Birthday greetings, Canada!

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Happy birthday, Canada!

The Family Compact

Each of the British North American colonies experienced some form of Family Compact rule before the achievement of responsible government.

The term most often refers to a small group of public servants who dominated the decision-making bodies of Upper Canada around 1830. This Family Compact came about through the desire of John Graves Simcoe, first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, to create a local aristocracy by naming his friends to important political and judiciary positions.

Based mainly in York (Toronto), the members of the Family Compact were from Canadian high society, with strong ties to the British Empire. They were cautious of the United States and idealized British institutions.

From about 1830 this practice of the British authorities caused discontent among certain segments of the Upper Canadian population and was one of the factors leading to the 1837 rebellions.

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1837 was a most important date for the history of Canada as a European dominated society of double conquest (of the Brits and French over the Native Peoples, and then of the British over the French). In 1837, there were two rebellions against the Brit govt--one took place in Lower Canada (Quebec) and the other in Upper Canada (Ontario). Les patriotes, also called les Canadiens in the Lower zone, and William Lyon McKenzie's men in the Upper, took on the British and lost. In Upper Canada, a two of the rebels were hanged, others were shipped off to the Penal Colony of Australia. The patrimony of these actions was a muted force of remembrance that led ultimately to popular interest in self-rule for Canada. When Canadian self-rule came in 1867, it was the national bourgeoisie who were in control under the terms of The Family Compact of 1868.

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Historical Background of Canada Day

"On June 20, 1868, a proclamation signed by the Governor General, Lord Monck, called upon all Her Majesty's loving subjects throughout Canada to join in the celebration of the anniversary of the formation of the union of the British North America provinces in a federation under the name of Canada on July 1st.

The July 1 holiday was established by statute in 1879, under the name Dominion Day.

There is no record of organized ceremonies after this first anniversary, except for the 50th anniversary of Confederation in 1917, at which time the new Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, under construction, was dedicated as a memorial to the Fathers of Confederation and to the valour of Canadians fighting in the First World War in Europe.

The next celebration was held in 1927 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation. It was highlighted by the laying of the cornerstone by the Governor General of the Confederation Building on Wellington Street and the inauguration of the Carillon in the Peace Tower.

Since 1958, the government has arranged for an annual observance of Canada's national day with the Secretary of State of Canada in charge of the coordination. The format provided for a Trooping the Colours ceremony on the lawn of Parliament Hill in the afternoon, a sunset ceremony in the evening followed by a mass band concert and fireworks display." -- Heritage Canada website

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Owlie Scowlie for the whole gang of animal h+eroglyphicalcharacterz
writing, editing, publishing refWrite pages 1 + .

For reformational online journalism that ain't stuck in the mud (all
the time).

We welcome our newest buns to the bunch - PermResCan, aka PermRes Can

refWrite ...page 2

refWrite ...page 3

refWrite ...page 4

refWrite refBloggers Insert

Calendar: USA: A four-day Fourth of July this year?

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One community, the nation's capital, is actually trending to a four-day Fourth of July this year, according to Jacqueline Palank, writing in Washington Times (Jun30,2k6).

This Independence Day, many private-sector employees in the Washington area will have additional cause for celebration: a four-day weekend.

Because Independence Day falls on a Tuesday, many local offices have made Monday a paid holiday as well.

Employees of Corporate Executive Board, a D.C. company that assists corporate managers, will be off both days, said Melody Jones, the chief human resources officer.

The company gives nine paid holidays per year, Ms. Jones said. After accounting for traditional paid holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Presidents Day and the Fourth of July, the company allocates the remaining days.

"We rearrange two or three of [the remaining paid holidays] to try to be advantageous to the employees," Ms. Jones said.

I'm wondering if this trend will get a foothold in other parts of the USA, since a real lively Fourth seems strangely crammed when isolated to a single day between two workdays, in this day and age. A Tuesday celebration would still have Americans travelling if like, so many, your family has gathered from far-flung places for so important a patriotic celebration. Fireworks after dark on the evening of the Fourth are de rigeur, almost a necessity, an iron-clad rule of the celebration. "Bombs bursting in air." It's the next morning that we see that "our flag was still there."

- Owlb

Further Resources:

Happy Birthday America
4th of July Celebrations Database

Health: Africa: Dr Eileen Stillwagon of Gettysburg College proposes "radical approach to HIV/AIDS prevention"

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Taking a swipe at those who try to blame sexual behaviour for the rampant HIV epidemic in southern Africa, Professor Eileen Stillwaggon says that they are caught up in “exotic notions” about Africans. Instead, AIDS prevention efforts will be more successful if they focus on “biological and socio-economic factors” that can be addressed relatively easily and cheaply, she argues persuasively in the latest edition of Africa Policy Journal. “Differences in sexual behaviour cannot explain 50-fold differences in HIV prevalence around the world,” writes the economics professor from Gettysburg College. “Yet global AIDS policy relies almost entirely on behavioural interventions – abstinence or condoms – for HIV prevention.”

Southern Africa’s very high AIDS rate has been a source of much speculation. President Thabo Mbeki has been the most vocal proponent for poverty to be put on the global AIDS agenda, and has also condemned Western notions of African sexuality in the context of AIDS – but then undermined his cause by says that ‘a virus (HIV) cannot cause a syndrome (AIDS)”.

Africa

Stillwaggon is no AIDS denialist, but she doesn’t mince her words when she condemns those who propose that changing sexual behaviour is the main solution to Africa’s AIDS epidemic. “Policymakers seem to be convinced (without evidence) that Africans are having more sex than Americans. “They do not ask why US college campuses, where rates of chlamydia [a sexually transmitted infection] and genital herpes are as high as 30 to 40 percent, do not have high rates of HIV.” She argues compelling for a return to “the fundamental causes” of the raid spread of AIDS in poor countries - biological and socio-economic factors.

As far as biology is concerned, says Stillwaggon, the immune systems of people in southern Africa are weakened by malnutrition and parasitic illnesses. First, malnutrition – a deficiency of energy, protein and minerals such as iron, zinc and vitamins – makes a person far more susceptible to infectious and parasitic diseases. These deficiencies make it hard for new cells to be built, including CD4 cells that protect the body from infections. A malnourished person usually has a high viral load because they have few resources in their body to combat the virus. People with higher viral loads are much more infectious, thus making their partners far more susceptible to getting HIV.

Health

Malaria, bilharzia and intestinal worms also drive up a person’s viral load

The malaria parasite stimulates the replication of HIV. Malawian men with malaria were found to have seven times the viral loads of HIV positive men who didn’t have malaria. Bilharzia is a freshwater worm that infects the urinary tracts of people. In young women, “its eggs infect the vulva, cervix and vagina, creating open sores,” says Stillwater. These sores make it easy for the HIV to get into the women’s bodies. A study of 500 Zimbabwean women found that those who had genital cuts caused by bilharzia were three times more likely to be HIV positive. Bilharzia is very high all over South Africa, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and North West – provinces with high HIV rates.

“A malnourished, parasite-laden population gives rise to a very different epidemic dynamics from that of a healthier population, but models used by the major AIDS organisations do not take this into consideration,” says Stillwater. Instead, she says, they use a “one-size-fits-all” approach based on behaviour change that ignores factors that make poor people especially vulnerable to HIV.

The easier, cheaper approach would be to address nutritional deficiencies and parasite infections.

Aside from addressing biological risks, says Stillwaggon, there are straightforward, effective economic solutions that can reduce people’s risk of HIV infection. One, surprisingly enough, is “cumbersome trade regulations” that makes moving goods from one southern African country to another so slow. It can take 10 days to move goods into Zimbabwe, while Ugandan border officials don’t work over weekends and in some places border posts close at 4pm, says Stillwaggon. All this means that truck drivers have to hang around at borders, often with sex workers.

HIV among both truck drivers and the sex workers that service them is high. Addressing the efficiency of the border posts would reduce the risk of HIV transmission. But instead of modernising trucking and trade by computerising customs, says Stillwaggon, a costly US-sponsored AIDS initiative at borders focuses on “behaviour-change communication and condom distribution”. Yet behaviour change, while important, is out of the control of governments, whereas border reform is directly in their control, she points out. “Governments can change customs regulations or deliver safe water supplies and multivitamins more easily than they can chase down every person having unprotected sex,” says Stillwaggon. In addition, she says, we already know how to treat malaria, bilharzia and worms – and strategies to improve governments’ efficiencies are also known.
Stillwaggon’s approach is a radical departure from the norm, and offers fresh solutions to AIDS prevention where the decades-old mantra of “abstain, be faithful and condomise” has been unable to stop the spread of HIV.

Calendar: Canada: Canada Day is July 1, long weekend holiday begins unofficially as early as Thursday nite for some.

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The long weekend holiday to celebrate the origins of the Canadian state, its history, society, and culture starts on Friday (on Thursday nite for some) and continues until work starts again on Monday. But the day itself in which Canada's birthday is celebrated is June 1. God bless Canada. - Politicarp

Here's a snippet from Jasper Booster netlink for the Jasper, Alberta, tourism town at the edge of one of Canada's great national parks:

Celebrate Canada Day
July 1 is a special day to celebrate the creation of the dominion of Canada back in 1867. It was on this date that three British territories -- the Province of Canada (southern Ontario & southern Quebec), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick -- were united into a federation known as Canada. The July 1 holiday was established by statute in 1879, under the name Dominion Day; it was not until Oct. 27, 1982, that the official name of the holiday was changed to Canada Day. To help commemorate this special occasion join in the festivities that include a pancake breakfast, flag raising ceremony, Centennial Park activities, a parade and fireworks.

People will be flocking to the campsites of the national parks all across the coutry. In Ontario, there will be a vast pollutodash by autos, swarming off from the metropolis to what's called Cottage Country, where many in Toronto's middleclass, for instance, retreat as much as possible for the summer.

- PermRes

Futher Resources

139th birthday present - tax cut starts on Saturday, Canada Day
US and Canada Holidays

Oil: Saudi warning on prices: US military action against Iran's nuke systems could triple oil prices, Saudi scenario argues

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A Jun20,2k6, report in in Reuters (viaWashington Post) by Chris Baltimore presents a grim scenario as painted by Saudi Ambassador to the US, Prince Turki Al-Faisal:

Military move on Iran could triple oil price: Saudi

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - World oil prices could triple if the diplomatic standoff over Iran's nuclear program escalates into a military conflict, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday.

Assuming oil prices were at current levels near $70 a barrel at the time of an attack, "You would see that (oil price) perhaps double or triple as a result of the conflict," Prince Turki Al-Faisal said at a press conference hosted by the United States Energy Association.

"The idea of somebody firing a missile at an installation somewhere will shoot up the price of oil astronomically," Al-Faisal said.

Ambassador Al-Faisal seemed to be thinking of Iranian agents or Saudi terrorist surrogates for Iranian foreign policy launching a major attack against Saudi crude oil storage facilities and refineries, if not the oil fields themselve. Iran, of course, has a large number of spies in Saudiland, replenished regularly during the seaons of pilgrimage to Mecca, but also recruited by Iran from the Shi'ite population of Saudia Arabia itself which group constitutes 15% of the pop total. Shi'ites are treated abominably at law, and in other respects, in the Sunni Arab country dominated by the Wahabbist sect. Wahabbist extremists took over the Taliban revolution in Afghanistan. The Wahabbit extremists, armed with billions of dollars from the Saudi govt, build grand mosques thru-out the US, staffed by immigrant Wahabbist preachers, and spread jihadist literature. All the while the 500 adult members of the Saudi royal family stand aloof from the Wahab extemism and its "religious police." A kind of truce prevails between the two forces, but the royal family meets Wahab demands and pays all the bills for their American, Canadian, and worldwide expansion. Out of the Wahab climate arise the Saudi terrorist elements which have dared to break the truce and to strike out against the royals and the societal structure, not for emancipation but for further repression and religious severity.

Saudiland is the leading producer and exporter of crude oil in the world. Iran is the second major oil producer.

Principium Consumers Hub:
US crude-oil inventory at 8-year h+ [MarketWatch Jun21,2k6]

In an Armageddon-like word-picture, Ambassador Al-Faisal maintained that "If there was an attack on Iran, 'the whole Gulf will become an inferno of exploding fuel tanks and shot up facilities'."

Rookmaker Club's geostrategic analysis:

If we venture from discussing immediate realities to conduct a thawt experiment, we mite consider a geostrategic scenario, less apocalyptic than the Ambassador's, where the US military takes out the chief Iranian nuclear-bomb and missile manufactories, while a fulsome govt-backed wartime command of the auto industry is taken in hand to produce electric and hybrid automobiles en masse for the American general public. This would be ecologically sound, tho not perfect. It would survive the soaring Iran / Saudi oil prices which set the tone for OPEC, the world's cartel of industrials run by oil-producing nations. In the thawt experiment, a de-nuked Iran, a US auto industry run be govt command to proudce safe and efficeint non-polluting alternative transport for the whole country, pulls the rug out from under both the Iranian and Saudi oil economies (as far as such US action would impact them). Of course, that would, sad to say, would line up Iran and Saudiland as even greater suppliers of oil-thirsty China, but at reduced prices.... China shows no sign of any interest in combatting polution, whether within the Kyoto Protocols or outside them, and well mite proceed then to pollute itself beyond the capacities of our imaginations to comprehend.

The only problem in this scenario alternative to Al-Faisal's would dwell in the speed with which America's sluggish Detroit-based auto companies could make the necessary adjustments. I think it could be done: the transformation of the American automobile and truck and whatall to eco-sensitive fuels.

A Christian-democratic politics does not absolutize either govt intervention in the economy, nor free-marketeering in all respects in all industries in all periods. Critical historical phases arise where the state must act drastically and require the companies in a given industrial sector to produce a more suitable, better product faster than ever before. If the American industrial capacity could produce the atom bomb in a hurry, then combining a govt auto-industrial mandate with a forced cooperation of auto companies to work in tandem for rapid conversion of autos, trucks, boats, planes, buses, etc, to alternatively-fuelled transportation and shipping, should not really be a matter of principial objection given the emergency.
In the end, a principial Christian politics and statecraft is neither R+twing nor Leftwing, nor down the middle to balance the two extremist views. It's not pragmatist nor opportunist, but it is pragmatic and timely in facing up to and acting to solve the looming macro-crisis of the societal structure. Now is such time.

A Christian democratic neo-constantinian politics is not pacifist, favouring instead the use of a full array of policy instruments, as Condoleeza Rice has often reminded us - from multiple diplomatic techniques to military action, and all the points in between. Iran's and North Korea's bids to gain nuclear weaponry are a priority for principled resistance. The termination of USA dependence on oil and derivatives is a priority. The radical reformation of individual and group transport and shipping is a priority. The resistance to pollution and positive action to clean-up the environment is a priority. All of these priorities can be met as one in the scenario suggested, as drastic as it would be.

- Politicarp

Further Resources

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs race for electric car market
Energy and military force transformation

Tags: Meeting the Iran-Saudiland challenge by govt command of US auto industry

• politics
• military
• iranoil
• iranukes
• saudoil
• uspolicyiran
• oilterrorists
• alfaisalturki
• usaltfuel
• usaltautoindustry
• commandeconomy

Economics: Work conditions: Lego to cut Danish, US workforces - increase those in Mexico, East Europe - says Bloomberg

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I've had a thing for Lego. I like the main product of Lego building blocks for kids (mostly for kids, but can any adult resist constructing something if a box of Lego pieces is sitting at hand in some otherwise empty room?). And I like some of the work-relations policies that Lego practiced in its mainbase Danish factories. As a matter of fact, Lego was especially cited by the International Labour Organization (ILO - an independent UN agency) for the progressive and humanizing approach to workers in plants. But the company has hit hard times, even tho it sells its products in 130 countries around the world.

Now comes a report from the economics-news source Blomberg.com (click title link) on how Lego is meeting its financial problems by moving production to countries where wages for workers are much lower than they are at its facilities in both Denmark and the USA). The moved jobs will pay less to workers; but probably, relative to the new countries, the pay packets will be comparatively good compared to elsewhere in East Europe and Mexico). Further, in the new countries, Lego won't have a tradition of advanced work-relations to contend with, thus no raises in work-relations expenses there; rather quite the opposite (in the short term). Nor will the labour-union structure be as strong in East Europe and Mexico, nor will there be an advanced workers-culture of participation in discussions with their employers. It seems clear to me that in Denmark, Lego's work-relations policies were a relative expense, an expense that will no longer have to be paid out in East Europe. And probably there will be work-relations expenses saved in moving jobs from the US to Mexico.



"The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has 30 member countries. It was established in 1961. ...The OECD groups 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy. With active relationships with some 70 other countries, NGOs and civil society, it has a global reach. Best known for its publications and its statistics, its work covers economic and social issues from macroeconomics, to trade, education, development and science and innovation."

"OECD area unemployment has fallen since 1994 and those countries that embraced the recommendations of the Jobs Strategy have done particularly well. Nevertheless, so have those that have adopted Nordic-type approaches, such as Denmark’s much discussed “flexicurity” hybrid which combines relatively easy hire-fire with strong backup for, and obligations on, jobseekers. Austria and the Netherlands have adopted a similar approach. But countries that have not reformed enough, including France, Germany and Italy, as well as some central and east European countries, have performed least well. Their unemployment is high and employment rates relatively low, despite strong global growth (see OECD graph)."



Here's what Bloomberg says at the beginning of its report (Update 3 is the article-version I'm quoting), but I recommend you read the whole piece:

Lego to Cut 1,200 Jobs in U.S., Denmark to Trim Costs

June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Lego A/S, the maker of children's snap-together building blocks, plans to shut its U.S. factory and move 900 Danish jobs to Eastern Europe, paring its workforce by about 30 percent.

Production at the company's Enfield, Connecticut, plant will be moved to Flextronics International Ltd. facilities in Mexico, affecting as many as 300 employees, closely held Lego said in a statement on its Web site today. Work at the company's plant in Billund, Denmark, will be shifted to Flextronics' Eastern European facilities, Lego said.

Lego, Europe's biggest toymaker, is trying to recover from three years of losses since 2000 by consigning much of its production to overseas manufacturers. The company aims to lower manufacturing costs by 1 billion Danish kroner ($170 million) to counter a drop in industry sales as children shift their attention to electronics and outgrow toys at a younger age.

``They are reorganizing and streamlining to adapt to the marketplace today, which is very challenging and more fragmented,'' said Chris Byrne, contributing editor to Toy Wishes magazine. ``Lego is still a very strong brand.''

Lego, which reported a profit in 2005, has eliminated more than 5,000 jobs over three years.

The company said it was outsourcing production of standard Lego bricks because of their uniformity and large production volumes. More technically demanding items, such as Lego Technic and Bionicle, will still be produced by 300 employees in Billund, the company said.

``We are beginning to see the first outlines of a new business model,'' Chief Executive Officer Joergen Vig Knudstorp said in the statement. Lego is moving from ``a traditional integrated model towards a partnership model,'' he said.

Globalization of the labour market will not only eliminate jobs in West Europe (the EU is built to effectuate this result in the short term, forcing greater industrial productivity and change); definitely this "shortterm" rigour will squeeze positive advanced work-relations policies in the advanced industrial countries. Many will disappear, as was in the case in the first great OPEC crisis in North America, never to have returned. The process is definitely necessary in Europe where Lego was a good positive model (and thus resultingly must have incurred some further non-wage expenses, as mentioned). But Lego was not typical of Western Europe's arrangements – France, for instance, is notorious for a severe overload of featherbedding, a country where able-bodied mentally-healthy employees at good salaries and wages, living a quite comfortable life-style, often actually worked relatively little in jobs secure for life. But in the longterm the French economy can't sustain this system of low productivity. That fact has led to the current difficulties in France, along with the fact that young immigrant workers willing to work for low wages can't find jobs to get individual toeholds in the workforce and build a succesful employment. The jobs low-skilled no-previous-experience young immigrants want are restricted to other sectors of the youth population – which thus don't have to compete with the young immigrants and don't need a good work record. Small businesses in particular, having to pay h+ wages to the non-immigrant workers benefitting from this veritable job-restriction, would be less able to create new jobs to take care of menial tasks and training for one-step-up responsiblities.

The Lego dream is fading. The French nitemare doesn't go away. And jobs are moving.

- Owlb

Further Resources

Putting flexibility and security together - ILO on Lego Denmark ("security" here means guaranteeing a workers' job against unemployment)
Jobs Strategy: Policy choices that work

Tags: Lego moves jobs to East Europe, Mexico

• economics
• unemployment
• legodenmark
• legousa
• legomexico
• legoeasteu
• workrelations
• oecd

Politics: Quebec: Demagogue separatist and opportunist NDP leaders answered by precise Prime Minister

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Always doctrinaire, the separatist federal leader of the Bloc Quebecois, Gilles Duceppe went on the defensive against Canada's mild-mannered Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. Duceppe proved himself not just stuck in his own dogma, but unable to acknowledge other interpretations of what it means to be a Quebecker a/o un/e Québecois/e (they are not always the same thing for everyone in Quebec). That there's a certain racism translated as best it can into a language-prioritism in the system of ideas (ideology) pushed by many branches of Quebec separatism is well known. Now, Duceppe has unmasked himself, giving every appearance of being one of those with a racist subtext when they speak of la nation québecoise. That phrasing in French is being hijacked as an interpretationless deliverance from On H+, but Duceppe is no Moses, nor pur laineniste of the separatist Holy Grail. The phrase is interpretable, and Quebeckers / Québecois do it all the time.

That's where the hapless Jack Layton of the New Democrats who showed up for the big Montreal splash on Saint John the Baptist Day / now National Holiday in Quebec, showed up foaming self-r+teousness to exclude Harper from saying anything about portents of the symbolism being abused by separatism, when the press demanded of Harper that he too get in on the current media discourse around the issue.

Harper did not thro gas on the Quebeckers' own fire of contestation among themselves about the meanings of these celebrations. And, despite all the political rip-offs by the likes of Duceppe (who is quite enitled to be a separatist and espouse an extreme form of its ideologies in Quebec) and of Layton (who's an interloper whose party has never won a seat in the province, on any level of parliamentation). But it was Layton who tried to get himself noticed with a pompous pile of platitudes, all aimed at Harper (who after all is Prime Minister of Canada also in Quebec). Layton inisted that Harper had no r+t to articulate the views of many Québecois about the interpretation of la nation québecoise in a non language-particularist conception, non anti-immigrant conception, and non bloodline conception.

The concept itself (from "native," "natal," natus) is a bloodline concept that does not refer to all the bloodlines in a given country, but refers instead to the singular nation being promoted and proclaimed as the core of society, the nation thorobred. In Quebec, the perhaps largest bloodline keeps falling short of translating itself into into the outr+t commander of political majority; many within this largest of Quebec bloodlines don't go for the idea at all; and the allies whom the bloodlinist compromisers try to recruit are restive under the bloodlineal hegemony.

As a matter of fact, this dubious word misuse, tho it has often been euphemized, also often gives way to a hostility toward those who don't promote the sacred bloodline and don't want to isolate other bloodlines, nor force them to speak the predominant language of the sacred bloodline (traditionally a secondary identifier of the sacred bloodline as such) - language as seeming substitute for a politics of bloodline especially for those Quebec communitie's that have no francophone heritage, but also if they are immigrants who want their children to learn English as their first school-language - perhaps for economic reasons, ensuring their kids will be able to function in the world marketplace when they become job-seekers.

The sacred bloodline interestingly enuff does not include all the France-born immigrants to Quebec who often enjoy being citizens first of the Queen's Dominion (I know a few), second of Her Majesty's province of Quebec (I am no monarchist myself; and, tho I respect greatly Canada's Queen, I do not swear allegiance to Her and Her line forever).

Indeed, historically, anyone who immigrated to Quebec after the Conquest and sawt citizenship did so knowlingly to become a subject of Her Majesty (sometimes His M). So, all this subtextual bloodline hoax being freighted into the phrase la nation québecoise by some separatists, is really an attempt to use the mothertongue itself as an ideology to limit the freedom of "les membres de la nation quebecoise" to think otherwise regarding their membership in a natus or tribe. And nations don't have citizens; they have members, they have ancestors, and descendants, and family-trees; they are of another order than that of citizen. The shifting of meanings of words about "nation" does a disservice both to the Canadian/Quebeckian native peoples who have never been members of la nation quebecoise, nor does the shifting help those who have a strong bloodline-historical identity in the Jewish bloodline, nor does it do justice to the many other ethnicities, bloodlines, tribes, clans, and non nation québecois peoples of Québec.

That the French language should be blostered by the provincial govt of Canada's la belle is not here in question.

Nor was it questioned by Harper as Alexander Panetta of Canadian Press reports the matter,"Harper rips separatists: Fete nationale isn't theirs, he tells Quebec federalists," Toronto Sun (Jun25,2k6).

ST-JOSEPH-DE-BEAUCE, Que. -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper is challenging Quebec separatists' right to claim the province's "national holiday" as their own political event.

The subtle jab came at the end of a visit to Quebec where a prime minister best known for lambasting Liberals showed himself perfectly willing to spar with sovereigntists too.

"This Fete nationale was being celebrated long before the Quiet Revolution (in the 1960s) -- and even before Confederation," he told a rural crowd yesterday. "This St-Jean day reminds us all of the riches and greatness of the Quebec and francophone Canadian experience."

Harper eschewed the much larger -- and more staunchly nationalist -- ceremonies in Montreal and Quebec [city] in favour of a rural festival in the province's Beauce region.

URBAN THRONGS

Instead of wading through urban throngs of thousands of flag-waving, slogan-chanting revellers, Harper chatted up locals among the rolling hills of Quebec's federalist heartland.

On Friday, the rookie prime minister irked Quebec nationalists by refusing to share their common consensus that Quebecers form a nation.

Every political party in the province agrees Quebec should share that distinction, like Canada's First Nations and French-speaking Acadians [in the province of New Brunswick - they are much more a nation, a tribe than are the main bloodline group in Québec which is hybrided with all sorts other ethnic stocks - P]. But Harper said sovereigntists raised the issue only because they were afraid to discuss their own cause.

Harper's visit made it clear he's shifting his sights to take on new opponents now that his Tories have their sights on a bigger prize -- the 50 Bloc Quebecois seats in the province.

The rural area Harper visited yesterday is considered a crucial battleground for the Tories in their effort to win a majority government.

They need 30 more seats to do it and will probably need a strong showing in Quebec to achieve that.

I give credit to the mild-mannered Prime Minister who is a real friend of Canada's Québec but no patsy for the extremists like Duceppe and hangers-on like Layton.

- Politicarp

Further Resources

Jean Charest says Québec a nation, but compatible with being Canadian
CBC on Harper marking Quebec provincial holiday

Education: Govt schools: Stephen Lazarus editorializes on experiment in teaching religion in govt schools

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A Tale of Two Textbooks

by Stephen Lazarus

Digitally republished according to general permission of Center for Public Justice USA©May 29, 2006

A nation’s school textbooks speak volumes about its culture. A review by the human rights group Freedom House found that textbooks used in Saudi Arabia routinely teach an ideology of hatred and violence against non-Muslims (Washington Post, 5/21). Eighth graders learn, for example: "Some of the people of the Sabbath [Jews] were punished by being turned into apes and swine." Ninth graders: "It is part of God’s wisdom that the struggle between the Muslims and the Jews should continue until the hour [of judgment]."

Americans recoil at such reports, but one could ask, what, if anything, American schools do to educate students about religions, cultures, and conflicts. Many independent schools work hard at doing this, understanding the integrality of religion to everyday life. Many government-supported schools, however, have steered away from dealing with religion altogether. For the past few decades, conventional wisdom has held that religion is controversial and divisive and does not belong in public schools alongside reading, writing and arithmetic, which are presumed to be safely "non-religious."

However, as Clinton administration luminary and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright notes in her new book, The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs, it is essential today to convey accurate knowledge about Islam and the importance of religion in the lives of most people in the world, in order to prepare students for responsible citizenship. Otherwise American students are likely to conform to the stereotype that they are narrowly parochial and ethnocentric—a dangerous trait in a post-9/11 world.

Too often government-run schools try to function as religion-free zones, indoctrinating students with the belief that religion is not relevant to public life—an ideology that appears to be the opposite of Saudi doctrine, but which is just as dogmatic. Yet, an unusual effort in the Modesto, California public schools merits a closer look.

Six years ago, Modesto’s schools introduced a required course on world religions and religious freedom for all ninth-grade students. Modesto’s population of 190,000 is home to a diverse range of immigrants and faith communities—Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and atheists. Two social scientists, Patrick Roberts and Emile Lester, interviewed more than 400 students to assess the impact of the course. Last week, USA Today reported the results.

Students who began the course with a strong commitment to a particular religious tradition were also likely to finish the course still believing in the truth of their own faith compared to others. After the course, students were more likely to defend the religious freedom of people from different religious backgrounds and to support their right to practice their particular faiths. They advocated extending important political and First Amendment freedoms to those with whom they disagree religiously. Students appeared far more knowledgeable and informed about the significance of religion in the world today, and they could apply this knowledge with their peers.

The Modesto model breaks new ground and exposes the foolishness of the conventional wisdom. Pushing religious identity and beliefs underground actually creates more problems than it solves. This new approach shows that American education does not have to be oblivious to the obvious, something that religiously distinctive schools already know. Religion has never disappeared from the world’s stage or from the public square close to home. Researchers have reached conclusions that should lead us to question some of the deeply held assumptions that have guided American public policies for generations. Summarizing their findings, Roberts and Lester write: "Limiting deeply held beliefs to the private sphere breeds suspicion and tension. True religious liberty prevails not only when people are comfortable expressing their beliefs, but also when they learn to discuss religious differences with respect."

—Stephen Lazarus
Director, The Civitas Programs


For additional background on the Center's perspective, read the Center's Guidelines on Government and Citizenship. disagrees with CPJ-USA's Guidelines on Homosexuality in certain respects, but agrees strongly with most of this document as at least "crumbs under the table" that stands against the practice of police terror against homos in the past in the USA, which I have witnessed personally. rW leaves it to Christian Homomemo with which we are co-minded on these issues to analyze and reply to this particular Guideline within the generally better quality in the rest of the set. The others of CPJ's Guidelines are recommended by refWrite without such reservations to date. - Albert Gedraitis, publisher

The Center for Public Justice
P.O. Box 48368
Washington, DC 20002-0368
Phone: (410) 571-6300 Fax: (410) 571-6365
General Inquiries Email: Inquiries@cpjustice.org.

USA: Diplomacy: Bush to Bagdhad, Vienna, Budapest and back again

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President George W. Bush has been on a major diplomatic campaign in recent weeks. First, he flew into Bagdhad to congratulate Iraq's new militant democratic government and its new Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki. The two governments briefed one another in a video conference between the two cabinets.

More recently Bush flew into Vienna, Austria. One of his motives in going there and, indeed, a motive of the EU in inviting him during the Austrian term of presidency of the EU, was to combine forces in facing Iran. But the larger background was the shift in Europe on this Bush's 15th visit there since he entered America's h+est office, toward a stiffer stand against Islamofascist terrorists -- within Europe itelf.

You wouldn't know it, of course, from the usual masses of addle-brained youth protesting in the streets, nor from the European press corps who asked questions around Bush's pitiful results in opinion polls there. It's a cultural thing: the USA Democratic Convention writ large. Again, there's a "but." Europe's definite tilt, at the h+est levels of leadership and diplomacy, closer to Bush, far outdistanced the stupefied masses and the preening media professions of Europe, generally speaking. Austria's PM Wolfgang Schuessel certainly spoke up for the majority of European leadership, and it had concerns at hand far heavier than the demonstrators can even conceive. Much of the European populace is still in denial about the crisis burgeoning in their midst, they quaintly imagine the Engl+tenment fantasy of Marxism-Lennonism that there's no Heaven and that the Islamofascists don't intend to turn Europe into Hell.

It was deliteful to hear Europresumption of moral superiority over America answered by Bush with the word, "Absurd." Again, we're talking about his characterization of mass opinion, of mass anti-Americanism, and its opinion-makers (a guild mindset today in the European media which has been documented in a number of countries); not the rising generation of mature leadership on the continent who are replacing the Chirac/Schroeder generation that led the Old Europe, not about the New Europe who understand the need to defeat the new threat of global terrorism which would take away the very liberties that the former East bloc countries have only recently gained.

There's often a difference between appearances and reality. I think Vienna's meaning does not dwell in the appearances of the protest crowds or president-pestering press. I think that Bush's Vienna diplomacy achieved a convergence based on his 15 diplomatic journeys to Europe and upon a Bushward tilt just moved past the tipping point in regard to Europe's homegrown Islamofascism and Iran's nuclear adventures. Bush gained, whatever the polls do with him at home and in Europe. Bush is building for a peace and civilized order much further ahead in time than the end of his tenure, or who is elected in the USA in 2008.

From Vienna, Bush flew to Hungary for an early celebration of Hungary's Uprising against the Soviet-imposed dictatorship, a revolutionary effort some 50 years ago. The actual anniversary will be in October, when Bush will be unable to visit due to the upcoming Congressional elections in the States. In Budapest, Bush made a major public address, reported by Michael Abrahamowitiz of Washington Post.

"As people across the world step forward to claim their own freedom, they will take inspiration from your example, and draw hope from your success," he told an audience gathered on Gellert Hill, a spectacular vista of Budapest and the Danube River behind him.

"Many of you lived through the nightmare of fascism, or communism, or both," Bush said. "Yet you never lost hope. You kept faith in freedom. And 50 years after you watched Soviet tanks invade your beloved city, you now watch your grandchildren play in the streets of a free Hungary."

Bush's salute to this country's people and history on the second and final day of a European visit won the appreciation of many citizens here, though some expressed mixed feelings given his prosecution of the war in Iraq, which is widely unpopular here.

Here again, the theme is that of support for the fledgling democracy of Muslim majority in Iraq by waging war against the terrorists there and, its correlative, stopping the terrorists in power in Iran from proceeding with nuclear armament (in Vienna, Bush also got in a lick against North Korea's most recent nucelar threats and manoeuvres. The truth must be faced that most of Europe's masses, particularly the youth, want the terrorists to succeed in Iraq, not democracy; most want the Mullahs to continue in their oppression of the Iranian people. Why? Because the miseducated of Europe have an unacknowledged hatred of the peoples of the Middle East. The Enl+tenment has achieved the depth of its tendency toward self-destruction in following thru to its bitter end the racism that lurks behind the pretendeded universality of Kantian thawt and its successors in the movement of Modernist culture.

Finally, the ultra-leftwing Guardian ran a note by Jon Dennis: "In Vienna yesterday, where he was attending a summit of EU leaders, George Bush admonished North Korea, one of the "axis of evil". Bush was relatively warmly received in Vienna, according to Nicholas Watt, the Guardian's European editor. And today the president's in Hungary, praising the heroes of 1956." -- Politicarp

Further Resources:

Hungary 1956 Remembered

The Times on Bush in Hungary

Tags: Bush the diplomat Jun,2k6

• politics
• politicsintrntnl
• diplomacy
• diplomacybush
• euviennabush
• hungarybush
• iraqbush

Politics: Canada: Harper finesses new Accountability law in Commons, sends legislation to Senate, lobbyists furious

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A specialist reporter on lobbying for The Hill Times (it focuses on Parliament in Ottawa), Simon Doyle, has been following Prime Minister Stephen Harper's efforts to keep a major Conservative Party campaign promise in the last election. The background, of course, is the millions of disappearing dollars in a complex graft game by federal Liberal Party figures that was explored by the Gomery Commission, and that resulted in the jailing of a couple of scapegoats, like bureaucrat Chuck Guité (incarcerated for a mere three years, if that).

Persistently, however, Harper has introduced new legislation to reform the practices of federal Government Accountability and the permissible / unpermissible roles of lobbyists, to howls from several quarters.

Doyle said in a March 27 report, Lobbyists to lobby against new Prime Minister's highly-touted Federal Accountability Act that a hue-and-cry had gone up against Harper:

There's a growing resistance building against requiring senior government officials to record meetings with lobbyists. Public officials are 'rolling their eyes'. Lobbyists and industry observers say a large amount of resistance is building toward a key provision of the Conservative government's proposed new lobbying rules, which would require senior government officials to record meetings with lobbyists.

The questions surrounding the provision appears to be part of considerable resistance to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) proposed Federal Accountability Act, which promises to revamp the rules for lobbyists, including provisions to extend to five years the period for which ministers, ministerial staffers, and senior public servants cannot lobby government, and ban success or contingency fees.

Of particular concern to not only the lobbying industry, but also government officials, is the Conservative government's promise to require ministers and senior government officials to record and disclose meetings with lobbyists. It's not known at this point whether the rules will require the disclosure of meeting minutes or merely the dates of meetings between officials and lobbyists, but either proposal does not appear to sit well in the industry.

John Chenier, 16-year editor and founder of The Lobby Monitor, an Ottawa lobbying trade publication, told The Hill Times that a large degree of resistance is already under way to the proposal.

Harper persisted, and in the process of debate revised some of the law's formulations, easing certain of the provisions that were considered draconian by some. Like his American counterpart, Harper is an incrementalist, especially given that his party in the Commons is in a minority govt situation such that, for every piece of legislation, he must find votes among the members of the three opposition parties in the Commons. Nevertheless, the situation also includes the fact that it's difficult for the previously governing Liberal minority party, tho they got away almost scot-free to date (except losing governing status, of course), are now loathe to appear other than in favour of restraining the forces of corruption -- both as it shows up in govt and as it seeks to corrupt govt in the practice of lobbyism by an army of special-interest slicks.

Keeping his eye on developments and his ear to the ground, Doyle noted more recently in another article on Jun19,2k6, Amended Federal Accountability Act a blow to GR: lobbyists that said lobbyists are angry and will not go away as long as they get fat salaries from groups wanting laws written on their behalf rather than the public good.

Yet, Harper's process of pulling back from the most stringent proposals of his draft law, thereby making it possible to bring on side more opposition figures, including Liberals, in an accomoadation that nevertheless is widely felt to have resulted in a new law with teeth that can bite both h+levels of misbehaving members of government and bureaucracy, and also the lobbyists swarming to peddle influence. Astonishingly, those most outraged against the proposed legislation are leading Tory lobbyists who helped on the transition committee in the first days of the new government. That's a telltale signal that Harper is doing something good for the country on the matter of government accountability. Some special interests from the Tory side have been pushed away from any insider lobbying role. Well done, Mr Prime Minister! -- Politicarp

FURTHER RESOURCES:

The Lobby Monitor
MPs reject Harper's accountablity appointment

Tags: Fed govt accountability Canada

• politics
• politicscanada
• graft
• scandal
• lobbyists
• gomerycommission
• adscam
• liberalscandals
• guitechuck
• accountablity
• govtaccountability

USA: Politics: Buckingham of Boston Herald clears air on Karl Rove

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The truth, the whole truth:

Karl Rove didn’t lie, Joe Wilson did

by Virginia Buckingham©Boston Herald Columnist

Digitally republished with permission of the author;
column first appeared in the Boston Herald on Thursday, June 15, 2006

It must be my parochial school training but I’ve always considered lying a very big deal.

Venial, mortal?

I don’t know. I just know it would earn you a good whack from the nuns with the board of education, right in front of your classmates.

Karl Rove’s been whacked pretty hard the past three years. He’s spent way too much time - and way too much money - hunkered down with his attorney, when he wasn’t testifying before a grand jury.

How ironic that he was told of the prosecutor’s no-go decision while on a Southwest Airlines flight. Rove is now free, politically speaking, to move about the country.

I predict Scooter Libby will get the same freedom to go - along with his huge legal bills - once a jury gets his case.

There is, however, one proven liar who has not had to shell out a penny for defense lawyers in this case. Former Ambassador Joe Wilson actually had the gall to say on Tuesday that he and wife Valerie Plame are now considering a civil suit against Rove.

It ought to be the other way around.

It’s an old saying that yesterday’s front-page news wraps today’s fish. Unfortunately, Rove’s good news will be like that, too - fleeting.

But before the nation’s attention shifts to other matters, like John Kerry’s absolutely, positively, I-mean-it-this-time position on the Iraq war, it is well worth resurrecting the findings of the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee on the Wilson fabrications.

Remember, Wilson insisted for months that his wife had nothing to do with the decision to send him to Niger to investigate the claim that Iraq was seeking to buy yellowcake uranium. The unanimous Senate report, however, said she did, in a memo no less.

The “officer told Committee staff that the former ambassador’s wife ‘offered up his name’ and a memorandum to the Deputy Chief on February 12, 2002, from the former ambassador’s wife says, ‘my husband has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.’ ”

The former ambassador also insisted Vice President Dick Cheney himself not only was behind the fact-finding Niger trip but also was personally briefed on Wilson’s conclusions.

Not so, said the Senate: “The Central Intelligence Agency should have told the Vice President and other senior policymakers that it had sent someone to Niger to look into the alleged Iraq-Niger uranium deal and it should have briefed the Vice President on the former ambassador’s findings.”

Wilson was also caught boldface lying to the media. In June 2003, Wilson told The Washington Post, “The Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged.”

The unanimous Senate report found: “The former ambassador said that he may have ‘misspoken’ to the reporter when he said he concluded the documents were ‘forged.’ ”

There’s more, but like old newspapers, 500-plus page Senate reports aren’t good for much once the news and political cycle moves on.

I was also taught, however, that truth is eternal.

Thus, the maelstrom stirred up by 16 words that turned out to be wrong in a State of the Union address comes down to six which are undeniably true:

Joe Wilson lied. Karl Rove didn’t.

Tags: Kerryite cell in CIA & fringes, exposed

• specialprosecutorcleared
• senateintelcomcleared
• rovekarl
• wilsonjoeambassador
• plamevaleriecia
• iraqnigerdeal
• uraniumyellowcake

Terror: Iran: Women beaten with batons by Iran govt's bwitch squad to stop grievance march vs Muslim Mullahs

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A street demonstration of 5000 women and men in their support (with govt bwitches pretending at first to be part of the demo) were harrassed and some beaten by the Mullacracy's crack baton-wielding female enforcers who wore dark green uniforms (under the mandatory black garb for women in public thru-out the country). The shocking scene of the attack by the enforcers was photodocumented and some of the pix put on the Net at Kosoof.com, Arash Ashoorinian's Photography from the streets of Teheran.

Photo Essay from Iran

Read an account of the demo, and of the bwitch attack on the women marching for child's and women's r+ts and wellbeing in Iran. Just click the title live-link. - Politicarp

Further Resources:

Info in Farsi from Iran Press
More text in Farsi, and photos

Diplomacy: Bush to Iraq: US Prez flies covertly into Bagdhad, meets new PM al-Maliki

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President Bush carried his support of Iraq's demoncracy and US warriors in that threatre of conflict, into the Middle East country's capital, for a five-hour visit completely shrouded in secrecy until the geostrategic deed was done. Bush is showing himself to be a warrior in his r+t, and a diplomat of the first order.

His aide explained that he had been planning to make his second visit to Iraq much earlier, but the slow formation of a government there after the crucial national election of Iraq's parliament - including the naming just last week of three key ministers (Defense, Interior, and Security) - delayed the intended US Presidential visit, altho both Condi Rice (Secretary of State) and Donald Rumsfeld (Secretary of Defense) had visited al-Maliki previously, before cabinet-formation was complete.

Now, Bush's second visit is history, and a significant victory both for the US in demonstrating its steadfast support for the fledgeling democracy at least until the end of Bush's sencond term, and a victory as well for President Bush personally. He has had serious trouble in opinion polls about the war and more generally, but the courage and surprise of the "stealth diplomacy" have apparently raised his polling points a bit.

300 assembled US troops gave the Prez a really warm welcome, and hurrah-ed unmistakably when he said the elimination of terrorist fanatic al-Zarqawi will be replicated in pursuit and elmination of the new leader and top ringleaders of the rest of al Quaeda in Iraq.

By far, however, it was his meeting and measuring of the mettle of Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that seemed the greatest achievement of the visit. In receiving his guest, the Prime Minister showed real pleasure at Bush's presence, and then offered a significant statement:

"...[A]l-Maliki said Iraq has "no choice but to succeed and we will defeat terrorism."

"Today, with the grace of God, after getting rid of the dictatorship, violence, terrorism, oppression, absolute power and the ruling party, our country became one where all Iraqis can live in equality and freedom. This is the first time that we in Iraq have such freedom, the freedom of press, political freedom and a diverse government. ...

"This is the first time that we in Iraq, have a permanent constitution voted on by the Iraqi people. This is the first time we have a government we formed with our own free will, by getting together and participating in the rebuilding effort. In this diversified government, chosen freely by the Iraqi people, we are determined to succeed," al-Maliki said.

At a distance and observing thru the fog of war and media, my impression is that the Iraqi Parliament chose a real strongman as Prime Minister, the kind of clear-s+ted amd stern enforcer of the peace that just may be part of a winning combo against the terrorists and for the rebuilding of the society. - Politicarp

Further Resources:

Terence Hunt reports for Forbes
John F. Burns and Dexter Filkins reporting for NYT via IHT

Politics: USA: Karl Rove cleared!

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BREAKING NEWS: Karl Rove, stymied since before President Bush's re-election in 2004 as the main aid to the chief executive, has been as cleared as of yesterday of all charges foisted upon him by the Special Prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald's investigation has been underway since the start of the 2004 election, and the decision not to indict Rove is certain to cheer Republicans concerned about Bush's low approval ratings and the prospects of a difficult 2006 congressional election.

President's Men: Rove and Libby:

Meantime, in the reorganization of the White House staff, Rove has been Fitzgerald's investigation has been underway since the start of the 2004 election, and the decision not to indict Rove is certain to cheer Republicans concerned about Bush's low approval ratings and the prospects of a difficult 2006 congressional election. In that respect, it is reported that Rove is chief organizer for the campaign to win Senate passage of Marriage Protection Act which failed in the first round of voting on the subject.

Scooter Libby, former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, remains under indictment in the same matter, but has launched a formidable defense effort. The issue is whether it was appropriate to expose a Kerryite cell in the CIA, the leader of which Valeri Plame has dubiously claimed to have been engaged in "covert operations" on which national security depended. But, cleverly, the investigation, time and money of the apparent witch hunt has been entirely shifted to whether Rove and Libby lied to investigators to cover up a leak to the press about Plame's over-wrawt security status. - Politicarp

Iraq: Early Terrorists Contacts: Translations from Arabic to English show 1999 contacts of Iraq and Taliban

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A mountain of untranslated documents in Arabic are receiving attention from a small team of conerned experts under Ray Robison. The team is translating the multitude of captured documents and also posting them item by item on the Net at the invitation of FoxNews.com. The series will appear as Saddam Dossier: Documenting Saddam's Link to Terror. The series has been launched asking this question, along with a thawt-provoking answer relevant to the left-liberal line that has dominated the mainstream media in America. "What was the relationship between Saddam Hussein's inner circle and Islamic terrorists? A newly released document appears to provide evidence that in 1999 the Taliban welcomed 'Islamic relations with Iraq' to mediate among the Taliban, the Northern Alliance and Russia, and that the Taliban invited Iraqi officials to Afghanistan."

Along with the translation of the posted documents, an analysis is provided by the the security researchers functioning as contemporary historians, who have lived thru the times now so soon under the microscope. A sample from the first analytic post on the Fox site:

Why would the Taliban and/or Al Qaeda turn to secular Saddam for help? Many commentators have stated that collusion between the two was impossible because of diametric religious and political beliefs. But if you examine the historical context of this document, a clear picture of a desperate Taliban comes through.

This meeting appears to have taken place a few weeks after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf took over the Pakistani government in a coup that threatened to remove Pakistan's key support for the Taliban. Russia and Iran were supporting the Northern Alliance at war with the Taliban in Afghanistan. At this time it also was widely reported in Pakistan that US forces were about to attack Afghanistan to get Usama. The U.N. and even Arab conferences were making clear their grievances with the Taliban. This is a time when the Taliban and its associates (like both Fazlurs) in the North West Frontier province of Pakistan had few friends.

This series of threats may have spurred the Taliban to seek out Saddam, a mutual enemy of the U.S. and friend of the Russians, if a prior relationship between Saddam and the Taliban did not already exist. Thus, it seems Maulana Fazlur Rahman is a lynch-pin of the relationship between the Saddam regime, the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The strong ties between Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and their joint responsibility for terrorism, are clear and well documented. This translated notebook segment provides possible evidence that the Saddam regime and the Taliban were planning diplomatic and possibly operational ties with each other.

If chippping away at the massive amount of untranslated material from Hussein's archives continues in the direction indicated by this first item, it could well be tht President George W. Bush's position will be qute largely vincdicated, but whether or not that turns out to be the case, the project surely promises to become a major contribution to our historical understanding of our own times. - Owlb

Further Resources:

Saddam Dossier Archieves Page
Al Quaeda in Iraq names new leader

Tags: Will Bush be vindicated on Iraq-terrorists connection?

• politics
• terrorism
• war
• wariraqreasonsfor
• bushgeorgew
• taliban
• alquaeda
• translationsarabictoeng
• foxnews

Juridics: Canada sex case: Blogger Canadianna takes on Judge and his supporter Globe & Mail gross miscarriage of justice

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One of the best bloggers around is the author of Canadianna's Place who just entered the fray of public review of decisions by the courts. In the case she addresses most recently, she had already registered her indignation in Canada--A great place to be a pedophile, where she responded to a Quebec Court of Appeal's reduction of the sentence previously stipulated for a man who raped his two-year-old dawter, and often afterward, making porn videos of his "feats of masculinity" (his name cannot be published to protect the victim). The presiding judge who presented the decision in a 2 to 1 vote, of course, can be named: Justice Lise Cote.

But afterward, Toronto's Globe and Mail presented an editorial supporting the iniquitous Quebec ruling. Unfortunately, the newspaper has hidden its editorial behind a registration device. Imagine having to register merely to check out the exact wording of the offending editorial in support of the offending judge and the offending sentence of the toddler raped.

Well, Canadianna's torrent of truth-telling is replete with quotation from the 595-word G&M turdpitude. You can meet the mind of the G&M editorial writer/s by reading Canadianna's latest, Degrees of Sick and Twisted. Owlb

Further Resources:

Dr Roy Eappen
Rape of Justice

Politics: Canada: Libs lose another candidate as Volpe bites the dust

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The glow is off another candidate in the crowd hustling to win the leadership of the federal Liberal Party of Canada, which lost the government in the thick taint of finanicial scandal dating from the days of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Finance Minister Paul Martin, neither of whom went to jail like hapless civil-servant Guité who was implicated up to his eye-balls but who also was the scapegoat for all the rest. Call them the Unprovables. Yet, the public is aware that the Liberals had not just one bad egg, but a system of financial legerdemain.

That's why, the appearance of Joe Volpe among the 11 assembled candidates at the first debate for the leadership, held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, yesterday, marked him off as the second pin to fall, after the belated Belinda Stronach. She had only money going for her, and is widely viewed as incompetent to run a government. Joe Volpe on the other hand has a growl for a visage and had been taking very large lollipops from extremely wealthy kids with drug industry parents, as campaign contributions. So, that's two definitely down.

Joe tried to pre-empt any call for accountablity by holding a press conference before the debate, all butch and huffy about being smeared. That generated a fracas around the debate with Michael Ignatieff, until now the leader of the pack. Ignatieff had made a remark about the inappropriateness of any candidate running without an impeccable financial record. Carolyn Bennett and Ken Dryden (previously of hockey fame). In reply to Ignatieff, the huffy Volpe wrapped himself in the flag--not quite the Maple Leaf, but that of "Canadian nationalism"--as tho that excuses his unusual appeal to wealthy children. Why, after all that the Libs have been thru, Volpe would play the game in the way he did, is utterly unscrutable, really a way that appears as an evasion of the campaign-contribution laws. Remember, perception is important. Were he of no evasive intent, he still showed lack of judgment in avoiding the appearance of possible bad intent. He's out.

Oh yes, the fracas.

"I'm a Canadian nationalist. I don't apologize for it and I think it's important for us to distinguish ourselves from the current government, which has essentially a made-in-Washington policy on foreign affairs and Mr. Ignatieff supports the [Conservative] government's position [which supports the American position]," said Volpe, the Toronto MP and former immigration minister.

"Within a leadership position, if you're going to support Conservative issues and you're not going to differentiate yourself from the Prime Minister, then you're not going to be in a position to fight for Liberal principles against the Conservative government," Volpe added.

But that was only a subtext for the reality that Ignatieff not only has the guts to stay the course in Afghanistan (into which fray Canada entered under the Liberals at the behest of the UN) but also has had the guts to insist on financial transparency, to Mr. Volpe's shame. Bravo!, Ignatieff!

The interplay between Ignatieff and Volpe had a bitter undercurrent in the wake of the controversy over Volpe's campaign contributions. Ignatieff and his organizers have raised questions about the wisdom of Volpe remaining in the race after it emerged that the Volpe campaign had accepted $27,500 in donations — later returned — from five donors under age 18.

Yesterday, Volpe singled out Ignatieff while complaining that he was the subject of a smear campaign over the donations issue by Liberals who have suggested he hurt the party's image.

The outcome of all this is twofold:

1.) Volpe won't win the leadership contest--but we should remember he could never have won, and was in the race to retain his status as a potential cabinet member should the Libs gain back the govt in the the next fed election. What happened is that Volpe will remain as much as possible in the thick of things simply to bring Mr. Ignatieff down. Volpe and his people will jockey to discern who among the serious candidates to align with, in exchange for leading the negative campaign against Ignatieff.

2.) Ignatieff has probably slipped from the lead to par with former NDP Premier of Ontario (and previous to that NDP leader in the Federal Parliament), Bob Rae. Appearances in this case will bring to mind that Mr. Rae and the present fed NDP leaders will de facto constiute a Liberal-NDP coalition. Many Liberals loathe any such idea. Or, we should consider that possibly now Rae has the lead for being most articulate in opposing Ignatieff's support for Canada's War for democracy in Afghanistan. A whole line up of Warriors, no! Peacekeepers, yes! will be taking the cudgels to Ignatieff, who now stands out quite singularly from the pack Rae leads.

That Ignatieff is alone among the candidates does not mean he is alone among the Liberal voters, but it may mean that he will not be able to command enuff of the Liberal Party appartus and activists who, after all, may not have the wisdom to commit to the fite for demoracy against the resurgent Taliban, so as to secure a free democracy in Afghanistan.

The long line aganst Ignatieff's principled stand consists of these candidates for the leadership, some serious, most nominal: Carolyn Bennett, Maurizio Bevilacqua, Stéphane Dion, Ken Dryden, Hedy Fry, Gerard Kennedy, Bob Rae, and Joe Volpe. So there will be further jockeying among these ladies and gentlemen, with Volpe out of the picture except as hatchet man, to bring down Bob Rae. It's difficult to see among them anybody of the calibre of Rae among the clutch, but there has to be--because Rae did not spend a political lifetime in the party, but in another one. He just doesn't have the roots. The same could be said of Ignatieff except that he didn't lead another party, the socialist party which many Liberals dislike intensely (rather, Ignatieff spent years as professor at Harvard). So, Rae has a rootless quality, a former enemy quality, but an articulate nationalism and "peacekeeper" ideology (it's not all its touted to be). The "peacekeeper" ideology means that most Liberal leadeership cand's won't fite for the new democratic regimes in Afghanistan, certianly never Iraq.

Now, current candidate Scott Brison voted recently, along with Ignatieff and 22 other Liberal Members of Parliament to support the war. But Brison is not a serious candidate. He is the Gay candidate (tho he isn't playing that up, still it's recognized that his candidature helps secure the Gay vote for the Liberals, no matter who the leader is). On the other side of the coin, Brison is a turncoat Conservative like Belinda. Like her, he got a cabinet post in exchange for his new livery, but unlike her he had been dogged by a number of his temper tantrums--most unseemly for his office as Minister of the Crown at the time (yet he was re-elected, only to go down with the sinking ship of his new party, while his old party came to power as a minority govt without him). Brison is not a serious candidate, but will be looking to align with the Lib most likely to succeed. It will be interesting to note whether he sticks with Ignatieff on the issue of support for the troops, thus keeping faith with his constituents; or whether he aligns with Rae (the marriage of a former Tory with a former NDPer, that's doubtful), or aligns instead with whom? among the remaining scrappers, the better to position himself. My guess is that, since Ignatieff is likely to vote pro-gmarriage in the fall, Brison would be clear to support him and maintain his previous vote for support of the troops.

Among the other definitely non-serious candidates are Bennett, Bevilacqua, Dryden, and Fry. Dion has a personal following among Quebec Liberals and respect in many other provinces; while Kennedy has some respect among Ontario Liberals, where he was a lackluster Minister of Education until his recent resignation, and formerly was the leader of the volunteer Food Bank movement in Toronto where he still has a considerable well of goodwill which may possibly translate into convention votes. But I doubt it. - Politicarp

Further Resources:

Ignatieff takes heat over military support of democracy in Afghanistan
Ignatieff vs. Volpe

Health: Virus Testing: June 27 National HIV Testing Day should go global, says First Lady Laura Bush

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Laura Bush told the UN on Friday that the annual HIV Testing Day in the USA was a useful model that could be promoted worldwide. This year, National HIV Testing Day will be observed on Jun27,2k6, launching a month of emphasis on testing for everyone, even those who think they could not possibly have contracted the disease (which would in reality apply only to the strictest of celibates).

"Here in the United States, June 27 is recognized as National HIV Testing Day," Bush told the meeting. "The United States will soon propose the designation of an International HIV Testing Day. I urge all member states to join us in support of this initiative."

The annual U.S. campaign was started in 1995 by the National Association of People with AIDS. The group distributes kits to help community groups and health authorities promote the campaign in their areas.

With U.S. and international help, "millions are now learning to live with HIV/AIDS instead of waiting to die from it," Bush said.

"More people need to know how AIDS is transmitted and every country has an obligation to educate its citizens," said Bush, a former school librarian who often uses the White House as a platform to promote education and reading.

I had a classmate in h+ school who had raised himself up from penury to become a wealthy multi-millionaire in real estate in a large American metropolis. I heard quite recently that he discovered a a couple of years back that he had AIDS and promptly commited suicide. If you are HIV positive, or you have AIDS, it is possible to have a relatively decent life while surviving the disease--especially if you have money. - Owlb

Further Resources:

You can be tested and get results in 20 minutes
HIV's hidden carriers won't disclose to sex partners

Tags: HIV testing

• calendar
• health
• hivaids
• hivnatnltesting
• hivglobaltesting
• hivdisclosure
• bushlaura

Calendar: Holiday : American patriotic celebration of Flag Day, June 14

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Nationwide celebrations on June 14 will be held in the USA to honour the national flag that symbolizes the everyday patrotism of most of the American populatoin. The USA celebration is popular but sometimes seems to be a dress rehearsal for the national birthday early next month, the Fourth of July.

Both days are often made contentious by the cult of Naysayers who take the occasions to burn the flag and vent their hostility to the whole idea of America as a good but (like everyone) flawed society with a good but flawed (like every good country) government. It's not the moment to make invidious comparisons, so let's just take a day of special pleasure in Old Glory, the Stars and Stripes. In Canada too, I'm among the American expats who celebrate flag day, while my neighbours on both sides fly the Maple Leaf day in and day out all year round.

In my youth, we students in school made a regular pledge of allegiance:

The Pledge of Allegiance

I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,

one Nation under God,

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The expression "one Nation under God" comes from a phrase in the Gettysburg Address made by Abraham Lincoln in 1865, and it was added, under the leadership of Dwight David Eisenhower, to the pledge in the post-WWII era.

Because we missed it, not having our calendar program in place at the time, we mention here also that Canada's Flag Day is held on February 15 each year. But it seems there's no pledge of allegiance to the flag of Canada and the Monarchy that it represents. On becoming a citizen, one would pledge once and for all allegiance to reigning Monarch and her/his heirs forever (I am unable to do so in good conscience tho I respect Queen Elizabeth II greatly and love Canada along with my native land, the US).

While we're at it, here's how the Canadian govt site writes up the festivity:

February 15 is National Flag of Canada Day. It marks the day in 1965 when our red and white maple leaf flag was first raised over Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and in hundreds of communities from coast to coast to coast. This is a perfect opportunity to celebrate our flag and what it stands for — a country and a citizenship that are the envy of the world. In our often understated ways, be it instructing students in a school classroom, taking time to listen to the stories of veterans, or volunteering at the local community centre, Canadians share their pride in our flag and in their common values.

Update: New protocol for half-masting Canadian flag:

The main ceremonial flag at the Peace Tower of Canada's Federal Parliament buildings will now be raised and lowered only on certain stringent conditions. There has been much recent debate in the country over flag half-masting for veterans of Canada's war in Afghanistan.

In its striking simplicity, the National Flag of Canada speaks to the exciting challenges and opportunities of our future. At the same time, it speaks to all that we have accomplished together as a people and to those moments that have served to define us. The creation of our flag in 1965 was such a moment.

While very much focussed on our flag, the National Flag of Canada Day Web pages provide interesting information on five key moments that have made us who we are as a country and a people:

* Confederation (1867)
* The Battle of Vimy Ridge (1917)
* The Statute of Westminster (1931)
* The National Flag of Canada (1965)
* The Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982)

The past, present and future can all be found in the folds of the National Flag of Canada. While we are still a relatively young country, our rich and fascinating history is only equalled by our incredible spirit and vitality that will define our future. February 15 — National Flag of Canada Day — is the perfect opportunity to share our pride in Canada and being Canadian.

Two flags, two countries, two societies, two neighbours sharing one continent in peace and justice for all. - Politicarp

Further Resources:

27th National Pause for the Pledge of Allegiance (USA)
Betsy Ross, sewing artist who created the 1st US flag

Tags: USA flag day plus Canada's

• calendar
• holiday
• flagdayusa
• flagdaycanada
• patriotism
• allegiancepledge

Canada: Toronto : Toronto, City of the Terrorist Wannabees

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As the number of reporters on hand to fill TV screens with pictures of captured terrorists, has itself grown to the size of an invading army, and the amount of column-inches and size of headlines worldwide stretches to the moon and back three times (or is it four?), here in Toronto we're beginning to pick thru the debris of the event that has left our complacency shattered.

First, I want to thank the Mayor of Metro Toronto, David Miller, for his impeccable decorum in backing the police and other pro-active autorities in pursuing and handling the logistics that brawt those arrested to the bar of justice. The safety, good order, and civility of the city has been our Mayor's main concern (no matter what otherwise may be our political differences with him and his style and his bid for re-election). He was informed by the police of the would-be terrorist cell's existence, development, and presumably also of the police plan to conduct a sting and make arrests at the appropriate moment. More largely, this exemplary action with the Mayor's foreknowledge serves on another front where the Mayor and police are cooperating in a way not seen for many years previous. The police action against terrorists is an example to the youth gangs playing the drugs-and-guns combo that have so disfigured civic life in Toronto for some time, resulting in deaths even to innocent passersby.

Second, some Canadians, like John Lawrence in Canadian Free Press are beginning to ask why the educational system and Canadian culture in general do not engage the hearts and minds of these wannabe terrorists. Lawrence's article in Canadian Free Press touches on this matter momentarily in writing about the educational system, given the age of the raised-here-immigrants and born-heres among the wannabee-terrorists, most of them in their twenties and teens, parents and kids who had it so good in their Islamic countries of origin.

Take the recent statements by a federal official regarding the arrests of a group of young Canadians on terrorism charges this week. The official stated that he expects some serious reflection in government and security circles about how young people raised in Canada could allegedly conspire to commit such crimes. He went on to add that "Most of them went through the school system here. They're not just off the plane. So there will be some questioning going on."

Update: The Atlanta, Georgia connection of two of the Toronto Terribles comes to the fore in an article for Atlanta Journal-Constitution by Bill Torpy, "Trip to Canada fateful for Georgians" (Jun11,2k6). Torpy provides a number of significant details I hadn't yet encountered: "[USA] Federal authorities accuse the two Georgia men of being involved in international terrorism activities. They are accused of making suspicious videotapes of the U.S. Capitol and three other Washington locations and traveling to the mountains of Georgia to conduct military-style training exercises. Sadequee allegedly provided Ahmed information on how to receive military-style training in Pakistan. ¶ Both are being held in federal custody." - P

What kinds of questions will be asked? I can imagine the architects of our public education system and the psychologists and social professionals that attempt to guide our youth through a stringent goal-based curriculum will have to do more in their aim of convincing our young people that this is utopia. They will have to try and figure out why anyone would not readily succumb to our ideals and what can be done to ensure the next generation buys into the program we are running.

Leaving aside for now the telltale rhetoric of the writer--"buys into the program we are running"--which is quintessentially a part of the problem when the h+est civic value tawt in schools is consumerism: let's go to the next consideration that pops out at us from the haystack of news coverage.

Third, crackerjack immigration-lawyer Barbara Jackman is working the Supreme Court already by way of the press, in advance of a case the Canuck Supremes will hear on what to her is the notorious security certificate (she herself is considered "notorious" by many in the field as a security obstructionist). Jim Brown of Canadian Press (via Canada.com reports:

Barbara Jackman says she's worried the climate of public apprehension could affect the high court as it considers a challenge to the security certificate system - a key legal tool used by the government to detain and evict some terrorist suspects from Canada.

"Judges are human beings, the same way anyone else is; obviously they read the news," Jackman said Tuesday.

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A wee sidebar on the monumental salareies paid the Supremes to keep their "jurisprudential objectivity," if you please? See Rory Leishman of London Free Press in a recent column he wrote on the subject. Back to Jackman's cajoling >

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"Of course it's going to impact in some way . . . . Any time there is an attempt to create a public hysteria on the part of the government, yeah, it does make (my) job harder."

Jackman represents Syrian-born Hassan Almrei, one of three men challenging the security certificate regime. The others are Algerian native Mohamed Harkat of Ottawa and Adil Charkaoui who came to Montreal from Morocco.

They are trying to overturn provisions of Canadian immigration law that allow Ottawa to issue ministerial certificates branding people without permanent resident status a threat to national security.

Much of the evidence is then heard in secret by a Federal Court judge, with only scant details disclosed to the defendant and the public.

The law also provides for indefinite detention of suspects, many of whom have spent years behind bars while their cases go through the courts.

This is just one example, one so strikingly dissimilar from the appropoach of Toronto's Mayor (who was privy to the time table of apprehension by police). Mayor Miller knew that the development of the terror-stopping case and its step-by-step procedures had an internal time-factoring of their own. But Ms Jackman wants to win her own case to get the security certificates struck down, and so thinks that everything that happens do so to stop her cause.

Fourth, now comes the TV critic for the Toronto Star, anxious to make the present case against the terrorists live up to TV's 24 star Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland) in this episode confronted by his Canuck nemesis Tony Acerbusyass (played by Antonia Zerbisias. Tony is of the opinion that the "Time is right for skepticism," and we may be assured she will fiddle this tune long after everyone has stopped listening.

What's more, the media must now move into an entirely different mode — the innocent-until-proven-guilty mode. A little more skepticism — and more important, some moderation — is in order, please. Problem is, the story is in danger of running out of control.

For example, because the Star had such a jump on the competition, with so many GTA-based reporters and resources, plus the advantage of a Sunday edition, we had the names, residences and other personal details of the suspects plastered over three pages.

Yesterday, the other papers followed suit, drawing out what must be the considerable anguish of the families, personified by a very distraught relative who appeared on CBC Newsworld insisting his son, Sareef Abdehaleen, 30, was innocent.

"To everybody now, these people are guilty already,'' he said.

Not just "these people,'' but all Muslims, according to some sources.

At least the Globe and the Star, in yesterday's editorials, urged readers not to start labelling Muslims with the "t-word," and target them for hate crimes.

The Star also took a few steps back, both on Sunday with a column by Thomas Walkom imploring people to view events with a critical eye, and again yesterday with a report by Linda Diebel on how the police played up the arrests for maximum spectacle.

But read yesterday's editorial in the Post: "The Jihadis among us," and even more egregious, Christie Blatchford's front-page column in the Globe, and you'll see first: calls for stepped-up law enforcement and diminished civil rights, Bush-style. And second: a Christie-nacht screed against a single community, tantamount to hate speech.

"The accused men are mostly young and mostly bearded in the Taliban fashion," wrote Blatchford. "They have first names like Mohamed, middle names like Mohamed, and last names like Mohamed. Some of their female relatives at the Brampton courthouse who were there in their support wore black head-to-toe burkas ... which is not a getup I have ever seen on anyone but Muslim women (sic).''

I like Christie Blatchford, she's an ace crime reporter, she goes to a crime scene or a court house and writes raw perception, feelings and all. (It's a predilection of reformational philosophy-lovers to enjoy crime fiction and, in my case occasoinal good crime and crime-court reporting.) I don't know just who added the usually-editorial "thus" (sic) which is inserted into Ms Christie's piece. Probably Tony, wanting to alert readers to just how perceptive Ms Christie is in knowing that these garbed figures are women. But, if reporter Christie is herself the author of the "sic," it demonstrates the the terrorism-specific semiotics of the attire: one can't know for sure either the gender or the agenda of the person so hidden. Do we really know whether the mastermind of the cell was attired in a burqa among all the burqas in the crowd at court, checking out whether any of his men bore the demeanor of a squealer? I agree with Ms. Zerbisias that it's the correct time to be skeptical of sand-throwers, particularly of her kind, like Toronto Star's Tom Walkom, whose left-lining whining is always predictable. I think this is precisely not the time for usuals to shift into that mode which is their reflex action. Wait a bit, dear dogs of suspicion, and I would be the first to unleash you. Take a cue from the Mayor. Believe me the arrested and accused will have their interminable day in court, altho where security certificates are applicable, they mite as well be used to the full extent possible. My first reaction is to suspect the suspects, while Zerbisias and Walkom's is to suspect the police--how come, do you suppose, dear reader?

Sam Grewal reports on the h+ school and college scenes regarding alienation among some Muslim youth (five of the arrested could not be identified because of their age). His article, the best of the lot from Toronto Star, should be required reading for all Torontonians. It bears your scrutiny and reflection, dear Torontonians among refWrite readers. May I address you as refWrite Torontonians?

I've registered my uneasiness about burqa-wearing in Toronto under the present circumstances, but let's not extend that queasiness on my part to the scarves some Muslim young women wear in public (school), nor to the turban's some Sikh young men wear on the street. Scarves and turbans are just symbols, religious symbols that attract negativity from others--not least of all from my own fellow whites, especially among our younger ages--religious symbols that unfortunately attract negativity and racism and, now, perhaps fear. But, burqas and knives are a different matter, because they do carry security and safety implications. These matters can and will be discussed, laws may change and change back again if and when problems arise due to the lethal or intimidating potential of some of these otherwise innocuous symbols of religious identity. The discussion among all the citizenry should be ongoing, and provbably will be.

The bottom line in the myriad questions that cluster around the arrest of alleged terrorists who base their proclivities on a version of a religion is this: All of us must welcome our Muslim neighbours, even if the police have to be aware that a very small minority of them hate our society, hate our own leading racial profile (white), and are drawn to the practice of distorted-religion-based terrorism. - Politicarp

Full disclosure: Politicarp is white, blonde, blue-eyed, male, old, and subject to longterm illness (not AIDS-HIV) - and, one may wryly add, has occasionally experienced discrimination based on all these mentioned personal factors, even to the extent that a whole website has been created, using my name, for the purpose of mocking and belittling me. The perpetrator is of the same race, appears to be in the same age range, and lives around the corner from me. Hatred is his hobby, a distorted outlet for his creativity and flare for demented fictionalization of living persons.

FURTHER RESOURCES:

Beheading plan dropped, but not charges
I got apt expression "terrorist wannabees" here

Tags: USA flag day plus Canada's

• terrorism
• terrortoronto
• muslims
• torontomuslims
• torontoyouth
• police
• torontopolice
• millerdavid
• torontomajor
• torontostar
• zerbisiasantonia
• walkomtom