Softwood lumber funds to downtown Toronto

Back in May, I noticed that Sunnybrook & Women's College Hospital was the recipient of over $440,000 from the Softwood Industry and Community Economic Adjustment Initiative (SICEAI), as recorded in the 2003-2004 Public Accounts. In 2002, SICEAI was announced by then Industry Minister Allan Rock:

"The communities affected by this dispute [the US-Canada softwood lumber trade dispute], can now begin preparing their ideas and economic development proposals to help bring hope to families in rural communities across Canada," said Minister Rock.

It struck me as strange that money from a fund devoted to helping rural communities ended up in a downtown Toronto hospital.

With the help of an Access to Information request, we now know what was going on.

Another CEO of another federal agency making primo dinero

Which port is more important?

• Port of New York (4,478,480 TEUs in 2004)


• Port of Vancouver (1,664,906 TEUs in 2004)


• Port of Montreal (1,226,296 TEUs in 2004)

A TEU is a "twenty-foot equivalent unit", a way of measuring container traffic flow. But as it turns out, I'm using the wrong statistics:

• Port of New York: President Kenneth Ringler (salary C$307,291)


• Port of Vancouver: President Gordon Houston (salary about C$200,000)


• Port of Montreal: President Dominic Taddeo (salary C$636,471)

Like David Dingwall, it's not just about his salary:

Dominic Taddeo, the president of the federal government-owned Port of Montreal, billed taxpayers almost $17,000 for two first-class airline trips his wife took with him this year to attend industry conferences in Miami and South Africa.

The Port of Montreal executive's trips coincided with personal holidays he and his wife enjoyed before and after the conferences, according to internal government documents obtained under the Access to Information Act.

Mr. Taddeo's expense claims for his wife's airfare were among the $66,047 he spent between this January and July, including $38,043 for the South African trip, $7,000 for golf and health club memberships, $5,784 on 26 meals at the same restaurant, and $3,986 for concert and hockey tickets, the documents show.

In addition to his trips, Mr. Taddeo also billed the Port of Montreal for $4,230 for his "ordinary gentleman" fees at the Royal Montreal Golf Club.

In June and July alone, he also claimed expenses for meals, beverages and guests at the exclusive club on Ile Bizard for an additional $1,073.12, including $379 for unidentified guests he entertained on its fairways.

He also billed the Port of Montreal $1,725 for an athletic club membership.

You might wonder, aren't the shareholders upset about this? Well, are you?

The Montreal Port Authority (MPA) is an autonomous federal agency created in accordance with the Canada Marine Act. It does everything within its power to make the port as competitive as possible.

This falls under the responsibility of the Minister of Transport, Jean Lapierre. Unlike the former head of the Mint, David Dingwall, Taddeo was never a federal minister, but that is not to say he isn't friendly with the federal Liberals. For instance, his name came up during the Sponsorship Program audit run by the Auditor General:

The Hon. Alfonso Gagliano testified that, in 1997, he took a trip to Italy with Mr. Lafleur, Mr. LeFrançois, Mr. Dominic Taddeo (President of the Montreal Port Authority), Mr. Mincarelli (one of the administrators of ADM airport in Montreal), and a few other people. This was a follow-up to the Prime Minister’s trip to Italy the year before. Mr. Gagliano did not believe that he had received gifts valued at more than $200 during his trip to Italy. (10:1255)

Another federal agency with another CEO being paid what has to consider a princely sum both in direct salary and in expenses and perks.

Multiple Scandals in Ottawa? Scott Brison slips up

Did Scott Brison, Minister of Public Works and Government Services, let the scandal cat out of the bag?

Cindy Sheehan: Out to get Democrats; Bush's days are numbered

A new interview with Cindy Sheehan, and no surprise, you are either her, or you'll be ruined. Cindy Sheehan can guarantee that, because she's in control.

"Bush was Right!"

A new single from The Right Brothers.

Fox News found a "niche" market when they realized that 50% or more of the American people weren't actually being served by the liberal media.

Will conservative entertainment come next? These are people with CD players but who aren't rushing out to buy "Sweet Neocon" by the Rolling Stones.

Ward Churchill and his Magic Powers

Apparently, Ward Churchill is the Great Carnak in disguise.

Ward Churchill ruins more lives

Ward Churchill, the faux Indian famous for his anti-American radicalism and his comparison of the victims of 9/11 to Nazis, continues to sow chaos wherever his name is mentioned.

In this case, a petition at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Law School in support of Ward Churchill is likely to cost a patriotic Native American (a real Indian) his job.

John Roberts is confirmed, and the left chokes on sour grapes

For those following events in the US, Judge John Roberts has been sworn in as the 17th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States:

"The Senate has confirmed a man with an astute mind and kind heart," President Bush said before John Paul Stevens, the acting chief justice, administered the oath of office.

"All Americans can be confident that the 17th chief justice of the United States will be prudent in exercising judicial power, firm in defending judicial independence and, above all, a faithful guardian of the Constitution."

Angry at another success for the President, the loonie left is venting their rage at the new chief justice. And being so progressive and so accepting of all lifestyles without being judgmental, they are doing what they always do when they want to insult someone.

They are calling him gay.

Question Period: A Waste of Time

Much of Question Period in the House of Commons is a waste of time. There seems to be no requirement for a member of the government to actually answer the questions being asked. Sometimes I think we should just scrap the whole exercise.

Even more depressing, is that when a question seems to be answered, we are actually listening to a rehearsed stage-play, and not honest debate.

Yesterday, our star was Belinda Stronach.

Gender Language

It's a small thing, I know, but I think it's worth mentioning. Marking the installation of Michaelle Jean as Governor General, Judy Wasylycia-Leis, NDP MP for Winnipeg North had this to say:

We welcome a courageous and powerful voice for women's rights on to our national stage. It is my hope and that of my colleagues that Madam Jean's deep conviction in the important and unique role women have in Canadian society can reach beyond the walls of Government House and into every facet of Canadians' daily lives.

The "unique role of women"?

Now to be unique, you must be different from everything else. In this case, the role of women is different from the role of all other genders. Last time I checked, there were only two (no, I'm not counting transsexuals and the confused, simply because biologically they are still a specific gender, and frankly their numbers are too small to matter).

If there are only two genders, and first is unique from the second, then it follows that the second is equally unique compared to the first. If there were eight genders, and one was different, and the other seven were the same (as measured against some particular criteria, such as suitability to be governor general), then being unique means something.

But when there are only two, then both are unique, simply because they are different.

Maybe there is a special form of logic that works in the socialist-feminist mind. I doubt it though. Or more accurately, I doubt you could call it "logic".

So I'd like to add to Ms Wasylycia-Leis' comments by saying, "It is my hope that my deep conviction in the important and unique role men have in Canadian society can reach beyond the walls of sloppy feminist thinking and into every facet of Canadians' daily lives."

Hear, hear!

Cindy Sheehan: Using more than her son's name

Cindy Sheehan is going to start taking on paid speaking engagements. Why?

Because she has almost finished running through Casey Sheehan's life insurance!

Before the event, Sheehan met with reporters to discuss her plans for the future. She said she didn't think her contract with Speaking Matters LLC will distract from her message.

"This is a society where people make money doing what they do and I have to pay my bills, too," she told Cybercast News Service.

"I love doing this and I do it for free," Sheehan continued. She said she has been spending her own money to travel around the country in recent weeks to rally opposition to the war in Iraq.

Sheehan previously told Cybercast News Service that she was not taking money from organizations like MoveOn.org or private financiers like George Soros but that her recent 51-city bus tour was funded by "grassroots fundraising."

She said her contract with Speaking Matters, which has not yet disclosed how much a Sheehan appearance will cost, will help her "finally make some money ...'cause Casey's insurance money's going to run out pretty soon."

Casey left behind a brother, two sisters, and a father as well. But it sounds like Cindy Sheehan took his insurance money and used it to pay her way, and presumably some of the expenses of her "fellow travelers".

How much money? We don't know for sure, but we can guess. From the US Army:

The Serviceman's Group Life Insurance, better known as SGLI, is group term life insurance currently available to all members of the US Army. SGLI is a group life insurance policy purchased by the VA from a commercial life insurance company, and is partially subsidized by the federal government.

Servicemembers on active duty, active duty for training or inactive duty for training and members of the Reserves are automatically covered for $250,000, the maximum amount of coverage, unless they opt out in writing. A soldier can elect lower coverage or no coverage by completing VA Form SGLV-8286. Basic SGLI premiums are currently $.065 per $1,000 of insurance, regardless of the member's age. View rates for different coverage amounts.

Some people were asked if their opinion of her changed now that she'll be taking money for speaking engagements:

[University of Maryland student] Megan Hanford said it makes sense that Sheehan would start charging for appearances. "She can't work while she's traveling the country," Hanford said, "and she's lost any income that her son might have brought her."

Her son was an adult. Her husband had a job. So did she. Casey would not have brought any income to Cindy Sheehan, under normal circumstances (read the Anchoress for more on this facet).

If Cindy Sheehan was the sole beneficiary, then she had every right to take the money and do what she wanted with it. We don't know who Casey named as beneficiary, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just his mother -- before I got married, I routinely named my dad as my beneficiary on insurance forms, fully expecting that in the event of my demise, the money would be going to both my parents, and to rest of my immediate family, as required.

Did any of the insurance money go to paying off family debts? The mortgage on the house? The car loans? The college bills for the other kids?

What other family resources did Cindy Sheehan squander? Is this part of the reason for the divorce proceedings, including the Patrick Sheehan's demands that Cindy Sheehan pay for the cost of the divorce, and pay some sort of support back to Patrick. Is Patrick Sheehan trying to recover the lost insurance money?

Many have been disturbed by the way Cindy Sheehan has used Casey's name to promote her own agenda. Apparently she was using far more than just his name.

I will try to find out more...

Update: Got more. Much more...

Dan Rather: Pathetic

Dan Rather is off his meds:

Dan Rather wants to reopen the investigation into President Bush and the National Guard story that resulted in the Memogate scandal and led to his early departure from the anchor desk.

Rather continues to insist that the story was correct and suggested in the interview that he and the network may have been set up by some outsider.

Which is it? The story was correct? Or it was an elaborate ruse to destroy Dan Rather? I'm not sure which is more disturbing -- Dan Rather's bizarre shifts in logic in the space of a single sentence, or that he really believes he was such an important target that he had to be "taken out".

"I believed in the story," Rather said. "The facts of the story were correct."

Perhaps, but then since the memos were fakes, the memos have no relationship to any story, factual or otherwise, except whatever relationship Rather cares to imagine. So technically Rather can assert any story he likes as being factual. Then so can I. Neither of us have any evidence to back any story we chose to hang our careers on.

But of course, for Dan Rather, the memos weren't fakes:

"One supporting pillar of the story, albeit an important one, one supporting pillar was brought into question," he said. "To this day, no one has proven whether it was what it purported to be or not."

Brought into question?

The true purpose of the HAARP installation in Alaska has been brought into question.

The lone gunman theory of the JFK assassination has been brought into question.

Questions about the memos? Hardly. They were fakes. They were poor quality fakes. They were laughably bad fakes.

The Killian memos were ridiculed from all quarters and held up as an example of how a mixture of hubris and desperation blinded an generally well-regarded, if biased, journalist.

But back to his last statement: "To this day, no one has proven whether it was what it purported to be or not."

I'm still parsing that sentence. I think he's saying that to this day, no one has proven the memos to be fakes.

He can't even bring himself to say "fake" -- how pathetic.

Well, that ground has been covered to death.

When Rather refused to see the obvious, he was seen by many as the anti-thesis of a good journalist.

And when a news anchor loses the respect of his audience, even his partisan supporters, he might as well be replaced by a sock puppet reading the news. That was Dan Rather's fate. He became an object of pity, and was shuffled off the stage with what little dignity could be afforded to him.

Clearly that was wasted effort, as he seems to eager to relive his last moments of celebrity, as humiliating as they were.

Pathetic.

[Dan Rather is like a recurring case of syphilis? Or is he just a bad joke?]

Dingwall resigns

From the Globe and Mail:

David Dingwall resigned Wednesday as president of the Royal Canadian Mint.
The former Liberal cabinet minister has become embroiled in controversy after it was recently revealed he failed to register as a lobbyist for a Toronto pharmaceutical company.

In a statement Wednesday he said he believed all of his actvities were above-board.

A chink the in the Liberal armour? The first resignaton of many?

Or a speedy resolution to an isolated problem?

I know what I'm putting my money on.

While we wait to find out, I guess we can also place bets on how long it is before Dingwall is named to the Senate or is made a judge.

(Special congratulations to Simon Tuck and Jeff Sallot at the Globe and Mail who have been working this story for months.)

Diverson Program Graduate Ronterius Lamar Hubbard

Remember these junior rapists from Florida?

The surly fellow in the upper left is Ronterius Lamar Hubbard, 14:

A quartet of Florida boys ripped the clothes off fellow middle school students and photographed the terrified girls with their cell phones in a sickening school bus attack Friday afternoon. The boys, aged 12 to 14, were arrested and hit with felony battery and molestation charges for assaulting and groping the girls.

Well, Ronterius is known to the police, quite the accomplishment for a boy so young, for burglary and criminal mischief, but he wasn't prosecuted in July of 2004:

The defendant has entered into a diversion program (VIP). This case will be refiled if the defendant fails to qualify for or successfully complete the diversion program.

Prosecutor J. Carnahan made that decision. In fact, in July of 2004, no less than 11 cases were diverted to VIP, all by Carnahan. Either Carnahan really has faith in this VIP diversion, or Carnahan prefers sending cases to VIP instead of actually prosecuting them.

Let's hope at least a few of them worked out better than Hubbard.

So what is VIP? VIP stands for "Violence Intervention and Prevention":

SWFAS counselors work with youth (ages 10 - 17) and their families who have engaged in violent behavior in school or in the community. This program is offered through a Community Partnership Grant through the Department of Juvenile Justice. VIP works with youth/families who are self referred or those youth who have been arrested for domestic violence. The program also offers Aggression Replacement Training services for those juveniles who have engaged in some form of violent related behavior in school.

Sounds like they didn't intervene enough. Now he has graduated from property crime to sexual assault. Assuming this is the first time he's done this, and not just the first time he's been caught.

I hope someone in the Florida media follows up on this. Might be interesting to see what other "successes" VIP programs have had. This information might also be of interest to the parents of the girls who were assaulted.

Episcopal priests looking to State for protection from their Church

In the tension between Church and State, this is the first time I've heard of Church officials (in this case, Episcopal priests) appealing to the State for legal relief from a Church that seems to have lost its way.

Though I feel for these priests trying to be Christians in a Church that seems to have forgotten what that means, I think what they are doing is wrong. There is a right thing to do in this situation, but I can understand that this choice is a difficult one.

Soylent Cola: "How is it?"

"It varies from person to person."

This gag from Futurama popped into my head as I read about Sweden's new funeral rite. People as fertilizer.

How environmentally friendly, right? Not really.

[Updated with some more explanatory notes about energy usage.]

Cindy Sheehan retracts her retraction

Recall that Cindy Sheehan complained that the news media was spending too much time on Hurricane Rita and has been roundly criticized for it, in particular by the left, many of whom are wondering if the accusations of Cindy Sheehan being a media opportunist leveled by the right were true.

Recall that Cindy Sheehan's spokesperson then issued a denial, suggesting that someone else had used Cindy Sheehan's Kos account to make that post, a story which few believed.

Now on MichaelMoore.com, Cindy Sheehan admits that she posted the original complaint:

Now about Hurricane Rita: I woke up on Saturday morning filled with excitement. I knew that the rally and march were going to be amazing events and I was thrilled to be a part of them. I switched on the TV and turned on CNN and for 2 hours, I watched one of their reporters in front of the same downed tree and it wasn't even raining. I knew that there was a hurricane and it was damaging. At the point of the news cycle though, I thought CNN could be covering other news.

OK, so nows she's complaining that CNN wasn't covering how she was watching CNN hours before the actual rally? And didn't the spokeswoman who issued the denial, Morrigan Phillips, say that Cindy Sheehan would not have had the time to post the offensive comment because Sheehan "was pretty busy on Saturday"? In fact, Phillips said she was "certain" of that.

Well, from Cindy Sheehan herself -- she had enough time on Saturday to watch CNN for 2 hours hoping to catch herself on TV.

Time for a new spokesperson.

But back to the retraction:

I am sorry for what seemed to be an insensitive remark about the people who were affected by Rita, but that was not my intention. I am very aware that the failed policies of the Bush administration have all put us in the same boat, so to speak, and we need to take responsibility for righting the wrongs here in our country and in Iraq.

Cute working George W Bush in there. Nothing ruins a good apology than trying to blame someone else. My four-year-old does it all the time.

So there you have it. To all the Democratic Underground folks who desperately wanted to believe that Cindy Sheehan's really stupid comments were the result of some nefarious but Republican hackers...oh well.

Healing with the Holy Spirograph

When American children are expected to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, fireworks go off when the words "under God" are spoken. Separation of Church and State! The Establishment Clause! Pro-Christian bias!

But start spouting off about inner energies and ancient African rites and "spherical holy breath" in an elementary school, and no one bats an eye.

News about the News

Two unrelated stories about the world of broadcast news.

First from the Washington Post:

Masked Anchorman Lauds Gaza Pullout, Iraq Attacks, Hurricane Katrina

An Internet video newscast called the Voice of the Caliphate was broadcast for the first time on Monday, purporting to be a production of al Qaeda and featuring an anchorman who wore a black ski mask and an ammunition belt.

The anchorman, who said the report would appear once a week, presented news about the Gaza Strip and Iraq and expressed happiness about recent hurricanes in the United States. A copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, was placed by his right hand and a rifle affixed to a tripod was pointed at the camera.

The lead segment recounted Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which the narrator proclaimed as a "great victory," while showing Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia walking and talking among celebrating compatriots.

That was followed by a repeat of a pledge on Sept. 14 by Abu Musab Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, to wage all-out war on Iraq's Shiite Muslims. An image of Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born Sunni Muslim, remained on the screen for about half the broadcast.

A commercial break of sorts followed, which previewed a movie, "Total Jihad," directed by Mousslim Mouwaheed. The ad was in English, suggesting that the target audience might be Muslims living in Britain and the United States.

Disturbing news indeed about a news program by radical America-hating radicals, right down to an anchorman spewing lies and half-truths.

In unrelated news, a spokeman for disgraced ex-CBS anchorman Dan Rather announced today that Rather had left the United States for an unspecified period of time to take up a new oversees assignment in an undisclosed location with an unnamed burgeoning news organization that needed his expertise, experience, and his unique editorial take on American current events.

Belinda Stronach: "A great news story"

Belinda Stronach has exceeded my expectations when it comes to lowering the quality of debate in the House of Commons.

Our Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and Minister responsible for Democratic Renewal seems to be a vacuous as we all feared.

Cindy Sheehan tries to use the "imposter" defence...again

Cindy Sheehan was roasted on Daily Kos over her dismissal of Hurricane Rita as "a little rain", and wondering why more media attention wasn't being focused on her.

Well, now there is an attempt to say that the posts were fakes. Funny thing is, this is the second time she's pulled out the "I was framed" defence when confronted with her own poorly chosen words.

Update: I guess Cindy Sheehan has noticed that few rational people are buying her defence, and so she has retracted her retraction, and admitted to writing the original post.

Anglicans continue to go where no Christian Church has gone before

The Anglican Church in England continues to come up with new reasons to destroy the Anglican Communion, and drive the conservatives back to Catholicism.

Now it's transsexuals.

In other news...

...Cindy Sheehan was arrested.

*Yawn*

Actually, I wonder if her misdemeanor could be used as leverage by Patrick Sheehan in the divorce proceedings. All I know is that if I was facing a divorce, I'd sure as hell keep my nose clean instead of risking losing access to my kids, or perhaps being punished when support was being decided. But then I've got different priorities.

Animals parading as humans

Get a good look. These are four animals parading as humans.

These four creeps are four great reasons why parents should have a choice about where to send their kids to school.

Coming out of the bigamy closet

The Netherlands continues to blaze the trail for progressive social policy. No doubt Canadian politicians will be running themselves ragged to catch up and show themselves to be just as progressive.

Moonbats and Art: Highlighting the difference between words and actions

The hard left says the real danger to the world comes from Jews and Christians. But don't listen to their words. Watch what they do.

And by their actions the moonbats seem to be telling a very different story.

Dingwall gets dinged again

The print edition of the Globe and Mail has more bad news for David Dingwall and Technology Partnerships Canada. Apparently, Dingwall neglected to register as a lobbyist for yet another pharmaceutical firm. The oversight cost that company $6.6 million in funding for a potential treatment for pancreatic cancer.

Cindy Sheehan: Taken to the woodshed

This is too sweet to let pass. Cindy Sheehan tries to "focus" her followers, and suddenly, the whole Sheehan mystique goes *poof*, at least for some people.

Update: Cindy Sheehan's people insist that Cindy was framed!

Update: I guess Cindy Sheehan has noticed that few rational people are buying her defence, and so she has retracted her retraction, and admitted to writing the original post.

Cindy Sheehan, Michael Moore and Veterans for Peace: Incompetence in responding to Katrina

Everyone knows how President George W Bush and the federal government have been taken to task over the response to Hurricane Katrina.

This post is about a developing story about Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan, and the Veterans for Peace, who with hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations entrusted to them to distribute, were too busy playing politics to help the suffering people. Moreoever, they seem to have lost $100,000, and no one knows where it went.

At least with the government, there is the excuse of the complexities of three levels interacting, trying to manage a response that would be costed in the billions, to explain how that response suffered. But a handful of people with a measly $350,000?

Technology Partnerships Canada investigation nabs David Dingwall

Simon Tuck and Jeff Sallot at the Globe and Mail are continuing to find all sorts of interesting information on the problems within Technology Partnerships Canada.

Now former public works minister and health minister under Jean Chretien, David Dingwall, currently president of the Royal Canadian Mint, has been implicated in the investigation.

Ralph Goodale: Moving the money

From Conservative MP and blogger Jeff Watson of Essex, Ontario:

The federal budget figures for last year are finally out. Maybe I’m seeing things but I swear Ralph Goodale made his announcement with two sets of victory fingers wagging in the air, a loose lower jaw wagging side to side, furrowed brows, and a scowling, “I’m not a crook!” The surplus was only $1.6 billion, he said. Ralph, thou dost protest too much.

This past spring Liberal numbers were showing an estimated $9 billion surplus, then came the Atlantic Accord: $2.7 billion payable starting this (not last) fiscal year and carried forward to future years. But Ralph piled it all into last year’s spending. Hmmm. Doesn’t sound like generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)?

Add on billions more in next (and future) year’s costs into last year’s budget and $9 billion becomes $1.6 billion.

So I have $100 in my pocket. I know you could really use $50. But I know next year I will spend $75 on a pair of shoes. So I claim to only have $25 and tell you that you are out of luck. But I haven't bought the shoes yet, I might still not buy the shoes, and in any case, between now and then, I might make some more money.

But here's the tricky bit:

Spoiler warning! Here’s Ralph Goodale’s sleight of hand: the $7 billion in future spending he dumped into last year’s budget means there’s $7 billion worth of freed up room to spend. In other words, he just carried $7 billion from the once-$9 billion surplus for last year into this and future fiscal years by moving the expenditure coconuts. Just in time for a pre-election budget. How fortuitous! And I suppose completely unplanned, too.

In other words, since I'm counting that $75 now, I can turn to someone to whom I don't owe money but whom I am trying to impress and say that next year I'm going to have $75 extra to spend of what that person wants.

But if I have $75 to spend on the goodies, don't I have $75 to use to help you out?

So Ralph Goodale pleads poverty when people ask for tax relief at the pumps or in income taxes, but has set himself up to suddenly have billions available around election time.

Sad thing is, it'll probably work. People will forget that the $7 billion he's spending next spring is the same $7 billion he refused to give back to us this year, when he made his annoying surplus just go away.

The Western Standard is about to get some free publicity

The Western Stardard is getting some free publicity from the Ottawa Citizen, courtesy of a very nervous Bruno Labonte:

The chauffeur who accompanied Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew on government-funded trips abroad is considering legal action after an item on a conservative magazine's website questioned whether they had a romantic relationship.

Kevin Libin, editor-in-chief of the Calgary-based Western Standard, wrote in a web log entry this week that the media should have asked about the nature of Mr. Pettigrew's relationship with driver Bruno Labonte following a report that they had travelled together to Europe and South America.

Note that the entry in question never categorically asserted that such a relationship existed. In fact, Libin pondered the fact that to suggest it as a reasonable avenue of investigation should not be considered out of bounds, no more than a question concerning a heterosexual relationship being behind questionable trips:

I cannot imagine that, in a country where same-sex partners have the same rights as heterosexual couples, that suggesting a romantic entanglement between one man and another man would qualify as any sort of slander. And yet, doesn't it seem like there might be more to this tale of the minister and his driver than a strictly professional relationship?

In fact, the whole thrust of the piece is not that such a relationship existed, but that there is a nervousness in the media to ask such a question:

Reporters cannot be oblivious to what this looks like. I know the Tories are secretly gossiping about it. So why, as far as I can tell, is no one asking the minister about this? In a country where gay couples enjoy the same rights as straight ones, shouldn't any relationship be subject to the same questions?

But for asking why no one is asking why, Labonte is pondering legal action.

That is a nervous overeaction to a hypothetical question about a question. He's doing himself no favours. People will wonder if Labonte doth protest too much.

Now unfortunately, the Ottawa Citizen doesn't actually link to either the magazine or the blog with this article, but here's hoping there is a significant increase in traffic at the Western Standard as Labonte's protestations serve only to drive people to wonder what all the hub-bub is about.

Of course, perversely, many of them will leave convinced (or at least strongly suspecting) that Pettigrew and Labonte are gay. Sometimes you just gotta lay low.

Any bets on whether Pettigrew is calling Labonte and telling him to shut it?

Put Chuck Guite in charge of military procurement for Canada

A shocking study from Queen's University talks about the death of Canada's military in five years:

[Chair of defence management studies at Queens Doug] Bland says the problem runs through the army, navy and air force, as key systems age. If nothing is done to streamline the system, the military will begin to lose important capabilities within five years.

"The armed forces, by anyone's estimate, is in a death spiral."

The system to buy new equipment is screwed up beyond belief:

Marsh says the military is planning to spend almost a billion dollars over the next 10 years just to keep its fleet of 2,500 medium trucks running. That's almost $400,000 for each of the vehicles.

They're already 25 years old and it costs more than $38,000 a year just to buy and stock the parts needed to keep each of them going.

He says replacing the fleets would be cheaper than 10 years of maintenance.

"Few of us would keep a car that costs $500 a month to maintain when it could be replaced at $300 a month," he says.

But capital costs come from another budget and a replacement project would require cabinet approval and agreement from other departments, which can take years.

Consider this:

"It usually can take up to nine departments to agree on the purchase of a major Crown project, something worth more than $100 million," Bland said.

Hey, I've got an idea. Chuck Guite and company were able to spend over $300 million on bribes and scams and kickbacks without all that overhead. Maybe we should put him in charge of procuring military equipment. He got things done. Let him skim 2.5% off the top for himself and for Paul Martin, Belinda Stronach, Pierre Pettigrew, Joe Volpe, Ujjal Donsanjh and all the other paragons of government virtue in the Liberal Party. You know, people who care more about those who elected them than their own personal financial and political aggrandizement.

But then maybe that sort of systemic corruption would only work in Quebec.

And anyway, would the Liberal Party really want to help fund an organization dedicated to protecting Canada from anything that threatens Canada's well-being as a nation? Think about it.

Science Fiction: A window into the future? Or just now? No then, but now

From Fox News:

The airliner circled Southern California for hours, crippled by a faulty landing gear, while inside its cabin 140 passengers watched their own life-and-death drama unfolding on live television.

While satellite TV sets aboard JetBlue Flight 292 were tuned to news broadcasts, some passengers cried. Others tried to telephone relatives and one woman sent a text message to her mother in Florida attempting to comfort her in the event she died.

"It was very weird. It would've been so much calmer without" the televisions.

Of course, we can look to science fiction for a prediction that this day would come, when we watched our own lives happening on TV even as it was happening.

Well, not science fiction, pe se. Science fiction parody, actually. Mel Brook's Spaceballs, to be exact.

[More here and here]

Air America: Become a Franken Buddy

Air America is reaching out to you, the listener, for money. And for the right amount of cash, $250 to be exact, you can become a "Franken Buddy".

Carol Jamieson makes her move against Stephen Harper [updated]

Tory organizer Carol Jamieson has made her move, calling for the ouster of Stephen Harper.

Now the fur starts flying -- and yours truly is in the middle of it.

Update: More detail on what happened in the Enza Anderson campaign.

The Pettigrew Affair: Is someone worried?

The Privy Council Office:

In Canada the Privy Council Office is the secretariat of the federal cabinet and the department of the Prime Minister. It provides non-partisan advice and support to the Prime Minister and leadership, coordination and support to the departments and agencies of the government.

Although PCO has grown in size and complexity over the years, its main pillars remain the operations and plans secretariats. Ops is primarily concerned with coordinating the day-to-day issues of government while Plans takes a medium-term view to the evolution of the Canadian federation. Each incoming Prime Minister will re-organize PCO to suit the policy agenda of his government. Today, PCO also includes a department of intergovernmental affairs, secretariats for global affairs, cities and aboriginal affairs, a security and intelligence unit, as well as advisors to the Prime Minister for science, national security and foreign policy.

Why the lesson in what the PCO does? From my Sitemeter:

Domain Name : gc.ca (Canada)
IP Address: 198.103.111.# (Privy Council Office)
ISP: GTIS

Location
Continent: North America
Country: Canada
State/Region: Ontario
City: Ottawa

Reading this post.

Pierre Pettigrew: Asking questions (not that there's anything wrong with that!)

Questions about Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew's spending, in particular bringing his chauffeur along on official trips with the flimsiest justification, are now veering into territory concerning Pettigrew's personal life, and what exactly his chauffeur's duty's entailed.

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Hmmmmm....or maybe someone in the PCO killing a few minutes during lunch.

Pierre Pettigrew: Asking questions (not that there's anything wrong with that!)

Questions about Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew's spending, in particular bringing his chauffeur along on official trips with the flimsiest justification, are now veering into territory concerning Pettigrew's personal life, and what exactly his chauffeur's duty's entailed.

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

The Volpe mystery...solved!

Yes, you heard it here first, on Angry in the Great White North.

Wonkitties at the Publisher's Circle

Rondi Adamson at Wonkitties has posted a series of entries about the Western Standard Publisher's Circle held this past Sunday. And she's got pictures! Taken, I might add, by Mrs. Angry herself, who is a wiz with any digital camera.

I have stolen one of the pictures to post here, as proof of that I actually met Lord Black:

That's Rondi in the middle, and Mrs Angry behind the camera.

Here's a roundup of Rondi's posts:
Please Pass the Preston Manning Mini-Puff Pastries
Most Repeated Joke of the Evening
Rondi Touches a Blogging Tory and Vice Versa
The Kids Love Me
The Case of the Missing Photographs
Neither of us Angry
I'm Too Sexy for Lord Black

By the way, it's true. I was there and I saw it. My wife and Rondi both pestered politely requested that Lord Black into giving up provide his email address.

Joe Volpe: "Two breakfasts please. I'm feeling hungry today!"

A random sampling of ministers, picked from every part of the country, looking at their hospitality expenses for 2005:

• Joe Volpe (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) - $9,507.23


• Jean Lapierre (Minister of Transport) - $7,629.79


• John Efford (Minister of Natural Resources) - $4,308.38


• Pierre Pettigrew (Minister of Foreign Affairs) - $3,282.80


• Ralph Goodale (Minister of Finance) - $1,845.05


• Liza Frulla (Minister of Canadian Heritage) - $1,773.10


• Anne McLellan (Deputy Prime Minister) - $1,130.32


• Geoff Regan (Political Minister for Nova Scotia) - $411.94


• John Godfrey (Minister of State for Infrastructure Canada) - $356.24

Joe Volpe, quite the hospitable guy, eh?

And hungry, too! Two breakfasts, totalling over $300 to the taxpayer, eaten on March 22! Yet somehow he manages to keep that svelte figure.

Time to do a bit more digging, I think.

Pure unadulterated rumour-mongering: Is Air America about to fold?

What the heck. I'm going to indulge in some third-hand rumour-mongering, because it amuses me. From a post on the Democratic Underground:

O'Reilly: Air America about to Fold

Heard him [Bill O'Reilly of Fox News Channel] say this on the radio just now. Is this true? I have not listened much of late because in the summer I do not spend much time listening to the radio but is there any truth to what he is saying?

Air America ia pretty good radio, would hate to see it go before my winter radio listening spree. So does anybody know if there is any truth to what he said?

thanks

It's probably not true, but then with the problems they've been having, who knows?

What problems, you ask? Where have you been? Start here and follow this amazing bit of blogger investigative journalism.

Update: Based on the discussion in my comments, I thought I'd add one little bit to chew on. The original post at the Democratic Underground was amended with a message to all the respondents (and there were many) who allayed her fears. Oddly though, just about every response arguing that AAR ("Air America Radio") was doing fine was based on the fact that they would be moving into a new facility. I can tell you from personal bitter experience that moving into a new office is not a valid way to measure the solvency of a company. Indeed, it can exacerbate financial difficulties, perhaps fatally, when the move, which was based on signed leases from months earlier, happens just when things are dangerously tight, incurring expenses the company can ill afford.

Most of the other reasons offered why AAR is fine:

• Bill O'Reilly is a liar


• Bill O'Reilly was involved in a sexual scandal


• O'Reilly can be spelled O'Lielly


• Bill O'Reilly is a child molester


• Air America ratings are going up (here are the seven links to the ratings evidence provided...<crickets chirping>...)**

** On the other hand, this blogger has actual evidence of dismal AAR ratings.

Technology Partnerships Canada being phased out -- before the scandal happens

There's been an announcement that the controversial Technology Partnerships Canada program is being phased out, to be replaced with a new program. But we haven't even heard what exactly was wrong with the old program, so how can the Opposition tell of the government is doing the new program better than the old one.

Geez, are the federal Liberals are killing programs before the scandals break?

Cindy Sheehan: "I don't even know the woman."

The shape of the mound conforms to the coordinates where the victims fell.

A marker is placed at each coordinate.

A stream winds down to a glade amidst a tall stand of trees.

A quiet suite for family members, located in the Freedom Tower, overlooks the memorial site.

This was one of the ideas for a WTC memorial. It is frankly impractical -- all those markers? And also a bit insensitive -- the towers were 110 stories high, so knowing where your loved one hit the ground at upwards to 120 miles per hour amidst a rain of crashing concrete and steel is, well, creepy.

And of course, there is absolutely no recognition of the fact that this was a site of a terrorist attack, or of the bravery of the firemen and police officers who rushed to the scene, and then died in the collapse of the towers.

Just lots of tall trees (that would somehow be made to thrive in Manhattan).

Yeah, it's a Green Party idea.

But specifically, it is the idea of Paul Zulkowitz, the fellow arrested in New York during the Cindy Sheehan protest by cops who don't seem to really care who Cindy Sheehan is or what she's about.

Architects: Shut up and draw!

With the controversy over the monument to Islamic terrorists to be erected on the site of the crach of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania (see here and here), it is interesting to note that architects, as a general rule, seem to be cut from the same liberal cloth.

Dan Rather: Public service minus the public

Dan Rather comments on the new journalism.

Cindy Sheehan: Who has she actually met?

Cindy Sheehan's bus tours are visiting congressional office after congressional office, and so far, just about no one seems to be home.

Gomery report publication ban unrealistic

From the Globe and Mail:

The judge in charge of the upcoming fraud trial of two key figures in the sponsorship program may have to go to extreme lengths to keep the jury from hearing details from the Gomery report.

Chuck Guite and Jean Brault are to go on trial Oct. 3 on sponsorship-related charges.

Justice Fraser Martin said he may have to sequester the jury for weeks or delay the trial to avoid having jurors hear potentially damaging information from Justice John Gomery's initial report on the sponsorship program.

Judge Gomery's first report is expected Nov. 1, a date that could fall in the middle of the trial.

Crown prosecutor Jacques Dagenais has suggested that the judge could impose a publication ban to delay the release of the Gomery report.

However, Judge [sic] Dagenais and the defence lawyers quickly added that idea would be unrealistic. [emphasis added]

To borrow from Instapundit: Heh.

They don't actually mention bloggers, but I think we all know what they're talking about. Someone somewhere who would profit from the report being made public would leak the report to the blogsophere, probably within hours.

Yup, they'll have to come up with a new plan.

Hans Island: A mature resolution?

From the Toronto Star:

Canada and Denmark will call a truce today in the war of words over disputed Hans Island, a patch of Arctic rock each country claims as its own.

Insiders say Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew and his Danish counterpart, Per Stig Moller, plan to announce in New York that the two countries will draft a protocol for managing their dealings over the tiny island.

Essentially, they've agreed to stop talking about it:

Neither Canada nor Denmark intends to renounce its claim to sovereignty over the windswept outcrop, meaning they have effectively agreed to disagree about ownership.

The longstanding dispute now moves from the political arena to the realm of bureaucrats, who will develop a set of mutually agreed rules to address such issues as notification of the other country in advance of an official visit to the island.

Good news, I suppose. If nothing else, this "resolution" allows Canada to avoid the humiliation of being unable to enforce the claim with the armed forces in its current state.

This is a disquieting end to the article, though:

Canada insists the quarrel is solely about sovereignty of the isle and not surrounding waters.

Does Denmark insist differently? Is the Canadian government suggesting that, as far it is concerned, the sovereignty of the surrounding waters is clearly Canadian, and not even up to debate?

I'm not sure.

And I'm not sure how that statement will play should something of value be discovered in or under those surrounding waters, such as oil. The Hans Island story is on pause only.

More details from the Globe and Mail:

Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew promised Monday a “mature” resolution to Canada's spat with Denmark over control of a tiny Arctic island.

But Mr. Pettigrew also insisted that Canada is not prepared to let Hans Island go, saying Ottawa's position remains clear – the island is a Canadian territory.

“It is our view that Canada has to be quite clear at this time that it will be firm about its sovereignty in the Arctic in the north, and including Hans Island,” he said.

That French attitude that planting the Canadian flag is somehow an "immature" act rankles me. Is our foreign affairs minister another closet separatist, perhaps? Or just one of those peope who laughs at the silly English Canadians and their flags and their anthems and such. How passe!

Under that process, representatives of the two countries will pore over historic maps and other documents relating to the site, looking for a way to resolve the current dispute.

He could not say how long the process would take.

“Officials will be working together, gathering all of the relative information and trying to find a way forward to do this,” he told reporters. “We will settle it, but in a mature way.”

And about the surrounding waters?

Canada insists that the quarrel is not about the surrounding waters, noting that the boundaries of the continental shelf between Ellesmere Island and Greenland were agreed upon in 1973.

There has been widespread speculation, however, that there is much more at stake – such as claims over northern fishing grounds or future access to the Northwest Passage, particularly should global warming make the route more feasible.

What it boils down to is this: some old and mouldy map is not going to make a jot of difference if one side or the other decides they need that island and are willing to make a run at it.

But then that would be so "immature".

Western Standard Publisher's Circle

Last night my wife and I were fortunate to be invited by Ezra Levant to come to the Western Standard Publisher's Circle, an informal get-together of backers of the magazines and luminaries from the conservative media and political world.

It was quite the shindig. I met Lord Black of Crossharbour. Funny guy actually. Called me a "snivelling coward" for not standing up to the liberals who run my office, but it was in jest, and I was not the only one to get a good-natured ribbing about the trials and tribulations about being a conservative in an generally liberal country. For what it's worth, he gave me some things to think about. I might stop being so cautious in the future.

Andrew Coyne was there, and he had a few kind words to say about my blog. Michael Taube of the Toronto Sun was also in attendence, and he and I chatted for quite a while about media and writing columns and pursuing stories.

Several bloggers were there as well, including Stephen Taylor and Bob Tarantino.

I've only scratched the surface -- the night was a bit of a blur, really.

The meet-and-greet was a great success, at least from my perspective. I didn't land any job interviews, but I got to meet a lot of interesting people and got some encouraging words about the blog. I hope I was able to contribute by providing some interesting conversation as well.

Thanks Ezra -- great party!

Separation of Church and State: Apologies not required

The Church of England is taking it upon itself to apologize for the role the United Kingdom played in the Iraq War. We often see examples of the State interfering in sphere's rightly controlled by the Church. Here is a much rarer example of the Church getting mixed up in purely State matters.

Robertson vs Sheehan: Giving thanks for a liberal media

Pat Robertson says something stupid. The media is after every major conservative figure for a reaction to the statements made by this major conservative icon.

Cindy Sheehan says something stupid. The media says little, and no major liberal figure is put into the position of criticizing this major liberal icon.

Hardly seems fair. Thank goodness for that.

Enviro-porn: Getting a woody for a tree

OK, that was one God-awful pun. Sorry.

Cindy Sheehan: Losing focus and playing the blame game

Cindy, Cindy, Cindy. Focus woman. It's Iraq. It's all about Iraq. That's where your son died. Remember him. Casey. In Iraq.

But now she issuing "statements" on New Orleans. Oddly though, these statements seem to consist of the same statements she makes of Iraq, with "New Orleans" being substituted for "Iraq".

The result is downright bizarre.

Brainwashed?

From the Associated Press (hat tip to Drudge):

A woman accused in a multimillion-dollar armored car heist on the Las Vegas Strip surrendered to federal authorities Thursday, saying she was tired of more than a decade on the run and wanted her son to have a normal life.

"I truly feel this is the right thing to do," Heather Catherine Tallchief, 33, said minutes before turning herself in at a federal courthouse.

Her lawyer, Robert Axelrod, said Thursday there was no doubt Tallchief committed the October 1993 theft, but said she was influenced by her then-boyfriend, Roberto Solis, a manipulative ex-con.

"The evidence of the physical acts are quite overwhelming. But there are mitigating factors," Axelrod said. "He brainwashed her."

Brainwashed? Really?

Let's look at the facts of the case.

Respecting picket lines

Picketing is, of course, a time-honoured tradition:

Picketing is a form of non-violent resistance in which people congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place and attempt to dissuade others from going in ("crossing the picket line"). It can have a number of aims, but is generally to put pressure on the party targeted to meet particular demands. This pressure is achieved by harming the business through loss of custom and negative publicity, or by discouraging or preventing workers from entering the site and thereby preventing the business from operating normally.

Picketing is a common tactic used by trade unions during strikes, who will try to prevent dissident members of the union, members of other unions and non-unionised workers from working. Those who cross the picket line and work despite the strike are known as scabs.

Picketing is a targeted protest, designed to force management to meet the demands of the picketing workers. It prevents a business from generating income, or makes life miserable for the managers.

Then what of this?

The reopening of Parliament and the swearing-in of Canada's new governor-general could be on the line this month, after Prime Minister Paul Martin said yesterday he will not cross any pickets set up by locked-out CBC employees.

Speaking to reporters at the United Nations in New York City, Martin was categoric.

"I don't cross picket lines."

Nor is he alone. Yesterday, spokespeople for both New Democrat Jack Layton and the Bloc Quebecois's Gilles Duceppe said their leaders will also respect picket lines, should workers locked out by the CBC set them up.

The government funds the CBC to the tune of about $1 billion a year. But they don't run the CBC. They just foot the bill. A board of governors ultimately runs the CBC (though to meet a government mandate, of course).

To label the government as a picketing target is to label you and me targets too. It's our tax money, after all.

Nor is the opening of Parliament and the swearing in of a new governor-general CBC events. Other media outlets like CTV and Global CanWest and the print media will be covering these events as well.

The reasoning for the picket?

[Marc-Philippe Laurin, president of the Canadian Media Guild's 550-member Ottawa local,] said labour law gives his members the right to picket any location where their employer is having work they normally do done by other employees. That situation could very well arise if the CBC and Radio-Canada pressure non-locked-out employees in Quebec and Moncton to cover the reopening of Parliament or Jean's swearing-in.

If the labour law allows for this to happen, then the Prime Minister needs to make sure that the CBC is not covering the ceremony. Let CTV and Global CanWest and all the rest cover it. I'm certain they'll do a fine job, and the function of government will continue uninterrupted, and the workers' right to picket will be respected.

Indeed, the locked-out workers will benefit, as the CBC management will clearly recognize the escalating cost of the lockout by being frozen out of the opening of Parliament.

Oh, and by the way, it'll show us all one more reason why we don't really need the CBC, and how $1 billion could be returned to the taxpayers every year.

What are plague mice doing at UMDNJ?

There is disturbing news about mice infected with plague missing from the Public Health Research Institute, on the campus of of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The FBI is investigating, since it is not clear if this was a case of bad lab practices or a criminal theft.

The FBI is very familiar with the UMDNJ, given that they've been there quite a bit over the last few months. Makes you wonder why they US government would trust this outfit to do bioterrorism research.

New Orleans Mayor gets almost Biblical

New Orleans is coming back to life:

The New Orleans central business district and the historic French Quarter will reopen over the weekend, nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, Mayor Ray Nagin said on Thursday.

"We're ready to start the re-entry process," Nagin told a news conference.

But as people are let back in, the mayor has a warning for them:

Well-armed security forces will strictly enforce a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

"We are not taking any crap," Nagin said. "If you come back to this city and you think it's going to be the way it was before, we have a rude awakening for you."

He said soldiers, National Guardsmen and police from all over the country had helped clean out violent criminals.

That puts New Orleans in an almost enviable position:

"This city, for the first time that I can remember, is drug-free and violence-free," Nagin said.

Well, it's almost people-free.

Still, what a weird situation. No one for a minute should be happy that Katrina hit the Gulf Coast the way it did. I for one don't believe that this was a Biblical event, a Sodom and Gommorah moment.

On the other hand, making lemonade out of the Category 5 lemon is not an unreasonable thing to do.

So how does the mayor keep New Orleans drug-free and violence-free? I don't have the answer myself, but I would hope some people are giving this some thought.

Careful vetting of who is allowed back in the city? Known criminals would be turned away? Would that even be legal?

A heavy National Guard presence for a significant amount of time until an effective police force can be put together? How long would the federal government allow that to go on, especially since Guardsmen aren't trained police officers? And then there are the legalities again of using a federal force for policing when the emergency has passed.

Maybe an advertising campaign? Something to promote keeping the city free of crime? But how do you do that in a way that does not insult the memory of the people who died?

Or cross our fingers and hope that New Orleans does not become as bad as it used to be? I'm betting that this is going to be the "plan".

Student columnist fired for promoting racial profiling

I guess that's part of being a student. Learning lessons. And Jillian Bandes learned an important lesson of keeping her mouth shut on a university campus in the United States.

Ken Livingstone: Opens mouth, offends everyone, no news here

Well, it might not be news when London Mayor Ken Livingstone manages to offend everyone within earshot, but it is amusing to watch the ease with which he does it.

What did he do this time? He compared terrorist apologist Yusef al-Qaradawi with Pope John XXIII, calling them "similar".

The Minutemen face north

The Phantom Observer has a story about the Minutemen, a group of private American citizens who have gained notoriety for patrolling the US-Mexico border on the lookout for illegal immigrants and terrorists, setting up a camp at the Canadian border near Blaine, Washington.

On the lookout for weed shipments, perhaps.

The Observer promises to track this story for the next while, in part because he was unimpressed with the way the Canadian media is handling it, and will let us know if the Minutemen catch anyone.

Paul Martin: Smitten by celebrity

Ever notice how smitten Prime Minister Paul Martin is by celebrities? It's kind of embarassing to watch.

First, there is Bono.

The PM treats Bono like he was some sort of head of state. Bono represents no one but Bono. He might have some good ideas, but so do millions of Canadians.

Then there is Michaelle Jean.

So how much time did Paul Martin spend on this choice for Governor General?

"Once he (Mr. Martin) was in love with the name and in love with the woman, he wanted her appointed as soon as possible," said [Helene Scherrer, the most senior Quebec member in the Prime Minister's Office].

"I remember one morning while we were just informally discussing with the senior staff. I think he watches Radio-Canada and had seen her on TV. It did not take long. I did not have to convince him. He said yes right away."

On the following Monday, Mr. Martin asked Ms. Scherrer if Ms. Jean had been approached about the job.

"I said, 'No, I didn't think you were that serious on Friday,' and that it was a rush. And he said, 'Yes, I want you to see her.'

"I said, 'This is it?' And he said, 'Yes it is. That's the one.' "

And now, Canadian Idol Melissa O'Neil:

Melissa O'Neil, the 17-year-old powerhouse from Calgary who won over fans with her emotional vocals and poised stage presence, is the latest Canadian Idol.

Ms. O'Neil received a congratulatory call from Prime Minister Paul Martin directly after the show.

Though George W Bush is famous, he's not a celebrity:

[British Columbia Premier Gordon] Campbell said Aug. 11 that Canada’s Prime Minister Paul Martin promised he would speak directly to President George W. Bush about the latest lumber developments.

Well, that was 35 days ago. A lot has happened, including Hurricane Katrina, but even if it would bad form to start complaining about the softwood lumber problem, it would be very reasonable to suggest to the President (via the ambassador) that they should set another date to have that call.

Ralph Goodale and Mark Holland: Economics geniuses

No tax reduction on gas, because, you know, it won't make a difference. Plus expensive gas is good for the environment, dontcha know.

Pierre Pettigrew: Stealing and lying

Our minister of foreign affairs, Pierre Pettigrew, steals money and then lies about it.

There is no sugar-coating it.

Daman Wayans: The Chickenhawk Meme -- Now X-rated!

Daman Wayans, alleged comedian, is repeating the chickenhawk meme, in which he would send his sons to fight in Iraq if George W Bush sends the twins.

Put aside all the logic about all-volunteer armies and so forth. Daman Wayans adds a twist:

That was funnyman Damon Wayans in Orlando the other day going nuclear on President Bush - and twins Jenna and Barbara - over the war in Iraq and the possible reinstatement of a military draft. "I'll send my sons if he sends his daughters," Wayans told the crowd, including Daily News contributor Jawn Murray, at Tom Joyner's Family Reunion in Disneyworld. "Put those two drunk b-s on a plane and let them go fight. At least I know my sons would be getting some on the way."

I wonder if Daman Wayans would think it was funny if George W Bush suggested that when they're old enough, instead of taking Daman's sons, daughters Cara Mia (18) and Kyla (14) were sent overseas to "entertain the troops".

Hey, Cara is old enough. So what about it, Daman? Still funny?

And the jerk made these comments at Disneyworld of all places. A father should know better than to say stupid things like this. Especially in public. When his wife and family might hear.

(Hit tip to Taegan Goddard)

Do you have concerns about the Calgary Police Service?

If so, consider submitting to this independent review.

PETA brings back "Black people are animals" ads

A day after I posted my piece on Koko the Naughty Talking Ape, which came a day after I posted a piece on whether being more isolated on the Tree of Life is such a bad thing for Homo Sapiens, news that PETA is back with the provocative ad campaign that caused such a ruckus a month ago:

One month after suspending a provocative display comparing animal cruelty to slavery, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is resuming the traveling show on the West Coast.

PETA came under fire after a man began yelling that the exhibit was racist during an Aug. 8 showing in New Haven, Conn. The incident outraged national civil rights groups, who said it demeaned blacks.

But after weeks of reviewing e-mail and conducting an online poll, PETA officials are confident the exhibit should continue, said spokeswoman Dawn Carr.

Ingrid Newkirk is sorry, but not really:

In a lengthy statement, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk defended the decision, even as she acknowledged the display's unintended impact.

"I unequivocally apologize for the hurt and upset that this exhibit has caused some of its viewers,'' she wrote. "I realize that old wounds can be slow to heal, and for not helping them heal, I am also sorry.

"That said, I would fail in my duty if I allowed this exhibit to disappear.''

Call me a cynic, but I wonder whether with all the news attention focused on Katrina and the John Roberts nomination, PETA decided they needed to do something, anything, to get people to focus on what's really important.

Whatever the reason, doing anything that smacks of racism is downright stupid given the feelings running so high on the subject in the aftermath of Katrina. Somehow I don't think the PETA folks ever even considered that. They just don't seem to connect with the rest of us.

Might as well stop blogging now

With a hat tip to Instapundit, Wal-Mart now has a blog.

Of course, Wal-Mart can use its superior buying power and its predatory business practices to offer opinions at a much lower cost and much higher volume than a mom-and-pop blog such as my own. Though I will try to maintain this blog for as long as I can, I expect that soon opinion suppliers that I currently use (my brain cells) will be entering into exclusive supplier arrangements with the Wal-Mart blog.

My typing fingers are, of course, unionized, and in particular the left and right index fingers demand rest breaks on the F and J keys every 2 minutes or so. It is unlikely that I can successfully renegotiate my agreement with them, so the non-union fingers of the Wal-Mart blogger will soon overtake me in terms of productivity, if not on fair treatment of workers.

In order to survive, I will try to move into a haute couture niche of opinion making. This will include new features such as working the phrase "haute couture" into every post. Time will tell if this haute couture quality idea works.

[Something not so amusing -- a union picket of a Wal-Mart in Nevada. Of course, who wants to picket in 104F temperatures? Not union workers, of course. So the union hired non-union temps at $6 an hour and no benefits to do the actual picketing!]

McGuinty discovers the secret to treating all religious groups equally

Apparently it is to treat them with equal measures of disdain.

Signing Apes

In my piece about the possible up-side to being an isolated branch on the Tree of Life (if the Great Apes do indeed become extinct), one reader responded with what is probably the standard "Why we need to preserve apes" mantra:

I think saving Gorillas is vital to our survival! We can learn so much about ourselves by studying their habits and nature. Any animal that can learn to communicate through sign language deserves to be preserved!

I know his feelings on the matter are sincere, and widely shared. I don't want the Great Apes to become extinct, but I pointed out that should it happen, we must recognize that a known source of potentially lethal viral infections would disappear with them.

But vital to our survival? Specifically how?

Learn about ourselves? Exactly what new insights would we get?

Sign language? Well, that reminded me of an essay I had on my old blog, one that I thought was worthy of posting here, which I have done. It deals with the whole controversry with regards to signing apes, and the salacious lawsuit surrounding the most famous signing ape of all, Koko.

I've reprinted the essay with only minor changes, but as an update, you should know that since the essay was written, a third woman has entered into the lawsuit. No report of a resolution yet, but Court TV has an excellent extended article on the legal case here.

What lawsuit? Read on.

Catholic Carnival

This week's Catholic Carnival is up. My piece on the Sharia law debacle in Ontario made the cut.

Great Canadian Blog Survery

Take minute and fill it out
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Christianity: Deception and Lies

From Syracuse:

Three Indonesian women who ran a Christian Sunday school program were convicted and sentenced Sept. 1 to three years in prison for allowing Muslim children to attend their school.

The judges cited the Child Protection Act of 2002, which forbids "deception, lies or enticement" of children that might lead to their conversion.

The program, called "Happy Sunday," was run out of the homes of the three women.

Still think Islamic legal thinking is consistent with the Western tradition, in any context? Still think giving this legal system a foothold in our society is a good idea?

Remember, this is not a rogue fundamentalist element, like some Christian cult hiding in the woods with a cache of weapons waiting for the Rapture. There is no such thing as Islamic fundamentalism in the Western sense. A Christian fundamentalist is characterized by the literal interpretation of the Bible. All Muslims believe that the Koran is not subject to interpretation, but must be taken at face value.

That Indonesia has such a law is what it means to have Islamic law. Again, I'm not talking about the details, but the principles. The principle of Judaism is that it is the faith of God's Chosen People, and that they should retain Jewish identity and resist conversion, not with violence, but with faith:

[Rabbi Avrahom Erlenwein, advisor for the Jewish Student's Organization at the University of Washington] added, "For anyone to say that a Jew who accepts the Christian doctrines is still in line with Judaism is mistaken," calling such a mindset "an uprooting of the fundamentals of Jewish faith."

[Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz, national director of Jews for Judaism,] was quick to point out that the purpose of his lecture was not to attack anyone else's beliefs, but rather to protect those of Jewish people from being infringed upon.

"In Judaism," he explained, "we believe everyone has the right to choose his or her own beliefs."

Erlenwein agreed, saying, "We are 'Jews for Judaism,' not 'Jews against Christianity.'"

The principle of Christianity is that conversion is a process of intellectual enlightenment that can only truly be achieved in a state of natural freedom:

Force, violence, or fraud may not be employed to bring about the conversion of an unbeliever. Such means would be sinful. The natural law, the law of Christ, the nature of faith, the teaching and practice of the Church forbid such means. Credere voluntatis est, to believe depends upon the free will, says St. Thomas (II-II:10:8), and the minister of baptism, before administering the sacrament, is obliged to ask the question, "Wilt thou be baptized"? And only after having received the answer, "I will", may he proceed with the sacred rite.

The Constitution of the United States of America proclaims complete separation of Church and State and guarantees full liberty of conscience. In consequence the laws of these States place no hindrance whatever in the way of conversions. It may also be said that on the whole the American people are socially tolerant towards converts. No wonder that in this country's conversions are comparatively more numerous than in most others.

What about Islam?

All the major schools of Islamic law (Shari’ah) agree that Muslim men who convert from Islam should be put to death, their marriages annulled, and their children and property taken away. This tradition is upheld and taught by many Muslim religious leaders around the world. In countries like Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia the death sentence for leaving Islam is part of the law of the land. In other countries they may be arrested on various pretexts and often beaten, tortured or imprisoned.

Even under more moderate Muslim authorities, such as those in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, converts may still face widespread hostility and aggression from their own families and communities. In several countries converts have been murdered by Islamic extremist groups, others have been killed by individual Muslims who believe they are doing the will of Allah by taking the law into their own hands.

It's about the principles. They just don't mesh.

Saving the Great Apes: A downside?

Conservationists are ecstatic at the signing of an accord in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, that aims to stabilize, then increase, the populations of great apes. They are our closest living relatives, sharing 98.5% of our DNA heritage.

And that's where I get nervous, because maybe being an isolated branch on the Tree of Life, with no close genetic relatives, is not such a bad thing.

Flight 93: Losing out to the squid show

The Discovery Channel in the United States showed "93: The Flight that Fought Back" in prime time Sunday night, as part of the recognition of the events of 9/11.

Michelle Malkin asks:

Did you watch the Discovery Channel documentary last night on Flight 93?

Did you weep and curse and cheer?

Well, the honest answer is "No", because Discovery Channel Canada showed "Killer Squid":

In Mexico's Sea of Cortez, fishermen talk of a sea monster, an enormous flesh-eating squid. They tell of men pulled from boats and dragged to their deaths by these real-life Krakens, monstrous carnivorous squid they call "los diablos rojos," the "red demons".

There are real demons in the world, living on land and allegedly following Allah, who kill men, women, and children, indiscriminately, all over the world.

But Canadians are better prepared to deal with squids.

This isn't even a Canadian content issue. The squid lives in Mexico, and the filmmakers, Mike De Gruy and Jacquie Cozens, are American and Irish, respectively. Maybe the reasoning was that "93" was too American in theme for Discovery Canada.

Too bad. Canadians were denied a chance to watch something that was by all accounts a testament to boundless courage. Not to mention that this programming choice is a slap in the face to the brave people of Flight 93. Just another example of insensitivity.

TV has too few chances to truly affect the viewer and to inspire the viewer to be a better person. To think more about his fellow man, to think about what he or she would do in a moment of choice, when lives are on the line. Someone figured, though, that we Canadians would be better served learning about squids.

I wonder if it is official policy across all Canadian broadcasters to avoid stories of inspiration and personal bravery. We might start getting uppity, take chances, and begin thinking about taking control of our own lives. Better a society of milquetoasts.

Gomery report delayed

From CTV:

Justice John Gomery's final report on the sponsorship scandal will be delayed by six weeks, likely pushing back the date of a federal election to March 2006 at the earliest.

Prime Minister Paul Martin has promised to call an election 30 days after that final report is issued.

Previously, it had been set to be released on Dec. 15. But the Gomery Commission said today that the date has been set back to Feb. 1, 2006.

Frankly, I'm not too sure what to say about this. Part of me thinks any delay helps the Liberals. Another part says that they've gotten all the help they're going to get having avoided a summer election, and that this doesn't make a difference.

The optimistic part of me says that a delay gives the Liberals more time to step into another scandal. The pessimistic part of me says the same goes for the Conservatives.

But then the final report is not the one likely to fire up the electorate, assuming the Adscam scandal has any chance at all of doing that:

Conservative Deputy Leader Peter MacKay, speaking on CTV's Question Period on Sunday, suggested the party may act after Gomery's initial report is released -- on Nov. 1.

"We're not going to rule anything out," MacKay said.

The first report on the scandal will issue findings of misconduct on officials responsible for the mismanagement of funds, and lay out the facts behind the wasted money. It is still scheduled to be delivered on time.

The final report will deal with recommendations to prevent a similar scandal from occurring again.

The Conservatives might argue that the most obvious recommendation, that is, to install a new government, is not likely to be in the report, and so there's no point in waiting.

Like in all things political, the polls will be tracked very closely.

Al Jazeera remembers 9/11

And remembers it in a way only Al Jazeera can, with all the "Blame Bush" and "It's America's fault" and "It was a conspriracy!" craziness it could muster. But in this case, it contracts the looniness from the US, from a Bush-bashing Jew, of all people. Of course, it hides that detail.

Update: A reader correclty points out that Aljazeera.com and Aljazeera.net are two different entities. I didn't know that, and a quick look around the blogosphere tells me I'm not the only one. The .net entity runs the TV network, so I've struck out the reference in my posting. I've found some interesting tidbits concerning the relationship between the two Al Jazeeras, and I'll be posting that soon.

Faith-based arbitration in Ontario: Consistently wrong decisions

I haven't written about this because I have to admit I was all over the map on this issue (good idea/bad idea/good idea/grrrr!). I think I understand why, now that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has decided not only that there will be no Islamic-based arbitration of family disputes, but no faith-based arbitration whatsoever.

When I heard that, it all fell into place.

Remembering the Holocaust is offensive to some

Remembering the Holocaust is offensive to Muslims, so better scratch that idea.

But then Sir Iqbal Sacranie, one of those offended, seems to make it his business to be offended 24/7.

Katrina: Thankfully it didn't hit Canada on the long weekend

Because you know the emergency guys are home doing the barbecue thing on the long weekend.

Or maybe not. But whatever the truth, the comedy of errors that happened while the Navy was preparing to send a relief mission to the Katrina disaster area should be seen as an opportunity to hold a public and detailed investigation in how prepared the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness really is.

Cindy Sheehan: Drawing the short straw

Cindy Sheehan's tour of empty congressional offices continues. Today it was San Francisco, to meet with Senator Dianne Feinstein:

Feinstein was not at her office and did not meet with Sheehan.

Or not meet with her.

Some unidentified staffer was there though:

Cindy Sheehan met in San Francisco Friday with a member of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's staff.

Wow, now that's real pull for you.

How much you wanna bet that staffer had a short straw crushed in his angry grip?

Kennedy and Leahy: Katrina suffering was John Roberts' fault

Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) are planning to link John Roberts, George W Bush's nominee for the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, to the suffering of those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Katrina: Canucks to become pawns in the infighting?

A group of fast acting Canadian rescuers is earning well-deserved praise, but are also being put in the uncomfortable position of being held as examples of what went wrong with the American response to Katrina.

Jean Chretien: Was the target of a putsch

The Globe and Mail is carrying a story about a planned putsch against Jean Chretien had the Quebec Referendum on October 30, 1995 had gone in favour of separation. Recall that the vote was 50.6% against separation.

I think the "putsch" would have targeted more people than just the Prime Minister.

Michael Brown: From bad to worse [update]

New allegations of resume-padding makes me wonder if FEMA director Michael Brown should consider resigning.

Update: He's been relieved of his duties.

OK, I made a mistake, but this one is a whopper!

I haven't blogged today pending the resolution of the Carol Jamieson situation. Some people have told me that I was too harsh on myself, worried that I would lose confidence, but I've assured them that instead, I feel invigourated, having not merely posted a correction, but actually having investigated the matter myself and determining the true story.

But whatever mistakes I made, at least I didn't claim anyone was dead!

Retraction: An apology to Carol Jamieson and the Globe and Mail [updates]

[The latest on the Carol Jamieson story]

Based on information from a trusted source, I posted a story yesterday in which I repeated an allegation that Carol Jamieson was not a current member of the Conservative Party of Canada. This was important because of this quote from the Globe and Mail:

Deputy Leader Peter MacKay, former leader of the PCs, said it was simply part of a planned organizational restructuring and "these changes are nothing to be alarmed about."

But others from his wing of the party said it was a deliberate move to entrench the dominance of the former Alliance.

Those who have been fired "are either people who are dissenting about what Harper is doing or they are former Progressive Conservatives," said Carol Jamieson, a party organizer in Toronto.

"It looks to me right now that within four weeks, the entire structure will be Canadian Alliance."

If she were not a member of the party, then her opinion would be that of an outsider, no more valuable than mine, and I said as much.

I also tore into the Globe and Mail, and into reporters Brian Laghi and Gloria Galloway, for having printed this quote from someone who was not a party organizer.

Well, so much for trusted sources. I learned some important lessons, and I'll share them with you, even though I'll take a well deserved beating for it:

1. There is no such thing as a trusted source. Period. Everything gets checked and double checked. That has been my habit. Now it is my rule.


2. Apologies have to be public and have to be big. I hope this counts.


3. Never rush anything.

With my doubts multiplying quickly over the 12 hours since I posted the piece, I decided this morning that I needed to treat this as any other story I post, worthy of research, contacting original sources, scouring databases, and so on and so forth. In other words, what I do every day. So I started by contacting Carol Jamieson. This is her response (actually two emails stitched togther) to my initial query:

I am a member of the CPC, and previously the PCPC and have been since about 1967. I am a current Director of the Riding Assoc of Etobicoke Lakeshore and Etobicoke North, and as I suppose you know, you cannot sit on a riding bd unless you are a member.

As for participation, I have been both a paid and volunteer organizer for the party over the years I have been a member. I currently serve as Vice Chair of the Presidents Council of the GTA ridings.

According to the constitution of the CPC, you cannot sit on a Bd unless you are paid up member. I sit on 2, and, as I said before, am the Vice Chair of the Presidents Council of the GTA ridings. Also, you cannot be a delegate to a policy convention or annual meeting, which I was in March.

I currently have a 3 year membership and have a receipt for same.

And OBTW, there is more than one Carol Jamieson in Ontario, and I have never contributed 1 dollar to the Liberal party.

Here is close-up of that receipt:

The date of the receipt is 6/1/2005 10:18 AM; it appears at the bottom.

As for the election database lookup, I did not realize that her first initial was "M" (and I'm not apologizing for that -- "Carol" never appears in the correct entries). I checked back, and the correct Jamieson was a long-time, generous, and exclusive supporter of the Progressive Conservatives.

Remember this name mix-up -- it's important.

What is going on here? Was someone** using me? I think there are still serious issues inside the CPC between the Alliance wing and the PC wing, and some bright spark thought he could use bloggers to punish the other side. Or perhaps this is a fight based on some other issue unrelated to Alliance vs PC, driven by other divisions and rivalries within the CPC.

More from Carol Jamieson (quoted with her permission):

Although I am not supposed to know this, certain National Councillors and staffers would prefer that I not be a member of this Party, and removing my membership is being discussed at the highest levels.

Personally, I find it fascinating that people on National Council and in the Leader's office have the time to be bothered with this sort of petty BS when they should be trying to figure out why they are unable to get any traction with the electorate, despite years and years of corrupt Liberal governments. That in a nutshell is my issue with this lot of losers.

[I'm] the same nobody who personally put over 500 delegates on the convention floor for Peter MacKay as co-chair for Ontario and was Ontario Chair for Belinda Stronach.

I've forgotten more about Canadian politics in the last week, than the current party staff ever knew!

In the touring that I've been doing this summer to Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa and the west, I have found very few CPC members who feel any differently than I do about the current state of affairs. In fact, many good organizers have just given up and will not work for the party in the next election. It's a very sad situation that's going absolutely no where.

A sad situation indeed. At least my feeling that it was difficult to imagine Jamieson and Harper in the same party was not far off the mark -- I take what little solace I can in that.

If these same people think that their time is best spent sniping at each other, it's no wonder the Liberals are in power.

I'm not going to get into a debate over which side is better at politics, or whether Carol Jamieson is actually being discussed at "the highest levels", or if she just wishes that were true.

You have to decide who has more credibility on these subjects.

But I will take a stand against feeding bloggers bogus information. So how did this happen? Why did someone think that Jamieson was no longer a member? According to Stephen Taylor, the expired membership was under the name "Carol M Jamieson". As the receipt I obtained shows, the new membership is under the name "Margaret Jamieson".

An innocent clerical mix-up, right? Well, not really. Though I understand how the mistake was made (recall that I made exactly the same one when I was checking the Elections Canada database), the fact remains that one Conservative thought it would be clever to take a pot shot at another Conservative, and thought bloggers would be a good way to deliver that shot.

That was his second mistake. You don't use bloggers for your personal vendettas. Ever. We find out the truth, and we post evidence and, if necessary, corrections and retractions. If we're wrong, we take our lumps. Maybe this person is hoping I will not backpedal for fear of looking stupid. That I would sweat at the possibility of issuing a retraction.

I've looked stupid before, and I'm sure in the future I'll look stupid again. It's no big deal. Better stupid and honest than a clever liar, now that I know the truth. Hey, I've got kids. I want them to remember that Papa was an honest man, always. For me this is the easiest choice in the world to make. Heck, even if it kills my blog and my dream of going into media full time, leaving me in this dead-end and boring job, so be it.

Spreading falsehoods, maliciously or not, and damaging someone's reputation? No dream is worth that.

Now to some specific messages.

To Carol Jamieson: I am sorry. I besmirched your reputation and for that I am ashamed. Politics can be a dirty game, of course, but that doesn't excuse what could have easily been avoided by a quick and easy email. I was lazy and for that you've suffered (though hopefully not too much). If you'd like to respond, I'll post any response you care to send to me, unedited, on this blog. It is the very least I can do, and hardly enough by my reckoning.

To the Globe and Mail, and to Brian Laghi and Gloria Galloway: I am sorry. I thought I had something here. You guys are the pros, and I should remember that and think carefully before I alleged a serious mistake. As with Carol Jamieson, if you want an opportunity to post something about how arrogant two-bit bloggers need to calm down, I'll put it up here for you.

To the trusted source: Don't call.

To my readers: What a screw-up, eh? Well, at least I pulled the story in under 24 hours (with minutes to spare). Posting this correction took a bit longer in order to incorporate last minute details of the events that transpired. I hope you take away from this a lesson in skepticism. Being skeptical has served me well, and when I put my skepticism aside, like I did here, I get burned. So don't trust anything you read, even if you read it here.

There might be more fallout from this. I'll let you know. I do expect that I won't be welcome any time soon as a member of the CPC.

Well, that's it for now. I debated about turning off comments for this post, since sometimes you just have to say your bit, step away from the podium, and walk away. But what the heck, say what you've got to say.

**By the way, that "someone" is not Stephen Taylor. He's just a blogger, like me.

Update: I received an unsolicited email from Globe & Mail reporter Gloria Galloway (who knew she was keeping tabs?):

Wow. Thanks for the mea culpa.

But we’ve got broad shoulders. And, as you correctly point out in citing the Bouchard brouhaha, we are capable of making mistakes that far outstrip a misunderstanding over party memberships.

Cheers

Gloria

Thanks Gloria, I appreciate your understanding.

Retraction: Stay tuned for an important update

Stay tuned...

OK, it's up.

The Globe and Mail: Not letting the facts get in the way of a good story [retracted]

The Globe and Mail, in its rush to make the Conservative Party look bad, printed this on its front page:

Those who have been fired "are either people who are dissenting about what Harper is doing or they are former Progressive Conservatives," said Carol Jamieson, a party organizer in Toronto.

"It looks to me right now that within four weeks, the entire structure will be Canadian Alliance."

Wow, all that inside information. All that dirty laundry being aired out.

Problem is, as revealed by Stephen Taylor, Carol Jamieson is hardly a party organizer:

These poor reporters without enough time to check their facts neglected to discover that Carol Jamieson is neither an organizer for the Conservative Party... nor (wait for it)... is she even a member of the Conservative Party of Canada!

I eagerly wait for the postage stamp size correction buried in the back pages in about two weeks time.

There is a Carol Jamieson who is running to be a Toronto City Councillor:

Toronto voters are disappointed with City politicians after years of high taxes, deteriorating services and bad business decisions.

The MFP scandal is only one symptom of a bigger problem with a Council that lacks the basic business skills to protect residents.

Ward 13 residents are ready for a straight-talking, fiscally responsible Councillor. There is much hard work to be done to restore respect for the voters and their hard-earned tax dollars at City Hall.

I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get the job done.

There is a Carol Jamieson who donated to the old Progressive Conservative party in 1993 and in 2000 ($102.00 and $305.14 respectively) and to the Liberal Party in 1999 ($400), but nothing since, and certainly not to the Conservative Party of Canada. Might be the same person, might not.

There is nothing in her biography, or in the elections database, that suggests there is a Carol Jamieson who is currently a party organizer for the Conservative Party.

I spent 10 minutes checking. I might do more checking later. But then the Globe and Mail isn't sending me a paycheque, so maybe I won't bother. Unless the paper wants to send me this week's paycheques for reporters Brian Laghi and Gloria Galloway. Might teach them a lesson the next time they try to pass off this dreck as journalism.

Update: OK, I did ten minutes more worth of research. Carol Jamieson was a prominent Tory (ie, the old Progressive Conservative Party) and earned some notoriety with the Enza Anderson affair:

Were Tory supporters hoping to use Enza “Supermodel” Anderson to embarrass the Canadian Alliance?

At least two people with Progressive Conservative connections have offered financial and logistical assistance to Enza, the drag queen best known for her third-place showing in Toronto’s mayoral race two years ago.

Cameron MacLeod, a former Tory riding association president in Trinity-Spadina, and Carol Jamieson, a prominent West End Toronto Tory, left Enza’s campaign in early January. They had contacted the Enza campaign them-selves in June to offer assistance.

Frankly, this clinches it for me. I can't see a old-school Tory who would go to such lengths to humiliate the Alliance ever agreeing to work under Stephen Harper. Nor could I see Stephen Harper trusting someone like Jamieson with a high profile job inside the new Party.

I think Galloway is labelling Jamieson a "party organizer" from whatever work she did years ago for the PC party. Jamieson's opinion about what is going on inside the Conservative Party is about as informed as mine. She is certainly no insider, and the Globe and Mail should at least make that clear to its readers.

Kanye West: A man under a lot of pressure

Kanye West, a hip-hop performer of some note, made headlines when, during his appearance on a telethon to raise money for Katrina relief, he departed from the script and delivered a nasty screed against President George W Bush, accusing him of not caring for black people.

Well, West will be performing next at the NFL's opening kickoff concert, and promises to behave:

"I don't want to detract from the show at all, because it's entertainment, and a lot of times, in a time of need, we need entertainment to lift people's spirits," West said Tuesday during a news conference to promote Thursday's free concert at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

On Tuesday, the Grammy-winning rapper did not elaborate on his comments at the "Concert for Hurricane Relief." Looking glum, West sidestepped questions about the remarks, noting that the week's events have been "a lot of pressure for one human being."

Which human being? President Bush? DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff? New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin? Any of the hundreds of thousands actually affected by the hurricane?

Or is he talking about himself?! Oh, poor baby. Everything is forgiven. Of course the disaster has affected you particulary hard. Go have a lie down. You've been under a lot of stress, doing, well, whatever it is that you do. I can only imagine how hard it is to hip-hop (is that a verb?) in New York while all those people are suffering somewhere else. It is a heavy responsibility you bear. We are so lucky that you managed to bear it with so much dignity.

Too stupid to even apologize right.

New Orleans: Police vs the Army -- Orders at odds

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is ordering his police force to empty the city:

The mayor of New Orleans has ordered law enforcement agencies to remove from the city everyone who is not involved in cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina, whether they want to go or not.

However, the military will not be involved. Worse, they will continue to work at odds with the forced evacuation order:

Lt. Gen. Russel Honore told CNN the task of removing people against their will was a law enforcement job and that the military would continue to deliver food and water to the survivors still in the city.

What happens if a military team delivering food to a citizen meets up with police determined to haul that person away? I expect common sense to prevail, but the fact is that the military is making it easier for people to stay, which is at odds with what the police are trying to accomplish. Will police stop military units from delivering food into an area that they plan to sweep for people to evacuate? What will a military unit do, faced with someone attempting to prevent them from following their orders?

Sounds like cooperation between local and federal officials has some way to go.

FEMA: Spinning the disaster recovery effort

The Smoking Gun has a copy of a directive from Michael Brown, Federal Emergency Management Agency boss, to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, in which Brown directs personnel assigned to disaster work to "convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials".

Cindy Sheehan: Advised to cancel another event

Cindy Sheehan is advised to cancel her appearance to protest the Blue Angels demonstration at Brunswick Naval Air Station in Maine. My thinking is that the optics were bad, and her media handlers want to make sure Cindy Sheehan is never upstaged in public.

Katrina: Louisiana Superdome to come down

From CNN:

The Louisiana Superdome was so heavily damaged during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath that it likely will have to be torn down, according to a spokesperson for Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.

Katrina sheared away much of the roof's covering, and rainwater began leaking into the stadium when it was being used as a shelter of last resort for thousands of residents stranded by the storm.

The Superdome is the home of the New Orleans Saints professional football team. The NFL season begins this weekend, and it is not clear where the Saints will play this season.

Readers who are NFL fans can speculate on where the Saints will go.

For more on the history of the Superdome, now likely to be cut short, Wikipedia has a write-up:

More Super Bowls have been played at the Louisiana Superdome than at any other sports facility: 1978, 1981, 1986, 1990, 1997, and 2002. The Superdome also hosts the Sugar Bowl, the New Orleans Bowl, Tulane University college football home games, and the Bayou Classic football game between two historically black universities, Grambling State and Southern University. The facility has also hosted several NCAA college basketball Final Fours: 1982, 1987, 1993, and 2003.

Update: I'm going to add my voice to the chorus of people asking why the dome has to come down.

First, why was it being discussed, much less announced, given that the fate of a sports facility should not be on anyone's radar screen at a time like this?

Second, I'd like to hear from an engineer about why the dome is doomed. During the storm, people were assured that the roofing sections being peeled away did not contribute to the structural strength of the dome, and I think that's probably true. The dome is a fixed structure, not the kind that opens, so it's not like the roof got knocked off its rails. Perhaps the flood waters have irreparably compromised the foundation, but then how did they know that? Did they send an inspection team? If so, going back to the first point, why now?

Third, it doesn't seem like the disgusting state of the interior should matter. Everything in New Orleans is flooded by several feet of sewage. Is it all coming down? Indeed, a sports facility is more easily cleaned up than most other structures, I would think. If the Superdome is anything like the Skydome in Toronto, there are few carpeted surfaces, but lots of non-porous concrete floors and hard plastic chairs and benches. All designed for the quick mopping up of spilled beer and dropped nachos.

Something smells funny here, and it isn't the mess from the evacuation.

Katrina: A word to those who are providing shelter

From Memphis, a story about government help, which is often slow and bureaucratic and without heart:

But some evacuees, like Shawn August, tell us they can't find that "official" help. "They just give me a number or voice mail to call. They tell me to call and leave a message and no one ever calls back," he says.

It is tempting to look to private organizations, especially faith-based ones, for help:

Pastor Vincent Tharpe of “New Birth Covenant Church” is getting ready for his new guests. "Right here in the kitchen we have stuff already for the evacuees. Bread, snacks, the table is set," Tharpe says.

But one thing to remember, the government is trying to keep things organized:

Emergency Management Director Claude Talford says having a big heart is not enough. "We're trying to get people to the official shelters so we can get a count of how many people are there. Churches are not reporting to us so we have no control of that," Talford says.

City leaders urge shelter directors or evacuees themselves to register with the Red Cross so that evacuees can receive full benefits. The Memphis office is located at 1400 Central Avenue in Midtown Memphis. Also, FEMA needs the information. Call them at 1-800-621-FEMA.

Remember that the government is trying to reunite families. Officials also need to know how much aid needs to be delivered to each area, so they don't want to undercount. So if you are providing help to those displaced by Katrina, get in touch with your local FEMA office.

[Slow and bureaucratic. Sometimes downright dumb too.]

Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND): America's answer to Robin Hood?

Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Democrat, introduced a bill before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and severely disrupted Gulf Coast oil refining. The bill would tax oil company profits and use the money to promote efficiency, alternative fuels, lower fuel costs, and so on and so forth.

Sound familiar? If you are a Canadian, it should. It sounds a lot like the National Energy Program. The net effect of that piece of legislation in 1980 is that Canada is yet even closer to disintegrating as a nation.

Katrina: The Loony Left and US concentration camps

Even as the more horrible stories out of New Orleans are being revealed to be fabrications, the hard left is increasing the decibel level of their out-of-control rhetoric.

Katrina: The UN should stay away, or so says a UN report

Paul Volcker, the former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, will be releasing the report on the UN Oil-for-Food scandal. It does not look good for the UN. A remember, this is the UN's own report.

Katrina: Clinton blames Bush, Nagin praises Bush

Two views of the performance of the President in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Not surprisingly, New York Senator Hillary Clinton is putting the blame for inaction and delays directly on the President. However, in what comes as a surprise, former Bush-bashing New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is portraying George W Bush as a leader who was ready to act, but was prevented from doing so by dithering state and local officials.

Katrina: More Canadians on the way

Fom Reuters:

U.S. authorities trying to cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have asked Canada to send bed, blankets, gloves and other medical supplies, government officials said on Sunday.

The Americans also requested gowns, batteries, needles, surgical dressings, bandages, tongue depressors, bath towels and cloths, said Howard Njoo of Canada's public health agency.

This is an issue of acute need, not of a lack of American capacity:

Njoo and other officials said the request did not mean the United States was short of the equipment.

"I think the United States has a huge capacity but on the front end they don't want people to be waiting and suffering while the help arrives," said Don Shropshire of the Canadian Red Cross.

But it's not just supplies:

They also said Canada would start dispatching 35 divers on Sunday to help with the massive rescue effort. One of the divers' tasks would be to inspect levees.

A Canadian air force transport plane flew 27 Red Cross workers to Houston, Texas, on Saturday. The Canadian Red Cross said it was likely that several hundred volunteers would take part in the rescue operation over the next few months.

Let's not forget the risks these people will be facing:

Police shot and killed at least five people Sunday after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs, authorities said.

Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said police shot at eight people carrying guns, killing five or six.

Fourteen contractors were traveling across the Danziger Bridge under police escort when they came under fire, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers.

They were on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to help plug the breach in the 17th Street Canal, Hall said.

Katrina: UN says US to accept help

The United Nations has released a statement claiming that the US government has decided to accept the organization's help with the Katrina disaster, according to the headline "US accepts UN offer to rush aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina" printed at the UN web site.

The truth is less dramatic sounding.

Paul Martin: Worse than Hugo Chavez?

This commentary by Hartley Steward for the Toronto Sun:

We have come to this. It is possible, in this time of Canadian political turmoil, to believe that our Prime Minister was afraid to quickly respond with condolences and offers of help for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

That he delayed because of politics.

It is the height of cynicism, to be sure, to believe that someone in Paul Martin's position would weigh the political impact of releasing a timely statement on behalf of Canadians to show concern, sympathy and a willingness to help our neighbours in this desperate time. It is a dreadful thing that anyone could attribute such base motives to one's leader.

But I, for one, have become that jaded.

The gist here is obvious. The PM's statement, which came well after the Stephen Harper of the Conservatives issued a statement on behalf of the opposition, well after the scope of disaster became apparent, well after other world leaders issued statements, well after several provincial leaders issed statements, well after ordinary Canadians began to donate in large numbers to various charities, and well after the Canadian government itself started to plan aid actions, was delayed for fear of looking too pro-American. The Liberal Party needed to be careful not to alienate a constituency only too happy to see the Americans suffering.

Some Liberals belong to the Carolyn Parrish branch, and truly believe the Americans deserved this and worse. Most are probably just happy to use the events as an excuse to appear aloof, figuring it's worth a few votes.

At least with Hugo Chavez, his awful statements were sincere. He truly believes what he says. I suppose you can respect that, sort of, in a way. In Canada, our politicians consult polls and focus groups to adjust exactly how disdainful they should appear to be of the suffering of Americans.

If it weren't for the polls and focus groups, do you think Paul Martin would have any feelings at all?

(Hat tip to NealeNews)

Cindy Sheehan: A new approach to criticism

The old Cindy Sheehan didn't care if she wasn't welcome. She wasn't welcome by the majority of people in Crawford, but she didn't care, and camped out for a month, demanding to see the President.

The new Cindy Sheehan has a different approach:

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan has canceled three visits to Colorado after emotions over her protest outside President Bush's ranch boiled over at a church and college campus.

A Glenwood Springs church voted Thursday not to allow Sheehan to give a speech scheduled for later this month after some members threatened to leave the church if she came.

Actually it was a big coincidence, since it turned out she was required to be elsewhere anyway:

The day after the church called off her visit there, Sheehan canceled other visits to the state, citing "more pressing needs elsewhere in the country," according to Karen Sjoberg, director of Grand Valley Peace and Justice, which had arranged for one of the visits.

Right. Pressing needs. Elsewhere.

A pressing need not to be seen being run out of town, more likely.

FBI: In need of some intellectual honesty

When you're wrong, you're wrong. It takes a big man to admit that. Obviously, they are lacking at the FBI.

Oil-for-Food: A second arrest

Another UN official is arrested in connection with the oil-for-food scandal. This one isn't some low-level functionary either.

Islam in the UK: A law unto itself

A Muslim girl has entered a beauty contest in Britain. Some Muslim leaders are not happy, but I find their choice of language revealing, even disturbing.

Katrina: Hastert vs Rhodes

From the conservative corner:

It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea level, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said of federal assistance for hurricane-devastated New Orleans.

"It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed," the Illinois Republican said in an interview about New Orleans Wednesday with the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill.

Asked in the interview whether it made sense to spend billions rebuilding a city that lies below sea level, he replied, "I don't know. That doesn't make sense to me."

From the liberal corner:

Ned Rice alerts:

If anyone cares, at 3:46 PM p.s.t. this afternoon on Air America Radio Randi Rhodes repeatedly urged listeners in hurricane ravaged areas to go right out and loot, arguing that poor people should be allowed to do so at will. She even advised her listeners to avoid discount centers like Wal-Mart and concentrate their looting on some of the higher-end stores so as to have access to higher quality stuff.

I'm not sure if Randi was joking or serious (although with her it's always hard to be sure), but even in jest should she be allowed to do this on the air?

At least she wasn't calling for the assasination of President Bush, as she's done on the air in the past.

The first wonders how best to spend public money for the long-term benefit of the people hurt by this disaster. The second wonders which locations make for the best looting.

And we all know who is going to get the most heat from the media.

[More dumb Rhodes comments.]

Kanye West and a Telethon Bond

Michelle Malkin is tracking an incident during the CNBC telethon in which Kanye West (some kind of rap music performer -- honest to God, I had never heard of him before today) "departed from the scripted comments" and claimed the George W Bush didn't care about black people.

The complaints are rushing in.

Malkin: "Poor Mike Myers. Look at his face. He looks like he's gonna hurl."

I've got an idea. Telethons can always be held hostage by fools like West who decide the live venue is too tempting an opportunity for them to promote their bizarre ideas. If you are invited to perform on a telethon, you put up a bond of, say, between $1 million and $10 million, depending on the performer in question. If all goes well, you get the money back. If you pull a West, the money is forfeited to the cause.

Just a thought.

Katrina: Everyone's got a job to do

In times of disaster, it is critical that people get organized. There are so many things that have to get done and so little time. People need to be doing what they do best, even it is a thankless job.

So why is it that this congressman thinks the best thing he can be doing right now is lugging aid boxes, and is demanding a jeep or a helicopter so that he can get going on that right away?

Katrina: Spotted in Tennessee

From the Chattanoogan:

Saw a convoy of five tree trimming trucks on I-75 southbound all waving Canadian flags.

Brought a tear to my eye.

Katrina: Looters might have Buck Rogers to deal with

Is that stereo worth getting blasted by a sonic laser? Some looters might have to make that choice.

Blogging for Katrina Aid

Over 700 bloggers from around the world have made this day the day to raise money for Katrina Relief.

At N.Z. Bear, you will find a list of participating blogs, and of many fine charitable organizations who are on the ground and helping. Help them help those in need. My own pick is Catholic Charities USA. What matters is that you give what you can.

A charity that is collecting for Katrina Relief that I have not seen listed is the United Negro College Fund:

Our prayers are with all those whose homes and families were ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Three UNCF member schools—Dillard and Xavier Universities in New Orleans and Tougaloo College in Mississippi—were hit hard by the hurricane. These colleges need help, and they need it now.

We have established a special fund to help these hurricane-ravaged schools. You can donate by clicking here. Please give generously—now, before you leave our site.

One thing to remember is that as there is a dire immediate need for help, there are long term issues too. If the students at these colleges are never able to finish their education, the cost to the communities will continue to be paid for years:

Today, Tougaloo graduates fromm over three fourths of Mississippi's African-American doctors and lawyers.

More news on the charity front.

Katrina: Oil rigs missing

More bad news.

Katrina: Hospital horror story

It beggars the imagination.

A patron saint of handgunners?

Yup.

Cindy Sheehan: Not a good sign

Cindy Sheehan has packed up and left Crawford.

And there was much rejoicing.

But she hasn't stopped talking.

And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

But curiously, her language has gotten more strident and raw, back to the Cindy few have ever seen. Her handlers have been very careful to suppress her raging radicalism, lest it alienate Middle America. But today she slips up and falls prey to Godwin's Law. Did her handlers miss this one? I doubt it. I think it's a sign that as her star fades, her handlers are willing to have her suffer some controversy, as long as it reinvigorates the movement.

Angry in the Great White North by Steve Janke is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. Based on a work at stevejanke.com.