Why did the Greater Toronto Airports Authority donate $1000 to Paul Martin’s Liberal leadership campaign?
Canadian Speech Codes
Seven other things you can’t say in Canada.
Here’s another:
“The deportation of Ernst Zundel did more damage to human rights in Canada than all his writings combined.”
Who’s Screwing Up America?
A blogger poll by Right Wing News.
My pick for number 1 spot didn’t even make the list.
Fair And Balanced
Liberal commentator and self-described feminist Susan Estrich explodes convenient myths about Fox News.
I Am Who I Am
“I don’t intend to change myself,” Harper told Vancouver radio station CKNW during a nationally syndicated call-in show Monday. “I’m not a believer in these so-called image makeovers. I’ve watched politicians who tried to be something they’re not and tried to have all these different incarnations. I think it just comes across as phoney.
“I am who I am.”
Which reminds me of this bit of cultural derision;
Ironically, no federal conservative leader has had more style surgery than Preston Manning, the man who founded the Reform Party specifically to bring substance to Canadian politics.
From the look and sound of a screechy preacher in cowboy boots, Manning gradually morphed into the kind of made-for- TV capital conformist he used to deride as the “Otta- washed.”
First it was the eyeglasses that went from aviator to designer and finally into the trash after laser eye treatment. Then came the wardrobe, a slow transition from barnyard chic to Hugo Boss.
“Barnyard chic”. Nice.
Not often we get a slam at both Christianity and Western rural culture in a single sentence.
No wonder Westerners don’t trust the bigoted Eastern Media. Though Weston’s points are valid, it’s disappointing to see them wrapped in petty ad hominem. Perhaps a “style” makeover is in order for this cynical and negative Ottawa columnist.
Reader Tips And Tips For Readers
Well, as you may have guessed, I am still experiencing IP problems. So, as the subject indicates, it’s a reader tips day.
Also – for the fairly large number of you who regularly send me tips privately, a bit of a checklist may help clear up my inbox, and save you the effort of sending me something 3 others have already shared:
1) I already read Nealenews, Drudge and Bourque daily. If the “tip” you’re sending me is up on one of those sites, I’ll either find it myself, or I’ve decided to skip it.
2) If you’ve spotted an item on 20 other conservative Canadian blogs, I’ve probably seen it and decided that using it is redundant.
3) Don’t feel badly if your tip isn’t used. I use about 1 in 10 – 15 sent my way.
4) Try to remember to include some hint as to the content of the tip in the subject line. I get a lot of spam, and subect lines like “Hey!” or “Kate, Look At This” stand a better than even chance of being deleted without being read.
5) Avoid sending attachments. Large image files are never downloaded here, much less opened.
6) Don’t send dated news reports/opinion articles, unless it relates to something of topical importance. I can’t count how many times I’ve spent time creating a post on an item, only to discover it was originally published 4 years ago.
7) You don’t need permission to link to or quote on of my posts. Just use the trackback function.
8) Let me know if you want your name used. Otherwise, I play it safe and default to anonymity.
And, please don’t take offense at these guidelines – I’m not complaining – just trying to improve effficency. On an average work day I sometimes have over 400 emails a day to scan!
Problems Continue
Still experiencing connection issues (ie the phone rings but won’t answer) at my IP, so you’re on your own again today. Hopefully things will be back to normal tomorrow.
(I should add – I also have a garage to sweep out, a vintage motorcycle to get running well enough to limp down to Doctor Jim’s 2 Stroke Clinic, and 5 sheets of 3/4″ crezone to prime (both sides), so maybe it’s a good thing the connection is down for few hours. I can’t believe how much work I got accomplished yesterday….)
Windy Irony
Via local radio: A 150 million dollar Sask Power construction project in the Swift Current area was destroyed last night by a tornado. Included in the damage is a 300 ft. crane laying on it’s side.
It was a wind energy project.
Reader Tips and IP problems
I’m posting this from my Libretto laptop Juno account – having connection problems today, so if there’s nothing new after this post, that’s why! (The libretto doesn’t cut it – the keys are the size of aspirin tapblets)
You’ll have to entertain yourselves… enter your cool finds and profound declarations in the comments.
Panic In The Streets Of Calgary
On Lessons Learned, And Lines Drawn
A great post by one of my favourite guest bloggers.
Seismic Jolt In New York
Turtle Bay rocked by earthquake
Culminating years of frustration with the performance and behavior of the United Nations, the House voted Friday to slash U.S. contributions to the world body if it does not substantially change the way it operates.
The 221-184 vote, which came despite a Bush administration warning that such a move could actually sabotage reform efforts, was a strong signal from Congress that a policy of persuasion wasn’t enough to straighten out the U.N.
“We have had enough waivers, enough resolutions, enough statements,” said House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., the author of the legislation. “It’s time we had some teeth in reform.”
The legislation would withhold half of U.S. dues to the U.N.’s general budget if the organization did not meet a list of demands for change. Failure to comply would also result in U.S. refusal to support expanded and new peacekeeping missions. The bill’s prospects in the Senate are uncertain.
[…]
During the two days of debate, legislators discussed the seating of such human rights abusers as Cuba and Sudan on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and the oil-for-food program that became a source of up to $10 billion in illicit revenue for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., won backing for an amendment under which the United States would use its influence to ensure that any member engaged in acts of genocide or crimes against humanity would lose its U.N. membership and face arms and trade embargoes.
Hyde was joined by lawmakers with a litany of complaints against what they said was the U.N.’s lavish spending, its coddling of rogue regimes, its anti-America, anti-Israel bias and recent scandals such as the mismanagement of the oil-for-food program in Iraq and the sexual misconduct of peacekeepers.
I wonder if this will finally force the end of the Canadian MSM embargo on the oil-for-food investigation – it’s going to be a delicate tap dance to bash the US for “failing to live up to it’s responsibility to the UN” while continuing to ignore the massive corruption and excess that has become part of the United Nations beaurocratic culture.
Chinese Censorship
Thanks to a tip from a commentor; check out these screenshots of an attempt to use the words “human rights,” “democracy,” and “freedom of speech” on a Chinese language MSN Spaces blog.
(Actually, there are generally a lot of good tips in many of my comments sections – more than I can follow up on.)
Hanson On China
But the real question is how both China and India, nuclear and arming, will translate their newfound economic clout and cash into a geopolitical role. If internal politics and protocols are any barometer of foreign policy, it should be an interesting show. We mostly welcome the new India – nuclear, law-abiding, and English-speaking – onto the world stage. It deserves a permanent seat on the Security Council and a close alliance with the United States.
China, however, is a very different story – a soon-to-be grasping Soviet Union-like superpower without any pretense of Marxist egalitarianism. Despite massive cash reserves and ongoing trade surpluses, it violates almost every international commercial protocol from copyright law to patents. It won’t discuss Tibet, and it uses staged domestic unrest to send warnings to Taiwan and Japan that their regional options will increasingly be limited by Beijing.
China could rein in Kim Jong Il tomorrow. But it derives psychological satisfaction from watching Pyongyang’s nuclear roguery stymie Japan and the United States. China’s foreign policy in the Middle East, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia is governed by realpolitik of the 19th-century American stripe, without much concern for the type of government or the very means necessary to supply its insatiable hunger for resources. The government that killed 50 million of its own has not really been repudiated and its present successor follows the same old practice of jailing dissidents and stamping out freedom. When and how its hyper-capitalist economy will mandate the end of a Communist directorate is not known.
The world has been recently flooded with media accounts that U.S. soldiers may have dropped or at least gotten wet a few Korans. Guantanamo, we are told, is like the Soviet gulag – the death camp of millions. Americans are routinely pilloried abroad because they liberated Iraq, poured billions into the reconstruction, and jumpstarted democracy there – but were unable to do so without force and the loss of civilian life.
This hysteria that the world’s hyper-power must be perfect or it is no good is in dire contrast to the treatment given to China. Yet Pavlovian anti-Americanism may soon begin to die down as the Chinese increasingly flex their muscles on the global stage and the world learns better their methods of operation.
So far they have been given a pass on three grounds: the old Third World romance accorded to Mao’s Marxist legacy; the Chinese role as a counterweight to the envied power of the United States; and the silent admission that the Chinese, unlike the Americans, are a little crazy and thus unpredictable in their response to moral lecturing. Americans apologize and scurry about when an EU or U.N. official remonstrates; in contrast, a Chinese functionary is apt to talk about sending off a missile or two if they don’t shut up.
Grewal/Air Canada Update
Grewal was accused of having broken airport security rules on June 4 when he asked strangers to transport a package for him on a flight to Ottawa. The package allegedly contained tapes of secretly recorded conversations of talks between Grewal and senior Liberals
But the RCMP say there was nothing criminal about the MP’s actions.
RCMP Cpl. Peter Thiessen says since Grewal had already passed through security, there was no criminal offence.
Transport Canada has also cleared Grewal of any wrongdoing. In a letter to the MP, the agency’s manager of security operations says Grewal did not contravene the Aeronautics Act.
Of course, we all knew that already, because it’s been the non-stop morning talk of the same media pundits who two weeks ago honed in on the incident with the white hot scrutiny normally reserved for travellers caught with fissionable materials….
Kevin Libin at the Shotgun;
But, as the Liberals that fed the talking points to the MSM on this story well know, there’s no such thing as unassassinating someone’s character.
Stephanie Rubec Is In Pain
Yesterday on John Gormley Live Sun Media reporter Stephanie Rubec shared her perception on Paul Martin’s ability to “connect” with people vs a sense that Harper is uncomfortable with one-on-one interactions. (She also spoke on behalf of “urban women” who fear the “secret agenda” of Conservatives who “might hold referendums” on capital punishment and abortion. Oh! The horrors of direct democracy!)
Admittedly, much of the discussion was directed by Gormley (who still seems somewhat unaware of how both the provincial NDP and Liberals seed these phrases into the political discussion through push polling – we really could use more Politics 101 from our pundits), but quite apart from the actual content of the discussion, it’s worth noting how simple turns of phrase provide clues to a reporter’s political leanings (and I’m not talking about her statement that the former Reform party had “extreme” right wing policies).
What caught my attention was her repeated use, without so much as a particle of sarcasm, of variations of the phrase “feels your pain” to draw a distinction between the two leaders – as in, Stephen Harper doesn’t send off vibes that he “feels your pain”, while Paul Martin does.
In evoking a phrase that evolved from the Clinton presidency and citing it as a political asset for Paul Martin, Stephanie Rubek broadcast a little about her own political sympathies – I don’t know many conservatives who look to their politicians to emulate Clinton at his most maudlin.
I’m not suggesting there’s anything untoward with the balance or fairness of her reporting – I’m not familiar enough with her writing to say either way. It was just one of those small moments when a reporter reveals more about themselves than they realize.
SSM Bill Deal: The Libs Approached
I’ve had two private emails now that indicate that the media chatter about the Conservatives trying to orchestrate a delay for the passage of the SSM bill C 38 in exchange for supporting the NDP-Buzz Hargrove budget Bill C 48 is in fact, wrong.
Not just a little wrong. Backwards, upside-down wrong. Bungling fools. Do you wonder if they’re ever going to start noticing when they’ve been had? The Liberals approached the Conservatives.
In fact, after the (34 in total?) Liberal MP’s met with Martin on Monday to implore him to postpone the vote on the�C-38, the Liberals approached the Conservatives�and asked to negotiate (as any minority government should?). The Liberals proposed that if the Conservatives would agree to push through the vote on the Liberal-NDP Budget Bill (C-48) without further debate – even though the Conservatives would vote against this C-48 (as will the Bloc),�the Liberals in turn would ensure that the Bill C-38 (redefining the traditional definition of marriage) is put off until more debate and consideration over the summer (…re: protection of institutions that would elect not to perform same-sex marriages, etc.).� The Conservatives were considering this negotiation in good faith – then the Liberals leaked it to the media yesterday.
�
Conservatives had been weighing the Liberal proposal: Pull witnesses from further debating the Liberal-NDP budget C-48 to allow the vote to proceed immediately – with the Conservatives continuing to vote against it. In turn the Liberals would guarantee the Bill C-38 was postponed until Fall.
And how many times do they need to be screwed over before the Conservatives stop negotiating with Paul Martin?
Wouldn’t Be The First Time
Is Reuters paying al-Qaeda photographers for propaganda photos?
As Requested: Tainted Blood Links
A commentor asked for a link on the WND tainted blood story. Another reader was kind enough to pass it along. This is a worthwhile followup.
The Liberal government denied compensation to those infected before 1986, claiming that no test was available before then. That now turns out to be false.
Paul Martin was on the board of the Canadian Development Corporation from 1981-1987, during the time hemophiliacs were infected with tainted blood. The CDC was the holding company for the private company, Connaught Laboratories, the major supplier of blood products in Canada, specifically Factor VIII used by hemophiliacs.
. .
Evaluations of the safety of U.S.-sourced blood supplies were sent to Connaught Laboratories but were never even read by its senior officials. Instead, Connaught kept buying blood from a Montreal blood broker — the only company in the world still buying blood from U.S. prisons.
[…]
Somebody doesn’t want the truth to come out about how deadly blood sold from then Governor Clinton’s Arkansas prisons made its way into the Canadian plasma supply. Mark Kennedy in the Ottawa Citizen reports two incidents within hours of each other Tuesday night: the Arkansas prosthetics clinic owned by tainted blood whistleblower Michael Galster was fire-bombed and the Quebe offices of the Canadian Hemophilia Society were broken into.
The clinic was burned to its shell and fire officials say they’re “90 percent sure” it was arson. In the Canadian break-in, a computer and three telephones were stolen along with documents from a box labeled, “Hepatitis C, Krever Commission, Reform of the blood system, HIV-AIDS.”
“Maz2” in the comments
“Three telephones stolen? No. Retrieved, by person(s)unknown, complete with their bugs?”
Librano Position On Chinese Espionage: “It’s A Free Country”
Breaking from continuing coverage of Stephen Harper is scary and needs to be replaced by a proper Liberal!! we take you to this item courtesy of China e-Lobby (See the original post for active links);
Canada is beginning to recognize the depth of Communist China’s espionage in the Great White North. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) mostly rehashed the accounts of Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun regarding Communist overseas spy networks, but added that Hao “says Canada has more spies operating in it than any other country.” Jillian Ye, a resident of Scarborough, Ontario, certainly believes that, after seeing one of the documents Hao smuggled out with him “detailed Ye’s plans to start a communications company” (Epoch Times). No fewer than four members of the opposition Conservative Party, including foreign affairs critic Stockwell Day, deputy leader Peter MacKay (Hansard) Jason Kenney (Hansard) and Helena Guergis (Hansard), pressed the governing Liberals on this issue in Parliament. Meanwhile, the editors of the British Columbian Asian-Pacific Post demanded to know why the Canadian firm Nortel is helping the cadres’ crackdown on cyberdissidents.
From Hansard (via Newsbeat 1)
Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan–Coquihalla, CPC): Mr. Speaker, a few months ago, when we raised the possibility of Chinese espionage in Canada, the government did not seem concerned in the least. Now a second Chinese defector is claiming that there is an operational network on Canadian soil.
Has the government called on Chinese officials here in Canada to get a full explanation, yes or no?
Hon. Pierre Pettigrew (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we are always in touch with Chinese officials in the capital. We discuss a number of issues relating to the respect for human rights and the right of Canadian citizens to express themselves in the way they want. This is a free country. We will always insist that people are free to do so in this country. This is what we have been expressing to the Chinese officials. [emphasis mine]
Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan–Coquihalla, CPC): There was no answer there, Mr. Speaker.
Well, actually – yes, there was. You just have to listen more closely, Stock.
UPDATE
Some amazing things turn up on the net….
Via Shaken, who has more.