Democracy gone Astray: Friday, February 17, 2012

Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.

This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, February 17, 2012

Stockwell Day's allusions of income inequality

Stockwell! It's been a while since I've seen your face and I was wondering how life outside of politics was treating you. So, imagine my great pleasure when I came across your column on the CBC website: "Avoid the trap of the income 'gap'."

Noting the deliberate use of quotation marks, I had to continue reading -- if only to find out your "thoughts" on the subject of income inequality in Canada. After all, the CCPA and others have spent a fair amount of time documenting how the gap between the rich and rest of us is growing at a rate that outpaces what we're seeing in the U.S.

You mention that research, too. At least, I think that's what you're referring to when you reference "a plethora of purported economic studies and institutes which proclaim that there is an income gap" (our ears are burning! And hey -- nice use of alliteration!). And while you don't actually talk about the research or the statistics -- in fact, your commentary is virtually devoid of all that math and social science-y stuff -- I have to give you props for your unabashedly glowing, almost Billy Joel-esque "Just the way you are"-worthy tribute to income distribution in Canada.

Could that also be why your column was released on Valentine's Day? Stockwell, you devil! Don't go changin'!

But one little word of advice, Stock. When you're trying to find an analogy to discredit the research that documents the vast disparities between the wealthiest and everyone else, look for one that works.

Avoid the trap of the income 'gap'

It's the warning first famously emblazoned in the subways and walkways of London, entreating pedestrians to watch out for that space between the edge of the platform and the sliding door of the train. Catch your foot in the death grip of that space and it won't really matter if you've purchased your ticket or not. The only ride you'd take might be one to the morgue.

In spite of the fact that gap exists, millions of people take the risk daily and are generally well served by a transit system that moves masses of citizens to their destinations in relatively efficient fashion. We are all better off for that system despite its ongoing frustrations and problems.

How silly would it seem if people took to the streets and attempted to tear the subway system apart because of its imperfections and the ongoing “gap.” Overall we benefit. Even though in the process of its operation some people get hurt in the system, we use it. As long as efforts are made to reduce the hurt, we still want it to run.

Drummond report, Alberta budget expose Canada’s two-tier economy

Set the draconian regime for Ontario prescribed by economist Don Drummond this week against the rosy 2012 budget Alberta has just brought down and what you have is the stark picture of a two-tier national economy.

Even if one discounts the fact that the Alberta roadmap is designed to see the ruling Tories through an imminent provincial election, the circumstances behind the production of each document make the two provinces about as different as Germany and Italy.

On the one side, there is talk of irreparable fiscal damage if every inch of fat and an additional amount of the actual flesh of Ontario’s public services is not put under the knife.

On the other, in Alberta, there is the commitment to a steady flow of new money for health and education and the promise that its status as Canada’s lowest tax jurisdiction will be maintained.

Some city councillors fear that Mayor Rob Ford could install an under-qualified ally in the TTC’s top job, if the mayor’s loyalists on the transit commission oust the system’s chief executive Tuesday.

It’s an open secret at City Hall that TTC chair Karen Stintz has been protecting Webster from the mayor’s office over his refusal to build a case for a subway on Sheppard Ave. E. and a completely underground Eglinton LRT.

“Gary and I knew it was a matter of time. They’ve been itching to fire him since July,” said Stintz, who has been vacationing out of town with her family.

Reached Friday afternoon, she said she was “completely unaware” that five Ford loyalists on the transit board had called a special meeting Tuesday.

This is the last thing the system needs, she said, “at a time when the TTC has been dealing with so much uncertainty.”

The poorest people in America are running out of places to live.

In every state in the country, there are people looking for cheap rental housing -- and in every state, there aren't enough units available, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a nonprofit organization.

"The existence of the gap is not a matter of debate," the report notes.

The findings highlight the increasingly desperate situation of people who work but don't earn much, and who are finding themselves priced out of the rental market as more and more Americans look for alternatives to traditional homeownership.

For every 100 households that earn less than one-third of the median income for their region, according to the report, there are only 30 affordable and available rental units -- meaning, places to live that aren't dilapidated, prohibitively expensive, too far from public transportation, or already occupied by someone earning a higher salary.

There might be more affordable housing options available for the poor if the housing market and the economy overall weren't so weak. Since the recession took hold, though, many people have found themselves lacking the money or the credit to make a major purchase like a house.

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans are trying to pass a transportation bill that would strip certain workers of their minimum-wage and overtime protections. As it turns out, several of the companies that would benefit from the change have recently been sued by their employees for allegedly violating wage laws.

One of those companies, Evansville, Ind.-based Professional Transportation, Inc. (PTI), has lobbied lawmakers to have its workers exempted from the Fair Labor Standards Act, the 1938 federal law that guarantees basic labor rights. Ronald Romain, the president of PTI's parent company, and his wife, Connie Romain, donated more than $55,000 to GOP election efforts last year, including a combined $10,000 to Evansville-based Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.), according to campaign contribution records from the Center for Responsive Politics.

Bucshon sits on both the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which produced the transportation bill, and the House Education and the Workforce Committee, which oversees workplace laws and protections. Bucshon is running for re-election this year.

Bucshon's office did not return requests for comment made this week. Neither did Ronald Romain, nor a lobbyist with Steptoe & Johnson, the lobbying firm hired by PTI.

The Florida State Senate has defeated a measure to privatize at least 27 prisons, which would have created the largest corporate-run prison system in the country. Despite the vote, Republican Gov. Rick Scott could still privatize the prisons through executive authority. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the number of prisoners being added to privately run jails is outpacing the overall prison population by 17 percent compared to 4 percent. The nation’s largest operator of for-profit prisons, Corrections Corporation of America, recently sent letters to 48 states offering to buy up their prisons in exchange for a 20-year management contract, plus an assurance that the prison would remain at least at 90 percent capacity. We discuss prison privatization with two guests: Florida Republican State Senator Mike Fasano, who led the charge against the bill to handover South Florida’s state prisons to private companies, and ACLU of Ohio spokesperson Mike Brickner, co-author of the report, "Prisons for Profit: A Look at Prison Privatization."

Video
Source: Democracy Now!
Author:

Clarence Thomas Petitioned By 100,000 Progressives To Recuse Himself From Health Care Cases

WASHINGTON -- The calls for Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from the health care cases to be heard in March took a theatrical turn at the Supreme Court on Friday morning as two liberal advocacy groups unspooled a petition containing over 100,000 signatures stretching about 300 feet from the sidewalk to the Court's steps. The stunt, however, was quickly stymied by swirling morning winds that tangled and tore the taped-together pieces of paper containing the names and comments of the petition's signatories.

The petition, organized by Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and The Other 98%, cites a federal law requiring judges to recuse themselves when their "impartiality might be reasonably questioned." Justice Thomas's wife, Virginia Thomas, has been a vocal antagonist of the Affordable Care Act and has made a living lobbying against the law as the founder of the Tea Party group Liberty Central.

"If Justice Thomas fails to recuse himself, it will threaten the integrity of the entire Supreme Court," HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome said in a press release Thursday announcing the petition delivery. "Justice Thomas personally has aligned himself with conservative zealots and extremist organizations dedicated to throwing out the law. Unbelievably, on the same day the high court took this case, he and Associate Justice Antonin Scalia were honored at a dinner sponsored by the law firm that will argue the case before the high court. Justice Thomas spoke at a secret conclave run by the billionaire Koch Brothers to raise funds for extremist front groups like Americans for Prosperity."

A New Hampshire lawmaker with a history of surprising statements suggested on Thursday that married couples who want to use contraception should practice abstinence instead of using birth control pills.

State Rep. Lynne Blankenbeker (R-Concord) made the claim -- noting that abstinence is available "over the counter" along with condoms -- during a legislative committee hearing on a resolution urging the Obama administration to drop the birth control requirement for religious organizations. Blankenbeker was trying to explain her position on why the administration's requirement to provide insurance coverage for birth control should be overturned.

"People with or without insurance have two affordable choices, one being abstinence and the other being condoms, both of which you can get over the counter," she said.

The comments came at the same hearing where state Rep. Jeanine Notter (R-Merrimack) claimed that birth control pills lead to prostate cancer. In an interview with Merrimack Patch, Notter said that she was referring to studies discussing potentially high levels of estrogen in the environment through birth control pills and a connection to prostate cancer.

We know, you just bought that copy of Playboy for the Paul Krugman interview.

The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist may not be center-fold material (or maybe you're into that middle-aged bearded wonky economist sort of thing? We're not judging), but he's using the iconic magazine to discuss his views on the sexiest of topics, you guessed it: the financial crisis. (Read the full Playboy interview here, by the way.)

"It's hard for me to believe there were no crimes," Krugman told Playboy. "Given the scale of [the financial crisis], given how many corners were being cut, some people must have violated laws. I think people should be in jail."

Krugman's sentiment echos other critics who say that those responsible for bringing the U.S. to the brink of financial collapse aren't being held accountable for the havoc they wreaked. Objectively speaking, federal prosecution of financial fraud fell to a 20-year low in 2011, according to a report released in November. The Occupy Wall Street movement, which Krugman said in the interview has "done a great service," has highlighted these concerns and as public anger grows government agencies have taken some action.

NEW YORK -- Military strikes expected! Weapons inspectors called in! A murky al Qaeda connection! And Cheney says time's up for Ira...

Wait. Haven't we seen this movie before?

It's already been a decade since the media hyped bogus WMD claims prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. But it sure feels like 2002 for anyone who was around then and is now scanning newspaper headlines or watching TV talking-heads discuss a possible Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities -- an act which could pull the U.S. into another thorny Middle East military conflict.

Some of the media's more overheated Iran coverage bears an eerie resemblance to Iraq coverage, but instead of former Vice President Dick Cheney we have his daughter Liz Cheney making the Sunday show rounds.

"A nuclear weapon in the hands of the world's worst sponsor of terror, one of them, is something we can't stand for," Cheney said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

The Iran nuclear story has also led several network newscasts this week. On Tuesday, ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer talked of a "shadow war being waged by Iran," followed by chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross describing a "violent series of attacks by Iran," which may be retaliation for the recent killing of Iranian scientists.

UPDATE: A section of the Conservative government's proposed online surveillance law would create a team of "inspectors" who would be allowed virtually unfettered access to Internet providers' networks without a warrant, according to a news report Friday. Section 34 of the bill states that "government agents may enter an ISP when they wish, without a warrant, and demand to see absolutely everything — including all data anywhere on the network — and to copy it all," the CBC's Terry Milewski reports.
Milewski notes that Section 33 of the bill allows the Public Safety minister to "designate persons or classes of persons as inspectors for the purposes of the administration and enforcement of this Act."
Writes Milewski: "So we're not talking about police officers necessarily. We're talking about anyone the minister chooses — or any class of persons. (Musicians? Left-handed hockey players? Members of the Conservative Party? Sure, that's absurd — but the bill allows it...)"
Milewski described the provisions as "Orwellian."

TORONTO - A Conservative cabinet minister swept aside accusations Friday that the government values long-gun owners over web users.

Critics have blasted Ottawa over a new online surveillance bill they argue would compromise Internet users' privacy.

Many pointed out the Tories scrapped the gun registry in part because of concerns that it violated the privacy rights of lawful gun owners.

But Tony Clement defended the government's record on privacy Friday, saying in both cases, officials aimed to "protect society better."

At a social media talk in Toronto, the Treasury Board president said the gun registry did nothing to boost public safety, while the online surveillance bill could help prevent serious offences.

"It's important to make sure police investigators — if there's someone who is in the midst of planning a terrorist act or someone in the midst of planning some kind of child abuse — we do want to give them the tools to find those people," he said.

The prime minister’s trip wasn’t about trade, goodwill or pandas. It was about crushing his opposition at home.

Foreign ships have been putting into the Cuntan port in Chongqing, on the Yangtze River 1,700 km west of Shanghai, since 1891. But these days the whole region has a new vocation. All of a sudden Chongqing has become a major assembly and export centre for cheap laptop computers designed in Taiwan. Very soon, 50 million laptops a year will be leaving the port, bound for the world.

Sometimes ships come into port too.

On Feb. 11, Stephen and Laureen Harper strolled along the Cuntan dockside, chatting with International Trade Minister Ed Fast while a Canadian television news camera crew recorded the moment for posterity. The Harpers paused next to a dirty white steel shipping container draped with a Canadian flag. Work crews opened the container’s steel doors. The Harpers watched as somebody opened one of the cardboard boxes inside the container.

Rob Ford backs down on TCHC sell-off

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has momentarily backed down from his plan to sell off more than 600 single-family homes owned by Toronto Community Housing.

Ford had originally supported a TCHC plan that recommended the sale of hundreds of houses.

But on Friday, when his executive staff met to debate the issue, Ford agreed to a compromise put forward by rookie Coun. Ana Bailao that will see 56 vacant homes sold off right away while another 600 will be spared for the time being — at least until September.

The TCHC is facing a $751-million repair shortfall that will exceed $1 billion in 10 years if not addressed.

Bailao will lead a working group to study the best options for the homes, including sales and partnerships between the non-profit and the private sector.

Bailao said the compromise puts residents first and shows Ford is willing to listen to other ideas.

Her group will report back to the executive committee in the fall.

Original Article
Source: CBC
Author: cbc

The diplomacy of knowledge

It is perhaps the defining question of our time: How to tackle the complex, interrelated challenges of the 21st century in a coherent and effective way?

The answer, I am convinced, lies in what I call the diplomacy of knowledge, defined as our ability and willingness to work together and share our learning across disciplines and borders. When people achieve the right mixture of creativity, communication and co-operation, remarkable things can happen.

Why is learning and the sharing of information so important?

The first reason is that, in our globalized world, the well-being of nations is increasingly being defined by the ability to develop and advance knowledge. In other words, knowledge – as opposed to military might or GDP – is gaining momentum as the new currency and passport to success.

Second, information has never been so ubiquitous, and so cheaply and easily shared. By practising the diplomacy of knowledge, we can open up relationships between peoples and foster harmony in an interconnected world.

Third, as a result of the speed and ease of communications, our world is experiencing unprecedented rates of change. We live in a time of rapid transformations, characterized by risk and opportunity on a global scale. Because of this, we must always look to the evidence – particularly scientific evidence – to help navigate change and inform our choices.

Opposition members say the rules governing Parliament must be changed to prevent the Conservative government from shutting down debate in the Commons and from taking the business of committees behind closed doors.

Most Canadians care little about the rules of parliamentary procedure, Chris Charlton, the NDP Whip told the House on Friday. But the games played by the Conservative government have drawn media interest and members of the public are starting to pay attention.

“In particular, they have focused on the rules that currently allow the government to cut off debate on subjects of its choosing and rules that allow the government to escape accountability by avoiding transparency and holding critical debates in closed-door meetings,” Ms. Charlton said.

The NDP Whip said that when committees have complained to speakers of the House of Commons about the government forcing committee debate to be conducted in private, they have pointed out that committees are the masters of their own destinies.

“While technically correct,” she said, “we must give the Speaker the tools to uphold the independence of committees while insisting that they cannot subvert the democratic principles of transparency and accountability that underpin the Westminster model of Parliament.”

Don Drummond, Ontario’s adviser on everything, says the harsh government spending cuts he wants must be seen as fair to succeed — they must hit everyone.

In fact, they almost certainly won’t. The well-off will fare better than the poor and middle class. Public sector employees will be hit harder than those in the private sector.

Groups with political clout — such as the multinational pharmaceutical firms that charge prices Drummond deems too high — are sure to successfully resist proposals that they share the pain. They’ve done so before.

Most alarmingly, Drummond’s harsh medicine would throw tens of thousands more Ontarians out of work.

His proposed spending cuts may result in a balanced budget by 2018. But calculations based on Drummond’s own figures indicate they will push the provincial unemployment rate into double-digit territory.

The home loans responsible for blowing up the housing market are regaining popularity.

Prices are climbing for some bonds backed by subprime mortgage loans given to higher risk borrowers, with one index rising 14 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal.

These home loans, given to anyone essentially with a pulse during the housing boom, saw massive defaults and helped cause the foreclosure crisis. Subprime bond investors suffered enormous losses in the crash--financial institutions collapsed because of subprime exposure.

Investors' belief that the housing market has finally hit bottom could be fueling their return to these riskier mortgages. Despite the mess that took place in 2008, investors are eager to try again. Investors who made hundreds of millions betting against subprime mortgage loans in 2007 jumping into the market for risky mortgage securities, say that today's subprime mortgage bonds are priced to withstand an economic slowdown, according to Bloomberg.

TRUCKEE, Calif. -- After two years of intense scrutiny and new federal regulations that have cut into booming enrollments at for-profit colleges, the industry's executives apparently felt the need for a restful break.

They found it this week at the palatial Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe resort, a wonderland of gondolas, heated pools and upscale dining that is a city unto itself. The private four-day getaway marked the annual senior executive management seminar of the trade group representing the for-profit college industry -- a sector that derives most of its $30 billion-plus annual revenue from federal funds, in the form of student loans and grants.

Students at for-profit colleges often end up with enormous debt burdens and lean job prospects, resulting in a disproportionate number of student loan defaults. But the scene at this resort tucked into the Sierra Nevada Mountains served as testament to the fact that those running the institutions have fared far better.

Five dozen executives, who flew in on Sunday from states as far afield as Florida, Indiana and Virginia, gathered at the Ritz-Carlton, paying nearly $400 a night. They enjoyed the ski slopes, a spa and cocktail lounges, putting their taxpayer-financed revenues to lavish effect.

They devoted some of their hours to work, plotting political and business strategies in a key election year. Among the distinguished guests was former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, who was recently brought on as a lobbyist for the trade group, the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities. New rules from the Obama administration aimed at stemming marketing abuses within the industry have impeded growth. The trade group has filed suit in a bid to derail the regulations.

Galileo's Credo

A right thumb, a finger, a tooth. These were the contents of a reliquary acquired several years ago by a collector at an auction in Florence. Little did he know that for centuries the remains had been objects of profane devotion. Last seen in 1905, they had been sliced from the corpse of Galileo, along with another finger and a vertebra, during his highly publicized reburial in the Basilica of Santa Croce in 1737 almost 100 years after his death, and preserved in a slender case fashioned of glass and wood and crowned with a carved bust of the scientist. The reliquary’s new owner consulted Galileo experts about his find, and after the authenticity of its contents had been verified he donated it to the Museo Galileo, which is tucked behind the Uffizi in a quiet piazza overlooking the River Arno. (A dentist asked by the museum to examine the tooth concluded that Galileo suffered from gastric acid reflux and ground his teeth in his sleep.) The rediscovered reliquary is displayed adjacent to a smaller one containing Galileo’s other finger, a prized museum possession since 1927. Nearby are several artifacts of Galileo’s scientific genius: a telescope presented to the Medici and the broken objective lens of the original device with which Galileo sighted Jupiter’s four satellites in 1610.

Galileo was not the first scientist whose corpse was as revered as his corpus. That honor belongs to René Descartes, who was reburied numerous times after his death in 1650, initially to secure the return of his body to French soil and subsequently to install him in the pantheon of French genius. Yet Galileo’s remains in Florence have an added meaning. In 1633 the scientist was tried for heresy, having been accused of violating a 1616 papal decree condemning as contrary to Scripture the idea of a heliocentric universe, first described by Copernicus in On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543). The Florentines who snatched a few of Galileo’s bones in 1737 sought to canonize the scientist as a counter-saint, even as the Roman Catholic Church, with a century of hindsight, relented on its decision to deny Galileo a public burial and monument worthy of his fame when he died. Times were changing, but not rapidly enough for Galileo’s most ardent disciples. Their veneration of a few body parts privately commemorated his martyrdom for the cause of science. The church’s interment of his other remains in a sepulcher adjacent to Michelangelo’s in Santa Croce designated him a heroic embodiment of Tuscan genius and creativity.

So far Mitt Romney has come off as weak, weird and willing to say anything to be elected. But lately, a new meme has been taking hold. “Mitt is Mean!” read the protest signs outside the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York this week. The “Dogs Against Romney” are howling that Romney once drove his family from Boston to Canada with their Irish setter, Seamus, in a carrier strapped to the roof of the car. (“Dad, gross!” one of his sons cried, as he saw diarrhea sliding down the back window. The mild-mannered Mitt has always insisted, though, that the pooch “enjoyed” the twelve-hour, breezy ride.)

Now a Santorum ad running in Michigan says that Mitt is even meaner to human right-wingers. “Romney and his super PAC have spent a staggering $20 million brutally attacking fellow Republicans,” says a voiceover as a Mitt lookalike (“Rombo”) fires an automatic weapon loaded with mud at a Santorum cardboard cutout. Mitt keeps missing his target, and the mud eventually backfires onto his crisp white shirt.

Mitt does have a mean streak, but it hasn’t always been obvious, if only because he packs it behind a frozen smile and an Auto-Tune laugh. Bland on the outside, roiling on the inside, he’s almost the definition of passive-aggressive: expressing “negative feelings, resentment, and aggression in an unassertive passive way.” Mitt regularly attacks, lies or infuriates people, all the while professing to be blissfully unaware of any negativity. “I know the Speaker’s angry. I don’t know why,” Romney said patiently as pro-Romney ads carpet-bombed Newt Gingrich in Iowa. The former Massachusetts governor won’t even own up to the normal aggression expected of politicians. On why he didn’t run for a second term, he gets all Eddie Haskell-y, saying, “But that would be about me.”

If we can engineer a soldier who can resist torture, would it still be wrong to torture this person with the usual methods? Starvation and sleep deprivation won't affect a super-soldier who doesn't need to sleep or eat. Beatings and electric shocks won't break someone who can't feel pain or fear like we do. This isn't a comic-book story, but plausible scenarios based on actual military projects today.

In the next generation, our warfighters may be able to eat grass,communicate telepathically,resist stress, climb walls like a lizard, and much more. Impossible? We only need to look at nature for proofs of concept. For instance, dolphins don't sleep (or they'd drown); Alaskan sled-dogs can run for days without rest or food; bats navigate with echolocation; and goats will eat pretty much anything. Find out how they work, and maybe we can replicate that in humans.

As you might expect, there are serious moral and legal risks to consider on this path. Last week in the UK, The Royal Society released its report " Neuroscience, Conflict and Security." This timely report worried about risks posed by cognitive enhancements to military personnel, as well as whether new nonlethal tactics, such as directed energy weapons, could violate either the Biological or Chemical Weapons Conventions.

While an excellent start, the report doesn't go far enough, as I have been explaining to the US intelligence community , National Research Council, DARPA, and other organizations internationally. The impact of neural and physical human enhancements is more far-reaching than that, such as to the question of torturing the enhanced. Other issues, as described below, pose real challenges to military policies and broader society.

At a time when it's become a cliché to say that Occupy Wall Street has changed the nation's political conversation—drawing long overdue attention to the struggles of the 99 percent—electoral politics and the 2012 presidential election have become almost exclusively defined by the 1 percent. Or, to be more precise, the .0000063 percent. Those are the 196 individual donors who have provided nearly 80 percent of the money raised by super-PACs in 2011 by giving $100,000 or more each.

These political action committees, spawned by the Supreme Court's 5-4 Citizens United decision in January 2010, can raise unlimited amounts of money from individuals, corporations, or unions for the purpose of supporting or opposing a political candidate. In theory, super-PACs are legally prohibited from coordinating directly with a candidate, though in practice they're just a murkier extension of political campaigns, performing all the functions of a traditional campaign without any of the corresponding accountability.

If 2008 was the year of the small donor, when many political pundits (myself included) predicted that the fusion of grassroots organizing and cyberactivism would transform how campaigns were run, then 2012 is "the year of the big donor," when a candidate is only as good as the amount of money in his super-PAC. "In this campaign, every candidate needs his own billionaires," wrote Jane Mayer of The New Yorker.

If the White House has its way, the United States could soon reduce its nuclear arsenal dramatically, possibly even to the point where it would possess fewer atomic bombs than congressmen. And though Republicans on the Hill are already complaining that the plans are "reckless lunacy," the administration appears to have plenty of military thinkers on its side.

According to a report this week from the Associated Press, President Obama is considering three proposals by the Pentagon to cut the number of deployed nukes. The biggest proposal would reduce America's active stockpile to just 300 to 400 warheads—fewer than the country has had since the earliest days of the Cold War. Since the dawn of the nuclear age, the US has reportedly built close to 70,000 atomic bombs. The recent New START treaty with Russia requires both countries to cut their deployed warheads to 1,550, so these new reduction plans would be dramatic, indeed.

Any real movement on this front may not come until 2013; follow-up reporting by the Washington Post suggested that the White House won't make a change until it resumes negotiations with the Russians, which is likely only to come after presidential elections take place in both countries this year. But the fact that plans are brewing for a major arsenal reduction is itself significant, and it signals where Obama may really be headed on nuclear strategy if elected to a second term.

Since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2007, Keynesianism came back into fashion. One of John Maynard Keynes's central ideas is that when you find yourself in a crisis or a recession, the best solution is to increase government spending. Government spending will sustain overall demand, put everyone back to work, and kick-start the economy. The New Democrats and the Liberals are strong proponents of this theory.

Even if you already have a high level of accumulated debt, it doesn't matter. The solution to too much spending is more spending. The solution to high levels of debt is more debt.

There is something fundamentally wrong with that.

The key question you have to ask is this: Where does the money that governments spend come from? It has to come from somewhere. A government cannot inject resources into the economy unless it has first extracted them from the private sector through taxes; or put us further into debt by borrowing the money.

Rupert Murdoch announced Friday that he is launching a new tabloid, The Sun on Sunday.

Murdoch is in London to calm a staff revolt at The Sun in the wake of a string of recent arrests at the paper, which has become a chief target of a police probe into the bribery of public officials. He made the announcement in an email, and also said that all employees who had been arrested or suspended from their jobs could come back to work.

Murdoch said that the Sun on Sunday — which has been in the works ever since the company's previous Sunday paper, the News of the World, was shut down in the wake of the phone hacking crisis — would launch "very soon." He called the Sun "a part of me" and stressed that everyone who had been arrested was "innocent unless proven otherwise." He also told staffers that he would be staying in London for the next few weeks to show his "unwavering support."

Later, Murdoch toured the Sun newsroom. The Press Association reported that he spoke to several journalists and was accompanied by his son Lachlan.

Sky News correspondent Sophy Ridge reported that "the mood was visibly lifted" when Sun journalists saw the email. The paper has been enveloped in gloom ever since Saturday, when five journalists were arrested in connection with the bribery investigation.

Canadian manufacturing sales may have rebounded to near pre-recession levels, but the same cannot be said of manufacturing employment.

New figures released by Statistics Canada on Thursday show that December marked the fifth increase in manufacturing sales in six months, with sales rising to $49.9 billion -- not far off the $50.2 billion logged in October 2008.

Manufacturing employment, however, shows little sign of bouncing back: over the same period, says Statscan analyst Vincent Ferrao, the sector posted a net loss of more than 200,000 jobs; in January, total manufacturing employment was 11 per cent lower than it was in the fall of 2008.

The relatively weak employment numbers highlight the legacy of a downturn that evaporated hundreds of thousands of jobs, and quickened the pace of a fundamental labour market shift.

Angelo DiCaro, a national communications representative for the Canadian Auto Workers’ union, characterizes the gap between the rebound in manufacturing sales and employment as “tremendous.”

Austerity isn't for everyone

Is anyone else getting tired of being lectured about austerity by wealthy consultants in expensive suits who charge $1,500 a day for their advice and have comfortable government pensions, besides?

And do we really need another warning about saving for old age - instead of frittering away money on escalating tuition for our children; or scrambling to compensate for unexpected job loss, or medical expenses - from disapproving cabinet ministers with fat salaries and fatter pensions?

Notice how these apostles of austerity rarely want to impose sacrifices on their fellow HNW (highnet-worth) individuals in the drive to restore fiscal sanity. They talk about fairness, but there is always an excuse for not halting corporate tax cuts, for not eliminating costly, quirky tax credits for people who don't need them. And their zeal for slashing redundant public service jobs and frivolous spending always seems to exclude their pet projects. (The Office for Religious Freedom, anyone? Those problematic F-35s?)

This week there was an all-party, subterranean revolt led by Conservative MPs against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's plan to cut their office and travel budgets by 10 per cent. Fifty-two free flights a year, instead of 64? Ouch. No more business class? Unthinkable. Trim office budgets? Impossible.

May: Environmentalists face Kafkaesque smears

The federal Conservatives have to tone down their "Kafkaesque" demonization of environmentalists, Green Party leader Elizabeth May says.

"I think that under the terms [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper and his cabinet members have been using in the House of Commons, I am now condemned as against Canada, as a radical, as an enemy and I suppose as a suspected future terrorist," May told reporters Thursday.

"Once you start describing political opponents as enemies, we're in real trouble," said May, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands. "It's very Kafkaesque."

May's call to tone down the rhetoric comes after the revelation that the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency considers the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Greenpeace a threat.

"Multi-issue extremists and aboriginal extremists may pursue common causes, and both groups have demonstrated the intent and the capability to carry out attacks against critical infrastructure in Canada," says a 2008 assessment prepared by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, according to the Globe and Mail.

The report cites PETA's opposition to Canada's seal hunt and its parallel boycott of Canadian maple syrup as some of CSIS's reasons for being concerned.

May said these sort of overblown attacks on political opponents - such as the government's branding the opposition "antiCanada" on Wednesday - are beyond the pale.

"It smacks of the McCarthy era," she said. "It makes me think someday we'll have hearings of a House committee on anti-Canadian activities where people will be hauled before this committee and grilled: 'Are you now, or have any time been, a member of Greenpeace?' "

Original Article
Source: times colonist
Author: Jeff Davis

"Where Are the Women?": Lawmakers Walk Out on Contraception Rule Hearing After Female Witness Barred

In a dramatic scene on Capitol Hill, several Democrats walked out of a congressional hearing on the Obama administration’s rule that would require health insurance plans, including those provided by Catholic-affiliated hospitals and universities, to offer free contraceptives for health-related issues and birth control. The lawmakers took action after the committee chair blocked testimony from a female witness who supports the mandate. We’re joined by D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who walked out of the hearing, and the witness who was barred from testifying, Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke. Georgetown is a Catholic university whose health plan does not cover contraception.

Video
Source: Democracy Now!
Author: --

Tories hopeful ahead of EU oilsands vote

The Conservative government is hoping it has won enough support from European Union countries to stymie, for now, a fuel quality standard proposed by the EU's executive that would label oilsands a dirtier form of crude.

EU officials are expected to vote Feb. 23 on a draft law that would slap a higher carbon-emissions value on bitumen-derived fuels, compared to more conventional crudes. As the vote draws near, a group of eight Nobel Peace laureates urged heads of state on Thursday to adopt the fuel standard "to keep highly polluting tarsands oil out of Europe."

Countries on both sides of the debate expect the vote at the fuel quality committee will be close, although observers doubt the European Commission's proposal will receive enough support from the 27 EU member states to outright pass it or quash it.

If there's no "qualified majority" at the committee - requiring 255 votes out of a total 345 - then the matter will go to a larger council of ministers of the EU for a vote that could possibly take place by June.

Ottawa and the petroleum sector have engaged in an intensive lobbying campaign in recent months to convince EU member countries to side with Canada's position that the proposed Fuel Quality Directive discriminates against the oilsands.

$3M for oilsands environmental research

EDMONTON - Oilsands environmental research got a $3-million boost Thursday that combines forces between federal and provincial governments.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver inked a deal with Premier Alison Redford at the federal CanmetEnergy research centre in Devon, Alta. The funds will be used to reduce the environmental footprint of the oilsands, focusing on corrosion, water, air and tailings.

Take that, Europe.

Oliver scoffed at the European Union's proposed fuel quality directive that singles out Canadian oil as particularly dirty, making it harder to export to Europe.

Oil snobbery?

Oliver seems to think so.

"It's unscientific, it's discriminatory and it seeks to single out the oilsands in comparison to other sources of oil. There are other sources of oil coming into Europe which have the same or higher GHG emissions," he said, calling the Euromove "grandstanding" on the EU's part.

"They're taking a stand against Canada but they're not treating oil coming from countries which really have an impact," he said, noting that other countries don't have the same monitoring level and reporting as Canada.

It took him awhile. Perhaps he was distracted by those Chinese pandas. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems to have finally understood that Canadians aren’t inclined to meekly surrender age-old rights, including cherished privacy rights, to accommodate the Conservatives’ ever-expanding tough-on-crime agenda.

Faced with a backlash from even its own supporters over Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ ghastly Internet surveillance law, the government has wisely chosen to back off and rethink. Bill C-30, the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act that was tabled Tuesday, will now go before a parliamentary committee where Government House Leader Peter Van Loan promises “the government is open to a broad range of amendments” before it becomes law. Let’s hope so.

As drafted, the bill is a mess. And Canadians know it. The Twitterverse was alive Thursday with sarcastic criticism of the legislation.

Toews has managed to offend Conservative MPs (and the grassroots) with his ham-fisted efforts to cudgel critics of the bill into acquiescence with the claim that an MP “can either stand with us or with the child pornographers.” That was too much even for some supporters to swallow.

OTTAWA — Aboriginal groups, angry at the way they have been treated by the government, are preparing to put their complaints before the international community next week when a high-level UN expert panel examines Canada's record on fighting discrimination.

"Obviously we're not going to realize any solution within the domestic framework," said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.

"As time goes on, I think we're going to see more and more communities reaching out to the international community."

Representatives from about a dozen First Nations organizations, including the Assembly of First Nations and various communities across the country, will travel to Geneva to meet with the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Monday.

They are expected to raise concerns about funding for education and basic services, the treatment of aboriginal women and children, and the implementation of land claims treaties.

The federal government and several dozen First Nations groups already have submitted reports to the committee, which is made up of human rights experts from around the world who will report their findings to the UN Human Rights Commission.

Rocky launch for Tories' Internet law

Sometimes a political issue launches with such a resounding thud that a quick reset is all that can be done. And so it was with the Harper government's proposed Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act.

From the moment Public Safety Minister Vic Toews introduced the bill with the ludicrous statement that you're either with the government or the child pornographers, the issue struggled.

Despite opposition uniformly from both the left and right - some of it ratcheted to the level of paranoiac hysteria - some legal clarification of police information-gathering powers in the Internet age is important.

While police would still be required to obtain search warrants to see Internet, email or cellphone content, is it entirely unreasonable to require Internet service providers and cellphone companies to set up storage and access files to hold digital records for 90 days, accessible if the police get a warrant?

Less clear is the scope of so-called "indicator" information that police would be able to obtain without a warrant - details such as a subscriber's name, address, phone numbers, email and IP addresses and local service provider identifiers.

There is a valid debate on whether or how police should get any of this without a warrant.

One day after introducing the bill the government backed down, agreeing to have a parliamentary committee make major changes.

The people have spoken.

Original Article
Source: the star phoenix
Author: John Gormley

Opinion: Conservatives use police-state rhetoric against foes of privacy intrusions

Safety Minister Vic Toews has now repeatedly characterized opponents of a plan to force Internet service providers and cellphone companies to provide law enforcement agencies with consumers’ private information as “siding with child pornographers.”

This is a baseless accusation. Those opposed to the legislation include privacy commissioners, members of Parliament, prominent academics, respected journalists, civil libertarians and decent members of the public. To question the ramifications of a government bill is not to side with sexual exploiters of children.

Equally offensive is a new Twitter campaign smearing Toews by posting intimate marital details from affidavits filed in a bitter divorce case. Really, must we descend to the kind of vile personal slagging that is prevalent in American politics?

At the same time, it deserves note that when you start dismantling privacy protections, this is exactly the kind of odious swill that you invite as personal matters move into the public domain. And anyone who thinks the authorities are not equally capable of leaking their discoveries is living in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

No warrant? No way - Allowing searches to take place like this is just too much

Have you heard about the Harper government’s plans to allow police to get some of your personal data without a search warrant?

It’s part of a new bill aimed at updating surveillance practices for the Internet era and most of it is long overdue, but the bits about allowing searches without a warrant are a little worrisome.

It has united the opposition NDP and Liberals, and most of the media is saying this all goes too far.

Section 487.11 is the most bothersome part of the law.

Under this section of the bill, any police officer, commissioner of the Competition Bureau, CSIS officer or their designated staff can demand, without reasonable cause or any evidence that a crime is going on, that your Internet service provider give them your name, address, telephone, e-mail address and IP address. Should we accept this?

I would say no.

I don’t think any police body or government agency should have the ability to snoop through my life without a warrant.

This bill is being portrayed as targeting child predators and those against might be in favour of child predators.

Civil libertarians when necessary

This week, the Conservative government introduced legislation which would create a vast system of warrantless Internet surveillance. Civil libertarians howled in protest.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told them they could either support the government's plan or side "with the child pornographers."

Many more people howled, including conservative newspaper columnists. A few Conservative MPs even dared to suggest that maybe the legislation wasn't entirely perfect and righteous in every way.

By the end of the week, Toews suggested that perhaps it might be possible to modestly amend the bill in unspecified ways - without aiding and abetting child pornographers.

As farce, this was amusing. As governance, it was appalling. But as an illustration of the thinking of the prime minister and his circle, it was invaluable.

There's always been a riddle at the core of Stephen Harper's party. They say they're for "small government" and "individual liberty." They say they oppose the "nanny state" and can't stomach "social engineering."

"There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time." - George Orwell, 1984.

It's often forgotten that, for Orwell, 1984 was far in the future — a distant and imaginary hell. Published 35 years earlier, in 1949, his book conjured up a surveillance state filled with chilling new concepts: "Big Brother," "Thought Police" and "Newspeak."

Today, 1984 has come and gone but Big Brother is real and present in ways Orwell never imagined. In China, the very names of imprisoned dissidents are banned from the internet. In Saudi Arabia, an unholy tweet can bring you a death sentence.

Here in Canada, though, freedom reigns. A sign of that may be that the government's new plan for policing cyberspace is in big trouble.

Within 24 hours of its unsteady launch, the government pledged to send its new legislation straight to committee for amendments — some of which may come from the restive Conservative back benches. The bill is "too intrusive," said New Brunswick Conservative MP John Williamson. Conservative voices across the land agreed — to say nothing of NDP and Liberal ones.

Canada's reputation as leading science nation at risk

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest scientific society, chose Vancouver to hold its prestigious annual conference. This is no small matter. The scientists of the AAAS lead the way on issues of the highest importance to humanity. The health, wealth and indeed the future of our planet depend on their expertise.

The Professional Institute's membership includes 23,000 scientists and researchers working for the federal government who are pleased to welcome the AAAS. But while we welcome the scientific world and celebrate with pride our many Canadian achievements, it is also time to share a few home truths. Thanks to misguided government policy, Canada's investment in science is becoming negligible and our reputation as a leading science nation is at risk.

In fact, Canadian science has come up against a new and potentially lethal threat. It is a toxic mix of disdain for evidence-based decision-making and a disappearing commitment to transparency. The release of preliminary data from the truncated 2011 Census reminds us of a key policy decision -- to end the long-form census -- that stands out as symbolic of a raft of actions by the federal government that indicate a clear preference for ideology over evidence and a basic lack of respect for scientific knowledge.

South of the border, the Obama Administration has challenged its departments and agencies to open up government science. This has resulted in the forward thinking decision by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to actively encourage its scientists to reach out to the media and the public. As President Obama summed up the objective: "The public must be able to trust the science and scientific process informing public policy decisions."

Toronto Hydro seeks to slash its workforce by 20 per cent

Toronto Hydro is offering a voluntary buyout to unionized employees as it seeks to slash its workforce by 20 per cent in the wake of an Ontario Energy Board ruling.

The troubled utility is also putting two properties on the block – one of them its operations centre at 5800 Yonge St., formerly the headquarters of North York Hydro.

Buyout offers went out Thursday to about 460 unionized employees at Toronto Hydro.

The workers have been given a deadline of Feb. 24 to accept the offer. Those who accept must agree to leave on March 9.

The company has already let go close to 60 management and executive staff, and is seeking a further 280 reductions from union ranks.

The utility has about 1,700 workers, 1,100 of them unionized.

Toronto Hydro’s Tanya Bruckmueller said the buyout offer is not being made to skilled trades workers who install and maintain wires, transformers and other equipment.

Feds to close legal loophole threatening same-sex marriages

OTTAWA—The federal government is expected to take steps today to close a legal loophole that could have undermined thousands of gay marriages around the world.

The governing Conservatives are expected to detail changes to the Civil Marriage Act to ensure the marriages are recognized.

The changes are being prompted by a divorce case in Ontario involving a gay couple.

Legal documents filed by the federal government in the case had argued that even though the couple married in Canada, they couldn’t be considered legally married because it wasn’t recognized in their U.S. and United Kingdom homes.

Gay-rights activists and opposition politicians accused the Tories of trying to rewrite the rules on same-sex marriage to suit their own agenda.

But the government says its opinion is that the marriages were valid and it doesn’t want to reopen the debate on the definition of marriage.

A spokeswoman for Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says the situation raised by the case was an anomaly in civil marriage law and the changes will fix it.

Original Article
Source: Star
Author: The Canadian Press

Inflation notches higher in January

Statistics Canada says rising gasoline prices last month helped propel the country's annual inflation rate up two notches to 2.5 per cent.

The agency says consumer prices overall rose by half a point last month from December, almost reversing a similar one-month drop that month.

The big trigger to both the annual and monthly increase was gasoline, which registered a one-month pop of 2.8 per cent in January.

The annual inflation rate had been on a downward track since the summer, but January's reversal lifted both the headline number and underlying core inflation — which excludes volatile items — to one tick above the Bank of Canada target to 2.1 per cent.

On an annual basis, inflation is being mostly fuelled by two items — energy prices, which are up 6.5 per cent from last January, and food prices, which are up 4.2 per cent over the past 12 months.

The agency says that excluding those two items, inflation would be a tepid 1.6 per cent.

Regionally, the rate of increase in consumer prices overall was highest in New Brunswick at 3.2 per cent and lowest in British Columbia, at 1.7 per cent.

Original Article
Source:
Author:

Heartland Institute's Leaked Documents Reveal Climate Skepticism Efforts

WASHINGTON (AP) — Leaked documents from a prominent conservative think tank show how it sought to teach schoolchildren skepticism about global warming and planned other behind-the-scenes tactics using millions of dollars in donations from big corporate names.

More than $14 million of the money used by the Chicago-based Heartland Institute would come from one anonymous man, according to the leaked documents prepared for a meeting of the group's board.

Heartland is one of the loudest voices denying man-made global warming, hosting the largest international scientific conference of skeptics on climate change. Several of its documents were leaked this week to the news media, showing the planning and money behind its efforts. Heartland said some of the documents weren't accurate, but declined to be more specific.

As detailed in the papers, Heartland's plans for this year included paying an Energy Department consultant $100,000 to design a curriculum to teach school children that mainstream global warming science is in dispute, even though it's a fact accepted by the federal government and nearly every scientific professional organization. It also pays prominent global warming skeptics more than $300,000 a year and plans to raise $88,000 to help a former television weatherman set up a new temperature records website.

Getting heckled by the Prime Minister was worth tweeting about for Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian.

On Thursday, he let the twitter-verse know Prime Minister Stephen Harper had heckled him in the House of Commons as the NDP finance critic spoke during question period.

"It doesn't happen very often," said from Ottawa on Thursday, which began with him meeting with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to outline his party's budgetary priorities. "It was one of those days where anything can happen."

The heckles come on the heels of parliamentary secretary for finance Shelly Glover calling him anti-Canadian earlier this week for questioning the government's spending plans.

"I've always found when the other party resorts to insults they're not winning the debate," said Julian.

Julian questioned why the government wants to spend tens of billions of dollars on fighter jets at the same time as wanting to cut pensions. "The fighter jets have tripled in costs, and the latest news is the costs will be even higher. What was originally an expenditure of a few billion dollars is now more than $30 billion."

It's called Bill C-31 and the headlines are saying that it is designed to stop "bogus" refugee claimants and streamline Canada's refugee system.

It's all about being fair and being quick, the government says. We must dispense with the "phony" refugees quickly so that the real ones don't have to wait so long, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, tells Canadians.

The fact is, though, that this bill is all about one group of people, the Roma (or "Gypsy") minority in Europe, and -- for now -- one country, Hungary.

Roma have been coming to Canada from Hungary, in the thousands, over the past few years, claiming refugee status. They do not try to go to Germany or other EU countries because they know they will not be welcome there.

The Hungarian Roma "discovered" Canada after visa restrictions on Hungarians were lifted a number of years ago and have found this country's multicultural environment welcoming, compared to "ethno-nationalist" central Europe.

The Red Army Faction, A Documentary History - Volume 1: Projectiles For the People

by J. Smith and André Moncourt, eds.

(PM Press/Kersplebedeb co-publication,

2009;

$34.95)

As euro zone economic turbulence continues, German political manoeuvring at the EU now faces unprecedented scrutiny.

Over the past year German politicians, specifically Chancellor Angela Merkel, have emerged in the international media as prominent symbols of a highly contested EU economic austerity agenda.

Conservative policies that move to cut funds to public institutions are a focus of great debate across the EU, from the halls of power in Brussels and Berlin, to the mass street protests in Athens and Madrid.

Recent German government statistics report positive numbers on rising employment in 2012, while contesting critiques point to jobs gained only in part-time and low-wage sectors, not in long-term equitable employment.

Drummond Report: School boards fear loss of independence

School boards can’t raise taxes to boost their budgets. Collective bargaining with teachers and support staff has largely been taken out of boards’ hands.

Now, the economist advising Ontario on where to find cuts to help deal with the deficit has said the province should be able to order boards to sell unused buildings — such as closed schools — and also gut 70 per cent of non-teaching staff such as psychologists, education assistants and guidance counsellors.

School boards say Don Drummond’s recommendations, if implemented, would not only affect the quality of education but also further erode their independence.

“If they wanted to do that, why don’t they just do away with us?” said Toronto District School Board Trustee Sheila Ward, of the proposal to give the province the power to force boards to sell buildings.

No minister of the government has that expertise, she added — even she and her fellow Toronto trustees realized they didn’t have such expertise and that’s why the board created the arms-length TLC (Toronto Lands Corp.) to manage its real estate, she added.

“I don’t think any minister sitting at Queen’s Park can begin to have the knowledge that we have here of our facilities, our schools,” Ward added.

The Scene. Not typically one to acknowledge a question from anyone without the rank of party leader, Stephen Harper stood only too happily to answer Francoise Boivin’s provocation.

“I would simply put it this way, I thought yesterday was a great day for law-abiding Canadians,” he said of last night’s vote to eliminate the long-gun registry. “If the NDP really believes and the Liberal Party really believes in the long gun registry, then I challenge them to come here in the House every day from now until the next election and tell Canadians they will bring it back. We would be happy to take them on.”

The Conservatives present found this delightful, leaping up to express their triumphant joy. “Hear, hear!” sang a beaming John Baird. “Whoops!” mocked a voice on the government side. “Ouch!” yelped Mr. Baird. “Ouch!”

The Prime Minister seemed positively giddy for most of his hour in the House this afternoon. He smiled to the point of beaming. He chatted up his seatmates and chuckled at the displays of various opposition members. He seemed to be having something like actual fun.

But why exactly is this man smiling?

It is surely not because of what has played out in the House over the last three weeks. Indeed, ever since Davos, Mr. Harper’s side has seemed to struggle to live up to its own hype. Those major transformations? Erm, yes, maybe something at some point, but surely nothing to worry about. Those fighter jets necessary to stave off a Russian invasion? Yes, sure, there will be planes, but only so many as can fit within the budget. The legislation that was to determine who stood with angels and who stood with child pornographers? Poor Vic Toews was left today to stand and defend the righteousness of a bill that is being sent off to committee to be fixed.

CALGARY - Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver is calling a European effort to bar oil imports from Alberta's oilsands nothing more than grandstanding.

Proposed changes to the European Union's fuel quality directive would reduce emissions from transport fuels by 10 per cent in the next decade — a goal that would make it more difficult to import oilsands fuel.

Oliver says the European position is both unscientific and an attempt to single out Canadian crude.

"The European fuel quality directive wants to put oilsands oil in a separate category," he said at a pipeline conference in Calgary on Thursday.

"It's an attempt to single out and discriminate against our oilsands, which don't have any economic relevance to them at this point. It's grandstanding and we're opposed to it — and an increasing number of European countries are opposed to it."

Oliver said the EU conveniently ignores the high levels of greenhouse gas emissions from Russian and Iranian oil production.

An increasing number of European countries, most recently France, have indicated they are opposed to the proposal, he added.

Later in Edmonton, Oliver signed an agreement with Alberta Premier Alison Redford on oilsands environmental research.

The agreement commits the two levels of government to work together to reduce the industry's environmental footprint, including its greenhouse gas emissions.

The memorandum of understanding comes with about $3 million in funding to start. The research areas are to involve pipeline corrosion, water, air and mine tailings.

Greenpeace spokesman Mike Hudema said the agreement is "like saying the cure to diabetes is to eat more sugar."

"We need legally binding, science-based emission reductions that drive investment in green energy, not handshakes and hollow promises to do better in the tarsands."

Original Article
Source: Huff
Author: canadian press

Old Age Security Canada: Kevin Page, Budget Watchdog, Says Critics Wrong To Question His Assessment Of OAS Sustainability

OTTAWA - Canada's budget watchdog is firing back at critics who have accused him of flip-flopping in declaring public pension programs sustainable.

In a letter to MPs and senators posted on the Parliamentary Budget Office Web page, Kevin Page takes a shot at individuals "without and with," expertise in the subject matter.

The four-page letter stresses that his analysis last week on the Old Age Security program which the Harper government has called "unsustainable" and in a "crisis" due to aging baby boomers, is based on concepts in use by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington and Britain's Office of Budget Responsibility.

Last week, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty dismissed Page's assessment of OAS as "unbelievable, unreliable, incredible." As well, Conservatives in the Commons have pointed out than only a few months earlier Page had questioned Ottawa's long-term fiscal sustainability.

Several national columnists have also taken up the cause, with one declaring it would be difficult to conclude that Page isn't a "partisan economist."

Julian Fantino, the associate defence minister responsible for procurement, said in the House Wednesday that any suggestion the government is going to replace its planned order of F-35 fighter jets with armed drones is “absolutely incorrect”.

One presumes he was talking about this story, which, in fact, suggested drones and cheaper jets, such as the Boeing Super Hornet purchased as a stopgap by the Australians, could be used to complement a smaller fleet of F-35s. The Air Force is adamant that only fighters can control Canada’s air space effectively. And a Canadian Press story quoted one source who said the CF-18 fleet should be able to stay in the air past 2020, thanks to recent upgrades (unless they are embroiled in a major conflagration in the Middle East, presumably).

But none of this negates the growing role envisaged for armed drones. Mr. Fantino said the purchase of remotely controlled aircraft was mere “speculation.” It is somewhat more than that. Souces suggest Defence Minister Peter MacKay has bought into the purchase of a small number of armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and the Department of National Defence is preparing a memorandum to cabinet for drones that will be able to carry out maritime and Arctic surveillance, as well as having the capability of being deployed in theatre.

Nothing is likely to happen before the federal budget, given the bad publicity that more military spending would likely attract. But the Air Force is hoping to have armed drones in the air within five years and fully operational within seven.

Original Article
Source: national post
Author John Ivison:

Vets department and board struggled for years to contain privacy leaks

OTTAWA - Veterans Affairs Canada and the independent board that reviews claims of ex-soldiers grappled with allegations of leaked personal information long before a privacy scandal blew up in public.

A series of leaked documents show the department and the agency tried — and ultimately failed — in the spring of 2009 to tighten up the system and clamp down on bureaucrats who'd been rifling through the files of veterans advocates and opponents.

A May 28, 2009 letter, signed by the deputy chair of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, noted that a working group from the agency and the department itself had been assembled to examine privacy issues.

"Security Services has recently released two communiques on this topic, and will continue to educate employees on a regular basis," wrote James MacPhee in a letter to follow board member Harold Leduc, whose medical file had become the source of gossip and innuendo around the review agency.

The letter noted that staff at the review board were to be given mandatory privacy training.

Cost of surveillance bill concerns providers, say customers may pay more

OTTAWA - The government's online surveillance bill — already hitting snags over privacy — is raising concerns among Internet providers about who'll pick up the tab.

The legislation would allow authorities access to Internet subscriber information — including name, address, telephone number and email address — without a warrant.

It would also require telecommunication service providers to have the technical capability to enable police and spies to intercept messages and conversations.

The price tag for carriers could be significant, and it's unclear what kind of compensation will be offered, said Bernard Lord, president of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.

"These new undertakings could generate significant costs, and the question remains whether the government will compensate those costs," Lord said in an interview.

The association represents companies including Bell Canada, Rogers Communications and Telus, which provide wireless services to millions of Canadians.

"I don't think we should ask law-abiding citizens that are using Internet services or wireless services to pay more on their bills because the government decides that the police needs extra tools to investigate," Lord said.