Shorter

Shorter Prime Minister Harper:

L'Etat, c'est moi

Don't let the door hit you on the way out

After seven years, the last U.S. combat brigade left Iraq today.
Yes, there are still 50,000 US troops there, as "advisors" -- its not the end just yet, but it is the beginning of the end.
And the unprovoked US attack on a country which hadn't attacked either them or their allies will go down in history not only as a cruel and brutal war crime, but a pointless one at that.

I was a stranger, and you took me in

Stephen Harper explains why Canada apparently shouldn't take in Tamil refugees even though we signed the UN refugee convention half a century ago:

"We are responsible for the security of our borders and the ability to welcome people or not welcome people when they come"....when hundreds of people come to the country outside the proper channels, it leads to “significant security concerns,” he said.

I'm not quite sure what the "proper channels" are for refugees from the other side of the Pacific Ocean, but arriving in a boat doesn't seem particularly outlandish to me.
I sincerely hope we will see a less hysterical reaction, from our politicians and from the public, as we learn a little more about these people -- like the woman who apologized that she couldn't be handcuffed because she has only one hand.
And by the way, getting the Navy to turn away future refugee ships without giving people the opportunity for a hearing would be unconstitutional.

The shot heard round the world

For New Yorkers, the Bobby Thompson home run in the 1951 National League pennant race was their Paul Henderson moment.



Bobby Thompson died today.

League of Extraordinary Canadians (Updated)

What do all of these people have in common?
Pat Stogran


Munir Sheikh


Paul Kennedy



Richard Colvin


Linda Keen


Bill Casey


Michaelle Jean


UPDATE: Thanks to Commenters for these additions to the League:
From Alison:
Peter A. Tinsley


From Ted:
Adrian Measner


John Reid


Robert Marleau


Bernard Shapiro


Remy Beauregard


Hanging by a thread:
Marc Mayrand


Kevin Page


UPDATE 2: And here's another one (HT POGGE)
Marty Cheliak

Shorter

Shorter Tory plan to find people to support the census change:

Nice little government job your relative has here, fella. Be a shame if something were to happen to it.

Summertime blues

The thousand peaceful protesters who were arrested a few blocks away from Stephen Harper's Toronto G20 hotel had a terrible summer. The Tamil boat people and Omar Khadr and Munir Sheikh and mayors and farmers had a terrible summer. But Stephen Harper had a nice summer.
Isn't that special?


(HT the Jurist)

Boat people

Then


Now


Canada welcomed 50,000 Vietnamese boat people a generation ago, and we have been a better nation for it. The times in our past when we have turned desperate people away are now recognized as tragedies.
As Nosey Parker says:

I still want the buggered-up Canadian refugee system to be fixed, but I don't want to be standing in Mackenzie King's shoes, waving goodbye to the MS St. Louis.

"It's not going to be a national movement"

Worst prediction ever.

Political courage

Obama today made a strong defense of the so-called "Ground Zero mosque".
Obama gets it -- we don't get to choose the battle, we can only choose our side.
Initially, Obama wanted to stay out of the mosque dispute, and I can understand why. But as it became not only a national battle in itself, but also a symbol of religious tolerance vs anti-Muslim bigotry across the United States, then he had no choice.
Greenwald writes

The campaign against this mosque is one of the ugliest and most odious controversies in some time. It's based purely on appeals to base fear and bigotry. There are no reasonable arguments against it, and the precedent that would be set if its construction were prevented -- equating Islam with Terrorism, implying 9/11 guilt for Muslims generally, imposing serious restrictions on core religious liberty -- are quite serious. It was Michael Bloomberg who first stood up and eloquently condemned this anti-mosque campaign for what it is, but Obama's choice to lend his voice to a vital and noble cause is a rare demonstration of principled, politically risky leadership. It's not merely a symbolic gesture, but also an important substantive stand against something quite ugly and wrong. This is an act that deserves pure praise.

"We don't know and we don't care"

Paul Wells and Chet write thoughtful posts about why Harper wanted to gut the census -- Wells says the long-term goal is to roll back the big-L Liberal social policies which Canada has adopted over the last 40 years, while Chet notes Harper's basic misunderstanding of the Canadian character:

. . . the lasting, bedrock values of diversity, the common good, a toleration for muddling through, and so on, that Harper opposes are not new Liberal impositions; they're basic Canadian values, and they're actually quite old. The only thing the Liberal Party has ever really done about them is to align itself (roughly) with them more often than not, and to dimly reflect their implications in policy as Canadians grew and changed with new realities. . . .
What Harper and his true believers are up to, really, is that thing that traditional conservatives were always against: social engineering. . . . In the end, they'll fail. Political parties just don't have the power to change people's character all that much; there are always too many other forces at work. Harper thinks he does have that power, because he thinks, incorrectly, that the Liberals once had that power. But he's wrong, both historically and politically.

Does anyone still remember Wayne and Shuster? They understood as well as anyone, I think, the bemused tolerance Canadians have for their governing institutions, along with impatience for pomposity and disdain of hypocrisy. I wonder how many of our politicians today remember this skit?

I love the internets

40 years cooking and I've been holding my chef's knife wrong.
And the other day I learned how to fold a fitted sheet. What will they think of next?

Oops

Cringe-inducing typo outside N.C. school:

They knew it was a bad decision, and they did it anyway

Remember how, when the census plan was first announced, it seemed to be almost off-the-cuff, a housekeeping matter, an ill-considered decision which nobody could explain very well because it hadn't really been discussed very much, to the point that I recall speculation about whether Harper even knew about it.
Well, the today's document dump shows that the Cons have been planning this since March, and maybe earlier, and they knew all along that Stats Can thought the voluntary survey wouldn't work.
What was ill-considered was their belief that nobody would care.

Shifting into "D"

Obama gave a hell damner of a speech Monday in Texas:

... it’s as if these guys took the car, drove it into the ditch, then -- so we put our boots on, we walked down into the ditch, into the mud. We pushed; we shoved. Meanwhile, they’re standing back, they’re watching us -- (laughter) -- drinking a Slurpee or something -- (laughter) -- and saying, well, you’re not pushing fast enough and you should push this way instead of that way. And they had a lot of commentary, but they sure weren’t putting their shoulder behind pushing.
And finally we get this car up on level ground. Finally we get it back on the road. And these guys turn to us and say, 'Give us the keys back.' (Laughter.) Well, no, you can’t have the keys back because you don’t know how to drive. (Laughter.) You do not know how to drive and so you can’t have the keys back. (Applause.)
Now, here’s another interesting thing -- I want you guys to think about this. If you have a car and you want to go forward, what do you do? You put it in 'D.' (Laughter.) When you want to go backwards, what do you do? You put it in 'R.' (Applause.) I'm just saying. That’s no coincidence. (Laughter.) We are not going to give them the keys back.

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