So Much Fail…

The New Democrats are standing by a B.C. candidate who has come under scrutiny for her beliefs about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Liberals say Bev Collins, who is running in Cariboo-Prince George, should quit because of her association with a movement that believes 9/11 was the result of a conspiracy.

In a radio interview last year, Collins suggested that the Sept. 11 attacks were used to justify the U.S. war on terror.

“People are truly waking up realizing who the people are responsible. You know, that there was complicity for 9/11, that the people used that 9/11 to bring about a war on terror,” she said.

In an e-mail, Collins maintains she always held that the attacks were acts of terrorism.

“She has acknowledged that the attack was a terrorist attack, and she hasn’t made any attacks against any particular group or element of our society,” NDP Leader Jack Layton said in her defence. “I’m satisfied with that.”

I’m honestly sad they’re trying to equate this person with the ‘Truther Movement’. I’ve never been one who aspired to the thought it was an inside job myself and from her statements, neither does Bev Collins. Now, in our darker moments I’d wager we both wonder whether Cheney picked up the phone and told Osama it was ‘go time’… and that’s totally fair. He’s pretty evil and we have these great laws that let us think and say whatever it is we’d like, as long as we don’t incite hatred or violence.

Now… as to why Cheney hasn’t been dragged from his office and curbstomped for a variety of other things he’s done confuses me and kinda makes me question this whole ‘freedom’ thing Americans supposedly aspire too. Seriously, you can shoot Abe, Malcom, Jack, Martin, Medger and Bobby but none of them can man up and do a little dirty for a better tomorrow? For shame.

This is Michael Kandola. He is an assmunch. His idea of a good time, other than apparently having his eyebrows threaded, is to attack queer men for giggles on a Saturday morning.

Feel free to spit on him, just don’t get any on that fabulous shirt he’s wearing.

Vancouver police Const. Tim Fanning said the evidence suggests the alleged assault was motivated by prejudice against homosexuals.

“These slurs towards our victim’s sexuality were heard by several witnesses, and then he was assaulted,” said Fanning, who was speaking at a media briefing at police headquarters Monday morning.

Under Section 718.2 of the Criminal Code of Canada, a judge can impose a longer sentence when an offence was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or any other similar factor.

Fanning said Kandola is known to police, but a check of court records by CBC News found no indication that Kandola has ever been charged with a crime.

Enjoy your time in ‘Federal pound you in the ass Prison’, sweetheart. Nice to see this crime being called what it is, a hate crime. About damn time the VPD started protecting it’s community from this kind of violence.

Oh god, now you’ve gone and woken up a monster…

As an Internet company, Google is an active participant in policy debates surrounding information access, technology and energy. Because our company has a great diversity of people and opinions — Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, all religions and no religion, straight and gay — we do not generally take a position on issues outside of our field, especially not social issues. So when Proposition 8 appeared on the California ballot, it was an unlikely question for Google to take an official company position on.

However, while there are many objections to this proposition — further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text — it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 — we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.

About time, Sergey, about damn time.

Rex Murphy hosted an hour long ‘Conversation with Canadians’ piece on the Cbc this afternoon, which the wife and I managed to catch on our trip home from the Okanagan. I have to say, I was quite impressed with the man… by no means far enough to tear me away from my die-hard NDP support, but he came across as intelligent, well-spoken and kindhearted.

He hearkened back to the yesteryears when our discourse on political matters was civil, reasoned and formed with the passion for a better tomorrow. When politics were still noble, or at the very least presented that way to the citizenry, not this bitter, absurd divisiveness that we see and hear rolled out across our television from the Conservative party.

He was able to bring across the nature and the responsibility we have as Canadians and as citizens of the planet really to take part in the green shift. He fielded a great deal of calls, at least in the first half of the show where people bitched and moaned about the increases in the price of gas and diesel fuel. Were those people under the impression that it’s going to get cheaper? That we would somehow, either by magic or divine providence somehow roll back demand across the rest of the planet or discover some yet untapped source that would prop up supply of this ever dwindling resource and somehow lower the price?

However painful the costs now, these will only grow and become ever more unaffordable and there is nothing any person or government can do to change that. It is a fact, it is the reality of the situation. Are people so conditioned to the meme that we will only ever be lied to by our elected officials that we now seek out and trust those lies in the face of reason and fact?

It asks the question if our leaders can still appeal to our intelligence and sense of responsibility as opposed to our sense of fear and entitlement?

I was also quite impressed with the way he avoided stooping to the levels which Harper has driven this election to. Rex asked him whether he though Harper’s choice of words… ie: that Dion was pro-taliban, that Dion was cheering for a recession… was a failing of character on our Prime Minster’s behalf. Dion’s response was priceless, “I refuse to give up on humanity. I am an optimist.” I have to say, I came away with a great respect for a man, who up until now I had honestly paid little attention to.

Now here’s to hoping Jack Layton will get off his high horse and form a coalition goverment with the Liberals on October 15th.

Well, it happened again.

U.S. military incursions into Pakistan that have stoked anti-Americanism top the agenda for President Bush’s talks with the newly elected president of the Muslim nation, which is reeling from a deadly truck bomb that devastated a Marriott hotel in Islamabad.

Publicly, Bush and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who were to meet Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, will exhibit a show of solidarity against extremists. Privately, the two leaders will be trying to craft a delicate strategy to make progress in fighting militants while keeping U.S.-Pakistan relations on an even keel until Bush leaves office in four months.

To my knowledge it’s twice in as many weeks that American helicopters have been turned back at the border by Pakistani troops. It’s really gone beyond an ‘October Surprise’ at this point and has morphed into full on ‘casus belli’. Are they sending US soldiers out there to die at this point, hoping to tap off a larger conflict?

Then this…

A suicide bomber has killed a US diplomat and two other people in a suicide attack near the US consulate in Karachi, Pakistani police say.

Many more were hurt in the blast, which tore through a car park near the consulate in a high-security zone.

The blast comes two days before US President George Bush visits Pakistan. He says his trip will go ahead.

US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said there was some evidence the diplomat was deliberately targeted.

At this time, neither the Taliban nor Al-qaeda have claimed responsibility for the blast. Were they even behind it? If you follow the news, Pakistani regulars have actually been throwing in with the people of the Tribal Areas, actively turning back US incursions into their territory. If they are co-operating, what good does it do either group to bomb in downtown Karachi? Each passing week has marked greater and greater ties between the ISI, Pakistan’s Intelligence Service, Tribal Militias and Army Regulars on the border of Afghanistan… not going to say that the Taliban is a rational actor… but this is just so far counter to the progress they’ve made bringing Pakistan’s Armed Forces on board against the American incursion that it literally makes no sense.

Is this Latin America all over again? Is this the work of the CIA? It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve killed American citizens or soldiers for that matter to manufacture reasons for a war.

With the new gig this week, I’ve been kinda busy. Also, been trying to crank out something in regards to the Ponzi… oops… Paulson Plan. I’ll get it done when it gets done… until then, just some shit I stole 

Total win.

No one ever died to defend the sovereignty of Make Believe Land

The stupidest muthafucka on earth…

Was that even english? What.The.Loving.Christ!?! Flagging the molecules? Do you mean putting labels on the barrels it’s getting stored in? Are you talking about nationalizing the oil and coal that’s harvested in the US for domestic sale only?

Never stop talking please. We can all use a good laugh in these troubling times.

We just won’t participate?

The RCMP won’t fully participate in a public inquiry into the death of a Polish immigrant who died shortly after he was jolted with a police Taser at the Vancouver airport if the officers involved could still face charges, a RCMP spokesman said Thursday.

The second phase of the inquiry into Robert Dziekanski’s death on Oct. 14, 2007, is scheduled to begin next month in Vancouver and several groups have applied for standing.

The RCMP, who have not submitted an application, were given an extension until Friday.

But Sgt. Tim Shields said the force can’t make that decision until it knows whether any of the four officers who confronted Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport will face criminal charges.

That is some specious reasoning. If they could be found to have behaved inappropriately they will not show up or release their report into the matter itself? It’s pretty clear what happened. The RCMP officers showed contempt for human life and the continuum of force. They resorted directly to torturing an individual, eventually killing him, with an electro-shock weapon before even bothering to talk with the man or finding someone who could properly communicate with him.

So the people we ask to maintain the rule of law and arrest people for violation of said laws are now willfully going to ignore the law? Fantastic work, gentlemen. You should be ashamed of yourselves and the stain you put on the badge you wear.

Haha!

Awesome!