22 September 2007

Taliban Jack...

Had better get a move on, if he wants to negotiate with these guys...
A British-led multi-national force in southern Afghanistan says it has found a network of well-established bunkers at a former Taleban stronghold.

Most of the Taleban seem to have left the area but the bunkers indicate they were experienced fighters.

The positions, which also suggest the Taleban thought they were in the district to stay, are being documented and then destroyed.
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RELATED: In an eerie sort of reciprocity...
A British company welcomes its future overlords.
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LAST WORD: Forget reality tv... choose reality
Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem.

The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say.

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Bested Bloc-heads beget bad bluff

Maybe Gille's lookin' at his numbers and just figures things can't get any worse.
-- OTTAWA -- Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe set off a game of parliamentary chicken on Saturday, laying down five "non-negotiable" conditions for supporting the minority Conservative government's throne speech next month.

Unless one of the parties blinks, Mr. Duceppe's ploy increases the chances that the country will be plunged into a fall election.
What makes Duceppe think, even in his wildest, most optimistic dreams, that the Prime Minister will bow to this sort of public blackmail?
During a campaign-like speech in Rimouski, Que., on Saturday, Mr. Duceppe listed five "non-negotiable" conditions the Conservative government must meet to earn his party's support.

"If it means an election, it means an election," he told reporters following his speech.
Hey... it has to happen sooner or later.

I say, bring it on.

I'm sure Taliban Jack would agree...

Who wants to live in an absolute shithole like Canada... when they could live and prosper in the people's paradise of Iran?
-- UNITED NATIONS -- Iran is distributing a booklet on Canadian human rights "violations" in a bid to discredit Canada on the eve of the annual United Nations summit where its own rights record will be the subject of intense scrutiny.

The 70-page document being handed out to diplomats at the United Nations comes with an inscription that says it is written "In the Name of God" as it rails against the Canadian government.

Cowardly, backstabbing...

Religion of Peace surfaces briefly... then crawls back into its rat-hole.
-- KANDAHAR -- Four Canadian soldiers and their Afghan interpreter have been injured after their vehicle struck a roadside bomb.

The blast, early yesterday morning, hit a resupply convoy on its way to the Canadian forward operating base at Ma'sum Ghar, west of Kandahar.

Two soldiers injured and the interpreter were medevaced back to the hospital the international base at the Kandahar air base. Their injuries are not considered life-threatening, said Capt. Josée Bilodeau. Two other soldiers were treated in Ma'sum Ghar.
You'd think if these guys actually believed that Allah had blessed their "holy war", they'd just throw themselves into the fray.

Of course, every time they do that... they get beaten like a much-reviled third wife.

Sometimes it's hard to ignore reality.

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Music to my ears

It's an interesting contrast... while Dalton McGuinty concentrates on measures like vaccinating pre-adolescent girls against sexually transmitted diseases... John Tory says he wants to go after actual criminals...
Tory said yesterday that he would go province-wide with an idea proposed by Kingston Police Chief W.J. Closs to have the Ontario government offer $50,000 in cash for information leading to the arrest of murderers and other dangerous criminals.

Unlike Crime Stoppers, this program would require that tipsters give their names and testify in court if necessary.

Crime Stoppers programs typically offer rewards in the range of $50 to $2,000, but the information can be provided anonymously.
Just as importantly, Tory proposes stripping away the layer of suckass political correctness that conceals the actual state of affairs of the prosecution of justice in Ontario.
The Conservatives would, if elected to govern, introduce a Truth and Transparency in the Justice System Act, to require the justice system to release statistics on plea bargains, crimes by suspects on bail and court wait times.

Tory said too many murders have been committed by people who were out on bail for serious charges at the time, and any government run by him would demand that Crowns fight bail for all gun crimes.

"This is catch and release justice; catch and release works when you're fishing," he said. "It doesn't work when you're dealing with violent offenders."
I think this one is a winner.

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It's not a huge leap...

From hearing voices... to hearing footsteps...
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has issued a tough warning to any country considering an attack on Iran.

He said Iran's forces were just for defence, but that anybody who attacked would experience nothing but regret. On display at the parade was Iran's latest military hardware, including new long-range missiles and Saegheh fighter jets.

According to the Associated Press news agency some of the lorries carrying Iranian missiles bore anti-US and anti-Israeli slogans.
It's starting to sound as though ol' Mahmoud has an invisible friend.
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran says Mr Ahmadinejad believes he is winning the battle for world opinion - a fight he is now taking to the UN General Assembly in New York.

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21 September 2007

Aboriginals 'amp up' threats

The only question is... who's gonna end up in hospital this time?
-- HALDIMAND -- Six Nations elected Chief Dave General stands behind a toughly-worded letter warning that more native protests would occur, unless all development is stopped along the Grand River.

Haldimand Mayor Marie Trainer called it a thinly veiled threat.

“It’s so strongly worded. It’s more or less saying we’re shutting Haldimand down,” Trainer said.

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Bin Laden plays his big hand here...

But by taking away Musharraf's remaining wiggle room, he has just created, where none existed before, an implacable and extremely motivated enemy.
-- ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's military vowed Thursday to eliminate terrorism, undeterred by a call from al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden for a rebellion against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

In a new audiotape released Thursday, bin Laden said the Pakistan army's bloody siege of militants holed up in Islamabad's Red Mosque made Musharraf an infidel.
To date, Musharraf has been walking a knife edge trying to accommodate both the West and the hardline religious parties.

This video was obviously meant to cut Musharraf's feet out from under him domestically, but by declaring him an infidel... Bin Laden has left the President only one option here... and that is eliminating Osama.

Unless there is a coup, or a popular uprising in the next little while, which is always a possibility... this threat will have been for naught. It will, in fact, have been extremely counter-productive.

Musharraf, at this point in time, now has absolutely no reason not to greenlight the massive "special forces" operation that the Americans have been advocating for the last six years.

The longer Bin Laden remains in circulation, the more he can agitate for an Islamic coup directed at Musharraf... and let's remember, an extremely motivated George Bush would like nothing better than Osama's head on a pike as an end-of-term party favour.

Cooler heads within the fundamentalist movement already realise that this was a tactical error and are frantically backpedaling away from the video threat.
But a prominent lawmaker from a hard-line Islamic coalition strongly opposed to Musharraf's alliance with Washington said he thought the video was fake. He offered no evidence to back up his assertion.

"This is an attempt to turn people's sympathies in favor of Gen. Pervez Musharraf but such tactics are not going to work," said Liaquat Baluch, from the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal.

"I am sure that the video is a fake and made in America," he said.
Osama, you fucked up here... and I think it's gonna cost you bigtime.

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RELATED: Getting his ducks in a row
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has made a series of top-level changes in the military high command ahead of next month's presidential elections.

Most important, the chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate has been changed and a new commander of the Rawalpindi corps appointed on Friday.

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Screw education, fuel and food...

How the loony left deals with a humanitarian crisis.
-- ABU DIS, West Bank -- Fahed Abu Haj, curator of the Abu Jihad Palestinian Political Prisoners Museum, greets visitors with a meant-to-shock claim: "The first Palestinian prisoner was Jesus," he says.
Apparently, that "three square meals a day thing" is totally over-rated. The really important thing is to build monuments to spread your propaganda.
With that salvo, Abu Haj introduces a place that is part symbol and part propaganda. The museum reflects a shared experience that Palestinians consider central to building their national identity: Israeli jail.

The museum opened in April and cost $750,000 to construct. A Kuwaiti charity provided the funds.
Hmmmm... there's something that feels a little off here.
One notable omission from the museum is any mention of prisoners from Hamas, the movement that defeated Fatah in legislative elections last year.
Oh yeah... that.

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No more bacon for convicts

I agree with Duane David, let's get rid of bacon in Canadian prisons...
A Muslim inmate has won $2,000 and a partial human rights victory over a Correctional Service of Canada policy not to replace bacon with a halal diet for Islam-worshipping cons.

Duane David, who is serving time in Kingston's Joyceville Institution for an unknown crime, had complained to the Canadian Human Rights Commission that his rights were being violated as the prison failed to offer a halal replacement for bacon served to inmates with breakfast every Wednesday.
I'm sure all his health-conscious buddies out at the weight-pile will be anxious to support Duane in his crusade... ah... campaign here.

And bacon's just a start... let's ban televisions and computers in prison as well.

We just want these poor boys to be comfortable.

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20 September 2007

Straight from the 'grassy knoll'

Is there any crazy shit from decades past that can't be woven into a conspiracy theory and laid at the feet of evil, racist anglo society?
'An Inuit "truth commission" is investigating long-standing accusations that Mounties slaughtered sled dogs in the 1950s and 1960s to force their owners to give up their traditional lifestyle, officials said yesterday.'
Let's make sure we get PETA involved here too.

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LAST WORD:
Back in the real world
During this election, I thought that the Conservatives would be able to nail Caledonia right into McGuinty’s forehead. However, John Tory is not hammering on this issue for fear of hitting himself on the Ipperwash thumb.

Without John Tory forcing this issue, the media is not forced to cover it, and in fact, is content not to.
It's the "crazy" wheel that gets the grease.

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Spare us the crocodile tears

If the spokes-natives for the aboriginal community... who last week offered up public apologies for the assault on a Caledonia contractor were really being sincere... they should have no trouble ponying up the three suspects in the case.
-- CALEDONIA, ON, Sept. 20 /CNW/ -- The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) has issued warrants for the arrest of three suspects in relation to the Stirling Woods Subdivision assault.

The suspects are: Richard SMOKE, age 18 years, being sought for aggravated assault and break and enter; Byron POWLESS, age 18 years, wanted on charges of assault and break and enter; and a 15-year-old male youth also wanted for assault, uttering threats and break and enter.
But that ain't gonna happen, is it?

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UPDATE: Naming the No-brainer Nine
Nine aboriginal protesters at the site were arrested Wednesday and appeared in court Thursday, but not in relation to the attack on Gualtieri.

The nine include both men and women and range in age from 17 to 47, and all are charged with mischief. One man also faces a weapons charge, and a woman is also charged with assaulting police.

Charged are Ronald Cook, 31, of Akwesasne, N.Y.; Greg Powless, 18, of Ohsweken, Ont.; Stephen Powless, 42, of Ohsweken; Francine Doxdator, 47, of no fixed address; Teresa Jamieson, 41, of Ohsweken; Sheranne McNaughton, 26, of Hagersville, Ont.; Skyler Williams, 24, of no fixed address; June Jamieson-Maracle, 40, of Ohsweken; and a 17-year-old female from Ohsweken.

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Leadership Snooze-o-rama

Good grief... now we're on to energy.

All I know is that listening to all this argle-bargle... is sucking the life out of me... I'll let somebody else try to make sense of this.
7:38 — Three and half minutes of debate.

Tory to McGuinty: "We've got to get it done or we'll run out of energy."

McGuinty responds to Tory: "You're making this stuff up."
If I don't get away from this storm of polished fluff right now, I'm gonna zzzzzz...

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LAST WORD: The only worthwhile moment
A flurry of accusations and recriminations was prompted when a woman from Burlington asked if the party leaders would support a law allowing voters to recall politicians who break their word.

In the end, all three said they would oppose such a law.

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There's a nouveau Sheriff in town

And he's got his own thoughts about keepin' the peace...
The French National Assembly has passed a controversial bill tightening entry conditions for the relatives of immigrants living in France.

Under the legislation, the relatives will have to prove they are solvent financially and can speak French.

It also includes plans for DNA testing of foreigners seeking to join family members living in France.
I can't wait to see what happens come Car-B-Q season.

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RELATED: DNA testing is a double-edged sword

The United States already uses DNA to verify familial relationships for immigration purposes. Sometimes though, you don't get the results you're looking for.
-- When the DNA results landed on Isaac Owusu’s dinner table here last year, they showed that only one of the four boys — the oldest — was his biological child.

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Dumbing down with Dalton

Another case of the Fiberals promising voters the sun, the moon and the stars...
Fewer than two-thirds of Ontario's 145,000 Grade 6 students have met provincial standards on the latest province-wide tests – well short of the Liberals' promise in the last election to have 75 per cent of Grade 6 students clear the bar.
Maybe Dalton should be spending a little more time "celebrating intelligence and achievement" instead of simply ensuring public school libraries have multiple copies of "My Two Dads."
However, only 64 per cent achieved at least a B – the provincial standard – in Grade 6 reading in the latest scores released yesterday and 61 per cent got a B or better in writing – results unchanged from the year before. In math, 59 per cent got at least a B, down 2 points from the previous year.
Our children deserve better than this.

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RELATED: Natives ask... where's McGuinty now?
Three programs at First Nations Technical Institute (FNTI) have been postponed because of what the school calls a dire ongoing funding shortage.

Officials with FNTI met with Chris Bentley, Ontario Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, following at Intelligencer article in July. They got a listening ear but no real solutions, Thompson said.

The province, which funds Ontario's other post-secondary schools, says aboriginal affairs are a federal matter.
Yeah Dalton, it's always somebody else's fault, isn't it?

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On the bright side...

Nobody's talking about killing the guy who made them...
Four statues of Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu deity revered as the remover of obstacles, are to be removed in the next few days from outside Edmonton's Shaw Conference Centre after adamant objections from Alberta Hindus.

Ryan McCourt's sculptures, which have been on display for 10 months, were placed at the centre under Edmonton's Art and Design in Public Places Program, a corporate-municipal non-profit partnership seeking to show large-scale sculptures produced by many artists in the region.
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UPDATE: Ryan McCourt replies to critics...
"There's lots of art that I don't like," he wrote. "I don't go around gathering signatures of people who agree with me, and try to force the art to come down."

"That would be truly offensive, especially in a democracy like Canada."

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19 September 2007

Smack-talkin' Persians...

Are cruisin' for a bruisin'.
-- TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran has drawn up plans to bomb Israel if the Jewish state should attack, the deputy air force commander said, adding to tensions already heated up by an Israeli airstrike on Syria and Western calls for more U.N. sanctions against Tehran.
The RAND Corporation thinktank was quick to put the Iranian rhetoric into perspective...
"If Israelis attacked Iran it would be with high precision weapons that could destroy military targets," he said. "They could destroy Iran's nuclear reactor and do damage to the enrichment."

"The Iranian response would be quite different," Ochmanek said. "It would be small numbers of highly inaccurate missiles and the intention would be to do this for psychological purposes rather than to destroy discrete targets."

"It's an asymmetrical relationship."
In brains apparently, as well as brawn.

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"Dances with Peyote"

Just like the famous, totally fabricated "Tawana Brawley" incident in the United States... it now appears that the RCMP did not scoop up these brave aboriginal warriors and spirit them off to a mythical secret police gulag after all.
The claim that Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested a group of Navajo American Indians this week appears to be bogus.

Both levels of police have categorically denied taking a group of Navajo American Indians into custody this week.

While reports from the group itself said they had been taken in by RCMP for questioning and released, the OPP and RCMP said they "did not stop, detain nor arrest anyone in the area."

Both agencies have investigated the allegations and determined the incident did not occur, the OPP said in a joint statement Tuesday.
So what's up with the kook who made the false allegations?
Spata Desareau, a member of the tribe that is an offshoot of the Navajo, had told the Intelligencer the 28-person group was taken into custody Sunday en route to the aboriginal protest at a quarry near Deseronto.
Ah... he's one of Shawn Brant's merry men.

That explains everything.

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BREAKING: Believe it or not... ARRESTS IN CALEDONIA
It appears the OPP may have finally taken some action against native protestors in Caledonia.

Reports from the scene of a long standoff at a housing subdivision indicate cops moved into the disputed land on Wednesday afternoon and took 18 people into custody. All those arrested are said to be natives.

This latest incident follows a violent confrontation that took place last week between a home builder and those on the land. Fifty-two-year-old Sam Gualtieri was discovered unconscious and bloody after he went to check out a home under construction.
You've gotta love the timing here.

Did Julian Fantino tell Dalton, "No more kid gloves?"

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Another Dion brainwave...

I can't wait to see the t-shirt... "My Canada includes every fanatical, murderous fundamentalist sonuvabitch..."
-- TORONTO -- Federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is repeating his call for a Canadian man being held in a U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay to be tried, if not in a U.S. court then in a Canadian one.
I imagine our soldiers is Afghanistan must be similarly excited about the actions of a man who also apparently aspires to be their next Commander-in-Chief.
Mr. Dion met Wednesday with U.S. military lawyers representing Omar Khadr, 21, and later spoke at a hotel in downtown Toronto.

Mr. Khadr is accused of murdering a U.S. officer in Afghanistan in a 2002 firefight at an alleged al Qaeda compound when he was 15.
Sorry Steffi... my Canada does not include terrorists.

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