Velvet

Awwwwww....

Aw, I was just pulling your chain, as I don't have tix for Albany. I will be at Higher Ground though, where I fully expect to witness a Phish reunion.

In this particular case (meaning Harper) I believe it's akin to how the world looked at the 'mericans in horror when they re-elected W. Bush. I think it's because we feel that it's very easy to see through his bullshit and we find it odd that other seemingly intelligent people are unable to see through it.

Willing to trade for Hampton.

Dave, that's possibly the most beautiful guitar I've seen. Congratulations. I assume you're gonna have to order custom string sets?

Good for you Jake, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. I will point out that this is a dangerous attitude that has been spread by the good folks at ebay. You didn't win the tickets, you bought them. Hell of a marketing strategy making consumers feel like they won the lottery when they buy your product. Buyers remorse will become unheard of.

Denied.

"It was meant to keep "majority" governments from calling elections to suit their popularity. The fact is, the Opposition wasn't acting as the Opposition in this last minority government, continuously voting in favour with the Conservatives." I had no idea that his amendment referred specifically to majority governments. I suppose that must be due to the evil reporters. And I would argue that the Opposition wasn't acting as the New Conservatives wanted them to act. There is no law to my knowledge that dictates how the Opposition is supposed to vote. As for the link to bourque.org, I am truly sorry I don't have time to read the whole page right now and thus would appreciate if you could cut and paste a bit. I found this, which I hope you're not referring to: "Yet, this still-very-active politico tells Bourque he fears a secret deal has been cooked between Dion and Elizabeth May" Utilising that journalistic integrity, I could easily and accurately post that I fear that Harper enjoys an incestous relationship with his children. "Please link me to actual fact-based articles and not opinion pieces in the Toronto Star that claim Harper called artists "rich fat-cats". 45 million cut in a 300 million dollar program has more people outraged then if the same were to happen to the welfare system. Is that right?" I didn't claim that he said artists were rich fat-cats. I claimed that he thinks that, and it's based on a very commonly reported story. What the fiasco does prove is that Harper was very wrong when he indicated that arts funding doesn't resonate with ordinary Canadians. The fallout from his comments proves he was wrong about that. "Please link me to very mis-leading numbers concering the environment" I won't search out the links because work calls, but I'll tell you what I was referring to. While Kyoto and others call for a reduction of emissions based on 1990 (is that the right year?) levels, Harper's reduction numbers are on today's levels, a fact he refuses to say out loud. He makes it sound like he's matching or beating Kyotos numbers, but in actual fact, he's not even touching them. "What campaign rules did he ignore?" The ones on how much you can spend on advertising. No need for us to argue about it while it's still before the courts. "You win on the attack ads. I hate them all. Especially those produced by the NDP with subliminal Hitler references. A new all-time low in campaigning politics..." You missed my point. He rolled out the political ads early so they wouldn't count as election spending. Given that only he knew when he was going to call the election, he was at a great advantage over the other parties on this point. Finally, given that I am contemplating a new career in journalism, I appreciate the encouragement.

I just came back from the polls. I encourage one and all to vote (as the saying goes, vote early and vote often). This country asks very little of it's population, and this is the big request. Democracy works best if everyone votes. For those that think their vote doesn't count: under our fairly new system each vote sends $2 directly to the party voted for, and besides, if you don't vote you make someone elses vote worth double. You don't want to make some stupid-heads vote worth double do you?

On your first point Birdy, from cbc.ca: "Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean to dissolve Parliament on Sept. 7, arguing that his Conservatives were unable to govern because they had reached an impasse with opposition parties. Harper's Conservatives had the longest uninterrupted minority government in Canada's history, with two years and nearly seven months in office." How can Harper accurately say that the New Conservatives were unable to govern when a) the house was on recess, and he was leading the longest running minority in the country's history? And I'll stop you before you argue that he had a meeting with all the leaders to determine his inability to lead. Each and every leader emerged from their meeting with Harper stating that he was determined to hold an election, proving that the meetings were just for show.

To follow up: You say Harper couldn't get anything done because Dion keeps voting with him. What?!? Please explain what Harpers amendment was supposed to do if not limit the PM's ability to call an election when it's deemed advantagous. Please link to the news story about May being bribed. You claim the best way for Canadians to get news is to limit the reporter's access to the PM. Ummm.... Please link to where Dion has said he will name May to his cabinet. Finally, you seemed to have skipped over a point or two: he offered an MP a bribe to vote with him; he said he was ashamed to be Canadian when we didn't follow the USA into Iraq; he throws around very misleading stats related to his 'environmental' plan; he ignored campaign rules last time around; he thinks artists are rich fatcats who neither require nor deserve funding; he started campaigning against Dion with tv attack ads months before the election (I was truly shocked by that); he changed government letterhead from "Government Of Canada" to "The New Government Of Canada" Not surpisingly, you're post reminds me a bit of Harpers campaign.

I'm not sure if you're misinformed or misleading. I'm sorry, but after much deliberation that is the nicest response I can come up with.

Did The Phish show up?

As a follow up: I dismiss the party because Harper leads it. He broke the rules by calling the election; he's being a crybaby for not wanting to be PM if he only has a minority; he eliminated the daily media scrums (like c'mon, how does that help Canada?); he offered an MP a bribe to vote with him; he said he was ashamed to be Canadian when we didn't follow the USA into Iraq; he throws around very misleading stats related to his 'environmental' plan; he ignored campaign rules last time around; he thinks artists are rich fatcats who neither require nor deserve funding; he started campaigning against Dion with tv attack ads months before the election (I was truly shocked by that); he changed government letterhead from "Government Of Canada" to "The New Government Of Canada"; I could go on but I'm tired. Essentially it seems everything he does is for the betterment of the New Conservative Party. If it's better for Canadians, fine, if not he Bushes it up and sadly 39% of voters buy it.

Huh?!? It's all about the name!!! Remember he was the leader of the Canadian Alliance Party. He would have a hard time if his party hadn't changed their name.

Wow, you people are idiots. I mean, I'm shaking my head here.

Unless you're a turkey I suppose, in which case...best of luck to you, your internet savvy should serve you well. I'm off to the family for the feastivities, hope y'all have a good one!

Illegally Tender is a great title, though I can't see it as a band name.

I wish the word "billion" was banned from the media. It's so easy to throw around numbers like 20 million or 20 billion, and in a 30 second news report the average listener could easily confuse the two figures. In fact (of course) 20 million and 20 billion are ridiculously far from being the same. I was thinking about that $800 billion bailout. That's 800 thousand millions. Sounds like a lot more that way, doesn't it? 800 billion. Take $800 (a figure most of us can actually comprehend) and change it to 800 loonies. Spread them around on your driveway. Now think that each one of those loonies is actually $1,000,000. That's an insane amount of money! Now imagine that in 1,000 driveways around town. Why do I feel like Yours Truly all of a sudden?

Ohhh, I like The Ticket Bastards. The best would be when Ticketmaster takes the band to court and sues, publically arguing that their company is well known worldwide as Ticketbastard.

Damn.

If I was at a show that was cancelled after 30 minutes I would probably be thinking "refund". But I'm Canadian so I certainly wouldn't yell it out. What a dick.

As a side note, I think we should be careful to refer to Harper's party as the New Conservatives. After all, that's what they called themselves when they folded the Alliance/Reform and started their new party. This ain't Sir John A. McDonald's party.

Lots of the New Conservatives aren't showing up for the local debates. It's likely they've been told not to.

I only now get that it's Tickets-Now. I keep seeing it as Ticket-Snow. And as for the ticketbastard employee selling tickets thing - I find it hard to believe I've never made friends with a ticketbastard employee. I think they hire non-social people on purpose.