Canada « Tikkunista!

5. Right-Wingers, and the Denial of Reality

Mar-02-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Reality, as Stephen Colbert noted, has a well known liberal bias. That’s why right-wingers are trying to prevent reality from infiltrating their decisions. A US look at the denial of climate-change, two more examples of Canada’s “government” shooting messengers, and a brilliant Rick Mercer skit that sums it all up.

* Why Even Educated Conservatives Deny Science – and Reality Truthout (Thanks, Rick!)

Since about 1995, scientists have not only confirmed that this warming is taking place, but have also grown confident that it has, like the gun in a murder mystery, our fingerprint on it. Natural fluctuations, although they exist, can’t explain what we’re seeing. The only reasonable verdict is that humans did it, in the atmosphere, with their cars and their smokestacks.

Such is what is known to science–what is true (no matter what Rick Santorum might say). But the Pew data showed that humans aren’t as predictable as carbon dioxide molecules. Despite a growing scientific consensus about global warming, as of 2008 Democrats and Republicans had cleaved over the facts stated above, like a divorcing couple. One side bought into them, one side didn’t—and if anything, knowledge and intelligence seemed to be worsening matters.

Buried in the Pew report was a little chart showing the relationship between one’s political party affiliation, one’s acceptance that humans are causing global warming, and one’s level of education. And here’s the mind-blowing surprise: For Republicans, having a college degree didn’t appear to make one any more open to what scientists have to say. On the contrary, better-educated Republicans were more skeptical of modern climate science than their less educated brethren. Only 19 percent of college-educated Republicans agreed that the planet is warming due to human actions, versus 31 percent of non-college-educated Republicans.

* Canada to lose its ‘PEARL’ of Arctic research

Canada’s most northerly research station is ceasing year-round operation, a “draconian” move decried by scientists both nationally and internationally. “Its closure shows a stunning lack of interest on the part of the Canadian government in long-term Arctic issues,” atmospheric scientist Jim Drummond, at Dalhousie University, said of the loss of the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory.

…A network of university and government researchers has operated the lab since 2005. It costs $1.5 million a year to run, but the federal government has eliminated the atmospheric research program that had been funding the operation. …“This loss comes at a highly significant time when Arctic conditions are changing rapidly: Witness the recent rapid loss of permafrost, the appearance of the first large Arctic ozone depletion last year and many other harbingers of significant Arctic change,” the researchers said in a statement Tuesday. “Without PEARL there will be no continuous active measurements in the High Arctic of many atmospheric quantities scientists believe greatly affect both our Arctic and the whole planet.”

* Ottawa Axes Network Of Immigration Research Centres Toronto Star

Ottawa plans to stop funding a research network whose findings have helped improve Canada’s immigration policies and settlement programs, the Star has learned. The federal government will not renew its $9 million, five-year funding to the five Metropolis research centres in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and Halifax when the grant runs out in 2013.

Critics say the cut is another blow to researchers and community groups who have already lost the reliable data gleaned from the mandatory long-form census, which the Conservatives ended in 2010. “If you want to make policies based on opinions instead of what the facts are, you get rid of the facts,” said John Campey, of Social Planning Toronto, which founded the Ontario centre in 1996,

* PMO Pest Control Rick Mercer Report YouTube (Thanks, Dave!)

Feb. 24th, 2012 :: Year 9, Issue 8

Feb-24-2012 | Comments (0)

1. Followups

Bird’s Eye: Our women’s focus of a few weeks past somehow missed this classic 1960s ad. An absolute must-see. Scientists in Canada protest their muzzle gags, and RSA tries a new and lovely approach to animating, this time on some classic Michael Pollan food rules.

* How To Drug A Woman Into Doing Your Housework boingboing (click to enbigify)

* Scientists And Journalists Call On Harper To End Research Gag Order

Groups representing scientists and science writers sent an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday calling on his government to stop “muzzling” federal researchers. The release of the letter coincided with a panel discussion at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual conference, which heard numerous examples of alleged government interference and reporters being denied timely access to scientists.

Such control is sinking morale among scientists and denying the public access to important information about climate, agriculture and the environment, the conference heard. “Why are we suppressing really good news to Canadians – that is, successful science being done in federal government labs?” asked Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist at the University of Victoria. “Why don’t we open it up? There’s nothing to be feared but success.”

* Michael Pollan’s Food Rules Animated in Stop-Motion Brain Pickings

The fine folks at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, known for their brilliant sketchnote animations of talks by prominent authors and scientists, recently launched a competition, inviting emerging filmmakers to bring RSA talks to life in fresh ways. This fantastic stop-motion entry by Marija Jacimovic and Benoit Detalle, which took more than three weeks to create, is based on Michael Pollan’s iconic Food Rules

12. Quotes of the Week

Feb-24-2012 | Comments (0)

* “The state has no place in the hard drives of the nation” Rick Mercer, from his weekly rant

* Every Bart Simpson Chalkboard Quote Ever To celebrate The Simpsons 500th show.

2. Austerity Fail

Feb-17-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: There is an overwhelming push to cut benefits, vacation time, pensions, and medical support across much of the Western world. But why? How much of this is just the 1% pushing for more in the bonus packet? Where is the evidence that this “tough medicine” offers any likelihood of a cure? We look at two perspectives on Greece, and then to Ontario, where massive cuts to the social net have been proposed to offset the massive cuts to taxes. For historical context, watch 4 minutes of Huey Long, fighting the same battle in 1934.

* European Doubts Growing over Greece Debt StrategyDer Spiegel

The plan to save Greece, it turns out, is based on assumptions that have proven to be hopelessly optimistic. Europe’s leaders had assumed that Greece would quickly return to economic growth. But the severity of the austerity measures demanded makes that doubtful. Cuts in salaries and social spending have resulted in a dramatic drop in demand, which has accelerated the economy’s contraction. Tax revenues have plunged as a result, leading to the need for even more spending cuts.

That is hardly a recipe for coming to terms with the country’s debt problem, particularly given the lack of clarity regarding the degree to which Greece’s private creditors will participate in the new bailout package….Yet even as international investors are hesitant, the Greek population has passed its judgment. Greeks, it would appear, no longer want to be rescued if it means even lower minimum wages and yet more pension cuts.

The Athens-based left-leaning daily To Vima urged its government last week to break off the talks “immediately” and negotiate an alternative arrangement with the United States. Greece still had the “power to blow everything up,” the paper said, adding that this was “the only remaining path.”

* What passes for smart on the Greek Debt Crisis Ian Welsh

Westerners thought that they could have consumer democracy: they didn’t have to participate in it except at election time, when they would vote for parties and platforms paid for and produced by someone other than them. Coke™/Pepsi™ politics – you have a choice, you can choose either Coke or Pepsi! Politicians aren’t paid by you (their salaries are the least part of their real income) why would you think they care about your concerns?

You don’t pay for politicians or politics. This is the Facebook rule: if you don’t pay the freight, you aren’t the customer, you are the product. Politicians compete for the money and favors of the rich, and what they sell is the ability to wrangle you: to pass the austerity bills, to cut the benefits, to privatize the jewels of the public system, to force through the multi-trillion dollar bailouts. They control government for the benefit of the rich.

And the rich pay all the way down the line. They control the media, right down to the bottom, to make sure that what is discussed is what they want discussed, in the terms they want it discussed. That default isn’t that bad: forbidden. That currency controls mitigate damage in these circumstances: forbidden. That lenders will lend to defaulting countries almost immediately: forbidden.

* Drummond Report To Cut Deeper And Last Longer Than Harris Reforms Of 1990S rabble.ca

According to Drummond, eliminating the deficit by 2018 will require cutting program spending in real terms by 16.2 per cent over the next seven years. The Conservative government of Mike Harris cut program spending by 4.7 per cent in the first four years, but was forced to raise spending in the second term for a total increase of 5.6 per cent over the 8-year period.

Drummond’s report has drawn fire for recommending increased privatization, including of health care and education services, despite the Commission’s mandate explicitly forbidding it.

…..The report is based on assumed GDP growth of only 2 per cent annually from 2014-18 –lower than the Ministry of Finance projections — and the goal of eliminating Ontario’s deficit by 2018.

The Commission was prohibited from considering revenues, but a recent report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has shown that Ontario’s deficit is largely equal to the cuts to capital, corporate and income taxes under the Liberal and Conservative governments of the last 15 years. In the last year for which calculations were available, Ontario had forgone $15 billion in revenues due to these tax cuts.

* Huey Long: Share the Wealth YouTube, 4 minutes, 1934

3. Wither Canada?

Feb-17-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Sorry to say, that wasn’t a typo. Canada, once a country with a proud record of civil liberties, is becoming a tinpot dictatorship. Harper, who protected civil liberties by killing the census and the long-gun registry, thinks nothing of bringing back torture, building prisons, and allowing all internet communication to be wire-tapped. And the country that once was famous for peace-keeping has gone too. Appalling doesn’t even start to cover this.

* Canada’s sweeping new, evidence-free electronic spying bill Cory Doctorow boingboing

Michael Geist sez, “The Canadian government will introduce new Internet surveillance legislation that will mandate a massive new surveillance infrastructure at all Canadian ISPs and remove the need for court oversight of the disclosure of customer information. I’ve posted a detailed FAQ on the history of the bill, the likely contents, the lack of government evidence supporting the need for the invasive legislation, and what Canadians can do about it.”

* An Embarrassment to CanadaMurray Dobbin Counterpunch

It is hard to credit the latest statements and actions by Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. On both Iran and Israel Baird seems to almost deliberately seek to humiliate both himself and the country he is supposed to represent on the international stage. Taking an ultra-orthodox Rabbi (whose organization opposes any Palestinian state) with him on an official visit to Israel is not just bizarre but dangerous. And suggesting, essentially, that Iran has a first-strike policy against Israel (with non-existent nuclear weapons) while comparing its leader to Hitler, puts Baird firmly in the company of drunks in a bar room exchange of tough talk.

For Stephen Harper to let this ignorant buffoon loose as Canada’s principal face to the world may only be understandable if we assume that everything Harper does is for a domestic audience. He simply doesn’t care what the world thinks. There has always been a kind of visceral disdain for things foreign amongst the population which makes up Harper’s core vote. Perhaps willful ignorance and a penchant for bar-room tough talk is exactly what qualifies Baird for his job.

* I wish I could say I’m surprised but I’m not- Peace, order and good government, eh?

CSIS may use intelligence derived from torture, Toews says. The federal government has directed Canada’s spy agency to use information that may have been extracted through torture in cases where public safety is at stake.

…Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has quietly told CSIS the government now expects the spy service to “make the protection of life and property its overriding priority.”

Quietly. No press conference on this one. I wonder why.

* Civil Libertarians When NecessaryOttawa Citizen

This week, the Conservative government introduced legislation which would create a vast system of warrantless Internet surveillance. Civil libertarians howled in protest. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told them they could either support the government’s plan or side “with the child pornographers.”

Many more people howled, including conservative newspaper columnists. A few Conservative MPs even dared to suggest that maybe the legislation wasn’t entirely perfect and righteous in every way.

By the end of the week, Toews suggested that perhaps it might be possible to modestly amend the bill in unspecified ways — without aiding and abetting child pornographers. As farce, this was amusing. As governance, it was appalling. But as an illustration of the thinking of the prime minister and his circle, it was invaluable.

2. Understanding Reactions to Syria

Feb-10-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: The key to understanding why Russia and China opposed NATO UN action in Syria is looking at what happened to Libya and Iraq, both stable countries reduced to chaos in the name of oil profits granting democracy. We start with this week’s Guardian looking at the horror of what’s currently going on in Libya, then follow up with a focus on both Russia and China.

* Libyan Militias Accused Of Torture The Guardian

Three months after the killing of Muammar Gaddafi, concerns are mounting about the mistreatment and torture of prisoners held by Libyan militiamen who are operating beyond the control of the country’s transitional government, as well as by officially recognised security bodies. Amnesty International warned that prisoners from Libya and other African countries have been subject to abuse. The warning comes against a background of anxiety in western capitals about Tripoli’s failure to tackle security and political issues….

The aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières has added its voice to the chorus of concern by announcing that it had halted work in the coastal city of Misrata because staff were being asked to patch up detainees during torture sessions. “Patients were brought to us in the middle of interrogation for medical care, in order to make them fit for more interrogation,” said MSF’s Christopher Stokes. “This is unacceptable. Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions.”

* Cynicism Around Syria Vijay Prashad Counterpunch (Thanks Judith)

Rehearsed statements filled the stale air of the UN Security Council on the last day of January. The Arab League’s Nabil el-Araby pleaded with the Council to adopt a draft resolution on Syria furnished by the Moroccan delegation to the UN. The Moroccan resolution is based on a report by the Arab League’s human rights mission to Syria. This draft called for an immediate cessation of violence in Syria and a national dialogue. “We are attempting to avoid any foreign intervention,” el-Araby told the Council, “especially military intervention.” …

The Qataris are eager to install their allies in the Muslim Brotherhood to authority in the region. They have funded the Brotherhood lavishly from Tunisia to Egypt. They would like to move their influence into the Mashriq, bringing their influence to bear against their principle enemy: Iran. …

The Arab League’s el-Araby need not have been worried about the Security Council sanctioning intervention. This is not on the cards. The Russians, burned by the example of UNSC resolution 1973 for Libya, are unwilling to allow any open-ended statement from the Council. They seem to have come to terms with the reality that any Council authorization for intervention by anyone means military action by NATO. No other power has the military capability to act with the kind of force demonstrated by NATO. …

*Chinese Envoy: Veto aimed at Protecting Syria from Civil WarJuan Cole Informed Comment

Special envoy on Middle Eastern affairs Wu Sike explains that China feared the resolution would push Syria into a full-fledged civil war. He said he also wanted to avoid another Iraq or Libya fiasco. This is the first time I’ve seen either Russia or China give the Bush administration’s invasion and occupation of Iraq as a reason for their opposition to further Western intervention in the Middle East. The chickens are coming home to roost. Bush and Cheney thought that they were nailing down another American century, but they may have been hastening the demise of that whole notion.

3. Islam, and Muslims

Feb-10-2012 | Comments (2)

Bird’s Eye: Yes, this is a somewhat mixed set of posts. General statements about a billion people can be. We start with a surprisingly insightful piece from Cracked magazine, looking at misperceptions. Then we look at Islamophobia in Canada, as an example of the absurd demonization Harper is promulgating. Then an interesting pair: Rushdie is blocked from reading in India, as a result of The Satanic Verses imbroglio. Malik’s article quotes the Bradford Council of Mosques’ Shabbir Akhtar who said, at the height of the Rushdie affair, that self-censorship “is a meaningful demand in a world of varied and passionately held convictions. What Rushdie publishes about Islam is not just his business. It is everyone’s – not least every Muslim’s – business.” Akhtar has changed… read his current views on questioning faith from the T.E.S.

* 5 Ridiculous Things You Probably Believe About Islam Cracked (Thanks, Kofi!)

#5. If You’re a Muslim Woman, You Have to Wear the Veil

So for instance, in France they have about 3 million Muslim women. French police decided to figure out how many of them wore burqas and/or niqabs and found the number to be … 367. Not 367,000, but 367, a number so small that from a statistical point of view, it’s barely enough to register as a margin of error. As for the rest of Europe, the numbers are even more disastrous for the burqa business (for instance, Belgium has 500,000 Muslims, a couple dozen wear the burqa).

Yes, there are Middle Eastern countries where the veils are required by law (namely Iran and Saudi Arabia) and combined those countries have less than 5 percent of the world’s Muslims. There are actually more Muslim countries that outright ban the wearing of the veils than there are that require them

* Pep Talk Led To Terrorism SuspicionsCBC News

A Muslim man alleges he’s become a terror suspect simply because of a workplace quip – he says all he did was tell his sales staff to “blow away” the competition at a trade show. Now Saad Allami is seeking $100,000 from the Quebec provincial police force, one of its sergeants and the provincial Justice Department.

Allami says in a Quebec Superior Court filing that he was arrested in January 2011 and accused of being a terrorist because of a pep talk he gave fellow employees. Allami was a sales manager for a telecommunications firm when he sent out a text message to staff urging them to “blow away” the competition at a New York City convention.

* To Name The Unnameable Kenan Malik.

Salman Rushdie had to back out of attending the 2012 Jaipur Literature Festival because of an assassination threat against him. The lack of support for Rushdie shows that the defence of free speech is no longer seen as an irrevocable duty, writes Kenan Malik.

…Rushdie was due to have attended the festival – which is quickly becoming one of the most important global literary events – to give a talk on Midnight’s Children, the film of which is released later this year, and to take part in a discussion on the history of English in India. Rushdie has visited India many times over the past decade and has attended the festival before. This time Muslim activists issued threats. Instead of standing up the bullies, both local and state governments caved in, both exerting pressure on the festival organizers to keep Rushdie away. “I am sure the organizers will respect the sentiments of the local people”, said Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of Rajasthan, whose capital is Jaipur.

In the end Rushdie cancelled his trip having, he said, received information about a plot to assassinate him, a plot that now appears may have been invented by the Rajasthan police to “persuade” Rushdie not to come. In response, the novelist Hari Kunzru and the writer and poet Amitava Kumar, both speakers at the festival, publicly read passages from The Satanic Verses. Later, two other speakers, Jeet Thayil and Rushir Joshi, did so too. The novel is still banned in India, having been placed on a proscribed list in 1988 by the then-premier Rajiv Gandhi, who, facing a crucial election, crumbled under Islamist pressure. The festival organizers distanced themselves from what they called Kunzru and Kumar’s “unnecessary provocation”, and put pressure on other speakers not to follow suit.

* Ex-Defender Of The Faith Shabbir Akhtar Times Higher Education -

I lived in Malaysia for three years in the kind of uncertainty westerners face only in times of war. The five daily calls to prayer are the only predictable events in the capital city, Kuala Lumpur. The power cuts are frequent, the traffic jams continuous. Islam is the official religion, but materialism is the ruling creed.

Living in a state where Islam was empowered deepened and darkened my idealistic view of my faith and my people. Though born and raised partly in Pakistan, I had a second childhood in northern industrial England. Here I belonged to a powerless minority and a despised religion. Upon arrival at the International Islamic University, I joined the ruling Muslim majority. Before, when I was in the minority, it was easy to play the moral card.

New lecturers must meet the Saudi-Kurdish rector in his opulent rooms on campus. He invites us to settle down into the comfort and security of dogma. It is us against the world; and the world, especially the western hemisphere, is very wicked. Believers, he tells us, having nothing new to learn. Western-style free inquiry is aimless. Besides, what is the point of free inquiry if God has already revealed to us the whole truth?

4. Interesting Upcoming Elections

Feb-10-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: All these posts about the US elections! This week we look at some other interesting decisions: who’ll head the NDP? Will Scotland secede from the UK? Will France buck the bankers under a socialist government? And in an article that was just way too good not to pass on, Ian Welsh looks at 2012, and makes eleven observations.

* The NDP Leadership Debate in TorontoIan Welsh

I came. I saw. I listened. And what I listened to was a lot of what MP Nathan Cullen characterized as “violent agreement”. The packed crowd (people had to be turned away) listened to candidates who agree, violently, on what government should do. Grow the economy sustainably, help the downtrodden, ensure equality, and so on.

The disagreements, with one exception, were subtle. …Cullen proposed open primaries for all non Conservative parties with only the winning candidate running, so that there would be one candidate in each riding to oppose the Conservatives. The hissing was immediate. A heartbeat later, the clapping began. Because the NDP wants to be government, wants it bad.

…That aside, there was so much agreement that I began doing what I prefer not to do in American politics: I started considering electability.There were only three candidates on that stage, in my opinion, who had the raw charisma and polished speaking skills necessary to lead the NDP to victory. Thomas Mulcair, Nathan Cullen and Peggy Nash…..

* Independent Scottish parliament by May 2016 targeted The Guardian

Alex Salmond has laid down a road map to independence for Scotland, for the first time outlining the question voters will be asked in a referendum in 2014 on ending the 305-year-old union with England, and naming May 2016 as the target for elections to a post-United Kingdom parliament in Edinburgh.

In a Scottish government consultation paper, the first minister said the vote that will determine the future shape of the UK in the autumn of 2014 would ask a “clear and simple” question of Scotland’s four million voters: “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?” The document estimates that the referendum – which could herald the greatest constitutional crisis in modern British history – will cost about £10m to stage.

* If The Left Wins In France, A Critical Battle Of Ideologies Must Surely Follow Jonathan Fenby The Observer

Three decades after its greatest postwar political triumph, the French left is shaping up for an epic battle with the economic orthodoxy that has seen the eurozone – and Britain – pursue austerity as the answer to the financial crisis. With the polls pointing to his victory in the presidential election this spring, François Hollande, the Socialist candidate, has set up a major clash not only with his opponent, President Nicolas Sarkozy, but also with France’s increasingly dominant partner, Germany, and other European governments pledged to slash spending and walk the path of rigour.

The highly ambitious programme he unveiled on Thursday provides the first real response from the left to the policies Europe has pursued in reaction to the crisis which has engulfed it…. Hollande promised to boost state spending by €20bn by 2017, create 60,000 teaching posts and 150,000 subsidised jobs for young people. That is to be paid for by higher taxes for the wealthy, a tax on financial transactions and a 15% rise in taxes on bank profits, a ban on stock options and trading in “toxic” financial instruments, plus caps on bonuses. By the end of a five-year term in the Elysée presidential palace, Hollande says he could bring France’s budget deficit back on target as the economy booms and austerity is replaced by expansion.

*The Blindingly Obvious About Obama, 2013, Europe, Iran and so on Ian Welsh

2) Fracking is coming, bigtime, to somewhere near you. Full steam ahead in 2013. Bend over and kiss your groundwater goodbye. This is a bipartisan, transnational consensus.

5) There were coups in both Greece and Italy. Private interests now run those countries.

9) The 2012 election only matters in the margins. The question is flavors of disastrous president, there is no president on the menu who will not be a disaster, though obviously Gingrich would be an extra serving of disaster. For the left, the election is essentially irrelevant. If you’re focusing your effort on 2012 you’re wasting your time. Focus on 2016.

3. Living in Lockuptown

Jan-27-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Slavery is alive and well in Lockuptown, the city of prisoners in the US, and now the second largest American city. Adam Gopnik’s stunning article from this week’s New Yorker looks at the number and way that millions are imprisoned, and at the CCA, the Corrections Corporation of America, the company that makes money from them. This is an unforgettable article. We follow this with a close examination of how the CCA shapes the law to create more prisoners, and end with Jane Jacobs, who presciently highlighted the precise moral problem with this.

* The Caging of America Adam Gopnik The New Yorker

For a great many poor people in America, particularly poor black men, prison is a destination that braids through an ordinary life, much as high school and college do for rich white ones. More than half of all black men without a high-school diploma go to prison at some time in their lives. Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today—perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850. In truth, there are more black men in the grip of the criminal-justice system—in prison, on probation, or on parole—than were in slavery then. Over all, there are now more people under “correctional supervision” in America—more than six million—than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height. That city of the confined and the controlled, Lockuptown, is now the second largest in the United States.

…..No more chilling document exists in recent American life than the 2005 annual report of the biggest of these firms, the Corrections Corporation of America. Here the company (which spends millions lobbying legislators) is obliged to caution its investors about the risk that somehow, somewhere, someone might turn off the spigot of convicted men:

Our growth is generally dependent upon our ability to obtain new contracts to develop and manage new correctional and detention facilities. . . . The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.

Brecht could hardly have imagined such a document: a capitalist enterprise that feeds on the misery of man trying as hard as it can to be sure that nothing is done to decrease that misery.

* Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law NPR

Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal.

Glenn Nichols, the Benson city manager, remembers the pitch….What he was selling was a prison for women and children who were illegal immigrants. “They talk [about] how positive this was going to be for the community,” Nichols said, “the amount of money that we would realize from each prisoner on a daily rate…They talked like they didn’t have any doubt they could fill it.” That’s because prison companies like this one had a plan — a new business model to lock up illegal immigrants. And the plan became Arizona’s immigration law….The law could send hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to prison in a way never done before. And it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to private prison companies responsible for housing them.

* Jane Jacobs and the Problem of Monstrous Hybrids Forbes

Delegating a coercive government functions like operating a prison to a private company is dangerous because the prison company has divided loyalty. The people in charge of a prison ought to be completely devoted to serving the public and the rule of law. But a private company also has an obligation to generate profits for shareholders, which can lead them to cut corners in ways that damage the rights of others. In this case, the profit motive drove a prison company to lobby for laws that would swell the prison population, harming both immigrants and taxpayers.

Jacobs calls combinations of the two syndromes—and the institutions that operate on such hybrid moral systems—”monstrous hybrids.”

6. Enemies of the (Canadian) State

Jan-27-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Two examples of how the Canadian Government™ (a registered trade-mark of the Conservative Party of Canada) is demonizing anyone who opposes their policies. This is wrong on so many levels… but you wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t agree. There are two links through which you can share your views with the government on this policy.

* The Man Who Crushed the Keystone XL Pipeline Boston Globe

He certainly has impeccable timing. From “stop coal” protests to the Occupy encampments, something stirred in America late last year, and McKibben sensed it. “He has caught the wind of the environmental movement and will help the movement regain its footing,” says John Adams, cofounder of the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council and recipient of the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom. “He is soon to be known – if he isn’t already – as one of the top environmental leaders in the country.” Or, as Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune puts it: “He hasn’t quite broken through to the world of US Weekly and Teen Beat, but give him time. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few years from now my daughter has posters of Bill McKibben up on the wall.”

It might not even take that long. Four days after the Keystone protest, Barack Obama postponed a decision on the pipeline until 2013. McKibben promptly declared the pipeline dead, tweeting, “a done deal has come spectacularly undone!”..McKibben and his Keystone protests put a finger in this one particular dike, at least temporarily, and got an environmental cause on the Colbert Report. And that was just the beginning. America, it seems, is about to have a McKibben Moment.

* Why I’m Worried about my trip to Canada. Bill McKibbon 350.org

I’ve been visiting Canada all my life, but I’m a little worried about my upcoming trip.

In late March I’m supposed to come to Vancouver to give a couple of talks. But now I read that Joe Oliver, your country’s Minister of Natural Resources, is condemning “environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block” Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline from the oil sands of Alberta to the Pacific.

I think he’s talking about people like me.

So I’m pushing back a bit, and I need your help. Let’s tell Joe Oliver that preventing the combustion of the second-largest pool of carbon on the planet isn’t “radical” — it’s exactly the opposite. It’s rational. It’s responsible. And it’s just plain right.

Click here to sign the petition to Prime Minister Harper and Joe Oliver, and help show that Canadians everywhere are committed to stopping the oil sands.

* Prime Minister’s Office Tried to Silence Enbridge Gateway Pipeline Critic (Thanks Kyla)

The Prime Minister’s Office tried to cut funding of a registered intervenor in the Enbridge Pipeline Review, calling ForestEthics Canada an, “Enemy of the Government of Canada” and an, “Enemy of the People of Canada”, according to allegations detailed in a sworn affidavit, dated January 23, 2012.

Sworn by Andrew Frank, former Senior Communications Manager with ForestEthics Canada, and an instructor in the Environmental Protection Technology program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the affidavit cites three senior managers with Tides Canada and ForestEthics, as well as personal email correspondence.

“Today, I am taking the extraordinary step of risking my career, my reputation and my personal friendships, to act as a whistleblower and expose the undemocratic and potentially illegal pressure the Harper government has apparently applied to silence critics of the Enbridge Northern Gateway oil tanker/pipeline plan,” says Frank. “Canadian citizens will be shocked to learn that their own government is labelling critics of the Enbridge oil tanker/pipeline project, ‘Enemies of the Government of Canada’. When a government starts labelling its own citizens ‘enemies’, it has lost its moral authority to govern.”

* Are You An “Enemy Of The Government Of Canada”? Leadnow

This week, we learned that the Harper Government is using closed-door intimidation tactics against Canadian charities. They’re trying to silence groups that question our government’s plans to push the Enbridge western pipeline and supertankers project through overwhelming local opposition, and recklessly expand the tar sands at all costs.
According to the whistleblower, a former senior communications manager for ForestEthics named Andrew Frank, the Prime Minister’s Office told Tides Canada they consider ForestEthics to be an “enemy of the Government of Canada” because of the group’s opposition to the Enbridge pipeline and tar sands expansion

Click here to tell Prime Minister Harper to stop the threats and ensure fair hearings for Canadians,

4. Spot the Paranoids! The All-New Fun Game!

Jan-13-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Three world leaders make the paranoid claim that foreign radicals are trying to destabilize their countries. Two are lying; one is dead on. (“Even paranoids have real enemies.”) Further clues needed? Walkom exposes Canada’s real foreigner destroyers here (Hint: America’s Exxon Mobil, Britain’s BP, France’s Total E&P, China’s SinoCanada Petroleum Corp., Japan Canada Oil Sands Ltd,. and South Korean conglomerate Daewoo) and Richard (Tikun Olam) Silverstein shares a Mossad insider’s report here

* Oil Sands Pipeline Battle Turns Ugly Guardian (Thanks Gabe!)

Canada let loose an extraordinary rant against opponents of a controversial project to pump tar sands crude to Pacific Coast ports on Monday, accusing campaigners of colluding with foreign “radicals” and “jet-setting celebrities” to hijack the government.

The diatribe, which came as an open letter from the natural resources minister Joe Oliver, caused a furore in Canada.

It was seen as a sign of the conservative government’s frustration at growing opposition to its efforts to find global markets for its vast reserves of tar sands crude, a type of petroleum deposit found in large quantities in Canada….In his open letter, Oliver accused opponents of controversial pipeline projects of destroying Canada’s economy in pursuit of their “radical ideological agenda” by blocking the government’s efforts to find new markets for tar sands crude.

* Syria’s Assad Blames ‘Foreign Conspiracy’ BBC News

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has blamed a foreign conspiracy for trying to destabilise Syria. The “external conspiracy is clear to everybody”, he said in his first public remarks in months. Syria’s violent crackdown on 10 months of protests against his rule has drawn international condemnation.

* Iran Nuclear Scientist’s Death Followed Israeli Warning Of ‘Unnatural’ Events The Guardian

The assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan came less than 24 hours after Israel’s military chief warned that the Tehran regime could face “unnatural” events during the critical year ahead, fuelling speculation that the hand of the fabled Israeli intelligence service the Mossad was behind the latest attack.

Benny Gantz, the Israeli Defence Forces chief of staff, told a parliamentary committee: “For Iran, 2012 is a critical year in combining the continuation of its nuclearisation, internal changes in the Iranian leadership, continuing and growing pressure from the international community and things which take place in an unnatural manner.”…After the latest explosion, caused by magnetic bombs attached to the side of Roshan’s car by an assailant on a motorcycle, the Iranian regime was quick to blame Israel. “This terrorist act was carried out by agents of the Zionist regime, with the aim of stopping our scientists,” the vice-president, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, told state television.

Jan. 6th, 2012 :: Year 9, Issue 1

Jan-06-2012 | Comments (0)

1. 2011 Retrospective (text)

Bird’s Eye: Janus is the Roman God of beginnings and transitions, the God for whom January is named. He has two faces, one to look forward, one to look back. We start with looking back at some of the high/low lights of the year. The first story is about the Occupy movement, which gave so many of us hope. A huge mashup of lists follows – everything from best Jewish Twitters of the year to 9 funniest autocorrects – as well as books, films, TV shows, etc etc etc. We single out Canada’s environmental failure, aptly delineated by Maude Barlow, and end with Neil Gaiman’s good wishes, (formatted exceedingly badly, imho.)

* Compassion Is Our New Currency Rebecca Solnit Tom Dispatch (Thanks, Amy!)

Usually at year’s end, we’re supposed to look back at events just passed — and forward, in prediction mode, to the year to come. But just look around you! This moment is so extraordinary that it has hardly registered. People in thousands of communities across the United States and elsewhere are living in public, experimenting with direct democracy, calling things by their true names, and obliging the media and politicians to do the same.

The breadth of this movement is one thing, its depth another. It has rejected not just the particulars of our economic system, but the whole set of moral and emotional assumptions on which it’s based. Take the pair shown in a photograph from Occupy Austin in Texas. The amiable-looking elderly woman is holding a sign whose computer-printed words say, “Money has stolen our vote.” The older man next to her with the baseball cap is holding a sign handwritten on cardboard that states, “We are our brothers’ keeper.”

* The Best And Worst Of Everything In 2011: A Mega, Meta MashupAdam Penenberg

We hacked through dozens of year-end lists–and, yes, checked them twice–to bring you our curated best and worst of 2011. Here’s the mother of all roundups that you will find online, offline, and everywhere else. Each line is taken from those other year-end lists.

* The biggest story of 2011 for me? Canada’s failure on climate change Maude Barlow, Rabble

The biggest story of 2011 for me was the national and international attention given to the environmental dangers of Canada’s tar sands, and the failure of the Harper government to meet our obligations to combat climate change. Until this year, most criticism of Canada’s climate policy was restricted to Canadian and some international environmentalists. But three events of 2011 caused Canada’s energy and climate policies to come under intense scrutiny here in Canada and around the world.

* Neil Gaiman’s New Year Wishes

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

RSS Feed