Donut Holes! Tim Horton's Rolls-up the Hiring Practice.

Today's story that our nation's most vaunted franchise operation is going to import Asian workers to fill job vacancies on a First Nations reserve in The Pas, Manitoba is rich.

I mean, c'mon? Really?
Tim Horton's can't find six (6) suitable weekend workers in the entire area?

Is it just me, or is Tim's biting off a whole lotta double-double-trouble with this announcement? Have their PR persons lost their timbit minds? Does anyone else see a problem with this story?

[From: CBC.ca - March 24, 2009.]

"Tim Hortons bringing in Philippine workers to staff Manitoba store

Chief of Cree nation where store is located says company should hire locals

A Tim Hortons franchise on Opaskwayak Cree Nation in central Manitoba desperately needs workers and is looking to the Philippines to fill the demand.

But the coffee giant's effort is being criticized by the chief of the First Nations community near The Pas, who says the company should try harder to train local people.

"They should help the regions where they're raking in the money from, you know?" said Chief Glen Ross, who described unemployment rates in the area as "skyrocket high."

"I just can't understand why Tim Hortons would be doing that. They should figure more on training people and spending some money on getting those people lined up on the weekends, instead of spending tons to ship people here from wherever."

David Morelli, a spokesperson with Tim Hortons, said the company hasn't been able to find and keep local reliable help for night and weekend shifts.

While they are not giving up on hiring locals, the company believes the workers from the Philippines can soon alleviate some of the load on current staff, who are handling an extremely busy store, Morelli said.

From early morning on, the coffee shop has endless line-ups of people inside and cars in the drive-thru. The store hopes that about six Philippine workers would start in the summer.

"We work with the federal government to ensure we're abiding by labour laws and working with them to ensure that we've met all the criteria in order to make this application to seek foreign worker help," said Morelli."

Abortive Policy: Harpo & Aboriginal MP Rod Bruinooge

[as originally posted 12/30/08 on my formerly free thinking blog http://tworippingarseholes.blogspot.com ]

Today, Conservative officials were quick to denounce any suggestion that the government will reopen the abortion debate...a day after one of their backbenchers re-opened it.

Faced with a recent national Tory body resolution that was eerily similar to an earlier Tory private members bill (Bill C-484) that would have made harming or killing a fetus an "indictable offence," Harpo's Gong-Show government is desperate to demonstrate it does not support any measure that would give a fetus legal status. And, as they have done since they were conspiring to drop September's writ, Harpo & co. are trying to hide the nut-jobs in their caucus closet. But silencing their reactionary wing may be easier said than done.

True, during the fall campaign, the anti-abortionist Tory element was kept in check. And the government did distance itself from Bill C-484 by saying it would introduce a different bill "that would make pregnancy an aggravating factor for judges to consider when sentencing." As Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said at the time, the wording of the bill would leave "no room for the introduction of fetal rights."

Well, that was then; and this is now.

Now, Winnipeg South Tory MP Rod "I'm-Aboriginal-so-I-care-more" Bruinooge wants to make the issue his personal pet project. This, as the Justice Minister's spin doctors refuse to comment on the status of the promised phantom bill, or whether the government is even still planning to go ahead with it. Such reticence is understandable - there is no political upside for the Tories on this one.

In fact, Bruinooge is giving credence to charges that his ill-timed initiative will hurt Harper this coming session by by bizarrely hinging his pro-life cause on the beneficial effect it would have on Canada's birth rate (our "natural community growth"), saying: "obviously, the greater number of terminated pregnancies there are the greater the population decline." The only thing that Bruinooge has demonstrated - other than his stupidity - is that he can do rudimentary math. But what a way to do it!

We shudder to think what might come out of his mouth next. Perhaps a proposal to establish internment camps for young girls a la The Handmaid's Tale? While we have some respect for reasoned anti-abortionists (assuming there are some) who place their commitment to the sanctity of the unborn life front and center in the debate, we find Bruinooge's bizzaro anti-Malthusian argument simply absurd and a bit worrisome.

Bruinooge's pathetic pandering in playing the "Aboriginal" card, makes it all the more reprehensible. As if, by virtue of his aboriginal background, he prizes human life more than those from Canada's other diverse cultural communities? If this hammerhead knew any of the history of what some aboriginal groups did with their young during times of privation he might well reconsider this ridiculous assertion. And, as for the contemporary needs of "his people", we agree with others who hope that his "uniqueness" will also help him deal with high rates of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome within "his" communities, an issue which is far more pressing than his chairing of a pro-life caucus. Bruinooge's priorities are seriously misplaced.

Meanwhile, the issue has led the Mensa-minions at the National Post to divine that Harpo's current strategy revolves around his desire to avoid anything that smacks of controversy. Talk about insight!

More to the point, what Harpo & co. most fear is that the electorate will be exposed to a controversy that belies the reactionary agenda of many sitting Tory MP's. And, in this instance, it seems Harpo is willing to take any and all measures to abort this far-right Tory initiative before it grows any more legs.

Arse-o-the Week

[as originally posted 12/19/08 on my formerly free thinking blog http://tworippingarseholes.blogspot.com/ ]

And the winner is, cheeks down, BALD SANTA!
Vic Toews you win the coveted ARSE-O-theWEEK!
How could it be otherwise?

Anybody who toils as hard as you did to try to fool us into believing that yes, yes there is a Santa; and that [wait for it, wait for it!] ... and that the Jolly Old Elf is, in fact, really a fucking Tory - deserves it!

The audacity of a haggard old Tory elf like yourself trying to marry the sentiment of the season to a series of clearly contrived post-prorogation/pre-election(?) announcements was simply criminal. Vicky, your willful whoring on the news-release circuit was... ah, ... I dunno, ... akin to seeing a top lawmaker plead guilty to violating election laws; or, maybe it's closer to having a rural family values man torridly spreading seed where it don't belong? Either way, the nausea that your craven disingenuous conservatism (i.e. opportunism) has induced within poor drunken Smart Arse is tantamount to assault. Poor lanky Smart Arse just can't stop upchucking over the abuse of power for partisan purpose we're witnessing.

Vicky Toews, you are trying to buttress your party's fragile political position by promising taxpayer funds to build Winnipeg's new temple to the pig-skin. This after your party sidestepped a confidence motion by proroguing. Aren't such grandious gestures and funding pledges a little presumptuous until the whole 'confidence' thing is resolved? I mean, didn't the Governor General place any restrictions on the 'pork' you guys are allowed to dole out during this bizarre interlude in the cadence of governance? Was there no GG edict that said: "You may not try to bamboozle the public or try to buy their votes with their own money unless it was approved pre-prorogation by the Treasury Board?" No? Really? She didn't do that?

Fuck! This is a banana republic!

And in Manitoba, Toews you are the chief Tory heel (oops meant peel). Slippery, silent and subtle your efforts are no different than those of the mob bag-man who tries to bribe hardworking teamsters into supporting a shady union rep. What gives Harpo and you the right to suddenly start buying our votes again when serious questions are before us as to whether or not you have the confidence of the House? What? What's that? You don't care?

I'll give it to you Toews, unbowed, and unrepentant and with a partisan hard-on worthy of a young-up-n-comer - you truly put on a shameless, exhibition of political opportunism this week. Now, some will say we are too sharp, too crude, too rude and lewd(?) in our awarding you this week's "Arse". "You do not understand," your sycophants will whine, "he made some good announcements!" To them we say, yes, yes; we know he pledged to help the disabled re-enter the workforce. Yes, yes; we know he promised to help out with aboriginal education. Yes, yes; we know he said he "committed to improving public transit..."; yes, yes; we know he said his government would fund "projects in Manitoba to honour Veterans and those who made the ultimate sacrifice". To all this we say - YES, YES! (n.b. Well, actually only one of us is saying it at the moment; Smart Arse is still puking!) Anyway, all good and fine.

But Vicky, oh Vicky, 'riddle me this'? Couldn't most of this have been done earlier? You know, like when you guys still had the confidence of the house last spring? Would it not have been more appropriate for you & Harpo & co. to actually act before you found your sorry selves on the cusp of the shitter-seat in danger of having the GG flush you down like a spent tampon? No? You sure? I mean as you yourself wrote, the taint of illegitimacy "raises some serious questions"; not the least of which is why are you pretending to be a Manitoba Santa? You know St. Nick is nothing but a cultural construct to draw us deeper and deeper into consumer debt ... don't you? I mean, do you really think you are Satan? (oops, err, ... ) Santa? Or, as you've asked of others, are you "making this up" as you go along? "When will Canadians be given the full details..."? When will you admit you are not Santa? And when will you, to paraphrase Julia Roberts, admit 'your just a girl (oops,... boy/pol) standing in front a public' 'asking them to believe in you again' (ha, ha, ha). Never, right? You'll never do it? Will you? Too bad.

Only a fool would believe you weren't trying to break ground for Harper all week so he could get a deluded-warm-n-fuzzy reception in Winnipeg as he comes to tell us more lies about his commitment to democratic, err, human rights. Only a fool would believe that Santa exists, or, as that mental-midget Solberg puts it - that his sleigh veers to the right. And only a fool like you Mr. Toews would try to pretend differently when you know damn well your party is nothing but a bunch of prorogators intent on pulling the wool over our eyes again....

And, Sir, not to put to fine a point on it, but that is why you are our Arse-O-theWeek! Congratulations!




[Whoa, Smart Arse, try to hit the e'ffn toilet at least! Yeah, yeah, it's over... I told him ... yeah, yeah, Smart Arse .. just pass-out now please! Dream of Iggy if you will. I don't care... just stop puking...]