Panglossian Notes

Update on the GOP decision

Boy, I've been off and on today checking my usual sources - Newshoggers, Brad Delong, TPM, Washington Monthly and Note, Dennis Perrin, Crooked Timber, Kevin Drum - and the links they point at re: the VP choice of McCain.

Right now I think she is a Northern "nut", but I still having some loyalty to the North so I guess I'll hold my breath for just awhile. Silly I know, but there are so few Northerns in all North America and I know Alaska really isn't the Eastern Arctic I know, but I've worked with Alaskans off and on, as an official, at dog mushing races and I'm willing to turn blue for a few seconds.

Not much of a reason but Alaskan's are generally nice people; have a really lovely, I think, state flag (Though, like the Nunavut territorial flag "what's the North Star doing on it". Christ, North of 60° Polaris is really right above you, so useless as a navigating aid, unless you want to go around and around in a circle.); and are generally hard nose and sensible about their state's non-renewable resources and citizens share of it.

So, since it doesn't really effect me directly, I'll hold my breath about her for just awhile to keep the faith with the North so-to-speak.

But I really want Obama to take the WH in November even though I don't think he will actually change much in the states. He will however, Jesus my fingers are crossed, break the colour barrier and that has to be good after 230 years or so of "exceptionalism, eh.

There is a scary part about Palin, even though I really think I'm past being scared about much just now. McCain is 72 and a former POW.

Aren't the POWs, who've been subject to mistreatment, life expectancy's lower than average - even some of Johnny's betters think he may not last the 4 years of pressure as the POTUS - which would mean the Alaskan could be the Prez.

Next we'll hear that Canada's Harper has managed to get a prominent Nunavut female politician to run as a Conservative.

Excellant, the GOP decides

that what the US needs, come this January, is a crazy old man and a fundamentalist female nut to run the executive.

Yee Ha, I think.
I wonder how this will turn out. Oh, she also doesn't believe that the major cause of global warming is man. It must be a god thing, I guess.

Boy if you were really really truly anti-American, I mean someone with an irrational hate of anyone from that place, you'd be pulling for McCain and the nut from Alaska, I think, to just about finish the place off.

Could she be a facsimile for Dan Quayle?

Ok, Ok I'll not completely jump the gun yet. But this 2008 POTUS election could yet turn into cartoon capers.

The Pepsi Convention, ugh!

I've not been able to maintain as complete a diet of the Denver coronation as I'd planned.

Just something about trying to have a balance and not be over-powered by saccharine, I guess.

God these 4 yearly US extravagances have become increasingly boring since 1968 haven't they? Maybe it's just me and my increasing distant from almost anything associated with a political party. This is a stupid attitude on my part, I think, but one which more and more people seem to have in all of the so-called established democracies. The trend, if it is one, is too bad as these organizations are taken over by political party professionals and have less and less connection with real persons who, after all make up a "society", nation, country, electoral riding, etc., etc., etc..

I'm not bucking it. And I'm pretty sure my distant for parties, I still vote in federal, provincial and municipal elections, is not what Gerry Stoker might say is the result of me being an "immature democrat" or, in other words, an individual who doesn't understand that the basic democratic process isn't simply an extension of modern consumerism and its goal is my individual actualization. I know the process is compromise and thus messy and sticky feeling, if it doesn't down right stink, at times.

My problem is that I just now find the formally exciting trappings surrounding democracy, as I knew it: picking candidates, debating issues, being part of an election campaign, just tedious. The current glitzy, banal experience going on in the Pepsi Center tops all for me as I wait for Harper to drop the writ for our own federal circus of talking points, hackneyed reporting, goofy candidates and the endless scripted events stuffed to the brim with re-used and recycled ideas badly explained to encourage misunderstanding.

Oh for the good old days, eh.

Well to keep my spirits up I've been reading Dennis Perrin's Mule Notes and Demver postings on the event. Right now he pretty well catches my feeling about the Convention. A small sample:

And that's the god-awful convention reality: diversion, euphemism, cheap patriotism, and ceaseless bullshit. You wouldn't know how dangerous and dreadful things are at the moment, and the lack of dissent within the soda building not only shows how willing delegates are to play their scripted, passive roles, but how well Democratic elites control the means of expression. That "Recreate '68" march the other day, where a Fox News mouthpiece was verbally kicked around, was as pathetic a display as could be imagined. In a sense, those protesters were playing their roles as well, ineffectual dissidents kept far from the action by legions of cops and paramilitary squads, and used by a right wing network for propaganda purposes, further emphasizing their uselessness. Recreate 1968? How about a little tear gas first?

Demver - Day 2
Dennis Perrin
August 26, 2008

Technorati Tags: Democracy?, Harper government, Politicians, Spin, Tedious, Trite

My morning laugh - Canada's dim-bulb military leadership

has finally decided that the troops in Afghanistan need to know something about how terrorist think or the Taliban think or maybe just something about how anything thinks, eh.

"The federal government is hiring U.S. terrorism experts to deepen Canadian soldiers' understanding of how their Taliban enemies think - saying it needs to prepare troops better as they wage a counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan.

The move was announced yesterday, after weeks of mounting attacks by the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, including Kandahar province, where Canadian soldiers are fighting, and the security situation has markedly worsened.

U.S. terrorism experts to teach troops
Steve Chase
The Globe and Mail
August 28, 2008

And I thought thinking and knowing for the Canadian Forces was settled under the leadership of Rick Hillier.

Didn't he tell the troops everything they needed to know before the first eager for action ones boarded the plane, here in Ottawa, for their 10,443.25 km flight to Kabul.

I think I remember his little speech:

'Just remember men [there were no women on the first plane load heading out], they are detestable murderers and scumbags. They detest our freedoms, they detest our society, they detest our liberties. ... We are the Canadian Forces, and our job is to be able to kill people, THEM, any of THEM.

Don't forget your hockey sticks now

Oo-rah, eh, buddies, OO-RAH. ....


Where's my chauffeur captain, I've got a lunch appointment. Oops was the mike still on.'

But it seems Hillier's wisdom may not be sufficiently sophisticated now and up to THE PLAN, I guess?

It also seems that Ottawa is in a hurry to let the troops know something about whom they maybe fighting as its announcement indicated:

"... that it is bypassing the normal route for contracting and awarding the job to Arlington, Va.-based Terrorism Research Center on a sole-source basis, saying it's the only firm capable of doing the job. The one-year contract has a maximum annual payout of $848,250 (U.S.), but may be extended.

The Department of National Defence offered no explanation yesterday as to why it's embarking on this instruction now, six years after Canadian troops first arrived in Afghanistan and three years after they moved south to the Taliban's homeland in Kandahar.

The contract notice says, however, that a "training-needs analysis" by the DND 11 months ago concluded that soldiers require more specialized instruction on how the Afghanistan population thinks, including what drives insurgents and potential insurgents.

"It is vital that soldiers have the training to understand the people whom they will assist and those that will pose a grave and present danger," the Canadian government says.

U.S. terrorism experts to teach troops
Steve Chase
The Globe and Mail
August 28, 2008

You'd hope that the training might include some idea of how to identify innocent women and children but that seems unlikely given it has been sole sourced to an American firm. But maybe our troops will learn to delivery the tried and true US lead coalitions lines when an accident (?) has occurred. For example:

"First Lieutenant Nathan Perry, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, told RFE/RL on August 23 that the United States was not aware of any civilian casualties having occurred in the operation. He said reports indicated that some 30 insurgents, including a known Taliban commander, had been killed in the air strike.

On August 24, without confirming the reports of 90 deaths, Tony Fratto, a spokesman for U.S. President George W. Bush, said, "We regret the loss of life among the innocent Afghanis who we are committed to protect. Coalition forces take precautions to prevent the loss of civilians, unlike the Taliban and militants who target civilians and place civilians in harm's way."

Afghanistan Concludes 90 Civilians Killed In Coalition Air Strike
Abubakar Siddique
Radio Free Europe
August 24, 2008

Christ, this shit is a joke, isn't it?

Technorati Tags: Canada oo-rah, eh!, Confused, Confusing?, Is this a joke?, Leaders?, Leadership?, Military, Morons, NATO, Shmucks, The Plan, Too, too funny!

Hey, USA, the whole world is watching, eh!

1968 Chicago

2008 Denver

Enough said?

Richard reading e-mails

Very funny clip of Richard Dawkins reading some of his e-mail.

via Boing Boing

Technorati Tags: Funny

Nunavut list of troubles

CP published a story an hour or so ago which has a list of some of the troubles evident in Nunavut's section of the Arctic from the changing climate.

It's a nice reminder that any positive effects from having the Deep Sea Route of the Northwest Passage ice free, as a result of global warming, also create real problems for Nunavut communities - all but 1 of which are coastal - and the problems are here now.

A few exerts:

"Hall Beach's gravelly shoreline - no longer protected by sea ice from increasingly extreme weather - is being pounded by wind-whipped waves that now edge within a few metres of homes.

"We've got a beach that's eroding, that's being eaten away right now," ... .

Elsewhere in town, decaying permafrost has opened leaks in the sewage lagoon. Utility poles lean drunkenly askew.
Officials are beginning to wonder if the community may someday have to be relocated.

In Grise Fiord, undependable glacier melt has forced the community to turn to drifting icebergs for drinking water.

Resolute is facing the same threat to its buildings and shorefront as Hall Beach.

In Baker Lake [ed note: the only non-coastal community in the territory], engineers are struggling to maintain structures built on permafrost that is melting 50 centimetres deeper than it did just a few years ago.

Not-so-perma permafrost is also a problem in Gjoa Haven, now pockmarked by sinkholes that threaten roads and utility pipelines.

Water levels in rivers and lakes around Chesterfield Inlet have dropped by a metre. Local hunters say the char they catch are scratched and bruised from swimming over rocks.

Earlier this spring, Pangnirtung was cut in half when runoff from an unprecedented heat wave washed out the town's bridge and caused wardens to close a section of Auyuittuq National Park.

Nunavut towns battling eroding shorelines,
thawing permafrost
Canadian Press
August 24, 2008

Technorati Tags: Arctic, Global Warming, Northwest Passage, Nunavut, The Plan

Close to ice free again this year

It's -3°C with light snow tonight in Resolute which is about the mid-point on the deep Sea Route of the North West Passage and it looks like Environment Canada is viewing the coming week as typical good summer eastern Arctic weather - lots of sun and +3°C during the day only just nudging down below zero the celsius freezing point during the night time. [If there only was snow on the ground, paradise, right. Only a true Southern urbanite wouldn't understand that snow means mobility, and freedom, and if the sun is out, and if there is no wind, it is paradise if you can also see country food out there, e.]

It really looks, did anyone not expect this, that the North West Passage, the route that can be easily used by modern ocean vessels of all types, will be open again this year.

Here's a slightly marked up screen shot of the results, today, of the University of Bremen's ice concentration algorithm. I've penciled in the Deep Sea Route as well as the approximate location of Resolute - the mid-point - and Nanisivik the start from the Eastern side (the link to Nanisivik is for the weather at the airport up in the mountains well above the place) the old Cumberland zinc mine site and now what  - HMCS Nanisivik I guess.

If I never hear or see the Nanisivik again I'd be happy, but I only remember it for certain types of typical Northern problems for which I had some responsible. I always liked the people from Arctic Bay though - the only place I've actually seen and touched a Greenland shark - some of whom worked at the mine and were members of the notorious dart-club which did cause me some problems you .... .

Arctic Bay and Nanasivik have been famous in the past as what connected them was the only official road in the Territory of Nunavut. Jesus, it is still, what am I thinking, eh.

Google even now allows you to travel it if you are planning a vacation:

Too much nostalgia for the place?

Maybe.

Yes, you're right, of course.

But I worry about the people. Some of their lives are about to dramatically change again because there is no ice where it really should be at this time of year.

Oh well.

Technorati Tags: Arctic, Canada, I'm being an ass I know it, Remembering not good!

The Canadian McCain house connection?

Not really, put a good use of Feist's counting, eh:

Technorati Tags: Canada, Houses, we don't need no houses!, McCain embarrassement of riches, eh!, Politicians

Rumors of a Canadian Election - a Harper Obama link?

I see by this morning's newspapers that Harper may be spending these dog days of summer considering whether or not to call an election and go against his recently passed legislation which set a fixed date for a Canadian federal election.

Not unexpected, an election that is, I guess.

The one thing that most Canadians, the ones that occasionally think or notice some of the small items in life passing, suuspect is that Harper's personality is that of an authoritarian.

Everyone should have been well aware of this peccadillo in Steven's psychological armour as a result of comments made by Belinda Stronach when she crossed the floor of the House of Commons from the Conservative side to the Liberal side under the Paul Martin government. Now, how did she put it in comments to the press, scrummed around in a hallway: 'he likes to order people around; he would not listen to my concerns that he was too focused on Western Canada or discuss any alternatives to allying with the Bloc Québécois' or something along those lines.

This minority 39th parliament has just completely tested Harpers patience. He has had to try to maintain an appearance of moderation and Canadian good manners for the country as a whole in order to come anywhere close to getting a majority at a next federal election.

So we have seen actually very little of the man. He has hidden from the major corporate media types within the House press gallery, only granting unlimited exposure of himself to the weekly and biweekly press in small town and rural parts of the country.

But, even so, it has been difficult for Harper to keep in check his bitterness and contempt for any opposition, whether that comes from members of other parties or Canadian institutions in general.

Harper, though only reported or commented on by few in the corporate media, seems to have a particular hatred for Canadian institutions, I guess, because these institutions check his authoritarian tendencies. I think this explains the wholesale adoption of the modern US republican party tactics of obfuscation concerning accountability, lying while not under oath and attacking career public servants when lights are shown on any government administrative fiasco or potential illegal activity.

But now it's only 72 days to the US federal election and there is even money that Obama will win.

An Obama win could most certainly put an end to Harper. Not because any sensible person expects Obama to make massive changes or to revolutionize the US but there will be changes in broad areas. And these would could have spill over effects on voters impressions of our federal government particularly in Ontario and Quebec in regard to particular policies. Obama can only make a laughing stock of Harper as he turns himself into a pretzel and attempts a rebirth into something other than the authoritarian he is at his core and must tug his forelock to the US version of a progressive.

So Harper needs to get to the polls soon, to hedge his bet at a majority, and guard against the chance of a bandwagon effect, from any change in the political direction of the US, will flood across the border.

Technorati Tags: Canada, Harper government, Harper Party government of Canada, Harper Republican Party of Canada?, Politicians ugh!!