At the going down of the sun...

With condolences and respect to the family and friends of Bombardier Karl Manning, 5^e Régiment d'artillerie légère du Canada, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, Valcartier Quebec.

Honi soit qui mal y pense 

Ubique

A comment from George . . .

George Mortimore - Goldstream News Gazette has some observations on Stevie that are worth consideration:

Sixty per cent of active Canadian voters rejected Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Yet there he is, managing Canada.

The “60 percenters” can modify Harper’s hidden agenda, which is in plain sight.

Job No. 1 for Harper is weakening the power of parliamentary government while strengthening the prime minister’s power to command and control and slashing social programs.

He is aiming at the weak-government target just as steadily now as he did when he was a leader of the far-right-wing Reform and Alliance. He tried to kill a national campaign for cheaper and more readily obtainable medicines. Stopping federal work on a national pharmaceutical strategy (NPS) was one of Harper’s moves as a minority prime minister.

Luckily for patients who need medicines, the provinces met in August 2010 and went ahead on their own with planning. They created a flexible new federation, overlying the rigid, rusted-up federal structure.

Even without Ottawa’s participation, NPS seems tricky but achievable. What will it take to persuade Harper to offer co-ordination and startup money?

Encouragement by the NDP opposition might do it. National pharmacare, including reduced prices through mass purchasing, might save $10 billion a year, the NPS draft documents suggest.

Harper wants weaker government and cheaper social programs. Jack Layton wants to make public health care increasingly efficient and sensitive.

This particular conflict could be diplomatically settled, but the policy gulf between Harperism and the majority of Canadians remains wide and deep.

Majority opinion favours public health care, and mainstream expert analysis shows how public care can be upgraded; but Harper continues to trash popular and scholarly input and encourage provinces to privatize.

So how did a parliamentary majority of Conservatives get elected? Mainly because of Harper’s clever electioneering, with its false “trust me” message implying that Conservative management kept Canada’s banks and economy safe from U.S.-style panic. In fact Canada’s greater financial stability was determined long ago by stricter regulation, a policy that runs counter to Harper’s “free market” preference.

It's going to be interesting . . .

One of these things does not belong ...

Harper, Obama talk plans for perimeter security

Manley, CEOs, propose details on perimeter security

CATSA airport security screening measures tightened

Government of Canada enhances aviation security

CATSA lays off 15 to 20% of airport security screeners

The Cons have directed every airport in Canada to reduce its security screeners by 15-20%

Vancouver International Airport - 120 screening officers laid off May 16th

Greater Toronto Airports Authority - 400 laid off

Montreal Pierre-Elliott Trudeau airport - 80 laid off

Ottawa International Airport - 11 laid off

Calgary and Edmonton - 15% reduction in screening staff

Hey, I'll bet the screening staff reductions are because they'll be using those new full-body scanners instead ...

Chair of the BC Association of Aerospace Workers :

"newly purchased multi-million dollar full body scanners will be left unmanned and unused ... because there is just not enough staff to operate them."

And you just know that even if we all consented to having Trusted Traveller barcodes tattooed on our foreheads, you still wouldn't be allowed to board if you're packing Astroglide, although apparently handcuffs are still ok.

Creativity . . .

Pachelbel is so pleasing. Canon in D played on glass harp by Robert Tiso. The first voice is the cello part (bottom right), Clockwise there is 1st, 2nd and 3rd violin. Enjoy.

Transparency! Accountability!

Ooopsie!

Signs of the times . . .

VISIT EECARDS for more.

Water, water everywhere . . .

Scott Olson / Getty Images

YA GOTTA DO WHAT YA GOTTA DO. From the Washington Post pictorial display.

A levee protects a home surrounded by floodwater from the Yazoo River May 18, 2011 near Vicksburg, Mississippi. The flooded Mississippi River is forcing the Yazoo River to top its banks where the two meet near Vicksburg causing towns and farms upstream on the Yazoo to flood. The Mississippi River at Vicksburg is expected to crest May 19.

Feel the Rapture?

WELL, IT'S SATURDAY, MAY 21, and it seems that we're still here, contrary to the predictions of radio host Harold Camping and his Family Radio fundies. According to Cyriaque Lamar at io9,

massive earthquakes should have already begun in the mid-Pacific and will be wending their way around the globe all day long. New Yorkers can expect seismic horror at approximately 6 PM. And just as your Friday night hangover loses its venom. Rats!

Anyway, Cyriaque lists a top-ten of failed End-of-the-World predictions:

• 1.) Harold Camping: 1994-1995;
• 2.) Elizabeth Clare Prophet: April 23, 1990;
• 3.) The Unarians: 2001;
• 4.) Pat Robertson: 1982, 2007;
• 5.) Benjamin Creme: 1982;
• 6.) Richard Noone: May 5, 2000;
• 7.) Wang Chao-hung: May 11, 2011;
• 8.) Yisrayl "Buffalo Bill" Hawkins: 2006-2008;
• 9.) Pyotr Kuznetsov: April-May 2008;
• 10.) Jeane Dixon

And that's just the 20th and 21st centuries. The 19th century produced a whole horde of end-of-the-world types.

The Sixth Estate

- an excellent blog by the way if you haven't yet discovered it - has just launched a WikiLeaks Cablegate Watchlist of documents pertaining to Canadian politics and foreign affairs, searchable by topic and linking of course to the WikiLeaks originals. An invaluable resource.
Sixth Estate's Top Picks from the cables can be found on his blog here.

While you're over there, check out that top right hand corner link to the Sixth Estate Canadian Newswatch - an aggregate of blogs with some decent mainstream newsers as well. All the news that's fit to pixel.

So, Sixth Estate Dave, when do you sleep?

North American Intelligence Security Perimeter

CBC, via WikiLeaks :

228182
SECRET 2/10/2009
SECRET OTTAWA 000768
Subject : Visas Viper : The "Toronto 18" as candidates for Visas Viper Program

SUMMARY At Embassy Ottawa's monthly Visas Viper meeting on September 09, 2009, a list of 27 indidivudals (sic) who were involved in the so-called "Toronto 18" conspiracy, a plot to engage in terrorist activities in the Toronto metropolitan area, was submitted for consideration. All of these individuals are watchlisted in the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS). Post is submitting their names to be included in the Visas Vipers program.

The Visas Viper program is the entry level into US terrorist watchlists.

Pogge, yesterday : Apparently we need to hold the Arar inquiry all over again

"The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada's principal intelligence agency, routinely transmits to U.S. authorities the names and personal details of Canadian citizens who are suspected of, but not charged with, what the agency refers to as "terrorist-related activity."

In at least some cases, the people in the cables appear to have been named as potential terrorists solely based on their associations with other suspects, rather than any actions or hard evidence."

Evidently even working as an undercover police informer busting terrorists will get you on that list.
In addition to the Toronto 18, the embassy cables name nine others.
Among those nine names is Mubin Shaikh.

Mubin Shaikh, a Canadian Muslim, was recruited by CSIS in 2004 to infiltrate possible terrorist groups.
Shaikh infiltrated the Toronto 18, secretly taping them and setting up the RCMP sting resulting in their arrest.
He testified against them at their trial as the Crown's star witness. Without him there would have been no trial, no convictions.
And now he's in the US terrorist database.

I'm sure other Canadian Muslims will be really keen to help CSIS out now.

So did CSIS put their own mole on that list? Or do they just have no autonomy at all over their own data.

“Clearly it’s a mistake,” Mr. Shaikh said in an interview. He argued that most people who are on watch lists belong on the lists, and that he has “compete confidence” in Canada’s ability to safeguard intelligence sources.

Good for you. I don't.

Yesterday CSIS gave a damage-control response to breaking news of their continued handing over of Canadian names and personal details to US watchlists :

" ... any decision to hand over names is the result of a detailed process, in which an individual's threat level is assessed by a committee of Canadian security officials, including a senior executive at CSIS.

Lawyers from the Department of Justice also participate, and often a representative of the RCMP.

As part of the process, someone plays the part of devil's advocate, challenging the information gathered on the individual being considered.

Even then, said the official, the decision to hand over a name to the Americans is subject to written ministerial directives and internal CSIS policies.

None of which explains how Mubin Shaikh got on there.
But as Evan Dyer pointed out during RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli's grilling about Maher Arar four and a half freakin' years ago, all that rigorous bureaucratic bullshit doesn't mean fuck all if US security forces are already physically present in the room when "persons of interest" are being discussed at INSET meetings.

INSET, the Canadian Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams, are the Canadian counter-terrorist forces comprised of CSIS, the RCMP, Border Services, and other security groups. They handled both the Arar and Toronto 18 cases.

As Pogge put it : "Our "principal intelligence agency" doesn't work for us; it works for American intelligence agencies."

"We don't want another Arar," said the security official. But at the same time, he said, CSIS is acutely aware that if it did not pass on information about someone it suspected, and that person then carried out some sort of spectacular attack in the U.S., the consequences could be cataclysmic for Canada.
U.S. authorities, already suspicious that Canada is "soft on terror," would likely tighten the common border, damaging hundreds of billions of dollars worth of vital commerce.

So we're just haggling about the price of our sovereignty and Charter rights then.
Or, as most of the WikiLeaks-released Ottawa Embassy cables usually sign off :

"Visit Canada's North American partnership community at
http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap /"

Yeah. Thanks. How's our security perimeter coming along?
.

Them was the good ole days . . .

THE VICTORIANS HAD A FIXATION, actually, they had lots of 'em, but male masturbation was a hard-point of concern for Christian moralists, back in the day. IO9's Cyriaque Lamar has a look at two patented "solutions", which you see above. Check it out.

Indeed, Mr. Long was patenting a boner-activated anti-wet dream machine (or perhaps an an anti-wet dream alarm).

The key to memory . . .

FOR THE FIRST TIME, science is getting a clear picture of how your memories are stored. According to Ed Yong's article in DISCOVER, "Exposing the memory engine: the story of PKMzeta", your memories are stored through a protein called PKMzeta, which you see above.

In the last decade, scientists have found that it takes active and unrelenting effort to keep our memories intact. Even long-term memories are constantly on the verge of being erased. To keep them stable, we need to continually recreate a protein called PKMzeta. This molecule is the engine of memory, constantly whirring to store information in our brains. Give the engine a boost, and old memories gain a new lease on life. Switch it off, and we forget things…. permanently.

When we learn new things, PKMzeta shows up at the gaps between neurons (synapses) and boosts the signals that go across them. This strengthens the connections between the neurons on either side, and this network of bolstered connections is the physical embodiment of our memories.

Why should you care? They can erase memories permanently. There are very important implications in this research, for medicine, and new, truly effective treatment for mental problems — but it could bring about a method for mass mind-control, if you are paranoid.

Advertising . . .

Maybe there's a tradition: 110 years ago, it was the Great White Fleet and Billy Hearst's rags thumping for it.

Engineering for Change

YOUR BASIC MACHINE-SHOP can be sorely needed in many parts of the globe. Engineering for Change is an outfit that is trying to do something about it.

Among many interesting designs is a $200 multimachine, which you see above. JALOPNIK's article on the device calls it

This fascinating design is a ten-in-one tool made from engine blocks and other recycled parts that works as a grinder, mill, lathe, saw and other tools. It alone can perform all of the functions of a decently-equipped machine shop. And it costs only $200 to build.

Soul survivor . . .

POPMATTERS has something you must read: "The Story of a Soul Survivor: 'Private Dancer' at 25", by Christian John Wikane. It's a fascinating account of how Tina Turner's astounding oeuvre came to be.

Waterfront perspective . . .

LOTS OF BALLOONS, ACCORDING TO A Daily Dose of Architecture, the picture above is the 2015 Pan American Games Award Pavilion for the games to be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The geese are going to love 'em.

Take a minute or two . . .

JOHN LEE HOOKER & MILES DAVIS. Turn it up. Here's another, called "Murder". Way, way cool groove. Yum, even.

Ralph Nader Speaks . . . .

On the Canadian election, U.S. politics, the "security perimeter" and proportional representation.

All in less than 8 minutes.

Concentrated, rational analysis . . . .

Boogity boogity . . .

THINGS ARE STARTING to get crazy in Tehran. According to the Guardian, one of I Need a Dinner Jacket's chief fart-catchers got busted for sorcery. Yup, sorcery.

Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested in recent days and charged with being "magicians" and invoking djinns (spirits).

Djinns? Well, let the bells ring out and the banners fly, like the genie in the Looney Tunes cartoons, used to say.

Black Bird of Happiness . . .

Something creative to ponder. Check out the radio-controlled SR-71. It's a real jet, and sounds glorious in the air. It also flies really, really well, and you can see why the US Army and the USAF are diving into developing a host of pilotless aircraft. Small, quick and really hard to shoot down.

Not to Worry 'Bout a harper Majority . . . .

Two weeks from tomorrow it'll all be moot, anyway.

Stock up on emergency supplies and offer to take care of your "believing" friends' pets when they are released from their earthly ties . . . .

It just happened here

To paraphrase Sinclair Lewis: When fascism comes to Canada, it will come wrapped in a flag and carrying a hockey stick.

Coach Harper won his majority last night thanks to smears, lies, obfuscation, vote suppression and dirty tricks on his part, vote splitting on the part of his opposition and a staggering display of selfish bourgeois Babbittry on the part of a good many Canadians. In any democracy, we get the government we deserve.

There is good news and bad news in last night's election result: The NDP won 102 seats and will form the official opposition, an opposition that will -- with 60 newly minted MPs many of whom never expected to get elected - be as hapless as it will be irrelevant. The Conservatives won only 39.6 percent of the popular vote, but 167 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons - they can do whatever they want with no real restraint on their actions. Harper has made his contempt for parliament abundantly clear already, so don't expect the opposition to be anything but a noisy decoration in Ottawa now that he has his majority and carte blanche.

The sun will still rise and set and the earth will still turn, though I for one expect a user fee to be levied for that sometime soon, so that the country can be run more like a business.

 On the bright side, Toronto will probably get a new mayor in the next year or two after Rob Ford is appointed to the Senate and joins the cabinet as the Minister of  Commonsense Gettin'er Done Tax-cutting or some such post.
On the bright side, Elizabeth May won a seat in Parliament - the first time the Green Party has ever elected a member to the house of commons. I watched here victory speech last night - she is looking forward to working in Parliament to make big changes! She also plans to ride her unicorn that eats carbon emissions and shits ice cream to work every morning.  At least we can be sure that the Greens will be part of the next leaders debate, after which they will cease to exist once the per-vote party subsidy is eliminated.

No, I'm afraid there is no amount of polishing that is going to turn this turd into a diamond. In the words of Hunter S. Thompson "Big darkness, soon come."
There will be no sudden declaration of martial law or dramatic day when CPC stormtroopers surround Stornaway or round up dissidents in the night - there won't need to be. That nice, soft-spoken, Christian economist and hockey dad who just wants to protect us from the bad guys doesn't work that way. There will just be a steady drip of manufactured small crises that lead to privatization, deregulation, and "temporary" security measures, until we get back to the good old days of the robber barons.

George Orwell described a distopian future in 1984 describing it through the mouth of one character thusly: If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever.


Naturally, this has been adjusted to fit Canadian content regulations.






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Harper campaigning on Election Day

The Examiner :

"In an interview this morning with Bill Good on CKNW in Vancouver, Stephen Harper openly campaigned for the Conservative Party of Canada, asking listeners to "vote Conservative" in defiance of Elections Canada rules and regulations that state no campaigning may be done during the media blackout on election day."

Well, you know, Harper never much cared for Elections Canada and its silly rules anyway.

Update : There's some duking it out in comments below The Examiner article as to whether Steve actually is in violation of the Canada Elections Act here.

Canada Elections Act : Communications :

Blackout period


323. (1) No person shall knowingly transmit election advertising to the public in an electoral district on polling day before the close of all of the polling stations in the electoral district.

Interpretation

(2) The transmission to the public of a notice of an event that the leader of a registered party intends to attend or an invitation to meet or hear the leader of a registered party is not election advertising for the purpose of subsection (1).

Exceptions

324. Subsection 323(1) does not apply in respect of

(a) the transmission of a message that was transmitted to the public on what is commonly known as the Internet before the blackout period described in that subsection and that was not changed during that period; or
(b) the distribution during that period of pamphlets or the posting of messages on signs, posters or banners.
.
Notice that in 'Exceptions' there is no (c) being Steve.

The assault on democracy

Read this excellent summary by Lawrence Martin and then tell me we can afford to give Stephen Harper another term as president prime minister.
Have a look at the regional polling numbers, the Conservatives are the choice of the majority in only Alberta and narrowly in the Prairies. They are at about 40% in Ontario and BC, but a distant fourth place in Quebec. Do the right thing tomorrow and vote for the candidate in your riding that has the best chance to beat the conservative. Local polling numbers can be seen here until midnight.
And no, I don't think the title is overstating things. All parties have their good and bad points but there is a difference between them -- so stop telling me that "both sides do it."
Both sides don't try to suppress the vote.
Both sides don't have crowds that shout down journalists when they ask questions.
Both sides don't throw people out of rallies for what might be on their facebook page.
Both sides don't want to cut corporate taxes while cutting programs for the poor.
Both sides don't fire the nuclear watchdog for doing her job.
Both sides don't pander to the religious right.
Both sides don't prorogue parliament.
Both sides haven't been found in contempt of parliament.
Both sides don't engage in specious personal smears and intimidation.
Both sides don't cancel the court challenges program.
Both sides aren't afraid to speak to the press or answer unscripted questions from voters.
Both sides don't issue manuals to their MPs on how to obstruct the work of parliamentary committees.
Both sides don't question the patriotism of those who disagree with them.
Both sides don't villify immigrants and expatriates as somehow being "less Canadian"

Think about which side you want to be on.



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Where better to spend election eve?

FSM willing and the skype doesn't crash, Scott Tribe will be my guest tonight to talk Canadian politics on Virtually Speaking Sunday: Maple Syrup Edition at 8 pm EDT/5 pm PDT You can listen live here or click on the VSS player on the sidebar at The Woodshed
If you can't make it tonight or you want to check our prediction against reality later on, the show will be archived here.
You can join the virtual studio audience in Second Life or follow the IRC (internet relay chat)  to be part of the studio audience chat stream w/o using SL.

1. Connect to http://webchat.freenode.net/ 
2. Give yourself a name.
3. Enter #vspeak into the channel field.
4. NOTE: 'Relay Rinq' is not a person but a bridge to IRC chat.
5. While listening to a live program on BlogTalkRadio, type comments and questions into the text field. Read what others write.
6. Begin your question with 'QUESTION' so it's easy for the host to spot.

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