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.

"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.

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."

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.

Sorry for no posts

Hi, all. Something is f*cked up with my cable or connection or something.

Ahhh!

Well, isn't this special -- Beleaguered Harper endures week from hell
Try to imagine how little I care.

And this is why we keep voting for Martin

Canadian Politician Equates Gay Marriage With Mad Cow Disease, Accuses PM Of Racism
Here's another Conservative MP who is not quite ready for prime time. "The article, on Alberta MP Monte Solberg's website, criticizes Martin for defending gay marriage as a right under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If Martin defends same-sex weddings as a Charter right, then an argument can be made that reopening the Canada-U.S. border to Canadian cattle is also a Charter right for farmers, Solberg suggests. 'Remember, it's all in the Charter and if you don't think so, then you can just take your hairy knuckles back to Selma, Alabama, where you obviously belong,'' he wrote." Here's the website article which this story refers to.
UPDATE: But then there's this one, too -- Liberal apologizes for suggesting Canada "embarrass" U.S. over trade. Does this leave the NDP as the only party without foot-in-mouth disease?

No wonder we keep voting for Calvert

CTV.ca | Sask. Party MLA suggests shooting premier
This is why the NDP keeps getting reelected here in Saskatchewan -- the alternative, a combination Reform/Conservative/Liberal coalition called the Saskatchewan Party, keeps demonstrating that its not quite ready for prime time.

Alienation and rage

In his article Don't Stop With Syria's Occupation Juan Cole states an interesting thesis when he writes: "You want to end terrorism? End unjust military occupations. By all means have Syria conduct an orderly withdrawal from Lebanon if that is what the Lebanese public wants. But Israel needs to withdraw from the Golan Heights, which belong to Syria, as well. The Israeli military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank must be ended. The Russian scorched-earth policy in Chechnya needs to stop. . . . The U.S. needs to conduct an orderly and complete withdrawal from Iraq. And when all these military occupations end, there will be some hope for a vast decrease in terrorism. People need a sense of autonomy and dignity, and occupation produces helplessness and humiliation. Humiliation is what causes terrorism."
But Cole doesn't discuss what is sometimes called "domestic" terrorism, perhaps because this doesn't fit his thesis quite so well, The IRA, the Basque separatists, the FLQ and groups like this don't really fit his model, nor do the pocket-sized US secessionist groups. That is, unless governments are perceived to be "occupying" any land at all which is claimed by a separatist movement. Organizations like the Red Brigade in Germany and Italy don't fit the model either.
The terrorism practiced by these groups is not caused by humiliation, but rather by a toxic combination of alienation and rage -- the group is alienated from the political authority through which they might have been able to resolve their grievances, and this authority becomes the focus of their rage.
So we get the FLQ blowing up mailboxes and Timothy McVeigh blowing up the Oklahoma City federal building.

Trouble for the United States at the UN

Bush Picks Critic of U.N. to Serve as Ambassador to It
Oh, you've got to be kidding me - John Bolton as UN Ambassador? Jethro Foot-in-Mouth? The Mustache That Walks Like A Man? Mr. F*ck-Them-All? That John Bolton?
The NYT quoted Condi Rice saying "The president and I have asked John to do this work because he knows how to get things done."
Well, if they want to start a war with Cuba and North Korea and Iran, plus piss off Japan and China so maybe they'll start selling off their dollars, plus make sure the UN Security Council won't support a single US initiative, well, I guess Bolton can do that job just fine.
I think Rumsfeld and Cheney convinced Bush that Bolton will be able to bully the Security Council into supporting sanctions against Iran. They think the rest of the world is populated with stupid, weak-willed schmucks -- we're all Old Europe now -- and so we'll just roll over and play dead as soon as Mr. Moustache tells us to.
Well, we'll see how that works out, eh? You know how it goes, fool me once shame on me, fool me twice, shame on me again.
Here are some top quotes from the Bolton hit parade:
- “It is a big mistake for us to grant any validity to international law even when it may seem in our short-term interest to do so – because, over the long term, the goal of those who think that international law really means anything are those who want to constrict the United States.” *
- ". . . the Europeans can be sure that America's days as a well-bred doormat for EU political and military protection are coming to an end." *
- "Why was the 1998 [Pentagon] report on Cuba so unbalanced? Why did it underplay the threat Cuba posed to the United States?" he asked, replying "A major reason is Cuba's aggressive intelligence operations against the United States."*
- Bolton mocked supporters of the test-ban treaty as "misguided individuals following a timid and neo-pacifist line of thought." In an interview with Arms Control magazine, after taking office, Bolton caused a stir by seeming to back off the 'no first use' of nuclear weapons doctrine that has been the underpinning of the non-proliferation treaty.*
- "I believe that the United States should support the efforts of the Republic of China on Taiwan to become a full member of the United Nations: and "diplomatic recognition of Taiwan would be just the kind of demonstration of U.S. leadership that the region needs and that many of its people hope for… The notion that China would actually respond with force is a fantasy, albeit one the Communist leaders welcome and encourage in the West." The article containing these quotes also notes that in April, 2001, the Washington Post reported that Bolton was paid a total of $30,000 by the government of Taiwan for "research papers on UN membership issues involving Taiwan."
Oh, may you live in interesting times!

What kind of Christianity is this?

Why am I reading such scary stuff about Christianity lately?
There's this -- Eschaton: Bobo's World about a 6-year-old first grader being suspended from a Christian school because his mother refused to spank him.
And there's this, from Buzzflash -- Bill Moyer's article on how the belief in the Rapture appears to absolve Christians from doing anything to protect the environment or advance political welfare. Moyers writes:

There are millions of Christians who believe the Bible is literally true, word for word. Some of them . . . subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the nineteenth century by two immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove them with their own hallucinations into a narrative foretelling the return of Jesus and the end of the world. Google the "Rapture Index" and you will see just how the notion has seized the imagination of many a good and sincere believer . . . The plot of the Rapture—the word never appears in the Bible although some fantasists insist it is the hidden code to the Book of Revelation—is rather simple, if bizarre . . . Once Israel has occupied the rest of its "biblical lands," legions of the Antichrist will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. As the Jews who have not been converted are burned the Messiah will return for the Rapture. True believers will be transported to heaven where, seated at the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents writhe in the misery of plagues—boils, sores, locusts, and frogs—during the several years of tribulation that follow. I'm not making this up.

And the Globe had a terrific feature in Saturday's paper about mega-churches in the States (it doesn't seem to be listed on their website) which talked about how these evangelical churches are moving into stadiums, their services are so large, and how they offer a total-lifestyle, shopping-mall experience to their thousands of member families.
Now, I grew up in the United Church, and I have also attended an Anglican church sometimes. These churches were, at heart, humble -- the ministers took their texts from the Bible and didn't talk about crazy stuff like the Rapture. The congregations were a hundred or two hundred famlies, at best - large enough to support the church's ministry, but small enough that the minister could personally visit any members who were in hospital or grieving. And many of the people attending these churches tried sincerely to be Christians in their daily lives -- tolerant, kind, self-effacing, helpful.
Now the Christianity I read about is intolerant, boastful, mean, spiteful, and infested with hate talk about gays and Muslims. Considering how the support of the gay marriage amendment has translated into open season on all kinds of intolerance and hate against gays in the States, I worry that if the Supreme Court allows municipal displays of the Ten Commandments, the Christian Right will inflate this into state endorsement of their own brand of evangelical, militant Christianity, declaring open season on all other religions and on any disagreement with their beliefs. It's scary stuff -- and what would Jesus do?

Climbing Everest

Hockey night on Mt. Everest
Ever since I read Into Thin Air I have been fascinated with the annual Everest expeditions. They begin each year in March, when the climbers arrive at the base of the mountain. They work their way up the Everest base camps throughout April and into May, gradually acclimatizing to the altitude, the cold, and the lack of oxygen. The one-day push to the summit from the fourth base camp usually happens sometime between May 5 to 25, depending on weather. A number of the expeditions now run websites which are compelling to check, particularly as the climbers ready themselves for the last day, the climb to the top -- by then, the climbers are close to their limit in managing at these altitudes, with some of the trickiest climbing just a few meters from the top.
This year's Canadian expedition aims to play hockey on the Khumbu glacier -- the Sherpas will undoubtedly view the whole thing as just another example of Western madness. Hey, maybe this is where they can award the Stanley Cup this year!
Here is the glacier where they will be playing:

Everest is the mountain on the left. See here for other Everest photos.

Meaningless positioning

Anti-Abortion Dem. to Seek Pa. Nomination
You know, I get a kick out of headlines like this.
The only thing worthy of note about this man, apparently, is that he is anti-abortion and a Democrat.
And his being anti-abortion, in this particular electoral office, is virtually meaningless -- what power has any Senator ever had to outlaw abortion? None, really. Yes, they passed some kind of late term abortion law a couple of years ago, but wasn't it overturned?
Anyway, what gives me a chuckle is how often politicians run on, or get publicity about, policies about which they can do nothing.
Its like a rural alderman running on a platform of relieving taxpayers from education taxes -- easy to say this, considering that municipal governments have nothing to do with how the schools are managed.
Or a provincial politician running on a platform of changing the equalization formula -- this is a federal formula, not a provincial one, so provincial MLAs can't really promise to do anything about it.
Or a federal politician saying he will make sure new highways are built in the constituency -- again, this is a provincial matter and all the feds can do is give provinces some money and hope they might use it to improve a particular highway.
But politicians won't stop doing this kind of thing until their public draws them up short, and says -- hey, tell me what you CAN do something about, instead of pandering to me about policies that you are powerless to implement.

Has he got a deal for you!

From The Hill, via MyDD.

Changing feet

POGGE points to this Paul Wells post Why doesn't Frank McKenna resign?
McKenna seems to open his mouth only to change feet.
So what's he going to say next? Let's have a contest!
Will he sympathize with the US about the recent WTO ruling on their cotton subsidies by telling them how we subsidize our lumber even more?
Or maybe he'll start talking about how Canadians appreciate the US for letting us fight with them in Afghanistan even though our soldiers aren't really doing anything important.
Or maybe he will entangle us in the red state/blue state thing by telling Americans how Canadians only enjoy visiting the blue states.
Or maybe he will talk about how important it is for Canada to keep its Muslim citizens out of sight and away from the border, so the Americans don't get pissed off.
Gee, there's just so many things he could say, aren't there . . . stay tuned.