Give me one good reason

With a typical Steve Jobs hyper-launch the world was introduced to the Ipad. A ten inch display, an enlarged Iphone but without a phone, what can it do? That will be the question for those people willing to lay out $400US for the cheapest version or $829Us for the full kit. As a non smart phone user I cannot appreciate the value of the "apps" that abound but even if all of the thousands available for transfer to the Ipad were moved over I still fail to see a use for this pad. After all can it translate scribblings with a stylus into intelligable text, can it take a picture, and in Canada can it use the 3G network? Not yet!
I remain to be convinced of its usefullness - I am a sceptic - convince me otherwise.

Postscript, thanks to Wally and his browsing of Youtube - a non political use of the Hitler clip; he, Hitler, doesn't like the Ipad either. Watch it here

What a bunch of hot air!

Lou Rinaldi delivered a dubious retort to a very intelligent question on Monday night. Cllr Stan Frost asked why the province was being inconsistent by banning municipalities from offering bribes to business but allowing bribes to doctors. Rinaldi replied:
"Our government has looked at every possible way but, at the end of the day, we don't want to tell municipalities how best to spend their money. Under the present law, there's nothing the province can do."
Well Lou change the law you have done it before: bicycle helmets, no stunt driving, no cell phones or smoking in cars and the list goes on. So long is the list of measures that curtail individual liberty that the Premier is known by some as "Premier Dad".
To handcuff municipalities with a doctor shortage and then tell them that in order to attract doctors it is OK to bribe them is reckless fiscal policy that wastes local ratepayers money. We don't want to spend this money but some Councils are convinced that it is the only way to get them here. There's an election this year Lou, some may remember this remark as political nonsense and vote accordingly.

Guest Post

Deb 'Connor

Stockwell Day at Treasury: OH NO!

Recent news that Harper has shuffled Stockwell Day into the Treasury Board, where he will wield the knife on program cuts, has me worried. With Flaherty whispering in one ear sharing tactics learned from his former boss, Mike the Knife in Ontario, and Harper in the other reminding him of their Reform roots, this will be bad news for all the widows and orphans out there, not to mention the immigrant population, the unemployed, the homeless and anyone else too dumb to be rich in this country.

With corporate taxes and taxation of the wealthy at a historically low level in Canada, this callous government is vowing no new taxes, despite the ever growing deficit they created with their dubious stimulus programs. Announcing that beating the deficit means cutting programs exclusively, they have just eliminated a worthwhile source of revenue without a thought of the consequences.

So what sort of programs are they likely to target? Looking at where these guys come from, it's a safe bet that programs and services that protect women's health, like access to abortion, and immigrant settlement will be vulnerable; so will education, research, First Nations, poverty reduction (such as it is at the federal level), and the regulatory framework we rely on like meat inspection. That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure readers can add their own lists of potential victims of the upcoming federal cuts.

Secretly, I suspect old Stock and the boys are relishing the thought of the havoc they will wreak on Canadians when he starts waving his axe around. They probably figure having a huge deficit is worth it for the fun they will have decimating all the services and programs they hate anyway with the deficit as their ready made excuse.

And just what did they do with all that stimulus program money? Will we ever get to find out if we got what we are about to start paying for, for years to come?

More reflections on the protest

This protest will be the subject of many post-mortems. But as far as I am concerned it was a huge success in one thing - the apathetic body of Candians twitched. And even more importantly the arcane topic of the Canadian Constitution is being examined. Who is supreme Parliament or the Ruling Party? This document tracks the number of people who attended the Country-wide ralllies. The numbers are not important because the very action was. Political scientists and management consultants will tell you that a letter to the editor/Council represents 50 like minded people an appearance and personal statement is good for 500. What does the act of 25,000 determined people fighting freezing temps represent in the court of public opinion?

A very disturbing trend, and one that should come back to bite the Ruling party is the attitude embedded by the statements that Government is working well without Parliament. Both Jason Kenney, a public Minister, and the PM have said this in the last three days. Wow what strange statements! Does that mean that if this attitude is left unchecked then we will have Parliament doing nothing else other than ceremonial constitutional requirements? It also should be noted that constitutional requirements appear to be lacking these days, the request for proroguing parliament was in the form of a phone call, not a personal visit.

So, Get back to work and make the Constitution work the silent majority has demanded it.

BTW scan this video for any political hacks, few seen just ordinary folks who braved the cold.

Oooops, couldn't resist this one

A report on the NorthumberlandToday's online edition about the local libs AGM had this picture and a caption. Pity the paper mixed up candidates and parties. I know Stan Grizzle used to be a Liberal, and an NDPer but is now the Green party candidate. But I hope Kim Rudd doesn't get ribbed about this too much today, might take away the impact of her speech today.

This just in from the Cobourg Rally

Deb O'Connor
Anti Proroguement Rally Rocks Downtown Cobourg

Today's rally, held in front of a locked door at MP Rick Norlock's Cobourg constituency office, was an unqualified success, as up to 150 people of all ages, shapes and sizes joined together to express their displeasure at the prorogation of Parliament by Stephen Harper's government. With so many there, at some points the roadway was impassable for cars.

The event, loosely organized by our local Council of Canadians president Elma Parker and Port Hope lawyer Wilf Day, kicked off with the crowd singing O Canada. Although this wasn't a partisan event, candidates for the liberals, NDP and Green Party had a chance to say their piece, all of them in agreement that Harper and his gang have flaunted their contempt for Canadians with this second self serving and dishonest prorogation and need to get back to work now.

While speakers raised several issues that generated their anger towards this government's arrogant leadership, two that resonated were the shutting down of the enquiry into Afghan prisoner abuse and the government's contempt of Parliament in refusing to hand over documents to that enquiry as directed by Parliament.

While some brought home made signs saying "Prorogue Harper" and "Get Back to Work", many more echoed these sentiments by chanting them in the crowd. One person could be heard shouting "Coalition" with murmurs of agreement coming from some of the assembled.
The mood was upbeat and positive despite the frigid temperature and clouds, with many expressing gratitude and pleasure that so many of us had come out to deliver the anti-proroguement message to our MP's darkened door.

Closing with a rather more energized rendition of O Canada, the skies cleared as many of the participants jumped into various vehicles to join the Peterborough rally

Overall, despite feeling some vindication and joy about the large size of the crowd, it is safe to say people are angry, very angry, at this government and it's sleazy dishonesty. If the rallies elsewhere are as successful as Cobourg's was today, it will be hard for Harper to continue telling us we don't care. Believe all of us today, we care very much, and intend to make sure Harper starts listening to us or he will pay the ultimate price for a politician, banishment from power.


Thanks Deb, I had to work. But if this is the norm Harper and Norlock and the Ruling party will be hard put to ignore it as "just the usual troublemakers"

Making no apologies here for the repost

A couple of blogs, and the Liberal party no doubt, have published this YouTube clip of Bob Rae singing a parody about Prorogation. Reading between the lines a tweet from Senator Smith signalled the fact that BR was going to sing; and he did. I just wish that if the event was planned the camera sightlines could have been planned more efficiently.

A philosophical difference?

Acivism or slacktivism is the phrase used in an opinion piece in the NNews here . Isn't it interesting that we have the supporters of the Ruling Party slagging the Facebook groups for not being inovolved, in a real sense, and now we also have a word coined to describe the action - slacktivism. The use of Social Media and web 2.0 has been a great part of the discussions in my circle, can the web make a difference in people's lives, does the web encourage or discourage social interaction? Can we get the basement dwellers away from their computers and into face to face conversations? The answer is obviously Yes. The Northumberland "tweat-ups" are coming together on a regular basis and the attendance is growing. I am sure that all types of people meet there and the Dairy Queen certainly wasn't like an episode of the "Big Bang Theory". The facebook group, opposing prorogation now has over 200,000 members and as the sceptics will point out not many of those will attend the upcoming demos. But that's not the point. All parties who depend on votes should be soiling their drawers at this point because if over 200,000 people, who would not normally be drawn to political activity can come together so quickly just think what might happen when you don't even have to leave the basement to vote.

Slacktivism is not Slacktivism

A postscript
Just found this piece by Shilo Davis, an organisor of the facebook writing about the impact of Facebook on modern politics - very insightful.

It does not pay to be a waffler

President Obama has learnt the hard way just how painful it is to be a conciliator in politics. He wakes up today to find his health-care policy in tatters. A Senatorial election, in Massachusets, held to replace Ted Kennedy has elected a Republican. How did this happen in a State with 63% of its registered voters Democrats? Easy Obama, has waffled and pandered to anybody who can be bought and has also has no fixed policy positions. Whilst almost threequarters of Americans favoured the "public option" in his health care bill he nixed it. When his major backers wanted to carry out the campaign promise of labour reform he nixed it. Just what does this guy stand for? he can't even close Guantanamo Bay on time.
The only people pleased about this election win are the Republicans and the Progressives. That should tell him something - when he only has the mushy-middle (and they change positions a lot) he is in real trouble. Just remember the BurdReport warned you about this guy!

Rocks and Senses a new contemplative park area?

The wind was taken out of the sails of the supporters of the status quo in Victoria Park last night by a pre-emptive strike in the form of a $20,000 makeover of picnic area A, the East end of the park.
This area of the park is a source of woe to the residents of the area as it is perceived to be overcrowded and overused. Tales of picnic tables being earmarked at 7am, large tents being erected for shade and general complaints of noise and cooking smells were also raised. Well, Council has decided to try to and shut the residents up by effectively banning all people from the picnic area by converting the area to a passive park filled with "low-maintenance bushes and shrubs". Town staff quoted the move "as a completion of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan". This is untrue as the Plan's landscaping plan shows nothing of the sort of radical gardening that will take place. Even the workplan is silent on this move. However CAO, Stephen Peacock, when questioned about the change in plan and policy said, "Although the plan may not show the changes Council has the power to implement changes to it"
The end result is that the Town has shifted picnic patterns from the East end to the hitherto underutilised West side of the park. But in adopting other changes, that of chaining down picnic tables and only allowing two tables to be coupled together and forcing large groups to apply for "picnic permits" in order to book tables, both enforcement nightmares and cultural clashes are inevitable.
But will the residents, and obviously Council, be happy with the proposed changes. One resident, Bill Thompson of Church St, (seen in pic) wasn't as he questioned the Deputy Chief of police about the "No tolerance" policy that will adopted in the area of parking and other violations in the area. He was not mollified by the official answers and remained sceptical and agreed to pursue his claims of the police not being responsive last year. Other taxpayers questioned the definition of "groups" and wondered how large families will fit into this grouping. Deb O'Connor whilst telling Council that they should be spending more on garbage containers worried about the "over-regulation" of the park by the institution of so many rules. "Let's not forget that people go to the park to have fun!"
Another debate sprung up about the definition and use of "shelters". These shade creating devices will be permitted only if they are not sealed devices, for as the law-enforcement people put it, "We must be able to have a clear line of sight in the area, for emergency situations." and also "to stop the hiding of alcohol and small children."
All in all Council and staff will now be able to claim that they have started on a process of managing the area, whether they will be successful is debatable and yet to be proved but the shifting of picnickers away from the East of the park to the West of park and instituting restrictive picnic table rules is a dubious piece of social engineering designed to keep the Bay St residents happy. But as the parking rules on Paul Currelly Way haven't changed much there will still be traffic problems. And as we have seen in the past because towing and ticketing rules can be applied arbitrarily and subject to political pressure, a consistent policy may be hard to apply.
What was not mentioned was the impact of large festivals on the recreational choices for Cobourg. For as we know when the Waterfront festival and to a smaller extent RibFest come to Town without the East end of the park being available we now have handed over the park to non-picnickers; is this fair and how will the Town handle it?