No Surprises Here

The CBC has refused to air Conservative attack ads on the grounds that airing political ads during non-election periods is a violation of their "strict guidelines".

Regardless of your opinion on the CBC's rules, they exist, they've been recently reviewed, and the corporation is following them.

"One Conservative source, speaking on background, said the party thought it was odd CBC would turn down its advertising dollars at a time when the network was struggling under financial pressures."

It is no surprise that the Conservatives don't respect principles - and are apparently confused by them.

Clearly.

News Fit To Tweet

Two Twittered links to share today from those I follow:

MissySuicide posted this link about David Carradine's apparent suicide.

From panphil (Philip Pan of the Washington Post), this link to "A new photo of the iconic moment of the Tiananmen crackdown 20 years ago" and the story of how it came to be.

Commenting Idiots

Okay, this article is irrelevant "news" but I'm posting it anyway because the current first comment is hilarious. Here is the article about a man who helped his wife deliver their baby alone even though they were in a hospital. The original comment is just plain stupid even we ignore what the re-poster points out. Check it:

Obi John Kenobi wrote:
Posted 2009/06/03
at 5:47 PM

ETHughGRection wrote:
Women have been giving birth without doctors for hundreds of years... its not rocket appliances!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


rocket appliances???

Today's Raw Sewage

• Last summer, to much fanfare, Halifax officials declared their harbours safe for people to enter "after decades of closure due to high coliform counts" (aka: too much ass bacteria). Today the mayor has confirmed that the city's raw sewage is being pumped into the water once more. Their sewage treatment plant broke in January, and they are still not functioning, so feces, condoms, tampons, and everything else that enters a toilet is once more flowing freely into the harbours. What a disgusting embarrassment.
  
  
• In other raw sewage news, Barack had this to say today; "So cyberspace is real and so are the risks that come with it." Thanks for the breaking news. Cyberspace is real. Who knew? Barack was speaking about a new White House office that will work in tandem with a new military command "to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare". Did anyone tell the President that although cyberspace is real, you can't put soldiers in it?
  
  
• Minister Fletcher also spewed some raw sewage today in his bid to limit Senate terms to 8 years. He argues that if left unchecked, Senators could do their jobs for as long as 45 years. Now, I definitely agree that Senators should be required to be present for bill readings and not be permitted to take large chunks of the year as vacation, but this is as far as my support for Senate reform goes. The idea that a person who amasses a few decades of experience in a job, presumably becoming more adept at it, is valued less than a new employee is flabbergasting. When a person retires from an organization and can say that they have been there for 45 years, they are generally applauded and celebrated for this. The organization is pleased to have retained them and their skills and knowledge. Only a backwards Conservative government would consider this a bad thing. If a Member of Parliament came into your workplace, where you are firmly ensconced in your career, and told you that 8 years was enough and that you'd have to leave, would that make sense to you? It's an extremely flawed argument, so I wrote the Minister Fletcher to tell him that I have yet to see a compelling reason to agree with his reforms. Oh, and it's also unconstitutional for them to try to change it.
  
  
• Finally, more government raw sewage: the ridiculous GM bailout means we are paying $1.4 million for every job saved in Ontario. And this number continues to grow. How exactly is this responsible, effective, or helpful? In any way? Especially when you take these things into consideration:
  
  1. "“You're not going to save jobs. All you are going to do is destroy jobs at Ford and Toyota,” said Mark Milke, director of research at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Calgary.
  
  Mr. Milke dismisses the bailouts of GM and Chrysler as “a massive transfer of wealth to companies that consumers have already rejected.” The result, he maintains, is that governments “are punishing the companies that have actually run their businesses very well.”"
  
  2. "Besides, no matter how many conditions Canadian politicians place on the loans to GM and Chrysler, or how ironclad the guarantees may appear, governments will find themselves with little or no leverage to enforce them.
  
  “You have no guarantee that two years down the road, they'll say: ‘Well, this Canadian factory is not up to snuff, so we've got to close it.' What are the governments going to do then?” That is what happened with GM's car assembly plant in Quebec, which received $220-million in federal and provincial interest-free loans in 1987 only to pull out of the province in 2002. None of the money has been repaid."
  
  3. "...the auto bailouts are typical of political decisions that benefit relatively few people at the expense of millions. But because the risk of a cross-Canada taxpayer revolt is small compared to the potential payback from voters in hard-up communities in Southern Ontario, the decision to bail out the auto companies is an easy one for politicians."
  
  Time to write another letter.

Blogging by BlackBerry

At my brother's wedding.

Desert Flu

I have been dragging my phlegmy body around for two weeks since returning from Vegas and I haven't even uploaded my pictures yet. In the meantime, enjoy this video from College Humor!

Watch We Didnt Start the Flame War on CollegeHumor

Blogging by BlackBerry

Wook, Brabe, and I are checking out a Mike Doughty show in a very hot and
humid church. Craziness.

Blogging by BlackBerry

I'm on a stopover at the San Francisco airport and went to the Burger King
for a sandwich. The menu had an interesting entry at the bottom: "Picture
menus available upon request." Burger King caters to the illiterate! But
how will they know they can request the visual version?

Blogging by BlackBerry

The lions in the MGM habitat are gorgeous and gloriously regal.

Spage is...

...being brought to tears by the beauty of the Bellagio Fountains.

Spage is...

...enjoying Night 2 of Dave Matthews Band at the MGM Grand!

Spage was...

...just this close to Flavor Flav!

Spage is...

...at the Dave Matthews Band show at the MGM Grand in Vegas with Brabe!

Spage is...

...in Vegas!

Spage is...

...preparing to travel with Brabe to enjoy two Dave Matthews Band shows at the MGM Grand Arena.

Tomorrow, we take Vegas by storm...a quiet, polite, apologetic Canadian storm.