the Transatlantic Common Market is designed to follow the blueprint of Jean Monnet, a key intellectual architect of the European Union, recognizing that economic integration must inevitably lead to political integration.
Read more at:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59713
Garth, If you are to be in Van. next week, how about a visit to Vancouver Island North?
The Neo-cons and Dippers (Union reps up here they represent the union views ONLY) hold the fort.
We NEED someone like you to start the ball rolling for change for the better.
Our left / right bipolarism is destroying this riding. We need to have a better view of the centre like you can point out.
When I was a mere E-1 in the Marines our pay was a whopping $81 per month
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.17.08 10:14 pm
Good thing the Beer was cheap eh?
Could pollution have anything to do with it???
By kpn on 05.17.08 6:56 pm
Yes, but more likely in your olfactory senses. Remember that all sense of taste is actually due to the sensors in our nose. The tongue can only sense bitter/sweet/sour. So, if the ‘taste’ i.e., the flavour has diminished it may well be due to allergies or other nasal afflictions including age.
I suggest doing a comparison test. Cook some food your way, and get a sample of the same food stuff from a hospital. They have the technology to miraculously extract any flavour whatsoever from hospital food you know? LOL
“Fangs … A lot! Nobody, repeat like Mel Lastman would … NOOOOBBBBOOOODDDY believes what Harper, Moore or Boticelli Boy Poi-Poi Poilievre have to say on the matter.”
By PYOTR PETROBITCH on 05.18.08 9:02 am
I agree,
Daryn
….right on. Funny, isn’t it that the NDP make a big issue out of Moore looking at a picture of his girlfriend and his dog on his computer and yet when it comes to important things they back off – why? Because they want the Liberals to look bad so they can try to win a “few” seats rather than what’s good for Canadians. How pathetic can that be?
By slg on 05.18.08 8:55 am
You just “Don’t” have your view of the Dippers right.
THEY do NOT represent the “LEFT” or “social” side of the political spectrum.
They are ONLY for what is good for the UNIONS.
Just take a close look at their representatives. Many are full time members of a UNION.
My MP, Catherine Bell is a union rep.
Typical of the NDP.
Just look it up. The NDP is now held by the union movement.
Thats why they voted WITH the Neo-Cons on the “Tax Fairness” screwing.
Whats good for BIG business is good for the union.
Oh, and regarding the presumption of innocence CC is on about. We also presume intelligence, but she confirms that is not always true either.
I suspect she was the model for my beer bottle cover’s physics lesson ‘Because Light Travels Faster Than Sound, You Appear Intelligent Until You Speak!’
Hi Geoffrey L. on 05.18.08 1:49 am,
‘Okay folks.. what if I told you that I am applying for a job with CSE or CSIS.. and my girlfriend used to hang out with Hells Angels.. do you think that they would hire me if I told them that?’
So you think it is ok to lie on an application or other legal documents?
If the people looking at the application are critical-thinkers they would see that it isn’t you that is in the hells angles, But you just happen to know someone that knows someone how may have been involved or still maybe involved.
No one has said that she is not a law-abiding citizen. But wouldn’t you want it check out before a person had access to sensitive National information?
Unless you also have stuff to try and hide? It looks fishy to me.
I have not heard PMSH & his gang say in QP that she was cleared by our national security offices before hand! What kind of clowns do we have running Ottawa now?
For Canada’s National Security I’d like that person and all persons to be check out’ before’ they are allowed to be exposed to sensitive information!
Wouldn’t a security check have been a prudent thing to do in the first place?
By Greg on 05.18.08 8:20 am
To me, Greg, its simple. This world is facing two monumental problems.
1) Over consumption
2) Over population
Answer. Conservation and population control.
Getting back to Bay St., a taxation plan suggested by the Liberals that are likely at best to form a minority will need the backing of Canadian Corporations to go forward. Is there something in it for them? Of course. There has to be. And there is, with corporate tax cuts, its the only way to get them on board. But what, personal income tax cuts won’t be shaved as well? The plan will be fair to business only? And whats good for Bay St. is always going to be bad for the nation? I highly, highly doubt it.
The long and short of it is simple. If Bay St. is backing it, then who is against it in the business world? Try our international competition. Try the U.S. multinational lobbyist NCC puppet plant Harper and his Republican friends.
Some of us have a dislike (to say the least) with all businesses/corporations in general in part due to their practices which often counters labour, has a main goal to make money (profit) and they waste (pollution). And maybe we don’t like paycheques or individual ownership or jobs because without these businesses, thats our alternative and the waste, the pursuit of prestige and material lifestyle will not leave regardless so like it or hate it, we need our Canadian businesses unless, like I say, we like the concept of the state owning and running everything. Do we need U.S. corps owning our nation? Hardly. But we sure need our own corps, love ‘em or hate ‘em and whats bad for Bay St. is bad for Canada in ways people ideologically cannot grasp, make no mistake.
And make no mistake that media often confuses Can corp will with international will and that doesn’t help. And too, just as CEO’s and business leaders lobby governments for self interests, what union leaders don’t either? Who doesn’t?
Nevertheless, the conclusion is simple. We expect alot out of the feds and for good reason. But should we expect our MP’s to be enterpeneurs, solving every single crisis we face in every walk of life? Think about it… they tax, they spend, and they pass laws or should I say more accurately, tweak the system that governs this country. Should we expect them to start crown corps that mirror the TSX in size and number as well? I’m not saying this to you specifically, Greg, but, lets be realistic.
Take Dions tax plan for an example. If we can’t get on board with a consumption tax that includes tax breaks for corps and individuals alike, a tax that forces us to become more consumer efficient on one hand with tax relief on income as a reward on the other, then there’s a major disconnect in not realizing how serious the magnitude of the environmental crisis’s we face truly are, who’s really behind denying that its not so and not just that, but how important a role Canada truly plays in all of this.
Europe isn’t sure what to do. There are presently no true working models with tax structure in mind to force consumers to consume effeciently without punnishing them for it. Cap and trade is just passing the buck from what I can tell, we need something that actually gets results and we need to be realistic in terms of what governments can do to achieve the goal of reduced energy consumption without running red ink, and we need to make it simple cause MP’s along with your average Joe, just aren’t Entrepeneurs and Einsteins and that isn’t just the way it is here, but in every nation so in short, we need a simple yet effective, working model of taxation that forces consumers to reduce consumption without punnishing business and consumers over it… a working model that all nations can adopt.
And if we are going to take our dictation from the New Cons who take their dictation from corporate Amerika and do nothing for the environment, then we’ve got major pycological issues as the Harry’s of the world clearly reveal.
By brain on 05.18.08 1:17 am
What a sobering list.
Good thing the Beer was cheap eh?
By Greg on 05.18.08 9:51 am
Actually, if I recall, beer was about $1.50 to $2.50 a bottle back then, even at the EM Club. Many of us made extra money doing haircuts and laundry. Fortunately, I got a promotion and small increase (to $92-95 per month if I recall 40 some years ago correctly) before I finished Basic and Combat training. before then we could not even have a candy bar, much less a beer…they were called Pogey bait! LOL
By the time I hit my regular duty station I was an E-2, then an E-3, so things improved very slightly.
I am still wondering who the genius at the Pentagon was that thought serving fried baloney and baked beans for Sunday breakfast was a gourmet entree? Yeah, that sure sat well on a stomach still churning from Saturday night. LOL
The C-Rations packed in 1943 were pretty good compared to the mess hall chow we got at times. Isn’t irradiation wonderful? Imagine eating food packaged before you were born? That is how Chef Boyardee got their start BTW, packaging canned C-Rats for the DoD under a huge contract. Oh, and then there was SPAM!
Today they have MRE’s (Meals Rejected by Everyone, aka, Meals rejected by Ethipoians).
Unlike the British and Canadian Forces we did not get a daily Rum (Beer) allowance. In fact, alcoholic beverages are forbidden aboard ship in the U.S. Military.
Wouldn’t a security check have been a prudent thing to do in the first place?
By Greg W., Oakville on 05.18.08 10:52 am
Just watch any James Bond movie to see that anyone 007 sleeps with a security risk!
Hi Daryn on 05.18.08 7:50 am,
Have you been paying attention?
Do you actually watch QP daily and completely?
Or do allow the Corporate run media to filter your information?
Their bosses/owners do not pay them to tell us what we really need to know!
You can find a link on Garth MPtv page, to see QP daily, on demand, for your self.
The RCMP has not come up will enough hard evidence to stand up in our free and independent Canadian court of law, to lay charges. It doesn’t mean that the law wasn’t broken, just that they can’t find hard evidence/written records that they’d need in court to make it stick.
But PMSH has never answered the question about what was offered Mr. Cadman.
You need to hear ‘the tape’ for your self!
(Perhaps someone here can post a link to the tape again?)
What kind of world do you want to live in and have your children grow up in?
Have you read this?
Naomi Wolf: Fascist America, in 10 easy steps.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/24/usa.comment
You should also see her talk, 48min,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc
This is also an eye opener,
America: Freedom to Fascism – Director’s Authorized Version
America: Freedom to Fascism – Director’s Authorized Version – 111 min – May 5, 2007
BY: Aaron Russo.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173
How did we get hear? One point of view;
Zeitgeist – The Movie
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5547481422995115331
Have you seen;
Loose Change 2nd Edition (2006) 1hr 22min
(It’s about 911 being an inside job!
Are you a critical-thinker?
Are you well informed?)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7866929448192753501
Have you ever read?
‘Plato’s: Allegory Of The Cave’.
You should!
The Allegory of the Cave, 7min video,
(Read to you, with modern images.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ei7LqbYb8M&feature=related
And just to say it again.
Do you know about ‘peak-oil’ and what it really means!
See movie and the extra stuff on the DVD.
‘A Crude Awakening The Oil Crash.’ (2006)
http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/
(I think there is a down load on this site?
Or you can rent the movie.)
Hi Geoffrey L. on 05.18.08 12:20 pm,
But does 007 take them into work?
Were not talking about a 007 movie!
Just watch any James Bond movie to see that anyone 007 sleeps with a security risk!
By Geoffrey L. on 05.18.08 12:20 pm
True, however, Oddawahahaha is NOT a Hollywood movie set, albeit, it could be a regular show on the Comedy Channel, but who is laughing?
Hi Greg on 05.18.08 8:20 am,
Maybe the people on Bay St. have families and are looking at there own common best interests, for them selves and their families. Not all the people at the top of the ladder are Sociopaths you know. Some are even informed critical-thinkers!
Have you bothered to see;
‘How it all Ends’ 10min
http://wonderingmind42.com/?page=1
The Most IMPORTANT Video You’ll Ever See (part 3 of
10min
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFyOw9IgtjY
‘A Crude Awakening The Oil Crash’
2006 movie with the extra stuff on the DVD rental.
http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/
Hi kpn on 05.18.08 9:22 am,
‘The veterans spoke about extremely lax rules of engagement handed down by commanding officers, which they said virtually guaranteed atrocities would be committed, and which in turn created a violent backlash among Iraqi people and a continued cycle of violence.’
Something else to think about,
Isn’t that what the USA war machine/Bush Neo-Cons what?
You don’t think they want peace?
They’d need to leave Iraq and the 12 permanent military bases they have built there!
Halliburton and Black Water would loose billions in contracts, just to name two!
The Billions the USA is borrowing from other Countries.
Fallow the Money and Corruption, to the very top! F*** everyone else.
The real answer is not repeatable in front of pleasant company, but the jist is absolutely nothing…and the high dollar policy is a negative to ALL Canadian manufacturing, auto included.
By James- Chatham on 05.18.08 8:29 am
Flim Flam Dim Jim Flaherty [Flairity] (Flayherty) has provided S.F.A.*** for Ontario despite his professed concern for ‘his province.’ Remember his ‘lack of confidence’ in Ontario as a place to invest … his refusaal to match McGuinty’s $30 Million at Ford Essex.
***S.F.A. ISN’T SEPARATED FAMILY ALLOWANCE
I really don’t know why you’re polite to these bastards, James!
Hi kpn on 05.18.08 9:42 am
Thanks for the info/link.
Did you hear PMSH has ordered electronic voting machines?
Have you heard of hackers and hostile foreign powers?
Never vote on or have your vote counted by a machine! Our will all be Screwed forever!!!
if you really want to park your butt on a razor blade made of HMCS Bonnie steel, I am sure that the Troll Patrol would be happy to arrange the flight.
By Herb on 05.18.08 9:10 am
As you know, Harper’s Bizarre loves to emulate that macaque to the south. For the trolls you can specify TRACII which I use sparingly now that the beard and handlebar are at full flourish. Rasputin be back … an’ he be damned mad!
What was that Steve? Dim Jim was saying ‘The Economy is OK?’ Whose economy…the overpaid morons in Parliament and Calgary?
Canadians park road-trip plans as gasoline prices soar
A new poll has found that 32 per cent of Canadians won’t be taking road trips this summer. More than half of them (52 per cent) say they would like to, but fuel costs are too high.
Congrats Oddawahahaha you have just SCREWED most of the tourism industry out of their livlihood sucking the arse of the irresepnible commodities gamblers.
I see the Black Flies and ‘gnatsies’ are out. More blood suckers on the prowl for our flesh.
By Greg W., Oakville on 05.18.08 1:07 pm
By the time someone actually allows an election fuel prices will be too high to afford to go to the polls. ‘Park it…Don’t mark it’ will be the refrain!
I wonder how good of fuel those election signs are? Back in 1975, when the oil was too costly, too scarce, the old farmers hauled out there antique steam tractors and fired them with corn cobs to get their harvests in. Save those cobs from summer BBQ’s, you will need them for heat this winter with the fine leadershit we have in Oddawahahaha.
‘Okay folks.. what if I told you that I am applying for a job with CSE or CSIS.. and my girlfriend used to hang out with Hells Angels.. do you think that they would hire me if I told them that?’
By Greg W., Oakville on 05.18.08 10:52 am
I can virtually guarantee that you would not get security clearance. In fact, if you were found to have provided any kind of false information on your application the chances that you would get through the investigation process is unlikely.
However, the Prime Minister can over ride the recommendations of CSIS and the RCMP at least with regard to members of his cabinet. In fact, I understand that one of Chretien’s cabinet ministers was appointed against the recommendation of the RCMP because of his questionable associates.
If the RCMP or CSIS informed the Prime Minister of problems, only he could make the decision to ignore their report.
We had electronic voting machines for our last municipal election – no problems. Why? Because there was a “paper trail”. Much like an adding machine tape. Everything could be checked and validated.
If we’re going to that – a paper trail MUST be part of the package.
Hey Bill, I spend many a Friday night in the good ode wets and it was called nickle night 5 cents a glass and the opt word was : ” Hey waiter, drop a tray” a tray of beer is 20 glasses…. and weepers in the EM club San Juan PR. was 10 cents a shot and it was nothing to order 10 doubles, cuts down on line ups ha ha…….oh to be young and foolish again, then we were off to dance until the bar closed…. but I digress to good ode Real Estate, took a trip to the Annapolis Valley for lunch, never saw so may For Sale signs by an outfit called Property Guys (Sell your own home) so I guess Garth more people are finding ways to cut service costs, this of course will lead to other avenues to pay for rising gas prices coupled with Flaherty’s miss management of our surplus dollars….oh well we will have mountains of cash for those “Battleships” ???????? what’s his name mentioned on CBC’s Politics on Friday night…along with Harper announcement (s) in Dartmouth?????
Never vote on or have your vote counted by a machine! Our will all be Screwed forever!!!
By Greg W., Oakville on 05.18.08 1:07 pm
Oh oyu mean the one we have now means something? Not when MPs are told how to vote, that automatically denies the constituency a say in the process, I say bring on the machines, let them rig the elections, I don’t think it will make any difference at all, democracy is dead in Canada and has been for a few years, the only people who don’t know it are the voters…you get what you deserve!
Unlike the British and Canadian Forces we did not get a daily Rum (Beer) allowance. In fact, alcoholic beverages are forbidden aboard ship in the U.S. Military.
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.18.08 12:03 pm
Sadly Bill, It is no more. They (some mean spirited bean counter no doubt) cancelled it as it was seen to be a detriment to good order. (Truth, Naaa. It was to cut costs. To hell with moral.)
—————————————
I see the Black Flies and ‘gnatsies’ are out. More blood suckers on the prowl for our flesh.
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.18.08 1:34 pm
The good side of this is that with less human blood available the black fly population will be reduced dramaticly as with only you to feed them I am sure that you will run out of blood sooner than you will black flies
The remaining flies will just die off and not reproduce.
A good thing????????
(Oh how I remember the black flies of the Perry Sound area.)
Ever hear of the “Black Fly Lounge in Ardbeg?
Been there done that.
will a helmet even matter with this foe?
My feelings with regard to the criminal LOBBYING, manufacture of war on all it’s various levels and my “place as a citizen of this world”?…ah, I was at one time, cosmopolitan, now my chosen Truth- We HAVE no everlasting city here!! I take comfort in that, keeps the melancholy at bay and the despair from overwhelming me. How else could I bring myself to learn some of this?
PS Greg, today, I mean Saturday at 521pm you wrote about innocence, (you’re a bitter-sweet writer, person) so sorry about to hear that. I still have a little…I laugh when I see or think of Butters’- a fine comrade- “Professor Chaos”,(south park?)- humour is a saving Grace for me,
By linda on 05.18.08 2:42 am
Some treasure in your writing today Linda.
You ask a very good question. Will it even matter? I think that is something everyone has to decide for themselves. Everyone also has to decide what it is they think they can accomplish and how. Reality and history should dictate that. Reality tells us that those who control our system, strive to put a preformed, mechanically deboned chicken in every pot in order to placate the masses. History tells us that a people, as a whole, do not react until circumstances are extreme, and even then only if empowered to do so. That takes organized leadership and the means. Our means has been reduced by recent past liberal governments. The leadership is fractured.
I could use this blog and a couple more to gather enough intelligent and experienced and visionary people to run a government superior to what we have. Superior to what we have had for some time. I say this as I understand that deputy ministers/etc. and their personnel carry out the daily operations of government.
The reason Harper muzzles his people is that they were out of power for so long, they have limited practice in the art of dodge, deflect, mislead and posture arrogantly. Unlike the liberals.
I watched a video of Bob Rae in debate prior to the bye-election and he was posturing on an issue with young Chris Tindal of the Green Party. He pompously challenged Tindal to provide hard evidence right then and there, which he knew Tindal couldn’t. After the bye election, Tindal did provide hard evidence. So what did I learn? I learned that Bob Rae is more experienced at running a political bluff, and hollow pompous postulating and that young Tindal was more knowledgeable, sincere and less experienced in the delivery of the shell game. That’s only a beginning for me Linda.
You referred to the criminal LOBBYING, manufacture of war. It’s not just war, that’s only a part of it.
I was standing in a favorite store yesterday, looking at the frozen mock crab 225g packets and was surprised that for the 3rd week this was still offered for 50 cents. I picked up the packet and carefully read the label. It said the product was made from Alaskan Pollock, and processed in China. I live on the East Coast of Canada. Think about the journey this product has made. Fished off the coast of Alaska, shipped to China, then shipped thousands of kilometers to the far reaches of eastern Canada. Now here is my point. Mr. Dion wants to sell us a carbon tax scheme, but has made no reference to trade, of this nature or what he might intend to do about that. We have fish in our ocean. Lot’s of it. We can’t process this type of product here? Someone asked recently why they can’t buy a can of fish in the grocery store that doesn’t come from China or Thailand? We have Salmon, and Tuna here. Clams, mussels, oysters all of that. They used to fish Tuna 50 Klms from where I live. I expect they still do, but likely goes to giant retail grocers as tuna steaks. Don’t know what happens to what can’t be steaked. The rest can be harvested at my doorstep, but we don’t see it on the shelves in grocery stores. We see it in restaurants where big prices can be obtained. Also, I can’t just go fish. I have to have a license. I can’t get a license for most of the species. If I tried to set out a couple of lobster pots, I would end up in court being treated like a criminal in my own land.
What is Mr. Dion and his ilk doing about shipping Alaskan Pollock across the pacific ocean in refrigerated ships then back half way around the world in freezer ships? How is a 14 billion dollar carbon tax going to do anything about that I ask? Would anyone care to take a stab at the carbon footprint created there? Would anyone like to consider that the industry is not the mock crab, but in fact the entirety of production and transportation thereof and the realities of the entire concept of global trade and capitalization? Business networking.
I don’t just make this stuff up.
Lastly Linda, humor. Try not to lose it.
My point is that spies have traditionally gotten beneath the sheets with their targets in positions of power. I can provide numerous references to this. Bernier has blown his security clearance. In this circumstance, yes Canadians want to know what is happening in the bedroom.
Re Greg and Bill in Muskoka on cheap beer and gourmet military breakfasts:
Bill: “I am still wondering who the genius at the Pentagon was that thought serving fried baloney and baked beans for Sunday breakfast was a gourmet entree? Yeah, that sure sat well on a stomach still churning from Saturday night. LOL”
It was the Pentagon’s way of making you repent on Sunday morning for your sins of overindulgence on Saturday night.
“You think you feel bad now? Here. Try some of this! You don’t know what bad feels like yet, soldier.”
Howard Zinn, in his “People’s History of the United States” mentions the buyout clause for military service. It was there right from the beginning. If you were rich or knew somebody, you got a pass. Like the loathsome Cheney who had “better things to do”, the rich are rich because they are simply better and more valuable people and shouldn’t be wasted on the field of battle. (Sarcasm dripping heavily here.)
The late lamented Kurt Vonnegut wrote in his last book of collected short pieces released not long ago of people who love war in his short story “The Commandant’s Desk”:
“He said that the major and most of the enlisted men…had come from an apparently famous armored division, which, the captain implies, never knew fear or fatigue, and loved nothing better than a good fight…I clicked my tongue in wonderment as I always do when hearing of such a division. I have heard of them from American officers, German officers, Russian officers…”
“…When I hear of a division of war-lovers from an enlisted man, maybe I will believe it, provided the man is sober and has been shot at.”
And another bit from “Armageddon in Retrospect”. The drift of the story is that the reason for all the misery of the world is not the fault of man’s behaviour but results from humans being possessed by the devil. They’ve found a way to drive the demon from everyone in the U.S. (Other countries had searched and found that their populations were demon-free.)
“We estimated that [the equipment] would cost about $20,000,000,000, and about $70,000,000,000 more a year for batteries. As modern wars go, the price was about right. But we soon found that people weren’t inclined to go that high for anything less than killing each other.”
I read that bit this morning and immediately thought of the $150,000-a-pop GPS guided rockets.
The Taliban don’t wear a “T” on the tops of their heads or tattooed on their foreheads. The “insurgents” may be ordinary civilians who are avenging the death of their family members. The IED’s may be leftover mines and other ordnance from the wars that have raked Afghanistan for so many years.
The poor, the idealistic and the desperate are dying. The arms manufacturers and crooked government members are getting rich. Our country is becoming impoverished while paying for this crap while we trot along after the U.S “Holding the Bully’s Coat” as Linda McQuaig puts it.
We’ve got to stop.
I’ve cited this article before, but the conclusion haunts me.
“It is often believed that wars and military spending increases are good for the economy. In fact, most economic models show that military spending diverts resources from productive uses, such as consumption and investment, and ultimately slows economic growth and reduces employment.”
The true cost is measured by what has been forgone, by the accumulated deterioration in many facets of life by the inability to alleviate human wretchedness of long duration.”
http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=12248
By Greg on 05.18.08 2:19 pm
Excellent points on the real problem of Carbon outpouring in wasted transportation.
I also have to wonder how many of those ships Paul Martin owns? AHA!
Something else to think about,
Isn’t that what the USA war machine/Bush Neo-Cons what?
You don’t think they want peace?
They’d need to leave Iraq and the 12 permanent military bases they have built there!
Halliburton and Black Water would loose billions in contracts, just to name two!
The Billions the USA is borrowing from other Countries.
Fallow the Money and Corruption, to the very top! F*** everyone else.
By Greg W., Oakville on 05.18.08 1:01 pm
Agree Greg, its all about oil and the big military complex. The attack on Iraq was well planned before 9/11.
They’ve built the biggest US Embassy there.
By A.R.Wainwright on 05.18.08 2:13 pm
Ha! I have the secret magic cure for the Black Flies. Jack Daniels, McClelland’s Single Malt, and Tabasco Sauce. Here is how the Tabasco Sauce works, and it is entertaining.
Besides, my blood is Marine Green! LOL
No poltical rhetoric until later, a joke will suffice! . . .
****************************************
OOPS!
His request approved, the photographer used a cell phone to call the local airport to charter a flight. He was told a twin engine plane would be waiting for him at the airport.
Arriving at the airfield, he spotted a plane warming up outside a hanger. He jumped in with his bag, slammed the door shut, and shouted, ‘Let’s go’.
The pilot taxied out, swung the plane into the wind and took off. Once in the air, the photographer instructed the pilot, ‘Fly over the valley and make low passes so I can take pictures of the fires on the hillsides.’
‘Why?’ asked the pilot. ‘Because I’m a photographer for Fox Cable News,’ he responded. ‘And I need to get some close up shots.’
The pilot was strangely silent for a moment; finally he stammered,
‘So, what you’re telling me, is . . . you’re NOT my flight instructor?’
And for the Funnymentalists waiting for the rapture: Here is how it will all end!
Garth, why no new posting for nearly two days now?
In today’s fast-paced world, the news of
two days ago is nearly ancient history.
Two days ago the news was on the Mike Duffy report.
This is an insurpassable opportunity for Garth to make the headlines today, and to capture needed media attention right across this nation from coast to cooast to coast.
Garth, it is your turn to be in the lime light. Stand up to your leader as you have done before!
Ever hear of the “Black Fly Lounge in Ardbeg?
Been there done that.
By A.R.Wainwright on 05.18.08 2:13 pm
No, but I have now! LOL Lest you forget, the deer and moose are also blood sources for Black Flies. You should see the gnatsies in Yellowknife where the fridge magnet reads ‘Send more tourists, the last ones were delicious’ featuring a very large Skeeter.
What is Mr. Dion and his ilk doing about shipping Alaskan Pollock across the pacific ocean in refrigerated ships then back half way around the world in freezer ships? How is a 14 billion dollar carbon tax going to do anything about that I ask? Would anyone care to take a stab at the carbon footprint created there? Would anyone like to consider that the industry is not the mock crab, but in fact the entirety of production and transportation thereof and the realities of the entire concept of global trade and capitalization? Business networking.
By Greg on 05.18.08 2:19 pm
Another good example is east coast cod caught by Russian Trawlers, purchased by Canadian companies, shipped to China for processing using coal generated energy, and then shipped back for sale in Newfoundland where the people are prohibited from catching cod. How do you measure the carbon/environmental footprint of this?
If a Bay Street middleman finances the production of canned peach trade with China, now that the peach canning industry in Ontario is being eliminated, who will pay for the carbon tax generated by the additional transportation costs to Canadian markets? Will it be the importer who will pass it on to the consumer and at the same time get the corporate tax cuts or will it be a direct tax on the consumer?
By Greg on 05.18.08 8:20 am
To me, Greg, its simple. This world is facing two monumental problems.
1) Over consumption
2) Over population
Answer. Conservation and population control.
By brain on 05.18.08 11:31 am
Hmm.. It matters how you go about it.
Firstly Brain, the initial error you make is assuming that anything is necessarily simple. That’s the basis of my concerns. What should be simple, isn’t. And you know why? Because certain people who ply for their own interests convolute things so they can exercise the age old strategy of bullshit baffles Brains. They make things purposely complicated so most folks just fade away and put their faith in the carpetbaggers who have put a preformed mechanically deboned chicken in their pot without understanding that these very people heavily skim the fruits of their labor, and never take risks like farmers and build million dollar chipboard mansions, drive mercedes, and when the house of cards shake..
why, they come to the very people who they use, to bail them out. The taxpayers of any given country. Put all the evidence together and stop believing in false idols.
And, do you realize this contradicts your previous posts?
“The long and short of it is simple. If Bay St. is backing it, then who is against it in the business world? Try our international competition. Try the U.S. multinational lobbyist NCC puppet plant Harper and his Republican friends.”
Who does Bay St. represent? Who is Bay St.? Do you get it yet?
Kindly refer to my post to Linda. I will look at the rest of your post later, but as I read over it I found it to be a bit rambling so if you could clean it up a bit, so an old man can understand it better, I would appreciate it. My Son is bugging me to stop blogging so I must acquiesce. He too doesn’t understand many things.
By CM on 05.18.08 2:58 pm
LOL, Thanks for the comment.
I agree, when I hear of a division of enlisted personel, and especially seasoned NCO’s tell of how perfect their division was/is, I might believe it.
As to fear, if you didn’t feel fear in combat your were either brain dead, on drugs, too stupid to be more than cannon fodder, a primo candidate for a Section 8, already dead, or perhaps one of the current CON Trolls, who meet all the above, except the last! LOL.
The true cost is measured by what has been forgone, by the accumulated deterioration in many facets of life by the inability to alleviate human wretchedness of long duration.”
http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=12248
By CM on 05.18.08 2:58 pm
Thanks CM for that post.
To David Bakody and Bill M re price of beer, etc.
In 70/71 when I worked at NATO in Brussels, we’d go to the cafeteria around 10 am. The tables where the military (from most nations) sat were so filled with drafts that you couldn’t see the table top. IIRC, it was dirt cheap at the time. At noon time, you could buy a small bottle of wine (like they used to provide with your meal on an airplane) for about $.30. Food was good & cheap too. They also had 2 dining rooms, where we would occasionally go (on pay days). As we got our booze and certain food stuffs duty free, everyone had a ‘bar’ and you never offered tea or coffee to anyone. I didn’t indulge much in those days so it cost me very little. Its true tho Bill that Cdns who were in the military on bases here in Cda and overseas paid very little for beer & booze.
BTW Bill, I went out with various American chaps stationed at the air force base in Plattsburg, N.Y. Was a bit serious about one, but he had such bad eating manners that I broke up with him. Was prolly too young at the time to say anything. Plus, I really wanted to see a bit of the world. His dream back then was to become an accountant when he got out and earn $10K a year. Sounds funny now.
Garth, why no new posting for nearly two days now?
In today’s fast-paced world, the news of
two days ago is nearly ancient history.
Two days ago the news was on the Mike Duffy report.
This is an insurpassable opportunity for Garth to make the headlines today, and to capture needed media attention right across this nation from coast to cooast to coast.
Garth, it is your turn to be in the lime light. Stand up to your leader as you have done before!
By Skip on 05.18.08 3:42 pm
He’s got better things to do Skip. When will we see one of your con-troll MP’s hosting a blog that allows people who support all parties to post their comments without the dissenting voices being deleted. Many of your con blogs don’t even allow that.
By Charles Oxley on 05.18.08 3:34 pm
ROFLMAO! HILARIOUS!
By kpn on 05.18.08 4:02 pm
Like Zed said in MiB ‘You’re everything we’ve come to expect from government training!’ Manners are taught to Marines (hard to tell I know), but the rest are pretty much ‘What their parents taught them is what you are going to get!’
Here I have spent the entire afternoon trying to accurately remember what booze cost. I came to the conclusion that Dudley Moore’s Butler, Sir John Guilgood was correct in ‘Crazy people’ wehen he said ‘Sir, drinking may affect your decision making ability!’ To which Dudley replied ‘You may be right. I haven’t been able to decide!’ LOL
All I remember now is I never had enough money to do most of the things I wanted to like taking a bus on weekends, building radio controlled model airplanes, of going home.
But, gee, I did get to blow things up! LOL Eat strange food that noone dared identify, and play with really expensive equipment like Phantom II jets. BTW, the food aboard ship we very good, and very plentiful.
If we’re going to that – a paper trail MUST be part of the package.
By slg on 05.18.08 1:52 pm
You hit the nail on the head there – without a paper trail, the election can be cooked.
That being said, the present system has the paper trail, and enough people involved that they can’t all be subverted – it isn’t broken, so there is no need to fix it.
As soon as a politician suggests that we should fix something that isn’t broken, I immediately get suspicious – what’s in it for them?
Be vigilant folks – and remember that some key members of the Harperite team manufactured several crises in Ontario in order to fix things – and people died as a result.
By kpn on 05.18.08 4:02 pm
My son, a S/Sgt in the USAF, told me about a joint training exercise between his F-15E squadron and the CF-18’s from Cold Lake, Alberta.
Seems our great Canucks brought in three semi trucks of parts and supplies. Included in the inventory were many 24’s of Molson Canadian. Now that is what I call the proper way to develop international relations. My son told them, ‘My Dad is a Canadian’ and the party was on! We laughed a lot, because his first taste of Canadian beer about knocked his socks off. I explained to him. ‘Son, in the States you can buy beer at the drive-thru window. Here we put alcohol in it!’ LOL
Someone sent this to me.
If I was a terrorist. A video on Utube. Hope this works.
http://www.your-inner-voice.com/IfIWasATerrorist.html
By Greg on 05.18.08 3:57 pm,
According to Dion Tom d’Aquino, a lobbyist for the top 250 Canadian based CEOs, is in favour of his plan. Let us say then that the Canadian Council of Chief Executives which runs the Canadian division of the North American Competitiveness Council supports the Dion plan. They appear to be the ones who will get the major benefits since the plan is to offset the tax by reductions in corporate and personal income tax.
Why would they support a plan for which so few details are available to the public? Do they have advance notice of what it contains or did they have the major input into its formation?
How many Liberal Party members have had input to the plan? Is this just another top down plan that is designed to be “marketed” like any other commercial product?
David Suzuki, who owns an expensive environmentally friendly home in the city with probably the mildest climate in Canada, and who is able to deduct his travel costs, will certainly benefit from a carbon tax. Most Canadians cannot afford to live like Suzuki.
We don’t know what the plan is all about but I believe we have the right to be suspicious. The GST was a tax designed to move the full cost of previous export taxes onto Canadian consumers. It was in theory revenue neutral but Canadian tax payers paid the cost for exporters and still that has not been adequate to save Ontario manufacturing although it was successful in concentrating wealth. In fact, it transformed the economy into a commercial and financial economy heavily dependent on the use of fossil fuel transportation networks.
Everything that we know is that this is a tax shifting plan in which there will definately be major winners but who will be the big losers?
Ah, the web unravels a little more:
McCain National Finance Co-Chairman Resigns in Campaign Lobbyist Purge
WASHINGTON — John McCain’s national finance co-chairman has stepped down, becoming the latest adviser to leave the Republican’s presidential campaign because of ties to lobbyists.
Former Texas Rep. Thomas G. Loeffler, one of McCain’s key fundraisers, resigned after the campaign last week instructed staff to disclose all lobbying ties and to make certain they are no longer registered as lobbyists or foreign agents.
McCain’s campaign on Sunday confirmed Loeffler’s resignation.
Loeffler lobbies for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., which with Northrop Grumman Corp. won a lucrative contract to provide air refueling tankers for the Air Force. McCain helped scuttle an earlier contract that would have gone to a competitor, Boeing Co.
Newsweek reported over the weekend that Loeffler’s “lobbying firm has collected nearly $15 million from Saudi Arabia since 2002 and millions more from other foreign and corporate interests, including a French aerospace firm seeking Pentagon contracts.”
I applaud John McCain for ridding his campaign team of such ‘vested interests’ but have to ask why they were even hired in the first place?
Gee, I wonder if Harper will do the same? ROFLMAO!
Follow the money…ALWAYS and All ways! Ike must be smiling in his grave!
How many have become cynical and untrusting of all politicans?
Speak up please!
Yes, you may exclude the ONE politician who allows honest discourse, Garth.
Other than him, who is open and honest? (Darn haven’t I heard that phrase somewhere?)
By C. B. Innes on 05.18.08 4:55 pm
As to Suzuki, I have never trusted him. He is a semi, if not, fanatical spokeman just like McVety and the rest. Sadly, Elizabeth May is surrounded by the like of Frank DeJong, a former Greenpeace activist, here in Ontario.
Suzuki is to the environment what so many scientists have been to atheism, like Carl Sagan.
I am not prepared to reduce my life to that of an autonotom sucking down Tofu noodles with sea squirt juice for flavouring. LOL
Where are the balanced, unattached leaders we so desperately long for?
How many have become cynical and untrusting of all politicans?
Speak up please!
Yes, you may exclude the ONE politician who allows honest discourse, Garth.
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.18.08 5:25
Count me in!
Pyotr Petrobitch- Flaherty provided Canadians with S*F*A*? Sound Financial Advice? Wait, I know, value for money spent? Wonder what they’ll be callin’ it tomorrow…~:)
How many have become cynical and untrusting of all politicans?
Speak up please!
Yes, you may exclude the ONE politician who allows honest discourse, Garth.
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.18.08 5:25
Count me in!
By C. B. Innes on 05.18.08 6:11 pm
Qualifier: Change the word “all” to “most” and I would like to be counted in. There are still a few out there, like Garth, whom I still trust–for instance, Elizabeth May.
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.18.08 4:42 pm
Just wanted to let you know that one of my family members is attached to an F22 Raptors Squadron, so my comments concerning the US military are with all due respect.
Ummm…
A few weeks ago Garth was planning to use the money spent on the artillery shells to increase funding on immigration and now he’s planning to use it to help “kids in need in our community”?!
Even if we accept Turner’s assertion that a dollar spent on a particular part of one area of government spending is a dollar taken directly from a particular area of another area of government spending, which is a crock, we now see Turner attempting to use the same dollar to pay for various things.
I do know that some politicians try to buy whomever it is they’re talking to at any given time, however a little subtlety is also useful.
As Garth may or may not know each of those artillery shells, if spent entirely on, say, immigration, would cover a bit less than 20 cents for each of the 800,000 folks in the backlog.
How many have we used so far, Garth?
Qualifier: Change the word “all” to “most” and I would like to be counted in. There are still a few out there, like Garth, whom I still trust–for instance, Elizabeth May.
By Lana on 05.19.08 9:02 am
I, too, still trust Elizabeth May, but not some of the provincial hojos. There are many honest politicians, and I wish they would stand up and be counted. Too many have become spineless using the ‘Go along to get along’ approach to being an MP. BS, they are there to serve their constituents and theirs long term interests for the future, not anyone else.
Just wanted to let you know that one of my family members is attached to an F22 Raptors Squadron, so my comments concerning the US military are with all due respect.
By Geoffrey L. on 05.19.08 10:33 am
Not to worry. We, in fact, just returned from a funeral for a fine CF’s WWII vet.
My son may well know your family member as he has trained on the F-22 Raptor also. He has been a Crew Chief on F-15E for quite a while, then became the Crew Chief’s Wing level instructor. I could say a lot about the F-22, but will not here. Just will say…’Do not take one on if you wish to return to base.’ It is probably the most formidable fighter/attack aircraft ever built.
You would appreciate John Ralston Saul’s comments regarding what constitutes a war in his book ‘The Collapse of Globaism and the Reinvention of the World.’
We are engaged in many ‘irregular wars’ currently, as are many other nations. the days of the formal line warfare is long over, yet nations sitll rpeceive war as being conducted as during WWI and WWII. Today the small groups fight ireegular warfare, ironically as the Colonists did against the British forces during the American Revolution, and the lethargic large military machines cannot cope with such tactics effectively. They have forgotten the lessons learned by the Charge of Light Brigade, which finally did end a prolonged and unwon war in the late 1800’s.
By Bill-Muskoka on 05.19.08 1:15 pm,
When it comes to the nature of politics I think that the word “trust” is not an appropriate word. Politicians are generally pushed and pulled in so many directions that they are bound to destroy trust if it is given too freely.
When it comes to the nature of politics I think that the word “trust” is not an appropriate word. Politicians are generally pushed and pulled in so many directions that they are bound to destroy trust if it is given too freely.
By C. B. Innes on 05.19.08 3:45 pm
I have found very few people who know what they believe and why they believe it. I extend ‘trust’ to those who show an openness to new information and one can fairly gauge their honesty by how they receive such.
Likewise, I do tend to agree that ‘trust’ is, sadly, a rather etherial word when related to most politicians.
Have a good day. Back to work here.
“Only 1% of Canadians belong to a political party, so fund-raising numbers do not equate into popular support or voting intentions.”
Sure, but 160,000 people believed in the Conservative party enough to give money last year, while only 35,000 Liberals displayed the same courage of their convictions.
Now that only individual Canadians are allowed donate to political parties, these fund raising numbers are the best guage of public sentiment next to an actual election, and they spell a Conservative majority.