Journal

I’ve been following the increasingly acrimonious Ron Paul-related blogspat between David Neiwert and Glenn Greenwald with great interest. Not particularly concerned with the substance of the dispute, though I will admit to being sympathetic with Neiwert’s position. With that said, as the battle lines continue to be drawn I believe there are broader implications at play.

Today is Remembrance day. What does it mean to you ? - how do you honour the day ?

I haven't attended a Remembrance Day ceremony in more than thirty years. I watch it live on television - the local ceremony on cable and / or the national ceremony - most of the time. I always wear a poppy. At one time, for four years, I marched in the parade from the armories to the temporary cenotaph in the arena and stood for the ceremony. I went with all the other Cadets ( Army, Navy - I was an Air Cadet myself ). In the parade were regular forces from the base in my town and the reserves and of course the vets - Legion and Army, Navy, Air Force Vets. Dad was a vet and a Legion member. For a couple of years there were four of us in the parade - Dad, me and my two younger brothers, both Navy Cadets.

I never gave it much thought as to why I was there. It was just the thing that needed to be done. Dad always went from as far back as I can remember. As far as I know he marched for as long as he could and attended even after his stroke. He remembered, and I remember in large part because he did.

Steve V at F&W encourages us to exert our democratic right (and responsibility) and tell the government what we think of the Afghan mission.

The Manley panel on Canada's future role in Afghanistan is now accepting public submissions:

"The whole idea is to allow the public to submit stuff in a limited time frame," said a spokesman

I encourage everyone to "submit stuff", because this panel of nothingness is very important. I've already copied and pasted my submission, although I should have amended it, now that we get a better idea of the expenditure involved:

It is consulting experts and academics and plans trips to Afghanistan, Brussels, London, Washington and New York as part of its deliberations.

I did not know about this site put up by the government until I read about it on Steve V.'s blog, which makes me wonder if it has been deliberately kept low key.

I posted this on Daily Kos this morning:

-----------------------

This is not a Bipolar rant, followed by weeks of absence and then a sheepish return.

I'm done with Daily-Kos, because I'm done with America as it currently stands in the world of civilized peoples.

America tortures. It's now official.

The Democratic Party just allowed the approval of an Attorney-General who refused to call water-boarding torture or illegal.

The only explanation I can accept for this is that it's now no longer a big deal. America tortures...just don't admit it in public...wink-wink...let's move on the the spending bill...

Not this guy...I'm outta here.

I'm going to Docudharma and back to the Canadian blog A Creative Revolution, because this is a site that helps elect Democrats.

The Democratic Party is now my enemy, as the Republican Party has always been during my lifetime.

This is heart-breaking:

An RCMP officer has been shot dead while answering a drunk-driving call in Nunavut - the second Mountie to be killed in the far north in a month.

Const. Douglas Scott, 20, was killed at about 11 p.m. last night in Kimmirut, a community of about 400 people on Baffin Island.

You know, every wrongful death is shameful, but I just want to cry when I look at this young man's proud face looking out from his crimson Mountie uniform.

There are three types of deaths which hit me hard when they occur, and in no particular order:

1. Law enforcement
2. Fire and Rescue
3. Military

These men and women choose a profession in which danger is a given and death a real possibility. And each day, they strap on the uniform and leave family home to serve and protect other Canadians.

I, for one, appreciate their sacrifice, and I look at this young man's face, and I see the guys I played hockey and baseball with in college, I see the guys in the pubs in which I partied.

And this man's life is already over...

(Promoted from the Journals- pale)

posted at Daily Kos and Docudharma

-----

O.K., Canadian Kossacks, we're going to put our money where out mouths are, and we're taking the fight to Harper and his cronies before he can get his "Bush-lite" act out from backstage.

The relying cry, tentatively, is to be, "Not In Our Country, Not In Our Names..." Come up with a better one and we'll go with it...

The last straw, for NoPoint, was the Rachel Marsden column in the weekend Sun applauding torture, and I for one am not going to sit by while this garbage is published in Canadian papers...

First things first:

I've just posted the following blog article on DailyKos. I think it speaks for itself. Canadians, write some letters!!!

----------

I need any Kossacks opposing torture to contact the editor of the Toronto Sun immediately demanding an explanation for this garbage I just read, enttitled:

"Torture? Sounds like a swimmingly good idea"

The contact information is as follows:

torsun.editor@sunmedia.ca

The editorial page editor is here:

rob.granatstein@sunmedia.ca

I've posted a copy of my Letter to the Editor below the fold:

Here's a disgusting taste of the article:

So now that we've established that the detainees in question aren't even protected by the Geneva convention, and that they often have crucial information that can save lives, what about the idea of waterboarding as "torture"?

Crossposted from Canuck Attitude


It's not without a certain amount of personal glee that the Phelps clan has been has been slapped with almost 11 million dollars in damages after one brave man decided to sue them. My hat goes off to Albert Snyder for taking the courage to bring legal proceedings against Westborough United "Church" in light of his son's untimely death.

This is a copy of a post made at dKos that I wanted to share. It's specific to American politics but I feel the sentiment is very relevant to Canadian politics as well.

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

That's the Constitutionally mandated Oath of Office that one of you will be taking in January of '09 (at least that's the plan right now).

And here's another snippet of that Constitution (the 1st Amendment for those of you that don't recognize it):

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

One Hundred Eighty Nine Billion Dollars more for an illegal war.
$189.3B more for an immoral war.
$189,300,000,000.00 more for an unwarranted war.

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush asked Congress on Monday for $189.3 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, another huge request that faces deep skepticism from lawmakers opposed to prolonging the Iraq conflict.Bush’s request covers day-to-day military operation and is for fiscal 2008, which began on October 1, congressional aides said.

Will our Congressional leaders stand up to the man this time? Will they tell him where to go this time? Will they cease their complicity this time? Will we calmly await their "considered decisions" until we act - this time?

House of Representatives appropriators said earlier this month they would not even consider the war funding request until early 2008, and that they wanted to link it to a plan to bring U.S. combat troops home.

Opposition leaders don’t get the chance to show what they are capable of as easily as the PM. They do not have the stage, do not run the PMO or the government. In the House, they can show us who they are, but for Dion, that’s been difficult because Steve has shut down Parliament more than usual. Even when the House sits, few Canadians read or watch debates, so they rely on the media to tell them what Dion is doing. Can we trust what the media says? Here is what journalist John Moor tells us:

The media love to imagine that politics is a soap opera. In order to make the narrative of the day work, they often have to tweak the characters, nudging them toward more clear-cut dramatic roles. The latest victim is Liberal leader Stephane Dion who, owing to the fact that he is largely colourless and odourless, provides the media a perfect blank canvas.