I’m going to be busy the rest of the day and I can’t say if Occam or James will put in an appearance, so blogging may be light as a result. Please share any good items you’ve found in the comments or via a trackback.
I’ll be putting up a summary post for all the Small Dead Blog Award nominations tomorrow. If you haven’t nominated someone yet, here’s your chance.
In other news, I have 70 Gmail invites left for anybody who still wants one. All who have asked so far have been invited (if you didn’t receive it, plz let me know). Send an e-mail to digiteyesed [a+] gmail [dot] com if you want a Gmail account.
Also worth noting, I bumped AWM up to being published three times a week and there’s a new strip up this morning.
That’s it for now.
Pleze excuse my ignorance: what is the advantage of a Gmail addy? Why would anybody want one?
Watchdog asked to look at billions given big oil companies
OTTAWA (CP) – Environmental groups are asking the auditor general to investigate the billions of dollars in federal subsidies to oil and gas companies.
They say the money undermines federal commitments to the Kyoto treaty to lower pollution by subsidizing the oil and gas sector, one of the biggest contributors to pollution.
The Sierra Legal Defence Fund and Friends of the Earth, among others, calculate Ottawa spends $2 on big oil subsidies for every dollar spent on Kyoto.
Charles Caccia, a former Commons environment committee chairman, says Canada cannot meet its commitment under Kyoto unless the subsidies end.
Caccia, who has joined the groups in asking for an audit of the subsidies, says tax breaks for the industry encourage greater greenhouse gas emissions.>>> more
canoenews>>>>>>>
More: Re: Charles Caccia:
Unofficial Canadian Political Contributions Search Tool (Ver: 1.0 – April 27, 2005)
Results:
1
Name of contributor Year Class Name of political party Donation $
Charles Caccia 2003 Individual Liberal Party $1,320.00
Charles Caccia 1996 Individual Liberal Party $1,266.55
Charles Caccia 1994 Individual Liberal Party $983.96
Charles Caccia 2000 Individual Liberal Party $963.89
Charles Caccia 1998 Individual Liberal Party $935.73
Charles Caccia 1995 Individual Liberal Party $894.31
Charles Caccia 1997 Individual Liberal Party $582.95
Charles Caccia 1999 Individual Liberal Party $500.30
Charles Caccia 2001 Individual Liberal Party $225.00
Charles Caccia 1993 Individual Liberal Party $150.24
http://www.boundbygravity.com/SEC/ECSearch.aspx
Good one, Mazz! (General Motors just got a chunk of the taxpayers change, and now they are laying off a bunch of people- any connection?)
Belmont Club: Monday, October 03, 2005
Squeeze Play
Doug Santo said…
Current U.S./Iraqi operations are important. Results will show to what extant the terrorist insurgency has been attrited. Still, these operations are but a small window into the larger political picture. An article today by an American contractor in Iraq, John Connelly Walsh, includes an on-scene analysis of the upcoming constitutional referendum. He makes the following political prediction:
“To those who ask how it will go, I predict the Constitution will win. At least one province (Anbar) will cobble together the necessary two-thirds majority to defeat it. There is a long shot chance two provinces will vote it down. But opponents will not muster the necessary third province (out of 18) that would kill the Constitution and send everything back to square one.”
Mr. Walsh considers the constitutional vote to be very important. After predicting victory in the constitutional referendum, he goes on to make predictions about the near-term direction of political and military affairs:
“The December elections will bring back the U.S.’s favorite Iraqi politician, Ayad Alawi. And, then the New Iraqi Army will be unleashed in January or February. The NIA will, perhaps brutally, put down the internal Sunni killers while the U.S. Army, U.S. Marines, and U.S. Special Forces will take care of the cross-border infiltrators.”
The whole article is at: http://www.spectator.org
I believe we are in the beginning of the end-game. In the early months of 2006 there will likely be a voter-approved constitution, recently completed national elections, a new popularly elected government, and an increasingly battle hardened Iragi Army supported by American strength. The terrorist insurgency is in trouble.
Doug Santo
Pasadena, CA >>>> more
“Yes” on October 15
By John Connly Walsh
Published 10/3/2005 12:07:34 AM
The December elections will bring back the U.S.’s favorite Iraqi politician, Ayad Alawi. And, then the New Iraqi Army will be unleashed in January or February. The NIA will, perhaps brutally, put down the internal Sunni killers while the U.S. Army, U.S. Marines, and U.S. Special Forces will take care of the cross-border infiltrators.
After these successes, the U.S. will be marvelously positioned to do the two things that are at the heart of the longer range strategy: Establish permanent bases in Northern Iraq from which the entire Middle East can be kept under tight surveillance, and start the gradual drawdown of troops that is needed if only to give them a rest.
Just as I wrote those last lines and was about to send this dispatch off to Wlady, I heard multiple jets roaring overhead for the sixth or seventh time today. Why should that be unusual? Because in the six months I have been here I have, until today, heard only four single fighter jets fly over. Thousands of helicopters, but only four jets, Something is changing.
John Connly Walsh, a frequent contributor, works for an American company in Baghdad.
Copyright 2005 John Connly Walsh
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8828
Mark Steyn, The Australian, “Islamist way or no way”, October 04, 2005
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16801982%5E7583,00.html
Excerpts:
‘…nobody seriously thinks what happened in Bali has anything to do with Iraq. There are, in the end, no root causes, or anyway not ones that can be negotiated by troop withdrawals or a Palestinian state. There is only a metastasising cancer that preys on whatever local conditions are to hand. Five days before the slaughter in Bali, nine Islamists were arrested in Paris for reportedly plotting to attack the Metro. Must be all those French troops in Iraq, right? So much for the sterling efforts of President Jacques Chirac and his Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, as the two chief obstructionists of Bush-Blair-Howard neo-con-Zionist warmongering these past three years…
…There are many trouble spots across the world but, as a general rule, even if one gives no more than a cursory glance at the foreign pages, it’s easy to guess at least one of the sides: Muslims v Jews in Palestine, Muslims v Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims v Christians in Nigeria, Muslims v Buddhists in southern Thailand, Muslims v (your team here). Whatever one’s views of the merits on a case by case basis, the ubiquitousness of one team is a fact…
The reality is that there are more Muslim states than a half-century ago, many more Muslims within non-Muslim states, and many more of those Muslims are radicalised and fundamentalist. It’s not hard to understand. All you have to do is take them at their word. As Bassam Tibi, a Muslim professor at Gottingen University in Germany, said in an interesting speech a few months after September 11, “Both sides should acknowledge candidly that although they might use identical terms, these mean different things to each of them. The word peace, for example, implies to a Muslim the extension of the Dar al-Islam — or House of Islam — to the entire world. This is completely different from the Enlightenment concept of eternal peace that dominates Western thought. Only when the entire world is a Dar al-Islam will it be a Dar a-Salam, or House of Peace.”
That’s why they blew up Bali in 2002, and last weekend, and why they’ll keep blowing it up. It’s not about Bush or Blair or Iraq or Palestine. It’s about a world where everything other than Islamism lies inruins…’
Mark
Ottawa
Referendum of Light:
http://www.alwaysremembered.8m.com/
Father of slain police officer Brock Myrol is asking Canadians to turn on their porch light tonight.
So Dingwall is to get the minimum legal SEVERANCE? Or so says this article.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051003/questionperiod_dingwallseverance_20051003/20051003?hub=TopStories
Dingwall to get minimum legal severance: Gov’t
CTV.ca News Staff
Under fire for reports they are considering paying former Canadian Mint president David Dingwall a hefty severance, the federal Liberals say they plan to pay the “minimum required by law.”
Dingwall resigned from his post at the Crown corporation last week, amid controversy over allegations he and his aides filed for $747,000 in expenses in 2004.
Conservative MP Brian Pallister obtained documents detailing the former cabinet minister’s expenses — including $14,000 in meals, a $1,400 tab for a membership in an Ottawa-area golf club, and even $1.29 for a pack of chewing gum — through the Access to Information Act.
Then, as the week drew to a close, there were reports Dingwall was in line for a severance package that could total as much as $500,000.
According to Pallister, who also obtained a copy of the ex-Mint president’s contract, the terms detailed all manner of compensation, but not a severance package.
Kicking off the House of Commons daily question period on Monday, Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper demanded to know why the government would even consider paying Dingwall any severance, let alone half a million dollars worth.
In response, Revenue Minister John McCallum said his government’s actions were being misconstrued.
“Let’s be clear, this is a matter of law, not a matter of politics. The principle is straightforward, the Government will pay Mr. Dingwall only that which is legally owed him and nothing more,” he said.
“Although Mr. Dingwall insists that he always behaved properly, the government will require him to refund dollar-for-dollar should the case arise … of any spending irregularities.”
But that answer wasn’t enough to quiet Pallister.
Accusing the Liberals of paying Dingwall “hush money,” Pallister quipped: “He’s already got his money for nothing and his Chiclets for free,” in a riff on the Dire Straits song ‘Money for Nothing’.
“Will the prime minister acknowledge that this severance package is nothing but a Liberal damage-control deal,” Pallister asked.
In his response, McCallum returned to the same message he’d already conveyed several times.
“As I just explained, this is the letter of law,” McCallum said. “The government will pay the minimum it is required to pay under the law.”
The Government’s position was changed slightly from the one McCallum had been trumpeting less than 24 hours earlier.
In an interview on CTV’s political affairs program Question Period on Sunday, defended the severance negotiations as not only standard practice for senior executives, but a principal “enshrined in the common law — it’s normal practice.”
Help me out here please.I thought that if one resigns, there is no pay out ; if one is fired there would be.
This payout is a legal requirement?
Even though there is nothing in his contract.
So says McCallum.
The benefit to resigning in this case is that Mr. D. is not required to answer any questions that a parliamentary “committee” or investigation might have.
This sure smells like a cooked up deal to me.
“Oh yes…he ‘resigned’….but we really terminated him”.
Pallister sounds as if he tried to get at this but if D’s NOT testifying is a result, they should hammer this home so that the media might just pick up on it.
Why would a reputable organization NOT want to hear what he has to say in the form of testimony?
Way too funny! I will say that Rick Mercer is relatively fair to conservatives and he’s willing to show PMPM in a bad light as shown here:
http://rickmercer.blogspot.com/2005/09/holy-shit.html
Interesting fodder for discussion:
Court ruling paves the way for CTF class action suit against BC health unions…
http://taxpayersfederation.blogspot.com/2005/10/win-for-patients-and-taxpayers.html
Ding Dingwall with a contest— songwriting contest, that is. This is how Librano$$$$$$$$ can be driven from office: with ridicule, sarcasm, singing & etc . Oh, yeah … Tee-hee shirts (T-shirts). Mr. Levant are you there?
Mr. Pallister is on the right track. See the opening paragraph on this by CP, aka Communist Press, aka Pravda, aka Librano$$$$$$$$$$ Chicklets for free
How did the Librano$’$ censor snip this off?
Speaker pulls plug on singing MP over Dingwall ditty
OTTAWA (CP) – Conservative MP Brian Pallister might want to stick to politics if his singing debut is anything to go by.
Pallister got the hook from the Speaker in the House of Commons on Monday as he sang a mocking melody about former Royal Canadian Mint president David Dingwall. Pallister began a member statement by singing Another Ding in the Wall, to the tune of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall.
“You don’t need no information, we’re in charge of thought control,” he warbled. “Fine wines with caviar in the backroom.”
The rest of the Conservative caucus then joined in: “Hey Tories! Leave those Grits alone.”
Speaker Peter Milliken rose to cut short the serenade, inviting Pallister to end his statement in the spoken word.
MPs have been allowed to sing their way through statements in the past but Milliken said it’s up to him to decide what’s appropriate in each circumstance and enough is enough.
“In this case, I thought singing was perhaps not necessary,” he told the House.
He urged members to confine their singing to the national anthem from now on.
Pallister’s pop knowledge was again evident during question period when he reworked the words to the Dire Straits’ hit Money for Nothing.
“(Dingwall) got money for nothing, chicklets for free,” the Manitoba MP complained of the former Liberal cabinet minister who expensed everything from golf to gum during his tenure at the Mint. >>> cnews
Since journalism schools won’t do it, we take the “Peter Kent challenge” and examine the question of bias in the news reporting of the Winnipeg Free Press, and also reveal a few new turns in the story of FLQ bombing victim (and Michaelle Jean critic) Bruce Vallance…
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2005/10/lessons-in-bias-who-will-take-peter.html
Sorry we missed seeing your post Darcy but just so you know our story (above) also details what really happened between the parents of the officers and Paul Martin and how MSM let the story get twisted.
Blogs can get the message out; Bypass the MSM.
http://www.rapp.org/url/?LBLO0HHF
G&M>>
“For example, between 1992 and 1999, Mr. Roszko was charged with a raft of offences, including impersonating a police officer, pointing a firearm, aggravated assault and counselling to commit murder. But he was acquitted on all charges. In 2000, he served a 2�-year sentence for sexually assaulting a male.
The province’s review of Mr. Roszko’s criminal record isn’t expected to make any recommendations, according to Mr. Cooper.
A provincial fatality inquiry into the massacre is expected to be called in the coming months. It won’t begin until the RCMP’s criminal investigation into the killings concludes.
The father Constable Schiemann, Rev. Don Schiemann, said he hopes Canadians will support the families’ initiative to “bring light” to problems with the country’s justice system.
“I think there is some momentum here to make it a national issue, combined with the fact that there is an election coming up soon,” he said.
The families of the murdered officers say there were myriad issues surrounding what happened on March 3, but they focused on a couple “so as not to dilute the force of our message,” he said.
“We have a window of opportunity. . . . It’s important we get this message out there.”
Last week, there was an uproar in Ottawa, as Prime Minister Paul Martin was accused of misleading Parliament after saying he had “long discussions” with the officers’ families.
Mr. Martin later called Mr. Schiemann to apologize for the remark.
Mr. Schiemann said the families are hoping to meet privately with the Prime Minister this month to discuss the campaign.”
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