Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Interpol puts Assange on most-wanted list

It was probably naive to think the powers that be would take this laying down.

The boot must come down to teach us all a lesson.

Interpol, at the request of a Swedish court looking into alleged sex crimes from earlier this year, has put WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on its most-wanted list.

The Stockholm Criminal Court two weeks ago issued an international arrest warrant for Assange on probable cause, saying he is suspected of rape, sexual molestation and illegal use of force in August incidents.


Read more here.

Bell Canada sends another F*ck You to its customers

The CRTC is being called on to put an end to a promotional campaign that offers to let Bell Canada customers turn a mandated $67 rebate into a $100 coupon that would tie customers to a two-year contract...

...In the letter mailed to eligible Bell customers, the company states: "The exact amount of the rebate will be determined by the CRTC shortly, but could be up to $67 per home phone line, and will be sent to you in 2011."

The letter also contains a $100 coupon toward the activation of a new Bell TV subscription or a new Bell Mobility activation. In both cases, customers would have to lock into a two-year contract and would no longer be eligible for the rebate...

..."Don't wait for your home phone customer rebate cheque in the mail next year," it states, "This is a limited time offer."


Read more here.

Toronto police Chief Bill Blair's big mouth causes reopening of G20 misconduct probe


Oppsie!

Ontario's police oversight agency is reopening an investigation into alleged police misconduct in the case of a man who suffered facial fractures while being arrested at a G20 protest in Toronto.

The Special Investigations Unit said in a Tuesday release it will take a fresh look at the case of Adam Nobody, 27, whose nose and cheekbone were broken during a June 26 protest at Queen's Park.

The SIU's initial investigation determined that excessive force was "probably" used, but it couldn't determine which specific officer was responsible for causing the injuries.

In arriving at that conclusion, the SIU interviewed a civilian witness and eight officer witnesses, as well as reviewing a video of the arrest that was posted on YouTube.

The video shows about a half-dozen police officers chasing and then tackling Nobody at Queen's Park. SIU director Ian Scott said the video appeared to show one of the officers striking Nobody repeatedly while he was on the ground.

Toronto police Chief Bill Blair criticized the SIU for using a video that he said had been edited and "tampered with."

"The evidence that they're relying on is false," Blair told CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Monday.


Read more here.

Harper unclear on the meaning of democracy

MPs are to vote later Tuesday on a Bloc Québécois motion condemning the Conservative government's extension of the Afghanistan mission without a parliamentary vote.

The non-binding motion is largely aimed at exposing deep divisions on the Afghanistan mission among the Opposition Liberals, who said Tuesday they would vote "as a caucus" against the motion, thus ensuring its defeat.

There was a vote in 2006 and again in 2008 on the Afghan mission, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said assigning a training and technical mission — as opposed to a combat mission — is within the authority of the prime minister.

"My position is if you're going to put troops into combat, into a war situation, I do think for the sake of legitimacy ... the government does require the support of Parliament," Harper said earlier this month.

"But when we're talking simply about technical or training missions, I think that is something the executive can do on its own."


Fucking guy thinks he's President.

Read more here.

Btw, the motion was defeated. Quelle surprise.

Lady Gaga, please STFU

Lady Gaga told fans at a concert in Poland on Friday that her upcoming album, Born This Way, is going to be “the greatest album of this decade.”

That quote will haunt her.

Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal backed by Pentagon study. John McCain has aneurysm

The Pentagon released its much-anticipated study on repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) on Tuesday, finding that 70 percent of servicemembers believe the change in policy would have a positive, mixed or no effect. The announcement was accompanied by a full-throated endorsement of allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly by the study's co-authors, who concluded that there is little risk of disruption to the military if implementation is properly carried out.

Read more here.

Epically stupid thieves break into Pat Burn's widow's car

Did I mention heartless, callus, unfeeling....

Boy, did this guy pick the wrong city to commit this crime.

A heartbreaking crime was committed against the family of former NHL coach Pat Burns within hours of his funeral in Montreal.

Not long after the hockey world gathered at Mary Queen of the World Cathedral in downtown Montreal Monday to mourn the death of Burns, someone broke into the vehicle belonging to his widow, Line.

Montreal police say someone smashed one of the car's windows while it was parked overnight a few blocks from the cathedral and stole some possessions belonging to the Burns family that were inside.


Read more here.

WikiLeaks: Even FOX News gets it

Andrew Graham-Dixon: Idiot of the Day

The art world produces these morons with alarming regularity.

‘What I think is horrible and compelling is that the whole Nazi project began with art,’ Andrew Graham-Dixon is telling me. ‘Hitler wasn’t just a watercolourist who went into politics. Hitler was the most influential artist of all time.’

Read more here.

Zuckerberg continues campaign to turn under 30's into illiterates

America's favorite boy genius, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, has announced a new form of messaging. E-mail, the last Internet link to traditional, epistolary, interpersonal communication, is, he said, outmoded. Young people, by which he meant younger than his own 26 years, desired something more nimble for their iPads, mobile phones and other devices. What he proposed was a "social inbox" where users could readily access messages from friends and then sort them — sort of a cross between instant messaging and Twitter.

Not all is lost though:

Uh, hi. Young 20-something here. Email is not outmoded. New technology is all well and good, when it makes sense to use. Zuckerberg just likes to invent new crap for the sake of inventing new crap. Facebook is going the way of MySpace and he realizes that.

Read more here.

Hobbit casting agent fired over racism row

A casting agent for Wellington producer Sir Peter Jackson's planned film adaptations of The Hobbit has been dismissed after placing newspaper advertisements seeking extras with "light skin tones".

A spokesman for Wingnut Films, Sir Peter's production company, told Agence France-Presse the unnamed agent was not directed by the company to make such restrictions.

"No such instructions were given," the spokesman said.

"The crew member in question took it upon themselves to do that and it's not something we instructed or condoned".


Read more here.

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair: Video evidence irrelevant when it comes to the police



Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair is lashing out at the Special Investigations Unit for saying excessive force was probably used by officers in two cases during G20 protests.

The two cases are among six investigated by the police watchdog, which then decided not to pursue charges because the officers in question could not be identified.

At the centre of Blair’s grievances, a YouTube video the SIU used as corroborating evidence of excessive force against a civilian.

Blair said the video had been “tampered with.” He said the tape had been “forensically examined” over the weekend and that it was edited in a way that offered no explanation for why force was used.


We all know that had this or any other video been used to arrest protesters, it would be, edit or not.

Video creator John Bridge — who said Monday he had yet to be contacted by the SIU or police — said it was spliced from two clips about five seconds apart because he turned off his camera when police began rushing in his direction.

“There’s not selective editing, that’s the only video that exists,” said Bridge, a Toronto-based web developer. “It was turned back off for my own safety and turned back on when I was in the clear.”


Read more here and here.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Paroxysms of moral outrage, a Canadian specialty

WikiLeaks reaches Canada. And so it begins.

The former head of Canada’s top intelligence agency told American officials that Canadians have an “Alice in Wonderland” worldview and that courts have tied intelligence agents in knots as they fight against Islamist terror plots in Canada and abroad.

The blunt view from Jim Judd, the former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), is contained in a leaked cable from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa to the State department in Washington. The cable details a conversation between Judd and then Counselor of the State Department Eliot Cohen in July 2008.


Morals. Only available in Canada? Pity.

Canadian authorities cannot use information that 'may have been' derived from torture, and that any Canadian public official who conveys such information may be subject to criminal prosecution," the cable says.

And Mr. Judd is upset by that. These are the morals they want us to adopt.

Pardon me, I'm about to have a paroxysm. Mr. Judd and your ilk, you disgust me.

Read more here.

Even the US Supreme Court thinks the birthers are morons

Oh those racists, such knee slappers

The Supreme Court has again cast aside an appeal that raised doubts about President Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship, a grass-roots legal issue that has gained little legal or political footing, but continues to persist in the courts.

The justices without comment Monday rejected a challenge from Charles Kerchner Jr., a Pennsylvania man who sought a trial in federal court forcing the president to produce documents regarding his birth and citizenship.


Read more here.

Christopher Hitchens and Tony Blair debate religion

North Brookfield Elementary School: Temporary Idiots of the Day

Last week, Wendy Scott, one of two sixth-grade teachers, sent a letter home to the parents of all sixth-graders announcing that she and Susan LaFlamme were instituting a new rule barring students from carrying any writing implements on their person, in a backpack, or on the school bus.

The memo explained that students would be issued a pencil for use in class that would be collected at the end of the school day.

The memo cited behavior problems and said any student found in possession of a pen or mechanical pencil after Nov. 15 would be assumed to have the implement “to build weapons,” or to have stolen it from the classroom art supply basket.

Offending students would be sent to the principal's office for disciplinary measures, the memo stated.


This idiocy has since been repealed.

Read more here.

British police drool at the possibility of controlling the Net

The police are seeking powers to shut down websites deemed to be engaged in "criminal" activity.

The Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has tabled a plan for Nominet, which oversees .uk web addresses, to be given the domain closing power.

Nominet said the idea was only a proposal and invited people to join the debate on the form of the final policy.


People: Well, we thin..

SOCA: Thank you, that will be all.

Read more here.

Canada's handling of young Afghan detainees queried

The Canadian Forces have for years arrested children suspected of working with the Taliban and handed them over to an Afghan security unit accused of torture, CBC News has learned.

Allegations that militants captured by Canada were transferred to Afghan forces and later tortured were hotly debated in Parliament last fall.

A document obtained by the CBC's investigative unit shows that Canadian soldiers captured children as well in the fight against the Taliban, and that many of them were transferred to the custody of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, or NDS.


and as usual, governments only act when they're caught at it.

And while the March 2010 briefing note suggests the government was "likely" to post information about the new facility [to replace the torture one...] on its website, that did not happen until Oct. 28, the same day the CBC received the briefing note through the Access to Information Act.

Read more here.

Canadian politicians, not the public, "sensitive" to how they seem in American eyes

WikiLeaks long arm of embarrassment has reached Canada, with politician rushing for damage control:

From the Globe and Mail:

But the fear of real damage is accompanied by another concern in Ottawa – that snippets of private talk by U.S. diplomats might include sharp words that could stick in the mind of a Canadian public that is often sensitive to how they are seen in American eyes. Ottawa officials worry about references to a Canadian inferiority complex, biting criticisms or belittling comments.

Well crafted bullshit, but the truth is the fear rests with the politicians, not the public. The "public" is delighted with the news, and we can finally catch a glimpse into the workings of their tiny minds.

A commenter caught it:

Dear Steve:

Bend over.

W.


My sense of being Canadian in no way comes from Ottawa, in fact in this day and age it's in spite of it.

Read more here.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon: We're embarrassed and..um..National Security!

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon joined the U.S. in condemning the documents' release.

"Irresponsible leaks like these are deplorable and do not serve anybody's national interests. The perpetrators of these leaks may threaten our national security," Cannon said.


Boohoohoo. Finding out diplomats and leaders are human, and just as fucked up as anyone else is a delight to behold!

The Emperor has no clothes.

WikiLeaks releases diplomatic documents

A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at backroom bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats.

Oh my oh my, our so called leaders will need the fainting couch. Fetch the smelling salts.

Read more here.

Horrible Histories - Alexander the Great

Cosmos may show echoes of events before Big Bang

Evidence of events that happened before the Big Bang can be seen in the glow of microwave radiation that fills the Universe, scientists have asserted.

Renowned cosmologist Roger Penrose said that analysis of this cosmic microwave background showed echoes of previous Big Bang-like events.

The events appear as "rings" around galaxy clusters in which the variation in the background is unusually low.


Read more here.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

McGill University economist Thomas Velk: Heartless Bastard Expert of the Day

What happens when the chief executive of Toronto-Dominion Bank Ed Clark proposes cutting taxes to poorer Canadians? Why we get lowlifes such as Mr Velk coming out from under his rock...

“I would really dispute Mr. Clark’s notion that we need to give money to the beer drinkers,” McGill University economist Thomas Velk said. “We can’t afford it. We’ve got to build future productivity and we have to do that in the private sector. And the only way to do that is to give funding to the productive citizens who privately invest”

I love the smell of class snobbery in the morning. Have you ever seen a more masterful parade of coded messages and dog whistles in one statement?

Oh well, at least we can predict his future obituary: Velk, Thomas, economist. Best known for the "beer drinkers" comment of 2010. Received the Stephen Harper Award for most Divisive Comment.

What you wanna bet Mr. Velk has a life sized pin up of Harper over his bed, which he peruses while sipping his champaign and tabulating his investment returns?

Who needs beer, let 'em eat cake.

Read more here.

Some Quebec doctors are disgusting, scandalous and indefensible

These doctors should be strung up and have their entrails removed with a fork.

But that's just me.

Seriously though, the people behind this are the lowest forms of life.

When their mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the twin sisters didn't hesitate for a moment: They chose the surgeon they wanted and slipped him $2,000 in cash to bump their mother to the top of the waiting list.

"We wanted to save our mother," Vivian Green said. "It was cash incentive, to buy our place ahead of everyone else."

Green and her sister, Ora Marcus, say bribes are an open secret in the medical field. They grew up with a father who was an obstetrician at the Jewish General Hospital.

"If you have money, you live, and if you don't, you die," Green said.

Critics say the practice is illegal and unethical, but several patients who contacted The Gazette say offering envelopes stuffed with thousands of dollars to surgeons has become a way to speed treatment in public hospitals.


Read more here.

Mark Sinckler: Sick F*ck of the Day

A Muslim artist has sparked outrage with his depiction of the ripped-apart bus destroyed in the 7/7 terror attacks.

The artwork shows four angels flying above the bombed bus - the same number of Al Qaeda terrorists who took part in the atrocity which left 52 commuters dead and maimed hundreds more on London's transport network.

Also seen are scores of ghostly souls shooting from the number 30 bus, which was travelling through Tavistock Square when it was devastated by suicide bomber Hasib Hussain.


You sir are no artist, but an epically sick individual.

Read more here.

US in Afghanistan as long as Soviets

Empires have learned nothing about Afghanistan, nothing.

The Soviet Union couldn't win in Afghanistan, and now the United States is about to have something in common with that futile campaign: nine years, 50 days.

On Friday, the U.S.-led coalition will have been fighting in this South Asian country for as long as the Soviets did in their humbling attempt to build up a socialist state. The two invasions had different goals — and dramatically different body counts — but whether they have significantly different outcomes remains to be seen.

What started out as a quick war on Oct. 7, 2001, by the U.S. and its allies to wipe out al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and the Taliban has instead turned into a long and slogging campaign. Now about 100,000 NATO troops are fighting a burgeoning insurgency while trying to support and cultivate a nascent democracy.


Ever wonder why Rambo III doesn't show up on TV anymore...

Read more here.

Apple removes bigoted "Manhattan Declaration" app

Que the cries of Christian persecution in 3...2...

Come on now Christians, you've had 1,700 years since persecution of your religion stopped. Hell, it even became the official religion of the Roman Empire (the Romans were no fools, and could recognize a tool of control).

Now admittedly you created some fine art, music and literature. But little things like burnings, torture, wars and fighting among yourselves have hardly increased your reputation. Christianity is a dangerous weapon in the hands of those not bright enough to use it.

Ha, what am I saying? It's also a dangerous weapon in the hands of those bright enough to use it. It also makes an excellent shield to protect prying eyes from seeing the cold dead heart inside some of the people that wield it.

So why not step aside and let more rational adults have a go for awhile?

Just sayin'...*

Without a peep of a press release, Apple has removed an anti-gay iPhone app that sparked considerable outrage in the LGBT community and beyond.

The app for the Manhattan Declaration was described as a “call of Christian conscience” invited users to take a stand against gay marriage by signing a document penned by certain Christian clergy, scholars and others opposed to equality.

Change.org blasted the app for fostering “homophobia and extreme anti-choice views” and started a petition to get Apple to remove it from the iTunes store.

Today, a search for the Manhattan Declaration app at apple.com came up empty.

Apple has a history of rejecting apps that are gay-related, yet it is the LGBT community that faithfully buys its products, especially the iPhone.


* Up until c. 1700 such words would of had me charged with heresy and/or blasphemy (and can still be a crime in Ireland. Ah Tradition) and burned at the stake. Jesus Loves You.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Sun TV News gets licence to make Canadians as dumb as our neighbours to the south

If you listen really carefully you can hear Harper having an orgasm.

He is succeeding turning Canada into something ugly. Yes Mr. Harper I'm older than you and remember a Canada before you pissed all over it.

At least it didn't get a basic cable licence, so there might be a way to avoid this crap.

Canada is to get a conservative all-news TV channel after the CRTC on Friday granted Quebecor Media a license to launch Sun TV News nationwide.

The upstart cable channel, dubbed Fox News North by liberal critics, has the go-ahead to launch on January 1, 2011, with the moniker Hard News and Straight Talk.


Hard and Straight, well paint me surprised.

Oh, boy! Now Canadians can have their own home brewed hate and stupidity channel! Who will be the Beck of the Great White North?

We already have one - he's called our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper


Conservatives are the kind of people you wouldn't invite to a dinner party. You'd have to spend all night after counting the silverware...

Read more here.

Ireland and massive injustice

It needs be 1848 again.

The Irish story began with a genuine economic miracle. But eventually this gave way to a speculative frenzy driven by runaway banks and real estate developers, all in a cozy relationship with leading politicians. The frenzy was financed with huge borrowing on the part of Irish banks, largely from banks in other European nations.

Then the bubble burst, and those banks faced huge losses. You might have expected those who lent money to the banks to share in the losses. After all, they were consenting adults, and if they failed to understand the risks they were taking that was nobody’s fault but their own. But, no, the Irish government stepped in to guarantee the banks’ debt, turning private losses into public obligations.


Read more here.

WikiLeaks to release diplomatic documents

I couldn't be more delighted.

Johnny Carson and the eggs

Darth Vader's dirty laundry fails to sell at auction

...a rare Darth Vader costume made for Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back failed to sell [at a Christie's auction].

It had been expected to fetch up to £230,000.

The costume, which was being sold by a private collector from the US who acquired it in 2003, was believed to have been the first complete Vader costume to be offered at auction.


Read more here.

Britain still treats film goers as children

Governments should have no right to do this...

Controversial movie A Serbian Film has become the most cut film in 16 years, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has said.

The dark thriller, which features disturbing scenes of violence and sex, has had four minutes and 11 seconds of its original content removed.

The BBFC said that it "rarely cuts" cinema releases with an 18 certificate.


I have no plans to see this film. Oh no, I've censored myself!

Read more here.

A Message from the TSA

Family Research Council labeled a 'hate group'

The Family Research Council's opposition to gay rights has landed the outfit on the Southern Poverty Law Center's list of "hate groups" — a label strongly denied by the influential Christian conservative organization.

Duh.

Read more here.

G20 police won’t face criminal charges thanks to their criminal behavior

How conveeeeenient...

Police officers will not face criminal charges in connection with six men who were injured during G20 demonstrations, Ontario’s police watchdog announced Thursday.

The Special Investigations Unit, however, found there were “reasonable grounds” to believe police used excessive force that broke a man's nose in one case and that, in another instance, police used force during the arrest of a man who sustained a fractured bone under his eye. In both cases, the SIU could not lay charges because it was unable to identify the officers responsible.


And thus is corruption made manifest.

Police...argued that in such a large demonstration, it was difficult to keep track of who did what.

They seemed to have no trouble arresting hundreds.....

Remember when they asked the public to come forward with videos so they could help identify the rioters? There's a deafening silence for calls of video helping identify the police.

Read more here.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Cowboys and Aliens

Canadian military families receive fake death calls

Canadian military police are investigating fake calls to families of soldiers in Afghanistan claiming their relative has died in combat, authorities have said.

At least three families at a military base in Quebec have been targeted, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

One woman was reportedly told her husband had been killed by a bomb.

Police say those responsible could face jail time if caught.


Could? Perhaps a trip to Afghanistan would be more in order...

Read more here.

Andromeda 'born in a collision'

The nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way - Andromeda - was born when two smaller galaxies collided, say astronomers.

An international team conducted a computer simulation of how Andromeda evolved over time.

The results suggest that two galaxies collided some nine billion years ago and permanently fused about 5.5 billion years ago.


Read more here.

Corporate Arrogance: Facebook looks to trademark the word 'face'

The social networking giant Facebook is a few steps away from trademarking the word face, online documents reveal.

The site has been asked to detail a "statement of use" by the US Patent and Trademark Office, explaining how it intends to use the word.


Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face Face

Humm, wonder how much that will cost me.

Read more here.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Apple: Bigotry, there's an app for that

Why did Apple approve this, huh Steve why?

There's been no shortage of controversy over apps Apple has see fit to ban from its App Store.

Now the Cupertino company has sparked outrage over an app it did approve, Manhattan Declaration, that is a "call of Christian conscience" inviting users to take a stand against gay marriage by signing a 4,700-word "declaration" penned by Christian clergy, scholars, and others.

The Manhattan Declaration, the text of which is included in the app, "speaks in defense of the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty," according to its creators. The app "issues a clarion call to Christians to adhere firmly to their convictions in these three areas," and allows users to add their signatures to the declaration.


Read more here.

The Young Turks: Three total clueless people defend their own prejudice



I've been involved in comedy for many years, and can spot a hack comic from a thousand miles.

Vince Vaughn, the Hero of the Overweight Suburban Straight Guy is one such "comic".

These three on the other hand totally, completely and utterly don't get it.

At least they've provided footage for future documentaries on how scummy people can be without realizing it.

Then again, maybe they do....

The United Nations now sanctions murder

The U.N. is now an organization of evil and should be disbanded. They have no moral standing whatsoever.

The UN resolution urges countries to protect the right to life of all people, calling on them to investigate killings based on discriminatory grounds. Sexual orientation was previously listed as one of these forms of discrimination, alongside ethnicity, religious belief and linguistic minorities.

Others protected by the resolution were human rights defenders (like journalists, lawyers and demonstrators), street children and members of indigenous communities.

But now sexual orientation has been taken out of the list. The amendment was supported by Benin in Africa on behalf of the African Group in the UN General Assembly. It passed on a narrow vote of 79 for, 70 against , 17 abstentions and 26 absent.

Some of those voting to remove sexual orientation were countries where gays are known to be or thought to be executed or summarily killed including Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iraq.

The UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and many European countries voted in favour of gays.


Read more here.

Ruth Marcus: Idiot of the Day

More small "F" fascistic pleading from the Coward Class.

This time it's one Ruth Marcus, telling us that concerns over civil rights are childish.

These kind of people are in a dance with the terrorists, making us all the worse for it.

Don't touch my junk? Grow up, America.

Read more here.

National Post exposes the barbarity of stoning someone to death

Pictures speak louder than words

Read more here.

CNN continues to downplay concerns over the TSA

What, does CNN have stock in those fucking scanners?

From the volume of the public outcry as enhanced measures have been rolled out at more airports this month, you might think Americans were getting groped right and left. But the Transportation Security Administration estimates that less than 3 percent of air travelers will receive enhanced pat-downs, which some travelers have called "groping" or worse.

Like saying only 3% of priest molest, so stop all your whining and turn a blind eye.

CNN says so, it must be true.

Fuck you CNN.

Read more here.

Pushy Muslims: Toy pig pulled from farm set

And the religious wonder why they are a source of unending amusement.

A retailer withdrew a toy pig from a children's farm set to avoid the risk of causing offence on religious grounds, it emerged today.

A mother who bought the Early Learning Centre's (ELC) HappyLand Goosefeather Farm for her daughter's first birthday contacted the store after finding that the pig was missing, the Sun newspaper reported.

The £25 set contained a model of a cow, sheep, chicken, horse and dog but no pig, despite there being a sty and a button which generated an "oink".

But ELC chiefs have since decided to reintroduce the pig, with parents who have bought the set invited to get the toy from the company's website.


Read more here.

Child Nation North Korea proves again it's not fit to sit at the grown ups table

They are the most immature nation on earth, quite the achievement.

Tandrums is all they've got, as no one would take any notice of them otherwise.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

CNN plays apologist for those f*cked up TSA pat downs

CNN, always the voice of officialdom, now wants us not to worry our pretty little heads about the latest security measures by the TSA.

Translation: stop whining about your civil rights! We at CNN don't value them, and neither should you.

or

TSA complaints: Warranted outrage? Or all bark, no bite?

Fuck you CNN.

Read more here.

I had a heart attack

At about 3 A.M. Sunday morning I experienced what was described as a "mild" heart attack.

This was my first.

I recognized the classic symtoms and had my partner drive me to the nearest hospital.

61 hours later I am home.

I would like to express my undying (wink) gratitude to the staff of North York and Sunnybrooke hospitals in Toronto for their professionalism and bed side manner, which made the whole experience much better than it might have been.

Anyone who tries to tell you the American system is superior is out of their fucking profit driven minds. I was treated by professionals and didn't come out bankrupt.

Socialism rules



Even the good guys don't realize how evil their system is.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Rogers faces $10M fine, consoles itself by renaming a building in its honour

They make that much in bandwidth fees, Cap and Tax.

The Competition Bureau is seeking a penalty of $10 million against Rogers Communications Inc. for ads claiming that its discount cellphone and text service, Chatr, has fewer dropped calls than its new competitors.

The bureau announced Friday that it has begun legal proceedings against Rogers in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice under the misleading advertising provisions of the Competition Act. In addition to the penalty, the bureau is asking the court to rule that Rogers must immediately stop its advertising campaign and pay restitution to affected customers.

The move is the result of the bureau’s two-month investigation during which it concluded Rogers’ advertising campaign for Chatr is misleading. The investigation concluded there is no discernible difference in dropped call rates between Rogers’ Chatr service and new entrants.

"We take misleading advertising very seriously," Melanie Aitken, commissioner of competition, said in a news release. "Consumers deserve accurate information when making purchasing decisions and need to have confidence they are not being misled by false advertising campaigns."


Read more here.

Some Toronto police have been scummy for decades

And here you thought Toronto police misdeeds were a modern phenomenon.

Don't think it as corruption, think of it more as Tradition.

Secret recordings obtained by CBC News offer proof that Toronto police conducted illegal eavesdropping on a former police board chair.

There have been allegations for years that police began spying on their civilian boss, Susan Eng, beginning in May 1991, days after she was sworn in.

Then police chief Bill McCormack and Julian Fantino — superintendent of detectives at the time and later police chief and OPP commissioner — have repeatedly refused to say whether they requested or were aware of the surveillance.

But now CBC News has obtained the tape recordings of Eng talking to her confidant and friend, Peter Maloney, about everything from police business to the very personal.

At the time, police had gone to a judge claiming Maloney may have ties to drug dealers.

The judge granted officers authority to wiretap his phone, but they were ordered to shut down the wiretap after a minute if the calls involved anyone, such as Eng, not listed on the paperwork.

Police ignored the order and recorded Eng, with some recordings lasting 20 or 30 minutes.


Read more here.

Pope Benedict XVI protects his own ass

Pope Benedict XVI says in a new book that condoms can be justified for male prostitutes seeking to stop HIV, a stunning turnaround for a church that has long opposed condoms and a pontiff who has blamed them for making the AIDS crisis worse.

The pontiff made the comments in a book-length interview with a German journalist, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times, which is being released Tuesday. The Vatican newspaper ran excerpts on Saturday.

Catholic Church teaching has opposed condoms because they're a form of artificial contraception, although the church has never released an explicit policy about condoms and HIV. The Vatican has been harshly criticized in light of the AIDS crisis.

Benedict said that for male prostitutes — for whom contraception isn't the central issue — condoms are not a moral solution. But he said they could be justified "in the intention of reducing the risk of infection."

He called it "a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way of living sexuality."


Read more here.

You Bet Your Life Outtakes 1959-60



(Possibly) Dumb Christians: Paz do Senhor Amado

This story may not be true and just an internet rumour, but...

The evangelical cult "Paz do Senhor Amado" ("Peace of the beloved Lord") in the interior of Brazil forbids its followers to use any USB technology by contending that it uses a symbol that shows sympathy for the devil.

According to its founder, the "Apostle" Welder Saldanha says that this is just another symbol of Satan, which is always present in all Christian homes.

"The symbol of that name (a name which he doesn't even like to pronounce) is a trident, which is used to torture souls that go to hell. Use only a symbol of those shows that all users of that vile technology are actually worshipers of Satan" - explains the" Apostle".

Measures were taken so that all the USB connections of his followers were exchanged for common connections and even the Bluetooth (sic), which according to Saldanha Welder is permitted, for "Blue was the color of the eyes of our savior Jesus Christ".

In Seattle, you will take a Yellow Pages...and like it

The makers of the Yellow Pages in Seattle have let their fingers to the walking, straight to the Land of Frivolous Lawsuits.

As promised, Yellow Page publishers have sued to overturn a law in Seattle that lets people opt out of receiving paper phone books. The publishers say the law, the first of its kind in the U.S., is unconstitutional.

Dex One Corp., SuperMedia and the Yellow Pages Association argue in a suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington that the Seattle ordinance "restricts publishers' fundamental right to free speech."

The First Amendment prohibits government "from licensing or exercising advance approval of the press, from directing publishers what to publish and to whom they may communicate, and from assessing fees for the privilege of publishing," attorneys say.

The suit also claims that the Seattle ordinance unlawfully interferes with interstate commerce and violates the privacy rights of Seattle residents.

All of which might make you wonder: Since when is unwanted litter a right? If people don't want one or more phonebooks dropped off at their house, isn't it their right to opt out of the deliveries? Especially when there's something called the Internet, where phone numbers are easy to come by?


Read more here.

Bryan Fischer: Sick F*ck of the Day

Words of wisdom from The American Family Association's Bryan Fischer. Remember folks, the gays are the bad guys!

This will probably be the most mind numbing stupidity you'll read today.

The Medal of Honor will be awarded this afternoon to Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta for his heroism in Afghanistan, and deservedly so. He took a bullet in his protective vest as he pulled one soldier to safety, and then rescued the sergeant who was walking point and had been taken captive by two Taliban, whom Sgt. Giunta shot to free his comrade-in-arms.

This is just the eighth Medal of Honor awarded during our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Sgt. Giunta is the only one who lived long enough to receive his medal in person.

But I have noticed a disturbing trend in the awarding of these medals, which few others seem to have recognized.

We have feminized the Medal of Honor.

According to Bill McGurn of the Wall Street Journal, every Medal of Honor awarded during these two conflicts has been awarded for saving life. Not one has been awarded for inflicting casualties on the enemy. Not one.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Three Fort Carson soldiers: Idiots of the Day

Three Fort Carson soldiers had a perfectly good explanation for allegedly breaking into a pot dispensary in Colorado Springs early Saturday.

It was a public service.

“We were just trying to get rid of all the marijuana,” Pfc. Ramone Hollins told officers after the trio were arrested inside Rocky Road Remedies at 2489 S. Academy Blvd. on the city’s southeast side, according to an arrest affidavit.

Hollins, 22, Pfc. Darius Thomas, 23, and Pvt. Cory Young, 22, were arrested on suspicion of second-degree burglary after police say they accidentally locked themselves inside the dispensary during a burglary-gone-bad.


Read more here.

Vikings brought Amerindian to Iceland 1,000 years ago

The first Native American to arrive in Europe may have been a woman brought to Iceland by the Vikings more than 1,000 years ago, a study by Spanish and Icelandic researchers suggests.

The findings boost widely-accepted theories, based on Icelandic medieval texts and a reputed Viking settlement in Newfoundland in Canada, that the Vikings reached the American continent several centuries before Christopher Columbus travelled to the "New World."


Read more here.

His Lord Mayor Alleged Fat F*ck Ford's minons know how to use the telephone

Remember the anonymous Rob Ford campaign staffer who called John Tory’s Newstalk 1010 show to rattle the host and keep him out of the mayoral race? Turns out the caller was in fact Fraser Macdonald, the deputy communications director who also created the infamous @queensquaykaren faux twitter account.

Newstalk 1010 provided us the audio of the Aug. 3 call -- the first Mr. Tory took after returning from a weeklong vacation during which speculation about his mayoral intentions hit a fever pitch. Posing as “Gary from Toronto,” Mr. Macdonald phoned during a segment on body cameras for police, but quickly changed the subject to Mr. Tory’s integrity.


Read more here.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

The Day Pictures Were Born

Artie Shaw - Nonstop Flight 1938

Count Basie - Swingin' the Blues 1941

Benny Goodman Orchestra "Bugle Call Rag" 1936

East York, Toronto, run by tin pot dictators

When told of this story, a friend asked "How can they do this, isn't it private property?"

HAHAHAHAHAHA. Of course they have no right to do this, but when has that ever stopped governments before?

An East York woman woke up to a yellow notice on her windshield warning that her car could be fined or towed for being illegally parked in her own driveway.

The city notice states, “Park in front of garage door only.”

Felicia Wang has lived at the same house on Parkview Hill Cres. for all her 25 years. She has always parked her silver Honda sedan next to her parents’ vehicle on the family’s double driveway, which extends past the single garage.

The notice that she was in violation of a bylaw came as a surprise.

“We parked three cars there when my brother used to live there. Why now, all of a sudden?” she said.

A new bylaw that restricts parking on residential driveways sparked outrage when it came into effect Oct. 1.


Read more here.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Culture minister Ed Vaizey is a danger that must be stopped

People like this pop up with increasing regularity, cause governments would like nothing more than to fuck with the net.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey has backed a "two-speed" internet, letting service providers charge content makers and customers for "fast lane" access.

It paves the way for an end to "net neutrality" - with heavy bandwidth users like Google and the BBC likely to face a bill for the pipes they use.

Mr Vaizey said ISPs must be free to experiment with new charges to help pay for the expansion in internet services.

But critics warn the move could harm free speech and stifle innovation.


"Yes Minister, that would be a side effect"

"Excellent...."

Read more here.

U.S. Marshals in Orlando, Florida love the porn

At the heart of the controversy over "body scanners" is a promise: The images of our naked bodies will never be public. U.S. Marshals in a Florida Federal courthouse saved 35,000 images on their scanner. These are those images.

A Gizmodo investigation has revealed 100 of the photographs saved by the Gen 2 millimeter wave scanner from Brijot Imaging Systems, Inc., obtained by a FOIA request after it was recently revealed that U.S. Marshals operating the machine in the Orlando, Florida courthouse had improperly-perhaps illegally-saved images of the scans of public servants and private citizens.


Read more here.

London Police: Idiots of the Day

The more you tighten your grasp, the more star systems will slip thru your fingers...

More than 70 websites today published guidance to student protesters about avoiding arrest, in defiance of a police ruling that doing so was unlawful.

The anti-police blog Fitwatch was suspended yesterday after detectives from C011, the Metropolitan police's public order branch, told the company hosting its website that it was "being used to undertake criminal activities".

In a blogpost published hours earlier, Fitwatch gave advice about avoiding arrest to students involved in last week's protest at the Millbank headquarters of the Conservative party. Fitwatch was removed soon afterwards, but tonight the offending blogpost, which recommended that students "get rid" of clothes they wore at the demonstration and change their appearance, had been republished on an additional 78 websites, including Facebook.

Many of the websites republishing the material were run by political activists, who disseminated the material via Twitter in what they described as a campaign to show the futility of police censorship.


Amen to that.

Read more here.

Read the so called illegal site here.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Pushy Christians: Badly worded bigoted Texas policy goes too far, attacks straight people. Oppsie!

"The city of El Paso endorses traditional family values by making health benefits available only to city employees and their legal spouse and dependent children."

"It may include straight people in our unjust policy?"

"Yes Reverend..."

"Damn! Damn! Damn!"

Unions representing police officers and firefighters have said they would fight if the city tried to cut retiree benefits.

"If we have to commence legal action, we will," said Paul Thompson, trustee for the firefighters union, Local 51 of the El Paso Association of Firefighters.

He said the union might seek a restraining order to keep the benefits from being cut.

The Rev. Tom Brown helped organize the ballot initiative. He said supporters never intended to eliminate benefits for anybody but gay and unmarried domestic partners of city employees.

On Wednesday, Brown said he would have to talk with his group's attorney before he could comment on the proposal to cut benefits to some retirees, dependents and grandchildren.


Read more here.

Newsweek gives vile homophobe Brian Brown a platform to spew his hatred

Newsweek gives this vile little bigot a place to make life unpleasant for millions....

Until these people obey *all* the rules in the Bible, they should STFU.

They won't of course, logical thinking is the last of their talents.

Read more here if you want your faith in humanity destroyed just that much more....

Chris Selley: Idiot of the Day

Mr. Selley defends the train wreck that is Lake Shore:

“As a nation that has tried so hard to make multiculturalism work, Lake Shore is a large step backward,” Andre Mayer wrote this week on the CBC website.

For now, I don’t think Lake Shore is a large anything; it hasn’t even been picked up by a network. But theoretically speaking, isn’t eight people with strongly identified ethnic or religious backgrounds living together less an attack on multiculturalism than a fairly pure expression of it?


Perhaps Mr. Selley's experience of Toronto only includes people so self centered, so unpleasantly bigoted that they and he think they are representative of Toronto.

And if indeed they are representative of Toronto, then Toronto better take a long hard look at itself, cause it would mean it is *very* fucked up.

The Renaissance of the Stupid continues apace. The time of His Lord Mayor Alleged Fat F*ck Ford will bring more of these types from under the rocks they have been lurking for decades.

Read more here.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Hey England, release Paul Chambers, you look like morons on a global scale

Tweeters have joined forces to support Paul Chambers, the man convicted and fined for a Twitter message threatening to blow up an airport.

The Twitter community is angry that the 27-year-old accountant has failed to overturn his conviction.

A day after his appeal failed, two "hashtags" to highlight his situation remain top topics in the UK.

Free speech advocate Index on Censorship said the UK judiciary was out of step with social networks.

"The verdict demonstrates that the UK's legal system has little respect for free expression, and has no understanding of how people communicate in the 21st Century," said the organisation's news editor Padraig Reidy.


Read more here.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Note to Jon Stewart: Bush is a war criminal. Conversation over

Jon Stewart had this to say during his interview with Rachel Maddow:

You've said Bush is a war criminal. Now, that may be technical true. In my world, war criminal is Pol Pot or the Nuremburg trials. …I think that's such an incendiary charge that when you put it in the conversation as—well, technically he is. That may be right. But it feels like a conversation stopper, not a conversation starter. …We were talking about tone, not content necessarily.

The reaction to this is probably not what he'd hoped...

Read more here.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Lake Shore: Unadulterated Crap



The producers are correct that it reflects Toronto. They had to go to the U.S. for an original idea, steal it and call it their own.

When Toronto has done that before, we got Dundas Square...

Could they have found more vapid, unattractive people?

The show looks to be a complete embarrassment for all involved, viewers (and if you are one you are a moron) included.

Oh and...

The makers of a new Toronto reality TV show have apologized for a controversial online trailer in which one of the program’s characters expresses hatred for Jews, even as two former cast hopefuls allege they felt pressured to make racist and sexualized comments during the audition process.

Read more here.

Al Bowlly - Melancholy Baby

Lundgren vs. Unicorn

Gareth Compton: Twidiot of the Day

An English politician was arrested on Thursday for joking on Twitter that a columnist he disagreed with should be stoned to death.

Gareth Compton, a 38-year-old member of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party who serves in local government in Birmingham, was suspended by the party following his arrest, Britain’s Press Association reported.


The Tweet in Question?

"Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death! I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really"

Conservative humour, a difficult concept.

Read more here.

The Cakewalk

Focus on the Family to bring their hateful message to schools

Bigots know no bounds.

Christian humility and charity? Fuck that, there's young fags to make uncomfortable...

Focus on the Family announced Thursday it will take over sponsorship of an annual student-led event against homosexuality.

The event is called the Day of Dialogue
(read here: We need to tell you how evil you are), formerly known as the Day of Truth (read here: our Truth, which is unquestionable...enjoying the "dialogue" yet?).

"We want to offer students the facts (about homosexuality) to engage a dialogue in schools," Focus spokesman Gary Schneeberger said.

Focus on Thursday launched the website Dayofdialogue.com, a resource for students interested in being part of the protest next April.

"The Day of Dialogue gives you, as a student, the opportunity to express the true model presented by Jesus Christ ** in the Bible (on homosexuality)," the website says.


And to beat up on gay students. It's ok, God told them to...

The Bible should come with a warning label: Do not use without humanity and intelligence, or you'll come across as a spiteful, hateful monster.

** Jesus Christ Himself has actually nothing to say on the matter, but Focus on the Family is not in the truth business, but in the maintaining and perpetuation of institutional homophobia, and making sure the next generation has a large number of homophobes to continue the cause.

'Cause without the young, they just look like a bus load of Bible shielded crazy old bigots...

Read more here.

Amnesty International: Prosecute Bush

The United States must prosecute former President George W. Bush for torture if his admission in a memoir that he authorized waterboarding holds true, rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

In "Decision Points," published this week, Bush defended his decision to authorize waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning condemned by some as torture *.

Bush said the practice was limited to three detainees and led to intelligence breakthroughs that thwarted attacks and saved lives. He told NBC in an interview to publicize the book that his legal adviser had told him it did "not fall within the anti-torture act."

Amnesty International's Senior Director Claudio Cordone said in a statement: "Under international law, anyone involved in torture must be brought to justice, and that does not exclude former President George W. Bush."


Lovely thought, but will never happen. For the West to admit war crimes it will have to overcome barbaric attitudes unleashed by Bush and Co., as this brain dead commenter demonstrates:

Those people deserved it!!!!!!!! anyone remotely involved with 9/11 should have been not only tortured, but executed. How does anyone feel sorry for these people? They should not have done something to become detained. They absolutely deserved any bit of torture they received. Thank god bush had the spine to handle the situation. Democrat pussies make the fathers of our country turn over in their graves. Go waterboarding. Would be terrorists NEED to know they will be tortured if they are caught.

Thus unravelling centuries of progress...

Read more here.

* Oh and by the way Reuters, fuck you, water boarding is torture. Only the sick fucks who want to use it and the press that enables them have doubts. The rest of us are crystal clear it's torture.

Toronto to World: Gordon Ramsay didn't pick us, WAAAAAAAAA!

Toronto is all out of joint because pseudo star Gordon Ramsay had chosen Montreal (shock horror) over Toronto for his first Canadian restaurant.

Cause you know the attitude in Toronto, you can go to another city...as long, and only as long as you pick Toronto first.

Other than that, Hell hath no fury...

So why isn’t Ramsay opening a Toronto restaurant, as he told CBCs The Hour in February 2009 he planned on doing?

“Toronto would be a dream, to be honest,” he said wistfully before his handler interjected to mark the conclusion of our short telephone interview.


Thus implying that Ramsay *really* wanted to go to Toronto, but his evil handler stopped him!!

Why, they even found a Montrealer who thinks Ramsey should have gone to Toronto.

Michel Ross, chef-owner of Mas Cuisine in Montreal, said Monday he hadn’t heard any buzz about a Ramsay invasion*.

“I have a feeling the Montreal restaurant crowd is not that star struck,” he said. “What’s really happening and busy in Montreal right now is smaller chef-owned restaurants. If you ask me, (Ramsay) should do something in Toronto — not Montreal.”


Oh the injustice, Toronto passed over of its rightful world class role as Canada's Only City That Matters™.

* Because people in Montreal don't know or give a fuck who Mr. Ramsay is. Montrealers enjoy good food, not watching psychotics attempt to boost their egos by shouting at each other making it.

Toronto though would eat it up.

Read more here.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

What the hell was Google doing?

How can you collect 600 gigs by mistake?

Google has said it gathered about 600 gigabytes of data – enough to fill about six floors of an academic library – in more than 30 nations and wants to delete all of the information as soon it's cleared to do so in all affected countries. But the company is facing a number of investigations both in the U.S. and overseas.

Read more here.

Ruben Navarrette Jr.: Idiot of the Day

This epic idiot implies Jeb Bush would make a good presidential candidate in 2012.

His idiocy starts early:

Supporters see a good man, a compassionate conservative and a natural-born leader who said what he meant and meant what he said and shepherded the country through some of its most difficult moments after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and who didn't dodge tough issues to be popular.

Detractors see a dishonest politician who never had the smarts for the job, and thus surrendered control over the presidency to a Svengali-like cast of characters who ran the country and the economy into the ground while the president spent his days mountain biking and turning in early.

As with most things, the truth is probably somewhere in-between.


HAHAHAHHAHA, fair and balanced. Moron. Why mention little details like war crimes...

It gets worse, much worse...

Someone needs to get in there and repair the breach. Someone needs to convince Hispanics that Republicans aren't their enemies and point out that Democrats haven't always been very good friends. Paging baby brother.

Keep it coming Americans, your activities are highly amusing to the rest of us, in a train wreck full of clowns kind of way.

Read more here.

Cuba says Call of Duty is repulsive...well duh

Having played earlier versions of Call of Duty, I can concur that is American jingoism gone wild.

This newest version does cross the line. Castro is a world leader, but the Americans just can't accept that, so we get stupid story lines like this.

If Castro lives to be 110 and dies quietly in his bed, the Americans will still claim they killed him.

Cuba has condemned the release of a new video game in which United States special forces try to kill a young Fidel Castro.

State-run media said the game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, attempted to legitimise murder and assassination in the name of entertainment.

The Cubadebate website said it would also turn American children into sociopaths.

It is expected to be one of the biggest selling video games of the year

The BBC correspondent in Havana, Michael Voss, says Cubadebate takes a dig at all the failed real life attempts to kill Cuba's former president.

The website says that the US government is trying to achieve through virtual reality what it had not been able to do in real life during Mr Castro's 50 years in power.


Queue the "Wahhhhh, it's only game" crowd in 3...2...

Read more here.

Toronto approves yet another f*cking condo

This could be the marketing slogan for condo developers everywhere: “There is no history, so let us make history by creating something different.”

Yet another condo development, yeah, that'll be really different.

The rich continue unopposed to transform Toronto into Tocondo...

A 47-storey condo tower that the city originally opposed will rise after all in the heart of the theatre district, but local Councillor Adam Vaughan aims to use heritage conservation powers to rein in the soaring structures that are sprouting up in the area.

The city and the team behind 224 King St. West, headed up by condo king Brad J. Lamb and prominent architect Peter Clewes, settled their differences before reaching the Ontario Municipal Board, the tribunal that rules on development disputes.

The overall height of the tower has come down slightly, to 157 metres from 164 metres, although two more floors have been added, Mr. Lamb said in an interview.

Located next to the Royal Alexandra Theatre, in what is now a parking lot, the “Theatre Park” blueprints set the tower back enough from King Street to create a public park that is heralded as the project’s centrepiece. The price of units will range from $299,900 to $3-million, said Mr. Lamb, or about $600- to $625-a-square-foot, and will go on sale next year.

“I am thrilled,” Mr. Lamb said of the outcome, which recently got a “rubber stamp” from the OMB to proceed.


Mr. Lamb is perfectly named...bahhhhhhh

Read more here.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Nick Kouvalis tries damage control

Mr. Kouvalis, you needn't worry. Torontonians elected your precious little Robbie knowing *exactly* what they were getting. Sleazy politics are the least of their concerns, what with the streets filled with latte drinking bike riding hippies to get rid of...

Kouvalis said Miller and his helpful staff has “answered every question we’ve asked of them.” The 35-year-old Windsor native with a polling background was instrumental in Ford winning this election so handily.

But he is on his own learning curve as he admitted he messed up with recent comments at a forum of campaign managers about election tomfoolery.

The part that got him into hot water revolved around his acknowledging a fake phone call from the campaign to John Tory’s Newstalk 1010 radio show out of fear he might jump into the race. Kouvalis admits he should have known better and was just trying to give the discussion something rather than talk about the same “gravy train” campaign mantra.

“Those were my screw ups, not Rob’s,” he said.

Doug Ford told me neither he or Rob were pleased about any of it but also realize they were rookie mistakes.

“I told Nick no one from the Ford family has ever been boastful about politics,” said Doug. “We are humbled by this victory and want to do the best for Toronto.”

The bottom line is this kind of high jinx, both Rob and Doug assured me, will not happen again.

“I was naive and I learned my lesson,” said Kouvalis, a bright young politico who said the last thing he would want to do is hurt the Fords.

He said the irony of it is Rob won the election — not slick back-room strategy.

“Rob was brilliant,” said Nick. “He has more guts than anybody and he was our best focus group.”


There you have it folks, Rob is brilliant, coming from a source of impeccable honesty...

His Lord Mayor's time in office should be entertaining, what with all the rookie high jinx! Oh the hilarity.

Read more here.

No charges in destruction of CIA videotapes, Justice Department says

Take note kids, this is how you sweep war crimes under the rug.

No one will face criminal charges for the destruction of CIA videotapes depicting harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects during the Bush administration, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Best Bullshit:

CIA officials have long said that the motive was innocent: After the emergence of widely reviled images of detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, CIA veterans feared that the disclosure of the videotapes could compromise their security.

Durham's team of prosecutors and FBI agents have been exploring whether the tapes were instead destroyed in anticipation of a congressional or federal investigation, which could constitute a crime. But sources have said authorities found it difficult to pinpoint the motivation for destroying the tapes.


Oh wait, there's more bullshit:

Jose Rodriguez Jr. - head of the directorate of operations at the CIA from 2004 to 2007 - sent a cable authorizing the destruction of the tapes and has been a key focus of the inquiry. Rodriguez will not be charged, sources familiar with the investigation said.

Robert S. Bennett, an attorney for Rodriguez, said he is "pleased that the Justice Department has decided not to go forward against Mr. Rodriguez. This is the right decision because of the facts and the law.''

"Jose Rodriguez is an American hero, a true patriot who only wanted to protect his people and his country," Bennett added.


By covering up torture? I must have a different dictionary than Mr. Bennett, it defines "hero" slightly differently...

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Transportation Security Administration gets into porn

News that will surprise absolutely no one. Thinking people knew what they said about these devices were lies.

For the last few years, federal agencies have defended body scanning by insisting that all images will be discarded as soon as they're viewed. The Transportation Security Administration claimed last summer, for instance, that "scanned images cannot be stored or recorded."

Now it turns out that some police agencies are storing the controversial images after all. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse.


Read more here.

Michael Caine's voice

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit: Let's hear it for the Rapist! RARASISBOOMBA

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, one of the most right-wing courts in the country, sanctioned a former high school cheerleader because she brought a lawsuit claiming that she shouldn’t be required to cheer for her alleged rapist:

The former cheerleader and her family are appealing the ruling by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which includes an order to pay the school district’s legal fees on the grounds their suit was far-fetched and frivolous. [...]


The only thing far-fetched and frivolous was the court's ruling.

Read more here.

Lawyer Philip J. Thomas: Shrivell was only targeting a fag, what's the big deal, sheesh

Remember folks, Mr. Shivell and his kind are the self proclaimed Good Guys...

An assistant attorney general in Michigan is out of a job, fired after targeting an openly gay University of Michigan student leader online and in person -- then lying about his actions to investigators -- state Attorney General Mike Cox said Monday.

Andrew Shirvell "repeatedly violated office policies, engaged in borderline stalking behavior and inappropriately used state resources," Cox said.


Of course there are those that are just AOK with Shirvell being a dangerous psychotic...like his lawyer.

"This smells political to me," Thomas told the newspaper. "There's been a tremendous piling-on against Andrew. The liberal media started this tempest in a teapot."

Oh yes, that damn liberal media, always pointing out the dangerous right wing loonies. So wrong of them, they should just stand back and let honest hard working Americans state their, um, opinions in a public forum.

Even clearly crazy government workers targeting a gay student...especially crazy government workers targeting a gay student.

Human decency don't seem to be concepts he or Mr. Shivell seem to be able to grasp.

Note to Mr. Philip J. Thomas: Fuck you. Maybe that will sink in.

Read more here.

Monday, November 08, 2010

European diplomats politely inquire, who the f*ck does China think it is?

China is throwing its usual tantrum when it doesn't get its way outside of China. Usually this is done on a country by country basis, but this time it's different...

China is pressing European governments to boycott the ceremony awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, warning that the award interferes in China’s internal affairs and that Mr. Liu is a criminal, Western diplomats said on Thursday.

Beijing also urged governments not to issue the statements of support and congratulation that are customary for Nobel laureates, they said.

The unusual request was delivered to European embassies in Oslo, the site of the award ceremony in December, in a written démarche, or diplomatic note, the highest level of communication between diplomatic outposts. How many embassies received the note was unclear.


If ever a reason was needed why *everyone* should attend the ceremony, this is it.

Read more here.

Wishery

Nick Kouvalis and how to get an Idiot in Office, part II

If I were the new Lord Mayor, I would get Kouvalis to STFU, but I get the impression these people are proud of their lack of ethics.

Well done Toronto, His Lord Mayor Alleged Fat F*ck Ford *is* the mayor you deserve.

This man is positively beaming with pride at the sleazy tricks it took to get "Robbie*" (his name for Ford, not mine) into office.

Well, we're stuck with him for years. Enjoy!

The Rob Ford campaign had one of its members anonymously call John Tory’s radio show and bait him about his integrity in a strategy to keep Tory out of Toronto’s mayoral race.

Nick Kouvalis, Ford’s deputy campaign manager and now the mayor-elect’s chief of staff, told a forum Friday that his success in keeping Tory out of the race was a “huge victory” and “Rob won because of it.”

And now that Ford is elected, he added, the transition team is talking to Tory, the Newstalk 1010 host and chair of the Toronto Summit City Alliance, about playing a possible role in the Ford administration.

Kouvalis disclosed the election tactics less than a week after admitting the Ford campaign set up a fake Twitter account for “queensquaykaren” (aka Karen Philby) — a supposed Smitherman supporter, complete with photo and profile — to covertly obtain a recording of a potentially damaging phone conversation between Ford and an OxyContin drug user.


Of course supporters are commenting too:

Toronto, you have a new Mayor come December, please come together and give him your support. What is done is done and the next 4 years will tell whether he is doing what he says he is going to do. Rehashing who says what etc. will not help.

HAHAHAHA! Fuck that. His Lord Mayor's every word and action will be followed, criticized and scrutinized. If he uses such methods to get into office, imagine what he'll do to stay there...

Read more here.

* to paraphrase Sean Connery, we called the dog Robbie...

Harper and Co. aren't completely honest about Afghanistan. No one surprised

I understand how hard it must be for a conservative to stop a military action. They forced their way in and now they're damn well going to have a good long time of it.

They will use the old "training local army and police forces" to maintain a presence.

In what appears to be a U-turn, the Harper government has said publicly for the first time that it is seriously considering keeping hundreds of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan to train that country’s security forces after the end of Canada’s official combat role next year.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Sunday that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will announce within two weeks Canada’s future role in Afghanistan.


Read more here.

Dangerous arson trend in Montreal leaves 10 homeless

There are some dangerous fucking psychopaths loose in Montreal, as the series of fire bombings continue.

After locking up his restaurant and saying good night to staff, Jimmy Niktaris had barely gotten home when he learned his restaurant was engulfed in flames.

Sunday morning, Granada Pizzeria at 4668 de Charleroi St., a restaurant Niktaris’s family has owned and operated for the past 18 years, was torched with accelerant at about 2:40 a.m., Montreal police said.

The third Montreal North pizzeria to be firebombed in less than a week, the fire caused an estimated $300,000 in damage and left 10 people living in the four apartments on the second and third floors above the restaurant homeless.


Read more here.

In Colorado, crime is irrelevant as long as you're rich

If you're going to get in a hit and run, plan to be rich or a police officer. Life will be so much easier.

A financial manager for wealthy clients will not face felony charges for a hit-and-run because it could jeopardize his job, prosecutors said Thursday.

Martin Joel Erzinger, 52, faces two misdemeanor traffic charges stemming from a July 3 incident when he allegedly hit bicyclist Dr. Steven Milo from behind then sped away, according to court documents.

Milo and his attorney, Harold Haddon, are livid about the prosecution's decision to drop the felony charge. They filed their objection Wednesday afternoon, the day after prosecutors notified Haddon's office by fax of their decision.

Haddon and Milo say this is a victim's rights case, that Erzinger's alleged actions constituted a felony, and that one day is not enough notice.


Read more here.

Some disgusting parents: How dare you try and stop our Johnny from bullying gays!

The parade of the bigoted brain dead continues.

What they are essentially saying is kids need to have the gay beaten out of them....by other kids.

And of *course*, these loving people are the good guys...

Many educators and rights advocates say that official prohibitions of slurs and taunts are most effective when combined with frank discussions, from kindergarten on, about diverse families and sexuality.

Angry parents and religious critics, while agreeing that schoolyard harassment should be stopped, charge that liberals and gay rights groups are using the antibullying banner to pursue a hidden “homosexual agenda,” implicitly endorsing, for example, same-sex marriage.


These blinkered morons can't see a contradiction if it hit them over the head. Observe:

Candi Cushman, an educational analyst with Focus on the Family, a Christian group, said that early lessons about sexuality and gay parents reflected a political agenda, including legitimizing same-sex marriage. “We need to protect all children from bullying,” Ms. Cushman said. “But the advocacy groups are promoting homosexual lessons in the name of antibullying.”

But Christian bullying and hate filled agenda (against those who don't fit the bill) is just AOK for these folks.

Read more here.

British Conservatives plan to play out their greatest fantasy: Hard labour for the unemployed

Conservatives around the world are finding new and wonderful ways to be completely vile. It's a joy to watch their inventiveness.

Ministers have defended their plans to force the long-term unemployed to do manual work or lose benefits.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander told the BBC the idea was not to "punish or humiliate" but to get people back into the habit of working.

But the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said the changes could drive people "into a downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair".

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith is to unveil the plans this week.

Under the plan, claimants thought to need "experience of the habits and routines of working life" could be put on 30-hour-a-week placements.

Anyone refusing to take part or failing to turn up on time could have their £65 Jobseekers' Allowance stopped for at least three months.


Read more here.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Four Lions

Bush admits war crimes. You know and I know nothing will come of it

Welcome to the Modern World. If your side does it, it's torture. If our side does it, it's "the choice between security and values".

War crime tribunals are just for the losers.

Bush reveals the decision points that led him to choose waterboarding as an interrogation technique.

"CIA experts drew up a list of interrogation techniques. ... At my direction, Department of Justice and CIA lawyers conducted a careful legal review. The enhanced interrogation program complied with the Constitution and all applicable laws, including those that ban torture.

"There were two that I felt went too far, even if they were legal. I directed the CIA not to use them. Another technique was waterboarding, a process of simulated drowning. No doubt the procedure was tough, but medical experts assured the CIA that it did no lasting harm."

Though Bush confirms that he knew the use of waterboarding would one day become public, and acknowledges that it is "sensitive and controversial," he asserts that "the choice between security and values was real," and expresses firm confidence in his decision. "Had I not authorized waterboarding on senior al Qaeda leaders, I would have had to accept a greater risk that the country would be attacked. In the wake of 9/11, that was a risk I was unwilling to take," he writes.


And there you have it folks. American has lost its moral lead in the world. Gone forever.

Thus are war crimes justified.

Thanks Bush, heck of a job.

My prediction: Bush was just a warm up. The real horrors committed by the West are yet to come this century, now that we have that nasty torture stigma out of the way....

King Tutankhamun stepped on by hippopotamus

With all the studies and reasons for his death, it's a wonder Tut lived at all...

A new study shows that Tutankhamun, Egypt’s famous “boy-king” who died around the age of 18, suffered a “massive crushing tearing injury to his chest” that likely would have killed him.

X-rays and CT scans have previously shown that the pharaoh’s heart, chest wall, the front part of his sternum and adjacent ribs, are missing. In Ancient Egypt the heart was like the brain and removing it was something that was not done.


Read more here.

China continues to act like a child nation, re Ai Weiwei

China continues to act like a spoiled child. Thank goodness we can laugh at their stupidity, unlike their unfortunate citizens, where the effects of government tantrums can be deadly serious.

One of China's best-known artists, Ai Weiwei, says he has been under house arrest at his home in Beijing.

He says the authorities want to prevent him holding a party to mark the forced demolition of his new Shanghai studio.

Mr Ai was initially invited to build the space, but it has now been declared illegal and will shortly be demolished.

The artist helped create Beijing's Olympic Bird's Nest stadium and his latest installation of sunflower seeds is showing at London's Tate Modern.


Read more here.

Nick Kouvalis and how to get an Idiot in Office

Nick Kouvalis, Rob Ford's campaign manager, tells how they pulled the wool over our eyes got His Lord Mayor Alleged Fat F*ck Ford elected...

Mr. Kouvalis, meanwhile, said he knew Rob Ford, who loves football and knows how much it costs to change a tire, couldn’t win a policy debate.

“The Fords are grass-roots guys,” he said. “All of these guys are more articulate than Rob. Most of those words when you are talking about transportation have four syllables, and those guys, Doug and Rob, don’t do so well.”


An illuminating passage on conservative reading skills:

Mr. Kouvalis also gave a glimpse of the working conditions in the Ford mayoral office, describing how he recruited staff for the campaign. He said he gave candidates a 300-page Conservative electoral strategy book to read, and if they scored 75% on a test on its contents, they could get an interview.

Astounding. Conservatives can read. And here I thought Atlas Shrugged was longer..

Ayn Rand Mr. Ford, an American writer? Oh never mind...

“I wanted young kids because I could pay them nothing and they would do what I told them to,” he said. “I paid them $500 a week and I wanted 60 or 70 hours a week out of them.”

Nice. Pure conservatism.

Read more here.

Olbermann's 'suspension' and epic hypocrisy

Somebody got revenge....

MSNBC declared that it would be suspending progressive host Keith Olbermann because he violated NBC’s ethics rules by donating to three Democratic candidates for Congress. As many bloggers have noted, conservative MSNBC host Joe Scarborough has donated to Republican candidates for Congress while promoting the same candidate on air, but has never been disciplined. Moreover, Gawker notes that MSNBC has been exempt from the formal NBC ethics rules for years. It is still a mystery why MSNBC selectively applied NBC’s ethics rules to Olbermann. However, it important to realize that MSNBC has undergone a fundamental change in leadership in the last two months.

Read more here.

If you're going to kill an unarmed black man, at least plan to be white, it's so much easier

A former transit police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting an unarmed man on an Oakland train station platform was sentenced by a Los Angeles judge Friday to two years in prison.

Johannes Mehserle, 28, contended that he mistakenly used his firearm instead of an electric Taser weapon when he shot Oscar J. Grant III in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2009. But prosecutors argued at his trial that Mehserle meant to reach for his handgun as he tried to handcuff an unresisting Grant, who was lying face-down on the platform floor.

Grainy video footage captured by several witnesses shows Mehserle, who is white, firing one round into the back of Grant, who was black. The racially charged case sparked rioting in Oakland soon after the shooting and again in July, when a Los Angeles jury acquitted Mehserle of murder but found him guilty of a lesser crime. The trial had been moved to downtown Los Angeles amid concern about the extensive media coverage of the killing in the Bay Area.


Read more here.

The New Freshman Class of Extremist Senators