News

It has been hard to not get overly emotional about what British Petroleum has done to the Gulf of Mexico and the marine life and animals that make up those fragile eco-systems. Something that I expected to be mitigated by an outcry for sanity and clean energy policies, and stricter observance to the regulations that already exist. My hopes have sadly gone unanswered.

There was supposed to be a post yesterday on the Canadian troops handing over Kandahar city to the US Forces. You have to wonder how the Afghans feel about it though.  Apparently it's all part of a major reorganization of NATO's forces in southern Afghanistan, due to the influx of thousands of fresh U.S. troops into Kandahar. After the worst month for NATO fatalities in the nine year history of the war, Lt.-Col. Craig Dalton of the Canadian Forces told a news conference in Orwellian speak that, "This rising tide of security will set the conditions for the Afghans to defeat the insurgency."

Good luck with that!

It's too facile to suggest that Iggy's summer publicity tour is make or break for him as a leader of the Liberal Party. It's not a stretch however to suggest that it will be his actions and the policies he chooses to fight for over the next 3 or 4 months that will decide his fate. He had many opportunities in the most recent session of Parliament to take a stand and see if the Canadian people would stand with him but he chose not to.

Have to admit when I saw the above expression used in a Globe article all I could see was the possibility of jokes - so many possibilities, so many bums! Especially in the Canadian Senate. Especially now that Stephen packed it chock full of conservative wankers... but I'm splitting hairs. A wanker's a wanker no matter how privileged or lazy or uncaring or conservative. Those seats by the way, did you know that senators are paid more than $130,000 a year to fill them? Sometimes that's just too much to ask of them though.

Some good news from the MSM - well, in reality the evidence was in a long time ago but you take good news where you get it - the New York Times acknowledges "climategate" was not a scandal after all.

In another bit of good environmental news, water and life are returning to Iraq's 'Garden of Eden.' Saddam Hussein's draining of the Mesopotamian marshes of Iraq – recorded as the Garden of Eden in the Bible - was one of the most infamous outrages of his regime, leaving a vast area of once-teeming river delta a dry, salt-encrusted desert, emptied of insects, birds and the people who lived on them.

Here's some of the things you could have missed if you were busy and had a life and a summer to get to: In the US the Republicans doing everything they can to screw the economy and the unemployed strangely hoping there will be no accountability for their actions and that it will in fact win them seats in November - maybe they hope they can just bury the Dems under an avalanche of corporate money.

News Read and Produced by Drew Pascoe.

Stories by Jonathan Moore, Alina Gotcherian, and Jose Espinoza. Good to have you back Jose.

In memory of Erica Fisher.

Read and produced by Nicholas Fiscina.

Stories written by Nicholas Fiscina and Gareth Sloan.

As I watched US policy take a drastic turn to the right during the administration of GWB jr. and Dick Cheney, I'll admit to being alarmed but not surprised. The Patriot act, unwarranted spying on Americans, "free speech zones," rendition, enhanced interrogation all seemed to be the wish fulfilment of a laundry list of items the right has always lobbied for. The Republicans have never been about increasing freedoms - other than 2nd amendment ones. So when Obama was inaugurated I thought all of this would be walked back and I was one of those who had no problems with the slow pace he was moving at figuring it would take considerable time to undo what Bush/Cheney had wrought.