Can Obama win in Iowa?

I think that this one will be too close to prognosticate - though I was encouraged by this article.

Oscar Peterson passed away

My late father, who I miss tremendously, went to school in Montreal with legendary pianist Oscar Peterson.

I tell you that growing up in Montreal during the depression built character and some of the finest people to walk the face of the earth.

Today we are sadder having lost both of them, but the world is a better place for having known them.

Here comes Santa Claus

NORAD will be tracking Santa again this year. Check out their fun website.

Stop Censoring Christmas

Well the BBC, as it turns out, are not as big wankers as I was going to write. It turns out that the BBC has reversed its earlier decision to censor The Pogues' Fairytale of New York. This is one of the most beautiful holiday songs that gives me that warm and buttery Christmas feeling.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the nativity police at Elmdale public school in Ottawa who have replaced the word Christmas in the song Silver Bells for their Christmas, err holiday concert. And to top it off and really infuriate me is the audacity of the school board chair when called to account for this repugnant censorship. To Lynn Scott and the rest of the Christmas apologists, censors and wankers, in the words of the Pogues, "Happy christmas your arse, I pray God its your last" ridiculous attempt to take the Christ out of Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

May he rest in peace

The World's oldest man, Hryhory Nestor of Ukraine, died this week at the ripe old age of 116 years. I wrote about Nestor once before, and remembered him attributing his long life to his Ukrainian diet and the fact that he never got married.

VICHNAYA PAM'YAT.

Tory support plummets amid pileup of scandals

A new Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey suggests PM Steve's Conservatives have lost their big lead over the Liberals, plunging six percentage points in popular support in just one week.
The poll drops the Cons to 30 per cent support, in a statistical tie with the Liberals, who are up four points to 32 per cent.
Support for the Tories dropped across all regions and demographic groups.
The striking shift comes in the wake of several controversies which are taking a toll on Steve:
_ Former Tory PM Muldoon's admission that he accepted cash-stuffed envelopes from arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber and persistent questions about his current involvement with PM Steve's government.
_ Heavy criticism of Canada's position at the climate-change summit in Bali.
_ The political fallout from a critical shortage of medical isotopes due to the shutdown of the Chalk River nuclear reactor and the apparent cover-up by Resource Minister Gary Lunn.

Hey Steve and Brian, "Why the long faces?"

Finally...

UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES TYMOSHENKO AS PRIME MINISTER. The 450-seat Verkhovna Rada on December 18 approved Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the parliamentary bloc bearing her name (BYuT), as Ukraine's prime minister, UNIAN reported. Tymoshenko received 226 votes, the exact number needed for her approval as premier. The voting session was attended only by the coalition lawmakers of the BYuT and the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense bloc (NUNS). All 156 BYuT members and 70 out of 72 NUNS members voted in favor of Tymoshenko. Ivan Spodarenko did not cast his vote because he was hospitalized, and Ivan Plyushch abstained.

Jean Lapierre: carpetbagger or crackwhore?

Former Liberal Cabinet minister turned founder of the separatist Bloc Quebecois party cum TVA commentator has an allegation that the Liberals are colluding with the CBC.

What? How could it be that an employee of the TVA Group complains about Liberal questioning of Big chin Muldoon at his committee appearance about his tawdry acts and acceptance of $300,000 in bags of cash for no work with no receipts or bank records?

Could it be just a coincidence that since September 2001, Lapierre's employer has been part of the Quebecor family of companies [chaired by none other than Lyin' Brian Mulroney] and owned by Pierre Karl Peladeau, ironically the 2 individuals being fingered by the Liberals for influence pedalling on the Harper government's wireless spectrum decision are his bosses.

So the guy in a real conflict of interest invents a story about Liberal collusion with the CBC...that's rich.

PS: Or maybe it's just a distraction from this. Andrew Coyne writes a scathing review of Lord Vader's performance. And some people forgot why we hated him so...

Brian, Brian Pants on Fire

So Mulroney appeared before Parliamentary Committee today and revealed that:

1) he took cash payments on 3 separate occasions as an MP and again after;
2) he only paid tax on the money when he learned of Schreiber being charged with tax evasion.

There are, however, some gaping holes in his testimony:

He only filed his non-disclosed 1993 income in 1999. What is surprising is that he claimed the income as earned in 1999 and not legally as 1993 income.
He did:
· not re-file the 1993 tax year with the added income;
· not make a voluntary declaration to the CRA that the income earned was in 1993 and not 1999;
· inappropriately claim expenses incurred in 1993 that generated the non-disclosed income;
· as an Officer of the Court, he sees nothing ethically or legally wrong with filing for the wrong year.

Mulroney refused to produce any documents to substantiate his claims.

If any other Canadian citizen chose to withhold the disclosure of income earned, CRA would be demanding a mountain of documents detailing year(s) of tax returns submitted previously by the tax payer.

Many Canadians are personally disgusted with this sense of entitlement by a former Prime Minister. He benefited from six years of undisclosed income. Ordinary citizens cannot! Now, more than ever, we need a full Royal Commission of Inquiry into this whole sordid affair.

Steve, it's your father, Lord Vader

In light of tomorrow's performance at committee:

They still haven't got a new Prime Minster...

The Ukraine election was almost 100 days ago and today, Yulia Tymoshenko was nominated for the position of PM and her nomination required a majority vote in the 450 seat legislature. Guess what? She came up a vote short with 225. Needless to say there are all kinds of conspiracy theories floating around. I hope that her nomination is approved quickly so that Ukraine's new government can get started.

Is this new?

I am wondering if anyone has ever tried the one of those switch home vacation places. I have heard of some mixed results on these things.
In any event, I was thinking about Ukraine hosting Euro 2012 jointly with Poland and my mind got to wandering about going to see Sheva play for Chelsea since he started scoring again. So I was wondering what types of travel arrangements exist for a pre-Euro soccer vacation on the cheap.

I came across Cheaper than Hotels and was wondering if anyone has ever tried them. The strange thing about the title is that it suggests that they are not hotels...

Word of the Day: Justice

So Media tycoon Conrad Black, accused by prosecutors of operating a corporate kleptocracy has been found guilty and sentenced to 6.5 years in an American pen. So Lord Black is now a convicted felon...who would make a good cell mate?

A) Michael Vick - who got only 23 months for his dog fighting operation;
B) Larry the mayor guy O'Brien? (who has only been charged not convicted)
C) Robert Picton - Convicted British Columbia murderer; or
D) Brian (I never had relations with that man, Mr Schreiber) Mulroney.

Let me know what you think...

Schreiber drops bomb on Mulroney in Commons Committee

Karlheinz Schreiber testified under oath at a parliamentary committee today that he was told by Brian Mulroney's former chief of staff to funnel proceeds of the Airbus sale into a Swiss bank account destined for the former prime minister.
The accusation is the first time Schreiber has explicitly said the former prime minister may have benefited from the Air Canada purchase Airbus jetliners.
Schreiber told a Commons committee that Fred Doucet asked him to open an account in the name of Mulroney's lawyer in 1992 or 1993.
Mulroney was still the prime minister when Schreiber alleges the discussion occurred.
Schreiber said the request astounded him.
``What the hell has Mulroney to do with Airbus?'' Schreiber recalled asking Doucet, who was working as a lobbyist by then.
Doucet's answer: ``Are you naive?''
He said the conversation with Doucet took place in the Ottawa offices of Government Consultants International _ a lobbying firm stocked with staffers who were well-connected to Mulroney.
``Why would Mulroney get money for Airbus? For what?'' Schreiber said he asked Doucet.
``And he said, `Airbus.' ''
Within hours of the conversation, a rattled Schreiber said he contacted Frank Moores, another Mulroney confidant who was one of the principal owners of the lobbying firm, about the payments destined for Mulroney.
Moores told him to forget about the conversation, Schreiber testified. Others at GCI also urged him to ignore the reasons behind the request for the transfer to a Swiss bank account.
``They told me I should stay away from this. It is in their hands and they look after Brian Mulroney.'' Questions have long swirled around the 1988 purchase of 34 Airbus jets by then-Crown owned Air Canada.
Mulroney sued the Liberal government under Jean Chretien which was forced to apologize and pay Mulroney a $2.1-million settlement to cover his legal and professional fees.
Mulroney has subsequently admitted to taking $300,000 in cash from Schreiber in three separate hotel room meetings in the early 1990s. The ex-prime minister has never explained why he took the payments in cash, nor when he paid taxes on the payments.

Tymoshenko said Party of Regions offered bribes to her bloc

In a move reminiscent of the Mulroney-Schreiber tango going on in Ottawa, Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the parliamentary bloc bearing her name (BYuT), said that the opposition Party of Regions tried to bribe four lawmakers to withdraw their signatures from the coalition agreement between the BYuT and the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense bloc.
Tymoshenko said the lawmakers accepted the bribes with the goal of collecting evidence against the Party of Regions. "This was our project to publicly demonstrate a betrayal of political morality, the Party of Region's betrayal of the principles that should exist in politics. We have recorded the transfer of the money, which we then returned. We recorded how, where, and to whom they returned it," she said. Tymoshenko said that "one lawmaker's soul is valued at $20 million." In late November, Tymoshenko accused the Party of Regions of attempts to bribe BYuT lawmakers.
Lesson to Party of regions from schreiber-Mulroney: Cash is harder to trace for your mucky transactions.

Everything old is new again

It seems that high-rolling ministers shuttling around in jets is not a thing of the past, but part of PM Steve's Mulroney revival efforts. This is what La Presse had to say:

Facture salée pour les déplacements du ministre Blackburn Des avions nolisés en guise de taxis
La Presse Canadienne
Ottawa - Le ministre du Travail, Jean-Pierre Blackburn, utilise des vols nolisés comme taxis pour faire le voyage entre Ottawa et sa circonscription et envoie les factures à l'Agence de développement économique du Canada pour les régions du Québec dont il est responsable.
Des documents obtenus en vertu de la Loi sur l'accès à l'information démontrent qu'entre avril et août, le ministre a dépensé 68 000 $ pour 14 vols nolisés. Dans la moitié des cas, les appareils ont servi à transporter le ministre entre Ottawa et la base militaire de Bagotville, située dans le comté de Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, une circonsciption voisine à celle du ministre. La plupart du temps, le ministre était le seul passager. Il n'a en effet amené son attaché de presse avec lui qu'à trois reprises et il est arrivé que cette personne ne soit présente que pour une portion du voyage.
L'opposition trouve déplorable que les informations au sujet des vols nolisés n'apparaissent nulle part dans les formulaires de divulgation du ministre. Ils sont toutefois énumérés parmi d'autres contrats octroyés par Développement économique Canada.
Pas une première pour le ministre
Dans une déclaration écrite transmise à La Presse Canadienne, le cabinet de Jean-Pierre Blackburn assure par ailleurs que le ministre prend des vols commerciaux chaque fois que c'est possible. Cela est effectivement arrivé à quelques reprises.
Le ministre a fait état de dépenses de près de 20 000 $ pour des vols commerciaux au cours des derniers mois. Le tiers de cette somme est lié à des déplacements à l'extérieur du Québec et un autre tiers est le résultat du voyage du ministre en Gaspésie au lendemain des inondations de l'été dernier.
Ce n'est pas la première fois que Jean-Pierre Blackburn est la cible de critiques pour son recours jugé abusif à des vols nolisés ainsi que pour sa propension à camoufler les dépenses qui y sont associées.
Le printemps dernier, La Presse Canadienne révélait en effet que le ministre avait dépensé environ 150 000 $ pour louer des avions en 2006 et que cette somme
n'apparaissait nulle part dans ses rapports de dépense.

Smart move by Stelmach

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach has made a very astute move in rejecing the candidacy of troglodyte Craig Chandler, saying that "Chandler's nomination would not be in the best interest of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta."

Read the whole article here.

Wow - even Luc Lavoie has bailed on Mulroney

Let me paraphrase from the Globe and Mail article this morning, where 20-year Brian Mulroney spokesman Luc Lavoie has quit, " This thing is going down in flames quickly and I don't cherish the thought of this millstone around my neck."

Lavoie is probably sick of repeating the bullshit Mulroney feeds him and them looking like an idiot when the facts come out and contradict him.

Read the article here. A very happy Saturday.