Jason Kenney, Minister of Hitlerology

Minister of Multiculturalism Jason Kenney has failed in his second bid to win the coveted Certificate of Hitlertude this week.

Despite a valiant effort before the Congregation Beth Israel Beth Aaron in which he freely invoked Hitler, genocide, the final solution, and eliminating Israel, Mr Kenney even called Iranian President Ahmadinejad "a threat to world peace and security" but was still unable to link him with Hitler.

However, in asserting that Ahmadinejad is "hell-bent" upon “a final solution, in a perverted twist on history, that would complete the work Hitler began ”, Mr Kenney became eligible to receive this nice tub of BushLite lardass spin.

Try not to eat it all at once this time.

H/T : Buckdog for the link to CJNews

My NewGov Fitness Technique is Unstoppable

"Active kids are unstoppable!" says the gnuest useless addition to the other totally useless gnugov pages.

Ottawonk figures it's a page designed by and for 3-years-olds, but I'm thinking you'd need to be at least 4 to crayon healthy parents Bob and Dave taking little Popeye and their groceries for a nice healthy walk.on the Physical Activity Colouring Page - oops, sorry, Coloring Page.

Personally, we at Creekside are pleased to see that the Getting Things Doners™ have finally recognized colouring as a valid physical fitness activity.

But wait! There's more!

Has someone you know you recently lost a loved one? Did you forget to send that special someone in your life a Valentine?

A click on a sidelink takes you to a choice of four gnugov Healthy Lunches e-greeting cards where you can even add a special message of your own. "Sorry your dog died - Eat more broccoli" is just one fine example of the kind of greeting your tax dollars could send to a loved one today.

And don't forget - if your kid colours outside the home, be sure to apply for that $500 per kid fitness tax credit. Bob and Dave, who may or may not be rich enough to afford to lay out $500 on little Popeye's fitness classes, would want you to have it.

Getting Things Doners™ - Mes Amis

With apologies to mnftiu-Get Your War On.

P.S. Is that girl skipping rope in the background really topless? See Ottawonk for details.

UPDATE ; Link to Public Health Agency of Canada fixed.

Canada's own Frank Carlucci

Tom D'Aquino, chief of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, was on CBC's The House this morning defending yesterday's Security and Prosperity Partnership meeting in Ottawa yesterday. See post below.

He both began and ended his interview with a reference to 9/11.
A bit puzzling to Canadians till you remember Frank Luntz' advice : Always open and close every speech with the words "9/11".
In between, Tom touted the SPP as corporate Canada's intention to implement Kyoto and better labour standards. Bad bad lefties for doubting this.
Tom also denies that the North American Business Council has anything to do with the North American Union. (Note to Tom : Best get this off your website then.)
Also, it isn't so much that the SPP is secret - it's just that apparently the rest of us are too stupid to be bothered with.
Oh, and the North American Business Council? It's ok - they're just "business people".

See, that's the whole point, Tom. We didn't elect them.

Audio of Tom on CBC's The House - starts at 33:40.
h/t to Pete for Carlucci connection

"Canada is not the gas tank of the US"

Hey Canadians - wake up! It's Feb. 23, Condi's here, and it's time for another gnu-gov installment of Security, Prosperity and Peace For Our Time Partnership.

In addition to Condi, attending the meeting today will be Peter MacKay, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, and their Mexican counterparts.

The North American Competitiveness Council, these guys, will deliver 50 recommendations to the SPP ministers.

I'll just bet they will.

From Canadian Press : "It's not often governments have to put out a press release reassuring their citizens they're not selling out their sovereignty."

"The SPP is legal and in no way violates the Constitution or affects the legal authorities of the participating executive agencies," reads the U.S. Security and Prosperity Partnership website.

MacKay addressed the concerns earlier this week.

"It's ensuring that Canada's sovereignty, Canada's interests and Canada's prosperity and security are going to be advanced through this partnership and through these very open and high-level dialogues," he said.

Still, the Canadian government provided no official briefing on what was expected from the meetings."

Heh. By "open", Stockboy is presumably referring to his public denial of the existence of the Banff SPP meeting in September, later followed up by his clarification that it wasn't actually "secret".

Typically, the Americans are rather more straight forward about it :

"We're working on a trilateral initiative on energy..." Tom Shannon, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said Thursday.

NDP Energy Critic, Dennis Bevington :

"Canada is not the gas tank of the United States. NAFTA already locks us into supplying energy to the United States even if ordinary Canadians go without; a North American Union would only make this worse."

and NDP Trade Critic Peter Julian :

"The Harper government must pull out of further talks on continental integration with the United States and Mexico or risk our national sovereignty.

Canadians should know that the SPP process supports a North American Union (NAU). The NDP rejects the secretive process surrounding these ongoing discussions. Canadians will never support a political ideology which aims at turning North America into a fortress for corporate interests and neglects the interests of ordinary Canadians. Canadian sovereignty is not for sale to the highest bidder and the federal government has no authority to push for a NAU without a mandate from Canadians,” said Julian.

Julian is calling for a public debate.

You may remember him calling for one on the softwood lumber deal after a US negotiating lawyer informed us we were being sucker-punched. He also called for one on the Banff meeting.

Don't be looking to the Libs for any help on this - they're the ones who started it.

So, bloggers, start your engines.

Steve reading aloud from a tabloid in the House and bringing a whole gnu nuance to the poo-flinging more commonly known as Question Period is certainly rivetting stuff. But he was a dick the day before and will still be one tomorrow, so let's not be so diverted by that little Punch and Judy Show that we miss what's going on behind the curtain.

Both the links above, CP and NDP, are well worth a read.

With many thanks to Holly Stick for the nudge and the links.

LATE NIGHT UPDATE : MSM coverage of SPP implications of today's meeting

Nothing on CBC TV News or website, except for a pic of a protester being escorted away with no explanation as to what she was doing.

Nothing in the major dailies either but for this from the Hamilton Spectator :

"OTTAWA Top North American ministers deflected criticism that they had consulted only big business for their talks on trade and security rules, suggesting there are "different venues" for public interest and labour groups to raise concerns."

Different venues for public interest than our elected officials?

And what would those be, pray tell?

Legs on this south of the border though : Lou Dobbs on CNN

Anyone hear of any coverage up here?

Ipsos Reid : Getting Things Done For CanWest

Check out the branding from Ipsos Reid for their Canadians Assess Their Federal Leaders poll for CanWest :

“Someone who will get things done”

• Stephen Harper (51%)
• Stephane Dion (25 %)
• Jack Layton (24 %)

Someone who will get things done?
Someone who will get things done?

Gosh, I don't know that one.
Can I do the one about "the thirteen years" instead?

Accidental Deliberations takes it apart.

Sing Us A Song, JimBobby

From Ross in the comments below, a link to JimBobby Sez :

Sing Us a Song, You're Enviro-Man
It's nine o'clock up in Ottawa,
Most of the MPs are there,
They're all in their seats, except Steve's on his feet,
Tryin' to prove that he cares.

Now, Steve is an egghead Prime Minister,
There's a pit bull named Baird at his side,
Who snarls and snaps about emission caps,
While his limousine's idling outside.

And the Speaker is practicing politics,
As the insults and taunts fill the air.
While the climate is changing, they're just rearranging,
The Titanic's three hundred deck chairs.
La la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da

Sing us a song, you're Enviro-Man,
Tell us another one, Steve.
We're all in the mood for Kyoto compliance,
So, what have you got up your sleeve?

This is just an excerpt. If you go over to JimBobby's you can hear the whole thing.
Sing along. Sing really loud! It'll do ya good.

CathiefromCanada likes it too.

The cure is cheaper than the disease

It would cost $1 per barrel of oil produced to bring the oil sands into compliance with Kyoto emissions-cutting targets, the Pembina Institute told the Clean Air Act commons committee yesterday.

Cost to produce one barrel of oil - $20-$30
Selling price - $60

Gord Lambert, VP of sustainable development at Suncor, one of the oil sands' biggest producers, said that new technology is the key to curbing emissions, but government funding would be needed for implementation.

Suncor profit in 2006 - $3 billion

Cost of complying with Kyoto - $1 per $60 barrel

Yet Suncor expects taxpayers to foot the bill.

Suncor also wants direct access to Kyoto to purchase GHG emission reductions on its own behalf.

Because big government is bad, very bad, for its interference in the marketplace, unless you can finangle a taxpayer-funded handout out of them.

Link

Kyoto a killer? Or Chrysler

Remember MP from CRAP* Jeff Watson warning that any attempt to meet Kyoto targets would result in :
"job loss, anxiety, depression, bankruptcy, domestic violence, costs to employment insurance or retraining, loss of charitable dollars in communities for people who used to have high-paying jobs but don't anymore and the social services that are funded by those, and in rare instances, suicide."

And this guy is on the Clean Air Act Committee.
He was particularly troubled about "the impact of tough regulations on industries such as the auto sector", noting that he "is the only representative of Ontario and the auto industry on the committee."

Say, didn't Chrysler just lay off 2000 Canadian autoworkers in Ontario on Valentines Day?
Surely Jeff's suicide watch would more properly apply to those layoffs than to any future possible compliance with Kyoto.

Over at his "Getting Things Doner"** webpage, Jeff, a former Chrysler employee himself, bemoans the fact "The Opposition ...conceal their zeal for extreme auto emissions standards".
He explains that "his thoughts and prayers are with his fellow lineworkers", but "DaimlerChrysler will be more successful in the market of tomorrow" and "The Big 3 are making product decisions that will guarantee their future will be bright".

Well, good for them but the rest of us are gonna hafta wear shades.
And Jeff, who the hell do you think you are representing on that Clean Air Act Committee?

*CRAP - Conservative Reform Alliance Party. Jeff ran for all three.
** "Getting things doner"TM - Mes Amis

Alright, if you insist : Sex, nudes, feuds, death threats!

Steve and Sandra's State Craft

Reuters :

"Canadian police concluded a probe into a 2005 income trust scandal on Thursday without charging any Liberal politicians even though the scandal contributed to that party's electoral defeat last year.
The RCMP said it is charging only one person -- a senior civil servant in the Finance Department -- as a result of its investigation.
The governing Conservative Party, while in opposition, had accused the then Liberal finance minister, Ralph Goodale, and his office of directly leaking information to investors of an imminent tax policy announcement regarding income trusts, allowing the investors to make tidy profits.

"If Mr. Goodale wants an apology, he should go to the RCMP and ask them whether they're still investigating him and ask if this is a conclusion," said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty."

Good idea, Jim.

Because if, in his capacity as general director of analysis at the tax policy branch of the Department of Finance up until Wednesday, Serge Nadeau made a single illicit dime on the Cons watch in the last year, well then I guess it's only fair if we paint the entire Con party as corrupt, right?

Have You No Decency Sir? Pop Quiz

From Canadian Press :
"For the first time in history we have a leader of the opposition who is soft on terrorism," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said during Question Period.

Who is Harper channeling here?

1) Is it this guy? or
2) This guy

Hint : More than one answer may be correct.

Small is bountiful

1) Soil is the global warming gas storage motherlode that can hold about three times more carbon than all the world's plants and trees, as long as it is not disturbed by industrial-style farm equipment and fossil-fuel fertilizers and pesticides.

2)Agribusiness accounts for about a third of all global warming gases.

3)A hectare of well-managed organic land can store nine tonnes of carbon.

Three points from a great article at While the EarthBurns, explaining why organic farming is more economically viable than agribiz.

Happy Valentines Day

Yeah, I know - it's the same one I gave you last year.

Five Ring Circus Clowns

Protests today as the three year countdown to the $580 million dollar two week Five Ring Circus 2010 Games begins.

Kim Kerr of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association says the Olympics is squeezing out low-cost housing as 17 single-room-occupancy hotel buildings (SROs) in the district have been sold in the past year and several others are about to be auctioned off in preparation for the Games.
People are being thrown out of their accommodations because developers can make more money turning the SROs into expensive condos, like this.

Last September Pivot Legal Society predicted warned that the number of homeless people in Vancouver could triple by 2010 unless the government took action.

But Linda Coady, VANOC "sustainability" spinmeistress, says we've got it all wrong.

Apparently we need more private sector money first so we can set up the P3s to create the new social housing units as promised in the original bid to the International Olympic Committee.
She said it's necessary to attract private-sector money to build needed social housing, and the Olympics will help that happen.
"We've got a lot of corporate sponsors that are going to be spending a lot of money in Vancouver, and it's the profile and the spotlight," she said.

It's the profile and the spotlight. What utter crap.

See, we've been here before. A little recent history :

Prior to Expo '86, Mike Harcourt, then Mayor Mike Harcourt, had the same concerns as Kim Kerr has now, predicting an explosion in homelessness due to Expo-driven tenant evictions.

No-eviction legislation, time-limited to Expo, was proposed to Vancouver council to prevent hotel owners from evicting their tenants in order to convert their rooming houses into "boutique hotels" for Expo visitors. Some of the tenants had lived in the same place for 25 years. The average resident was white, single, elderly, male, and handicapped.

Jimmy Pattison, then President of Expo Corp, said evictions were not a problem and that the legislation would be "an unfair intervention in the marketplace".

Premier Bill Bennett said, "The removal of slum areas are the government priorities."

Minister of Municiopal Affairs Bill Ritchie said, "Despite hardship of individuals, development must take place."

Premier Gordon Campbell, then Alderman Gordon Campbell, voted against the council motion for no-eviction legislation.

Following Expo '86, Mayor Mike Harcourt estimated 2000 rooms in 80 rooming houses had been shut down.

Today Vancouver city council is again scheduled to vote on a moratorium that would prohibit the conversion or demolition of SRO units.

And Alderman Gordon Campbell is now Premier Gordon Campbell.

So don't be telling us, Linda Toady, that "the profile and the spotlight" is any different now than it was last time.

Circus clowns are still circus clowns.

More from The Tyee : Poverty Hotel Buying Binge

UPDATE : Vancouver city staff opposed the moratorium on SRO conversions today, opting instead for tripling developer conversion fees from $5000 to $15000 per unit. Rationale given was that this would prove to be a deterrent. Fucking hypocrites. They did however recommend the proposed bylaw be put to a public hearing, so that's something I guess. City clerk report - pdf

Notes from the Anschluss

Remember that secret "deep integration" meeting held in Banff last September?

A total news blackout accompanied the week long conference - nothing in the news while it was going on but for this one local Banff paper, who have updated their scoop here. At the time, some small amusement was provided by Stockwell Day who first asserted that there was no meeting and then later admitted that there had indeed been one but it wasn't a secret.

Now, courtesy of US Freedom of Information laws and the gods of irony, Canadians have access to some notes from those meetings.
From the Ottawa Citizen :

Canadian, U.S. and Mexican officials held secretive meeting on integration

"Canadian, U.S. and Mexican politicians discussed using "stealth" to overcome public resistance to the integration of the three countries at a confidential meeting last year, according to documents just released under U.S. Freedom of Information laws.
Top military brass, corporate executives and diplomats also attended the meeting in Banff, Alta., where participants discussed everything from the harmonization of food and drug standards, to common immigration policies, and the pooling of energy resources.

The secret guest list of the North American Forum included then-U.S. secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld, Canadian Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, Pengrowth Corp. CEO James Kinnear and Lockheed Martin executive Ron Covais.

Presentation outlines for the forum acknowledge that the concept of North American integration - which some call a "North American Union" - is unpopular, and note that it might be tough to sell as a concept.

"While a vision is appealing, working on the infrastructure might yield more benefit and bring more people on board ('evolution by stealth')," the notes said."

Well, that explains all the secrecy quite well, doesn't it?.

"But, former finance minister John Manley, who attended the meeting, said the forum was "not part of a nefarious plan to yield sovereignty to the U.S. .... It was just some informed private citizens and government officials having a conversation on how best to co-operate to ensure their citizens enjoyed a safe and prosperous future."

Reassuring words. Or rather they would be had John Manley not been the Canadian Chair on the Task Force on the Future of North America back in 2005. You know, the one that called for one currency, one security perimeter, one passport, and a resource pact for oil, gas, and fresh water. To be fair to Manley, he did append some dissenting opinions on sovereignty to the final report before it was delivered to the Washington think tank who commissioned it.

Anyway back to this "partnership" thingey....

Council of Canadians has expressed concern that :
"Most of the 300 policy recommendations within the accord may not require legislative changes."

So there's your "evolution by stealth".

Banff attendee Ron Covais, President of the Americas for Lockheed Martin and a former Pentagon adviser to Dick Cheney, explained it this way to Macleans :

"This is how the future of North America now promises to be written: not in a sweeping trade agreement on which elections will turn, but by the accretion of hundreds of incremental changes implemented by executive agencies, bureaucracies and regulators.
"We've decided not to recommend any things that would require legislative changes," says Covais. "Because we won't get anywhere."

"Covais figures they've got less than two years of political will to make it happen. That's when the Bush administration exits, and "The clock will stop if the Harper minority government falls or a new government is elected." "

So let's stop the damn clock.

Security and Prosperity Partnership web page at the White House.

Recently Chewed News

Link

Update : Bourque's travelling news headlines have moved on now so this link no longer makes much sense, but man you should have seen them this morning. And no, I have no problem with Bourque rewriting headline links for love or money - he's Bourque, not the CBC - but this morning's? Well, they were certainly a classic.

John Baird - Pull my finger

because it's a far far better thing to light even one fart than to curse the darkness.

Waving that stubby little finger around, Environment Minister John Baird proclaimed yesterday that, in addition to not even trying to meet our Kyoto goals lest we wind up like Russia or something, we also wouldn't be going in for any funny business like implementing a carbon tax on industry or joining the international carbon trading market.

Huffing the high moral ground, Baird said buying credits in the international market would be a bad investment for Canada and that the government would rather spend the money at home. For Canadian families.

Actually there is a connection between not meeting our targets and not trading in emissions but John neglected to mention what that was and no one called him on it. Signatories to Kyoto who don't show any progress in attempting to meet their emissions targets by 2012 - and at this rate that would seem to be us - aren't allowed into the international emissions trading market anyway.

Tim Ballyhoo

I was browsing through Bourque, the online news aggregate where you can pay a great deal of money to embed your own link headline, when I came across this one : Global Warming Not Caused By Humans?

Clicking through I came to Global Warming : The Cold, Hard Facts?, wherein Dr.Tim Ball of Friends of Science makes a spirited defense of his own credentials, his theory of global warming - it isn't, and the search for truth :

Dr. Ball begins :
"What would happen if tomorrow we were told that, after all, the Earth is flat?"

And just as I'm thinking that a reference to Flat Earthers is probably not the most fortuitous analogy a global warming denialist could open with, I get distracted by the ads on the sidebar.

There's a photoshopped picture of Stephane Dion in a funny french beret labelled "Liberal leader, French citizen", another of Nancy Pelosi in a helmet "United Nations Trooper", and an ad for "a leading anti-terrorist web site, that offers practical reference information, vital links, and other valuable information from an investigative perspective in today's troubled times."

Where the fuck am I? Oh right - Canada Free Press.
Persevering past the ads for masters degrees from online universities, I refocus my attention on Dr Ball's essay :

"Why does no one acknowledge that the Emperor has no clothes on?"

Again, Dr. Ball, not the most fortuitous of analogies...

But the absolutely most distracting thing is that throughout the article the word "lawyer", which occurs more often than one would expect in a piece about science, is highlighted. And as you move your cursor over it, an ad for a different law firm pops up every time. Yeah, embedded right there in Dr. Ball's article.

Note to Dr. Ball : Most of us out here are in no position to judge the veracity of global warming science. We rely on peer-reviewed scientists to do that work and then convince us of their claims.
And I'm guessing that ground-breaking peer-reviewed scientific theories are not introduced to the world on the right wing nutjob freeper press.

Related post : They call it science. We call it bullshit.

But what about India?.....and China?

Yeah. What about those CO2 emissions from renegade countries like India and China who won't sign on to Kyoto?
If they aren't willing to pull their weight, anything we do will be just a drop in the bucket anyway.
So there's really no point in Canada, the US, and Australia supporting it.



Declan at Crawl Across the Ocean turns it up for us with this chart :



Data collected by the US Dept of Energy. Map from Wiki.

Update : The above graph and map are 'per capita' - divide the total emissions per country by the number of people producing it to get an individual's footprint.
A 'per capita' perspective has the advantage of showing that this is also a social justice issue.
If an individual guy in China or India uses in a year the same energy one of us North Americans blows through in an afternoon, then we are not in a position to get too high horsey about demanding that he cut down his meager energy consumption as a precondition for our doing so.
Make sense?

A CBC interview we'd love to hear...

"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released a report warning that “warming of the climate system is unequivocal,” the cause is “very likely” man-made, and the menace will “continue for centuries.”

The Fraser Institute will be releasing its own assessment of the IPCC report this coming Monday and we are joined in the studio this morning by the Fraser Institute's Dr Shill."

"Good morning, Dr Shill."
"Good morning."

"I read recently that VP Dick Cheney is a fishing buddy of Mr Walker, president of the Fraser Institute."
"Yes, that's correct."
"Has Dick Cheney ever accidentally hooked him in the face with a fish hook?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Never mind.
Dr Shill, I'm reading the policy page on the Fraser Institute website, and I see that while the Fraser Institute is keen to join the US Ballistic Missile Defense program and is very much in favour of coal-fired power plants and deregulating business, it does not support unions or minimum wage controls or universal healthcare or the old age pension plan or firearm registration or settling treaty rights with aboriginal peoples or corporate capital tax.

Also, and again I'm reading this right off the Fraser Institute website, your policy page on Environment states :

"A survey of key indicators of environmental quality in Canada shows that the vast majority -- 84 percent -- have improved relative to the 1970s and shatters the common misconception that environmental quality is deteriorating. "

"Well, these are all very complex issues..."

"Then let me ask you something simple.
Are you aware, Dr Shill, that the Fraser Institute has received $120,000 from ExxonMobil over the last three years? Or that Kenneth Green, formerly the Fraser Institute Director of the Centre for Studies in Risk and Regulation and now with the American Enterprise Institute who also receive ExxonMobil funding, last year offered $10,000 payments to any scientist who was willing to provide an "independent" analysis of the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change?"




"Dr Shill?............Dr Shill?..........."

Hats off to DeSmogBlog for many above links.

UPDATE : While I was sleeping...
http://www.cbc.ca/aih/latestshow.html
CBC does it! Well, very very close.
Interview with Kenneth Green, author of the $10,000 letters, and another with a scientist who declined to accept that offer. Good job, CBC.

http://pacificgazette.blogspot.com/2007/02/greenhouse-gashouse-gang.html
Ross calls The Fraser Institute out for being an American Enterprise Institute "farm team". Heh.

Coming soon to a city near you

Ottawa Citizen : Military wants more troops in cities

"The Harper government plans to increase the Canadian Forces presence across the country with new units in 14 cities ....Between now and 2016, the army will establish "territorial response battalions" in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Niagara-Windsor, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Saint John, Halifax and St. John's. The units would be designed to react to domestic emergencies such as natural disasters or a terrorist attack."

A year ago January prior to the last election, we had an all-candidates meeting at the Legion. Gory details here. All the candidates were asked to answer : "What are the most important issues to this riding?" and they each took a turn at it : the environment, daycare, green collar jobs, affordable housing, the poverty gap, social justice.
Last to go was Conservative John Weston, who answered, "The 2010 Games and increasing police and military presence on the streets."

There was a momentary silence while we absorbed this, caused in no small part by the fact that his audience was living on a small island where 1) we don't have many streets and 2) when a crime is committed we mostly just call the perp's mom.
Now in fairness to John Weston, Bowen Island is just a small part of the largest riding in Canada and he was merely putting forward the generic Con agenda. An increased police and military presence on the street was always on it from the beginning. The environment, daycare, green collar jobs, affordable housing, the poverty gap, and social justice were not.

The outrage here is not the addition of troops to the streets; it's the missing programs they are replacing.

Red Tory : Soldiers with guns. In our cities. In Canada. Heh.

Thanks to Marcus for the great graphic from the brilliant Banksy.
.

It was cold that night up in the windswept foothills...

Cold and lonely as only a couple of cowboys would understand.
Though the fire burned low and the cold crept into their bones, they were burning inside with that passion that cannot be named...

"Are you sure you won't tell Jean he isn't my only special friend?" was whispered in Stocky's ear.

"Naw partner, it's just between you, me and that silly hat you won't take off," came the breathless reply.

"He's got expensive tastes but I just can't quit him. I need him near me if something pops up later."

''Oh then, what am I, beef jerky?' a hurt Stocky said.

"Aw come on now, maybe I wasn't that big with my last poll but there's room for all of ya in my tent."

''Are the wimmenfolk allowed in the tent too?" asked Stocky.

"Naw, thought I'd leave 'em home and safe. Cooking, cleaning and looking after the little ones. You know, things they're good at."

''Well, I'm behind you all the way, pardner," gasped Stocky.

With that we leave our cowpokes to make do as best they can.
Theirs is a hard life guiding the herd as only they know how.
Trouble is that herd has a way of stampeding off if they get wind of what's really in store for them.

Guest blogger : Mes Amis
Brick Brokeback : Daniel Brown