Cats

From I Can Has Cheezburger, via TRex

Well, duh!

Ottawa loses Wheat Board battle

The federal government has lost a court battle over the Canadian Wheat Board.
The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court ruling which said the Conservative cabinet exceeded its power when it tried to strip the wheat board of its barley monopoly.

Of course they lost -- the legislation is quite clear that if Ottawa wants to take the barley monopoly away from the Wheat Board they have to do it in Parliament, not by just a Cabinet order.
Just one more reason not to elect a Harper majority government.

Hot stuff

When I saw this story, I thought of this song.

Shorter

Shorter Brian Mulroney:

I'll do absolutely anything to clear my name...except tell anyone what actually happened.

Great line of the day

Tbogg, talking about Ralph Nader running for president again:

Ralph Nader is like Abe Vigoda; if people don't hear from him every once in awhile, they think he's dead.

Strange bedfellows

The sympathetic tone of some of the coverage about the Anglican church rift is hard to believe.
These so-called Christians, however personable and charming and soft-spoken are bigots, using the cover of religion to inflate their hateful prejudices into some kind of divine mission.
Just like Fred Phelps has done.
And when you find yourself on the same page as Fred Phelps -- well now, I would consider that as a pretty clear sign from God that you'd better reconsider.

Great line of the day

From James Wolcott, talking about how sexism is still alive and well among privileged white men:

...underneath the trash talk is the even more unattractive noise of white men whining because things aren't like they used to be. No, they are not. This news should have reached you by now and soaked in. Things haven't been like they used to be for about thirty years now, hell, maybe forty. So set your inner Pat Buchanan free in that patchy stretch of woods along the interstate and accept the reality of women's equality without being such a bullying baby about it.

Emphasis mine.
I used to tolerate it when older men said they just couldn't deal with women as equals, but I don't anymore. Iron this, buddy!

Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who

There's a new 'high-profile' report just been published by an unnamed and unelected group of 13 'academics and former diplomats' from 'both sides' who want Canada to turn the Arctic over to the United States.
Oops, sorry, not at all -- how could I be so paranoid?
They want Canada and the United States to "jointly manage Arctic waters".
Of course, us Canadians are just so paranoid. As Rob Huebert of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary describes it:

"The problem for the Canadian leader is: how do you actually start talking to the Americans without immediately having accusations that you're selling out on Canadian sovereignty?"

How indeed? Because, of course, that is exactly what you are doing, however glibly you might fling around phrases like "maximizing burden-sharing opportunities".
It sounds like the report features all the usual suspects:

The group has sent a list of nine recommendations to the two governments. They include a suggestion that the U.S. and Canada jointly develop rules on stopping ships in northern waters and on environmental, navigation and safety standards. They also call on the two countries to co-operate on immigration, search and rescue, and surveillance.

Immigration? Surveillance? How many people are crossing the North Pole illegally these days?
Oh, yeah. Them!

I love the internets

Try this one -- its the first one of a six part "drama" based on Photoshop: You Suck at Photoshop #1 Watch all six.

Alternate universes

Neil Kitson presents a vision of an alternate universe:

...let's imagine it the other way around. The Gigantic Islamic Republic of Asia (population one billion) decides that Canada is a failed state. The government of Canada is replaced by Shariah law, and 2,500 Afghan troops are dispatched . . . to oversee the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Sudbury. You can see how this would work. None of the Afghans speak English, so some local "terps" are hired to deal with the natives. The whole of the Afghan detachment would fit comfortably into the Sudbury Arena for a hockey game. Do these guys play hockey?
Various forward operational bases are established at North Bay and Sault St. Marie, but casualties are incurred during routine transport, and only helicopters are deemed safe. German tanks worth one billion euros are parked in Sudbury and forgotten. Unrest begins at home, but people are told "we might be in North America for 100 years," and "Muslims don't cut and run."

Meanwhile, Eric Margolis describes what is happening in the real world -- the one where Europeans "regard the Afghan conflict as a. wrong and immoral; b. America’s war; c. all about oil; and d. probably lost." So another side-effect of the Afghanistan war will be the breaking of NATO:

Europeans increasingly ask why they need the US-dominated military alliance, a Cold War relic, in which they continue to play foot soldiers to America’s atomic knights . . . Why does the rich, powerful European Union even need NATO any more? The Soviet threat is gone – at least for now. Nuclear-armed France and Britain are quite capable of defending Europe against outside threats. Why cannot the new European Defense Force take over NATO’s role of defending Europe and protecting EU interests? United Europe will inevitably field its own integrated military force. Arm-twisting Europe to fight a highly unpopular war in Afghanistan will only hasten this development . . .
By pushing NATO towards a bridge too far, the Bush Administration may end up fatally undermining NATO and encouraging anti-American forces in Europe.

You know, if Bin Laden has written a script, this would have been it...

The next ten months

Allison refers us to The Rev's description of the next ten months in American politics:

. . . we will see Antoin Rezko, a dodgy property developer, inflated into a criminal mastermind on par with Al Capone and be told that because he gave Obama a sweetheart deal on some property, the senator is his amoral meat puppet. We will hear endlessly all about how William Ayers, a domestic terrorist and member of the sinister hippy-communist-veteran hating Weather Underground -- the largest domestic terrorist group EVER ! They bombed the Pentagon before Al-Quaida!-- who has become a sissified America-hating academic "intellectual" (just like Ward Churchill) is practically Obama's foster father. And we will heard how Obama didn't grow up in America and is probably a secret muslim, has fangs, a third eye, eats babies and HAS THE SAME NAMES AS AMERICA'S ENEMIES!!!!

The genuis of the Swiftboat attack is that it isn't just another accusation; rather, it aims squarely at undermining an opponent's greatest strength. Kerry's strength was his demonstrated courage under fire; the swiftboat attacks negated that strength, and made it appear that his military record was actually a liability for him.
Obama's greatest strength is his charisma, his inspirational persona as a different kind of politician with a different approach. So the attack will be that he is just another unethical corrupt politician.
Kerry made the mistake of taking seriously the lies about his military record. Imagine if he had just said "Oh, them. The Republicans have been paying them to lie about me for years. They're nothing but a bunch of ridiculous, jealous old men."
Hillary gets it right -- she just laughs at all the smear attempts.
I hope Obama does the same.

But I've been sick!

Sorry for the lack of posts -- I've had the flu since Friday -- or maybe since even Thursday night since all day Friday I felt pretty out of it at work too.
And don't you just love it when people come to work sick?
So I was looking up quotations on illness and didn't find any I liked except this one, from Rita Mae Brown. It's about mental illness, not the flu, but its funny anyway:

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you.

Great post of the day

Duncan Cameron at Rabble writes about Harper's attempt to make Afghanistan an election issue:

Conservatives are road testing their election strategy: while Stephen Harper is a real leader, Stéphane Dion is not . . .
The laughable part of the strategy is the idea that splitting the country over the war constitutes leadership. In Canada, leaders unite a large number of Canadians, bringing citizens from far flung regions together around a vision, a project, a story, a common purpose, something with meaning that resonates with citizens. The tragic part of the strategy is playing politics with the war, using a failing military mission to win an election . . .
Manley, helped along by his continentalist colleagues Derek Burney, and Paul Tellier, played the fool perfectly. Instead of asking the obvious question: what Canadian interests are at stake in Afghanistan? And giving the obvious answer: none; Manley bravely called for the prime minister to step up, take control of the "file," and convince some NATO allies to commit 1,000 combat troops in support of the Canadian forces.
Nobody can be expected to believe that another 1,000 troops are going to make a difference. After all, the Soviet Union had six times the troops in Afghanistan that NATO does today, and it still lost.
Harper must now deliver. If he wants a never-ending war role for Canada in Aghanistan, he can consult with his pollsters and party advisors as long as he wants. He still must convince Canadians to vote for him, if he wants to continue to send our soldiers into battle.
While Harper can force an election if he wants, the public, not the prime minister will decide who passes the leadership test, and on what grounds. If the Conservative leader thinks he is smart enough to win an election on the war, he may find out a great many Canadians have decided he is not smart enough to deserve their vote.

They've lost their minds

Glenn Greenwald wrote about it but you have to see it for yourself.
The Heritage Foundation has a clock on their front page which measures, in milliseconds, the time since the Protect America act expired -- you know, the act which the United States passed just six months ago which somehow prevented 911 or something...oh, no wait, I guess it prevented Jose Padilla from setting off a bomb...no, wait, it stopped Jack Bauer's bomb from blowing up Los Angeles...no, wait.... well, it did SOMETHING really, really important, without which America won't ever be safe, I guess...

Great line of the day

Glenn Greenwald, in an article about the FISA extension issue and Republican fear-mongering:

Americans are worried and even angry about many things. Whether Osama bin Laden is throwing a party because AT&T and Verizon might have to defend themselves in court isn't one of them.