Budget 2009 : the Contest!

Via Maxwell's House, we learn that Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finangling, has thrown open the doors to all Canadians to contribute to Budget 2009 at the ministry website! Really. What's your pleasure?
Sure there's a handy list of suggestions but also a page to write in your own.

Sven at Fish Eggs has an idea :

"Every Canadian Citizen, will, for the next twelve months, receive a $2000 monthly payment. If you make more than $35,000 per year, it will be progressively taxed to ensure it gets to those whom need it the most. Simple.

This programme will run for one year only. Short.

As the lower income earners all know, this money would enter the economy almost completely, as there is little or no room for most to squirrel away their money. People could spend this money to buy a car, thus bailing out the auto industry. Or they could choose to spend it on housing, thus bailing out the housing industry. Or they may decide to invest in more education and go back to school, thus bailing out the education sector. What matters here is that the PEOPLE would decide where to put OUR hard earned tax dollars. The politicians would then be able to see where we chose to put our money and they could then craft legislation to reflect these investment choices made by Canadians. Effective."

Go for it, Sven.

Cross-posted at Creekside

No criminal charges for RCMP who killed Dziekanski

Dr. Dawg : "The four RCMP officers who killed Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver Airport are going to walk."

As I said at Creekside : "Without Paul Pritchard's ugly and incriminating 10 minute video of the whole event and his threat of legal action against the RCMP to get it back from them, we wouldn't even know what happened because prior to its release the official RCMP story was that there were only two cops and perhaps Dziekanski was a "drug mule" or had "an underlying medical condition", that he was "armed", that they had to use stun guns because "the room was crowded".
And then there were the internal documents between the Canadian Border Services Agency, the RCMP, and airport officials on their own security tapes of the incident : "The material has been cleansed too much," read one.

Which presumably explains why "the Crown concluded there was not enough evidence to warrant charges."


As to CBC's recent report that "four out of 41 guns tested actually discharged more electrical current than Taser International says is possible."
Well good on ya, CBC, but this isn't exactly news, is it?

"In 2004 Robert Bagnell was killed almost instantly after being shocked by a Vancouver police Taser.
"Engineering firm Intertek tested the two weapons fired during the Bagnell incident. Their research found while one Taser performed within a normal electrical output, the other was 30 times higher.
Taser International, a U.S. stun gun manufacturer, later disputed Intertek's test results. Since then, the two Bagnell Tasers were sent to the Canadian Police Research Centre in Ottawa for further examination. That was two years ago.

Victoria Const. Mike Massine, considered one of Canada's foremost police experts on stun guns, says Tasers are not tested by police. "I'm assuming (Tasers) are tested at the factory," he said. "We don't have the mechanism to do that."

But this latest whitewash is about more than just TASERS™. Four RCMP dropped an unarmed man who was no danger to themselves or others and knelt on his chest until he passed out, then stood round doing nothing to revive him. And then they lied about it.

Dr. Dawg : "It's time to disband this "horribly broken" outfit. And it's time to break up the cosy little cliques that have developed between police and Crown attorneys. Lives may well depend upon it."

Rumours of the coalition

From Iggy’s debut speech as the Liberal leader yesterday :

"I am prepared to vote non-confidence in this government. And I am prepared to enter into a coalition government with our partners if that is what the Governor-General asks me to do. But I also made it clear to the caucus this morning that no party can have the confidence of the country if it decides to vote now against a budget it hasn't even read."

Kady live-blogging the same event :

"This is kind of interesting - we the media don’t seem to know what to make of this. It’s going to be tough to spin this into another “coalition is dead” story, but I bet we’ll manage to do it somehow. We’re professionals."

Heh. Good one, Kady. Shouldn't be too difficult really.
AsperNation, aka CanWest Global, owns most of our nation's papers and many radio and TV stations.
David Asper endorsed and campaigned for Harper during the 2006 election.
Derek Burney, chairman of CanWest, was Mulroney's chief of staff and head of Harper's transition team to power.

David Asper, chair of the National Post, from The Georgia Straight's review of Peter C. Newman's new book "Izzy: The Passionate Life and Turbulent Times of Izzy Asper, Canada’s Media Mogul" referring to their journalists:

"We own the papers. We have the right to have the papers print whatever the hell
we want them to say. And if people don’t like it, they can go to hell. They can
leave, get another job."

And what papers does AsperNation, aka CanWest Global own again? A partial list :
National Post
Calgary Herald
Edmonton Journal
The Gazette
Regina Leader-Post
Ottawa Citizen
The StarPhoenix
Times-Colonist
Windsor Star
Vancouver Sun
Vancouver Province
The Courier
The North Shore News
Canada.com

Where are you getting your news from?

Do I like Iggy? No, not much. Is he capable of outflanking Harper? Yes. Do I think he would dump the coalition in a heartbeat if he didn't need it? Yup. Is the coalition still viable? Yes. Will it be accompanied by ponies and rainbows? Nope.

This coalition idea is going to take time to appeal to a public whose understanding of our governing processes is gleaned from American TV shows and a corporate media not afraid to describe it as "treason", "junta", "separatist coalition", and "deal with the devil".
So don't be sending your rainbow ponies off into battle and then mourning their imaginary deaths.
Write a letter to your MP, sign a petition, call an openline show, talk to your neighbours.
Fight back. This is your coalition - not Iggy's and certainly not the Aspers'.
Fight for it.

Thwap's Schoolyard : What part of "majority rule" do you not get?

Expanded from Creekside

Feeding the hand that bites you

So, after the rebellion of les autres last week, suddenly PM Harper is extending an olive branch, asking to work together with the Liberals (so soon?)

Frankly, after the past five years of becoming acquainted with Harper's modus operandi, if I were a Grit, I would be hesitant, at least without special gloves and a sleepy-dart marksman standing by.

A coronation if necessary but not necessarily a coronation

The puffin is a noble bird
He buries his own crap
But also Rae, Stephane Dion
And the coalition chaps.

No more a fan of torture
Or adventures in Iraq
He's been crowned by the Librulz
Just to fend off Gilles and Jack.

The rest of us are worried
What's hidden up his sleeve
But all will be forgiven
If he also buries Steve.

Meet the gnu boss

Apparently the Liberal Party of Canada, a party with which I long identified and which I long supported, has decided that the best thing for Canada is to keep Steven Harper in office for as long as possible and then replace him with someone who has almost exactly the same opinions, but wears red neckties and is twice as smart.
Not content to wait for January and keep the coalition together, defeat the government and be appointed to form a coalition government with the icky NDP, the Liberals started reading Conservative Party Press releases and accepting them as fact. One little bump in the road and they panic.
Splendid. I guess that was the revolution that wasn't. Fuck you very much Liberal Party for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory once again. In the last election 62% of the country voted against the Conservatives, so in answer to this you have decided that running even further to the right is the sensible option. Michael Ignatieff, for all his very impressive academic credentials supported the Iraq war until 2007.
In other news, when and if I ever move back to what used to be Canada, I will either be moving to Westmount in the Republic of Quebec and starting my own Anglo separatist party, Le Bloc Maudit Bloke, or to Vancouver Island in the People's Republic of Pacifica and opening a "Yo-Yo" frozen yohgurt stand/Yoga fitness centre/legal marijuana distribution centre.

Blindfolds, not Bailouts

First against the wall when the revolution comes: AIG executives.

Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc., the insurer whose bonuses and perks are under fire from U.S. lawmakers, offered cash awards to another 38 executives in a retention program with payments of as much as $4 million.

The incentives range from $92,500 to $4 million for employees earning salaries between $160,000 and $1 million, Chief Executive Officer Edward Liddy said in a letter dated Dec. 5 to Representative Elijah Cummings. The New York-based insurer had previously disclosed that 130 managers would get the awards and that one executive would get $3 million.

“I remain concerned, as do many American taxpayers, that these retention payments are simply bonuses by another name,” Cummings said in letter responding to Liddy. AIG, which received a U.S. rescue package of more than $152 billion, has been criticized for saying it will eliminate bonuses for senior executives while still planning to hand out “cash awards” that double or triple the salaries of some managers. The payments are designed to keep top employees at AIG while Liddy seeks to sell units and pay back the federal government, which owns 79.9 percent of AIG.

...AIG’s managers have overseen a record $37.6 billion in net losses so far this year. Cummings has called for Liddy’s resignation and said AIG should provide names of those getting retention pay and explain why the awards are needed. Firms accepting taxpayer money shouldn’t enrich employees, he said..

Yeah, because when the senior management of the company steers the firm in losses of nearly $40 billion and forces the firm to seek a $150 billion bailout from the government, the last thing you want them to do is jump ship and work for someone else.
While I understand the importance of propping up all those struggling Porshe dealerships, caviar importers and executive country club operators that provide much needed greenskeeping and caddying jobs in these dark economic times, frankly I'd have a lot more respect for these people if they just drove up to Fort Knox in a convoy of trucks with masks and guns and cleaned the place out like honest thieves.

CNN Dec. 5

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A record 1.35 million homes were in foreclosure in the third quarter, driving the foreclosure rate up to 2.97%, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Friday.

That's a 76% increase from a year ago, according to the group's National Delinquency Survey.At the same time, the number of homeowners falling behind on their mortgages rose to a record 6.99%, up from 5.59% a year ago, the association said. This means that one in 10 borrowers in America are either delinquent or in foreclosure

What would Woody Guthrie say?

"Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home."

-Woody Guthrie
The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd

That Didn't Take Long, Did It ? ? ? ?

Oh, goodie!

Only 20 years later, victims of the Exxon Valdez oil spill ecological disaster start getting some $$ in restitution.

Pitiful.

Per the Anchorage Daily News:

Exxon Valdez spill payments reach claimants

Although less than hoped for, plaintiffs begin to receive share of $383 million in damages.

By WESLEY LOY

The millions of dollars Exxon Mobil Corp. has surrendered as punishment for the Prince William Sound oil spill have started hitting the streets, nearly 20 years after the disaster.

Several commercial fishermen who joined in the lawsuit against Exxon reported receiving direct deposits in their bank accounts Monday. Paper checks are expected to go out in the mail in the next week.

The payments mark the beginning of a process to distribute $383 million among nearly 33,000 commercial fishermen and other plaintiffs.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs and Exxon continue to battle in court over whether the oil company owes interest on the punitive damages award. If so, the interest could roughly double the total payout.

_______________


Exxon long held that it didn't owe punitive damages, arguing it already had spent $3.4 billion as a result of the spill including compensatory payments, cleanup payments, settlements and fines.

Over the summer, however, the U.S. Supreme Court said the company owed up to $507.5 million in punitive damages.

_______________















An Anchorage jury originally decided in 1994 that Exxon owed $5 billion for the 11-million-gallon oil spill, which disrupted many of the state's commercial fisheries and sullied miles of beaches. Over many years, however, Exxon's lawyers succeeded in whittling down the amount to a fraction of the jury award."

Everybody's very disgusted because of the process and the whacking we got from Exxon and the Supreme Court," Mullen said. "Nobody's thrilled, but nobody's going to send the check back, either."

In recent weeks, lawyers for the plaintiffs filed long lists in court specifying the amount to be paid to each claimant. Most of the amounts range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, but some exceed $100,000.

Lawyers will deduct about 22 percent from each payment as compensation for pressing the epic class action against Exxon.

Well, well, well.

Only 22%.

That seems fair, don't you think? Typically the barristers would be demanding 50% . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

RepubliCon shenanigans

In his post "Conservative coup d'état?", Dr. Dawg relates that Gerry Chipeur, "the Alberta lawyer who drafted a power-sharing proposal between Stockwell Day, Gilles Duceppe and Joe Clark in 2000 is now suggesting that the Conservatives should defy the Governor-General if she were to ask the Liberal-NDP coalition to form a new government if the Conservative administration falls on January 27.

"CanWest : "Chipeur's argument foreshadows a possibly drastic response from the Conservatives should they be turfed from power. He suggests that Conservatives may not readily accept the governor-general's decision should she refuse the prime minister's request for an election."

Just five days ago we heard this same dismissal of the Governor General from John Baird in an interview with Don Newman when he said - twice! - "We're going over the heads of the politicians and the governor general directly to the Canadian people."

Several commenters have taken Dawg to task for either fear-mongering or taking Chipeur too seriously but so-con Chipeur has a history of laying groundwork for the Cons through his Republican contacts, some of which follows :

New York Observer : (additional bracketed info - mine)

"From: Paul Weyrich[co-founder of the Moral Majority and the Heritage Foundation]

Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 9:38 AM
To: Bob Thompson[a staffer at Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation]
Subject: Message from Canada
Importance: High

Please get this message to the Stanton, Family Forum and Wednesday lunch groups:I received a call last night from Gerald Chipeur, an important figure in Canada’s Conservative Party. He told me that Conservatives are with-in striking distance of electing an outright majority in Parliamentary elections Monday.

He said the Canadian media, which is trying to save the current Liberal government, has a strategy of calling conservatives in the USA in the hopes that someone will inadvertently say something that can be hung around the Conservatives.

Canadian voters have been led to believe that American conservatives are scary and if the Conservative party can be linked with us, they perhaps can diminish a Conservative victory. Chipeur asks that if Canadian media calls, please do not be interviewed until Monday evening at which point hopefully there will be reason to celebrate.

Many thanks."

When contacted by Canadian Press about the email, Weyrich denied any personal involvement but later on his website, he bragged about his "small victory" in the Canadian elections.

This August, Chipeur, past Alberta chair of Republicans Abroad, teamed up with the American Chamber of Commerce to hold a $1000-a-plate fund-raising campaign for John McCain for the 80,000 Americans who live and work in Calgary.

Canadian citizens' proceeds went to Friends of Science, Tim Ball's oil industry-funded anti-Kyoto "charity", whose funding was laundered through the University of Calgary by Harper's buddy, Prof. Barry Cooper, before the U of C put a stop to it.

When Friends of Science ran ads which attacked the previous Liberal government's support for the Kyoto Protocol, pledging "to have a major impact on the next election," Chipeur acted as their lawyer in the ensuing investigation by Elections Canada.


Chipeur is also credited with introducing Republican Frank Sensenbrenner to Canadian embassy officials at the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004, attended by Stockwell Day, Chipeur's choice for coalition PM in 2000. Sensenbrenner had previously attended Reform Party conventions and Stockwell Day insisted he be hired by the Canadian Embassy over their objections.
Sensenbrenner was subsequently accused of the Naftagate leak. which sought to damage Barack Obama's credibility during the Democratic primaries, but an internal investigation by Harper's deputy minister failed to provide any evidence.

The Star : "In failing to plumb the leak, the report effectively protects the ruling party from awkward questions. With an election not far in the future, voters might reasonably ask if Conservatives put this country's seminal relationship [with Obama] at risk to give Republicans a helping hand."


One might also reasonably ask if the Cons' continuing ties to the Republican Party through Gerald Chipeur put the rest of us at risk.


Cross-posted, more or less, at Creekside

Maybe the answer is chocolate

While the Stevie Follies continue, here's a nice concept courtesy Lovely Package. Packaging is so reassuring to look at, a confidence in the future.

the bigger the bull...

Since no one is using it, maybe we could rent out the building

It might make a good homeless shelter this winter.

"Canada suffered its biggest monthly job losses last month since the recession of 1982 as 70,600 positions disappeared. Ontario's manufacturing sector is taking a direct blow from collapsing demand in the U.S., claiming about half of the November job losses. Unemployment crept up to 6.3 per cent, still near historical lows but also half a percentage point above the beginning of year.

And the U.S. is far from the only weight on Canada's job picture. The services side of the economy, which is more isolated from U.S. demand, also shed 38,000 jobs in the month – a sign that the sources of Canada's economic weakness are not just the United States, but also a deceleration in consumer spending, business investment and the housing market, economists said."

If only there was some sort of central authority that could organize a communal effort to help these people thrown out of work and perhaps help to steer our economy by making some rules to guide business and keep them from getting into trouble. We could all pitch in some money and they could figure out the best way to spend it to fix these sorts of problems. We could get everyone to vote in their own area to pick people, send them all to meet, talk it over and decide what to do. Canadians are smart enough to survive killer winters, if we some really smart people together, I'm sure they can figure something out.

Gee, didn't we used to have something like that based in a big, old building in Ottawa? I seem to remember something like that being mentioned in high school civics class, or maybe it was ancient history.

h/t to the Vanity Press, where this started as a comment.

Meanwhile, Jim Dandy Goodness takes something I said, and makes it all about the pussy.

And courtesy of Willy Loman: Ed Broadbent speaks, you listen

(crossposted from The Woodshed)

At the going down of the Sun, and in the morning...

With condolences and respect to the family and friends of Private Demetrios Diplaros, Corporal Mark Robert McLaren, and Warrant Officer Robert Wilson, all of the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment. Petawawa, Ontario.

Pro Patria

Paratus

"Je me souviens" with a vengeance, God help us all

Harper may not, but the rest of us Canadians will regret his frantic flailing to be not thrown out of office.

Not because the self-styled leader of the party of fiscal prudence has stalled all parliamentary business for the next seven weeks, in a time of unprecedented economic difficulty:

Not because he has set a precedent in getting this reprieve for the sole reason of not being thrown out of office:

Not because he has fought back with a bundle of talking points which are not true (some involving flat falsehoods regarding how a parliamentary democracy actually works):

No, no no -- he will regret trying to blame the danger of a coalition government on those scary separatists. Since 1995 the separatist agenda of the Bloc Quebecois has been more a keepsake than an action item, but now the blockheaded Conservative supporters are echoing this point far and wide, essentially ripping the scab off a wound that was largely healed.

Oh, and it's even better because in three days, Quebec will hold their provincial elections. You think the Scary Separatist meme will not effect the outcome of that voting? Me neither.

I used to think Harper was a smart guy. Now he falls into the category of "so sharp he will cut himself". And all the rest of us, too.

Noni

Steve pulls the fire alarm

and walks into the exam he knows he's going to fail.
GG says it's ok and grants him an eight week extension on his separatists and socialists topic.

"Following my advice, the Governor General has agreed to prorogue Parliament," Harper said outside Rideau Hall after a two-hour meeting with Jean."

Cross-posted at Creekside

Vive la revolution de sirop d'erable!

All praise to Skdadl for coining the phrase "Maple Syrup Revolution" to describe the current likely change in government from a party whose main priority is evidently to stick to the opposition to a coalition of parties whose main priority is to start bailing the economic lifeboat in which the nation finds itself. Across the northern blogosphere, the troops are rallied - I particularly recommend these posts by Boris a little further down and Dr. Dawg's disembowling of Ol' Dead Eyes "no fair, I'M the Prime Minister, I'M supposed to be the boss" video presentation on Wednesday night and most of the recent posts on Far and Wide and the excellent "Blogging if Necessary, but not Necessarily Blogging."
I'd also suggest you look at the text of Stephen Dion's remarks from Wednesday night instead of listening to the conservatives babble about "treason." In addition to tackling the economic mess Canada finds itself in, the Coalition could also fix a number of other problems.

I think Maple Syrup Revolution fits just about right: The coalition is poised to flatten Harper like a pancake and eat him for breakfast -- and it's just so freakin' sweet.

What part of "lost confidence" does Harper not understand?

Harper is not a president.

He leads at the pleasure of Parliament.

There's a reason why it's called a "vote of non-confidence".

When he loses a confidence vote the government falls.

Can anyone doubt that he has lost the confidence of the Canadian Parliament?

The only reason he isn't out on his ear is that he unilaterally prevented the majority of Parliament from voting -- like preventing your wife from getting a divorce by locking her in the basement.

So what good can a prorogueation do for Mr Harper?

I guess there are only three things Harper can do to keep the balance of power with the Conservatives.

1. Cut a sweet deal with one of the other parties over Christmas.
2. Resign his leadership in favour of a new Conservative leader who doesn't infuriate everybody.
3. Spend the holidays trying to entrench a lot of inaccurate ideas about our system of government into the minds of as many Canadians as will listen to him, and inflame them against their own elected representatives.

Oh, and

4. Start a war. (This won't change parliamentary law, but it will be an effective distraction.)

Stay tuned, we're taking bets right up till post-time.

Noni

Wave bye-bye to Quebec

Just a quick drive-by blog post:

No matter what else happens, I think the Conservatives can wave bye-bye to support in Quebec, as a result of their using the dangers! of them foreigners! having a Veto! in Parliament! being trumpeted from sea to sea, not just by loose cannon Con sympathizers but including their own talking points shipped out to the party faithful to burden radio talk shows for the next few days or weeks.

In more than one of these talking points (thanks Montreal Gazette!) I hear the echoes of the Swiftboating 2.0 attempted south of the border just weeks ago. The themes included foreignness (mostly Quebecois variety), financial danger, power-hungriness, and strangely, religious badness, not usually a Canadian type of thing. I just heard MP Deepak Obhrai in a live tape loop on CPAC, wherein he said "unholy alliance" at least 15 times in 3 endless minutes.

These undercooked memes will come back to bite Harper. ** popcorn! **

Now here's some homework for ya.

Go check out Swiftboating 2.0, here http://mediamattersaction.org/swiftboating/?src=swift-4 and then try to take the Gazette's Con talking points and derive a similar chart. That can be a good pastime for a snowy evening.

For extra points, guess which adviser to Harper might have come up with this list of talking points. (I don't know -- do you?)

Gotta dash! Have fun!

Supporting the Coalition for Change

Good going, you guys.

A couple of years ago I was listening to a member of a Mexican opposition party talk about his experience of being part of forming a left to centre-left coalition. It took 20 years, he said.

Various leaders had agreed to present a united front on the issues they needed each other's support for - while still maintaining each party's independence. A good idea but it didn't take.

He explained it wasn't until enough of their grassroots supporters became involved in both debating their differences and defending the coalition at the same time that it really began to work.

I hope we're up to it. Thank you for making this start.

.
April Reign made a great "Supporting the Coalition for Change" button on a transparent background which you can find on the sidebar at Creekside. Here's the code if you would like to display it too - just enclose it in brackets < >

img src="http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o184/bloggingchange/coalitionbutton.png" alt="Support the Coalition" border="0" /

.

April's design is based on the original Coalition Bloggers badge which you can download here, for those who would prefer not to include party logos.

Cross-posted at Creekside

Dear ReformaTory talk show shlocktroops

and "every tool" in Guy Giorno's toolbox, aka "All Conservative Members of Parliament" :

If it was ok for Harper, Layton, and Duceppe to jointly write to the GG in Sept 2004 to :

"respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders"

then why are you now all huffy about "backroom deals", referring to the possibility of "a coalition you didn't vote for" as a "coup"?

Did Layton only become a "socialist" and Duceppe a "seperatist", as most of you seem to prefer to spell it, some time after 2004?

Also, in your comments at NaPo and CBC, where Layton has now become a full-fledged "communist", your outrage that the Bloc is "only out to destroy Canada by separating" would gain considerable credibility if you didn't respond to this perceived threat to Canadian unity with a threat of your own to resuscitate the Western Separation movement.

Just sayin' ...

Cross-posted at Creekside