Reporters Without Borders Target Cuba

Media 2 Comments

Press release

Friday, April 2nd, 2004 – Reporters Without Borders Presents a public conference with Alina Fernandez(Castro), daughter of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
…
A 26-minute documentary “One party, one newspaper : Cuban press from the republique to Castro” on the history of liberty of the press in Cuba from 1952 to the 1990s will be presented before the debate. This event will take place Friday, April 2nd at 6:00 p.m. in the amphitheatre of the Henri-Julien pavillion, located at 4750 Henri-Julien (Mount Royal metro.) [ ed- in Montreal] The event is free and open to the public, but donations would be appreciated.
…
During the March, 2003 crackdown, 27 independent journalists were arrested, adding to the three journalists who were already in prison. The journalists were charged with “acts against the independence and economy of Cuba” (law 88) or with “acts against the independence and territorial integrity of the state” (article 91 of the Cuban penal code) and were condemned to sentences of 14 to 27 years after summary trials that often lasted only half-a-day. In general, these journalists are accused of collaborating with the United States by publishing articles that present a different vision of Cuba than is presented in the official press. Their articles generally discussed opposition within Cuba (which is not recognized by the official press), human rights violations and the daily life of Cubans.
For further information: Emily Jacquard, (514) 521-4111 or email: rsfcanada (at)rsf.org

More here
Sounds like the makings of a movie plot… someone call Spielberg.
Eh.. .come to think of it, someone call the media. They’ve been all over this Cuban jail story.

Fallujah Response

April 2, 2004

Military No Comments

Fallujah – the anti-Mogadishu – “the strung up bodies were bait”.

The Marines have long studied Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT). They will put snipers in dominant overwatch; use the road network to divide up the town into zones by posting the intersections; they will build EPW cages outside the town; they will put persistent aerial surveillance aloft; there will be a blanket of electronic surveillance and electronic jamming over the town; they will map out the operation to a room-by-room detail. Then they will lop off bits of Fallujah one slice at a time.
The biggest danger, as Kimmitt knows, is that the Anti-coalition Forces will use civilians, particularly children, as human shields by sheltering and firing from houses. Unfortunately for the enemy, the cordon ensures that Kimmitt will be in no particular hurry. The enemy can shoot it out with Marine snipers who have plenty of match grade ammunition. The presence of Iraqi policemen will allow Kimmitt to direct civilians into processing areas. Then the evacuated houses will be searched individually until the entire leadership structure is taken apart.
The deliberate, even cold-blooded approach by the Marines makes this incident the anti-Mogadishu. The tactics employed against the Rangers in the Blackhawk Down incident relied on the belief that Americans could be reflexively trapped into defending unfavorable positions in attempts to recover bodies. The Anti-Coalition Forces probably felt sure that taunting Americans over the media would produce the desired impulsiveness. As the minutes lengthened into hours and the Marines responded with icy professionalism, the enemy may have come the unpleasant realization that this was not the former administration and that other still more unwelcome surprises were in store for them.

Federation Of Walmart Employees

April 2, 2004

Gopher News 1 Comment

North Battleford Walmart employees are attempting to make history.
Earlier this week, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union signed up several North Battleford Walmart employees. If they recieve certification, the NB outlet will be the first unionized Walmart in the world.
North Battleford used to have a Saveway, too.

Saskatchewan Budget Highlights

Gopher News No Comments

I’m not going to tear into this in detail. Just the fun highlights:
Provincial sales tax increases to 7%. Together with the GST, that means most items one purchases in the province are taxed 14%. Sales tax free Alberta revises revenue projections upward due to a bump in retail sales.
Usual cigarette and beer tax increases. Four pages of free increases, on everything from registrations of births to fishing licenses to hearing aids to estate settlements (from $600 to $900). The comic relief is provided by Parks – new “Weiner Roast Tax”. Lighting a campfire will require a $3 permit. Per day. Summer officially postponed to mid June, as provincial parks openings are pushed back to save $$.
Green Economy; Government to allow “fire to play a more natural role in the forest.” Permit may not be necessary, after all.
Under “Government By The Unions, For The Unions” aka “keeping your base on the payroll” ; 95% of 20,000 civil service employees have contracts due for renegotiation this year. SaskPower is in a legal strike position. Oops. No can do.
Budget mandates 0% wage increases this year, 1% in 2005, 2006. Over 400 jobs cut. Heh. I’m getting me a lawnchair to watch the fireworks. (Next time I’m in Alberta.)
No relief for astronomical rural property taxes. Clawback of farm fuel tax rebate. Can you spell t-a-x r-e-v-o-l-t? Rural Service centers closed, replaced with Agriculture Knowledge Centres. Can’t have a budget without the “rename game” and another sign contract for someone.
44% of entire budget goes to health care. Promise to bring surgical waiting lists to a maximum of 18 months…. in two years time. Tommy Douglas, still dead.
But, another balanced budget….. 6.1 billion spent on 975,000 residents.
Eh… well balanced by borrowing money from a “rainy day” line of credit, and leaving out losses incurred by publicly owned Crown Corporations.
The SaskParty responded with a non-confidence motion today, vote on Thursday.
One defection, new election.

Who Killed Cecilia Zhang?

Uncategorized 2 Comments

Jan Wong has some enlightening tidbits on the Cecilia Zhang case. Taken from her family’s bedroom 5 months ago, the case was suspected to have been an abduction for profit. The 9 year old’s body was discovered this week in a wooded area in MIssissauga.
The family had rented out rooms to 20 students in the 5 years they’ve lived there. (On a not totally unrelated topic, just how does someone get away with turning a single family dwelling into an quasi apartment complex for Chinese students?) For reasons unknown, the Toronto police didn’t even bother looking for them all and are noncommital about reinterviewing those they have. They also ignored offers of assistance.

Asked specifically if Toronto police had received help in Toronto from mainland Chinese criminal investigators, Mr. Perry referred further questions to his successor. Mr. Cashman didn’t return a call seeking comment or a message left with the Toronto police communications department. Mr. Pugash said that while mainland Chinese police gave their ”co-operation” in locating people, they had not come to Toronto to assist police here.
After Mr. Perry’s retirement, Mr. Hart said he left e-mail and phone messages for Mr. Cashman. To make sure he had received the messages, Mr. Hart enlisted the help of an American friend with connections to the RCMP. He says Mr. Cashman finally called him back about five weeks ago.
”I was very unhappy with the ‘thanks, but no thanks’ call. They said, ‘We’re making great progress, and we have offers from all over the world,’ “‘ said Mr. Hart, who had offered to pay the costs of Mr. Duan’s air fare and hotel.
Experts in Chinese culture and history have said that Toronto police — and Cecilia’s parents — may have inadvertently violated a well- choreographed tradition: pay off the ransom quietly without ever alerting law enforcement. Instead, Cecilia’s mother, Sherry Xu, ran to school and then, at the principal’s suggestion, called the police.
Despite the apparent lack of progress, Mr. Cashman gave this warning to Cecilia’s killers. “As always, turn yourself in,” he said. ”We are coming. We are looking. We are going to find you. There are no stops. There is nothing we aren’t going to do to locate the individual responsible. My best advice is get a lawyer and call us.”

Another effective crime investigation tactic, I’m sure.
hat tip – Who Killed Theresa

John Kerry, Not French

Political Animal 3 Comments

Via Glenn Reynolds, who suggests that John Kerry (Kerry quotes form the foundation for the piece) should read it – today’s Lileks:

We stopped pretending we would ratify Kyoto. We only spent $15 billion on AIDS in Africa. We did not take dictation from Paris. If we had done these things, it would minimize the world’s anger.
Is the world angry at Russia, which spends nothing on AIDS and rebuffed Kyoto? Is the world angry at China, which got a pass on Kyoto and spends nothing on AIDS for other countries?
Is the world angry at North Korea for killings its people? Angry at Iran for smothering that vibrant nation with corrupt and thuggish mullocracy? Angry at Syria for occupying Lebanon? Angry at Saudi Arabia for its denial of women�s rights? Angry at Russia for corrupt elections? Is the world angry at China for threatening Taiwan, or angry at France for joining the Chinese in joint military exercises that threatened the island on the eve of an election? Is the world angry at Zimbabwe for stealing land and starving people? Is the world angry at Pakistan for selling nuclear secrets? Is the world angry at Libya for having an NBC program?
Is the world angry at the thugs of Fallujah?
Is the world angry at anyone besides America and Israel?
…
But even if you admit that the world is angry at America – so angry that the poorest of them can�t wait to come here and stake a claim � you have to stand in awe at the sheer political idiocy of Kerry�s conclusion. Boiled down:
“There are countless numbers of things that we could be do minimize the kind of anger and … almost recruitment that has taken place in terrorist organizations as a result of the way the administration has behaved.
By toppling the fascists in Baghdad without French seal of approval, we have encouraged recruitment in terrorist organizations. It�s not the invasion that ticked off the Man in the Arab Street, it�s the lack of a 17th UN resolution on Iraq. Right now in a caf� in Beirut an educated man, a chemist by trade, schooled in the ways of the West, is reading an article about how the US will only spent $15 billion on AIDS and probably won�t reduce its carbon emissions to 1817 levels, and he throws down the paper in disgust: bastards! I must join Al Qaeda, move to Iraq and kill the contractors who are upgrading their outmoded infrastructure!

Chr�tien sent our representatives to the Kyoto negotiations with a decree – not to protect the western based resource industries – not to fight for recognition that a thinly spread population in one of the most hostile environments in the world may just need to heat their homes – but to “beat the US by 1%”.
So today, tax dollars are funding home improvement projects to continue the charade that is still known as “meeting our obligations under Kyoto”, while the media ignores the fact that Kyoto is dead.
Kofi Annan visits Ottawa and Paul Martin cuts him a check. The bad guys in Iraq are the Americans, didn’t you know? Ipsos-Reid polls confirm that Canadians are convinced that “Bush lied” and the media outlets report it as fact. Polls tell us that Canadians believe the Iraq invasion a failure and the Canadian position not to back the US to be the right one. No surprise there. Public perception as reality, public opinion as a substitute for foreign policy – it’s the Canadian way. You won’t see the Fifth Estate visit the Saddam Hussein – TotalFinaElf – Power Corporation – Paul Desmarias – Jean Chr�tien connections. Not a peep about the Annan/UN Oil-For-Blood scandal. How can they? There hasn’t been a poll.
John Kerry receives much ridicule for being “French looking”. I can understand why the comparison is tempting – but I’m not sure it’s an entirely accurate.
Internationalist, UN-friendly, Kyoto defender, poll driven? That’s not France. The French aren’t “internationalists”, for one thing. There’s no such thing as French altruism – the UN is used to secure French interests, not world interests. Most importantly, the French don’t care if others are angry with France. Or if others like them.
No, John Kerry isn’t French.
The Liberal Party of Canada would fit him like a glove. He’d thrill in Montreal. Or Quebec City. My God – how he would love multi-cultural Toronto. And the Liberal Party of Canada. How proud he would be of a reputation for personal politeness and international peace-keeping. Of our health care system. Kyoto – why, Canada signed Kyoto, and meant it. Gay marriage would be much easier to understand in Canada, once the pollsters tell us we like the idea. One can almost picture him standing in the backbenches behind Carolyn Parrish and echoing her refrain about those “bastards” south of the border.
John Kerry is Canadian.
(Added to the Beltway Traffic Jam)

Canadian Breast Implant Registry

Not Quite News 3 Comments

Following on the heels of the highly successful and universally praised Canadian Firearms Registry, a new Canadian Breast Implant Registry has been announced.

The registry would address concerns of Health Canada that illegally sold and unregulated breast implants are making their way across the border from the US and Asian countries. It is estimated that the illegal breast trade has swelled to nearly $300 million since most breast implants were banned in Canada in the early 1990’s in a wake of device failures and court settlements.
The Breast Implant Registry would be backed by new legislation that would allow police to enter any hospital or commercial place of business without a warrant. In special circumstances, searches can be extended to allow physical examinations if illegal implants are suspected. Negotiations are underway with the provinces to hammer out who pays for removal of illegal implants, as these devices are a known threat to health, and many victims are unaware they have them.
The legislation also further restricts the use of approved breast implants, including limits on minimum age and maximum size. As of Jan 1, 2005, no implant in excess of a B cup will be legal in Canada, unless approved by a hospital committee.
Health Canada reports that about 4,500 Canadian women per year, as well as a handful of men, require surgery for breast implant related injuries or illness, and that many others go unreported. It is unknown how many illegal breasts are in Canada, but estimates go as high as 40,000.
“We are seeing just the tit of a breast implant iceberg”, says New Democrat MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis. Wasylycia-Leis is part of an all party committee looking at the problem.

Canadian Suspect Linked To British Plot

March 31, 2004

Terrorism No Comments

The suspect arrested Monday in Ottawa is now reported to be linked to the British bombing plot.

Mohammad Momin Khawaja, a Canadian government computer specialist, was held in Ottawa on Monday.
He was later accused of involvement in terrorist activity around the London area.
Early on Tuesday morning 700 British police raided 24 addresses in the South East of England, arrested eight young men and recovered half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertiliser – favoured by terrorists for manufacturing bombs.
Late last night police were granted another three days to question the suspects, meaning they can be detained under the Terrorism Act until Saturday afternoon.
It was also disclosed that a number of the eight – all British citizens mainly of Pakistani descent – had attended al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan.
Canadian suspect Khawaja, 29, was arrested at the Foreign Ministry offices where he worked.

Yesterday his father, Mahboob Khawaja, a university prof living in Saudi Arabia, called the raids in Canada and London “a hoax to create embarrassment”. Today the Saudis detained him, too..

A Day In The Life, Pt.3

March 31, 2004

stuff 1 Comment

Stopped by the shop today to get photos to follow upon the posts Monday and Tuesday.
The car still needs cleaning up, and completion – several parts remain to be reinstalled. (For you drag racing afficianados, it runs low 9’s.)

There are a couple of closeups in the extended entry.

Continue reading →

Homeland Insecurity

March 31, 2004

Choice tidbits from the Calgary Herald story:

Roadkill 2 Comments

About 25,000 passports lost or stolen each year never appear on border watch lists, and 4,500 airport employees with “possible criminal associations” have access to restricted areas, Fraser said.
…
“The government as a whole failed to adequately assess intelligence lessons learned from critical incidents such as Sept. 11 and systematically follow up on needed improvements,” Fraser wrote in the most stinging line of her report.

Well, hello? Who was in charge, again?

Chr�tien said the Western world is “looked upon as being arrogant, self-satisfied, greedy and with no limits. The 11th of September is an occasion for me to realize it even more.” Chr�tien said he told Wall Street business leaders last year the West mjust not exercise its power so as to humiliate other countries and peoples. “When you’re powerful like you are, you guys, this is the time to be nice.”

(“Western World”… wink wink, nudge nudge…)

Last week, McLellan announced additional measures to create a government-wide communications system in anticipation of the embarrassing accounts in Fraser’s report about gaps in intelligence-sharing.
There was the time, for example, when a federal agency failed to circulate a terror alert from a foreign ally.
And in another case the government’s top-secret messaging system sent a response to the wrong address, and the sending agency waited a month to follow up and check whether the message had ever been received.
“Fortunately, (that) alert turned out to be a false alarm,” Fraser wrote in her typically dry prose.

$7.7 billion just doesn’t buy what it used to.

A Day In The Life, Pt. 2

March 30, 2004

stuff 1 Comment

Following up on yesterday’s work…

	After laying out the major blocks of color, work continues with the addition of stronger colors for depth, and outlining and detailing with black.
	This is the front, at the same stage – black added.
	A couple of hours later, the artwork is finished and highlighted with white. This rear quarter is complete, but unfortunately the photo of the bird with white added did not turn out well enough to post here.

The finish is still flat in these photos, because iti’s still in base coat – the shop owner was getting the car ready for clear coating when I left. One looong day for everyone involved. Holding an airbrush for hours on end, results in cramping of the hands, and as mentioned yesterday, an inability to focus for a time afterwards. Couple that with crawling around on a concrete floor all day and I’m really rather tired.
I also got a start on the helmet and have both it and another small job to go back to in the morning, so I should be able to get some photos of the car with clear coating. The transformation that happens with clear is amazing – lines sharpen, some of the overspray melts and colors become about 30% more vibrant.
update – The finished job

RCMP Anti-Terrorism Arrest Suspect

March 30, 2004

Radioactive 1 Comment

No name has been released, but the home the warrant was issued for was owned by one Mahboob Khawaja, author of the book Muslims and the West: Quest for Change and Resolution.

Globe And Mail – Dr. Khawaja has also written several essays disapproving of U.S. foreign policy and the war on terrorism and commenting on “corrupt Arab leadership” and “American-Zionist political encroachment in the Middle East.”
He was once listed as policy adviser and a member of the international affairs, politics and religions faculty at Syracuse University in New York.
There was no answer at the home last night.
Neighbours said the owner lives in the house with his wife and four adult children and that he is a university professor who works overseas.

Hole In Ground Successfully Completed

“On time, and on budget.”

Gopher News 4 Comments

The $18 million cost of the project was shared by city, provincial and federal governments, and Federal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale says it is a good example of how all three levels of government can work together.

Another installment for the Wide Open Future campaign – “Experience Saskatchewan – Endless Blue Horizons, Colorful First Nations Culture, the Synchrotron and Free Bags of Goose Shit.”

Goodale also marvelled at the size of the project, which he describes as, “1.3 million cubic metres of earth, moved by 200 workers and a massive amount of equipment, all in the dead of winter, working 24 hours a day.”

$13.84 a cubic meter. Second reaction – does this qualify them to fill holes?
Thousands attended the ceremony. No, really. Thousands.

Protein Wisdom

Blogging 1 Comment

Jeff Goldstein –

“Here’s how you know your politics have pitched a bit to the right: you’re enjoying a plate of Gino’s Pizza Rolls, watching an early episode of “M*A*S*H,” when suddenly you realize that just about everything Larry Linville says makes sense — and that, given the opportunity, you’d happily bend Alan Alda over a butcher’s table and thwack his self-satisfied ass about a thousand times with a rolled up poster of Douglas MacArthur.”

If Protein Wisdom isn’t on your daily read-list, it should be.

Air Canada Travails

Roadkill 3 Comments

Today a judge extended bankruptcy protection for Air Canada to April 15th.
On April 14th, I’ll be in Brazil, holding an Air Canada return ticket for the 20th.
I think I’ll pack extra underwear.

Map of Blogland

Blogging 1 Comment

The Commissar has a new map up.

Day In The Life

stuff 3 Comments

I’ve been holed up in a bodyshop all day, painting a drag car. After staring for 7 hours at airbrushed lines, which are fuzzy, your eyes forget how to focus, so reading is difficult for a time afterwards. So, some pictures. I do this every so often for my commercial website – today I decided to share the step by step process here.
To save page loading time, only the first three are on this page. The rest are in the expanded entry.

	A digital rough layout of the design, slapped together on the computer, over a photo of the customer’s car.
	Before. The shop has painted the base color, which was then clearcoated and resanded. Good boys. Did my taping for me.
	After spraying over the existing deep maroon paint with a light dusting of white, the background colors are set up.

Continue reading →

Saskatchewan Budget

March 28, 2004

Gopher News 1 Comment

From a source inside the government – the budget coming down ain’t going to be pretty. Saskatchewan (pop 975,000 and dropping) has been running half-billion dollar deficits and now has an accumulated debt equal to the highly criticized “Devine years” of the 1980’s.
The difference is that the Grant Devine Conservatives had an revenue-poor economy to deal with in which potash, oil and grain prices were in the tank, coupled with drought and sky-high interest rates. Plus, they had inherited the Blakeney legacy of hostility towards investment and private development – the nationalization of the potash industry, the despised “Land Bank” government purchases of farm land, and gas/oil royalty structures that crippled development of the resources.
Romanow, to his credit, faced the music, and the deficit was brought under control, though the province still fared miserably when it came to economic development. Old socialist economic theories and entitlements die hard – especially when your political base consists of unionized labour and “Tommy Douglas” seniors who respond to “Mediscare” campaigns.
The Calvert NDP have managed to dig us back into a very large hole despite record revenues and lowest interest rates in a generation. It didn’t stop them from campaigning on a spending platform and pledging to preserve “public ownership” of the sacred Crown Corporations – of which the government owns around 70. The only jurisdiction in North America with more government ownership of the economy outside Saskatchewan is Cuba.
Bottom line? The government may fall over this budget. There is real concern that some on the government side of the benches will not vote for it, and with the current 50 – 50 split of NDP to conservative SaskParty members in the legislature – it won’t take but one defection.
Interesting times ahead.

Best Hate Mail Contest

March 28, 2004