OfficiallyScrewed.com is a website dedicated to logically degrading, demoralizing, and deflating those that our society chooses to shower with press, praise and perfume (not to mention MONEY) for being imbeciles and officially screwing us, usually politically.
We stand for the Average Joe who wonders…
Who the hell is running this world?
What the hell is this world coming to?
When the hell did it change for the worse?
Where the hell did all the normal people go?
Why the hell is common sense so uncommon?
How the hell do we get out of this mess?
To delve deeper, OfficiallyScrewed.com is the brainchild of a fiscal conservative/libertarian who lost it after hearing about the Liberal Sponsorship Scandal. In essence, the feeling was that we were all being “OfficiallyScrewed”.
Not having any other outlet to vent, this site was created in 2005 to provide a voice to it’s creator. Because the bottom line is You either pay attention or pay through the nose. And I would rather pay attention.
After reading this article, Old Saint Nick sent me the letter below to share….
Dear James, (aka Mayor Jim Watson),
I was surprised that you would get jealous about Toronto getting $600M for three new transit stops. After all, I have been more than generous to you and your Liberal friends with an embarassment of riches. Jeolousy won’t get you off of my “Naughty List”. You can’t possibly be surprised to know that you are on this list. But just in case you are wondering why, I have noted a few reasons below.
For starters when you got elected to the provincial legislature in 2003, the Ontario Liberal party promised to not raise taxes and immediately imposed a massive health care premium. Lying is something Santa takes very seriously.
Then Santa did his best to give the Ontario Liberals (of which you are one) more money to spend wisely. But what did they do? They decided to drop a cool Billion dollars on eHealth, but their oversight let it all go to waste.
I then gave the Ontario Liberals yet another billion dollar Christmas gift but instead of building gas plants, they selfishly wasted the money to move the plants so they could win a couple of seats near Mississauga.
And guess what? I also gave you and your Liberal cronys another billion dollars of hard earned tax money and instead of sending some to you for your choo choo train, they decided to put up solar panels and windmills that will leave a legacy of debt to be paid off by Ontarian tax payers on their Hydro bills.
And now I am hearing that cronyism is running amock as your friend Kathleen Wynn is creating a bunch of advisory boards and loading them up with liberal party hacks. This is a slap in the face of Ontario taxpayers.
To get on my “Nice List” people need to share. They need to tell the truth. They need to appreciate what they have been given and not throw these gifts away for personal gain or benefit.
I urge you to think about these things. You have the ear of your fellow Liberals. How YOU choose to use your voice will determine if you get back on my “Nice List”.
Today on CTV’s Question Period, one of the caretakers at the “Mop ‘n’ Pail” newspaper glosses over the ripple effect taking place by stating a moderate was elected in Ottawa. Mr. Simpson should look deeper than the mayoral elections.
Ottawa had it’s epiphany 4 years ago when we elected in businessman Larry O’Brien to the Mayor’s chair because we were tired of the same old left leaning values. Yet the citizen’s of Ottawa did not at that time give the Mayor a supporting cast of councilors. How do we know the change was desired? Because in the 2003 election, 180,000 voters turned out, yet 300,000 turned out to elect Larry O’Brien in 2006.
And this election, Ottawa did indeed elect a moderate, yet fiscally prudent man in Jim Watson, (who has straddled both the Liberal and Progressive Conservative camps in his career), yet this time the electorate knew the mayor was only one vote. So they got smart and the council itself made a MAJOR shift to the right.
In 2006 Ottawa re-elected EVERY incumbent councilor who ran. In 2010, Ottawa ousted 6 councillors and had 4 ridings up for grabs where no incumbent was running. This is how the 10 wards played out.
Ward 7 – Bay Ward – Extreme Lefty and long term councillor Alex Cullen was ousted by Liberal Mark Taylor. A shift to the right.
Ward 11 – Beacon Hill/Cyrville – Lefty Michel Bellemare was ousted by moderate Tim Tierney. A shift to the right.
Ward 12 – Rideau/Vanier – Lefty Georges Bédard ousted by moderate Mathieu Fleury. A shift to the right.
Ward 13 – Rideau/Rockcliffe – Conservative Peter Clark beat out 9 other candidates.
Ward 15 – Kitchissippi – Lefty and now 1 term councilor Christine Leadman ousted by newcomer and moderate Katherine Hobbs. A shift to the right.
Ward 17 – Capital – David Chernushenko, who is a well known Green Party member lined up very well with past Green Party leader Jim Harris who was a conservative. i.e. Chernushenko comes from the conservative side of the Greens and not the whacko “get in front of a harpoon boat in a rubber dinghy” envirofanatic side of the Green Party. Considering the area is represented federally by a New Democrat and was where lefty Clive Doucet sat on council last term, this is also a clear shift to the right.
Ward 19 – Cumberland – Wishy Washy middle of the road Rob Jellett was replaced by conservative Stephen Blais. Clear shift to the right.
Ward 21 – Rideau/Goulbourn – moderate to right leaning Glenn Brooks and long time councilor was ousted by youngster and rising conservative star Scott Moffatt. Slight shift to the right.
And last but likely the most prominent shift took place in Ward 23 – Kanata South. Lefty Peggy Feltmate, who was endorsed by previous lefty Alex Munter chose to endorse NDP supporter Aaron Helleman. The ward is traditionally conservative at the federal and provincial levels and when party affiliations came out among the three leading candidates, the clear winner was conservative Allan Hubley.
The remaining ward, Knoxdale-Merivale elected Keith Egli. I am not sure of Egli’s leanings but suspect he is a moderate meaning minimal shift in any direction.
But all in all the residents of Ottawa corrected a mistake they made 4 years ago and gave their mayor a clearly right leaning council. Hallelujah!!
So Simpson can preach that Ford’s election was a one shot move to the right in Ontario. But he would be clearly wrong as we have shown.
Originally Posted 9/10/2010 but being bumped due to importance
Kanata South Candidate and NDP Supporter Appears To Be Attempting To Deceive Voters
The best way to predict future behaviour is to look at past behaviour.
On Thursday September 9th during the CFRA Municipal Panel, Rob Snow had guest Aaron Helleman on the air. Aaron is running in Ward 23 – Kanata South in the upcoming Ottawa Municipal Election. During the interview Rob Snow mentioned that Aaron Helleman was described as a lefty. Let’s pick up the conversation at that point.
Aaron Helleman: That’s interesting. The entrepreneur. The fella who’s a market believer. The fella who’s running his own business and is a professional engineer.
Rob Snow: So How did you get that tag then?
Aaron Helleman: I have no idea.
Well OfficiallyScrewed.com has the scoop on this one. And considering how much we have found out about Mr. Helleman, I can assure you his response is not a simple admission of not knowing, but it is quite clearly an effort to hide his true orange NDP roots.
1) Let’s look at his own words. He says he is a market believer. Yet when he was VP and blogger for the Federal NDP party back in 2005, he posted a “Quote of the Day” by Wendell Berry which stated:
Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.
Wendell Berry
# posted by Aaron Helleman @ 9:19 AM 0 comments
How can someone be a market believer yet also believe that “Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand.”? I can just see Milton Friedman shaking his head at this one.
2) Aaron Helleman was a Vice President and Membership Director of the Federal NDP riding association in Carleton Mississippi Mills and he was also very involved in the campaign of the Carleton-Mississippi Mills NDP Candidate, Tasha Bridgen, during the January 2006 Federal Election. You can find his words on the blog of Rob Cottingham from a post back in December 2005 when Cottingham was gathering information on NDP campaigns. Helleman was not only glad to provide his status as a blogger and VP of the CMM NDP but he was pleased to announce that Tasha Bridgen’s site had video. You can see this in the comments of the blog post located here.
December 7th, 2005 at 20:40
Aaron Helleman says:
Hi guys,
Just wanted you to know that Carleton Mississippi Mills has a candidate – Tasha Bridgen. Check out the blog – http://www.cmmndp.ca
Later,
Aaron – CMMNDP Blogger/VP
December 7th, 2005 at 20:44
Aaron Helleman says:
Oh – and we do video too.
Cheers!
Aaron
3) Additionally, via archive.org, the CMM NDP website had a very prominent blogger who attacked both Conservatives and Liberals, clearly staking his position to the left in the political spectrum. This blogger was Aaron Helleman.
4) In 2005, he also posted a piece entitled “Proud to be an NDP Supporter”. Yet he has no idea how he can be tagged a lefty. Where did his pride go?
5) Back in May of 2005, the Carleton-Mississippi Mills NDP Riding Association had a fundraiser at O’Connor’s pub featuring party leader Jack Layton and well known NDP MP Charlie Angus. And who could you contact for tickets? The screenshot of an email below gives you the clear answer. Aaron Helleman.
Click to enlarge
(note the phone number has been hidden by us)
6) In January 2007, Mr. Helleman reached out to the United Church (bells ringing yet?) for help on how to reach their community with voter kits. This is demonstrated at the “Faith Justice” wikipage we found. In this page, Helleman states clearly:
How do we plan on offering this potential voters kit to Christians in our ridings? Would it be published by ‘us’ as individuals or by our riding association, or some other way?
Some great links: (I’m a member of CPJ and would invite you to join them as well… check them out http://www.cpj.ca )
Which “riding association” did Helleman mean? And stating that he is a member of the CPJ does him little good in an attempt to paint himself as a conservative. The link he himself provides on that page takes you to a page where the CPJ clearly states it’s opposition to the Conservative attempt to remove party funding by the public purse back in 2008.
7) The CBC website carries a great section during Federal Elections called Canada Votes/Riding Talk. And in the commentary for Carleton-Mississippi Mills, Helleman clearly promotes and even provides a direct link to the CMM NDP website.
Health Care
Child Care
High-Tech unemployement and outsourcing
Seniors Charter
Youth
are just a few of the issues for this riding.
These issues need new thinking and positive vision. check out SITE
Posted by: Aaron Helleman | Dec 13, 2005 7:55:55 AM
8 ) There is a nice little site called Meetup, where people can create and join “meetup” groups. There is one set up for NDP supporters in the Ottawa area. Guess who shows up as one of the members? Mr. Aaron Helleman.
9) The Coup de Grace. From 2004 to 2009, Mr. Helleman donated $765 to the Federal NDP. This information is public domain at the Elections Canada website but I have provided two screenshots below. The kicker here is that not only were larger donations made of $250, $150, $120, $100 and $50. But there were several $5.00 donations which were logged monthly indicating a pre-authorized donation plan.
Click to enlargeClick to enlarge
In 2004, Helleman donated $400 to the Carleton-Mississippi Mills NDP riding association. This information is public knowledge at the Elections Canada website.
Click to enlarge
In addition, Helleman donated $400 to the campaign of Tasha Bridgen, NDP candidate in CMM for the 2006 election during the campaign and an additional $200 to the campaign after the election was over. Also public domain at the Elections Canada website.
Click to enlarge
But Helleman’s NDP roots are not only tied to the Federal NDP Party and Federal NDP Riding Association. He is also a big supporter of their provincial NDP cousins. In the 2007 Ontario Provincial Election, Helleman donated a whopping $600 to NDP candidate Michael Hadskis.
Furthermore, as recently as 2009, Helleman donated $110 to the Provincial NDP Party. This information is also public domain at the Elections Ontario website but we have provided a screenshot for you below.
Click to enlarge
So all told, he has donated at least $2475 to various NDP parties, candidates and riding associations and countless hours in volunteer time.
I think by now I have demonstrated that this municipal candidate is clearly a major supporter of the NDP Party of Canada and many of the policies of the left wing. So how could he “have no idea” on why he was tagged a lefty?
The answer to this is simple. Mr. Helleman is trying to hide his left leaning tendencies. In addition to the above information, we have backup data from sites like the Carleton-Mississippi Mills NDP website (currently down), rabble.ca (removed pages found via cache searches), and other sites that indicate someone is trying to remove posts and commentary that Mr. Helleman has made. This goes even so far as to have google cached pages no longer visible. Someone is going to painstakingly great efforts to remove these left leaning comments made by Mr. Helleman. Does he really think that removing a few webpages, printing blue campaign signs and misrepresenting himself on CFRA is enough to cover his orange roots?
But all this raises one further question. Why is he hiding his orange roots? The answer to that is simple. Kanata South is in Carleton-Mississippi Mills. This is the federal/provincial riding that has had a Conservative MP since 2000 and one who has won by a staggering vote count repeatedly. In fact, the last two federal elections had the Conservative MP win EVERY poll in the riding. It is also the riding that has had a Progressive Conservative MPP since 1977. i.e. over 30 years straight.
So the logic is there. Paint yourself as a conservative and hope no one is paying attention. But some of us who have been conservatives in this ward and riding for a long time ARE paying attention. And you, Mr. Helleman…are NOT a conservative and you ARE a lefty.
UPDATE
This week a group called OurOttawa sent out an email asking for support for their slate of 6 “progressive” candidates. (Note: progressive is secret code for socialists and small “L” liberals). The email included a flyer announcing a fundraiser for these 6 candidates, as well as a Powerpoint (which we converted to pdf for easier download) explaining the voting records of current council and why they are supporting these 6 new candidates. In this PowerPoint, (screenshot below) this group clearly states “We leave alone the progressives” and it displays the 6 existing councillors that are proven by the group themselves to support a leftist agenda. (Alex Cullen being on this list should set further bells ringing.)
Click to enlarge
Additionally to support item number 1) above, this group is promoting people who support a “living wage”. This means support of a price floor which is diametrically opposed to being a “market believer” which Helleman claims he is.
When I was a young man still in University I was offered my first credit card. It was a GM VISA with a $500 spending limit. Considering I didn’t have $500 to my name and summer was coming I was ecstatic that I would be able to load up my tackle box and pick up a carton or two of smokes. Although not necessities to the average person, they seemed like they were necessities to me.
So I cautiously ran up a bit of a tab on the card. Then the inevitable bill came. Sure it showed me a minimum payment which was a bit of reassurance. I wouldn’t have to pay the whole thing off at once. But little did I realize that that small monthly payment was coming right off the top of my income. Why? Because I chose to spend something I didn’t have.
Well governments around the world are doing it now. Forget extreme hyperbole such as “spending like drunken sailors”. Expressions like this make it sound like we are just exaggerating. Well the truth is they are spending like unsure, unaware teenagers with their first credit cards. They don’t realize that pulling more out of the taxpayers is like that teenager trying to find a job in a down economy. The potential to pay back that debt is there, but the economic conditions to allow that to happen are just not there. And the more we run up the debt the harder it will be to dig ourselves out.
That’s it. I don’t have any links on this. Just the anology and the request that everyone out there contact the politicians representing them at all levels of government and simply ask them to spend within their means. Do NOT extend their means to accommodate how much they want to spend.
It seems the local CityHoller blog and columnist Randall Denley in Ottawa have started to expose the soft underbelly of ex Ontario Liberal MPP and Ottawa Mayoral Candidate Jim Watson.
It looks like Jim Watson, who was the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing in the McGuinty Liberal Government, was instrumental in the decision to let corporate donations stand in Ottawa municipal elections as recently as December 2009. The Baby New Year of 2010 was hardly crawling before Watson announced his candidacy for the mayoral race and not three months later, Jimbo is holding a corporate fundraiser IN TORONTO.
What I find distasteful in all this is that the rebate Watson is touting to his Toronto corporate friends will be paid by Ottawa tax payer dollars. Dandy.
Ottawa taxpayers might be getting OfficiallyScrewed by the perpetual, musical chair playing politician.
But the logic of this program fails me. Here’s an example.
The current black box program takes many things. It takes magazines (which are paper), newspapers (which are paper), shredded paper (which is surprisingly … paper), fine paper (guess what this is made of?), and books (which other than an Amazon Kindle is more paper), boxboard (which is the thicker paper your cereal boxes and other items are made of), gift wrapping paper (again more paper) and finally, egg cartons (which are a thicker version of newsprint paper).
The black box is ALSO for unsoiled pizza boxes which is a form of thicker (often corrugated) paper.
The new green bin program now accepts soiled pizza boxes. Ergo it can process cardboard. Ergo it can process paper. Ergo it can process EVERYTHING that the black box program accepts.
So why the heck didn’t they just have the black bin program accept the stuff we can compost on top of what it already takes? (or why not just have the green bin take the black bin products too and eliminate the black bin altogether?)
The lunacy of it all amazes me. The new green bin program is costing us about $90 per ton tipping fees to the company that was signed up to do this for 20 more years. The old tipping fees for standard trash were under $40 per ton. That’s getting officially screwed.
All I need now is a brown bin (for my dog waste), an orange bin (for my fall leaves), a red bin (for my meat scraps) and I can put a rainbow of trash out every week. Simply lovely.
The City of Ottawa has become a volleyball in the battle between Capitalists and Socialists over the Lansdowne Live proposal.
The left wing councilors have started lining up against the PPP put forward and they have been backed by Dippers Paul Dewar and past NDP leader Ed Broadbent. Even CUPE is running ads against the redevelopment of the decrepit Frank Clair Stadium and the surrounding area.
They say it has to do with transit. They say it has to do with local residents not wanting the traffic. They say we need more green space.
But let’s call a spade a spade. If a PPP (private public partnership) was to go forward, the majority of jobs in the Lansdowne Live end product would be private sector jobs. Jobs that are typically NON Union.
But if we let the city take control and build their own stadium (or museum or park) the jobs that will maintain it will all be … wait for it … Union jobs.
So in a nut shell. A vote for Lansdowne Live will employ people who put money INTO the municipality via taxes. And a vote against Lansdowne Live will take money OUT of the municipality via a) wages and b) typical city union benefits which exceed by miles the benefits the average private sector worker gets.
Currently, taxpayers pay $86 a year for weekly trash pick up which includes rotating weeks of blue bin (plastic/metal/glass) and black bin (recyclable paper) service.
However, the City is now rolling out green bin service for organics and they are taking the opportunity to add a service fee for this green bin service as well as moving the cost of the blue/black bin service from all tax payers to the homeowners.
So what does this amount to? Well it amounts to $195 a year for picking up our trash. From $86/year to $195/yr. That’s an increase of 127%.
Now for you aspiring socialist politicians out there…THAT’S how you OfficiallyScrew a taxpayer.
ACTIVISM: If you live in Ottawa, click here to find your city councilor and email them your feelings on this subject.
OS has acquired a copy of the memo from Mayor Larry O’Brien to the rest of City Council. And in reading this, it is quite clear that the Mayor is very much on the side of sanity. I have posted the whole memo below in pieces with commentary.
Earlier today I spoke to the media about the transit strike and I wanted to provide you with an update.
Scheduling is an important part of the discussions with the ATU and I wanted to clarify why we continue to stress how important management control of the schedule is for the future of OC Transpo.
The city’s offer includes wage increases of 3% for 2008 and 2% for 2009 and 2% for 2010. We also offered a productivity bonus of $2,000 per operator to share in the operating efficiencies that will come from changes to the scheduling.
So they have not only offered raises far in excess of the rate of inflation, but they have added $2000 bonus per operator. I was under the impression that the increase in wages amounted to about $2000. This means that the average driver earning $50,000 would be making $53,500 in his first year under the current offer. That’s no chump change!!!
Continuing…
Scheduling changes will also improve the operator’s quality of life; under the current union controlled scheduling system drivers could choose to work up to 22 hours in a 24 hour period without rest.
We do not fall under new federal hours of service legislation, which would prevent this from happening.
That’s why management wants the ability to set schedules that are safe for our drivers, our passengers and the general public.
In a 24-hour period, we want to see a minimum rest period of eight consecutive hours to ensure all drivers are well-rested and guarantee rest and recovery times at the end of each run.
That is why scheduling is so important and was the message that I communicated to the media today.
Unbelievable!! I don’t know about you, but the Mayor and others fighting the union clearly have our safety in mind. It is simply not acceptable that truck drivers have limitations on the number of hours they can drive in a 24 hour period when they are hauling cargo, yet Ottawa bus drivers are able to drive 22 hours in a 24 hour period carrying the most precious of cargo, human lives, and people are not as concerned. Bravo Mayor O’Brien for looking out after the citizens of Ottawa and the visitors who use our public transit to get around our great city.
Continuing…
We remain committed to achieving a negotiated settlement to the strike and our bargaining team is ready to listen to any proposals from the union leadership when they choose to return to the table
So there you have it. The embattled Mayor has it dead on correct with regards to this strike. We cannot let seniority supersede safety. Seniority has it’s place and will be respected under the offer from the city. It just should not be allowed to risk the safety of our ridership.
