Congratulations to Obama

President-elect Barack Obama! That sounds pretty good. President Obama will sound even better.

Congratulations for the beginning of the end of the Bush nightmare, the republicans, and their intolerance, fear-mongering, war-making and attacks on human rights to name but a few.

Congratulations for taking the high road and winning decisively. Congratulations for a chance at a new beginning to tackle the challenges ahead - not the least of which are war, the environment and the economic crisis.

Congratulations to the American people who showed the sensibility to elect someone like Obama who opposed the war in Iraq from the get-go.

Election day update

Today's the big day. Expectations are very high that Obama will take this election handily and that the republicans will be routed in the Senate and lose further ground in the House.

Some voting troubles have already been reported.

Problems with e-voting machines were reported early on election day in several U.S. states, including Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, which are identified as battleground states where the outcome of the vote could tip the presidential race in favor of either Democratic Sen. Barack Obama or Republican Sen. John McCain.

In Philadelphia, at least one polls has run out of paper ballots (which they switched to after voting machine glitches). They are now using provisional ballots marked "emergency" so that they can be counted at the end of the day.

This is an interesting interview with Brad Friedman at Buzzflash, from Brad Blog.

Video the Vote is a website that's been set up to document voting problems. Voters are asked to bring their camcorders or cell phones to produce video where there are technical problems or excruciatingly long line-ups.

C-NET news is also monitoring voting glitches and problems throughout the day today.

You can also check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation site Our Vote Live. They are also logging problems. The site is very busy. You can report problems on their toll-free line - 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Canada has got the simplest, yet most effective voting system. A paper ballot and a pencil. Mark your "X". After the polls close, the ballots are counted with scrutineers representing the candidates to ensure a fair process. We usually know the outcome of the election by midnight. Sure, we have less voters than the US. Sure, no one wants to stay up all night waiting for results. However, how often do elections occur? Isn't it worth the extra time to be sure that the results are fair and that every vote cast is counted?

Polunatic is back....

Polunatic has been "on ice" for the better part of a couple of years. I put it on hold to work on higher priorities in my political life. I was at a Halloween party last weekend and ran into a TV newsmagazine host who I've known since I as a kid. I said to him, "I'd like to get into talk radio and have my own show. I'm thinking of taking a journalism course. What do you think?" He said, "Start sending email commentary to shows like mine. Sign it "Joe the Plumber" or "Steve the whatever". After a few of those, call in to the message machine and do your thing. Forget the journalism course. Just be who you are."

So, I've been thinking about that for the past week. And here I am, at least pondering out loud. Could Polunatic be that voice? Or do I need to construct a new one? After all, I've said some pretty inflammatory things. Most of Polunatic has been what I call "fast food blogging" - in and out. After all, blogging is not my life (although I'm pleased to say that I've had the opportunity to blog (as myself) as part of my current job working on environmental issues). With pretty low traffic, Polunatic, as a project, was not the most effective use of my time.

What I think I did was to bring a distinct perspective and a few good editorials and a couple of interviews - a direction I was looking at as a new focus for Polunatic. So now what? Since I have no regular readers now, I'm not sure if I'll get any feedback, but as usual, comments and emails are welcome.

US election update...

I am compelled by the very nature of Polunatic to comment on the US election. After all, it is the polunacy of US politics that gave birth to Polunatic in the first place. The election is just two days away. According to polls and common sense (and there are still many million of sensible Americans), Obama can only lose if the other side's cheating - a combination of disenfranchisement and voting machine shenanigans - is successful. Can their post-Civil War tactics with a high tech, internet age twist sow enough doubt into the results in enough swing states to tie them up in the courts and perhaps put the big decision into the hands of the Supreme Court again? Let's call that a prediction. I don't mind being wrong.

But surely the republican war room has already developed their contingency plans and probably most of their "crisis" messaging. Just in case it's close enough to "close". We may even see the republicans mobilizing their base to hit the streets, 2nd amendment and all under either an Obama or McCain victory scenario. That IS polunacy.

Dick Cheney, the reformer he is, endorsed McCain yesterday. "The time is now to make him Commander in Chief", he said. Forget President. It's Commander in Chief that matters - spending the trillion dollars a year on the war machine. To hell with the rest of the economy which has been marauded. The Cheney-ites, even if they're booted out of office, will continue their strong push to war. War as big business. War as the centrepiece of foreign policy. The industrial military complex at work. War may be the last profitable bastion of US imperialism (expanding capitalism) now that its manufacturing base is in tatters and the banking and financial sectors in mega-crisis. That IS polunacy.

At the same time however, large sections of the ruling class (those who own and control the economy) are quite comfortable with Obama. Obama is a product of polunacidal US politics. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be the Democrat Party candidate. They have helped shape him into an "ideal" candidate - one who undoubtedly is unable to say what he actually thinks lest he put his foot in his mouth and break the Democrat's consensus.

An Obama supporter I met recently said, "Obama is a shapeshifter. People see in him what they want." Is Obama my "ideal" candidate? No. Is he a "radical"? No. Would he represent a better direction than that of the past 8 (or 16 or 32) years? Well, how much worse could it get? I do believe there is potential for "greatness" in Obama and he may leave a progressive mark or two during his tenure. And I wouldn't advocate the view that there is absolutely no difference between Obama & McCain, between the rethuglican party and the democrats. There is.

But I think that there is a risk that Afghanistan will all too quickly become Obama's Vietnam. Think LBJ in 1965 where escalation became a one-way trap door. Perhaps Obama believes that the US can extricate itself from Afghanistan if they can kill Bin Laden? Can a peaceful, political solution even be found for Afghanistan at this time in its history? Now, were Obama to, even in the face of his "surge", do something like pull US troops out of Saudi Arabia, (or something else like that), then perhaps there is more hope than I currently feel about the continuation of the "global war on terror". Perhaps we'll be pleasantly surprise by President Obama on these big-picture issues? I hope so.

But I'm also afraid that before he does any of that, he'll do things like "move on" from Bush and effectively allow them to get away with it all. This will be done in the name of "healing". Bush will have already pardoned everyone anyway. But there is no statute of limitations on war crimes.

So yes, polunacy still runs rampant in US politics. There's just too much to catch up on from the two years since I had anything to say about US politics on this blog.

But Sarah Palin. She is truly a blog-worthy polunacidal maniac. I can't resist! Has she "gone rogue" on the McCain campaign? What the hell does that mean anyway? The desperation is palpable though. The depths of her attacks on Obama for one. That they even selected her is another. One has to wonder how anyone could buy into Palin and others' maligning characterizations of Obama if they haven't already done so on a hundred other bullshit "arguments".

US elections ARE the ultimate in polunacy, aside from war which is just total lunacy.

Short Canada election update

We're still in the first month of Harper's second minority government. That's a big disappointment. Once again, the electoral system was finessed to manage enough 3 and 4 way split votes into government power. This time around, we might expect to see more of a focus on "the team" and less centralized messaging control from Harper. We can expect more targeted programs and messages to set the stage for the next election. The conservative strategy of wooing voters helped make some modest gains. They will not relinquish those easily - and with government levers under their control, they can do so quite effectively.

The "opposition" parties have proven incapable of finding a way to put partisan rivalries aside in order to kick this international embarrassment out the front door of 24 Sussex. I guess he's not as bad as was suggested during the election? Yes, I know I'm expecting a lot - for a zebra to hide its spots as they say.

But for as long as politics and political parties are distant galaxies away from the "electorate" when elections are not on (most of the time), people will remain aloof and cynical about politics. There will be no pressure on politicians and parties to reform the voting system. The Ontario referendum may have killed reform for another generation in Ontario, also endangering any future national referendum.

But there is still some hope in BC where, next spring, the voters will have another opportunity to bring in proportional representation. So out of polunacy, hope springs eternal.

Taking up where we left off a year ago......

So much for electoral reform in Ontario. It's been over a year since Ontarians stupidly voted to stop electoral reform and maintain the current undemocratic voting system that's been in place in Ontario since before electricity. If there ever was a moment when people will look back a hundred years from now and laugh their asses off, that was one of them. That IS polunacy. The reasons for it could be the subject of another post.

Will Ontario usher proportional representation into North America?

All eyes in the global electoral reform movement are on Ontario, Canada which is set to vote on a referendum to change its voting system on October 10. Several multi-partisan citizens coalitions have pulled out all the stops to mount public awareness and advocacy campaigns for mixed member proportional representation - or MMP for short. Nor are the party old guards taking this lightly because their ability to manipulate the voting system to gain total power is threatened.

Ontario has a parliamentary system. There is an elected legislature. October 10 is also the date of the general election. All 107 seats up for grabs. With the odd exception, Ontario has been a three-party province for over 70 years. In every election since 1937, no party has attained the support of 50% of the voters because of the winner-take-all, first past the post voting system - a system that is based on ridings (geographical districts). A party only requires a majority of ridings, not overall votes, to win 100% of the power.

To win a district in a three way race, a candidate can be elected with as little as 34% of the vote. So while 55 or 60% of voters may vote against someone, that person wins and "represents" the entire riding. In reality, they vote the way their parties tell them to vote and only really represent the the views of the people who voted for them. However, representatives, called Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs), do play a role in the community assisting people with a range of different issues and problems - many of them resulting from a lack of government response. But they hardly "represent everyone".

Ontario is a very large and diverse province, sometimes called the economic engine of Canada with an incredible multi-cultural mix of peoples. There are 8.5 million voters of all stripes in every corner of the province although most people live in or around the large urban areas like Toronto and Ottawa. The Conservatives ruled Ontario for over 40 years when their streak was finally broken in 1985. Since then, all three parties have had their hands on the reigns of government, none ruling with a mandate from the majority - and none prepared to change the antiquated voting system.

And then along came Dalton McGuinty, leader of the Liberals, who promised in the 2003 election to not only review Ontario's voting system, but to use a "Citizens' Assembly" approach let voters study the matter, consult with the public, deliberate and if they recommended that it was time to make positive change, there would be a referendum held with the 2007 election. The Liberals won the election and he delivered on his promise albeit he has not made victory easy.

The Citizens' Assembly did their work and wisely concluded that improving the system would be a good thing and that mixed member proportional would best suit Ontario's political culture. You can read their final report "One ballot, two votes" here. They deserve a lot of credit and thanks. They are the unsung heros of this campaign.

This is Ontario's first referendum since a vote on prohibition in 1927. If successful, Ontario will be the first jurisdiction to have a form of proportional representation in North America for decades and break the stranglehold that the political parties maintain over the political process.

MMP will maintain geographic ridings but will also add a new element of representation by giving voters a party vote. Voters will have more choice at the ballot box as they will be able to split their vote. Like the party but not their candidate? Or vice-versa? Then vote for one party and a candidate from another party. Or vote for an independent and the party of your choice. Voters will elect representatives from ranked lists of pre-nominated party candidates to top up each party's share of seats so that it matches their popular vote. A party that receives 35% of the vote will get 35% of the seats - no more, no less.

Smaller parties like the Greens will have an opportunity to represent their voters if they can reach 3% of the popular vote province-wide. Voters won't be faced with negative voting - where they vote for their second choice because they don't think their first choice can win and they want to ensure that their third choice is either turfed or not elected. You can see that is it a voting system designed by voters, for voters.

MMP will not solve all of the social, economic and political problems facing Ontario - it is not a panacea - but it is an enabler because it allows for public policy making to reflect the majority will of the population. That provides a more stable basis from which to try and build and maintain the fragile social and physical infrastructure that helps define us as a caring society. It might allow for the decades long defensive stance to finally turn around and we can start talking about building things, not just about preventing things from falling apart.

If Ontarians can beat back the party bosses, operators, backroom hacks, lobbyists and media barons, we could become a beacon for other Canadian provinces and perhaps even American states, to push the electoral reform issue forward. A wasted vote is no vote at all. One central democratic measure of a society is that a person's vote matters - that their vote can affect and change things. With MMP, that will happen. And it scares the hell out of the vested interests who have grown comfortable finessing enough three way splits so that 40% of the vote translates in to 60% of the seats and 100% of the power.

Opponents of reform have sought to sow confusion about MMP and to claim that this is all much ado about nothing. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Their proof? The public is not clamoring for a change to the electoral system. At the same time, they play to the suspicions people have of political parties and politicians and are the modern day Red Riding Hood warning of the big bad wolf. Any former politician can crawl out from beneath their slimy, padded rocks and become instant voting system experts with the media. Until a couple of months ago, it took veteran reformers months to get a single op-ed published. They've even adopted Republican style smear tactics labelling proponents of change as "losers" and "cry-babies" and attacking the integrity of the Citizens' Assembly members.

So it's the classic David versus Goliath tale - the people versus the powers that be. Oh, I forgot to mention that the referendum has to carry by 60% in order to carry. In British Columbia, a similar referendum a couple of years ago garnered 57% of the vote (and failed). The public education campaign the government committed to has been wanting, having got off to a slow start.

But for many voters, it's a no-brainer once they understand the basis concept - majority rule and equal votes that count no matter where you live or what you believe. The Vote for MMP campaign, where I have posted this story, is continuing to blitz communities around the province with literature, put up lawn signs and play radio ads. Other campaigns are also continuing their efforts.

But in the end it will be up to one voter to tell another voter who will tell another voter why they should vote for MMP. If we accomplish that, we will surely succeed.

Please browse around the Vote for MMP campaign website. Read about MMP and how it works. Have a look at the list of endorsers. If you want, you can even buy us a beer for our victory party as long as you don't mark your $10.10 contribution for advertising if you're from out of province.

Vote for MMP

The first referendum in over 80 years is happening on October 10th in Ontario. Voters will be electing their provincial members of parliament as well as voting to change our voting system to one called Mixed Member Proportional representation or MMP for short.

For more information about the campaigns and links to information about MMP, please visit the Vote for MMP site.

If you are a blogger and would like to display a Vote for MMP logo prominently on your blog or website, please visit Bloggers for MMP for a variety of logos and banners.

Progressive bloggers GTA BBQ

I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd annual Progressive Bloggers GTA picnic yesterday. Scott Tribe who pulled the gala backyard affair together at Vijay's home in Unionville describes the lineup. The links are in the progressive blogger sidebox. He made me promise to blog the event as I explained my blogging hiatus. A small price to pay for such an interesting bunch of people. So here it is, my first blog entry since January.

Myself (obviously), Jason Cherniak, “Impolitical”, “Buckets of Grewal” (they’d like to remain incognito), Mark Francis of “Section 15″, Philip Qua of “The Wingnuterer”, Gary from “The Polunatic”, Cam Holmstrom from “Peterborough Politics” along with his fiance Allison, Jeff Jedras from “A Bc’er in Toronto”, Steve V. from “Far and Wide”, Chris Tindal of the same named blog, Miranda Hussey from “A View From the Left” & her father Nigel who runs “Nobelton Clear”, David Graham from “The World According to CDLU”, and his wife Laura, Bruce McDonald of “Canuck Attitude”, Jim Calder of the “Progressive Right”, “BigCityLib”, Blueberry Pick’n from “ThisCanadian”, and a couple of special guests - Kate Holloway from Fair Vote Canada/Liberals For MMP, as well as Peggy Nash, NDP MP for Parkdale-Highpark, plus one of her staffers whose name fails me at the moment. I may be missing a couple of others, but once I get the photos of the event, that’ll be rectified once I post them and see who I missed.

It was great to talk to people face to face to hear perspectives on everything from Harper, Bush, nomination races, internal party politics, the MMP referendum, who's loved and who's not. If anything, this was an opinionated community of bloggers! The tandoori chicken was delicious.

Change is in the air?

It's easy to be cynical about politics. Sometimes, its even easy to be cynical about life. I suppose Polunatic came about because I had too much time on my hands. Of late, I've had political wind in my sails with two big campaigns on the go. Campaigns that might make a difference in the big picture.

So I haven't focussed much on blogging because I just didn't build up the regular readership needed to make it worthwhile to post once in a while. The answer my friends, is blogging in the wind. But I'll do it anyway because, why not? If no one reads this today or tomorrow, maybe they will in a hundred years?

Perhaps once these campaigns are over I'll start blogging again - maybe even reveal some of the insider machinations of these fascinating projects. One - to change Ontario's electoral system. The other - to win the presidency of a union (I'm not the candidate).

Both are not without their intrigues into the vagaries of both partisan & labour politics where internal rivalries are often more bitter and nasty than those we have with our common foes. A hardball world where power is the means and the end. I may be able to shed more light on these matters after the union election and October 10 referendum. On the other hand, if, as is customarily the case, we're losers again, we'll be no further to the truth but probably a lot more cynical.

That's not negativity, that's just a fact. I suppose much has been written about power, that the answers abound as to why people have such a hard time letting go and that it's naive to wonder about such matters. But there's a part of me that holds out the hope that there are other models of power where empowerment is rooted in internal democracy including two-way communications and participation. Or is it really just about frequent flyer points and branded merchandise?

For now, Polunatic calls on every progressive minded Ontarian to focus their attention and maybe some of your time on electoral reform and getting rid of this nauseating first-past-the-post system which makes a mockery of our fundamental right to vote. Consider working on the YES campaign this time instead of helping a candidate. Or split your time.

This is the first, and could be the only chance we get for generations to come to move toward equal votes and majority rule. It's not the be all and end all but it's a big move. There are no be alls and end alls. Just stones in the pond that ripple their way into positive change. Catch the wave!

2007 - Year of change

Best wishes for 2007.

There was some good news in 2006 like the re-election of Toronto mayor David Miller, retaking of the House by the dems and the formation of the Ontario Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform in Ontario. The same sex marriage issue was settled (again and hopefully finally).

But there was plenty of bad news, starting with the election of Stephen Harper in January: Shredding the Kelowna Accord. Cancelling childcare. Defunding Status of Women. Big tax breaks for the rich. Opting out of our commitments to deal with global heating. Escalation of Canada's intervention in Afghanistan. Being cheerleader for Israel's war and destruction in Lebanon. Gun control. In each of these areas, Harper has acted as if he had a majority government. Just wait... As if.

But there will likely be a federal election this year. Likely another minority of some kind. Ontario will hold its provincial election on October 4 and likely along with it, a referendum on a new voting system. My union will be holding its elections this year and I'll be actively supporting one of the candidates for president.

Who knows? This could be a pretty good year (bushco aside).

Polunatic is on break

Due to time limitations, Polunatic will not be publishing much before the new year. Feel free to browse around.

In the meantime, I've upgraded to the new blogger and selected a new template. Hope it's easy on the eyes.

Electoral Reform in Ontario

Ontario Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform

Electoral college? Sign them up
Maybe electoral politics isn't as deadly dull as it sounds. How else to explain the fact that 103 randomly selected Ontarians are showing unbridled enthusiasm for our electoral system, and for all the others too?

Quite an amazing process being undertaken here in my home province of Ontario. I've had the opportunity to sit in on the CA a couple of times. Not only was the content very interesting, but the members of the Assembly, as the article shows, are taking their jobs very seriously. You'll rarely hear this from Polunatic when it comes to government processes, but this one has a lot of integrity and should garner a good proposal for positive change.

However, a proposal is one thing, actual change is quite another. While the McGuinty Liberal government deserves kudos for establishing the Assembly, what they give with one hand, they try to take away with another. After all, they're politicians and are threatened by the possibility of change. Voila. Bill 155.

TORONTO -- The Ontario government has set a tough threshold for public approval of any changes to the electoral system. Legislation introduced yesterday would require the endorsement of 60 per cent of those casting a ballot plus at least 50-per-cent support in a minimum of 64 constituencies.

2006 Midterms - Dems win seats, Al Qaeda wins election

The Democrats have retaken the House of Representatives. They're on the verge of taking back the Senate. As the 2008 race begins, will the Dems have what it takes to challenge the White House's supremacy or will they feel they need to "get along"?

Predictions:
1) Right-wing spinmeisters will start saying that because the democrat's gains were not as large as expected, that the election was an endorsement of Bush. They'll also challenge the new Dem majority as a not large enough mandate to challenge Bush.
2) Dems will not claim victory in the last two Senate races in which they're leading - Virginia and Montana - until after a recount.
3) Bush will begin vetoing anything that threatens his rule.
4) Jeb Bushco will run for President in 2008.
5) Lieberman will side with bushco whenever he's needed.
6) Bernie Sanders will emerge as the true American hero and a movement to draft him for President will begin.

Edited to add - November 9, 2008
Well, in the spirit of being accountable for my predictions, here goes (two years later)
#1 was a kind of sarcastic comment which is more apropos now, in the waning days of bushco and on the eve of change
#2 Who remembers?
#3 Not exactly since Congress continued funding the war and doing other things that he asked.
#4 Mea culpa.
#5 True, including McCain
#6 Substitute Barak Obama for Bernie Sanders

No blood for oil?

Bush Says U.S. Pullout Would Let Iraq Radicals Use Oil as a Weapon

As he barnstorms across the country campaigning for Republican candidates in Tuesday's elections, Bush has been citing oil as a reason to stay in Iraq. If the United States pulled its troops out prematurely and surrendered the country to insurgents, he warns audiences, it would effectively hand over Iraq's considerable petroleum reserves to terrorists who would use it as a weapon against other countries.

As usual, bushco holds nothing back in his attempt to scare the shit out of voters where it really matters - their pocketbooks.

At a stop in Missouri on Friday, he suggested that such radicals would be "able to pull millions of barrels of oil off the market, driving the price up to $300 or $400 a barrel."

Of course it's total nonsense and in the true sense of doublespeak, buscho still denies that Iraq has anything to do with oil.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Saturday that Bush's latest argument does not reflect a real shift. "We're still not saying we went into Iraq for oil. That's not true," he said. "But there is the realistic strategic concern that if a country with such enormous oil reserves and the corresponding revenues you can derive from that is controlled by essentially a terrorist organization, it could be destabilizing for the region."

Is it true or not true? Not true or true? You can't even understand these people any more.

Rethug lawyers to harass voters

As Vote Nears, Parties Prepare for Legal Fights

A team of lawyers for the Democratic Party has been arguing with postal officials in Columbus, Ohio, trying to persuade them to process thousands of absentee ballots that have arrived with insufficient postage.

The rethugs already have their talking points - "anyone too stupid to put the right postage on a letter doesn't deserve to vote". OR "Since the whining Dems can't beat us fair and square at the ballot box, they're resorting to lawyers to try and win the election in the courts".

Ding, dong, the witch is dead...

Well not quite yet but it sounds really good just two days before the US congressional elections.

Saddam, two others sentenced to death

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and two other defendants were sentenced to death in Baghdad Sunday for crimes against humanity.

Ironic of course that the US which armed Saddam, helped train his military, encouraged his crimes against humanity and then turned on him should be the sanctimonious ones to put him on trial for following their orders.

Polunatic remains opposed to the death penalty - for Saddam, for Charles Manson, even for buscho if and when the are eventually brought to justice for their war crimes. Of course, IF is the operative word here since they've already given themselves post-dated pardons for the torture, murder and spying that has come to characterize bushco.

All's Fair in Love and War

Army Recruiters Accused of Misleading Students to Get Them to Enlist

An ABC News undercover investigation showed Army recruiters telling students that the war in Iraq was over, in an effort to get them to enlist.

Desperate for more fodder to feed the US war machine, bushco will stoop to anything to connive kids into enlisting. Here's a few choice scams

"We're not at war. War ended a long time ago," another recruiter says...

One Colorado student taped a recruiting session posing as a drug-addicted dropout.
"You mean I'm not going to get in trouble?" the student asked.
The recruiters told him no, and helped him cheat to sign up...

During the ABC News sessions, some recruiters told our students if they enlisted, there would be little chance they'd to go Iraq...

... one recruiter who even claimed if you didn't like the Army, you could just quit....

"It's called a 'Failure to Adapt' discharge," the recruiter said. "It's an entry-level discharge so it won't affect anything on your record. It'll just be like it never happened."

How anyone could not know that the occupation of Iraq is more bloody than ever and that there are MORE US troops now than a year ago, is a testament to the "Leave No Child Behind" education policies.

Of course buscho claims that this is a case of one bad apple and blame flag burners, gays and Democrats for exaggerating the problem and for the bad publicity.

Cheney: "It doesn't matter..."

Cheney: 'Full Speed Ahead' on Iraq

'It may not be popular with the public — it doesn't matter in the sense that we have to continue the mission and do what we think is right. And that's exactly what we're doing,' Cheney said. 'We're not running for office. We're doing what we think is right.'

Of course. They have a country and a war to run. Citizens and voters are not relevant. This election is not a referendum on the war no matter now many rethuglicans are dumped.

"Doing what we think is right". That's the mantra until e-day. It doesn't matter if they are actually right, what counts is that they think they're right. How can you fault anyone who thinks they're right?

Torture as national security

U.S. seeks silence from CIA prisoners

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is arguing that detainees held in secret CIA prisons shouldn't be allowed to describe in court how they were interrogated, the Washington Post reported in its Saturday edition....

The government believes that interrogation methods used by the CIA are among the nation's most sensitive national security secrets, and that their release "could reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage," the Post said, citing recent court filings.

Of course it has nothing to do with embarassing the government who will stoop any level to justify itself. Did you hear about the guy who's 7 and 9 year old kids were kidnapped by the bushco who then threatened to kill them if their "suspect" didn't fess up? Delightful.

Protecting the kids - US-style

Now this Rethuglican's got some great ideas for improving schools safety without having to resort to supplying guns to all students as other patriots have demanded.

Use Textbooks As Shields From School Shooters

Bill Crozier, a Union City Republican going against incumbent Democrat Sandy Garrett, said he believes old textbooks could be used to stop bullets shot from weapons wielded by school intrudersBill Crozier, a Union City Republican going against incumbent Democrat Sandy Garrett, said he believes old textbooks could be used to stop bullets shot from weapons wielded by school intruders.

He gave Eyewitness News 5 a videotape showing he and others shooting weapons, such as an AK-47 and a 9 mm pistol, at books in a field near Minco. They conducted the experiment to see how far bullets would penetrate the books...

"Not everybody would be saved in that situation, of course. But many of them would, and instead of running away or being lined up ... this is a way for the children to fight back," he said.

This guy outta think about running for president.

Halliburton loses monopoly nuke deal with N. Korea

U.N. adopts resolution against N. Korea

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose punishing sanctions on North Korea for its claimed nuclear test, declaring that its action posed "a clear threat to international peace and security." North Korea's U.N. ambassador said Pyongyang "totally rejects" the resolution...

The resolution bans the import or export of material and equipment that could be used to make nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles. It orders all countries to freeze the assets and ban travel for anyone engaged in supporting North Korea's weapons programs.

To meet Russian and Chinese concerns, the Americans eliminated a complete ban on the sale of conventional weapons. Instead, the resolution limits the embargo to major hardware such as tanks, warships, combat aircraft and missiles.

Too bad for Halliburton who was hoping for the exclusive contract to trade with North Korea. Now they'll have to share with the Europeans.

So much to say, so little time

I love blogging. Wish I could make a living from it, but the reality of the situation is that it is time-consuming with minimal "payback" so I've had to minimize my blogging these days in order to accommodate more important priorities like electoral reform in Ontario and internal union politics.

But the world continues to turn and an interesting world it is.

I just heard on the radio that the 40th Canadian soldier just died in Afghanistan. For what? To avenge those who died on September 11? Who will avenge those who died in Afghanistan? When will it end? To their credit, the NDP finally came around to calling for withdrawal of the troops from Afghanistan. Some might say they did so to avert a nasty debate at the NDP convention last month in Quebec City.

Harper has decided to pay danger pay to injured soldiers after all.

The corpse of habeus corpus is beginning to rot in the US.

Harper appears to be jeopardizing his dreamy majority while the opposition lets him run as if he has one anyway.

Toronto jail guards are receiving racist death threats.

The Liberal leadership race is shaping up something like this - those who think that the war on terror is super duper and those who don't.

Pennsylvania Amish school shooting kills 5 girls. Time to start supplying students with weapons so they walk the second (?) amendment talk?

Harper warns Bush that Canada will lodge a formal complaint demanding they come clean about their evidence against Maher Arar. Didn't both the RCMP and O'Connor say that there was NO evidence against him - that he was an innocent man?

The Foley "page" affair shows just how rotten things are. Hastert may resign yet. Of course it's all Bill Clinton's fault.

And on and on it goes.

Trail of Tears Campaign

This is an excellent campaign led by Lonefighter Leader Milton Born-With-A-Tooth, of the Peigan Tribe within the Blackfoot Confederacy to expose and ultimately change the Department of Indian Affairs policy of "Third Party Management" (TPM) of First Nations communities.

Born-With-A-Tooth led the direct action against the Oldman River dam in Alberta in 1990.

Trail of Tears 2006 - Atlantic to Pacific Oceans

A Journey for Our Future

The future of any People, any cultural group, is the children and the grandchildren. Those yet to come will inherit the problems and the solutions we leave behind. Adults have a Sacred Responsibility to pass Hope for the Future onto our Children. Without that, they are lost.

Today far too many of our youth are without hope.

This is a volatile situation. Suicide is the most obvious way some of our youth show the hopelessness they feel about the future. Drugs, solvent sniffing, street gangs, alcoholism, dropping out of school, settling into a life of feeling useless and welfare dependency, imprisonment, domestic violence – these are some of the very common early-warning signs of hopelessness. Our children feel hopeless because of Canada’s 139 year old policies of cultural genocide...

Six (6) months ago, I filed legal charges for fraud and misconduct against a consortium of financial advisors and consultants associated with various speculative corporations, four (4) Peigan Band Council members, three (3) officials from Indian & Northern Affairs Canada, two (2) financial institutions, and our Peigan Band Council Chief. At the centre of these charges was the squandering of $22,000,000 of this trust fund. The reason I included Indian Affairs in these criminal charges is because I believe they have shown themselves to be directly negligent in their fiduciary responsibility to our People, as per our Treaty with Canada. Further, they appear to have been involved in political interference that has undermined our community’s ability to self-govern...

This Trail of Tears will educate, mobilize, and unify people...

Our only alternative is to find a way to expose the truth about what is happening to us. I demand a full public inquiry into Indian Affairs’ decision to put my People, the Peigan, under Third Party Management...

I'll drink to that...

Actually, no you won't. In response to the British GatorAdeGate, bushco has declared that drinking is now illegal. Anywhere, anytime (until the November elections). Registered republicans and their families have been exempted from this requirement and may drink all they like but are prohibited from providing drinks to anyone else. Penalties are particularly stiff for providing drinks to Muslims and democrats.

On a more serious note, do you think they'll finally address my pet peeve and prohibit duty free liquor bottles on board planes? I know a glass bottle is nothing like a box cutter or plastic Gatorade container, but if you think about it, someone could use one to conk someone over the head or worse. Ever since 9/11 I've been having my toenail clippers confiscated by security while the guy next to me gets to bring bottles of booze onto the plane.

Finally, bushco has also decreed that from here on in, airline passengers will have to travel in the nude after it was revealed that pantyhose and smelly socks could potentially be used as lethal weapons.

Flying in the nude? Now, I'll drink to that! On second thought, I guess I can't.