Dec. 4, 2006: #2

How politics is done

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=
4cc6aa65-f8be-41bd-beef-d540d58127f3

What creative, new ideas emerged? What resolve to end the way business has always been done? The media are remiss in picking up sound bites rather than ideas if there were any, reporting the schmoozing, the dickering, the sturm und drang, the politicking, but where's the beef?

The Trudeaus were everywhere - both in spirit and body , Mary Vallis, National Post, Dec. 4, 2006

[....] Rae delegate, resisting entreaties to switch sides: "I paid $3,000 to be here. No one is telling me what to do." [....]

CTV interrupts convention coverage to interview Alexandre Trudeau in Havana, where he is attending the birthday of family friend Fidel Castro. Lloyd Robertson doesn't point out that in Castro's Cuba, a similar convention would be considered treason. [....]

On reporting: Embedded Reporter Upbeat About Iraq , John Hawkins, Nov. 30, 06

Last week, I had an opportunity to interview Michael Fumento, who has now been embedded in Iraq three times and has recently returned from a trip to Ramadi. If you're looking for someone in the media with the ground experience in Iraq, you couldn't do much better than Michael Fumento. Now, on to the interview, which has been edited.

Now, Michael, you were just embedded with the troops out in the field in Ramadi. There are not a lot of reporters who do that. Why do you think that is and do you think reporters over there lose perspective if they don't embed?

Yes, it's preposterous to think that you can cover a country with 26 million people, the size of California, from a hotel room or from the international zone in a single city. Nobody would try to be a Hollywood reporter from Des Moines, Iowa. What if you turned on the news about some catastrophe, like Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans that has been going on a day or so, but the reporter was talking to you from Nome, Alaska? You wouldn't give it much credence and you shouldn't give it much credence. The Baghdad Brigade, as I call it, operating out of these hotels -- not only would you think that they don't deserve credence, but time and time again when you look at the stories they write about non-Baghdad areas, you find that they're wrong. [....]

One last question: Tell us a little bit about the 12th Imam that (Ahmadinejad) seems to be so enamored with. [....]

There is much more.



Newfoundland and Labrador: The Rock's cold charm
The locals are legendary. The scenery is spectacular — even in the dead of winter. But want to hear the best joke of all? Newfoundland has a mountain. And it's nothing to laugh at , Susan Pigg, Dec. 2, 2006. 01:00 AM

www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=
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Corner Brook, Nfld.—There aren't many places in Canada where skiing and snowboarding are a religious experience. But here on Marble Mountain, so many people heading downhill fast have turned to prayer that one of its signature, black-diamond runs is known simply as OMJ — Oh My Jaysus. [....]

Fort Mac crime ring? , Edmonton Sun, Dec. 2, 06, via PrimeTimeCrime.com

www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2006
/12/02/2591397-sun.html

FORT MCMURRAY - Two of the alleged drug traffickers involved in the multi-million-dollar bust Mounties announced earlier this week had ties to Fort McMurray, enough to make one city councillor there brace for the worst. "There are probably opportunities here that might not exist in some other locales," said Coun. Sharon Clarkson. [....]