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

Another Alberta Conservative acts like a hillbilly

Jeebus, these people are dumber than an elephant at a roundabout.

Edmonton-Calder Conservative MLA Doug Elniski apologized late Monday afternoon for controversial comments that he posted on his blog, and insisted that he is not sexist.

Elniski posted the text of a speech on June 13 that he said he gives to junior high school students at Grade 9 graduation ceremonies.

Part of the posting included advice to girls saying, "Ladies, always smile when you walk into a room, there is nothing a man wants less than a woman scowling because he thinks he is going to get s--t for something and has no idea what."

It continues, "Men are attracted to smiles, so smile, don't give me that 'treated equal' stuff. If you want Equal, it comes in little packages at Starbucks."

Oh good. Now the women of Alberta (and beyond) are getting "How you little ladies should behave" advice from an overweight, middle-aged hillbilly.

Here's a piece of advice for all those who read his original statement (which he conveniently sent to the memory hole) and his subsequent apology (which he wouldn't have had to offer if he wasn't such a mindless, sexist pig).

Tell him to go fuck himself and stuff his apology up his hemorrhoidal ass. That apology is similar to the word "but" placed in a sentence. Everything that came before it is irrelevent, but when an apology is issued from a politician, it's an attempt to camouflage how they really feel.

And would you like to know a little more about this piece of work? Let's see what we can dig up...

Right here.

Elniski has now taken down his blog, where more than one remark offended more than one group of citizens.

Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for Google cache. Yeah... Doug, old boy, technology trumps your 1950s view of the world.

I n t e r e s t i n g!!!

It's bad enough that Elniski so lacks an original though that he found it necessary to give an address which he substantially ripped away from celebrated Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich, but that the significant alteration was a line Mary never included in her column:

Men are attracted to smiles, so smile don't give me that "treated equal" stuff, if you want equal it comes in little packages at Starbucks.

Some advice to the schools of Edmonton-Calder. Don't invite columnist-aping Conservative politicians to address your graduating class. Get the real deal and have Mary Schmich do it with the level of respect every person in the room deserves.

Hat tip reader Cat.

Man of Steel, Government of Wobbly Bits

On Friday the government adjourned for three months because they have to get started on their barbie bunfests for next fall's election and hell, there's not much going on in Canada right now anyway, right?
Today we learn :

"In a significant policy shift, the Canadian government now believes that telling the country's taxpayers the future cost of the war in Afghanistan would be a threat to national security.... Julie Jansen, the director of the military's access branch, cited "the defence of Canada or any state allied" with it, in justifying the withholding of the figures for the three next fiscal years."

Three years? WTF?

"The military's new secrecy comes after the financial cost of the mission became a major issue for several days during last fall's federal election campaign."

Right. That would the report from our fearless first-ever Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, aka Jennifer's Man o' Steel, the guy who ... well, let's let Jennifer explain :

"Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page released his accounting of the true costs of the Afghanistan War , which to nobody's surprise turned out to be somewhat higher than Stephen Harper's guestimate."

Page's first report, released during last fall's election, calculated that the cost of the Afghanistan mission not including military equipment will be about $18.1 billion by 2011.
The second, published shortly before Diamond Jim Flaherty vowed there was absolutely no chance of a deficit in 2009, projected a serious deficit for 2009.

Parliamentary Librarian William Young and House and Senate Speakers Peter Milliken and Noel Kinsella referred to these corrections of the government's mistakes as evidence that Page was "exceeding his mandate".
.
....Wait for it ... don't rush it ...

Parliament wants to gut first-ever Parliamentary Budget Office's independence

"The Joint Library of Parliament Committee's report will gut Canada's first-ever Parliamentary Budget Office of its transparency and independence and is a simple power play to keep Kevin Page in line because he embarrassed the federal Department of Finance, says Parliamentary observers and some MPs.

"What they've done is put Kevin Page in a box, haven't they?" Concordia University professor Jim McLean told The Hill Times last week."The whole idea of the Parliamentary budget officer was to have an arm's length assessment, to have a person and a group backing up that person of highly-qualified people who could make independent assessments and do it in a transparent fashion. Independence and transparency has been stripped out of this, all together."

McLean : "Twelve people in an office embarrassed the thousand thinkers in the Department of Finance and that's where the politics of the whole thing started to work against Kevin Page."

The muzzling of Kevin Page is a bipartisan effort with both Senate Speaker Noel Kinsella and House Speaker Peter Milliken wanting him reined in :

"The parliamentary library operates on a solicitor-client basis. This means any research the library collects for MPs and senators is "privileged" and can be withheld at their request. As an adjunct of the library, Mr. Page's reports would be done for MPs and committees who then can could use the information as they want."

Privileged. Withheld at their request. As they want.

Well it will make a nice change from all that transparency and accountability we've been dealing with lately.
McLean : "the office is going to be buried, very, very deep."
.
Time for Jennifer to fire up her forces again.
.
Cross-posted at Creekside

The Vatican flys to Kansas

The Roman Catholic church would like to make the late Father Emil Kapaun a saint. Now, given the story of Kapaun's selfless determination to help the suffering in a brutal North Korean prisoner of war camp (where he died in 1951), his memory certainly deserves recognition. In fact, the Catholic church recognizes him as a Servant of God, the first step to sainthood. And there is a bronze statue of the man on the grounds of Kansas State University. Emil Kapaun is, beyond doubt, a hero.

But, to be elevated to sainthood requires one specific thing - a miracle.

Lo and behold, doesn't one appear just when it's needed. Some young athelete, who never knew Kapaun, has an accident and fractures his skull. He is rushed to hospital, given emergency surgery, survives and is now recovering. Doctors say he beat the odds; his family says it is the miracle of Emil Kapaun because the whole time the young athelete was being treated they were praying to the memory of the late US Army chaplain. In short, the family is declaring that a long-dead priest somehow came back from the dead and saved their son.

If you're having a little difficulty with this, P.Z. Myers provides an easy to follow two column event line.

And the Vatican has sent out a miracle investigator to check out the events in Kansas. (I wonder how many carbon off-sets they ignored to buy that plane ticket?)

In any case, while the Vatican detective is in Kansas, he might as well head down to Wichita and relax while watching Kansas' aptly named professional baseball team.

Bloggerpalooza 3

Join RossK, West End Bob, Laila Yuile, Pale, Prole, and Frank Frink from ACR, Great Auntie Bertha, hopefully Dave and Cheryl, and myself as we lay to waste a perfectly good afternoon in a downtown pub.

RSVP in comments.

Begging to Differ . . . .

Just finished "The Ayatollah Begs to Differ" by Iranian-American Hooman Majd. It's a very timely analysis of today's Iran and the people/events that shape it. I highly recommend it for a primer on what's going on currently in Persia.

Listening to some of the US political pundits and elected "representatives" pontificate on what should and should not be done in Iran (I'm listening right now to a podcast of "This Week" with S.C. Senator (?) "leeensay" graham spouting BS right now, and it's pretty gagging.) brings to mind some of these quotes from the book:

"It strikes me often while I am in Iran that were Christian evangelicals to take a tour of Iran today, they might find it the model for an ideal society they seek in America. Replace Allah with God, Mohammad with Jesus, keep the same public and private notions of chastity, sin, salvation, and God's will, and a Christian Republic is born."

_______________


"The Iranian revolution on 1979 was a clear rejection on non-Iranian political concepts, and although rage and animosity toward the United States in its aftermath were consequences of this, it was hardly understood that the real fear of Iranians at the time was that the United States, the most powerful country in the world, would simply not allow a political system to develop that didn't mirror its own. What the Iranians were saying, in effect, was: 'Leave us alone, and if you don't, we'll find ways to make your life miserable.'"

_______________

And, on the supposed Iranian-supplied bombs to Iraqi insurgents in 2006/2007:

"Little proof was offered, except for at one press conference where unexploded bombs and shells were displayed with markings, in a perfect English lacking even on unfortunate Iranian road signs, that allegedly showed they were made in Iran. Except the dates of manufacture stenciled onto the bombs were not only in English, but in the American form - that is month, day, year - rather than in the Iranian (and rest of the world's) standard format of day, month year. That the Iranians would be sending weapons to Iraq conveniently and obligingly labeled not only with their country of origin in English but also with the date of manufacture designed so as not to confuse the Americans (who,one supposes, the Iranians know are short on Farsi interpreters) beggars belief, as Javad Zarid, the Iranian ambassador to the UN at the time, told me he had complained in one of his speeches. But few American analysts, and even fewer reporters, including those with experience in the Middle East, questioned out loud this apparently clumsily manufactured evidence, leaving many Iranians to wonder yet again about real US intentions with respect to their country."

_______________


"Shias are always Davids, always the underdogs fighting for a just cause in an unjust world, except it matters not that they actually slay their enemy, but merely that they hold their ground and chalk it up as a victory of justice over tyranny. To them, there is no Goliath today greater than the United States. The Ayatollahs and all their little Davids are determined to stand up to it whenever necessary, whenever the cause is just, and to never lose, even if, or may because, they can't win outright."

Check it out at your local library or at Amazon here . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

The Musical Ride to Shame

BOY, STEVIE SURE IS SILENT ABOUT THIS. The RCMP is a disaster that gets worse as time passes. The problems are everywhere in the force. We have pension fund problems, training problems, management competence problems at every level.

The Mayerthorpe Massacre shows how bad the training and management problems are at the local level, with poorly-trained officers led by people with abysmal judgement.

Then a year later, in Saskatchewan, two horsemen got killed in a gunfight while pursuing the bad guys — can't our guys shoot any more? What are the firearm competence standards? What is the training budget? Jeez, I'm a city-dweller, and my best on groundhogs is 280 yards with a .22 Hornet. Seems like these guys couldn't hit a barn door.

Then there's the RCMP's less than stellar track record in security and relations with CSIS (which deserves to be turned inside-out and examined itself). Maher Arar could probably help with some recommendations.

Then there's the Taser Tempest — and nobody's responsible.

What a can of worms, and nothing but shirking by politicians everywhere. NOBODY'S RESPONSIBLE, including Stevie. Grrrrrrrrr.

"'Ya Want Change With That Legal Brief, Sir ? ? ? ? "

If the Obama administration's stance on legal matters is any indication, the "change" they're offering is mainly pocket change.

Yeah, yeah, yeah I know what you're thinking: "But if you consider the alternative, he's head and shoulders above. They would have been disastrous!"

Consider these quotes from the article below, however:

President Barack Obama is morphing into George W. Bush;
Obama's legal arguments repeatedly mirror Bush's;
this administration's legal arguments have blended into the other;
Obama has come to emulate Bush;
he's following Bush's lead in defending in court the federal marriage law;
The Obama White House has followed suit;
The Obama White House, so far, takes the same view;
The Obama administration now agrees;
as Obama follows the Bush lead;
The Obama administration now says the same.

From McClatchy yesterday:

In stark legal turnaround, Obama now resembles Bush
Michael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers | June 19, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is morphing into George W. Bush, as administration attorneys repeatedly adopt the executive-authority and national-security rationales that their Republican predecessors preferred.

In courtroom battles and freedom-of-information fights from Washington, D.C., to California, Obama's legal arguments repeatedly mirror Bush's: White House turf is to be protected, secrets must be retained and dire warnings are wielded as weapons.

"It's putting up a veritable wall around the White House, and it's so at odds with Obama's campaign commitment to more open government," said Anne Weismann, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a legal watchdog group.

_______________


Whatever the reasons, policy persists.

The Bush White House sought to keep e-mails secret. The Obama White House has followed suit. The Bush White House sought to keep visitor logs secret. The Obama White House, so far, takes the same view.

Petaluma, Calif., resident Carolyn Jewel and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a legal activist group, sued the Bush administration over warrantless wiretaps. The Bush administration said that the lawsuit endangered national security. The Obama administration now agrees.

_______________


An ACLU lawsuit, initially filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., contends that the Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen DataPlan knowingly supported a CIA operation that flew terrorism suspects to brutal overseas prisons. The Bush administration invoked the "state secrets" privilege in an effort to stop the suit.

"Further litigation of this case would pose an unacceptable risk of disclosure of information that the nation's security requires not be disclosed," the Bush administration declared in a legal filing on Oct. 18, 2007.

The Obama administration now says the same, after a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled April 21 that the case could proceed.

"Permitting this suit to proceed would pose an unacceptable risk to national security," the Obama administration declared in a legal filing June 12.

For both arguments, the two administrations relied on the attestations of the same man: former Bush CIA Director Michael Hayden.

You need to count your "change" the next time a vote is cast.

I seem to be missing some of mine . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Beaver bits

Recalling a time long past when a young combat engineering lieutenant was trying to build a road through a piece of Canadian boreal forest, I was reminded of the long fight he had with a group of beavers. The little beasties would wait until the construction crew had finished for the day and then, during the wee hours of the morning, construct a dam across the culvert beside the road, totally flooding the good lieutenant's masterpiece.

It was an extended battle which the lieutenant lost despite the fact that he relocated the road several times. My involvement was that of a mere observer, but we all watched as the lieutenant slowly went mad, totally baffled as to why the beavers followed him and continued to destroy his project.

What got me here was reading a bit put together by Jill Harness which led me to this:

Humans have always marveled at the beaver's ingenuity since he always picks the narrowest part of the stream for the site of his dam. This fact was always cited as proof of the beaver's intelligence and engineering skill. Yet even a modest acquaintance with beavers will soon reveal that they are far from cunning beasts. It was at this stage of the debate that a young grad student entered the scene and began to investigate.

Ah! Nothing like working on a PhD to solve a problem.

He noted that beavers living in ponds and lakes and along rivers never build dams - so this compulsive beaver barrier building business was not a result of their busy nature since non-dam building beavers found an outlet for their busy-ness in some way other than dam building. He therefore obtained several pairs of beavers (all with proven dam building track records), released them in different environments and then sat back and watched what they did. Those released in ponds and large rivers burrowed into the bank, set up beaver housekeeping and then showed no more desire to construct anything beyond their holes. Those released along streams, however, found likely looking pools and then proceeded to deepen them by constructing dams at the narrow, shallow, downstream end.

Keeping in mind that all of them had extensive dam building resumes.

So he proceeded to a riffle (the shallow, high gradient part of the stream) and set up a tape recorder to tape the sound of the water rushing over the gravel and stones. He then set up speakers around known beaver haunts and at dusk turned the tape on.

Lo and behold when he returned the next morning he found the speakers buried under several feet of sticks, gravel and mud - thus effectively silencing the sound. The result was the same whether done along a beaver dammed stream, a large (and quiet) river or a lake or pond. The beavers always covered the speakers until they couldn't hear the sound of rushing water.

[...]

Based on experiments with both free living and captive beavers the researcher found that the sound of rushing water was as annoying to a beaver as the sound of fingernails on a blackboard is to humans. And that beavers will pile up sticks and mud in any spot they hear that sound until they can no longer hear it.

There may be other reasons, but I hope the once-lieutenant finds this and realizes it wasn't really personal.

Why the Harper Conservatives are not Tories

Here's a definition from today's Slate that finally clarifies the distinction for me -- in an essay on the thought of columnist Henry Fairlie.

The characteristics of the Tory, which separate him from the conservative, may briefly be summarized: 1.) his almost passionate belief in strong central government, which has of course always been the symbolic importance to him of the monarchy; 2.) his detestation of "capitalism," of what Cardinal Newman and T.S. Eliot called "usury," of which he himself calls "trade"; and 3.) his trust in the ultimate good sense of the People, whom he capitalizes in this way, because the People are a real entity to him, beyond social and economic divisions, and whom he believes can be appealed to, and relied on, as the final repository of decency in a free nation. The King and the People, against the barons and the capitalists, is the motto of the Tory.

Smell the wafting of the fragrance of G.K. Chesterton, as I do? Chesterton, who wore a cape and carried a sword-cane just in case he might have an heroic adventure thrust upon him?

Further in this essay, we read:

[I]t is time that it was acknowledged that there are now only two choices: one can be either for strong government for the few and the rich, or for strong government for the unrich and the many. There is no longer a third way. This is what the American election this year [1976, USA] is about: not whether there should be "big government" or not—that is a false issue—but whom the "big government" should serve.

By that standard, I agree 100% (or "110%", on the hockey player's scale.) The government inherently has powers, mostly involving coercion, that trump private players. A small government in that sense -- small army, small police, small or ineffective justice system -- does not lead to a modest and unobtrusive government -- it leads to a failed state. And failed states are so ugly that almost any other format of un-failed state is preferable.

So, who do our governments serve? The bullies and userers of the private domain have mobilized their profits in part to ensure that the first of Fairlie's options holds sway. This is their nature and is to be expected. It is not to be encouraged, however. The most pragmatic reason, not involving ideals like "democracy" and "freedom", is that the more profit-driven a society, and the more disproportionate those profits to the services supplied, the less efficient, resilient and diversified the culture will be.

By Fairlie’s definition I find to my surprise that I am a pretty strong Tory. I only wish the Harperites were.

Noni Mausa

So long, Zorph...

Your wit and bs skewering talents will be sorely missed around here.

As Rev put it : "the blogosphere will now have too many nuts and not enough squirrels"

Happy scubas. Hope you'll still drop by from time to time...

second thoughts on Iran

Having followed the Twitter frenzy over events in Iran and having read whatever else I could find (I would especially reccommend a few of the first hand accounts posted at Juan Cole's joint) I find I am leaning toward calling "Bullshit" on the widespread idea (which I initially bought into) that the Iranian Revolution is being driven by Twitter and social networking sites.
The case against the Twitter being a big deal for the Iranians is laid out in great detail and much more cogently over at Open Anthropology, but the main points are that very few Iranians actually use Twitter, the overwhelming majority of the the tweets being posted are repeats and copies of non-information and messages of support ( ie "support the Iranian Revolution by turning your profile picture green" "Change your location in Twitter to Tehran to make it harder for the Iranian censors to find Iranians twittering" "We are with you" "Freedom for Iran" etc etc etc) and warnings NOT to post info identifying Iranian dissidents and the same half dozen links to articles by journalists on the ground in Tehran. What little information there is to be found on Twitter is highly suspect, and much of it appears to be disinformation circulated to serve U.S. and Israeli interests -- claims that the government has imported thousands of Hezbollah and Hamas goons to violently suppress the demonstrations, for example, intended to drive a wedge between Iranians and the terrorist groups their government has supported (the Iranian government has no need to import goons, they have plenty on hand already). Much has been made of the U.S. State Department asking Twitter not to shut down for scheduled maintence as it had intended to do earlier in the week for a few hours, claiming that Twitter is an important communcations tools in Iran. It is an important communications tool, but for the Americans, not for the Iranians.

The exception might be YouTube, to which dissidents have been posting cell phone videos of clashes with the government forces. These serve as an important record and rallying point for the Iranian people. And ten minutes of video says a lot more than 140 characters of text can.

Clearly there is more going on here than is evident at first glance. Much of the public communication we are seeing is part of a propaganda effort intended to manipulate events and public perceptions, some of it is counter-insurgency work by the Iranian government, some of it is political posturing for domestic consumption by US political factions on both sides of the fence. Remember that a few months ago, many of the same conservatives now cheering for the Iranian Revolution were calling for bombing Tehran -- some were even hoping the previous administration would start a war with them before handing over the reins to Obama, who they now insist must "do something" or he will have "abandoned" the Iranians who wanted "freedom."

I had a slight disagreement, more of an exchange of snark really, with Laurence Simon aka Crap Mariner (of 100 Word Stories fame) about what Obama should do and he mentioned smuggling satellite phones and uplinks into the country to help dissidents get the word out to the rest of the world. Given statements like this, I'm not so sure he cares that deeply about helping the Iranians so much as complaining about Obama. A few things about the smuggling idea: 1)The Iranians don't really lack high tech gear, nor do they really care what the rest of the world thinks for the most part 2) Who's to say the United States isn't doing exactly that right now? If they were, they would hardly be advertising the fact since it would play into the government's efforts to portray the opposition as tools of the West and 3)anyone caught with such equipment would probably be executed as a spy.

I think all Obama can and should do openly is to condemn any and all violence and call for the two sides in Iran to work things out peacefully without outside interference. He could also denounce the violations of human rights going on in the country, but given that he wants to reestablish diplomatic ties or at least hold direct talks with whoever eventually becomes president, he may have to hold back and let others (like the Twitternauts) send that message.

The more I learn and the more I think about it, I don't think there is a revolution going on in Iran. There is political and civil unrest to be sure, but at the end of the day, even if the protestors get what they want, the country will still be a conservative, authoritarian fundementalist Muslim theocracy. If the opposition wins out, the people in power might be slightly less unreasonable and the control of the mullahs may slacken ever so slightly - both good things - but I the pro- and anti-government demonstrators both chant "God is Great" at their rallies and will be back to chanting "Death to the Jews, Death to America" in six months. The current struggle might in fact be serving to help the government purge the real revolutionaries who want true change by drawing them out into the open while at the same time allowing the population to blow off some of the social pressure built up by 30 years of repression without any real changes being made.

It may be that sometime in the future Iranians will look back at all the green profile pictures on Twitter and and find a softer spot in their hearts for America, but I think it is more likely that most will see it as another attempt by "the Great Satan" to interfere in their nation's politics. Internet users are a small minority in Iran and those using Twitter an even smaller minority among them. Those people are more likely already interested in Western ideas and culture and in favor of real change in their country. Twitter activists in the West appears to be preaching to the converted and possibly even endangering those whose cause they claim to champion.

crossposted from the Woodshed

She's not nuts. She's just following Stockwell's footsteps

Oy.

Hard to believe, in this day and age, in the depths of the most dangerous economic pinball game most of us have ever encountered in our lifetimes, that it's possible for someone to be so glaringly stupid and utter such contemptuous statements. (Emphasis mine)

"[W]hen you're raising children, you don't both go off to work and leave them for somebody else to raise," [Iris] Evans, [Alberta Finance Minister] said. "This is not a statement against daycare. It's a statement about their belief in the importance of raising children properly."

Which may not be quite as heinous as this statement from the same speech.

"The huge failure of Canadians is not to educate the children properly, and then why should we be surprised when they have mental illnesses or commit dreadful crimes?" she said.

Oy.

Imagine how much better the world would be if the CEOs of GM and Chrysler had just followed Evans' financial model.

Looks to me like this piece of work now qualifies for Harper's coterie of federal hillbillies. Don't be surprised if she's recruited to make a run for parliament.

"Then they were heroes. They were heroes."

Another brown Canadian citizen has been held in the US for 5½ years, 4 of them in solitary confinement, for "allegedly assisting al-Qaeda", and his lawyer worries that like Omar Khadr and Abousfian Abdelrazik he will be denied the necessary travel documents to return to Canada by Ottawa.

CBC : Ottawa not saying if Canadian linked to al-Qaeda can return

"Last month, U.S. federal prosecutors offered to drop the five charges of material terrorism if Warsame pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of conspiracy to support al-Qaeda."

Mohammed Warsame has accepted the offer - and after four years in solitary in the US, so would I - but Warsame does not deny his association with al-Qaeda.
In 2000, he left Toronto for Afghanistan to train with al-Quaeda. Disillusioned by what he found there, he returned to Canada in March 2001 - six months before 9/11 - and was picked up by the FBI in Minneapolis in 2003. He has been held in custody without trial ever since.
As his lawyer explained: "Like many young Muslims, he was attracted by the notion of an Islamic state he believed was a sort of utopia."


Reading this I was reminded of a Chris Sands interview with the wife of an American diplomat stationed in Kabul. She spoke of her husband accompanying the Afghan resistance on their missions across the border against Soviet troops and of her friendship with fundamentalist Mujahideen leaders.
"Then they were heroes. They were heroes," she said.
Yes. They were portrayed as herioic, we now know, for their usefulness in embroiling the Soviet Union in a crippling unwinnable war. "Freedom fighters", Reagan called them.
But what is not often mentioned is the effect all that hero worship and propaganda in the western press would have had upon young Muslim teenagers in Canada and the US.

Warsame's crime was to have believed it.

Cross-posted at Creekside.

Happy Bloomsday

105 years ago today.....

"STATELY, PLUMP BUCK MULLIGAN CAME FROM THE STAIRHEAD, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressing gown, ungirdled, was sustained gently-behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned..."

Wiki has a decent capsule study of the whole thing.

Tune into Radio Woodshed starting a noon EDT to hear the whole novel read aloud, unabridged, all 27+ hours of it.

And if you think Ulysses was hard to read or listen to, imagine writing a 265,000-word novel with a vocabulary of about 30,000 words that all takes place in a single day - it only took

Joyce seven years to write it, but has taken most people much more time to read and develop an understanding of it. It is said by many to encompass the whole of human experience in a single days stream-of-consciousness.

Culture, beeyoches, come get some!

A chilly breeze in the South China Sea

Adding to previous examples of the Chinese Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) Navy spreading the web and venturing into places they haven't been seen before this report appeared last Friday.

A Chinese submarine accidentally collided with an underwater sonar array being towed by a U.S. military ship, CNN reported on Friday, quoting an unnamed military official.

The incident occurred on Thursday near Subic Bay off the coast of the Philippines, according to the CNN report.

The destroyer USS John S. McCain was towing the array, deployed to track underwater sounds.

"The John S. McCain did have a problem with its towed array sonar. It was damaged" on Thursday in Subic Bay, a Pentagon spokesman told Reuters in a telephone interview.

[...]

The U.S. Navy does not view the incident as a deliberate move by Beijing to harass military ships operating in the region, CNN reported.

No? I waited until after the weekend to see if anything more was going to come of this because there is an element of strangeness to it.

Things went into the security hole. Nobody is talking about anything.

Thinking maybe it was just me, I went over to check and see what Galrahn had on it. It seems we were viewing this the same way. (Emphasis mine)

First, if the USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) had its towed sonar deployed off the coast of the Philippines, then she was actively searching for a submarine. It is not normal behavior for the US Navy to tow around an expensive towed sonar in the littorals off a country with no submarines like the Philippines. That suggests the USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) knew there was a Chinese submarine in the area, then deployed the towed sonar, and it was at that time a PLAN submarine hit the sonar. Second, if the PLAN submarine hit the towed array, it means the submarine was positioning itself behind the USS John S. McCain (DDG-56), meaning just like the USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) was hunting the submarine, the submarine was hunting the destroyer.

Yup. In fact, I'll go one further and suggest that USS McCain's towed array got whacked during either streaming or recovery operations when the "tail" is most vulnerable.

More important though is that, despite the USN silence on the matter and the brushing it off as an accidental encounter, it was hardly that. The incident supposedly took place in international waters. While the Chinese have now acknowledged the encounter (finally), a nasty little issue remains: China is claiming the entire South China Sea as its territorial waters.

The US 7th Fleet, based in Yokosuka, Japan, probably had good information on the Chinese submarine from the time it sailed. The US destroyer was likely the quick response surface ship dispatched to localize and report the position of the PLA unit.

In short, this is old Cold War stuff. This time, however, it may not end well. China takes a much longer view than either the US or the former USSR.

Hat tip Boris.

Dennis Does ken . . . .

Thanks to the Louis Riel Trail for posting this Dennis Kucinich vs. ken lewis (of bank of america infamy) video yesterday:




Just one more example of why "drf" and I were Dennis supporters before he pulled out of the race for Prez.

He would have really been "Change You Can Believe In" . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

How many ways can you say "Rust-Out"?

Perhaps the concept of the Joint Support Ship was one task too many. It was, in one sense at least, something of a desperation move to satisfy many demands on a navy that urgently wanted one real thing - replacements for the old, steam-driven, fleet replenishment ships. That was number one on the design item list - the ability to keep a naval task group refuelled and resupplied at sea. Without them the sovereign global mobility of the Canadian Navy would become impossible.

The Defence Department has spent $44 million so far on office and support costs and consulting contracts for its program to purchase a new fleet of supply ships, but government officials are now examining whether to start afresh on the troubled project. [...] The program, known as the Joint Support Ship or JSS, was derailed in August after the bids from two consortiums were rejected by the government.

In fact, the Navy has already been staring at that cold boiler. The refits of HMC ships Protecteur and Preserver have seen those ships removed from service for over 18 months each, leaving either the Atlantic or Pacific task group without Canadian provided underway replenishment.

The Canadian Navy had never been in the business of transporting the Canadian Army in any significant numbers. (The exception is the 2nd World War when three Canadian Pacific passenger liners were taken into service, converted to armed-merchant cruisers and were employed as infantry landing ships). However, the GTS Katie episode, wherein the American owner of the ship refused to deliver the load of armoured vehicles, weapons and ammunition returning from the Kosovo mission until more money was paid, folded another role into the yet-to-be-designed replenishment ship replacement - that of military sealift.

Still another role was developing. The ships, aside from being able to keep frigates and destroyers replenished, and taking into account the roll-on-roll-off requirement would also be expected to perform a role in the littoral zones, acting as support and safe off-the-beach area for troops over the beach.

To anybody familiar with any one of those roles, the thought of kneading those three significantly different functions into one hull was not simply daunting; it was mind-boggling. Another thing was obvious: In order to get what everybody wanted, it was going to be expensive.

And everybody wanted everything. As much as the funds would come from the naval envelope, all three services wanted these ships for their own specific purposes.

The Joint Support Ship project was given the go-ahead by the Paul Martin Liberal government. The original plan called for four ships. Even those of us standing on grey plate never believed that would happen. Three was more likely the case, particularly since most of us were viewing the fleet replenishment role as primary and rationalization of that function meant three; not four. The current situation of two fleet replenishment ships had already highlighted the fact that the Navy was one ship shy of its needs.

Then something strange happened. The Harper government, in its effort to demonstrate a much stronger committment to national defence than anybody on the planet, took total ownership of the Navy's JSS project. They went to great lengths to ensure that it looked like their idea. Anything related to defence procurement got a "Harper" label.

No one was complaining, save for the fact that had the project proceeded unimpeded, it might have made it under the funding wire as a viable three ship procurment. Add a lengthy procurement review by the Harperites which stalled everything except the unplanned pet Conservative projects arising from election campaign promises and the Harper Accountability Act which has added a strong dose of cold molasses to the flow of information* in the public service and there was little chance that an increasingly expensive project would go forward anywhere near as planned.

The Navy is more than a little reluctant to accept a two ship option. That's what they're working with now in ships that are 40 years old and only performing one-third of what the JSS was supposed to do. That leaves scrapping the project altogether, writing off the money spent to date and respawning a new ship, (one far less capable, but perhaps more rational).

There is more. Much more.

In truth, the Canadian Navy is in tatters. The JSS project is effectively dead, the frigate mid-life extension project is in serious jeapordy and replacement shipborne helicopter delivery is now a date pulled from the air with no attachment to reality.

Worse though, is the manpower situation. The Navy is hemmorhaging skilled personnel.

That and more in future posts.

Premiers promote North American energy super-corridor

Forget the Persian Gulf: Fort McMurray to Port Arthur, Texas is new powerhouse :

Western premiers and U. S. governors on Sunday hailed their push to develop a cross-border Western Energy Corridor.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, Alberta's Ed Stelmach, and Manitoba's Gary Doer were in Utah for the Western Governors' Association annual conference "to explore a broader energy relationship" with their American counterparts.

Stelmach said the western governors are very supportive of the corridor concept.
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer declared the oilsands--the second-largest proven oil reserves in the world--are critically important to U. S. energy security and a major component for a powerhouse energy corridor.

"The most important energy corridor on the planet is no longer the Persian Gulf. It runs from the oilsands, Fort McMurray to Port Arthur, Texas," Schweitzer said. "A large part of energy independence is going to be dependent upon developing the oilsands."
Colorado Governor Bill Ritter agreed, saying "it's both western parts of Canada and the United States that can play a role in energy independence."

Wall and Stelmach are scheduled to meet with U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today :

"Chu has also lauded the potential of the oilsands, saying recently it’s an important piece of U.S. energy security."

Happy to oblige, I'm sure.
What's this Western Energy Corridor the Canadian premiers are so happy to promote again?
.
An Overview of the Western Energy Corridor Initiative

"The United States faces an unprecedented threat to its economic and national security due to its dependence on foreign oil and gas. Given this threat, the U.S. must secure and steward itsown domestic energy supplies more effectively.
The Office of Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves is proposing a major technical study under the auspices of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Section 369(i) to perform a regional analysis of the development potential of the Western Inland “Energy Corridor”.

~ Thomas Woods, Idaho National Laboratory - the U.S. Energy Department’s main nuclear laboratory

Last spring, the Alberta and US governments signed an agreement to jointly research the use of atomic power for tarsands development. The Alberta Research Council and the U.S. Energy Department’s main nuclear laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, announced they will collaborate on "the potential application of current and future nuclear energy technology".

So, to recap :
~The US Dept of Energy funds their main nuclear laboratory, the INL, to come up with the Western Energy Corridor Initiative.
~Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba sign on via the Western Governors' Association.
~Alberta and US governments sign an agreement for future nuking of the tarsands via the INL and Alberta Research Council.
~Stelmach and Wall are meeting with the US Dept of Energy Secretary today.

I remember when we were just worrying about the NAFTA Superhighway.
.
Cross-posted at Creekside

Snowbirds are lashed

It looks like the Canadian Air Force aerobatic team might get a little more time to reduce their handicaps.

The Snowbirds, Canada's iconic military aerobatic team, have had their wings temporarily clipped while investigators probe a technical problem with their aging fleet of 20 CT-114 Tutors.

I'm glad O'Neill tossed "aging" in there, because if she hadn't I would have.

Sub-Lieutenant David Lavallee, an air force spokesman, said the military doesn't know how long the investigation will take or whether the Snowbirds will have to cancel any upcoming appearances, including their popular Canada Day fly past Parliament Hill in Ottawa on July 1.

Ah, yes, the Canada Day event. Woody day for the Conservatives.

In the event that the Air Force faces the prospect of continuing a critical safety investigation beyond Canada Day, (I'm not being facetious), there is a solution established by precedence. (Back to being facetious).

Harper recalls Parliament in an emergency session. The Conservatives howl and yowl about how this is affecting the morale of Canadians and the decision to ground the "Toots" was clearly made by somebody who voted "Liberal".

Harper declares the CT-114 Tutor absolutely safe and has Parliament order them to fly.

Harper fires the person that grounded them in the first place.

17 months later, Harper puts the entire Air Force fleet up for sale.

Alaska's Rat Island is Rat Free

From Reuters:

Alaska's Rat Island is finally rat-free, 229 years after a Japanese shipwreck spilled rampaging rodents onto the remote Aleutian island, decimating the local bird population.

After dropping poison onto the island from helicopter-hoisted buckets for a week and a half last autumn, there are no signs of living rats and some birds have returned, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Rats have ruled the island since 1780, when they jumped off a sinking Japanese ship and terrorized all but the largest birds on the island. The incident introduced the non-native Norway rat -- also known as the brown rat -- to Alaska.

The $2.5 million Rat Island eradication project, a joint effort between the U.S. federal government, the Nature Conservancy and Island Conservation, is one of the world's most ambitious attempts to remove destructive alien species from an island.

Read that last paragraph very carefully.

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

With condolences and respect to the family and friends of Corporal Martin Dubé, 5^e Régiment de genie de combat. Killed due to enemy activity.

Ubique

There is a fungus among us . . .

Oregon State scientist Mary Verhoeven is among those working to develop wheat varieties resistant to a strain of “stem rust” that a colleague calls “a time bomb.” | picture: Katharine Kimball / for The Times

THE L.A. TIMES has a disturbing article by Karen Kaplan on a wheat fungus that threatens to wipe out 80% of the world's wheat crop. According to Ms. Kaplan, the Ug99 fungus, called stem rust, could wipe out more than 80% of the world's wheat as it spreads from Africa, scientists fear. The race is on to breed resistant plants before it reaches the U.S.

Crop scientists fear the Ug99 fungus could wipe out more than 80% of worldwide wheat crops as it spreads from eastern Africa. It has already jumped the Red Sea and traveled as far as Iran. Experts say it is poised to enter the breadbasket of northern India and Pakistan, and the wind will inevitably carry it to Russia, China and even North America -- if it doesn't hitch a ride with people first.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico estimates that 19% of the world's wheat, which provides food for 1 billion people in Asia and Africa, is in imminent danger. American plant breeders say $10 billion worth of wheat would be destroyed if the fungus suddenly made its way to U.S. fields.

Fear that the fungus will cause widespread damage has caused short-term price spikes on world wheat markets. Famine has been averted thus far, but experts say it's only a matter of time.

Stem rust destroyed more than 20% of U.S. wheat crops several times between 1917 and 1935, and losses reached nearly 9% twice in the 1950s. The last major outbreak, in 1962, destroyed 5.2% of the U.S. crop, according to Peterson, who chairs the National Wheat Improvement Committee.

Well, there's always Rye.

Uh Oh . . . .

Why do I have the sneaking suspicion this does not bode well for Canadian interests?

Per the CBC this morning:

Canada, U.S. unveil plans to renegotiate Great Lakes water treaty
Saturday, June 13, 2009 | 11:36 AM ET | CBC News

Canada and the United States will renegotiate the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday in Niagara Falls, Ont.

Clinton, who was joined by Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon, crossed the border for celebrations marking 100 years of the Boundary Waters Treaty between the two countries.

"We have to update it to reflect new knowledge, new technologies and, unfortunately, new threats," Clinton said.

"The rivers, the lakes, the streams, the watersheds along our boundary do not belong to one nation, they belong to all of us," she said at celebrations overlooking the falls.

Homeland Security will no doubt get involved, not too mention gordo campbell and his buddies selling off BC's water rights.

Great news for Canada, for sure.

Would love to get The Lady Alison's take on this deal . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Osama bin there done that

CIA: Finding bin Laden top U.S. priority

(UPI) -- Finding al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, believed still in hiding in Pakistan, remains a top priority for the United States, CIA Director Leon Panetta said.
Panetta told reporters the United States has people in Pakistan "who are helping us provide targets," the BBC reported Friday.

An unfortunate choice of words, to be sure.

Cowards and sadists

I'm modifying and building on a comment I left at Dr. Dawg's regarding the continued internment abroad of brown skinned Canadians, literally spite of a court rulings. Aside from the plight of these marooned citizens, there are other aspects of this case which are troubling and enraging on much deeper level.

If simple bureaucratic proceduralism were the cause of all this, it could be challenged and argued and a signature or two could sort it out. We could all curse the 'system' and pressure would surely rectify whatever Foreign Affairs obstacles were in the way. We tried that many times with Abousfian Abdelrazik but to no avail. The bureaucratic barriers were surmounted but we have thus far failed. We failed because the Minister, no doubt on orders from or in league with Satan the Prime Minister have taken it upon themselves to directly intervene and contribute to the fate of an individual (among several) Canadian. Rephrased slightly, Lawrence Cannon and Stephen Harper are directly harming the life and wellbeing of a Canadian citizen, in spite of legal rulings to the contrary, the Charter, and the policies of their own departments. These are not the actions of a state or a government (which have plenty laws and regulations that inflict their own peculiar cruelty), but the behaviour of a street gang with a personal vendetta.

This is terrifying on a number of levels.

On one level, it suggests individuals within the Harper government are willing to directly interfere in the life of any Canadian who displeases them. Considering the number of people who did not vote for their party, this includes the majority of Canadians. One wonders if there are there other Canadians in whose lives Ministers have taken direct and wicked roles beyond any court or legal sanction? They don't have to block some one from exercising their Charter right to return from hell like Abdelrazik, but they could do much less sensational things that cause great discomfort to Canadians who actively disagree with them (taxes, delaying applications, etc). They've certainly set the precedent.

On another level of the personal, because theirs are actions of the individual and personal level, Lawrence Cannon and Stephen Harper display an example of high cowardice on par with that of child molesters. And no, I will not apologise for comparing the actions of Stephen Harper and his ilk to that of paedophiles when their actions amount to the foreign internment and torture of Canadians (or anyone for that matter) whom they are Charter-bound to protect. It really is that fucking personal - just read Justice Zinns description of Abdelrazik's ordeal and ask yourself why these disgusting people are not standing in shackles before some sort of court.

Could Cannon or Harper or any other serpent in that garden of sadists stand in front of Abousfian Abdelrazik or Abdihakim Mohamed, or the one-time boy-soldier and torture victim Omar Khadr or anyone else and tell they weren't going to let them come home? Look them in the eye and tell them as far as they were concerned, they didn't give a tinker's damn whether their victim ended up tortured yet again, or even dead? Not a chance, I think. They'll simply write one sentence telegrams of judgement to what I imagine are incredulous embassy staff.

On a macrolevel, they're also delegitimising the institutions of state by pushing them to their limits. Whether by design or incompetence, the result is the same. What happens if they keep appealing rulings on Abdelrazik, or worse, simply ignore them altogether? Would a judge order their detention? Would the police actually arrest them? If there are no consequences for this government (including an election loss), we're on very shaky ground. I am not saying this will come to pass; I do think eventually they'll bring Abdelrazik and others home, but I can't help but wonder 'what happens if they don't?'. Foreign Affairs staff may find themselves caught between a court order and a Minister's commands - perhaps they are now. What they do may determine a great deal.

This government must go.

Stay right where you are Lord Tubby

The US Supreme Court thinks you have a pretty good life in a Florida federal jail.

Black had asked to be released on bail pending his appeal. But justice John Paul Stevens denied the request.

"It is ordered that the application of Conrad M Black for bail pending appeal is denied," Stevens said in an order released by the court.

The supreme court probably will hear arguments until late this year and a decision is unlikely before late winter.

Ah, but the fruit on the trees matches the jumpsuit so well.

Don't drop the soap, Conrad. That won't be Mark Steyn up your ass.

Hat tip reader Cat.

Multipurpose Applied Physics Lattice Experiment may in fact, WORK.

OK, so from the title, Multipurpose Applied Physics Lattice Experiment, in short MAPLE. Research nuclear reactors which, at this time anyway, are considered backups to the NRU reactor at Chalk River.

We have been told many things about MAPLE1 and MAPLE2. This much we know:

1. On 19 February, 2000, MAPLE1 began a self-sustaining reaction, known as criticality; something necessary to be a real-live nuclear reactor;

2. On 9 October, 2003, MAPLE2 went critical. This was a good thing, at least inasmuch as making a tub on the ground a nuclear reactor is a good thing;

3. During the commissioning process of both MAPLE reactors the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission felt that several one-off problems were enough not to grant a license to start those reactors for isotope production;

4. One of the big issues was a concern over the power coefficient of the MAPLE reactors.

I wish I could discuss that. I am an oceanographer, not a nuclear physicist. I am lost beyond that I understand what a power coefficient is in many different things. But not a nuclear reactor.

Item 4 above, despite a few other irregularities which could likely have been fixed, was enough for the CNSC to deny licensing to both reactors until everything could be rectified.

OK... good.

Then we run into a problem with the NRU reactor and CNSC orders a shut-down until the problems are fixed. As we all now know, that erupts into a parliamentary brouhaha wherein Steve Harper, also not a nuclear physicist and with a degree in something not-science-in-any-way tells all of us that he deems the NRU reactor safe.

Given the shortage of medical isotopes because of the NRU Chalk River shutdown, somebody, (I forget who) suggests that maybe MAPLE1 and MAPLE2, operating at well below 80 percent, might well be able to do the job.

No way, says Harper. They're just not up to the job. By the way, Linda Keen, you're fired!

So, after Harper has installed his "chosen men" at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and the CNSC, it is declared that MAPLE1 and MAPLE2 just aren't sustainable anymore. On 16 May, 2008, the development and commissioning process of both reactors is terminated. The MAPLE project is effectively dead.

Then, Lisa Raitt, minister of natural resources and the minister responsible for the reactor that produces medical isotopes fall off her fork. Sideshow.

Harper then announces that he anticipates Canada will be out of the medical isotope business in the future. He caps it off by saying that after hundreds of millions of dollars the MAPLE reactors have not produced one isotope.

The one thing we've learned about Harper is that he doesn't have much on the ball. He may be a good immediate event political tactician but he fails miserably in the long fight. For him to make a statement it means he was either told to say that or he made it up. He doesn't really know.

The truth.

A brand-new backup nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ont. produced enough medical isotopes during some test runs to supply the needs of every Canadian hospital and clinic, a parliamentary committee was told Thursday, putting a dent in one argument the Conservatives have been using to defend their decision last spring to mothball that backup plan.

The revelation that the MAPLE reactors at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.'s Chalk River Laboratory did indeed produce the isotope Moly-99, the key ingredient used in pharmaceutical radioisotopes, came on the same day doctors in Quebec said as many as 12,000 patients there have had their cancer and cardiac tests put off because of a shortage of those isotopes.

[...]

Jill Chitra, a vice-president and professional engineer at MDS Nordion told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources that is incorrect.

"From 2000 to 2008, the MAPLE reactors ran numerous times at various power levels, up to 80 per cent power," Chitra said. "(Isotope) targets were inserted in the reactor for a number of those tests. When targets are inserted in the reactor and it operates at power, isotopes — Moly-99 — is created."

Chitra said that the targets were simply not processed or harvested.

"Those targets could have been removed and processed and you'd have had medical isotopes for sale," Chitra said. "It's one of the reasons we think MAPLE has potential."

Oh... oops!

In fact, Harper is lying. He wants to sell AECL, following in the footsteps of Brian Mulroney, and he knows if Canadians believed that the MAPLE reactors were viable he would face a grassroots outrage.

And if you really want to know the Conservative position when they hear that MAPLE may actually work, the best place to go is to our intrepid parliamentary committee junkie, Kady O'Malley and scroll down to minute 4:21:16.

h/t Frank Frink

People who help people are the luckiest people

How did I not know about this? This is the very idea that won the Nobel Peace Prize a couple of years ago and now its gone viral on the intertubes. Apparently the payback rate on these loans is over 95% - maybe Citibank and Bank of America need to take some lessons.

Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.

The people you see on Kiva's site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs' profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

The website lets you loan as little as $25, bundling it into a larger loan. Kiva lets you form or join groups and tracks which groups contribute the most. It should surprise no one that the second largest contributing group are the "Kiva Christians" -- the largest being "Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious."

I'll be looking for a suitable borrower on the site and posting info over at The Woodshed for anyone else who wants to help out.

It's too hard

Back to witchcraft, which to a Harper Conservative is so much easier.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada will abandon its role as the world's largest supplier of medical isotopes.

“We anticipate Canada will be out of the business,” Mr. Harper told a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

The shutdown of the aging NRU nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ont., which churns out a third of the world's supply of the radioactive material, has created a crisis for nuclear medicine specialists both in Canada and abroad.

Gee, Steve, what about that World Stage™?

And what about all those medical procedures you were so worried about less than two years ago?

What about the fact that you fired Linda Keen because she was telling everyone, including you, that Chalk River was dangerous?

No matter how you cut it, bucko, she was right and you, you petulant little freak, were wrong.

You just wreaked a trail of destruction to accomplish... nothing.

Nathan Cullen, the NDP critic for Natural Resources, said the government's “failure” should not be the reason that Canada steps out of the isotope business. Mr. Cullen said his party has been receiving plenty of information from former AECL employees who have said the Maples could be revived.

Whatsamatter, Steve? Couldn't find a buyer?

Of course none of this will have anything to do with the fact that MDS Nordion went looking... and found what they needed in Belgium.

Scratch that political donation.

And then there's the other angle...

You can't really fire her, can you? Not now, anyway. Aside from the fact that you shot your wad defending her, she's one of the best connected members of your Addams Family/Munsters coalition.

How do you deal with her?

Pull the rug out. Take away the "sexy" file. Now her ministry is no longer responsible for making sure Chalk River continues to grind out medical isotopes. Now she and her leaky ministry are simply there to oversee the PMO approved death of a leaky reactor. Hell, you already spent her wind-power development money on gas for the Escalade.

Global shortage of Moly-99? What shortage? We don't do that stuff. Patients unable to get nuclear medical diagnostics and treatment? Not our problem.

HUD went rooting through the hamper and found an old Conservative sock.

Acta non verba

It really is hard to believe how she could possibly make herself look worse, but Lisa Raitt, even with tears, can't even get over herself enough to get the apology right. What a piece of work:

As somebody who has had in their personal life been deeply affected by cancer, my intent was certainly not to show any disrespect for cancer victims, survivors, or their families.

However, it's clear that these remarks have been interpreted in that way. So I want to offer a clear apology to anyone who has been offended by what I've said.

I want people to know that when I was 11 years old, I watched my father pass away from colon cancer over a period of 18 months. My mother and I and my brother took care of him until his final days.

Twenty years later, I was in the room with my brother as he died from lung cancer. As you can see, it's a very personal issue for me, and it's one that I really don't take lightly.

With respect to the medical isotopes issue, however, I will continue to work with Minister Aglukkaq and the international community to address the isotopes shortage in Canada and around the world.

Thank you.

Reptillian tears and narcissistic bullshit. Raitt's first, second and last sentences completely neutralised all meaning behind her apology and despicably further the insult.

1.

As somebody who has had in their personal life been deeply affected by cancer, my intent was certainly not to show any disrespect for cancer victims, survivors, or their families.

Sure I'll buy that. Her intent was not to show disrespect to cancer victims and their families because they probably never even entered her petty little mind. Indeed, the only thing on her mind was Lisa Raitt. Result: meaningless statement designed to deflect from the fact she insulted people and draw attention to her own family experiences in the hopes that we'll all come down with a case of cognitive dissonance and feel sorry for her because this is so sniff sniff hard.. We see the beginning of another stream of narcissistic bullshit. Only unlike the tape's I-am-so-great sexiness, we get feel-sorry-for-me-because-I-didn't-mean-it crocodile tears. The strawman of her own family experience with cancer becomes a sick use of family grief to further her political survival, as we shall see.

2.

However, it's clear that these remarks have been interpreted in that way. So I want to offer a clear apology to anyone who has been offended by what I've said.

Yes, it is very clear they've been interpreted that way, because they remain extremely disrespectful to the victims of cancer and their loved ones, full stop. Stating they've been interpreted subtly insinuates that there is something wrong on the part of the interpreters, and not with the comments. Which makes her offer of a "clear apology" utterly meaningless because she herself cannot recognise the issue with her comments. Imagine if she had said something like, "I recognise my comments were cruel and insensitive to victims of cancer and their loved ones. I have no excuse and should have known better, especially considering my own family experience with cancer. I am deeply sorry for the hurt I have caused." I am sure readers can see the difference.

3.

With respect to the medical isotopes issue, however, I will continue to work with Minister Aglukkaq and the international community to address the isotopes shortage in Canada and around the world.

Even without changing her earlier words, if this last sentence amounted to a declaration of resignation, it would have been an acceptable apology of sorts. Instead we are asked to snort a line of dissonant runny bovine faecal matter which essentially reads,

"I'm sorry you're upset because you misinterpreted my comments, I had cancer in my family, so aside from crying in public, I will keep my job and suffer no consequences."

Result: EPIC FAIL.

Seriously, are they all sociopaths?

Yes, Chantal, but for one curious action

Chantal Hebert makes an interesting point in describing the words of Harper natural resources minister as typical of "back-channel conversations... assessing events and their relative place in the larger picture of... a government's work."

And, as Dr. Dawg points out there are few among us who, in what we believed to be private circumstances, could not be accused of musing on the competence of colleagues or verbalizing our personal satisfaction at the chance to turn an unfortunate event into a personal opportunity.

We would, of course, not expect those occasions to be indelibly logged into the annals of history on a recording device. Nor, apparently, did Lisa Raitt

Hebert's point is interesting, but I have difficulty with the basic posit of her piece. The, "We all do it", defence is far too lenient in this case. This was not a discussion between editors behind closed doors about a juicy news item; this was a federal cabinet minister discussing what was a building medical crisis. That it got recorded, intentionally or inadvertently, gives us a look at that cabinet minister's true motivation to deal with that crisis - and it wasn't a higher calling to public service. Private or not, the recorded conversation revealed Raitt's true character - that of a self-serving careerist.

Politicians of all persuasions and levels spend millions of dollars attempting to have their public image portrayed in a particular way. They are trying to persuade voters to see only a noble, dedicated and morally superior public servant, despite what may constitute their own true characters. If they are, in fact, self-serving careerists, that nature is buried under layer upon layer of advertising intended to steer attention as far away from that character trait as possible - hopefully to the point where everyone will believe something completely different or, at the very least, accept that the camouflage is working.

To wit, dressing up one of the outwardly nastiest and meanest politicians in Canadian history in a sweater vest, holding kittens in an attempt to portray something other than his true, and previously well-documented, self. Lipstick on a pig. Or, more accurately, false advertising.

Does this matter? Apparently it does. If it were otherwise political parties would not go to the lengths they do to vet candidates and reject those who have so little as an embarrassing moment in their past.

So, despite the "Everyone does it", defence, Raitt deserves both the scrutiny and the outrage for her words because, when she was applying to the voters she was selling something completely different. It doesn't matter who else does it. If you are in a position of having sold yourself one way, even though most might believe that to be little more than Hollywood embellishment, and it can be proved that the product is of a different standard, you deserve to be raked over the coals.

It goes further than that however. From the moment the Raitt recording started to surface somebody in the Harper ranks went into damage control causing light to shine in areas where the spin merchants like to keep it dark.

Supposedly, Jasmine McDonnell offered her resignation over leaving "secret" files laying around in TV studios. (There's a private conversation I would have like to have heard.) Offering and accepting resignations is, in almost all areas of government, the code for "Sacked", normally in a very unceremonious fashion. Yet, here was someone who was supposedly out in the cold suddenly scrambling of to Halifax to suppress the recorded conversation of her former boss.

It means she knew what was on that recorder and it is not an unreasonable leap to believe that Raitt was also very aware of the contents. It also appears that the knowledge of the recorder's contents extended to the Prime Minister's Office.

Yet, Kory Teneycke tells us that the "government was not involved" in attempting to muzzle the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. He has to say that, of course. Any proof of PMO involvement would immediately lead to charges of deliberately attempting to limit freedom of the press and a Charter violation. So, we are to believe that McDonnell was acting on her own, without her former minister's instructions, without a desperate personal order from on high. That, or she was a Conservative party member acting as a "volunteer", something Teneycke has done by pulling himself off the payroll for a day so he could roll-out attack ads.

It's too convenient and, now that Raitt has given us a further example of Harperite conservative character, far too difficult to believe.

Finally, there is this little bit of burning fuse in Ms. Hebert's article. (Emphasis mine)

So confident was she that she would overcome the problems plaguing the Chalk River nuclear reactor and the recurrent isotope shortage that results from them that she saw a silver lining in playing the lead role on the issue. (This was back in January. A successful outcome has yet to be achieved.)

That's right, it was back in January. Which means that the Harper government was fully aware that they had a massive crisis brewing. How much information did anyone actually get about the Chalk River problems back in January?

Next to none. Unless you were going here, you were getting nothing. While the Chalk River reactor problems and an impending shortage of medical isotopes loomed, the Harper Conservatives were misusing SECRET stamps, suppressing information and hiding both expenditures and facts.

That recording is more than "embarrassing" for the Harperites.

And now the inevitable tearful apology: More lipstick on the same pig. I'm speaking for myself alone when I state categorically that I reject Lisa Raitt's apology in its entirety. We already know what you are.

Coincidence? It seems the pundits are out in force trying to defend Lisa Raitt for being so... Harper Conservative. For every pundit, however, there seems to be a citizen quite willing to bite back with a much more compelling argument.

30 years before the masthead

This is from a few weeks back, but listen to Stuart McLean talks about why newspapers are important. I couldn't agree more.

I've been writing paying copy or editing the words of others since I was 14 years old and sold my first piece to the Sault Star for 25 cents a column inch. I even had a neighborhood newspaper I published with a couple of friends when I was about six years old - as I recall my first bylined piece read something like "Jamie Smith just got a minibike this week for his birthday. What a lucky kid!" - I was editorializing even then.

I wrote for the Sault Star for a few months in high school and then covered Rotary Club meetings for the Ancaster Journal for a year or two while still in high school ( I didn't get paid, but all my friend's fathers bought me gin and tonics to keep me coming back - "follow the free booze" being a lesson I learned early in my career").

Crossposted from the Woodshed

From there I went to the University of Waterloo's Imprint, Sheridan College's student paper and the Guelph Daily Mercury for a short co-op spell, where they gave me a front page byline above the fold my first day (may as well have been China white).

Then it was into the professional ranks in Ingersol, Ontario where in a regular week I covered events and wrote stories, took photos, rewrote press releases for publication, developed film and printed photos, laid out pages with a razor knife, hot wax and graphics tape with copy off a linotype machine and one week even sold and laid out an ad and delivered the paper -- all for $230 a week before taxes and all the newsprint I could eat (and no, I am not speaking of the 1950s here -- this was in the late 80's).

From there it was onward and upward to the Caledonia's Grand River Sachem, the good old Port Dover Maple Leaf, the Listowel Independent, The Napanee Beaver and finally the editorship of the oldest community newspaper in Canada, The Picton Gazatte. I don't think in the entire seven or so years I worked in the community news trade I ever put in fewer than 55 hours a week and most of the time with meeting to cover and the like, it was more like 70 hours. And I never made more than about $500 a week until I came to Japan a dozen years ago, where I work for a very, very different kind of newspaper for considerably better wages and, sadly in recent years, considerably less job satisfaction.

The printed newspaper may be a on its way out, but opinion-riddled blogs will never replace good honest local journalism, and woe betide the community that doesn't have some poor, starving, scoop-hungry kid or two with ink in their veins and visions of Woodward and Bernstein and Hersh and I. F. Stone in their heads, keeping an eye on the town council and the police service and the school board on your behalf. He may not know everyone's grandmother, he may not be from around here and he may have spelled your niece Kathie's name "Cathy" last week, but he's the only one going to all those meetings and putting two and two together to let you know that someone is about to build a quarry on the old swimming hole or tear down the old Johnson house to put in a landfill or that the planning committee is being run by the local real estate bund.

The New York Times and the Toronto Star can evolve to on-line versions that are half TV and half news and lifestyle magazine, but you lose that local rag at your peril, especially in a small town. Newspapers may be a dying industry, but the world still needs trained, professional journalists to balance out the pretty show-biz people on television and the national celebrity media villagers in the major magazines. Where will you be without those uncredited, underpaid, underappreciated rock-solid beat reporters who are there to bear witness at every council meeting, who are there at the police station every day, who are covering the endless, dull school board meetings, sifting through the committee minutes for a little gold or checking into the claims of the PR people, the spin-doctors, the press agents and marketing flacks? Up to your neck in bullshit and hype, that's where.

You think Can-West or the Toronto Star or Edmonton Sun or CFRB give a rat's ass about following up on rumors that the water in some little town might not be up to the proper health standards? Oh, sure they'll pick up the story if somebody dies, but it going to be a little late for the locals then. You think the Vancouver Province or the New York Times or the Montreal Gazette care if half the municipal budget of your little township is being handed to the brother of the Reeve? Not unless he get runs for federal office and get photographed without his pants at kids' summer camp. The local paper is your first line of defense against rumor, official skulduggery and the only place you can find out how the local Jr. B hockey team is doing or who the new high school principal is going to be, or whether a teacher at the local school is going to jail for molesting kids or some 14-year-old just had it in for him and made the whole thing up.

Read your paper while you still can.

Saving the best for last?

One has to wonder how many other collegues Lisa Raitt dissed while babbling away to perhaps the most incompetent communications director in modern times.

Sources familiar with the five hours of audiotape obtained by a Halifax newspaper say Raitt suggests her colleague [Jim Prentice] is pandering to Alberta's oil sands.

Two sources say Raitt is heard speaking dismissively about the environment minister, and one says she refers specifically to policy that favours oil companies.

Now, that is likely a very accurate assessment of Prentice, but in the lager that comprises the hillbilly Harper government, one wouldn't expect to hear that from another cabinet member.

Even Harper party types are bracing themselves.

``This will be the gift that keeps on giving,'' was the sarcastic assessment from one government official.

``What else is on these five hours?''

Good question! Since the attempt to have the thing spiked was clearly centred on what somebody knew was damning or embarrassing statements, I'm wondering when we're going to hear the Raitt assessment of Harper.

And if you want to know why Lisa Raitt survives after leaving documents laying around, (which were over-classified by the paranoid Harper crowd), and then criticising collegues, well, in her case, she seems to have had her feet washed prior to demonstrating Conservative incompetence.

A mere eight months into her career as an elected politician, several are already touting her as a future leadership contender _ provided that she becomes fluent in French.

Right. Even though Harper isn't preparing a successor, Raitt qualifies when Harper suddenly realizes he's a mere mortal.

``Look, she's a competent minister, she's a woman, and she's from Ontario,'' [said a Conservative staffer].

``You don't throw her under the bus unless you absolutely have to. ... Do you really want to sacrifice a capable, female, Ontario cabinet minister unless you absolutely have to?''

We'll see.

The nastiest politician in this Canadian century can dish it out...

But he clearly can't take it.

This, from, of all people, Harper.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood unapologetic Tuesday, defended his embattled natural resources minister and dismissed the storm of opposition and public criticism of Lisa Raitt as "cheap politics."

[...]

"This minister has been working around the clock to make sure we get a greater supply of isotopes and make sure we have alternative options for our health-care patients in this country," Harper said.

"That is what the minister is doing. That is what this government is doing, not playing cheap politics."

Some view this as humour. Others recognize that Harper is incapable of humour. And most of us can't believe that Harper actually engaged in such blatant hypocrisy.

And after listening to Harper spin-doctor Kory Teneycke do his little bob and weave this morning on The Current, I still want to know who paid in the attempt to muzzle the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. If it's such cheap politics why was there such a rush to get an injuction preventing the release of the now famous recording?

Teneycke isn't to be believed. He stated that no government department was involved. This is the same piece of crap that introduced Harper Conservative Party attack ads at a media gathering and claimed that because he had taken a day of unpaid leave that he was not legally on the payroll of the Prime Minister's Office.

The turd plays fast and loose with technicalities.

So, the question is, which political torpedo was off the payroll yesterday to provide the Harperites with a technical denial of involvement?

And the "sex" just keeps on comin'

The operators of the High Flux Reactor at Petten in the Netherlands are attempting to make up for the loss of production of medical isotopes created by the shut-down of the Chalk River reactor in Canada.

Petten was meeting about 60 percent of the European demand for medical isotopes and is now expected to help solve the "sexy" problem exacerbated by the hillbilly politics of the Harper government and natural resources minister Lisa Raitt.

And Raitt assured everyone that even with Chalk River down, there were other sources of supply of vital medical isotopes.

Oops! Not so fast there Lisa. A competent minister would have known this:

Officials at the main European reactor that produces medical isotopes have their fingers crossed that the shuttered Chalk River facility will be running by early next year, when they must close their own operation for five to six months.

"It would be pretty difficult to see how the medical community could manage to cope if we have to go out for a long period before the (Canadian) reactor gets back," said Kevin Charlton, commercial manager of isotope supply at the Petten HFR reactor in the Netherlands.

While Petten had been supplying MDS Nordion with a small amount of moly-99 it has now ramped up and is providing 50 percent more than prior to the Chalk River shut down.

But, there's more.

The Petten HFR is also an old reactor. In 2002 it was cited for safety issues and the reactor was shut down because of a leak. (See any similarities yet? Don't worry, you will.)

Skip forward to August 2008. The Petten HFR had been shut down for a month-long routine mantenance period when a problem was discovered in the piping systems. Instead of a 21 August restart, the reactor remained out of service until February 2009, creating a critical shortage of medical isotopes throughout Europe. Add to that problem the fact that the Belgian reactor was also shut down and, well... nuclear medicine departments all over Europe were pulling their hair out.

There's more.

The Petten HFR has a mandatory shut-down coming up. The repair that got them running in February 2009 was a temporary fix. The Netherlands government has ordered NRG, the operators of Petten, to replace the primary cooling water system by March of 2010, involving a major and protracted shut-down.

The IRE reactor in Fleurus, Belgium, has had safety issues, not the least of which was a radiological accident which contaminated workers.

Just more "sexy" stuff which the Harper government doesn't think you need to know.

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

With condolences and respect to the family and friends of Private Alexandre Péloquin, 3^e Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment, serving with 2^e Bataillon. Killed due to enemy action.

Je me souviens

Sexy?!

Ya think?

Well, let's give the conservative schoolboys a chance to wipe themselves. (emphasis mine)

In the recording, MacDonnell said the isotope issue is "confusing to a lot of people."

"But it's sexy," Ms. Raitt said. "Radioactive leaks. Cancer."

Yup. That's sexy alright. If you've reduced public service to "what's in it for me?" and you consider a cancer patient as nothing more than a political talking point at Question Period.

And that is exactly what Raitt has done. The possibility that anyone, anywhere, is suffering as a result of her failings totally escapes her.

The morbid bitch. She just gave this country the worst dose of penicillin-resistant syphilis you can imagine because she wanted the "sex".

Fix it?

She can't. She's horribly diseased.

"...a career limiting move.."

Ya just shoulda let her go Stevo! Excerpts below, commentary mine:

Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt called the medical isotopes crisis "sexy," said she wanted to take credit for fixing it, and expressed doubts about the skills of Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq on a recording obtained by The Chronicle Herald.
...

“You know what? Good. Because when we win on this, we get all the credit. I’m ready to roll the dice on this. This is an easy one. You know what solves this problem? Money. And if it’s just about money, we’ll figure it out. It’s not a moral issue.” [sociopathic then?]

“No,” says Ms. MacDonnell. “The moral and ethical stuff around it are just clear.” [yeah, we can see that.]

...

“They did it at the Canadian Council of (Chief) Executives, there was three presidents of major banks who stood up in the room — and this is not from cabinet so I can talk about it — stood up and said, ‘Ignatieff, don’t you even think about bringing us to an election,’” said Ms. Raitt. [Can you start calling yourselves fascists now?]

“'We don’t need this. We have no interest in this. And we will never fund your party again.’ That was very powerful. So he heard it from very powerful people in the industry. He was definitely muzzled.”

This is beyond some mere spinning. This little recording demonstrates beyond doubt just how these festering sacks of offal think and operate. The isotope crisis was never about medical shortages, it was about the fucking ego of petty little Minster and her gossiping assistant. It doesn't even matter what the bankers actually said to Iggy; the mere fact Raitt and her goon took pleasure in the unmitigated hijacking of Canadian democracy by a bunch of bankers tells the entire country exactly where the Conservative party's loyalties and interests rest! [Not that we the unConservative haven't been saying this for years...]

This has just gone nuclear. Own it Stevo.

Brown envelopes and long knives

Go read Impolitical. I bet they'd have labelled that one secret too.



The long knives are drawn.

Simply Toxic: the old new fragrance from Stephen Harper.

Raitt-Gate Tape

James Bowie & Dr. Dawg draw your attention to the latest carriage to derail on the Lisa Raitt express. Toronto Star's got it now too:

An emergency hearing has been set for 2 p.m. during which Justice Gerald Moir will hear the injunction motion by an as-yet unnamed applicant who is also seeking an order of confidentiality or publication ban. Such an order could block any publication of the identity of the applicant seeking to stop the newspaper from publishing, said spokesman John Piccolo.

An order of confidentiality, if granted, could also potentially seal the exhibits or entire file, he said.

The Chronicle-Herald has not yet published anything about the legal battle going on, either in its paper or on its website. Reporter Steve Maher declined comment.

But word this morning began circulating on political news aggregators and blogs about the injunction application, with reports that it involves an audio recording made by former Raitt aide Jasmine MacDonnell that include Raitt's comments about a cabinet colleage Leona Agluukaq, the federal health minister, and other matters involving Raitt's portfolio.

Wow. Poor Harper must be going out of his control-freak mind. I've written some pretty harsh stuff about Iggy and Liberals humouring the Harper goons for so long. I might have been wrong. All the Liberals have to do is wait and the Harperites will hand them the electorate.

Conservatives: they just can't help themselves.

Palm, meet forehead

In a week when one of the main stories in the news was about a man walking into a church in Kansas, pulling out a handgun and shooting another man dead at the behest of his coreligionists, to say nothing of other similar incidents of murder in houses of worship over the past while, we find that satire has been wholly overwhelmed by the assault of reality.

Pastor Organizes Gun Celebration at Church
Gun Control
Advocates Oppose Pastor Ken Pagano's 'Open Carry Celebration'
By EMILY FRIEDMAN

June 5, 2009
A pastor in Kentucky is redefining the tradition of wearing your Sunday best to services by encouraging his congregation to strap on holsters and bring their weapons to church.
Pastor Ken Pagano has organized an "Open Carry Celebration" in late June where he encourages members of his Christian church to bring their handguns to services. Pastor Ken Pagano of New Bethel Church in Louisville, Ky., says that he organized an "Open Carry Celebration" to promote responsible gun ownership.
"As a Christian pastor I believe that without a deep-seeded belief in God and firearms that this country would not be here," Pagano told ABCNews.com. "I'm not ashamed of that fact. I'm proud of it."
The celebration scheduled for Sunday, June 27, will feature YouTube videos promoting gun safety and will ask congregants to join in singing patriotic songs, according to Pagano.
A $1 raffle to win a free handgun will also be part of the festivities.

If anyone is looking for me, I'll be in the bar drinking heavily with Satire and Parody - Irony has promised to buy the first few rounds..

three hots and a cot - Not!

Apparently feeding prisoners is become too expensive for some prison systems in the U.S., so they've decided to cut back a bit, by dropping lunch from the program.

Georgia now only feeds inmates lunch on the four days a week that they work. The state prison system switched to ten hour work days four days a week as a money saving move. Here is the menu for no-lunch Fridays Since this is the menu released by the prison system I think its safe to assume that this is as good as the menu gets for inmates. (parenthetical comments are mine)

Breakfast:

• Scrambled eggs (probably safe to assume these would be powdered eggs)
  
• Grits
  
• Corn Muffins
  
• Bran cereal
  
• Pineapple beverage ( the linked article notes that many states are cutting back on fresh fruit to save money. In Alabama inmates get an apple or an orange once a week.)
  
• Margarine (this is a menu item? Is ketchup a vegetable again?)
  
• Coffee
  
• Milk (as noted in the linked article, may states are cutting back on milk to save money. In Alabama inmates get three servings a week, in Tennessee they have gone from twice a day to once a day)
  

Dinner:

• Chicken and biscuits (I'm betting on a drumstick and a thigh and no more than two bicuits - and I notice there is no margarine for the biscuits on the menu)
  
• Turnip greens
  
• Tossed salad (I'd have thought this came later in the privacy of one's cell, not right there in the dining hall)
  
• Vinegar and oil dressing
  
• Mashed potatoes (again, I have no doubt these are the powdered type)
  
• Spice cake
  
• Iced tea
  

Portions are supposedly larger on days when only two meals are served.

Now, I'm not saying that inmates should eat like kings or anything, but there should be some sort of minimum standard. In the Georgia State Prison system male inmates get 2,800 calories a day and female inmates get 2,300, but I suspect most of those calories come from powdered mashed potatoes and the like.

Still, it sounds better than some of the country lock-ups:

Federal Judge Arrests Ala. Sheriff Over Jail Food
DECATUR, Ala. (AP) ― A federal judge ordered an Alabama sheriff locked up in his own jail Wednesday after holding him in contempt for failing to adequately feed inmates while profiting from the skimpy meals. U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon had court security arrest Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett at the end of a hearing that produced dramatic testimony from skinny prisoners about paper-thin bologna and cold grits.

Bartlett had no comment as he was led from the courtroom. His attorney, Donald Rhead, said he believes the sheriff will be kept away from other inmates and hopes he will be quickly eleased.The sheriff, who showed no emotion when his arrest was ordered, had testified that he legally pocketed about $212,000 over three years with surplus meal money but denied that inmates were improperly fed.

Sheriffs in 55 of Alabama's 67 counties operate under the system allowing them to make money operating their jail kitchens. The law pays sheriffs $1.75 a day for each prisoner they house and lets the elected officers pocket any profit they can generate.

(snip, snip, snip)

The law doesn't require the money to be spent at the jail or within the department; sheriffs can keep it as personal income. They historically have provided little information about profits, so the hearing offered a rare look into a practice that dates back to the Depression.
At the hearing, 10 prisoners told Clemon meals are so small that they're forced to buy snacks from a for-profit store the jailers operate. Most of the inmates appeared thin, with baggy jail coveralls hanging off their frames.Some testified they spent hundreds of dollars a month at the store, which Bartlett said generates profits used for training and equipment.
Inmates told of getting half an egg, a spoonful of oatmeal and one piece of toast most days at their 3 a.m. daily breakfast. Lunch is usually a handful of chips and two sandwiches with barely enough peanut butter to taste..

From the CNN version of the story:

However, Clemon wrote in court documents that a typical breakfast for county inmates was a serving of grits or unsweetened oatmeal; half an egg or less, sometimes cold; a slice of white bread; and unsweetened tea or a beverage such as Kool-Aid.
Lunch was either two peanut butter or bologna sandwiches, "with a small amount of peanut butter or an exceedingly thin" slice of bologna between two slices of white bread; a small bag of corn chips; and flavored water or unsweetened tea.
A typical dinner was two hot dogs or meat patties; a slice of bread; and mixed vegetables or baked beans, the judge wrote. At times, when chicken was served, it was undercooked and pink, Clemon said. Salt, pepper, sugar or other condiments were not provided; they must be purchased by inmates at the jail store.
Inmates never receive milk, Clemon said, and receive fruit only three or four times a year.

Both stories make mention of the Sheriff bragging about how he tried to offer the inmates some variety in their diet. He split the $1,000 cost of a truck load of corn dogs with another country sheriff and the inmates were apparently fed corn dogs morning, noon and night until they had eaten their way through the tractor-trailer load. If a parent fed a child like this to save money to spend on themselves, it would be considered neglect.
And lets not even get started on privately run prisons.
I bet Conrad Black is eating a lot better than this.

cross-posted from the Woodshed

It's because they're fascists

Impolitical has a great round-up of the media responses to Federal Court's beasting of the Harper government on Abousfian Abdelrazik:

A supposed "law and order" government that hypocritically puts on elaborate presentations replete with backdrops full of nifty slogans to make a show of being strong criminal justice types. That "law and order' posturing is a farce in the face of these repeated rulings. On the one hand they seek to ratchet up penalties and sentences, yet on the other, when they're the ones being handed a sentence in the form of these lost Federal Court cases, they ignore those judgments. They're the lawless ones with no moral authority to support their latest electoral gambits. They cynically count on the Canadian people not to understand their hypocrisy.

I am reminded of this old post of Dave's:

You know, the problem with any government that promotes a "law and order" agenda is that they originate it from the eyes of policing. Justice never enters the picture.

What that government wants is compliance from citizens at the most base level. You will obey and comply with the demands and requirements of the police. The courts never enter the picture.

In a just society the police are not the appliers of justice. That comes from the courts. In a just society, the police are witnesses in the process of the application of justice. In that regard, they possess no greater power than any other citizen, because the courts of a just society will not allow it.

Decide what you want, because any government which promotes itself as a "law and order" regime has no interest in justice.

Why else would they allow and assist in the incarceration and torture of Canadians in foreign realms and then go out of their way to prevent their return? Justice would prevent it done here.

Harper's history. Total fail

As MOS points out, Harper's ignorance of the facts in relation to the 2nd World War is more than a little disrespectful to those who fought.

"It is hard to believe that on such a peaceful and serene day that 65 years ago this very day this was probably the site of the biggest military engagement in world history."

Probably? Biggest military engagement in world history?

Not true.

It was the largest combined land, sea and airborne invasion in history but in terms of military engagements it was a long way down the scale from "the biggest military engagement".

Harper, in Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery for a photo-op, (it's the only reason he does anything in public), was proving that, along with not actually being an economist, he is neither a military leader nor a reliable history teacher.

And Harper might be reminded that the "longest continuous" engagement fought by Canadians in the 2nd World War was The Battle of the Atlantic.

As MOS said,

Steve, if you want to show respect for our war dead, real respect, then treat them with respect. Take just a few minutes to learn what really happened. There's bravery and heroism galore in the actual accounts. Don't try to make the significance of their sacrifice something that simply exists only in your mind. What you did, Steve, does not honour them. It simply shows this, for you, is another photo op - one for which you couldn't be bothered to learn what these brave men actually did - for their country and for freedom.

Bill C-15 : Keeping up with the failing US war on drugs

Bill C-15, the Cons' latest shot at implementing the failing US war on drugs in Canada, guarantees, among other travesties, mandatory jailtime for people who grow and sell five marijuana plants.

Believe it or not, this is an improvement over their original proposal - jail time for just one plant -until the Bloc and NDP managed to leverage it up to five plants in the Committee on Justice and Human Rights hearings where this new bill was hatched - and where 13 0f the 16 expert witnesses spoke against it.

From Friday's Hansard, Jim Malloway, NDP :

"California, New York, Michigan, Delaware, Massachusetts are all repealing their mandatory minimum sentences with other states considering the same.

Former counsel to the United States House of Representatives committee on the judiciary, Eric Sterling, stated emphatically his decision to promote mandatory minimum sentences in the United States was probably "the greatest mistake of my entire career over 30 years in the practice of law".

What the Americans found was that the goal of the legislation to reduce drug use failed. The goal of safety in the communities failed. The goal of raising the prices of drugs and lowering the purity failed. The goal of reducing organized crime failed."

Yeah but they do have one in every hundred adults behind bars now, much of it petty drug crime related.

Thursday in the HoC, Keith Martin, Lib, asked why we can't "decriminalize simple possession, for example, of marijuana and allow people to have a couple of plants"?

Indeed. People receiving mandatory sentences of one year or two years less a day will wind up in the already overcrowded provincial prisons.

The Canadian Bar Association, as quoted in the HoC :

"We believe the Bill would not be effective, would be very costly, would add to strains on the administration of justice, could create unjust and disproportionate sentences and ultimately would not achieve its intended goal of greater public safety."

The Libs will have to suck it up very hard to vote for this one on Monday, as they party with the Cons like it's 1969. The NDP and the Bloc will vote against it.

Scott has a round-up of the Liberal blogger revolt; Jennifer is firing off emails. Well done, Liberal bloggers!

Think of the penguins...

We clearly don't do that often enough...

Keepers at Germany's Bremerhaven zoo couldn't get two penguin parents to take care of their egg, so they're trying an experiment — they gave the egg to a gay male penguin couple.

Must be a "one off".

The male penguins, named Z and Vielpunkt, are one of three same-sex pairs of Humboldt penguins at the zoo. That means almost a third of the zoo's 20 penguins who have attempted to mate exhibit homosexual behaviour. Same-sex penguin pairs have also been observed at zoos in Japan and New York.

My gawd... they're everywhere. Thank the FSM my neighbour isn't a penguin.

A children's book written about the New York penguins called And Tango Makes Three has been the book with the most requests for removal from libraries in the United States over the past three years, according the American Library Association.

Because nobody like penguins.

Z, Vielpunkt and their adopted chick have proven a hit with visitors to the Bremerhaven zoo.

But dammit! There's no friggin' way I'm letting those two get married. They will so destroy the institution of marriage as defined by the Roman Catholic Church.

They, after all, are animals. We're not.

Thanks to Stageleft.

Straws connected to nothing but more straws...

Only around the fires of American Republican encampments and at weekly meetings of the Michigan militia would this conversation by Michael Goldfarb be considered to have more merit than where a bear took a dump.

It seems there is some legitimate confusion on just what languages Obama speaks, and as far as Arabic, the only real hint has came from Nick Kristof, who heard Obama recite the Muslim call to prayer in Arabic and with a "first-rate accent" back in 2007.

Legitimate?!

Obama, as a kid in Jakarta, attended school with muslims. The Adhan to which Goldfarb refers but does not know the name, happens several times a day in places like Jakarta... in Arabic, even though the native language of the place is Bahasa.

I don't believe in any god but I can recite both The Adhan and The Lord's Prayer equally well in the language ambient in the classrooms during the periods they were rammed into my head as daily memory work.

Interesting that Goldfarb spends time gazing at his genitals worrying about the language skills of the current president when the immediate past president, somebody he held up in messianic glory, usually left basic English in a smoking heap of bad grammar.

Sadly, No! offers more.

The Queen's silver...

...nicked and sold by your Conservative Party of Canada:

Three sterling silver flower baskets sold off by the government at bargain-basement prices on a government website were on loan to Rideau Hall from Buckingham Palace, Sun Media has learned.

Richard Legrand, who worked at the governor general's residence for 35 years, says he was told when he started at Rideau Hall in 1968 that the ornate pierced silver flower baskets were among several items borrowed from the British royal family.

"Those three baskets were on loan from Buckingham Palace, including two huge candelabra that we used on the diningroom table for state events."

Whenever Queen Elizabeth II visited Canada and stayed at Rideau Hall, the silver baskets filled with flowers were placed in the suite where she slept, said Legrand who retired in 2003.

I am reminded of this scene for some reason (NOT effing work safe).


(h/t CC and Rev. Paperboy whose earlier post escaped my mind when I posted this one! Sorry Rev!)

One more comment. I like to think there used to be a time when the Tories were the party of the transplanted British aristocracy. You know, the ones educated at decent private schools with a good dose of antique wood, manners, protocol, and literature. People with at least a little intellect. This current crop of Reform grown neocons aren't like that at all. They're as shallow as a puddle on a marble slab, have an unhealthy fixation with US Republicans, and inhabit the institutions of state like kleptocratic American tourists looking for ski hills in Saskatchewan in July.

Grammys Won't Be Rolling Out the Barrel Anymore . . . .

Per the CBC today:

Grammy board axes polka category to stay 'relevant and responsive'

Thursday, June 4, 2009 | CBC News

Canada's polka king Walter Ostanek won't be able to add another golden gramophone trophy to his existing trio haul after organizers of the Grammys announced the elimination of the best polka album category.

The U.S. Recording Academy, which administers the prestigious U.S. musical honour, revealed a number of category changes and new additions to its board of trustees in a statement issued Wednesday.

Along with axing the polka trophy, the academy also decided to fold the best Latin urban album category into the best Latin rock or alternative album one, creating an omnibus new trophy.

The board also voted to split the best contemporary folk/Americana album award into two separate prizes and rename the entire folk field "American roots music."

The decisions were made to ensure "the awards process is pertinent within the current musical landscape," academy president and CEO Neil Portnow said.

"The board of trustees continues to demonstrate its passionate commitment to keeping the Recording Academy a relevant and responsive organization in our dynamic music community."

Guess we'll not be seeing 'Ole Walter and his spiffy dressing-audience anytime soon.

Pity . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Tribute to the Harper Party of Canada

In honour of Linda Keen and Abousifian Abdelrazik, especially for Ministers of the Month Lisa Raitt and Lawrence Cannon, and of course Perpetual First Minister, Dear Leader, General Secretary, and Generalissimo Stephen Harper who is of course the supreme architect of this week's events.

Abdelrazik Decision

BOOM!

The Federal Court of Canada has ordered the federal government to allow the return of a Montreal man stranded in Sudan for six years as an al-Qaeda suspect, arguing his charter rights have been breached.

Full decision available here. It's well worth the read.

Not a good week for the sadistic little government of Harper. They just can help but fuck themselves with their own bilious spite. My guess is the furniture and tissue box suddenly needs replacing in a certain parliamentarian's office.

Now let's just finally get Abdelrazik on a plane home asap before the Harper government pulls another cruel, but ultimately self-defeating, stunt to keep him away.

Peak Phosphorus?

Scientific American:

As complex as the chemistry of life may be, the conditions for the vigorous growth of plants often boil down to three numbers, say, 19-12-5. Those are the percentages of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, prominently displayed on every package of fertilizer. In the 20th century the three nutrients enabled agriculture to increase its productivity and the world’s population to grow more than sixfold. But what is their source? We obtain nitrogen from the air, but we must mine phosphorus and potassium. The world has enough potassium to last several centuries. But phosphorus is a different story. Readily available global supplies may start running out by the end of this century. By then our population may have reached a peak that some say is beyond what the planet can sustainably feed.

Moreover, trouble may surface much sooner. As last year’s oil price swings have shown, markets can tighten long before a given resource is anywhere near its end. And reserves of phosphorus are even less evenly distributed than oil’s, raising additional supply concerns. The U.S. is the world’s second-largest producer of phosphorus (after China), at 19 percent of the total, but 65 percent of that amount comes from a single source: pit mines near Tampa, Fla., which may not last more than a few decades. Meanwhile nearly 40 percent of global reserves are controlled by a single country, Morocco, sometimes referred to as the “Saudi Arabia of phosphorus.” Although Morocco is a stable, friendly nation, the imbalance makes phosphorus a geostrategic ticking time bomb.

In addition, fertilizers take an environmental toll. Modern agricultural practices have tripled the natural rate of phosphorus depletion from the land, and excessive runoff into waterways is feeding uncontrolled algal blooms and throwing aquatic ecosystems off-kilter. While little attention has been paid to it as compared with other elements such as carbon or nitrogen, phosphorus has become one of the most significant sustainability issues of our time.

When combined with peak-oil this means goodbye to intensive and industrial agriculture and consequently goodbye several billion people and modern life. Somewhere a shithead is mumbling something about markets finding alternatives, not realising phosphorus is an element, absolutely essential to life (including theirs), and there are no alternatives.

(h/t Resilience Science blog)

When do we get to put the "gate" suffix on?

There is something about the Chalk River nuclear reactor fiasco that should not go away. Or, as Greg Weston puts it, two things. (My emphasis)

Further proof this is a government that doesn't let the truth get in the way of public opinion is to be found in the contents of Raitt's lost briefing book.

For instance, taxpayers learn for the first time that the Harper government has pumped a staggering $1.7 billion into Atomic Energy just in the past three years -- most of it up in smoke if the Chalk River reactor remains beyond repair.

Even if the reactor had remained working, Raitt's briefing documents say Canadian taxpayers would have had to shell out $72 million this year to produce medical isotopes, 90% of which go to U.S. hospitals.

The documents openly admit the financial truth about Chalk River was deliberately hidden in the last federal budget.

And...

Sixteen months ago, the Harper government ordered the reactor restarted after a shutdown for safety reasons, saying cancer and heart patients would die without an immediate isotope supply.

At that time, the shutdown lasted four weeks and the world's other four isotope reactors were operating.

This time, the situation is far worse -- Chalk River is out of order indefinitely and two of the other reactors are also down.

Yet, Raitt testified at a Commons committee this week there is nothing to panic about.

Either the Harper government lied to Canadians 16 months ago, or it is lying today.

But one thing is certain, there is a huge, deliberate lie involved and it starts with Harper.

When government is caught lying and covering up to protect itself from the bright lights of public inquiry it usually comes with a name, thanks to Richard Nixon.

So when do we hang the "gate" off this one?

More at Impolitical.

Ah! There it is.

Let's amend that headline to reflect a little reality

This.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper "strongly advised" Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff Wednesday against bringing down the Conservative government.

No. This is the same Harper that, to avoid the effects of Westminsterian parliamentary democracy, pulled an Oliver Cromwell and had the doors of Parliament nailed shut to prevent a vote which would have forced him to move out of 24 Sussex Drive, Ottawa.

That's not advice. That's begging.

"I've had three elections in four years," Harper told reporters in Quebec City. "I think that's more than enough for the Canadian public. I don't meet anyone … of any political persuasion who wants to spend the summer fighting an election."

Oh... cry me a friggin' river. How very.... conservative of you, Steve. Who gives a red rat's ass what your personal quest for power has put you through?

For one thing, you self-serving asshole, Steve, the last election was your doing! You broke your own goddamned law to get it... all because you thought you could get a parliamentary majority.

For another, it's not just about you. People are losing their jobs, unable to find an adequate safety net and unable to rely on your bag of ideological sociopaths for anything resembling immediate assistance in a crisis. The fact that you might have to actually face a direct review of your performance and character by the people that employ you doesn't bother the average Canadian in the slightest.

You're a nasty little prick with a mean streak a mile wide. We have the right to decide whether you measure up to Canadian standards whenever we get the opportunity.

Despite any hardship you may claim as a result of that system... bucko!

Hell, you may even win another minority. Just think about it. Then you could press GM to name a car after you.

The Chevy Harpo, (with a Fat Daddy decal on the stern). A cheaply produced gas-guzzler with a second rate frame and a spot welded body. The minute it hits 80 k/mh it starts to vibrate. But man, does it have an engine: A twelve cylinder Packard that hasn't been seen in four decades. No emission control and a list of options which you can remove at will and throw out the window. By the time you've driven it across the country it doesn't even look the same. In fact, it looks like a Ford Model T, but you're happy because, oh man, THAT was a car and we didn't really need anything better. Nothing like a mussel car, eh Steve?

I may move back just to vote against these jerks

As a Canadian who has lived outside of Canada for a dozen years (and yes Mom, we are coming back eventually, honest) this kind of headline turns my blood to frozen concrete.

Ottawa says it has no duty to protect Canadians outside country

A lot has been done to help Khadr in Guantanamo: Justice Department

By JANICE TIBBETTS, Canwest News
ServiceJune 3, 2009

Canada's legal duty to protect its citizens, even children, ends at the border and there is nothing in domestic or international law that obliges the government to seek Omar Khadr's repatriation, say federal arguments filed in court.
The government contends it has done plenty to ensure the "well-being" of the Guantanamo Bay detainee - from supplying him with magazines to ensuring he receives medical treatment and facilitating contact with his family - and any further protection is at the discretion of the state, not the courts.

This is not happy-making news for all us expats, especially those of us who live in countries where "the usual suspects" means anybody foreign.
This could mean I am one misunderstanding away from life imprisonment since the government of Canada doesn't feel that they have any duty to assist me in any way should the police pick me up and imprison me for any reason at all.
And that does happen in a lot of countries. Police in Tokyo routinely stop foreigners riding bicycles to confirm the bike isn't stolen. Bikes here are supposed to be registered and usually carry a sticker with the owner's name - and if your bike happens to be registered in your Japanese wife's name, well, welcome to jail in Japan, where you don't have a right to a lawyer during police interrogation and are not even officially presumed innocent. This hasn't happened to me, but it does happen.
And that's in Japan, a nice civilized G8 country. Anyone care to try their luck in Central America or Africa or Saudi Arabia without any assistance from "Canada's New Government"?

RIP - Koko Taylor

Koko Taylor more than once said she hoped that when she died, it would be on stage, doing the thing she loved most: Singing the blues.

She nearly got her wish. The Chicago musical icon died Wednesday at age 80 of complications from gastrointestinal surgery less than four weeks after her last performance, at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, Tenn. There she collected her record 29th Blues Music Award, capping an era in which she became the most revered female blues vocalist of her time with signature hits "Wang Dang Doodle," "I'm a Woman" and "Hey Bartender."
Taylor died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital 15 days after her May 19 surgery. She appeared to be recovering until taking a turn for the worst Wednesday morning, and was with friends and family when she died.

I had the very great pleasure of interviewing the Queen of the Blues two summers ago - she was humble, gracious and even flirted with me. I saw her perform a few weeks later in Tokyo and at 78 she still had the pipes to blow the band off the stage.

Damn! That stuff tastes awful...

Having just returned from.... where the hell was I?

Oh yeah! Canadian Forces Base... (the location isn't important).

Funny how, for almost the past four decades, in two armed services, in two different governments, the protection of classified material has not changed. (Must be a NATO thing.)

As LuLu pointed out, there are certain specific requirements when transporting, transmitting and receiving classified documents, SECRET being a security classification of some signficance.

I would add to LuLu's accurate description to include the fact that the outside of the inner envelope requires a government approved security tape on the flap opening. The stuff is tough to open with a pair of sharp scissors and has a disgusting taste with an aroma not unlike an unwashed horse. (I know, I know... it's all in the glue).

Further, as CTV is reporting that Lisa Raitt or some "aide" left a file in which some pages were marked SECRET, then something is wrong. In any publication, regardless of the number of pages, if one page is classified SECRET then the whole publication is marked SECRET... on the outside cover, top and bottom, front and back. The cover page is also marked SECRET, top and bottom.

Not that the thing had any reason to be at CTV in the first place, but if it's not marked the way in which I described, somebody for whom Raitt is responsible has an abysmally poor security awareness. If it was marked correctly then only an idiot would leave it laying around.

I too know my stuff. I teach it.

Organic Fanaticism

Wow. Just wow. Go have a look at how fast a Blogging Tory removed a post by CC which revealed facts inconvenient (to the BT narrative) about the handling of documents marked 'secret'. Fanatics, they'd be be well at home writing history books for Stalin.

When you deliberately weave religion into government...

... the anti-abortion leaders, including many of the political leaders like Jesse Helms, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and many others... Randall Terry, the leader of Operation Rescue, have used highly inflammatory language which has invited and encouraged people like this assassin to go kill Dr. Tiller.

[...]

The only difference between the American anti-abortion movement and the Taliban is about 8000 miles.

Dr. Warren Hern
2 June 2009

From Rachel Maddow. PSA has the video.

Flaherty's lips are moving...

... Again.

The only problem with this report:

The federal government isn't reviewing the assets this year of the department that oversees the CBC, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Tuesday, amid media reports that an auction of the the public broadcaster and other Crown corporations is in the offing.

... is that it's Flaherty saying it.

This from a finance minister who has been wrong about everything, couldn't forecast today's lunch money and, quite frankly, lies.

Proof? Write Income Trust on the board 50 times.

Another religious nutball with a weapon. One dead, one wounded.

The initial reports indicated that two US Army recruiters had been hit by an attacker during a random act of violence.

None of that seems to be the case. The two soldiers killed were, in fact, fresh out of boot camp and had returned to the station which recruited them as a part of a US Army scheme known as the Hometown Recruiting Assistance Program. It brings new soldiers, having just completed their Initial Entry Training (boot camp), back to their hometowns to assist the full-time recruiters and to talk to the social group from which they came.

I'm quite certain that many will find that a little repugnant. I'm also certain that those who do so will be unable to produce a service record from any armed force. So be it. Service in the armed forces of most industrialized western countries is voluntary, at least in terms of compulsion to enter, so whether you have served or not is of little consequence save for the fact that those of us who have possess a greater insight into some of the less obvious internal workings.

That's not what this is actually about, however. What it's about is that two young people, dutifully going about their business, were attacked by yet another violent nutball allegedly using his religion as motivation for his actions. In the end, 24-year old Private William Long, lay dead on the floor alongside a wounded 18-year old Private Quinton Ezeagwula.

I strongly doubt there is any organized constituency for whom the individual who perpetrated this act can legitimately claim to be serving. It came out of nowhere without a prelude of threats. Nevertheless, police are suggesting it was a targeted attack - the recruiting office and its occupants being the targets.

If the suspect in custody, once Carlos Bledsoe, and now, having converted to Islam, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad (the interpretation of that name suggests he sees himself in a special position) is guilty of this, and if he truly is using his adopted religion as the motive for murder then it's time a secular court sent a message.

Anyone using their religion, regardless of what it is, as an excuse to shield their behaviour, instead of being able to steer that excuse to mitigate guilt or sentence, should have their sentence extended and the use of religion as an excuse treated as an aggravating factor.

Religion is supposed to be about "souls". Beyond that, it has very little merit. If an individual drags their religion into souless murder they should be made to pay a greater price.

Released : "You, Me and the SPP: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule"

You'll remember Paul Manly as the guy who shot that video of CEP union president Dave Coles exposing 3 rock-toting agents provocateurs as Quebec police at the SPP protests at Montebello .

Paul has just finished his full-length feature film : ‘You, Me, and the S.P.P: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule’, on "the latest manifestation of a corporatist agenda that is undermining the democratic authority of the citizens of North America".

Some choice quotes :
Naomi Klein :"

… after the shock of Sept 11 … that crisis was expertly manipulated by our political leaders to push through a range of policies they actually had wanted to push through before Sept 11, but didn’t have the political conditions that made that possible."

Gordon Laxer, Director, The Parkland Institute, Alberta :

"…if we go along with the Americans on their military, on their human rights, on their Patriot Act, on immigration and refugee policy, on energy, on all kinds of regulations over pesticides or whatever, then they will allow us access to their markets."

Murray Dobbin, Canadian author, journalist :

"… what the SPP really represents is a parallel government, so that the important decisions are either made outside of parliament and outside of legislatures or they make it impossible for those kinds of decisions to be made in those legislative bodies, so that democracy is slowly being gutted."

with more from Peter Julian, Michael Byers, and Maude Barlow. And that's just the trailer.

I posted a portion of the film this morning, but to purchase your own copy of the whole film - $20 well spent - and for listings of local screenings, visit Paul's website at manlymedia.com

If we want this quality of reporting from independent journalists, we're going to have to support it. If you can't afford the $20 for your own copy, recommend it to your local library, leave a message of encouragement on his site, and pass the word on. As Paul says : I made this film for all of you.
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Cross-posted at Creekside