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Blame Twitter. Someone was tweeting about a musician named Lincoln Durham the other day and when he included the magic words — slide guitar — I went off to see what I could find. The result is the set you see before you beginning with Living This Hard. Once I'd found Lincoln Durham I poked around some more. I thought this was interesting: Blackie and the Rodeo Kings with Another Free Woman Gets To Walk Away. I'd seen Will Kimbrough before but not this track and it makes a good closer. This is Piece of Work. Have a good weekend. …
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I'm sure a lot of my fellow bloggers will be all over this story but I wanted my own copy to refer back to. I expect to get a lot of mileage out of this one. Federal bureaucrats pose as 'new Canadians' on Sun News Six federal bureaucrats were drafted to pose as new Canadians for a citizenship reaffirmation ceremony broadcast on the Sun News network, an event requested by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's office. Kenney's staff wanted to do something splashy for citizenship week. But Sun TV resisted pressure to attend and broadcast an actual citizenship ceremony and instead suggested that …
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Federal Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver But it's easy to see why Oliver is in cabinet. With John Baird's new position keeping him on the road so much, the Commons needed a new Angry McPointy. Now stay the hell off Joe's lawn. …
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One of the hot topics of discussion right now involves the speculation that the Harper Government™ intends to raise the eligibility age for Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) from 65 to 67. And here's Brian Lee Crowley to argue that the real reason for doing so is that so many of us have secretly been hoping for just the kind of change that would force us to work even longer. We know we want to; we just need a little extra motivation and nothing motivates like the prospect of having to survive on cat food. What about that Harper Government™ eh? Always …
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What would make Stephen Harper think it's a good idea to go to Davos and tell other countries what he intends to do to us before he told us? …
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It's a low key, acoustic set this evening. The opening clip is from Peter Seeger's Rainbow Quest — Brownie McGhee performing solo on Don't Pity Me. Lyle Lovett takes the lead on My Baby Don't Tolerate with backup by John Hiatt, Guy Clark and Joe Ely. At the break, Hiatt will demonstrate that as a lead guitarist he makes a great songwriter. And finally, Darrell Scott with Kenny Malone on percussion will explain that there's No Use Living for Today. The canned intro stops at around 0:30. Have a good weekend. …
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Last March the Harper government characterized Canada's participation in hostilities in Libya as a moral imperative. Hopefully they'll look upon today's request by Amnesty International in the same way. The Canadian leader of Amnesty International is calling on the Harper government to use its influence with Libya's new leadership to put an end to the torture of prisoners that the organization says has been taking place. That article doesn't give us much in the way of detail about it but it seems the people we helped to put in charge in Libya have been behaving badly. This BBC article reports …
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The House of Commons gets back to work next week and that means that parliamentary committees resume as well. In fact the Standing Committee on Health will meet tomorrow afternoon. Kady O'Malley, as @kady on Twitter, was kind enough to link to this page which provides the schedule of upcoming meetings. O'Malley also took note of the number of padlocks associated with the entries which indicate when meetings will be held in camera — closed to the public. Of the ten meetings currently listed, eight of them will be held in camera. Admittedly this isn't something I've kept track of but that …
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Today's Crown First Nations Gathering was supposed to be historic. It would mark the first occasion since he became prime minister in 2006 that Stephen Harper would meet with First Nations leaders. So there was quite a bit of negative publicity when it was learned that Harper intended to leave the summit early. In order to counter that, an extra meeting was hastily convened yesterday evening between Harper and his minister of aboriginal affairs and the most senior of First Nations leaders. I don't think it accomplished what the government was hoping for. Here's the headline on the APTN story …
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Etta James passed away earlier today at the age of 73. So the set orginally planned for this evening gets bumped to next week. Apparently the song that comes to mind for a lot of people when they think of James is At Last. But it was never a particular favorite of mine so we're not going to do that. Instead we'll start with Something's Got A Hold On Me. Here's a song James wrote herself: I'd Rather Go Blind. The volume needs a boost on this one though it's fine otherwise. This is Rock Me Baby. Have a good weekend. …
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For all that the recent IAEA report on Iran dragged evidence out of the trash bin that had previously been found to be too unreliable to take seriously, it still stopped short of stating definitively that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program. Recent reports from the combined intelligence agencies of the United States have consistently found that there is no evidence of an active nuclear weapons program in Iran. The U.S. Secretary of Defense stated earlier this month that he doesn't believe the Iranians have an active nuclear weapons program. But Stephen Harper is insisting that not only …
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Tonight's opener features the same group of musicians who held down the middle slot in last week's episode: Lou Ann Barton and Omar Kent Dykes on vocals, James Cotton on harp and Jimmie Vaughan on first guitar. This is another Jimmy Reed tune called Good Lover. Drown in My Own Tears was written in 1956 by Henry Glover. It's been recorded by everyone from Ray Charles to Norah Jones (that Wikipedia thing comes in awful handy, doesn't it?). This is a nice cover by Simply Red's Mick Hucknall. And to close, here's Lucky Peterson with Smooth Sailing. Have a good weekend. …
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Shorter Lorne Gunter: Murdering scientists is okay as long as it's our side that does it. And look at the craftsmanship on the part of the assassins! Gunter thinks I'm naive. I guess that's fair because I think he's contemptible. Meanwhile, people who are better informed on the subject than either of us continue to question the merits of the recent IAEA report. And let's bear in mind that even that report didn't state definitively that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program. In fact, the U.S. Secretary of Defense recently admitted that he doesn't think they do. But let's not let little …
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I'm in receipt of your latest mailing to your constituents. I wish I could say I was surprised at the way you continue to use taxpayer-funded mailings to direct people to your party's website but it's actually what I've come to expect. (Though I must say the incorporation of the QR code technology is a nice touch — if I scan the code with my phone I would be instantly taken to the Conservative party website, ready to take the survey. Just as soon as I supply my name and mailing address for your party's database. It's not gonna happen.) Spokespeople for your party have been fond of …
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To begin, Eric Bibb teams up with some serious instrumental talent on a traditional country blues: Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad. Jimmy Reed's Caress Me Baby features James Cotton on harp and Jimmie Vaughan on guitar. The singers, in order, are Omar Kent Dykes and Lou Ann Barton. Bonnie Raitt and Keb' Mo' team up on a tune of Raitt's called No Gettin' Over You. That's John Cleary on piano. Have a good weekend. …
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And once again Conservatives will lead by example. When confronted with the fact that many of our fellow citizens have little or nothing in the way of pensions and may live out their golden years in relative poverty, apparently the Canadian thing to do isn't to try and improve their position. Instead, the Canadian thing to do is to try and reduce the retirement income of those people who can look forward to a decent income in retirement. The fact that those pensions came about through a perfectly legitimate collective bargaining process is entirely beside the point. It's now the Canadian way …
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When the plight of the First Nations community at Attawapiskat became front page news, the first concern expressed publicly by Prime Minister Harper was the possibility that money wasn't being managed properly. He neglected to mention that it was his own government he was worried about. Two government audits show Ottawa is earmarking about a billion dollars a year to build and repair First Nations infrastructure, but its myriad of officials are not keeping proper tabs on how the money is spent. Even as Prime Minister Stephen Harper accuses the Attawapiskat First Nations of mismanaging federal …
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Or so we've been hearing more and more lately — Canadians are increasingly embracing the values espoused by Conservatives. I guess that means we can look to our Conservative neighbours to serve as guides to show us the way forward. So the next time you have a disagreement with someone and you have an opportunity to make your case in front of a television camera, tell your opponent to go fuck his mother. Apparently that's the way real Conservatives do it. And in this case, I absolutely refuse to employ any euphemisms. Levant didn't. Yes, we're back. And we're not impressed. …
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Happy New Year. …
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The opening song was recorded at Studio City Sound in Los Angeles. It seemed worth mentioning since Kara Grainger is Australian. This is Sky is Falling. This next tune is called Family Tree. The guitarist and singer (and songwriter, if I'm not mistaken) is Darrell Scott and as he'll inform you when they finish, the gentleman on percussion is Kenny Malone. By that time you'll probably want to know that. (And if you're impatient, the canned intro ends at precisely 0:30.) The video on this next performance is a bit degraded but you can still enjoy the band. This is Warren Haynes in …
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It's still not a Christmas carol but the sentiment seems appropriate. Doesn't it? Best wishes to everyone. I'm off the grid 'til Boxing Day. …
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I really hope you didn't come here expecting Christmas carols. Welcome to another Friday night. The band on this first one is billed as Blues Caravan. As far as I can figure out, Mississippi Lawnmower Blues was written by Aynsley Lister and he's the one with the duct tape on his guitar. I suspect you'll see him again here on some future Friday night. The same applies to the other two. This is an extended performance from John Campbell who's going to give us a brief tour of slide guitar styles while demonstrating on a National Steel guitar. The tune is Person to Person. And to close …
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In a decision clearly aimed at Muslim women, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently ruled that no one should be allowed to take the oath of Canadian citizenship with his or her face covered. Kenney is selling this in the name of shared values but Andrew Potter isn't buying it. ...here's the plain truth: Canadians don't have shared values. We never have, and we never will. But that's not a problem, because the ongoing cohesion of Canadian society is not seriously threatened by deep pluralism. If it was, we would never have got past the sectarian, linguistic, and cultural …
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Perhaps the best place to start with this Globe and Mail article is half a dozen paragraphs in, where a part of the process followed when someone is to be deported from Canada is described. Bureaucrats routinely conduct what is known as a "pre-removal risk assessment" to determine whether rights abuses are likely to follow a deportation. Save for the most exceptional cases, Canadian officials are precluded from sending foreigners to places where they would face a substantial risk of torture or other human rights abuses. When Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Public Safety Minister Vic …
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The opening tune is called Linda Lu and it was originally written and recorded by Ray Sharpe. It has since been covered by a number of different artists and this time it's the Taj Mahal Trio. Welcome to another Friday night. Freddie King is going to slow it down. As he'll explain, The Things That I Used To Do was originally written by Guitar Slim, also known as Eddie Jones, whose original recording of it was produced by Ray Charles. This one comes with a hat tip to Moose at Classic Blues Videos. And to close, here's Rick Estrin and the Nightcats who are joined by the band's original …
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But you'll be pleased to know that the Harper Government™ continues to try and protect you from them even when it's a matter of public health. And they'd be succeeding, too, if only those pesky journalists would stop making access to information requests. Two years ago, during the H1N1 pandemic, it was reported that there was an unusually large cluster of infections at the St. Theresa Point First Nation community in northern Manitoba. Health Canada did an epidemiological study to investigate and determined at least some of the likely causes. But someone, in his infinite wisdom, decided …
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There was a time when I would have greeted a development like this with a sarcastic travel alert advising everyone to avoid travel in the United States. Since our own government seems increasingly determined to allow American law enforcement officials to operate inside Canadian borders, there doesn't seem to be much point to that. The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act is primarily a spending bill intended to fund the American armed forces for another year. But it contains provisions that would allow for the indefinite detention without trial of anyone deemed to be a terrorism suspect. …
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Surgery wait times longest in 18 years Wait times to receive medical treatment in Canada are the highest they've been in 18 years, according to a new report. And it may or not be true. The new report comes from the Fraser Institute and all the CBC does here is repeat the report's conclusions and the author's talking points. There's no excuse for this any more. The Fraser Institute has been caught cherry picking its numbers and spinning them like crazy often enough that there's no excuse for not bringing a little skepticism to bear. Nothing they say should be accepted without checking their …
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A few months ago I posted Ray Charles covering this song but it was Louis Jordan & the Tympany Five who first made Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin' popular. Welcome to another Friday night. How about a little country blues? This is Sue Foley with Fool Me Good. The way the crowd reacts to it, I'm guessing Big Head Todd and the Monsters play this a lot. This is Boom Boom. Have a good weekend. …
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Jeff Kaye writes here on the findings of the American Senate Intelligence Committee investigation of the CIA's involvement in torture. Since I agree with Kaye that there won't be a lot of reporting on this in the media I'm going to pass on a portion of the quoted remarks of the committee's chair, Dianne Feinstein. As chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, I can say that we are nearing the completion [of] a comprehensive review of the CIA's former interrogation and detention program, and I can assure the Senate and the Nation that coercive and abusive treatment of detainees in U.S. …
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Transport officials reveal $170M diverted from Green Infrastructure Fund Nearly 20 per cent of the federal government's Green Infrastructure Fund has been quietly diverted to such things as oil and gas exploration, a natural gas pipeline and grants to forestry companies, top officials revealed Wednesday. Quietly diverted. But lest you think it was done improperly, Deputy Transport Minister Yaprak Baltacioglu will set your mind at ease. ...Baltacioglu countered any suggestion the transfers were made without parliamentary approval. Baltacioglu said Parliament approved the reallocations through a …
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According to Jane Taber at the Globe and Mail: Department of National Defence resources are now being poured into finding ways of extricating Peter MacKay from the controversy he's created over his 2010 helicopter adventure. Mr. MacKay's officials have been aggressively searching for ammunition against the opposition and also shopping around stories that put the Defence Minister in a better light. It must have been a pretty thorough search because it turned up an incident in 1992 when Bob Rae was flown to his family cottage in an OPP helicopter. If you follow the link you'll be reminded that …
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Reasonably civilized people realized long ago that torture is simply unacceptable. It's morally reprehensible and never to be countenanced or encouraged. Reasonably intelligent people realized long ago that torture is an unreliable way to gain accurate information. Torture victims tend to say whatever their abusers want to hear so the pain will stop. Reasonably sensible people realized long ago that if your enemies have reason to believe you practice torture it will only reinforce their opinion of you as an enemy to be opposed by force rather than a possible participant in negoiations aimed at …
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Tonight's opener is an instrumental by Kenny Vaughan called Shimmy. Welcome to another Friday night. This is the Robben Ford Trio with a cover of Willie Dixon's Spoonful. They speed it up some. VOLUME ALERT! If you cranked it up for that last one you might want to bring it down again because the next one doesn't need a lot of help. These people certainly seem to be having a good time. This is the Tommy Castro band with Nasty Habits. Have a good weekend. …
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The interview with Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan in the first part of this clip at the CBC is simply stunning. In discussing how dire the housing situation in Attawapiskat is, Duncan manages to say in practically the same breath that on the one hand, officials from his own department had been on the ground there once or twice a month for some time yet on the other hand, he couldn't be blamed for not knowing how serious things are because a member of the opposition hadn't told him. You know how you find yourself wondering if they're really that stupid or just that dishonest? Sometimes …
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I think the Toronto Star was the first to break the story but the CBC's account includes a particularly important point. When first we learned that Peter MacKay had been on vacation at a private fishing lodge in Newfoundland last year and had been picked up by a military search and rescue helicopter and dropped off at the Gander airport so he could catch a flight to Ontario, it was explained that it was all in a day's work. According to MacKay, this was an opportunity for him to closely observe a search and rescue team as part of his duties as minister of defence. But the emails obtained by …
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Althia Raj at the Huffington Post is reporting that Abousfian Abdelrazik's application to be removed from the UN's "1267" blacklist has been successful. He'll now be allowed to have bank accounts, jobs and credit card debt just like the rest of us. And theoretically he'll be allowed to get on a plane and fly to places but I wonder if he'll remain a bit reluctant to take that step. I can't say as I'd blame him if he decided to stay fairly close to home for a while yet. I don't have anything particularly pithy to add right now. But somebody did something right for a change and I was moved to …
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