Oct. 13, 2006: Friday the thirteenth ...

Balsillie and RIM discovered a profitable Pearl, and now the world's their oyster , Simon Avery, Oct. 13, 06, Globe and Mail

www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story
/GAM.20061013.RRIM13/GIStory/


With Pearl, the world's RIM's oyster -- comments, SIMON AVERY, Globe and Mail Update, Oct. 12, 06

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.2006
1012.wrimmm1012/BNStory/Technology/home

Thanks to the BlackBerry Pearl, Jim Balsillie's net worth increased by enough in the past month to pay for his acquisition of Pittsburgh Penguins almost twice over.

[....] Pearl smart phone ... BlackBerrys[....]

... outplayed rivals [....]

... from only two phone companies ... T-Mobile USA ... Rogers Wireless Communications Inc. ...

[....] includes a digital music player, a camera and expandable memory. [....]

At the insistence of Mike Lazaridis, co-chief executive of RIM and co-inventor of the BlackBerry, the Pearl was not built as a budget version of the larger, corporate devices. Instead it was designed using the full BlackBerry platform, which is known for its top-level security, efficient use of wireless spectrum, good battery life and reliable software platform. [....]

BCE dies Bell lives as trust -- Phone company goes back to basics in largest ever conversion to income trust , Catherine McLean, with a report from Wendy Stueck, Oct. 12, 06
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/LAC.20061012.BCEMAIN12/TPStory/

While the change may signal an end to BCE's diversification adventure, it could create a new political headache for Ottawa. BCE is the largest company that has converted to an income trust so far. Under the new structure, Bell, like other trusts, will pay minimal corporate taxes because it will distribute most of its cash to unitholders.

[....] Mr. Sabia's move marks the end of a strategy developed in 1982 by A. Jean de Grandpré, who was then chairman of Bell Canada. BCE was created as a holding company out of the old monopoly utility as part of an attempt to ensure its non-telephone enterprises would be free from the clutches of the telecom regulator.

[...] Northern Telecom Ltd., ... TransCanada Pipelines Ltd., and Teleglobe Inc. .... also included real estate, financial and computer services, led to massive writedowns and BCE gradually began shedding them.

[....] Mr. Sabia's route to the Bell trust was far from direct. In February, the company announced plans to put its rural phone lines into an income trust. A month later, it added the land-line assets of Aliant Inc., the Atlantic Canada phone company it controls.

[....] to keep .... Bell Globemedia, owner of The Globe and Mail and the CTV television network, along with an investment in Telesat Holdings Inc.

Note that last sentence. The retained mainstream media presence and clout have political ramifications which BCE/Bell uses. Today, CTV.ca has been broadcasting the complete speech of Michael Ignatieff re-explaining his speech about Qana and Israel. The thrust of his whole speech is to demonize Prime Minister Harper and to cultivate Jewish votes.

There was a good article in the Globe and Mail Oct. 12, 06 (editorial/commentary pages) explaining Ignatieff's explanations and re-interpretations of what he said in Montreal in French. Worth looking for.



BCE's conversion plan: What does it all mean? , Angela Barnes, 12/10/06, Globe and Mail Update

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.2006
1012.wbceanalysts1012/BNStory/Business/home

So BCE Inc. has unveiled plans to eliminate its holding company structure and turn Bell Canada, its main asset, into an income trust. What does the largest-ever conversion to a trust mean for BCE itself, for the trust industry and for the federal government?

[....] The announcement also raises broader issues. Mr. MacKay [not Minister McKay] noted in his report that BCE expects to save $250-million in cash taxes next year and $800-million in 2008. “Combined with the approximately $500-million to $600-million that Telus will not be paying directly to the federal Government, we have to wonder if BCE's actions proves to be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back at the Department of Finance and forces the federal Government to once again review the trust structure,” he said.

Rival Telus Corp. announced a month ago that it was going the trust conversion route. [....]

... the minority Conservative government is unlikely to abruptly change the tax status of income trusts in the short term

Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank

Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank win Nobel Peace Prize -- micro credit lending

cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006
/10/13/2016486-ap.html


Banker to the poor takes Nobel Peace Prize -- Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank, Oct. 13, 06

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/RTGAM.20061013.w2npeace1013/BNStory/International/home

[....] Mr. Yunus told AP in a 2004 interview that his "eureka moment" came while chatting to a shy woman with calloused fingers weaving bamboo stools.

Sufia Begum was a 21-year-old villager and mother of three when the economics professor met her in 1974 and asked her how much she earned. She replied that she borrowed about five taka (10 cents) from a middleman for the bamboo for each stool. [....]

It makes a great story. There is more information:

Related: A considered argument for holding back on peace awards this year , Rory MacGregor, Oct. 13, 06

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v4/sub
/MarketingPage?user_URL=http://
www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2
FLAC.20061013.MACGREGOR13%2FTPStory&ord=1160754776030&brand=
theglobeandmail&force_login=true

Comments:

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.2006
1013.w2npeace1013/CommentStory
/International/home#comment420304

[....This is interesting on how it is done.] 'fractional reserve banking'. [....]

Bombardier and partner win Malaysian contract -- $210-million , CP, October 13, 2006

[....] Bombardier and local partner Hartasuma Sdn Bhd signed a contract with transport agency Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad for the initial 88 advanced rapid-transit (ART) MK II cars to be used on the Kelana Jaya line in Kuala Lumpur.

The driverless Kelana Jaya line began operation in 1998 and was built by a Bombardier-led consortium that included Bombardier and SNC Lavalin. Now the line links western and eastern suburbs to Kuala Lumpur's downtown.

[....] The cars will be made at Bombardier Transportation plants in North America, with final assembly in Malaysia through the local partner, which is a major player in the Malaysian rail industry. [....]

Punted Posters: $300,000.00 from Chinese Red Army to Clinton/Gore -- Free Republic: Red General and Clinton Donations

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=581&mforum=elwoodpdowd

www.freerepublic.com/posts803771/

[....] "We like your president," Gen. Ji told Chung before passing a check for $300,000 across the table. "We want him re-elected." [....]

More importantly, U.S. investigators also said Chinese company representatives tried to sell undercover U.S. agents "rocket launchers, anti-aircraft missiles, machine guns and even tanks."

In August 1996, the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) ship Princess Bride was caught in an attempt to smuggling over 2,000 machine guns into the United States.

According to Customs officials, the bust was nearly foiled by a leak from inside the Clinton administration to COSCO, forcing the agents to move early on the Princess Bride while it was still docked in Los Angeles harbor.

"Poly's U.S. subsidiaries were abruptly closed in August 1996. Allegedly, Poly's representative, Robert Ma, conspired with China North Industries Corporation's (NORINCO) representative, Richard Chen, and a number of businessmen in California to illegally import 2000 AK-47s into the United States," states a 1997 Rand Corporation report.

All those charged by the Reno Justice Department were released pending a trial. All of those released, including Ma and Chen, fled to China and have never faced a U.S. jury. The Clinton administration never pursued the alleged criminals nor sought extradition from the PRC. Again, Janet Reno refused to pursue the evidence.

Of course, the fact remains that President Clinton met with the Wang Jun, the CEO of Poly Technologies in February 1996, prior to the arms bust by U.S. Customs agents. Clinton's close Arkansas friend Charlie Trie brought Wang to the White House.

Bill Clinton also took a $50,000 donation from Charlie "Yah Lin" Trie at that same meeting. Clinton, Trie and Wang then shared coffee inside the White House. None of the three ever explained where the $50,000 came from. [.... There is more. ]

Inquiries urged for torture cases -- Amnesty International wants federal investigation into other cases like Arar , Murray Brewster

cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada
/2006/10/12/2008412-cp.html

[....] The cases of [Muayyed Nureddin], Abdullah Almalki and Toronto truck driver Ahmad El Maati figured prominently in the recently concluded public inquiry into Arar's case.

[....] But Nureddin, Almalki and El Maati all say they believe Canadian authorities supplied questions about them to their Syrian interrogators.

"Someone has to answer for the 22 months I spent in jail for no reason," Almalki said. "And someone has to be held accountable for continuously feeding unreliable information that kept me in an underground solitary confinement cell for 482 consecutive days." [....]

Do the countries of the ones who tortured these men pay ... or do Canadian taxpayers pay?




PM urged to fix troubled youth system -- Justice ministers push to add youth law reform to crowded anti-crime agenda , Michael Tutton, Oct. 12, 06
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Law/2006/10/11/2000598-cp.html

[....] Since taking office earlier this year, the federal Tories have also introduced legislation to end house arrest for serious offences and implement mandatory minimum sentences for crimes involving guns.

Manitoba's Dave Chomiak said it's time now to put reform of the controversial Youth Criminal Justice Act on the growing list before Parliament.

The New Democrat said Ottawa needs to introduce changes that will allow judges to consider "deterrence and denunciation" in sentencing teenagers who commit heinous crimes.

"The public has demanded the revolving door stop at some point, and we're supportive of that," Chomiak said.

Manitoba has been particularly alarmed by light sentences given to youth since a 15-year-old boy who beat a man to death with a billiard ball in a sock was sentenced in 2003 to a day in jail. [....]

Freelance writers win court challenge, John Ward, TorSun, Oct. 13, 06

cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada
/2006/10/12/2008520-cp.html

OTTAWA (CP) - The Supreme Court has handed freelance writers a victory, ruling that newspapers and magazines can't put their material into online databases without their permission.

But Thursday's 5-4 decision won't have much of an impact on most of today's freelancers. That's because most publishers now require writers to sign so-called "all-rights" contracts which explicitly transfer rights for any and all uses, without additional payment.

Search: Heather Robertson , a contract, express or implied , CD-ROM form , Justice Rosalie Abella , electronic rights , electronic databases

If you write for a living, you might want to check into this and the ramifications.


Strahl to Wheat Board: stifle yourself , BitWhys,10/12/2006 16:51:32

www.canoe.ca/mb2/messages/cnewsf/12856.html
http://tinyurl.com/y3m7t2

"Farmers should be debating the future of the CWB, and I'm always interested in hearing from farmers. However, the CWB should use its resources and energy to market grain for farmers." - Chuck Strahl

Malapropisms -- and here , uplink, 10/12/2006 20:03:51

www.canoe.ca/mb2/messages/cnewsf/12857.html

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=575&mforum=elwoodpdowd

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are this year's {2006} winners:

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time. [....]

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it. [....]

Mother killed after teen rejects Islam , Annabelle McDonald and Jeremy Roberts, The Australian 12 Oct 06

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=566&mforum=elwoodpdowd

An autopsy on the teenager's mother, 41-year-old Yasmin Hussain, found she died from a single stab wound to her chest.

Her husband, Muhammad Hussain, 49, was in a critical condition at the Gold Coast hospital in an induced coma after suffering a stab wound to his chest.

[....] Gold Coast Muslims yesterday lashed out against claims the murder was a Koran-sanctioned ritual killing to punish the rejection of Islam. [....]

Speech: PM Harper
Building Canada's Asia-Pacific Gateway

October 11, 2006
Vancouver

[....] Our major west coast ports are much closer to the main commercial ports of Asia than most of the American ports we compete with.

Shanghai, for example, is nearly two days closer to Vancouver than Los Angeles for the fastest container ships.

Prince Rupert is at least three days closer.

Yet in spite of this advantage, and the huge cost savings it represents for shippers, Canada today only handles 9% of West Coast container traffic. [There will be road transport costs from Prince Rupert or is this mainly for shipping out oil and LNG, minerals to China?]

And even though we have excellent rail, road and air links from the coast to most major markets in the United States, only 9% of our current container traffic serves U.S. markets. [....]

Canada should be the crossroads between the massive economy of the United States and the burgeoning economies of Asia. [....]

That’s why Canada’s new government is announcing today that we are moving ahead immediately with the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor initiative.

This is a massive undertaking. It is a collaborative effort involving all levels of government and the private sector.

The governments of all four western provinces [....]

So we are taking action right now to launch 12 separate infrastructure, transportation technology and border security projects.

[....] five key areas of investment focus:

First, all the major commercial ports, from Rupert to Roberts Bank will see major expansions and improvements.

Second, bridges and roads linking the ports to the national and trans-national highway systems will be built or upgraded.

Third, there will be further twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park;

Four, a new container security screening facility will be installed at the Port of Prince Rupert;

And finally, a high-tech traffic management system will be developed for the Lower Mainland that will move containers into and out of port terminals faster and more efficiently.

The private sector has committed over $3 billion to Gateway- and Corridor-related capital investment between 2004 and 2010. [Who in the private sector?]

As a result of our combined efforts, total container throughput capacity at our Pacific ports is projected to rise from $2 million a year today to $7 million by 2020.

Oct. 12, 2006: Various

Update: corrected title: I had written Feb. 12 2006.


I have already posted earlier today the difficulties of posting screen captures to prove a point, on missing images and links that disappear. There are more.

Consider: If the article concerns the former federal government--Liberal, a few members of that political elite, their network and their plans--maybe even screen captures from one province's websites having to do with the UN/UNESCO--that kind of thing, then ... something just happens ... so maybe you should dig deeper ... or perhaps I am just extraordinarily inept at posting those particular items ... Do you suppose?



Any contortion for Quebec votes?

Ignatieff: Israel's attack on Qana a 'war crime' -- Remarks made on Quebec television , Graeme Hamilton, National Post, October 11, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news
/story.html?id=42fc6be5-8c3f-4a78-b
493-62ec843e2efd&k=75392

[....] In an interview on a widely watched Quebec talk show, Mr. Ignatieff apologized for comments in August when he told a newspaper he was "not losing sleep" over an Israeli bombing that killed dozens of civilians in the Lebanese village of Qana.

"It was a mistake. I showed a lack of compassion. It was a mistake and when you make a mistake like that, you have to admit it," he told the French-language Radio-Canada program Tout le monde en parle.

"I was a professor of human rights, and I am also a professor of the laws of war, and what happened in Qana was a war crime, and I should have said that. That's clear."

Mohamed Elmasry [....]

But these are honourable men ... It just might help, of course, to gain the Muslim vote ... but then, identifiable ethnic groups do not vote as a bloc ... do they? ... Nothing calculating here ... mais non.




Join The Nopigou Club , Terence Corcoran, Financial Post, October 11, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/columnists
/story.html?id=bee0c1a5-4f0b-40eb-8d15-8f2fbef79314

[....] With that, Mr. Greenspan appears to be jumping aboard a campaign by Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw to enlist support for higher gas taxes. His blog promotes membership in The Pigou Club, named after Arthur C. Pigou, an early 20th century welfare economist who promoted the idea of using taxes to fix social and other problems allegedly created by a free market economy. Among the backers of Pigovian taxes, especially on gasoline, are economists often associated with Republican governments, including Martin Feldstein and Mr. Mankiw himself. Other not-so-Republican members include Al Gore and Paul Krugman.

Canadians, of course, will recognize the idea as a core element in Liberal leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff's environmental program. [....]

There is no end to the planning mayhem that could be generated once Pigovian taxes become the economic norm. Taxes on cigarettes have risen hundreds of per cent over the years, in part to offset the alleged externality of rising costs of treating cancer and other diseases caused by smoking. Still people smoke. Anything that can be politically whipped up into an unwanted development -- taxes on food to reduce obesity, taxes on alcohol to reduce alcoholism, taxes on babies to reduce population growth -- or subsidies on babies to boost population. [....]

The problem with a Pigovian gasoline tax is that it means using the same tools that failed planners everywhere over the past century. None of this stuff is measurable. [....]

There's nothing new in Pigou, no matter how he's dressed up by Prof. Mankiw. [....]

We have allowed this to happen, Andrew Coyne, National Post, October 11, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/columnists
/story.html?id=aa0602cc-7149-4826-ac14-956be647ce86

[....] The world's worst dictators, it is now clear, may acquire the world's most destructive weapons with impunity -- even as a new breed of macro-terrorists advertise themselves as potential after-market customers. Either we do not recognize this for the existential threat that it is, or we cannot summon the nerve, collectively or individually, to take the steps required to save ourselves.

Hardly had the lady on the North Korean news finished announcing the country's latest "great leap forward" before denial began to set in. [....]

So the Security Council will meet, it will "recognize" this and "deplore" that, but no one believes it will do much else. [....]

We simply do not have the stomach for this fight. [....]

Asia Weighs Risk of Sanctions -- North Korea's Neighbors Fear Pressure May Breed Regional Chaos, by GORDON FAIRCLOUGH in Shanghai, EVAN RAMSTAD in Seoul, SOUTH KOREA, and JAY SOLOMON in Washington, October 11, 2006; Page A4, Shai Oster in Beijing and Lina Yoon in Seoul contributed to this article.

online.wsj.com/public/article
/SB116047648792187955-GtJPv9CmCbXWlmk
8XdxJe4sNbf0_20071010.html?mod=blogs

As the United Nations Security Council mulls sanctions against North Korea [....]

[....] Yesterday, China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters China is willing to back "some punitive actions" but said those actions "have to be appropriate."

Still, the U.S. push for comprehensive sanctions that could topple the Kim regime is likely to be resisted by China and South Korea. "China won't agree to very stern sanctions," said Tao Wenzhao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. A collapse of the North Korean regime would cause "serious economic and social problems for China" and "be bad for stability in Northeast Asia," he said.

[....] In South Korea, the approach taken by President Roh Moo Hyun -- trying to engage the North with economic incentives -- has meant regime change was rarely discussed in public. In the wake of the claimed nuclear test, some opposition lawmakers are starting to raise the topic.

[....] a military junta. [....]

civil war, [....]

A collapse of the Kim regime would also likely spark economic dislocation [....]

the cost of unifying North and South Korea [....]

a potential refugee exodus to China's economy [....]

... Pacific Forum CSIS think tank in Honolulu, an arm of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, [....]

"But if the cost of not having regime change is having it as a demonstrated nuclear state, then maybe that cost is too high," he said. "It's got to be the Chinese and South Koreans who say enough is enough."

Inside North Korea and other videos listed on the CNEWS Forum -- AnnieO_01 and tordor

North Korea - Children of the Secret State video

www.canoe.ca/mb2/messages/cnewsf/12836.html

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=
-6951629397402742053&q=north+korea+children

www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=82755
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITBqRSMBWaM



Jailed for having sex in Mosque -- via PuntedPosters

today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=
oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2006-10-10T114658
Z_01_L10215940_RTRUKOC_0_US-MOSQUE.xml&W
TmodLoc=NewsArt-R1-MostViewed-3&rpc=92


Building: an insult? -- via starboardside

memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD131506

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=551&mforum=elwoodpdowd


Photo: First Kiss , posted by Elwood

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=513&mforum=elwoodpdowd


Page Scandal Goes Deeper, Congressmen Stalked Them , By Ronald Kessler

www.newsmax.com/kessler.cfm?s=lh

The scandal involving inappropriate e-mail messages by former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., to congressional pages understandably has led to calls for abolishing the page program. [....]

Media accounts of Foley’s sordid instant messages inevitably have recounted the previous 1983 scandals involving Rep. Daniel B. Crane, R-Ill. and a 17-year-old female page, and Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass. and a 17-year-old male page.

But the stories rarely mention the reforms instituted after the 1983 scandals. Before the scandals, Congress appointed 14- and 15-year-olds and let them run loose in Washington without any supervision. Pages had no dormitory and no curfews.. As long as the pages brought them coffee and delivered their messages, members of Congress did not seem to care if minors entrusted to them became corrupted.

For my book “Inside Congress,” I interviewed Capitol Police officers, pages, and congressional staffers who described conditions back then. Most of the female pages lived in a four-story brick building that was formerly the Young Woman’s Christian Home. It became known as “virgin village.” [....]

Rep. Shays: Foley Scandal No Chappaquiddick

www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/
10/11/114226.shtml?s=lh



Bush: Foley Behavior 'Disgusting,' Backs Hastert

www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006
/10/11/124906.shtml?s=lh




Crazy Like a Fox (News), October 11, 2006, By Debra Saunders, Creators Syncidate

www.realclearpolitics.com/articles
/2006/10/crazy_like_a_fox_news.html

As Fox News celebrates its 10-year anniversary, media watchers should appreciate how Fox, which tilts right, has provided balance to major new operations such as CNN and The New York Times, which tilt left.

Go to most newsrooms and you'll find a staff that overwhelmingly voted for John Kerry in 2004, while the rest keep their politics to themselves lest they be considered biased. A survey of the Washington press corps found that 89 percent voted for Bill Clinton in 1992. It's true, most reporters do their level best to tell a story straight and present both sides. To use Fox-speak, most reporters I know strive to be "fair and balanced."

But they can't escape the presumptions that underlie their stories, and they are likely not to notice the presumptions when all the newsroom management thinks alike. That's how illegal immigrants became "undocumented workers" and global warming became a certainty. [....]

A Bubba tirade followed, when an answer would have worked fine. As Wallace told The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, the surprising thing was that he (Wallace) was the only TV interviewer among many to ask Clinton that question, even though Clinton had been complaining about an ABC miniseries that faulted his handling of bin Laden.

It is amazing no one else asked. It goes to show that Fox News keeps American media fair and balanced.

What's New? , Maclean's June 19, 2006
Author MICHAEL FRISCOLANTI, JONATHON GATEHOUSE and CHARLIE GILLIS with NICHOLAS KÖHLER, COLIN CAMPBELL and LUIZA CH. SAVAGE

www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com
/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0012882

For years, police and CSIS spooks have kept a close eye on the Salaheddin Islamic Centre, a former warehouse in east-end Toronto. From the comfort of their cars, anonymous agents watched Ahmed Said Khadr - Osama bin Laden's senior man in Canada - pray and mingle and collect donations for the global jihad. They monitored the movements of Mahmoud Jaballah, the principal of the centre's elementary school, who was later jailed for his alleged ties to terror. Muayyed Nureddin. Helmy Elsherief. Hassan Farahat. All were, at one time or another, regulars at the Scarborough mosque - and the targets of Canadian intelligence officials. Spies are such a fixture around the low brick building that worshippers often joke about bumping into them at the Tim Hortons down the street.

So Muhammad Robert Heft thought it a tad strange that his acquaintance, Fahim Ahmad - one of the alleged leaders of a Toronto terror cell busted last week - chose the Salaheddin mosque, of all places, to hand him a DVD promoting the jihadist martyrs of Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq. "That's one of the most-watched masjids in Canada," says Heft, using the Arabic word that denotes a Muslim place of worship. "I thought he was pretty naive to be handing out stuff like that publicly and thinking he wasn't going to be a suspect." [....]

Even if police are ahead of the so-called Jihad 2.0 generation, there are nagging questions about the safety of major targets in Canada, an issue advocates have spent years trying to get on the public radar. The most vocal, Senator Colin Kenny, remains frustrated by the refusal of successive governments to "harden" key installations like border bridges, airports, docklands and power stations. "Of 19 designated ports in Canada, we've still got only 27 Mounties assigned to national security," observes Kenny, a Liberal who, as chair of the standing Senate committee on national security and defence, has produced several reports detailing security shortcomings across the country. Tests at Canadian airports show an "intrusion rate" - i.e. the percentage of knives, guns and bomb materials missed by security screeners - in the high teens, Kenny adds. "That's worse than the ones in the U.S." [....]

Debbie Schlussel: Western Union: Hawala for Illegal Alien Paymasters , via newsbeat1

[...] This is the story of doing the job some Americans just won't do. The Arizona Attorney General is doing the job against Western Union that one American, Julie L. Myers, head of ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement), just won't do--investigating the pay scheme that gets illegal aliens smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico. Stopping the money flow will aid in stopping the illegal alien flow. ...

How do illegal alien smugglers get paid? They get money wired to them in Mexico from others here in the U.S. . . . VIA WESTERN UNION.

That's right Western Union is the legal Hawala (Islamic money transfer system) for illegal aliens, only in this case it's not necessarily Muslim.

The Wall Street Journal story

online.wsj.com/google_login.html?url=
http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%
2FSB116035774996086449.html%3Fmod%3Dgooglenews_wsj




CBC Watch Commentary on coverage of an article:

Rona Ambrose's environmental challenge: Conservative minister must convince Canadians that the government cares
L. Ian MacDonald
Montreal Gazette Op-ed
2006.10.06

See comments here: Get rid of the CBC! , Oct. 7, 06

www.cbcwatch.ca/?q=node/view/2075/10237#10237

[....] As well, does anyone notice a glaring inconsistency in CBC News' coverage of the Mark Foley scandal as it relates to Republican house speaker Dennis Hastert?

Through their coverage, the CBC is suggesting that Hastert should resign over the Foley scandal because he either should have known what was going on much earlier or he was incompetent, ignoring a memo that had been circulated by a former congressional page.

Hmmm. Isn't this the same CBC whose bias coverage during Adscam attempted to rehabilitate Paul Martin's image by refuting critics who suggested he should've known that something was not right with the sponsorship program or should've resigned do to incompetence? And on that issue, there was also a memo sent to Martin, one that he denies having gotten.

As well, the CBC is trying to make the entire Republican Party wear the Foley scandal by stating over and over again that the fmr. Congressman is from a party that preaches morals and values, while having employed the "don't taint an entire party for the action of a few" spin in an attempt to minimize damage to the Liberals over Adscam.

Yep, that's the type of consistency that comes from the CBC.

As well, like the bias of omission evident in the description of Kimveer Gill, what the CBC doesn't want you to know is that Foley is in no way a social conservative and is more in line with Democrat/liberal values as a result of his support for abortion, gay marriage, gay adoption, and that he even received $10,000 from a gay rights organization to help fund his campaign.

A little bit of compare and contrast (getting your news from multiple sources) is the best way to see how deep the CBC's bias truly is.

junkscience.com

www.junkscience.com


Waterloooo...

www.cbcwatch.ca/?q=node/view/2075/10245#10245

It seems that the CBC (and other MSM) is taking a do-or-die-stand on Kyoto. The MSM has gone so far down the support path of an obvious Hoax (hockey stick graph) that they would lose all credibility if they admitted it now. Well, the MSM may be whistling past the grave yard, but guess what ?? With the help of the Internet and Blogs, Canadians are now educated on Kyoto and KNOW that it is a HOAX and that the MSM is guilty of bias, lies, misleading, and being IRRELEVANT !!! They have indeed Met Their Waterloo.

LIEberals "still" don't get it


www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=554&mforum=elwoodpdowd

Ordinary Canadians can't be faulted this week for wondering what, exactly, it will take for the LIEberal party of Canada to recognize that families and taxpayers want accountability and good, clean government from Ottawa.

This week's release of the Public Service Commission of Canada's annual report highlighted yet another tale of the LIEberal treachery at the tax payer trough. In this latest display of arrogance, newly defeated ministers of the previous LIEberal government used their clout to create phantom jobs in the public service for their trusted aides, allowing them to bypass a wait list.

In other words, the LIEberals once again abused their power to give preferential treatment to their friends-at the expense of the Canadian tax payer.[....]

Apple's "Mecca Project" Provokes Muslim Reaction -- photo of building -- a new insult to the peaceful ones , October 11, 2006 -- via


Precious: First Kiss -- to restore your sense of humour

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=513&mforum=elwoodpdowd


www.pm.gc.ca
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's speech on receiving the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service

PM announces Canada's Clean Air Act

[....] If passed, Canada’s Clean Air Act will allow the government to:

# Move industry from voluntary compliance to strict enforcement;

# Replace the current ad hoc, patchwork system with clear, consistent, and comprehensive national standards; and

# Institute a holistic approach that doesn’t treat the related issues of pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions in isolation.

The Prime Minister said his government will consult extensively with industry, the provinces and territories to ensure these new regulations get measurable results on realistic timelines.

Canada’s Clean Air Act will be introduced in the House of Commons next week.

Appearance vs reality

I don't believe that the Liberal Kyoto plans were intended to actually accomplish anything. Check the businesses involved in expensive plans and whether, also, Kyoto was intended as a money transfer. From my reading, there was to be a transfer of $$$ from those in the West to those in the polluting industries in the East ... or Far East. Check further, memory being elusive.

Oct. 12, 06: Crime, Business & Politics in Asia

Search: Bertil Lintner: CRIME, BUSINESS AND POLITICS IN ASIA

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:QBmE4BQmlJkJ:
www.asiapacificms.com/papers/pdf
/crime_business_politics_in_asia.pdf+CRIME,+
BUSINESS+AND+POLITICS+IN+ASIA+,+
Lintner&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=1

Note also that Lintner has written a book on this topic -- worth checking.

CRIME, BUSINESS AND POLITICS IN ASIA -- pdf --
Department of Political Science/Centre for Development and the Environment & Department of Sociology and Human Geography,University of Oslo , University of Oslo. October 17-19, 2002.

www.asiapacificms.com/papers/pdf
/crime_business_politics_in_asia.pdf

INTRODUCTION

In the current debate about democratisation, governance, human rights and globalisation in Asia — and the world — one cast of characters has almost always been overlooked: the region’s organised crime syndicates. Or, if they have been analysed, the conclusions have been seriously flawed. Some analysts have argued that the absence of any lage-scale inter-gang warfare suggests that the various cartels co-exist and perhaps even cater for different markets and needs. The existence of such a symbiotic relationship was indicated by then Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director, James Woolsley, who told the US Congress in April 1994 that “organised criminals from Russia, China and Africa are forging ties with old European and Latin American crime groups to threaten national economies and world security…Violent drug traffickers and other criminal groups are spreading and co-ordinating their activities throughout the world.” [....]

In this writer’s view, the arguments both of Woolsey and Sterling, on the one
hand, and of Chossudovsky on the other, have serious shortcomings. The first fails to take into consideration the vast extent of official complicity in organised crime, while the second turns the entire free-market system into a criminal enterprise. The situation is far less clear-cut and much more complex than either interpretation of the relationship between organised crime, the banking and business community, intelligence agencies and governments, whether corrupt or not. To express it in American terms, it is not “the good guys versus the bad guys,” nor are “all guys bad.”

While criminals may live outside the law, they have never been outside society. In
Asia especially, there has always been a symbiosis between law and crime — but only with respect to a particular kind of criminal underworld. Organised crime helps the
authorities police more unpredictable, disorganised crime, for instance, to keep the streets safe. There are also certain things that governments — and big business — just can’t do.

A certain company may want to eliminate a competitor, but is unable to do so by normal, legal means. An organised crime gang can then be employed to make life difficult for the other party. When in 1984 the Guomindang’s security services in Taiwan wanted to get rid of a dissident, troublesome journalist in exile, Henry Liu, they delegated the task to hitmen from the island’s most powerful crime syndicate, the United Bamboo gang. The gang was more than willing to carry out the killing, not on account of any concern about Liu, but because in exchange they would get unofficial protection for their own businesses: gambling, prostitution and loan sharking. [....]

1. CRIME, BUSINESS AND OFFICIALDOM [....]

2. CRIME INTERNATIONAL INC? [....]

3. CHINA: RETURN OF THE TRIADS [....]

4. CONCLUSION [....]

Growing links between Chinese organised crime and the government and its agencies also make it far more dangerous than other criminal gangs in the region, including the yakuza, whose power is no longer what it used to be, and the extremely brutal but loosely organised Russian Mafia. [....]

In Taiwan perhaps, but not in many other countries in Asia, and certainly not in
China. Tackling the menace of organised crime, and the centuries-old system of secrecy, “connections” and lack of transparency that comes with it, will be a vital task if the Asian countries — and especially China — are ever going to develop into more prosperous and democratic countries, and if civil societies all over the world are to be protected from the worst excesses of the globalised mobsters.

Search: "secret meetings were held between certain Triad leaders and Wong Man-fong, the deputy director of Xinhua, the New China News Agency" , Yah Lin Trie, better known as Charlie Trie , "Sino-Indonesian tycoon Mochtar Riady alias Li Wenzheng — had put US$16 million into the stock of Arkansas’ Worthen Bank." fund-raiser John Huang joined the Commerce Department , remittances from a little-known businessman in Macau called Ng Lap Seng , Chen Kai-kit, who also used the name Chio Ho-cheung , Hong Kong arm of China Aerospace Corp. , PLA , CAT , Macau , aircraft carrier , a man deeply implicated in an American president’s fund-raising campaign , "Stanley Ho, another local business contact, and two sisters: Anna Chennault and Loretta Fung" , Wong Sing-wa , Donorgate scandal , Chen Kai-kit, the Triad-connected legislator who had dined with the Clintons

........ and much more

Documented and worth reading. Read the whole article.




Scroll down this webpage: Red General and the First Lady -- and the many articles which follow it, Charles R. Smith Monday, Dec. 9, 2002

www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/803771/posts

Oct. 12, 2006: Senators -&- McGuire Doctrine & More

Should senators be elected in Canada?

This is the poll which I could not post earlier. Maybe someone is out to lunch ... Take that as you wish ... literally or figuratively.




The best edition of the Globe and Mail that I've read lately was on Oct. 9, 06 Monday -- several items worth reading. Don't miss the business section. If I have time, I'll post a list of items I found worth checking. If not, you'll know I've moved on to item 23 on my "to do" list. It's the end of preserving season so ...


Communist China has killed non-proliferation. Here's how we should respond (the McGuire Doctrine) , Oct. 9, 06

westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2006/10/
communist_china.html#trackback

Read the doctrine and the reasoning, then the comments below it -- from Duke: Who does he say "... will look good in a burka"? Brent Weston's reasoning: "... The price will be Taiwan".

What are our schools and liberal social engineering turning out? Could they / would they ever defend Western civilization and themselves?

Canada slams NATO's Afghan role, Gloria Galloway, Oct. 9, 06, Globe and Mail.

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
LAC.20061009.AFGHAN09/TPStory/Front

Student petitions oppose graduation requirements, Oct. 9, 06, Globe and Mail.

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/LAC.20061009.BCBRIEFS09-3/TPStory/Education


Lysiane Gagnon: That ridiculous Francophonie , Oct. 9, 06, Globe and Mail., Oct. 9, 06, Globe and Mail.

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/LAC.20061009.COGAGNON09/TPStory/Comment


A symbol of modesty or sign of separation? -- a revealing example of reasoning and the meaning of "principles", hamida Ghafour, Oct. 9, 06, Globe and Mail.

Other peoples values--to say nothing of bombing and beheadings--don't count in the "principles" department. Obviously, then, we should act accordingly ... on immigration ... principles.


U.K. Muslim Admits Plot to Blow Up New York Stock Exchange , NewsMax.com Wires, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2006

www.newsmax.com/archives/articles
/2006/10/12/95804.shtml?s=br

LONDON -- A Briton arrested amid a massive U.S. security alert two years ago admitted in a London court on Thursday to plotting to blow up the New York Stock Exchange and carry out "dirty bomb" attacks in Britain.

Dhiren Barot, a Muslim convert, admitted to plotting to blow up the stock exchange and other U.S. financial hubs including the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Citigroup and Prudential in Washington, New Jersey and New York. [....]

And now, they are using female suicide bombers in some attempts, I've read. Ban the burka.




Clinton's New Glow Job, By Ann Coulter, FrontPageMagazine.com, October 12, 2006

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=565&mforum=elwoodpdowd

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles
/ReadArticle.asp?ID=24892

With the Democrats' full-throated moralizing of late, I'm almost tempted to vote for them – although perhaps "full-throated" is the wrong phrase to use with regard to Democrats and sex scandals. The sudden emergence of the Swift Butt Veterans for Truth demonstrates that the Democrats would prefer to talk about anything other than national security. [....]

On PuntedPosters website under "News" is this item: French Olympic official convicted

French Olympic Committee president Henri Serandour faces possible suspension and expulsion from the International Olympic Committee after being found guilty of corruption Thursday.

Serandour came under scrutiny for awarding the company contracts for the renovation of the French committee's website and the creation of a mural with the photos of 600 French Olympic medallists.

There need to be a lot more turncoats charged with treason, and not just in the U.S. -- re: U.S. indicts American in al-Qaida video, Jeremiah Marquez, AP, Oct 11, 7:49 PM ET

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=567&mforum=elwoodpdowd

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061011/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe
/al_qaida_video_treason&printer=1;_ylt=
Agw6J1xzvs4FtWuVtdaRxaqWwvIE;_ylu=
X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-



Take a the world's shortest political quiz to see where you fit. -- via this forum re: Statism isn't Liberalism, George Jonas, National Post, October 07, 2006

www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

Read further

www.theadvocates.org/site-map.html

Oct. 12, 2006: Test

This is entitled "Test" because I have been trying to post; however, my connection is reset continually.

There is little point in trying to post since I cannot upload what was sent to me, the results of a poll on whether Canadians want to elect senators. Yes, over 70% do want to elect senators.

Preventing upload and deleting images is just another way of keeping readers from learning inconvenient news. Preventing news from getting out is alive and well in "liberal" Canada. Certain news and images disappear. Even more news never gets to readers because the media and internet pipelines are controlled by those who have had control for years ... and it is not the present Conservative government.

Oct. 10, 2006: Various

I have added an update to "Oct. 6, 2006: What is behind this concern?" re: Senator Serge Joyal -- "The Senate: Motion to Urge Government to Reconsider Decision to Discontinue the Court Challenges Program".

I understand the Court Challenges Program has been used liberally by francophones, though, under Liberal governments, Canadians were not privy to who / which groups received money for which challenge nor how much taxpayer money was given to these groups. No wonder Senator Serge Joyal appears to be having a fit of pique over an end to the sluicing of money to ... his concerns. Make no mistake about what are his primary concerns, as mentioned in the update.


frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/10
/oct-6-2006-what-is-behind-this-concern.html



A must read article if you own or are in the long process of paying for your own home

Identity thieves target condo -- Shocked owners hit with $250,000 mortgage -- Bank says it's a victim too, refuses to wipe out debt , Harold Levy Oct. 7, 2006, The Star, via newsbeat1

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=
thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=
1160171411407&call_pageid=971358637177

One of Canada's largest banks is locked in a legal battle with a North York couple who lost their condo to identity thieves and are faced with a $247,860 mortgage the thieves put on their home.

The Toronto Dominion Bank acknowledged in a document filed in Superior Court last month that Seyed Aboulgasm Rabi and his wife Shohreh Shafiei are "victims of a sophisticated fraud." But the bank says it too is an innocent victim and, while it has not tried to collect on the mortgage, the couple is still legally responsible for it. [....]

"The bank is here (in court) because the (bank's) insurer refuses to pay, saying it's a valid mortgage," Cooper told the court. "They are making a bet that my client may get public money to pay this mortgage." [....]

One Laptop Per Child

I feel apprehensive about this. What a way to get children used to someone else's control, the control not already Microsoft's. It reminds me of Maurice Strong and network's ManyOne ... or is it OneWorld network?

Laptop project may aid security , Brian Bergstein, AP, Oct. 7, 06

cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/TechNews/
Other/2006/10/07/1971641-ap.html

[....] The One Laptop Per Child project, a nonprofit begun at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, aims to improve education by giving children bright-colored, hand-cranked, wireless-enabled portable computers.

Governments are to buy the laptops — beginning in 2007 with up to 7 million machines in Thailand, Nigeria, Brazil and Argentina — and hand them to kids for them to own.

... the free Linux operating system, flash memory instead of a hard drive and a microprocessor that is slow by today's standards but requires minimal power.

[....] unnecessary ... anti-virus software.

[....] "a walled garden" ...

[....] One particularly thorny potential problem is that the laptops can communicate with one another in a "mesh" network, sharing data and programming code. A computing Web site reported this week that Krstic had described that setup to the ToorCon security conference as "very scary."

Search: code-sharing , whenever the machines get in wireless range of the children's school




Statism isn't Liberalism , George Jonas, NatPost, Oct. 7, 06

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/issuesideas
/story.html?id=b0bf0903-224b-4e78-b5f3-e1223d1674a5&p=2

[....] Certain errors (as I've written in a different context before) require high IQs.

What errors? The first was the belief that the enemies of liberalism were all on the right side of the political spectrum. Liberals thought that -- as the French saying has it -- "there's no enemy on the left." This made them vulnerable to the influence of socialist-type statism. They tried to be better than fair, which is like trying to be straighter than vertical. Eventually, they bent so far backwards looking for social and economic justice that they just toppled over.

Liberals tried to cook a dish by keeping the ingredients raw and separate: multiculturalism. They tried to balance one injustice with another: affirmative action. They abandoned the individual as the focal point of humanity's quest for liberty and justice, and focused instead on the group. Rather than equality for each person, they sought parity for every racial, sexual or ethnic aggregate.

Liberals lost sight of the fact that, while equality is a liberal idea, capable of fulfilment in a free society, parity is an illiberal notion that requires coercion to achieve. Guaranteeing opportunity is liberal; guaranteeing outcome is illiberal. It's as simple as that, but they didn't see it.

Death of the woman who shamed Moscow , Oct. 8 06

www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2393752,00.html

RUSSIA’S most famous investigative reporter, Anna Politkovskaya, was gunned down in the lift of her Moscow apartment block yesterday in an apparent contract killing.

A fearless opponent of Russia’s wars in Chechnya who once described President Vladimir Putin as a “KGB snoop” and compared him to Stalin, she was shot as she returned home from a shopping trip at 4.30pm. A pistol and four bullets were found near her body.

She was the most prominent of dozens of Russian journalists murdered in the past 10 years and her death has dealt a serious blow to the country’s reputation.

[....] Dirty War, her book on the conflict in Chechnya, provoked fury in the security forces. In Dirty Russia, another book, she claimed Putin was rolling back democracy and clamping down on media freedom.

Media insult us with leadership coverage overkill , John Robson, Ottawa Citizen October 6, 2006, p. A12, via Jaeger at smalldeadanimals.com

www.thejohnrobson.com/columns/2006/061006.htm

[....] Rotting infrastructure: now there’s a story. So read James Gordon’s Structures or Why Things Don’t Fall Down. Especially the bits on cement. And if you must stare in horror at politics, try Friedrich Hayek’s 1949 pamphlet The Intellectuals and Socialism, with its still-relevant warning that “it is the absence of direct responsibility for practical affairs and the consequent absence of first hand knowledge of them which distinguishes the typical intellectual from other people who also wield the power of the spoken and written word.” Say, Pierre Trudeau. Or Michael Ignatieff. Or Stéphane Dion. Or Bob Rae ... [....]

The UN: ethical lodestar of the liberal left

UN staff claim school fees for phantom offspring , David Leppard, October 08, 2006, via newsbeat1

www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2393637,00.html

STAFF at the United Nations headquarters in New York claimed tens of thousands of pounds in school fees for non-existent children, one of its most senior auditors has revealed.

Hundreds of employees also defrauded US tax authorities by claiming refunds for mortgage interest and property taxes that should have gone to the UN.

These are just two of the scams to be revealed in a book by Edwin Nhliziyo, chief auditor of the UN’s peacekeeping division until his retirement.

His account aims to expose how the UN is losing hundreds of millions of pounds through corruption and fraud. [....]

Search: one of the first auditors to examine the Iraq oil for food programme , cash bribes of up to $160,000





BREAKING THE IRAN N-IMPASSE , by Amir Taheri, Arab News, Sept. 30, 2006

www.benadorassociates.com/article/20070

Could Russian incompetence provide an unexpected way out of the impasse over Iran's nuclear program?

The question is seriously raised in both Tehran and the major Western capitals as both sides seek a way to prevent the total collapse of the negotiating process. The man who brought up the question is none other than Assistant to the President and Director of the Islamic Republic's Nuclear Program Ghulam-Reza Aqazadeh. He was in Moscow last week, trying to get "some clear answers" about the fate of Iran's first and so far only nuclear power plant at Bushehr.

The plant was initially due for completion in March 2004. That was later postponed to March 2005, a date chosen to allow the then President Muhammad Khatami to leave office with a bang. When that did not happen, the newly elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad set a new inauguration date: Feb. 11, 2006, which marked the 27th anniversary of the revolution.

Last month, however, Aqazadeh informed Ahmadinejad that the new inauguration deadline could not be met. A team of scientists sent by Aqazadeh to inspect the plant discovered "hundreds of problems" and came up with questions that "need to be addressed before we accept delivery."

Denial and the Frog , George H. Wittman, Oct. 6, 06

spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10456

George H. Wittman, a member of the Committee on the Present Danger, was the founding chairman of the National Institute for Public Policy.

Denial, the theme of Bob Woodward's recent book, should not be limited to the Bush Administration's view of Iraq. Denial is an equal opportunity state of mind and those who want a swift exit of U.S./U.K. forces from Iraq also choose to ignore reality.

It is uncontested that the Shia are well on their way to gaining control of the military and security apparatus of Iraq. Upon the departure of American and coalition forces within the next year or so, the Shia hierarchy, aided by well-armed militia and well-organized death squads, clearly would have the ability to dominate Iraqi political life and thus its economy.

The price for acquiescence of the Kurds has always been autonomy and sharing in control of the oil industry in the Kirkuk and Mosul areas. Already increasingly fearful, Turkey would view a new oil-endowed autonomous Kurdistan as
[....]

For the frog reference, you'll have to read to the end.





Patterico’s Exclusive Interview with a Man Who Has Spoken to the Terrorists at Guantánamo (Part Four: The Treatment of the Detainees) , Oct. 5, 06

http://patterico.com/2006/10/05/5229/pattericos-exclusive-inter
view-with-a-man-who-has-spoken-to-the-terrorists-at-guantanamo-pa
rt-four-the-treatment-of-the-detainees/#comments

[This is Part Four of my exclusive interview with “Stashiu,” an Army nurse who worked at Guantánamo, and who spoke on a regular basis with detainees with psychological and/or behavioral problems. Part One can be accessed here. Part Two is available here. Part Three is here.

As before, these posts represent Stashiu’s opinions and experiences, and are not meant to represent anything or anyone else, including the opinions of the U.S. Army. Stashiu wants me to make it clear that nearly everything discussed here has been officially released. As to those parts that are based on his personal experience, he has been careful to respect operational security and confidentiality.

In today’s entry, Stashiu talks about the United States’ treatment of the detainees at Guantánamo — and the detainees’ treatment of U.S. personnel. If you read to the end, you might also learn who has been abusing Korans at Gitmo.]

I asked Stashiu how he felt detainees at Gitmo were treated. He said:

As humanely as possible. Many times with more respect than was deserved based on their behavior. Taking things personally or retaliating against something a detainee did was not only against the rules, it was frowned upon. [....]

Well worth reading to the end.




A man of straw no more? , October 6, 2006, via newsbeat1

www.melaniephillips.com/diary/?p=1346

[....] It is in itself a commentary on how far the British have already slid into cultural servitude that asking someone politely if they wouldn’t mind removing the black shroud from their face before having a conversation should have provoked such a storm of controversy over whether or not this was an infringement of personal and religious liberty. We communicate with each other not merely through speech but by looking at the other person’s face. People expect to be able to see others as people, not depersonalised shrouds with eyes. Such concealment diminishes the sense of human community, the feeling that we share the world with other beings like us. It creates a profound sense of anomie and unease.

But more significantly – and [Jack] Straw did not say this – this type of veil is itself a direct threat to liberty. Clearly, it is a matter of debate within the Islamic world whether it – or, indeed, any type of veil – is necessary to satisfy the injunction upon women to preserve their modesty. What is beyond doubt is that the blackout veil is associated with most extreme interpretation of Islam, which holds that Islamic values must supersede all other values, including those of the secular state. Wearing this veil is thus a political statement of cultural and religious hostility to the British state. Objecting to it, therefore, is not an example of intolerance or religious discrimination. Religious garb should certainly be tolerated, even if it is outlandish; what people wear is their own affair. But this veil is not their own affair. It affects the rest of us because it is inherently aggressive and intimidatory. That is why it is unacceptable.

[....] The second was the disclosure by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Rose Fitzpatrick — responsible for ‘community integration’ — that the police were considering establishing a group of Muslims with whom to ‘share police intelligence’.

Can anyone imagine, at the height of the bombing campaign in Northern Ireland, the Royal Ulster Constabulary sharing intelligence about IRA suspects with a committee of representatives from the Bogside? [....]

Lloyd Billingsley: Chile con Commies FrontPageMagazine.

www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21008

[....] As part of operation TOUCAN, the KGB also forged a letter tying the CIA to an assassination campaign by Chile’s DINA. The World Was Going Our Way includes the entire letter, for which many fell, including columnist Jack Anderson. The volume also notes that, in 1976, the New York Times published 66 articles on human rights abuses in Chile and only four on Cambodia, where the Khmer Rouge killed 1.5 million out of that nation’s 7.5 million people. The authors find no adequate explanation for this “extraordinary discrepancy,” but there is one.

[....] Hernando de Soto’s “other path” of free markets is out of favor in Latin America, where the trend is leftward and anti-American. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez appears to be constantly channeling his inner Castro and Mussolini. The leftist Evo Morales has been elected in Bolivia, and left-leaning governments prevail in Brazil and Argentina. There is no longer a Soviet Union to intervene, but as history shows, Latin American leaders are perfectly capable of wrecking their own economies and confusing their friends with their enemies.

Memory Lane

Canada: Legalizing Pot Would Put Workers At Risk, Expert Warns -- Marijuana Use Associated With Fatigue, Inability To Focus, Scientist Says -- U.S. studies , Francine Kopun, 23 Nov 2004, NatPost

www.mapinc.org/newsnc/v04/n1662/a03.html

Legalizing marijuana in Canada would lead to a surge in inexperienced users who could be putting themselves at risk in the workplace, according to a workplace health and safety expert.

[....] The workers also reported more absenteeism, tardiness, accidents, worker's compensation claims and job turnover. They were more likely to report to work with a hangover, miss work because of a hangover and be drunk or use drugs at work, according to the findings of the studies, supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Although medical research has found marijuana can relieve symptoms for people suffering from everything from chronic pain to nausea induced by chemotherapy or AIDS treatments, side effects can include short-term memory problems, and in some people smoking or ingesting marijuana can trigger hallucinations or paranoia. Some studies have shown it can also worsen or trigger pre-existing psychiatric conditions. [....]

Alcohol and such prescription drugs as tranquillizers and sleeping pills present a far greater problem than recreational drug use, Dr.Shain said. [....]

News of the Day (October 6), China-e-lobby

china-e-lobby.blogspot.com/2006/10
/news-of-day-october-6.html

NATO Commanders in Afghanistan detail Pakistan's support for the Taliban: The military commanders reveal that the level of support for Osama bin Laden's former hosts in Pakistan ranges "from ISI-run training camps near Quetta to huge ammunition dumps, arrival points for Taliban's new weapons and meeting places of the shura, or leadership council, in Quetta" (Daily Telegraph, UK, emphasis added). ISI is a reference to the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence; Quetta is city in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, and it is also the source for "Hundreds of Taliban reinforcements in pick-up trucks . . . waved on by Pakistani border guards" (emphasis added). The information on the support from Pakistan - Communist China's fifty-plus-year ally - comes from Taliban members themselves, "many of them Pakistanis" captured in a recent two-week battle. The NATO commanders who presented the evidence are from the U.S., Great Britain, Denmark, Canada, and the Netherlands; these are the nations "whose troops have just fought the bloodiest battle with the Taliban in five years." One NATO chief put it thusly: "It is time for an 'either you are with us or against us' delivered bluntly to (Pakistani strongman) Musharraf at the highest political level." The Musharraf regime signed a peace deal with the Taliban last month.

A new member for the China Freedom Blog Alliance: Welcome to the CBFA, Boycott 2008 Communist Olympics. [ boycott2008games.blogspot.com/ ] [....]

Memory Lane

Olympic legend Sir Matthew Pinsent has been left stunned by the treatment of young gymnasts in Beijing. , Nov. 17, 2005, "Pinsent shocked by China training"

news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports
/gymnastics/4445506.stm

The four-times gold medallist assessed China's preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games for BBC Radio Five Live.

Pinsent, who described children in pain while training and claimed a boy had been beaten by his coach, said: "It was a pretty disturbing experience."

[....] Pinsent, a former IOC and current British Olympic Association member, felt children were being pushed beyond acceptable limits in pursuit of excellence.

[....] The choice of Beijing to host the Games has been condemned in some quarters because of the country's poor human rights record. [....]

I'm sorry ...

... for the terrible crimes committed by Muslims, Toronto Sun, 2006-09-30, Salim Mansur. Posted on 09/30/2006 2:06:49 AM PDT by Clive on Free Republic

72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:JkWCZOovhdgJ:
www.freerepublic.com/~clive
/in-forum+salim+mansur,+mayer+arar&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=1

www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1711088/posts

[....] Muslims and non-Muslims often point to the fact there is no Vatican in contemporary Islam -- no figure like the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury who authoritatively represents the Muslim world.

This is only partly true, for the lack of a Pope-like figure among Muslims does not mean an absence of an institutionalized setting operative in the Muslim world. [....]

Worth reading



Why would Syria torture Arar -- You know what I don't get about the Maher Arar fiasco? , Peter Worthington, Sept. 22, 06, via Free Republic

www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/
Worthington_Peter/2006/09/22/1878367.html

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:JkWCZO
ovhdgJ:www.freerepublic.com/~clive/in-forum+salim+man
sur,+mayer+arar&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=1

[....] Maher Arar has always maintained he was never linked with al-Qaida and not remotely connected to terrorism -- a view supported and then some, by Mr. Justice Dennis O'Connor's detailed report that damns the RCMP for reckless behaviour in forwarding unsubstantiated allegations to the Americans about him.

All that is straightforward and understandable.

What I don't get -- and have never gotten from the start of this weird miscarriage of justice and accountability -- is why the Syrians would imprison and torture Arar if the Americans (and RCMP) thought he was an al-Qaida or any other sort of terrorist?

Since when have the Syrians -- big supporters of Hezbollah and a sanctuary for anti-American fighters from Iraq -- been torturing people suspected of seeking to undermine Americans? [....]

A number of us don't get it; then we think of the word dissembling and how Middle Easterners manage to travel from country to country (Khadr) without money and/or passports ... but they are able to travel anyway ...... Money seems to travel outside the regular banking system ....... False documents? ...... Buying documents? I'm waiting for the sequels. I'm sure Mr. Arar will be compensated but he's asking for compensation from the wrong groups. There may have been mistakes but no Canadians nor Americans tortured him. However, he knows he wouldn't get a cent for torture out of anywhere but the West. Who are the fools? I've read too many lies to accept this as the last chapter. The lies and hatred so readily spouted out of that area of the world dispose me toward cynicism.




A must read article

Enough with the ideological tribalism , David Asper, National Post, October 07, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/
story.html?id=7d78ade6-253f-4e97-85e4-1785841b8cd1

This week's attacks by interim Liberal leader Bill Graham against Darrel Reid, who has been designated as chief of staff to Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, are as telling as they are petty. [....]

As for the current Liberal leadership contest, every candidate should answer a basic question: "Do you agree that social conservatives have the right to express their views without fear of being humiliated by your party?" [....]

Let us imagine that the Liberals were applying the same intolerant attitude to a different group. Say, for example, they were picking on a group of aboriginal Canadians who embrace native creationism and rely on that view as part of their rationale for asserting land claims. Imagine that the Liberal party put out a press release mocking the Creator, reincarnation and multiple spirits as nothing more than modern-day paganism. Imagine the uproar.

Of course, this would never happen: To some Liberals, this category of victim would be politically inappropriate. (In other words, they could not get away with it.) But Mr. Reid is an evangelical Christian. [....]

Gallery scraps art, fearing Muslim rage -curator -- or here

today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=
domesticNews&storyID=2006-10-06T165708Z_01_L06909511_
RTRUKOC_0_UK-ARTS-MUSLIMS.xml

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=495&mforum=elwoodpdowd

PARIS (Reuters) - A London gallery has decided not to show some works of art because it fears they would upset Muslims, a curator said on Friday, a week after a German opera house canned a Mozart production for the same reason.

The director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery decided to remove works by surrealist artist Hans Bellmer from an exhibition the day before it was due to open, one of the museum's curators, Agnes de la Beaumelle, told Reuters.

[....] Last week, Berlin's Deutsche Oper reignited a heated debate in Europe over free speech and had to fend off charges of cowardice after it cancelled performances of Mozart's "Idomeno", fearing they could enrage Muslims and pose a security risk.

Self-censorship ... out of fear of Muslim fanatics. It is time to do the exact opposite.



Hans Bellmer in The Art Institute of Chicago: The Wandering Libido and the Hysterical Body , Sue Taylor, Department of Art History, The University of Chicago, pages 1-4.

Skim these for your own reaction:

www.artic.edu/reynolds/essays/taylor.php

www.artic.edu/reynolds/essays/taylor2.php

www.artic.edu/reynolds/essays/taylor3.php

www.artic.edu/reynolds/essays/taylor4.php



Russia v Georgia -- re Putin , via starboardside on PuntedPosters Forum

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=496&mforum=elwoodpdowd

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=
5GE3SLYVEGCLFQFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=
/news/2006/10/07/wruss07.xml

Oct. 10, 2006: Bud Talkinghorn

The struggle for democracy in Iraq is over--please exit stage left

The bloodshed in Iraq is now mainly a sectarian event. I heard on CNN that the Iraqi deaths reached a staggering 11,000 for September. That 24 Marines died in the last week shows that the insurgency is broadbased. There are Rumsfeld's "dead-enders", a.k.a. the old Baathist army waging sophisticated warfare. You don't simply dismiss an army that fought four recent wars, two of which were a draw. They are going to be more than resentful. Then (and here Pres. Bush is right) you have the foreign jihadis who really want to kill freely anyone they think will give them the virgins. If they could scam American immigration and afford the ticket to the U.S., they would wreck havoc on U.S. streets. Unfortunately for them, they have to take a cross-desert trip to Baghdad to kill a bunch of Shi'ites. Killing fellow Muslims, does that cut down on the virgin quota? Lots to think about during that 16 hour bus trip from Syria. What if you get only one? You could have had that at home and still be alive.

It is not merely the presence of foreign troops on Iraqi soil that infuriates the locals. It is that these heathens dare bring in female warriors to fight them. To the fundamentalists--male and female--this is a stick in the eye to the patriarchy they have all supported for centuries. Plus there are the Marines' laser eyes that follow any woman who shows even a hint of sexual interest. These fellows are, on average, 24 years old. And this is not Vietnam, with a red light district in every town. The Iraqi menfolk in particular are mightily offended. Of course, blowing up Iraqi women in the marketplace, that they consider to be honourable.

As far as the internecine warfare between the two main branches of Islam, that is a long story. The hatreds there pre-date any conflict with the Christian crusaders. It is conceivable that the sole reason that small Muslim sects survive is that dictators run their homelands. It may be the final irony that it would have been better if Saddam had been left to run the country. Maybe only a ruthless totalitarian state could keep Iraq intact. A sad conclusion, but one that is becoming more obvious by the day. Besides, when you see the Shi'ite Hezbollah in action in Lebanon, or the Shi'ite death squads in Iraq (government-backed) your sympathy for them withers somewhat. Two groups of fanatics fighting each other; it doesn't get any better than that. So long as it doesn't spiral into a regional war between the Sunnis and Shi'ites it is a Martha Stewart "good thing".

America--there are more winnable wars to fight. Concentrate on Afghanistan, where much of the population despises the Taliban. That will weaken al-Qaeda also. Keep a presence in Iraq for the purpose of killing the al-Qaeda elements there. Expect some help from the Shi'ites, who have been their primary victims. Let the civil war slaughter go full bore. The majority of the Sunni and Shi'ite combatants will have neutralized themselves within a few years. Then move in and pick up the peices. It sounds cynical, but the road to victory is usually paved with cynical stones. You have only to read the military history of WW11 to understand that fact. Let the strategic retreat begin. Let the Sunni and Shi'ite militias duke it out. I assure you that having a foreign Arabic accent will not be a plus point when the Shi'ites begin their ethnic cleansing.

The Malaya insurrection in the 50's was won primarily by isolating the Chinese Communists. It took years for the SAS to track down the foot soldiers and their leaders in the jungle, but they did it. The trouble with modern Western populations is that they expect instant war gratification. They are confusing war with a 60 minute serial on TV. There are no tidy moments to this drama. It is a bitter war of attrition.

© Bud Talkinghorn


The cheese-eating, surrender monkeys are at it again

I was listening to our Defense Minister, Gordon O'Connor, on CBC. He was bemoaning the fact that only Canada and a few other countries are shouldering the heavy combat the southern zone of Afghanistan. Meanwhile France, Germany and Italy are ensconsed in safer northern and western areas of Afghanistan. What's more, they plan on staying safe and sound. These countries have stipulated that they will send troops only if they don't have to fight the Taliban. (They have attached caveats to their deployment, that they won't fight at night and won't be moved in to help in an emergency or when needed where Canadian and other troops are fighting.) These are major European players in NATO, so should be sharing in the struggle to defeat a barbarous enemy. While France is not the only offender here, I can't help seeing their hand behind these caveats.

Along with America, France was one of the architects of the UN Lebanon military agreement. Then, when it came time to send peacekeeping soldiers, France sent an inadequate 400. Only after international outrage did they up the number to 4000. Their record for cowardice dates back to WW11 (at least), when they capitulated to the Nazis and collaborated wildly. As one wag said, "Every French whore who gave a German soldier the clap, and every baker who over-charged him for a loaf of bread, now thinks they were part of the Maquis underground." The French not only turned in Jews to the Nazis, falsely, they turned in their non-Jewish neighbours as resistance fighters, so they could take their land. The false accusations grew so numerous that the Nazis had to warn the offenders that they, not the falsely accused, would end up in Bergen-Belsen. Charles de Gaulle, the Free French leader during the time, betrayed the Maquis in the southern mountains. They had agreed to attack a strong German force, if de Gaulle promised to airlift them suppies. He agreed and then reneged on his promise. The Maquis in that war zone were wiped out. De Gualle's allies in London considered him an arrogant incompetent general and kept him out of the loop as much as possible. The only time de Gaulle got tough was in his struggle to hold on to Vietnam and Algeria--two colonies. The military record of de Gaulle was carried on by French presidents. A while back, I watched a documentary on the "peacekeepers" in Kosovo. The journalist showed the French NATO force standing idly by while a Serb village was being pillaged by Muslim Kosovars. The reverse genocide had spread all over the north but the French troops refused to raise a hand. Disgraceful.

If France cannot stand to lose any troops in Afghanistan, then France should leave NATO. The founding principle of NATO is that an attack against one is an attack against all members. Perhaps they should be made to relieve the Americans, who are furiously fighting al-Qaeda and the Taliban along the eastern border area. That would bring a smile to many faces.

As another wit remarked, "Nobody talks as much about honour, while having so little." It's enough to make me start ordering "freedom fries".

© Bud Talkinghorn