Category Archives: News and politics

The world is full of lyin’ mud-crawlin’ gravy-suckin’ sonsabitches, who ain’t got the wisdom God gave geese to get in out of the rain.  These stories merely prove it.

Actress Sienna Miller Slights Pittsburgh

Oct 06 4:30 PM US/Eastern (AP) Sienna Miller apologized Friday for disparaging Pittsburgh in a magazine interview, saying her remarks were taken out of context and that she found the city and residents gracious.

The 24-year-old British actress, in town shooting the screen adaptation of Michael Chabon’s novel "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," called the city a profane name that rhymes Pittsburgh. 

Miller, who starred in "Layer Cake," "Casanova" and the remake of "Alfie," told Rolling Stone, "Can you believe this is my life? Will you pity me when you’re back in your funky New York apartment and I’m still in Pittsburgh? I need to get more glamorous films and stop with my indie year."

In response, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said Sienna Miller, "Hasn’t got enough up top to qualify for residency in Titsburg, let alone be a cab slut on the Southside Flats.  Pittsburgh is the City of Champions, the City of Iron and we like our women folk to have some sweater-puffs we can grab ahold of on payday."

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Times Online
October 05, 2006

Jack Straw calls on Muslim women to lift their veils

By Russell Jenkins

Jack Straw, the leader of the House of Commons, has called on Muslim women to lift their veils as a way of breaking down barriers between communities.

In a disclosure that risks upsetting Muslims, he says he now asks women to remove their veils when they attend weekly surgeries in his Blackburn constituency.

Mr Straw, a former Foreign Secretary, says that the veil can be regarded as a visible statement of “separation and difference”. Some Muslim scholars do not believe it is obligatory. 

Mr. Straw, in acknowledging the importance of the veil and modesty in the Muslim faith said that as an alternative, the women visiting his office could consider either raising their blouses to,  "flash some tit or lifting their skirts to flash some clam.  Either one is lots of fun!"

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Analysis: Ashcroft blasts 9-11 Commission

By SHAUN WATERMAN
UPI Homeland and National Security Editor

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) — Former Attorney General John Ashcroft this week became the only Cabinet-level Bush official to attack the Sept. 11 Commission, writing in his memoirs it "seemed obsessed with trying to lay the blame for the terrorist attacks at the feet of the Bush administration, while virtually absolving the previous administration of responsibility."

Ashcroft also writes that the commission’s hearings "were not so much about discovering the truth as they were about assessing blame and grandstanding," adding that they "degenerated into show trials."

GOP Commissioner Slade Gorton, a former senator from Washington State, told United Press International Thursday that he found the charges "extraordinary," recalling that President Bush had personally repudiated Ashcroft’s tactics in his sparring with the commission.

"Most of the criticism (the commission received) was the exact opposite: that we didn’t blame anyone," he said. "Our job was to write a factual account which readers could use to assess blame for themselves."  Ashcroft "may very well have been the worst witness we interviewed," he said, adding he was "very unresponsive and unhelpful." 

Gorton continued, "Ashcroft is dumber than a box of hammers and the only reason he’s angry at us, is we called ‘bullshit’ on just about everything he said.  I wouldn’t trust that dork to tell me the correct time."

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TV spot links Braley to Communist Party

By Ed Tibbetts | Tuesday, October 03, 2006 | Quad-City Times

A new Republican television ad links Democratic congressional candidate Bruce Braley to the Communist Party and says he’s supported by “ultra liberals.”

The ad, which began running Friday, prompted the Braley campaign to label it a “joke.” The ad says Braley was endorsed by the Council for a Livable World and was called a “peace candidate” by the Communist Party.

The council, the new ad says, advocates “huge defense cuts” and has a leader that once proposed negotiating with the Taliban.

It concludes by saying Braley’s support from “ultra liberals” shows he’s “out of touch” with Iowa.
Jeff Giertz, a Braley spokesman, did not dispute the ad’s accuracy but said it is “over the top.”

“It’s absolutely laughable,” he said, adding Braley hasn’t been endorsed by the Communist Party, nor is the ad claiming that.  Giertz said that "Braley never negotiated with the Taliban; he left that up to Vice-President Dick Cheney who was representing Unocal." 

Giertz added  "Bruce Braley assured me was completely shitfaced on some amazing Afghan hash that Hamid Karzi was hot-knifing at the time, so he doesn’t remember much of the meeting with the Taliban."

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Oct 6, 3:49 PM (ET) By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council on Friday urged North Korea not to carry out a planned nuclear-weapon test and warned Pyongyang of unspecified consequences if it did.

The warning, in a formal statement adopted unanimously, came three days after North Korea’s announced it planned its first underground nuclear test, saying its hand had been forced by a U.S. "threat of nuclear war and sanctions."

U.S. officials have said the reclusive state might detonate a device as early as this weekend, and a Chinese source said Pyongyang planned to carry out the test deep inside an abandoned mine.

A nuclear test would "jeopardize peace, stability and security in the region and beyond" and "bring universal condemnation by the international community," said the Security Council statement, read at a formal meeting by Japan’s U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, this month’s council president.

It warned North Korea that a nuclear test would lead to further unspecified Security Council action "consistent with its responsibility under the Charter of the United Nations."

Analysts say North Korea probably has enough fissile material to make six to eight nuclear bombs but probably does not have the technology to devise one small enough to mount on a missile.  Analysts also said that they might also be kidding. 

"We truly have no clue whatsoever," said Maynard G Krebs, a UN Nuclear Proliferation Analyst.  "We’re so out of touch here, half the staff think that U Thant is still the Secretary-General and the other half think they’re working on the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles." 

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Inquiry To Look At House, Not Foley
By Charles Babington,  Washington Post Staff Writer (With file from http://www.cbc.ca)
Friday, October 6, 2006; A01

The House ethics committee launched a wide-ranging investigation into Congress’s handling of information about a Florida lawmaker and teenage pages yesterday, as Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) vowed to keep his job, saying, "I haven’t done anything wrong.  At least nothing you’ve got transcripts of."

The ethics panel approved nearly four dozen subpoenas for documents and testimony from House members, officers and aides. Its leaders said they plan to complete the inquiry in a matter of weeks, but not necessarily before the Nov. 7 congressional elections.

"Our investigation will go wherever the evidence leads us," Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) told reporters at the Capitol.

The committee is evenly divided between the two parties, and Hastings and Rep. Howard L. Berman (Calif.), the top Democrat, promised to conduct an impartial investigation into the House’s handling of warnings about the conduct of then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.).  "We believe the committee could use a scanning electron microscope to find what is left of Speaker Hastert’s credibility." said Rep. Berman.

As part of his statement, Speaker Dennis Hastert also announced a toll-free number that Americans could call to suggest ways of making sure young pages are free from harassment or other forms of ill treatment by politicians or government officials.

"Our children need to be protected and we’re going to do everything that we can to protect them," he said."

Several callers to the toll-free line said that they were amazed that grown humans in Congress, the Senate and the Speaker’s Office still do not understand that it is illegal to have sex with anyone underage, regardless of gender and needed a toll-free line to have regular citizens explain it to them.

A typical comment came from Ms. Angela Fleedmocker who recorded her comments on the toll-free advice line,  "At least Clinton was getting some consensual skull lovin’ from an adult.  Foley wanted to holepunch the young stuff and that ain’t right, even for West Virginia.  What part of this do you not understand?"

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I really have to get a new hobby.

I might joke about the Amish but I do have some admiration for any religious group that has declared itself pacifist and wants little to do with the North American frenzy we call a lifestyle.

I also kid about the Mennonites and Hutterites too, as well as poking a sharpened stick at every other organized religion on the planet, including the Presbyterians.  Especially Presbyterians, the bunch of self-righteous pud-pullers.

Which is why the school shootings in Lancaster, Pennsylvania are heartbreaking.  I’ve been to that area of Pennsylvania and it is beautiful.  The Amish farms are prosperous, the people hardworking and the pace of life is gentle but determined to succeed through hard work and helping each other as much as possible.  I might not subscribe to the Amish interpretation of religion, but I do appreciate it. 

I have even spent an enjoyable few dozen minutes talking with some members of the brethren, over a fence, outside Mechanicsburg, PA.  Oddly enough I was looking for directions to Williams Grove Speedway to watch the sprint cars tear up the track.  They knew where it was and gave me directions, but I stayed and chatted for a while about cabbages and kings.

Yesterday a warped person stormed into a one-room Lancaster, PA school, in a predominantly Amish area.  He took a bunch of young girls hostage, shot up the place, then turned the gun on himself.  So far, five of the children are dead.  Charles Carl Roberts IV came ready for action, with 600 rounds, three weapons, a stun gun, two knives, clothing, tape, hardware, and rolls of clear tape.  This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment freak-out. 

Some reports say that members of the Amish brethren in the area have expressed their regret at the killings.  In the next breath they also express their sincere forgiveness of the the shooter.  

I know I wouldn’t have the courage of my convictions to know that a deeply disturbed person killed my daughter in cold blood, then turn around and forgive him.  Not many people could.  For that sheer courage to not only live the "Christian" life, but to actually act the "Christian" way in a very extreme situation, I can only be impressed and respectful.

This doesn’t mean I won’t crack jokes about the Amish having a coal-fired web server made out of lumber and twine.  At the same time, I’m sad that this group, who have managed to avoid most of the insanity of our modern life, have to go through this sadness.  It isn’t right.  I have no fix for it and no way to make it better.

This is based on a RoadDave from the old website from November 11th, 2004.  Since the US is falling uphill towards e-voting in five weeks time, it might be worthwhile to look at it again.

Mechanical or electromechanical voting machines have been around for quite a while in the US.  Enter the polling place, close the curtain, pull the handle for the droog you want in the office, open the curtain and go home.  When the polls close, the vote counting people open a locked door on the back, read off the numbers, then call the numbers into the central office.  Vote is done, life goes on and a new group of thieves and pimps get to take office.

We’ve used a limited form of Electronic voting in Canada for quite a few years.  Many polls use what is called a Mark-Sense ballot.  Just like those IQ tests you took in high school, you shade in the little oval with a #2 pencil, next to the name of the candidate you want to vote for.  Put the ballot in a paper sleeve to keep your choices away from prying eyes and bring it to the machine. 

The machine, which looks like an old fashioned laser printer, sucks the ballot in and reads it, doing the counting on the fly.  Results are written to a memory card inside the machine.

The machine tells the poll worker and the voter if they have overvoted or undervoted and asks them if they want to confirm their overvote or undervote without disclosing what the particulars are.   I’ve done this; overvoted to spoil a ballot when I couldn’t hold my nose long enough for any of the meat puppets running for the office.  I did vote, even if my vote was to create a deliberately spoiled ballot.

After the vote is counted by the machine, the paper Mark-Sense ballot is kept, in case the machine coughs up a lung, pees its pants, or is hammered to pieces by an unhappy scrutineer.  The ballots are put in a regular, sealed, ballot box.  When the polls close, the memory card is removed from the machine and put in a laptop.  The results are displayed along with any errors the machine has encountered.  If the memory card is truly pooched, it says so. 

The vote numbers are either read off the screen and phoned in, or sent electronically to the central office for tabulation using wireless or a dial up modem.  In any case, a broken machine, a tampered card, a busy signal, or blithering idiot poll worker, the paper ballots are retained and sent to the central office, still sealed in their ballot box.  This is the backup when the technology fails or a judicial recount is ordered. 

Full e-voting dispenses with the paper step altogether.  You go behind the curtain and touch-screen your choices, hoping the technology works as intended.  We’ve found that the technology doesn’t always work as intended.

In one case, the e-voting machine ran out of memory after only a few thousand votes but didn’t shut down, or cry, or beg, or beep.  People kept voting away and the machine kept showing the voters the ballot and accepting their choices.  Then, it would toss their choices in the bit bucket, gone forever.  Those who see black helicopters everywhere are certain that it only tossed out Democrat or Libertarian votes, but the endgame is the same.  No votes were recorded.

The tradition of secret ballot, accurately counted, has a tradition going back to the Ancient Greeks:  Voters marking their choice on the shards of a clay pot and putting their choices in a big basket which were then counted by impartial counters.  If there was a dispute over who got how many votes, a judge could always recount the pot shards.

The issue comes down to three things:  We want a secret ballot.  We want accurate results.  We want the results as fast as possible. 

The secret ballot, we can do.  Accurate results using paper balloting is about as good as it gets, but it isn’t fast.  Paper has the advantage in that it allows for a judicial recount, as you just bundle up the ballots and drive them over to a central warehouse for counting by the judicial folks. 

There have been hiccups with mechanical systems, notably the punch ballot and the hanging chad issues in Florida, but at least someone can go back and look at the paper.  Much of the problems with mechanical voting come back to poor design, untrained poll workers, broken technology and inept voters.  These are all things that can be fixed easily. 

Pure e-voting, without paper, is problematic.  If there is a demand for a judicial recount, what do you do?  Take the touch screen over to the judges and have them eyeball the output?  What happens if a bratty seven year old at the polling place decides to dump his 32 oz. Mister Freezie into the guts of the voting machine?

The concern is that the internal programming of a pure e-voting machine is not subject to scrutiny by an independent third party.  We are trusting the manufacturer to put in programming that doesn’t lie, or juggle the output, or drop zeros, or just round up to the nearest 10,000 for the Republicans. 

Programming code is hard to validate without very specialized knowledge and even harder to test for security.  So much of the internals of an e-voting device are labeled ‘proprietary’ and ‘confidential’ by the manufacturer.  We are not allowed to look, or question.  This is the heart of accuracy and by definition, democracy.  Remember we want a secret ballot, accurately counted.  If we can’t verify the counting, then we don’t have democracy. 

We want a system that is fast, which e-voting is.  We want a system that is secret, which e-voting can be, or at least the steps up to actually touching the screen to indicate my choices.  We want a system that is accurate, so if I do screw up, I can change my selection before it goes into the ‘ballot box’ either virtual or physical.  E-voting is not accurate because the computer code is not subject to impartial third-party scrutiny. 

E-voting is also not secure because you can hack the memory cards.  Go to www.blackboxvoting.org if you want to see how to hack one with four dollars worth of hand tools and ten minutes. 

However, we can make the memory cards more secure by having strict protocols in place for e-voting machines.  The protocols already exist.  Take the same protocols for a physical ballot box and apply them to the memory card and machine.  Even Karl Rove knows you don’t break the seal on a ballot box until the polls are closed and then, only with witnesses present.

At the end of it, we could make e-voting secure, but we’re still missing the audit trail of paper.

The closest we’ve come is Mark-Sense, where the computer side of things is just a counter, based on the paper ballot.  The programming is simple, the technology mature and the results are reasonably reliable.  Second worst-case?  You can re-run the paper ballots into another machine, if the current machine blows a headvalve or starts behaving oddly.

Or, worst-case, you can sit down with a calculator and tabulate off the paper ballots in an entirely manual process.  This works, even in a power failure and is as accurate as humans counting pot shards can make it. 

So far, until the e-voting machine people show us all the inner workings and have the code validated by several impartial, or even aggressively distrustful groups, I’m not prepared to sign on the line.  I want a paper ballot.

Now the kicker:  You cannot demand a paper ballot.  You are required to use the technology set out for you, like it or not.  Your right to vote in a secret ballot, accurately counted, has now been taken away. 

Enjoy your democracy.  Thank you for voting.

Here is a telling exchange as to how the Republican Reptiles are going to position ex-Congressman Mark Foley’s indiscretions.  From CNN’s American Morning between Soledad O’Brien and Chief Dubya Fartcatcher Tony Snow:

"O’BRIEN: I would assume everybody would want to know, including the president. I mean, we’re not talking about any old person. We’re talking about the leadership of the Republicans in Congress. Why would he not hear something that’s disturbing, or his office — over-friendly — when I see that word as a parent — and I think any parent would say, Whoa, over-friendly? Any communication between a 16-year-old and a congressman, why doesn’t that raise red flags — major, massive red flags?

SNOW: Yes, look, I hate to tell you, but it’s not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill. And there have been other scandals, as you know, that have been more than simply naughty e-mails."

Naughty e-mails?  To carry it further, in Tony Snow’s World, Lee Harvey Oswald merely cured JFK’s migraines and the Holocaust was a package tour that went bad? 

I know these people have no shame whatsoever, but this is over the top for a PR Fartcatcher.  Even the PR Fartcatcher for Dubya.  Even Ari Fleischer never went this far.

I like watching tight-assed, blue nosed, uber-conservative Republicans get their knickers in a twist when one of their own steps over the line.  Over the weekend, the Republican Reptiles have been spinning frantically as revelations come out that Congressman Mark Foley was trolling Congressional Pages online. 

For those not familiar with the general arc of the story, now ex-Congressman Foley was chatting up a Congressional page on a chat program.  Comments range from "What are you wearing?" to much more salacious.  Idiot that Foley was, he was doing it from his office, where his typing passed through a number of servers, most of which are probably tapped by the Department of Homeland Paranoia in the War on Terror.  Odds are it was either the object of his ‘affection’ who saved the chat, or someone in IT/DHS who trapped the chat with off-the-shelf sniffer software.  In either case, the transcript wound up in the hands of ABC News.

Unfortunately, it was known to some in the Republican hierarchy that Congressman Foley had been trolling online for a while, his particular taste being underage boys. From the Department of Irony That I Can’t Make Up, Congressman Foley was the co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children and helped author a bill to make Internet sexual exploitation of minors, illegal.  To quote Congressman Foley, "They’re sick people; they need mental health counseling,"

Since it was well-established that the young men involved in these chats were minors, Foley was drinking out of the same toilet he wanted to flush.  The chat transcripts themselves are explicitly sexual in nature.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert has asked the FBI and the Department of JustUs (Don’t Worry, it’s Just Us tapping your phone) to begin an investigation.  Hastert also sent a letter to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Sunday requesting that he "direct the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct an investigation of Mr. Foley’s conduct."

In his letter to Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales, Hastert has also asked that they find out who in the House knew about the emails and when.  Congressman Thomas Reynolds from New York, who headed the House Republican election effort, said he told Speaker Hastert about Foley’s illegal behavior several months ago.  A couple of Democratic Congressmen are also coming forward with allegations they told the Speaker a few months ago that pages they had sponsored had complained about ‘sick’ emails they had received from Foley.

This morning in a letter apparently from Foley, faxed to WPBF in Palm Beach, Florida, he states that, "I strongly believe that I am an alcoholic and have accepted the need for immediate treatment for alcoholism and related behavioral problems.  On Saturday, with the loving support of my family and friends, I made arrangements to enter a renowned in-patient facility to address my disease and related issues."

Oh, he’s not a kiddy diddler, he’s a drunkard?  I suppose being an alcoholic is more acceptable to the Conservative right-wing nuts than being a online predator. I won’t mention the power dynamic a sitting member of Congress has over a teenaged House Page, except to say it is heavily weighted towards the Congressperson.

What I’d really like to hear is how the chats got out.  It would be Right, in the scheme of things, that the Department of Homeland Paranoia caught Foley in one of its interceptions of personal communications that are done without such niceties as warrants, under the Patriot Act.

Yesterday, a 20 meter section of four-lane overpass collapsed and fell onto Highway 19 in the Montreal suburb of Laval, Quebec.  The overpass, the usual concrete and steel construction was originally built in 1970 and fell 15 meters to the road below.  At least two vehicles were pancaked under the slab.  Five people were killed.  Three vehicles and a motorcycle fell on top of the collapse, as the road disappeared from underneath their wheels.  Six people who landed on top were injured, two are in critical condition. You can follow the story at www.cbc.ca if you want.

Stop and think about how many bridges you go over, or under, on your way to work, grocery shopping or doing the myriad things you do every day.  Bridges, even the smallish ones that cross highways, or creeks are marvels of engineering.  Thousands of cars, buses and trucks gallop along pounding the pavement every day. 

To understand what bridges do, find a five pound bag of sugar or flour.  Hold the bag in your hand and raise your arm straight out from the side of your body at right angles.  Keep it there for five minutes without letting your arm sag, tremble or move.  You are now, officially, a cantilever, one of the essential engineering structures that define a bridge.  You can put the bag of flour down now.  And stop you arm from throbbing. 

The Laval bridge was only 36 years old.  This is middle-aged for bridges.  The problem is that in most of Canada we have winter.  Winter means ice and snow on the roads, which, especially in Eastern Canada, means salt on the roads.  Salt eats steel.  To keep this corrosion in check, bridges get inspected, usually yearly, depending on the budgets. 

Uh-oh  I said a bad word:  Budgets.  Budgets for infrastructure have been cut to the bone year after year.  Budgets for inspections have just about disappeared.  Politicians have twin demons of getting re-elected, or doing what needs to be done.  Getting re-elected means not raising taxes, or making sure that voters see what their tax money is paying for. 

Bridge inspections and preventative maintenance are not things that a voter can look at and say "Yup.  We need it and we’re payin’ for it, as we should."  Nor for that matter is replacing or fixing the estimated 30 percent of sewer and water systems in most cities that leak.  Pipes are underground and until you get raw sewage backing up into basements, or find a huge sinkhole in a road, the pipes might as well be on Mars.  The electrical grid in this corner of North America is held together with spit, paper clips, gaffer tape and fervent prayer. 

The ugly fact is that the Great Infrastructure Buildout of the 1950’s and 1960’s was a long time ago.

Did the Laval bridge collapse from a lack of maintenance?  We don’t know yet.  I do know that the inspection process these days is pretty rudimentary:  "It is still there?  Yep.  Is it on fire but shouldn’t be?  Yep.  Passed.  Next!" 

Ontario is a good example of how not to do things.  The TSSA (Technical Standards and Safety Authority) in this province is in charge of inspecting elevators.  TSSA is a private company that slurped up the Technical Standards Division of the Ministry of Consumer and Corporate Affairs for the province.  TSSA sets fees to perform inspections, as required under law.  They are non-profit but are expected to cover their entire budget from license and inspection fees. 

There are more than 43,000 elevating devices in Ontario.  This includes escalators, passenger elevators, freight elevators and personnel lifts.  There are 43 inspectors listed on the TSSA website for the whole province.  This means each inspector, including the managers, has to inspect approximately 1000 elevating devices per year to make sure the old stuff is still safe and the new stuff is installed correctly.

By the way, there are 261 workdays in a year, assuming you get Saturday and Sunday off.  Let’s call it 250 workdays a year, as folks do get sick, have to take training, statutory holidays, vacations, or to go to the doctor. 

That means each inspector, having 1000 elevating devices to inspect, must do four a day.  Two in the morning, two in the afternoon.  I’m not counting travel time, lunch, buildings being closed, people not available, time to do the paperwork and so on.  In the downtown core, this might even be doable, except the inspection time is basically 90 minutes per elevating device.  Or, "Is it on fire and plummeting to the basement from the 28th floor with a load of lawyers?  No?  Passed.  Next!" 

To add to the impossibility of inspecting things, the TSSA in Ontario also inspects fuel standards, boilers and pressure vessels, upholstery and stuffed articles, ski lifts, power plants and amusement rides.  I checked the number of inspectors for each category and at first glance the same names are in all the areas of authority.     

How to fix infrastructure failures?  First, it is going to cost a LOT of money that has to come from somewhere.  Somewhere means you and me and our pockets.  Second, we have to have some priorities as we can’t afford to fix it all.  Someone has to look at all the infrastructure components and decide each year where the bulk of the money has to go to keep things from breaking down completely.

As an example, there is a rail bridge that crosses a major road here in Mississauga, not far from where I live.  This bridge carries the GO Train, freight trains and passenger trains.  If that bridge failed and fell across a major north-south artery, Mississauga would stop from a traffic perspective and a big piece of the GO Train metro system would be out of commission for several weeks. 

Now, make that train a freight, carrying anhydrous ammonia, propane, new cars and bulk sulfur, which is a load I have personally seen on that line.  The bridge fails and two dozen freight cars fall into the boulevard, cutting off traffic and burning for a while.  You would have to evacuate most of Mississauga, which means 600,000 people have to go somewhere because of one rail bridge. 

That is the hidden danger of infrastructure failure.  The failure isn’t just one thing, it becomes, very quickly, several dozen things of ever-increasing danger and impact.

However, we don’t know what parts of our infrastructure are in the worst shape.  We have no clue what bridges are merely looking old and tired and which ones are teetering on collapse from abuse, neglect or bad construction in the first place.  Why?  Because inspecting infrastructure is not a glamorous use of taxpayers’ money.  It isn’t sexy like a convention centre, or a modern toll road.  It doesn’t get the politician any publicity mileage whatsoever, therefore what will get cut first?

Bridges, roads, sewers, natural gas pipes, the electrical grid and all the other infrastructure things we rely on daily will last for several decades as long as regular, comprehensive inspection and repairs are carried out. 

Will it eventually turn out that the bridge in Laval fell down because of a lack of inspection and general neglect?  Again, I don’t know for certain, but I can make a well-educated guess.  The answer is yes.

It may be a couple of weeks late and a dollar short, but today, Maher Arar got his apology from the RCMP for telling lies about him, getting his butt shuffled off to Syria for some illegal incarceration and nearly a year of endless terror for his family.  The apologist was RCMP Commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli:

"I would like to take this opportunity to express to you and your wife and your children how truly sorry I am for whatever part the actions of the RCMP may have contributed to the terrible injustice you experienced and the pain you and your family endured," Zaccardelli said at a House of Commons public safety committee meeting today.

Unfortunately, Zaccardelli did not offer to resign, as he should have.  Naturally, the Public Safety Minister, Stockwell `I banged her too!` Day didn’t` do the honourable thing and fall on his sword either.

This is in keeping with the complete lack of any sense of honour that our elected representatives have shown since, oh, 1966, on either side of the border.  It was taught to us in Civics Class that politicians were honourable people who tried to do their best and when they didn’t`, the British tradition was to resign their seat. 

Today, when caught in a falsehood the politician will say it was:  a) taken out of context  b) being made more of than it really means  c) misquoted by an unscrupulous journalist  d) not current policy  e) pending litigation, so he or she cannot talk about it or  f) a youthful indiscretion.  Even if the falsehood is captured on tape, from four different angles, live, on broadcast TV, of the politico having intimate relations with a barnyard sow, yesterday, the a) thru f) excuses apply.

Resignations are never offered, as that would be the right thing to do.  So would a couple of dismissals of some Foreign Affairs Desk officers who know Arar was in custody but did jack-squat to ensure even his basic rights were even vaguely respected. 

If it were up to me, I`d have the Finance Minister cut Maher Arar and his family a nice cheque, somewhere around 4 or 5 million dollars, then have a courier drive it over to his place tomorrow afternoon.  It wouldn’t` be nearly enough, or even come close to making up for our country and our police force screwing one of our citizen over six ways to Tuesday.  At least we could make sure he never wants for anything in the realm of money.  I wouldn’t` take income tax off it either.

My only hope is still that Maher Arar forgives us.

The news is somewhat confusing.  Depending on whom you listen to, Osama Bin Laden is dead from typhoid and has been for a month.  Or isn’t.  None of it has been confirmed but there is enough wild speculation on the various newsies to power a small city. 

Here’s what is known.  Osama Bin Laden is in Pakistan, up near the Afghanistan border, either dead, or deeply unhappy.  We do know he’s six foot six, probably lives in a cave and needs kidney dialysis frequently.  We know Osama Bin Laden has taken credit for the 9/11 bombings as well as stirring up anti-American sentiment. 

The likelihood of Osama Bin Laden showing up at the Lufthansa counter at Frankfurt Airport and buying a ticket to London Stanstead is slim, as his face is almost as well known as Paris Hilton or Mel Gibson.  I suspect that Bin Laden’s Frequent-Flyer miles have expired from non-use, so he’s been staying in the same approximate place for a few years. 

The Terror Trust of Dubya, Cheney, Rove and Rumsfeld have had and continue to have the tools available to reach out and touch Osama Bin Laden.  Had the Terror Trust really wanted to get Bin Laden in 2002, the trial would have been over in 2005 and our lives would have been eminently improved since.

The reason they didn’t (and have not) captured or killed Bin Laden is this: To run a war, you need a Demon.  There has to be someone you can point to as "the bad guy":  The Demon. 

Check your history.  World War I, it was the Kaiser and Germans in general.  Berlin, Ontario was renamed Waterloo, Ontario.  German Bay on Big Rideau Lake was immediately renamed Britain-Houghton Bay.  We wanted nothing "German’ in our midst as they were the bad guys. 

World War II, we demonized Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo.  Not that those three weren’t scumbags, but taking sauerkraut off the menu and shipping all residents of Japanese heritage to internment camps are not the actions of a tolerant society.  Interestingly, the belt buckle of some units of the Germany Army had the initials IHR cast into the metal, which loosely translates as With God’s Help, meaning Germany was on God’s Side.  Perhaps God was kidding that day.

In Korea, it was the Godless Communist "Chinee" Hordes swarming over the Yalu River and the 38th parallel to oppress the noble South Koreans under Syngman Rhee.  Rhee was a rabid anti-communist who made Joe McCarthy look like a Socialist florist and part-time window dresser.

Viet Nam?  Ho Chi Minh and black-pajama clad "gooks" sneaking around planting punji sticks on jungle paths.  Never mind that the US used claymore mines and defoliated about half the country, those Godless Communists wanted to unseat whoever the US had propped up on the President’s chair that week.  Even Wikipedia doesn’t have the list.  I think everyone in South Viet Nam took turns being President of South Viet Nam for a week.

The Taliban?  They were Freedom Fighters against the Godless Russian Communist Hordes.  Ask Ollie North and the CIA about that one.  Ooopsie.  Sorry, the Taliban are now bad guys.

Panama had Pineapple Head, Manuel Noriega.  He was obviously in bed with Drug Cartels.  As an aside, Noriega was never, officially, the President of Panama.  He was an ex-CIA punk and was well known as an election fixer, money launderer and founder of the "Dignity Battalions" that executed anyone who dared to oppose his reign.

Gulf War I:  Saddam who invaded plucky Kuwait was the demon.  We’ll overlook that the CIA supported Iraq in the war with Iran, as Iran was a bad guy at the time.  We’ll also overlook Kuwait executing people in public for things like not wearing a veil correctly, or stealing enough bread to keep from starving to death. 

Kosovo?  Slobodan Milosevic was ethnically cleansing the Serbs, Croatians, Muslims, Christians and everyone else, except Slobodan Milosevic.  Right? 

Rwanda?  Shhhh.  We don’t talk about that one.  Same with Somalia:  Ixnay alkingtay boutay fricaaay.

Gulf War II, Brought to you by Raytheon and Haliburton, saw Saddam as the Demon Again.  This time he was selling Weapons of Mass Destruction to Osama Bin Laden, who was determined to blow up the Wal-Mart in Cooksville, Tennessee. 

With Bin Laden probably dead, nominations for Demon are now open.  Nominees include:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: President of Iran

Kin Jong-Il: Supreme Being of North Korea

Hugo Chavez:  Venezuelan President until the CIA overthrows him (See Salvador Allende & Chile)

Fidel Castro:  Grandfathered in since 1962

Mr. Norris Flegus, 123 Main Street, Anywhere USA.  He has the temerity to question us too much, therefore he’s a card-carrying member of the Evildoers of the Axis of Evil.

Without a Demon of some kind, the Terror Trust can’t keep us all jacked up on Paranoia and Fear.  As soon as you question the Terror Trust for things like "Evidence" or "Reason" or "Rationale" they lose power.  The last time the Terror Trust had evidence, reason and rationale was Osama Bin Laden, just after 9/11.  The rest has been smoke, mirrors, fabrications and outright lying.

The mere fact that Osama Bin Laden has possibly died of natural causes tells me that Dubya, Cheney, Rove and Rumsfeld are not serious about catching the bad guys.  They are serious about keeping power at all costs. 

I think Ted Turner is a bit of an ass, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, as he does have some excellent business credentials. Face it, CNN was a damn fine idea. Turner Classic Movies and colorizing classic films, a very bad idea. Marrying Jane Fonda, a damn fine idea. Owning the Atlanta Braves, a very bad idea.

However, since he has significantly more money that I do, Ted Turner wins in the Global Rock, Scissors, Paper contest with me. Fair enough.

In an interview with Reuters, Ted scored some more points on my scorecard. As you might know, Ted Turner is outspoken. He tends to speak his mind and more than often enough backs it up with some common sense. Other people might not agree, or even like what he has to say, but at least they can say he’s got at least the beginnings of a point.

For instance, the War in Iraq: "It will go down in history, it is already being seen in history, as one of the dumbest moves that was ever made by anybody. A couple of others that come to mind were the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour and the German invasion of Russia," Turner told the forum.

"It literally broke my heart. You don’t start wars just because you don’t like somebody. … I wouldn’t even start a war with Rupert Murdoch," Turner said, referring to his onetime cable network rival.

Iran having nukes: "They’re a sovereign state," Turner said of Iran. "We have 28,000. Why can’t they have 10? We don’t say anything about Israel — they’ve got 100 of them approximately — or India or Pakistan or Russia. And really, nobody should have them. They aren’t usable by any sane person."

The one that put it over the top for me was this quote: "Men should be barred from public office for 100 years in every part of the world. … It would be a much kinder, gentler, more intelligently run world. The men have had millions of years where we’ve been running things. We’ve screwed it up hopelessly. Let’s give it to the women."

I can’t disagree with that one Ted. Testosterone is a powerful drug that makes humans behave like stupid, tribal, chest-beating asses. One good testosterone hit and all sense leaves the brain. The little head takes over from the big head.

Testosterone causes moronic ‘me-too’ behaviors whereby all the males in the village bond together to beat the shit out of someone from another village. Testosterone causes kings, emperors and dictators to come to power, as the drug makes you want power, either societal, sexual or political power.

Mind you, without testosterone, Don LaFountaine wouldn’t have a job. Don is that voice on just about every movie trailer you’ve ever heard. He is what a voice casting director called VOG, the Voice of God. You can see Don on some of the GEICO ads. Without testosterone, Don LaFountaine would sound like a 58 year old bingo-playing, chain-smoking Cape Breton fishwife named Maureen.

Without testosterone, I wouldn’t have hair growing out of my ears, or growing on my back. This might be a good thing too.

To summarize. War in Iraq Bad. Nukes Bad. Testosterone Bad. Ted might be right.

Yesterday the O’Connor Commission released its’ findings in the Maher Arar case. Most Canadians and, I suspect, all the Americans reading this wouldn’t know Maher Arar from a case of canned fancy peas. Let me explain a bit of the backstory.

Maher Arar was born in Syria and came to Canada in 1988 to avoid mandatory military service. He applied for citizenship, was duly investigated, processed and welcomed into Canada as a full citizen. On his Canadian passport, it listed his birthplace as Syria, just like mine lists Toronto.

He went to school, eventually earning a couple of degrees in engineering and computer science. Maher married a wonderful woman, Monia Mazigh and they had two children. Monia, by the way, is no slouch either. She is a Ph.d in Finance from McGill University, is from Tunisia originally, but, like Maher, a Canadian citizen.  I’ve met Monia a couple of times.  She is a remarkable person.

If you were to look at a photo of Maher and Monia, you would see two people who are chasing the Canadian dream of making a better life for themselves and their children.

On September 26^th, 2002, things went very badly for Maher Arar. On a flight back from Tunisia, where he was taking a vacation, the plane stopped at JFK on its’ way to Montreal.  The passengers got off and went through US Customs. Maher was detained as it was alleged he was an associate of Abdullah Almalki. Abdullah Almalki was suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda.

Maher worked with Almalki’s brother at an Ottawa high-tech company, so yes, Maher knew Abdullah Amalki. Amalki even co-signed a rental lease for Maher Arar in 1997.

This isn’t quite as sinister as it first sounds. New immigrants (Canadian and American) usually have to have someone more financially established co-sign with them for a few years, until they have their financial feet under them. Then, you return the favor, co-signing for someone else just starting out.

The real sinister stuff was just beginning. First of all, why and how did US Immigration have a photocopy of a lease document, signed in Canada? That’s an easy one to answer: The RCMP gave it to them in the wake of 9/11.

Despite being a full Canadian Citizen, Maher Arar was held in detention, without ability to contact the Canadian Consulate in New York. He was held without access to legal services or even so much as being allowed to contact his family to say “I’m in the shit”.

US Customs extradited him to Syria on October the 7^th or 8^th. The first time Canada heard that one of our citizens was exported to a third country, was on October 10^th 2002, when he turned up in a detention center, near Damascus, Syria.

Arar was imprisoned in Syria for 10 1/2 months, during which time he was tortured and forced to sign a false confession which purported that he had trained in Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.

He says that he was kept in a 3-foot by 6-foot, dark, underground cell, beaten and threatened with electrocution. He was further traumatized by overhearing other prisoners being tortured. On October 5^th 2003, he was released by Syria and got his ass back to Canada right quickly, not taking any flights that went through the US.

After Arar’s release, the controversy continued over his treatment by the US and over the role that Canadian police and government officials may have played in his deportation and interrogation. The United States claimed that the RCMP had provided them with a list of suspicious persons including Maher Arar.

It was also discovered that Canadian consular officials knew that Arar was in custody in the United States but did not believe that he would be deported. The Canadian government maintains that the decision to deport Arar was made by American officials alone. The Canadian Passport meant nothing. Being a Canadian Citizen meant nothing.

On September 25^th 2004, the results of an internal RCMP investigation by RCMP Chief Superintendent Brian Garvie were published. Though the version released to the public was censored, the Garvie report documented several instances of impropriety by the RCMP in the Arar case, including breaking into a reporters’ house to look for leaked documents.

A lot of people yelled “bullshit” and “coverup”. So, on February 5^th 2004, the Canadian government established a commission of inquiry under Dennis O’Connor, Associate Chief Justice of Ontario to investigate and report on the actions of Canadian officials.

The final report, released yesterday, categorically states that there is no evidence linking Arar to terrorist activity. The O’Connor Commission also said that the RCMP passed false information on to US authorities. Further, that the RCMP leaked untrue information to damage his reputation. The report also confirms that Maher Arar was tortured while in Syria.

As a Canadian, I am ashamed that a citizen of our country was treated this poorly by his government. Nobody will be punished, nobody will lose their jobs, nobody will catch hell for letting Maher Arar down.

I am also ashamed by the RCMP, as the O’Connor Commission report details several incidents where the RCMP did things that no reputable, honest and honourable police force would do.  Again, nobody will be punished, nobody will lose their jobs and nobody will catch hell for this kind of behavior. 

I just hope Maher Arar forgives us for letting him down.