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.

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.

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.

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..