CBC unleashes inner Jihadi...

...with screaming headline...

"Afghan father wants revenge for children's deaths."

"If I ever get the chance, I will kill the Canadians," Mohammed said.

Well, revenge... and a pile of cash...

Mohammed described himself as a poor man who only had enough money to pay for the taxi ride to Kandahar and said Canadians should help him out.

No word yet from the CEEB... on whether a payout will preclude ol' Mo following through on his threat.

**********

RELATED: What it's all about

*

We're gonna have a party

Steffi must be so pleased... what with all his recent bravado about bringing down the government...

Mr. Harper says the Tories will be pushing ahead with their legislative agenda – and, he says, “you can bet some of these will be confidence motions.”

**********

RELATED: And while we're on "vote of confidence"

Stephen Taylor gets mail...

"It should be troubling for Dion to learn that there are members of his own political staff that are actively undermining the man at this critical time by leaking strategic communications that have landed right in my inbox."

Yeeeeouch... that's gonna leave a mark.

*

Remember...

...friends don't let friends... vote Liberal...

-- MONTREAL -- Chuck Guite has failed in his bid to get the Quebec Court of Appeal to overturn his conviction on fraud charges related to the sponsorship scandal.

Mr. Guite, a former bureaucrat, was in charge of the federal sponsorship program where friends of the federal Liberals were paid in the 1990s for little or no work.

*

Apparently, it's Chinese for...

"Screw you and your dangerous, irresponsible democracies."

Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee spokesman Sun Weide says journalists will have what he called "sufficient and convenient" Internet access.

Sun told reporters Chinese authorities will - with the exception of websites the Chinese deem illegal - provide full access to the Internet to facilitate their reporting during the Olympic games.

*

It's a start...

...as Fiberals try to firm up their non-existent "tough on crime" credentials...

Kicking trouble-making tenants out of public housing could get a lot easier if the province embraces landmark private member's legislation coming this fall, but whether Toronto Community Housing will embrace the measure isn't clear.

Under the proposed legislation, tenants tired of neighbours dealing crack, hiding guns or prostituting could complain to a provincial investigator, who could evict the tenant or close the property -- faster than current provincial legislation allows.

And how does Toronto Community Housing respond?

"(SCAN) legislation may lead to further stigmatization of Toronto Community Housing as a consequence of the potential for an increase in negative media coverage."

You do have to ask who exactly is being stigmatized...

Councillor Michael Thompson said more than 50% of all murders in Toronto over the past several years have happened on or near TCH property.

Over the last five years, TCH has initiated 50-gun related eviction proceedings. Six of those tenants have been evicted; 12 left voluntarily; 14 were settlements; five were appealed; six are pending; one was dismissed, and six were withdrawn or not filed.

Sorry, folks... a little difficult to sympathise here.

Use a gun, you're done.

*

Sure, I was just thinking...

...the crime rate drops any lower... we'll have to start laying off cops...

"I was just reading a book and all of a sudden I heard a guy screaming. I turned around and the guy sitting right beside me was standing up and stabbing another guy with a big Rambo knife."

"Right in the throat. Repeatedly."

And then it got worse.

**********

RELATED: The horror doesn't stop there

“There are signs of violence on her body,” Sergeant Marc Butz, a spokesman with the Sûreté du Québec, said in an interview. “But no weapons were used, no firearm, no knife.”

What kind of freak beats a 17 year-old girl to death?

**********

LAST WORD: Owen Sound on the map...

...as mob attacks innocent bystander.

In what police are calling a case of mistaken identity, a Toronto man was stabbed and savagely beaten late Tuesday by a group of strangers in Owen Sound.

Investigators say a drunken woman apparently sparked the attack by physically and verbally assaulting the 42-year-old man as he was walking near 2nd Ave. E. and 10th St., just after 11:30 p.m.

With no other option, they say the man held on to the woman with one arm and called the police with his cellphone.

**********

WELCOME, YET AGAIN, READERS OF CANADIAN CYNIC

This time CC wants to know... "Who to call if I need a babysitter on short notice?"

I'm thinkin'... probably not this guy.

A little background on my biggest fan.

*

Has anybody else...

...heard about "demographic inversion"?

In the past three decades, Chicago has undergone changes that are routinely described as gentrification, but are in fact more complicated and more profound than the process that term suggests.

A better description would be "demographic inversion." Chicago is gradually coming to resemble a traditional European city--Vienna or Paris in the nineteenth century, or, for that matter, Paris today.

The poor and the newcomers are living on the outskirts. The people who live near the center--some of them black or Hispanic but most of them white--are those who can afford to do so.

And Canada gets a star turn here as well.

If you want to see this sort of thing writ large, you can venture just across the Canadian border to Vancouver, a city roughly the size of Washington, D.C.

What makes it unusual--indeed, at this point unique in all of North America--is that roughly 20 percent of its residents live within a couple of square miles of each other in the city's center.

This seems to be the opposite of what has been happening to large metropolitan cities in recent memory.

Anybody remember, for instance, Buffalo in the eighties?

An interesting development.

**********

RELATED: Of course, there's the obvious benefits

-- VANCOUVER -- When a guy dressed in a beaver suit can arrive on a Vancouver street corner and score some heroin within minutes, it highlights a serious problem in the city. So says the program director of a local radio station whose morning show performed the bit live on the air.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"It's not just a demographic shift, it's a family/non-family shift. Very dangerous for the future of liberal western democracies."

Curiouser and curiouser.

*

Carbon-credit...

...where credit is due...

-- EARTH -- "They called me foolish and laughed at my predictions. Yet even now, the Midwest is flooded, the ice caps are melting, and the cities are rocked with tremors, just as I foretold."

"Fools! Why didn't they heed me before it was too late?"

Al Gore—or, as he is known in his own language, Gore-Al—placed his son, Kal-Al, gently in the one-passenger rocket ship, his brow furrowed by the great weight he carried in preserving the sole survivor of humanity's hubristic folly.

*

I'm guessin' he'll just have to fish...

...'cos there's no way his handlers are lettin' him anywhere near... any kind of sharp objects...

“Mr. Dion must decide to fish or cut bait. He must either let the current Parliament work and let us go on with our mandate, or the voters themselves will decide.”

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Funny how the 33 comments at the Globe don't exist anymore."

*

Okay... so I was wrong

The sorta thriving metropolis of Belleville, Ontario... does have a hooker problem...

Less than a block away, another well-known prostitute trolled up Front Street wearing a black miniskirt, red suede cowboy boots and hair pulled back in pigtails. As she slowly made her way up the Front Street sidewalk, the woman worked theatrically to make flirting eye contact with any men who came across her path.

Of course... there's a bit of a difference in the way your average non-GTA citizen reacts to it.

However, her provocative antics drew jeers from several people waiting for a bus outside a department store. “Get lost,” said one man, sneering. “No one wants you down here.” The woman smiled and kept walking.

Now, I confess I don't get down to the "Big Smoke" as often as I used to... but I had no idea this was going on.

There's one especially sleazy bar/hotel in the city core... but I guess I just assumed all the raggedy ass people hanging around... were just the usual complement of professional losers you accumulate anywhere.

Glaring at her from across the street was a 43-year-old woman finishing a morning coffee break from her shift at a downtown business.

“I saw her talking to some greaseball earlier this morning,” said the woman, asking her name not be used. “She’s been working this street all morning long.”

I'll try get some pictures the next time I'm downtown.

*

As Kate is wont to say...

"I'm praying for an asteroid."

*

More international arse-kissing

Somebody explain it to me again... why does the international community quietly put up with this sort of assault on personal freedoms?

-- BEIJING -- Some International Olympic Committee officials cut a deal to let China block sensitive Web sites despite promises of unrestricted access, a senior IOC official admitted today.

And the most galling thing is... they look you right in the face and lie.

China had committed to providing media with the same freedom to report on the Games as they enjoyed at previous Olympics, but journalists have this week complained of finding access to sites deemed sensitive to its communist leadership blocked.

Once again... the Great Firewall of China.

Are Western companies engaging in censorship in China?

Yes. Products such as yahoo.cn and google.cn adhere to the rules of official Chinese censorship. In other words, not everything you search for with google.cn is available.

These companies argue that if you wish to do business in a particular country, you must obey its rules.

**********

RELATED: A long history of Western complicity...

U.S.-based Cisco Systems and Canadian-based Nortel Networks are working closely with the People's Armed Police developing oppressive and intrusive computer systems to monitor, track and prosecute illegal Internet web browsers.

Nortel has contracts with Datang Telecom, a Chinese firm that works closely with the Chinese Ministry of State Security. Nortel has provided its "Personal Internet" suite to the MSS, allowing authorities to monitor and track nearly half of China's individual Internet users.

Nortel is currently working with the communist authorities in Shanghai to build a "Shasta 5000" firewall. The firewall allows the red thought police to monitor and track subscribers who access Internet web sites judged inappropriate by the communist government.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Seriously, this is like Lucy and Charlie Brown and the football. Every time..."

*

"Lucy... joo got some 'splaining..."

I've also looked at Warman's reputation and said, essentially: "You're suing me because I reported that you wrote an anti-Black comment on a website, using a false name?"

"But you've already admitted, under oath, to writing hundreds of anti-Black, anti-Semitic and anti-gay comments on neo-Nazi websites under false names!"

*

Land of Billionaires

-- HARARE, Zimbabwe -- On Wednesday, central bank governor Gideon Gono announced he was dropping 10 zeros from the currency, to turn 10 billion dollars into one, effective Friday.

That comes a week after he introduced a 100 billion-dollar note that was not enough to buy a loaf of bread.

But, hey... it's not all bad news.

*

Not the 'angle of the dangle'

Organizers of the Beijing Olympics have set up a sex-determination laboratory to evaluate “suspect” female athletes, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Sunday.

Although only athletes whose gender has been questioned will be tested in Beijing, the lab is a relic of an earlier Olympic era, when every female athlete was required to submit to a sex-verification test before competing in the Games.

At first, women were asked to parade nude before a panel of doctors to verify their sex. At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, officials switched to a chromosomal test.

You've come a long way, baby.

*

Respected Community Leader?

Looks like that's about to change.

-- TORONTO -- "The police are liars Dudley. You think they're nice? They're wicked," she said. "That's why some of them will die a bad death you know."

"People are going to put bullets in their heads."

Steele was once in serious consideration for appointment to the Toronto Police Services Board.

People, Valerie?

Not anyone you know, surely?

*

So who's watching the CBC?

If we actually have a similar oversight authority here in Canada... I sure haven't seen any evidence of it...

The BBC has been fined £400,000 by media watchdog Ofcom for misleading its audiences by "faking" phone-ins. The Comic Relief, Children in Need and Sport Relief TV shows were caught up in the scandal, along with Liz Kershaw on 6 Music and Jo Whiley's Radio 1 show.

In July 2007, Ofcom fined the BBC £50,000 after children's programme Blue Peter falsified the results of a contest during a live show. The BBC later suspended all competitions after an inquiry unearthed a fresh batch of faked phone-ins the same month.

And please don't tell me it's all up to the the CBC Ombudsman...

The BBC's own watchdog, the BBC Trust, said it regretted the loss of licence-fee payers' money as a result of the fine, which followed rule-breaches which were "serious, deliberate and, in some cases, repeated".

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Well, since nobody is watching the CBC, and I mean NOBODY, who cares?"

*

The good news, I suppose, is...

...it could always be worse....

ONE of Hugo Chávez’s lesser-known feats since taking over as Venezuela’s leader in 1999 is to have presided over a tripling of the annual homicide rate—and that’s according to the official statistics.

Last year more than 13,000 people were killed in a country of 27m, producing a murder rate of 48 per 100,000, the second highest in the world (after El Salvador).

In neighbouring Colombia, a country plagued by guerrilla war and drug violence, the rate was 40 per 100,000.

*

More Gangs and Guns

The bodies just keep on piling up.

-- VANCOUVER -- Hung Van Bui survived the hail of bullets that killed two and wounded six a year ago at the Fortune Happiness Restaurant, described as one of the worst shootings in city history.

But he did not survive what police called a targeted hit in South Vancouver on Monday night.

Mr. Bui was known to police, and was believed to be involved in the drug trade, police spokesman Tim Fanning said.

*

Just you wait...

...until Mayor Miller shuts down all the target ranges... and sends those nasty Olympic hopefuls packing...

Toronto Police appear to have yet another gun murder on their hands, after the victim of a weekend shooting succumbed to his wounds in hospital Tuesday.

Twenty-year-old Dominic Shearer-Hanomansingh was found lying in a pool of blood near Eglinton and Black Creek Drive late Saturday night.

He'd been shot in the face and cops also believed he may have also been stabbed.

This isn't the Toronto I once knew.

But don't just take my word for it.

**********

UPDATE: Gonna get biblical on his ass

**********

WELCOME, ONCE AGAIN, READERS OF CANADIAN CYNIC

"Hey, CC... you gonna start censoring the MSM as well?"

I mean, we all know what "delicate sensibilities" you have.

**********

WELCOME READERS OF DR DEMENTO, uh... DAWG

I think the Dawg... needs a good worming.

*

Talk about delicious irony...

...everybody's favourite pottymouth screwball, the loudly self-celebrated Canadian Cynic... once again confusing clumsy sarcasm for wit... calls for Stephen Taylor to start censoring the Blogging Tories...

"But I'm sure I'm overreacting here, Stephen. I'm sure there's nothing to be concerned over."

Well CC... you obnoxious dumbstick... you're certainly over-reacting here...

Now, I do have to state very clearly, that replying to the Cynic... who is by the way, my most frequent linker... is done solely of my own volition.

And also, for the record, despite the spew of paranoia above... there is no shadowy, Blogging Tories cabal... that travels down to Waterloo to take notes on poor, benighted CC's every move.

The fact is, I have actually been over this very thing with Stephen... who has told me, in no uncertain terms, that he feels the personal to-and-fro, rather than general, all-round political discourse... actually detracts from the overall purpose of BT.

And, on one level, I agree with that. In a perfect world, no one would allow personal animosity to cloud the oratorical waters.

Unfortunately, being a less than perfect human being and lacking Stephen's enormous reserve of forebearance for the similarly flawed... I reserve the right to fire back whenever the Cynic starts to blat his puerile, profane nonsense in my direction.

For example... lately CC's been leaving anonymous comments here... which he then posts about back at his blog. I mean, how sad is that?And have you ever noticed how often CC decides to go after women... or as they're known in cynic-speak... "utter douchebags" and perennial favourite... "cunts."

Need an example?

Funnily enough, there's alway one at hand...
Behold the demented misogynist who, incredibly, now proposes censoring the Blogging Tories.

CC has pathetically, in addition... gone as far as inventing a female alter-ego, "Lulu"... to try take the edge off his blatant sociopathy towards women.

The feedback I receive from many of you... some of whom are on the receiving end of CC's profane and extremely personal attacks... suggests that no one is losing sleep over the Cynic receiving a dose of his own salts.

And that, my friends, is why I continue to fire back.

Because actions should have consequences.

**********

RELATED: For newcomers... a little background

**********

LAST WORD: Say, CC... what makes you think...

...Stephen needs your advice anyway?

"Stephen Taylor, the co-founder of the Blogging Tories, has helped me out since January without any compensation -- or even any public thanks. His knowledge and expertise have helped immensely with taking this content and using the social media tools of the Internet to find a huge audience."

"I’m sure he'd make a killing if he ever went into the PR business – I just hope he keeps doing his work for 'the cause', too!"

*

Yeah... the bloodthirsty military

Which hasn't used the death penalty in almost fifty years...

-- WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Monday approved the first execution by the military since 1961, upholding the death penalty of an Army private convicted of a series of rapes and murders more than two decades ago.

Although the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty in the military in 1996, no one has been executed since President Ronald Reagan reinstated capital punishment in 1984 for military crimes.

And guess what... that's further back than Canada's last execution...

On December 11, 1962, Arthur Lucas and Robert Turpin were hanged at the Don Jail in Toronto.

**********

RELATED: That's not what they were thinkin'...

...when they set off those bombs.

Lawyer Mahendradatta said during executions in Indonesia sometimes condemned prisoners do not die immediately and must be shot a second time, causing them to feel pain.

"We find that yes; of course, we admit that Mr. Amrozi and his friends was sentenced to death, but not torture," he said. "According to the constitution of the Republic of Indonesia - the right not to be tortured is something like a strong right."

"We seek the execution without pain."

Unlike, of course, the hundreds of people they killed and maimed.

*

Just another reason...

...the French get so little respect...

The French couple said it was because they had children but no jobs and no cash that they turned to the Internet to sell pictures and videos of their sexual hijinks at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in northern France.

Apparently, they had enough welfare money from the socialist nanny-state for digital cameras and computers to set up "Exhibitionists-R-Us."

Funny how that works.

*

That's it... I'm buying a doberman

Apparently, nowadays... all the kids are doin' it...

Breaking into locks once reeked of criminality; if you dared to try it, you did so in secret, because if you were spotted, folks would assume you were up to no good. Now, picking locks has gone legit.

Recreational lock pickers meet regularly in community centers around the country, challenging each other to break new locks as casually as others nearby work to break the Queen's Gambit.

On Web culture blogs, fans of locksport enjoy a place besides cryptography enthusiasts and DRM hackers as practitioners of a morally defensible, geeky dark art.

**********

RELATED: Maybe at the next Olympics...

It's 20 hours before the third annual Dutch Open lock-picking competition will begin, but the room is already packed with 50 or so men and women wielding burglar tools and representing the international steel bolt-hacker diaspora.

*

Searing Toronto Star article...

...reveals the sorry state of child-rearing in Canada...

Children in some poorer areas of Mexico are farther ahead in kindergarten than the average Canadian kid, says new research led by renowned expert Dr. Fraser Mustard.

Well, that would certainly explain the thousands of refugees from Canada trying to sneak across the Mexican border.

Need a further testimonial?

“It’s a lot of good experiences in the first few years of life,” said Alfredo Tinajero, who helped implement a similar program in his native Ecuador.

Of course, the next sentence reads..."He now lives in Toronto."

And the solution to this horrific national disgrace?

Of course... more social workers.

Once a baby is born, families receive home visits twice a week for two years from parenting educators, social workers, nurses or physicians.

Pardon me for being just a little skeptical here... but my last visit to the local hospital emergency room had me sitting there for seven and a half hours with a sick, fevered child in my lap.

Now, call me wacky... but maybe before we actually replace mom and dad with newly minted sociology majors... we could do something about the imploding health-care system?

Just my two cents.

**********

RELATED: When Mother-Love goes bad...

"She would tell anyone she was speaking to, including Richard, his girlfriend and friends about Richard's blatant and constant breach of his curfew and refusal to listen to her," the judge observed in his ruling issued Tuesday.

How many social workers would have fixed this one?

*

The Leftosphere loses it's mind...

...but what this comes down to, in a mere matter of seconds, is... "Would you bet your life?"

The incident illustrates the predicament facing soldiers confronted by an erratic driver on the chaotic roads of Kandahar -- either they open fire and risk killing an innocent Afghan or hold their fire and risk being killed by a suicide bomber.

And actually... it's even more complex than that.

Would you bet your life... and that of everybody else in the immediate area?

Times's up. Choose.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Maybe the left wants the army to be equipped with tasers. No, wait..."

**********

LAST WORD: Walk a mile... in my combat boots

"In fall 06 I was a LAV gunner involved in a convoy op in southern Afghanistan. At one point a vehicle pulled out and began speeding towards us, and I fired my COAX in accordance with ROEs."

"When the dust cleared the battle aiming mark on my daysight was sitting right in the middle of some kid's head as I looked through the windshield at him sitting on the driver's lap."

Try second-guessing that.

*

The Loony Leftbot Challenge

Offer made...
And accepted...

From your lips...

...to my severed ear...

Link at Jagwire has more.

*

Please, Mayor Miller...

...you have to hurry up... and shut down all those evil target ranges.

-- TORONTO -- A 20-year-old man was fighting for his life last night after he was shot in the head in front of hundreds of people while handing out flyers at Jamaica Day celebrations.

Jamaica Day organizer Karen Jenkins said the 18-year-old festival can't be responsible for what happens outside the park.

"This happened outside our gates and on the street," Jenkins said. "We are sorry that this has happened but we can't be accountable for what goes on outside."

And... just down the road a ways...

A suspected gang member was shot in the leg yesterday for apparently walking on turf frequented by a rival gang in the city's west end.

Detectives said the 25-year-old man was also shot in the hand by a gunman around 12:34 a.m. in the Stewart Smith Dr.-Hearst Circle area near the Jane St. and Trethewey Dr.

*

First, we kill all the pilgrims

There must be some sort of... however twisted... logic here -- but I've gotta say, I sure don't get it...

Reuters television showed police, firemen and other workers washing blood and clearing debris from the street at the scene of one of blasts. A Reuters witness saw workers collecting pieces of flesh and body parts.

The blasts occurred near the Karrada district in central Baghdad, an area many pilgrims would pass through on their way to the shrine. Gunmen killed seven pilgrims in southern Baghdad on Sunday as they made their way to the shrine on foot.

If you're willing to slaughter "the faithful"... what exactly are your plans for the unbelievers?

You guys got a new level of horrific on tap?

**********

RELATED: A long, long way, baby...

...yeah... we're talking about the splatter...

Police say three female suicide bombers blew themselves up during the pilgrimage in Baghdad killing at least 28 people, including children, and wounding more than 90 others.

Feminism... Iraqi style.

**********

UPDATE: Looks like four female bombers

Such attacks are becoming increasingly common, even as overall violence is at the lowest level in four years.

Women are more easily able to hide explosives under their all-encompassing black Islamic robes, or abayas, and often are not searched at checkpoints because of sensitivities.

That sensitivity... "it's a killer."

They Shoot Babies... Don't They?

I don't understand it... violent criminal gangs usually respond so well to community initiatives.

-- HOBBEMA, Alta. -- A 16-year-old boy is dead following a pair of gun complaints at an aboriginal reserve south of Edmonton that has been plagued by gang violence.

Investigators said they believe both incidents were gang related, and that they’ve detained two men for questioning.

In April, 23-month-old Asia Saddleback was wounded in a drive-by shooting involving gangs engaged in a turf war in the area.

Just last week, leaders from the four reserves announced a gun amnesty which they hoped would help reduce violence.

*

A Few Good Moment...

...is all he have ask for...

When reminded that he said last week that more and more Canadians want an election, Mr. Dion said that was because of a number of recent provincial votes.

“It's a responsibility on my shoulders that I feel, and I will choose the good moment.”

BLINK.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"That would actually be damn funny, if Dion finally did grow a spine and introduce a no-confidence motion, only for both the NDP and Bloc to refuse to support it."

"Neither party has any reason to want to be seen doing Dion's bidding."

*

10,000 chimps, 10,000 typewriters

I think I've discovered the geniuses... behind Britain's latest enigmatic wave of social engineering...

British prisoners have two ways to earn video game privileges: they can either earn credit for good behavior or, barring that, they can be suicidal.

Only inmates on the highest level of Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) and those at risk of suicide will be allowed to play computer games.

*

Cold-blooded bombers...

...kill 15 in Turkey.

-- ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Two bombs exploded minutes apart in a packed Istanbul square Sunday night, killing 15 and injuring more than 150 in what the city governor said was a terror attack.

"We know it is a terrorist attack, but which organization is responsible — we don't yet have that information," Deputy Prime Minister Hayati Yazici told journalists at the scene of the attacks.

This attack was especially heinous... as it appears the first explosion was a smaller event, designed to lure onlookers and good samaritans into a second, larger "killing zone."

The first explosion was in a telephone booth," said Huseyin Senturk, who owns a shoe shop yards away from where the blasts occurred. "The second explosion was some 40 meters (yards) away."

"The first explosion was not very strong," Senturk added. "Several people came to see what was going on. That's when the second explosion occurred and it injured many onlookers."

The second explosion could be heard a mile away.

**********

RELATED: They've been hit like this before

The double bombing appeared to be the most serious terrorism attack here since twin truck bombings at two Istanbul synagogues killed 23 people and wounded more than 300 on Nov. 15, 2003.

An obscure group linked to Al Qaeda took responsibility for the synagogue blasts, which were the worst in a series of explosions blamed on Islamic extremist groups that year that killed more than 60 people.

*

That's the problem...

...with tryin' to steal home... you gotta watch out for the squeeze play...

Israeli commandos killed 25-year-old Shihab al-Natsheh, a top commander of the Islamic militant group Hamas, in the West Bank town of Hebron. There was a shootout, and when he refused to surrender, troops bulldozed the house he was hiding in.

"We are forcing the terrorists to play defense and preventing them, crippling their ability, to wage terrorist war against our civilians."

The Israeli military said there were explosions inside the house during the exchange of fire, presumably from bombs stored inside.

*

You're hitting close to 90%...

...I'd say the people have spoken...
That "protest" at the US Embassy on Sussex Drive to free poor Omar from the evil Americans... the Ottawa Citizen estimates attendance at about 30 people.

*

Going for the Gold

It ain't just athletes who are looking for Olympic glory...

A MILITANT Islamic group has threatened to attack the Beijing Olympics with suicide bombers and biological weapons and has claimed responsibility for a string of fatal bombings and explosions in China over recent weeks.

“Commander Seyfullah” said the group was responsible for three bombs last week on buses in the city of Kunming, which killed two people, and for two bus bombings on May 21 in Shanghai, which killed three.

(h/t reader rich)

Room and boardio...

...for poor old Cordio...

Police reported Saturday that 25-year-old Cordio Williams has been charged with first degree murder in the violent act, which occurred on July 17th and was Toronto's 31st homicide of 2008.

It was the 16th death by gunfire.

Alas... if only we'd listened to Mayor Miller and hired a few more social workers.

**********

CORRECTION FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Thats not even the accused u dumfucks
thats the victim
Take the picture off because people think that is the murderer"

Nice to see a caring citizen pitching in like this.

I trust you'll be testifying in court.

*

Now, that's odd

The CBC webpost appears to have left out the part where the girl admits... (I saw the television interview)... she jumped onto the cop's back when she attacked him.

Now, I know it's a little churlish to point this out, but she leaps onto this cop's back... doesn't that, you know... put her arms around his windpipe?

Hey... just askin'.

**********

RELATED: Well, statistically speaking...

...we should actually be talking about banning swimming.

"Two more bodies were discovered in Ontario lakes yesterday, bringing the number of fatal drownings on the weekend to at least five."

To recap... more people drowned this weekend in Ontario alone... than have died annually from Tasers all across Canada.

*

Mayor Miller's office strangely silent...

...on which city of Toronto shooting range is responsible...

A man was shot to death and two others injured in a shooting at a church in the northwest end of the city early this morning.

Police said roughly 500 people were in attendance at the late-night bash at a hall owned by the Disciples Revival Church on Gordon MacKay Rd. in the Jane St. and Hwy. 401 area when gunfire erupted.

**********

UPDATE: Latest shooting vic id'd

Devon Wynter, 40, was rushed to Sunnybrook hospital where he was pronounced dead. Wynter lived in Toronto and also went by the names of Yuggi and Yogi.

Grinton said a second 35-year-old man, who had "just arrived" at the dance, was across the room when he was struck by a stray bullet.

**********

UPDATE2: Of course... we're not done yet

Sunday morning got off to a bloody start just before midnight, when a terrible attack left a man fighting for his life.

The victim, believed to be in his 30s, was shot in the face on Eglinton near Black Creek Drive. Miraculously, he was conscious and breathing when emergency crews arrived on scene.

Not far from that assault, just two kilometres away and about an hour later, another man took several bullets to his leg.

**********

WELCOME READERS OF DR DEMENTO, uh... DAWG

I think the Dawg... needs a good worming.

*

In homegrown terrorist news...

Yeah... I'm shocked.

-- KANESATAKE, Que. -- Kanesatake Mohawks barricaded a Quebec highway early Saturday following an intervention by the Quebec provincial police.

Police say 12 to 15 individuals blocked Highway 344 near the town of Oka by dragging trees into the road and setting them on fire.

Funnily enough, on the very same spot some noble mohawk warrior shot Corporal Marcel Lemay in the face... ending his life.

Good times, huh fellas?

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RELATED: Not just another blockade

-- MONTREAL -- Police cars were rammed by Mohawks on Friday night in events leading up to the barricade of a highway near Oka, Que., Journal de Montreal reports.

Kanesatake has been in the news since 1990 when a land dispute over native burial grounds sparked the 78-day Oka Crisis.

And these thugs don't just target cops...

In 2004 and 2005, violence erupted over a dispute related to local policing during which former Chief James Gabriel's house was burned down.

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The China card

So much for engaging the "sleeping giant"...

When the last gold medal has been awarded and the athletes have left, this network of informers – along with an estimated 300,000 surveillance cameras and a strengthened security apparatus – will remain as perhaps the biggest legacy of the historic Beijing Olympics.

So far, it seems clear that the Beijing Olympics have led to a deterioration of human rights and freedom in China.

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Or maybe... you guys are just nuts

"We have information that some elements are planning to carry out bombings against the interests and leaders of Hamas in order to sow anarchy."

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RELATED: Iran, meanwhile, pumps up "the crazy"

A total of 3,000 centrifuges is the commonly accepted figure for a nuclear enrichment program that is past the experimental stage and can be used as a platform for a full industrial-scale program that could churn out enough enriched material for dozens of nuclear weapons.

Iran says it plans to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment that will ultimately involve 54,000 centrifuges.

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LAST WORD: The capricious and unknowable...

..."Will of Allah"

At least 29 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded after a series of explosions struck the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, officials have said.

More than a dozen blasts to have hit residential areas, crowded markets, a train station and a bus in Gujarat state's commercial capital.

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They can run...

...but they can't hide.

-- OTTAWA -- A Superior Court judge has ordered a court-supervised analysis of a controversial audio tape at the centre of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's $3.5-million defamation suit against the Liberal party.

Zytaruk will have to give Clemens the original tape and the recorder he used to interview Harper. And he will be examined under oath by Clemens about the process he used to record the interview in September 2005, as well as "the chain of possession" of the tape from the time it was recorded to the time he surrenders it.

Zytaruk and his lawyer, Barry Gibson of Vancouver, did not respond to telephone calls Friday.

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Nah, we don't need...

...to actually say the "inflammatory" word... you can just fill in the blanks...

"What do you think Burny's press release would have said if the violent thug had been a neo-Nazi skinhead? Do you think that fact would have been omitted by the CJC?"

"Of course not -- because that would fit nicely with the CJC's bold strategy of avenging the last Holocaust, instead of preventing the next one."

After all, the important thing here... is not to hurt anybody's feelings.

Right?

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A little bit of Toronto...

...comes to the sleepy burg of Belleville...

A case involving a violent home invasion and shooting at a social housing complex more than two years ago continued its sluggish journey through the criminal justice system, Friday.

Since early spring 2006, Christopher Chevers has faced charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, robbery and a number of other firearms-related charges stemming from the January 2006 incident.

Around 7:45 p.m. January 13, police say a violent, drug-fuelled home invasion at 120 N. Park Street went awry, leaving a 23-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound

Oh well... it was bound to get here sooner or later.

There isn't... in my personal experience anyway... a lot of serious, "bust a cap in yo' ass" crime in this part of Hastings County.

I mean, we have our share of stupid-ass... and to use a generic term... "trailer-park-trash" type offenses.

My perception is, it's mostly crime-of-opportunity thievin'... like tools and unattended four-wheelers and the typical, wasted "smash shit up" behaviour by the aforementioned demographic. And hey... in the last year or so, we've actually had a couple of gals busted for "less-than-high-class" hookin'... in fact, probably for their next case of beer.

This, however, is the first home invasion I've heard about that didn't involve some drunken loser trying to get back into the home he was recently thrown out of.

And it's a sad development indeed.

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"post-algia"

"A time when you had to go out of your way -- say, to the carnival -- to see a 300lb woman with a tattoo."

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Toronto "Red" Star...

...to no ones surprise... discovers massive and ongoing racist police conspiracy...

Larry Hay, 51, was fired earlier this year from the band's eight-member force after telling Belleville's Loyalist College student newspaper the OPP, RCMP and Sûreté du Québec are racist organizations.

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RELATED: The Star's continuing series...

...celebrating Aboriginal heroes.

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LAST WORD: Meanwhile... in this corner...

...CITY-TV decides they're still on the side of law and order...

Suspect Photos Released In Nightclub Shooting

Nearly a week later, cops released these 10 photos of suspects wanted in the case. They're not great pictures, but cops think they could help - and crimes have been solved with less.

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It's way past time...

...someone taught those evil Olympians a lesson...

It was quite a blow for Chao to get the email with the bad news after an upbeat news conference Wednesday, when the Canadian Olympic Committee presented her as part of the Beijing team.

"We were all very happy from the COC launch and then we get home and, bam, this thing just slaps you in the face," said Chao yesterday.

"I really didn't know how to take it. Either the city really hates me or it's the city council or is just David Miller. It was extremely disappointing."

I'm sorry, Avianna... we just can't tolerate that continual reign of terror... that you and the rest of the Olympic shooting team have imposed on Toronto the Good.

Somebody just had to put their foot down.

The lease on the club ran until the end of the year, but Mayor David Miller pushed through a plan to address gun violence in Toronto last month that, among other things, cancelled the lease and permit for the CNRA and another range in a Scarborough community centre.

I thank all that is good and holy for the bravery and wisdom of Mayor "Super Dave" Miller.

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That's why it's called war...

...and not "circle of friends".

-- KABUL, Afghanistan -- NATO says a NATO soldier was killed and two were wounded during a clash with militants in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province. The nation's Interior Ministry, meanwhile, said three Taliban militants died in a fight on Friday with police in a separate district of the same province.

The NATO statement did not release the name or nationalities of the casualties, leaving it to the relevant country to do so, but said the clash in Helmand occurred Thursday.

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UPDATE: NATO casualty is a Brit

A British Army dog handler has been killed in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

The soldier, from the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, died on Thursday after coming under fire while on routine patrol, the MoD said.

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Nevertheless...

...even without the participation of the mainstream media... it looks like we may have a contender...

It's hard to top Jackson for hypocrisy. In late 1998, while Karin Stanford was carrying the reverend's child, the two visited President Bill Clinton in the White House.

Bill was "recovering" from the Lewinsky scandal, and Jesse was there to "counsel" him.

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For all the pretty press he's getting...

...you'd think he'd be way further ahead...

-- PRINCETON, NJ -- U.S. registered voters are closely divided in their presidential preferences, with 45% favoring Barack Obama in Gallup Poll Daily tracking from July 19-21, and 42% backing John McCain.

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Is CTV a Canadian company?

I just listened to parts of Barack Obama's speech in Germany... and was especially incensed when Obama urged the Germans to step up and do more in Afghanistan.

"We can't do it alone," he thunders... completely ignoring Canada's contribution to the war.

Strangely enough... that seems to be the one part CTV doesn't include in their report on the speech.

I guess it didn't exactly fit in with their canonisation of St. Barack.

Funny how that works.

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RELATED: Stale bread, predictable circus

On Thursday evening in a glittering Berlin, Mr. Obama delivered a tone poem to American and European ideals and shared history.

But he was vague on crucial issues of trade, defense and foreign policy that currently divide Washington from Europe and are likely to continue to do so even if he becomes president.

Mr. Obama indulged in “some pro-German demagogy on nuclear weapons to get applause,” Mr. Védrine said. But he said Mr. Obama’s call for more European engagement in Afghanistan would not go over so well.

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Now you see it... now you don't

It's a Liberal thing...

-- OTTAWA -- When disgraced ad man Jean Lafleur sold his home for $1.5-million in 2005, he gave the money to his lawyer, who shipped it to a financial institution in the tax haven of Liechtenstein.

Mr. Lafleur said he then invested a portion of the funds in China, Costa Rica and Belize, and used the rest to live for two years in Central America.

If these guys were any oilier... they'd be able to slip under the door.

Now, filing for bankruptcy in Montreal this week, Mr. Lafleur says his investments have dried up and he has nothing left to give back to defrauded taxpayers.

In his court filing, Mr. Lafleur argued he cannot discharge the $1.5-million fine that followed his guilty plea last year to 28 charges of fraud, after paying off only $235,000 of the amount.

Yeah... we're shocked.

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France bears to the right...

To avoid the approaching iceberg...

France's parliament has passed a law which effectively ends the country's compulsory 35-hour working week. The new law will allow companies to strike individual deals with unions on working hours and overtime.

Since coming into office last year, President Nicolas Sarkozy has blamed the 35-hour week for damaging France's economic competitiveness.

Of course, it isn't all clear sailing...

The bill was supported by the Senate's centre-right majority but opposed by the opposition Socialists.

The Senate also adopted other key measures reforming rules on strikes and unemployment benefits, tightening up the criteria for receiving them.

But you do what you can.

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RELATED: SUMMER in France...

...is usually just a lull between the strikes of spring and those of the autumn rentrée. But this year ministers are heading off on their holidays amid an unsettling calm.

It is not just that the government won a perilous vote on constitutional reform by a margin of one this week.

It is also that the union-led protest movement against President Nicolas Sarkozy's reforms has lost its edge.

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Another sterling endorsement

-- (CNN) -- Support for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama extended to death row Wednesday.

According to The Jackson Clarion Ledger, a Mississippi newspaper, death row inmate Dale Leo Bishop's final words before being executed Wednesday night included an appeal to Americans to vote for the Illinois senator.

"For those who oppose the death penalty and want to see it end, our best bet is to vote for Barack Obama because his supporters have been working behind the scenes to end this practice," Bishop said, according to the paper.

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RELATED: Dumping Daddy dearest?

"As the battle between John McCain and Barack Obama for Hispanic votes heats up, it raises the question of what relates better, an immigrant father or an absentee father?"

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I'm not crazy...

And so am I.

-- VIENNA, Austria -- Iran will no longer co-operate with the International Atomic Energy Agency in its investigation of allegations that its government has tried to make nuclear arms, Iran's vice-president said Thursday.

Investigating such allegations “is outside the domain of the agency,” Vice-President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh told reporters.

But wait a minute, he's not quite finished.

What's that you say, Gholam?

"Both sides are carefully studying the concerns and expectations of both sides.”

He added: “I am very hopeful that the diverging standpoints will merge, allowing the start of substantial negotiations."

Without, of course, Iran's co-operation.

Yeah... that'll work.

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One for the Good Guys

An Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled the Criminal Code emergency provision allowing police wiretapping without a judge's authorization, while not perfect, is constitutionally valid in relation to a major case underway in a Toronto court.

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RELATED: Does this mean...

...we don't have to listen to any more of Shawn Brant's tin-foil hat conspiracy theories?

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LAST WORD: In other racist killer cop news...

"'Why does it seem to be aboriginal people that seem to fall prey to this extra force against us?' asked David Chartrand, the president of the Manitoba Métis Federation."

Lemme take a whack at this Dave.

How about... in this case anyway... the kid pulled a knife?

And apparently... the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree...

He said he doesn't have many memories of his son, but will always cherish the thought of the day they spent together when the Grey Cup was last in Winnipeg.

Mr. Minchin scalped half a dozen tickets and then went into the stadium to watch the game with his son. They smoked joints and drank beers at halftime, he said.

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Geez, Steffi...

You mind if we get a second opinion?

-- OTTAWA -- Trade expert Michael Hart of Carleton University's Centre for Trade Policy and Law dismissed Mr. Dion's carbon tariff comments as “bafflegab.”

He predicted other nations would be furious with Canada.

“They'd quickly come to Ottawa and say ‘What the hell are you doing? Who came up with this crazy scheme?'” Prof. Hart said.

“The environmentalists would all scream 'the environment uber alles' but that's not enshrined in any trade agreement.”

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You mean the complacency...

...that got you elected... after you lied to us about not raising taxes?

-- LONDON, ONT. -- The rallying call to all Ontarians to shed their complacency is a new tactic in a campaign that began three years ago for Mr. McGuinty and comes as oil prices threaten to transform the province into one of the poor cousins of Confederation.

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RELATED: Yeah, Dalton... thanks for the tip

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What's not to like?

"Either we will have a private industry whose profits depend on creating and maintaining addicts, or we will have a public bureaucracy whose revenues depend on creating and maintaining addicts."

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RELATED: The emerging entrepreneurial class

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Well, okay...

...that's a whole different kettle of fish... I had no freakin' idea they were using the cluster-bomb model...

Thank you... oh wonderful, unbiased CBC.

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What's flat, black...

...and glows in the dark?

-- Tehran -- "The Iranian people are steadfast," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.

They "will not retreat one iota in the face of oppressing powers," he said in the televised speech made to thousands of supporters in the southern town of Yasouj.

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In other...

..."you know, statistically, crime is down" news...

A 22-year-old man has been charged in the slaying of a developmentally-delayed Mississauga woman. Homicide investigators quickly took over the investigation into Peel Region's 16th murder victim of the year.

Jason Osborne of Mississauga was charged with first-degree murder. He was scheduled for a brief court appearance today where he was expected to be remanded into custody.

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RELATED: Hey, Mayor Miller...

...where's that knife registry?

York police are investigating after a teenager was stabbed in the chest early this morning.

The teen, about 18 years old, was stabbed in Aldergrove Park, near Kennedy Rd. and Steeles Ave. E., around 1 a.m., but his friends took him to Scarborough Grace Hospital in Toronto’s 42 Division, said Markham Staff Sgt. John Southwell.

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Jane-Finch etiquette

Shaking slightly as she talked, Small said she could feel the neighbourhood talking about the shooting and was concerned that police issued warrants for two men when only one of them shot at her.

Nearby residents cautioned Small not to speak to the media and she soon left, saying she was going to meet with her lawyer.

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UPDATE: One down, one to go

One of the men wanted in connection with the attempted murder of Jordan Manners' mother and her two daughters turned himself in yesterday.

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So it looks like it's "go time"

-- OTTAWA -- Three federal by-elections in early September promise to stir up Canada's stagnant political waters, serving as a litmus test for a possible general election this autumn.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to call the by-elections this week in the Montreal-area ridings of Westmount-Ville Marie and St. Lambert and the southwestern Ontario riding of Guelph.

“They are all opposition-held ridings and anything less than two Liberal victories will be a huge defeat for Stéphane Dion's Liberals,” said Tory spokesman Ryan Sparrow.

Okay, Steffi... let's see what you've got.

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What percentage of Ontarians...

...have actually read the Fantino/Brant transcripts... as opposed to all the deadheads who settle for a 30 second soundbite... from someone like talking head Lisa LaFlamme?

Do yourself a favour... and just plow through this one article... and try tell me Julian Fantino did anything wrong...

In quotes taken from OPP transcripts (posted on The Intelligencer's website at www.intelligencer.ca), Fantino warns even natives are turning away from Brant and his theatrics and headline-grabbing protests that do little to advance the legitimate concerns of First Nations people.

Fantino was blunt in his assessment of Brant's activities:

"So, whatever message you've been putting out about children's suicides and poverty and the water," Fantino said in the cellphone exchange, "all that's all gonna be lost in the rhetoric where people are just gonna absolutely despise you and hate you that they're not gonna hear anything you've said about all those wonderful causes you're talking about.

"So, I've talked to enough people now, including a lot of people in the First Nations community ... they are running for the hills because you're bringing them down ... bringing down all the gains that you've made over the years and now (that) the struggle is starting to have some effect, you're destroying that because the message now is gone from a cause to a vengeance -- a vindictive ... Shawn Brant is going to bring Canada to its knees. Well, you're not gonna do it and your cause ... you can speak about children committing suicide all you want because nobody is going to listen to you.

"And, you know I don't wanna get on your bad side, but you're gonna force me to do everything I can within your community and everywhere else to destroy your reputation. I don't wanna do that, I wanna help you deal with the suicides ... I've travelled to reserves ... I know exactly what you're talkin about.

"I've been to Kashechewan and some of those other places there, I've been involved in... so you're talking to someone that's sympathetic here so I'm imploring upon you to call it quits."

"Let's do it now."

Yup... that's some villain.

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