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Ah, sweet sunny Tuesdays, when it feels like the week might just fly by! Tonight you can come see me at Grumpy's doing a spot and tomorrow when the weather hits 15 I recommend you hit an outdoor café and raise a toast to the coming summer. I'm also blogging over here http://newmediaandpolitics.blogspot.com/ where I'll be posting stories that I don't or can't do on the radio.

Canadian News

Starting with protests against Charest's very unpopular Quebec budget which includes user fees http://bit.ly/bSBYfF There's lots of studies on the myth that user fees help prevent abuse including this one http://bit.ly/ctsW7S From our own Canadian Government study on the subject is this unequivocal statement Studies of user charges in some of these countries draw conclusions similar to the Canadian studies. Analysis has revealed that user fees do not enable governments to control health costs, that they risk leading to under-consumption of medical services by those who are the most ill, and that they are frequently ineffective when patients have supplementary insurance. http://bit.ly/cURpAd 

Day 2 of the story that Charest's Liberals took payoffs  http://bit.ly/dk7Y3T So far no proofs just annecdotal accusations. Of course, won't be shocked if it's true. The accusation was originally leveled by former Justice Minister Marc Bellemare. This promises to get interesting as Charest’s lawyers will be sending Bellemare a mise en demeure, warning him to retract or face legal action. To his credit Charest has already called for an inquiry into how Quebec judges are chosen http://bit.ly/cCC2S1

Nothing says intolerance like the SSJB yet again trying to restrict access to English schools http://bit.ly/bHNQQE It'd be nice if they'd just STFU for a change, or eve FOAD!

Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin says Canada stymied detainee monitoring http://bit.ly/d9aD35 But there's no reason to investigate detainee abuse Force's investigator concludes http://bit.ly/93umyX "Nothing to see here! Everybody move along!" is not much of a defense and why do they expect it to work? Do they believe Canadians to be that complacent?

In an act that reflects their product the Taser people using intimidation to defend their product http://bit.ly/9fU1GV Amnest International suggests a moritorium on use of the device here in Canada http://bit.ly/9Pq5xq

Canada "misses" opportunity to join Pacific Free-Trade deal http://bit.ly/cPO2fT We know nothing's free in the 1st place so this might not be the worst thing in the 2nd place, esp. since the torries suddenly like it so much.

Best of the Blogs

The insane and somewhat entertaining Michelle Bachman off an a fact free rant about the "anti-American President" http://digg.com/d31O9Vc  And almost as crazy, the KKK increases their membership under a black President http://bit.ly/cCAALo  Oklahoma Republicans Conspire With Tea Parties to form an anti-federal government militia  http://bit.ly/adWDZK What could go wrong?

The Unbearable Whiteness of Being... a Teabagger http://bit.ly/anWQAt More from the party that doesn't want to help "those people" http://bit.ly/a5DADD Whoever could they mean?

A very creepy story about an outfit called the rainbow-right http://bit.ly/a5DCw2 Definitely not aligned with gays!

Climate and Environment

 Is Arctic sea ice making a comeback? Nope! http://bit.ly/amNy0e Proving once again there's no lie too stupid for climate science deniers to advance. A fungus attacking Douglass-fir in the Northwest made worse because of warming conditions http://bit.ly/bvHZmW and appears to be unprecedented over at least the past 100 years. And flowers blooming earlier than anytime in the last 100 years http://bit.ly/bmcy1f But Exxon-Mobil and their accolytes would have you believe it's all a big coincidence.

And good news on reducing the costs of creating solar panels from right here in Montreal from Professor Benoît Marsan and his team at the Université du Québec à Montréal UQAM http://bit.ly/9QyJNB

 Talk tomorrow!