On, Roughriders!

On to the Grey Cup!

Workplace FAIL

From FAILblog:

What's that smell?

Dave asks:

Why is Harper afraid of a parliamentary debate on Afghanistan? Because there's obviously something he's not telling you and a debate would require someone to answer some very embarrassing questions.

Steve says:

There is something anti-democratic, backroom, end around, to this whole affair. No matter the rationalizations, the stench is there and it is very, very real. It has become even more bizarre now, that we have people lauding this process and bastardizing the word "bi-partisan". Frankly, it's a joke at this point to say the Liberals support this Afghanistan extension. As a matter of fact, it looks like most Liberal MP's don't, which explains the detour tactics employed ...

POGGE notes "this ode to Bob Rae" from this morning's Globe and Mail, and says:

What's described here is a conscious attempt to avoid parliament and the people. The article celebrates a process specifically designed to ignore public opinion and get the deal done, or as close to done as possible, before the public even knows what's going on. We've been rendered impotent and irrelevant by our own elected representatives and this article glorifies it.

And the next election, all these politicians will be pontificating about how important it is that the public be engaged with the political process and come out to vote.

Where will he find 65 million voters in 2012?

Digby is absolutely right about Obama:

...despite the fact that he spent the first two years of his presidency doing back flips to get even one Republican to vote for his program, even as they demonized him as a socialist and a coward, he is assuming responsibility for the failure and earnestly promising to do better. And just like before, when the Republicans rebuff his every gesture, the American people will see someone who is unable to fulfill his promises and will blame this failure for all their problems.
If Obama wanted to be like Gandhi or Jesus he should have started a movement or a religion instead of becoming a politician. Politics is about persuasion and power, not transcending human nature. He's going to lose in two years if he doesn't start using the power of his office to fix this economy instead of moping around about "tone." If he doesn't fight, the only politicians the voters will see fighting for them are the Tea Partiers.

Americans hate losers. Voters in other nations will sometimes give a politician another election to prove himself. Americans will not.

The sound of one hand clapping

John Doyle mentions a Canadian satirical news website, in the style of The Onion, which is called URNews.ca. I hadn't read them before, but the bookmark is now made.
Here's their take on Harper's Afghanistan decision:

Canada must stay in Afghanistan until 2014 because the sit­u­a­tion there is about to mag­i­cally change for the bet­ter, accord­ing to con­ser­v­a­tive spokesman Dun­ning Kruger. “Hey, The West has been at this since the time of Alexan­der the Great, and we are very close to bring­ing Afghans around to our way of thinking.”

They also predict Harper is about to abandon the title of Prime Minister and adopt the honorific

“Steve Harper, Beloved and Respected Pianist to the Nation; Cor­rec­tor of the Way­ward, Who is a Great Man; Head in Chief, Com­man­der of Wings, Pro­tec­tor of All Things Great and Rich; Shim­mer­ing Light of the Rocky Moun­tains, Descended from Heaven; Tumes­cent Mem­ber from Cal­gary; Exalted Son of Eto­bi­coke; Tremen­dous Loss Leader; Mas­ter­mind of Unerr­ing Polit­i­cal Instincts; Med­icated Depres­sive; Suc­cor Puncher.”

He hears the sound of one hand clapping.

Go Riders!

It was ugly and it was beautiful -- Clermont's 24-yard TD in double OT sends Riders past Lions

The economy explained

Mound of Sound posts this bit of brilliance -- I would love to find out what Paul Krugman thinks of this:

Great line of the day

Covering the Canadian Civil Liberties Association hearings into the G20 protests, Stageleft writes

As for the police, well .... don't ask why people like me distrust you on sight; your fellow officers, and the system that has been allowed to protect them, is your real problem - deal with it.

Oh, and I got an email today from the Office of the Ombudsman of Ontario looking for the source of a G20 photo I ran on my blog back in July:

This and many other photos are from the G20Justice.Com website.

Crazy? Don't mind if I do!

We now have 23 months to watch the Anti-Obama Idiots in the United States go completely crazy.
The Washington Post fired the opening shot, actually publishing an opinion from two guys that the solution is for Obama not to run in 2010. As John Cole says:

Can you, for one minute, imagine Caddell and Schoen suggesting that the way to end all the nasty partisanship is for the Republicans to promise to not run anyone in 2012? Can you imagine Hiatt printing it? Of course not. In the eyes of the beltway, partisanship only occurs when the Democrats refuse to roll over and do whatever the Republicans want

The Republicans are getting so hysterical about controlling the House of Representatives that they think they are running the country -- the Minority Whip now thinks he is in charge of US foreign relations in the Middle East. IOKIYAR
And we will have 23 months of Huffington Post and Firedoglake pitching a fit over every speculative White House twitch -- they have become the left wing answer to the Drudge Report.
Meanwhile, here in the real world...

House of cards

George Price

Tom Levenson writes about the Canadian boy who was the last soldier one of the last soldiers to die in World War I:

There was one incident that captured the essence of war on the western front, the distillation of its arbitrary violence. At two minutes to eleven in the vicinity of Mons a Canadian private named George Price was hit by a sniper’s bullet. He died instantly. The man who killed him remains unknown. That man made a choice. He was a marksman, a skilled soldier. He had just moments remaining in which it was legal for him to kill. There was no need to fire, no purpose, and some risk at least to himself and any comrades near him. If he waited until eleven, and then put his gun down, the only consequence would be that a young stranger would go home. Instead, the shot rang out. Two minutes ticked past. The war ended. George Price lay dead.

What a pointless, stupid war that was.

UPDATE: Corrected.

G20 protests are the story that just won't die

The Dominion provides the latest summary of the G20 protesters who are still facing charges or in jail:

“I think it’s rare for this much resources and energy to be put into so vehemently going after people who are allegedly guilty of nothing more than vandalism,” said Jonah Hundert.

Yes, that's for sure. The hearings being held by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and National Union of Public and General Employees in Toronto are now getting some coverage, even in the National Post.

I'm shocked! SHOCKED!

Canada won't be leaving Afghanistan after all. Oh, what a big surprise.

Disappearing the disappeared

The Native Women's Association of Canada Sisters In Spirit campaign -- set up several years ago by the federal Liberals -- has apparently hurt the delicate fee-fees of the Harper Conservatives, the RCMP and police departments.
What did they do? They collected data and raised public awareness about the 582 missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada.
This made police look bad. Very bad. All these women disappearing year after year after year, and police departments across the nation greeting the news with a collective yawn.
What to do? Well, Allison reports the Conservatives have now found millions of dollars to set up a National Police Support Centre for Missing Persons. But they're not going to fund the NWAC anymore unless they drop the "Sisters in Spirit" name and stop maintaining their database.
Way to solve the problem guys -- if nobody knows about it, then it isn't a problem anymore!
Oh, wait, we tried that already, didn't we?
Quite honestly, the Harper Conservatives just make me sick -- taking a profoundly important initiative that has great significance to Aboriginal families across the country, twisting it to advance their own agenda, then trashing it to make it all go away.
Trying to make it disappear just like all those women have disappeared.
And lets also keep a wary eye on that Conservative idea that they're going to make "amendments to the Criminal Code to streamline the warrants application process where wiretaps are required in missing person cases". Thin edge of the wedge and all that...

Fool me once

I was going to post something about how offensive it was to hear Rob Ford boasting about the dirty tricks he used to become mayor of Toronto, but now I don't have to because Rev Paperboy has said everything that needs to be said:

...people who like to brag about how dirty they played and how low they stooped will eventually find that the only people impressed are other shitheels and grifters ...
Time and Karma will not be kind to Rob Ford and his campaign team and hubris will eventually prove their undoing. Nobody likes a sore loser, but most of us hate a bad winner just as much.

Yes, because the take-away message from this sorry incident is that Ford thinks the people of Toronto are stupid.
Nice mayor you've got there, guys!