Politics-Federal

My Second Ever Email To Stephen Harper

Mulder

Just before Christmas I dropped a note to the Prime Minister to pass on my Christmas and New Year’s wishes to him, Laureen and the kids. It was the second time I have ever written Stephen Harper and the first time I ever received a response from his staff.

On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to thank you for your e-mail, in which you raised an issue which falls within the portfolio of the Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry. The Prime Minister always appreciates receiving correspondence on subjects of importance to Canadians.

Please be assured that the statements you made have been carefully reviewed. I have taken the liberty of forwarding your e-mail to Minister Bernier, so that he too may be made aware of your comments. I am certain that the Minister will give your views every consideration.

P. Monteith
Executive Correspondence Officer
for the Prime Minister’s Office

In my email I also suggested that the government look into getting a Tesla Motors auto production facility in Canada siting the a) environmentally friendly aspect of the car, b) the positive job creation aspect of a new auto plant and c) the awesome photo ops that an announcement of this kind would make because the car is just smoking hot!!!

Tesla

I hope the Honourable Maxime Bernier follows up with my request.

How Do You Say Kyoto Protocol In Martian?

Mulder

Marvin the MartianHave the environmentalistas told Marvin the Martian to stop flying his gas guzzling spacecraft yet? Because the past 3 Mars years the polar caps on Mars have been shrinking!!!

Considering there is no life on mars to help warm the planet, this evidence points directly to something on a larger scale warming planets in our solar system. Scientists, for years, have speculated that solar flares affect the temperatures of the planets and this type of evidence provides a pretty good indication that they are right.

The image below is an animation of two images exactly 3 Martian years apart and was taken by the Malin Space Science System satellite currently in orbit around the red planet.

Mars South Polar Cap

Note to those inspecting the dates in the two photos. The typical Mars Year is about 669 days so when you take three Mars years it throws the Earth date out by about 6 months (or about 180 days).

The south polar residual cap of Mars is composed of layered, frozen carbon dioxide. In 1999, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) showed that the carbon dioxide layers have been eroded to form a variety of circular pits, arcuate scarps, troughs, buttes, and mesas. In 2001, MOC images designed to provide repeated views of the areas imaged in 1999–with the hope of creating stereo (3-D) images, so that the height of scarps and depth of pits could be measured–showed that the scarps had retreated, pits enlarged, and buttes and mesas shrank. Only carbon dioxide is volatile enough in the martian environment to have caused such dramatic changes–the scarps were seen to retreat at an average rate of 3 meters (about 3 yards) per Mars year. Most of the scarp retreat occurs during the southern summer season; in some areas the scarps move as much as 8 meters, in others, only 1 meter per Mars year.

Three Mars years have now elapsed since MOC first surveyed the south polar cap in 1999. Over the past several months, MGS MOC has been re-imaging areas that were seen in 1999, 2001, and 2003, to develop a detailed look at how the landscape has been changing. This animated GIF provides an example of the dramatic changes that have occurred during the past three martian years. The first image, a sub-frame of M09-05244, was acquired on 21 November 1999. The second image, a sub-frame of S06-00973, was obtained on 11 May 2005. The animation shows the changes that have occurred between 1999 and 2005. Each summer, the cap has lost more carbon dioxide. This may mean that the carbon dioxide content of the martian atmosphere has been increasing, bit by very tiny little bit, each of the years that MGS has been orbiting the red planet. These observations also imply that there was once a time, in the not-too-distant past (because there are no impact craters on the polar cap), when the atmosphere was somewhat thinner and colder, to permit the layers of carbon dioxide to form in the first place. Just as Earth’s environment is very different today than it was just 11,000 or so years ago, the martian environment has also been changing on a similar time scale.

I bet they find a way to blame Rona Ambrose for this.

Cabinet Shuffle Rumours Abound

Mulder

Well the skinny from David Akin is….

Environment Minister Rona Ambrose to Intergovermental Affairs
Treasury Board President John Baird to Environment Minister
Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice to Treasury Board President
Peter Van Loan to Indian Affairs

Other possibilities are
Gerry Ritz to new junior position called Secretary of State for Tourism
James Moore to pull Olympic portfolio from the mishmash David Emerson holds
Jason Kenney and Diane Albonczy to possibly get new senior positions.

Possible split of Bev Oda’s portfolio to create a new spot.

Other long shot rumours have LIBERAL Wajid Khan crossing the floor, possibly to a parliamentary secretary position after his appointment by Harper to help in a study of the Middle East dynamics.

Another rumour has Vic Toews moving to Immigration. Where current Immigration Minister Monte Solberg would go is not known.

My Predictions

I personally like the Baird, Prentice and Van Loan moves, and could live with the Ambrose move to Intergovernmental Affairs, but I think Alonczy might snatch that one and Ambrose or Helena Guergis might step in and grab the Status for Women spot from Bev Oda.

Project Polygamy – Phase Two Complete

Mulder

Phase One was getting same sex marriage allowed.

They said it would never come to pass, but Phase Two is here and a child is now allowed to have “two mothers and a father” as indicated in articles at both the CTV and the Globe and Mail.

An Ontario boy can legally have two mothers and a father, the province’s highest court ruled Tuesday.

The same-sex partner of the child’s biological mother went to court seeking to also be declared a mother of the boy.

The first stage took on the definition of parents. This second phase leverages a same sex marriage into changing the NUMBER of parents a child can have.

I can guarantee you Phase Three will have a same sex couple living with the father listed as a common law couple of co-habitating for over a year.

Canada is on the verge of becoming a nation that allows polygamy. Below is a map indicating (in green) which nations allow polygamy. Click the image to view a larger version.

H/T to 905Tory and HallsOfMacadamia

CBC's Air Farce – A Truly Biased Farce Of A Network

Mulder

On New Year’s Eve I recorded the CBC Air Farce special entitled 2006 The Year of the Farce and took a leisurely look at it the following day. Holy Biased Humour Batman!!

I watch Air Farce and have for years but I don’t think I have ever seen them this lopsided in their humour. I can understand a few extra ribs at the party in power but this New Year’s Eve 60 minute special was ridiculously slanted.

By my rough count the ratio of jokes poking fun at the four parties was as follows:

Conservatives were made fun of about 25 times
Liberals were made fun of about 4 times
Dippers were made fun of once or twice
BQ were not made fun of at all

Is this what politically incorrect humour has become? Of those 25 or so jibes, 20 of them were aimed at Stephen Harper with 3 (and possibly 4) attempting to tie him to George Bush, 2 aimed at his weight, 3 or 4 aimed at painting him as anti-gay, and even one pro-life comment which floored me because never have I heard Stephen Harper make any pro-life remark.

Again, I want to emphasize, I usually laugh along with Air Farce. But this blatant slanting against the current Tory government is simply not a fair indication of politics in Canada. In a year when the Dippers had a policy convention and the Liberals had a leadership convention, there had to be some prime targets for humour that simply did not appear in the show.

What gets my goat the most is that even in two attempts to start ribbing Dion and Layton, the humour gets twisted and both times Harper ends up taking the punchline on the chin.

I really think the CBC ought to readdress the inequality in their political humour.

To view a 10 minute assessment, click the video below once:

If you cannot see the above video, try clicking the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlBfNvndrx8

ADDENDUMGerry makes a great comment below. I, myself, have commented to the Air Farce crew how disappointed I was at their biased New Year’s Eve special and encourage you to do the same by clicking this link.

Beer And Popcorn Approach To The Environment

Mulder

John Duffy, the Liberal known for supporting the “beer and popcorn” quote has put his name behind a website called climateliberal.ca.as one of the founders. The website was initiated as a forum to 1) Focus on the Climate Crisis, 2) Use the Liberal Party as a vehicle, and 3) Organize via the web. Ironically, they refuse to scientifically argue the Climate Crisis, and as you will read below, the website seems to be going nowhere fast. But aren’t Liberals glad they have such a well organized group preparing to dip into envirodollars one day?

The site is clearly a failing prospect. To quote one of their recent commenters:

Slick appearance and over-the-top promotion aside, this website is a dud — from its patronizing, self-congratulatory home page to its unused forums.

Unless Liberals take the entire month of December off — that might partly explain Canada’s retreat from its Kyoto targets during their tenure, I would have expected them to flock to this site after the convention. Everybody there wet their pants in excitement at the prospect of this Internet Leviathan single-handedly toppling the hapless Conservatives. But, nobody came — not even Harry Potter and his “dream team” have bothered to participate.

Not simply putting my trust in the commenter, I took a peek around and found the comment above quite accurate. The forum section is not only unused, but when it is used it is clearly not open to discussion, which is the whole point of a forum.

There is a great initial post by Tom Harris about the flaws in Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth that presents Tom’s credentials as someone with a M. Eng in Thermofluids and links to an article he wrote with tons of great information on climate change and global warming.

The counter argument by the webmaster, Al Booth is as follows:

I Googled you Mr. Tom Harris. I think others visiting this forum might like to know the following (simply in the interests of transparency).

Here’s what Ajax-Liberal MP Mark Holland has to say about you on his web site in an article titled…

Petroleum money drives Conservative climate change skepticism

Here’s the part about you:

Tom Harris, once a legislative assistant to former Conservative Environment Critic Bob Mills, has been a prolific writer of anti-Kyoto op-ed pieces, typically quoting scientists associated with Friends of Science. He is a lobbyist with High Park Group, a firm with a number of energy industry clients. Previously working as an associate with the public relations firm APCO Worldwide (Canada), he organized a news conference of climate change skeptics in 2002. Most of those who spoke at the news conference have ties to both Friends of Science and the petroleum industry.

So a masters in engineering with a specialization in thermofluidity presents technical documentation on a website dedicated to addressing the enviromental issues surrounding climate change and it is met with what, in essence, translates to “You’re a filthy conservative, you’re science isn’t good here!”

What I find especially disheartening is that Tom was even nice enough to follow up and address all the concerns regarding his past ties to Bob Mills and the Conservative Party, but even that gets a response like this:

The one critism that can legitimately be leveled at Al Gore’s film is that it understates the threat to our planet and it doesn’t suggest any really workable, effective solutions. Changing a few light bulbs certainly won’t solve our problems.

What we need are huge federal programs and massive expenditures immediately invested in clean, green energy and totally revamping housing construction and our transportation system.

Even the NDP are calling the site sleezy. You know when the party that is traditionally known as the environmentally friendly party calls an environmental site sleezy, something REALLY has to be wrong with the site.

And the Liberals wonder why the greenest Prime Minister in history was a Conservative. And when Kyoto is explained as a carbon dioxide problem and not a pollution problem, people begin to understand why the previous government, and it’s environement minister, Stephane Dion, do not have a leg to stand on.

I would even go so far as to say that this site is a preliminary ploy by liberal supporters to lay the groundwork to receive a nice big paycheck should the Liberals be returned to power and pour millions, if not billions, into the environment. Can we say Enviroscam?

That payday would buy Mr. Duffy a heck of a lot of beer and popcorn.

And The Arar CopyCats Have Started Cropping Up

Mulder

This morning I heard that there is now a case of a man who claims Canada played a part in his human rights abuse.

He came to Canada as a refugee and Canada refused him and deported him back to Egypt where he was, allegedly, beaten and tortured.

CTV News has now obtained photographs and videotape, allegedly of the same man, which show fresh injuries on his back. They appear to be burns and welts, which he claims were inflicted by Egyptian authorities. He alleges that, since he was sent back, two security officers from Egypt’s State Security Investigations (SSI) have detained, interrogated and threatened him several times. He also claims he was shocked with electricity, doused with water and beaten.

CTV News has also obtained an audiotape recording, which his supporters said is the man pleading for help.

“I feel very afraid. Very afraid. Save me please. They tortured me. They tortured me a lot all over my back,” the man on the tape said. “They told me, we decorated your back like your Jesus. All my body was shaking. I could not control myself.”

“They were laughing. They were laughing. Let your Jesus come to save you.” The man broke down in tears. “Please, I beg you, I beg you save me, save me. Save my life.”

I feel for anyone who is tortured. I hope that whoever did the actual torture should rot in hell. But I am NOT willing to let Canada take responsibility for this.

How much do you want to bet a lawsuit as big as Maher Arar’s is in the works? Remember, Arar is suing for $300 to $400 Million dollars.

Al Gore Takes Movie Money And Hides

Mulder

A friend of mine was telling me how global warming could be proven and that a big part of it was due to the cutting down of the rainforest. The current of water coming up along the east coast of South America was being dramatically affected, and warmed, which created an imbalance in water temperatures, thus creating more Atlantic Storms.

Bullchips is all I have to say.

If that was the case, this year should have been as active, or more active, in terms of Atlantic Storms. But here are the hard facts from the past 8 years. Notice that this year there is a significant drop in the number of tropical storms.

2006 Name Storms

But you can also look at the inconsistency in the East Pacific storms in the same time period.

2006 East Pacifici Name Storms

Let me put this in graphical terms, I put the following chart together indicating each sections name storms and outlining the total.

2006 Chart

The average number of storms in the two regions is 29.25/year over the past 8 years. In the same 8 year period, 4 years have been above that watermark and 4 years have been below that watermark, including 2006. (technically the year is not over, but there would need to be 4 new name storms in a week and a half start up to change this statistic so it is safe to make this claim.)

Considering there was some pretty significant fearmongering by Al Gore, his environmentalista followers and his propaganda movie last year, I think he owes society an apology for not waiting a few years to see if the trend was accurate.

So now I want to know why more Liberals are not on the CLEAN air bandwagon which Conservatives like Rona Ambrose and Stephen Harper have adopted, and why they continue to harp on the HOT air bandwagon Al Gore erroneously created.

Liberal Bloggers Don't Even Understand Kyoto…

Mulder

Liberals Can't CountBut they will keep plugging it.

I have seen this “counter” (displayed at right) on a few Liberal websites and need to make a clarification so that Conservatives who read my site can help educate others.

The counter has presented quite an erroneous view of both the Conservative Clean Air act and the Kyoto Protocol in a fashion I usually only credit the MSM with.

It states that there are 6000 and some odd number of days until the Conservatives set air quality targets. This implies the recent mercury ban does nothing to improve air quality. It also implies the restriction of the 200 or so hazardous substances does not improve air quality. This shows us how little Liberals know about what clean air actually is. Either that or they simply can’t count.

The number of days is a reference to the Tory green house gas targets which go out to 2050. What really makes the Liberals look stupid for posting this is that the Kyoto protocol aims to reduce green house gases and has nothing to do with air “quality”. The whole Kyoto concept is to reduce green house gases in an effort to prevent global warming.

Since warm air and cold air are both equally desireable depending on where you are and what season it is, and since neither is of “poor quality”, the statement just goes to show us that Liberals who believe Kyoto and green house gas reduction is about CLEAN air simply do not understand what Kyoto is about.