Except they are effectively on our (supposed) side. Funny old world, eh?

“….hopefully a pro-Western Syria.” isn’t enough of a good reason for any intervention.
Given the West keeps trying to install the Bush doctrine and promote likely to fail democracies I don’t like the odds of adding a more radical regime to the region.

A NY Times editorial:

Beyond Durban

I guess the Dippers, Dizzie Lizzie May and the Liberals haven’t got to the editorial board.

With a small “c” too. Publius has some advice for Ontario Progressive Conservatives (why does that oxymoron survive?):

…
The MSM has created the monster of Mike Harris, a crude caricature that has been successfully used to frighten the Ontario PCs back into their default Red Tory mode. They’ve been duped. The media is not the electorate, nor do they hold the same sway over the voters of this province as they once did. The internet has allowed voters more direct access to information and to candidates. The scare power of the MSM is greatly weakened…
The Ontario PCs have been playing a political game defined by their enemies. The Left is telling us what is and what is not too conservative. At such a game the Tories can never win. They are playing a game with loaded dice.
Rather than letting the Left define what the Right should be in Ontario, as well as in Canada as a whole, we should be defining that ourselves. The political middle is a constantly shifting target. A well timed and sold policy can shift that middle to either the Left or Right…

Though it be a largely symbolic post. From the intelligently progressive Nick Cohen:

Martin McGuinness’s candidacy is an affront to decency
How can the former IRA man be considered a serious candidate for the Irish presidency?
…
Jim Cusack of the Sunday Independent and a few other Dublin reporters are doing what journalists are meant to do and spoiling the party with awkward questions. McGuinness says he never killed anyone with gun or bomb. All right, they say, you may not have pulled the trigger but how many “spectaculars” did you organise? Whose deaths did you order? Which families are still grieving because of your commands?…
…[the] war was futile because the power sharing and cross-border institutions the IRA settled for in 1998 had been on offer since 1974. All the people the IRA, Protestant paramilitaries and the British army killed in the intervening decades died for nothing…
…Ireland may soon be welcoming a president who cannot be honest with the electorate, cannot be honest with supporters and cannot be honest with himself. He will use the presidency as a megaphone to boom out the myths he has to believe. As always, the surprise is not that the politician lies, but that so many in Ireland and beyond want to be lied to…

The Irish electorate is hardly singular in that respect (h/t Norman’s Spectator).

Courtesy Mississauga Matt

It certainly looks like CSIS Director Dick Fadden was bang on about foreign influence in Canada. The Iranian embassy in Ottawa provides a prime example and I’ll wager the intelligence service prompted the threats mentioned below. Terry Glavin tells the story, which is still developing (some links added):

The National Library capitulates to Iran’s bullies
When federal Cabinet Minister James Moore intervened Tuesday to protest the cancelled screening of the film Iranium at the National Library and Archives in Ottawa [now officially Library and Archives Canada; under the Liberals the word “national” was removed from several federal institutions, e.g the National Museum of Science and Technology, in order to avoid giving any possible offense to the Québécois I am sure], he said: “I am disappointed that Library & Archives Canada chose not to show the film tonight due to threats of violence. . . The Iranian Embassy will not dictate to the Government of Canada which films will or will not be shown in Canada.”
But the screening ended up cancelled anyway after a “suspicious package” shut down the Library. Ottawa police and a haz-mat team showed up late in the afternoon and the staff was sent home. In another version of events, most employees were already gone when suspicious letters were dropped off at the building, on Wellington Street, by a man who hurried away.
Altogether it’s been a busy couple of days for my pal Fred Litwin, who runs Ottawa’s Free-Thinking Film Society, the host of the event. Fred’s been keeping me posted – I’m a director of the society (and no, I’m neither “libertarian” nor “conservative”). Only two months ago I joined some Iranian comrades at the National Library to give a talk at a Film Society screening of another film about Iranian despotism, The Stoning of Soraya M.
The Iranian embassy confirms it was involved in the initial “complaints” about the Iranium event. The Library confirms the embassy lodged a formal request to cancel the screening. A “suspicious” package or a letter that turned out to be a false alarm – that’s something I can understand as a justification for cancelling the showing. But the National Library first cancelled the screening after merely having received “complaints.” It agreed not to back down to the protests, only after Moore’s office intervened. But then the Library apparently backed down again after “letters” and “threats” and “protests,” or something.
“I’m outraged that in the capital of Canada the Iranians have been able to shut down a movie,” Fred said. “Bad enough in Tehran, but in Ottawa?”
Apparently so. Something very nasty is going on here, and I am more than a little curious to discover what’s at the bottom of it, who was involved in these “protests,” and what the hell the National Library was thinking by cancelling the screening in the first place. The National Library is not the Bijou. It’s a venerable, national, public institution. Iranium is an important film, it’s a new film, and Clare Lopez, a Middle East strategic policy and intelligence expert was flown in from Washington D.C. for the planned screening. The National Library owes more than an apology and a lot more than full compensation for the Film Society’s costs. It owes every Canadian a complete explanation and full accounting of what the hell just happened.

I imagine it was Ms. Lopez the Iranians really wanted to muzzle seeing as the film will be widely available soon. Have a listen to her here at CFRA Ottawa’s website:

…
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Clare Lopez with Nick Vandergragt
As mentioned by Lowell Green, here is the program that originally aired Thursday January 6th with Nick at Night filling in for Lowell with special guest Clare M. Lopez, a strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on Middle East, national defense, WMD, and counterterrorism issues. They were discussing “Iranium”, a film that details the brutal nature of the Iranian regime to its own citizens, and the Iranian people’s desire to rejoin the international community.
The planned screening of Iranium was cancelled at the Library and Archives Canada building Tuesday night due to protest threats.
mp3 (click here to download)
…

Ironically, the Iranian Embassy itself has apparently rented the theatre at the Archives several times to show its own propaganda films.
The government has now responded pretty firmly, effectively it appears instructing the Archives to let the film be shown. From Giggles Taber of the Globe, who seems to see the story only in party political terms–missing herself as usual any bigger picture:

Top Tories bristle at Iranian [sic] film’s cancellation
…Tehran’s atomic ambition. Two senior Harper cabinet ministers are criticizing the cancellation of a documentary film that looks at Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons, calling it “outrageous” and warning the Canadian government will not be bullied by Iran.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Heritage Minister James Moore weighed in on the controversy via Twitter as news broke that the film, Iranium, would not be screened.
Calling the cancellation “outrageous,” Mr. Kenney said: “I hope that folks from across the political spectrum will help the Free Thinking Film Society to overcome intimidation & screen the film.”
The Free Thinking Film Society organized the event Tuesday at the National Archives of Canada. It was called off, according to reports, after threats of protests were made by phone and suspicious letters were dropped off at the venue. The Iranian embassy also filed a formal complaint, saying it wanted the showing stopped.
This did not impress the Heritage Minister. Mr. Moore cautioned the Iranian Embassy not to “dictate to the Government of Canada which films will or will not be shown in Canada.”
He added: “I am disappointed that Library & Archives Canada chose not to show the film tonight due to threats of violence,” wrote Mr. Moore…
Update Mr. Moore says the show will go on.
According the his press secretary, Mr. Moore started working on figuring out how the issue could be corrected as soon as heard the screening was in doubt. He has since instructed the Archives to honour its commitment to show the film while taking all appropriate steps to ensure security, Codie Taylor said.
“Canada does not accept attempts from the Iranian Embassy to dictate what films will and will not be shown in Canada,” the Heritage Minister said through Ms. Taylor. “The principle of free speech is one of the cornerstones of our democracy”
You can view the trailer for Iranium here…

I think this applies here.
Chavez expels Israel’s ambassador from Venezuela.

I’ve always been skeptical about whether or not foreign aid ever generates tangible results, but Joe Settler shows us that in the case of the Palestinians, it does.

I bet Hizb’Allah is nervous now. Belgian troops arrive in Lebanon.
Israel agreed to a ceasefire based on a promise that the UN would deploy a force that would assist in disarming Hizb’Allah. And almost two months later Belgium sends some engineers and medics for a field hospital in the town of Tebnine.
Seeing this type of force composition should hardly be a surprise, as they’ve already said they won’t be engaging Hizb’Allah

While the new rules of engagement set by the UN allowed the new UNIFIL force to open fire in order to implement resolution 1701, Pellegrini said he would not automatically order his troops to open fire on Hizbullah guerrillas if they were spotted on their way to the Blue Line to attack Israel. The job of the new multinational force, he said, was to assist the Lebanese army and not to disarm or engage Hizbullah or even to prevent its attacks.

Ah, so Israel gave in to the pressure for a cease fire and after a couple of months the UN sends help to build field hospitals. Well, I guess the UN has the situation well under control and Israel can withdraw, then.
Given the welcome UN troops are getting in south Lebanon, one wonders why the Europeans were so reluctant to go. While they won’t be engaging Hizb’Allah, it’s looks like they have an excellent chance at other engagements

Nancy Azzi was adjusting a new blue bikini on the public beach in Tyre earlier this week in the hopes that some UNIFIL troops might pass by. Images of hundreds of Spanish troops disembarking on the beach’s shores were plastered across Lebanon’s newspapers and television screens earlier this month.
“I just came to have a look,” giggled Azzi, 18, who along with her friend, Solvana Rizk, drove from Jounieh north of Beirut to “enjoy” the latest addition to Lebanon’s beaches.
“The Italians are gorgeous! I watched them on TV as they arrived at the airport and I knew I had to come down to the South and meet some of them,” said Azzi, whose new bathing suit, a shade of blue close to that of the UN flag, was bought in “their honor.”
But Azzi added that she hopes to have more than a “meeting” with the Italian troops; she is actually hoping to find “the man of her dreams” among the 1,000 Italian soldiers deployed to date.

Sounds like a hardship posting.

It would be nice if the Iranians ditched their president because he’s an Islamofascist nutbar bent on bringing them to the brink of a nuclear Armageddon. Or even if they just wanted someone sane and democratic for a change. But if that doesn’t happen,

we can always hope that some Ayatollah will hang him for engaging in this homosexual tryst with the Lebanese president.

Brace yourself for the ringing condemnations about to erupt from the Red Cross, Amnesty International and leading Democrats;

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia’s special services to hunt down and “destroy” the killers of four Russian diplomats in Iraq, the Kremlin said.
Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the Federal Security Service _ the main successor to the Soviet KGB _ later said that everything would be done to ensure that the killers “do not escape from responsibility,” the Interfax news agency reported.
“The president has ordered the special forces to take all necessary measures to find and destroy the criminals who killed Russian diplomats in Iraq,” the Kremlin press service said in a brief statement.

Or not.

Advice for Stephen Harper, as my last entry for the Roundtable.

A look back at the closing days of the silly season, at the Roundtable.

And how I learned to lose David Suzuki.
At the Roundtable.

A brief Q&A with blogger and Conservative candidate for Wascana – Brad Farquhar

The Liberals – still recounting the vote in Florida.

At the Roundtable

I examine the NDP platform on arts funding at the CBC Roundtable, and for once in my life, I hold back a little.