Panglossian Notes

"Turning the corner" more BS from the Canada's "newish, eh" government?

I haven't had the time, really its the patience, yet to pour over what I think is a purposely poorly presented package on the conservative government of Canada's 2nd try at producing a plan for containing the increase in Canadian made greenhouse gas emissions. The material, as far as I can gather, is here. A very very quick glance at some of the package tells me that the conservatives are, again, stumbling and unwilling to take a leadership role. They seem to have stuck with the emissions intensity targets which, because I've just re-charged my bullshit detector, seems, frankly, to be a ruse.

Remember the Bush administration introduced voluntary emission intensity reduction goals back in 2002. The Bush goal was to reduce emission intensity per GDP by 18% over the 10 year period ending in 2012 [that's an average of about 1.7% reduction in GHG intensity per GDP annually for 10 years]. Problem is that even if the intensity goal is met US total GHG emissions are expected to have increased by 12% over the 10 year period.

The Canadian emission goals are to be measured, I think, differently - as a percentage of output? I have to spend more time trying to actually figure out what the precise measure maybe.

But, for now, and starting with Minister Baird's attack on the economic consequences of his government's Clean Air Bill, which had been significantly revamped by all three opposition parties before being passed in the House and sent to the Canadian Senate, a very serious matter has turned into the usual political snafu. The whole matter of GHG emissions and global warming are for my stupid country just another of the usual "mugs-games" played by politicians and orchestrated by government officials serving their political masters.

"The sky will fall if we take any real action. [stage left: high paid civil servants rustle papers].

"We have asked a number of private sector and academic useful idiots economists to verify our heavily constrained assumptions and they all agree the sky will fall." [stage left: high paid civil servants snicker amongst themselves].

"This new government is not tackling global warming climate change because the sky will fall with a real plan of action. [stage left: muffled laughter and loud "high-fives" from high paid civil servants].

Another example of the politicalisation - mugs-games - is Baird's response to Al Gore's comments over the weekend. Gore said the Baird's plan was a "fraud". I guess the one thing that seems sure is that Baird and his handlers must be nervous of this new package because they have shot back quickly in what seems to be the typical conservative, or should we say reform party, style which is either a direct or implied ad hominem attack. I admit I'm pretty fed-up with the Harper, Baird, O'Connor, MacKay etc. etc. use of this sophomoric fallacy.

Here's the guts of Baird's nervous response:

“It is difficult to accept criticism from someone who preaches about climate change, but who never submitted the Kyoto Protocol to a vote in the United States Senate, who never did as much as Canada is now doing to fight climate change during eight years in Office, and who has campaigned exclusively for hundreds of Democratic candidates who have weaker plans to fight greenhouse gases than Canada’s New Government."

Likely someone needs to tell the boys & girls at Environment Canada or Baird's bunker that a Vice President in the US doesn't submit any treaties for Senate approval, I think, there maybe someone above a VP but they should check, eh? In most normal US administrations, discounting the abnormal Bush 43 reign, a President may actually set the executive's policy course even in the face of some obvious disagreement. (US Senate Roll Call Vote 105th Congress 1st session)

SUMMARY AS OF:
6/12/1997--Introduced.

Declares that the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol to, or other agreement regarding, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992, at negotiations in Kyoto in December 1997 or thereafter which would: (1) mandate new commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the Annex 1 Parties, unless the protocol or other agreement also mandates new specific scheduled commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for Developing Country Parties within the same compliance period; or (2) result in serious harm to the U.S. economy.

Calls for any such protocol or other agreement which would require the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification to be accompanied by: (1) a detailed explanation of any legislation or regulatory actions that may be required to implement it; and (2) an analysis of the detailed financial costs which would be incurred by, and other impacts on, the U.S. economy.

Library of Congress

So attack Gore because he championed then and now controlling GHG emissions and blame him for, what was it again?

Baird, Baird, Baird your intensity emissions are showing. Please a little, even a really small amount of leadership and less hot air. Please, again.

Technorati Tags: Global Warming, Hot Air, Pinheads, Politicians

Mr. Fish nails it as usual, eh!

No comment.

Technorati Tags: Mr. Fish

James Fallows on specific MSM incompetence, lack of ethics or something?

This is an interesting short piece by James Fallows of The Atlantic. He is currently working in Shanghai and was there when news of the Virginia Tech shootings started to make it to the other side of the International Date Line.

The short essay draws attention to bad MSM journalism and the effects it can have within a generally controlled environment for news.

"For the previous 12 hours, the worst traits in the Chinese media had been brought out by an even-worse lapse by part of the U.S. media. One — and as far as I can tell, only one — journalist in the U.S. identified the killer publicly and quickly as a student from China who had recently been given his visa in Shanghai. During the long night after the shooting U.S. time, which was daytime Tuesday in China, that report was picked up — surprise! — by Fox news and a few smaller U.S. outlets, and, via web news sites, it quickly made its way to China."

James Fallows
April 17, 2007
The Atlantic

The questionable journalism, from a columnist identified by Fallows as Mz. Michael Sneed, provides for me, again, a really good example of how irresponsibility in a news room can completely undermine any good MSM stories or series of stories. [Note to any reader: Judith Miller of the NYT does remain the queen of irresponsibility, least in my mind.]

The first thing that struck me on reading The Atlantic piece was boy could this Sneed article help give politicians cover from any good investigative reporting, particularly in a parliamentary system, where the government faces the opposition on a daily basis in the House or other Lower Chamber. I was thinking of Prime Minister Harper's performance during question period regarding the series of articles by Graeme Smith in The Globe & Mail on prisoner abuse in Afghanistan once our military had handed them off to the local Karzai military. Instead of dealing with the issue he got a pass because as noted by Dave at The Galloping Beaver:

"Harper [during question period] ... deflect[ed] questions by suggesting that they [the government] were not about to accept unsubstantiated allegations made [to G&M reporter Graeme Smith] by Taliban PWs [and reported by the MSM]. "

What Harper exposed
in his desperate
attempt to defend his
incompetent Defence Minister,
The Galloping Beaver,
April 24, 2007

Bad and completely false speculative reporting, such as this current example noted by Fallows out of Chicago and then trying to hide the missteps by electronically shredding the article on the main site, as though it had never existed, only give governments, all of whom should regularly and consistently be considered defective and thus questioned rigorously and relentlessly, an opportunity to slither away from accountability on any matter.

This isn't good for democracy period.

Technorati Tags: Accountability, Canada, Globe and Mail, Media, The Atlantic

Wingnuttery update #2 for 25/04/2007. Also, some leadership credit for Nunavut and Ontario, please "New" Government of Canada [when is it these idiots become old, oops turn off that keyboard]

John Walker, yes the guy who originally co-wrote AutoCad before fleeing to Switzerland to lose weight, learn to speak and write French and enjoy life, has a link to a threat likely indirectly the result of the looming danger associated with global-warming or, if you prefer the softer mnemonic, climate-change.

Safetyland: US$2000 to Clean Up Broken Fluorescent Bulb

Last March 13th, thrifty Brandy Bridges of Prospect, Maine was changing lightbulbs, all by herself. She had decided to replace two dozen incandescent bulbs with screw-in Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) replacements “in an attempt to save money on her energy bill”. Disaster!—when changing the bulb in her daughter's bedroom, it slipped from her fingers and broke on the shag carpet. Aware of the hazards of broken fluorescent bulbs, she called Home Depot where she had bought the engine of destruction, and was successively referred to the Poison Control hotline, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Environmental Protection, which sent a “specialist” to measure the mercury levels at the scene of the accident which, indeed, plunging the sensor down into the carpet at the site of the impact, read more than six times higher than the “safe level” of mercury: 300 ng/m³. The ambient air in the room was, however, below this level.

The specialist advised Ms. Bridges not to clean up the disaster site herself, and referred her to Clean Harbors Environmental Services, which duly submitted an estimate of US$2,000 for the job. One month later, Bridges is “gathering finances” for the clean-up; her daughter's room remains sealed up with plastic, the tyke forced to sleep in another room. According to a news story on the calamity published in The Ellsworth American, Ms. Bridges is “worried about her daughter staying in the same house for the next 11 years, potentially having long-term exposure to mercury. She’s worried about the rest of her family’s health.”

John Walker
April 21, 2007
Fourmilog

I wonder whether the breathless press release copying Ontario's and Nunavut's recent policy announcement on lightbulbs, about to spill forth from the "new" Conservative Central in Ottawa will warn consumers about the looming threat associated with "mercury madness".

Nope, the Conservative PR didn't mention anything about how to clean up a hazard waste area, (hey it didn't say anything about coupons to buy the new bulbs either. I've already received my Ontario coupons and already used them. Where's my federal coupons Harper?).

I just love this wingnut stuff.

Technorati Tags: Canada, Global Warming, mercury madness, Nunavut, Ontario, wingnuttery

Wingnuttery update

It's always nice to start the day with a good solid report or two of wingnuttery. I find it helps to set the tone for the day in this fast paced oh so complex modern world.

From AlterNet, via Stephen Soldz's Psyche, Science, and Society site, we have a report of the US Homeland Security boys & girls on the job out there at the Blaine border crossing.

Seems, in a random search, the boys & girls of USHS have been able to identify a serious threat to the great "fatherland/motherland" to the South.

"Andrew Feldmar, a well-known Vancouver psychotherapist, rolled up to the Blaine border crossing last summer as he had hundreds of times in his career. At 66, his gray hair, neat beard, and rimless glasses give him the look of a seasoned intellectual. He handed his passport to the U.S. border guard and relaxed, thinking he would soon be with an old friend in Seattle. The border guard turned to his computer and googled "Andrew Feldmar."

...

The Blaine border guard explained that Feldmar had been pulled out of the line as part of a random search. He seemed friendly, even as he took away Feldmar's passport and car keys. While the contents of his car were being searched, Feldmar and the officer talked. He asked Feldmar what profession he was in.

When Feldmar said he was psychologist, the official typed his name into his Internet search engine. Before long the customs guard was engrossed in an article Feldmar had published in the spring 2001 issue of the journal Janus Head. The article concerned an acid trip Feldmar had taken in London, Ontario, and another in London, England, almost forty years ago. It also alluded to the fact that he had used hallucinogenics as a "path" to understanding self and that in certain cases, he reflected, it could "be preferable to psychiatry." Everything seemed to collapse around him, as a quiet day crossing the border began to turn into a nightmare."

...

He was told to sit down on a folding chair and for hours he wondered where this was going. He checked his watch and thought hopelessly of his friend who was about to land at the Seattle airport. Three hours later, the official motioned him into a small, barren room with an American flag. He was sitting on one side and Feldmar was on the other. The official said that under the Homeland Security Act, Feldmar was being denied entry due to "narcotics" use. LSD is not a narcotic substance, Feldmar tried to explain, but an entheogen. The guard wasn't interested in technicalities. He asked for a statement from Feldmar admitting to having used LSD and he fingerprinted Feldmar for an FBI file.

Then Feldmar disbelievingly listened as he learned that he was being barred from ever entering the United States again. The officer told him he could apply to the Department of Homeland Security for a waiver, if he wished, and gave him a package, with the forms.

The border guard then escorted him to his car and made sure he did a U-turn and went back to Canada."

Linda Solomon
The Tyee
via AlterNet

To make sure my wingnuttery framework is finely tuned enough for the rest of the day here is my analysis of the situation which is optimistic for both Feldmar, who shouldn't look a gift-horse in the face and Canadian tourist revenues:

First, my reaction to the story was that Feldmar should consider himself lucky, at least he wasn't hooded, twist tied and shipped off to some US torture camp in the middle-East or Poland. So what's he complaining about, eh.

Second, from a Canadian economic perspective, we win, I think, if Feldmar's kids, both of whom seemed to have fled Canada for the unlimited opportunities in the "home of the brave", still want to actually see the old man, they'll have to go to his place in Vancouver. This will mean more tourist dollars for the local British Columbia coffers and more GST for the federal government - we win, excellent!

Technorati Tags: Balance of Payments, Canada, USA, wingnuttery

And the reason for "colony collapse disorder" is:

So far my favorite explanation for the mysterious affliction affecting bees was noted in this article in the New York Times this morning. Some think "colony collapse disorder" is really just:

"... the rapture of the bees, in which God recalled them to heaven"

And thinking of rapture, just in case some wing- nuts, like our very brilliant Minister of Safety and Maintenance of Bushie Speaking-Points (SM & BS), Stockwell Day, has missed the service being offered by the Post-Rapture Post website, here's the address again:

Post-Rapture Post

More on the criminal Wolfowitz and his neoconcubine Riza

Sidney Blumenthal, at Salon, has a good wrap-up sort of on the latest mess of the arrogant and seemingly really, really dumb Wolfowitz. The article also, I think, has new information on what would appear, at face value, to be potentially pretty serious security breaches either at the Pentagon or at the Stater Department in regard to the woman Riza. And I've been naive enough to think that security was suppose to be an issue on the Bushie presidency.

Blumenthal has a very nice description of the Wolfowitz's endearing qualities (I wonder if this maybe what Riza sees has she stares into his eyes before she spends another night counting her World Bank loot) and then a very nice summation of the criminal Wolfowitz's modus operandi (MO).

The endearing qualities:

"Wolfowitz's World Bank scandal over his girlfriend reveals many of the same qualities that created the wreckage he left in his wake in Iraq: grandiosity, cronyism, self-dealing and lying ... "

His MO to avoid accountability:

" -- an energetic campaign to deflect accountability. As with the war, he has retreated behind his fervent profession of good intentions to excuse himself. The ginning up of the conservative propaganda mill that once disseminated Wolfowitz's disinformation on WMD to defend him as the innocent victim of a political smear only underlines his tried-and-true methods of operation."

I've yet to read or hear what the Bank's Board may do. If it doesn't fire him then I guess the world will have been co-opted into the incompetent and unaccountable mess known as the Bush administration which actually seems to be a disease.

Technorati Tags: Accountability, neoconcubine, corruption, Stupidity, WorldBank

Wolfowitz, Shaha Ali Riza - the missed story!

This is going to be a short note. Wolfowitz, bright guy, that he is, must realize he is in an unworkable situation now at the World Bank. He, of course, blames this on people who don't like what he did in his pass job over at the Pentagon. Bush, since he never knows what to do, offered his lame-duck support for Paul.

The girl-friend is claiming victimisation which has to be the laugh of this decade but I guess you have to try anything to save some face.

Boy, oh boy, it must be an interesting time between Paul and Shaha now, eh. Anyone want to bet it's endless rounds of joint self-pity and recriminations. Oh well, it'll give Wolfowitz something new with which he can be be obsessed.

Steven Clemons, in his blog Washington Note, wrote about a journalist connection of his that had lunched with the Bank President just last year:

"The journalist in question had not met Wolfowitz previously and Kellems [V-P Cheney's former spokesperson dragged to the Bank by Wolkowitz] played a "relationship-brokering" role. What is interesting about this particular meeting -- as far as I understand the details of it -- is that the journalist in question, who I cannot name but can attest for his solid reputation as a serious writer, assumed that the topic of discussion at dinner would be Wolfowitz's global economic development agenda, his view of how to make the World Bank relevant to 21st century security and economic challenges, and so on.

Instead Wolfowitz -- as recently as one year ago -- was still manically obsessed with the connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Wolfowitz reportedly brought with him to dinner an enormous binder of materials, articles, essays, reports, intelligence, etc. -- arguing that the connection between Hussein and bin Laden's operation was real and robust."

Steven Clemons
Washington Note
April 12, 2007

But, I'm wondering off, sorry. What missed story you say.

Hmm, it's that only now has the MSM jumped in feet first to go after Wolfowitz and the Shaha Ali Riza shenanigans. In fact, it is really quite old news and I suspect that Wolfowitz and Riza might have thought that, until WaPo started reporting on it that they were safe. I'll bet this whole thing has come as a shock to them. Gadzooks why is this blowing up now.

Remember the Village Voice had reported all the details now being so gone over by the MSM well over a year ago. The section of the Village Voice that tracked Bush et al and some of their more interesting antics was cancelled by the Voice in February of last year but not before most of Wolfowitz's adventures at the Bank had been detailed. Here's a link to the January 24, 2006 story on Wolfowitz, call fittingly Wolf at the Door. Wolfowitz Watch was also useful as a resource for MSM types if any had been interested to following Wolf links.

So, the MSM anything to say? Nope!

I've concluded that with Bush et gang on the ropes, it's now safe and profitable for the stalwarts of the MSM to come out more openly into view to take shots and Wolfowitz and Riza are the targets right now.

This doesn't mean that I don't think Wolfowitz shouldn't go, in my view his actions with his girl friend have completely compromised him and will compromise any new policy the Bank tries to follow in the near future respecting corruption. I also think, as I've said before, that no matter how bright the guy is he is dumb at the most fundamental level in regard to the integrity required of a real public servant. As well, he appears to have demonstrated low-level stupidity and ineptness in handling this seamy fraud.

I wonder what other little fiasco's are out there in Bush world that the MSM hasn't bothered to follow-up or even check?

Technorati Tags: Accountability, Media, Journalists

The ass-h Stockwell, aka Doris, Day rides to the ... huh embarrassment, humiliation whatever.

I know I certainly feel much safer this morning. The secure sense actually started yesterday when rumours began to circulate that our earnest Minister for Public Safety, the famous Stockwell Day, had slipped into Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was taking charge of a joint RCMP, Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA), local cops swat/keystone-cops team to search the Cala Puebla, a Cyprus registered ship heading to the container docks.

Mr. Day, I suspect, was hoping to tear out in his wet-suit, his seadoo cranked to full revs, to apprehend the suspected 200 illegal immigrants hiding in the containers onboard the Cala Puebla. Of course, the RCMP, CBSA and the local harbour cops would have made sure that neither the garbage scow nor the Halifax- Dartmouth ferry got in his earnest way.

Unfortunately for Stockwell, wing-nut boy, Day, unlike the fearless J. Edger Hoover's staged apprehension of Alvin Karpis, a member of Ma Barker's gang, in 1936, he was depending on the "always get your man"- oops "always get your person" - red serge crew and not the famed G-man of the 1930's movies to set up the little theatrical display. So:

"... the photo op for the minister never happened. A massive search of more than 180 of the ship's containers turned up nothing, no stowaways, no contraband and no massive show of force to underscore the strength of coastal security."

RHÉAL SÉGUIN AND CAROLINE ALPHONSO
With a report from Alex Dobrota in Ottawa
Globe & Mail
April 11, 2007

Fittingly even the Globe's editorial page is laughing at Mr. Day while wondering what is actually going on with Minister, "Public Safety", Day.

"It must have seemed the perfect opportunity to publicize how seriously the federal government takes the issue of port security, which a recent Senate report indicated is not very seriously at all. Canadian intelligence, police and other agencies were put on alert after a tipoff that a container ship was en route to Halifax from Lisbon with as many as 200 stowaways seeking illegal entry. The Canadian Border Services Agency would search the ship from stem to stern, uncover the plot and take the would-be offenders into custody. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day travelled to Halifax on Tuesday just so he could be on hand for the coup.

The only problem was that a thorough search of the Cyprus-registered Cala Puebla and its 180 Canada-bound containers turned up no illegal cargo, human or otherwise. And Mr. Day had nothing but embarrassment to show for his efforts to turn a police investigation into a political showcase.

It was an exercise in crass politics that turned Mr. Day into Canada's most expensive border guard for a day, although he did his best to pretend otherwise at a hastily arranged press conference yesterday. "The search in itself did not turn up anything in terms of people or contraband. However, it was a very positive exercise for all our agencies to be engaged in at one time, and searches of that nature are always based on assessment of risk."

But he did not answer the most pressing questions. What intelligence was so persuasive that it could trigger such a costly government response? Why was it completely wrong? And why did the minister feel compelled to be on hand for the search when he surely must have more pressing duties in his crucial ministry?

...."

Mr. Day's Guard Duty
Editorial
Globe & Mail
March 12, 2007

Technorati Tags: nitwit, Politicians, wingnuttery

Wolfowitz update sort of.

There's a piece in the Independent today detailing some of the various Wolfowitz accomplishments at the Pentagon and generally providing a sympathetic view of the man personally.

In the article, there are also a few little tidbits about Wolfowitz's relationship with Shaha Riza, the British national of Libyan ancestry, former employee of the World Bank and the US State Department - she's now scurried away to the Foundation for the Future think-tank - who he has been shacked up with since 2001. My earlier note on Wolfowitz's denied, but what seemed to everyone else as obvious, nepotism in regard to Mz. Riza is here.

The thing, I think, that is of note, pertaining to the two, is this one line from the Independent story - remember they got together sometime in 2001:

"... her strong belief in bringing democracy to the Arab world is said to have only strengthened her partner's determination to confer that boon on Iraq."

Rupert Cornwell
Neocons and nepotism?
Sex, money & the fall of Wolfowitz
The Independent
April 11, 2007

Charming, eh, just charming, if it's true.

Mabel: "Oh, they look such a lovely couple that pair. Don't they?"

Bess: "They do dear. I wonder what in the world they could be talking about. He seems to be hanging on her every word."

Technorati Tags: Iraq, World Bank