Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Arianna Huffington on the Right and the Mainstream (US) Media
Update here: "Tim Russert Takes Offense, Bans Arianna Huffington From NBC News" - Crooks and Liars
Can the Canadian media be next? Are we susceptible as well?
Monday, April 28, 2008
"Candy" - Feb 1993 - April 28, 2008
This is sick. Bush military propoganda ILLEGALY 'fed' to news media by retired military personnel
Democracy in the US hits a new low. Many of those retired generals etc you see on TV were nothing more than a conduit for lies for the Bush administration. Not one of the US television networks would appear on this PBS program... I wonder why? Not one of the US networks is covering this at all.
This practice is illegal for G-ds sake. The US justice system is obviously a sham if they get away with this. The lies and deception by the White House and the Pentagon continue unfettered and unchallenged. This should make most Americans sick. Will this be allowed to continue? Sigh...
Thank goodness for PBS and the NYTimes.
Watch the backgrounder here...
Watch the interview here...
Full NYTimes Editorial Article HERE "Tarnished Brass"
(free registration may be required)
Friday, April 25, 2008
"Clinton too obsessed to call it quits" - Richard Gwyn
April 25, 2008 Richard Gwyn - Toronto Star
Assuming that at that point Barack Obama still holds his lead in elected delegates and in votes cast in the Democratic primaries, Clinton will then have to make up her mind whether to quit right away or to hang on until the August presidential nominating convention. Her one hope would be that a clear majority of the remaining uncommitted "superdelegates" comes off the fence onto her side.
Much more probably, these superdelegates, who range from former vice-president Al Gore to party officials barely known inside their own state, will decide that they should vote as ordinary party members have already done in all the primaries. At that moment, it will be all over for Clinton.
Or so all the political experts take for granted. Most probably, they are right. But they've overlooked one alternative possibility. One way does exist for Clinton to continue to run even after losing the Democratic nomination. She could run as an independent.
Not likely, of course. But not impossible.
This thought first occurred to me while watching a clip of Clinton being interviewed on TV the morning after her Pennsylvania victory.
She was, I realized, totally consumed and utterly obsessed by the contest she's now engaged in.
Political contests do of course send an addictive surge of adrenaline through almost all of those engaged in them. But fighting to become president has become Clinton's entire life, her very reason for existing.
A day later I came upon a blog by an American political commentator, Andrew Sullivan, that eloquently expressed my own thoughts.
Clinton can't win the Democratic nomination, he wrote, "But she won't leave. She will never leave."
Sullivan then gave an analysis of why Clinton won't leave, which went far beyond the standard commentary about her toughness, her determination, her take-no-prisoners style of campaigning.
"Ceding to someone younger is unthinkable to her. It would be a form of death to her," he wrote.
That's rough. But Sullivan has spotted something essential about Clinton. There's something quite out of the ordinary about the magnitude of Clinton's ego, about the scale of her sense of entitlement, about her conviction that the presidency is her birthright.
The chances that Clinton would run as an independent really are remote. She'd be turning her back on the party to which she and Bill have given their lives. Raising funds would be all but impossible.
All Clinton could hope to achieve would be to make certain that Obama lost and that Republican John McCain won.
Except that this is exactly what she's – mostly – now done. Her relentless, ruthless, "kitchen sink" attack on her rival has already significantly damaged Obama.
She has made him look too nicey-nice to be president. As damaging, she's made him look less like a new kind of politician. Any time Obama counterattacks, as he does occasionally and reluctantly, he sounds like an old-style politician, like Clinton herself.
Although Obama may figure out a way to be true to himself while dodging the rocks Clinton keeps hurling at him, she has already to a considerable degree achieved what running as an independent could do for her.
She has ensured that "someone younger," in Sullivan's insightful observation, will not become president in her place. The remote chance that she might still win the Democratic nomination has become an excuse for her to continue fighting – against the kind of hopeful young politician she once was.
As a politician, Clinton is decidedly conventional, except for her professionalism, her competence, her resilience, her ruthlessness.
But as a personality, she's the most interesting character in American public life in ages.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Why Hillary STILL can't win . . . No matter what . . .
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
Newly minted Millionaire Butcher gives away 40,000 pounds of chicken !
Toronto Star video
I dislike lotteries, but here is one of the good guys spreading his good fortune to others more needy. Way to go Jose!
Is this "The Smoking Gun" that finally nails Bush??
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Fascinating BBC report on the migration of Penguins
Fascinating look at Penguins and their newest ability never recorded until now.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7320000/newsid_7324100/7324112.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm&asb=1&news=1&bbcws=1
Note: Best seen in a larger format. When you get to player, click on "Launch in stand-alone player" and resize to larger.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
CBC-TV drops Royal Canadian Air Farce
Watch interview with Don Ferguson about the announcement HERE.
Watch last Friday's Air Farce News HERE.
CBC-TV drops 'Royal Canadian Air Farce' after more than 15 years on air
TORONTO - CBC-TV's long-running comedy show "Royal Canadian Air Farce" is reaching the end of the road after 15 years on the air.
The producers of "Air Farce" have informed the cast and crew that there will be a truncated, 10-episode farewell season starting in the fall. The final show of the sketch comedy series will air on New Year's Eve.
Don Ferguson, one of the stars of "Air Farce," speculated that the new regime of programming executives at the CBC likely felt the show had passed its prime, but said he was happy to move onto new things.
But he acknowledged others on the show, including Luba Goy, were upset that the show was ending its run.
The show debuted on CBC Radio in December 1973 and boasted more than 600 radio broadcasts over 24 years before making the leap to television in 1993. Its last radio broadcast was in 1997.
In 2007, it returned to a live format with "Air Farce Live."