Even-handed coverage of tragedies

An interesting discussion of religious stereotyping going on over at Crossroads Arabia, in reference to the Dawson College shooting. (Yes, I'm involved. What did you think?)

Technorati tags: Kimveer Gill, Dawson College

When Pakistani eyes are smiling

Bush is too easily impressed with his ability to read other men's souls...

Appearing with Bush at an East Room news conference after their session, Musharraf said he assured the U.S. president that the pact was intended to rein in extremist violence. "There will be no al-Qaeda activity in our tribal [area] or across the border in Afghanistan," Musharraf said. "There will be no Taliban activity. . . . There will be no Talibanization."

Bush said he was satisfied with those assurances. "When the president looks me in the eye and says the tribal deal is intended to reject the Talibanization of the people, and that there won't be a Taliban and won't be al-Qaeda, I believe him," he said.

Let's see. Wasn't the last time with Putin?

"I looked the man in the eye," Mr. Bush said of Putin after their meeting in Slovenia in June (2001), adding, "I was able to get a sense of his soul."

You'd think after that experience, he'd be a little more careful about looking foreign leaders in the eye.

Technorati tags: George Bush, Musharraf, Putin

The untold story of Iraq

Callimachus (I always wonder which Callimachus he named himself after) of Done With Mirrors has nothing but contempt for NYT reporter Dexter Filkins and his reports of grave danger in Iraq, but he expresses it much more effectively by letting Kat tell her story. Kat is 5 feet tall, 89 pounds and worked for two years for a contractor in Iraq without the elaborate security precautions Filkins talks about and lived to tell the tale with nary a hair-raising experience to show.

All in all, I'm really thankful that Dexter was able to share his experience with the rest of the press. It's difficult to live in a hardened bunker, not going out to do your job, and relying on others not too skillfully chosen to do your job for you. I can almost taste the fear as he describes it, and my first response is certainly to slap him and his co-hibernators on the back for their selfless display of courage, innovation, and integrity in doing their job.

I'm sure that Dexter will remember me and all of the other contractors and civilians who worked in Iraq slightly shorted of all the elaborate defence mechanisms dedicated to those in his profession. I'm sure he could appreciate the depth to which one of my rather small size five appendages could install itself within his and his cohort's posterior sections. It would be pleasurable to me at any time to let him accompany myself on one of our less important or threatening rides to a place of little or no interest to anyone but ourselves. Thank goodness for the New York Times.

Kat had appeared before at Done With Mirrors to talk about her work in Iraq. Must reads if you want a different perspective on what is really going on over there.

Big day in Ottawa

It was a busy day in the nation's capital.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai addressed a joint session of Parliament, thanking Canada for its military presence in Afghanistan and specifically thanking the families of fallen soldiers. In response to a reporter's question, he also made it clear that Canadians were welcome to stay even beyond their present mandate. (This in stark contrast to the highly deceptive spin put on some of his remarks taken out of context on the NDP website.) In his speech to Parliament, he presented in concrete terms the progress that has been made in Afghanistan. And, without naming names, he ascribed his country's problems to abandonment by the international community after the Soviet withdrawal.

He later laid a wreath at the National War Monument, and reacted to a protester's curses by smiling and waving his hat. The man definitely has class.

I don't know if he stuck around to see it, but at noon there was a large rally (8-10,000 people, which is huge by Canadian standards) on Parliament Hill in support of Canadian troops. There have been conflicting polls in Canada lately on whether the majority of Canadians support the Afghan mission, but it is clear that the supporters are more willing to stand up and be counted in public. Prime Minister Harper addressed the enthusiastic crowd.

Technorati tags: Hamid Karzai, Stephen Harper

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Sept. 22

Steve Janke at Angry in the Great White North is on a bit of a roll today. He has caught the NDP in a flagrant misprepresentation of President Karzai's opinion of Canadian military operations in Afghanistan, which they have ironically titled Reality Check. This one is downright slimy.

The Anchoress assesses the Day of Rage that ended with more of a whimper than a bang and sees some cause for hope.

Steve Janke at Angry in the Great White North posts about a "scary native leader," and commenter Sandra informs him that Chief Louie is not at all uncommon in British Columbia.

John Burgess at Crossroads Arabia links to one of the thoughtful Muslim responses to Pope Benedict's recent lecture in Regensburg. Amir Taheri first takes issue with the violent reactions to the speech and then takes issue with the speech itself, debating its points in an academic manner.

Reader_iam at Done With Mirrors highlights the case of a Bangladeshi journalist, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who may soon pay with his life for his calls for tolerance and understanding between different faiths, most notably with Jews. She is particularly incensed that no one in the West seems to be picking up his cause.

Technorati tags: Pope Benedict, Choudhury, NDP

Truly frightening

I am depressed. And this is why.

The McCain-Graham-Warner proposal concerning military commissions was, from the beginning, an awful bill that was quite radical in its own right. As but one example, the senators' proposal strips all detainees in American custody of the right of habeas corpus, meaning that detainees are denied the right to challenge in court either the validity of their detention (e.g., by proving that they are not terrorists) or the legality of their treatment (e.g., by demonstrating that they have been tortured).

This denial-of-judicial-access provision means, as Yale law professor Jack Balkin explained, that the military can imprison, and torture, a detainee forever without ever bringing the detainee before a military commission, and the detainee has no means at all to challenge his detention or the treatment to which he is subjected. It is difficult to imagine a more radical power to vest in our government than the power to detain people (including legal residents in the U.S.) forever, and to torture them, while expressly denying a detainee all legal recourse. Yet that is exactly what the McCain-Graham-Warner proposal (and the White House's proposal) provides.

I would desperately love to hear that this is a serious distortion of the facts, that fundamental principles of justice have not been violated, and that the United States has not just taken the first great step towards becoming a police state.

Being something of a neophyte in American politics, I don't know if Glenn Greenwald is considered a loony lefty. I'm not sure it matters; I've never been overly impressed with ad hominem arguments and the mistaken impression that affixing a label trumps an argument. What I want to know from supporters of this bill is this: is this depiction accurate? Is it truly possible for an innocent to be trapped with no recourse? And if so, how can you support it? If not, please demonstrate. I would love to know that this is not actually reality. Because this kind of reality is truly frightening.

[Update] The Washington Post is also not impressed.

The bad news is that Mr. Bush, as he made clear yesterday, intends to continue using the CIA to secretly detain and abuse certain terrorist suspects. He will do so by issuing his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in an executive order and by relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation. Under the compromise agreed to yesterday, Congress would recognize his authority to take these steps and prevent prisoners from appealing them to U.S. courts. The bill would also immunize CIA personnel from prosecution for all but the most serious abuses and protect those who in the past violated U.S. law against war crimes.

[[Update]] Do read the comment thread. There's a good, constructive discussion going on.

Technorati tags: Detainee Bill

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Sept. 21

Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters tells of a Swiss organization that wants to expand access to assisted suicide (permissible in Switzerland for the terminally ill), arguing it should be made available to the chronically depressed. They say that "we should see in principle suicide as a marvellous possibility given to human beings because they have a conscience." It's a horrifying example of the slippery slope at work.

Harper gives speech to Economic Club

Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave a speech before the Economic Club of New York last night, and it looks like he hit a lot of right notes, both with Canadians and with his audience, who applauded him roundly.

Some highlights:

• He drew attention to the fact that Canada is the only stable and growing producer of oil, and the importance of this for continental security has been under-appreciated.
• He reminded his audience of the great efforts Canada has made in fighting terrorism since 9/11.
• Concerning border issues: "'Our border must not be seen as a fence where one country's national security stops and the other's begins. It's not like that in the real world,' he said in a prepared remarks released before the speech."
• He appealed to the prominent businessmen he was addressing to help improve poorly thought out and poorly implemented border security measures. "'And you in the American business community, who know what border disruptions could mean for business and tourist travel or for closely integrated supply chains, will be crucial in ensuring that (the measures) are implemented only in a pragmatic manner and on a realistic timetable.'''
• Canada is in Afghanistan for the right reasons and will remain until the mission is accomplished.
• On Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic: "We will defend our sovereignty over all our territory — including over the islands, waterways and resources of the High Arctic — even if that conflicts with American claims."
• Canada will continue to pay down its debt and cut taxes.
  

It is refreshing to see a Canadian prime minister address differences with the US without belligerence, and without giving these differences undue weight.

Technorati tags: Stephen Harper, Economic Club

Leahy calls border fence bone-headed

An American Senator with more than passing knowledge of Canadian/American relations has no patience for the idea of a fence along the Americans' northern border.

Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said the proposed wall would alienate one of America's staunchest allies and potentially cripple trade between the two nations.

"Have we gone blind? It is clear that those who want to build this have no clue about the character, the history and the day-to-day commercial importance of the northern border and the needs of the states and the communities being affected," said Leahy. "It would be best to nip this foolishness in the bud before Congress wastes more tax dollars on another boneheaded stunt. America can do better than this."

I do have to say, I agree with the Senator. Canada and the US have a relationship that is unprecedented in world history, on both cultural and economic levels. The proposal for a northern fence is poorly conceived, poorly researched, and displays a dismaying lack of knowledge both of the degree of the supposed danger and the very real damage that it would create.

Leahy, though, said a fence would do more to disrupt trade than protect the U.S. from harm.

"Heavens to Betsy. Most of us who live up there go back and forth all the time. We are visiting our relatives," said Leahy, who said his wife's family lives in Canada. "You know, these are not terrorists. I have heard some cockamamie ideas during my time in the Senate, but this rises to the top."

Technorati tags: Border fence, Patrick Leahy

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Sept. 20

Steve Janke at Angry in the Great White North is advancing the argument that tolerance is not a good thing. He says it is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself, and then ties the whole thing in to the current kerfuffle over the Pope's comments. A thought-provoking read.


Jared at Total Depravity gives us a wonderful description of a movie theatre full of enraptured children. He reminds me of Greg Sullivan at Sippican Cottage for his ability to find the wonder and poetry of everyday life. Both are like balm to a hectic soul.


And Alan Stewart Carl at Maverick Views has concluded that there is no vital centre, nothing to pull the middle together between the right and the left. He's not saying that there can't be, just that there isn't. His distinction between centrists and moderates is interesting and even useful.

Technorati tags: Pope Benedict