Adam's Ideas

The people behind the popular Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament have evolved into a greater goal of getting more Canadians engaged in politics.

Introducing Canadians Advocating Political Participation:

This post exists because I saw the following video from the G20 gathering in Pittsburgh. It shows an unmarked vehicle take somebody off the streets and shoved into a car without any notice as to why the individual was kidnapped by people in military uniform – not police.

New-ish tactics used by the police force are a great way to use force to contain people without leaving evidence of what they did.

From the Guardian’s article on the use of the sonic cannon:

Sonic weapons or long-range acoustic devices have been used by the US military overseas, notably against Somali pirates and Iraqi insurgents.

But US security forces turned the piercing sound on their own citizens yesterday to widespread outrage. Pittsburgh officials told the New York Times that it was the first time “sound cannon” had been used publicly.

[Warning: the video below contains very loud audio from the start]

BoingBoing has even more on the sound cannon:

Click here to see more footage from the BBC on police intervention and peaceful protesting.

Well, looks like Canada has joined other “developed” countries by joining in the collective effort to tap into our internet connections without a warrant. Thank goodness! All this freedom I’ve had to explore the internet without someone watching me was getting me worried.

It’s a good thing those incompetent fools running Ottawa are, oh forget it. Can anybody out there inform me of a good thing that Harper and his motley crue have done? Swearing at Toronto doesn’t count, rest of Canada.

I was looking into Teksavvy the other day to switch away from stupid Rogers. Sadly the CRTC seems to want to make it so I have the wonderful choices of Bell or Rogers (hope you can read the sarcasm there). Anyway, make sure your voice is heard by the CRTC and tell them you don’t like how Bell is throttling internet speeds for their competitors. As in, Bell makes it so any other company using their fiber is penalized and this is wrong.

In March 2008 Bell started throttling its Wholesale Customers (TekSavvy among a group of many) without notice. We attempted to have the CRTC force Bell to stop as it removed our ability to do business and give Market choice. The throttling was done in the name of congestion, even if Bell, at the same time launched higher speeds (which they did not share with their wholesalers) and also dabbled with launching IPTV, which consumes even more capacity.

The CRTC sided with Bell in November 2008 but launched a Public Hearing to discuss Network Management Practices, clearly showing they made a decision on throttling without having all the details in hand to do so. As a result we launched a request to reverse their decision from November (The Review & Vary) in May 2009.

The only way we are going to make a difference at this point is to get full public support to stop companies like Bell from bullying the market and the regulators! The Telecom and Cableco Monopolies control 96% of our marketplace, so if we don't stand up and voice our concerns, this will become a two party dance where choices and services are going to be completely removed and rates raised to unreasonable levels!

Here are the details on how to submit your comments:

1) Go to: http://support.crtc.gc.ca/crtcsubmissionmu/forms/Telecom.aspx?lang=e
2) Select "Part VII / PN" from the drop down list and then click Next
3) In box entitled "Subject" line, insert "CRTC File #: 8662-P8-200907727"
4) In the box entitled "Description / Comments / Questions", insert any comments that you may have on the review and vary application.
5) If you would like to attach a document, select "yes" and follow the instructions for attaching a file. As indicated in the Title, I believe the deadline is June 22nd, so don't wait to long PS – R&V details here.

Via Boing

So Obama won, good.

What is he going to do now? He’s now faced with running an empire that can’t repair itself and all the nation’s people support the very system that has brought them such harm. What can Obama do?

For the record, this is just me tossing out some unfinished thoughts.

If Obama ever ran in Canada I would not vote for him. He is pro death penalty while admitting it is not a deterrent to crime. He is an isolationist. He is on top of that everything to everybody (except fascist McCain supporters) – and that’s another problem.

He won’t be able to please the people who voted for him because nobody knows what he truly stands for. At least I don’t as a Canadian.

He can’t (or won’t) change a system that he openly supports.

Obama oh noes…..

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