In my last post, I bust a gut laughing at the SDAP legal disclaimer on their website.  In my previous post, you can take a gander at what that said about even accessing their website if you weren’t a party supporter.  So since then, it was quickly removed.  Of course, there are still gems to be found.  On the same page, the following can be found.

Privacy Policy Immutability

• SDAP Privacy Will Only Improve Your Protection And Never Become More Lax The Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party takes seriously the privacy of all Saskatchewan people. We are currently working with the Saskatchewan Elections Office to improve the privacy of Saskatchewan political contributors.

I should be taking screen shots of this stuff.  Honestly.

I would definitely like to know how an unregistered political party is working with Elections Saskatchewan on anything.  I mean, perhaps some one involved with the SDAP is working with them but an organization that doesn’t exist can’t do much as an organization can it?

Man, and I thought delays on a coming contract would result in boredom.

Ok, so I have to add to this post because I can’t stop the laughter.  I decided to take a screen shot.  Any idea how a political party that’s not registered, has never fielded a candidate (I forgot that in fact they did field a candidate in a by-election once under the SK Heritage Party banner) or even tells you who the leadership consists of could have pulled this off?  I wonder where they got the picture.  I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that the picture in the screen shot isn’t an SDAP convention of any sort.

Oh and since I’m holding down the couch today, a quick phone call to Elections Saskatchewan results in “Democratic Action Party?  I’ve never actually heard of them.”

The SDAP are still hanging around.  Don’t know who the SDAP are or how mentally unbalanced they come across?  Read on.

Prairie politics are by tradition, fascinating with the possible exception of Manitoba.  I mean yeah sure, they had Gary Filmon who by all accounts is considered by many to have been a part of vote rigging in the mid 90s but he wasn’t found guilty in that scandal.  Shucks, even if he was, it wouldn’t have amounted to much more than dirty pool in politics which is par for the course.  So yeah, Manitoba doesn’t really get a spot in this discussion but Alberta and Saskatchewan have an interesting history of various political groups causing changes in the landscape here.

As with any colourful land scape, you might end up seeing something that just doesn’t seem quite in place or perhaps something that just catches your eye as seemingly different and fascinating.  Heck, since we’re talking prairie politics, you might just see a ten car pile up hovering above a herd of antelope crossing the golden gate bridge in the oil patch.  Yes, it can be damned odd and this brings us to the Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party.

The SDAP was registered as an official political party in Saskatchewan some time ago and was voluntarily deregistered later on, losing its party status.  From what I remember, I believe that took place before they even had a chance to participate in a provincial election.  Somewhere around 2007 I think.  Anyhoo, while they were in existence, they had some incredible claims.  At Giant Political Mouse, the claims came to be known that they had over 36,000 members.  Heck, so powerful were they that they even had a thriving legal department which at one point, the person posting on behalf of the SDAP started signing at the end of their posts and e-mails.  Just check out the GPM post, it’s hilarious.

But yeah, anyhow, digging back in my memory, I can recall having contacted the guy behind this thing myself.  I never actually managed to figure out his name I don’t think but the exchange was priceless.  All about how the SDAP was leaving Elections Saskatchewan behind, forming their own electoral authority and changing the face of the province as we knew it.  I was further invited to their sprawling office (supposedly thousands of square feet) to be served with some kind of legal notice or some such thing.  It really was funny.

So the reason I blog about the SDAP today is because I noticed that they still have a website hosted on a Shaw account.  It can be found here.  It’s interesting of course that they would maintain a web presence as a political party even though they aren’t a political party in the province.  Also on youtube, there’s an “SDAP 2011″ channel with a place holder video of sorts so who knows what the future holds.

I really hope that the SDAP comes back for the next provincial election.  In a world of political horse hockey, it’s nice to have a few chuckles at the expense of people who have obviously lost their sanity trying to cope with politicians.

Oh and about their website, just a word of warning as I stifle my laughter long enough to type.  This is from their legal disclaimer.

YOU MUST BE A SASKATCHEWAN RESIDENT & CITIZEN: TO ACCESS THIS WEBSITE. All communication (specially including all information of any kind contained in this web site) between the Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party and Citizens of Saskatchewan is Private Communication protected under the Criminal Laws of Canada; accessing it constitutes a criminal trespass.

Read that?  You’re not allowed to even look at the website if you’re not a “citizen” of Saskatchewan.  Never mind that the province doesn’t dole out citizenship but…aww heck.  If that language wasn’t clear enough for you,

All Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party Web pages and all information, symbols, formats, graphics and everything else including the physical web space on the servers is Private and is Private Communication between the Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party and the Citizens of Saskatchewan who support the SDAP. It is a Criminal Act under the Criminal Code of Canada to violate private communications as determined solely by the Chief Official Agent of the SDAP or to view, download, save or otherwise use information on SDAP web pages or other formats in any manner by the Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party except for the sole purpose of supporting the Saskatchewan Democratic Action Party.

Oh my…I really can’t stop myself from busting a gut.

EDIT:
OOH OOH OOH!  OH THEY HAVE A TWITTER PAGE TOO!

http://twitter.com/SDAP2011

That does it.  I’m a follower!  I wonder if they’ll prosecute me for looking at their twitter feed since I’m not a supporter of the unregistered party that wants my vote.

It’s quite wonderful what an artistic kind of mind can come up with.  Even wearing a seat belt can be such an interesting demonstration in film.

Tip o’ the hat.

I’m absolutely not a fan of Alex Jones but every so often, he manages to strike up something legitimate.  The following video I think is an example of where he’s been wronged and how abusive Google has been with their censorship policies.

Basically, Google wasn’t happy with video material that was critical of U.S. President Obama.  As hyperbolic as I think it is, I’ve watched The Obama Deception and I can’t for the life of me think of it as hate speech.  It’s exceptionally critical of government and is very hyperbolic as it draws amazing conclusions from evidence that is incidental in most cases but attacking a protected group?  Not unless government is a protected group I don’t think.

Google has really disappointed here and the attitude they have taken toward the free flow of information on the web is frightening.  Google started out as an academic tool and the founders of Google even presented a paper in which they objected to advertising dollars monetizing Google saying that it would rob it of it’s credit as an academic tool.  I think perhaps the power and domination of Google has indeed robbed it of impartiality and credibility as it seems to take this odd attitude that Google can build the web according to its own vision.

Like I said, I’m not a fan of Alex Jones but I can’t imagine feeling justified in calling for his material on the Internet being banned, blocked or otherwise censored.  Google understands its influence on the web and to abuse that influence in silencing dissenting viewpoints that the corporation finds objectionable is just simply wrong.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to start a libertarian leaning political movement in Saskatoon for a while now and I could never quite figure it out. Minimal interest has been expressed despite my knowing of people who do share the same ideas. I think where I’ve been stumbling however is that while there may be a pro-liberty political base in Saskatoon, I haven’t seen a social element which would allow that base to gather together informally.

Political organizations are great and important but I think social homes for like minded people are much more so. So in that spirit, I decided to leave the libertarian political side alone for a while and offer a social circle instead. Heck, I know for me myself, I do miss the opportunity to socialize with libertarians myself anyway.

So check out http://www.meetup.com/saskatoon-libertarians/ and see what you think if you’re the type that happens to like the idea of personal liberty and freedom.