The Commons: Think of the F-35 as a Senate with wings

Perhaps the F-35 is best understood as a Senate with wings. Or perhaps the Senate is the F-35 that we mistakenly assigned to guard our democracy.

Either way, they are both now easy jokes.

“Mr. Speaker, yet another report from the United States is raising disturbing questions about the F-35,” Thomas Mulcair reported at the outset this afternoon. “Serious problems have been identified with the aircraft’s radar, helmet and cockpit design. Pilots report that the plane is actually incapable of flying through clouds.”

A third Conservative senator refunds expenses but Senate says no rules broken

OTTAWA - Another Conservative senator is refunding expenses following an examination of residency claims.

The Senate's internal economy committee issued a terse notice Thursday saying Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu has repaid an undisclosed amount of funds he "stated were mistakenly claimed."

Boisvenu is the third Conservative senator to have reportedly paid back improper expense claims in recent weeks, following the lead of Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin.

All 10 provinces plan to intervene in feds’ Senate reforms questions to Supreme Court

PARLIAMENT HILL—All 10 provincial governments have served notice at the Supreme Court of Canada they intend to intervene in the federal government’s reference asking for the court’s opinion on whether Parliament has the constitutional power to unilaterally limit Senate terms, hold elections to fill vacancies or even abolish the Senate entirely.

With Nunavut also filing a notice of intervention in the historic case and Yukon and the Northwest Territories likely to intervene as well, the Liberal opposition says the developments show Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary-Southwest, Alta.) wasted six years of potential progress by ignoring the provinces as his government tabled a series of fruitless Senate-reform bills in Parliament and eventually stacked the Senate with Conservative supporters, his own former aides, and Conservative fundraisers while all but the last bill stalled and died between prorogations and elections.

Why Stephen Harper May Step Down This Summer

Jean Chrétien may have been at the nadir of his popularity and effectiveness when he left public life. But he knew to get out while he was still undefeated, after three consecutive majority government victories, and with Paul Martin on the verge of taking over his party.

Dalton McGuinty also knew when to leave --- after three consecutive election wins (the first Ontario Liberal premier to do that in 128 years), and before losing the confidence of the minority parliament.

The list continues: William Davis, Peter Lougheed, Brian Mulroney, Pierre Trudeau, Mike Harris, Ralph Klein, Frank McKenna, John Robarts, Leslie Frost, Gordon Campbell --- all first ministers who left their jobs on their terms, rather than running the risk of having the voters show them the door (although in some cases such as Davis, Lougheed, and Robarts, the possibility of that happening was next to nil).

Think child care is no longer a women's issue?

On this International Women's Day, think again...

Here are ten indications that Canada's lack of action on universal child care continues to have a profound impact on women in all regions of Canada -- across the life span, across diverse groups and across the economic spectrum:

1. If "child care is the ramp that provides equal access to the workforce for mothers"*, Canadian women are on a slippery slope. Although the majority of women with children are in the paid labour force in Canada (about 75 per cent of mothers of three year olds), access to child care is limited and more-or-less static. There are child care spaces to cover less than 20 per cent of 0-12 year olds and for families with infants, toddlers, children with disabilities, in rural and Aboriginal communities, it is even less available.

New investment agreements show Canadian commitment to Africa mining vision a hollow promise

The Canadian government’s big announcement for this year’s Prospectors and Developers Association conference (PDAC) wasn’t the automatic renewal of tax credits for “flow-through” shares -- a $100 million dollar a year subsidy for exploration companies -- or even a creative new way of diverting international development aid money to support Canadian mining projects in the developing world. No, it was a pair of investment agreements, one with Cameroon and one with Zambia.

According to Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canadian mining investments in Cameroon are relatively small, some $35 million in 2011 -- basically a few gold, iron, and uranium exploration projects -- while those in Zambia were worth over $6 billion, some 20 percent of all Canadian mining assets in Africa. A large portion of that belongs to First Quantum Minerals, who jumped to attention to announce it was “proud to support” the Zambia agreement.

New Jersey Cop Appears To Punch Woman In The Face Outside Club

Police are investigating a YouTube video where a woman outside an Elizabeth, N.J. club appears to grab a police officer, who then punches her in the face.

In the cellphone recording, a fight outside Envy Night Club escalates from yelling and cursing to a physical scuffle. The video ends after an officer emerges from the crowd and appears to hit one woman directly in the head.

Few details have surfaced, but Elizabeth police are looking into the incident, NBC New York reported.

At one point, a bystander chants"WORLD STAR," referring to a website that compiles videos of fights caught on tape. The 20-second clip is already up on the site.

An employee at Envy told The Huffington Post that the night club is aware of the situation, but could not offer any further comment.

A public information officer with the Elizabeth Police internal affairs department could not be reached.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com
Author: Megan Griffo

Daily Voice Chairman Promises Good News On Friday, Lays Off Employees The Following Monday

We can probably all agree that "layoffs" and "good news" are two phrases that don't usually go together.

Apparently, executives at one company feel differently.

The Daily Voice, a hyper-local news site, announced the resignation of its CEO Zohar Yardeni Friday. Shortly after the resignation became public, company officials sent an email to the staff to reassure them that good news was around the corner, according to Gawker.

Jim Himes, Former Goldman Sachs Executive, Introduces Bill To Deregulate Derivatives

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a former Wall Street executive, is joining Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.) to introduce legislation that would deregulate derivatives, undercutting one of the most meaningful elements of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.

Derivatives -- which Warren Buffett has referred to as “financial weapons of mass destruction” -- are viewed as a key trigger of the 2008 economic crisis.

John Brennan Confirmation Battle Stirs Drone Strike Controversy

WASHINGTON -- The battle over the confirmation of John Brennan to be the next CIA director entered a final phase Wednesday as a cadre of senators, led by Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, shifted the spotlight to a shadowy piece of the nominee's legacy: the Obama administration's use of drone strikes.

"To be bombed in your sleep? There's nothing American about that," said Paul, who began filibustering Brennan's nomination on Wednesday and finished in the early hours of Thursday morning. "There's nothing constitutional about that." Civilian casualties are central to the debate over the use of drones, because public support hinges on the false belief that the weapons kill with surgical precision. If the public were aware of the human toll of the policy, opposition would be widespread, according to a series of HuffPost/YouGov surveys.