Zaadz: Zed is us, eh?

Re: Upcoming Canadian Election

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:48:14 -0000

I think that would be a great coalition Liz. Do you think there is any chance of it?

Re: US Army Deserter is Being Deported from Canada!

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:37:15 -0000

UPDATE - September 24, 2008:
Today it was reported by the Associated Press that: "(Canadian) Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley ruled Jeremy Hinzman can stay in Canada while the court decides whether he can appeal his deportation order. ......

In his three-page ruling, Mosley wrote, "Based on the evidence and submissions before me, I am satisfied that the applicants would suffer irreparable harm if a stay were not granted." "

It's a good first step.... let's hope it sets a precedence!

Re: US Army Deserter is Being Deported from Canada!

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:15:14 -0000

Yes! Oh, thanks so much for this good news!

Love,

Nicole

Re: US Army Deserter is Being Deported from Canada!

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:28:53 -0000

As an additional comment as to why I am so fierce on this, and to see the workings of my sometimes twisted mind ;) on this, you might want to hop over to my blog (comments) where I've ranted at length on the current US economic fiasco, and how this story ties in to it (at least in my mind).

:)

Re: US Army Deserter is Being Deported from Canada!

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:22:41 -0000

Excellent blog and well-thought through comments. Gem, I think this proposed bailout is totally outrageous, I hope it's a wake-up call.

Love,

Nicole

Re: Upcoming Canadian Election

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:55:09 -0000

So Nicole, Fellow Pod members .....

How do you feel about Mr. Harper's cuts to Arts & Culture?

To me, it certainly means he is out of touch with Canadians - and certainly in supporting unique Canadian entertainment and keeping our culture from being overrun completely by American culture. Canadian culture is definitely more distinct than American culture, because we tend to celebrate multi-culturism, whereas the Americans tend to want to mute it out of existence. And we have some of the best artists, actors and musicians on the planet!!!

This is just one more piece of evidence, IMHO, that Mr. Harper's agenda is to push us into becoming the fifty-first US state. I'm really hoping that the people of Canada take off their blinkers soon and see him for what he is - which is definitely not very "Canadian".

Cheers!
Gem :)

Re: Upcoming Canadian Election

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:42:07 -0000

I agree, it is absolutely unconscionable that there be further cuts to Art and Culture, they are an essential part of our lifeblood not just as Canadians but for the world, which is surfeited by American culture.

Cheers,

Nicole

Re: Upcoming Canadian Election

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:42:53 -0000

Great blog by Tig!

Canada: Marg, Warrior Princess, Tells PM Harper to Get Lost

Re: Upcoming Canadian Election

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:45:38 -0000

ROFL......... thank you for this - WARMS my heart, for sure!!!!!

I watched about three quarters of the French debate last night (with English translators). Harper couldn't even look into the camera most of the time! That should tell anyone who even remotely cues to body language that he cannot be trusted. I think Dion did OK, but wasn't spectacular. Layton was the one who seemed the coolest under fire, though.

Going to watch tonight to see if anyone changes their stories. I was hoping that they would select my question that I sent in, especially since the financial crisis in the USA has everyone on alert - hopefully someone will have asked the same question and it's put out there for answering.

~~^v^~~ Gem

Re: Upcoming Canadian Election

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:59:46 -0000

I hear ya! Gem :):)

Cheers,

Nicole

Article criticising Palin removed by cbc

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:58:58 -0000

Heather Mallick's article was removed by cbc from the website and the company apologised. What do you think? Is this beyond the pale or on the mark?

http://www.heathermallick.ca/cbc.ca-columns/a-mighty-wind-blows-through-republican-convention.html

Re: Article criticising Palin removed by cbc

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:24:24 -0000

Heathers article was very on-the-money. CBC probably removed it because of pressure from "above" (Harper & Co.?) - and that smacks of censorship - but that's what their game includes. That they would apologise for it just shows how deeply the conservative right has entrenched our Canadian media, and we should begin paying a lot closer attention ourselves to who's running the show here.

I'm surprised that the networks haven't pulled Jon Stewart's Daily Show and the Colbert Report, too. Last night Daily Show featured a few interviews with Palin, and any woman in the USA with half a brain should be able to see that she's exactly what Heather was talking about in her article. Lame, totally uninformed even of her own party's policies and frameworks - and I dang near fell off my recliner when they showed a clip of McCain sitting in on one of the interviews, and then saying he "gives her permission to speak her own mind". The look she shot him should have dropped him dead right there!!!!

For the life of me, either they are very hard up for brains in Alaska, to even have her as Governor, or someone else (hubby Todd perhaps?) is running the show behind the scenes - have heard a lot about that, too. For someone who would be a heart-beat away from being President, I really think the Republicans should be asking McCain "What were you thinking?" when he chose her, above all of the other much more qualified women, if he just had to have a woman as a running-mate. I truly hope the Republicans would figure out a way to prevent her from taking charge should McCain croak, because if they think they have problems now, they haven't seen anything yet!

Gem :-)

Re: Article criticising Palin removed by cbc

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:35:47 -0000

LOL! Yeah! It is ludicrous but not surprising unfortunately, just seems like the next logical step in the US's apparent bid to go from world leader to bottom of the heap.

Cheers,

Nicole

Re: Article criticising Palin removed by cbc

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:40:16 -0000

Hi guys:

Sarah Palin is a slap in the face to all intelligent female politicians and to all intelligent American women. She is a dangerously anti-woman, anti-enviroment, inhumane, red-neck, loose cannon. She is a woman who is parading her 'special needs' child as though he is her campaign mascot, and who would overturn the right of other American women to decide what to do with their own bodies. She is a woman who used her political power at the municipal level to force sexual assault victims to pay for their own rape kits, who has no regard for wildlife, and who supports teaching abstinence-only sex ed (even though we all know how well that has worked out for her own daughter). She is a creationist nutbar who believes that human beings and dinosaurs inhabitted the earth at the same time (about 6000 years ago) and who would like to see that nonsense added to school curriculums for American children. It almost defies belief that she might become the VP of the USA, and the thought that she might someday be required to step in as President is truly frightening. As much as I hate to say this, in comparison to Sarah Palin even GW sounds intelligent.

As a feminist woman I would like nothing better than to see a truly intelligent female politician in the position of US President. Sarah Palin, however, is more bizarre and frightening than many male republicans. She has clearly been chosen to be John McCain's running mate because she is a woman and might garner some of the votes of women who had hoped to be voting for Hillary Clinton. She is also very unlike the typical republican, male, Washington insider image. She has obviously been chosen to fill the token woman, "I am from mainstreet USA' role. She is promoting herself as 'a Maverick' at a time when many Americans want someone as far removed from the image of the Bush administration as possible. Since racism will prevent some of those people from casting a vote for Barrack Obama, I am certain that some Americans will vote for her precisely for those reasons.

The VP debate, that was televised last week, seemed much more like a comedy than an actual serious political event. From the onset (when Sarah Palin asked Joe Biden if she could call him Joe), through her beauty pageant quality answers, Sarah Palin performed like a SNL actor parodying a mindless twit running for high office. Even her mannerism of staring right into the camera lens, rather than looking at the commentator or at her opponent, was truly bizarre and comical. She never answered one question with any measure of substance, but freqently said "hey" to all of the 'hockey moms' out there. She ended her bizarre preformance by traipsing out the kids, sans the pregnant teen daughter, and by giving her infant a quick hug and pat before pawning him off on her youngest daughter to carry around like a doll. Her entire performance was crude and ridiculous.

If John McCain and Sarah Palin win in their bid for the US Presidency and Vice Presidency, it will be evidence that the dumbing down of the American people has been thoroughly achieved.

It is outrageous that the CBC has pulled an insightful article about Sarah Palin from its website. Clearly there are powers that be in our country that would like to achieve the same kind of dumbing down of the Canadian people.

Liz

Re: Article criticising Palin removed by cbc

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:58:01 -0000

Agree with you, Liz, 200%!!! Couldn't add much to that!

:)

Re: Upcoming Canadian Election

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:01:41 -0000

Sooooo......

Tomorrow (Tuesday, October 7th, 2008) with exactly one week left to voting day, with advance polls closing soon, and with our guys over-seas already having voted on the weekend (saw that on the news :) ) -
FINALLY, Mr. Harper will be unveiling his platform for the election.

Now let's see - everyone else has had their platform out for at least a week and a half, longer for the NDP and the Green parties. Does this give this weasel any leverage? I think he's hoping that it will. But as nasty as the TSX stock market fall was today, it was a stroke of luck for any of the other parties, because I think he's going to really have to scramble and back-peddle to unbury himself from his overly positive prognostifications on the Canadian economy in the two debates last week.

His finance minister, Flaherty (who was once also the infamous Ontario premier Harris' finance minister, so we know what his pedigree is ;)) is taking some major heat in his Oshawa riding, with tonnes of work-boots being dumped at the door of his campaign office, from the workers unemployed, and looking to be unemployed from the big GM plants there. Unless Harper pulls a magic rabbit out of his hat tomorrow, I can't see things getting better for him in the GTA and large manufacturing areas of southern Ontario.

So here's hoping he at least doesn't get that majority that he's been hoping for, and I'm hoping that the Conservatives end up so far back that they take third base in the parliamentary ball-game. Although I have a great deal of respect for the NDP policies and people, I'm not too sure we're quite ready for the NDP to hold even a minority governing spot, but if they were to come in second base, to either of the other two major parties, I think in order to preserve any hope of staying in power, the other parties would need to cater to their wishes quite a bit. Crossing fingers on this!

But I still can't get over the fact that Harper would wait so long to bring out his platform! Just sitting here shaking my head over this. He'd probably be better if he didn't put one out, at this late stage.

My intuitions are hinting that he will scarf bits and pieces from every other party's platform and cobble something together that he think will hood-wink people into voting for him, thinking they'll still get what they want. Gosh darn, I hope Canadian's are smarter than to fall for that!!!

Gem :)

Re: Upcoming Canadian Election

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:49:52 -0000

Hilarious eh Gem? Did you get the letter from Avaaz begging us not to vote Conservative?

Cheers,

Nicole

Re: Upcoming Canadian Election

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:04:12 -0000

I unsubscribed from Avaaz long ago..... every day there was a request to send money to someone somewhere in trouble. Depressing - and I just got really tired of it.

So what was their deal that they didn't want us to vote Conservative? (not that I would anyways ;) )?

:)
Gem

Re: Upcoming Canadian Election

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:43:28 -0000

Well, here is the email so you can know :)

Dear friends,

Harper is within striking distance of a majority. Click below to listen to a great new campaign song from top Canadian artists and sign the pledge to stop him:

Sign The Pledge!

With the election in 10 days, Stephen Harper is within striking distance of a majority government. Canada is just steps away from four years of unchallenged rule from one of the worst leaders on the planet on climate change.

Canadians are rallying in response. Our campaign to come together across party lines and vote strategically to defeat the conservative candidate where we live is taking off like wild fire. In just a few days we donated over $100,000 to run campaign ads in key ridings, and now an impressive group of top Canadian artists have come together to record an inspiring song for Avaaz calling on all Canadians to join the campaign. Click below to listen and get a free download of this awesome song from diverse artists like K-OS, Sarah Harmer, Ed from Barenaked Ladies and Jason Collette from Broken Social Scene.

Click below to listen to the song, and answer its call to action by signing our pledge to vote smart to defeat the conservatives. The election is close, if we can get just 150,000 pledges to vote smart in close races, we could make the difference. Act now, and forward this email to everyone!

http://www.avaaz.ca/en/stop_harper_pledge?cl=133434236&v=2245

At the debates this week, Harper, with a straight face, touted his "hard targets plan” to cut emissions which he claimed is “admired by leaders around the world”. Unbelievable! In fact, Harper has been voted the worst leader on climate change in the world by international experts at the UN Summit in Bali. Elizabeth May called his climate plan what it is, “a fraud". The plan has limited measures to cut emissions per barrel of oil, but since Harper’s planning to hugely increase oil and tar sands production, total emissions could still increase! Harper’s neoconservative oilman buddies like George Bush like his plan, but no credible expert, scientist, or environmental group supports it.

What kind of leader deceives his people in such a significant way to avoid action, and wreck the world's efforts to act, on the most crucial issue of our time? A leader with great spin doctors who, like George Bush, isn't there for the people, he's there for the oil companies.

We can't let Harper win 4 years of complete control over our country. The Canada we love is in danger, let's come together quickly -- as NDPers, Liberals, Greens, conscientious Conservatives, Bloc supporters and people with no political stripe -- and do everything we can over the next 10 days to save it.

http://www.avaaz.ca/en/stop_harper_pledge?cl=133434236&v=2245

With hope and determination,
Ricken and the Avaaz Canada Team

Re: Article criticising Palin removed by cbc

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:49:03 -0000

You certainly said it all, Liz! :):)

Well, the picture over there is becoming painfully clear, isn't it? Not only the bailout went through but a 612 billion dollar military bill slipped through without a peep or murmur from anyone. Living this close (in the lap of it, with leaders like Harper!) to the nation-turned-train-wreck is getting to be a more and more difficult situation...

cheers,

Nicole