ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2004/12/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/01/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/02/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/03/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/04/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/05/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/06/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/07/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/08/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/09/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/10/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/11/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/12/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2006/01/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2006/02/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2006/03/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2006/04/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2006/09/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2006/10/ AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/17/2005 04:58:00 PM TITLE: More property rights out the window ----- BODY:

The Supreme Court of Canada has yet again put the State ahead of individual rights. I thought their job was to protect us from the state.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/16/2005 08:01:00 AM TITLE: The whole thing stinks ----- BODY:

So Prime Minister Martin will not take up the Opposition Parties offer to call an election in January in order to be able to deny that the Liberals forced the electorate to the polls over the Christmas season. In the interim, Parliament continues as the opposition do not want to get blamed for having an election over Christmas. The NDP want to strike while they are hot in the polls, the BQ are all over an election at any time and the Tories, well they are trying to figure it all out.

As I have posted on many an occasion, if the Tories do not have confidence in the government they should not be polling just to find the right time to say that they have lost that confidence. Sure Harper played it right to get Layton to make a move, but allowing a government in which you have no confidence to continue is a disservice to the people of this country. Sure the people may speak and the Libs may get back in, but keeping them their merely to time your shot makes you complicit in the rampant corruption that abounds in the governing party and allows the Liberals to continue to use the public purse to run for office.

It is time to pull the trigger.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/14/2005 07:58:00 PM TITLE: At What Cost Canadian Compassion ----- BODY:

From The Star:

At first, Lynne Yelich thought it was a misprint.
The Conservative MP, ever on the lookout for waste and mismanagement, had requested the financial records of Ottawa's 3-year-old compassionate care leave program. The numbers she got from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada stunned her.
In the first year of the program, 2003-04, the government paid out $3.9 million in
benefits to Canadians who took time off work to care for a dying spouse, parent
or child. It cost $34.3 million — 10 times as much — to administer the program.
In Year 2, the government disbursed $4 million to caregivers and spent $27.5
million running the program.
There were no budgetary figures for the current fiscal year.

Read the whole thing.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/13/2005 09:42:00 PM TITLE: Election loming? ----- BODY:

An election over the Christmas season? The electorate given the chance to choose who was naughty or nice? This could be entertaining. The most entertaining will be the non-issue of who to blame for the calling of the election. Parliament has lost the faith of the government but the press will not be asking why, they will be asking, why now?

The last series of elections have been predicated on fear. The Liberals know that their main goal is to give the electorate pegs on which to hang their hat. As I have written before, it is one thing to tell a pollester that you are willing to vote for the Tories or that the NDP will get your vote, it is quite another to mark your "X" on the ballot for other than the Liberals. The Liberals and to some extent the press, breed an air of uncertainty during elections that make the electorate uneasy. So the voter heads home to where he is comfortable, the Liberal Party.

That of course would be the electorate that is paying attention. The vast majority don't know Martin from McGuinty. Why would they?

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/10/2005 02:28:00 PM TITLE: No idea about rights ----- BODY:

Here is an interesting (read crazy) perspective in the Khadr case. Apparently this kid who was fighting in Afghanistan, where Canadian troops were deployed, was captured by the Americans and is about to be tried. According to The Star, the fact that he is a Canadian is enough to get him off the hook. He was afterall fighting against those evil Americans. It's his right as a Canadian to be tried by Canadians or some such nonsense. Here is a lesson, if you go abroad to fight for your religion you cannot expect the Canadian Government to bail you out if the winning team captures your ass. This is not a case of a Canadian visiting Iran, getting arrested for taking some pictures and turning up dead a day later. This is about fighting aginst your own country. The US is our ally in Afghanistan. We are fighting together. We can't say because you killed one of them and not one of us it's okay. Admittedly he was only a kid, but when he was captured he waited til the medics came in and then unleasehed a grenade. What orders was he following at this point? If a Canadian fighting as a US Soldier killed some civilian, The Star would be calling for that soldier's head.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/09/2005 07:46:00 AM TITLE: Jack Layton doesn't have the guts ----- BODY:

A lot of Conservatives are grumbling about Harper's unwillingness to pull the trigger on a non-confidence motion now that NDP Leader Jack Layton has announced that he will support any non-confidence motion that is brought forward in the House. The grumbling appears to be misplaced. Jack Layton does not have the guts to pull the trigger. He will only do so if forced. Layton has announced a new bargaining position, not a true intention to act. All he needs to solidify that position is for some sucker, read Harper, to bring forth a motion of non-confidence. Jack will then negotiate his way to being a prop for the Liberal Government. Harper is right, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/09/2005 07:38:00 AM TITLE: Liberal Wet Dream ----- BODY:

John Efford, who according to CTV's revisionist history was instrumental in bringing about a resolution to the Newfoundland - Canada offshore oil dispute, is still collecting a cabinet salary despite not actually being an active member of the Liberal Government Cabinet. In fact he has not taken a foot off the sailboat and set it in Ottawa in over 6 months. Mr. Efford has announced that he will not be seeking re-election in his Newfoundland riding due to health issues. And with the new election boundaries, the seat is hardly safe.

No work and full pay? Is this guy a member of the Senate?

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/08/2005 07:32:00 AM TITLE: Non-Uniformed Combatant deserves to be shot ----- BODY:

Ah the Khadr family ...fine upstanding Canadians who used their connections in the lIberal Party to assist in terrorist attacks world-wide. Thomas Walkom of The Star contends that the youngest Khadr deserves a trial in an American Court for a crime that took place during an Afghan military action in which he was a non-uniform combatant. For being such, the Geneva Convention envisions that young Khadr can be shot summarily. Instead, he gets put before a military tribunal, which is the appropriate forum.

In any event read the article and you will see that it is just more anti-Bush screed.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/03/2005 03:23:00 PM TITLE: Danny Williams in the Black ----- BODY:

A Newfoundland Government in the Black???? I recall Brian Peckford's Government wearing black arm bands and I recall Tobin's claim of breaking evening and no one wore a black tux like Moores, however, the Williams' Government is staring a surplus in the face. Good job.

Hopefully, the suplus will go to debt reduction and tax cuts. Combine that with a further decrease in spending and the economy should really start to tick.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/02/2005 12:36:00 PM TITLE: Elections Canada & Gomery ----- BODY:

I know I have asked it before, and I know the Gomery report has been referred to the RCMP, but where is Elections Canada? Election fraud has clearly been perpetrated by the Liberal party.
Speaking of things that I have asked before, are their any politicians in the Liberal Party who cut a pay cheque from the Party or were in possession of a major credit card that was paid for by the Party during the time of the sponsorship scandal?

This seems to be a question that has not been asked, but if their were kickbacks to the Liberal Party and there was a politician running around with a credit card for personal expenses, the money is pretty easily laundered.

While I'm on the theme, let's say that the Liberals have to pay back $1million, what about the interest and the tax benefits that come from donations? Are these being accounted for? Lord knows the government rarely let's Johnny Lunchpail off without interest and penalties when he misses a payment or dicks around with his taxes.

UPDATE: Colby Cosh knows what I am talking about.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/02/2005 08:58:00 AM TITLE: Not Much Sleep for Layton ----- BODY:

Jack Layton and the NDP have some thinking to do. They hold the key to an election, one non-confidence vote by the NDP and it's off to the election bus.

The NDP, a party based on a set of principles that include the belief that their principles are the only principled positions in the country and that anyone who disagrees with them is unprincipled...or something like that... has indicated a distinct tolerance for government corruption in return for movement on their principles. Ahh the socialist... there is no option but to turn a blind eye to corruption in return for the cause.

In any event, Layton has named his price and the only question is whether Martin will open the car door and let Jack in off the street corner. Still, Layton has a problem. If he gets reductions in private health care on the agenda, he will be setting up an election that will devolve into a traditional election with the conservatives on one side and those trying to stop the Conservatives on the other. The other in this case will mean the Liberals. The NDP will already has approved the concept of getting into bed and voting with the corrupt, why should they expect more of the electorate.

With that said, the polls seem to indicate that due to the Federal corruption and the unpopularity of the current Liberal Government in British Columbia, there is a willingness on the behalf of some voters to shift their votes from the NDP to the Liberals. Layton has to weigh this against the potential gains if he can get some movement on health care.

This is a tough game for a shallow man, and Layton, while bright, is shallow. Harper summed it up when he indicated that while he wants tax cuts he will not cozy up to corruption to get them. He will cozy up to the electorate. Layton's best bet may be to try that tack with regard to healthcare.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/02/2005 08:53:00 AM TITLE: Paris race riots into 6th night ----- BODY:

Where are the commentaries about the systemic racism in France? If there was a race riot for 10 minutes in the States we would be hearing about it for years. There would be a Fifth Estate Special on how Rove masterminded the whole thing to benefit the oil industry. With that said, if this continues much longer, expect the French Government to utilize a Chinese solution.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/01/2005 09:51:00 PM TITLE: At the request of the Gods of the Copybook ----- BODY:

At the request of the Gods of the Copybook, here is a link to a short film about health care.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/01/2005 08:43:00 PM TITLE: Classic Chretien ----- BODY:

If you missed the Chretien press conference to announce his bid for judicial review, you missed a classic Chretien performance. Shifting blame, abrasive and defiant, he stuck a shiv through Martin's ribs, attacked Gomery, praised the worst parts of his record as great achievements, insulted his own lawyer and scoffed at his detractors.

At the end of the day, he claims it was not his fault at that when he learned of it he called the cops. That is not quite the way I remember it. I recall stories in the press, questions in the House of Commons, a general knowledge throughout the political country of the program and denial after denial. It was only when the cat was out of the bag, and Chretien had shrugged his shoulders at the theft that he called the RCMP.

And what difference does that make? The RCMP were up to their eyes with the Chretien corruption, from taking orders from the PMO to pre-emptively arrest people at the APEC Conference to the politically motivated Mulroney investigation to the BDC forgery to the RCMP involvement in taking sponsorship money and hiding it in illegal bank accounts, the Chretien PMO and the RCMP appeared to be walking with their hands in each other's back pocket. So call the cops, there is a biy of immunity in that relationship.

Still, Chretien is the most ruthless bastard in the country and if he is going down, do not expect him to go solo.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/01/2005 12:41:00 PM TITLE: How much stink can Jean Chretien wade through? ----- BODY:

So Gomery can't trace the money directly to Chretien, but who believes that Chretien did not know and was not benefiting? How much stink can this guy wade through? No evidence on HRDC, BDC, APEC, Shawinigate, Sponsorship and so forth. Chretien and the Liberals are good at both covering their tracks and leaving no tracks and then claiming the standard of proof is without a reasonable doubt.

Martin is the same way. He saw no evil because he looked the other way. The veil of secrecy only involved the specific details which were not written down or written on sticky notes per the instructions of Guite so that they could be removed from the files. The standard for Government accountability cannot be beyond a reasonable doubt, it is the smell test. And it sure stinks in Ottawa.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/01/2005 08:52:00 AM TITLE: was it just me... ----- BODY:

...or did anyone else find the timing of CBC a little odd last night. The night before Gomery, Haloween night, they air part II of a documentary on the 1995 referendum that focuses on the Montreal Rally and Chretien's "saving of the country".

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 11/01/2005 08:41:00 AM TITLE: Why IS THIS NOT SURPRISING? ----- BODY:

It seems that Gomery did not give the liberal Government permission to look at the report early, they just, as is their wont, decided that they would go ahead and take a look and then lie about the permission they received.

The Liberal spin machine started gearing up last night to defend against
the negative fallout of Judge Gomery's first report, while opposition parties
railed against the fact that the Prime Minister's Office had received it 12
hours before them.
Mr. Martin argued last week that he was only responding to Judge Gomery's wishes by getting an early peek at the report, but Judge Gomery issued a letter yesterday saying he only approved the release of the report to the top bureaucrat in the country.
Judge Gomery said he was disappointed that the dispute over the report's release has resulted in questions being raised about the impartiality and fairness of the way in which the commission had planned to submit its first report.

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