Sounds like something weird is going on in Brazil

This is beyond bizarre.
First, Canadians are reading about how Harper locked himself in a bathroom and wouldn't come out until the speech schedule was changed to his liking at a presidential luncheon. That one hit the Washington Post.
Then there apparently was an unseemly tiff between the media staffs about when photos would be allowed of the two leaders.
And Dimitri Soudas has provided an incoherent "denial" of the bathroom incident (emphasis mine):

Dimitri Soudas, Harper’s director of communications, said the plan was always to do the toast off the top and denied any problems with the Brazilians over the timing.
“I wasn’t engaged on such an issue and I usually am when there is one,” he said. “I’ve checked. This story is false. Bottom line guys, when these things happen it’s because the team is fighting for you guys so you can get access.”

Huh?

Signs of the times

From a Manchester sandwich shop today:

"Due to the imminent collapse of society, we regret to announce we are closing at 6 pm tonight."



And a flyer of advice to the people that the British press are describing as "yobs", apparently now being distributed in London:

‪I love the internets

Here's a little corner of the internet I'll bet you didn't know about -- a bunch of people apparently learned how to play guitar on the Google Les Paul Doodle and they have been posting the songs they made.

Shorter

Shorter Boris:

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?

Gonna get along without you now

After the Berlin Wall fell, the world thought that the United States had won.
So did the United States.
Reagan talked about the shining city on the hill. Bush the Elder talked about a thousand points of light. Al Gore invented the internet. They elected Bill Clinton who got their deficit under control for the first time since WWII.
They were on a roll.
But they just couldn't stop electing Republicans.
So the world watched while Clinton was impeached over a blow job. Then we watched them electing Bush the Younger. Twice. In the last ten years the world found itself following America into three wars in the Middle East. American politicians sabotaged international consensus on dealing with climate change and on trying to make progress with the Palestinian issue. The final straw was seeing the United States jeopardize the world economy twice in the last four years, by letting Wall Street run wild, and by turning the debt ceiling vote into a six-month debacle.
And its not just the Republicans' fault. The perception of the world is that, if a lot of Americans didn't agree with what the Republicans are doing, they wouldn't keep electing them.
Now the American media is freaking out because Standard & Poor cut America's credit rating. Though the political basis of the S&P action is evident, the downgrade is also a signal that the rest of the world is getting tired of these shenanigans.

An opinion piece in Der Speigel sums it up:

The name "United States" seems increasingly less appropriate. [Hate] has become routine in American political culture . . . reason has been replaced by delusion. The notion of tax cuts has taken on a cult-like status, and the limited role of the state a leading ideology. In this new American civil war, respect for the country's highest office was sacrificed long ago. The fact that Barack Obama is the country's first African-American president may have played a role there, too.
There's no deliverance in sight.

‪Stop me before I invest again!

Check it out quick before it gets deleted...

The US government shutdown which won't happen now

With all the criticism of that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Obama debt limit deal, there is one aspect that the critics seem to be missing.
The deal that Obama signed included a "deem and pass" for the 2012 federal budget.
So let's speculate -- if the debt limit had been raised in December, or if Obama had implemented the 14th Amendment option, then what would have happened in September?
Instead of taking the debt limit hostage, the Tea Party Republicans would have taken the federal budget hostage. They would have refused to pass anything and the federal government would have had to shut down.
At least with the debt limit issue, their Wall Street supporters and the conservative pundits were screaming at these guys to get off their butts. Even with that pressure, look how juiced they were to indulge in soap-opera brinksmanship and look how difficult it was to convince them to take yes for an answer and raise the limit.
If this bunch had had the opportunity to grandstand on refusing to approve a federal budget, they would have jumped at the chance. They would have thrown tens of thousands of federal civil servants out of work without a minute of hesitation. And I'm not sure how that would have ended.

Paranoid

It's creepy.
A while ago I ordered some shoes over the Internet.
few days ago, I was looking up various table lamps and lighting fixtures.
And I also checked out some new knobs for the kitchen cabinets.
Now when I check my usual websites, I am constantly seeing ads for shoes. And lamps. And cabinet hardware.
Somebody really is watching me.

Shooting themselves in the foot?

Steve is right that the Nycole Turmel story speaks to the emerging media narrative that the NDP are cynically trying to be popular in Quebec by pandering to separatists.
By letting this story blindside them, the party has also reinforced the other emerging media narrative about how the NDP is an "immature" political party -- just a bunch of amateur do-gooders and looney leftists who aren't ready to take on the role of Official Opposition.
I think both narratives are profoundly incorrect, but this won't stop the Conservatives and the press from promoting them -- though I would change my mind if it turns out that Turmel was so naive about Ottawa politics that she didn't make sure the NDP caucus was aware of her Bloc membership before they selected her as interim leader.

Yay, Sheepdogs!

They're on the cover of the Rolling Stone

Congrats, boys.

Cover your ears

Sounds like the US Congress is working on a debt ceiling bill that might actually pass their disfunctional political system.
Cue the right-wing hysteria and the left-wing flip-out in three, two, one...

Well, that was weird

I posted a little item about an elderly woman in Ontario who needs to get the governor general's office to award her the Order of Canada, and the rest of the posts in my blog disappeared!
So I deleted the item, and everything else came back.
Noblesse oblige, I guess.

Shorter

Shorter ethical oil campaign

Canada: we're not as bad as those guys

Black Friday?

Oh, dear
I suspect that today's the day that the big investors will sell, sell, sell, and the stock market will tank.
And the Republicans will blame Obama.

Picking leaders

Steve is right. All the sturm and drang about whether the NDP will "survive" without Jack Layton is just silly. Over the years, the NDP has done a pretty good job picking leaders and I have no doubt they will continue to do so.
That said, I hope they don't have to.