Original Song #29: No Healing

Messing around
Digging up tarpits
And we'll burn it all away

Mining that gold
Exporting asbestos
Trade the future for today

We don't know why
But I've got a feeling
It could be a long time
Before we start the healing

Frack that shale
Strip that mountain
Extract it all away

Drain all brains
With the freshwater
Rape the future for today's gain

And I've got a feeling
It'll be a lifetime
Before we staunch the bleeding

Hiding your crimes
Building more prisons
Disregard the scientists

Mute all truths
Reason is treason
Ruled by ideology

And I know I've
Got a sickening feeling
Could be a long time
And there won't be no healing

Listen to the rough solo demo

- 30 -

Original Song #28: Phineas Gage

My name is Phineas Gage
New Hampshire boy, born and raised
I drive a stagecoach here in Chile
You might say I've come a long way

Drive the coach steady, drive the coach slow
From Valparaiso to Santiago
Santiago to Valparaiso
Drive the coach steady, take it slow

The year was 1848
I was blasting Vermont granite
For the Burlington-Rutland railway
When the charge went off in my hand

It blew this iron bar straight through my head
Doctors all said I would soon be dead
But I wanted to get up from my sick bed
...And that's what I did

Drive the coach steady, drive the coach slow
Valparaiso to Santiago
Santiago to Valparaiso
Drive the coach steady, take it slow

In time I relearned everything
And I got all my memories
A two-inch hole on the top of my head
Now I keep that iron bar firm in my hand

People say I'm a changed man
Cursing, cheating and fighting
But what the docs couldn't understand
Was I was just still recovering

Hacks with axes grind away
Swinging their pet theories
But I was still recovering my empathy

You quacks all misrepresent me
But you don't know me
I'm still recovering my empathy
My name is Phineas Gage

Drive the coach steady, drive the coach slow
Valparaiso to Santiago
Santiago to Valparaiso
Drive the coach steady, take it slow

Listen to a rough solo recording

- 30 -

R.I.P. Canada

R.I.P. Canadian Long-gun registry.
R.I.P. Women's reproductive rights in Canada.
R.I.P. The Canadian Senate.
R.I.P. Same-sex marriage (we barely knew you).
R.I.P. National funding for the arts.
R.I.P. Canada Health Act.
R.I.P. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
R.I.P. The Governor-General of Canada.
R.I.P. Any Canadian action on climate change.
R.I.P. CIDA.
R.I.P. Canadian democracy.
R.I.P. National funding for universities and research.
R.I.P. Any hope of a national daycare program in the next five years.
R.I.P. The Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms.
R.I.P. Any effective political opposition to The Party.
R.I.P. Dissent (what do you think the new jails are for?)
R.I.P. A future for Québec within Canada.

...please feel free to add more in the comments.

We now are ruled by the All-knowing Great Leader, who will not be swayed by any finger-waving from the opposition benches. Stephen Harper is a Christian Fundamentalist, whose views are shaped by his beliefs. He now has carte-blanche.

How far will he go?
Just watch him.

- 30 -

French Debate Kicked Ass (mostly Harper's)

I hope people were watching, because tonight's French-language leaders' debate was lively, passionate and substantive. After fighting sleep at about the half-way point in yesterday's English-language debate, tonight I found myself riveted.

This is in no small part due to Gilles Duceppe's fiery energy tonight, after being content to sit quietly on the side-lines for much of the previous night. But also, because Ignatieff really came across, and contrasted strongly against Harper, who himself seemed unsure of his French, and off his game generally. I found Harper did not seen strong tonight, which is the worst thing for the guy who is the current PM to convey.

Layton was taken off his game again by Duceppe's jabbing on the Bill 101 question. Harper's only really good moment was when he pointed at the two of them and asked the audience to imagine them working together in a coalition. That's not saying all that much.

Duceppe went whole-hog on his separatist cred tonight, and that is perhaps a sign he may be setting down some touchstones for a potential jump to provincial politics. He may be positioning himself to take the Parti-Québecois mantle from Pauline Marois, who appears weak going into a confidence vote among the party faithful in coming weeks.

Back to Ignatieff. He looked tough, secure and in charge. His French was generally good, and when it wasn't, his obvious passion made up for it. That is key for the Québec population, so good on him. He can ride this into a lead in coming days.

Again, that's if he plays his cards right.

- 30 -

Ignatieff: I hear a statesman

This piece by Jane Taber of the Globe and Mail harangues Michael Ignatieff for his lack of specifics, but I think he sounds pretty reasonable here:

There was no mention of the hydro mega-project in the Liberal platform, released Sunday. But when asked about it Monday, Mr. Ignatieff spoke about involving Quebec – and maybe even Ontario – in a “pan-Canadian approach” to inter-provincial energy sharing.

“It’s not just a matter of Newfoundland and Labrador,” he said.

He argued that a Liberal government would not play off one province against another, suggesting that is what Mr. Harper is doing.

A federal government, he said, needs to “sit down with the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and the province of Quebec. ... Let’s think about this medium and long-term.”

He added: “But for heavens sake if we don’t sit in a room pretty soon we are going to be suboptimal as a country when we could be a superpower.”

The Liberal Leader suggested finding a way to “wheel this power through Quebec” and said that Canadians have to start “thinking big” on energy or risk having highly segmented markets that don’t speak to one another.

Contrast this approach to that of Harper, who has riled Québec premier Jean Charest by supporting federal bucks to develop the means to both harnass and transport reams of viable, renewable electricity to presumed New England markets via the maritime provinces - all to curry favour with the new premier of Newfoundland and Labrador in the hopes of taking a couple of parliamentary seats from that province. Never mind the ill will such a move might provoke in other jurisdictions.

It puzzles me that, despite this regional favouritism, Harper still refuses to cough up the dough his most prominent Québec ministers all but promised a few short months ago, to build a new NHL-ready arena for Québec City, on the grounds it would be unfair to other major cities in other provinces who are in the same situation.

I mean, what's a Québecois voter to think, anyway? Gilles Duceppe will gladly provide the answer. Ignatieff, too, except (poor bastard) he's gotta please somebody in 10 different provinces. Not just one.

Hence the statesmanship of his comments today.

And hence this blogger's newfound respect for the man. He is fighting the good fight, and it's possibly Canada's last best hope for a united future.

Moi, je m'occupe d'lui aider dès ce moment-là.

- 30 -

Why I support the Greens but vote otherwise

I am a big Green supporter and believe they have the best platform. Dagnammit, I joined the party and contribute a few bucks to show that I care. But I also live in Quebec (and on the island of Montreal) and my local candidate both:
a) is a relative lightweight, and
b) has no hope of winning, but might garner enough votes to keep my second choice from winning.

Hopefully most of the other GPC supporters aren't in a similar bind. But I frankly prefer to return Justin Trudeau to his seat than to help get a (yawn) Bloq Québecois elected by uselessly splitting the federalist vote.

There is a bigger picture here. The last few years showed us that keeping Harper to a minority government does not preclude his screwing with everything the majority of Canadians hold dear, including the use of the Senate to thwart the will of the House on partisan grounds. He'll do it again. And again. Right now, we need a Liberal government, imperfect as it may be, to stave off the loss of our country's most cherished shared values.

- 30 -

Smells like '93 Spirit

Well I'll be damned if Michael Ignatieff isn't suddenly hitting his stride. Now I can't say I have ever been a big believer in the man as a potential PM, but today has me thinking back to 1993, when a guy who had been reviled as a weak and ineffective Opposition Leader came to power after realizing what he needed to do.

Yeah, Chrétien. I recall how much we hated Mulroney and how much we hated how seemingly unimpressive the opposition leader was. But it all changed once the campaign got underway.

It smells like 1993 spirit to me now.

The man is confident and he is campaigning without a net, and in fine form dans les deux langues officiels. I think I see a strategy here:

Get a pile of Quebec seats back from the Bloq and therein take on the swagger of the guy who can woo the sexiest girl at the prom; and that impresses people in the rest of the country (particularly, Ontario).

The anti-coalition declaration on Day 1 was a brilliant first move. Harper is so cossetted from media scrutiny on a daily basis (upon his own doing, note), that he cannot deal with the least bit of adversity from them in the even-keel setting of an election campaign. And it shows.

Yeah, it's way too early to call, but give the Ignatieff Liberals full marks for coming out of the gate stronger than expected, and poised to make a game of it.

I think he might even get a majority, if he keeps it up.

- 30 -

Ain't she a beaut? (Fukushima reactor #4, all duckied-up)

That is all they got:

Minoru Ogoda, the official with Japan’s nuclear regulatory agency, said a proposed plan to use helicopters to put more cold water into the pool was looking unlikely.

He said Tokyo Electric would probably try to spray water into the reactor building through a gaping hole in the wall blasted open by an earlier explosion.

The hole or holes in the roof caused by that blast did not appear big enough to allow sufficient amounts of water in, he said.

Well that might be a bit of a problem, wouldn't it?



"Today, only a handful of people know what it really means, and they're scared. Soon you will know: The China Syndrome"

UPDATE: Are you fucking serious??? Per Reuters: (http://live.reuters.com/Event/Japan_earthquake2)

"The Japan nuclear safety agency says TEPCO is attempting to build a road to Fukushima Daiichi No.4 reactor to allow fire trucks into site"

I guess that falls under the heading of: never give up, no matter how hopeless.

- 30 -

For Your Consideration

I can think of two candidates for the next Nobel Peace prize, and they are the heretofore unnamed Libyan Air Force pilots who - when ordered to indiscriminately fire upon their own citizens - opted instead to fly to Malta and defect:

Ali al-Essawi, who stepped down as Libyan ambassador to India, told Al Jazeera TV the situation was desperate.

"People cannot defend themselves against airplane bombings. We need international intervention," he said.

Two senior Libyan Air Force colonels arrived in nearby Malta aboard two fighter jets. They said they had been ordered to bombard protesters from the air but chose instead to defect.

Libya's justice minister also resigned in protest at the "excessive use of violence" against protesters.

Muammar al-Gaddafi is hopefully at the end of his reign. It is a sickenly horrific way to exit, and one hopes he is not allowed to go peacefully, given these atrocities.

May the people of Libya soon know peace and freedom from this unscrupulous dictator.

- 30 -

EXCLUSIVE: Mubarak's conversation with Obama:

"If I go there will be trouble, If I stay there will be double"



So, go.

Hosni Mubarak, and the world that matters not to him

With time on my hands, I spent the afternoon flipping between Aljazeera English, CNN, CBC Newsworld and CTV Newsnet in between loads of laundry.

At around 4 pm EST, I watched live footage of a pro-Mubarak bus being driven backwards 50 metres or so into a thick throng of helpless non-violent anti-Mubarak demonstrators, all filmed by the CBC from a hotel balcony a few hundred metres away.

The bus rocked up and down, corner to corner as it rolled over the people. I would guess 20 or 30 casualties from that alone. The Egyptian army is standing down. This is a bloody mess:

6:41pm A former general in the Egyptian intelligence services tells Al Jazeera, "I expect the army will act to remove Mubarak from power ... Mubarak is ready to burn the country".
6:37pm Cairo resident tells Al Jazeera that he witnessed police officers trying to bribe porters and security guards in his apartment building. They we...re asked to go and beat up anti-government protesters in Tahrir Square.

Lisa Laflamme sounded scared. A Radio-Canada cameraman got pummelled by the pro-Mubarak thugs. Anderson Cooper and his CNN team, plus Aljazeera English reporters beaten and forced to report from afar. And yet, I was able to tune it out for a couple of hours and get excited at the Habs beating the Panthers. Life in the 21st Century.

- 30 -

When Facebook becomes Hatebook

I was a reluctant FB joiner at first. I have known it to cause weird, unintended social faux-pas between people innocently updating their friends' pages with manoevres that turn into clumsy - and very public - rebukes. Plus, the site owners surely love to exploit human frailty with their seductive games and doodads that cull our personal data to feed marketing engines for advertisers.

Still, I have stuck it out with this devil I know because it remains a useful tool for cheaply keeping up with scatter-shot friends and family whom I otherwise risk ignoring completely.

But when they continually allow a nasty page to propagate the damaging message that rape is a trivial, laughable matter, I can't fathom what they are thinking. I wasted no time in reporting "It isn't r.a.p.e.... It's SURPRISE SEX (:" to the FB administration through their internal reporting tool, only to look in shock at the number of people who purportedly "like" the page (currently, 42+ thousand). But wait - how does a moronic page like that get all those deluded people "liking" it without getting shut down? Turns out it has been up with that mind-blowingly offensive title for over three and a half months since it was first reported to the FB administrators!

Well, one of those people who spotted it and flagged it offensive months ago is fed up with waiting. So what action did Facebook user Yasmin Rebelle take? You guessed it: she started up a reaction group on FB called: We Demand the Deletion of "It isn't r.a.p.e.... It's SURPRISE SEX. (:"

Damn straight, Yasmin. I am with you, and I hope any readers of this blog are too. I also have committed myself to deleting my FB account if they don't smarten up and do as this new group requests by this Friday. And I hope any FB users out there are willing to join me. Because it isn't so much that some unthinking juvenile lunkhead created the page in the first place. The problem is the gatekeepers at Facebook are not doing their jobs to shut it down.

Facebook is a very powerful message propagator, and though it is rightly and wonderfully open to all who wish to express their opinions, the owners of the site have a responsibility to stop harmful attitudes like this one from spreading. Because the page creator is calling on others to view rape as something less than the revolting, violent crime that it is, and they need to be reined-in. To wit:



hat tip to Antonia for the youtube find above.

- 30 -

Pixies pulling out of Israeli show = "cultural terrorism": promoter

Stuck here out of gas
Out here on the Gaza Strip
From driving in too fast
--The Pixies (River Euphrates)

These are lines that will not be sung in Tel Aviv, now that the Pixies have decided to cancel playing what would have been their first-ever gig in Israel, in light of the Israeli government's bone-headed decision to defy world opinion and continue to punish Gazans for voting the wrong way.

Quick to play the victim card was concert promoter Shuki Weiss, who sent out his own release claiming Israel was a target of “cultural terrorism,” and that the government should step in and stop it. “I am full of both sorrow and pain in light of the fact that our repeated attempts to present quality acts and festivals in Israel have increasingly been falling victim to what I can only describe as a form of cultural terrorism which is targeting Israel and the arts worldwide.”

What a bizarre thing to accuse them of, "cultural terrorism". Only someone who completely misunderstands what the WHO called a war crime, could possibly come up with such a moronic phrase as that to describe a band choosing to simply take a pass on playing somewhere.

While Juan Cole points out that there is a sizable contingent of sane and peace-loving Israelis making their voices heard, I cannot put it any more cogently than he:

The musicians are protesting the aid flotilla massacre, in which 9 innocent persons were killed and 30 wounded. Come on. I’m not big on cultural or academic boycotts myself, but ‘cultural terrorism?’ How is declining to come a way of inspiring fear in someone? Maybe you could call it cultural passive-aggression. But terrorism?

...

A kind reader pointed out that Israeli troops and the Israeli authorities have now admitted to firing bullets at the deck of the Mavi Marmara before the commandos landed, and I think the evidence is that these bullets wounded some passengers and provoked the resistance to the landing.

So while we contemplate the complete loss of rational thought from the Israeli government, at least we can enjoy a good dose of Pixies singing about stuff that would almost surely explode the heads of the Israeli hawks.



OK, so yeah, you caught me - any excuse to put the Pixies into a blogpost.

J'suis coupable.

- 30 -

We get mail - from US reporters wanting our opinions on other US reporters!

From: "Jacobon, Terry" [name changed]
To: randboro@yahoo.ca
Sent: Thu, June 3, 2010 3:56:46 PM
Subject: From Terry Jacobson [name changed] of the [MAJOR ESTABLISHED US NEWSPAPER]

Dear Scott in Montreal:

Hi. I’m a reporter for the [MAJOR ESTABLISHED US NEWSPAPER], and I’m writing under deadline about the media coverage of the BP oil spill.

I was intrigued by your comments on the Daily Kos about Anderson Cooper. He’s working hard and producing dramatic spots.

May I have a comment from you, for inclusion in my piece, about exactly *what* you think Anderson is doing right? What is he telling the world that others aren’t?

To include your quote, I’ll need your real name, and I assume your hometown is Montreal.

And I like Canada. I don’t think your government is sorry-ass. At least not always. Mine, well . . .

Terry Jacobson
Media Editor/Writer
[MAJOR ESTABLISHED US NEWSPAPER]

Re: From Terry Jacobson [name changed] of the [MAJOR ESTABLISHED US NEWSPAPER]
From: Randboro
To: "Jacobon, Terry" [name changed]

Sorry to get back to you so late. I am not typically an avid consumer of US media, although I have plenty of access to it. I usually focus on issues in my own country, plus (as a die-hard Habs fan) hating the Flyers, of course!

I cross-posted the dailykos diary to my own blog, btw, at randboro.blogspot.com. My name is Scott Murray and yes, I do live in Montreal. Quote me at will, if that helps you.

The thing Anderson did right yesterday was he communicated effectively to his audience, and took them by the hand so even a Tea Party stalwart could understand that in the case of BP, something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Given that the medium is the message, an iconic telejournalist like Cooper is a medium unto himself, so when he came down from the mountain to discover corporations are selfish and heartless, that in itself is a powerful message, regardless of the numerous ways in which his basic reporting habits are wanting.

What Cooper did a good job of, was he dismantled the cone of silence (to some degree, at least) that BP is attempting to place on the media. That he got some workers to voice their concerns despite BP's attempts to stifle all comment was probably the most impressive part for me. He could easily have taken it a bit further, and called out BP for not supplying full protection from the fumes for all clean-up workers - like the people they showed in the stock video cleaning up the Exxon Valdez disaster.

Watching again tonight, I found myself wondering why he doesn't get an expert in mechanical engineering / physics / fluid mechanics on the program, instead of lamely shrugging and saying he isn't qualified to judge what they are actually looking at from the live feed. C'mon, you're CNN, get some experts to weigh in! That's Writing and Reporting 101 stuff (with his staff and budget, only his ego could possibly be getting in the way of doing this, no?)

Plus, while those three oil-basted birds make great symbols of the carnage, I can't help thinking that an oceanographer would be a big help in explaining the long-term consequences to the food chain. That, to me, is the biggest long-term scary-scary outcome of all this; and it demands serious consideration by the media on the whole. Maybe Cooper and his producers are pacing themselves, and first dealing with the current #1 priority of their viewers, but who knows? I fear that long-term, the massive shock to oceanic biodiversity will be the legacy of this disaster, more than just the loss of fishermen's livelihoods. Like Vonnegut's Ice-9.

You should read up on the 1990s' collapse of the Newfoundland cod fisheries to get a bead on what Louisiana and other Gulf states may have to look forward to, economically. In that case, it was government mismanagement that took the brunt of the blame (and here I thought it was the insatiable worldwide demand for McDonald's Filet-o-Fish sandwiches).

I like the [MAJOR ESTABLISHED US NEWSPAPER]. Great legacy. Best of luck to you.

Scott

Anderson Cooper is restoring my faith in journalism

Full credit to Anderson Cooper. In one hour this evening, he did more to awaken his countrymen to the horrors of unchecked neo-liberal corporatism than a thousand indie-film docs on Monsanto, GM or Enron combined.

Having been riveted by Cooper's 360 show during the aftermath of the disastrous Haiti earthquake earlier this year, I felt certain he would have the best daily on-the-ground coverage available from the Gulf of Mexico, where the unfettered oil leak contamination is worsening daily.

I was not disappointed. Unlike most broadcast journalists, Cooper does not shirk to use his considerable status and reach to effectively and boldly tell the story, and to hold the powerful to account. Tonight he did just that.

This evening's show was intelligently and unrelentingly critical of the callous reaction of British Petroleum to the growing Gulf of Mexico oil-spill catastrophe that they created but cannot seem to stop.

Cooper is completely in his element when reporting on the ground from a crisis situation. Back in the territory where he made his name five years ago by tirelessly covering the devastation and abysmal federal response to Hurricane Katrina, Cooper is now setting his sites on this huge multinational corporation (British Petroleum) overdue its comeuppance for generations of being everything rotten about Big Oil that the makers of There Will Be Blood tried hopelessly to tell us. And the wily Cooper knows precisely when, where and how hard to throw his punches for maximum effect.

Just for perspective's sake, BP is the fourth-largest corporation in the world. Its market capitalization at the end of last year stood at 181 billion USD, a figure that surpasses the GNP of entire nations, including Slovakia, Morocco and Chile.

And Anderson Cooper had at 'em. With few new developments today, save for yet another spectacular mishap on BP's part in containing the leak, Cooper stoically gave their CEO Tony Hayward full benefit of the doubt in trying gamely to understand his off-the-cuff explanation for clean-up workers' health complaints as being almost certain cases of food poisoning.



Together with Dr. Sanjay Gupta (who himself was most endearing in his chemically-challenged attempts at describing hydrocarbons as things "surrounded by hydrogen molecules"), Cooper efficiently swatted away Hayward's dubious food poisoning claim by pointing out these numerous sufferers of teary-eyed dizzyness and nausea didn't all eat at the same diner, after all. He also got Dr. Riki Ott to go on camera explaining what long-term effects (including increased cancer rates) she's documented from protected Exxon Valdez clean-up workers.

Next, Cooper got a couple of today's Gulf Coast clean-up workers on camera, even though they were scared of being fired for going against the non-disclosure agreements they'd signed with BP in order to obtain their $12 an hour clean-up jobs. They were speaking out about the lack of timely pay for services; about the lack of protective gear for their personal well-being (in particular, face masks); about the fact they felt they couldn't speak up for what they thought was right because of the waivers they were forced to sign. Cooper remarked on the irony of a British company stifling the free speech of American citizens.

In truth, it could just as easily have been an American or Japanese or Indian company, of course. But the historical precedent must rankle for any American with a passing knowledge of their country's founding history, especially with Hayward doing such a fabulous job of re-enacting King George III in every way that matters.

Not done there, Cooper did everything but hold his hat in his hand, humbly begging for anyone from BP to come onto his show for an interview, while explaining that there has been no shortage of direct invitations to do so. Then, in the last few minutes of his broadcast, a live meter reading of the estimated gallons of oil gushing into the Gulf was prominently displayed in the bottom-right corner of the screen. The figure increased at a rate of about nine gallons per second, with well over 34 million gallons already disgorged.

As the show ended, I realized something more significant than Katrina is now unfolding before us. Unbelievably, I wonder if we mightn't be looking back someday, remembering this time as the beginning of the end of Big Oil.

...if not the end of Big Business itself. In conjunction with Obama's bold words today, one can only assume that some kind of significant change in American capitalism is afoot.

- 30 -

Well Israel, you have really lost the PR war now

You have got yourselves perfectly embroiled in an international incident that is not going away until you learn that even you must eat crow sometimes.

So far, it doesn't appear to have sunk in. I notice it only took you a few hours to release some propaganda on youtube, so we know you have a crack PR team working this untenable calamity. In a less imperfect world, the UN Security Council would enforce some strong measures. Against Israel, yes. And if you have the slightest desire to regain the upper hand in this PR war, soon you will have to realize there is only one good course of action for you to take.

It starts like this:

Immediately, Israel should send every one of the detainees from yesterday - and their boats - to Gaza and get that aid distributed.

Second: announce you are relaxing the border controls but reserve the right to re-invade Gaza should any proof of weaponization recur there (UN inspectors on the ground, which would both require Hamas approval, and corner them into transparency).

Third: apologize profusely and allow a third party investigation by Interpol, or China or some disinterested and globally respected NGO. Stop being the bad guys and realize your immense US support can be cut back substantially if your actions continue to be a drag on incumbent congress members during an election year.

Meanwhile, everybody: sit down. Have a cream soda.

- 30 -

Blowing Up is Hard to Do

"This scares everybody"
--British Petroleum COO Doug Suttles, on May 29, 2010, commenting on the failure of the "Top Kill" attempt to stave off the worst crude oil contamination in history

Well folks, it looks like this Gulf of Mexico oil spill is ripe for a good 'ol blow-up, Neil Sedaka style.



Only this time, we are not talking about SCTV's Farm Film Celebrity Blow-up; we are actually discussing using nuclear weapons to halt the runaway oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, as per Raw Story:

As the latest effort to plug the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico meets with failure, the idea of nuking the immediate undersea area to seal the oil underground is gaining steam among some energy experts and researchers.

One prominent energy expert known for predicting the oil price spike of 2008 says sending a small nuclear bomb down the leaking well is "probably the only thing we can do" to stop the leak.

Lord (and I am an athiest, mind) help us.

- 30 -

Greens, NDP to merge; Layton and May step aside, with support of key Liberal defectors

Could you just imagine a headline like that? Only if you accept the fact that the federal Liberal party is finished as a viable political entity. It was this particular realization, coupled with Warren Kinsella's post earlier today, that got me thinking along these lines.

Michael Ignatieff, since wresting control of the Liberal Party of Canada a year ago, what have you accomplished? You raised some cash and bored people to tears at every lectern that would plug in a mic for you. Then last Autumn, you boldly stated you were going to challenge the PM in an election at the first opportunity. Then you backed down sheepishly and announced you would be hosting a fabulous thinkers' conference the following Spring.

Allow me to let you in on something (I pray you are sitting down): believe it or not, within hours of its closing, scarcely anyone in this country noticed your big ol' "thinkers conference" even took place. Your middling popularity perpetually wanes like the attention of students listening to a meandering lecture on the nuances of meaning in a post-modern world; their minds wandering as they wonder how their liberal education will ever help them land a meaningful job with hope of putting more than a bit of food on their families' tables.

Meanwhile you and your party are getting railroaded at every turn by a wily, unscrupulous opponent. Your brightest stars and best ideas are the equivalent of Ovechkins and Kovalchuks on otherwise directionless teams, fizzling out hopelessly when the time comes to put up or shut up. Not since Robert Stanfield has a major party been led by someone with such a mix of blandness and dubiously-principled mediocrity.

I hope it hasn't escaped your attention that, when lumped together, the Greens and the Dippers are the favoured option of more Canadians than your own party, historied and entrenched as it is. As a scholar, I trust you can see the significance of this. Tilt at your right-centre windmills all you want, but it isn't getting you anywhere (least of all, into 24 Sussex).

Jack Layton, dear Jack, please please, do go (yes, now). You have done a decent job making your party politically relevant again without completely selling the furniture. You and your party's members have been stalwart cage rattlers and fought the good fight (mostly). Alas, you have had your chance to get the country to trust you and it just hasn't happened. Face facts, Jack, and step aside to allow a fresh face to come forward that can inspire more than just your base.

Elizabeth May, dear Elizabeth, you have gallantly tried to unseat a nasty bit of work in Peter MacKay, and have sold out too easily in launching yourself across the country in search of that magic riding that can propel Canada's first GPC member into the HoC (oh, teehee, would that be you, personally ***blush***?), but this is starting to get ridiculous. No other candidate is helping the cause - if that is the true goal - except by providing more federal dollars to the party coffers just by being so hopelessly listed on the ballots of all the nation's ridings; and thus giving the local Harpercons an even better chance of coming up the middle to win those ridings without any real support. This strategy has sadly failed you and the Greens for two elections now, despite owning the moral high ground definitively. You are an eloquent and intelligent leader, but it just is not going to happen. Please understand this and step aside for a new leader to take hold of a new, merged party.

So who are the party backroomers with the courage, pull and good sense to will this sort of merger to happen? Which individual has the fire, moxie, charisma, wherewithal, smarts and financial backing to make a run of it in leading such a party?

Who will lead the United Progressive Party of Canada?

- 30 -

Shout out to the Saudi Arabian delegation

Hey guys, when you start allowing the women of your country to drive, then you can share your opinions with the rest of the world on global warming.

Until then, just shut it.

Sad Anniversary

Geneviève Bergeron (1968-1989)
Hélène Colgan (1966-1989)
Nathalie Croteau (1966-1989)
Barbara Daigneault (1967-1989)
Anne-Marie Edward (1968-1989)
Maud Haviernick (1960-1989)
Maryse Laganière (1964-1989)
Maryse Leclair (1966-1989)
Anne-Marie Lemay (1967-1989)
Sonia Pelletier (1961-1989)
Michèle Richard (1968-1989)
Annie St-Arneault (1966-1989)
Annie Turcotte (1969-1989)
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (1958-1989)

20 years ago the 14 women listed above were brutally killed, simply for being women, by a depraved, damaged man who was brought up to think of women as being somehow less deserving than men. Somehow less than equal. This is backward thinking and hopefully we can quell it with enough time, and enough unrelenting effort at hammering home the vital message:

women and men are equal

I will never forget. And I will do everything I can to ensure my children learn that message.

It saddens me still to think of how these 14 women died so senselessly, except to serve as a tragic example of how we sometimes fail to learn.

May they rest in eternal peace.

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