the PM, the conman, the blonde hooker and the Colonel

While I've been a bit distracted this week with personal matters , I have been paying some attention to the non-Japan related news. Really, there seems to be no depth to which Stephen Harper will not sink. With the revelation that one of his former close advisors did time for fraud and is currently involved in a dubious lobbying effort to enrich his 20-something escort fiance, and the looming likelihood that his government will be found in contempt of Parliament, Stephen Harper is feeling a bit cornered. It is  doubtful that he will win his precious majority if an election is called this spring and so he has tried telling voters that the disaster in Japan was sufficient reason to delay a vote.
When we didn't buy that, he stepped up his campaign of parliamentary obstructionism (dropping over 1,000 pages of documents 15 minutes before the committee session ended, for example) to try to avoid having his government and ministers found in contempt of Parliament. Tune in next week when he tells us that us that the government being found in contempt of Parliament is an example of how Michael Ignatieff hates democracy and is just some Johnny-come-lately who is playing games with the economy and is the son of Russian aristocrats not a "real immigrant"and besides LIBYA! FREEDOM! Democracy! Whisky! Sexy! We are at War! Don't switch horses in midstream! 
And if that doesn't work, expect him to try proroguing the house again, just to "save it from itself" and delay the budget so that he can "focus on the economy and the war."

Now, having said all that, let me clarify a few things: While Stephen Harper is a lying, power-grabbing, egomaniac and he may or may not be doing it for the wrong reasons, I think he is doing the right thing on Libya.
Yes, mark the day on the calendar -- I agree with Stephen Harper on something.
I think the moral choice with regards to Libya is at this stage is intervention by the international community. Libya is not Iraq, it is not Vietnam, it is not Bahrain. The closest comparison I can think of is Spain in the 1930s. There is a brutal, corrupt, autocratic ruler. There is a viable democratic opposition engaged in a popular revolution that has shown it has the hearts and minds of the population behind it. The regime in this case is being propped up by superior military firepower. The loyalists in the Libyan armed forces are mostly mercenaries and those who have profited from their affiliation with the regime. There have been numerous defections from the military by those troops and commanders who have refused to attack their own people.
As it would have been in Spain, the moral thing to do here is to side with the people against an autocrat that would crush them and murder those who dare to dissent.
The right thing to do is to freeze all of the Colonel's assets abroad, deny him jet fuel, artillery shells and other munitions.
The right thing to do is level the playing field by arming the people in Benghazi and Tobruk and elsewhere to allow them to defend themselves.
The right thing to do is to prevent the Colonel from bombing his own people or turning his tanks and artillery on the people who seek to be free from his corrupt and brutal regime.
It isn't a matter of sending troops into a quagmire, it isn't a matter of sticking our nose in where it isn't wanted.
It is a matter of dropping a few bombs and firing a few missiles to avoid a genocide and another generation of oppressive, autocratic rule in Libya, by a man who has supported terrorism in numerous forms (the Lockerbie bombing, arming the IRA, etc etc)
Just because Stephen Harper supports it doesn't make it a bad idea.

Good News!

Mrs.Paperboy spoke to one of the people running one of the evacuation centers in Wakayanagi again last night. Still no direct word about her parents, but apparently their part of town was not badly damaged and while there were a couple of hundred people injured, no fatalities have been reported in their area thus far. The guy she talked to said they still had no running water, gas, electricity or phone service (he was on an emergency satellite phone I assume) but that the electricity could be back on in some parts of town in the next day or two. The man at the evacuation centre said a lot of locals are spending the day at the centre - it has some heat and lights and some food and water is available- and then returning home to sleep. This is good news and is really helping us stay positive.


UPDATE!
Mrs. Paperboy is on the phone with her mother right now. Everyone is okay. Everyone go have a beer or six and celebrate, then send some money to the Red Cross. Thanks everyone for your concern and support through this difficult week.

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The Waiting

It has been, in the sense of the old Chinese curse, an interesting weekend.
The earthquake and tsunami that struck north-eastern Japan on Friday and the subsequent nuclear crisis are frightening events that hit very, very close to home for me and mine.
As many of you know, I spent many years in Japan and Mrs. Rev. Paperboy is a Japanese national. Furthermore, Sendai is pretty much her hometown and her parents live in a nearby village in Miyagi Prefecture, well inland from the city. Neither of us has had much sleep since Friday and we still have not received any word about her parents.
We are grateful for the outpouring of concern among friends and family and we thank you for your emails, phone calls, tweets, visits and other expressions of support. Pardon us if we don't respond swiftly or at all for the moment, we appreciate your kindness.
But we are still waiting.
At the moment there is still no electricity or telephone service in the affected area and we are still trying constantly to get through via telephone and email to our family there. Meanwhile, we are doing our best to keep calm and carry on.

The best thing you can do to help us right now is give money to the Red Cross (click the link or text the word ASIA to 30333 to make a one-time donation of $5) or go out and give blood.

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Showtime!

Just getting ready to host Virtually Speaking Sunday:Maple Syrup Edition by drinking a nice piping hot cup of maple syrup. Join Lindsay Stewart and I at 8 EST 5 Pacific


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this week on virtually speaking

Sunday, March 6

5 p.m. Pacific/8 p.m. Eastern

VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAY; MAPLE SYRUP EDITION

This week host Kevin Wood speaks with blogger and performing artist Lindsay Stewart aka PSA about copyright, the Canadian federal budget and the likelihood of a federal election in Canada this spring. Listen live or check the archives

6 p.m. Pacific/9 p.m. Eastern

VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAY

The Sunday media panel returns with Marcy EMPTYWHEEL Wheeler and Eve  NYCEVE Gittelson.

Monday March 7

VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUSIE

Two journalists who share a passion for music -- Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News and Charles Pierce of the Boston Globe talk with writer Susie "Suburban Guerilla" Madrak about the ten CDs they would take if they were stranded on a desert island. Be sure to call in with your top 10 desert island discs!

Listen to all the Virtually Speaking shows right here

and find Kevin Rev. Paperboy Wood's chat with Dr. Dawg from two weeks ago here

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this week on Virtually Speaking

MONDAY FEB 21 - 8pm pacific|11pm eastern
VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUSIE
Journalist Susie Madrak blogs at Suburban Guerrilla and Crooks and Liars. Tonight, Susie chats with Firedoglake blogger Marcy Wheeler, aka Emptywheel in a conversation about Marcy's provocative post, "Blindspots and The Fear of the Working Class." Listen on BlogTalkRadio

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THURSDAY FEB 24 - 6pm pacific | 9pm eastern
VIRTUALLY SPEAKING WITH JAY ACKROYD - Economist and IT pro Jay Ackroyd chats with a diverse array of informed opinion makers in media, policy, politics, science, technology and law. This week, Jay chats with John Campbell talk about developments the Sudan and Middle East, and about his book, Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink. Listen at BlogTalkRadio

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SATURDAY FEB 26 - 2pm pacific | 5pm eastern
VIRTUALLY SPEAKING LIBERALLY: WHAT WE BELIEVE - Jay Ackroyd and Stuart Zechman discuss 'this week in Liberalism' illuminating liberal values. Listen at BlogTalkRadio.

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Cryin'

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Maple Syrup Revolution Redux

Join Dr.Dawg and I tonight at 8 pm EST/ 5 pm PST for a hour of discussing Canadian politics. We will have a live virtual audience in Second Life in addition to broadcasting live on Blog Talk Radio (where the program will also be archived for you later listening pleasure)

Following Virtually Speaking Sunday: the Maple Syrup edition, the regular VSS program this week features Susie Madrak and Stuart Zechman. There will be snark; there will be critical thinking. Listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2011/02/21/virtually-speaking-sundays

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




And as if that wasn't enough, tonight the Glorious People's Cinema Project presents The Canadian Conspiracy!





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Starring someone I know very well

Tune in via that little box on the sidebar or join the live virtual audience in Second Life

THURSDAY Feb 17 - 6pm pacific |9 pm eastern

DAHLIA LITHWICK @ VIRTUALLY SPEAKING w/ Jay Ackroyd
Interviews with scholars, authors, pundits and public officials: an eclectic sampling of established and emerging voices representing progressive thought in the contemporary, public conversation. DAHLIA LITHWICK , senior editor and legal correspondent for Slate, writes "Supreme Court Dispatches." She covered the Microsoft trial and other legal issues. Dahlia and Jay talk about Obama health care decisions, and the effect of partisanship on the current Court.

SATURDAY -  Feb 19 - 2pm pacific |5pm eastern
Virtually Speaking Liberally: What We Believe with Jay Ackroyd & Stuart Zechman discuss the nature of modern liberalism. Features include a 'this week in liberalism' segment;  statements of purpose and principle; and conversations about liberalism. 

SUNDAY FEB 20 - 5pm pacific | 8pm eastern
VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAY | MAPLE SYRUP EDITION

Canadian journalist Kevin Wood talks with bloggers, academics and other commentators, bringing a distinctively Northern progressive perspective and more than a little snark to North American and global politics among other topics.

Kevin Wood blogs at the Woodshed and the Galloping Beaver under the pseudonym Rev. Paperboy. A veteran print journalist, recently returned to Canada after a decade working in Tokyo for the world's largest daily newspaper, he has worked in the community press across southern Ontario. Rumours that he is the illegitimate son of Pierre Trudeau are entirely unfounded. His favorite spectator sport is U.S. politics, which is as fast and bloody as hockey or bullfighting, but without the zambonis or tight matador pants.

This week blogger, academic and union activist John Baglow aka Dr. Dawg joins Kevin as they examine the current state of Parliament. Listen on BlogTalkRadio.


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SUNDAY FEB 20 - 6pm pacific | 9pm eastern
VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAYS - A Counterpoint to the Sunday Morning Talking Heads - The Gasbag atrocities are documented. Various news stories that arise during the Sunday shows are considered. There is often mockery, always passion and compassion.

This week: Susie Madrak and Stuart Zechman. Madrak , a former award-winning journalist, a writer, musician and working-class warrior, blogs at Suburban Guerrilla and Crooks and Liars. Stuart "Centrism IS an ideology" Zachman is a provocative member of the blog commentariat, most frequently posting at TIME's Swampland, Firedoglake and Avedon Carol's Other Blog. An entrepreneur and technologist, he brings those perspectives to a New Liberal analysis of policy and politics. Listen on BlogTalkRadio.



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Valentine's Day treat

People sometime ask me why I blog, if there is any money in it, does anyone read this stuff, do I really expect to change anything and just what am I doing here anyways? To which I can only reply "I came for the waters."
Or to twist another phrase, blogging is its own reward.
Yes, I know that in political terms I am preaching to the choir. So what? The choir needs to be preached to from time to time. Put another way, you wouldn't expect the coach to give his rah-rah speech to the opposing team, would you? Okay, so maybe I'm not the coach, maybe I'm more like the fourth line left winger or seventh defenceman who only gets icetime when the score gets lopsided and they don't want to risk the marquee players getting injured, but you get the idea.
Blogging was originally a way of keeping the writing monkey off my back while I did other things for a living. Then it became a way to blow off steam and say things in a public forum that I couldn't say in my day job. As I spent more and more time blogging and reading blogs and cross commenting, I got to know people by what they wrote. We exchanged comments, sometimes even emails. I got invited to contribute to a group blog and got to know the crew there and an even wider circle of online personalities.
Many of these acquaintences became friends, a trend that gathered even more steam when I started podcasting last year. The idea of the podcast, inspired by the excellent and entertaining work of two of my regular reads, Driftglass and Blue Gal, was to chat with like-minded people about Canadian politics, maybe get off a few witty bon mots and put the whole thing online to give us all something to blog about. The tricky part was that I really connected with those like minded people and the intended 30-minute podcasts turned out to be hour-long chunks of three hour conversations that would have gone longer had it not been the wee hours of the morning for one or the other of the people involved. (Flying Spagetti Monster only knows what it will be like when we start doing it with a live virtual audience on Sunday. No, really, we will start up again THIS SUNDAY, live!)
My blogging has been somewhat reduced in length and frequency lately due to work commitments and the need to hunt up a new job, but I like to keep my hand in because its fun and, like I said, sometimes the choir needs preaching to, but also because I miss the blogging gang if I stay away too long and I don't want you all to forget about me, either. The community of the blogiverse is a pretty wonderful thing, despite the trolls and the flamewars and occasional petty disagreements.
So what does this have to do with Valentine's Day?
There is big news in our little on-line community.
Last Friday, I downloaded my usual weekly fix of the Professional Left podcast with the aforementioned Driftglass and Blue Gal and listened to it while puttering in the kitchen on Saturday afternoon. A few minutes in, I got a goofy grin and then I got verklempt and needed a tissue. See, they had a little announcement to make. Many's the time I have rolled my eyes while listening to the two of them flirt and giggle while talking politics and thought to myself "These two don't need to get a radio show, they need to get a room."
Heh, from my interior monologue to Cupid's ear.
Listening to them announce on last week's podcast that they are getting married got me a little misty-eyed.
I've never met either of them, not even talked on the phone. We've exchanged a couple of polite emails. But I  check Blue Gal's site a couple of times a week and read Driftglass on my lunch hour pretty much daily. From reading what they write over a long period of time I get the feeling that I know them better than you know your favorite professor, writer, talk show host, actor, musician or other public figure -- or indeed, most of my neighbors and co-workers. What some people won't do for a killer workshop topic at Netroots Nation. Congratulations to you both. I'm not sure which one is luckier, but I think this is one of those "greater than the sum of its parts" kinda deals.
I don't think I've ever been so happy for two nearly total strangers.
That's the thing about this whole online community shared experience. Like the man said: Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy. (that's a science fiction reference, everybody drink!)

Happy Valentine's Day to you all.


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We have ways of making you talk

The Toronto Star reports that the officer involved here has pleaded guilty to uttering threats. How about armed assault? Abuse of authority? People swept up by the Toronto Police at the G8/G20 were charged with more serious crimes for a whole lot less. If soap bubbles can be considered assault, then how is this revolting threat of torture with a deadly weapon not aggravated assault?
We keep being told that Tasers are supposed to be a non-lethal alternative to guns, but again and again, we see stories of them being used as compliance weapons or torture tools.
As for the officer in question, he will be sentenced in June. Until then, he is on paid suspension and departmental disciplinary measures will not be decided until after the sentencing. As far as I'm concerned, the conviction should see him automatically dismissed from the police force and barred from doing any kind of security work.
The one bright spot I see in this case is that this gross misconduct came to light because another officer who was reviewing the in-car videos on another matter reported the offending officer to the department's professional standards branch, which handed the file over to the courts. Its about time the police started putting professional standards and proper respect for the law ahead of the unofficial thin-blue-line omerta that allows so much abuse to go on.
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This week on Virtually Speaking

THURSDAY Feb 10 - 6pm pacific |9 pm eastern
Virtually Speaking w/ Jay Ackroyd: WILL BUNCH, Pulitzer Prize-winning senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, author of "Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama." Will comes by to talk with Jay about the state of the media and the nation. Listen here


SATURDAY Feb 12 - 2pm pacific |5pm eastern
Virtually Speaking Liberally: What We Believe: Jay Ackroyd,  Stuart Zechman host a program to discuss the nature of modern liberalism,featuring statements of purpose and principle, and conversations about liberalism. Listen here.

SUNDAY Feb 13 - 5pm pacific |8pm eastern
Virtually Speaking Science with Cosmic Log's Alan Boyle and Space Studies Institute's Robin Snelson, aka Rocket Sellers. Alan and Rocket explore the often-volatile landscape of science, politics and policy. This Sunday's guest is Tim Pickens, team leader of the Rocket City Space Pioneers, inventor, innovator and educator - with a successful track record as a space entrepreneur - they discusss the state of government and commercial space programs, as well as Picken's team's bid to win the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize. Listen here

SUNDAY Feb 13 - 6pm pacific |9pm eastern
Virtually Speaking Sundays | Daily Kos Senior Policy Editor Joan McCarter and Majority Report's Sam Seder discuss the news of the week and how it's reported - or not - by 'the village.' Listen here

MONDAY Feb 14 - 8pm pacific  11pm eastern
Virtually Speaking Susie | Host Susie Madrak, former award-winning journalist, musician and working-class warrior, writes at Suburban Guerrilla and Crooks and Liars. Her guest is Spocko: consumer activist and media analyst. Read him at spockosbrain.com and FireDogLake, where he comments extensively.

And don't forget, coming Sunday, February 20 the premiere of Virtually Speaking Sundays: Maple Syrup Edition.

"A progressive political podcast complete with pitchforks, torches and pancakes. Host journalist and blogger Kevin Wood and a stable of top Canadian bloggers, commentators, callers and other personalities smugly discuss UN peacekeeping, snow, hockey, universal health care and why Canadians are superior to Americans in general, eh, bringing a wider perspective to regional and global policy and politics. Live on the 1st & 3rd Sundays @ 5pm pacific|8pm eastern."


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the return of Friday Uke blogging!

hat tip to North Van's Grumps over at the Blog Borg Collective

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the day the music died

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Making our own nightmares come true

It occurs to me, as I'm sure it must have to many people, that if the Western democracies would walk the walk instead of just talking the talk and really supported efforts at democracy in North Africa and the Middle East instead of bankrolling dictators because they provide "stability" we would have a lot less to fear from a democratic North Africa and Middle East. Given that virtually every gun, club, tear gas bomb and armored car being deployed against the huddled masses yearning to breath free in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the region comes from the "arsenal of democracy" and given that we have been helping thugs like Mubarak maintain his stranglehold on power, is it any wonder that when the chickens come home to roost, our governments are terrified of the results? What cause to love the West have we given the people of Egypt or Tunisia or Jordan or Syria? Why shouldn't they hate us?
When Castro was still hiding in the hills of Cuba and people were still robbing banks to fund the revolution, Castro approached the United States for help. The U.S. decided to keep propping up the dictator there for the good of the fruit, sugar, rum and organized crime lobbies and so Castro turned to the Russians for help. We know how that one turned out.
The Sandinistas in Nicaragua reached out to the Ford and Carter Administrations for help getting rid of the Somoza dictatorship. Both refused, citing the Roosevelt/Truman doctrine of "He may be a bastard, but he's our bastard." Central America spends 30 years plagued by right wing death squads
 trained at the School of the Americas and proxy wars between "leftists" and military-backed plutocrats.
We backed the Shah's bloody kleptocracy, until Iranians finally got fed up and took to the streets and invited the Ayatollah back just to provide some leadership to the angry mob.
Then, to fight the Ayatollah, the west decided to cultivate a rival power - a military strongman just next door, who did just what we wanted as long as we kept giving him arms and didn't ask too many questions about what he was doing to his own people. Of course, once Saddam Hussien slipped the leash, things got ugly for him fast. 
Now, the realpolitik braintrust in Foggy Bottom and by extention, Whitehall and Ottawa, is worried that if Mubarak falls, the wrong people might end up running Eygpt and that might be bad for Israel and U.S. interests in the region. Maybe they should have thought of that 20 or 30 years ago.
Mubarak and the other despots of the Middle East and North Africa may be "our bastards" instead of "their bastards," but the bottom line is that they are bastards and we are helping them stay in power and teaching their oppressed people to hate us.
The longer we prop up dictators to keep the Islamic world in line, the bigger the potential shitrain we are going to face when those dictators inevitably fall to popular uprisings we've helped them try to suppress.

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Tonight on Virtually Speaking

Tonight at 9 p.m. eastern/6 p.m. Pacific, host and all-around smart and funny guy Jay Ackroyd speaks with Tom Levenson.

TOM LEVENSON teaches science writing at MIT, posts at his own blog, The Inverse Square and at Balloon Juice. He and Jay will talk about science in contemporary politics, and the 17th century origins of the modern economy. To comment and question from the studio audience, join us at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtually%20Speaking/164/111/25

LISTEN on the web at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2011/01/28/tom-levenson-virtually-speaking-with-jay-ackroyd
More info at http://blog.virtually-speaking.com/ABOUT TOM LEVENSON Professor, Program Head and Director of the Graduate Program, Techniques, forms and traditions of contemporary writing, media and communications.
About Tom's book 'Newton and the Counterfeiter' NEAL STEPHENSON says of Tom's book:
'Newton and the Counterfeiter is both a fascinating read and a meticulously researched historical document: a combination difficult to acheive and arely seen....Recommended for anyone who wants to know the real story behind this astonishing but largely overlooked chapter of scientific history.'
http://bit.ly/i0UMSX


Prof Thomas Levenson is the winner of Walter P. Kistler Science Documentary Film Award, Peabody Award (shared), New York Chapter Emmy, and the AAAS/Westinghouse award. His articles and reviews have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Boston Globe, Discover, The Sciences. Winner of the 2005 National Academies Communications Award for Origins. The executive producer of the "Origins" miniseries (NOVA), Tom wrote, produced and directed part four: "Back to the Beginning." The series depicts four areas of cosmic evolution: the formation of the Earth and planets, the rise of life, the search for extraterrestrial life forms and the beginning of the universe.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/origins/program-3114.html
http://inversesquare.wordpress.com/
http://www.balloon-juice.com/
http://www.twitter.com/TomLevenson  
Visit Virtually Speaking at: http://virtuallyspeaking.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
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I know there have been spending cuts,

but surely the Defence Ministry can still afford maps?

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This weekend on Virtually Speaking Sundays

JAN 23, 5pm pacific|8pm eastern

Culture of Truth & Cliff Schecter @ VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAYS * A REALITY BASED COUNTERPOINT TO SUNDAY MORNING TALKING HEADS *

Webcast and archived on BlogTalkRadio - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2011/01/24/cliff-schecter-and-culture-of-truth-virtually-speaking-sundays

More UP NOW @ http://blog.virtually-speaking.com/

THIS WEEK on VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAYS : Culture of Truth and Cliff Schecter join us... the Gasbag atrocities are documented. Various news stories that arise during the Sunday shows are considered. There is often mockery. Starting point: http://moonshinepatriot.blogspot.com/

CULTURE OF TRUTH writes the Bobblespeak Translations, political satire wherein he recaps the Sunday morning talk shows and major appearances of national political figures. "What They're Really Saying When They're Saying What They're Saying" just about sums it up. http://moonshinepatriot.blogspot.com/

CLIFF SCHECTER A political commentator, consultant and author, Cliff's first book, The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don’t Trust Him—And Why Independents Shouldn’t was published by Polipoint Press May 1. Schecter is also a political consultant for Libertas LLC, a full-spectrum political and corporate communications firm.
http://www.libertasllc.com/ http://twitter.com/cliffschecter
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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Bravo for People for Corporate Tax Cuts

Wow, I have to say my hat is off to the people at OPSEU who put this campaign together. They are doing a marvelous job of keeping a straight faee and keeping up the gag. This was in my inbox at the newspaper this morning.

Good Morning -

Are you wondering how you will come up with $500 to pay your share of the Ontario government's proposed $2.4 billion a year corporate tax cut? Today, People for Corporate Tax Cuts unveiled its province-wide campaign to shares tips on how Ontarians can raise the $500 every household must contribute to pay for the corporate tax cuts. The organization will also educate Ontarians on the important role the cuts play in executive salaries and bonuses, and paying for other vital management incentives.

Examples of how Ontarians can raise $500:
– 15 year old Jimmy Palmatier sold his hockey equipment to help his parents pay their share
– Rahid Gupta vowed to give up his health care benefits so the government could put that money towards the corporate tax cuts


For more information, please visit our website.

NOTE: A press release is included below with additional information.

James Stephen
People for Corporate Tax Cuts



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


PEOPLE FOR CORPORATE TAX CUTS LAUNCHES PRO-CORPORATION CAMPAIGN

(TORONTO) January 20 – People For Corporate Tax Cuts (PFCTC) has launched a province-wide multi-media campaign in support of the Ontario government’s plan to give corporations a $2.4 billion a year tax cut.

“Giving corporations a $2.4 billion income tax cut means that every household in Ontario will have to contribute $500 to pay their share,” announced Nuella Warkworth, PFCTC President, Chair, CEO and COO, at a Niagara Falls press conference held earlier this week. “We’re here to help them do that.”

Through www.peopleforcorporatetaxcuts.ca and a media advertising campaign, PFCTC will share tips on how Ontarians can raise $500 to pay their share of the corporate tax cuts.

“The goal of the campaign is to show Ontarians that there are many ways they can come up with their $500 share of the corporate tax cuts,” said Warkworth. “Take Mrs. Muriel Flagle, for example. This 77 year old woman sold her walker to pay her share and is a proud member of PFCTC.”

The organization will also educate all Ontarians on the important role corporate tax cuts play in increasing executive salaries and bonuses, and paying for other vital management incentives.

PFCTC will be giving away $500 prizes to those who submit the best videos or photos showing how they will come up with the money they need to pay for corporate tax cuts. If they are unable to come with the money, entrants may also outline what public services they are personally prepared to give up so that the government can pass the savings on to corporations.

People For Corporate Tax Cuts also wishes to ensure that the Ontario government gets the credit it deserves. Ms Warkworth explained, “Even though Ontario already has about the lowest corporate taxes in North America, our government is proudly determined to cut corporate taxes even further. People For Corporate Tax Cuts recognizes and applauds this well-planned transfer of wealth from the people of Ontario to our corporate friends.”

Nuella Warkworth is a tireless fighter for the rights of corporations and the executives who run them. See her videos at www.peopleforcorporatetaxcuts.ca

About People for Corporate Tax Cuts – www.peopleforcorporatetaxcuts.ca:
People For Corporate Tax Cuts is a grassroots organization, founded in 2000 and led by Nuella Warkworth. Headquartered in Toronto with members throughout Ontario, PFCTC’s mission is to advocate for ever more generous corporate tax cuts. The organization has been very successful as Ontario’s corporate tax rates have fallen significantly in the last decade. A 2010 study by the KPMG consulting firm shows that Ontario has much lower business taxes than the United States and our key competitors.

“Pay Your Share” The People For Corporate Tax Cuts Anthem is available on our website.

- 30 -

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"My back still aches when I hear that word"

Like that sculpture? Apparently you are a family values-hating homosexual then, at least according to a bunch of Jesused-up nutcases in Southwestern Ontario.
The Short Version: Exhibit by local artist at the library is featured in the local newspaper. The article happens to mention that some of the artist's previous work focuses on presenting postive images of the gay community. Local Baptists - who haven't seen the exhibit-  throw a hissy fit about how everyone will get gay cooties by looking at some statues because they were made by a homosexual and someone at the library throws a bedsheet over the exhibit  until the higher-ups can discuss the controversy.


I used to work in and around Tillsonburg so I can't really say I'm surprised by the appallingly stupid bigotry involved here -- I know there are some real whackjobs in the neighbourhood. I'm just very disappointed in the lack of spine displayed by the library.

Now, on the plus side, the library board did vote unanimously to uncover the exhibit and most of the comment at the local newspaper about the issue have been along the "what the hell is the big deal?" line, but I cannot believe there even needed to be a discussion about this. There is nothing sexual about the art and those complaining about it should have simply been written off as the crackpots they obviously are.

Seriously, if the title of this sculpture had been "Wrestlers" I'm guessing this dingbat wouldn't have had any problem with it. 

tip of the hat to Slap Upside the Head 





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