The Sea to Sky highway, the 2010 Olympics and the BC Rail link up

Ever wonder why there are no tolls put on the Olympic legacy known as the Sea to Sky highway?

There are tolls. Campbell promised them to his big business buddies. And we're paying them. But what you may not know is that at least one journalist reported back in the early days of the Sea to Sky project that the BC Ministry of Transportation was spending money, ($166 million), gained from the sale of BC Rail to fund phase 1 of the highway project.

Think about that for a minute.

Campbell promises that he won't sell BC Rail, then, suddenly, while falsely claiming that BC Rail was a money-losing proposition, puts it on the chopping block. Ideology of a fanatic bottom-liner or was there something more sinister at work here?

Here's some meat to chew on. The Vancouver/Whistler Olympic bid was not a sure thing. In the first round Pyeongchang, South Korea led the short list with 51 votes to Vancouver's 40. Salzberg, Austria received only 16 votes which effectively eliminated that city. What that meant was that virtually all of those who had voted for Salzberg would have to shift their votes to Vancouver if the Vancouver bid was to succeed in the second round of voting.

Problem. Money. Campbell, who had a bevy of pals wrapped up in the Olympic bid process, was made fully aware that the greatest stumbling block to a successful bid was a highway between Vancouver and Whistler that was too long, too dangerous and subject to road-blocking slides. The only way to overcome that massive obstacle would be to commit to IOC officials that the thoroughfare would be totally rebuilt in time to host an Olympic party. But where would the money come from?

Sell an asset... and sell it fast. BC Rail.

On 28 August, 2002, Vancouver makes the short list of four cities bidding on the 2010 Winter Olympics. The IOC cites the Sea to Sky Highway as a problem. The Vancouver Olympic bid committee has until 10 January, 2003 to submit a bid book, complete with the proposed plan to solve the one problem cited by the IOC. * 

On 13 May, 2003, Gordon Campbell broke an election promise and announced that BC Rail would be sold.

On 2 July, 2003, the IOC announced that Vancouver would host the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

On 25 November, 2003, Campbell announced that the government had accepted the bid from CN to purchase BC Rail. (OK... a 990 year lease.) More than one of the other bidders complained that the deal had been rigged in favour of CN.

On 10 January, 2004, flush with money from the sale of BC Rail, the Campbell government releases a Capital Project Plan known as the Sea to Sky highway improvement project.

If you don't smell something there your nose isn't working.

Over to Laila Yule.

* Paragraph added as update.

40 years

For admitting to killing an invading soldier in a firefight. As a child soldier.

From Ian Welsh:

Others have covered this more than I have, but to me the initial charges were always absurd.  He killed a soldier in a firefight in a country that the US invaded.  The idea that doing so qualifies as murder is ridiculous, unless we also want to charge everyone who kills an invading soldier with murder?  And, I suppose, charge every American soldier in Iraq (a clear case of pre-emptive war, illegal under the Geneva conventions and exactly what Americans hung Germans for at Nuremburg) with murder?

Kangaroo court justice, the victors punishing the losers, for “crimes” far more minor than those the victors have committed.  Get back to me when George Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Colin Powell are in the dock, and we’ll talk.

And don't expect a Khadr to be repatriated to Canada to serve out his sentence (after his initial year in solitary confinement). The Harper hillbillies are deep into punishment of anyone they don't like and happy to ignore the rule of law where such things are inconvenient to the pursuit of their rigid and thoughtless ideology. 

Propensities . . .

THE CHRONICAL REVIEW has a thoughtful article by Michael Nelson, "Warrior Nation". Many writers have decried the militaristic nature of the American republic, but Michael Nelson has some observations worthy of your attention in his commentary on Andrew J. Bacevich's new book, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War, Reasons to Kill: Why Americans Choose War by Richard E. Rubenstein, and political-science professor Peter Beinart's recent The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris. First, the roots run deep:

even in colonial times, "there was either a declared war or a conflict for 79 of the 179 years from just before the founding of Jamestown until 1785, nominally the end of the Revolution."

Second, the end of the Draft and the removal of ROTC from most American colleges has caused a shift in the make-up of the officer core over time.

With the partial exception of Bacevich's Washington Rules, however, all of them neglect or underplay the importance of two critical Vietnam-era decisions: the replacement of the draft-based army with the All-Volunteer Force (AVF) and the roughly simultaneous expulsion of Reserve Officer Training Corps units from many elite campuses. Taken together, those decisions have made the nation's inclination to war and other military action greater than at any time in its already war-saturated history.

If you find an M72 anti-tank weapon....

This is the last thing you should do. Without more than a cursory glance any trained individual can see the safety is out and the weapon is cocked. And, it turns out, there was a live round in the tube.

People are still scratching their heads as to where this thing came from, after being discovered on the Malahat, just south of Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island.

Hint: These things don't have serial numbers, but they do have batch numbers. And the sights are ancient compared to later versions.

Perhaps future posts will include pictures of an infantryman swinging a chainsaw or an engine room artificer running a wood chipper he found in the bush.

Gordon Campbell wants you to behave like a whore

Here. If I give you a few extra bucks promise you won't phone my house. (The link is to the corrected version of Campbell's TV address on 27 October)
______________________________

That was the message from the leader of a provincial government awash in the sewage of scandal. I will give you $136 if you just shut up and go away. Unless you're one of those higher-priced types. Here's even more. Just don't call me at home.

I didn't see Campbell's speech. I've read it several times. It is no more or less than the condescending offer of a "John" attempting to buy cover for actions he didn't expect to be discovered.  The reaction to a direct threat of exposure.

While we're all infuriated with the way the HST was simply foisted on us, not only without warning, but after being assured that it wasn't going to happen, Campbell's little offer of a few bucks to keep our fingers off the phone buttons is a blatant insult. He's trying to buy his survival.

The BC Rail scandal won't go away. As one newspaper put it, the trial which lasted longer than the 2nd World War was a disgrace. There is distinct stench of corruption which extends much further than the two convicted criminals in the BC Rail case. From the beginning, there has been government interference, including that of Campbell and his cabinet, in an attempt to obstruct and camouflage. Given the energy politicians expended to cover things up any reasonable person would speculate that Campbell and his closest caporegimes had something very dirty to hide. And what's worse, after seven years, 18 million bucks and suggestions of a buy off, one of the fall guys can't even live with the kiss he was given as a sentence.

But that speech.

Campbell trotted out his deprived childhood. See, I was a poor kid, so I know what it's like. Except that Campbell doesn't know. His mother shielded him from that, and a 21st Century single mother is only too happy to point that out. Not to mention that if, when Campbell was a kid, there had a been a premier and a government like that which Campbell runs today, it would have been working furiously to eliminate her taxpayer funded position and reduce her to a near-minimum-wage job.

If anything says "desperation" however, it is the announcement itself. The premier of a province announces a something usually left to the finance minister at budget time. That would be February 2011. So, five months before his finance minister can produce the annual economic plan for government, the premier takes money from the chest and offers it up... if you'll just keep quiet about.... everything. Please don't ruin my life by phoning my house.

It was the concluding statement, however, which sealed it. Campbell is scrambling for one reason and he made it clear as he faded to black. When he said he had "learned a lot" and described the power of British Columbians working together and and focusing on an objective, he didn't mention that the initiative campaign to repeal the HST was the ultimate demonstration of that resolute power. No, he said it was the 2010 winter Olympics.

He doesn't want you to phone his house. If you do, you'll upset the legacy he thinks he's built for himself. He wants to be remembered as the premier who brought the Olympic games to BC; not the one who was surrounded by corruption scandals, angry grass roots initiative campaigns and voter-led recall rebellions.

Call him. And rip his chosen legacy to shreds. Because Campbell clearly doesn't care about you, about the economy of the province or grade 4 students. He cares only about his red-mittened self.

Coming to Canada Soon ? ? ? ?

Welcome to Crazytown . . . .



H/T: drf

Thanks, Dan . . .

Corruption around the world . . .

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL has released its 2010 world corruption index. Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore are the least corrupt, with Finland, Sweden and Canada right behind.  At the other end, there's Somalia and Myanmar.

The Pope and Dalton McGuinty . . .

The Pope and Dalton McGuinty are on the same stage in front of a huge crowd in Toronto .
 
The Pope leaned towards Mr. McGuinty and said, "Do you know that with one little movement of my hand I can make every person in this crowd go wild with joy?  This joy will not be a momentary display, but go deep into their hearts and they'll forever speak of this day and rejoice!"
 
 McGuinty replied, "I seriously doubt that. With one little wave of your hand? Show me."
 
 So the Pope backhanded McGuinty. 

And So It Begins . . . .

The organized lynching of truth-telling by way of FoxNoise, of course.

From The Guardian this morning:

A Fox News contributor and former state department adviser has accused WikiLeaks of conducting "political warfare against the US" and called for those behind the whistleblowing website to be declared "enemy combatants" so they can be subjected to "non-judicial actions".
_______________

Whiton ends with the following plea: "How much will our information-collection capabilities have to be diminished, and how many of our friends and collaborators around the world must die, (Ed: Never mind that there has been no evidence of that.) before President Obama and his friends on Capitol Hill start caring more about national security?"

Oh sure, call Julian Assange and his tribe of transparency troops "enemy combatants" so they can get the same kind of "deal" Omar Khadr got.

Compare the FoxNoise response with that of Britain's deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, who backs an investigation into the torture allegations.

An ocean away and worlds apart . . . .

Laila's on a Roll . . . .

And gordo campbell may be the one getting rolled.



Check out her latest . . . .

Outward bound

Single up, Number One. There's waves to conquer and pirates to defeat.

OK. Maybe not so many pirates.

We're over the horizon for a while.

Let me off the plane!!

Why we fought

Holy Jeebus! Strike Castellammare di Stabia off my vacation list.

A seaside city in Italy is planning to ban miniskirts and other provocative clothing to improve what the mayor calls standards of public decency. 

Castellammare di Stabia is trying to be the latest location in Italy to make use of new powers to crack down on what is deemed to be anti-social behaviour. 

Mayor Luigi Bobbio said the regulations would help "restore urban decorum and facilitate better civil co-existence".

Offenders would face fines of between 25 ($35) and 500 euros ($696).

Apparently Bobbio missed the several decades during which mini-skirts became very much a normal form of apparel for many women. But, whoa! It gets even more bizaare.

There will also be a ban on sunbathing, playing football in public places, and blasphemy, if the proposals are approved at a council meeting on Monday.

Oh! Worse...

In other places they have banned sandcastles, kissing in cars, feeding stray cats, wooden clogs and the use of lawn mowers at weekends.

And soon, the whole of Italy will return to its past days of glory as a fragmented feudal kingdom ripe for the picking by Norman knights.
Strike the whole country off my vacation list.

Oh yes... there was this.

"I think it's the right decision," a local parish priest, Don Paulo Cecere, told the Cronache di Napoli newspaper. "It's also a way of combating the rise in sexual harassment."

Of course the local papal vicar would have something to say. Combat sexual harassment? Ohhhh.... vicar, you are in deep shit now. Mini-skirts don't cause sexual harassment - men with the wrong attitude do however. So, now sexual harassment is the fault of women wearing mini-skirts. Hmmm.
Take it away lasses:

Canadian Company contributing to US anti-progressive campaign

Take a look at this from ThinkProgress.(Emphasis mine)

The United States Chamber of Commerce is running an unprecedented $75 million campaign to unseat progressives from Congress, in defense of a big-oil agenda. As a ThinkProgress investigation has learned Chamber’s donors — who send their checks to the same account from which the political campaign is run — include multinational oil corporations, and even oil companies owned by the Kingdom of Bahrain. The oil-fueled Chamber has hammered candidates who voted to limit our dependence on oil, falsely claiming they supported a “job-killing energy tax”

Which puts a Canadian company amongst those actively funding a US political campaign intentionally attempting to unseat Democrats.
Interesting. SNC Lavalin is contributing to a U.S. election on a scale they are prevented from doing in Canada.

And, if you think the above isn't linked to this, well then go read Dowd and keep your eyes open for this part:

The 5-to-4 Citizens United decision last January gave corporations, foreign contributors, unions, Big Energy, Big Oil and superrich conservatives a green light to surreptitiously funnel in as much money as they want, whenever they want to elect or unelect candidates. As if that weren’t enough to breed corruption, Thomas was the only justice — in a rare case of detaching his hip from Antonin Scalia’s — to write a separate opinion calling for an end to donor disclosures.

Which should lead you to look up at the ceiling and ask, "What other Canadian corporations are contributing to US political campaigns?"
Yeah. I'd be looking for a massive scar on the earth's surface. And I wouldn't look further than northern Alberta.

Now that it's over, let's get started. BC Rail ain't near dead yet

The sudden termination of the BC Rail trial, convenient in that it comes just days before BC premier and convicted drunk driver Gordon Campbell addresses the citizens of British Columbia while they're washing up from supper on 27 October, doesn't mean it's all over.

As The Gazetteer points out, with the sham over and the judicial gag order ended, we can start asking questions again and we can start pointing at facts and timelines which were hitherto subject to a publication ban.

One of the mysteries of the whole BC Rail sale scandal was the sudden and unexpected departure of BC Rail point man and then BC Finance Minister, Gary Collins. There is speculation that Collins was about to be interviewed by the RCMP regarding certain cabinet documents. Indeed, Collins was to be next into the witness box when the defendants of the corruption trial suddenly changed their pleas to "guilty" and prevented the defence examination of Collins.

Convenient. And it remains just as mysterious. The question now centers around whether certain lawyers and deputy ministers were involved in an obstruction of justice and whether there was a violation of the Dhom Protocol, a court ordered procedure to allow police access to cabinet documents. If there was such a violation then the parties involved were in contempt of court.

A further question exists: Was Gary Collins warned in advance that he was to be questioned by the RCMP? And if so, who warned him?

Well it’s over now.  So where’s the investigation into obstruction of justice and other violations of the Criminal Code with respect to the Premier’s office handling of documents at the heart of the investigation?

What we really need to know is this.  Could Dobell have warned Gary Collins that he was about to be interviewed by the RCMP regarding key documents in the case?  After all he met him in cabinet at least once a week.  And doesn’t that constitute contempt of Justice Dohm’s order?  Or maybe even obstruction of justice?

Gary Collins was supposed to be next up.  Wouldn’t those be questions the defence might have wanted to ask?  How convenient for the Premier’s office that that won’t take place now.

Back to that 27 October, 7 pm address by Campbell on Global TV. You can make book that the BC Rail sale and the corruption which surrounded it won't be mentioned. This will be Campbell pleading for his political life over the fiasco created by the introduction of Harmonized Sales Tax. While that event has cut the residents of BC to the quick, it is nothing to compared to the waste laid to the province by a bunch of right-wing ideologues who regularly demonstrate that they hate all but the wealthiest of BC's citizens.

For a list you have to read Laila Yuile. And we should all read Laila Yuile.

Today is the day Stockwell Day celebrates as the Day it all began

Don't be bugging Stockwell Day for anything today. He will be wrapped up in Genesis 1 - 2 marveling at how some entity out there in... wherever, got bored and decided to invent a planet complete with a few dozen species of plants, some animals (dinosaurs included, although they aren't mentioned in the books Day will be reading), the odd fish, daylight, night-time and some pretty points of light in the night sky to keep the pagans occupied.

PZ Myers reminds us that today is... Creation Day! The world, (which did not wear out in 1997 as forecast) was created on this date in 4004 BC according to the Ussher chronology. As PZ points out, this is an occasion for heavy drinking. (Not that I personally ever needed such a reason).

It also makes people do weird things. Like create enormous complex graphs of the history of the world, the likes of which you can't possibly fathom, especially since the first 2200 years of Earth "history" is condensed into one small book written by an anonymous individual who would have you believe that people lived for hundreds of years... back then.

So... it's party time! Or not. In this century if you continue to believe in such rubbish you shouldn't be in a position to govern anything more than a chicken coop.

US Supreme Court unravellings

Oh yeah. When the togas come off the Bush appointees look pretty much like every other corrupt conservative.

John Roberts.

I'm investigating articles of impeachment against Justice Roberts for perjuring during his Senate hearings

But that doesn't even touch what Clarence Thomas is facing. 

The ex-girlfriend of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says he was "obsessed" with pornography and made lewd sexual references to the women he worked with.

Nearly two decades after Anita Hill testified that Thomas had sexually harassed her, Lillian McEwen, who dated Thomas in the 1980s, says Hill's allegations are not unfounded.

That's so cool. Especially since Thomas' wife made an early morning (couldn't have been drunk) phone call to Anita Hill demanding she apologize for her testimony at Thomas' confirmation hearings.
Tea Partiers have a habit of doing stupid things. And they are pretty good at finding their way around a law. You see, the decision which John Roberts handed down, in a case that was not before the Supreme Court, has a direct impact on Ginni Thomas, whose paycheque comes from anonymous financial donors now permitted to remain anonymous thanks to Roberts and his activist interference in a case the Supreme Court should never have heard.

Liberty Central, the organization founded by Virginia Thomas, has accepted a great deal of money from secret donors, all of which is legal under the Supreme Court's 2010 decision striking down many of the previous limits on campaign spending. But Gillers notes Virginia Thomas is CEO and president of the group and that an opportunistic donor, by giving money to an organization that pays Virginia Thomas' salary, is in fact giving a financial benefit to Justice Thomas, too. And that could constitute a financial conflict.

Divorce will occur, of course, only if the rules of the spouse swapping party are violated. Even conservatives have their limits. 

Putting our space where our big mouth is....

Let's make this a regular event. Blog awards are really cool if you're one of the new kids on the scene. They can give you exposure you might not otherwise be able to gather in.

Hell, I did it. Vanity may be some kind of Christian sin, but it is pretty human. Most of us don't do this for money so there has to be some kind of reward. Most of us are pretty happy with an increased traffic count.

If I write, it would be nice if I'm not writing to myself and yelling at a mirror.

A lot of you are writing some pretty fine stuff. And not getting enough notice for it.

If somebody wants to manufacture an award program, that's just dandy. Personally, I know that most of us don't seek an award. We'd just like to have our views, ideas and reach as many interested readers as possible.

So, tell us what you've got. As I told Simon, I'd much rather open this small place to a larger audience and be able to add you to our blogroll.

So put your latest, your best, your favourite into comments with a link.

The best way to find you is if you give us a marker. Go for it.

Be Careful 'Bout Cryin' Wolf . . . .

With today's release of 400,000+ Department of Defense documents on the Iraq war by WikiLeaks, once again the MSM is playing the Pentagon's mouthpiece quite well.

Reuters: (Lead paragraph.) The Pentagon said on Friday it does not expect big surprises from an imminent release of up to 500,000 Iraq war files by WikiLeaks, but warned that U.S. troops and Iraqis could be endangered by the file dump.

CBC: (Hillary Clinton) "We should condemn in the most clear terms the disclosure of any classified information by individuals and organizations which puts the lives of United States and partner service members and civilians at risk," she said in Washington, D.C.

CNN: "This is all classified secret information never designed to be exposed to the public," Morrell told CNN. "Our greatest fear is that it puts our troops in even greater danger than they inherently are on these battlefields. "

Hmmmmm.

Didn't we hear the same dire warnings back when Wikileaks released the 70,000+ documents on the Afghan war?

Yes, we did.

How'd that come out, you may ask?

Well, to CNN and FoxNoise's (fer krise sake!) credit, buried down in their stories we read this:

CNN: Friday, Lapan said they know of no case where anyone in Afghanistan had been harmed because their name was in the leaked documents, but he made clear that doesn't mean such people couldn't be killed in the future.

FoxNoise: Lapan said that so far no Afghans have been killed as a direct result of WikiLeaks releasing the same type of information over the summer, but he characterized the leak as deplorable.

The Pentagon and State Department crowd might start stocking up on wolf spray and protective gear. Perhaps one day their dire warnings will go unheeded and ignored.

We'll probably have to clue the MSM in, though. It appears they're still drinking the Kool-aid and asking for refills . . . .

How dare you, you mealy mouthed pencil neck

Stephen Harper has spoken. And not a soul has the guts to take him to task. Read this:

"The Canadian Forces are the victim here, [pause] as are the direct victims of these terrible events."

So says Stephen Harper. I didn't insert that "pause" for no reason. On the tape it exists and it suggests, to Harper, that the direct victims of Williams' crimes were secondary to the effect on the Canadian Forces as a whole.

Which shows what Harper knows about the Canadian Forces. And could care less for the actual victims.

Nothing.

Betrayal? Hardly. To most of the Canadian Forces this guy was a freak well outside the realm of the day to day of being in the service. And that's the issue: most everyone else considers him a freak. That hardly makes the Canadian Forces a "victim". Particularly enunciated by the acting prime minister as though the CF as a whole is a victim deserving acknowledgment to a degree greater than, you know, those who were murdered.

How dare a person like Harper set foot into the social structure of the CF. How dare he comment on it. He's never been in it and, as unpopular a statement as this may seem, he has no right nor the authority to state what Williams' despicable crimes do to affect the morale of the Canadian Forces as a whole. The ethos of the Canadian Forces is well beyond the comprehension of a pure political troll like Harper.

Most treat it as what it is: a serial killer who happened to be wearing an air force uniform. We're not him and never were. Harper, one of the worst examples of organizational leadership, has no right to suggest that the Canadian Forces are suffering under some sort of fug created by Williams. But most of all he has no right to create another victim when the women murdered and assaulted by Williams, and the loved ones of those women, are the only ones upon whom we should be pouring our sympathy.

So, to refute a political pig like Stephen Harper, weep not for the Canadian Forces. We already know what we are. We don't need the prime minister to make us a victim. We aren't one. The real victims of a serial killer deserve to be recognized for having their lives and love of life cut short by a monster and their families to understand that all of us share in their sorrow. We mourn with you but would never presume to be victims of something so personally devastating. 

Keef’s Guitar Workshop . . .

THE NYTIMES has a great article by Janet Maslin, "Keith Richards Has Memories to Burn". It's an interview with Keith and his collaborator about "Life", Keith's auto-biography/memoir,  just published by Little, Brown & Company. His collaborator, James Fox, wrote the delightful "White Mischief", so "Life" should be a real treat.

This is a political blog, so WTF? Well, politics are all about culture(s), and this man and his partner have had a major, all-pervasive influence on our music and our culture. Buy a new copy of "Exile on Main St." Listen carefully.  "Loving Cup": caught the attention of every recording studio weenie on the planet in the late 60's and early 70's.

Dogs . . .

MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE is a spin-off from the Economist gang. It's a delightful site for the thoughtful. Anyway, they hired Tim Flach to photograph some "extreme" pooches, like the Puli you see above. Enjoy.

Traffic tie-up . . .

JALOPNIK has a nice overall coverage of the recent border closure by Pakistan, stopping military supplies bound for Afghanistan, with an article, "How Pakistan Disrupts Our Fight Against The Taliban". As the picture indicates, FUBAR reigns supreme.

Oh man, just kick it because it feels good!

The one and only TBogg explains to the coaches of the San Diego Chargers why kicking a field goal in the last minutes of the game when you're down by 30 points is sad, pathetic and a waste of time.

He also explains to the "War on Drugs" guys why they look like the coaches of the San Diego Chargers when they work out of the same worn out playbook.

It's tough to get that message out. Sometimes you just have to say, "To hell with it," and take on the thankless job of training Basset Hounds instead.

Rex Murphy pulls out your mother's answer to everything

There he is. A loser.

How many times have you been in an argument with your spouse, partner or the like and heard the words,  "Yeah. Whatever?"

How many times have your been bent over on an issue and heard the word from a parent or an acquaintance. "Who cares?"

Your mother. When you've left her with no place to go; totally out-argued her, she says, "Who cares?"

You care, of course. That's why you're arguing your point. Her answer actually means, "You know so much more about this than I can even fathom that I must invoke my superior parental position and indicate that I have much more important things to do, and this discussion is over."

That's what Rex Murphy has just tried to pull off.

Coming from a knob who thinks that if it snows in Vancouver that global warming is a hoax, he's in about the same league as my mother.

Here's one for Murphy.

I care.

Murphy would have spent three weeks scripting his most eloquent praises of a Harper government if Canada had actually assumed its traditional seat on the UN Security Council. He would have lavished imaginary and undeserved accolades on the Alberta separatist as though the little boy had pulled off some magnificent feat of diplomatic prowess.

Instead we get: Who cares?

Loser.

I care.

I dislike to this day the only argument my mother could pull out in a discussion that was clearly beyond her depth, knowing the only reason she did it is because she didn't want the other party, (me) to be held out as the winner.

So, Murphy, accept your new position. Nothing but a loud, half-neutered steer in the middle of the field making loud noises that do nothing more than irritate those within earshot.

Loser.

Hard to believe you fought to have your education paid for by the public. If we had known what it might produce there might have been second thoughts by your supporters.

And if you need to know more, Sister Sage has summed it up very nicely.

Sad stories . . .

COHA, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, has a site with a report by Melissa Graham, "Mexico’s New War: Sex Trafficking". That's right, it's not just about drugs anymore. These women wind up in the US, and the results are not nice.

In one example, the police in Plainfield, New Jersey reported a raid upon a sex slave house described as a “19th-Century slave ship, with rancid, doorless bathrooms; bare, putrid mattresses; and a stash of penicillin, morning-after pills, and misoprostol, an antiulcer medication that can induce abortion.”4 Women are placed into such brothels on both sides of the border and subjected to multiple sexual acts a day, living in fear that if they do not comply with their captor’s demands they, or their family, will be killed. Women and girls trafficked into the United States are thus dispersed across the country, making this an issue that is much more than just a border problem.

Elsewhere, on the other side of the pond, the NYTimes has an article by Suzanne Daley, "Rescuing Young Women From Traffickers’ Hands", that reads like Ringo's Kildar.

Interview with Alex Hundert

A guy so terrifying, a Canadian court has banned him from speaking.

Well here he is, interviewed in September.

boo-frickin'-hoo

If "Officer Bubbles" really wants to put an end to the shame and embarrassment he suffered as a result of his idiotic actions at the G20 being widely publicized, he might want to chose a different tack. After all, is getting  yourself saddled with the nickname "Constable Crybaby" really going to make things better? I'm sure this will make the other guys and gals in the squad room stop teasing him.

Tweet

Hollywood production masquerading as government.

Back in the day, when we had to clean off the rust streaks and the wear from a long ocean passage, we would hurriedly break out the paint, brushes and rollers and slap a fresh coat of paint over unprepared metal, rust and salt spray. It was called a "Hollywood paint job" because we were all aware that, given an inevitable rainfall, the covered rust would bleed through and within days the entire sheet of paint would be laying on the harbour surface. It had served the purpose to make the ship look good as it passed the saluting stand and that was it.

Doug Saunders places the Harper government in the same box. All paint; no prep. No matter how many times they try to cover up the rust, corrosion and corruption, it keeps bleeding through and eventually the whole shiny facade falls off. (Emphasis mine)

But UN members, including influential ones such as Britain and France and the United States, did ask themselves what Canada was actually doing: What was Ottawa contributing to the progress they desired in these areas; what clout could it add to the table?

And here they came up blank. On the Middle East, Mr. Harper’s ministers cut themselves out of the game. They didn’t help the interests of Israel; instead, for short-term political gain, they gave almost lone backing to the partisan views and extreme actions of the coalition government that happened to hold power there at the moment – a coalition containing the most fringe religious fundamentalist parties and opposed by a large majority of Israelis. To satisfy one faction, Canada lost any future role in helping the country or its region.

On aid, our stated principles were solid but our shift of funds out of the eight poorest African states – right in the midst of the Security Council bid – infuriated not just Africa’s 47 states but also Europeans, who are struggling with their own African development goals. The same happened in climate change and financial reform (where we were, remember, the spoilers at the G20 summit): Canada said things, but just wasn’t there.

And right at the lead of Saunders' column he reminds us of this:

“Our engagement internationally is based on the principles that this country holds dear,” Mr. Harper said. “It is not based on popularity.”

Of the hundreds of ways that statement could be torn to shreds, two come immediately to mind:

1. Harper said it right there. His "principles" are not popular. He formed government with less than 22 percent of the eligible vote. He and his "principles" have no real traction among voters in Canada nor among the diplomatic departments of the world's most influential governments. Harper puts on a good party but it leads to nothing.

2. It's a lie. What Harper is peddling as a "principle" is nothing more than a "Hollywood paint job". What he is calling a "principle" is a short-term theatrical production, complete with editing, intended to entertain. With a paltry story and a weak cast he's hoping the expensive art direction and set design will hold up long enough to gather the sufficient "academy votes" to give him a box-office success.

Saturday Morning Cartoons.

Good morning darlings -- this is one of my absolute favourites.

A short musical interlude.

With a picket fence
Up on a hill
And a couple kids
In a Coupe de Ville

If this shows up on TLC Canada

I'm cancelling my cable subscription.



Although Jimmy Kimmel did the ice-floe bimbo a certain justice.



Palin quote from the TLC trailer:

"I'd rather be doing this than in some stuffy old political office." "I'd rather be out here being free."

Right. That would be why she quit part way through her term as Alaska's governor and hasn't been able to shut up since.

Give this kid a keyboard....

And tell Dimitri Soudas to start sending out resumes.



Thanks to Bits & Pieces.

Pearson and the air force officer

You meet the most interesting people in airports. London MP Glen Pearson found that out and relates a conversation he had with an air force officer.

“Look, of course we want what’s supposedly the best out there; we wouldn’t be a good military if we didn’t.  But I’m not convinced that with the high price, the problems with maintenance, and the cost overruns in production qualifies it as the best for the Canadian forces.”

That is an absolutely true statement by any gauge. No military goes asking for second rate gear.

“For our purposes, I at least wish we had put out some bids for the F-18F Super Hornet,” he observed.  “That’s a pretty good piece of equipment.”  For the next 20 minutes a dedicated career military officer gave this MP a comprehensive education on aircraft and Canada’s future in military operations.

But what Pearson might have found surprising is something which has been swirling through the bazaars for some considerable time now. It just hasn't broken surface in the media.

Barring some cataclysmic event, he reasons that the Canadian forces will be looking for more “soft” missions, the kind that provide protection for peacekeeping operations or more limited forms of combat engagement than Afghanistan.  According to him, the Super Hornet is a better fit for the new role the Canadian forces are about to embrace.

Looking? Probably not too hard. Prepared to accept is more the emphasis. The problem, however goes to another issue: The Harper government has nothing close to a coherent defence policy.
Read more here. 

H/T Dale

Blame Ignatieff!

We take you now live to the United Nations for a Press Conference with Stephen Harper, his hand puppet foreign minister  Laurence Cannon, spokesman Dimitri Soudas and various other members of the government


(with only a small apology to Matt Stone and Trey Parker)


Stephen Harper: Times have changed
Our kids are getting worse
They won't obey their parents
They just want to fart and curse!
Dimitri Soudas: Should we blame the government?
Laurence Cannon: Or blame society?
John Baird: Or should we blame the images on TV?
Harper: No, blame Canada Ignatieff!
CPC caucus: Blame Canada Ignatieff!
Harper: With his beady little eyes
And pointy head so full of lies
Caucus: Blame Ignatieff!
Blame Ignatieff!
Harper: We need to form a full assault
Caucus: It's Ignatieff's fault!
Baird: Don't blame me
I beg you pleasethey don't think that we're all goonsThey just love the Portugese!
Harper: And the President once
Had my picture on his shelf
But this new guy, he tells me to fuck myself!
Cannon: Well, blame Ignatieff
Caucus: Blame Canada
Harper: It seems that everything's gone wrong
Since Ignatieff came along
Caucus: Blame Ignatieff
Blame Ignatieff
Soudas: He's not even a real Canadian anyway
Peter McKay: I could've been a doctor or a lawyer rich and true,
Instead my reps burned up like a piggy on the barbecue
Caucus: Should we blame the matches?
Should we blame the fire?
Or universal health care, which we hope will soon expire?
Harper: heck no!
Caucus: Blame Ignatieff
Blame Ignatieff
Harper: With all his summer barbecues
Baird: And the elitists love him too
Caucus: Blame Ignatieff
Shame on Ignatieff
For...
The coalition we must stop
The left we must bash
The Liberals and the NDP
and anyone else that we can seeWe must blame them and cause a fuss
Before somebody thinks of blaming uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus!!!!




Tweet

Munchies . . .

Darts Master

A very drunk man goes into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender serves him and asks him if he would like to try the bar game of darts. Three in the bulls eye and win a prize.. Only a dollar for three darts.

The drunk agrees and throws the first dart. A bullseye!! He downs another drink, takes aim on wobbly feet, lets go...Two bulls eyes!!!! Two more quick drinks go down. Barely able to stand, he lets go of the last dart.

Three bulls eyes!!!

All are astounded. No one has ever won before. The bartender searches for a prize... grabs a turtle from the bar's terrarium and presents it to the drunk as his prize.

Three weeks pass... The drunk returns and orders more drinks, then announces he would like to try the dart game again. To the total amazement and wonderment of all the local drunks, he scores three more bulls eyes and demands his prize.

The bartender, being a sort of drunk himself, and a bit short of memory, doesn't know what to give, so he asks the drunk, "Say, what did you win the last time?"

And the drunk responds, "A roast beef sandwich on a hard roll!"

The day the world rejected Stephen Harper

Little Stevie has lectured long on how important it is to have a seat at the table and how he, and only he, knows how to get himself there. I might have said us, but Harper doesn't give a shit about us, this country or anything related to how we had managed to punch so far above our apparent weight in global diplomatic circles.

His ego was running at a speed most people couldn't match. His ideology belongs in a government, not of the 21st Century, but back in a time when Arthur Wellesley was using every political maneouvre available to prevent the British system of government becoming a true parliamentary democracy. The 1st Duke of Wellington, the hero of Waterloo, failed. Luckily for his reputation, which the Duke felt so important, he had Waterloo and the Peninsular War to secure a decent state funeral.

Harper has none of that.

Harper has some pathetic excuse for a communications director like Dimitri Soudas and an idiot for a foreign minister. And the only reputation Harper can hope to preserve is that of an angry Alberta separatist who holds the values and the quiet power Canada exercised behind the scenes of global drama with complete and utter disdain.

Harper never cared, in fact didn't even bother to inquire, about Canada's actual status among the world's power brokers. Had he done so he might have realized that the influence the country, supported by a quiet, patient and tolerant population, possessed among the most powerful nations was well beyond the margins expected for a nation of 30 million people.

Canada was always there. Canada was always sought out by factions which found themselves disagreeing to such an extent that they were on the brink of war. When a peacekeeping force was offered, the inclusion of Canada in such a force gave both sides pause. Canada took one side and one side only. Peace and prosperity for all. When all seemed lost with a deal which would see the Provisionals of the Irish Republican Army decommission their weapons and end a decades long war of terror, it was Canada on whom the world called. And it was Canada who provided the leader who could see it through.

Most people in this country were too busy to notice, Stephen Harper included, but more especially because it was a methodology he simply couldn't accept: victory on the world stage without a parade staged by adoring monarchs and presidents. While we were always happy to contribute to such successes without tribute or fanfare, Harper wanted a celebration. Without it a "great leader" goes unrecognized and his objective was to achieve recognition.

Now he has it.

He and his minions can make any effort they like to spread false blame for their own singular failure on Tuesday. The fact is, this is personal.

The world actually still likes Canada; they don't like Stephen Harper.

The global community made a decision. They decided that Stephen Harper was someone they would rather not have at the table. It was not about Canada - it was about him and his reckless foreign policy.

Not to mention that well off in the bushes the world policeman we all love to hate was shaking his head, no. In a blind ballot the US would feel secure in voting against Canada assuming its traditional once per decade role on the planet's supervisory panel. But it isn't the country they object to - it's the leader of Canada's government who is all too ready to usurp democracy to save his own skin. The US had eight years of a leader who treated democracy as a joke. Why would they allow a junior version of that a place at the global table?

And they didn't.

Harper can quit yammering about the "world stage" now. He's not welcome on it.

You won't recognize Canada when I get through with it.

One of the few true statements Harper has ever made. And apparently the world doesn't like losing their gentle giant to a petulant schoolboy.

I would bet the mortgage money that the world would like its old Canada back. 

Double-double trouble . . .

Coffee berry damage

YALE ENVIRONMENT 360 is a site run by the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Really worth the visit, numerous articles of interest. One of 'em, "Spurred by Warming Climate, Beetles Threaten Coffee Crops" is of selfish interest. According to Erica Westley, our double-double access is in real peril. The article talks about arabicas; I wonder if robustus is unaffected?

Coffee production has long been vulnerable to drought or excess rains. But recently, a tiny insect that thrives in warmer temperatures — the coffee berry borer — has been spreading steadily, devastating coffee plants in Africa, Latin America, and around the world.

• • •

“Coffee is migrating,” said Dean Cycon, owner of Dean’s Beans, a Massachusetts-based specialty coffee company that works with farmers around the world. “As it’s getting hotter at the lower altitudes, the lower plants are dying off, so it marches the coffee forest up the slopes.” Jaramillo’s research indicates that the borers are migrating with the coffee plants.

World Stage Harper?

Tell us more about how we're back on the World Stage.

Fucking hillbilly.

The Tea Party in mufti

Honest. It's what George W. Bush apologists are wearing these days.

A Republican congressional candidate from Ohio, countering criticism from a House GOP leader, said he did nothing wrong by wearing a Nazi uniform while participating in World War II re-enactments.

Yeah, it's one politically astute move. I would ask, "What are these people thinking?" But then I would realize that for morons such as Rich Iott, that's a question too far.
You must now go off and read Driftglass.

Legacies . . .

RECENTLY, THINGS HAVE BEEN very crunchy between Japan and China, with diplomatic hard-nosing. It seems that a shadow of what went down 116 years ago is still present today, as a cause of truculence.

What went down, in 1894, was the Kowshing, a British-flagged transport ship chartered by China. It was sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy's Togo Heihachiro's cruiser, the Naniwa. Over 1,000 Chinese died. Togo, incidentally, later made admiral, and led the IJN fleet that crossed the Russkie "T" at Tsushima, 110 years ago, in 1905, in the first modern sea battle.

First published in the Bangkok Post on Sept. 25, 2010, and posted by Philip J Cunningham, a free-lance writer and political commentator, on an interesting site, Informed Comment: Global Affairs, the article, "LOST IN TRANSLATION, LOST AT SEA", shows Togo to play hard-ball par excellence.

When Togo sank the Kowshing, there was no declaration of war between Japan and China, nor was the British-piloted transport ship in any position to attack. Togo, under instructions to intercept, destroyed the defenceless transport ship, not because it posed a palpable threat, but because it didn't follow orders.

Tasked with preventing the Chinese troops from reaching Korea, Togo followed orders with alacrity, offering a choice of sink or surrender, then bailing out of the water only the British captain and a handful of non-Chinese crew.

Japanese troops intent on taking control of Seoul subsequently overcame their woefully undermanned Chinese rivals, paving the way to the eventual takeover of the entire Korean peninsula and Manchuria.

The naval war that ensued ended with China ceding Taiwan and other territory to Japan. Over the next five decades, China and Japan descended gradually but inexorably into a protracted war that cost tens of millions of lives.