“They voted for Jack Layton. Jack Layton is dead.” – MP Lise St-Denis, explaining her decision to leave the NDP and join the Liberal Party.
We know. :-(
Filed under Politics eh
Fiscal Conservatives plan most expensive project in Canada
At a cost of over $325,000,000 per km, Rob Ford’s decision to bury the 25 km Eglinton LRT will be a boon to contractors and construction companies. And it got Toronto in the news for financing the most expensive infrastructure project in Canada. Other than that, I don’t see much benefit. Fewer stations and much higher cost = bad deal for transit riders. The original plan would have buried it where necessary – now Joe Q. Taxpayer will be paying for the convenience of completely burying transit vehicles meant for surface routes, just so that Rob Ford doesn’t have to see a streetcar when he’s driving along, cursing into his cell phone. We can’t even blame city council for this fiasco – Ford didn’t put it to a vote, deciding unilaterally to cancel a fully funded transit project and waste upwards of $195,000,000 of taxpayer money on cancellation fees alone.
Filed under General News, Mayors Ford, Toronto, TTC
Byron Sonne – Rockets + Explosives = Plot To Destroy The Sun
That incorrigable troll Joe Tory is at it again over at Toronto Life.
From what I’ve been able to read, with the high-explosives AND the rockets, it’s quite possible Byron Sonne was planning to blow up the sun.
Laugh, if you must, but also seriously consider the ramifications of his plan.
Without the sun, the Earth would be forever plunged into darkness. It’s the ultimate horror – the slow, suffocating death of everything, with nowhere to run. The coldness of empty space will wash over us and drain all life from our world as we struggle to say “Goodbye” to our loved ones in the dying amber glow of once-mighty Sol.
Sheer foolishness. To blow up the sun you’d need at least a class V fission warhead with a plutonium 462 detonator atop a mixed-fuel long-range interplanetary launcher. Everybody knows that.
Filed under Politics eh, Toronto, Trolls
Canada j’accused of sabotaging the environment
Geoff Dembicki has a piece on Salon.com and TheTyee.com right now – Big Oil and Canada thwarted U.S. carbon standards. It’s all about how our proud nation has all but ensured more catastrophic climate change by sabotaging emission control plans in order to improve petroleum company profit margins. Good job us! In honour of this achievement, I’ve composed a new national anthem. Forgive the blatant politics at the end – if you can think of a better rhyme, then way to go Ezra Pound.
O Canada
Our home on native land
True patriots chafe under Harper’s command
As the tar sands flow, we see the rise,
Of a wealthy oligarchy
How hard they try, to portray their plans
As measures of austerity!
Who made healthcare competent and free?
O Canada, it wasn’t a Tory…
O Canada, we need the NDP.
UPDATE: The Government of Harper has decreed that we shall no longer buy Chiquita Bananas, because the company is trying to reduce their carbon footprint and won’t use oil produced from the Albertan Tar Sands. All citizens who do not participate in the Government mandated boycott are to be sent to facilities for immediate treatment of their bananaddiction. Because we shall not do business with a company that does business with those murderous Colombians. Well… actually…
Lest we forget that our own oil sands-pushing Conservative government signed a free trade deal with Colombia last year, despite the concerns raised by human rights groups, trade unionists and indigenous groups about being targeted by right-wing paramilitaries with links to the Colombian government. More trade unionists are killed in Colombia than any country on earth.
The PM didn’t seem too preoccupied about that when he signed on the dotted line, just so Canuck mining interests could have access to Colombia’s silver and gold, not to mention, build giant dams that will have the effect of pushing peasants off their land.
In fact, the HarperCons were willful in their ignorance about government-sponsored abuses in Colombia, tried to cover up the fact the Colombian government, despite efforts in recent years to clean-up widespread corruption, still have blood on their hands. Parliament’s Standing Committee on International Trade urged the PM to exercise caution. It asked for an impartial third-party human rights assessment before any trade agreement was struck with Colombia. But that never happened. – Now Toronto
Filed under Politics eh
TTC’s new fare hike will pay for Transit City cancellation costs… in about two years.
With news of an impending fare hike, we can expect that the TTC will soon be forcing us to use those silly paper tickets after I empty out every token machine in the downtown core. You can blame me! I’m sorry. I just can’t stomach the fact that Rob Ford’s insanely dumb cancellation of Transit City will now cost us, THE TAXPAYERS, at least $65,000,000, which means that all the money from the fare hike can go towards NOTHING for two whole years. I refuse to pay this tax.
And this is a tax. So are user fees, by the way. They are a tax on the users of the service, so lets stop with the euphemisms as many Torontonians are not retarded. Rob Ford cut the car registration tax, which cost drivers $60 a year, and has just saddled daily transit users with a fare increase that costs the exact same amount per year. If anyone thinks that’s a coincidence, I have a couple of bridges for sale …
The Ford Administration should just hike the fare to something they consider proper – $18? No, they consider themselves smart businessmen, so we’d probably end up paying $17.99 per trip. Count yer pennies.
Really, people – especially suburban dwellers, who will be hardest hit by any cuts – should have seen this coming. So far, on the transit file, the mayors Ford have committed transit policyFAIL after policyFAIL (that’s a meme/twittertag I’m trying to start). Current transit #policyFAILs:
- Canceled a fully funded transit plan, resulting in at least $65,000,000 in penalties.
- Plan to lay off hundreds of TTC workers, as ridership increases. Just imagine – overworked, irate “essential workers” in charge of your commute every day. You can expect subway delays to increase as it will take longer for maintenance crews to arrive. You can expect more short turns. You can expect every transit annoyance to be magnified as the cuts dig deeper and deeper.
- Plan to cancel or delay new buses, streetcars, and subway trains; AND is planning to decrease service standards as ridership increases. You’ll be crammed in so tight you won’t even be sure if the creep next to you is molesting you or just trying to breathe.
- Left Finch dwellers – who probably voted for the Fords – stuck with inexcusably awful transit by canceling the Finch LRT and canceling new buses.
- Will bury the Eglinton line, which will cost taxpayers over $8,000,000,000 and will shut down parts of Eglinton for at least two years. LOL @ Drivers who voted to end the War on Cars. LOL @ Drivers who crapped all over the St. Clair West LRT right-of-way. Eglinton will be more complex, and since it’s a rush build, much of the digging will have to be done at the same time – and I would expect to see even more delays as surrounding businesses fight to save the status quo, as they did on St. Clair West.
- Will probably end up building an expensive, taxpayer-funded bridge over the Don Valley to accommodate the Eglinton underground LRT, despite the fact that the existing road is more than wide enough to handle a streetcar track. But a streetcar track would prevent Joe Tory from doing his random U-Turns along a 80+ km/h stretch of highway. And Rob Ford will always do what Joe Tory wants. Rob Ford is Joe Tory’s bitch.
- Canceled the Sheppard LRT, and hasn’t funded the planning of his Fantasy Sheppard Subway, which will cost about $5,000,000,000, with at least $3,300,000,000 being paid for by us taxpayers (unless Doug Ford can write a cheque for that amount). Sorry Scarborough.
- Speaking of Sorry Scarborough, the Scarborough RT, long overdue for an update, will be shut down for four years. Transit riders who were used to cramming into the small RT cars can look forward to watching overfilled buses passing their bus stop and leaving them in the rain. Oh wait, it might actually be seven years of crappy bus service!
Nobody knows what’s going on. One day we’re in a financial crisis, the next Ford is talking about cutting more taxes. One day the deficit is a billion dollars, the next day we have a multi million dollar surplus. That’s the worst part of it all – different departments are giving different answers, and not even Ford’s Loyalists are singing the same (lameass) song.
Filed under Mayors Ford, Toronto, TTC
Joe Tory, will you ever learn…
What a goofy troll!
“People compare Rob Ford to a bull in a chinashop, but he’s more like a bull in a kindergarten.”
Filed under Mayors Ford, Trolls
Austerity for taxpayers, taxpayer funded chandeliers for 1%ers …
Fitting isn’t it? As world leaders gathered to discuss how to save the banking and financial sectors from having to pay back the money they lost, they wined and dined and snoozed in luxury on the Canadian taxpayer’s loonie. Tsk Tsk. Best part is? It cost $1.9 million to make the renovations at an already-swanky resort, and there’s no paper trail.
Respect for taxpayers (as long as they’re in the 1%).
Filed under General News, Politics eh
Government thugs gas octogenarian
Here’s a shot of your grandmother after being assaulted by government employees. Click for the whole picture.
The stormtroopers also gassed a pregnant woman, which put her in the hospital, and hosed down a priest wearing full vestments. The priest’s account of the incident is illuminating:
“I walked between the lines, I was alone, I was in full clergy dress, everyone knew who I was and what I was…six officers turned their spray on me thoroughly soaking my alb and then one officer hit me full throttle in the face,” he wrote.
“My question to my clergy colleagues is this: Where are you?” – Toronto Star
The anti-dissent squad had a simple explanation for all this – anyone who got pepper sprayed was committing a crime right then and there! That includes a pregnant woman, a priest, and your grandmother. UH HUHHHH.
Filed under General News
Are they terrorists if they were here first?
Tim Harper of the Toronto Star brings news of Canada’s Fiscal Conservatives spending millions following around a completely boring native rights activist. I guess she was a little too uppity for Steven Harper’s liking. Meanwhile, the Ontario government invited her to speak about native youth at a government summit … while federal goons were on her tail, trolling her facebook profile, digging through the family history, finally banning her from a meeting with Ontario’s chiefs.
Now, I’m no McGuinty fan, but it seems to me that the Fiscally Conservative Responsible thing to do when faced with an honest, intelligent, hardworking activist who’s only repeating what the auditor general says is to make use of her energy and expertise. But not when you’re a Conservative – then anyone opposing your agenda is a potential traitor, so send out the million dollar spies.
If we didn’t waste so much money on bullshit, there wouldn’t need to be all these cutbacks. I’m digressing significantly here, but look at the United States. They’re out of money, right? Can’t fund health care, can’t pay unemployment benefits, can’t afford to educate it’s people. But they sure can spend money on nuclear weapons – over $50 billion a year.
Our report, the first public examination of open-source data, shows that the U.S. spent at least $52.4 billion on nuclear weapons and programs in fiscal 2008. This budget, which spans many agencies, not just the Defense Department, does not count related costs for air defense, anti-submarine warfare, classified programs or most nuclear weapons-related intelligence programs.
The 2008 nuclear security budget exceeds all anticipated spending on international diplomacy and foreign assistance ($39.5 billion) and natural resources and the environment ($33 billion). It is nearly double the budget for general science, space and technology ($27.4 billion), and it is almost 14 times what the Energy Department allocated for all energy-related research and development. – LA Times, 2009
Even Russia eventually gave up the missile race and built a doomsday machine.
When a military option is present, certain types of men are all too eager to throw money out the window. Activists complaining? Spies. Protesters assembling? Paramilitaries. Marines supporting complaining activists and assembling protesters? BOOM! HEADSHOT.
Of course, if they didn’t spend the money on hunting and hurting people, they’d have to spend it on helping. And that just isn’t going to happen!
Filed under Politics eh