Weak, defensive arguments simply make them look guiltier

(photo)

The two high profile Senators facing massive public criticism offer up weak arguments for what appears to be fraudulent use of public funds.  Duffy has been staying away from the press, so it was an avowed “pal” of his, Times Colonist Iain Hunter to tries, but fails to defend the ex-journalist who won’t defend himself publicly.

That’s probably why all the snide and vexatious comments that have been made recently about my pal Michael Duffy are made outside the Red Chamber: No one in that august place has the guts to make them there — at least not directly to his happy face.

Let’s leave aside “his happy face” as other words come to mind.  Of course no one in the Senate will say certain things in Chamber to his face.  He is under investigation and Hunter knows there are rules about what can be said in either House.

It saddens me, too, that members of what was once our common craft have joined the hue and cry against Duffy and Pamela Wallin, both former “journalists,” trying to run two or more households in addition to their Senate duties and trying to keep track of the cost of having to fly between them as those duties require.

Excuse me?  Are journalists part of an exclusive club with some unspoken rule that they must never criticize current or former members even when those members have serious allegations against them?  Journalists are supposed to be impartial, and that includes not shying away from honestly reporting on those of their “common craft.”

Have those of us who have waited by our telephones for a summons from the Prime Minister’s Office in vain had our perspectives clouded by jealousy?

Oh, I see…Hunter shows his nature here and why he has such empathy for Duffy.  He’s like that self-serving ex-journalist, hoping his biased work as a journalist will earn him a Senate appointment.

At the end of an impressive career, (Duffy) found himself in a place where respect is expected and honour pretty well taken for granted.

Wrong, Hunter.  Respect must never be expected, but earned, and Duffy has failed miserably on that score.  Senatorial appointments, although they are often used that way, must never be a reward for past, partisan services, waiving responsibility and accountability from that point on.  Some excellent Senators have earned and held our respect, others have not.  That is their doing.  We owe them nothing, unless they earn it in their current service to the public.

A lot of the Senate rules were written long before airplanes began to foul the air and “resident” needed defining. If today those rules appear rather open-ended, it’s natural that parliamentarians with weighty affairs of state on their minds might stumble through the opening.

Cry me a river.  Wrong again.  According to Senator Carstairs, the expense rules were recently updated and are very clear.  And if certain Senators are too overcome by “weighty affairs” to take the time to spend public funds responsibly, then they should quit.

Pamela Wallin chose to publicly attempt to defend herself against allegations of porkbarreling and chooses to obfuscate through misdirection. 

 

She says she is happy to be in public service but believes she deserves some privacy.

 “There is a point of privacy here and people don’t appreciate what they’re asking of you when they ask that. I don’t think anyone would want to go and put their credit card numbers on line and I don’t want to put those (health card) numbers.”

When you have to be that obviously deceptive with your rhetoric by using false analogies, you end up looking guilty.  No one is asking for her health card number, only proof of what provincial health card she holds.  Fair request considering the questions related to her place of residence and the related use of public funds.

“The reality is the Senate is changing and it’s no longer the image of old white guys sitting around smoking cigars. We are active, I can’t do my job sitting at a desk in Ottawa.”

Again, this is separate issue.  We know that travel is required and we offer travel allowances for that reason, but these travel expenses need to be scrutinized to avoid abuse of public funds.  Easy matter for Wallin to clear up if she is not at fault - simply opens her expenses to scrutiny.

But nice attempt at gaining sympathy by mentioning “old white guys.”

Criminal. Stealing public funds that are so badly needed for other things

I read this headline and thought it was another story about Senators and their confusion over which home they call primary because many of them own several: No place like home - if you have one

I’m not opposed to people having more than one home especially if work requires it, but the rash of abuse of public funds out of sheer greed from some Senators is appalling.

This article is actually about those without homes, those who cannot fraudulently pocket public funds for a second home.  They can’t even afford a place to live.

 (photo)  

As you read this article, and look outside your window at the ice and snow from the coziness of your living room, there are people in Canada who sleep on the streets. They live on the streets, in homeless shelters, in hospital or emergency shelters.  How many people are we talking about? As many as 400,000. Yes, for all kinds of reasons, nearly half a million Canadians do not have a place to call home.

Senators can claim 20,000.00 to 30,000.00 annually if they live over 100km from the Capital and must maintain a secondary dwelling in Ottawa for work.  It now seems that several Senators are committing fraud to pad their pockets, claiming those housing funds – pay for by the public.  What would it cost to house a homeless person for a year?

Estimated annual costs (per person per year) for:

-  Supportive and transitional housing: $13,000 - $18,000

-  Affordable housing (without supports): $5,000 - $8,000

Wow.  If Duffy and Wallin alone didn’t take money it seems they aren’t entitled to, that money could house 10 to a dozen people a year.  And that doesn’t include money from false travel claims possibly made by those Senators.

Working for Canadians, are they?

NDP MP Marie-Claude Morin presentd a private member’s Bill (C-400)to address homelessness.   Incredibly, while there is support for the Bill among all parties, it needs some additional Conservative  support to pass second reading and be referred to committee.   Even heartless bastards have no reason to oppose this - 

Acting on homelessness is not just morally responsible, it is fiscally responsible: By the federal government’s own estimates, every $1 invested in housing reaps a net benefit of $1.40 to the Canadian economy (spurs growth, jobs, increases productivity etc.)

Can we afford it?  Absolutely.  If we are able to give generous perks to our own politicians and if we dismiss fraud committed by them as part of doing business, we better damn well acknowledge that we can find funds for people in need.

One for the blogrolls

If you haven't been there yet, be sure to check out unmuzzledscience.

In this blogger's words: a Canadian government scientist who, as part of the federal cuts announced last may, had their program cut and was told that their services “may no longer be required”. Clearly, I’m pissed about the decision, as I thought it was a pretty great program. And I’ve grown tired not making that opinion more clear. Hence the blog. 

As many know, even anonymous bloggers may be taking great risks when they speak the truth, so my gratitude (and I'm sure that of many others) goes out to this person.

RCMP Commissioner tells aboriginal women and girls to just not be afraid

Well, not in those exact words, but these: . "The CPC, for goodness sakes, is an independent, arm's-length body that would investigate those things. So I find it very troubling that we're unable to advance on that...We disagree on their assessment that we're Libya or Syria in terms of having people afraid (of) retribution," Paulson said.

Harper, as many of us have come to expect, is equally oblivious to the core of the problem, but far more callous: "If Human Rights Watch, the Liberal party or anyone else is aware of serious allegations involving criminal activity, they should give that information to the appropriate police so that they can investigate it," he told the House of Commons on Wednesday. "Just get on and do it."

Right. These women and girls have learned through terrible experiences that not only can they not count on policing forces to protect them, they also have cause to fear those same organizations who abuse them seemingly without fear of consequences to themselves.

Both Paulson and Harper have no understanding of this well grounded, well justified fear. They fail to grasp how paralyzing it is or what they are asking of victims in these cases. Even if the CPC could be shown to be impartial, there is still the very real fear that as investigations take place and victims’ names are used, the perpetrators – RCMP, in these cases – will get hold of that information and retaliate against the people they have already victimized.

Starlight tours, Highway of Tears...can Paulson and Harper really expect aboriginals to suddenly hand their safety and justice issues over to anything remotely connected to the RCMP or any policing agency?

The dismissive fashion in which abuse of aboriginals has been handled in Canada as well as the vicious hatred some Canadians openly express needs to be addressed before there can be any hope of building trust.

Good thing Harper’s face can’t show emotion.

Because surely something must have been going through his reptilian brain as he made a statement to mark National Flag Day. But what? Mirth at his own joke? Glee over yet another lie?

My guess is he was feeling smug self-satisfaction at thinking he has passed another one over on what he perceive as a bovine public too stupid to remember last week’s headlines.

Said the Nation’s top liar:
(emphasis mine)

“Today, I am honoured to receive a Canadian flag that has been to space, from Canadian astronaut Dr. Dave Williams who participated in missions aboard the space shuttles Columbia and Endeavour in 1998 and 2007, respectively, and to present him in turn with a Peace Tower flag.

“This flag is a reminder to me of how Canadians continue to push the limits of human knowledge and how we are active members of international efforts to explore outer space – from our astronauts playing key roles in NASA missions, to the unique Canadarm that has been used so effectively to build and repair in space, to astronaut Chris Hadfield who is currently in space and will soon assume command of the International Space Station – the first Canadian ever to do so.

I guess we needed that reminder – for past events - since we will soon have few current achievements in space exploration to take pride in.


Over the past year, the Canadian Space Agency has been battered by government budget cuts, buffeted by a critical review, and now even its president is ejecting right out of the place..MacLean is leaving in total silence – not a public word to the media or anyone else.

... Industry and government insiders say there is certainly no love lost between MacLean and the Conservatives. They say that several years ago, he presented the Harper cabinet with a strategic plan to guide the space agency going forward. In response, the government shelved MacLean’s plan, cut his budget, and commissioned an independent review that ultimately slammed the agency for not having a plan.

Last year’s review of the space agency and the entire aerospace industry was conducted by a blue-ribbon panel headed by former Conservative cabinet minister David Emerson. Its final report released last November was apparently the last straw for MacLean.

...One Canadian company alone has lost a $25-million annual business servicing the Canadarm units on the now defunct U.S. space-shuttles. Without the shuttle program, what will happen to the Canadian astronaut program? Finally, the space agency is facing funding cuts, compounding a virtual budget freeze dating back almost a decade.

Who cares about last week's news though, right Stevie?  Just as long as you get cool photo ops with cool people especially if they involve the Canadian flag.

We should care which home is primary for Senators, Barbara Yaffe.

Yaffe thinks  "The rotund parliamentarian (Duffy) is being splattered, unfairly, by all the tomatoes now being tossed at the Senate."

Her reasoning misses the point as to why we want Senators representing regions across Canada and why primary residency must be a reality, not a technicality based on property ownership.

(photo)

But surely the significant point here is that Duffy is obliged to maintain two residences because of his Senate job. Who cares which one is primary and which is secondary?

I care. Yaffee should care. All Canadians should care. Senators are supposed to be appointed from all regions of Canada because there are many regional differences in issues, concerns, priorities. No one who looks from the outside can grasp this as well as someone who has, for a significant amount of time, been personally exposed to a region’s issues and has personally had to deal with them. It is equally important that such a person be currently exposed on a personal level to that area’s particular nature.

Another important reason a Senator should be an actual resident involved in a specific region’s issues is that when people want to contact a Senator concerning regional issues, they can be assured that the Senator contacted has a true understanding of those issues and will consider the problem from a regional perspective, not just a national one.

I wonder if Yaffee knows her argument is weak because she tries to defend Duffy by a very transparent fallacy of logic, one which she herself clearly shows she understands is indeed a fallacy. After telling readers that we shouldn’t let our feelings for Brazeau colour our assessment of Duffy since the issues those two Senators are involved in are different, she goes on to defend Duffy by dragging in a red herring of her own:

(At least Duffy lives in Canada; remember senator Andy Thompson, expelled in 1997 for poor attendance because he was living in Mexico?)

After that bit of nonsense, Yaffee tries to drive home her misunderstand that the primary/secondary residency issue is simply to give our poor, cash-strapped Senators a break:

In any event, the housing expense regulations need updating. They should stipulate that senators can be eligible for reimbursement of Ottawa housing costs when they also keep a home — as they must — more than 100 kilometres away in the province they represent.

By that logic, we taxpayers should pay for vacation homes outside the NCR for any Senator who wants to pass off as a technicality the stipulation that a Senator must reside in the region he or she represents. There are more than a couple of Senators, as the history of that Chamber has proven, who will gladly take advantage of tax dollars to quickly pay off a second home while at the same time reducing to an empty gesture regional representation as it was intended through insisting on primary residency when the rules of Senate appointments were passed.

Yaffee’s parting defence of Duffy – more finger pointing:

Brazeau and Harb’s claims are more questionable given they are Ontario senators. Indeed, Brazeau has cited his father’s residence near Ottawa as one of his properties.

No, all claims where there is doubt as to whether or not the Senator is lying about primary residency are equally questionable because all amount to fraudulent claims in order to profit from taxpayers money. You, me, and even Barbara Yaffee would not be absolved of fraud charges by saying “Who cares which one is primary and which is secondary?” if we lied about where we lived to benefit from tax breaks, health care insurance, or false expense claims. Take Duffy as an example, since that is who Yaffee is saying is being “splattered, unfairly.”

By Duffy’s own assertions, he has an Ontario health card because he would prefer to receive the better health care available in that province (wouldn’t we all like to have that choice?), but he claims he is entitled to 30,000.00 plus a year because his real place of residence is P.E.I. That means he’s either committing health care insurance fraud, or he’s defrauding taxpayers over false claims of primary residency.

How can anyone, even Senators themselves, be expected to take the Senate seriously when a simple issue such as the importance of actual primary residency is treated merely as an opportunity to pad Senators’ pay, or worse, to lie their way into a Senate appointment? Who really wants such Senators making decisions that affect the very people they are lying to and stealing from?

Friday night ode to stevie, petey, julian, and rona: lies & liars

oh, hell - the whole damn party for backing the BS.  Here's for the lot of you lying scumbags as you settle in this Good Friday to remember how your god gave his only begotten son to save you from your sins - sins such as lying to the great detriment of those you are sworn to serve.  You may be off the hook in your mythical afterlife, but here, reality rules.

Big thanks to Den Tandt for using the “L” word.  And drawing back stevie’s fig leaf for all to see what kind of a man he really is.  For those who didn’t know what’s been obvious to many of us for years.

UK politics, but very appropriate to current Canadian politics

They're all missing critical parts.

The CONs are vile.  No brains, no heart.

Near the end of question period Thursday in the House of Commons, a Conservative backbencher stood up to talk about the final passage of Bill C-19, the bill that would end the long-gun registry, and channelled civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King Jr.

John Williamson, in a ridiculous display of really bad, over-the-top showmanship cried out  “Free at last, free at last, law-abiding Canadians are finally free at last” in praise of the death of the long gun registry.  He stole the gist of the line from Martin Luther King Jr's famous I have a dream speech.  Williamson delivered this obscenity one day after the anniversary of King's murder - by a fucking sniper.

There is seriously something very dysfunctional with people like that who cannot see how their words and actions violate the very principles behind the words they steal.

And the story of CON stupidity and vileness continues - 

The federal government is backing down from proposed strict new ammunition regulations after receiving complaints from gun owners...The draft regulations, made public in March, included proposals that had ammunition being locked up and added severe new restrictions on the quantity of ammunition someone could own and store.

Terrific.  Now those law-abidin', hard wurkin' canadiuns can leave as much ammo as they want kicking around the house where little Johnny and little Mary (raised in a home where guns are promoted) have free access.  And criminals looking for a weapon can now not only break into just about any home in CONstituencies and avail themselves of an unregistered weapon, they can get their ammo there as well, load on the spot, and shoot the law abidin', hard workin' canadiun if he or a family member comes home suddenly.   Then the thief, well armed, can go on and raid more homes and stockpile more unregistered weapons.  But that's ok, because some yahoo with immediate access to ammo can blow his fucking head off and become a hero.

Gotta give in to those complaints by gun owners.  After all, little Johnny and little Mary can't vote.  And they aren't fetuses.

The ever oblivious Vic seems to have neglected to read yet another piece of proposed legislation he is responsible for - and of course, blames bureaucrats:

 

"Those regulations were brought to my attention a day or two ago," said Public Safety Minister Vic Toews on Thursday. "That was a discussion I think was mainly inside the bureaucracy, and I just reiterate that is not regulations that will proceed as proposed."

I know Vic is quite busy trying to track down dangerous terrorists who publish public information, but he really should read the shit he's trying to pass.  It's looking like the CONs make Bills and Acts up as they go along based on pressure from their rabid base and big money stakeholders.

Which is, of course, exactly what they do.

Stupidity causes global warming

The Harper government's decision to kill its own environmental advisory board could result in a government hearing little else but its own voice on climate change, says a former director of Environment Canada's meterological and climate research branch.

That’d be the voice of people like Peter Worthington.

Worthington, that old, white, failed conservative candidate must have simply decided when he graduated from Carleton U.  in the fifties that there simply was nothing more to learn.  Any new research, any recent world events, any post-50s facts are just...fads.  Or the lies of communists.
How else can one explain his response to Elizabeth May objecting to the fact that the 2012 federal budget doesn’t even mention climate change:
(emphasis mine)

One might ask why on earth the budget would mention climate change? There is nothing you, I, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair, or even Elizabeth May herself can do about climate change.  Climate change is going to happen, we just don’t know to what extent.

And why is it such a threat to our future? We will adapt to it, whatever it is, and even if no one fully understands it, we still have to live with it. Climate is always changing.  Thank goodness we no longer stress “global warming,” and now call it “climate change.” (WTF?)

If Canada were to abandon the Keystone pipeline, ceased trying to extract oil from the earth, eliminated oil tankers, forbade SUVs, outlawed cigarettes and allowed only whole wheat bread, it wouldn’t stop the climate from changing if the climate continued to want to change.

Peter...where to start...

The climate doesn’t want to change.  It doesn’t not want to change.  It simply changes as a result of forces around it, and one of those forces is the impact of human beings spewing crap into a closed system – the Earth system.

“Climate change is going to happen, we just don’t know to what extent... We will adapt to it, whatever it is...”  Well, no.  That’s the fallacy of the ignorant who mock science yet blindly believe “they” – those scientists – will come up with a solution.  If we keep warming the planet at the rate we are, there will come a point at which the devastations caused by the warming will occur so rapidly and with such frequency and ferocity that we will not have the time or resources to “adapt” our entire species to the new and unstable environment.

Worthington goes on to say that because the climate is changing anyway (because it wants to), that we should focus on what’s really important -  “tap the continent’s oil reserves...exploit our resources. Period.”

If a fire is threatening to spread, a few people trying to control it will have no success if others are avidly feeding it as fast as they can.  The fire will reach a point where it will destroy even those feeding it.  It doesn’t want to.  It can’t help it though, because that’s the science at work.

“Thank goodness we no longer stress “global warming,” and now call it “climate change.”” First, WTF gives him relief in that?  Next - Worthington is a journalist?  He doesn’t know that those terms mean two different things?

"Without the national round table, they can go wherever they like for advice, and sometimes that may mean they go after the people who are going to give them the answer they expect to get," said John Stone, a former Environment Canada employee who has worked with the agency.  "I can imagine very easily that the vacuum will be filled with organizations and interests which are more inclined to deny climate change, sow doubt about climate change and hence, hold back progress," said Mr. Stone, who is currently an adjunct professor with Carleton University's geography and environmental studies department.

“Hold back progress...”  There’s the problem.  To the harpers and worthingtons of this world, progress is only linked to economic development, and protecting our planet and life on it just doesn’t turn a quick enough buck.  What they fail to realize in their monumental ignorance, what even a young child can understand is that you can’t make money if you use up the means to make it, and you sure as hell can’t spend it if you’re dead.

The not very lean but very mean budget

Far and Wide calls it the Vendetta Budget.  Yes, it is that, with cuts to Elections Canada, wiping out the Katimavik program, butchering the CBC, and now we hear starving the Information Commissioner who "is currently in the midst of a comprehensive review of alleged interference with access to information requests by political staffers, a self-initiated inquiry that followed her investigation into similar allegations against Sebastien Tognieri, a former aide to then-Industry Minister Christian Paradis, but soon mushroomed to include other departments, including Foreign Affairs and PCO. "

It is also a mean budget.

Jim Flaherty axed the National Council of Welfare in Thursday’s budget.  The independent, federally-appointed body was created by an act of Parliament in 1969 to advise the minster of human resources on poverty in Canada.  But since the Harper government was elected in 2006, it has ignored the council’s research and advice on how to address growing income disparity across the country, activists say.

“Many non-governmental organizations . . . provide quality independent advice and research on poverty-related issues,” said Alyson Queen (spokesperson for Human Resources Minister Diane Finley).

Sure, but they don't report regularly to a federal department and they don't work for the public.  The CONs blend their meanness and vendetta tactics in cancelling The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy and claiming that "it can now get this advice from the Internet and stakeholders."

Right. Advice from the Internet.


In both cases, harper saves himself the trouble of hiding embarrassing - but accurate reports that clearly point out his policies are dangerous and costly.  He then gets to pick whatever "advice" suits him and present it as credible.  Hell, he can even make up his own advice.

No wonder he wants to silence all independent agencies that produce impartial reports for the public.

“So, I guess we don’t want to know anything about poverty or how to solve it,” said NDP MP Olivia Chow (Trinity—Spadina).  “Without the information, no one will be able to report on how many people this Conservative government is leaving behind,” she added. “It’s called out of sight and out of mind. And don’t get in the way.”

But pay your taxes.  Oh yes.  That they will track.  And your online activities.  And whether or not you are one of those dangerous Canadians that forced the harpercons to create the Building Resilience Against Terrorism strategy which seeks to protect law abidin' hard workin' Canadiuns from “low-level violence by domestic-based groups remains a reality in Canada… revolving around the promotion of various causes such as animal rights, white supremacy, environmentalism, and anti-capitalism.”

And all this, for the 1%