May 5. 2006: #1

Poll: Accountability
VicToews.com and probably as 'scientific' as most













Woman 'beheads' polygamist husband -- The question is: Can she get away with it using the defence of 'automatism'? ... Maybe "a woman's right to choose"? ... May 4, 06

19:38 (AEST) A PAKISTANI woman beheaded her husband, chopped up his body and dumped the dismembered parts in a sewerage drain after he announced plans to take a fourth wife, police said today. [. . . . ]

Fashion Statement? "But There are Surgeons in Riyadh Who Dress Like This!", by Wonkitties, May 2, 06



High Oil Prices & Tyranny -- Note the chart and search: The First Law of Petropolitics May 3, 06 -- See also The Spirit of Man, May 2, 06



Dragon in the Dark China-e-Lobby with link to more information on China, May 2, 06

To buy: Book: Dragon in the Dark: How and Why Communist China Helps Our Enemies in the War on Terror (Hardcover) by D. J. McGuire via Shotgun




Re: conditional sentences

[. . . . ] The proposed reforms would prohibit the use of conditional sentences for offences prosecuted by indictment and punishable by a maximum sentence of 10 years or more. Those convicted of serious violent and sexual offences, as well as other significant crimes, such as major drug offences, would be ineligible to receive a conditional sentence.

The reforms will help ensure a cautious and more appropriate use of conditional sentences, reserving them for less serious offences that pose a low risk to community safety.

A conditional sentence is a sentence of imprisonment of less than two years that may be served in the community if several pre-conditions are met. The offender must then abide by other conditions, including house arrest or curfew.

Reducing crime is key to restoring growth and prosperity to cities: Giuliani Michelle Macafee May, May 4, 06

[....] Reducing New York's murder rate by 70 per cent during his two four-year terms ....

[....] looking at crime statistics the way you would look at profit and loss in a business [....]

[....] workfare initiative - which focused on finding able-bodied residents jobs before giving them welfare - cut the welfare rolls by 60 per cent [....]

A case study: Judging Raskolnikov -- probability NatPost, May 5, 06

Bayes' Theorem -- named for the Rev. Thomas Bayes, a Presbyterian minister who died in Tunbridge Wells, England, in 1763 -- lets you judge the effect of a new piece of evidence, E, on the probability of your previous theory, [. . . . ]

Conservatives announce tough new crime measures CTV.ca News Staff, May 4, 06

The controversial legislation will impose:

five-year minimum sentences on first-time weapons offenders;
seven years on second-timers; and
10 years on multiple offenders.
Other firearm-related offences such as trafficking and smuggling and cases of robbery with a stolen weapon will also be subject to escalating minimum prison sentences of three to five years.

Group launched to eliminate counterfeiting -- Pirated goods pose health risks, threaten economy, coalition says -- Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network (CACN) "estimates the Canadian market in counterfeit products to be worth between $20-billion and $30-billion annually." Adrian Humphreys, National Post

Examples of such products recently seized in Canada include: Expired baby food with counterfeit best-before dates attached, counterfeited brand-name batteries containing elevated levels of dangerous chemicals, children's stuffed toys filled with hair and what appeared to be fibreglass, and safety boots with inadequate protection and fake safety logos.

Parents, the above is very important.

[. . . . ] Canada's weak legal framework for cracking down on counterfeit goods starts at the border, where Canada Border Service Agency officials do not have the same power to search and seize bogus products as they do with illegal substances.

Police action is often limited to specific complaints under the Copyright Act or fraud provisions in the Criminal Code.

Further, police cannot go after the assets of a counterfeiting organization under the Proceeds of Crime laws as they can for most other serious crimes because copyright act crimes are exempt.

The RCMP says these points have not been lost on gangsters, who always appreciate high-profit, low-risk criminal ventures; the result is that almost all major organized crime groups are now involved in product counterfeiting.

Search: an operation mixing a variety of chemicals to produce counterfeit CLR

Have you ever wondered what product is in the dyes used in cheap cotton product like dish cloths -- something so persistent that it will run and could ruin other items in a washing machine, but that cannot be dislodged by soaking in Javex and water? I did. They will never be used near a dish. ... What does cheap bring? This stuff is so pervasive in Canada now.



Raid ends in child porn bust -- Toronto man accused of photographing 2 underage Oshawa girls and sexual assault Jonathan Jenkins, TorSun, May 4, 06

"Parents, caregivers and all people involved in modelling are advised to use caution especially when meeting people over the Internet," Wilcox said.

The suspect has an account with onemodelplace.com, a Florida-based website that caters to the modelling community.

Brett Cramer, CEO of onemodelplace.com, said his site is the safest place for models and photographers to meet because everyone must have a paid account.

"Every time a user logs on, there's an IP address and a time stamp." Cramer said.

Karim Remtulla, 37, faces numerous charges.

Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire, "There's no time to wait"
Globe and Mail, May 5, 06

After Dallaire's experience with the UN in Rwanda, why is he now touting a UN force, SHIRBRIG? Why does he say that "the African character of the force must be maintained", when it has already been learned that it was UN African force members who were raping children?

He is angry that Canada's Special Advisory Team on Sudan (SATS) has been disbanded by the Conservative government. It consisted of what he calls the "non-partisan" members: Senator Mobina Jaffer, Ambassador Robert Fowler, and Romeo Dallaire, himself.



Tories deliver on mandatory sentences -- Two bills get tough on gun-related and drug crimes Janice Tibbetts, CanWest, May 04, 2006

[....] Both the Liberals and the New Democrats say they will not back legislation that is not accompanied by community-based crime prevention programs. The budget set aside $20-million over two years to discourage young people from a life of crime, which falls short of the amounts proposed by the Liberals and NDP.

Mandatory minimum sentences are controversial because they take away flexibility for judges to impose sentences as they see fit. Criminologists contend such sentences are expensive and do not reduce crime.

Mandatory prison terms for drug trafficking alone could put thousands more prisoners into the federal system, which currently houses 12,400 inmates at an estimated $82,000 each per year.

Ottawa refuses to commit to covering cost overruns for Winter Olympics -- from Min. Emerson, businessman

Ottawa won't commit itself to funding cost overruns for the 2010 Winter Olympics until it gets a full picture of the financial management plan, Trade Minister David Emerson said yesterday. Mr. Emerson who is also the minister responsible for the Olympics, said he was "very comfortable" with the decision not to include in Tuesday's budget the $55-million sought by the B.C. government and Olympic organizers to help cover cost overruns. He said Ottawa needs assurances there won't be "uncontrolled cost creep." Growing concern over the costs coincides with Vancouver's decision this week to replace one of its two nominees on the 20-person board.

Who is going to be replaced? And why?



Real tax cuts lost to fake tax cuts -- Is this the way the average person will see it, Mr. Corcoran? Terence Corcoran, National Post, May 04, 2006



Obviously, Liberal ex-Min. Cotler still doesn't get it.

Parties clash over prison vs. daycare spending CP/CTV, May 3 2006

Former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler accused the Tories of short-changing real needs in areas like child care in order to fight an imaginary crime surge.

"I was stunned," Cotler said of the prison initiative.

"I've never calculated the cost of something like this . . . because (as justice minister) I was against the idea that would require these costs."

In addition to scrapping a $5-billion child-care program [A PLAN - NEVER PASSED INTO LAW] - replaced by a $1,200 taxable parental allowance - the budget came up short on the environment, economic productivity, post-secondary education and aboriginal issues, Cotler said.

[....] Cotler said the Tory plan will keep people in jail while they could otherwise be contributing to society.

He spoke of meeting in Regina with former gang members who were mowing lawns and painting houses they once vandalized or used as crack dens. [....]

Sure, Mr. Cotler; they would be such an asset. How many successes like this were achieved during the many Liberal years?




In response to ex-PM Martin's "blistering broadside" re Tory childcare plans, NDP MP Wayne Marston delivered his own "blistering broadside" CNEWS Forum, posted by Anne_mcm, 5/04/2006

Martin attacks Tory child-care plan in Commons -- Actually, NDP attacks Martin May. 4 2006, CTV.ca

Paul Martin delivered a scathing attack on the Conservative government's child-care plan

[....] Martin, an MP for Quebec's LaSalle-Emard riding, criticized Tuesday's budget announcement for scrapping a $5-billion national day-care program his government designed. [talked about, never passed into law]

[....] NDP MP Wayne Marston, from Hamilton, Ont., said Martin's argument was hard to believe considering "the former Liberal government traded on child care since 1993 to achieve three majority governments."

Marston then took the opportunity to remind Martin of his party's election loss, saying "You lost the confidence, we did not." [....]

Tories off and gunning Kathleen Harris, May 5, 06, Ottawa Sun

[....] Liberal Leader Bill Graham said his party wants a "balanced" approach to curbing gun violence that imposes stiffer penalties but also tackles the roots of crime and helps youth.

Under Bill Graham and his Liberal government--the roots of crime guys, the softer, gentler approach guys, the house arrest, slap 'em on the wrist guys--what happened with crime? Did you notice less of it in beautiful downtown Toronto?

"We see nothing of that here; we see only the repressive side," Graham said.

But the NDP's Joe Comartin said his party will initially support the bill but press for changes when it reaches committee. He wants to narrow the field of offences now targeted for mandatory minimum sentences.

The tougher sentences were graduated to address concerns from opposition parties and ensure the laws comply with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Comartin doesn't believe the legislation as presented would survive a constitutional challenge. [. . . . ]

Why are Tories 'shaping society'? -- Maybe because years of Liberals "investing in" and "giving" have inured Canadian society to lies, half-truths, promises made and never kept? William Watson, National Post, May 04, 2006

Any new government would have to move slowly in the face of the behemoth set in place throughout the former Liberal government's years of bedding down with the media, making the appointments of those with access to MSM, social engineering of the Canadian populace through the schools and disbursements of pork to special interest groups who just happen to have media access ..... Think of Canada's NGO's, for example.

Opposition Leader Bill Graham denounced Tuesday's federal budget on the grounds it's "ideological." Hah! I wish.

The budget does cut taxes -- mainly the hated GST, which Mr. Graham's Liberals ran a whole campaign against in 1993. But it also subsidizes farmers, forest companies, apprentices, soccer moms, bus and subway users, textbook buyers, daycare workers (with $225-million for institutionalized daycare in addition to the famous $1,200 a child), 100% Canadian vintners (my Lord!), small brewers, small business, university researchers, the big banks, tool buyers, infrastructurists, "fishers," people who live in social housing, people who live on native reserves, artists. You name it -- almost -- and it's subsidized. Which ideology are we talking about exactly?

[....] But we're forgetting some first principles here. Where does it say beneficial activities need to be subsidized? When was it conceded government will be allowed to indulge its insistence on shaping society? In fact, when did this government develop that insistence? [Listen to the mainstream media even now ..... people expect government "input" not independence from government. Perhaps, in time, this will change.]

[....] For most of us here, the long-term goal is not to win the game but to change the way the game is played.

In its billions, the budget heads in the right direction. Taxes do fall. But in its millions it reinforces the hurtful lessons of Liberalism. Denouncing soft paternalism, a letter-writer to the Economist this week quoted Henry David Thoreau: "If I knew of a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life." In its first budget, the blue team is far too do-gooding.

With some of this, I can agree but ... see above.



The Lib friendly Parliamentary prima donnas are at it again.All the innuendo and selective memory.Where were the media when the RCMP were newsbeat1

reduced by 2200 "officers" and CSIS was reduced by 700 agents during the Liberal tenure? Now that the Conservatives are in government , the media wake up to the fact that the RCMP have had their resources reduced over the years?Where have they been? [....]

The extra resources being provided by the Conservative government will help bring the RCMP back to a more effective level and restore their reputation as one of the best crime fighting organizations in the world- not the paper shuffling bureaucracy the Liberals were content with. Does the Lib friendly media have a problem with Canadians being protected from predators?

"Mr. Kevin Sorenson (Crowfoot, CPC): Mr. Speaker, one of the first things that the government did upon taking office was to slash 2,200 positions from the RCMP, a loss that has never been recouped.

If the Deputy Prime Minister wants to quote the RCMP commissioner, I will as well. He openly admitted that 2,000 officers were moved off organized crime files and other duties to respond to the terrorism crisis. The Canadian Police Association pleaded with the government to provide better funding after it identified serious shortfalls in local, provincial and national policing."...

Source of the above last two paragraphs: Kevin Sorenson: speech Apr. 23, 05




Tories table crime legislation Jim Brown, May 4, 06

[....] James Morton, vice-president of the Ontario Bar Association, suggested the Tories are low-balling the cost of their measures.

There may be a need for more judges, courtrooms and Crown attorneys, he said, since offenders facing longer terms could insist on going to trial rather than copping a plea.

"If you're going to have a more law-order based system, you're going to have to pay for it," said Morton. "Building more prisons is only part of it." [. . . . ]

Runaway Devils April 25, 2006, Updated 4/28/06

According to the Edmonton Journal, a 12-year-old "Goth" girl and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Jeremy Allan Steinke of Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada were reported to have been [. . . . ]

Harper Like Trudeau? Not a chance May 2, 06 via Jack's Newswatch

Almost every day I come across some weepy-eyed journalist with tears running down their cheeks ruminating fondly about the communist SOB that took this country for a 40 year walk in the wilderness and in many cases they dare to compare our current PM with him. Richard Gwyn does it again today in the Star…

Book: The Nanny Diaries by Emma Mclaughlin and Nicola Kraus -- Editorial Reviews

I started reading and hooted at the descriptions; then I continued and ..... Oh, just read it and consider how fortunate you are if you don't think you have to keep up with anyone, if you have no designer outfits to be ruined by a child's touch, if you enjoy your child more than your dream house, if your child "helps" you ... creating a mess in his/her wake ... all in the normal process of playing, learning, growing ... if you have the wisdom to allow your child (and probably the house) to get mussed or even dirty-messy in the process of finding out how and why about any number of things ......... if you enjoy hugging and being hugged.

I laughed at the authors' portrayal of life in the fast and shallow lane--a life requiring a nanny so the parents don't have to get too close to the normal messy processes of a child growing up, sometimes with dirty fingers or art to be admired, even to be talked about. They hadn't the time nor self-awareness to see his attempts to get close to them, to get a reaction -- so he turns to the nanny. This book should entertain while leaving the reader to rejoice in being poor enough not to travel in the same exhausting, striving circle. The description of a bright little boy trying so hard to be noticed by parents with more important things--luncheon, the spa, the hairdresser, making deals, whatever--on their minds was heart-breaking ... poignant. I read it in one sitting.




Maurice Strong & Friends

UN Internationalist & Global Arranger/Fixer/Do-Gooder/Authoritarian ... and More

Mau-ist Revolution -- re Maurice Strong in the current edition of the Western Standard

Yesterday, I was reading the above article about Maurice Strong who was interviewed in Vancouver (staying at a $1500 a night 1200 sq. ft. suite) who talked about getting action on climate change, etc. by promoting peoples' action, grassroots movements, in the context of discussion of climate change, for example, using natural disasters and diseases for example, to instil fear in people so that they would go along with the UN (and his) plans -- but the plans include much more. Subsequently, I read this. Activism. Who funds this activism?




Why was this meeting held at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)

No One Is Illegal & Don't Ask, Don't Tell [DAD] General Meeting

CBC has already had an interview (within the last week) with a representative of No One Is Illegal, Iranian/Cdn. I believe. Just what Canada needs, more activism for CBC to make "news", especially now, when Iran's leader is talking nukes. Who funds these groups?

Start: May 3 2006 - 6:30pm
End: May 3 2006 - 8:30pm
Timezone: Etc/GMT+5
Date & time:
Wed, 05/03/2006 - 6:30pm
Location:
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) 252 Bloor Street West (at St.George Station)
Details:

Building momentum on a number of very successful immigrant/refugee rights demonstrations over the last few months, No One Is Illegal-Toronto and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Campaign in collaboration with Solidarity Across Borders-Montreal, No One Is Illegal-Vancouver and a number of other immigrant/refugee rights groups from across "Canada" are organizing towards a National Day of Action calling for Status for All on May 27th.

We invite anyone interested in helping to organize this National Day of Action to attend our next organizing meeting which takes place Wednesday May 3rd at OISE.

Stop the Deportations! Status for All! Access Without Fear! No One Is Illegal!

No One is Illegal (Toronto) is a group of immigrants, refugees and allies who fight for the rights of all migrants to live with dignity and respect. We believe that granting citizenship to a privileged few is part of a racist immigration and border policy designed to exploit and marginalize migrants. We work to oppose these policies, as well as the international economic policies that create the conditions of poverty and war that force migration. At the same time, we also work to support and build alliances with our Indigenous brothers and sisters in their fight against colonialism, displacement and the ongoing occupation of their land.

WE DEMAND:

Regularization of all non-status people in Canada
No deportations / No detentions
No racial or religious profiling
Recognition of the right to free movement
Recognition of indigenous sovereignty

Don't Ask Don't Tell Campaign

Intriguing name .......



Immigration
Dealing with Anchor Babies by Congressman Mac Collins (Ret. R-GA), May 5, 06.

Each year the United States grants citizenship to a quarter of a million children of illegal aliens. There is a common misconception among the public that such citizenship is a constitutional guarantee. The fact is that the constitutional question of whether the 14th amendment grants citizenship to children of foreigners born on U.S. soil was addressed by the Supreme Court over 100 years ago in the Slaughter House Cases and, again, in 1971 in the case of Rogers v. Belle. All existing case law confirms that the Fourteenth Amendment does not automatically grant citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. The reality is that it was Congress, through immigration legislation, which created this prize of citizenship for the children of people who violate our laws by entering our country illegally.

Between 1997 and 2001, the unfortunate byproduct of our current immigration code has been a cost to the tax payers of the United States of billions of dollars to support these children who are popularly known as "anchor babies". They are named so because their legal status ties their illegal parents to the United States. During this time period, U.S. taxpayers have spent more than 4 billion dollars just to provide Medicaid to these children whose parents do not even pay into the system. Medicaid coverage, free education, and protection from deportation for the parents of "anchor babies" are a primary draw for many people to enter this country illegally. The time has come for our Congress to side with the majority of U.S. citizens and heed the calls for real immigration reform by repealing the INS legislation that makes the United States such an attractive residential destination for illegal aliens and their families.

A good place to begin would be to follow the example of the majority of Latin American countries and stop granting citizenship to the children of those who come into our nation illegally. [. . . . ]

WWF accepts nuclear reality Herald Sun, Australia, 04 May 06

World Wildlife Fund, Inc., is an arm of World Wildlife Fund International

LEADING environment group WWF Australia says it accepts the Federal Government's push to expand uranium mining and exports.

WWF chief executive Greg Bourne said it was a reality that all Australian governments would mine and export uranium to a growing world market.

"The key issues are, if we're going to be a nation exporting uranium, we have to know absolutely it's only being used for peaceful purposes and waste products are being stored safely," Mr Bourne said. [. . . . ]