Good thing it’s only a few days away. At the rate ticket sales are falling, any delay could risk Gore arriving to an empty theater. Canadian Press, Apr.12;

Calvert said SaskTel’s investment has nearly been returned in the ticket sales, with three-quarters of the 5,100 tickets sold as of Wednesday.

Leader Post, Apr.19;

Event producer J.P. Ellson could not provide an exact count of how many tickets have been sold, but said it is in the 3,000 range.

(Be sure to treat yourself to the first link for other gems like “[Calvert] said the fact reporters are doing stories on not being allowed into the speech is in itself raising awareness of climate change.”)
UPDATE – You know there’s trouble when the NYT begins to question …

So, it turns out we’re not just paying Al Gore for his inconvenient visit, we’re buying the tickets, too.
Via email….(revealed in the Legislature)

[T]he Crown Corporations have bought a total of 584 tickets to Al Gore. That’s over 10% of the total number of tickets available, and the event is still nowhere near sold out.
Here’s the breakdown:
SaskEnergy 425
SaskTel 117
ISC 27
SGI 10
SaskPower 5
SaskEnergy says its tickets will all be given away to high school and university students and their chaperones. However, they bought $50 tickets (not the $20 student tickets) which means SaskEnergy alone spent $21,250 on tickets.
There is no indication what value of tickets the other Crowns bought, but even if they were all $50 tickets instead of $75 tickets, 584 cost $29,200.
That’s on top of the $208,000 SaskTel is paying to stage the event.

Printed on tin foil, it also folds into an attractive hat.
Update – Gleeson will be a guest on Rob Breakenridge’s The World Tonight. (Thurs) 8:05pm MT. Info at the link above.

Talk about an backhanded ticket sales pitch – with Al Gore’s April 23rd appearance in Regina approaching fast, local radio is reduced to running ads targeting “deniers”.

“Whether or not you believe in global warming doesn’t matter. But listening to a guy before you criticize him does.”

At time of posting, seats on row 6 are still available.

And they’ll have Bush pulling the trigger.

Great job by Richard Evans in pulling together the video.

I have to ask – how did a “national magazine” get a picture of Sheila Copps’ vagina?

This is getting too easy: Snow won’t dampen global-warming rallies.
h/t.

Now that Stéphane Dion is teaming up with the Green Party let’s have a look at what Green candidate Kevin Potvin has to say:

When we fight to remove Coke machines from our elementary schools, to filter pornographic web sites from our public library computers, to restrict admittance to excessively violent films in our theatres, and to ban cigarette and alcohol advertising from cultural and public events, we are totally of like mind and purpose with the core of Islamist terrorist cells. We fight a common enemy: the cultural products of irresponsible corporations.

h/t

Liam O’Brian responds to a collection of rather astonishing comments left at CBC’s Your View re: Iran’s seizure of British sailors;

Far too many people in this country have a glandular inability to rationally weigh pros and cons in a foreign policy discussion. Instead, since 2000-2001 or so, there has been a cheap and ignorant but popular way out of any and every foreign policy discussion — bash Bush, bash the US, bash the Iraq mission . . . I wonder will they be forced to have an actual intelligent discussion post-’08 when Bush leaves? Or will there just be a different bogeyman?
Of course, when prodded on how they chose to evaluate the facts surrounding intervention in Iraq, these are the same genocidal-regime-apoloist chuckleheads who think it’s fair to ignore what was going on in Iraq before 2003 too . . . Kurds, it seems, are worth less to many Canadians than – say – Turbot . . .

Precisely.
The sentiments are expanding into deeds – Anti-globalists reach out to Islamists;

The international left, as represented at the conference, emphasised practical ways to reach out to the broader Muslim community, as reflected in conference forums on such projects as twinning UK and Palestinian cities, countering the boycott of the Hamas government in Palestine with a boycott of Israel and Western firms that provide military equipment to Israel, countering Islamophobia — in a word, citizens’ diplomacy.
James Clark of the Canadian Peace Alliance described how the anti-war coalitions are now supportive of Muslims who find themselves targets of racial and religious profiling and no-fly lists, and that there is active work in the peace movement to counter Islamophobia, “which the governments use to fan the flames to generate support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

So it would seem. A curiously narrow range of conflicts they’ve chosen to oppose – and from a curiously one sided perspective. One would think a group opposing war would avoid at all costs the temptation to pick favourites in a conflict.

Clark vowed that the Canadian peace movement, inspired by the Arab resistance in Lebanon and Iraq, would work with Muslims to defeat imperialism.

Is “chickendove” a word yet?
Iran’s to your east, fellas. Knock yourself out.
(h/t Tim Blair)
Link sent along by a reader who asks, “Hamas is related to the Muslim Brotherhood. Does the RCMP know?”

And mammals into plants.

“You could make your own clothes with needle and thread using 100% organic cotton sheared from sheep you raised on a Whole Foods diet…”

Just one of the helpful tips from Time magazine’s Global Warming Survival Guide.
Here’s a tip from me;

“Stop buying Time-Warner magazines. They’re printed on paper and moved by truck.”

The Titanic was made out of metal. Metal is stronger than ice….

What you are about to see may shock you.
Update – a reader notes another coincidence; “Iceberg…Steinberg. Even the ice has a Jewish name.”

The Challenge: “How do you prove photography to a blind man?“
h/t Cosh

… through somewhat perceptable dimming.

While downtown [Sydney, Australia] was significantly darker than normal, the overall effect, as seen in television footage from overhead helicopters, was that the city’s patchwork of millions of tiny lights had thinned, not disappeared.
“We were expecting a big difference straight away, but it was just a little bit,” said Sonja Schollen…

Well, if the “after” picture doesn’t fit the story, let’s just crank up the “before”!

Via Hot Air;

“…this is the video against which all future Rosie clips will be compared.”

UPDATE – Breaking… Hundreds to be Arrested in Steel Industry Fraud

New York (Rooters) — Rooters has learned that hundreds of steel company executives will be indicted in what sources at both the US Justice Department and the SEC say may be one of the biggest acts of business fraud in US history.
According to the sources, authorities, acting on a tip from renowned metallurgical expert Rosie O’Donnell, discovered that fire could not melt steel.
“Who knew,” asked one SEC official who requested anonymity.

A flood of sewage swept through a village in the northern Gaza Strip after a cesspit collapsed. Five people, including a four-year-old boy, were killed. – BBC

Palestinian News Network, March 28;

At the end of 1997, the PNA evicted some residents from Sa’ad El-Ansari area to the area adjacent to the sewage disposal pools in the area. Today, the area is known as Um El-Naser Village. At the time, PCHR expressed serious concern over the lives of these civilians as a result of the health risks posed by these pools, including stench, insects, and contamination of underground water resources. The Centre also warned of the possibility of flooding.
The project of transferring these sewage pools to the east of Gaza City was delayed for more than two years due to delays in importing pipes and pumps from abroad as a result of the closure imposed by IOF on the Gaza Strip. In addition, IOF military operations in the project area prevented workers from free and safe access to the area to conduct their work. It is noted that this project is funded by the World Bank, European Commission, Sweden, and other donors.

“Israeli metal used for Kassam rockets” – Jerusalem Post, March 3, 2007

It took seven years, but the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) has finally put a stop to one of the more ironic aspects on Israel’s war on terror: Kassam rockets made of Israeli metal.
A Palestinian from the Gaza Strip who worked as a metal merchant at the Karni crossing between Israel and the Strip was arrested by the Shin Bet last month for allegedly selling pipes he bought in Israel to terrorist groups that used them to manufacture Kassams, it was released for publication on Sunday.
On February 9, the Shin Bet arrested Amar Azk, 37. During his interrogation, he confessed selling the pipes to Hamas and other terrorist organizations that manufactured Kassam rockets, fired almost daily at Israel. The Shin Bet said Azk’s activities began with the start of the second intifada in 2000 and were only brought to a halt by his arrest. The agency could not say how much metal Azk traded, except that it was “significant.”
The pipes that were sold to Zak were intended for the construction of a sewage system in Gaza. The Shin Bet has been unable to determine the amount of metal that actually made its way to the terror organizations, and how much went to the sewage project.

But they can guess.
h/t

Heh;

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: And if George Bush doesn’t listen, then we’re going to make him listen because it’s time for us to bring our young people home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home. That may be satisfying in the short run, but I believe the consequences for American security would be devastating.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Senator Obama, you disagree with that. He says it would be devastating to leave now. You say no.
Why not?
OBAMA: Well, first of all, I don’t know anybody who’s been talking about packing up and going home.

h/t.

The Newfoundland government should call a news conference to offer little Knut refugee status – or send a sealer to film the slaughter.

At three months old, however, the playful 19lb bundle of fur is at the centre of an impassioned debate over whether he should live or die.
Animal rights activists argue that he should be given a lethal injection rather than brought up suffering the humiliation of being treated as a domestic pet. Activists argue that it is inappropriate for a predator, known for its fierceness and ability to fend for itself in the wild, to be snuggled
“The zoo must kill the bear,” said spokesman Frank Albrecht. “Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws.”

(Knut’s blog).

“They do this because they’re willing to sacrifice their privacy, their dignity and their clothing for a significant cause higher than themselves. They give because their cause is so important to them, they are willing to be ridiculed, pilloried, and jailed. They do it because what they are fighting for is JUST THAT IMPORTANT.
You know their cause is ‘perversion’, right?”

(not work safe)

From the comments;

“ctv newsnet just reporting that some “geenpeacers” have chained themselves to 24 Sussex Drive.. PMSH and family, being “held hostage”, as Marcia McMillan LAUGHINGLY reports! Bob Fife says RCMP having trouble getting chains removed, and PMSH may not make it to the House, for reading of the budget. Hmm anyone have any ideas on how to remove these idiots”

(Story here)

click image for link
(More pics from Calgary.)
And in the left coast hotbed of social activism known as Nanaimo, dozens turned out in lawn chairs to join in the apparent condemnation of Sook-Yin Lee…

(photo credit – reader Randy in Nanaimo)
More – the 30,000 strong Gathering of Eagles in Washington DC.

A pure, grass-roots effort, the Gathering of Eagles’ volunteers matched the massive Soros-funded anti-war machine sign for sign, chant for chant, and marcher for marcher. The contrast was most stark right before the entrance to the Memorial Bridge, where Eagles gathered with a field of American flags–while anti-Bush, 9/11 conspiracy nuts wrapped themselves in a figurative blanket of yellow “Out of Iraq” placards. Several of the vets shouted, “Yellow! How appropriate!” in between spirited chants of “U.S.A! U.S.A!” While the classless Cindy Sheehan ranted profanely, the Eagles raised their voices in polite, but roaring disapproval and raised their American flags in answer to the ANSWER socialists’ Che banners and peace pennants.
Why did the Eagles come? One common refrain: Vietnam veterans, some fighting back tears, told us they came to show the kind of support for the troops that they did not receive when the surrender lobby marched on the Pentagon 40 years ago today.
Mission accomplished.