Election images

Aislin, for my money, is still one of the most eloquent political and social pundits in this country in either language.

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It just happened here

To paraphrase Sinclair Lewis: When fascism comes to Canada, it will come wrapped in a flag and carrying a hockey stick.

Coach Harper won his majority last night thanks to smears, lies, obfuscation, vote suppression and dirty tricks on his part, vote splitting on the part of his opposition and a staggering display of selfish bourgeois Babbittry on the part of a good many Canadians. In any democracy, we get the government we deserve.

There is good news and bad news in last night's election result: The NDP won 102 seats and will form the official opposition, an opposition that will -- with 60 newly minted MPs many of whom never expected to get elected - be as hapless as it will be irrelevant. The Conservatives won only 39.6 percent of the popular vote, but 167 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons - they can do whatever they want with no real restraint on their actions. Harper has made his contempt for parliament abundantly clear already, so don't expect the opposition to be anything but a noisy decoration in Ottawa now that he has his majority and carte blanche.

The sun will still rise and set and the earth will still turn, though I for one expect a user fee to be levied for that sometime soon, so that the country can be run more like a business.

 On the bright side, Toronto will probably get a new mayor in the next year or two after Rob Ford is appointed to the Senate and joins the cabinet as the Minister of  Commonsense Gettin'er Done Tax-cutting or some such post.
On the bright side, Elizabeth May won a seat in Parliament - the first time the Green Party has ever elected a member to the house of commons. I watched here victory speech last night - she is looking forward to working in Parliament to make big changes! She also plans to ride her unicorn that eats carbon emissions and shits ice cream to work every morning.  At least we can be sure that the Greens will be part of the next leaders debate, after which they will cease to exist once the per-vote party subsidy is eliminated.

No, I'm afraid there is no amount of polishing that is going to turn this turd into a diamond. In the words of Hunter S. Thompson "Big darkness, soon come."
There will be no sudden declaration of martial law or dramatic day when CPC stormtroopers surround Stornaway or round up dissidents in the night - there won't need to be. That nice, soft-spoken, Christian economist and hockey dad who just wants to protect us from the bad guys doesn't work that way. There will just be a steady drip of manufactured small crises that lead to privatization, deregulation, and "temporary" security measures, until we get back to the good old days of the robber barons.

George Orwell described a distopian future in 1984 describing it through the mouth of one character thusly: If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever.


Naturally, this has been adjusted to fit Canadian content regulations.






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a song for election day

"I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush"

...actually the song is about the use of agent orange in Vietnam, but...well, make up your own metaphor, I'm not sure how this one is going to pan out. But I do like that line.
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where better to spend election eve?

FSM willing and the skype doesn't crash, Scott Tribe will be my guest tonight to talk Canadian politics on Virtually Speaking Sunday: Maple Syrup Edition at 8 pm EDT/5 pm PDT You can listen live here or click on the VSS player on the sidebar
If you can't make it tonight or you want to check our prediction against reality later on, the show will be archived here.
You can join the virtual studio audience in Second Life or follow the IRC (internet relay chat)  to be part of the studio audience chat stream w/o using SL.

1. Connect to http://webchat.freenode.net/ 
2. Give yourself a name.
3. Enter #vspeak into the channel field.
4. NOTE: 'Relay Rinq' is not a person but a bridge to IRC chat.
5. While listening to a live program on BlogTalkRadio, type comments and questions into the text field. Read what others write.
6. Begin your question with 'QUESTION' so it's easy for the host to spot.

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The assault on democracy

Read this excellent summary by Lawrence Martin and then tell me we can afford to give Stephen Harper another term as president prime minister.
Have a look at the regional polling numbers, the Conservatives are the choice of the majority in only Alberta and narrowly in the Prairies. They are at about 40% in Ontario and BC, but a distant fourth place in Quebec. Do the right thing tomorrow and vote for the candidate in your riding that has the best chance to beat the conservative. Local polling numbers can be seen here until midnight.
And no, I don't think the title is overstating things. All parties have their good and bad points but there is a difference between them -- so stop telling me that "both sides do it."
Both sides don't try to suppress the vote.
Both sides don't have crowds that shout down journalists when they ask questions.
Both sides don't throw people out of rallies for what might be on their facebook page.
Both sides don't want to cut corporate taxes while cutting programs for the poor.
Both sides don't fire the nuclear watchdog for doing her job.
Both sides don't pander to the religious right.
Both sides don't prorogue parliament.
Both sides haven't been found in contempt of parliament.
Both sides don't engage in specious personal smears and intimidation.
Both sides don't cancel the court challenges program.
Both sides aren't afraid to speak to the press or answer unscripted questions from voters.
Both sides don't issue manuals to their MPs on how to obstruct the work of parliamentary committees.
Both sides don't question the patriotism of those who disagree with them.
Both sides don't villify immigrants and expatriates as somehow being "less Canadian"

Think about which side you want to be on.



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The next Conservative leader of Canada

A cheep shot, but too funny not to share - if you have Flash, click and go play it now.
Pointy McShouty's Flying Circus aka Angry Bairds

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SUN gives Jack a happy ending

Much is being made by the usual suspects of this clumsy smear job on Layton by the Toronto Sun.
Give that story a very careful, very close reading and realize it is built entirely on a single unnamed source, contains no evidence of anything and is built largely on innuendo.
Layton was never charged or even arrested and there is not even any direct accusation in the story that he did anything he should not have done. He openly admits that he went to get a massage at the apparently fully-licenced massage establishment. Something lots of people do every day. There is nothing sleazy about getting a massage. The only suggestion of anything untoward in the story is the unidentified, retired Toronto cop claiming that the establishment in question was thought to be a bawdy house by the Toronto police (who, of course, have never been wrong about anything or abused their powers for political ends, ever, especially back then).
And with the incident having occurred 16 years ago, it seems awfully convenient that the SUN would, wholly by coincidence, choose to run with the story two days before the election. Given what we know about the overlap in CPC strategists and SUN employees, what are the odds the Conservative Party of Canada will somehow be found to have been involved in the release of this information if someone wants to pursue it hard enough?
How's that for innuendo?
You know what the difference is?
What the SUN would like you to believe happened - that Proletarian Jack had his means of production seized -  is a bit skeevy, but if his wife doesn't care, then why should we? It is ancient history and has no bearing on how he would govern.
What I have speculated about is recent, sinister, unethical, unprincipled, corrupt, possibly even criminal and certainly indicative of the kind of sleazy politics of character assassination the CPC has been engaging in for years. And it is more likely to be true.
I don't say any of this as any particular fan of Jack Layton. I'm fairly agnostic about the NDP in the general scheme of things. I like them better than the Conservatives, but I don't think they are going to singlehandedly usher in some kind of golden age where we all gather round singing The Internationale, nor do I think they will start nationalizing the banks and sending anyone who isn't a union member to re-education camps or anything like that.
But this kind of malicious smear campaign based on smirking innuendo should piss off anyone who values the truth, and I think that includes most Canadians. I apologize for the puns, but this kind of thing rubs Canadians the wrong way and the backlash might just be enough to turn a few close seats and give the NDP the hand it needs to give the country a happy ending.

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Who's fault will it be?

So the Globe and Mail has endorsed Harper, admitting they value money over democracy. While their competition is definitely anti-Harper, they haven't made any endorsement just yet (as of the time this was originally written, see update below) and we are constantly told, by both conservatives and the NDP, that the Toronto Star is an unofficial wing of the Liberal Party. It is a foregone conclusion that the National Post will endorse Harper, grudgingly since they feel he really isn't conservative enough. At Maclean's Andrew Coyne, a conservative but a rock-solid believer in the democratic process and parliamentary process, has decided to hold his nose and vote for the Liberals. CTV is gave Harper a chance to speak to the nation right after the big hockey game this week and has bent over backwards to argue that "both sides do it" and given the CPC fairly favourable coverage on the whole.
Pierre Karl Peladeau did his best Claude Raines impersonation earlier this week, declaring he was "shocked" to find out there was gambling going on at Rick's Cafe American a CPC strategist feeding his Sun newspaper chain false stories, a strategist that turned out also to be an advisor to SUN-TV, which is run by Harper's former spinmeister.
Given all this, I can't wait to see which "obviously biased"media organization the panic-stricken right wing in Canada decides is the latter-day Pravda responsible for the meteoric rise of the Jack Layton and the NDP. I'm sure it will be someone else's fault. The Liberals steady rightward  creep won't be blamed and the Conservative creepy mantra of "steady majority or CHAOS!" and refusal to even speak to anyone but true believers, let alone cooperate and compromise with other parties in the House of Commons certainly won't even be acknowledged. No, someone must be blamed, but who?

What about this big orange fella in Quebec?



Having said all that, I am not predicting Prime Minister Jack Layton will soon be giving the throne speech. I'm not against that happening, but I think the numbers in Ontario are still good enough for the Conservatives that Liberal/NDP vote-splitting will allow them to squeak through with between 140 and 156 seats. Your projections may vary, most do. But I would rather be pleasantly surprised than horribly disappointed, so I'm not getting my hopes up.

Update: The Toronto Star decides to live up to it nickname among conservatives - the Red Star - and endorses Layton and the NDP. I wonder if this is the final nail in the coffin for the Liberals for a few years? It depends how the next few years go - a polarized parliament of NDP vs. Conservatives with the Liberals and BQ holding the balance of power could end up driving voters back to the middle in the long run. If the Liberals can stay true to their basic left-leaning centerist principles, they could rebuild. If they decide to cave to the business-driven right-wing of the party and support the Conservatives, they will evaporate in a short span of time as the hard corporatists join the Conservatives and the progressive/leftish side jumps ship for the NDP.

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the King's speech

Let us be clear, Stephen Harper is the front runner in this election. The last thing a front runner wants is to lose control of the agenda or to get put on the defensive or to make a gaffe. So the smart thing for him to do has been to carefully control his public appearances to avoid any unfortunate incidents where he is forced to answer tough questions. Hence the Potemkin rallies with carefully vetted crowds. Hence the "only five questions a day" refusal to speak with reporters. But with the number of scandals continuing to mount - former aide Bruce Carson illegally lobbying to score some cash for his escort girlfriend, the return of the Helena Guerges circus, Bev Oda's Not-gate and now Dimitri Soudas being found out as an influence peddler - Stephen Harper's silence was finally starting to become an issue.
Canadians, the Conservative focus groups undoubted discovered, were starting to balk at the idea that we should give Stephen Harper a political blank cheque without him making some effort to explain why he deserves it.
So last night Stephen Harper finally deigned to speak to the Canadian people via an interview with Peter Mansbridge - an interview very carefully stagemanaged to try to make him look like a regular guy. He stands in a hockey rink in Newfoundland in his quilted Canada jacket, tieless, doing his best to look like a minor hockey coach instead of someone who has never really had a job outside of politics. (A hockey rink? My first thought was that the Globe and Mail's  John Doyle is righter than he knows: Harper doesn't just keep his hair in the fridge, the CPC keeps him in cold storage at all times!)
The interview itself is telling - if you read between the lines and look at the way Harper answers or doesn't answer the questions. He goes out of his way to try to look like a reasonable guy who is beset by unreasonable opponents who are conspiring (coalition!) in diabolical ways to seize power for their own sinister ends (tax increases! Separatists in power! reopening the constitution!). To someone looking at Canadian politics for the first time, someone who has no idea of his track record, he might even pull it off.
But notice how many times Mansbridge, who is hardly a confrontational interviewer, calls bullshit on Slick Stevie. Notice how often Harper says something about his opponents and Mansbridge responds with "but that isn't what they've said."
Notice how Harper refuses, several times, to admit that any form of coalition is valid and that the party with the most seats doesn't necessarily get to govern if they can't win the confidence of the House of Commons. He keeps trying to argue that it is somehow a vague and nebulous notion that constitutional scholars disagree about and that "regular Canadians" would never accept.
It isn't. They don't. We have. Stephen Harper is just plain lying.
He tries to make it sound as if his government was brought down over the budget. It wasn't.
He tries to make it sound like he doesn't know why we are having an election, when he pretty much engineered it through his own brinksmanship on parliamentary privledge. He gave the opposition the choice of either letting him walk all over the notion of the government being accountable to the House of Commons or forcing an election while they trailed him by enough in the polls that he might get a majority.
And thanks to a divided oppostion, he very well might get his majority. Notice how he doesn't really say why he needs a majority other than to talk about "stability" and "unnecessary elections"-odd given that he has forced the last two. Notice also that he won't really say what he will do with a majority that he hasn't been able to do with a minority.
At the end of the interview Mansbridge asks: "Why should Canadians trust you with their vote on May 2?"
Harper replies,  "I say look at our record, look at the direction the country is going. What other country would you want to be living in right now?"
I agree. Look at his record. Look at the direction the country is going. Ask yourself what other country Stephen Harper would rather be living in right now.
Me, I'd rather be living in a country where the government doesn't fire the head of the nuclear regulatory agency for doing her job. I'd rather be living in a country that is willing to investigate credible accusation of complicity with torture. I'd rather be living in a country where the prime minister doesn't suspend parliament every time he gets his tail caught in a crack. I'd rather be living in a country that spends a billion dollars on helping the poor instead of dispensing political pork and encouraging police thuggery as part of an international dog-and-pony show. I'd rather be living in a country where the government wasn't providing instruction manuals to its members on how to disrupt parliamentary committees.
I'd rather live in a country where decisions are based on solid census data and scientific fact, not one where we spend a fortune building new prisons for criminals who don't exist outside of the imagination of fearmongering politicians.
 I'd like to live in the tolerant, economic and socially progressive Canada I grew up in, not in a country run by a control-freak micromanager hell-bent on turning it into a laboratory for Randites, frat boys, authoritarians, religious zealots and ignorant yahoos.

I'd like to think that is what most Canadians want and why Stephen Harper won't get his majority.
I'd like to think that, but then Willy Loman posted this video and reminded me why our country is in trouble to begin with.

Dear Universe, next time I expect you to at least buy me dinner first

This why I'm glad Canada has reasonably restrictive gun laws and doesn't have the cowboy shoot'em up culture of our southern neighbour.
I just got off the phone with a very patient and overworked gentleman from the Employment Insurance office. Apparently, despite having worked what sometimes felt like 25 hours a day since October, my claim for unemployment benefits has been denied. Normally, one needs to have worked between 490 and 700 hours to claim employment insurance benefits.
 I started work on Oct. 20 editing a community paper on a salary as a replacement for the regular editor who was off on maternity leave. My last day of work at the paper was March 25. During my time there I regularly worked plenty of extra hours, wanting to produce the best paper I could and wanting to get a good reference when my contract was through. The day before deadline it wasn't unusual for me to work from 9am until midnight, sometimes later, to get everything ready for production day, another day that was rarely less than ten hours long. I worked a few nights a week and nearly every weekend covering junior hockey games or other community events - that being the nature of the beast. The kids got used to hearing the expression "Dad's gotta get the paper out" or "Dad's got stuff to cover tonight"  -- it goes with the territory. As the man said "this is the business we have chosen."
But, because it is a salaried job, only 40 hours a week are counted. There is no such thing as paid overtime. I defy you to show me a community newspaper editor (among many other salaried employees) who works only 40 hours a week. Again, it goes with the territory, this is the business we have chosen.
It turns out I "officially" worked 904 hours, so collecting employment insurance should be a given, right?  Ahhhhhhh, but since I have been working outside the country for last 14 years, I am considered to be new to the workforce in Canada and that means I need - are you ready for this? - 910 hours of work  to qualify.
Seriously?
Seriously.
I lived in Texas, I think I'd be in a pick-up truck full of firearms right now.



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Lennon circa 1965 would have dropped him like a bad habit

Seriously, I hope John Lennon's ghost lays a first-class haunting on Stephen Harper.

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Hard to watch

Footage shot in Minamisanriku, a town of about 20,000 more or less erased by the March 11 tsunami. So far only about half of the residents have been found alive. My in-laws live about 30 km inland from here.



It sorta puts stories about Donald Trump running for president, Charlie Sheen and royal wedding in perspective, doesn't it?

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In which it is revealed that I am now a best-selling author and a new Spiritual Leader of the Moment(tm) is crowned

Our Man in Abiko, who laboured at the same Great Metropolitan Newspaper that I did for many years, though at a different time than I, is someone I have known slightly for some time now. I came across his eponymous blog looking for other expat bloggers in Tokyo and we discovered out mutual employment history rather by accident. 

He has been a supporter of the Woodshed for several years now and even posted some of my Sunday sermons way back when. On a personal level, Our Man was very supportive and encouraging when I was transitioning from "Staff Writer"to "layabout expat" and then to "former expat." 

Most recently, Our Man is the man behind 2:46, best known by its Twitter hashtag #Quakebook. He has successfully herded the cats together and created a work of art and altruism. Nobody is making a single shekel off this book, except the Red Cross. He won't even release his real name in connection with it, although as an aspiring novelist the publicity would certainly help him. He is not the only person responsible for #Quakebook - many have laboured to edit, assemble, lay out, proof and otherwise process and promote the work gathered from writers - including me - whose brief pieces make up the book, but the whole thing started with Our Man and His Idea.

For services above and beyond the call of duty, for service over self-interest and for holding down the Abiko bureau in time of crisis, the Woodshed salutes Our Man in Abiko and proclaims him our Spiritual Leader of the Moment.

In other breaking news, the aformentioned Quakebook  put together by Our Man and his team, to which I contributed in my small way, is now a bona fide best seller.

I had faith that the Twitter-germinated #Quakebook would do reasonably well, but in its first day of release it has already zoomed to #7 #6 on the Amazon non-fiction charts. I realize that I am merely riding the coattails of the established heavy hitters like William Gibson and Yoko Ono and the authorial young guns like Barry Eisler and Jacob Adelstein, who have already made their best-seller bones, but my name is there in the table of contents and my piece is mentioned in the editorial descriptions for the book listing. 
As of yesterday, the ebook was available for Kindle. You can get free apps for your smartphones and  computers to enable you to read it without laying out for a Kindle Reader. Amazon is donating its services to host and distribute the book on Kindle, so 100% of your money is going to the Red Cross to help people in Japan in the wake of the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck at 2:46 p.m. on March 11.

Go. Buy. Now. Help Japan.



#quakebook featuring Scala & Kolacny Brothers and Kings of Leon from Quakebook on Vimeo.




Update: My Virtually Speaking Sunday:Maple Syrup Edition interview with Our Man in Abiko can be found here.
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I can't keep giving these ideas away for free

Or should I assume that my campaign consultant fee is in the mail? See end of third bullet point. What took you so long?

I'll try to find better pictures later, but for now, via @ShirleeEngle


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Mop & Pail spots emperor walking streets naked

That bastion of Marxism and vanguard of the glorious revolution of the proletariat, The Globe and Mail,  today brings us a story so shocking, a truth so revealing that it if absorbed by the general populace, will shake our economic and political firmament for years to come.

Corporate tax cuts don't spur growth, 

analysis reveals as election pledges fly

KAREN HOWLETT

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

Canadian companies have added tens of billions of dollars to their stockpiles of cash at a time when tax cuts are supposed to be encouraging them to plow more money into their businesses.

Well, suck me dry and call me "Dusty!" You mean to tell me that supply-side economics -  the notion that if you give tax breaks to rich people and corporations they will use it to create more wealth for all - is bullshit? That what really happens when you give rich people and corporations a tax break is that they pocket the money? No! That's, that's...unpossible!

Jim Flaherty, the Harper government’s Finance Minister, acknowledged in a telephone interview that corporate tax cuts are a tough sell when companies are still hoarding cash. But over the long term, he said, his “comfort zone” comes from the fact that business leaders and economists have widely endorsed tax cuts as a job creation tool.

“Most importantly,” he said, “it’s a confidence builder in Canada, and it’s a way of branding Canada.”

Ah yes, branding. You know, where they take a red hot piece of metal and burn the owner's mark into the hindquarters of a bull that has had its balls cut off and is being fattened for slaughter. So cutting taxes on the business sector simply results in the business sector having more money and the government having less to maintain roads, pay firefighters and fund education and health care. Well, I never. Will wonders never cease? Next thing you know some smart cookie is going to be telling us that boosting military spending and cutting taxes on corporations and the wealthy somehow leads to higher deficits or some other crazy notion.



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Harper speaks!

Highminded and objective? Maybe not. Fair and accurate? You betcha!

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Virtually Speaking Sundays: Maple Syrup Edition

VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAY APRIL 3 A Counterpoint to the Sunday Morning Talking Heads @4pm pacific|7pm eastern - DAN ELLSBERG & GLENN GREENWALD: WikiLeaks, the abuse of Bradley Manning and the future of civil liberties in the U.S.  Listen here @5pm pacific|8pm eastern - Maple Syrup Edition with Kevin Wood aka RevPaperboy, Dr.Dawg and @OurManinAbiko on the coming General Election in Canada and #Quakebook, a Twitter spawned response to Japan post quake and tsunami. Listen live here Beginning Tuesday, listen to the Maple Syrup Edition here •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUSIE  with Susie Madrak MONDAY April 4 - 6pm pacific|9pm eastern The topic is Libya and the long haul. Susie's guest is writer, student, poet, musician, and political activist Rafael Noboa y Rivera. A decorated combat veteran of the Iraq War, Noboa y Rivera is currently completing studies in journalism at Ohio University’s Scripps School of Journalism. Recovering journalist and class warrior Susie Madrak explores the impact of current events on the daily lives of working class people. Listen here, live and later  ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• THURSDAY DOUBLE HEADER APRIL 7 - 5pm pacific | 8pm eastern to 7pm pacific|10pm eastern VIRTUALLY SPEAKING A-Z JAY ACKROYD and STUART ZECHMAN Ongoing conversation about U.S. movement liberalism (as opposed to 3rd Way or centrist liberalism) in both an historical and current context. Listen here @ 5 pm pacific Beginning April 8 Listen here  ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• @6pm slt - VIRTUALLY SPEAKING WITH JAY ACKROYD  and guest economist WARREN MOSLER:  Can Taxes and Bonds Finance Government Spending? Modern Monetary Theory says no. Listen here

Visit Virtually Speaking at: http://virtuallyspeaking.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

 

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election notebook

Some random thoughts on the election:

• Stephen Harper, who not so long ago touted himself as the champion of "open and accountable" government, will only answer five questions a day on the campaign trail, and two of them have to be in French and one from "local" media. So the people from the Globe, the Star, CBC, NatPost, Sun, CTV, Global, CP, Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald, Vancouver Province et al have paid $10,000 to sit through spin session and Potempkin rallies and ask one or two questions for the whole campaign?  I have a question: Are you fucking kidding me? Dammit Janet has a great post on just how bad things have gotten and Dr. Dawg hands out the white feathers
• The great debate debate rolls on over who gets to be included in the big blather off and whether it is fair to leave the Green Party or NDP or Bloc Quebecois or Liberals out. Harper has no interest in a debate, there is no advantage to had for him in taking part unless Ignatieff suddenly snaps and starts gibbering in Russian at the podium. Strategically, I can understand him not wanting to risk the exposure to a zinger or risk the cameras catching him with a bit of baby meat stuck in his fangs. I do think he has a moral responsibility to publicly debate the other leaders since that is how democracy is supposed to work re: free marketplace of ideas and all that, but then this is guy whose government fell over his unwillingness to reveal basic information about government policy that he is required by law to share with Parliament, so living up to his moral responsibilities isn't exactly his strong suit.
• Further to the debate debate, the Liberals are really passing up a golden opportunity at the moment. Harper has dithered over whether he will debate Ignatieff one on one, or whether he will take part in a full leaders' with or without Liz May and was actually asked whether he was "chicken" in a press conference Sunday (kudos to CBC's Terry Milewski for using up one of the two or three questions he will get to ask, though after the "chicken" question, I suspect it will be a hot day in Iqaluit before he gets called on again. The Liberals should have someone in a chicken costume at every single public appearance Harper makes from now until a debate is held.
• In a bit of pure pandering to the Rob Ford suburban voters, Harper has promised to increase the government subsidy for kids to play minor hockey and little league aka the child fitness tax credit from $500 to $1000 and to add a further $500 tax credit for adult fitness, just as soon as the budget is balanced (in other words, never). I'm sure all those urban poor who can't afford to feed their families will be delighted to know that they can get money back on their taxes if they join the gym.
• As happy as I am to see Jack Layton do the right thing and finally bring down the government instead of   making a deal with the Conservatives to let them stay in power if they promise not to kick the poor, elderly and constitution too hard, I fear this may mean the NDP takes a shellacking as people vote strategically to dump Harper by backing the Liberals. Though, having said that, the NDP does stand to make some gains in Saskatchewan and in Edmonton where they ran second to the Conservatives due to strategic voting. 
• Does anyone outside of the hard-core Conserva-borg base really think coalition governments are a terrible thing? Let's face it, any minority government is a de facto coalition between the government and the opposition parties for as long as the government is willing to court the oppostion or as long as the opposition is willing to go along with the government. The only difference being that in an official coalition, the minority partner usually gets a place at the cabinet table. No one, except Harper, has ever proposed forming a coalition with the Bloc Quebecois.
• The latest Conservative canard about ending per-vote subsidies deserves to be broadly, publically debunked on the front page of every newspaper and on every radio and television show. It ought to be shouted from the rooftops that having the taxpayers foot the bill for election campaigns means that taxpayers call the shots, not the fatcats. Doing away with the subsidies and allowing bigger individual, corporate and union donations means that politicians will be for sale to the highest bidder, and the highest bidder is not going to be ordinary Canadians.
• For all those who have been paying attention to the ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan, keep in mind that Stephen Harper fired Linda Keene as the head of the Canadian nuclear regulatory agency because she was concerned that an emergency system to provide power to the reactor cooling system at the aging Chalk River reactor was not connected and was not operational. The problems in Japan all stem from the fact that the cooling systems did not have power after the earthquake because the emergency generators could not be used.
• I think I am becoming even more addicted to the razor-sharp Kady O'Malley than I was before the election, if that is possible. 

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Irony is not only dead, but its corpse had been desecrated

The young girl has a lovely voice, yes, but seeing Stephen Harper sing this song is like watching David Duke sing "We Shall Overcome." Someone who was disappointed we didn't get to play in the Iraq sandbox and is destroying our fiscal security to buy unnecessary stealth fighter jets should not be singing peace anthems. It is not merely distasteful,  it is hour-long-shower-scrub-with-a-wire-brush disgusting. Maybe this is his energy plan, to hook John Lennon's coffin up to a turbine and provide free electricity to the entire American continent from the resultant spinning.

He says he has his own lyrics for the song - I'll bet. Something along the lines of "Imagine there's no Liberals..." no doubt.

Personally, I'd have thought he'd be more into a different Lennon tune from a year or two earlier, though again he'd have his own lyrics... "You say you want a coalition..." or perhaps "Can't buy me Love."

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this week on Virtually Speaking

Coming up this week on Virtually Speaking:

• Stuart Zechman | Jay Ackroyd on VS A-Z. Ongoing rants and explorations of  liberalism. This week: the Disinformation Regime|Listen live here, on Thursday, March 31 @ 8pm edt|5pm pdt | Listen here after midnight Friday, April 1.

• Evolutionary Biologist PZ Myers on Virtually Speaking w/Jay Ackroyd:  Expect current developments in science, secular society and squids. Listen live here, beginning Thursday, March 31, March 31 @ 9pm edt|6pm pdt

Also, you may have missed these excellent programs live, but you can still get them as podcasts:

• Avedon Carol and Culture of Truth on VS Sundays: a counterpoint to the Sunday morning talking heads. (What they're really saying when they're saying what they're saying):   Listen here, on or after Sunday, March 27 @ 9pm edt|6pm pdt

• Caltech astrophysicist George Djorgovski, this week on VS Science with Cosmic Log's Alan Boyle and Space Studies Institute's Robin Snelson. They'll discuss topics ranging from black holes and dark energy to the use of Second Life for science, and the future of virtual worlds. Listen here, beginning Tuesday, March 29.

• PageOne blogger Mike Rogers comes to VS Susie to talk with Susie Madrak about closeted Republicans and why he outed them. Listen here, on or after Monday, March 28 @ 9pm edt|6pm pdt

And of course, stay tuned for the big show on Sunday as Virtually Speaking Sundays:Maple Syrup Edition returns with Kevin Wood and John Baglow aka Dr. Dawg getting down and dirty to talk about the Canadian election - we will be using all the dirty words: Coalition, contempt, separatist, tax increase, Senate reform, proportional representation, sweater vest festishes and all the other assorted perversions that accompany a good discussion of Canadian politics. There will also be a feature interview with Our Man in Abiko about the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis and the Twitter-spawned publishing sensation that is #quakebook.

We will be on Sunday from 5 pm Pacific/8 pm Eastern but you might want to tune in a little early for the opening band - Glenn Greenwald (yes, that Glenn Greenwald) will be talking with Daniel Ellsberg  aka The Most Dangerous Man in America about Wikileaks and the torture of Bradley Manning beginning at 4 pm Pacific/7 pm Eastern. Listen to them Sunday night or later here.

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