Glimmers Of Democracy

What He Said 4 Comments

Bob Tarantino is in fine form.

Regardless, the glimmers of democracy in the Middle East can only be a good thing. And I think now would be an opportune time to reflect on the fact that, nearly a year ago, Israel assassinated two Hamas leaders (Yassin and Rantisi), which prompted much shrieking and wailing from the usual bunch that Israel was obstructing peace, that in taking such “provocative” steps Israel was slitting its own throat, that, in the immortal words of Matt Good, Israel was “making things worse” by taking out terrorists and thugs. The Globe and Mail condemned Israel’s actions (LIB response here), as did the Toronto Star (really, no LIB response necessary), and predicted that a rain of hellfire would descend on Israel for having the temerity to defend itself.
Nearly a year later, and none of that has happened. None of it.
On a related note, the same chorus was telling us for years that to remove Arafat would have been tantamount to suicide for Israel, because those who would replace him “would be even worse” for Israel. Again, so much hot air. Arafat dies, and seemingly within twenty minutes the Palestinians are holding elections and everyone (from the US to Israel to the EU to the Palestinians) is all giggles and hugs about the “new opporunity for peace”. The usual suspects are now reduced to mewling about how “Palestinians have proved that they can be the most democratic of Arabs”.
Not quite the conflagration we were instructed to expect, is it?

“Canada, We Got A Problem”

Political Animal 16 Comments

Searching the Elections Canada Financial Reports, Vitor Marciano has uncovered a long, long list of registered charities, as well as municiple governments who are donating to the Liberal Party of Canada.
Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation
British Columbia’s Children’s Hospital Foundation
Children’s Hospital of Winnipeg Research Foundation Inc.
Toronto Zoo
Calgary Zoo
BC Cancer Agency
Canadian Cancer Society
Catholic Health Corporation of Manitob
International Fund for Animal Welfare
Most of these gave money only to Liberals.
And this is most intriguing…

You will discover that the OLO in 1993 (Jean Chretien) gave $60,268 of taxpayers money to the Liberal Party of Canada and that the PMO in 1997 (Jean Chretien) gave $43,389.37 of taxpayers money to the Liberal Party of Canada.

I did a little quick searching for potentially taxpayer funded/grant recipient Liberal Party Only supporters:
City Of Saskatoon Utility Refund
Saskatoon Centennial Auditorium Foundation
Edmonton Art Gallery
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Vitor has multiple posts up, so just go to the main page. I have a full day’s work out of town tomorrow. Anyone who finds more, and wants to trackback, feel welcome. Watch for updates.
hat tip – Greg Staples at the Shotgun

Unprofessional

What He Said 6 Comments

This little gem has already been widely linked, and for good reason.

Today, during an afternoon conference that wrapped up my project of the last 18 months, one of my Euro collegues tossed this little turd out to no one in particular:
” See, this is why George Bush is so dumb, theres a disaster in the world and he sends an Aircraft Carrier…”
After which he and many of my Euro collegues laughed out loud.
and then they looked at me. I wasn’t laughing, and neither was my Hindi friend sitting next to me, who has lost family in the disaster.
I’m afraid I was “unprofessional”, I let it loose –
“Hmmm, let’s see, what would be the ideal ship to send to a disaster, now what kind of ship would we want?
Something with its own inexhuastible power supply?
Something that can produce 900,000 gallons of fresh water a day from sea water?
Something with its own airfield? So that after producing the fresh water, it could help distribute it?
Something with 4 hospitals and lots of open space for emergency supplies?
Something with a global communications facility to make the coordination of disaster relief in the region easier?
Well “Franz”, us peasants in America call that kind of ship an “Aircraft Carrier”. We have 12 of them. How many do you have? Oh that’s right, NONE.

(The rest)

CBS Rathergate Report

Radioactive 4 Comments

Via Instapundit;

Four CBS News employees, including three executives, have been ousted for their role in preparing and reporting a disputed story about President Bush’s National Guard service.
The action was prompted by the report of an independent panel that concluded that CBS News failed to follow basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of the piece. The panel also said CBS News had compounded that failure with “rigid and blind” defense of the 60 Minutes Wednesday report.
Asked to resign were Senior Vice President Betsy West, who supervised CBS News primetime programs; 60 Minutes Wednesday Executive Producer Josh Howard; and Howard’s deputy, Senior Broadcast Producer Mary Murphy. The producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, was terminated.
[…]
“the Panel cannot conclude that a political agenda at 60 Minutes Wednesday drove either the timing of the airing of the segment or its content.” [*cough* – ed]

The full panel report (pdf).
Harking back to something I mentioned in September;“About a week ago, I began to wonder why one person mentioned in the discredited Rathergate memos had not commented on the controversy. My suspicion is that he may have been seeking legal advice – as far as I can tell, it looks as though he’d have one hell of a libel suit against CBS”; this observation from Ratherbiased about the delay in the release of the report;

It’s now been 110 days since CBS News President Andrew Heyward promised the report would come “in weeks, not months.” Is Walter Staudt, the former commanding officer of George W. Bush’s Texas Air National Guard unit, indirectly responsible for why we haven’t heard anything from the Memogate commission?
That may very well prove to be the case considering that Staudt may have good grounds for a libel suit against CBS for claiming, without even asking him, that he had pressured subordinates to “sugarcoat” the record of Lt. Bush. One thing is almost for sure, if the report is released in a heavily edited form, the odds are pretty high CBS is worried about getting sued.

Stay tuned, as various bloggers are now combing and factchecking the report.
update

Rather informed the Panel that he still believes the content of the documents is true because ‘the facts are right on the money,’ and that no one had provided persuasive evidence that the documents were not authentic.

Powerline has some damning quotes and analysis.

Smith sent an email to Mapes proposing that they set up a book deal for Burkett so that he could be paid in exchange for turning over the documents:

Today I am going to send the following hypothetical scenario to a reliable, trustable editor friend of mine…
What if there was a person who might have some information that could possibly change the momentum of an election but we needed to get an ASAP book deal to help get us the information? What kinds of turnaround payment schedules are possible, keeping in mind that the book probably could not make it out until after the election.

Mapes replied: “that looks good, hypothetically speaking, of course.”

Egads.

Postcard From Kabul

Military No Comments

Yes there are some beautiful beautiful sights. I was looking across at the King’s palace with Kabul in the background. The houses could be seen part way up the mountain. The mountains with their snow cover. I was going to go get my camera…………….again, but I did not think I could quite capture that scene. It was awesome. In a city of destruction, there is that beauty. I have pictures of the other side too. The mess, the garbage in huge piles along city streets. Buildings partially in ruin and people living in the other side. The mass confusiion that is the everyday life.
The first time I went to Kabul, I was amazed. The driving is out of this world. There is a road, but no ‘your side or my side’. You will have three or more rows of cars in one direction. Not even even rows, with no room for anyone to come in the opposite side. Signal lights are unhead of, but the horns are blaring everywhere. There figure that is how to change lanes or let someone know they are moving into your lane. Most of the cars are painted yelllow. When the new regiment took over, they said no one but taxis were allowed to be on the road, so everyone painted their cars yellow and called themselves taxis. One of these taxis will slow down or stop, anywhere. They don’t even think of pulling over, and people jump in or out.
The cars/buses/vans are packed at times. I have seen people sitting in the trunk, sitting on the roofs, or laying across people in a vehicle. On buses/vans it is nothing to see people hanging out the door. It is funny to see. I might also mention that some vehicles have the steering on the right
and others on the left, there is no rhyme or reason to anything here. I think I managed to capture a few pictures of the things I mentioned. They are in my bag at the moment. And I have gotten another email saying I am leaving tomorrow to another camp, before I go home.

(From a friend in the Canadian Armed Forces)

Collapse of Objectivity

Media 1 Comment

This lengthy piece by Melanie Phillips has been recieving a lot of buzz;

How has Middle Britain come to applaud the view – hitherto confined to the most extreme left-wing circles — that the President of the United States is more of a danger than an unbalanced dictator with a terrorist history? How have such solid citizens come to view a democracy – Israel – that has been under attack since its foundation as the greatest threat to world peace? And how has the ancient libel of sinister global Jewish power been allowed to rear its head so openly once again?
Britain is gripped by an unprecedented degree of irrationality, prejudice and hysteria over the issues of Iraq, the terrorist jihad and Israel. All three are intimately linked; all three, however, are thought by public opinion to be linked in precisely the wrong way. This is because all three have been systematically misreported, distorted and misrepresented through a lethal combination of profound ignorance, political malice and ancient prejudices.
This systematic abuse by the media is having a devastating impact in weakening the ability of the west to defend itself against the unprecedented mortal threat that it faces from the Islamic jihad. People cannot and will not fight if they don�t understand the nature or gravity of the threat that they face, so much so that they vilify their own leaders while sanitising those who would harm them.
Yet that is what is happening. Public debate in Britain is now marked by a collapse of objectivity, truth, fairness and balance. Logic and morality have been stood on their heads. Victims are portrayed as oppressors, while mass murderers have to be understood and sympathised with. The outcome is an ugly and dangerous climate in which prejudice and lies have achieved the status of unchallengeable fact; a climate which is now being eagerly manipulated by terrorists who know that if they ratchet up their barbarism and distribute the video the result will merely be an ever greater public clamour for Tony Blair to split away from President Bush and shatter the coalition in defence of the free world.

Rightfully so.
(Crossposted to the Shotgun)

Eject, Eject, Reject

Moonbats 1 Comment

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Michael Moore was a guest on SUNDAY MORNING SHOOTOUT, for which I am the editor. I recused myself from that taping. There are, to my knowledge, only five people that I fear may cause me to lose control enough to become (progressively) embarrassed, fired, arrested or executed. O.J Simpson is one; the second is the absolutely execrable Ted Rall, and the final three are Michael Moore.

The editor in question? Bill Whittle. I cannot imagine….

(I am only quoting from memory here, so it will be burned-neuron verbatim, believe me. His voice is echoing in my head like the endless fugue of screams and rudely spat-out cries of Sex Dwarf! in that classic old Soft Cell song – pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel.)

‘Tis a miracle the universe lived to see the morning.

Reader Tips

Reader Tips 3 Comments

National Post: “[I[t is somewhat galling to hear Paul Martin and other Canadians brag about how our tsunami response serves to showcase “the Canadian way.” While the United States and other Western nations were using their helicopters, planes, navies and other “hard power” assets to save lives, our cash-starved troops were cooling their heels in the departure lounge.”
Surprisingly, the Coalition of the Actually-Own-Military-Stuff seem to be getting their due;

Mr. Annan praised the efforts of the so-called core group, the United States, Australia, India and Japan, as “absolutely crucial.”
“They have the logistical capability to be able to come in and ensure that, despite the lack of infrastructure and logistics, we will be able to get things [done],” he said. “And they helped with heavy equipment, they helped with the airport and now, of course with the helicopters and all other [things], they’re also helping with distribution, getting the food to the needy. And they are working with the UN team and others, and the government.”

Well, not so surprisingly. Translation: “Please don’t fire me.”

Iraqi officials have recently implicated more U.N. staffers in bribe taking during the oil-for-food program in a development that could dramatically escalate pressure on the world body.
[…]
Investigators from the House International Relations Committee said several current and former officials in Iraq’s Oil, Health and Transportation ministries have told them that U.N. staffers assigned to the “661 Committee” — the U.N. Security Council group that oversaw sanctions and approved oil-for-food contracts — regularly took bribes and kickbacks from suppliers of aid to Iraq during the program.

After all, where does one go after serving at the highest levels in the UN?
Well, if you’re Maurice Strong, architect of Kyoto, one goes to China, one does – to save the environment through cheaper SUV’s.
And the circle is unbroken;

Long before he found fame as a Canadian politician, Paul Martin went out and borrowed tens of millions of dollars to buy a company called Canada Steamship Lines (CSL). This was circa 1981, and there is no doubt that he already knew the influential Maurice Strong, of United Nations fame. It was Strong who hired Martin to be his personal assistant at Montreal’s Power Corporation-even before he had left university and it was Strong, who later helped Martin get his stake in CSL.
As the public record shows, Martin is still getting boosts for CSL from the scandal-ridden Canadian government.

Some CSL employees make as little as $2.20 an hour. Of course, they’re Ukranians, sailing under foreign flags.
(Thanks to all who sent tips.)

The Mecca Card?

Radioactive 4 Comments

Via Uncle Meat (who doesn’t do nearly enough blogging) this bit of raw meat for the conspiracy theorists. I’m not offering any comment on it, just tossing it out as food for thought, or to tussle over.

“There has been a rumor floating in the Washington ether for some time now that George Bush has figured out what Sword of Damocles is suspended over Osama bin Laden’s head. It’s whispered among Capitol Hill staffers on the intel and armed services committees; White House NSC (National Security Council) members clam up tight if you begin to hint at it; and State Department neo-cons love to give their liberal counterparts cardiac arrhythmia by elliptically conversing about it in their presence.”

Cardiac arrhythmia? Well, that and then some.

Chicks And Balances

Media 1 Comment

“Bloggers have no checks and balances . . . [it’s] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas.” – Jonathon Klein – president, CNN*

Judge upholds CBC firing of reporter who sent candy rubbed in chicken to critic.
Keating broadcast a story in 2000 about a health-care lobby group called Save Our Services abandoning a lawsuit against the provincial government.
Keating told the arbitrator he understood that Earl Hamilton, head of the lobby group, had referred to him as a “toady of the government; he was not to be trusted,” Allan’s ruling stated.
The reporter had spoken to a CBC lawyer about taking defamation action against Hamilton but was talked out of it.
So, on Jan. 29, 2003, Keating “purchased a box of chocolates with a view to spitting on them and sending them anonymously to Mr. Hamilton,” Allan wrote.
Instead, he took two of the chocolates, rubbed them in thawed, raw chicken and sent the box to Hamilton with a note that said “keep up the good work.”

To be fair, Keating did endure a “pang of conscience” and informed the recipient before any harm could be done, and the followup mea culpa cost him his career.

“I did something beyond stupid and it cost me a career. I think the CBC was justified in firing me.”

However, it’s equally fair to ask how tainted the reporting of this “professional journalist” had become before this final excess and resulting epiphany.
via Nealenews There’s no sign at all of the story on CBC.ca.

Give To Save My Flagging Career

Insufferable Twits 15 Comments

Tom “Life Is A Highway” Cochrane, at a press conference yesterday to announce two Canadian fundraising concerts for tsunami relief;

“It’s a natural disaster, but if one person dies because of disease or because of malnutrition because of this, then [the] shame [is] on us.”

Tom, go fuck yourself.
If one person “dies because of disease or malnutrition”, Mr. Cochrane, it’s because they were unfortunate enough to be living in countries ruled by corrupt dictatorships, burdened with socialism, civil war and/or religious anachronism that have so crippled their economies that they remain too poor to have resources at the ready to respond to disaster.
And you – you sanctimonious twit – have no business parcelling out “shame” vouchers. Indeed, if I were you, I’d be turning a few shades of red – capitalizing on the losses of those less fortunate to reap a little energy boost for your own flagging career. Going to prance around on a stage for us, screaming “ring those phones”, are we? Be sure to shower us with praise, tell us how very remarkable we Canadians are. We can already picture Margaret Atwood looking on from the sidelines, swooning in self-congratulation.
Oh, and the charities you’ve chosen! Ms. Atwood’s political hand has been at work here, surely – Oxfam, Care Canada, Doctors Without Borders (who already announced they’ve got enough) and War Child. War Child? – why yes! The kindergarten version of Amnesty International. (How did those little Dutch and German children manage without psychiatric centers, music and dance therapy, as they recovered in the wake of WWII…? )
I have a different deal for you Tom. Instead of another self-serving charity concert, with sky-high production costs and celebrities flying in on private jets, how about something truly groundbreaking – just cut a goddamn check. Pass the hat around. Celine? She’s got to be good for 5 or 10 million. Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan – two more ladies who could save everyone a lot of trouble and just pick up a pen. David Foster is out there somewhere. (I know it’s harder to capture their interest without a tv camera pointed their way, but still…) Print up one of those nifty 6 foot long “checks” for the cameras, if you wish. Have your news conference and tell everyone the total you’ve raised directly from the Canadian music industry and then just … go … away.
Save the jet fuel, the stadium bookings, the long vans carrying CBC equipment and personnel to record and broadcast the events. Save the speeches, and the heart-rending personal stories, and the mismatched duets. Just save it.
We’ll contribute by going out and picking up a CD or two, OK?
Win, win – and nobody has to endure the day-long spectacle of 25 millionaire musicians on stage doing the group hug singalong.

Saving Dolphins From Water

Little Known Facts 1 Comment

The Humane Society of the United States has a blog, detailing the efforts of these selfless people who are rescuing dolphins and breaking up dog fights in the tsunami flood zone.

I sent a text message to Jim Styers from Myanmar Dolphin Project to let him know the adult dolphin had been caught.�He wanted to know if anyone had taken any statistics� was the animal rehydrated, did it get antibiotics, etc?�I told him I didn’t know, but�thought probably not since the rescue was conducted by local fishermen who would�not have�had the resources.�Jim suggested that someone should be checking the beach regularly as stressed or tired dolphins�will beach themselves.�That made me think of what�Miranda said: that it was easy to catch the animal�because she seemed tired. I hope this is a victory.
Edwin Wiek from SOS Wildlife Rescue Center went to the site immediately when he heard the news, and�stayed until dark surveying from the shore to see if the other dolphin surfaces.

I spotted a HSUS blogad earlier today, soliciting donations for the relief effort.
The Humane Society of the United States is not the US Humane Society. They are not the people who rescue homeless strays and volunteer at animal shelters. In fact, HSUS doesn’t run any shelters at all.
They are yet another incarnation of the various animal rights organizations that are politically and legislatively oriented. Like PETA but with the added advantage of confusing nomenclature, they solicit donations exploiting big brown puppy dog eyes, and spend them forming PACs and lobbying for animal rights legislation and breeding bans. They are reported to be the richest animal rights organization in the USA.

Worth magazine rates HSUS among the worst-managed U.S. charities, noting that HSUS took in over $65 million in 2000, yet spent more than half of it to raise additional money. “We’re not saying they’re crooked,” offered Worth writer Reshma Memom Yaqub in November 2002, “but we do take issue with some business practices.”

Don’t send them a cent.

Team Hollywood, Environment Police

Insufferable Twits 1 Comment

Intrepid citizen journalist “Huck” is hot on the trail of members of F.A.G.*, otherwise known as the Waterkeeper Alliance*.

This is the weekend where Calgarians get to listen to such notable ecological researchers as actor Alec Baldwin and, um, socialite Marla Maples tell us how our river is dying and that our lifestyle is killing it. This, apparently, is a good thing because residents living in the Bow valley are complete idiots and wouldn’t know how to properly maintain our environmental standards unless Hollywood (and Martha’s Vineyard) educates us on our behalf.
[…]
I’ll be sure to keep you all up to date on the progress these wonderful philathropists will have accomplished this weekend, from the all-important snowshoe races to the Kenny Loggins concert.

Yes, do.

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