An unnamed source is credited in the WAshington Post with leaking some details – and blunt talk – covered in the meeting between Paul Martin and George W. Bush during his visit.
“(Bush) leaned across the table and said: `I’m not taking this position, but some future president is going to say, Why are we paying to defend Canada?’ “
It takes an American president to say what no Canadian politician has ever had the guts to admit.
Staying well below the media radar is another European state struggling with illegal immigration. I don’t know enough about Malta or the political climate to offer any opinion. But, I will offer that there is a pattern in the non-coverage given to these problems by western media. The issues facing the Dutch in the wake of the Van Gogh murder, “Action Sweep Out” in Germany and this incident all share a common theme. Times of Malta, Jan.19;
Malta came under intense international criticism yesterday following last week’s incidents between army personnel and illegal immigrants at the Safi Barracks.
Speaking to The Times while accompanying the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, in talks with the European Commission in Brussels, Raymond Hall, the UNHCR’s European Bureau director, said the UN agency was “deeply concerned about the apparent use of excessive force by Maltese soldiers when breaking up a peaceful demonstration by asylum seekers and irregular immigrants last week”.
[…]
Mr Hall said the UNHCR was shocked with the incidents especially since people had to be hospitalised following a peaceful protest. In the context of what happened, the UNHCR reiterates its advice that Malta should re-examine its detention policy, which involves mandatory detention for as long as 18 months and is by far the strictest in Europe.
He said: “The UNHCR is strongly opposed to the practice of mandatory detention, whereby asylum seekers are routinely detained until such time as they are recognised as refugees”.
[…] “The UNHCR has discussed Malta’s detention policies and conditions with the authorities on a number of occasions over the past couple of years. Last June, the UNHCR submitted a detailed report to the authorities which outlined a wide range of shortcomings in the four detention centres and contained numerous recommendations for changes.
“Despite a number of official letters requesting further dialogue, the UNHCR has to date received no official written response from the Maltese authorities.”
The UNHCR spokesman said his organisation fully appreciates Malta’s concerns that, given its proximity to major smuggling routes from North Africa, it risks being overburdened with asylum seekers and irregular migrants. However, he added, the High Commission does not believe such concerns warrant detention as a deterrent.
 |
Keeping in mind my aforementioned disclaimer, I think that a country only 8 miles wide and 15 miles long, and within rafting distance of northern Africa, might be extended the benefit of the doubt for creating strong deterents to illegal immigration. CIA Factbook: Malta |
Not that everyone is rushing to apologize;
Norman Lowell the fiery leader of the far-right Imperium Europa, said yesterday that illegal immigrants not only threatened Malta’s security, but also posed a “sanitary, cultural and genetic” threat to the country.
Mr Lowell was addressing a 200-strong crowd who gathered on Safi’s main square yesterday afternoon to “express solidarity” with the Armed Forces following the incidents at Safi Barracks on January 13, in which 26 irregular immigrants and two soldiers were reportedly injured.
Around 15 policemen placed barriers around the square before people gathered in front of St Paul’s band club, adjacent to the church, where electricity for the loudspeakers was provided. While it was evident that a few turned up out of curiosity, others seemed to be paying attention to Mr Lowell as he spoke. Mr Lowell started his speech by attacking the media for being “against the army and the boys in blue”. Waving a stick in the air from time to time, he said the media were controlled by “those who know where true power lies”.
“It’s the media which control and twist public opinion,” Mr Lowell claimed, adding that the media were responsible for painting a negative picture of him. “I am a libertarian and not a Nazi or a Fascist,” he said.
Mr Lowell said Malta is the only country that still had a “homogenous” race. The rest of Europe, from Ireland to Poland, was “contaminated” and it would not be long before Europeans would want to come here to experience the “real spirituality”.
“This is why we have to annihilate the black coal,” Mr Lowell said.
A group of men, who all wore sunglasses and caps, the collars of their jackets covering their chins, clapped heartily when Mr Lowell mentioned the Brigadier of the Armed Forces. Mr Lowell said that at this point, the AFM commander should not resign “even if he had the gravest of personal problems”.
Mr Lowell said the authorities were secretly going to change the law so that illegal immigrants would have a renewable visa to stay in Malta. He attacked Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini who said recently that an immigrants’ centre should be set up in Malta. “I will find Mr Frattini in Brussels and he will have to apologise publicly,” Mr Lowell shouted.
Immigrants entering Malta on boats should be stopped 14 miles offshore and warned not to come ashore, Mr Lowell said. The upcoming conference on illegal immigration would turn out to be yet another farce, with Government and Opposition on one side and the NGOs, who “have nothing better to do”, on the other, he said.
Mr Lowell finished his speech by raising his stick in the air and crying “Ave!”
Yeow.
More at the Maltese blogs Immanuel Mifsud and Toni Sant.
Sean, at Pol:Spy has been following Queen Adrienne’s travel habits – no small feat.
On Thursday I wrote this. Today my wife found this:
Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson flew to Europe on a commercial jet for her controversial post-Christmas vacation, Rideau Hall reports. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, officials have repeatedly cited increased security measures when defending Clarkson’s use of government planes.
Her decision to fly commercially – at her own expense to an undisclosed European location Jan. 9 – was revealed yesterday by spokesman Randy Mylyk after questions were raised about the GG’s absence and whereabouts at the time of the memorial service for Alberta’s Lt. Gov. Lois Hole. – CNEWSHow interesting. I know of no other Canadian blog that brought this up. I did, and I also tipped off Mr. Weston at the Ottawa Sun that I was doing so. Now Randy Mylyk is falling all over himself to stop this story before it grows legs. Another coincidence? Uh huh. I’d appreciate it if people didn’t tell Norm Spector that a Canadian blog may have had an influence on how a story played out. I’d feel badly if the poor old fellow keeled over from the shock.
Heh. Go read this, too.
Nibble nibble.
German officials are drawing up lists of hundreds of Islamic militants to be deported from the country under a new law making expulsions easier, the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel said on Saturday. Der Spiegel said authorities were already using their powers under an immigration law introduced this month in conducting an operation dubbed “Aktion Kehraus” (“Action Sweep Out”). The Interior Ministry declined to comment on the report beyond saying that deportations were a matter for Germany’s 16 federal states.
Under new rules, potential deportees will not be able to use normal legal channels to challenge an expulsion order. A special panel of the Federal Administrative Court will be responsible, with no right of appeal. Der Spiegel said judges were expected to deal with up to 2,000 cases per year.
Since the revelations in 2001 that Arab students who had lived for years in Hamburg led the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Germans have questioned their liberal laws under which some suspected militants even draw welfare benefits. Interior Minister Otto Schily has suggested that evidence of training at an al Qaeda camp should be clear grounds for expelling a foreign national. Distributing videos calling for “holy war” could also be punished the same way.
Hat tip – Outside The Beltway
Passing along an Iraq election broadcast, via INDC; entitled “Heroes of Iraq”. (There’s also a transcript at the link.)
Milblogger “Adventures of Chester” looks at predictions by George Friedman (Stratfor) for post-election Iraq and the implications for the “insurgency”;
The Shia understand they cannot simply remain in a defensive mode. They have been passive in the run-up to the election, but after the election their credibility as the government of Irraq will depend on how they deal with the guerrillas. They must either suppress the guerrillas or negotiate a deal with them. Since a deal is hard to imagine at this time, they will have to act to suppress them. If they don’t, the government will either be destroyed by the insurgents, or Iraq will split into two or three countries, an evolution unacceptable to the Shia or to Iran.
Therefore, the Shia will fight. The Shiite leadership has made it clear it wants the United States to remain in Iraq for the time being. This does not mean it wants a long-term American presence. It means it wants US forces to carry the main battle against the Sunnis on its behalf. In the same way that al-Sistani wanted the Americans to deal with Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr during the An Najaf affair, he wants the Americans to carry the main burden now.
The United States is prepared to carry a burden, but it is not prepared to single-handedly deal with the Sunnis any longer. The Shi hav substantial armed militias. It is these forces — not the failed Iraqi army the US has tried to invent — that will be the mainstay of the regime. The Shia don’t want this force ground up because it is the guarantor of their security. The United States is not going to protect the regime without these forces engaged.
At this point, something interesting happens. The Shia have a greater vested interest in the viability of this government than even the Americans. The Americans can leave. The Shia aren’t going anywhere. For the first time, the United States has a potential ally with capabilities and motivation. Most important, it is an ally that is not blind on the ground. Its intelligence capability is not perfct among the Sunnis, but it is better than what the Americans have.
Chester considers the capabilities and challenges of incorporating existing and disbanded militias, and the implications for Syria – “if the Iraqis have good intelligence of Syria’s involvement, harboring, or support of the terrorist insurgency, it is entirely possible that the Iraqis will tell the US that Iraq will do something about Syria with or without the Americans . . .”.
Helen Smith-McIntyre, chair of the Saskatoon Police Service Committee on Diversity, has called for the scrapping of a police aptitude test that discriminates against visible minorities, who have higher than usual failure rates. Smith-McIntyre took the test and “passed” – if one discounts that she didn’t complete it within the allowed time.
The half-hour test measures grammar, spelling and reading comprehension.
Against all advice, I went ahead and looked at it.
Now, excuse me for a few minutes as I curl up on the floor in a fetal position.
Diana West tells it like it is;
I found it wickedly ironic that around the time the Website Islam Online claimed Fox television decided “to remove some stereotypical aspects about American Muslims” from its terrorism series “24” — whose hero, after defusing the terrorist threat from Bosnia, South America, Germany, and corporate America, now battles honest-to-goodness Muslim terrorists — real-life news broke about the vicious murders of a Coptic Christian family whose bound and gagged bodies, slit throats and stab wounds on a Coptic cross tattoo immediately raised fears that the crime may have been Islamic in nature, a slaying of “infidels” — in Jersey City.
Long day at the shop. Overnight a foot of snow had drifted in over the inch of ice that froze to every road surface during a lovely rain we had a couple of days ago. Driving to town was no picnic. Neither was the drive home.
(click for full size)
|
 |
And today, as I buzzed and brushed along on the masks, I began to think about things. Just things at random, as I am wont to do. Sparked, perhaps, by the knowledge that the masks were Edmonton bound, I began pondering the most serious problem facing the province of Saskatchewan today – the inability to attract young people who are highly educated, and have an entrepreneurial spirit.
Suddenly, it came to me – a solution. As brilliant ideas often are, it was breathtakingly simple. It’s so damned simple I can’t believe no one has proposed this before.
Our province has an brand identity problem. The name “Saskatchewan”, while unique and memorable (if not pronouncable), is burdened by negative imagery. A simple word association experiment illustrates the problem … “Saskatchewan … taxes .. socialists … Tommy Douglas .. not dead enough … roadkill … bad roads … blizzards … wind … drought … grasshoppers …”
It doesn’t help that we’re on the shelf right next to a province that’s got a Red Hot Rating in every consumer report.
Let’s face it – Alberta is our number two problem. It’s easy to move from Saskatchewan to Alberta. No hills to climb or rivers to ford. Those Albertans are clever. They use gasoline pumps as bread crumbs – the further west you drive, the lower the fuel prices.
Time to face facts. As fond as we are of it, the name’s got to go. There’s simply too much baggage, too much bad press. But what do we replace it with? Cuba’s taken.
Here’s where my idea really started to pick up speed. Picture this scene if you will – a nice millionaire family is brainstorming for a place to move, work, invest and make even more money, and they go “Hey, why not Alberta! They have oil, conservatives, no sales tax.. ”
Why not indeed! And so they get a map of Canada, seeking fertile ground to put down new roots…
I can hear the pennies dropping…
True, we might get a higher than average representation of dyslexics, but on the balance, I think it could work. Absurd? Perhaps. Revolutionary? Certainly.
Too stupid?
Well, funny you ask. In Saskatchewan, there’s really no such thing! In fact, the Calvert government has taken a stance that when it comes to building the economy of this province, no idea is too stupid to consider.
Alberta. Albreta. Alberta. Albreta.. See? It sounds better all the time.
Jeff Jarvis live blogged his Harvard workshop entitled Blogging, Journalism & Credibility. Pretty good observations from a wide variety of participants from both big media and the blogosphere. An exerpt I liked;
: Jay Rosen is presenting his paper. He said the “war should be over between bloggers and journalists, the cartoon dialogue… Even though it makes for good feature stories and great blog posts, bloggers vs. journalists doesn’t help us much.” He said the tension between them will go on and its necessary and inevitable. But the tsunami story makes it “obvious that blogs have a role in journalism.”
Dave Winer said this morning that I was Jay’s Frankenstein. Jay said it’s the opposite. Jay’s right. He has made me think about media (read: my life) in new ways.
After summarizing his paper, he quotes Rebecca Blood saying that part of the reason for conflict is that blogging and journalism are in a “shared media space.” That is the reason the war is over because no one is leaving that space.
Jay is making a point he made on Brian Lehrer’s show a few weeks ago: that this not about the “media” but about the “press” and the press is now owned by the people. That is the real shift of power. “They have to share the press with the public.”
Isn’t that precisely the problem with CBS? Dan et al could not bear to share the press with the public. But the public demanded it. The public won that battle.
The rest is here
via OTB.
Related, Reynolds quotes Lileks:
“I’d say it’s a throwback to the old newspapers, the days when partisan slants covered everything from the play story to the radio listings, but this is different. The link changes everything. When someone derides or exalts a piece, the link lets you examine the thing itself without interference. TV can’t do that. Radio can’t do that. Newspapers and magazines don’t have the space. My time on the internet resembles eight hours at a coffeeshop stocked with every periodical in the world – if someone says “I read something stupid” or “there was this wonderful piece in the Atlantic” then conversation stops while you read the piece and make up your own mind.
Kevin Steel is offering helpful employment advice to disaffected Americans in the arts community.
More photos from a friend serving in Afghanistan.
Had an email from a friend that mentioned they did not see any women in my pictures. Yes there are women there. The men are the ones that run the market and do most of the ‘shopping/bartering’, but not all of it. Most women were a blue berka there. I was told the color is for the region in which they live. Blue was Kabul, green Kandahar, and there was also an orange.
A group of young girls. There are more photos at at this directory.
“Democrats need to embrace Hollywood because this is where they need to come to learn how to tell a story.” – Michael Moore*
Filmmaker Michael Moore’s bodyguard was arrested for carrying an unlicensed weapon in New York’s JFK airport Wednesday night..
Police took Patrick Burke, who says Moore employs him, into custody after he declared he was carrying a firearm at a ticket counter. Burke is licensed to carry a firearm in Florida and California, but not in New York. Burke was taken to Queens central booking and could potentially be charged with a felony for the incident.
Moore’s 2003 Oscar-winning film “Bowling for Columbine” criticizes what Moore calls America’s “culture of fear” and its obsession with guns. – Foxnews
update – the story has been updated. It appears that Mr. Burke was a former Moore bodyguard.
It’s been quite a “Spectorcle” at the Shotgun group blog – the past month’s incidents best summarized by Bob Tarantino at Let It Bleed.
On December 18, Spector posted this piece, entitled “Political Escapism–Further Thoughts”, which opened with this: “I suppose you could call Kathy Shaidle’s last posting ‘Canadian content.'” Somewhat bizarrely, it ended with this: “Kathy, perhaps it’s your position on abortion that has taken you out of the Canadian political arena. It would be great if you didn’t try so so hard to take others with you. We need them here.” Quite what abortion had to do with anything was a bit unclear. Nonetheless, thirty-one comments were spawned, including the beginnings of a strangely ad hominen battle between Spector and Shaidle.
[…]
Then things got really weird.
On January 3, 2005, Spector posted this piece, entitled “Jaeger on Judges”. This seemed slightly bizarre, as Kevin Jaeger hadn’t previously been heavily involved in the festivities, nor, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, had Kevin ever written the things which Spector’s post appeared to attribute to Kevin. Sixty-three comments followed.
Jaeger responded with this post, querying on what basis Spector was attributing the positions to him.
At that moment, things went from weird to abso-freakin’-lutely bizarre.
I think my only significant contribution to that dustup was a suggestion to Norm that debate might evolve more productively if he would observe “standard blog etiquette” and include links to the quotes he was attributing to others. Norm did not agree;
“As to your interpretation of blog protocol, the exchange in question is archived on this site and easily available if you care to intervene on the substance of this exchange.
“I’m sure Kevin recalls what he wrote a few weeks ago. If you don’t, do the grunt work yourself.”
Well then!
Things settled down somewhat and were relatively calm – due in no small part to several top tier bloggers throwing up their hands in exasperation and walking way – until yesterday. It all began with my post criticizing one NYT writer Sarah Boxer, entitled “The Myth of ‘Responsible’ Journalism”.
Now, perhaps “Sarah Boxer” is a pseudonym�Norm Spector uses for Arts pieces in the New York Times. Or maybe he moonlights as an editor there. If so, I can understand why my comments might strike a nerve. Sharing in the comments, he offered;
“Kate, Relax. The New York Times hasn’t even noticed your blog, much less criticized it. … still hoping that Canadian bloggers will notch some achievements…. to date, Canadian bloggers are in the dumpster down in the basement. … I know why the media stay away from those stories; I guess bloggers do because it takes too much real work …
Now, I thought those odd criticisms to direct to a group of mostly unpaid amateurs of varying interests. I became curious about that “research” and “fact checking” that these professional journalists are so renowned for. I asked , “Norm, do you actually read blogs? If you do, what is your usual daily list of reads? Who’s on your secondary list? Those are serious questions. I ask, because so many of your comments and criticisms of “Canadian bloggers” seem based on false premises and misconception.”
His response;
“I read very few Canadian blogs; the other day, I took apart a Kinsella posting, for example.
“I look at others when traffic is directed to me from sites and I’m curious why. For example, yesterday there were a few hits from Kathy Shaidle’s site.
“Don’t read US blogs, but look at a few when I see an interesting link in Taranto, or Slate or whatever.”
With that, a mystery is solved – the mystery as to why he has no respect for standard linking and quoting etiquette, why he clings to a misconception that Shotgun bloggers have as a primary goal the election of a Conservative government, why he seems not to have noticed that the majority of Canadian bloggers do not consider themselves to be journalists at all. For all intents and purposes, he doesn’t read blogs.
Holding himself to the highest standards of modern investigative journalism, Norm’s admitted lack of research is thus no barrier to criticizing our “failures” as party supporters and investigative journalists. I guess we should have known all along.
The comments thread rose to a shining Spectorly pinnacle;
When you’re in a position to bring down a Canadian Dan Rather, or to break open the Canadian angle on oil for food,let me know. Until then, I’m not interested, nor are my readers. [emphasis mine]
Well, that had all the sting of being told my pizza joint is losing fried chicken customers.
I guess I can take a little of the blame. I should have disclosed more about the nature of SDA and saved him the trouble of that unperformed “grunt work”. I might have offered that a blog with categories devoted to “roadkill” and “penis news”, that blows up Toronto Star columists in animated gifs, isn’t in the business of breaking open hard news angles – and saved him the flight of fanciful arrogance, presuming to speak for “his” readers. (Though, I will allow the possibility that his familiarity with his readerhip’s interests may stem from it being largely confined to family and friends.)
My motivation in dragging out this blogger laundry? The verbal tug-of-war between new media bloggers and this particular dead tree journalist at the Shotgun does a very nice job of illustrating the highly personal nature of the animosity of what some call “legacy media” towards the internet in general, and the blogosphere in particular. On that level, it’s really worth slogging through the ad hominens to see the phenomenon unfold in the first person. (And who am I kidding? The ad hominems are the best part.)
On another level, the protests, the insults and dismissiveness of the Dan Rathers, the Jonathon Kleins and the Norm Spectors conjure up a visual — one of lone, frustrated, raging dinosaurs, their bites blunted by age, skin sagging on massive frames, the ground shifting under their feet — wondering where all those damned nibbling ducks are coming from.
They must soon choose to make the effort to evolve and adapt. Or not.
Norm, I truly hope you have it in you.
Garth Pritchard is in Sri Lanka, with the DART team. He writes in the Toronto Sun;
IT WAS a circus when Prime Minister Paul Martin visited the disaster area of Kalumai in Sri Lanka this week for a photo opportunity. His people from Ottawa, including the RCMP, were pushing people out of the way, grabbing at cameras, and trampling over graves on the beach in order to photograph the PM.
An RCMP guy tried to interfere with my camera, but one of our soldiers intervened.
A couple of women from the PM’s office were running around yelling at people.
It got out of hand. It was crazy.
The whole visit was a photo opportunity — with cameras set up for the PM in designated spots: Martin on the beach looking out to sea, Martin amid the wreckage, Martin with a homeless kid, Martin taking a token drink of water produced by the DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) water purifier.
He met with the Canadian commander, Lt. Col. Mike Voith, and a small medical team but didn’t visit the camp of the 200 Canadian military people here for tsunami victims.
Martin’s handlers wanted no one but their people taking photos. The padre was even shoved out of the way.
90 minutes later, he was gone.
The CBC is freaking out with the arrival of Fox. So much so that they’re frantically working on a documentary about the Fox News Canadian invasion, in which they will tell Canadians what to think. Given that Fox News is now in direct competition with the CBC for whatever remnants of an audience the CBC has left, this has about as much credibility as Ford doing a documentary about General Motors, telling you that GM cars suck.
True to form, CBC was busy getting their ducks in a row before interviewing Marsden for the “documentary”.
The crack journalistic staff at the CBC is apparently fond of conducting its esteemed “research” on Internet chat boards. Just this week, I was forwarded an e-mail sent behind my back, by the CBC, to United Press International – for whom I write – asking them about some “research” that the CBC correspondent happened to come across on the prestigious Internet.
After refuting the claim and having a good laugh about it, I tried my hand at “researching” the way a CBC reporter would: Just for kicks, I randomly typed the CBC journalist’s name, John Kerry’s name, and the word “naked” into a Google search and came up with some rather interesting hits on chat boards. Maybe I should e-mail his employer to enquire about my “research,” too?
Sounds about right.
This lesson is about IED or UXO. As you know the military has a million acronyms and abbreviations for things. Unfortunately I do not remember the exact wording for these, but it has to do with explosive devices.
When we first arrived at camp, we had a AAG briefing. Another abbreviation that escapes me at the moment, but it was basically a briefing on what to do and not to do while there. One part of the briefing was devoted to mines. I know there are a lot in the area, but I honestly did not know how many until I left the camp. There are mines and unexploded shells/casings everywhere. Yes and lots of ‘accidents’. Lots of locals with only one leg or missing fingers/hand. We were told, that the locals scavage everything. So if we saw say an old tank or vehicle in one piece, not to go near it, as it was likely booby trapped.
There is a picture of mine clearers. They have been hired to move across areas of fields and remove or detonate the ammo.
Another of the pictures shows you white/red rocks. At first when clearing areas, they put up wooden signs to explain the state of the area. Of course the locals being the scavangers they are, the wood signs disappeared. So another way had to be found. Since rocks are in abundance they used painted rocks. The rocks are white and red. You can walk between white rocks, but the red side means the area has not been cleared or there are mines there.
(links fixed now).
Catching up on a few of the links sent my way that I haven’t had time to do justice to:
How much longer will it be, before the critical mass of Middle East immigrants tips the electoral scales just enough to have the Government of Canada delist al-Qa’ida as a terrorist organization? It’s certainly worked for the Tamil Tigers. Why let a few unfortunate mistakes (like the invention of the suicide bomb, 60,000 dead and assassination of two heads of state) get between you and a quarter million Liberal-voting constituents?
In an attempt to fact check my post about the new and yet-to-become-airborne A380, J.M. Heinrichs does not offer how many lawnchairs will fit in the hold of this Russian taxi.
You can’t keep a good blogger down. Welcome back, Rasky.
And now for something completely different. First, turn up the volume.
