Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Neoconservatism and banking
Bill Longstaff: Minority government: lucky for us, lucky for Stephen Harper
If Stephen Harper had won a majority in 2006, or even in 2004, it may have been a very different story. Harper is very much the neocon himself, a believer in small government. One suspects he wouldn't have resisted the pressure for deregulation, indeed would have been more likely to embrace it, and we could have been well on our way toward a U.S. style financial system and the consequent collapse.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
NDP did make huge gains in Quebec
Buckdog: New Democrats Made Huge $urge In Quebec During The Last Federal Election
At the end of a federal election campaign, any party or candidates that
earn at least 10% of the vote in a riding get much of their actual
election expenditures reimbursed by Elections Canada.
At the end
of the 2006 election in the Quebec ridings, the New Democrats only
qualified in 4 federal constituencies for reimbursement. After the
recent campaign, they achieved over 10% of the vote in 50 of the
provinces's 75 ridings.
At the end of a federal election campaign, any party or candidates that
earn at least 10% of the vote in a riding get much of their actual
election expenditures reimbursed by Elections Canada.
At the end
of the 2006 election in the Quebec ridings, the New Democrats only
qualified in 4 federal constituencies for reimbursement. After the
recent campaign, they achieved over 10% of the vote in 50 of the
provinces's 75 ridings.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Ayahuasca users 800 to 1200 years ago
Ancient mummy hair suggests drug use - Boing Boing
Researchers have found evidence of psychoactive drug use in the hair of ancient mummies found in Chile's Azapa Valley. The scientists detected harmine, an ingredient used in the psychedelic brew ayahuasca
Health benefits of Sauerkraut
Health Benefits of Sauerkraut - The Fremont Company Sauerkraut
Eating sauerkraut is a great way to protect the balance of bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract.
Eating sauerkraut is a great way to protect the balance of bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Canadians want their government to deal with poverty
Rolling Back the Tide of Extremism, One Post at a Time: Four in Ten Canadians Fear Imminent Poverty
She said Canadians look at Scandinavian and European countries' focus on poverty reduction and say, "Why can't we do that here?"
According to the survey:
90 per cent want the government to take leadership to reduce poverty
86 per cent believe concrete government action can greatly reduce poverty
81 per cent support reducing poverty by at least 25 per cent over the next five years.
Syria invaded by the USA, and the biased MSM reporting of it.
Strong evidence of distortion in media’s portrayal of Syrian invasion « Paulitics
Some of you may have read recently (source, source, source, source, source, source, source)
that the United States broke international law on Sunday by violating
the sovereignty of a UN member nation (Syria) without the necessary UN
sanction and without the appropriate legal and moral criteria necessary to justify such an attack without UN sanction.
Some of you may have read recently (source, source, source, source, source, source, source)
that the United States broke international law on Sunday by violating
the sovereignty of a UN member nation (Syria) without the necessary UN
sanction and without the appropriate legal and moral criteria necessary to justify such an attack without UN sanction.
As an exercise, I decided to look at how the mainstream U.S. media
covered the incident. For the purposes of this exercise, I took
mainstream media to consist of: CNN, FOX News, LA Times, Washington
Post, NPR, USA Today, NY Times¹ and Time Magazine.
Mmmmm, beds.
18 Creative Modern Beds and Bed Designs | WebUrbanist
I like the one with the trees and the bird's nest.
I like the one with the trees and the bird's nest.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Remember this guy in the Harris government?
Peterborough Politics: Rosy Flaherty
Having lived in various parts of Ontario my entire life, I have had the dubious experience of living through the era of the Mike Harris Conservative Government. We are still feeling the effects of those years and their policies to this day. The starved and underfunded school and health care systems, the crumbling infrastructure, the lost fiscal capacity and the growing poverty, all of these things were brought on or made worse by the policies of the Harris Conservatives. Their Neo-Conservative ideology of "tax cuts solve everything" left this province in a terrible mess, with lots of policies that are still doing damage to the bottom lines of the province (also because of the McGuinty Liberals refusal to fix them ie. School Funding formula and refusing to upload Social Services costs from Municipalities).
So after that gang was turfed from Queen's Park, many were justifiably happy. But problem was that some of those Harris Conservatives didn't just go away, they just moved up to Ottawa. Former Harris ministers make up a large part of Stephen Harper's cadre in Ottawa, with the likes of John Baird and Tony Clement taking up big positions there. But in probably the most important Cabinet position is one of the most infamous Harris era ministers, Finance Minster Jim Flaherty. Flaherty was known in Ontario for spending a great deal of his time praying at the alter of his god "tax cut". He was known for downloading things to other levels, trying to defer any responsibility for raising anyone's taxes. He also partook in selling off public buildings and assets, and was big part of the movement towards P3 hospitals (something that the McGuinty Liberals have continued with). Probably the most infamous case of this was the sale of the 407 toll road to a Spanish consortium and using the money to barely balance the books. It was that kind of management that had Ontario deep into deficit by the time they were booted, although they never admitted to those deficits as they were hiding them. Transparency indeed.
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