Crazy by any other name is still crazy

Amid Haiti's decent into Hell, we see our old friends Pat "Gays caused 9/11" Robertson and Rush "Take the bone out of your nose" Limbaugh once again overflowing with the rancid milk of compassionate conservatism.

From CNN:

Robertson, the host of the "700 Club," blamed the tragedy on something that "happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it."
The Haitians "were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever," Robertson said on his broadcast Wednesday. "And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, 'We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.' True story. And so, the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' "
Native Haitians defeated French colonists in 1804 and declared independence.
"You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other."

Video here


Not to be outdone, Limbaugh, the secular Tweedledum to Robertson's Tweedledee, said the whole Trying-to-save-some-lives-Haiti thing was just a political stunt by Barack Obama:

From TPM

Limbaugh, on the other hand, suggested that the Obama administration would use contributions to the Red Cross to gather information about donors.
"Would you trust that the money is going to go to Haiti?" Limbaugh said. "Would you trust that your name is going to end up on a mailing list for the Obama people to start asking you for campaign donations for him and other causes?"
He also said Obama was so quick to begin assistance to Haiti in order to boost his "credibility with the black community, in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country."

Now, I've calmed down sufficiently since first reading these comments that I no longer advocate nailing Pat Robertson's testicles to a plank and nailing the plank to a slow moving train crawling through Port-Au-Prince, though I think the Rude Pundit might be onto a good way to make the gruesome twosome of some use.

I've argued elsewhere (comment 32) that everyone has their role to play in society, even if only as a bad example - In the case of Rush Limbaugh for instance, we at least have a walking, waddling, talking, bloviating, living specimen of the perfect braying asshole, a textbook example of the kind of person you can point to and say to your kids, "Don't ever be like that."

Reasonable people can disagree as to whether Rush's mouth should, in the immortal words of Wammo, simply be filled in with cement -- I know, there's that whole "freedom of speech" thing to consider, but in the case of Pat Robertson I have to ask: If his constantly hyperoffensive comments weren't couched in religious terms, wouldn't he be in an institution by now?

How crazy does someone have to be before the authorities come around and throw a net over them? If he were blaming the earthquake in Haiti on giant cockroaches from Venus or claiming the voices in his head were those of the mole-people living under Idaho communicating with him telepathically, he would have been put away by now in a little room and dress in a nice white coat with extra-long sleeves. But since he ties all his crazy to Jesus and has managed to convince a bunch of idiots to send him a lot of money, our society doesn't consider him mentally ill.

It seems as long as you claim it's a matter of religious belief, you can pretty much do or say whatever you want, whether it's marry a half-dozen 15-year-olds, beat your spouse, refuse to eat pork, eschew the use of technology, keep and handle poisonous snakes or wage war to ethnically cleanse a patch of desert you claim is promised to you in your holy book. No one dares to call you crazy, no one is allowed to snicker at your heartfelt belief that the position of the entrails of the dead bird foretell the future or that the bread and wine magically become the body of a long dead teacher.

As long as you can tie your particular brand of crazy to a religion, you aren't a fruitcake, you're a "person of faith."

Don't misunderstand me, I don't necessarily think that anyone who believes in a god or gods is necessarily crazy or that all religious belief must be stamped out - I'm merely questioning why the western notion of religious freedom that originally meant that the state would not dictate
which church you wouldl be forced to attend or ban minority religions has somehow come to be a free pass for all manner of anti-social behavior. I don't care if your religion tell you not to eat shellfish or get an abortion or have your body put up on a pillar to eaten by vultures when you die, but as soon as your beliefs start to impinge on others, whether through denying blood transfusions to children too young to make a properly informed decision or harrassing people entering Red Lobster (or Planned Parenthood) or banning books from libraries because they contain words or ideas that offend your religious sensibilities or burning "witches" --your right to religious tolerance ends.

Do you think Al-Quaida would be able to recruit people to blow themselves up for purely secular reasons? Would society have put up with an organization that protected serial child-rapists if that organization had been a network of peewee hockey leagues instead of the Catholic Church? Why is it that celebrity pastor Rick Warren's megachurch doesn't have to pay taxes whether it makes a profit or not, but the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders must prove they aren't turning a profit in order to keep their tax-free status?

Some would argue that religious organizations of whatever denomination or affliation offer spiritual and emotional comfort to people in their lives, but, I would argue, so do distilleries, movie theaters, brothel and the Grateful Dead. Why should churches get a tax break?

If some guy in the park tell you he gets radio messages in his head from the 23rd dimension or that he hears the voice of Nicolai Tesla or Napoleon in his head telling him to do things, or that he can give people he doesn't like cancer just by thinking about it or put a curse on you, you rightly assume that he is probably schizophrenic or suffering from some other form of mental illness. But George Bush, the Pope and Pat Robertson - and thousands, if not millions, of others - all claim to that god has spoken to them and that He has answered their prayers or guided their actions or cured someone's illness at their request and they are respected, even lauded, for their faith and piety.

It is enough to make one question our societal commitment to science and reason.

"One man's theology is another man's belly laugh"
-Robert Heinlein

Still, it is reassuring to see that some people have their priorities in order. What a fiend we have in Jesus!

Murder at Gitmo

HARPER'S MAGAZINE has a frightening report by Scott Horton, titled 'The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle'. According to Scott, the interrogation of 3 prisoners resulted in death by asphyxiation. The U.S. media has been ignoring the problem, but it's not going away, and it's going to turn into one hell of a spicy meatball:

Furthermore, new evidence now emerging may entangle Obama’s young administration with crimes that occurred during the George W. Bush presidency, evidence that suggests the current administration failed to investigate seriously—and may even have continued—a cover-up of the possible homicides of three prisoners at Guantánamo in 2006.

Late on the evening of June 9 that year, three prisoners at Guantánamo died suddenly and violently. Salah Ahmed Al-Salami, from Yemen, was thirty-seven. Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi, from Saudi Arabia, was thirty. Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani, also from Saudi Arabia, was twenty-two, and had been imprisoned at Guantánamo since he was captured at the age of seventeen. None of the men had been charged with a crime, though all three had been engaged in hunger strikes to protest the conditions of their imprisonment. They were being held in a cell block, known as Alpha Block, reserved for particularly troublesome or high-value prisoners.

So far, Slate has picked it up, and a growing number of independent US bloggers, as well as the European press. The cover-up reads like a bad Murder She Wrote script. Meanwhile, Omar sits there . . .

Civil Rights and Wrongs

THE INTERNATIONAL FREE PRESS SOCIETY is a spin-off of the Danish Free Press Society. They took their name from the Society that was established in 1835 when the adherents of free speech feared encroachment by the State. The old Society was dissolved in 1849 in recognition of Denmark’s first democratic constitution that guaranteed the freedom of expression. Today, however, free speech is again being threatened, primarily by religious and ideological interests and international pressure groups. For this reason they have found is necessary to re-establish the Society. They have a policy statement for your perusal, here.

Well, their site notes the start of the trial of Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders on charges related to his political campaign to stop and reverse the Islamization of the Netherlands. The article, titled "The Trial of Geert Wilders: A Symposium" has the opinions of an array of legal experts, authors and journalists to reflect on this momentous event.

Maybe Mr. Wilders is guilty of being a sumbitch bigot, maybe he's not. Personally, I thought the cartoons were hilarious, and the idea that in the 21st century, that some people feel entitled to visit mayhem upon the cartoonists is an obscenity, and an obscenity worse than anything that could be drawn by a pen. Maybe the wogs really do start at Calais.

Holding the bully's coat in Haiti

The Haitian government has signed a memorandum of understanding formally transferring control of the Port-au-Prince airport to the US. From the Guardian :

"Flights seeking permission to land continuously circle the airport, which is small, damaged and with a single runway, rankling several governments and aid agencies. "There are 200 flights going in and out every day, which is an incredible amount for a country like Haiti," Jarry Emmanuel, air logistics officer for the UN's World Food Programme, told the New York Times.

"But most of those flights are for the United States military. Their priorities are to secure the country. Ours are to feed. We have got to get those priorities in sync."

France ­protested when an emergency field hospital was turned back.
The foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said the airport was not for the international community but "an annexe of Washington", according to France's ambassador to Haiti, Didier Le Bret.
Brazil was also indignant when three flights were not allowed to land.

The Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières complained about flights with medical staff and equipment which were re-directed to the neighbouring Dominican Republic."

Obstructing assistance from other countries, sending in the military, ... right about now I'm guessing you're remembering the US relief efforts in New Orleans following Katrina.

Toronto Sun : Canada to take lead building 'New Haiti'

On January 25th, given he has nothing else to do til the Owelympic photo event, Steve is hosting a Haiti 'reconstruction' conference in Montreal for leaders from 16 countries which make up the Group of Friends of Haiti . While you're at it, here's something you guys can reconstruct ...

"In 1995, the IMF forced Haiti to cut its rice tariff from 35% to 3%, leading to a 95%increase in rice-dumping from the United States. As a 2008 Jubilee USA report notes, although the country had once been a net exporter of rice, "by 2005, three out of every four plates of rice eaten in Haiti came from the US."

During this period, USAID invested heavily in Haiti, but this charity came not in the form of grants to develop Haiti's agricultural infrastructure, but in direct food aid, furthering Haiti's dependence on foreign assistance while also funneling money back to US agribusiness."

Six years ago Canadian troops held down the Port-au-Prince airport while US troops deported the democratically elected Aristide to Africa. Apparently our preferred government for Haiti consisted of former Tonton Macoutes.

Peter Hallward in The Guardian :

The international community has been effectively ruling Haiti since the 2004 coup. The same countries scrambling to send emergency help to Haiti now, however, have during the last five years consistently voted against any extension of the UN mission's mandate beyond its immediate military purpose.

Proposals to divert some of this "investment" towards poverty reduction or agrarian development have been blocked, in keeping with the long-term patterns that continue to shape the distribution of international "aid"."

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

With condolences and respect to the family and friends of Sergeant John Faught, the 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. Killed due to enemy action.

Ric-A-Dam-Doo

Starry, starry night

MICHAEL YON is an enterprising and intrepid reporter who has been out in Afghanistan for a number of years, covering that sorry situation that the troops are contending with. A few months back, I posted his coverage of British troops in their efforts to pacify their assigned areas. Currently, his site has some astounding pictures of U.S. artillerymen working their 155 mm howitzer beneath the stars.

This is not just simple barrage-work:

Calculations for shots are extremely complex and include dozens of factors, such as windspeed, barometric pressure, humidity, altitude of the gun and the target, temperature, and the earth’s rotation, and the specific lot number of the ammunition. Every gun is different and so the calculations for one gun would lose accuracy in another. The guns are brutal and rugged, but also high-tech, precision machines that took centuries of science, engineering and experience to reach the current state.

Sometimes missions are pre-planned, while at other times crews must wait close to the guns for hours, even days, without a break. There was some base in Iraq—I went there with CSM Jeff Mellinger but have forgotten where it was—and the base was taking rocket or mortar fire on a frequent basis from a certain area. And so the cannoneers slept just next to the guns, and finally the enemy fired and was killed because the guns were pointed at the exact predicted firing point. The cannoneers just loaded and counter-fired and finished them. Probably few people on base realized that the “cannon cockers” had conducted an ambush-by-howitzer. (Maybe the crew who was there will recall this and set the facts straight.)

Sometimes the crews fire “H & I” or “terrain denial” missions. Harassment and Interdiction missions are fired at terrain known to be used only by the enemy at certain times, and so anytime the enemy feels like rolling the dice, they can move into that terrain. Such missions also provide influence for “shaping” the battlefield. If the commander is trying to flush the enemy into a blunder—maybe an ambush—or maybe to cut them off from an escape route, he can have the guns pound into a gorge, say, that is used as an enemy route. Or maybe he just tries to persuade the enemy to take a route where we have sniper teams waiting. The battery can be used in many ways that do not include direct attacks on enemy formations.

Bamboo Bikes

DER SPIEGEL has an interesting article on bicycles that are greener than average, because their frames are fabricated from bamboo and hemp fibers and resin. Originally big-buck high-tech enthusiast items, they are moving to the third world as a cost-effective method of manufacture.

Carbon fiber and aluminum are so 2009. This year's best bicycling model is made out of bamboo and hemp. A new generation of manufacturers are coming up with some of the most environmentally friendly transport yet. Lighter, stronger, more comfortable and these bikes have also got a much smaller carbon footprint.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

OH, HOW I LOVE THE NFB. Stevie probably hates it, but what the hell does he know? Anyway, the good folks at the NFB have posted The Cat Came Back! Cordell Barker is so brilliant.

Enjoy!

Freedom of Speech

A MODEST CONSTRUCT is an interesting blog I just found. Created by Ben Gunnink [a.k.a. Heliologue] who proclaims that he lives out the phrase “specialization is for insects,” with interests ranging from literature to computer science, linguistics to physics, music to philosophy. 

Anyway, he has a very interesting video clip of Christopher Hitchens, defending free speech, taped at a debate at Hart House, in 2006.

Worth listening to.

Facebook Wars - by the numbers

Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament - 155,000
Canadians Who Don't Care if Harper is Proroguing Parliament - 163
I Support the Prorogation of Parliament and the Prime Minister of Canada -713

Stephen Harper - 29,452
Michael Ignatieff - 28,822
Jack Layton - 27,697

and just to be a cow about it :
Canadians Against a Liberal/NDP Coalition Gov't - 126,681
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When Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament started up on Facebook last week, supporters of last year's Canadians Against a Liberal/NDP Coalition Gov't were all very dissy about it : We got 127,000 members in less than a week - crowed BloggingTory Stephen Taylor - the largest Canadian FB group evah!
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Of course now that CAPP membership has topped 155,000, they've gone all 'well fuck facebook then', with the National Post plumping for the 163 Canadians Who Don't Give a Rat's Ass About It.
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As CC has already pointed out, it's the prorogue FB support group that are of course the actual competition to CAPP and not the old anti-coalition group, but Susan Delacourt highlights an important difference between anti-prorogue group and the anti-coalition group for us anyway (h/t Dammit Janet) :

"This new Facebook group is counting on people to educate themselves about parliamentary tradition, practice and principle. The old Facebook group was organized around the notion of 'never mind parliamentary rules about majority/minority and confidence, this thing is wrong.'

In other words, you have to understand basic rules of Parliament to understand why this prorogation is unusual; you had to ignore parliamentary rules to argue the coalition was wrong."

And right there Susan Delacourt nails the basic difference between progressives and the ReformaTories.
Well, that and the lying.

EDIT : Perhaps the Con supporters happily joining the Don't Care FB group should take another look at the Admin's statement. I hadn't and have now edited this post accordingly, taking out my snarky renaming of his site as "Don't Give a Rat's Ass About Democracy".

Why have a Parliament anyway?

Roy MacGregor, while largely acknowledging that Stephen Harper seem to have little but contempt for Parliament, insists that no one but Parliament Hill reporters and opposition MPs much cares about prorogation, which is hard to pronounce and just plain boooooring. Few people care about what Parliament does at the best of times, opines MacGregor, Canadians have "tuned out."

Gee, Roy, should we even bother with having a Parliament? Tell us, is it good for anything?

"What, one panel asked the other night, if there was "a national emergency"? Well, depending on what that may entail - a big snowfall in Toronto? Denmark invading Hans Island? - presumably they would get back to work and do whatever might be necessary.
An argument can be made, on the other hand, that this country runs quite smoothly when Parliament is not in session. Rare indeed is the Canadian political crisis that comes along in summer or over the long Christmas break - or, for that matter, during prorogations.
It can even be suggested that the country runs best under a prime minister who treats it as a part-time job."

"A national emergency in Canada? That's unpossible!"

Yeah, forget that Canada has almost 9% unemployment, that the economy is in dire shape, that we are mired in a pointless war halfway around the world with no end in sight or that the government ordered our military to hand over prisoners to be beaten and tortured - especially that last part. No one cares but a bunch reporters and nerds on the internet!

Besides, burning stick soon come!

MacGregor should stick to what he's good at-- writing about hockey--and leave the political commentary to people that understand that democracy is not a just a minor inconvenience that takes up valuable space in the newspaper that could be used for sports stories.

Refreshing

IN A WORLD OF STEVIE, OCTO-MOM AND THE BALLOON BOY, Jessica Watson is delightfully refreshing. She's an adventurous sixteen year-old who is sailing round the world solo, to set a record for the youngest to do so.

Roger Sandall is a Sydney writer, with a perspective on her attempt, following the efforts of Joshua Slocum, 1844–1909, who was the first to circumnavigate solo. Even today, with GPS, and better boats, it's still no walk in the park.

Jessica’s plainly a nice kid and having a great time — but is she well-advised? When New Zealand-born mum Julie said on television that sailing around Cape Horn was no more dangerous than crossing the street (or did she say that crossing the street was more dangerous?) you began to wonder. Is there something in the water? Or is it just the Antipodal Mind?

Then there’s Sir Francis Chichester. Both a solo flier in the 1930s and a solo round-the-world sailor in 1966-67, he wrote that the thought of Cape Horn “not only frightened me, but I think it would be fair to say that it terrified me. The accounts of the storms there are, quite simply, terrifying… I told myself for a long time that anyone who tried to round the Horn in a small yacht must be crazy. Of the eight yachts I knew to have attempted it, (this was back in 1966, RS) six had been capsized or somersaulted, before, during, or after the passage…”

Not a picnic. Not like crossing the road.

Jessica has her own blog, and thanks to satellites, keeps us posted:

Thursday, January 7, 2010
Closing on the Cape
Thanks for being patient waiting for the next blog. My great shore team will always post an update when I don't have the time to.

The wind hit 40 knots again on Tuesday which kept life interesting and a little bouncy. Since then it's steadily dropped off to my current 8 knots today, which is really only just enough to keep us moving, slowly!

In typical Southern Ocean style, the visibility hasn't been great with almost constant light, misty drizzle and not the slightest hint of a clear sky. But no complaints from me. Like I've said before, in its own way it's just as pretty as sunshine and blue water. Looking at it another way, you could always say that at least the low visibility means that you can see very little of the bad weather!

The good news is that I was able to fix the little problem with the mainsheet block easily. But the bad news is that despite spending yesterday morning trying to fix the heater, it still won't play nice! Oh well, on the scale of things the heater not working really isn't much of a problem, just one of those optional extras.

I'm really starting to get pretty excited about Cape Horn as we're getting so close now, with just over 500nm to go!

That's going to have to be it from me today as my fingers as are pretty keen to slip back into some nice warm gloves!

You go, girl!

True Believers

The two thousand member Baptist church was filled to overflowing capacity one Sunday morning. The preacher was ready to start the sermon when two men, dressed in long black coats and black hats entered thru the rear of the church. 

One of the two men walked to the middle of the church while the other stayed at the back of the church. They both then reached under their coats and withdrew automatic weapons. 

The one in the middle announced, "Everyone willing to take a bullet for Jesus stay in your seats!" 

Naturally, the pews emptied, followed by the choir. The deacons ran out the door, followed by the choir director and the assistant pastor. 

After a few moments, there were about twenty people left sitting in the church. The preacher was holding steady in the pulpit. 

The men put their weapons away and said, gently, to the preacher, "All right, pastor, the hypocrites are gone now. You may begin the service."

100,000 Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament

and counting ...

Go.

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Time to get this movement beyond just signing up on Facebook though.

Colin's Blog has started NoProrogue.ca to keep us up to speed on planned events and he's looking for contributors.

Pale from ACR already has a good one up on how the media is not our friend here.

Got your own personal video message for Steve? Colin will put it up on NoProrogue.ca for you.

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GO. (h/t Section 15)

A Prorogue Break

WE HAVE AN ABOMINATION for a government, and it's really pissing me off.  So, I'd like to present something that looks really neat and clever, as a break from the ghastliness of Stevie.

It seems that a Singapore outfit, HORIZON FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGIES, has developed some really practical hydrogen fuel cells that people like you and me can actually afford. Not only that, but you won't need cryogenic H2 storage and an account with your local compressed gas supplier. Their stuff looks neat, too.

Horizon's HYDROPAK provides significantly more energy stored at a lower cost, reduced weight, and smaller size then today's existing battery-based portable emergency power devices. Its recyclable dry fuel cartridge overcomes the logistics and supply infrastructure for hydrogen, since the HydroPAK system is able to generate its own hydrogen when needed, once users add water to the cartridge. No hydrogen is ever stored in the HYDROPAK or its cartridges since the HYDROPAK produces hydrogen on request. When the system is turned off, there is no hydrogen in the system.

The unique HYDROPAK water-activated cartridge system:
Provides long shelf life when stored dry, with no self-discharge
Can run indoors with no harmful emissions (no carbon monoxide, no carbon dioxide)
Is quieter, lighter and smaller than generators
Stores significantly more energy than batteries at a lower cost and less weight
At 30W-50W the HydroPAK is the world's lowest cost fuel cell portable device

The suggested retail price has been set at $650/unit initially, and $40 for each cartridge. 

"Democracy and Parliament not side-stepped, only suspended"

with a little help from their friends ....

We would like to thank Con MP Brent Rathgeber for that lovely explanation of Steve's contempt for parliament - first ignoring its will and then proroguing it - and move on to how the media props up that contempt by ignoring it.

As pointed out by POGGE here and here, CBC and CTV/CanWest both blew their year-end interviews with Steve.
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Mansbridge took a stab at getting some explanation from Steve on why he prorogued parliament but then allows Steve to blow him off with bafflegab about how Canadians don't care about it anyway. The question Mansbridge should have asked is why Steve is ignoring a parliamentary motion to hand over unredacted documents on the Afghan detainees and did he shut down parliament to avoid doing so?
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At least Mansbridge gave it a shot. In their year end interview, the CTV/CanWest tagteam of John Ivison and David Akin don't even mention proroguing or detainees, never mind ignoring the will of parliament. They just skip the whole friggin thing.

Here's the opening question from their interview which ran in the National Post, :

IVISON: "Prime Minister, it seems there is not going to be much for us to write about, unless there are Senate appointments in our near future."

Yup, year end review, not much goin' on in Canada right now. What ever will they write about?
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In his blog entry : Interviewing Harper: What to ask? Why not ask about prorogation? David Akin explains that Mansbidge already covered that issue - no, David, clearly he did not - and that they did not have much time to ask questions that could be rewritten up by their affiliate papers :

"[T]he goal for Canwest, at least, is to leave the interview with a story that the local editors of the Vancouver Sun, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen and other Canwest papers would find interesting enough that they would make (valuable) space for in their papers."

Yet within that admittedly short 13 minutes there was apparently ample time for questions like this :

AKIN: Do (you) see yourself in a decade -- you may not be prime minister -- do you see a career for yourself after this? I don't sense you're the board of directors type but I don't know, maybe you are -- an academic? What do you want to do? Where are you in a decade?"

Steve in a decade? Who gives a rat's ass? We want to know where our parliament is right now. Akin responds in comments at Pogge's.

Happily the conservative US UK mag The Economist, in two separate articles, goes straight to the heart of what the Canadian media mostly ignores :
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Harper goes prorogue

Parliamentary scrutiny may be tedious, but democracies cannot afford to dispense with it
Never mind what his spin doctors say: Mr Harper’s move looks like naked self-interest. His officials faced grilling by parliamentary committees over whether they misled the House of Commons in denying knowledge that detainees handed over to the local authorities by Canadian troops in Afghanistan were being tortured.

A legislature matters more than the luge.

Mr Harper is a competent tactician with a ruthless streak. He bars most ministers from talking to the media; he has axed some independent watchdogs; he has binned campaign promises to make government more open and accountable. Now he is subjecting Parliament to prime-ministerial whim. He may be right that most Canadians care more about the luge than the legislature, but that is surely true only while their decent system of government is in good hands. They may soon conclude that it isn’t.

and

Canada without Parliament - Halted in mid-debate

Stephen Harper is counting on Canadians’ complacency as he rewrites the rules of his country’s politics to weaken legislative scrutiny.
The danger in allowing the prime minister to end discussion any time he chooses is that it makes Parliament accountable to him rather than the other way around.

It is now up to [the opposition] to show that Canada cannot afford a part-time Parliament that sits only at the prime minister’s pleasure.

One would think it would also be a matter of some concern to the Fourth Estate.

Meanwhile, CANADIANS AGAINST PROROGUING PARLIAMENT - 92,000 and counting

On Facebook .
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Rick Mercer drives one home

From 22 Days of Snow Days:

"It is ironic that while our parliament has been suspended we are a nation at war. On New Year's Eve we greeted the news that five Canadians were killed in a single day with sadness but not surprise. We are at war because ostensibly we are helping bring democracy to Afghanistan. How the mission is progressing is open for debate but this much is certain – at present there is a parliament in Afghanistan that it is very much open for business. Canada has no such institution.

In Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's government faces fierce opposition at every turn; many of his cabinet choices have been rejected in a secret ballot by the more than 200 parliamentarians that sit in the legislature. Simply closing parliament down and operating without their consent is not an option for Hamid Karzai; to do so would be blatantly undemocratic or at the very least downright Canadian. If Hamid Karzai suspended parliament on a whim we might be forced to ask why Canadians are dying to bring democracy to that country.

Stephen Harper doesn't have that problem. The Parliament of Canada has been suspended for no other reason than the prime minister simply can't be bothered with the relentless checks and balances that democracy affords us. He doesn't want to have to stand in the House of Commons and hear anyone question him on any subject. I don't blame him. Parliament is filled with jackals, opportunists and boors. The problem is, like it or not, they were elected.

I also don't blame the Prime Minister for wanting to keep his ministers out of the spotlight. This is a prime minister who could argue he is Canada's greenest PM simply because he's the only one who has gone out of his way to give potted plants key portfolios.

The problem is he is the one who appointed Cabinet and like it or not they are supposed to be accountable. A minister's job is not to hide in their riding; it is to be accountable in Ottawa – or at least that was the promise. This prime minister has gone from the promise of an open, accessible and accountable government to a government that is simply closed.

It is too bad that prorogation isn't something that our soldiers have in their arsenal. When faced with the order to head out on a foot patrol in the Panjwaii district of southern Afghanistan, to risk their lives to bring democracy to that place, wouldn't it be nice if they could simply prorogue and roll over and go back to sleep. Soldiers don't get that luxury. That is afforded only to the people who ultimately order them to walk down those dangerous dusty roads in the first place."

Thank you, Rick Mercer
I would quibble with "we are a nation at war" and that we are "helping bring democracy to Afghanistan" - but let those who use those words in defence of our rogue prime minister eat them now.

Media blackout in North America

You would think that 528 people from 17 countries in a 150-vehicle convoy carrying hundreds of tons of humanitarian supplies all the way across Europe to Gaza would rate at least one line somewhere in the North American press, wouldn't you? But you would be wrong.

You can read about the Viva Palestina convoy in Europe, China, Iran, Malaysia and Brunei; you can even read about it in Israel and Egypt; you just can't read about it in the North American press.

The story has hardly lacked for drama.
In December Egypt refused the convoy entry to Gaza unless it first obtained permission from Israel. 85 year old convoy participant and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein began a hunger strike in protest.

There's a nice business story in there too - Israel and Egypt held the #1 and #2 top spots for US military aid until Iraq took over that honour in 2004. Israel must spend 75% of its $3-billion a year in US aid on military hardware made in the USA.

And for a local angle - as related in comments at Creekside, a Canadian from the Gulf Islands is on that convoy and yet I can't find the expected CBC interview anywhere.

Crickets. Why is that?
I'm guessing that business angle above has trumped every other possible viewpoint and trickled down to put everyone off.

The convoy is due to enter Gaza tonight to deliver its 150 vehicles filled with medical and humanitarian aid.
Unlike the North American press, you can follow their story here, with detailed updates from the UK contingent here.
Buy a t-shirt in support here.

Once more unto the breach...

Last posting from me for some time.

For some reason I have an urge to spend some time crashing through northern ocean gales in Winter.

OK. I have no such urge. But it feels better if I think it's my own idea.

So, anything I was going to do to update the blog and perhaps perform some general maintenance won't happen until sometime in the future.

Stay warm.

Wish you were here

Via Impolitical, who suggests a companion pic of the opposition parties showing up on Jan 25th as originally scheduled to fill the opposition benches would make a very strong statement against the rogue PM.

Travers, today :

"Last year ministers threatened to go over the head of the de facto head of state if Governor General Michaëlle Jean allowed a coalition of "Liberals, socialists and separatist" to use their Commons majority to topple his minority.

[That would be Baird here]

This winter Harper is essentially making the argument that Parliament is getting in the way of his government governing."

Responding to news of the prorogation in his New Years letter, Michael Ignatieff writes :

"Canadians are rightly starting to wonder if Conservatives intend to shut down government whenever things don’t go their way.

I’ll be spending the first few months of the year reaching out, travelling from coast to coast, holding town-hall meetings, web forums and small gatherings to hear from Canadians first-hand ...

On March 26 to 28, 2010, some of Canada’s leading progressive thinkers and doers will gather in Montreal for a conference entitled Canada at 150: Rising to the Challenge. They will be part of a national conversation about the Canada we want to be in 2017 when we celebrate our 150th birthday..."

Dear Iggy, Wish you were here too.
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