Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

The New York Times features the news from New Brunswick, where blogger Charles LeBlanc who had been arrested for “obstructing police”, was acquitted since he wasn’t treated like a journalist by police.
“William J. McCarroll, the provincial court judge who heard Mr. LeBlanc’s case, wrote in his decision that “Mr. LeBlanc is a ‘blogger.’ I’m sure that many, if not the majority of Saint Johners, are not familiar with this word.””

This could be an important case for bloggers in Canada.
Hat tip to Vive le Canada.

What a difference a year makes. Yesterday the Greens needed just 4% more votes stolen from the Liberals in London, and they’d have their first MP.
And today it’s a blizzard across the province.

November 28, 2005

I went to Preeceville and Canora today. It was fine weather going there, but on my way back from Canora at 4:00 there was blowing snow. I had to stop outside of Yorkton for a couple deer who darted across the road in front of me.

The Liberal minority government fell today. The Conservatives are busy picking apart the Liberal’s past record, while the Liberals are picking apart the likely future if Harper is Prime Minister. It’s two vastly different approaches to winning, and it will work in different parts of the country. Naturally CBC and other Main Stream Media centers will not be mentioning the Green Party even though there will likely be 308 candidates running across the entire country again, so if you have a blog (and friends) be sure to remind people they can vote Green if they aren’t happy with our current political system and predictable media coverage of it.

Actually Havril from the blog [insert something clever] has taken Mercer to task for not allowing comments on his blog. Just what good is a blog without commenting anyway? Sure some of the “popular bloggers” do that, but if someone anonymous on the web can’t scream back approval or disgust, then it’s really no better than an old fashioned newspaper.

Vote Scout’s Harper-valley in best Humour blog, and let Mercer rule the Geminis where he belongs ;-)

Few parties would consider a second place finish a small victory, but for the often marginalized Green Party in Canada, second place helps to dispel the myth that no one would vote Green as a serious choice in a federal election. Even tonight as the Liberals win a seat that is largely pointless to them, as it doesn’t change their standing in the House of Commons, there are partisan bloggers moving to marginalize Elizabeth May’s accomplishment in London, Ontario. For a widely discounted party like the Greens to finish second, and ahead of the currently governing party’s candidate, isn’t an indication of burnout like Jason Cherniak is suggesting. It’s an indicator that the voters want an alternative to the Liberals and Conservatives and NDP who have run the show in Parliament for so long now it’s clear even the NDP are a party more concerned about maintaining the status quo than acting in a progressive manner.

Ask yourself how the Liberal support could drop by 5%, Conservative 5%, NDP 10% and the Green support increase by 20%.
(5 + 5 + 10) = 20
It seems the NDP are the alternative party that ought to be quaking in their boots next election, not the Greens. Granted, May is a party leader which complicates things, but I’d guess that the result tonight bodes well for the Green Party - and is no harbinger of doom. Stealing 20% of the popular vote from ALL parties, not just the NDP (which is a common misconception about the Greens) is never a harbinger of doom (except for perhaps the parties losing the 20%).

For Jason’s theory to be right, that “she lost when it would be safe to vote for any opposition,” May will have to do worse than 26% of the popular vote in Cape Breton in the coming general election. Judging by her charisma, and ability to attract media coverage that approaches equal airtime to established parties, I’d say Jason will have egg on his face. Or if he means ‘no better than a second place finish’, he may unfortunately be right by the skin of his teeth, given Canada’s outdated First Past The Post electoral dinosaur system. If I were more of a betting person I’d be inclined to make a friendly wager with Mr. Cherniak on May’s coming victory in the Maritimes - something where the loser would feature the opposing leader’s face on his blog for a week.

“I don’t think she will ever do better than this.” We’ll see, Jason. Yes we will see.
Congratulations to Mr. Pearson for the Liberal win. And a heartfelt “better luck next time” goes out to the 2 alternative parties, the Conservatives and NDP. I hope CAP and PCP will do better in future elections, since we need more variety in the House, not homogeneous white haired white guys in suits. [Note to Haskett voters: Homogeneous does not mean homosexual.] (And I just remembered, I saw Ali G’s movie about him getting to sit as an MP in Britain. “Ali G Indahouse” [5/10], which was an interesting reminder that “Keeping It Real” is not on the list of most political party’s platforms.)

Continue Reading »

The results are coming in, and May is trailing the Liberal candidate.
Watch Elections Canada and eventually CBC for results.

1337Haxor has more thoughts.

It was a fantastic weekend, and super busy so I didn’t even realize that the byelection is tonight for London North-Center. Good luck to Elizabeth May - I’ll be watching the results on CBC tonight.

On Friday there was a Ford flipped on its side on a bridge outside of Quill Lake. I checked it out just as the RCMP arrived, and I didn’t go poke my head inside to check there was no one injured, but I saw a belt dangling from the window and no one replied to my “hello!” [plus there was a shovel nearby] so I confirmed for the police there was no one left inside. I wasn’t about to do a close inspection, because it would have meant looking under where the SUV could roll onto me…

There were sundogs visible from Englefeld, but not much further past Quill Lake.

Driving through the mini-blizzard this afternoon, I heard that Dan Tysdal who I went to the UofR with won a literary award for poetry. I lived just down the hallway from him for about a year. He quipped that he needed someone to give him a bad review so that he could get back into a mindset where he could continue to write award winning stuff. I wish I could help, but I’ve not yet read anything of his.

And I heard a program on the Afternoon Edition where a reporter learned about Off The Grid living in the Yukon outside of Whitehorse. Someone named Mr. Horn had the ability to generate all of his electricity through wind and solar means. There are more Off The Grid stories coming up on the radio all this week so listen to CBC after 4PM CST.

I’m in Regina tonight. It’s cold out - too cold. Ashley and I were taking bets as to how cold. I decided -31 with the Wind Chill factor, but it was only -26 taking into account the feeling the wind inflicts upon us poor Canadians that venture outdoors in November.
I watched “The Departed” [9/10], and “Man of the Year” [7/10] both very good movies. I was a little reluctant to give Departed a 9, since it had a trait in it that I don’t like in either books or movies, but considering the title it was appropriate. I guess I’m more of a softy when it comes to movies and fiction. Man of the Year is about what would happen if we had an honest president of the USA elected, and Diebold’s voting machines were actually called to task for the fraud that they are. It’s a movie that isn’t well written or acted, but still manages to say what most people, who watch the Daily Show regularly, are thinking.

“Ever wonder why some things humans do don’t make any sense?” - Saskboy

“It’s because they make dollars.” - Ashley

Indeed.

There’s a winter storm watch on for tonight and tomorrow, so I guess I’ll have fun driving back to Yorkton. Last night playing laser tag my friends and I cleaned up. “Insainoman” took second then first place, and “Psychochick” finished 14th then second, and I was either 7th [or 8th] and then 4th. Considering I’m aiming for a 4th place finish in Best Progressive Blog this year, it was excellent practice, and will return another time. Psychochick claims that the 4 year old was picking on her, but I have a feeling he helped her to take second place ;-) Jesman also finished in the top 10 the next round and Phobos struggled to make a significant placement, but I have a feeling when we go back another time all that Unreal Tournament practice will pay off for him.

After an evening out, Ashley and I decorated the residence Christmas tree with homemade decorations [we made a stocking, after my felt cross idea didn't pan out].

I once read “If you can’t be original, be repetitive.” In an effort to better educate new readers what Abandoned Stuff is all about, I’ll be featuring my most popular Stuff this week of Canadian Blog Award voting.

So in order to be as unoriginal as possible, and let the masses of people know what my greatest creation on the Interweb ever was, here’s my Pet Foil Hat Technology, revisited.

Pet Foil Hat Technology (PFHT) is the sorta-patented system that protects you and your pet from the government’s and alien’s brain scan rays!

This offer is truly GINORMOUS!

Technical Jargon:

This ultra modern aluminum foil hat will protect your pet from the brain scanning rays of the NSA, certain ‘bay auction’ websites, fbi.com, and CIA satellites that are monitoring their little subversive thoughts. You may not have considered this before, but your lead lined hat is worthless if your pet can give away your secrets to the very people most dangerous to you - your government!

The PFHT contains space age materials, and is guaranteed to work for your pet. All government I/O is cut off. It’s like a firewall for your pet’s brain.

“PFHT” will not disappoint anyone who doesn’t want to get noticed by the ever watchful and ultra secretive FBI.com! So secret in fact, they don’t even have a website.

Now pardon me, while I go to a drug store to buy some placebos…