small dead animals

The Podcasting Tories

In the spirit of my interviews with MPs Monte Solberg (1, 2, 3, 4) and Andrew Scheer (1, 2), I created the Blogging Tories Podcasting page because I wanted to get the whole Blogging Tories community in on the action.

If you've been thinking of getting into podcasting, here's your chance. The Blogging Tories today has officially launched its Postcasting Tories site.

I've purchased branding on the iPodder software for ease of use to our audience (the Blogging Tories feed is already integrated) so go there now and download it from our servers (PC and Mac available).

The idea is to integrate podcasts from members of the Blogging Tories community into one Podcasting feed that is downloaded regularly by the Podcast Aggregating software run by our global audience. Whenever a new podcast becomes availiable, the software downloads it automatically for the user.

I'm currently trying to round up some conservative radio pundits and personalities to include in the podcast XML feed as well. If you're such a radio personality, let me know and I'll put you in the feed! Of course, if you're not a Canadian radio celebrity -- here's your chance to tryout!

Conservative talk radio has hit Canada... in podcast form.

Literary revisionism, 2: "If instead of a brooding existentialist, Albert Camus were a libertarian" (from the protein wisdom conceptual series)

"[...] At which point Sisyphus, weary of the burden imposed on him by a centralized, elitist pantheon of self-styled 'Gods,' changed his fate by finding a willing masochist to assume his unending task -- spreading happiness on two fronts and signalling a victory for the free market over the tyranny of an artificial 'fate' henceforth shown to be illusory."

-- from "The Myth of Sisyphus"

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previous

Spain Legalizes Gay Marriage - Canada Next

Spain Legalizes Same-Sex Marriages (AP)

Parliament legalized gay marriage Thursday, defying conservatives and clergy who opposed making traditionally Roman Catholic Spain the third country to allow same-sex unions nationwide. Jubilant gay activists blew kisses to lawmakers after the vote. The measure passed the 350-seat Congress of Deputies by a vote of 187 to 147. The bill, part of the ruling Socialists' aggressive agenda for social reform, also lets gay couples adopt children and inherit each others' property.

The bill is now law. The Senate, where conservatives hold the largest number of seats, rejected the bill last week. But it is an advisory body and final say on legislation rests with the Congress of Deputies.

After the final tally was announced, gay and lesbian activists watching from the spectator section of the ornate chamber cried, cheered, hugged, waved to lawmakers and blew them kisses. Several members of the conservative opposition Popular Party, which was vehemently opposed to the bill, shouted: "This is a disgrace." Those in favor stood and clapped.

The Netherlands and Belgium are the only other two countries that allow gay marriage nationwide. Canada's House of Commons passed legislation Tuesday that would legalize gay marriage; its Senate is expected to pass the bill into law by the end of July.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero noted this in debate before the vote. "We were not the first, but I am sure we will not be the last. After us will come many other countries, driven, ladies and gentlemen, by two unstoppable forces: freedom and equality," he told the chamber.

I suspect he's right.

via OTB

Revenge of the Chickenhawks

One of the silliest arguments confronting [American] pro-war supporters is the infantile "chickenhawk" accusation frequently floated by those swimming in the shallow end of the anti-war pool -- the idea being, in theory, that if you aren't a member of the military, you aren't entitled to express a public opinion on the Iraqi war.¹ Of course, in practice, non-military personnel such as those who are quick to use the chickenhawk argument are themselves permitted to express an opinion on the war -- provided it's the correct opinion, namely, that the war is illegal and immoral, and that Bush and his cronies are evil lying scum. But then, consistency is not the strong suit of these folks -- nor is logic, as Christopher Hitchens points out in "Don't 'Son' Me", Slate, June 28th:

Did I send my children to rescue the victims of the collapsing towers of the World Trade Center? No, I expected the police and fire departments to accept the risk of gruesome death on my behalf. All of them were volunteers (many of them needlessly thrown away, as we now know, because of poor communications), and one knew that their depleted ranks would soon be filled by equally tough and heroic citizens who would volunteer in their turn. We would certainly face a grave societal crisis if that expectation turned out to be false.

But when it comes to the confrontation in Iraq, the whole notion of grown-ups volunteering is dismissed or lampooned. Instead, it's people's children getting "sent." Recall Michael Moore asking congressmen whether they would "send" one of their offspring, as if they had the power to do so, or the right? (John Ashcroft's son was in the Gulf, but I doubt that his father dispatched him there, and in any case it would take a lot more than this to reconcile me to Ashcroft, as Moore implies that it should.) Nobody has to join the armed forces, and those who do are old enough to vote, get married, and do almost everything legal except buy themselves a drink. Why infantilize young people who are entitled to every presumption of adulthood?

Sadly, the chickenhawk argument, though logically puerile, can prove quite rhetorically effective -- in the same sense that charges of homophobia and racism have proven effective in debates over gay marriage and government funded affirmative action programs: such charges, cynically delivered, tend to stifle substantive discourse, forcing one side of the argument onto the defensive by changing the focus of the debate from the issues themselves to the character of certain professors of those issues -- and in that regard, they help to sustain the status quo.

The bottom line is, the chickenhawk argument is an impediment to legitimate discourse and debate -- and legitimate discourse and debate over national security is a necessity in a free society; and for that reason, those who raise the chickenhawk argument should be treated by everyone -- right and left -- as intellectual pariahs.

It would be nice to see the blogosphere begin that trend.

¹ Or rather, you're entitled to express an opinion, but that opinion is, ipso facto, devoid of legitimacy, so you should probably just save your cowardly Rethuglican breath, deathmonger.

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(h/t QandO)

****
update: Check out the comments section here for a number of spirited defenses of the chickenhawk meme from delusionally self-righteous anti-war Deanhumpers who have never met a left-liberal talking point they won't cling to like Michael Moore to a plate of spare ribs. The gist of most of the "arguments" in support of the meme's righteousness is that people so willing to speak vociferously in favor of the war should put their money where their mouths are -- and merely advocating for the cause doesn't count. Which means, of course, FDR should've strapped on a helmet, picked up a rifle, and had one of his aides wheel his crippled ass in front of a Panzer. BECAUSE OF THE HYPOCRISY!

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originally posted at protein wisdom

In which I attempt to curry favor with Canadians by carefully caressing their cultural sensibilities, 4

Baseball is for pussies. Now hockey -- that's a man's sport...!

Have A Safe Weekend

And a Happy Dominion Day!

(I refuse to call my my country's national holiday by a name that sounds like the brainchild of a marketer at the Real Canadian Superstore*.)

Have a safe one, be good to my guest authors and I'll be back early next week.

Before I go - thankyou for the emails and kind comments over the Mark Steyn reference to SDA at Right Wing News. It's a good thing I already have a world class ego.

Survivor: Thailand

Thailand: 600 dead in 2 years.

I did not know that.

While I appreciate that they have their hands full pursuing the Self-Fulfilling Prophesy Project in Iraq, one would think that our khaki-clad friends covering the international "militancy" beat might have mentioned it in passing.

Of course, without US involvement second tier terrorist zones like Thailand have nearly no hope of breaking into the international news.

Complicating matters, the news cycle is currently dominated by Tom Cruise's opinions on the state of modern psychiatry, Tom Cruise's latest movie, Tom Cruise's religious beliefs. Cruise to carnage - it's hard to segue.

"Speaking of being a head taller than her new fiancee - today militants in Thailand beheaded 5 hostages...."

Islamists lack a well known face who can compete with a Cruise or a Pitt, and even if they did, the nature of Islamofascist pop culture isn't all that compatable with a star system. Hellfire missiles tend to follow them around, for one thing. Some new Jihadi explodes onto the scene and, well - he explodes onto the scene.

And what today's TV news consumer wants aren't stars, anyway. They want to get to know the little people - the man-on-the-street Jihadi, the insurgent in the next cubicle. The people they can identify with.

You're thinking what I'm thinking, aren't you? If terrorism in out of the way locales wants to make it to the nightly news, they should look at working the entertainment angle.

Islamofascist Reality TV.

Survivor: Chechnya.

The Amazing Race In A Bomb Laden Fiat.

As we all know - ratings = news.

"Tonight on ABC News: an behind the scenes look at the making of the hit reality TV show, "The Infidel" as it winds to the season's closing episode. Who gets the axe?"

You've Come A Long Way, Baby

Introducing the new President Elect of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Cotillion

A new edition of the Cotillion is up - a collection of voices of women on the right side of the 'sphere.

Mark Steyn Interview

Right Wing News interviews the incomparable Mark Steyn. Via email, it covers "a number of topics including Steyn's syndication in the US, Israel, the future of Europe and Nato, Christianity in Europe, Iraq, illegal immigration, and the American left's view of foreign policy."

All that and yours truly's "sharp headlines, one-line squibs, and nifty asides".

After spending three hours working in the rain getting ready for this trip, that certainly brightened my day.

How Long Does It Take...

To investigate a crime scene where the perp is dead and everyone in the country already knows what happened?

Eighteen months, believe it or not.

Geekgirl

Heh.

Long Day

Up early, worked hard and I'm just now finally able to wind down a little, so there won't be anything new up tonight unless I get a second wind.

Also, I've got another dog show weekend ahead (in Vermillion, SD this time), a ton of stuff to do before I go the first leg tomorrow, and will be offline for good Thursday morning. I may invite a few guests to pinch hit - but keeping in mind that both DOMINION Day and July 4th in the US are around the corner, posting (and readership) is likely to be slow on any account.

Ya'll behave, eh?

From An Old Family Friend

A letter from L. Earle Wicklum to Paul Martin.

Click for full size version

Liberal-Bloc Work To Further Human Rights Amid Stephen Harper's Hypocrisy!

In the faux furor (which reminds me more than a little of the Rove "contraversy" last week) over Stephen Harper's comments about the legitimacy of the SSM bill being passed by a Liberal-Bloc coalition, this little propoganda piece that was circulating in Ontario just a couple of weeks ago is timely reading.

Stephen Harper confirmed that he is willing to collaborate with the separatist Bloc Québécois to drag Canadians back to the polls before justice Gomery has finished hearing witnesses and issued his final report.

He has said that "Canadian's don't need to form the kind of judgments that Mr. Justice Gomery is going to form." If he is referring to matters of guilt or innocence those are judgments in which Ontarians, and Canadians, are very much interested.

It wasn't too long ago that Stephen Harper was falsely telling Canadians that the Liberals would find a way to prevent the Commission from carrying out its mandate and that it was absolutely essential that Justice Gomery be allowed to complete his work before an election was called.

Now he is the one putting national unity at risk, once again proving that, in his mind, political opportunism trumps the best interests of Ontarians.

We believe that Stephen Harper's comments and actions are indeed counterproductive, and should offend every Ontarian who wants Justice Gomery to complete the job entrusted to him.

As our first act in office, on December 12th, 2003, this government cancelled the sponsorship program. We made sure that those implicated were removed from their positions as crown corporation executives. The Government has also filed a lawsuit against 19 defendants, including several communications companies and their directors to recover $41 million. And of course, it was this Liberal government that appointed Justice Gomery.

This government has absolutely no intention of preventing Justice Gomery from getting to the bottom of things. With his conclusions in hand, rest assured that we will act swiftly and surely to ensure that those who did wrong face the full consequence of their actions.

In contrast to Stephen Harper's political games, this Liberal government has remained committed to making Parliament work for Canadians. We know that Canadians expect us to deliver on our commitments, and that's exactly what we're doing with Budget 2005.

We're investing in our communities and cities, which will receive more than $1.9 billion over the next five years as a result of this Liberal government's decision to transfer a portion of federal gas tax revenue to municipalities. This means that by year five, Ontario will receive $746 million per year in stable and predictable funding for better roads, improved transit systems and more sustainable infrastructure.

To encourage regional economic development in communities throughout Northern Ontario and rural Southern Ontario, we're providing significant funding to the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario (FedNor).

Our national initiative for early learning and child care will give Ontario's families the assistance they need. And our billions of dollars in funding for the environment - including investments in wind power and the Great Lakes Action Plan will help us meet our Kyoto commitments, keeping our environment healthy and sustainable for future generations.

Along with new funding for international aid, support for settlement and integration programs for new Canadians, billions of dollars for our military, assistance for Canada's farmers and producers and help for Canada's First Nations, Inuit and Metis, these initiatives will result in a better quality of life for all Ontarians.

It is these very priorities that Ontarians said they wanted us to focus on when they went to the polls and last year. It is why they voted for a Liberal government. We have delivered what we said we would, and we will continue to deliver.

Ontarians know what they would get with a Conservative government. They would get a neo-conservative, backwards-looking government that would rip up the Kyoto Accord, privatize health care, leave cities and communities to fend for themselves, offer up a pittance for child care, and reverse any progress made on Equalization.

We've said it before and we'll say it again - the Gomery Commission must be allowed to complete its work. We believe in due process and the independence of the judiciary.

Stephen Harper should quit playing partisan politics with the best interests of Canadians. This Liberal government is committed to moving Canada forward.

Guantanamo Bay Is One Happenin' Place

Torture by Harry Potter, topless female interrogators and "99 Ways To Desecrate The Koran!"

Where do those infidel Americans find the time?

Let's All Wake Up, Con't

Revisiting this post from the weekend, this comment from "Joe" merits attention.

Re acid rain in China. As a resident of Guangzhou, I can confirm that it stings like crazy if it gets into your eyes. The Southern China landscape now is nothing more than a hot, hazy, pollution-filled, area full of factories and brothels.

Re the nationalist side of China, I've witnessed the rise of this during the last 12 years and, yes, it has already surpassed the nationalism of what we read was evident in pre-war Germany, Italy, Japan etc.

The "us" and "them" mentality(i.e. we Chinese and you foreigners led by America) is staggering in China. And the expectation that China will directly challenge the US one day isn't debated over here, it's seen as an inevitable fact.

The govt here encourages a victim mentality complex and a sense of aggrieved history among the population (as in the recent anti-Japan riots) as well as teching all schoolchildren that The Middle Kingdom ruled the world for millenia before, several hundred years ago, the industrialised west stole it's technology like gunpowder etc. and usurped China's rightful place in the world. China incurred a HUGE loss of face and now China has started on the road to re-claiming it's rightful place in the world. Conflict with the US/allies is inevitable and welcome as it will be the herald of a new era of unrivalled dominance for China.

Also, don't expect China to start lobbing missiles anytime soon, it's not her style. Sun Zu's 36 Directives on waging war are almost all concerned with deception (1 spy is worth more than 1,000 soldiers, sometimes a war can be lost before it has even began etc.). Therefore, China will work behind the scenes, quietly, not attracting attention, undermining economies, cyber-war, propaganda war, building spy networks and maybe 10,000 other things that none of us here could even guess at.

I'm not saying we should all run to our nuclear shelters just yet but if anyone believes all that talk about China's peaceful rise and how China will never seek hegemony or use aggression against others, then they are a fool.

Thanks to Simon at simonworld.mu.nu for linking this article in his Daily Linklets.

The 86% Solution

"I commend the RCMP for their approach.There are people who have been denied opportunities for much too long simply because they don't show ability in their desired field. Our belated recognition as a society of the emotional wounds caused by overly strict hiring standards is a watershed event.

This more enlightened approach to hiring should be more broadly implemented, so as to include fire and rescue workers, surgeons, airline pilots, electricians, civil engineers, air-traffic controllers, S.W.A.T. team snipers, rodeo clowns...

Together, we can make this a better world."

"Nothing Comes Between Me And Your Bordens"

*

Whistleblower: Passport Office

Conservative Party of Canada;

Stockwell Day, Official Opposition Foreign Affairs Critic, is to hand over to the Auditor General documents brought to him by a Passport Canada employee, which alleges serious breaches of security and procedure.

"This employee apparently tried to get superiors to consider the extensive catalogue of improprieties within the Passport Office," said Day. "When officials found out that this person had met with me as a Member of Parliament, the employee was then subjected to a series of highly questionable repercussions."

Day said the whole matter requires a serious review by people in the Auditor General's Office who are equipped to handle high level allegations of this nature.

Allegations with documentation include:

Security Breaches - Unacceptable levels of errors and oversights in the granting of passports puts the security of the passport application process in serious question. Examples include everything from non-citizens being granted citizen passports, to guarantors who have not even given their correct (or any) last names.

Improper Hiring - Proper job competition guidelines have allegedly been ignored with multiple cases of hiring of relatives and friends without due process being followed.

Misinformation Given to Standing Committee on Public Accounts - It is alleged that a Senior Bureaucrat presented false information to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, indicating that high levels of security were realized due to the possession and use of high-tech equipment, which it is now alleged, does not even exist (or did not at the time).

Whistleblower Wrongly Suspended - An employee with information on the above issues had apparently spoken to superiors without avail. Then, when the employee decided the inaction was too extreme to be left unaddressed and went to an M.P., they were allegedly wrongly dismissed.

Diversifying Thought At The New York Times

...because good journalism entails understanding more than just the neighborhood you grew up in.

The Faltering US Economy

Via NRO;

According to the Treasury department, the U.S. government took in a single-day record $61 billion in tax receipts on June 15. This surpassed the previous single-day high of $56 billion set on December 15, 2000. The recent surge in tax revenues is not just a one-day event. Fiscal year to date, total government receipts are up 15.5 percent, the fastest rate of increase on a comparable FYTD basis since 1981. The difference between the growth rate of tax revenues and the growth rate of government spending has widened to 8.4 percentage points, the largest since late 2000 when the budget was in surplus.

Only Ewe* Can Prevent Forest Fires!

Smokey The Goat.

h/t Kens.com

*Yes, I know that female goats are "nannies".

1% Credible

Via Maz, in the comments, this item at Reason;

[A]mong the people increasingly "less trusting of the professional behavior" of journalists are . . . journalists! A survey of professional journalists by Euro RSCG Magnet, a PR and marketing outfit, and Columbia University, found that "45 percent of journalists are less trusting of the professional behavior of their own colleagues -- up from 34 percent in 2003." Many of these journalists were unhappy about the recent unpleasantness involving Dan Rather: "78 percent believe that Rathergate has profoundly altered the media's credibility."

The welcome news is that "93 percent of journalists said they are being 'excruciatingly careful' in fact-checking their stories in 2005 -- a huge increase from 59 percent in 2003, likely a reflection of the press's declining credibility." The grabber here is here is that in 2003, 41 percent of journalists said they were being something other than 'excruciatingly careful' in fact-checking their stories.

The survey actually focused on journalists' attitude toward blogs. "[O]nly 1 percent believe blogs are credible," yet "more than half of journalists use Weblogs regularly, with 28 percent relying on them for day-to-day reporting." Assemble those responses as you wish. Many pro journalists use blogs, the survey reported, to find story ideas and sources.

Or not. Whatever. We'll continue doing what we doing and they can continue fretting over ratings declines, staff cuts and dropping circulation numbers, and delude themselves that the two phenomenon are unrelated.

From the E marketer piece;

"The findings of the study validate what we have known for some time: that blogs are playing a more significant role in the way information is transmitted to readers and journalists alike, and may profoundly alter the media and communications landscapes," said Aaron Kwittken, CEO of Euro RSCG Magnet. "The fact that the media are using blogs for reporting and research also demonstrates that blogs have an enormous potential to not only influence the general public, but to influence the influencers - journalists and the media - as well."

The study finds that some 70% of journalists who use blogs do so for work-related tasks. Most often, those work-related tasks involve finding story ideas, with 53% of journalist respondents reporting using blogs for such purposes. But respondents also turn to blogs for other uses, including researching and referencing facts (43%) and finding sources (36%). Fully 33% of journalists say they use blogs as a way of uncovering breaking news or scandals.

Is it not time for the profession to establish protocols that give the credit due when they lift information from "citizen journalists"?

For The Record

Math isn't one of the national media punditry's stronger suits.
Andrew Scheer;

The Liberals did not 'sneak one' past the Conservatives. The Libs and Bloc cut a deal to force the vote when they knew some of our members were away.

As I mentioned in the previous post, a death in the family caused one MP to be away, and cancer treatments caused two others to miss the votes. With three of us away, there was no way we could have defeated the Bill.

Selling Out The Vote

Janice Johnson says Charles Meechance walked into her living room, flashed a thick wad of $50 and $100 bills, and asked her to hand over her blank mail-in ballot for the upcoming Red Pheasant First Nation election. 

If Meechance purchased enough votes to win the election, one has to consider the old adage about voters who get "the government they deserve".

Competing Headlines

Repeating copy.

This pithy comment;

"Under the guise of informing, they continue to advocate."

Walking The Line

A reporter in Iraq follows the example of Sam Walton.

The Command Sergeant Major is the right-hand man of the top General in Iraq, the premiere Non-commissioned Officer for every Soldier, Marine, Airman and Naval enlisted person. This includes all Coalition members such as the Poles, the Estonians, Koreans, and all the rest. In other words, Mellinger is Alpha. His principle job is to walk the line, whether it be in combat in Mosul, or a ship in the Arabian Gulf. Because he walked the line, he was the man; and his first question to me was, "Who are you?"

My passport was already opened to the page-I did not yet have an ID card-and I handed it over to him, saying I am an author and wanted to go to Tikrit. I asked if he was headed that way. "You aren't one of those journalists who will sit in a Baghdad hotel room and write about the war, are you?" It was as much accusation as question.

"Sergeant Major," I said, "I didn't come to Iraq to hang out in a hotel. I am trying to get to Tikrit."

[...]

And so, he picked me up and we drove to Baghdad, and now we are headed to Kuwait. I've had six months to put a list of questions together. Some of his answers, along with my observations from "walking the line" with CSM Mellinger, will be included with subsequent posts. But for now, we are driving the roads of Iraq in a Humvee, and walking the line.

Let's All Wake Up

A Washington Times item that's generating buzz this morning. Be sure to read it, because you won't see its like from a Canadian press fixated on the urgent matters of Karla Homolka's lesbian lovers and Stephen Harper summer barbeque circuit.;

"We may be seeing in China the first true fascist society on the model of Nazi Germany, where you have this incredible resource base in a commercial economy with strong nationalism, which the military was able to reach into and ramp up incredible production"

 China's rulers have adopted what is known as the "two-island chain" strategy of extending control over large areas of the Pacific, covering inner and outer chains of islands stretching from Japan to Indonesia.

"Clearly, they are still influenced by this first and second island chain," the intelligence official said. The official said China's buildup goes beyond what would be needed to fight a war against Taiwan.
    
The conclusion of this official is that China wants a "blue-water" navy capable of projecting power far beyond the two island chains.

The unsettling realization is that should overt hostilities break out between China and the US (and Japan), can anyone imagine a Liberal government led by Paul Martin (and heavily influenced by PowerCorp & Co.) standing anywhere but firmly on the side of "wait and see"?

via Neale and Drudge

SEE ALSO - via Newsbeat1, this Peter Worthington piece on the renewed interest in Sidewinder - the CSIS-RCMP report into Chinese espionage that the Chretien government ordered destroyed. A search on "Sidewinder" here should bring up other items, including links to photo images of the original draft report.

Reversing Kelo

Spotted at NRO's The Corner;

"The quickest way to reverse Kelo is to find some conservative town in Utah somewhere to shut down an abortion clinic in order to make room for a Wal-Mart."

H.G. Wells' Hegemonic Neomartian Quagmire

Ian at Inoperable Terran asks;

"Can we just nuke Hollywood now?"

Tommy Douglas: Stockpiling Death

In a story revealing that Canadian physicians are setting aside doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu for family and friends in the event that forecasts of a bird flu pandemic are borne out, the CBC lists the reasons against "stockpiling":

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Allison McGeer of Toronto's Mount Sinai said she understands why some of her colleagues are acquiring a personal stockpile of Tamiflu. Ethically, though, she said the federal government should be protecting everyone.

"The best protection if we don't have vaccine is one dose of prophylactic for every Canadian for every day for two waves of the pandemic," McGeer said.

The idea of personal stockpiles of Tamiflu worries most public health officials like McGeer, and some are advising doctors against writing the prescriptions.

The reasons against stockpiling are:

The resistance hypothesis – Widespread use of Tamiflu among patients with influenza could lead to resistant strains of flu, potentially making the drug useless.

Shelf-life: Tamiflu is only guaranteed for five years, yet no one knows when a pandemic will hit.

Equity: At $5 per pill, not everyone will be able to afford a personal stockpile.

We have just been reminded that simply having the financial resources to purchase your own medications is reason enough to be denied access to them.

This is what Trudeaupia has come to. We are rapidly moving past the "equity" of months long waiting lists and zero-tier Health Care Prohibition Zones into a hyper-socialist model where "universality" is defined as a government policy that applies as equally to health care denied as it does health care provided.

With a shelf life of 5 years, a family's investment in Tamiflu works out to $1 a year per pill, per person. In the insanity that has become the Canadian health care system, this fact is actually cited as a reason not to allow Canadians to make it.

Without saying so in so many words, official government policy towards the pandemic we are all being warned is coming, is this: until every Canadian can afford to set aside a handful of $5 pills, death equity for Canadians will remain official Canadian Government policy.

American Like Me

A reporter poses as an American tourist in Toronto, and uncovers the "ugly Canadian".

First, I approached John, sitting on a stoop smoking, a Toronto hat on his head. I asked for a lighter, introduced myself and said I'd noticed anti-Americanism in Toronto. He asked if I was a Republican and I said I was. Then John asked, "Are you a fundamentalist of some kind?"

"This is Kensington Market," he added. "It's about the worst place for fellow right- wingers." After I thanked him for his time and started walking away, he instructed, "Reconsider your views."

Via Neale

Paul's Day Planner

"I very, very much wanted to be here, but ... in a minority Parliament -- when you take a look at the discussions we just had over the budget bills and other such legislation -- it was absolutely impossible to be here," Martin said. "This is the first possible opportunity that I had to be here."

Candace became very very interested in whether that was actually the case....

June 7, 2005 - High River declares a state of local emergency, hundreds evacuated.

June 8, 2005 - Calgary readies for possible flooding. PMPM has a cabinet meeting in Ottawa.

June 9, 2005 - The river peaked at High River. PMPM did nothing noteworthy according to his site.

June 10, 2005 - Stephen Harper views flood damage (yes, it's his home city, so what? He's running the Opposition in a minority gov't so has just as lame an excuse if he wanted one.) Notice I had to link to a blog - I guess either this wasn't considered "news" by anybody, including the Conservative Party of Canada. And they wonder why people don't see the 'kinder, gentler' side of him? PMPM reaffirmed his commitment to fixing healthcare in Canada. And he had to do that in Ontario because that IS Canada. Maybe he was relaxing after an exhausting week of running a minority government. Maybe his jet needed servicing.

June 11/12, 2005 - PMPM did nothing noteworthy again, according to his news tab.

June 13, 2005 - PMPM repeats his commitment to fixing healtcare, still in Ontario.

June 14, 2005 - PMPM buys more time in office (still in Ontario).

June 15, 2005 - PMPM has another cabinet meeting in Ottawa.

June 16, 2005 - High River braces for another onslaught of rain. PMPM hangs out with a major political leader of a really important country and makes very very important plans for the weekend.

June 17, 2005 - PMPM buys more votes in Ontario

June 18, 2005 - High River begins lifting evacuation orders, in time for Calgary to get hit

June 19, 2005 - PMPM hangs at an Ontario resort with European PMs

Watching America

A news aggregator with a difference - Watching America collects news items about the United States from across the globe and translates them into English.

It's certain to be an eye-opener for those who have been sheltered from the breathtaking anti-American propoganda commonplace in the European media - not to mention that of "unfriendly" nations. It should help bring polls on America's so-called "popularity in the world" into sharp - and disturbing - perspective.

Child Labour

I grew up on a pedigreed seed farm. Under the regulations at the time, the top tier "Pedigreed" seed could only be sold in bags. My dad and Grandpa would fill the rough burlap bags with grain until the scale indicated the correct weight had been reached, shake them down until there was enough material available to stitch them closed, and plop them in front of me.

It was my job to sew the bags, which I did by hand using an awl and hemp twine. I was also expected to help stack the 100 lb bags on their sides, in rows up to 5 high. I earned $40 the first summer sewing bags - at a nickel apiece.

The next spring I was designated to milk a stoic, but unpredictable 1200 lb Shorthorn cow. The red beast that I and my pail danced with twice a day taught me about the sensitivity of chapped teats, the dangers of tight spaces and how to limp. I received her calf in payment.

In my free time, I worked (unsupervised) with my bay Quarter horse yearling, breaking him to ride - a colt I'd helped purchase with the money I'd saved up from sewing bags.

I was 12.

The first vehicle I took down a public road was a Farmall Cub pulling a hayrack. I not only "drove stick", the throttle was controlled by a hand-operated lever on the steering column. At age 8, I wasn't tall enough to depress the clutch without slipping off the seat for a moment.

From there, my younger brothers and I graduated to the old half-ton and one-ton International farm trucks - the one-ton was a 1946 model that started by depressing a floor pedal. (I suspect the primary consideration was that a kid shouldn't drive anything you couldn't afford to have wrecked). Later, we were assigned to the grain trucks and newer vehicles when necessary.

There is no point in knowing how to drive a grain truck if you cannot run a grain auger...

... and a hoist. Or use a split axle. Or work around a power take-off without getting your arm ripped off.

Thus, by the time I earned my license at 16, I had 8 years driving experience.

In addition to feeding cattle, roving fields for volunteer rye (at a penny a plant), picking bales and watching over the belt-driven grain cleaners housed in two separate buildings, my brothers and I drove tractor and cultivator on weekends and after school, earning a few bucks an hour.

The money I earned helped fund private figure skating lessons. When I was 15, I turned in my CFSA "amateur" card for a professional designation and began coaching ("those who can, do...") - and when I was fully legal a few months later, travelled on rural winter roads to small towns up to an hour distant, where I taught lessons.

Why do I recount this rather typical "farm kid" biography?

Because I learned today from the Globe and Mail that my entire childhood was not only exploitive, but it probably bordered on child abuse.

And in coming weeks, watch for the Globe and Mail pieces featuring "Canada's Growing Crisis In Childhood Obesity" and increased calls for the regulation and taxation of junk food.

I do despair.

The Unseriousness Of News: Sex, Lesbians, Videotape!

Karla Homolka regretted not being sentenced to life in prison for the sex slayings of two Ontario schoolgirls but not because she felt remorseful, her former lesbian lover said Thursday in a television interview.

Line-X In Iraq

A product engineered as a spray-on truck bed liner is saving lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.;

Less than a month ago, Army Spc. Anthony Dowden was shot in the back with a sniper rifle. But he survived with nothing more serious than bruises, thanks to a new high-tech "small-arms protective insert" armored plate in his ballistic vest.

I had Line-X sprayed on a grooming table over a bathtub about 10 years ago - it's an amazingly tough, flexible, durable coating. It would be a natural fit for protective armour.

(Unique Collision is the Line-X dealer in Saskatoon).

Europe's Islamist Future Is Now

Alex Alexiev, vice president for research at the Center for Security Policy in Washington D.C. (reprinted here in its entirety).

The resounding rejection of the EU constitutional project in France and the Netherlands has triggered much frenzied hand-wringing and anxious bickering about the future of Europe, though it appears to tell us more about the pervasive angst of the continent's elites than about its future. Completely unnoticed in this noisy brouhaha there appeared in France a short survey that tells us more about what Europe’s future will look like than the collective wisdom of its chattering classes. Innocuously entitled "Signs and Manifestations of Religious Affiliation in the Educational Establishments" and headed by the inspector general of French education Jean- Pierre Obin, the study was actually finished last year but remained unpublished until leaked on the Internet a few weeks ago.

It is easy to understand why the French government was unwilling to publish it, for the survey is a devastating indictment and an anxious wake-up call at the same time. The result of extensive research and five months of field interviews in numerous schools in 20 French provinces by a distinguished group of educators, the Obin report documents the extensive Islamization of French schools in the vicinity of Muslim ghettoes and the imposition of strict conformity with Islamist dictates through violence and intimidation. Having by and large completed their takeover of the Muslim ghettoes, often by "targeted violence" against non- Muslims and moderate Muslims alike, and turned them into "anti-societies," the Islamist fanatics are making great progress towards achieving control of the educational system as well.

As usual, girls are the first victims of religious extremism. The "big brothers," as the Islamists are known in school, enforce a strict Islamic dress code which prohibits make-up, dresses and skirts, forbids any co-educational activities and makes going to the cinema, the swimming pool or the gym all but impossible for Muslim girls. The punishment for refusal to conform is often physical violence and beatings. And this, says the report, is a relatively protected environment compared to "what girls experience outside of school." Such as forced marriages at 14 or 15, for instance.

No less disturbing is the picture Obin paints of the spread of the kind of religious obscurantism that one associates with Wahhabi zealots, but would find difficult to envisage in a public school in the heart of Western Europe. Thus, Muslim students often refuse to study Voltaire or read Madame Bovary, acknowledge even the existence of other religions, or sing, dance, draw faces or right angles because they resemble the cross. English, on the other hand, is hated as the "language of imperialism".

Increasingly, the radical Islamists are able to secure special, often preferential, treatment for Muslim students making a mockery of French secular traditions. In some schools, Muslims already have the right to eat at separate tables, have their own toilets off limits to the infidels, be served only halal food and practice mass absenteeism during Muslim holidays. Quite apart from the routine expression of violent anti-Semitic sentiments. The school has also become a major focus of aggressive proselytism. The report states that it is virtually impossible for non- practicing Muslim kids in school not to conform to the strict Islamist behavior prescriptions and even non-Muslims are often forced to take part in Ramadan fasting, for example, against the wishes of their parents.

Perhaps most troubling is the study's finding that this new generation of Muslims children, born and raised in Europe, is growing up already indoctrinated to consider themselves part of a "Muslim nation" separate and opposed to everything Western civilization stands for. Whether it is their obscurantist worldview, their anti- democratic and violent tendencies or wide-spread admiration for Osama Bin Laden and assorted terrorists, this is a generation that is clearly on a collision course with democratic society.

And this is not just France's problem. The same phenomenon of large numbers of angry young Muslims who totally reject European civilization is easily observable in virtually every large urban center across the EU. Moreover, the future is on their side. With fertility rates twice those of the native Europeans and large-scale legal and illegal immigration, Europe's Muslim population is growing by leaps and bounds. Though only 4% to 5% of the general population, Muslims already make up 25% to 30% of the under 18 cohort in large cities. On present demographic trajectory, they will become a majority of that cohort in the metropolitan areas where they are concentrated in 30 years or less. If they were to resemble the students described in the Obin Report at all, it would be difficult to imagine Europe remaining secular and democratic for long.

United States Of Quebec

So, this is why those New England states vote for haughty, French-looking Massachusetts senators...

Hey, Whose Side Are These Guys On, Anyway?

....more

Heirarchy Of Gas Guzzlers

They're driving 1986 Dodge pickups, that's what they're driving.

Dead 8

Gateway Pundit;

With a program called "Drive out the Trash" you get a sense of how President Mugabe feels about certain Zimbabweans. And, when the government destroys their homes, destroys their means of earning a living, and destroys their food, in a country already threatened with famine,... only time separates these people from certain death.

The genocide has begun in Zimbabwe.

Of course, all of this suffering and poverty could be alleviated if only the industrialized countries would give more.

Going...

going....

The Unseriousness Of News

Every so often, an example arises that undermines the pretense of today's broadcast news media that they are a community of serious minded, sober professionals intent on providing the public with the important developments in current events.

One such example occured yesterday.

Frankly my dear Lloyd, I don't give a damn.

Oriana Speaks

Oriana Fallaci faces jail. In her mid-70s, stricken with a cancer that, for the moment, permits only the consumption of liquids--so yes, we drank champagne in the course of a three-hour interview--one of the most renowned journalists of the modern era has been indicted by a judge in her native Italy under provisions of the Italian Penal Code which proscribe the "vilipendio," or "vilification," of "any religion admitted by the state."

In her case, the religion deemed vilified is Islam, and the vilification was perpetrated, apparently, in a book she wrote last year--and which has sold many more than a million copies all over Europe--called "The Force of Reason." Its astringent thesis is that the Old Continent is on the verge of becoming a dominion of Islam, and that the people of the West have surrendered themselves fecklessly to the "sons of Allah." So in a nutshell, Oriana Fallaci faces up to two years' imprisonment for her beliefs--which is one reason why she has chosen to stay put in New York. Let us give thanks for the First Amendment.

Slapped?

The case of the disappearing posts...

I'm not sure exactly what happened, but Chris Selley, Colby Cosh, Antonia Z, and maybe others seem to have pulled old posts drawing attention to amazing similarities between Sun editor Licia Corbella's columns and previously published material

Reader Tips

I'm toying with a migraine this morning, so staring at a computer screen isn't on my list of desirable pastimes. Plus, I have to work up the energy to finish off a goal mask and run errands in town.

It's a reader tip morning. You know the drill.

www.kens.com

Sir,

We are boaters and hail from Bellingham. We used to like to spend time in Friday Harbor but have gradually gone off the place in the last couple of years due to the proliferation of shabby boats littering your waters.

Behind the marina there are many shabby boats swinging on moorings. In the north end of the bay there are derelicts on the bottom on the beach and many shabby boats swinging on anchors.

Right in the middle of the bay there are several shabby boats rafted together, one of which always seems to be sinking.

Down in the south end of the bay there is even more crap swinging in the wind.

We do not like looking at this mess and are now limiting our time in Friday Harbor because of it.
We are writing local business owners whose businesses we used to frequent to tell them of our shunning of your waters and their businesses.

We would appreciate hearing from you about your intentions toward this mess.

Cordially,Mike

A letter from a Bellingham man to the Port of Friday Harbor complaining about the "proliferation of shabby boats littering your waters." has triggered a "Shabby Boat" contest. The winner in each category will receive a Port of Friday Harbor coffee mug.

1. Best diplomatic, positive response.
2. Best diplomatic but negative response
3. Best sarcastic but printable response
4. Best unprintable response [very, very NSFW]

update: error corrected. Also, the comments thread is probably not-so-safe-for-work either.

As We Wait Under A Storm Watch

... and various prairie towns clean upfrom wild weather over the last 24 hours, I would like to thank whoever it is responsible for the global warming that is restoring our traditional weather patterns here on the prairies.

Three years ago, we went an entire summer without a thunderstorm. It looked like this.

Thunderheads glowering in the west at the end of a day baked by an unrelenting sun, the sudden gust as the storm front hits, moving the vehicles to shelter and securing buildings as the dust swirls and raindrops begin to pelt - that's the weather I remember.

So far, it's just a watch. If things start to look really good, I'll go storm chasing with my camera tonight.

Ethics Commissioner: Grewal Cleared

After weeks of "All Grewal, All Day", the vindications are starting to trickle in. Last week he was absolved by both the RCMP and Transport Canada in the Air Canada faux scandal - today the ethics commissioner has cleared him of wrongdoing in asking his consituants to post bonds of up to $100,000 in exchange for his help in obtaining temporary visas.

OTTAWA (CP) - Parliament's ethics commissioner recommends that no sanctions be imposed on a Tory MP involved in an immigration controversy.

He says Gurmant Grewal committed an error in judgment - but an honest one - when he demanded paid bonds from families of foreigners seeking to visit Canada. The B.C. MP admits he asked for signed guarantees of up to $100,000 if visitors did not leave the country when their visas expired.

But Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro says Grewal never accepted any payment, and never intended to pocket the money. Shapiro says the practice placed the Tory MP in an apparent conflict of interest, but that his mistake happened in good faith.

On second thought - maybe the Libranos will just make good on their threats to deport him.

Kevin Libin at the Shotgun weighs in and follows up with a response from Grewal.

Limousine Liberals

Glenda at Just Between Us Girls fills in the gaps re: the taxi drivers who have been protesting at Pearson International. CTV;

Frustrations ran high Monday afternoon, as approximately 100 drivers staged their first day of pickets on highways around the airport. Some would-be travellers were so frustrated by the 90-minute delays, they abandoned cars to lug their bags to the terminal on foot.

The drivers are angry about the way the Greater Toronto Airports Authority grants new limousine licences.

The drivers don't want independent drivers to be excluded from applying for the licences needed to take passengers from Pearson. They say the new licences should be awarded on the basis of driver seniority.

Taxi drivers with a regular Toronto-area licence can take customers to the airport, but risk a $100 fine if they take fares back to the city.

This seems to be a very unfortunate trademark of this government, because, as I pointed out in debate in this House last week, this government did exactly the same sort of thing with respect to transportation legislation. The limousine drivers based in Mississauga, under legislation brought in by the Minister of Transportation, are now the only people who have the right to pick up passengers at Pearson airport. If a taxicab driver in the city of Toronto drops someone off, he can no longer pick up anybody at Pearson, but a limousine coming into Toronto can pick up people in Toronto. So why did they do that? Right in the middle of that legislation, the limousine drivers had a fundraiser for the Liberal Party of Ontario and gave them a $200,000 cheque.

Chuck Is Stable

A mil-blogger has been injured by an IED in Iraq.

"Yo Andy - What Are They Talking About?"

Monte Solberg;

Paul Martin just went running over to Andy after Question Period to find out what's up all that stuff that Rick and Diane raised during QP. Seems that sometimes important things CAN happen between those big open areas between the cities where Liberals have their seats. Well, that's a start.

The Phuzzy Manifesto

Because Jim dropped by the house today to fix the carb on my RD.

Now, we have another burgeoning explosion of motorcycle popularity. This time, it is the ol' Baby Boomers (those from whom I and fellow Xers come from) reliving the excitement they lived through just before the tide rolled back and the revolution stopped turning, before Nixon, embargoes, Disco, Greed and Reaganomics killed what the youth had envisioned. Now, having made their money and sold their souls, the Rich Urban Biker rides the land. I love to ride, and the fact anyone rides generally improves my view of them, but I find the breed leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

They are not me.

I ride because of the Outlaw heritage of my XX's two-wheeled forefathers. I ride because I love the rush of stretching the throttle cables all the way, dumping fuel down four 42 mm carbs into a monster motor. I ride because I know the bike might just prefer to kill me, after all. I ride to spite the guys in minivans that look at the bike longingly at lights. I ride because I think I actually like challenging the cages on the highway- am I invincible? I ride because mom doesn't like motorcycles, and bad girls do. I ride because speed does not always kill, it usually thrills. I ride because it makes me feel free. I ride because when I ride, I don't think about work at all. I ride because Everyman doesn't. I ride because you can smell the diesel, the cowshit, the foliage, the dead skunk and the fields of wildflowers. I ride for those drastic temperature changes you feel riding through hills. I ride because I know I might get hurt. I ride because I may just not be able to ride tomorrow.

And yes, sometime I ride damn fast, Sometimes I don't, and I putt around, but yes, most of the time, I may seem on a mission. I don't believe speed is Evil. I don't begrudge others when they want to go faster than me, though I might just try to keep up. I love wheelies- they just feel cool. I am not actually really that good at them- there are a lot of people that are much better. But I want to do them anyway. I've done stoppies as well, though not often. I've burned tires to the cords in burnouts.

I try to bring a good deal of "irresponsible" fun to my own life and others. I know the risks, I accept the consequences, and I remember the caveats. I have crashed. I will crash again.

I'll still ride the way I like, remembering ol Bob on the first Harleys. Remembering GI Joe just back from saving the world and wanting to just ride. Remembering the Hells Angels and the fact that, in the end, they just wanted to ride. Remembering what I was like as a kid, pedaling my BMX bike and dreaming of riding a motorcycle.

In the end, I ride because it's fun. And They don't like it.

Porsche emasculation

7.23 lives. Phuzzy verbosity

Phuzzy drops his helmet

A tribute to Joe

Phuzzy's highspeed ride

The WORLD PHAMOUS PHUZZY GUIDES

Taiwan Affairs Act

Mike Brock;

A conservative private members bill known as the Taiwan Affairs Act or bill C-357 has resulted in Chinese officials warning Canada that if passed, China would pursue economic sanctions against Canada - a scary prospect.

There are a few things that one should put in perspective here. For one, China is currently in the middle of a massive arms build-up, in anticipation of Taiwan's government declaring official independence. If this happens, China has promised in legislation, to invade and slaughter dissidents.

For years, Westerners have been under the impression that the Chinese acceptance of some free market activity was also bringing with it a China that would play nice and progressively on the world stage. But as the American and Japanese governments have recently been musing about under their breaths, the opposite is true; China is in fact, becoming increasingly bellicose.

China's free market, at least in our definition of it, is a sham. All international corporations in China are in partnership, or half-ownership by the Chinese government.

I wonder what "economic sanctions" they are considering? Perhaps it includes shutting down the Alberta oil sands production.

BEIJING (AFX) - China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec Group) has agreed to pay 150 mln cad for a 40 pct stake in a joint venture to produce synthetic crude from western Canada's oil sands reserves, The Standard reported, without citing sources.

The Hong Kong-based newspaper said the project could ultimately involve capital spending of 4.5 bln cad over the next five years by Sinopec and its partner, Synenco Energy.

According to the report, Synenco said the venture will develop oil sand leases in the Athabasca region of Alberta with recoverable bitumen reserves of 1.5 bln barrels.

Once up and running in 2009, the project could produce 100,000 barrels of syncrude a day for more than 30 years.

Of course, this is the same China to whom the Libranos donate $50 million a year of our money in "foreign aid". Though, I'm willing to extend the benefit of the doubt on that one - perhaps it's an error in translation.

It could well be that "foreign aid" is just a Chinese word for "sponsorship".

Red On Red

"So before I was nine I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; and the tribeagainst the world. And all of us against the infidel."-- Leon Uris, _The Haj_ (1984)

The brutal acts of violence directed at civilians and Iraqi police is losing favor among some of the members of the Iraqi insurgency. During Operation Matador, we saw examples of the local tribes, some of whom are sympathetic or even participating in the insurgency, rise up to fight the foreign jihadis after their attempts to impose a Taliban-like rule of law in Western Anbar. Today's New York Times reports further cases of "red- on-red", AKA the enemy fighting amongst themselves. The Marines gladly watched as insurgents duked it out along the Syrian border.

Marines patrolling this desert region near the Syrian border have for months been seeing a strange new trend in the already complex Iraqi insurgency. Insurgents, they say, have been fighting each other in towns along the Euphrates from Husayba, on the border, to Qaim, farther west. The observations offer a new clue in the hidden world of the insurgency and suggest that there may have been, as American commanders suggest, a split between Islamic militants and local rebels.

A United Nations official who served in Iraq last year and who consulted widely with militant groups said in a telephone interview that there has been a split for some time.

Via Instapundit

Roadkill Counter-Offensive

Sgroing Out The Vote

Angry extracts some numbers from the Sgro Report;

Buried on page 19 of the Sgro Report is a description of how Temporary Residency Permits were used to buy votes during the election campaign.

The bottom line:

128 permits issued during the 5 weeks of the 2004 federal campaign

43, or 33%, were issued in the final week of the campaign

76, or 59%, of the TRPs were supported by an MP

of these 76 TRPs , 24, or 31%, were supported by Judy Sgro herself

19, or 80%, of Judy Sgro's TRPs were issued in the last 24 hours of the campaign

another 50, or 66%, of the MP-supported TRPs issued during the election went to Liberal MPs

only 2, or 3%, of the MP-supported TRPs issued during the election went to Conservative MPs

(If your answer was "dig", you were wrong)

Kofi's Change Of Heart

From whence has this change of heart come?

Today I am traveling to Brussels to join representatives of more than 80 governments and institutions in sending a loud and clear message of support for the political transition in Iraq.

A year ago, in Resolution 1546, the U.N. Security Council set out the timetable that Iraq, with the assistance of the United Nations and the international community, was expected to fulfill. The Brussels conference is a chance to reassure the Iraqi people that the international community stands with them in their brave efforts to rebuild their country, and that we recognize how much progress has been made in the face of daunting challenges.

Elections were held in January, on schedule. Three months later the Transitional National Assembly endorsed the transitional government. The dominant parties have begun inclusive negotiations, in which outreach to Sunni Arabs is a major theme. A large number of Sunni groups and parties are now working to make sure that their voices are fully heard in the process of drafting a new constitution, and that they participate fully in the referendum to approve it and the elections slated for December.

Indeed, just last week an agreement was achieved to expand the committee drafting the constitution to ensure full participation by the Sunni Arab community. This agreement, which the United Nations helped to facilitate, should encourage all Iraqis to press ahead with the drafting of the constitution by the Aug. 15 deadline.

As the process moves forward, there will no doubt be frustrating delays and difficult setbacks. But let us not lose sight of the fact that all over Iraq today, Iraqis are debating nearly every aspect of their political future.

[...]

In a media-hungry age, visibility is often regarded as proof of success. But this does not necessarily hold true in Iraq. Even when, as with last week's agreement, the results of our efforts are easily seen by all, the efforts themselves must be undertaken quietly and away from the cameras.

[...]

The Iraqi people continue to endure a painful and difficult transition, and they still have a long and tough road ahead. The United Nations is privileged and determined to walk it with them. In doing so, we serve not only the people of Iraq, but the peoples of all nations.

Not For Profit

Why did the Greater Toronto Airports Authority donate $1000 to Paul Martin's Liberal leadership campaign?

Canadian Speech Codes

Seven other things you can't say in Canada.

Here's another:

"The deportation of Ernst Zundel did more damage to human rights in Canada than all his writings combined."

Who's Screwing Up America?

A blogger poll by Right Wing News.

My pick for number 1 spot didn't even make the list.

Fair And Balanced

Liberal commentator and self-described feminist Susan Estrich explodes convenient myths about Fox News.

I Am Who I Am

Thank God;

"I don't intend to change myself," Harper told Vancouver radio station CKNW during a nationally syndicated call-in show Monday. "I'm not a believer in these so-called image makeovers. I've watched politicians who tried to be something they're not and tried to have all these different incarnations. I think it just comes across as phoney.

"I am who I am."

Ironically, no federal conservative leader has had more style surgery than Preston Manning, the man who founded the Reform Party specifically to bring substance to Canadian politics.

From the look and sound of a screechy preacher in cowboy boots, Manning gradually morphed into the kind of made-for- TV capital conformist he used to deride as the "Otta- washed."

First it was the eyeglasses that went from aviator to designer and finally into the trash after laser eye treatment. Then came the wardrobe, a slow transition from barnyard chic to Hugo Boss.

Not often we get a slam at both Christianity and Western rural culture in a single sentence.

No wonder Westerners don't trust the bigoted Eastern Media. Though Weston's points are valid, it's disappointing to see them wrapped in petty ad hominem. Perhaps a "style" makeover is in order for this cynical and negative Ottawa columnist.

Reader Tips And Tips For Readers

Well, as you may have guessed, I am still experiencing IP problems. So, as the subject indicates, it's a reader tips day.

Also - for the fairly large number of you who regularly send me tips privately, a bit of a checklist may help clear up my inbox, and save you the effort of sending me something 3 others have already shared:

1) I already read Nealenews, Drudge and Bourque daily. If the "tip" you're sending me is up on one of those sites, I'll either find it myself, or I've decided to skip it.

2) If you've spotted an item on 20 other conservative Canadian blogs, I've probably seen it and decided that using it is redundant.

3) Don't feel badly if your tip isn't used. I use about 1 in 10 - 15 sent my way.

4) Try to remember to include some hint as to the content of the tip in the subject line. I get a lot of spam, and subect lines like "Hey!" or "Kate, Look At This" stand a better than even chance of being deleted without being read.

5) Avoid sending attachments. Large image files are never downloaded here, much less opened.

6) Don't send dated news reports/opinion articles, unless it relates to something of topical importance. I can't count how many times I've spent time creating a post on an item, only to discover it was originally published 4 years ago.

7) You don't need permission to link to or quote on of my posts. Just use the trackback function.

8) Let me know if you want your name used. Otherwise, I play it safe and default to anonymity.

And, please don't take offense at these guidelines - I'm not complaining - just trying to improve effficency. On an average work day I sometimes have over 400 emails a day to scan!

Problems Continue

Still experiencing connection issues (ie the phone rings but won't answer) at my IP, so you're on your own again today. Hopefully things will be back to normal tomorrow.

(I should add - I also have a garage to sweep out, a vintage motorcycle to get running well enough to limp down to Doctor Jim's 2 Stroke Clinic, and 5 sheets of 3/4" crezone to prime (both sides), so maybe it's a good thing the connection is down for few hours. I can't believe how much work I got accomplished yesterday....)

Windy Irony

Via local radio: A 150 million dollar Sask Power construction project in the Swift Current area was destroyed last night by a tornado. Included in the damage is a 300 ft. crane laying on it's side.

It was a wind energy project.

Reader Tips and IP problems

I'm posting this from my Libretto laptop Juno account - having connection problems today, so if there's nothing new after this post, that's why! (The libretto doesn't cut it - the keys are the size of aspirin tapblets)

You'll have to entertain yourselves... enter your cool finds and profound declarations in the comments.

Panic In The Streets Of Calgary

Oh, the humidity!

On Lessons Learned, And Lines Drawn

A great post by one of my favourite guest bloggers.

Seismic Jolt In New York

Turtle Bay rocked by earthquake

Culminating years of frustration with the performance and behavior of the United Nations, the House voted Friday to slash U.S. contributions to the world body if it does not substantially change the way it operates.

The 221-184 vote, which came despite a Bush administration warning that such a move could actually sabotage reform efforts, was a strong signal from Congress that a policy of persuasion wasn't enough to straighten out the U.N.

"We have had enough waivers, enough resolutions, enough statements," said House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., the author of the legislation. "It's time we had some teeth in reform."

The legislation would withhold half of U.S. dues to the U.N.'s general budget if the organization did not meet a list of demands for change. Failure to comply would also result in U.S. refusal to support expanded and new peacekeeping missions. The bill's prospects in the Senate are uncertain.

[...]

During the two days of debate, legislators discussed the seating of such human rights abusers as Cuba and Sudan on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and the oil-for-food program that became a source of up to $10 billion in illicit revenue for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., won backing for an amendment under which the United States would use its influence to ensure that any member engaged in acts of genocide or crimes against humanity would lose its U.N. membership and face arms and trade embargoes.

Hyde was joined by lawmakers with a litany of complaints against what they said was the U.N.'s lavish spending, its coddling of rogue regimes, its anti-America, anti-Israel bias and recent scandals such as the mismanagement of the oil-for-food program in Iraq and the sexual misconduct of peacekeepers.

Chinese Censorship

Thanks to a tip from a commentor; check out these screenshots of an attempt to use the words "human rights," "democracy," and "freedom of speech" on a Chinese language MSN Spaces blog.

(Actually, there are generally a lot of good tips in many of my comments sections - more than I can follow up on.)

Hanson On China

But the real question is how both China and India, nuclear and arming, will translate their newfound economic clout and cash into a geopolitical role. If internal politics and protocols are any barometer of foreign policy, it should be an interesting show. We mostly welcome the new India - nuclear, law-abiding, and English-speaking - onto the world stage. It deserves a permanent seat on the Security Council and a close alliance with the United States.

China, however, is a very different story - a soon-to-be grasping Soviet Union-like superpower without any pretense of Marxist egalitarianism. Despite massive cash reserves and ongoing trade surpluses, it violates almost every international commercial protocol from copyright law to patents. It won't discuss Tibet, and it uses staged domestic unrest to send warnings to Taiwan and Japan that their regional options will increasingly be limited by Beijing.

China could rein in Kim Jong Il tomorrow. But it derives psychological satisfaction from watching Pyongyang's nuclear roguery stymie Japan and the United States. China's foreign policy in the Middle East, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia is governed by realpolitik of the 19th-century American stripe, without much concern for the type of government or the very means necessary to supply its insatiable hunger for resources. The government that killed 50 million of its own has not really been repudiated and its present successor follows the same old practice of jailing dissidents and stamping out freedom. When and how its hyper-capitalist economy will mandate the end of a Communist directorate is not known.

The world has been recently flooded with media accounts that U.S. soldiers may have dropped or at least gotten wet a few Korans. Guantanamo, we are told, is like the Soviet gulag - the death camp of millions. Americans are routinely pilloried abroad because they liberated Iraq, poured billions into the reconstruction, and jumpstarted democracy there - but were unable to do so without force and the loss of civilian life.

This hysteria that the world's hyper-power must be perfect or it is no good is in dire contrast to the treatment given to China. Yet Pavlovian anti-Americanism may soon begin to die down as the Chinese increasingly flex their muscles on the global stage and the world learns better their methods of operation.

So far they have been given a pass on three grounds: the old Third World romance accorded to Mao's Marxist legacy; the Chinese role as a counterweight to the envied power of the United States; and the silent admission that the Chinese, unlike the Americans, are a little crazy and thus unpredictable in their response to moral lecturing. Americans apologize and scurry about when an EU or U.N. official remonstrates; in contrast, a Chinese functionary is apt to talk about sending off a missile or two if they don't shut up.

Grewal/Air Canada Update

CTV

Grewal was accused of having broken airport security rules on June 4 when he asked strangers to transport a package for him on a flight to Ottawa. The package allegedly contained tapes of secretly recorded conversations of talks between Grewal and senior Liberals

But the RCMP say there was nothing criminal about the MP's actions.

RCMP Cpl. Peter Thiessen says since Grewal had already passed through security, there was no criminal offence.

Transport Canada has also cleared Grewal of any wrongdoing. In a letter to the MP, the agency's manager of security operations says Grewal did not contravene the Aeronautics Act.

Kevin Libin at the Shotgun;

But, as the Liberals that fed the talking points to the MSM on this story well know, there's no such thing as unassassinating someone's character.

Stephanie Rubec Is In Pain

Yesterday on John Gormley Live Sun Media reporter Stephanie Rubec shared her perception on Paul Martin's ability to "connect" with people vs a sense that Harper is uncomfortable with one-on-one interactions. (She also spoke on behalf of "urban women" who fear the "secret agenda" of Conservatives who "might hold referendums" on capital punishment and abortion. Oh! The horrors of direct democracy!)

Admittedly, much of the discussion was directed by Gormley (who still seems somewhat unaware of how both the provincial NDP and Liberals seed these phrases into the political discussion through push polling - we really could use more Politics 101 from our pundits), but quite apart from the actual content of the discussion, it's worth noting how simple turns of phrase provide clues to a reporter's political leanings (and I'm not talking about her statement that the former Reform party had "extreme" right wing policies).

What caught my attention was her repeated use, without so much as a particle of sarcasm, of variations of the phrase "feels your pain" to draw a distinction between the two leaders - as in, Stephen Harper doesn't send off vibes that he "feels your pain", while Paul Martin does.

In evoking a phrase that evolved from the Clinton presidency and citing it as a political asset for Paul Martin, Stephanie Rubek broadcast a little about her own political sympathies - I don't know many conservatives who look to their politicians to emulate Clinton at his most maudlin.

I'm not suggesting there's anything untoward with the balance or fairness of her reporting - I'm not familiar enough with her writing to say either way. It was just one of those small moments when a reporter reveals more about themselves than they realize.

SSM Bill Deal: The Libs Approached

I've had two private emails now that indicate that the media chatter about the Conservatives trying to orchestrate a delay for the passage of the SSM bill C 38 in exchange for supporting the NDP-Buzz Hargrove budget Bill C 48 is in fact, wrong.

Not just a little wrong. Backwards, upside-down wrong. Bungling fools. Do you wonder if they're ever going to start noticing when they've been had? The Liberals approached the Conservatives.

In fact, after the (34 in total?) Liberal MP's met with Martin on Monday to implore him to postpone the vote on the C-38, the Liberals approached the Conservatives and asked to negotiate (as any minority government should?). The Liberals proposed that if the Conservatives would agree to push through the vote on the Liberal-NDP Budget Bill (C-48) without further debate - even though the Conservatives would vote against this C-48 (as will the Bloc), the Liberals in turn would ensure that the Bill C-38 (redefining the traditional definition of marriage) is put off until more debate and consideration over the summer (...re: protection of institutions that would elect not to perform same-sex marriages, etc.).  The Conservatives were considering this negotiation in good faith - then the Liberals leaked it to the media yesterday.
 
Conservatives had been weighing the Liberal proposal: Pull witnesses from further debating the Liberal-NDP budget C-48 to allow the vote to proceed immediately - with the Conservatives continuing to vote against it. In turn the Liberals would guarantee the Bill C-38 was postponed until Fall.

Wouldn't Be The First Time

Is Reuters paying al-Qaeda photographers for propaganda photos?

As Requested: Tainted Blood Links

A commentor asked for a link on the WND tainted blood story. Another reader was kind enough to pass it along. This is a worthwhile followup.

The Liberal government denied compensation to those infected before 1986, claiming that no test was available before then. That now turns out to be false.

Paul Martin was on the board of the Canadian Development Corporation from 1981-1987, during the time hemophiliacs were infected with tainted blood. The CDC was the holding company for the private company, Connaught Laboratories, the major supplier of blood products in Canada, specifically Factor VIII used by hemophiliacs.
. .
Evaluations of the safety of U.S.-sourced blood supplies were sent to Connaught Laboratories but were never even read by its senior officials. Instead, Connaught kept buying blood from a Montreal blood broker — the only company in the world still buying blood from U.S. prisons.

[...]

Somebody doesn't want the truth to come out about how deadly blood sold from then Governor Clinton's Arkansas prisons made its way into the Canadian plasma supply. Mark Kennedy in the Ottawa Citizen reports two incidents within hours of each other Tuesday night: the Arkansas prosthetics clinic owned by tainted blood whistleblower Michael Galster was fire-bombed and the Quebe offices of the Canadian Hemophilia Society were broken into.

The clinic was burned to its shell and fire officials say they're "90 percent sure" it was arson. In the Canadian break-in, a computer and three telephones were stolen along with documents from a box labeled, "Hepatitis C, Krever Commission, Reform of the blood system, HIV-AIDS."

"Maz2" in the comments

"Three telephones stolen? No. Retrieved, by person(s)unknown, complete with their bugs?"

Librano Position On Chinese Espionage: "It's A Free Country"

Breaking from continuing coverage of Stephen Harper is scary and needs to be replaced by a proper Liberal!! we take you to this item courtesy of China e-Lobby (See the original post for active links);

Canada is beginning to recognize the depth of Communist China's espionage in the Great White North. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) mostly rehashed the accounts of Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun regarding Communist overseas spy networks, but added that Hao "says Canada has more spies operating in it than any other country." Jillian Ye, a resident of Scarborough, Ontario, certainly believes that, after seeing one of the documents Hao smuggled out with him "detailed Ye's plans to start a communications company" (Epoch Times). No fewer than four members of the opposition Conservative Party, including foreign affairs critic Stockwell Day, deputy leader Peter MacKay (Hansard) Jason Kenney (Hansard) and Helena Guergis (Hansard), pressed the governing Liberals on this issue in Parliament. Meanwhile, the editors of the British Columbian Asian-Pacific Post demanded to know why the Canadian firm Nortel is helping the cadres' crackdown on cyberdissidents.

Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan--Coquihalla, CPC): Mr. Speaker, a few months ago, when we raised the possibility of Chinese espionage in Canada, the government did not seem concerned in the least. Now a second Chinese defector is claiming that there is an operational network on Canadian soil.

Has the government called on Chinese officials here in Canada to get a full explanation, yes or no?

Hon. Pierre Pettigrew (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we are always in touch with Chinese officials in the capital. We discuss a number of issues relating to the respect for human rights and the right of Canadian citizens to express themselves in the way they want. This is a free country. We will always insist that people are free to do so in this country. This is what we have been expressing to the Chinese officials. [emphasis mine]

Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan--Coquihalla, CPC): There was no answer there, Mr. Speaker.

UPDATE
Some amazing things turn up on the net....

Via Shaken, who has more.

Gomery Takes Martin To Court

National Post

Gomery is annoyed that the Martin government had a secret exchange of letters with Chretien's lawyers acknowledging that even as the former prime minister dropped his court case alleging Gomery's bias against him, he could make the same accusations later after the release of the judge's findings.

Gomery didn't know about the letter. He read about it in the papers. And he's furious. The Martin government professes to support him, but it looks as if it was undermining him.

The May 30 letter was signed by federal government lawyer Brian Saunders, but as far as the Gomery Commission is concerned, it was approved by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Alex Himelfarb. Mere government lawyers, acting on their own, don't make deals on behalf of one prime minister with another.

By coincidence, or not, May 30 was the same day Chretien's lawyers withdrew his case, removing a very inconvenient obstacle from the Martin government's path to political recovery.

"Secret deal between Martin and Chretien" went the banner headline in La Presse on Monday, as it broke the story that has dominated Question Period all week. "The newspaper added a telling overline: "Ex Prime Minister has the green light to re-attack Judge Gomery's credibility."

Moral Equivalency In Pictures

At a moment in time when government pollsters inform us that "Canadians believe U.S. President George W. Bush is almost as great a threat to our national security as Osama bin Laden", and Time magazine has chilling accounts of Gitmo puppet theatre "torture" of the 20th hijacker, this pictorial essay is timely. Inspired by this quote of well-known US lefty blogger, Markos Moulitsas 'Kos' Zunigas;

"The torture that was so bad under Saddam, is equally bad under U.S. command. And Dick Durbin had the balls to say it so on the Senate floor."

Gun Registry Auditor Spin Doctor Report

Check this little nugget out at Angry In The Great White North;

"Costs for the controversial gun registry program could continue to "spiral out of control" unless the government takes steps to curb spending, an external audit warns."

I'm not sure about this audit for two reasons. First, the very next paragraph refers to the same document as a "financial report", which I don't believe is as stringent as an audit, nor does it have the same goals. Second, the audit or financial report or whatever it is was prepared by Hill & Knowlton, which is not really an audit firm, but a firm that specializes in "public relations, public affairs and strategic communications" providing such esoteric services such as "reputation management".

Reader Tips

Cox And Forkum on Canadian health care.

On the current topic of the ties of organized crime to the Canadian government, this collection of articles on the topic. Be sure to read the Sidewinder information.

Beth thinks blogging pretty much sucks.

The Conservative Party of Canada submission to the Gomery Commission.

That should keep you busy for a while. I have stuff to do - post your own links in the comments.

While The Media Directs Our Attention To Harper's "BBQ Circuit"

The Libranos are busy behind the scenes ridding themselves of pesky Information CommissionerJohn Reid to ensure that unfortunate events like the uncovering of Adscam are never repeated.

Mr. Tom Lukiwski (Regina--Lumsden--Lake Centre, CPC), June 14, 2005;

We on the access to information committee recognize that. When I say "we", I mean all opposition members on the committee voted in favour of extending the appointment of Mr. Reid for another year. The only members of the committee who opposed the motion to extend Mr. Reid's appointment were the members of the Liberal Party of Canada.

It is fascinating to me, when a former Liberal cabinet minister, someone who served for six consecutive elections and for close to 20 years in this place with great distinction, that members of his own party would be the only ones on the access to information committee to oppose his extension for one year.

We all have to ask ourselves why the Liberal members of the committee oppose such an extension. It cannot be because of his qualifications. He has served this Parliament well for seven years. It cannot be because of lack of experience. He probably has more experience as a parliamentary officer than anyone else. In addition, he has extensive experience in the field of access to information. His lack of experience just does not hold true. It has to be something else.

The only thing I can think of is that Mr. Reid has categorically stated that what he would like to see in new access to information legislation would be the increased level of information that would be available to all Canadians upon request.

Mr. Reid has stated that if his vision of a new act comes into being, we could probably safely say that incidents, such as the sponsorship scandal, would not have happened in the first place. Individuals, whether they be members of this place, members of the media or individual Canadians, would have the ability to receive information from government departments that would have triggered the fact that the sponsorship scandal was in full bloom.

Libranos: The Prequel

A curious item in Business Executive from an address by mafia expert Antonio Nicaso to the Canadian Club in Hamilton;

Nicaso said there is no political commitment to fight organized crime in Canada.

"When I arrived in Canada, it was like arriving in a candy store, because they were all here," said Nicaso, who has written several books on the subject and is best known for publishing for the first time the 'Mafia's Code.'

Nicaso said Canadians are too concerned with avoiding the cost of a long trial. So the criminals plead guilty and spend three, four or five years in jail. Meanwhile, they're plotting their next crime.

"Even if we spend $1 million, it's better to put traffickers away for 40 years," he said.

"In 1991 there was no currency law here. It was harder to import cheese than cash. It was a country that attracted criminals."

[...]

And Nicaso said Sam Bronfman was one of the major competitors to Canada's most notorious bootlegger, Rocco Perri, who supplied booze to Joseph Kennedy. [...] Just after the Temperance Act was passed, Perri, who was a construction worker and very poor, became a multi-millionaire. [...] Nicaso said Perri created an empire with the help of police officers, lawyers, judges and government officials.

"They all wanted to have a portion of the profits," he said.

"It's the same with the sponsorship scandal," he continued. "Nothing has changed."

In 1939 Perri was charged with corruption and RCMP officers were ready to testify against him, but Nicaso said Perri hired a brilliant lawyer, Paul Martin, father of the current Prime Minister, and was acquitted.

My Lloyd, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

First Coyne is sued by Tim Murphy, now the Libranos are targeting David Frum;

By that definition, Canadian politics these days might seem very comical indeed. But I am counting on Americans to be less callous than the mordant Brooks--and to recognize that the events now occurring in Canada are serious, even sinister. There is though one warning I'd better immediately deliver to readers: Along with at least four other public commentators, I have recently been served with libel papers by a leading figure in this story. Because National Review is distributed in Canada, and therefore can potentially be reached by Canada's more restrictive libel law, I have to be a little circumspect in what I say here.

But of course, this is Canada - a nation of "natural governing" one-party rule in which a "living" constitution permits such limits on speech as are consistant with a Liberal Kleptocracy.

So, as the Liberals draft laws that push more and more areas of government operation outside the reach of Freedom of Information requests, weaken protections for whistleblowers, when they brazenly refuse to acknowledge the defeat of their government in non-confidence motions and ignore the Auditor Generals concerns about billions of tax dollars being funneled into unaccountable foundations - the Lloyd Robertsons and Peter Mansbridges busy themselves studiously studying Stephen Harper's facial expressions and providing Canadians "Better News Through Polling" .

They remain virtually silent on the assaults on members of their own profession - silent, because for the most part, the majority of mainstream media in Canada functions as nothing short of a communications arm of the Liberal Party. In other words, they see themselves as nothing less than an unelected arm of government.

So, when the most compelling critics of the Liberal Party they hold dear face libel actions for simply speaking the truth, the majority of Canadian political punditry breathe a collective grunt of approval, and commission another poll to create new opinions to feed back to the electorate who ensure they stay near the top of all the right invitation lists.

100% Customer Satisfaction

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, an abortion-rights advocate, vetoed the measure, saying medical professionals - not legislators - should set standards. "

Father Jackson

Now that you mention it, I wonder what the verdict might have been if Jackson were a man of the cloth, instead of a sequined man-thing of the closet.

Complaint Procedure

Upon reviewing the 1400+ emails that arrived while I was away, I regret to announce that I received two of a negative nature. The first was from one Roger M Roeder. Mr. Roeder had engaged in a debate with another reader and was so offended with his own comments thread that he's publicly threatening to delink SDA because of it.

The second offered this critique; " ...when it comes to the substitutes you picked, I think you did a really poor job. Had they been politically otherwise oriented I could have lived with it [..] I really hope I don't come as close as I did as this time to deleting your bookmark."

Well, then.

Let it not be said that I am too stubborn to consider suggestions as to how I might improve or tweak the blog to fulfill the personal needs of each reader. I acknowledge it is no longer sufficient to entertain others for free in this day and age. Indeed, I've been inconsiderate in overlooking something that every blogger who writes for the pure enjoyment of doing so should offer their readers - a complaints department.

To that end, this afternoon I revised the previous complaints mechanism. The new and improved version is now outlined in the SDA Compaints Manual (3rd edition, approved June14, 2005). In order to have your complaint considered by the SDA Standing Committee for Complaints the following protocols must be adhered to. Not adhering to these protocols may result in a dismissal of your complaint without a hearing. The relevant portions are exerpted below;

a. In a business sized envelope, include a $50 deposit (which will be refunded if your complaint is upheld), your return address and phone number where you can be reached. Mail to the address provided.

b. Write the details of your complaint on plain white paper.

c. Fold the paper neatly in half, and then in half again.

d. With your left hand, press said paper against your forehead.

e. Using a hammer and four (4) 2" galvanized nails, secure it firmly at each corner.

But not too f*cking likely.

Airborne

This takes me back to my childhood.

UNScam And The Smoking Memo

Bad news for Kofi Annan.

Investigators of the UN oil-for- food program said Tuesday they are "urgently reviewing" new information that suggests UN Secretary General Kofi Annan may have known more than he revealed about a contract that was awarded to the company that employed his son.

The December 1998 memo from Michael Wilson, then a vice- president of Cotecna Inspections S.A., mentions brief discussions with Annan "and his entourage" at a summit in Paris in 1998 about Cotecna's bid for a $10-million- a-year contract under oil-for- food.

If accurate, the memo could contradict a major finding of the Independent Inquiry Committee - that there wasn't enough evidence to show that Annan knew about efforts by Cotecna, which employed his son, Kojo, to win the contract. Cotecna learned it won the contract on Dec. 11, 1998, days after the meeting.

The statement from the Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, said it would "conduct additional investigation regarding this new information."

Back To Fort Whoop Up

One would think that with all the newly announced billions and billions of funding for the RCMP and other security enhancements from the Libranos, that there might be an actual strengthening of policing in border areas of the western prairies - where it is possible to cross virtually anywhere by virtue of miles of unfenced fields, unarmed customs agents and a sparse rural population.

Today a letter has been leaked that the Calvert NDP (no doubt smarting from the electoral smackdown the rural region delivered in the last election) have approved RCMP detachment closures in Climax, Eastend and eventually, other small rural towns and RM's in the Southwest and elsewhere. Buildings and offices will be closed and personnel will be redeployed and transferred elsewhere. (info via Rawlco radio)

The history that began with the NorthWest Mounted Police has come full circle. So, if you're thinking of smuggling arms and other prohibited whatnot into Canada, the historic route to Fort Whoop Up has just been re-opened.

Liveblogging : Frank Quennell, Sask Justice Minister is now being interviewed - the reason for the closures is due to the primary concern of the RCMP for officer safety and unavailability of backup in one-person detachments in rural Saskatchewan. See the earlier comment about the disconnect between announced funding and staffing levels.

That's reassuring for the people who live there, I'm sure.

He finally admits that his office gave approval to the RCMP request without any advance notice or discussion with any of the communities impacted. In other words, Saskatchewan Justice was planning to let the RCMP break the news locally.

Taxation With Representation

This Calgary Herald editorial argues that gay activists have "tipped their hand";

One might suppose gay marriage extremists would wait for the Liberals' contentious same-sex legislation to pass before uttering triumphalist comments about the next round in their battle with the churches.

Apparently, some can't, and Toronto gay rights activist Kevin Bourassa has confirmed the suspicions of religious opponents to same-sex marriage. A partner in one of Canada's first same-sex wedding ceremonies, he said churches opposing same-sex marriage -- while free to be "promoting bigotry" -- should lose their tax exemption.

"If you're at the public trough, if you are collecting taxpayers' money, you should be following taxpayers' laws."

It is curious to think of tax exemption as a gift from taxpayers. In any case, churches have been equal opportunity promoters of bigotry against adulterers, thieves and bearers of false witness for thousands of years. Why should the gays complain?

Prime Minister Paul Martin last week promised dissident Liberal MPs increased religious protections in Bill C- 38.

But, he promises what he cannot deliver. No politician can control how courts or commissions will rule in the future. Gay advocates are well aware of that. That's what enables Bourassa to boldly articulate what amounts to an anti-church strategy, without even the reasonable caution of waiting for Martin's bill to pass.

There's a saying about being careful what one wishes for.

Removing tax exempt status would untether organized religions to fully engage in the political process - and in so doing, the ability of churches to raise money to fund their new, more powerful position in the public policy debate would expand exponentially.

In today's current political climate, it could be the best thing that ever happened to them.

Thankyou

A huge thankyou to my guest bloggers - Sean of Pol:Spy; James Joyner, OTB; Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom; Angry in the Great White North, aka "Danger Guy"; and my good friend and sysadmin "R".

I've not had time to catch up on all their contributions here, but I see by the long comments threads that the boys kept things hopping, and that there were a few of you who were dismayed that they weren't testosterone enhanced versions of me.

Well, that was the point of the exercise. There are a few others - I owe a great deal to James and Jeff for sending readers this way during the early days of SDA. They represent diametrically opposed approaches to blogging, and have influenced my "style" here a great deal, as has "R", from the good old days on Usenet. (I wish he had had time to post more often - he had instructions to scare the bejesus out of you.) Sean is one of my favourite, smartest Canadian bloggers and went above and beyond in keeping the site refreshed. I was reminded of my invitation to guest at Wizbang in the earliest days of SDA, and decided I should include someone fairly new (and very promising) - so Angry got the call.

All in all, a very successful experiment - traffic actually rose a little. The sitemeter doesn't lie.

I have a lot of deadline work coming up this week, and things will be slow here for a few days, so I encourage you to help me "thank" them by adding them to your regular reading.

One Thing I Like About America (Among Many)

Travelling in the US for a few days makes for a lovely break from blogging, despite the fact that I have so much catching up to do when I get back. It's not just that there's no news from Canada - whether the discussion is focused on the economy, foreign affairs, politics - there are no comparisons of America to Canada on any topic at all.

For all intents and purposes, Canada ceases to exist.

Which, all things considered, is about what this insipid little excuse for a country deserves.

Canadians believe U.S. President George W. Bush is almost as great a threat to our national security as Osama bin Laden, according to a government opinion poll obtained by the National Post.

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, abridged 16

The secret is to stop thinking of them as pot holes and to begin thinking of them as unexpected opportunities to maybe catch some air and test out the effectiveness of your road leathers.

****
previous

Too little, too late

Why couldn't I get results like this back when I was in school? Oh, yeah, I was drunk most of the time. Whoops.

Your IQ Is 135

Your Logical Intelligence is Exceptional Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Genius

h/t Andrew

Et Tu, Dalton?

Check out the latest scandal brewing in Oztario. Does it, um, seem familiar?

TORONTO -- An angry Premier Dalton McGuinty lashed out against the tactics of his political rivals Monday after a Conservative staffer took surreptitious photographs of a Liberal cabinet minister in an attempt to catch him in a conflict of interest.

The Opposition Conservatives captured Transport Minister Harinder Takhar on film visiting a company he owned but had placed in a blind trust, an apparent violation of the legislature's conflict-of-interest rules.

McGuinty accused Conservative Leader John Tory of "stalking" Takhar.

"He has members of his staff go out with telephoto lenses (and) lie in wait for my ministers to take pictures of them and their activities," the premier complained in the legislature.

He compared the photograph to the recent scandal in Ottawa involving secret tape recordings of conversations between federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh, Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal and Tim Murphy, Prime Minister Paul Martin's chief of staff.

"I'd ask (Tory) as well to inform us whether or not he's recording any conversations."

Recipe For Disaster

So Canadian scientists have found that giving kids Viagra is an effective treatment for puliminary hypertension. But giving Viagra to teenage males? Erf. All I'm saying is, don't be surprised when sword fights (link: NSFW) start breaking out in high school parking lots.

MICHAEL JACKSON NOT GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS

...Suggesting (to me, at least) that it is all but impossible to convict a celebrity in a high profile case in the US.

The worst part in all of this? The accuser’s life is over. That, and we’ll be forced to listen to a bunch of preening, self-righteous defense attorneys lecture us about how justice was done here, and how the evil little cancer boy and his crazy mom who tried to use the justice system to sully the reputation of a blameless manchild (a manchild who once paid $20 million to make charges of molestation go away, mind) got exactly what they deserved -- conveniently forgetting to mention that those are precisely the kinds of marks pedophiles go after when they troll for prey.

The problem, as I see it, is that jurors in these types of cases take the “beyond a reasonable doubt” mandate to ridiculous extremes when it comes to the prospect of being responsible for convicting celebrities, and high-priced defense attorneys have become quite adroit at concentrating on nothing other than raising doubts—even as they’re able to shield their clients from having to testify.

And there will always be doubt in a he said / he said molestation situation—particularly if the predator is careful about whom he chooses to prey upon.

But even so: not guilty of providing alcohol to minors? Please.

****
Prominent Colorado-based defense attorney Jeralyn Merritt will have much more, I'm certain.

****
update: The Western Standard's Ezra Levant weighs in (h/t Mike P).

Cuukeeng zee heedleenes, Bourque Bourque Bourque!

(The title is a Swedish Chef joke for those who missed it.)

If you surf over to Bourque right now you'll see that his main page is completely filled with breaking news about Jim Flaherty pushing out Stephen Harper as leader of the CPC. My only response is, "Jim who?". I've never heard of the fella, and I thought I was somewhat familiar with the faces in Canadian politics.

What does everyone make of this? I'm thinking that Pierre is stirring the pot a bit to try and bring some life back into a slow news day. He probably would have been better off running old CPC press releases through The Dialectizer instead.

In which I attempt to curry favor with Canadians by carefully caressing their cultural sensibilities, 3

Stripes? I thought Candy stole every scene he was in, frankly.

Yep. Now there was a MAN, am I right?

Monte Solberg podcast

Stephen Taylor, ever on the bleeding edge of blogging technology, will be releasing the first of 3 podcasts with his interview with Conservative MP and finance critic Monte Solberg. Following close on the heels of that will be the interview with MP Andrew Scheer.

If you don't have an iPod, here's your excuse to get one. Of course, you can always listen to the interview with your computer's MP3 player, but then I don't get any Amazon referral fees that way.

Two reasons Duceppe is staying put

Angry has two theories as to why Gilles Duceppe plans to stay in Ottawa instead of taking the reins of the Parti Quebecois.

Possibility #1: The PQ might win the next referendum.

Possibility #2: The PQ might not win the next referendum.

For Alan, if he wants it

Here's something I'd like to contribute to The Lexicon:

electorate n. 1. a contrivance used by politicians to justify advancing questionable agendas and social engineering policies; 2. a device where the whole is always less than the sum of its parts.

Americans Are Bad For You

I'm going to write a sequel to the children's story The Emperor Has No Clothes. It's going to be called The Electorate Has No Brains. Gaaaaah. What utter stupidity.

Reader Tips - Jun 13 05

Here are some of the links that commenters have dropped in the past 24 hours. An extra large tip-o-the-hat to Maz2 who has contributed many of these. (Update: and another generous hat tip to HappyDaze.)

• Libs face confidence vote
• Landslide Annie seen putting up election signs
• Harper Liberals
• Need stress relief?
• Martin calls Harper threat to national unity
• Two standards

More tips as they come in

• How the Lib propaganda machine works
• Sidewinder study
• Worthington on Sidewinder
• Buckets of Stool
• Blue Tory on Post vs. Harper
• Liberal Underground (gaaak!)

Cause and Effect?

Maybe I'm a little punchy because I just finished doing my taxes, but I nearly fell out of my seat laughing when I saw the juxtapostion of these two headlines on Google News.

I'm thinking that the problem in the second headline goes a long way towards explaining the problem in the first headline. In which case none of us should expect action from Ottawa on the second problem any time soon.

Ah, whatever. I'm getting $8640.48 back. Me so happy. :-)

a message for NeoCanCon, who has taken it upon himself to deliver up judgment on Kate's guestbloggers in the comments section of one of my guest posts

One of the pitfalls of guestblogging is that you have to take an awful lot of guff from chest-puffing shitflingers so accustomed to one form of entertainment that when they encounter something different they feel emboldened to lash out at you, often quite aggressively.

The irony, of course, is that they are lashing out at the very people whom the vacationing host has hand-selected to provide content in her absence -- which, when you think about it, is a lot like being invited into Kate's house, drinking her booze, and then pulling out your woefully undersized pecker and pissing all that free liquor back onto the trouser legs of one of her guests.

Just a thought.

At any rate, thanks to Kate for having us.

Happy Daze for Harper?

Commenter HappyDaze says we need a pep talk. I agree. Let it never be said that we don't take requests. ;-)

Checking In

...from sunny Minneapolis, proving one can blog from Days Inn webtv.

It just sucks.

But not as much as showing dogs with puffy white feet in 3" deep mud.

On the other hand, winning in the mud is better than losing in the mud, so it could have been worse. We've got about 16 hours of driving tomorrow. I'll be back to regular blogging around Tuesay.

'Quebec Offensive' in the works...

Newsflash: Jean Lapierre says that the Liberals plan to hose down Quebec with even more of your money. Say, wasn't this what got them in trouble last time?

A reason to go to work tomorrow

So now the possibility exists that Canada will soon see a two-tier health care system, in which people with means can pay for essential services out of their own pocket directly, or by purchasing private health insurance, which until the Supreme Court ruled last week, was not allowed to cover essential services, thereby guaranteeing the government monopoly on keeping us healthy.

Now the possibility exists that soon I will be able to use the compensation I receive from my employer to enhance the medical services my family receives, assuming I can afford it.

Sounds like a reason for me to go into work and be more productive and earn a raise. Sounds like a reason for everyone to go to work and be more productive and earn raises.

Let's hear it again how two-tier health care is going to wreck Canada. Imagine a nation of hard-working people using their wits and sweat to make things better for themselves and their families.

I guess those people are right. It sure ain't the Canada we're used to.

[Cross-posted at Angry in the Great White North]

RevCan Writes Off $2B

I don't suppose anyone visiting this blog knows where one can obtain a list of the people/organizations who didn't pay their taxes? It would be interesting to see if any prominent lefties, the ones who are staunch advocates of more taxes, made the list.

OTTAWA (CP) - The Canada Revenue Agency has written off almost $2.4 billion in taxes owed but never paid after an internal audit found there was little likelihood of ever collecting the money.

The writeoff is the largest in Canadian tax history, and almost $1 billion higher than last year.

Much of the money struck from the books was for stale accounts, many older than four years, which an internal audit said have been piling up unpaid since 2000.

Retro CBC

So the CBC has found a way to recycle their old archives. Not only that, but they're going to do it in such a manner that they also get to poke right wingers in the eye with the pointy end of a stick.

Niiiiice.

Maybe it's just me, but I figure that the best way to get Canadians interested in the CBC's archival materials is to give Canucks the complete right to use them in their own projects in any way they see fit. After all, it was all bought and paid for by Canadians, right? Wouldn't it be cool to see a new generation of Canadians going through the raw footage and interpreting our history for themselves, and others?

Except that ordinary Canadians can't be trusted to tell a story that is in line with 'Canadian values' (Liberal values, that is). And giving the power to the people would take opportunities away from the CBC intelligentsia to insult those foot their bills.

Can't have that.

Cristy Lane: The Lost Recordings, 3

Recorded at Legend Studio, Pascagoula, Mississippi, June 1979, but never released.*

"Play That Funky Music Jesus"

Hey…do it now…yeah hey

Yeah, once I was a country-girl singer…playin' in an a southern-rock band
I never had no problems, yeah…burnin' down the one night stands
And everything around me, yeah…got to start to feelin' so low
And I decided quickly [yes I did]…to let the SAVIOR into my soul

SAW DEMONS dancin' and singin' and movin' to the groovin'
And just when it hit me an ANGEL turned around and shouted

Play that funky music JESUS
Play that funky music right
Play that funky music JESUS
Pray for our sins, LORD, and and play that funky music till you die…
(hey,hey) way up high!

Well, I tried to understand this…Yeah. I thought that I was out of my mind
How could I be so foolish…HE claims that HE can heal up the blind [How could HE?]
So still I kept on fightin'…refusin' to believe what he say (Yeah, what'd you do?)
I said, "I must go back there"[Got to go back]…ain't ready for no damn JUDGMENT DAY

SEEN DEVILS dancin' and singin' and movin' to the groovin'
And just when it hit me an ANGEL turned around and shouted

Play that funky music JESUS
Lead US SINNERS into the light
Play that funky music JESUS
Pray for our sins, LORD, and and play that funky music till you die…
Way up high! (on the cross, now)

(Come on…Play some electrified funky music, JESUS)

[Hey, wait a minute] Now first it wasn't easy…changin' up THIS SINNER'S mind
And things were getting shaky…I thought HIS MERCY I'd never find
Oh, but now its so much better [It's so much better]…I'm funkin out in ev-er-y way
But I'll never lose that feelin' [No I won't]…Of how I learned my lesson that day

SAW CHERUBS dancin' and singin' and movin' to the groovin'
And just when it hit me THE SPIRIT turned around and shouted

Play that funky music JESUS
Play that funky music right
Play that funky music JESUS
Pray for our sins, LORD, and and play that funky music till you die…
Till you die…oh, till you die (for our transgressions, sweet baby)

(They shouted, Play that funky music) Play that funky music
(Play that funky music) Got to keep on…Play that funky music
(Play that funky music) Pray for your REDEMPTION
(Play that funky music) Wanna take ya higher now…

Play that funky music JESUS
Play that funky music right, yeah

Play that funky music JESUS
Lead US SINNERS into the light

Play that funky music JESUS
Play that funky music right, yeah

*****
(see also: Cristy Lane lost recordings 1 and 2)

It's the End of the World As We Know It!

Six o’clock - tv hour. don’t get caught in foreign
Towers. slash and burn, return, listen to yourself
Churn. locking in, uniforming, book burning, blood
Letting. every motive escalate. automotive incinerate
Light a candle, light a votive. step down, step down
Watch your heel crush, crushed, uh-oh, this means no
Fear cavalier. renegade steer clear! a tournament,
Tournament, a tournament of lies. offer me solutions,
Offer me alternatives and I decline

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
-- It's the End of the World As We Know It by R.E.M.

So is it time to sell your home, pack your bags, and head for the hills? A commenter in the Publication Ban thread, HappyDaze, dropped this bomb on his way through:

I just returned from a function with high level corporate individuals. A fund raising golf tourney to be precise.

Profound advice is to move all financial assets off shore; out of Canada. Paul Martin's own company CSL has already done this but my friend is now taking most of his assets to Australia; plotting his own personal move there and advising anyone who will listen to get all of their assets out of canada now!

There are many complicated reasons - one is that the federal debt has been understated by the Liberals by many many billions; the revenues over stated and that it is not only the UIC 50 billion funds that have been plundered but the pension funds are suspect as well.

Personal debt is now the highest of the G8 and the impending and inevitable raise in interst rates partially because of Federal Overspending in non-priority areas is going to put interest rates over the sustainable rates and cause thousands of bancruptcys'.

The financial community is already preparing for Canada's demotion to a Banana Republic and quietly moving assets.

The Liberal destruction of Canada is well underway. Apparently it is easier to move assets to another Commonwealth country so if you can my friend advises Australia in the short term.

There is so much more he and numerous high level financial advisors told me tonight that my head spins - the conspiracy theories some of you have been musing about no longer seem in the least bit far fetched - and yes, China does have a role in some of this.

Changing the government from Liberal will not change the behind the scenes power mongers, it is too late.

Paul Martin, Jack Layton et al have no choice but to play along. If Stephen Harper cannot be bought or comprimised he will be replaced.

Notice the last few weeks, the drive to "replace Harper" - that is the real powers spearheading it. The next Conservative leader will have to be more pliable.

That is what is happening now. We have no say, no choice and no power to stop this.

Alarmist? Maybe. But he's not the only one thinking in this direction. Jay Currie has a few words on the topic as well, sagely pointing out that an economic crash could be helped along by external factors:

For Toronto in particular and Canada in general, SARS was a wake up call and we seemed to have learned a few things. In particular we saw how quickly our high tech medical system can be overwhelmed by 50 or 100 cases of a deadly infectious disease. In Toronto, if avian flu hits, the number of case will likely be in the hundreds of thousands unless very strict quarantine measures are put into effect instantly. The same is true across the country.

However, and here is where the brittleness of the West and its economic and social structures kicks in. Assuming for the moment that Canada, because of the planning which resulted from the SARS scare and the decision to stock up on anti-virals gets off relatively lightly. Say 100,000 cases and 20,000 deaths - because we live in an interdependent world our good luck will not protect us from the economic consequences of an epidemic.

The worst case projections are that up to a quarter of a given population will be infected and, of those infected, 10-20% will die. So, to take our neighbour to the south, that would be 75 million cases and 7.5 million to 15 million deaths.

The harsh economic fact is that while those deaths will be concentrated in groups of already compromised people, children and the elderly, the already ill and, of course, the poor, enough highly productive people will be killed for there to be a real effect on the economy. An effect which a robust economy could absorb fairly easily over a couple of years; but an economy which is in budget and trade deficit and facing increasing competition for energy supplies? Much more difficult.

Worse, the loss of several million people is not without consequence for the booming housing markets which, in their turn, are underwriting the stacks of private debt Americans have been racking up. When five people on your cul de sac all die in the same week and that pattern is repeated throughout your suburb it is a pretty good bet that housing prices are going to fall - fast.

I've been picking up similar hints from numerous sources, many of them well placed enough to understand what happens when an immovable mass of ignoramuses collides with an unserviceable debtload.

My house is up for sale, and hopefully we'll have a deal signed in the next couple of weeks. After that I'm heading for high ground and living the no rent, no mortgage lifestyle out in the country with a garden full of fresh vegetables.

For Everything Else There's Mastercard

Unless you're a pro-life organization, that is.

Horsing Around

In keeping with my recent trend of 'all gay, all the time' here at SDA, I am pleased to present the following news item to you:

Police officers who arrested a student for calling a police horse "gay" have been accused of "absurd heavy-handedness and over-reaction" by a leading campaigner for homosexual rights.

Peter Tatchell of the pressure group Outrage! said that the arrest of Sam Brown, a student at Oxford University, "brought the police service into disrepute".

Mr Brown, 21, a student at Balliol College, was arrested for causing harassment, alarm or distress and fined £80 after asking a mounted police officer if he knew that his horse was homosexual.

The student made the remark during a night out in Oxford where he was celebrating completing his English Literature degree.

Apparently the police refused to comment further on the matter and thus the Telegraph was unable to confirm that the arrest was prompted by the fact that Mr. Brown was 'hung like a horse'.

Gay Activists Go After Churches (Again)

The gay lobby is going after the tax exempt status of churches:

Churches that oppose same-sex marriage legislation have good reason to fear for their charitable status, a leading gay-rights advocate is warning.

"If you are at the public trough, if you are collecting taxpayers' money, you should be following taxpayers' laws. And that means adhering to the Charter," says Kevin Bourassa, who in 2001 married Joe Varnell in one of Canada's first gay weddings, and is behind www.equalmarriage.ca.

"We have no problem with the Catholic Church or any other faith group promoting bigotry," he said. "We have a problem with the Canadian government funding that bigotry."

Several Liberal backbenchers have been pressuring Prime Minister Paul Martin to amend the controversial gay-marriage bill, which is now before the House, to protect the tax status of churches that refuse to perform such marriages.

Under current rules, donations to religious groups are tax-privileged as long as the church refrains from partisan political activity.

"They can't connect their views with any political candidate," said Peter Broder, the director of regulatory affairs at Imagine Canada, an umbrella organization for charities and non-profit groups.

My recommendation to churches is that they fight back. Here, for example, is a non-proft organization that receives a ton of funding from several levels of government and obviously engages in partisan activity. Check out the 'Left of centre' links section complete with an outdated outbound link to "Svend Robinson, MP". Promoting an individual MP is verbotten for a tax-exempt charity (yes, I saved a screen shot as I'm sure the offending link will disappear soon).

I'm sure there are many more examples of pro-gay charities that have crossed the line.

Update:

Kathy Shaidle has a comment as well.

[Full disclosure: I am not in favour of tax exempt status for any group and have spoken out about this in the past. My feelings are that taxes are evil, but if we must pay them, I'm annoyed by the fact that the government puts the screws to me while passing over others. With all this being said, I see no reason why churches should take abuse from gay groups without fighting back. What's good for the goose...]

Old Brews Become Cool to Young Drinkers

Twenty-somethings are turning to beers their grandparents drank in an effort to be "cool."

Old Brews Become Cool to Young Drinkers (AP)

A line of taps pouring elegant brews from Bass to Blue Moon beckon twentysomethings packed into Bomber's bar. But 21-year-old Elliot Cunniff orders something homier for himself and a friend. "Two Yuenglings," he tells the bartender, explaining the attraction after a sip from his pint glass. "Price. Color. Flavor," he says. "And the name alone, 'ying-ling.'"

Cunniff doesn't come out and say it, but it becomes apparent as other Yuengling orders roll in: Old school brews are cool. Just as young consumers might wear `70s-look sneakers, sip `50s cocktails or download `80s hair band tunes, many are bellying up to the bar for the beers Grandpa drank — maybe a Rheingold, a Leinenkugel's, or a Utica Club. They're sometimes called "retro beers," brands that might bring to mind old men in ribbed undershirts, and which are now finding a new audience with the young. It worked for Pabst Blue Ribbon and now others are playing the same nostalgic chords.

Getting new life from an old brand is a great deal for brewers because they avoid the cost of launching a new product. The trick is doing it right. Heavy-handed advertising can backfire. Word of mouth seems to work. Television commercials with the Swedish bikini team are a big no-no. "That's the whole point of the retro thing, I think," said Eric Shepard of Beer Marketer's Insights. "The harder you try to push it, the more skeptical people are going to get."

These are not the happiest days for brewers. Sales are growing slowly and beer is losing ground to spirits as consumers turn more to mixed drinks. Beer's market share dropped from 56 percent in 1999 to 52.9 percent last year, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

Among the recent bright spots was the quirky story of Pabst, which caught on early this decade with young hipsters in Portland, Ore., and its popularity spread out. Without initial prompting, "PBR" became a symbol of authenticity and cool. It has been enjoying double-digit growth every year since 2003, said Pabst brand manager Neal Stewart.

Interesting. Things definitely go in cycles. I'd never heard of Yuengling until a visit to Philadelphia a couple years back. It's one of my staples these days. This is the first I've heard of it being "hip," however.

via OTB

Yet Another Publication Ban

...but with a twist:

The judge in the Robert Pickton murder trial has taken an extra step to stop banned court information from leaking onto the Internet.

BC Supreme Court Justice Jim Williams refused a ban requested by Pickton's lawyer that would order people not to talk about the case outside the court.

The normal pretrial ban remains in place — with the order that the media not mention website addresses that might contain court-banned material.

It looks like Canada's judiciary has learned from the past few months.

Reader Tips...

Drop 'em in the comments if you got 'em!

The Grewal Stuff

• Snip snip who cut the tape?
• Grewal chronology

Misc Tips

• LGF survey
• Martin jokes

Partisan Iced Tea

Has AdScam got you all heated up? Going ape over the Grewal Tapes? What you need is a nice, cold, glass of home-brewed iced tea.

Ingredients:

1 gallon (4 litres) of cold water
5 orange pekoe tea bags
1/2 cup (125 ml) lemon juice
1 cup (250 ml) sugar

Directions:

Find a one gallon container (an old glass pickle jar works just fine) and fill it with one gallon of water and add the five tea bags. Put the lid on the jar and place it out in direct sunlight for ten hours where it can cook like Scott Brison during Question Period.

Once the tea has brewed, add the lemon juice and sugar. Chill and serve.

Partisan modifications:

Liberals: Double the sugar if you're serving it to someone else. Gotta sweeten 'em up if they're gonna vote for you, right?

Conservatives: Double the lemon juice to one cup so that it's extra sour in keeping with your party's dour reputation.

Greens: Substitute green tea for orange pekoe, raw organic sugar for the white granulated crud, and make sure the lemon juice is fresh squeezed from an organic lemon. Don't forget to compost the tea bags and lemon rinds afterwards or David Suzuki will show up on your doorstep and give you a Wet Willie.

Dippers: Card carrying NDP members are welcome to modify the recipe however they see fit so long as they remember to shoplift all the ingredients. Remember, you're doing your patriotic duty by sticking it to the Capitalist Oppressors.

Bloc Heads: Paul Martin says we can't consort with separatists, so no tea for you. Bugger off and go be 'distinct' somewhere else.

Naked Cyclists in Oil Protest Ride

One hundred odd protestors rode bicycles naked through the streets of London to protest the West's obsession with oil.

Naked cyclists in oil protest ride

A group of naked cyclists took part in a bike ride to protest against oil dependency and to "celebrate the human body." Crowds gathered as about 100 people set off from Hyde Park corner, London, in the World Naked Bike Ride past some of the capital's most famous landmarks. Most of them stripped fully naked for the 10km (6.2 miles) cycle past Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben, Covent Garden, Oxford Street and the United States Embassy.

Some bikes were decked out with banners reading 'Oil is not a bare necessity but a crude obsession' and 'Support the trade justice movement'. Others have slogans painted on their backs and some were on roller-skates.

One of the organisers, Chad Neilson, 24, from North London, said part of the ride was to celebrate the human body. "It's a protest against oil dependency and car culture and the overuse of cars for unnecessary reasons. There is too much pollution, it stinks in London, and we use too much fossil fuel. I think people should be a lot more comfortable with their bodies. There is nothing wrong with the naked body."

I'm guessing that this protest will have negligible impact on our energy dependency and will cause approximately zero people to switch from cars to bicycling, naked or otherwise. Indeed, I would wager that the bicyclists used more oil on their chains than they "saved" with their protest.

via OTB

A Word on Beer

Greetings, I'm R, and I'll be your host tonight. Kate asked me to keep you entertained while she's in the custody of liberating democrary-bringers from the South or something.

But I disgress...

Being a proud member of Old Europe, I feel a tad strongly about the quality of beer. One of the greatest advantages of Old Europe is that something worth being called beer actually exists. While not new to the concept of piss in bottles (mostly originating from Belgium, Mexico or Japan), I was totally unprepared for this.

I mean, really. It was... indescribable. I'd rather scour my mouth with a used toilet brush from a heavily frequented public toilet in the South of France than ever having to drink any Canadian beer (did I just call this crap beer? Sorry for the confusion...) again.

So that's it for today. I'll think I'll just grab a bottle of Bier and enjoy the show.

Laterz, dahlins...

Weinreb on Chaoulli

Arthur Weinreb has a blistering editorial on the health care system of the Great White North in today's Canada Free Press.

Supreme Court said what politicians won't say

[...] In the decision of Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General) that was handed down on Thursday by the Supreme Court of Canada, the court found that Quebec laws that prohibit the purchase of insurance to cover private medical treatment violated the Quebec Charter and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The majority of the court found that waiting times in the public system violated the Quebec Charter of Rights. While it was not necessary to decide, three of the justices found that the Quebec law violates section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights that guarantees the right to life, liberty and security of the person. The court held that delays in the public health system led to prolonged pain and suffering, deteriorating medical conditions and in some cases, death. In coming to this conclusion in what will inevitably be to the dismay of those on the political left, the Supreme Court followed its 1998 decision in R. v. Morgentaler that held that delays encountered by women seeking abortions breached section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The interesting aspect of the Chaoulli decision, and the one that most deviated from what politicians of all political parties have been spewing for years was the finding that this breach of a charter right was not reasonable. The court found that while the preservation of a publicly funded health care system was a substantive and legitimate government objective, the outright ban on private health care insurance had no rational connection to saving the public system and went further than was necessary to meet that objective. In the majority’s opinion, the government of Quebec failed to show that allowing Quebeckers to purchase insurance for private health care would destroy Canada’s public health care system. In reaching this conclusion the court examined other countries in the OECD such as Sweden and the U.K. that have strong public health care systems despite allowing private parallel health care services.

This finding is at odds with what the politicians have been saying for years; that not only will allowing private medical services destroy our health care system; it will destroy Canada as we know it. The entire fabric of our society will disappear. We are constantly being told that our health care system is what defines us as a country. Allow someone to actually pay for what is now a public service and we will be no different than the United States.

[...]

The Supreme Court of Canada was right — the public system as we know it will not end. But hopefully Chaoulli will mark the beginning of the end to all the political spin where the reality of the existence private medical care is denied. Perhaps it will also mark an end to this notion that it is better to allow people to suffer and die than it is to allow them to have access to private treatment.

Of course, allowing those with the means to escape the socialist system to do so creates inequality. There are a not insubstantial number of people who would indeed prefer that outcome.

crossposted to OTB

No Relief For Canucks

As you read this, your government representatives are busily trying to push through debt relief for poorer nations at the G8 conference. In the meantime, retailers like Sears Canada continue to nail the poorer members of our nation with 23.15% (and higher) interest rates on their borrowing.

That's kind of a double insult. You're so heavily taxed that you have to put that new refrigerator on your credit card, and in the meantime your taxes are being given away to someone in another country. Oh, and the monster Annual Percentage Rates on your credit cards are just icing on the cake.

Whatever happened to charity beginning at home?

(Not that I want the government to start regulating credit card rates, it's just hard not to notice how little the Libs care for the plight of the poor they have helped create in their own country.)

Death Threats?

Michael Coren says he's been receiving death threats:

I receive death threats and abuse on a regular basis. My address and phone number have been placed on the Internet by gay militants and people told to harass and assault me. Jokes were made when my father died, insults made about my family. I have been told by editors and publishers that I will never work as a writer in various places because I defend marriage. But I will not react in kind and I will not surrender. I do, however, want people to know that there is hatred at work.

As a staunch advocate of gay marriage, I am upset at the notion that Coren would be threatened for his views. He's entitled to express them, just as we on the other side of the fence are allowed express our views.

So much for 'tolerance'.

Grewaling, Grewaling, Gone?

Buy it if you can, deport it if you can't:

OTTAWA (AFP) - Three weeks after implicating Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's chief of staff and a senior member of his cabinet in an alleged vote-buying scandal, an opposition lawmaker is now facing possible deportation.

Immigration officials refused to divulge Friday whether they are investigating Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal for allegedly faking a business transaction to fulfill his obligations as an investor immigrant when he moved to Canada from Liberia in Western Africa in 1991.

But spokesperson Greg Scott said: "If there is evidence that somebody obtained their citizenship through fraudulent grounds, false representation, knowingly concealing material circumstances, it is something the department takes very seriously." -- Yahoo News

No further comment necessary.

Going Down Down Down

I'm going down down down down
I'm going down down down down
I'm going down down down down
I don't know when I'm comming up
-- I'm Going Down by Gorky Park

The other song choice to open this post was Free Falling by Tom Petty. Whatever. All I can say is that this is a helluva thing to wake up to:

The Conservative Party has lost more support, a new poll has found -- and that can be tied to a popularity drop for its leader Stephen Harper.

Nationally, the numbers break out like this (the May 8 figure is in brackets):

• Liberals: 34 per cent (27), +7
• Conservatives: 26 per cent (31), -5
• NDP: 19 per cent (20), -1
• Greens: Nine per cent (7), +2
• Bloc Quebecois: 13 per cent (14), -1

Stephen Harper was viewed favourably by 50 per cent of respondents on May 8. In the June 9 poll, that dropped to 40 per cent -- a 10-point decline. -- CTV

While I'm admittedly a Green Party supporter, I find the willingness of the public to shift away from the CPC distressing. This doesn't bode well for any other party that is hoping to present an honest alternative to the Libs, either.

These numbers mean that it would be suicide to take the government out next week and we're stuck with a bunch of thieves looting the treasury for another six months to a year, at least.

I'm bummed out. It's time for coffee.

Selective earthquakes

From Warren Kinsella's musings for June 10, 2005:

Did you feel that tremor, yesterday morning? It was Canada changing under your feet. Without you, the voter, being asked first [by the judiciary] whether you approve.

Seems to me that some people are selective about which rulings are earthquakes that require approval and which ones are common sense that we must accept without substantive debate in Parliament or grassroots opposition.

Funny thing is, the health care argument is based on a right that does appear in the Charter ("security of the person"), while sexual orientation is not listed in the Charter as a basis for a charge of discrimination, nor is marriage listed as a right.

[Cross posted at Angry in the Great White North]

"Great moments in regional Spelling Bee bloopers" (from the protein wisdom conceptual series)

Petaluma Regional Spelling Bee, Corona Creek School, Petaluma, CA, March 14, 1988. The word: “nephridium"

Brenna Pierson, 11, McNear School: “N-e-p-h-r-i-d-i-e-m, ‘nephridiem.’”

proctor: “I’m sorry, that is incorrect.”

Brenna Pierson, 11, McNear School: “Oh. Well then f*ck me, I guess.”

Is There A Botanist In The House?

This is probably completely off-topic for SDA, but I was out with the camera yesterday and I captured the following specimens that I am unable to identify:

• Flower thingy
• Weed thingy

My wife -- who is usually expert on this sort of stuff -- is stumped too. Can someone help me out here?

Two experts contrasted

A comparison of two experts who have pronounced on the Grewal tapes -- one who said they were altered deliberately, and other who said they were clean recordings.

You have to decide which of the two is more credible.

Enjoy Question Period while it lasts

Look like Question Period might be wrapping up...until 2006!

D'oh!

Mmmmmm...donuts.

Won't You Be My Carbuncle?

I am anxiously awaiting the day when Alan, the Supreme Carbuncle himself, releases the entire Carbuncle's Lexicon in book form. That's some quality CanCon that I'd ante up for in a heartbeat.

It's just a shame that he hasn't rounded them all up into a single post for easy viewing. (hint! hint!)

Mea-culpa update

Commenter P-Air, who has much better reading comprehension skills than yours truly, pointed out the The Lexicon is already available in its own spot. Man, do I ever feel silly now.

What About the Victims?

Isn't this just lovely:

Reviled by many, defended by few, Canada's most notorious female inmate won't even be greeted by her family when she is released in less than a month. But CTV News has learned Karla Homolka does have some support in high places.

Homolka made her first public appearance in more than a decade last week at a court hearing in Joliette, Que. After two days of testimony, a Quebec judge imposed restrictions on Homolka's movements for a year after her release from prison.

Liberal Senator Michel Biron, 71, was present in the Joliette, Que. courthouse last week. He sat beside Homolka's lawyer during the hearing in a show of support for the convicted killer.

According to witnesses, Biron exchanged a slight smile with Homolka.

It's a shame that there were no Senators sitting with the French, Mahaffy, and Doe families to speak out in favour of protecting their constitutional rights. You know, the right to not be drugged, raped, sodomized, beaten, and then murdered. But I guess that's not as important as making sure that the people who do these things don't get their widdle feelings hurt.

Ah, whatever. I've been following the coffee house conversations about Ms. Teale (what Homolka calls herself now), and the truth is that she's a goner. There are enough people willing to cross the line and apply a little 'retroactive justice' that I don't expect her to last a year before somebody plants her head first in some farmer's field.

Grewal Tapes Get Clean Bill of Health

This is for MikeP who asked for a post on the latest status of the Grewal tapes. This CPC press release oughta take some wind out of the Libranos' sails:

Jason Kenney, MP
Opposition Deputy House Leader
Calgary Southeast

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 9, 2005

News Release

Original Murphy/Dosanjh recordings clean and unaltered: expert

OTTAWA – Conservative Deputy House Leader Jason Kenney today released a letter to Conservative Leader Stephen Harper from Randy Dash, Senior Editor and Manager of Operations of dMAX Media in Ottawa. The letter summarizes Mr. Dash’s analysis of copies of original recordings supplied by Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal.

"Mr. Dash's analysis of the recordings shows that they are clean and unaltered," Kenney said. "These recordings speak for themselves. Now, it's time for Paul Martin, Ujjal Dosanjh and Tim Murphy to begin answering the questions about their involvement in offering rewards to members of parliament in exchange for their votes. To this day, there has been no information produced by any of these individuals to dispute the facts on these recordings."

Kenney pointed out that Mr. Dash, a professional audio engineer specializing in post-production work, is the only expert thus far to have examined copies of the original recordings, and invited others to do the same. "There has been a lot of conjecture about the authenticity of the recordings," Kenney said. "None of this speculation is based upon fact, and would indicate that those speculating have not taken the time to listen to or examine the entire recordings, which are publicly available."

Discussion?

The ethics commissioner on a hot tin roof

As reported by Angry, The ethics commissioner Bernard Shapiro has had a bad few days, coming under some severe criticism from the House of Commons ethics committee:

"He's making it up as he goes along; he's not sure of himself," Hebert said after grilling the ethics commissioner about the Grewal issue and about a separate investigation of former immigration minister Judy Sgro.

"He comes across as incompetent; he obfuscates his answers."

Tony Valeri's priorities

Angry in the Great White North notes Tony Valeri's priorities for the government for next week.

The two A's

Adoption vs Abortion

This should be a difficult question, but for some people, the answer comes far too easily.

As an adoptee, I know where I, Danger Guy (aka Angry in the Great White North aka Steve), stand.

Go West, Young Man

I tell ya, poor Stephen Harper has got to be feeling like a Hitler pinata at a barmitzvah these days. He has been taking beatings from just about everyone, even those who have supported him strongly in the past. Is some of the current mess his fault? Maybe. And maybe not.

Wolfgang Puck is one of the better chefs in the world. However, one of the reasons that Mr. Puck is at where he is at is thanks to his ability to use only the best ingredients. And what ingredients does Stephen Harper have to work with? Randy White. Cheryl Gallant. Stockwell Day. Gurmant Grewel. Peter MacKay.

Blecccccch.

I just can't see the current situation as being Harper's fault. I also can't see him having a snowball's hope in hell of fixing it, either. So I'm betting that sometime in the next six months we'll see Harper being pushed out and someone else -- most likely MacK(ay) the Knife -- taking over the top spot.

And that would be a shame. It's not often that a man of integrity gets elected to public office. A competent man. A man whose word still means something.

So we'll take him if the rest of the country doesn't want him.

By 'we' I mean Albertans*. We've suffered along under Klein for many years now and we're overdue for some competent leadership. There's just no way we could go wrong by trading up from Ralphie to Stevie.

Imagine, a premier who wouldn't hose down special interest groups with resource money. A premier who really would stand up to Ottawa. A premier with an attention span longer than five seconds who won't embarrass Albertans by wandering off to a casino in the middle of an imporant conference. A premier who isn't a gay-bashing socialist pansy**. A premier that doesn't have an inflamed proboscis that would do your average AA member proud.

Yeah, we'd take Harper in a heartbeat because personal integrity and the ability to get things done still mean something in this part of the country***.

So come home, Steve. Come home. We've left a light on for you.

*** Stockwell Day is the obvious exception to this rule.

Canada's First Family

The Khadr family is in the news again. Niiice. Can we at least turf these losers off the welfare rolls, or is that asking too much?

Abdurahman has publicly declared them to be al Qaeda members. His sister has said they all wished for martyrdom. Family members have spoken scornfully of Canadian society, as they receive medical care and welfare payments that keep them in a pleasant apartment in Toronto.

"They've dubbed us the First Canadian Terrorist Family," Omar's sister Zaynab, 25, said recently in an interview. "I don't want to be in a place where I'm not wanted. Give me my passport and I will leave." The Canadian government has impounded their travel documents, pending resolution of their case.

As you're reading this you can bet that someone has been turned away from a battered women's shelter or housing program in Toronto today because of a lack of resources. Resources that are instead being spent keeping freakin' terrorists in a cushy apartment.

I miss the days of mob rule. I really do.

The Toronto Trim

Harper fans, be of good cheer. Sure, your leader is considered unsightly by many. Reclusive, even. No worries! A small surgical procedure can fix all your problems:

Stubbs performs what he calls “the Toronto trim,” a combo procedure that includes a reduction of the inner labia and a slight “unhooding” of the clitoris so the little man in the boat isn’t being quite so reclusive.

Can't you just see Harper's poll numbers shooting -- up -- already? Ontario here we come!

It's Not All Bad

I've been following the various reactions to today's Supreme Court decision. Mainly what I'm hearing is that 'it's the end of health care, yadda yadda yadda.' Whatever. Everyone is missing the point as usual.

The point is that for the first time in my lifetime there is actually a reason for someone living in Canada to move to Quebec. I don't think that's been the case since, um... Since... Confederation.

Hehhh.

He's Driving Us To Drink

We need a Paul Martin drinking game. I'd create one myself, but it's been over thirteen years since my last drink so I'm a bit handicapped here. (I can't even remember what rum tastes like.) Anyhow, the idea is to listen to Paul Martin on the news. If he says 'very, very', that's one shot. If he blames the Conservative 'hidden agenda', that's two shots.

And so on.

Does someone want to step up to the plate on this?

Canadian Court Chips Away at National Health Care

Canadian Court Chips Away at National Health Care (NYT RSS)

The Canadian Supreme Court struck down a Quebec law banning private medical insurance today, dealing an acute blow to the publicly financed national health care system. The court stopped short of striking down the constitutionality of the country's vaunted nationwide coverage, but legal experts said the ruling would open the door to a wave of lawsuits challenging the health care system in other provinces.

The system, providing Canadians with free doctor's services that are paid for by taxes, has generally been supported by the public, and is broadly identified with the Canadian national character. But in recent years, patients have been forced to wait longer for diagnostic tests and elective surgery, while the wealthy and well connected either seek care in the United States or use influence to jump ahead on waiting lists.

The court ruled that the waiting lists had become so long that they violated patients' "liberty, safety and security" under the Quebec charter, which covers about one-quarter of Canada's population. "The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health care system are widespread and that in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care," the Supreme Court ruled. "In sum, the prohibition on obtaining private health insurance is not constitutional where the public system fails to deliver reasonable services."

The case was brought to the Supreme Court by a Montreal family doctor, Jacques Chaoulli, who argued his own case through the courts, and by a chemical salesman, George Zeliotis, who was forced to wait a year for a hip replacement while being prohibited from paying privately for surgery

Interesting. In the United States, many advocates of nationalized health care point to the Canadian model as an exemplar. Perhaps they should rethink that.

via OTB

A Conversation Over Lunch...

Me: I'm sick of living in a country where being a thief is socially acceptable. Maybe the Saudis are onto something when they lop the hands off the bastards.

Father-in-law: That would never fly here.

Me: Oh? Why not?

Father-in-law: Think about it. There wouldn't be a single Liberal left who could shake hands with his constituents.

Me: SPLORRRF!! [shooting tea out my nose]

Pushing The Envelope

"The not-so-generic 'Libranos meeting an advertising agency executive in an Italian restaurant somewhere in Montreal' post" (from SDA's 'biting Goldstein's style' conceptual series)

Ad executive: "Excuse me fellas, but I'm pinching here. Time for a trip to the little boy's room!"

(Leaves phat envelope stuffed with unmarked $100 bills on the table.)

First Librano:

Second Librano (with Al Capone pinky ring):

First Librano:

Second Librano (with Al Capone pinky ring):

Third Librano:

Second Librano (with Al Capone pinky ring):

First Librano:

Third Librano:

Second Librano (playing with his Al Capone pinky ring): "...uh, someone's gotta pick that up before he gets back, y'know."

There are two tiers, alright

What Paul Martin said:

"Our purpose is to strengthen our universal public system and to provide timely access to medical services!"

What he really meant:

"We're going to plug this loophole, and fast, because allowing affordable options for the rabble, er, ordinary Canadians seeking private health care could create waiting time problems for me with my private doctor!"

Will Cotler support international law?

Casting his eyes internationally, Angry notes that American bloggers are doing bang up job of tearing Amnesty International apart for calling on nations to start detaining American officials, from the president on down, for the "gulag" that is Guantanamo Bay.

But he wonders that with Irwin Cotler's oh-so-uncomfortably close ties with Amnesty International's sister organization, the Parliamentarians for Global Action, and the PGA's active support for the International Criminal Court, in front of which Amnesty International would like to George W. Bush in shackles, should Canada warn the Americans of our intentions to start arresting their officials if they cross the border?

Or will Cotler go on record as saying his support of the PGA and the ICC is qualified, and that he has no intention of following up on accusations of crimes against humanity leveled by Amnesty International or anyone else against the Bush administration?

Slowing down on same-sex marriage

Angry in the Great White North watches as the same-sex marriage legislation is now being side-tracked, after promises to get the legislation through quickly before the summer break.

He notes that Irwin Cotler doesn't seem to have the Prime Minister's ear, or as Angry puts it:

Perhaps Irwin Cotler should spend more time listening to the echoes reverberating from his boss. Clearly Cotler's opinions are not "resonating".

In which I attempt to curry favor with Canadians by carefully caressing their cultural sensibilities, 2

I mean, Batman...? Please! Give me Dudley Do-Right over some self-pitying billionaire in a cowl any day.

Parlez Vous Freedom?

As you read this, I'm doing two things in separate browser windows. First, I'm shopping around for that Shelby limited edition turbo pacemaker that I've always wanted. The other is shopping around for a private health insurer in Quebec that can help me get that puppy installed.

Yeah, baby!

Cotler can't deliver on his promises of protection

Angry in the Great White North reveals how Irwin Cotler promised that he could protect civil servants who were morally opposed to same-sex marriage, and now admits he can't.

Some have already lost their jobs.

Cotler has promised to protect churches. Yeah, right. Cotler's word and a loonie will buy you a Coke from the vending machine.

In which I attempt to curry favor with Canadians by carefully caressing their cultural sensibilities

Is there anything in the world better than Anne Murray? No. No there most certainly is not!

Leadership of the Conservatives

Both Mike at brock on the attack and Steve at Angry in the Great White North consider the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.

When theft is not a crime

A new post at Angry in the Great White North considers what the notion of "property rights" means in Canada, and wonders why we bother prosecuting theft.

As the court ruled, 'Thou shalt not steal' has no legal force upon the sovereign body. But that power is jealously guarded.

When you or I take something, we're freelancing. Stealing is a federal monopoly in this country.

If you want to be a thief, you need to be a member of the federal civil service.

Judicial appointments process should be reviewed -- but won't be

On June 3, there was a motion put forward in the House of Commons by Mr. Richard Marceau, Bloc MP for Haute-Saint-Charles:

That the House denounce the recent remarks made by Mr. Justice Michel Robert stating that it is acceptable to discriminate on the basis of political opinion when appointing candidates to the federal judiciary and that it call on the Standing Committee on Justice, Human Rights, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness to create a special subcommittee with the mandate to examine the process for appointments to the federal judiciary and make recommendations for reform, with the primary goal of eliminating political partisanship from the process, by October 31, 2005.

He suggests reducing the number of members of the selection committee appointed by the minister of justice be reduced from three out of the seven members, and that the ability of the minister to select an appointee who is not on the "highly recommended" list be constrained. But that's just his recommendation -- the motion calls for a subcommittee to study the problem.

Justice Minister Irwin Cotler then delivered a speech defending the current process, and I urge you to go and read it. It's a good speech, but I think there is a blind spot here, in which the government refuses to acknowledge that the process has resulted in politicized appointments, something that Justice Michel Robert thinks is just fine. Mr. Cotler will not be voting in support of the motion:

Accordingly, because of this I will be voting against this motion, which I regard, taken as a whole, as being inappropriate, uninformed, unconstitutional and prejudicial to the independence of the judiciary and the responsibility of Parliament. Indeed, I am very concerned about the trafficking in innuendo in relation to the judiciary over the past few months.

Of course, the motion is not binding, but as the fellow who first discovered the disturbing trend in judicial appointments, it's nice to know that I've made some sort of impact. Now if we could actually make the government responsive to the wishes of the elected representatives, then the impact would actually matter.

[Cross posted to Angry in the Great White North]

Harping About Harper

Mike Brock says the problem is Stephen Harper's baggage. The Hack thinks the problem should be pinned on Harper's baggage handlers. I'm more inclined to agree with Mr. Hack. Let's be honest, Paul (Mr. Dithers) Martin is about as marketable as a flaming cow pie, yet he manages to pull in solid enough numbers to hold onto his spot.

It's all about the advertising, baby. Of course, this helps when you have damn near every ad agency in Canada in your back pocket thanks to the elaborate system of federal grants the Libs have put in place.

I don't think that Harper's 'baggage problem' will clear up for whoever succeeds him because there is a veritable army of spin doctors waiting to make sure this doesn't happen.

h/t Bound by Gravity

Three Syllables To Success

Charles Dickens gave us "Great Expectations"
Shakespeare gave us "Hamlet" and "King Lear"
Dostoyevsky gave us "Crime and Punishment"
Who the hell is gonna give us sex and beer

Sex and beer, sex and beer
Are the two things we hold dear
Sex and beer, sex and beer
Are the things we like ‘round here

From the city to the suburbs to the country
From the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere
They're holding a tremendous referendum
And everyone's choosing sex and beer

Sex and beer, sex and beer
Are the two things we hold dear
Sex and beer, sex and beer
Are the things we like ‘round here
-- Pat McCurdy

Times, they are a changin’

I had an epiphany recently, and I have Andrew over at Bound by Gravity to thank for it. The epiphany is this:

Any Canadian political party that cannot define it’s platform in three syllables is doomed to failure.

No, really, I’m not kidding. I realized this part way through watching Andrew bend himself around like a pretzel trying to explain the Conservative Party of Canada’s latest policy proclamations. He lost me when we got to the same sex marriage issue. While I won’t go into why I don’t like SSM here, the crux of the matter was that Andrew had just put a tremendous amount of effort into promoting and defending the CPC platform only to dismiss criticism of it by telling me that (I’m paraphrasing here) “don’t think the party will actually act on something just because it’s in their official policy book.”

So here’s a question: what exactly is the point of a political party having a large and detailed platform if they’re not going to follow it?

There isn’t.

And it turns out that not having a detailed platform is incredibly effective.

They’re smarter than people give them credit for

Let me use the Bloc Quebecois as an example. The Bloc’s party platform is easily refined down to these three powerful syllables:

“Quebec first.”

As Porky Pig said, “Th-th-th-that’s all, folks!” All the Bloc has ever promised to do is defend Quebec’s interests. This is how they can pound the snot out of the Liberals over the latest budget on Monday and then turn around and vote in favour of it on the following Tuesday while coming up smelling like roses. No matter how egregious the flip-flop initially appears, all Gilles Duceppe has to do is tie taking both sides of the issue to putting Quebec’s considerations first. That’s why you hear him issuing talking points like this all the time:

“Yes, we initially opposed the budget, but only because it was not good for Quebecers. Now that the federal government has allocated additional resources to help correct the imbalance of power between Ottawa and Quebec, we are prepared to vote in favour of the budget. We will not apologize for making sure that Quebecers get their fair share of equalization funds.”

(I made that up, but we hear this kind of stuff out of him all the time.)

No one has read the Red Book

We live in an age where the average Canadian voter is going to spend as much time examining the policy positions of the various political parties as Dan Rather spent fact checking some rather dubious reports about Dubya’s service records.

Ain’t. Gonna. Happen.

Instead, Canadians completely ignore all the finely-tuned policy documents and let the media define what each political party stands for through two second sound bites. The Bloc has stepped up to the plate and defined themselves. Quebec first. None of the other political parties has been nearly so savvy, carelessly letting Canada’s media pundits do this for them. Here is how each party seems to have been tagged so far…

Liberal Party of Canada: “Get free stuff.”
New Democratic Party: “Help the poor.”
Green Party: “Save the whales.”

Three syllables AND a vision

Whatever three syllables you choose, they have to be three damned inspiring syllables that you can wrap a vision around. That people can buy into. That they can feel proud of supporting. Or in the case of Liberal supporters, syllables that tap into the baser parts of human nature.

In the case of the Dippers and the Boogers, they’ve got insta-platforms that look good, sound good, and feel good. Freeing Willy is good. Feeding a homeless guy and/or getting a single mother back on her feet is something a lot of people feel good about supporting. The Dippers and the Boogers can take any position they feel like on any issue – no matter how non-sensical or contradictory – so long as they tie it back to supporting their insta-platform. Life doesn't get much sweeter than that for a politician.

When it comes to the Liberals, they know better than anyone else that people like getting free stuff (look at how they run their own party). It doesn’t matter that it’s not really free because it was stolen from someone else, they have learned that they can stay elected so long as they steal from a small constituency and spread the graft out amongst the largest number of voters possible (hello Eastern Canada!). The three syllables that the Grits have been using are the ones that inspire the group they need to keep inspired.

This is why it doesn't matter whatever pieces of slime fall out of the Gomery Commission. It's all about getting free stuff. When it turns out that people are genuinely offended by a Gomery revelation, the Grits just promise more free stuff and the polling data quickly goes back to where they want it. Sure they've blown away almost every election promise they have ever made and elevated flip-flopping to an Olympic sport, but that doesn't matter. The public sees the Libs staying true to their perceived insta-platform and rewards them for it.

There is one exception to the three syllable platform, and you have to tip your hat to the Conservatives for driving into this pothole with the same unerring accuracy that they’ve managed to hit every other pothole on Canada’s political highway.

Your insta-platform can’t be negative.

Negative platforms don’t work. And since Harper and crew seem to have some sort of quota system that prevents them from issuing useful sound bites to the media, the media – and the CBC in particular – have been happy to step in and define the CPC’s insta-platform instead. Depending on what news source you’re reading, here’s how you’ll see the Conservatives defined:

• Grits are thieves
• Old white men
• Rich white men
• We hate fags
• We don’t steal

Good luck wrapping whatever policy you are trying to sell on any given day in the House of Commons around one of the above.

If the Conservative Party of Canada is looking to define themselves with a positive new insta-platform, well, I’d be happy to help them out. I have voted for them in the past and under the right conditions would certainly be willing to do so again. So here’s a platform that they should consider:

“Sex and beer.”

No, really. Why not? Most Canadians like sex. Most Canadians like beer. It’s not such a hard sell, not even to SoCons and possibly even members of Alcoholics Anonymous (who would happily compromise on a can of Barq’s Root Beer). All the CPC has to do is proclaim themselves in favour of sex and beer. That’s all.

It doesn’t matter what policies they try to bring forth from one day to the next in the House of Commons, what bills they sponsor, or what bills they vote against. It doesn’t matter how wild the flip-flops are from one week to the next. If the Conservatives can prove to their constituents that they have remained true to their three syllable insta-platform -– sex and beer -– they will be able to get away with practically anything they want to.

Just like the Blocheads and the Grits are.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a challenge for you, then. Take any current policy position that you cherish, whether it be from the left or the right, and throw it at me. I’ll bet you that I can tie it to my vision of more sex and more beer for all Canadians without even breaking a sweat.

In the words of a certain funny looking U.S. president, “Bring it on!”

Babies are Succulent Eating

Welcome to the latest BSE crisis. You just had to know that Canadian farmers were going to find a replacement product to export in place of beef at some point.

For the record, I would like to head off the flame fest and point out that I am not responsible for the contents of this t-shirt (so don't shoot the messenger, dammit). The responsible party can be found here. Go call him names instead.

Reader Tips

Just checking in from the farm in S.E. Saskatchewan this evening to make sure you kids are behaving in here. Judging by their first day's postings, SDA is in capable hands.

I'm not sure that we brought the right vehicle. With the amount of rain that's fallen and I'm told - more awaiting us in Minneapolis this weekend, we might have been better off with a pontoon boat. The dog show is outdoors.

Yay for us.

A reminder, after perusing the comments - keep it civil and remember that there are people who read SDA from work, so keep profanity under control, please. If you can't follow those simple rules - well the blogosphere is a big place. Find one that has rules you like.

You can use this post for your own tips, as indicated in the subject line. Quoting should be brief.

Feeling Kate's Pain

I'm used to tapping out entries at PolSpy on a high speed cable Internet connection. I'm currently sitting out on my in-law's farm and connected to the Net at the blistering speed of 28.8 Kbps (with a 56K modem, no less).

This sucks.

I am utterly amazed that Kate has been able to keep up the blogging pace that she has for the past couple of years using dialup. I've been bugging her on and off to get satellite for the last few months, but she's the type who is afraid to open her wallet in case she accidentally lets the moths out. So she continues to suffer along on an Internet connection that moves slower than Canada's parliamentary process.

An Xplornet KA band dish costs about $400.00. I'm guessing installation is around another $400.00 as the dish has to be installed by a certified technician. The service itself costs around $80.00 per month.

Folks, there's gotta be a way that we can help Kate get herself one of these high speed satellite dishes. Would those of you can't get through your day without a visit to SDA be willing to donate a few $$$ towards Kate's connection if she added a PayPal Donation button to the site? Would you buy merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, posters, etc.) with her art work on it from a Cafe Press store if we help her set one up? Would you like to buy some advertising space on what looks to be a well-run, very high traffic site?

Please drop a comment if you have any ideas on how we can help Kate out here.

And you really should, because at some point the ten minute page load times are going to cause Kate to snap and plaster SDA from top to bottom with Google Ads. You may think that's not such a bad idea, but think again. Google Ads are context sensitive.

Samir Kassir

Michael Totten remembers Samir Kassir ;

Samir dedicated his professional and his private life to ending tyranny in his country. He was an activist as well as a journalist – an honorable combination in an oppressed country like Lebanon – and he died for his efforts.

"The generic 'stuck in an elevator' post" (from the protein wisdom conceptual series)

first man:

second man:

first woman:

third man:

second woman (with grocery bags):

first man:

second man:

first woman:

third man:

second woman (with grocery bags): "...somebody tried pushing the button, right...?"

The Mouth That Roared

Democratic nutjob Howard Dean is continuing to make friends wherever he goes:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, unapologetic in the face of recent criticism that he has been too tough on his political opposition, said in San Francisco this week that Republicans "all behave the same, and they all look the same. ... It's pretty much a white Christian party."

"You know, the Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people. They're a pretty monolithic party. Pretty much, they all behave the same, and they all look the same. ... It's pretty much a white Christian party,'' the former Vermont governor told a San Francisco roundtable Monday in reaction to a question about the lack of outreach to minority communities by political parties. -- SF Gate

How much do you want to bet that Dean keeps a copy of Warren Kinsella's book Kicking Ass In Canadian Politics on his bedside table? He's certainly got all of the talking points down...

Angry? (Check!) White? (Check!) Christian/Bible Puncher? (Check!) Mouthbreathers? (Check!) Knuckledraggers? (Check!)

Dean's approach to politics will look familiar to Canadian Conservatives who have been on the receiving end of the same kind of abuse from the lefties in our country. For all of the left's talk here in Canada about how 'different' we are from the U.S., it just looks like more of the same crap to me.

That's some difference.

He called people names -- fined $17,500

Canada is on the hunt for name-callers:

Two thousand leaflets attacking gays and lesbians have put a Christian activist in western Canada under investigation by Edmonton police for hate crimes.

The flyers by Bill Whatcott of Regina refer to gay marriage as "sodomite marriage" and use graphic language to describe the alleged sex practices of homosexuals.

The handouts also used derogatory terms to describe federal Defence Minister Bill Graham.

Children get their feelings hurt, and run to their parents. Adults are tougher than that, and ignore the offensive person, or dish it back out. They don't run to their...

No wait -- this is Canada. We do run to mommy government:

"The material is offensive and it's an affront on the basic tenets of our society, which is about multiculturalism, tolerance and peaceful co-existence," Const. Steve Camp, of the Edmonton police hate crimes unit, said.

Last month, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal fined [Bill Whatcott of Regina] $17,500 for handing out similar material.

I better stop before someone comes after me for my doubleplusungood thoughts.

[Guest blogging for Kate: a slightly longer post is at Angry in the Great White North]

Zimbabwe

Continues to descend into the madness of Robert Mugabe.

Money For Nothin'

CBC;

The owners of a restaurant and pub in Victoria by the Sea have been asked to pay the province $24,000 in anticipated sales tax before serving a single meal or pouring a pint.

[...]

Hunter and Storey have used their own money to set up shop on the Victoria wharf. And they have been able to avoid taking out a loan to help start their business.

Hunter can't understand why government thinks he and his partner would run off with sales tax money.

The provincial government figures, based on projected sales, the PST for this summer will be $24,000. And it wants the money before any business takes place.

[...]

Provincial Tax Commissioner Jim Ramsey said taxpayers lose $2 million a year when businesses go under. He said new businesses that are considered high risk are asked to pay up front, and the policy is paying off.

Via Stephen Taylor.

I'm Sure They'll Be Grateful

A further thought: When Democratic women are empowered to openly discuss their stories, it may give us the key to empowering some Republican women to talk about theirs.

Whois stephenharpersaid.ca

Whois Tim Tierney?

Guest Bloggers

As you may have noticed with the chainsaw border crossing post, James Joyner of Outside The Beltway is coming on board for a few days to keep the motor running here while I'm away to a few dog shows in the US. (Leaving in the morning)

I've also invited Protein Wisdom's Jeff Goldstein, just to confuse the hell out of the newbies.

CanCon will be provided by Angry and Sean (Pol:Spy)

And, to round things out, the world's most intimidating sysadmin from Templeofhate.com may stop by to contribute. Robin and I go back many years, to the late great days of Usenet and the Nancyboys driveby flamewars group. (Some of his poetry)

Behave yourselves, and I'll be back early next week.

Man With Bloody Chain Saw Let in to U.S.

A killer openly carried a bloody chain saw and various other weapons into the U.S. across the Canadian border.

Man With Bloody Chain Saw Let in to U.S. (AP)

On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres. Then they let him into the United States.

The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres' hometown of Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on Fulton's kitchen floor. His head was in a pillowcase under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed to death in a bedroom.

Despres, 22, immediately became a suspect because of a history of violence between him and his neighbors, and he was arrested April 27 after police in Massachusetts saw him wandering down a highway in a sweat shirt with red and brown stains. He is now in jail in Massachusetts on murder charges, awaiting an extradition hearing next month.

At a time when the United States is tightening its borders, how could a man toting what appeared to be a bloody chain saw be allowed into the country? Bill Anthony, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the Canada-born Despres could not be detained because he is a naturalized U.S. citizen and was not wanted on any criminal charges on the day in question.

Anthony said Despres was questioned for two hours before he was released. During that time, he said, customs agents employed "every conceivable method" to check for warrants or see if Despres had broken any laws in trying to re-enter the country. "Nobody asked us to detain him," Anthony said. "Being bizarre is not a reason to keep somebody out of this country or lock them up. ... We are governed by laws and regulations, and he did not violate any regulations."

Anthony conceded it "sounds stupid" that a man wielding what appeared to be a bloody chain saw could not be detained. But he added: "Our people don't have a crime lab up there. They can't look at a chain saw and decide if it's blood or rust or red paint."

One doesn't have to be Quincy, M.E. to spot blood on a chain saw, especially when the guy is also carrying a sword, a hatchet, a knife, and brass knuckles. And looks like the guy in the photo.

via OTB

Update (2219): Making a horrific tale even worse, Michael Demmons passes on word that Mr. Fulton, whom Despres murdered, was related to him.

Oxford Frozen Foods: Reinvesting For Maximum Return

With all the criticism levelled towards his government over Adscam, Toronto Tory notices that Paul Martin has his defenders, too.

If you read this article, you'll see that he [John Bragg] said..

1) "Mr. Martin could still rise above the issue"
2) "This would not be seen as a national scandal but as a fallout from Quebec's distinct political scene"

...and a direct quote:
3)"I don't see how [the testimony] is an election issue ... It's an issue of the former administration."

Of course you don't think it's an election issue, John. After all, the government's been good to you. So good, in fact, that the government paid you $1,600,000 in 2003 through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency .

The purpose of ACOA, of course, is to provide funding to companies in Atlantic Canada that need funding to engage in research and create jobs. Oxford Frozen Foods was one of those needy companies. So needy, in fact, that they could afford to make significant donations to Paul Martin's leadership campaign in the same year that they received massive ACOA funding. This article includes them in the "$50,000 club", but I seem to remember them donating more. Unfortunately, the list of donors seems to have vanished.

One can still dig up some of Paul Martin's leadership campaign discslosures through Google caches and web archivers, and Mr. Bragg's name shows up here.

Capturing some of this stuff before it's scrubbed for good sounds like a project for someone who has free time this coming weekend. (Not me, I'm on my way out of town.) To be on the safe side, we should probably grab this data before it goes *poof*, too.

Petrol On The Prairies

In skimming this review of the JRS book mentioned in the previous post, I stumbled on this amusing passage on the effects of globalization on the American west, from a British perspective;

The modern world has sucked the populations out of such rural, pre-industrial and pre-high-tech communes. The same is true in the broad plains of Nebraska, where only the two cities of Omaha and Lincoln survive ...

and where rural folk are resigned to driving 75 miles to a supermarket.

If they can pay for the petrol.

At current fuel prices in the US, a 150 mile round trip to the "supermarket" in a diesel 3/4 ton pickup will cost around $25, and you're probably hauling cattle or picking up parts anyway, in which case the cost is tax deductable.

These are not pleasant sights and, so far, only a few regions have found a way to cope with this implosion. And the Wal-Mart revolution marches on.

John Ralston Saul

... was just on John Gormley Live a moment ago, stringing words together in virtually incoherent sentences.

(For example - he attempted to draw a link between the G7 and the Rwanda massacres, later bringing in BSE border closures.)

He was in the studio to promote his book The Collapse of Globalism.

Even though it's radio, you can tell when Gormley opened his mouth - Saul's cadence speeds up and his voice rises in an attempt to prevent interruption (and possible contradiction?). After a while, I stopped listening to what he was attempting to say, to concentrate on his word inflections.

(Question - how much public money has been invested in this twit's writing career? I was tempted to call in and ask....)

Mortal Human

We interrupt this blogcast for a station announcement: SDA has officially evolved into a Mortal Human (#28) on the TTLB Ecosystem.

Garrison Mentality At The CBC

This morning the Fraser Institute quantifies the obvious;

[A]nti-American bias at the CBC is the consequence of a "garrison mentality" that has systematically informed the broadcaster's coverage of the US. Garrison mentality was a term coined by Canadian literary critic, Northrop Frye. He used it to describe a uniquely Canadian tendency reflected in our early literature, a tendency, as he put it, to "huddle together, stiffening our meager cultural defenses and projecting all our hostilities outward."

[...]

To gauge the extent of anti-American sentiment on CBC, one year's coverage of the Corporation's flagship news program, The National, for 2002 was examined. The authors chose 2002 because it followed the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, but was prior to the US invasion of Iraq.

In total there were 2,383 statements inside the 225 stories that referred to America or the United States on CBC in 2002. As with most news coverage, the largest number of statements was neutral; they constituted 49.1 percent of the attention. Thirty-four percent of the attention to America or the United States was negative, over double the 15.4 percent positive descriptors. Only 1.6 percent of the statements were considered ambiguous.

The main issue, constituting 27 percent of the coverage, was relations between Canada and the United States. Within this category 41 percent of statements were neutral. Of the remainder, statements were over twice as likely to be negative as positive regarding Canada/US relations (39 percent versus 18.9 percent).

Terrorism was the second most-often cited issue area where CBC mentioned America, at 10.8 percent. Here the negative comments overwhelmed positive evaluations by a 9-to-1 margin (37.6 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively).

Neutral statements, however, constituted 58.1 percent of the total coverage, which somewhat restored balance inso ar as even a factual report on terrorist activity is usually seen to be a negative reflection on terrorism.

The third most mentioned American issue on CBC in 2002 was build-up to the war in Iraq. At 10.5 percent, this topic was covered almost as extensively as terrorism, which received 10.8 percent of the CBC's attention. The negative evaluations of the American policy in Iraq were only slightly lower than on terrorism, comprising an 8-in-10 negative-to-positive ratio, compared to 9 in
10 for terrorism.

In total, despite the relative short period of time after the 9/11 attacks, the CBC's opinion statements of America during 2002 were overwhelmingly critical of American policy, American actions, and American purposes.

Where Are The Mass Marches?

Perry de Havilland;

Robert Mugabe continues his insane demolition of houses and businesses as he increasingly starts to look like Pol Pot reborn, seeking to depopulate the cites and drive the now homeless and unemployed population into the countryside to eke out an even more miserable living, thereby dispersing and isolating people from communities which might oppose his tyrannical rule.

And where are the marchers in the west? Where are the protesters calling for justice in Zimbabwe?

Read the rest.

h/t

Cotillion Ball

I'm working out of the house again much of today so posting will be light. In the meanwhile, I'll send you to the Cotillion - a collection of posts by the girls of the blogosphere.

Harold Cardinal

Cosh has an obituary for a moment of lost opportunity.

RCMP Attacked In La Loche

Local news is reporting that after a band election at Clearwater River First Nation north of La Loche resulted in violence, RCMP were called in, only to be pelted with stones as they tried to apprehend suspects.

There have been several incidents of this type involving the RCMP in the province this year. It's just a matter of time before we have another Mayerthorpe. With the RCMP lacking the capacity to pursue white collar crime and money laundering, a justice system that rewards those with multiple drunk driving fatalities with a comfy bed and scenic setting in a "healing lodge", when judges are heckled as "racists" by prisoners and peanut gallery alike, and media giggles over criminality in the highest offices of the land as "Liberal shenanigans" - why would petty criminals and local rabble rousers respect the average constable?

An anonymous reader writes;

At present, the Commissioner acts as a Deputy Minister and reports to the Liberal government.To be reasonably arm's length he should be reporting to Parliament instead if there is to be integrity built into the system. He knows the government has underfunded the RCMP for years but takes the public line that they are adequately funded which is nonsense. They are really short at least 2500 "experienced"officers if they are to do their jobs in a timely manner.

Taking about 18 years to get the Air India case to trial, about 20 years to deal with the tainted blood (because of connections) 7 years for the Bre-X mining scam and the report yesterday, that they didn't have enough resources to deal with money laundering are not examples of operating in the optimum manner.

All sections of the RCMP are underfunded and understaffed despite the rosy assurances of the Public Security Minister with her fictitious $10 billion for security. (it was $8 billion over 5 years and they added $2 billion for PR but nobody knows where the extra $2 billion came from..They are living on their laurels from 20 years ago. The height of BS was when one of their senior officers said about a month ago it would take 18 months to investigate the murders of the 4 RCMP officers. This would have been priority #1 and it appears this was to allow the elections to slide through without embarrassing the government over the fact that an assault rifle was used by Roszko to kill the officers making the $1.5 billion gun registry useless.

Pat O'Brien

"The truth is not what you say, the truth is what you do,"

Which means he had no choice but to leave the party.

Omar De-Mullahed

Telegraph

A crowd of 600 Afghan clerics gathered in front of an historic mosque yesterday to strip the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar of his claim to religious authority, in a ceremony that provided a significant boost to the presidency of Hamid Karzai.

The declaration, signed by 1,000 clerics from across the country, is an endorsement of the US- backed programme of reconciliation with more moderate elements of the Taliban movement that Karzai has been pursuing ahead of the country's first parliamentary elections, due in September.

Globe And Mail Order Diploma

Angry In The Great White North digs into the qualifications of Jack Mitchell, the expert used by the Globe and Mail to analyze the Grewal tapes.

Jack Mitchell is the owner of Computer Audio Engineering in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In an interview I found, he definitely sounds like he knows what he's talking about (even if the interviewer didn't -- an "FFT" is a "Fast Fourier Transform" -- a way of depicitng sound content as a spread over frequencies instead of a spread over time). On the other hand, he proudly lists the American College of Forensic Examiners as as his only professional forensic certification.

If the ACFE home page looks a bit cheesy, you're not the only one to notice.

MK Braaten kindly informs us in the comments, that you too can become a member of the American College of Forensic Examiners!

Reader Tips

A few quick links, before I'm off to paint slime on a Harley tank;

Grandinite, with the help of MK Braaten takes another look at the change in Accounting standardsfrom GAAP to International standards and wonders how that might apply to the billions the Liberals have tucked into foundations, out of reach of the Auditor General. He spots this:

For not-for-profit organizations: Not-for-profit organizations (NFPOs) will continue to apply those elements of GAAP for profit-oriented enterprises that are applicable also to the circumstances of NFPOs. The Board will consult with the not-for-profit sector to determine whether all NFPOs should base their accounting on the standards for public companies, or whether some might base their accounting on the standards for Canadian private businesses or be exempted from the scope of accounting standards altogether.

A story that won't spawn hysterical headlines at the Globe and Mail....

Stupid Angry Canajun asks "What is in it for Jim Karygiannis?" and revisits Patti Starr.

And Arthur Chrenkoff has another roundup of good news from Afghanistan, while Riding Sun asks What Is Being Done In Our Name?

Some of our media friends might check these out - expand your horizons beyond the quagmire scripts you've been reading from!

Add your own tips in the comments - reminder: keep descriptions and quoting BRIEF.

More Advice For Newbies

I've decided to add my own worthless bit of advice as a followup to yesterday's Carnival of the Newbies.

For all the comparisons to the MSM, at its core, blogging isn't journalism and it's not about writing your own private opinion column. While both elements can be a part of the whole, they don't define the medium. (Why try to duplicate something that already exists? )

So, my advice is pretty simple and it applies no matter what your niche or area of interest is:

Push the envelope.

Don't be afraid of writing something that sounds stupid in the morning. Stop worrying about being wrong. It's not about accuracy, it's not about always being right. That's what updates and corrections and commentors are for. Blogging is a conversation. Sometimes, in conversations, you blurt out things that offend someone or miss the mark. That's normal.

If once in awhile, you aren't saying to yourself.. "Oh boy... maybe I shouldn't do this" .... you're being too careful.

Take a deep breath and hit "save".

Live8 Too White

Independent;

Anarchists from around the world are planning to cause chaos at next month's G8 summit in Gleneagles as a row broke out last night between Bob Geldof and DJ Andy Kershaw over the absence of black musicians at events staged to benefit Africans.

With police fears mounting over Geldof's call for one million people to protest at the summit, Kershaw last night condemned the almost exclusively white line-up for the pop concerts to coincide with the summit. "If we are going to change the West's perception of Africa, events like this are the perfect opportunity to do something for Africa's self-esteem," he said. "But the choice of artists for the Live8 concerts will simply reinforce the global perception of Africa's inferiority."

So, we need to assist Africa in building "self esteem". We need to stop reinforcing the perception of Africa's inferiority.

Well then, why didn't you say something earlier? That's an easy one to solve.

Let them start funding their own goddamn aid programs for a change.

Trust The RCMP?

Licia Corbella in the Calgary Sun;

I said something like: "If it's true Grewal was approached by the Liberals to defect prior to the non-confidence vote in the House for a plum political position, instead of just taping his calls and meetings with the Liberals, he should have got the RCMP to do it, then the veracity of his claims would not be questioned."

My friend's response: "The RCMP would have just tipped off the Liberals as to what was happening. The RCMP is a Liberal puppet."

Example after example appears to prove him right.

What's more, how diligently can we expect the RCMP to investigate AdScam when it's known the RCMP helped launder money for the federal Liberals to help Liberal-friendly advertising companies in Quebec, who then funneled the money back into Liberal party coffers?

Federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser unveiled in April 2004 the feds pumped $1.3 million of the $3 million earmarked for the Mounties' 125th anniversary celebration into the coffers of Liberal-friendly ad firms.

In turn, the RCMP deposited its $1.7-million share of the sponsorships in a separate non-government bank account that was discovered by Fraser's probe.

"We were unable to verify the transactions from the Quebec bank account, because some of the supporting documents had been destroyed," the AG report said.

Flashback to this;

Canada's national police force can't be trusted to conduct a wide- ranging investigation into new criminal allegations made at the Adscam inquiry, Conservative deputy leader Peter MacKay suggested yesterday. MacKay points to RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli's "perceived" cosy relationship with the previous government of Jean Chretien and the fact the force was itself tangled up in the ad scandal.

"There's already been significant examples of where the RCMP have been too -- and I emphasize 'too' -- closely linked to the Prime Minister's Office," MacKay said, recommending either the Quebec or Ontario provincial police conduct a probe instead.

He cites the involvement of Jean Chretien's senior staff in the RCMP handling of protesters at a 1997 Asia-Pacific leaders' summit in Vancouver, the force's decision not to investigate Chretien's alleged actions in the so-called Shawinigate affair and the costly, failed probe of former Conservative PM Brian Mulroney and Airbus.

The RCMP also received more than $3 million from the disgraced sponsorship program, some of it channelled through a non-government bank account.

"In all of those instances, there were questions in the minds of the public about (the RCMP's) proximity to the government, including the commissioner's close ties, both socially and professionally to Francie Ducros (Chretien's former communications director) and members of the PMO staff," MacKay said.

Joe Volpe Out?

So sayeth (705) BLUE. Apparently, the Liberals are furious that he opened his mouth to verify some of the most damaging portions of the Grewal tape - and that's just the latest. He's about to "to get lost in the shuffle" when new cabinet appointments swing around.

(Via a reader who spotted it at Jack's Newswatch who's got his finger on a number of interesting items.)

Carnival Of The Newbies

I have quite a number of new blogs to introduce - and for this Newbie Carnival, advice on how to build readership for your blog, courtesy of three established Canadian bloggers.

I'm Not Paranoid is a sacred cow free zone.

Shaken, Occasionally Stirred is gaining a reputation for doing first-rate digging into stories that don't get a lot of attention elsewhere.

Either Orr has been posting up a storm from Pennsylvania.

Right Ho! is "a conservative journalist by trade (for real, no fooling), but I have decided to remain anonymous for now".

The Firebrand - "resurrects the ghost" of WL Mackenzie in his approach to political debate.

More To The Story is keeping an "eye on politics", including this morning's story that Pat O'Brien may walk away from the LIberals over SSM.

Craig Cantin was inspired to blog by both Warren Kinsella and me? This could get interesting.

David MacLean's new blog has been mentioned here before - it's promising to be a good resource for the rest of us: Taxpayers Federation

A conservative from Mississauga, Reasonable Right joins the growing list of blogging accountants - as does Canada's John Galt a CPA who writes on politics, taxation, economics, and culture...

Lunchpale was recommended by a friend who suggests "he's probably too dumb to put himself on your newbie express." (He isn't)

We need more voices from the Maritimes - welcome Jean Leblanc from New Brunswick.

China E-Lobby - "An organization dedicated to exposing the abuses of human rights, threats to American security, and attacks on general decency committed by Communist China, and to influencing American policy to ensure these egregious acts do not go unopposed."

Though US based, this is a blog to watch, in light of Chinese government/military investments in Canadian resources.

Saskatchewan is becoming a hotbed for bloggers - introducing Black Sheep Press, a self-described " libertarian with Western Separatist leanings".

John Murney is a former broadcast journalist, strong libertarian and currently a full-time time student at the U of R. (Well, they'll cure that soon enough!)

The Liberty Letter - another Saskabusher!

Exposed Agenda hails from Calgary, Alberta.

Invisible Hand has been "fighting statism since late last night".

I Hate Hippies and Communists. This rather says it all - "We need to get back to a time where we openly hate these two groups."

"In the spirit of Cyrano de Bergerac, I try to take the road less trodden - replacing vulgar, low-brow name-calling with classy, high-brow name-calling.�" (What the hell is "Vogon poetry"?)

Like SDA, habamus rodentum doesn't seem to have much to do with rodents.

Late additions:
Sham The Toryman
The story behind Gomery Inquiry

And now for the advice

Darcey at the popular Dust My Broom offers helpful hints for newbies, including this - "I began to understand that in the blogosphere, links are like money and you may have noticed that I link a lot and have staged many big link fests. I didn't initially mean them to drive traffic or raise standings or anything like that. Basically they are bookmarks of interest to me that I wish to keep and refer to in the future. They do however have an effect." Good observations about "crumbtrails", too.

Poltiical Staples was one of my first favourite reads when I started blogging - " ... don't worry about traffic too much in the beginning, focus on finding your voice. But once you are confident that you've found your groove join blog groups. This is the single best way of getting your blog noticed. Commenting on other peoples blogs helps as well but follow etiquette. Make your comment applicable to the post - don't comment just to get noticed."

Andrew at Bound By Gravity writes;

Bernard Landry Stepping Down

QUEBEC (CP);

Parti Quebecois Leader Bernard Landry made the surprise announcement he would step down as leader and leave politics after earning only a score of 76.2 per cent Saturday in a confidence vote on his leadership.

[...]

An emotional Landry summed it up this way: "It breaks my heart to tell you this, but I'm doing it in the national interest," he said as he announced his resignation. "I'm sorry to do this."

[...]

"The next person who leads the sovereigntist troops must be strongly supported without equivocation," he said, adding diversions and quibbles over the party's leadership don't advance the cause of making Quebec a nation.

What's up with the separatists? They vote with the Liberals federally on one bill and now their provincial leader resigns? Are there any open cabinet positions?

Reaction
Laurent thinks so, too.

Things That Go *POOF* In The Night

Conservative Life is following up on this tip.

Between last evening and tonight, Lafleur Communications was wiped out at Contracts Canada. No trace, no contracts showing. Groupaction's and Gosselin's are still there.

h/t to Anselm

update: The Force that is the Blogosphere strikes again. Gomery.ca is back up. ;-)

Update 2 A commentor points to this post at Random Notes - the public online source that lists contributors to Paul Martin’s leadership campaign has also been yanked.

donboudria.crybaby.ca

Don Boudria isn't content with throwing out faxes from critics - he wants them charged.

 Over the last 29 hours, my office has received no fewer than 828 faxes here on Parliament Hill. I have them here. I am willing to table them for the consideration of the Speaker if Mr. Speaker feels that this will help guide him in determining whether or not this is an abuse of what should legitimately be going on. [...] In the case of my office, whereby we normally receive 40 to 50 faxes from constituents in a day, we have been able to receive a grand total of five over the last two days. The rest of the time the equipment is completely blocked. A group calling itself Focus on the Family, which has the website www.marriagematters.ca, is making it such that our telephone systems have been rendered inoperative this way.

And change his diapers, no doubt.

Grewal Tapes: Cheema

A reader wrote a few days ago asking what this passage alludes to. On Tape 1 about half way through the 2d conversation between Grewal and Kalia (Monday morning), we find this exchange:

Kalia - You (GG) review, this is their need, why would they (PM and UD) deceive.

GG - Ok I will call you and tell you (my decision) later on,ok.

SK - I don't think they will, he told me again and again. He (PM) promised Dr. (Gulzar) Cheema (consulate in Chandigarh, India) and he'll meet that commitment after the legal problems are resolved. Cheema also told me that he can not discuss this more than this, he (Cheema) says every thing