This man was in charge of our military, once

Paul Hellyer's decades-long slide into dementia continues:

A former Canadian defense minister is demanding governments worldwide disclose and use secret alien technologies obtained in alleged UFO crashes to stem climate change, a local paper said Wednesday.

"I would like to see what (alien) technology there might be that could eliminate the burning of fossil fuels within a generation ... that could be a way to save our planet," Paul Hellyer, 83, told the Ottawa Citizen.

Alien spacecrafts would have traveled vast distances to reach Earth, and so must be equipped with advanced propulsion systems or used exceptional fuels, he told the newspaper.

[...]

Hellyer became defense minister in former prime minister Lester Pearson's cabinet in 1963, and oversaw the controversial integration and unification of Canada's army, air force and navy into the Canadian Forces.

More here. (Note that AFP says Hellyer "shocked Canadians...by announcing he once saw a UFO," while the Sun says he hasn't actually seen one.)

Damian P.

Tax Suzuki's carbon dioxide emissions

His words, that is.

If the Canada Revenue Agency is not politically biased, their chance to prove it is now.

Last Friday, David Suzuki launched a partisan political attack against the federal Conservatives in front of a group of Calgary elementary school kids, no less.

The renowned environmentalist savaged Prime Minister Stephen Harper in front of a gymnasium full of kindergarten to Grade 6 students, who raised $835 for Suzuki's self-named charitable foundation.

"The only thing (Harper) cares about is getting re-elected with a majority government," ranted Suzuki.

That most of those kids would have no clue who Harper is, didn't matter to Suzuki. He knew he had a soap box and insisted on using it for political purposes.

He admitted as much when he said some of his message was directed at the parents and teachers in the room, because the children don't vote and Harper doesn't care about them.

Suzuki was essentially urging those listening not to vote Conservative. That makes his message partisan and should exempt the David Suzuki Foundation from receiving tax deductible status...

More on St. David:

Little Miss Apocalypse

David Suzuki's willing use of children to promote his 'ecophobic' terror of the end of the world is reprehensible

Mark C.

Gen. Hillier on radio, TV

A post at The Torch here, with my summary of the radio interview and links to audio and video clips. The CPAC interview will be rebroadcast March 1,2 and 4.

Mark C.

The world will end at midnight (12:30 in Newfoundland)

It's all over in 2012, according to the Daily Mail. No point contributing to that RRSP, then.

Damian P.

Sideshow Iggy

Obviously, Michael Ignatieff had some gaffes left over from his leadership campaign and didn't want them to go to waste:

At a news conference before the vote, Maureen Basnicki, (pictured with daughter, Erica) whose husband Ken was among two dozen Canadian victims of the 9/11 al-Qaeda attacks, urged MPs to "stop playing politics" and to "vote with their conscience and not with their party."

Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said he sympathized with terror victims but labelled their appearance during the debate as "just a sideshow," prompting an angry response from Basnicki.

"Sideshow? I was a victim of terrorism. My husband was murdered. I don't like to be a victim of politics. The issue here is the security of Canadians," Basnicki remarked. [Hat Tip: Brian Hoskins]

Damian P.

Sanctions that work

David Ignatius says imposing "law enforcement measures" against rogue states' financial institutions is proving effective:

Treasury applied the new tools to North Korea in September 2005, when it put a bank in Macao called Banco Delta Asia on the blacklist. There was no legal proceeding -- just a notice in the Federal Register summarizing the evidence: Banco Delta Asia had been providing illicit financial services to North Korean government agencies and front companies for more than 20 years, according to the Treasury notice. The little Macao bank had helped the North Koreans feed counterfeit $100 bills into circulation, had laundered money from drug deals and had financed cigarette smuggling. North Korea "pays a fee to Banco Delta Asia for financial access to the banking system with little oversight or control," Treasury alleged.

Wham! The international payments window shut almost instantly on Pyongyang's pet bank. Transactions with U.S. entities stopped, but the Treasury announcement also put other countries on notice to beware of Banco Delta Asia. The Macao banking authorities, realizing that they needed the oxygen of the international financial system to survive, took regulatory action on their own and froze the bank's roughly $24 million in North Korean assets. And around Asia, banks began looking for possible links to North Korean front companies -- and shutting them down.

A similar financial squeeze is being applied to Iran. Here again, the impact has come from the way private financial institutions have reacted to public pressure from Treasury. "As banks do their risk-reward analysis, they must now take into account the very serious risk of doing business in Iran, and what the risks would be if they were found to be part of a terrorist or proliferation transaction," says Kimmitt.

Damian P.

Angelina in the Post

Angelina Jolie has a piece about Darfur in today's Washington Post:

I've seen how aid workers and nongovernmental organizations make a difference to people struggling for survival. I can see on workers' faces the toll their efforts have taken. Sitting among them, I'm amazed by their bravery and resilience. But humanitarian relief alone will never be enough.

Until the killers and their sponsors are prosecuted and punished, violence will continue on a massive scale. Ending it may well require military action. But accountability can also come from international tribunals, measuring the perpetrators against international standards of justice.

Accountability is a powerful force. It has the potential to change behavior -- to check aggression by those who are used to acting with impunity. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has said that genocide is not a crime of passion; it is a calculated offense. He's right. When crimes against humanity are punished consistently and severely, the killers' calculus will change.

I'm as cynical about Hollywood activism as the next guy, and some would say her faith in the International Criminal Court is naive at best, but I think Jolie deserves a lot of credit for speaking out about the first genocide of the 21st century.

Damian P.

To heck with security, they need the votes

For Liberals, politics trumps everything; why worry about security? Jonathan Kay weighs in:

...Even if Bains' father-in-law has nothing to do with Dion's decision to oppose national security legislation that his own party drafted just five years ago, there is little doubt that certain ethnopolitical special interests are calling the shots here. Among veteran Liberal insiders, it is believed that the several hundred Sikh convention delegates Bains and his allies led into the Dion camp (via Gerard Kennedy) came with a price: an end to the investigative powers contained in the Anti-Terrorism Act, which was opposed for predictable reasons by various Sikh, Tamil and Muslim organizations.

[...]

No reasonable person opposes the participation of ethnic minorities in Canadian politics. What we should oppose, however, is ethnic delegates being manoeuvred en masse from one political camp to another by community leaders or their proxies.

[...]

Today, Parliament is expected to vote on the expiring Anti-Terrorism Act provisions. And if everything goes to script, a whipped Liberal caucus will stand with the peacenik extremists in the Bloc and NDP to water down our national security -- all to cement dubious intra- Liberal alliances. It will be interesting to see how many Liberals (if any) have the guts to stand up to Dion, who's declared that he won't sign the nomination papers of any dissenters [two Liberals had the guts, conscience, whatever--Irwin Cotler abstained and Tom Wappel voted with the government--a great party or what? - MC]...

Read the whole piece--lots of juicy details on ethnic and religious group machinations.

Mark C.

Update: "Sideshow Iggy". He's focused.

Upperdate: From Chuckercanuck:

The worst of his [Mr Kay's] allegations, to my mind, is calling Gerard Kennedy an empty vessel that drew ethnic politickers who saw a lump of clay primed for them to mold. Gerard Kennedy is not an empty vessel - he has a bold vision for the country. Remember, he wanted to make Canada the "first International Nation". You know, the kind of country that has no national interest and cedes its foreign policy to a hundred little lobby groups who, as Paul Martin would say with some admiration, "know how to defend themselves"...

Uppestdate: M. Dion responds to Mr Kay.

CSI: East Berlin

Even in East Germany, they had cheesy cop shows. Here's the 1980s version, with an insanely catchy theme song. (Note: the videos only seem to work in Internet Explorer.)

Damian P.

Terror laws voted down

A few Liberals dissented, but the opposition parties - including the one that passed the legislation to begin with - voted against extending anti-terror laws for three more years:

A government bid to extend two controversial anti-terrorist measures was defeated 159 to 124 in the House of Commons Tuesday.

[...]

The Anti-Terrorist Act measures — preventive arrests and investigative hearings — contained a sunset clause which meant Parliament was required to review and extend them every three years. A vote in the Senate on the measures, which are set to expire on March 1, where the Liberals are in a large majority, now is a moot point.

The preventive arrest clause enables police to arrest suspects without warrant and detain them for several days without charge if authorities have reason to believe a terrorist act will be committed. The investigative hearings provision, meanwhile, allows judges to compel individuals to testify in terror cases.

Conservative and Liberal MPs played hardball politics right up to the last minute, with Liberal MPs Navdeep Bains and Omar Alghabra threatening Liberal party legal action against Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre for claiming Dion had “collapsed under the pressure” of extremists and terrorist sympathizers in his caucus.

Former justice minister Irwin Cotler abstained during the vote. And at least four of the dozen Liberals who were absent had said publicly the were against their party’s position: B.C. MPs Keith Martin and Don Bell and Toronto MPs Derek Lee and Roy Cullen.

Damian P.

Conservative Prime Minister appoints judges; dictatorship imminent

"Independent judiciary put in peril," screams a headline in Law Times. That's the opinion of the Canadian Judicial Council, according to Helen Burnett's story, but not everyone quoted therein agrees:

With respect to the changes to the committees, Edward Ratushny, a professor at the University of Ottawa law school, says that the appointment is really the decision of the governor in council, so the fact of whether the person is shown to be qualified or well qualified does not hinder them in appointing someone, as long as they reach this level.

“I think there should be a wide range of possible candidates for them to select from,” he says.

“If these changes mean that they’re going to slip people onto the qualified category who otherwise would not have been qualified, I think that would be very unfortunate.

“But I’m not sure that these changes would necessarily do that.”

Bob Tarantino dealt with this pseudo-controversy very effectively here. When did the CJC and the Canadian Bar Association (of which I am a member) suddenly become concerned about the Prime Minister's relatively unfettered discretion to appoint high court judges? Around February 6, 2006, I think.

Damian P.

Christ's tomb

The Anchoress has dozens of links about this story. She concludes that this is the Gospel of Judas, 2007 edition. (Remember the Gospel of Judas? No? It was only last year...)

I think this is a perfectly legitimate subject for scholarly inquiry, but I'd also like to see James Cameron show some real cojones and start digging into the life of Mohammed.

Damian P.

"That's one small step for man"

Rogers Cable in Ottawa now offers as part of its "VIP" package--as far as I can see only one step up from the basic digital package--two channels actually worth getting: Turner Classic Movies and
AMCTV

Of course, Rogers just took the Golf Channel off the package I have, just when the channel is covering many PGA Tour events live. Having received the Golf Channel without extra payment for about fifteen years, I REFUSE TO PAY MORE. Bastards.

If you want to see one account of what Neil Armstrong was scripted to have said on the moon, see here. At least Rogers wasn't around to have frustrated me over this giant swing for mankind.

Mark C.

Damian adds: if you're frustrated with your cable company, I once again recommend StarChoice.

Close call for Cheney

If the Kossacks HuffPosters appear to be in a pissy mood today - more than usual, I mean - it's probably because their Antichrist survived an attack by the brave Afghan resistance:

A homicide bomber attacked the entrance to the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan Tuesday during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, killing at least 14 people and wounding a dozen more. The Taliban claimed responsibility and said Cheney was the target.

Cheney's spokeswoman said he was fine, and the vice president later met with President Hamid Karzai in the capital, Kabul, before leaving the country.

There were conflicting reports on the death toll. Provincial Gov. Abdul Jabar Taqwa said 20 people were killed, while NATO said initial reports indicated three fatalities, including a U.S. soldier, a South Korean coalition soldier and a U.S. government contractor whose nationality wasn't immediately known. NATO said 27 people also were wounded.

[...]

Maj. William Mitchell said it did not appear the explosion was intended as a threat to the vice president. "He wasn't near the site of the explosion," Mitchell said. "He was safely within the base at the time of the explosion."

However, a purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said Cheney was the target of the attack.

"We knew that Dick Cheney would be staying inside the base," Ahmadi told AP telephone from an undisclosed location. "The attacker was trying to reach Cheney."

Strictly speaking, doesn't this mean Cheney can't be called a "chickenhawk" anymore?

Damian P.

Update: told ya.

Update II: Mark Steyn:

If [Cheney is] intending to "destroy constitutional government in this country", shouldn’t you get off your big Huff duff and join in, you lazy old armchair insurgent? What are you, a chickenhawk conspiracist? Why should it be left to a few brave patriots to dress up as a bunch of Pushtun goatherds and go liberate America from the Hitlerburton Reich?

[...]

What did you do in the Great War of Liberation, daddy?

I went to Starbucks and left a comment on Arianna’s blog.

I make a similar point on Shire Network News this week, also citing Shaidle's Theorem. (That is, if you genuinely believed your government was carrying out fake terror attacks in order to set up a totalitarian police state, you'd flee the country or take up arms instead of sitting around whining about it.)

Why she drives them crazy

Anne Applebaum on Ayaan Hirsi Ali:

Curiously, what seems to rankle Europeans most is the enthusiasm with which Hirsi Ali has adopted their own secularism and the fervor with which she has embraced their own Western values. Though this continent's intellectuals routinely disparage the pope as an irrelevant dinosaur, Hirsi Ali's rejection of religion in favor of reason, intellect and emancipation seems to make everyone nervous. Typical is the British feminist who complained that not only does Hirsi Ali paint "the whole of the Islamic world with one black brush," she also "paints the whole of the Western world with rosy tints," which is, of course, far more objectionable.

[...]

...In America, the phenomenon of the flag-waving first-generation immigrant is familiar. In Europe, such a thing is unknown. Maybe once Europeans get used to the idea -- a Muslim immigrant who embraces Western culture with the excitement of the convert! -- they'll like Hirsi Ali better. And if they're lucky, others will follow in her footsteps.

Hirsi Ali will be speaking in Toronto tomorrow evening. I wish I could be there.

Damian P.

A laugh every six minutes

[Posted, with some modifications, at Blogcritics.org]

There are five funny things in the first episode of The 1/2 Hour News Hour:

1. "Vice President" Ann Coulter made fun of her infamous "convert them to Christianity" line.

2. Iran denied that its Holocaust-denial conference ever happened, and even if it did, the number of people involved was grossly exaggerated.

3. Revelations that Barack Obama used cocaine dropped his approval rating among Democrats to 99 percent.

4-5. A guy selling Che Guevara T-shirts also had shirts featuring Idi Amin ("People: The Other White Meat") and Kim Jong-Il ("No Fat Chicks").

As for the rest of it, well...you know you're in trouble when the running gag is about Ed Begley, Junior. Who will be the target of such cutting satire next week? Sean Young?

Aside from the whole not-being-funny thing, the main problem with The 1/2 Hour News Hour is that it aims its satirical guns at Democrats and liberals - never Republicans and conservatives. By contrast, the left-leaning satirists at The Daily Show and Canada's This Hour Has 22 Minutes will sometimes make fun of people who share their politics - and do it better. (Compare 1/2 Hour's lame ACLU parody ads with this story from the decidedly leftist Onion.)

I also hoped The 1/2 Hour News Hour would poke fun at its own network's hyperbolic spin on the news, with garish graphics, bombastic music and sound effects, but the show's look is really quite understated. Fox-haters will undoubtedly be amused by the fact that its satirical show looks more like a "real" news channel than regular Fox News programming.

There are plenty of very funny conservative bloggers out there. Maybe Fox News should offer them some writing jobs.

Damian P.

Canadian Forces: Three things you need to know/Afghanistan roundup

Jack Granatstein outlines the basics.

1) Procurement costs:

...Consider the four C-17s the Harper government has agreed to buy. Each of the huge transports costs about $250-million. The accrual cost, again in round numbers, is $4-billion. Many Canadians remain unaware of the change in accounting methodology, and government rules (or practice) do not appear to permit explanation. So a $1-billion purchase of necessary equipment appears to many as a $4-billion boondoggle. It's not, but it's a hard sell for all of us whose eyes glaze over at the mention of accountants' rules. The answer, of course, is to explain defence purchases (and purchases in every other government department, as well) by making it clear that the total lifetime package is included in the announced sum.

2) Procurement precariousness:

The second problem is that the $17-billion in promised equipment purchases naturally enough makes Canadians believe money is flowing in a torrent to the military. So it is, but only after a fashion. Equipment purchases are never final until they are contracted, built, and put into the hands of the troops. Governments can change and, with them, priorities. The Navy needed helicopters to replace the aged Sea Kings back in the 1980s, and the contract for those machines was carved in stone -- until Jean Chrétien came to power in 1993 and killed the deal. In other words, it ain't over till it's over...

3) Operational and maintenance lunches eaten:

...No one can say with confidence what extra costs the Kandahar operation is imposing on the military, but they are substantial -- certainly well above $1-billion a year. Most of this money seems to be coming from the existing budgets of the Department of National Defence, and the difficulty is that the Army, Navy, and Air Force are being forced to scramble to keep themselves operating as funds (and personnel) are pared away to support the mission.

The Navy made the front pages a few weeks ago when it tied up ships in Halifax and Esquimalt because it had run out of operating funds in fiscal year 2006-07, and would not have any more until fiscal year 2007-08 began. That was an unwise, partly political, ploy by the Navy's commanders, to be sure, but the problem is all too real. The operations and maintenance budgets of all three service environments are stretched to the breaking point now...

Mr Granatstein's conclusion:

There is only one answer: The Harper government must supplement the Canadian Forces' operations and maintenance funding now. An emergency appropriation of $1-billion will keep the military running at home and keep the soldiers in Kandahar supplied with what they need. Anything less and the government risks destroying the kudos it has deservedly won for its efforts to rebuild the Forces. The military might not survive, either.

And for the longer run the conclusions of the Senate Committee Senate on National Security and Defence are equally valid. Defence spending needs to be almost doubled in real terms to around two percent of GDP. Heck, let's just spend as much as the Dutch.

As for Afghanistan itself, the UK is committing 1,400 more military personnel until 2009.

The UK says it is having to send more troops because of the reluctance of fellow Nato members' to send their forces to southern Afghanistan...

The 1,400 figure appears to be in addition to the extra battalion already announced to be sent.

And for more stupid, and tendentious, reporting from the journalist I love to slag (with an h/t to the Globe!):

"Bring back the Iltis".

Mark C.

Update: I wonder if our media will notice this:

"Afstan: ISAF fighting forces to be up 7,300/7,300".

Upperdate: Chief of the Land Staff, Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, describes what is keeping him awake at night. Note the reference to Prof. Michael Wallace, and double-check the Iltis link above.

Iran attack imminent? Unlikely

Captain Ed is skeptical of reports that the Bush Administration will soon launch military strikes against Iran:

...Dick Cheney says the option remains on the table, which it must to maintain a credible deterrent to the Iranian nuclear program, but otherwise the administration has done nothing to build political support for such a move. That lack of preparation clearly indicates that the White House has not embarked on that course, not even preliminarily. All we hear are leaks from various sources that the US has "plans" for an attack on Iran -- which means nothing except that we've gamed the scenario for the sake of being prepared. We probably have 'plans" to invade Russia and China as well.

We cannot attack Iran without gathering many more resources than we did for Iraq. Iran is three times the size of Iraq, and its terrain presents a much higher degree of difficulty than the relatively flat Iraq. Their military, while underresourced, is not in the same dreadful state of readiness that we saw in Iraq. Military strikes on Iran could not wipe out their defenses at the onset of action, and the war would result in a conflagration that would halt oil supplies to the entire world. That's a last-gasp option, and everyone knows it.

Israel might attack Iran, however. Supposedly, they want to get overflight permission from the US to transit Iraqi airspace for an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. Even that is at the preliminary planning stages, in case the Iranians refuse to back away from their nuclear program. The leak is intended as brinksmanship from the Israelis after Ahmadinejad's reckless rhetoric about wiping them off the map. I have no doubt the Israelis would carry out the attack if they deem it necessary, with our without our cooperation, but again, this is just working out the details of plans that have to be made in order to ensure preparedness.

If the US decides to attack Iran, we need to be sure we have people in charge who believe in the mission. Right now, I don't think it's a good idea, and I'm not surprised to find out that some senior staff officers at the Pentagon agree with that.

Who needs military strikes when our devious plan to raise the price of tomatoes is working so well?

Damian P.

The vanishing American motorcar

In 2006 GM, Ford and Chrsyler sold in the US 5.9 million trucks, vans and SUVs; they also sold (perhaps as an afterthought, especially at Chrysler) 3.2 million cars (see chart).

Toyota, Honda and Nissan sold 2.9 million cars. If you add Mazda (which for some reason sells much better in Canada than the US), Subaru and Mitsubishi, Japanese car sales were actually higher than those of the former Big 3.

For the good old days of the American motorcar, a nostalgic piece on Studebakers (disclosure--my father owned at least two). Nice photos, including one truck--note the '54 Starliner, the Loewy coupe.

Mark C.

Quote of the Day

Brendon on Forrest Whittaker winning an Oscar: "Finally the cast of 'Bloodsport' is getting the recognition they deserve."

Damian P.

The R-word

It's nowhere to be found in the PQ's election platform:

Quebec separatists have never been big on clarity. Why call yourself a separatist when sovereigntist sounds nobler? Why even propose flatout sovereignty when sovereignty- association has a gentler ring? And now, thanks to current Parti Quebecois leader Andre Boisclair, why hold a referendum when a "public consultation" seems much less painful.

The PQ officially purged the word "referendum" from its election platform on the weekend, promising instead to hold "a public consultation on sovereignty" as soon as possible after taking power. After more than 30 years of struggling to create a country, all the PQ has managed so far is to corrupt a perfectly good word.

[...]

It is true that the term "public consultation" has not been pulled from thin air. Quebec's Referendum Act is known in French as the Loi sur la consultation populaire, so one could say the province has already been through two public consultations on sovereignty, in 1980 and 1995.

But the reason behind the sudden affection for the legal term is plain: Quebecers are in no mood for a referendum. A CROP poll published last week in La Presse found two-thirds of respondents do not want a referendum during the next government mandate.

It probably won't matter anyway: a new poll puts the separatists eight points behind Jean Charest and the Liberals - and just barely ahead of the sorta-nationalist ADQ.

Damian P.

Read a burned book

Nat Hentoff describes what kind of literature can get you sent to jail in Cuba:

From kangaroo-court records I have seen, when independent librarians are sent to the gulags, certain confiscated books — and sometimes all books in their libraries — are ordered incinerated by the presiding judge. A biography of Martin Luther King was sent to the flames because, said the judge, it "is based on ideas that could be used to promote social disorder and civil disobedience." And the nonviolent King's own books have been burned.

Even works by Jose Marti, the 19th-century organizer of Cuban independence, have been incinerated. Maybe because of the pamphlet he wrote during his exile in Spain, planning the liberation of his homeland. Marti's pamphlet was about the horrors of political imprisonment in Cuba under a pre-Castro dictator.

Among thousands of other incinerated "subversive" books and pamphlets are those books by George Orwell, Pope John Paul II, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (particularly dangerous) and reports by Human Rights Watch.

[...]

Now, like the resisters in Ray Bradbury's novel [Fahrenheit 451], who were determined to preserve the freedom to read, a group of American and international librarians, authors and human-rights activists have started a liberating Read A Burned Book campaign — including a curriculum aimed at high school and college students. The campaign is also encouraging people in the United States and around the world to read the books that dictators, not only Castro, burned.

Details here.

Damian P.

Scorcese gets his Oscar

Officially, he won the Best Director award for The Departed, which also won Best Picture. Unofficially, the award was for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas.

Damian P.

Who won, who should have won, and who's been forgotten

Stuck in the '80s reviews the 1980-1989 Academy Awards. I must agree that 1984 was a particularly weak year for movies (and I'll go to my grave insisting that Ghostbusters was the best movie of the year).

Damian P.

A Generals' revolt?

The Sunday Times says several top military commanders will resign if the White House orders a strike on Iran - which is also opposed by Defence Secretary Robert Gates:

...The Sunday Times has learnt that up to five generals and admirals are willing to resign rather than approve what they consider would be a reckless attack.

“There are four or five generals and admirals we know of who would resign if Bush ordered an attack on Iran,” a source with close ties to British intelligence said. “There is simply no stomach for it in the Pentagon, and a lot of people question whether such an attack would be effective or even possible.”

A British defence source confirmed that there were deep misgivings inside the Pentagon about a military strike. “All the generals are perfectly clear that they don’t have the military capacity to take Iran on in any meaningful fashion. Nobody wants to do it and it would be a matter of conscience for them.

“There are enough people who feel this would be an error of judgment too far for there to be resignations.”

A generals’ revolt on such a scale would be unprecedented. “American generals usually stay and fight until they get fired,” said a Pentagon source. Robert Gates, the defence secretary, has repeatedly warned against striking Iran and is believed to represent the view of his senior commanders.

[...]

A second US navy aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS John C Stennis arrived in the Gulf last week, doubling the US presence there. Vice Admiral Patrick Walsh, the commander of the US Fifth Fleet, warned: “The US will take military action if ships are attacked or if countries in the region are targeted or US troops come under direct attack.”

But General Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said recently there was “zero chance” of a war with Iran. He played down claims by US intelligence that the Iranian government was responsible for supplying insurgents in Iraq, forcing Bush on the defensive.

Pace’s view was backed up by British intelligence officials who said the extent of the Iranian government’s involvement in activities inside Iraq by a small number of Revolutionary Guards was “far from clear”.

Damian P.

The making of a meme

The Kossacks' latest hissy fit is about plans for a Democratic presidential candidates' debate being hosted by - get the smelling salts! - the Fox News Channel. Among their claims:

Four years ago, in typically unfiltered fashion, Fox cut away from the Democratic debate they hosted a couple of minutes before it ended, in order to give arch-conservative William Bennett the first shot at post-debate spin.

This is a perfect example of the way Fox News blatantly manipulates its coverage to put a pro-Republican spin on the news. Sure, it didn't actually happen, but it's a perfect example.

Is the "Foxblocker" still on the market?

Damian P.

What's 3,000 people in the long run?

Lee Harris responds to the assertion that America "overreacted" to the 9/11 attacks.

Damian P.

You can't parody the Oscars

Here's why:

(via The Corner)

Damian P.

Suzuki's tour bus

The Winnipeg Sun's Tom Brodbeck chides David Suzuki for using a polluting, diesel-powered bus for his cross-country global warming tour:

Political activist David Suzuki -- on a cross-country tour urging Canadians and politicians to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- may want to look in his own backyard before lecturing Canadians on how they're destroying the Earth.

With all the alternative-energy modes of transportation out there, Suzuki and his entourage are crossing Canada in a sprawling, "rock-star-style" diesel-burning tour bus, emitting more greenhouse gases during his 30-day tour than many of us do in a year.

[...]

Suzuki could at least have found a biodiesel bus, which emits far less greenhouse gases than conventional diesel.

"We were hoping to have biodiesel," Curan explained by phone, as the Suzuki tour drove out of Winnipeg yesterday. "But we were told towards the beginning of the tour -- for this company that we're going through -- that it would void the warranty."

Void the warranty?

Void the warranty? I see.

Suzuki is the same guy who tells us if we're not car-pooling, switching to smaller, more efficient vehicles, using transit and other alternative modes of transportation, we're sticking it to our grandchildren. We're killing the Earth.

You want to know how many people are travelling with Mr. Kyoto in this oversized carbon burner? Seven. Sometimes eight -- including the bus driver.

Eight people in a vehicle that could probably hold 30.

To be fair, Suzuki's foundation is buying "carbon credits" to offset the greenhouse gases emitted on his tour. But he couldn't he have reached many of his stops by train?

Damian P.

Save the planet: Ban minivans

In Canada some 40% of 2006 auto sales (around 1.6 million) were compact and subcompact cars, the great majority with engines under two litres. Large SUVs, the kind the media and environmentalists love to hate, made up just over one percent of sales. One the other hand, those warm and fuzzy minivans--whose sales have been sliding recently in the face of crossover competition--still made up almost ten percent of sales.

Now, given that minivans are real gas-guzzlers compared to the small cars that are already close to half the market--doing their bit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, surely steps should be taken to force minivan buyers (along with buyers of mid-size SUVs) to switch to that sort of car?

See this comment thread from October, 2005. What say you, Dara?

Mark C..

Damian adds: for families with only one or two children, I'd recommend looking at a "mini-minivan" like the Mazda 5 or Kia Rondo. Or maybe a small station wagon: Ford recently ended production of the Focus wagon, but there may be a few left kicking around.

That's why they play the games...

...and why TV networks and sponsors hate match play golf tournaments (team events--Ryder Cup and President's Cup--aside). On any given Saturday you can end up with a tournament like the Accenture Match Play Championship; all the number one and two seeds are eliminated by the weekend. Bye, bye Tiger, Jim, Phil, Adam, Ernie, Retief, Vijay and Luke. That's eight out of the top nine in the world.

But remember that last year's champion, little known Aussie Geoff Ogilvy, went on to win the US Open.

Mark C.

Update: Final is Ogilvy vs. Stenson (Sweden), #11 vs. #8. Hardly shabby. Americans (and most Canadians) will tune out.

Among the kooks

Screw Loose Change and the Phoenix New Times have reports from the "9/11 Accountability Conference" in Arizona. No prizes for guessing whether the organizers actually disassociated with Holocaust denier Eric Williams, as promised.

In fact, prominent blackshirt Jim Fetzer openly admits that 9/11 denial and Holocaust denial have much in common:

Since Fetzer feels that way, I guess he'd agree we have every right to speculate about his mental health, too.

Damian P.

Shortest reunion ever

The Van Halen reunion tour is off again.

Damian P.

Mugabe's final days

He just celebrated his 83rd birthday, and among Zimbabweans, public anger is reaching a boiling point. Mugabe will be gone soon - the question is whether it will be in his palace or in a prison cell. Or dangling from a rope.

Damian P.

Why Martin Scorsese should not win the Oscar...

...for Directing (much though I admire him), why The Departed should not win Best Picture, and what's wrong with even very well made and well acted Hollywood movies over the last decade or so (think Heat):

[Possible spoiler alert]

In the last few minutes just shoot four people in the head since you can't think of any other way to finish the movie. End of story.

Jack Nicholson, though, is reliably evil and entertaining. He should have received a nomination, but not the film for Adapted Screenplay.

An analyis of Oscar stuff that makes quite a bit of sense.

Mark C.

Tim Hardaway's guide to NFL quarterbacks

This is satire. I repeat: it's satire.

Damian P.

I take back anything bad I've ever said about Chapters/Indigo

Any company so hated by the Death-to-Israel mob deserves our continued patronage. (via RightGirl)

Damian P.

The Canadian Forces: Deux nations

The Québécois really don't seem to want the Canadian military to be a fighting force, whereas those in another province do (paragraphs out of sequence):

Quebeckers, whose mostly French-speaking Royal 22nd Regiment is just arriving in Kandahar [not so--a few elements arrived some time ago but the main battle group is not coming until August - MC] ahead of what is expected to be months of renewed fighting against a resurgent Taliban, want most strongly (71 per cent) to scrap any combat role for the Canadian Forces.

If the Vandoos start taking casualties, anti-war sentiment in Quebec may harden.

By contrast, only four in 10 Albertans want a "peacekeeping only" military.

Now this is really scary:

The national average among the more than 1,000 respondents to the Ipsos-Reid poll was 58 per cent favouring only peacekeeping...

The figure would probably be around 50-50, not counting Quebec. That is the result of at least two decades of what amounts to propaganda from our educational systems, our media, and our governments (I'm including the Mulroney one).

Paul Koring of the Globe and Mail, the author of this story, starts it in this fashion:

Four in 10 Canadians think it's okay for Canadian soldiers to beat their captives in Afghanistan and nearly two-thirds doubt investigations into alleged detainee abuse will uncover the truth, according to an Ipsos-Reid poll released yesterday.

[...]

More than a third (37 per cent) of respondents said they believe Canadian troops "are involved with torturing" prisoners...

Now whyever might Canadians think such nasty things about our soldiers? A large part of the reason might just be stories Mr Koring himself wrote recently about allegations of prisoner abuse. The allegations were then picked up and given huge publicity by the rest of our media. See these posts by Damian Brooks at The Torch:

"More spinning than a figure skating competition"
"Desperate fabrication"
"You want a 'conversation'? You got my half of it..."

Mr Koring really does have a lot to answer for.

Full poll details are here.

Mark C.

Certificates struck down

The Supreme Court of Canada has unanimously ruled that certain federal anti-terrorism laws are unconstitutional:

The certificates allowed government officials to use secret court hearings, indefinite prison terms and summary deportations when dealing with non-citizens accused of having terrorist ties.

"There is a problem... because the people that are named are not given a chance to see all of the evidence against them," said CTV's Rosemary Thompson at the SCC. "That violates a section of the charter that would require a fair trial."

The judgment comes in response to a constitutional challenge of the certificates.

The SCC heard arguments last June from lawyers of three men -- Syrian-born Hassan Almrei, Algerian native Mohamed Harket and Morocco native Adil Charkaoui -- who had spent years in detention under the security certificates.

[...]

The judgement is not saying that the detentions are wrong but that the accused must have access to the evidence against them, said Thompson.

"Nothing is really going to happen to them in the next year, the current regime will exist for the next year," she said. "What is going to change is the way these hearings take place."

The full decision, which I have yet to read, is here.

Damian P.

Four Years

Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem Soliman has been given a prison sentence - three years for "insulting Islam" and one additional year for writing unkind things about Hosni Mubarak.

I can't find an e-mail address for the Egyptian embassy in Ottawa, but contact information for their diplomatic missions in the U.S. can be found here.

Damian P.

Update: more about this disgusting affair here.

Trudeaumania

As everybody in Canada expected, Justin Trudeau is going into politics:

Justin Trudeau has confirmed to CTV News that he will try to take on the Bloc Québécois, by seeking the Liberal nomination in the Montreal-area riding of Papineau.

Trudeau was originally expected to run in the Montreal-area Outremont riding, recently vacated by Jean Lapierre, a former Liberal cabinet minister.

Instead, he will seek nomination in the tougher Papineau seat, currently held by Bloc MP Vivian Barbot.

"I don't want to be handed anything, I don't need to be handed anything, I'm more than capable of bringing the fight and it will be a chance for me to demonstrate my own political abilities," said Trudeau.

Needless to say, that last name is a gigantic political advantage. (Ask George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, Paul Martin, Sheila Copps, Peter McKay, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Preston Manning, Richard M. Daley and several dozen Kennedys.) Still, like Greg Staples, I will give him credit for running in a Bloc district instead of being parachuted into a safe Liberal seat.

Damian P.

Why is Canadian development work around Kandahar ineffective?

Damian Brooks gives a large part of the answer in one word, CIDA, and suggests the current government has a serious responsibility to shake up the agency.

Mark C.

"We don't want to fight..."

That about sums up M. Dion's lastest revision of Liberal policy on Afghanistan:

Liberals back Afghan mission until 2009

Certainly no-one can accuse the Liberals of "Jingoism"; they surely do ignore the rest of the nineteenth century song:

We don't want to fight,

But by Jingo if we do,

We've got the ships,

We've got the men,

And got the money too.

We've fought the Bear before,

And while we're Britons true,

The Russians shall not have Constantinople.

Mark C.

When moonbats attack!

Anyone who wants to copy this guy should remember that conservative Republicans own lots of guns. Just sayin' is all.

To me, the most interesting part of the story is the guy's frothing anti-semitism. ("I'm as WASPish as they come, but goddamn, god bless Iran and may this bastard state be wiped from the map." I'm pretty sure the "bastard state" is not Delaware.) The Jew-hating lunatics are getting pretty feisty lately, aren't they?

Damian P.

Only in 1978 could anyone think this was a good idea

I love bad movies, but even I couldn't finish this one.

Damian P.

Iranians speak out

Norman Geras reprints a letter signed by 23 academics (most of them still living in Iran, but including a University of Toronto professor) condemning Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial conference.

Damian P.

Well, they are experts on hunger

Guess which country is poised to gain the vice-presidency of the World Food Programme?

Zimbabwe may gain the vice-presidency of the World Food Programme (WFP) — despite the collapse of its own agricultural sector.

All seven African countries presently on the WFP's 36-strong executive board are believed to support the bid of Robert Mugabe's regime.

If successful, Zimbabwe will be in line to become the president of the world's largest supplier of humanitarian aid next year.

Once one of Africa's leading food exporters, Zimbabwe has needed WFP supplies since 2001. At present, almost one million of its people, mainly orphans and schoolchildren, are receiving emergency food aid.

One Zimbabwean who won't go hungry is Mr. Mugabe, who just turned 83 years old.

Damian P.

Talk about torque steer (in a manner of speaking)

From Car magazine, Stephen Bayley, February 2007, p. 26 (text not online as far as I can find):

...the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. Many years ago (I was driving a Scirocco GTi at the time so that's how many years ago it was), the Suffolk branch of the USAF vouchsafed me a sneak look at Mildenhall. Just back from a Mach 5 [sic] tour of the Soviet Union [target doubtful - MC], I found this enormous, startling, sinister aerial hot rod of the Cold War just as it had been tugged into its hangar. The Blackbird routinely stretched by 18 inches during flight, but back on chilly Earth the elastic patterns of its exotic metals had to reverse themselves.

So there it sat, crackling, ping-ing, boing-ing, and ticking: engines and systems silent and mute, but the carcass still alive. Such an amazing machine. I asked the pilot about the legendary 'Upstarts' (flyboy euphemism for a single ram-jet 'stopping' and the dire effects of massive assymmetric thrust at 3000mph [sic]) and he said 'Well, gee, it just waters the crap right out of your eyes'.

Well it would, wouldn't it?

Mark C.

The problem with (many) historians today

David Frum writes a superb summary of the good parts in R.J.B. Bosworth's Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship 1915-1945.

But the good parts are less than half the book. As for the rest:

...Bosworth's book raises the question though whether the worst harm done by current academic fashion may not be the harm done to the minds of professors who might otherwise have been first-rate.

I dont complain so much about the incessant insertion of his own extraneous opinions on contemporary politics. If he doesnt like Silvio Berlusconi, that is his business. (Although it does rather call into question an author's judgment when he compares the Nazi air attack on Guernica to NATO's intervention in Kosovo.)

No, the two great evils of this book are politics writ small, academic politics: the mind-wearying invocations of the race-sex-class orthodoxies of the modern academy - the pages of text wasted in toadying citations of the work of feminist colleagues to whom the author wishes to suck up - and the no-detail-too-boring approach that defines modern "social" history.

[...]

At one point, Bosworth reports an incident in which a peddler tells a group of villagers some inaccurate information on the progress of the war. He seizes on this as evidence that despite the Fascist state, Italians retained "their own ways of knowing." This is one of the currently fashionable preoccupations of social history: that public ignorance represents - not ignorance - but an inspiring refusal on the part of the downtrodden to allow race/sex/class hierarchies control their minds.

Half the book is the work of a gifted historian; the other, of an ingratiating academic politician...

I've read the book (more here). Mr Frum gets it exactly right.

Mark C.

Weak Horse, Strong Horse

Scott Burgess compares a list of educational "reforms" suggested by the Muslim Council of Britain with the Church of England's suggestions for Lent:

Overall, these two documents show us on one hand a growing group, increasing in power and confidently laying out its demands, while on the other we see an institution disappearing into well-deserved meaninglessness.

Osama bin Laden, December 2001: "when people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse." These days, the Anglican Church looks more like a donkey.

Damian P.

What Palestinian Christians?

It's beginning to look likw only one type (note the photo) of Arab will be acceptable pretty soon.

The feuding Palestinian parties met in the holy city of Mecca (Makkah), hosted by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. Mecca is an odd choice for a summit site, because non-Muslims are not permitted to enter the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medinah. There are checkpoints on the highways into the holy cities, at which non-Muslim motorists who may have missed the "Muslims Only" signs are advised not to go any further.

[...]

The centuries-old presence of Christians in the "Arab-Islamic" world is dwindling. Where there were hundreds of thousands, there are now communities of only a few dozen families. Most dramatic of all, Bethlehem, once a majority- Christian city, is now three quarters Muslim. Christians increasingly feel like aliens among their own people, as Islamic identity dominates the national ties of Palestinian heritage. Meetings in Mecca will only confirm the fears of Palestinian Christians that there is little future for them in the "Arab-Islamic" nation...

Mark C.

Afghanistan: Bilge from Byers

Prof. Michael Byers is Steve Staples' equally evil twin. That anyone with such complete disregard for facts can be a university professor drives me nuts. He writes in the Toronto Star, February 20:

Since becoming Canada's top soldier two years ago, Hillier has pushed the politicians hard. At his own swearing-in ceremony, he criticized Paul Martin for underfunding the military; one month later, he browbeat the Liberal cabinet into volunteering troops for a combat mission to Kandahar.

We all know Liberals are wusses, but that wussy?

Then-prime minister Martin and his ministers assumed Canadian casualties would be limited. So far, 44 soldiers have lost their lives. Hillier, the professional upon whose expertise the politicians relied, should have explained the real risks to them.

This is what Gen. Hillier said in July, 2005 (the Kandahar mission was announced by then Minister of National Defence Graham in May, 2005):

...Hillier says Canadians should realize the mission the Canadian military is undertaking in Afghanistan is a dangerous one that could lead to casualties.

Did the General change his tune in just two months? More from the professor:

Under Hillier's leadership, Canada's role in Kandahar has morphed from a "provincial reconstruction team" made up of soldiers, diplomats and development personnel, into a "battle group" supported by Leopard tanks.

Where's the morphing? Prof. Byers just called it a "combat mission" above. No secret in July, 2005, either [full text not online]:

...the next three missions [rotations, I think - MC], involving 2,000 troops, will be heavily centred in the southern mountains, where soldiers will be called upon to hunt down and fight the insurgents.

Prof. Byers goes on:

Characterizing the enemy as "detestable murderers and scumbags" [in July, 2005] can only exacerbate the situation...

Well, Jack Layton was against the scumbags before he was against the mission:

"Controlled anger, given what's happened, is an appropriate response," NDP Leader Jack Layton said. "We have a very committed, level-headed head of our armed forces, who isn't afraid to express the passion that underlies the mission that front-line personnel are going to be taking on.

"A bit of strong language in the circumstances, I don't find that to be wrong."

Now the professor plays the Bush card:

On the whole, Hillier has been content to adopt the approach of the Bush administration, emphasizing aggressive search-and-kill tactics and downplaying diplomacy, development, and international law.

It just happens however that since last summer Canadian troops have following the approach of NATO ISAF, not the Bush administration. The professor also never mentions in his piece that the ISAF mission has the unanimous authorization of the UN Security Council. Development has not been played down either (whether it's effective is another matter)--see the January, 2006, "Afghanistan Compact", also unanimously endorsed by the UNSC and of which Canada is a part.

More "B" words:

Hillier shares the dubious company of U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in stubbornly refusing to admit his mistake.

If there has been a mistake, primary responsibility rests with the Martin government, not the General. Mr Graham said this in a speech in the fall of 2005 (one of several explaining the new Kandahar mission that our media essentially ignored--and remember there was not one question on Afghanistan during the federal election leaders' debates):

...we will be deploying a Task Force of about 1,000 troops into Kandahar for one year. As an essential complement to the reconstruction efforts of our PRT, this force will provide much needed security in the region...

...Canadians should be under no illusion; Kandahar is a very complex, challenging and dangerous environment and mission. The part of Afghanistan we are going to is among the most unstable and dangerous in the country. Indeed, that is why we have been asked to go there and that is why we are going there...

No decent respect for the truth, chez Prof. Byers. Then there's this gem from the NDP's National Defence critic:

"How can the military plan rotations that Parliament has not approved?" Ms. Black asked.

I imagine a prime minister speaking to the House of Commons:

The government wants to send troops to help deal with the current crisis in Ruritania. Once the House approves the mission, the government will permit the Canadian Forces to make plans. When those plans are ready, and accepted by the government, we will then inform the House of the composition of the mission, what its members will do, and how long the mission may take. Thank you very much and please vote in favour of the Ruritanian mission.

Good grief. More from Damian Brooks.

Mark C.

Fed Follies

A letter of mine published at Economist.com:

SIR —

In "What the Lords are for" you write that "Canada's Senate...cannot veto laws". Not so. The legislative powers of the Canadian Senate are completely equal to those of the House of Commons except that the Senate cannot initiate money bills. It can veto any bill but almost never uses that power since, as you point out, its members have no democratic legitimacy as they are appointed by the prime minister. The Senate's legitimacy is further weakened since the seat allocation to various regions and provinces is increasingly unrepresentative of the country's changing distribution of population.

The current Conservative government is making efforts to institute some Senate reforms but the government is a minority one and its proposals are unlikely to be accepted by the opposition parties. Major legislated reform moreover would require amending the constitution in concert with the provinces, a practical impossibility in Canada.

You also write that "Britain is not federal". Surely it is, but the federal units (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, England) simply have differing amounts of autonomy — none in the case of England. A typically muddled British example of federalism, with varying degrees of "vitesse".

Mark C.

Me too

Stephen Pollard:

One of my pet hates is people who holiday in Cuba, usually accompanied by the sentiment: 'we want to see it before it gets all commercialised'. Last week I heard a distinguished academic say how much he preferred Prague in the 1970s and 80s, before it became so 'commercialised'.

For 'commercialised', read 'free'. These people deserve the contempt of anyone who believes in freedom. Their moral code is no better than those who holidayed in Durban under apartheid, on the basis that - as some family friends once put it to me - 'you never see the blacks so you can completely escape the apartheid'.

Damian P.

Jailed for blogging

Today's Washington Post has a piece about Egyptian blogger Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, who has been arrested and detained for speaking his mind:

Soliman, 22, was expelled from Al-Azhar University last spring for sharply criticizing the university's rigid curriculum and faulting religious extremism on his blog. He was ordered to appear before a public prosecutor on Nov. 7 on charges of "spreading information disruptive of public order," "incitement to hate Muslims" and "insulting the President." Soliman was detained pending an investigation, and the detention has been renewed four times. He has not had consistent access to lawyers or to his family.

[...]

Soliman has criticized Egyptian authorities as failing to protect the rights of religious minorities and women. He has expressed his views about religious extremism in very strong terms. He is the first Egyptian blogger to be prosecuted for the content of his remarks. Remarkably, the legal complaint originated with the university that had expelled him; once, it was a great center of learning in the Arab world, but it has been reduced to informing on students for their dissent from orthodoxy.

More here.

Damian P.

National Defence: Liberals clueless; Conservatives could do better

A post at The Torch:

National Defence critic is Liberal with the truth/Feuding at Fort Ottawa?

Mark C.

The incredible truth unmasked!

So you thought Stephen Harper was Bush-lite, the president's poodle, or something like that?

This is what a Toronto Star reporter informed us in a story, February, 16 (yes, this is how they write "news"):

Bush was largely parroting the Ottawa point of view in calling for more troops and fewer restrictions on NATO nations [in Afghanistan]...

Holy cowboy! The president is actually the prime minister's pet bird! A complete rethink about who's responsible for every bad thing in the whole wide world is immediately in order.

Mark C.

Journey to the Center of the Universe

My girlfriend and I are heading to Toronto for a few days, so posting will be light until Wednesday. See you at the blogger bash.

Damian P.

First they were against terrorism...

...then they just didn't care. Needed votes in T.O and Quebec or something. Chuckercanuck points out that Osama did not get the memo about Kyoto. On the other hand...

Actually, maybe they did get that memo and their call to attack our oil industry is only to help us meet our Kyoto commitments.

Mark C.

From GM to GMC?

Automotive News reports that General Motors may take Chrysler off Daimler's hands:

General Motors is in talks to buy all of its struggling rival Chrysler Group from German-US auto giant DaimlerChrysler AG, media reported.

Automotive News, a weekly trade publication, cited sources in Germany and the United States, two days after Germany's Manager Magazin reported the same discussions taking place.

[...]

Automotive News said: "High-level talks are taking place between DaimlerChrysler AG and GM executives.

"Although the two companies have discussed cooperation on a large SUV (sport utility vehicle), say sources at both companies, the potential deal would go beyond limited product development alliances," it said.

Part of the problem with General Motors is that it's already too big and unwieldly to compete effectively with Toyota. Didn't GM learn anything from its catastrophic alliance with Fiat?

Damian P.

The next Darfur?

Oxfam says Chad is Africa's next disaster area:

A humanitarian crisis on the scale of the disaster in Darfur could take place in neighbouring Chad and endanger hundreds of thousands of lives, Oxfam said yesterday.

Four years after war began in Sudan's region of Darfur, the fighting has spread into eastern Chad, where about 120,000 people have been forced to leave their homes.

Another 250,000 refugees, who escaped the fighting in Darfur and fled over the border, are also living in this remote and lawless area. Sudan and Chad accuse one another of arming rebels on their territory.

The notorious "Janjaweed" militia, armed and raised by the Khartoum regime, have raided villages inside Chad.

Damian P.

Hugonomics

Oil-fueled inflation, combined with price controls, is leading to food shortages in Venezuela:

Shortages have sporadically appeared with items such as milk and coffee since early 2003, when Chavez began regulating prices for 400 basic products as a way to counter inflation and protect the poor.

Yet inflation has soared to an accumulated 78 percent during the past four years in an economy awash in petrodollars, and food prices have increased particularly swiftly, creating a widening discrepancy between official prices and the true cost of getting goods to market in Venezuela.

"Shortages have increased significantly as well as violations of price controls," Central Bank director Domingo Maza Zavala told the Venezuelan broadcaster Union Radio on Thursday. "The difference between real market prices and controlled prices is very high."

Most items can still be found, but only by paying a hefty markup at grocery stores or on the black market. A glance at prices in several Caracas supermarkets this week showed milk, ground coffee, cheese and beans selling between 30 percent to 60 percent above regulated prices.

The state runs a nationwide network of subsidized food stores, but in recent months some items have become increasingly hard to find.

[...]

Gonzalo Asuaje, president of the meat processors association Afrigo, said that costs and demand have surged but in four years the government has barely raised the price of beef, which now stands at $1.82 per pound. Simply getting beef to retailers now costs $2.41 per pound without including any markup, he said.

"They want to sell it at the same price the cattle breeder gets for his cow," he said. "It's impossible."

Since the laws of economics do not apply to Hugo Chavez, dammit, he's threatening to nationalize supermarkets:

President Chavez told a gathering of pensioners in the capital, Caracas, that he was waiting for the "first excuse" to take over privately-owned outlets that manipulate prices.

"If they insist on violating the interests of the people, the constitution and laws, I will take away the warehouses, the shops, I will take away the supermarkets and I'll nationalise them," he warned.

[...]

Some private companies are also concerned about President Chavez's intention to make them allow their employees time during the working day to study socialism.

Their studies will be strictly voluntary, I'm sure.

Damian P.

"Do the math"

Why "one tier" health care will fail:

B.C. Health Minister George Abbott refers to them as the killer slides...

"The future looks very, very scary," Mr. Abbott said in an interview...

The first graph Mr. Abbott brings out is one showing per capita health expenditures by age group in British Columbia...

...Between 70 and 74, they rise to $5,745; between 80 and 84, $11,651; and, when a person is 90 and over, the price tag goes up to $22,074 a year.

"Now you look at this graph," the minister said. "This is the one that makes you worry."

The graph is titled: "B.C.'s age demographic is shifting over the next 25 years with 100 per cent plus growth in seniors age groups."..

Over the next 25 years, the number of B.C. residents...70 to 74 [will increase] 133 per cent. The number of those over 85 is expected to grow 131 per cent.

"It's pretty easy to do the math," Mr. Abbott said.

Compare these realities with this clap-trap from Andre Picard.

Mark C.

They still don't seem to get it

Two headlines that tell a story:

1) Daimler Considers Sale, Partners for Chrysler Unit (possible partners, Renault and Nissan; possible sale, GM!)

2) Chrysler Group 4.7-Liter V-8 Engine Debuts in New 2008 Dodge Dakota

Some interesting charts and graphs from Der Spiegel are here. Then there's German media comment on the situation.

Mark C.

I actually want to see this

Universal is developing a film about Milli Vanilli.

Damian P.

Top Gear in perspective

Jeremy, James and Hamster might have had a rough time in Alabama, but here's a story from their side of the pond:

I am away filming in Liverpool - a great city, but with expensive camera equipment in the back streets, there is, how shall I put this delicately, a security issue. One colleague recalls regular payoffs to "Keith the Thief". On another occasion a crew was approached by a youth wanting £10 to "mind your car".

No, the producer said firmly, he didn't need that, there was a big aggressive dog sitting on the back seat. Short pause. "Oh aye," says the youth. "Puts out fires, does he?" He collected the tenner.

(For the record, I've been to Liverpool and had a great time.)

Damian P.

The Globe's latest hatchet job

Bob Tarantino dismantles a hysterical front-page story about the Harper government's appointments to Judicial Advisory Committees.

Today's front-page story in the National Post illustrates the Liberals' astonishing hypocrisy on this issue:

Liberal Members of Parliament have in recent days repeatedly accused the Conservative government of appointing partisans to committees that vet judicial appointments, but a review of those selected by the previous government has found a significant number of them had Liberal ties.

[...]

...[Michael] Ignatieff said yesterday in an interview that his motion is not simply "our patronage versus their patronage.

"It's a deliberate attempt by the executive branch of our government to stack and create a court system in its image," he said. "I do not think that the Liberal party has ever gone out and said, 'Here is our justice philosophy and we're going to stack the court with people who subscribe to our philosophy.'"

Wow.

Damian P.

The end of Parliamentary supremacy?

Responsible government in Canada, under which the executive must have the support of the legislature on major policy matters, appears to have been flushed.

The House of Commons, soon to be followed by the Senate, has passed a bill requiring that Canada meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. Unless the government, i.e. the prime minister, advises the Governor General not to sign the bill she will do so and it will become law (there is a digression here--see after the break).

We are in the presence of an absurdity under the Westminster system. Parliament (legally the House, the Senate and the Governor General) will have approved a bill that the executive (the Cabinet or, more accurate in current circumstances, the prime minister) will refuse to implement. In other words the executive government will have chosen not to be responsible to the legislature.

That will be the de facto end of our constitution, based in this case on the convention of precedent. As I see things the government had no choice but to consider this vote as one of no confidence. It has now lost the confidence of the House on an important issue of policy, without which it has no constitutional ground for remaining in office. Prime Minister Harper should immediately ask the Governor General to dissolve Parliament and call an election.

This is not a simple matter of partisan politics; it is a matter of the fundaments of our political reality.

If the prime minister does not act as suggested above he is a renegade in power. Our constitution will have been irrevocably changed. Parliament, as with the Cabinet, will become little but a focus group.

But then Cabinet government in Canada died some time ago. We now have a primus, no pares. What will this shift produce in the end?

Mark C.

As to the prime minister's advising the Governor General not to sign a bill: that course is constitutionally possible but in practice inconceivable. For the Governor General, even on the advice of her minister(s), to reject the will of the houses of Parliament would negate the meaning of responsible government, an executive (legally the government, or Cabinet, acts as the "Governor in Council" with the approbation of the Governor General) responsible to the legislature. A once autocratic head of state would be replaced by an autocratic head of government--and all the while maintaining the Westminster system convention that the head of state--except in the most extreme circumstances--must accept the advice of her minister(s).

Conventions clashing.

Amateur Half-Hour

If this clip is any indication, Fox News' upcoming Half-Hour News Hour (good thing that title doesn't remotely resemble any CBC programs, or anything) desperately needs Iowahawk in the writers' room.

Damian P.

Clarkson in California

Someone has posted Jeremy Clarkson's The Good The Bad The Ugly DVD special, in which he tries to find a decent American car, to YouTube (divided into eight parts). Clarkson's snobby disdain for the Yanks is evident, but even the biggest American-car fan must concede some of his points, especially about Big-Three interiors.

It's worth comparing the "gun-toting redneck" scene, which is obviously staged (an actor is credited for the part of "Billy Bob") with the Top Gear gang's infamous run-in with angry yokels in Alabama. The latter may have been embellished in the editing room, but it certainly doesn't look scripted. (Captain Slow insists the incident was real.)

Damian P.

Will the West get the guts before it's too late?

Celestial Junk quotes John Keegan, from The Face of Battle:

Battle therefore … is essentially a moral conflict. It requires … a mutual and sustained act of will by two contending parties and, if it is to result in a decision, the moral collapse of one of them.

CJ's conclusion, after his analysis:

If Keegan is correct, as I believe he is, then we in the West won’t muster the will needed to defeat Islamic Totalitarianism until a true cataclysm assails us. It may take any number of forms, but until then, it is only a minority of Westerns who have the will to prevail. The rest want to go back to a blissful September 10th slumber, where they can focus on concocting myths about American hegemony, Global Warming, and International Zionist conspiracies. Not until they face cultural extinction will they muster the will to fight; and perhaps not even then.

Mark C.

Afghanistan: What should Canada do?

Conservative Senator Michael Meighen, deputy chair of the Senate Committee Committee on National Security and Defence, says that the withdrawal option is largely aimed at putting pressure on the larger NATO allies to start fighting.

You will note that Mr Harris interviews the Senator intelligently enough. But some minutes earlier he had said that Canada, to keep up our effort in Afghanistan, would be (a direct quote from memory) "pissing away" billions of dollars. I wonder why he did not put the matter to the Senator in those terms. One attitude when attitudinizing, another when interviewing, with a pretended decent respect for the opinion of the interviewee. Maudit hypocrite--or suck up?

Somewhat earlier, on Feb. 13, there was a discussion on CFRA's "Lunch Bunch" with Scott Taylor (just back from Afghanistan) of Esprit de Corps magazine (part 1 and part 2). Mr Taylor cannot quite bring himself to advocate a rapid withdrawal of Canadian troops; he does skate hard to avoid distinguishing between the fairly violent south and the generally peaceful rest of the country.

Mr Taylor also makes something of the fact that the CF at Kandahar have Tim Horton's and Afghans are dirt poor (literally true for most of them). But our troops do fight. Are the amenities of such non-fighting members of ISAF as the Spanish, Germans, Italians or French not also worth discussion? Currywurst, anyone?

The Senlis Council, the group Mr Taylor was travelling with in Afghanistan, has just issued a report slamming ISAF. There are some good points amidst the barrage of negativity. But one wonders how they imagine this recommendation can be followed right now in light of the security situation in southern Afstan:

10) Development and aid investments equal to military spending...

Mark C.

Canada on the hit list

An website allegedly linked to Al-Qaida calls for terror attacks against Canadian oil facilities:

Al-Qaida has called for terrorist strikes against Canadian oil and natural gas facilities to "choke the U.S. economy."

An online message, posted Thursday by the Al-Qaida Organization in the Arabian Peninsula, declares "we should strike petroleum interests in all areas which supply the United States like Canada," the No. 1 exporter of oil and gas to the U.S.

"The biggest party hurt will be the industrial nations, and on top them, the United States."

The same group, the Saudi arm of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, claimed responsibility for last February's attack on the world's largest oil processing facility at Abqaiq in Saudi Arabia's eastern province.

Obviously, Canada is paying the price for Stephen Harper's slavish devotion to Chimpy McHitlerburton's neocon foreign policy. Just like, um, Hugo Chavez's Venezuela:

A feature article, entitled "Bin Laden's Oil Weapon," encourages operatives to continue to follow earlier directives from bin Laden to strike oil targets not only in Saudi Arabia, but elsewhere, according to a translation by the SITE Institute, a non-profit U.S. group that monitors terrorist websites

Three western countries are mentioned in the call-to-arms -- Canada first, followed by Mexico and Venezuela. Would-be attackers are instructed to specifically target oilfields, pipelines, loading platforms, and carriers.

Damian P.

More controversial than the Snickers ad?

The NFL refused to run an ad for the U.S. Border Patrol in the Super Bowl program, apparently because it described the reasons America has a border patrol:

The National Football League refused to run a recruitment ad for the U.S. Border Patrol in last week's Super Bowl program, saying it was "controversial" because it mentioned duties such as fighting terrorism and stopping drugs and illegal aliens at the border.

"The ad that the department submitted was specific to Border Patrol, and it mentioned terrorism. We were not comfortable with that," said Greg Aiello, a spokesman for the NFL. "The borders, the immigration debate is a very controversial issue, and we were sensitive to any perception we were injecting ourselves into that."

The NFL's rejection didn't sit well with Border Patrol agents, who called it a snub of their role in homeland security and said it was "more than a little puzzling."

[...]

Mr. Aiello said that the NFL offered the department a chance to run a generic recruiting ad, similar to ads the U.S. military runs, but that the league never heard back from it.

"We proposed a more generic recruiting ad for the department that didn't highlight the borders, which brings up the immigration issue and the immigration debate. That's controversial," he said.

Damian P.

So much for that "martyrdom" crap

Moqtada al-Sadr has fled Iraq, according to ABC News:

According to senior military officials, al Sadr left Baghdad two to three weeks ago and fled to Tehran, Iran, where he has family.

Al Sadr commands the Mahdi army, one of the most formidable insurgent militias in Iraq, and his move coincides with the announced U.S. troop surge in Baghdad.

Sources believe al Sadr is worried about an increase of 20,000 U.S. troops in the Iraqi capital. One official told ABC News' Martha Raddatz, "He is scared he will get a JDAM [bomb] dropped on his house."

Sources say some of the Mahdi army leadership went with al Sadr.

Though he is gone for now, many believe al Sadr is not gone for good. In Tehran he is trying to keep the Mahdi militia together. (via Captain's Quarters)

Damian P.

"Afstan and Kyoto: A tale of two international initiatives"

The Prairie Wrangler has an interesting analysis of how the two problems are approached, especially by progressives.

Mark C.

One reason to like the MSM

Brigitte Pellerin of the Ottawa Citizen likes Daimnation! (disclosure: I have used her columns as the basis for posts ten times, e.g. this one).

...There's a whole cottage industry out there of dedicated bloggers spotting and highlighting hidden biases (real or imaginary) in the mainstream media.

For example, two weeks ago the Citizen ran a picture of Iraqi prisoners sitting on the ground being watched by soldiers. The caption said: "Arrested militants sit blindfolded ..." even though the men in the picture aren't blindfolded at all Maybe the person who wrote the caption was badly distracted at the time. Or maybe he or she just assumed Americans and their allies mistreat opponents [oddly enough I can't find this exposed on any blog - MC]...

...I think their [blogs'] increasing popularity is due in good part to the fact that folks prefer openly opinionated news rather than secretly opinionated news. When I go to Little Green Footballs, I know what I'm likely to get. Ditto with Daimnation! [emphasis added] and Inkless Wells. So instead of griping that such-and-such a reporter must secretly be a Liberal or anti-George Bush or what have you, I focus on what they're writing and move merrily along.

Sure, many blogs are of doubtful reliability. The advantage of the MSM is we'd soon go out of business if we constantly printed or broadcast rubbish; readers then advertisers would drop us like yesterday's old cliches. But why not combine the best of both worlds?

We could have media outlets that are openly opinionated but have high ethical standards and a reputation for reliable accuracy -- by which I don't mean never making mistakes but correcting them promptly when they occur.

Yes, those of us who are media/political junkies would have to read more than one newspaper and watch more than one broadcast. But we do that anyway. Other people would simply choose which outlet best reflects their own outlook and get the news from a perspective that doesn't offend them...

Sounds like a good idea to me. In Europe most, and in Britain many, papers have a more or less openly acknowledged bias (as does the Toronto Star) that one can take into consideration as one pleases.

Ms. Pellerin's own blog is here. Her husband, fellow Citizen columnist John Robson, is also a good read (and a good listen on CFRA, Ottawa, "