Waiting For a Beating

Climate change experts are becoming reluctant to speak their minds. Oh they're still plenty willing to talk about the endless river of data and research that steadily and consistently reinforces their scientific consensus. They're reluctant to give their views on mankind's political and social willingness to confront the challenges of climate change and our dwindling chances of meeting even dangerous limits on global warming in the 21st century.

The widely accepted consensus is that we have to limit warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century or face catastrophic climate change impacts. Four out of five climate change experts surveyed by The Guardian don't think we have much hope of staying within the 2 degree limit.

Today's Guardian poll of attendees at a climate conference last month in Copenhagen exposes the gulf between political rhetoric and scientific thinking. Of more than 250 experts surveyed, more than half said the 2C target could still be achieved but only 18 thought that it would be. By the end of the century, most thought average temperatures would rise by some 4C.

...Several scientists said the G20 summit in London, where climate change was barely considered, had convinced them the action required would not be taken. Simon Lewis, a climate researcher at the University of Leeds, said: "The summit shows that political leaders do not regard climate change as an urgent issue. They were tasked to re-configure the global economy and they chose to re-affirm the old model, and not move to a low-carbon economy as scientists have urged. The summit was more of an end-of-the-world order than a new world order."

Bob Doppelt, director of the climate leadership initiative at the University of Oregon, said: "One of the problems is that the issue is still being framed as a scientific and environmental issue. This is a major mistake. Climate change is just a symptom of dysfunctional social and economic practices and policies. It is a social and economic issue. The emphasis needs to shift away from the biophysical sciences now to the social sciences if we have any hope of solving this problem."

Others said it could take a series of extreme weather events similar to Hurricane Katrina and the 2003 European heatwave to force political action. One said a "9/11-type event" that could be traced to increased greenhouse gas emissions might break the political deadlock.

Put another way, mankind is waiting for a climate change beating of monumental proportions to spark the global consensus necessary to address the social and economic dimensions of global warming. Until and unless we reach that threshhold while we still have the strength and good fortune to even forge an international consensus, we seem bound to descend into an 'every nation for itself' regime that will then evolve into adversarial blocs. Once that happens, achieving any meaningful, comprehensive and effective consensus probably becomes a lost and unrecoverable opportunity. But don't take my word for it. This very endgame is reflected in the global warming studies conducted by both the Pentagon and the British Ministry of Defence.

Unfortunately, we're much more practised and comfortable with resorting to military solutions than social and economic restructuring.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/14/scientists-global-warming-conference-poll

Oppal Willing to Reconsider Dziekanski Prosecution

"We're Interested in Doing the Right Thing"

Then again, with an election looming large next month, what government official wouldn't be interested in doing "the right thing" in the face of public outrage over the death of Robert Dziekanski at the hands of four RCMP officers at Vancouver International Airport?

BC A-G and former Supreme Court Justice Wally Oppal says the Crown's decision not to prosecute the officers isn't all that final after all.

“Nothing is final . . . particularly where we’re getting more and more evidence elicited on a daily basis,” Oppal told the CBC, referring to the inquiry evidence. “So it may well be, at the end of the day, the people in the criminal justice branch could re-examine this.”

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/RCMP+officers+charged+Dziekanski+death/1492808/story.html

What Happens When Liberals Aren't

If you're curious what a future, federal Liberal government might look like you could do worse than to take a gander at British Columbia's provincial Liberal government. Take a close, hard look at what passes for our Liberal government. It's a useful object lesson in what happens when right-wingers take over a supposedly liberal political party. It's not a pretty sight.

Rafe Maier, himself a former Social Credit cabinet minister and subsequent political columnist and broadcaster, gives you an idea what to expect in his latest dissection of premier Gordon Campbell in The Tyee.

http://thetyee.ca/Views/2009/04/13/WhatsUp/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=130409

Phil Spector Hits the Wall

Legendary rock music producer Phil Spector has been convicted of 2nd degree murder in the shooting death of Lana Clarkson six years ago. The conviction means anything between 15 years to life in prison for the 68-year old eccentric.

Spector's lawyer has already announced the conviction will be appealed. There has been a lot of speculation that the judge made several questionable decisions on admissible evidence that may be enough to secure a new trial.

You Might Be A Republican Nutjob If...

Yes, you might be a rightwing nutjob - if you're into "teabagging."



Now, if you still don't understand what this is all about, Google "teabagging"

Surveillance Has Become a Two-Way Street

The erosion of public privacy by the spread of closed-circuit surveillance cameras has been a vexing problem in recent decades. Many years ago it was estimated that a downtown worker in Vancouver was recorded on tape an average 13-times every day. Police and security agencies have become fond of the electronic eye but not so much any more. Now that the citizenry is armed with cell phone video cams, it's the police who are often falling prey to video surveillance. Think Robert Dziekanski. There's even a term for it - "sousveillance." From The Guardian:

Who watches the watchmen? Or, to translate Juvenal another way: who polices the police? The answer this week was a New York fund manager, of all unlikely superheroes, who provided the Guardian with key footage of the minutes leading up to the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests in London. The man came forward because "it was clear the family were not getting any answers".

If there is anything to feel optimistic about today, perhaps it is the hope that we are witnessing the flowering of an effective inverse surveillance society. Inverse surveillance is a branch of sousveillance, the term coined by University of Toronto professor Steve Mann, and it emphasises "watchful vigilance from underneath", by citizens, of those who survey and control them.

Not that turning our cameras on those who train theirs on us is without risk. Indeed, one might judge it fairly miraculous that the man was not forcibly disarmed of his camera phone, given that it is now illegal to photograph police who may be engaged in activity connected to counterterrorism. And as we know, everything from escorting Beyoncé to parking on a double yellow while you nip in to Greggs for an iced bun can now be justified with that blight of a modern excuse - "security reasons".

Yet it will by now have dawned on even the most dimwitted Met officer that it is increasingly impossible for them to control the flow of information about their activities - to kettle it, if you will - no matter how big their army of press officers putting out misleading information in the immediate aftermath of any event may be.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/11/police-surveillance-marina-hyde

Britain's Ecological Deficit Begins Easter Sunday

Sometime in the second half of the 1980's the world went into ecological deficit. That was when man began consuming renewable resources faster than our planet could replenish them. In the two decades since then we've been meeting our increasing demands by 'eating our seed corn.' This has been evidenced by deforestation, desertification from overworking our arable lands (farmland), species extinction and resource exhaustion of renewables such as fresh water.

A study by the New Economics Foundation concludes that Britain arrives at its annual ecological deficit tomorrow, Easter Sunday. That is the point at which the British people will have consumed the entire annual stock of their nation's renewables. From The Guardian:

The recession may have slowed consumption but the New Economics Foundation (Nef) says we are now drawing deep on the cropland, pasture, forests and fisheries of other countries.
The research also shows that by tomorrow the country will have used the levels of resources it should consume in an entire year if it were to be ecologically self-sufficient.

Andrew Simms, Nef's policy director, said: "We are consuming more and more, and as our ecosystems become more stressed the day in the year on which we effectively go beyond our environmental means, and move into ecological debt, is moving ever earlier in the year. In 1961 it was 9 July, but this year it falls on Easter Sunday."

The UK's ecological debt and reliance on the rest of the world are revealed in our dependence on imports of food and energy, says Nef: "National food self-sufficiency is in long term decline, and we are increasingly dependent on imports at precisely the time when the guarantee of the rest of the world ability to provide for us is weakening."

This is unquestionably a candle burning from both ends. Even advanced nations are relying on a steady supply of consumables that is patently unsustainable. As the 'seed corn' stocks are becoming depleted, and they already are, supply will inevitably shrink forcing even more severe competition for what remains between the 'haves' and 'have nots.'

The denialists don't like to get into this subject because they can't argue it away. The evidence of these mounting shortages is patent, tangible. Our planet, the only biosphere we have, is under attack - from us.

Mulroney Ancient History? Hardly

You have to be pretty green sapwood to consider something very much ongoing 'ancient history' even if its origins do go back about 20-years. That's especially true when the revelations about the matter keep emerging, stripping away one layer of obfuscation after another.

Brian Mulroney desperately wants you to dismiss the Mulroney/Schreiber/Moores/Airbus business as ancient history. Nothing would make Stephen Harper and his caucus happier either. Harper dodged demands for an inquiry into Mulroney/Schreiber before he was forced to relent, causing his to sever his newfound friendship with his latter-day mentor. The Tories laughably claimed Mulroney was exonerated during last year's Commons ethics committee hearings.

Mulroney has seemed to slip off the hook several times over the years. He thought it was all dead and buried after the Liberal government settled his lawsuit. The former prime minister had, after all, given sworn testimony that his only dealings with Schreiber after he left office were just a few get togethers over cups of coffee. No money ever changed hands. And that seemed to be an end to it. Mulroney was exonerated, the Liberal government said so. It even paid him a tidy two million dollars, the cheque pinned to its letter of apology.

In the course of his victory, Mulroney made an enormous mistake. He disparaged his former friend, Karlheinz Schreiber. It appears that was entirely gratuitous, the sort of hubris that brings down so many highly placed people. It was easy to take a swipe at Schreiber. The German government was pursuing extradition proceedings against the man for bribery charges. Who are you going to believe, a guy who's on the run from the law in Germany or a former prime minister of impeccable character?

It's entirely likely Schreiber would have remained mute had he not been slammed by Mulroney. This mistake, however, revealed how Schreiber could retaliate. Armed with a trove of documents, Schreiber has played his hand brilliantly. He's released documents frugally and with calculated timing. In the process he's achieved two things. He's drawn in his fair weather friends and he's kept the process alive and moving in the direction of his choosing.

And oh how they've lied and lied and lied, the entire lot of them, each in his turn. Mulroney swore he'd had no business dealings with Schreiber. Then he scurries off to file a 'voluntary disclosure' with Revenue Canada when Schreiber hands The Fifth Estate his Swiss banking records. Those documents also seem to implicate Mulroney friend, former Newfoundland premier and Ottawa lobbyist Frank Moores who for some strange reason sees fit to make his own 'voluntary disclosure' to Revenue Canada.

The Fifth Estate and the Globe & Mail keep the story alive and churning to the annoyance and embarrassment of Stephen Harper who had embraced Mulroney as a mentor, a prime ministerial Big Brother. Harper's minority government was suddenly on the hook. It couldn't prevent the Commons ethics committee from holding hearings into the matter (atrociously amateurish in any case). Nor was he able to long resist demands for an official inquiry into Schreiber/Mulroney.

Two important things happened during the ethics committee hearings. Mulroney school chum, confidante and aide to the former prime minister, Fred Doucet, told the committee, unequivocally and under oath, that he'd never had anything to do with Airbus. The most important thing, however, was largely overlooked. It was Schreiber telling the committee that focusing on his dealings with Mulroney was missing the point, looking in the wrong direction. That statement confirmed my suspicions that the Airbus story wasn't about Mulroney and Schreiber. It was about Mulroney and Moores.

In the months following the ethics committee hearings, Schreiber has fed a trickle of documents to reporters that may be highly probative. First came documents from Mulroney's PMO aide Fred Doucet making enquiries about the very thing Doucet had sworn he'd had nothing to do with - Airbus.

Tonight, according to the latest Globe & Mail, The Fifth Estate, will air further revelations from a former Airbus official and a former employee of Frank Moores' lobbying firm, GCI.

In the years since Mr. Moores's 2005 death, documents have emerged, and a number of sources have come forward, that contradict his assertion that neither he nor his lobbying firm, Government Consultants International, was involved in the Airbus sale.

Interviews and notes written by Mr. Moores, as well as memos written by his former staffers, show the firm was intimately involved with the Airbus deal: making overseas trips to promote the European manufacturer to Canadian diplomats, strategizing on how to approach federal officials, as well as approaching officials in Air Canada, a Crown corporation at the time.

...In interviews with CBC's The Fifth Estate, which is airing a documentary tonight about the Airbus sale, two former salesmen for Airbus in the United States have said that Mr. Moores was lobbying on behalf of the European manufacturer.

Anthony Lawler, who was based out of Airbus's Virginia office, told the program he was in a meeting with an Air Canada official when he realized the manufacturer had an additional, unannounced campaign going on behind the scenes.

Mr. Lawler told the program that, in the middle of the meeting, which took place in the mid-1980s, the Air Canada official was beckoned out of his office by his secretary because of a telephone call.

“He came back and said ‘Oh, that was Frank Moores and he wanted to know which aircraft we were looking at,'” Mr. Lawler said. “It didn't mean anything to me at the time ... only after I learned he was in Ottawa and was a lobbyist.”

A former GCI lobbyist, who spoke to The Globe and Mail on condition that he not be identified, has said that staffers at Mr. Moores's firm were told to cloak their work for Airbus in secrecy, and were warned: “If anybody asks, we're not working for Airbus. Don't tell anyone we're working for Airbus.”

Mr. Moores's history of denials dates back to 1985, which is when Mr. Mulroney appointed him to the board of Air Canada.

The Oliphant inquiry's mandate is to examine only Schreiber's dealings with Mulroney not Mulroney/Moores or Moores/Airbus. Schreiber's biggest challenge yet may be to force Harper to widen the investigation.

Billy Bob's Meltdown

Does FOX News Want Obama Dead?

A few hard facts. America is a pistol-packin' land. Gunplay in America is commonplace as evidenced by the latest spate of shooting spree butchery. The greatest president in that nation's history was slaughtered by a bullet fired into the back of his head. In my lifetime, America has seen a president murdered, a presidential candidate murdered, the black leader of the country's civil rights movement murdered, a president wounded in an assassination attempt, a president who barely escaped an assassination plot in Blair House foiled only by good luck and the extraordinary heroism of the Secret Service, at least three presidents stalked by would-be assassins. There have been at least a dozen assassination attempts against American presidents, one in three successful, three of the four during the century just passed.

Why then would a major news organization broadcast blatantly and outrageously false accounts that depict their nation's first black president as a menace to American democracy, a quiet threat to the American way of life and, especially, the right to own guns, a man who won't stop until he has left America humbled and in ruins? Does FOX want Obama dead?

Now you won't hear Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck or Bill O'Reilly or the other denizens of the FOX clown car advocate or even sympathize with the idea of an assassination of the president. They would be slapped in irons if they did. But it's not necessary to expressly call for someone to be killed - to save the nation no less. Merely agitating for it is surely enough. Demonizing the president; deliberately warping his words and actions; making the lowest, most ignorant and gullible strata of their nation's society believe this man is plotting against them is surely enough.

Freedom of speech is cherished by the American people even if most of them don't really understand it's origins and meaning. But there must be some line to demarc free speech from encitement to sedition and murder. America truly needs to debate that question now before it's too late.

http://www.truthout.org/040909N

Dead Pols - In Missouri That's The Way They Like'em

John Ashcroft lost his senate seat to a dead man. Now the voters in a small Missouri town have shown the Ashcroft thing wasn't a fluke. They re-elected their mayor, four weeks after he departed this mortal coil. From The New York Times:

residents of the small town of Winfield, Mo., gave Harry Stonebraker 90 percent of the vote in a mayoral election on Tuesday, even though he died of a heart attack on March 11 at the age of 69. By finishing second, Mr. Stonebraker’s opponent, Alderman Bernie Panther, joined former Senator John Ashcroft on the list of Missouri politicians to lose elections to non-living opponents in recent years.

Lincoln County Clerk Elaine Luck said she wasn’t surprised, noting Stonebraker was a popular mayor who helped lead the community of 1,500 through the devastating 2008 flood, when a levee breach caused by a burrowing muskrat left about 100 homes with damage.
“I figured he’d win because he seemed to get even more popular after he died."

Well at least the good folks of Missouri know they're voting for dead guys. We just keep electing the same stiffs fooling ourselves into believing they're still alive.

A Real Hangover Cure?

This has nothing to do with progressive politics or the greater global scheme of things but I found it in The Telegraph and it was too good to pass up. At long last there's an effective cure for a hangover - a delicious bacon sandwich:

Elin Roberts, of Newcastle University's Centre for Life said: "Food doesn't soak up the alcohol but it does increase your metabolism helping you deal with the after-effects of over indulgence. So food will often help you feel better.

"Bread is high in carbohydrates and bacon is full of protein, which breaks down into amino acids. Your body needs these amino acids, so eating them will make you feel good."

Ms Roberts told The Mirror: "Bingeing on alcohol depletes neurotransmitters too, but bacon contains a high level of aminos which tops these up, giving you a clearer head."

Researchers also found a complex chemical interaction in the cooking of bacon produces the winning combination of taste and smell which is almost irresistible.

I wish we'd known about this when I was an undergrad.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/5118283/Bacon-sandwich-really-does-cure-a-hangover.html

American Sailors Overcome Somali Pirates

The Times reports that American crewmen of that shanghaied freighter overwhelmed their captors and recovered control of the ship.

An American crew has seized back control of a container ship that was commandeered by pirates in the Indian Ocean today, according to the Pentagon.

The military official said the crew was holding one pirate in custody while the others were reported to “be in the water”. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not confirm how the Somalis found their way into the ocean.

Somali pirates hijacked the US-flagged container ship off the Horn of Africa, the first such attack on American interests.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6061399.ece

Cry Me a River, You Saudi Despots

The poor, poor House of Saud is dusting off the old begging bowl. That's right, they're pleading hardship and blending it with some sort of moral imperative that we come to their aid. From Reuters:

United Nations climate talks threaten Saudi Arabia's economic survival and the kingdom wants support for any shift from fossil fuels to other energy sources such as solar power, its lead climate negotiator said.

Contrasting interests of different countries are challenging faltering climate talks, meant to forge by December a new global deal in Copenhagen to curb man-made climate change.
Small island states say their survival is threatened by rising seas. But Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, says it could suffer from any pact which curbs oil demand by penalizing carbon emissions.

"It's a matter of survival for us, also. So we are among the most vulnerable countries, economically," Mohammad Al Sabban told Reuters on the fringes of talks which end on Wednesday, after the latest in a series of meetings meant to thrash out a deal to replace or extend the Kyoto Protocol after 2012.

So, let's get this straight. Saudi Arabia, with its history of unfathomable oil wealth, thinks the West owes it something if we ditch fossil fuels. Hmm, maybe if they'd stop spending all those millions funding Islamist extremists abroad they'd have more in the treasury to fund alternative energy programmes of their own - solar panels for example.

The Cat Is Among the Pigeons This Time

Word of advice to Somali pirates. Don't hijack a US-flagged ship with 21-American crewmen aboard. Don't hijack a ship that's operated under the Pentagon's Military Sealift Command to deliver supplies to US forces overseas. And whatever you do, don't put a newly elected president in such a terrible political spot. If you do, it probably won't turn out well.

So, barring some act of Sepuku by the Somali pirates, the ball is squarely in Obama's court. Now he really gets to find out what it's like to be Commander in Chief.

Only In Quebec? Let's Hope So. Daughter Sues Dad Over Class Outing - and Wins

Dad catches 12-year old daughter abusing internet privileges. Dad says daughter was chatting on sites he'd blocked and was posting inappropriate pictures of herself online. Dad tells daughter she's grounded. Dad refuses to give his permission for girl to attend her Grade 6 graduation trip to Quebec City.

Daughter strikes back. Seeks out lawyer who had represented her in her parents' divorce proceeding. Lawyer sues. Court holds Dad being unreasonable, girl goes on trip. Daughter/father relationship shattered.

Dad takes the case to the Quebec appeals court. Appeal dismissed.

The young girl's legal aid lawyer contends that the Dad's decision to withhold permission for the trip was really a power struggle between the parents.

My god, people with serious problems get turned away every day by legal aid because of lack of funding but in Quebec they've got money for this nonsense?

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/04/07/mtl-quebecgirl-sues-dad-0407.html?ref=rss

From the White Spot to House to the White House

Kumar, aka Kal Penn, hit the big time with a road movie in which he and fellow stoner, Harold, set off in quest of a White Spot hamburger joint. Another Harold & Kumar movie turned into a regular role on House. Well, from White Spot to House to White House, Kumar is putting show biz on hold to become associate director in the White House Office for Public Liaison.

Every Now and Then, Tom Friedman Gets It Right

There's something about the New York Times columnist Tom Friedman that can get my back up. At times he seems really patronizing, talking down to the wee folk. Once in a while, however, Tom gets something dead on and then - well, he's tolerable. This time it's his explanation of why the West ought to forget about cap and trade regimes and go for a straight forward carbon tax. Are you listening Iggy?

Representative John B. Larson, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, has circulated a draft bill that would impose “a per-unit tax on the carbon-dioxide content of fossil fuels, beginning at a rate of $15 per metric ton of CO2 and increasing by $10 each year.” The bill sets a goal, rather than a cap, on emissions at 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050, and if the goal for the first five years is not met, the tax automatically increases by an additional $5 per metric ton. The bill implements a fee on carbon-intensive imports, as well, to press China to follow suit. Larson would use most of the income to reduce people’s payroll taxes: We tax your carbon sins and un-tax your payroll wins.

People get that — and simplicity matters. Americans will be willing to pay a tax for their children to be less threatened, breathe cleaner air and live in a more sustainable world with a stronger America. They are much less likely to support a firm in London trading offsets from an electric bill in Boston with a derivatives firm in New York in order to help fund an aluminum smelter in Beijing, which is what cap-and-trade is all about. People won’t support what they can’t explain.

...Climate change is a real threat to a healthy planet Earth — the only home we have. But because the worst effects are in the future, many Americans have more immediate concerns. That is why our energy policy should be focused around “American renewal,” not mitigating climate change.

We need a price on carbon because it will stimulate massive innovation in the next great global industry — E.T. — energy technology. In a warming world with huge population growth, clean power systems are going to be in huge demand. The scientific research and innovation needed for America to dominate E.T. the way it did I.T. could be the foundation for a second American industrial revolution, plus it would tip the whole planet onto a greener path. So American economic renewal is the goal, but mitigating climate change would be the great byproduct.

Now our supposedly enlightened Liberal Leader runs like a scalded cat at the mention of carbon taxes. He writes it off with facile excuses including the rank sophistry about how Canadians made a mature, informed decision to reject carbon taxes in the last election. Mr. Ignatieff is lying.

There was no mature, informed decision on carbon taxes in the last election. You can fault Mr. Dion for that. Mr. Dion stupidly (yes, stupidly) chose to make carbon taxes the cornerstone of the Liberal election platform. That was about as dumb an idea as any Liberal has sprung in memory. No cash-strapped opposition party can sell a policy of that magnitude, especially not in a general election. The Green Shift moniker was confusing and totally vulnerable to attack ads from both the Tories and the oh so concerned NDP. Dion exposed the policy before he unveiled it and his opponents put the boots to it before he was even prepared to try to explain it. As an electoral platform it was as stupid as mud.

Selling the public on the merits of carbon taxes is a chore that only a government can tackle. It takes a lot of time and a lot of money to get the requisite information to the public, to earn their support. In the run-up to the last election the Canadian public were never given a decent chance to make an informed, mature decision on carbon taxes. They were dizzy from being spun silly.

Mr. Dion's foolishness does not excuse Mr. Ignatieff's crass and misleading dismissal of what, as Friedman rightly points out, is probably the only effective means of confronting the existential threat of global warming. This is a problem that needs to be addressed now. We need a leader who understands that and is ready to act. Unfortunately neither the Libs nor the Tories have anyone of that stature right now.

Mr. Ignatieff needs to learn there's more to being a leader than getting elected prime minister. Mr. Harper has shown that.

Ed Stelmach - Meet Steve Harper, You've Got a Lot In Common

Ed Stelmach and Steve Harper both know how to govern - when they're awash in cash. What neither of them understood was that the good days don't last so you use them to prepare for the bad days to come.

When the RCMP installed Steve as prime monster he got more than a bigger, free house. He got a government with a balance budget and hefty surpluses. The first thing Steve did was get rid of those safety net surpluses. He trimmed two cents off the GST. Steve must've been looking down when he did that because he sure didn't see what was coming.

Special Ed Stelmach has just announced that the bestest, richest province in the whole damn country has fallen on its arse to the tune of a $4.7 billion deficit this year. Edward the Dim thought that he could go through Alberta's windfall because, after all, what could possibly happen to the world's dirtiest, most expensive oil? Dumb and Dumber, all in the same body.

When I saw pictures of Ed in the past I always had this urge to sort of pat him on the head and tell him to go outside to play. Now Ed's turned that goofy smile upside down. Apparently it has something to do with a $6.4-billion drop in oil revenues. So smokes are going up - three bucks a carton - and beer will cost an extra $1.30 a dozen. Worse yet, if you need a visit to the chiropractor or sex-change surgery (they aren't the same thing?) you're on your own.

It's tough Ed but, as Steve says, who could've seen it coming? I mean it's not like Alberta has gone through this before - is it?

Fishing the Oceans Empty

I see it with my own eyes, every year. For a day or two the local bay is full of boats, setting and hauling in their nets. They come from the north and leave heading south. It's the local herring fleet that harry the roe herring as they migrate south along the east coast of Vancouver Island.

What I also see with my own eyes is a vast stretch of water between the island and the mainland, its enormity marked by far distant mountain peaks, that was once teeming with fish and is now pretty much empty. What happened? Here's a clue. Salmon eat herring, that is unless we take those herring and their roe before they can feed those salmon.

It's a hallmark of our environmental degradation, the ecological deficit we're running that will very soon come home to roost. In oceans world wide we've fished our way down the food chain to the point where we're predating the prey fish stocks. From Environmental News Network:

Scientists are finding evidence of widespread malnutrition in commercial and recreational fish, marine mammals, and seabirds because of the global depletion of the small fish they need to survive, according to Oceana's new report, "Hungry Oceans: What Happens When the Prey is Gone?" These "prey fish" underpin marine food webs and are being steadily exhausted by heavy fishing, increasing demand for aquaculture feed, and climate change.

"We have caught all the big fish and now we are going after their food," said Margot Stiles, marine scientist at Oceana. "Until recently it has been widely believed that prey fish are impossible to overexploit because their populations grow so quickly. We are now proving that untrue as the demands of commercial fisheries and aquaculture outpace the ocean's ability to provide food for us and itself."

The future of valuable commercial and recreational fisheries is threatened by the loss of prey fish, especially those that are currently rebuilding from historic depletion. Hungry Oceans identifies bluefin tuna, striped bass, Pacific salmon, and Pacific halibut as key species dependent on prey fish.

"We're constantly making life difficult for endangered species from seabirds to whales, and going hungry is not going to help. Valuable fish like bluefin tuna are struggling, and we can't expect the fishery to recover when we are stealing their food supply. By taking food from the tuna we could end up hungry ourselves" said Stiles.

It's a bitch to sit there and watch this happening before your very eyes. But then again, if we really opened our eyes, there's no end of things we'd have to notice.

Afghanistan - National Toast Throws In The Towel!

Pass out the burqas. Those Asper Surrender Monkeys also known as the National Post are giving up on Afghanistan.

...given the increasingly evident reality that the country's corrupt and incompetent government isn't worth supporting -- acting as the Taliban-lite by considering enacting laws that make women the property of their husbands and male relatives -- the argument for our continued presence in Afghanistan now rests solely on our own security needs.

That means we should be open to a negotiated political solution in Afghanistan that would allow us to leave the country in the hands of any stable government committed to preventing the country from being used as a platform for international terrorism -- even if such a government included elements from the Taliban.

...It is too early to say Canada and NATO absolutely should leave in June 2011, when the current mission runs out. But if, in the intervening two years, Kabul does not do more to clean up corruption and contain radical Islamism, then we should look at any exit strategy that permits us to leave Afghanistan in a manner that does not compromise the security interests of Canada and its allies.

Whatever happened to "Support the Troops" and the firm assurances that victory was within our reach? I think the Aspers and their rag we all know and love as CanWest owe a lot of apologies to a lot of people they slimed over this.

Would You Buy a Car From This Man? Really???

No, seriously, would you? Well, if you buy a new Chrysler or GM vehicle, this guy - the Dark Prince of Transparency and Accountability - could be covering the warranty.

The federal government today announced warranty protection for new car buyers and more funds for parts makers.

The $185.3 million federal backup for warranties offered by GM and Chrysler mirrors a similar initiative taken last week by the United States.

Somehow I just wouldn't feel all that comfortable with a warranty from Uncle Steve's easy credit fiscal carwash.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/615028

Chris Hedges' Call for Revolution

Veteran war correspondent and divinity scholar Chris Hedges is about as progressive as they come.

Hedges argues that the only way remaining for Americans to save their country is to revolt:

America is devolving into a third-world nation. And if we do not immediately halt our elite's rapacious looting of the public treasury we will be left with trillions in debts, which can never be repaid, and widespread human misery which we will be helpless to ameliorate. Our anemic democracy will be replaced with a robust national police state. The elite will withdraw into heavily guarded gated communities where they will have access to security, goods and services that cannot be afforded by the rest of us. Tens of millions of people, brutally controlled, will live in perpetual poverty. This is the inevitable result of unchecked corporate capitalism. The stimulus and bailout plans are not about saving us. They are about saving them. We can resist, which means street protests, disruptions of the system and demonstrations, or become serfs.

The corporate state, and the political and intellectual class that served the corporate state, constructed a financial and political system based on illusions. Corporations engaged in pyramid lending that created fictitious assets. These fictitious assets became collateral for more bank lending. The elite skimmed off hundreds of millions in bonuses, commissions and salaries from this fictitious wealth. Politicians, who dutifully served corporate interests rather than those of citizens, were showered with campaign contributions and given lucrative jobs when they left office. Universities, knowing it was not good business to challenge corporatism, muted any voices of conscience while they went begging for corporate donations and grants. Deceptive loans and credit card debt fueled the binges of a consumer society and hid falling wages and the loss of manufacturing jobs.

The bullet to our head, inevitable if we do not radically alter course, will be sudden. We have been borrowing at the rate of more than $2 billion a day over the last 10 years, and at some point it has to stop. The moment China, the oil-rich states and other international investors stop buying treasury bonds the dollar will become junk. Inflation will rocket upward. We will become Weimar Germany. A furious and sustained backlash by a betrayed and angry populace, one unprepared intellectually and psychologically for collapse, will sweep aside the Democrats and most of the Republicans. A cabal of proto-fascist misfits, from Christian demagogues to simpletons like Sarah Palin to loudmouth talk show hosts, who we naively dismiss as buffoons, will find a following with promises of revenge and moral renewal. The elites, the ones with their Harvard Business School degrees and expensive vocabularies, will retreat into their sheltered enclaves of privilege and comfort. We will be left bereft and abandoned outside the gates.

Read the entire article here:

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/135414/who_should_resist%2C_and_who_will_become_serfs/

What Will Victory in Iraq Look Like?

It'll be the day that an American president makes a scheduled landing at Baghdad airport. It'll be the day when the White House press corps aren't kept in the dark about it or placed under strict embargoes. It'll be the day when the Iraqi people know the American president is coming and when he'll arrive.

It won't be anytime soon.

Is Iggy Playing in the Tory Litterbox?

I guess it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Michael Ignatieff appears to be doing what he can to stir up the animosity between the PC loyalists and the Reformers in the CPC ranks over Brian Mulroney.

Tories can blame Stephen Harper. Why not? He deserves it. In keeping with his Stalinist ways, Harper tried to 'disappear' Brian Mulroney, demanding that his entire caucus - including old friends of BMBM, sever all contacts with the Boy from Baie Comeau.

Mulroney, as we know, was more influential than Preston Manning in launching the Reform/Alliance/Conservative movement. It was Mulroney's scandal-wracked government that drove Progressive Conservatives in the West into the arms of Manning's Reform Party. Without Mulroney to kick start them, the Reform Party might have remained an angry bunch of Alberta social conservatives formerly known as the Progressive Conservative 'fringe'.

But the Reform movement had its own rot. That much was apparent when a guy like Stockwell Day was able to bump out Preston to become leader. And weren't those the days, if you were a Liberal. Kicking Stockwell to the curb became child's play. Any notion of uniting the right was out of the question with Day at the helm.

And then along came Steve. What a guy, both more and less than met the eye. A closet Southern Republican, baptized in social conservative ideology, he spent his public political career desperately trying not to be seen for what and who he is. The closest thing Canada has ever had to Tom Delay and Grover Norquist's love child.

Peter MacKay won the Tory leadership, on bended knee pledged never to surrender the Progressive Conservative brand, it's long and proud history. to the Alliance and then promptly did just that. A supposed 'merger' of the parties that was never more than an unconditional surrender. Even 'Progressive' had to go, it wouldn't be needed in the new Social Conservative Party of Canada. While he was at it, Harper moved to erase the vestiges of Preston Manning, especially his bent for participatory, "grass roots" democracy. Steve was all The Decider the new Conservatives would need, or at least all they would get while he was running the show.

Being a thoroughly unlikeable guy, a cold stiff, usually isn't a formula for success in democratic politics but, like a Newfie on a harp seal pup, Steve was able to use the Chretien-administration sponsorship scandal to bludgeon the Martin government into oblivion. Despite a Liberal Party leadership in disarray, Harper was never able to cinch the deal, never able to get beyond a minority.

Harper needed a solid majority win to cement his hold on the Conservative Party. He swallowed his pride and, along with it, his ideology and theocratic instincts, in order to play moderate centrist but he was never quite able to grab the brass ring. There were times that poll numbers suggested he could squeak out a bare majority but those moments passed as quickly as they came.

People like Harper have most to fear from those closest to them. Like Caesar, they get assassinated on the Senate floor. When you play emperor and reserve all powers to yourself, governing by dictate instead of consensus, you play a dangerous game. It's like telling everybody that, henceforth they're all going to prefer the same flavour of ice cream - your favourite. Which leads us to where we are today with Harper and Mulroney.

When Harper ordered the Conservative caucus to henceforth shun Mulroney it was a real 'him or me' moment, even if not fully comprehended. Harper drew a line in the sand but this time he might have gone too far. That's the danger with lingering resentments. They're smouldering fires that, given just a bit of breeze, can burst into flame.

Iggy is doing what he can to fan the embers. He sent Muldoon happy birthday wishes. He's now chiding Conservatives who've turned their back on Mulroney, siding with the dissidents in arguing that they at least owe their former leader a measure of respect and fellowship.

The Globe & Mail speculates, as I did the other day, that these surfacing tensions could be a harbinger of what's expected to come out at the Oliphant hearings into Mulroney's dealings with Schreiber:

...Mr. Harper's representatives went to great lengths to defend the former prime minister when the House of Commons ethics committee looked into the matter. Yet, based on Mr. Panetta's report, it appears that Mulroney loyalists within the Conservative caucus are still not satisfied. With one notable exception: Sen. Marjory LeBreton - the ultimate Mulroney loyalist - confirmed that Mr. Mulroney had asked that his membership be cancelled.

Is this simply because Ms. LeBreton - whose history in the party goes back to the Diefenbaker period - has always operated on the principle of loyalty to the leader? Or, might it be that she feels betrayed by what we already know about Mr. Mulroney's dealings with Mr. Schreiber? Most intriguingly, could Ms. LeBreton, who served as Mr. Mulroney's deputy chief of staff, have an inkling of what's to come as the inquiry unfolds?

Jesse Michaels at Canoe.ca, a self-professed "proud, former Progressive Conservative" ponders whether this could be the beginning of the end of the united right:

The Prime Minister’s Office has been at the forefront of the attacks, claiming that Mr. Mulroney was no longer a card-carrying member of the party and dispatching various mouthpieces to insist that Tories have no further contact with him. Shamefully, Senator Marjorie LeBreton acted on behalf of the PMO, even though she has been a Mulroney confident, spokesperson and supporter.

...It was only a matter of time for the shotgun wedding that created the “new” Conservative party to starting fraying at the seams. ...Anyone know the stats on shotgun weddings that lead to divorce?

I think Ignatieff has done about as much as he should to egg on the adversaries within the Tory ranks. From here on in it should be left to Harper, Mulroney, their supporters, and a judge named Oliphant.

Why Is Mulroney Such a Burr Under Harper's Saddle?

By all accounts it's a good thing we don't let Tory MPs and Senators carry knives or there would have been blood all over the lawns of Parliament when the subject of Brian Mulroney came up at their Conservative caucus meeting last week.

The Tories are split into two camps. One wants to shun the former pm who delivered their party two consecutive and massive majorities. The other side stubbornly insists on defending Brian as one of the flock. The Mulroney supporters appear to be defying Steve Harper's command that Mulroney be 'disappeared' from the party. According to the G&M, Harper has ordered all members of his government, including Mulroney friends, to sever all ties with his predecessor. The only thing Harper hasn't done is declare Mulroney a terrorist.

Steve is acting like a politician in full panic. He plainly sees his former mentor as lethally toxic to his government. Why? Harper must know something is coming Mulroney's way, probably in the Oliphant inquiry. Does Karlheinz Schreiber really have the goods on Mulroney, some smoking gun? Is there some aspect of the Mulroney business that could actually harm the Harper government?

Something is afoot here that's not being explained, at least not to the public. It's said that Karlheinz Schreiber is the next witness scheduled to testify at the inquiry. If there are to be any bombshells they'll probably be launched by Schreiber.

Karzai Supposedly to Scrap Rape Law

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Yusuf Islam's - GREATEST HITS!

Just cause every now and then it actually works -

The Only Warren That Ever Was Worth a Goddamn

The late, truly great Zevon with Jackson Browne. The rest really is just a load of crap.

Canada's Crumbling Parliamentary Democracy

The two acts of the Harper government that have most infuriated me were the gagging of the public and armed services and the installation of political commissars in the PMO to ensure that the information flow from government to the public is suitably shaped in order to advance Mr. Harper's political ambitions. Fortunately for Harper and unfortunately for Canada, the issue has never gained traction. There's been no stirring anger, no lasting controversy over a policy that seems positively Stalinist.

James Travers has a 'must read' article today on the same theme, the unravelling of Canadian democracy.

Laughter or disbelief would have been my '80s response to any gloomy prediction that within the next 20 odd years Canada's iconic police force would twist the outcome of a federal election. I would have rejected out of hand the suggestion that Parliament would become a largely ceremonial body incapable of performing its defining functions of safeguarding public spending and holding ministers to account. I would have treated as ridiculous any forecast that the senior bureaucracy would become politicized, that many of the powers of a monarch would flow from Parliament to the prime minister or that the authority of the Governor General, the de facto head of state, would be openly challenged.

Yet every one has happened and each has chipped away another brick of the democratic foundations underpinning Parliament. Incrementally and by stealth, Canada has become a situational democracy. What matters now is what works. Precedents, procedures and even laws have given way to the political doctrine of expediency.

Politics and politicians being what they are, the reflex response is to grasp for all remaining power. Once secured, it can be used to exercise political will more easily by overruling rules and rewriting or simply ignoring laws. Power alone is effective in cross-cutting through the silo walls that isolate departments and frustrate co-ordinated policies. Important to all administrations, unfettered manoeuvring room is that much more important to minority governments desperate to maximize limited options and minimize opposition influence.

Read more of this thought provoking article here:

http://www.thestar.com/News/Insight/article/613535

Stelmach Screwing the Pooch

Alberta's oh-so Conservative premier is screwing up, big time. Mardi Gras is over and 'Special Ed' Stelmach has woken up in an alley with his pants around his knees, surrounded by empties. From the Calgary Herald:

The Stelmach government is stuck in the same financial quicksand as the 1980s Getty era and is facing similar "dire consequences" of prolonged deficits and draconian spending cuts due to its over-reliance on energy revenues, warns a new University of Calgary study.

...Former premier Don Getty's regime made two key errors in the mid-to late 1980s of relying too heavily on volatile oil and gas revenues to fund its budget, and then failing to cut spending accordingly when energy prices collapsed -- instead hoping markets would rebound in the short term.

The Stelmach government is headed down an identical path, cautions the report.
"We criticize (the government) for allowing its budget to become so heavily dependent on volatile, energy-related revenues--that is a high-risk strategy;it has been tried before and has failed, with dire consequences," the report states.

In December, 2006, the Financial Post warned Alberta to start acting like grown ups with the Tar Sands Bonanza:

"Alberta’s blue-eyed sheikhs offered a plaintive prayer in the early 1990s as sliding oil prices plunged the energy-rich Canadian province into recession. “Dear God,” ran their plea, featured on a popular bumper sticker. 'Let there be another oil boom and I promise not to piss it away this time.'"

Yet, for all the benefits, a frisson of nervousness has recently emerged that short-term growth may be taking precedence over long-term prudence. Mr Vander Ploeg estimates that the province’s Progressive Conservative government has saved just 8.6 per cent of the C$120bn it has collected in non-renewable resource royalties over the past 30 years."By contrast, Alaska has set aside about one-quarter of its resource revenues in “permanent” and “reserve” funds. Norway has tucked almost two-thirds of its North Sea riches into a rainy-day petroleum fund.

One surprising critic is Peter Lougheed, Alberta’s premier from 1971 to 1985 and now a respected elder statesman. He says his eyes were opened by a recent helicopter trip over the 'oilsands projects. 'I felt it was just really bad,' he says. 'It was the opposite of orderly.'

Although he belongs to Mr Klein’s party, Mr Lougheed puts much of the blame on the laisser-faire approach to oilsands development. 'The thing that’s being completely missed,' he says, 'is: what is the benefit to the citizens from the overheating of the economy?'”

Well Peter that's what happens when you put the Trailer Park Boys in charge of the provincial treasury.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/crisis+feared+Alberta+report+warns/1460066/story.html

Consume NOW!

h/t www.bonfireofthebrands.com

Michelle Obama Wows Elizabeth Windsor

America's First Lady and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth have certainly hit it off. Associated Press reports the Queen displayed real affection to Michelle Obama:

Mrs. Obama clearly made an impression with the 82-year-old monarch — so much that the smiling queen strayed slightly from protocol and briefly wrapped her arm around the first lady in a rare public show of affection.

It was the first time Mrs. Obama — who is nearly a foot taller — had met the queen. The first lady also wrapped her arm around the monarch's shoulder and back.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman who asked not to be identified because of palace policy said he could not remember the last time the queen had displayed such public affection with a first lady or dignitary.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iU2_BrNBSIf8q7Dpe7TZaCq11qeAD97AFO700

You Poor, Poor Lawyers

We pay a lot of attention to certain victims of the global recession - Third Worlders who are seeing their rise out of poverty dramatically reversed, autoworkers who have to watch as their job security evaporates, the list goes on. But who ever gives a fig about lawyers and the really dire straits befalling them? According to the New York Times, the legal profession is taking a hammering:

The economic downturn is hitting the legal world hard. American Lawyer is calling it “the fire this time” and warning that big firms may be hurtling toward “a paradigm-shifting, blood-in-the-suites” future. The Law Shucks blog has a “layoff tracker,” and it is grim reading. Top firms are rapidly thinning their ranks, and several — including Heller Ehrman, a venerable 500-plus-lawyer firm founded in 1890 — have closed.

The employment pains of the legal elite may not elicit a lot of sympathy in the broader context of the recession, but a lot of hard-working lawyers have been blindsided, including young associates who are suddenly finding themselves with six-figure student-loan debts and no source of income.


Read more of the desperate plight of the legal profession here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/opinion/02thu4.html?em

"We have all been surprised. He is so . . . American!"

Robert Kagan has an interesting article in today's WaPo describing Europe's uncomfortable embrace of Barack Obama:

...Europeans want to be left in peace. They experienced enough turmoil in the 20th century to last a millennium: the two world wars that devastated the continent and took tens of millions of lives; the Holocaust, which still inspires deep guilt, and not only in Germany; the rampant inflations and depressions of the 1920s and 1930s; the wild political swings from romantic and belligerent nationalism to fascism to socialism to flirtations with communism to democracy; the Cold War that divided the continent, not only along the Iron Curtain but also within and between the nations of Western Europe. Just beneath the skin, all of Europe remains deeply scarred.

So how surprising is it that what Europeans yearn for in their self-contained world is stability and predictability, a little peace and quiet? They don't want more excitement. The most revolutionary innovation in the history of geopolitics, the European Union, was paradoxically brought to fruition not by a desire for revolution but by a deep conservatism -- a mortal fear of the turmoil that can be caused by unconstrained ambitions, both national and individual. The German people, for whom and by whom the European Union was consecrated, want to be constrained. The E.U.'s economic strictures, which now act as a barrier to Keynesian deficit spending, were put there by the Germans, for whom memories of inflation, not depression, are the great nightmare. The Germans and French prefer welfare payments to government stimulus spending, for they are part of the passive system of social safety nets on which their citizens have grown so comfortably dependent. The creative destruction of the business-oriented political economies of the Anglo-Americans is too violent and unstable, too brutal and unpredictable. Better to regulate more tightly the international capitalists who can cause havoc through their inventiveness. Better to be less rich than less secure.

... It is into this Europe that President Obama has flown, with what Europeans regard as some radical and frightening plans for the economy; with a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan that is far more aggressive, militaristic and success-oriented than they would prefer; with ideas about Iran that are welcome (the promise to talk) but also unnerving (the threat to impose more sanctions). As one savvy French journalist told me, "We have all been surprised. He is so . . . American!"

Americans are creators of turmoil. Europeans see them the way the ancient Greeks saw the Athenians, as "incapable of either living a quiet life themselves or of allowing anyone else to do so."

...Europeans love Obama, but European leaders have been fretting ever since his election. George W. Bush did the Europeans a huge favor by giving them the best excuse for inaction in transatlantic history. Now comes Obama, so much more compelling and yet, still, American.

Read more here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/01/AR2009040103060.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

Mohamed Kohail's Death Sentence Reaffirmed

Mohamed Kohail has again been ordered to be publicly beheaded for his part in a Saudi schoolyard brawl in 2007 that left one young man dead.

Convicted and condemned in March, 2008, by a lower court, it looked as though Kahail would be spared following the February ruling of the Supreme Judicial Council, Saudi Arabia's highest court, which ordered the lower court to reconsider its decision.

The lower court reconsidered but decided to reaffirm its judgment and order Kohail beheaded.

The New, New World Order

A very important skill in the 18th century was the ability to discern that point when the natives realized we white folks were only humans, just like them. That was always a decisive moment that forever altered social, political, economic and sometimes even military relationships. When a bunch of people think you're a god, a snap of the fingers or a barked command can produce wonderful results. When those people see you as just another mortal, not so much.

We're witnessing that shifting dynamic being played out again in the course of the global meltdown. In the postwar era, most of the Third World and developing world took its economic marching orders from those super bright white guys we call the West, especially the biggest and strongest and richest of those super bright white guys, the United States. And then along came the global meltdown and a look under the carpet where the US had swept its subprime mortgage derivatives and its credit default swaps. That was one of 'those moments' of awakening.

From The Guardian:

The run-up to the G-20 meeting has been interesting and colorful. President Lula Da Silva of Brazil declared that "this crisis was caused by the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing." His full remarks made it clear that he was not promoting biological race theories but calling attention to the injustice that the vast majority of the world, who happen to be both poor and non-white, should suffer for the greed and stupidity of a few. China also let loose with an uncharacteristic broadside against the United States, basically saying that we (the Chinese) have gotten our act together and are mobilizing massive resources internally to counter the downturn; now how about you clowns who made this mess step up to the plate, before we take more losses on your stinking treasury bonds? It was worded somewhat less rudely, but still a stunning departure from the "hide brilliance, cherish obscurity" motto that has guided Chinese foreign policy.

... U.S. leadership is taking an immediate hit because it was at the forefront in creating the current world recession. It's hard to believe that Nicolas Sarkozy won the presidency of France barely two years ago by promising to make French capitalism more like the American brand. The idea that the "American model" was superior in economic terms has been promoted for years by the European press even though the statistical evidence has always been weak or non-existent (e.g. France has a productivity level about the same as the United States). But from now on these ideas will be a much harder sell.

You really can't blame them for their anger. For decades 'we've' been using the International Monetary Fund like some sort of travelling Bible show for these 3rd Worlders, always ready to preach our gospel of fiscal responsibility and economic prudence which usually took the form of IMF loans in exchange for often painful compliance to our dictates. For a few million dollars here or there, barely more than shiny beads, we got to snap our fingers and bark commands just like the old days. We even got to restructure little nations' economies to conform to our own.

And then George Bush, the Republican Congress and the immortals of Wall Street had to go and bugger it all up. Now the Third World, which never really saw the Promised Land we said they'd reach by following our rules, is reeling from our wanton excesses and greed. Now the third and second-tier states are seeing they had jumped into the car with a drunk driver - us. They want out. They don't want to ride with us anymore. They're looking to park their trust with someone else, China perhaps.

Remember that neo-con outfit that brazenly called itself "The Project for The New American Century"? Those guys were so deranged as to believe that America really had the right to use its military superiority to thwart potential economic rivals. America was going to cruise through the 21st century as Number One and if you thought otherwise, they were going to whack you silly.

Then along came Afghanistan and along came Iraq and the world's illusions about America's military prowess were shattered on the streets of Fallujah and Baghdad. The quagmires that followed exposed America, left it looking plainly vulnerable, incapable of achieving victory by the application of brute force. That was the first mistake. Then came the US meltdown that triggered the global meltdown. That was the second mistake.

Suddenly it's become clear that America isn't going to just jump back up on its perch this time. From here on in it's going to be among us, no longer above us, an equal but no longer the 'first among equals' stature it had claimed going straight back to the days when Hitler was still winning WWII.

'The New American Century' has morphed into the 'Last Picture Show of American Superpowerdom.' It's sort of fitting in a way. We white guys, The West, have had a pretty good run these past two millenia or more going back to the Greeks and Romans, through the Middle Ages and into the rockstars of the Industrial Revolution where we really learned to throw our weight around. We got astonishingly good at sucking the wealth out of everybody else, taking for ourselves the lion's share of world resources to ensure our prosperity. We had a pretty good run while it lasted but we took far too much for granted. We blew it.

There's a new order emerging, one in which the West will no longer have exclusive control. It'll be a world in which the third-tier countries suddenly have options, new suitors vying for their loyalty. The funny thing is, this was all our own doing.

Global Warming Theory Disproved - RealClimate.Org Shuts Down

I'm just too upset to comment so I'll simply post the latest from their website:

We would like to apologize to our loyal readers who have provided us so much support since we first went online in December 2004. However, after listening to the compelling arguments of the distinguished speakers who participated in the Heartland Institute's recent global warming contrarian conference, we have decided that the science is settled — in favor of the contrarians. Indeed, even IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri has now admitted that anthropogenic climate change was a massive hoax after all. Accordingly, RealClimate no longer has a reason for existence. The contrarians have made a convincing case that (a) global warming isn't happening, (b) even if it is, its entirely natural and within the bounds of natural variability, (c) well, even if its not natural, it is modest in nature and not a threat, (d) even if anthropogenic warming should turn out to be pronounced as projected, it will sure be good for us, leading to abundant crops and a healthy environment, and (e) well, it might actually be really bad, but hey, its unstoppable anyway. (Can we get our check now?)

Benny's Loose Cannon

It was obvious that when newly-minted Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed ultra-right nutjob Avigdor Lieberman to be his country's foreign minister it wouldn't take long for the sparks to fly.

As though Israel has something to gain from poking a sharp stick in Washington's eye, Liberman wasted no time announcing that Israel was not bound by understandings on the creation of a Palestinian state reached at a U.S.-sponsored conference at Annapolis in November 2007. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently reported on a secret side deal between Netanyahu and Lieberman that could make the possibility of a Palestinian state in the West Bank all but hopeless:

Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a secret deal with Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman for highly contentious construction on West Bank land known as E1, Army Radio reported Wednesday. A source close to the negotiations between the pair told Army Radio that the plan had been agreed upon even though it did not appear in the official document detailing the coalition deal between Yisrael Beiteinu and Netanyahu's Likud.

Construction in the area is particularly sensitive because it would create contiguity between the settlement and the capital, which in turn would prevent Palestinian construction between East Jerusalem and Ramallah. This would also make it difficult to reach agreement between Israel and the Palestinians on the question of permanent borders.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1073771.html

Night Light Linked to Breast Cancer

An Israeli study has found that women living in areas with the worst light pollution have a 73% greater incidence of breast cancer than women from areas with the least night lighting.

I suppose it could be explained away by noting that light pollution is found in urban areas where people are exposed to more pollution and contaminants than rural dwellers except that an earlier study found the same thing in women working the night shift in hospitals. From the Environmental News Network:

The report, published in Cancer Research, suggests that melatonin - or rather the lack of it-may be the cause. Melatonin is an essential hormone that our bodies make at night while we sleep. It requires darkness and plays a critical role in regulating our internal clocks. For women, the light-sensitive hormone is particularly important since scientists suspect that melatonin helps to reduce estrogen levels-higher estrogen levels being a factor in developing breast cancer.

And melatonin levels drop precipitously in the presence of artificial light.

This research helps to explain two stark facts that epidemiologists have long known: breast cancer rates are three to five times higher in industrialized countries and, that breast cancer rates are 20 to 50 percent less in blind women.

http://www.enn.com/health/article/39559

Oh Sure, Blame the Recession

B'nai Brith Canada claims the recession is behind what it claims is a marked increase in anti-Semitism in this country.

"Any time there's bad economic times, the Jews get blamed for it," said Marvin Kurz, national legal counsel for B'nai Brith Canada, which released yesterday an audit of reports of anti-Semitic incidents made to the group.

"The ancient tie between Jews and money that predates Shakespeare and Shylock continues to be stuck in some aspect of our collective memories."

In the audit released, B'nai Brith stated that anti-Semitic incidents in Canada jumped by 8.9 per cent last year to 1,135, a high for the 27 years the group has recorded the reports. Almost half, 547, were in the last four months of the year as the economy worsened.

Define "incident." With the new, improved and vastly expanded definition of "anti-Semitic" that includes legitimate criticism of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. Having blamed the increase of anti-Semitism on the recession, Mr. Kurtz seemed to trip and stumble when he then blamed it on anger toward Israel:

"Whenever something happens in Israel, anti-Semitism in Canada and around the world increases," added Kurz.

Middle East tensions – often a trigger for anti-Semitic behaviour in past years – were largely absent throughout the fall, the audit states. However, once fighting broke out in Gaza in December, there was another spike in incidents.

Across Canada, there were 151 incidents in December, 70 of which coincided with fighting in Gaza and 36 of which occurred in the closing days of the year, as tensions in the war-torn area heightened.

...In the audit, B'nai Brith calls for tougher restrictions on racist groups and their symbols, and suggests that racist motivations be given greater prominence during the investigation of a crime, rather than just at sentencing.

Sign of the Times - Free Boats!

Along coastal America, yachtsmen are seeing the unmistakable signs of just how bad America's recession has become - abandoned boats. In some states, it's become a real problem:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/business/01boats.html?pagewanted=2&em

Somewhat Less General Motors?

No more General Motors? Just "Motors"? According to The New York Times, that's what might lie in store for the now insolvent GM.

The best brands - Cadillac and Chevy - go to the new company, NewCo. The rest - Hummer and the like - stay in the old GM, OldCo, for liquidation. GM's creditors are stuck with the plundered OldCo's assets when it's put out of its misery in a bankruptcy.

NewCo pays OldCo and its creditors with NewCo shares. Creditors are transformed into shareholders. Then NewCo with all the best assets, including the best brands, and shed of OldCo's deadwood and debt, forges ahead and lives (we hope) happily ever after.

Creditors are always reluctant to have their strict legal rights washed away but, when it's all over, they may actually come out ahead as shareholders of the new, improved, laundered and pressed, Somewhat Less General Motors.

The Guardian Ditching Newsprint

The legendary English newspaper, The Guardian, is giving up and following many American papers into an electronic-only publication:

Consolidating its position at the cutting edge of new media technology, the Guardian today announces that it will become the first newspaper in the world to be published exclusively via Twitter, the sensationally popular social networking service that has transformed online communication.

The move, described as "epochal" by media commentators, will see all Guardian content tailored to fit the format of Twitter's brief text messages, known as "tweets", which are limited to 140 characters each. Boosted by the involvement of celebrity "twitterers", such as Madonna, Britney Spears and Stephen Fry, Twitter's profile has surged in recent months, attracting more than 5m users who send, read and reply to tweets via the web or their mobile phones.

Read more here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/01/guardian-twitter-media-technology

A Hoax on America's Hoaxter in Chief

Remember the Montreal DJs who fooled Sarah Palin into believing she had French president Nicholas Sarkozy on the line? It turns out they pulled the very same stunt a year earlier on George w. Bush.

The CKOI radio duo, who call themselves the "Masked Righters of Wrong," managed to bluff their way into getting the number for the direct line to Bush in the White House situation room in 2007. They agreed not to release the tape of their stunt until after the change of administrations.

Radio CKOI will be airing the tape tomorrow, April Fool's Day

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/canadian-djs-duped-bush-white-house-20090401-9imk.html

What Do the Tories Know That We Don't? Ask Mulroney

Is the Pope Catholic? Is Brian Mulroney a Tory? Yes to the first, depends who you ask to the second.

The Conservative Television Network reports there's some disagreement between Conservative 'sources' and Mulroney as to whether Lyin' Brian is still a Tory.

Senior Conservatives contacted select reporters Tuesday to tell them Mulroney had effectively torn up his party card.

"I can confirm he is no longer a member," said one Conservative source.

Mulroney briskly fired off an unequivocal statement through his public relations team.
"I remain a member of the Conservative Party and I will remain so until the day I die," Mulroney said.

The bizarre dispute over Mulroney's party membership is a sign of just how bilious the relationship between the Harper government and Mulroney has become.

Makes you wonder whether the Harpies have sized up what's coming at the Oliphant inquiry and figure it'd be a good idea to try to distance the CPC from the former Tory PM.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090331/mulroney_tories_090331/20090331?hub=TopStories

Air Canada Crashing Again?

It couldn't happen to a more deserving airline. Air Canada is said to be on the verge of seeking bankruptcy protection for the second time in six years.

The problem this time is the usual - recession, falling bookings, pension deficits and, of course, being trounced at the hands of our very own, Western airline - WestJet.

Take a WestJet flight some time and you'll find it filled with travellers who've written off Air Canada long ago. What once was known as the People's Airline has alienated a lot of its customer base over the past decade.

In my former practice I wound up acting for a lot of pilots, some from Air Canada and many others from names now just memories - WardAir, Canadian Pacific Airlines, Pacific Western Airlines, Canadian Airlines International. Through a host of bad planning and management, they were all swallowed up, in turn, until what remained was incorporated into the latter day Air Canada, itself a shabby vestige of what it had once been.

To my thinking, the hapless thing we know as today's Air Canada is simply the end result of Mulroney's disastrous plan to privatize Air Canada and deregulate Canada's airlines. Prior to Mulroney Canada's two flag carriers were well regulated. Each was given priority on specific regions and high-profit routes. In exchange for that, each was also obligated to provide service to less-profitable, secondary airports which did a lot to open up this country from the 50's through the 70's.

Once Mulroney deregulated the airlines, Canadian Pacific and Air Canada went after the high-profit routes like two dogs after the same steak. For example, both airlines were operating densely packed schedules of nearly-empty airplanes between Vancouver and Toronto every day. Each wanted domination over the other on that route and each was prepared to bleed itself in the process. Seat-mile revenues plummeted, leaving both airlines mortally weak to the inevitable fluctuations in our economy.

At the end, Canadian Pacific (now renamed Canadian Airlines International) was the closest to financial death when it made a bid to save itself by attempting to take over Air Canada. After a lot of vicious maneuvering, Canadian Airlines International was itself taken over by Air Canada but what emerged was not the Air Canada of the 70's. It never really recovered.

In the years since it first resorted to bankruptcy protection, Air Canada has tried - and failed - to compete with the newcomer, WestJet. Now it appears to be back on the ropes, again.

Shattering Delusions of Afghan Progress

When the dwindling ranks of cheerleaders for the Afghan occupation speak out, it's generally to raise all the progress on women's rights. Right.

As The Guardian points out, with the stroke of his presidential pen, Hamid Karzai has consigned Afghan women back to the Dark Ages:

Hamid Karzai has been accused of trying to win votes in Afghanistan's presidential election by backing a law the UN says legalises rape within marriage and bans wives from stepping outside their homes without their husbands' permission.

The Afghan president signed the law earlier this month, despite condemnation by human rights activists and some MPs that it flouts the constitution's equal rights provisions.

A briefing document prepared by the United Nations Development Fund for Women also warns that the law grants custody of children to fathers and grandfathers only.

Senator Humaira Namati, a member of the upper house of the Afghan parliament, said the law was "worse than during the Taliban". "Anyone who spoke out was accused of being against Islam," she said.

Read more here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/31/hamid-karzai-afghanistan-law