Attention Inigo Montoya

Sorry to hear about your father, but as a matter of fact, I have seen a six fingered man

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RIP Jack Layton

Dear Friends,


Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.

Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.

I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected.

I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election.

A few additional thoughts:

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

To the members of my party: we’ve done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. Let’s demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government.

To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election.

To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all.

To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.

And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

All my very best,
Jack Layton




"Courage my friends, it's not too late to build a better world"
-Tommy Douglas









"Canadian politics just got a little smaller, colder and dumber."

-Lindsay Stewart






Jack Layton was a man ahead of his time, he will be missed. Canadian politics just got a whole lot less hopeful.


Meanwhile, some of those on the right show what a class act they are and have always been
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Mammoliti will protect our precious bodily fluids

Toronto city councillor George "Giorgio" Mammoliti (he changed his name in 2002 from English to Italian to better reflect his desire to suck up to immigrant voters in his ward Italian heritage) has apparently finally made the full journey from populist leftist to card-carrying member of Monster Raving Looney Party conservative firebrand. How short is the collective memory of Torontonians? Apparently just as short as Mammoliti's own. With all his recent ranting about Communist flouridation contaminating our precious bodily fluids infiltration of his facebook page and Toronto City Council, and record as a self-agrandizing right-wing sideshow clown firebrand on council, it is worth looking at his slow gradual descent into lunacy shift in politics.
George started out as a landscaper for the Toronto Public Housing Authority, became active in his union and eventually became president of his CUPE local. From there he rode the Bob Rae wave into government at Queen's Park as an NDP MPP. At Queen's Park, he frequently embarrassed his government with his tirades against legitimizing same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples. When the Rae government crashed and burned in 1995 - largely due to the constant refusal of the business community to accept the legitimacy of the NDP government and a huge backlash among public sector union members -- the backbone of the Ontario NDP at the time -- over cost-saving efforts that violated union contracts, Mammoliti moved on to municipal politics. He switched his loyalty to the Liberal Party and ran and won in the byelection to replace the city councillor who had replaced him as MPP.
On council his accomplishments have been many - he is chiefly know for his efforts to bring an NHL team to North York, establish a red light district on Toronto Island, erect a "historic" flagpole in his ward and launching a lawsuit against fellow "right-wing firebrand" Rob Ford after Ford called him "Gino-boy" and clashing repeatedly with Ford over his office budget. He declared his candidacy for mayor and even had his son poised to run against Ford's brother until the two decided that the city needed to have only one right-wing firebrand running for mayor. Since the election he has been Ford's most steadfast defender on council, calling all those who questioned the city government's efforts to slash programs and spending "communists" -- a bit rich for someone who has never worked in the private sector and suckled at the public teat his entire adult life brave words from a warrior who is apparently surrounded by bolsheviks.
Mammoliti is not smart enough to know when he has become a walking punchline backing down:

From Friday's Mop & Pail

Even after wide criticism of his anti-Communist rants, Mr. Mammoliti is holding firm to his view that a red scourge is prevalent among Canada’s left.

“There’s an underground element that has filtered into a major party in this country,” he said of the NDP. “I’m dead serious about this.”

He said six or seven communists sit on City Council with a long-term plot of installing “a system of government where government takes over all private property and controls the thoughts and views of people.”

In the 1980s, Mr. Mammoliti served as a leader for the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Later, he served as an MPP for the NDP, where he became something of a pariah for opposing same-sex benefits. He said he learned how to “smell communists” during his stint with Canada’s left.

“I know some of my views are outside the box,” he said. “But if people hear councillors in hallways talking about Fidel Castro and what a hero he was, they would be just as concerned.”

Well, they say in a democracy, people get the government they deserve. Congratulations Torontonians, you must be so proud! 


Bonus: Councillor Mammoliti reveals communist plot!








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Somebody get Mike Wallace to look into this

We eat a lot of instant ramen noodles here at the Woodshed. I wish to the FSM they would stop calling these little packets of instant noodles "ramen" since they bear little or no resemblance to the wonderful steaming bowls of marvellous broth piled high with pork and vegetables and fresh-made noodles that I miss so much from Japan. 

While shopping the other day, a thought occured to me. These noodles always come with a little packet of powdered soup mix and there are various flavours. The beef, while it contains no actual meat, is supposed to taste like the meat of a cow. The chicken is flavoured to taste like like broth made from boiling pieces and bones of chicken, the pork tastes like pork, the shrimp tastes like shrimp, the vegetable tastes like broth made from vegetables. Simple, right?

So exactly how do you explain this?

Could it be?

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Anarchy in the U.K.

Some thoughts and links on the riots across England:

• Not everyone in London is either a rioting, firebomb-throwing yob looter or an authoritarian "send-in-the-army" wannabe aristocrat. Some of them are good community minded people. Let hope these people get as much credit as they deserve.
• Sometimes you find insightful analysis in the most unlikely places.
• Not everyone was terribly surprised by this turn of events, indeed the causes have been evident for some time.
• A blogger's-eye view from the city as it burns and some thoughts on why from Red Penny. This bit in particular caught my eye: 

"Most of the people who will be writing, speaking and pontificating about the disorder this weekend have absolutely no idea what it is like to grow up in a community where there are no jobs, no space to live or move, and the police are on the streets stopping-and-searching you as you come home from school. The people who do will be waking up this week in the sure and certain knowledge that after decades of being ignored and marginalised and harassed by the police, after months of seeing any conceivable hope of a better future confiscated, they are finally on the news. In one NBC report, a young man in Tottenham was asked if rioting really achieved anything: 

"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"

"Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."
Eavesdropping from among the onlookers, I looked around. A dozen TV crews and newspaper reporters interviewing the young men everywhere ‘’’

Everyone will quite rightfully decry the violence, looting and mayhem washing over the U.K., and they are right to be shocked. But anyone who is surprised that there is suddenly social unrest in a developed country in which the disparities in wealth distribution and opportunities have  been steadily growing while youth culture has become centered around consumerism, heavy binge drinking and enforced idleness among vast swathes the underclass, where the moral authority of the police has been steadily eroded by the constant drip of corruption, racism, brutality and abuse of power, where the wealthy political class has coddled the upper middle class and thrown the rest of the population to the dogs --- anyone who is surprised simply hasn't been paying attention.

crossposted to the Galloping Beaver

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Sometimes they just make this too easy

 

Yesterday, the Toronto Sun asked readers to suggest three "quick fix" ideas for things that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford could do right away to make Toronto a better city. Well, they asked...

I think the fastest way for Rob Ford to improve the city of Toronto would be for him to:

1. Move to Calgary.

2. Take his idiot brother with him.

3. Before he leaves, send Giorgio Mammoliti on a five year fact-finding mission to the South Pole.

By the way your worship, how's that promise not to cut services working out for ya?

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Pompous and wrong as always

 Shorter Conrad Black: A gentleman such as oneself is apt to miss the comforts of the fairer sex when unjustly incarcerated by one's inferiors and one's good lady wife declines to pay a conjugal visit citing the discomforts of the unfashionable accomodations of the Bastille's prefabricated structure reserved for such assignations. In such circumstances, one's earthly desires must be satiated in the mind's eye as it soars over these dingy walls on the wings of imagination. An indispensible aid in just such periods of need are the images gracing the covers of  the very latest volumes by those mischevious coquettes of conservatism, Ann  Coulter and Laura Ingraham. Lo, as my co-incarcerated brethern in the yard might brutishly put it: Verily, would I tap tap that!

Sure, he may have been thrown out of the House of Lords for his various crimes, just as he was thrown out of Upper Canada College for stealing exams as a boy, but Lord Tubby of Fleet Street continues to demonstrate that as King of the Douchebags, he is still one of the world's true aristocrats.

And you know how I feel about aristocrats...

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Help Japan and support your local bookstore

2:46 aka #Quakebook has finally hit the shelves in bookstores around the world, and is selling well.
All the proceeds go to the Japan Red Cross for earthquake relief work - which  four months after the massive quake and tsunami is still going on. So far Our Man in Abiko's project has raised more than $40,000 for the Japan Red Cross.
Sure you could get it as an ebook for free, if you were the kind of douchebag who'd steal the coins out of a blind beggar's cup, but you could redeem yourself for getting a free download by making a nice fat donation to the Red Cross or other earthquake charity of your choice.
Go buy it now.
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America's new national anthem

Not sure how the pictures connect with the music, but I look forward to hearing this played before sporting events.



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Best newspaper movies of all time

A discussion around the copy desk today- what are the best newspaper/media movies?

A short list in no particular order:

1. All the President's Men. Woodstien and Bernward eat Nixon's lunch. A movie (and book) that inspired a thousand journalism careers. Best part - its all true.
2. Citizen Kane. Often cited as the greatest movie ever made. "Dear Wheeler, You provide the prose poems, I"ll provide the war."
3. Ace in the Hole. Kirk Douglas as the worst of the dark side of the press in Billy Wilder's other great noir. This one still stands up so well, it could have been made last week. A remake would be oscar bait for whoever got the lead."I can handle big news and little news. And if there's no news I'll go out and bite a dog."
4.Meet John Doe. Hobo ex-ballplayer Gary Cooper and spunky girl reporter vs. depression-era fascists. Like Glenn Beck if he were a good guy.
5.A Face in the Crowd. Mayberry Noir. Most would see this as a cautionary tale of hubris and abuse of power, too many talk radio hosts coughGlennBeckcoughRushLimbaughcough saw it as a career blueprint.
6. His Girl Friday. I want to be Cary Grant when I grow up.
7.The Front Page. Same movie remade by Billy Wilder. Apparently Jack Lemon wanted to be Ros Russell when he grew up. Walter Matthau plays the Cary Grant role - possibly the oddest casting ever.
8.Deadline U.S.A. - Humphrey Bogart as a crusading newspaper editor, 'nuff said.
9.Broadcast News - Albert Brooks has one of my favorite monologues in any movie ever.
10. The Paper - not a great film, but it does capture newsroom politics, newspaper rivalries and the adrenaline rush of getting the scoop.

Honorable mention: Why Rock the Boat - the great Canadian newspaper movie. Made in the 70's for about a half-million dollars, set in Montreal in the 40's. I've never seen it, but it comes highly recommended from the rest of the ink-stained wretches around the desk.
 (You Tube links to come later)
Add you own additions in the comments



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stihl bisy

But not so busy that I can"t remind you to read David Climenhaga on why Canadians need to stand on guard for thee against Rupert Murdoch.
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Sun Papers tire of knocking collective heads against bottom of barrel, decide to get rid of barrel and start digging

One wonders what the politically correct straw was that broke the reactionary, knuckle-dragging, often bigoted, always pandering-to-the-basest-instinct-of-the-mob camel's back? Does this mean, per Blatchford, that the Sun papers are now officially not "real newspapers?" (stop snickering, no matter what you think of them in terms of their "truthiness" or ridiculous politics the Sun papers are still newspapers or a sort, or at least most of them used to be.) One also wonders what will become of the vicious boshshevik radical fifth columnist Ontario Press Council with 27 of the province's 37 member daily papers withdrawing.


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Enough with the uniform fetish already

"Wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross" indeed.
Didn't thousands of brave Canadians die in World War Two just so we could avoid exactly this kind of creeping militarism and fascist-style soldier worship? It really is just a matter of time before Stephen Harper appears in a fancy uniform with lots of gold braid and a big sash, isn't it?
Watch for the big parade of military vehicles and the air force flyover on Parliament Hill next year.
Mandatory pledges of allegiance in school and participation in "young pioneers" youth programs are probably not far behind.
Oh, and on a slightly different theme, Bill Blair can once again bite me. The media should not apologize to the police for publishing the tragic story of Constable Styles and his last words to the police dispatcher, at least not until Bill Blair and far too many of his officers go around and personally apologize to the thousand or so people they arrested or otherwise brutalized for no good reason during the G20.

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One for all parents everywhere

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Bisy Backson

Having upped stakes and relocated the pulpit--if not yet the entire family--to the Royal City and having started a new job as a night watchman at a place that makes a heckuva buggy whip, I've been too busy to write anything here even when I've had an Internet connection, but that doesn't mean I haven't been paying attention.

Poor, poor Lady Barbarella -- c'est tres triste, non?

Yes, as a matter of fact I am gloating, just like every other evil liberal journalist in the country, if not the English-speaking world. Maybe that makes me a bad person, but I think I can live with it. 
I will say this:

• Nice to see the universe shitting on the right people for a change
• "Her hair uncharacteristically dishevelled, Amiel stumbled on her snakeskin pumps as she was taken away." is my new favorite poem. The use of "snakeskin pump" in this context is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. It approaches haiku. 
• "model prisoner" indeed

Such schadenfreude-laden fripperies aside, I have little to say. Canadian politics? Well, as much as the recent election was entertaining in a "wow, that mushroom cloud sure is pretty"-"We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when" kind of way, with a Harper majority, the NDP have become the political equivalent of the Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup Parade Planning Committee. My approach at this low ebb is that of Mr. Elvis Costello.



More when I have time, reason, and something more constructive to say than


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the new media is the new message

 I'll be hosting one of my occasional Maple Syrup Editions of Virtually Speaking tonight, discussing the work of one of Canada's most famous thinkers, Marshall McLuhan, with another of our country's great, if,  somewhat lesser-known, scholars and opinionmakers, University of Toronto professor  Dr. Brent Wood, whose "insights into McLuhan have a great deal of validity." ( I think he used to teach a course). We will be focusing on McLuhan, but as herr Dr. Prof. Wood is one of my oldest co-conspirators, I suspect our conversation is apt to be fairly broad. He's also run for office under the Green Party banner and so we may just touch on some Canadian political stuff as well -- I know, I know you're shocked to find gambling here at Rick's hear I might want to publicly discuss Canadian politics, but I think I'm to the point now where I can do so with a minimum of obscene language, blind rage and frustrated sobbing.

As I am starting a new job and will be working Sunday nights for the foreseeable future, this is likely to be the last Maple Syrup Edition of Virtually Speaking for little while.

For those new to the whole thing, you can always tune into Virtually Speaking via the little box on the sidebar.

Virtually Speaking is a live program of in-depth, intelligent conversations with well informed opinion makers in media, policy, politics, science, etc. Produced before a digitally present studio audience in Second Life and Webcast at BlogTalkRadio. Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Subscribe free on iTunes | Calendar |Video |Weekly Updates @ FDL @DKos|Facebook

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Most weeks, the VS Sunday panel draws from Avedon Carol, Chicago Dyke, Cliff Schecter, CS Kendrick,  Culture of Truth, David Dayen, digby, Eve Gittleson,  Joan McCarter, Marcy Wheeler, Stuart Zechman and  Susie Madrak. From time to time, the make-up of the panel shifts. Also, every 5 weeks or so, one of our regular panelists invites a guest to join them.

Sunday, May 29 | 9 pm eastern | Virtually Speaking Sundays: Maple Syrup Edition |Canadian journalist Kevin Wood and Brent Wood | Marshall McLuhan would be 100 this year: Is the global village getting the right message? Listen HERE live and later on Blog Talk Radio.

Tuesday, May 31 | 9 pm eastern | Virtually Speaking Susie | Susie Madrak | | Activist-journalists and citizen journalists stop by to dish about current events and the impact on working or wanting-to-work people. Watch this space for details.  Listen HERE live and later on Blog Talk Radio.

Thursday, June 2 | 8 pm eastern | Virtually Speaking A-Z | Stuart Zechman and Culture of Truth | This week in liberalism…. an ongoing conversation/rant/exploration. Culture of Truth in for Jay Ackroyd. Listen HERE live on Blog Talk Radio. Beginning Friday, June 3 listen here.

Thursday, June 2 | 10 am eastern | Digby (in for Jay) and Howie Klein discuss how to make activism ‘work.‘ | Virtually Speaking w/ Jay Ackroyd | Listen HERE live and later on Blog Talk Radio.

Coming up:

June 5   Joan McCarter and Eve Gittelson

June 9   Peter Moskos In Defense of Flogging

June 11  Dr. Martin Hoffert and Alan Boyle| The case for public investment in a clean energy revolution

June 12  Susie Madrak, John Amato, Dave Neiwert

June 23 Dan Ellsberg and Glenn Greenwald | WikiLeaks, security and the preservation of democracy

We have Internet Relay Chat (IRC) so you can be part of the virtual studio audience (aka chat room), sharing comments and questions while listening to Virtually Speaking live on BlogTalkRadio. Logs are shared with the show hosts and guests.

1. Connect to http://webchat.freenode.net/
2. Create a log-in name
3. Enter #vspeak into the channel field.
4. NOTE: ‘Relay Rinq’ is not a person but a bridge to IRC chat.
5. Type into the text field along the bottom of the screen.
6. Begin your question with ‘QUESTION’ so it’s easy for the host (and me) to spot.

Huzzah!

I am once again temporarily in the employ of a great Metropolitan newspaper and shall be moving to fortified compound in the tri-city area forthwith!

 Excelsior!


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What could go wrong?

From the same brilliant commonsense school of "thought" that gave us a high school dropout as Minister of Education in Ontario, the same braintrust that appoint a creationist quack as minister of Science, the Harper government has topped itself and appointed John Baird aka Shouty McAngry aka Screech O'Pointy aka Old Yeller as our top diplomat. This is sure to restore our reputation on the world stage.

After all Baird is nothing if not diplomatic



and committed to honesty and democracy


in fact, he has a national reputation for calm, quiet efficiency


Yes, Canada is "back" on the world stage. Unfortunately, it appears we are going to be the annoying opening comedian that comes on before the featured performers.

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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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