Kelly: The weaker candidate in 2012 won't be the Republican nominee.

Via Real Clear Politics:

Netanyahu can't run for president of the United States. But he showed those who are running how to get the better of Mr. Obama: Talk straight. Talk substance. Go directly at him.

McKitrick: Ontario's Green Energy Act a failure

via the Financial Post:

The pledge by Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak to roll back key provisions of the Ontario Green Energy Act is a courageous move and deserves to be applauded. It will likely spark intense debates as we head into the upcoming election. It is hard to say whether public opinion will be on his side, but the facts certainly are.

The Green Energy Act (GEA) was proposed as both an environmental policy and a job-creation policy. It is misguided on both scores.

With regards to job creation, there is nothing special about subsidizing electricity generation. It’s just as harmful as subsidizing anything else. We have long and lamentable experience in Canada with failed job creation schemes based on subsidies to money-losing industries. From Sprung cucumbers to Bricklin sports cars, governments have regularly learned and relearned, at taxpayer expense, the immutable rule that if a business plan depends on subsidies, the jobs it creates are not sustainable, and if the business is profitable on its own, it doesn’t need subsidies.

more.

Hot Air: Former “alarmist” scientist says Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) based in false science

Via Bruce McQuain:

David Evans is a scientist. He has also worked in the heart of the AGW machine. He consulted full-time for the Australian Greenhouse Office (now the Department of Climate Change) from 1999 to 2005, and part-time 2008 to 2010, modeling Australia’s carbon in plants, debris, mulch, soils, and forestry and agricultural products. He has six university degrees, including a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. The other day he said:

The debate about global warming has reached ridiculous proportions and is full of micro-thin half-truths and misunderstandings. I am a scientist who was on the carbon gravy train, understands the evidence, was once an alarmist, but am now a skeptic.

And with that he begins a demolition of the theories, premises and methods by which the AGW scare has been foisted on the public.

Fusion energy

An update on an important possible new energy source:

A Navy-funded effort to harness nuclear fusion power reports that its unconventional plasma device is operating as designed and generating "positive results" more than halfway through the project.

The latest quarterly update from EMC2 Fusion Development Corp. comes amid other signs that seemingly oddball approaches to fusion research may not be all that oddball after all. Just last week, General Fusion announced that Amazon.com's billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, was part of a $19.5 million investment round to further the company's plan to take advantage of a technology called magnetized target fusion. Another billionaire, Paul Allen, is an investor in Tri Alpha Energy, which is working on its own hush-hush fusion project (and occasionally publishing its research).

---

EMC2 Fusion doesn't have tens of millions of venture capital to play with — but it does have a $7.9 million Navy contract to test a plasma technology known as inertial electrostatic confinement fusion, also known as Polywell fusion. The idea is to accelerate positively charged ions in an electrical cage to such an extent that they occasionally spark a fusion reaction, releasing energy and neutrons. The concept was pioneered by the late physicist Robert Bussard, and carried forward by the EMC2 Fusion team in Santa Fe, N.M.

h/t

screw Bell TV

I'm watching Sun News Network streaming live.

Sun News will be live-streaming from 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday, May 10 until 9 a.m. ET on Friday, May 13. Tune in at http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/watch-live.html

Dissing Osama

Obama gets Osama. Yet the Obama administration seems intent on not "offending" supporters of the murderous evil Osama bin Laden. Well, we share no such sensitivities here and at the risk joy of offending Al Quaeda supporters, we offer the following for your enjoyment.

A guy walks into a bar and says, "Give me a bin Laden."
The bartender looks up and says "What? A bin Laden?!"
The guy says, "Yeah, a bin Laden. You know... Two shots and a splash of water."

OSAMA HEADSTONE

Osama from Hell: "I blame that damn courier and his flashy tennis shoes".



We all owe a debt to the US Navy Seals, the CIA and the Bush administration who made possible the gathering of the intel via "enhanced interrogation techniques" that eventually led to this historic event. And to President Obama for using that intel (even though he opposed the gathering of it at the time) and making the right call.

The coalition was on...

...right up until election night, the LIB-NDP-BLOC coalition was still on.

Linda Diebel does a post-mortem on the Liberal election campaign and reports on what senior advisors to Liberal leader Count Michael Ignatieff had to say:

The senior adviser says Ignatieff meant he would stay. That coincides with scuttlebutt among Liberals that Ignatieff was still reasonably upbeat because he’d been told they’d win 65 seats and still believed a minority Conservative government and a coalition with the NDP were possible when he hit the stage on election night.

Stephen Harper was right all along. Canadians have been spared a coalition government of opportunists, socialists and separatists.

Ezra interviews Gary McHale re Caledonia

Sun News Network continues to go where other news networks won't. In this clip, Ezra Levant interviews activist Gary McHale who gives you a flavour of what has been happening in Caledonia, Ontario and the utter failure of the Ontario Provincial Police to enforce the law.



Thanks to sdaMatt2 for the video. If you don't get Sun News Network, ask you cable or satellite provider. It's available just about everywhere except on Bell TV.

Update: For more info on the situtaion in Caledonia see CaledoniaWakeUpCall and VoiceofCanada.ca

Murphy: Harper's Majority is Preston Manning’s great achievement

Rex Murphy reflects on the Canadian election, Stephen Harper's majority win and the foresight of Preston Manning who "had the courage and foresight to start a political movement that in 20 years (with some changes) has displaced the natural governing party, and forged new realities for Canadian politics".

Full story at the National Post.

Sun News launches fairness fight vs. Bell

Straight from the horse's mouth:

OTTAWA - The operators of Sun News Network filed a complaint Friday with Canada's broadcast regulator against Bell Canada.

The complaint alleges Bell gave the all-news networks it owns - CTV News Channel, CP24, and Business News Network - "undue preference" and put the fledgling SUN News Network at "undue disadvantage" in their carriage fee disagreement.

Luc Lavoie, head of development for Sun News, says Bell has refused to treat SUN News Network the same way it and other television distributors treat all news channels.

"Could it be because we're competition?" asked Lavoie.

"Are they afraid of us? And is it acceptable in Canada that they give themselves preferential treatment? It goes against all the concepts of regulatory affairs in Canada."

The complaint filed with the CRTC says even though Sun News asked to be paid a carriage fee that is less than what Bell's all-news outlets charge, Bell still considered the fee excessive.

"I don't know how one can come up and say that what we're asking for is excessive if it is below, for instance, CP24," says Lavoie. "I am not criticizing the work that CP24 is doing, but it doesn't have a fraction of the infrastructure that we have in place. It's not at all the same level of services that are offered."

Satellite TV operator Shaw accepted the same fee agreement Bell found excessive.

Earlier this week, Quebecor, which owns SUN News Network, asked Bell to stop broadcasting SUN News because there was no carriage fee agreement in place.

Since then, Quebecor has been asking SUN News fans to call Bell at 1-888-759-3474 or e-mail the company at executive.office@bell.ca to demand a deal be signed with SUN News.

It seems like Bell will only be happy if they can get Sun News for free. A strategy designed to either rob the network of revenues or shut them out of the market.

The fact the Bell TV owns competing news channels like CTV Newsnet, CP-24 and BNN is a clear conflict of interest. If Bell cannot deal fairly with a competitor, then it should not be allowed to have a broadcast carrier's license. Or it should not be allowed to own competing channels. Period.

Dissatisfied with Bell?

Many of us are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Bell TV over the Sun News controversy and with Bell services in general. I for one, got rid of most of my services from Bell years ago. Cell phone service - gone! Internet service - gone! I still have telephone and satellite TV with Bell, but that may not be for much longer. I'm looking into service from Shaw and if everything works out, I will be a former Bell TV customer very soon.

I found this Bell horror story over at Kathy Shaidle's blog. Not surprisingly, the author - an AFGHANISTAN veteran- calls it, "Screw You Bell"

Back in December, the Mother in Law gives the wife a cell phone. It’s pink and doesn’t have a plan, ‘cause it’s bought free and clear.

So the wife gets home, and since our internet is with Bell, she goes ahead and gets a minimal plan with them. ‘So many minutes/month, and what you don’t use carries over.’ No texting or any other bells and whistles. The cost as promised, $35.

And since the land line phone was originally in my name, and I’m in Afghanistan at the time, they make an exception, not to worry, it’ll be added to the bell bill “…so you know what to pay.”

First bill gets in, its $180, give or take.

WTF!

It gets worse. Please read it all and be sure to share your Bell horror stories in the comments.

Bell TV vs Sun News: the petition

Want Sun News Network back on Bell TV? Sign the on-line petition here.

Goldstein: Stephen Harper treats us like children

Via Lorrie Goldstein:

Now that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has his coveted majority government, it’s time he stopped treating Canadians like children on climate change.

Is it time for some honesty amongst politicians regarding climate change? Somehow, I doubt it.

UN Report blames the UN for cholera outbreak in Haiti

The United Nations in action:

A United Nations-sponsored report into the causes of a deadly cholera outbreak that ravaged Haiti in the wake of its disastrous 2010 earthquake has discovered a culprit -- the U.N. itself.

The UN's ineptitude would be comical if it wasn't so tragic...

The cholera epidemic, which is still ongoing, has killed some 4,500 Haitians through severe diarrhea and dehydration since its outbreak in October 2010. There had been no previous cholera outbreak in Haiti for nearly a century. The report confirms that the specific cholera bacteria involved in the Haitian epidemic are a variant first detected in Bangladesh in 2002, which is even more toxic than other cholera strains found in South Asia.

As the report also notes, military contingents from Bangladesh and Nepal were among members of the United Nations Stabilization Force in Haiti (known by its French-language acronym of MINUSTAH) stationed at U.N. peacekeeping camp Mirebalais, close to the initial outbreak.

Bell's Blatant Bias

against Sun News Network, explained by Ezra Levant.
with a few good suggestions on how to voice your displeasure with Bell's actions. Can you say "Shaw"?

Sun News Network update

The Globe and Mail has posted this re the Bell TV - Sun News Network battle:

Quebecor Inc., (QBR.B-T32.70-0.69-2.07%) which owns the channel, sent a letter to BCE Inc. (BCE-T35.57-0.18-0.50%) roughly two weeks ago demanding that the channel be removed from Bell’s satellite TV service if an agreement was not reached by May 3. Like most specialty networks, Sun News must negotiate with cable and satellite providers to determine the subscriber fee they will pay in order to carry the channel.

Those negotiations have so far been successful with western cable giant Shaw Communications Inc. (SJR.B-T19.98-0.20-0.99%) and, of course, with the cable service Quebecor owns, Vidéotron Ltée. But Bell has so far not paid the subscriber fee Sun News was requesting, said Luc Lavoie, senior adviser to Quebecor chief executive officer Pierre-Karl Péladeau.

“They’re saying that the conditions we’re asking for are not fair and not reasonable,” Mr. Lavoie said in an interview. “We’re not asking [as much as] CTV News Channel is getting, we’re not asking what Business News Network is getting. We’re not asking what CP24 is getting. And oh, what a coincidence, those three are owned by Bell.”

There's more at the link.

Keep the pressure on Bell to negotiate a fair deal with Sun News Network. You can contact Bell at 310-BELL (2355) or visit www.bell.ca

Bell TV removes Sun News Network

Bell TV has removed Sun News Network, channel 213, this morning and is airing the following message

Sun News was removed from your satellite service on May 3 at the request of the owners of Sun News.

I contacted Bell and had an on-line chat with a customer service person:

Me: I have lost channel 213 message says the channel has been removed. Why?

BELL: I apologize for that inconvenience. Effective April 18, 2011, Sun TV SD and Sun TV HD are no longer available because the content provider has stopped broadcasting this channel. Bell Satellite TV will broadcast Sun News Network SD and Sun News Network HD in its place until May 3, 2011. After May 3, 2011 Sun News will be removed at the broadcasters request.

Me: Are there any plans to bring the channel back?

BELL: At the moment we haven't received any feedback from the broadcaster if the channel will still be aired. However we assure you that bell TV's programming management is doing everything in their power to provide the content of this channel.

Me: Thank you.

Update: This post has been generating some traffic here. Please let Bell know that you want your Sun News Channel back. You can contact them at http://support.bell.ca/ or by calling 310-BELL (2355)

Update 2: Sun News has posted the following on their Facebook page:

Sun News Network's Facebook notes

URGENT MESSAGE FOR BELL TV CUSTOMERS
Tuesday, May 03, 2011 1:45 PM

Since launching on April 18, Quebecor Media Inc. has concluded agreements with a number of cable and satellite providers to offer Sun News to millions of Canadians. We have tried, unsuccessfully, to reach an agreement with Bell TV -- the owners and operators of CTV News Channel, the Business News Network and CP24.

As it would be unfair to our paying customers for Bell to continue to offer the station without a fair agreement between our two companies, we have asked them to suspend broadcasting the signal. It should be noted that Sun News is seeking lower subscription fees than CTV News Channel, the Business News Network and CP24. As Bell owns these channels, it obviously gives themselves an undue advantage.

If you want Sun News, and we hope that you do, please contact Bell immediately to demand they offer the station. Bell TV customers can contact Bell at 310-BELL (2355) or visit www.bell.ca

We are hopeful that if enough Canadians speak out, Bell will again bring Canada's new home for Hard News and Straight Talk to your living rooms.

As a free and democratic country we are strengthened by more news media voices, not less.

Bell isn't the only game in town. You can get Sun News from the following:

Shaw Digital - Channel 177
Shaw Direct - Channels 149 and 517
Rogers in Toronto - Channel 15
Rogers in Ottawa - Channels 66 or 142
Shaw Cable Hamilton - Channel 21
Cogeco Cable Hamilton - Channel 16
Videotron - Channels 79 and 679

UBL

So Usama bin Laden is confirmed dead after a US raid into Pakistan. Good riddance. But one has to question how UBL managed to avoid justice for the past 10 years.

Via Mark Stein:

The most significant fact to emerge from bin Laden’s death so far is that he was not living in a smelly cave in the tribal badlands but in a mansion in the heart of the Pakistani establishment round the corner from the Military Academy on the Kakul Road.