Einstürzende Neubauten [*]

WTF is going on with the SPD in germany? i kept only half an eye on the coalition talks because of other events, and now i see that the party is busy biting its own head off. *boggle*. man, i am so out of touch. i would have expected this to happen much sooner, if it was to happen. and what is this going to do to the grand coalition talks now, with the SPD in chaos after its chief müntefering, slated to be vice-chancellor and labour minister, stepped down in a huff? stoiber (CSU chief and designated economy minister) is making noises about not joining the cabinet either. chancellor-to-be merkel's job has just become immeasurably harder, if it is still possible at all.

let's see, are there english-speaking news sources that talk about this with any insight? *googles*.

this reuters report will do; the AP is even more removed from what's going on under the surface. the report doesn't really do justice to what lies behind müntefering's decision -- for the party to vote down his pick for second in command is unheard of. it's ... not done. i can't remember it ever happening. the left wing of the party must be so angry that they no longer care about political expediency. did i say *boggle*? *boggle*.

[* translation of this is a bit difficult. literally it means "collapsing new buildings", but it refers in specific to the butt-ugly, often shoddily built post-WWII medium-size tower buildings that still make up so many of germany's buildings, and present never-ending troubles. there is a band, famous in germany, that named itself Einstürzende Neubauten, so this is a pun of sorts. i'm afraid it's funnier if one speaks german.]

new immigration targets

canada's immigration minister volpe is aiming to both improve dealing with the huge backlog, and to increase immigration per year to 300,000.

"We have to start thinking about the Immigration Department as a recruiting vehicle for Canada's demographic and labour market needs . . . we are the lungs of the country," said Mr. Volpe in an interview with The Globe and Mail. "We are producing more jobs than the labour market has workers for. . . . We're desperate for immigration."

we'll see what happens. he promised new measures for dealing with the backlog back in april, but i've yet to see any specifics as to how he plans to do it.

in any case, this is bound to be good news for skilled workers who'd like to come to canada. from what i understand, the trades are desperate for those, and temporary work permits are likely to get a big boost (and then immigration will be eased for people who have worked in canada as temporary workers for a period, allowing application from within the country).

US congressional democrats grow a backbone

harry reid blasts republican senate for not holding the administration accountable.

senate forced into closed session.

frist called it a "slap in the face", an affront to america, and stated that he can never trust reid again. *boggle*. use hyperbole much? can't wait for you to retire.

today we have homegrown scandal

for those to whom the words "sponsorship scandal" mean nothing, quick intro:

after the 1995 referendum on quebec sovereignty a fund had been set up to help promote federalism. the money was supposed to be used to improve canada’s profile in quebec by helping pay for social and cultural events and programs. after a while rumours started surfacing that the fund was nothing more than a vehicle to reward liberal party supporters in quebec, and investigative reporters began to nose around and unearthed information that raised more and more questions. finally, in early 2002, chrétien had little choice but to ask the auditor general to investigate.

in early 2004 that audit was released, and it was absolutely scathing: $100 million was paid to a variety of communications agencies in the form of fees and commissions -- without producing any benefit for canada. various crown corporations were involved in questionable transfers of money.

the audit cost the liberals dearly; they lost their majority in the last election and have been reduced to a minority government that's holding on by the skin of its teeth only because of a deal struck with the NDP.

newly elected prime minister martin fired a bunch of people in positions of responsibility, and initiated a full-scale investigation, the first official results of which we are seeing today. the inquiry is led by justice john gomery.

the gomery report blames chrétien, but clears martin. the major findings can be found here, and the full report here. but there seems no evidence actually showing that chrétien got his fingers dirty himself. and gomery is not seen as impartial in some circles -- there are people who think he's unduly biased against chrétien. he's, in short, no fitzgerald.

i'm not fond of martin, but i don't buy the hatemongering against him either, that he "must have known" because he was finance minister. he didn't write the checques. i also don't buy the idea that he had to know because he was chrétien's second in command. he wasn't chrétien's confidant nor his ally, and i would actually think that any chrétien crony would keep such sensitive information from him.

we'll see how this shakes out -- martin has been trying all along to distance himself from chrétien and his people, which is believable because of the nasty power games that were played before martin took over from chrétien. but it might not be good enough if people get too disgusted with the liberals overall. martin has promised new elections after the final gomery results in february of next year. the conservatives are salivating to bring the government down, but they have been steadily sinking in the polls again since they salivated just a little bit too much during the budget vote.

back on usenet

stef and brooks lured me back into alt.poly by callously tossing a troll into my water. i got to bite the troll -- which is always satisfying -- and many oldbies are very welcoming, which makes me feel like i am having a sort of homecoming (of which i've never had any meatspace experience, *heh*).

posting (and reading) through google groups sucked so bad that i immediately gave up on it, and switched (for now) to using opera's newsreader. i am not sure whether the posting works -- this is certainly something where the distributive form factor of usenet is much more of an annoyance to me now than it used to be; i've really gotten used to writing my bit and posting it (and then, despite earlier proofreading, finding a typo and immediately editing it).

but the immense relief at seeing so many people i like/respect/find interesting all involved in the same conversations is a little bit of a surprise. i knew i missed that, i knew i've been irked by the fractured nature of lj discussions ever since i started to keep an lj, but i didn't realise how very strongly i felt that.