The Wingnuterer reminds us what the right whingers had to say about Chuck Cadman after he passed away.

Is Archbishop Pederast…er, I mean Prendergast in contempt of Parliament by issuing this threat?

A top Catholic official in Canada is encouraging elected officials of the Catholic faith to turn from their pro-abortion views if they want to continue receiving communion. Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast says he will first speak with politicians who support abortion and encourage them to convert to the pro-life perspective.

But, for those elected officials who continue to advocate legal abortions, he would tell them they shouldn’t be taking part in the Christian sacrament.

I read of a similar situation in Australia–a country whose political system is nearly identical to our own–that seems to suggest these types of threats could be considered in contempt of Parliament.

Does anyone know for certain whether or not this is the case here in Canada?

Shorter Colby Cosh: Why would a Wookiee, an eight-foot tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense!–Chewbacca defense

Well it looks like Canada’s Gnu Government has something extra special planned for us all on April Fools Day.

Members of Parliament are getting a pay raise.

A memo Commons Speaker Peter Milliken sent to all MPs outlines the automatic pay hike of 3.1 per cent on April 1st.

Some negative Nellies think our MPs don’t deserve this extra money.

But I beg to differ.

Offering bribes to fellow MPs, acting as Canada’s morality police and abstaining from votes in Parliament is hard work, dammit.

At least they’re no longer hiding their genocidal intentions.

Israeli leaders are warning of an imminent conflagration in Gaza after Palestinian militants aimed rockets at the southern city of Ashkelon.

The deputy defence minister said the stepped-up rocket fire would trigger what he called a “bigger holocaust” in the Hamas-controlled coastal strip…

“The more [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves,” Matan Vilnai told Israeli army radio.

An interesting bit from the end of this La Presse article.

Translated by google
The NDP, which is actively preparing for elections in the spring, has not said its last word. Troops from Jack Layton considering a motion of censure against the Harper government within the next three weeks, La Presse has learned.

In fury against the Liberals Stephane Dion who bend again before the conservatives to pass the budget, the New Democratic strategists have confirmed they intend to file such a motion of censure on the occasion of a day of opposition to them back by March 14.

The motion would be drafted as simply in order to join the Liberal Party and the Bloc Quebecois to the cause of the NDP. “That this House has no confidence in government.” If passed, Canadians would therefore to the polls this spring. If they should refrain again, Mr. Layton could in turn attack the credibility of Mr. Dion. In all, the Harper government must give seven days of the three opposition parties by March 14.

The NDP MP for Outremont, Thomas Mulcair, confirmed to La Presse intention of his party to file a motion of censure. “The NDP has not yet played all its cards. We have a so-called day of the opposition before the Easter break. It would be an opportunity to file a motion of confidence on which the government could fall if the other opposition parties voted with us. We have not yet finalized our final strategy, but it is something we are considering very seriously,” said Mulcair.

Dino tagged me with this 6 unimportant things about me meme.

1. I’m trying to create a virus that only targets right whingers and will turn them into swarthy looking brown people.

2. I have this recurring dream that I become the dictator of a third world country and after turning it into a gigantic amusement park am overthrown in a coup staged by the park’s mascots.

3. I’m terrified of the number 3. Eeeek!

4. I once traveled through time into the future and now I’m using my knowledge of what will happen to strategically place dog poop in places where I know people I don’t like will step.

5. I only have imaginary friends and they all hate me.

6. This one time at band camp…

I’m tagging Montreal Simon, Kevin Powell and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

A tale of two “conservatives”.

“Conservative” #1 on the budget.

Looks good to me.

“Conservative” #2 on the budget.

So you can imagine my shock, on opening the budget, to find that the new-look, skinflint minister plans to spend every bit as much as he forecast in last year’s bacchanalia, plus a little more. Last year, he was “the biggest spending finance minister in Canadian history.” This year, he still is.

So which one of these two “conservatives” is the real conservative?

FYI: For the second time in two years the Conservatives have cut StatsCan’s budget.

Ha ha!

A group of Stéphane Dion’s 15 closest advisers go into a top level strategic meeting. Jane Taber has a detailed report. Somebody needs to be fired.

If ever there was a perfect example of the chickens coming home to roost, this is it. Infighting–quite often vicious–amongst the Liberal Party and its supporters has become such a routine occurrence over the past several years that it’s created a situation within the party where even the most trusted cannot be trusted. Now the genie won’t easily go back into the bottle.

So before spouting off about teamwork Chernyuk should ask Thomas Hubert–the young kid Jason stomped on–what he thinks of Chernyuk’s idea of teamwork. I’m sure Thomas’ answer will provide him with all he needs to know about why the party is short on team players.

Conservative buzzword of the day: Prudent (adj.) 2. Careful in regard to one’s own interests;

Don’t believe the media. This budget sucks for Canadians. Take the Tax Free Savings Account for instance. It will cost you money. The dopes in the media are touting this example of what you’ll “save”.

As an example, an individual contributing $200 a month to a TFSA for 20 years, at a 5.5 per cent rate of return, will earn about $11,045 more in savings than if the investment had been made in a taxable savings vehicle (unregistered account).

The problem is, that unless you already max out your RRSP every year you’d lose money in this scenario.

For example, an individual who earns $30,000/year contributing $200 a month to an RRSP for 20 years would realize an approximate tax saving–at today’s income tax rate–of $10,000. But that’s not all you’d lose. As per the example the media is touting, if that $10,000, or $500/year were reinvested into the RRSP it would give you an additional $2,000 in income tax savings. But that’s still not all you’d lose. That $12,000 dollars would also generate additional interest–at a return rate of 5.5%–over the 20 years of approx. $2,800 for a total of $14,800.

But we’re still not finished counting the losses. In the TFSA scenario, the $200/month at a rate of 5.5% would give you $88,300 after twenty years. The RRSP scenario on the other hand, would give you $110,300 after twenty years. This amounts to a staggering $22,000 or an overall total of $36,800 lost.

But Rob, sez you. What about the tax paid on the RRSP money when it was withdrawn. Well, sez I, let’s calculate the amount paid.

Let’s say our $30,000 income earner retires and has a pension of $20,000/year. In order to maintain their $30,000 income level they’d need to withdraw $10,000/year from their RRSP. The difference in income tax paid would be approx. $2,000/year. Over 11 years–the length of time the RRSP would last–the amount of tax paid would be $22,000. This reduces the amount saved to $14,800 which is still $3,800 more than you’d save under flim flam Flaherty’s silly scheme. And that’s based on today’s tax rate. If income tax rates continue to drop in the future you’d lose even more money.

Global Warming Busted
Shorter Lorne Gunter: The presence of ice in my refrigerator freezer proves! that global warming is a fruitie patootie moonbat scheme to rob me of my riches.

For a longer analysis of Gunter’s hackery go here. To demand a refund if you foolishly bought a copy of the National Disgrace that contained Gunter’s hackery go here.

Finances, Sminances
Shorter Con West: Deficits don’t matter.

Uh oh. I’ve heard that kind of talk from clownservatives before.

Nice Monopoly You Have There.
Be a shame if something happened to it.

Cheers And Jeers
Cheers to Costa Rica for recognizing the state of Palestine.

Jeers to Israel for mistreating the people of the state of Palestine.

For no particular reason I’m posting this photo of white supremacist Kate McMillan working for the Conservative Party of Canada.

War And Drugs
A bleak portrait of Kabul.

Islam: The Religion Of Enlightenment
Islam dares to go where others fear to tread.

According to Parsine News Agency, Grand Ayatollah Mazaheri, one of the more renowned religious scholars based in Isfahan, has issued a Fatwa allowing unwed mothers to obtain abortions.

The University of Al-Azhar which is believed to be the highest reference for Sunni Muslims on religious matters has recently announced that abortion for women who have become pregnant as a result of rape is permissible.

Meanwhile Catholicism is still living in the Dark Ages.

How Do You Say ‘We Don’t Serve Your Kind Here’ In Japanese
Sadly bigotry and discrimination are global problems.

The above is a map of shops and establishments in Japan that bar entry for foreigners, a practice which is not illegal here.

Do you remember when taxpayer funded lobby groups were bad? They were so bad in fact that the Harper government changed the rules of the SWC to prevent the government from “lobbying itself”.

On September 25, 2006, the federal government announced a 5 million dollar (40%) cut to SWC’s administrative budget.

On October 3rd, they removed the very word “equality” from SWC’s mandate and changed the rules so that women’s groups cannot use federal funding to do advocacy or lobbying.

Well it seems that not all taxpayer funded lobby groups are created equal.

The CDA [Conference of Defense Associations] gets $100,000 a year from the Department of National Defence expressly for advocating on military matters.

Here’s what the CDA has to say about itself.

The CDA is the oldest and influential advocacy group in Canada’s defence community, representing thirty one associations from all parts of the country. The CDA expresses its ideas and opinions with a view to influencing government security and defence policy.

And here are some instances that refer to the CDA as a lobby group.

the Conference of Defence Associations, a lobbying group

the Conference of Defence Associations, a pro-military lobby group.

Clearly the CDA is a taxpayer funded lobbying group. So why is it okay for the military industrial complex to lobby the government with our tax dollars but not okay for women to do the same?

The New Democrats Online has officially launched today with an introduction from NDP leader Jack Layton.

Kosovo has shown them the way.
A senior Palestinian official has said the Palestinians ought to unilaterally declare a state if peace talks with Israel do not succeed.

It looks like Castro has finally received his comeuppance and been put out to pasture. I knew that US embargo would wear him down eventually. Take that, doubting Thomases. More later as comedic opportunities present themselves.

This guy is so divorced from reality he probably pays alimony.

For decades now “progressives” have been regaling us with tales of Europe. It used to be that pointing to “Europe” was the default position whenever Canadian socialist utopians got backed into a corner. “In England you know, they … ,” was the response whenever unions, over-taxation and above all, healthcare, were debated. Sometimes you’d think Swedes or Dutch were little blond angels sent down from NDP heaven just to show the rest of us in Canuckland how it’s supposed to be done. Ah, the good’ol days.

Our corporate taxes are three times higher than Ireland, which has been experiencing double digit expansion.–Conservative candidate Rick Fuschi

The National Post has a good story on all of this. It notes that Canada is the only developed nation that makes it a crime for citizens and doctors to contract for health services independently of the government, and is also the only developed nation where people who advocate such a system are systematically branded as dangerous extremists. The opinion of Justice Deschamps is worthy of note, she states that there is no evidence that two-tier healthcare cannot exist in Canada as it does in Europe and finds that arguments against it are based in fear and dogma.–The Politic.com

This guy would have made a good Hutu.

A dedicated public servant makes an unforeseen appearance on You Tube and bails.

When you turn on the lights the cockroaches run.

Bye!

Cockroach.