Read this CP story Former Winnipeg mayor named to head round table on economy and environment. Or see this one in the Star Phoenix, entitled in a more inflammatory way PM's Patronage appointment outrages opposition MPs, and beginning with "Despite promising to end political "cronyism", Prime Minister Paul Martin announced Friday he will ignore the conclusion of a parliamentary committee and proceed with one of his most controversial patronage appointments by naming defeated Liberal candidate Glen Murray to a federal advisory agency on the environment."
What you will not find in either story is an elementary fact which the reporter who wrote it or the editor who edited it could easily have found out: the Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development has five (5) Liberal members, including the chair, and seven (7) opposition members (4 conservative, two bloc and one NDP).
Excuse me folks, but is it any surprise that a majority of the committee tried to play a political game by voting against Murray? And that Martin ignored both the game and the vote?
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Media circus du jour
The Medical Becomes Political for Congress
One aspect of the Schiavo case that I haven't read about yet is how it basically makes the case for medicare. I hope the republicans remember. This NYT story says "Many Congressional Democrats were biting their tongues Friday as they witnessed what they considered an egregious misuse of power by Republicans. They pointed to public opinion polls that show support for Mr. Schiavo's right to decide his wife's fate, but they also fear the power of the mobilized right. Plus, lawmakers of both parties say they have been moved by the videotapes they have seen of Ms. Schiavo, viewing themselves as the last barrier between her and a death sentence. Yet, as Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, warned her colleagues this week as they considered a bill that would move the case to federal court, the mix of politics and mortality can be volatile. "We change the nature of all these things to put this in the political arena," she said."
That's for sure.
If they are going to force the Florida hospital to keep her alive, well, maybe they should be paying for her care for the next 40 years.
And how many other braindamaged people are there who the US government should also be caring for? And, come to think of it, how many other people are there in the US who need medical care of all kinds, but who cannot get it? Maybe their government should care enough about them, all of them, to put its money where its mouth is, and introduce decent medicare for every american.
Oh, fat chance. I'm just being sarcastic as usual.
Like all the other "right to life" cases, the proponents don't really give a damn about Schaivo or her family or medicare issues or anything other than "winning". This all reminds me of the media frenzy over the Elian Gonzales case. But unlike that case, this one cannot be solved by an early morning raid. Because it will take weeks for her to die, some judge or politician somewhere will always find some way to continue Mrs. Shaivo's life.
At some point, her husband will give up and divorce her, leaving her to her parents. And then all her newfound friends will move on to pray on the streets about something else, like, say, the Roy Moore Ten Commendments case coming up at the Supreme Court. They will leave Mrs. Shiavo to live on and on in her vegetative state, breaking her parents' hearts as she continues to not recover from her unrecoverable brain damage. In a few years, we will see a couple of plaintive news stories from the parents wondering why all their friends have disappeared.
UPFATE: So now the whole thing will be moved to federal court, where the husband can start all over again, though the Supreme Court has already refused to hear the case. Will a federal judge decide the case differently from innumerable Florida judges? And how many more years will the circus continue now?
One aspect of the Schiavo case that I haven't read about yet is how it basically makes the case for medicare. I hope the republicans remember. This NYT story says "Many Congressional Democrats were biting their tongues Friday as they witnessed what they considered an egregious misuse of power by Republicans. They pointed to public opinion polls that show support for Mr. Schiavo's right to decide his wife's fate, but they also fear the power of the mobilized right. Plus, lawmakers of both parties say they have been moved by the videotapes they have seen of Ms. Schiavo, viewing themselves as the last barrier between her and a death sentence. Yet, as Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, warned her colleagues this week as they considered a bill that would move the case to federal court, the mix of politics and mortality can be volatile. "We change the nature of all these things to put this in the political arena," she said."
That's for sure.
If they are going to force the Florida hospital to keep her alive, well, maybe they should be paying for her care for the next 40 years.
And how many other braindamaged people are there who the US government should also be caring for? And, come to think of it, how many other people are there in the US who need medical care of all kinds, but who cannot get it? Maybe their government should care enough about them, all of them, to put its money where its mouth is, and introduce decent medicare for every american.
Oh, fat chance. I'm just being sarcastic as usual.
Like all the other "right to life" cases, the proponents don't really give a damn about Schaivo or her family or medicare issues or anything other than "winning". This all reminds me of the media frenzy over the Elian Gonzales case. But unlike that case, this one cannot be solved by an early morning raid. Because it will take weeks for her to die, some judge or politician somewhere will always find some way to continue Mrs. Shaivo's life.
At some point, her husband will give up and divorce her, leaving her to her parents. And then all her newfound friends will move on to pray on the streets about something else, like, say, the Roy Moore Ten Commendments case coming up at the Supreme Court. They will leave Mrs. Shiavo to live on and on in her vegetative state, breaking her parents' hearts as she continues to not recover from her unrecoverable brain damage. In a few years, we will see a couple of plaintive news stories from the parents wondering why all their friends have disappeared.
UPFATE: So now the whole thing will be moved to federal court, where the husband can start all over again, though the Supreme Court has already refused to hear the case. Will a federal judge decide the case differently from innumerable Florida judges? And how many more years will the circus continue now?
Becoming soulless people
Un-Volunteering: Troops Improvise to Find Way Out
One soldier's journey to a conscientious-objector application: " Here's what happened: I spent six months over there, and I came back and thought about it. What I know is that it's inhumane. It's turning 18-year-old men and women into soulless people."
One of the horrible things about this war is the horrible things that the American military has done in Iraq -- shooting families whose only crime was to be driving in the wrong place, crashing into people's homes and arresting them on rumour and hearsay, destroying towns street by street like the city of Fallujah, throwing men and women and children into prison and not letting them out again even when their innocence is proven, arresting wives to make their husbands surrender -- acting, in other words, just the way the Nazis did in France and Holland and Czechoslovakia.
The Iraq Veterans Against the War are marching this weekend at Fort Bragg. I hope they realize how many others are with them in spirit.
Also on the IVAW website I came across a reference to Codepink's coverage of the conviction and imprisonment of Iraq war resistor Camilo Mejia. In his writings from prison, Camilo quoted this poem, written by a Nazi war resistor Albrecht Hanshofer as he awaited execution:
GUILT
The burden of my guilt before the law
weighs light upon my shoulders; to plot
and to conspire was my duty to the people;
I would have been a criminal had I not.
I am guilty, though not the way you think,
I should have done my duty sooner, I was wrong,
I should have called evil more clearly by its name
I hesitated to condemn it for far too long.
I now accuse myself within my heart:
I have betrayed my conscience far too long
I have deceived myself and fellow man.
I knew the course of evil from the start
My warning was not loud nor clear enough!
Today I know what I was guilty of…
One soldier's journey to a conscientious-objector application: " Here's what happened: I spent six months over there, and I came back and thought about it. What I know is that it's inhumane. It's turning 18-year-old men and women into soulless people."
One of the horrible things about this war is the horrible things that the American military has done in Iraq -- shooting families whose only crime was to be driving in the wrong place, crashing into people's homes and arresting them on rumour and hearsay, destroying towns street by street like the city of Fallujah, throwing men and women and children into prison and not letting them out again even when their innocence is proven, arresting wives to make their husbands surrender -- acting, in other words, just the way the Nazis did in France and Holland and Czechoslovakia.
The Iraq Veterans Against the War are marching this weekend at Fort Bragg. I hope they realize how many others are with them in spirit.
Also on the IVAW website I came across a reference to Codepink's coverage of the conviction and imprisonment of Iraq war resistor Camilo Mejia. In his writings from prison, Camilo quoted this poem, written by a Nazi war resistor Albrecht Hanshofer as he awaited execution:
GUILT
The burden of my guilt before the law
weighs light upon my shoulders; to plot
and to conspire was my duty to the people;
I would have been a criminal had I not.
I am guilty, though not the way you think,
I should have done my duty sooner, I was wrong,
I should have called evil more clearly by its name
I hesitated to condemn it for far too long.
I now accuse myself within my heart:
I have betrayed my conscience far too long
I have deceived myself and fellow man.
I knew the course of evil from the start
My warning was not loud nor clear enough!
Today I know what I was guilty of…
Friday, March 18, 2005
How do you spell...
G-R-A-N-D-S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G.
If they had actually been serious, the congress would have passed these bills a week ago.Yahoo! News - House GOPs Want Feeding Tube Reinserted
Its not as though they had other things to do -- oh, no, wait, they had to interview Mark McQuire about steroids and vote to drill for oil in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge!
Never mind.
If they had actually been serious, the congress would have passed these bills a week ago.Yahoo! News - House GOPs Want Feeding Tube Reinserted
Its not as though they had other things to do -- oh, no, wait, they had to interview Mark McQuire about steroids and vote to drill for oil in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge!
Never mind.
Don't you just hate it
When you do a "blog this" post, and get it all written, with bunches of extra links. Then, when you go to hit "publish" you hit the "x" box by mistake -- and poof! its gone!
I just did a brilliant post pointing to a brilliant My Blahg post about the war on terror and including various great links to the New York reaction to the republican convention and... oh well, I guess the world will just have to suffer the loss. Go see My Blahg anyway.
I just did a brilliant post pointing to a brilliant My Blahg post about the war on terror and including various great links to the New York reaction to the republican convention and... oh well, I guess the world will just have to suffer the loss. Go see My Blahg anyway.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Mencken quotes
TBRNews.org has this great H.L. Mencken quote: As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.Here's some more of the things that H.L. Mencken said:
A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.
All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else.
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.
It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.
It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf.
It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.
All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else.
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.
It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.
It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf.
It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
And speaking of the right wing . . .
POGGE posts So much for the big tent quoting the CEO of Concerned Christians Canada Inc. Pogge notes that "This guy[Craig Chandler] wants to bring the same culture war into Canada that's polarizing the U.S. . . . There's the same triumphalism the religious right displayed following Bush's re-election". Chandler has the same bland assumption that Canadians are basically conservative.
Well, no, actually, I would argue that Canada is NOT a conservative country.
We support government involvement in the Canadian economy - grants, loans, investments of all kinds.
We support medicare - we demand universal access.
We support old age pensions - in the States, there have been politicians for the last 60 years who have argued against Social Security, but there has never been, in Canada, a politician of any party who has argued against the OAP.
We support equalization payments between the have and the have-not provinces - we argue about the amount and the formula, but not against the principle.
We support orderly marketing of our products, through the wheat board, the commodity boards, etc. We don't believe in "every man for himself".
Basically, we support peace, order and good government -- that's what POGGE is all about!
Well, no, actually, I would argue that Canada is NOT a conservative country.
We support government involvement in the Canadian economy - grants, loans, investments of all kinds.
We support medicare - we demand universal access.
We support old age pensions - in the States, there have been politicians for the last 60 years who have argued against Social Security, but there has never been, in Canada, a politician of any party who has argued against the OAP.
We support equalization payments between the have and the have-not provinces - we argue about the amount and the formula, but not against the principle.
We support orderly marketing of our products, through the wheat board, the commodity boards, etc. We don't believe in "every man for himself".
Basically, we support peace, order and good government -- that's what POGGE is all about!
With friends like these . . .
Hill plans to fight gay marriage Poor Harper -- every time he turns around, his Conservatives are demonstrating yet again why Canada doesn't want them to run the country.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
A 20-year wait for justice
CBC News Indepth: Air India - Bombing of Air India Flight 182
All of Canada is waiting for this verdict -- almost 20 years after the bomb exploded, causing the deaths of 329 people, mostly Canadians.
I remember, the week after this happened, that Maclean's magazine didn't even make this their cover story -- they just ran a banner at the top "Air India disaster" -- you wouldn't even have known that Canadians died.
Twenty years ago, the fact that the people on this plane were East Indians was more important than the fact that they were Canadians.
Ten years ago, a lot of people seemed to have forgotten that no one had ever been prosecuted for this crime.
Finally, people got angry enough to demand action. I think the failure to prosecute was likely not because they didn't know who did it, but rather because prosecutors were concerned that the screwups with the evidence jeopardized a successful prosecution. So we'll see tomorrow whether the Crown's case was good enough -- but at least they tried.
UPDATE - Well the verdict is in, and it is as I feared. Perhaps the Scottish "not proven" would fit the case the best. And see this excellent post by Ross No Guantanamos Allowed I hadn't thought of this point, but he is absolutely right.
All of Canada is waiting for this verdict -- almost 20 years after the bomb exploded, causing the deaths of 329 people, mostly Canadians.
I remember, the week after this happened, that Maclean's magazine didn't even make this their cover story -- they just ran a banner at the top "Air India disaster" -- you wouldn't even have known that Canadians died.
Twenty years ago, the fact that the people on this plane were East Indians was more important than the fact that they were Canadians.
Ten years ago, a lot of people seemed to have forgotten that no one had ever been prosecuted for this crime.
Finally, people got angry enough to demand action. I think the failure to prosecute was likely not because they didn't know who did it, but rather because prosecutors were concerned that the screwups with the evidence jeopardized a successful prosecution. So we'll see tomorrow whether the Crown's case was good enough -- but at least they tried.
UPDATE - Well the verdict is in, and it is as I feared. Perhaps the Scottish "not proven" would fit the case the best. And see this excellent post by Ross No Guantanamos Allowed I hadn't thought of this point, but he is absolutely right.
Monday, March 14, 2005
Lysenko rides again
This is nuts -- Battle on Teaching Evolution Sharpens They seem to think that teaching creationism is going to be the magic bullet that turns the US into a Christian Right country and destroys those dastardly librrulls once and for all.
"To fundamentalist Christians, [Baptist minister] Fox said, the fight to teach God's role in creation is becoming the essential front in America's culture war. The issue is on the agenda at every meeting of pastors he attends. If evolution's boosters can be forced to back down, he said, the Christian right's agenda will advance. "If you believe God created that baby, it makes it a whole lot harder to get rid of that baby," Fox said. "If you can cause enough doubt on evolution, liberalism will die." . . . "Creationism's going to be our big battle. We're hoping that Kansas will be the model, and we're in it for the long haul," Fox said."
Yeah -- like Russia thought that so-called peasant genius Lysenko was going to solve all their agricultural problems because he was just SUCH a good communist.
"In December 1929, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin gave a famous speech elevating "practice" above "theory", elevating the judgment of the political bosses above that of the scientists and technical specialists. Though the Soviet government under Stalin gave much more support to genuine agricultural scientists in its early days, after 1935 the balance of power abruptly swung towards Lysenko and his followers. Lysenko was put in charge of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the Soviet Union and made responsible for ending the propagation of "harmful" ideas among Soviet scientists. Lysenko served this purpose faithfully, causing the expulsion, imprisonment, and death of hundreds of scientists and the demise of genetics throughout the Soviet Union. This period is known as Lysenkoism." It was 35 years before Lysenko was repudiated.
"To fundamentalist Christians, [Baptist minister] Fox said, the fight to teach God's role in creation is becoming the essential front in America's culture war. The issue is on the agenda at every meeting of pastors he attends. If evolution's boosters can be forced to back down, he said, the Christian right's agenda will advance. "If you believe God created that baby, it makes it a whole lot harder to get rid of that baby," Fox said. "If you can cause enough doubt on evolution, liberalism will die." . . . "Creationism's going to be our big battle. We're hoping that Kansas will be the model, and we're in it for the long haul," Fox said."
Yeah -- like Russia thought that so-called peasant genius Lysenko was going to solve all their agricultural problems because he was just SUCH a good communist.
"In December 1929, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin gave a famous speech elevating "practice" above "theory", elevating the judgment of the political bosses above that of the scientists and technical specialists. Though the Soviet government under Stalin gave much more support to genuine agricultural scientists in its early days, after 1935 the balance of power abruptly swung towards Lysenko and his followers. Lysenko was put in charge of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the Soviet Union and made responsible for ending the propagation of "harmful" ideas among Soviet scientists. Lysenko served this purpose faithfully, causing the expulsion, imprisonment, and death of hundreds of scientists and the demise of genetics throughout the Soviet Union. This period is known as Lysenkoism." It was 35 years before Lysenko was repudiated.
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Watch your backs!
MSNBC - Poll: 7 in 10 worried about government secrecy
This story reports on an issue about which I am increasingly concerned. The story indicates that only 6 per cent of the US public thinks there is now "too much" access to government records. But I'll bet among that 6 per cent is the Pentagon, the State Department, and the White House. Most of the prisoner abuse stories and Guantanamo revelations of the last several months would not have happened without the ACLU and the Freedom of Information Act, and I am convinced that the Bush Administration would love to trash this act if they possibly could.
So it gave me a chill to read in this news story: "A bipartisan bill now in the U.S. Senate seeks to revisit the federal Freedom of Information Act to address many of the open-government complaints." I couldn't find out what bill this might be, but I don't believe it - a "bipartisan" bill in today's Republican-lock-step let's-all-vote-for-Gonzales-the-Torturer Senate? A bill aimed at "improving" access to government records? Oh yeah, tell me another one. Given the pattern now followed in the Bush administration, what would happen is that a bunch of amendments would be shoehorned into the bill at the last minute which would actually result in slamming the door shut on FOIA requests. And the republicans would vote for this, Democrats need to watch their backs on this one.
This story reports on an issue about which I am increasingly concerned. The story indicates that only 6 per cent of the US public thinks there is now "too much" access to government records. But I'll bet among that 6 per cent is the Pentagon, the State Department, and the White House. Most of the prisoner abuse stories and Guantanamo revelations of the last several months would not have happened without the ACLU and the Freedom of Information Act, and I am convinced that the Bush Administration would love to trash this act if they possibly could.
So it gave me a chill to read in this news story: "A bipartisan bill now in the U.S. Senate seeks to revisit the federal Freedom of Information Act to address many of the open-government complaints." I couldn't find out what bill this might be, but I don't believe it - a "bipartisan" bill in today's Republican-lock-step let's-all-vote-for-Gonzales-the-Torturer Senate? A bill aimed at "improving" access to government records? Oh yeah, tell me another one. Given the pattern now followed in the Bush administration, what would happen is that a bunch of amendments would be shoehorned into the bill at the last minute which would actually result in slamming the door shut on FOIA requests. And the republicans would vote for this, Democrats need to watch their backs on this one.
"Something democratic" not happening in Iraq
Yahoo! News - Talks on Forming Iraqi Government Collapse: "Many Iraqis blame politicians, for whom they say they risked their lives to cast ballots in the Jan. 30 election, for prolonging a political vacuum while violence spirals . . . The crisis plays into the hands of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, whose cabinet could now remain in a caretaker role until a general election due at the end of the year. "
Back on Jan 28, before the Iraq elections, I quoted Juan Cole as writing "There are, of course, lots of elections in the Arab world. Some are more rigged than others. But there are almost no elections where the sitting prime minister and his party would be allowed to be turned out unexpectedly by an unpredictable and uncontrolled electorate. If Iraqi interim Prime Minister Allawi's list does poorly and his political star falls as a result of a popular vote, something democratic will have happened in Iraq, for all the serious problems with the elections."
Well, it looks like "something democratic" has not actually happened yet in Iraq.
Back on Jan 28, before the Iraq elections, I quoted Juan Cole as writing "There are, of course, lots of elections in the Arab world. Some are more rigged than others. But there are almost no elections where the sitting prime minister and his party would be allowed to be turned out unexpectedly by an unpredictable and uncontrolled electorate. If Iraqi interim Prime Minister Allawi's list does poorly and his political star falls as a result of a popular vote, something democratic will have happened in Iraq, for all the serious problems with the elections."
Well, it looks like "something democratic" has not actually happened yet in Iraq.
Rant on, Steve!
The best rant I have ever read -- if you can't lead and you won't follow, then get the f*ck out of my way!
Steve Gilliard's News Blog : Fuck Al From, it's time to fight and win "You want to change this country, you change it. You change the terms of debate, how it's debated and who gets to debate. And you stop whining how it's all against us. In 1972, a lunatic like Rick Santorum wouldn't have gotten on Firing Line, much less the US Senate. Now, we have to do what they did, but meaner, faster, harder . . . The GOP may have started this fight, but we'll be the ones to finish it, if we have the will to."
Steve Gilliard's News Blog : Fuck Al From, it's time to fight and win "You want to change this country, you change it. You change the terms of debate, how it's debated and who gets to debate. And you stop whining how it's all against us. In 1972, a lunatic like Rick Santorum wouldn't have gotten on Firing Line, much less the US Senate. Now, we have to do what they did, but meaner, faster, harder . . . The GOP may have started this fight, but we'll be the ones to finish it, if we have the will to."
Great stuff I have been missing
Well, I gave up on my computer for tonight and I'm using my son's computer, which has a wireless connection which is working just fine.
So for the first time in several days, I can surf around easily -- and discover a lot of great posts in the last few days which I had missed.
Like this one -- Peace, order and good government, eh?: Following the money
And this one -- My Blagh's Politics of Destruction
And this one -- Gazetteer's I Need a Slushie
And of course I'm enjoying catching up with Canadian Cynic and Jimbobby and Canadippi and EGroup and all the rest, too.
So for the first time in several days, I can surf around easily -- and discover a lot of great posts in the last few days which I had missed.
Like this one -- Peace, order and good government, eh?: Following the money
And this one -- My Blagh's Politics of Destruction
And this one -- Gazetteer's I Need a Slushie
And of course I'm enjoying catching up with Canadian Cynic and Jimbobby and Canadippi and EGroup and all the rest, too.
Saturday, March 12, 2005
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