Wheat Board Makes You Money

Just the fact ma'am.

The facts that Chuck Strahl and the Tories don't want you to know.

A new analysis of the Canadian Wheat Board's marketing of barley says the current system nets farmers $60 million more annually than the alternative.

The report, completed for the wheat board by a team of researchers, including the University of Saskatchewan's Richard Gray, looked at the world trade from 1995 to 2004 for malt and feed barley. It shows consistent benefits for producers under the current single-desk system.

Coverage of the Wheat Board from the Left

See

Wheat Board

WTO

Farmers


ind blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Canada, agriculture, wheat, WTO, G8, WheatBoard, farmers, Western-Canada, barley, wheat, Strahl, Government, Conservatives, Harper, Free-Trade, Klein, NDP, taxpayers, PR, propaganda,
Canada
Politics
Harper
CWB
Wheat Board
farming
Supply Side Management
Conservatives

MacKay Gets Personal With Rice

It's still a cougar twink relationship between Peter MacKay and Condi Rice. He begged, she relented.

US Homeland Security secretary reviewing Arar case

She just didn't show him their evidence.

Naive boy. Walked away with an assurance that the cheque was in the mail.


While off stage Stephen Harper blustered and bluffed in an attempt to look tough. Harper blames Arar delay on US's denial of error

Democrats in the U.S. Senate did him one better because they can be tough on Bush. Key Democrat Wants To Know Why Arar Still Barred From US

Of course so far all that the Tories have done is practiced Tough Love with the Bushites. Embarassed over having called Arar a terrorist as the Official Opposition they hardly can be demanding and holier than thou with the White House.

Gee I thought we 'shared' intelligence information with our allies, including the Americans. I guess the need for them to share with us is precluded by their need for National Security as Rice and Wilkins said in no uncertain terms.

If our macho PM wanted to be really tough, he would kick out the FBI operatives in Canada who are operating without our permission under mandate of their National Security policy. After all they are not obliged to share with us the information they get from their operations in Canada. That is a matter of US internal National Security.

See

Arar

Peter MacKay

Cougar



Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
US, envoy, Divid Wilkins, Wilkins, US Ambassador to Canada, Arar, Marher Arar, Canada, US, terrorist, terrorism, RCMP, CSIS, CIA, Homeland Security, Syria, torture, CIA, rendition,
Stephen Haprer, Harper,, Stockwell Day, Day,, Public Security Minister, Secrurity, Minister,, Canada,, Parliament,, O'Connor, Report,,
Rice, Halifax, Peter MacKay, Nova-Scotia, MP, Foreign, Affairs, SecretaryofState, Condi, Condelezza, cougar

Miss Nevada

I guess the motto what happens in Las Vegas Stays in Los Vegas does not apply to Miss Nevada.

Katie Rees, the now former Miss Nevada USA,said yesterday that her breast-licking, thong-flashing pictures online were just a youthful mistake - but a pal who was a witness to the display said it wasn't the first time.

Though these pictures are nothing you haven't seen in Playboy, Penthous, etc. for years, and years, and.....Miss Nevada: Completely Uncensored and Filled with Scandal

This is the vigin whore dichotomy of patriarchy.

I am the first and I am the last
I am the honored one and the scorned one
I am the whore and the holy one
I am the wife and the virgin
I am the barren one and many are my daughters
I am the silence that is incomprehensible
I am the utterance of my name.

Thunder Perfect Mind.

They want women to be both, but only accept the virgin. Its the classic case of don't ask, don't tell. Thus subjecting women to being sexually objectivfied but not accepting them as sexually active, thus individuals taking responsibilty for their lives, because of the social construct of chastity, virginity, purity etc.etc.denies individual responsibility. It is a social role, versus subjective reality. It reduces women to dolls, pre-pubescence run amok.

Donald Trump judging Miss America on the question of moral values, well kettle pot black. "Left the first wife, had an affair, left the second wife, had an affair. Had kids both times, but he's the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America," O'Donnell said to roars of audience laughter.

His moral compass points to bottomline, is she good for business or not, and that's what saved her ass.

She may have been the Whore of Babylon but thanks to modern psychological therapy she can be restored to her Sacred Virgin Self.

Beauty pagents sell sexuality, but as pure clean and untouchable, unreal views of women, that same objectifcation which we experience in the museum. Look don't touch.

Real women of course are their own person, subject to their own decisions, they are not objects. Thus they are a threat to the social construct of sacred purity.

If they have a sexuality it is as 'youthfulness' not inccocence, which is the image created by the patriarchical Model and Beauty Pagent industry. It creates reproducible models that have no identity from the mass of other statues in their musuem of pop culture.

It is a pecularity of the patriarchical fashion industry that because it is dominated by gay men the models tend to take on an androgynous waif look of late.

But giving credit where credit is due, Marc Jacobs’ highly acclaimed tour de force on the first formal day of New York Fashion Week would indeed set the stage for much of what would follow internationally and, in many ways, set the standard for the layered, sophisticated, urban ‘waif’ look,

Whether gay or straight the patriarchical construct of women remains the same, hypocritical.

And by having written this, like my piece on Britney Spears, this is bound to get my blog lots of hits because everyone loves sleaze and gossip. The world really is a village.

See

Virgin

Feminism

Playboy

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Miss USA, Miss Nevada, Beauty Pagent, Donald Trump, Katie Rees, Rosie ODonnell, sex, sexuality, nudity, scandal, women, celebritites, Los Vegas, Nevada,

True Crime Carnival

True Crime Carnival of Blogs #55 is now online and yours truly has a contribution.

See

Blog Carnivals






Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
True Crime blogs, True Crime, Crime, True Crime Carnival, Carnival, Carniva lof Blogs, Blogs, blogging, bloggers, crimereporting,

All In A Day

Something is faster than a Federal Cabinet Minister putting his foot in his mouth then taking it out and shooting it.

His communications staff destroying the public evidence on his webpage.

In this case Stockwell Day. Who said, in print, (so the truth its out there) the racist slur; Spear-Chucker.

And sure enough there it is in print.

Weekly column generates interest from the national media By Stockwell Day is the member of Parliament for Okanagan Coqu Dec 20 2006

Aaaaanyway, it appears that local libs now send bits and pieces of my local columns to their favourite spear-chuckers down east who are quick to unleash a volley of indignation, which makes for good fodder back here at home.

Is Kate and the SDA bunch upset at Stock for his “spear-chucker” comment? asks Scott Tribe. Nope .

Like Kate mostof the Blogging Tories are ignoring it and of course there are rightwingnutbars who defend Stockwell.

But it gets better. Perhaps the reason Kate and other BT are not saying anything is because they could find; "No Evidence for the comment."

You see it disappeared from Stockwells web page. My goodness everything has. As Macleans pointed out. Suddenly there are no postings for 2006 yet they were there a week ago when I found this there.

It appears the PMO has 'communicated' with Day's staff.....

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day was ordered to remove an embarrassing comical commentary that ridiculed the science behind global warming from his personal website to avoid embarrassing his government about its real views on climate change, critics said Wednesday.

By order of the Autark himself no dout after all Harper spent summer reading a biography on Stalin.

Say this is reminicent of the Stalin School of Falsification, now you see it now you don't. In this case this is the last web page of article comments left by the Stock. But it links to nothing, abandoned in cyberspace the last fingerprint that Stock had posted anything this year.

But the offending article, along with all other commentary posted by Day since he became a cabinet minister were removed from the site by the end of the week.

Officials at Day's office had no explanation.

''Were they (articles) there before?'' wrote Melisa Leclerc, Day's director of communications, in an e-mail. ''I hadn't noticed.''

But of course he had, every time he did he said something quotable, that is something stupid, it was posted on his home page. Now poof its all gone.

She hadn't noticed sheesh, lie a little. Spin some more. I really think it had less to do with the climate remarks than the use of the term Spear-Chucker in his latest missive. Which was Day commenting on the comments raised over his climate change article. In this article they quote from his column but not about his use of Spear-Chucker.

You see his website changed the day the Spear-Chucker column ran. Opps. Can you say Cover Up.

There are those who would attempt to dismiss his use of the phrase, Spear-Chucker as not being racist, really, no not racist, not from the red neck white boy from interior B.C., old Socred country.

The polical Home of Wacky Bennett is now home to Wacky Day.

Spear-Chucker here means what it means; the troops, the grunts, the gophers, the nmasses. Waves of the masses.

Waves of Spear-Chuckers, wave upon wave, the waves of Zulu overwhelming her majesty's Imperial Army.

Stockwell , being the erudite latte sucking intellectual he is, was making a historical reference to major British defeats in South Africa,to end in a pyrrhic victory by the British.

Harsher views see the redcoat effort as dangerously cavalier and bumbling, epitomized by the infamous but apochryphal belief that ammunition boxes could not be opened at Isandhlwana - they could be kicked open! Critics also claim that the British fatally divided their forces, enabling the Zulu to concentrate on each invading column in turn. That a modern army with rifles and artillery could not make short work of the illiterate native host is seen as proof of reckless underestimation of the enemy and slipshod preparation.

To be followed by their ultimate defeat at the hands of their once erstwhile allies the Boers. A war that marked the first time Canada sent military and Mounted Police troops overseas to fight for the Empire.

So the British Imperialists turned defeat into victory by changing the term Spear-Chucker from one of horror, terror, and certain death to one of derision; backwardness, primitivism.

So yes Martha, Stockwell Day did use a racist slur in print. Unlike Republican George Allen who only got YouTubed saying Maccaca. Stockwells slur is still in print and on the web. Even if its not on his homepage.

At least he didn't use the other favorite South African racial slur; Kaffir. Though someone might have dismissed that as being just another Boy Scout term.

See

Stockwell Day

Blogging



Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
StockwellDay, Minister of Public Security, canada, Cabinet, Penticton, B.C., MP, Conservative, Government, Harper, Global warming, climate change, spear-chucker, SouthAfrica, Xhosa, Zulu, Toronto, Eastern Canada, blog, web, internet

Cat Carol

A sad Christmas tale, that is seasonally appropriate. Not all Christmas songs or tales are joyful. They are often tales of sacrifice and redemption, such as O Henry's famous short story The Gift Of The Magi or Dickens tale of the haunting of Scrooge.

I just wish it wasn't so damn popular on CKUA this season, I never can just turn it off, to late and I get teary eyed again when I hear it.

Score; 5/5 kleenex.

It is basically a retelling of the little match girl story for todays children. The author Bruce Evans is Canadian and the singer Meryn Cadell. gives the song it's haunting apprehensiveness. It is a sad carol despite the uplifting ending.

The Cat Carol

The cat wanted in to the warm warm house,
But no one would let the cat in
It was cold outside on christmas eve,
She meowed and meowed by the door.

The cat was not let in the warm warm house,
And her tiny cries were ignored.
'twas a blizzard now, the worst of the year,
There was no place for her to hide.

Just then a poor little mouse crept by,
He had lost his way in the snow.
He was on his last legs and was almost froze,
The cat lifted him with her paw.

She said "poor mouse do not be afraid,
Because this is christmas eve.
"on this freezing night we both need a friend,
"i won’t hurt you - stay by my side."

She dug a small hole in an icy drift,
This is where they would spent the night.
She curled herself 'round her helpless friend,
Protecting him from the cold.

Oooooo

When santa came by near the end of the night,
The reindeer started to cry.
They found the cat lying there in the snow,
And they could see that she had died.

They lifted her up from the frozen ground,
And placed her into the sleigh.
It was then they saw the little mouse wrapped up,
She had kept him warm in her fur.

"oh thank you santa for finding us!
"dear cat wake up we are saved!"
..."i’m sorry mouse but your friend has died,
There’s nothing more we can do.

"on christmas eve she gave you her life,
The greatest gift of them all."
Santa lifted her up into the night sky,
And laid her to rest among the stars.

"dear mouse don’t cry you are not alone,
You will see your friend every year.
"each christmas a cat constellation will shine,
To remind us that her love’s still here."

Oooooooo

See

Christmas

Rebel Jesus

Tannenbaum

Keeping the 'X' in X MAS

Solstice

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
carls, Christmas, Christmas Carol, BruceEvans, Cat Carol, Cats, mouse, Little Match Girl, MerynCadell, HansChristianAnderson, Canada, Canadian Music, Kids, kids music, kids songs,

Merry Christmas, Red Baron

A tip o' the blog to Mapmaker Scrap who posted my favorite version of Snoopy's Christmas Song with a link to my article from last Christmas on the WWI Christmas Mutiny. A Story well worth remembering any time there is war in the world.


Of course the real 'Snoopy' was Canadian;

Shot down by the Red Baron - The First World War: Canada Remembers ...
A Canadian flying ace recalls the day he was shot down by Manfred von Richthofen.

As an update from that story; those Canadian soldiers who were executed during WWI for desertion, like their British and German counterparts, were finally given posthoumous amnesty this year.

Recoginizing most of them probably suffered from 'shell shock', which we call today post traumatic syndrome.

Four years earlier the Mon's was the scene of the first Christmas Peace, it would also be the last village fought over as real peace finally occurred in 1918.

By November 1918, trench warfare has finally given way to a headlong pursuit of the retreating Germans. Canadian troops under Sir Arthur Currie are tasked with liberating Belgian villages such as Mons, where house-to-house fighting is fierce. Then a rumour spreads: the war is over! As we hear in this clip, the news seems too good to be true. Even when armistice is confirmed, the exhausted soldiers can barely comprehend the new reality: death one day, peace the next.

And so I also get to link to that other great Christmas Anti War Song, Happy Christmas War Is Over. A sentiment best expressed 'out of the mouth of babes';

Dear Santa

What I want for Christmas is my dad to come home because he went to the war. I just hope he does not get hurt and I love him. Your friend, Anna Marie Eide

See

WWI

Christmas

John Lennon Working Class Hero




Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Legend o fMons, Arthur Curry, Canada, France, Gernmany, Britain, trenches, trench warfare, biplane, Fokker, Royal Guardsmen, shellshock, post-traumauticsyndrome, amnesty, Christmas 1914, WWI, Deserters, RedBaron, Snoopy, Arthur Machen, peace, 1918,

Chocolate Worms

Mmm love dem worms, especially chocolate covered ones.

They are a delicacy in some places.

But not apparently in India. Cadbury: The confectionary giant is now under fire

It could have been worse though, it could have been chocolate covered slaves.




The Cadbury Chocolate company of England drew attention to the abuses of indenture when it boycotted cocoa produced by African labour from the Portuguese-held colony of Angola to São Tomé, and further importation of contract labour to the island was halted in 1909.

Ironically, part of the reason behind the ending of the practice of indentured labour had more to do with overtly racist and expansionist ideologies than humanitarian concern. Because those who had completed their term of indenture sometimes opted to remain in the colonies and set up for themselves, they often came into competition with white labourers and businessmen, competition that increased as the numbers of emigrants from Europe increased.

After "Slavery" was televised in Britain last fall, horrified consumers bombarded the country's biggest chocolate manufacturers - Cadbury, Nestle and Mars - with demands for "clean products"which are untainted by slave labour.
Big companies, like Nestle, purchase their cocoa on international exchanges where cocoa from Ivory Coast is mixed with cocoa from other countries and loses its identity as a slave-made product. Anti Slavery International says, "Because of the way the chocolate industry buys its cocoa it is not possible to ensure that slave or other forms of illegal exploitation have not been used in its production." It says companies should purchase direct from plantations so they can ensure international labour standards are met. If they continue to buy their cocoa via the exchange or other middlemen, they should work with cocoa-producing countries such as Ivory Coast to ensure the labour standards are enforced.
If chocolate manufacturers fail to respond, Anti Slavery International offers this recommendation: "In the absence of industry action, the only way consumers can be confident the produce they use is free from exploited labour is by buying products which carry a fair trade label."

See:

Chocolate



Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
India, Cadbury, chocolate, worms, wormychocolate,

We're Number One, We're Number One,

So this may be why this happened.

Not only do we have some of the highest home computer usage in the world, just behind Finland and Norway, (baby its cold outside, I think I'll go surfing) we have the highest usage of the internet. It now appears we also have most bloggers.

So depite all the brouhaha down south about the impact of political bloggers, their public penetration is minimal whereas ours is far greater. Which means not only in blogging, but all aspects of the new media on the internet. Have computer will surf. And Canadians do.

Over the last couple of days many of us blogging, have said the Federal NDP needs to change and transform its communications approach to the DIY reality of the WWW. And while many blog comments focused on the Director of Communications, which was the spark that lit the prairie fire, it really was all about feeling like we are in the hinterland.

Battling the Blogging Tories and Liberalblogs, in a thankless battle to get the messaging out with little or no support from the party. Rather blogging gets short shrift and disdain from its top strategy and communications wonk.

In light of this information the least they could do is create a blog. Then in a few years they will figure out aggregators.


A tip o' the blog to Giant Political Mouse

See

Bumph And Grind

Brad Lavigne

NDP

Internet

Blogging


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Brad Lavigne, NDP, spin, spin doctors, NDP Communications Director, Jack Layton, Commounications Director, Macleans.ca,Joanne Deer,
blogs, blogging, Canadablogs, Canadianbloggers, WWW, Internet, homecomputer, ,

Punked

An email hoax, critical of Jack Layton is posted on the right wing SDA blog
And despite comments on her site that it is a hoax, she continues to post it with no disclaimer for at approximately 24 hours. Slimey Kate, slimey.
I originally wrote the above yesterday, pending posting, 11:40 PM Dec.20/2006

Update Dec. 21/2006
She finally admits it was a hoax but only credits her own commentators, not folks out here in the blogosphere that pointed out in the first place. Seems she is slow to read the comments till after the fact. Fact being that she didn't check her source or its authenticity. So if this is Kates citizens journalism I guess thats how its different from real, authentic, professional, journalism. Fact Checking.


See

SDA


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Layton, KateMcMillan, blogs, hoax, blogging, Canada, politicalblogs, Canadianblogs, rightwingblogs, Conservativeblogs, BloggingTories, NDP,