Spam from Pierre

Our good friend Pierre Poilievre is spamming all and sundry:

From: info@fightingforyou.ca To: all my intertoob friends, including reburb Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2008 13:26:30 -0500 Subject: Stand Up for Canada Stand up for Canada - Let the people speak Two months ago, Canadians elected the Prime Minister with a strengthened mandate to address the global economic crisis. Now, we're about to have our shiny toys taken away! WAAAAHHHH!!! Sob. Please, please don't let this happen to us! SHRIEK!

Interestingly, this email is unsigned, though it does sound a lot like Pierre. Sorry buddy, I gotta say, suck it up. Here's reburb's response:

Dear Pierre, The people already spoke, you're not listening. The majority don't support you in this silly slap-fight. Do the right thing and stand up to a confidence vote instead of running away like shrieking little girls. Best regards, Reburb

In hindsight, the comparison is unfair to shrieking little girls. I have a couple, and they'd do a better job at running Pariliament than the current crop of clowns.

Ok, so it's been a month...

Yes, Reburb has been busy moving from Bells Corners to... Bells Corners! My advice to you, my friends, is to never ever ever move. Talk about sapping your will to live. But things are starting to settle, so I hope to get regular posts up soon.

In case the stock crash has you down...

This will definitely cheer you up:

Baird's Bad Day

Next door, in the riding of Ottawa-West Nepean, our friend John Baird is having a bad day:

... who should appear in front of me but a friendly neighbourbood John Baird campaign staffer, bearing a stack of freshly printed press releases bearing the fabulously evocative headline: “SHADOWY FOREIGN ORGANIZATION ATTEMPTING TO INFLUENCE CANADIAN ELECTION” - which would be awesome enough all on its own, but the subhead made it even better: Apparently - their words, not mine - a “Wall Street Billionaire” is “bankrolling [the] campaign”.

Which is apropos this. Did David Pratt just become the luckiest Liberal of the year? Avaaz raised over $100K in 4 days to run anti-Baird ads, like this:

The Mocking, It Burns

Hello Canada, and welcome to The Debate. Don't touch that dial, there's Pakin on it! Ha ha, I slay me. Now for the opening statements.

First, I am always asking the questions, like why am I never have the blinking? You have the blinking, she has the blinking, he has the blinking, but I never have it. And it makes me look the crazy and also be the crazy. Also, where is my pant? I was wearing my pant before, but now it is not on.

Canadians need leaders who are wearing pants, especially at the kitchen table. I always wear pants. I was at the kitchen table while flying over Exxon. I will sell ordinary, working Canadians pants at a 20% discount, with no money down until 2011!

This is such a sausage fest. But I like the cut of your jib, Jack, which is why I'm announcing a plan where Canadians can give up their gas guzzling cars and ride Jack Layton to work, reducing their carbon footprint by using this alternative mode of transportation.

(I can ride Layton to work? Wheeeeee!!! Golly, smiling in this rubber mask hurts.)

Dis is a good plan, but not a great plan. The Layton, he has a very aerodynamic head, but we would shave the excess face hairs. We will make the Canadians ride the Layton to the work, but ride the Gilles Duceppe home. The Liberal carbonation tax is simple. We put a tax on what is bad, such as the Pepsi, and we cut taxes on what is good, such as the wine. Vote for more of the fun.

You panicked, Stephane. You came in here and saw Gilles without any pants, and you panicked, and now you're making up plans as you go. Let me be clear. Our plan is simple. We've ordered another fifty rubber masks from the mother ship, and these ones will fit a lot better. Plus I have a new pair of pants.

Are you having my pant, Harper? Because you don't make me becoming mad, or if I am becoming mad, I'll cut you! I'll cut your face Harper!

And that's all the time we have for tonight. Pakin FTW!

Friday Mocumentory

Got some spare reading time?

Why not pour a cup of coffee, kick up your feet, and check out these three links:

1. "66 Said Yes" - an insider's look at the In and Out Scandal. If you're like me, you know the outline, but not the details. Pages 10-12 are what you want, a nice, concise explanation of what the Conservatives did to break election financing rules.

2. "Listeriosis is the least of it" - by the Canadian Medical Association.

Last November the Canadian government instituted astrategic review of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency(CFIA). Among its outcomes was to transfer inspection duties for ready-to-eat meats from the government inspectors to the meat industry.

... Maple Leaf Foods, the company at whose plant the Listeria contamination originated, was an early adopter of the government’s new plan.

3. "The Nordic approach to financing the welfare state" - in (very) short: raise the GST, lower corporate taxes.

Stephen Harper: Not An Economist

This is an excellent article from the Citizen today. In a short interview with a very conservative economist, it clearly and succinctly explains why a carbon tax ("tax shift"), proposed by at least two non-Conservative parties in this election, is sound economics.

This is all orthodox economics, Mankiw insists -- a 2006 survey of American Economic Association members found two-thirds agreed that "the U.S. should increase energy taxes" -- and so the issue shouldn't be cast as left versus right.

And GST cuts, it turns out, is bad economics.

Worst. PFO. Letter. EVER

I recently (on behalf of my wife) requested a book via the Ottawa Library online request service. Their response:

Title: The Divided Heart Format: Book The item that you suggested be purchased for the Ottawa Public Library will not be ordered, for one of the following reasons:

• It does not meet the Library's selection criteria - http://www.biblioottawalibrary.ca/explore/about/policies/selection_e.html
• It is by a very popular and best selling author, or is a top 40 compact disc, or a well reviewed DVD feature film - we will be buying these anyway and the order will be placed at a later date. Please check the database so you can place a hold.
• It is over two years old. (If a book, see if it is available from one of our Sm@rtLibrary partners.)
• It has not yet been published or released.
• The budget for the year has been spent.

The Library receives a large number of suggestions and can not always respond to requests for clarification of its decisions. Thank you for your interest in the Library's collection.

Translation: "Here's a semi-random list of reasons we can't get your book, but we can't tell you which one is the actual reason: 1) It's not a book. 2) It's too popular. 3) It's too old. 4) It's too new. 5) Oh yeah, we fogot, we're broke. Please don't contact us for further information. Toodles!" I particularly like the last reason. "We're broke." Maybe if you've spent the budget, you should stop soliciting ideas for new books until the next paycheque comes in. It will save us all some grief. Just an idea.

Attacking the attack ads

Despite having a wealth of material to work with, the Nepean-Carleton Libs have served up two poorly written, text-rich attemps on their web site: This one is every so slightly better, just because it focuses on a single Poilevre "moment" rather than try to tackle everything, but it still brings on a bit of a yawn: This one, which ran in the Nepean Weekender this weekend, is actually pretty good:

• it's brief
• features a large photo of Baird's annoying face
• it doesn't actually mention David Pratt's name (or even the Liberals), probably a good idea, all things considered!

Fight the greenwash

Interesting article in Wired today on GoodGuide, a startup that aims to provide accurate, scientist-vetted data on every day consumer products and give them a "green" rating. A great way to deal with "green-washing", where companies make bogus claims of environmental friendliness for their products. With no standards for what's "green", it's possible to make claims for pretty much anything.