Dawg's Blawg

Crossing Fingers, Crossing Toes, Bye-Bye Blogger, Eat at Joes

2011-05-22T16:13:00.000-04:00

Well, I couldn't think of a better rhyme at such short notice.

Please click over to the following URL (and don't forget to change your bookmarks):

Dr. Dawg has been liberated from Echo and now has his own domain name, and a new commenting system on new servers using Movable Type.

And the site has just opened, so there are bound to be many tweaks and changes still to come. You should also note that comments that have been posted here over the past 36 hours or so won't appear over there, for a short while, while I figure out how to transfer the remainder. But you should probably post your comments over there so we don't lose anything more in the transition.

All the best,
James

Kicking 'em When They're Down

2011-05-22T08:23:00.001-04:00

The New York Times reports that the Calvary Bible Church in Milpitas, California, organised a Sunday morning service to comfort believers in Mr Camping's preaching. "We are here because we care about these people," the newspaper quoted James Bynum, a church deacon, as saying. "It's easy to mock them. But you can go kick puppies, too. But why?"
I'll answer that. It's not nice to kick puppies. It's okay to kick the Rapturites. Why, Mr. Bynum?

a) Because puppies were not granted the power of reason and critical thought, two faculties that protect most of us from falling victim to this kind of nonsense.
b) Because puppies don't smugly tell you that they've been singled out by God for special privileges, and unless you listen to them, you're going to suffer eternal torment while they watch you, sipping celestial Mojitos.
c) Because puppies don't ask you to abandon everything humanity has learned over painful millenia about physics, biology, cosmology, astronomy, and accept their absurdly constructed fantasy universe on faith. Well, maybe puppies would if they could speak English - but they don't.

Kick'em again, I say. And if this richly deserved mockery means that ten years down the road, ONE poor shmuck thinks a little bit harder before he mails his life's savings to the next millionaire, it'll be worth it.

Stacy Bonds: investigation black-holed

2010-11-20T14:51:00.013-05:00

The Ontario Special Investigations Unit has taken over the investigation of the Stacy Bonds case. The Ottawa police "internal investigation" is now history. And so is the likelihood of any quick resolution of the matter.

The SIU is notorious for finding in favour of the police 97% of the time. It also takes months, even years, for it to complete its dubious work. And even in the exceedingly rare cases when it does support the victims of police brutality, it cannot penetrate the Blue Wall, in good part because the fix is inevitably in.

So the Ottawa police are off the hook for now.

Chief Vern White had options. This did not include, however, suspending without pay the officers involved in the brutal assault on Bonds. That, as a reader correctly informed me, would have been illegal--contrary to Section 89 of the Ontario Police Services Act.

However, in a case as egregious as this, surely a mere review of the video-tape, and the opportunity for the officers to provide their lame-brained excuses for brutalizing an innocent citizen, would have been all the "internal investigation" required.

Those officers should have been criminally charged. They should have been fired. End of story. But now the SIU has its grubby mitts on the case, it's pretty well game over for any positive outcome for Bonds, unless she decides on a civil suit.* (If she does, I've already received pledges of contributions to a legal fund.)

Anyone remember Junior Alexander Manon? He was a Black youth in Toronto, who died this past May as a result of what many consider to be an act of murder by several Toronto police officers. The SIU has been "investigating" ever since.

But the Ontario Attorney General's Office is also involved in this travesty up to its wattled neck. It is strongly supporting the attempted prosecution of Bonds on a trumped-up charge of assault against the police, who were, of course, the ones who brutally attacked her. Indeed, as it turns out, the prosecutor in the case was shown the video well before the trial, but decided to press on with her further victimization.

This on-going saga has attracted front-page coverage by the Ottawa Citizen, which has also weighed in with a couple of blistering editorials, and run an equally scathing op-ed by law professor David Tanovitch questioning the Crown's decision to proceed with the bogus charge.

With respect to the latter, we might gain some insight from a telling remark by University of Ottawa law professor David Paccioco:

Prosecutors would likely feel pressure to oppose an application to stay proceedings because of an abuse of process by police, Paciocco said, because "it's going to impugn the integrity of the police officers."

And, after all, we can't have that.
_________
*UPDATE: I am reminded by reader (and lawyer) Nbob that Bonds does have another option. "It would be open to her to lay a private information and, if process is granted those involved would face criminal charges (e.g. assault, sexual assault, unlawful confinement)."

Rights and Democracy: the freak show continues

2010-11-20T13:52:00.005-05:00

The clowns at Rights and Democracy, hoping that their quarter-million-dollar "forensic audit" would prove that the place had been horribly mismanaged until they showed up with their red noses, noisemakers and big floppy shoes, are now in a bind.

The report, due last Spring, and seen by the R&D Board several days ago, has still not been released to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs.

It's pretty obvious that the audit has revealed nothing except their own vindictive foolishness.

Nobody can sum up this continuing travesty better than Paul Wells, who, like myself, is somewhat obsessed with this endless trainwreck. Go. Read. Weep.

Saturday hangover

2010-11-20T13:51:00.001-05:00

My brother emailed me in some concern about the hideous new look of Dawg's Blawg. I assume he's not alone.

Readers, be reassured: the pastels will be gone soon, and we'll be back to the old look and feel. The transition--no mean task--is continuing, through a veritable minefield of glitches.

Wish us luck, and mind your eyes.

How the universe unfolds as it should

2010-11-19T11:27:00.002-05:00

A few headlines from you-know-who's place. No links, given the particulars of yesterday's judgement.

28 April 2008 Good grief. Now Giacomo Vigna is threatening to sue me!

22 July 2008 CHRC lawyer threatens me with another lawsuit. (I'm still "serene")

1 August 2008 My defence in Vigna v. Levant: Vigna beclowned himself

15 March 2010 The trial of Vigna v. Levant begins in Ottawa

23 June 2010 The trial of Vigna v. Levant continues in Ottawa tomorrow

18 November 2010 Whoops!

Hassan Diab: the prosecution stoops too low

2010-11-18T22:01:00.004-05:00

After Don Bayne's masterful deconstruction of the French Record of Case and the multiple misrepresentations therein, what was left to the prosecution?

Mudslinging and personal insults.

If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.

Way to go, Claude LeFrançois. What a confession of defeat.

Unabashed Schadenfreude

2010-11-18T20:37:00.003-05:00

The mighty Ezra has struck out.

Defamation--as others of Levant's politics are on the way to learning--is not a matter of free speech. He'll be shelling out $25,000, and costs, to Canadian Human Rights Commission officer Giacomo Vigna for repeated defamation.

Big City Lib scooped me on this. Go read.

And here's the whole decision for your additional reading pleasure.

Don't mess with the Mafia

2010-11-18T14:23:00.001-05:00

...er, the Pentagon.

American justice, Republican style

2010-11-18T13:03:00.003-05:00

Tried! Mind you, I don't object to trying him, if it's got to be done to give satisfaction; and I'll be there, and chip in and help, too; but put it off till afternoon--put it off till afternoon, for I'll have my hands middling full till after the burying--"

"Why, what do you mean? Are you going to hang him any how--and try him afterward?"

"Didn't I say I was going to hang him? I never saw such people as you. What's the difference? You ask a favor, and then you ain't satisfied when you get it. Before or after's all one--you know how the trial will go.

--Mark Twain, Roughing It

But of course you can never depend on a jury to deliver that guilty verdict. A real jury in a real court in New York (not the kangaroo job that is a Military Commission in Gitmo) found Ahmed Ghailani guilty of one count of terrorist activity--and innocent of 284 others.

Republican House Leader Mitch McConnell is outraged:

Yesterday's acquittal in a federal court ... is all the proof we need that the administration's approach to prosecuting terrorists has been deeply misguided and indeed potentially harmful as a matter of national security.

And here's another Republican a little unclear on the concept of justice--or perhaps very clear indeed:

“This is a tragic wake-up call to the Obama Administration to immediately abandon its ill-advised plan to try Guantanamo terrorists” in federal civilian courts, said Representative Peter King, Republican of New York. “We must treat them as wartime enemies and try them in military commissions at Guantanamo.”

Because, as we know, there's never any doubt about those verdicts.

Stacy Bonds: Chief White's halfway measures

2010-11-18T10:57:00.011-05:00

Ottawa Police Chief Vern White's limp response to a judge's ruling that four of his officers unlawfully detained, violently assaulted and strip-searched a young Black woman:

Ottawa Police Sgt. Steve Desjourdy, the officer caught on videotape cutting a young female prisoner's shirt and bra off with a pair of scissors, will be forbidden from dealing with the public until the conclusion of an internal police investigation.

What does this tell us? Far from firing this thug, or at the very least suspending him without pay until the conclusion of his two-years-late "internal investigation," Chief White will retain him on the force at full salary.* And the other officers involved in the gang assault on the 100-pound Stacy Bonds are still out there "dealing with the public."

Not a good start, Chief.

By what he assures us is a coincidence, White has just announced measures to deal with racial profiling by his troops. The initiative was actually begun by order of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, after a well-publicized case of racist antics by the Ottawa police--six years ago. (The police cleared themselves of any blame in this incident after one of those "internal investigations." The OHRC disagreed.)

Meanwhile we await the results of another human rights hearing after another "internal investigation" cleared another cop--five years ago. What saved young Chad Aiken's version of events was an audio recording of his encounter.

The vicious police assault on Stacy Bonds took place a mere two years ago. We'll see if it leads to the same mutual back-scratching result as all those others. So far, the signs are not reassuring.

UPDATE: Some disturbing stats:

A recent Toronto Star report looked at 3,400 investigations of police misconduct in Ontario over a 20-year period. In only 95 of those cases were criminal charges laid and only 16 officers were ever convicted. Only three of those went to jail.

Will Bonds beat the odds?

_________________
*As a reader rightly points out, Section 89 of the Ontario Police Services Act does not permit suspension without pay--even in a case of murder. But Desjourdy could at least be sent home to cool his heels, if outright firing is indeed not an option even in so egregious a case. And what of his co-animals?

Ottawa Police horror [updated]

2010-11-18T09:23:00.002-05:00

It could have been Mississippi, ca. 1950.

A woman of colour, returning home after a party. A false arrest, a sadistic police sergeant, a trumped-up charge, a prosecutor attempting to jail the victim.

But this is Ottawa, 2010. A judge called a halt to what he rightly called a "travesty." He couldn't ignore the videotape that showed a sustained assault on an unresisting prisoner by police officers, and the sexual and emotional humiliation of their victim.

Stacy Bonds, a 27-year old theatrical makeup artist, was simply walking on the street. As reported, she was stopped by Ottawa police for no reason, and held until she was run through the police computer. She was then told to proceed on her way.

But this uppity woman didn't know her place. She turned and asked them why they had stopped her.

She was immediately arrested for "public intoxication," although the judge found this an unlawful act because she was nowhere close to being drunk. She was handcuffed, thrown into the back of a police cruiser, and taken to the police station.

What then happened was recorded by a videocamera in the station. Showing no signs of resistance, Bonds was viciously kneed in the back, her hair yanked, and a hand thrust into her pants. The arresting officer, Const. John Flores, didn't once let go of her.

Bonds was then thrown to the floor with the use of a riot shield. Her shirt and bra were cut off by Sgt. Steve Desjourdy, and she was strip-searched in the presence of several male officers. She was then left in a jail cell for three hours, half-naked, and ultimately charged with that old butt-saving favourite, "assault on police."

Desjourdy has been in trouble before, for kicking and Tasering a female prisoner a mere few days before this incident. For that he was given a three-month demotion to the rank of constable in 2009. Must have stung.

He claimed that his victim had "mule-kicked" a constable behind her, justifying his use of force. But the videotape showed no such thing.

The judge berated the officers for the strip search, calling it "an extremely serious breach of [Bonds'] rights, apart from it being unlawful." Her lawyer, Matt Webber, was less restrained: "It's an appalling example of abuse of power and misconduct on the part of the police. It's a complete disregard for her dignity. It's shocking."

Yup.

What I find particularly interesting is the fact that the entire assault on Bonds was carried out under a police videocam, but the officers involved simply lied, as though no such record existed. Such is the culture of police impunity that they obviously imagined the system would save them no matter what.

The Crown's decision to proceed to a trial, once again proving the adage that police and prosecutors are stuck together with Krazy Glue, must have reassured them. But they all ran into a judge who didn't have a bandage over his eyes. He stayed the bogus charge against her, and went on a refreshing rant against her victimizers.

Police Chief Vern White has promised an "internal investigation." White does appear to be a cut above the usual police chief, regularly reaching out to the community and so forth, but that may simply indicate his mastery of effective public relations. In this case, he hedges: "If the judge's ruling is indicative of what happened, it's appalling."

If? Roll that video for the chief, please.

We'll see what comes of this investigation, which could take months. Meanwhile, I assume that the officers involved are still on the job, serving and protecting.

For her part, Bonds says she is thinking of suing. Thinking? Here's one observer who would be willing to part with some cash to get that process started. Outside her acquittal, a lawsuit may provide the only justice she ever receives.

UPDATE: My sometime editor at the National Post, Kelly McParland, weighs in. The message? Fire. Them. All.

UPPERDATE: (November 18) Vern White's halfway measures:

Ottawa Police Sgt. Steve Desjourdy, the officer caught on videotape cutting a young female prisoner's shirt and bra off with a pair of scissors, will be forbidden from dealing with the public until the conclusion of an internal police investigation.

What does this tell us? Far from firing this thug, or at the very least suspending him without pay until the conclusion of his two-years-late "internal investigation," Chief White will retain him on the force at full salary. And the other officers involved in a gang assault on a 100-pound Black woman are still out there "dealing with the public."

Not a good start, Chief.

Excuse Our Dust...

2010-11-17T22:37:00.003-05:00

Dear folks,

I'm helping Dr. Dawg trying to wrest his comments back from Echo, after their subscription fiasco. This may involve some template changes and some confusion in the short term, but will hopefully pay off. Until then, we apologize for any inconvenience. Just so you know.

Ping: Stacy Bonds

2010-11-17T12:29:00.003-05:00

Please contact me. I can suggest legal counsel, and we can talk about setting up a fund to underwrite the costs of your lawsuit.

Go, Sens, Go!

2010-11-17T12:04:00.004-05:00

No, no, not my hometown hockey team. That bunch of unelected so-and-sos in what we laughingly call the Upper House, now stacked with assorted Tory cronies, bagpersons and hacks.

These catspaws just killed a bill on climate change that had been passed by the elected House of Commons. And once again, the Liberals helped:

Without any debate in the Red Chamber, Conservative senators caught their Liberal and unelected counterparts off-guard on Tuesday by calling a snap vote on Bill C-311, the Climate Change Accountability Act introduced by Bruce Hyer, a New Democrat who represents Thunder Bay-Superior North in the House.

--
It is the first time that the unelected Conservative senators have used their near-majority to kill a bill passed by elected politicians. The absence of more than 15 Liberals from the Senate allowed the bill to be defeated by a margin of 43 to 32. [emphasis added]

--

The bill had required the federal government set regulations to bring greenhouse gas emissions 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and to set a long-term target to bring emissions 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Just another incremental increase in our widening democratic deficit. Proof positive that we need to abolish the Senate, throw out those unelected, tax-sucking parasites, and, if necessary, replace the institution with something democratic and functional.

Readers might wish to speculate upon what the latter might be. At the moment, any such notion seems rather hypothetical, even fanciful. But that's another discussion. For now, the current Red Chamber, that diseased vestige of feudalism, needs to be razed to its foundations, and the ground sown with salt.

UPDATE: Harper's new constitutional crisis. [H/t reader Holly Stick]

A Rational Discussion of Climate Change - Maybe?

2010-11-16T22:01:00.006-05:00

Tomorrow, the Subcommittee on Energy & Environment of the US House of Representative will be holding a hearing tomorrow titled “A Rational Discussion of Climate Change: the Science, the Evidence, the Response”. The hearing has been divided into three panels (I recall there were titles attached to each panel, but I can’t find it now – if you come across it, please let me know in comments).

In my experience, when looking at these types of panels one of the most interesting things to see is who has been invited to present to the hearing. Each panel has 4 presenters and it appears that the Republicans were allowed to select a presenter for each panel. The presenters are listed below along with links to give you some background of them and their positions.

Panel I
* Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone
* Dr. Heidi M. Cullen
* Dr. Gerald A. Meehl
* Dr. Richard Lindzen

Panel II
* Dr. Benjamin D. Santer
* Dr. Richard B. Alley
* Dr. Richard A. Feely
* Dr. Patrick J. Michaels

Panel III
* Rear Admiral David W. Titley
* Mr. James Lopez
* Mr. William Geer
* Dr. Judith Curry

I think it is very telling who the Republicans selected for their members: Dr. Lindzen, Dr. Michaels and Dr. Curry. Dr. Lindzen and Dr. Michaels are probably the most prominent of the doubters, but they carry with them a large amount of baggage which includes some very poor published work. The presentation I am looking forward most to is Dr. Curry’s. Dr. Curry is an interesting figure. She knows the basic science very well, but seems to have some unique views on the uncertainties associated with climate change. I think it is also telling that Dr. Wegman, their star performer from the hearing 4 years ago is absent in this one.

Now, consider the other presenters. They are not part of the group of scientists associated with Real Climate so they don’t have the baggage that – for example a Dr. Michael Mann – would have. Instead we have representatives from the leading scientific organizations, NGOs and even the military. I think that what we will see is a strong statement of the science from most of the members but the typical statements from Dr. Lindzen and Michaels (my prediction, criticism of the models will form part of Lindzen’s statement). Unknown what Curry will say. Tomorrow should be interesting.

Update: The Hearing Charter is now out which is very good reading. It gives a very brief synopsis of what each speaker will talk about (and yes, I win my bet that Lindzen will talk about models). However the background information is very well writen and presents the background science much better than I expected. This should be a very interesting hearing.

Afghanisnam:Tory rationale debunked

2010-11-16T15:26:00.002-05:00

Professor Amir Attaran has been kind enough to pass on his thoughts on the Librocon decision to extend the Afghanistan mission. Rather than paraphrase and editorialize, I thought I should just reproduce his own words:

Please allow me to share something about the necessity (or lack thereof) of the Canadian Forces remaining deployed until 2014 to train Afghanistan’s army. In pesky professor fashion I have compiled some useful statistics on the training of the Afghan army. Rather than write an op-ed, I am sending the facts to my journalist friends to use. I don’t care whether or not you attribute this to me—just use the stats if they are helpful.

We heard today the Harper government’s rationales: i.e. that the Canadian Forces must remain deployed until 2014 to train the Afghan National Army (ANA). As Lawrence Cannon said, 950 Canadian soldiers will remain “who will help train Afghan soldiers”. The reason, according to Peter MacKay is that ANA training is lagging behind without Canada’s commitment to 2014, and “this government will not risk losing those gains that Canadian soldiers fought and sacrificed for.”

In short, Messrs Cannon and MacKay claim that unless Canada remains in a training role for the ANA until 2014, our past gains will slip away. Mr. MacKay further said that training the ANA until 2014 was “consistent with goals” of the larger Afghan mission.

However, those claims are absolutely, demonstrably false. In public documents, NATO itself offers the contrary view that ANA training is years ahead of schedule. It is not tenable that the Canadian Forces are needed through 2014 to meet targets, because NATO met them early, and anyway the current NATO targets for the ANA end in October 2011, not 2014. Below please find my evidence and sources.

NATO’S GOAL: TRAIN 134,000 ANA SOLDIERS BY 2013. NO, BY 2011. NO, BY OCTOBER 2011. UM, WE DID IT!

In contrast to the Harper government’s claim that ANA training is dangerously lagging, actually it is going better than planned. NATO recently met its targets for training and building ANA soldier numbers—significantly ahead of schedule. According to an August 2010 press release from NATO:

“In a positive development for the country's rapidly expanding security capability, the Afghan National Army announced today at the Ministry of Defense that it reached the benchmark strength of 134,000 soldiers two months ahead of schedule.” See NATO press release, “Afghan Army reaches targeted strength early”:

That’s pretty clear: the ANA’s “benchmark strength of 134,000 soldiers” is not a distant future goal, but was met “ahead of schedule.” Mind you, there’s one incorrect statement in NATO’s press release, which is that this force strength target was met two months early. Actually NATO and the ANA met their target fully 3 years early.

This is a remarkable fact, so let me explain why it’s not widely known. Back in 2008, when NATO and the Afghan government agreed on training and building an ANA of 134,000 ANA soldiers, the goal was to do so by 2013. Then, they started working, and found it going faster and better than expected. NATO quietly shifted the target date—from 2013 originally, to December 2011, to October 2010. This fact is noted in NATO’s 2009 Afghanistan Report progress report, which reads:

“Last year [i.e. 2008], the Joint Coordination Monitoring Board (JCMB) approved the increase of the ANA total strength from 82,180 to 134,000 by 2013. The efforts of the United States-led Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) have enabled the constant growth of the ANA. Since 2007, 26,000 new personnel have been trained each year and another 28,000 are foreseen for 2009. As a result, the Afghan Defence Ministry’s ANA fielding acceleration plan now advances the full-sized ANA fielding target date to December 2011.” See NATO Afghanistan 2009 report, page 12.

Notice NATO’s phrase: a “full-sized ANA” amounts to 134,000 soldiers, which is the number achieved this August. Strangely NATO buries that fact and hates discussing it, because if it were widely understood that a key milestone to transfer control in Afghanistan was achieved three years early, it would play havoc with NATO’s arguments for staying in Afghanistan until 2014—and we all know how international bureaucracies and militaries hate to downsize (but that’s a different story).

So, with the quantity target of 134,000 ANA soldiers already met, what can we say about the quality of those soldiers? Elsewhere in NATO’s 2009 Afghanistan Report (page 13), NATO writes that the majority of ANA units last year were “capable of leading operations, or have reached full operational capability.” That’s become even more true this year, and in April 2010, NATO acknowledged that fully 21 ANA battalions (kandaks) are already “capable of planning and executing operations at Battalion level with no external support”: see the NATO press release.

Thus NATO’s own public documents admit these three things:

(1) ANA training has not lagged, but rather gone faster than planned;

(2) Quantity-wise, the 134,000 ANA soldiers today comprise a “full-sized ANA”; and

(3) Quality-wise, many of those soldiers (21 battalions) can operate with “no external support”.

All this is a success, to be sure. So what’s NATO doing as a victory lap? Earlier this year NATO set a “stretch” target to achieve 171,600 ANA soldiers by October 2011: see the NATO press release. There is no reason to believe that NATO will fail to meet its “stretch” target next October, and there is no further target thereafter.

MY CONCLUSION:

NATO’s “stretch” target to achieve 171,600 ANA soldiers by October 2011 would provide a margin of safety, over and above the full-sized army that now exists. A rational argument therefore could be made to keep the Canadian Forces deployed until October 2011, and this should be debated. But there is no apparent justification for the Harper government’s claim that ANA training is lagging, such that the Canadian Forces need to be deployed until 2014 training the ANA—that is demonstrably untrue and nonsense. NATO doesn’t even have an official 2014 target for ANA training, and certainly one has never been approved by NATO and the Afghan government through the Joint Coordination Monitoring Board.

Probably PMO will say that my analysis is wrong. If that happens, please ask PMO to produce its evidence: Which NATO document sets out agreed target(s) with the Afghan government for ANA training out to 2014, further to the current target of 171,600 soldiers in October 2011? Possibly PMO will find the utterances of some generals who think there are too few ANA soldiers, or will point to US government estimates that NATO is short of ANA trainers. But those individuals do not run or speak for NATO or the Afghan government, and it seems bizarre to speak of a “shortage” of trainers when the existing resources succeeded in training up the ANA to full size years ahead of schedule.

Last, please do not take my analysis to imply that training the ANA is a cakewalk. The ANA struggles with low pay, shaky morale, and therefore high attrition. In a country of few economic opportunities, the ANA’s numbers wax and wane with the agricultural seasons. Those issues affect training demand, but are not solved by Canada boosting the training supply. Canada could do a lot more good by developing Afghanistan’s taxation and revenue base, or otherwise seeing to it that ANA soldiers are paid regularly and decently.

AND WHAT ABOUT CANADIAN POLITICS?

So where does the Harper government get the story that training the ANA requires the Canadian Forces to stay deployed until 2014? Certainly not from NATO, as we have seen. And certainly not from the Americans, either. The American Deputy Commander of the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan, who blogs, has an analysis almost identical to my own.

In short, this is purely a made-in-Canada fabrication, to justify a mission extension for other undisclosed reasons. Training the ANA has nothing to do with it, and that is borne out by NATO’s own documents on training the ANA.

Warm regards,
Amir

Fear of flying

2010-11-16T12:41:00.002-05:00

In which the temperature in Hell drops precipitously, and I agree with Ezra Levant.

US: Palin's red meat base at work and play

2010-11-16T12:08:00.002-05:00

Man cannot live by beard alone. And, would you like fires with that?

Speaking truth to power

2010-11-14T19:43:00.004-05:00

An articulate 14-year-old gay youth stands up to school board officials in Howell, Michigan.

Classic double-think: opposing open homophobia, according to these bigots, is intolerant. The kid blew them out of the water. Watch, listen and applaud.

UPDATE: (November 15) Reader Jim suggests writing a polite note to the school authorities. See his in the comments.

Trach this man down

2010-11-14T14:09:00.002-05:00

I guess I'm suddenly in a law and order mood, but what the heck--I believe in sharing.

A man with more than 30 criminal convictions was granted a day pass while serving a five-year sentence for forcible confinement, sexual assault and fraud. He had taken staff hostage in a restaurant after refusing to pay for his meal.

He walked away. Surprised?

So now there's a national alert out for Mohammed Shaleem Gafoor. And then the story veers into surrealism:

Gafoor is described as non-white, five-foot-eight, 130 pounds, with short black hair, brown eyes and glasses. He has a tracheotomy scar on his neck and another on his abdomen. He was last seen wearing a trench coat and smelled strongly of cologne.

Anyone who sees Gafoor is advised to not approach him and call 911 right away.

Especially, I guess, if you prefer a scent-free environment. But if we obey the caution, how do we get to see that tracheotomy scar on his tummy?

Echo sucks

2010-11-14T12:46:00.002-05:00

Those bloggers who signed on to the JS-Kit commenting system and were frogmarched into Echo are discovering what it's like to be over a barrel and righteously hosed.

When Echo took over, we had to pay $10US for the coming year, after enjoying a previously free service. Now we're being notified that the cost has gone up--by 1200%. We will now be charged $10US per month. Presumably if we fail to pay, our comments will be disappeared.

So I knuckled under. My renewal date is December 14. But just as I was about to hit the "pay" button, I noticed that the li'l darlings were starting the clock at November 14. So I guess I'll renew in a month's time.

Or is it possible to get off this runaway train?

Sunday things that make you go "Hmm"

2010-11-14T12:05:00.004-05:00

A few bits and snippets to depress and inform readers on another fair November day.

Item: The Librocons cut an extra-Parliamentary deal on Afghanistan, and don't be fooled by all the "non-combat" malarkey. Warren the K has a good piece up on this, and buried in the comments is a reference that may (as it does in the case of the bloodstained Colombian free trade agreement) explain pretty much everything.

Item: The Harper government makes more aboriginal women disappear. Now, from the excellent Alison, we have an update on the story behind the Tory blacklisting of Sisters in Spirit. As for the government's late-in-the-day "endorsement" of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, it turns out to be just more smoke and mirrors.

Item: William "Bubbles" Elliott praises the RCMP for their "restraint" during the Toronto G20 meetings. Hell, it's not like they Tasered anyone to death, laughed at a dying man in one of their prisons, Tasered another man in his hospital bed or pepper-sprayed a baby. Concerned citizens must ask: are the Mounties going soft?

Item: And while on the subject, here's a statistic: one person dies in custody or at the hands of police every three weeks in sunny BC.

Item: There may be no truth to the rumour that Montreal's bereaved Rizzuto family is outraged at being compared to Liberals by ADQ leader Gerard Deltell.

Now it's off to do leaf-raking before the snow falls.

“Once we had a country and we thought it fair”

2010-11-13T12:37:00.006-05:00

To serve and protect: the G20 police riot revisited.

There will be no punishment. And most people, in their ignorance, will support their local police with their eyes wide shut.

No matter what. No matter the laws they break. No matter whom they assault. No matter whom they kill.

In Canada, 2010, the beasts are running the zoo.

[H/t Stageleft]

Umm...vegans?

2010-11-12T18:49:00.005-05:00

Calm down!

Gotta go. Supper's ready. :)

Hassan Diab: the French deception 2

2010-11-12T15:45:00.005-05:00

The courtroom demolition of France's case against Hassan Diab continued this morning.

Just as he did with the passport evidence earlier this week, Diab's lawyer Don Bayne dropped a sixteen-tonne weight on another misrepresentation in the Record of Case (ROC) certified by the wily French examining magistrate Marc Trévidic.

This time it wasn't conflicting accounts of Diab's alleged use of passport(s) to gain entry to France. It was what can only be described as deliberate deception by Trévidic: tailoring his ROC by omitting crucial evidence that made a nonsense of his claims--evidence, furthermore, that he was fully aware of.

In the ROC, Trévidic drew parallels between the rue Copernic bombing in Paris in 1980 and a subsequent bombing in Antwerp in 1981. In each case, a hotel had been selected that was near the target (a synagogue), and a nearby railway station for a quick getaway. The clear implication was, on so-called similar fact inference, that the same gang of terrorists, allegedly including Diab, was involved.

There was just one problem. In fact, there were four problems.

First, Trévidic somehow failed to note that his predecessor Guy Joly, who had travelled to Beligium and upon whom he had been relying for his account of the Antwerp bombing, also named the three suspects in the case.

Guess what? Diab was not one of them. They were known to the Belgian police: Kathleen Hill, an Englishwoman married to an IRA terrorist, Hasan Akbalickci, a Turk, and Atman Yusuf.

Trévidic didn't include three other salient facts either, that distinguished the Antwerp bombing from the Paris one. First, the Belgian police were not convinced that the bombing in Antwerp had even been targeting the synagogue. It was set off in the financial district of Antwerp and could, in their view, have been an anti-capitalist attentat. Second, the bomb type was entirely different. Third, two terrorist groups immediately claimed responsibility for the Antwerp bombing: Black September and Action Direct. In Paris, no group claimed responsibility.

So much for the "clear links" alleged in the ROC between the two attacks. All we are left with is a hotel, a railway station and a synagogue in close proximity. As Bayne noted, raising Antwerp was an attempt to further implicate Diab in the rue Copernic bombing when all of the evidence to the contrary, including the the fact that the participants in the Antwerp attack has already been identified, had been adroitly excised by Trévidic. Had that evidence been included, there would have been no argument to make--in fact there would have been no reason to talk about Antwerp at all.

So much for what the prosecution has called inconsequential errors. So much for the presumption of reliability in a Record of Case submitted by the requesting state (France). And--if the extradition case succeeds--so much for the Charter rights of any Canadian citizen being able to protect us from being framed by a foreign power.

And speaking of anti-Semitism...

2010-11-11T14:00:00.004-05:00

Anti-Semitic imagery and stereotypes are just fine with conservatives--if it's Glenn Beck deploying them, and a progressive philanthropist is on the receiving end.

No word as yet from the authors of the Ottawa Protocol.

UPDATE: (November 12) Suing people for defamation if they incidentally happen to be supporters of Israel is apparently yet another instance of the New Anti-Semitism™. [H/t reader Marcus]

Lest we remember

2010-11-11T10:05:00.007-05:00

My father was a WWII vet, having led the 1st Canadian Calibration Troop through the mud of Europe. A cousin was imprisoned in Buchenwald after being captured behind enemy lines. My ex-spouse's father was a Hong Kong POW, and, like his comrades, was shamefully abandoned by the Canadian government during his captivity and after his release.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," said George Santayana.

Wrong.

Remembering dooms us to repetition. We remember everything and learn nothing. We absorb and reproduce the patterns of the past. Look around.

We are losing men and women in Afghanistan, because war is still the answer. We glorify (and profit by) the production of weapons of war.

We fret about the allegedly devious aliens among us. Once it was Japanese, Germans and Italians, now it's Muslims.

We fearfully close our borders. A few decades ago it was to keep out Jews, now it's Tamils, whose mass murder at sea was recently advocated ("lock and load") by a leading Canadian newspaper.

Our vets are fighting tooth and nail for decent treatment from our "Support Our Troops" government: the disgracefully abandoned Hong Kong vets had to fight for their pensions too.

We're condemned to repeat history, over and over and over again--unless we forget.

I'm not advocating that we dismiss the sacrifices made to turn back fascism, or disrespect the countless men and women killed or wounded in that essential task. But in this annual attempt to confer immortality upon those and other brave young people--"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old"--we are also immortalizing old ways of thinking and acting, closing off the possibility of alternatives.

We are trapped in remembrance. We must have a radical break with the past, a strategic obliteration. Because only a deliberate act of forgetting will allow us to dream the wild new dreams that may yet save us.

Hassan Diab: the French deception

2010-11-11T02:58:00.004-05:00

The case against the extradition of Hassan Diab, as laid out this week by lawyer Donald Bayne in a preliminary motion to stay the proceedings, has begun to look unassailable. Yesterday the credibility of crusading French examining magistrate Marc Trévidic, who prepared the Record of Case (ROC) upon which the deportation proceedings are based, was shredded seemingly beyond repair.

Readers need to be aware of precisely how little recourse a defendant in an extradition case has available under current legislation. Any Canadian citizen may be extradited by a treaty partner merely by establishing a prima facie case. The defendant does not have full Charter rights, no right to disclosure of evidence from the accusing party, no right to cross-examine witnesses. As Bayne described it this week, mounting a defence in such a one-sided contest is "an uphill climb."

It's not a climb, in fact, that many undertake, and still fewer manage to make. But there is precedent, as Bayne showed earlier this week, for making a Charter argument for a stay. This rests upon the integrity of the ROC submitted by the requesting state--in this case, France.

That integrity doesn't have to be proven: it is generally assumed. But what if it is possible to show that the ROC is deliberately deceptive? It is in such a case, rare in the extreme, that the extradition judge has the right to exercise a residual discretion and put a stop to the proceeding. The proposition that the certifying authority for the ROC has a duty of "fairness and good faith," and of "utmost diligence and care" in ensuring the accuracy of the document, is established in a number of precedent cases.

The prosecution will attempt to show later this week that the demonstrable flaws in the ROC are merely "inconsequential errors." Here is one: judge for yourselves whether it is inconsequential, and even if it is an honest error.

The question of Hassan Diab's passport(s) is key to the case. Why do I use a possible plural? That would be because of the contradictory evidence of the French examining magistrate, Marc Trévidic.

In the defence counsel's factum supporting the motion for a stay, Bayne points out that Trévidic certified in the ROC that Diab entered France using a false Cypriot passport in the name of "Alexander Panadriyu." He didn't have a lot of choice, because the copy of Hassan's real passport, obtained in 1981, showed no entry stamps to France.

The ROC states that the "hit team" that bombed the rue Copernic synagogue, allegedly including Diab, entered France via Madrid by train, using false papers. The assertion that Diab was using a false passport is repeated seven times.

But there's a problem. On November 12, 2008, 29 days before he certified the ROC now before the Ottawa court, Trévidic told quite a different story. He was attempting to obtain an arrest warrant for Diab through an application to the Ontario Superior Court, the first step in the extradition process. And in that application, he stated that the "hit team" has used their real passports.

Well, which was it? If real passports were used, then Diab is in the clear--no entry stamps to France. It is speculated by a source close to the case that Trévidic used the "real passport" theory in this instance because it sounded more impressive ("we have his passport and it shows he entered France"). Trévidic knew that, under current law, he didn't have to produce the passport to a Canadian judge, and may have thought that a different judge would preside over the extradition hearing itself. Perhaps unluckily for him, however, Justice Robert Maranger was the judge in both instances.

But it gets worse. In the substantial ancillary material attached to the ROC, a report turned up from a French police officer who had stopped the mysterious "Alexander Panadriyu" for an ID check.* The officer had been thorough enough to list the stamps found in that false Cypriot passport--very few, as it turns out, because the passport was only four months old. Besides, a fake passport would have only the minimum number of stamps inserted to allow it to pass for the real thing.

And guess what? He found an entry stamp through France's Lyon airport--not one for an arrival by train through the Spain-France border.

This meant that both of Trévidic's theories were bunk--and he had to have known it. To put it bluntly, he used whatever tale he thought would work best in the circumstances.

The case continues. It will be interesting, to put it mildly, to see how the prosecution copes with this clear evidence of malfeasance that goes to the very core of the extradition case.
_____________
*I am now reliably informed that much more than an ID check was involved. The French police officer examined Panadriyu's passport after he was arrested for trying to shoplift pliers from a Paris hardware store. Panadriyu was questioned and released after signing a statement admitting to the attempted theft.

Out of Africa

2010-11-10T10:21:00.000-05:00

Or, "Stephen Harper doesn't care about Black people."

[H/t Kanye West]

Push comes to shove

2010-11-10T08:58:00.013-05:00

Criticism of Israel will shortly become illegal in Canada.

That's the message of the "Ottawa Protocol" agreed to behind closed doors this week by a group of international parliamentarians calling themselves the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism. The Canadian wing, of course, is the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism.

Here is what is about to descend upon us:

[The Ottawa Protocol] aims to implement a series of measures to put an end to hateful propaganda in places like universities. In particular, the group aims to stop the growth in the criticism of Israel and its policies that, it says, is increasingly a vehicle for anti-Semitism. [emphasis added]

It's what some of us have been arguing all along--and we've been denounced as paranoid for doing so. But you don't get a group of parliamentarians deliberating for months and holding hearings if legislation isn't in the works.

Of course the protocol claims not to be what it is. Here's the usual sinuous language:

"Let it be clear: Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is wrong," the protocol says.

"But singling Israel out for selective condemnation and opprobrium -- let alone denying its right to exist or seeking its destruction -- is discriminatory and hateful, and not saying so is dishonest."

The first paragraph is a kind of alibi that shields, not the hapless critic of Israel, but the legislative project itself. The second one has the meat. "Selective condemnation"--I've been accused of that in this very blog because of the paucity of posts about North Korea and other hellholes. "Seeking its destruction" could mean anything from mass extermination to merely supporting a one-state solution in the Middle East. Even opposing the current loyalty oath for new citizens of Israel could be interpreted as seeking the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state.

Norm Spector, a former Canadian ambassador to Israel, asks a salient question this morning: will criticism of Israeli building projects in Jerusalem be deemed "anti-Semitic" under the new expanded definition? The answer, I think, is obvious.

And here's Israel’s Minister for Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, Yuli Edelstein, who is ecstatic about the Ottawa goings-on:

[Edelstein] agreed with the need to expand the definition of anti-Semitism beyond the usual stereotypes, such as “having horns, killing Christ, laundering money.” He said there have been successes in combating overt anti-Semitism, such as Internet stories suggesting that Israeli military doctors in Haiti were harvesting organs. He added that criticisms of Israel that include double-standards, or de-legitimize or demonize its existence, amount to anti-Semitism.

“I think we have to be very inclusive in this definition to really fight the tendency, and not just a certain part of it,” he said. [emphases added]

"Very inclusive," indeed. Almost anyone can be accused of employing double standards, even if most of us who criticize Israel simply want to impose one and the same standard upon it as currently applies to other nations. "De-legitimize" can refer to nearly anything. "Demonize" means whatever these political exorcists choose it to mean.

So now Israel will achieve a status in Canadian law that no other nation possesses. It will be shielded even from the silly commentary that is so much a part of popular culture. You'll continue to be able to say "Bomb Iran," but possibly go to jail if you say "Bomb Israel." The Toronto Sun can still use the phrase "lock and load" in reference to a boatload of Tamils, but a similar injudicious remark directed against Israeli settlers on the West Bank would become a criminal matter.

Make no mistake, this thing is a slam-dunk. When (not if) the Conservatives introduce legislation to outlaw criticism of Israel, likely when a federal election is in the offing, the Liberals will tamely go along, not wanting to fight accusations of anti-Semitism in the thick of an electoral contest.

No doubt the legislation will pretend to draw a non-existent distinction between "legitimate" and "illegitimate" criticism--non-existent, because the concepts are purely subjective. To some, in fact, there simply is no "legitimate" criticism of Israel. The legislation will, in word and in practice, be "very inclusive."

Such legislation would quite possibly not withstand Charter scrutiny. But that's small comfort at this point. It's on its way, and I, for one--who have fought genuine anti-Semitism for decades, on the Internet and on the ground--can feel a cold wind blowing. So should we all.

[H/t the ever-wakeful Alison]

UPDATE: Full text of the Ottawa Protocol here, via BCL.

Do police forces talk to each other?

2010-11-09T17:52:00.000-05:00

G20 "best practices" on display in Oakland, California.

Oscar Grant was an unarmed, handcuffed Black man murdered by an Oakland cop, Johannes Mehserle. A white judge, Robert Perry, kissed the killer with a sentence of two years less time served--the minimum sentence possible. The cop had claimed that he mistook his gun for a Taser.

The judge refused to allow prior use-of-force testimony against the officer, but permitted the defence to introduce evidence about the defendant's past criminal record.

Protesting this travesty was deemed illegal. A peaceful protest led to 152 arrests: everyone was released, many after harrowing experiences in custody. The decision to charge the protesters is still up in the air.

Meanwhile, in backwoods Canada, sundry far-Right wingnuts are howling about "white privilege." No, no, they aren't opposing it. They don't like the term, and claim that no such thing exists.

HUAC North and the missing report

2010-11-09T09:07:00.008-05:00

While the fate of Canadian critics of Israel is being decided behind closed doors this week, perhaps a little juxtaposition might lighten the mood.

Readers may recall that the Final Report of the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism, which conducted one-sided "hearings" earlier this year, was due this past Spring. But somehow it hasn't surfaced, even during this week's international gabfest.

Scott Reid, the Conservative MP who chairs the CPCCA, is miffed with the critics. But let's do that juxtaposing thing:

Some critics have pointed out that Statistics Canada says there are more hate crimes directed at black people in Canada than at Jews and suggest that the focus on anti-Semitism by MPs is a crude political attempt to court the Jewish vote.

And here's the indignant yet disarmingly frank Mr. Reid:

The report will be released, he said, hopefully before the next federal election.

All we can do is smile, as we wait for the other shoe to drop.

ADDENDUM: Shriek! Campus anti-Semitism!

Just a few months ago, for example, two Carleton University students reported being attacked by fellow students wielding a machete at an off-campus bar; the attackers berated them as “Jews” and “Zionists.” Last year, Jewish students were besieged inside the York University offices of Hillel, a Jewish campus group; assailants reportedly banged on walls and floors and yelled anti-Semitic slurs. These two incidents, sadly, are part of a broader pattern of hostility that many Canadian – and American – Jewish students are reporting.

"Reported." "Reportedly."

Big City Lib has done the heavy lifting on the first "example," which he aptly names "Machetegate." The York "anti-Semitic slurs," like an earlier claim of physical assault, have never been substantiated. But here, as a reminder to readers, is how the York University's aptly-named Hasbara Fellowship rolls.

Last word to Jonathan Kay. And when I call upon him as a beacon of common sense, you just know something is way out of whack in the continuing narrative of Canadian anti-Semitism.

Calgary Social Services: "Anti-racist? We'll take your kids!"

2010-11-08T21:56:00.009-05:00

Early this morning, five thugs broke into the home of anti-racist activists Jason and Bonnie Devine. Their four children were asleep upstairs. The goons attacked Jason and another male with hammers and bats.

The Devines are well-known in the area for their anti-Nazi activities, which most recently included leafleting an area where "Aryan Guard" members were known to hang out.

The children were not harmed--no doubt the brave Nazis were unaware that they were upstairs sleeping.

Enter Calgary Social Services.*

Unbelievably, they are threatening to apprehend the Devine children unless the Devines stop their anti-racist activity.

Here is part of the Devines' account:

We have been the victim of a hate crime. We have not broken any laws, committed any crimes,nor acted violently or ever called for violence. Yet today we were compared to gang members and drug dealers by people who say they have our best interests in mind. Social Services came into our home and began an investigation on us, not only about our parenting but on our children's safety. They stated that because of our high level of activity we have placed our children in unnecessary risk and that we should stop before they either see it or are a victim of it.

--

This was attempted murder, when 3-4 people simultaneously hit you with hammers and bats to your head and body this is not with the intention of leaving you as function [sic] person but dead. Now we are not allowed to bring our children home,our family who has our children has been advised that if we attempt to leave with our children they are to be notified. We are now living in terror that our children will be apprehended while at school and it was implied that only if we stop being active and follow everything they deem safe that our children may be returned to us, and I stress maybe as they did.

The very issue is that whether we stop now or not we will be forever targeted by Neo-nazi groups and members. They have pictures of not only us, but our children which they took while we were shopping at our local co-op grocery 4 weeks ago. We will be targets for the rest of our lives. We call to the public, family and friends to put pressure on making the Police find the true criminals in this matter and stop social services and others from dividing and separating our family and causing us further torment.

Words fail. Apparently the Devines, by engaging in anti-racist work, have been "asking for it." When they are attacked, Calgary Social Services steps in to blame them, rather than the bums who assaulted them. Perhaps--I wouldn't be surprised--they also go after the children of rape victims, threatening to apprehend the kids if their mothers insist on wearing "provocative clothing."

No wonder Calgary is the "hate capital of Canada." In what other Canadian city will Social Services line up with neo-Nazis to punish anti-racist activity?

[H/t Anti-Racist Canada]

ADDENDUM: No doubt the Free Dominion conservatives think Devine and his friend attacked themselves. There's never been any doubt, after all, where their sympathies lie.

UPDATE: (November 10) Dr.Dawg, with unprecedented traffic thanks to this post, gets results! Welcome back, kids.

_____________
*Some readers object to this shorthand. The full name of the agency is the Calgary and Area Child and Family Services Authority (CFSA). It comes under the purview of Alberta's Ministry of Children and Youth Services.

Life in Tehran Toronto

2010-11-07T12:31:00.000-05:00

As recounted by some ordinary folks--who, post G20, have a somewhat different take on "Serve and Protect" than they once did.

Can't happen here? Already has.

[H/t Let Freedom Reign]

"Ungodly to look at"

2010-11-07T12:21:00.005-05:00

That would be the Turkish flag, pictured above.

The management of an Oshawa apartment complex has, for the second year running, ordered a Turkish-born resident to remove the flag from his balcony, where he had placed it to celebrate Republic Day.

Quoth the building manager, one "Diane":

It was a huge red flag in the middle of the living room window, in the middle of the balcony. It was very ungodly to look at."

When Mahmut Bak protested that other residents were permitted to place flags on their balconies, this is what the manager circulated to all residents of the building:

Could you please remove your flag from your balcony. This is a result of asking the person . . . to take his Turkish one down. He is yelling discrimination.

At least one tenant displaying a Canadian flag protested. Two days later, it was all a terrible mistake:

Gerald Ash was asked to take down the small Canadian flag he had affixed to the inside of his balcony with a plastic tie.

“I just had a little one, the kind you fly outside your car. I’ve been here seven and a half months and no one has said squat about it. Now, all of a sudden, some guy puts a Turkish flag up and I have to take mine down. That’s ridiculous,” Ash said.

But now, two days after the memo went out, management says it’s all a big misunderstanding. Erika Bradbury, a senior property manager for Valiant, said the policy has always been that residents cannot make holes in the building exterior to hang any object and that items cannot dangle over the balcony edge.

She sent Ash an email Thursday stating that management “does not, nor has it ever had, anything against properly displayed flags on tenant balconies.”

It’s good news for Ash who’s eager to put his flag back up for Remembrance Day in honour of his great-grandfather who fought in World War I.

Perhaps needless to say, however, Bak has received no such email. Welcome to Stephen Harper's Canada, 2010.

[H/t Emre]

Halifax Security Forum : Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran

2010-11-07T01:02:00.005-04:00

And not just their nuclear site, but pre-emptive bombing of their navy, their air force, their army.

Political leaders and security and defence officials and generals are in Halifax from November 5 to 7 for the second Halifax International Security Forum, presented by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and hosted by Airshow MacKay. Airshow is credited by GMFUS with having the idea for these annual security conferences.

Attending : Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security; Condoleezza Rice; Senators John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Mark Udall ; Stephen Hadley; Ehud Barak, Minister of Defense, Israel; Amos Gilad, Political-Military Affairs, Israeli Ministry of Defense; Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute; Ron Covais, Lockheed Martin; John Manley, CEO Canadian Council of Chief Executives; Janice Gross Stein, Munk School of Global Affairs; Walter Natynczyk, Chief of Defence Staff; Mark Carney, Governor Bank of Canada; Vic Toews.

I just watched a panel with US Senators Mark Udall and Lindsey Graham, and Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute - introduced by John McCain and moderated by the CBC's Susan Bonner.

Here's Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who sits on the Budget, Armed Forces, and Homeland Security committees, supporting pre-emptive bombing of Iran [at half-hour mark]:

"Republicans are looking for a way to support Obama on Iraq and Iran.
My big fear about the Iranians developing a nuclear weapon is not so much they'll put it on top of a missile and send it to Israel, is that those materials can work their way into the hands of people who would use them in a variety of fashion.
The one thing that changes the world as I know it is Iran with a nuclear weapon.
The consequences are enormous, the idea of containment to me is off the table, so that takes us back to the idea of being tough.

And if you use military force, if sanctions are not gonna work - and a year from now it's pretty clear they're not gonna work, [inaudible] what our friends in Israel are gonna do - so I would like the President to make it abundantly clear : all options are on the table. And we all know what that means. My advice to the President : If you take military action against Iran as the last effort to stop their nuclear ambitions, you do open up Pandora's box but if you let them acquire nuclear weapons, you empty Pandora's box.

So my view of military force would be not to just neutralize their nuclear program, which would probably disperse and harden, but to sink their navy, destroy their air force, and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard.

In other words - neuter that regime, destroy their ability to fight back, and hope the people within Iran would have the chance to take back their government and be good neighbours to the world in the future. So that's what I mean by being tough."

Democratic Senator Udall did not entirely disagree but remained hopeful that sanctions will work : "This may be Agenda Item #1 for every person in this room."

Later, Graham explained that NATO's place at the table is all about "values".
Unfortunately the panel ended before he could get around to discussing precious bodily fluids.

Good God, how low can the Con government go?

2010-11-06T17:43:00.007-04:00

Seriously.

Blacklisting Sisters in Spirit, who made the rest of the country aware of hundreds of missing Aboriginal women? Giving the money to--the RCMP, who sat on their thumbs for years, when they weren't terrorizing Aboriginal communities?

What a miserable gang of racist goofs the Cons are. There really is no other way to put it.

NS cross-burning: the Right in disarray

2010-11-06T12:01:00.002-04:00

Canadian conservatives don't quite know what to make of the hate-crime conviction of Justin Rehberg--if the thundering silence at Blogging Tories is any indication. Even the Speech Warriors™ appear to have been struck dumb by the case, whether out of sympathy for Rehberg or embarrassment at where their ideology insists on taking them. Or perhaps they're just out of breath from cheering Keith Olbermann's ouster. Yes, let's be generous--perhaps that's it.

But all this may change shortly. An intrepid reporter for DawgNews was recently privy to a wide-ranging conversation among anxious peons at Conservative Talking-Points Central who were discussing the appropriate spin. Here is the transcript of their off-the-record (hah!) discussion:

First voice: I think we need to come out swinging on this one. Branded a hate criminal for exercising freedom of expression? Come on.

Second voice: We can't be that obvious--people will call us racists.

Third voice: So what? They're even using the n-word over at Free Dominion now.

F&SV: Shhh!

SV: Let's try a different approach. These were just young kids, having some fun that might have gotten a little out of hand. It's not like anyone was physically injured. Just some hurt feelings and a lot of "what-ifs" from a liberal prosecutor.

FV: Yup. No one rounded up those Legionnaires.

TV: Frankly I found that one funny as hell.

FV: Me too. But back to business. We can't call what those kids did "fun" or we'll open a real can of worms. Thing is, they burned a cross on the lawn of a mixed-race couple. It's bad optics all round.

SV: Hey, that's it! We can strike a blow against property crime, with this as a prime example. They were trespassing. They lit a fire that could have spread. On somebody else's front lawn. Just another reason we need to build more prisons. Crime is rising!

TV: And another reason why we don't need hate legislation.

FV: Fine, so we have our points in order. If the base starts going on about free expression, we can always say there'd be no problemo if they'd burned the cross on their own lawn.

TV: OK, I'll send a note up to Dimitri.

Hassan Diab: next stop on the railroad?

2010-11-05T11:37:00.003-04:00

Hassan Diab's formal extradition hearing begins on Monday.

I have blogged about this shameful case before. Diab, accused of bombing a synagogue in France three decades ago, is up against a prosecutor who has successfully entered suspect new handwriting "evidence" as his case fell apart, and who opposed Diab's right to defend himself against it. He also faces a clearly partial judge who allowed that evidence in, who has permitted delay after unreasonable delay in the process, and has refused to ease Diab's onerous and costly bail conditions.

Diab's lawyer is fed up with this unCanadian way of doing things, and has filed a lengthy factum alleging abuse of process. Highlights may be found here. Take the time to read the document.

We shall see what happens on Monday with this application to toss the case. I hope I shall be forgiven for being pessimistic as the mills of the state grind on, crushing ever more Canadians with funny names.

More right-wing stupidity

2010-11-04T16:36:00.003-04:00

Check out the photo, and then the oh-so-manly commentary here. Dear readers, when you flinch, do you move towards whatever it is you are flinching from?

Spectator Obama is obviously "in the action." Only a brain-dead conservative blogger (apologies for the tautology) could imagine otherwise.

Needless to say, the Blogging Champion of Delisle and her scabrous commenters are all over this one.

Mirror of the future

2010-11-04T11:38:00.005-04:00

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
--George Orwell

Take a good look at the picture above. It could be you.

Two BC police officers beat this man, Yao Wei Wu, bloody. The matter was "investigated," and police have now cleared the police of wrongdoing.

Wu was innocent of any crime--indeed, the case was one of "mistaken identity." No one seems to be asking the obvious follow-up question: would this have been acceptable if no mistaken identity issue had been involved?

The police officers were allowed nearly four months to get their stories straight. The "investigation" itself took nine months. Wu's lawyer, Cameron Ward, called the process a "farce."

I disagree. It was more like a tragedy without catharsis.

In other news, Chief William Blair, who oversaw (if that's the correct word) the G20 police riot in Toronto, is now planning to take stern and decisive action against 90 or so police officers who removed their nametags during their attacks on ordinary citizens. Looks like some of them might lose a day's pay over it.

Blair referred to the illegal mass arrests as "preventative detention" before the House of Commons public safety committee yesterday. By all accounts he was given a pleasant reception there by the Librocons.

This is what police unaccountability looks like.

Take another look at the picture.

[H/t pogge]

Ontario's Special Investigations Unit on the job

2010-11-03T15:33:00.009-04:00

...turning a professional blind eye to flagrant police abuse. A few examples, courtesy of the Toronto Star:

A grandmother is run over and killed by a recklessly-driving cop. Cleared by the SIU, no charges, but he's fined $500 under the Police Act. Another cop runs over two teenagers in a park. He, too, is exonerated by the SIU.
Two cops shoot a camper preparing his supper. Synchronized notes + SIU incompetence = no charges.
SIU clears a police officer of wrong-doing after he breaks a handcuffed suspect's jaw in two places. A judge expresses shock and throws out the case against the suspect.
A slightly-built chartered accountant is pulled over for an expired licence sticker--and a cop breaks his arm. The officer leaves his victim by the road, saying he was lucky he didn't get worse. The SIU clears the officers involved.
An officer shoots dead a man approaching her armed with a plastic lawnchair. She gets a pass from the SIU.

As I noted in an earlier post, police in Ontario have been free for some time to assault and even kill ordinary citizens with impunity. The SIU can be counted upon to sit on their thumbs. Could the G20 police rampage a few months ago be seen as the inevitable result, at least in part, of the unwillingness of this "watchdog" to make police officers accountable for their actions?

UPDATE: And the societal sickness of police impunity is not, by any means, confined to Ontario. Not by a long shot.

Jail Brent Rathgeber now!

2010-11-03T13:21:00.001-04:00

Once in a while I enjoy a good pile-on. I'm only human, and the so-and-so got up my nose.

Sound and fury

2010-11-03T12:53:00.003-04:00

...but when the smoke cleared and the tumult and the shouting died, the Teabaggers elected all of five Senators (out of 37 races) and 39 Congresspersons (out of 435).

This followed the injection of unimaginably huge sums of cash into their various campaigns (after the Supreme Court had lifted all spending limits), numerous reports of voter intimidation and suppression, and the Rand Paul Stomp.

We didn't see the emergence of the Tea Party as a viable political force. They were routed.

Joe Miller--toast. Witchy Christine O'Donnell--spurned. Sharron Angle has only her Second Amendment remedies left to her. Ken Buck--no cigar.

Take a deep breath, folks. If this is the best that these far-right extremists can do in the ergotized political climate of present-day America, with unlimited financial resources, a lock on talk radio, Faux News, freely available guns, and legions of mouth-breathing columnists, bloghards and Twits, there is hope for the world after all.

I shall sleep soundly tonight.

Harper's Mr. Wright

2010-11-03T10:40:00.002-04:00

"The executive of the modern state," Karl Marx and Frederick Engels once famously observed, "is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie." In Canada this delegation now appears to have been dispensed with, as a prominent member of the class in question will now serve directly as Harper's next Chief of Staff.

Nigel Wright is the Managing Director of Onex, a vast conglomerate with fingers in almost every pie you can think of. He will not even give up his Onex job for the duration of his employ. Needless to say, Harper's biddable ethics lapdog Mary Dawson sees nothing whatever to worry about. One is tempted to make some observation about "business as usual," but that would, in the present circumstances, be a little superfluous.

Norman Spector poses the problem clearly:

The Prime Minister’s chief of staff is involved in all government decisions. Everything passes through his office. Mr. Wright swears he will be completely devoted to his job and that he is eager to serve the Government and Canadians. There is no reason to doubt this, but the reality is that he will almost always be in the hot seat, in an uncomfortable position or be handcuffed.

A so-called "ethical wall" has been constructed, allegedly to shield Wright from any conflict of interest. But other than becoming a latter-day anchorite, it is difficult to see how he could avoid it. Onex's huge sweep in the Canadian economy could be seen to impinge in one way or another upon almost every government decision that gets made these days.

Might we be permitted to cite this new Onex acquisition (the PMO) as a striking instance of vertical integration?

Free Mark Steyn (for those with tickets)

2010-11-02T11:03:00.004-04:00

To sum up a confusing few days in London, Ontario:

Celebrated amateur demographer [demagogue, shurely? Ed.] Mark Steyn was invited to speak at the London Convention Centre by the conservative group Strictly Right. He was dis-invited by the managers of the place, who cited "security concerns." This undoubtedly delighted the aforesaid Strictly Right, who had now gained some unexpected free publicity.
The Usual Suspects, not excluding Steyn himself, went into a predictable tizzy, said tizzy being fed by unsubstantiated rumours that Islamist Hordes™ had lobbied for the man's exclusion from the LCC. The quick-witted Big City Lib soon put the lie to those claims.
The speaking engagement was moved to a different venue, the Centennial Centre--also run, as it happens, by the City of London.
Muslims and their leftist handmaidens somehow failed to materialize.
900 pre-approved people, mostly geezers, attended. But a neo-Nazi was denied entry. The organizers cited "security concerns." Steyn proceeded to speak and sing about Islam and free expression.
It is not known at this time if he tap-danced as well. But on the free speech issue, his fans could give him lessons.

[H/t ARC, via BCL]

Iran, the merciful

2010-11-02T09:28:00.003-04:00

Readers who have been following the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman convicted of adultery, will be pleased to learn that the original sentence of death by stoning will not be carried out.

She is to be hanged instead, as early as this Wednesday.

Ashtiani has already been given 99 strokes of the lash because a picture purported to be of her appeared in the Western media: the person photographed was not wearing the obligatory head covering.

No doubt to ensure judicial fairness, Iranian authorities have arrested and detained her son, her lawyer and two German journalists.

Why not send a polite note to the Iranian Ambassador, Mr. Mohammad Lavasani? The gentleman may also be reached by fax (615.232.5712) and telephone (613.235.4726).

UPDATE: Avaaz, via reader Holly Stick, suggests another avenue to explore. There may not be much time, so fill in the form and send the message pronto.

Monday evening duet

2010-11-01T18:13:00.001-04:00

Enjoy!

[H/t brebis noire]

Rights and Democracy: secrecy and big spending

2010-11-01T12:21:00.001-04:00

The Rights and Democracy farce continues apace.

At last week's Board meeting, the long-awaited forensic audit of the organization, expected to be made public last Spring, was unveiled. But not to the public.

Small wonder. As reported, it uncovered nothing fraudulent. All that sound and fury, not to mention money--a quarter of a million dollars of your taxes and mine--was your classic Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

The Clown Car brigade presently running the place has had quite a year, though. Fully one-third of the staff has quit or been fired. Meanwhile, Board of Directors' expenses have almost tripled; ditto the money forked over to outside consultants, nearly a million bucks.

Demonstrating their usual generosity of spirit, the Clowns also slashed a memorial tribute to former president Rémy Beauregard in the R&D Annual Report:

After denying in an interview last week that any changes were made to the tribute to Mr. Beauregard, Mr. Latulippe said Monday through a spokesman that the final version was the result of "a normal editing process." Stéphane Bourgon, senior director of communications for Rights and Democracy, said Mr. Latulippe chose the "neutral" published version. "The president took a decision to get the version that would honour the memory of Mr. Beauregard without creating additional turmoil within the organization," Mr. Bourgon said.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs committee, supposedly overseeing the operations of this rogue outfit, has as yet been denied access to the forensic audit report.

"If they’re not accountable to the committee, then who are they accountable to?" asks committee member Paul Dewar. I'd say that's a hell of a good rhetorical question--one that everybody should know the answer to by now.

UPDATE: An insider confirms: "We were told that the report would shed light on wrongdoings at the Centre under Beauregard. Apparently the problems were just governance-related. It's like raiding someone's home to find evidence of murder, but coming out with recommendations on using energy-efficient light bulbs."

Child abuse

2010-10-31T20:13:00.009-04:00

Wound and torture a kid, threaten him with gang rape, cage him for nine years, and then go for another forty.

Some Austrian pedophile? Nope: American military officers dispensing American "justice."

Sick-making. But at least we'll have the pleasure of listening to the kangaroos' heads explode and the brass buttons pop off their beribboned chests when they hear that Omar Khadr will be doing eight years instead.

Not that another day in jail could be morally justified under any known standards of justice. But this isn't about justice, of course: it's about revenge and bloody-mindedness by brass hats who would have had him shot at dawn if they'd had their druthers.

It is reported that government prosecutor Jeff Groharing told the "jury" that the world was watching. Indeed we have been. And I think we've seen quite enough.

UPDATE: (November 1) The Omar Khadr show trial.

UPPERDATE: Scott Taylor, editor of Esprit de Corps, weighs in. [H/t reader Briguyhfx]

UPPESTDATE: The plea agreement. As reader jkg notes, Khadr is enjoined (para. 2g) from pursuing litigation against his captors and interrogators. Does this include the CSIS agents who grilled him and handed their findings over to his prosecutors in flagrant violation of his constitutional rights ("any official")?

Not funny

2010-10-31T10:38:00.003-04:00

From Washington, D.C., Dr. "Mad" Dawg reports:

A bitterly non-partisan crowd turned out in the US capital yesterday to mock the real world and the people who live in it. Carrying signs such as the one pictured above, each reportedly vetted by grammar Nazis Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson, the participants, almost certainly fewer than the six billion claimed, listened to music by an Islamist convert and some "comedy" and then went home.

I wonder how these self-conscious boulevardiers of protest would have fared if a platoon of American soldiers who have seen gore in Iraq had parachuted down into their mincing ranks?

In better news, Andrew Breitbart is now settling in as a guest of ABC. He has an impressive record as an editor and producer of documentaries, as well as hosting a website for troubled writers. His commentary on the mid-term elections is bound to shed a ray of light on the proceedings, in which the Kenyan Hitler is about to get his comeuppance, and, if not, there are Second Amendment remedies.

Strange. I seem to recall that I once thought somewhat differently. But with my first glass of water on arrival, the scales fell from my eyes. What is wrong with these people, making fun of the political process and calling for "civil discourse?" Don't they realized there's a war on? That Islamofascism and the African in the White House are enslaving us? We're supposed to talk nicey-nice to liberal bigots who want to tear down churches, build mosques and kill our babies? Damn, that makes me mad!

I can't wait for tomorrow. I'm buying my first Uzi at the local 7/11, and a nice card for Kathy Shaidle.

Mid-term elections: Tea Party thugs out in force

2010-10-30T14:10:00.003-04:00

How the American Right does democracy--one kick, punch and false arrest at a time.

[H/t Sister Sage]

Shariah just around the corner! Burqas! Stoning!

2010-10-29T19:00:00.002-04:00

Kate McMillan has the goods.

(The fact that every Muslim boy gets the Mohammed moniker might just have something to do with this new name game, but mentioning that would spoil the narrative.)

[Didn't I just use that photo? My bad. --Ed.]

Time to breed

2010-10-29T13:42:00.003-04:00

"Scientists say" that political views are part of our genetic inheritance.

Peter Schweizer will be pleased. He's another "expert," who has proven to his own satisfaction that conservatives are nicer folks than liberals, and are having a lot more babies.

Given that argument alone is clearly pointless, as are political campaigns and elections--you can't persuade DNA to change--there appears to be only one thing to do about it. Consider it our duty to the Party.

All the news that fits?

2010-10-29T13:29:00.002-04:00

Norm Spector is moaning today about the "mainstream media" burying (but not, for the most part, excising) a piece of information about Omar Khadr's "trial," namely, that his statements before the Gitmo kangaroos are not sworn testimony and hence not subject to cross-examination.

Why this should matter one way or the other is beyond my comprehension. We've already had his coerced confession, and a plea deal is sealed no matter what the outcome of the sentencing phase (unless the "jury" opts to give him a better one, which is about as likely as Stephen Harper appearing as a last-minute character witness).

This seems more like another swipe at Khadr than serious media criticism. In any case, the ol' Spectorvision was apparently not working last Tuesday.

H/t to Eugene Forsey Liberal, via Alison, for this splendid catch. A passage went missing from Don Martin's coverage of Omar Khadr in the National Post's print edition:

While Khadr insisted he was acting unprovoked to clear his guilty conscience, it seems beyond a reasonable doubt that a kid who had withstood years of torture and the best interrogation techniques imaginable without confessing would suddenly blurt out the truth as his trial was about to begin. Let’s not forget, this is the same Omar Khadr who was coerced into fabricating the nonsense that he’d actually seen Ottawa resident Maher Arar at a Pakistan training camp.

Good for Martin: he tried. And at least the Post ran this column. The Khadr farce, it appears, was too much even for the grumpy old right-winger George Jonas to stomach.

David Chen acquitted

2010-10-29T12:54:00.003-04:00

David Chen, the Toronto shopkeeper arrested for defending his store against a thief, has been acquitted. I hope he sues for malicious prosecution.

The most bizarre wrinkle of this abusive proceeding--which you and I paid for--is that the thief was given a reduced sentence in return for testifying against his victim.

Eugene McDermott, the Crown prosecutor, was the unsuccessful Conservative candidate for Don Valley East in 2006.

Police impunity

2010-10-29T12:43:00.003-04:00

This has already been well-covered: in Canada, cops can assault and kill without consequences. Who knew?

So I merely note, in passing, that the SIU lapdogs have not yet issued their report on the death of Junior Alexander Manon, nearly six months ago. I wonder why not?

Dennis Edney : "Be your own leader"

2010-10-29T10:49:00.002-04:00

Omar Khadr's Lawyer Dennis Edney Speech at FNC from Ezra Winton on Vimeo.

via Art Threat

More Librocon betrayal

2010-10-27T23:17:00.005-04:00

Thanks to the sleazy Librocons, private member's Bill C-300 went down to defeat this evening. Former human rights advocate and American ex-pat Michael Ignatieff arranged to be out of the House of Commons for the vote, and he took twelve disciples with him.

That was sufficient to kill the Bill: even if the four absent New Democrats (and I'd like an accounting here) had been present, the Bill would have lost 140-139. Liberal Whip Marcel Proulx is reported to have told Liberal members to stay away.

The Bill was meant to ensure that Canadian mining companies guilty of human rights or environmental abuses would be denied funding by Ottawa. CIBC and the mining industry cried bloody murder, of course, and their Librocon shills dutifully fell into line.

We can't have human rights and the environment getting in the way of corporate profits--don't the bleeding hearts realize that? Who cares if a bunch of Third World types are assaulted or killed for trying to form unions? Who cares if their countries are buried under toxic mine tailings? Not our problem, and there are no voters in that neck of the woods.

The Blue Wing of the Librocons had their talking-points ready:

Accusing the opposition of siding with “international special interest groups,” Stephen Harper’s team added: “During the thick of the global recession, overseas contracts kept the mining industry afloat. At a time when the economic recovery is still fragile, why does the Coalition want to make it harder for Canadian companies?”

Note the reference to a "Coalition." Harper's crew are blowing smoke, of course. The real Coalition--the de facto Librocon merger of Blue and Red wings--has once again trampled on human rights and environmental protection, as they did when they ratified the free trade agreement between Canada and the genocidal narco-state of Colombia.

Make no mistake: there is now fresh blood on their hands.

UPDATE: (October 28) More on Iggy's congenital cowardice and lack of principle here. [H/t Chris Selley]

UPPERDATE: Some documentation on Canadian mining companies. [H/t reader briguyhfx]

More on the Evil Expert

2010-10-27T13:31:00.002-04:00

...Dr. Michael Welner, who's had a bit of a go at Omar Khadr today. At this point I think I'll just leave the ambiguity intact.

Defence lawyers are expected to present their own mental-health experts and the cross-examination of Dr. Welner promises to be compelling.

Impeaching Dr. Welner for his reliance on the work of Nicolai Sennels, a Danish psychologist who ran a failed de-radicalization program, will be central to that cross-examination.

Among the controversial Dr. Sennels’ more spectacular claims is that "massive inbreeding within the Muslim culture during the last 1.400 years may have done catastrophic damage to their gene pool.’’ The Danish doctor also advocates paying Muslims to leave Western countries and claims that an Islamic upbringing fosters violence.

Dr. Welner claims he didn’t read Dr. Sennels' book "because it was in Danish and I don’t speak Danish,’’ but sought his opinion and read articles by and about him.

Dr. Sennels, in an open letter in July decrying Turkey's bid to join the European Union, claims the Koran is a criminal book.

"It is a criminal book that forces people to do criminal things! From September 11th 2001 (do you remember…?) to July 28th 2010 there have been 15,373 confirmed murders motivated by the Koran and the inhuman example of the Muslim prophet."

Nice bit of digging, there, Paul Koring.

And here's a more academic view of the use of "evil" as an analytical category.

[H/t]

New KAIROS revelations

2010-10-27T08:00:00.001-04:00

Shorter Bev Oda, revised:

"KAIROS is a superb organization doing valuable work. I recommend that we not fund it."

[via Kady O'Malley]

Worth framing

2010-10-27T07:08:00.002-04:00

The escape from Toronto begins.

Runaway state

2010-10-27T06:28:00.003-04:00

Stuck together with Krazy Glue: police, prosecutors, judges, prison guards--and the National Parole Board.

A cop rapes eight women, including a 15-year-old? Four years in jail. Considered a "moderate risk" to reoffend, he's turned loose on the community anyway.

No punishment for the killers of Robert Dziekanski. No punishment for a second killing by one of those RCMP officers--other than a three-month suspension of his driver's licence.

A young activist challenges The System. He's arrested, and arrested again for taking part in a university panel discussion. Bail conditions are imposed by a justice of the peace: he is not permitted to express political opinions in public. Threats of punishment are made by jail officials if he refuses to accept the conditions.

Then a trumped-up complaint against him is lodged by two Crown attorneys, who claim that jotting down a licence plate number is a violation--sorry, two violations--of the Criminal Code. And there's no way this bogosity would have taken place without the approval of Dalton McGuinty's Attorney General.

Funny how these different state roles all fit so snugly together.

The Iron Heel is crushing one citizen at a time, pour encourager les autres. Continued police impunity. The rule of law suspended whenever the state feels like it. The corporate media complicit by their silence. I mourn for a country that I no longer recognize.

It can happen here. In fact, it is happening, under our disbelieving eyes.

What should we do about it?

UPDATE: (October 28) More--more than you want to know--on police impunity here.

Alex Hundert arrested--again [re-updated]

2010-10-26T18:45:00.001-04:00

Is this just a test to see if the Canadian population has become sufficiently docile and compliant?

If so, it's working. No outraged crowds in the streets. Little or no media coverage.

Once, we stood for the rule of law. Now we cower as those sworn to uphold the law mock it, in spirit, word and deed.

First they came for the anarchists...

[H/t pogge]

UPDATE: (October 25) As anyone with wit suspected when this news first trickled out, the new charge is utterly bogus. Not one but two Crown attorneys claim that Hundert tried to intimidate them while he was in court last week. The poor babies were evidently so overcome with dread that it took them three days to have him charged.

I'd mouth that old cliché about bringing the system of justice into disrepute, except that there is no system of justice in Toronto at the moment--just the mailed fist of state power, exercised against a Canadian citizen in full view of the corporate media--who have, almost without exception, chosen to remain silent.

UPPERDATE: (October 26) Canada's scariest criminal mastermind™ sure did intimidate those quivering, sweating Crown attorneys--he wrote down one of their licence numbers.

Period.

And that translates into not one, but two, counts of "intimidation of a justice system participant by threat."

Anyone still want to venture the opinion that the few of us taking notice of all this are (to use the word of one sceptical commenter) "paranoid?"

As Henry Kissinger once said, "Even paranoids can have enemies." And in this case, my fellow Canadians, it's the folks sworn to uphold law and order who are the enemy.

My civil disobedience over the next few days: jotting down the licence numbers of cops and Crowns at the Elgin Street Courthouse. Maybe I'll even post them here.

[H/t reader Marky Mark]

The trial of Omar K

2010-10-25T10:16:00.009-04:00

Put yourself in Omar Khadr's spot.

You have been told by your family that it is God's will that you fight in a foreign land. At the age of 10, your family takes you to live in Osama bin Laden's compound in Afghanistan. When you are 15, you are captured by US forces in a firefight.*

You are grievously wounded. The enemy doesn't consider you entitled to the protection of the Geneva Conventions. You are tortured and threatened with gang rape unless you confess to whatever it is they want you to confess to.

You spend almost a decade in a cage. You will not be tried by a regular court, but by members of the military. The first judge in your case is dismissed by the Pentagon--he made too many rulings favourable to you. He is replaced by a "judge" who had you tried and convicted before his serge-clad bottom ever touched the bench from which he now presides. The evidence against you is doctored? No matter. You were tortured into making self-incriminating statements? Not relevant.

You're facing life in prison, kid, and it'll be hard time every step of the way.

Your own country's government, meanwhile, has an apparent problem with dark-skinned Canadians, and is happy to let you rot in a foreign jail. There will be no winging your way back home on a taxpayer-funded private jet, no, sirree.

Then, suddenly, you're offered a "deal." Just confess to whatever it is they want you to confess to, and they'll make it a mere eight more years. And they'll even twist your government's arm to let you spend most of that in Canada.

Would you plead "guilty," regardless of whether you have done anything culpable? And tell your captors what they want to hear?

I would.

I'd swear that I'd murdered Archduke Ferdinand, JFK and Martin Luther King if it would get me out of the clutches of the Gitmo jailers and Col. Patrick Parrish's kangaroo court.

Says Khadr's lawyer, Dennis Edney: "There is no justice here. He either pleads guilty to avoid trial or he goes to trial and the trial is an unfair process."

Rock, Khadr, hard place. An admirable summing-up of this shameful travesty of justice.

_______________
*Thanks to reader Kev for correcting the timeline. And Holly Stick.

Sex with ducks, redux

2010-10-23T18:59:00.009-04:00

In which life imitates art. Or they imitate each other, or they're all one thing. (Was Pat Robertson mentored by Christine O'Donnell?)

More, coming soon to a theatre near you.

PS: Commenters using the well-known rhyming expression about this bird will be permanently banned.

[NSFW? Who knows anymore?]

Finally!

2010-10-23T17:19:00.004-04:00

...a feminist category in the Canadian Blog Awards.

Consider this a shout-out to the successful lobbyists, somewhat less of one to the various contest organizers who had to be pushed and prodded, literally for years, to do the right thing.

Now get over there and vote.

He'll never be missed

2010-10-23T12:27:00.005-04:00

Larry O'Brien is the Mayor of Ottawa for two more days. That's two days too many.

O'Brien is a vulgar, classless swaggerer, an uncultured nouveau riche who has demeaned his office for nearly four years.

We all know his track record--comparing homeless people to pigeons, making fantastic promises about city taxes, playing the alpha male with the bus drivers with catastrophic results, costing the ratepayers a fortune by scrapping light rail.

More recently, true to his boorish nature, he has revealed a schoolboy sexism that must be embarrassing even to some of his ditto-heads. His rival Jim Watson, who is just about to bury him alive, is a "little old lady" who "whine[s] like a little girl," says the doomed macho man. I guess we'll see just who's whining on Monday night.

I cannot express how much I'm look forward to the next few years without having to see O'Brien's vacuous, smirking mug in the local papers. Good riddance to bad rubbish, to coin a phrase: maybe we've finally found a use for those green bins after all.

Adbusters: one trope over the line

2010-10-23T11:01:00.004-04:00

One of my favourite culture-jammers has published a photo-essay ~~(no on-line link)~~ that compares Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto--and it's not the first time that this comparison has been made.

I think the following letter, sent by email, makes my own feelings plain. I urge others, should they so desire, to send their own notes to Adbusters. Let's stay classy, folks. Not everything we oppose is reducible to Hitler.

The Editor,
Adbusters.

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to let you know that your photo-essay on Gaza, in your November-December issue, does not sit well with me--to put it mildly.

I am non-Jewish. More importantly, I have defended the rights of Palestinians in my blog for several years. I am no supporter of the present government of Israel, as a quick perusal of the blog will indicate.

But you go too far comparing Gaza to a Nazi extermination staging point. That is grossly insensitive, and factually wrong.

Conditions in Gaza are deplorable. It is little more than an open-air prison, and until very recently even some basic necessities of life were prevented from passing into the area--building materials, for example, desperately needed to re-build homes after large residential areas were demolished during Operation Cast Lead. I hold no brief whatsoever for the behaviour of the state of Israel towards the people of Gaza.

But I am appalled that this is being mentioned in the same breath as the Final Solution. Get a grip. The Gazans are not being slated for mass extermination; no gas chambers or crematoria are in existence, or being built. The distinction is not a minor one, and I suspect that you know it.

I believe that such invidious comparisons are being made simply for polemical value, and as a kind of moral blackmail, throwing the Holocaust into the faces of Israeli Jews--some of whom are Holocaust survivors, and know the difference.

I don't think that it helps the cause of critics of the state of Israel to (effectively) equate Israel to the Third Reich. That adds nothing useful to the debate; rather, it falsifies it. It is simply hurtful, and arguably even hateful, serving no imaginable constructive purpose.

Your magazine does great work, and I have followed it for years. Frankly, you're much better than this. I urge you to publish an apology, and move back into the light.

Sincerely,

Comments welcome, as always.

UPDATE: (October 25) More slander from the Babblers. (And note what happens when I get defended.) I'd swear these caricatures are being planted by the far Right.

The Canada-Jordan FTA - a licence for human trafficking

2010-10-22T20:37:00.002-04:00

On Monday the International Trade Committee heard devastating evidence from two US witnesses warning that the Canada-Jordan Free Trade Act will merely provide cover for human trafficking and primarily benefit only China and large multinationals like Walmart and Kmart.

Tim Waters, Political Director of United Steelworkers :

"The U.S.-Jordan trade deal immediately descended into the trafficking of tens of thousands of foreign workers to Jordanian factories."

A former champion of the US-Jordan FTA, Waters said he had believed it would benefit both US and Jordanian workers and help level the international playing field on tariffs. Instead, upon visiting Jordan, he found almost no Jordanians working in the factories there - over 90%, some 30,000+ workers, are all imported.

Factory owners from India, Sri Lanka, and China imprison 'guest' workers from Bangladesh, China, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines in compounds in Jordan where they are worked from 12 to 18 hours a day seven days a week in appalling conditions under constant threat of rape, beatings, and deportation.

Locked up after having their passports confiscated at the airport, these indentured labourers have no recourse to such laws as touted in the House by Lib Scott Brison, FTA pointman for the Cons once again, and echoed by Lib Martha Hall Findlay once again :

"following the precedent set by the U.S.-Jordan FTA ... the right to freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, the abolition of child labour, the elimination of forced or compulsory labour, and the elimination of discrimination."

Moreover, said Waters, although human rights provisions embedded in the core of the US bill were ignored in Jordan despite the US wielding the big foreign aid stick, the similar but weaker Canadian safeguards stand to be even less enforceable as they are only part of a side agreement to Bill C-8.

Gosh, another dubious LibroCon labour rights side agreement - just like Brison's previous precious - the Canada-Colombia FTA.

continued ...

WikiLeaks

2010-10-22T17:56:00.002-04:00

The Iraq files are out.

Remember these slap-happy guys? Seems this wasn't their first killing spree: previously they gunned down two insurgents who were attempting to surrender.

Torture? Mass killing of civilians? All there.

You gotta love this:

Condemning this fresh leak... the Pentagon said: "This security breach could very well get our troops and those they are fighting with killed. Our enemies will mine this information looking for insights into how we operate, cultivate sources and react in combat situations, even the capability of our equipment."

Should have thought of that before you invaded, fellas, burning the Geneva Conventions as you advanced. It's all on you.

What's better than a speech by Steyn or Coulter?

2010-10-22T12:45:00.005-04:00

A cancelled speech by Steyn or Coulter.

I hasten to add that I mean, from the conservative agitprop perspective. For the record, I have no difficulty with either of them speaking, so long as they abide by Canadian law. But the coverage these characters get expands exponentially if they are "forced" to abort their missions.

Meanwhile, over at Jay Currie's, the hypocrisy of the Speech Warriors™ is once again exposed. When Coulter and Steyn are allegedly prevented from speaking, that's a free speech issue. When George Galloway and Zijad Delic are actually prevented from speaking, that somehow isn't. Just add the latter to the bulging file of Speech Warrior™ "except fors."

(PS: Jay's claim that I am denying that the Great London Outrage has anything to do with free speech is, not to put too fine a point upon it, an utter falsehood. On its face, we indeed have here a matter of free speech. But follow the links in my first sentence and decide for yourselves if, perhaps, there's somewhat more to all this.)

NEC plus ultra?

2010-10-22T12:07:00.010-04:00

Today's Globe & Mail brings us a story about billboard surveillance. Those pesky visual pollutants aren't just telling you to knock back a Dr. Pepper or wear GAP fashions anymore. They're watching you.

In fact they know you, these ads. And soon they'll want to know you better.

Created by the electronics company NEC, they use sophisticated facial-recognition technology to tailor the ad message based on the appearance of the passerby and the surrounding environment.

How long before the One Big Database™ will combine government and private knowledge of your every belief and desire, not to mention secrets you would prefer not be disclosed? "Buy another Toyota now, Jack Smith, or we'll tell your wife." And the best thing, from our masters' point of view, is that we can't answer back. We see (but soon these things will be multimedia, trust me), and if we know what's good for us, we'll obey. "Uncle Sam Wants You! Yeah, you, Bob Nelles!"

Tinfoil helmet stuff? Don't be so sure. Domino's Pizza is ahead of Uncle Sam in the line, but it wants you too:

To think that just last evening I was idly musing about birth-implanted GPS chips so that none of us would ever, ever get lost. O brave new world--talk to me.

Mandatory comments on Col. Williams

2010-10-21T14:03:00.006-04:00

It appears, from the pages and pages of media coverage of the trial of ~~Col.~~* Russell Williams, that everyone feels the need to talk. So do I, but not for long.

1. No one knows or is likely to know why Williams did what he did. Not even Williams. That is fundamentally horrifying and destabilizing in itself. Hence the frantic search for explanations, to shore up our belief--a necessary one, perhaps--in an orderly universe, a world of logic, of cause-and-effect.

2. When reading the endless media reports and commentary, I have been struck by the utter failure of language to meet the circumstances. The words used by the families involved to describe the impact of his deeds, as reported in today's Ottawa Citizen, leave me deeply unsatisfied:

Evil hate cowardly grief

Betrayal cruelty violation

Sheer agony shattered fear

Depression traumatized

And here is Williams, in his own words:

indescribably ashamed

I am sorry

despicable crimes

Has language ever been so inadequate? The two sides, if I can put it that way, were enacting a kind of public ritual, but in this instance it has been a fundamentally empty one.

The French philosopher George Steiner, in Language and Silence, wrote of the Holocaust:

The world of Auschwitz lies outside speech as it lies outside reason. To speak of the unspeakable is to risk the survivance of language as creator and bearer of humane, rational truth. Words that are saturated with lies or atrocity do not easily resume life.

To speak of the horror that we have glimpsed through the media over the past few days, then, is to minimize that horror, and to further weaken language itself.

3. There is nothing to be done but to let the rituals play out. But a meaningful silence is our deepest and most authentic response.

___________
*Rank stripped on October 22.

Harper and public sector integrity

2010-10-20T17:30:00.003-04:00

Christiane Ouimet, Canada's Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, has taken early retirement. Not a moment too soon, apparently: Sheila Fraser, the Auditor General, is in the midst of an investigation of her office.

Ouimet's job was to protect public service whistleblowers, and investigate complaints of wrongdoing. But she found no evidence of any wrongdoing whatsoever in any of the 170 complaints her office handled since Stephen Harper appointed her in 2007. It was all "nothing to see here, move along" from the get-go.

Guess who one of the complainants was? Sean Bruyea. Name ring a bell?

Ouimet was also, it seems, a rare pleasure to work for. In one twelve-month period, 18 of her office's 22 employees left.

Maybe she'll find a new gig at Rights and Democracy. She should fit right in.

The cult of the expert

2010-10-20T13:39:00.011-04:00

It's a recurring meme in journalism: "experts say," meaning that established Truth is being forwarded to us from on high to frame some event or other. Those interested in philosophy will observe the unbroken line between Plato's philosopher-kings and these present day experts.

But this isn't going to be an anti-intellectual post, I promise. Experts are so called because they have studied and specialized in some discipline or sub-discipline. Much as we take a car to a mechanic rather than trying to fix the problem ourselves with a hammer, we do, rightly, defer to genuine expertise--unless you're the pre-Enlightenment Conservative government, of course, and simply reject math and science out of hand.

My interest here is in the aura that is granted to experts by the media. They are too-often turned into gurus, and some cheerfully accept the mantle. From their "area," they begin to branch out and speak with authority on almost anything. And the corporate media, lazy as they are, simply act as stenos for them.

The unintentionally funny David Harris comes to mind, a regular op-edder for the Ottawa Citizen. He was once a director of strategic planning at CSIS, a post that brings with it certain skill and knowledge requirements: but now he is a full-fledged conspiracy theorist who sees Islamist infiltration everywhere he turns. The recent election in Calgary probably made his head explode.

Then there's Tarek Fatah, dutifully trundled out as a "moderate Muslim" expert on Islamism--a "moderate" who believes, inter alia, that Little Mosque on the Prairie is an Islamist plot to lull Canadians. And Margaret Somerville, of course, whose quaint pronouncements on ethics have become more and more political (e.g., opposition to same-sex marriage): her "expert" views are guaranteed a space in our national media as well.

The latest player on the media stage is one Dr. Michael Welner, a "forensic psychiatrist" who is now giving interviews about Omar Khadr. Adding support to my earlier reference to Plato, Welner is described at the link as an "expert on evil."

Here is a priceless excerpt:

In search of goodness, I have sought out any input documenting righteous and selfless deeds of Omar Khadr from inside custody, in particular toward non-Muslims, and will speak to what I found in my testimony.

This is the language of a high priest, not a scientist, but for the media there is clearly very little difference.

And here's more oddness:

When one leaps to the conclusion about Omar Khadr's future because he is friendly, one might recall that Osama bin Laden has always been described as gentle, likable and charming.

The phrase "undistributed middle" springs to mind: A cat is an animal. A dog is an animal. Therefore a dog is a cat. Perhaps they don't teach logic in med schools.

Pogge makes the obvious points here. The freedom available to Khadr to do "righteous and selfless deeds" has been somewhat limited since he was 15. And were he to denounce al-Qaeda as the good doctor wanted--"There is no record of (Khadr's) publicly repudiating al-Qaida, as civilized Muslims should"--the Usual Suspects would lose no time in accusing Khadr of taqiyyah.

But more importantly, what incentive has Khadr had to renounce Islamism? He hasn't exactly been exposed to the sunny side of Western democracy, after all. Tortured, confined in a cage for nine years, and presently facing military drumhead justice, he has been given no reason to renounce the extremism of his family and his youth.

It will be interesting to learn what is contained in Welner's sealed brief. One hopes it might read more like 21st century science than religion, and, if not, that the media will express healthy scepticism instead of awe. But it would be right to feel some misgiving on that score: so far, after all, we have had only the faith-based certainty of latter-day scribes and pharisees.

UPDATE: Via commenter pogge, more on Welner. And more on evil.

Youtube - the good and the bad!

2010-10-20T08:15:00.005-04:00

I have so much work on my desk I didn't know where to start, so I made an executive decision and took a quick look at what was happening on the climate front these days. I see that Jay has linked to an interesting video in youtube (no, I am not going to link to it since in my opinion it is so bad - you can see it over at Jay's). There are so many problems with it that it would be hard to begin. Things like flipping back and forth between the Antarctic ice cores and the Greenland ice cores depending on what they want to show; trying to pass off a rise in the Greenland ice core as the hockey stick when it isn't, trying to pass off Greenland ice core temps as global temps, a possible problem with their firn ice method, and a number of others. But what I found interesting is to look at the time on the data. I have reproduced the first graphic below (apologies for the poor quality, but that is what it is like on Youtube).
Note that it ends at 1900. We all know that temperatures have been going up recently so I was curious about what it would look like if we took global temperatures and extended the temperature line to show recent temperatures in the context of their graph (and yes, to cover myself I have had to make some assumptions to match up the different data sets). The result below is instructive.

If anyone is interested I can do it for the other graphs that are shown, but you get the idea. The change they say is so small so as to not be noticeable is actually quite significant if you look at all the data.

That was the bad side of Youtube, but there are good things to be found as well. Recently there was a debate that featured (along with others) Andy Dessler and Richard Lindzen. Richard is generally considered the most scientific literate skeptic and Andy is one of the more outspoken scientists involved in climate change (outspoken in a scientific sense). While it is almost 2 hours long, it is interesting. In layman's terms, I think that Dr. Dessler smoked Dr. Lindzen. If you see things differently let me know in comments.

Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel blames the victims

2010-10-19T12:28:00.008-04:00

...of her country's shabby post-war history of racism.

"Multikulti" isn't working, she asserts. Time for the foreigners to assimilate, she says--learn German, adopt Christian values. Needless to say, the "yellow peril" types like Margaret Wente would like us to follow Germany's lead--regardless of where such thinking once took that country.

I'm no apologist for official multiculturalism. It's a bureaucratic approach that essentializes "culture" and builds as many walls as bridges. But the word has become right-wing code for "letting them furriners in." If integration is demanded, in any case, it might have been nice if Merkel's predecessors had thought of making it a little easier.

In the 1960s and 1970s, West Germany imported vast numbers of Gastarbeiter ("guest workers") to fill a labour shortage: by 1982 there were 4.7 million in the country, with Turkey providing the lion's share. Today there are seven million non-citizens living in the now-unified Germany. These workers assisted in creating the boom times for West Germany during those years.

Although they were supposed to be "temporary," German employers lobbied hard to extend their stays: they didn't want to have to bear the costs of re-training new Gastarbeiter. And so the numbers increased, and children were born to these long-term workers. But neither they nor their German-born children could acquire citizenship: until 2000, Germans were citizens by virtue of blood (jus sanguinis) rather than place of birth (jus soli), and for a non-German, becoming a citizen was and still is an arduous process.

John Berger, in A Seventh Man (1975), paints a dismal picture of life for Germany's "guests." (If you have time, read the extract at the link. Better still, read the whole thing.)

Some points:

Migrant workers do the most menial jobs. Their chances of promotion are exceedingly poor. When they work in gangs, it is arranged that they work together as foreigners. Equal working relationships to indigenous workers are kept to a minimum. The migrant workers have a different language, a different culture and different shortterm interests. They are immediately identifiable - not as individuals - but as a group (or as series of national groups). As a group they are at the bottom of every scale: wages, type of work, job security, housing, education, purchasing power. Thus indigenous workers see another group, less privileged than they are, who differ from them.

--

The presence of migrant workers, seen as intrinsically inferior and therefore occupying an inferior position in society, confirms the principle that a social hierarchy - of some kind or another - is justified and inevitable. The working class comes to accept the basic bourgeois claim that social inequality is finally an expression of natural inequality.

In other words, millions of workers were invited into West Germany and encouraged to stay. But they were not permitted to become citizens until very recently; they were segregated and ghettoized; they were looked down upon as "inferiors"; in short, they were deliberately cut out of the mainstream of German life. But they were useful, as noted--during boom times.

More recently, however, the tide has turned. The boom cycle has been replaced by austerity measures and cutbacks. German workers are now the new Gastarbeiter, seeking work outside their country. The "guest workers," once tolerated because of the work that they did, are no longer welcome. They remain at the margins of German society, but there is less work for them to do, and many are on social assistance. So now they are seen as a burden, and a problem. Although many have lived in the country for years, they are still colloquially known as Ausländer, or "foreigners."

The call for assimilation by Merkel is, in this context, an act of gross political opportunism and hypocrisy. She is, apparently, trying to woo her party's right wing, and would like to remain Bundeskanzlerin. Playing to the ever-present xenophobes, she has chosen a target created by Germany over a period of more than fifty years: "foreigners," unintegrated because they were not permitted to integrate, are now being blamed for their lack of integration.

When in trouble, however, it's always helpful to look for a handy scapegoat. And it's not like certain German politicians haven't done it before.

On Cut-Rate Saints

2010-10-19T10:03:00.004-04:00

I'm not sure which of our heavenly readership will be seeing the newly promoted St. André first, but please convey sincere congratulations from the Dawg, Alison, John, Marie Eve and myself. I have a great fondness for hagiography - saints are such a delightful anachronism- and my good buddy Stageleft has been heard to grumble that they're as close as Catholicism gets to a good, decent polytheism.

The newly-minted St. André may privately wonder, however, why some of the older Saints seem a bit- well, aloof. He may be puzzled about why St. Monica isn't standing him a round, or why St. Isidore of Seville keeps refusing his Facebook Friend requests, or why St. Clare keeps calling him "Probie".

It's not your fault, André. They're just annoyed because - to be frank - they think you're an under-qualified parvenu.

For the first few hundred years after the death of Christ, it was pretty easy to get recognized as a Saint. There was no formal canonization process; no resume, no experience, no miracles necessary. Martyrdom could get you there; or a regional bishop decided you had lived an exceptionally virtuous life; or you could be a local myth that the Church decided to adapt to bring in adherents. It was a boom time for Sainthood.

Towards the end of the first millennium Rome began to insist on having a say in the recognition of Saints, and in 1173 Pope Alexander III lowered the boom, declaring: "You shall not therefore presume to honour him in the future; for, even if miracles were worked through him, it is not lawful for you to venerate him as a saint without the authority of the Catholic Church." Pope Al was annoyed at the veneration of a particular "saint" who was a notorious drunk, killed in a barroom brawl.

Over the centuries an increasingly rigorous process of scrutiny evolved, requiring the investigation of the person’s life and the miracles attributed to his or her intercession. Like any good job, employment standards were established. Non-martyrs were expected to perform at least four posthumous miracles. And each case had to withstand the hostile scrutiny of the Promotor Fidei, better known as the Devil's Advocate, an office established in 1587 by Pope Sixtus V. The Devil's Advocate was an expert in Canon Law appointed by the Church to argue against the case for sainthood.

This worked very well for a few centuries. A satisfactory number of Saints made it through the beatification and canonization process despite the Devil's Advocate.

But science is tough on miracles. The invention of the photography, film cameras and videos seem to have cut down quite a bit on the number of miraculous apparitions, spinning suns and suchlike. Uri Geller, the Israeli conjurer who claimed paranormal skills, used to describe "the shyness effect" that somehow dampened his ability to work miracles, specifically when the cameras were rolling or when he was under observation by trained and skeptical researchers. It seems God may be similarly afflicted. DNA testing and carbon dating also wreak havoc with the reputation of sacred relics. And spontaneous, inexplicable cures seem to occur among atheists, Muslim, Jedis and Jains, as well as Catholics.

All this gave Devil's Advocates a whole new set of tools to play with, and the result was, of course, a calamitous decline in the number of beatifications.

That didn't sit well with Pope John Paul II, who streamlined the process and turned the Vatican into a highly efficient Saint Factory. If you're Maple Leaf, and you want to make more sausages, the fastest way to expand production is, of course, to lower your standards, and JP2 did just that: among other efficiencies, he fired the Devil's Advocate and reduced the number of miracles required, thus eliminating most of that inconvenient skeptical scrutiny. And it worked! JP2 cranked out more than 1300 beatifications and almost 500 canonizations. In fact, during his papacy he manufactured more saints that all his predecessors combined since 1588.

Pope Ratzinger has promised to slow the Saint Factor down a bit. But there aren't many signs that he will: he's already beatified or canonized almost 600 over the course of his relatively brief papacy. He's also taken to bending the rules, kicking off the beatification process for John Paul II within a month of his death rather than waiting for the traditional five years.

So St. André - don't take it personally when St. James the Greater snubs you when you want to reminisce about smoked meat at Schwartz's. It used to take the Right Celestial Stuff to be a Saint, back in the days when a miracle was a MIRACLE - levitation, raising people from the dead, walking around with your severed head under your arm, and other cool stuff. Nowadays, it seems, it's enough to have one of your loyal employees claim you cured her.

Just enjoy the view.

Crossposted from Stageleft.

Ottawa Oblates threaten community

2010-10-18T13:06:00.005-04:00

I'm referring to Ottawa East, where I live.

A stone's throw from my house (although I have not physically tested this as yet) is a residence for the Oblates, a Catholic order. Behind them to the south is another residence (photograph), and a park, which they own: adjacent to them is St. Paul's University, which they run.

Besides offering a sometime haven for accused and convicted priestly pedophiles, the Oblates have of late shown nothing but contempt for the community in which they live. They are selling the property, but have steadfastly refused to meet with the Ottawa East Community Association to discuss our Community Development Plan (CDP), which City Council was to have voted on before the summer recess.

Rumours abound: one is that a subdivision called "One Thousand Doors" will replace the greenspace. Adding fuel to this rumour is the sudden announcement by the Oblates to the City of Ottawa that they are opposed to the CDP. They have refused as yet to provide details of their last-minute objections.

Now, after some delay because of wet conditions, these kindly folks have posted signs banning off-leash dogs on their land--following the eleventh annual "Fido Fundraiser," in which grateful dog-owners had ponied up once again for St. Paul's University in return for the privilege. Needless to say, the Oblates have refused to meet with the community association to mediate a solution, after delivering the news to association representatives on June 29.

As an indication of their arrogance, here is what the Oblates had to say on the matter:

Jacques L'Heureux, the administrator for the Oblate residence that owns the property, said, "If people want to talk then they can talk, but this is private property even if many of them think that they own the place."

Leblanc said residents were not informed of the decision because it was not negotiable.

Ah, Christian love. There goes the neighbourhood.

Monday field notes

2010-10-18T10:43:00.008-04:00

A few random jottings during a pleasant sunny Monday in Ottawa:

Officer Bubbles' Statement of Claim. Just suck it up, princess. [H/t Antonia Z., via Alison]
Who says students these days are apathetic robots-in-waiting, unwilling to challenge the status quo? Erin Larson stands up. (And ageing Librocon Lloyd Axworthy wimps out.)
Criticize the Department of Veterans Affairs? Are you nuts?
Loose end: the death of Junior Alexander Manon. Where are the autopsy results? What happened to the SIU investigation? Why the media silence?
Another loose end: whatever became of HUAC North's final report?
G20 and social media, from the cops' perspective.

Plenty to chew on there. As ever, readers' suggestions are always welcome.

ADDITION: What Teabaggers really think of press freedom.

Three (libertarian) amigos

2010-10-16T22:47:00.005-04:00

I'm not a libertarian, but I've discovered a sneaking fondness for some of them--the ones who reject neo-con Iron Heel approaches to problems, and want nothing to do with so-con statism, racism, homophobia and sexism.

I'll never buy the outmoded libertarian notion of the bounded, atomic subject, nor the libertarian fetishizing of private property. The fact that laissez-faire capitalism has its defenders in 2010 is, at least to me, proof of the longevity of myth. But what accompanies these ideological positions is a morality congruent in many places with the morality of the left.

These libertarians believe in the equality of human worth: they reject bigotry in all of its forms. They uphold the quaint notion that the police should be our servants, not our masters. They dislike censorship; even if their absolutism with respect to free speech places them in the Speech Warrior™ camp, they are far more consistent than their colleagues in their application of the principle.

In short, they are decent people, and that goes a long way with me. So I would like to alert my readers to a new site, The Volunteer, run by three friends who have bolted from a swamp called The Shotgun. (The latter has been on my blogroll only because of them.)

Please, then, welcome--and vigorously contest the ideas of--my friends Mike Brock, Terrence Watson and Peter Jaworski in their new redoubt. I wish them good traffic and good discussion.

Toronto the police state

2010-10-16T11:43:00.002-04:00

Eight weeks after the G20.

Watch the whole thing. Wonder where our rights have gone, and how they vanished so quickly.

[H/t Mike Brock]

Officer Bubbles wants his dignity back

2010-10-16T09:15:00.015-04:00

Constable Adam Josephs was not--not by a long shot--the worst of the G20 police officers who ran amok this summer in Toronto. He didn't, at least so far as we know, grope women prisoners or threaten them with rape. He didn't arrest a TTC worker for going to work in his TTC uniform, or loudly mock mental patients, or seize reporters and shoppers off the street, or beat anyone bloody. He didn't tear off a man's artificial leg and order him to hop to a nearby paddy wagon.

He is just a common-or-garden police bully, a person who proudly stated in his now-defunct Facebook page that he was a collector of "human garbage." During the G20 protests, he walked menacingly over to a young woman blowing bubbles in the direction of a colleague and threatened to arrest her if any of them landed on him. Unluckily for him, he was on videocam when he did so.

He was a jerk, but he made himself a figure of fun, acquiring a moniker that he has apparently been unable to shake. So he is suing YouTube, which, when you think about it, is rather like suing a mirror because you look ugly in it.

It's not the original video that has prompted his action, as it turns out--not really much to be done about that--but cartoons that appeared subsequently, which, it must be said, were fair satirical comment. Josephs, however, is not a man with a sense of humour:

In his statement of claim, Constable Josephs alleges the cartoons have subjected him to ridicule, and have resulted in threats against himself and his family. He also seeks to compel YouTube to reveal the identities of the person who created and posted the cartoon – identified by the moniker “ThePMOCanada” – and the identities of several people who posted comments in response.

On Friday, his lawyer said the lawsuit was in its preliminary stages and he was still in discussions with YouTube to resolve it.

“This level of ridicule goes beyond what is reasonable,” James Zibarras said. “The reason we brought the lawsuit is that people have the right to protect themselves against this kind of harassment.”

The animations in question depict a policeman identified as “A. Josephs” arresting various people – including Barack Obama and Santa Claus – and beating up a news photographer while funk music plays in the background.

Josephs' quarry, the person uploading the cartoons, has now taken down much of the material, although the mash-up above remains, at least for now.*

I can't help contrasting this self-important cop with the legendary Officer Obie in Alice's Restaurant. William J. Obanhein, too, was a little full of himself. He dug through a mountain of illegally dumped garbage--the non-human kind--to discover Arlo Guthrie's name on a piece of paper at the bottom of it. He then arrested Guthrie for littering, slapped cuffs on him, and threw him in a jail cell. As we know, Obie was subsequently lampooned in a popular song, but when it came time to make a movie of it, he stepped forward to play himself.

"If anyone is going to make a fool out of me, it might as well be me," he said.

That's disarming, and says a good deal about the character of the man. Just as Josephs' $1.2 million lawsuit says a lot about him.

[H/t Bene Diction]

_________________
*UPDATE: (October 20) The mash-up has now been removed (h/t Alison), but the cartoons are back (h/t Skinny Dipper), as my replacement vid indicates. For more Officer Bubbles cartoons, visit YouTube and check the sidebar.

Omar Khadr to cop a plea?

2010-10-15T23:56:00.001-04:00

Between a rock and a hard place, he really has very little choice.

Khadr stated the obvious last July: "How can I ask for justice from a process that doesn’t have it?"

The presiding officer at his kangaroo-court "trial," Col. Patrick Parrish, has indicated shocking bias from the beginning, as I've observed before. There is no justice to be had when doctored evidence is blithely introduced by the prosecution with a wink and a nod from this "judge." Had Khadr been convicted, which was almost inevitable with the judicial cards stacked so obviously against him, he would, almost certainly, have been sentenced to life in prison.

Meanwhile, we know by now the attitude of the Harper government towards its brown-skinned citizens. There would be no assistance from that quarter. The government has fought strenuously against the very notion. Indeed, the plea deal is likely to put Stephen Harper in a very delicate position (although National Post correspondent John Iveson thinks the Tories might manage to eke out a win).

This shameful deal has nothing to do with justice, everything to do with politics and coercion. The bottom line? Khadr has had to cut his losses. The result is that a child soldier, tortured and then railroaded, will do even more time in prison. Another triumph of the American justice system--and Stephen Harper's politics of exclusion.

UPDATE: Guess who's standing up for Khadr's rights?

Land for peace

2010-10-15T17:51:00.005-04:00

Once again, Israel is willing to give up peace for a little more land.

Meanwhile, within Israel proper, the destruction of Bedouin villages and the displacement of its inhabitants continues, in this case to make way for a reforestation project sponsored by the Jewish National Fund.

Warning: the use of terms such as "ethnic cleansing" and "apartheid" is to be avoided, as they are considered to be examples of "the new anti-Semitism™." Please employ "urban renewal" and "reclamation initiative," respectively.

UPDATE: (October 16) Just another day on the West Bank. Might I suggest the term "deforestation" in this instance? [H/t Alison]

The odour of rotting justice [updated]

2010-10-15T09:22:00.014-04:00

...is emanating once again from Toronto. But it's getting more intense, and the smell should stink in the nostrils of every citizen of Canada.

Alex Hundert, an anarchist arrested for G20 actions before a single demonstrator was even on the street, is back in jail. As many readers will know, he was out on bail when he was re-arrested by seven police officers for speaking on a university panel. Allegedly this was a breach of previous bail conditions that forbade his attendance at political demonstrations. An evidently brain-dead justice of the peace--no legal training is required for these patronage appointees--agreed with the cops, and he was jailed over Thanksgiving.

At a new bail hearing this week, he was told he would be freed, but only upon several new conditions, including (pay close attention here, Canada) no expressing political views in public, including in the media. He said no to that, and as of this writing he's behind bars.

Not that the corporate media give a damn about this obvious breach of what used to be our Charter rights. As of this writing, the news about Hundert has appeared in all of two places: Rabble.ca and the Vancouver Media Co-op.

How does one explain this veritable news blackout? Not being a conspiracy buff, I put it down to corporate groupthink and pure cynicism. But it's very odd: we don't even know the name(s) of the minor functionary (ies) who stripped this Canadian citizen of his constitutional rights without even the formality of a trial.

"The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate," says the Globe & Mail masthead, "will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures." But sitting by silently rather than reporting such measures seems A-OK with the editors of the shiny new magloid, recently purged of its progressive columnists. And it's fine with every other mainstream paper, TV and radio station in the country, including the Toronto Star and the CBC. What gives?

Meanwhile, our intrepid Speech Warriors™, who have stood up stoutly in the past for neo-Nazis and raving homophobes, seem to have suddenly contracted a collective case of laryngitis. Funny, that. Here's a "real court" (well, sort of) explicitly ruling that a citizen is not permitted to state political views publicly, on pain of jail. Not a peep.

And where are the normally garrulous Speechy columnists? You there, Jonathan? What about you, Ezra? Mark? Want a crack at this?

No, didn't think so.

Worse, there hasn't been a word as yet from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. What's up with that, Nathalie?

First they came for the anarchists....Well, I am not an anarchist, but I'm prepared to stand with Alex Hundert against a corrupt justice system that has now torn up the Charter of Rights, and a complaisant media that is turning a blind eye to it. And it is the civic duty of every Canadian citizen to do the same--before the dutiful little robots now running things turn their bleary gaze on the rest of us.

[Big h/t to pogge, and one to Orwell's Bastard]

UPDATE: (October 15) Quite a few developments. The Toronto Star has taken notice, and on the Speech Warrior™ front, Jay Currie and Mark Steyn have lined up against Hundert's bail conditions. Better late than never, given that the initial outrage--being breached for participating in a university panel discussion--attracted no notice when it took place a week ago.

Nathalie Des Rosiers, President of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, has now stepped forward as well. The bail conditions are "only aimed at silencing speech," she says, and plans to write a letter to the Attorney General of Ontario in protest. And we now know who the Justice of the Peace is: Inderpaul Chandhoke, whose education is listed here as "other," and who has sat on the bench for more than three decades.

The Star also reports that Hundert has accepted his bail conditions, contrary to the initial reports referenced above.

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, the Crown has dropped charges against another hundred or so G20 protesters, including 90 demonstrators from Quebec, due to "lack of evidence."

Stay tuned.

[H/t readers Steve C. and k_z]

UPPERDATE: More on why Hundert is now out on bail after initially refusing the bail conditions. The explanation isn't pretty:

Less than 24 hours after refusing to sign outrageous bail conditions which included not expressing political views in public and non-associations intended to further isolate him, Alex Hundert was forced to consent to his release.

On the night of Wednesday October 14th, Alex was told by the security manager at the Toronto East Detention Centre that he had to sign the bail conditions or face solitary confinement in “the hole”, without access to phone calls or writing paper. He was put in solitary confinement after an initial confrontation with correction staff where he resisted initial attempts to make him sign. He was denied the right to call his lawyer, and told that if he didn’t sign now, they would revoke the bail offer and he would be held in solitary confinement until his eventual release from prison.

Coerced into signing these conditions, Alex was thrown out of Toronto East and left to find his own way home to his sureties’ house. The prison authorities forced him into a position where he could potentially be accused of further breaching his bail. Alex is now back on house arrest with an enforced curfew, with non-associations with co-accused and members of SOAR, AWOL, NOII and other community organizers. He also has the additionally imposed restrictions of no direct or indirect posting to the internet, no assisting, planning, or attending any public meeting or march, and no expressing of views on a political issue. [emphases added]

Do we finally have enough to declare Toronto a human rights-free zone?

Humanity at its best

2010-10-13T23:40:00.001-04:00

...as the world pulled together and freed 33 trapped Chilean miners.

Go ahead, say you weren't moved today, even to tears. I dare you.

International follies

2010-10-13T17:50:00.007-04:00

Stephen Harper's campaign for a Security Council seat, lost with a little help from his friends, is now dust. But let's let the Schadenfreude wear off. This is no gloating matter.

Harper has succeeded in making Canada look ridiculous in the eyes of the world, not least by petulantly blaming a domestic Opposition leader for his defeat, rather than the self-evident failings of his foreign "policy." But we should be angry about it, not merely gratified by his abject humiliation. He represented us to the world, after all: and now we Canadians are all wearing the mantle of his international ineptitude.

I put the word "policy" in quotation marks, because there has never been a Conservative foreign policy as such: there is no evidence of coordination, planning, or the nuances that go into over-all strategic thinking. It's been all chest-thumping dogmatism, the kind of Rob-Fordian straight talk that makes anyone with the slightest sense of tact cringe with embarrassment.

Whether it's ignoring Africa (when he isn't cutting off African aid), advancing flawed maternal health schemes, giving uncritical support to Israel's bellicose adventures in Lebanon and elsewhere, setting well-respected international aid agencies adrift based upon trumped-up charges of "anti-Semitism," and even at the eleventh hour refusing to address the UN's 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, while offering delegates bottles of maple syrup and a look at a real Mountie, Harper has blundered and bumped into things on the world stage ever since he was elected in 2006. The results were entirely predictable, and had nothing whatsoever to do with Michael Ignatieff.

But let's not romanticize Canada's role before our hapless Prime Minister fumbled his way into the international limelight. Yes, we had a more enlightened view of foreign aid, our troops were relatively well-respected as peacekeepers, and we played a role as honest broker here and there. But we have never hovered angelically above the fray.

Some folks look back at the days of Lester B. Pearson with a kind of reverence. Not I. Pearson allowed American nuclear missiles to be stationed on Canadian soil. Earlier, he had dutifully played his role in Canada's junior partnership with the US, supporting the latter's rapid nuclear arms build-up, while striking certain "independent" positions that mattered far less in geopolitical terms.

His successor, Pierre Trudeau, kept those missiles on hand for a further five years, and continued to preside over Canada's active complicity in the war in Vietnam, which had begun under Pearson. A few hand-waves towards Cuba were outweighed, I would argue, by our substantial shipments of materiel for use against Vietnamese peasants, two million of whom were killed in that conflict. We supplied the Americans with everything from napalm and weapons guidance systems to green berets. (Indeed, we had been a loyal American ally from the beginning, playing an active role in subverting the 1954 Geneva Accords.)

We should also not forget that it was the Liberals, not the Harper Conservatives, who mired us in the unwinnable war in Afghanistan. And if our role in the UN is now pro-Israel, the truth is that it was substantially so before Harper as well.

The Liberals are and have always been the kinder, gentler face of Canadian self-interested Realpolitik. Especially under Ignatieff's shaky tutelage, the "Opposition" has favoured almost every Conservative international position, whether it was a cozy deal with the genocidal Colombian narco-state, the continuing Afghanistan debacle, or strong support of Israel's aggressive policies in the Middle East: Ignatieff, once reluctant to join the choir, eventually came around.

Had the Liberals been in power, could we have sweet-talked our way onto the Security Council? Possibly, by being less offensively blunt, and deploying that well-known Liberal discursive technique whereby all parties in a dispute are persuaded to see them as allies. But would we observe very much concrete change in terms of international relations? Colour me very sceptical indeed.

Harper blew it spectacularly. We can all see that. But let's not create the myth of an pre-Harper Golden Age of saintly international diplomacy. It was anything but. And if Ignatieff's Liberals come to power, don't expect a post-Harper one to begin.

Harper's Surprise Musical Salute to Chilean Minors

2010-10-13T07:23:00.002-04:00

In what his advisers describe as a "bold and historic foreign policy gesture from Canada's most internationalist Prime Minister EVER", Prime Minister Steven Harper made a surprise visit to a Santiago daycare centre in order to perform a musical greeting for Chilean minors.

The Prime Minister arrived shortly after midnight and was whisked to the daycare by limousine, where he performed "With a Little Help From My Friends" to an enthusiastic group of aides, six Conservative Cabinet Ministers, a select group of journalists headed by Barbara Kay, and the Director and janitor of "Our Lady of Sorrows" Day Care Centre. After prolonged and enthusiastic applause from his aides, Harper encored with "With a Little Help From My Friends". He then left the premises without speaking and was taken back to the Challenger for a quick return to Canada.

"This certainly demonstrates the Prime Minister's deep commitment to and understanding of global affairs," said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon, who had turned the pages during the Prime Minister's performance. "When we told him about the plight of Chilean minors he had only two questions - what can Canada do to help, and will there be media? Unfortunately most of the journalists we tried to contact were away covering an accident or something, but still..."

Day Care Director Sister Celestina Pereira expressed her gratitude to the Prime Minister and to the people of Canada on behalf of the children who, unfortunately, were home in bed during the Prime Minister's midnight serenade. "Mr. Harper apparently thought Chile was in Africa, and that he'd be here early in the morning in time to greet the children. Or the minors, as he kept calling them", said Sister Pereira. "He got a little annoyed when we wouldn't go wake them up." Officials in the PMO subsequently blamed Michael Ignatieff for the error, but refused to divulge details.

Jose Cal, janitor at the Centre, was circumspect about the performance. Speaking through a translator, he said: "I thought it was going to be BEN Harper. That would have been cool. To tell you the truth, I thought Paul Martin was still Prime Minister. He was, last time we heard anything from Canada."

The Prime Minister's office announced that Mr. Harper is scheduled to pet a kitten later today in a Chinese restaurant "as a bold and historic foreign policy gesture of solidarity to Tibetan diffidents."

To All BT's: Get Yer UN Talking Point Here!

2010-10-12T15:19:00.000-04:00

So before our conservative friends recover from their shock and get their talking points from Hivemind Central, let's guess what they're going to say about Canada's humiliating rejection by the United Nations.

1) Despite the frantic last-minute scrambling and speechifying Harper has put in over the last month, we really didn't want to be part of their poopy old Security Council anyway.

2) This was actually a strategic rebuke from Canada, craftily engineered by Harper to protest the UN's clear hatred of Israel.

3) It was clearly a fix on the part of that Islamist, democracy-hating cesspool, Portugal.

4) Good. This leaves us freer to ignore the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples, the UN request to lead a Congo mission, UN Human Rights recommendations, and all the other inconvenient stuff we would have had to pretend to take seriously.

5) It was all Michael Ignatieff's fault.

crossposted from Stageleft

From respected middle power

2010-10-12T13:53:00.005-04:00

...to laughingstock.

Way to go, Cowboy Steve. You've made your country proud.

Tea Partiers--not racist enough!

2010-10-12T13:02:00.001-04:00

"On August 28, when Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and anywhere from 300,000-700,000 whites publicly sucked up to racist blacks, black critics claimed to hear an “echo” of Jim Crow and slavery."

[H/t: who else?]

Iran: the show must go on

2010-10-12T10:30:00.004-04:00

Sakineh Mohammed Ashtiani isn't out of the woods yet.

She's the person condemned to be stoned to death by the mad mullahs currently running Iran. While the sentence has been on hold (not commuted), and some believe that the authorities will show Iranian mercy by merely hanging her, the rule of what remains of law in that country has suffered another setback.

In Iran Solidarity's words:

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, and lawyer, Houtan Kian, were arrested along with a German journalist and photographer in Tabriz on 10 October 2010 at 1900 hours local time. The security forces raided the lawyer’s office where an interview was taking place and arrested all four.

Their whereabouts are currently unknown and no news has been received of their situation since the arrests. It is known they were arrested given that at the time of the raid, one of the journalists was on the phone speaking with Mina Ahadi, Spokesperson of the International Committee against Stoning and International Committee against Execution. The four have not returned home or to their hotels since; the Islamic regime has confirmed the arrest of the two journalists.

Please visit Iran Solidarity and sign the open letter (there's a moderation queue).

A very interesting take on all this, by the way, which will not be to everyone's taste, may be found here.

France's racial politics defended

2010-10-12T10:03:00.009-04:00

In a letter to the Ottawa Citizen, French ambassador François Delattre tries to put a happy-face mask on his country's neo-Vichyist policy of racial purification--the rounding up and deporting of Roma. Much of his letter is protesting Ujjal Dosanjh's statement of the obvious (the newest Nobel laureate in literature, Alvaro Vargas Llosa, has some choice words on the same subject) but this paragraph in particular deserves our attention:

France has been at the forefront to raise awareness of the plight and the suffering of the Roma in Europe by bringing this issue on the European Union's agenda. France's goal is to have the EU properly fund much-needed economic, educational and social initiatives and thereby improve the Roma's living conditions while promoting their integration within the EU. Indeed, France is currently a leading contributor to the $4.15 billion (Cdn.) allocated to Romania by the European Union annually.

If you follow the Dosanjh link, above, you will see what the French government means by "integration." It amounts, in fact, to the sequestration of racial undesirables in patrolled ghettoes. The current forced deportations are just ramping up this ugly recrudescence of Vichy politics.

But the disingenuousness of M. Delattre doesn't stop there. France hasn't so much put this matter on the EU agenda as forced the issue with its racialist policies. And the mention of Romania can only be seen as deliberately misleading.

Romania is not the homeland of the Roma people, as the ambassador seems to be suggesting. The two names have utterly different origins. The name "Romania" goes straight back to the Roman Empire and the formation of Roman Dacia. Daco-Romanian is a Romance language, related to Italian. The Romani language, spoken by the Roma, is Indo-Aryan.

Roma in Romania comprise 2.5% of the population. It is true that Romania is the country of origin of many of France's deportees, but so is Bulgaria, where Roma are the third-largest ethnic group, at 4.7%.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is himself an immigrant, from Hungary, where hatred of Roma is widespread: Roma are currently the favourite scapegoats of the neo-Nazi Jobbik Party. He was, as it turns out, caught in a lie, claiming that Roma were not being singled out for expulsion when they had, in fact, been deliberately targeted. The French police, of course, have been on the job for some time--nothing new there.

The Ambassador, it must be said, was simply doing his job. But it's a dirty one.

Obama reveals his powers

2010-10-11T10:27:00.003-04:00

But personally, I wish he'd just go back to the teleprompter.

UPDATE: No wonder terrified Republicans are calling for his death.

[H/t Enormous Thriving Plants]

What is Copygate and what does it mean?

2010-10-11T07:46:00.003-04:00

A new phrase has been coined in the climate wars. Copygate refers to the alleged plagiarism of material in the Wegman Report. For those not familiar with the Wegman Report, it was a report to the US Congress dealing with the Hockeystick Controversy produced by Dr. Wegman, a renown statistician. It has since been alleged that of the 96 page Wegman Report, 35 pages were plagiarized. Not good for a report from an Academic.

Now, apart from the point that Dr. Wegman appears to try to pass himself off as an expert in fields where he has little to no expertise, would plagiarism impact the results of the Wegman Report? I would say not (although there may be other surprises hidden in the Wegman Report). So why the big deal!

In my opinion it depends on your view of the stolen e-mails from the CRU. Consider the released e-mails from the CRU. The only think that they show for certain is that some scientists don't think well of those who criticize them. The same with the alleged plagiarized part of the Wegman Report. All it really shows is that some people like to sound more knowledgeable than they are (although granted that the repercussions in academic circles are much more serious for plagiarism than they are for saying mean things).

However the interesting point here is how people are going to react to the two incidents. Consider, there is nothing in the stolen e-mail that show any wrongdoing at all. Instead, it is said that they show a pattern that makes people mistrust the science associated with AGW. If that is the case, then shouldn't a plagiarized document cause you to hold a similar view about the science of the deniers side? Keep in mind that the Wegman Report is one of the few actually published works that criticize some aspect of AGW.

For myself, I don't think that the stolen e-mails reveal anything that damages the science of AGW. And I don't see that if there is plagiarism in the Wegman Report it will change the results. But it is amusing that there is a lot of pretzel twisting going on in certain circles to allow people to hold the two positions that some e-mails taken out of context is devastating, but real academic dishonesty is a minor incident. Pass the popcorn and some turkey; I suspect there is going to be a lot of wailing and screeching in the next while.

Hat Tip to John Mashy and Deep Climate for the truly monumental work this took!

Empire : What future for 'Greater Israel' ?

2010-10-10T01:45:00.004-04:00

Part one of a discussion on the deadlocked peace process between Israel and Palestine, the politics behind the expanded settlements, the diminishing likelihood of a two-state solution, and more with Avraham Burg, former head of the Israeli parliament and former chairman of the World Zionist Organization; Avi Schlaim, Prof of International Relations at Oxford; and Ian Black, Mid East editor for The Guardian.

Think you can predict the positions taken by the former chairman of the World Zionist Organization? Bet you can't.

"What we do in the occupied territories is a simple pure colonialism.
When will public opinion in Israel be ripe for dismantling the settlers' militia? The way to do it and to support any prime minister to go for it ... it will happen when Israelis feel they have something to lose and they are not ready to sacrifice their future and the future of their children for a tiny messianic eschatological minority."

Part Two follows.

A Spaniel in the Wok

2010-10-09T18:04:00.002-04:00

I was too young during the peak of Elvis Presley's career and too old to care about Kurt Cobain; their deaths didn't mean much to me. But I remember where I was when John Lennon was killed.

I was flying south from what was then Frobisher Bay. It was about two in the morning. The Nordair flight had been delayed, and as was the custom at the time, Nordair was serving free booze to all on board. The plane was full of workers from the Nanisivik mine heading home for Christmas, and the mood was riotous.

The captain came on the intercom and announced in a strained voice that he had just been informed that John Lennon, "the former Beatle", had just been killed. No explanation.

The guy beside me ordered another drink. He didn't seem too upset. "That last album was a piece of shit anyway," he said. As though murder was a slightly extreme form of music criticism.

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He was right, I guess. Lennon's reputation may have been saved by Mark Chapman.

I was one of the few Lennon fans who thought each of his post-Beatle album marked a new decline - the "Imagine" album seemed obvious and sugary after the stripped down, confessional brutality of Cold Turkey and Plastic Ono Band. "Mind Games" and "Walls and Bridges" wouldn't have found a label if they hadn't been Lennon Albums. "Pussycats" was, at least, funny; and Rock'N'Roll was a strange monster with great moments, an overproduced ode to underproduced classics.

"Double Fantasy" wasn't the worst of the bunch, but it wasn't very good. It has always reminded me of the Christmas email some folks send out to the family and friends, a friendly 'state of the union' address. "Yup, Yoko and I are doing fine, dumped May Pang, off the heroin, love the kid, let's do lunch...". It was as irrelevant and as touching as "The Ballad of John and Yoko".

As "Milk and Honey" confirmed, he couldn't have gone much further down that path. Maybe he would have found another one.

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He was really, really funny. Playful, punning, self-mocking, great gift for a phrase. That was the Irish coming through.

He was also an asshole. That, again, was the Irish coming through.

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What he was, or what he seemed to be, was - honest. He worked his way through all the shit that many of us work through - a bad marriage, rage about our parents, the joyous discovery of new ideas, political confusion, self-doubt and the growing awareness of our own failure, addiction. Except he did it under the floodlights, under the scrutiny of the "rock" "press" (famously characterized by Frank Zappa as "people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read"). But he kept writing about it. And he put the stuff he was thinking and living and feeling out there on vinyl.

That makes some of his thinking pretty easy to laugh at. The politics of his "Some Time In New York City" album haven't aged well. His fondness for simple political rock chant/anthems makes for easy satire.

Fuck it. He went on record. Most of us didn't.

---------------------------------

He became an object of mockery to his successors, the punks. That was mostly the "Kill Your Father" reflex of every next generation, and partly a reaction against the Olympian stature attained by the Beatles - remember, his old backup band? Punk required that he be cast as a dinosaur trying to maintain a stature he always mocked. But he was the first, and worst, critic of the Beatles, and he put it all out there on "Plastic Ono Band" and the interviews that followed it. He dismissed everything they had done, as if the distance they had traveled between "Love Me Do" and Abbey Road meant nothing. He never believed in his own voice, exhorting the producers he worked with to "do something, make me sound good." He never believed in his guitar playing, despite the fact that he created a sound (that fuzzed out, chunky, blocky chording that kicks off "Cold Turkey" and the single version of "Revolution") and riffs as instantly recognizable as Keith Richards'.

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Sidebar. If you're one of those assholes who feels compelled to dismiss the Beatles because they weren't of your generation, or because they sound like any other sixties band to you - then you're a deaf and fashionable asshole, and you do not understand music. I say that in the nicest possible way. But you REALLY NEED TO GO BACK AND LISTEN AGAIN. Or stay a deaf and fashionable asshole.

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Miss ya.