This poll means nothing.

A new poll came out today giving the Harper Conservatives a sizable edge in preference over the Ignatieff Liberals. I'm not surprised. I will give Harper credit for keeping the party's loose cannons under control. More of this and the Conservatives will be in their best possible position for the election majority that Harper's been lusting over for some time. This, however, is about the best they can do. It really is in Michael Ignatieff's hands to turn this whole thing around. But can he do it? Maybe recruiting Jean Crétien's former chief of staff, Peter Donolo, will make a difference. It better. This Conservative party, with a majority, would be a nightmare for Canada. Read More......

Those Aggravated Jews

This 1956 cartoon (click to enlarge) depicts Israel as an innocent victim of Arab aggression as Egypt's Abdel Nasser dumps on Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion representing Israel. This is a simplistic and one-sided perspective that is shared by many Jews who see their plight in this black and white way. It is quite clear that the Jewish reaction to the Hamas rockets has been drastically in-proportionate.
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Don't blow it buddy!

Barack Obama took office less than two weeks ago to unprecedented goodwill throughout the world and a huge approval rating in the U.S., even having right wing ideologues like the Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer beaming: "I'm now an Obama apologist". Is it possible that another American president may end up squandering massive political capital?

During the primaries I tried to ignore Obama's stance on Afghanistan. His talk of raising the troop level to 60,000 and his tough talk like: "We shall defeat you". I believed he we just posturing -- I can accept the strategy that the president needs to be seen as strong. But after only four days as president Obama has given the go ahead for Predator drone missile attacks on al-Qaida inside of Pakistan to the consternation of the Pakistani government and the outrage of the Pakistani people. This sounds too much like a continuation of the Bush administration. Not the 'change' we expect from Barack Obama.

Here are two highly qualified experts who caution that the Obama administration appear to be falling into the same trap that Lynden Johnson did with his disastrous military escalation in Vietnam. Both warn that an aggressive military, and particularly killing civilians, is not the answer to the current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pierre Sprey was one of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's "Whiz Kids" in the Pentagon during the sixties developing deadly war aircraft like the F-16. He says that the events of "9-11" was not an act of war: "It was a criminal act". "By calling it a war we have glorified al Qaeda. We have glorified the cause of violent radical Islam".

History professor Marilyn B. Young teaches U.S. foreign policy at NYU and has written books on China and Vietnam. She says that previous administrations thought they could bomb the enemy into submission. And it's the same notion now with Obama sending those drone strikes into Pakistan thinking that we can scare them and break their will. "But it's, again, an effort to deal with a political issue with force. And it doesn't work".

Read more and view the video HERE

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Today's Budget

Let's face it this is an "anything to stay in power budget" strictly to appease Michael Ignatieff. Oh, Iggy will rant on and on about it but there is just no way he will force an election by turning this budget down. The Liberals simply aren't ready to face the electorate right now. I don't think there is any doubt, however, that Stephen Harper's days are numbered. Read More......

A Brave New World

After going through an eight year nightmare known as the Bush/ Cheney fiasco the world today has made a giant turn for the better. In a way the person that deserves the most credit for the turn around is none other than George W. Bush. He and his neocon ideologues have screwed things up thoroughly leaving their unbridled market capitalism in shreds. Their expensive war machine exposed as useless in the face of determined and patient insurgency in Iraq leading many people to wonder if this is the end of America as we've known it. Certainly the concept of an American 'empire' is a thing of the past. Bush has been so inept that the country knew it had to try something different. It was such a relief to see Bush take off for the final time in that helicopter, bringing up memories of Richard Nixon's bravely waving off: "I am not a crook". And Dr. Strangelove (Dick Cheney) getting helped from a wheelchair into a limo. We won't be hearing much from these two in the future, I'm sure of that, and thankful of that, too.

The question now is can Barack Obama rescue America from the mess it's in? Can a country continue to prosper after it has sold off its manufacturing base? Will the "bail-out" of the banks work? And will there still be a General Motors in six months from now? These are really difficult questions. The so called 'experts' have lost their credibility with people like Alan Greenspan admitting "I was wrong". Clearly, markets need close oversight and this financial debacle was the big issue that gave Obama the boost he needed to topple the market obsessed Republicans.

Right now there is so much positive emotion in America, in the world, surrounding this new administration that just maybe "the Obama effect" will lessen the financial mess we are presently in the midst of. Yes, I think there is a good chance he will soften this thing.
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Great day for Stephen Harper

To provide some balance after a day of patriotic "support our troops" jingoism here are some words from Charlie Madison:

Charlie: I don’t trust people who make bitter reflections about war, Mrs. Barham. It’s always the generals with the bloodiest records who are the first to shout what a Hell it is. And it’s always the widows who lead the Memorial Day parades … we shall never end wars, Mrs. Barham, by blaming it on ministers and generals or warmongering imperialists or all the other banal bogies. It’s the rest of us who build statues to those generals and name boulevards after those ministers; the rest of us who make heroes of our dead and shrines of our battlefields. We wear our widows’ weeds like nuns and perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices. My brother died at Anzio – an everyday soldier’s death, no special heroism involved. They buried what pieces they found of him. But my mother insists he died a brave death and pretends to be very proud.

Mrs. Barham: You’re very hard on your mother. It seems a harmless enough pretense to me.

Charlie: No, Mrs. Barham. No, you see, now my other brother can’t wait to reach enlistment age. That’ll be in September. May be ministers and generals who blunder us into wars, but the least the rest of us can do is to resist honoring the institution. What has my mother got for pretending bravery was admirable? She’s under constant sedation and terrified she may wake up one morning and find her last son has run off to be brave.

Charlie’s compelling speech is so stunning, so jarring, that Mrs. Barham snaps out of her delusional denial and admits aloud, for the first time, that her husband and son are dead.

Words by Paddy Chayefsky from the movie "The Americanization of Emily".


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Christopher Hitchens and Bill Maher

These two videos are a study of contrast. At left Christopher Hitchens, one of the more interesting journalists around, clashes with Charlie Rose. It's an ego contest each constantly talking over the other. I agree with most of Hitchens' views even as he slaggs Mother Theresa and religion in general. But his stubborn position on Iraq is disappointing. At right is a very civil, and equally good, interview with Bill Maher.
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Apathy and that low voter turnout

We live in a comfortable country. And in a country like Canada there is a tendency for voters to become complacent. People in this province seem to be content enough with the McGinty Liberals that they feel there is no great need for change. So a large part of the low voter turnout in the recent provincial election suggests they are happy enough with the status quo.

This whole thing about getting young people more involved in the political system has some serious faults. On a recent TVO Agenda program, hosted be Steve Paikin, many on a panel of mostly party hacks expressed the view that young people are disengaged in politics with the obvious assumption that getting involved in party politics, by young people, would be a good thing.

I've met and talked to young kids involved with political parties and I can tell you one thing for sure: it's no place for children (people under 30). Frankly, some of these kids really scare me. Kids today are busily involved in the world already. They're often brighter and better informed than many people over forty that I talk to who I find to be stubborn and pertinacious. Party hacks, like those on the 'Agenda', look to exploit unspoiled young adults as malleable targets for their often questionable ideologies and party dogma. They act like it's about religion and they're on an evangelical mission. There is no need to rush people in their teens and twenties into any official party system. We need them as fresh, less indoctrinated observers. We need to learn from them. And if they don't end up voting it kind of tells us something. Party politics, rightfully, should be for the old and, hopefully, wise.

The question of voter apathy is a more troubling matter. I will be marching in next Saturday's anti-war march in Toronto and I will be surprised if there are a thousand people in the street. Similar demonstrations in Montreal brings out crowds in the tens of thousands, while in Washington or London protesters number in the hundreds of thousands. Why are people in this city so unconcerned? This at a time when Dick Cheney seems determined to save the Bush administration's place in history, he thinks, by bombing Iran. And we carry on sacrificing the lives of Canadian soldiers in an un-winnable war that is mostly in support of Washington's failed and morally corrupt agenda. That's real apathy. Read More......

Better the enemy you know

As expected, John Tory's stubborn insistence on bringing up that faith based school funding issue proved to be the undoing of the Progressive Conservatives in yesterday's provincial election. I can just imagine the barrage of "I told you so's" he will have to endure, particularly within his own party. His too-late softening on the issue -- allowing members a free vote if the PC's won -- only worked to question his previously much vaulted leadership as well as his political instincts. It would appear he also suffers from that common conservative trait of irrational hubris. Early in the campaign Tory polled well compared to Liberal winner Dalton McGinty. Now Tory's survival as party leader is very much in question.

It's too bad. Better the enemy that you know. Tory is still broadly respected for his integrity and decency. He's no Mike Harris. And I feel that a government lead by John Tory would not be much worse than that of the McGinty's Liberals. He seems committed to the fight of hanging on as leader. I hope he survives the "long knives". Read More......

Stephen Colbert as himself

Another great Charlie Rose interview, this time with Stephen Colbert as himself in a rare out of character interview. Read More......

Mr. Ahmadinejad Visits New York

Can you imagine George Bush visiting Iran and give public speeches and also make himself available to the local media? Well that's what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did in New York recently. I caught his full hour interview on Charlie Rose and found him, based on this interview, to be far from the loose tongued reactionary with a fanatical mindset that we are led to believe by a pathetically indoctrinated American media. Unfailingly polite and intelligent in his response to questions the Iranian leader proved to be a skillful politician deftly exhibiting the kind of spin that the likes of Ronald Reagan would have admired. He was always a step ahead of Charlie Rose who seamed unusually and surprisingly ill-prepared. Rose should know from years of interviewing American politicians that politics is all about spin. Watch the video and judge for yourself -- does this man seem like a threat to the free world? WATCH VIDEO Read More......

Chomsky vs Buckley

....This is the 1969 classic battle of these two famous intellectuals, each from opposite ends of the political spectrum. As much as I disagree on most of what Buckley has to say he is, nonetheless, a fascinating character. Here, for once though, Buckley's tendency to use his intellect to bully his opponent using sarcasm, fails him.

It is a daunting task to sort out youTube videos that are in parts, like many of the Chomsky ones. Here is a 2 part example that I believe is really in 3 or 4 parts. Some of the Chomskt videos on youTube that are labeled part 4; part 5, etc. are really just repeats of what I have here. If I ever find the real, 'complete' video of this debate (probably half an hour long) I will post it here.
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