The Victoria Times Colonist Calls "Bulls__t" on Christy Clark.

You Go Girl.  No, Seriously, Just Go.

The untested, unproven and unbelievable premier of British Columbia is paying dearly for her cracks about her very own legislature.   The centre-right Times Colonist is having a field day with Clark and her unfortunate remarks.

Pundit Les Leyne volunteered that Clark may have Romneyed next year's election.  "To 'Romney' is to speak from the heart during an unguarded moment and say something so fantastically stupid that it winds up destroying your campaign."

And the main editorial today is even harder on Premier CC:

When she was running for the leadership of her party, she was excited about bringing new respect to the legislature. She said she loved question period and the debates in the house. She wanted to bolster legislature committees and she wanted to find co-operative ways to help ensure that more private members' bills were passed.

What a difference a year makes. Since Clark took her seat on May 30, 2011, private members have brought 24 bills to first reading. How many of them have passed? None.

While the premier is right to push her new ministers to get a grip on their departments and put their budgets in order, voters can be forgiven for thinking that a major reason for avoiding the house is to keep the government away from too much examination in the run-up to next spring's election. The sick culture and beltway debate sound a lot like people asking questions she doesn't appreciate.

 Goodbye, Christy.  We barely knew ye.  I guess we owe you thanks for that.

Weaver to Run for Greens in Victoria

One of Canada's top climate scientists, University of Victoria prof Andrew Weaver, is going to run for the Green Party in Victoria in the next provincial election.

Finally the Greens will get the scientific credentials muscle that only a guy like Dr. Weaver can offer.   With May, federally, and Weaver, in B.C., the Greens look like a very attractive alternative to the NDP and Liberals in Victoria and in Ottawa.

Crispy Clark's Sarah Palin Moment

British Columbia's unelected, unelectable and outgoing premier, Christy Clark, apparently doesn't like her job any more.  She's beginning to sound like a mid-term Sarah Palin.

...Clark says she tries to avoid working at the legislature because there's "no real people in Victoria" and the "sick culture" is unhealthy.

Clark, whose government cancelled the regularly scheduled fall session of the legislature, blasted working conditions in the provincial capital during an interview with a Vancouver-based columnist for the National Post.

"I try never to go over there. Because it's sick. It's a sick culture. All they can think about is government and there are no real people in Victoria, and you get captured by this inside-the-beltway debate, and it's really unhealthy."

Clark's apparent disdain for the legislature contrasts with comments she made while running for the B.C. Liberal party leadership in 2011.

Then, she told reporters she loved the daily cut-and-thrust of question period. After she won the party leadership, she expressed a desire to run in a byelection as quickly as possible to get her seat in the house. "As you know, I love question period and I hate to miss it," she told reporters.

When Clark was resigning as an MLA in 2005, during her first stint in office, she also professed love for the job in her last speech in the chamber.

"I have a deep, deep love of politics. I love question period. I love debate. I love the people I've met. I even love the protesters. I love politics."

Don't worry, Christy, it'll be all over soon.   In fact the people of British Columbia can't wait to set you free from your burdensome responsibilities in Victoria.   Why, you'll never have to see the place again.   Ever.

They're Like Junkies, They Really Are

We know that existing, known fossil fuel reserves already on the books of global energy companies are five times greater than the maximum amount of fossil fuel we can consume and hope to remain within the 2C safety mark for global warming.

Put another way, four fifths of the known resources need to be left in the ground, unused, at least until we have in place the necessary systems to strip massive volumes of CO2 and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Western governments and the emerging economies say they get it.   Global warming must be acted upon.    We have to sharply curb carbon emissions.  Oh yes, absolutely, we get it.   But they don't.

Take two prominent fossil fuelers - Canada and Australia.   Canada styles itself a petro-power thanks mainly to its reserves of bitumen.   Australia is all about coal.

The Australian government is implementing a carbon tax.  Yeah.  At the same time it's clearing the way for the development and export of massive quantities of coal to China and India that, when burned, will guarantee our grandkids face a 6C future.

Plans to open up a new Australian "coal export rush" would turn a single Queensland region into the seventh largest contributor of carbon dioxide emissions on the planet, undermining international efforts to keep global warming below 2C, a new report has warned.

Nine proposed "mega mines" in the Galilee Basin would, at full capacity, result in 705m tonnes of CO2 released into the atmosphere, according to a Greenpeace Australia analysis. This level of emissions would surpass those of all but six nations in the world. By comparison, the UK emitted 549.3 million tonnes of CO2 from all sources in 2011.

...Greenpeace warns that a growth in coal-fired emissions represented by the nine Queensland mines would be in line with the International Energy Agency's model of a "catastrophic" 6C rise in temperatures.

"At a time when the science could not be clearer on the need to reduce global carbon emissions, and when governments worldwide are shifting to a low-carbon economy, exploiting the Galilee Basin is a reckless proposition," the report states. "It is imperative that the Galilee Basin coal reserves remain in the ground."

And there's the rub.   Yes this Aussie coal needs to remain in the ground.   So should all the filthiest fossil fuels, including Athabasca bitumen.   Future fossil fuel consumption should be restricted to the lowest carbon forms such as light, sweet crude oil and they should only be a bridge to alternate, clean energy.

But find a government sitting stop major fossil fuel fields that will acknowledge much less embrace the notion of their resources being left unexploited.  It's like asking a coke addict to leave that line unsnorted.

If we are to have any hope of avoiding catastrophic climate change the first sign will be when some national government proclaims that it will not allow its fossil fuels to be extracted.  You'll know when it happens by the sound of the world's biggest crack pipe being smashed to smithereens.

BC Opposition to Pipelines - Solid and Building

A new poll has discovered that British Columbians take bitumen pipelines very, very seriously.   In fact, the pipelines come second only to the economy in priority and  even ahead of healthcare.

“It is very unusual to see a single issue top health care or come so close to tying with the economy as the most pressing issue in B.C.,” said Stratcom president Bob Penner, who was hired by the anti-pipeline Living Oceans Society to survey attitudes on pipeline matters. “This has become a critical issue in B.C.”

The telephone survey began with an open-ended question: “What, in your opinion, is the most important issue facing British Columbians today?”

The economy got the nod from 14.9 per cent of respondents, while pipelines and tankers was a close second at 14.1 per cent. Health care was third at 12.2 per cent.

The provincewide online survey of 1,012 British Columbians, done August 8-10, found that 60 per cent of respondents opposed the Northern Gateway project, compared to 20 per cent in favour. The rest were either neutral or wouldn’t say.

That same poll found that 50 per cent were against Kinder Morgan’s project, compared to 22 per cent in support.

With barely one out of five supporting the bitumen pipelines, opposition is firming up and growing.   The rest of Canada may be content to gauge the pipeline according to its supposed economic importance to the country but British Columbians believe the safety and environmental dangers in our home province trump economic development elsewhere.  It's our province and we'll decide what happens here.  You're just going to have to live with that.

Look For a Star in the East - FOX News Throws Romney Under a Very Luxurious Bus

Even FOX is losing its patience with Mitt Romney.  An editorial takes Romney to pieces for his attack on the 47%, those who don't pay U.S. income taxes.

The governor is wrong to say that the 47% don't pay income taxes.  Sixty-one percent of those people are paying payroll taxes at a rate of 15% or more, which is higher than the 13.5% rate that the governor himself has paid. These are people who almost certainly would like to pay income taxes.  They are typically under employed, or are earning less than a family of four needs to support itself. 

They are just as hardworking and committed as people making a lot more money.  So, the governor is simply wrong.

Another 22% of people in this category are those receiving senior citizen benefits like Medicare and Medicaid, and presumably a large percentage of them have been in the work force previously. 
To think that the country is divided into “Haves” and “Have-nots,” with the Have-nots being victims, is a profound misreading of America, it represents bad political thinking, and it represents the worst form of paternalism. 

FOX being FOX, the editorial goes on to slag Obama for, wait for it, pointing out the obvious - that the rich in America don't pay their fair share.  This, to FOX, is class warfare.   And then, to prove they can defy gravity, this:

This is not a country that is divided, and it is wrong for both candidates to do so on the basis of class, or level of taxation paid.

America.   Not a country divided?   Really?

Ryan To the Rescue

With a team like Romney-Ryan, it's no wonder other Republicans facing election in November are becoming alarmed.

In the wake of the backroom video of Romney gaffes leaked by Mother Jones, Romney's vice-presidential sidekick rode to his rescue by, essentially, doubling down on the Romney parasite attack.

Representative Paul D. Ryan, held a town-hall-style meeting in New Hampshire, where he defended the ticket’s desire to fight against dependency on the federal government, which he said had become worse during Mr. Obama’s tenure.

“We should be measuring the progress of our social programs by how many people we transition off of them,” he said at the meeting.

"Transition off" seems to be code for "kick off" which is probably just what Ryan was trying to say to his own upper class supporters.  That's it, Paul.   When you're in a hole, just keep digging. 

What Moscow and Beijing Are Reading in Romney

Vlad Putin has expressed his gratitude for Mitt Romney's candor.  It has, Putin says, justified his wariness of dealing with America's leadership over missile defence systems deployed in Europe.

Moscow and Beijing know that Romney has fallen under the guidance of warmongers like John Bolton who recently wrote this delightful piece in National Review Online.

 
First and foremost, we should cut Syria off from its major supporters. The television images from Syria will not change permanently until the underlying strategic terrain changes permanently. Russia should be told in no uncertain terms that it can forget about sustained good relations with the United States as long as it continues to back Assad. We should resume full-scale, indeed accelerated, efforts to construct the limited missile-defense system designed by George W. Bush to protect American territory not against Russia but against rogue states such as Iran and North Korea. But we should immediately make it clear to Moscow that we will begin to consider broadening our missile-defense program to deal with Russian and Chinese ballistic-missile capabilities. We should also announce our withdrawal from the New START arms-control treaty, and our utter disinterest in negotiations to prevent an “arms race” in space. Let Moscow and Beijing think about all that for a while.

The magnitude of such a shift as a response to the conflict in Syria may seem startling, but each of these proposals is meritorious on its own terms. Wrapping several major policy redirections around the Syria problem thus advances multiple objectives simultaneously. Both Russia and China think Obama is weak, that America is declining, and that they can ignore our views on Syria and many other issues with complete impunity. It is time for a wake-up call to the Kremlin and Zhongnanhai.

Next, we should tell Iran that our patience with their decade-long ploy of using diplomacy to gain time to advance their nuclear-weapons program has ended. Tehran should face a stark choice, and we can leave to their imagination what will happen if they fail immediately to dismantle all aspects of their existing nuclear effort. We should also reverse the fantasy still trumpeted by Obama that, despite its repeated violations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty over 20 years, Iran is somehow entitled to a “peaceful” nuclear program. Until there is a new, trustworthy regime in Tehran, there can be no claim to benefits or “rights” under a treaty Iran has grossly abused. We should introduce this new reality to our European friends as well, perhaps by simply being unambiguous with them.

Finally, in Syria itself, we should do now what we could have begun to do ten years ago (and what the Obama White House at least says it is doing now): find Syrian rebel leaders who are truly secular and who oppose radical Islam; who will disavow al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and other terrorist groups; and who will reject Russian and Iranian hegemony over their country. We will need some reason to believe that this opposition can prevail against not only the Assad regime but also the terrorists and fanatics who also oppose Assad. This must be not a faith-based judgment but a clear-eyed assessment of reality. Such is the kind of opposition that, assuming it exists, we should support, aiming for regime change in Damascus when — and only when — it becomes feasible on our terms. On this matter, too, we should tell our European allies that we want their support for something other than semiotic diplomacy.

Classic, rabid John Bolton.  It has never crossed his tortured mind that America's unrivalled military superiority has utterly failed to deliver success ever since the neo-cons succeeded in foreign policy "bait and switch" substituting the threat and use of military force as a substitute for diplomacy.   That Bolton now has Mitt Romney's ear is genuinely sad.

Romney's Problem Isn't What He Says But What He Believes

As David Brooks points out in the New York Times, Mitt Romney has a profoundly flawed belief system.   He has a feeble knowledge of the country, its people, its culture.   He doesn't "get" the American social compact.

Mitt Romney is an astonishingly shallow man.   His ill-considered candor has already alienated Moscow and the Muslim world to boot without achieving any offsetting benefit for Romney, much less for his country.

He's written off 47 per cent of the American public, dismissing them as parasites.   He wants to govern for the others, the truly advantaged Americans.

The video released by Mother Jones reveals a candidate leveling with his well-heeled backers at a $50,000 a plate dinner.  He's telling them what he believes, what they also believe.   Should we be alarmed that Romney is an oligarch?  Why?

Romney is only following a path carved out of the forest of democracy by a corporatist Supreme Court and then paved with money from his wealthiest benefactors.   They have blazed Romney's trail.   They have charted his course.   He is their man.  They made him.   He is the intended instrument of their will.

NYT's Brooks Slams "Thurston Howell Romney"

If  you're the Republican presidential candidate and yet you've lost New York Times conservative columnist, David Brooks, you're in serious trouble.   Brooks slams Romney's remarks disparaging half of Americans as, essentially, parasites.   Brooks may have just written Romney's political obituary and it's wonderful:

This comment suggests a few things. First, it suggests that he really doesn’t know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to the V.A.? Is it the student getting a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare?

It suggests that Romney doesn’t know much about the culture of America. Yes, the entitlement state has expanded, but America remains one of the hardest-working nations on earth. Americans work longer hours than just about anyone else. Americans believe in work more than almost any other people. Ninety-two percent say that hard work is the key to success, according to a 2009 Pew Research Survey. 

It says that Romney doesn’t know much about the political culture. Americans haven’t become childlike worshipers of big government. On the contrary, trust in government has declined. The number of people who think government spending promotes social mobility has fallen.

The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big-government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees. As Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution has noted, the people who have benefited from the entitlements explosion are middle-class workers, more so than the dependent poor.

Romney’s comments also reveal that he has lost any sense of the social compact. In 1987, during Ronald Reagan’s second term, 62 percent of Republicans believed that the government has a responsibility to help those who can’t help themselves. Now, according to the Pew Research Center, only 40 percent of Republicans believe that.

The Republican Party, and apparently Mitt Romney, too, has shifted over toward a much more hyperindividualistic and atomistic social view — from the Reaganesque language of common citizenship to the libertarian language of makers and takers. There’s no way the country will trust the Republican Party to reform the welfare state if that party doesn’t have a basic commitment to provide a safety net for those who suffer for no fault of their own.

I wonder how anguished Brooks must have been to write these things about the Republican nominee?   He must realize that his party, the GOP, has been hijacked by lunatics and needs to be taken out into the woods and put down.   Romney's litany of blunders shows he knows the way.

Oh Damn! The American Case for an Israeli Attack on Iran.

Asia Times correspondent "Spengler" argues that, for Washington, an Israeli attack on Iran might not be a bad thing.

...consider the possibility that all-out regional war is the optimal outcome for American interests. An Israeli strike on Iran that achieved even limited success - a two-year delay in Iran's nuclear weapons development - would arrest America's precipitous decline as a superpower.

Absent an Israeli strike, America faces:

A nuclear-armed Iran; Iraq's continued drift towards alliance with Iran; An overtly hostile regime in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood government will lean on jihadist elements to divert attention from the country's economic collapse; An Egyptian war with Libya for oil and with Sudan for water; A radical Sunni regime controlling most of Syria, facing off an Iran-allied Alawistan ensconced in the coastal mountains; A de facto or de jure Muslim Brotherhood takeover of the Kingdom of Jordan; A campaign of subversion against the Saudi monarchy by Iran through Shi'ites in Eastern Province and by the Muslim Brotherhood internally; A weakened and perhaps imploding Turkey struggling with its Kurdish population and the emergence of Syrian Kurds as a wild card; A Taliban-dominated Afghanistan; and Radicalized Islamic regimes in Libya and Tunisia. Saudi Arabia is the biggest loser in the emerging Middle East configuration, and Russia is the biggest winner. Europe and Japan have concluded that America has abandoned its long-standing commitment to the security of energy supplies in the Persian Gulf by throwing the Saudi monarchy under the bus, and have quietly shifted their energy planning towards Russia. Little of this line of thinking will appear in the news media, but the reorientation towards Moscow is underway nonetheless.

Parting Company

Has NATO cried "uncle" in Afghanistan?

Apparently reacting to the ongoing spate of "green on blue" killings of Western forces by supposed Afghan allies, NATO has cut back on operations with Afghan forces.

The move to curtail joint on-the-ground operations throws the coalition's military strategy into disarray and could further undermine public support in Australia for the war.

...NATO says 51 coalition soldiers have been killed by Afghan soldiers and police this year.

The suspension of joint operations threatens the plan to train an effective Afghan army to hold off the Taliban after the total withdrawal of foreign troops.

It sounds very much like NATO has had a "bugger this" moment with time fast running out, the Afghan forces thoroughly infiltrated, desertions running at about the same rate as recruiting and a hopeless government in Kabul that defies any hope of salvation.

But, as the West is packing up the dishes and linens in preparation for leaving Afghanistan, Russia is steadily ramping up its presence.

A period of intense high-level exchange is commencing this week between Russia and its Central Asian allies - and Pakistan. What characterizes the Russian strategy is a robust attempt to develop comprehensive partnerships with these countries in preparation of the post-2014 scenario in Afghanistan with the expected withdrawal of the troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The Russian focus is, not surprisingly, on the three countries to the north and south of Afghanistan - Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
 

How Much American Stealth Technology Does China Already Have?

Recent images of two Chinese stealth fighters, the J-20 that appeared almost two years ago and the J-21 that surfaced this past week, have stymied American observers.   No one knows how advanced these aircraft may be.   They look like carbon copies of America's top stealth fighter, the F-22 (no, not the dog F-35 the U.S. wants to saddle us with).   But there's no way as yet of evaluating whether the Chinese have the keys to the inner temple - the secrets of American stealth coatings that are radar absorbent and the electronic wizardry that is also instrumental in making stealth work.

What is known is that the Chinese have been actively pursuing these technologies.   Since 2009 there have been incidents in which hackers, believed to be Chinese, have broken into American and British computers to filch massive amounts of F-35 data and code.

Chinese Hackers were able to penetrate into computers belonging to BAE Systems, Britain’s biggest defence company, and to steal details about the design, performance and electronic systems of the West’s latest fighter jet, the costly F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The hacking attack has raised concerns that the fighter jet’s advanced radar capabilities could have been compromised and comes few weeks after papers about the future British-French drone were stolen in Paris. 

Three years ago, the Wall Street Journal revealed the F-35 had been compromised by computer spies.

The Joint Strike Fighter, also known as the F-35 Lightning II, is the costliest and most technically challenging weapons program the Pentagon has ever attempted. The plane, led by Lockheed Martin  Corp.  relies on 7.5 million lines of computer code, which the Government Accountability Office said is more than triple the amount used in the current top Air Force fighter.

Six current and former officials familiar with the matter confirmed that the fighter program had been repeatedly broken into. The Air Force has launched an investigation.

And then there's Lockheed Martin's state of the art stealth drone, the RQ-170, that Iran managed to seize just before Christmas.  As expected, the Chinese have pored over the aircraft at length and presumably taken samples of its stealth coatings.

In mid-August, a team from China removed electronic components from the drone that were taken back to their homeland for reverse engineering.

China, it seems, doesn't have to re-invent the stealth wheel.  It can simply steal much of the technology online and can fill in many of the gaps when American forces deliver the latest and greatest stealth drone into their very laps.

While we don't know how stealthy China's J-20 and J-21 fighters will be, the Chinese well may have copied enough of America's secrets to make their aircraft highly capable.   That bodes very badly for the F-35 which was intentionally designed to be far less stealthy than America's super stealth fighter, the F-22.   America's allies are getting stuck with the Plymouth when even the Chinese may be flying around in Corvettes. 

When someone sells you something that is supposedly exclusive or super-secret but you subsequently discover that it's no longer exclusive, no longer super-secret, isn't it time to question the giant size price tag?

A Breath of Fresh Air

I know, I know, it is Jesse Ventura, former Navy SEAL, pro-wrestler, state governor...   but he does offer up some straight talk on the demise of democracy in his homeland, a nation subverted by its own Supreme Court.

"If I lie to my government, I go to jail.   If my government lies to me, we go to war."

I'm Pretty Sure

I'm pretty sure, not betting sure but close, that I'm still going to make it out of here before this place of mine gets heavily hit by climate change.

"Not betting sure" because there doesn't seem to be a solid floor of any kind underneath the global warming right now.   Just a few years ago we were warned of what was to come by the end of this century.   A few weeks ago we were warned of what might occur by the end of the next decade, 2020.

Now we're told that what we once welcomingly accepted as "end of the century" and uncomfortably squirmed with the idea that would more likely be two decades hence, is but four years distant.

Four years.   If a millennial turned somehow into a generational problem, just how do you make sense of that; how do you explain how we got it so wrong?

If we don't figure out very soon just how we got it so wrong, the sacrifice and effort in trying to fix the problem may be seen by a great many people across the political spectrum, as excessive and hence undesirable - even unacceptable.

There, I've said it.   I no longer believe my country and my fellow Canadians, even fellow Liberals or the NDP truly put the welfare of the world and the welfare of our own next generation ahead of immediate interests, their own. Those qualities, now forfeit, stand far behind and inferior to expedience and opportunity.  

Won't just one leading Opposition party finally take it up?  I'm pretty sure I won't be holding my breath.

Sorry, Mr. Mulcair, But That's a Fail

NDP leader, Tom Mulcair, may have some real qualities but he's no Jack Layton.

Mulcair returned from summer holidays unprepared for the scorch job Harpo and his minions had prepared for him.   The big loser, however, wasn't Mulcair but the Canadian people.

The Harpies lambasted Mulcair for supposedly advocating carbon taxes, something the NDP leader denounced as a "lie."  The NDP, it seems, favours something of a cap and trade scheme, an idea that has a tarnished image globally.

What we ought to have been able to expect from a pol who claims to be ready to lead the country, is someone who could respond calmly, clearly and persuasively with a viable proposal to price carbon.   It's impossible to lead when you're so easily thrown onto the defensive.

Harper was right several years ago when he disingenuously proclaimed climate change the greatest threat to mankind.   Harper is vulnerable on that admission.   What has he done to keep the Canadian people informed and up to date on this "greatest threat"?   Nothing.   What has his government done to evaluate and implement adaptation strategies?   Virtually nothing.   What has his government achieved in reducing our national carbon footprint?  Ditto.

We know we're being overtaken by global warming.   With the latest forecast predicting an ice-free Arctic within just four years, the pace of the onset of climate change is far faster than we imagined even a year or two back.   Yet we're saddled with a prime minister who drools at the prospect of ramping up bitumen production and extracting oil and gas from the Arctic seabed.  Harper is a political fossil fueler on steroids.   But does Mulcair hang that around Harper's neck?   No, he's much too busy tied up on the defensive.  And that's a fail.

Twitt Romney Slams Half of Americans

Well, not quite half.  47% to be precise.   That's the portion of the American public "dependent" on the government according to the Republican presidential embarrassment.  Romney says this 47% is so dependent on the dole they're bound to vote for Barack Obama.



Mitt, got a minute?   You can't write off 47% of the voting public and hope to win in November.   That other 53%?   A good many of them will be voting for Obama too.

When you're several points down, you can't stay in the race with one foot more or less permanently in your mouth.   The only good thing with your moronic clown act is that people seem to have forgotten about your missing tax returns.

So Where's Our Stealth Fighter

According to Wired.com's "Danger Room" China has not one but two stealth fighters.

It's been almost two years since China revealed the Chengdu J-20 stealth warplane.    Now rival Shenyang has apparently produced its own stealth fighter, designated J-21.

It’s unclear whether Beijing intends to compete the J-20 against the J-21 for a single acquisition program. It’s equally possible both jets are meant for production. It’s also conceivable that neither is — that they’re both strictly test vehicles. “Feng,” an analyst writing for Information Dissemination, believes Beijing can only afford to manufacture one of the new planes and will be forced to choose. But that’s conjecture. As with any Chinese weapons initiative, among outsiders there are more questions than answers.

For example, just how stealthy is the J-21 — and for that matter, the slightly older J-20? Both share the general shape of the U.S. F-22. But American stealth design relies on more than shape. Special radar-absorbing materials, sophisticated heat-absorption systems, “silent” electronic gear plus extreme high speed and altitude performance all combine to give the F-22 its so-far unique ability to evade enemy defenses. It’s hard to say whether China has mastered, or even attempted, those techniques.

Of course many of America's  "radar-absorbing materials, sophisticated heat-absorption systems, [and] “silent” electronic gear" secrets fell into 'enemy hands' just before Christmas when a Lockheed RQ-170 stealth drone was hijacked and landed intact by Iranian forces as it flew above that country's nuclear sites.

But if Russia has its own stealth fighter (India too, soon) and China has two stealth fighters of its own, where is our stealth warplane, the one that's been in development since - well, since forever?   The idea, as I understand it, was that we were going to pay megabucks for this overdue, overpriced and under-performing F-35 so we could be the first on the block to have one.

Who Do They Think They Are, the Vatican?

It's going to be a tough two weeks for the Boy Scouts of America as details pour out of the organization's decades of suppressing information about child molesters in their midst.

A Los Angeles Times review of 1600 confidential files dating from 1970 to 1991 has found that scouting officials frequently urged admitted offenders to quietly resign — and helped many cover their tracks.

Volunteers and employees suspected of abuse were allowed to leave citing bogus reasons such as business demands, "chronic brain dysfunction" and duties at a Shakespeare festival.

The details are contained in the organisation's confidential "perversion files", a blacklist of alleged molesters, that the Scouts have used internally since 1919. Scouts' lawyers around the country have been fighting in court to keep the files from public view.

 

The blacklist often didn't work: men expelled for alleged abuses slipped back into the program, only to be accused of molesting again. Now, a more extensive review has shown that Scouts sometimes abetted molesters by keeping allegations under wraps.

In the majority of cases, the Scouts learned of alleged abuse after it had been reported to authorities. But in more than 500 instances, the Scouts learned about it from victims, parents, staff members or anonymous tips.

In about 400 of those cases — 80 per cent — there is no record of Scouting officials reporting the allegations to police. In more than 100 of the cases, officials actively sought to conceal the alleged abuse or allowed the suspects to hide it, the Times found.

The official Scout motto is, of course, "Be Prepared." 

"Be prepared for what?" someone once asked Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting,

"Why, for any old thing." said Baden-Powell. 

Any old thing, indeed.

They Can't Do It

In capitals around the world there's been no shortage of bold talk about the need to tackle the global warming threat but that talk rarely translates into more than token gestures.  The road to Hell is indeed paved with good intentions.

The Crown Prince of Sophistry, Steve Harper, has declared climate change the greatest threat facing mankind but his actions prove he's only pulling our collective leg.   Steve is Canada's Prime Petrol-head, the Imperial Wizard of petro-politics.   If he had any honest belief in his claim he'd find the cognitive dissonance of promoting the rapacious exploitation and development of the Tar Sands utterly overwhelming.   Steve, however, is a master of formulating iron-willed beliefs (i.e. China is evil) and then discarding them immediately they turn inconvenient (i.e. China wants bitumen).   Better yet, trace the scoundrel's constantly retreating positions on Afghanistan from the day he took power until today.

Steve may have the integrity of the lawn chocolates my hound leaves in the backyard but he's really not alone.   Other world leaders, particularly in Europe and Asia, are also resiling from promises of bold action to slash carbon emissions.

These leaders resemble cowboys in an old B Western, in a saloon sitting around a card table.   Each has his six-shooter drawn and resting on his lap while warily eying the others.   Nobody will holster his revolver lest the others pounce.   That's a fairly apt analogy to how our global leadership deals with carbon emissions.  Every one is afraid to act lest that give a competitive economic advantage to the recalcitrant.   They're all afraid to lead, consigning the rest of us to a "no can do" world.

Washington's Climate Change Wrecking Ball

To the Third World, the United States stands out as the nation resolutely blocking "any hope of stopping run away climate catastrophe.”

“By the end of the most recent round of climate talks in Bangkok (August 30 to September 5), there was no movement from developed countries to increase the level of their ambition with regard to emissions reductions – the low pledges, subject to many conditions, made in Durban, South Africa, last December remain unchanged,” wrote Chee Yoke Ling and Hilary Chiew of the Third World Network (TWN) in an article for the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS) web site.

“Even as scientific evidence mounts on worsening climate change, developed countries are not willing to meet their legal obligations to make deep greenhouse gases cuts under the Kyoto Protocol,” they concluded.

Representatives of civil society organizations reacted angrily at the end of the UN climate talks in Bangkok, and said it is apparent that the 8th annual session of the Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol to be held in the Qatari capital Doha will not approve further action on climate change this decade.

“The United States government is opposed to a top-down structure under the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period,” said Meena Raman, legal advisor to the TWN. “The United States wants a voluntary pledging system to cut emissions that is not based on science nor based on equity.”

She added: “The United States and its allies want the UN to ‘be silent’ on issues where they haven’t yet reached agreement. To be clear that means they want the UN to be silent on solving climate change. The US is taking a wrecking ball to the climate convention and any hope of stopping run away climate catastrophe.”

The Third World is fingering the U.S. and its allies (that'd be us) with responsibility for the climate change impacts that have already begun to arrive and will ramp up substantially over the next few decades.   By tagging us with responsibility for their misfortune they're setting up at the very least a moral claim for redress, compensation.

It is at least possible, perhaps even inevitable, that the climate change grievance will become a major source of tension and conflict between the developed world (us) and the Third World.  This grievance will not only destabilize countries, perhaps entire regions, but will fuel 'poor man's warfare', that is to say terrorism, the scale of which could be considerable.

Just Four More Years

It wasn't predicted to happen until the end of the century - well after we were long gone.   Now it could arrive within just four more years.  "It" is the collapse of Arctic sea ice and Professor Peter Wadhams warns of a "global disaster" now unfolding in the Arctic.

"...as the sea area that freezes and melts each year shrinks to its lowest extent ever recorded, Prof Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University calls for "urgent" consideration of new ideas to reduce global temperatures.

In an email to the Guardian he says: "Climate change is no longer something we can aim to do something about in a few decades' time, and that we must not only urgently reduce CO₂ emissions but must urgently examine other ways of slowing global warming, such as the various geoengineering ideas that have been put forward."

 At first this didn't [get] noticed; the summer ice limits slowly shrank back, at a rate which suggested that the ice would last another 50 years or so. But in the end the summer melt overtook the winter growth such that the entire ice sheet melts or breaks up during the summer months.

"This collapse, I predicted would occur in 2015-16 at which time the summer Arctic (August to September) would become ice-free. The final collapse towards that state is now happening and will probably be complete by those dates"

"As the sea ice retreats in summer the ocean warms up (to 7C in 2011) and this warms the seabed too. The continental shelves of the Arctic are composed of offshore permafrost, frozen sediment left over from the last ice age. As the water warms the permafrost melts and releases huge quantities of trapped methane, a very powerful greenhouse gas so this will give a big boost to global warming."

Romney's Russia Blunder Backfires Again

Another Russian leader has responded to Mitt Romney's labeling of Moscow as America's "Number One geopolitical foe."   Earlier in the week it was Vlad Putin using Romney's slur to justify Russian hard-line opposition to US missile defence plans for Europe.

Now it's  Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich warning that should Romney take the White House it could trigger an arms race or even a renewal of the Cold War.

“If Mr. Romney wins the presidential election, the US could fall back to a time when the bulk of revenues goes to a small group of people and military programmes are prioritized,” Dvorkovich said at a forum in Ukraine Saturday.

“Unfortunately, military programmes will play an increasing role in Russia as well, if this happens,” he said.

Putin's New American BFF - Mitt Romney

Russian strongman Vlad Putin has a new pet American - Mitt Romney.   Putin told Russian reporters he's grateful to Romney for labeling Russia "America's number one geopolitical foe."

“I’m grateful to [Romney] for formulating his stance so clearly because he has once again proven the correctness of our approach to missile defense problems,” Putin told reporters, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Russia has long opposed NATO’s plans to build a ballistic missile defense shield, which would theoretically be able to destroy incoming Russian warheads over all of Europe by 2018, and over the United States as well by 2022. According to Putin, this would irrevocably damage Russia’s nuclear deterrent. An interim version of the shield has been up and running since May.

...Although Putin has called President Obama “a very honest man” who is “quite sincere” in his willingness to negotiate with Russia over the issue, he believes that Romney’s aggressive stance vindicates Russia’s refusal to compromise on missile defense.

“The most important thing for us is that even if [Romney] doesn’t win now, he or a person with similar views may come to power in four years. We must take that into consideration while dealing with security issues for a long perspective.”

Stupid Republican bastard.

Harper Skulks Behind Cluster Bomb Ban

In 2008, countries around the world signed on to a global ban on cluster bomb munitions.   Apparently the sheer humanity of it was too much for the Prince of Darkness to bear.

Now there are warnings that our prime ministerial Beelzebub is prepping legislation to circumvent the spirit and letter of the agreement.

The spotlight is on Australia and Canada, two countries setting out legislation that cites occasions when they might be able to take part to help in joint military operations where cluster munitions are being used, Cheeseman said.

The proposed Canadian legislation, which could be completed within six months, goes against the letter and the spirit of the law, Paul Hannon, the executive director of Mines Action Canada who also sits on the CMC advisory board, told AlertNet.

Cluster Bomblets

"Our view is that this is a great treaty and it bans cluster munitions for all time, and that means no Canadian should ever be involved in use of cluster munitions for anyone, in any place, at any time, for any reason,” Hannon said from Oslo.

Campaigners were unsuccessful in their fight to change the Australian legislation, which was ratified in its parliament in August, but has not yet been passed into law.

Cluster bombs are the ultimate "fire and forget" weapons.  Countries particularly fond of them, like Israel, fire them into neighbouring territories, like Lebanon, and forget about them once hostilities are concluded leaving them to kill and maim masses of civilians for years, even decades afterward.   Israel was found to have launched thousands of cluster munitions into Lebanon despite realizing the end of hostilities was imminent.   Afterward Israel refused to provide Lebanese authorities with its computer date of where these weapons were delivered.

In South East Asia it's estimated that upwards of 60% of those who fall victim to cluster bombs are kids. (Warning - opening that link leads to a graphic photograph of what befalls a kid who runs into a cluster munition).

Harper's Weird War Fetish

Salaberry Leads Voltigeurs at Chateauguay

 What is with Steve Harper's bizarre obsession with the War of 1812?   Canada, at that point, was British territory, more than a half century away from independence.   The war was fought by American forces on one side and predominantly British forces on the other.

Yes, some Canadians fought bravely and well in a small number of militia units, the most distinguished of which were the Voltigeurs of Quebec led by Col. Charles de Salaberry (who, curiously don't seem to be on Harper's radar screen).   At sea it was exclusively Britain versus the United States.

But Canada, especially what would today be considered English Canada, wasn't always an enthusiastic participant in the war.   Many of the settlers in Upper Canada, often relatively recent immigrants from the U.S. drawn by offers of free land, actually didn't care much what side won.   Others were quite pro-American and there were several collaborators among the Canadian ranks.

Just as Harper's vision of anything rarely comports with actual facts or science, his sanitized and jingoistic styling of the War of 1812 is, well, embarrassing.   Perhaps Steve is driven by the way he so badly screwed up his war in Afghanistan that he's clutching at straws from two centuries past.

If you want the straight goods on the War of 1812, not Harper's fantastic delusions, there are several fine books worth a read.  Among them are Pierre Berton's two-volume history of the war, The Invasion of Canada and Flames Across the Border; Mark Zuehlke's, For Honour's Sake, the War of 1812 and the Brokering of an Uneasy Peace;  Donald Hickey's classics, The War of 1812, a Forgotten Conflict and Don't Give Up the Ship, Myths of the War of 1812.

Read these books and you'll realize what an asshole Harper is making of himself and how he demeans Canada and the Canadians who fought in this war for their homeland by rewriting their history for his own grandiose purposes.

Canada's Imperial Premiership

You don't have to convince many British Columbians that Ottawa no longer functions as a democracy.   Consent, in the twisted mind of Stephen Harper, is something that is extracted at the ballot box and ceases to have any relevance during the actual term of government.

Because Harper deems our consent unnecessary, he treats democratic notions such as consultation meaningless courtesies to be dispensed with whenever possible.   That much is unquestionable from the way Harper has dismantled environmental and navigation safeguards along the British Columbia coast without our prior knowledge, without consultation, without consent and against our will.  Harper's Canada operates under the politics of feudalism.

The CBC's Greg Weston warns that Canada at large is about to get the same treatment as Harper has inflicted on British Columbia.


As Parliament reopens this week to consider the pressing affairs of state, the Harper government of promised openness and accountability is operating increasingly as though the nation's business were nobody's business.

It's not just huge trade deals with Europe and the Pacific Rim that are being kept under wraps, and well away from Commons debate.

In fact, most of the contentious issues facing the Conservative government this fall will be decided behind closed doors — explanatory memo to follow.

...Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will introduce a second "budget" bill he promises will contain "quite a bit."

The most contentious parts of the actual budgetary measures will be changes to pensions for parliamentarians and public servants to bring them in line with private retirement plans.

True to form, the government isn't saying what other legislative changes it will toss into the mix this time.

One thing is certain: They will be measures the government of openness and accountability would rather not discuss in public.

Weaver Slams Harper - Again

It wasn't a large protest rally, just 200 people in the crowd, but the message was loud and clear - Harper must stop gagging Canadian scientists.

On hand at the Victoria protest were U. Vic climate scientist, Andrew Weaver, and Green Party leader, Elizabeth May.

"We used to laugh about what was happening to science in the George W. Bush era. It pales in comparison to what is going on in Canada now," [Weaver] said. "Science is happening behind closed doors and is only made public if it fits with the government's agenda."

Canadians can no longer see the science behind climate change, fisheries and marine pollution, Weaver said, but government is pushing anything that helps oil and gas extraction, especially in the Arctic.

He said even the Arctic search for the Franklin Expedition would benefit oil and gas exploration through sea-floor mapping.

At the same time, the government has closed the Polar Environment Arctic Research Laboratory, which provided valuable climate and environmental information, Weaver said.

While Weaver said it was his duty to speak out on behalf of junior colleagues who had lost funding, another scientist spoke disguised by a false beard and sunglasses, saying he could face financial and legal problems if identified.

The Fisheries and Oceans marine contaminants program at the Institute of Ocean Sciences was drastically cut earlier this year and the scientist said Canada had lost the ability to look at the effects of pollutants in B.C. waters.

 

"We're In Uncharted Territory"

Europe could be plunged into a deep freeze again this winter, a condition linked to the disappearance of Arctic sea ice.  The Jet Stream is moving north and it's slowing, allowing the formation of slow-moving Rossby Waves that loop far south, bringing polar winter air into Europe as far south as the canals of Venice.   This phenomenon was also blamed for Britain's extended drought that was immediately followed this summer by massive flooding through most of the length of Britain.

The unprecedented expanse of ice-free Arctic Ocean has been absorbing the 24-hour sun over the short polar summer. The heat in the water must be released into the atmosphere if the ice is to re-form this autumn. "This is like a new energy source for the atmosphere," said Francis.

This heat and water vapour will affect the all-important jet stream – the west-to-east winds that are the boundary between cold Arctic and the warm mid-latitudes. Others researchers have already shown that the jet stream has been shifting northwards in recent years. Francis and colleagues have recently documented that the jet stream is also slowing down.

"The jet stream is clearly weaker," said [Rutgers University researcher Jennifer] Francis. That means weather systems, be it rain or dry conditions, are slow to move on and last longer. Ultimately this can result in "blocking" events, such as the conditions that produced the terrible heatwave in western Russia during the summer of 2010, she said.

...These changes are happening much earlier than scientists thought, said James Overland, an oceanographer and researcher at the University of Washington.

"We've only had a little bit of global warming so far," Overland said.

As the sea ice continues to decline, the jet stream will likely continue to slow more, and shift further north "bringing wild temperature swings and greater numbers of extreme events" in the future he said. "We're in uncharted territory."

Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory

It's an old phrase, oft used but perhaps never more fittingly than to describe our war in Afghanistan where we succeeded so brilliantly in failure.   We defeated ourselves.   We defeated the Afghan government.   We defeated the people of Afghanistan.

We defeated ourselves.   We were not defeated by the Taliban.   Outwaiting us isn't winning, it's merely hanging on until the coast is clear.   Yet that is all they ever needed to do to prevail given all the other contributions we made to that result.

Our contributions?   Sure and they've got names like Karzai, Fahim, Dostum and all the other warlords, criminals and punks to whom we entrusted the governance of Afghanistan.   We saddled Afghanistan with a government the country couldn't survive - and it hasn't.

Years ago the State Department warned the U.S. Congress that there has never been a successful, stable and modern Muslim country that didn't first overcome warlordism and tribalism, two forces that we actually enshrined in the post-Taliban government.  By our narrative the Northern Alliance warlords were our heroic allies instead of just the other, murderous fanatics. 

Where we needed to give post-Taliban Afghanistan a legitimate government we instead bequeathed the Afghan people a criminal enterprise.   We allowed the impoverished country to embrace the irresistible lure of a narco-economy creating what Chatham House described as a "criminal nexus" of a corrupt government and bureaucracy, a powerful structure of drug lords and an insurgency all fueled by opiate wealth.   From Eurasia Review:

The current crisis can be traced to the fall of Afghanistan’s monarchy during the 1970s, which was a unifying force that helped bind the disparate ethnic and tribal groups together. Societal fragmentation has been working in the Taliban’s favor. With the death of the dynastic principle and the absence of a well-respected national leader as head of state, Afghan society now lacks a common lineal thread with the past that could unify the nation.

Polls have indicated that the Taliban are even more unpopular than the reprobate U.S.-backed Karzai government. However, Taliban popularity seems to be on the rise as more and more Afghans are alienated by corruption, civilian casualties, Koran burnings and mass murders. Thomas Rutting of the Afghanistan Analysts Network described the lack of options the Pashtuns have available: “In today’s violent atmosphere, between the anvil of the Karzai government and the hammer of the Taliban, there are no viable political alternatives for Pashtuns.”

Afghanistan has always been a dedicated Muslim society but most Afghans never embraced the Wahhabist fanaticism of the House of Saud or the extremist doctrine peddled by the Deobandi school. Afghan spiritual beliefs were always a mixture of secular tribal values and Islam. Not to mention many Afghans adhered to the Sufi mystic tradition, which is denounced by modern hardliners. 

Extremists have pushed Afghan society into becoming more and more madrassa-centered as opposed to jirga or shura-centered. In short, the traditional secular power of the khan is now bowing to the authority of the mosque and the mullah, despite the fact that Pashtunwali, the Afghan ancient tribal code, predates Islam by 4,000 years.

Tribal experts have noticed a disturbing trend within the past few years. Although the Afghans have, for the most part, refused to accept the Taliban ideology at depth, the Taliban have been successful in gradually eroding traditional Afghan tribal values by eating away at the social fabric of Afghan society. Demographics point to a growing amnesia of the golden years of King Zahir Shah as upcoming generations are increasingly radicalized by the Taliban’s perverted version of Islam. 

The confluence of corruption, radicalism and foreign occupation is exacerbating this trend, and until it is reversed, Afghanistan is at risk of remaining a radically violent failed state in perpetuity.

While the Western coalition has focused more time on winning militarily, we’ve lost or simply ignored the battle of the narrative, which is the jihadist’s center of gravity. The U.S. military’s entire COIN doctrine is premised on winning the hearts and minds of the local populace, yet American tactics such as errant drone strikes and humiliating night raids have continually alienated native Afghans, rendering a complete antipodal effect.

Back at home we have a political and military leadership intent on slathering lipstick on this pig and declaring victory where none exists.   They will crown themselves with laurels they have not earned.   For when, in 2014, we pull our forces out, we're not really handing the country over to the Afghan government and army.  We're handing it back to Pakistan and the military that spawned the terrorist state we saw fit to invade.

Since the 1990s via its Taliban proxy, the intelligence and military instruments of the Pakistani state have transformed Afghanistan into an epicenter of global terrorism. Through a gradual process of destroying Pashtun tribal culture the Pakistani state has attempted to de-Pashtunize and Arabicize the Pashtuns by subjugating them to the Taliban’s ultraorthodox Islamic belief system, which is an affront to traditional Afghan sensibilities. Taliban assassination campaigns against tribal elders clearly betray the group’s maniacal designs.

China's Nuclear Hair Trigger

China is just one of several countries with arsenals of nuclear weapons.  Yet, unlike the others, the unusual structure of China's military forces may leave the country much more prone to nuclear escalation from a conventional war.

" [A] new study, previously only available in Chinese, appears in the latest edition of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE. The authors believe that this is the first comprehensive non-governmental study on how China’s nuclear-war plan was developed...
 “The basic dilemma for the war planners stems from the deployment of the two types of missiles on the same Second Artillery bases with fundamentally different capabilities and purposes,” Lewis and Xue say.

The article notes that Beijing’s nuclear missiles exist to deter a nuclear first strike on China, and are only to be used in extremis. At the same time, the conventional weapons on the formerly all-nuclear bases must be ready to strike first and hard. Targeted enemies and their allies will not immediately be able to distinguish whether any missiles fired are conventional or nuclear.

This means that those enemies may justifiably launch on warning and retaliate against all the command-and-control systems and missile assets of the Chinese missile launch base and even the overall command-and-control system of the central Second Artillery headquarters. In the worst case, a self-defensive first strike by Chinese conventional missiles could end in the retaliatory destruction of many Chinese nuclear missiles and their related command-and-control systems.

That disastrous outcome would force the much smaller surviving and highly vulnerable Chinese nuclear missile units to fire their remaining missiles against the enemy’s homeland,” Lewis and Xue warn. “Escalation to nuclear war could become accelerated and unavoidable.” Policies that have led to conventional and nuclear weapons doubling up at the same base could cause, rather than deter, a nuclear exchange.

If a dust-up did occur between Chinese and Western forces, some missile strikes could well be possible.   China, for example, has a missile specifically designed to attack and utterly destroy American fleet aircraft carriers.   Those carrier battle groups also deploy with their own nuclear weapons.   If a force detects an incoming missile attack but is unable to determine whether it's a nuclear strike, the commander could be sorely tempted to conclude it is just that and respond in kind.

Farewell Peter Lougheed

Profound condolences to the family of Peter Lougheed and to the people of Alberta who have lost the man who served them so well as their finest premier.   Mr. Lougheed was a true Canadian and fiercely loyal to his province.   Our country is poorer for his passing.

Sit Down, Fool, and Shut Up

Mitt Romney claims its America's "role" to lead the Middle East.

"The world needs American leadership. The Middle East needs American leadership and I intend to be a president that provides the leadership that America respects and will keep us admired throughout the world."

These days "American leadership" has become code for the threat or use of violence against other nations.   Hyper-militarized America has turned into a nation where military force has supplanted diplomacy as the country's main instrument of foreign policy.

Mitt, you sorry bastard, the Muslim world has had plenty of "American leadership" over the past decade.   You've gone into their countries only to prove that All the King's Horses and All the King's Men only stumble into quagmire with unforeseen and disastrous outcomes.   How did Iran become Top Dog in its region?  Thanks to American leadership.   How did Iraq become a Shiite state beholden to Iran?  Again, thanks to American leadership.   How did South Asia become so hopelessly destabilized?   American leadership played a big role in that too.

How much more "American leadership" do you think the world can stand, Mitt?   How much more of that Shock & Awe leadership do you think America can afford, Mitt?

Who Says Free Speech Extends to Agent Provocateurs?

An American film ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad is triggering anti-Western violence across the Middle East.   That film was intended to achieve that very result.   On what possible basis can it be defended as an expression of free speech?

We used to have a name for people like the militant Christian radicals behind this film.   We called them "agent provocateurs."   They set out to provoke or incite violence or other forms of criminality.   In this case, their film is their instrument of provocation.   This has nothing to do with free speech except within the recesses of a deeply addled mind.

We are all deemed to intend the logical and foreseeable consequences of our acts.   Those who produced and released this movie not only foresaw the result but sought to achieve it.  Hence the attacks,  the assaults and the murder lie directly at their feet just as surely as it does at the feet of those who actually attacked the diplomatic missions.   The provocateurs fueled these attacks and instigated the violence.

These nutjobs are religious fundamentalists (much like our own Harper) steeped in dark religious superstition.   They eagerly await Armageddon, the Apocalypse and, in their twisted minds, the Rapture that will supposedly sweep them up to sit beside their god.  They set out to harm us to incite us to respond - in kind, with violence - and make their desired and intended bad situation far, far worse.

They have to be stopped.

Russia's Arctic "Nuclear Time Bomb"

K-27

She's rusting away on the seabed barely 75 feet below the surface.  The experimental Soviet nuclear submarine K-27 is a disaster waiting to happen in Russia's Kara Sea that adjoins the Arctic Ocean.  On just her third cruise, 7-crewmen died when the ship's reactor malfunctioned.   Soviet authorities eventually chose to tow the sub to the Kara Sea for disposal.

The K-27 has been rusting out on the seabed for 30-years and Russian authorities now want to raise the ship and properly dispose of it fearing it will otherwise trigger an "uncontrolled chain reaction."

The Russians are apparently hoping that oil companies eager to drill in the Kara Sea will be prepared to deal with the K-27.  But, as Russia Times reports, this sub is just one of the threats that line the bottom of the sea.

The Russian government has recently released archives showing that there are 17,000 containers of radioactive waste, 19 ships contaminated ships, and 14 nuclear reactors in the Kara Sea – and most of these objects have been decaying there since the Soviet era.

Weaver Slams Harper's War on Science, on Canada, on the Canadian People

Leading Canadian climate scientist Andrew Weaver has laid into Stephen Harper in this morning's Times Colonist.   The U. Vic. prof accuses Harper of putting fossil fuel interests ahead of everything else - including Canada and the Canadian people.

"...in June 2007, Prime Minister Steven Harper told world leaders that climate change was "perhaps the biggest threat to confront the future of humanity today," and that "we owe it to future generations to do whatever we can to address this world problem."

The federal government apparently understands the seriousness of the issue and so wants to do something about it. But when you scratch below the surface, it doesn't take long to find out how vacant and cynical these statements are.

The much-anticipated new and improved federal regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from coalfired electricity plants leaked out this week. To no one's surprise, they are significantly weakened from what we had been told to expect.

 ...So we now have a government willingly and knowingly committing future generations to ecological collapse and untold climate-related catastrophes. Since members of the government have read, and selectively quoted from, our study on the warming potential of coal, it's clear they understand the issue. Despite this, they are introducing policies that will ensure we have coal-fired electricity plants spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere for decades to come.

Will future generations hold these ideologues in Ottawa accountable for their actions? I certainly hope so.

And as the Arctic sea ice breaks new records, the federal government responds with its fourth headline-grabbing, yet issue-distracting, search for the missing Franklin ship in five years. Quietly, it sets in place countrywide medieval-style book-burnings as it shuts down and destroys the collections contained in scientific libraries at its federal laboratories across the nation.

At the same time, we find out the feds are planning to build a multimilliondollar "world-class" Canadian High Arctic Research Station in Cambridge Bay.

But don't kid yourself; this has nothing to do with science.

In science, you first ask a question that you want to address and then you put together the tools, instruments and programs to try to answer it. This is precisely what was done by Environment Canada in 1993 under the Mulroney government's progressive Green Plan.

The Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory in Eureka, formally known as the Arctic Stratospheric Ozone Observatory, was built to monitor, study and report on the status of the Earth's protective Arctic ozone layer. It sat on Ellesmere Island, about 1,100 kilometres from the North Pole for scientific reasons. Yet just when the ozone hole reaches record levels, the Tories shut down funding for the laboratory. Gone is Canada's ability to monitor the Arctic ozone hole. And gone is the investment of tens of millions of dollars of Canadian taxpayer funding.

Instead, the Tories offer up a facility in search of science to justify its existence. There are no scientific questions driving this agenda. The establishment of the Canadian High Arctic Research Station is all about enforcing sovereignty in the North to pave the way for enhanced resource extraction, particularly in the oil-and-gas sector.

Sure, there will be opportunists in the scientific community who will take advantage of the facility if it's built, just like barnacles will find and latch onto a new ship brought into a harbour. But the real question is: When will the federal government come clean with its agenda?

So as we move into the autumn of the second year under the Harper regime, the war on science and the environment continues. Is there no one left in the Conservative party willing to stand up to this shortsighted and one-dimensional view of the world? Apparently not.

America's Bought and Paid For Judges

A great way to water down democracy is to control the judiciary.   This is what happens when you combine unrestricted corporate electoral spending with an elected bench.   Judges whose election and tenure are tied to corporate funding can be reasonably apprehended to have a corporate bias on the bench.   Those who lavish them with money expect results.

The lead editorial in today's New York Times laments the demise of impartial courts resulting from  "enormous amounts of influence-seeking campaign money unleashed by recent Supreme Court rulings."

Can American democracy survive bought and paid for governors, legislators and judges?   Hard to imagine how.

Asia's Water Woes

When you've got 60% of the world's population but just 36% of global freshwater resources and a rapidly growing population and industrialization, you've got some serious problems.   When you add wastage and massive contamination to the mix, you're heading into nightmare territory.

Such is the dilemma facing the South Asia/Asia region.

“A key source of water wastage in cities of developing countries in South and Southeast Asia is the high levels of water loss from leaking water pipes and in other parts of the water distribution system,” said Tan Cheon Kheong, a research associate at the Institute of Water Policy of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. “By fixing water leakages and addressing water pilferage, it is possible for water utilities in the region to cut the amount of water lost to less than 20 percent of their water supply.”

In Bangladesh, up to 50 percent of Dhaka’s water is lost due to substandard connections and leaking pipes, resulting in supply interruptions during peak demand hours, according to ADB.

New Delhi in India, a city of some 12 million, faces similar water shortages with long water cuts during summer when demand is high. Data from the Delhi Jal Board, which is responsible for water supply and treatment in the region, indicate that more than half of Delhi’s water is wasted because of leakages in the distribution pipeline, theft and poor revenue collection.

In Pakistan, data from Karachi Water and Sewage Board show that the city loses more than one-third of its water to pipe leakages and pilferage. 

In Indonesia, the Jakarta Water Supply Regulation Body estimates that 39 percent of the capital city’s water is wasted as a result of pipe leaks in the distribution network and theft, while 40 percent of the 10 million residents have no piped water.

...According to the 2012 UN World Water Development Report (WWDR4), 480 million people in Asia lack access to improved water resources, while around two billion do not have access to improved sanitation. “In many Asian cities the poor have inadequate access to water supplies. Leaks reduce the prospect of extending services as they increase the costs of water supply compared to revenue from water user fees,” Jamie Pittock, a leading expert on water governance at the Australia National University, explained.
 
Urban water is also lost as a result of a lack of appreciation of its economic and environmental value.

“Parts of South Asia are extremely water scarce, in part due to poor policies that encourage misuse - for example, electricity subsidies that contribute to excessive pumping of groundwater that is dramatically depleting aquifers,” says Pittock .

If you've spent time in the Third World you're apt to be familiar with the sight of fresh water bubbling up through broken pavement and pouring along gutters into storm sewers.   Often there's simply no money to repair aging and broken infrastructure.    Authorities try to offset some of the losses by rotating water outages that can last for several hours or even days with the predictable impacts on sanitation and health.