"...and all of it will happen again."

In October 2002, on becoming concerned that torture and extra-judicial killings were taking place in Uzbekistan, Craig Murray made a controversial speech at a human rights conference in Tashkent, in which he claimed that "Uzbekistan is not a functioning democracy"… Read full post »

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said the Conservatives will not try to remove Richard Colvin from his post in Washington, even though they question the credibility of his testimony on Afghan prisoners.

MacKay, speaking at a news conference at the opening of the Halifax International Security Forum on Fr… Read full post »

Punk Rawk the way God intended: hostile, juvenile and loud. Keep staring at your shoes and whining about how girls don't understand you Emoschmucks.

Does The Globe and Mail's Christie Blatchford ever write about anything but brave and innocent white skinned people being horrifically abused by vicious and underhanded dark skinned people?

Global warming deniers, massively financed by industry and feted by right wing pressure groups and politicians though they are, are eager to claim the role of martyrs, shrieking endlessly that the contrary view on anthropogenic global warming is 'suppressed'.

Ask for examples though, and the list is s…

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Yes the profits of music companies are dropping, but at the same time the revenue share for the actual artists is increasing.

It’s interesting too that, overall, industry revenues have grown in the period - though admittedly not by much - which arguably adds strength to the notion that, when… Read full post »

It's not because of an economic collapse brought on and made worse by mindless right wing policies of deregulation and insufficient stimulus spending, according to Special Ed, the thousands who've lost their jobs since the economic collapse just need to improve their attitude.

The president of Albert

… Read full post »

Nadeem Esmail, the Fraser Institute's healthcare hack in residence is taking his dog and pony show on the road to the deep south. He knows his insurance industry paid for polemics against Canada's public health system will be alternately picked apart and hooted out of the room here in Canada, but/…

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• Alberta Conservatives VS the Public
  Grassroots Tories signal their defiance of public support for wholly public healthcare.
  
  
• The Audacity of Timidity
  Obama's slipping support is directly related to the extent he drifts towards politics as usual.
  
  
• Fighting to keep the Fantasy alive
  Terry Pratchett talks abou
… Read full post »

Some of you have noticed my extended absence - it was only partly being sad over the death of our cat - mostly its been some pretty severe health issues.

My lady D, came down with a bad case of flu in the week before Halloween. By Wednesday most of the…

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Our cat died today.

I'm not going to bore you too long about this - I'm just an emotionally closed off guy who expresses himself through writing - feel free to ignore this exercise in self-indulgence.

It wasn't a huge surprise. He was in his twenties and had gotten thinner and quieter…

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And suddenly, gray political careerist Harry Reid is the staunch defender of progressive policy and Obama, the great progressive hope is the scrimping timid incrementalist pushing lobbyist candy crap, a 'trigger' lobbyist designed to be sure to never be pulled.

How the hell did this happen?

Harry Reid

… Read full post »

• Canada's hidden housing bubble
  The biggest Sub-prime lender in the world right now is the Canadian government.
  
  
• Healthcare in America: Leaving his family to save them
  The only way Bill Caudle could get his wife the chemotherapy she needed was to join the army
  
  
• Demented liars and the right wing pressure gro
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Some time this afternoon Rusty Idols will hit the 75,000 hits mark.

Rusty Idols now cross-posts to Twitter and Open Salon and via a little headline widget to Live Journal and Myspace.

Rusty Idols features political and cultural commentary, sarcasm, snark and angry rants. Occasionally also music and hum…

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The real, emasculating truth behind Obama derangement syndrome revealed:

Study: McCain Voters Lost Testosterone
(Oct. 21) -- Young men who voted for John McCain lost more than a presidential election last November. A study says their testosterone level plummeted.

As polls closed on election night, res

… Read full post »

Blow it out your ass:

CALGARY - A provincewide labour battle is brewing after some of Alberta's largest public sector unions rejected Premier Ed Stelmach's call for a two-year voluntary wage freeze.

• The Health Sciences Association of Alberta, which represents 18,000 medical workers such as lab technici
… Read full post »

The resemblance is really quite astonishing.A telegenic far right political figure with a slim resume tainted with a history of extremism and obstruction with rapturous middle aged white men in Canada's right wing getting serious tingles down their pant leg over her while the public response i…

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The Obama administration reacts with royal displeasure over a British court rejecting claims that the Americans will withdraw intelligence cooperation if its revealed that, among other things, interrogators took scalpels to a detainee's genitals in Guantanamo.

Today's Guardian calls the Court's rulin/… Read full post »

In America the real Death Lists are on Insurance company balance sheets.

The documents revealed Guardian had compiled a "hit list" of its costliest members, including patients with muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, brain injury, and paralysis. Guardian executives referred to us all as "dogs" and… Read full post »

I propose a new sub-classification of astroturf groups; those that are actively deceptive about their nature and goals when pulling in new...subjects.

I propose such groups be called Pitcher Plants

Whatever their evolutionary origins, foraging, flying or crawling insects such as flies are attracted to… Read full post »

Book burning is so last millennium...

I don't even get angry about book burning anymore. Book burning is quaint and laughable. It's like these North Carolina pigfuckers are members of the Society for Douchey Anachronism, carrying out re-enactments of the kind of douchey behavior that used to matter a… Read full post »

It's so unusual it feels like being savaged by a sheep.

The battle against the health insurance industry is steadily intensifying. House Democrats have formally scheduled a vote to revoke the industry's cherished antitrust protection, according to a statement from Judiciary Committee Chairman John Con

… Read full post »

Pandering to Responding to their extremist base's latest hysterical bugbear, Marriage Commissioners being forced to obey the law, the right wing government of Saskatchewan is exploring legalizing government discrimination against gay couples.

The conservative Saskatchewan Party government announced Ju… Read full post »

Several people and groups now calling for the dismissal of the Louisiana JP who refused to marry a bi-racial couple. Best response yet:

"Perhaps he's worried the kids will grow up and be president," said Bill Quigley, director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Justice.

And maybe folks in the…

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In women's magazines that is, and starting with just one in Germany.

BERLIN — Germany's highest-circulation women's magazine says it will stop working with professional models next year in favor of women whose bodies better resemble those of its readers.

Andreas Lebert, editor-in-chief for Brigitte m

… Read full post »