Category: Political

For non-Canadians, here’s just a little bit of context about our “also ran” national newspaper, in the form of a few quotes from from the Wikipedia article on it: The Post was founded in 1998 by Conrad Black to combat what he believed was an “over-liberalizing” of editorial policy in Canadian newspapers Its editorial page featured the opinions of well-known… Read more →

Note the time window there: that’s 20 years, not hundreds. (The information & content at the parent site, the Corporate Accountability Project, has a pretty high sensible-to-crazy ratioAlthough there is still some stuff there that is far enough to the left of me that I think it’s crazy–and I’m pretty far left. But hey, there should be people out there… Read more →

…but Rick Mercer is probably the funniest current events comedian we have here in Canada. I got a chuckle out of his recent From The Desk of Stephen Harper bit. Here’s one little bit: 4. Open and Accountable government. Yes the catch phrase open and accountable will not go away. We are prepared to use it every day and every… Read more →

Look at that, citing executive parliamentary privilege as a way to cover up shady partisan shenanigans. Get some details from shamelessly anti-Harper (and thus, completely Chris-approved) site HarperIndex.ca: Allan Riddell case contradicts accountability promises, threatens damage Stephen Harper’s invoking Parliamentary privilege, to avoid testifying in a defamation suit brought against him and the party by long-time Conservative Alan Riddell, exposes… Read more →

Look, I know there’s no guarantee of them going anywhere–indeed almost the opposite while W has veto power–but seeing legislation in both the House and Senate to close Guantanamo still makes me happy. It’s about time someone stood up and said of Gitmo that it is “plainly inconsistent with America’s proud legal traditions; it has become a stinging symbol of… Read more →

See also. Read more →

Look, Bill Moyers kicks ass. There’s no disputing it. After a while in “retirement”, Bill is back with a new show on PBS, Bill Moyers’ Journal. The show starts its regular run this weekend with an interview with Jon Stewart, which should be fun to watch. However as a kind of kick-start for the show they ran the documentary “Buying… Read more →

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Not subtle, but pretty funny. I especially like Cheney stalking out of Iraq with the sacks full of money. Oh, and Rove’s fear checklist. More information here. Read more →

I was going to write up something about the just passed fourth anniversary of the beginning of the U.S. war in Iraq, but I’ve decided I’m too tired. Maybe tomorrow. Instead, I offer this quote, from Edmund Burke: The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of… Read more →

I’m not going to talk a lot about the history or positions of the Cato Institute–if you’re interested in that, you can go do the reading yourself. The very short version is that they are essentially right-wing libertarian types. I’m a bleeding heart left wing socialist type. You’d think we would agree on nothing. You’d be wrong. While we wouldn’t… Read more →

Let’s have a big “Yeah baby!” for the Supreme Court, which today unanimously put the smack-down on a particularly egregious example of post-9/11 use of ridiculous police state legislation: the “security certificates”. Top court rules against security certificates The Supreme Court of Canada has struck down the security certificate system used by the federal government to detain and deport foreign-born… Read more →