I Endorse

The Libranos 28 Comments

The media and many bloggers have been quick to highlight which Liberal Party bigwigs are supporting which Liberal leadership candidate. But what about bloggers?
As a service to the Liblog community and as a nudge to the campaigns to pay attention to ever growing (but admittedly still small) powers of the Liberal blogging community, Cerberus is going to try to keep track of these endorsements. I will have a permanent post in the right-hand column (how ironic) linking to the endorsement page eventually, but for now here is what I have gathered so far.

Bob Rae! Bob Rae! Bob Rae!

Where Poppies Grow And Liberals Blow

The Libranos 27 Comments

Several readers have commented and emailed privately expressing dismay that the Liberals have now chosen to appropriate the Remembrance Day poppy as their newest political prop in the House of Commons. A sample:

“Not so happy was I, watching the Liberals soil the poppy for a cheap and sleazy parlor trick.”
“First they decimate the military, don’t get helicopters to replace the SeaKings but get a new plane for the PM–and then have the nerve to wear a poppy to pose questions in QP.”
“when i was watching Bill Graham going a mile a minute denoucing the softwood deal i was floored at what i saw behind him, Liberal MP’s wearing the poppy. Now I could be wrong but i was always told that we only wear them when the Poppy Campaign is on in November & wear them on special ceremonies & at funerals. So now the liberals are making a mockery of the POPPY.”

Reader Bryanr shared this in the comments a few minutes ago:

update on the Poppies being worn in HofC Apr.27/06, RCL Command office was contacted yesterday as the house was going to have a moment of silence. RCL gave permission for them to be worn, however they were to be removed after the ceremony. As many witnessed they were not & became a political posturing for some liberal MP’s. This has been noted by many member’s of RCL & they have expressed their great concern’s over this as it could set a presidet to future wearings when not Nov11th, i myself for one contacted my provicial command & dominion command & expressed my deep concerns that this could be misconsrcewd by the general public, the other problem was that ARE YOU READY FOR IT, the MEDIA was supposed to have reported on this. Did anybody see that I sure did’nt & I watched CPAC & CTV.(i refuse to watch the Communist brodcast channel)anyways gang that is where it stands for now(film at 11)

(I have a copy of the email from a Legion representative confirming that permission was given for wearing poppies during a period of silence in Parliament on the 27th.)

The West Leads Economic Growth

Little Known Facts 46 Comments

When we’re hot, we’re hot. (Remember that kiddies, next time you grumble at the tanks.)

“The western provinces remained on top of the leaderboard for a third consecutive year in 2005, while Central Canada experienced moderate gains and Atlantic Canada trailed at the bottom of the pack,” the bank said in an analysis of Statistics Canada’s annual provincial economic report card released this week.
That report card revealed Alberta led all provinces with economic growth of 4.5 per cent last year; followed by growth of more than three per cent in British Columbia and Saskatchewan; between two and three per cent in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec; by just over one per cent in Nova Scotia; and by less than that in the other Atlantic provinces.
“However, there is more to the story than just growth,” the bank said, noting to get a better idea of living standards it looked at per-capita incomes, both before and after taxes.
“Indeed, we observed a clear-cut disparity in standards of living from coast to coast in 2005,” the report said. “Albertans were better off than anyone lately, both in terms of the level and the rate of growth in economic well-being.”
For example, it noted the average income in Alberta was $65,397 — 156 per cent of the national average of $42,464, and 13.5 per cent more than a year earlier. Only two other provinces had average incomes above the national average, Ontario at $42,993, and Saskatchewan at $42,743.

Steve Poloz, chief economist Export Development Canada was on John Gormley Live this morning and mentioned that, among other things – the US economy is “slowing” and will drag ours back down…
Makes me wonder if he gets his information from the Toronto Star Enquirer.
via the Corner

GDP Grew at a 4.8% Annualized Rate in the 1st Quarter
The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its �advance estimate� of growth in the inflation-adjusted (�real�) gross domestic product (GDP) for the 1st quarter of 2006. (Available at http://www.bea.gov/bea/newsrelarchive/2006/gdp106a.pdf).
Annualized GDP growth in the 1st quarter was estimated at a rapid 4.8% rate; growth was 1.7% in the 4th quarter of last year.
Highlights:
� The major contributors to GDP growth in the 1st quarter were personal consumption expenditures (which grew 5.5%), business equipment and software spending (which grew 16.4%), exports (which grew 12.1%), and federal government spending (which grew 10.8%). Imports, which are a subtraction from GDP, grew 13.0%.
� The inflation-adjusted change in private inventories subtracted 0.52 percentage point from the 1st-quarter change in real GDP.
� The acceleration in growth (from 1.7% in the 4th quarter to 4.8% in the 1st) reflected faster growth in personal consumption expenditures for durable goods, an upturn in federal government spending, and faster growth in equipment and software and in exports.
� Growth in the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy prices, the Federal Reserve�s preferred measure of consumer price inflation, declined to an annualized 2.0% in the 1st quarter from 2.4% in the 4th quarter.

That’s right – on the surface, this suggests that the growth of the US economy outstripped that of Alberta. I know there’s lots to quibble about in the details (differences in calculation methodology,etc.) and quibbling is our specialty here – but please, may we at least drop this longstanding and self-serving canard about the “strong” Canadian vs “weakening” US economy?

DOS Attack

Blogging 9 Comments

Looks like SDA is back up – Michelle Malkin has the gory details. If this DOS attack is like previous ones, don’t be surprised if the site goes back down intermittently over the next few hours. (or days)
SDA is hosted by a company that specializes in blogs, including some of the big names – Instapundit, Powerline and Little Green Footballs among them. It means we have blog friendly service, but it has the downside of being among the collatoral damage when attacks come in.

A Taste For Battle

Military 13 Comments

CNN;

By routing signals from helmet-mounted cameras, sonar and other equipment through the tongue to the brain, they hope to give elite soldiers superhuman senses similar to owls, snakes and fish.
Researchers at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition envision their work giving Army Rangers 360-degree unobstructed vision at night and allowing Navy SEALs to sense sonar in their heads while maintaining normal vision underwater — turning sci-fi into reality.
The device, known as “Brain Port,” was pioneered more than 30 years ago by Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita, a University of Wisconsin neuroscientist. Bach-y-Rita began routing images from a camera through electrodes taped to people’s backs and later discovered the tongue was a superior transmitter.

It’s kind of unsettling to realize the technologies of 2006 are outpacing the imaginations of 1977.
(h/t America’s #1 Kelly Pickler blog!)

Keep Talking, Dosanj

Political Animal 75 Comments

Just a few short weeks into his mandate, Stephen Harper announced today in the House of Commons that a deal has been reached in the softwood lumber dispute with the US.
And in one of those spectacular examples of perfect timing, this has played out against the backdrop of petulant Liberal Bush bashing;

�He has lifted a page from the Bush book and borrowed the Bush modus operandi,� said Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh.
�Dare I say president Harper is following in the footsteps of President Bush?

Nicely contrasting for Canadians the Harper success against years of failure by the “those bastards” Chretienites and “George Bush will be happy” Martin governments ,
For all the media attention paid to so-called “Harper misteps” in appointing his cabinet and restoring military traditions – few seem to have noticed the Liberals’ staggering march towards the cliff edge of political irrelevancy.
The outline of the agreement is already up on the PM’s official website.
And more analysis by Russ Kuykendall, complete with a chart showing the provincial share of softwood exports.

Collateral Stupidity

Insufferable Twits 19 Comments

A caller to David Kirton this afternoon related a story in which a restaurant’s card scanner malfunctioned. After several minutes of failed attempts, he offered to go to his bank and get the $16 in cash. The cashier (the owner’s wife) asked;

“Which child would you like to leave behind?”

Which makes one wonder – what did they expect to do with the kid if he didn’t come back with the 16 bucks?

Give Us The Child For 8 Years And It Will Be A Subscriber Forever

Great Moments In Socialism 50 Comments

Via email;

Have you heard of Maclean’s In-Class Program? I’m a substitute teacher & just got home from teaching Social Studies 10 where the students had to work on “current events” & were each given their own April 17th edition of Maclean’s magazine to use to answer MICP inspired questions from the cover article “The Worst President in 100 Years?”
You’ve maybe seen it, not that you’d have to see it to know that the answer according to Maclean’s is “yes”.
There the students sat as quiet as cherubs reading & drinking it all in. As I watched the kids work it made me long for the days when Social Studies classes at least pretended to be non-partisan (the next article was of the Tory/NDP/Bloc conspiracy to sink the Libs). Then, my earlier business training kicked in & I realized how Maclean’s is grooming future subscribers by positioning themselves as the “truth” to an audience that is programmed to think they are being delivered the truth.
Teachers don’t care; you hand out anything in an inexpensive, photocopiable,
easy-to-deliver package and it’s used.
The teacher’s guide is designed by teacher Allan Hardy as well as Peter Flaherty of CBC News in Review & member of the Faculty of Ed at York. Gold Sponsor of the program is The Centre for Education & Training…a self-described “progressive” not for profit corporation, providing 1000 students with magazines.
The whole program just seems kind of…wrong…to me. It’s one thing to use the media to teach critical thinking, another thing if the media sets it up & benefits while broadening the sheep count.
Somehow I suspect my teacher’s union wouldn’t appreciate my concern for
Canada’s quality of education.

And that is why, like so many other concerned contributers to SDA, the writer asked to have their identity protected.
*.

Ahmadinejad’s Reach Extends

Radioactive 29 Comments

While the Axis Of Babble wraps the Canadian Forces mission in Afghanistan in flags;

Iran has purchased ground-to-ground missiles from North Korea with a range of 2,500 kilometers, the head of the Israel Defense Forces Intelligence Branch, Major General Amos Yadlin, said yesterday.
While Iran already possessed missiles capable of reaching Israel, the new weapons pose a threat for countries in Europe and parts of the Middle East that have now come into Iranian range.
[…]
The missiles are known in the West as BM-25s, operate on liquid fuel and are single-stage. The BM-25 was originally manufactured in the Soviet Union, where the first generation, adapted for use by Soviet submarines and able to carry a nuclear warhead, was known as the SSN6.

Cliff May at the Corner.

“Iran has now purchased North Korean missiles capable of hitting Europe. Our European allies, the UN, Russia, China, can�t even agree to bock deliveries of these?”

(As I mentioned elsewhere, NRO’s the Corner is a daily must-visit for anyone interested in day to day developments in US politics.)

Reader Tips

Reader Tips 47 Comments

David Warren gets letters.
The Philadelphia Daily News gets a backbone.
More Jesus cartoons by a university publication called – you guessed it – The Insurgent.
Speaking of “insurgents”, here’s a quote that caught my eye in a Foxnews movie review of Flight 93 – “Peter Hermann shines as Jeremy Glick *, leader of the insurgents“. Now, that’s taking back the language!
A letter written by a regular reader and member of the Canadian Forces and sent to several media outlets. It went unpublished. I think it deserves the opportunity to be read – the full text is in the extended entry.

What would you do if you were aware of horrific abuse going on in your neighbourhood? What if a woman and her children living down the street were routinely beaten and terrorized by a man who cared little if anything for them. Would you be the neighbour with the courage to involve yourself personally, risking your physical safety? Would you call the police? Or would you be the neighbour willing to turn a blind eye, comfortable in the knowledge that feigning ignorance meant your peaceful life would continue apace.

Continue reading →

I Don’t Get It Either

What He Said 37 Comments

Roger Clegg;

I really just do not get it. I do not understand why people who had nothing to do with a shameful act 90 years ago can or should apologize to people who have nothing in common with the victim but their skin color. And I do not understand, I really don’t, how this is supposed to advance rather than retard racial relations. Does any person, black or white, really think that there is any adult American today who does not (a) know about and (b) lament such lynchings? The article talks about “mak[ing] amends” and “confronting” and “legacies” and “reconciliation” and “‘reapprochement'” and “commemorat[ing]” and “‘eas[ing] long-standing tensions in the community connected to the lynching.'” This is all just gobbledygook.
I suppose there is a pro-reparations political agenda that underlies some of this, but I think the main motivations are less political than psychological. There is white guilt, of course, and–more tragically–there is the need among some African Americans to keep on the front-burner the nation’s racist past, since this somehow helps them explain existing socioeconomic disparities that have little to do with discrimination any more, and everything to do with cultural dysfunction.

Tommy Douglas: Night Of The Living Serby

Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough 74 Comments

Leader Post(pdf) – NDP offended by Gormley show;

The provincial government is taking offence to comments made on a
popular radio talk show Tuesday about Premier Lorne Calvert’s handling of the province’s health-care system.

The topic – failures of the Saskatchewan health care system, highlighted last week by the story of the Hansen family in trying to find help for their 18 month old, who was finally diagnosed with leukemia after an emergency trip to an Edmonton children’s hospital.
But for Clay Serby, defending the practice of medical rationing goes beyond the treasured “fundamental principles of equality and free access” – this has evolved into a threat to government!

Deputy Premier Clay Serby said members of the broadcasting profession should review John Gormley’s Tuesday show, which Serby said enticed people to consider acts of civil disobedience.
“I have never seen, in my view, a piece of work that has created so much anxiety for people as what I’ve seen the last two days being reported by Mr. Gormley,” Serby said.

Yes there were anxious calls. Waiting for weeks to see a specialist while your health deteriorates and finances crumble can do that to a person.

During the show, Gormley played a clip from Calvert from Monday’s question period, when he stated, “It is one thing to criticize the system and it is appropriate, and it is appropriate when there is flaws that we discover those flaws and do the repair but you know, if you are going to be credible, you need to stand up and provide some alternative.”
After the clip, Gormley said, “You know what my alternative is, Lorne Calvert? Get the hell out of my way … Act like you are in charge and fix things. And if you can’t, get the hell out of the way, there are those who can.”

Gormley is bang on in this.
The NDP forfeited any right to cry foul over health care failures. This is the party that climbs aboard the Mediscare Express during every election, chasing the privatization bogeyman into seniors homes to frighten the elderly into believing the “scary fascists” will turn them into the streets to die.

“I’m of concern that yesterday’s broadcast and this morning’s has solicited a response from Saskatchewan people that is hugely troublesome, that you have an individual who phones in and says that had his presence been closer to this place, he may in fact be in jail today,” Serby said.
“Where then Mr. Gormley says that what he would like to see is he would like to see the health minister’s head on a platter … This kind of action, civil disobedience, that is perpetuated by a radio host is in my view over the line.”

Clay Serby was treated for cancer in 2004. Unlike others in the province, I think one can safely assume he wasn’t told he had a three month wait for an appointment with an oncologist.

Serby has not filed a complaint to a professional body yet about the
show, but he has asked to meet with the owners of the radio station to see if they condone the host’s conduct.

Don’t go anywhere just yet, folks. With all the gauntlet throwing going on, this story appears ripe to go national.
(Reports coming in from question period at the Leg this afternoon are that the session was a meltdown over the Gormley show. Hansard and video feed)

One Of These Things Is A Lot Like The Other

Media 26 Comments

My Conservative Dreamworld has a nice catch ;

Now, there is nothing wrong with journalists piggy-backing on other writers; for example, they may add their own spin to a story, or compress it for readers who don�t need the full details. Roberts does indeed acknowledge K�ntzel and the New Republic directly as the source of one item of information. But as the quotations below indicate, he has basically lifted not merely facts from K�ntzel�s piece but whole paragraphs. How this duplication escaped the Mop�s editors is a mystery to readers. It will surely prove an embarrassment to the paper.

The paper in question is the Globe & Mail, Matthias K�ntzel is the author of Ahmadinejad’s Demons (mentioned here last week) and the Globe writer is Paul William Roberts. Just one of several such paragraphs;

K�ntzel: The Basiji’s cult of self-destruction would be chilling in any country. In the context of the Iranian nuclear program, however, its obsession with martyrdom amounts to a lit fuse. Nowadays, Basiji are sent not into the desert, but rather into the laboratory. Basij students are encouraged to enroll in technical and scientific disciplines. According to a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guard, the aim is to use the “technical factor” in order to augment “national security.”
Roberts: A past immersed in such a cult of self-destruction would be chillingly ominous in any country. In the context of the Iranian nuclear program, however, this obsession with martyrdom is deeply worrying. Basiji followers are no longer sent into the desert; now, they go into the laboratory. Basij students are encouraged to enroll in technical and scientific disciplines. According to a spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard, the aim is to use the “technical factor” in order to augment “national security.”

Uh oh.

April 27 Update: Thankyou to Angus Frame (editor of globeandmail.com) – for stopping by in the comments to notify readers that this was published today, both online and in print;

Clarification – A profile of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that appeared in last Saturday’s Focus section referred to a story about the Iranian President in the current issue of The New Republic. After an investigation by The Globe and Mail, it appears that notes by the author were mistakenly inserted into the story without proper attribution. The Globe has apologized to The New Republic and regrets the error.

From A Canadian Forces Widow

Media 123 Comments

Yesterday I received an email that I’ve received permission to share. I’ve edited the identifying details, as the writer would like to preserve her privacy;

Hi Kate,
I have enjoyed your blog since discovered it during the election.
I trust if you share any of my email that you would keep me anonymous please. I am still having *issues* to say the least with regards to my husbands death.
[The investigation into the circumstances of his death during a training exercise] is still ongoing, at least I think it is. I have never EVER been officially updated on it. That said, the only thing that has been confirmed is there was no pilot error (important for me and my husbands memory to bring that up).
The reason I am emailing you is the issue of banning the media from the base when the soldiers’ remains are returned to their families. While my husband was not overseas, I will share with you my personal experience with the media and a very public death.
Thankfully the media had yet to discover my house when I had to go see my husband for the first time. They found me by 6 AM the following morning. My parents had driven up immediately after my frantic phone call. My father stepped outside to get the papers and he was besieged (to say it lightly) with media camped out in my driveway! They were knocking at my door, putting the cameras on us as we opened it. There was always their cars there, with them sitting in them, waiting for someone to come or go. Phone call after phone call to the house when the lines were needed for more important issues. Our grief was made very public. I was asked if I wanted media at the funeral and I agreed to have them there. I wanted the people of Canada to know that even when Canada’s sons and daughters do not go overseas, lives are put on the lone on a daily basis for the safety and security of every Canadian. To show them how the phrase “military cut backs’ translates into real life in the forces. I had insisted that there not be a close up on any family member. I was sure Joe Blow watching the news did not need to see my tears, or those of my children to know we were distraught. Yet this rule was broken.
The media also pushed for the release of the names of those killed ASAP. Why?? Does it matter to Joe Blow? Shouldn’t it matter more that ALL family (not just immediate) and close friends are informed personally even by phone than to hear it on the news? Families of victims killed in auto accidents can request that the names not be released and Joe Blow doesn’t complain.
About the Peace tower and the flag flap, if anyone understand tradition it is a military member and his family. Did I expect the flag at the Peace tower to be flown at 1/2 mast for my husband?? oh hell no! But I did expect a phone call or something from our Prime Minister? Just the letter with his stamped signature would have to be good enough. He was in Europe and there is no way that letter was written there and sent to me to receive so quickly. It is also noticeable the signature is from a stamp and not hand signed. I did get a touching phone call and a lovely letter from the Governor General, HE Clarkson.
I will end this letter now. I could go on but I am sure you don’t want to hear all the sordid details of how a military widow is really treated.
Except to add, that if I were to walk into funerals of people I didn’t know stating it is my right to know who they are etc I’d be frowned on or even thrown out.

Think of this email when you see the tape replays shot by CTV news yesterday from over the fence at CFB Trenton.
If you’ve never forwarded a post from SDA to family and friends before – consider doing it with this one. The media has been screaming for tranparency. Well, let’s give it to them. Turn the “camera” back on the microphone holders for a change, and let ordinary Canadians see the mob for the self-absorbed ratings vultures that they are.

Reporting From Indianville

Radioactive 31 Comments

An open thread on the Caledonia standoff at Dust My Broom. Rasky writes;

No other right-leaning blog out there is doing anything like this, and
I want to hear what people have to say. I’m getting really sick of the
MSM lapdogs and IndyMedia anarchists hogging the web.

Lots of updates and commentary.
Be sure to contribute your comments there first – not here. Crosspost afterwards if you wish.
Update – from DMB comments, the QOTW;

“They have counted coup on the all-season radial. Warriors indeed.”

Tommy Douglas: Thankyou For Waiting

Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough 38 Comments

The Paige Hansen story isn’t going away. The radio airwaves have been burning with angry callers and others relating similar health system horror stories. CKOM broke the story, and has been following it closely ever since. The Saskatoon health authority is launching a review – an internal review.
From Question Period yesterday. (PDF) (The whole exchange is quite a read)
calvert_paige.jpg
Babies come and go. But fundamental principles endure.
That of course, doesn’t mean that under the Calvert NDP, the system hasn’t done everything in its power to streamline – the Saskatchewan Surgical Care Network has a website that allows tracking of surgical wait times. They also feature a phone number you can call to find out where you are on the waiting list: 1-866-622-0222.
*RRRIIIINNNG*

“Due to the high volume of calls, it may take us a few days to get back to you.”

“‘Canada’s Iraq’ Indeed”

Media 137 Comments

(bumped to top due to continuing updates)
From Army.ca, a military message forum, reaction to media coverage over the government’s decision to return to previous traditions when honouring fallen soldiers;

Once again, I’m fed up and disgusted with the media and their “spinning” of non-issues into something more. Yet again, TV tonight is awash with “Conservatives won’t lower the flag” stories – presented with no background and with plenty of people saying what an “insult” it is to soldiers. They have no idea what soldiers think of this issue, yet are ready to jump to conclusions in an effort to speak for us.
To the media reading this (and I have no doubt you are): how much is enough? You have plenty of coverage of the coffins being put on the plane and I have no doubt you’ll have plenty of the funerals – invited or not. Get a grip. We are the Army; it is a sad reality that part of our job is to take casualties on behalf of Canadians and our elected political masters – of whatever stripe. Don’t denegrate that sacrifice with an unseemly and politically motivated display of spin designed to promote controversy and generate ratings. “Canada’s Iraq” indeed…

h/t Mark Collins in the comments. (Mark is also now blogging at Daimnation).
More from Chris Selley, who also agrees with the Conservative policy (and looks back at contrasting news coverage during WWI). No nation can fight a war wallowing in a state of perpetual mourning. The flag should fly high and defiantly.
(As an aside, this debate over the growing frequency of flag lowering is not new – I recall reading a few weeks ago an anecdote about a school flag being lowered on the occasion of the death of a janitor.)
Another comment from an army reservist;

As a member of the army reserve I am sick of the MSM�s facination with flag draped coffins. They are always ready to show the coffin but but there�s barely a mention (maybe one or 2 sentences)of the work done by the men in those coffins.
Journalists are scumbags who are too lazy & dumb to do anything of any value themselves so they have to achieve cheap fame by leeching off the triumphs or tragedies of others. They then justify being the town gossip by pretending everything they utter is in the public�s interest. � Yeah right. Running up to a plane to photograph coffins is in the public interest? geezuz!
What do you low-lifes in the press do for fun? Go down to the dog pound with some pop & chips and watch them euthanize strays?

If you want to register your objection to Craig Oliver’s nakedly political editorializing, you can do so here. If anyone has his personal email address, drop it in the comments.
Commentor ET points to a Globe and Mail message board, where Lew MacKenzie is fielding questions link;

MacKenzie asks readers – ‘We lost 27 killed in Bosnia/Croatia in the 90’s”…and no-one paid any attention…Same in the Sudan, Congo, Golan Heights – “absolutely no-one called for the flags to be lowered”.
He further comments “I’m glad to see the public paying attention for a change – particularly those who slashed the budget and personnel strengths during the same 90s'”
So- why didn’t the Liberals lower the Peace Tower flag before? And why did they reduce the capacity of the military to protect themselves and us?
That is -point two- the flag lowering, once, on the Peace Tower, for those four soldiers killed by US-Canadian error – was a deliberate partisan political tactic of Chretien. It had nothing to do with respect, but was actually disrespectful, for Chretien/the Liberals used those soldiers.

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