Gotta admit...

This gorgeous, sleek machine makes me drool.

I once saw a stealth fighter up close. Gawd, that's one sexy damn thing!

The F-35 comes with a hefty, apparently morphing and not-to-be-disclosed, price. And 60 of these things have been ordered, without an open and fair bidding process, by the Government of Harper; the latter not to be confused with the Government of Canada, although it freely avails itself of Canadian tax dollars.

So, no thanks. At $6 billion, $30 billion, $40 billion..., the F-35 is a sexy thrill I can live without.

Recommend this post

IggyLibs and HarperCons: Ottawa's sabre rattlers

Bob Rae says, "You can't promote peace unless you put force behind the law and behind the collective will of the international community."

First, times have been when the "international community" has been wrong.

Second, right or wrong depends on whose interests shape the agenda.

Military superpowers head the so-called international community. Such powers, rather than promoting peace through example, prefer instead to use violence to promote more quell violence. They have found this useful for boosting their own economies.

Recommend this post

NFB Film: Marilyn Waring - Who's Counting?

Amazing film. Will stir you up, make you angry and strengthen your resolve to keep fighting for change.

Synopsis:

In this feature-length documentary, Marilyn Waring demystifies the language of economics by defining it as a value system in which all goods and activities are related only to their monetary value. As a result, unpaid work (usually performed by women) is unrecognized while activities that may be environmentally and socially detrimental are deemed productive. To remedy this, Waring maps out an alternative economic vision based on the idea of time as the new currency.

If you haven't already seen it, I strongly recommend you do so.

Recommend this post

Security, Terrorists and Paranoia

It all makes a person just want to stay home; or at least restrict her travel to trains, ferries and buses - until, of course, security goons start manning those entry points too.

Seriously. Daphne and I decided after our latest flying adventure that we'd had enough. The 'terrorist' fear-mongering has all got so out of control and silly.

Macleans' John Geddes makes a good point when he asks:

Didn't I read that the four suspects arrested last week in that plot to bomb synagogues in New York were all American-born? And, casting my mind back a bit, weren’t the 2005 London bombers native Brits, not immigrants?

So what to do. Maybe what would “make sense” would be to impose onerous, costly border-security restrictions between all nations, until they can sufficiently show that they’ve not only halted the flow of terrorists into their jurisdictions, but also restricted the breeding of terrorists within them.

A better solution would be for everybody just to stay home. We'd reduce our collective carbon emissions by billions of tonnes and be more invested in developing green, sustainable local economies.

We might even get to know our neighbours!

Recommend this post

Bush is Coming to Canada - Again

From Toronto Coalition to Stop the War:

From launching an illegal war on Iraq that has killed over one million people, to advocating torture at Guantánamo Bay and secret detention centres around the world, Bush has lots to answer for - and should be held to account. Join us for a city-wide rally on May 29 - the day that Bush is slated to speak in Toronto - to demand that he be charged and arrested for war crimes.

One week earlier, on May 22, join us for a public forum to hear international law experts and civil liberties campaigners explain the myriad of crimes committed by the Bush administration, and to find out how Bush could formally be charged with war crimes in Canada. Also find out how other US leaders - including former US president Bill Clinton, who will appear with Bush on May 29 - could be charged with war crimes, too.

Don’t let Canada be a haven for war criminals.

Visit their website for more info.

Recommend this post

Journalism's role in creating/enabling war (Video)

John Pilger, Australian journalist, author, film maker, speaks about global media consolidation, and the drive to empire. Filmed in Chicago June 16, 2007. Highly recommend viewing.

Recommend this post

Jewish Canadians on Suppression of Criticism of Israel

This statement was rejected by both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail (as an op-ed). Please help this important statement get into broad circulation - pass it on to your networks (faculty, community, MPs, university presidents, unions, etc.). You might also write to the papers, expressing your dismay that they have chosen not to publish it.

Jewish Canadians Concerned About Suppression of Criticism of Israel
James Deutsch, M.D., Ph.D., Judith Deutsch, M.S.W., R.S.W., Miriam Garfinkle, M.D.

Over 150 Jewish Canadians signed a statement expressing their concerns about the campaign to suppress criticism of Israel that is being carried on within Canada. The signatories include many prominent Canadians, including Ursula Franklin O.C., Anton Kuerti O.C., Naomi Klein, Dr. Gabor Mate, and professors Meyer Brownstone (recipient of Pearson Peace Medal), Natalie Zemon Davis, Michael Neumann, and Judy Rebick.

The signatories are particularly concerned that unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism deflect attention from Israel's accountability for what many have called war crimes in Gaza. They state that B'nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress have led campaigns to silence criticism of Israel on university campuses, in labor unions and in other groups. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff unquestioningly echo the views of these particular Jewish organizations.

They strongly state that they are against all expressions of racism. While firmly committed to resisting any form of prejudice against Jewish people, their statement explicitly states that these spurious allegations of anti-Semitism bring the anti-Communist terror of the 1950s vividly to mind. The statement underlines the immeasurable suffering and injustice to the Palestinian people due to the severe poverty, daily humiliations, and military invasions inflicted by the State of Israel.

Statement: Jewish Canadians Concerned about Suppression of Criticism of Israel

We are Jewish Canadians concerned about all expressions of racism, anti-Semitism, and social injustice. We believe that the Holocaust legacy "Never again" means never again for all peoples. It is a tragic turn of history that the State of Israel, with its ideals of democracy and its dream of being a safe haven for Jewish people, causes immeasurable suffering and injustice to the Palestinian people.

We are appalled by recent attempts of prominent Jewish organizations and leading Canadian politicians to silence protest against the State of Israel. We are alarmed by the escalation of fear tactics. Charges that those organizing Israel Apartheid Week or supporting an academic boycott of Israel are anti-Semites promoting hatred bring the anti-Communist terror of the 1950s vividly to mind. We believe this serves to deflect attention from Israel's flagrant violations of international humanitarian law.

B'nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress have pressured university presidents and administrations to silence debate and discussion specifically regarding Palestine/Israel. In a full-page ad in a national newspaper, B'nai Brith urged donors to withhold funds from universities because "anti-Semitic hate fests" were being allowed on campuses. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff have echoed these
arguments. While university administrators have resisted demands to shut down Israel Apartheid week, some Ontario university presidents have bowed to this disinformation campaign by suspending and fining students, confiscating posters, and infringing on free speech.

We do not believe that Israel acts in self-defense. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid, receiving $3 million/day. It has the fourth strongest army in the world. Before the invasion of Gaza on 27 December 2008, Israel's siege had already created a humanitarian catastrophe there, with severe impoverishment, malnutrition, and destroyed infrastructure. It is crucial that forums for discussion of Israel's accountability to the international community for what many have called war crimes be allowed to proceed unrestricted by specious claims of anti-Semitism.

We recognize that anti-Semitism is a reality in Canada as elsewhere, and we are fully committed to resisting any act of hatred against Jews. At the same time, we condemn false charges of anti-Semitism against student organizations, unions, and other groups and people exercising their democratic right to freedom of speech and association regarding legitimate criticism of the State of Israel.

To view the list of signatories, please see the first post in this babble thread.

Recommend this post

Effectiveness of Aggression against "Terror"

Aggressive detention, including torture, locking up people without charge and without fair (if any) judicial process, circumventing the Geneva convention, defying international law... All this to advance the War on Terror™.

Two former Guantanamo Bay prisoners who have now taken leadership positions in Al Qaeda’s Arabian Peninsula branch have released several statements on a jihadi Internet forum. “By God, we assert to our leaders and shaykhs - Shaykh Osama bin Laden, God preserve him, and Dr. Ayman Zawahiri—that we will fulfill our promise, and that we will perform the jihad,” said Shaykh Abu Sufyan al-Azdi Saed al-Shahri, formerly prisoner number 372. “By God, our detention only made us more insistent and committed to our principles, which we strove for and were detained for.”

Well done! An endless War on Terror, just what the Bushies ordered. (H/T to Macleans.)

Recommend this post

Justifying Aggression... the Pattern Emerges

Recall the "false intelligence" the US used to justify its military attack on Iraq? It appears Dubya wasn't the first.

All of the suffering in Gaza - indeed, all of the suffering endured by Palestinians under Israeli occupation for the last eight years - could have been avoided if Israel negotiated a peace agreement with Yasser Arafat when it had the chance, in 2001.

What chance? The official Israeli position is that there was no chance, "no partner for peace." That’s what Israeli leaders heard from their Military Intelligence (MI) service in 2000 after the failure of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at Camp David. Arafat scuttled those talks, MI told the leaders, because he was planning to set off a new round of violence, a second intifada.

Now former top officials of MI say the whole story, painting Arafat as a terrorist out to destroy Israel, was an intentional fiction. That’s the most explosive finding in an investigative report just published in Israel’s top newspaper, Ha’aretz, by one of its finest journalists, Akiva Eldar.

What's the saying about the first casualty of war being truth? 'twould appear truth is lost long before a single weapon is dropped or drawn.

The US and Israel appear to be intimately linked through the power players who are manipulating both countries. Their shock and awe techniques and their manufactured justifications for war are the same. It's not clear to me anymore which country is mimicking which. If the power players are the same, that question is moot.

Recommend this post

Dept of Homeland Security, Israel style

Does Israel have a Department of Homeland Security? Does it have laws like the US PATRIOT Act? If not, it may soon follow the example of its joined-at-the-hip US cousin.

Conservative Israeli politicians are warning that Israeli Arabs now represent a "fifth column" that threatens the country's security.

Danny Ayalon from the party Israel Beiteinu is particularly alarmed at the stridency of opposition among Israeli Arabs to the war in Gaza. He accuses some of lacking sufficient loyalty to the Israeli state.

"Israel is a very small country, six million Jews, surrounded by 250 million Arabs. If they connect with Palestinians on the other side of the border, then we have a problem."

The Israeli Beiteinu Party was behind recent moves to ban some Arab politicians from standing for re-election to the country's parliament, the Knesset, on the grounds that they were not loyal citizens...

Meanwhile, Israeli police say they have brought "a number" of Israeli Arabs into police stations who have not committed any crimes, but just to warn them to stay within the law - a move one told me amounted to blatant intimidation.

The last, in particular, has a whiff of the kind of activities which took place immediately after 9-11; those round-ups of anyone who 'looked Arab'.

Recommend this post

First Venezuela, now Bolivia

Good on them.

Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, says he is breaking off ties with Israel in protest against its war in Gaza, which has left more than 1,000 Palestinians dead...

The Bolivian president also dismissed the United Nations and its "Insecurity Council" for its "lukewarm" response to the crisis and said the general assembly should hold an emergency session to condemn the invasion...

Morales's move follows the decision by his ally Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, to expel Israel's ambassador in the country because of the offensive...

Still haven't heard a word from the leader of Canada's purportedly leftist party. Not one of the NDP's press releases since the Israeli invasion on Gaza addresses the issue. On this, the 19th day of Israeli airstrikes and the saturation of Gaza atmosphere with white phosphorus. After more than 1,000 Palestinian deaths. After close to 5,000 Palestinians wounded.

Recommend this post

Humane Actions and the Art of War Porn

... courtesy of the Israel Defence Force.

Following an onslaught of viewer complaints, YouTube yanked one of the IDF's videos that ... ostensibly showed their "humane actions" ...

Then, YouTube put it back after still more pressure from viewers. That day the IDF posted a response on their channel profile: "We were saddened earlier today that YouTube took down some of our exclusive footage showing the IDF's operational success in operation Cast Lead against Hamas extremists in the Gaza Strip. Fortunately, due to blogger and viewer support, YouTube has put back up some of the footage they removed."

YouTube's attempts to censor the videos seemed to spur the IDF to post even more extreme footage. Last week, ... 20 or so [new videos] show the army's precision strikes using smart bombs purportedly destroying the Hamas government's offices, and bombs "neutralizing mosques" ... So far, these "precision strikes" have been responsible for 540 deaths in Gaza, including at least 200 civilians. The Associated Press reported that 14 children died on Monday alone.

The Tyee reporter supposes that a fascination by YouTubers for wartime snuff is behind their demand for more from the IDF. I disagree. More likely, it's the hypocrisy. Like Dubya's cluelessness as his utterances indict him, so these videos indict Israel's malefactors.

Recommend this post

Disgusted with Our Political "Leaders"

Daphne and I are thoroughly disgusted with the purported 'leaders' of our government and major parties. They do not lead, they puppet.

It took days before either of the alternating "natural governing" parties made a statement on the Gaza situation.

Then after days of silence, the Liberal Party issued a media release which included this:

The Liberal Party of Canada unequivocally condemns the rocket attacks launched by Hamas against Israeli civilians and calls for an immediate end to these attacks. We affirm Israel's right to defend itself against such attacks, and also its right to exist in peace and security.

No mention of the missile attacks and slaughter being wrecked on Gazans by Israel. No mention of the right of Palestinians to defend themselves.

Only on January 3rd did the Harper government finally speak. Typically, it touted the Bushies line:

Condoleeza Rice: "We are working toward a cease fire that would not allow a re-establishment of the status-quo ante, where Hamas can continue to launch rockets out of Gaza... We need a cease fire that is durable and sustainable."

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon: "We urge renewed international diplomatic efforts to achieve a sustainable and durable ceasefire, starting with the halting of all rocket attacks on Israel."

In early November, the US vetoed a UN resolution condemning the Israeli Gaza Offensive:

It was the second U.S. veto this year of a Security Council draft resolution concerning Israeli military operations in Gaza.

The U.S. blocked action on a document this summer after Israel launched its offensive in response to the capture of an Israeli soldier by Hamas-linked Palestinian militants.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the resolution was "very one-sided."

"It's good that it wasn't accepted by the Security Council," he said.

Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour said he was disappointed by the vote.

"You have conveyed today two wrong messages," he told the Security Council. "For Israel, you have conveyed to them they can continue to behave above international law. For the Palestinian people, you have conveyed that justice is not being dealt with in a proper way."

In this infant new year, BushCo has so far vetoed and intends to continue to veto, all Arab resolutions put forward to the UN Security Council. Why?

Reliable sources at the UN say that the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, has received explicit instructions from his superiors at the State Department to torpedo any initiative proposed by the Arab bloc which is designed to grant the Security Council the status of an official arbiter that will have direct involvement with disentangling the Gaza crisis.

The Canadian subsidiary of BushCo - HarperCo - tows the parent company line.

Harper Lite dutifully rides in tandem.

Yet consider these FACTS:

• Israeli deaths prior to invasion of Gaza to prevent Israeli deaths: 4
• Israeli deaths after invasion of Gaza to prevent Israeli deaths: 9
• Number of Israeli deaths attributed to Israeli army: 4
• Number of Palestinians killed by Israelis: 550
• And this on the hailstorm of Gaza rocket attacks (thanks to reader Beijing York)

How's that for perspective?

Recommend this post

"Sitting next to a dead or dying person is becoming normal"

... from a blog that everyone should be reading.

The numbers slaughtered and injured are so high now – 521 and 3,000 as of this morning, Gaza time – that sitting next to a dead or dying person is becoming normal. The stain of blood on the ambulance stretcher pools next to my coat, the medic warning me my coat may be dirtied. What does it matter? The stain doesn't revolt me as it would have, did, one week ago. Death fills the air, the streets in Gaza, and I cannot stress that this is no exaggeration.

This eyewitness report is from a Canadian in Gaza. Given her courage to stay there and bear witness, we must have the courage to read her accounts. If they upset us, that's all to the good.

Recommend this post

Cut Oil Exports to Israel's Supporters

So urges an Iranian military commander.

An Iranian military commander called on Islamic countries to cut oil exports to Israel's supporters, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.

IRNA, giving only his last name, quoted commander Bagherzadeh as saying oil was "one of the powerful elements of pressure" on Israel's Western backers in the "unequal war" faced by Palestinians in Gaza.

Good advice. Only money and "threats to our freedom" (quoting dubya) get the attention of, and cause panic among the puppet masters.

Recommend this post

PBS Documentary on Afghanistan a Must-See

Just finished watching the Frontline documentary, The War Briefing, originally aired October 28th on PBS. I can't state strongly enough that EVERYONE, politicians and members of the general public alike, should view it.

The situation in the region, including in Pakistan, is far, far worse than news reports have been able to portray.

The documentary and website should make us all deeply reflect about Canada's involvement in Afghanistan - or any International involvement, for that matter - particularly in light of Pakistan's fragile position and possession of 50 nuclear weapons.

Recommend this post

Naomi Wolf: White House condoning sex crimes

A must-read article by Naomi Wolf provides further exposure of White House crimes and misdemeanours or, better put, "How Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay basically turned into an organized sex-crime ring in which the trafficked sex slaves were US-held prisoners."

I had a sense of deja vu when I saw the photos that emerged in 2004 from Abu Ghraib prison. Even as the Bush administration was spinning the notion that the torture of prisoners was the work of "a few bad apples" low in the military hierarchy, I knew that we were seeing evidence of a systemic policy set at the top. It's not that I am a genius. It's simply that, having worked at a rape crisis center and been trained in the basics of sex crime, I have learned that all sex predators go about things in certain recognizable ways.

We now know that the torture of prisoners was the result of a policy set in the White House by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Rice -- who actually chaired the torture meetings. The Pentagon has also acknowledged that it had authorized sexualized abuse of detainees as part of interrogation practices to be performed by female operatives. And documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union have Rumsfeld, in his own words, checking in on the sexualized humiliation of prisoners.

So in the name of defence, the power-brokers in the US (and other nations) justify certain activities which at home would be treated for what they are, crimes. In the meantime, these same power-brokers get to salaciously ogle the carrying out of said activities, passing such enjoyment to certain keen and/or gullible personnel within the armed forces and 'intelligence' communities.

It's always men who lead the way in such endeavours and it makes me sicker than sick.

There are times like these when I would ask to be granted one wish: To wipe out all men on Terra who push their 'terra' agendas, or who do nothing to stop war, or who do nothing to stop violence against women, or who do nothing to protest the abuse of children (including their recruitment into men's armies), or who nothing to protect other animal species, or who do nothing...

Sigh... I'm heading for another read of one of my all-time favourite stories, The Gate to Women's Country, by Sheri S Tepper.

Recommend this post

Canada supports your wars, so you support our oil

This has got to be the dumbest argument yet in support of the Alberta oil sands.

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach says Canada has "protected the backs" of Americans in several wars and U.S. politicians should consider this before rejecting what some are calling "dirty" oil from the oilsands.

In other words, we support your dirty wars, so you support our dirty oil.

That this policy ultimately destroys life and the environment is apparently irrelevant.

Update: This related commentary from Saturday's Globe is just too funny.

When Barack Obama threatens to break America's addiction to “dirty, dwindling and expensive oil” and endorses a proposed “low-carbon fuel standard,” he is harming America's own national interests. Canada is the largest exporter of crude oil to the United States.... The Americans would be hard-pressed to find as reliable or as conscientious a supplier.

Unfortunately, ... the U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 contains a controversial section 526, which bans federal agencies from buying alternative fuels that produce more greenhouse gases than conventional oil. Efforts to amend the legislation, to specify that this section does not include Canadian heavy oil, have stalled. Worse, many view the section as a precedent for broader action.

Meanwhile, California has a sweeping plan to reduce greenhouse gases, which would require a 10-per-cent cut to the carbon intensity of transportation fuels by 2020. If Mr. Obama embraces this provision, as seems likely, U.S. refiners would hesitate to accept Canadian oil – because oil-sands production generates as much as three times more greenhouse gas than conventional oil; ... it is the American consumer who will pay the price, not Canada.

But isn't that the point, that all of us must take responsibility for our gluttony?

Recommend this post