Oct. 21, 2006: Nom de code: MaChouette

Bumped up

ADSCAM

Chrétien friend bragged about 'a little scheme' -- Gomery witness told ministers' aides sponsorship helped Liberals, book reveals, Tu Thanh Ha, Oct. 21, 06 -- behind a firewall

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/LAC.20061021.GOMERY21/TPStory/National

MONTREAL -- Three years before the political kickback arrangement behind the sponsorship scandal would become public at the Gomery inquiry, a friend of Jean Chrétien was bragging to aides of two cabinet ministers that the federal program was being used to assist the Liberals in Quebec, a new book reveals.

The Chrétien friend, the controversial graphic designer Jacques Corriveau, is a pivotal figure in the scandal. [....]

However, according to a book to be released next week by Globe and Mail political reporter Daniel Leblanc, Mr. Corriveau met aides for Don Boudria and Paul Cauchon and said he had "a little scheme" that made the program help the party.

Titled Nom de code: MaChouette and published by Quebecor Media's Libre Expression, the book also says: [....]

Search: Liberal fundraiser Giuseppe (Joseph) Morselli , Alain Pilon, who was Mr. Boudria's chief of staff , Mr. Cauchon, then minister for Quebec , Mr. Dezainde , Alfonso Gagliano , Jean Brault

There are names you will recognize and one, apparently, "whose name has never been disclosed."

It should make a great Christmas gift.

Oct. 21, 2006: This is not justice

Border Patrol Agents Sentenced to Long Prison Terms, October 20, 2006, CorruptionChronicles, via newsbeat1

www.corruptionchronicles.com/2006/10
/border_patrol_agents_sentenced.html

Two U.S. Border Patrol Agents were sentenced to 11 and 12 year prison terms yesterday for attempting to stop an illegal immigrant smuggling 743 pounds of Marijuana in a van near the Rio Grande. They agents were sentenced despite a request by their attorney for a new trial after three jurors signed sworn affidavits saying that they were coerced into entering a guilty vote.

[....] And the jury that convicted the officers? Three of them signed affidavits stating, “That they were told by the jury foreman that the judge would not accept a hung jury.” In what kind of justice system are officers of the law convicted for pursuing criminals by a jury that is not convinced they are guilty? [....]

Note: “That they were told by the jury foreman that the judge would not accept a hung jury.”

That is the most ridiculous miscarriage of "justice" I have read ... well, along with this: scroll down today for UK: Farce as convicted criminals sleep off hangovers in 'weekend' jail, James Slack, Daily Mail, updated Oct. 21, 06

Oct. 21, 2006: Various

The cube: scroll down for more from peoplescube.






The Mounties and the media , National Post, October 21, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters
/story.html?id=cbad2d6a-9ad5-41ca-89ed-13409179a24d

The January, 2004 RCMP raid on the home of Juliet O'Neill, an Ottawa Citizen reporter, was never justified. So Thursday's ruling by Justice Lynn Ratushny of the Ontario Superior Court, ordering the Mounties to return seized notes and computer files, was welcome vindication. Judge Ratushny's ruling was also a victory for freedom of the press and the ability of journalists to keep confidential the identity of their sources. As such, it was an important defence of democracy. [....]

The Mounties say they told the government of the day about the erroneous intelligence they gave to the Americans. The three ministers in charge of the RCMP and the Arar file at the time, insist the Mounties told them nothing.

[....] Next week, the Commons national security committee plans to recall RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, and to call for the first time the Liberal ministers involved.

Foot-dragging is a tradition , Andrew Coyne, National Post, October 21, 2006

[....] Altogether, I make that two programs, four plans, a process, two strategies and a project. The result: By 2004, Canada's greenhouse gas emissions were nearly 27% above their 1990 baseline, having risen in more or less a straight line throughout this period. Ottawa alone had spent, by the federal environment commissioner's count, $6-billion on sundry climate change schemes, to no discernible effect.

[....] If it seems ludicrous for governments to be setting emissions targets for 2050, when they cannot even hit their budget targets for the current year, it is. But that simply reflects the scale of the problem. To turn around something as vast and unmanageable as global warming -- assuming we can do anything about it -- will take decades. You have first to slow the growth of emissions, then reduce them in absolute terms, before you can finally stabilize atmospheric concentrations -- the accumulated residue of all those yearly emissions -- at levels that will, even then, merely halt the increase in global temperatures, never mind actually reverse them. The critics are screaming because the Tory plan would do little to reduce emissions in the next four years. But what does it matter if the long-term target is the same? [....]

Worth reading.



Andrew Coyne on Liberals: They haven't learned a thing , Andrew Coyne, National Post, October 18, 2006

[....] Which takes us to their leaders. Is there a breakout choice, a candidate who is likely to take the country by storm? Mr. Ignatieff, with his dropped bricks and Vulcan charm? Mr. Rae? A "failed one-term premier" (I'm quoting the leader of his former party, here) from another century? Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Dion, who between them have mastered both official languages? And hovering over all of them, the awful spectre of Joe Volpe, the Trust Issue personified, who may be expected to spend the convention extorting promises from each of the candidates in return for a pledge not to endorse them. [....]

Alvaro Vargas Llosa: Lessons from the Poor , Alvaro Varga Llosa, October 18, 2006, independent.org -- or behind a firewall: Enterprise is better than aid , October 18, 2006 , Globe / workopolis.com

globecareers.workopolis.com/servlet/Content
/fasttrack/20061018/COGRAMEEN18?section=Finance

www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1834

WASHINGTON—Nobel Peace Prizes are not supposed to go to those who believe the poor can fend for themselves.

Yet this year's worthy winner, the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, is essentially a commercial operation and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, has clearly spelled out politically incorrect views regarding poverty: “Grameen believes that charity is not an answer to poverty. ... It creates dependency. ... Unleashing of energy and creativity in each human being is the answer to poverty.” [....]

For half a century, wealthy nations—and rock stars—have focused on foreign aid as the way to spur development. Foreign aid started with President Harry Truman's “Point Four'' program at the end of the 1940s, partly to pre-empt the spread of communism. To judge by ever increasing budgets and last year’s call at the United Nations for a doubling of aid by 2015, it continues to be the fundamental focus of efforts to bring about prosperity in poor countries. No attention is paid to the fact that in sub-Saharan Africa, the region to which most of the foreign aid has gone in the last quarter-century, per capita income has dropped by 11 percent.

Numerous government programs involving handouts and training have also failed to do the trick in many countries. What the poor really want is an environment in which undertaking a profitable venture is not a nightmarish bureaucratic and legal process. [....]

Giving the UN aid money simply keeps the bureaucracies, NGO's and the like proliferating while adding little to actually helping the poor to climb out of their poverty. What doesn't go to propping up thugs and dictators in the Third World goes to their enablers living well through the UN and their connected do-good network ... in my opinion. The figures do seem to support my view.


Alvaro Vargas Llosa -- Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Global Prosperity


The Che Guevara Myth and the Future of Liberty, Alvaro Vargas Llosa -- ISBN 1-59813-005-6

www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=61

Alvaro Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America’s foremost political journalist. A native of Peru, he graduated from the London School of Economics and has worked as a journalist in Latin America, Europe and the U.S. for over fifteen years. He is now a Senior Fellow at The Independent Institute.

He is the author of Liberty for Latin America and co-author of Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot.

Nearly four decades after his death, the legend of Che Guevara has grown worldwide. In this new book, Alvaro Vargas Llosa separates myth from reality and shows that Che’s ideals re-hashed centralized power—long the major source of suffering and misery for the poor. With eyewitness accounts, Vargas Llosa sets the record straight regarding Che’s murderous legacy, brutally crushing any and all dissent, and concentrating wealth in the hands of an elite.

The Che Guevara Myth and the Future of Liberty further elaborates on attempts by both the left and right to suppress liberty, and examines the Latin American spirit from early indigenous trade to today’s enterprising communities overcoming government impediments. In the process, the book points to the real revolution among the poor—the liberation of individuals from the constraints of state power in all spheres.

Somali court bans women from swimming at family beach, Mohamed Sheikh Nor, The Columbus Dispatch / AP, October 21, 2006, posted by starboardside

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd
/viewtopic.php?t=695&mforum=elwoodpdowd

MOGADISHU, Somalia — [....] "We stopped women from swimming because it is against the teaching of Islam for women to mingle with men, especially while they are swimming," Hussein said.

Since sweeping to power over much of southern Somalia in June, the Islamists have banned movie viewing, publicly lashed drug users and broke up a wedding celebration because a band was playing and women and men were socializing together. They also have introduced public executions.

Somali women usually swim fully clothed because swimsuits generally are frowned upon. Somali men, however, swim in trunks, at times bare-chested or wearing vests.

UK: Farce as convicted criminals sleep off hangovers in 'weekend' jail, James Slack, Daily Mail, updated Oct. 21, 06

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd
/viewtopic.php?t=690&mforum=elwoodpdowd

[....] The revelation is the latest fiasco to hit the controversial policy, which allows convicts to live at home during the week before spending the weekend behind bars.

The "intermittent custody" sentence is supposed to punish criminals by depriving them of their leisure time.

But the Daily Mail can reveal that, under farcical Prison Service rules, they are allowed to go on drinking benders before arriving at HMP Kirkham on a Friday night.

Insiders say inmates are turning up drunk after touring pubs, or drinking on trains and buses on the way to the Lancashire prison. [....]

Do you suppose Canada's leftists could get behind this? With multiculturalism, how do differing views of punishment and incarceration get resolved?

Start with the children, according to what I have seen with the left in action; indoctrinate them in school about the "reasons" behind poverty, crime, etc. and the rest will follow. Now, the chickens have come home to roost. The above item is simply its logical extension ... in the UK ... now, but who doubts that the extremes of softer treatment of criminals will not get even more soft in Canada if the leftists return to governing? If the Conservatives' tough on crime bill fails, if the Liberals / NDP coalition of social thought and policies is returned to power, who doubts that treatment of criminals will get even softer in Canada? It will be done under the guise of "systemic racism", "root causes"--poverty--or "unfair" treatment of some group, but the effect will be the same and worse. Have you noticed crime rising or lowering in the last number of years? Are we simply more aware?



What's in the glass tells you the class , Joseph Brean, National Post, October 21, 2006


Shared values, shared kinship , David H. Wilkins, National Post, October 21, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters
/story.html?id=57773ec2-5ac2-4456-86ad-6d433395a948

"We share values and we share ties of kinship. And when tragedy strikes, we share compassion. And perhaps it is not a bad thing that when the dark and ugly side of human behaviour is exposed that we are reminded of the good and that we are reminded that there is nothing like a friend in a time of a need."

Belinda & Puppygate -- "But as we see it, Puppygate is overblown: Even if MacKay said what he's accused of, so what?" , National Post, October 21, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters
/story.html?id=a7a0211c-1e28-4324-beb9-942870fa2bfd

[....] In fact, as far as we can tell, if anyone deserves an apology, it is the dogs. They are often referred to as "man's best friend," a testament to their proverbial loyalty. This is a quality in which Ms. Stronach has been found wanting, at least as a politician. She could learn a lot from the doggy set, even if it's her ex-boyfriend who's briefly in the doghouse.

Apple Mecca: Our Open Letter to Radical Muslim Politburo, By Red Square, 10/18/2006

Dear radical Muslim comrades! While you are the best allies the Left could ever have in the great patriotic war against American Capitalism, there are limits in every relationship, even the most intimate one like ours. Thus, your latest allegation that the Apple Mecca Store in New York amounts to a deliberate insult to Islam (because it resembles your big black Ka'bah cube in Mecca) [....]

Warning: offensive to some ...

Oct. 19, 2006: Bud Talkinghorn

Generation spoiled

My own generation was seen as going straight to hell, by the previous one. Some were into drugs, free love and rebellion. However, after a few tie-dyed years of exploration most donned their ties--Windsor-knotted--and got on with adulthood. Partly, this was due to the early training as kids. If you wanted to augment your father's stingy allowance, you mowed lawns or shovelled driveways, and you even had competition for that money. Well, no kid gets up early today to earn extra money. Even the kids from welfare homes feel too entitled to do manual labour. Females helped around the house, often with the cooking chores. Today, they might help pick out the frozen dinner to be microwaved.

While we led the way in throwing away our wedding rings, the pre-boomer generation still went through the motions of marital life. Our parents' solid marriages gave us a sense of failure when ours crashed. That humiliation factor has dissolved. Now, if it doesn't work out to our perfect satisfaction, we split. Formal dating is passe. "Hooking-up" is the norm for young adults. This "hook-up" term covers everything from petting to making the beast with two backs. It negates any sense of commitment or cutting down on your checklist of desirable qualities. If the relationship doesn't produce instant fireworks, then you simply move on to the next "hook-up". By extension, if your job doesn't grant the required advancement to spend like the women on "Sex and the City", it is time to take up your old room at the parents' house. Oh, and saving for a contingency is so yesterday. If God didn't want us in hopeless debt, he wouldn't have invented credit cards.

Added to this sad picture is that many of this Generation O are graduating from universities half-educated. Try to have a decent conversation with them and they keep falling back on their leftist, politically correct arguments. Push them though, and they retreat, because they have no facts, nor even logic, to back up their socialist canons. They may start to avoid you at parties. This is never accepted as defeat however. Rather, with their nacissistic personalities, they write it off as refusing to talk to a bigot, who openly holds politically incorrect beliefs.

Our generation is to blame for much of these youths' attitudes. It is we who partially spoiled our children, which led naturally to our offspring completely spoiling their own kids. It was the rare student in my day who owned his own car. Now the parking lots of high schools and universities have to be expanded continuously. The universities are plastered with ads for Visa and Master Card. Get them addicted to plastic money, even though they are saddled with huge student loans, and many will never get a decent job in their fields. The entire education system has helped these kids feel invincible. Social promotion and grade inflation have turned out near illiterates, with a "whatever" mentality. It is time for a re-appraisal of how we will raise our future generations. The trend now does not bode well.

© Bud Talkinghorn



Polling on Canada's role in Afghanistan

Lewis MacKenzie has it right when he says that Afghanistan poll questions incorrectly play down what is at stake. MacKenzie suggests asking the poll recipients this question: "Do you support the return of the Taliban? If yes, move to the next question. Do you support teachers being beheaded in front of their classes, because they allowed female students in?" The following questions show the barbaric treatment of women under theTaliban's former rule. Treatment that often means the women being killed--either because they were executed in "honour killings", or because they can't go to male doctors, and the Taliban won't allow females to practice medicine. Males are controlled as well. They must have beards and those must be of a set length. Kite-flying, music, television, dancing and other amusements are verboten. It was as though Ghengis Khan had been reincarnated and returned to rule Afghanistan. The Taliban want, ultimately. to drag Afghanistan back to the 7th century. And here is a question that MacKenzie didn't ask. Where are the so-called moderate Muslim states in keeping this tyranny at bay? At the very least, why aren't the Gulf Emirates and Saudi Arabia pumping billions into modernizing this benighted country? They always seem to have plenty to finance global terrorism.

© Bud Talkinghorn



The Axis of Lunacy

President Bush should have called The Axis of Evil, the Axis of Crazies. They don't come any more crazy than Kim Jong-il, or that Iranian nutbar, Ahmadinejad, who has visions at the UN, and worships some "Secret Prophet", who will reveal himself sometime and bring the Caliphate to the world. It is now a millennium-plus that he has remained in seclusion, but nutbar thinks this prophet will reveal himself to him. On top of that, Ahmadinejad is building a nuclear weapon, which he refers to as the "Islamic bomb". Saddam rounds out the trio of murderous madmen. He has been neutralized, but his Baathist army hasn't been. This army is aided and abetted by foreign jihadis who wish to ignite a massive civil war with the Iraqi Shi'ite population, who outnumber them 2 to 1. It doesn't get anymore bizarre than that. The only hope of containing these madmen is to have the UN finally live up to its charter and forcefully oppose them. Unfortunately, that biased talkshop will do nothing to confront these dangerous regimes. That is increasingly falling on the shoulders of the Anglosphere alone. However, the strain of being global policemen is showing. It is time for the UN to step up or pack up.

© Bud Talkinghorn

Oct. 18, 2006: Court Challenges Program Update

To take action, follow this link: Write your MP and strongly suggest that the Court Challenges Program stay dead.



A comment left by a blogger related to Bud Talkinghorn's article (link below) led me to the following. Thanks, Neo Conservative, for writing (link below).


The Background to the comments:

Frost Hits the Rhubarb Oct. 3, 2006: Bud Talkinghorn

What is ... The Law Commission of Canada, anyway?

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/10
/oct-3-06-bud-talkinghorn-what-is.html

Bud wrote: "They come across as far-left lobbyists, who are joined at the hip with the Court Challenges crowd."

I added to Bud's with this post:
Oct. 3, 2006: Let's look at the Law Commission's Experts and their concerns.

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2006/10
/oct-3-2006-lets-look-at-law.html



I suggest you read this and then the article which follows it.

Neo Conservative

Robbing Peter & robbing Paul , by Halls of Macadamia, Neo Conservative, Oct. 17, 06

hallsofmacadamia.blogspot.com/2006/10
/robbing-peter-robbing-paul.html

UPDATE SHOCKER: CANADIAN BAR ASSOC. WANTS MORE

It called on the federal government to not only increase funding, but also to ensure the program’s long-term financial stability. [....]

I've just been waiting for the Rastafarians to use the argument that marijuana is their sacred religious artifact, and [....]

Clear, worth reading.



This is the most informative article I have seen on the Court Challenges Program

Premier's propaganda in favour of Court Challenges Program , Church and State October 02, 2006

state-and-church.blogspot.com/2006/10
/premiers-propaganda-in-favour-of-court.html

It is well documented.

"You know when you start taking away funding from minority groups just because ..."

How do you be polite discussing the mentality and fanatical ideology of someone who treats the taxpayer funding of anybody as the normative baseline for moral behaviour, let alone the kind of anti-family socialist zealots of the Court Challenges Program?

[....] Court Challenges Program Axed! An End to Tax Payer Funded Advocacy

I) What is the Court Challenges Program (CCP)?

II) Legacy of the CCP

III) Its Radical History

IV) An Unaccountable Biased Program

[.... To skip the rest and read the full article on the Church and State website, click here]

I) What is the Court Challenges Program (CCP)?

“The CCP has since 1985 funded dozens of high-profile court cases challenging the validity of federal and provincial laws in the name of feminism, gay rights, visible minorities, refugees, prisoners and the criminally accused.”

http://www.anticorruption.ca/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=3995

[....] In reality, the CCP has been a means to funnel government funds to special interest organizations in order to bypass Parliament and use the courts to challenge and change Canada’s laws with the help of taxpayer dollars.

As one critic put it, “no other federal program or law has done more damage to Canadian democracy. No other has so fundamentally altered Canadian society without recourse to Parliament.”

http://www.anticorruption.ca/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=3995

[....] II) Legacy of the Court Challenges Program

“The CCP has never funded any cases other than those brought by leftist special interests in its 21 years of underwriting challenges to the Charter’s equality provisions.” Lorne Gunter, National Post September 27, 2006

http://www.anticorruption.ca/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=3995

Here are some examples of what special interest groups have used tax payer dollars for through the Court Challenges Program:

4)To challenge federal obscenity laws (Little Sisters Bookstore).

5)To give federal prisoners the right to vote, previously prohibited under the Canada Election Act, through a Supreme Court decision.

[....] III) History of the CCP

“The Trudeau government launched the Court Challenges Program in 1978. It was designed to let language groups ratchet up pressure on the provinces to provide more bilingual services using the language guarantees in the British North America Act and, later, the Charter of Rights. In 1985, the Mulroney government extended the CCP to fund “equality seeking groups,” namely feminist, multicultural, gay, lesbian, and other groups…. The CCP has encouraged some groups to by-pass the political process by using the courts instead.

[....] IV) An Unaccountable Biased Program [.... Do not miss reading this.]

That gives an idea of what happens when politicians seek to gain the votes of groups--identifiable groups, political pressure groups ...



To take action, follow this link: Write your MP and strongly suggest that the Court Challenges Program stay dead.


More background:

FHTR Sept. 24, 2006

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2006_09_24_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

Scroll to:

Update: The Court Challenges Program , rosemarie59

[....]

Background on Feminism, SOW & Abortion Rights [SOW = Status of Women]

Sept. 27, 2006: Bud Talkinghorn

[....] It is an interesting coincidence that Fry's announcement comes on the heels of Harper's slashing some of her most favourite things. Gone is the Court Challenges Program

FHTR Sept. 24, 2006

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com
/2006_09_24_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

Sept. 27, 2006: Why they'll whine ...

All the way to the taxpayer-funded trough

Don't expect the CCP to go quietly ... and taxpayers are forbidden to learn specifics. , Lorne Gunter, NatPost, Sept. 27, 06

[....]

Tories' program cuts see $1B savings -- Another $1B planned -- axed "the Court Challenges Program, which paid tax dollars to the lawyers of special interest groups to fight government legislation in court", James Gordon, CanWest, September 26, 06

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=6e2fd91b-b20d-4b4d-9b58-55fa090d2af6

Oct. 18, 2006: Various

I have too many commitments and too little time. These are only a few items; there are more, when time allows. FHTR



Maurice Strong's apologia for North Korea ...

What North Korea wants
It's all about international recognition and security guarantees, says MAURICE STRONG

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/RTGAM.20061017.wxcokorea17/BNStory
/specialComment/home

Maurice Strong, the former special envoy of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan for North Korea, is currently residing in China and working on the Korea issue at the recently established Institute for Security and Sustainability in Northeast Asia at Peking University.

Why is Maurice Strong in China? ... Think Koreagate ... a cheque ... A must read



N. Korea's (Non-Nuclear) Threat , Oct. 17, 06, posted by starboardside

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=624&mforum=elwoodpdowd

PopularMechanics.com, Oct. 16, 2006 — Watching the United Nations Security Council grind its way to a compromise resolution on North Korea, it's hard to avoid returning to one question: What took them so long to do something about North Korea's weapons of mass destruction? Over the past 45 years, North Korea has assembled a huge arsenal of mass casualty weapons - namely biological and chemical weapons. Yet it is only when North Korea gets as far as possible nuclear capability the U.N. rouses itself from its slumbers and waddles into action.

I've been writing and researching the subject of biological and chemical warfare on and off for six years. The extent of North Korea's completely operational biochemical warfare program is widely known and frequently assessed by the U.S. and its allies, as well as many non-proliferation organizations such as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague in the Netherlands. North Korea’s program has been in development since the '60s under the control of the fabulously Orwellian Fifth Machine Industry Bureau. In that time, North Korea's Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW) program has assembled a formidable array of poisons, toxins, chemicals and weaponized germs. [....]

Liberals anti-Israel bias -- The party of "None is too many" , by Beryl Wajsman, Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal, October 14, 2006, via newsbeat1

www.canadafreepress.com/2006/wajsman101406.htm

[....] The only words this week more hypocritical and egregiously offensive to the civility of political discourse in Canada than Michael Ignatieff's declaration that "war crimes" were committed by Israel at Qana were the puffed-up false pieties of Bob Rae defending the Liberals and demanding an apology from Prime Minister Harper for accusing the former Natural Governing Party of an anti-Israel bias.

Rae, and the chattering-class talking heads around him, even had the temerity to state that because Rae had a Jewish grandfather and his wife is Jewish Rae could not possibly have an anti-Israel bias. Yet it has been Rae, and the salon liberals of media and academe who remain his most ardent defenders, who have for years argued that being critical of Israel does not imply that one is necessarily anti-Jewish. Therefore one would think that a former Rhodes scholar like Mr. Rae would easily understand the corollary. That being Jewish does not necessarily imply that one is free of anti-Israel bias. Noam Chomsky and Prof. Norman Finkelstein are just two examples that prove the latter point. Blood doesn't get you a get-out-of-jail free card on this one. [....]

Now Michael Ignatieff has decided to join the "party". He condemns the discovery of 28 bodies in a bombed out building in the village of Qana as an "Israeli war crime". I am choosing my words carefully here. As carefully as Ignatieff should have. Michael Ignatieff knows full well that the Israeli bombing of Qana stopped 8 hours before that building collapsed. Mr. Ignatieff also knows that the Lebanese government itself reduced the original estimates of 69 dead to 28. He also knows that independent international investigators have discovered something very curious about those 28 bodies found in that building. No blood. No crushed skulls. No severed limbs. Quite a feat if these unfortunate souls had indeed been in the basement of a four story concrete building that collapsed on them. Well-nigh impossible. And if Mr. Ignatieff does not know these facts it is because he doesn't want to know them. [....]

The Piranha are in a feeding frenzy -- "Sparks fly among frontrunners during final Liberal leadership debate" , Joan Bryden, Oct. 15, 06, posted by AnnieO

Sparring reveals candidates' soft spots , Juliet O'Neill, CanWest, October 16, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.ht
ml?id=5c9cbde3-f7b6-4e96-a267-87b78de774d9&k=44100

And the winner: Harper by default -- Liberals fail to debate why they deserve to be given power again, Don Martin, National Post, October 16, 2006


www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=eec951ef-7aba-4e13-88d4-feafed6d89f8



Prison ombudsman accuses prison system of ‘institutionalized discrimination’ , Meagan Fitzpatrick, CanWest, October 16, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.ht
ml?id=e2e2c6b5-872a-4a8f-9eca-c092601d5a96&k=96633

OTTAWA -- Canada’s jail system routinely discriminates against aboriginal offenders, according to the federal prison watchdog. In his annual report released Monday, ombudsman Howard Sapers outlined a number of concerns but chose to focus on aboriginal Canadians, saying they are over-represented in the justice system and treated unfairly within it.[....]

Aboriginal offenders are more often placed in maximum security prisons and in segregation than non-aboriginal offenders, Sapers reported, and that "severely limits access to rehabilitative programming and services." He also said aboriginal inmates are not always given the same chance at parole as non-aboriginal offenders.

Sapers said Canada’s correctional service is not responsible for the social conditions and the policy decisions which contribute to its offender population, but it is responsible for ensuring that all offenders are treated fairly. [....]

If individuals committed crimes and are incarcerated, is the problem not with them? This attempt to paint the whole society as so racist they would incarcerate people who must not have committed crimes if they shouldn't be there ... is ridiculous. The society should be looking at why these individuals are committing crimes in such numbers. Has lawlessness been growing? Has the society been too understanding, too tolerant? Stop telling the law-abiding that they are at fault. I'm not. Speak for yourselves, people.



Aussies running short of water., via starboardside

www.theaustralian.news.com.au
/story/0,20867,20576814-601,00.html



BBC Suing to Suppress Critical Report on ME Coverage, LGF, Oct. 16, 06

littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog
/?entry=22971_BBC_Suing_to_Sup
press_Critical_Report_on_ME_Coverage&only

The BBC is using British taxpayer money to try to keep a report on their disgustingly biased Mideast coverage secret: BBC mounts court fight to keep ‘critical’ report secret.

The BBC has spent thousands of pounds of licence payers’ money trying to block the release of a report which is believed to be highly critical of its Middle East coverage.

The corporation is mounting a landmark High Court action to prevent the release of The Balen Report under the Freedom of Information Act, despite the fact that BBC reporters often use the Act to pursue their journalism. [....]

Mr. Rabinovitch, have you submitted the report on the CBC yet to the Minister concerned?



Dept of Interior Blocking Conservative Blogs?

littlegreenfootballs.com/
weblog/?entry=22919_Dept_of_In
terior_Blocking_Conservative_Blogs&only

Baron Bodissey forwarded this email today; is the US Department of the Interior following the lead of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and blocking American anti-jihad sites? [....]

Gates of Vienna is now blocked, as are all sites with a .blogspot URL. Also blocked are other conservative blogs, such as [....]

Link for a list and more information.



Important

YouTube, Google, and the Liberal Bias Virus -- "YouTube refused to say why her videos were “offensive” and there was no avenue available to challenge the decision." , Posted by Noel Sheppard on October 16, 2006 - 10:17.

newsbusters.org/node/8355

The following is a collaboration with Marc Sheppard originally posted at The American Thinker.

Five months ago, the Internet’s top search engine Google was accused of banning conservative websites from its news crawl. Last week, the e-behemoth offered to purchase YouTube, the preeminent provider of videos over the Web that has recently been implicated in censorship of its own. With their pending merger, serious questions arise about the future of the most powerful telecommunications medium on the landscape, and who if anyone is trying to control its content.

As reported by American Thinker on May 22, Internet search king Google eliminated a number of conservative e-zines and blogs from its news crawl earlier this year. In all of the cases cited, the alleged offense was the dissemination of “hate speech.”

After closer examination, the tie between all the banished websites was the publishing of articles about radical Islam and its relation to international terrorism. Yet, sites that actually were more specifically involved in such activities – like Hezb’allah’s propaganda arm in Lebanon, al Manar – were unaffected by Google’s “hate speech” policies, and continue to be a part of its news crawl. [....]

Read more

If it bothers the usual easily disturbed ones ...




Link from this CTV.ca webpage for the videos on the Liberal convention -- Mike Duffy Live: Panel discusses Middle East conflict 6:41

www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews
/20061013/ignatieff_speech_061013/20061013/



Was taxpayer money used improperly? , Linda Diebel, Oct. 15, 2006. 03:42 AM -- The gift that keeps on giving.......... , via newsbeat1

www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar
/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid
=1160862646485&call_pageid=970599119419

Joe Volpe's campaign people and staff at a federally funded charity are at odds over campaign's questionable use of charity clients and their pay. [....]

Three managers at the charity, in Volpe's riding and formerly within his purview as a federal cabinet minister, formally complained to executive director Colin Morrison about the assignment.

They argued they weren't a recruitment centre, that it was unethical for a non-profit to be involved in partisan politics, and that clients could be put at risk of losing government benefits. There were also complaints about the foundation issuing the cheques. [....]

Muslims angry at London Olympics falling on Ramadan -- via Starboardside

www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news
/news.html?in_article_id=410439&in_page_id=1770

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=607&mforum=elwoodpdowd


"Getting off Easy"---Terrorist Enabler gets 28 mon , By Ben Johnson, FrontPageMagazine.com, October 17, 2006

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=626&mforum=elwoodpdowd

[....] Lynne Stewart took the risk, and a Democratic president’s judicial appointee saw to it the risk paid off. With terror-enablers as with the terrorists of whom they are so enamored, this will guarantee more of this behavior in the future.

Convert or die , By Michelle Malkin, September 02, 2006 11:18 PM

***updated: Spencer and Pipes respond...***

R.S.V.P, infidels

Watch the new al Qaeda video to see what an "invitation to Islam" sounds like. I've transcribed a sample of American al Qaeda Adam Gadahn's rant:

"Islam is the only religion acceptable to God and came with the revealed book, the Koran, which abrogates all previous revelations, like the Torah and Evangel... God recognizes no separation between religion and state..."

"To Americans and the rest of Christendom we say, either repent (your) misguided ways and enter into the light of truth or keep your poison to yourself and suffer the consequences in this world and the next..."

"If the Zionist crusader missionaries of hate and counter-Islam consultants like Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, Michael Scheuer, Steven Emerson, and yes, even the crusader-in-chief George W. Bush were to abandon their unbelief and repent and enter into the light of Islam and turn their swords against the enemies of God, it would be accepted of them and they would be our brothers in Islam. And we send a special invitation to all of you fighting Bush's crusader pipe dream in Afghanistan, Iraq, and wherever else W. has sent you to die."

Dr. Vernon Chong, Major General, USAF, Retired: This WAR is for REAL!

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=621&mforum=elwoodpdowd

To get out of a difficulty, one usually must go through it. Our country is now facing the most serious threat to its existence, as we know it, that we have faced in your lifetime and mine (which includes WWII).

The deadly seriousness is greatly compounded by the fact that there are very few of us who think we can possibly lose this war and even fewer who realize what losing really means.

First, let's examine a few basics:

[....As usual, the devil is in the details -- worth reading.]

Democracies don't have their freedoms taken away from them by some external military force. Instead, they give their freedoms away, politically correct piece by politically correct piece.

And they are giving those freedoms away to those who have shown, worldwide that they abhor freedom and will not apply it to you or even to themselves, once they are in power.

They have universally shown that when they have taken over, they then start brutally killing each other over who will be the few who control the masses. [....]

Symposium: Romancing Opiates , By Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com October 13, 2006

Theodore Dalrymple has sparked a heated controversy with his new book Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy. His argument that the official doctrine concerning drug addiction is mistaken and self-serving has provoked much criticism from various quarters. Today we invite Dr. Dalrymple to face some of his critics and we also invite a supporter of his views. We are joined by:

Theodore Dalrymple, a contributing editor to City Journal and the author of his collection of essays Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses. He is the author of the new book that serves as the topic for this discussion: Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy. [....]

Dalrymple: My general thesis is simple: that addiction is not an illness and treatment is therefore metaphorical rather than real. Mao Tse Tung threatened addicts with dire consequences if they did not stop, and they did stop. This suggests that there is a category difference between addiction and, say, cancer of the bowel.

Addiction is one answer to perennial existential problems - in my view not a very good answer, but I don't claim to have a perfect one - and so-called medical treatment is beside the point. It often does tangible harm, and in my view does harm in an intangible way as well by persuading addicts that they 'need' the help of professionals to stop. This, of course, is all to the advantage of a group of professionals. [....]

Dalrymple: I do not agree that conditioning makes people automata. If it were true that addicts really cannot help themselves, that they lose all volition in the matter, it would justify the most illiberal measures to help them, to prevent them from destroying themselves and so forth.

But the fact that millions of addicts, not just of opiates, have given up, merely by taking thought, suggests that conditioning is not very important.

As to various drug treatments, they all suffer from very similar drawbacks. Readers will be interested to know that in a recent edition of the Lancet, [....]

Prime Minister Harper welcomes new Commissioner of Official Languages, October 17, 2006, Ottawa, Ontario

www.pm.gc.ca/

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today welcomed Canada’s new Commissioner of Official Languages, Mr. Graham Fraser, whose appointment was recently approved by the Senate and the House of Commons. This appointment is effective immediately.

The Prime Minister took the opportunity to thank Dyane Adam [....]

GRAHAM FRASER

A well-known and respected journalist and author with close to 40 years of journalistic experience, Mr. Fraser was educated at the University of Toronto where he earned a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in History. Since 2000, Mr. Fraser has been a National Affairs Writer with the Toronto Star. Over the years, he has held positions of increasing responsibility with various newspapers as well as with MacLean’s magazine, including Québec Bureau Chief with the Montréal Gazette; Montreal Bureau Chief with MacLean’s; and Parliamentary Correspondent, Ottawa Bureau Chief and later Washington Bureau Chief with the Globe and Mail. He was a weekly columnist for Le Devoir from 2000 to 2005 and has been a regular commentator on the TFO public affairs program “Panorama”.

During a long and distinguished career which has straddled the language divide, he has reported in both official languages on issues affecting Canada and Canadians, including cultural and foreign policy, constitutional debates and negotiations and national, provincial and international politics. He has been invited to speak on official languages issues to minority organizations in Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario, as well as national minority language organizations, and has lectured on language policy as an adjunct professor at the Carleton University School of Journalism.

Mr. Fraser is the author of “Sorry I Don’t Speak French”, which was published in March 2006, and which has helped stimulate renewed public discussion of language policy in Canada, as well as “PQ: René Lévesque and the Parti Québecois in Power”, which dealt with Quebec language policy and which was nominated for a Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction in 1984. In 1979, he helped found the Centre for Investigative Journalism, the bilingual precursor of the Canadian Association of Journalists, and served on the Centre’s board for two terms. He is the first recipient of Public Policy Forum’s Hyman Solomon Award for Public Policy Journalism.

What about our right not to have him in Canada at all?

Case against Jaballah upheld, Oct. 17,06

www.canada.com/topics/news/story.ht
ml?id=09d4191f-c688-41ec-af5f-10b73031c72e&k=46026

The Federal Court of Canada has upheld the government's case against an alleged Egyptian terrorist caught in Toronto, but said deporting him to a country that practises torture would violate his human rights.

In defence of Whiteness Studies , Bruce Baum, National Post, October 17, 2006

Last month, National Post columnist Barbara Kay used a facile discussion of the academic field of Whiteness Studies as a means to decry the "toxic ideologies" being foisted on students at leading U.S. universities.

As someone knowledgeable of this field, [....]

To confront the challenge posed by whiteness scholars like U.S. historian Noel Ignatiev demands, at minimum, that we understand what they mean by whiteness and white skin privilege. Ignatiev, as Kay noted, provocatively claims that the "key to solving the social problems of our age is to abolish the white race -- in other words, to abolish the privileges of the white skin." Yet to assess this claim requires careful consideration of the scholarship that supports it, something Kay avoids. [....]

I see the problem as a cultural problem. It isn't colour; it is that some groups have become associated with guns, violence and drugs. The colour may be beautiful but the association with violence or drugs influences how people feel about some groups.

Oct. 15, 2006: Unsafe to Teach

CTV today at 1:00 pm

Unsafe to Teach takes a look at the growing crisis in Canadian schools as teachers and principals are faced with violent attacks by students and their parents.

www.ctv.ca/generic/generated/tvlist/ATVtvlist.html

www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/show/CTVShows
/20061011/unsafe_to_teach/20061011/


This is a repeat the W-Five program from last night (Oct 14 at 7pm ET - A CTV Original Documentary) which I watched. Important. I would like to have heard more about what happened when teachers reported problems to the administration and why little or nothing was done. Watch it and see what you think.