357,700 Can't be Wrong

Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement overturned the CRTC's decision to allow large Canadian ISPs (Bell and Rogers) to start using Usage Based Billing.

While this is good news, I'm still watching and waiting to see what actually happens. I've seen governments flip-flop on shit before.

Konrad von Finckenstein, Chair of the  CRTC, is scheduled to explain the decision Thursday before the House of Commons industry committee. I hope he gets hung out to dry. Come on: How was this NOT an obvious cash grab by a large telecom company? (Bell is responsible for the instigation of the CRTC review). Maybe the whole board should be brought out for this. Replace all of the them with business people, engineers, and others that aren't in any way beholden to the telecom industry......

Yeah, right.

Mr. Clements decision  was prompted by thousands of emails he received and a petition started by OpenMedia that had, at my last check, 357,700 people signed on.

The most impressive thing about all of this is the fact that the Conservative Government actually decided to listen to the will of the people. The NDP and the Liberals are already on board for it. So if the CRTC doesn't backtrack and try something else, this could end up with some legislation.

Now lets see if we can get them to do something about our damn cell phone bills. :)

If you haven't yet, go sign the petition. Lets make a BIG push that Mr. Clement and the CRTC will never forget.

In the news: My thoughts

Heres some of my thoughts about some things that have recently been in the news:

 Jean-Claude Duvalier, former Dictator of Haiti, is arrested in Haiti two days after he arrives in the country. Charged with Corruption and Embezzlement. Come on people, who didn't see this coming. He was a dictator for 15 years that cared more about his personal pleasures than his people. I can't beleive i've seen pictures of supporters of this man!

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is in the news again. Apparently it was a 17 year old this time. They both deny it, but I'm not sure I would believe anything that comes out of  Berlusconi's mouth regarding anything that has to do with women. After all the gaffes and his displays of poor taste, he really should be replaced as his party leader
 
Gabrielle Giffords to be moved from hospital to rehab facility. I'm glad she survived, and hope she gets to return to her chosen occupation. Best of luck to her. Maybe the violent rhetoric (I'm looking at you Palin.) in the states will cool of a bit for a while. (On a side note: Blood libel, Sarah? Are you TRYING to find ways to be massively offensive?)

Austrian authorities are searching for a bank robber who uses a Barack Obama mask during his holdups. Lets face it: This is just Fucking bizarre. Please put the gun down, Mr. President. 

A little closer to home for me: British Colombia meat plant covers up positive E. coli test. Why the fuck would you cover this up? People could have been killed! Fuckers! Putting your own interests before the safety of the people? They could be members of the Republican party!

Wikipedia turns 10! Here is hoping for another 10 years. I'm addicted to the little blue links. Look something up and end up somewhere totally different from where you started. It's an adventure!

For the record, I avoided Fox news like the plague while reading stories, as i have found that their news tends to be highly biased and sometimes downright false or misleading.

Thats all I have for today. Sorry about the long pause, Christmas time and then a panicked couple of weeks at work.

Canadian climate change and American politics

I was reading a couple of articles about the effect the Republican Party with have on climate change legislation in the U.S. and I realized something: they are going to have a profound impact on Canadian climate legislation.

The reason for this is that the Conservative government has decided not to take a stand on climate change on its own. It has instead decided to "follow the lead of the American government". I'm not sure why this is the case. We don’t base our social or military programs around the American policies, why climate change?

Before I go any farther I will out myself: Politically I sit centre-left, so i fully support climate change legislation. Back to work, then.

The problems lies in that a large portion of the Republican Party are climate change deniers or, alternatively believe that we don’t contribute as much as most scientists (read: Ph.D. level climatologists) say we do. The recent mid-terms in the U.S. have left them with the ability to filibuster climate change legislation (or any legislation, for that matter) in the senate, and down-right kill it in the House of Representatives.

This leaves Canada in a position where we will be in one of two positions:
1) Having no meaningful climate change policy
2) Repealing any legislation (what little there is) already in place because we are "following the lead" of our southern neighbor.

I don’t think number two will actually happen (not very soon anyways), but it’s a very real possibility (in my mind) if conservatives in the states win many more seats (and the Canadian government sticks with its current policy). The Canadian Government needs to stand up and make a policy decision of its own. They shouldn’t look to others for policy decisions. They should do what democracy is supposed to have them do: Legislate according to the will of the electorate.

Feel free to disagree with me, but trolls and flamer posts will be deleted.

Edit: Here are two of the articles that got me thinking:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/885484--alberta-s-dirty-oil-image-cleaned-by-u-s-midterms
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/24/tea-party-climate-change-deniers