“He dropped back, running while smoking a cigarette“.
The Genesis Code.
“The Rev. Jesse Jackson has said he plans to challenge the election outcome in court regardless of the winner…
Why? Because it just got his name in print, that’s why!
Nicola Valley Teachers’ Union – why buy votes, when you can extort them!
The law of unintended consequences.
Gerald Ford on retired generals.
Islamic Thinker’s Society (video)
Leave yours in the comments.
“flush twice, Ottawa’s a long way” St. Mary School, Regina, 1972.
This is a good read. It is amazing that a group of people can do this. I have never had anything to do with the union since I was eighteen, now forty nine. Geez what happened to thginking for yourself as a reward. I know that the Union has a place in todays work force, being that the goverment work force are really overworked and under payed. Who in hell is going to get gauranteed pensions, extended medical, pycolished doctors, sick days coming out there ass. People who defy the system are punished, but I really think that the admistration has gone to far. This should not have to go any futher than labour board and the union should be charged a big fine “2 million” for being stupid. Put the money back in the same school for upgrades and repairs. merle
Just for once, let’s leave the politics out of things and leave the decisions on Customs and Traditions of the military, to the military.
The Great Flag Debate
The Great Flag Debate Pt II
A simple political debate for some, a deeply emotional debate for others.
“MUSHROOM CLOUD ON THE WAY”: ISLAMIC MOB IN NEW YORK
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2006/04/mushroom-cloud-on-way-islamic-mob-in.html
I have mixed feelings about Rummy. On one hand I think he is doing the work of the god’s by trying to wean the US military off of the big spending projects that they have been addicted to.
It was his driving that talked the generals down from a Gulf War I like order of battle 300,000 troops. It was clear that was not necessary to win. Reports are it sure made the other powers, i.e. the Chinese, take notice of how small a force could actually acheive victory. For both of the above Rummy deserves kudos.
However, he believed in the “flowers and candy” myth of occupation and did blow the post invasion occupation. That was then this is now. 300,000 European largey Christian troops isnt going to do any good now other than give the Iranians a bigger target to shoot at.
The generals are allowed to criticize when retired but motivations are suspect. And as Ford indicates, military pushback over civilian control is just plain dangerous. Some of my more leftist friends have spoken admiringly of tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue. A truly scary option.
Harper Aces Accountability: Present Government Seen as More Ethical Than Others, Even Somewhat More Ethical than Business
A Weekly BDO Dunwoody CEO Business Leader Poll by COMPAS in the Financial Post
http://compasresearch.com/pages/FrameMain.html
Did anyone else but me feel like tossing those shitsticks n NYC infront of those buses??
Jesse Jackson is nothing more than a spotlight hog. Why does anyone give this pompous windbag media coverage? You will find him at any crisis in the US covered by the MSM, rarely with any facts and always on the ready to get in front of a camera.
Compliments to Gerald Ford, a voice of truth and reason.
An excellent column by Lawrence F. Kaplan in the LA Times, April 23, “If Iraq was wrong, is Darfur right?”, on the contradictions facing those who insist that the US “do something” about Darfur (like many in the Canadian media and many of our politicians who also demand Canada “do something”).
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-kaplan23apr23,0,6186049.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions&source=somnia
Mark
Ottawa
The BCTF would be wise to replace the always confrontational Jinny Sims. Anyone want to wager that they do not sign a new contract this summer? Though not.
Islamic Thinkers Society?
I was just struggling for an example of an oxymoron.
Civil War in Iraq?
No. Civil War is in Gaza/West Bank.
The Red Star delicately calls the Civil War;
“infighting”.
It is Civil War in Gaza/West Bank among Arabs. +
Shootout erupts as Hamas aids minister
Toronto Star – 6 hours ago
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip�Dozens of Hamas militants rushed to the aid of a cabinet minister confronted by angry gunmen yesterday, sparking a shootout that wounded three people in the latest explosion of infighting in the Gaza Strip. … +
via googlenews
From: BC Poly Blog
Friday, April 21, 2006
BCTF To Teachers: “We Make More $$$ Than You!”
“Over the last few days, the Vancouver Province’s political reporter, Michael “Please Don’t Steal My Lunch Money” Smyth, in an effort to get into our good graces, has published parts of the BCTF contract.
“If we wanted the teachers to know how much we were screwing them over, we would have told them,” a representative of the BCTF shared with us. “In fact, we have used some of the increase in union dues to add security to our document protection system!”
Our boy Smyth decided to make some BCTF contract points public:
– admin staff at Jinny’s palace make a starting salary of $80,000 or more than twice the starting wage of a teacher
– after five years this salary jumps to over $99,000 while it takes 11 years for a teacher to hit the top tier of $69,000
– unlimited visits for Jinny’s Army for massages, acupuncture and a number of other treatments while teachers top out at 12 visits a year and zero for some of these items
– $500 a year for Viagra
Does this not fly in the face of the BCTF’s claims of putting teachers and students first? Certainly having secret benefits not negotiated for the teachers is hypocritical.
“Look, if teachers are stupid enough to become teachers then they do not deserve the benefits of being the elite in the Union.”, our cantankerous BCTF contact continued….”
The BC Poly Blog has much more, as does Michael Smyth from The Vancouver Province.
Kate,
If you’re a frustrated news consumer why do you still consume? If you don’t like the taste of something stop eating it. By continuing to comment on MSM news you’re making news of news. Exposing it for what it really is only feeds it.
Are you a destroyer or a constructor?
I quit watching TV and reading print news years ago. I also told my writer wife to quit believing everything she writes.
My main source today is Howard Stern and blogs. At least that way when I’m being fed a line there’s some humour and entertainment attached to it.
The year is 1933:
March – Japanese officially withdraw from League of Nations
# Japanese intend to abandon the naval limitation agreements they had with Britain and the United States.
The year is 1945:
Aug. 6 – Hiroshima – 20 kiloton Little Boy killed 80,000 +
History is repeating itself: +
Iran Hints At Withdrawal From UN Nuclear Agency
Posted by areafiftyone
On 04/24/2006 8:15:52 AM PDT � 6 replies � 138+ views
Breaking News.ie ^ | 4/24/06
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hinted today hinted that Iran would consider withdrawing from the UN nuclear agency if membership produced no benefit. �What has more than 30 years of membership in the agency given us?� he asked rhetorically at a press conference. �Working in the framework of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and the agency is our concrete policy,� he added. �(But) if we see that they are violating our rights, or they don�t want to accept (our rights), well, we will revise.� The UN body, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has accused Iran of failing to answer all questions about… +
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1620510/posts
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2timeline/Pacific08.html
In a just society, the actions of the BC Teachers Federation would be sufficent evidence that it is an ongoing criminal conspiracy. They are really no better than the mob, with a demand that you engage in illegal action, punishing you if you don’t, and requiring Maoist self criticism to return to their godd graces after you obeyed the law. The exec should be in jail for 10-20, all the assets seized, and the teachers set free from their servitude to the Maoist mobsters.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson has said he plans to challenge the election outcome in court regardless of the winner, arguing displaced voters were disenfranchised because they weren’t allowed to vote in polling places in such adopted cities as Houston, Dallas and Atlanta.
This whole election smacks of corruption and poor timing. I recently saw a poll where large numbers of the displaced plan never to return to New Orleans or will ever be able to be return due to housing and employment issues. Explain why and how under those circumstances their votes should count? If you don’t/can’t live somewhere, how long do you get to vote from somewhere else? Years? Who monitors that you really are returning at sometime in the future?
Poor, Jesse, still race hustling. It’s mere pocket change compared to the days when he could shake down whole corporations.
I also told my writer wife to quit believing everything she writes.
OK. I’ll bite on that one. Is her writing assignment fiction or fact??
By continuing to comment on MSM news you’re making news of news. Exposing it for what it really is only feeds it
Or retires it, like Dan Rather.
Somewhere in your world of Howard Stern and complete nihilism, Blogwell, I detect a contentment that they rest of us may not as adept at reaching. Whatever works for you.
The gospel is first “preached” in Genesis 3:15: and 3:21:
3:15 He [man] shall bruise you [the serpent] on the head,
And you [i.e., the devil] shall bruise him [i.e., Christ] on the heel.”
3:21The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
This prefigures the believer being clothed with Christ’s righteousness, provided by God, at the cost of a blood-sacrifice. The theme of a blood-atonement is a scarlet thread that is woven throughout Scripture.
Verification, please?
Is the end-game in progress? +
Turkey and Iran moving troops to Iraq’s northern border
Posted by jhp
On 04/24/2006 10:27:21 AM PDT � 10 replies � 542+ views
strategypage.com ^
and is threatening military action and Iran is reported to have already conducted some limited military activities inside Iraq. Apparently, Iran fired artillery at a Kurdish militia held mountain-side located inside of Iraq’s borders… + more
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1620591/posts
“If you’re a frustrated news consumer why do you still consume?”
I don’t. I don’t subscribe to any dead tree media at all any more.
Ive also turned off CTV and CBC news (I used to watch both national news programs back to back every night.) I would guess I see CTV once every two weeks, and CBC once every 3 or 4 months.
In case the advertisers are paying attention – I now rely on a mix of talk radio and internet sources.
Question:
Why is there no one sitting
near the leader of the opposition [Graham] in question period?
Reply:
PM Slaughters them.WOW +
http://www.voy.com/178771/2537.html
Other suggestions?
Guilt by association, maybe?
Nepal king finally revives parliament
Times of India – 1 hour ago
KATHMANDU: Yielding to unrelenting pressure from pro-democracy movement, King Gyanendra of Nepal tonight met a key demand of the Seven-Party Alliance by announcing that Parliament, which he had dissolved in 2002 had been revived. … +
google news
B.C. Teachers are upset with their BCTF Administrators earning substantially more in salary and benefits and they aren’t buying the justifications provided by the union.
Union President Jenny Simms agreed that the ‘gap’ was unconscionably large. Her solution of course, was not to reduce the salary/benefit package she herself enjoys, but (sources have claimed) rather to demand a 24% salary increase for teachers.
Of course the BCTF Administrators, who measure their worth by the ‘gap’ between themselves and the teachers, will later want to ‘catch up’ through their own negotiations.
Ms. Simms is using Alberta to bolster their demands, saying that Alberta teachers earn 20% more than B.C. teachers. No problem, Jenny. As soon as B.C. is debt free, we’ll pay your members the equivalent salary.
To Blogwell Fray:
“Tis better to be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. ”
As to the BCTF: Any takers on whether or not they sign a contract before their deadline?
I am betting they don’t. They operate on confrontation and intimidation and it is time they got slapped hard! If they refuse to sign a contract in good faith they will have made it impossible for their teachers to receive the signing bonus. Wonder how the teachers will feel about THAT should it transpire.
A small New Brunswick publishing house has a bestseller on its hands after the author was discouraged from attending a promotional event by the federal government.
FROM CBC ARTS ONLINE: Minister stops book talk by Environment Canada scientist
Demand for Hotter Than Hell, the obscure debut novel from Ottawa scientist Mark Tushingham, has forced DreamCatcher Publishing of Saint John, N.B., to order a second printing of the book… +
voy.com
Did Tushingham plagiarize his book title from Sheppard’s book?
Amazon.com: Hotter Than Hell: And Other Stories: Books: Simon Sheppard
Amazon.com: Hotter Than Hell: And Other Stories: Books: Simon Sheppard by Simon Sheppard.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1555835961?v=glance – 118k
Key union abandons Canada left-of-center party
Mon Apr 24, 1:05 PM ET
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s largest private-sector union has pulled its support from the New Democratic Party, the left-of-center party that was formed in 1961 partly to be the political voice of labor.
The Canadian Auto Workers said… +
Here’s to Jack Layton: CAW…CAW…CAW…
http://www.voy.com/178771/2709.html
Has the MSM reported this? Vijay has it. +
ISLAMIC GROUPS LAWSUIT AGAINST FORMER CSIS OFFICIAL IS DISMISSED
April 24th, 2006
��� Original Message ���
Subject: ISLAMIC GROUPS LAWSUIT AGAINST FORMER CSIS OFFICIAL IS
DISMISSED
From: �Media Relay�
Date: Mon, April 24, 2006 4:46 pm
To: �Media Relay Recipients�
INSIGNIS STRATEGIC RESEARCH INC.
PRESS RELEASE
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
24 APRIL 2006
ISLAMIC GROUP�S LAWSUIT AGAINST FORMER CSIS OFFICIAL IS DISMISSED
Statement by David B. Harris, Director
International and Terrorist Intelligence Program,
INSIGNIS Strategic Research Inc.
Ottawa, Canada
24 April 2006
The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), the Canadian chapter of the controversial Washington, DC-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), has recently issued a press release (attached) purporting to report the outcome of a defamation lawsuit in which I was a defendant. Readers are cautioned that the CAIR-CAN document is misleading in certain important respects.
CAIR-CAN and its then-Chair, Dr. Sheema Khan, sued Ottawa radio station CFRA and me for remarks I made as a regular CFRA national-security guest during an interview with host Mr. Steve Madely on 1 April 2004. At all relevant times, Mr. Riad Saloojee was Executive Director of CAIR-CAN. Dr. Khan and Mr. Saloojee have lately been replaced in their positions by Mr. Abdul-Basit Khan and Mr. Karl Nickner, respectively.
I believe implicitly in the accuracy of all that I said on the radio program. I have withdrawn not a word, and never shall. In the course of the interview I posed a question: Shouldn�t someone be looking into CAIR-CAN�s relationship with its more-troubling American relative, CAIR? For this, I was sued for libel.
In the spirit of openness and disclosure, INSIGNIS Strategic Research Inc. is making available, on request, relevant legal documents concerning this case, including an unofficial transcript of the interview in question. This is being done so that media and other concerned citizens may satisfy themselves firsthand about the important issues at stake in this matter.
As a commentator on national security affairs, my guiding principle throughout CAIR-CAN�s lawsuit was never to compromise hard-won rights of media and media commentators to their exercise of responsible free expression under s. 2 of Canada�s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I viewed this as a responsibility at a time when Canadians in Afghanistan and elsewhere are dying for such rights, and when civil liberties must be vigorously defended at home. Through the dedication of my family and many committed civil libertarians, including courageous colleagues of Muslim background, we prevailed against CAIR-CAN and Dr. Khan. CAIR-CAN and Dr. Khan dropped their suit, cold. No damages, no costs, no apology, no clarification.
It is for others to decide why CAIR-CAN balked at the prospect of proceeding to trial. It is unknown whether this unease stemmed from concern about the detailed review and disclosures that would derive from such proceedings. Or whether the collapse of its mother organization�s US$1.35 million libel case against the American Anti-CAIR organization (proprietor of http://anti-CAIR-net.org), played a part. We do not know whether it was the unearthing of a December 2003 court document in which Dr. Khan had sworn to CAIR-CAN�s subsidiary status in relation to the troubling US CAIR group. Perhaps it was a concern that, on the witness stand, CAIR-CAN officials would be asked to answer the questions I had asked about that relationship on CFRA radio.
Whatever the truth, it is remarkable, in light of the dramatic indictment of my remarks in CAIR-CAN�s very own Statement of Claim (see below), that CAIR-CAN so abjectly dropped its suit against me. My determined refusal to pen any �apology� or �clarification�, my refusal to pay damages, or any part of CAIR-CAN�s legal costs or expenses, and my commitment through the present statement and other means to keep all of this transparent, paid off. This is a lesson to others in the media and elsewhere who face efforts to silence responsible questions.
Beyond this, certain features of the CAIR-CAN press release must be dealt with for the record. +
http://www.vijaysappani.com/myblog/
Michael Totten:
April 23, 2006
An Experiment in Journalism
I went to the Middle East for six months so I could expand my freelance writing portfolio. But I found, after a few months, there may be a better way forward than publishing disconnected dispatches here and there for low pay.
The mainstream media is an industry in decline. The audience shrinks every year. Profits circle the drain. Budgets for foreign bureaus and correspondents have been gutted stem to stern. Most journalists are paid pitifully low salaries even in good times, and freelancers are paid even worse. Striving to become a part of all that may not be the brightest idea if there�s another option.
And it looks like there might be.
I decided to try a little experiment. Instead of lining up an assignment from an editor to cover Northern Iraqi Kurdistan, I struck out on my own without asking permission from anyone. Almost all my material was posted directly to this Web site. I wanted to see if the amount of money I can raise from readers competes with the industry�s going rate.
It does.
I raised more money from you to cover Iraqi Kurdistan than I�ve made covering any other country on paid assignments. I also had a lot more fun publishing my own material here instead of somewhere else. It is so much nicer to have the freedom to write whatever I want without any oversight, without any rules or restrictions, without any word limits, and without any delays. (The LA Weekly sat on my Libya story for more than a year. Four months after publishing it, they still owe me money.) + more…
http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001129.html
via instapundit
Go Totten
A bit more from Michael Totten: Going to Persia!
Wowee. Go Totten. +
If writing about Israel and Palestine on the blog proves to be profitable, here�s what I�m thinking of next:
I want to go to Iran and �embed� myself, so to speak, with the student movement that struggles against the Khomeini regime.
I didn�t get to spend nearly as much time in Israel and Palestine as I would have liked, and I intend to go back. (I now know Palestinians who can get me safely into and out of Gaza, Hebron, and Jenin.)
I have been in contact with dissidents opposed to Assad�s Baath Party both inside and outside of Syria. It may be time to pay them a visit if the embassy in Washington (there isn�t one in Beirut) will grant me a visa.
I can secure protection and safe passage in Kabul and in the hinterlands of Afghanistan. Nothing is stopping me from going except that I do not have an assignment.
I speak some Spanish, I know Latin America well, and it�s about time I went to Cuba and, perhaps, Venezuela. +
http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001129.html
Yeah Maz, Michael is a trend setter! Great read too.
New Centre to tackle online Child Abuse
Monday, April 24, 2006 at 12:32 by Peter Smith
Tackling child sex abuse took a significant step forward today with the launch of the new Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.
The new organisation is headed up by Jim Gamble, former Deputy Director General of the National Crime Squad. More…
http://itvibe.com/news/4026/
Related stories same page..
Yahoo closes down sex chat rooms.
==================================
Microsoft to close public chat rooms.
=====================================
Better late than never.
In the 1980s..
I was part of a group that got BCTel to stop their kids unsupervised chat phone rooms. TG
Geez maz how much reading do you do? But don’t ever stop!
Socialist Stephen Lewis from Canada & the phony AIDS “crisis”.
Recall Lewis & shut down the phony AIDS ambassador. +
The Post and the Phony AIDS Crisis
Media Monitor ^ | 4/25/2006 | Cliff Kincaid
Posted on 04/25/2006 6:02:00 AM PDT by Mike Bates
It came almost two years after the Boston Globe exposed it, but the Washington Post on April 6 acknowledged that the number of HIV/AIDS cases in Africa has been grossly exaggerated by the United Nations in order to generate money through the world body to spend on the disease. In an April 10 editorial, the Post admitted, “The United Nations’ credibility on AIDS will now suffer.” So should the credibility of the media for taking the world organization seriously.
The Post editorial declared, “It’s been clear for a while that UNAIDS, the agency responsible for these statistics, was reluctant to contemplate good strategies for fighting AIDS lest these undermine global support for expanded funding.” The Post found the U.N. guilty of publishing “dubious AIDS data.”
The FAIR Foundation, which stands for Fair Allocations in Research, had known about and exposed the dubious data. On its website, it highlighted how the UN AIDS office, the World Health Organization (WHO), the National Institutes of Health, and AIDS activists “continually speak of AIDS decimating the world and use that argument to argue for more research funding.” It had posted the John Donnelly Boston Globe article of June 20, 2004, explaining how the figures had been exaggerated.
“Recent studies in Kenya have confirmed millions of Africans previously thought to have AIDS are disease free,” noted the FAIR Foundation. In Kenya, as the BCC reported on January 9, 2004, estimates had put the figure at 15 percent, when a subsequent survey found only 6.7 percent infected. + … more
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1621082/posts
Stephen Lewis: Taking on AIDS in Africa – CBC This Morning
Canada’s former ambassador to the United Nations has been appointed special envoy in the fight against AIDS in Africa. Shelagh speaks to Stephen Lewis about …
radio.cbc.ca/programs/thismorning/sites/news/lewis_010607.html – 30k
Long live readers. +
The great unwashed happen to be “readers” too
“But you don’t get over name-calling by engaging in name-calling, and that’s basically what Henninger is doing. Things were better before those unwashed types got to share in the public square. Bloggers, Henninger implies, are unfit for public discourse. But there’s another name for bloggers: readers. And more-than-usually interested readers, too. Newspapers are losing readers while dissing bloggers. Or, more accurately, newspapers are losing readers while dissing readers. Go figure.
In fact, the Internet is often a remedy, not simply a vehicle, for irrational personal attacks. If we want a kinder, gentler, and more civilized society, we’d be better off focusing on the kind of behavior that’s acceptable, and that’s not, and less on over-the-top attacks on an entire medium of communication. Even one that’s costing the old guys money.”
via newsbeat1.com
The Medium Isn’t the Message
By Glenn Harlan Reynolds : BIO| 25 Apr 2006
Daniel Henninger is pretty down on the blogosphere. Writing in the Wall Street Journal last week, he complained that blogs are lowering the tone of political discourse:
“I don’t think the blogosphere is breeding cannibals. But it looks to me as if the world of blogs may be filling up with people who for the previous 200 millennia of human existence kept their weird thoughts more or less to themselves. Now, they don’t have to. They’ve got the Web. Now they can share.”
It’s big of him not to make the cannibalism accusation — we bloggers get so tired of that. But he goes on: + more
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=042506C
Progress in [U.S. – Canada] softwood negotiations: report
CBC News ^ | 25. April 2006 | unattributed
Posted on 04/25/2006 10:43:23 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
Canada is now within days of agreeing to new negotiations in its longstanding trade dispute with the United States over softwood lumber exports, a report said Tuesday… +
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1621258/posts
Statement from the Prime Minister on day of commemoration of Armenian Genocide
April 21, 2006
Ottawa, Ontario
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today issued the following statement on the commemoration of the Armenian genocide
�I would like to extend my sincere greetings to all of those marking this sombre anniversary of the Medz Yeghern.
�Ninety-one years ago the Armenian people experienced terrible suffering and loss of life. In recent years the Senate of Canada adopted a motion acknowledging this period as �the first genocide of the twentieth century,� while the House of Commons adopted a motion that �acknowledges the Armenian genocide of 1915 and condemns this act as a crime against humanity.� I and my party supported those resolutions, and continue to recognize them today.
�We must never forget the lessons of history. Nor should we allow the enmities of history to divide us. The freedom, democracy, and human rights enjoyed by all Canadians are rooted in our mutual respect for one another.
�I join with you today in remembering the past, while I encourage you to continue honouring your forefathers by building a bright future for all in Canada. +
From the Prime Minister’s Web Site (http://www.pm.gc.ca/
Turkey criticizes Harper
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkey on Tuesday criticized Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper for remarks he made in support of recognizing the mass killings of Armenians during the First World War as genocide, and warned that such statements threatened to harm Turkish-Canadian relations.
In a statement on April 21, Harper recalled that Canada’s Senate and House of Commons had adopted resolutions recognizing the killings as genocide and said, “I and my party supported those resolutions and continue to recognize them today.”
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry issued a stern statement saying it “regretted” Harper’s remarks over the killings that occurred more than eight decades ago.
“Statements concerning disputed historic events by foreign parliaments or governments nearly a century later will not change the nature of what happened in reality,” the statement said.
“Such statements do not contribute to the environment of dialogue between Turkey and Armenia, and have a negative effect on Turkish-Canadian relations,” it added. “The stagnation of relations between the two countries after the Canadian Parliament’s decision . . . is the clearest example of this.”
Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper reported Tuesday that Turkey would bar Canadian companies from bidding for the construction of a nuclear power plant that Turkey hopes to build in the Black Sea coastal town of Sinop.
In 2001, Turkey cancelled millions of dollars’ worth of defence deals with French companies after legislators in France recognized the genocide.
Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were killed as the Ottoman Empire forced them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923 in a deliberate campaign of genocide. via cnews +
The MSM pays scant attention to the Accountability Act.
The blogosphere does.
Smash the Librano$ pork barrel; keep the porkers/pigs out of your tax dollars.
More, & faster. +
Hansard excerpts- Accountability Act- April 25,2006
Excerpts:
Mr. Pierre Poilievre (Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the accountability act, if passed, will be the toughest anti-corruption law in Canadian history. It will end the revolving door between ministers’ offices and lobby firms. It will give the Auditor General the power to shine the light of day into every dark corner in her hunt for waste, theft and corruption. It will ban big money and corporate cash from political campaigns so that no longer will powerful interests buy favours during political campaigns. It will protect honest whistleblowers from bullying….
Too often we have seen these courageous whistleblowers destroyed, their lives and reputations and yes, their own financial security. They do not have the ability to hire an army of lawyers to defend them in courts, and that is why we are giving them the ability to do so through an independent tribunal under the auspices of an officer of Parliament. Throughout that process, whistleblowers will have legal advice furnished to them and they will have the ability to operate in a setting that is open and transparent.
We are removing the cover-up clauses that the Liberals had installed in the previous whistleblower protection law. Those cover-up clauses allowed cabinet to rip whistleblower protection out of the hands of employees at crown corporations, to cover up information related to scandal for five years, and prevent access to information requests from going there. We are removing those kinds of cover-up clauses because we believe that whistleblower protection is designed to expose corruption and restore accountability, not the reverse.
Too often we have seen these courageous whistleblowers destroyed, their lives and reputations and yes, their own financial security. They do not have the ability to hire an army of lawyers to defend them in courts, and that is why we are giving them the ability to do so through an independent tribunal under the auspices of an officer of Parliament. Throughout that process, whistleblowers will have legal advice furnished to them and they will have the ability to operate in a setting that is open and transparent.
We are removing the cover-up clauses that the Liberals had installed in the previous whistleblower protection law. Those cover-up clauses allowed cabinet to rip whistleblower protection out of the hands of employees at crown corporations, to cover up information related to scandal for five years, and prevent access to information requests from going there. We are removing those kinds of cover-up clauses because we believe that whistleblower protection is designed to expose corruption and restore accountability, not the reverse.
These protections for whistleblowers are long overdue. The government operations committee discussed whistleblower protection for two years. The Liberal government commenced the discussions on Bill C-11 almost two years ago, but still on election day the bill had not been given royal proclamation. In other words, Canada still does not have whistleblower protection….
We are extending access to information into a whole series of bodies of the government that were formerly excluded. Crown corporations, for example, will have new requirements of openness to the Canadian taxpayers. The Auditor General will have the ability to follow the money, to go into organizations that receive large sums of public money, and find out where those dollars are being spent.
Imagine if the Auditor General had been able to follow the money to the advertising firms and even the Liberal Party during the latest sponsorship scandal. Imagine if we had greater access to the books of the great foundations where Liberals have been stashing away billions of dollars for so many years. Imagine all the contractors that have benefited from the Liberal gun registry, which is now $1 billion over budget. Those types of government expenditures deserve to be subjected to the greatest public scrutiny, and that is exactly what the accountability act seeks to accomplish…
Mr. Pierre Poilievre: Mr. Speaker, it would be intellectually dishonest of me to say that one act of Parliament alone could permanently prevent any scandal from occurring in government. What I can say is that had the accountability act been in place when the Liberal ad scam occurred, it would have been caught much sooner and punished much more swiftly.
I will give some examples. Allan Cutler would have had the ability to go to an independent officer of Parliament and report the scandal, theft and fraud that was transpiring with the sponsorship program. That independent officer of Parliament would have been forced, within 60 days, to report that wrongdoing to Parliament, meaning the public would have known of the wrongdoing within 60 days of the commissioner confirming it. In other words, the public would have known many years before what kind of fraud the Liberal Party was carrying out.That fraud, therefore, could have been stopped in its tracks. All the advertising firms that got money after Allan Cutler had originally come forward internally, we might have been able to have stopped, saving hundreds of millions of Canadian tax dollars as a result.
+ via newsbeat1.com
While the media, the Liberals, and the rest of the left-wing drool over troop bodies, your government is doing work not done for over a decade. God bless them. And cheers. -Dennis out.
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Canada, U.S. reach framework softwood agreement
Updated Wed. Apr. 26 2006 2:19 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
CTV News has learned there has been a major breakthrough in the decades-old softwood lumber dispute.
Canada and the U.S. have agreed to a framework deal to end the contentious issue during around-the-clock negotiations between Michael Wilson, the ambassador to the United States and Susan Schwab, the U.S. trade representative, CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife reported Wednesday afternoon.
As part of the agreement, Canadian lumber firms would be held to a 34 per cent share of softwood lumber in the U.S. market, which is roughly Canada’s current share.
The U.S. would return about 78 per cent of the $5 billion it collected in anti-dumping and countervailing duties beginning in 2002. +
via http://www.voy.com/178771/3992.html