I know it's not considered "politically correct" to talk about this.

But I, for one, am sick of these welfare types taking my hard-earned money and spending it on whatever they please.

I mean, do they really need a membership at the Embassy Club? It doesn't make them look so destitute to me. In fact, it looks bloody extravagant. I certainly don't belong to the Embassy Club.

And here's the kicker -- I hear some of them don't even pay taxes.

K-Mart and Easy-E drop some tar sands science.

To download the mp3, visit http://www.kainagata.com
For annotated lyrics, visit http://www.thetyee.ca

Originally featured in The Tyee. A creation of Caitlin Dodd, David Henderson-Hean, @KaiNagata, @Bambammon and Emile Scott.

See video below:

Just over a week before the Northern Gateway Pipeline hearings began, EthicalOil.org and its allies launched a pre-emptive PR offensive on environmental and First Nations groups who oppose the pipeline. Their new website, OurDecision.ca, and ad campaign are an attempt to invalidate opposition to the pipeline by pointing to the small amount of American funding going to some environmental groups, and claiming that pipeline opponents are actually the “puppets” of “foreign interests.”

On New Year's Eve, without justification or evidence, Sun Media newspapers published a column that called Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi an anti-Christian bigot. His apparent sins: he is identified with small-l liberal politics and he is a member of another faith.

Many of us are pretty shocked by this kind of thing, but are tempted to conclude this company and its operatives are "best left in the shadows."

Demagoguery is not an accusation that stings very much nowadays. Almost anyone can be accused of being a demagogue for saying almost anything, and one's inclination is merely to shrug it off with a snort.

Today we mark the passage of Tom Kent, the man who got it right about the state of Canada's news media and was ignored to the country's great disservice.

Kent -- who had a distinguished career as a journalist, code-breaker, senior civil servant, Liberal Party activist, adviser to prime ministers, businessman and academic -- was asked in 1980 by the government of prime minister Pierre Trudeau to lead an inquiry into what was then so clearly going wrong with the Canadian newspaper industry, and by extension the rest of the media.

Yup, it's October 6, 2011, provincial election day in Ontario. With their favoured candidate making gaffe after gaffe, and Rob Ford not helping either... Sun Media clearly smells a loser, and has abandoned all hope for Hudak. The best result for them is for people to miss the vote today.

So what is their reponse this election day? It's to turn you off voting. 

See the cover of the Ottawa Sun, for a case in point.  Why vote, when they are "all the same" -- at least by association in their cover image.

The universal outpouring of affection and concern this week for Jack Layton has astonished everyone. It's unimaginable that another Canadian politician would evoke such a reaction under any circumstance.

This phenomenon is surely gratifying to Jack -- as even CBC hosts call him on air -- and his wife Olivia and to all of us who have wondered why it took the world so long to recognize that we had a mensch among us. Now that he's respected, admired and genuinely liked even by those 28 newspaper editorial boards that rejected him in the last election, it's a good time to recall that Mr. Layton hasn't changed that much over the years. He just finally got appreciated.