"for whatever is born of God conquers the world." 1 John, 5:4, NRSV
Since the start of the one time majority of the 'Harper Government' there has been no end to the insane propaganda. Who can forget the pissings of Preston Manning just after the accursed event, when he stated, with a straight face, no less, that Canada is now and will continue to go all right wing. Now the Oracle of Ottawa must commend the western hay seed rube on his brass. Considering that the 'Harper Government' majority was won with a mere 39% of the popular vote! And the court cases and investigations are many and continue anon. Not to mention the cabinet resignations.
The latest installment from the Prime Ministers Office of propaganda concerns something called the Laurentian Consensus, now this one is a total laffer. Some new wanna be characters are trying to convince Canadians with half a brain that Canada is longer ruled from the area of the Laurentian Valley as it has always been. This of course is totally false. Now granted there have been times, very few in number, that a stray dog government somehow comes to power, at the points of dynasty exhaustion, which is to totally to be expected. The Oracle of Ottawa reminds the dear reader of the 1950's in Canada, enough said?
Soon the Liberal Party of Canada will have a new leader, and as the Oracle of Ottawa predicted, it will all be over after the first ballot. Contrary to popular Conservative Party opinion, the Liberal Party is far from dead. Especially with the Conservative Party and The NDP continually giving it mouth to mouth so to speak! Canada has been through worse in its short history, and we will stomp the present evil of the 'Harper Government' out so completely, that it will appear like it never even existed.
Indeed, there are some very dumb things in the Bible and quite a few you would not want your children to read. Donald Harman Akenson, Surpassing Wonder, p. 8
When you read the later letters of Paul when he was a prisoner in Rome, you can get from the words within the words, that Paul is beginning to realize that there exists other powers within the power of civil society. Many modern people today would be utterly shocked to discover that there existed in Roman times certain "organizations" that today would be called organized crime. This goes pretty far in explaining some of the many emperors weird actions, as recorded by Edward Gibbon and a host of others.
Stories of the mafia in the Western World are a sure key to success. Witness the enduring popularity of the movie(s) Godfather, and the television series Sopranos. Most of the frameworks for such organizations, we are told originate in Sicily. And Sicily is an ancient place, as you will notice if you have ever been any where near the place, on the ground, so to speak. So many visitors have been through in the course of history, that the locals soon realized that they had to take care of themselves, and once that starts, it is all but impossible to eradicate.
So one should not be too surprised that the Roman Catholic Church has an organizational chart that is very similar to an American crime family. The only difference is that in Rome the scale of the whole thing is just about beyond comprehension. At the top you have the boss of bosses, the Pope, the capo di tutti capi, plain and simple. Under the Pope is the cardinals, or rather the Godfathers of all the other families. Under them are the Bishops, or the Caporegimes. And of course under them are the soldiers, the made men, the parish priests. You as a member of the church are an associate.
Thinking back to childhood, being in a parish is a lot like being in a crew, you got called in by the boss at least once a week, and you brought the envelope, to make sure there was something to kick upstairs, so to speak. One wonders how long it is going to take Pope Francis to figure out that he is the new boss of bosses?
There would be no use of an upper house if it did not exercise, when it thought proper, the right of opposing or amending or postponing the legislation of the lower house. Sir John A. MacDonald, Legislative Assembly, February 6, 1865
A Senate or Upper House is only as strong as the people appointed to it. There has been no empire or hegemon in the history of the common era that has not had a Senate! The Senate performs the purpose of the house of second sober thought. The Oracle of Ottawa truly believes in this. John Kenneth Galbraith referred to this power as countervailing power. And the Oracle of Ottawa truly believes this to be true also.
Ceiling of the Canadian Senate Chamber
There have been nation states in recent modern history that had all the earmarks and makings of an empire, yet they did not survive intact for more than seventy years. The first example that comes to mind is the former Wiemar Republic, represented by the Weimar National Assembly. The powers that were at the time thought it be a great time to do away with old, ancient, and stupid things like a senate, while redesigning the system that would replace the imperial Prussian Empire. The Wiemar Republic lasted from 1919 to 1933. Most of you smarter readers don't need the Oracle of Ottawa to tell you what happened next in the absence of a House of Sober Second Thought!!
Roman Senate (Curia Julia) built 44BCE and still standing...
Since the inception of the 'Harper Government' many ancient and revered Canadian Institutions have been put under stress and some even have vanished. The Oracle of Ottawa is now going penniless and truly does not welcome the opportunity of having the "free choice" to buy a Mickey Mouse hat the next time that he visits a National Canadian Museum! (Take it, or else, is not a choice...) Only the likes of the hapless 'Harper Government' could save a crummy eleven million dollars while incurring damages of over one hundred million dollars and go on to brag about all the money that has been saved!
There have been many sneak communication (i.e. fart catcher) gambits to convince the people of Canada that the Senate should be abolished. Well good luck with that. The Founding Fathers of Canada built the system bulletproof. The abolishment of the Senate would require Constitutional Reform which would all but be impossible. The present system is the way it is for very good reasons. This system was, Thank God, even further protected and locked down and in by Prime Minister Trudeau, with the Repatriation of the Constitution in the 1980's. Perhaps he had a nightmare of something like the 'Harper Government' somehow coming to power in Canada.
Let us look at the facts, as they are, at present. Who is the leader of the Senate? Answer: Marjory LeBreton, if any one knows which high school she graduated from in the Peoples Republic of Nepean they should update her Wikipedia article. Again, you only get the Senate that you appoint. Who has made all the appointments of the majority of those now in trouble? Steve Harper of the 'Harper Government'. What does this tell you? It tells the Oracle of Ottawa that the Conservative Party of Canada knows very few posh people. The proof of this is the wave of the utter shit quality of most all of the 'Harper Government' Senate appointments.
How the 'Harper Government' elected senate would work....
Again, the Senate of Canada as it is composed has been a very powerful body of good. There is a reason for an appointed senate. This was discussed long and hard by the Canadian Founding Fathers way back in 1865. The transcripts were recorded and are still extant. Perhaps the brain trust of the right wing of Canada should read them!
The Senate of Canada as it has run in the past, and will no doubt continue long into the future...
Well dear reader, it is all in and all but done. And the great 'Harper Government' is not letting anyone down, is it? The great legacy of the 'Harper Government'; the legacy of less is well on its way. Now you have less unemployment insurance, less retirement time, less choices to sell your crop(s). Less opportunity to compete in the free market to sell your labour, the only thing that most Canadians have to offer. Canada has a less bright spot in the world. And the only thing that the young have to look forward to, that is certain, is less.
Welcome your new masters...
It was the year of the omnibus crime bill, the omnibus budgets and it should not be surprising that the newest and most popular word that was introduced into the Oxford English Dictionary this year was "omnishambles"! The irony of it all is simply breathtaking isn't it? Then just before the high holiday of this Christian Nation the 'Harper Government' announced the sell-out of Canada to our new Chinese masters. The details of which are still a secret. Right on cue, the first horde of orthodontically challenged Chinese peasants landed in British Columbia at a coal mine. The Oracle of Ottawa predicts that by 2015 TFW's (Temporary Foreign Workers) will be doing one in ten jobs in the Canadian economy. By 2020 it will be at least one in five jobs.
It was wondrous weird that as soon as the CNOOC deal was approved, Air Canada announced the opening of its new "budget" airline Rouge Air! The Oracle of Ottawa calls it Air Canada's Red Flag! It took a while to explain to my significant other that this was not an airline that she could travel on. With a busted union staff contract, and over 85 seats added from the Airbus, this is not something that your average Caucasian can board to take that cheap trip to Asia! With 85 seats added that means that the galley and the crew sleeping quarters is gone! Air Rouge or Rouge Air is simply a TFW air freight train. It was part of the China Canada foreign investment protection act! Since the details of this act are secret, prove the Oracle of Ottawa wrong!
It also appeared to the Oracle of Ottawa that the promise of a hands - off economy did not appeal very strongly to the people of Ottawa. The cheap Chinese shit was still piled high and unsold at the all the malls in Ottawa. Perhaps the "reinvented government" of the City of Ottawa had a lot to do with this also, in that there was no intense snow removal at all this year, no doubt due to the fact that the snow happened on statutory holidays that would have entailed time and a half and or double time and a half. You can't buy that Chinese shit if you can't get to the Malls can you? The Oracle of Ottawa is certain that the corporate over - whores will realize a mistake in their strategy, or not!
As the Oracle of Ottawa has mentioned many times before in this humble blog, not even the basest animal in nature ever shits in it's own nest! Well this year proved that the present 'Harper Government' is certainly not your average animal! Ho! Ho! Bill C-377 will no doubt pass in the Senate. Then we will get the Right To Work legislation right after. At least the blue collar types will always be able to get at least minimum wage. The young and upcoming white collar types have nothing to look forward to but one unpaid internship after another. Paid for by their parents. House and home mortgaged to help junior get that starting job that will at least pay the interest on his or her student loans... Entrepren - whore - ship, great isn't it?
"The horrors (whores?) of your experience... LOL....
We must not measure nature by ourselves, but by itself. Blaise Pascal, Pensees, No. 149
Well, it is all in, and done. (?) The Oracle of Ottawa was in transit doing the obligatory Christmas Shopping when he heard of the completion of the momentous event. Twenty four to zero. That was hard to believe. The Oracle of Ottawa can only marvel at the full court press results of the best spin doctors and fart catchers that the corporate over - whores could buy. Why they were so proud of the event that they made sure it happened at one of the busiest times of the year. No one would be looking, let alone paying any attention. Pure masterful. The City of Ottawa has signed on for a 12.5 kilometer trolley way with four "trains" and a tunnel, that has now been modified to a Barrhaven tunnel, that is a ditch with a lid added later... For 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS ! That is not a lot of railroad is it?
CPR AC 4400CW - What you are not going to get!
Surely the utmost of value has been received by the bumbling burg(h)ers of Ottawa? Well the Oracle of Ottawa must surely agree, of course. I mean it is the most efficient way to get anything done isn't it, a foreign based sole sourced forever contract. You and yours can bet your last nickel there is a ton of very fine print included at no extra cost. Oh yes, your grandchildren will be still be scouring this monster long after you are gone dear taxpayer... But to be fair, what could you have bought, right now, with 2.1 billion through an efficient capital market where ownership of capital goods is bought and sold right out in the open? You know it as the Toronto Stock Exchange. It is all so much more efficient than soul sourced contracts that are done behind closed doors, yes indeed! The Oracle of Ottawa has decided on two demonstration cases, the names of which you are all most familiar. What else could we have bought with 2.1 billion dollars?
Case I: Surely you have heard of RioCan REIT? It is the largest real estate investment trust in Canada. Why, it is one of the largest REITs in the Western World! It contains over 350 commercial properties all over North America. From Smithfalls, Ontario, to Texas! Yes; Texas United States. For even more perspective it all adds up to over 80 million square feet all in! How much would it cost to buy something like that? Well that is easy to find out. You can simply go to Yahoo Financial and enter the stock symbol REI.UN and it will all come up. As of the close of Friday last trading, you could have bought all the outstanding shares for a mere 8.15 billion dollars! Why for the cost of an Ottawa trolley way, the City of Ottawa could have purchased a 25.77% interest in RioCan REIT! And that quarter interest would surely be a hands down controlling interest! And on top of that, all RioCan unit holders receive a monthly "rent check" and it amounts to much more than simple bank interest. It all surely puts a crummy 12.5 kilometre trolley way with four train sets to shame don't it? Why is it you can buy so much in the light of day compared to a closed darkened room. Weird ain't it?
Case II: You have no doubt heard of Canadian Pacific Railway, surely, dear reader? This is a legend monster of a company! It is a Class I rail carrier, operating over 14,000 miles (22,400 km) of track from Vancouver to Montreal! It also has around 1650 engines and all in around 50,000 pieces of rolling stock! Damn! Not to count all that endless real estate! And all the other juicy hidden assets that could be worth more than the mere railroad itself! Well, as of last Friday, you could buy the whole damn lot for a mere 17.51 billion dollars! A 2.1 billion dollar investment would secure you with a 11.99 % interest! This again would be way more than required for a controlling interest! This would happen because CP is most widely held. There are practically no large monster shareholders, and it has an enterprise value of over 21.5 billion. Yes dear reader, you could buy a monster railway at a fire sale price! One of the finest roads, with the finest, newest gear on Earth! So why did the City of Ottawa pay 2.1 billion dollars for a mere stupid trolley way with a crummy set of four measly French train sets?
Oh! But if only this was the worst of it dear reader! The Oracle of Ottawa sadly suspects that the shit will get deeper, so to speak. One of the phrases that was heard all through this "train wreck" of a project was: soul sourced foreign contract. That means that the contractor will run and maintain the 2.1 billion dollar trolley way through out it's entire operational life! When one hears soul sourced foreign contract, just say to your self TFW's or temporary foreign workers. How many third world temporary foreign workers does it take to run a 2.1 billion dollar trolley way? The Oracle of Ottawa could not find out the answer to that question. Can you?
What you could have got for 2.1 billion dollars. Railroads are cheap in the open market, aren't they?
Building large castles in the empty air, By suppositions fond, and thoughts untoward William Shakespeare, A Funeral Elegy, Lines 400-401
Not too many twenty two year old buildings just up and fall down in Canada. This is even more true for commercial buildings, such as shopping malls! The Oracle of Ottawa now understands the soulless, land flipping whore, term "throw away building"! The Oracle of Ottawa first heard of the despicable event very soon after it happened. Elliot Lake is a very out of the way isolated community way up in Northern Ontario. The Oracle of Ottawa was simply shocked when the CBC reported that the building had just passed a structural engineering inspection within the most period of a month or two! The Oracle of Ottawa suspects that very many professional license's will sooner or later be surrendered.
Elliot Lake- Algo Centre Mall to the right....
What makes this event even more drastic, is the loss of life. There is one confirmed death, but, twelve more people unaccounted for. When this happens, all bets are off folks. There is no "wigglin'" out of this, no way! Someone has some very serious "splaining" to do, and no doubt jail time, complete with status changing class action lawsuits. It is curtains for any scum lord. The said building Algo Centre Mall has quite, how shall we say, a history. Hit the link to discover more...
Dalton will run with this one all the way...
It seems that the said owners were getting a little help from very high up, and they very nearly pulled it off! Well until Dalton McGuinty got wind of the whole story and dropped the official hammer on the attempted cover-up. Could you just imagine if Tim "Chain Gang" Hudak was Ontario Premier right now? There would have been no intervention, all incriminating evidence would have handily vanished, a matter perfectly taken care of by the "free market"! Is the Oracle of Ottawa right, or is the Oracle of Ottawa right? Love'em or hate him old Dalton will get major mileage from this one! And the people of Elliot Lake will get theirs for sure.
Can you just imagine when this comes up in the House in the fall? When the 'Harper Government' has to take action against some its very goodest friends in the whole world? Yeah, that should be funny as hell.... Look at all the money we saved....
This is where the CBC can get all there budget money back...They will be on this like white on rice!! My tax dollars perfectly well spent! Go get'em State Broadcaster!
People in and around government sense a national mood. John W. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, p. 146
It is great comfort to the Oracle of Ottawa that there exists a great number of CBC on air personalities that have refused to sign the James Moore 'Harper Government' Purity Pledge! Of course the Oracle of Ottawa was listening to Cross Country Checkup on CBC Radio 1 as he was touring up to the Ottawa Valley to visit his Dear Old Dad.
Order of Canada
Today's show was hosted again by Suhana Meharchand, and again it was a hot topic. And it appears that Suhana has certainly not signed the Jimmie Moore purity pledge. Today's topic was; Do you agree with doctor assisted suicide? Well! That is certainly a topic that the Prime Ministers Office does not want discussed at any time, and especially on the "State Broadcaster" the "Mother Ship" of the all engulfing Canadian Broadcasting Corporation! And it cooked folks! It was a very hot topic and the Oracle of Ottawa had to bail now and then to the soothing tunes being played on CBC Radio 2. But as soon as I regained composure, I was back to Radio 1.
If you guessed that the Oracle of Ottawa is greatly in favor of doctor assisted suicide, you guessed correctly! The Oracle of Ottawa wants the same right to doctor assisted suicide that exists in the many countries of the European Union! Nothing more, and certainly nothing less! And the Oracle of Ottawa does not give a flying rotating FUCK, what the 'Harper Government' or the right wing westerner Bible thumping whacko's think. We will have it, since the 'Harper Government' already believes that Federal prisoners should have the right. I am sure you remember that trial balloon that was floated by that fascist Quebec Senator? Now it is a Charter Case on two fronts! Isn't it?
Have you ever seen a loved one die from ALS? Well the Oracle of Ottawa watched his Blessed Mother take four years to do it. I was her favorite boy, and first born. I was the first to notice that something was wrong. It appeared to my Mom one day when she could not turn the ignition key all the way around in her much loved Wolfsburg Edition VW Jetta. The rest is just painful history now. My Blessed Mother was as hard as she was beautiful. She probably would not have chosen doctor assisted, even if it was available, but it would have nice to be able to provide it if she wanted it. Everyone should have that choice.
The Oracle of Ottawa has deduced the real reason that we do not have doctor assisted suicide in Canada. It is not a moral or ethical problem. With the 'Harper Government' and the doctors it is a problem of power and money. And the reason that most mealy mouthed doctors calling from western Canada are not in favor of it is easy. If we have doctor assisted suicide in Canada, that will mean that that certain MD's will soon be driving a very nice modest Chevrolet Impala every couple of years, not the Jag XK that they are driving now! It means that the hard and soft kickbacks from their big pharma reps are toast! That means no private school for Johnie, and certainly no more ricer fantasy fuck that they all have hidden some where in their hoods! The Oracle of Ottawa knows that such things are true.... Aren't they? Yeah...
And that is not to mention the end of the big pharma and big burger conspiracy of the "white sauce" that goes on the burgers, that has been engineered to cause a very aggressive, quick and costly to treat variant of colon cancer....It isn't an urban myth... But I digress...
A little piece of advice Suhana, if you do not already own some real estate valued at least over $4,000 get it as soon as possible. You must be a property holder to be appointed to the Canadian Senate. One wouldn't want to keep the government of Justin Trudeau waiting, would one?
Rex Murphy can VANISH!! His replacement has been found....
A fair body of scholarship has come to challenge the view that elected officials reign supreme. John W. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies, (Second Edition), p. 43
It was the last straw, as far as the Oracle of Ottawa was concerned. When the tired and past date Diane Deans stood to and up last week on the local vulgar media and finally announced the demise and death of the Presto Card ankle bracelet. People of the City of Ottawa really needed this! We had a perfectly working system before the brain fart of the Presto card. The only problem with it was that the City of Ottawa would not allow OC-Transpo the budget to hire more people to man the Ticket booths where they were sold! And with the old card pass system you could remain anonymous. Thence proving what the Oracle of Ottawa was suspecting all along. Starve - Kill - Privatize!! Here we are folks, again...
It seems that quiet a few people did their due diligence about the Presto card. The Oracle of Ottawa has provided a link to the basic information. Now just read carefully. Note the aligned organizations with this ankle bracelet! The one that should scare the living shit out of you is that of Accenture! How the hell is Accenture got anything to do with your stupid bus card? Well just go to Google and enter Accenture - Bilderberg Group, go ahead, the Oracle of Ottawa dares ya!
The Oracle of Ottawa's "gaydar" went off when he realized that if you use this RFID device, it could not be used anonmously. Your credit or debit card will link your identity to it. All your movement data will be tracked and data based. Why don't you call 311 and ask what the City of Ottawa is going to do with all that data revenue? The data will be sold to the marketing firms, the insurance companies; life and health, the corporate land flipping whores, and a host of others, to long to mention. Not to mention all the users that will automatically be served due to the wording in the fine print of that sole sourced iron clad we are up your arse for ever service contract! And these parties are Homeland Security of the United States and of course CSIS. You don't think that monster building that is going up at CSIS headquarters on Ogilvie Road is a visiting centre do you? Well do you rube?
In closing, the Oracle of Ottawa must make note of yet another sad observation. It was all so eerie and spooky.... Next time you see Diane Deans on the vulgar media, you realize that there is this eerie resemblance to someone else, do yo see it? Ya, me to. She really looks looks Bob Rae in drag....
So spake the Sovran voice, and Clouds began To darken all the Hill, and smoak to rowl John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book VI, Lines 56-57
Speaking truth to power is all getting rather futile in the present times in Ottawa, and it is also getting really weird as of late. Watching Question Period Friday last serves as a very good example, the Oracle of Ottawa watched as a slight but vital NDP back bencher asked in utter fury of the 'Harper Government' why the application by a charity in her Quebec riding to the Enabling Accessibility Fund was passed as to criteria, (scoring over 82 points of a possible 100), but yet refused out of hand with no explanation! At the time the Oracle of Ottawa was wondering what all the fuss was about, and let it slide to the back of his mind.
Oy vey...
It was latter in the day when the Oracle of Ottawa was reading the Friday number of the Globe And Mail that he got his answer! It started on page one and continued onto page A4. It seems that a few applications to the fund (from Quebec...), that passed criteria were bumped off the list by the over efficient Minister Diane Finley(!) at the personal intervention and behest of Minister John Baird! It seems that a pal in his Ottawa riding, one Rabbi Chaim Mendelsohn who provided batman and chaperon services to the great mans visit to Israel January last, is in dire need of some accessibility funds for some handicap access at the local Chabad Center. The small problem was that the submitted project only scored 51 out of a 100. A bit of a problem from all points of view, what ever is to be done? It was all quite easy, the Minister Baird went to the Minister Finley and informed her that Chabad was very deserving as it was low in criteria points! Wham, Bam, Stamped! There apparently was another Chabad project that was also "very deserving" and it too was approved by the Minister Finley, the other one was in the riding of Peter Kent! No money laundering was involved...
Senate Chamber - The new Third Temple?
One can only wonder what the people who are still on hold trying to get some help from the central services site of the Government of Canada are thinking. Not to mention the many legions who are trying to find out where their unemployment checks are! I am sure they are very impressed with Ministers Finley's efficiencies!
Now the rumor in Ottawa is that the Chabad applications were given all ministerial speed due to Divine Intervention! Now you can't make this stuff up, can you? Any way it seems that Chabad is expecting the Messiah any time now! Who knew? And the Chabad lads have designated the soon to be empty Senate Chamber as the ideal spot for the Third Temple! Complete with ritual sacrificial offerings, just like in the olden days. CSIS has been recently delegated to draw up plans for the smoke clearing of the burnt offerings and the blood drainage problems, not to mention dealing with the daily expected mob of rioting animal rights protesters, that will no doubt be out on Wellington Street everyday! And the last reason was the slam dunk. What if Jesus came back in a wheel chair? Answer that one!
It is all quite harmless folks, these Chabad guys have no power at all over governments....
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Mathew 25:40, King James Version
The Oracle of Ottawa will be the first to admit that Canada has a mere handful of horrific bad actors. Out of a population of nearly 40 million people, we require the space to confine all of 350 maximum security prisoners. These are the worst of the worse. They are presently housed at Kingston Penitentiary, located at Kingston Ontario. For those of you that are not Conservative, you will be intelligent enough to do the math all by yourself! Out of 40 million people, we can not seem to even fill one "super-max" prison!
Kingston Penitentiary...
Now the Oracle of Ottawa will be the first to admit that Kingston Penitentiary should have been closed years ago. It is one of the oldest, but not the oldest, prisons in the Western world. There are prisons in the United Kingdom for example that are about the same age i.e. Pentonville. It would seem to the Oracle of Ottawa that the prison that will house the Kingston inmates should have been built first and then announce the closing of Kingston Pen.
But in an announcement by the Public Safety Minister; Vic "The Dic" Toews, last week, the awesome 'Harper Government' is going to close Kingston Pen! With no replacement built or planned! It was another stunning display of either incompetence or early onset senility. History will no doubt tell in the end. And blunders of this magnitude will no doubt bring the history to the end sooner then later.
It has been said by many former Kingston Pen. inmates that Kingston Pen. is the creepiest place they have ever experienced. The only crime worse than keeping it open, is closing it with out a plan.
Another blunder the 'Harper Government' can be proud of....
The totalitarian state can never be become completely invulnerable or stamp out critical thought altogether. It may appear all-powerful, as it dominates all aspects of life, but is also weak insomuch as any crack in the ideological monolith is a threat to its existence. Leszek Kolakowski, Main Currents Of Marxism, Volume III, p. 860
The Oracle of Ottawa had intended to write this bit much earlier. But I had trouble finding out which high school Gerry "The Ditz" Ritz graduated from. So dear reader you can also readily understand why I cannot find any record of even undergraduate University education. Why it seems clear that the Minister is the second dumbest hay seed yokel to ever be a Minister of State in the history of Canada! It would seem that Jethro Bodine had more "book learning", since we all know that that Jethro got to the astounding heights of the sixth grade...
Gerry - The Ditz....
We all know the history of recent events. The venerable Canadian Wheat Board is all but toast. The august Minister in the mere presence of the great man Gerry "The Ditz" Ritz laughed off the threatened coming and present events, such as Canada's loss of control of its food supply to shady foreign interests, as raised in many statements in the House of Commons, by individuals of the Opposition, that as a class, were on average ten times smarter and more informed then the present Minister. The Minister easily pushed aside all criticism, it was really easy, he did not even understand the questions!
Now of course the harsh reality of our dark future is upon us. The largest Canadian Agriculture business in Canada, Viterra, is now a target of a hostile take-over by one megalithic and somewhat shady Glencore! The real interesting bit here is that Glencore is the rebirth of the creature created by one Marc Rich. And real further interesting bit is the successor one Ivan Glasenberg.How ironic is that dear reader? It also seems that this offshore based entity has past problems with bribery of government officials from Africa to the heart of the European Union! Now that is real brass. If you are a western grain farmer, the Oracle of Ottawa strongly suggests that you don't read down all the links, it will really ruin your day and make you very upset...
Perhaps it is time to send in the "double naught" spies from CSIS and get to the real bottom of this before it too late....
In the process of experimentation there are endless opportunities for error, and the free search for truth therefore involves friction and waste. L. T. Hobhouse, Liberalism, p. 59
Could you imagine the uproar in the City of Walmart, er, ah, the City of Ottawa if a person with a graduate degree in Library Science was promoted to the position of Chief Urban Planner for the City of Ottawa!? Why all the land rapers and soulless corporate house flipping whores would be in a totally catatonic state. But when a want'a be failed urban planner (?) gets set up as the replacement for the retiring Head Librarian of the the venerable Ottawa Public Library, well you just get the contractor spin doctors out and put the story into the Sunday edition of the skanky Ottawa Citizen! Nobody reads the Ottawa Citizen, especially on Sunday... You only buy the Ottawa Citizen for the TV guide... (and the cat box and bird cage....)
A library is not a "business"...
For the first time since the utterly disastrous amalgamation of the City of Ottawa the new head of the Ottawa Public Library will not be a librarian! One can only surmise which office that this decision came from. But the signal it sends is wrought with doom if you are a fan of the Ottawa Public Library. And when you hear the expression that the Ottawa Public Library is a "business", well you can conclude that the decision came down from the Prime Ministers Office, not the mayors office. And as you may have have noticed anything that is named McDonald is getting a pretty free ride today.
Ottawa Public Library - Main Branch
Future site of Bayshore Phase III?
Did you know dear reader that the Ottawa Public Library is the largest French-English library in North America? Did you know that it is the second largest public library in Canada? The only larger public library is in the City of Toronto! With an annual budget of over 50 million dollars, don't you think the incompetent powers that presently are could get a search on for a posh "Cadillac" Head Librarian? Why the Oracle of Ottawa has a pretty good picture of the successful candidate already! Let us take a break from the spiral to the bottom and shoot high... Lets see... Undergraduate degree from a prestigious College at Oxford, you know, a Rhodes Scholar. The University of Oxford has books! Over 11 million of them! And a very large percentage of them are all but priceless. One hears that the Oxford library science program is world class. A side degree in the "Greats" and /or philosophy would be utterly perfect also. Why not? The stature and presence of the second largest public library in Canada deserves a Head Librarian with a doctorate in library science. I mean really...
Now dear reader, we all know what a job like this should pay. I figure the starting salary should be about $125,000 per year to start. And then there are the language requirements. Ottawa, even in the 'Harper Government' era, is a very cosmopolitan city, don't you know! Why the Oracle of Ottawa figures that the new Head Librarian of the Ottawa Public Library should be able to speak the big four languages of the Western Civilized World, don't you? That of course means English, French, German, and Spanish. A bonus should be offered and payed if the new Head Librarian could speak the core languages of the Classical World also, those being of course Greek and Latin. The Oracle of Ottawa deeply regrets that all pass arts degree trots from Cartoon U need not apply....
Books are sacred. A Library is not a "business". It does not market and sell products for the purpose of "profit". Go back to the drawing board and start the open selection process for a proper and posh Head Librarian. Chop chop, of you go little people....
Buy the ticket, take the the ride. Some will march on a road of bones, and others will be nailed up on telephone poles. That is the way it works. Hunter S. Thompson, Better Than Sex, p.230
The Oracle of Ottawa knew it was going to be hot. But the Oracle of Ottawa had no idea it would all be so bizarre! Yes, dear readers, it was Question Period in the House of Commons again today, after a one week break. There is Bill C-30 and the new and rapidly breaking scandal of the Robo calls which the Oracle of Ottawa has dubbed Robo-Gate! And which I predict will ultimately lead to the downfall of the Tory Bund of Darkness.
And as hoped, Question Period was just wild. It was revealed that it was the Liberals (!) that were behind the "vicki leaks" Twitter site! I have to admit I was very proud of Bob "The Builder" Rae. I did not think that the Liberals had it in them any more. Perhaps there is hope after all for the natural party of Leadership of Canada.
But the real good bits came after Question Period! Usually that part after Question Period; "Points of Privilege" is a total bores nest. But not today. It was the most bizarre thing the Oracle of Ottawa has ever witnessed while watching the proceedings in the House.
It all went on for quite a while, and the language got all legally obtuse on the Oracle of Ottawa, but I believe that the nut of the thing was that some Tory back bencher actually got the Speaker of the House to find the online personality "Anonymous" in contempt of the House of Commons! Yes, I know, not even the Oracle of Ottawa could make this up! This online entity has got the 'Harper Government' Bund totally in a panic! They can not control this, and there are in near total panic. It was all a total jaw dropper! Thank you God for Anonymous.... The first internet meme that has been found in contempt of democratically elected Parliament! Every one take a bow!
Every little bit helps!! Keep the pressure on! Never give up....
And in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I can say that in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got. Richard Milhous Nixon, Press conference, Walt Disney World, November 17, 1973
As the Oracle of Ottawa has repeatedly stated in this humble blog, a twelve member majority in the House of Commons, is hardly a major majority. And the Oracle of Ottawa has told his dear readers many times that it could and most probably will vaporize in a mere flash of a moment in time. Imagine the scenario! Elections Canada and the RCMP, guided by the Communications Research Establishment and no doubt CSIS, slowly get the goods on the various dirty tricks onslaughts, and one by one the by(e)-elections are ordered. And, one by one, the strong, stable Conservative majority government dissolves away like a really bad dream.
When the going gets weird....
We all know that in the light of a really bright day, there is no honor among thieves and conservatives. The ensuing "circle jerk" of give ups will result in some very high profile mandatory sentences of your favorite family values candidate and present member of parliament! Why the Oracle of Ottawa fore see's one particular young angelic choir boy heading up for a stretch in Federal penitentiary, where he will finally be able to get some real praying in. They really love them young and pretty in Kingston! Barhaven will be lonely without him...
In one respect we can all sleep well and easy tonight. Canada is not going to the "Right" after all! There was no way that the right wing wack-balls of the 'Harper Government' could have possibly won a majority government fair and square! The election for the members of the 41st Parliament was a fraud after all! But not even the Oracle of Ottawa in his most fowl and cynical mood, could have for-scene the utter sleaze of it all!
Old Steve will say he had no knowledge of the alleged dirty trick campaigns, but it will be all for nought (knot?). It happened on his watch and he will be ultimately held responsible. Sounds like a great place in Canadian history!
Is this the way it will look in Ottawa shortly? (Is that Hunter S. Thompson at 2:35, just like he wrote about it?)
Sorry. We almost had our hands on it - but they double-crossed us once again. Politicians. Shit on them. Good luck Bubba. It's every man for himself now. Hunter S. Thompson, Better Than Sex, p. 83
The Oracle of Ottawa tracks his readership. Yes he does. Writing this blog has been, at times, a lot like being married to a French girl, just like talking to yourself! The hog is in the tunnel and both ends are closed up. No ribs on the table any time soon. But lately, and becoming more often, several readers are flattering the hell out of the Oracle of Ottawa by searching for this blog with the search words "Oracle of Ottawa and Hunter S. Thompson"! At first I thought it was my young niece, one of the few of my personal circle who knows the author of this gibberish. But she does not live in the United States or Australia! If you were hoping that this will keep the Oracle of Ottawa going, well you bastards, you got it!
Hunter S. Thompson - The Great Doctor....
With the coming of Bill-C30 in Canada, the Oracle of Ottawa contemplated, but only for a moment, shutting down this blog, before the cops and or CSIS come to my secure bunker and kick down the door. But, fuck it, I am going to pound this gibberish out until they carry me away! If I can't gonzo the creeps that I am paying for to take this country apart, what kind of society am I living in?
Gonzo! I'm bringing it back....
Who would have thought after the 1970's were in and done that it would all pop up again? And who in their wildest dreams thought that it would all pop up in of all places Canada? But hey Bubba! It is all coming down here in Canada. The Oracle of Ottawa finds it difficult to believe that no one at the Prime Ministers Office of the 'Harper Government' ever read the works of the great Doctor! You would think that the lessons were learned and all the jail time was served. But you would be wrong on all counts. We have a scandal that is going to blow in the next weeks, that will give Watergate a total run for its money.
Watergate was just a freak'in break in. Robogate, that recently discovered scandal in Canada, is way worse, if you can even conceive of that! On the last Federal Election day in Canada the 'Harper Government' and / or its minions, had robo dialers located in Alberta, owned by some company called Rack9, calling thousands of people all over Ontario, posing as an official of Elections Canada, telling voters that their polling stations had been changed and / or moved! There were over fifty seats decided in Ontario by less than five percent of the popular vote! The 'Harper Government' stole the last election! We presently have a totally illegitimate "majority" government in power! Richard Nixon is roaring with laughter from the deepest circle of Hell.
The most violent, mean and malignant passions of the human breast, the Furies of private interest. Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Buch I, Author's prefaces to the First Edition
When the Oracle of Ottawa first heard of the story on the local vulgar media about the City of Ottawa all but contracting out parking ticket placement on private lots to some company, the Oracle of Ottawa was appalled. The first picture that went through my mind was that often covered story of Ottawa's biggest slumlord, you know the one, that has the appalling third world conditions right here in Ottawa, that not even a City work order can get repaired...I somehow immediately pictured those guys with a City of Ottawa parking ticket hand held! While their tenants were living in water soaked squalor, with the roaches fighting for the kids dinner, there would be a minimum wage minion of a real estate scum lord out ticketing their cars! Who ever in their wildest dreams thought it would all come to this?
The City of whored out souls?
This is all the result of "reinventing government". For all of us taxpayers of a certain age, that are now referred as "old school", traffic tickets and parking tickets were deterrents, now they are part of an ever increasing tax base! One of the end results of this is that all future "developments" are going to be designed on purpose as parking lot hells just to keep the revenue flowing, not to the City, but to the "contractor"! Who ever thought that the Next Big Thing in Ottawa was going to be owning a Bill Collection agency! I am just thinking about that bit that was in the Sun about Ken Hughes and the young lad with the dozen traffic tickets that added up to $117,000. (See earlier postings) Wouldn't it be most prudent and ethical for an entity as large as the City of Ottawa to collect its own bills? You know like it was in the old days, before "amalgamation"?
There is only one thing to call this present situation; market failure! Rest assured dear reader, you will start to hear of ever increasing horror stories in the days ahead. As sure as market failure is inefficient, once the concept of "countervailing power" is ditched it is all third world from now on. It is all but bad enough to have a Mayor with the nickname "Gentleman Jim", the only worse nickname is "One Termer Jim."
Of course it cost the City "nothing" of 2.5 million dollars? We have many public housing units that could use serious renovation. And that rub of a corporate entity, that can park itself right on the doorstep of the Municipal Government power, leaves me feeling very uneasy indeed. But I guess, that is the subliminal message of the present "burgers" of Ottawa to the world, we have our price, and it is not very high....
I first heard the news when I turned to BNN to check the open, which I usually try to remember to do every trading day. Then came the banner announcement that the Supreme Court of Canada had struck down the proposed securities regulation legislation. Again it was unanimous against! (9-0) Even the recently salted Tory appointments to the court couldn't get the lipstick to stick on this pig. Now this is the second time this has happened! The first was of course the decision regarding safe injection sights in Vancouver.
This is proof of the government that you tend to get when you can't even track down the high schools that ministers went to! Can you name them? This is the government that you get when you run a conservative dummy in a riding that contains a majority of voters dumber then the conservative candidate! And we all know that the 'Harper Government' comes mostly from the farthest back boonies. Of course you could hear the immediate grumbling about those damn courts and all that pesky judicial interference, and then it carries on to the old argument of who does the legislating in Canada? The Parliament or the damn courts? Well it seems until the 'Harper Government' can learn to read and listen to the help, it will continue to be the courts. And thank God and Pierre Trudeau for that!
Just as the Oracle of Ottawa was sitting down to the labour this latest blog entry, the headline for the CBC National news cast has just informed the merry blogger that Helena Guergis has just filed suite on the 'Harper Government' for defamation! And let this blogger be the first to inform you dear reader, that this is but the first of many such law suites that are going to spring up, and all along roughly the same lines. The dirty tricks squad
as I predicted will hit the wall at over 100 m.p.h.and the splatter is going to be fine and wide. The 'Harper Government' is going to get a ton of practice dealing with the courts, it would appear. How many do you figure they will settle like rats running across the tundra?
In closing it has come to the attention of the Oracle of Ottawa that coal is no longer being used by Santa Claus as a gift to those who been naughty in the year past. This is due to the simple fact that the Chinese have bought up all the known supplies! But don't even begin to think that naughty behavior is now not going to bring no punishment! The new gift for being on the naughty list is now much worse! In lieu of coal, all naughty persons will now receive one liter of the finest Alberta oil sand settling pond sludge! Yes, just a heads up, the two headed Tory members of Parliament will be turning up in the next 20 to 25 years...
This brilliant Canadian is looking more brilliant each and every day! Lord he tried. Lord knows he tried....
Conservatives insist that government should be " run more like a business." One might wonder how that could be possible, since government does not market goods and services for the purpose of capital accumulation. Michael Parenti, Democracy For The Few, (Sixth Edition), p. 267
Another 'Harper Government' minister that really creeps the Oracle of Ottawa out is the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development! Yes, Diane "The Fly" Finley. She makes Dogbert the evil HR director look like a pussy cat. I have often wondered if she "wags" when she stands to her seat to answer a question in the House of Commons?
Dogbert
For all of us that once earned a living in the real world, doesn't she just remind you of that idiot Human Resources type that thinks that there is no difference between government and business? To bad Karl Marx is not on the reading list at the Richard Ivey School of Business! I guess it is more important to get to the Hong Kong, China location to learn how to bow and kiss the ass's of the new masters of the universe... We really need an another upwardly wanna be that is going to "reinvent" government. MBA's have all but destroyed business in the Western world. It seems now that they are going to do all the governments!
Remember! Don't use the air conditioner!!
It has been pretty entertaining watching the fly dodge angry questions in the House concerning the absolute meltdown of the Government of Canada service centers, that crumble to zero, the more she tries to make them more "efficient"! Why, when she is done with them they will make a profit! (?) The Bilderberg Group certified management contractors are crafting together some excellent solutions! Yes sir! All provinces west of Manitoba will get connected lickity split to the call center in India and Pakistan, and all calls to Service Canada from provinces west of Ontario will be quickly served by the new Phillipines call center!!
And Diane Finley knows your time is money! Yes Sir! while you are waiting in the one hour minimum que, you will have a chance to get a real good deal on the 'Harper Government' Master of the Universe card! And when you sign up, you will get a $1,000 tax credit (non-refundable) to use on your tax return! Isn't that great?
And that is not including the introductory interest rate of 1.9% which after five minutes goes to 29.95%!! Yes the 'Harper Government' is going to guarantee to your "right to fail", every Conservatives dream and usual reality...
The method of rule of the tyrant and the oligarch is quite simply to clobber, coerce, or overawe all or most of these other groups in the interest of their own. Bernard Crick, In Defence Of Politics, p. 18
Well Dear Readers, it is all in and done. And the only thing the Oracle of Ottawa got wrong was the utter degree of the insane ideological intensity that the 'Harper Government' used to pursue the dismantling of the Canada that we have all have come to love. All the victories of our parents and grandparents are now under deconstruction. Do I sound hysterical now? Am I still an ungrounded "space cadet" now? Do you still feel that there is nothing to worry about? Still don't believe that there is no hidden agenda?
If you check my very early posts that I posted before and just after the May election, you will discover that I even got the order of the destruction pretty much in exact sequence! And I am still severely pissed about the dismantling of the all Party subsidy, and the gutting of the Canadian Wheat Board. Never has so much been sold out so fast, by so few, of such low quality, for so little! The utter veracity of it all will be written about, and in not a forgiving fashion, for very many generations to come.
Even watching all the Question Periods, and I watched each and everyone, and the committees, which before I got really interested, I thought was just not humanly possible to do, and even though I watched from a far I could always sense that sulphur smell! And it was rich and acrid, from the deepest and lowest circle of hell...the basest level of the recesses of the mind of man... [[Editor: Damn! That was GREAT!!]]
But there was light. Even though the Opposition and the Third Party are in disarray and under interim leadership, the Oracle of Ottawa can only say they pulled together amazingly well and caused the 'Harper Government' to reach for the gun of Closure a record amount of times! If the 'Harper Government' policies were so perfect, just how come they couldn't convince a bunch of fluffy lefties? Yes indeed Bubba!
The blackest occasions the Oracle of Ottawa and the Canadian People will not soon forget or ever forgive. And the lowest low was the base attack of one of the greatest Canadian lawyers alive today; Irwin Cotler.It was poetry in jurisprudence to watch this little old man single handedly put the wrench and over 80 (?) amendments to the Omnibus Crime bill or as I call it, Patriot Act North. It was just brilliant watching this great mind close his eyes at committee and reel off the cases in the exact written order of the decision points! Damn!! That vision off brilliance will stay with the Oracle of Ottawa for ever. And the flushed angry faces of the Tory brain dead morons that with all the money and power on Earth, found that they could still not destroy the truth...
Because they were virtuous, they were magnanimous; and because they were free, they had a contempt of power. Montesquieu, The Spirit Of The Laws, Book VIII, Section 12
It was in today's Question Period. About a quarter of the way way through...When the young and quickly rising Megan Leslie was performing her usual and always quite successful ping off of the hapless Peter Kent...of whom the Oracle of Ottawa had much to say about, why only just yesterday! The hapless Minister of the Environment was in his best and lowest form indeed, when he replied to a question from the young Ms. Leslie quipping it would have been nice had she been in Durban at the Climate conference! Well everyone knows that the reason Ms. Leslie was not in attendance was that the minister would not allow full representation, by refusing them seats on the empty government Airbus!
Justin Trudeau
The House exploded in cries of Shame! Shame! Save and except for the young Justin Trudeau, who was heard quite clearly on the tape to have exclaimed "OH, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" You to can check it out at CPAC yourself dear reader. The said bit of entertainment was not posted to You Tube at the time of this writing, alas... And it seemed to never have happened since it was not noticed by the young Speaker of the House, and if the Speaker didn't hear it, tape or no tape, it didn't happen...The sequence and identities were confirmed on the CBC National News cast at 10:00pm.
But it what is it that separates the likes of Peter Kent and Justin Trudeau? Well Dear Readers it is all quiet simple...Justin Trudeau can wet the panties, and Peter Kent never could...
In closing; can someone explain to me how this is "Value for Money?"
