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yeah, workload is what the dude said. he said the senate is pretty much just treading water. maybe they should work more, that's what i have to do. but sometimes spreading the work around a little more helps just as much. i don't have an opinion on this, just reporting what i heard. except i agree with canophish that harper is a fuckwad.

i must remember to sit him in my pool....... how long is he out for?

Why won't Koivu be playing?

Nope...still' date=' no rides or buses[/quote'] It was funny the first time.

i heard a Liberal on TV last night saying that for the Senate to work properly, they need more butts in seats, regardless of what party they are. The dude (and I wish I could remember who it was) was saying that the existing Senators were so swamped that any new additions would drastically help get them out from under the massive backlog they face. But that was just one dude. There was another article today about how, on the day after the economic update, the Tories appointed 25 people to patronage appointments.

I'm betting they'll be at Bluesfest in Ottawa.

His back must be really bad if he's snowblowing 4cm of snow. Is it even worth it?

there are other places where they are picketing bouche. like OC Transpo HQ. I'm assuming they're picketing at the garages too. As well as city offices in the outlying areas.

I 'shredded the gnar' at Edelweiss last night. Enjoy!

jakis and i told you about that place in the habs thread. i can't speak for all the streams, but all the ones i've seen have been that good.

there's some sort of hidden track on the cd as well. might be a data track

everyone except mcvie

Booche'd

are you really asking how the provincial auto sector is different than local ottawa arts groups?

If monthly passes are able to be redeemed for credit, I'm just guessing that annual passes can be as well. Call OC Transpo.

Could you elaborate? Pick an Ottawa arts group off the list I posted that the city is paying salary to to keep a job afloat. Maybe there are a few, sure, but I definitely think the majority of the funding in question went to volunteer-run organizations. What's wrong with that? No, it's not fair but it's not an appropriate comparison either. Apples and oranges, again.

what is there to follow? they (union and city) announced at 10:30 that the strike was going ahead.

no, i rent and pay property taxes as part of my rent. and i do right now, and i'm ok with that. snow-clearing / whatever other large cause you want to put in there and cultural funding aren't mutually exclusive. why does everyone focus on bluesfest? there are HUNDREDS of other groups that would have been affected. did you see the list i posted? also, maybe bluesfest does need that hundred grand. in many cases other potential sponsors / 'funders' will only pony up cash once the municipality has. so that hundred grand from the city might bring in a million from other levels of government or private sponsors. for the small community choir that gets 5 grand or something piddly like that, why don't you go tell them that you want to take that away from them? i don't think anyone does. it'd be nice to have a city council (and citizens for that matter) that give a shit about more than the bottom line. tough economic times, when could culture be MORE important??

Ottawa doesn't have it so bad.... jobs - yeah, that sucks. shitty demands from bosses - those will always exist. in oc transpo's case, they're going to strike over those demands. you can't compare chatham and ottawa. apples and oranges. and yeah, people might be pissed about the 4.9%, but i'm not. i didn't speak for everyone. the 4.9% hike isn't to fund arts and culture - there are many many many other factors in there. read up on it. i hate carpooling and most potlucks are heavy on the appetizers and lean on the mains, so fuck that too. not sure where you were going with that point.

that pick up line definitely doesn't work.

Dinghy, you sure aren't an asshole. I think the strike is a tough situation and it's lose lose for either side. But you're definitely not an asshole. I think you're owed an apology.

i don't think it's a shitty situation at all. the arts funding was saved. the city passed the budget with a small tax increase. hopefully the recession kickstarts some infrastructure funding and we can all be happy (until we look at our investments)

you also mentioned tourism and 'this particular festival' which didn't make sense so i thought i'd post the list of what would have been affected. it's not one festival. it's about quality of life. tourism (which I mentioned above just because it's easier to quantify) is the least of it. how many citizens are involved in something off that giant list up above? i'd say a healthy and cultured mind is a basic service. to answer your question though, there are many places where funding is needed, such as infrastructure, child care, health services, etc. but the money needed for those programs is on such a larger scale. cutting the arts to fund a tiny percentage of one of those bigger items would leave a soulless city with some pretty spiffy sewers. fuck that.