MPs Expenses Need To Be Looked At

You have to wonder why after a whole year of Auditor General Sheila Fraser wanting to look at the MPs expense accounts, they won't budge. Why is that? Could they have something to hide?  Sure doesn't look even if everything is on the up and up. 

You would also think in the aftermath of the scandal that broke across the pond last year involving UK MPs expenses, our MPs would want to be open and transparent and ease the  taxpayers that our money is being spent appropriately.   It's the taxpayers money after all not the MP's. 

This is one issue they seem to be all united on.  Both Minister Nicholson and Mr. Z thinks there's no need to  make expenses public. Why not?  I am really puzzled.  If there's nothing to hide, let Sheila Fraser take a look.  I don't care how they slice it.  How they can justify not releasing the way they spend that money.  It looks bad, really bad.  We taxpayers have the right to know. 

MPs. open those books.  Allow the AG to take a look. CPC MPs, you can be leaders here, what's hindering thee? Opposition MPs, you want all the documents released about the detainee issue, well release your expense documents.  Don't be hypocrites. What's so secret you won't release them? Media, do your job here and hound those MPs like you're hounding for the government to release sensitive information on the Afghan documents and the Rahim/Guergis affair.  This is about taxpayer funds!

This is not like the Afghan detainee issue. There is no national security at risk here.  The only security at risk here is MPs jobs, that's all.   The longer you MPs hold out, the more suspicious and cynical the public will be.  If those expenses are not revealed and  looked at, there will always be questions.

Then they wonder why the public is turned off politics and voter turn out is low.  This is the kind of thing that turns people off along with all the faux scandal outrage that the opposition and the media try and stir up. Go figure!

Nannystate, Trying to Nanny the Children

Can the state not trust parents anymore to choose what they want for their kids? Seems like they creeping in to tell you what you can and cannot feed your children now.  Take the case in the county of Santa Clara in California for instance. They are aiming to ban toys in the Happy Meals. They claim the toys attract children to eat unhealthy food that causes obesity.

 Santa Clara County will soon ban Happy Meal toys and other promotional items that are used to promote sales of high calorie children's meals unless the restaurants meet nutritional guidelines approved by the County Board of Supervisors.
The Board passed the ordinance by a 3 to 2 vote. Ken Yeager, the sponsor of the measure, was cited as saying that the ordinance prevents restaurants from "preying on children's love of toys" to sell unhealthful food.
Opponents like Donald Gage said parents should be responsible for their children who actually don't have the purchasing power.
Dr. Dan Delgado, director of a county program aiming to fight childhood obesity, was cited as saying that toys encourage children to eat unhealthy food which helps cause obesity.
A spokesman for the McDonald's said foods served at the chain restaurant offer many nutrients that children need.
A health observer told foodconsumer.org that one unhealthy meal without an ideal nutrition profile would not do much of any harm.  What may be really detrimental is that you eat junk food
as a habit.

 Then you have in Britain, a two year old gets a cheese sandwich taken from him from nursery school staff because it broke their health eating rules. 

Healthy eating is a priority for any parent – and there are some things we know we’d never feed our children.
But is a cheese sandwich so bad?
Staff at a nursery thought so and they confiscated one from Jack Ormisher – saying it broke their healthy eating rules – and offered their own fruit and veg.
The two-year-old burst into tears and when his father picked him up from the Westfield Children’s Centre, in south Wigan, staff told him Jack’s sandwiches in future should include lettuce or tomato – so they could be classed as a ‘snack’ rather than ‘lunch’. Jack’s mother, Dorothy Gallear, said: ‘It is absolutely pathetic. I don’t understand how putting a piece of lettuce on that sandwich would have turned it into a snack.’
The 32-year-old mother of two has now moved Jack to a different nursery.
‘When I told people at his new nursery what had happened some laughed with shock – but others were horrified,’ she added.
‘A place is still available at Westfield should the parents re-consider,’ said nursery manager Aukje Clegg.

You have in Ontario the McGuinty government wanting to impose  explicit sex education in Ontario schools to students even in the elementary grades.  Thankfully they backed down because of pressure from
parents. It goes to show parents still have power if only exercised.

Then the Federal Ignatieff Liberals want to impose a National Daycare Program that would cost the taxpayer and enormous amount of  money we can't afford plus it doesn't give  parents choice in daycare. They assume parents don't know what is best for how their children are cared for.  When the Harper government brought in the $100 a month child care benefit for children under the age of six to give parents choice, Liberal strategist Scott Reid said that parents would spend that money on "beer and popcorn."     It's clear they don't trust parents to know what's best.

The state seems like it doesn't know where it's boundaries are.  The nanny state is going a little to far in my opinion. The state needs to stay far away from parents and their children. Only the parents know what's best for their children not the state. It 's the parents responsibility to raise their kids the way they see fit.

Parents don't let the state raise your children  Protect your children.  Take charge, stand up and don't allow the state to encroach into your territory.  Tell them no means no.

No need to be afraid. The state should fear the people  not the people  fearing the state.  If the people don't stand up, the state will eventually control every fascist of our lives. How does that sound?

Enough is enough! Time to get the state out of our children's lives and our lives.

Hockey Stick Climate Scientist Sues Satirical Video Creators

Climate scientist, Michael Mann needs to lighten up a bit. He's been one of those global warming alarmist so called scientists who is best known for his "Hockey Stick" graph. Apparently he's not taking a satirical video that was created with him in it very well. Mann is not happy that his image was used. He's sueing the makers of a satirical video that's been pretty popular on YouTube. "Hide the Decline" a parody of "Tommy James and the Shondells, Dragging the Line"

The Penn State climate professor who has silently endured investigations, hostile questioning, legislative probes and attacks by colleagues has finally spoken out. He says he'll sue the makers of a satirical video that's a hit on You Tube.

Their response: Bring it on.

Michael Mann, one of the central figures in the recent climate-data scandal, is best known for his "hockey stick graph," which was the key visual aid in explaining how the world is warming at an alarming rate and in connecting the rise to the increase in use of carbon fuels in this century. E-mails stolen from a university in England were released online, revealing exchanges between climatologists and a reference to a "trick" that Mann had used to get the graph to portray what global warming scientists wanted to see.

The video is pretty funny and there's nothing in it that isn't true. Unlike those who were a part of so called IPCC consensus that created the global warming hoax. I think it's pretty cute actually. Thankfully it's been exposed and more and more people are turning their backs on the whole cabal. It was just a scheme for wealth distribution anyway. I just wished now governments would turn their backs on this farce and deal with real environmental issues like real pollutants in the air(nitric oxide,sulfur dioxide etc), clean water and soil.



Related: Citizen’s Group Plans Extensive Audit of U.N. Climate Report

No One Wins with Yesterday's Ruling

Speaker Milliken  took the mushy middle route yesterday in his ruling concerning the release of documents on the Afghan detainees.  He basically threw it back at the government and parliament to sort things out and gave them a deadline of two weeks. 

I think his ruling was wrong.  We are not living in normal times. We are at war. Our national security is at risk and the safety of our troops should trump any release of documents.

Can we really trust opposition MPs to keep secret whatever they may see in those documents?  I think not.  This is a highly partisan parliament right now and I think what you are seeing with all the antics that the opposition parties have been engaged in the last  4 years  with all the faux scandals is to try and make the government look bad and score some political points. I believe they would "leak"  any information to the media in a heart beat even sensitive information would put our brave men and women in uniform in greater harm than they already are.  

The Bloc?  Give them access to secret documents?  Wouldn't that set a dangerous precedent? 

The media in my opinion because of their bias against the Conservatives would do anything and everything to torque headlines (because that's what most pay attention to) and spin to make the government look bad  no matter what. 

Furthermore, do Canadians really care about  the treatment of Afghan detainees?  I think they care more about jobs, the mounting deficit and debt, health care, pensions, etc. You know the everyday bread and butter issues rather than detainees that burn down  schools, throw acid in the faces of schoolgirls, and plant road side bombs that kill our brave Canadian soldiers.

This has been  a political ploy that at the end of the day really benefits no one.  Rather sad if you ask me.

Give Frank Graves the Boot

That 's what the Montreal Gazette is telling CBC to do with their main pollster after last weeks outing of him for his bias and giving the Liberals advice by invoking a culture war to win back government. Conservative spokesman, Kory Teneckye successfully outed the pollster for his liberal leanings and bias.

Ekos Research president Frank Graves, the pollster used regularly by the CBC, is also a close advisor to the Liberal Party of Canada. This appears to violate a CBC policy but we're a little more concerned, frankly, with the advice Graves is giving the Liberals.

Last week Graves was quoted by Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin as saying that he told the Liberals "that they should invoke a culture war. Cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, secularism versus moralism, Obama versus Palin, tolerance versus racism and homophobia, democracy versus autocracy. If the cranky old men in Alberta don't like it, too bad. Go south and vote for Palin."
To his credit Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has not endorsed this approach, and now that Graves has spilled the beans we imagine the Liberals will want to distance themselves from him. But imagine the fuss if some Conservative pollster had been quoted the same way. We can envision the CBC's breathless reports about "secret Conservative plotting to divide Canadians," etc. etc.
The CBC should invite Graves to take his advice south, or anywhere far away

I agree with the Gazette that CBC should fire Mr. Graves but I disagree with them that Mr. Z hasn't endorsed Graves advice. He has already invoked "a culture war" pitting Canadian against Canadian, region against region with bring up the abortion issue, cracking down on his caucus on voting against scrapping the long gun registry, all Supreme Court Justices should be fully bilingual, etc.

Tabloid Jane now accuses the Conservatives with "waging a culture war" against the CBC.

The Conservatives are mounting their own version of a “culture war” as they take on the CBC over allegations of Liberal bias at the taxpayer-subsidized network. And it’s getting vicious.

Ooooh, those nasty Conservatives! Gee, go figure! The Conservatives just want the CBC and their pollster held accountable seeing that we pay for the darn Crown Corporation and rightly so, there should be questions asked. I WANT CBC GONE! But that's Tabloid Giggles Jane Taber for ya! I think the Globe should move her to the entertainment section and CTV should move her to ETalk. Better fit.