Fallon could be the signal

There are signs that the Commander US Central Command, Admiral William "Fox" Fallon may be on the move - out the door.

Fallon, a naval aviator, is the regional commander of US forces operating in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa.

In an admiring article on Fallon in Esquire, former Pentagon official Thomas P.M. Barnett writes that Fallon angered the White House by "brazenly challenging" Bush on his aggressive threat of war against Tehran. Barnett also cites "well-placed observers" as saying Bush may soon replace Fallon with a "more pliable" commander. Barnett's account, which quotes conversations with Fallon during the CENTCOM commander's trips to the Middle East, shows that Fallon privately justified his statements contradicting the Bush policy of keeping the "option" of an unprovoked attack on Iran "on the table" as necessary to calm the fears of Egypt and other friendly Arab regimes of a U.S.-Iran war. Barnett recalls that when Fallon was in Cairo in November, the lead story in that day's edition of the English-language daily Egyptian Gazette carried the headline "U.S. Rules Out Strike against Iran" over a picture of Fallon meeting with President Hosni Mubarak. That story, published Nov. 19 and not picked up by any U.S. news media, reported that Fallon had "ruled out a possible strike against Iran and said Washington was mulling non-military options instead." Later that day, according to Barnett, Fallon told him during a coffee break in a military meeting, "I'm in hot water again," and then confirmed that his problems were directly with the White House. That was the second time in less than a week and the third time in seven weeks that Fallon had publicly declared that there would be no war against Iran. In an interview with Al-Jazeera television in September, which Fallon himself had requested, according to a source at Al-Jazeera, he had said, "This constant drum beat of conflict is what strikes me which is not helpful and not useful".

Fallon's selection as Commander CENTCOM was viewed with some alarm by many. He is the first sailor to hold the critical position overseeing most of the US military's expeditionary activities. It was also suggested that, because he is a naval aviator and an aircraft carrier man he possessed the requisite expertise to marshal coordinated naval air forces for an attack on Iran.

That however, would be well beneath both Fallon's role and his reputation. As the Commander CENTCOM Fallon, if there was ever to be a strike against Iran, would have the role of planning and leading it delegated to a subordinate commander. What is more important though is that Fallon has a reputation for reserving military action as a last resort after all other avenues have been exhausted.

He was accused by some in the Bush camp of being soft on China when he commanded US forces in the Pacific. According to at least one source Fallon was heard to say about a possible attack on Iran, "It isn't going to happen on my watch."

Fallon, as the commander responsible for the entire Middle East, was concerned about more than the consequences of actually exercising the military option. He was prompted to enunciate a "no-war" line on Iran by the panicky reactions of Arab states to what they thought were indications of the warlike intentions of Bush administration.

In short, the guy knows how to read the reactions of other countries and he's well aware that the Bush administration needs to be reigned in.

The unhappiness of the Bush administration with Fallon's role as well as the unflattering picture of administration policy revealed by the article was evident Thursday from the failure of either the White House or the Pentagon to issue the usual reassuring statements in response to the article.

Bad news. Bush and Cheney have a history of dumping competence and reason in favour of outright fealty. They can't brook criticism.

Keep an eye on Fallon. If he is suddenly replaced or announces his resignation the lashings will be off Bush and Iran will be the target.

Trouble with Firefox

I've had a couple of reports of Firefox crashing when this page is opened. I'm trying to hunt down any offending scripts and will be removing at least one widget that went into the sidebar a few days ago.

If anyone is experiencing difficulty and can open "comments" please leave a note there. Or you can email thegallopingbeaver[at]yahoo dot ca.

I'll try to get this sorted out as quickly as possible.

You can't understand the outrage? Here. Let me explain it.

Some of the Liberal (capital L) bloggers can't seem to grasp the outrage felt by those of us of in the left side of the swamp over the failure of the opposition to meet Bill C-484 with the appropriate action.

Yes, we've all had visits from the House of Commons and slowly the message should be starting to sink in.

One suggestion is that the Liberal MPs who voted with the Conservative sponsor of this bill would have defied a whipped vote. And then we're supposed to persuade those MPs to change their vote.

Persuade?

Let's get something clear here. We, the people, do not work for our Members of Parliament; they work for us. If there is any persuading to do it is them addressing us, not the inverse. If I have to start getting persuasive with non-responsive MPs it will be by way of an effort to have them destooled and replaced. And that includes their leaders, whomsoever they might be.

The outrage is not just at the Liberals' obvious failure to properly interpret this bill and then meet it head-on. The outrage goes deeper - much deeper.

My extreme dislike for Harper and the sycophants he has gathered around him is based completely on his past performance and activities. He has back-stabbed his way to power and his personal views on Canada are unrepresentative of the majority of the population. He believes in a Balkanized country. Further, he is no less a separatist than the members of the Bloc Quebecois.

So, when the Liberals stand up and tell us that Harper has a hidden agenda, something I believe to be true, I expect those same Liberals to beat that agenda into the ground as soon as it starts to emerge and with as much force as they can muster.

By failing to do that, the outrage develops, and we all wonder why we bother with an opposition at all. TIBT explains why we're now questioning why we should call on the opposition for anything:

The Liberals failed to stand up against the Conservative agenda they warned us against.

Got that? You Liberals were the ones telling us how dangerous Harper is. And sure enough, he's one destructive little bastard. So where do you get off not keeping your swords sharpened?

Get your goddamned act together. Now.

You weren't elected to do a part-time job.

Just another point: At the top of the post I did say "some" capital L bloggers. That doesn't mean all of them by any stretch. By example, I give you Far and Wide as one of the better examples of the capital L bloggers who does get it.

Maintenance.

Tripping through The Woodshed we find The Rev. Paperboy, with a freshly sandblasted and remodeled blog getting his monitor screen cleaned from the inside.

Bravo Zulo, Gordon O'Connor

Skdadl over at POGGE rightly pays due respect to the four Conservatives who voted against Bill C-484, the incremental and unconstitutional attempt to change the definition of human life.

In that post she recognizes Josée Verner, CPC, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women and Official Languages; Lawrence Cannon, CPC, Minister of Transport; Infrastructure, and Communities; Sylvie Boucher, CPC, MP; and, Gordon O'Connor, CPC, Minister of National Revenue.

I've taken more than my fair share of chunks out of Gordon O'Connor. When he was Minister of National Defence I can only describe him as a near perfect target.

That was then. This is now. I was always willing to single out O'Connor for his failings. I am just as willing to applaud him for his courage.

Gordon O'Connor demonstrated political integrity yesterday. He also joined three others of his party in refusing to join a mindless herd of MPs who clearly have either no respect for or no knowledge of constitutional law.

Well done, Mr. O'Connor. You have put some of the members opposite to shame.

Bravo Zulu is the is the supplementary signal from the Allied Naval Signal Book carrying the meaning Well Done.

Because the Supreme Court would toss it off the Ogden Point breakwater

Isn't this interesting. Via Balloon Juice, it would appear that the lawyers at the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service have been burning the midnight oil and worked the "charts".

The Canadian government is no longer using evidence gained from CIA interrogations of a top Al Qaeda detainee who was waterboarded.

According to documents obtained by NEWSWEEK, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the country's national-security agency, last month quietly withdrew statements by alleged Al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah from public papers outlining the case against two alleged terror "sleeper" operatives in Ottawa and Montreal.

The move, which so far has received no public attention, is the latest sign of potential international fallout from the CIA's recent confirmation that it waterboarded a handful of high-profile Al Qaeda suspects in 2002 and 2003. The use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques were approved by the Bush White House and Justice Department. Waterboarding, which critics charge is a form of torture, involves strapping a suspect to an inclined board and forcing water into his lungs, typically by pouring water through a cloth placed over his nose and mouth.

Is there a down side to this?

You bet there is.

If Mohammed Harkat and Adil Charkaoui are indeed al Qaeda operators then the evidence provided by the CIA is useless.

Asked why the statements from Zubaydah had been dropped from the dossiers against Harkat and Charkaoui, Bernard Beckhoff, a spokesman for Canada's public safety ministry, which oversees CSIS, said he could not comment on developments in either case because they are both still before the courts. But he then added, pointedly: "The CSIS director has stated publicly that torture is morally repugnant and not particularly reliable. CSIS does not knowingly use information which has been obtained through torture."

Bush will be chewing his arm off and Harper will be looking for a new kangaroo.

Thanks Cat

This is actually a "Meme-free" zone...

But, since LuLu was the one pushing the issue, I'll acquiesce to the request (demand) (I'm trying to visualize the results of saying "no").

Six things about me that are unimportant:

1. Several years ago this was my favourite song, then General Motors screwed it up.


2. The last time I went hunting, (1986) was about 4 years after a rather grinding experience half-way across the world. My hunting partner had a fair-sized buck in his scope. I put a round into the ground ahead of the animal which then bolted away. It was the last round that rifle ever fired and the last time I shot at anything which didn't have at least the capacity to shoot back.

3. I speak a street-level Arabic يستطيع أنا دفعت الغرامة الآن

4. I have a car (OK, it's really Cheryl's) fitted with a racing engine which gets far better fuel economy than most anything built in North America today.

5. I used to have a photographic memory but it ran out of film.

6. I'm pretty good at Trivial Pursuit myself. Quick. Without looking it up, what is the telephone area code for San Diego?

Because this is a meme-free zone, I cannot impose this on the unwilling. Six volunteers?

Even a dog needs a hero

When your role model can get under the fence without digging, worship is automatic.

A message for the members of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition

Corrected and updated. And again.

Do your goddamned job!

Yesterday's display during the vote on second reading of the POS Unborn Victim of Crime Act was reprehensible.

I usually have to hold my nose when I vote but yesterday's performance by the Opposition has made the prospect of selection an even more odious task.

The fact that Stephane Dion was absent for the vote is even more disgusting when we find out where he was and what he was doing?

Red Tory and JJ have the complete list of miscreant misogynists and... oh! Looky here! Names, email addresses and phone numbers of Liberal MPs who should endure a political execution at the next election.

Let's repeat the names of Liberal members who think incremental legislation sneaked in through a back-bencher's bill, with the full approval of Harper, is a good idea:

Raymond Bonin; John Cannis; Hon. Raymond Chan; Hon. Roy Cullen; Sukh Dhaliwal; Hon. Albina Guarnieri; Hon. Charles Hubbard; Hon. Jim Karygiannis Derek Lee; Hon. Lawrence MacAulay; Hon. Gurbax Malhi; Hon. John McKay; Hon. Joe McGuire; Hon. Dan McTeague; Hon. Shawn Murphy; Massimo Pacetti; Francis Scarpaleggia; Hon. Raymond Simard; Lloyd St. Amand; Paul Steckle; Paul Szabo; Hon. Robert Thibault; Alan Tonks; Roger Valley; Tom Wappel; Borys Wrzesnewskyj; John Maloney.

And then there are those who were just plain too busy to answer the division bells because some of them were celebrating International Womens Week! (Yeah... if you're going to put one in between the ribs, you might as well give it a twist.)

Stéphane Dion; Bryon Wilfert; Joe Volpe; Scott Simms; Nancy Karetak-Lindell; Hon. Mark Eyking; Ujjal Dosanjh; Denis Coderre; Brenda Chamberlain; Gerry Byrne.

It's only proper to point out that the NDP came out of this splattered in shit. Meet Peter Stoffer, who voted with the Conservatives.

After that dismal performance what do they come up with next?

This.

Liberals will attempt to turn the tables Thursday on rival parties who've ridiculed them for being afraid of toppling the minority Conservative government.

They'll introduce a motion condemning the NDP and Bloc Quebecois for defeating the previous Grit government in November 2005, thereby enabling Stephen Harper's Tories to win power.

Well, that's just jaw-dropping amazing. I'll bet they all show up for that one. I have a better idea. All of you go to the pub, order a table-full of beer and weep in it. It'll have the same effect. But wait. There's a real killer line in The Star's article today:

The motion slams the Harper government for setting back women's equality rights by cancelling such Liberal measures as the Court Challenges Program and a national child care program.

Wow! That sends a real message, doesn't it? You passed up a chance to kick them in the nuts and choose to throw spitballs instead.

What a bunch of fucking cartoons.

Tell them what you think of them.

Corrections: The above lists have been corrected for accuracy. Thanks to Jennifer in comments.

Correction II: Commenter Ferd pointed out that Nancy Karetak-Lindell, who was absent from the vote was likely caught in an Arctic blizzard and could not have been in Ottawa.

And OJ is still hunting for Nicole's killer

No, the bloody dripping head of Ian Brodie on a plate before Parliament is not necessary. But anything short of nice fresh, ink-still-wet, resignation is unacceptable.

The leak of a confidential diplomatic discussion that rocked the U.S. presidential campaign began with an offhand remark to journalists from the Prime Minister's chief of staff, Ian Brodie.

Do you see how Campbell Clark wrote that? Offhand remark.

Try calculated leak.

And now we have Harper pulling an OJ Simpson.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed yesterday to use whatever investigative means necessary to find the source of leaks that, he said, were "unfair" to U.S. Democratic candidate Barack Obama and may have been illegal...

Harper, of course is going hunting for a civil servant to execute.

Although Mr. Harper has for days brushed aside allegations that his government interfered in the U.S. presidential campaign, yesterday he promised to "get to the bottom" of the matter and said laws may have been broken. [...]

But opposition politicians accused Mr. Harper of hiding behind artful denials - ignoring the verbal leak, while denying that the diplomatic memo came from his top aide.

However, Mr. Harper did not appear to be distinguishing between the two leaks yesterday.

Yesterday, he said he had asked the top civil servant, Clerk of the Privy Council Kevin Lynch, to call in an internal security team, with the help of Foreign Affairs.

Members of the opposition asserted that an internal inquiry is unlikely to look seriously at Mr. Harper's own high-level political aides and appointees, such as Mr. Brodie, or Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador to Washington.

Let's see... where would OJ start looking? How about here.

SoCon or Busted

Cathie from Canada catches blogger SoCon or Bust doing a little premature gloating and dogwhistling about the all too obvious intended endgame of Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, aka the Stealth Act to Recriminalize Abortion :
"... the momentum is clearly moving in our direction.
If not this time, it will happen in the future. It’s inevitable now.
Just give us a little crack and we’ll drive this

RIGHT THROUGH IT!
Little baby steps….easy does it."

Oh come on, SoCons, that's not your usual truck.
This is your usual truck :


that creepy fetusmobile you have on loan from the US Center for Bio-Ethical Reform.
Anyone could drive that thing through C-484.

Cross-posted at Creekside

Fuck you Harper!

Now we get a chance to see right through your little plan.

You owed the wingnuts in that pack of lying slime balls you call a political party and the only way to pay off the debt was to let them be government.

THIS is your hidden agenda.

Aside from gutting government the only way you could give the appearance to your base that you were proceeding with their extremist, religion-based agenda was to let them sneak their shit through in Private Members' bills.

Private Members' bills in this country are rarely passed and the one thing we absolutely know is that they are not a part of the government agenda.

Right?!

Was it a part of the Throne Speech? No... because it would have been exposed to the bright light of day. And we can't have that when we're pursuing a hidden agenda, can we?

Private Members' bills initiated from the government benches are always suspicious. But in this case it was clearly a part of the government plan. No prime minister would allow a Private Member's bill to clear the House and waste valuable committee time unless it was approved by caucus and the prime minister gave it the nod. In your case that is particularly obvious since you are micro-managing control freak.

Why would you allow it and not announce it in the agenda put forth in the Throne Speech? Because you know that a solid majority of Canadians would object.

Not that they matter. It's your country. And you don't give a fuck what anybody else thinks.

You and your criminal enterprize engineered this. You had to do it, amongst other back-door evolutions, because the Leave It To Beaver wing of your ad-hoc gathering of miscreants was demanding that you live up to your promise.

Promise?

Yeah.

By the end of the second year. Remember that? Do you think we hadn't heard that one? If you survived past 24 months that they would get their stuff? Oh right. That was supposed to be a secret.

Go ahead. Tell me it isn't true.

Tell me you're not another George Bush. Why, you even have your own Karl Rove. You're not smart enough to dream up a strategy on your own. Just like when you were president of the National Citizen's Coalition, you have somebody else telling you what to do.

Good little sock puppet.

Do you want to know what gives you away? This.

You're wrapped up in yourself, you fat little mysoginist narcissistic prick. Just like your hero in Washington. You are so into what you are that you forgot there is a country of citizens out there. You would have made Josef Stalin jealous.

Well, now that we know what you are, we can also calculate where you are going next. You lack originality. Your vision for this country has already been done.

All we have to do is look at the United States and the political horror that has become that country's nightmare.

BAH!!!

Go read Unrepentant Old Hippie.

Malalai Joya...

By Alison

"After 9/11, unfortunately the United States and its allies like Canada pushed us from the frying pan into the fire, by putting in power the Northern Alliance criminals and warlords. As long as they follow this wrong policy, the situation in Afghanistan will become more disastrous.

Canada should not continue its current policy until 2011. Canada should act independently of the United States and find an alternative policy if they really want to be an honest friend of the Afghan people and improve this catastrophic situation.

Today, in the name of bringing human rights, women's rights and democracy, our country has been occupied.

You cannot bring values like democracy and human rights by supporting the sworn enemies of these values."

Continued at Rabble

The thin grey line

TODAY is when bill C-484, the piece of dishonest, incremental legislation intended to criminalize abortion comes before the House of Commons for a vote on second reading and referral to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

The anti-choice crowd can't seem to get their act together. On one hand they are attempting to keep the camouflage over the bunker while on the other hand they can't help but wet themselves with excitement that the real intended purpose of this legislation is to criminalize abortion. Need some evidence? Take a wander over to see what JJ and Matttbastard found.

In a casual conversation with a friend, who happens to be a criminal lawyer, this morning I discovered precisely what this piece of socio/political gradualism would do and why it can have no other purpose than to directly assault the right of a woman to make her own choices.

Ken Epp and his co-sponsor, former used-car salesman Dave Van Kesteren, can quack all they like about how this is not about abortion. I've called bullshit in the past and I'm calling it again. No matter how they try to frame the bill, there is one aspect of it which is intended to hobble the Supreme Court of Canada.

While Epp might be speaking truthfully when he suggests that this amendment would not be used to prosecute women or doctors in the case of an abortion, (although I don't for a minute believe that's the case), he has neatly avoided discussing the one thing that would plant a ticking bomb in Canadian law.

A definition.

The long title of the bill, according to my lawyer friend, contains the time bomb. (emphasis mine)

An Act to amend the Criminal Code (injuring or causing the death of an unborn child while committing an offence)

There's the bomb.

Epp and his gang of anti-choice crusaders regularly refer to the bill by its short title, Unborn Victims of Crime Act, quietly sidestepping the clarity of intent in the long title. If it wasn't so underhanded it would be ingenious.

If this bill moves out the House and goes to committee the amendment will require more than just the rewording of section 238 of the Criminal Code. It will require a written definition of an unborn child.

The current offence specifies "in the act of birth".

It is the definition this crowd is attempting to insert into the Criminal Code. By doing so, if this bill goes anywhere other than the garbage bin, they will have provided a counter argument to the Supreme Court decision in Tremblay v. Daigle in which the court specified that a fetus has no status as a "person" under the common law.*

Fern Hill brings out an article from December 2007 in which the incrementalism of bill C-484 is celebrated.

In the United States, incrementalist legislation – informed consent, waiting periods, defunding, clinic hygiene laws, etc. – have successfully reduced the number of abortions.

Once again, I'm calling bullshit. The author has no way of knowing that and cannot possibly substantiate it. Better education and freely accessible contraceptives are distinct factors which reduce the number of abortions but were they were never mentioned.

What is also omitted is that the only abortions the author of that dishonest claim can monitor are those which are carried out in a system reporting statistics. In places where safe, legal abortions are not accessible, abortions still occur, but in much more dangerous circumstances and in a statistical void.

You still have time to take action. Stop this bill dead in its dishonest tracks.

* I had meant to put this following note in at the time of the original post:

It should be noted when the anti-choice crowd whines about the Supreme Court decision and the rights of poor Jean-Guy Tremblay being trampled they conveniently leave out he fact that this miscreant has been convicted of no less that 14 physical attacks on women, most of whom were his former girlfriends.

Pointing and laughing

Drop what you're doing for the next ten minutes and go visit our friend RossK over at the Gazetter to lend a little moral support and get a good glimpse of the wingnutty hilarity that got splashed on RossK's shoes. It seems that in writing about what a waste of protein Bill O'Reilly and his various now unemployed sidekicks are, he stepped in a bit of a bee hive. A hive of really, really stupid wingnut bees, but bees nonetheless. It isn't so much that he needs help, it's more in the line of a field trip to comments from obnoxiousdumbassville 

The Vote That REALLY Counts . . . .

From Reuters this morning:

Vermont towns vote to arrest Bush and Cheney
Wed Mar 5, 2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Voters in two Vermont towns on Tuesday approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," local media reported.

The nonbinding, symbolic measure, passed in Brattleboro and Marlboro in a state known for taking liberal positions on national issues, instructs town police to "extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them."

Vermont, home to maple syrup and picture-postcard views, is known for its liberal politics.

State lawmakers have passed nonbinding resolutions to end the war in Iraq and impeach Bush and Cheney, and several towns have also passed resolutions of impeachment. None of them have caught on in Washington.

Vermont.

The state the rest of them should look to for leadership . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moving to Vancouver)

"We are the weird"

Sometimes around here, beers are not enough...

If I had known where Mars was...

Well, who knows what would have happened? According to Georgia:

Things are picking up beautifully for you! Today Mars enters your fellow Water Sign to stay for the next 10 weeks. This ushers in romance, love affairs, vacations, fun times, creative opportunities and good stuff related to the arts, dance, music -- the works. Sweet! (Patience with children.)

Right. All very wonderful.

I suspect the Water Sign thing explains why I have my bathroom ripped apart and I'm up to my armpits in plumbing.

As for the rest, I really hope she likes that new BernzOmatic™ torch. Once the plumbing is done it'll be useful for finishing a nice creme brulee.

I think I'll go back to tossing chicken guts on the ground to get my daily omens.

At least the Moon Alert is over. (I'd never heard that one before. The things one learns reading the bottom of a birdcage.)

The State of Canadian Politics

I'm not completely certain to whom this story (freely adapted from Billy Connolly) is analogous.

It could be Harper or Dion or Layton.

Once upon a time, there was a Russian wrestler named Ivan the Terrible.

Ivan the Terrible had two deadly moves; the half pretzel which will break your neck, and the full pretzel, which will kill you. He travels around Russia leaving mangled bodies everywhere he goes, until finally, no one wants to face him anymore. So in order to support himself he decides to join the circus sideshow.

One day the sideshow is in Glasgow, Scotland. The ring master comes out and says, "Who will face the great Ivan the Terrible?".

No one says anything. Again the ring master says, "Isn't this the great Glasgow I've heard about? I'll offer 1000 pounds to anyone who can beat him".

All of a sudden, this wee drunk Glaswegian in the back pops up, "E'll doo it. E'll doo it. I doo this kind of stuff all the time." The ring master invites the man to come down.

Ivan the Terrible comes into the ring all chained up, growling and foaming at the mouth. They release him and the two begin to wrestle. At first it looks like the wee drunk might be able to hold his own but then Ivan the Terrible gets him in the half pretzel, then the full pretzel. But then suddenly Ivan the Terrible goes reeling back in pain, falls down, hits his head and loses consciousness. The crowd starts cheering and the wee drunk is given his reward.

After the show, the drunk is being interviewed by the BBC. The reporter asks the man "How did you beat the great Ivan the Terrible"? "Well I tell ya, first he got me in that half pretzel and then that full pretzel, and I thought all was lost. Then suddenly, I see this great willie right in front of me face." "So what did you do", the reporter asks? "Well I bit it as hard as I could, didn't I. You know, it's amazing the sudden surge of strength you get when you bite your own willie!"