December 2005 Archives

From Chantal Hébert's column in today's Toronto Star:

Harper puts progressive back into Conservative

But almost one month into the election campaign, the evidence is that the past 17 months have also had a profound transformational impact on Canadian politics.

Start with the Conservatives. Their campaign should put to rest the notion that the merger of the right was little more than an Alliance takeover of the former Progressive Conservative party.

Personally I remain sceptical. Harper's transformation from his stated views of just a few years ago is too abrupt. See Tim's post on this site from just a few days ago.

About 24 hours ago, police were called to a house in rural Manitoba about a domestic dispute. When they arrived, they found a woman dead in the house and her husband dead in the yard. They were, apparently, victims of a murder/suicide. Unfortunately, there were 2 other victims as well. The couple's sons aged 8 and 10 were in the house at the time. Three days before Christmas, two kids received the ultimate lump of coal for a present - they were made orphans.

The children are now with their grandparents. As is usual in this part of the world, there will be a trust fund set up for the boys and there will be benefits held. But nothing will replace their parents. I also suspect that Christmas will be something they hate for the rest of their lives.

This may be the "season to be jolly" for most of us but it isn't that way for everyone. Some people suffer through incredible stress at this time of the year and, for many others, this is a time of profound depression. If you are in a relationship that is on the rocks, the holiday season is almost certain to make it worse.

If you are feeling depressed or at the end of your rope, reach out - to anyone. Don't try to tough it out on your own. And for the rest of us, stop running 90 miles an hour for a few minutes now and again and pay attention to what is going on with the people around you. It makes perfect sense to say "Are you all right?" If someone reaches out to you, grab them. Sometimes all it takes is a little encouragement and some compassion to pull someone back from the edge. If you aren't satisfied with the answers you get, don't let it drop.

These things rarely happen with no warning. I still remember, many years ago, asking a friend how he was doing. He said "I'm in the terminal stages of self alienation". It wasn't out of character for him to say something like that so I let it pass. A few days later he killed himself. I have often wondered if he would still be alive if I had taken his remark more seriously.

We don't need more orphans. Reach out. Please.

This blog was recently upgraded to the newest version of Movable Type which includes some new features for managing comments. I've been a little slow to explore these features. I just discovered several comments sitting in the "awaiting approval" queue which I was unaware of. I've now published them and I'll keep a closer eye on this 'til I get all this sorted out. If you commented and then went away thinking we didn't want to hear from you, apologies.

Unless you're a spammer, of course, in which case we didn't want to hear from you.

It's been obvious from the beginning that a few powerful back room Liberals have anointed Michael Ignatieff as our new philosopher-king and are determined to ram him down our throats whether we want him or not. From the well-placed media comparisons to Pierre Trudeau to the procedural tricks played to get him a nomination in a riding where he has no ties to the community, it looks like a set up from the start.

The attraction, of course, was Ignatieff's celebrity and public profile as an academic. But that's a double-edged sword. It was inevitable given the volume and nature of his public writings that his views would be held up to scrutiny and that's particularly so when he's spilled a lot of ink in defense of the Bush administration's controversial foreign policy. But while academics should welcome debate, it appears Ignatieff regards disagreement as defamatory.

Ignatieff made that charge in response to this column by Haroon Siddiqui who wrote that "Ignatieff remains on record as supporting Torture Lite." It's a play on words to describe the way Ignatieff has nibbled around the edges of the definition of torture in order to come out in support of "coercive interrogation." I'm sure that suits the Bush administration just fine since they specialize in answering accusations about the illegality of their actions by redefining words like "torture." And "war." And "illegal." Of course when all else fails they simply assert their right to act outside of the law, but I digress.

An observation made while doing some Christmas Holiday* shopping: the branch of the Chapters book store in my neighbourhood has twice as much shelf space devoted to Wicca and Witchcraft as it allocates for Canadian History. Now I have nothing against Wiccans but wouldn't you think that in a city in southern Ontario the history of this country would have broader appeal? And is there really more to say about Wicca?

I fear for the future of this land. And possibly for the future of civilization. Unfortunately that's not the first time that thought has occurred.

* Anything to annoy Bill O'Reilly.

There's a bit of a quote war raging out in blog land. Some of Stephen Harper's more pungent speeches from days gone by have resurfaced, and they show a man with a polticial philosophy very similar to that of Grover Norquist (Note: He's the bad Grover, not the nice one on Sesame Street).

Harper supporters have been quick to label this quote-mining as dirty tricks. That's in the past, they say. Harper has matured since then (or, as they call it when referring to Paul Martin, he has "flip-flopped" or "dithered".) Frankly, I find this a bit hard to swallow. Everything a candidate for Prime Minister says - or has said - is relevant.

When I consider my vote, I look beyond the campaign rhetoric, since campaigns are traditionally designed to appeal to the widest group possible. You put on your best face, which is not necessarily your real face. Therefore, I look at Paul Martin's record as a businessman and as a finance minister and as PM for the past year and change, and then form my opinion accordingly. When I look at Jack Layton, I consider his performance as a Toronto city councillor, his previously published writngs, his history as an activist and the statements he made before he had votes to lose. When I look at Gilles Duceppe, I am consumed with nausea and look no further.

When I look at Stephen Harper, I see a man desperately trying to deny what were very well-publicized beliefs. I look at his performance as President of the National Citizens Coalition and see a man who was a professional, commited right winger. I look at the infamous firewall paper and see a man who holds views that render him as unfit for national office as Gilles Duceppe. I suspect his handlers also fear these past views, since they went through the trouble of scrubbing his speeches from the Council for National Policy website yesterday.

In short, I try to look at the full record, not just the pablum being peddled by all parties on the campaign trail. To consider the latest Liberal Red Book to be the final word on how the Liberals would govern would be foolish. To accept the Conservative platform as offered today to be a blanket repudiation of every position Harper has held so close to his heart in the past would be equally foolish.

Like most people, I sometimes do foolish things. Things you know aren't good for you. Things that you know that are not only bad, but the very doing of them will probably lower your quality of life. I undertook just such a foolish exercise today when I waded into the malarial swamp that is Kate McMillan's first post on the CBC election website, that bastion of left wing propaganda. What cowpats of wisdom does the Prairie Sage have on offer there?

First of all, it should come as no surprise to any of us that we continue to disappoint her. We have failed to live up to shining example that U.S. right wingers present for us in the United States. We have failed to send our soldiers to be killed in the butcher shop commonly known as Iraq. We have failed to swallow the kool-aid the Republicans and their propagandists at Fox News would have us swallow about the United Nations. In short, we flat out refuse to be Americans. How unreasonable of us.

But even worse, from Kate's point of view, anyway, is that we are critical toward the Bush administration and the Republicans, whom she and her right wing buddies like to refer to as "America." This is certainly causing her a lot of angst.

The opening volleys from the Liberal-left body politic in this election are, as usual, being directed south. If there is a glimmer of hope to be sighted, it is that for the first time, the south is beginning to fire back - and good on them.

The cancerous cult of anti-Americanism is alive and metastasizing in Canada, and it is tearing our country apart.

Actually, it's not tearing our country apart. In fact, disliking Bush is one of the few things Canadians do generally agree on. So what's up with poor Kate?

Tralee Pearce of the Globe and Mail wants to hear from people who are using the web to follow our election campaign. Here's an excerpt from the email I received.

I'm guessing that more and more people are waking up, pouring a coffee and sitting down at their computer for their election coverage every morning, via filtered bloglists, etc. And I'm looking for people to walk me through their viewing/reading habits.

The Globe and Mail
444 Front St. W.
Toronto, ON M5V 2S9

416-585-5182 p
416-585-5070 f

tpearce@globeandmail.ca

Would you consider posting a request for me? I'm a very blogillerate (new word?) girl.

It promises to be a gala night with lots of royalty - at least on stage. Stephen Harper will deliver another magnificent performance as the Zombie King. Paul Martin will be spectacular as the Lyin' King. And Jack Layton will charm the audience with another heart warming performance as Odie, the lovable, if somewhat vacuous, dog from Garfield. These three stalwarts fighting for Canada will be arrayed against the most evil character since Darth Vader - Gilles Duceppe, Superstar.

Unfortunately, I will miss the performance. I don't need to watch it for information and, if I'm that desperate for entertainment, I'll use the time to catalogue my collection of pocket lint. Or dump the cat's litter box...twice.

I will, however, offer a prediction as to what will transpire. There will be feigned righteous indignation in abundance. There will be some finger wagging. And more accusations than at Saddam Hussein's trial. There will be contrived anger aplenty. And more posturing than at a Dior fashion show. Sharp words will be exchanged. And rationality will be much in demand while short in supply. Snark will be attempted...and wasted. In the end, our emissions of greenhouse gases will have risen another 2% which will give us yet another reason to take George Bush to the woodshed. All candidates' pundits will claim the performance of a lifetime. And smugness shall descend on our players like the winter snow.

Alas, there will have been only one Academy Award quality performance this night. As the audience leaves the theatre, the majority of them will once again be wishing that Gilles Duceppe would blow off that lame separatist gig so they could vote for him.

Ah, democracy in inaction. And Canadian politics at its lamest finest.

From The Raw Story:

Short of a last minute intervention by Rove’s attorney, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is expected to ask a grand jury investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson to indict Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove for making false statements to the FBI and Justice Department investigators in October 2003, lawyers close to the case say.

The Americans have involved themselves in our political process with a heavyhanded warning not to involve them in our political process.

Ambassadorial redneck and Bush flunky David Wilkins decided today that Prime Minister Paul Martin needed a lecture on how to behave during Canadian elections, and he warned the Liberals not to make the United States part of the campaign.

Ottawa — The Bush administration issued a sharp, public rebuke Tuesday to Prime Minister Paul Martin for dragging the Canadian-U.S. relationship into the federal election campaign.

Ambassador David Wilkins said Canada risks damaging one of the world's best relationships by focusing on short-term political gain.

"It may be smart election-year politics to thump your chest and criticize your friend and your No. 1 trading partner constantly," Mr. Wilkins said in a speech to the Canadian Club at the historic Chateau Laurier Hotel, next door to Parliament Hill.

"But it is a slippery slope, and all of us should hope that it doesn't have a long-term impact on the relationship."

America may be an easy target, said Mr. Wilkins, "but the United States should not be on your ballot."

Now, I could go on an extended rant here and point out that U.S. right wing groups are happily making our business their business in a conscious effort to affect our election. I could rage into the ether about right wing "Christian" bile sprayer Ralph Reed, who seeks to warp our democracy as badly as he and his ideological ilk have warped that of our neighbours to the south.

Sorry for the lack of posting over the last few days. I really had hoped to work myself back into a regular posting schedule but life got in the way again.

Regular readers will know that I've been involved with a site called Flu Wiki from its inception last May. On Tuesday night USA Today put an article up on their website that included the domain name and a brief interview with our publisher, Melanie Mattson. On Wednesday morning we started seeing the biggest traffic surge we'd seen yet. It was enough to crash the server we were being hosted on and we continued to experience problems through Friday, with the hosting company working valiantly to keep our site up while minimizing the impact on all the other customers on the same server. But the simple fact is that Flu Wiki had outgrown the basic shared hosting environment in which it was running. We knew that was coming but we were still caught off guard.

So I've been a bit distracted. I spent the next three days on the edge of my seat when I wasn't exchanging emails and phone calls with the site's partners and the hosting company's tech support. But we shouldn't have that problem again for a while. As of yesterday the site is now on a dedicated server and I'm told it can accommodate between one and two million unique visitors a day. If the WHO ever declares that we're in pandemic phase 4 all bets are off but for the immediate future we should be in pretty good shape.

So why the title on this post? Because the dedicated server and the hosting is now being provided free of charge. Let me repeat that: Flu Wiki can now accommodate one to two million unique visitors a day and it's being hosted for free.

All of us connected with the site have thanked TextDrive via email but I'd like to take this opportunity to do a public shout-out. You folks are awesome. Kinda gives new meaning to the phrase "customer service", doesn't it?

And if anyone out there is looking for a hosting company you could sure do a lot worse than TextDrive.

Hopefully things will settle down and I'll be able to get back to blogging. Except for Christmas shopping, of course. Now what did I do with that list?

While I'm not sure Jack Layton's suggested duties on energy exports are the right way to go, I'm pretty sure that this dude's opinion is self-serving and irrelevant.

The CEO of Canada's largest oil and gas producer said "politics of division'' are behind New Democrat Leader Jack Layton's desire to slap duties on energy exported to the U.S. as retaliation for American tariffs on Canadian softwood imports.

Imperial Oil chief executive Tim Hearn said Tuesday it's in Canada's best interests to maintain trading relationships, not erode them.
...
"We're a trading nation, we're highly dependent on maintaining sound, multilateral agreements with all of our trading partners and particularly the United States,'' he said following a presentation to investors.

"And that's not just because I'm in the energy business

... the point is that we are best served when we maintain good, sound trading relationships. We're the net beneficiary."

Hearn said he understands the importance of the softwood lumber dispute to Canada and how emotionally charged the issue is, but he hopes a resolution can be found without affecting trade in other sectors.

I've cut the Progressive Bloggers back to just the logo on the sidebar. It's not that I don't love them anymore but that sidebar was getting so long it was breaking at the bottom of the page. They're victims of their own success (or my insufficient coding skills - take your choice). I'll come back and have another look at the whole situation when I get a chance.

You can use this as an open thread. Have I ever done that before?

A couple of weeks ago I pointed to a story about a man named Paul Mirecki who had grown fed up with the attempts to push Intelligent Design into the educational system in Kansas, the state where he lives. Since he's the chairman of religious studies at Kansas University he was in a position to do something about it: bring ID into his curriculum as mythology, not science. I ended that post by stating that intelligent design advocates were not amused. Apparently that was an understatement.

Douglas County sheriff’s deputies are investigating the reported beating of a Kansas University professor who gained recent notoriety for his Internet tirades against Christian fundamentalists.

Kansas University religious studies professor Paul Mirecki reported he was beaten by two men about 6:40 a.m. today on a roadside in rural Douglas County. In a series of interviews late this afternoon, Mirecki said the men who beat him were making references to the controversy that has propelled him into the headlines in recent weeks.

“I didn’t know them, but I’m sure they knew me,” he said.

Mirecki recently wrote online that he planned to teach intelligent design as mythology in an upcoming course. He wrote it would be a “nice slap” in the “big fat face” of fundamentalists.

The remarks caused an uproar, Mirecki apologized, and KU announced last week the class would be canceled.

Score another one for the forces of light, eh?

Hat tip to Canadian Cynic.

I intend to do a series of posts on how polling is done, how to interpret polls and what polls do and don't tell us. The numbers thrown out by the talking heads on television are basically useless and, since I used to do socio-economic research for a living, I thought this would be a useful contribution. I haven't prepared those posts yet. Partly because I'm very busy and partly because my overall level of contempt for our political class and its apologists has reached an all time high and I'm having a hard time getting into this election.

It's hard to go far in the blogosphere these days without running into someone advocating a Conservative minority government as the best election outcome. The theory seems to be that it gives us a way to punish the Liberals and lets us test drive a Conservative government without them being able to bring in their most extreme policies. I wonder if anyone suggesting this has actually given it more than three seconds thought.

I'm all for punishing the Liberals although my personal preference is to take the entire caucus and party executive to Manitoba, strip them naked and tie them to trees for a few days at the height of mosquito season and then take them to an archery range and make them hold targets for a bunch a really bad archers. Punishing the Liberals by voting in a Conservative government is a lot like punishing the Americans for the softwood lumber duties by putting a 20% duty on American fruit and vegetables. We may be punishing them but we're still the ones who have to pay.