A bit of background, the speech from the throne is the equivalent of the the State of the Union address in the US. While the Queen reads the speech in Britain, and Governors General, the Queen’s local representatives in Commonwealth Nations, the speech is written by the Prime Minister of the country involved and covers the same ground as the SOTU speech.

There is more pomp and ceremony, and the members of the parliaments tend to be better dressed and behaved than the US Congress, but it serves the same purpose.

Canada had a bit of excitement during this year’s speech, but it was hardly the equivalent of Representative Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” theater at Zero’s 2009 State of the Union address.

Ms DePape’s action has resonated with some people outside of Canada, among them, Michael Moore:

“For a young person to do that and to do it peacefully, and quietly and with grace, I thought it was a very powerful moment,” Moore told The Canadian Press on Sunday from New York.

“Every now and then there is an iconic moment where an individual takes action, and it inspires others to think about, you know, what else would we be doing.”

Moore has become 21-year-old Brigette DePape’s most prominent supporter, posting a photo on his website showing her holding up a “Stop Harper” sign in the Senate chamber during Friday’s throne speech.
…
[Read more →]

You may have heard that the Fraudster, Florida’s effort to rehabilitate the CEO responsible for the largest Medicare/Medicaid fraud in history, and his minions in the legislature are requiring people who apply for public assistance to take a drug test.

What you may not know is that the applicants have to pay for the test, and won’t get reimbursed unless they pass. It’s just too bad if you can’t afford the test. Florida only wants to help people who deserve it, not just any poor person. That would be as unthinkable as allowing poor people to file for bankruptcy. Hey, if you can’t afford it, you shouldn’t have decided to be poor. [/sarcasm]

You may also not know that the new company that the Fraudster created after his “retirement” from the corporation that paid the largest fraud fine in Medicare/Medicaid history, gives drug tests of the type required. Least you think that there might be some “conflict of interest” in this law, or the Fraudster’s requirement that state employees take drug tests, rest assured that the Fraudster turned control of the company over to … his wife. I know it’s unbelievable, but that is all you have to do in Florida to avoid conflict of interest claims.

Well the Northern Gulf Coast has managed to break all of the temperature records for the month of June this past few days, but that is suppose to be a coincidence, along with the drenching rains in California during the “dry season”, and the floods on all of the major North American river systems, and some of the minor systems, as in Montana, Wyoming, and Lake Champlain.

The fires rage in Arizona, Texas, and along the Georgia-Florida border.

In the news, we now know why Weiner said he didn’t send the picture, but wouldn’t say he hadn’t taken the picture. Turns out, he had sent that picture to other women, just not to the one that was claimed, and someone found it on-line and started the witch hunt. Long-term unemployment is worse than the Depression, and this is what the media wants to talk about.

In a related note, the actual charges against John Edwards are strange to say the least. Prosecutors are saying that he should have listed his mistress as a campaign expense, rather than dealing with the situation totally separate and distinct from his campaign. I assumed that he was in trouble for paying the costs from campaign funds, but he didn’t do that. I don’t see how this got through a grand jury.

Invest 94 can’t make up its mind to become a tropical storm in the Caribbean, but Invest 91 in the Pacific south of Acapulco seems ready to make the move.

On this day in 1944, along the coast of Normandy, things got a lot “hotter” as the D-Day invasion began.