Check this out....It's a party platform.

* Severe limits on immigration.
* Restricting political office to native-born Americans
* Mandating a wait of 21 years before an immigrant could gain citizenship.
* Restricting public school teacher positions to Protestants.
* Mandating daily Bible readings in public schools.
* Restricting the sale of liquor.
* Restricting the use of languages other than English.

Doesn't that sound a lot like the teabagger/Right wing ideology that is sweeping through the US and Canada?
Immigrants are looked upon with suspicion and severely restricted, bring the bible back into the schools....ENGLISH only!
Now, I took out a couple bits, I will add them back in now.

Say it ain't so.
As you are scrolling down the pages of PB, it is pretty discouraging to see all the pies getting thrown.

Ya see, that is why there is more people like me out here in the vast hinterland. (albeit they do not have a cool bathrobe with sheep on it and good hair like I do)

Our thing is, we all hate, is these partisanship pissing contests. Yup.
We find some get a little fervant when they join a party. Like its a......cult or something.
Many of us find that politicians spend large amounts of time shooting their mouths off at each other and that it is what halts all business.
We feel, sold out by all of your little parties at some point.

We are the ones that refuse to join you in endorsing any platform in it's entirety.
Now, the voters will decide Mr Layton's fate. As well as the fate of Mr Ignatieff, and that pasty substance currently residing as the Pee-Em.

In the meanwhile......This is counterproductive, and a massive turnoff, contrary to the messaging that the party fundraisers and recruitment keeps producing.

But, ya all go ahead. This is not like.....important stuff right?

(Written for Dkos. Crossposting.)

A diary from a few weeks ago on Dkos has had me thinking about missing women and how often enough the response from the media and the authorities seems tied to whether they are white, or not. Rich. Or not. Sex workers, or not. Drug addicts. Or not.
This whole inequity is something that has bothered me for many years. There is a test to see if one if "worthy" of being looked for, and sadly many women and girls fail this test.
Here in Canada, we are struggling with this inequity, and it is finally being talked about through official channels.

Wall of shame? I will take you on an abbreviated tour, starting on the Highway of Tears.

A stretch of road, about 720 kilometers in Northern British Columbia, Canada.

Over the past 41 years, at least 18 girls and young women have disappeared or been found dead along this lonely highway. Amnesty International has named a figure of 32, this number is quoted and attributed to them and I have been looking for the link.

An electric car with a body constructed from hemp, actually.

The four-seat car, called the Kestrel, has an outer shell of a hemp-based composite, which developers say is lighter than glass fibre and more resilient than steel. It will debut at the EV (Electric Vehicles) tradeshow in Vancouver.
"The first vehicle comes out next year, and it will take four to five years for it to take off, but we hope that by that point electric vehicles will no longer be an 'alternative option'," said Nathan Armstrong, director of development firm Motive Industries, a small Calgary-based company that's looking at new options for the automotive sector.

That outta make some wingnut heads explode. 

But then when one mentions that Henry Ford did it  back in the 1930-40's.....

 

The joke in parliament that just keeps on making one want to crawl under their desk eh?

Yesterdays little stunt with the ATV, and the comment, “I think I make the rules.”
That tells us so much about the personality, or lack thereof that is Stephen Harper.

The guy is so full of himself that he likes to look only at himself in portraiture, and has bumped former PM's totally out of the picture. 

Photographs of Mr. Harper in various poses, at various sites, are hung throughout the private and cosy government lobby of the House of Commons.
Ms. May and Ms. O'Malley were surprised and a bit speechless when they saw the exhibit recently as guest Commons Speakers during a youth Parliament.
"When you walk in the door, all you see are pictures of Stephen Harper," said Ms. May
"I'd say between every window, in every available space of the wall, at eye level, every available space has a photo of Stephen Harper."

Ya, that one. Recall the narcissistic Christmas card? The one with a picture of Steve, LOOKING at pictures of Steve. Creepy, that.

 

 

 

I was in town yesterday to do the shopping, and had to make a stop at the local library.

While waiting in the car with the little ones for the teens to come out, I heard the raucous sounds of Ravens or crows. I looked behind the car, there is a bit of a green patch there with some trees and a path.

About 8 very large and shiny Ravens were just standing on the grass cawing and kind of bobbing their heads. They looked almost like they were warning away any passers by...
I saw one of them nudge something on the ground...
There was another large bird lying there on it's back.

I was driving down the road a couple months ago, and saw a car ahead of me actually go into the ditch.

The car was almost sideways, with the passenger side completely inaccessible.

Although I had things to do and had to try to safely get to the edge of the road without causing another accident, I managed and humped back what would be a block or so on foot.

There were two other people who stopped as well. One of the vehicles occupants was unconscious, and we kept her husband calm while the fire dept was called.
When the lady came to, she was kept calm as well, and given tissues for her bleeding mouth.

My job was to hold the car door open for the emergency responders so it did not slam on one of them. I was there for about half an hour.
But that is what you do. You stop. You help. If you cannot help and are in the way, you leave.

But not in Calgary.

A video presentation.

A Message from the CEO of Canada INC to the shareholders and clientele.
At Canada INC, YOUR profits and security against the ugly plebes are JOB ONE!

Rev Paperboy is the voice, and Alison from Creekside conspired with us.

A graphically graphic, graphic.

 

 

Billions for Jets. But nickel and diming those that have served. 

Bird says he would not recommend any young person sign up for the military today.
"Everything is great until you get injured," he says, adding that's when you become a liability. "The sooner they can get rid of you the better."

Feel free to use, as always.

 

 

A couple months ago, a document was released by the Daily Beast showing a "Cost benefit analysis" from BP. In that document BP had worked out that it was far less expensive to write off workers lives and pay some amount of renumeration to the family, than it was to actually improve safety by installing safeguards for human life on their rigs, and in the oilfields.

The Cost benefit analysis of the three little pigs.

Cold and calculated, they seriously take into consideration their own  costs, and rate that above the lives of the workers. This is the corporate way. 

Ford did a similar gambit with their Pinto fiasco.

In the case of the Ford Pinto (where, because of design flaws, the Pinto was liable to burst into flames in a rear-impact collision), the Ford company's decision was not to issue a recall. Ford's cost–benefit analysis had estimated that based on the number of cars in use and the probable accident rate, deaths due to the design flaw would run about $49.5 million (the amount Ford would pay out of court to settle wrongful death lawsuits). This was estimated to be less than the cost of issuing a recall ($137.5 million) [17]. In the event, Ford overlooked (or considered insignificant) the costs of the negative publicity so engendered, which turned out to be quite significant (because it led to the recall anyway and to measurable losses in sales).

This appears to be the game that the Harper Cons are playing with Canadians who serve in the foreign occupation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

In the US last year, the right wing corporate supporting supreme court "justices" handed down a decision.

A Conservative, extremist, scummy pro corporate group, (look up this board of directors if you do not believe me) decided to challenge the rules on corporate money in buying political campaigns.

The 5-to-4 decision was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said that allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace would corrupt democracy.
The ruling represented a sharp doctrinal shift, and it will have major political and practical consequences. Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision to reshape the way elections were conducted. Though the decision does not directly address them, its logic also applies to the labor unions that are often at political odds with big business.

Short Version: Corporations are people with the right to free speech, and can spend millions and millions to install their own senators and congresspeople....

This stuff is dangerous to any system. And it is in fact, a Harper wet dream. If only he could fire all of Elections Canada and the entire Supreme Court and it's activist judges.  Drat!

So there are some in the US who are not taking this lying down exactly. 

Target, a large retailer in the US has decided to go to the dark side.

When Randi Reitan heard about Target's $150,000 donation to a Minnesota-based political group backing a gubernatorial candidate with penchant for opposing gay rights, she marched straight into the popular superstore and cut up her store credit card.

Despite an "apology" from the CEO of Target, this is not an isolated incident, as it turns out. 
Boycotts are being organized. And since the actual people do not have the same kind of cash as astroturf organizations fronted by mega corps,  Flash mobs.  Creativity is needed. Moveon.org is helping.

Why does he hate Canada? Period?

He hates us bleeding heart liberals (small "l") who think that we need to take care of our own, he hates compassion and honour.

He loves to think he is the "Commander-in-chief", even though that is completely an American concept.

But he gives his support only when it comes to buying toys and blowing shit up. When it feeds his massive ego.
Like his beloved Bush, his use for the troops is merely as props in his neverending support of the Military industrial complex. He does not support anyone who he considers expendable.

Never one to mince words, Stogran has harshly criticized the federal bureaucracy's treatment of injured soldiers and policies, such as the replacement of pensions with lump-sum payments and disability stipends.

My Dishwasher broke down. A while ago now. Well, it didn't break down as much as it started leaking through to the bottom.

Because of skin problems from overexposure to chemicals many years ago, I need this appliance. I can't do too many soaps, and the stuff in the rubber gloves turns my hands into raw hamburger. In my case, this is not simply a convenience.

We also can't afford to call a repairman, but luckily we do not need to with a handy guy in the house.
After taking it apart, it was discovered that one of the seals had turned to goo. A bizarrely shaped gasket had to be replaced, and an "O" ring.

Found the part numbers online. Local repair shop quote? Almost $90. (no repair, JUST the parts.)

Boneheaded says.......

I'm about this far away.... 
from voting for Sarah Palin in 2012...just to piss these fuckers off.
I am a dual citizen...I live in Canada. I have health care and responsible government. If they didn't learn their lesson under Bush, then let them have Sarah.

So I said:

You have responsible government? 

Jeebus I live in Canada and have nothing of the sort.

Where is yours on the map?

I mean, I also get cable in my igloo and all that, so yes I think I can follow the whacky antics down south. DUH. (can you say dismissive git?)

So this person goes on to say that he lives in QUEBEC (all in caps, and I must bow to his sooperior knowledge and all that stuff. AND hes a guy and stuff. You know the vibe.)

So. I posted this list I gleaned off the comments at the glib and stale. Betcha he will come back and pat me on the head and say I is overreacting.

This whole census thing is hilarious on so many levels. Not the fact that the Harpercons want to play rabbit and the hat with all the segments of society that they do not like, and that they want to turn Statscan into Hunches Canada.

 

 

No, it is the excuses that are so bizarre and hi-larious.

Stockboy said:

“All we’re saying is, people shouldn’t be threatened with jail because they don’t want to tell some unknown bureaucrat how many bedrooms they’ve got in their house,” Mr. Day told Calgary radio station QR-77 on Friday.

Clement insists that these questions are sooooooo uber intrusive....