Vic Toews does the "World Stage" and falls off

Oh would you looky here. Look what Vic Toews has sent out to his constituents. (Click to enlarge)
Geez. I wonder if Vic remembers one of the icons of conservative dogma? The Iron Lady. It brings up two things.

One. Canada has always been on the world stage.

In 1982, after General Leopoldo Galtieri, leader of the military junta governing Argentina, decided to divert the Argentine population's attention from his "excesses" and invade the Falkland Islands, a flurry of diplomatic activity and meetings took place. One significant meeting was between the British "war" cabinet and a team led by US Secretary of State Alexander Haig.

At that first meeting, after the British had asked the US to intervene with Galtieri, Haig's group suggested a three-stage diplomatic effort to avert war. Part one involves an Argentine withdrawal from the Falklands. Part two, (and this is important), involves returning the Falklands to British administration but under a multi-national arrangement involving Canada, two Latin-American countries and perhaps the US.

Who was the prime minister at the time? Why, Pierre Trudeau. Why would Haig even consider Canada? Because despite our alliances we possessed that unique position on the "world stage" as an honest and reliable broker.

Did Haig, or his NSC advisers even consult Trudeau? We don't know, but one of the reasons it was even suggested is that Haig's team knew Canada would jump in if called. And Haig, despite the fact that people believe he was a consummate war-monger, was fighting both the British distrust of the Argentinians and the extremist right-wing (led by Jean Kirkpatrick) in Washington. He wanted a moderate, measured solution and the one place he knew he could go for support was Canada.

Let's move on to the second point. Thatcher wasn't buying Haig's diplomatic ideas. She didn't trust Galtieri to abide by an international agreement and in any case she had already started spooling up the national mind for a dirty little war. She made a statement which went, "If General Galtieri harms the hair on the head of one British subject... ".

Ignore for a moment that the message was more for the Soviets at the time than it was for Galtieri. Thatcher, even though it was rhetoric, made it clear that no one could violate the rule of law when it came to British subjects, no matter how far flung they may be. Period.

Back to Vic Toews and his propaganda leaflet.

Thatcher is one of the heroes of the movement conservatives. Toews should be worshiping her image.

So why is he ignoring the fact that Canada is being shoved around on the "world stage" by Mexico? Even the conservative movement rag isn't buying it.

Helena Guergis, the secretary of state for Foreign Affairs, was insistent this week that justice should be allowed to take its course in the case of Brenda Martin, the Canadian woman who has been imprisoned in Mexico for more than two years awaiting trial on money-laundering charges.

Yet the events of the past few days have offered more proof that justice as we know it does not exist in Mexico, a country where you are judged guilty until proven innocent. It's a tragedy for Ms. Martin that Mexican prosecutors haven't been as scrupulous about due process as the secretary of state.

Brenda Martin has been refused a proper hearing, has been denied interpreters and has been denied legal counsel. The person with whom she was supposed to have conspired for her crime, now serving a 10-year sentence in the US has sworn in writing that Brenda Martin was no way involved in his criminal activities.

The Harper government's response so far? Oh well.

It's probably worth looking at the front of Toews' leaflet.

Ah yes. The brand. It's all about one person. Nothing else and no one else matters.

H/T Kat.

What's holding your building up? Chinese steel?

Two years ago Canada and the United States imported almost no steel from China. In the first six months of 2007, however, steel imported from China to North America constituted 102,000 metric tons.

That may pose more of a problem than just the economic damage done to North American steel producers. Steel being used domestically in China's building boom has been found to be up to five times lighter than the weight required to be used in construction.

HALF the steel material sold at wholesale markets and now being used in construction has failed quality tests.

The Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau inspected 52 batches of steel material at three markets and 15 construction sites in seven districts, including Xuhui, Zhabei and Baoshan, and officials said 27 batches had quality problems.

The tested materials were too light to reach the country's standard - some of the products were five times lighter than the required weight.

About 22 percent of the tested products failed tension tests. Buildings with such steel would not be able to withstand major earthquakes, the bureau said.

Forty-eight percent of the tested material had inadequate amounts of carbon. Shortage of carbon can cause steel to break easily, officials explained.

One good earthquake could bring Shanghai down.

OK. So, aside from the fact that it will devastate Shanghai, what does that have to do with North America?

A lot.

Tim Johnson of the McClatchy Beijing bureau picked up on the problem of weak Chinese steel being exported to North America last September.

Steel imports from China that fall apart easily are making U.S. manufacturers and constructions firms more than a little nervous. Reports of failures during initial fabrication and questions about certification documents will mean closer scrutiny. The American and Canadian institutes of steel construction have already advised member companies to be vigilant and report any problems.

The biggest concern is hollow structural sections widely used in construction of skyscrapers, bridges, pipelines, office, commercial and school buildings. This high-strength steel is also commonly used in power lifts, cranes, farm equipment, furniture and car trailer hitches.

Chinese high-strength steel tubes and pipes are also a potential problem. They’re used extensively in power plants and in large industrial boilers, and must withstand enormous pressures and hellish heat around the clock for weeks or months on end. This kind of steel also is used extensively in scaffolding that's erected on building exteriors during construction or renovation, as well as for interior work.

Inferior high-strength steel could cause catastrophic failures of buildings, pipelines or in power plants' boiler tubing. This is a large worry for structural engineers who will be working overtime as states embark on what amounts to a crash program to shore up bridges, following the collapse of the Minnesota span over the Mississippi River. China is already seeing problems. A Chinese power plant exploded recently when high-strength steel tubing blew out, says Roger Schagrin, general counsel for the Committee on Pipe and Tube Imports, which represents U.S. manufacturers of these products.

As steel producers across North America bring their plants to an idle while their product is replaced by the cheaper Chinese-produced steel, an old adage rises as a reminder: You get what you pay for.

Something to keep in mind when you're driving over that refurbished bridge.

At the going down of the Sun, and in the morning...

With condolences and respect to the family and friends of Bombardier Jérémie Ouellet, 1^st Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. Died on active service from circumstances not yet determined.

Ubique

Surprise! House dems Grow Spine . . . .

Well, it's a start, anyway.

From Reuter's today:

House passes spy bill and rejects phone immunity
Fri Mar 14, 2008 - By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives defied President George W. Bush on Friday and passed an anti-terrorism spy bill that permits lawsuits against phone companies.

But the 213-197 vote was far short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a promised veto by Bush. He has demanded that any telecommunication company that participated in his warrantless domestic spying program secretly begun after the September 11 attacks receive retroactive immunity.

The battle over whether to shield companies has been a key reason why the House and Senate have been unable to agree on a bill to replace a law that expired last month that expanded U.S. authority to track enemy targets without a court order.

'Course, georgie will veto it, but what the hell.

At least the x-ray of the dems will show a shadow of a spine . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moving to Vancouver)

Carpetbaggers, thieves and scam artists...

And Henry Paulson, US Treasury secretary and died-in-the-wool Republican has finally recognized them for what they are.

Paulson spared no one in his criticism Thursday of the excesses of deregulation that has now created the worst global financial crisis in a generation, threatening the health of the U.S. economy, the savings of millions of Americans, and the survival of some of the biggest financial institutions in the world.

Wall Street and Washington both failed big time, he said. Wall Street invented new ways to make money by selling securities so complicated that no one could really follow which shell the pea was under. Fortunes were made on the paper Wall Street sold.

At the same time, Washington's watchdogs were dozing, tranquilized by the false assurance that Wall Street would police its own.

It's been obvious for years now that Wall Street could not be trusted, and finally official Washington agrees. The markets need a tougher cop to make sure that money-center banks, investment banks, credit-rating agencies, hedge funds, mortgage brokers and the rest don't let their own greed and arrogance ruin it for the rest of us.

"Regulation needs to catch up with innovation," Paulson said, and he was backed up by the rest of President Bush's working group on financial markets, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Securities and Exchange Commissioner Chris Cox. Not a commie among them.

The housing bubble wasn't a flaw; it was a predictable outcome of a system that rewarded smart people small fortunes for conjuring up ways to persuade people to borrow more than they could ever hope to pay back. All the profits were taken off the table quickly, but the staggering costs are only now being paid by homeowners, shareholders, builders and the rest of society.

Who knows? Maybe one day Parker Brothers will give us the Bush Legacy Edition of a board game. Just for fun.

Hat tip to reader Stewart

The Wingnuterer strikes

International Women's Day - better late than never

I'm doing a full cut and paste on this one. I can't bear to cut out a single word. My favourite line is at the very end - "not even remotely civil"

Pearl Cornioley, who parachuted into Nazi-occupied France to work as a courier between the British and the French resistance and rose to command 3,000 underground fighters, died on Feb. 24 in the Loire Valley of France. She was 93.

Pearl Cornioley was known by many names in World War II.

Her death, at a hospital, was confirmed to The Associated Press by Caroline Cottard, the secretary of the retirement home where Ms. Cornioley lived.

Ms. Cornioley, who was 29 when she was sent to France in 1943, commanded troops who killed 1,000 German soldiers and wounded many more — while suffering only a tiny number of casualties themselves. She presided over the surrender of 18,000 German troops.

Her unit interrupted a railway line that connected the south of France to Normandy more than 800 times in June 1944, the month of D-Day. It also regularly attacked German convoys.

Sometimes carrying a case of cosmetics to pose as a traveling saleswoman, she had many brushes with danger. She hid in a cornfield as German troops fired random shots into the field. She was almost killed by a resistance leader who doubted her identity. The Germans offered a million-franc reward for her capture.

Pearl Witherington, as she was known at the time of her wartime exploits, was British by birth and French by upbringing. Her code name was Wrestler, her nom de guerre was Pauline, and in wireless transmissions to Britain, she was “Marie.”

Ms. Cornioley was an operative of the Special Operations Executive, which the British formed to support and coordinate resistance in the occupied countries of Europe. Agents from many walks of life, from business to journalism to academia, joined what was essentially a by-invitation-only club. Women were welcome because they might be viewed as less suspicious, and many proved to be excellent agents.

‘The girls who served as secret agents in Churchill’s Special Operations Executive were young, beautiful and brave,” Marcus Binney wrote in his book “The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Agents of the Special Operations Executive” (2002).

“At a time when women in the armed forces were restricted to a strictly noncombatant role in warfare, the women of S.O.E. trained and served alongside the men,” he continued. “They fought not in the front line but well behind it.”

Ms. Cornioley stood out. In his book “Set Europe Ablaze” (1966), E. H. Cookridge called her “one of the main pillars of the network” of the S.O.E. and the resistance fighters they supported. She was the only woman to become a network leader.

Cecile Pearl Witherington was born in Paris on June 24, 1914. A great-grandfather was a chemist who introduced the recipe for Worcestershire sauce to Lea & Perrins, and a grandfather was an architect in London, according to Mr. Binney. Her father traveled the world for a Swedish company that supplied paper for banknotes.

Her father’s heavy drinking and spendthrift habits shattered the family, obituaries in British newspapers said. As the eldest of four daughters, Ms. Cornioley started working at 17 as a secretary and made extra money by teaching English at night.

When the Germans invaded France in 1940, she was working for the air attaché at the British Embassy. The family left Paris in December and followed a circuitous route to London. There, Ms. Cornioley got a job at the Air Ministry.

But she burned with anger over France’s defeat and began searching for a way to fight back. Luckily, her French was superb.

“And anyway I didn’t like the Germans,” she was quoted as saying in an obituary in The Independent. “Never did. I’m a baby of the 1914-18 war.”

Through an acquaintance, she found her way to the S.O.E., which she joined on June 8, 1943. In training, she was recognized as the best shot, male or female, the service had seen. The commander wrote, “Very capable, completely brave.”

On the night of Sept. 22-23, she parachuted into France, near Châteauroux. Her two suitcases landed in a lake, where they were lost. Within hours, she was reunited with her French fiancé, Henri Cornioley, who had escaped from a German prison camp and joined the resistance. The two then worked closely.

This mix of love and war has caused many to see Ms. Cornioley as the inspiration for Sebastian Faulks’s popular 1998 novel, “Charlotte Gray.” In 2001, the book was made into a movie of the same name, directed by Gillian Armstrong and starring Cate Blanchett.

Ms. Cornioley insisted that romance was not her motivation for going to war. In an interview with The Telegraph in 2002, she said: “There was a job to be done. I didn’t put my life at risk just so I could be with Henri.”

But in October 1944, after being separated and almost killed, the couple made it to London, where they married. They moved to Paris, where Mr. Cornioley worked as a pharmacist and Ms. Cornioley as a secretary for the World Bank.

He died in 1999. Ms. Cornioley is survived by their daughter, Claire.

In 1995, Ms. Cornioley published her memoirs, which she wrote with Hervé Larroque. One tale concerned a “really cute” rabbit she took everywhere with her. The rabbit was oblivious to machine-gun fire.

Ms. Cornioley received many honors, but the one that stuck in her mind was the one she turned down. That was Member of the British Empire, or M.B.E. She had been offered the civil version, not the military one.

She sent an icy note saying she had had done nothing remotely “civil.”

A job at the cineplex, making minimum wage...

And someone tells you to hang the "Upcoming Features" posters. Suddenly, you're job isn't quite as boring as it used to be.

You may click to... enlarge.

See You in Court Under Oath Fuckwit

Harper is apparently going to go ahead with his frippery lawsuit.

Won't it be heartening to see the Prime Minister of Canada squirm and dart his eyes around and decline to swear on the bible. My bet's on him choosing to declare a personal oath.

But of course the Liberals will cave.

Its what they do.

You're going to love where I send you next!

Tengrain captures and captions the quintessential Cheney.

Gomery is not a happy camper

Former justice John Gomery is pointing out the obvious: Harper isn't listening.

The former head of a federal inquiry into the sponsorship scandal has told members of Parliament there is a dangerous and growing concentration of power in the Prime Minister's Office.

The role of MPs in day-to-day decision-making has been diminished while the size and influence of PMO has grown, retired judge John Gomery said Thursday.

"It should be remembered that the political staff in the Prime Minister's Office are not elected," Gomery told the government operations committee.

"They are not subject to any rules or laws of which I am aware, and they have the ear of the most important and powerful person in Canadian government.

"I suggest that this trend is a danger to Canadian democracy and leaves the door wide open to the kind of political interference in the day-to-day administration of government programs that led to what is commonly called the sponsorship scandal."

Gomery said the 19 recommendations he made in his report on the Liberal government scandal have been all but ignored by the Conservative administration of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

That shouldn't come as a surprize to anyone. The Harperites take advice from their mentors to the south and look at what's happening there.

The whole CP report should be read, but this little bit stuck out.

"That problem is the growing imbalance between the executive side of the government, represented by the prime minister and his cabinet, and the legislative side, represented by Parliament," he said.

"Over the years, there has been a greater and greater concentration of power and authority in the executive, and a corresponding diminution of the role of members of Parliament.

"This problem is made more acute by the expansion of the Prime Minister's Office, which has grown in size rapidly in recent years, and which seems to have an ever-increasing influence on government policy and decision-making."

Yes it has. What makes that interesting is when and with whom that started.

You may find some reasons to disagree with Robert Fulford's assessment of Pierre Trudeau, but this is dead-on. (Emphasis mine)

For one thing, he was more obsessed with personal power than anyone expected -- much more than Pearson or Louis St. Laurent, his predecessors as Liberal leader. Having frowned in disapproval at conflicts among Pearson's ministers, he kept his own Cabinet on a short leash and made free discussion of issues a punishable offence. More important, he withdrew most of the power of the ministers and centralized all authority in his office and the Privy Council Office.

Harper may be a conservative idealist but he is, first and foremost, an opportunist. The way Trudeau managed to concentrate power would certainly not be lost on him and his advisers. It took years before anyone realized how Trudeau had transformed the workings of government.

Gomery is quite right. Democracy and parliamentary authority is diminished by the concentration of power in the PMO. Expecting someone like Harper to undo the problem however, is like wishing for a pony.

Love on the rocks

Not to step on Dave turf, but there might be a simpler explanation involved

Ex-lovers in charge when ship crashed
Report blames total safety system breakdown
Cindy E. Harnett, Canwest News Service, with files from Reuters
Published: Thursday, March 13, 2008
VICTORIA - As the Queen of the North ferry sped toward the rocks of Gil Island off B.C.'s northwest coast, the two crew members in charge of the vessel at the time were deep in a personal discussion with the bridge lights dimmed and music playing in the background -- oblivious to the danger.
Former lovers 4th officer Karl Lilgert and quartermaster Karen Bricker had ended their affair just weeks before. The doomed voyage was their first shift together since their breakup.
Those intimate details were part of a much-anticipated Transportation Safety Board report released yesterday, nearly two years after the BC Ferries ship sank on March 22, 2006, killing two passengers.
Rumours that a romantic relationship contributed to the accident have circulated for a long time, and the TSB refused to provide more details on the pair's conversation -- saying only that the bridge crew co-operated fully with the investigation.

By Dave: The TSB did make a statement that the rumour and innuendo surrounding events on the bridge that night were wild, the actual situation being less titillating. That they were concentrating on their personal situation at all when the OOW had encountered poor visibility and had lost a radar contact in the rain clutter speaks to a complete loss of situational awareness.

Oh yes. The lights would have been off and the bridge in as much darkness as possible. Night vision requirements.


crossposted from the Woodshed

Queen of the North. TSB report.

The Transportation Safety Board report on the sinking of BC Ferries Queen of the North (QOTN) was an understandable let-down but from the point of view of industry insiders, about what could be expected.

There were no earth-shattering revelations and some of what is contained in the report is essentially the same as the BC Ferry Services divisional report. Some of the information in the report is being misread by news outlets, an understandable outcome since the information is technical in nature and unique to shipping and the maritime transportation industry.

Of note is that the composition of the bridge watch (personnel) as required by BC Ferries actually exceeded that of the Canada Shipping Act at the time. Notwithstanding, the actual watch on the bridge of QOTN did not meet the minimum standard laid out in the Canada Shipping Act for two reasons:

1. The 4th Officer was not qualified on the Electronic Chart Display Information System (ECDIS), a training endorsement required if the system is fitted, which it was Electronic Chart System (ECS) which would have required familiarity in accordance with company requirements and general practice requiring the officer of the watch to be familiar with all bridge electronic equipment;
2. The quartermaster was an ordinary seaman who possessed no certificate beyond that of Marine Emergency Duties. The CSA requires that the additional person on the bridge watch have a qualification of either Efficient Deckhand, Able Seaman or Bridge Watchman.

BC Ferries had issued two fleetwide instructions, well prior to the QOTN sinking, that ships entering areas of reduced visibility required a third qualified person on the bridge; exceeding the CSA requirements. QOTN was in a rain squall at night.

The TSB makes something of a point about the fact that QOTN's electronic chart system was loaded with a raster chart as opposed to a vector chart. Simply explained, raster charts are not as accurate detailed as vector charts. The raster version is rather like a photograph of a paper chart. A vector chart is developed from detailed information and provides a much more accurate detailed picture. I'm sure the TSB had some reason for including it, but given the QOTN's distance off her intended safe track and the late awareness of proximity to Gil Island, I am at a loss to understand how a vector chart would have made a difference. Since the bridge watch apparently did not have cross-track or navigation danger alarms engaged and thought the alteration to port after passing Sainty Point had already been made, the chart detail doesn't possess much weight. Not only that, but the recovered ECDIS ECS playback provides an accurate picture of the QOTN connecting with Gil Rock and then veering off to port before coming to a stop.

News reports are suggesting that the TSB report is recommending a third officer is required on the bridge. That is not accurate. TSB is recommending that a third certificated person be on the bridge during reduced visibility. That would be a rating qualified to assist the officer of the watch but in no way responsible for the decisions regarding safe navigation.

Apparently, the Automated Radar Plotting Aid (ARPA) was not set up for the 27 minute transit across Wright Sound. It would be a normal practice to establish safety margins on the ARPA parallel to the intended track (parallel index lines) and then monitor them relative to known landmarks. Even in the spacious waters of Wright Sound a ship can drift and be set by wind and tide and since the ship would have been approaching another narrow pass at MacKay Reach, minor course adjustments carried out early in the transit are much preferred over larger ones later on.

There was a comment in the TSB report that suggested the 4th Officer was not familiar with advancements in radar technology. I'm not sure what that means. Given his certification he would have possessed an ARPA qualification.

The missed course alteration is mind-numbing. There is a fairly standard practice after altering course, particularly in large ships - make sure you're where you want to be. (Measure twice; cut once). Ships don't maneuver like cars. After putting helm on to make a turn the ship actually continues for some distance on its old course then, once it has reached its new heading it takes some time to settle onto the new track (advance and transfer). The effect of wind and tide will influence the turning radius. On a good day a ship making an alteration will need to make course adjustments after a turn in order to regain track. QOTN was in a rain squall.

Whether the 2nd Officer had made the alteration or not, the next several minutes should have been fully occupied determining the actual position of the ship by both visual and radar fixes.

The lack of a Voyage Data Recorder has been interpreted by many news outlets to mean a "voice recorder". A VDR is actually all the data associated with the ship's progress including date and time; position; speed; heading; depth of water; radar picture; alarms; rudder order and response; hull openings; watertight and fire doors; wind; hull stress; radio communications and bridge voice recording. The type of VDR required by BC Ferries, if they were making international voyages, (and they're not) would be a simplified-VDR. It contains less data, but would have been useful all the same.

However, a VDR would not have prevented the event. Once a VDR has floated to the surface it's too late. It might have resolved some outstanding questions in the investigation but it would not have prevented the sinking.

News reports have tended to spread blame equally across the entire bridge staff, including the quartermaster. That's a problem for me. The rating on the bridge is not responsible for safe navigation with regard to positioning the ship. Such persons have a vital role in handling the ship as directed by the officer of the watch and in providing another set of eyes. In short, the quartermaster executes the orders of the officer of the watch: nothing more; nothing less.

Whether the quartermaster in this instance was doing her job properly, (uncertified though she was), has really not been resolved. But her level of responsibility for the safe navigation of the ship was considerably less than some news reports have suggested.

There are still some unanswered questions. Critical ones. For answers we will probably have to wait until they are asked and answered in a more formal venue.

Note: A commenter has pointed out that QOTN was NOT fitted with ECDIS but ECS, a less functional electronic chart system. In that regard QOTN was still required to navigate using paper hydrographic charts. What that adds to the situation on the bridge was the condition requiring the OOW to actually locate the ship by visual and electronic fixing and then physically plot that position on a paper chart. Why that did not happen remains unexplained although the distraction discussed in the post above seems to bear most of the weight.

Apologies for the confusion.

maybe she was studying English

I've been accused of hogging the bathroom in my day, but this is unbelieveable.

NESS CITY, Kan. - Authorities are considering charges in the bizarre case of a woman who sat on her boyfriend’s toilet for two years — so long that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the boyfriend finally called police.
Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman’s skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.

The Sheriff is Mr. Whipple? Any relation to this Mr. Whipple ?

Some women are going to vote for Hillary 'cause she's a woman.

So says, (who else?) Bill O'Reilly. And his guest, self-proclaimed female expert, Marc Rudov.

During the March 10 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly hosted Marc Rudov, author of Under the Clitoral Hood: How to Crank Her Engine Without Cash, Booze, or Jumper Cables, to discuss "What is the downside of having a woman become the president of the United States?" Rudov's initial response to the question was, "You mean besides the PMS and the mood swings, right?" O'Reilly responded: "But guys have mood swings, Marc. And you know they have other control issues, as we just heard with [New York] Governor [Eliot] Spitzer and we saw with various presidents. So come on now, let's be fair." Rudov then asserted: "Well, you know, I'm joking. Of course, the main problem I have is if a woman has a female agenda. If she doesn't have a female agenda, if she just wants to be an executive for all the people, then all I care about is if she's qualified. And I have no qualms about having a female president. But if we take [Sen.] Hillary Clinton, she specifically does have a female agenda." Rudov later added: "But Hillary embodies the female agenda. She wants to be the feminist in chief. She represents women. It says so on her website. And a lot of women are voting for her because she's a woman."

Surely there is a leaked copy of this "female agenda" kicking around somewhere.

Media Matters has the transcript and the video... if you can stomach it. And this isn't the first time Rudov has complained that Hillary Clinton is a woman. He did it back in January.

Missing Digits . . . .

For cryin' out loud.

This crap just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?

From McClatchy today:

Severed fingers of 5 hostages held in Iraq delivered to U.S.
Hannah Allam | McClatchy Newspapers - March 12, 2008


BAGHDAD — U.S. authorities in Baghdad have received five severed fingers belonging to four Americans and an Austrian who were taken hostage more than a year ago in Iraq, officials here said today.

The FBI is investigating the grisly development, and the families of the five kidnapped contractors have been notified, American officials said on condition of anonymity because only Washington officials are permitted to publicly discuss the matter.*

Authorities have confirmed that the fingers belonged to hostages Jonathan Cote, of Gainesville, Fla., Joshua Munz, of Redding, Calif., Paul Reuben, of Buffalo, Minn., Bert Nussbaumer of Vienna, Austria, and Ronald J. Withrow, of Lubbock, Texas.

The first four men were security contractors with Kuwait-based Crescent Security and were captured in a brazen ambush of their 43-truck supply convoy in the southern Iraqi town of Safwa, near the Kuwaiti border, on Nov. 16, 2006.
_______________

U.S. officials in Baghdad would not say how or where the severed fingers were received, citing the ongoing investigation.

* Yeah, far be it for anyone but Washington officials publicly discussing the issue.

They are, after all, the ones that got us into this mess . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moving to Vancouver)

SPP : Selling sovereignty for profit

By Alison

From the Conservative Party website Dec 14, 2007 :

Standing on Guard. Defending Canada.

"Today, the Conservative Government strengthened its ability to protect our North by launching a new high-tech satellite which will provide essential 24-hour surveillance over Canada’s Arctic.
From a height of 800 km, the Radarsat-2 uses cutting-edge cloud penetrating radar to monitor foreign ships which approach Canadian waters. Its presence ensures that our control over our Northern islands and waterways is beyond dispute.
The satellite also sends a clear message to the other nations of the world that, after thirteen years of Liberal neglect, Canada is once again serious about protecting our Arctic sovereignty.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is determined to protect Canada’s sovereignty in the North. Investing in this innovative and powerful space technology is another way the Conservative Government is strengthening Canada’s place as a leader on the world stage.
Firm priorities. Strong decisions. Real action. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a leader who takes decisive action to protect Canadians and keep the true North strong and free."

Well, that was a whole two and a half months ago.

Now we're selling off that seemingly 'essential' satellite which 'protects our North' and 'sends a clear message to other nations' and 'strengthens our place as a leader on the world stage' for $1.3B to America's biggest manufacturer of ammunition, including land mines, depleted uranium shells, and cluster bombs.

From David Pugliese of the Ottawa Citizen :

"Sometime in the next few weeks, Canada's leading space technology firm will pass into American hands and, potentially, the 'top secret' files of the Pentagon. Critics fear millions of dollars of taxpayer investment, a significant number of high-tech jobs, our Arctic sovereignty and our international reputation in space research will also vanish."

MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), Canada's largest space company, is selling off its space assets including Canadarm and the $524-million taxpayer-funded Radarsat-2 satellite to Alliant Technosystems Inc (ATK), because - get this! - the new CEO at MDA has determined that there is more money to be made for its shareholders providing data packages to real estate agents!

Canadians invented it and the Canadian public paid for it but we don't own it and critics within MDA say that following this sale we won't even be allowed to borrow it.

Barring the very unlikely possibility that Industry Canada steps in and puts a stop to the sale, US security concerns will likely bar Canada from any further access to Radarsat-2 climate change data in the far north, and transferred Canadian employees will not have clearance to work on what will become classified US military space programs.

Will Canadian taxpayers be reimbursed for the Canada Space Agency's decision in the late 90's to transfer the satellite technology and all data to MDA to sell off as it likes? Does the pope shit in the woods?

I don't know how much it matters anymore under SPP and its goal of "one security perimeter" that this technology stays under Canadian control, especially given that the Pentagon allegedly already downloads Radarsat-2 data to its field units in Iraq, but I'm sure as hell pissed that Canadian tax dollars are being used to promote US space warfare.

They already know in Ottawa that this is a crap deal with even crappier optics for Mr Defending Artic Sovereignty. Since Canadian scientists and engineers have gone public with their concerns and at least two have quit their jobs on ethical grounds, a planned photo op showing Harper scrutinizing R-2 data *snerk* has been cancelled.

Steven Staples provides a letter you can send to the relevant parties urging Harper not to approve this deal.

Or you could write your own. See if you can't fit something about being "serious about protecting our Arctic sovereignty" and "taking decisive action to protect Canadians" in there somewhere.

Two good articles from David Pugliese in the Ottawa Citizen :

Sovereignty for Sale Part 1 and Lost in Space Part 2

Cross posted from Creekside

A shitty way to learn a language

When I first came to Japan, I came to teach English at a chain of school that was to linguistics what Mickey D's is to haute cuisine. Nova talked a good game, but their real selling point was that they had the lowest prices if you bought enough lessons at once and had schools at every station, which means they are thicker on the ground in a city like Tokyo or Osaka than Tim Horton's in Toronto. They were the biggest employers of foreigners in the country with hundreds of schools and thousands of employees.

It was very much a place ruled by moronic policy manuals and systems designed to squeeze as much money out of customers as possible and there is little good to be said about it. At least I wore a necktie instead of a hairnet, but if you weren't in the glass-walled closet classroom kissing ass flirting entertaining teaching a group of one to three Johns suckers students, or trying to get toddlers to stop punching you in the nuts crying for their mommy being scared of the big pale-skinned blue-eyed giant learn English, you were expected to be in the parlour Voice room kissing ass flirting sarcastically abusing shaking your moneymaker entertaining facilitating English communication among the waiting psychopaths, suckers, random strangers and mental patients off the the street and no I'm not exaggerating students.

Too make an already too long story shorter, NOVA corkscrewed in for a landing last fall thanks to the sleazy, grasping fuckery of its president and owner, throwing thousands of young foreign teachers out of work after not paying them for a month or more. Suffice to say if this man were to walk into the wrong bar today, he'd get his ass kicked until his nose bled, but I digress.

This week I finally found out what happened to all the lame textbooks the schools had been using since the early 1980s

For those who can't make out the label, this is Let's study English! toilet paper.

crossposted from the Woodshed

There goes a chunk of the surplus

From CBC:

The Conservative government is downplaying a report that the Afghanistan mission will run $1 billion over budget this fiscal year after a series of cost over-runs.

The Tories did not deny the budget blowout for 2007-08 reported Tuesday in Montreal's La Presse newspaper.

They simply warned that the figure cited by the newspaper was based on preliminary estimates that cannot be confirmed until after the end of the fiscal year later this month.

Documents obtained under the Access to Information Act indicate the mission has cost Canadian taxpayers at least $7.5 billion since 2001.

Half of that total consists of annual cost over-runs.

The documents say the mission cost $538 million more than expected over the first six months of the current fiscal year, and is projected to overshoot its budget by another $539 million by March 31.

Is there anyone anywhere who didn't expect this?

"These are numbers that of course the government wasn't telling us about, wasn't telling Canadians about," NDP Leader Jack Layton said.

"It's the mismanagement of the war. The costs are spiralling out of control just as we've seen by the Americans in Iraq and the government didn't deny this."

No, the government didn't tell anybody about it. Did you expect them to?

It's a combat operation. Equipment and personnel are subject to harsh environmental conditions which accelerate wear and tear at a rate not considered during normal life-cycle management, ammunition is expended as required for each operation, (sometimes well beyond forecast allowances) and casualties, both human and material, cost a fortune.

War is expensive. Way expensive. You can financially manage it to pennies and it will still cost more than you budgeted for.

The question for MacKay, Harper and Flaherty is how they plan on paying for it. Another tax cut perhaps? That's the Bush method.

Fallon falls on his sword

Admiral William "Fox" Fallon, Commander of US Central Command, has just resigned.

Adm. William Fallon, the top U.S. military commander for the Middle East, has resigned, citing a magazine article which suggested he was at odds with President Bush's policy toward Iran.

US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates says nothing will change.

When asked if today's announcement might be interpreted as a move closer toward military action against Iran, Gates said, "that's ridiculous, just ridiculous. ... The notion that this portends anything in change of Iran policy is, to quote myself, ridiculous."

Watch the Bush rhetoric very, very closely.

H/T liberal catnip and reader Cat.