Here's a video. See what you think.
Galloway's overheated rhetoric makes me uncomfortable--his speculation about Israel planning an attack on Iran last November seems waaay over the top. But should he be barred from Canada? No. Way. Especially not in the same week Bush gets in.
Also: I wonder if David Frum got beat up a lot when he went to school.
Well hasn't this been a fun morning of angry blogging. And people wonder why we post cartoons and dolphin videos on dog blog.
3.21.2009
Sask Government Tells CBC How To Do Its Job
In other slippery-slope news, yesterday the Star Phoenix reported that Saskatchewan Justice Minister Don Morgan asked the CBC to not broadcast interviews with convicted cop killer Curt Dagenais.
Morgan also told the Star Phoenix his government would not censor the interview, they just didn't think it should be broadcast.
How magnanimous of government to not censor the media. Truly we live in a free society.
As can be read in the story, the CBC says they often interview convicted criminals because this can provide insight and present all sides of a story to the public.
Sounds like journalism to me.
(Tip of the hat to "you know who you are" for sending me this link.)
In other freedom of speech news, prairie dog is still banned from distributing in Saskatchewan's government-run liquor stores.
Morgan also told the Star Phoenix his government would not censor the interview, they just didn't think it should be broadcast.
How magnanimous of government to not censor the media. Truly we live in a free society.
As can be read in the story, the CBC says they often interview convicted criminals because this can provide insight and present all sides of a story to the public.
Sounds like journalism to me.
(Tip of the hat to "you know who you are" for sending me this link.)
In other freedom of speech news, prairie dog is still banned from distributing in Saskatchewan's government-run liquor stores.
Canada Bans Pacifist, Welcomes War Criminal
Yesterday, an outspoken and somewhat wacky British Member Of Parliament was banned from entering Canada for two university speaking engagements on security grounds in the same week George W. Bush, who ordered the invasion of Iraq on bogus pretenses, was allowed into Calgary for a speaking engagement.
British MP George Galloway was banned by Canada Border Services Agency officials. Pertinent minister Jason Kenney, who has the power to overturn stupid and evil decisions, says he will not do so.
Galloway is accused of supporting designated-terrorist organization Hamas (trying to use neutral language in a loaded topic here) because he helped deliver aid to the Gaza Strip during the widely-viewed-as-excruciatingly-horrific Israeli attack earlier this year that were sparked by the widely-viewed-as-"asking for it" rocket attacks against Israel (that were sparked by yadda yadda yadda that were sparked by historical etc.).
The decision by Canadian officials is stupid and makes the Minister (whom we're sure had nothing whatsoever to do with banning Galloway) look like an asshole who doesn't support free speech unless it's the kind of free speech he likes.
Critics (e.g. me) suspect Galloway is actually being barred because he says inflammatory things about how the war in Afghanistan is wrong. In other words, he's being banned for being anti-war.
Opinion: You can't call British MPs terrorist supporters when they're not and ban them from Canada. That's fascism.
Here are links--read them and you'll know as much as I do and possibly more since my reading
comprehension is suspect when I'm this pissed off.
-The Toronto Star's initial report.
-Today's TorStar article saying Galloway will challenge the decision.
-Toronto Star column on why this decision is nuts.
-The Globe And Mail's story on this fiasco.
-The Guardian's initial report.
-The Guardian's Saturday story.
-The Wikipedia entry on George Galloway for those interested in a litany of his wacky shenanigans (which include public boasting of having sex with Greeks).
UPDATE: The Regina Mom, AKA prairie dog contributor Bernadette Wagner, has alerted me to her post on the recent stupidities of federal Conservatives. You can read it here. It discusses much more thoroughly than I have a litany of shenanigans from Canada's immigration minister. Recommended.
British MP George Galloway was banned by Canada Border Services Agency officials. Pertinent minister Jason Kenney, who has the power to overturn stupid and evil decisions, says he will not do so.
Galloway is accused of supporting designated-terrorist organization Hamas (trying to use neutral language in a loaded topic here) because he helped deliver aid to the Gaza Strip during the widely-viewed-as-excruciatingly-horrific Israeli attack earlier this year that were sparked by the widely-viewed-as-"asking for it" rocket attacks against Israel (that were sparked by yadda yadda yadda that were sparked by historical etc.).
The decision by Canadian officials is stupid and makes the Minister (whom we're sure had nothing whatsoever to do with banning Galloway) look like an asshole who doesn't support free speech unless it's the kind of free speech he likes.
Critics (e.g. me) suspect Galloway is actually being barred because he says inflammatory things about how the war in Afghanistan is wrong. In other words, he's being banned for being anti-war.
Opinion: You can't call British MPs terrorist supporters when they're not and ban them from Canada. That's fascism.
Here are links--read them and you'll know as much as I do and possibly more since my reading
comprehension is suspect when I'm this pissed off.
-The Toronto Star's initial report.
-Today's TorStar article saying Galloway will challenge the decision.
-Toronto Star column on why this decision is nuts.
-The Globe And Mail's story on this fiasco.
-The Guardian's initial report.
-The Guardian's Saturday story.
-The Wikipedia entry on George Galloway for those interested in a litany of his wacky shenanigans (which include public boasting of having sex with Greeks).
UPDATE: The Regina Mom, AKA prairie dog contributor Bernadette Wagner, has alerted me to her post on the recent stupidities of federal Conservatives. You can read it here. It discusses much more thoroughly than I have a litany of shenanigans from Canada's immigration minister. Recommended.
3.20.2009
Sixless In The Morning
I have zero time to write a top six news this a.m. but this blog needs a morning post--so how about a cartoon? This is probably my all-time favourite National Film Board of Canada short. It's by Richard Condie, who was nominated for an Oscar for The Big Snit, and it's called The Apprentice. It's about learning and creativity, and the value of obstacles and what we can learn from adversity (and how it can even save us from disaster without us realizing it). And to my tastes it's reallyreallyreally funny.
Incidentally the NFB has a Web site that you can find a lot of their animation on but last time I checked (maybe a month ago) this one wasn't there, hence the embed from the copyright-plundering nightmare that is Yootoob.
Incidentally the NFB has a Web site that you can find a lot of their animation on but last time I checked (maybe a month ago) this one wasn't there, hence the embed from the copyright-plundering nightmare that is Yootoob.
3.19.2009
Friends in High Places
You know how the National Post always keeps harping on how the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is unfairly encroaching on their territory because of its subsidy?
Pot, meet kettle. What color is it? (TorStar)
Tip of the lynch lid to Warren Kinsella
Pot, meet kettle. What color is it? (TorStar)
Tip of the lynch lid to Warren Kinsella
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Six In The Morning
Too much going on and going down not to have one of these linkapalooza doohickeys here today. Here's a pertinent smorgesbord of stories.
1. BUDGET! Well, consensus seems to be it's a reasonable budget that doesn't take a lot of risks. The opposition NDP says the Sask Party's estimates on provincial revenue are off but I guess we'll see about that. Frankly, nothing amazing, nothing too horrifying. Unless of course you stop to consider that this provinces' economic success is entirely linked to fertilzer and fossil fuels, in which case you'd probably want to run into the streets screaming and tearing your eyes from your face because that's not any way to keep us strong, long-term. But that's a problem of the paradigm, not the budget.
The new hospital is nice.
The cash transfers to cities are great.
Waiting to hear what the art/culture crowds think of it. Still like to see culture get its own department, sorry, ministry. Being shoe-horned in with sports and tourism makes me nervous.
Probably a hell of a lot more could've been done to help the poor/unemployed/situationally fucked and to position Saskatchewan for long-term success. I'm sure an NDP budget would've been wildly different here. Hahahahahahahahaha, that's a good one.
We'll have more in next week's prairie dog. I am optimistic there will be at least some limited insight.
In the meantime, here's reports from the CBC and the Leader-Post.
2. FRANCE! In Saskatchewan, changes to labour laws are definitely making it harder to unionize and are (arguably) a blatant violation of human rights. Our take? La la la, hooray for the boom! Unions have ruined Saskatchewan long enough. La la la! In France, meanwhile, public sector workers are striking over President Sarkozy's handling of the economic crisis (let's give tax cuts to the super-rich!) and... 80 per cent of the French people support them. Huh. La la la! (Guardian)
3. GUNS! A Saskatchewan Conservative MP who fought against gun control laws will be honoured at a dinner in Mississauga, Ontario for his, cough, efforts to improve the country we all share. MP Garry Breitkreuz' dinner has a raffle prize: a Beretta handgun. Critics* say this is tasteless and reinforces the perception that gun control foes are out-of-touch assholes with a poor grip on the facts surrounding gun violence. (Toronto Star)
4. RAPIST! Austrian psycho-dad Joseph Fritzl changed his plea on the murder charge to guilty, and he's been sentenced to life in prison. He'll probably be locked up in a secure psychiatric facility, probably forever. Good. (Guardian)
5. CBC! The national broadcaster is cutting executive bonuses and "selling assets" (uh oh) to deal with advertizing shortfalls. But no commercials on the radio as had been previously discussed. Phew! (Globe And Mail)
6. DEATH PENALTY! New Mexico repeals it. (New York Times)
*me for starters.
1. BUDGET! Well, consensus seems to be it's a reasonable budget that doesn't take a lot of risks. The opposition NDP says the Sask Party's estimates on provincial revenue are off but I guess we'll see about that. Frankly, nothing amazing, nothing too horrifying. Unless of course you stop to consider that this provinces' economic success is entirely linked to fertilzer and fossil fuels, in which case you'd probably want to run into the streets screaming and tearing your eyes from your face because that's not any way to keep us strong, long-term. But that's a problem of the paradigm, not the budget.
The new hospital is nice.
The cash transfers to cities are great.
Waiting to hear what the art/culture crowds think of it. Still like to see culture get its own department, sorry, ministry. Being shoe-horned in with sports and tourism makes me nervous.
Probably a hell of a lot more could've been done to help the poor/unemployed/situationally fucked and to position Saskatchewan for long-term success. I'm sure an NDP budget would've been wildly different here. Hahahahahahahahaha, that's a good one.
We'll have more in next week's prairie dog. I am optimistic there will be at least some limited insight.
In the meantime, here's reports from the CBC and the Leader-Post.
2. FRANCE! In Saskatchewan, changes to labour laws are definitely making it harder to unionize and are (arguably) a blatant violation of human rights. Our take? La la la, hooray for the boom! Unions have ruined Saskatchewan long enough. La la la! In France, meanwhile, public sector workers are striking over President Sarkozy's handling of the economic crisis (let's give tax cuts to the super-rich!) and... 80 per cent of the French people support them. Huh. La la la! (Guardian)
3. GUNS! A Saskatchewan Conservative MP who fought against gun control laws will be honoured at a dinner in Mississauga, Ontario for his, cough, efforts to improve the country we all share. MP Garry Breitkreuz' dinner has a raffle prize: a Beretta handgun. Critics* say this is tasteless and reinforces the perception that gun control foes are out-of-touch assholes with a poor grip on the facts surrounding gun violence. (Toronto Star)
4. RAPIST! Austrian psycho-dad Joseph Fritzl changed his plea on the murder charge to guilty, and he's been sentenced to life in prison. He'll probably be locked up in a secure psychiatric facility, probably forever. Good. (Guardian)
5. CBC! The national broadcaster is cutting executive bonuses and "selling assets" (uh oh) to deal with advertizing shortfalls. But no commercials on the radio as had been previously discussed. Phew! (Globe And Mail)
6. DEATH PENALTY! New Mexico repeals it. (New York Times)
*me for starters.
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