Conservative Lawnorder

Here's one of Stephen Harper's trusted advisers opining on the wikileaks story, take it away Flanagan...



Hey Ezra, here's you're tough on crime, law & order gang at work. Counseling to commit murder, a political adviser to the Prime Minister condoning politically motivated assassination. Douchebag.

Hat tip: Matthew Gregory from politcsandprofit.com

Things that grow in the darkness

Being any part of National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa (or over there in Hull) can be frustrating. It's like living in a mushroom farm much of the time. Things grow out of cracks and turn into things you don't expect.

However, if you are the Commander of Canadian Expeditionary Force Command (CEFCOM) you would expect that you are close enough to the oracle to at least be given a "heads up" that an expeditionary mission is coming your way. It kind of goes with the territory, the security clearance and the film-star wages. There is, after all, that planning thing, then the staffing thing and, most difficult of all, that logistics thing to organize.

So, when politicians start to rumble about that there will be an extended role for the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan as trainers you'd expect that such discussions would include certain key figures in uniform, like the Chief of Defence Staff and the Commander CEFCOM.

But not when Harper is in charge.

For the past two weeks the only thing I have been hearing is, "We didn't see that one coming." And that is now verified by the Commander responsible for organizing the mission.(Emphasis mine)

"Right now we are just at the fact-finding stage, determining what is available at what rank, what skill set, what timeline," Lessard said in an interview with Postmedia News after arriving in Kandahar. "We are not looking at one option in particular. There are individual positions, left and right."

As well as meeting for 45 minutes in the Afghan capital with Gen. David Petraeus, the American who runs NATO's war here, Lessard spoke with Maj.-Gen. Stu Beare, a Canadian who is one of two deputy commanders for training.

"It is mind-boggling, all the positions. What we are looking at are things that make sense. We do not want to just scatter people all over the place," said Lessard, who also conceded he was surprised by the government decision to deploy trainers.

"Quite frankly, I did not know what was going to happen," he said, "but in the military, we are ready for anything."

Lessard's comments and description of the task he has been handed go further by confirming that the Harperites, despite all their confident claims, had and have no idea what the training role would be. You will recall that I made this point:

Canada cannot meet the demand to start filling Caldwell's requirements by this winter and next spring. We still have a combat role and will not be able to deploy personnel to a bolstered NTM-A until well after that. We can safely assume that other NATO allies will fill that demand long before we have personnel available. This is the kind of commitment many NATO nations view as a healthy and safe way to deploy without wearing the political splatter of combat casualties. We aren't going to be there for any of it.

Sure enough, Lessard expanded on that too.

The Harper government's announcement two weeks ago that Canada will undertake a mission to train the Afghan National Army _ in the relatively safer confines of Kabul once the combat mission ends _ clearly caught the military by surprise.

Up until late October there had been no planning undertaken for a follow-on mission, said defence sources in Ottawa.

Lessard said they have yet to sketch out what the training scheme will look like because a seven-member fact-finding team has just heard from NATO about what positions need to be filled.

He confirmed that not all Canadians will be based in the Afghan capital, despite what the Conservative government has said.

"It is to be Kabul-centric. What that means is: the emphasis is to be on Kabul, but not solely Kabul."

Many of the positions at the recently established NATO Training Mission Command in Kabul are already taken, but there are positions at the various military schools scattered around the country.

So .... while Harper and MacKay have known for some time now that they were going to commit to a role in Afghanistan beyond July, 2011, they never bothered to have that conversation with the organization responsible for planning and executing such a concept.
The assertion by Harper that the mission would be in Kabul was actually an uninformed assumption on his part and now turns out to be far from reality.What is clearly apparent is that Harper and MacKay had no idea what the mission would look like, the proof being offered that, after actually asking NTM-A what positions need to be filled, the Commander CEFCOM is still trying to give it form. And it isn't going to look like what Harper said it would.

The mushrooms grow strong at 101 Colonel By Drive.

Warped headline

Federal Tories take 2 byelections, Liberals 1

There were no "Tories" running. They were Harperites. Surely the CBC can tell the difference.

The Therapeutic Drug Initiative sends out a final warning

From the CBC a story warning about a blood thinner.

A new blood thinner is easier to use to prevent blood clotting and strokes, but researchers in B.C. caution it may pose serious risks for some patients.

The Therapeutic Drug Initiative at the University of British Columbia is world renown for spotting dangerous drugs. In BC the group has saved taxpayers $50 million annually helping to keep dangerous drugs out of BC pharmacies. The provincial funding was $1 million per year. It's easy to understand why Big Pharma doesn't much like the Therapeutic Drug Initiative.

Gordon Campbell, the premier who resigned and then appointed himself interim leader, has gifted the people of BC with a new deal - he's killed it, and he's made sure the researchers who have staffed the TDI are not allowed to involve themselves in any new drug review process in BC. 

Campbell and the orks which occupy the BC cabinet table have caved, and I mean totally caved, to Big Pharma. From Friday's Time Colonist:

The walls of the Therapeutics Initiative are papered with accolades and letters of support from around the world. A leading medical journal called it "the only source of critical assessment of new treatments in Canada that is not political or partisan." Another commendation referred to the Therapeutics Initiative as "one of the best sources of information about pharmaceuticals ... in the world."

But no good deed goes unpunished. Drug companies have been lobbying for years to get rid of the agency.

It's worth considering the various motives involved. The Therapeutics Initiative's job is to disbelieve anything it hears about a drug until evidence can be found to support it. That makes it an industry critic. 

And of course pharmaceutical firms want to sell their products. They are on the other side of the fence.

But where does this leave the provincial government? Sitting on the fence -- until a few days ago. 

For some years, a succession of health ministers tried to square this circle: How to placate the drug industry, which is a major contributor to the Liberal party, without gutting the Therapeutics Initiative. 

[...]

The Ministry of Health has just outlined a new assessment process. First, the Therapeutics Initiative will have no further role. Its funding is terminated. 

Second, whereas the drug industry had no voice in the old system, it will have extensive influence in the new one. Conflict-of-interest rules have been substantially weakened. And the industry has been given four separate points of engagement. 

Third, in what can only be considered an act of spite, staff at the Therapeutics Initiative are to be kept off the new drug benefit council that will manage the process. The experts who ran Canada's most successful drug review program have been told they are not wanted.

Any questions? The Campbell government isn't interested in your health. They are bought and paid for by their dollar contributing big business buddies.

The march of progress . . .

Love Dan Piraro.

Oh... Craig James ...

I hope you can leave without shit on your lips.

The only role you are allowed to have, and I mean allowed, is to be the defender of the democratic functions of all British Columbians.

You have failed to protect both the rights and the functions of democracy.

Leave with dignity and the ability to rework your CV or we'll tear you to pieces.

You have a rough 48 hours. I'm not kidding.

Bubble's Buddies strike again . . .

IF THE POLICE PERFORMANCE WITH THE G8/G20 was less than stellar, now the Ottawa police force is following up with equally egregious behaviour. Unlike the Toronto videos with which the "authorities" could not identify police officers in illegal disguise, Stacy Bonds' torment is something the police can't run away from.

And the best McGuinty can do is say he was "very, very troubled" by the incident. Let the shrugging and evasion begin!

At the going down of the sun ...

Belated condolences and respect to the family and friends of Captain Frank Paul, 28 Field Ambulance, assigned to JTF-Afghanistan Health Services Unit.

Capt. Paul was on active service, on a Home Leave Travel Assistance visit, when he succumbed to an illness on 10 February, 2010.

Capt. Paul is being officially recorded as a casualty of the Afghanistan mission.

Militi Succurrimus

Saturday, 27 November, 2010 is a day to mark on your calendar

Just put a red X on that date and stare at it for a minute. Read this and know that it was predictable. Here's why.

At 1900 hrs AFT on 27 December, 1979, 30 members of KGB Spetsgruppa Z, 24 members of GRU Spetsgruppa A, 520 men from the 154th Separate Spetsnaz Detachment of the Soviet Ministry of Defence and 87 members of the Soviet 345th Guards Airborne Regiment executed Operation Storm 333.

They were dressed in Afghan army uniforms.

By the following morning the operation was complete and elements of the special force had taken control of Tajbeg Palace, just outside Kabul, and killed President Hafizullah Amin along with all of his 200 man bodyguard. Simultaneously, the force took control of the Ministry of Interior building, the Internal Security building and the Darul Aman Palace which served as the General Staff Headquarters. The Soviet force suffered 19 killed and over 50 wounded. The Afghan defenders lost over 200 killed and over 200 wounded with some 1700 troops captured.

The Soviet special forces had arrived two days earlier among a draft of airborne troops which arrived in Kabul on 25 December, 1979. The Soviet 103rd Guards Airborne Division landed at Bagram air base on the morning of 27 December.

As the Soviet special forces were taking key government centres in Kabul, the Soviet 40th Army had already entered Afghanistan from the north crossing the Amu Darya river at Termez, Uzbeck SSR and the then Turkmen SSR town of Kushka. At the same time an air bridge was established into Bagram air base. By the end of December the Soviets had 80,000 troops on the ground in Afghanistan. Two weeks later that number was closer to 100,000.

That Soviet invasion was in response to months of insurgency and open revolt by large segments of the Afghan population. Ostensibly carried out at the request of Afghan government (they were invited in), the actual plan was a takeover of Afghanistan utilizing the well-tested Soviet method of armed stabilization. The Soviets also had a great deal of mistrust in Hafizulla Amin who had come to power in a violent coup during which his predecessor, Nur Muhammad Taraki, had been purposely killed. The history of Afghanistan politics prior to that event is a tangle of uprisings, civil war and factionalized infighting.

Once the Soviets had occupied Afghanistan they took control of all major urban centres and had installed Babrak Karmal as president. The mass occupation was intended to quell the uprisings and restore calm to the entire country. It did the opposite.

The presence of Soviet troops, not yet engaged in open warfare, had the effect of causing even greater rebellion which the Afghan army and security forces were unable to contain. In fact, the desertion rate of the 80,000 strong Afghan army had reached critical levels which saw huge numbers joining independent rebel factions - a loosely allied and largely disorganized body which would come to be known as the mujahideen.

The Soviets were dragged into open warfare with the mujahideen and, in a future post, I will detail some of what happened, how they became so strong and the massive mistake that took place after the Soviets realized they had been defeated. What the Soviets left in Afghanistan was a political vacuum and a well armed insurgent force. What followed their departure was a mass fratricide. While the Soviets have to take some of the blame, most of the fault lies with the countries that treated the Soviet withdrawal as the end game. Failure by the nations which had armed the mujahideen to acknowledge the obvious danger they had created would erupt into a bloodbath.

Gen Boris Gromov walks out of Afghanistan

On the 15 February, 1989, Lt. General Boris Gromov, commander of the Soviet 40th Army walked across the bridge at Termez, Uzbeck SSR and became the last Soviet soldier to leave Afghanistan, completing a withdrawal which had been agreed upon two years earlier. The Soviet engagement in Afghanistan lasted 9 years, 1 month and 20 days.

No one followed them across the Termez bridge.

From the time of the first air attacks and the NATO commitment to support the U.S. assault on and occupation of Afghanistan on 7 October, 2001 to Saturday, 27 November, 2010, NATO forces, including Canada, have been at war for 9 years, 1 month and 21 days.

And there is no end in sight.

Some pertinent reading.

A sense of humour . . .

DUH concept: Don't mess with men's balls.

"Acting" Chief Electoral Officer of BC demands absolute perfection ... UPDATED

Even though he himself has never been properly appointed by the required all-party committee of the BC legislature. From the Times-Colonist:
(Emphasis mine)

In a letter sent Wednesday, acting chief electoral officer Craig James said the application for recall in Oak Bay - Gordon Head was rejected because it "exceeded the 200 word limit."

"Elections BC cannot accept an application that does not meet the legislated requirements of the Act," wrote James, adding it was the acronyms - such as MLA and HST - that pushed it over.

Right. We live in a political Star Wars environment in BC. We don't need the Evil Empire spelled out for us. We know what the HST is.
I don't agree with former BC premier Bill Vander Zalm on much, but he's right on this one:

"We call on Craig James to admit he has lost the confidence of the people of BC and done irreparable damage to the independent reputation of Elections BC, and resign," Vander Zalm said in a statement.

"Failing that, we call on the premier to remove him and we call on the entire BC Liberal caucus and all of the potential leadership candidates to immediately denounce this charade," he added.

And seeing James to the door is gaining popularity.

Very important update: This requires an investigation.

Happy American Thanksgiving . . .

Happy American Thanksgiving . . . deep-fried or not, have a tasty whatever. If you'd like to try the engine-hoist recipe, click on the link.

Speaking of things that fly ....

Can you say awkward?

Questions are being raised about the Conservative government's procurement of Russian helicopters that Canadian pilots have been secretly using to fly troops into combat in Afghanistan.

Until this week, the government had been silent about the MI-17 "Hip" helicopters that were leased last year. The government still refuses to provide any details of their procurement, including how much the lease cost.

Ooooh. I would think the auditor-general might have wanted to know about that. In the AG Fall 2010 report there is diddly about an MI-17 acquisition.

"It was competed, it was open, but for reasons of security I really can't go into any other details," Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Since the AG missed it in a detailed report entitled Acquisition of Military Helicopters, one has to question the veracity of MacKay's statement. Sounds like some details weren't available to the AG.

So off to the digs and what do we discover? Ah yes, there was an idea way back when it was realized that the CH-47 Chinooks we ordered were not going to appear before the previously scheduled end of the Afghanistan mission. 

Shortly after the RFP’s release, Canadian defense think-tank CASR began pointing out 2 potential solutions to this dilemma. One is the possible solution discussed during November 2005 coverage of Canada’s “emergency” purchases for Operation Archer: buy Mi-17 helicopters, the same type flown by East European NATO allies and by the Afghan Air Force. A Russian trade delegation made that precise offer during their March 2006 visit to Canada, and a Canadian company named Kelowna Flightcraft is already cooperating with the Mil factory in Kazan, producing Mi-17KF “Kittiwakes” with fully Westernized avionics and rear loading ramps.

Right. And if you read the above you'll notice that the original had a bunch of links in it back to the Simon Fraser University based CASR think-tank site. Back to that, right after this.

Mi-17s wouldn’t be a substitute for the Chinook. Their load is 24 fully-equipped troops at best, with an external sling load of 3,000 kg, vs. the stated Canadian requirement of 30 troops and 5,443 kg. Hot and high altitude conditions will reduce those totals further. On the other hand, their cost is about 1/8 that of a new CH-47 Chinook, and deliveries would have been rapid. They would create a temporary solution, one which could be repurposed later to other military roles, given away to the Afghans, or even given civilian rescue or disaster-related roles as Chinooks become available.

So, the Chinook would still have to be purchased, but to fill an immediate need, these things might work. However, cost conscious Canadians would see the price differential and ask, "Why, Peter?" 

Ah yes... those CASR links. Don't waste your time. Despite the fact that Defense Industry Daily was able to link back as recently as 28 Oct 2010, CASR now has this statement regarding all previous things MI-17.(highlighting mine)

This Background Index previously focused on the Canadian Forces medium-lift tactical helicopters required for Afghanistan. That medium-lift role has now been filled through the purchase of six ex-US Army CH-147D Chinooks. At the end of Canada's Afghan mission, remaining CH-146s  – one CF Chinook is said to have been lost to enemy action – are to be sold back to the US government. Those 'D models will be replaced by CH-147F MHLH (Medium-to Heavy-Lift Helicopters).

In earlier Background pages, we covered CF options and alternatives to hard-to get Chinooks. With CH-147s in place with Canada's JTF-Afghanistan Air Wing in Kandahar, those alternatives became moot and the pages have been removed.

Really?! Not so moot. And the timing is so ... coincidental.

In the CBC article we hear from University of Calgary political science professor Rob Huebert.

Defence analyst Rob Huebert said the huge price difference between the two helicopters might help explain why the government has kept the deal secret.

"From a political perspective, one can also see that the Conservatives may not want to be seen to be undermining their claim that they needed the Chinooks to the degree that they did," Huebert said.

But he said the air force was wise to choose an American helicopter to be a permanent part of the Canadian equipment in order to have access to experts or spare parts. That could be a concern if relations with Russia start to freeze up, he said.

Whoa, there! First part good. Second part bad.
Yes, there are a lot of questions as to why the Harperites kept this deal secret. The MacKay line of security is a load of crap. Huebert has it right that this has a lot of potential to embarrass the Conservatives. And they could be left wanting for any coherent answer.

No. Huebert is over-simplifying and playing at "cold war" mentalism with regard to suppliers. While the MI-17 (MI-172) "Kittiwake" is a Russian-built airframe, it incorporates avionics from BAE in the UK and (brace yourself) Kelowna Flightcraft in Canada. As they are only too happy to point out.

No, the problem for the Conservatives is that having leased Russian helicopters, and with Canadian companies involved, it makes the northern dance with the "Bears" look a lot less ominous and the theatrics of MacKay and Soudas even more pathetic.

Worse though, is that Harper and MacKay have yet to learn that it isn't their money. Any suggestion that this was "open" is misleading at best.

Another question: "It was competed," says MacKay.

Against what? Who were the other contenders? Where did it appear so all of us could be assured of a proper bidding process? Where?

Mind you, given the Harper/Soudas/MacKay definition of a competition it was probably a tossing of credit cards into the middle of the table to see who was going to pay for the drinks.

You're either with her or you're with the the turkeyists

The inimitable TBogg plays a holiday classic for US Thanksgiving. It's got everything: blood, gore, supporters of North Korea and a latte.

That brings up something else. Palin is being dismissed far too easily by far too many as a contender for the US presidency in 2012. That she's an ongoing train wreck is almost irrelevant. She may be a horror story but she's a horror story to both the Democrats and the Republicans.

I had been curious about what it was she was trying to set up with all the celebrity fame-whoring and I can only come back to "name recognition". That plays a bigger part in American politics than competence when one is playing to the navel-gazing masses. If she bangs on the GOP door looking for a nomination and the Republicans shut her out, she will take her witless, self-absorbed self into a realm that will leave the Republican power-brokers reeling in terror - she will run as an independent and shatter the GOP base.

I went back and forth with this scenario wondering if it was likely. She doesn't have the strategic sense to work that play on her own. But it's obvious from the spotlight she's managed to find herself in that there is an organizational mastermind behind it and it isn't Steve Schmidt.

Lo and behold, along comes Robert Reich with a clearer depiction of the Palin strategy.

The Republican establishment doesn’t get it. Celebrity is part of The Palin Strategy – as is avoiding the insider game. She doesn’t want to do what Huckabee, Pawlenty, Gingrich, or Romney have to do. She has an outside game.

Palin’s game plan is directly related to America’ white working class, and the economy it faces – and the economy it’s likely to continue to experience for years.

No prospective candidate so sharply embodies the anger of America’s white working class as does Palin. And none is channeling that anger nearly as effectively.

And while Schmidt pointed out back in January that Palin was both dishonest and a geographic moron, Reich makes the case that none of that matters to the white working class voter. And then he launches that bomb.

The Palin Strategy is to circumvent the Republican establishment, filled as it is with career Republicans, business executives, and Wall Streeters. That’s why her path to the Republican nomination isn’t the usual insider game. It’s a celebrity game – a snark-fest with the nation’s entire white working class. Vote for Bristol and we’ll show the media establishment how powerful we are! Buy my book and we’ll show the know-it-all coastal elites a real book directed at real people! Tune into my cable show and we’ll show the real America – far from the urban centers with immigrants and blacks and fancy city slickers!

As I believe will become clearer, the Palin Strategy will involve a political threat to the GOP establishment: Deny her the nomination she’ll run as independent. This will split off much of the white working class and guarantee defeat of the Republican establishment candidate. It will also result in her defeat in 2012, but that’s a small price to pay for gaining the credibility and power to demand the nomination in 2016, or threaten another third-party run in 2020.

It's worth reading all of Reich's article.

H/T Jill

The big push. From the advertising department of DND

The Jurist has just the right amount of sarcasm spread evenly on the subject. If the Department of National Defence has to go on an advertising blitz to try and convince people that buying a super-cool, enemy air-space penetrating high-tech bomb truck is such a splendid idea ... well it's looking like it might be a less than splendid idea.

The cross-country tour will cover seven cities in all. It started last Friday in Ottawa, skipping Parliamentary Press Gallery journalists who cover defence and focusing on academics and business contacts in the nation’s capital. It continued Monday with a roundtable for media in Vancouver and a separate session for academics and companies – a format that continued in Calgary and Winnipeg.

This is unprecedented. Never has DND gone out to gather a sales force to peddle a military acquisition project. It borders on the obscene.
To add fuel to the argument that the sales pitch is wrong-headed, a real military analyst takes a bite. 

Retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie said the PR blitz is an indication of how much grief Ottawa is getting over the F-35 deal, adding he can’t recall Defence previously launching such a campaign in support of a military purchase.

And then he leaves a welt on those who play the argument that we have to buy the "best" even if it's the most expensive.

The former senior military officer said the argument that the military needs cutting-edge technology is not always an easy sell, even for veterans of past wars.

“Talk to some of our tankers who went into World War II. They did a pretty damn good job, but they didn’t have the fifth best tank, let alone the best tank.”

The truth be known, Canada has rarely had the "best" equipment. More often than not, the equipment is suitable and we have lived with the knowledge that there was better, and more expensive, available.

Patrick Ross and the Cost of Malicious Defamation

In the wake of what can truly be called a fail worthy of epic as a descriptor, it should be interesting to chart the fallout from the case against Patrick Ross. Having been found to have acted with malice in a protracted campaign of defamation, the ruling orders Ross to remove any and all blog posts that mention Rob Day. There is no mention made in the ruling to comments he made at other blogs where the smear campaign was spread by Ross. With that said, there remains an interesting side note to the ruling wherein the various blogging aggregators Ross joined will almost certainly require cleansing of the offending material. Canadian Blogs for example not only reprints the content from Ross's originating blog but organizes his posting by tag, as one can see here. That tag is among the actionable slurs that has found Ross on the short end of the judicial stick. By recklessly smearing another person in such a public manner and by using the boards and means of others to amplify the smear, Ross has in effect exposed these publishers to action and will likely cost them some effort and/or expense in mitigating that exposure.

One also wonders how an organization like examiner.com will react to one of their contributors being found a malicious defamer in a court of law. From the bottom of their page listing all of Ross's articles...

WRITE FOR
examiner.com
Examiners come from all walks of life and contribute original content to entertain, inform, and inspire their readers. They are credible, passionate and influential because of their knowledge of a particular topic. Want to join their ranks?

Well, one has to wonder how they will define the term credible in the wake of a $75,000 finding against Ross. They may well want to re-examine his contributions in an act of due diligence after the fact. Given the propensity of the person in question to smear others, they might want to reconsider the wisdom of an article entitled Mike Hudema Not a Coward, But Not Being Honest. Should Mr. Hudema decide to pursue action against Ross and the Examiner, his case might be bolstered by the finding for Day. And as a commercial enterprise the Examiner could be liable for a far larger award.

Ross has two weeks to clean the offending posts from his own blog, I'm sure there will be a few eyes turned that way to witness his compliance. I don't know what penalties would result from a failure to comply but it will be fascinating to watch.

Under the category of "Who cares?"

Bristol Palin, (they actually named her after a bay named after a British admiral? Awesome!) came third.

She should have been dancing with me and saved herself the limelight. Honest. I do my dancing on Channel Night or Straits Night.

However, her big yappy ego did produce this.

Earlier in the night, Palin said winning would be like “a big middle finger” to those who dislike her and her politician mother, Sarah Palin.

A lot of politicians have that kind of egotistical twist. You know... giving a victory speech before the polls have opened.

Too bad. So sad. I guess it's back to filleting Halibut. Life's a son-of-a-bitch including the times when your Mother doesn't give you enough information to prevent a pregnancy.

Are we done now? Can we get back to having your Momma run for Presnit? You're not a dancer. And Mommy is a quitter.

I have to add this. I just can't resist.

I have NEVER watched dancing with the stars or whatever it's called. Not my thing. But Jennifer Grey ... Jennifer Grey. She's 50 years old and she whopped your ass! That's my kind of woman!!



And she's 50? I thank mother earth. She probably doesn't spend her life texting to her facebook account. Go Baby!

OK, OK! Stop with the friggin' emails!!!



Yeah... justice is a bitch ain't it.

A moment of your time if you will …

A delightfully warped cake for an even more delightfully warped ape – may this be the happiest of happy birthdays for you.

In a world of Grope and Fly . . .

And now for something completely different ...

Once upon a time there were three sub-lieutenants and a midshipman in HMS Ark Royal. Last night at sea after a long deployment, an OOW notebook filled to the last page and the "last day crazies" start to set in.



Why wouldn't you want to join The Andrew after that.

They watched their business elders and thought... why not?

Then their professor, Richard Quinn, took his University of Central Florida class to lunch. Out of a class of 600 business students over one-third have admitted to cheating on the course mid-term exam.





Hat tip NewsHoggers

It's November

And in November is when someone pulls the pin. It's when the hillbillies in Harper's office get caught with their pants around their knees. Something happens that they weren't prepared for and they have to resort to drastic measures to save their own asses.

It is now tradition. Harper will do something to further erode the conventions of Canadian democracy to serve his own needs. We are in very real peril of having some bloody-minded little prick like Harper turn Parliament into the Government's whore.

This past week, it was the unelected Conservative senators audaciously killing a climate-change bill passed by a clear majority of elected MPs in the House of Commons. 

The week before, it was Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with tacit agreement from the Liberals, deciding to bypass the Commons in any debate over extending Canada's troop commitment in Afghanistan — a decision that itself flew in the face of a Commons vote to end the mission in 2011.

Real democracy taking a real hit from a real autocrat.
Harper, who only came to govern on a backlash punishment vote, all the while promising to diminish the limited influence of the Senate, has turned the upper house he claimed to despise into a weapon against the voters and representative authority.

And he's not done yet.

This is the time of year when the political animals running the endless Harper campaign from the PMO miss something or miscalculate and event. At that point, any shred of democracy standing in the way of their retaining power is trampled by the scramble to retain power. Government runs for the bunker in hopes of avoiding a pasting. Twice now, that has involved shutting the doors of this country's representative assembly.

I predict it will happen again. What will be the issue the gamers in the PMO have missed while stuffing their faces with cheese puffs?

Ahhh. There's one now. A showdown the Harper/Soudas gang didn't see coming.

It's November. Prorogue is in the air.

(h/t Scott)

Campbell, I believe that's a live grenade up your ass

Mark Hume at the Globe and Mail takes Laila Yule's research out into the light. He gets some very strange answers on the shadow tolls on the Sea to Sky highway. In the end however:

Peter Milburn, deputy minister of Transportation, said “shadow toll” is not a term he would use. But he acknowledges the private consortium will get incentive payments of about $75-million over 25 years depending on safety performance targets and vehicle use.

So, it is a toll, but it’s invisible to the public, and the government doesn’t have to wear it because it can be described as something else. Talk about creative bookkeeping.

But you have to go back in the article for the best part ...

Tolls aren’t popular with the public in general, and tourism operators in Whistler didn’t fancy the idea of having a toll gate looming like a barrier between Vancouver and the ski hill.

Oh dear. That makes me very, very angry. I might swear.
This is the same bunch of fucking carpet baggers who have forced a three-fold increase in ferry fares throughout coastal British Columbia. And we're giving celebrity-hangout Whistler a free ride? I smell a buy off.

An American Thanksgiving Classic

Happy Thanksgiving to friends in the states. Remember... the TSA wants you to piss on their hands.

Driftglass is running an American Thanksgiving Classic today.

Sarah Palin. Reader. Just ask her Mother.

Palin - no book in sight

Sure. That's why she quit halfway through her term as governor. So she could spend more time reading.

Palin became testy when I asked her about the books I heard she had been reading. "I've been reading since I was a little girl," she snapped. "And my mom is standing 15 feet away from me, and I should put her on the phone with you right now so she can tell you. That's what happens when you grow up in a house full of teachers -- you read; and I always have. Just because -- and," she continued, though in a less blistering tone, "I don't want to come across sounding caustic or annoyed by this issue: because of one roll-of-the-eye answer to a question I gave, I'm still dealing with this," she said, referring to her interview with Katie Couric.

"There's nothing different today than there was in the last 43 years of my life since I first started reading. I continue to read all that I can get my hands on -- and reading biographies of, yes, Thatcher for instance, and of course Reagan and the John Adams letters, and I'm just thinking of a couple that are on my bedside, I go back to C.S. Lewis for inspiration, there's such a variety, because books have always been important in my life." She went on: "I'm reading [the conservative radio host] Mark Levin's book; I'll get ahold of Glenn Beck's new book -- and now because I'm opening up," she finished warily, "I'm afraid I'm going to get reporters saying, Oh, she only reads books by Glenn Beck."

Her infomercial showed her signing books that someone had written for her, but it didn't show much of a library. One wonders how she finds the time between Twittering and Facebooking to actually, you know, read real stuff. (Even if it is right-wing fantasy).

I don't know why those particular conservatives, lacking any sense of intellectual curiosity, feel compelled to invent a reading list to present to their equally lazy fan-base. Let's face it, those attracted to Palin don't care whether she can read anyway.

Calendar creep on the Afghan map

Interesting things coming out of the Lisbon NATO summit. Canada's grand emissaries to the summit had better be prepared to explain, with absolute clarity, what their hillbilly mouths agreed to.

First is this from the Afghanistan Daily Outlook. (The link will probably not survive so I'll quote the relevant line)

NATO nations formally agreed Saturday to start turning over Afghanistan's security to its military next year and give them full control by 2014. The U.S. and its allies appeared to take conflicting views on when NATO combat operations would end. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he did not expect NATO troops to stay in the fight against the Taliban after 2014. "I don't foresee ISAF troops in a combat role beyond 2014, provided of course that the security situation allows us to move into a more supportive role,"

That requires a careful re-read. Canada has committed to pulling out of a combat role commencing mid-2011 and starting a new mission in a training role by the end of next year. NATO has determined that an end date for its combat involvement will be 2014, if the security situation allows it, and then to take on a more "supportive" role. That could be anything from training to providing combat support in the field. The issue is that Canada assuming a training role, supposedly until the end of 2014, without grinding out the details in a proper national discussion, may well end up committed well past that advertised time.
The NATO plan is highly conditional. The US has rejected any end date and has stated that they will continue combat operations alone, if necessary.

By contrast, US officials insisted that the Nato transition plan did not guarantee an end to American combat operations. US forces could go on fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan even after transition, they said.
Transition and ceasing combat operations are “not one and the same”, said a senior US official. Speaking to reporters at the Nato summit , Barack Obama, the US President, said: “One thing I am pretty confident we will still be doing after 2014 is maintaining a counter-terrorism capability. It’s going to be pretty important to us to continue to have platforms to execute those counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan.”

And now the Harper statement:

Regardless of what role NATO forces may play in Afghanistan after the deadline, Canadian soldiers will not be there to participate, according to Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon.
Combat troops are pulling out next year as planned, he said, and the military trainers pledged to NATO this week will not stay past March, 2014, regardless of what other members of the alliance do. “There is no flexibility,” he said.

Right. Given that just this past summer Harper was rattling on that after 2011 the Afghanistan mission would be completely "civilian", there is absolutely no reason to believe that statement. Without a proper national discourse this is nothing but foreign affairs governance by press release.
And we don't know whether Harper and Cannon have consulted with Bob Rae yet.

Shooting Judecasts

Never know what you'll see over my shoulder. The lovely Ms Jude cracking wise with Gordon Pinsent, one of the most charming and delightful characters you'll ever meet.

Support of the training mission

A poll asks a question about something no one knows anything about.

An (sic) narrow majority of Canadians support keeping upwards of 1,000 troops in Afghanistan until 2014 to train Afghan forces, says a new Ipsos-Reid poll that also shows the decision is most popular with westerners and men.

Fifty three per cent of respondents said they support the revamped and extended mission, although there is a caveat. Slightly more than six in 10 said there should be a debate and vote in Parliament even if the new mission involves only training, said the poll, which was released Friday.

That's nice. Maybe Ipsos-Reid can give us some answers we can't get anywhere else.

What's the mission? At this point no one has actually answered that question. There's nothing close to a defined mission and the more we all look at it, the more we're left scratching our heads. Far from appearing to be a decision to do something to benefit both Canada and Afghanistan, this whole idea looks like it exists solely to remain "involved". To date, however, no one has been able to describe what that future involvement looks like.

We've been fed a lot repeating information that Canadian troops would be located at the training establishments in and around Kabul. I pointed out earlier how that seemed highly unlikely. Now, from the Nato Training Mission - Afghanistan (NTM-A), we have even more evidence that this training mission is unlikely to involve anything like a cohesive unit under Canadian command. (PDF page 27).

BruceR has done the breakdown of the deficit in trainers by location and specialty. It becomes quickly apparent that 900 trainers offered by Canada would be hard pressed to gather in Kabul as a unit since the current shortfall calls for something other than the likes of an infantry battalion. Specialist trainers seem to be the greatest demand and the identified needs are scattered all over the country. If those are the training positions Canada is likely to fill then the first "training" roto is going to be comprised of a varied group of occupation specialists, split into small numbers, sown through different training establishments all over Afghanistan. Administering, managing and leading that type of mission will be a near nightmare.

So, Ipsos-Reid can ask all the questions it likes. People are answering from a position of zero knowledge. Something similar to their support (or lack thereof) of the combat mission which involved (involves) paltry amounts of information being provided by the government. Unless you know where to look and what to look for there is precious little on which to form an opinion.

And perhaps if average Canadians knew about some of the nasty bastards, (who are the sons of the nasty bastards which made a past excursion in the Khyber Pass less than pleasant), whose activities are doing more to expand the enmity of Afghans to the presence of NATO, they might be less inclined to agree with any further Afghanistan deployment at all. Subject of a future post.

Exquisitely stupid . . .

There's nothing like a good cause

Torontoemerg has found one I can really get into.

(If sex makes you squeamish, you shouldn't be here)

Harper is buying a bomb truck for the Canadian air force...

Not an air superiority fighter and not an interceptor. As MoS points out, the marrying of tactical nukes with the developing F-35 Lightning II, which the Harperites are all orgasmic about, is one of the roles initially intended for the F-35. As his post mentions, it's quite a package.

In terms of Canadian military doctrine, it's also very strange. This is the apex of Cold War thinking. The F-35, described as a multi-role fighter, is viewed by the US military as having a role outside homeland defence. Despite the yammering of the likes of "military genius" Dimitri Soudas and his cheerleading "military analysts" who suggest that it is a premier patrol and intercept platform, the F-35 is an attempt to jam too many roles into one airframe. And despite the sales pitch that this aircraft will be capable of all things to all users, the US military doesn't view it that way at all.

The United States military has been and remains very clear that the role of the F-35 is that of an air-to-ground delivery platform. The F-22A Raptor is the US Air Force air superiority fighter and is intentionally assigned to homeland defence. The F-35, on the other hand, is destined for a reach out and touch someone role. In short, it is being designed and built to perform an expeditionary role, exporting a thoroughly devastating weapons package across hostile borders or into hostile regions of a battlespace.

I could suggest that you just take my word for it, but why not get it straight from the horse's mouth. A presentation to the US House Armed Services Committee by the US Air Force.

Page 7:

The F-22A and F-35 each possess unique, complementary, and essential capabilities that together provide the synergistic effects required to maintain that margin of superiority across the spectrum of conflict.

Hmmm. Unique. Complementary. That's nice talk for... they're different.
Page 8:

The F-22A Raptor is the Air Force’s primary air superiority fighter, providing unmatched capabilities for air supremacy, homeland defense and cruise missile defense for the Joint team.

Uh huh.
Page 10:

The F-35 was designed from the bottom-up to be our premier surface-to-air missile killer and is uniquely equipped for this mission with cutting edge processing power, synthetic aperture radar integration techniques, and advanced target recognition.

Surface-to-air missile killer. So, all of you out there telling me how this is just a cat's ass northern patrol platform and that's why we're buying them can get busy explaining why the US Air Force doesn't see it that way.
One only has to look at the other users to understand what the F-35 is all about. The US Navy needs it as a strike aircraft. That's what the US Navy does - it projects force. The Royal Navy (although I seriously doubt an F-35 will ever find itself on the deck of any HM ship) - ditto. The US Marine Corps is an expeditionary force. The F-35 will serve their purposes as a battlespace neutralizer. Air dominance will come from somewhere else.

I'm not saying we don't need a force projection aircraft. Neither am I saying we do. What I'm saying is that the oft repeated garbage that this aircraft is exactly what we need to defend Canadian sovereignty and North American airspace doesn't stand up to it's stated uses by the primary users.

In short, it's time the "military geniuses" like Soudas and his sycophant "military analysts" were called on their endless stream of bullshit.

The real reason the Harperites have decided on this plane is right here. Defence requirements have nothing to do with it.

Saturday Morning Cartoons.

I’m here! I’m here! Let the bells ring out and the banners fly! I’m here!

Firm date

Feb 22, 2008 : Globe and Mail

"The Conservative government has proposed a firm date of July, 2011, for Canadian troops to withdraw from southern Afghanistan.

"It would be churlish for anyone to suggest that the government has not come a long way," Bob Rae said. Mr. Rae said the important point is that the government agreed to accept a firm end date ... and adopting the Liberal wording on changing the focus of the mission to training Afghan forces.

The Tory motion adopted almost all of the wording of a motion proposed by Mr. Dion on Feb. 12, but it deleted the Liberals' demands that the Canadian Forces refuse to transfer detainees to Afghan authorities."

Nov 19, 2010 : Ottawa Citizen

"Canada's end date of March 2014 for a training mission in Afghanistan is firm despite NATO's plan to continue non-combat operations there, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Friday.

"March of 2014 is when we will be leaving," Cannon said at a news conference."

This time Bob Rae brokered the Lib/Con deal and said we didn't really need a vote on it.

As to the transfer of detainees to Afghan authorities entirely funded by the CIA - an issue so explosive Steve shut down Parliament rather than face an investigation into it just under a year ago - well, no one mentions that any more but Laurie Hawn is working on it.

Surprise, surprise . . .

io9 has a fascinating report by Alasdair Wilkins, "Native Americans visited Europe 1000 years ago". Really. This tale of tail has science behind it.

Five centuries before Columbus reached the Americas, Vikings briefly settled on the northern tip of Newfoundland. Now the DNA of four Icelandic families reveals it wasn't just Europeans traveling to the Americas...at least one Native American went back with them.

The best "Royal Wedding" line of the day

I'm not a serious "royal watcher" so I'm easily described as "out of touch" with L'affair Windsor. However, you'd have to be living under a rock to have missed the Prince William/Kate Middleton engagement news... since it was on the front page of anything calling itself a daily newspaper.

I know some people love the fuss. I don't, but I am getting a strange feeling about the whole thing.

Jill nails it.

... this poor girl is going to be compared for the rest of her life to the most sainted mother ghost in recorded history.

The toll you pay so others can play

Laila Yule has done all the heavy lifting on this one.

When a company named Transtoll is awarded a contract on the Sea to Sky highway, you can bet it isn't to carry out line painting.

In fact, the wholly owned subsidiary of Macquarie Atlas Roads, a part of Macquarie Group, has a single focus - tolls ... and how to collect them.

So...  the BC Ministry of Transport has continually denied that there are shadow tolls on the Sea to Sky highway. Perhaps then, the ministry (and the minister) can explain this June 2010 (post-Olympics) news release from the company itself.

Dan Toohey, Executive Vice President at Transtoll, said “The accuracy of the trafficcounting system is extremely important on the Sea to Sky Highway because the roadway is financed through a shadow tolling scheme. Transtoll is pleased to provide our experience and expertise to allow the Concession to optimize their system and capture accurate vehicle counts in a cost effective manner”.

That would make the ministry and the minister - liars.
What's happening is that the happy skiers bound for Olympic Whistler are getting a free ride on a highway most British Columbians will never use but will pay for anyway. I'll have a lot more on that in the future.

In the meantime, read more at Laila Yule's.

Dr. Andrew Weaver believes in both science and democracy

That make him a bad fit for anything Harper.

Jack Knox spells it out.

Keep your eye on the pea...

Says the grifter.

I have an idea. Let's charge the hilarious Mr. Baird with treason. He seems to believe, along with his hillbilly superior, that the only way for anything is the American way and our parliamentary democracy is a mere trifle to be gamed. That's an affront to Canadian sovereignty and Baird promotes it.

Any problem with that John... you fucking loudmouthed asshole?

Down the memory hole

I had kind of an odd experience today at work and I'm not exactly sure how I feel  about it. I work for a newspaper (it's not a very big one and unless you live in my area you've probably never heard of it and at any rate, its name and location are irrelevant). To a certain extent, we are the media of record in our little corner of the world, keeping track of the local events and milestones that mark the passage of time. I got a call today from someone who grew up in the area and achieved a certain level of fame for her accomplishments here in her youth, who's gone on to be a great success in the wider world.  She is well-educated, intellectually on the ball, accomplished and energetic. She now works in the TV news media and is an up-and-coming young journalist who has worked on national and international stories. You've probably seen her on television.
So why is she calling me? I mean, aside from my spasticrkling conversation, startling sterling lack of character and stunneding looks?
Why does anyone call the editor of a local newspaper? She wanted a favour.
 Now that she is out in the wider world pursuing the career that she trained and studied so hard for, she is finding out a few simple truths that many of us have known for a while.
First, most real journalists aren't that impressed by a pretty face, in fact they tend to be a bit suspicious of people who are better looking than them. Believe it or not, this is true even in television news. I'm not talking about the on-camera talent - they are blessed and cursed with beauty. Their looks might get them in the door and even get them a job in front of the bright lights reading a script with that killer smile and perfect hair, but even the pretty people get old. If they don't have the talent, skills, brains and training needed to do the actually work of journalism, they don't last long. Eye candy has a very short shelf life if there isn't some nutritional value attached. No, I'm talking about the people who run TV news, the cynical, jaded old producers that hire and fire. They might be willing to hire a hot 20-something to read the entertainment news off a cue card and fire that person when the next cutie comes along, but most of them are not going to assign Ken or Barbie to do hard news.
Second, most people, especially the aforementioned cynical, jaded old producers of hard news programs,  - rightly or wrongly - see pageants as a shallow excercise in sexist objectification, in other words, a T&A show. We don't call them beauty contests for nothing. Yes, the young women who succeed in these competitions are often smart, well-informed, ambitious and talented -- but that is tough to tell from the evening gown or bathing suit portions of the competitions.  Many people buy the stereotypes of the dumb blonde and the brainy nerd, the idea that you can be smart or beautiful, but that you can't be both.
Third, that employers these days, especially the previously discussed cynical, jaded old newmen who work in an industry where credibility is everything, know how to use Google -- something that some people really should keep in mind.
Perhaps you see where this is going?
This accomplished, intelligent and able young woman that called me is also very attractive, in fact she won the Miss Whatever contest locally and went on to compete in the national Whatchamacallit Queen pageant. Half a dozen years ago when she was a beauty queen, the newspaper had naturally done what community newspapers do and published a few stories about her becoming a pageant winner and later a judge and emcee of pageants. In all those stories, she stressed her intellectual accomplishments, but the bottom line is that the stories were about her winning or competing in "Miss Something-or-other" contests.
Now, she is finding that her past has come back to haunt her - not in the sense that she is being teased by the other folks in the newsroom or called Corky Sherwood behind her back, but in the sense that she is pretty sure it has kept people from hiring her for some jobs. All of which is very unfortunate.
Which, to make a short story much longer, brings me to the odd part.
The favour she wanted was for the newspaper to delete the stories about her pageant days that we have archived on our website, or at least to delete her name from the stories.
Now, if someone who had been convicted of some sort of misdeed - something serious like murder or a crime of  blatant stupidity like impaired driving - or even some unfortunate youthful shenanigan that cast them in a bad light - had called and asked me to delete stories about them that had been in paper years ago because the stories were embarassing or had cost them a job, I'd have told them "we all have to take responsibility  for our actions" and that "there are consequences to the things we do" or even "you should have thought of that before you decided to commit a crime -- Karma's a bitch, ain't it?" -- the same thing I would tell anyone who wanted me to suppress a story about some nefarious deed or leave an important, relevant name out of an article about something unfortunate that happened this week -- in essence, that they can go piss up a rope and that I would publish and be damned.
But to have someone ask you to conceal their accomplishments? This was new territory.
Imagine a former jr. hockey star asking the newspaper to delete references to him winning an MVP award or an author begging us not to promote his new book. Will I someday have an entrepreneur come in to my office and beg me not write about the successful business he started a few years ago?
"Hello, is this the editor? I just won a major award - it's very prestigious and a great honour, so please, don't tell anyone!"
So what did I do?
I did what anyone with kids to feed and bills to pay would do if  they were four weeks into a six-month contract.
I gave her the extension number for my boss and went back to figuring out what to put on next week's front page.
Me, Winston Smith and Pontius Pilate -  birds of a feather, I tell ya, birds of a goddamn feather.
(Crossposted from The Woodshed)

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Nasties . . .

INTERPOL. Interesting site. Worth the visit.

I which I channel David Letterman...

(I know I said I wouldn't blog about my new job - and I'm not. This is more a reflection on my long history in the newspaper business, not any calls I've received at my new job. Honest. Most of the people who call or email me at work have very useful story tips or vital information, but I have gotten some doozies over the course of my career)

Top reasons people call their community newspaper:

•  Because they saw a story that improperly used "who" instead of "whom" - twice! - and "don't you people have any standards?"
•  Because they've been eating paint chips all morning and need someone to talk to other than the voices in their head. 
• Two words: Damn & politicians
•  Because the communists are putting fluoride in the drinking water and polluting our precious bodily fluids
•  Because the precious fruit of their loins has just done something exceptional that has never been done before, like put on a really cute Halloween costume.
•  Because those damn kids won't stay off their lawn
• Because those "politically correct types" at the other newspaper are "censoring" them because they wouldn't  print their letter to the editor about how "the jews and the blacks are conspiring with women's libbers and homos and immigrants to destroy this great country"
• Two words: Free & advertising
•  Because their uncle/cousin/neighbour/some guy they met down at the legion last Tuesday is brilliant and we should give him a regular column
• Because we should interview them about their passionate interest in a vital issue that concerns the entire community: their exhibitionist  narcassistic personality disorder.
• Two words: Insufficient & medication
• Just saw the "first robin of spring" in mid-February or mid-June
• Because "their as MAD as HELL!!!!!!! and there NOT going to take it ANY MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" --- oh, wait a sec, wrong list. That one is from the "reasons people write letters to the 'Editur' list.
• Two words: Shut & In
• "Why don't you people ever write about anything good happening?"
• "Did you guys hear about whatsisname? You know, that guy. You should do a story about him. I think he won some kind of award or contest or did something, I forget what, but it was really something!"
• "You didn't hear it from me and I don't want name any names, but I'm pretty sure that guy across the street is up to something"
• And the #1 answer on the list: Two words: Church  & bazaar

(Not that I ever get these kinds of calls anymore, because all the people who read the paper I work for are terrific, wonderful, salt-of-the-earth types. But the people who used to call those other newspapers I used to work for? Whoo boy!) 

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