Oh Snap! Alison at Creekside on Ari, abortion, and alternate universes

Go, go, go. Read Alison at Creekside: Ari, abortion, and alternate universes.

Lots of smackdown and linky goodness.

Your Compassionate Conservatism at Work

'Tis the season yadayada. . .

This is the time of the year I do my charitable donations. Not because of any seasonal sentiment, but because it's only at the end of the year that a freelancer knows how much she can afford.

So I was doing that and thinking about all the cuts that have been made and will be made by various levels of nasty governments, necessitating more of us ponying up more to try to mitigate the harm done to the most vulnerable here and elsewhere in the world.

Then I heard that CBC Radio had held its annual day-long Sounds of the Season fundraiser for local food banks yesterday. It was announced that a record $230,000 in cash and around 15,000 pounds of food have been donated so far. (The campaign runs to the end of the month. You can donate here.)

Good. Might help ease the sting of the Grinchy cut to the city's Christmas Bureau.

Here's what the our measly $125,000 DID.

Since 1956, the Christmas Bureau has coordinated the distribution of gifts and donations to thousands of children and their families in Toronto annually. Employment and Social Services is proud to partner with Toronto Fire Services, CHUM Christmas Wish and the Toronto Star to make this possible.

The Christmas Bureau:
• Co-ordinates the distribution of Toronto Star Gift Boxes to children 12 years of age or younger whose families are receiving social assistance.
• Provides a referral and information service to people receiving social assistance and low income families living in Toronto.
• Connects individual and corporate donors to appropriate agencies.
• Co-ordinates the distribution of gifts to community agencies to give out to low income families. To do this, the Christmas Bureau works closely with CHUM Christmas Wish and the Toronto Fire Services.

Cut.

Yabbut, yabbut, compassionate conservatives don't loathe poor people; they just think that private charity should do all that kinder, gentler stuff.

I looked around for local charitable efforts, especially sponsored by media outlets because, you know, that's a great way to get the word out, viz CBC.

The Toronto Star is running its annual Santa Claus fund with a goal this year of $1.6 million (almost $1.3 million raised as of now).

The local CTV station does 'Toy Mountain' every year.

I had a quick look but couldn't find anything from Global TV.

Then I went looking for what the Toronto Sun might be doing. On its home page, it's got a link to Variety Village, but it goes directly to that organization's home page. Seemingly no promotion other than a link. (They are promoting the
Molson Coors Drink Responsible [sic] Contest though.)

Looked some more and found this.

So I’m sitting here getting depressed reading how Canadians are giving less and less to charity.

Donations are at a 30-year low, says Statistics Canada.

It’s the economy, right? Or we’re too busy. We gave last year. We’re taking the kids to Disney World. Granny needs new teeth. The cat just had kittens. The locusts ate our crops. The tornado...

Myriad reasons, all good. But it’s worrisome, since 80% of charity comes from you and me, not big corporations.

So I’m down in the dumps — as I get set to launch my 2011 Christmas Fund for Variety Village.

Oh. The Christmas Fund for Variety Village is the work, not of the Sun Empire, but one columnist. Gracious of them to let him use valuable corporate assets to do it, doncha think?

Now you're wondering what Fox News North Sun News Network is doing for the Giving Season, aren't you?

Zip. That I could find.

But Big City Lib has the Xmas message the corp has for its staff. Wage freeze for 2012.

No compassionate conservatism from those lying vultures, it seems.

But here's a heartwarming antidote. Mysterious donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts.

Of course I sit ready to be corrected if someone has news of any effort by FNN.


h/t for the Kmart story to godammitkitty.

If you do one activisty thing in the next two weeks. (with update)

Squeal about this.

The CRTC seems to be about to change its regulations to enable Fox News North.

A recent, little-noticed news item may result in a deep and indelible blemish on the Canadian mosaic.

Earlier this month, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), without fanfare, posted on its website a potential game-changer in the world of broadcast journalism. The CRTC is seeking to relax restrictions concerning the broadcasting of specious information on radio and television.

Currently, the law stipulates that broadcasters “shall not broadcast any false or misleading news.”

Sounds reasonable enough — and straightforward — as it should, since it concerns the integrity of news reporting.

But not apparently to the CRTC. It is proposing to soften the regulation, banning “any news that the licensee knows is false or misleading and that endangers or is likely to endanger the lives, health or safety of the public.”

In short, with the new wording, broadcasters could air false or misleading news with impunity, provided that it does not endanger the lives, health or safety of the public.

Unfortunately, the CRTC does not specify who will judge whether or not such disinformation poses a danger.

Like the public discourse is not already degraded enough.

WTF is the CRTC thinking/smoking?

Squeal here. And do it soon. The deadline is February 9.

Um, Margaret, can we get a little promotion here?

Update from deBeauxOs - NDP MP Charlie Angus is also concerned - grand merci to AZ. Reminder - deadline is Feb. 9 - this Wednesday.

Did the good guys just win one?

Seems so.

On Tuesday, after a speech in Ottawa, Quebecor chief executive officer Pierre Karl Péladeau said the company would withdraw its request to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for an exception to the rules of its licence that would have made Sun TV News available to more Canadians.

So, now they're going for an ordinary Category 2 licence, despite the fact they had previously argued that Fox News North wouldn't be financially viable without the three-year 'must offer' special licence.

Oh, and speaking of special, isn't this? Quebecor is actually going to follow the rules.

“We’ve decided to go with the policies of the CRTC,” said Quebecor spokesman Serge Sasseville. . . .
“We are in favour of deregulation, but that [three years] would have been a transition period for us ... but we are part of the free market, so we decided to renounce that special request.”

Now they're part of the free market?

Impolitical speculates on the reasons for the walk-back, but I'm going with the straightforward.

After their ReformaTory bumboy with, supposedly, the ear of the PeeEmmOooo made a complete ass of himself and had to resign, Quebecor simply didn't have the juice.

And, of course, more than 83,000 pissed off Canadians who signed the infamous Margaret-Atwood-backed Avaaz petition had zip zero nada nothing to do with it either.

Mr. Sasseville said the decision to change its request to the regulator “had nothing to do with the Avaaz petition.”

Yaaaaaah, riiiiiight.

No juice and egg on their face. Not quite the hog's trough banquet they were expecting.

Let the market decide. And I'm betting this venture is falling flat on its eggy face.

'Own goals' all over the place today

Indeed, what a lovely day this is shaping up to be.

From Let Freedom Rain, news about Fox News South:

It's been a perfect day so far. Best of all, FNN is kaput. South of the border, something even more interesting is brewing. The selfish assholes who call themselves tea partiers have party-lusted themselves into major electoral troubles. They elected a non-electable scumbag in Delaware who will take away a sure Senatorial seat from the GOP.

Despite the protestations of major GOP tyrants like Rove, O'Donnell won easily and lost the Republicans a major seat. Best of all, Fox News' Rove is getting shit upon for his role in dissing O'Donnell. It can't get any better than that. Fox News South also in trouble, methinks.

Christine O'Donnell is a piece of um, work.

Across the pond, His Poopiness's tour of the UK is not going well.

One of the pope's top advisers on his visit to England and Scotland has dropped out of his entourage following the publication of an interview in which he said that arriving in Britain "you sometimes think you've landed in a third world country".

Benedict XVI's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, told the Guardian, however, that Cardinal Walter Kasper had withdrawn "for health reasons".

He said the 77-year-old prelate's absence from the papal party, which lands in Edinburgh tomorrow at the start of a four-day visit, "had absolutely nothing to do with anything else".

Kasper, the Vatican's leading expert on relations with the Church of England, made his remark after noting that Britain was a "secular, pluralistic" country.

Asked by the German news magazine, Focus, whether Christians were discriminated against in Britain, he replied: "Yes. Above all, an aggressive new atheism has spread through Britain. If, for example, you wear a cross on British Airways, you are discriminated against."

Nope, absolutely nothing to do with fatuous Catlick martyrdom. Perhaps he wants to spend more time with his family. . .

Finally, we'll give the last word to Margaret Atwood whose signature on the Avaaz petition really got this ball rolling.

Re: SUN's Kory T. resigns: I didn't do it. Honest. It was the Great Pumpkin (plus a few Own Goals.)

BREAKING! Bye-Bye KKKory

Wow. According to Kady's liveblog, KKKory Teneycke just resigned. No reasons given, no questions taken.

Of course, people are wondering if this has anything to do with a potential investigation into the sabotage of the Avaaz petition to stop Fox News North.

ADDED: ReTweet from Antonia Z.

UPDATE: Ricken Patel of Avaaz responds.

KKKory's Freudian Lingerie

This is delicious. ReformaTory, aka US Rethuglican-wannabee, lies and shenanigans spin together two current ugly confrontations -- the long-gun registry (which, by the way, may now be safe thanks to the NDP) and the Fox News North kerfuffle -- into a perfect hurricane of irony.

I knew I'd heard KKKory Teneyke say something about the US National Rifle Association meddling in Canadian politics as he hysterically claims Avaaz, the organization running the Stop Fox News North petition, is doing.

I was looking for a link, but was pretty sure it was during the shouting match debate betweeen KKKory and Avaaz's Canadian director, Ricken Patel, on the Evan Solomon CringeFest a week or so ago.

Bingo. James Bowie to the rescue.

"What if the NRA came in to Canada trying to influence policy and decision? People would be outraged!" - Kory Teneyke 03 09 10

Hee. The NRA is doing exactly that and has been for years and yes, KKKory was right on one thing, people are outraged.

When I heard him make that comparison, I thought to self, 'KKKory, are you sure you want to go there?" Maybe as he was bloviating about 'foreign' meddlers, he had a Freudian lingerie moment and out popped the name of a powerful foreign extremist group that he knew bloody well had been meddling for years.

Wikipedia says of the NRA:

Members of Congress have ranked the NRA as the most powerful lobbying organization in the country several years in a row. Opponents of the organization accuse it of unduly influencing political appointments.

In related news, Avaaz today turned over the Ottawa-area IP address of the saboteur(s) of the FNN petition to the RCMP and the Ottawa Police. You remember, that sabotage that KKKory has some connection to? KKKory said that an 'acquaintance' told him he or she had signed up fictional characters. But the acquaintance denied signing up real-world journalists -- which would be identity theft. Avaaz says that the same IP address was used to sign up both.

Ooooh, I'm making a REALLY big bowl of popcorn for this one.

Avaaz Sabotaged

Well, isn't it classy?

Yesterday Avaaz experienced an attack on our “Stop ‘Fox News North’” petition consisting of fraudulent sign-ups of targeted individuals.

And dig this (bold mine):

It's deeply disturbing that in all Avaaz's years of campaigns against US President George Bush, Burmese, Zimbabwean and Sudanese dictators, irresponsible multinational corporations and corrupt politicians, no one has ever yet stooped to this kind of tactic to undermine our members' right to express their views.

Go here to see what sort of dictators and war criminals they have taken on in the past. And Fox News North supporters are the first to stoop to sabotage. Isn't that special?

Sounds like Avaaz is some pissed:

We do not yet have all the facts, but it appears to speak to the poisonous political climate and deeply deceptive tactics that have been bred by the radical right in Canada and its progenitor in the US. It is precisely this kind of bare-knuckled, brazenly deceptive and often hateful political climate that Sun TV's "Fox News North" appears keen to promote.

Canadians understand this, which is why, in just over 36 hours, well over 50,000 Canadians have signed our petition against Stephen Harper's attack on the independence of the CRTC as it resists the Sun TV request for access to Canadian’s cable fees.

Go sign the petition if you haven't yet. When I looked a few minutes ago, the number was closing in on 58,000.

And, of course, KKKory Teneycke's hissy fit will just help the numbers. I'm not linking to it; you can find it if you must.

Here's some background on Avaaz.

Avaaz.org was co-founded by Res Publica, a global civic advocacy group and non-profit organization, and MoveOn, an American non-profit progressive public policy advocacy group and political action committee. The organization is also supported by Service Employees International Union, a founding partner, and GetUp.org.au. Avaaz's individual co-founders include Executive Director Ricken Patel, Virginia congressman Tom Perriello, Australian progressive entrepreneur David Madden, Jeremy Heimans, Andrea Woodhouse, Tom Pravda, and MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser.

Fox News North

I haven't been blogging much because I'm in despair over the level of political discourse going on. The bald-faced lies, endless spin and re-spin, ideology trumping sense every fucking time. I'm just so sick of it and it's going to get worse if the Harpies get Fox News North on basic cable.

There's an online petition to sign. The text reads:

To CRTC Chair von Finckenstein and PM Harper:
As concerned Canadians who deeply oppose American-style hate media on our airwaves, we applaud the CRTC's refusal to allow a new "Fox News North" channel to be funded from our cable fees. We urge Mr. von Finckenstein to stay in his job and continue to stand up for Canada's democratic traditions, and call on Prime Minister Harper to immediately stop all pressure on the CRTC on this matter.

There are almost 30,000 signatures now. When the total hits 100,000, the organizers will run a full-page ad in a major newspaper.

Please sign and circulate to your friends and associates.

And in a beauty little nutshell (snerk), here's a preview of what Faux News North will be like.

The Blogging Tories are spinning the petition as -- you guessed it -- media censorship.

Blogger posts two tweets, one from Margaret Atwood and one from a Liberal candidate, then says:

Turns out there is an on-line petition circulating (see here) to stop Sun TV and these two wingbats are actually publicly endorsing this attempt at media censorship.
. . .
Can’t wait to hear how the Canadian loonie left that worship Margaret Atwood will try to defend her coming out against freedom of the press.

And here's another ijit spouting the same crap.

When it's a ReformaTory cabinet minister spewing porky pies like this, I hope to hell it's because they toeing the ideological line not because they are actually that braindead. But with Blogging Tories, one wonders.