small dead animals

CitizensofCaledonia.ca

(Bumped to April 30 with updates)

Has this image appeared anywhere in the mainstream media to date?

There was a rally today in Saskatoon to support these criminals. A spokesperson (identified as Colleen Thomas) was interviewed on radio claiming that Six Nations invented democracy and that their system of governance was inspiration for Benjamin Franklin.

Apparently, they've forgotten how it works since then.

UPDATE: The website at CitizensofCaledonia.ca has now been pulled due to threats and intimidation. That's too bad, but considering the documented acts of property damage and arson, perhaps it was considered too risky to continue publishing the photographic evidence.

I was able to pull up the documentation that was available on the site (pdf) and have saved it here:
To_the_people_of_Haldimand_County.pdf
LandClaimResearch2.pdf

As always, keep checking for updates and commentary at the indispensible Dust My Broom;

NON-ABORIGINAL GROUPS DECLARE SUPPORT. CHECK OUT SOME SAMPLES FROM THE LIST. THE GAME OF FOOTSIE WITH RADICAL ANTISEMITES CONTINUES***********:

Al-Awda (Palestinian Right of Return) Coalition-Vancouver
Canada Palestine Association
Palestine Community Centre
Palestine Solidarity Group
Palestinian Arab Women’s Association
Voice of Palestine-Vancouver
Iranian Federation of Refugees

A more general column on the failings of institutionalized welfare and the reserve system in today's Ottawa Sun by Pat MacAdam.

Why Is It?

That the best time of year for riding just happens to coincide with spring corral cleaning?

So, between contributing to global warming and finishing up my income tax, blogging will be minimal today, so use this thread for reader tips/open thread. (And thankyou for resisting the trolls over the past couple of days!)

Interview With A Spook

Michael Ledeed interviews the late James Jesus Angleton;

ML: Huh? What's that supposed to mean? You telling me you're responsible for setting up McCarthy's conversations with Dana Priest? You've been dead for a long time, how could you manage that from, uh, where you're at?

JJA: You might put it that way. It all goes back to Watergate, of course, which hardly anybody understands. Haven't I explained it to you?

ML: No, but it's never too late, go for it.

JJA: Well you know how Nixon hated the CIA, he thought we were all a bunch of effete Ivy League intellectuals who despised him, a simple soul from a Quaker background, etc., and he didn't trust CIA analyses.

ML: Okay, nothing new there. When I was in the Reagan administration there was general distrust of those analyses too.

JJA: Right, especially the stuff about the Soviets, which invariably put the most benign possible interpretation on their actions. Part of that came from the instincts of the analysts, but part of it came from the actions of the KGB, both abroad and, to a frightening degree, within the CIA. Our shop had identified many likely KGB and GRU moles inside CIA, and some of our people wanted to start a very aggressive mole hunt, but Nixon wouldn't hear of it, despite his antipathy to the place.

ML: Because of political fallout?

JJA: Yes, there was that — the ACLU and the 1st Amendment extremists would have been all over it, arguing that it was just an excuse for the politicization of intelligence, suppression of dissent, and so forth — but there were also the practical considerations, which I shared: the place was so riddled with penetrations that we'd never be able to feel confident we'd solved the problem. Second, any investigation would risk blowing the cover of the good operations we were running against the Soviets, and third, the publicity would worry our allies, who would cut back on their cooperation with us.

ML: Yeah, and meanwhile there were congressional investigations, endless leaks to the press...

Al Qaeda Changing Tactics?

James Joyner looks beyond the bluster in the latest al-Zawahri declaration of victory over US forces in Iraq;

“Every soldier and officer in the Pakistani military should know that Musharraf is throwing them into the burner of civil war in return for the bribes he is getting from the United States,” al-Zawahri said “For this reason I call on every soldier and officer in the Pakistani army to disobey the orders of his commanders to kill Muslims in Pakistan or Afghanistan or otherwise he will be confronted by the mujahedeen,”

Clearly, undermining the support of moderate Muslim regimes has been a key focus of al Qaeda leadership in these recent videos. What’s so interesting about that is that Osama bin Laden’s great achievement in forming al Qaeda, according to Michael Scheuer’s analysis, was in persuading disparate Islamist groups who were focused on the apostasy of their own domestic regimes to unite in opposition to the West. This seems a reversal of that course.

It sounds like Zawahiri did not appreciate the dinner party blast that targeted him earlier this year and killed Midhat Mursi, al Qaeda's master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert .

This Is The Voice Of The Cannabis "Culture"

"Marijuana does not damage cognitive abilities."

The B.C. man wanted in the United States to stand trial for selling marijuana seeds by mail thinks a jail term south of the border could be his springboard to a political career in Canada.

"I get elected to Parliament, I become the justice minister and finally get rid of these marijuana laws," is how Marc Emery sees his future on return from a prison term in the U.S. if convicted there on charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, distribute seeds and launder money.

"My personal feeling is, I do get taken away and kept in captivity for many years," he says. "Historically, that's a very good springboard to the governing party."

"If I go to jail, and I'm really well-known and, hopefully, get murdered in jail, that will serve as a form of martyrdom that every year, demonstrations, protests, bombing, various forms of violent and non-violent behaviour can be used to put forward our thing," he says.

From Emery supporter John Shavluk, posted to the Cannabis Culture forums Friday, April 21;

like i spent the day telling people yesterday at the rally,,,
that we only need one mp standing up(out of 307 i think)

and making a speech about our culture and getting a private members bill brought forward ,,,we could get a referendum or new decrim(joke) or out right legalize,,how about the end of prohibition period,,,

every one concentrate on your mp

maybe one of them will get balls or get their leader to do the job he is supposed to be doing.

we chain about 10 of us to Layton for example
on media
until he promises to enter a bill,,,

i watched him say he could get one anytime fast as he wanted to do against Emerson,,,

any ideas
because that is the only way it will stop eventually ,,
sadly after this escalation by the law and then a couple of tragedy's, that I'm sure will develop,,,

i listened to a guy say he wanted to be the first cannabis suicide bomber in Canadian history,,
and had it all figured out
who
where,why him,,
what impact etc,,,

I have a question for my friends who sit on the pro-legalization side of this debate - is there any currently organized marijuana advocacy group in Canada that has publicly distanced themselves from or formally severed ties with Marc Emery and his Cannabis Culture "following"?

These Are The People

Who cover the White House who write the stories that get picked up by the wire services and into our nightly news. Observe;

Q [WaPo reporter Jim VandeHei] It's come to my attention that there's been requests -- this is a serious question -- to turn these TVs onto a station other than Fox, and that those have been denied. My question would be, is there a White House policy that all government TVs have to be tuned to Fox?

MR. McCLELLAN: Never heard of any such thing. My TVs are on four different channels at all times.

Q Because you have four different TVs. But every time I've ever been --

MR. McCLELLAN: Every TV in the White House also has channels every -- has a split screen, where they can --

Q VandeHei Well, they always seem to be tuned to Fox, and there's been requests, and these are paid for by taxpayer dollars. And my understanding is that you guys have to watch Fox on Air Force One. Is that true?

MR. McCLELLAN: First time I've ever heard of it. First time you've brought it to my attention, meaning the first time the press corps has brought it to my attention. In fact, I've watched other channels on here.

Q VandeHei There's one --

MR. McCLELLAN: Hang on, Jim, come on. I've watched other channels on here, so I don't know where you're hearing that. But it's the first time anyone in the press has raised that question with me.

Q VandeHei You've watched other channels other than Fox?

MR. McCLELLAN: On here, yes, sure.

Q VandeHei I've never seen -- they're always turned to Fox, which a lot of people consider a Republican-leaning network.

Q VandeHei Scott, is it one -- on the airplane, is it one for all? I mean, if it's tuned for Fox here, is it Fox everywhere?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think that certain areas may be interconnected, but
I'll have to double-check which.

Q VandeHei Is yours off, wherever you are?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the conference room, or the senior staff office,
the staff office, they're different TVs, and you can switch to different
channels. I'm not sure if some of these in the back are connected to
some of the others that are watching right here, right now. It doesn't
look like it to me. I've never known anyone that's raised a complaint
about a request from back here to watch a different channel.

Q VandeHei I'm officially raising it and officially complaining about it.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I'm going to go see if we can change the channel
for you. Have you called up?

(Read to the bottom of the link for another surprising bit of information.)

I Endorse

The media and many bloggers have been quick to highlight which Liberal Party bigwigs are supporting which Liberal leadership candidate. But what about bloggers?

As a service to the Liblog community and as a nudge to the campaigns to pay attention to ever growing (but admittedly still small) powers of the Liberal blogging community, Cerberus is going to try to keep track of these endorsements. I will have a permanent post in the right-hand column (how ironic) linking to the endorsement page eventually, but for now here is what I have gathered so far.

Another Sign Of Harper's Rising Fortunes

No longer a reptilian kitten eater!

*

Update: Steve Janke asks "Did Exclusive Advertising accept a paid ad that read "Stephen Harper Eats Babies"?

May 1st Update: Exclusive Advertising claims a hacker is responsible, and issues an apology.

Where Poppies Grow And Liberals Blow

Several readers have commented and emailed privately expressing dismay that the Liberals have now chosen to appropriate the Remembrance Day poppy as their newest political prop in the House of Commons. A sample:

"Not so happy was I, watching the Liberals soil the poppy for a cheap and sleazy parlor trick."

"First they decimate the military, don't get helicopters to replace the SeaKings but get a new plane for the PM--and then have the nerve to wear a poppy to pose questions in QP."

"when i was watching Bill Graham going a mile a minute denoucing the softwood deal i was floored at what i saw behind him, Liberal MP's wearing the poppy. Now I could be wrong but i was always told that we only wear them when the Poppy Campaign is on in November & wear them on special ceremonies & at funerals. So now the liberals are making a mockery of the POPPY."

update on the Poppies being worn in HofC Apr.27/06, RCL Command office was contacted yesterday as the house was going to have a moment of silence. RCL gave permission for them to be worn, however they were to be removed after the ceremony. As many witnessed they were not & became a political posturing for some liberal MP's. This has been noted by many member's of RCL & they have expressed their great concern's over this as it could set a presidet to future wearings when not Nov11th, i myself for one contacted my provicial command & dominion command & expressed my deep concerns that this could be misconsrcewd by the general public, the other problem was that ARE YOU READY FOR IT, the MEDIA was supposed to have reported on this. Did anybody see that I sure did'nt & I watched CPAC & CTV.(i refuse to watch the Communist brodcast channel)anyways gang that is where it stands for now(film at 11)

The West Leads Economic Growth

When we're hot, we're hot. (Remember that kiddies, next time you grumble at the tanks.)

"The western provinces remained on top of the leaderboard for a third consecutive year in 2005, while Central Canada experienced moderate gains and Atlantic Canada trailed at the bottom of the pack," the bank said in an analysis of Statistics Canada's annual provincial economic report card released this week.

That report card revealed Alberta led all provinces with economic growth of 4.5 per cent last year; followed by growth of more than three per cent in British Columbia and Saskatchewan; between two and three per cent in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec; by just over one per cent in Nova Scotia; and by less than that in the other Atlantic provinces.

"However, there is more to the story than just growth," the bank said, noting to get a better idea of living standards it looked at per-capita incomes, both before and after taxes.

"Indeed, we observed a clear-cut disparity in standards of living from coast to coast in 2005," the report said. "Albertans were better off than anyone lately, both in terms of the level and the rate of growth in economic well-being."

For example, it noted the average income in Alberta was $65,397 -- 156 per cent of the national average of $42,464, and 13.5 per cent more than a year earlier. Only two other provinces had average incomes above the national average, Ontario at $42,993, and Saskatchewan at $42,743.

Makes me wonder if he gets his information from the Toronto Star Enquirer.

via the Corner

GDP Grew at a 4.8% Annualized Rate in the 1st Quarter

The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its “advance estimate” of growth in the inflation-adjusted (“real”) gross domestic product (GDP) for the 1st quarter of 2006. (Available at http://www.bea.gov/bea/newsrelarchive/2006/gdp106a.pdf).

Annualized GDP growth in the 1st quarter was estimated at a rapid 4.8% rate; growth was 1.7% in the 4th quarter of last year.

Highlights:

Ø The major contributors to GDP growth in the 1st quarter were personal consumption expenditures (which grew 5.5%), business equipment and software spending (which grew 16.4%), exports (which grew 12.1%), and federal government spending (which grew 10.8%). Imports, which are a subtraction from GDP, grew 13.0%.

Ø The inflation-adjusted change in private inventories subtracted 0.52 percentage point from the 1st-quarter change in real GDP.

Ø The acceleration in growth (from 1.7% in the 4th quarter to 4.8% in the 1st) reflected faster growth in personal consumption expenditures for durable goods, an upturn in federal government spending, and faster growth in equipment and software and in exports.

Ø Growth in the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy prices, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of consumer price inflation, declined to an annualized 2.0% in the 1st quarter from 2.4% in the 4th quarter.

DOS Attack

Looks like SDA is back up - Michelle Malkin has the gory details. If this DOS attack is like previous ones, don't be surprised if the site goes back down intermittently over the next few hours. (or days)

SDA is hosted by a company that specializes in blogs, including some of the big names - Instapundit, Powerline and Little Green Footballs among them. It means we have blog friendly service, but it has the downside of being among the collatoral damage when attacks come in.

A Taste For Battle

CNN;

By routing signals from helmet-mounted cameras, sonar and other equipment through the tongue to the brain, they hope to give elite soldiers superhuman senses similar to owls, snakes and fish.

Researchers at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition envision their work giving Army Rangers 360-degree unobstructed vision at night and allowing Navy SEALs to sense sonar in their heads while maintaining normal vision underwater -- turning sci-fi into reality.

The device, known as "Brain Port," was pioneered more than 30 years ago by Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita, a University of Wisconsin neuroscientist. Bach-y-Rita began routing images from a camera through electrodes taped to people's backs and later discovered the tongue was a superior transmitter.

(h/t America's #1 Kelly Pickler blog!)

Keep Talking, Dosanj

Just a few short weeks into his mandate, Stephen Harper announced today in the House of Commons that a deal has been reached in the softwood lumber dispute with the US.

And in one of those spectacular examples of perfect timing, this has played out against the backdrop of petulant Liberal Bush bashing;

“He has lifted a page from the Bush book and borrowed the Bush modus operandi,” said Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh.

“Dare I say president Harper is following in the footsteps of President Bush?

For all the media attention paid to so-called "Harper misteps" in appointing his cabinet and restoring military traditions - few seem to have noticed the Liberals' staggering march towards the cliff edge of political irrelevancy.

The outline of the agreement is already up on the PM's official website.

And more analysis by Russ Kuykendall, complete with a chart showing the provincial share of softwood exports.

Collateral Stupidity

A caller to David Kirton this afternoon related a story in which a restaurant's card scanner malfunctioned. After several minutes of failed attempts, he offered to go to his bank and get the $16 in cash. The cashier (the owner's wife) asked;

"Which child would you like to leave behind?"

Same-Simian Rights

*

Give Us The Child For 8 Years And It Will Be A Subscriber Forever

Via email;

Have you heard of Maclean's In-Class Program? I'm a substitute teacher & just got home from teaching Social Studies 10 where the students had to work on "current events" & were each given their own April 17th edition of Maclean's magazine to use to answer MICP inspired questions from the cover article "The Worst President in 100 Years?"

You've maybe seen it, not that you'd have to see it to know that the answer according to Maclean's is "yes".

There the students sat as quiet as cherubs reading & drinking it all in. As I watched the kids work it made me long for the days when Social Studies classes at least pretended to be non-partisan (the next article was of the Tory/NDP/Bloc conspiracy to sink the Libs). Then, my earlier business training kicked in & I realized how Maclean's is grooming future subscribers by positioning themselves as the "truth" to an audience that is programmed to think they are being delivered the truth.

Teachers don't care; you hand out anything in an inexpensive, photocopiable,
easy-to-deliver package and it's used.

The teacher's guide is designed by teacher Allan Hardy as well as Peter Flaherty of CBC News in Review & member of the Faculty of Ed at York. Gold Sponsor of the program is The Centre for Education & Training...a self-described "progressive" not for profit corporation, providing 1000 students with magazines.

The whole program just seems kind of...wrong...to me. It's one thing to use the media to teach critical thinking, another thing if the media sets it up & benefits while broadening the sheep count.

Somehow I suspect my teacher's union wouldn't appreciate my concern for
Canada's quality of education.

*.

Ahmadinejad's Reach Extends

While the Axis Of Babble wraps the Canadian Forces mission in Afghanistan in flags;

Iran has purchased ground-to-ground missiles from North Korea with a range of 2,500 kilometers, the head of the Israel Defense Forces Intelligence Branch, Major General Amos Yadlin, said yesterday.

While Iran already possessed missiles capable of reaching Israel, the new weapons pose a threat for countries in Europe and parts of the Middle East that have now come into Iranian range.

[...]

The missiles are known in the West as BM-25s, operate on liquid fuel and are single-stage. The BM-25 was originally manufactured in the Soviet Union, where the first generation, adapted for use by Soviet submarines and able to carry a nuclear warhead, was known as the SSN6.

"Iran has now purchased North Korean missiles capable of hitting Europe. Our European allies, the UN, Russia, China, can’t even agree to bock deliveries of these?"

Reader Tips

David Warren gets letters.

The Philadelphia Daily News gets a backbone.

More Jesus cartoons by a university publication called - you guessed it - The Insurgent.

Speaking of "insurgents", here's a quote that caught my eye in a Foxnews movie review of Flight 93 - "Peter Hermann shines as Jeremy Glick *, leader of the insurgents". Now, that's taking back the language!

A letter written by a regular reader and member of the Canadian Forces and sent to several media outlets. It went unpublished. I think it deserves the opportunity to be read - the full text is in the extended entry.

What would you do if you were aware of horrific abuse going on in your neighbourhood? What if a woman and her children living down the street were routinely beaten and terrorized by a man who cared little if anything for them. Would you be the neighbour with the courage to involve yourself personally, risking your physical safety? Would you call the police? Or would you be the neighbour willing to turn a blind eye, comfortable in the knowledge that feigning ignorance meant your peaceful life would continue apace.

If you are the type of neighbour who would take action to stop such abuse close to home then I applaud you. Now imagine this woman and her children live across town, would you still want to help, or does distance away from your own home diminish the severity of the crime in your eyes. If you are the type of neighbour who would try to help those in need no matter what their address, then this message is not for you. If however, you feel that being wilfully ignorant of such atrocities is the same as having peace, then I ask you to consider a few things.

Consider the four soldiers recently killed in Afghanistan and ask yourself what type of neighbours they would have been. Given their sacrifice, it is obvious these men were the best people in the neighbourhood, willing to risk everything if it meant they could give hope to those in distress.

Now consider the activists protesting against what our troops are doing in Afghanistan and ask yourself what kind of neighbour they would be. These activists have the full knowledge of Afghan suffering, yet still want to pull our troops out of that desperate country. Under Taliban rule, Islamic thugs operating under a twisted version of their religion routinely murdered women. Afghan girls were kept away from school, because in the eyes of the Taliban an educated female was to be feared and destroyed.

The men and women currently deployed in Afghanistan understand what is at stake, and they do not want to leave until women can live in peace, and their daughters can escape a life of ignorance. The "activists" however, are willing to turn a blind eye to this suffering not because of their concern for our troops, but instead because of a political ideology that is blinding them to what we are trying to accomplish, and whowe are trying to help.

Without fail, these activists get louder every time a Canadian soldier is killed, never failing to capitalize on these deaths as a means to attack George Bush or the United States. The men killed recently were the victims of the Taliban, not the Americans, and these so-called "peace activists" are aware of this. As a serving member of the Canadian Armed Forces I resent being used as a political pawn by those who care more about attacking the United States, than they do about the well being of those Afghans we are trying to help. It is difficult enough having to fight the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan without having to put up with attacks here at home. I am tired of the people, and opposition politicians who are once more trying to gain political points from our sacrifices.

The media is now filled with the voices of those who are aghast that the Canadian government does not want to bring the flags to half-staff every time a soldier is killed. In reality, the Conservative Government is simply restoring a time-honoured tradition that was altered for political gain when a careless American pilot killed four Canadian soldiers. One could not help but be touched by the televised tribute to our fallen soldiers, but this tribute was an overtly political act in my opinion. Would we have had such a tribute if the four soldiers were killed by the enemy, or as the result of an accident? I am doubtful.

The Government of the day claimed this tribute was in honour of the fallen, but it had all the hallmarks of an elaborate photo-op designed to put the Government in good light, while at the same time catering to the Anti-American feelings of many of their supporters.

Being a member of the Armed Forces is a tough job, and not many are willing to make the sacrifices required. If it was easy, anyone could do it. More Canadian soldiers will die in Afghanistan, and no one understands this better than the people who make up our military. We do not ask that you lower the flag every time one of us falls; we have Remembrance Day to pay our respects. If Canadians want to honour the sacrifices of our soldiers, they need only support the men and women currently serving in Afghanistan. Demanding we be brought home before our mission is finished is not honouring us. Using our deaths as a means to attack the new Prime Minister or our neighbours to the south is not honouring us. Protest marches or "give peace a chance" sing-a-longs will not make our job easier, and it will not help the Afghan people.

Canadian soldiers appreciate the support of the Canadian people, but true satisfaction will not be an elaborate special on the CBC, or the flag of Parliament lowered every time a soldier is killed in the line of duty. For us, true satisfaction can be realized with the knowledge that somewhere, thousands of miles from home, a young Afghan girl will be learning how to read and write. We will be satisfied knowing that the women of Afghanistan will finally be able to walk the streets in relative safety, and the Afghan people in general will finally have the opportunity to live a life that may not be similar to ours, but will be peaceful. We will be happy knowing that when challenged, we were good neighbours.

Trouble In Rabble City

I Don't Get It Either

Roger Clegg;

I really just do not get it. I do not understand why people who had nothing to do with a shameful act 90 years ago can or should apologize to people who have nothing in common with the victim but their skin color. And I do not understand, I really don't, how this is supposed to advance rather than retard racial relations. Does any person, black or white, really think that there is any adult American today who does not (a) know about and (b) lament such lynchings? The article talks about "mak[ing] amends" and "confronting" and "legacies" and "reconciliation" and "'reapprochement'" and "commemorat[ing]" and "'eas[ing] long-standing tensions in the community connected to the lynching.'" This is all just gobbledygook.

I suppose there is a pro-reparations political agenda that underlies some of this, but I think the main motivations are less political than psychological. There is white guilt, of course, and--more tragically--there is the need among some African Americans to keep on the front-burner the nation's racist past, since this somehow helps them explain existing socioeconomic disparities that have little to do with discrimination any more, and everything to do with cultural dysfunction.

Tommy Douglas: Night Of The Living Serby

Leader Post(pdf) - NDP offended by Gormley show;

The provincial government is taking offence to comments made on a
popular radio talk show Tuesday about Premier Lorne Calvert's handling of the province's health-care system.

But for Clay Serby, defending the practice of medical rationing goes beyond the treasured "fundamental principles of equality and free access" - this has evolved into a threat to government!

Deputy Premier Clay Serby said members of the broadcasting profession should review John Gormley's Tuesday show, which Serby said enticed people to consider acts of civil disobedience.

"I have never seen, in my view, a piece of work that has created so much anxiety for people as what I've seen the last two days being reported by Mr. Gormley," Serby said.

During the show, Gormley played a clip from Calvert from Monday's question period, when he stated, "It is one thing to criticize the system and it is appropriate, and it is appropriate when there is flaws that we discover those flaws and do the repair but you know, if you are going to be credible, you need to stand up and provide some alternative."

After the clip, Gormley said, "You know what my alternative is, Lorne Calvert? Get the hell out of my way ... Act like you are in charge and fix things. And if you can't, get the hell out of the way, there are those who can."

The NDP forfeited any right to cry foul over health care failures. This is the party that climbs aboard the Mediscare Express during every election, chasing the privatization bogeyman into seniors homes to frighten the elderly into believing the "scary fascists" will turn them into the streets to die.

"I'm of concern that yesterday's broadcast and this morning's has solicited a response from Saskatchewan people that is hugely troublesome, that you have an individual who phones in and says that had his presence been closer to this place, he may in fact be in jail today," Serby said.

"Where then Mr. Gormley says that what he would like to see is he would like to see the health minister's head on a platter ... This kind of action, civil disobedience, that is perpetuated by a radio host is in my view over the line."

Serby has not filed a complaint to a professional body yet about the
show, but he has asked to meet with the owners of the radio station to see if they condone the host's conduct.

(Reports coming in from question period at the Leg this afternoon are that the session was a meltdown over the Gormley show. Hansard and video feed)

One Of These Things Is A Lot Like The Other

My Conservative Dreamworld has a nice catch ;

Now, there is nothing wrong with journalists piggy-backing on other writers; for example, they may add their own spin to a story, or compress it for readers who don’t need the full details. Roberts does indeed acknowledge Küntzel and the New Republic directly as the source of one item of information. But as the quotations below indicate, he has basically lifted not merely facts from Küntzel’s piece but whole paragraphs. How this duplication escaped the Mop’s editors is a mystery to readers. It will surely prove an embarrassment to the paper.

Küntzel: The Basiji's cult of self-destruction would be chilling in any country. In the context of the Iranian nuclear program, however, its obsession with martyrdom amounts to a lit fuse. Nowadays, Basiji are sent not into the desert, but rather into the laboratory. Basij students are encouraged to enroll in technical and scientific disciplines. According to a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guard, the aim is to use the "technical factor" in order to augment "national security."

Roberts: A past immersed in such a cult of self-destruction would be chillingly ominous in any country. In the context of the Iranian nuclear program, however, this obsession with martyrdom is deeply worrying. Basiji followers are no longer sent into the desert; now, they go into the laboratory. Basij students are encouraged to enroll in technical and scientific disciplines. According to a spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard, the aim is to use the "technical factor" in order to augment "national security."

April 27 Update: Thankyou to Angus Frame (editor of globeandmail.com) - for stopping by in the comments to notify readers that this was published today, both online and in print;

Clarification - A profile of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that appeared in last Saturday's Focus section referred to a story about the Iranian President in the current issue of The New Republic. After an investigation by The Globe and Mail, it appears that notes by the author were mistakenly inserted into the story without proper attribution. The Globe has apologized to The New Republic and regrets the error.

From A Canadian Forces Widow

Yesterday I received an email that I've received permission to share. I've edited the identifying details, as the writer would like to preserve her privacy;

Hi Kate,
I have enjoyed your blog since discovered it during the election.

I trust if you share any of my email that you would keep me anonymous please. I am still having *issues* to say the least with regards to my husbands death.

[The investigation into the circumstances of his death during a training exercise] is still ongoing, at least I think it is. I have never EVER been officially updated on it. That said, the only thing that has been confirmed is there was no pilot error (important for me and my husbands memory to bring that up).

The reason I am emailing you is the issue of banning the media from the base when the soldiers' remains are returned to their families. While my husband was not overseas, I will share with you my personal experience with the media and a very public death.

Thankfully the media had yet to discover my house when I had to go see my husband for the first time. They found me by 6 AM the following morning. My parents had driven up immediately after my frantic phone call. My father stepped outside to get the papers and he was besieged (to say it lightly) with media camped out in my driveway! They were knocking at my door, putting the cameras on us as we opened it. There was always their cars there, with them sitting in them, waiting for someone to come or go. Phone call after phone call to the house when the lines were needed for more important issues. Our grief was made very public. I was asked if I wanted media at the funeral and I agreed to have them there. I wanted the people of Canada to know that even when Canada's sons and daughters do not go overseas, lives are put on the lone on a daily basis for the safety and security of every Canadian. To show them how the phrase "military cut backs' translates into real life in the forces. I had insisted that there not be a close up on any family member. I was sure Joe Blow watching the news did not need to see my tears, or those of my children to know we were distraught. Yet this rule was broken.

The media also pushed for the release of the names of those killed ASAP. Why?? Does it matter to Joe Blow? Shouldn't it matter more that ALL family (not just immediate) and close friends are informed personally even by phone than to hear it on the news? Families of victims killed in auto accidents can request that the names not be released and Joe Blow doesn't complain.

About the Peace tower and the flag flap, if anyone understand tradition it is a military member and his family. Did I expect the flag at the Peace tower to be flown at 1/2 mast for my husband?? oh hell no! But I did expect a phone call or something from our Prime Minister? Just the letter with his stamped signature would have to be good enough. He was in Europe and there is no way that letter was written there and sent to me to receive so quickly. It is also noticeable the signature is from a stamp and not hand signed. I did get a touching phone call and a lovely letter from the Governor General, HE Clarkson.

I will end this letter now. I could go on but I am sure you don't want to hear all the sordid details of how a military widow is really treated.

Except to add, that if I were to walk into funerals of people I didn't know stating it is my right to know who they are etc I'd be frowned on or even thrown out.

If you've never forwarded a post from SDA to family and friends before - consider doing it with this one. The media has been screaming for tranparency. Well, let's give it to them. Turn the "camera" back on the microphone holders for a change, and let ordinary Canadians see the mob for the self-absorbed ratings vultures that they are.

Reporting From Indianville

An open thread on the Caledonia standoff at Dust My Broom. Rasky writes;

No other right-leaning blog out there is doing anything like this, and
I want to hear what people have to say. I'm getting really sick of the
MSM lapdogs and IndyMedia anarchists hogging the web.

Be sure to contribute your comments there first - not here. Crosspost afterwards if you wish.

Update - from DMB comments, the QOTW;

"They have counted coup on the all-season radial. Warriors indeed."

Tommy Douglas: Thankyou For Waiting

The Paige Hansen story isn't going away. The radio airwaves have been burning with angry callers and others relating similar health system horror stories. CKOM broke the story, and has been following it closely ever since. The Saskatoon health authority is launching a review - an internal review.

From Question Period yesterday. (PDF) (The whole exchange is quite a read)

Babies come and go. But fundamental principles endure.

That of course, doesn't mean that under the Calvert NDP, the system hasn't done everything in its power to streamline - the Saskatchewan Surgical Care Network has a website that allows tracking of surgical wait times. They also feature a phone number you can call to find out where you are on the waiting list: 1-866-622-0222.

*RRRIIIINNNG*

"Due to the high volume of calls, it may take us a few days to get back to you."

"'Canada's Iraq' Indeed"

(bumped to top due to continuing updates)

From Army.ca, a military message forum, reaction to media coverage over the government's decision to return to previous traditions when honouring fallen soldiers;

Once again, I'm fed up and disgusted with the media and their "spinning" of non-issues into something more. Yet again, TV tonight is awash with "Conservatives won't lower the flag" stories - presented with no background and with plenty of people saying what an "insult" it is to soldiers. They have no idea what soldiers think of this issue, yet are ready to jump to conclusions in an effort to speak for us.

To the media reading this (and I have no doubt you are): how much is enough? You have plenty of coverage of the coffins being put on the plane and I have no doubt you'll have plenty of the funerals - invited or not. Get a grip. We are the Army; it is a sad reality that part of our job is to take casualties on behalf of Canadians and our elected political masters - of whatever stripe. Don't denegrate that sacrifice with an unseemly and politically motivated display of spin designed to promote controversy and generate ratings. "Canada's Iraq" indeed...

More from Chris Selley, who also agrees with the Conservative policy (and looks back at contrasting news coverage during WWI). No nation can fight a war wallowing in a state of perpetual mourning. The flag should fly high and defiantly.

(As an aside, this debate over the growing frequency of flag lowering is not new - I recall reading a few weeks ago an anecdote about a school flag being lowered on the occasion of the death of a janitor.)

Another comment from an army reservist;

As a member of the army reserve I am sick of the MSM’s facination with flag draped coffins. They are always ready to show the coffin but but there’s barely a mention (maybe one or 2 sentences)of the work done by the men in those coffins.

Journalists are scumbags who are too lazy & dumb to do anything of any value themselves so they have to achieve cheap fame by leeching off the triumphs or tragedies of others. They then justify being the town gossip by pretending everything they utter is in the public’s interest. — Yeah right. Running up to a plane to photograph coffins is in the public interest? geezuz!

What do you low-lifes in the press do for fun? Go down to the dog pound with some pop & chips and watch them euthanize strays?

Commentor ET points to a Globe and Mail message board, where Lew MacKenzie is fielding questions link;

MacKenzie asks readers - 'We lost 27 killed in Bosnia/Croatia in the 90's"...and no-one paid any attention...Same in the Sudan, Congo, Golan Heights - "absolutely no-one called for the flags to be lowered".

He further comments "I'm glad to see the public paying attention for a change - particularly those who slashed the budget and personnel strengths during the same 90s'"

So- why didn't the Liberals lower the Peace Tower flag before? And why did they reduce the capacity of the military to protect themselves and us?

That is -point two- the flag lowering, once, on the Peace Tower, for those four soldiers killed by US-Canadian error - was a deliberate partisan political tactic of Chretien. It had nothing to do with respect, but was actually disrespectful, for Chretien/the Liberals used those soldiers.

Canadian Media Adopt American-Style "Drive By" Reporting

Stephen Taylor has begun to document the flood of gratuitous comparisons between Stephen Harper and Darth Bush's Rethuglamericans.

Stephen - that's a job for a team of bloggers.

Definition: Drive By Media

The perplexing part about this growing trend to tie Harper's policies to those of Bush is that it's taking place in the duly diligent world of fact-checking, editor supervised, professional journalism. WaPo, 2003;

A Pentagon spokeswoman said the military-wide policy [barring media from covering return of "flag-draped coffins"] actually dates from about November 2000 -- the last days of the Clinton administration [...] Dover Air Force Base, which has the military's largest mortuary, has had restrictions for 12 years, others "may not have been familiar with the policy," the spokeswoman said. This year, "we've really tried to enforce it."

End Run On The YCJA

A reader points to this Globe and Mail coverage of the multiple murders in Medicine Hat over the weekend. A 23 year old Jeremy Allan Steinke, and a 12 year old girl, whose identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, were arrested in Leader, Sk.

Now, three members of that family -- Mr. and Mrs. Richardson, and their grade-school-aged son -- are dead, killed in their tidy four-level house some time before Sunday afternoon, police say. The elder child, a girl, is not dead.

More here. (Parents - get the computers out into the family room, where you can watch what your kids do, ok?)

Heil Harper!

Just a little cursor problem. Nothing here to see, people.

full text

You could see the offending video clip for yourself, but the pro-transparency-in-government public broadcaster has forced its removal under threat of legal action.

Screencap (via a predictably dismissive, anonymous CBC employee blog Tea makers).

Oil-For-Wheat Scandal

The Australian Wheat Board - OFF scandal is updated in this piece by Prime Minister John Howard, appearing in today's WSJ. (Behind subscriber wall);

The Australian government is serious about prosecuting the perpetrators of Iraq's Oil for Food scam. In fact, my government has gone further than any other to investigate what part any company played in Saddam Hussein's vast, illegal profiteering of public funds.

Australia's wheat exporter AWB Ltd. figured prominently in last year's United Nations report, prepared by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Mr. Volcker identified almost 2,400 companies from more than 60 countries that paid $1.8 billion in kickbacks to Saddam's regime. Of those companies, the Volcker report found that AWB had funneled more than $211 million to the Iraqi government, in the form of contract kickbacks. Mr. Volcker's remit did not extend to prosecuting those named, nor did he discuss AWB's knowledge of any wrongdoing. But he strongly suggested that nations follow the trail.

My government responded swiftly to the Volcker report, establishing a public judicial inquiry with wide-ranging powers headed by one of Australia's most respected legal figures, former judge Terence Cole. We empowered the inquiry to subpoena witnesses, compel the production of documents and refer possible criminal charges to the director of public prosecutions. The Cole Commission, as it is known, carries the full powers of the Australian legal system.

[...]

It should also be remembered that the overthrow of Saddam's regime provided, for the first time, access to documents which helped reveal to a greater extent the systematic defrauding of the Oil for Food program by the former Iraqi government. If Saddam Hussein were still in power in Iraq, the depth of the Oil for Food swindle would remain hidden amongst secret documents scattered through government offices in Baghdad.

Others charge that my government limited the inquiry's terms of reference to prevent it making a finding against a minister or myself. This too is a falsehood. Mr. Cole has the power to make findings on the government's knowledge of the kickbacks. I have said there will be serious consequences for any minister identified as possessing that knowledge and failing to act. This includes me.

We will act on any recommendations of the inquiry, whatever it finds. But I shall not allow my government's reputation, nor the reputations of our farmers, to be maligned. Attacks upon the latter are particularly unfair, given that our farmers' incomes are only now beginning to recover from the effects of a long drought, one of the worst in our nation's history.

The corruption by Saddam Hussein of the Oil for Food program was a heinous act of public graft. I am proud of my government's ongoing commitment to meet its international obligations, by ensuring that any alleged breaches of the law by its nationals and corporations are comprehensively addressed.

I'll say it again - we are asked believe that a) it was "common knowledge among grains traders" that kickbacks to Saddam Hussein were a cost of doing business under the oil-for-food program, and b) Canadian grain traders were exempt.

Comment Policy

I've warned several of you in the various threads that my patience is growing short. There are a few simple rules here. If you cannot observe them, keep your fingers off the keyboard.

1. Stay on topic. That means everyone. There are Reader Tips threads for link dumping and general commentary.
2. Cut the profanity - there are people reading who are on work computers.
3. All points of view are welcome, but trolling is not. Those who persist will find their access denied without further notice. On that score, let me deal with the "drive by's". Don't respond to them. (Troll definition)
4. This is not a chatboard. If you wish to pursue ongoing debate/chatter with another individual, get their email address and do it privately. Otherwise, send me a check for your share of the bandwidth.

Back to regular programming.

Wanted, Dead Or Off-Line

There's even a $1000 reward.

Attack In Egypt

Blasts at an Egyptian resort, with dozens already reported dead.

James Joyner notes the timing;

One presumes this is the work of al Qaeda, especially in light of yesterday’s release of a tape by Osama bin Laden promising to ratchet up the murdering in moderate Muslim societies.

Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough

18 month old Paige Hansen is currently in a hospital in Edmonton. Her family finally decided Thursday to seek help elsewhere (doing so without "permission" from SaskHealth, and therefore at their own expense) after waiting three weeks for diagnosis of her pain in Saskatoon. The child was "screaming every waking minute", and had stopped walking 6 days earlier. In the meantime, they were advised to give her children's Tylenol.

According to a family member being interviewed, the care they received in Edmonton began immediately, testing was done during the first night there. This morning they have a preliminary diagnosis of leukemia.

You can listen live as the story is discussed this morning on John Gormley Live. (The show repeats in the evening for those who missed it - check the link for programming details).

For "Tony The Media Moley"

Near the end of this lengthy and contentious comments thread arising from the Aaron Harris photo post, "Tony" suggests that my criticism of the "mainstream media" arises from .... jealousy.

Hell hath no fury like a wanna-be journalist scorned, goes the theory.

It's not the first time that accusation has been floated, nor am I the only blogger who's been confronted with it. After I'd addressed that question, Tony repled;

Like hundreds or thousands of other people (and like dozens of MSM types) I enjoy your blog, even if I don't always agree with your take on things, and like the vast majority of your readers I'm grateful that you take the time to do this and am glad you're doing well enough to find the free time.

Thanks for addressing my note.

But I thought your post on Aaron Harris was ill-informed and unfair.

There are plenty of reasons to find fault with the MSM and your blog serves a valuable purpose in challenging its approach sometimes.

But please excuse some of us for reacting angrily when you paint the entire fourth estate with one brush, and malign a whole institution under imagined or erroneous pretenses, which is what I believe you have done in this case.

I'll plead guilty to generalizing about the "mainstream media" insofar that I assume most readers know (or will figure out) that I'm referring to the general inclinations of the major players in the industry and the liberal "default setting" through which most of our news is filtered.

The generalization is mostly a result of the brevity required of blogging and not intended as a wholesale indictment of every individual practicing journalism.

However, as he is a self-described member of that fraternity, my response to Tony about his "angry reaction" is this: you have a lot of work ahead if you hope to undo the slow-motion suicide of the news industry - and don't bother protesting the validity of that premise. The decline in newspaper and magazine circulation, and the ratings numbers of the major networks speak for themselves..

We may agree to disagree on whether the Aaron Harris "serial crownings" at the Empire Club are worthy of a closer look and open questioning. Again, that's the nature of blogging. Sometimes people agree, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they don't care. Sometimes they think it's unfair. I would point out that this is the nature of news reporting as well.

Unlike the news industry, however, when I present a topic, the readers look at the evidence, hash it out, bring new information to the debate, and sometimes I even change my mind. (As a footnote: the Aaron Harris post was originally prompted by an ordinary reader who directed me to the CBC item privately, in the belief that the photo had been willfully defaced. That should be a signal that something might be wrong.)

But in this case, what isn't in dispute are the growing list of examples in the "mainstream" media of manipulated news "reporting", reporter editorializing, and altered/staged photos. These examples are contributing to a significant problem with consumer cynicism about integrity and possible political motives within the MSM. The blogosphere has enabled comparison and criticism - and with that an unsettling realization that media sleight of hand and sleight of word are hardly new practices.

If members of the industry can't withstand open scrutiny on this lowly blog without turning to rationalizations that I'm nothing more than a would-be journalist with a chip on her shoulder - then, you haven't gotten it yet.

I'm not a competitor. I don't want your job. I'm a frustrated news consumer. I'm sick of being spoken down to by people who can't pronounce words correctly. I'm fed up with reading transcripts that reveal that reporters have quoted people out of context to support a pre-ordained script. I'm tired of having speeches and statements "explained" to me by pundits after I've listened to them.

I'm not interested in news stories created by polls commissioned to create news stories.

I'm tired of reading that wire services have stringent "ethical guidelines", and that to suggest that a photo might be altered is well, just the realm of tin foil hat conspiracy mongering .

Better to ask yourself why so many of your former customers like myself - news "junkies" - no longer accept your stories and images at face value.

Call it the "fool me once" approach to news consumerism.

You've lost our trust. The question is now thrown back to you, Tony - how do you propose to earn it back?

Reader Tips & Quick Links

"He dropped back, running while smoking a cigarette".

The Genesis Code.

"The Rev. Jesse Jackson has said he plans to challenge the election outcome in court regardless of the winner...

Nicola Valley Teachers' Union - why buy votes, when you can extort them!

The law of unintended consequences.

Gerald Ford on retired generals.

Islamic Thinker's Society (video)

Leave yours in the comments.

Heil Harper

At Dust My Broom, an especially compelling comment from Jack;

Canada is presently governed by a very scary individual, we all have to be aware of this individual. A person who shares the same birthdate as Hitler, a person who is only concerned about his desire for power. This country will be lifting their arms and saying, “Heil Harper, Heil Harper, Heil Harper!!!”"” Now that is scary.

However, he missed this.

Whites Only Medicine

Reason;

The pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough is excluding African-American patients from the Phase II trial of its new Hepatitis C (HCV) anti-viral drug. Activist groups are denouncing this exclusion as racist. For its part, Schering-Plough argues that it has valid scientific grounds for limiting the research at this stage to other racial groups. Company researchers point out that for unknown reasons, black people do not respond as well to HCV treatments as do members of other racial groups. One prominent activist, Judith Dillard, told the Newark Star-Ledger, "The bottom line is that African-Americans have been left out of this study to make the drug look good." Which is precisely the point.

In the past, drug trials would generally include members from diverse racial and ethnic groups. If the drug being tested was effective in all groups, then that was great; the company testing it had a potential blockbuster. If, however, some groups in the trial did not respond well to a treatment, then it would appear to be ineffective compared to placebo, and it would not be approved. Eventually researchers began to notice that not all groups respond the same way to the same medicines.

Researchers worry however, that the introduction of race-specific drug therapies may cause side effects in other groups, including the poorly-understood phenomenon known as "spontanious head explosion".

So is the Schering-Plough HCV anti-viral study "racist"? Not really. The researchers have identified a patient subpopulation that they believe is more likely to benefit from the new treatment. If Schering-Plough can demonstrate that the medicine does work for whites, then the company can get it approved for sale by the FDA for that patient population. Admittedly race is a crude biomarker, but it would surely be bowing to political correctness about race to deny patients the benefit of treatments that are more likely to help them.

Related.

"Nominated Over Liberal Objections"

Because nominating "Canada's most respected CEO" as chair of the proposed public appointments commission sets all the wrong precedents;

"The job comes with a salary of $1 a year."

70,000 Unsolved Murders

Darcey, at DMB;

The Canadian coverage of the issue as seen on CTV and CBC is almost apologetic and provide more focus on the pro-Chavez demonstrators. Its no wonder we have so many Chavez sympathizers in this country.

I am appalled by the coverage of the subj. by Cdn media. [of the kidnapped and murdered Faddoul brothers -ed ]. A few reports when they were abducted and then virtually nothing until their tragic demise. Contrast that with the media's obsession with the 'Christian Peace Makers.'

I rule out the possibility that the children were ignored because of their hyphenated nationality (consider the Cdn/NZ 'nationality-of-convenience' of one of the CPM). It occurs to me that they have been ignored because of the bad light that might be cast upon the 'socialist paradise' of Venezuela with its rampant corruption under the lefts favourite Bush-baiter. What do you think?

There's a photo essay up at Venezuela News And Views.

All The News That's Fit To Omit

The cool thing about the net is that it's no longer necessary to subscribe to five different papers to find out how the news is presented differently from city to city;

Wow, we said. The Canadian military says the Liberals were foisting equipment "considered lemons or irrelevant" on them. They want to scrap "questionable" Liberal projects and replace them with equipment the military "needs." Why wasn't this on Page One?

Or was it?

Maybe it had been covered properly in other cities, we thought. We went looking. And we discovered, instead, a textbook case of story spinning.

It seems, as far as we could find, that this story was printed in four newspapers--The Winnipeg Sun, the Ottawa Sun, the Toronto Sun and the Edmonton Sun. And it was rewritten depending on where it appeared.

To begin with, the headlines were better in Edmonton and Ottawa.

Tories and military are in tune (Edmonton Sun)
Liberal promises put on ice (Ottawa Sun)
Forces may ice ships (Toronto Sun)

The leads varied from paper to paper:

OTTAWA -- The military is set to scrap major equipment purchases announced by the former Liberal government. (Ottawa Sun)
OTTAWA -- The Canadian Forces is reviewing its shopping list to find extra funds to pay for expensive Tory priorities. (Toronto Sun)
OTTAWA -- The military is set to scrap major equipment purchases announced by the Liberals that are considered by brass to be lemons or irrelevant. (Edmonton Sun, Winnipeg Sun)

Is This Supposed To Be Clever?

Because, you know, it's not - especially when you work for a billion-dollar-a-year corporate media welfare case that's about to have its mandate reviewed.

(Click image for link)

Now, compare this with the juxtaposition of the logo in two other photos taken during the Harper speech Friday. The crown portion is well above Harper's head, in one it doesn't even appear;

So what was Harris doing when he took that shot - lying on the floor? And if he was indeed, shooting from a lower angle, why is the microphone at the same height relative to Harper's tie in all three images?

(And back to the original point, - what do CBC employees think they're accomplishing with cheap stunts like this? Beyond adding "coffin nails" to Bev Oda's shopping list)

This isn't the first time photog Aaron Harris has "found" this clever angle at the Empire Club. Looking more closely at this older CTV story on the Gov.General, I captured the two images, and resized the smaller one to loosely match that of the Harris credited "crown on head" shot;

Note that the two are taken from nearly the same height comparable to Governor General, but that the Harris photo places the viewer a little more to the left (based on the positioning of the microphone relative to her face). Yet, miraculously, the backdrop with the maple leaf logo not only drops lower, but it also takes a sudden lurch to its right.

So, what does that suggest about how Harris may have achieved his unique image capturing "King Stephen" yesterday?

Apr 23 Update: Steve Janke has found yet another Harris "crown on head" photo, this one apparently taken last November.

Discussion in the comments suggests that the Harris would be capable of aligning these images with the assistance of camera technique and technology. I'm willing to consider that explanation, of course - that Aaron Harris has, on at least three different dates, purposefully chosen the lenses, settings and camera angles required to place the crown portion of their logo atop the speaker's head during speeches at the Empire Club. As was pointed out in the comments;

"the defense goes that a professional photographer with an excellent rep orchestrates using zoom lens and f-stops the same juvenile "bunny ears behind head" photo on three different occasions. Okay. What do you need to do to get a bad reputation in the news photo business?"

(Flashback: A reminder for those who protest that photo alteration "never" takes place.)

April 24 followup

World Lenin's Birthday Day

To mark World Earth Day, an exerpt from Climate of Fear, by Richard Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT;

To understand the misconceptions perpetuated about climate science and the climate of intimidation, one needs to grasp some of the complex underlying scientific issues. First, let's start where there is agreement. The public, press and policy makers have been repeatedly told that three claims have widespread scientific support: Global temperature has risen about a degree since the late 19th century; levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have increased by about 30% over the same period; and CO2 should contribute to future warming. These claims are true. However, what the public fails to grasp is that the claims neither constitute support for alarm nor establish man's responsibility for the small amount of warming that has occurred. In fact, those who make the most outlandish claims of alarm are actually demonstrating skepticism of the very science they say supports them. It isn't just that the alarmists are trumpeting model results that we know must be wrong. It is that they are trumpeting catastrophes that couldn't happen even if the models were right as justifying costly policies to try to prevent global warming.

[...]

In Europe, Henk Tennekes was dismissed as research director of the Royal Dutch Meteorological Society after questioning the scientific underpinnings of global warming. Aksel Winn-Nielsen, former director of the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization, was tarred by Bert Bolin, first head of the IPCC, as a tool of the coal industry for questioning climate alarmism. Respected Italian professors Alfonso Sutera and Antonio Speranza disappeared from the debate in 1991, apparently losing climate-research funding for raising questions.

And then there are the peculiar standards in place in scientific journals for articles submitted by those who raise questions about accepted climate wisdom. At Science and Nature, such papers are commonly refused without review as being without interest. However, even when such papers are published, standards shift. When I, with some colleagues at NASA, attempted to determine how clouds behave under varying temperatures, we discovered what we called an "Iris Effect," wherein upper-level cirrus clouds contracted with increased temperature, providing a very strong negative climate feedback sufficient to greatly reduce the response to increasing CO2. Normally, criticism of papers appears in the form of letters to the journal to which the original authors can respond immediately. However, in this case (and others) a flurry of hastily prepared papers appeared, claiming errors in our study, with our responses delayed months and longer. The delay permitted our paper to be commonly referred to as "discredited." Indeed, there is a strange reluctance to actually find out how climate really behaves. In 2003, when the draft of the U.S. National Climate Plan urged a high priority for improving our knowledge of climate sensitivity, the National Research Council instead urged support to look at the impacts of the warming--not whether it would actually happen.

Greetings from Kandahar

From a member of the Canadian Forces (slightly edited);

It has been an eventful month so far and I have been doing pretty much the same thing as last month with one major difference. It's even hotter now, we hit +39 C yesterday and it certainly takes your breath away. The low temperature at night is now around 24-25 Celsius and they have finally gotten air conditioning units into our work areas and tents so it's a little easier. It's only when I'm on the road where it becames brutally hot and I find that I'm drinking 6-7 litres of water per day now. Luckily they give us free gatorade crystals so there's lots of electrolytes being pushed.

I must admit that time has been literally flying by for the last month and I haven't noticed much of a change in the countryside other than where it is now green in this area. Kandahar province has (had) extensive irrigation projects throughout the region and it is actually a significant producer of fresh fruit and in a country where the average income is pretty pitiful they had a profit of more than $27 million on fruit exports last year so something is working in this country. Unfortunately a large amount of the irrigation systems were destroyed during all of the time in conflict and they are slowly recovering. It is absolutely amazing to see green things growing in the middle of a barren brown field where temps push +100 Fahrenheit.

One of the more rewarding things that I got to do a few days ago was to participate in a humanitarian aid convoy. This is where we load up blankets, packaged food, bulk bags of rice, clothes, some kids toys and go out to a local village. The one I visited was Morgan Kacheh and is around 20 km away from here. The trip was with the Romanian White Sharks so let me tell you that it is very weird travelling around Afghanistan following the old "Evil Empire's" worn out armoured personnel carriers. The trip was quite exciting and was really the first chance I had to meet the locals in their own environment and the kids were a lot of fun. The village elder is invited out to look at the truck and decide whether or not he would like to receive the goods (bit of a no-brainer really as the village was very hard done by) and then it is all put onto the ground. The actual distribution of all of the goods is conducted after we leave and the village elder is the man in charge.

The kids were very curious about us and were all wanting to get pencils and gum and everything like that. And if you know any uppity kids back home the treatment of the ones who act up a bit is a little different than Canada. A kid who was around 12 years old looked like he was back-talking one of the elders and before you could say anything the old guy had grabbed the kid and gave him a couple of smacks to the head. It looked like the kid was pretty used to it and broke away running and the old guy just grabbed a couple of rocks and chucked them at him as he was running away. Certainly a different culture that's for sure. On the whole though they were very appreciative of all of the supplies and it looked like it would go a long way. The village was also quite different as all of the huts had actual mud roofs on them and were quite well designed as I only saw two or three of them that had collapsed. All in all a very rewarding expedition though.

I'm getting very close to vacation now and can definitely need the break as it looks like I won't be out of here till early September now.

(There are more photos accompanying this report, along with earlier ones I've been sent from friends serving in Afghanistan in this directory.)

Mary McCarthy Identified As CIA Leaker

The identity of the CIA leaker fired for passing classified information to Washington Post writer Dana Priest has been revealed.

The officer flunked a polygraph exam before being fired on Thursday and is now under investigation by the Justice Department, NBC has learned.

Intelligence sources tell NBC News the accused officer, Mary McCarthy, worked in the CIA's inspector general's office and had worked for the National Security Council under the Clinton and and George W. Bush administrations.

The leak pertained to stories on the CIA’s rumored secret prisons in Eastern Europe, sources told NBC. The information was allegedly provided to Dana Priest of the Washington Post, who wrote about CIA prisons in November and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for her reporting.

Sources said the CIA believes McCarthy had more than a dozen unauthorized contacts with Priest. Information about subjects other than the prisons may have been leaked as well.

The sleuthing has begun ;

The report of the 9/11 Commission notes that the National Security staff reviewed the intelligence in April 2000 and concluded that the CIA's assessment of its intelligence on bin Laden and al-Shifa had been valid; the memo to Clinton on this was cosigned by Richard Clarke and Mary McCarthy, the NSC senior director for intelligence programs, who opposed the bombing of al-Shifa in 1998

More from WaPo this morning, including the expected self-serving spin defending the actions of the Post.

More, via Drudge: McCarthy was senior director for intelligence programs under Clinton [appointed by the same Sandy Berger caught carrying classified documents out of the National Archives - in his pants.]

This continues to develop, as expected - Was it a sting? I hope so - it might indicate that the powers that be at the Central Intelligence Sieve are finally getting serious about leakers.

Strata_Spnere;

Her actions put people at risk. The duplicity of the media compared to their outcries on the Plame Game is obvious, crude and crass. There is no excuse for this, and to pretend otherwise is to truly be whistling past the grave.

Mark Levin;

Well, as of this morning (Saturday) most of the big media don't care. They're fixated with the weather and gas prices — and anything else that will divert the public's attention from the stunning revelation that a Sandy Berger crony has apparently been leaking top-secret information from her high post at the CIA. The media will continue to downplay this story as they cover-up their own role in exposing our nation's secrets, including the supposed existence of CIA prisons in Europe. She'll be called a "whistleblower" and praised as some kind of patriot (a patriot, in the eyes of the media, is anybody who undermines this administration and the war effort by leaking national security secrets to them). They will downplay that McCarthy was a Clintonoid who somehow managed to land a top post at the CIA, ultimately winding up in the CIA's Inspector General's Office, from where she could monitor CIA internal investigations of, well, leaks, among other things.

"Canada Wants Another Oka Summer!"

An email thread pertaining to the ongoing "native standoff" in Ontario, passed along by a reader who received it in mass mailing. Hitler apologist Kahentinetha Horn makes an appearance;

From: Cyr, Wilfred
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 1:43 PM
To: AllStudents; AllFaculty; AllStaff
Subject: FW: Apr 20 - 6:30 Update from Mohawk Nation News - SIX NATIONS - OPP gets RCMP backup

Boozhoo gakina awiyag,

Please send this cry for support to all peoples of the world. Our brothers and sisters are being threatened with tremendous harm by the nation-state of Canada because they are standing up to their human rights.

Everyone should keep an eye on this potentially explosive situation. Check out Channel 4, CBC, for those who have cable, for the news broadcasts around 6:00pm and 10:00pm. We all need to band together indigenous peoples world wide. This nation-state ideology is after all left over indigenous lands. Through unity comes power.

Wilf

________________________________________________________________
From: wsdp
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 8:53 PM
To: wsdp@igc.org
Subject: FW: Apr 20 - 6:30 Update from Mohawk Nation News - SIX NATIONS - OPP gets RCMP backup

Good news! Media blackout is over â^À^Ó Six Nations still standing strong. Please send support and comments directly to Six Nations at orakwa@paulcomm.ca

-----Original Message-----
From: Orakwa International Indigenous Ent. [mailto:orakwa@paulcomm.ca]
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 4:55 PM
To: ActionCanadaNetwork
Subject: Apr 20 - 6:30 Update - SIX NATIONS - OPP gets RCMP backup

As you can see, the beat goes on. La- di-la-di-da. Please continue to stand in solidarity with us.

Kahentinetha Horn

UPDATE: 6:30 PM STILL APRIL 20, 2006

Canada hasn't learned its lesson. It wants another Oka summer! 200 RCMP are going to back up the Ontario Provincial Police OPP. Instead of figuring out to negotiate a solution and maybe give back something they stole, they decided to use force again. This is a one trick pony. They are presently waiting at the Hamilton airport where they have choppers and 'swat whipping gear' to whip 'dem stubborn Injuns into shape. They have all the toys, gadgets and guns. The whole 9 whistles! If they leave them behind, we can dress them up with feathers and warrior badges, eh!

Misinformation continues.

It is Canada and Ontario who are violating the jurisdiction of the Indigenous people. According to their own constitution, we have to validly give up our lands and sovereignty under Section 132 of the BNA Act. We never did this. This is not a domestic issue, as they say. It is an international issue. We began our relationship with Britain as allies. When the British split themselves up into Canada, United States and Britain, we never agreed to join any of them. We've never agreed to be anything but allies. Under international law one state cannot absorb another without the fully informed consent of the majority of the population. Canada agrees with this formula. In the Quebec Succession Reference, it said that a province could not leave without the consent of a clear majority on a clear question. Canada and Ontario don't want to play fair. They still want to be colonizers. That's why they think they can run around like a bunch of big bullies, instead of learning of history and stealing what isn't theirs.

According to the Kaianereh'ko:wa, the Women are the title holders of the land. We hold it in trust for our future generations. It belongs to our future generation. None of the so-called treaties that Canada claims to rely on are valid. None were signed with the authority of the people. Of course, none were signed
by the future generations because they weren't born yet.

It's not like the settlers will have no place to live.

Darcey has more.

Also see Gull Chased Ship for a timeline and lots of other inside tidbits.

Redneck racist Rasky has further thoughts.

"Holy sh*t, we could drive to Iraq."

Hey, Joey. Do you like movies about gladiators?
Hey, Joey. Have you ever seen a grown man naked?
Hey, Joey. Have you ever seen the inside of a Turkish prison?

Harvestmoonbat*

Previously Unknown Neil Young Songs .

Quote Of The Week goes to Richfisher;

"First Ken Dryden, now Neil.
I hope supermodels never learn to talk."

(*title updated)

Susan Delacourt Moves To Op-Ed Pages

Freed from the shackles of political objectivity and direct quoting, we find out this girl can really tell it like it is!;

"So it is fitting Harper has chosen to land last here in a tour that seemed deliberately designed to show his defiant — some would say contemptuous — streak."

"Highly controlling in style, Harper aspires to be an establishment unto himself, and the means to that end seem to require he knock down all others in the political establishment."

"It sometimes seems like the election has not ended for Harper."

"By this, Harper doesn't mean the "Calgary school," the clutch of University of Calgary academics who helped forge his early thinking. He means the ones who disagree with him."

"He presented all these kinds of people as the impediments to a proper child-care program in Canada. But in so doing, he sounded more like an opposition politician on the campaign trail than a prime minister who, technically, is supposed to represent and serve all Canadians, regardless of their politics."

"The main thing they will probably learn is whether they've been cast already in Harper's polarized world as for him or against him."

"Last, but not least, the media."

Pulitzer Prize For Fiction In Journalism

Hugh Hewitt:

Columnist to the world, Mark Steyn, begins today as he does most Thursdays. Steynoline.com is where you can find all of his work. Mark, I want to begin with journalism today, because the Pulitzers came out, and the New York Times won for betraying national security secrets, the New Orleans Times-Picayune won for creating frozen bodies in freezers that weren't there, and today, Los Angeles Times Pulitzer Prize winning from a few years ago columnist, Michael Hiltzik, is revealed to be a serial creator of his own identities to praise himself on blogs. What's happened to modern journalism?

This Day In History

The leader of the free world has a close call.

CIC - What Does The "C" Stand For?

For the Canadian Islamic Congress, the inclusion of the word "Canadian" in their name is only a passing afterthought - a reference to the mailing address. Not that their loyalties were ever seriously in question;

Islamic Congress Encourages Iranian Nuclear Technology For Civilian Use And Calls On Canada To Cooperate With Iran In Developing Non-weapons-calibre Energy

Jaw Jaw

Failing an unfortunate explosion under the Presidential reviewing stand, then a major explosion over it.

Followed by a nice monument and yearly protests, moments of silence, that kind of thing...

Call it a solution with a proven track record.

Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough

There's more than one way to shorten a waiting list.

Leader Post;

The family of a 57-year-old Meath Park woman says it will take at least three months before their mother gets to see a Saskatchewan oncologist who can tell her if her cancer is treatable or fatal.

And while Health Minister Len Taylor says three months is too long to wait, he offered little Wednesday to indicate wait times to see cancer specialists in this province will soon be getting shorter.

Emily Morley has already waited a month to see an oncologist since receiving her biopsy results that identified her secondary cancer, but were inconclusive in determining the primary source. Until that primary source is identified, her treatment cannot begin.

And even though the cancer is now in Morley's lungs, liver, pancreas and spine, the Saskatoon Cancer Clinic has advised her it will still take at least three months to see an oncologist.

You'd think that having the "cradle of medicare" for the Best Health Care System In The World[tm] located next door to a country routinely cited as among the worst would result in having to beat doctors back over the border with a stick.

A family member is currently being interviewed on John Gormley Live. Now that publicity has hit the fan, they've found her an appointment on the 27th.

Reader Tips

Leaked! Sneak preview of campaign advertising for the 2008 US presidential campaign.

An LA Times columnist busted on the blogosphere.... UPDATE - Notice from Editors.

Norman Geras and Nick Cohen;

The supporters of the Euston Manifesto took different views on the war in Iraq, both for and against. We recognise that it was possible reasonably to disagree about the justifications for the war and the manner in which it was carried through. We are, however, united in our judgement of the reactionary, murderous character of the Ba'athist regime in Iraq, and we recognise its overthrow as a liberation of the Iraqi people. We are also united in the view that, from the day this occurred, the proper concern of the liberal left should have been the battle to put in place in Iraq a democratic political order and to create, after decades of brutal oppression, a life for Iraqis which those living in democratic countries take for granted - rather than endlessly rehearsing the arguments over intervention.

A good post by Richard Bledsoe.

The Harper government, guilty of "discrimination against couples of perennial diversity"?

Add your own to the comments.

This Is Not "News"

It's an album release by a war profiteer.

One would think that professional journalists would know the difference.

Those Pessimistic Headline Writers!

Story here. The reader who contributed this helpfully suggested; "Now, maybe they mean that being dead makes your condition 'stable'."

Maybe!

Easter Bookie

One of "our"* guys invited a few friends along to celebrate Easter.

Thought I'd share. (Congrats Connie!)

The New White House Press Secretary

Dbash: Wouldn't you agree that the president...
Stksec3: Wouldn't you agree that the president.
Dbash: Excuse me, wouldn't you...
Stksec3: Excuse me, wouldn't you.
Dbash: What are you doing?
Stksec3: What are you doing?
Dbash: Are you playing some kind of game?
Stksec3: No, I'm demonstrating the fine art of verbatim quoting. You bozos should try it some time.

h/t

BushMcChimpyHItler And The "New Oil" Conspiracy

Remember the dinosaurs?

And where are they at now?

They're at $74US a barrel, that's where.

Well, Connect the dots, eh?

(Via McGehee.)

A Production Of The Islamic Children's Network

"Did you know that the Jews murdered 25 of the Prophets of Allah, and that their black history is full of crimes of murder and corruption? "Did you know that the criminal Jews frequently revile and curse our Lord? Among the things they have said is 'The hand of Allah is fettered [Koran 5:64].' [But] Allah is above this. "Did you know that the Jews made several attempts to murder our beloved Prophet [Muhammad], but that Allah the Omnipotent saved him from their plot? "Did you know that the corruption and deviance widespread in the world today are the result of activity and planning by the Jews, who are interested in leading people astray, away from the path of Allah?

Another antisemitic posting, in the "Members Participation" section, headlined "Murdering Children - Part of the Jewish Religion" by "Mahmoud Nabil," claims that it is possible "to collect evidence from the Torah about the Jewish concept of annihilating [others], which has reached the level of ritual."

"A" Is For April

And anhydrous ammonia.

So, I'm out for a few hours. It's a reader tips/open thread post.

.

Just A 20th Century Pioneer Of The Social Welfare State Who Went Too Far

It's Raskolnikov's "last straw";

So what we have is the Winnipeg Free Press allowing [columnist Colleen Simard] to promote a Hitler-sympathizer and apologist. I can only assume that the reason for this is that the idiots at the Free Press have no clue who Horn is and don’t care; or else are too afraid to say anything against the house indian for fear she’ll go raving on about racism and censorship.

Imagine the outrage if someone promoted Zundel as a source, or a potential leader for that matter? Imagine if someone used Tom Flanagan as a source in an Indian-related story?

That’s what we have. And nothing, nothing, will be done about it.

I can rant and rave all I want. Simard will not be called to task.

I can write letters to the editor, I can write to B’nai Brith and point out what the Free Press allowed in their paper, but nothing will happen.

Simard will still have a job next week; despite promoting a Hitler-apologist in the pages of the Winnipeg Free Press, she will not be called to task for it.

[...]

I’m just too exhuasted to give a crap anymore. I’m tired of fighting on behalf of reason and getting pissed on.

Last word to Jeff Goldstein;

[A]s I point out in one of my essays on race, the only real difference between those modern progressive race theorists who promote the social construction of race as a way to keep race a politically controversial issue and, say, the KKK, is that the latter doesn’t contort itself trying to justify its position: they believe in racial essentialism, and do so overtly.The social constructivists, on the other hand, are “animated” by an essentialism that THEY have “stripped” of its racist trappings in order to make it more palatable to mainstream progressives and liberal democrats. Utlimately, however, both groups wish to use that essentialism to promote a social policy of their liking.

(Definition: Essentialism )

Warning: The Following Scenes May Be Disturbing To Some Viewers

Over the past 72 hours, I chanced upon two photographs that one can only describe as extremely disturbing.

Actually, "chanced" isn't the right word. I was tricked into viewing them by fellow bloggers I thought I could trust. Indeed, going back and forth in my mind, I truly cannot decide which person I should punish first.

So, I'm putting it to a vote!

Extremely Disturbing Photo A

Extremely Disturbing Photo B

You may cast your votes in the comments. No matter how strong the compulsion to purge yourself of these psychologically damaging images, please refrain from being too specific about the subject matter. We needn't spoil it for others.

Evelyn Hynes Charged

Finally.

A Saskatoon welfare administrator who was fired by the province after $1 million was discovered missing has been charged with fraud.

Evelyn Hynes is charged with one count of fraud over $5,000. Her lawyer appeared on her behalf at the case's first court hearing, which took place in a Saskatoon provincial court Monday morning.

The RCMP said the charge was laid following an investigation at the Department of Community Resources and Employment office in Saskatoon.

Police began investigating after a complaint was filed in late 2004.

The government said slightly more than $1 million went missing over a 10-year period.

Hynes, 56, had been a manager in charge of dispensing emergency welfare payments in Saskatoon.

Last month, the government faced pressure over the case after a news report said police had forwarded the file to Crown prosecutors for an opinion on whether charges should be laid and had yet to hear back.

In a report released last year, provincial auditor Fred Wendel detailed how the money disappeared. According to the report, 16 fictitious welfare recipients were created over 12 years ending in 2004.

Just over 900 emergency payments were made to the non-existing people during that time. The money was listed as going toward things such as emergency repairs and travel for funerals, but it all ended up in the same bank account.

SDA flashback Jan, 2005;

As so often happens in these cases, the irony positively drips. Hynes also enjoyed a second paying position, teaching classes at the University of Saskatchewan in poverty. Former President of the Saskatchewan Social Workers Association, her work on "Social Work Ethics and Income Security" was adopted by that association. (Someone may want to be checking over the books there as well.)

Ignatieff Caption Contest: Winners!

Wow - what a response. With 129 entries, you should probably check out the whole thread, as there's no way I can pick "the best" without leaving some really good ones out. (That said, I left some really bad ones out, too.)

First goes to: Richfisher "But only after giving serious consideration to gouging his own eyes out, did Michael submit, and run for the leadership."

Second: Dave Balderstone - "No, really... If you squint just right, they look just like PET's!"

Third: NCF TO - "This thumb represents my left-hand shield - I call it 'Rae'. The other thumb represents my right-hand shield - I call it 'Scottie Boy'. When the shooting stops, I will drop these shields and reveal, for all of you little people to see: the next Liberal leader!"

Honourable Mentions:
Bernie: "Iggy de Sade, decides to go with thumbscrews".

Trodwel: "Michael Ignatieff reveals what puts him head and shoulders above the other candidates for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada: Opposable thumbs."

john demerais - "i'm gonna do my toenails the same shade of pinko"

Thanks for playing.

Mob Rule Mewl

There's no small degree of irony in this story - the same "violent mob" of Students Against War who chased military recruiters from the UC Santa Cruz campus last week are now crying foul because Michelle Malkin has published their press release, complete with contact information of the organizers.

UPDATE: SAW has removed the contact information from its press release and is now lying about the fact that it made the info publicly available on the Internet. I am leaving it up. If you are contacting them, I do not condone death threats or foul language. As for SAW, my message is this: You are responsible for your individual actions. Other individuals are responsible for theirs. Grow up and take responsibility.

"Holy sh*t, we could drive to Iraq."

One of the newly constructed homes in Dohok, Iraq
Part 5

It’s hard to write about Dohok because the place is so normal. Getting there is an adventure, but there is little adventure to be found after arrival. The most remarkable thing about the city is how unremarkable it is.

The first time I went there on a day trip from Erbil it seemed like such an innocent place. After seeing the rough hell of Turkish Kurdistan, though, and realizing that the Kurds in Iraq had it even worse under Saddam, it did not seem so innocent to me anymore. Iraqi Kurds struck me as deeply, profoundly, mature. It took so much work, blood, and sacrifice to build what they have. And they built it from nothing.

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four.

We Withdrew Our Proxy Long Ago

But you don't understand, whined Winnipeg Free Press reporter Paul Samyn last Sunday.

" as a proxy for you, the reader, who doesn't get to ask questions of those in power, I think your interests are also in play in the escalating communications war between the press and the Prime Minister's office ."

Hey, Paul... We're not at war with the PM.

I nteresting choice of words there... i sn't the goal of a war to defeat the enemy? (Bias? What bias? No bias here. Move on. Nothing to see here.)

And, Paul. We withdrew our proxy long ago.

Maybe it was about the time you, as the vox populi, decided it was imperative for the electorate to know the thoughts of Kreskin the Mentalist instead of doing a single story about the income trust scandal that was consuming the Liberals' fortunes.

We had to read the blogs to get details of the income trust scandal because you felt Kreskin was more important. It took months before we found out that Liberal cabinet minister Scott Brison was tipping off his close personal pals in the banking industry with here a wink, there a wink, everywhere a nudge, nudge. You'd think Kreskin would have known.

Model Of Tolerance

Letters from Europe;

[The] Internet is still awash in hate mail. So perhaps it isn't surprising that the country remains preoccupied by what happened to Theo van Gogh and what the politically correct position toward people who live in your midst but feel free to kill you should be. Friends who a few years earlier would walk you through a neighborhoold like the Baarsjes, with its shrouded women and its state-funded Islamic school and it's defiantly secretive mosque, and call this a "multicultural success" or a "model of tolerance," have begun to suspect that that peculiarly Dutch myth of a democracy integrated but not assimilated might be not only a contradiction in terms but a dangerous fiction.

Via Pieter Dorsman

Those Crazy Headline Writers!

Via a caller to John Gormley Live

US State Dep't: Sujiatun Visit

Over the past few weeks, I've received a steady stream of accounts of Chinese organ harvesting and persecution of Falun Gong from a variety of sources.

Via reader Charles Liu;

(AFP): The Falun Gong has alleged that as many as 75 percent of its 6,000 followers held in a state-run Chinese camp in the Sujiatun district of the northern city of Shenyang had been cremated after they were killed and their organs harvested and sold.

"Officers and staff from our embassy in Beijing and consulate in Shenyang have visited the area and the specific site mentioned in these reports on two separate occasions," McCormack said.

"In these visits the officers were allowed to tour the entire facility and grounds and found no evidence that the site is being used for any function other than as a normal public hospital."

It appears the claims by Falun Gong have been at least substantially exaggerated. Initial investigations by researchers for a US congressional committee have identified the site at Sujiatun as a hospital, where it is suspected organ harvesting occurs but on nowhere near the scale claimed by Falun Gong. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has dismissed the allegations as "absurd lies".

The Falun Gong description of the hospital as a concentration camp or death camp appears to be wrong. While China has re-education camps, there is no credible evidence that it operates the equivalent of gulags or concentration camps.

But given past Chinese behaviour, the Falun Gong claims cannot be completely discounted. It is well established that China conducts so-called organ harvesting, including among the 5000 to 12,000 people sentenced to death each year, and not necessarily with their permission or that of their families. It is a lucrative trade, with overseas patients flying to China for transplants.

The news release from the US State Department is here.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
April 14, 2006
Taken Question from 04-14-06 Daily Press Briefing
China: Reports of Concentration Camp in Northeast China

Question: What information can you provide regarding a reported concentration camp in China where Falun Gong practitioners were jailed and their organs harvested?

Answer: We are aware of the allegations and have taken these charges seriously. The Department and our Embassy in Beijing, as well as our Consulate General in Shenyang, have actively sought to determine the facts of the matter. Officers and staff from our Embassy in Beijing and Consulate in Shenyang have visited the area and the specific site mentioned in these reports on two separate occasions. In these visits the officers were allowed to tour the entire facility and grounds and found no evidence that the site is being used for any function other than as a normal public hospital.

We have raised these reports with the Chinese government and urged it to investigate these allegations. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson has publicly denied there is any basis for the allegations.

Independent of these specific allegations, we remain concerned over China’s repression of Falun Gong practitioners. We are also concerned by reports of organ harvesting. We have raised these concerns both in our annual Human Rights Report and in discussions with the Chinese government, both in Washington and in Beijing.

Operation Mountain Lion

Afghan and coalition forces have launched one of the largest offensives since removing the Taliban;

Military officials in Afghanistan said Operation Mountain Lion is part of the coalition's ongoing series of offensives that aim to disrupt insurgent activities, deny them sanctuary and prevent their ability to restock.

"This operation is helping the government of Afghanistan set the security conditions so democratic processes can take root," said Air Force Maj. Gen. Allen Peck, deputy air component commander for Combined Forces Command Afghanistan. "Our job is to bring airpower to bear on the anti-Afghan forces and support the coalition troops on the ground."

Operations today began with predawn air-and-ground assaults in the Pech River Valley, an area notorious for terrorist activity, Combined Force Command Afghanistan officials said.

Soldiers from 3rd Brigade of the Afghan National Army's 203rd Corps are fighting alongside servicemembers from the coalition's Task Force Spartan, made up of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division and 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment Marines from Task Force Lava.

More than 2,500 Afghan National Army and coalition forces are involved in the operation.

"We're taking the fight to the terrorists in their own backyard," said Army Command Sgt. Maj. James Redmore of Task Force Spartan. "They gave their victims no sanctuary. They'll receive none from us."

Coalition leaders described the operation as a comprehensive effort to kill, incapacitate or capture terrorists operating in the region. It will continue as long as necessary, they said.

"Together, with our ANA brothers-in-arms, we're eliminating the enemy's remaining sanctuaries in Kunar province," added Army Col. John Nicholson, Task Force Spartan's commander.

Now, for something just as revealing, though, ultimately discouraging - examine which media outlets actually carrying this news item, according to today's Google News - and how many are conspicious in their absence.

Ahmadinejad And The Basiji

Jonah Goldberg;

During the Iran-Iraq War, the Ayatollah Khomeini imported 500,000 small plastic keys from Taiwan. The trinkets were meant to be inspirational. After Iraq invaded in September 1980, it had quickly become clear that Iran's forces were no match for Saddam Hussein's professional, well-armed military. To compensate for their disadvantage, Khomeini sent Iranian children, some as young as twelve years old, to the front lines. There, they marched in formation across minefields toward the enemy, clearing a path with their bodies. Before every mission, one of the Taiwanese keys would be hung around each child's neck. It was supposed to open the gates to paradise for them.

Good News From Iraq

Picking up where Arthur Chrenkoff* left off, Bill Crawford has pulled together a collection of under-reported "good news" items from Iraq for National Review. Read it all (especially those of you confused by my criticism of CTV's Lisa LaFlamme).

A few exerpts;

In addition to taking over battle space, Iraqis continue to take the lead in more security operations. Operation Cobra Strike was lead by soldiers of the 8th Iraqi Army Division. The operation was planned, and conducted by Iraqis, with U.S. soldiers in support.

139 Iraqi soldiers recently graduated from commando school, and are ready to fight:

39 of 45 planned border forts along the Iran-Iraq border are complete. The border posts are manned by Iraqis.

In another raid, a senior al Qaeda operative was killed. Abu Umar was the terror groups "ambassador," and was charged with forming relationships with other groups in Iraq. Umar was an associate of Osama bin Laden. More than 115 top al Qaeda operatives have been killed or captured in Iraq over the last few months.

The Trophy active protection system creates a "force field" that literally surrounds the protected vehicle. An APS has three basic elements, including threat detection and tracking of approaching projectiles, the launching of and Interception of the projectiles.

Trophy's "force field" consists of a barrier of invisible energy fragments (perhaps light particles charged by lasers) can sense incoming threats by recognizing heat signatures. RPG rockets and guided missiles give off heat as they approach their targets. These charged fragments are designed to destroy any incoming threat with low collateral damage, minimizing injury to troops and citizenry.

In Today's Hatfield Vs McCoy News

As always, the willingness of certain Liberals to "bury the hatchet" in this, the legacy phase of the Chretien-Martin feud, hinges on the availability of an exposed back.

I suspect that I, and quite a few others, intend to write to this independent advisor and offer whatever assistance and documents he or she requires. And, personally, I think a judicial inquiry is an excellent idea.

Chickens, time to come home to roost.

For The Child Who Has Everything

.

And isn't nearly grateful enough.

h/t

Reader Tips

Thoughts on Flight 93.

"Those who have been following the pattern of US casualties will have noted that a whole bunch of extra casualties are coming in from MND-Baghdad. Of the 40 combat deaths this month, 12 involve Multinational Division, Baghdad. The mention of a possible "Battle of Baghdad" will not surprise those following recent posts on the Belmont Club."

A number of readers have emailed about the complicity of reporters in helping Olivia Chow push the NDP child care agenda at a news conference last week. Stephen Taylor has the has the video.

An equal number have sent this item on recent efforts by the EU to make Islamic terrorism disappear!

Another in a continuing series, by the Best Blogger In The World[tm] "Guests mingle at a Robert Byrd Family Easter Egg Hunt."

Add your own to the comments, or send a trackback.

Outside The Wire

BBS has links to Lisa LaFlamme's W5 report, Outside the wire.

"I would do it again because I think there is an undertold story here. We report on the military, we report on the Department of National Defence in Ottawa, Canada's role in peacekeeping. But we don't tell the story of these guys and their devotion to the mission," she said.

A commentor at BBS has it right though; "What's more, maybe we should ask why journalists who cover security crises don't have more military experience to begin with."

Indeed.

"Holy sh*t, we could drive to Iraq."

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and now, Part Four;

Someone is picking us up," Sean said, even though we didn't know if that really was true. It could have been true.

Not a single person spoke any English. But they seemed intrigued and excited when they found out we were Americans.

One man led us over to a Peshmerga soldier standing guard next to a gate.

"Hello?" the Peshmerga said. "You speak English?"

"Yes," I said. "Hello."

"Where are you from?" he said a bit coldly.

"We're Americans," I said.

His eyes turned to saucers. "Americans! Welcome!" he said. "How can I help you?"

Gotcha, Travers

A Jim Travers op-ed in the Star considers the underlying sloth of the Ottawa press gallery;

In diminishing the effectiveness of his press interactions, the Prime Minister is indirectly encouraging reporters to fan out to look elsewhere for news, a radical notion that's not in his interest and will lead to scrutiny no administration can sustain.

So, there we have it - tacit admission by a leading Ottawa journalist that the majority of his peers have behaved as lazy, spoon-fed agents of the Liberal party. One would think that such a revelation would be worthy of a column of journalistic self-examination, or at least a direct acknowledgment that accusations of pro-Liberal bias have foundation. Instead, he predictably issues yet another "warning" from media to the Harper government.

When we speak of "newspaper recycling", Mr. Travers, we're really thinking of the paper, not the ink.

Let's get the real reason for this little squabble out into the open. The shrill cries from the press gallery for "accountability", the invocation of "American-style" motives in keeping cabinet ministers and government officials on a short leash, the faux alarm about "secrecy" are complete and utter hogwash. What we are witnessing is a media suffering through loss. Harper's changes mean the opportunity to practice the bread-and-butter of modern political reporting - the fine art of "gotcha journalism" - has been cruelly snatched from them.

At the moment, most seem to stuck somewhere between "anger" and "bargaining", May they move to the stage of "acceptance" soon, and get back to the real business of reporting.

Postscript::
I can't let the column in question go by without drawing attention to how Travers signals his personal viewpoint on a different score. (And I don't mean just the predictable cheap shot attempts to paint Harper as " reading from the George W. Bush script".)

...a social shift away from universal programs and toward what is euphemistically called "choice."

Not-So-Random Thoughts On The Topic Of Prairie Horticulture

I spent much of the day doing yardwork, and as often happens, found myself wondering if such a thing exists as "Dutch Caragana Disease"? It just so happens that at the moment, I'd like to get my hands on some.

Or failing that, some "Anti-Order Of Canada" to bestow on the sadistic bastard who introduced this wretched legume/shrub/infestation to the Canadian prairies? I realize that such an award would have to be presented posthumously, but hey - it's the thought that counts. And, if we're lucky, there are surviving grandchildren somewhere to extract an apology from.

There's also the question of government reparations - call me crazy, but this botanical curse just has "Tommy Douglas" written all over it.

Some of you know what I mean. I am off to tend to my wounds now.

Update - reader "BDT" writes in the comments;

Just when you think they might be dead and gone, they are voted as the Greatest Canadian Shrub, and the sucker Shirley shows up from the States.

"That Book Grabbed My Ass!"

Via Ace; from Ohio State University, another shining moment for the politics of the academic left;

Scott Savage, who serves as a reference librarian for the [Ohio State] university, suggested four best-selling conservative books for freshman reading in his role as a member of OSU Mansfield’s First Year Reading Experience Committee. The four books he suggested were The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian, The Professors by David Horowitz, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat Ye’or, and It Takes a Family by Senator Rick Santorum. Savage made the recommendations after other committee members had suggested a series of books with a left-wing perspective, by authors such as Jimmy Carter and Maria Shriver.

Savage was put under “investigation” by OSU’s Office of Human Resources after three professors filed a complaint of discrimination and harassment against him, saying that the book suggestions made them feel “unsafe.” The complaint came after the OSU Mansfield faculty voted without dissent to file charges against Savage. The faculty later voted to allow the individual professors to file charges.

Docs (PDF)

Caption Contest

I don't run these very often, but this was too good to pass up;

(Adrian Wyld/CP)

I'll announce the winners on Tuesday.

(Original story)

Lots more at the OTB Caption Jam.

Meet The New Boss

Just after the new Conservative government was sworn in, the blogosphere erupted in a chorus (comprised of members from all political camps) singing "meet the new boss, same as the old boss".

I do believe the time has come for certain individuals to put away the hymnbook.

But first, let's review the "old boss's" policy towards the 1,000 or so Chinese spies reported as operating in Canada. From Hansard;

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.

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

So tonight, I nearly choked on a mouthful of red wine watching the following on CTV news. My expectations of this new government have been high, but not even I expected this - especially not so early in a minority mandate;

As the opposition leader, Harper himself pressured Martin to confront the Chinese government, quoting estimates by former Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent Michel Juneau-Katsuya on the number of spies operating in Canada.

Now, the new Conservative government appears ready to act.

"It is something we want to signal that we want to address, and to continue to raise with the Chinese at the appropriate time," MacKay said.

Intelligence files reportedly suggest that an estimated 1,000 Chinese agents and informants operate in Canada. Many of them are visiting students, scientists and business people, told to steal cutting-edge technology.

An example being touted as copied technology is China's Redberry -- an imitation of the Blackberry portable e-mail device, created by Waterloo, Ont.-based Research in Motion Ltd.

"The Blackberry RIM company is a perfect example of the type of technology and the economic impact that protecting that kind of trademark," said MacKay.

According to a 2003-2004 CSIS report to Parliament, foreign spies are trying to uncover ''Canada's scientific and technological developments, critical economic and information infrastructure, military and other classified information, putting at risk Canada's national security.''

However, CSIS does not specifically mention China in the report.

"It would appear, based on evidence and reporting, that there is a fair bit of activity here," MacKay said.

Juneau-Katsuya said the former Liberal government knew of the espionage, but were too afraid to act.

"We didn't want to piss off or annoy the Chinese," said Juneau-Katsuya, who headed the agency's Asian desk. "(They're) too much of an important market."

So, everyone, shall we all now allow that this new boss is not the same as the old boss?

Without A Fight

In a thread from yesterday, commentor "Billy B. ByTown" has offered readers a series of astonishing confessions. One must admire him/her for one thing, and on a multitude of contradictory levels - how many people have the courage (even from behind the safety of a pseudonym) to openly declare their unqualified cowardice?

The problem, in my view and in reality, is that free speech does indeed provoke murder. As long as western society is under siege, I do not see what good it does for individuals to select themselves for a death lottery and even less to endanger others.

It's a fitting preface for this David Warren column titled "Wages of retreat" . A brief exerpt;

Israel faces, as we in the West also face, an enemy who will not be reconciled. It makes no sense to offer concessions to such an enemy. The whole idea of “withdrawing behind more defensible borders” is built upon illusion. Either you carry the battle to the enemy, or the enemy carries the battle to you. It is the same story, finally, in Iraq and Afghanistan. We fight them there, or they fight us here. Israel is looking directly into that quandary. We still look on from far away.

I published the Jyllands-Posten cartoons on this site, and also host the full collection on another server, Tens of thousands viewed them, yet I recieved not so much as a single email of protest, much less threats. So, let's not exaggerate the risk one takes in North America in pushing the Mohammed envelope - this isn't Holland, after all.

We can only hope that "Billy B" and others of his kind can summon up the true courage it takes to remove their blinders and view the real world "wages of retreat", both past and present. At the very least, they might drop the unsupportable and absurd argument that speech can kill, for (as I once reminded Warren Kinsella) - Harry Potter is not a documentary.

Perhaps it will assist them in rethinking this willing march towards submission before we are forced "look on it" from over our own back fences.

Billy B states in a followup post that "My original point was a simple one and I will state it again. I do not have the right to put others at risk."

And he's right about that - on the question of whether or not to concede our fundamental democratic freedoms to threats of violence, we do not have the right - we have the duty.

Top Fives

Cerberus is asking readers to list their top five Canadian conservative and liberal blogs. Check it out. Check out some of the links, as well. It's always good to expand your blog reading horizons!

(Be sure to leave your comments on the topic there, not here!)

Martin Sheen's Fleeting Moment Of Sanity

"I'm just not qualified, You're mistaking celebrity for credibility."

Warren Bell;

Martin Sheen's quote about separating credibility and celebrity is refreshing. To be fair, I am kind of surprised, considering what I used to see him do on the Warners lot. The faux President had an odd knack of showing up in the commissary with the four or five actors who played his Secret Service detail. As everyone was still in wardrobe, it looked very much like a President arriving with his security guys.

Now it's possible he was just good friends with those guys and wanted to have lunch with them, but it sure looked like someone who'd hit his head and thought he was really President.

Pope Benedict XVI: Still Too Catholic

Speaking as one who is decidedly non-religious, the following statement has a lot to recommend it;

At the Third Station of the Cross, where Jesus falls for the first time, Archbishop Comastri has written: “Lord, we have lost our sense of sin. Today a slick campaign of propaganda is spreading an inane apologia of evil, a senseless cult of Satan, a mindless desire for transgression, a dishonest and frivolous freedom, exalting impulsiveness, immorality and selfishness as if they were new heights of sophistication.”

Full text of the meditations at the Vatican website.

(SDA flashback.)

Taking The Christ Out Of Easter

I stopped in WalMart today, looking for a pair of cheap running shoes. I eventually found them piled in a corner of the Garden Center, next to the relocated displays of cat toys and lingerie. They weren't renovating, as it turned out. In desperation, someone had moved the items there to make room for the Easter chocolate.

Long gone are the days when Easter candy decision making boiled down to "hollow or solid, bunny or chicken". While I expected the traditional chocolate bunnies and eggs, I was wholly unprepared for the sheer volume and choice before me.

Take the eggs, for example. They came in dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate, There were peanut encrusted, creme-filled, caramel dipped, and brightly colored candy-coated masterpieces that looked for all the world like Ukrainian pysanky, but with tastier shells.

There were foil-covered hummingbird eggs hanging with 365 to the little mesh bag, with labels advertising "A Year Of Easter!" There were post-nuclear apocalypse ostrich hen behemoths that required the assistance of a stock boy to roll to your vehicle.

Others had toys inside. There were "transformer eggs" that certain gifted children could convert into Ninjas ready to be devoured. A few played music and in the electronics department, one could shell out $159.99 for an realistic looking egg with a hidden camera inside - to be doubly sure the nanny is paying all due attention to the children on this most special of family holidays.

I considered venturing into the chocolate bunny department, but I was pressed for time. Instead, my attention was drawn to those newcomers to the Easter tradition.

Alongside the chocolate kittens and basset hound puppies and baby chicks, chocolate vampires stood atride chocolate tombstones while chocolate Viking ships roamed in search of plunder. There was a Creamy White Chocolate Barbie[tm] , a 3-cherry chocolate slot machine, and a chocolate mudder Jeep with raised suspension. The Amazing Hulk, Superman, Britney Spears, Star Jones, Bart Simpson - all were available in chocolate. (Michael Jackson was offered in both dark and white.)

Cadbury and Hersheys had "Special Edition" Easter chocolate bars wrapped in fancy purple paper, with calligraphy and golden foil peeking out the ends that sparkled like the setting sun over choppy water.

It was mesmerizing.

So, imagine my shock when I was told;

"Sorry ma'am, but we don't have a chocolate 'Jesus On A Cross'. Try Canadian Tire."

I had to settle for a chocolate Santa Claus.

(Meanwhile, this can't be good, either.)

Hugh Owens v. Saskatchewan

Lifesite;

One of the most concerning court decisions against religious freedom in Canada has been reversed. The highest court in the province of Saskatchewan has reversed a 2002 decision by the Court of Queen's Bench which ruled that a man who placed references to Bible verses on homosexuality into a newspaper ad was guilty of inciting hatred.

The December 11, 2002 decision was in response to an appeal of a 2001 Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission (HRC) ruling which ordered both the Saskatoon StarPhoenix newspaper and Hugh Owens of Regina to pay $1,500 to three homosexual activists for publishing an ad in the Saskatoon newspaper quoting bible verses regarding homosexuality.

[...]

The ruling stressed that s. 14(1)(b) had to be read and interpreted in a way which respected the fundamental freedoms of speech and religion as guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As a result, citing Supreme Court authority, the Court said s. 14(1)(b) must be read as applying only in cases where the message in question involved extreme emotions and strong feelings of detestation, calumny and vilification. The Court also stressed that any message impugned under s. 14(1)(b) must be carefully examined with regard to its full context in order to determine whether the section has been offended.

The Court concluded that, although his advertisement was jarring and offensive to many, Mr. Owens had not acted contrary to s. 14(1)(b).

A Comedy Central Decision

(click image)

Update: "Freedom isn't free, but glass isn't cheap."

This Concludes A Test Of The Emergency Fire Retardant System

"After 15 seconds you can see foam is covering all areas it has to, so the test is successful. Shut 'er off."

Via INDC

Over-Employment A Threat To US Economy

Everything old is new again;

In the 1980s, there was a consensus among the members of the national media that Ronald Reagan was going to fail and that he was going to bring on economic disaster. But. . .the economy didn't collapse. In fact, it soared to unprecedented levels.

The media stubbornly refused to admit that "Reaganomics" was responsible. The drumbeat of negative opposition to the president's policies continued through the 1980s. By 1986. . . the ratio of negative to positive stories was seven to one. In other words, as the economy was improving, media reports on the economy were becoming increasingly negative.

One of the most common allegations in these reports was that the poor got poorer under Reagan, even though the actual number of poor declined from 14 to 13 percent during his administration, and the average income for the lowest one-fifth of Americans rose from $7,008 to $9,431. Inflation declined 48%, from 8.9 to 4.6%. Unemployment declined 45%, from 7.5 to 5.2.%. Interest rates declined 71.9%, from 21 to 5.9%. Twenty-one million new jobs were created.

The so-called "greedy '80s" witnessed the largest peacetime economic expansion in our nation's history, yet the media remained deaf, dumb and blind. - L. Brent Bozell III - November, 1994

Newsweek only admits now that what has been going on the past three years -- superb productivity gains, resulting in a true strengthening of the economy, growth without inflation -- was a good thing, now that it may be about to end.

Before, Newsweek bemoaned the lack of gangbusters hiring -- the "jobless economy" we've heard so very much about -- without acknowledging the upside of modest (but good) job growth was that companies were growing sensibly and strongly with respect to hiring, not overhiring in a way likely to provoke a bubble and the inevitable bursting of that bubble.

Only now that that it looks like companies are hiring a lot more people do they admit that the "jobless recovery" (which wasn't jobless at all, but whatever) was fundamentally sound.

I've noted this a bunch of times before: The MSM is only willing to acknowlege the economy is strong in stories predicting it is about to weaken. Only when the scary prediction of a collapsing economy is discussed will they admit the economy is currently actually strong.

Bush can never get the political benefit of a strong economy, because the media will never admit it as such until it has passed. Only when the business cycle turns, as it it one day will, to a recessionary period will the MSM then admit the economy had been strong.

In order to contrast what had been good to what is now bad. Without ever acknowledging things were good at the time.

And so it goes.

Reader Tips

Still holding hopes for a major takedown of Rove/Cheney/Bush in the Plame investigation? Warning : this link may be dangerous to your state of denial;

Here, for example, is a headline that will not appear: "Libby Didn't Lie, But Fitzgerald Did".

Climate of Fear - "Global-warming alarmists intimidate dissenting scientists into silence."

After his letter appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Canadian blogger Liberal Catnip emailed Maj. Kevin Kelly, an F-16 fighter pilot with the New Jersey Air National Guard, to ask if he was being used as part of some "Propoganda Team" - and uncovers the truth.

Did the media fall for yet another insurgent information operation in Ramadi? Answer looks to be "yes".

A letter to the Human Rights Office of Cape Breton University (scroll down and wear your sunglasses) begins thusly; "I am deeply troubled, and concerned, that Mr. Mullan is keeping a running log of what is happening with this case, even to posting that nothing is occurring with the case."

Thanks for the others you folks sent - if I didn't use yours, I invite you to share your link in the comments, or send a trackback.

Director of Public Prosecutions

A reader who works in the federal justice system writes;

As part of the government's accountability legislation, there is this little gem. It appears almost as an afterthought in the Bill and has not received much attention outside of the Federal Department of Justice. The creation of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions removes the Attorney General's office from the Justice portfolio. This is to ensure no political influence is exerted to force a prosecution ahead or to affect the outcome in an ongoing prosecution.

The office of the D.P.P. is based upon an number of international models (including Great Britain) as well as models of some provincial Attorneys General in Canada. A number of prosecutions (notably under the Criminal Code) are the responsibility of the provinces to prosecute. In some provinces, a D.P.P. has been established to ensure the independence of the prosecuting agency from any and all political influences.

The Bill hints of good things to come in Federal prosecutions as it both promotes transparency in prosecutions and seeks to eradicate any political influence in the criminal justice arena.

In addition to the obvious sources of interference, presumably it will also preclude attempts by police to exert pressure to pursue questionable prosecutions, or demanding the prosecutions unit take certain (unreasonable) positions on bail or in sentencing.

Though, Admittedly, I Served The Second Can To The Ladies Of The Battlefords Kennel Club

A Liberal MP plans on bringing back "meals" of seal meat from the Newfoundland hunt. Then, apparently, he plans on feeding it to fellow parliamentarians..

Allow me the privilege of quoting myself from a post directed to the anti-seal hunt propagandists, written on April 6, 2004, in which I remark on this creature so conspicuously absent from the Canada Food Guide.

They're parasite infested 350 lb water rats.

They taste like rancid codfish.

Yes, they do.

You've never eaten seal meat.

I have.

They are also hugely responsible for massive declines in fish stocks. What the hell did you think they ate? Seaweed? Fish, which - in case you haven't noted - is high on the menu at your favorite sushi bar.

In fact, if seal didn't taste like rancid codfish, it would be on the menu at your favorite sushi bar.

Supporting the seal hunt is an important political issue in Canada, to be sure.

But is this the swill you want to die on?

Still Life In Death

Because the Chinese are the "best dissectors in the world".

Still Life In Driftwood

Amazing.

Keith Boag: "Listen Harper, Around Here I Am The News"

Stephen Taylor pulls together a very good post on the "all about me" performance of CBC's Keith Boag last evening.

Boag tries to link the frustrations of his job with "government accountability". Canadians voted for change in the way that government contracts are awarded, lobbying is conducted, and the way that whistleblowers are protected. They voted for accountability in the way government works. Canadians did not vote for the Boag's easy access to the most sought-after video and sound bite.

Be sure to read the comments - CTV's David Akin weighs in.

Catch 44

Star Phoenix;

The provincial government has discovered another case of financial irregularities, this one worth about $100,000 and involving a SaskPower employee.

John Nilson, minister responsible for SaskPower, said the employee -- a manager -- is on leave with pay, a situation that is being evaluated on a day-to-day basis.

[...]

Last month, the government announced 43 incidents of financial irregularities, adding up to nearly $2 million, that have occurred in the last three years within provincial departments, agencies and Crown corporations.

A few high-profile cases, which had been previously disclosed, accounted for the lion's share of the $2 million, including a Saskatchewan Environment employee and another person being charged with fraud in a case involving up to $513,000. Another case involving the misappropriation of about $1 million of welfare money led to the dismissal of a Community Resources employee, but no charges so far.

In another get-tough move, the Saskatchewan NDP government (aka the SGEU, as the two bodies are pretty much interchangable) has given current employees enough time to have any criminal record expunged by way of a pardon.

SDA Flashback - September 19, 2005

Autism: No Increase

Remember all those news magazine "special reports" devoted to the alarming rise in autism?

The big problem is something called “diagnostic substitution.” In special education programs, “autism” was not a required category until created by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Suddenly, “autism” diagnoses for special education sky rocketed. At the same time things like “mental retardation” and other categories for mental disabilities declined. The researcher, Dr. Paul Shattuck, notes that this pattern has been observed in the past and that it was not the case that there was epidemic. In short, the problem is that there was a better diagnosis/classification scheme put into place and the primary data source that is often used to justify the “autism epidemic” claim is tainted and cannot be used to determine if there really is an epidemic.

"Holy sh*t, we could drive to Iraq.", con't

Third installment;

Sean and I dragged our sorry, exhausted, and malnourished selves to the car at 6:30 in the morning just a few hours northwest of the Turkish-Iraqi border. For the first time we had a look at our surroundings in daylight.

Turkish Kurdistan is a disaster. It is not where you want to spend your next holiday.

One village after another has been blown completely to rubble.

Saskatchewan's Worst Kept, Most Expensive Budget Secret

Sask Premier Lorne Calvert is grooming his young new Finance Minister to be his replacement.

That's why things like this are going on;

"The total budget for the Saskatchewan budget advertising is $445,000 -- and the primary audience are Saskatchewan voters...I mean....Saskatchewan people."

Future wide open, indeed. Complete with radio and TV ad appearances by Andrew Thomson. Brought to you by taxpayers.

Democracy, Immigration, Multiculturalism

Pick Any Two

A post by James C. Bennett, written last December, but always relevant.

My Mosque Is Better Than Your Mosque

More sectarian bloodshed. Time to pull the armies of the Emperialist BushMcChimpyHitler Neo-Con Fascists out of Pakistan!

Julie Van Dusen: "Listen Harper, Around Here WE Make The News"

Canadian Sentinel (from the comments *);

"What will they do next? Throw a pie?"

Reader Tips

CBC: We regret to inform you that the Jews didn't do it.

Hamas founder Husseini and Himmler in photographs.

Michael Barone in US News & World Report;

Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters makes his living as manager of a call center. But he also blogs brilliantly and thoroughly. Those who insist that there could never have been a collaboration between the Saddam Hussein regime and al Qaeda on 9/11 need to read Ed's following blog entry, in full. It doesn't prove the case, or claim to, but it makes very interesting reading.

I am always amazed at those who claim, with absolute certitude, that we know that Saddam's regime had nothing to do with 9/11. We don't know that. We don't know either, with any certainty, that Saddam did collaborate on 9/11, but we know that he had motive and opportunity, and we know (read Ed's post) that there is some evidence of collaboration. Not conclusive, but evidence. Read.

James Joyner on the Iran war posturing;

Kevin Drum has the same basic take on the steady drumbeat of the “Bush is planning for war with Iran” meme that I do, namely that it is a PSYOP to enhance our diplomatic pressure on the mullahs. Mark Danziger thinks Bush hater Sy Hersh an odd avenue for such a campaign but, as a correspondent has noted, Bill Gersh served in much the same capacity during the Clinton administration.

Iraq Index from the Brookings Report (Brookings is considered a liberal think tank) shows a decline in US, Iraq military and civilian deaths, making March one of the least costly months to date in terms of loss of life.

Hot Air - A History - "Al Gore’s personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change."

Add your own in the comments, or send a trackback.

Iran Joins The "Nuclear Club".

"I formally declare that Iran has joined the club of nuclear countries," [Ahmadinejad] told an audience that included top military commanders and clerics in the northwestern holy city of Mashhad. The crowd broke into cheers of "Allahu akbar!" or "God is great!" Some stood and thrust their fists in the air.

"Holy sh*t, we could drive to Iraq."

Back to Iraq - Part One;

Sean and I tried to go to sleep early so we could wake up and go at first light. I stared at the ceiling and remembered my flight over Eastern Turkey. We are so screwed, I thought. There's no way we can drive across that landscape to Iraq and back in three days from where we are now. And I was right.
and Part Two

Posted by Kate at 1:20 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Zeyad Scholarship Fund

Jeff Jarvis on how you can help Iraq blogger Zeyad (Healing Iraq) attend CUNY’s new Graduate School of Journalism.

We are reaching out to foundations and individuals and working on scholarships and Zeyad is working to raise money. But that won’t do it all. We will. All of you inspired Zeyad to blog and give his invaluable perspective on Iraq. That inspired him to give up his career as a dentist and report for his blog as well as for NYTimes.com, the Washington Post, and the Guardian. So now I hope we will all show what the blogosphere can do and raise the funds one of our own needs to come to America to study. You have two means to give.

Dean Steve Shepard
CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
535 E. 80th St.
New York, NY 10021
Make sure to note that this is for the “Zeyad Scholarship Fund.”

Federal Accountability Act Online

From the Treasury Board Secretariat:

OTTAWA, April 11, 2006 - Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government today introduced the proposed Federal Accountability Act to restore Canadians' trust in government.

Treasury Board President John Baird introduced the Act in Parliament. An Action Plan was also released, which includes additional measures the Harper government will undertake in order to deliver on all its campaign commitments to clean up government.

The Action Plan, draft legislation, fact sheets, and other materials are available at www.accountability.gc.ca.

Because If They Don't Children May Die

Fighting For Taxpayers;

Watch while London politicians twist themselves into pretzels trying to justify a taxpayer-funded trip to see Rudy Guiliani.

First, they need to spend $10,000 to help defray the cost of the London conference.

[...]

Oh yeah...and what will people think if city councillors don't go? How will they be seen? And, what if there is a future pandemic? Think about it!

UPDATE from David Maclean: "Well, there is some good news. Due to "public pressure" council decided not to accept the tickets for fear of it being perceived as graft. They are, however, still contributing 10,000 for the conference. Well done, folks."

A Mentorship Program

Complete with "Boy Love Code Of Ethics". Because sex with boys is "Not an entitlement"!

Via Stop The ACLU, where a Blogspot flagging campaign is getting off the ground.

Blog Notes

To help illustrate why blogs can have influence that far exceeds their actual readership, click this Google search result.

Case rested.

Got Anything In A Cessna?

(Click photo for story)

h/t Shaidle

Yes, It Is Strange

Reader "Boudica" asks;

"Is it just me or do you find it strange that the name of the person who self immolated recently at the Toronto Tim Hortons was never released?"

update Several commentors have pointed out that his identity has been withheld "due to the family's wishes".

Well, big whoop. When one chooses to exit in a manner that places the public at significant risk, which destroys the property of others and closes down part of a metropolitan area, one should expect to forfeit the "right to privacy".

Afterthought - has anyone else forgotten the March 8 announcement of the Tim Horton's opening at the Canadian base at Kandahar? And it's unreasonable for people to ask who was responsible for a gasoline fueled explosion in one of their restaurants in Toronto less than a month later?

Reports Of Berlusconi's Defeat May Be Premature

Where have we heard this before?

PRODI WINS the Italian elections, if the first exit polls are confirmed.

An Instapundit reader predicts;

If Berlusconi loses, it will be a referendum on Italy's involvement in Iraq. If he wins, it will be due to some obscure domestic issues.

Interestingly, when the exit polls had Prodi ahead, it was a lead item on Yahoo news. As the results drew closer, it had dropped off the front page (though now it is back as "too close to call").

Eight Dead Were Members of Bandido Motorcycle Gang

According to the OPP news conference presently ongoing, the eight slain men found in an Ontario farm field were all members of the Bandidos motorcycle gang, as is at least one of the five arrested and charged with 8 counts of first degree murder. All were killed by gunshot wounds.

Looks like the Hells Angels denial of responsibility might have been legit, after all - the phrase "internal cleansing" is being used.

CTV is now up with the details.

Nevermind The Data

Telegraph;

Consider the simple fact, drawn from the official temperature records of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, that for the years 1998-2005 global average temperature did not increase (there was actually a slight decrease, though not at a rate that differs significantly from zero).

In response to these facts, a global warming devotee will chuckle and say "how silly to judge climate change over such a short period". Yet in the next breath, the same person will assure you that the 28-year-long period of warming which occurred between 1970 and 1998 constitutes a dangerous (and man-made) warming.

I'm reminded of this every time the local (or national) news breathlessly reports "breaking a record set in 1913" - often with added commentary that global climate specialists have warned that we "will see more of this".

If global warming is truly a recent and accelerating phenomenon - why are these hottest/coldest/dryest/wettest records so old? Shouldn't the majority of records broken be recent ones?

A "Made In France" Solution

James Joyner;

"Clearly, this will lead to labor peace in our time."

Parade Of Lights

Do you suppose that on each April 7 in years to come, that thousands of citizens across the nation will gather in candlelight vigils in remembrance of men who have died by violence?

Update: Dogs and Cats Lie Down Together - In the comments, leftie blogger Ted ("Cerberus") hammers out common ground with the right, endorsing death penalty for gang members and drug traffickers. Wonders never cease!

(just having a little fun with you, Ted.)

"Nuke the entire site from orbit"

Yes, Sean - I am glad I run linux;

Nearly half of the systems I’ve dealt with over the past month have been badly compromised by advanced trojans and rootkits that are virtually impossible to remove. These programs hook themselves deep into Windows XP and commandeer cricitical parts of the operating system so that they can escape detection and removal by trojan and rootkit repair utilities. While I can remove the malicious software in many cases, it would take me six or seven hours to do a good job and another two or three hours of monitoring the system to be absolutely sure the problem is fixed. On the other hand, it only takes me a few hours to backup user data, rebuild the OS, and then restore data back to the system. Since I charge by the hour, a rebuild is usually cheaper than a repair.

I know that some people are unhappy about having their systems rebuilt from scratch, but the bottom line is that it’s not only the most cost effective repair, but that “nuking the system from orbit” is the only way to 100% guarantee that the problem is fixed for good. It’s not just me saying it either, now Microsoft is admitting it too.

Candid Camera

National Journal;

Photographers with digital cameras have provided, almost instantaneously, an enormous flood of accurate, dramatic, and even shocking images to people around the world. But the daily downloads of news photos include some that are staged, fake, or so lacking in context as to be meaningless, despite the Western media's best efforts to separate the factual from the fictional.

[...]

For photo editors, new pressures to get it right are coming from Internet bloggers who collect and post critical comments from ordinary citizens and also from niche experts who may have intimate knowledge of the local culture, the U.S. military, or the particular news event in question, Elbert said. "We in the mainstream media have always decided what [images] we want to push out, but now people are disagreeing and questioning accuracy," he said. "This is really confounding the mainstream media."

If big media refrained from hiring stringers from Zarqawi-Bin Laden Paparazzi Studios, this might occur a little less often. On the other hand - that seems to be where they find many of their "opinion" columnists, so why not!

h/t

Colour Gravity: Spring 2006

I take a shortcut down gravel roads when I drive to and from North Battleford. There is a tremendous amount of water laying in the fields and ditches this spring - I had to double back on one part of the trip as the highway was closed by flooding.

The colours on the prairie are fabulous at this time of the year - this evening I stopped to take a few photos. Enjoy!

(Right clicking on the smaller thumbnails should allow you to open them to full size.)

Colour Gravity *

Oops

Gee, now - what are the odds that the same guy who allegedly molested a 2nd grader in an Edmonton school washroom, who reportedly "ran away" from a hair salon when he found out the price to have his hair "died" - would follow that up by approaching the child and her uncle on said schoolground to ask for a light?

The drama unfolded as school was letting out for the day and parents - nervous after the Grade 2 girl was groped in a school washroom on Monday - were arriving to escort their children home.

Ironically, it was the first day back at school for the little girl herself. Her uncle was with her on the playground when the dishevelled-looking man walked up and asked for a cigarette.

"We just saw this guy walking through the playground," said Brian Wong, one of those who held down the man. "He matched the description of the guy. My wife and I looked at him and said, 'that must be the guy.' We grabbed him and said 'we have some questions here.' He started taking off. We tried to get a hold of him until the cops showed up."

Witness Rob Shrestha said the man was shouting and that four people were grabbing at his hands and legs to keep him from getting away.

[...]

"It looked like him for sure," said Kyla Mackey, one of a group of parents that were gathered on the playground as school was letting out.

"When they drove away, he just glared at all of us. It was freaky. Then we all cheered."

(link fixed)

The More The Left Changes

click image to enlarge

Via Chris in Manitoba (there's a whole page of this stuff).

H/T to Cjunk, where there's a pretty good related post.

Reader Tips

Cartoon wars - South Park goes where the New York Times, Toronto Star and CBC fear to tread.

The South Park show ends on a cliffhanger, as the people of America begin burying their heads in the sand to prove their sensitivity to Muslims (they won't hear the show or see the show with their heads buried, get it?), while a voiceover announces that South Park is also a two-part series, and begins asking that Adam West-Batman style of questioning: "Will the people of America be safe? Will Fox let the Family Guy air? Will they show Mohammed Uncensored? Find out next week to see if Comedy Central pusses out."

An oldie, but a goodie: TV3 has apologised after a graphic labelling US President George W. Bush a "professional fascist" flashed up during its primetime news.

Plamegate plot twist: turns out the scandal isn't that a CIA "covert" agent was exposed - it's that this sleazy idiot once managed to land a job as a US ambassador.

A threatened Michael Totten posts an "Open Letter To Hezbollah".

Planning a trip to Asia? It pays to know the correct spelling of Taiwan.

It doesn't pay to be a cyber-bully.

Canadian justice system releases new sentence reduction price list.

I'll be heading out later today and won't be back until tomorrow evening - so, you may use this as an "open thread" until then. Keep it clean, play nice.

Global dimming warming brightening

A solution to global warming - pollute more!

Research presented at a major European science meeting adds to other evidence that cleaner air is letting more solar energy through to the Earth's surface.

Other studies show that increased water vapour in the atmosphere is reinforcing the impact of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

[...]

Between the 1950s and 1980s, the amount of solar energy penetrating through the atmosphere to the Earth's surface appeared to be declining, by about 2% per decade.

This trend received some publicity under the term "global dimming".

Rising Sun (BBC)

Clean air makes bright skies
But in the 1980s, it appears to have reversed, according to two papers published last year in the journal Science.

[,,,]

The reversal of "global dimming" has been proposed in some circles as an alternative explanation for climatic change, removing the need to invoke human emissions of greenhouse gases.

Dr Wild dismissed this picture. His analysis suggests that "global dimming" and the man-made greenhouse effect may have cancelled each other out until the early 1980s, but now "global brightening" is adding to the impact of human greenhouse emissions.

"There is always this argument that maybe the whole temperature rise wasn't due to greenhouse warming but due to solar variations," he told the BBC News website.

"During the solar dimming we had really no temperature rise. And only when the solar dimming disappeared could we really see what is going on in terms of the greenhouse effect, and that is only starting in the 1980s."

Belindarella: "The Slipper Doesn't Fit"

Joan Tintor on yesterday's blond bombshell;

She had a good chance to win, Stronach claimed, but her reason for not running is the party’s leadership selection process, which she says renders her incapable of speaking her mind on party renewal. She maintains that she would have been “trapped” in a system in which the grassroots are “ahead” of the party.

This is risible nonsense. In the two months that have passed since Paul Martin announced he would not be leading the Liberals into another election, this is the first inkling we have ever heard from Belinda that she had a problem with the Liberal party’s leadership process.

[...]

As CBC reporter Julie Van Dusen noted on Newsworld today, Stronach applauded the Liberal leadership rules when they were released last month. As the National Post reported on March 20:

“I was particularly pleased to see the national party executive agree on rules that will ensure the leadership race is a more open, accessible and accountable process from start to finish, that will guarantee a level playing field for everyone who decides to run,” Ms. Stronach said in a statement.

Stronach's talking points today, less than three weeks later, are a transparent rationalization for the fact that her weak support among traditional Liberals means she could only win the leadership if she were free to essentially take over the party with new members. Yet Scott Brison, Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae do not seem deterred, though they are essentially starting from the same place.

In the Simpsons episode that features the musical version of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the closing song includes the line “a stranger’s just a friend you haven’t met.” I guess to Stronach, a “grassroots Liberal” is just somebody whose membership she hasn’t bought yet.

Entitled To Their Entitlements

Last seen being dragged kicking and screaming from their expense accounts...

According to a quarterly disclosure report, McLellan, the deputy PM in the Paul Martin government .who was defeated in her city riding, billed taxpayers $1,265 for a dozen employees to dine at the exclusive Rideau Club in Ottawa on Feb. 2 - nearly two weeks after she was voted out of office.

Meanwhile, ex-public works minister Scott Brison claimed $1,245 for two dinners at the swanky Italian eatery Mama Theresa's after the Jan. 23 Grit defeat.

Immigration Minister Monte Solberg claimed $5.49 for a breakfast for two at the Lobby Lounge and a $16.71 lunch for two at Subway, while Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day hosted a lunch for three for less than $30...

Oh, And About That Media Strategy

I don't usually do poll results, but I'll make an exception in this case;

This latest survey shows that, nationally, 41 percent of eligible and decided Canadian voters would support the Conservative Party if an election were held today, compared with the 36 percent it earned in the January 23rd federal election. The Liberal Party, now under interim leadership, has seen its support drop to 22 percent (down 8 points), and is now in a statistical tie with the New Democratic Party, which has seen its support edge upwards to 21 percent (up 3 points). Support for the Bloc Québécois in Quebec is stable at 44 percent (up 2 points). Relatively few (13%) voters are currently undecided about which party might deserve their support.

[...]

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has earned solid public approval in his first months in office, with 60 percent of Canadians expressing approval of the job he has done to date.

Melting Down Our History

Editorial Times on the fate of rare artifacts under a Hamilton "gun amnesty";

So, are the Liberals out to rewrite history in Canada, by denying its existence? As a government they had little use for veterans on Remembrance Day, barely acknowledging them in government departments throughout Canada.

Now, in the gun control zeal of Liberal dominated Ontario police forces, erasing the tangible evidence of Canadian history is just fine, apparently. After all, according to Deputy Chief Leendertse, gang-bangers are apparently lining up to acquire muskets and antique firearms for their next drive-by pop. Therefore, Canada's heritage has to go.

Hamilton police will now try to save a rare 200-year-old British musket from the War of 1812 after a plea from the Canadian War Museum not to melt it down.

[...]

"It's our intention to contact the owner of the flintlock" to ask if they would consider donating it to the national war museum in Ottawa, he said.

"Ultimately, if an owner wants it destroyed, regardless of the historical value, we will be proceeding forward with their wishes for destruction," he said.

"That includes the Brown Bess."

This incident should to be filed away for future reference - say, for example, the day a farmer decides to run a tractor and cultivator through an endangered plant species growing on his property .

"Demagoguery, not journalism"

Why do we need bloggers to fill in the relevant legal details on news stories? In other words, where is the "due diligence" we are told sets professional journalism apart from amateurs?

The sudden press flap over Scooter Libby’s alleged “revelation” that President Bush declassified intelligence information related to Iraq is silly but all too predictable. The entire flap relies on mixing terms and “misunderstanding by innuendo” — a technique of demagoguery, not journalism. The flap is yet more evidence that the national press is more interested in playing “gotcha” with the Bush Administration than reporting the news.

Presidents and vice-presidents can declassify information based on their own good (or bad) judgment. That is a privilege and responsibility of the office. Their authority is near-absolute. Disseminating unclassified information isn’t a crime — no matter the technique used. The information can be disseminated at a press conference, in a press release, in a speech, or — yes– via leak. (UPDATE: Background links I should have included in the original post– though the president’s power in the sphere is common knowledge. The president is at the top of the Classification Authority hierarchy– he holds the ultimate clasification/declassification power. The vice-president is granted authority from the president. See this link to the relevant executive order regarding the vie-president. And I just found this article by Byron York which details the estension of presidential powers to the vice-president. York’s article emphasizes the formal codification of the vice-president’s classification powers, which is a change from past administrations.)

Reporters thrive on “leaks” because a leak usually means “scoop.” A leak can also mean “spin” but that’s an understood aspect of Washington’s political carnival. However, leaking properly declassified material isn’t a crime. Leaking classified material is illegal– and so is publishing classified material in a press release.

So what’s the story here? That someone who worked in the White House selectively passed properly declassified material to the press? That’s not a scandal; that’s Beltway business as usual. I’d love to hear that reported– it’s not news per se, but it would be refreshingly open and honest media analysis.

Speaking of which, this reminder is also appropriate;

Remember, Libby was not indicted for illegally identifying Plame as a covert agent; he was indicted for perjury, a procedural crime. This pseudo-revelation may or may not relate to his alleged perjury. (According to a report I just heard on Fox it doesn’t; ie, the NIE declassification story does not relate to the perjury charges.)

(Via Instapundit)

Byron York concurs.

First of all, it should be made clear -- as it has not been in some discussions -- that Fitzgerald does not say that Bush authorized Libby to say anything about Valerie Plame. As a matter of fact, on page 27, Fitzgerald writes that as late as September 2003, "the President was unaware of the role that the Vice President's Chief of Staff and National Security Adviser had in fact played in disclosing Ms. Wilson's CIA employment..."

As for leaking portions of the National Intelligence Estimate, yes, it was classified, although it would later be declassified. But it should be remembered that when the president decides to make something public, then it can be made public.

More for the reading-comprehension-challenged in the peanut gallery - CNN's David Ensor;

Ensor: So, it had nothing to do with Valerie Plame-Wilson's name. It was simply about this matter of intelligence in the lead-up to the war.

And in that matter, the president, according to this document, authorized Mr. Libby to give out some information to Judy Miller.

And by the way, he is legally entitled to do so.

If the president decides to declassify information, he has that legal right. So, it's not about a law being broken here, and it's not about Valerie Plame-Wilson's name. But it does show us the first evidence that the president himself wanted some of this information put out in the media.

CLANCY: Well, at the time, if you go back to that period in time, there was a clamor from not only the media but from a lot of Americans that wanted more information, more details about what were, up to that point, rather vague statements at times by diplomats trying to assess just what was the threat there. So this was seen -- would this be normal business in Washington, really?

ENSOR: I'm afraid so, yes. And, you know, after all, the -- Ambassador Wilson -- [former] Ambassador [Joseph] Wilson being Valerie Plame-Wilson's husband -- had put out a piece [a July 2003 editorial in The New York Times] in which he said -- in which he attacked the administration for suggesting Iraq was going after uranium in Africa.

The administration wanted to highlight certain parts of this until-then-classified document that suggested that Iraq was aggressively pursuing some aspects of a nuclear weapons program, was looking for ways of getting uranium.

And so, they wanted to have that evidence out there to help their case in the run-up to war. Selective leaking authorized at the highest level, that's -- I'm afraid that is business as usual in Washington. It's been practiced by Republicans and Democrats alike.

Saskatchewan Budget

Highlights, along with reaction from the Opposition, Taxpayers Federation and others is available at CKOM.com.

(Too much on my plate today to dissect it, other than to note generalities: business tax reduction being well received, but as yet, nobody seems able to explain how, in a province with a long time trend towards lower population, spending by the NDP manages to go up... up ... up... )

Hotel Harley Davidson

I can repaint any time I like, but I can never leave.

Readers have asked how the Harley repaint is going. Well, thanks for asking - I finally finished up yesterday around noon and it was consigned to the booth for the final coat of clear. That's how long it took to restore my work to the point it was at before all proverbial Hell broke loose back on March 31st.

The customer called me this morning to advise he was at the shop, had inspected the work, and the job looked great.

Then, an hour later, he called again.

He dropped the front fender on the pavement while loading it in his truck. So, I shall return on Monday morning to repair the dent and refinish that piece. Again.

I'm not even upset. You see - I anticipated this turn of events. Perhaps it's a result of inhaling too much basecoat. Perhaps it's a side effect of wet sanding with solvent - but, whatever the reason, there is no denying this growing, irrational, and unshakable conviction that the only way I will ever find release from this flame job is by outliving the customer.

Which, if he drops any part of this bike again, is an event that may just come to pass.

Even I Have My Limitations

A few days ago a reader sent me a thoughtful email pointing out the numerous inaccuracies and misrepresentations in this piece by Eric Margolis, and suggested I take it on.

I'm sorry. I don't "do" Margolis.

I don't own a backhoe,

(Though, reader Mark Collins punts one of his assertions (and spanks Lawrence Martin for repeating it) in this readers tips thread - and "Karl" has now reposted his original email in the comments of this one.)

"The war cannot be won militarily"

Cliff May;

Some generals may have said that, but it’s wrong. It’s what is said by generals who love to train and parade and buy expensive weapons systems and then retire to cushy jobs at Lockheed. The fact is we have to win both militarily and politically.

We have to learn to fight and win a war against terrorist and insurgent groups. If we have a military that can’t win this kind of war, then Iraq will be only the first of many defeats--Afghanistan, Jordan and Pakistan will soon follow. What would prevent that?

If we have a military that can’t fight and win a war such as this, then we have a military that is close to useless, because this is what war is going to look like in the 21st century. We’re not going to have a chance to fight Rommel in the desert again. We’re not going to send tanks into Poland.

Reader Tips

Blogging from Calgary has a pretty good take on the fallen fortunes of Ralph Klein.

And with his habit of backing down when push comes to shove, perhaps it's not a moment too soon;

The paper argues that the equalization program should be changed by including all provinces in the formula that establishes how much provinces that receive equalization should get from Ottawa. Adding Alberta's revenue-raising capacity to the mix would vastly increase the average because of its rich oil industry, boosting the program from $9.4-billion to $15.1-billion a year, according to the report.

Michael Cere sees a Liberal in the "Trudeau/Chrétien tradition". It doesn't sound like a compliment.

Mr. Ignatieff proclaims that Canada is his kind of country and Canadians are his kind of people. His big insight about our national spirit is that Canadians are "a serious people." But he complains that we really "haven't taken ourselves seriously enough." He really has been away too long. What about the good-natured humour and self-effacing modesty that adorns most Canadian achievements? The stellar Canadian virtue is that Canadians don't take themselves "too seriously," even when they serve with heroism.

If official bilingualism sticks in your craw this is the website for you.

Schnauzerspotting: This is just too cute not to share.

Leave your own in the comments.

My Unreserved Apology To Members Of The Law Profession

C. Dodd Harris IV (of the famed, but sadly defunct Ipse Dixit) protests the content of this post;

As a lawyer, I deeply resent the implicit comparison to journalists in this post.

And to used car dealers, whorehouse piano players, pickpockets, dog catchers, meter readers, proctologists, and tax collectors, who, though not mentioned specifically, no doubt felt the hot flush of knowing how it feels to hear their occupations mentioned in the same breath as "reporter".

Attack Of The Blogs. And The CBC.

In response to comments that the post on controversial statements by one Dr.Eric Pianka was an "April Fools hoax", I ran a quick search on Google News to see in which direction the story had gone.

I noted that, if a "hoax", none other than CBC news had picked up and run with the item on April 4th;

However, upon checking the CBC link, I arrived at this message instead;

Server problems?

Well, take a look at how the CBC is now covering the story. (Notice the url for the page is now named "ecology prof", whereas the original one was "ebola-060404").

A biology professor has been targeted by bloggers and talk radio hosts after a newspaper in Texas reported he said the Earth would be better off if most humans were dead.

The Seguin Gazette-Enterprise published a story on Sunday that alleged Eric Pianka, an ecologist and zoologist who studies reptiles at the University of Texas, said in a lecture that the world would be better off without 90 per cent of the human population.

Blogs and talk radio programs went on the attack after the story was posted on the internet and featured on the Drudge Report, a popular U.S. news website. Critics accused Pianka of saying that the Ebola virus should be used to kill most humans.

And the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

(Re: that update of Pianka's "out of context" statements - read this post by Ed Minchau.)

81, 76, 50...

... 49, 43, 25;

My only point is that, at the very least, people who complain that good news coming out of Iraq gets shuttered by the press aren’t crazy. I’m a regular denizen of the right-leaning blogosphere (though I spend about half my daily routine with left-leaning sites), and I was unequivicolly shocked when I saw this. Completely the opposite of what I’d expected. My non-scientific sample of three friends, all of whom are considerably more bullish about the prospects in Iraq than I am, revealed three people similarly surprised by these numbers. I’m guessing if I polled people on this site regarding the direction those numbers were going, and people didn’t answer strategically (eg figure I was up to something from the question words), no one would predict any of those numbers were on a downward trend, or were even flat.

Again, my point isn’t that we’re winning. My only point is that if the data you’ve received left you completely surprised by these numbers, what does that really say about the completeness of the data you’ve received?

Via Glenn.

BCCLA Backs Western Standard

Via private email;

The BCCLA has decided to intervene in two human rights complaints against publishers of words and images that are alleged to promote hatred. In Alberta, a complaint has been lodged against Ezra Levant and the Western Standard magazine for publishing the Muslim cartoons that have been the subject of so much controversy and violence in 2006.

The BCCLA will intervene in a complaint lodged with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal against operators of an internet website. The complaint alleges that inflammatory comments and offensive 'jokes' that were posted to the bulletin board service discriminate against Italians, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Haitians, francophones, blacks, First Nations persons, East Asians, non-whites, and Jews and promote hatred and contempt.

The BCCLA takes the position that citizens and NGOs have a responsibility to censure offensive speech but that it can not be left to the state to censor speech. Freedom of expression is a democratic value no matter the colour of your skin, the country of your origin or the nature of your metaphysical beliefs.

But Are The Turbans Rigged To Explode?

Michelle Malkin;

Catch that? The apparent "sting" involves targeting Nascar and other sporting events. 'Cause that's presumably where the fair and balanced NBC news staff thinks all the bigots are.

UpdateNBC's news-staging stunt is now making the news. NASCAR officials are unimpressed.

Waiting In A School Washroom?

Something doesn't ring true about this story from Edmonton;

An Edmonton elementary school has a new policy on washroom breaks and has revised an old policy on recess.

This, after a Grade Two student was sexually assaulted in the girls bathroom during morning recess yesterday by a man hiding in a stall.

Officials at the Oliver School are ordering all students to go to the bathroom in pairs.

[...]

Carlson says it appears the girl was groped and that her only physical injury is a bump on the head.

The girl was attacked around 10:15 a.m. Monday as she stopped to use the washroom on the way out to the playground during morning recess at Oliver School, just west of Edmonton's downtown.

"An unknown male approached her from one of the stalls in the girls' bathroom, dragged her into the stall and sexually assaulted her," police spokesman Jeff Wuite said.

The school, which houses students from kindergarten to Grade 9, was locked down for about two hours after the incident while police confirmed the suspect was no longer on the premises.

From Afghanistan

An interview with Lieutenant D.M. Thorlakson, stationed in Kandahar, is scheduled for this evening on Global National. Be sure to catch it.

Hitchens in Winnipeg

" Join us for an evening with an admitted contrarian, a man who always entertains as he shatters conventional wisdom and modern myths."

Date: April 26, 2006
Place: East Ballroom, Fairmont Hotel, 2 Lombard Place, Winnipeg
Time: Reception, 6:00 p.m., Dinner, 7:00 p.m.
Cost: $75
Please RSVP to: 977-5050 or email Sheryl at rempels@fcpp.org

Sponsored by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

What Do You Call 50 Journalists At The Bottom Of The Ocean?

Paul Jackson on the Ottawa "rat pack";

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has good reason not to trust the Eastern-based Lib-Left dominated media.

So did Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day.

As did Reform party leader Preston Manning.

The Lib-Left media -- led by that wholly-owned subsidiary of the federal Liberal party, the CBC, the Toronto (Red) Star, the pompous Globe and Mail and their naive hangers-on and acolytes -- did all they could to mock, heap scorn on, ridicule and twist just about everything Manning and Day said.

[...]

While Harper went through a similar meatgrinder during the 2004 campaign -- with the Eastern media for the most part dancing to Martin's slurs -- by 2006 our new prime minister had learned a thing or two.

I actually warned Manning, Day and Harper to stay away from the CBC, Star and Globe and every other media outfit of a Lib-Left bent.

Harper may find he has initially been too stringent in ordering his cabinet ministers and MPs to have tight lips -- but, let's be honest here, many are young and inexperienced -- and he may have maintained too much bitterness over the treatment of Manning, Day and to an extent his early days as Conservative leader.

What he must do now is cautiously loosen the reins on his ministers after they settle into their roles. Then, just as cautiously, he should build relationships with journalists he can trust.

For a better understanding of just how little most care that the rules have changed for the pack on the hill, may I suggest this little exercise - pull up one of those dozens of articles written by jilted scribes chastizing, whining and threatening retribution over the treatment of the fifth estate by the new Harper government.

Now, replace the words "media" or "journalists" with "lawyers".

The heart bleeds, I tell you.

Reader Tips

Ed Morrissey looks back over the year since Captain's Quarters published the banned Gomery testimony.

Spirit and Opportunity - still on the job.

Bush was right

Descent into Dhimmitude ;

While most media accounts of the "cartoon jihad" focused on the publication of the cartoons, and on the ensuing violent reaction by some Muslims -- who were depicted by the much of the press as victims! -- few reporters have ventured to describe the increasingly hostile climate that Muslim extremists had succeeded in creating in Denmark before the publication.

Blogging Party of Canada asks you to Think Pink!

And, as you may have surmised from my light posting, I'm still elbow deep in paint. You're on your own for a few hours, kids.

The Diaper Demographic

Teletubbies plot next move as they attempt to outmaneuver new rival ... ;

The creators of "Sesame Street" are releasing a new line of videos Tuesday targeted for children as young as six months, outraging some child-development experts who feel no form of TV or video is suitable for kids under 2.

The DVDs _ part of a series called "Sesame Beginnings" _ are intended to be watched by parents along with their small children. Sesame Workshop developed the shows with help of experts from Zero to Three, a well-regarded nonprofit advocacy group.

This Looks Suspiciously Like Fun

A reader just back from a Port Security training exercise with the Navy Reserve sends along this photo and explanation (click to enlarge);

Port Security RHIB completing high-speed turn. These are also the same boats carried by our ships in the Persian gulf and used for armed boarding parties. The comm/radar arch is an add-on for our purposes.

We didn't issue weapons, combat dress, or body armour for this exercise, partly because it was in Vancouver harbour. Can't have...Soldiers...With guns...In Canadian cities...

An Observation On The Current State Of The Canadian Music Industry

Crappy vocals are no barrier to pretentiousness.

QOTW

SDA commentor "Doug";

"It's nice to know that liberal academia is now in stealing their ideas from 1970's Batman cartoon villians."

Blog Pulse

Driving into the city today and listening to John Gormley post-mortem the fallout in Alberta over the tepid support Ralph Klein received this past weekend, I've been struck by the "shock" in media over the results.

Am I the only person not surprised by the outcome?

Perhaps that's because I've been reading the comments here and elsewhere from ordinary Albertans for the past two years, leading me to conclude that the only remaining demographic who considered Klein a right-of-center Conservative were the national media and the left. With the increasing noise over Alberta's "responsibility to share" her oil wealth, (not to mention the alarm over growth in spending) I was getting the sense that more and more Albertans were uneasy about how steadfast a Klein led government might be if push came to confiscate.

Discuss.

The 5 Billion Tonne Challenge

One generally gets the sense that mental giants such as this emerge from their calculations as theoretical members of the "survivor" percentage.

[T]here was a gravely disturbing side to that otherwise scientifically significant meeting, for I watched in amazement as a few hundred members of the Texas Academy of Science rose to their feet and gave a standing ovation to a speech that enthusiastically advocated the elimination of 90 percent of Earth's population by airborne Ebola. The speech was given by Dr. Eric R. Pianka (Fig. 1), the University of Texas evolutionary ecologist and lizard expert who the Academy named the 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist.

Something curious occurred a minute before Pianka began speaking. An official of the Academy approached a video camera operator at the front of the auditorium and engaged him in animated conversation. The camera operator did not look pleased as he pointed the lens of the big camera to the ceiling and slowly walked away.

This curious incident came to mind a few minutes later when Professor Pianka began his speech by explaining that the general public is not yet ready to hear what he was about to tell us. Because of many years of experience as a writer and editor, Pianka's strange introduction and the TV camera incident raised a red flag in my mind. Suddenly I forgot that I was a member of the Texas Academy of Science and chairman of its Environmental Science Section. Instead, I grabbed a notepad so I could take on the role of science reporter.

Time to lead by example, dear doctor.

Update - Pianka responds after a fashion.

Udate - April 5 - Pianka's Biology 304 course evaluations - scroll down to this "dissenting" opinion from 2004;

Though I agree that convervation biology is of utmost importance to the world, I do not think that preaching that 90% of the human population should die of ebola is the most effective means of encouraging conservation awareness. I found Pianka to be knowledgable, but spent too much time focusing on his specific research and personal views.

Tim Hortons Explosion

CTV;

One man is dead following an explosion at a Tim Hortons restaurant in downtown Toronto.

The blast occurred in the washroom of the coffee shop located near the intersection of Yonge and Bloor Streets, just after 1 p.m.

Emergency crews responded to the scene and tried to help the victim. Fire department spokesman Daryl Fuglerud said the man had burns to his body. They do not know if he was a customer or an employee.

Continuing updates - over radio: The man killed was wearing the explosives, his body is still at the scene. He is not an employee, but has not been identified ... Another evacuation is underway at a different Tim Hortons, because of a suspicious package...

Commentor "BC Monkey" writes;

That Timmie's is directly besides the subway entrance to Yonge/Bloor station, the busiest subway station in Toronto. [...] Just watched the 6 o'clock news. There is another Timmie's shut off for a suspicious package at Lawrence and Yonge, that's about 8 km north of the first incident, yes, near another station. (Though I doubt this second Timmie's will amount to much.)

Update II - CTV is now reporting the man carried a can of gasoline into the washroom.

According to police, another man smelled gasoline fumes and ran out, yelling. A few moments later the blast occurred.

Investigators do not know what ignited the gasoline or what the deceased man's motives were. Suspicion is focusing on either suicide or arson. They say he was definitely not a terrorist.

"He's not a strap-on al-Qaida bomber guy," Toronto Police Staff Sgt. Don Cole said Sunday evening. "It sounds to me like a guy who either wanted to do a torch job or commit suicide."

[...]
Toronto's police chief, Bill Blair, declined to discuss the possibility of a bomb.

He described the blast as "a very hot and intense fire in an enclosed area within the washroom."

The police bomb squad worked at the scene for much of the afternoon.

License To Kill

Childhood sexual abuse has officially achieved the status of "Get Out Of Jail Free" card.

Star Phoenix;

A 28-year-old woman won't spend a day in jail for killing her baby by pulling him out of the toilet bowl in which he was born, snuffing out his first breaths with a plastic bag and then discarding his tiny body in a dumpster on a Manitoba reserve.

Selena Stevenson pleaded guilty Monday to the rare charge of infanticide and was given an 18-month conditional sentence by a sympathetic judge who called the case "heartwrenching."

"A period of incarceration would serve no purpose whatsoever," said Queen's Bench Justice Deborah McCawley. She called the facts of the case "monstrous" but said she couldn't overlook Stevenson's horrific background.

"This was clearly an act of desperation done out of fear," she said. Stevenson will be allowed to remain free in the community to care for her other two children, aged eight and two. The conditions of her sentence include abstaining from alcohol and continuing to seek counselling. No curfew was imposed.

The Crown agreed to reduce the charge against her from murder to infanticide, which carries a five-year maximum and can only be used in cases of mothers who kill their newborns while in a "disturbed" state of mind in the immediate aftermath of giving birth.

Stevenson was a battered woman who got pregnant in the spring of 2002 by a man who raped her when she passed out drunk at a house party, court was told Monday.

She feared reprisal from her common-law husband and was able to conceal the pregnancy from him and other family and community members.

Looks like his assessment is bang on.

Bush Censure Moving Ahead

With all the momentum of a lead zeppelin.

Senator Russell Feingold was a lonely man yesterday.

Of his seven Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee, only two showed up for the committee's hearing on Feingold's call for a censure of President Bush. One of them -- Feingold's fellow Wisconsin Democrat, Herb Kohl -- ducked out early without uttering a word.

So Feingold sat amid a sea of empty chairs in the hearing room, withstanding a withering Republican barrage. GOP lawmakers took turns branding Feingold's resolution ''irresponsible," ''inappropriate," ''excessive," ''perverse," ''false," ''surreal," ''beyond the pale," and ''destructive."

''I can only hope that this constitutionally suspect and, I believe, inflammatory attempt to punish the president for leading this war on terror will not weaken his ability to do so," declared Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah.

Feingold's resolution has no chance of passing in the Republican-controlled Congress. Only two Democrats have signed on as cosponsors, and party leaders, fearful of rallying Bush's supporters with direct attacks on the president, have resisted the GOP's offers to bring the resolution to the Senate floor.

Not So Rogue Wave Off Scotland

Scotland on Sunday;

IT IS straight out of a nightmare: a wave almost 100ft high bears down on your helpless vessel miles from the safety of the shore.

But that is exactly what a team of British scientists faced while conducting experiments off the west coast of Scotland.

[...]

The significance of the Rockall event is that the height of the sea was measured by an onboard wave recorder, making it officially the biggest ever.

The NOC's boat, RSS Discovery, a successor vessel to Captain Robert Falcon Scott's ship, was stranded by storms for five days, with waves averaging 61ft. Wind speeds hit the severe gale category.

The 295ft-long vessel was in the area to conduct experiments on global warming, but the onboard instruments were also capable of accurately measuring wave height.

Holliday said: "Very strong winds are common here all the year round. The point is that all of these previously high measured waves were under hurricane conditions - really extreme conditions, but our big waves weren't. These are not especially unusual conditions. It wasn't just a one-off."

The researchers believe the discovery of such a huge wave amid relatively low, non-hurricane wind speeds could have implications for oil exploration on Britain's Atlantic shelf.

Holliday believes the extreme waves were caused by a resonance effect.

It occurs when the wind velocity matches the speed of the waves, resulting in wind continually feeding energy into the sea.

She said: "Energy was continually being put into this wave group. This was pretty close to the maximum height that the waves could have got to. This is the edge of the Atlantic Shelf where a lot of exploration is going on.

"These new figures are going to be quite significant. Engineers who are trying to design ships and oil platforms will have to think again."

In July of 2004, I mentioned this item, "Seas Awash With Monster Waves"

Rogue waves that rise as high as 10-storey buildings and can sink large ships are far more common than previously thought, satellite images show.

Two European Space Agency (ESA) satellites have monitored the world's oceans to test the frequency of monster waves that were once dismissed as a nautical myth.

Three weeks of data from the early months of 2001 showed more than 10 individual giant waves around the globe over 25 metres high.

Previously, ESA said, scientists believed that such large waves occurred only once every 10,000 years.

"Having proved they existed in higher numbers than anyone expected, the next step is to analyse if they can be forecasted," said Dr Wolfgang Rosenthal, a scientist at the GKSS research centre in Geesthacht, Germany.

Frist: No to UN Human Rights Council

Via The Corner; FRIST INTRODUCES RESOLUTION OPPOSING U.S. PARTICIPATION IN U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

“The newly created U.N. Human Rights Council fails to address the significant failures and shortcomings of the widely discredited U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Since its establishment in 1946, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights sacrificed efficacy and credibility by granting membership to some of the world’s worst human rights abusers, neglecting to condemn state sponsors of terrorism, and failing to act or speak out against numerous cases of egregious human rights abuse.

“The new council makes only superficial changes to the former commission structure and falls far short of the standards envisioned by President Bush and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The new council will not prevent serial human rights abusers from gaining membership and cannot be relied upon to monitor human rights abuses throughout the world.

“I applaud the administration for opposing the creation of the new council and urge it to oppose U.S. participation in and support of the council in order to uphold America’s own credibility and deny the council unwarranted legitimacy.

“If the U.N. refuses to make meaningful changes to the council structure, the U.S. should lead a group of like-minded democracies with a demonstrated commitment to the protection of human rights to create an effective and accountable human rights oversight body outside the U.N. system. The U.S. must adhere to its principles and continue to demonstrate its commitment to meaningful reform and to the protection of human rights.”

It rather defies the imagination to visualize how any UN entity designed to promote human rights could do so when UN membership, and disproportionately UN leadership, consists of nations and politicians from nations which are the human-rights culprits. United States Ambassador John Bolton, with considerable (but insufficient) support from UN member nations, proposed a set of reforms that arguably would have breathed some morality and effectiveness into this new Council. Not surprisingly, the UN member majority rejected these efforts.

There now appears to be an effort to induce the Bush Administration to provide money for this new UN Council, possibly to seek a United States seat (only to be outvoted, as would happen if the inmates ran a prison).

Leaving The Door Open

Brace yourself for an apoplectic meltdown as the Liberal media contemplates this future photo caption:

"Prime Minister Harper and new Alberta Premier Preston Manning pose for first official handshake"

Wet Sanding

As the title suggests, my hands are busy elsewhere today - my punishment for being a little too aggressive with the base clear.

So, drop your tips in the comments.

Our tax dollars at work I've received a private note advising that CBC and its lawyers are combing the blogs looking for CBC clips with the objective of filing suit . (Why do I think they're more likely to be combing right-leaning sites than left?) If someone at CBC can confirm or deny, drop me a line privately.

In a WaPo interview, gun control poster couple Jim and Sarah Brady have "[repudiated] many proposals which the Brady Campaign (formerly known as Handgun Control, Inc., and before that known as the National Committee to Control Handguns) has previously advocated."

The US is pressuring China to respond to reports of organ harvesting from imprisoned Falun Gong.

Bob Tarantino spots a good one in the Star ;

"I'm willing to bet there's journalists out there who wonder why people think they're pushing their own agenda; I'm willing to bet those same journalists will read that quote and hardly bat an eye."

Breaking - April 1, 2006: reports of a mushroom cloud sighted over scheduled Juno host Pamela Anderson have turned out to be erronious. A spokesperson for Ms. Anderson has stated it was not an explosion, but a "nasty hydraulic leak".

A reminder - please refrain from dropping unrelated links in threads dedicated to specific topics. And stay on topic. This is not a chat board, and I'll begin removing comments if the privilege is being abused.