CBC ignores fact that FPTP is the main contributor to the disenfranchised-voters phenomena

from the CBC BC website:

Voter turnout in B.C.'s provincial election hit a record low on Tuesday, with only 50 per cent of eligible voters bothering to vote, a full eight percentage points less than the 58 per cent that voted in 2005.

[...]

Neufeld told CBC News he'll be looking to find out why only half of eligible voters showed up at the polls.

"We're going to be doing a survey," he said Wednesday. "We did a survey after the 2005 election, and a significant number of people, about 44 per cent, the last time we surveyed them, were simply disengaged with the political process and just didn't have an interest in following politics, being involved and being part of the voting process."

Voter turnout has been dropping for years in B.C. In the 1983 provincial election, 70 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots.

UBC political science professor Fred Cutler said there were other factors at play [...]

"We didn't have people able to separate the two parties easily or separate their leaders," said Cutler.

For instance, the NDP was criticized by many of its traditional environmentalist supporters for wanting to axe the B.C. Liberals' carbon tax, sending a mixed message to voters about where the party stood in the traditional political landscape.

"For a voter who is having that kind of pressure on both sides and can't quite make up his or her mind, it's going to be that little bit harder to get up and make the walk and tick the ballot," said Cutler.

NB:
1) CBC ignores fact that FPTP is the main contributor to the disenfranchised-voters phenomena; even the Fraser Institute knows that!

Don't believe it? Check this out:

2) FPTP wasted the majority of votes in the following ridings: Boundary-Similkameen, Burnaby-Deer Lake (52% wasted), Burnaby-Lougheed (51% wasted), Burnaby North (51% wasted), Cariboo-Chilcotin (52% wasted), Cariboo North (51% wasted), and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on.

In all the ridings mentioned above (and many, many more) the majority of voters who casted their ballots wasted their time showing up; their vote had no effect, nada, niente, nix, noppes - what a great voting system the FPTP is.

LINKS
- CBC: Voters disenfranchised by FPTP but we at the CBC will need a Neufeld to tell us that a survey is needed to explain why people stay home
- Fraser Institute: Let's fix FPTP with a system that's right for us (hint; it's not the most PR friendly STV)

Jonathan Kay on STV: liar

How much disinformation can one spread without lying? Well, it seems to be getting harder for Jonathan Kay, the asswhole writing for the junk paper "The Corporate Ghost".

Lie number one:

The STV system was developed by B.C.'s Citizens' Assembly, "an independent, non-partisan assembly of 160 randomly selected British Columbians [...]

STV has been in use long before BC considered it. Wikipedia knows:

The Single transferable vote (STV) [...] was pioneered in Tasmania, Australia, where it has been in constant use in the Tasmanian House of Assembly since [1906].

Lie number two:

Under STV, the tabulation process requires a computer.

If that was the case, then Tasmanians invented the computer in secret, long before anyone else did: while Tasmania's STV is from 1906, the invention of the first computers that most people know of took place in the 1940s. Way to go Tasmania!

Jonathan Kay's convenient lies
Let's face it, Jonathan Kay is nothing more than mouthpiece for the corporate elite in this country. Corporate Canada doesn't like STV because it would be a lot harder to rig the results under STV to the same extend as it can be done under FPTP.

National Post sucks, sucks, sucks!
The fact that the National Post prints Jonathan Kay's "inaccurate" junk should give you enough reason to avoid this paper like the pest. Not to mention that the NP was one once started by one of Canada's most corrupted business magnate (yes, Conrad Black, and he's is in jail too), and currently owned by one of Canada's biggest bigots on Israel's Apartheid issue.

Links
- I'm Jonathan Kay, and I lie for a living
- We are the National Post: Why WOULD we produce sound journalism when selling our personal biases as media is a) far more profitable and b) a lot more fun?

Last pitch for STV (and why it's clearly more proportional than MMP)

I hope everyone will go out to vote in BC today, especially in favour of STV, because it's the most proportional system available.

Why STV is more proportional than MMP
One major problem with MMP, especially in the way it is used most, is strategic voting.

Under MMP, one makes two votes, one is by the single-winner-method (such as FPTP), the other is for the party.

Especially the FPTP candidate will often be selected strategically (as is currently the case in Canada) to not see one's vote wasted. By definition this vote is NOT a voter's first choice, but the choice the imperfect MMP system forces onto the voter.

It's transferable to beat strategic voting, stupid!
STV does away with strategic voting (this is the main part of the transferable part). One can, with confidence, vote for the person one really wants without being afraid of wasting ones vote by ranking their favourite candidates: their real choice with 1, their strategic choices with 2, 3, and so on. Only in case their favourite does not get elected, their strategic vote kicks in.

The negative effects of strategic voting under MMP are not visible in the Gallagher index, and therefore any claims that STV is less proportional based on the index are false.

Vote for STV
STV is not perfect, no electoral system is. But it's the most proportional electoral system that is compatible with BC's riding based voting system, and, even more important, we can vote for it today.

Now get off your ass, and vote for it!

I want my, I want my, I want my STV

I apologize to my readers: things have gotten too busy over the last few months and I had little time left for simply staying sane...

Vote for STV
Nevertheless, I do hope everyone in BC will go out to vote tomorrow. This time around I couldn't care less about what party you vote for (they both stink); there's little choice and both major parties running stink. But be sure to vote for STV!

STV It is a far more democratic electoral system that I believe ALL Canadians deserve. And why not have electoral reform start in BC?

Macleans supports STV!
Even Macleans is behind it. Read Andrew Coyne's post here, and the latest supporting post by Macleans here.

Who doesn't support STV?
Hell, I don't know, but must be pretty stupid to not support it. Here's a list of endorsements without end:
http://www.stv.ca/endorsements

Need more info?
Still not sure what STV is about? There is lots to learn here (ready to be downloaded).

Now don't let me down......

Free Trade Fantasies: Softwood Lumber

From CBC Website:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday he is "disappointed" with the decision of the United States to impose 10 per cent duties on some imports of Canadian softwood lumber.

The duty will go on lumber from Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

An international tribunal in February found that found Canada failed to properly calculate quotas on softwood lumber exports over the first half of 2007. The tribunal ordered Canada to remedy the breach by March 28.

Trade Minister Stockwell Day has offered a payment of $36.7 million US, but the Office of the United States Trade Representative claims it is owed $54.8 million US from the four provinces. (more)

LINKS:
- CBC: Harper is "disappointed"
- Wikipedia: Isn't "free trade" that includes quotas, tarrifs and duties called "protectionism"?

Seizure by taser; available in a store near you (only available to selected States, sorry).

Tasers are more effective than ever, especially in the "head zone":

Sue Bailey
THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA – Stun guns can cause seizures if their tiny electric barbs pierce the scalp and shock the brain, says a new article on the accidental jolting of a police officer.

The unnamed Ontario cop, in his 30s, was chasing a suspected robber when he was hit in the back of the head with a Taser fired by his partner.

Within seconds, the officer collapsed and went into a full-blown seizure – foaming at the mouth – for about a minute, says the article co-written by Toronto neurologist Dr. Richard Wennberg.

[The accident] is published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal released Monday.

[...]

"Our report shows that a Taser shot to the head may result in brain-specific complications. It also suggests that seizure should be added to the list of Taser-related adverse events."

What appears to be a rare if not isolated case should serve as a cautionary tale, Wennberg said in an interview, especially as Taser use grows.

"In that [a seizure caused by a taser] hadn't ever been reported before, we felt sort of obligated to report on it in the medical literature so that people would know that for sure this can happen.

"To discharge that amount of electrical current in a region overlying the brain, it didn't seem impossible to me that this could happen in a mechanism similar to giving electroconvulsive therapy or something like that."

Wennberg says stun guns pack about the same jolt used to induce seizures in electroshock therapy. [...]

The police officer came out of his seizure bewildered and with a severe headache. He was later diagnosed with a concussion, likely from the impact of the dart or from hitting his head after collapsing. He still suffers headaches and has difficulty concentrating 18 months later, Wennberg said.

He has not had any seizures since. [...]

"Taser International is aware of a few incidents during training in which an officer experienced a seizure following a hit by a Taser device."

Those incidents were not written up in medical reports. But the company's document 'Product Warnings: Law Enforcement' clearly warns against targeting sensitive areas such as the head and further states that the risk of a seizure "may be heightened if electrical stimuli or current passes through the head region." [...]

"They certainly don't mean for these things to ever be aimed at the head – nor was it meant to be in this case even. But it wouldn't always have to be an accident. I'd be surprised if (a seizure) didn't happen most of the time to people if they actually did get Tasered in the head."

Taser International has steadfastly defended the relative safety of its devices although it stresses that no use-of-force tool is risk-free.

More than 20 Canadians have died after being Tasered. [...]

LINKS:
- Toronto Star: Tasers can cause seizures
- Canadian Medical Association Journal: Generalized tonic-clonic seizure after taser shot to head (pdf)
- BestStunGun.com Tasers are effective WHEREVER you aim for! No Permit Needed and On Sale for only $399!!!

I Don't Want To Live On A Street

LINKS
- Vancouver Sun: Songwriters write ode after Taser death

TN! of the week: RCMP Constable Kwesi Millington:

Plenty of reasons why Kwesi Millington is the receiver of the Taser-Nazi of the Week nomination.

The most obvious ones:

1. "A bulletproof vest, handgun, baton and pepper spray were not enough to quell the fear RCMP Constable Kwesi Millington says he felt when confronted by Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski [who was holding a stapler] during a fatal October 2007 incident at Vancouver airport."

2.Without any warning Constable Kwesi Millington fired the taser at Robert Dziekanski, who, according to a scared Kwesi Millington, was making a threating gesture with a stapler toward one of the other three officers.

3. As a reaction to this "fluid" situation Kwesi did not taser Dziekanski once, not twice, no, Kwesi tasered "the subject" another four times AFTER it had fallen down on the floor from the excruciating pain from the first taser deployment.

4. Throughout the Braidwood hearing Mr. Millington's initial explanation continuously contradicted the Pritchard video, which seems nothing short of a cover up. The (a) yelling of Dziekanski, the (b) raising high of the stapler, (c) not functioning of the taser, (d) number of deployments of the taser, (e) even the intensions of Mr. Dziekanski (why Dziekanski walked to his luggage when asked for his passport and identification), they were all proven wrong by the video or other evidence presented at he inquiry.

What was it that Abraham Lincoln had to say about long strings of lies and cover-ups?

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Kwesi, you are the Taser-Nazi of the Week.

Congratulations!

LINKS
- Globe and Mail: "He was carrying a weapon and all four of us were only in our underwear"
- Dawg's Blawg: Braidwood to show us the obvious: the RCMP defeated by a single amateur video

TN! of the Week: Charles Momy, President Canadian Police Association

This is what got Charles Momy nominated:





The bottom line is that [tasers] saves lives," said Charles Momy, president of [the Canadian Police Association].



Repeating misinformed corporate mantra's has got you nominated for Taser-Nazi of the week.

Congratulations!

Footnote: Do you want to nominate someone for Taser-Nazi of the week? Then leave your suggestion in the comment box.

Thank you.

LINKS:
- CBC: All Officers need Tasers
- Taser-Nazi of the Week

The World's Most Wanted Terrorists and War Criminals are White and American

America's Most wanted terrorists and war criminals:

Dick Cheney
Age: 67
Occupation: Vice President of the United States
Aliases: Big Time, Satan, the President
Remarks: Goes hiding in “undisclosed locations” during times of crises. Shot friend in the face with a shotgun.
Caution: Wanted for being the key architect of the Iraq War, which runs counter to the United Nations Charter’s prohibition on the use of armed force except in self-defense. Responsible for approving torture techniques and the illegal detention of prisoners in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law. Subverted democracy, ignored the Geneva Conventions and unleashed crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan. Should be considered armed and dangerous.

George W. Bush
Age: 62
Occupation: President of the United States
Aliases: Dubya, the Vice President
Remarks: Used family prestige to avoid combat in Vietnam. Won the 2000 presidential election even though he lost the popular vote. Considered a puppet of neoconservative strategists.
Caution: Responsible for approving torture techniques against prisoners of war. Authorized the violations of rights of individuals under the American Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Should be considered armed but not dangerous.

Donald Rumsfeld
Age: 76
Occupation: Former Secretary of Defense
Aliases: Rummy, the Procrastinator
Remarks: Forged a close relationship with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War (provided him with intelligence, hardware and strategic advice). Had Hussein killed two decades later for crimes committed during Iran-Iraq War.
Caution: Key architect of Iraq War. Authorized torture techniques at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. Breached Geneva Conventions by approving the extrajudicial execution of suspected Al-Qaeda operatives anywhere in the world.

John Ashcroft
Age: 66
Occupation: Former Attorney General of the United States
Aliases: Chicken Legs, the Surfer
Remarks: Lost the 2000 Missouri Senate election to a dead man. Key supporter of the USA Patriot Act, which drastically curtailed the rights and freedoms of Americans.
Caution: Authorized the use of abuse against prisoners of war in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law. Approved the use of waterboarding against terrorism suspects.

LINKS
- AdBusters.org : War Criminals - Most Wanted

Widely posted New York Post cartoons show how racist North America really is

Who remembers the Muhammad cartoons? I do. Then none of the major news outlets in North America were willing to publicize the cartoons. Reason? Respecting religious views; the cartoonsy were supposedly too offensive.

Fast forward 3.5 years, and then check this out (click picture for larger version):


Fortunately I'm not the only person (video) offended by the "Obama is a mad monky that deserves to die" cartoon, and the New York Post has now apologized for the cartoon, sort of.

I can somewhat understand that a right-wing tabloid newspaper makes "the mistake" of printing a racist cartoon. But considering the fact that none of the major news outlets in North America published the Mohammad cartoons, should they then not do the same with the offensive monkey-Obama cartoon by not publishing it?

Apparently not:
New York Times, LA Times, CNN, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Kansas City Star, Fox, Washington Times, Associated Press, CBC - SHAME ON YOU for your inconsistency when it comes to publicizing offensive cartoons.

How do you think the black community feels when they see one of their own being depicted as a monkey that deserves to be murdered by white policemen? Don't you think blacks can feel offended? Where's the respect for coloured people? Where's the consistency here?

Obviously North America is still a racist continent, one in which religion deserves far more respect than black people.

Surprised? anyone?

California, richest state, almost broke

LOS ANGELES — The state of California — its deficits ballooning, its lawmakers intransigent and its governor apparently bereft of allies or influence — appears headed off the fiscal rails.

Since the fall [...] the state has fallen into deeper financial straits, with more bad news coming daily from Sacramento. The state, nearly out of cash, has laid off scores of workers and put hundreds more on unpaid furloughs. It has stopped paying counties and issuing income tax refunds and halted thousands of infrastructure projects.

Twenty-thousand layoff notices will go out on Tuesday morning, Matt David, the communications director for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said Monday night. “In the absence of a budget we need to realize this savings and the process takes six months,” Mr. David said.

After negotiating nonstop from Saturday afternoon until late Sunday night on a series of budget bills that would have closed a projected $41 billion deficit, state lawmakers failed to get enough votes to close the deal and adjourned.

More here.

LINK
- New York Times: California, Almost Broke, Nears Brink
- Democracy Now! Layoff Notices for 20,000 California Workers Sent Out

Pirate Bay wins first half of intellectual protectionism trial in Sweden

From the Local - Sweden

Håkan Roswall, the prosecutor in the trial of the men behind the popular file sharing site The Pirate Bay surprised a Stockholm court by amending the charges as the trial entered its second day on Tuesday.

Roswall has removed all mention of "complicity in the production of copyrighted material" from the charge sheet against the four men, Hans Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström.

Roswall has confirmed that he now plans to limit the charges to the production of the actual torrent file and not the resultant hard or soft copy. The new charges will be amended to read "complicity to make (copyrighted material) available".

"A sensation," according to defence lawyer Per E. Samuelsson. "It is very rare that you win half the case after one and a half days and it is clear that the prosecutor has been deeply affected by what we said yesterday."

Read more

Should we really be that surprised about such a blunder? I don't think so...

Let's hope the boys of the Pirate Bay will get a fair trial (which they likely will win). So far so good.

LINKS
- Pirate Bay prosecutor amends charges
- Jim left the Warner Bros. network
- Recovery from Warner to police job

Amy Goodman on Meet the Press! (video)

BILL MOYERS: I think you wrote on your blog that Dave Brody from the Christian Broadcasting Network, Pat Robertson’s outfit, will one Sunday show up on “Meet the Press.” But an Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now” will never show up on “Meet the Press.” What’s behind that phenomenon?

JAY ROSEN: I think part of the reason is that if Amy Goodman came on “Meet the Press,” she would say all sorts of things that not only challenge the people on the program, but challenge what they have been saying over the years. Would go back, in a sense, discredit the narrative that’s been building up for a long time. And even though it’s maybe not wholly conscious, the idea that there’s a kind of building narrative that is more or less accurate, that we kind of tell you what’s going on in Washington, is a common assumption in the press. And people who would completely shatter that, don’t [get invited on shows such as NBC's Meet the Press].

GLENN GREENWALD: I think that’s exactly right. It’s all about the content of views. Rush Limbaugh can depict himself as being this insurgent outsider [..] [but] all of the conventional clichés that the media airs frequently [...] are ones that Rush Limbaugh and the furthest fringes of the right essentially embrace.

And so, to include [extreme right-wing views] into our discussion is not very disruptive at all, whereas if you had people on from the left who were advocating things like the United States’ responsibility for its unpopularity in the world, the fact that we wage wars and bomb other countries and invade and occupy other countries far more than any nation on the planet. To include somebody like [Amy Goodman] would not only threaten the vested interests of everybody who’s participating in these conversations, it would disrupt the entire narrative, as Jay said it would. [...]

[These views are] stigmatized, they’re demonized as being things that don’t really deserve a platform. And so, you can’t include advocates of these views in these shows.

Read it all here

LINKS
- Democracy Now!: Why will Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! never show up on ‘Meet The Press?’
- Wikipedia: Meet the Press

Dutch party chief Geert Wilders barred from UK

By Michael Steen in Amsterdam | Published: February 11 2009 00:45 | Last updated: February 11 2009 00:45

Britain has taken the unusual step of banning a Dutch member of parliament from entering the country due to his stridently anti-Islamic views, prompting the Dutch government to protest. Geert Wilders, who heads the anti-immigration Party for Freedom, had been due to travel to London on Thursday for a screening of his film, Fitna, organised by Lord Pearson of Rannoch, a eurosceptic peer. The film criticises Islam, one of Mr Wilders’ main targets.

LINKS

- Financial Times: Dutch party chief barred from UK

Aljazeera explains why Israel committed war crimes, on Livestation

The English broadcast of Aljazeera (and many other channels, including BBC News, France24) can be easily viewed through the Livestation player (free - Windows, Mac, Linux). Get the full story on the Israel-Gaza war, and learn why many believe that the Israelis have committed war crimes.
Amnesty International has said it is "undeniable" that Israel used white phosphorus in crowded civilian areas, contrary to international law, charging that this amounted to a war crime.

Accusing Israel of using excessive force, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has demanded that those responsible for bombing UN buildings in the Palestinian territory be made accountable.

UN schools and the main aid headquarters where tonnes of food was stocked were bombed.

Eight Israeli human rights groups have called on the Israeli government to investigate the scale of the casualties, describing the number of dead women and children as "terrifying".

LINKS
- Livestation
- Aljazeera: Israel to shield Gaza war soldiers

getting into the new years eve mood (dutch only)

LINKS
- Vara's HumorTV: Pi-pa-pijpen

N-America's sanatizing of "raw" war footage shows its Pro-Jewish bias

The complete footage you were protected from seeing:



LINKS
- NOS Journaal: "raw" war footage
- Guardian: video footage attack Gaza
- CTV's "version" of the truth

I know the place...Harold Pinter (1930 - 2008)

I know the place

I know the place.
It is true.
Everything we do
Corrects the space
Between death and me
And you.

LINKS
- BBC: Harold Pinter Dies
- Wikipedia: Harold Pinter
- Soliloguy...Pinter

Hey Iggy, is Sesame Street on your playlist too?

I'm sure it is:

Nearly 20 years ago the US armed forces in Panama used the music of Guns N' Roses and Elvis Presley, played at maximum volume over loudspeakers, to try and drive the country's leader, Manuel Noriega, to surrender. A tactic was born. Since then, music played at unbearable volumes has been frequently deployed in Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere by the CIA, as part of a sophisticated portfolio of torture against detainees. [...]

"What we're talking about here is people in a darkened room, physically inhibited by handcuffs, bags over their heads and music blaring at them," said musician David Gray. "That is nothing but torture. It doesn't matter what the music is. It could be Tchaikovsky's finest or it could be Barney the Dinosaur. It really doesn't matter, it's going to drive you completely nuts."[...]

One of the reasons for using loud music in this way is that it leaves no marks on the body. [...]

Prison playlist

US military interrogators have often blasted music at detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay.

The styles of music used range from heavy metal to pop. According to the British legal charity Reprieve, these are among the songs they have used most frequently: Enter Sandman Metallica, Bodies Drowning Pool, Shoot to Thrill and Hells Bells AC/DC, I Love You from the Barney & Friends children's television show. Born in the USA Bruce Springsteen, Babylon David Gray, White America Eminem. Sesame Street, theme tune from the children's television show.

Iggy is so sweet.

LINKS
- Guardian: Musicians condemn use of their songs as instruments of war
- Ignatieff on torture: We should not take the rule of law "too firmly". Let's prevent war with "indefinite detention of suspects, coercive interrogations, targeted assassinations, even pre-emptive war"