May vs MacKay - Why?

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, the gal I adore, Earth Mother Lizzie May, sez she's gonna run against Petey MacKay in the next electionvote. When Ma an' I was havin' coffee this mornin', Ma read it in the newspaper an' sez "Why would she do that?"

I ain't asked Lizzie, yet, but I might ask about the decision next time we email back'n'forth or if I see her at a Green event.

Here's a coupla reasons why she mighta made that choice.

1. She's a Nova Scotia gal. That's where her family landed an' lived after they moved here from the USA. I don't think Central Nova is her home ridin' on accounta she's from ol' CeeBee -- Cape Breton.

2. Free publicity. In 2006, the Green boss was Jimmy Harris. He ran in Trawna in the Beaches ridin'. He ran against Jack Laydown an ' Dennis (Rollin' Stones) Mills. He didn't stand a chance. The only advantage I seen at that time was the press. If Harris ran in some low-profile ridin', he'd probbly lost but he wouldn't have so much coverage like when he ran against a coupla big names who the press was followin'. I figger Lizzie'll get a lotta press by runnin' where the big MSM fellers an' gals is reportin' on PeteFeller.

3. Plannin' t' lose. Okay, I ain't sure I'm buyin' this one but I've heard it enough that I'm sayin' it's a possibility. FPTP means that we might not elect any GPC MP's. Even 25% of the popular vote won't elect an MP if the Cons or Grits get 26%. By runnin' against a popular local incumbent cabinet minister like PeteyBoy, there's a built-in excuse fer losin'.

Even though Lizzie's the gal I adore, she ain't what I would call a "consummate politician." If she were, I probbly wouldn't like her so much an' I doubt that many others would, neither. I think she made a polytickle mistake on this one. Time'll tell an' upsets are possible but the signs all point t' Lizzie losin' t' Pete.

The PR advantage of runnin' against a bigass cabinet minister mighta been a good idea if the cash-poor Greenies were as invisible as in 2004 an' 2006. That ain't the case now. I don't figger the benefits outweigh the clear electoral disadvantage. The latest polls show the Greens doing as well as the Dippers. We don't need the added free publicity. The MSM'll follow Lizzie pretty close no matter where she runs.

If she wants t' run in NS, a gotta wonder why she didn't go fer a Cape Breton seat.

I'm always yammerin' on about polyticks-as-usual an' how the Greens an' LizzieGal ain't polyticks-as-usual. I reckon this decision might be on accounta that. So far, Lizzie an' the Greens has done pretty good by marchin' t' the beat of a different polytickle drum. This is more o' the same, sez I.

I ain't sold on the idea fer Lizzie May t' run against MacKay. I hope she does well. I even hope she wins but I hope I win the lottery, too. Hopes ain't votes, though, an' elections is about gettin' the most votes -- not havin' the best hopes.

I'll support Lizzie an' I'll send her a few bucks like I done when she ran in London. I'll probbly write up a campaign song or two. I'll vote Green an' I'll cheer all the Greenie candidates an' I'll be hopin' at least one of 'em will get elected. I'm sad t' say, it probbly won't be Lizzie.

JimBobby

Noodles, Powder, Water an' Meat

Whooee! Well friends, I was just over t' StageLeft an' pore ol' Balbulican has hisself a dang tune about a Hot Dog runnin' over an' over inside o' his massive brain. I been havin' the selfsame troublem so I figgered I'd pass along this video o' Jackie an' Dunlap singin' about Hamburger Dinner.

Noodles, Powder, Water an' Meat...

That oughta cure yer Hot Dog fixation, Balbu.

Yores trooly,
JimBobby

Hey Dippers, Lay Off the Greenies

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, I'm sure I ain't the only booger who's noticed how the Dippers is gettin' desperate an' they're tossin' whatever mud they can find at the ones who they're worried about most -- Lizzie May an' her band o' treehuggin' Greenies. I ain't a hunnert percent sure that it's the Greens who's takin' votes away from the Dips. From what I seen in the 'pinion pools, the Greens is takin' from the Grits. The Dips ain't movin' backwards as fast as the Grits but the Greens is sure as hell surgin' ahead an' that's got Jack's team in attack mode.

One o' the worst things the Dips throw at the Greens is that the GPC is "fiscally conservative". Uh huh. Well, most Canajuns is also fiscally conservative. The Martinette Grit fiscal policies is at least as fiscally conservative as the Conservatives an' over 60% of Canajuns vote fer the Grits an' Cons an' when they do, they're votin' fer fis-cons. Sayin' that Greens is fis-cons is only pointin' out that GPC fiscal policy is in line with mainstream Canajun thinkin'.

To add weight to the intended insult, Dippers is always pointin' out that former GPC leader Jim Harris was, at one time, a Progressive Conservative. True enough. There are a lot of former PC's who went one way or another when Harpoon knocked the P outta PC. Harris didn't wait that long. He left the PC's an' went Green way back in 1985 when he was only 24 years old. Even if it was a giant black mark on his record to have been a Progressive Conservative as a younger man, he's been Green fer the past 22 years.

I seen one boog commenter tryin' t' say Harris was "pres" of the PC's.

If, as that booger sed, he was “pres” of the PC’s, he would have been the youngest pres of any political party I know of. His election to such a high office would have been big news. His subsequent defection would have been bigger news. I can't remember any bigass news like that from back in 85 an' I can find no evidence to backup the claim that he was “pres” of the PC’s.

Another way the Dips are tryin' t' discredit the Greens is by pointin' out that Lizzie May worked for Mulroney. That’s true enough. She did work as a lawyer advising Mulroney’s Environment Minister. It was her first job out of law school. She resigned in protest 20 years ago over Lyin' Brian Mulroney's government’s actions wrt a dam project.

Dippers ain't happy that Lizzie May sez unions need t' take some blame fer Canada's pisspoor showin' on climate change. Too bad. It's true, sez I.

I realize it’s a sacrilege fer Dippers to criticize organized labour so they can't ever admit that unions are at least partly to blame for lack of action on climate change. The enormous power of the CAW in Ontario has kept it’s workers on the assembly lines turning out Lincoln Navigators and spewing pollution into the air. NDP provincial regimes in Sasky and BC are on record with some of the worst environmental actions in recent years and the reason they took those anti-environmental actions was to pander to their union worker base.

Powerful sectors of society bear responsibility for the environmental mess we find ourselves in. Bizness, industry, government and organized labour. The unions have worked hard for their members. That’s their job. They have done so often at the expense of good green management. The environment is not the unions’ prime concern and it has always taken a backseat to job, jobs, jobs.

Individuals also are to blame and nobody needs to look very far to find an individual who refuses to take personal responsibility. Same with unions. Same with politicians. Same with the bankers an’ big biz boys. Same with loyal party flagbearers.

The sooner the NDP stands up to the unions and puts the welfare and health of all Canajuns over the financial security of Nanticoke’s IBEW and Oshawa’s CAW, the sooner they’ll start gettin’ the support of voters again. To a lot of environmentally concerned Canajuns, the Dips look like a 20th century phenomenon gaspin’ fer breath in a polluted 21st century atmosphere.

I ain't any fan o' WalMarket. I figger WalMarket's procurement policies are drivin' Chinese industrial growth an' are a major contributor t' GHG emissions. I've written boog stories supportin' WalMarket workers' right t' organize. I never shop in WalMarket an' I probbly never will.

But...

WalMarket's the biggest bigass retailer in the whole world. They got enormous power. When they do somthin' good fer ol' Mother Earth, it counts. WalMarket's replacin' every incandescent light bulb in their stores an' warehouses with CFB's. They're mountin' a major ad campaign an' they're phasin' out sales of old incandescant bulbs. This green action'll have a bigass effect on GHG emissions. Big bizness can be an ally but the Dips can only see as far as their union-made blinders'll let 'em an' they will never accept capitalism as a force that can be put to good use.

If the CAW ever goes on strike until the Big Three car makers replace all their incandescant lightbulbs, I'll eat a bug on YouTube.

Bizness, big an' small, is what creates jobs an' gets pay cheques out there so's Canajun workin' folks can enjoy the best standard o' livin' most anywhere. Greens are realty-based an' realize we can't save the planet without the support an' co-operation o' bizness. We need bizness an' we can't keep lookin' at bizness like it's the enemy.

Market mechanisms like emissions an' carbon tradin' are essential tools in GHG reduction. Biznesses an' unions need t' work together on solutions to industrial pollution. The NDP needs t' quit with it's out-dated, blinkered views if it don't wanna keep goin' downhill in the 'pinion polls an' at the ballot box. The NDP looks more like yesterday's party than the forward thinkers they looked like in the 60's.

JimBobby

Boom Town Social Ills - Syphilis in the Oilpatch

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, a coupla days ago a story come out in the Globe & Mail all about the troublems they're havin' over in Alberty in the oil patch with all the new workers movin' in t' get the oil outta the sand. A coupla Canajun boogers posted up boog stories on these troublems they're havin'. Politique Vert had a good piece where she quoted a speech made by the gal I adore, Earth Mother Lizzie May. BigCityLib had a piece where he sorta poked some fun at a coupla nutjobs who happen t' come from Alberty. Alberta Aardvark ain't happy with BigCity.

Well, I been boogin' against Alien Alberts who wanna bust up Canada since when I started boogin'. The sorta regional finger-pointin' an' guiltifyin' goin' on between Alberty an' Ontariariario ain't good fer Canada. My Canada includes Alberty.

Over t' Politique Vert I seen a speech from Lizzie May from way last June. Here's the part that applies --

"Before I get to the ecological impacts, I want to cover some of the social ones, because they get missed. Believe it or not I have friends in Fort McMurray, and it is really appalling what's happened to the community. In 1971 it had a population of less than 7,000 people, by 1981 it was over 30,000. Today there are 70,000 people living in Fort McMurray. They lack adequate infrastructure of every kind. They don't have adequate sewage, they don't have adequate housing. As a matter of fact 20% of that 70,000 population has no fixed address. A lot of the people working there are in work camps. Thousands and thousands of working age guys who take big salaries are in these work camps.

So of course there's a huge crime problem, there's the use of drugs, there's assault, there's HIV/AIDS, there's prostitution. One of the doctors I've talked to in Fort McMurray said that every kind of high impact, high stress, high risk behaviour you can imagine happens in those work camps. And they have an acute lack of workers. They want more people to come, there's no place to put them, there's no infrastructure. "

Lizzie weren't just talkin' through her hat an' now we're seein' them troublems comin' home t' roost.
I left me a couplafew comments over t' the BCL an' the Aardvark boogs. I'm gonna paste some o' them in here.
At the Aardvark, they was bashin' the Grits an' goin' on about the NEP an' even Pierre Truedough. One Aardvark commenter by the name o' Lycan sez "And now, despite all the Liberal(s) have done, Alberta is booming."
I figgered I'd set him straight a little.
I ain't in Alberty but from what I hear-tell, it's these here tar sands that's the biggest boom goin' on, right?
An' I ain't a Liberal but I lived under a Liberal gummint fer 13 years an' I paid attention t' what was goin' on. The Liberals is the ones who made the tar sands development possible with $1.4 billion a year in tax breaks.
Here's a little bit on that from the National Post.

"Environmentalists, the NDP and Bloc Quebecois have repeatedly called for an end to programs introduced in 1997 -- when Mr. Dion was minister of intergovernmental affairs under Jean Chretien -- that allow oil companies to write off their start-up costs with breaks on taxes and royalties.
While it helped kick-start development in the 1990s, critics say the industry is taking record profits and no longer needs government assistance. Opposing parties have frequently assailed the Tories in the House of Commons as friends of the oil industry, despite the fact the tax breaks were put in place by the Liberals well before the Conservatives came to power."

NEP was decades ago. PET's been dead fer years. Tar sands development is now. Liberals in Ottawa kick-started the tar sands. Don't hate 'em fer helpin' make Alberta rich. (That there was a play on the Aardvark title Don't hate us because we are beautiful. )
When there's troublems in Alberty, like in Fort Mac with the syphilis, I reckon it's a troublem fer Canada. That makes it every Canajun's troublem an' I reckon name-callin' an' regional one-upsmanship crappola don't do a dang thing t' solve the troublem.
I ain't been in Alberty since 1973 when I was young an' handsome. I'm gettin' old an' wornout now an' I might never get t' that beautiful province again before I cash out. Even so, when Alberty suffers with social troublems, I feel the pain on accounta it's Canajuns who's sufferin'.
Now, I'm all fer givin' Alberty all the help it needs. One thing I didn't like was when Harpoon divvied up the CO2 reduction money an' Alberty got less than Ontariariario or Q-beck. I don't reckon money like that ought be divvied up on the basis of population (votes). I figger Alberty should get the most on accounta they've got the biggest troublems.
They also got big troublems on the social side an' I figger them oil companies an' the taxes them workers pay oughta be enough t' make sure they got doctors an' womens' shelters an' STD clinics an' drug rehab programs an' recreational facilities. If Ottawa's gotta chip in an help Canada's richest province look after the workers who's makin' 'em rich, so be it. We can't have these sorta troublems in the oil patch any more than we can have 'em on northern reserves or in Parkdale.
Even if Lizzie May gets elected Queen o' Canada (which she won't be anytime soon) the tar sands is gonna keep on growin'. It ain't stoppable, even if we wanted to. What's possible is t' clean it up. We can clean up the extraction process an' we can clean up the social mess.
We're intelligent, educated, hard-workin', compassionate Canajuns. Of course, we can look after our people and our planet.
JimBobby

Canadian Blogosphere Victory - 9 Year Old to be Freed

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, yesterday we got some good news. Kevin Yourdkhani is the 9 year old Canajun boy who's been locked up in a badass jailhouse down in Texas fer the past month, or so. There's been a few Canajun boogers who been agitatin' fer Kevin in their boogs. Annamarie's been on it like a dog on a bone (I mean that in a good sense, AnnieGal - not a Peter MacKay sense.) an' AprilReign, Hope an' Onions, Kuri, Skdaddler, liberal catnip an' some others, too.

The boogers was all tellin' boog-readers t' write letters first t' Petey MacKay an' later t' Diane Finley. Lotsa letters was written. I wrote t' both MacKay an' Finley an' I know a lot of other boogers an' boog readers followed the boogin' advice an' wrote, too. I kept my letters short an' I appealed t' their sense o' human decency. So far, I ain't heard back from neither one of 'em but that ain't so important as knowin' that they finally did what we been tellin' 'em t' do in all our letters.

Anyways, gettin' back t' the good news part... Diane Finley's lettin' Kevin an' his Ma an' Pa inta Canada on a temporary basis. This is all we been askin' fer -- get the pore little feller outta them inhumane conditions. I'm happy t' see Diane doin' the right thing but I ain't gonna write her another letter an' tell her until she answers the first one I sent her.

So far, I ain't seen nothin' in the MSM (main street media) that gives any credit t' Canajun boogers fer keepin' this story alive but deep down, I reckon if the boogers hadn't kept boogin' about Kevin, the MSM wouldn't o' started askin' the selfsame questions we been askin' fer weeks now. This is a bigass victory fer the Canajun boogeysphere an' I figger all boogers can feel better knowin' we got a little influence an' if we keep shoutin' long enough, somebuddy'll start listenin'.

JimBobby

Kevin's Health Going Downhill -- Diane Finley Must Act

Whooee! Okay, things is goin' from bad t' worse down in Texas where the Merkans is holdin' a 9 year old Canajun boy in the jailhouse --

(T)he situation in Hutto is poor, and the conditions of detention are the subject of a lawsuit launched this week by the American Civil Liberties Union. 9-year-old Kevin Yourdkhani is suffering from a painful eye infection, eczema and what appears to be either a very bad a cold or flu. He also suffers severe asthma which is complicated by the poor conditions at Hutto.

Annamarie's got the whole press release.

The Merkan gummint is sayin' that the claim the daddy'll be tortured if they send 'em back to Iran is a believable claim --

The Canadian lawyer for 9-Year-old Kevin Yourdkhani — a Canadian citizen currently detained over a month in a Texas immigration jail along with his Iranian-born parents — revealed today that the U.S. Government agrees with the assessment of Amnesty International that the family faces a credible risk of persecution or torture if deported to Iran.

“The Canadian government now has TWO separate assessments, both showing that the history of past torture and persecution in Iran told by the Yourdkhani/Alibegi family is credible, and that return to Iran is not a viable option. One comes from the US government, the other from Amnesty International,” says lawyer Andrew Brouwer, who is retained by the family.

If yer concerned about the fate an' health of Kevin, yer fellow Canajun, write to Diane Finley an' tell her to stand up fer Canajun rights an' fer human decency an' get that little boy outta jail before he gets sicker or worse.

Diane Finley
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

Telephone: (613) 996-4974
Fax: (613) 996-9749
EMail: Finley.D@parl.gc.ca
Web Site:* www.dianefinley.ca/
Preferred Language: English

Constituency Offices
70 Queensway West
Simcoe, Ontario
N3Y 2M6
Telephone: (519) 426-3400
Fax: (519) 426-0003

JimBobby

Tobacco Farmers Won't Get Billion Dollar Buyout

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, I was SLAGPP* when I read that the tobacka farmers ain't gonna get the million bucks a-piece that they been tryin' t' blackmail outta the Canajun taxpayer. Ol' Chuck Strahl put the kibosh on the dumbass plan t' give away a pile o' dough t' the richest farmers in Canada. There's food farmers who's hurtin' an' I got nuthin' but respect fer 'em. Tobacka farmers is anuther story an' I already wrote about 'em an' posted up a song, too.

He told delegates that the board was seeking nearly $1 billion for 600 growers. Strahl said the proposal was a non-starter for his political colleagues in Ottawa and Queen’s Park and for other farmers in other sectors.“I just don’t think I can sell it politically and I think…I guess I’m encouraging the discussion to switch from that kind of package to something that is more doable and I’m just being blunt and honest, folks,” Strahl said during a question-and-answer forum.

"I just don’t think I can sell it. I can’t sell it in the cabinet, and I don’t think I can sell it in the greater ag community.”

I live in tobacka country. Other than the tobacka farmers themselves, I ain't ever heard a single person who sez they think this here buyout was a good idea.

Now, they're all gonna climb inta their air-conditioned, deluxe $200,000 tractors an' drive in big circles 'round Diane Finley's office. MPP Toby Barrett's been one o' their bigass champeens so maybe he'll be drivin' his ol' John Deere, too. I reckon Ontariariario's the last bet fer the money-grubbin' growers but now that the feds has shut 'em out, Ginty'll have a good excuse to kill the buyout idea an' no good excuse t' keep it.

JimBobby

*SLAGPP: Smilin' Like A Girl Pig Peein'

What's MacKay Waiting for? The Decider?

Whooee! Well decent humans, ol' JimBobby's gettin' pissed off. I wrote t' Pete MacKay last week an' I told him t' act in the name o' human decency an' get this here 9 year old Canajun boy outta the Merkan jailhouse. I ain't heard diddly-squat back from the numbnuts but I seen in the mornin's paper he sez he ain't decided what t' do just yet.

WASHINGTON (CP) - Canada hasn't decided yet what to do about a Canadian boy and his Iranian parents who are being held at Texas detention centre for illegal immigrants, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said Friday.

What's he waitin' for? Maybe he can't decide until the Decider tells him what his decision is.



It ain't a tough decision like what should you eat fer lunch. It's an easy decision. Nine year olds don't belong in jail. Canajun kids don't belong in Merkan jails. If you got any human decency, that ain't rocket science.

Annamarie over t' Verbena-19's keepin' MacKay's feet t' the fire an' now the main street media's lookin' inta the situation an' MacKay better get off his ass an' work fer the welfare o' Kevin, the 9 year old Canajun citizen who's in the Texas jailhouse.

Here's a song I done last Sunday on the whole sorry mess -

Nine Year Old Blues

Chewin' nails an' fartin' tacks,
JimBobby

E.T., Turn Down the Heat

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, I ain't never seen a flyin' saucer so maybe I'm jest talkin' through my hat but, dang it, I don't reckon we oughta be countin' on space aliens t' save ol' Mother Earth. Paul Hellyer thinks gummints around the world been hidin' all sortsa scientific knowledge they gathered up from invaders from other worlds.

Hellyer ain't some whacked out Trekkie X-Filer. He was Canada's Defence Minister under Lester Pearson. He figgers we can solve climate change by usin' the same technology that the Martians used t' fly their space ships all the way t' Earth an' back.

OTTAWA (AFP) - A former Canadian defense minister is demanding governments worldwide disclose and use secret alien technologies obtained in alleged UFO crashes to stem climate change, a local paper said Wednesday.

"I would like to see what (alien) technology there might be that could eliminate the burning of fossil fuels within a generation ... that could be a way to save our planet," Paul Hellyer, 83, told the Ottawa Citizen.

Alien spacecrafts would have traveled vast distances to reach Earth, and so must be equipped with advanced propulsion systems or used exceptional fuels, he told the newspaper.

Now, I figger if any country like the Merkans had access t' some sorta super spaceman science, they woulda already used it t' take over the world by now. Ol' Hellyer's gettin' up there an' maybe he's been fergettin' t' take the ginseng. Or else maybe he's got secret info from when he was Defence Minister an' he's fergettin' t' keep it secret.

I like the idea o' space aliens pullin' us earthlings' fat outta the fire. I figger it'd make a dandy comic book script.

JimBobby

Fire Down Below

Whooee! Well friends, Ma an' me almost never get inta any arguments so I ain't any kinda expert on what a feller oughta do if he's tired o' scrappin'. What I reckon you don't wanna do is go t' sleep in the middle of a squabble -- 'specially, if yer squabblin' with a crazy drunk gal.

MONTREAL (CP) - A Montreal woman who used fondue fuel to set her late
boyfriend's penis on fire has been sentenced to four years in prison.

The Crown says taking into account time already served, Andree Rene will have to remain incarcerated for another 30 months. Crown attorney Steve Lariviere said today the 44-year-old woman also needs follow-up help for her psychological and alcohol problems. In April 2001, Rene's boyfriend went to bed following a heated argument between them.

As Guillaume Pungo snoozed, Rene doused the man's private parts with fuel and set them aflame.

The 52-year-old spent a month in hospital after suffering third-degree burns in the pelvic area and on his chest.

Lariviere also says Pungo, who died last year of unrelated causes, had difficulty getting into relationships after what happened.

Yeow! Double-Yeow!! Difficulty gettin' inta relationships, eh? Yeah... I imagine gettin' yer dick burned off might make things a little difficult.

JimBobby