Kucinich on Canadian Health Care . . . .

You GO Dennis, my man!



Take that, "Blue Dog" dems.

Dennis is the man, once again . . . .


(Isn't that John Conyers over gratzer's shoulder?!?)

H/T Crooks and Liars for the heads up.

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Those who didn't see this coming, raise your hands

Harper and his hillbilly cabinet couldn't have screwed this up any worse if they'd actually set out to do it.

The United States is moving to develop its own source of medical isotopes as the lagging repair of a Canadian nuclear reactor leaves Americans “critically short” of the radioactive material.

Nuclear watchers in this country say the loss of Canada's biggest customer could doom the nuclear-research and medical-isotopes industry that was pioneered here a half century ago, prompting a brain drain and leaving Canadians dependent on the United States.

A senior official with the National Nuclear Security Administration said at a meeting of the National Academies in Washington yesterday that his organization is evaluating a broad spectrum of ways to convert reactors in the U.S. to produce a domestic supply of technetium.

The “current supply crisis has captured the attention of the White House” and other top U.S. agencies, Parrish Staples told the meeting. Dr. Staples estimated it will take $120-million to create a U.S. facility.

So what will eventually happen is this:

Canada's nuclear research reactors will go cold and a $4 billion industry which Canada has dominated for the better part of half a century will vanish. Forever.

Instead of selling the United States, with ten times our population, one-half of their demand for medical isotopes, we will purchase isotopes from wherever we can get them. Where Canadian requirements would appear on the list is open to question since we have less than one-tenth the demand.

Jean-Luc Urbain, president of the Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine, said this country's abysmal handling of the isotope crisis has left the United States little choice.

“There's probably no better way to shoot yourself in the foot than to act as the Canadian government has been acting over the past 18 months,” Dr. Urbain said in an interview yesterday.

Exactly. Because the Harper government has done nothing to deal with the situation despite the fact that this is a glaring and obvious problem which required serious attention.

An expert panel set up by the federal government to explore ways of securing a long-term supply of medical isotopes plans to meet for the first time on July 16.

They might want to include the passport office on that panel. As the Harper crowd ships another industry off to the United States they'll also be looking at the backs of Canadian nuclear specialists trip across the border.

We, however, will continue to rape our northern landscape in an effort to sell melted-down goo. And that's all we'll do as we watch our balance of trade deficit balloon.

Harper's vision, if you can call it that, is to make Canada the "North American energy superpower". In fact, the actions and inactions of the Harper government are chewing away at our economic diversity and in areas where we possessed a significant lead. By the time he's finished ignoring real problems and shrugging off any endeavour he doesn't care about as a "sunset industry" we might be faced with the economic nightmare of having all our eggs in one basket - except it'll be worse. We'll have one egg - period.

As usual, Impolitical is on this and has more.

Want your combat team to have an edge? Add women.

When Michael Coren unloaded the contents of his mesozoic mind regarding the death of armoured corps trooper Karine Blais he unleashed a flood of criticism aimed at his sexist take on Blais' combat death. Worse though, Coren dismissed Blais' service in a frontline combat arms unit as "dressed up as a soldier" and then went on to insult every serving female by stating, "... there are few if any women who have the skills required to serve as a front-line combat trooper."

Coming from someone who possesses no combat training at all, it was viewed by any informed person as an incredibly stupid statement. It also isn't true, and the US Army and US Marine Corps are finding that women serving in combat positions are not only just as capable as men, but have frontline skills unique to their gender.

In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army and Marines found it useful to send a female soldier along on raids, as it was less disruptive to have a woman search the female civilians. There was no shortage of volunteers for this duty. The marines, as is their custom, saw more opportunities in this. Thus the marines began sending a team of women on such missions.

The US Marine Lioness teams were established to facilitate searches of women and children during security operations in Iraq, but it turns out the teams of 3 to 5 female marines have other significant results.

Iraqi women were surprised, and often awed, when they encountered these female soldiers and marines. The awe often turned into cooperation.

That, however, isn't as significant as this.

The marines also noticed that the female troops were better at picking up useful information in general.

[...]

Iraqi men were also intimidated by female soldiers and marines. In the macho Arab world, an assertive female with an assault rifle is sort of a man's worst nightmare. So many otherwise reticent Iraqi men, opened up to the female troops, and provided information. Women also had an easier time detecting a lie.

So, the question from across the room is, "That's a no-brainer. What took them so long?"

Indeed. What is taking them so long? U.S. law still prohibits women from serving in the true combat arms occupations. Infantry, artillery and armour remain male-only military trades.

In Canada, as in many countries, however, no such restriction exists. Women can and do serve in any occupation offered by the Canadian Forces. Further, they do it well and with as much skill and dedication as any man. And there are times when women simply do the job better.

In the aftermath of the brutal Liberian civil war, India sent an all-female peacekeeping contingent. The success of their mission has brought a request from the UN to member states to increase their contingents of female soldiers in both peacekeeping and peace enforcement missions. Currently, of 90,000 personnel on UN police and military missions only 8 percent of police and 2 percent of the military are female.

The Corens of this world, having never served period, much less with women in a combat unit, don't get it. In Afghanistan, Iraq and the multitude of conflict areas of the world the combat involves insurgency and guerilla warfare. There is no head to head fight between massive organized forces. In such asymetrical warfare you take every advantage you can get. Intelligence has to be gathered, filtered and analyzed rapidly and effectively. Putting women into combat teams gives those teams an edge they would otherwise not have.

And my own experience serving with women in a combat unit is that they can handle themselves and the job extremely well. The only difficulty they endured was within the unit from males unable to accept the presence of women and who were willing to expend energy attempting to sabotage what they (those few men) viewed as some sort of social experiment. Some of them shrunk into their shells when, after an opposed boarding of a suspicious Honduran merchant ship, the boarding party returned cheering on a female leading seaman who had taken down two opposing sailors, with her feet, before the rest of the team could get to her.

The honest truth is, the gender of a soldier, sailor, marine or aircrew is meaningless as long as the task is being accomplished and the mission is going forward. Whether its putting ordnance on target, pacifying a village or gathering intelligence, the requirement is dedicated, focussed and properly trained people.

The US Army and Marine Corps are figuring that out, finally. The Corens of this world never will.


Hat tip deBeauxOs

Aspirations

It seems aspirate is the word the month for me. It is a word of many meanings. I can mean inhaling air or something else into the lung as in "He nearly drowned after aspirating too much water." It can also mean, in medicine, the removal of liquid or gas from the body. Or, as aspire or aspiration, the desire to achieve or gain more of something.

Twelve or thirteen days ago, surgeons were discussing whether to aspirate my severely bloated abdomen after an appendectomy left my bladder and bowels dormant (painful).

Then earlier today, I read Impolitical's account of Jim Prentice's verbal aspiration regarding the current government's wait-just-a-minute-now-nobody-said-anything-about-actually-doing-something aspiration regarding G8 climate change resolutions.

And a few minutes ago I found myself reading JH Kunstler's current Eyesore of the Month photo-caption regarding Sarah Palin's Wasilla city hall, who nails the issue square-thusly:

In honor of soon-to-be-former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, we present her hometown's seat of government. Like many public buildings around small-town America these days, this one was built with next-to-zero thought or care. It expresses a notion of democracy as like unto a take-out hamburger -- and many of you may be thinking... yes, that is exactly what it has come to! Of course this leaves out one the more interesting parts of the American ethos: to aspire to something finer. And to express these aspirations in our buildings. One might conclude that we're fresh out of aspirations. Have a happy holiday everybody!

America, Canada, it doesn't matter, as we both seem to suffer from a lack of aspiration, inspiration and general interest regarding our futures. Kunstler sees this in the vernacular architecture of "nowhere", but it is also reflected in political leadership, more so here now than in the US. Obama, it must be said, has inspired aspiration among his constituents and seems bent on following through on at least a few things. What do we have here? Canada, the young country which, 70 years ago mobilised almost overnight to turn a skeletal and decrepit armed forces into the one of the world's largest and most potent to meet an existential challenge to a safe and free world. Now, another existential challenge, and the party of the day aspirates excuses like those they ascribe to that long maligned British PM their supporters are so fond of paradoxically blaming for failing to start WW2 earlier in order to stop it later.

That said, it's not like the other party we might elect would be much different - they just present better. Their last leader, who took climate change seriously, lost because he wasn't macho enough to win. This is sad. Not only because it suggests a macho facade, no matter how poorly orchestrated and shallow, still whispers 'leader' in the minds of many of the public as if contests of privilege are still decided with clubs and spears. 10 000 years and were 10 feet out of the cave. But also because it puts us on a path of choosing deeply conservative (in the literal sense) leaders beholden to obsolete social and economic orders at a time when we need the exact opposite.

So I guess were going to have to wait for the this shallow, aspirating and expiring modernity to drain away before we'll change. I hope we can hold it together enough to make the transition to a new world viable and orderly. It is sad because sometimes I see this world so pregnant with promise I think the water will break tomorrow. And then I see the news and watch all those macho Spartans throw promise against the mountainside and my heart sinks. But I don't give up. We know what happened to the Spartans.

Our work really begins when they fail.

Stay classy, conservatives!

Oh those witty conservatives, with their clever slogans on t-shirts - what a zany bunch!

I think people should be allowed to wear whatever idiotic shit they want to wear, even stuff like this that is calculated to offend.

But while my most offensive T-shirt merely mocks mass superstition and identifies me as a blasphemous non-believer with no respect for the deeply held beliefs of others (guilty!) this bit of warm weather fashion on the left puts forth the hi-larious notion that wearer enjoys taking shackled, helpless human beings and repeatedly almost drowning them just for shits and giggles. Ha ha ha!

I don't wear my sacrilegious shirt to churches or anything like that and I full expect to be called a heathen by any religious people I happen to run across - I deserve it. If you bring a bucket of KFC and wear snakeskin boots, leather pants and a mink coat to a PETA meeting, chances are pretty good that you'll get told off - that's kind of the point. Wearing a shirt that says "I'd rather be burning kittens" to an ASPCA fundraiser or an "Impeach Bush" shirt to a GOP rally is a provocative act. You do it to annoy cat fanciers or republicans and to identify yourself as someone who opposes what they stand for.

So conservatives, go ahead and order yourself a pile of "I'd rather be waterboarding" shirts - wear them everywhere you go! Let your pro-torture freak flag fly! Go right ahead and identify yourself as an enemy of the human race, it's bound to really piss off those pesky annoying people who dislike pointless cruelty.

Alternatively, you could just skip a step and have "I am an enormous douche bag" tattooed on your forehead, because that is what the rest of the world is going to see when you wear that shirt.

Bang, Bang . . .

Per Congressional Quarterly today:

House Panel Adopts Amendment Allowing Guns in Public Housing
By Karoun Demirjian, CQ Staff | July 9, 2009 – 11:40 a.m.


Gun rights advocates scored a victory Thursday as the House Financial Services Committee adopted an amendment to allow guns in public housing projects.

The amendment, offered by Tom Price , R-Ga., would bar any housing authority from restricting legal ownership of guns. It was adopted by 38-31, as the committee continued its markup of a housing bill (HR 3045) the panel is expected to approve next week.

While the Department of Housing and Urban Development does not have a specific policy concerning guns in public housing, several local agencies have banned them in an effort to reduce violent crime in housing projects. Major urban centers began to adopt gun bans in the 1990s, and advocates of such steps argued they have improved the safety of public housing.

“There was a time during the ’70s and ’80s when public housing developments were considered killing grounds,” said Emanuel Cleaver II , D-Mo., who grew up in public housing. “It is just foolhardy to place guns in developments of poor people, many of whom are unemployed, and place these guns around children. . . . Why would we try to put guns in the most densely populated areas in the urban core? It’s just unbelievable.”

Well, now that makes perfect sense, don't you think?

"Unbelievable" is right . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

19 months

That's how long it took the Harper government to wreak complete and utter havoc on Canada's medical system.

When the Chalk River reactor was shut down in December, 2007, Harper and his gang of thugs had a choice. They could deal with the situation temporarily and get down to work developing viable alternatives to the aging Chalk River reactor and a looming medical isotope crisis, or they could stand around screaming their lungs out about how this is nothing but an attempt to make them look bad.

In short, the simple choice was to either govern on behalf of all Canadians or play politics on their own behalf.

The Harper crowd chose to play politics. (Original quote from the Globe and Mail, 13 Dec. 2007)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed yesterday that someone will be held to account for the shutdown of the reactor that produces half of the world's medical isotopes as his government searched for culprits to blame in its battle with the country's nuclear regulator.

"I can certainly assure the House that when this is all behind us, the government will carefully examine the role of all actors in this incident and make sure that accountability is appropriately restored," Mr. Harper said in the House of Commons.

Nothing about actually solving the problem; nothing about going into the future; nothing about actually governing.

There was a solution, perhaps even a number of them, but they were blinded by their warped ideology and their lust for blood. Typical of the type of hard-right, social conservative animal that populates the Harper party, they felt it important to present themselves as authoritarians.

They did the only thing they knew how to do and chose punishment over planning and progress. Harper fired the only person who had a clear view of the situation, claiming that Linda Keen was a Liberal appointee who was obviously trying to undermine Harper's authority.

It's worth examining for a moment the reason Harper and his circle-jerk of ministers believed Keen's motivation was anything but professional. It's because that's what they would do and they have proved it through an endless stream of advertising smearing anyone or anything that has the slightest appearance of political opposition.

Instead of spending 19 months putting together a comprehensive solution to a problem of which they were made fully aware, they ignored it and instead gave us oil-blots, crapping Puffins and criticism of anybody who actually possesses a world-view beyond their authoritarian bubble.

And now, today, we get this. (My emphasis)

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt issued a joint statement saying they are disappointed the repairs will be delayed. They said the shutdown will result in a significant shortage of medical isotopes in Canada and around the world this summer.

“I have directed AECL to give paramount priority to bringing the Chalk River reactor back to service as quickly and safely as possible and will hold AECL accountable to that end,” Ms. Raitt said in the statement.

Roger. Another splat of authoritarian garbage from yet another incompetent Harperite. No plan; no real effort; just a promise to do what the Harper sycophants do best - punish somebody.

Canadians are going to die of diseases having not been diagnosed in a timely manner because of an isotope shortage that the Harper government knew about 19 months ago. Between then and now they have produced nothing. No plan; no solutions; no action. Just threats of punishment.

This is supposed to be a group which understands how to do business and run corporations. The truth is, if they ran a large company the way they run this country the shareholders would tear their guts out at an annual general meeting.

This country is in desperate need of a government.

Now, go read Impolitical.

This would be the time for the July snowball fight

I never thought I would find myself in a position defending Stevie. The worst part is, it's either him or them, and he wins.

Honestly, can anybody realistically call this an issue?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper should not have accepted communion at Roméo LeBlanc's state funeral in Memramcook, N.B., the archbishop of Moncton said Wednesday.

Msgr. André Richard said the church law is clear, but he is not looking for any apologies or explanations from Harper or the Prime Minister's Office.

Cameras were rolling when communion hosts were offered to people attending the funeral for the former governor general on July 3.

Harper, who is an evangelical Protestant, accepted the host but appeared to put it in his program or his pocket, according to some onlookers.

Big, hairy, fucking, deal.
The Catholic church is in a position to ask anybody for an apology or an explanation, even if they don't expect one? They employ pedophiles!

Harper does not subscribe to the Roman Catholic religion. He has no clue as to their strange rites and superstitious ceremonies. Hell, I might have done exactly the same thing as he is being accused of. What the fuck do I do with this tasteless wafer... made in Italy?

Practically, he clearly didn't need the extra calories. Click on the picture for a WIDER view.

If I have a complaint it is with his office. A real PMO would have briefed the boss on protocol. But they didn't bother. They're too busy generating attack ads on the opposition. The duly elected opposition.

That, I care about.

I don't give a red rats ass what Harper did with a tasteless piece of bread with a superstitious meaning attached. That's not important. The man clearly wasn't hungry. Look at him ferchrissakes.

This stuff is important.

The kewl kids in the PMO would love to see everybody wrapped up in some ridiculous sanctity of the one true church controversy. It gives them room.

They don't deserve it.

Focus, people. And keep digging. Harper can fill his pockets with saltines for all I care (and apparently, he'll eventually eat them) but it's what he does when he's not at superstitioun-riddled events outside his bubble that counts.

Focus. This is a ridiculous blur.

PZ Myers, world famous cracker disposal expert, is on the case. The comments make a long stay worth every minute.

Halifax Regional Municipality gets a lesson in Harper politics

Ice arenas are as Canadian as Moosehead beer. Getting federal stimulus money out the door on a shovel-ready arena project shouldn't be a problem then when the local government involved has done all the planning, has committed local funds, has secured provincial funding and was approved for federal cash.

Well, maybe not.

A decision to pull $15 million in federal funding has the Halifax Regional Municipality on thin ice.

Regional council found out Tuesday that it is no longer getting the money to help pay for a four-pad arena in Hammonds Plains — the municipality's top capital project.

Coun. Sue Uteck was shocked to learn the news at the closed-door session.

"We've spent close to $8 million on this piece of land with the assurances that this project was a go, that it qualifies [for] funding. And for no apparent reason they're telling us today that it doesn't," she told reporters after the meeting.

Council expected the money to come from the federal government's economic stimulus fund. The province approved its share based on that federal contribution. The municipality was planning to spend up to $10 million.

The reason given by the Harper feds? (Emphasis mine)

Uteck said council was told that the federal Conservative government has concerns that the four ice surfaces might not meet environmental tests.

Might not?! We're talking the government of the Tar Sands here. What environmental test do they require? In any case, environmental impact would be a provincial responsibility shared with the regional municipality. If the province has already approved its funding, it suggests provincial environmental standards in the construction plan have already been met.

But she suggests shady politics are at play, given Nova Scotians recently elected an NDP government.

"This project was a go before the election, and now that the election is over we were informed this [project] is not a go," Uteck said.

Yeah, well that too. But I would have a closer look at the broad political ground, Sue. Halifax Regional Municipality (which, by the way, I enjoyed living in) isn't exactly ripe Harper territory. Of the core federal electoral districts which encompass HRM, including the one in which Hammonds Plains resides, Harper vote buying doesn't look like it's getting much of the desired result.

Halifax West - MP Geoff Regan, Liberal.

Halifax - MP Megan Leslie, NDP.

Sackville-Eastern Shore - MP Peter Stoffer, NDP.

Dartmouth-Cole Harbour - MP Michael Savage, Liberal.

On the other hand, take a look at what's happening in Central Nova where nothing is being cancelled and Peter "Airshow" Mackay just keeps shovelling in money. And in the Harper-held riding of South Shore-St. Margaret's, Conservative MP Gerald Keddy, (Atlantic Accord sell-out artist), watched the provincial NDP carry out an electoral sweep which literally delivered a provincial NDP majority to Halifax. The most serious message to Keddy (and Harper) though was what happened in the provincial riding of Chester-St. Margaret's where Keddy's spouse, Judy Streatch, a high ranking cabinet minister in the NS Conservative government going into the provincial election, was thoroughly trounced by NDP Denise Peterson-Rafuse... in Chester, of all places. That was a Conservative stronghold! The message to Harper (and Keddy) is clear: No length of lifeline is going to save Keddy in the next election.

Now, if you were wandering around L'Aquila, Italy early today you heard Harper announce a $5 million contribution to a youth centre in L'Aquila. Keep in mind, L'Aquila was flattened by an earthquake and is still in the process of cleaning up, much less rebuilding.

Before entering the working lunch on the first day of meetings, Harper stood at the foot of a rubble-strewn street today and announced a modest contribution to the massive earthquake reconstruction job here. With a federal government building crumbling behind him, and nervous Italian civil security officials barking at reporters to keep back, Harper pledged $5 million for a youth centre in this university town at the heart of the Abruzzo province, 90 kilometres northeast of Rome. Harper is one of a parade of world leaders who would pledge funds here today for the rebuilding of L'Aquila, a project estimated to cost between $12-16 billion.

That funding was approved by all parties and, when compared to the overall cost associated with rebuilding L'Aquila, is mere peanuts. It does however, stick in the craw of places which have had their approved federal funding withdrawn for no apparent valid reason. Except that Harper, always the politician and never a statesman sees more value in presenting L'Aquila, Italy with 5 million bucks than he does giving Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia $15 million.

The Canadian prime minister toured the damaged city centre, stopping at a university residence where 13 students died in the collapse of their dormitory. "Your tears were our tears" Harper told a small gathering of local dignitaries including L'Aquila Mayor Massimo Cialente. Harper who attended the funding announcement. The Canadian contribution was welcomed by L'Aquila Mayor Massimo Cialente, who said the university is the "future of the city and at the same time the economic engine of the region."

In truth, the job appears overwhelming, even to several Italian Canadians who travelled here with Harper, but they insisted it was worth the effort, even in a zone still subject to tremors.

Not that L'Aquila shouldn't receive the Canadian contribution to its reconstruction, but the councillors of Halifax Regional Municipality must be able to recognize a possible voting block and the attempt to buy it.

It's just that after promising all that money to build an arena, the people of Halifax Region (and huge chunks of Nova Scotia) still aren't showing Harper what he considers to be the appropriate amount of gratitude. And if you really want to get a Conservative kick in the groin, try asking for federal Marquee Event Funding for this event.

Letterman on Caribou Barbie . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

The CF-18 replacement

AVIATION WEEK has a report from Graham Warwick, "Canada Looks to Accelerate F-35 Decision; Lockheed Eyes Consortium Buy".

So, it appears that Stevie and the Gang are getting to the short strokes of the decision-making process:

"Canada is working to bring forward a decision on its new fighter to later this year, with the Lockheed Martin-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter facing ostensible competition from the Boeing F/A-18E/F, Eurofighter Typhoon and Saab Gripen NG (Next Generation).

Canada was the first country to join the United States and the United Kingdom as a partner in development of the JSF, and its industry has significant participation on the program. The original plan was to replace all 80 CF-18s, but "65 is sufficient to do the job," says the official."

I know it's wildly impractical politically, but I'd love to see us acquire the latest Sukhoi 35, with Canuck avionics and engines. Might be cheaper and more reliable.

The Reform Party long-knives seem to be out

It seems the Reform wing of the Harper Party (which is the most heavily feathered segment) has emerged to toss some raw meat at their constituency of intolerant fundamentalists. Not happy with Goebbels-inspired propaganda smears of legitimate political opponents, they appear now to be deciding what constitutes "tourism" and events which would promote it.

Not that I have much use for Diane Ablonczy, but it seems that she's now getting the Röhm treatment from her own kind.

Why, Harper's inners are even using the same obfuscating tactics: Duck, dodge, weave, never-answer-the-question. At some point I'm pretty sure you'll hear the word "disloyal" or maybe even "treason".

And for a detailed description of who benefits, we'll make a stop right here.

Interesting treatment of a long-time Reform/Alliance/Harper Conservative loyalist. But then, loyalty to a bunch of hard right-wing ideologues comes with certain risks*.

-----------------

* For those who are itching to know.

More from Aaron Wherry who points out that Harper's own little oberführer, Minister für Kirchenfragen, the highly intolerant and unsavory Charles McVety, was passing judgment on Toronto's Gay Pride Parade and the Marquee Event funding as much as two weeks ago. Keep in mind, McVety, (who at some point was saluting himself as (cough!) Dr. McVety), has far too much influence with the Harper caucus and is quite likely the instigator behind what's happening now.

And, yes, we still need the matter of that "degree" of his cleared up.

And now, Ablonczy is referring questions about herself to the Industry minister's mouthpiece. I guess she hasn't figured out what the gun left on the table in her office represents.

At the going down of the Sun, and in the morning...

With condolences and respect to the families and friends of Master Corporal Pat Audet, 430e Escadron tactique d'hélicoptères, and Corporal Martin Joannette, 3e Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment. Killed in theatre during an aircraft crash on take-off.

Per Ardua Ad Astra

Je me souviens

The enemy of my religious dogma is my friend

Or, it's difficult to accept that a Roman Catholic would actually accept anything stated by the church of Henry VIII.

Geez, SUZANNE, the truth is, if you really wanted to be a man, with all the privileges your religion grants that gender, you could be. It is, after all, a choice. All you have to do is change and become one.

It's that easy.

There are some days when "Christians" really make me want to piss on their shoes.

More, and better, at Montreal Simon.

Astro-Turf burns your knees

So, you're flipping through the rag reading the Letters to the Editor. That's actually a good thing. It gives you a feel for those who actually want to add voice to their opinion. I've always read them and I've written them. Unfortunately, I was also sued for one I'd written. It didn't go anywhere, but it gave me a temporary scare.

So, those letters, in a public journal, are public and carry a level of jeopardy.

The Conservatives, in their penultimate wisdom, believe that a part of their "campaign without end" involves making sure that their operatives are... operative.

And one might think that some hard-palmed worker had simply lost his silence and fired off a letter.

Thank gawd for KNB who rooted out the identity of the letter writer and identified him as a Conservative Party staffer of Royal Galipeau, Conservative Party MP for Ottawa-Orleans.

Interestingly, whenever I wrote a letter to the editor, there was a check back to see if I had any affiliation which might lend authority to my words or, perhaps, suggest there was a motivation which exceeded my personal beliefs (ie. Career objectives).

Frankly, (Harper style conversation), the editorial page editors are not doing their job properly. They are not only enabling Conservative Party astro-turfing; they are promoting it.

My apologies for approaching this so politely.

Voyageur

I'm a little behind in my podcast listening, so it was only this morning on the way to work that I heard the wonderful Canada Day edition of CBC Radio's "As It Happens" and their feature interview with Jowi Taylor.
When Quebec was about to hold its last referendum, a whole lot of us across the country got on buses and went to Montreal for a big outpouring of "Baby-Please-Don't-Go-ism" and I guess, to some degree, it worked since Quebec is still part of the country and all. But the demonstration and the way the whole referrendum was portrayed in the press as a blue vs red, English vs French, Quebec vs Ottawa issue sort of irked Taylor and he got to thinking about the rich history of Canada and the whole cultural mosiac that makes Canada what it is. And then he got an idea. An incredible idea.

The nation as musical instrument.

It took him about a dozen years, but with the help of luthier George Rizanyi, Taylor got the thing built and it made its debut at the Canada Day concert on Parliament Hill in 2006 in the extremely able hands of Stephen Fearing.

There is metaphor and symbolism and just plain mojo in everything I guess. Everything we touch comes from somewhere and has been part of some other life. There is the Muddywood guitar and back in the early 90s I remember a lot of art that featured bits of the Berlin Wall, but this is like something out of a fantasy novel or a fairy tale. The guitar is built from bits and pieces of wood, bone and metal that come from across Canada: A scrap from Rocket Richard's Stanley Cup ring, a bit of a sideboard that held the booze in Sir John A. MacDonald's office, a slab of the sacred Haida Gwaii Golden Spruce, part of Paul Henderson's hockey stick from The Goal, a chunk of Pierre Trudeau's canoe paddle, a bit of mammoth ivory from the NWT- the case even incorporates a piece of Don Cherry's pants and Karen Kain's tutu.

And its been played by anyone and everyone - Stompin' Tom has played it in his home, Gordon Lightfoot played it on his 70th birthday, and Taylor has been touring the country letting the whole population get its strum on.

You'll be seeing stuff about the guitar in all the papers this week as Taylor has just published a book about its creation. My question is this: What song would you play on it and why?

Times change

RAN ACROSS THIS LITTLE GEM yesterday: The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies. If you are a veteran graphics type, this will bring back memories. Hundreds of items, most no longer used, like the waxer, at the bottom.

There are some things that just shouldn't be on Facebook

Like your name, your picture, your address and the fact that you've just been appointed the head of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).

The new head of MI6 has been left exposed by a major personal security breach after his wife published intimate photographs and family details on the Facebook website.

Sir John Sawers is due to take over as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in November, putting him in charge of all Britain's spying operations abroad.

And just to make sure...

On the day his appointment was announced, she wrote: 'Congrats on the new job, already dubbed Sir Uncle "C" by nephews in the know!'

There are those in the British government who held strong reservations about Sawers' appointment. Although he started out his career with MI6 he has spent most of his life as a diplomat. He currently represents Britain on the UN Security Council.

I somehow think he was hoping nobody would take to writing on his wall.

And, from Dr. Prole.

Was land development the real reason for privatizing BC Rail?

.
Laila Yuile follows the money.
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At the going down of the Sun, and in the morning...

With condolences and respect to the family and friends of Master Corporal Charles-Philippe Michaud, 2^e Batallion, Royal 22^e Régiment. Succumbed to wounds suffered as a result of enemy action 23 June, 2009.

News from the Juche Joint

THE LA TIMES HAS A SAD REPORT ON THE RETURN OF JUCHE in North Korea, as the prime economic goal of the psychopaths that run the country. The report, written by Barbara Demick, details how the regime has banned imports from China and everywhere else.

In the markets of Kilju, a city of 100,000 near North Korea's eastern seacoast, the ruling Korean Workers' Party has ordered the removal of Chinese-made cookies, candies and pharmaceuticals.

Even soybeans, many articles of clothing and shoes are now forbidden.

It is all part of a great leap backward taking place in the secretive autocracy. North Koreans interviewed in China in recent weeks say that the regime of Kim Jong Il has made a concerted effort to roll back reforms that had over the last decade liberalized the most strictly controlled economy in the world.

Why should you care?

The economic restrictions reflect the rising power of the hard-liners within the staunchly communist regime and go hand in hand with the belligerent mood that led to North Korea's May 25 nuclear test. Those jostling for power in the scramble created by the failing health of 68-year-old North Korean leader Kim Jong Il are raising the banner of juche, the term coined by his father, Kim Il Sung, the country's founder, for an ideology emphasizing self-sufficiency.

North Korea has in effect scuttled dialogue with the United States, South Korea and Japan, shut down South Korean business interests within its borders and evicted many humanitarian aid operations.

AP HAS A REPORT on the latest missile tests, with an interesting statistic:

The North has about 600 Scuds, plus 200 Rodong-1 missiles -- which could reach Tokyo.

Dangerous people, folks. ASIA TIMES has an article with a good over-view of the history of the North Korean missile efforts. When you look at the chart below, the staggering cost of developing all these missiles becomes apparent: that's a lot of engineering and expensive fabrication. No wonder the poor North Koreans can't get enough to eat.

At the going down of the Sun, and in the morning...

With condolences and respect to the family and friends of Corporal Nicholas Bulger, 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. Killed due to enemy action.

Palin running for cover...

As Cathie says, the excuses provided for Sarah Palin's sudden and unexpected departure from the governor's chair in Alaska stinks like a three-day-old Alaska King Crab.

Apparently Palin was simply bugged by "bloggers and activists".

Hmmm. What were they blogging about?

Ohhh! They went a little farther than calling her Cariboo Barbie. They might actually have some heavy duty dirt.

The self-absorbed shithead who thinks himself head of state....

Stood on the saluting stand on Canada Day and violated the honour of every member of the Canadian Forces past and present.

The prime minister of Canada is not the head of state. That position belongs to the Queen of Canada.

The prime minister of Canada is not the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. That duty rests with the Governor General of Canada.

The prime minister of Canada, as head of government, is entitled to a 19-gun salute, to a maximum of once per year, when at an established saluting station, as an honour gained at having been appointed by the Governor General. Canadian Forces Administrative Order 61-8 leaves no part of that in question. (It apparently has not been re-issued as a DAOD).

The prime minister of Canada is not entitled to a Canadian Guard of Honour. Ever. Heritage minister James Moore is wrong. But then, that's hardly surprising. The Conservatives simply took a matter of national military ceremonial intended for visiting foreign dignitaries and twisted the meaning to include their fat-assed, lense-loving, megalomaniac. Josef Stalin would be proud.

Harper stood there, in all his magnificent corpulence, having never crossed the threshold of a CF recruiting office door, because he missed that part of his life, with nary a decoration to his name and took a salute from the Governor General's Foot Guards... in a blatant and intentional breach of protocol.

If Harper wants a salute, he should visit me. I'll give him exactly what any mealy-mouthed politician is entitled to. I'll even tell him what to wear:

Groin protection.

The Emperor Steve

Montreal Simon catches Steve playing Napoleon on Canada Day :

"Harper managed to get the military to give him a salute that's normally reserved for the Governor-General. As Heritage Minister James Moore explains in the video, this was something that the Prime Minister apparently wanted."

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Really? How very presidential of him.

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The Governor General is the Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Forces – not the Prime Minister - but I guess since she allowed him to suspend parliament and declare himself head-of-state back in December, she may as well let him play with her honour guard as well..

Cross-posted at Creekside

In my mind I still need a place to go, all my changes were there

I've been living in Japan for a dozen years and I've only been home to Ontario a handful of times, so obviously I don't miss my home and native land that much right?

Wrong. Tonight I have a lump of homesickness that is sitting in my gut like a double order of congealed poutine.

Homesickness comes and goes, especially at the holidays, but Canada Day is always a tough one.

You see, one of my earliest jobs in the newspaper biz was at a little local weekly on the shores of Lake Erie - the Port Dover Maple Leaf - a nice little family owned and operated paper, which last I heard was being operated by the third generation of the Morris family. I was the only reporter for the paper - I actually lived over the Main Street office two blocks from the beach - and pretty much ate, slept and especially drank Port Dover 24/7/365.

(A brief digression: There is one good thing about being the only reporter for the only newspaper in town and that is that everyone in town knows you. There is one bad thing about being the only reporter for the only newspaper in town and that is that everyone in town knows you. The hour are very long and no matter how generous your boss is, he can't afford to pay you much wages. I didn't do these kinds of jobs for eight years across Southern Ontario because I was getting rich. 'Nuff said)

Port Dover, Ontario, perched (no pun intended) on the edge of Lake Erie, about an hour up the highway from Hamilton, is a summer town. It was, back in 1990 when I was there, the largest freshwater fishing port in the world. (See Stan Rogers "Tiny Fishes for Japan") and the fish they caught was the perch. The perch is not exactly a great sport fish. They don't get very big or put up much of a fight or require a tremendous amount of skill to catch with a rod and reel once you find them -- but cleaned, battered and deep fried when fresh out of the lake they are about the tastiest thing that swims as far as I'm concerned and I ate my share of them in Port Dover.

Aside from the fish, the town is a tourist trap. Back in the 20s and 30s it had been a big deal and all the steel barons from Hamilton and the rich folks from Toronto used to have summer homes there. Al Capone owned a mansion there during prohibition with a secret tunnel that led down to the lake for running rum across to the U.S. side. There were regular ferries from Erie Pa. and a big pier with a dance hall that was still a going concern when my parents were teenagers in nearby Brantford in the 5os an even into the 60s. There's a decent beach, a little hotel, a couple of bars and restaurants, a bunch of cheesy souvenir shops. Back when I was living in town, there was a great summer theatre too, and cherry blossoms in the spring, but the big attractions were the Friday the 13th Biker summits and CANADA DAY.

Friday the 13th promised excitement and noise and drunken partying and a sense of danger. I could sit in my front window and watch the fights in the parking lot of the Commercial Tavern across the street and see the bikes roar up and down the main street.

Canada Day promised local musical favorite Doug Feaver at the Norfolk Tavern, the Lions Club fish fry and beer garden and a huge parade right outside my front window. I entertained a lot in those days, with friends coming down summer weekends to drink beer, eat perch and hang out at the beach but Canada Day was the best. I'd have to shoot photos all day and night for the newspaper, but on a day like that people are glad to see the man with the camera and the notebook and just want to make sure their names are spelled right in the caption. Between the floats sponsored by local businesses, service clubs, church groups and politicians and the marching bands and the clowns and the school kids and the 4H kids and so on half the town marched in the parade and the other half - and thousands of tourists- lined the streets to watch them. Short of an isolated island in Algonquin Park with a bottle of Canadian Club and a few guitar-playing, canoe-paddling kindred spirits, it is by far the best place to spend Canada Day that I know.

Do I miss it? Would I swap working at the world's largest newspaper amid the bright lights of one of the world's greatest cities for covering planning council meetings in a hick, one-horse, backwater, struggling resort town in the middle of the South Ontario countryside?

This is not a good day to ask me that.

Let me ask you something - I've been gone from Canada longer thanAbousfian Abdelrazik - so long that Canada's New Government has changed the law to say that I can't vote in Canadian elections without moving back to the Great White North. I don't own any property in Canada. I don't even have a Canadian bank account. Am I still Canadian?

Let me tell you something:

I still remind American co-workers why the White House is white. I am the go to guy in my Tokyo office if you have a question about French (though I barely scraped through high school French). I know my way around a canoe. I have a visceral loathing of American beer. My Japan-born-and-raised kids say "eh" when speaking English and blueberry pancakes with maple syrup is their favorite breakfast. I get cravings for peameal bacon and still call french fries "chips". I got drunk and argued politics one night at the Norfolk Tavern in Port Dover with Stompin' Tom Connors - my shoulder and left arm were even in the TV commercial for his "A Proud Canadian" album that they shot in Port Dover. I grew up playing hockey in Sault Ste. Marie when native sons Phil and Tony Esposito were huge stars and Wayne Gretzky spent a year at my high school while playing Jr. A for the Sault Greyhounds just before he turned pro and while the holy Montreal Canadiens were winning the Stanley Cup every year. I remember the windstorm that blew our neighbour's chimney down the night the the Edmund Fitzgerald sank a couple dozen miles away on Lake Superior. I've polka'd to Walter Ostenak live at Oktoberfest in Kitchener. I spent my 17th summer planting trees and clearing canoe portages northwest of Kenora for $10 a day. I cook tortiere at New Years from my aunt's recipie. I've seen bears at the dump. I spent a couple of St. Patrick's Days getting hammered and singing Stan Rogers songs with cadets from RMC at the Wellington in Kingston. I was once the editor of the oldest community newspaper in Canada. I've eaten moose and seen them up close in the wild. I've seen the Habs at the Forum and eaten smoked meat at Schwartz's, Ben's and Dunn's. I've slept under a beached canoe after watching the Northern Lights on a late summer evening in the middle of the bush in Northern Ontario 100 miles from anywhere. I've made maple syrup. I've eaten lobster bought right off the dock in Peggy's Cove. I've played hockey with my grandfather on a frozen pond. I've chased raccoons and skunks out of my garbage. I've eaten fresh smoke salmon in B.C. and salted dried cod in the fortress of Louisbourg. I am one (very small) part Mohawk. I've had my pipes freeze. I've called in sick to work because I've been snowed in. I've had beers with old soldiers at the Legion on Rememberance Day. I've heated my home with a woodstove. I've seen Neil Young at the Ex and Gordon Lightfoot and Bruce Cockburn at Hamilton Place and the Cowboy Junkies and Murray McLaughlin at the Festival of Friends and once met the Tragically Hip in a boozecan in Kingston. I've been rained on in Vancouver. I've jumped off the roof of my house into snow deeper than I was tall. I've been told to evacuate a provincial park in BC because there was a forest fire coming over the hill a mile away and closing, hell, I once fought a forest fire. I was in Montreal for the big "please don't separate" march before the last Quebec referendum. I was once a member of the Montreal Expos Battery Bleachers Fan Club when they still played at Jerry Park. I had a subscription to the original Captain Canuk comic book. I've been ice fishing. I own both and audio and a video cassette of the last Morningside with Peter Gzowski. Pierre Elliot Fucking Trudeau once asked me if I wanted to be Prime Minister when I grew up. I have tears flowing into my glass of Crown Royal and Canada Dry as I write this, but goddamn it Canada - There is a town in North Ontario with dream comfort memory to spare and Icould drink a case of you and how I wish I was in Sherbrooke now.

Oh, Canada....

(a special tip of the touque to Rina for telling me I must move back immediately last night and to all the other expats who are pining for home this week)

Double up and secure. Ring off main engines. (But don't let the boilers cool)

That was one helluva ride. It started in early August last year and didn't really settle to a stop until yesterday.

Along the way there was buying one house in one city and selling one in another, all in a market which suggested one shouldn't be buying a house until the market bottoms-out and facing the reality that other buyers were thinking and acting exactly the same way. Treating the situation with my usual "It'll work itself out" approach didn't work. Given what was happening - everywhere - a fixed level of stress set in.

Couple that with a physical move of several mountain ranges and a body of salt water. That would have been enough of a challenge except that right at that time I found myself travelling, unexpectedly, to get a crew ready to deliver a ship from Europe. That translated to Cheryl pack everything, I'll deal with the other end when I return.

Didn't work that way.

Owing to a series of rapid and radical changes in training requirements I ended up staring into the very breech I'd been hoping to avoid for several weeks. That meant arrive in new locale and start a frenetic pace the very next day. That's not a cry for sympathy - just a part of the ride I was on.

Then, in one of the only places in Canada where you can actually grow citrus fruits, "it" decided to be winter. You must understand that winter weather doesn't bother me. It's winter weather in a place where snow is looked upon as quaint for the first 24 hours and then acidly evil after that that creates the problem. Observers watch snow plows with a sense of amazement and then hop into their cars, replete with deliciously worn summer tires, and engage in a region-wide demolition derby of excessive speed and a blissful lack of awareness as to extended stopping distances. Perhaps worse though was having to tolerate the seemingly endless stream of local comments which all ended with, "What global warming?" And becoming bored with explaining that, while this area gets blasted every 10 years or so with a touch of "real" winter, what was happening was actually more related to warming than cooling... snow is actually water... aw, just skip it and go back to your cheap coffee and the complaints about how your taxes are too high - just quit demanding a snow plow where one doesn't exist. I digress.

The result of "winter" was that the already stuffed schedule was now compressed until February.

That was when I thought things had settled down a bit. Having accepted that things were simply too frantic and stressful to pursue what amounts to a hobby, I had retreated from intertoobs. I got back to visiting other blogs and producing bits for this one when I could actually see a horizon I though was permanently fixed by my height of eye. I was wrong.

Things managed to get even hairier and plans to complete alterations to new home were set aside. And something else would have to give - blog and other forms of toobal interaction. From then until now it has been sporadic. While I had wanted to write more, the obligations of life prevented it. I don't like doing "short-form". While others do well in that format, I'm not very good at it. I watched an issue build in front of me which I consider important to me and others which I had no time to address. It's still an issue. It still needs some light shed upon it.

So, today, as a long erratic schedule supposedly ended, I was prepared to contribute more to TGB. Then about half-way through writing this I received word that I'm still not done. Make no plans, suffer no schedule.

So, there still might be a bit of a wait for that series of postings I so want to do. So it goes.

Has there been a military takeover in Iran?

Ex-CIA middle east field agent Bob Baer and Newsweek editor, Fareed Zakaria, (who is something of an expert on the subject of Iran) seem to believe it's likely.

Both agree that the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps seem to be in charge of everything that's happening in Iran at the moment. The tell was the speed at which the Basij (a volunteer military/police auxiliary force) was employed to quell dissidents. The Basij is directly controlled by the IRGC and in past years the IRGC has been spending a great deal of money and energy arming this particular group.

Baer also pointed out last week that it is entirely possible that Ahmadinejad actually won the election and that Ahmadinejad is actually leading a hard-line take over, ousting the mullahs.

Before we settle on the narrative that there has been a hard-line takeover in Iran, an illegitimate coup d'état, we need to seriously consider the possibility that there has been a popular hard-line takeover, an electoral mandate for Ahmadinejad and his policies. One of the only reliable, Western polls conducted in the run-up to the vote gave the election to Ahmadinejad — by higher percentages than the 63% he actually received. The poll even predicted that Mousavi would lose in his hometown of Tabriz, a result that many skeptics have viewed as clear evidence of fraud. The poll was taken all across Iran, not just the well-heeled parts of Tehran. Still, the poll should be read with a caveat as well, since some 50% of the respondents were either undecided or wouldn't answer.

In that same article Baer, who knows Iran well, points out that there is something missing from the so-called popular uprising in Tehran.

Most of the demonstrations and rioting I've seen in the news are taking place in north Tehran, around Tehran University and in public places like Azadi Square. These are, for the most part, areas where the educated and well-off live — Iran's liberal middle class. These are also the same neighborhoods that little doubt voted for Mir-Hossein Mousavi, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rival, who now claims that the election was stolen. But I have yet to see any pictures from south Tehran, where the poor live. Or from other Iranian slums.

Even the great Twitter revolution is centered on a specific group of Iranians with both access to and comfort with the internet.

For too many years now, the Western media have looked at Iran through the narrow prism of Iran's liberal middle class — an intelligentsia that is addicted to the Internet and American music and is more ready to talk to the Western press, including people with money to buy tickets to Paris or Los Angeles.

Add to all this that the west has next to no reliable window into Iran. Diplomatic missions are sparse and the Basij has been rounding up western reporters and Iranian workers at the British embassy.

The government's arrest of nine Iranian employees of the British Embassy was a significant escalation in its conflict with Britain, which Tehran has sought to cast as an instigator of the unrest since the disputed June 12 election. Tehran also continued to charge journalists with working as agents of discord, publishing one editor's "confession" while continuing to detain others without charge, or barring them from working.

The whole idea, if Ahmadinejad has suborned the IRGC in a take over, would be to continue to accuse Britain and the U.S. with interference, and continue to arrest western journalists and embassy staff in the hopes of provoking a response. It would suggest that Ahmadinejad did win and now commands enough popular support to suppress the power of the clerics and take control of the country. He can point at any rhetoric or threats from either the U.S. or Britain (or both) and declare an even greater emergency on the basis that his accusations are correct.

That will likely translate into even greater suppression of anything which looks like opposition or an uprising. The government will transform into a military dictatorship (as opposed to a religious one) led by former IRGC member Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with the support of the IRGC.

The thing is, we're not likely to know what is really happening for some time to come but the chances of the uprising in Iran resulting in something good are very slim indeed.

For all of you at Bloggerpalooza III

Apparently there may be more than one Bloggerpalooza this weekend. But the biggest and the best will be out west in the west end.

Have a great time people.

Or you could just keep on going to Mom's Cafe in Sooke.

(Click to enlarge) Via Broadsides. Now the "Have it your way" Burger King campaign of the 1980s makes sense.

Unlike this Gaviscon ad out of South Africa, (where the copywriter's second language was English), this one is clearly intentional.

I wonder what Terry O'Reilly would do with this?

Walking the Gay Walk . . . .

Lots of rumbling in the GLBT community of late about how President Obama may not be living up to their "hope" during the '08 political season.

His actions while in office don't exactly match the campaign rhetoric.


From McClatchy/Kansas City Star today:

To gays who supported him, Obama hasn't walked the walk

Rick Montgomery | Kansas City Star | June 26, 2009

If Diane Silver's blog reflects the sentiments of gay and lesbian Americans in the heartland, President Barack Obama is fast losing a serious fan base.

The Topeka woman's postings throughout June, which is Gay Pride Month, have railed about what she calls Obama's "awful record … token action and empty words."

She called his Justice Department's recent court filing — a 54-page defense of a federal marriage law that Obama had pledged to repeal — "hideous."

Many in the movement still speak hopefully of a president who won their overwhelming support in the 2008 elections. But the enthusiasm — and the same level of campaign contributions — may not be there for other Democrats in next year's elections.

Complaints over what many see as the administration's lack of zeal are found throughout the gay and lesbian blogosphere.

Stampp Corbin, a gay San Diego city commissioner who rallied supporters to Obama's presidential bid, wrote online: "When I wake up each morning, I feel a …' It's bit schizophrenic myself. 'I love Obama, I hate Obama, I am ambivalent maddening."

Corbin was among several leaders of gay and lesbian communities who Thursday boycotted a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Washington. He suggested the White House had better start delivering results "or the coffers of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community will be slammed shut on the fingers of your administration."

Nationally, gay-rights groups continue to count the president as a friend, at least in public. Given persistent pledges to end the military's ban on openly gay service members, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and to repeal discriminatory elements of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, the White House hopes for a strong showing next week when Obama hosts a Gay Pride reception.

______________


Much of the anger centers on a June 11 Justice Department brief seeking to dismiss a constitutional challenge of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA.

The law, limiting federal marriage benefits to opposite-sex couples, is the target of a federal lawsuit in California. Justice spokesman Charles Miller said that as attorneys for the government "we have to defend that law" when it's taken to court. "It's Congress' job" to change or chuck it if Congress sees fit.

The government's brief outlined a defense seen by gay-rights advocates as unnecessarily vigorous. "DOMA does not restrict any rights that have been recognized as fundamental," it stated.

"That just went too far," said Missouri Sen. Jolie Justus, a Democrat who recently seized upon Iowa's same-sex marriage law to wed her partner in Iowa City.

The brief went on to point out that incestuous relationships, too, were outside states' legal purview of marriage — as if to lump uncle-niece pairings with same-sex couples.

"The government could have defended DOMA without using the red herrings and insulting arguments that once were used to stop interracial marriages," Justus said. "We've been talking about this constantly … a slap in the face," though she said she expected Obama to press his pledge to undo the law in time.

_______________


The president's hesitation to push for an end to the Pentagon's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy has widened the divide, especially after the handling of Pietrangelo v. Gates.

The case, brought by James Pietrangelo, an infantry officer who was preparing for his third tour in Iraq when he was discharged for being gay, reached the U.S. Supreme Court — where the Obama administration urged that it not be heard.

Solicitor General Elena Kagan, the administration's lawyer before the court, said in her filing that the ban is "rationally related to the government's legitimate interest in military discipline and cohesion."

Days earlier, however, in the wake of Rep. John McHugh's nomination to be secretary of the Army, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said McHugh shares Obama's commitment to repealing the ban, which isn't "working for this country right now."

After his lawsuit was disposed of, Pietrangelo called the president "a coward, a bigot and a pathological liar … who spent more time picking out his dog, Bo … than he has working for equality for gay people."

More than 250 lesbian and gay members of the military have been booted out since Obama took office.

_______________


Silver, in a telephone interview, said she and the families of same-sex couples have waited long enough.

Their options? One is to "just shut your wallets" when Democratic fundraisers come calling, she said.

"The GAY-TM is closed."

Should we be surprised? Disappointed, maybe, thinking he would actually be a different kind of politician.

"Fool me once, shame on you."

And all that . . . .


(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Canada's "Hollow Army"

"It's tough right now because we don't have enough soldiers on the ground to do the job," he said, adding that some in the military are tired. "The senior NCOs [non-commissioned officers] and officers especially ..."

General Walt Natynczyk,
chief of the defence staff

You need to read Brian Stewart's entire report.

S.P.P. DVD . . . .

At The Lady Alison's suggestion, I had placed the Paul Manly documentary "You, Me and the S.P.P: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule" on my Vancouver library request list months ago.

Once released, it finally came to my local branch yesterday. I picked it up after lunch and watched it this afternoon.

Great stuff, and every Canadian should view it to become fully informed on the creeping US-ization of North America.

Scary stuff, Gang.

Tell your peeps . . . .


(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

What are you running there MacKay?

Fort Fumble on the Rideau has done it again. The initial decision to withhold the projected future costs of the Afghanistan military expedition on an information request using a "national security" blanket has simply served to further erode public confidence.

The Defence Department admitted Wednesday that it was wrong to withhold the future cost of the war in Afghanistan on the basis that releasing it would violate national security.

Of course it was wrong. And whoever made the decision in the first place knew it was wrong. And knowing it was wrong suggests that the final decision came from a creature well up on the totem pole.

Yet the defence minister claims it wasn't his decision. How odd.

The response to requests for information from the Canadian Forces is governed by policy. There are, or were, explicit instructions as to what type of information could or could not be released in the response to an information request. I've handled more than a few of them in the past and, as much of a pain in the ass as they were, determining the contents of a response was reasonably straight forward. The easiest ones to get off the desk were the ones asking about "the cost of ...". Not my bailiwick, send this to a higher authority toute de suite.

The infuriating part was the fact that such requests normally came forwarded from the Puzzle Palace in Ottawa in the first place. Sending them back meant explaining to the idiot well up the chain of command that operational commanders do not respond to requests for budgetary information which already exists as knowledge at a higher level.

Defence policy information requests were always answered by the boffins (Often referred to as "reeky, pencil-necked, civvy, pukes". Hey! It was a part of the lexicon.) At best, we could only contribute to a response by detailing unit preparedness or the like but for the most part we never saw such requests.

Further, there was and still is, a restriction on what one could say publicly for any record. Defence policy, and in particular operations beyond the current year, were absolutely verbotten. Those always went to the minister's cadre and with good reason: The uniformed members of the Canadian Armed Forces do not formulate defence policy.

That makes this part of the Mike Blanchfield's article particularly rankling. (Emphasis mine)

For the first time Wednesday, the military also offered up costs for "future years" — a column also censored in this most recent NDP request — pegging those at $540 million.

Asked about those numbers, given that the mission is to formally have ended by 2011, the defence official explained that was because of costs associated with closing out the mission, such as bringing equipment back to Canada and restoring it to its pre-war state.

But Harris rejected that explanation, saying the military "obviously has significant plans for the military in Afghanistan beyond the mission end date of July 2011" because the post-2011 costs are $1.2 billion.

"That's not keeping the engines turning while you're bringing the equipment back home," Harris said.

"They obviously have some plans, so lay it on the table and let the Canadian people decide whether we want to be involved in this or not."

There is some unfortunate conflation occuring here. Harris and those repeating his comments in the media have consistently referred to "the military" as having undisclosed plans for Afghanistan beyond 2011.

They have the order of battle wrong.

The "military" doesn't decide what form the mission in Afghanistan will take; that is a political decision made at the ministerial and cabinet level. In this particular government, that means the over-dressed kids in the prime minister's office.

I agree with Harris that the figures for 2011-2012 suggest a rather significant level of military activity on the ground in Afghanistan, but the Canadian Forces did not make that projection based on its own ideas for what it's expeditionary role should be. The government has told the CF what form the Afghanistan mission will take after 2011 and to provide estimates for the mission the government wants.

The initial decision to withhold the information requested has the PMO's fingerprints all over it. Since defence policy seems to come from the war-gamers in the Langevin Block, the disclosure of projected costs would shine a nasty bright light on something they really don't want you to know - same mission; different description. (All the signposts are there to suggest little is going to change after 2011. Future post.)

In any case, now that the costs are out there, the embarrassment should be dumped on the appropriate doorstep. Harper and MacKay should be wearing this - not the Canadian Forces. The fact that those costs have risen so significantly and given that Harper instructed the CF to run this contingency operation from within the defence budget explains why other components of the CF are suffering.

I expect we'll never know which individual, very close to the ground on the totem pole, gets gutted for this little fiasco.

Affinity Fraud

Believe in God? Good for you. Whether you believe me or not, we all have to have something to believe in. It drives us, even if we believe in 60 watt light bulbs.

Do you believe that your god knows how to best manage your retirement savings? That's not smart. I will aim your gaze at that 60 watt light bulb.

Now read Bene D.

Paul Wells gives Steyn a clinic on accuracy

Last week's newstand edition of Maclean's magazine was nothing short of the crap you normally see among the tabloids of the supermarket checkout. It was not just hyperbolic in it's cry out; it was right off the sanity scale.

THE RETURN OF FASCISM was splattered across a full cover photo of supposed neo-nazi storm troopers. Worse, however, is that it was pointing at an article written by one-time theatre writer and now overpaid creep, Mark Steyn.

Steyn's narrative was absolute crap. In it, he attempted to mislead readers into believing the European Parliament was filling up with the adherents of Adolph Hitler faster than you can say schutzstaffel. He was also blaming this "resurgence" of fascism on the "polytechnic left", to use his words. One can be excused for being confused at this point because if it's something we've all known about Steyn for a long time it's that he is much more comfortable standing among neo-nationalist fascists then he is even being remotely downwind of any centrist or someone farther left on the political spectrum.

Steyn was blowing some kind of whistle to warn us all that a horde of evil Hitler clones have returned and oh, by the way, it's the fault of the very people he can't stand to see in political power. On any other day, Steyn would be cheerleading for the very caste he is now claiming are some sort of threat. And to make his point... he heavily obscured the truth.

You don't have to read Steyn's drivel. Paul Wells did it for you and he shows Steyn exactly how much mercy he deserves for writing such bovine scatology - none.

The cover pointed to a column by our Mark Steyn. And Mark’s column—well, it’s a bit of a mess.

That's the warm up. Then Wells demonstrates to Steyn how to relay the results of simple research and transpose them into print. He shreds both Steyn's numbers and fallacious assertions.

Wells also notes that Steyn uses Netherlands parliamentarian Geert Wilders as an example of the milder of his corps of emerging fascists yet Steyn has always written supportively of Wilders in the past. (My emphasis)

As examples he names Dutch documentarian Geert Wilders and the UK Independence Party. Yet he sees “nothing” to consign UKIP to the fringe “other than the blinkers of the politico-media class.” And he has written about Wilders many times, always supportively. Makes sense: they both worry about Muslims. In his film Fitna, Wilders displays a bar graph that shows 54 million “Muslims in Europe.” The number comes from the Central-Institute Islam Archive in Soest, Germany, which notes that only 14 million of those Muslims are in the European Union. Another 25 million are in Russia and 5.9 million in Turkey. When asked whether he wants Turkey in the EU, Wilders said, “No. Not in 10 years, not in a million years.” Yet he’s eager to put Turkey’s Muslims in his bar graphs. No wonder Steyn likes him. They’re both sloppy counters.

And yes, there was a point where being a fly on the wall last week would have been interesting. To have one "columnist", albeit one who is universally reviled by a huge segment of the population, have his pants completely pulled down by a much more skilled columnist in the pages of the same weekly journal is uniquely refreshing.

Southern Baptist Morality Police to the Rescue . . . .

Rednecks, gays and religion.

As Rodney King would say: "Why can't we all get along?"

Per the Star-Telegram.com:

Southern Baptists cut ties with Fort Worth’s Broadway Baptist

June 23, 2009 | By LEE WILLIAMS | Star-Telegram.com

The Southern Baptist Convention kicked out Fort Worth’s Broadway Baptist Church on Tuesday, saying its stance on homosexuality is too lenient.

Convention delegates, known as messengers, voted to end the 127-year relationship with the historic Fort Worth church during the annual convention being held in Louisville, Ky.

_______________


The impasse came to a head last year during a public debate over whether Broadway should allow photographs of same-sex couples in its church directory. The photographs eventually were rejected in favor of group pictures of all church members.

One reason for not allowing photographs of gay couples was to emphasize that the church is in line with the Baptist constitution, which does not include churches that "affirm, approve or endorse" homosexual behavior, according to a letter written to the Southern Bapist Executive Committee.

_______________


Stephen Wilson, a member of the Executive Committee and vice president for academic affairs at Mid-Continent University, said the issue with Broadway is about the church allowing members who are openly homosexual and unrepentant.

"If churches are ministering to homosexuals, they are doing nothing more than what our own convention’s task force has asked us to do," Wilson said. "But in Broadway’s case … the church was in effect saying that it was OK to have members who are open homosexuals."

Dana Carvey's Church Lady might put it this way:

"Well, isn't that special ? ? ? ? "


(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Isotope Shortage Tracker

Hustle on over to Impolitical where you'll find an interesting web gadget - The ISOTOPE SHORTAGE TRACKER.

Once you're into the map you can monitor updating information providing the effects of the medical isotope shortage brought about by the shut down of the Chalk River NRU reactor and the bungling of the Harper government.

You can also click on the image above to get there.

If your riding voted Conservative...

And you're well connected and... well... an exclusive club which the average Canadian couldn't afford to join, the Harper government has something just for you...

INFRASTRUCTURE MONEY!!!

You will notice that Harper is featured prominently in that press release. All that's missing is a picture of him personally shoveling money off the back of a truck to his best-buddies at the mahogany hog trough.

After all, it's not like there are bridges falling down, in Liberal-held ridings or anything like that.

Hat tip daveberta.ca