I Know What My Mom Would Have Done.
They’re good kids… This one got all the news sucked in today.
Have to give them marks for the balloon idea…
Update:
To add the the story – looks like it may have been a setup
It Worked Well The Last Time
Who could forget the stellar campaign that Stephane Dion ran last election. The Green Shift – No, Not the Green Shift – Yes, Let’s Paint Canada Green!
Unfortunately, Ignatieff may have been in the US, and missed out how warmly it was received. Or, the Liberals are just fresh out of ideas.
Globe and Pail: Undaunted by defeat of Dion and his carbon tax in last election, Ignatieff outlines clean energy as next campaign theme
“At the heart of our next platform will be the most significant national investment in clean-energy jobs this country has ever seen,” leader Michael Ignatieff declared yesterday, a year less a day after his predecessor, Stéphane Dion, was whupped in a federal election, in part because of his proposed “green shift” carbon tax.
Undaunted, Mr. Ignatieff, in a speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade, laid out a three-pronged approach to making Canada a global leader in clean energy by investing in new technologies and new industries; by upgrading the energy infrastructure through a so-called “smart” energy grid, and by making the federal government – the nation’s largest employer and customer – a model of environmentally responsible behaviour.
“The jobs of tomorrow are being created elsewhere as we speak,” Mr. Ignatieff warned. “Either we act now, or we spend the next decade wishing we had.”
Actually he really means that if we don’t create new taxes on working Canadians now, we’ll miss the opportunity. In BC, the introduction of the carbon tax has been forgotten, making us poorer, under the guise of Green.
Now, after a great election deception, they are on to a new form of looting – it’s called the Harmonized Sales Tax. This should eventually do in the Liberals in BC… unfortunately they are banking on people forgetting the devious way they foisted it upon us.
We won’t forget – just as Canadians won’t forget you can’t trust the politicians when it comes to Green.
Obama Quick To Using His New Peacemaker Status
Obama springs into action, fresh off his Nobel Peace Prize.
In other news- Obama Has Won Everything:
The Socialist Approach To Tourism
photo credit: LuisCarlos Díaz
Grab a Hilton Hotel and promise an ‘urgent’ effort to boost ‘the social development side of the tourism and hotel industries…
Somehow they believe this will lead to all sorts of tourism and hotel industries.
Venezuela seizes Hilton Hotel
CARACAS – PRESIDENT Hugo Chavez has ordered the ‘acquisition by force’ of a landmark Hilton Hotel on Venezuela’s Margarita island, the government’s Official Gazette announced on Tuesday.
The facility, on the Caribbean resort island of Margarita in Nueva Esparta state, was targeted for state takeover less than a month after it was used to host the Africa-South America Summit.
‘The acquisition by force of the real estate, furnishings, and related assets (…) of the Margarita Hilton & Suites Hotel Complex, along with the Marina owned by Inversiones Pueblamar y Desarrollos MBK, have been ordered,’ a presidential decree in the official register read. The sprawling complex includes 280 rooms, 210 suites, a casino, stores, restaurants, offices and meeting areas, as well as the adjoining marina.
The assets will be held by the state tourism corporation Venetur, which reports to the Tourism Ministry, as part of an ‘urgent’ effort to boost ‘the social development side of the tourism and hotel industries in Nueva Esparta state,’ the Gazette said.
It is not the first time Mr Chavez’s government has checked into a Hilton and stayed for good. Caracas has already seized the Hotel Hilton in Caracas, rechristening it the Hotel Alba, a reference to the Venezuelan-led leftist regional alliance Alianza Bolivariana para las Americas (Alba).
In the past four years, Venezuela has implemented the nationalisation of industries it sees as strategic including electrical utilities, cement, steel, oil services and banking. — AFP
Michael Moore, American Capitalist, Takes On American Capitalism
Michael Moore reasons why the rich should have their taxes doubled… Hannity challenges Moore to give up his money. Avoiding the subject, Moore asks Sean to put poor people on his show.
Love to watch him squirm when asked about his wealth. Hypocrisy at its worst.
Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story expanded into 962 theaters, earning $4.45 million (bombed), lower than his first week of Sicko last year.
Get Ready For The Great Canadian TV Wealth Transfer
Our Canadian TV stations are in big trouble.. no one is watching them. Revenues have plummeted by as much as 98% for some stations.
Maybe we are trying to tell them something?
So instead of trying something novel like retiring our ancient anchors and creating programming worthy of wasting an hour watching, they’ve decided that we, the slightly overburdened taxpayers, should pay them for their crappy service.
It started here:
CRTC allows Canadian broadcasters to show unlimited commercials.
Hot on the heels of the 1.5% tax that consumers will have to pay to the Local Programming Improvement Fund, and fee for carriage that is sure to see our Cable and Satellite bills ballon even further, the CRTC has stuck it to the consumer once again. Effective September 1st, Canadian broadcasters are now allowed to air as many commercials as they want, previously, broadcasters were limited to 15 minutes per hour of advertising. I have a feeling that this slipped past the media as two of the Canadian broadcasters, Global and CTV own the newspaper and TV news outlets.
By the way, this new tax means $300 million the cable companies have to pay the stations – who pays this? More than 6% of your total TV bill goes directly to the wise folks at the CRTC, or other special funds created by the CRTC.
Then:
TORONTO — The Canadian government has backed down and agreed not to collect around $450 million in annual license fees from private broadcasters, cable and satellite TV operators as part of an out-of-court settlement. The broadcasters deemed the $100 million that they annually pay Ottawa an illegal tax, and the Supreme Court of Canada was to hear their case on October 19.
The CRTC, Canada’s TV regulator, stopped billing the broadcasters in 2006 when the legal challenge against the license fees was first made.
The late fees, now totaling $450 million, were instead held in escrow accounts. Ottawa agreed to not collect those late-fees if the broadcasters agreed to a new regime to be introduced by the CRTC that would cap future fees at around $100 million a year.
Looks like they now have $450 million to help them compete. They now can afford to add to their programming and pilot another gem Little Mosque on the Prairie.
Thankfully, I finally figured out how to remove all Canadian TV stations from my menu… and Hulu has almost everything we watch for free. (Although you need to learn how to proxy yourself to somewhere in the US – as it’s blocked in Canada)
Next on my list… dropping my cable.
photo credit: therozblog
It Was The Nobel Appease – Not Peace – Prize!
The Nobel committee follows its history of awards to apologists and appeasers…
Some notable winners:
2007:
INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE (IPCC) and ALBERT ARNOLD ( AL) GORE JR. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.
2002:
JIMMY CARTER JR. , former President of the United States of America,
for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development
2001:
UNITED NATIONS , New York, NY, USA
KOFI ANNAN, United Nations Secretary General
1994:
YASSER ARAFAT , Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO, President of the Palestinian National Authority.
SHIMON PERES , Foreign Minister of Israel.
YITZHAK RABIN , Prime Minister of Israel.
for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East.
Good company to be in.
Our Nanny State Takes On Truckers
Ontario man fined $305 for smoking in workplace – his truck.
TORONTO — An Ontario truck driver has been fined $305 for smoking in the rig of a tractor-trailer because it is considered a workplace.
Provincial police pulled over a truck on Highway 401 near Windsor, Ont., on Wednesday when the driver was seen smoking. The Smoke-Free Ontario Act adopted in 2006 prohibits smoking in enclosed workplaces and public areas, such as bars and restaurants.
Neil MacKenzie, the manager of tobacco programs for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, said even a farmer’s enclosed tractor would be considered a work environment.
“Technically, that would be the workplace and it’d be an enclosed work environment,” he said.
“Whether or not you have the sunroof open or windows down … it’s an enclosed workplace and you’re prohibited from smoking in that vehicle.”
MacKenzie added, however, that no one would march into a field and fine a farmer for smoking in an enclosed tractor.
“Before we take any radical action on it, we’d confirm with the Ministry of Health whether there’s precedent,” he said.
“We’d make sure the farmer understood requirements and give the opportunity for full compliance.”
Good to know they are looking after us.
I Hate Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs)
Another reason to hate these light bulbs… I just moved into a new home where the previous owner decided to change over all the lights to CFLs.
The color of light is hideous, not to mention the real nasty reason to get rid of these things:
In September, the European Union banned the sale of 100-watt incandescent light bulbs, with lawbreakers facing up to $70,000 in fines. Over the next few years, bans on lower-wattage bulbs kick in. In the United States, similar legislation comes into play in 2012. The idea is to kickstart the market for compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), which use less energy than conventional incandescents. Although CFLs present any number of problems (even beyond a much higher initial cost), governments all over the globe are determined to make them the new standard.
Invented in its modern form by Thomas Edison in 1879, the light bulb became synonymous with a brilliant idea. Now, it seems, it’s just one more symbol of a nanny state that increasingly dictates more choices in our public and private lives.