It's the hypocrisy stupid

I hate agreeing with Roger L. Simon, but he nailed it.

Preparing For the Future

If you're interested in knowing what some of Canada's best scientific minds think the effects of climate change might be on your part of the country and what you should prepare for go here. Click on your region and download the pdf.

This just in: Republicans are cheating bastards

I know you'll be shocked, as I was, to learn that Republicans like to cheat in elections.

16,000 Republicans in Cuyahoga crossed over and voted Democratic in primary
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Amanda Garrett
Cleveland Plain Dealer Reporter
A staggering 16,000-plus Republicans in Cuyahoga County switched parties when they voted in last week's primary. That includes 931 in Rocky River, 1,027 in Westlake and 1,142 in Strongsville. More than a third of the Republicans in Solon and Bay Village switched. Pepper Pike had the most dramatic change: just under half its Republicans became Democrats. And some of those who changed - it's difficult to say how many - could be in trouble with the law.
At least one member of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections wants to investigate some Republicans who may have crossed party lines only to influence which Democrat would face presumed Republican nominee John McCain in November.

All may be fair in love and war, but all is not legal in politics.

Lying on the pledge is a felony, punishable by six to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Election watchers said they don't know any cases that have been prosecuted in Ohio. And it's unlikely the Republican crossovers influenced the outcome since Clinton handily defeated Barack Obama, said Edward Foley, an election-law professor at Ohio State University.

The result isn't always what matters when a crime is committed - attempted robbery and attempted murder are still crimes, as is conspiracy to commit a felony in some cases.

It started a few weeks ago when conservative radio powerhouse Rush Limbaugh suggested that his Republican following cross over during the primary to vote for Clinton. Clinton, Limbaugh argued, would be easier for McCain to beat in November than Obama.
Soon, local morning radio show host Bob Frantz echoed Limbaugh on WTAM AM/1100, and the buzz began to grow.

The Republicans managed to steal Ohio in the last presidential election (see Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse or his explanation here of how votes don't always get counted. As Stalin said "its not the people who vote that counts, its the people who count the votes") The Democrats should be screaming about this and demanding that people be prosecuted for breaking election laws. The lengths to which these scofflaws will go to cling to power really knows no bounds.

Crossposted from the Woodshed

Not In That Order, I'll Bet . . . .

The two topics noted in the title of the Reuter's report will no doubt be reversed:

Cheney to discuss peace and oil on Mideast trip
Mon Mar 10, 2008 - By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney leaves on Sunday for the Middle East where he will raise U.S. concerns about record-high oil prices and try to push Israeli-Palestinian peace talks forward, the White House said.

Cheney will visit Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, Turkey and Oman in a trip expected to last about a week or more, his office said on Monday.

"His goal is to reassure people that the United States is committed to a vision of peace in the Middle East," U.S. President George W. Bush said after meeting with Poland's prime minister at the White House.

Cheney will also take the message "that we fully see the threats facing the Middle East, one such threat is Iran, and that we will continue to bolster our security agreements and relationships with our friends and allies," Bush said.

_______________

Cheney also will meet with Saudi King Abdullah when oil prices are hitting record highs, reaching above $106 a barrel last week.

He was expected to reinforce the message from Bush, who had urged OPEC to increase production during his visit to Saudi Arabia in January. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided not to boost output.

_______________

"When the president traveled there in January at every stop Iran was of interest and concern. And so I don't expect that that changed in the last two months since Iran hasn't changed its behavior at all," Perino said.

The United States has led efforts to pressure Iran, and the U.N. Security Council voted last week for a third sanctions resolution against Tehran over its refusal to halt its nuclear program.

References to Iran above were emboldened by moi for obvious reasons.

This crowd has ample time to ramp up the anti-Iranian rhetoric to get that war started before they leave office.

dickhead cheney needs more Halliburton stock options for his retirement, you know . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moving to Vancouver)

New York's Governor is....

Toast.

ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning. Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides inside his Fifth Avenue apartment early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He scheduled an announcement for 2:15 after inquiries from the Times. [...]

Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved.

But a person with knowledge of the governor’s role said that the person believes the governor is one of the men identified as clients in court papers.

Spread a little hypocrisy on that.

Mr. Spitzer gained national attention when he served as attorney general with his relentless pursuit of Wall Street wrongdoing. As attorney general, he also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state’s organized crime task force.

In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island.

“”This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,” Mr. Spitzer said at the time. ”It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring.”

In a way, it's almost refreshing that it's not a Republican this time.

Blackwater ends bid for San Diego training centre

Blackwater Worldwide has withdrawn its bid to build a training centre in San Diego's East County near the small town of Potrero. (Emphasis mine)

Blackwater Worldwide dropped its plans yesterday to build a military and law enforcement training camp in East County, ending a storm of controversy over the security contractor's presence in the county. Brian Bonfiglio, a Blackwater vice president, said the decision came down to noise – gunfire tests at the 824-acre site in Potrero exceeded county standards – and not fiery opposition from residents, environmentalists and those politically opposed to Blackwater's role as a contractor guarding officials in Iraq.

“Blackwater has maintained its position from the very beginning that if we could not meet or exceed (California) and San Diego County guidelines that we would not proceed, and we are keeping to that commitment,” Bonfiglio said in a statement.

Umm... ok. Except that the noise tests didn't actually present a prohibition.

Glenn Russell, interim deputy director of the county planning department, said noise tests for the proposed rifle range exceeded county standards on the east side of the property, along federal Bureau of Land Management land.

Russell said county noise standards require an average of 50 decibels, while the gunfire noise tests were as high as 80 decibels. That would be like comparing restaurant noise with the sound of a vacuum cleaner.

Russell said county officials told Blackwater that if any residences were built on the federal land, Blackwater would be required to stop shooting at the site. He acknowledged it was unlikely houses would be built on the federal land.

“They (Blackwater) apparently weren't keen to place a condition on their project,” Russell said.

And then there is the fact that the citizens of San Diego County initiated a recall campaign and, in December 2007, turfed out five members of the county planning group who favoured Blackwater's proposed training facility and replaced them with members opposed to Blackwater's plans. There were plans to put forth a resolution against the proposed Blackwater facility at the next scheduled meeting.

John Robb has more.

Bacon butties in poutine country

Via Vijay Sappani this CanWest article detailing the amount of development money being handed out. This will come as a total shocker, but Conservative-held ridings in Quebec, coincidentally, receive more than ridings held by other parties. A lot more.

The Harper government has been channelling a disproportionate amount of economic development money in Quebec into Conservative-held ridings, a Canwest News Service analysis has found.

Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions has a mandate to promote "long-term economic development" in Quebec by issuing grants and loans to businesses, non-profit organizations and communities. According to the agency's governing legislation, it is supposed to give special attention to regions where "slow economic growth is prevalent or where opportunities for productive employment are inadequate."

[...]

On average, each Conservative seat received $10.8 million in economic development money. That is more than one and a half times the average of $6.6 million that Bloc Quebecois ridings have received, and more than three times the $3.2-million average for Liberal ridings.

This is hardly "new". It seems to me all governments do this. They did the same thing in the UK. Living in Nova Scotia it was particularly noticeable. So, why is this such an issue?

The Harper government rode to power roughly two years ago in the wake of the sponsorship scandal, which revealed that a program designed to promote federalism in Quebec funnelled cash to advertising and communications firms connected with the Liberal party. In their campaign platform, Harper's Conservatives vowed to end "old-style politics" and "replace a culture of entitlement and corruption with a culture of accountability."

That's the issue. Harper said he wouldn't do it.

The French send a message to Sarkozy...

And it's not "we love you". Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative Union for Popular Movement (UMP) is taking something of a beating in local French elections:

President Nicolas Sarkozy's camp suffered setbacks in several large cities in round one of French local elections Sunday, dealing a fresh blow to the right-winger whose popularity has plummeted since his triumphant election last year. Exit polls showed the opposition Socialists well-placed to score big gains over Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), in next Sunday's decisive second round of a vote cast as a referendum on his presidency.

Nationwide, the Socialists took an estimated 47.5 percent of the vote, well ahead of the UMP and its allies on 40 percent, according to a CSA survey. Turnout was high, estimated at between 68 and 70.5 percent.

Socialist leader Francois Hollande said voters had sent "a warning to the president of the republic and the government on the policies conducted over the past nine months."

Local elections rarely have an effect on federal policies in France, however the loss of support in major cities is being treated as something of a referendum on Sarkozy's performance and popularity.

The Socialists were on course to keep hold of Paris and cemented their grip on France's third city Lyon -- claiming victory in round one -- as well as the northern capital Lille.

Exit polls showed the left-wing party dethroning the UMP in the northwestern cities of Rouen and Caen and the southern city of Rodez.

Right-wing former prime minister Alain Juppe held on to the southwestern wine capital Bordeaux, winning reelection in the first round.

But the Socialists appeared well-placed to seize the eastern capital Strasbourg -- one of three key trophies up for grabs along with the second city Marseille on the Mediterrean and southwestern Toulouse.

Both southern cities were headed for a close-fought second round between the right-wing incumbents and left-wing challengers.

The symbolic loss of one or more major city would further hurt Sarkozy's reputation and undermine his ability to plough ahead with wide-ranging reforms.

Sarkozy has been accused in the French media of being distracted by... his wife.

The president's divorce from his second wife Cecilia, followed by a jet-setting romance and swift marriage to supermodel and singer Carla Bruni, gave many voters the impression he was neglecting his promises to boost incomes and rein in the cost of living.

The Socialists accuse Sarkozy of hobnobbing with the rich and famous while drawing up a painful austerity plan for ordinary folk, which the government denies.

France wasn't the only country to reject a right-wing agenda. Spain held elections today too.

Perhaps a bouquet of daisies

Harper might have to do a bit of groveling if he wants the Senate to bail him out.

The Liberal leader in the Senate says the Harper government should apologize for denigrating the upper chamber it's now imploring to kill a costly private member's bill aimed at providing tax benefits to parents saving for their children's education.

"I'm waiting for the dozen roses and a little word of apology for not appreciating the good work that's being done," Celine Hervieux-Payette joked in an interview Saturday.

Don't expect that any time soon.

Hervieux-Payette promised the Liberal-dominated Senate will give open-minded, sober consideration to the bill - both its merits and its potential impact on the government's bottom line - even though some senators may not be inclined to do any favours for a government that has maligned them as lazy, unaccountable, unelected, partisan hacks.

"There might be some who would like to take revenge, I agree, but this is not my style," she told The Canadian Press.

"We're there to serve Canadians and we're there to do a good job."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives are appealing to the Senate to kill a private member's bill that quietly passed the House of Commons last week over the minority government's objections. The bill, initiated by Liberal MP Dan McTeague, would allow parents to contribute up to $5,000 annually for each child to a Registered Education Savings Plan - and deduct the amount from their income taxes.

The Tories warn the costly idea could push the country's books back into deficit. The RESP program is estimated to cost as much as $2 billion per year - more than the razor-thin surplus projected for next year by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

Not to put too fine a point on it but the reputation of the Senate is not a soaring example of assiduity. Nevertheless, the dilemma faced by the Harper government is a situation of its own making.

Now Harper's own nastiness is simply biting him back.

Just last week, Michael Fortier, whom Harper appointed to the Senate so that he could serve as his Public Works minister, questioned the relevance of the upper chamber. He criticized the partisan nature of the Senate appointees and suggested he's become a convert to the the cause of abolition.

Ah yes... Mr. Fortier. The promise made and broken by Harper. The Senate was very convenient for both Harper and Fortier then, wasn't it? How is Fortier doing anyway?

Fortier, who has missed all but five of 34 recorded Senate votes since his appointment two years ago, also slagged the work habits of his fellow senators, sneering that they are not Nobel Prize winners.

But I'll wager he collects his pay every month.

"You'd think they could be humble enough to admit they went overboard," Hervieux-Payette said of the Tories.

She said she doesn't expect an apology "for all the crazy things that have been said" but she said the government should at least show respect for the institution and the role that it plays as the chamber of sober second thought.

OK then. Maybe some dandelions.

Apologies: The link to the article quoted is now up.

Mrs. Mills opts for the dog.

Wasn't there a King Solomon story about this?

For many years, I have been devoted to my terrier, Tom. He has been an important part of my life, and if anything happened to him, I would be devastated. All was absolutely fine until the birth of my daughter, June, last year. Since then, Tom has been moody and withdrawn. I think he is becoming increasingly jealous of the new arrival. Things have got worse recently, with him snarling at June when they are in the same room. I fear it is only a matter of time before things get tragically out of hand. Please advise.

As usual, she comes through. And June isn't the guaranteed winner.

One of them is going to have to be put down. I wouldn’t want to be too prescriptive, but you might bear in mind that dogs are generally cheaper to keep, although probably not so good at looking after you in your dotage.

More at the Times Online.

Children of the Corn

Rep. Steve King (not exactly as pictured) announces that

He Who Walks Behind The Rows has commanded him

to stand for a fourth term in Congress.

How do people this stupid manage to get out of the house in the morning without cutting their own wrists on the mirror they shatter trying to grab " that guy I keep seeing in the bathroom" and do they really think there are people even stupider than them that will fall for their "klever planz"?

Lawmaker: Terrorists to cheer Obama win
By James Beltran
Associated Press Writer
/ March 7, 2008
DES MOINES, Iowa—An Iowa Republican congressman said Friday that terrorists would be "dancing in the streets" if Democratic candidate Barack Obama were to win the presidency.
Rep. Steve King based his prediction on Obama's pledge to pull troops out of Iraq, his Kenyan heritage and his middle name, Hussein.
"The radical Islamists, the al-Qaida ... would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11 because they would declare victory in this war on terror," King said in an interview with the Daily Reporter in Spencer, Iowa. King said his comments were not meant to demean Obama but to warn how an Obama presidency would look to the world.
"His middle name does matter," King said. "It matters because they read a meaning into that."

The AP gets it wrong, sort of. King was not being interviewed by the Daily Reporter, but speaking on radio at the time of his incredibly assinine remarks. Read the original piece for the pure unadulterated wingnuttery.

The Carpetbagger report gives us the story and then turns Rep. King into Swiss cheese with the machine gun of truth pumping out bullets made of all the other vile and stupid things King has said in the past

There are many good things about Iowa worthy of admiration, the Iowa Writer's Workshop not the least of them. People there should do the right thing and vote for anyone other than Steve King in November.

Crossposted from The Woodshed

For all you cat people

And there's no place to put the anti-snoring strips.

Excuse me. You missed a spot.

Whoa! Would you look at that! A polar air mass covering most of eastern Canada. That would normally be clear stable air... if it weren't for the Great Lakes. So, eastern Canada and the northeastern United States are getting a two stage snow storm.

It's called Lake Effect. Yes, it's happening later than it should and this year has been particularly heavy. That would be because the Great Lakes aren't as cold as they should be. That leads to more, not less, snow.

Whether you believe in global warming or not, I'd make sure you keep your snow shovel in good shape. From UCS:

... lake-effect snow may increase as a result of warmer lake surface waters and decreased ice cover, burdening cities with increased cost for snow removal.

Most people have already recognized that fact. Unless you think it's all a hoax.

Getting it right on plastic bags

You may live in a city that has decided to tax plastic bags. You know those flimsy opaque things with the grocery store logo on it. Or, they're planning on banning plastic bags outright.

Plastic bags have their problems, but be careful of the arguments used by governments to implement a tax on bags. Most of them have it wrong. In Britain, the government is getting raked over by the scientific community for basing their decision on an exemplary display of bad science.

Scientists and environmentalists have attacked a global campaign to ban plastic bags which they say is based on flawed science and exaggerated claims.

The widely stated accusation that the bags kill 100,000 animals and a million seabirds every year are false, experts have told The Times. They pose only a minimal threat to most marine species, including seals, whales, dolphins and seabirds.

Gordon Brown announced last month that he would force supermarkets to charge for the bags, saying that they were “one of the most visible symbols of environmental waste”. Retailers and some pressure groups, including the Campaign to Protect Rural England, threw their support behind him.

But scientists, politicians and marine experts attacked the Government for joining a “bandwagon” based on poor science.

Lord Taverne, the chairman of Sense about Science, said: “The Government is irresponsible to jump on a bandwagon that has no base in scientific evidence. This is one of many examples where you get bad science leading to bad decisions which are counter-productive. Attacking plastic bags makes people feel good but it doesn’t achieve anything.”

The whole premise that plastic bags are killing marine life is based on a misread and often misquoted line from a Canadian study.

The central claim of campaigners is that the bags kill more than 100,000 marine mammals and one million seabirds every year. However, this figure is based on a misinterpretation of a 1987 Canadian study in Newfoundland, which found that, between 1981 and 1984, more than 100,000 marine mammals, including birds, were killed by discarded nets. The Canadian study did not mention plastic bags.

Fifteen years later in 2002, when the Australian Government commissioned a report into the effects of plastic bags, its authors misquoted the Newfoundland study, mistakenly attributing the deaths to “plastic bags”.

The figure was latched on to by conservationists as proof that the bags were killers. For four years the “typo” remained uncorrected. It was only in 2006 that the authors altered the report, replacing “plastic bags” with “plastic debris”. But they admitted: “The actual numbers of animals killed annually by plastic bag litter is nearly impossible to determine.”

In a postscript to the correction they admitted that the original Canadian study had referred to fishing tackle, not plastic debris, as the threat to the marine environment.

Some of the heavy hitters in the environmental movement aren't happy with the British government's decision either. While they would probably like to see plastic bags eliminated, they would also like any ban or tax to be based on factual, not faulty, information and research.

David Santillo, a marine biologist at Greenpeace, told The Times that bad science was undermining the Government’s case for banning the bags. “It’s very unlikely that many animals are killed by plastic bags,” he said. “The evidence shows just the opposite. We are not going to solve the problem of waste by focusing on plastic bags.

“It doesn’t do the Government’s case any favours if you’ve got statements being made that aren’t supported by the scientific literature that’s out there. With larger mammals it’s fishing gear that’s the big problem. On a global basis plastic bags aren’t an issue. It would be great if statements like these weren’t made.”

There have been various studies on the effects of plastic debris in the marine environment and, like this one, none of them single out plastic bags as definitive problem.

Marine pollution by plastics has been shown to be damaging to marine mammals, birds and reptiles. This is due to entanglement in packaging bands, synthetic ropes and lines, or drift nets; or by the ingestion of small items of plastics debris.

The truth is, on the face of it, plastic bags have gotten a bad reputation for the wrong reasons. Most of those reasons have to do with litter and that is not caused by the bags themselves. Every time a plastic bag is simply dumped in a ditch, there is a human behind it.

South Africa has a problem with thousands of white plastic bags blowing around the rural areas. They are so prevalent that they are now referred to as a "national flower".

There is also a huge misconception about the impact of plastic bags on other elements of the environment, particularly when compared against paper shopping bags. Aside from the fact that they are made from a non-renewable resource (petroleum), they have a smaller carbon footprint than paper.

The US Environmental Protection Agency provides a good comparison between the two types of bags and nasty plastic comes out looking better than its paper cousin.

Paper sacks generate 70 percent more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags. (By Ed: Due to mill processing requirements. This is worse in some areas where, in Howe Sound British Columbia for instance, the mill has shifted to dirty coal from cleaner natural gas for fuel).

Paper bags are made from trees, which are a renewable resource. Most plastic bags are made from polyethylene, which is made from crude oil and natural gas, nonrenewable resources.

2000 plastic bags weigh 30 pounds, 2000 paper bags weigh 280 pounds. The latter takes up a lot more landfill space.

It takes 91 percent less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper. It takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag. Energy to produce the bags (in British thermal units): Safeway plastic bags: 594 BTU; Safeway paper bags: 2511 BTU.

Paper is accepted in most recycling programs while the recycling rate for plastic bags is very low. Research from 2000 shows 20 percent of paper bags were recycled, while one percent of plastic bags were recycled. (By Ed:Although most grocery stores accept plastic bags for recycling)

Current research demonstrates that paper in today's landfills does not degrade or break down at a substantially faster rate than plastic does. In fact, nothing completely degrades in modern landfills due to the lack of water, light, oxygen, and other important elements that are necessary for the degradation process to be completed.

Incineration can decrease the quantity of plastic and paper bags. However, incineration causes air pollution and creates ash which has to be landfilled.

As can be seen from above, the problem is disposal. The plastic bag is more likely to be used again as a garbage bag and end up in the landfill. The same use of paper bags (dubious for wet garbage) results in more space being taken in a landfill with no returned advantage.

In Ireland, where there is a tax on plastic grocery bags of 15 cents per bag, the use of plastic grocery bags has dropped sharply, however, Irish consumers have increased the use of plastic garbage bags purchased to line garbage cans by 400 percent.

Dilema! What to do? Use paper or plastic?

Neither.

With the exception of the need to contain wet trash, a better idea is to acquire reusable shopping bags. In some grocery outlets, (not many yet), there is an incentive provided by removing a few cents from the final bill.

Developing a household strategy for waste control is more than just a little worthwhile. And while "disposable" grocery bags seem to be getting all the bad press lately, product packaging is a far worse problem.

On this day in 1962 you would have been glued to the speaker.

On March 8th, 1962, this song was broadcast on the BBC. It was written by Roy Orbison Cindy Walker. Later on producers thought it was unsuitable for the group's first major album by the Liverpudians.

The rest is history.

Thanks to Frank in comments for the correction.

One Third or 31 Percent - You Choose.

How's this for a paragraph? The article is here.

"Almost one-third of respondents said they favoured a public investigation led by a third party, such as the Commons Speaker or ethics commissioner, while 31 per cent said an investigation by the RCMP would be the most appropriate course of action."

Eulogy

A few weeks ago I posted this lament.

I refer you to it now because today I post the eulogy.

Its over. The dream of Canada as a model for a progressive social democracy in North America is dead.

No longer merely moribund. No longer waiting in the wings.

Dead.

Or perhaps, in the best case scenario, in suspended animation for the next 2 generations. Maybe more and maybe forever depending on the accuracy of the various climate forecasts.

Given the global governance trend toward regimes that are more authoritative than less I wouldn't bet on mere climatic transformation to be an organ or progenitor of progressive political transformation. More likely would be the polar opposite.

Its a perfect storm really.

James Lovelock reckons that we've got till about 2020 before the big nasty begins to become normal. You remember him. Been right, or at least useful, a lot?

We've run out of time to continue imagining that something magical or other-worldly is going to perpetually protect us from the consequences of our activities. Twenty years or 50 makes little difference.

At the same time, paradoxically, there's almost no action we can now take to head off the future thats almost certainly waiting for us.

If you care...find a way to pay that care less attention. Learn creative apathy. There's probably a workshop available through your local community centre. Sponsored by WalMart.

If you don't care...offer workshops.


I no longer lament.



I grieve.

Thatcher in Hospital

Die in miserable agony Mrs Thatcher.

Does that seem hard hearted?

Tough shit.

Its little enough payback.

Obama's Canadian Enemies

By now most people are aware that someone, somehow in the Harper government interfered with the Barack Obama campaign in the US. Ian Brodie, Harper's chief of staff, is directly implicated for his so-called off-hand remark. That Brodie still has a job in the Prime Minister's Office is an indication of how Bush-like the Harper regime has actually become. Wrong-doing by Harper loyalists is treated the same as it is in the Bush administration. Nothing happens.

The truth is, Harper and his Conservative Party of Canada are not the Tories of Canada's historical past. Jeet Heer has done the heavy lifting on this one and has a must read article in the Guardian.

One contextual fact might help explain the whole matter: the increasing integration between Canadian and American conservatives, who tend to be as thick as thieves. Brodie's own career is part of this story of the Canadian right becoming increasingly tied to its American counterpart. Brodie did his PhD in political science at the University of Calgary under Ted Morton, an American-born former academic and activist and known as the dean of the "Calgary school", an intellectual movement that has remade Canadian conservatism along American-lines. Traditionally, Canadian conservatives have followed the model of old-fashioned British Tories, emphasising social cohesion and accommodation to the welfare state. Morton, who has served as an advisor to many conservative politicians, has consistently worked to make the Canadian right imitate their successful brothers to the south in marrying populism on social issues (including opposition to gay rights and abortion) with free-market economic policies. This is a major development. Historically, Canadian conservatives have been the most anti-American of our major political parties. Brian Mulroney changed that with the Free Trade Agreement of 1988, but it's worth bearing in mind that even under Mulroney the Conservative party had very little formal ties with the American right. Mulroney's political roots were in the machine politics of Quebec, always friendly toward American big business but culturally and socially distinct from American conservatism. One telling detail: Mulroney once said that the American politician he most admired was Mario Cuomo, an equally earthy street-fighting Catholic pol.

It's not just the politicians that have caused this change. There are the inside operators who regularly cross the border and work both the Canadian and US conservative movement.

... the emergence of a cohort of intellectual entrepreneurs, journalists and thinktank types who happily shuttled back and forth from Washington and New York to Toronto and Ottawa. David Frum is perhaps the most famous figure of this crowd, happy to write for the National Post and the National Review, work one day to merge the two right-wing parties of Canada and then go on to pen speeches for George Bush.

More. Oh yes there's more.

Daniel Casse, Father Richard John Neuhaus, Ken Whyte, Rachel Marsden, Peter Brimelow and Mark Steyn.

A bit of curiosity with this crowd is the "residences" they maintain. Some are clearly permanent US residents. Whyte is most definitely resident in Canada. But some of them claim to maintain two residences - one in Canada and one in the US. Given that this lot regularly bashes the idea of single-payer health care in the US, one has to wonder if those maintaining Canadian residences carry Canadian provincial health-care cards.

There is one other name which floats to the surface.

Back when he was still a media baron, Conrad Black was the great patron of this group. Like a czar willing to send the Cossacks wherever needed, whether Mongolia or the Ukraine, Black was happy to move his minions around the globe, not just to Toronto and Washington (where Black owned The Hill, a small but influential congressional newspaper) but also London and Jerusalem. The net result was the creation of a global right-wing intellectual movement that is very well coordinated. In fighting Bill Clinton, for example, Black's papers abroad would sometime print scurrilous reports that were too wild and un-sourced for the American press. Thanks to the internet and talk radio, these reports would echo back in the United States and eventually become part of the mainstream discourse.

Drudge, Limbaugh, O'Reilly...

Heer poses an interesting idea in his conclusion. The most important aspect though is that Harper's integration with the US movement conservatives is virtually complete and it would be a mistake to suggest they are related to past Canadian conservative parties by anything but a slender thread. In fact, they are, as Heer suggests, a part of a much larger international conservative movement headquartered in this US toilet.

We didn't like the Comintern and the Cominform. Why would we accept a conservative form of it?

Hat tip Cat

This is Gonna Get Ugly . . . .

I've made an effort to keep out of the US primary season shenanigans.

Now that the dems have narrowed down the field, it appears that things will get even more ugly soon.

From AlterNet today, Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's former Secretary of Labor:

Will Hillary Clinton Spoil the Party?
By Robert B. Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
Posted on March 7, 2008

I'm thrilled at the record Democratic turnouts across the country, and at the ground-breaking reality of the Democrats' two candidates. But I'm also becoming anxious at the prospect of a fight that could reduce the possibility of either of them entering the White House in January of 2009.

Is Hillary Clinton’s willing to sacrifice that possibility in order to preserve a tiny possibility that she'll get the nomination? With her win in Ohio and projected win in Texas, that seems so. In the days leading up to the Ohio and Texas primaries, we had Hillary Clinton's statement that both she and McCain have the experience to be Commander-in-Chief but Obama doesn't.

This is the first time in my memory that a major candidate in a primary has said that the other party's nominee would be a better president than his or her own primary opponent. We also had the outpouring of negative advertising from her campaign that both candidates had largely managed to avoid up to this point.

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I suppose I should not be surprised. If Hillary Clinton has experience in anything, it's in fighting when cornered. When Bill Clinton lost his governorship, it was Hillary Clinton who commissioned Dick Morris to advise the Clintons on a no-holds-barred campaign to retake the governor's mansion. At the start of 1995, when Newt Gingrich and company took over Congress and the Clinton administration looked in danger of becoming irrelevant, it was Hillary Clinton who installed Dick Morris in the White House, along with his sidekick Mark Penn, to "triangulate" by distancing Bill Clinton from the Democratic Party and moving the Administration rightward. (When Morris was subsequently discovered to have a penchant for the toes of prostitutes the White House dumped him but kept Penn on.) And now Mark Penn is the "chief strategist" of Hillary Clinton's campaign. (emphasis mine)

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The Clintons would prefer to write off Obamania as a passing fad, but the reality is that idealism and inspiration are necessary preconditions for positive social change. Nothing happens in Washington unless Americans are energized and mobilized to make it happen. Hillary Clinton's tactics are the old politics the nation is recoiling from -- internal division and national fear. This only serves to deepen Americans' cynicism about politics, and makes social change all the harder to achieve.

It will take some time for this circus to play out.

At this point, it would not be surprising if the dems blow what should be a shoe-in election and end up handing the executive branch to the repugs again.

The more things change, . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moving to Vancouver)