The one time would-be Prime Minister of Australia.

h/t Damian Penny

But the partisan in media took particular pains to avoid reporting;

“I really should have called for the military,” Blanco said, while chatting with her press secretary in between TV interviews. “I really should have started that in the first call.”
Unbeknownst to Blanco, her bombshell acknowledgment was recorded on a network satellite feed, and by Tuesday the clip was getting wide exposure in Louisiana news broadcasts.
In the early days of the Katrina crisis, disaster management experts repeatedly blamed the failure to send in the National Guard for the city’s descent into chaos.
Most observers blamed the White House for the blunder – a misconception that was thoroughly dispelled by the governor’s inadvertent confession.
Some say Blanco’s blooper was responsible for the abrupt change of tone in her speech Wednesday night to the Louisiana legislature.
Where earlier she and her aides had openly blamed the Bush administration for bungling Katrina rescue efforts, Blanco announced: “The buck stops here, and as your governor, I take full responsibility.”
Just as surprising were Blanco’s words of praise for the White House: “I want the people of Louisiana to know that we have a friend and a partner in President George W. Bush. I thank you, Mr. President.”

Not that this is new information to anyone who was interested in more than decorating their hatred of Bush with bloated corpses and charges of racism – that Blanco seemed ignorant of the chain of command under the US constitution, resisted declaring a mandatory evacuation, and prevented aide from reaching the afflicted area in a misguided attempt to “force” people to leave has been well documented – just not widely reported. Draw your own conclusions as to why.
After Bush’s speech in Louisiana yesterday, ABC news interviewed people on the street. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity to cherry pick the responses;

After the speech ended, ABC provided a scene of wonderful high comedy, with reporter Dean Reynolds interviewing evacuees outside the Astrodome and repeatedly getting the “wrong” answers delivered in the almost musical accent of black New Orleans. Do you think the President was sincere? “Yes.” Did you hear anything you didn’t believe? “No, I didn’t.” One woman not only declined to criticize the President, she forcefully argued that state and local authorities deserve the lion’s share of the blame for not acting long before the feds could be expected to arrive, invoking the famous unused buses.
Poor Reynolds, caught in a white liberal nightmare where the black people refuse to follow the script. But it’s no surprise that Bush won the evacuees over. It was, as one woman put it, “a well fine speech.”

Newsbusters has the full transcript and video.

Heh.
And I thought the “Take30 Cup” was funny.
*

Daisy Werthan: Hoke?
Hoke Colburn: Yes’m.
Daisy Werthan: You’re my best friend.
Hoke Colburn: No, go on Miss Daisy.
Daisy Werthan: No, really, you are…
[Takes Hoke’s hand]
Daisy Werthan: You are.
Hoke Colburn: Yes’m.

The City of Ottawa guaranteed a loan for the organizers of this year’s Gay Pride Parade;

Parade organizers borrowed $50,000 from the TD bank to hold the parade, and somebody at the city thought it was a good idea to guarantee the lone. When the gays stiffed the bank and walked away from the load, the city was left to pay the bill.
This is just wrong at a number of levels.
One of the problems is that the city had to dedicate a large number of police officers to the event – and by the way the officers were on orders to wish everyone there a “Happy Pride Day”. With those costs involved, and with our short staffing issues with Ottawa police, don’t you think we would be better served if the police officers were doing more essential things like stopping kids from breaking windows at schools or setting houses and dumpsters on fire in Barrhaven?
As city residents, we need our tax dollars to go to pay for the lack of essential services. A gay pride parade is not a core service.
If there is going to be a parade, that’s fine. But if the gay community has so much pride, maybe next year they can pay for the parade themselves.

If they don’t have the cash, there’s always community service. At the risk of perpetuating a stereotype – the city sponsored “painting better graffiti” courses could probably use a few instructors with an eye for colour and design.

Celine Dion never loses her focus.

Correct and I’ve been there a few times. We’ve stayed there. I’ve, you know, filmed videos there and so Rene and I, we’ve been to New Orleans. And, I have to say, Larry, that and state it as the rest of the world if I may I was watching you behind, there’s a television right now, I’m watching and I’m especially waiting like the rest of the world.
I’m waking up in the morning. I’m having a coffee. I barely can swallow it. I come here at Caesar’s Palace every night to perform. I barely can sing. But for respect the people who come I am still singing. When I come home at night, my son is waiting for me. I watch television. Yes, we gave $1 million but what we expect, what I want to look like the rest of the world, I open the television there’s people still there waiting to be rescued and for me it’s not acceptable. I know there’s reasons for it. I’m sorry to say I’m being rude but I don’t want to hear those reasons.

(more)

As the CBC lockout enters its fourth week, the pavement pounding writers, producers and reporters are beginning to share their inner thoughts. The Black Rod has been collecting the most inspiring passages.
“J.T.” – Writer and producer living in Parkdale;

…. you have to give Kayne credit for standing up and saying what the media and many politicans have been saying all this week: “George Bush does not care about black people.”

CBC radio reporter Jennifer Quesnel from Regina;

“My gold star today goes to Bill Doskoch , for a wonderful round-up and news story excerpts . They detail the way Hurricane Katrina proved the U.S. federal government lies . And, the way reporters have finally found the guts to expose those lies.”

“Tania” in Toronto refers her readers to Michael Moore. “Mark”, a researcher in Halifax, finds his inspiration in Ted Rall. Not familiar with Rall? He’s a cartoonist.

John, a contract producer in Vancouver, shares this;

“If our healthcare system needs fixing, here is the solution: let’s all pay a bit more in taxes. I know the usual assholes (http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/} will whine about what a pain in the ass that is, but when they get sick, they can take comfort in the fact that it was money well spent.”

“CBC Drome” lets his bias slip, too, while explaining how to win the support of Canadians;

“…we need to tell the story in a way that engages Canadians and moves them to action. We could tell them it’s about contracts, and job security, and nurturing public broadcasting values. All true but not exactly grabby. But if we tell them it’s a story about how a group of fanatical managers hijacked a national institution, and wasted hundreds of millions of dollars trying to impose a bizarre neo-con cult of management on their employees…”

The Black Rod sums things up nicely;

Anti-American? Check
Anti-business? Check
Anti-Conservative Party? Check
Remember, these are the folks who covered the last national election. They covered the Gomery Commission. They covered the Conservative Party convention and the House of Commons leading up to the non-confidence votes of the Spring. Would you expect fair and balanced reporting from this bunch? Will you expect it next time?

Well, they’re not entirely anti-American. Their “strike” pay is calculated in US dollars.

It was a bad week to be out on the streets.

I hate placing blame and finger-pointing. But for this fiasco I have to place the blame squarely, unequivocally, and soundly on the shoulders of the president. His job is to keep this place running […] There is nothing necessarily wrong with a bureaucrat. As long as he does his job. But this one is so creatively bankrupt, so mistrusted, so disconnected, and so discounted by his own people that he is dead weight. We needed a leader, but they gave us luggage.

I do not own a house. I do not own a car.

On the other hand four hours on parade is still better than four hours on the Circle of Death. It was also good to see that everyone seemed to be having a good time. That spirits are still high. That we are more united than ever. That we aren’t alone.

In a parking lot, in New Orleans.

Via Drudge who seems to be the first one asking how many of the poor, the very young and disabled, could have been moved out of New Orleans with that fleet, while the highways were still open and the streets dry and unobstructed?
I’ve been listening to Charles Adler and others today while I work, and I have to say, the lack of attention on cases of negligence of those civic officials charged with the first line of defense, is predictable. In their world, the only politician alive in America is George W. Bush.
But, by all means – you know-it-all media pundits, whine about how America is the wealthiest country in the world, whine about the delay in federal assets getting to the storm victims, raise the opportunistic hot button of racism, but while you’re at it – please share with the rest of us watching which fingers you’d snap.
And before you answer, here’s another question for you, if you believe the only factor lacking is will and organization.
Where are the lawyers?
Heard of any class-action suits?
Me either. That – more than any shortage of personnel carriers or rescue helicopters – should tell us everything we need to know about how difficult it is to access New Orleans.
Update Debris Trail delves into the logistics that the majority of the finger-snapping media experts seem incapable of comprehending.

Yesterday, Marc Emery saw the light and apologized for calling Justice Minister Irwin Cotler a “Nazi-Jew”. Better late than never, as they say, though his preamble goes out of its way to lay the blame on others…

“When I was in jail, I was immersed in alot of reading. I was studying forced sterilizations in Alberta, the Nazi regime in Germany, all these books and pamphlets on Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X. I was surrounded by natives and attending their sweats. I was forced to work cleaning toilets & janitorial duties for my jailers (I cleaned and maintained the main administration building) for many weeks as part of my time there.

He doesn’t elaborate on which of these influences led to his flirtation with anti-Semitism.
(full statement)
For all the outrage my publication of Emery’s statements caused among his supporters (who apparently have problems discriminating between message and messenger) it seems my advice that he get a new campaign team has gone unheeded. A post by Cannibis Culture assistant editor “JodieGR” calms the devoted;

Marc is just making a statement to put an end to a media sensation that does nothing to further our cause, or to spread our message, or to persuade non-believers, or to educate the public. When the media controls what they want to print and show, we have to choose our words and comments carefully.
But remember, we still know this is a holocaust on cannabis users and believers. WE know this. People who do the research know this. But the media, and the general population, do not. Therefore, we have to present our argument in a better way, and using “hot-button” words eliminates any possibility to put forth a discussion on this topic.

Glad that’s been straightened out.

Along with the caption of the week.
Update: Thanks to a tip in the comments, this is the version from Associated Press.

Yesterday, after being asked twice to confine his remarks to the appropriate thread devoted to Marc Emery’s statement, Chris Bennett of Pot TV chose to ignore my warning. Apparently, heavy marijuana use dimishes respect for private property. His comments were deleted (as were several that replied) and I banned him from posting to the site. This arrived this morning;

From: Chris Bennett
To: kate@katewerk.com
Subject: Censorship and Racism
You Kate are guilty of both.
Tis is going to get out,…

Followed by a lengthy cut and paste of items posted at an unidentified forum. These are, of course, the vocal supporters of the same Marc Emery who was so careful to clarify that he really does consider Justice Minister Irwin Cotler a “Nazi Jew”.
Now, as longtime readers know, SDA is no stranger to so-called “smear campaigns” and misrepresentation. All I can say in reply to Mr. Bennett about his threat to “discredit” me is this;
Take a number. Line forms on the left.
Marc Emery, wherever you are, I hope you can read this. I have some sincere advice for you.
Get a new campaign team. Because frankly – if you and your “supporters” keep up this communications strategy you’ll find that “groundswell” of Canadian support you’ve been seeking over your possible extradition to the US will come from those willing to chip in for the plane ticket.

“Prince of Pot” Marc Emery addresses the controversy swirling around his “jailhouse blog” remarks directed at Justice Minister Irwin Cotler*;

In one diary entry, I refer to Irwin Cotler as a Nazi Jew or Jewish Nazi. This has had some people very distracted. I want to explain these remarks and the circumstances under which these diaries are written.
When you are in jail for behaving peacefully and honestly, as I always have, it’s very legitimate and rather predictable to resent the authority that has put you there. Jail is no place for peaceful, honest citizens who behaviour has harmed or threatened no one. Who is the Attorney-General of Canada? Irwin Cotler. He is the chief political officer of the prohibition, of the courts, and he is directly responsible for any Canadian who is incarcerated under his watch as Justice Minister.
So Irwin Cotler has done this to me, make no mistake.
So at one point in my jailhouse ruminations, I use the term Nazi Jew and Jewish Nazi. Let me explain what I meant.
A Nazi is a person who inflicts pain, punishment, incarceration or death on any human who is behaving peacefully & honestly. However, a thug on the street who beats you and robs you, is not a Nazi because another precondition is that a person who inflicts pain, punishment, incarceration or death must believe in an ideology that gives moral permission to behave that way.
The Nazis not only inflicted pain, punishment, incarceration or death, they believed in an ideology that specified the use of pain, punishment, incarceration or death to achieve their desired social control goals.
Anyone who inflicts pain, punishment, incarceration or death for peaceful & honest behaviour, and believes idelogically it is permissable to do so, this is Nazism, no matter what label this person puts on their own behaviour.
Mr. Cotler is Jewish. As I said earlier, I have higher expectations from people who shared a background of persecution. Mr. Cotler knows extremely well the perniciousness of governments in meting out punishments for peaceful & honest behaviour. He understands history.
Yet his ideological belief in inflicting pain, punishment, incarceration or death for the good of the state is identical intellectually to the Nazi philosophy, and a betrayal of his persecuted roots. Now he is the chief political officer in charge of a massive pogrom against the cannabis people, and that is why I was enslaved in a jail for 62 days. There can be no doubt, that when I was in jail, Mr. Cotler’s authority of me, and his sanction of my imprisonment, and his ideological belief as expressed by his actions, that inflicting pain, punishment, incarceration or death, Mr. Cotler is living & breathing his duties with a profound philosophy of Nazism permeating everything.

Well, I’m glad he cleared that up.

This Attorney-General wants to send me to jail for the rest of my life. And I have every confidence that if I am put in a US jail, no one in Canada will ever see me alive again. The DEA/USA is not going to make it possible that I’ll ever get out to rouse the world’s conscience. I am a permanent enemy of these Nazified forces that are surging through North America these very anxious days for all of us in the cannabis culture.
So if you see remarks about these diary blogs in any newspaper story, please set them straight as to what our struggle is about. And our struggle is one of worldwide peace, love & understanding in an anxious age of state barbarism. The menacing forces of government are waging this vicious war against our beloved people. Make no mistake, its a war. Thats how the DEA sees it all. A War.
When they capture the leader of the enemy, what do you think they do to him?

I’ve not seen many Marijuana Party members in “action” so it’s perhaps unfair to draw conclusions from a small sampling. Still , there seems to be a pattern of self-obsessiveness and paranoia that pops up frequently enough among declared party members that one wonders – does heavy pot use have this effect on personality? Or are those with personality disorders simply drawn to organizations of this type?
And then, there’s the question of logic impairment and its impact on decision making. Quite apart from one’s views on marijuana legalization (I’m more or less ambivalent) – you would think that someone who attaches himself to a cause that could result in lengthy imprisonment would pick something a little more profound than the right to inhale fumes from a burning twig.

…for the medical profession to refuse lawyers as patients.

The time has come to give Cindy Sheehan what she’s been asking for.
h/t

“Allah be praised”

Scott Johnson has seen The Great Raid, and has a lengthy post up at Powerline reviewing the reviewers. He features a quote from NYT reviewer Steve Holden;

Its scenes of torture and murder also unapologetically revive the uncomfortable stereotype of the Japanese soldier as a sadistic, slant-eyed fiend.

An uncomfortable stereotype? Perhaps Holden should spend a little less time in the theatre and a little more in the history section of his library.
Update “Next93” in the comments;

If you read the Holden quote again, you’ll see a favorite rhetorical trick of the left (or, as the Italians say it, �la sinestra�). Look at the phrase “the stereotype of the Japanese soldier as a sadistic, slant-eyed fiend”.
First, why �slant-eyed�? Is someone claiming that the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army DIDN�T actually have epicanthal folds? Is someone claiming that these folds somehow caused or excused certain behaviors? Would the actions depicted be somehow less sadistic or fiendish if the perpetrators had, say, both eyes on the same side of their heads like a flounder?
No. Eyes (in quantities up to but not exceeding two and uniformly distributed) are expected on fiends and friends alike. I�ll go out on a limb here and say that�s pretty much a norm that we�re all comfortable with. Same for the eyelids. So why bring it up?
Precisely because it IS an ethnic slur, and one of the worst sort possible in 21st century American culture � it�s a slur based on a visible ethnic difference. White Americans have a massive guilt complex when it comes to �visible� ethnicity, and any phrase that reminds them of that complex is therefore extremely uncomfortable. We�ve been trained for four decades to automatically reject any phrase or concept that implies that a visual ethnic difference is an indicator of character or ability.
Stupid as it sounds, some people may be willing to call a sadistic fiend a sadistic fiend, but not if it involves throwing in an ethnic slur. I�m not saying this is a Bad Thing, I just resent it�s being used gratuitously to manipulate opinion.
Now, if Holden had simply referred to �the stereotype of the Japanese soldier as a sadistic fiend�, most people would have recognized the other trick he used � using the word �stereotype� as a synonym for �reputation�. Most of us Boomers were trained starting in high school that �stereotypes are Bad�, and ethnic stereotypes are the worst; we automatically reject anything that perpetuates harmful ethnic stereotypes, except, of course, for stereotyping all Americans of Italian descent as being murdering, sadistic, racist Mafia thugs � which is nothing more than good TV.
So, there you have it, the phrase �the reputation of the Japanese soldier as a sadistic fiend�, which would have conjured up an indisputable historic fact, is replaced by a phrase that somehow makes the reader feel that any suspicion about the behavior of the Japanese soldier during WWII must be the result of western (American) racism.
Amazing what a few well-placed words can do, isn’t it?

Via Murray Wood (Rawlco Radio) … a rambling stream-of-consciousness attempt to liveblog the mind-altered narcissism of Marc Emery, on his threatened extradition to the US to face drug and money laundering charges.
*******
“it’s not about saving my ass…. (in the US) I’ll even qualify for the death penalty… for anyone who sells 60K plants or 60K seeds, I’ve been selling seeds every day of my life for all my adult life…”
he’s collected “millions and millions” and given it to charitable groups and addiction centers all over the globe… he has no money.. as soon as he gets it he gives it away.
Jack Layton came to his home to implore him to get “his people” to suppoort the NDP.. given thousands and thousands to poltiical parties..
Every member of parliament has had a subscription to his magazine for the last 10 years….
No politicain ever said to him that he was doing something wrong.
No politician ever turned down a dollar of his money.
He’s paid $600K in tax, and Revenue Canada has consulted him, asked him how they could get more marijuana tax money. Apparently a Revenue Canada rep will testify in court on his behalf.
Health canada told him that they’ve told people can get their seeds for med marijuana from him..
[This man NEVER stops for a breath)]
He’s had a profound effect on the landscape on how people across the world view marijuana [no kidding – he sounds like a lunatic]
… on a mission to promote human rights activisim to get marijuana convicts out of jail around the world, a terrible holocaust, a tragedy, and if the US wants to prosecute him for that he’s proud to go.
Though, he’d rather not, so call Irwin Cotler, everyone, he needs a groudswell, his fate is in your hands, Emery has served you all his life…. if he’s going to be a martyr and spend the rest of his life behind bars, it will be great to know that there are people out there who love him.
Trivia in defense of marijuana:
…the food they serve at McDonalds kills tens of thousands of peple every year
…people don’t like pot because it makes people loopy, or critical
… parents don’t like pot because their children smoke it
… teacher don’t like it because students “lose respect for the lessons they learned ” and they should lose respect.
In response to a question about his hypocrisy over funding drug addiction clinics; He never had any one on pot “apply to his clinic” because they were addicted… if they have a problem with the drug, stopping ends it the very next day. (He says he’s treated 65 people?)
A (supportive) caller describes a friend in detail who has usedj since highschool, can’t keep a job, etc. lost his family because he will choose the drug over everything –
Emery: no person who grew up in a stable 2 parent home has ever become addicted to anything – but people who become addicted to drugs shouldn’t go to jail and that “doesnt mean we put people in jail who facilitate their addiction”.
He’s ready to “sacrifice himself” to speed up legislation … there are forgotten people in concrete cells in the American gulag… pot users are just like the Jews, the blacks, the natives, rounded up and put in camps. Like the Chinese persecute the Falun Gong… what’s the difference between smoking pot and finding enlightenment and doing Ti Chi to find enlightenment?
Closing sentence; “If he can bring any light on this war on all human beings has been sponsored by thiis rogue organization called the United States”.
*****
So, colour me convinced. Today, in the name of legalizing (-)-(6aR,10aR)-6,6,9-trimethyl-3-pentyl-6a,7,8,10a -tetrahydro-6H-benzo[c]chromen-1-ol, I join the millions of Canadians who are dedicated to Marc Emery’s attainment of martyrdom.
Godspeed, Mr. Emery.
Godspeed.

Hans Bricks;

These are naked Europeans celebrating sensual European art in a European museum, yet they still managed to turn the event into a rally against America!

David Terron hauls fourth year University of Waterloo political science student (and director for the Liberal Party of Canada in Kitchener-Conestoga) Mark Johnson back to class – by the ear.
(A sequel to “I Used To Be A Communist, But I’ve Since Woken Up”)