Harper will be spending nearly a billion taxpayer dollars to host a couple of useless meetings that will address tackling the soaring worldwide deficits. Meanwhile, in the crazy corner of the blogosphere, right whingers and libertoonians are outraged! about the billion taxpayer dollars they claim were wasted on the gun registry…um, 15 years ago.

Apparently Canadian Cynic has asked progressive bloggers to ban Patrick Ross from commenting on their site. Normally I only ban people if they’re being a nuisance but when a right whinger foolishly gloats about nobody doing so and then turns it into a referendum on the popularity of a blogger I enjoy reading I’m more than happy to oblige. So bye-bye nutsack.

The Hunt For Gollum
While browsing through the selection of movies YouTube is now carrying I came across a little 39 minute gem called The Hunt For Gollum that you might like if you’re a Lord of the Rings fan. It’s an independently made prequel to the Lord of the Rings that’s surprisingly good for a film made on a budget of just $5,000.

Harper’s Apprentice
It looks like PM Harper has an apprentice.

Over the holidays, the Cook Islands have become embroiled in a political crisis. The sacking of an incompetant Minister caused a walkout from Cabinet, and the subsequent withdrawl of support for the government by the Democratic Party. The Cook Islands Party won’t support them either. The Prime Minister now has the support of just 5 MPs in the 24-member House; when Parliament reconvenes, he will face a confidence vote, which he will lose. So, he has hit on a simple strategy: don’t call Parliament:

Canadians will beam with pride knowing the Harper brand of democracy is spreading about the world.

So Much For Global Cooling
2009 was the second hottest year on record.

Although 2008 was the coolest year of the decade because of a strong La Nina that cooled the tropical Pacific Ocean, 2009 saw a return to a near-record global temperatures as the La Nina diminished, according to the new analysis by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. The past year was a small fraction of a degree cooler than 2005, the warmest on record, putting 2009 in a virtual tie with a cluster of other years –1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2007 — for the second warmest on record.

I guess the climate change deniers will have to move on to their next delusion.

Los Jihadios
It looks like right whingers are going to need a new scapegoat.

It’s a common refrain in the media, that the threat of terrorism comes from Islamic extremism.
Not true, according to a new study revealed by researchers at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which suggests that only 6% of terrorist attacks on the U.S. are from Muslims.

Cue the denials from Islamophobes in 5…4…3…

Recorded by the Cassini spacecraft.

Hey, lets look into whether or not this “environmental” program–that most reputable environmentalist don’t endorse–actually works after we’ve already blown 2 billion taxpayer dollars on it.

Three years after announcing $2 billion in subsidies for the biofuels industry, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has decided to probe whether the so-called renewable fuels might actually be harming the environment.

So who helped foist this $2 billion boondoggle on taxpayers?

Harper’s former director of communications, Kory Teneycke, led a team of industry stakeholders that successfully lobbied the government to promote biofuels, before he joined the prime minister’s office.

And here you have the very essence of conservanomics; a perfect storm of conservative incompetence and ideological ignorance fueled by corporate greed.

The latest Climate Denial Crock of the Week from Peter Sinclair.

Jim Hansen also addresses this foolish nonsense.

Driving the Porcelain Bus has put together a very long documented list of Harper’s numerous assaults on our democracy. I’d add his anti-democratic assault on the Canadian Wheat Board to that list.

The latest Climate Denial Crock of the Week from Peter Sinclair.

Holy crap!

An ugly little story has been leaking out of Afghanistan during the past few days.

On December 27, US-led forces in eastern Kunar province dragged eight children from their beds and executed them, some after they had been handcuffed. The youngest child was eleven years old. The deaths have been confirmed by the United Nations chief in Afghanistan, Kay Eide.

4 Sale
One used up rightwing newspaper chain.

Canwest Communications Inc. is hoping to fetch at least $1 billion to $1.5 billion for its national chain of big city daily newspapers, including the National Post, sources close to the deal say.

That’s roughly half what the company paid for the publications, which includes the Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen and Calgary Herald.

I Guess Nobody Told Kenney The Roma Are A Nomadic People
Jason Kenney continues his campaign of persecution against the Roma.

The federal government is seriously considering imposing visa requirements on visitors from Hungary to cut off a growing flood of refugee applicants, mainly from the Roma community, The Canadian Press has learned.

It would be the third such move in less than a year, after Canada imposed visas on visitors from Mexico and the Czech Republic last summer.

Taxpayer Funded Bigotry
The Calgary Stampede is using some of the $2 million dollars taxpayers gave them to pay for a homophobic survey.

The Calgary Stampede, Calgary’s annual carnival and rodeo, has launched a marketing research survey that asks respondents for opinions on blatantly sexist and homophobic statements. Gems include “The only acceptable definition of a family is a husband, wife and children,” and “Some jobs are best suited to men. Women should just accept this.”

Are Conservative MPs Attending Meetings Sponsored By Pro Tamil Terrorist Groups?
This guy seems to think they are.

Paul Calandra, MP
Conservative Member for Oak-Ridges-Markham
House of Commons, Ottawa
Dear Paul:
It has been brought to my notice by one of your Conservative Sri Lankan-Canadian constituents that you are now into the Hokey-Pokey cunning business of Town Hall meetings organized by the pro-Tamil Tiger front, the Canadian Tamil Congress. “Hokey-Pokey cunning” I said, since the recent planned meeting was under wraps until it was announced on the morning of the happening perhaps to filter the non-supporters of their separatist Eelam cause.

Now that 2009 has been officially prorogued we can turn our attention to the new year ahead of us and the magical wonders it will usher in. Like…um, and…um. Yeah, let me get back to you on that one.

In the meantime, via Canadian Cynic is the Blogging Whories II: Revenge of the Teabaggers; a place where right whingers who believe the original Blogging Whories is just too liberal, too open minded and simply not batshit crazy enough for their liking can gather in an environment hermetically sealed away from the rest of the world in order to exchange phacts that the evil emessem conspires to keep hidden from them.

On the second day of Proroguemas Harper gave to me:
Two silly talking points.
Silly talking point number one:

For the first time in twenty years, Conservatives will have a plurality in the Senate of Canada. Our parliament is a bicameral body consisting of a lower and upper house. While its activities may not be conducive to the lust of the cut and thrust of politics for the average Ottawa watcher — and who called whom “fat” on Twitter in committee this week — the Senate is constitutionally important to the parliament of Canada. When a new plurality exists in the lower House, the Governor General asks the party leader that can lead a stable government to form a cabinet. When a new plurality exists within the Senate, the government’s opponents accuse the Prime Minister of politics when the Prime Minister asks the Governor General for a chance to reset parliament so that its committees and functions may represent the new reality.

The case for prorogation is constitutional.The case against it is political.

Silly talking point number two:

The call for a new Throne Speech to launch the 3rd Session of the current Parliament is routine. The average Parliament comprises three or four sessions (and three or four Throne Speeches); some Parliaments have heard as many as six or seven Throne Speeches.

And one cancelled democracy.

One key reason Harper prorogued Parliament is to allow the Senate committees to be re-shuffled in his favour. So lets deny him that by convincing the independent, Progressive Conservative and Mulroney and Martin appointed Conservatives to join the Liberal Senators. Here are their email addresses.

Independent/Progressive Conservative
Anne C. Cools: coolsa@sen.parl.gc.ca
Murray Lowell: murral@sen.parl.gc.ca
Elaine McCoy: mccoye@sen.parl.gc.ca
Jean-Claude Rivest: jcrivest@sen.parl.gc.ca
P. Michael Pitfield: lachah@sen.parl.gc.ca

Conservative
David Tkachuk: tkachd@sen.parl.gc.ca
Terry Stratton: stratt@sen.parl.gc.ca
Gerry St. Germain: stgerg@sen.parl.gc.ca
Hugh Segal: kfl@sen.parl.gc.ca
Donald H. Oliver: olived@sen.parl.gc.ca
Pierre Claude Nolin: nolinp@sen.parl.gc.ca
Nancy Ruth: mcgeed@sen.parl.gc.ca
Michael A. Meighen: meighen@sen.parl.gc.ca
Marjory LeBreton: lebrem@sen.parl.gc.ca
Noël A. Kinsella: kinsen@sen.parl.gc.ca
Wilbert Joseph Keon: By phone only.
Janis G. Johnson: johnsj@sen.parl.gc.ca
Consiglio Di Nino: dininc@sen.parl.gc.ca
Gerald J. Comeau: comeag@sen.parl.gc.ca
Ethel M. Cochrane: cochre@sen.parl.gc.ca
Andrée Champagne: champa@sen.parl.gc.ca
W. David Angus: anguswd@sen.parl.gc.ca
Raynell Andreychuk: andrer@sen.parl.gc.ca

Ask them how they can continue in good conscience to support a party that no longer believes in democracy.

On the first day of Proroguemas Harper gave to me:
One cancelled democracy.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will ask the governor general to prorogue Parliament today until early March, CTV News has learned.
[Updated story-ed] Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked the governor general to prorogue Parliament Wednesday and plans to begin a new session with a throne speech on March 3, his press secretary says.

By now you’re undoubtedly familiar with the details of the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack on Northwest Airlines flight 253. You’re probably also aware that conservative pundits are calling for the resignation of Janet Napolitano on the grounds that her incompetence allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board the plane despite warnings from his father and other sources about the danger he posed.

I agree with them. This incident was a monumental failure that demands the people in charge of our security be held accountable. But this failure is not Napolitano’s alone. Flight 253 passed through Canadian airspace and would have crashed in southwestern Ontario–possibly killing many Canadians–had Abdulmutallab successfully carried out his terrorist attack. For that failure, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, Peter Van Loan should also resign in disgrace. We cannot afford to let Van Loan’s incompetence continue putting the lives of Canadians in jeopardy.

Kathy Shaidle demonstrates her economic illiteracy.

One asks:
I am curious to see the intellectual, financial and social contribution these newly arrived [Somali] immigrants will bestow up on Sweden.

One responds smugly:
Of course any one that comes to Sweden is not allowed to constitute a nuisance to the economy, that was why the government established the SFI for migrant to learn the Swedish language first, and from there go to some vocational schools…

Right:
Which costs the rest of you money, dipshit!
Why not just save the money in the first place and not let them in? Which is what Canada should do.

Clearly Shaidle must believe that natural born workers spring from holes in the ground. In the real world that’s simply not the case. Before a natural born worker begins paying taxes they actually rack up a rather large bill at the taxpayer’s expense.

First of all, there’s the cost of delivering them into this world. Then there’s the hefty price tag attached to providing 12 years of basic education. Additionally, a natural born worker spends the first 18 years of their life using all manner of government services without contributing a dime in payment for them. To top it all off, the parents of our natural born worker also get in on the action with generous reductions in the amount of tax they pay along with assorted government stipends.

An immigrant on the other hand typically requires only a few years of education and training before they become a tax paying worker. Clearly immigrants are the most cost effective source of new labour and Shaidle’s nativist economics would end up costing taxpayer’s money rather than saving it.

Cause And Effect
Cause:

The survey, conducted over the past few days by Innovative Research Group for Canwest News Service, found 49 per cent of respondents disapproved of the government’s position at the Copenhagen climate conference…
The approval rating of the government’s position also dropped to 19 per cent from 32 per cent in the same period, while the disapproval rating rose to 49 per cent from 22 per cent

Effect:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he doesn’t want to impose a carbon tax on Canadians — but admits he can’t entirely rule it out.

Americans Cool On Ignoring Climate Change
From a poll last Friday.

Today’s new Washington Post-ABC News Poll demonstrates yet again that the American people want action to “regulate the release of greenhouse gases from sources like power plants, cars and factories in an effort to reduce global warming.” Respondents supported this statement by more than two to one (65 percent favor, 29 percent oppose). This poll was conducted December 10-13, at the height of the trumped up brouhaha over stolen emails from a British climate research institution. These findings are consistent with the Associated Press-Stanford University poll released on Tuesday.

Chasing Ice
Nature photographer James Balog talks about his time lapse photography project documenting the receding glaciers for the upcoming feature length documentary Chasing Ice.

The Obameter
Track the progress of President Obama’s campaign promises.

Remember the furor a few months ago when a journalist published a report in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that Israel was harvesting the organs of Palestinians killed by the IDF. Assorted gasbags like Bernie Farber were quick to label it as “blood libel” and these rubes were flinging around hysterical accusations of anti-semitism. Funny thing though. It turns out it was true.

Israel has admitted that in the 1990s, its forensic pathologists harvested organs from dead bodies, including Palestinians, without permission of their families.
The issue emerged with publication of an interview with the then-head of Israel’s Abu Kabir forensic institute, Dr. Jehuda Hiss. The interview was conducted in 2000 by an American academic, who released it because of a huge controversy last summer over an allegation by a Swedish newspaper that Israel was killing Palestinians in order to harvest their organs. Israel hotly denied the charge…
In a response to the TV report, the Israeli military confirmed that the practice took place.

The IDF claims the practice no longer takes place but considering they lied about it in the first place it’s hard to see why they should now be believed.

By the way, don’t bother expecting a retraction from any of the gasbags or rubes. After all, that was so 84 hysterical accusations of anti-semitism ago.

People Really Like Him
An early Christmas present for Jack.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Public support for Stephen Harper fell slightly in Canada this month, according to a poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion. 32 per cent of respondents approve of the prime minister’s performance, down two points since November.

Only 15 per cent of respondents approve of the way of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is doing his job, up three points in a month. The approval rating for New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton is 29 per cent, up five points since November.

Of course this can only mean one thing to the paid pundits. Jack Layton needs to be replaced as leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada.

Hypochondriacs Lose
A recent study has confirmed that Wind Turbine Syndrome is psychosomatic.

Noise and vibration from giant wind turbines may be annoying but pose no risk to human health, an industry-funded study has found…

The study says there’s “nothing unique” about the noise or vibrations emitted by wind turbines and no evidence that the audible or sub-audible sounds have any direct adverse effect on health.

It suggests that those who are bothered by turbines simply have a lower tolerance for annoying sounds of all sorts.

Not surprisingly, anti-environmentalist hypochondriacs have already begun experiencing an adverse reaction to this study.

Conservatives Finding New Ways To Waste Money
Unfreakingbelieavable.

Here’s something that utterly infuriated me last night: DFAIT is looking to pay someone $100K to play around on Twitter, Flickr and YouTube to promote clubbing baby seals.

Can we finally bury the idea that Conservatives are good financial managers.