$26 million

All those hundreds of Economic Action Plan ads have cost us $26 million.
And I don't think that even counts all those other federal ads we're also seeing, like the lawyer ads from Immigration Canada and the eggshell baby Health Canada ads.
Steve V says

really this is bullshit so pungent my nose hairs are burning.

Tsunami impact

ABC News Australia has a series of unique photos showing the before-and-after of the Japanese tsunami.
Here is one good news story about a man rescued at sea after being swept away by the tsunami.
And here's a chilling photo:

Tweet of the day

If you live in Wisconsin, don't forget to set your clock back 50 years this weekend.

Equals

Thanks, Boris

Unless the Libyan rebels get help, this isn't going to end well

They're driving to battle in pickup trucks.
I'm no military strategist, but it doesn't look like these rebel "soldiers" know what they're doing militarily.
Juan Cole provides the latest updates of how far the rebels are advancing -- best case, they link up with other rebels closer to Tripoli; worst case, it appears Gaddafi could use his remaining air force to attack rebel positions now that a sandstorm is over.
NATO and the UN may soon have a decision to make.

Shake the dust

Yes, I know there's a little whiff of the Deteriorata about this, but its still pretty neat:

Shake the dust from Anis Mojgani on Vimeo.

Complete poem is here

Do not let a moment go by that doesn't remind you that your heart beats 900 times a day and that there are enough gallons of blood to make you an ocean.
Do not settle for letting these waves settle and the dust to collect in your veins.

Thanks, Crystal.

Harper Youth

Analyzing last night's bizarre dissing of Ignatieff at a supposedly non-partisan event, Steve V describes the Harper staff:

we are dealing with a classless, childish, hyper-partisan bunch of zealots, anything is possible, and they PROVED IT AGAIN LAST NIGHT!

Whatever happened to . . . Charlie Sheen?

I know, I know, with our busy lives, its just too easy to lose track of what some of those less-than-major Hollywood celebrities are doing these days.
So if you've been wondering where Charlie Sheen has been hiding this last while, here's just the article you need to bring you up to date.

They'll learn eventually

It took a few years, but once the people of Canada all began to benefit from universal medicare in the 1960s, following its introduction in Saskatchewan, a curious effect began to be noticed in elections across the country -- conservative parties couldn't get elected anymore unless they stopped yapping about dismantling it.
Republicans are going to experience the same thing, sooner or later. Right now lots of Republican governors have been yapping about how they're going to get rid of Obamacare.
They'll learn.

Great line of the day

The federal appeals court finds against the Harper Conservative financing flim-flam and Boris says:

Ya can't prorogue yer way out of this one, Stevo.

G20 gag reflex

With publication of CCLA/NUPGE report, even the National Post has reached the limit of its gag reflex and is now calling for a public inquiry into the G20 police riot:

Police tactics at the G20 so demonstrably exceeded the threat posed by protesters that a comprehensive public investigation is warranted.

The Ottawa Citizen echoes the call:

The new report adds weight to the argument that the abuses by security forces outside the summit were built into the system, not just the result of a few officers misunderstanding the rules or going rogue.
"Given the scope and severity of the violations of rights that occurred during the G20 it is difficult to view this situation as anything other than a failure of policy and training," the report says.
And that sums up why a thorough inquiry is needed.

Oh, and we can no longer say that not a single person has been convicted following the G20 protests - an inept career criminal who was not part of either the Black Bloc or any protest group has now been convicted of setting one of the two police car fires.

Great post of the day

From John Cole:

A unionized public employee, a teabagger, and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, then looks at the teabagger and says “Watch out for that union guy—he wants a piece of your cookie!”

Strange days indeed

Dr. Grumpy's recent phone call with the Megalithic Suxshit Insurance Company:

Mr. Voice: "Hello, Megalithic Suxshit Insurance Company, can I help you?"
Dr. Grumpy: "Hi, this is Dr. Ibee Grumpy. In the past 2 days I've faxed you the same form on a patient 3 times and..."
Mr. Voice: "We haven't received a form from you at all, Mr. Grumpy."
Dr. Grumpy: "...and each time I do you guys call a few hours later to say you haven't received it yet."
Mr. Voice: "What number are you faxing it to Mr. Grumpy?"
Dr. Grumpy: "It's Dr. Grumpy. I faxed it to 1-800-FAX-HERE, the number printed at the top of the form."
Mr. Voice: "Mr. Grumpy, that's the wrong number. You should be faxing it to 1-800-SUX-SHIT. Where did you get that other number?"
Dr. Grumpy: "It's the only fax number on the form! It's at the top of the page, right next to a sentence that says 'Please fax this form to the following number.' "
Mr. Voice: "Just because it says that on the form doesn't mean you were supposed to fax it there."
Dr. Grumpy: "Okay, but if the number to fax it to ISN'T the one on your form, how do I find out what the number is that I'm supposed to use?"
Mr. Voice: "You need to request that number by sending us a fax."

It's still fish and it still stinks

The words of Rosanne Rosannadanna still ring true.
Joe Warmington already has a column up about the Fifth Estate story on the Toronto G20 protests. He writes:

Bizarre arrests looking like assaults, horse tramplings, cops violently whacking people with batons for no reason, kettling, people shot with rubber bullets all in the wake of a real attack by a real group of vandals that the cops ignored.
It was hardly Toronto Police’s finest hour.
...The G20 is a rotten fish in every conversation concerning policing here. It’s a stench that won’t go away until somebody at the helm says in a free country they won’t stand for regular citizens being treated this way.

In the documentary, the most astounding comment by Toronto police chief Bill Blair was when he said "We then had a riot to try to suppress."
WTF? If a riot is "a sudden and intense rash of violence", then it was the police who were rioting in Toronto eight months ago.








One of the things I still find unnerving about the C20 protests is just how scared the police were.
This fear even came though in what Blair said last night, talking about how police had to "prevent criminality"
It is particularly evident in the Scary Cop Lady video -- the plainclothes police are tense, frightened, yelling at everyone to Get Back, justifying their own aggression by acting as though they are in imminent danger of violent attack from the crowd -- yeah, sure, a bunch of teenagers with cell phones and cardboard signs?
So who was it that convinced police there would be so many violent Canadians in the crowd that they should be scared of?

Jihadis and all that

So Bob Rae described the PMO staff as "25-year-old jihadis":

"... this government just doesn't have the imagination, political will, or the willingness to let other people do things.
"If they can't control it, if the 25-year-old jihadis in the prime minister's office can't control it, it doesn't happen. and that's what's wrong about this government. That's the pathology I talked about two weeks ago, and that's the pathology that affects everything that moves in this government."

Hrumph, hrumph! Let the pearl-clutching begin about how extremely rude Rae is to call ideological, ignorant young people "jihadis".
Would the term "Hitler Youth" be more acceptable?