Vancouver Centre Results Disappointing for Moi . . . .

Well, you probably were aware that I was doing some campaign volunteering for our local Vancouver Centre NDP candidate, Michael Byers. Unfortunately, my efforts and the efforts of a strong crew of volunteers weren't enough to unseat Hedy Fry from her 15 year grasp on our riding. Hey, at least the con candidate, aka, Lorne "Freak Out at the Queer Debate" didn't make it in! The Tyee has the results here. (This link marks my initial goal of only linking to independent news sources when available. We need to reduce the corporate media's influence whenever we can.)

On a lighter note, Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" did a short recap of our recent federal election. Pay particular attention to his characterization of the Canadian conservative party.

Enjoy . . . .





(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

The secret friends of Gary Lunn

Minister of Natural Oil Resources and While We're At It Let's Fire Linda Keen and Nuke the Tarsands Gary Lunn had some interesting third party advertising help in keeping his seat in Saanich-Gulf Islands.

Of the 52 third parties registered with Elections Canada to advertise for special interest groups, Andrew MacLeod at The Hook reports that four of them share the same address and phone number as the law office of former Alliance Party candidate Bruce Hallsor who, along with the four, was working to re-elect Lunn. The law offices receptionist had never heard of them.

Ah but we have. Patricia Trottier, contact person for one of the four, the "Economic Advisory Council of Saanich", is an oil and gas consultant married to Gwyn Morgan, former CEO of EnCana Corp. where he is still a director.

Hallsor, a former member of the B.C. Chief Electoral Officer's Advisory Committee, is named in Election Canada documents in the alleged Con in-an-out scheme, in which moneys were transferred to local candidates, who then transferred the funds back to the federal party to spend on more advertising for the national campaign. Elections Canada maintains that in this way the Cons exceeded their spending limit by more than $1 million in the previous election.

More Saanich-Gulf Islands shenanigans...
Mike Watkins writes about the automated phone calls allegedly impersonating the NDP and urging voters to vote for an NDP candidate who had already dropped out, thus further splitting the vote. The removed NDP candidate received 3,667 votes, many of which would presumably have gone to second place Liberal Briony Penn, who lost to Lunn by 2,621 votes.

Fun fact : Steve's mom also campaigns for Gary Lunn

Cross-posted at Creekside

The August Law: "If they know you won't like it, they'll do it in August (or a national holiday)"

I and my friends have looked at each other over the past few days and asked "When the heck did they pass that voter ID legislation?" We're not clueless Fox-watchers, we should have seen this.

Off to Elections Canada I went with my little butterfly net, and caught this:

Legislation introduced several significant changes to the Canada Elections Act in 2007. Below is a link to the Federal Electoral Legislation, which includes the Canada Elections Act, updated with the changes as of December 22, 2007, brought about by bills C-31, C-18 and C-16.

Aha!

They go on to tell us:

The highlights of these bills include:

Bill C-31

* Before voting, electors must prove their identity and residential address by providing one piece of government-issued photo identification showing their name and residential address, or two pieces of identification authorized by the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, each of which establishes their name and at least one of which establishes their residential address. To vote, an elector may instead take an oath and be vouched for by another elector whose name is on the list of electors for the same polling division, and who has the necessary piece(s) of identification to establish his or her identity and residential address.
* Operational changes have been adopted to improve the accuracy of the National Register of Electors, facilitate voting and enhance communications with the electorate.
* A candidate's representative may be informed, on the prescribed form, of the identity of every elector who has exercised his or her right to vote, excluding electors who registered on the day of the vote.

Bill C-18

* If an elector or voucher provides a piece of identification that does not prove his or her residence, he or she is considered to have proved it if the address on the piece of identification is consistent with information related to the elector or voucher that appears on the list of electors.

Bill C-16

* Subject to an earlier dissolution of Parliament, a general election must be held on the third Monday in October in the fourth calendar year following a previous general election, with the first general election to be held on Monday, October 19, 2009.
* The Chief Electoral Officer may recommend an alternate day if the day set for polling is not suitable.

Can any of you tell me why, if the set election date in C-16 is elective, why the voter ID thing is not also elective?

In the world of dogs, a "disqualifying fault" is a flaw which eliminates a dog from competition, regardless of whatever other good points he may exhibit.

Steve's disqualifying fault is his readiness and eagerness to play the One Rule Game.

That rule is, "I win."

No-one who plays that game, gets my vote.

Noni

A Happy Thought

My take on the election is over on Tunnel, suitably meh.

But I just had a Happy Thought. I haven't seen a chart yet showing how many of the Duct-Tape Harperites won their ridings despite, or because, of their enforced silence and avoidance of talking to large or small groups or people at bus stops or the guy who came to clean out the furnace ...

But just suppose that we find many of them did so.

Doesn't that raise the possibility that the other parties will look at this success and copy it? and then we can look forward to the next election, when candidates (and, dare I hope, leaders) all stay quietly home playing piano and snowshoeing with their kids.

Something to look forward to.

Noni

Button from here.

Ugly electioneering in Minneapolis

Here's a weird report from Minneapolis: a friend tells me he got a phone call this afternoon from someone who told him he had to vote for Obama or else he would be attacked.

Sounds pretty Rovian to me, a typical Republican scam, or maybe a freelance copycat trying his bastardly tactics.

My friend was a little fuzzy on the details of what sort of attack was being offered, and caller ID was blocked. Any similar reports from around the country?

Noni

Quote of the Day

"I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it. "

--John Stuart Mill

Letter to the Conservative MP, Sir John Pakington (March 1866)

Conservative Majority

All things considered, that's what I hope tomorrow evening reveals.

Until such time as the Liberals, NDPers and Greens really understand the stakes, feel those stakes in the pits of their stomachs like acid, there's no chance that simple minded partisanship can be overcome.

We apparently need to actually watch the destruction of the possibility of progressive minded policies, not just talk about that destruction. We apparently need to watch a resurgence of the Bloc and separatist sentiment. We apparently need to be witness to the contemptuous treatment of our Constitution and Charter as Harper tries to redefine and redraw the country as an "open federation". Which in case you're wondering the Conservative Party website defines as this.

So I think Canadians will have to get a belly full and be on the verge of vomiting in panic before the urgency of the situation becomes clear.

That's fine with me. I'm quite well off. The Conservatives may well end up being quite good for this household. Some of what Harper says they're going to do, if he's not lying again, could well benefit me. If my vote was determined only by self-interest I could quite easily be a Conservative voter. But that's not all that determines my vote.

I have no idea what determines the votes of you, dear reader, although I know for certain that for many of you it's partisanship and partisanship only.

I hope you will be discomfited watching your partisanship hand the country over to Harper.

Sadly, I don't think you will be.

I think you will see a Harper majority as vindication for your partisanship. You will see the possibility of losing the Canada we know as a win for your side because you will have gained another seat or increased your vote share (and your funding from Elections Canada).

If, like me, you're quite well off and secure, it probably won't hurt much personally.

If you're not - well - I can't say your bleating will affect me much. You were told over and over what had to done to prevent this and you chose to remain with your head in the sand.

So get ready kids.

You've largely brought it on yourselves.

I trust it will be as excruciating as you think it will.

Just don't expect any sympathy from this corner.

The Future of Farming in America

IT'S AN ARTICLE TITLED "Farmer in Chief", in the Sunday New York Times, by Michael Pollan, a contributing writer for the magazine, who is the Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author, most recently, of “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.”

Go to the web page and read. I am not posting snippets to entice, just go to the page(s), read and ponder. There is a LOT to think about.

Gay conservative Loses Cool . . . .

Ricky at Queer Thoughts posted our local Vancouver Centre's conservative candidate's melt-down at the queer debate last week.

Watch the video.

Attending it as I did, it was an uncomfortable portion of the debate. Speaking to other gay constituents later, the feeling was common. We were embarrassed for his actions and confused as to why any self-respecting homosexual could support a conservative government, much less run as a candidate for that party . . . . .

Wow.

Talk about a perfect time for a Nobel Prize for Paul Krugman. Dr. K has been prophesying and predicting and critiquing and proving the mis-, mal- and other feasance of this US administration and its ideological drivers since he took the columnist spot at the New York Times in 1999. Perhaps the most unlikely but necessary victory was to lend his economic expertise to creating consistently engaging and memorable columns, studded with great puns and data in equal measure.

And now that the temple is falling not just in the USA but around the world -- can you think of a better moment in time to earn an award renowned worldwide as the pinnacle of scientific and academic achievement?

Of course, the detractors are sharpening up their pointy sticks, one calling this prize the worst choice ever. If they attack the prize itself, they may have a little problem, my guess is they will go the geezer route and shake their canes, crying "The kids these days! Handbasket! Lawks, me poor old feet!"

Never mind. Paul, ya done good.

Noni

Remember, only YOU

CAN STOP ALIEN ABDUCTIONS. That's what this site firmly believes, and who am I to disagree? Consider this testamonial:

ALIEN ABDUCTEE FROM KENTUCKY WEARING A THOUGHT SCREEN HELMET

"Since trying Michael Menkin's Helmet, I have not been bothered by alien mind control. Now my thoughts are my own. I have achieved meaningful work and am contributing to society.

 My life is better than ever before. Thank you Michael for the work you are doing to save all humanity."

And hard to believe, he's not alone:

ALIEN ABDUCTEE FROM AUSTRIA WEARING A THOUGHT SCREEN HELMET SHE MADE FROM DIRECTIONS ON THIS WEB SITE.

"I have been abducted by aliens for years and found stopabductions.com by a happy coincidence. The Thought Screen Helmet, invented by an expert, has stopped the unwelcome visitations and has raised me and my family`s quality of life. Therefore I highly recommend it."

It begs the question, why isn't Ron Popeil on top of this? Or do I have this backwards, and that people are abducting aliens and keeping them prisoner in America's trailer-parks and maybe a schloss or two in Austria?

And it's good to know it works:

A Record of Success
The thought screen helmet has effectively stopped several types of aliens from abducting or controlling humans. Only two failures from standard thought screen helmets have been reported since 1998 for people being abducted by aliens themselves. A third failure in 2005 was from a cloth helmet with a smaller area of Velostat which had a Velcro strap which was easily removed by an alien-human hybrid. 

Just watch out for those alien-human hybrids.

Mike Duffy Porky Pig

Cast your mind back to the year 2000.

To the period of national mourning surrounding the death of Pierre Trudeau.

Remember that it was Mike Duffy who exercised his journalistic judgement in reminding Margaret Trudeau that the day was not just the day of Pierre's lying in state.

It was also the birthday of her dead son Michel.

This is Duffy's character. He apologized to her only because he knew the event had been witnessed and because he knew that the backlash against his network would be so vehement that he could lose his job. He did get suspended for a time anyway.

Mike Duffy is a very poor excuse for a human being.

Perhaps he's really Porky Pig.

This is where I was going to insert an avi of a video morph I've assembled.

I realized I'd better not. The network as well as the Duffous would sue me for everything I've got.

A thought to ponder for the weekend

When it comes to a financial meltdown, after dire predictions from economists governments around the world scramble to cooperate, the G7 calls emergency meetings, the doors to various national treasuries are flung open. The attitude among politicians and pundits by and large is "Do something! Costs to the taxpayers be dammed, we must solve this problem before it get worse, no matter what it takes.The government tells you about different ways to save money to weather the crisis and tell you "Times are hard and we all have to pull together!" Handing over $700 billion with little or no oversight is something that must be done.
When it comes to global warming on the other hand, after 25 years of studies and dire predictions from scientists, there are still many politicians, bonehead and corporate lackies who claim the whole thing is a matter of opinion and the best thing to do is burn more coal and oil and drive your SUV to the corner store. Equiping factories with antipollution gear and forcing the auto industry to build more hybrids would be socialism and would cost too much.
When it comes to genocide in Darfur, thousands are dying, but it might be too expensive to divest or to pay some bills for the African Union or send some of our own soldiers. Besides, Sudan has some oil and you never know when that might come in handy.
The government of the United States is willing to fork over $700 billion in one fell swoop to the very people who lead the finanacial industry into disaser, but when experts say it might cost as much aas $150 billion to bring unversal health care to the country, all we hear about is "personal responsibility" and "fiscal restraint."

Nice to know where our priorities lay as a society.

Crossposted from the Woodshed.

Blind Craig Oliver Attacks Dion's Hearing Difficulties

I won't link to his column and I won't quote him.

But I'll put this out for consideration.

If someone's hearing problem is enough for you to exclude him or her from high political office then what should we make of a television journalist who has to have someone position his head to point at the camera or tell him who that head is pointed at?

Television journalists who are legally blind.

Like you.

Why should we assume that your judgement is to trusted?

Rove lite -- the pastel version of US distrust of learning

Hey, this is almost liveblogging: I just heard Harper on the radio, he really needs a dye job, his rightwing roots are showing.

Of Dion he just said, "You may be a professor, but you haven't been able to teach the Canadian public."

Right wing dogwhistle translation: "You are one of those snobbish useless smart people. Who cares what you think?"

The dogwhistle comment is a phrase or idea innocent in itself but targeting an idea which most people would dislike, but a few targeted people recognize in its hidden form. In the US several words, for instance "academic", are used to label someone uselessly intellectual.

Harper's no slouch as far as education goes, wiki tells us.

"...He graduated [high school] at the top of his class with a 95.7% average, and was a member of his school's team on Reach for the Top... at the University of Calgary, he completed a Bachelor's degree in economics. He later returned there to earn a Master's degree in economics, completed in 1993. Harper has kept strong links to the University of Calgary, and often guest-lectured there. "

However, Dion is also not a slouch. You may want to make a comparison:

"He studied political science at Université Laval .... He obtained BA and MA degrees in 1977 and 1979 respectively (his master's thesis presented an analysis of the evolution of Parti Québécois electoral strategies)...

Dion spent four years in Paris...studying public administration under the tutelage of noted sociologist Michel Crozier. ...After receiving a doctorate in sociology Dion worked briefly as a teaching assistant at the Université de Moncton in 1984 before moving on to the Université de Montréal to assume an assistant professor position. Dion taught at the Université de Montréal from 1984 to January 1996, specializing in the study of public administration and organizational analysis and theory, and was a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C...

Between 1987 and 1995, Dion published a number of books and articles on political science, public administration and management. A collection of Dion's speeches and writings on Canadian unity was published under the title Straight Talk Dion was also a guest scholar at the Laboratoire d'économie publique de Paris from 1994 to 1995, a co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Political Science from 1990 to 1993, and a research fellow at the Canadian Centre for Management Development (now part of the Canada School of Public Service) from 1990 to 1991.

See that? How wasteful to study and teach public policy, politics, sociology etc when all you really need to be PM is a master's from the U of Calgary and an awful lot of duct tape for the caucus.

Mr. Harper keeps trying to float the little tactic boats that have worked so well in the USA (for a given value of "worked"). I am glad to say that I think he is not having as much luck with them as he might like.

Did you know?

DID YOU KNOW THAT

in private,

George Bush (aka XLIII)

uses Arabic numerals?

Thanks to my friend, we all do, now.

Pass it on.

Project Palin for a New American Century

Pacific Free Press :

"In June 2007, a cruise liner sponsored by the political journal The Weekly Standard set anchor in Juneau, Alaska. Editors and guests of the publication were then treated to a reception with Governor Sarah Palin.

A key organizer and participant in the Palin meeting was Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, who can fairly lay claim to having "discovered" Palin for Washington political circles. Palin's name appeared in fifty-seven Weekly Standard articles since the Juneau meeting-starting with a paean entitled "The Most Popular Governor" that ran right after the reception.

Kristol, in any event, was quick to press the campaign for the Palin candidacy with the party's faithful. Taking a cue from the Straussian handbook, Kristol appeared on Fox News on June 30, 2008, confidently predicting that McCain would select Sarah Palin and as a public display of support, oil prices would miraculously fall."

That's William Kristol - NYT writer, Iraq occupation booster, co-founder of PNAC, and son of Irving, founder of neoconservatism.

Remembrance of things past

KENNY KALLENBACH appears to be a very enterprising chap, to judge from his website. Among his activities, he collects milk bottles, and has a great gallery. Back to the days of re-fillable glass. Some of the bottle graphics are delightful. Modern logistics probably makes it unlikely that they'll ever return, too bad.

With all the federal folderol happening on both sides of the border, and worries that the world's currencies will turn into Crappy Tire money, it's good to ponder something simple.

Dang. Looked like justice for a moment...

I saw this in the New York Times this morning, and for a moment I thought, "Yes, at last they're nailing the right people for text messaging! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!"

Verizon Wireless Plans to Charge Companies Sending Text Messages

Verizon Wireless this week told companies that send out text messages that starting Nov. 1 it will impose a fee of 3 cents for each message it delivers to the phones of its subscribers. The plan prompted waves of protest among many of the companies that use text messages, and Verizon has backed off the details.

I had that nice, warm glow about making the spammers pay, right up till I ran into this:

The 3-cent fee would be in addition to the fee of as much as 20 cents that those subscribers pay Verizon to receive the same message.

Never mind. You can all go back to bed now. Here's something nice to take with you.

Positive Poll Portends Possible Party Potential . . . .

On CTV's local noon news show yesterday they had a segment on "Battleground BC" that featured local competitive ridings in the federal election. (Apologies to Dana as this bit of info was gleaned from CTV here in Vancouver before his decision.)

I was able to snatch the following two graphics off the clip as I found them both very interesting.

The first shows the period of time from September 22 through October 8 and the rise and fall of all four parties. Bear in mind, these polls are reflective on polling BC residents only, hence the name "Battleground BC."




The reporter, Jim Beatty in Victoria, then produced the next graphic showing the incredible correlation between the fall of the conservative's poll numbers to the fall in the Toronto Stock Exchange during the same period.





Looks like stevie's timing in calling an election could use some work.

Kind of makes one wonder if the rest of the country might have a similar correlation?

Just askin' . . . .