“We have a great deal to learn from the Soviet Union . . . a country from which we have a great deal to benefit.” – Pierre Elliott Trudeau
The torch passes…
So, Alexandre, being stymied in his attempts to convince Russians that communism was actually reallyreallycool, saunters off to find some Russians who need no such convincing… and ends up partying with the National Bolshevik Party:
Go Read it all.
Teresa Borcz Khalifa is “safe and sound,” Prime Minister Marek Belka told reporters in Warsaw Saturday.
”Officials of different services took part in her release in co- operation with institutions from many countries,” Marek said.
Khalifa has lived in Iraq for 30 years, is married to an Iraqi and holds both Polish and Iraqi citizenship. She was kidnapped on Oct. 27 in Baghdad by a group that demanded Poland withdraw its troops from Iraq. Al-Jazeera television aired two videos showing Khalifa in captivity.
Good news.
Keyboard – (Dodd Harris circa 2004)
On Nov. 16th, I dashed off the following email to news@ctv.ca, after the airing of the National at 11 pm.
Subject: Film footage hypocrisy
Time : 11/16/04 11:32 pm
No tape of the aid worker’s execution. Too disturbing to show the audience the face of the enemy? Or too truthful?
Two plays of the Marine shooting of the wounded prisoner. (whose unit had lost a member the day before when a boobytrapped body exploded)
And you wonder what the mainstream media is struggling with credibility issues and falling audience share?
—
Kate
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com
I’ve probably sent about 6 complaint emails to CTV news over the past year – their coverage of the Iraq war and US politics has been abysmal – slanted, inaccurate, selectively incomplete…. in short, pretty typical. But for the first time, I recieved an actual reply from someone who claims to be a “news producer”, and it appears I hit a nerve. From which news producer, I can’t say – the email was unsigned. I reproduce it here, spelling and typos unaltered.
Ask Us askus@ctv.ca
Re: film footage hypocricy
Your arguement is specious. Video ot the aid worker being shot in the head was not available in North America. However it was reported on extensively. The marine shooting video — which on the surface appears in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention — was frozen before the bullets ripped into the body.
I fail to see either a moral equivalency or a moral imbalance.
If you think there are credibility issues … by all means … check out other forms of media. How many conspiracy theories can you really take.
I find it amazing that you think we news producers disucss issues the way you seem to think we do: that masters attend our meetings telling us what and what not to put on air.j
News value. It’s a concept.
Whew! …Looks like I’m in over my head…
A Christmas gift idea for the white supremacist who has everything.
Customers recieve a CDROM with their raw genetic data, a bar graph showing the percentages of each group and a specialized representation of their data called a triangle plot, along with a users manual. Ancestry cannot be determined by any genetics test in a black/white litmus test fashion. Instead, the results are reported as statistical estimates, and are qualified with confidence intervals. From over 6,000 tests so far performed, and extensive mathematical simulation, we know that the test is accurate to from 4-8% and sensitive enough to detect, for many customers, a single (100%) African or European great great grandparent, or a single (100%) Native American or East Asian great grandparent. Most customers use the test in an attempt to confirm recent admixture events such as this – where the family tree is primarily European for instance but one or more recent ancestors are of other ancestry, such as Native American.
[…]
High levels of admixture are highly characteristic of recent admixture events and various populations show systematic types of admixtures. The average African American shows 20% European admixture, and Carribean Hispanics tend to show significant European, Native American and African admixture. Non-African Hispanics tend to show relatively even European/Native American admixture with some showing more (even all) European, and others more (even all) Native American.
Lower levels of admixture, particularly in Europeans, require a bit of detective work to interpret. This is because the test does not only report recent admixture events, but we believe, ancient events as well. Because our genetic history is very complex, and interactions between separated populations occurred many times before recorded history, individuals of certain ethnic groups tend to show specific admixture results. Examples include Russians, Scandanavians and Eastern Europeans showing low levels of East Asian admixture (even without a Chinese great grandparent), which possibly arose from widespread interaction between Europeans and Asians during and before the Hun invasions and subsequent ethnic amalgamation. Greeks, Italians, Middle Easterners and Jews reliably and systematically show low levels of Native American admixture (even without an American Indian great grandparent) for anthropological and genetic reasons that are not yet well understood.
Test kits start at $219 US. Cool.
Frank J. launches a new comic strip. I smell syndication!
Fighting alongside their Canadian brethren in the greater war on terrorism.
James Adams exhibits “fair and balanced” reporting at the Globe and Mail.
Fox News, the Canada-baiting house organ of the U.S. right, will come to Canadian digital television next year, the federal broadcast regulator is expected to rule today.
[…]
News Corp. is controlled by the right-wing Australian media tycoon, Rupert Murdoch.
It claims to have more than 80 million subscribers in the United States alone, subscribers who have made it that country’s top- rated all-news channel and its commentators Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren and Bill O’Reilly full-fledged media personalities.
The abrasive Mr. O’Reilly, in particular, has developed an intense, albeit negative, interest in things Canadian in the past two years.
He used his much-watched The O’Reilly Factor program as a launching pad for feuds with The Globe and Mail’s John Doyle and Heather Mallick, and attacked, variously, Canadian teens (for being “ignorant”), the CRTC (for “banning” Fox), former prime minister Jean Chr�tien (for being “a bum”), The Globe and Mail (“a far-left newspaper”), Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell (for being soft on heroin users) and Canadian health care (“socialist”).
Woohooo! With endorsements like that, I think Fox can look forward to a healthy relationship with the unserved Canadian conservative news audience.
Alfonso Gagliano has held titles in Canada that include labor minister, deputy House leader, ambassador to Denmark and minister of public works.
In New York he held a different kind of title, according to secret FBI documents obtained by the Daily News: “made” member of the Bonanno crime family.
Gagliano was identified as a longtime soldier in the Bonanno crime family by Frank Lino, a former Mafia capo-turned-informer.
Lino is now cooperating with the FBI and federal prosecutors as they slowly take apart the mob family to which he once swore allegiance.
Gagliano’s name surfaced as Lino described the Bonanno family’s operations in Montreal, which has served as an outpost for the Brooklyn-based group for decades.
He said he and a group of top Bonanno gangsters traveled to Montreal in the 1990s to let the northern branch office know the family had a new boss, Joseph Massino.
The group met at a catering hall, and during the meeting, a Bonanno gangster, Joseph Lopresti, introduced Gagliano to Lino as a made man in the family, FBI documents state.
Lino made a point of telling the FBI that only actual members of the Bonanno family were allowed to attend the meeting at the catering hall. Associates were banned.
Gagliano attorney Pierre Fournier did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.
For years, Gagliano was a fixture in Canada’s national politics, rising through the ranks of the Liberal Party.
But his most powerful position was undoubtedly Canada’s minister of public works and government services, the office that oversees the Canadian mint and awards most of Canada’s government contracts.
In that capacity, Gagliano found himself embroiled in a growing scandal over potential corruption in the awarding of contracts for government advertising.
In February, he was dismissed as ambassador.
There is an ongoing investigation into allegations that government funds were funneled to large contributors to the Liberal Party for no-work contracts.
Lino was shown an array of photographs and identified Gagliano, the FBI documents state.
When he began cooperating with the FBI, Lino admitted he was involved in six murders, several attempted murders, loansharking, extortion and gambling.
Libranos flashback….
update Western Standard staff writer, Kevin Steel has written to the Daily News asking if any Canadian news agency has asked for copies of the FBI documents. Heh.
At least one Liberal MP will find it difficult to hide her distaste for the recently re- elected U.S. president. Carolyn Parrish didn’t even try on Monday, playing along with CBC-TV’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes by stomping on a George Bush action figure.
Parrish has been outspoken in the past, calling Americans “bastards” and mocking Bush’s efforts to gather allies in the war on Iraq by calling countries that follow the U.S. a “coalition of idiots.” 
“Come on guys, this is humour … I am not a monster lady. I’m not an angry wet hen. I am actually a pretty funny person and humour is one of those tonics in life.”
Carolyn has a point.
1 pm. update – Prime Minister Paul Martin has announced Parrish has been expelled from caucus.
A young Marine and his cover man cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with Ak-47’s and RPG’s. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insurgent can be heard saying, “Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor(doctor)!” He is badly wounded, lying in a pool of his own blood. The Marine and his cover man slowly walk toward the injured man, scanning to make sure no enemies come from behind. In a split second, the pressure in the room greatly exceeds that of the outside, and the concussion seems to be felt before the blast is heard. Marines outside rush to the room, and look in horror as the dust gradually settles. The result is a room filled with the barely recognizable remains of the deceased, caused by an insurgent setting off several pounds of explosives.
The Marines’ remains are gathered by teary eyed comrades, brothers in arms, and shipped home in a box. The families can only mourn over a casket and a picture of their loved one, a life cut short by someone who hid behind a white flag.
But no one hears these stories, except those who have lived to carry remains of a friend, and the families who loved the dead. No one hears this, so no one cares.
It’s Deja Graihb, all over again.
This time the “shocking” pictures are of a Marine shooting a “wounded Iraqi”, replaying on every channel, stills on every front page – while Margaret Hussan plays the part of Arni Berg, the bullets to her head too “disturbing” to view, the details of her weeks of torture too graphic to describe. The technicolor evidence of the scene of the crime is nowhere to be found.
Blackhawk pilot “2Slick”;
Call this an official warning to the MSM- keep it fair, or the blogosphere will activate the Bat Signal.
It already has.
… and prepare for the slide.
Ont. minister urges Muslims to stay in gay-ed classes
Controversy erupted after students at Market Lane Public School were shown videos that depicted the feelings of children who get taunted at school because their own parents are homosexuals.
Angry Muslim parents complained that their religious beliefs were getting less respect from the board than gay rights and demanded that their children be excluded on religious grounds from similar presentations in the future.
The board rejected their request Tuesday night on the grounds that allowing some students to be excluded from discussions about gay families would violate the rights of those children with same-sex parents.
Still clinging to the lie assurance that churches won’t be forced to perform same-sex marriages?
Ontario’s New Democrats echoed the government’s position.
“I believe that human rights come above religious rights,” said NDP critic Michael Prue.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms lists freedom of religion as a “fundamental right”. Further down, under “equality rights” we have this:
15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.
Contrary to popular belief, the word “orientation” does not actually appear in the document.
Via The Command Post:
Top United Nations human rights official Louise Arbour has called for investigation of alleged abuses in Fallujah, Iraq, including disproportionate use of force and the targeting of civilians.
Those responsible for any violations – US and multinational forces, Iraqi government troops or insurgents – should be brought to justice, the former UN war crimes prosecutor said in a statement.
Well, what are you waiting for, Louise? Grab an M16 and you go, girl.
“There have been a number of reports during the current confrontation alleging violations of the rules of war designed to protect civilians and combatants,” the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
[…]
All violations of international humanitarian and human rights law must be investigated, including “the deliberate targeting of civilians, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, the killing of injured persons and the use of human shields”, Ms Arbour said.
In related news:
Mutilated bodies dumped on Fallujah’s bombed out streets today painted a harrowing picture of eight months of rebel rule.
As US and Iraqi troops mopped up the last vestiges of resistance in the city after a week of bombardment and fighting, residents who stayed on through last week’s offensive were emerging and telling harrowing tales of the brutality they endured.
Flyposters still litter the walls bearing all manner of decrees from insurgent commanders, to be heeded on pain of death. Amid the rubble of the main shopping street, one decree bearing the insurgents’ insignia – two Kalashnikovs propped together – and dated November 1 gives vendors three days to remove nine market stalls from outside the city’s library or face execution.
The pretext given is that the rebels wanted to convert the building into a headquarters for the “Mujahidin Advisory Council” through which they ran the city.
Another poster in the ruins of the souk bears testament to the strict brand of Sunni Islam imposed by the council, fronted by hardline cleric Abdullah Junabi. The decree warns all women that they must cover up from head to toe outdoors, or face execution by the armed militants who controlled the streets.
Two female bodies found yesterday suggest such threats were far from idle. An Arab woman, in a violet nightdress, lay in a post-mortem embrace with a male corpse in the middle of the street. Both bodies had died from bullets to the�head.
Just six metres away on the same street lay the decomposing corpse of a blonde-haired white woman, too disfigured for swift identification but presumed to be the body of one of the many foreign hostages kidnapped by the rebels.
Such is the fear that the heavily armed militants held over Fallujah that many of the residents who emerged from the ruins welcomed the US marines, despite the massive destruction their firepower had inflicted on their city.
A man in his sixties, half-naked and his underwear stained with blood from shrapnel wounds from a US munition, cursed the insurgents as he greeted the advancing marines on Saturday night.
“I wish the Americans had come here the very first day and not waited eight months,” he said, trembling.
A former member of Canada’s Supreme Court, it’s a relief that Arbour has been removed from that position and into the UN, where her assinine statements lack any significant legal or moral authority.
Artists rendition of the new Clinton Library opening in Little Rock tomorrow.
(Not shown: presidential limousine up on blocks in the driveway.)
What is happening to the great masterpieces of North Korea?
hat tip – Captain Ed
Yay Condi Rice. I want her to go to Saudi Arabia, and I want her first words upon getting off the plane to be “I’ll drive.”
A photo essay– by the Seattle Times on Brenna Johnston, who was born with a rare genetic condition called Crouzon Syndrome . I’m not sure what purpose the article serves, but this is one brave little kid.
Rusty Shackleford is reporting that Hosting Anime has shut down all terrorist related sites on their servers, including several linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The website had been previously hacked on several occasions by a group calling itself Teamz USA. The story was first reported here (and then ripped off by MSNBC) and a second hacking was reported by Chad Evans (also ripped by MSM). Might I just add that a certain Star Wars themed website gave out the URL for Zarqawi to well over a hundred people promising to take down the site again….Perhaps the new owners just got sick of all the hackers?
Now, if someone would only take care of Al Jazeera.