Mostly with you. I feel CBC TV still needs to present hockey. Not sure why I do, just do. And our comedy heritage is in sketch comedy, and the CBC is the only place supporting that. If there were no CBC TV anymore, I wouldn't actually be upset. It's non-essential, especially considering most of the programming these days is indistinguishable from other channels -- Rick Mercer being one of the exceptions, but captured under sketch comedy.

But man, Canada without CBC Radio would be a whole different country. Just about everything there is a precious gem -- As it Happens, Wiretap, DNTO, Tapestry, Vinyl Cafe, Writers and Company, and old shows like Morningside, Richardson's Roundup (Sad Goat), and The Inside Track. It's also the only source of serious criticism of the government from people who are not just talk radio blowhards.

If for no other reason, Canada needs to have at least one broadcaster less unbalanced than the others towards corporate interests. Without that balance, the other broadcasters have no check.>> ^jmzero:
I think the CBC needs changes. It should produce educational content, children's programming, news and nothing else. There's no reason it should compete to show sports and general entertainment.
Especially the latter.
It has demonstrated a tremendous lack of skill in making the kinds of entertainment programs Canadians want to watch, despite aiming pretty low. Why, as a taxpayer, should I be paying for sub-par sitcoms and reality shows?
A public, independent news network without ads? Good purchase. Rick Mercer? He's great, but I think he'd get the ratings to survive elsewhere.
A few more daytime cooking shows - and still pressure from advertisers? Doesn't sound like a good use of taxpayer money.

@GenjiKilpatrick, so more or less the same thing I said to Yogi applies to you. You're focusing in on things you're mad at Democrats for (again, mostly in foreign policy), and then pretending that this means the two parties are equivalent. They ain't.

Now I do agree with you that there's a pretty fucking rigged system in place, and I'd love to fix it.

So...how do we fix it? @Yogi, you have some idea? I'm all ears.

All I'm saying is that even in the current system, there are still reasons to participate in elections and to generally support Democrats.

You're blaming Democrats largely for not having cleaned up the worst messes created by Republicans (targeted killing programs, gitmo, warrantless wiretapping, and the Bush Tax cuts, just to name a few). I'm annoyed about that too, but that doesn't mean there aren't consequences to letting Republicans have the reigns again.

I mean, have you watched any of the Republican Presidential debates? You really should. Those guys have a whole new list of disasters they want to inflict on us.

@NetRunner

How bout you just admit that "democrat" and "republican" are both bullshit titles that don't convey any real meaning.

Obama ordered the assassination of a U.S. Citizen WITHOUT A TRIAL OR CHARGES, even.

Doesn't that strike at the very core of all your democratic rule of law, Dems are marginally, if not unequivocally, better than Repubs malarkey?

You've already lost this disagreement.
When Obama failed to close Gitmo and expanded rendition, you lost.
When Obama continued and expanded warrant-less wiretapping, you lost.
When Obama extended the Trillion Bush Tax Cuts for the 1%, you lost.

The individuals who assume the title "Democrat" might have more liberal leaning mindsets, might have flexible acceptance of different groups, might have a more progressive focus for the future of their communities.

That doesn't change the fact that the system in which they work.. is rigged.
The outcome is predetermined.

Chris Hedges said it best. "There's no way to vote against the banks."

Bankers, speculators and usurers rule the modern world.

Their fiat currency, derivative trading, two-party election rigging world will be the only with any relevance as long as pig-monkeys like @NetRunner and @quantumushroom buy into their wholesale bullshit and let it be.

Cut free. Establish your own voluntary hive-mind. Occupy the Universe.
[there's enough space for all of us. trust me]

I bet the cops have a serious hard-on for this guy. If a recording device is part of your body, do wiretap laws still apply?

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM1hJ_T7hzM&feature=related

Notice the pen he waves at the beginning of the clip -- when Hugh Grant wiretapped him, he used a pen taperecorder. This guy is sly and he clearly is seriously pissed at Grant.

If nothing else, watch the last three minutes of Part 2 so you can fully appreciate the look on the interviewer's face at the end. I dare say he was gobsmacked at how that interview went.

@marbles

Thanks for sharing your sources with us, I have not followed details of Syria's events, but I can respond to the articles about Iran.

Re: US trains activists to evade security forces
Offering tools that circumvent government censorship firewalls, is not instigation. Iran's government has strict rules for ISPs to share information with the government, much like the warrantless wiretapping in US. If HTTPS circumvents the wiretapping, then is IETF instigating revolution in US?

Re: 'US trains Jundullah members'
Jundullah is a terrorist group, has nothing to do with peaceful protests and civil movements in Iran.

Re: 'has intelligence agents working in Iran'
Duh, of course and Iran has intelligence working in US. Is the Wisconsin labour movement instigated by Iran? http://www.presstv.com/detail/168937.html

Re: Kissinger threatens regime change in Iran if coup fails
Kissinger said that if the government is NOT democratic, then US would work for regime change. US is doing that right now with the global sanctions on Iran. You can't take his words and say that the millions that protested after the election were all tricked by US propaganda and spies!

Re: Proof: Israeli Effort to Destabilize Iran Via Twitter #IranElection
Online activities such as twitter and facebook are reports of what's going on, not the actual events. People went to the streets and protested, they were shot, killed and prisoned. You need to look at the number of people that risked their lives to measure their force and influence, not twittes!

Re: Iranian Unrest: Evidence Of Western Intelligence Meddling
"CIA/Mossad flooding Iranians with contradicting SMS messages"
I never hear of any broadcast SMS messages in support of the protestors. Government did send threatening SMS messages to discourage people from going to protests. People SMSed each other, but that way you know the person that SMSed you. If I get a SMS from a number I don't recognize, I would just ignore it, but if my friend tells me something, then I would listen!

This is exactly how it happen (eye witness report), after they announced that Ahmadinejad won the election, it was late in the evening, people were in disbelieve, they walked out of their houses and talked with neighbors, once they saw that all around them were Mousavi supporters and no one that was cheering Ahmadinejad's victory. If Ahmadinejad has majority support in their riding, as the polling stations had reported, then where are those supporters? After that evening people knew that they has cheated, from talking to neighbors face to face, and NOT from a twitter fed for god's sake. The west learned about it from twitter, not people inside Iran!

Re: Iran busts another CIA network
Iran's government labels any dissenters as US backed agents or drug dealers. Are the people working to free Bradley Manning agents of foreign governments? Now the hard liners in Iran are accusing Ahmadinejad of initiating negotiations with US and are calling for his impeachment. US is the boogyman used to justify any action that the regime wants to take. Like the "terrorist" threat in america, used to take away people's freedoms, its not REAL!

Re: Soros, the CIA, Mossad and the new media destabilization of Iran
This article is a rehash of the previous ones, no new points here.

Just because governments are spreading propaganda against each other, it doesn't mean that the civil movements inside those countries are made up of manipulated and instigated people!
US caught off-guard by Iran sanctions
Iran to sue US over human rights abuse

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all
From Article:
'When President Barack Obama took office, in 2009, he championed the cause of government transparency, and spoke admiringly of whistle-blowers, whom he described as “often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government.” But the Obama Administration has pursued leak prosecutions with a surprising relentlessness. Including the Drake case, it has been using the Espionage Act to press criminal charges in five alleged instances of national-security leaks—more such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous Administrations combined. The Drake case is one of two that Obama’s Justice Department has carried over from the Bush years.

Gabriel Schoenfeld, a conservative political scientist at the Hudson Institute, who, in his book “Necessary Secrets” (2010), argues for more stringent protection of classified information, says, “Ironically, Obama has presided over the most draconian crackdown on leaks in our history—even more so than Nixon.”
...
Mark Klein, the former A.T. & T. employee who exposed the telecom-company wiretaps, is also dismayed by the Drake case. “I think it’s outrageous,” he says. “The Bush people have been let off. The telecom companies got immunity. The only people Obama has prosecuted are the whistle-blowers.” '

Thanks for the quality! And you're spot on.

In reply to this comment by radx:
Hah, I was just about to submit this as well. *quality Obama, right here.

Pfc Manning has not been tried nor convicted, yet the CINC, who taught constitutional law, publicly declares him guilty. That's delicious.

To claim that you "don’t let individuals make their own decisions about how the laws operate" after he decided not to prosecute Bush for all the shit, CIA officials for destroying their torture tapes, the telecoms for illegal wiretapping, etc ... that's delicious as well.

And no, the Ellsberg papers were not classified the same way as the ones Pfc Manning allegedly leaked: they were top secret, Manning's were "just" classified.

Hah, I was just about to submit this as well. *quality Obama, right here.

Pfc Manning has not been tried nor convicted, yet the CINC, who taught constitutional law, publicly declares him guilty. That's delicious.

To claim that you "don’t let individuals make their own decisions about how the laws operate" after he decided not to prosecute Bush for all the shit, CIA officials for destroying their torture tapes, the telecoms for illegal wiretapping, etc ... that's delicious as well.

And no, the Ellsberg papers were not classified the same way as the ones Pfc Manning allegedly leaked: they were top secret, Manning's were "just" classified.

I've reached the point where the very fact that he says he rejects this plan, makes me very nervous. Virtually everything he's ever promised, he's done a 180 on. Amnesty for telecoms and warrentless wiretaps...Guantanamo Bay...the public option...standing up with unions...state secrets...DOMA. The list goes on and on. In every case, his actions utterly refuted his promises.

The only positive thing I can say for him is, he's still better than McCain. But not by much.

Obama is conservative as fuck. He's worse then Bush.

"Fact" and opinion. Both wrong.

More warrantless wiretapping.

Same if not a minor decrease in torture.

Sold us out to Big Pharma Banks & Military Complex.

For fuck sake, he cutting community organization budgets and heating assistance for low income groups.

Just proves my point about the leftmedia. If they'd done their job you would've known he'd turn out this way. It's too bad this Obamian "conservatism" you speak of stops well before low taxes, free markets and the rule of law. And not bowing like a serf to foreign kings and the mayor of Tampa, Florida for fk's sake.

What the fuck else do you want to happen to prove that Obama is in no way liberal or progressive or whatever pejorative label you have for left leaning ideology?

How bout that whole POS unaffordable socialized medicine scheme 26 states have now filed lawsuits against? Remember that? Remember the failed scamulus? TARP? Bailouts? And yes Bush is also to blame, but only for starting crap that a "conservative" Obama would've tried to stop. But as we all know, NO ONE outspends taxocrats and by gosh, they'll prove it! Ever stop and wonder why crony capitalism looks so much like socialism?

The entirety of United States politics has shifted more and more to this crazy neo-conservative free-market less government-but-we-still-want-govern-who-you-marry-&-force-you-to-have-babies mentality since 2000.

Really? Abortion is still legal. Civil unions are recognized by many states. Government is an ever-bigger gorilla with a machine gun. Taxes will go up and the 'crats know it: "someone" has to pay for all this indolence and the 50-fucking-percent of Americans who pay NO federal income tax but suck up plenty of government entitlements.

The entire world is owned my wealthy bankers and war profiteers. They all favor the "conservative" mentality you hold because it makes them more money.

Wrong and wrong. You're prejudiced against the wealthy because you believe that life is a zero-sum game. In other words, someone has to "lose" at economics so someone else can "win". You believe that life is a lottery and those who have money have simply been "fortunate" without doing anything to earn it. If the liberal phantasy of giving everyone an equal share of $$$ (by force) were to come true, as long as markets were allowed to work, by the end of the week the poor would be poor again. You've been brainwashed by 12 years of government schooling followed by indoctrination at 'kollij'. Where do you think all those otherwise unemployable 1960s marxist dinosaurs are hiding from reality? The universities. No one busting their ass in the real world to survive only to hand over 40% to the federal mafia believes this BS. Yeah, life is unfair and freedom is hard. And BTW, no, I am not rich, and I don't believe I have a "right" to plunder my neighbor's wealth.

You're too narrow-minded and indoctrinated to understand that.

I hope you don't have kids. I would feel sorry for them.


You undermine your "devastating" talking points with personal attacks. I would hope you own a library card. And use it.

p.s. - Obama is Political Science Major who taught Constitutional Law.

Palin majored in journalism.. yet can't name any newpaper or magazine she reads regularly.

The "scholar" who doesn't understand America and is a total ingrate for the opportunities he received, now reviled as a clueless idiot by all except the diehards and the leftmedia VERSUS the "dumb" beauty queen who loves America and recognizes American Exceptionalism, and thus so terrifies the left they're still attacking her.

Now you can continue your point about who is more qualified as a president.

It's done. I would vote for this over the dangerous crypto-marxist who believes in unlimited federal power.

Again. You're dumb. Stop it.

Obama is conservative as fuck. He's worse then Bush.
More warrantless wiretapping.
Same if not a minor decrease in torture.
Sold us out to Big Pharma Banks & Military Complex.
For fuck sake, he cutting community organization budgets and heating assistance for low income groups.

What the fuck else do you want to happen to prove that Obama is in no way liberal or progressive or whatever pejorative label you have for left leaning ideology?


The entirety of United States politics has shifted more and more to this crazy neo-conservative free-market less government-but-we-still-want-govern-who-you-marry-&-force-you-to-have-babies mentality since 2000.

The entire world is owned my wealthy bankers and war profiteers. They all favor the "conservative" mentality you hold because it makes them more money.

You're too narrow-minded and indoctrinated to understand that.
I hope you don't have kids. I would feel sorry for them.

p.s. - Obama is Political Science Major who taught Constitutional Law.

Palin majored in journalism.. yet can't name any newpaper or magazine she reads regularly.

Now you can continue your point about who is more qualified as a president.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Have they heard of The Kenyan?
It's impossible to outfail the leftist-media-elected idiot in the White House now.
Double birds, Kenyan voters.

>> ^kronosposeidon:

Funny how NO one was talking about government at all, but now that you mention it, @NetRunner, @dystopianfuturetoday and I are proposing legislation to carefully monitor the caloric intake of every single American. If your intake is too high, we starve you; if it's too low, we force feed you. And we'll force feed you Muslim food, and take away your Christian food. And then we'll all be forcibly relocated to Kenya Indonesia.



Well? Isn't the left's answer to everything MOAR BIGGER GOVERNMENT? After all, the herd has to be ruled by a cabal of powerful geniuses who knows what's best for everyone. And isn't obamacare the PERFECT license to rule? Now you can withold medical care when a citizen chooses to live an unhealthy lifestyle.


Funny how you didn't mind the tyranny of the Bush regime when he presided over the biggest expansion of government in US history, but when someone tries to make sure that no one has to die for lack of insurance then suddenly it's tyranny. I've noticed as of late you've picked up blankfist's "statist" lingo, but you didn't mind it when Bush authorized the state to wiretap without warrants.


The Right was angry then and is still pi$$ed off now at fakeservative Bush's spending sprees (a drop in the bucket compared to the next guy). I wish the left took the threat of radical islam as seriously as those wiretaps, continued under His Earness.

Funny how NO one was talking about government at all, but now that you mention it, @NetRunner, @dystopianfuturetoday and I are proposing legislation to carefully monitor the caloric intake of every single American. If your intake is too high, we starve you; if it's too low, we force feed you. And we'll force feed you Muslim food, and take away your Christian food. And then we'll all be forcibly relocated to Kenya Indonesia.

Funny how you didn't mind the tyranny of the Bush regime when he presided over the biggest expansion of government in US history, but when someone tries to make sure that no one has to die for lack of insurance then suddenly it's tyranny. I've noticed as of late you've picked up blankfist's "statist" lingo, but you didn't mind it when Bush authorized the state to wiretap without warrants.

QM <3 the (Republican) state>> ^quantumushroom:

Real freedom means people have the right to ruin their lives, and many do.
The tyrannical nanny-state alternative is far worse.

I doubt he actually believes that -- I think he is forestalling the argument that some believe we ARE safer. That's just my guess though.


>> ^entr0py:

I'm really surprised Ron Paul actually thinks that policies like the patriot act make us safer, even if he thinks it's not worth it. Policies like warrantless wiretapping, extraordinary rendition, water torture and unlimited "detention" without trial have only made us into villains. Much of the world's outrage at our behavior is justified, and some of that rage will translate into further attacks.