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Tasers being used as substitute for talking, inquiry hears
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May 13, 4:36am
1 review
canada, taser-over-use
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=510319
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Ottawa finally questions a Shoot First Doctrine?
From the page:
"VANCOUVER -- The politician who first approved Tasers for use in B.C. in 'combative situations' says the weapon is now being used as a substitute for good old fashioned police work.
Former B.C. premier Ujjal Dosanjh told a Vancouver inquiry into the use of Tasers Monday that when he first approved the weapon for use in B.C. they were supposed to be used sparingly by police in "assaultive and combative situations, where a person is a danger to others."
But in recent years Taser use has shot up, he said.
"It is being used as a substitute for ordinary, old-fashioned policing or talking to people," he told inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood, a retired appeal court judge.
Huh? Keep in mind this defence vision has been years in the crafting and has gone through multiple drafts to make sure every comma was correctly placed. So now, it seems, what was listed by Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier as a top task for his replacement doesn't actually exist in written form beyond speaking notes. Very odd.
Perhaps the best explanation came from one retired military officer, who confided to me a few months ago that the real purpose of the strategy was to arm the Prime Minister with military plans for election campaign battle. "
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Tories pounce on Liberal carbon tax
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May 13, 4:34am
1 review
canada, political-pollution
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=510317
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An odd response.
When the British Columbia Liberal Government (a Conservative Government in all but name) announced its own Carbon Tax due to be implemented in July 08, the federal Tories just loved it.
Now it's a horrible idea?
From the page:
"TORONTO -- The Conservative government's pre-emptive strike on Liberal support for a carbon tax intensified Monday as Jim Flaherty, the Finance Minister, warned a business audience the proposal would be disastrous for the Canadian economy.
Liberals are still weeks away from a detailed announcement of their plans, but Conservatives are already on an aggressive campaign to brand the measure -- rumoured to be a central plank of Liberal leader Stephane Dion's election platform -- as a giant tax grab.
"They are considering a massive tax on gasoline and other fuels at a time of rising gas prices," Mr. Flaherty said. "Their idea of economic stimulus seems to be to max out the national credit card [by borrowing] and reach further into the pockets of hardworking Canadians through taxes.""
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Election the real battlefront of Harpers military plan
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May 13, 4:26am
1 review
canada, wasting-money, political-pollution
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=510307
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A conservative press asks a Conservative PM - What part of this is Military Strategy?
From the page:
"With lines of soldiers standing tall in potted-plant formation as a camera-friendly backdrop, the Prime Minister announced Monday a 20-year glimpse into the Canadian military's future.
Only one thing was missing: the strategy itself.
There are 45 paragraphs of background rhetoric, all of it announcement regurgitation from earlier budgets, but the complete plan is apparently locked inside Prime Minister Stephen Harper's brain, albeit requiring the odd whispered correction from Defence Minister Peter MacKay.
"The strategy was enunciated today by the Prime Minister and the Minister," said a Defence spokesman responding to my request to read the actual plan. "So the strategy is what they unveiled.
Huh? Keep in mind this defence vision has been years in the crafting and has gone through multiple drafts to make sure every comma was correctly placed. So now, it seems, what was listed by Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier as a top task for his replacement doesn't actually exist in written form beyond speaking notes. Very odd.
Perhaps the best explanation came from one retired military officer, who confided to me a few months ago that the real purpose of the strategy was to arm the Prime Minister with military plans for election campaign battle. "
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UN urged to bypass Burmese junta
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May 13, 4:19am
1 review
asia, burma, political-pollution
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=510304
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When would it ever be better to intervene?
From the page:
"As the crisis in Burma grows, aid workers and politicians are calling on the United Nations to invoke a doctrine that would allow the delivery of aid without consent from the country's military regime.
If invoked by the UN Security Council, the principle of "responsibility to protect" would permit the international community to bypass the military junta and protect the hundreds of thousands of Burmese at risk of disease and starvation after Cyclone Nargis. An intervention could be as simple as air-dropping food or as confrontational as sending in troops.
Burma has allowed a few airplanes loaded with supplies to land in recent days, but is still refusing to admit hundreds of aid workers to deliver the goods, preferring to have the military distribute supplies.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, said Monday aid workers in Burma have been able to help only one-third of the people in need.
. . .
Eight years ago, Lloyd Axworthy, then Canada's foreign affairs minister, established the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) to explore the concept of responsibility to protect (known as R2P), partly as a response to the international community's failure to act during the Rwandan genocide.
The doctrine holds that when a country is unable or unwilling to protect its people, the onus is on other countries to step in.
The United Nations adopted the principle in 2005 to protect vulnerable populations against "genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity" in such a situation. Experts say the clause could also legally be applied to a natural disaster such the one in Burma.
"You clearly have a government that is impeding -- thwarting, in effect -- any comprehensive effort to protect its people, to save its people," Mr. Axworthy, now president of the University of Winnipeg, said Monday."
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A 3000-year-old Practice May Revolutionize the Future of Farming : Planetsave
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May 13, 4:09am
4 reviews
complex-systems, environment, green-farming
http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/04/11/a-3000-year-old-practice-may-revolution...
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Who says archeology is useless?
An idea that's so useful and inexpensive that it will have to be ridiculed as "archaic", patented to be profitable to mega-corporations, and the independent practice banned worldwide to protect fossil fuel fertilizer markets.
From the page:
"The next revolution in agriculture and greenhouse gas reduction may be a 3000-year old farming practice of adding biomass charcoal to the soil. The practice was re-discovered by archeologists who were studying a site in the central-Amazon basin. Some 1500 years earlier the indigenous tribes had enriched the soil using charcoal from animal bone and tree bark. The soil remains today some of the richest and most fertile soil yet found."
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Cancer inquiry judge challenges N.L. lawyers request to limit questions
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May 13, 3:44am
1 review
canada, jurisprudence
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=9f587b68-7afb-45b1-b...
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Mustn't learn too much by asking rude questions...
From the page:
"ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - A provincial government lawyer and the judge heading an inquiry into flawed breast cancer tests clashed Monday over the lawyer's request to limit some of the questioning of witnesses by inquiry lawyers.
Jackie Brazil told Commissioner Margaret Cameron she wanted to clarify whether the inquiry's counsel can cross-examine all witnesses."
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BBC NEWS | Health | Surgery beta blockers up risk
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May 13, 3:39am
3 reviews
medical-science, big-pharma
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7397697.stm
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More mixed blessings from Big Pharma.
From the page:
"The use of beta blocker drugs before surgery to cut the risk of heart problems may be counter-productive, a study suggests.
Researchers found patients given the drugs were a third more likely to die within a month of surgery than those given a dummy pill.
Those on the blood pressure-lowering drugs also had double the risk of having a stroke.
The study, by Canada's McMaster University, appears in The Lancet.
Although use of the drugs did reduce the risk of a heart attack following surgery, the researchers concluded that on balance they did more harm than good.
They estimate use of the drugs before surgery may have contributed to at least 800,000 deaths worldwide in the past decade. "
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Crooks and Liars & The Bush administration tries to block Mad Cow testing by Mea…
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May 13, 3:20am
1 review
health, political-pollution, bush-league
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/12/the-bush-administration-tries-to-blo...
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You-Can't-Ever-Be-That-Careful Department.
The dangers and downsides of safe meat: even if it's voluntary - testing costs money. What would people THINK!
From the page:
"The Bush administration on Friday urged a federal appeals court to stop meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has that authority. The government seeks to reverse a lower court ruling that allowed Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to conduct more comprehensive testing to satisfy demand from overseas customers in Japan and elsewhere.
But Creekstone attorney Russell Frye contended the Agriculture Department's regulations covering the treatment of domestic animals contain no prohibition against an individual company testing for mad cow disease, since the test is conducted only after a cow is slaughtered. He said the agency has no authority to prevent companies from using the test to reassure customers.
Larger meatpackers have opposed Creekstone's push to allow wider testing out of fear that consumer pressure would force them to begin testing all animals too. Increased testing would raise the price of meat by a few cents per pound."
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The World from Berlin: Bush Has Understood Nothing, Learned Nothing - Internatio…
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May 13, 2:52am
21 reviews
environment, political-pollution, bush-league
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,548288,00.html
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It's just his way of being helpful.
From the page:
"Bush's plan for global warming? Wait until 2025. Only then, he said in a Wednesday speech, should the US cap greenhouse gas emissions. Germany is not impressed.
When it comes to global warming, much of the world has been resigned for years to waiting out the end of the George W. Bush presidency. Under Bush, the White House has altered climate change reports, spiked global calls for action and maintained that it would simply be too harmful to the US economy to address the growing dangers of a warming climate.
With just months to go before Bush makes way for his successor, the US president on Wednesday once again confirmed that waiting for number 44 is the way to go. Bush called for the US to halt the growth of greenhouse gas emissions -- but only in 2025.
As the San Jose Mercury News wrote on Thursday: "Allowing emissions to rise for the next 17 years is not a plan; it's an abdication."
Europe, not surprisingly, tends to agree. German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel called Bush's presentation a "Neanderthal speech," and said it represented "losership, not leadership. European Commissioner of the Environment Stavros Dimas was also critical. "President Bush recognized the need for mandatory federal legislation to tackle climate change," he said. "But what he proposed will not contribute to the effective tackling of climate change.""
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Newsdesk Special: Burma: Junta claims aid is a &direct gift& from Gen Than Shwe …
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May 12, 5:06am
2 reviews
news, burma, political-pollution
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/burma,,junta-claims-aid-is-a-direct-gift-from-g...
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A new spin for "re-gifting."
From the page:
"Heavy rain added to the misery of hundreds of thousands of cyclone survivors in Burma's Irrawaddy delta as a storm front swept in from the Bay of Bengal today and drenched the devastated region, writes Edward Loxton for The First Post. Starving families sought shelter where they could find it, cowering in makeshift huts built of bits of salvaged timber, shreds of fabric, bamboo and banana leaves.
Meanwhile, in a callous propaganda exercise, the military regime was trying to hoodwink the Burmese into believing that food, water, medicines and other emergency supplies, sent by the outside world, was being donated by the junta leader. Aid supplies impounded at Rangoon airport were finally being sent on their way - but bearing stickers suggesting they are a direct gift from General Than Shwe, who has yet to offer any condolences to the cyclone victims.
A correspondent of the French news agency AFP said he drove through roadside crowds of survivors pleading for food and water. UN aid agencies and relief organisations say the death toll, already over 100,000, could top 1.5m as cholera, typhoid, malaria and dysentery spread through the stricken region. "This is a ticking time bomb," said Oxfam director Adrian Lovett. "It's a very, very dangerous situation." Oxfam's East Asia director Sarah Ireland, who gave the 1.5m estimate, described the situation as a "perfect storm of factors."
The regime's official death toll was raised to 28,458 at the weekend. "It's clear they're just grabbing numbers out of the air," said a UN official in Bangkok. "They have no idea of the true scale of the disaster. They're in a paranoid state of denial.""
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