Another UN Success Story

Roadkill 4 Comments

Greece, Turkey Join Crucial Cyprus Peace Talks

Old rivals Greece and Turkey locked horns Wednesday over a U.N. peace plan which aims to reunite the island of Cyprus before it joins the European Union on May 1.
Both countries are keen to secure a deal, but they also share some of the concerns aired by their respective proteges — the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots — during the past four weeks of fruitless negotiations on the divided island.

I know a retired colonel who was a peacekeeper in Cyrus in the 1970’s. He also tested parachute designs[1] for the Canadian military and served in the US Special Forces. I was in their home on the first night of bombing in Baghdad during the first Gulf War. Gil’s voiceover was pretty amusing, and radically different from the ‘expert analysis’ on CNN – and accurate, as it turned out.

The U.N.-brokered talks have now moved to the Swiss Alpine resort of Buergenstock, where mediators hope Athens and Ankara can exert greater pressure on the feuding Cypriot sides. They end next week.

You know, if I were in charge of these things, talks wouldn’t be held in resorts. They’d be over wooden picnic tables under a leaky tent in Wood Buffalo park. Give them all the time they need – and one can of bug repellent. The float plane would return when the papers were signed.

“I would say the chances (for agreement) are better than even,” U.N. envoy Alvaro de Soto said in comments to U.N. television.

The UN has been in Cyprus since 1964. (Timeline). Food for thought for those who clamour for UN involvement in Iraq. Or anywhere, for that matter – Cyrus isn’t Somalia, for crying out loud.
Footnote:
[1] Not a typo

Miriam Squeezes Off Another Shot

Roadkill 1 Comment

Today at the “Adscam” hearings, Miriam B�dard has testified she was told by Via Rail boss, Marc LeFrancois, that Formula One driver, Jacques Villeneuve, was paid $12 million US to wear a “Canada” patch on his race suit.
Out of a secret fund. [This secret fund?]
And that favoured-ad-agency-cash-clearing-house Groupaction was involved in drug trafficking.
(Who is Miriam B�dard?)
update – denials and skeptcism all around – from the head of Groupaction, obviously, and from Villeneuve – though, it’s hard to dismiss B�dard is an outright liar – a language problem?

Navel Gazing – Not Just A Canadian Pastime.

Radioactive No Comments

I’ve been busy painting a helmet today, and am still a little addled from breathing paint, so I’ll just hand you off to Dr. Joyner at OTB for a round up of the navel gazing going at the 911 commission today. I really don’t get the purpose of this entire “he said, they did” exercise. It’s not as though there’s much to be learned in order to “avoid mistakes of the past”. People have been whining for 2 full years about the changes in foreign policy, homeland security and intelligence gathering by this administration.
James has some good exerpts from op-eds and this must read link to Glenn Reynolds:

BUSH CAN’T GET A BREAK: Now he’s being blamed for not invading Afghanistan in 1998! Here’s the relevant passage from MSNBC:

The report revealed that in a previously undisclosed secret diplomatic mission, Saudi Arabia won a commitment from the Taliban to expel bin Laden in 1998. But a clash between the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and Saudi officials scuttled the arrangement, and Bush did not follow up.

Damn him — governing Texas while Rome burned! Why didn’t he send the Texas Rangers to finish off Bin Laden? (“One mullah, one Ranger!”) Sheesh. Can you say “Freudian slip?”

and here too.– think of it as antidote for the Breathless Revelation Reporting on CBC/CTV news tonight.

Frank J. on J. Kerry

What He Said 1 Comment

IMAO – Bite Sized Wisdom

Protection on the Slopes: So Kerry was skiing in Idaho (Idaho! I don’t care how much he skis; he ain’t winning that state), and then fall downs when he runs into a Secret Service agent. Then he exclaims, “I don’t fall down!” and uses and expletive to describe the Secret Service Agent. Makes him seem a wee bit haughty. And why is the Secret Service skiing with him anyway? Why can’t they just post snipers to watch Kerry? Then, if a Secret Service agent caused Kerry to crash, Kerry would have a better excuse.
“I don’t fall; that son of a bitch shot me!”
And then you’d hear up in the trees, “My bad.”*

Canadian Military Spending: 2004

Military 2 Comments

Our allies in the WOT are going to be rocked back on their heels by the military spending increases in today’s 2004 budget.

  • An additional $250 million over two years for peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan and the fight against terrorism.
  • $50 million for the peacekeeping force in Haiti.

    • That’ll have them sucking in their breath.

  • Exemption from tax of the income earned by Canadian Forces personnel and police while serving on high-risk international missions.

    • Woo-hoo! and all this time they were thinking helicoptors! new ships! eh… bullets?

  • “An additional $605 million over five years for the security contingency reserve.”

    • “Reserve” means that it doesn’t get spent unless the Peace Tower comes crashing down.

  • Building on the 8-per-cent increase for 2004-05, an additional $248 million for international assistance, or an 8-per-cent increase, for 2005-06.

    • Something tells me this doesn’t mean rounding up the 36,000 missing deportees in the country.
    update – others are noticing.
    added to the Snark Hunt

    Spain Adopts Canadian Foreign Policy

    Political Animal 4 Comments

    New York Times

    In a move that might help muffle criticism of a Socialist pledge to pull troops out of Iraq, Spain’s incoming prime minister is considering increasing the number of Spanish soldiers guarding the fragile peace in Afghanistan, sources in his party said today.
    Less than two weeks after the deadly train bombings in Madrid, the incoming prime minister, Jos� Luis Rodr�guez Zapatero, wants to signal his commitment to fight terrorism and show the United States that Spain remains a loyal ally, said one of the sources, a high- ranking party official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
    He added that the new government wants “to send a message that the Socialists do not believe in appeasement.”
    Since Mr. Zapatero’s election victory on March 14, he has faced two tasks: responding to overwhelming opposition to the American- led war in Iraq among his backers and staying on the good side of the United States administration as its seeks international cooperation in its war on terror.
    Mr. Zapatero has confirmed a campaign pledge to pull Spain’s 1,300 troops out of Iraq unless the United Nations assumes greater control by June 30. Critics, notably in the United States, accused Mr. Zapatero of handing a victory to terrorists.

    Well, to be fair, Zapatero had Spanish troop withdrawal on the table prior to the bombings – which cast his pledge in a new light, transforming a foreign policy position into a surrender. The decision was made by the Spanish electorate. Rock, hard place?
    If there is palatable solution for the political dilemma, I suppose this is a defensible one. Though, the blustering rhetoric he indulged in after the election doesn’t incline one to think he realized a dilemma existed. Maybe it hadn’t quite sunk in.

    The party official close to Mr. Zapatero said the war in Iraq might have made the world a less secure place.
    “Our disagreements are not with the United States itself, but with a specific doctrine of preventative strike, which we believe creates more insecurity in the world,” he said.

    I guess this means Spain won’t be having any 3-11 commission.

    Pediatrician Of Death

    Roadkill 2 Comments

    Over at Command Post Michelle has a bio for the newly promoted Abdel Aziz Rantissi, as he rises the ladder of the Terrorist Who’s Who.

    [H]e has consistently argued that Palestinians have a right to resist Israel by any and all means, including the suicide bombing of civilians.
    “They are not terrorism,” he told the Arabic newspaper Kut al-Arab in 1998.
    “They are a response to Israeli terrorism, individuals and governmental, against Palestinian civilians.”
    Vowing to keep fighting on till “our homeland is liberated”, Rantissi offered a reciprocal initiative, whereby “we will stop hunting for Israelis in return for allowing them to get out of our homeland safely”.

    Reload.

    Glenn Reynolds Is Back

    Blogging 1 Comment

    After a brief hiatus, Reynolds is making up for it with a blogging binge, even by his prolific standards. As usual some good links provided – but this from his reader mail caught my eye. It illustrates why the blogosphere has taken off as a source for news and opinion for those of us who have been complaining of the uneven coverage and spin of news reporting.

    “I realize you generally assume that the vast majority of reporters are praying to their pagan gods for our failure in Iraq and the war against terrorism (I am not one of them), and are now crafting their stories to reflect and facilitate such a thing. While I think you are dead wrong on this, I have to admit I was taken aback by a conversation I had recently with a colleague.
    I work as a freelancer for a major national publication, and was talking to my editor as we were closing a piece last week. It was Thursday, and the reports were coming out of Pakistan that we might have Ayman al-Zawahiri surrounded. I passed this news on to the editor, who was crestfallen: “Oh, no. I don’t want anything good to happen for Bush before the election,” was the reaction (P.S., this editor does not edit foreign or political stories).
    It was a sickening moment. This is a man responsible for thousands of American deaths. So while I have no desire to see Bush re-elected, and I disagree with our attack on Iraq, to hope for our failure in capturing one of the deadliest people in the world is a moral blindspot.”

    Question is, how could someone in the profession be so unaware of the fact that there is a problem of anti-Republican/conservative bias in the media, when we news end-users figured it out during the Reagan administration?

    Land Of Living Skies

    Gopher News No Comments

    Sunday evening I heard a loud bang – thought it was a cattle hauler pulling up to the stop sign outside the house. Turns out, it was a sonic boom.

    A brilliant fireball streaked across the central Saskatchewan sky Sunday night around 8:30 p.m., providing a colourful spectacle and rattling windows and walls with its pressure wave. But what has astronomers agog is the possibility it landed.

    A Saskatoon astronomer interviewed this morning confirmed that cameras in Calgary caught an image, and indicate that the fireball – described by some witnesses as blue in color with a long orange and white tail – was moving slowly enough to have survived entry and probably landed in the Kindersley area – around 80 miles from here.

    Despite the dramatic display, the show lasted only about four seconds. But it will stay in the memory of Ronalda and Ben Kleinsasser, who farm near Kerrobert. That’s where Beech suspects the meteorite may have hit because of the intensity of the smell and tremors.
    “I was watching TV when I saw this ball of fire dropping out of the sky with a tail of flames,” said Ben, who described the rock as larger than a half-ton truck. “I watched it coming down until it was right in front of us.
    “My hair went up on end and I had goose-bumps. It was wild. And it rumbled the floor pretty good because my daughter came running upstairs asking if someone fell in the house.”

    Dirty Commies

    Blogging 4 Comments

    Small Dead Animals has been hauled before theBlog Firing Squad at the Politboru Diktat.
    This part is true, at least.

    Comrades, ordinarily, Politburo could sentence reactionary like Small Dead Kate to Siberia, but since she lives in Saskatchewan, she may not notice difference.

    Lileks

    Blogging 1 Comment

    I meant to do put this link up this morning, but ran out of time before I had to go to town. Lileks comments on the peace hate protests this weekend.

    Imagine if you woke from an operation and discovered that your tumor was gone. You’d think: I suppose that’s a good thing. But. You learned that the hospital might profit from the operation. You learned that the doctor who made the diagnosis had decided to ignore all the other doctors who believed the tumor could be discouraged if everyone protested the tumor in the strongest possible terms, and urged the tumor to relent. How would you feel? You’d be mad. You’d look up at the ceiling of your room and nurse your fury until you came to truly hate that butcher. And when he came by to see how you were doing, you’d have only one logical, sensible thing to say: YOU TOOK IT OUT FOR THE WRONG REASONS. PUT IT BACK!

    Beaurocratic Efficiency

    stuff 1 Comment

    No, that’s not an oxymoron.
    Last Monday I filled out an express post envelope with my application forms and passport for a Brazilian tourist visa. The Brazilian Consulate is in Toronto. I enclosed an express post envelope for its return. The paperwork stated to allow 10 working days. Add two days each way I figured… two weeks.
    It arrived this morning.
    Wow. Just unbelievable.

    Mad Cow Relief. Thankyou, Adscam

    Gopher News 3 Comments

    Paul Martin is announcing aid for the cattle industry this morning – to the tune of nearly a billion dollars, with a considerable part of that going to the actual cattlemen. [note to urban media types – not “cattle farmers”]
    The best news to come out of Adscam yet.
    Last week it was federal Finance Minister, Ralph Goodale, taking a look at the transfer payment situation and declaring Saskatchewan has been – gosh darn golly gee! shortchanged after all! – a hundred million on the way, and more to come. Heh.
    Got to love the irony of that – Paul Martin is fighting for his political life – in Picture Butte, Alberta, while the premier of the same province is in Washington representing Canadian interests to the US on getting the borders open.

    Put Another Dime In The ATM, Baby

    Roadkill No Comments

    What happens when an ATM crashes and reboots into a regular copy of Windows XP on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University? The world’s first Diebold Brand Media Player. Using the touch screen and the character mapper in Windows, the ATM was reprogrammed to play various looping songs (including Talking Heads) while occasionally belching out ‘What, am I made of money?’ via text-to-speech.

    Diebold – also known for their eVoting machines.
    Via Franksworld

    The Day Everything Changed

    What He Said No Comments

    Frank Lavigne has been an online friend for many years, so his photoessay was something I have known about since the day he put it up. It crossed my mind today that it’s probably not that well known. It deserves to be.

    “I thought to myself, “One more shot and I’m out of here.”

    “Dazed, angry, and confused, I felt along the wall of buildings to keep at least some sense of direction. Next thing I knew everything turned from pitch black to brilliant white. I thought I had died. began to think of all the things I hadn’t done; of all the promises I hadn’t kept.
    “But then, just as hope seemed to fade away, a man named John pulled me into a store that he himself found only seconds before. He saw the light from my digital camera and grabbed at me, effectively saving my life by pulling me into a shoe store on Nassau Street.
    In there, I was able to catch my breath and regain my composure. After I thanked him profusely for saving me, he told me that his pregnant wife was working in one of the towers. I wanted to get his last name or phone number, but before I knew it, he was gone.”

    At first, I thought it might be better to save the link for later – an anniversary. But “never forget” means exactly that.
    “Please remember”, saved for days on a calendar, means the forgetting has begun.

    Harping About Harper

    Political Animal 2 Comments

    It didn’t take long for the national media to reboot their rhetoric about Stephen Harper. Elected overwhelmingly to the new Conservative party leadership, and winning the vote in every region of Canada, the sun hadn’t risen on his new leadership term and the Toronto Star is pulling out the hatchets : Harper = Alliance = Reform = Western = Alberta = RightWing = Extremist = Rednecks = Bigots = Run For The Safety Of Your Liberal Mamas! “
    You get the idea.
    Let It Bleed is all over the Toronto Star editorials today.

    If it’s Sunday, it must be time for the Toronto Star to let out its stable of barking moonbats. This week’s theme is that conservatives are just too damn crazy to form a government in Canada. Strangely, Haroon Siddiqui and Antonia Zerbisias are missing in action this week, but never fear: to replace them the Star has drafted… wait for it… Senator Ted Kennedy. I kid you not.
    …
    Linda McQuaig proves incapable of coming up an original idea for her column, so she just parrots what her bosses say. Too radical. Too “mean-spirited”. Too, you know, non- Liberal. Now, to be fair, Linda does bare her soul and reveals something about herself which, probably, no one suspected. At least, I know I wasn’t prepared for it. Are you ready for it? Make sure you’re sitting down; make sure you’ve got a phone next to you, in case you need to call for medical help. Ready? Okay, here we go… don’t say I didn’t warn you:
    “I’ll confess that conservatism has never been my cup of tea…”

    Here’s something else that I know no one suspected – there are no true “right leaning conservative” political parties in Canada
    None. Not a single party espouses dismantling universal health care. Not a single party is campaigning on a platform of adding property rights to the Constitution. None are suggesting that First Nation treaties be renegotiated to eliminate entitlements to individuals on the basis of racial pedigree. No party is advocating the elimination of our “affirmative action” like hiring programs in government. None of the parties are suggesting the CBC or Via Rail be sold.
    The Canadian Conservative Party is ideologically positioned somewhat to the left of the US Democrats on the majority of fundamental issues. There are no parties of the “right of center” in Canadian politics.

    Your Friendly Neighborhood Pot Dealer

    Radioactive 3 Comments

    The Government Of Canada, that’s who!
    CTV

    OTTAWA — Health Canada plans to make government-certified marijuana available in pharmacies, a move that could rapidly boost the number of registered medical users.

    You don’t say.

    [T]he department is changing the regulations to allow participating pharmacies to stock marijuana for sale to approved patients without a doctor’s prescription, similar to regulations governing so-called morning-after pills, emergency contraceptives that can be obtained directly from a pharmacist without the need for a doctor’s signature.

    It’s going to be interesting to watch how this plays into the current contraversy about the numbers of American citizens shopping for their prescription drugs in Canada …

    Tommy Douglas Is Dead – Pt III

    Gopher News 1 Comment

    CBC: Cancer patient dies waiting for treatment

    Duff McDonald was showing symptoms of prostate cancer last March. He had to wait six months to see a specialist and before a bone scan could be performed, the 65-year-old checked himself into the hospital and died. His daughter spoke out because she says her dad trusted the health care system and doesn’t want other people to make the same mistake.

    This wasn’t the first case of prostate cancer going undiagnosed due to long waiting lists. It’s not even the first case this month. (see Tommy Douglas Is Dead – Pt II.)
    In late February, it was announced that the NDP’s Agriculture Minister Clay Serby had to step down from his portfolio and would be out of the legislature, while undergoing treatment for cancer. The type of cancer has not been revealed, but it is known that it’s “treatable” and that he has already had surgery. Officials stressed that Serby was not given preferential treatment or moved to the front of the waiting list.
    Perhaps so, and I wish Mr. Serby nothing but the best.
    However, if it is revealed that he is suffering from prostate cancer, a lot of people are going to be asking a lot of questions of this health care department, and charges of insensitivity and “using his illness for political purposes” are going to fall as flat as the promises by Health Minister John Nilson to look into the particulars of Mr. McDonald’s case.

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