cbacon

Surprisingly, I saw the DVD on sale at the HMV on Young Street in Toronto. None of the other HMV's around here have it though.

Stars - Set Yourself On Fire Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

(Not-so) Brief summary: source

In regards to the Smackdown: HCTP cover art:

What, you WANT Layton to commit political suicide? They're the only party right now that's improving their image. Holding a gun to the government's head would flush all that down the toilet. Read again. I said if the NDP come out of an election with the seats to offer the Liberals meaningful support, i.e. a majority, then it seems fair that a condition for that support would be a referendum on proportional representation. That's a key plank of the NDP's platform, and one that people from all across the political spectrum can agree with. Martin doesn't like it but he knows it will come eventually, so I think he'd take it so he could take credit for it. The alternative, propping up the Liberals in exchange for other short term gains, has always cost the NDP seats in the election that follows, and that's to be expected. The Liberals will take credit for everything good they're forced to do, and the NDP will be blamed when they do withdraw their support, for causing the collapse of the government.

It looks like the Liberals and NDP might have enough seats together to have a majority, which would be wonderful if Jack sets proportional representation as a non-negotiable term for cooperation. Otherwise, as in the past, when the NDP props up the Liberals they'll lose seats in the election after that as Liberals take credit for everything they've been forced to do and NDP are blamed for everything that goes wrong

The Coles Notes version of that article is that the U.S. government, which openly declared that genocide was occurring in Sudan a few months ago, now considers Sudan an ally. If this sounds familiar it's because U.S. support of genocidal states (**coughturkeycough**) isn't new.

OL No point talking the issues when Czech brings the funny to these threads

The death toll is at 700 now.

If you don't find the line, "But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" to be frightening and exceptionally wrong I really worry about what's going on in your head, Boon, Justice, etc. Also, waging aggressive war is illegal and is agreed as being wrong by virtually everyone on Earth.

Well thank you for contributing your typical anti-Bush, impeachment, war crimes bullshit nonsense. Thanks for proving my point. What's that? Mike isn't here to post what you were gonna say anyway, right?

Previous thread It was no sold for the most part, except for the typical Republican talking point responses from Mike and Justice. This isn't spying or code-breaking or something, this is a British government official reporting on conversations and meetings with American government officials. That's not intelligence, that's explaining what happenned. The memo says that they had already decided to invade way in advance of doing so, and that they were searching for justifications to do so. The memo (assuming it is in fact true) is proof of waging aggressive war, and completely destroys anything Bush has said publically about the war. I'm fairly certain that's grounds for impeachment (and it's certainly grounds for war crimes charges).

All I have to say in regards to what Justice said (and some of what Highland mentioned) is that the Canadian people were very much opposed to Iraq, and any Prime Minister who had agreed to our participation would have found himself turfed out at the earliest opportunity. Sorry, you can go it alone. If I had my way we'd axe NAFTA and NATO, but I guess I can settle for not legitimizing US invasions. Also, as for not wanting an election, we just had one a year ago. It's not that we never want elections (I personally like elections and think they should be more frequent), it's that most of us agree with Paul Martin's suggestion to wait until a report has been delivered on the corruption issue, and then have an election. And there are some things we want the government to get done. Same-sex marriage legislation. That budget deal so many of us approve of, with the NDP, the kind Liberals only ever agree to under duress; we'd like to see that pass. Some of the more idealistic of us are still hoping a Liberal government would get back to work dismantling the criminalization of marijuana, which over 70% of us agree should be done. There's the government's Kyoto plan. There's these deals to give more money to the provinces. These are the kinds of things that Harper won't give us, that he admits he wont give us and campaigns on not giving us! If he's Prime Minister (and I doubt it) it will only be either because the Bloc decided their interests are better served by formalizing their new alliance or because Canadians have much shorter memories than anyone could suspect, and given recent polls showing that the majority of Canadians believe Harper has a hidden agenda, I'm inclined to breathe a sigh of relief that they don't. I was watching some CBC Newsworld this evening, and the panelists pretty much all agreed that over the past couple weeks the NDP have had by far the best press and have gone up the most in public opinion. They're the only party who is acting as though they actually want to get some governing done, they're the only party who looks willing to compromise, they're the only party not getting involved in childish name-calling, etc. The Conservative numbers have been stagnating or declining for a while now, proving that the reason for their big poll jump was probably knee-jerk reaction to some of the sponsorship inquiry info that came out about bribes and such. Odds are pretty good that - outside of Quebec - from this point on the majority of former Liberal voters who jump ship will be voting NDP. Which makes sense, given that the core Liberal voters are typically middle-class economically, and centrist politically, two groups that aren't especially fond of the Conservative brand of politics

I don't recall singing the godly praises of Chretien or Martin. And if i'm not mistaken, i'm not sure anyone in this thread had stated they'd be voting Liberal. Unfortunately it comes down to voting for the lesser of 4 evils in these sorts of situations. We could do far better then having Martin or Stephen Harper running the country, but if it means sticking with the devil you know, then the Liberals should stay in power. My vote would be going to the NDP however, that is, if I had my damn citizenship already. Support for the Liberals is down, but people are afraid of the Conservatives, for good reason. It's not just a question of apathy or not caring about the scandals, it's about lack of a real alternative. If polls are any indication the NDP will do better, and the Bloc will probably capture almost every seat in Quebec. God forbid we actually keep our sovereignty intact and further ourselves from being America's lap dog.

Anyone notice that the Conservatives are now suggesting that the Liberals are delaying the vote in the hopes that two Conservative MP's with cancer will die and the vote won't be so close? Just when you think that party can't hit a new low . .

I remember when Snickers was Marathon back in England

I have nothing against Chavo pinning London, but for godsakes, enough with the damn feet on the ropes/roll up finishes.

Gold. I'm confident that we won't be voting the Conservatives into power in the next election. And even if they obtain a minority government, it won't last. That said, it'd be gosh-darn great to have a proportional system.

Not bad, but that album cover is horrible.

I splurged today: Broken Social Scene - You Forget it in People Bright Eyes - Digital Ash in a Digital Urn Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning K-OS - Joyful Rebellion

Only in America would this even be a serious issue. Science classes should teach evolution. Evolution is the scientific explanation for the origin of species. Whether it's "fact" or not is as immaterial as whether gravity is a "fact." It's the scientific explanation, and it can and should be taught in high school classes with abslolutely no attention paid to possible alternatives, which are almost always religion-based anyway.

Apparently this has been front-page news in Britain, but as far as I can tell it's getting virtually no media attention over here. A memo from July 2002 leaked in Britain written by a foreign policy aide discussing how the United States had already decided on and was building towards war and regime change in Iraq. The full memo, which probably shouldn't be surprising but which would almost certainly be grounds for Bush's impeachment if anyone in the American media cared, can be found here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html

You trust American intel on anything? You also, as expected, ignore Duelfer's findings about how much corruption was involved with Oil-For-Food and France's promise --- in writing, no less --- to veto any action against Iraq. -=Mike Maybe it's because I never said anything about oil-for-food or france? Seriously, what has that got to do with anything? Everyone's well aware of what the French line was, it's not like it was a secret. The book in question (Hegemony or Survival) is really worth the read, even if your a staunch conservative.

You trust American intel on anything? Touchè

You're allowed to vote for the UK election? Yes, I have British citizenship.