RelapseTV
Because letters from “Shocked and Appalled” are the best part!
“Trudeau said the State had no business in the bedrooms of the nation. Apparently this doesn’t apply to toboggan hills. First we need to nuke the Amazon rainforest so I don’t have to hear about it anymore. Then we need to train all the endangered species to fight terrorists because clearly, our helmet wearing, peanut-allergic wimpy children won’t be prepared to do so.”
Update – now up at Youtube thanks to Mississauga Matt.
It’s A Small, Small Wheat Board World
In Canadian politics, it seems some days that if somebody you hear about doesn’t work for somebody you know, they’re married to him.
At the pro-CWB Winnipeg Free Press, their favourite pollster (and brother-in-law of former Manitoba Liberal Leader Paul Edwards) sounds the alarm on the barley plebiscite wording;
Scott MacKay, president of Probe Research said the language the Conservatives are using for the three options on the barley vote are not only inconsistent but also far from neutral.
In particular, MacKay said he finds it strange that the second option for farmers — the vision for the CWB favoured by Strahl — is described in the first person unlike the other two.
MacKay said the wording of that option (I would like the option to market my barley to the Canadian Wheat Board or any other domestic or foreign buyer) makes it more personal and a potentially warmer option.
Because only pollsters understand that – despite immersion in decades of pro and con arguments, despite the natural human desire to act in their own self-interest – grain producers possess the attention span of chickens, rendering opinions informed through direct personal experience in investment, risk, cultivation, and marketing of their own grain uniquely vulnerable to “diabolical” intellectual subversion through what is known in the industry as the “Question Asked in the First Person.”
“Intellectual dishonesty” is also the topic for this Kevin Hursh lecture. His recent client list* includes the Canadian Wheat Board;
According to Chuck Strahl, farmers can have their cake and eat it too. The barley plebiscite is designed to make the number 2 option seem the most appealing. It states, “I would like the option to market my barley to the Canadian Wheat Board or any other domestic or foreign buyer.” Strahl obviously thinks a majority of farmers will choose this option on the ballet. He says the board will be there for farmers. Those who say this is the end of the board are fear mongering, says Strahl. What the Agriculture Minister doesn’t seem to realize is that economics rules. Whether you’re a board supporter or not, you sell your product where you think the return will be the greatest. Without elevators or port facilities, the Canadian Wheat Board will not be in a good position to offer the best return. Open markets have many advantages. Especially in barley, an open market may be a good alternative. But it’s misleading to pretend that the Wheat Board option will remain viable in that sort of marketing system. Chuck Strahl can say that the Wheat Board will be there for farmers, but why would farmers deal with the Wheat Board if it can’t provide competitive returns? A barley plebiscite is a good idea, but the results are going to be badly skewed by the intellectually dishonest approach to the questions..
“Why would farmers deal with the Wheat Board if it can’t provide competitive returns?” Indeed! It’s an argument that dovetails convincingly into the critic warnings of “demise of the wheat board in the face of stiff competition from private grain companies”.
Which brings me to this week’s Last Laugh Award, presented to Agricore United;
In the midst of the plebiscite on the CWB’s monopoly regarding barley sales,
Agricore posted prices they would pay for feed barley . . . if they could buy it from farmers.On Thursday, Agricore’s spot feed barley price was C$233.70 ($198) a tonne, basis Vancouver, 23 percent higher than the Canadian Wheat Board’s projected pool return of C$190 a tonne, basis Vancouver.*
Naturally, the CWB fought back . . . not by raising their prices, but with a media reply.
…can’t use the excuse that it had made lower priced sales earlier in the year – there are two pooling periods for feed barley, with the B Pool running from February 1 to July 31. It can’t say that the bottom is likely to fall out of the feed market. According to the CWB’s PRO announcement from Thursday, “Global feed grain prices are expected to receive support from the U.S. corn market well into 2007, with U.S. corn ending stocks expected to be at the lowest level since 1995-96.” If that is the case, why the huge disparity between sales that can be made now, today, at this moment, and the price it says it can deliver to farmers? Why not attract grain to the B Pool to meet this demand? A cynic might say that the Board just wants to make sure that its feed price stays below its malt price. The Board does not want to admit that it hasn’t done the best job of marketing farmers barley. But we already know that; the evidence is plain as day.
The board has cultivated its image as a protector of Canadian farmers. If this is protection, being ‘sheltered’ from high prices, then count me out.
Through all of this, the CWB board of directors has managed to remain below the fray, and conduct themselves with the professional maturity of teenage girls – “Strahl orders wheat board to pay its new CEO”.
Both Truth About Marketing Choice and Designated Area focus on the CWB debate, and are worth bookmarking, as is the pro-choice Barley Vote 2007 website.
An Independent Kosovo
Fifteen years ago, when then-Yugoslavia was falling apart in a series of ethic civil wars, those of us who opposed American military intervention argued that no significant threat was posed to U.S. vital interests. The caveat was always that, if things got out of hand in Kosovo, we’d have little choice but the jump in to prevent it becoming a regional crisis.
When that did indeed come to pass, the idea that Kosovo’s independence would eventually followed would have seemed incredible. Now it’s buried on A10 of the Post.
“Extremism does not do people any good”
Iran feels the squeeze;
The recent campaign by the United States and its allies in the Gulf to increase the political, economic and military pressure on the government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is beginning to show some results. Internal Iranian opposition by rival political factions are threatening Ahmadinejad’s hold on power, as they fear of economic collapse, confrontation with the West and the very existence of the Islamic Republic may be the results of his reckless policy of confrontation with the West.
Details at the link.
America Through John Kerry’s Iranian Lens
This story is racing – no, raging – across the American blogosphere today. While seated beside former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami at the Davos economic summit in Switzerland;
Kerry said the Bush administration has failed to adequately address a number of foreign policy issues.
“When we walk away from global warming, Kyoto, when we are irresponsibly slow in moving toward AIDS in Africa, when we don’t advance and live up to our own rhetoric and standards, we set a terrible message of duplicity and hypocrisy,” Kerry said.
“So we have a crisis of confidence in the Middle East – in the world, really. I’ve never seen our country as isolated, as much as a sort of international pariah for a number of reasons as it is today.”
[…]
Kerry criticized what he called the “unfortunate habit” of Americans to see the world “exclusively through an American lens.”
| Allahpundit has video; “Then he signed an autograph for the pig. The same pig who, six months ago, defended executing gays for the crime of homosexuality.” |  |
Steve Shippert, Threatswatch.org;
This goes beyond aid and comfort, this is imposing self-inflicted wounds. Those are the words one expects from Ahmadinejad, not a sitting United States Senator. And this is what congressional Republicans are teaming up with, and it sickens me.
Seething with rage, I remind those here that Iran’s Qods Force executed – EXECUTED – US troops last Saturday. Captured them. Bound them together, and shot them in the skull.
Why? Because there is no price to be paid. Further, seeking to exert influence on our own self-serving political class, it was indeed a message to them more than it was any combat on our forces or retaliation for our capture of Quds Force operators embedded within their diplomatic corps.
They execute our men and we send our leaders to lament our misgivings in apology to the premiere state sponsors of terrorism.
There is a rage brewing and I am nearly incapable of writing at the moment. I hope that someone in here lends eloquence sans nuance to this.
This cannot stand, and hand-shaking Republican co-signatories need immediate rebuke in the strongest terms. For they own this man’s words and must understand. We see their words as the enemy does – inseperable and indistinguishable from a united message of apology.
I bear no apology. None. It is time for Iran to pay a price. We know where the EFP/IED factories are in Iran. We know where the IRGC barracks are. They are the word’s 4th leading oil exporter, yet a gasoline importer. There are a handful of refineries in various states of disrepair. We know where much of value to them is. If they are coming into Iraq to execute our men, we must send a message of the price to be paid, lest more follow. I am not calling for the declaration of war and invasion.
They blew up our embassy in Beruit. Nothing.
They blew up our Marine Barracks in Beirut. Nothing.
They hijacked an airliner and executed a US Navy diver. Nothing.
They were complicit in the 1996 Khobar Tower bombing. Nothing.
They are known to have trained al-Qaeda operatives in Hizballah’s Bekka Valley and in Sudan. Nothing.
They train, fund and arm Sadr’s men and AQ in Iraq. Nothing.
They summarily executed a US Army Public Affairs Unit in Krabala. ___________.
I sense that others in here do not understand what I mean when I say executed.
And WE are the pariah? Have we lost our damned minds?
What message are we to send our men currently fighting the fight? “Move along, nothing to see here.”???
I have always hated those damned yellow ribbons, especially when they were intended to show some modicum of support for me while I was myself deployed. I swear to you today, every cheesy yellow ribbon I find on a car or signpost is getting ripped down. This is no substitute for fortitude, yet that is precisely what it represents to far too many. Take off your yellow ribbon. Far too many display them so that they can be percieved one way or another, not so that troops may take some measure of support from them.
I need to end this rant here, hoping that I can find calm at some point today to effectively fight this fight with the only weapon left me: words. I feel like a raging bull, struggling for self control, driven to the edge by the self-service of others.
Related:
“Hey, I bet you’ve probably wondered why Al Qaeda hasn’t struck in the US since 9/11. They don’t have to.“
Flashback – Kerry’s “Global Test”
Baby Boomer
h/t
More – Context, just for the spectacularly obtuse.
Update Oh man…. apparently I’ve overlooked the fact that these babies are dressed for the religious observance of “Ashura” – “If, as your post and subsequent comments imply, you believe that any child, when raised under even a moderate, mainstream version of Islam (such as that depicted in the linked photos), will somehow be primed towards radicalism, then you’re effectively saying that the problem is with all of Islam and not merely its extremist strains.”
Being generous enough of spirit to acknowledge that bloggers and commentors more open-minded than myself have bettered my appreciation of this gentle commemoration of the beheading martyrdom of Hussain ibn Ali (grandson of Muhammad), the best way to express my gratitude is to assist the readership here to expand theirs.
More photos of Ashura, this taken in Pakistan.
I stand corrected.
Maybe They’re Just Cutting Innumeracy Levels
Reader Tips
“where was kinsella when paul bernardo really needed him?”
I’ve said this before – Al Sharpton must be so pleased.
“Our Father, who art in litigation”
Dead.
Add yours in the comments.
“Believability Is Everything”
A sneak peek into the Rebranding of the Saskatchewan! New Democrats!
Creative Guidelines (pdf)
Our Future is Wide Open, people! And on our dime!
Dean In Regina has the email from Jeff Bohach, Executive Director to “all communications directors”.
| More at CBC. The $1.5 million exclamation mark “is for “optimistic” messages and not for announcements concerning coroners’ inquests, forest fires or West Nile virus outbreaks” | 
|
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Patrick Moore In Studio
An interview (mp3) on the reasons he left Greenpeace and more.
(h/t to reader Bill)
Bill’s Photo Album
Bill Ardolino, on the scene with the troops in Iraq.
Party Of Convictions: Timing Is Everything
Reader Tips
A good week for the NDP – kudos for signing on to Brad Wall’s call to legislate job protection for reservists, the praise from the “right wing think tank” Fraser Institute, They’ve been shifting to the right so fast, by the next election rolls around, Calvert & Co will be voting Sask Party !
Junk economics at the CWB.
Middle ground on stem cells.
“I knew Maggie Thatcher. Maggie Thatcher was a friend of mine. And you, senator, are no Maggie Thatcher.”
Add yours in the comments.
Wolf Hunter
Party Of Convictions: Friends In Low Places
Some weeks it just doesn’t pay to win a Liberal leadership race. Google cache;
“Stéphane Dion’s ability to gain the confidence of both previous Prime Ministers despite the serious rift in the party, bespeaks his ability to pull the party together. Ontario has some excellent leadership candidates but we will never run this country without the support of Quebec. Ontario has always been fairly evenly split between the Conservative party and the Liberal party. A strong leader will sway it one way or the other so it is fairly market neutral but the weight of a Francophone Liberal from Quebec would possibly be the demise of the Bloc Quebecois party, ‘and good riddance’, this certainly would tip the balance in our favour in the next federal election. I also feel Stéphane’s commitment to environmental and social causes will pull support from the NDP out West. His combination of strengths have him way ahead of any of his contenders. Therefore, if we are to have a realistic chance of forming the next Government it only makes common sense to support Stéphane Dion.”
— Perley Holmes, Vancouver, BC
A labor leader from British Columbia has been identified as the man arrested by U.S. Border Patrol Officers last week during an attempt to smuggle 136 pounds of cocaine across the border into the United States.
Perley Holmes was one of two men who allegedly crossed the U.S. – Canada border illegally on January 18th when they were spotted by a Border Patrol agent. When he attempted to arrest them, the second man fled back across the remote border near Chesaw, Washington while Holmes was taken into custody.
[…]
At the time of Holmes’ arrest he was found with two backpacks which contained a combined 136 pounds of cocaine with an approximate value of $4.3 Million.
Holmes appeared before a magistrate Wednesday where he was ordered held over without bond. If convicted he could face ten years to life in prison.
Via National Newswatch where there’s a screenshot in case the Google cache is yanked.
The Square Root Of All Evil
The Great Leap Forward.
The Killing Fields.
Rabble.
h/t
Operation Baghdad
Apache attack helicopters are constantly hovering over Baghdad now. Tracking them from my home in this city I can often estimate where the action is taking place.
[…]
Although the major Baghdad plan isn’t officially launched yet, every day we see several joint operations against targets in and around the city. Still, according to the latest leaked reports, it seems as if the major implementations of the plan are going to wait until the beginning of next month,.
The government here says they are waiting for the buildup of participating troops to be completed, but I think it’s more likely that they are waiting for the Ashura ceremonies to end to allow pilgrims to travel between Baghdad and the shrines safely.
The waiting is proving to be more of a burden on the people of Baghdad than the operation itself would be. Patience is fading under the pressure of the increasing numbers of suicide attacks and the civilian deaths they cause. Baghdadis are desperately waiting for the operation to begin because they hope it can reduce the occurrence of these deadly attacks that distribute death equally among civilians.
And on a different and equally important front – signs of an economic assault against Iran as crude prices continue to drop;
Saudi Oil Minister Ibrahim al-Naimi even said during a recent trip to India that oil prices are headed in the “right direction.”
Not for the Iranians.
Moreover, the traders believe the Saudis are not doing this alone, that the other Sunni-dominated oil producing countries and the U.S. are working together, believing it will hurt majority-Shiite Iran economically and create a domestic crisis for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose popularity at home is on the wane. The traders also believe (with good reason) that the U.S. is trying to tighten the screws on Iran financially at the same time the Saudis are reducing the Islamic Republic’s oil revenues.
For the Saudis, who fear Iran’s religious, geopolitical and nuclear aspirations, the decision to lower the price of oil has a number of benefits, the biggest being to deprive Iran of hard currency. It also may create unrest in a country that is its rival on a number of levels and permits the Saudis to show the U.S. that military action may not be necessary.
A bit of trivia I’ll bet you didn’t know – Iran is the second largest importer of gasoline in the world, after the US.
And since Iran sells gasoline at a rate comparable to the rest of the Gulf states — around 33 cents a gallon — it must subsidize the price on a massive scale. In fact, say traders, Iran is paying about $1.50 per gallon to subsidize domestic gasoline consumption — the world market price of gasoline minus the tiny price per gallon — a practice that is costing Iran billions of dollars annually and eating up most of the state-run oil company’s discretionary funds.
Iran has other problems that make it vulnerable. Inflation is officially running at 17 percent, the highest since the revolution, and unemployment is at 11 percent. U.S. intelligence, though, believes the real figures are much higher, with inflation as high as 50 percent and joblessness much higher among the country’s restless youth). In addition, capital outflow is estimated at $50 billion annually and budget deficits are a chronic problem, leading to overseas borrowing.
Read them both.
Khaled Mouammar, Back In The News
The Vancouver Sun informs us that “Canadian Arabs, Muslims threaten to punish Tories in next election” because of what it “says is a continued pro-Israeli stand”;
“We also are telling people to make sure in the elections that they vote for candidates who will stand for truth and justice and that’s all we can do. We try to contact other groups, churches, unions … We have had some success,” said Khaled Mouammar, president of the Canadian Arab Federation, an umbrella group of Arab associations that boasts membership from Vancouver to Halifax.
Mouammar noted last summer’s decision by the Toronto branch of the United Church and the Canadian Union of Public Employees to boycott Israeli products to protest its treatment of Palestinians. “Hopefully people who have views like our prime minister will not be in the next Parliament,” he said.
Mouammar said even if MacKay had returned to Canada enlightened about the level of suffering on the ground in the Palestinian territories, it would have made no difference because he holds no sway with his boss, Harper. “The prime minister is really running the foreign affairs,” said Mouammar.
Via reader email, who notes;
Khaled Mouammar gets his quotes front and centre…….again. He, (perhaps members of his family?) were suspected of circulating flyers, at the Liberal convention,denouncing Bob Ray for supporting the “daily massacre in Palestine” and having a Jewish wife.
In August of 2005, Steve Janke wrote a lengthy post exploring the activities of Mouammar and his family, titled “Khaled Mouammar: Palestinian Activism and the Immigration Board”
Another example here.
One wonders why asomeone so closely associated with the Liberal party – and implicated in convention dirty tricks – was quoted by Mike Blanchfield as an authority on Canadian Arab/Muslim opinion without disclosure of his history and anti-Israel activism?
Welcome Back, Cote
Update – Already in Youtube production – The Sequel ! “Stephane’s Frantic Attempts To Throw A Bicycle Into Reverse”