Starts with a P, ends with a G

Cops arresting journalists:



Ahem.

Links from around the block

My friend Binks, at Free Canuckistan: Steynian 430nth.

My uncle, for the Edmonton Journal: Test your football IQ.

And Jim Quinn at TheBurningPlatform.com: Lies Across America.

The environment before us

A budget leak and yet more lack of evidence-based policy from our Conservative government.

I'd say Keith Martin got out when the going was good. But then, as Andrew Potter points out at Macleans.ca, Canadian politics is about as bad as you would expect it to be:

Here is Keith Martin on committees: “Many committees are ground down by partisanship. The committees have just become another theatre for political warfare, an extension in fact of the House.”

I see this as the consequence of two things. First, deliberate changes have been made to strengthen the power of parliamentary committees, as demanded by MPs. When you give a body made up of political partisans more power, what the heck do you expect will happen? Second, the instability and uncertainty of minority government means that every issue is politicized in a way it need not be when the government has a majority and knows it will be in power for four or five years. The math isn’t difficult: Stronger committees + minority government = increased partisanship.

Meanwhile, Lorne Gunter.

Vaughan

Welp, the by-elections are over, and Julian Fantino won. By now most of you will have known that already, I suppose. A few assorted notes:

1) Remember that earlier confusion about the contact numbers for third-party candidates in the Vaughan by-election disappearing from the Elections Canada website? Well, I sent in a query to Elections Canada about Libertarian Party of Canada candidate Paolo Fabrizio having his contact info disappear ( although it was later put back up ). And I just heard back today:

Thank you for your email of November 15th, 2010, regarding the information displayed on the EC website for candidates. Elections Canada provides an opportunity for candidates to have one number posted on the website, if they wish. On the nomination paper that candidates file, we request a variety of contact information. There is one section of phone numbers that has the heading "INDICATE ONLY ONE TELEPHONE NUMBER TO BE POSTED ON THE ELECTIONS CANADA WEB SITE BY CHECKING THE APPROPRIATE BOX (OPTIONAL)" with space for four phone numbers (Campaign office, Business, Residence, Cellular), and a tick box next to them.

Paolo Fabrizio had listed two numbers (Residence and Cellular), but not ticked either of them. Given that the information was personal, and the candidate had not indicated that he would like one number to appear on the website, the procedure is not to have this phone number put on the Elections Canada website.

Candidates may make corrections to this information by updating the original nomination paper and signing it, or by submitting a written request for a change.

We will review the format of the nomination paper, and the instructions to the candidates with regards to completing it, and consider whether we can make it more clear. Thank you for your concern in this matter. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us.

So, that's that, then. I forwarded the message on to a couple of libertarian contacts of mine, and will see if they have a response.

2) Speaking of Paolo Fabrizio, he came in fifth in the by-election. He did pretty well when compared against the other third parties running in the riding, so all-in-all: good job, Mr. Fabrizio.

3) I'll refrain from speculating about what the various wins and losses for the CPC in the three by-election ridings mean. You'll hear more than enough of that from the chattering classes.

4) Alright, maybe a little speculation, thanks to Voice of Canada.

Update: Alright, one more.

Update II: Heard back from Andrew Phillips, re: Elections Canada:

Walker: That doesn't explain why the info was up and then removed. If what they say is true they should not have posted it at all. Thank you though for your efforts on Paolo's behalf

He's right. And Elections Canada should have caught this right away. There was a mistake made somewhere down the line.

Kudos to Moose and Squirrel

Update: Welcome Voice of Canada readers! Also, nice to see that Canadian Cynic still has my number.

As three ridings go to the by-election polls, and at the risk of angering my Blogging Tories masters, I'd just like to congratulate 'Natasha' at the Moose and Squirrel blog for her principled stand on the whole...Julian Fantino thing:

First, I don’t in any way have issues with the Blogging Tories site. Stephen Taylor has always been very kind and helpful. Many of my favorite conservative blogs are on the BT blogroll, and I’ll continue to frequent them.

But the Julian Fantino candidacy has become kind of a final straw issue for me. I just can’t continue to support the Conservatives through my blog, and it seems wrong somehow to take advantage of the traffic the BT site sends my way when I just can’t support the party, which is what they’re all about.

That’s not to say I won’t have positive things to post when the Cons do something right — like their defence of Israel and standing up to the UN. But when they chose Fantino as a candidate for the riding of Vaughn, the reason was crystal clear: The Conservatives saw Fantino — a high-profile law-and-order (*snort*) candidate — as their best chance to unseat the long-time Libs in that riding. In other words: The end justified their means. Seems like a huge compromise to me, and I just can’t wrap my head around it.

And, yes, when I see one of my favorite Conservative MPs — Jason Kenney — tweet about knocking on doors for Fantino’s campaign, I do get “nasty”.

For more information, you can check out Mark Vandermaas’ post here. He has a lot more detail.

So to my regular readers who follow me from the BT blogroll, you can always subscribe to my posts or via email (remember to confirm your email subscription). I hope, even if you disagree with my stand, that you’ll still frequent this site for Kaffir Kanuck’s posts, which are fantastic value all on their own and a great reason to visit here. And, Stephen Taylor was very kind to leave an open-ended invitation to return, so I may be back at some point. For now, though, I seem to have little in common with the CPC.

Moose and Squirrel is out of the Blogging Tories. And judging from the comments to her post, the response has been the usual re-hashing of opinion from two camps:

• a) the people who think 'politics' should trump principle
• b) the people who think principle should trump politics.

In case you're wondering, I fall into the latter camp. And quite frankly, if I wasn't afraid of losing 80% of my traffic, I'd probably resign from the Blogging Tories as well. I didn't follow the Caledonia file too closely, but the Conservatives' rather crass political maneuvering with Fantino is not something to be proud of. Just as their rather crass maneuvering with the last two prorogues, their senate appointments, their stimulus funds and budgeting, and their general approach to evidence-based policy ( i.e., who needs it? ) are not things to be proud of.

So, good for you Natasha. Blogging is an inherently personal business, and, since it's rather financially unrewarding, it has to be enjoyable if it's going to be done on any kind of regular basis. Hopefully your decision to leave the BT's will mean more peace of mind and enjoyment in times to come. You're always welcome in my own little corner of the conservative blogosphere.

The crime of being 'up to no good'

Apparently, four Hells Angels members were 'up to no good' the other day:

A cache of weapons seized from the vehicle of a full-patch Hells Angels member near Salmon Arm -- including loaded guns, ammo, knives, bear spray, a baseball bat and balaclavas -- shows the organization is more than just a group of fun-loving "rowdy rebels."

"If you look at the weapons that were found, the question is: Why would somebody in a club of peace-loving motorcycle enthusiasts need that kind of weaponry?" said Julian Sher, the author of several books on the Hells Angels.

"I think it's fair to say they were up to no good," said RCMP Staff Sgt. Kevin Keane of the Salmon Arm detachment.

Well now, we wouldn't want that.

They got busted for possessing a small amount of marijuana, speeding, and possessing prohibited weapons. But aside from being dumb enough to draw police attention in the first place, I don't see the major crime that was committed.

Just sayin'

It's not safe to drink and drive

Louise Dickson in the Times Colonist highlights the dangers of having a drink before you drive:

The number of impaired driving charges has fallen dramatically since B.C. introduced tougher drinking-and-driving rules this fall.

Under the new law, it appears that police are aggressively pursuing drivers at the lower end of intoxication and not charging people criminally who have consumed two or three times the legal limit of alcohol, said Paul Pearson, co-chairman of Victoria's criminal section of the Canadian Bar Association.

"We have a ton of work based on all these new people being caught by the lower-end prohibitions," said Pearson. "We're really busy, which is maybe a good thing for the lawyers, but it's not a good thing for people who are out having a couple of glasses of wine with dinner."

Ahem.

A peek into the Downtown Eastside drug trade

My editor at The Dependent, Matt Chambers, writes a must-read look into the street-level drug trade in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver:

I warily approach four men at an alley entrance. Their necks are thick and they wear Nike runners, sweatpants, and graphic print tees. We exchange nods and I launch into my well-worn spiel:

I’m writing a story about the street-level drug trade. I’m not trying to fuck with anybody; I just want to understand it from the perspective of the dealers.

Check it out.

Somebody should really elect these guys

You know, back in the days when Stephen Harper was still in the process of rejigging the senate in his favor, after the Second Great Prorogue, there were hopes that he might be able to push through some actual conservative legislation.

Well, it didn't work when it came to inquiries into, say, Section 13(1). The cynical part of me would have liked that to happen, even if it meant, well, kind of an under-handed approach from the government toward that particular problem.

But then that climate bill got killed. I'll admit, it doesn't particularly bother me that Jack Layton's blood pressure is rising. Other than some slight worry that maybe the senate shouldn't be going down that path, I've got other things to worry about.

Until, that is, the senate actually did something that I didn't want it to:

The Senate has backed away from a fight with the Conservative government and passed a controversial drug-sentencing bill that would automatically imprison people caught growing five or more marijuana plants.

One year after the upper house watered down proposed legislation by raising the bar to more than 200 plants, a new version of the bill is once again before the Senate and the chamber of sober second thought has decided that the previous amendment would never survive a final vote among MPs.

"It was irrational," conceded Liberal Sen. George Baker. "It wasn't going to fly with the Conservatives, and it wasn't going to fly with the Liberals."

You see, now that the senate has done something I don't want it to on an issue that I care about, I'm invested. I'm angry. How dare those unelected, unaccountable hacks debase themselves by becoming Stephen Harper's yes-men?

I feel so betrayed. Next time, I want Stephen Harper to stack the system in my favor.

Fun with copyright

Boing Boing:

• EFF rescues ASL Ally's sign-language YouTube music videos.
• Zimbabwean law will put legislation, parliamentary gazette, etc, under state copyright.

Meanwhile, from The Hill:

The investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department appears to be shutting down websites that facilitate copyright infringement.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized dozens of domain names over the past few days, according to TorrentFreak.

George Jonas, FTW

On North Korea:

A rogue state is banditry masquerading as a country. North Korea is a Chicago-style protection racket with a flag and an anthem. Why did it shell a South Korean fishing village this week? Because that’s what North Korea does. It shells, professionally, for a living. From time to time it launches, or threatens to launch, projectiles at its neighbours, then invoices the world for stopping.

That's why George Jonas is George Jonas.

Highly disturbing

Cops are using private companies to spy on us, now, and the Supreme Court thinks that's just wonderful.

Perfect:

The right to privacy in one's home is not absolute, the Supreme Court of Canada said yesterday in a ruling that allowed police to conscript a Calgary power company to collect details of a customer's electricity use to determine whether he was growing marijuana.

We do not have a right to privacy in our own homes. Think about that for a minute.

The latest at the Lynch Mob

Check it out:

• Mark Steyn: “three years on”.
• BC Human Rights Tribunal dismisses one complaint, leaves room for more.

Yes, there are still blasphemy laws

Lauryn Oates at The Propagandist writes:

Meanwhile in other news from countries where religious minorities and atheists are treated like crap, in the increasingly extremist Indonesia, the Indonesian Constitutional Court upheld a blasphemy law earlier this year which Indonesian filmmaker Garin Nugroho has called "the biggest setback for democracy and pluralism in the history of our nation." Nugroho was verbally assaulted as he left the courtroom in April by hardline extremists who favour the law. Other experts who criticized the backwards law in their testimony were physically assaulted, perhaps a sign to the Court that Indonesia could stand for more tolerance in its society, not less.

There are other examples, but none better.

The latest at the Victoria Politics Examiner

Check it out:

• The BC First Party's brand new environmental policy.
• Sue Blair joins BC First board of directors.
• Leadership races and Liberal troubles continue.
• BC Greens: party discipline 'killing any semblance of democracy'.
• BC Conservatives: 'making headway'.
• The BC New Democrats on Liberal handling of access to information.
• Colin Hansen: budget still on target.

Well this certainly doesn't look good

Daniel Leblanc reports, in the Globe and Mail:

The Quebec construction industry is corrupt and inefficient, and illegal payouts are necessary to get business, the head of a masonry firm has told a committee holding hearings into a controversial $9-million renovation contract on Parliament Hill.

And in testimony that brought scandals that have infected Quebec politics in recent years all the way to the nation’s capital, LM Sauvé president Paul Sauvé said that he has seen intimidation, bid-rigging and bribes become widespread during his years of restoring historic buildings in Montreal and Ottawa.

I imagine that parliament will soon pass a motion expressing its sorrow and regret for Paul Sauve's testimony.

The latest at Defend Geert Wilders

Here's the latest:

• Another PVV MP reveals criminal record he kept secret.
• Too much regulation seen as bad for Dutch economy.
• Taliban Threaten Netherlands Over Geert Wilders.
• Unholy alliances.
• Wilders party rejects having membership.

Another day...

Because Neil Gaiman is awesome

H/t to Boing Boing:



On a related note: EFF's latest HTTPS Everywhere plugin helps protect against Firesheep-style attacks.

Also see: Canadians: sign petition against mandatory per-byte billing for ISPs!.

Fun with copyright

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

• UPDATE: The Case Against COICA.
• Thomas-Rasset Damage Award: The Strange, Unpredictable World of Copyright Damages.
• Patent Office to Reissue Narrowed Version of Patent on Internet Music Files.

From Boing Boing:

• Machine of Death goes Creative Commons.
• How do you know if copyright is working?
• 2600 Magazine as DRM-free Kindle, PDF ebooks.

Stephen Duckett's cookie monster moment

I don't normally cover Albertan politics too closely, but this exchange between Alberta Health Services President Stephen Duckett and some folks from the Edmonton media cracks me up:



Er, make that *former* Alberta Health Services President Stephen Duckett.

Meanwhile, in Wildrose Alliance news, via my inbox:

Led by Dr. Raj Sherman and the Wildrose Caucus, MLAs are still debating Dr. Sherman's amendment to Bill 17, the Alberta Health Act, that would enshrine emergency room wait times into law.

The debate started at 3 p.m. yesterday, November 23, and is still going on. Members broke an hour and a half for dinner at 6 p.m. yesterday.

"We said we wouldn't leave until they kick us out, and we won't," Wildrose House Leader Rob Anderson said. "The PCs continue to shamefully ignore and reject the advice of a highly respected emergency room doctor and MLA during an ER crisis."

Dr. Sherman's amendment calls for maximum emergency room wait times to be six hours for 95% of standard patients and four hours for 95% of more seriously ill or injured patients.

I wonder if they had cookies during their break.

The problem with public-private partnerships

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives points out the trouble with P3 projects:

Public-private partnerships are not just a highly questionable deal for the taxpayers; they also have a negative impact on the economy. The investment banks and funds that are now heavily promoting P3s would do more good for the economy if they returned to what should be their primary role: financing investments to boost productivity and growth in the languishing private sector economy. Smaller Canadian contractors are squeezed out of access to infrastructure contracts while international firms take public funds sunk into P3 projects out of the country.

Public services and infrastructure are best financed and delivered by the public sector. Private industry has a key part to play in its traditional role of designing and constructing public infrastructure under contract. But expanding these deals to include private financing and operations makes them much more complicated, expensive, and risky. Canadians need more public investment to rebuild our economy – but they can't afford more expensive, unaccountable, and risky public-private partnerships.

Check it out. It's an interesting read.

And now, a message from the Electronic Frontier Foundation: HTTPS Everywhere

Via my inbox:

This week, EFF launched a new version of HTTPS Everywhere, a free security tool that provides enhanced privacy protection for Firefox browser users. EFF built HTTPS Everywhere to automatically switch many of the websites you visit from insecure HTTP to secure HTTPS.

EFF and the Tor Project originally built the HTTPS Everywhere software to help users take advantage of secure web searching on Google and a few other sites. Browsers normally prefer HTTP, unless site operators explicitly redirect browsers to HTTPS. HTTPS Everywhere changes the browser to prefer HTTPS wherever it's known to work.

After researchers demonstrated major web security flaws on social networking sites, webmail and search engines, EFF was inspired to expand HTTPS Everywhere to include Facebook, Twitter, Hotmail, Bit.ly, Cisco, Dropbox, Evernote, and GitHub. In addition to making HTTPS Everywhere open-source and available for free, EFF has released a technical guide to help website operators implement HTTPS properly, which will improve security and privacy across the web.

Thank you to the EFF donors who made this possible. If you haven’t given this year, or if you have the ability to contribute a little more, please consider giving a donation to support tools that enhance your privacy online.

Korea vs. Korea?

My comrade Dave Zegler at The Propagandist doesn't think a war between North and South Korea is in the cards:

It will not be happening anytime soon. In this instance, it’ll take more than artillery fire from the cranky and infantile North to scrap any armistice agreement and unleash the dogs of war. South Koreans have long dealt with the volatility of its borders, especially in the highly disputed waters and the surrounding islands. For most South Koreans, its business as usual while their government answers back to the North’s shelling. The public is very much taking the attitude that it always blows over.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Narvey: George Galloway Hanging Around Their Necks.

Shelly Glover v. Michael Ignatieff

Michael Ignatieff wins, as my editor at the Libertas Post points out:

When pressed for details, Glover said that Ignatieff’s support for decriminalizing pot possession (for adults) was tantamount to telling children it was fine to toke up.

If that’s the case, then former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Joe Clark is also guilty of pushing pot on kids, because he supports decrim too.

“I believe the least controversial approach is decriminalization because it’s unjust to see someone, because of one decision one night in their youth, carry the stigma—to be barred from studying medicine, law or other fields where a criminal record could present an obstacle,” the former PM was quoted as saying in the May 23, 2001 National Post.

Under Clark, the Progressive Conservatives supported softening Canadian pot laws, as evidenced by the headline, “Clark renews pot law promise” in the August 26, 1979 Toronto Star.

It's reefer madness!

Elections Canada, the Green Party, Libertarians, and stupid people

A few updates from the libertarian side of things in Vaughan.

First, an update on our story about the missing Elections Canada info. In the list of confirmed candidates in the Vaughan by-election, every candidate except the Progressive Canadian Party's Dorian Baxter has their contact information listed. Previously, the Libertarian Party of Canada candidate ( Paolo Fabrizio ), the United Party of Canada candidate ( Brian Jedan ), and independent candidate Leslie Bory all had missing contact information. Fabrizio was the first to get his back up on the Elections Canada site, followed by Jedan, and now Leslie Bory has her contact info back up and running.

Dunno what went wrong with Elections Canada's people on the ground in Vaughan, but they still have yet to entirely fix their mistake.

Second, an update on our story about the problems that the Libertarian Party - rightly or wrongly - has been having in getting into the candidate debates in Vaughan. In response to an email request from one of Paolo Fabrizio's associates that he be included in a candidates debate being sponsored by the local paper, the following response was sent out ( not by the paper ), CC'd to a whole whack of sitting MPs:

The Libertarians are a fucking fringe party with weird ideas. That is why nobody sane in his head votes for those loonies.

That is why you are just a irrelevant as Nazis, Communists and the Marihuana Party.

Please STOP sending me your right wing propaganda. I have already enough with the idiot Harper, (branch office of George Bush) you just were missing in my life.

I never asked to get your e-mails, but if you insist, here you are.

Clearly, someone was having a bad day. Note the misspelling of 'marihuana'.

However, as Andrew Phillips informs us:

Paolo Fabrizio has just informed me the person who wrote that email is a
Green Party candidate from Quebec

That Green Party candidate, it now seems ( note the word seems ) is Rolf Bramann ( scroll down ), who was a co-founder of the Green Party of Canada in the '80s. Some more background on Bromann's political career in Quebec courtesy of Wikipedia:

A first version of the Green Party of Québec was founded in the 1980s and had candidates in the 1985, 1989 and 1994 Quebec general elections. The 1989 elections results were at the time the strongest showing for any Green Party in Canada. On average, candidates collected 5.55% of votes in contested seats.[1] Although the party had a small budget, it attempted to run a province-wide campaign with organizers from Montreal, Québec City and Sherbrooke, as well as some relatively independent local campaigns in rural ridings. Many meetings were held at Le Commensal restaurant in Montréal, a strong supporter. Attempts were made to involve the various environmental groups, but most shied away from officially supporting the PVQ in order to maintain political neutrality and protect financial interests. In the party structure of 1989, sovereignty and economical neutrality were promoted rather than left-wing policies, under the slogan of "not left or right but forward". This caused some strife within the party, as many members were more left-leaning.

The party disintegrated in 1994 due to its leader, Jean Ouimet, and many of his colleagues leaving for the Parti Québécois. Ouimet, a strong sovereigntist, maintained a party wholly independent of the federal Green Party during his leadership. Members of the Green Party of Canada formed an organization called the Green Party of Canada in Quebec, a predominantly anglophone entity that nominated federal candidates only. There was open antipathy between Ouimet and the GPCQ's leader, Rolf Bramann. (Neither was affiliated with Montreal's municipal Green Party of the time, Écologie-Montreal, led by Dmitri Roussopolis.) At the same time as the PVQ began to collapse due to Ouimet's departure, Rolf Bramann was removed from his position. This led to a precipitous decline in federal organization in the province contemporaneous with the collapse of the provincial Greens.

It sounds like this outburst of his was not entirely out of character.

Andrew Phillips gets the last word in:

By the way he spelled the word marijuana wrong. Paolo Fabrizio should be in
that debate for the simple reason he knows enough to use spell check.

Indeed.

Today's reading

I've been busy today, so here's my latest...

...at the Libertas Post blog: Danielle Smith supports the Liberty Summer Seminar.

...at the Lynch Mob: If only the rest in the Liberal Party were so articulate.

...at The Propagandist magazine: Geert Wilders' Freedom Party In Turmoil.

...at the Victoria Politics Examiner:

• Brian Peckford: 'the Corky Evans of the right'.
• Moira Stilwell first to officially run for BC Liberal leadership.
• BC New Democrats: did BCLC put profits ahead of privacy?
• BC Greens, BC Heritage: Campbell must leave now.
• Problems with the Stilwell bid.
• Did the BC Liberal Party do Bill Bennett a favor?

Legal polygamy? Say it ain't so.

Daphne Bramham in the Vancouver Sun has the story:

VANCOUVER -- If anyone doubts the importance or interest in the issues surrounding the reference case to determine the constitutionality of Canada's anti-polygamy law, they only need to look into the courtroom.

On the opening day in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Monday, there were 33 robed lawyers representing not only the governments of B.C. and Canada, but a wide range of interest groups from polygamists to polyamorists, child advocates to REAL women and civil libertarians (with some on each side of the argument.)

What results from this constitutional challenge will be very, very interesting.

Speaking of interesting, you may be interested, dear reader, to know that I've actually argued for the legalization of polygamy before, in the Libertas Post:

Unhappy with polygamous Muslim marriages dodging loopholes in Ontario? Fully legalize the practice and bring it out in the open instead of driving it underground.

Don't think the polygamists in Bountiful, BC, should be able to force their underage cousins to get married? Legalize the practice, remove the legal issue of polygamy itself, and voila: all of a sudden we're focusing on child abuse instead of Charter marriage rights.

This is a far cry from saying that we should condone polygamy (or prostitution and drug-peddling for that matter). I'll admit these things don't keep me up at night, but there are plenty of moral and ethical issues to consider, and that's fine.

Let's consider them. But there's a big difference between being morally right and having rights. We can condemn legal activity just as easily as we can condone illegal activity.

What's stopping us with regards to polygamy?

I stand by my analysis. If the issue here is spousal abuse, child abuse, human trafficking, etc. - then let's prosecute on those bases. If the issue here is whether or not one person can have multiple spouses, then that is a constitutional issue that deserves consideration, and there is a serious case for its legalization.

And you'll notice that I stay away from the moral question of whether polygamy is right or not. That's an issue way beyond my pay-grade.

Parliamentary privilege is for sissies

So what if Rights & Democracy is laughing in the face of parliamentary privilege? No biggie:

The committee has asked. It asked in April. It is still asking. Aurel Braun and Jacques Gauthier and Marco Navarro-Génie and Stéphane Bourgon and the rest have had a truly excellent time playing silly bugger for yet another month while they burn through taxpayer money at a rate Rights and Democracy has never seen in its history.

Time for this farce to come to an end, methinks.

The latest at Defend Geert Wilders

Alright, here's the latest:

• Germany will work with Dutch cabinet despite Wilders support.
• Brinkman renews calls for PVV to go democratic, widen focus.
• Freedom Party loses five seats in latest poll.
• Geert Wilders takes a nose dive to oblivion.

Another day...

The folks at Rights and Democracy are being very, very bad

Paul Wells has been doing a great job of following this story. It's almost enough to make you believe he's a journalist:

What’s this audit, after all? It was intended to be the board’s proof of their repeated public claims that before he died, Rémy Beauregard was running a secretive and wasteful operation in defiance of the most elementary rules of, if I may abuse these poor words one more time, transparency and accountability. There has never been a stitch of evidence for these calumnies against a dead man. The Deloitte audit was supposed to be the evidence. As the intrepid Graeme Hamilton at the National Post has reported, pretending to go after Beauregard’s record has resulted in a tripling of fees paid to consultants in 2010, a tripling of expenses incurred by the board, and a doubling of administrative costs as a proportion of total agency spending. The Deloitte audit itself has cost more than a quarter of a million dollars. Braun and Co. used to complain about a few tens of thousands of dollars to some groups in the Middle East Braun doesn’t like, before later claiming that the dispute wasn’t about the Middle East.

What a disaster.

What does a third party have to do to get into the debates in Vaughan?

A little while back, there was some stirring in libertarian circles because the Libertarian Party of Canada candidate in the Vaughan by-election, Paolo Fabrizio, was being excluded from Rogers TV's televised candidates debate for the major party candidates - Lib, Tory, Dipper. This was upsetting because the Green Party's candidate was allowed to be in the debate, and the Green Party has the exact same amount of sitting members of parliament as the Libertarian Party does: zero.

Anyways, that all got ironed out, and all was well with the world.

Well, until this bit of news, forwarded on to me by libertarian activist Andrew Phillips:

Folks there is another all candidates debate set for Vaughan but Poalo Fabrizio is not invited to this one. Now we have him included in the Rogers debate thank you those of you who took the time to send and email to the Rogers representative and we need you help help again. Please drop a line to the people and newspapers below and ask that Paolo Fabrizio and the other candidates be included in this debate as well. Since the greens have nobody in Parliament at the very least the green candidate should not be allowed there as well

Here's a copy of the letter that Andrew sent to the Vaughan Social Action Council:

Dear Vaughan Social Action Council:

How it is that you have allowed the Green candidate into the debate you are
to hold and yet Paolo Fabrizio and the other candidates are left out? As the
Green Party has no one in Parliament that candidate should also not be part
of the debate. If that is indeed the criteria you have used for excluding
people running for public office. I hope you will reconsider the debate and
decide on the inclusion of the other candidates. After all Rogers TV decided
to have them all in it's debate and it would be nice if all debates included
all the candidates all the time. Paolo Fabrizio was recently interviewed by
the CPAC channel. In doing so they most certainly view his running for
Parliament a consideration which should be reinforced by his inclusion in
this debate.

Sincerely yours;
Andrew Phillips - Libertarian Party of Canada - Ontario Libertarian Party

Hopefully this situation will be rectified.

A bail-out for the poor?

Erin Anderssen in the Globe highlights a very intriguing idea:

The idea of giving money to the poor without strings is not new. It melds altruism and libertarianism, saying both that the best way to fight poverty is to put cash in poor people's pockets and that people can make their own choices better than bureaucrats can. As a result, it can find support in theory from both left and right.

It has been tested with success in other countries, and now it has re-entered the Canadian political conversation.

It sounds like there are a few glitches that need to be ironed out of this particular theory. But it definitely sounds like it has a leg up on the current welfare system, which has so many problems it's not even funny.

Sure, it would be expensive. But so is the current system. Sure, it would be giving away 'free' money. But so does the current system. Only, this time around there wouldn't be the constant stigma attached. Score a few points for human dignity.

And, as pointed out in the article above, that small boost in human dignity could make a big difference:

Requiring the poor to prove continually that they are deserving of assistance or threatening to pull help away without notice only discourages the risk-taking and confidence required to get out of poverty.

Let's do it. Can't hurt to try, can it?

The latest at the Victoria Politics Examiner

Here's the featured commentary: Dianne Watts, everyone else, unwilling to save BC Liberals from themselves:

So, we can add Dianne Watts to the list of outsiders who aren't going to swoop in and save the BC Liberals from themselves - and it is the received wisdom that it will have to be an outsider who does so - which, so far, includes John Furlong, Saanich mayor Frank Leonard, Carole Taylor, Keith Martin, Chuck Strahl, and pretty much everyone else that happens to catch the eye of the chattering classes.

Up next? Christy Clark, perhaps? Blair Lekstrom? James Moore?

Let's face it: on the balance of probabilities, the next Liberal leader is going to be a member of the party's inner circle that our province has come to know and loathe. And that's bad news for the BC Liberal Party. After all, as Ipsos Reid found a little while back, Dianne Watts, Carole Taylor, and John Furlong topped the list of favorable replacements for the premier with the public. Chuck Strahl and Christy Clark were up there, too. Within the BC Liberal Party, only Bill Bennet and Colin Hansen came close to their popularity - and since Bennett is out of cabinet, and may well be out of caucus sometime soon, he might not be an insider candidate for much longer.

Read the rest.

Also up today:

• BC First's new draft by-law, constitution.
• Cabinet kills Gordon Campbell's income tax cut.

I didn't have any content yesterday, but the day before...well, I was fairly busy:

• BC libs eat their own: Bill Bennet is out of cabinet.
• More on BC Lib ousting of Bill Bennet from cabinet.
• Claude Richmond, lobbyist.
• Citizens' Services Ministry: municipalities given $16.2 million.
• BC Conservatives appoint Vancouver media spokesman.
• More on Fight HST's recall campaign.
• One South Island federal, the other BC provincial, both Conservative.

Check it out, huh?

This government is on drugs

As the Conservative Party dabbles in some reefer madness hysteria, opposition leader Michael Ignatieff gets caught in the crossfire.

Meanwhile, who-ever heard of a pot-growing terrorist?

Fun with copyright

Boing Boing:

• Chris McKitterick pirates his own book.
• RuneScape devs refuse to cave in to patent trolls.
• Canadian Heritage Minister inadvertently damns his own copyright bill.

My latest for The Propagandist

Some good news: Kareem Suleiman Is Free:

The Propagandist has written before about the case of Abdel Karim Suleiman, the Egyptian blogger sentenced to four years in jail for insulting Eyptian president Hasni Muberak and "inciting hatred of Islam," in posts that he wrote in his blog under the pseudonym 'Kareem Amer'.

Suleiman was due to be released from prison early this month, on the 5th. He'd served his time. But instead he was detained by Egyptian authorities with no explanation - and reportedly beaten by a junior officer - for days past his release.

Happily, this situation has come to a close.

Read the rest.

The latest at Defend Geert Wilders

Alright, here's the latest:

• Prominent Christian Democrat quits party.
• Geert Wilders’ party in rough waters.
• PVV parliamentarian James Sharpe quits, Wilders respects decision.
• NRC: PVV people who live in glass houses (to be continued).

Another day...

The latest from Binks

Our friend Binks has done it again at Free Canuckistan. Check it out, eh?

As things fell apart, nobody paid attention

By Jim Quinn, via TheBurningPlatform.com:

America was a Garden of Eden with nothing but flowers, trees and vegetation. We bit into the forbidden fruit of oil over a century ago. It has been a deal with the Devil. Oil brought immense wealth, rapid industrialization, 2.7 million miles of paved roads, and enormous power to America. But, now the SUV is running on empty. In the not too distant future the downside of the deal with the Devil will reveal itself. America was the land of the free and home of the brave. Now it is the land of the Range Rover and home of the BMW. In a few years it could be the land of the forlorn and home of the broken down. Our entire society has been built upon a foundation of cheap oil. The discovery of oil in Titusville, PA in 1859 turbo charged the Industrial Revolution in the U.S. The development of our sprawling suburban culture was dependent upon cheap oil. Americans could not survive for a week without oil. Commerce in the U.S. depends upon long haul truckers. Food is transported thousands of miles to grocery stores. The cheap Wal-Mart crap is transported thousands of miles across the seas from China. Americans believe it is our God given right to cheap oil.

Read the rest.

I'm back at the Lynch Mob

It seems like such a long time ago - although it was really only a matter of months - that I handed the reins to the website I started up on Canada's Human Rights Commissions - called the Lynch Mob - over to my friend and fellow blogger Scary Fundamentalist.

I did so because I needed a break from the whole HRC file, and wanted to distance myself from the issue for a little while.

But now I'm back. Scary put up a far too generous welcome-back post yesterday, and just a few minutes ago I put up what I hope to be the first post of many since my return: The problem with hate trials.

Check it out, huh? I'm back!

A radio pundit off the air

The National Post reports:

Mr. Gold, born and raised in the city’s tough North End, said the cancellation is “110% a free speech issue,” citing speculation that an editor of the Winnipeg Free Press — a publication that is repeatedly taken to task on his show — leaned on the college’s president to quash the program.

Did anybody out there listen to this guy? I've never heard his show, so I can't really comment.

Web, privacy

Fun stuff, via Boing Boing: Understanding COICA, America's horrific proposed net-censorship bill.

Also: London cops shut down anti-police website; mirrors spring up all over the net .

The latest at Defend Geert Wilders

Here it is: Dutch anti-Islam party hit by scandal.

My latest for The Propagandist

Here it is, a quick post: Where Is The Media Attention?

Earlier this month, Khaled Abu Toameh wrote a very interesting article for Hudson New York, in which he points out that media coverage of the violation of press freedoms in Arab countries is more than underwhelming. He cites rather unheard-of cases in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, and the Egyptian government's wide-spread suppression of media voices that it doesn't like to hear - the case of Abdel Karim Suleiman comes to mind - and notes that in the mean-time, Israel's flirtation with rather milder versions of the same in regards to certain Al-Jazeera journalists in the past has received international outcry.

Read the rest.

A victory for third parties in Vaughan

In last night's post, I kvetched that third party candidates in the Vaughan by-election were not being treated fairly by Rogers TV - which is hosting candidate debates. Initially, while the Green Party's candidate was allowed to debate with the 'major' party candidates, the candidate for the Libertarian Party - which has the same seat count as the Green Party ( zero ) and came close in the polls in the last Vaughan election - had to duke it out with the other third party and independent candidates in a separate debate.

That didn't seem right. Either the Green's candidate needed to be bumped down, or somebody needed to be bumped up. But the current status quo wasn't sitting well. And the libertarians weren't going to stand for it.

Well, this morning we get wind that the format for the televised debates has changed. As libertarian activist Andrew Phillips emails:

Paolo Fabrizio the Libertarian candidate will now be part of the main debate in Vaughan as they have changed the format to have one debate only . This will allow the other candidates inclusion as well. He had informed me that several media people and / or outlets had contacted him asking about the situation and I want to thank you folks in the free press for keeping this public.

Excellent. Now if only Elections Canada would follow suite: there's still some contact info missing on their list of confirmed candidates in Vaughan.

Third-party trouble in Vaughan

Some follow-up to my post yesterday, talking about the rather interesting disappearance of third-party and independent candidate information from the Elections Canada list of confirmed by-election candidates - although more established parties don't seem to be having the same problem.

First, many thanks to the invaluable Alice Funke at Pundits Guide for the link.

Second, you'll be glad to know this isn't a systemic problem for Elections Canada. I checked the confirmed candidates for the Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette riding in Manitoba and the Winnipeg North riding, also in Manitoba ( well, duh ). For some reason I'm having a hard time opening up the Winnipeg North section of Elections Canada's site, so just navigate from here, if you can.

Both lists of confirmed candidates included contact info for all candidates, regardless of party. That's the good news. Even more good news is, Brian Jedan, the candidate in Vaughan for the United Party of Canada - and whose contact info was nowhere to be seen yesterday - now has a contact number listed with Elections Canada. That glitch has been fixed.

However, independent candidate Leslie Bory ( who doesn't seem to have any online presence that anyone can find ) and Progressive Canadian Party candidate Dorian Baxter continue to have no contact information listed. All four 'major' parties - Lib, Tory, Dipper, Green - continue to have their information listed. So does Libertarian Party of Canada candidate Paolo Fabrizio - although only after his people got in contact with Elections Canada to get the information back up.

It looks like the United Party of Canada managed to get Elections Canada to fix their mistake too. That's good. Maybe it had something to do with the email that I sent to the United Party of Canada to inform them that their candidate's information wasn't listed, and maybe it didn't. I haven't heard back from them.

I also sent an email to the Progressive Canadian Party to inform them that their candidate's info was missing. I haven't heard back from them either. The message I sent to Elections Canada requesting information about why the Libertarian Party's information went missing earlier has not been answered either - although I got an email this morning saying that my message had been received.

Meanwhile, here's what Paolo Fabrizio had to say about the situation. I had cc'd him to one of my messages yesterday, and never heard back from him. But he left a comment to my post yesterday:

I was told mt my returning officer that all my paper work was done correctly. She had called Ottawa to fix the problem but had no luck. Also my info was up for the first two days but Monday morning they took it down. It has been a week that our info was taken down. Paolo Fabrizio

I'll try to keep up on this if anything new comes up. Needless to say, I'm not impressed. This information shouldn't have disappeared - I mean, it should have been right on the nomination paper. If it were just one party with missing information, this could simply be explained away as an error on their part of some sort - although even then you would think that someone from Elections Canada on the ground would have caught the omission.

But for the contact information to disappear for every third party - and one independent - in Vaughan is quite obviously an error on Elections Canada's part, and one on a pretty large scale. It seems like a small thing to get worked up over, and maybe in the long run it is. But not for the candidates getting the short end of the stick.

It doesn't end there, though. Take the way the candidate debates in the Vaughan by-election are being handled. As libertarian activist Andrew Phillips emailed out this morning:

There will be a candidates debate on Rogers TV for the by-election in Vaughan. Paolo Fabrizio has be relegated to the secondary debate between the minor parties. Yet; as he points out, ".. I almost received just as much votes in the last Vaughan Federal election as the Green Party I am not happy I am not allowed to debate with them. The Greens don't have any elected members and the Candidate does not have nearly as much experience as myself."

Help Paolo Fabrizio get into the main debate by contacting Ms Jennifer Harrison Jennifer.Harrison@rci.rogers.com at the Rogers TV and requesting that Paolo Fabrizio be included in the main debate. Make sure you let them know where you live so they understand that the whole country is watching what happens in Vaughan.

In a later message to Jennifer Harrison herself, Andrew highlights the true unfairness of this distinction between large and small parties:

Mr. Paolo Fabrizio should be included in the main Rogers TV debate for the Federal riding of Vaughan. Neither the Green Party or the Libertarian Party have a sitting member in Parliament. To exclude one while allowing the other does a disservice to all the other candidates who have no elected members in Parliament as well. Either Mr. Fabrizio is in based on his last respectable showing at the polls. Or the Green candidate is out for having no sitting member in Parliament. If there are guidelines they should be applied equally.

These are both somewhat unrelated issues, since one is an Elections Canada problem, and another is a beef with a broadcast company. But between third party information getting bungled, and unfair distinctions between third parties in the debates, see if you can find the common theme.

This is ridiculous.

The latest at Defend Geert Wilders

Here's the latest:

• Wilders’ court opponents call for new prosecutors.
• Disciplining of right-wing Dutch MP avoids crisis for fragile government.
• Damage limitation.
• Dutch MP with criminal record allowed to stay on.

That's all for now, folks.

Canada's about to get a lot less private

Michael Geist has a very worthwhile column in The Tyee on a laundry list of requirements - for disclosure and monitoring of user information - that Canadian Internet Service Providers could be forced to live up to. That is, if a handful of bills make it through parliament.

Scary stuff.

Canada's age of consent: relatively worthless

Some very interesting news, via The Hook:

The study is based on data collected from the 2008 British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey, which included more than 29,000 students provincewide from Grades 7 to 12.

"The gist of our finding is that the two reasons that the government gave for changing the law may not be supporting the law," Saewyc said about the study that was published Tuesday in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality.

"We found that only two to three per cent of 14- and 15-year-olds had sex with adults but in contrast 39 per cent of teens who first had sex at age 12 or younger had sex with someone who was 20 years old or older."

The former law came into effect in 1892 and already protected adolescents younger than 13, Saewyc said.

Evidence-based policy, it seems, is nowhere in evidence.

The Fraser Institute gets schooled

John Geddes provides the smack-down.

It should be noted that I'm pretty friendly toward the Fraser Institute. As far as I'm concerned, they're a bunch of loveable scamps. But accuracy is accuracy - and Geddes provides more than the institute in this case.

That doesn't look good for them.

Update: The Fraser Institute disputes the terms of the debate. John Geddes writes a part two.

An appeal for funds

My editor at the Libertas Post has but a simple request:

Our needs aren’t great—we don’t have a huge office, large staff or lavish expense account. Our staff consists of one part-time, paid editor (me) and lots of hard-charging volunteers whose work we feature online. Still, we need cash in order to continue delivering tough-minded editorials, blog posts, columns, features and news items that espouse a pro-liberty viewpoint.

If you’re able to assist us, go to our homepage (http://www.libertaspost.com/) and scroll down. You will come across a tab marked “DONATE” in the right-hand margin. Click and make a payment to fund the fight for individual liberty. You can donate via PayPal, a very safe and convenient way to make online financial transactions.

And yes, I am one of those hard-charging volunteers, which makes me slightly insane. A writer who works for free? Madness. Sheer madness.

Party hardy with the Work Less Party

Sara Tuppen over at The Dependent writes about what is probably the most awesome political party you could ever be a part of:

Deciding that these event tables were my best choice for learning about the Party’s mandate, I crossed the dance floor to explore one table labeled “Spank Bank”, where for a dollar I was presented an array of spanking implements ranging from a wooden spoon to the Holy Bible. As each new object met my rear with a thwack, I wondered at the political correlation. My notebook ready to record further investigation, I moved on to the XOX Tent, where a woman whispered into the ear of a seated participant while another delicately kissed his forehead, cheeks, and hands.

The gold lamee flasher stopped for an interview as he exited the XOX Tent, his face frozen in a wide grin. A regular attendee at WLP events, he continues to come because “everyone is so open and accepting of one another.” He compared the event to Burning Man, with a similar focus on developing supportive networks within a community; “it’s just about sharing and love,” he explained. With another flash of his genitals, he disappeared into the gyrating crowd.

I wonder what they're like in campaign mode.

the latest at the Victoria Politics Examiner

Here's the latest, folks:

• Laila Yuile keeps digging on the Sea to Sky highway 'shadow toll'.
• 5 MLAs in Fight HST's recall cross-hairs.
• Stephen Elliott-Buckley: one million activists can't be wrong.
• Tony Pearse: 'why Ottawa really said no to Prosperity.
• Alex Tsakumis: 'it's all about the documents'.
• BC NDP set to increase control over internal communication.
• The latest from the BC Lottery Corporation.
• Bill Tieleman: electronic monitoring for Dave Basi.

Fun with copyright

Boing Boing:

• Canadian writers' group issues FUD warnings about new copyright bill.
• UPDATED: Valdosta State U promises prison sentences for students who use P2P.

The latest at Defend Geert Wilders

A couple of quick posts:

• Voters want Wilders to throw out controversial MP.
• New German Party Opposes Political Islam.

The Starbucks Party

When tabulated, the density of Starbucks locations per riding puts the New Democrats as having the highest Starbucks density of all our federal parties - but the Conservatives are in second place.

The Liberals place a very close third, thus putting to death a long-standing political observation about our political elites.

Just a glitch

How odd. This morning I received a copy of this email from Andrew Phillips, the leader of the Ontario Libertarian Party a prominent activist for the Ontario Libertarian Party to a number of media figures:

As a member of the Libertarian Party of Canada and Of Ontario I'm hoping you in the media can help us. One of our members Paolo Fabrizio is running in Vaughan in the by-election but a "problem" has come up. This is what I received from him in an email yesterday:

"Election Canada removed my contact info on their web site for some strange reason and they can't figure out how to put it back up, ....my returning officer has no idea what's going on. She said she has called Ottawa to try and fix the problem. but they can't figure out how to fix it."

I was hoping that some of you making mention of this in a column, mentioning it on air on the radio, or perhaps though a TV news broadcast, or perhaps contacting Elections Canada directly might somehow help them to "remember"how to return Paolo's name to the EC web site. It wasn't just Paolo whose name was left off the Elections Canada web site is my understanding as well.

Any help you could lend not to us alone but to giving the electorate alternative choices would be greatly appreciated.I have cc'd Paolo on this and you can get further information from him directly.

Sincerely yours;

Andrew Phillips - Libertarian Party of Canada - Ontario Libertarian Party

Later, I received an update:

I have just been informed the Elections Canada web site will be updated within the hour. There are still a couple of questions that need to be resolved like why the information was removed in the first place and why all the other candidates not affiliated with the major parties information was other removed or not there in the first place. But Paolo Fabrizio will now be listed once again

So, um...just a glitch? I'm not going to suggest that this is part of some conspiracy, but it just seems like an odd bit of information to have had disappear with no explanation whatsoever. I'll send a follow-up email to see if I can get more details. If so, you'll hear it here first. In the meantime, do any techno-geek readers know of any technical difficulties that Elections Canada could have suffered to cause this sort of a glitch in their system?

Update: I heard back from John Shaw, who is, according to Andrew, 'point man with Elections Canada':

The information is posted as of this morning after contacting Elections Canada in Ottawa.

They apparently we filled the form out incorrectly. The local people also did not seem to be properly trained or this would have been fixed earlier, but EC did have this resolved rapidly once the correct people were contacted.

Given we do not have a huge budget for advertising this may have made it harder for some people to contact us during this period, including media who would use this for initial contact.

John

I sent another email to confirm the details:

Thanks very much for getting back to me. It's much appreciated, and I'm glad to see that the information is back up on the Elections Canada site. I've updated my post with the information that you've provided to me.

Just wanted to clarify, though: was it an error on Elections Canada's part, or on the local campaign's part? I don't want to crucify either side - I just want to make sure of things.

This was John Shaw's reply:

I don’t want to publically speculate, they said there is an error and I will leave it at that for now.

This should have been cleaned up in hours without bringing in Ottawa …… and I am still asking some of those questions.

I may even drop a note to some of the other ‘minor’ party people who are also left off….

So, for now it just looks like a simple filing mistake - just another small political emergency. That is, until we hear otherwise. I'll keep on top of this, for the sake of my own curiousity if for nothing else.

For those who are interested, here is the Elections Canada information on Paolo Fabrizio - it's all back up and running now. Meanwhile, Paolo has run for the Libertarian Party of Canada in previous general elections - here is a breakdown of the voting results.

Also, a quick correction: I had earlier described Andrew Phillips as the leader of the Libertarian Party of Ontario. While Andrew Phillips is quite involved in both the national and Ontario libertarian movements, that was incorrect, and I regret the error. The actual leader of the Libertarian Party of Ontario is Sam Apelbaum.

Update II: Oh right - here is Paolo Fabrizio's profile on the Libertarian Party of Canada site.

Update III: Uh-oh. Looks like on Elections Canada's list of confirmed candidates in the Vaughan by-election, independent candidate Leslie Bory, United Party of Canada candidate Brian Jedan, and Progressive Canadian Party candidate Dorian Baxter all have missing contact info on the Elections Canada site. Meanwhile, NDP candidate Kevin Bordian, CPC candidate Julian Fantino, LPC candidate Tony Genco, and Green Party candidate Claudia Rodriguez-Larrain all have their contact info listed. As does the Libertarian Party's Paolo Fabrizio - but only after requesting that his contact info be posted.

So...what's up? A series of filing errors? It sounds like Elections Canada's people on the ground in Vaughan aren't quite getting all the information they should be getting. This is vital information, especially for third parties without large advertising budgets. If media figures and interested people can't get in contact with, say, the United Party of Canada's candidate in Vaughan, that cuts off a real resource for the party's campaign in that riding. This should be fixed immediately.

Tax money at work

Blazing Cat Fur has the whole, sad story:

In the 1st quarter of 2010 the Arabian Muslim Association and the Edmonton Islamic Academy received $69,008.00 & $30,096.00 respectively under the federal government's "Communities at Risk: Security Infrastructure Pilot (SIP) Program."

The SIP Program's purpose is to "Improve and enhance the safety of Canadian communities at risk of hate-motivated crime through the enhancement of their security infrastructure.""Communities at risk of hate motivated crime." Remember that.

Let's have a look at one of the Canadian Islamic Society's other subsidiaries, the Islamic Investment Corporation (IIC) - "Islamic Investment Corporation (IIC) is a shared entity between Arabian Muslim Association (51%) and Islamic Call Society of Libya (49%).

It is a business venture that deals with real estate properties. The Islamic Investment Corporation is running the following real estate properties..."

Note their partner in this venture: The Islamic Call Society of Libya. What is the Islamic Call Society of Libya? Well for one it's more commonly known as the World Islamic Call Society (WICS) and two, it's bankrolled by Libyan Crazy Man Muammar Gaddafi. WICS modus operandi is to establish itself as an investment partner with like minded organizations throughout the world, then they get on with their real business:Financing and Income Sources

The Society finances the social, economic, religious and cultural programs from returns on the investments made within and outside the State’s Headquarters. The programs are also supported by generous donations and gifts presented by philanthropists and institutions

Among its stated roles' the World Islamic Call Society promotes "inter-faith dialogue". Inter-faith dialogue such as this: "Statement of the World Islamic People's Leadership on the brutal massacre committed by the Zionist enemy in the Gaza Strip, in the occupied Palestine"

and this....

"Zionist's killing and destruction machine continues the crime of genocide, which the Zionist Terrorist forces are committing against the people of Gaza, turning civilization centers , including mosques into mass graves"

You can sift through the entire site for the word "Zionist" - it's a goldmine of Jew Hate and I assure you it's impossible to miss.

Sigh...

Question of the day

Ready? Here goes, courtesy of Ace of Spades: What The Hell Is Google Doing? And Why Is Obama Permitting Them To Do It?

Click the link to find out why it's such a damn good question.

Fun with copyright

Boing Boing: Hurray for copying 1: Myron's Discus-Thrower.

The latest at the Victoria Politics Examiner

Alright, here's the latest.

Unmentioned posts from a couple of days ago:

• Elections BC drafts Harmonized Sales Tax question.
• BC Green Party 'commends' Craig James for HST initiative question.

And now, today's bevy of posts:

• Jim Hart: BC Liberals face more public contempt.
• Craig McInnes: Legislature should 'tackle HST to end uncertainty'.
• Removing Harmonized Sales Tax could cost up to $5 billion.
• Fight HST: 'much ado about very little'.
• Fight HST 'questions' Elections BC actions.
• Fight HST: ten ridings ready to go.
• Maclean Kay: 'trust adults'.
• Iain Hunter: 'BC Rail smell lingers'.
• A successful Gateway trade mission.

There you have it. Another day's work done.

Internet v. political parties

First, there was the Online Party of Canada.

Now, on a slightly unrelated note, Scott Adams ponders whether or not the Internet has taken us to the point where we don't even need political parties anymore:

I'm fascinated by the fact that the freedom to organize into political parties limits our other freedoms more than most people realize. Political parties make the government incompetent, and the result of ineffective government is that citizens are less prosperous. Poverty is the ultimate restriction of freedom.

If Thomas Jefferson sprung back to life today, and learned about the Internet, I wonder how he would recommend changing the Constitution of the United States. I think he would favor banning political parties.

H/t to Aaron Wherry.

Now that's just creepy

Things in Sweden take a disturbing turn. Via The Local:

Emails and mobile phone text messages would be stored for six months by internet service providers (ISPs), according to a bill presented by the Swedish government on Thursday to bring the country in line with EU data retention rules.

Critics have come down hard on the proposal, which would compel telephone and broadband providers to retain electronic data for six months, the shortest possible time in accordance with EU directives.

What's even more disturbing is that, according to the EU, this should be a common practice.

My latest for The Propagandist

Check it out: Free Abdel Karim Suleiman:

The Propagandist has written before about Abdel Karim Suleiman, the Egyptian blogger who was charged in 2007 for the 'crimes' of insulting Egyptian president Hasni Muberak and "inciting hatred of Islam" in posts that were written on his blog under the pseudonym of 'Kareem Amer'.

Suleiman's sentence expired earlier this month, and he was due to be released from jail on the 5th. However, the Egyptian authorities have continued to hold him in detainment. They have not provided any reason as to why he has not been released so far. Meanwhile, there are reports that Sulieman has faced beatings by a junior officer during the time he has been held past the date of his release.

Read the rest.

Fun with copyright

Boing Boing:

• HOWTO make art without getting "ripped off" online.
• If other industries were as evil as the record companies.
• Minnesota woman must pay Capitol Records $1.5 million for downloading and sharing 24 songs.
• ACTA will force your ISP to censor your work if someone lodges an unsupported trademark claim.
• Creative Commons fundraiser with matching grant from Hindawi.
• Handicapping the horse-race for Canada's new copyright bill.
• White paper on 3D printing and the law: the coming copyfight.
• Georgia college to students: Use P2P for any reason and we'll report you to the police .

The latest at Defend Geert Wilders

Alright, here's the latest:

• Nobel Prize laureate: Wilders can become a fascist.
• Wilders not yet decided on PVV MP’s future after abuse claims.
• Amsterdam ready to restart Wilders’ trial.

Another day...

Danielle Smith, good sport

Peter Jaworski at The Volunteer gives the run-down on an interesting exchange between Danielle Smith ( yes, that Danielle Smith ) and a tag team of libertarians on Twitter.

These guys are real libertarians, and Danielle holds her own. All Wildrose policy might not be quite a libertarian's delight, but she's a good sport. And she's willing to get engaged, which is a step above the competition. Good on her.

Goodbye, Keith Martin

In my part of Vancouver Island's Cowichan Valley, there's a rather surprising amount of history between the local Conservative Party folks and Keith Martin up in Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca. What with his split from the Conservative Party in its very earliest of days and all - to run as an independent, and then as a *shudder Liberal. It's all a long story for another day, but I think it provides kind of an interesting backdrop to his decision not to run for re-election as a Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party of Canada:

Keith Martin is done.

The 50-year-old Liberal MP from Victoria can’t take the poisonous environment on Parliament Hill anymore, an atmosphere he says is tainted by “rabid partisanship.”

Committee work has grounded to a halt. There is a paralysis of innovation. And the Liberal MP from Victoria believes – no, he knows – he can do more off Parliament Hill than on.

On Tuesday, he told his leader, Michael Ignatieff, he would not seek re-election. He wanted to make his intentions known to allow for a smooth transition for whoever his successor will be.

“The morale has sunk to new lows,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “If you want to drive innovation forward Parliament is not the place to do that any more.”

I wanted to comment on this earlier, but I moved too slow. At any rate, a belated comment on his departure: I have to say that out of many politicians, Keith Martin was one of the few that I respected. He had his issues, and his detractors, but he was at least willing to fight for certain principles - he has been the only MP to launch a private member's motion against the hated Section 13(1), for instance - and to speak his mind. Those are rare qualities in our political class these days, and parliament will be that much worse off without him.

I wish you well, sir, in your next venture.