RALPH KLEIN: UNHERALDED HERO OF 9/11

God help us all. He’s back. Yesterday, Ralph Klein returned to the political rostrum in Calgary where he spoke to an audience of about 150 moles, spies, geeks, James Bond and Dick Cheney wannabes, and other right-wing maniacs and pursuers of government largesse. His subject ? Get this – “his government’s experiences related to security and public safety in the weeks and months following the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.” For more on the advance hype to his speech read this bullshit: http://www.trilateralcalgary.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=36

The sponsoring organization was the Trilateral Conference, a group of delegates representing the lunatic fringe of the most conservative elements of society, top heavy with security corporations trying to get pork barrel government contracts.

In the course of his scintillating presentation of the dramatic heroics of his government in the face of code red terrorism, the ex-Premier of Alberta took the opportunity to hurl a couple of typically witless Kleinisms at federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. In answer to a question from the audience about Iggy, the cerebral Klein said, “Ignatieff, I think he’s playing a game. He says all the right things, especially when he’s in Alberta and in British Columbia, he says whatever the population desires. So what I think he should do to keep his mouth shut.” He then accused Iggy of saying different things about the oilsands to Westerners, than he did to Easterners - without offering a scintilla of evidence, of course.

Ah, yes, vintage Klein to be sure - cutting, rapier-like, clever discourse – akin to some of his previous gems like “bums and creeps” from Eastern Canada. Or his view that “dinosaur farts” caused global warming. Or his prescription for dealing with mad cow disease in Alberta, when he said, “I guess any self-respecting rancher would have shot, shoveled and shut up . . . ” Needless to say, the 150 others in attendance whose organizations paid good money for them to hear this drivel, har-de-hared at his every breath and gave him much applause. An increasingly typical Calgary audience, I'm afraid. Read: http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/alberta/2009/06/19/9848346-sun.html

Also, http://darrylraymaker.blogspot.com/2008/08/fraser-institute-invites-you-to-evening.html

and, http://darrylraymaker.blogspot.com/2009/02/george-w-bush-is-coming-to-town-as.html

Klein however was content neither with merely talking about his bold and decisive actions in the wake of 9/11 nor trashing Iggy. The ex-Premier - who blew up hospitals and allowed his cronys to buy the land thereby vacated at cut-rate prices, who laid off teachers and nurses, and who allowed Alberta’s infrastructure to go into the tank, all in the name of an “Alberta Advantage” that Albertans have yet to see – also had some economic advice for his successor.

He criticized the steep Stelmach deficit and suggested he (Klein) would cut government services in order to deal with it if he was in Eddie’s position. How much would Klein cut? Klein had these trenchant and thoughtful comments: "You know, I'm not in politics any longer so I don't know what I would cut.” "Ten per cent or 5% ... across the board. Everything."

He bragged about his own record as Premier of cutting government employment by a third, rolling back government salaries, and getting “rid of our pension plans,” - no doubt forgetting the $700,000 severance allowance he pocketed after the Tories gave him the boot. Naturally, he took credit for his phony legislation – now repealed – making it illegal for Alberta to incur deficits.
Read: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=1712547

For an enhanced and electrifying record of his piffle, read: http://communities.canada.com/calgaryherald/blogs/insidealberta/default.aspx

Fortunately, his successor Premier Stelmach - no prize or mental giant himself - shows no signs of listening to the failed ex-Premier's economic advice.

Klein’s appearance was a scary and nightmarish back to the future moment to be sure. Hopefully for Albertans, his reemergence onto the public stage is merely an anomaly and not a sign of things to come.

MIKE DUFFY FOUND GUILTY OF ETHICS VIOLATION IN HIS KNIFING OF STEPHANE DION

In a column published today in the Ottawa Citizen, journalism professor Andrew Cohen reminded his readers of the sleazy depths to which some media are prepared to stoop to promote their political causes and the depths to which some politicians may be prepared to stoop to pay them off. His subject was the sorry hatchet job CTV and Senator Mike Duffy did on then Liberal leader Stephane Dion on October 9, 2008 just 5 days before the last federal election. The issue arose as a result of a twelve minute taped television interview of Dion by CTV Atlantic reporter Steve Murphy. See: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/News/tale+Dion+tape/1700130/story.html

The facts of this shameful episode are worth reviewing.

The interview was in English rather than Dion’s mother-tongue French. The nub of the interview was this question put to Dion by Murphy:

"If you were prime minister now, what would you have done about the economy and this crisis that Mr. Harper has not done?"

Dion did not understand the question and asked Murphy to repeat it. After repeating the question two more times, Dion still did not understand it and said so. Dion looked confused and befuddled and requested that the interview recommence. After the completion of the interview CTV Atlantic broadcast the entire interview replete with Dion’s apparent confusion together with his requests to repeat the question.

Later on the same day on his national show Duffy told his viewers that the program would include a discussion of “Stephane Dion’s struggle with the English language (which) is going to be one you will be talking about for days.” The Duffy show ran only that portion of the interview that contained the exchanges between Dion and Murphy on the question that gave Dion trouble, with Dion’s hesitant attempts to grasp the meaning of it and answer it. Of course, that portion of the interview was aired a multitude of times over the next few days.

Prior to the interview and Duffy’s show, polls had been looking good for the Grits and it appeared that they were about to peak at the right time. The Duffy show changed all of that. Liberal momentum went into the tank, its polls started to go south and on election day, Harper got his second split decision.

Many Canadians were outraged at the behaviour of the CTV talking heads and lodged several complaints against what they perceived as unfair and unprofessional reporting. Those complaints wound up on the desk of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, a body which is responsible for maintaining the code of conduct among Canadian broadcasters.

As reported by Cohen in his column the council recently issued its decision on the complaints. It found that CTV had indeed violated the code, stating that Murphy’s question was “confusing, and not only to a person whose first language is other than English.” It observed that Murphy’s question contained mixed tenses and moods and it was no wonder that Dion was puzzled. It also said that Murphy could have clarified the question and that Dion had every right to expect the footage showing him to be confused would not be broadcast.

As to Senator Duffy, the Council found his report to be unfair and unbalanced. Duffy, the Council held, had breached the code of ethics.

Michael Dennis Duffy was sworn in as a member of the Senate of Canada on December 22, 2008, two months and 8 days following the Harper victory and two months and 13 days following his breach of the broadcast code of ethics when he stuck the dagger between Dion's shoulder blades. His patron was his pal Stephen Harper.

For more on this great Canadian, read: http://darrylraymaker.blogspot.com/2009/02/senator-duffys-senate-qualifications.html

A foul smelling episode indeed.

LISA RAITT: JUST ANOTHER ONE OF HARPER'S KEYSTONE KOPS

The government of Stephen Harper Group Picture 2009

Sadly, Stephen Harper's Keysone Kops government has just acquired a new member. She’s none other than Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt. I use the word ‘sadly’ because she stood out in the Harper cabinet as articulate, cool and even funny. No kidding. Funny and still part of the Harper cabinet!


After meeting and hearing her recently in Calgary I mused that the Honourable Ms.Raitt would be far more at home with the Grits. She’s from Cape Breton – lots of Grits come from Cape Breton – and she is the daughter of a man who worked in the mines and earned his keep for a time as a union negotiator. She has three degrees from three top schools and won a scholarship that allowed her to train with British barristers in the Middle Temple in London. She also has a distinguished record of public service. She was Canada’s first female harbourmaster and just prior to getting elected in 2008 she served as President and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority. And - get this - she’s married to a comedy writer. Now that is a Liberal resume! It is certainly not a resume one would expect to find in the files of the dark and brooding, xenophobic, and unworldly government of Stephen Harper, unless it was on some enemies list.

Alas, poor Lisa as been stuck in deep political doodoo now for several weeks. First of all, there is the problem of shutting down the Chalk River nuclear reactor thus causing a world wide shortage of medical radioisotopes. As a result probably tens of thousands of cancer patients have to go without treatment. The problem falls under her department’s responsibilities and it has come to prominence on her watch. Her government is seen to have bungled the issue. Bad stuff indeed for any minister to face.

Last week Ms. Raitt’s fortunes took a turn of the worse. A couple of secret briefs on Chalk River were left inadvertently at the CTV news offices in Ottawa after a visit from Ms. Raitt and her chief aide, Jasmine MacDonnell. Jasmine up to that time was having a remarkable meteoric rise career-wise. A mere child of 26 years of age, Jasmine’s boss had promoted her to communications director, a gig that paid 120 grand a year. CTV hung on to the briefs for a week before doing the honourable thing of releasing its contents to the public. Jasmine, thankful at the opportunity of having served the Minister at such a young age and at such a high salary, took the fall and resigned. All of which was treated by the opposition in the House with the usual angry and indignant questions followed by loud guffaws and catcalls heaped upon the government. Raitt however stood her ground and fessed up to the botch-up glibly,coolly, and very alone. Her performance generated considerable admiration and even sympathy from many political observers.

Yesterday, life became much more complicated for the Minister. Steve Maher, a press gallery reporter for The Halifax Chronicle Herald reported that he had a tape of Raitt nattering away in a car between two political events in Victoria. On the tape the Minister called the isotope crisis “sexy” – hardly a worthy comment considering that thousands are going without cancer treatment because of it. About the isotope issue she said on tape,

"when we win on this, we get all the credit. I’m ready to roll the dice on this. This is an easy one. You know what solves this problem? Money. And if it’s just about money, we’ll figure it out. It’s not a moral issue."

The tape also had the Minister opining that her fellow minister, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq was not up to the task running her department, an opinion not likely to contribute to the peace and tranquility of the Conservative caucus. Read: http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/9012061.html

And how did the redoubtable Maher get his hands on the tape? Enter the absent minded, probably ditzy, highly paid, twenty-six year old ex- communications director. According to Maher, she left the tape in a women’s washroom on Parliament Hill. Maher did the honourable thing by contacting MacDonnell and telling her he had the tape. She expressed interest in getting it back, but for several months thereafter did nothing about it. After MacDonnell’s resignation, Maher and his superiors decided they should hear what was on the tapes. Presto! A five hour treasure trove of nasty politics!

MacDonnell, or people behind her, did not take this turn of events lightly. They immediately applied to the Courts for a publication ban. The Judge wisely decided that there were no legal grounds for such a ban and so Canadians everywhere now know the story. The Prime Minister’s Office has denied that the government nor the Conservative Party was behind the court application to keep the tape under wraps. Ahem. Read: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/isotope-crisis-a-sexy-story-raitt-says/article1174367/

Come to think of it, after some consideration I think the Minister should stick with the Conservative Party.

READ ALL ABOUT IT: RAYMAKER BLOG SCOOPS NEW YORK TIMES ON DR. STRANGELOVE

Dr. Strangelove's last day in office

Well, far be it for me to brag, but I've got to tell you that I published this blog:http://darrylraymaker.blogspot.com/2009/05/evisceration-of-americas-dr-strangelove.html on May 22, 2009.

Thus, I even beat the great Frank Rich of the New York Times by a whopping 8 days with my reporting of the significance of the Landay/Strobel piece. So you can say once again that you read it on my blog first. Tell all your friends.

For proof of the above proposition, See: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/opinion/31rich.html

BILL CLINTON: TIME TO GIVE IT A REST

The Incredible Shrinking ex-President

The Clinton-Bush Toronto snore fest of a few days ago was as revealing as it was reported to be dull. For one thing, the event proved that Calgary isn’t the only Canadian community to be so crass and insensitive that it would welcome a putative war criminal to speak to its citizens for hundreds of dollars a pop each. Nor was it the only city to reward him with guffaws at his ghost written jokes and a standing ovation after listening to his nonsense.

Predictably, Calgary has been joined by its big bucks, greed is good, sister Canadian community – namely, Bay Street. Hell, the Bay Street pin-striped brigade turned out a crowd of 6000 to hear these two clowns. Calgary couldn’t hold a candle to that. However, the cowtown is still well up there in the crass department. By my last count, it has welcomed no less than three of the Bush outlaws to regale its corporate citizens about shock and awe, the war against terror, and other shibboleths of that sorry administration. Karl Rove, then Bush, and more recently Condi Rice have graced Dallas North – at prices ranging from $400 bucks a head (Bush and Rove) to Condi (the most expensive at $500). Hogtown – a label better applied to Bay Street than the rest of the great city of Toronto – have only had two – Rove and Bush, with Rove generating $700 a head. Bush and Clinton in TO again made Calgary look like pikers, getting up to $2500 a ticket.

Read: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1644965

As might be expected for a man whose classy speeches were a staple of derision on the David Letterman show over the past year, Bush’s repertoire of jokes at the affair included two that dealt with animal fecal matter, and another apparently cribbed from the tired joke file of the disgraced Brian Mulroney. Nonetheless, the crowd chuckled and guffawed and at the end of the day, the two sorry comedians left the city like a couple of absconding pool sharks, a few hundred grand to the good.

Apart from the corporate big wigs and their minions shelling out the big bucks to hear Bush and groveling to him with chuckles and ovations, the big story of the day was that neither Clinton nor Bush knew anything about the new U.S. requirement of Passports for all Canadians going into the States. Well, we shouldn’t be surprised. Bush appointed an Ambassador to Canada whose previous Canadian experience was limited to one previous trip to Niagara Falls and who knew sweet tweet about the country. Clinton’s wife thought that some of the 9/11 terrorists had made their way into the United States from Canada, as did Janet Napolitano, Obama’s new Homeland Security Czar. By the way, Napolitano’s only venture into Canada until now was to see polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba. And people like Jack Granatstein believe that we are anti-American when we get fed up with some of this stuff!

All of which is interesting in a sick sort of way. But what really sticks out in my mind is how far Bill Clinton has fallen. I liked Bill Clinton from the moment he arrived on the political scene. He was thoughtful, smart, and could give a speech like no President before him in my memory. I thought his dalliances were reckless but certainly not impeachable, and the resulting attacks on him were launched largely by right wing Republicans most of which lived in glass houses. I thought he was a good President and was saddened when he stepped down from the Presidency. I even paid to hear him speak once.

But what the hell is he doing traipsing around the world at events such as this where he shares the spotlight with such a twit? With a man who sanctioned torture, was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, lied to and divided the American people, pushed the United States into becoming a pariah state, let New Orleans flow into the Gulf of Mexico, did nothing while the economy went to hell, and rewarded greed like no President before him? I guess he does it for the money. And in the process he diminishes himself daily. Indeed, the Toronto Star thought Bush was the more entertaining of the two. See: http://www.thestar.com/news/columnist/article/642978

I think its time Bill Clinton gave it a rest. He had his turn at the plate. If he wants to make some big bread by giving speeches, he hardly needs to do it with riff-raff like George W. Bush at his side. And there is certainly no reason why he should be interested in salvaging Bush’s legacy or reputation. Better he give more help to Barack Obama who is saddled with the responsibility of cleaning up Bush’s mess.
See also:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/05/29/clinton-bush-conversation-toronto.html

CANADA SUFFERS WHILE HARPER/NIXON LISTENS TO TAPES

Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Harper just doesn’t get it. His bully-boy meanness, his surliness, his lack of discretion, his inclination to mislead the public to further his ideology, his intuitive pursuit of totalitarian or dark objectives have all consistently stood in his way to forming a majority government.

For the benefit of my Conservative Party readers I will simplify his plight by using a baseball analogy to describe his three years as party leader. In those three years he has been up to the plate three times. The first time he was thrown out at first base, and the last two times he managed to fluke two Texas league blooper singles – a minority defeat, and two narrow minority wins. Days after his second single, he was bloody near picked off at first base, and since then has been playing as though he was trapped and ran down between first and second – the distance between the first baseman and second baseman ever narrowing for the tag. And all because of his very own and personal errors on the field.

Most people learn or try to learn from their mistakes. They get up in the morning after suffering a setback or defeat, look at themselves in the mirror and try to figure out what happened. They talk to their wives and friends for objective advice to learn what went wrong and how they might change themselves or their tactics to avoid a similar fate in the future.

Not Harper. He still believes he’s the smartest guy in the room. He hasn’t read a helluva lot. He knows little history. His knowledge of economics is rudimentary at best and what he knows is burdened down by ideology. He hasn't traveled much. He surrounds himself with sycophants and ideologues who share his misguided views on people, events, and juvenile political dirty tricks. He fumbles, trips, runs into walls, does his pratfalls, and edges ever closer to oblivion, but he picks up no wisdom along the way. Alas, he remains the same Stephen Harper that most Canadians know and have learned to increasingly dislike.

Yesterday in the House, he was at it again. In question period while delivering a blistering attack on the government's response to the recession Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff demanded that Harper fire his finance minister James Flaherty for having misjudged the ongoing recessionary deficit. Harper’s response was vintage Harper. He replied,
“I cannot fire the Leader of the Opposition and with all the tapes I have on him, I do not want to.”
Read: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/641670

Ignatieff said that Harper’s response was the “most Nixonian” of anything he had heard Harper say and that, “Every day that goes by, he’s more like Richard Nixon.” Warming to the analogy to the deeply flawed – not unlike Harper – former President of the United States who was forced to resign over Watergate, Ignatieff said, “We are in the middle of the most serious economic crisis since the Second World War and the Prime Minister . . is wasting his time listening to tapes of me.”

Unhappily, Ignatieff is right. Rome burned while Nero fiddled. Canada’s jobless struggle and Harper listens to tapes. The country suffers while Harper tries to get the goods on his political enemies. Very sad.

Harper remains Harper. Or Nixon.

For those who might be interested in the Nixon - Harper joined at the hip phenomenon, read: http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/12/11/02900.html

JACK GRANATSTEIN: TAKING A PAGE OUT OF THE BOOK OF JOE McCARTHY

Jack

For years I have watched the illustrious career of Jack Lawrence Granatstein wend its way through my generation. I have read many of his writings (I admit I have to be up for it), and I have intently watched and listened to him on the tube and radio. Granatstein is a genuine political and military history scholar who has earned many university degrees from good schools including a PhD from Duke University. He served in the Canadian Army for ten years and so possesses much more than academic knowledge of that field. He has taught at universities and written over sixty books including some distinguished prize and medal winners. We see his avuncular personage frequently on our television screens providing mostly trenchant and wise observations of historical and current events. Honours and medals have followed him throughout his adult life. By any standard, he is a great Canadian. For more on Granatstein’s career read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellow_of_the_Royal_Society_of_Canada.

Alas, he has his blind spots. For example, for some years now he has taken every opportunity to hector Canadians about what he sees as our endemic anti –Americanism, particularly from what he perceives as the Canadian left. He believes Canadian anti-Americanism exists, and he believes it is bad and unfair. He was at it again in a column that appeared in this morning’s Calgary Sun. Unfortunately, as of this writing it has not made it on line. However, I will review it and pass on my comments.

His entrée into the subject is Barack Obama's popularity in Canada. Granatstein asks the question, “How will his presidency sit with the great Canadian anti-American coalition, many Liberals, the New Democratic Party, the Greens, the Bloc Quebecois and all those raging grannies of whatever age who despise the United States and all its works?” His answer was, “Not well, is my guess.” He goes on to say that history leads him to believe that by the summer because of their innate anti-Americanism Canadians will be attacking Obama.

To back up his conclusion, he argues that even though Canadians were largely sympathetic to the U.S. Democratic Party, they denounced even John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton during their terms in office. He writes that Kennedy suffered the wrath of Canadians because of the Bay of Pigs Invasion and for risking nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis.

Well, if there were Canadians who felt that way, they were hardly on the radar screen. I was around in those days and paying some attention to the news. I never observed a helluva lot of antipathy from Canada towards Kennedy at any time. The only Canadian I recall as not having cared too much for Kennedy was John Diefenbaker, who was reported to genuinely dislike the man. But let's say there was a bit of it. Was that anti-Americanism or was it anti - American foreign policy on some level - like, say, the Bay of Pigs Invasion or the growing commitment to the folly of Viet Nam? In any event, at the time of the assassination Kennedy was overwhelmingly in the good books of the vast majority of Canadians.

About Bill Clinton, Granatstein says, “those on the left soon complained about NAFTA and his use of American troops around the world, and Prime Minister Chretien tried hard to camouflage his good relations with the Arkansan.”

Well, again, I recall some pockets of criticism in Canada, but it was hardly discernable, even from those on the left. As far as Chretien trying to hide from his buddy – buddy relationship with Clinton, that is pure bullshit and Granatstein surely knows it. And if there were some Canadians who opposed NAFTA or the U.S. led NATO bombing of the Balkans - and there were - does that make them anti-American, or anti - aspects of American trade policy or foreign policy?

Granatstein says, “The Canadian left sees the US. as the great Satan.” I suppose that explains why most Canadians are so hooked on American culture like its movies, pop stars, fast food joints and cities. He predicts that Obama will ask for further troop commitments in Afghanistan beyond 2011, and that “the response from the anti-American Canadian left will be as vehement as if it had been George W. Bush asking.” But whether people are on the Canadian left (as he describes it) or not, if they oppose such a request, does it make them anti-American? Or could they be merely opponents of come components of American foreign policy that is going nowhere and will likely go nowhere unless there is a troop commitment of some three hundred or four hundred thousand strong?

Granatstein continues his rant saying that when Obama does ask for the troop commitment, “The shouts won’t initially include the same sneers hurled at Bush, but Canadian critics, I suspect, will attack the U.S. and the Obama administration with equal fury. Over time, as Obama fails to live up to expectations - no one could meet the high hopes he has created – new personalist slurs will emerge.”

That is highly doubtful. Canadians whether on the left or right, recognize honesty and competence as paramount values in leadership. Obama has both in spades. Granatstein’s pal Bush, had neither.

After a little more haranguing and whining which makes him sound more like Rush Limbaugh rather than the scholar we take him for, Granatstein concludes, “Obama is on his Canadian honeymoon today, but tomorrow he is almost certain to become merely another target for those who reject America’s world view. Canadian attitudes almost demand this.”

That there will be Canadian critics of Obama’s policies there is no doubt. But they will certainly not be critics of the American people and probably not personal critics of the President himself, unless he is perceived to have done something dastardly wrong - like having lied about a war, or condoned torture.

To criticize U. S. policies is not being anti-American. It is to have an opinion about policies. Those who demonstrated in Canada against say, the war in Viet Nam or those who demonstrate today in Canada at the presence of Dick Cheney or G.W. Bush within their environs are not anti-American. They are demonstrating against American foreign policy, or rogues and charlatans who lied to the world. In fact, to paint such demonstrators or opponents of policy as anti-American is akin to Joe McCarthy calling all those on the left or moderate left, or merely those who got in his way, communists. Jack Granatstein, a Canadian icon, scholar, feted author, and so on should be so much better than this.

THE EVISCERATION OF AMERICA'S DR. STRANGELOVE: THE McLATCHY PRESS SHOWS US WHAT GOOD JOURNALISM IS ALL ABOUT

DICK CHENEY (taken when he was CEO of Halliburton)

DICK CHENEY (leaving the White House for the last time)

"Cheney's speech contained omissions, misstatements"

…. By Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers Jonathan S. Landay And Warren P. Strobel, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Thu May 21, 7:10 pm ET

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney's defense Thursday of the Bush administration's policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements.

In his address to the American Enterprise Institute , a conservative policy organization in Washington , Cheney said that the techniques the Bush administration approved, including waterboarding — simulated drowning that's considered a form of torture — forced nakedness and sleep deprivation, were "legal" and produced information that "prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people."

He quoted the Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair , as saying that the information gave U.S. officials a "deeper understanding of the al Qaida organization that was attacking this country."

In a statement April 21 , however, Blair said the information "was valuable in some instances" but that "there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means. The bottom line is that these techniques hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."

A top-secret 2004 CIA inspector general's investigation found no conclusive proof that information gained from aggressive interrogations helped thwart any "specific imminent attacks," according to one of four top-secret Bush-era memos that the Justice Department released last month.

FBI Director Mueller Robert Muller told Vanity Fair magazine in December that he didn't think that the techniques disrupted any attacks.

— Cheney said that President Barack Obama's decision to release the four top-secret Bush administration memos on the interrogation techniques was "flatly contrary" to U.S. national security, and would help al Qaida train terrorists in how to resist U.S. interrogations.

However, Blair, who oversees all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, said in his statement that he recommended the release of the memos, "strongly supported" Obama's decision to prohibit using the controversial methods and that "we do not need these techniques to keep America safe."

— Cheney said that the Bush administration "moved decisively against the terrorists in their hideouts and their sanctuaries, and committed to using every asset to take down their networks."

The former vice president didn't point out that Osama bin Laden and his chief lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahri , remain at large nearly eight years after 9-11 and that the Bush administration began diverting U.S. forces, intelligence assets, time and money to planning an invasion of Iraq before it finished the war in Afghanistan against al Qaida and the Taliban .
There are now 49,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan fighting to contain the bloodiest surge in Taliban violence since the 2001 U.S.-led intervention, and Islamic extremists also have launched their most concerted attack yet on neighboring, nuclear-armed Pakistan.

— Cheney denied that there was any connection between the Bush administration's interrogation policies and the abuse of detainee at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, which he blamed on "a few sadistic guards . . . in violation of American law, military regulations and simple decency."

However, a bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee report in December traced the abuses at Abu Ghraib to the approval of the techniques by senior Bush administration officials, including former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld . "The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of 'a few bad apples' acting on their own," said the report issued by Sens. Carl Levin , D- Mich. , and John McCain , R- Ariz. "The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality and authorized their use against detainees."

— Cheney said that "only detainees of the highest intelligence value" were subjected to the harsh interrogation techniques, and he cited Khalid Sheikh Mohammad , the alleged mastermind of the 9-11 attacks.

He didn't mention Abu Zubaydah, the first senior al Qaida operative to be captured after 9-11. Former FBI special agent Ali Soufan told a Senate subcommittee last week that his interrogation of Zubaydah using traditional methods elicited crucial information, including Mohammed's alleged role in 9-11. The decision to use the harsh interrogation methods "was one of the worst and most harmful decisions made in our efforts against al Qaida ," Soufan said. Former State Department official Philip Zelikow , who in 2005 was then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's point man in an internal fight to overhaul the Bush administration's detention policies, joined Soufan in his criticism.

— Cheney said that "the key to any strategy is accurate intelligence," but the Bush administration ignored warnings from experts in the CIA , the Defense Intelligence Agency , the State Department , the Department of Energy and other agencies, and used false or exaggerated intelligence supplied by Iraqi exile groups and others to help make its case for the 2003 invasion.

Cheney made no mention of al Qaida operative Ali Mohamed al Fakheri , who's known as Ibn Sheikh al Libi , whom the Bush administration secretly turned over to Egypt for interrogation in January 2002 . While allegedly being tortured by Egyptian authorities, Libi provided false information about Iraq's links with al Qaida , which the Bush administration used despite doubts expressed by the DIA. A state-run Libyan newspaper said Libi committed suicide recently in a Libyan jail.

— Cheney accused Obama of "the selective release" of documents on Bush administration detainee policies, charging that Obama withheld records that Cheney claimed prove that information gained from the harsh interrogation methods prevented terrorist attacks.
"I've formally asked that (the information) be declassified so the American people can see the intelligence we obtained," Cheney said. "Last week, that request was formally rejected."

However, the decision to withhold the documents was announced by the CIA , which said that it was obliged to do so by a 2003 executive order issued by former President George W. Bush prohibiting the release of materials that are the subject of lawsuits.

— Cheney said that only "ruthless enemies of this country" were detained by U.S. operatives overseas and taken to secret U.S. prisons.

A 2008 McClatchy investigation, however, found that the vast majority of Guantanamo detainees captured in 2001 and 2002 in Afghanistan and Pakistan were innocent citizens or low-level fighters of little intelligence value who were turned over to American officials for money or because of personal or political rivalries. In addition, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Oct. 5, 2005 , that the Bush administration had admitted to her that it had mistakenly abducted a German citizen, Khaled Masri , from Macedonia in January 2004 . Masri reportedly was flown to a secret prison in Afghanistan , where he allegedly was abused while being interrogated. He was released in May 2004 and dumped on a remote road in Albania . In January 2007 , the German government issued arrest warrants for 13 alleged CIA operatives on charges of kidnapping Masri.

— Cheney slammed Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and criticized his effort to persuade other countries to accept some of the detainees.

The effort to shut down the facility, however, began during Bush's second term, promoted by Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates . "One of the things that would help a lot is, in the discussions that we have with the states of which they (detainees) are nationals, if we could get some of those countries to take them back," Rice said in a Dec. 12, 2007 , interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. "So we need help in closing Guantanamo ."

— Cheney said that, in assessing the security environment after 9-11, the Bush team had to take into account "dictators like Saddam Hussein with known ties to Mideast terrorists."
Cheney didn't explicitly repeat the contention he made repeatedly in office: that Saddam cooperated with al Qaida , a linkage that U.S. intelligence officials and numerous official inquiries have rebutted repeatedly.

The late Iraqi dictator's association with terrorists vacillated and was mostly aimed at quashing opponents and critics at home and abroad. The last State Department report on international terrorism to be released before 9-11 said that Saddam's regime "has not attempted an anti-Western terrorist attack since its failed plot to assassinate former President ( George H.W.) Bush in 1993 in Kuwait ."

A Pentagon study released last year, based on a review of 600,000 Iraqi documents captured after the U.S.-led invasion, concluded that while Saddam supported militant Palestinian groups — the late terrorist Abu Nidal found refuge in Baghdad , at least until Saddam had him killed — the Iraqi security services had no "direct operational link" with al Qaida .

THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT STRIKES AGAIN

TWO LEADING MEMBERS OF THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT

The gang that couldn’t shoot straight rides again. No matter that their sleazeball tactics secured only a minority win in what should have been a romp in the last election. No matter that strategies such as infantile and tasteless ads featuring defecating puffins and talking oil drips miserably failed to do the job even when its opponents were still on the canvas at the count of nine. No matter. Like Stephen Harper’s commitment to the preachings of Bushism, the Fraser Institute, the National Citizen’s Coalition, and other loony-bin nonsense still offered up by the now discredited neocon movement of the University of Calgary Economics and Political Science departments, he and his band of merry brownshirts continue to stick to sleaze and dirty tricks – this time to attempt to get Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and a prominent and promising colleague, Ruby Dhalla.

Only the naïve and stupid would deny that the Dhalla affair is a Conservative operation all the way. Anybody who believes the testimony of those two pathetic nannies who gave testimony against Ruby Dhalla earlier in the week would probably swallow Brian Mulroney’s evidence given at the Oliphant inquiry, or indeed believe that his tears were real. The two ladies, who were hired by Dhalla’s brother, worked in the Dhalla household for a very short time – one for three months and the other only for days. Furthermore, it took them more than fifteen months to make their vapid allegations public. And when they were made public, who was around for the soundbite? You guessed it - that champion of new Canadians who would have them all learn English before they set foot on Canadian soil, Harper’s full-bodied hatchet man, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. Kenney, by the way, relates to new Canadians about as well as Maxime Bernier relates to diplomacy.

Reliable sources say that Kenney is a pal of one Parm Gill. Gill, like Dhalla, is from the Sikh community in the Ontario riding of Brampton-Springdale, for which Dhalla is the sitting Liberal MP. Gill gave her the run of her life in the last election, with Dhalla winning by only a few hundred votes. Kenney has been described as being very tight with Gill. They travel to Conservative snorefests together in and around Toronto, and Gill has even accompanied Kenney on a trip to India. Read this interesting piece on their interesting connections: http://pushedleft.blogspot.com/2009/05/jason-kenney-and-private-investigator.html

Also, a must-read is:http://impolitical.blogspot.com/2009/05/ubiquitous-jason-kenney.html

Thanks to Kenney and his pal Parm, Nanniegate does not even come close to passing the Conservative aroma test. So look to Dhalla keeping her seat with a handsome majority.

And so we now turn to the latest negative ads. Don Martin, one of the Calgary Herald’s few remaining good writers, used to be one of the big cheerleaders of the old kinder and gentler PCs for which he was always a good and loyal soldier. I mean, he was such a pal he even laughed at Ralph Klein’s jokes about dinosaur farts and chuckled when Klein bailed out of a Premiers meeting on health care to play the slot machines at a casino.

But the excesses of the Harperites are even too much for Martin. His column today describes the tasteless ads and gives his readers the address of the Conservative website on which the ads can be found. The domain name is registered in the Balkans – Montenegro, to be exact, which as an aside he tells us is governed by a coalition. The web administrator is based in Arizona. The Conservatives have taken as much trouble to obscure the particulars of the website as Mulroney did to hide the cash he got from Schreiber. In addition Martin tells us that websurfers have told him that the domain is used frequently to exhibit pornography! For more on Martin’s piece you must read: http://www.calgaryherald.com/mikeholmes/Martin+Real+issues+begging+nastiness+takes+hold/1595681/story.html
All of which means that Harper has learned nothing in the more than three years he has been Prime Minister. He is sinking and sinking fast. Look to his early departure, and a Liberal majority in the next federal election. Prime Minister Ignatieff. It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

KEVIN LYNCH RESIGNS AFTER A BELLY FULL OF CLOSEAU AND MAN SERVANT KATO

Kevin Lynch

Top Aide Guy Giorno (on the left) with boss Prime Minister Harper (on the right)

Our most recent Clerk of the Privy Council, deputy minister to the Prime Minister, secretary to the Cabinet and head of the public service, Kevin Lynch, has joined the ranks of the genteel unemployed.

Not to worry for him of course. As with all former Clerks of the Privy Council a decent life awaits him – cushy board appointments to august and respected corporations, doting professors and students hanging onto every dull word he enunciates at snore session lectures at great universities, a comfortable pension, etc. And given that one of the retirement gold watches gifted to him by his employer - the government of Canada headed by our very own Inspector Closeau - was an appointment to the Privy Council, Lynch will be able to register in expensive hotels on his future generous expense accounts as the Honourable Kevin Lynch. Life will be good for Lynch. The kid from Cape Breton has done well.

Prime Minister Closeau once again showing the tact and class for which he has become famous was predictably not around to wish Lynch well on his public departure. Instead, he was visiting Afghanistan for a photo-op in the process of taking the scenic route back home from Europe. The story is that Closeau’s fractious relations with the public service caused by the petulance and bully-boy tactics of both the Prime Minister himself and his obnoxious chief of staff Guy Giorno - we shall call him Kato – resulted in such frigid relations with Lynch and other highly placed members of the public service that Lynch could stomach it no longer.

It has been noted in the press - and this is a Harperism if ever I saw one – that the last paragraph of the speaking notes sent out to the Conservative lackeys for regurgitation to all and sundry who may ask questions about Lynch’s departure, reads:

“Upon his retirement, Mr. Lynch will have served as Clerk for three years, four months. Since 1979, the average length of service for a Clerk has been three years, four months.”

Although I am a self-confessed cynic about whatever words are uttered by Closeau I believe that many would agree with my following interpretation of that paragraph:

“Look, we kept him around only for as long as we had to so that it doesn’t look so bad. Now, happily, he’s done.”

The speaking note paragraph is tactless, classless and petty - entirely consistent with the other utterings of Closeau when others got in his way.

Rumors persist that Lynch’s vast knowledge of the workings of government and policy – derived from more than 30 years in the public service - frequently angered Closeau and some of the Neanderthals in the cabinet. That sounds reasonable. I can see both Closeau and his government having trouble abiding intelligent people. It is further reported that the behavior of Closeau and his man servant Kato have pissed off the upper echelons of several important ministries, not to mention the whole Conservative party – including its MPs.

It is also widely rumored that Kato (Giorno, in case you are confused) was the brain behind the Closeau’s fiscal update and the attempted suffocation of opposition parties late last year. Apparently Kato's proposals were met with strenuous objections from Lynch. This too likely hastened Lynch’s departure. In addition, the recruitment by the Ignatieff Liberals of Kevin Chan who had worked closely with Lynch over the years also likely spooked both Kato and Closeau.

But even more troubling than the departure of such a qualified and experienced public servant from the most important public service job in the country is the question, where does that leave Canadians who are fighting their way through these economic troubled times? What happens to the stimulus? We all know that the Closeau Conservatives really don’t believe in stimulus spending, unless it is into the coffers of their pals.

Does Lynch’s departure mean that the likes of Closeau, Kato, the hapless creationist Stockwell Day, the portly motor-mouth Jason Kenney and their ilk are going to be less constrained from enacting their neocon ideology? It is reported that Lynch bent over backwards to make the Prime Minister look good – at times even sacrificing his own reputation in the process. But apparently it wasn’t enough to keep his bosses happy. Does Lynch’s resignation mean that all Closeau and Kato want at the top of the public service are kowtowing yes men that do their ideological bidding come hell or high water (as Paul Martin likes to say)?

As Sarah Palin would say, "You betcha!"

See Also: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/05/07/kevin-lynch-retires050709.html
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/05/07/lynchwouters-your-talking-points-and-how-lynch-announced-his-retirement/http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/94626

RANDOM HOUSE ANNOUNCES NEWMAN'S NEW BOOK ON IGNATIEFF

See. What did I tell you three days ago? You can say you read it here first.


"Peter C. Newman to write Michael Ignatieff biography"

TORONTO, May 6 /CNW/ - Random House Canada is proud to announce that it has signed veteran journalist and author Peter C. Newman to write the firstfull-length biography of Liberal leader, prime ministerial contender and public intellectual Michael Ignatieff.

Newman, with more than fifty years of thinking and writing about Canada's business and political leaders behind him, is delighted with the opportunity the new book will give him to stop and think about what the torrent of news and views breaking around Ignatieff really means, what all the tumult and promise of his life and times adds up to, and how to place him in the Canadian political landscape. "I want to write about Ignatieff because he's the most interesting political figure in Canada today, and while he has written many books himself, including a family memoir and autobiographical novels, nobody has written a full biography of him," Newman says. "We haven't had a political leader whose intellect is his defining characteristic since Trudeau, and it's fascinating to watch the ways in which a man like Ignatieff reaches out to rebuild theparty and create relationships with voters. He has a real shot at becoming ournext prime minister. If he makes it, he'll be in a position to affect this country's destiny, and I feel it's important to have a creative look at him."

Anne Collins, Newman's Editor and the Publisher of Random House Canada, is delighted at the pairing of author and subject. "As June Callwood once pointed out, Peter C. Newman invented 'realism in political writing in Canada' with his book Renegade in Power. Almost five decades on from that ground-breaking book on Diefenbaker, he's about to apply the full Newman treatment to a man with one of the most unusual trajectories in Canadian politics, a true public intellectual suddenly vying in that most brutal courtof public opinion - electoral and party politics - and vying well. I can't wait to see what Newman makes of Ignatieff. I can guarantee it will be an account that will surprise and captivate us all."

Peter C. Newman has been writing about Canadian politics for nearly a half a century, including books on Prime Ministers John Diefenbaker, Lester B.Pearson, Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Brian Mulroney. The author of twenty-four books that have sold more than two million copies, Newman has won a half-dozenof the country's most illustrious literary awards. In addition, he has received two Orders of Canada and has been promoted to Companion from Officer. A former editor-in-chief of the Toronto Star and Maclean's, Newman has been honoured with a National Newspaper Award and has been elected to the News Hall of Fame.

Peter C. Newman's biography of Michael Ignatieff, as yet untitled, will be published in Fall 2010.

READ ALL ABOUT IT: NEWMAN'S NEXT BOOK WILL BE ABOUT IGGY

His next book

will be about him

Making the short walk from the extraordinary new Vancouver Convention Center to my hotel room at the Pan Pacific I passed a stooped gentleman in a Greek Fisherman’s cap gingerly making his way towards the same hotel. Given that there is only one Canadian I know of who wears a Greek Fisherman’s cap, I figured as I overtook him that it must be Peter C. Newman. I quickly glanced back and discovered that indeed it was the great man himself. Never having met him before but knowing that we had a mutual friend, I introduced myself and spoke of our common acquaintance. Naturally, I also told him that I was a great fan and had read most of his seventeen books.

Newman is a giant of Canadian letters. From his first work, ‘Flame of Power,’ published in 1959 to his most recent seventeenth, ‘Izzy,’ published last year, together with countless newspaper and magazine pieces he has written since the fifties, the prolific Newman has entertained and informed his readers about Canada and Canadians as few others. Thus, I was thrilled to be talking to him.

Of course, I asked him what he thought of the new Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff who had just finished delivering his acceptance speech a few minutes before. Newman enthusiastically sang his praises. He said that the party had made a very wise choice, and were now poised to take it all in the next election. He was happy with the quality of Iggy's message and was convinced that the Grits had turned the corner after a very bad time and were on their way to restoration under the new leadership. As a matter of fact, Newman said, he was so fascinated by the life and personality of the new leader – and here is a scoop for all of you out there who follow these things – his next book was going to be a biography of Michael Grant Ignatieff.


We entered the hotel from street level, which requires taking two escalators to get to the lobby. The first escalator was in mechanically good order but the second was not working. I thought that Newman, who is only days from turning 80, had been walking very slowly and tentatively towards the hotel and may have difficulty making his way up the long flight of steps. But with a resurgence of energy he bounded up the stairs as fast as I. Perhaps he was inspired by remembering a few licks from a Stan Kenton jazz recording (He writes best listening to Kenton’s big band music), or perhaps he was thinking about writing the first biography on someone who is sure to become the next Prime Minister of Canada. In any event, Newman is a true Canadian icon, a national treasure, and a helluva writer.

PRIME MINISTER HARPER: CANADA'S INSPECTOR CLOSEAU

Prime Minister Stephen Harper

When you add up all of his screw ups, backtracking, gaffes, stupid moves, ignorance, stupidly blind ideology, excesses, self destructive meanness, vulgarity – and this is by no means a comprehensive list – it is hard to believe he was ever elected, let alone be the Prime Minister of Canada for more than three years. His record is atrocious. His incompetence alone is staggering.

Foreign policy wise, his administration has seen only failure. Consider this:

- On Afghanistan, it took him years to figure out that our sacrifices of blood and money were for naught. He had read no history on the region and blindly followed a course dictated to him by his arch-rightist American friends. With no more weaponry than jingoism and bravado – that is almost literally true – he led the Canadian people into the hopeless quicksand of one of the most inhospitable regions on earth where failure was inevitable. Only recently did he get it through his head the futility of it all - after 117 and counting deaths of young Canadians, and costs to the Canadian taxpayer of 15 billion – and counting.

- On China, he makes nice with the Dalai Lama, insults or ignores the leadership of one of the most economically dynamic countries on earth, and harps (excuse the pun) at them on human rights for most of his three years in office. In addition, he fails to see or learn that if there is one thing that unites most Chinese people it is that Tibet is part of China and none of anybody else’s business. Finally, it dawns on him – hey, my China policy may not be wise - perhaps it would be better to cozy up to one of the strongest economies in the world. And so he sends – don’t laugh – one of his best and brightest to make amends - the redoubtable creationist and jet ski operator, Stockwell Day.

- Within the last week or so, he stumbled into the bad blood of the almost 100 year-old Turkish - Armenian nastiness. Turkey and Armenia are still at odds over the nature of that dispute and their borders are closed. No doubt there will be a reconciliation of a kind in the years ahead, but such is not yet the case. Harper decided to get into the fray by terming Turkey’s actions against the Armenians as genocide, which prompted Turkey to immediately recall its Ambassador to Canada. Turkey is one of the two or three most important Islamic nations in the world and has been friendly to the West. It is also pivotal in the search for international security and has a population of seventy-one million people. Yet, Harper pissed Turkey off!

As to the treatment of newcomers to Canada, Harper and his ideological soul-mate and spear carrier Jason Kenney continue to tell new Canadians that the Conservatives welcome them to join their party and that they understand them and want them to feel at home in the party and the country. They say this at the same time as beating the drum for Citizenship Act changes requiring new Canadians to be knowledgable in English or French before they acquire citizenship. They also throw every conceivable roadblock in front of an innocent Sudanese Canadian who has spent the better part of a decade being jailed and tortured in his former homeland and who wishes to return to his daughters in Montreal. This is not the treatment that new Canadians have in mind from a party that expects to recruit them.

As to the human rights that for years he seems to have cherished only when within earshot of the Chinese, Harper’s government has been notorious for having a deaf ear when it comes to Canadian citizens incarcerated in foreign jurisdictions. At the moment, the most notorious case is that of Omar Khadr, who has spent the last several years in Bush’s concentration camp in Guantanamo. Soon to be 23, Khadr was captured by the Americans in Afghanistan at the age of 15. Charges against him have been dropped three times and currently are suspended. Khadr is the only western citizen still incarcerated in that hellhole. The Federal Court recently ruled that international law required the Canadian government to demand Khadr’s return to Canada. Harper wants to appeal.

Also in the area of human rights, there is the case of former Red Deer, Alberta resident and Canadian citizen, 51 year-old Ronald Smith. Granted, Smith is no prize. He has been on death row in Montana since 1983 for shooting two young men to death in cold blood. But Canada does not have the death penalty and the tradition – indeed the legal duty - has been that the Canadian government make representations to the foreign authority to help its citizen avoid the death penalty. Harper abandoned that practice. The Federal Court has told Harper to do his job and help save Smith from execution. So far, Harper says no dice. So much for Harper and human rights.

On the economy, during the election campaign when all hell was breaking loose, Harper was encouraging Canadians to buy stocks. In December when he made his economic statement, he did not see the need for stimulus spending because everything was hunky-dory. His view changed drastically in a few days time. Who did he take his economics courses from? Herbert Hoover? R. B. Bennett? Jim Cramer?

Politically, Harper’s judgment may be charitably described to be dismally and obviously, hopeless. Consider this:

- Harper had a speechwriter in his employ who plagiarized one of the most important speeches he ever gave in his career. It was the speech Harper gave to Parliament when he argued for Canada to join the United States in the invasion of Iraq, no less! Smart dude! as his pal Bush would say.

- He and his jolly band of neocons organized attack ads on Stephane Dion that probably gave the Liberals a couple of points in the last election – particularly the one that had the puffin defecating on Dion’s shoulder. Real Classy!

- Fighting for some seats in Quebec, he forgot or, more likely didn’t know the importance of culture to Quebecers and took a shot at the province’s struggling artists during the election campaign. He thereby destroyed any chance of a breakthrough for his party in La Belle Province and succeeded in sealing his political coffin there for all time. Brilliant!

- And then there is his on-again, off-again relationship with former Prime Minister Mulroney. Mulroney as we all know is going through his winter of discontent. At the moment, he is under a cloud and how long that lasts is anybody’s guess. But he did win two successive majorities for the Tories, and rewarded countless of their numbers. Does he really deserve to be a pariah amongst the Conservatives? Does Harper’s PMO really have to provide snippets of information to the press that makes the life of Brian even more miserable than need be? Even when the actions have the inevitable result of starting a war within the Conservative Party and the caucus itself? Harper and his minions must think so. Good move!

- And then there is the coalition. There was only one thing that Harper could have done to unite the opposition enough to threaten his position and destroy his equilibrium. And he did it. In the tradition of the giants of totalitarians he tried to get rid of – literally – the parliamentary opposition parties by depriving them of money. They fought back and bloody near threw him out. This near-death experience for both the opposition and Harper as it turned out, changed the dynamics and led to a quick leadership change in the Liberal Party. It also united the Grits for the first time in almost a generation. All of this makes Harper’s life miserable until he either leaves or is defeated, one of which will be sure to happen within the next 6 or so months. Clever indeed!

Does it get worse? Indeed it is. Harper’s favorite media instrument for communicating to the public is Fox News.

WELCOME TO CALGARY'S HOSPITAL HELL: DON BRAID TELLS IT LIKE IT IS

For those of you who believe Calgary is a land of milk and honey, for those of you who swallowed the Klein line of ‘The Alberta Advantage,’ and for those of you who believe that Alberta is rolling in the good life because of petro dollars, I encourage to read Don Braid’s column in today’s Calgary Herald, “Welcome to Hospital Hell. 14 Hours in the Emergency Ward.” http://www.calgaryherald.com/Welcome+Hospital+Hell+hours+emergency+ward/1506017/story.html

Braid in my book is one of the last remaining objective writers of conscience still plying his trade with the Calgary Herald, who tells it like it is. He describes what happens when ideologues take power and put into motion the pet theories of their cronys. In this case, the Alberta government under Premier Ralph Klein attempted to bludgeon the people in Calgary into accepting private medicine by shutting down one active treatment hospital and blowing up another. Neither have been replaced in almost fifteen years. See the demolition and hear the cheering of the brainwashed and brain-dead observers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y4zCNv00OQ

The population meanwhile has grown since by one third - from 750,000 to more than one million.

THIS JUST IN: PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE ORGANIZATIONAL CHART REVEALED

Prime Minister Harper's Organizational Chart released to the Press this Morning

THE STRANGE CASE OF ABOUSFIAN ABDELRAZIK: HARPER RALLIES HIS XENOPHOBIC BASE

Wafa Sahnine (left) and her 15 year-old step-sister

Wafa Sahnine is not likely to consort with Conservatives. She was also never likely to vote for them either. Wafa, you see, is an Islamic Sudanese woman of 25 who is raising her 15 year old step sister in Montreal in a small apartment in very humble circumstances. Wafa is just not a Conservative type regardless of what Jason Kenney may hope and pray for. This is particularly so given the ordeal to which she and other members of her family are being subjected courtesy of the Harper government. See: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/04/08/abdelrazik-sudan-stepdaughter008.html


Wafa’s father is a 47 year-old Canadian citizen by the name of Abousfian Abdelrazik. Six years ago Abousfian, who had been born and raised in Sudan before coming to Canada, returned to his homeland to visit his sick mother. After he arrived in Sudan the authorities accused him of being a terrorist and carted him off to jail, where he was tortured, as only authorities can torture in some of those lawless and dictatorial emerging nations. The RCMP and CSIS ultimately cleared Abousfian of the terrorist allegations or indeed any wrong doing. Almost one year ago, the Sudanese authorities also cleared him and released him from jail whereupon he sought and received refuge at the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum.

Understandably, upon his release from prison after years of incarceration and torture, Abousfian was both sick and broke. He certainly did not have the financial means of getting home. In the inimitable humanitarian style of the Harper crowd, the Canadian authorities quickly told Abousfian that it was no dice if he wanted his government to pay his way home. However, they assured him that if he could raise the dough for the ticket, they would issue him a passport so that he could re-enter Canada. As a result of the generous efforts of some big-hearted Canadians back home, he was able to raise the money for the ticket and it was purchased.

One week before he was to board his flight out of Sudan, Harper toady and foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon changed the rules. Abousfian was told by Canadian authorities that it was no longer good enough that he had been cleared by the RCMP and CSIS and that he arranged for his own ticket. Instead, they presented him with a new hurdle to jump. They told the poor devil that he had to get his name off the UN no-fly list before he could board the plane to get home. Cannon’s request was specious to say the least – the UN has always allowed nations to repatriate their citizens.

As though poor Abousfian has not had enough misery, his lawyers must now go to Federal Court on his behalf to argue that Section 6 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms - the right of a citizen to enter Canada - has been breached and that he should be flown home by whatever means are necessary.

About Abousfian’s plight, his patient and faithful daughter Wafa back in Montreal said, “I would really like them to put themselves in our place. That they reflect for a moment. That they stop playing with our lives. It’s not a game.” She added that her advice to Harper and Cannon was to “Accept that you’ve made a mistake. Accept it and bring him home.” She asked them to “Stop playing with the life of my stepfather and stop playing with our lives.”

Wafa’s heartfelt pleas are bound to fall on deaf ears. This decision to screw around with the life of a Sudanese-Canadian, in the minds of the Harper, Cannon and Stockwell Day ilk, was not a mistake. In their minds this was good Conservative politics made on the run to satisfy the party’s base of neanderthal xenophobes scattered throughout the country. The Conservative base remember are pissed with the heresy of the stimulus package and bailing out the car companies.

The impressive rise of Michael Ignatieff and the ravages of the economy are taking their toll on the Harper government. A poll released today says the Conservatives are now in second place in the country and dropping support precipitously everywhere – most importantly in Ontario. In the twisted minds of the right wing of the Conservative party, somebody has to do something. And this is that ‘something.’ Screwing the new Canadian. Screwing the Islamic immigrant who by Conservative standards is not the ‘right’ kind of immigrant that Canada needs. Just like Jason Kenney wishes to screw over new Canadians who can’t speak either of the official languages when they get off the boat. In the twisted minds of these Conservatives, this is not a mistake. It is about survival - even if it is only as a small-minded opposition party.

HAVE A BLAST WITH DEAD-EYE TED MORTON, YOUR LOCAL MINISTER OF SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

If any of you folks out there are going to be around Carstairs, Alberta on June 19, well, by cracky, just bring 125 bucks with you and you can shoot some buckshot and eat some red meat with the Alberta Minister of Sustainable Resource Development, the Honorable Ted Morton. And, by the way, it's best to stay out of the Honourable Ted's way when he's aiming at you like that. Oh yes, our Ted is not high on gun control.

JASON KENNEY'S NEW IMMIGRATION POLICY: A SIGNAL THAT HARPER'S PACKING HIS BAGS

No doubt daunted by his near-death experience at the hands of the coalition as well as the impressive emergence of Michael Ignatieff as his chief opponent, Steve Harper is getting ready to leave office. The signs are unmistakable.

In a democracy such as ours, when a government believes it has not long to go before the people kick its ass out of office, there is a certain protocol it follows. It makes patronage appointments of its people to boards, commissions, the bench, etc. with unseemly haste and efficiency. An example was the orgy of eighteen Senate appointments made by the Prime Minister just before Christmas after having been nearly done in by the coalition. Near its end, a government also promotes some of its stalwarts into sinecures of the public service or international institutions, with cushy jobs, generous pensions and so forth. An example of this is the attempt to foist the callow and inexperienced Peter McKay onto NATO as its Secretary General.

When it believes that it is about to be gassed, a government also embarks on enacting policy on the fly in order to implement some of its cherished beliefs before being confined to the trash-heap of history. This is what Harper seems to be doing at the moment through his motor mouth surrogate Jason Kenney, Canada’s Immigration minister.

Kenney has called for a new policy requiring that new immigrants to Canada be competent in speaking one of Canada’s two official languages. The view is that immigrants are happier if they can communicate in the language of their adopted homeland. Furthermore, the theory goes that if they don’t speak the language of their new home, they are at an economic and social disadvantage.

That may be true, but so what? I grew up in a community of not more than 800 souls where almost everybody was just off the boat or first generation born Canadians. If they spoke English at all, it was usually with an accent. It was a community comprised primarily of unskilled immigrants from the four corners of Eastern and Western Europe. They came over to make a better life for themselves and their families and to provide new and better opportunities for their children. They were not doctors, engineers, or professionals. They were hardscrabble labourers who worked with their hands and their backs. Most knew not a word of English or French when they arrived in town, unless they happened to be from the U.K., France or Belgium. There were some who never learned how to speak any of our official languages. This was particularly so of women who were not in traditional workplaces. They were mothers and homemakers who were pretty good at what they did. With the husband bringing home the pay cheque and the homemaker taking good care of the kids, these families produced significant numbers of engineers, geologists, school teachers, doctors, lawyers, professors, and people with great technical skills. This process for new Canadians continues to this very day. The vast majority of immigrants to Canada are the salt of the earth. They come here to work and to make a better life for their families. They have succeeded magnificently, and continue to do so.

What Kenney is really doing, no doubt with the support of his leader is trying to enact some Reform/Alliance driven pipedream about getting the “right” immigrants into this country. As though we have not got the “right immigrants” coming into this country as we speak. As though indeed, we have been getting the “wrong immigrants” over lo these many years that we have been taking in immigrants.

There is nothing wrong with our immigration policy. It ain’t broke! Canada is bringing in people who are taking the biggest risks of their lives to seek a better life for their children, and they are prepared to work like hell to attain it. No labour is too menial or too difficult for them so long as they are confident that they are getting ahead and that their families will have a better life than had they continued to reside in their homeland.

The lunatic fringe of the Conservative party is comprised of the Reform/Alliance crowd inflicted on this country by Preston Manning, Stockwell Day and now Stephen Harper. Jason Kenney is their poster-boy. This element of the Conservative party has never been comfortable with immigration of the unskilled who spoke a foreign tongue, and who had nothing to offer except blood, toil and sweat to get ahead. Those Conservatives have not learned that it is precisely those immigrants who have made this country as great as it is today by instilling the values of hard work, sacrifice and respect for education into their children and grandchildren. It is not by accident that Canada stands at the forefront of the family of nations in terms of its standard of living and strong institutions. And for that we should always thank a generous and understanding immigration policy that has made that possible.

HOT OFF THE PRESS: PETER PUCK IS IN THE SLAMMER

Assets? Assets? I have no assets.

Well, well, well. Just when I was running out of ideas. Just as I was suffering from writer’s block. Just when this bloody depression was really starting to get me down, along comes a truly inspiring news item to get the juices flowing.

Yesterday the ex-Canadian and rip-off connoisseur Peter Pocklington was taken from his luxurious digs in Palm Desert by ten armed FBI agents. His destination? The slammer located in the gritty mean streets of Riverside California. He is under arrest and facing charges for bankruptcy fraud. See:
http://ca.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idCATRE52A73N20090312?sp=true

The whole episode scared the hell out of his long-suffering, loyal and faithful 87 year-old mother Eileen who was visiting with Pocklington and his wife at the time. The old girl said “We were still in bed, they broke the lock and came in. . . . There was 10 of them . . . . I heard all this banging, I think, ‘What on earth are the neighbours doing?’ Bang, bang, bang. . . . Little did I know.” She added that she had no idea her boy was in trouble. She said, “I just couldn’t believe, never in my life would I ever believe. . . . He has always been fine.” Yes, yes. Dear me. Ahem.

It must have been all of that bad company that led her misunderstood boy astray. Guys like Gretzky, I suppose, or Marc Messier. Poor kid. And she had such high hopes for him. She said young Peter – age 67 - told her when she got off the plane for her visit that he was all excited about “another big deal, I forget what country.” Indeed.
See: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Oilers+owner+Pocklington+charged+with+fraud/1378333/story.html
With Pocklington obviously believing, much like fellow ex-Canadian in a U.S. jail Conrad Black, that ordinary laws applied to ordinary people and that he was anything but ordinary, prosecutors say Pocklington recently made an assignment in bankruptcy attesting to 20 million in debts and – get this – 3000 measly bucks in assets. The gendarmes now accuse Pocklington of hiding bank accounts, assets in offshore companies, and spinning off art and fine furniture to his buddies, all of which he failed to mention in his sworn declarations. Last year a bankruptcy trustee was chasing him for about 300 grand that he allegedly received from auctioning some of his sports memorabilia from his glory days as Edmonton Oilers’ Peter Puck.

With any luck the outcome of his current tribulations could be the last we hear from this lamentable weasel and welcher on commitments to our government, his creditors, and even children. See: http://darrylraymaker.blogspot.com/2008/10/peter-puck-welches-on-commitment-to.html

For further information on this sterling character see: http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081219.rmpuck1218/BNStory/Business

The former candidate for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party and – as the much missed tiny perfect scandal sheet Frank Magazine used to say – 'shameless self promoter', will be behind bars in his orange jump suit until his trial if the prosecutors have their way.

As to the self-promotion and philosophy of this paragon of rectitude his website makes for interesting reading. See: http://www.peterpocklington.com/

The burning question now is will the welching, narcissist Pocklington join Conrad Black and David Radler among the ex-directors of the Fraser Institute who are also convicted felons? The Institute also boasts among its current ranks senior policy analyst, disgraced Harper speech-writer and admitted plagiarist, Dr. Owen Lippert.

STEPHEN HARPER AND THE IMPORTANCE OF READING HISTORY

Finally, he’s got the message. As he bravely told the people of the United States on CNN on Sunday, our Prime Minister does not believe the war in Afghanistan is winnable. See: http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1458586&auth=

The coup de grace of the statement was:



“Quite frankly, we are not going to ever defeat the insurgency. Afghanistan has probably had – my reading of Afghanistan history (is) it’s probably had an insurgency forever of some kind.”


Indeed it has. And it is a great tragedy that Harper and a few other movers and shakers in the lofty reaches of the Canadian government hadn’t read any Afghanistan history much earlier - like say, before marching our troops off to Kandahar to the mindless jingoism of General Hillier. If these turkeys had done so most of the 111 of our troops who have lost their lives in the conflict would still have their futures ahead of them. Just this morning came the news of the roadside bomb killings of another three of our brave troops in the region.


In case anybody is interested – and we all should be - here is what happened to the 111 brave young Canadians who have perished in Afghanistan. 92 were killed in hostile circumstances – 59 as a result of improvised explosive devices or landmines, 22 from rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire, and 11 from suicide bomb attacks. 19 died from friendly fire, motor vehicle accidents, falls, accidental gunshots, suicide and other causes.
See: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/03/04/canada-afghanistan.html


See also an expanded list of casualties: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/afghanistan/casualties/list.html

In addition, more than 300 Canadian soldiers have been wounded in Afghanistan, half of whom had to be transported back to Canada for treatment. Many of those wounded have serious and disabling injuries. There are amputees and seriously brain injured among them.

Our government says that by 2011 the direct cost of this folly to the Canadian taxpayer is estimated to be $11.3 billion. Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page says that when you add in disability and health care for the troops, the price tag rises to $18.1 billion. See: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/593858


Yes, if Harper had read even the rudiments of the history of the region, he would have realized that the NATO commitment of even less than 100,000 troops at any one time would have been woefully deficient even to make a dent in changing that godforsaken country for the better.

If he had read the history of the region, he would have realized that the people of Afghanistan had given the boot twice to the British Empire at the height of its power.

If he had read the history of the region Harper would have realized that not yet twenty years ago the Russians, even with a far stronger military presence in the country than NATO now has, had to leave licking their wounds.

And had he had read some history of the region, he would have picked up on why our NATO partners were so loathe to send their troops into tough spots of Afghanistan such as Kandahar. Why indeed? Because our partners had read the history of the region and realized the futility of it all! Unlike Prime Minister Harper, who was too busy apple polishing President Bush and the neocons, in between reading learned treatises from the likes of the Fraser Institute, William Kristol and the National Citizens Coalition.

Yes, had Harper only read some history of the region before it was too late. He didn’t.
This is a very sad story. In his haste to please his American idols and embrace the geo-political views of the now discredited extreme right, history never entered the Prime Minister’s mind. It has only now, and it is too late for at least 111 brave Canadians.