Placeholder...

I am currently developing another site to house my writings, CV, etc, over at www.brentonwalters.ca. Right now it's just a placeholder Wordpress site.

Cheers,
Brenton

Elect Meena Wong, NDP, in Vancouver South

As some of you know, I am managing Meena Wong's campaign in Vancouver South. For the NDP, in case that was in doubt.

We are having our Campaign Office Official Opening this Wednesday, from 5 - 8pm. Please come on by and enjoy some wonderful samosas, chai, campaign material and friendly campaign talk.

Where: 6655 Main Street, between 50th and 51st on the east side of Main.
When: 5pm - 8pm. Come early, and bring a friend!

Find us on Facebook, at our event page: Campaign Office Opening!

I hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Brenton

Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun, anti-union hacks

Barbara Yaffe is a columnist in the Vancouver Sun. Halfways intelligent, she nevertheless has some serious ideological blindspots when it comes to unions. Her recent column merely parroted a report from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, a "conservative/libertarian think-tank" (their words, not mine) in Winnipeg.

The report claims public sector wages have outgrown private sector wages over the past 11 years, by a substantial amount. spartikus over at The Exile properly takes the report apart (The Fraser Institute B Team) and calls out Yaffe and the Vancouver Sun for their ineptitude.

Some interesting things I've read lately

Here's a quick blog entry to share some interesting things I've been reading:

John Hickenlooper, former mayor of Denver and the newly-elected Governor of Colorado, is a loony. This New York Times piece shares some pretty creative stunts he has pulled, both as an entrepreneur (micro-brewing) and as mayor and gubernatorial candidate. And he seems like a smart guy.

Actor and one-time Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson had a significant role in the Watergate hearings, as chief counsel to Republican senators. He asked the famous televised question about whether there was a recording system in the White House, eventually leading to Richard Nixon's resignation.

Primary Colors is a better book than movie. Thanks to Kurt over at your Daily Gumboot for the recommendation. It's a fascinating read, detailing (fictitiously) Bill Clinton's nomination race. I've submitted a blog piece inspired by the book to my erstwhile editor at the Mainstreet; watch for it soon.

Enjoy.

-B

Liberal insider blogs about Carole James...

... then deletes the page when he's wrong.

Brian Keiran is a Liberal insider-type that many of you will know more about than I do. He has a blog, writing about BC politics and such.

The other day he posted a piece saying that Carole James was likely done by last Sunday, November 21st. Surprise, surprise, she survived a call for a leadership review, with 84% in support of her. That piece that Keiran wrote is now deleted from his site.

Here's the page: http://briankieran.blogspot.com/2010/11/ndp-ghosts-rally-to-james-but-polls.html

Here's the deleted text:

If James makes it to sundown Sunday I will be amazed

by Brian Kieran

NDP leader Carole James has just endured a public flogging by her ex-whip. And, the only person who does seem to get it is James. Her caucus is in full revolt many hours before this weekend’s Provincial Council blood bath is scheduled to begin.

Today caucus whip Katrine Conroy, flanked by three of her socialist sisters including Jenny Kwan, pulled the pin because of James’ bungling purge of dissident Cariboo MLA Bob Simpson.

Conroy (Kootenay West) announced her resignation saying she does not have the support of her leader. This is pretty damning stuff. Conroy’s job as whip for the past five years has been to ride herd on caucus solidarity.

More damning still ... neither Conroy nor her solidarity sisters would offer reporters even faint praise for the ongoing legitimacy of James’ leadership.

This development has all but overwhelmed the impact of James’ endorsement yesterday by a host of NDP ghosts who came out of retirement to support their beleaguered leader.

And, proving that no good deed goes unpunished, a Mustel Group poll released today is chock full of grim foreboding for James.

The poll taken after Premier Gordon Campbell announced his long goodbye has the Liberals at 37 per cent support (up four points since September) and the NDP ahead at 42 per cent, the same level of support they enjoyed in September and when they lost the 2009 election.

In short the NDP is flat lining and has been unable to capitalize on the very public, messy and embarrassing Liberal implosion. To make matters worse, James approval rating has plummeted from 42 to 33 per cent since September and her disapproval rating has jumped nine points to 45 per cent.

This latest poll confirms what other pollsters have been tracking as well. (In my Wednesday posting below I cited similar trending by Angus Reid.)

The list of 16 prominent retired NDP MLAs supporting James’ leadership includes former premier Mike Harcourt and many members of his 1990s cabinet and caucus who were party moderates.

Sadly, their eleventh hour support matters little in the face Conroy’s resignation and polling numbers that suggest James’ leadership credibility is eroding rapidly just when it should be shooting through the roof.

Fun as shit

Here's a phrase that doesn't show up on the Google (but will now):

Kafkaesque as shit

If you haven't already seen xkcd, please go there now and scroll through the comics. The most recent one, referenced above, has given me a new www game: find the adjective phrase ending in "_ as shit" that is more common than the adjective phrase starting with "fucking _" using the same word. On their list, only annoying has more results for "_ as shit". N was confounded, and suggested we find more. So, below are words that are more commonly used on the www before "_ as shit" than after "fucking _":

dumb - 111,000 to 98,700

That's all I found, though I only tried a few other words. Have fun, and let me know.

The Sopranos and Bruce Springsteen

I confirmed this the other day, after telling it to someone then second-guessing myself:

Little Steven, guitar player for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and host of Little Steven's Underground Garage, played Silvio on The Sopranos.

Here he is as Silvio, my favourite character on The Sopranos:

And here he is onstage with Bruce Springsteen:

Possibly the two coolest jobs ever. All due respect.

Language and resistance in the Basque region of Spain

San Sebastian in all its glory.

Last year N. and I spent three weeks in Spain and France, circling the border on trains and sampling food, wine, architecture and sun everywhere we went. It was a gorgeous three weeks, with far too many highlights to mention. It was one gigantic highlight.

After some time in Barcelona, we took the train to San Sebastian, on the Atlantic coast. It's a tourist destination, and the only place we found was a dump of a hostel, but the beach, food and architecture was enough to keep us there for a while.

In the bathroom stall at the public library, I saw this graffiti:

españolitos, go home!

Prime Minister's office response to G20 email

I recently sent an email to Prime Minister Stephen Harper regarding the police action at the G20 summit in Toronto. Below is the email and the response from his office. Thanks to Jared Ferrie for drafting the email.

Dear Mr. Walters:

On behalf of the Prime Minister, thank you for your recent correspondence regarding the conduct of the police forces providing security for the G8 and G20 Summits. Our office has noted your concerns. Our Government takes the allegations which have been raised seriously, and believes that they should be given all due consideration under existing mechanisms for handling complaints regarding police conduct.

Thank you for taking the time to write.

Sincerely,


Susan I. Ross
Assistant to the Prime Minister


>>> From : Brenton Walters brentonwalters@gmail.com Received : 30 Jun 2010 02:26:17 PM >>>

>>> Subject : G20 debacle >>>>

Dear Sirs:

At this point I imagine that I am only one of perhaps millions of Canadians who are shocked and deeply disturbed by reports of possible abuses by police at the G20 summit in Toronto. I would like to add my voice to the growing number of people calling for a public inquiry into police actions during the summit. In particular I am disturbed by:

- The fact that Black Bloc members were allowed to run rampant through the streets of Toronto, smashing windows and even setting fire to police cruisers, despite the presence of police close by.

- The fact that police then apparently allowed Black Bloc members to enter crowds of peaceful protestors, remove their black clothing and blend into the crowds.

- The response by police after the Black Bloc violence to corral peaceful protesters into confined areas where there was no escape.

- The arrests of approximately 900 protestors under the supposed justification of seeking out Black Bloc members (whom police had previously allowed to rampage unhindered and subsequently escape).

- The many testimonies of peaceful protestors who accuse police of abuses, including: unwarranted use of force causing bodily harm; threats of sexual violence; denying medical care to detainees; holding detainees for as many as 13 hours in overcrowded paddy wagons and holding cells; refusing to give detainees access to toilet facilities resulting in some having to urinate where they were being held; turning air conditioning units on high in paddy wagons filled with rain-soaked detainees leading some to experience possible hypothermia; verbal abuse and threats.

- The fact that high ranking police officials and politicians created the impression that there was a law against protestors coming within five metres of the security fence when in fact no such law existed.

In particular, I would like a public inquiry to answer these questions:

- Why did police not prevent members of the Black Bloc from causing property damage? How is it possible that these people were able to cause such damage in downtown Toronto despite a massive police presence?

- Were there undercover police officers involved in Black Bloc activities and if so, how many, and what were they tasked with?

- Were peaceful protestors illigally detained?

- Are police officers guilty of abuse? If so, what penalties will they face?

- Most importantly I would like to know how the money for policing was spent, especially considering the $1 billion set aside for providing security is by far the largest budget of any G20 summit. I am sure I am not alone among Canadians in demanding to know exactly how that extremely high security budget was allocated. And I am sure that most Canadians would like to see their government act responsibly and account for every single dollar of public money that was put towards security at the G20 summit.

Regards,

Brenton Walters
Vancouver, Canada

Stockwell Day, crime rates and the census

Stockwell Day and John Baird: two of the sharpest tools in the shed, I'm sure...

Okay, everyone and their dog is writing about the census kerfuffle. Fair enough. What can I add? Not much, probably, but I'd like to focus on our man in Ottawa, Stockwell Day.

Here's a bit from a CBC story today (try to follow the logic):

Day said the government has received indications that more and more people are not reporting crimes committed against them.

But then his colleague cited census data from 2004 to back up his ridiculous claim:

In a statement to CBC News on Tuesday afternoon, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's office cited Statistics Canada's report of its last general social survey conducted in 2004, which found an estimated 34 per cent of Canadians who are victims of crime still aren't reporting the crime to police.

The statement said Day was "correct in his assertion that many crimes go unreported in Canada" and "[t]he amount of unreported victimization can be substantial."

What? So our buddy Stock says they have new information, but it's actually from 2004? Seems odd. Wait there's more:

He also questioned the value of information gathered by the census, suggesting data older than a year is "untenable in today's information age."

and then he says that information isn't reliable anyway? So was he basing anything on anything? Or was he just trying to scare us and move the Harper tough-on-crime agenda along...

UPDATE:

StatsCan is having none of it (from a Vancouver Sun story):

But Statistics Canada quickly shot down Day's assumption, saying that this data [survey data on unreported crime] cannot be compared to police-reported crime statistics, since it only surveyed eight types of crimes as opposed to the hundreds of crimes investigated by police.

And here is some video from the press conference. He really looks like he struggles with "facts" and "ideas" and "numbers":