Real MPs or the Pretend MP

Garth Turner, in his weblog has spun the tale of a person, the defeated Con candidate in the last election, being appointed by the head of the BC Con caucus to be a "liaison" between the ruling party and the people of Skeena-Bulkley Valley.

MP Harris issued a press release indicating Candidate Smith has been appointed as the liaison person between the citizens, taxpayers and voters of Skeena-Bulkley Valley and the federal government. Said the MP: “As Chairman of the BC Caucus of Conservative MPs, I am pleased that Sharon has accepted this role, and I know the constituents of Skeena-Bulkley Valley will derive a huge benefit from having direct contact with government, something that they have not had since 2004.

Now think this through and you will see that the "new" Canadian Government now intends to have two MPs in this riding - the real one elected by the electoral process and the pretend one appointed by the government. Just imagine if carried to it's logical conclusion we will now have a majority government even if we didn't elect them in each riding they did not win. Perhaps the end result will be a majority government without elections - a pundits dream!

This nonsense must be stopped now or else the democratic process will be even more of a farce that it is now.

German critics mock wrinkled rockers on tour trail

And it's about time somebody told the truth, just love the last line of the article - Sueddeutsche Zeitung critic Sebastian Gierke said it was "almost tragic" to see Ozzy Osbourne, 58, at a "farcical" concert. "He kept screaming 'I can't f---ing hear you!' over and over again. You felt like shouting back 'buy a goddamn hearing aid and maybe you'll realize you're singing everything off key'." story here

Don't forget the Shelter Valley Folk Festival this weekend

See the lineup and get your tickets here the weather forecast is a great one, try to be there, you'll enjoy it.

Sunday Morning Post

A collection of ramblings:

• Saw the first election sign yesterday for the upcoming Provincial election. It was a 3*3 for Cathy Galt in the hillside at Benlock Rd. Amazing how some can't wait until the writ is dropped on September 10th. Loo's Cobourg office looks impressive but it would look better if people were actually inside it!
• This "Highway of Heroes" thing, I don't like it, people shouldn't gush their emotions about death and venerate the dead publically quite as much as they do. This outpouring of feelings I think is repressed guilt about sending these boys off to get killed and when they do get killed the gushers can assuage themselves by "honouring" them in this manner. Dalton McG should be ashamed of himself for jumping on this political bandwagon, but what do you expect he is in the middle of an election he might lose.
• I hear more and more of my friends and acquaintances murmuring about the paucity of the choices in the next election, I fear it may have the lowest turnout ever causing much handwringing amongst the pundits. How about this: next time you hear anybody moaning about not voting because they have nobody to vote for ("Don't like the Fiberals, Tories screwed it up with Mike Harris and the NDP - well they have had their chance!"), tell them to go to the voting booth and take a ballot and then decline it unopened. Imagine if 20% of the voters did this thus voting for "none of the above". The effect would be startling and probably upset civil society.
  
• I read that the Mayor has volunteered to be in the "dunk tank" for the St. Mike's Parish Fair. That should be entertaining for all, especially if the people who demanded a public meeting, which they never got, turn out to put him in the water.
  

Too much information!

I don't like to imagine this Woman sets fire to ex-husband's penis

linked from the Drudge Report

Bill Pyatt's comments about policing

Here are, (CDS article) the comments. Somehow they are going to be questioned, especially the comment, "exact same service as provided to each individual municipality now." We know in Cobourg, courtesy of the report filed by the OPP, that that is not true, for instance the same number of OPP constables not doing the same amount of work and yet the annual costs are the same as we pay now. The savings coming from removing administration costs not operating costs.

So "beware of Greeks delivering gifts" Look very carefully at this proposal and watch for a rushed consultation process in Cobourg. More to come!!

Texas executes 400th inmate in 25 years

A record to be proud of, I think not! read it here

Only in America you say!

Interesting stuff here about ways to deter protesters, maybe Cobourg Council could get a copy White House Manual Details How to Deal With Protesters - washingtonpost.com

Up pops the OPP guy again

Lookee here Kenora OPP report uses Port Hope as an example. The OPP guy, who is doing the local Policing Study , has another gig in Kenora, apparently analyzing policing costs up there. Wonder of wonders he is quick to point out just efficient the OPP is compared to other Municipal Forces. When are we going to call his bluff and ask if he can be impartial when he is indoctrinated in the ways of the OPP and is sitting on a full pay OPP pension.

Work for your reading!

Professor Rob Washburn has posted an opinion about that Economic Development and the recent election splash of Fiberal money by Loo. Read it here

This is my answer to him
"You are so right Economic development is a mantra repeated by the ignorant of ignorant politicians trying to impress the unwashed. The lack of accounting of the millions (at least 50) doled out in the last few years to Eastern Ontario, in the name of Economic Development, is a bloody scandal. How many projects never see the light of day after the first grant? How many projects are pet projects of favoured agencies and how many projects are local government projects that should have been funded by another level of government?

And more importantly how many times do we have to fund the investigation of valuable issues that never get funding after the initial grant. Transportation and High Speed Internet Access come to mind immediately. We fund the favoured agency to do a study and then fail to fund the operation of the study. Why because they study unsustainable projects and then refuse to fund them because they fail to find partners to sustain them. Kafka would have loved it. Meanwhile because it is done in the name of Economic Development money can be pissed away!!"

BTW this post is an effort to create linkages between online posts tell me if you like it and maybe we can explore the world of online posts together. ben