Remembering Yazamy — badly
By Frank Moher
When it comes to Canadian deaths in Afghanistan, our media’s sentimentality knows no bounds. Each time a soldier dies, we are assured that the young person — for they are almost always young persons — loved animals, or to make people laugh, or, in the case of 22-year old Marc Diab, killed by [...]
More shoe throwing, please
By Frank Moher
Note the quid pro quo built into The Globe and Mail’s editorial on the subject of Muntadar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who showed off his footwear to President Bush. “Mr. Zaidi gained his privileged access to Mr. Bush on the strength of his accreditation as a journalist,” intones the Globe. ” . . [...]
May endorses strategic voting — or not
Poll from Nanos Research
The G&M; has Elizabeth May endorsing strategic voting for close-race ridings again today, mentioning both VoteforEnvironment and DemocraticSpace as sites to go to for advice/info.
VoteforEnvironment is still endorsing May in Central Nova against Peter MacKay, even though the Ekos, Decima and Nanos polls listed there all show her running a close third [...]
Mallick vs. Palin. Or is that Feylin?
By Frank Moher
It’s hard not to sympathize with the Yanks who are upset with Heather Mallick. The former Globe and Mailer, now writing for cbc.ca, is so resolutely humourless, even when she’s trying to be funny, and so intransigently snooty (she wears white pearls in her website photo, for cripe’s sake), that I too feel, [...]
Another Arar
By guest blogger Alison@Creekside
“The similarities with Mr. Arar’s case are compelling. In both instances, a Canadian citizen is fingered by CSIS as a terrorist suspect. In both cases, no charges are laid in Canada. In both, the person is arrested and imprisoned abroad. In both, Canadian officials say there is little that they can do [...]
Proportionately better
By guest blogger Alison@Creekside
Just exactly what is it about the above chart that’s so fucking difficult to understand?
The first line is the percentage of votes for each party.
The second line is the number of seats awarded them by our current First-Past-the-Post system.
The third line is how those votes would have been redistributed as seats under [...]
Facts, and other dispensable truths
By Frank Moher
So, this one should have been easy. At a star chamber-style military trial, the Pentagon releases the transcript of testimony by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, purported Al-Qaeda mastermind, in which he admits to a laundry list of atrocities and would-be atrocities. Not only was he responsible for the 9/11 attacks, it says, but also [...]