Well, the Ontario government is at it again.

 

Apparently, nobody in the world is buying silly little things like lumber, copper, gold, zinc, paper, and whatever else you can rip out of the ground in northern Ontario.

 

I know, I know. Prices for all of those commodities are at all-time highs lately, so I'm talking out of my ass again. Well apparently, the McGuinty government is having trouble attracting businesses to extract those resources. Check out this welfare:

 

-$220 million over the next 3 years has been allocated to build roads into pristine woodland, so the logging companies can reach all of those fat, juicy trees. Of course, they don't want to build their own private roads, so they get joe taxpayer to do it for them. Thanks for that, by the way. I love payint to build roads that I can go to jail for using.

 

-A 14% reduction in electricity costs to paper mills operating in northern Ontario. In total, this will work out to approximately $140 million PER YEAR. Of course, this rebate is only available to large corporations who clearcut huge swaths of pristine forest. Us mere mortals get... you guessed it... rate hikes.

 

-$350 million in garenteed loans to the forestry industry. These were announced in 2005.

 

That adds up to $710 million dollars in free money to corporations who already pay less tax than the citizens, and don't even sell their products in Canada. I tell you, nothing makes me feel better than seeing my favorite fishing hole poisoned with mercury so some hillbilly in Kentucky can have his 2-ply.

 

Not only that, but the government actually has the NERVE to cut the Ministry of Natural Resources budget by a whopping 40%. So let me ask you, who exactly is going to prevent these corporate leeches from clearcutting everything north of Timmins and poisoning the water? For Christ's sake, as things stand now, they can't even stop the rampand poaching, let alone police the corporations.

 

I don't normally ask my readers to participate in "causes", but I think this is worth doing something.

 

You can start by visiting this website and signing their petition. Then, you can email our Minister of Natural Resources at d.ramsay.mpp.kirklandlake@liberal.ola.org or Premier McGuinty at dmcguinty.mpp@liberal.ola.org

 

But don't just say you are opposed to this corporate cash grab, that's too predictible. Tell them you are a corporate lobbyist with a suitcase full of money and you want to screw the citizens of Ontario. They seem to respond well to that.

OK so here it is, 1 day after the US midterm elections.

 

And they aren't even done counting the votes yet. So much for the "high-tech" solution, eh?

 

But the big story isn't the Democratic upset in Congress. It isn't even the (still undetermined) fate of the senate.

 

No, the big story of the day is in who lost their job.

 

Yes, it's true. Donald Rumsfeld was booted today.

 

Now, I think everybody knew deep down that they were going to sack Rumsfeld. It's been building momentum in the media for several weeks now. But what surprises me is that Bush didn't even try to use him as a bargaining chip. Instead, I guess the secret service dragged Rumsfeld out of bed this morning, drove him over to the White House, and George said "pack your bags, Don."

 

But this is the reality check.

 

This will change nothing in Iraq, which was ultimately the deciding factor in many of these races. Apparently, the name being tossed around as Rumsfeld's replacement is former head of the CIA, Robert Gates. In other words, Bush has fired one suit with no actual military experience, and has chosen another suit with no military experience to replace him.

 

Why am I suddenly glad I'm not wearing a uniform?

 

But the Gates story gets even better. Gates was investigated for his involvement in the Iran Contra affair. He purjured himself, having deliberately lied to the independant council about his knowlege of the affair. Unfortunately, the IC could never prove the lie was intentional, and they had to let him go.

 

But anyway, back to Iraq, so to speak.

 

Don't look to the Democrats to pull the troops out of Iraq, either. It was the Democrats who first proposed the idea of a draft. If anything, they will be looking to send EVEN MORE troops to the middle east.

 

"Well what about pork?" you might ask.

 

What about it? You didn't think one dirty, thieving politician was going to stop another dirty, thieving politician from being a dirty thieving politician, did you? You need to abandon that idea RIGHT NOW. With the Democrats in control of Congress, about the only thing they really have control over is the purse strings. But will they stop the Republicans from lining their own pockets? HELL NO. Instead, they will blackmail Bush. They will say "Pass this bill with all of our pork barrel ryders intact, or we won't fund your pork barrel ryders.

 

"But won't they impeach Bush?"

 

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Even if Congress bring articles of impeachment to the Senate, the Democrats would need 60% of the votes to convict. They have 50%. And as if that weren't enough, the presiding judge would be Chief Justice Roberts. There is no way Roberts is going to do anything to crucify the guy who appointed him.

 

"But things will get better in 2008, right?"

 

No. Things have been set in motion that cannot be stopped. If the US doesn't press on in the middle east, there's a 3-million-strong Chinese army who will.

 

And things just get darker from there.

 

Enjoy your "victory" while it lasts.

 

Apparently, the Northwest passage is not Canadian territory. At least according to Washington.

 

Of course, this argument keeps coming up again and again because the Americans think there *might* be oil under there. And of course, it's entirely possible there is. But since Washington has no legitimate way to make a claim on the passage, they just say "Oh, well it's international waters." Of course, that's what they always say, until we start treating it like international waters and allowing Russian subs to traverse the passage, then the tune changes. Then, it's "Why aren't you defending the passage?"

 

Well, we don't have unlimited deficit spending to support insane naval purchases like the $700 million DD(X) destroyer. We only have a few icebreakers, and if that passage isn't ours, then we need them elsewhere. You know...in our territory.

 

I may not agree with a lot of Harper's policies, but his intention to start arming our icebreakers is one of the ones I do support. Now, give them the authority to fire on trespassers in our territorial waters, and maybe we can finally make some progress.