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Arsenal 2022-23 Third Jersey - Pink
Arsenal 2022-23 Third Jersey - Pink
Jersey Description
Jersey Description
You'll be pumped up to support your favorite team when you sport this Custom Jersey. This jersey features Dri-FIT technology that is sure to keep you dry and comfortable for all 90 minutes of the match. Its replica design and graphics will have you feeling like you're part of the squad when Custom take the pitch on matchday.
- Tagless collar for added comfort
- Ventilated mesh panel inserts
- Woven Authentic jock tag on left hem
- Sewn on embroidered team crest on left chest
- Embroidered Brand logo on right chest
- Fit: Replica Jerseys fit true to size.
- Material: 100% Polyester
- Dri-FIT ® technology wicks away moisture
- Machine wash, tumble dry low
Care Instructions
Care Instructions
How to Wash Your Soccer Jersey
1. Separate jersey and apparel by color
As a final note before washing your jersey, take care to separate them by color if possible.
Naturally, you'll want to keep white kits away from reds, purples and other dark colors – whether they be other jerseys or your everyday apparel. On the flip side, keep your darker jerseys grouped together in the wash. It may feel like this is an extra unnecessary step, but doing so will ensure your jersey enjoys extra longevity.
Another top tip before washing – turn your jersey inside out. No matter how you plan on washing it, this is a must. To make sure there are no tragedies with your jersey's applications, washing it inside out will avoid damage. And when it's done in the wash, turn it back right side out and give it a shake. This ensures your applications won't stick to other parts of the jersey.
Lastly, do not wash your kit with fabric softener, as it can be harmful to athletic wear, reducing breathability and trapping moisture.
2. Decide between a hand wash and a machine wash
Here, you have a choice to make. You can either…
• Machine wash on a cool temperature and delicate setting
- A safe choice for replica jerseys
• Hand wash with cold water
- The safest way to wash an authentic jersey
- The best way to ensure longevity and quality in your most important jerseys
Drying Your Soccer Jersey
If at all possible, it's best practice to avoid heat drying – especially high heat drying. If you wash your jersey in the washing machine, be sure not to leave it to dry in the machine. This can cause wrinkles and the patches/writing on your jersey can be ruined.
The safest way to dry a soccer jersey is with a hanging air dry.
Heat and agitation from tumble dryers can harm badges and applications. Speaking of harming badges and applications – you should never iron the applications on a jersey. That's a surefire way to scorch your kit and ruin an otherwise brilliant shirt. Can't have that.
Easy Returns
Easy Returns
If You Are Unsatisfied With Your Order We Will Refund Just Make Sure To Fill Out The Contact Form Or Click "Chat With Us" So We Can Get In Touch And Resovle The Issue


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I do love cookies – and you know that – and oatmeal cookies are really favorites of mine: besides being delicious there's a whole "I'm eating something healthy" vibe behind them. :D
These, from one of my latest cookbook acquisitions (a very good one, by the way), have a touch of spices (yum) and three kinds of dried fruit (yum, yum): the cinnamon, ginger and cloves turn them into an even tastier kind of oatmeal cookie and the addition of cranberries, apricots and raisins is a good way to use up the dried fruit left from the holidays.
On a different note: have you watched "Cosmopolis"? I've started watching it last night but gave up after 30 minutes of the movie: as much as I love Cronenberg (he's one of my favorite directors) watching Robert Pattinson act like a robot is oh, so tedious. Do you think I should go on and watch it till the end or should I spare one hour of my life and ignore it completely? :S
Cranberry apricot oatmeal cookies
slightly adapted from the beautiful The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook: Sweetness in Seattle
145g all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon table salt
130g rolled oats
125g unsalted butter, room temperature
150g light brown sugar
85g granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
85g diced dried apricots
45g golden raisins
45g dried cranberries
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt. Stir in the oats.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter, sugars and vanilla until light and creamy. Add the egg and mix to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. In low speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing just until incorporated. Mix in the apricots, raisins and cranberries.
Roll 2 leveled tablespoons of dough per cookie into a ball and place onto prepared sheets 5cm (2in) apart. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden around the edges. Cool in the sheets over a wire rack for 10 minutes, then carefully transfer to the rack to cool completely.
Makes about 2 dozen
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Cranberry apricot oatmeal cookies and a question
I do love cookies – and you know that – and oatmeal cookies are really favorites of mine: besides being delicious there's a whole "I'm eating something healthy" vibe behind them. :D
7 comments:
Sorry, not familiar with Cosmopolis, Cronenberg or Robert Pattinson. My advice is to ignore it and watch something that makes you laugh. Old BBC comedy shows are usually good for that. Cheers Handy Andy
- January 29, 2013
- Laura (Tutti Dolci) said...
Oatmeal cookies are my favorite too :).
- January 29, 2013
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Andy, thank you for your comment!
- January 31, 2013
- Laura said...
Just got this cookbook and it everything look scrumptious! So do these cookies!
- February 02, 2013
- Melissa@Julias Bookbag said...
i would avoid Cosmopolis, yo. Heard that one was terrible.
- February 08, 2013
Delicious cookies! Made these this afternoon. So good. A beautiful little cookie with the three dried fruits...just brilliant. Chewy, crispy, YUM! Only request I have - if possible to provide ingredients in American quantities...was a little tricky to have to switch to the gram converter to figure out quantities.
No matter - make these cookies without hesitation!
- February 11, 2013
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Hey, there - I'm glad to know you like the cookies! As far as measures go, the following link might be useful: http://tkmeasures.blogspot.com.br/
Tks for stopping by and letting me know how the recipe turned out.
- February 14, 2013

subset: commoncrawl


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Microsoft launches a channel partner program Monday to help drive sales of its Surface tablet to companies, schools, and other organizations.
The program is operational now in the U.S. with a small set of partners and will be expanded domestically and internationally in the coming months. It arrives amidst criticism that Surface—and Windows 8 tablets in general—haven't sold well since they hit the market late last year.
Microsoft already has a program for retailers who sell Surface primarily to consumers. That program is operational in about 10,000 stores in 30 countries. However, Microsoft has only a limited direct-sales program for reaching organizations that want to buy Surface tablets in bulk.
Microsoft said it's optimistic about the opportunities the new program could open up for Surface in private-sector companies, government agencies, and the educational market.
"This is the initial phase of the program and the logical next step for the expansion" of Surface distribution, said Cyril Belikoff, Surface marketing director at Microsoft.
Following a price cut Microsoft announced recently, channel partners will be able to offer the Surface RT to K-12 schools and to universities at a steep discount from its regular retail prices.
The initial authorized Surface partners include distributors Ingram Micro, Synnex and Tech Data, and resellers CDW, CompuCom, En Pointe, Softchoice and Zones.
Many Microsoft customers have existing relationships with these companies and the Surface program will add to the Microsoft products available for purchase, he said.
In addition to reselling Surface tablets, the partners will be able to offer services such as technical support, on-site assistance, recycling, data protection and asset tagging.
The program is also designed to cater to ISVs (independent software vendors), to encourage them to develop Windows 8 and Windows RT enterprise applications that boost the value of Surface and other Windows tablets in workplaces and schools.
The ISV part of the program is called AppsForSurface, and participants will receive Surface devices and funding. Citrix, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Airstrip have signed up.
The first Surface model that shipped ran Windows RT, the version of Windows 8 for ARM chips, so it can't use existing Windows 7 applications—only new applications built for the new OS and available from the Windows Store. It comes with a version of Office that isn't licensed for commercial use.
Windows RT also lacks many IT management features and doesn't support the Outlook email client, but Microsoft is addressing those two issues in the 8.1 update of the OS, which is now in previews and slated for general availability later this year. This should make Surface RT, which is priced at US$499.99 and started shipping in October, more attractive for workplace use.
Meanwhile, the Surface Pro, which runs Windows 8 and uses x86 chips, is more powerful and can run legacy Windows applications, but it starts at $899 and reviewers have faulted its limited battery life. It started shipping in February.
According to IDC, Microsoft shipped 900,000 Surface tablets in the first quarter of the year, giving it a 1.8 percent market share. Apple led the pack with 19.5 million iPad shipments, a market share of almost 40 percent, followed by Samsung with 18 percent share, Asus (5.5 percent) and Amazon.com (3.7 percent). IDC noted that Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets from other hardware manufacturers have struggled to gain traction as well—1.8 million Windows RT and Windows 8 tablets shipped in the first quarter.


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Thankful Bible Verse Scripture Wall Art
Regular price $19.99
- Scripture Bible Verse Wall Art, Bible Quotes Christian Wall Decor!
- Museum Quality Canvas Prints | HD Metal Prints by Smile Art Design!
- Hand-Crafted Custom Canvas Photo Prints by professionals.
- Our Photo Canvas and HD Metal Prints are %100 quality guaranteed and last 65+ years.
- Already stretched and Ready to Hang!
- Enjoy with fast and free shipping!


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Anita Esser is so happy about progress recorded in her bankbook, she doesn't mind if I take a look. She's especially proud of her 2003 numbers.
From January until June 2003, there's a big drop — 162 to 125. Unlike a saver, Esser welcomes losses. The Sultan woman tracks weight, not dollars.
Her record book isn't from any financial institution. It's a TOPS International Pound Bankbook.
Early Monday, Esser, 74, joined 10 others at Monroe's First Baptist Church for the weekly meeting of their Take Pounds Off Sensibly group. It's one of many local chapters of the TOPS Club, Inc., an international, nonprofit weight-loss support group.
Meetings include a weigh-in, some friendly competition, planning for challenges, food and exercise tips, and the gentle encouragement that keeps members coming back.
For lots of us, it takes courage to hop on the scales anytime. And, oh boy, it's the week after Christmas. At Monday's Monroe TOPS meeting, gains and losses were part of roll call, announced for all to hear.
Esser, who has graduated to KOPS (Keeping Off Pounds Sensibly) status, reported Monday that she is "still below goal." One intrepid member lost a pound during the holiday week. Another had "turtled," meaning her weight stayed the same. Several gained, one member more than 3 pounds.
To each who said their weight was up, the group responded with a rousing, "We're glad you're here." That may be the biggest secret to TOPS' success. Wherever members are on their weight-loss journeys, they are greeted with kind encouragement.
The group is a cheaper option than commercial programs, bringing members back year after year. "The good thing about TOPS, it's so affordable," said Donna Thomas, a co-leader of the Monroe group along with her husband. Mark Thomas, who led Monday's meeting, has lost 30 pounds.
Members pay $28 in dues per year and get a monthly magazine from the national organization. Monroe's Monday morning group also collects $3.50 monthly for its club. And weight gain comes at a price — $2 into a basket to be used as gift incentives for losers.
Esser, who is 5 feet 2 inches tall, said she put on weight after retiring in 2000 from the Boeing Co. She joined TOPS the first Monday in January 2003. By that June, she had lost almost 38 pounds. She has since dropped a few pounds under her 125-pound goal.
"I weigh myself every day, first thing in the morning, just to make sure I'm not creeping up," Esser said. "If it's up too much, OK, no cookies at all for me, and maybe no bread that day."
There is no TOPS diet plan. New members get a "My Day One" booklet with sample menus, nutritional information, a shopping list for healthful foods, and exercise tips.
"Each person follows their own plan," said Esser, who eats Cheerios for breakfast, walks outside and uses a treadmill.
While Esser shed her excess pounds in six months, others have stuck with it for years to reach goals.
Bertha Holeman, 77, joined a TOPS group 20 years ago when she moved from Seattle to the Machias area. "I needed to lose some weight and meet people," she said.
It took her 10 years to lose 50 pounds. Holeman has maintained that weight loss for another decade. "Some people do it in 10 months. Not me. Some years I stayed the same, some years I'd lose a few pounds," she said.
Holeman weighed 221 pounds when she started. "I went down to 170, and I've since lost another 5 pounds. I'd like to get down to 160. The doctors are very happy," she said.
Darlene Wascher, area captain for TOPS, said the group has 22 chapters in Snohomish and Island counties. "I've been in TOPS about 12 years," said Wascher, who lives in the Smokey Point area. For 11 of those years, she has had KOPS status.
"You just keep going. If you slip, you go back," Wascher said. A regular weigh-in means accountability, but Wascher said the encouragement helps most.
"We're a support group," said Wascher, 71, who lost 29 pounds. "If you slide back, nobody is going to yell at you. There's usually always someone who has done the same thing. If someone is having a hard time, people send cards and email. It's positive reinforcement."
Members talk about a lifetime commitment.
"It's not a program you go on," Wascher said. "This is not a magic pill."
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; firstname.lastname@example.com.
Learn more about TOPS
To find a TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) group or learn more, call Darlene Wascher at 360-658-1311 or go to www.tops.org/FindAMeeting.aspx.
Talk to us
- You can tell us about news and ask us about our journalism by emailing email@example.com or by calling 425-339-3428.
- If you have an opinion you wish to share for publication, send a letter to the editor to email@example.com or by regular mail to The Daily Herald, Letters, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.
- More contact information is here.


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San Diego: April 2009
What a week! The order goes something like this: LegoLand, the San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld, The Hotel Del Coronado, and Old Town. San Diego was an amazing city--one that we will have to return to someday, as there's just too much to do in one trip...Read More


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Comic book series : The Art of Todd McFarlane
Artist: Todd McFarlane
Writer: McFarlane, Todd
Publisher: Image Comics
The Devil's in the Details
artist: Todd McFarlane
Writer: McFarlane, Todd
series: The Art of Todd McFarlane
publisher: Image Comics
publish date: 01-11-2012
language: English
coloring: full color
pages: 400: Hard Cover
Showcasing TODD McFARLANE's unique art style, which burst onto the comic book scene in the late 1980s and forever changed the landscape of comic book art. Features art from original comic art boards; rare, never-before-seen sketches; as well as art from McFARLANE's work on Batman, Spider-Man and the Hulk (amongst many others), and his own top-selling creation, Spawn. Also features selected commentary by the artist himself. Large format hardcover book presents McFARLANE's detailed art style at a previously unpublished size! Limited edition of 5000 initial run.


text:
2019 Herbalife24 Triathlon – Andy's Story
Andy Bales
An ordinary person with extraordinary kindness.
Doing good no matter what.
Whenever there's an opportunity to encourage healthy, active lifestyles in the community, Herbalife Nutrition is there to help. For over 10 years, we've proudly supported Union Rescue Mission, a privately-run homeless shelter in downtown Los Angeles' Skid Row.
Founded in 1891, the Union Rescue Mission offers more than just meals and a place to sleep – they provide a variety programs to empower individuals to get well and make a comeback. And if anyone knows about making a comeback, it's Union Rescue Mission's CEO, Andy Bale.
It was routine that whenever the temperature went over 85 degrees, Andy would stand on a sidewalk in Skid Row and hand out bottles of water to anyone who needed it. During one of these exchanges, Andy believes he came in contact with the flesh-eating bacteria that would eventually take his leg in 2013.
But instead of being discouraged, Andy discovered a new sense of purpose from his amputation. Now that he's personally experienced the perils of Skid Row, he has a greater opportunity to connect with and help those still out there.
Andy's desire to uplift and encourage people is also what brings him to the starting line for the first annual Herbalife24 Triathlon Los Angeles. As a member of a relay team, Andy will be taking on the cycling portion of the race.
We are honored to help raise awareness about our friends at the Union Rescue Mission as they continue to battle homelessness in Los Angeles. During the event, be sure to visit the registration booth to learn how your donation can help someone in need.
Because, triathlons aren't just about competition – they're about ordinary people coming together to reach an extraordinary goal.


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Today, we are going to look at an often over-looked aspect of the software development lifecycle (SDL) known as the post project review. We will start by defining what, exactly, a post project review is and the move on to covering the elements of a good project review.
What is a Post Project Review?
One of the features of a project is that it has a definite start and a definite end. Sometimes the start and end may not be very clearly defined (!) but one can usually get a rough idea when a project started and when it is over. Something that does not have this sort of finite lifespan is not really a project. However, it is possible to break up any activity such as ongoing software maintenance and support into a series of clear projects – typically ending a project when a software release is put into production and starting a new project for the next release or upgrade.
A post project review is a very useful and powerful way of adding a continuous improvement mechanism. Most activities can be divided into a set of discrete projects as mentioned above. This continuous improvement mechanism helps make each succeeding project more successful (and frequently less stressful to all participants). Post project reviews typically involve the project team and major stakeholders meeting together and reviewing what went well and what went badly during the project. This input can help participants make the right decisions and plans so that the next project runs better. It can also help clear up misunderstandings and other issues.
Read: What is Project Management Software for Developers?
For example, on a post project review that I once conducted, the Quality Assurance (QA) team was upset as they felt requirements changes had been approved and made without their input during the project. Based on this feedback this was corrected in subsequent projects by ensuring that a representative from the QA team was always present when discussions on requirements needed to be done. This put them in the loop as well as gave them an opportunity to bring up potential impacts on the QA deadlines. It is important to ensure that all participants in the post project review understand that it is not a time for assigning blame or making personal attacks. The idea is to praise each other on jobs well done as well as find ways to do things even better. One must be careful that a post project review does not degenerate into a finger pointing exercise or shouting match.
What Makes A Good Post Project Review?
As mentioned previously a post project review's primary purpose is not to apportion blame but to identify areas for improvements and ways to improve them. Before you plan a post project review identify your primary goals and what you want to take away.
- Identify items that were done well: For example maybe time estimates were very good, developers and quality assurance teams worked well together and so on.
- Identify items that could improve: Maybe system documentation was not ready on time; developers had disputes with analysts, etc Basically these are items that need some improvement that can be realistically achieved with some degree of effort.
- Identify items that are broken: These are quite serious and may require a complete rethinking on how they are done. Possibly some processes may need to be dropped or changed. Maybe continually changing requirements requires the team to change to a more agile development methodology. Two people who get on each other's nerves may need to be reassigned so that they do not have to work together.
- Decide action plans: Get input & agreement on action plans to improve items that need improvement and ways to fix items that are broken. This will make it much easier to implement long-term changes as well as help build a strong sense of commitment and team spirit in the team.
Try to get as many of the stakeholders and team members together for the meeting. While it may seem like a recipe for chaos (!), if planned well it can be a great experience for all. Make sure everyone understands the action plan and goals. Stakeholders and team members are likely to be enthused if they see it as a chance to work on getting problems resolved. In my experience the first time these reviews are done are usually the hardest since people are not sure what is allowed and what is not. Some members may also take criticism badly. It may make sense to have an idea of potentially explosive issues and how to defuse them before going into the meeting. Meeting in private with the affected participants before the meeting to ensure ground rules are understood and get commitment that they will be followed can be very helpful.
A good technique that I have found to help identify major issues is to do something like voting. Each participant puts up items that can fall into one of the categories well done, some tweaking needed and needs to be fixed. This makes everyone feel that his or her opinions are being counted. Plus it can help provide a complete view of many problems. Frequently one will find a pattern in many issues. Offer praise on items that people feel are well done. The issues mentioned most frequently are the ones that need attention. At this point it can help to have people provide ideas on how to improve items that need improvement and how to fix items that are broken. You may even have an informal vote on which ideas seem the best.
Once the meeting is over, collect all the information and record it down. Make sure to detail what is going well, what needs improvement and what needs to be fixed. Identify the techniques everyone agreed would work on making the improvement and fixing the problems. It is a good idea to present this to senior management especially if some fixes need approval or resources. These reports provide them a way to review the team and will build their confidence that the team is trying to attack and fix problems on it's own. It is much better to find ways to fix problems yourself rather than have senior management getting involved in finding the fixes. People typically resent executive orders but will willingly work on changes they themselves proposed.
Read: Best Project Management Tools for Developers.
Post project reviews are a valuable way for teams to improve their performance and skills. They offer a mechanism to help fuel continuous improvement as well as improve team morale. It is important to get as many stakeholders as possible in the review since it is helps to review all parts of the project as well as provides a mechanism to clear up misunderstandings and other issues. Good planning and post meeting follow-up is crucial to make these reviews a success.
|Author Information:
Sanjay Murthi is President of SMGlobal Inc. He has over fourteen years of experience in the software industry in a variety of roles and responsibilities. He now helps companies to review and improve their software definition, development and delivery process. He can be contacted at email@example.com.


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Sunday, January 31, 2010
Who is deleting Facebook groups
...critical of the BC government?
What's next--Google?
[H/t A Creative Revolution]
UPDATE: Hmm. Connected? A non-political Facebook glitch?
[H/t SUZANNE in the comments]
UPPERDATE: And "No BC HST" is back--without explanation.
News at eleven
But there is also a question of style and formula to which we should pay more attention. If we were to do so, however, we would have some difficulty topping this:
[H/t CC]
Saturday, January 30, 2010
SCC Khadr decision: reprise
The preponderance of the views expressed departed sharply from my own. Regular commenters Marky Mark (a practising lawyer), Jimmy Durante, Mike Brock and Jay Currie believe that the decision was well-reasoned and established the proper distance between judicial and executive powers. But I remain convinced that, if the Charter can't bind governments when its very purpose is to bind governments, then a knife has just been taken to it by the Supreme Court.
Brock's view is that the Charter does bind governments, but holds them back rather than urging them forward. In other words, it is preventative: it cannot impose positive obligations on a government to act. Yet surely the deliberate refusal to act is itself an act.
If the Court has indeed adopted this view, as I believe that it has, then the Globe & Mail's Kirk Makin has an overly optimistic read of its ruling. In his opinion, the Court was suggesting that it might step in if the government does nothing, as it shows every intention of doing, but I cannot find that anywhere in the judgment. Makin writes:
But the court showed that a legal fist lies beneath its velvet glove. If the abuse of Mr. Khadr's rights is proven to be continuing, it warned that, "courts are empowered to make orders ensuring that the government's foreign affairs prerogative is exercised in accordance with the constitution."
That is at paragraph 37 of the judgment. But more context is needed:
It follows that in the case of refusal by a government to abide by constitutional constraints, courts are empowered to make orders ensuring that the government's foreign affairs prerogative is exercised in accordance with the constitution: United States v. Burns, 2001 SCC 7, [2001] 1 S.C.R. 283.
Should the notion that the Charter is an anchor, not a propeller, be accurate, then we need to see that paragraph, and the decision as a whole, as a statement of what the Court considers its power to be: reining in the government if it steps beyond its constitutional restraints, but not actually forcing the government to undertake positive measures to guarantee the rights and freedoms of Canadian citizens.
My citation of Doucet-Boudreau cut no ice. In that instance, the province of Nova Scotia was ordered to provide French-language services to its francophone minority, and the courts remained seized of the matter until the necessary measures were taken. Brock points out that there is a specific obligation in the Charter (Article 23) to provide those services, but nothing that requires the government to undertake positive measures to protect Canadian citizens abroad.
But, pace Brock and the other commenters, section 24 of the Charter needs to be applied in this context:
24. (1) Anyone whose rights or freedoms, as guaranteed by this Charter, have been infringed or denied may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction to obtain such remedy as the court considers appropriate and just in the circumstances.
(2) Where, in proceedings under subsection (1), a court concludes that evidence was obtained in a manner that infringed or denied any rights or freedoms guaranteed by this Charter, the evidence shall be excluded if it is established that, having regard to all the circumstances, the admission of it in the proceedings would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.
Is the government really not required to take positive measures to uphold Charter rights? Can it sit idly by and knowingly permit a citizen's rights to be infringed, refusing to act within its authority to protect that citizen? The Supreme Court of Canada says yes. But if that is the case, 24 (1) rings very hollow indeed: how does the victim of injustice obtain his remedy? How is he made whole?
The SCC unanimously found that Omar Khadr's rights under the Charter were not only breached when he was interrogated by CSIS and Foreign Affairs agents after being abused by his captors, but continue to be breached to this very day. Canadian conduct in this affair, said the justices, "did not conform to the principles of fundamental justice." The results of the poisoned interrogations may well be used against him once Khadr has his day in (kangaroo) court.
But the SCC offered only declarative relief, or, in plain English, a statement that, yes, Khadr's rights had indeed been grievously infringed, tsk, tsk. It declined to provide a remedy under 24 (1), as it is legally required to do.
This is nothing less than an assault on the Charter. Gar Pardy in today's Ottawa Citizen is correct: the SCC's decision was a political one. As he puts it:
The Supreme Court has spoken its last words on Omar Khadr. Regrettably it is a political decision and one that has little to do with justice, fundamental or temporal. Surprisingly all nine justices joined in the decision which gave pre-eminence to the government's absolute power over foreign affairs. There is no joy for Khadr whatsoever in this decision and equally important there is no joy for Canadians who encounter serious difficulty in foreign countries.
Pardy doesn't hold back, referring to the decision as "judicial gerrymandering." The rights of a citizen under Section 7--"life, liberty and security of the person"--is now, thanks to the Supreme Court, officially trumped by the arbitrary exercise of the Royal Prerogative by a government that has shown itself, again and again, to be hostile, or at least selective, when it comes to human rights. (We "democratic deficit" types had better add the abolition of that smelly feudal holdover to the list of long-overdue reforms to Canadian governance.)
The Court properly decided not to attempt to fashion a specific remedy itself. What the justices should have done, however, is to have given the government time to construct its own remedy that would uphold the Charter rights of Citizen Khadr. Instead, the Court simply bowed out. Khadr's rights were infringed: too bad, so sad.
Stephen Harper, fresh from telling Parliament to take a hike when the latter demanded the production of documents, and then literally sending them on that hike shortly afterward, has now been legally held to be above the law in its exercise of the Royal Prerogative, which, inter alia, vests in the Prime Minister and his government the power to sign treaties, declare war--and issue passports. Somewhere in the Montreal area, Abousfian Abdelrazik must be thanking his God that the government didn't appeal his case to this Supreme Court.
Canadian democracy, always a ramshackle old schooner, has just taken another direct hit at the waterline. And the citizens, whose only constitutional power lies in our rusticated elected representatives, can't do a damned thing about it--at least for the moment.
[H/t Michael DiCola]
Friday, January 29, 2010
Blazing cat fur
The squalling of Barbara Kay at Five Feet of Fury to which I responded yesterday was soon followed up with a ripe email to me, quickly channeled by Mr. Kathy Shaidle, while Katty Kathy came over to mew at my place (the new system doesn't provide comment permalinks, so happy hunting). I feel like some sort of nexus--or, under the circumstances, "catalyst" might be a better word.
Misspelling my name throughout, Kay hisses and spits at Antonia Zerbisias, then earnestly assures me at some length that she (Barbara, that is) is much funnier than I am, and that her laboured commentary at FFF was intended to be--wait for it--"ironic."
Unaccountably, Mr. Shaidle edited out this protestation: "I am not without a sense of humour, as you imply. I am actually so funny that I have been asked TWICE to be part of the Leacock Debate at Hart House, one of the very few in its ten-year history to have that honour. Look it up -- it's about being humorous." Kamarad! Kay then nuzzles Kathy and takes her leave.
Shaidle's own hate-on for Antonia can be traced as far back as 2004, but in February 2005 matters came to a head. This was some time before I had taken up the invidious practice of blogging myself, as the semi-legitimate form of self-indulgence that it is.
It seems that a bash for right-wing bloggers was held in Toronto in February of that year. And Antonia
Thanks to the Wayback Machine, we have some wonderfully bitchy comments from Kevin Michael Grace in response, who, with acerbic smoking-jacketed aplomb, makes short work of not one but two of my least-favourite felines. Here's a taste:
A typically illiterate communiqué was issued from the Saskabush bunker occupied by Kate "Why Oh Why Doesn't The MSM Report The Good News From Iraq?" McMillan:
Not just one, but two shiny brass rings went swinging slowly by....plump, juicy low-hanging fruit...and they turned the bitch loose…
Er, is there a Mr McMillan?He then turns his baleful attention to Shaidle:
Above all, Shaidle wants it to be known she is a woman of import. She clings to her amour propre as a savage clings to his talisman (or a Shaidle to her stodge).
In the words of the immortal Charles Pooter,
I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never heard of, and I fail to see—because I do not happen to be a "Somebody"—why my diary should not be interesting. My only regret is that I did not commence it when I was a youth.
My only regret is that I did not realize sooner that Kathy Shaidle is our own Ms Pooter. A furious "Nobody," to be sure, but all the funnier for that. She is the troll under the blog whose snarls serve to remind us how blessed we are in comparison. She is a national treasure.OK, I 'll admit what my mother always insisted was the case: men can be catty, too. In his case, delightfully so. And, it seems, timeless in his observations as well. Meow!
*Two commenters thus far recall that Antonia was actually invited. UPDATE: Yup. Z. has confirmed that she was invited by The Meatriarchy.
Government can ignore Charter violations--SCC
The Supreme Court of Canada has spoken, unanimously.
Full judgment here. Shorter SCC:
1) Omar Khadr's rights under the Charter were, and continue to be, violated.
2) The government cannot be legally obliged to do anything about it.
There are times when I wake up and wonder what country I'm living in.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Zerb, it seems, Tweeted some pretty graphic language about an NP editorial that perpetuated lies about KAIROS* and made unproven assertions about UNRWA, the UN agency that looks after Palestinian refugees. The Harper regime has cut funds to both aid organizations on the grounds that they are anti-Israel.
Here is what she said, and it's perfectly safe for work:
Fuck you National Post and the horseshit you rode in on. Shame on you for these lies. http://bit.ly/5Ruonc #KAIROS #UNRWA #cdnpoli
Almost needless to say, this had Barbara reaching for her smelling salts. Then, drawing a deep breath, she began a character assassination of the Zerb that reached far back (well, I'm a gentleman--it wasn't that far back) into Antonia's girlhood, to when she was in Grade Nine, if you can believe it:
When Toronto Star columnist Antonia Zerbesias [sic] was in Grade 9, she was suspended for lampooning a teacher in a cartoon, and sent home with an accompanying note calling her "rude, obstreperous and bold."
Apparently she so enjoyed the experience (or maybe, having been raised in the self-esteemy school of education she thought everything she heard about herself was a compliment), she decided to make "rude, obstreperous and bold" her default mode of communication.
Then the claws come out:
Certainly her writing skills (indifferent to lousy for an adult) and critical acumen are about what you'd expect from a Grade 9 student, but never mind: simplistic writing and thinking coupled with rudeness, obstreporousness [sic] and boldness are exactly what you need to build a career at the Toronto Star.
And then, a steaming dish of priggishness:
I must say that Antonia's action is one that fills me with astonishment. Disgust too, of course, but most of all astonishment. For, considering she is a "journalist" who, you know, works with, like, words in her work, "F*** you National Post" was not what you'd call a very professional way of expressing her disagreement with the Post's opinion.
One imagines Barbara glaring through her lorgnette. And she continues in this vein:
I mean, I too am a columnist, but somehow I have never felt any inclination to communicate my displeasure in the manner Antonia has chosen. When I don't like what the Toronto Star says, for example, I don't have any impulse to write "F*** you, Toronto Star" on my FaceBook page. No, what happens is that I find myself motivated to pick up the tools of my trade: you know, nouns, verbs, phrases, sentences, clauses, that sort of thing – and then I make paragraphs out of them, you see, and in the paragraphs is what we in the trade call a "theme" or an "idea" which, when backed up with evidence, then becomes known as a "rebuttal" to the offending opinion.
Yet she concludes her misspelled rant, in which she can't even get her target's name right, by calling Antonia an "idiot." And she doesn't have a 140-character limit to excuse her.
(How odd, think I, that this didn't appear in Kay's usual spot at the NP. Maybe for the same reason that the Zerb's Tweet didn't appear in the Star? Never mind.)
Antonia could dine out on this one. But I suspect that cat-fights aren't her thing.
[OK, I'm braced for Shaidle's inevitable "You sent all of twenty readers over to my place. I get two million hits when I'm linked by Dead Cat Fur, blah, blah." And for those of you who follow my occasional columns in the Post, don't look for this one over there. I suspect my comments will remain confined to quarters. :) ]
UPDATE: Antonia (in the comments) thinks this may not be on the up-and-up:
I am beginning to suspect that KS got scammed.
Kay may be many things but one thing she is not is a sloppy speller. She has written about me before and must surely know how to spell Zerbisias.
It is not Kay's writing style. In fact, it's more like mine. :)
I find her line about ''a reliable source'' on the editorial board rather suspect. I thought Kay was, for all intents and purposes, a member of said board.
Finally, the Post has never stopped anybody from pooping on me, either in the treeware edition or on Full Comment. So why use Shaidle as a vehicle?
Interestingly, Shaidle links to Mr. Shaidle's misogynist attack on me rather than to the original Tweet. Mr. Shaidle attempted, but failed, to gain any traction with his post about me.
I dunno. It sure stinks to me.
Over to you, Babs. If you really didn't write that piece I shall 1) retract promptly, with an apology; and 2) mock Shaidle mercilessly for the foreseeable future.
UPPERDATE: Alas, I'm cheated of my prize. Kay has confirmed with me by email that she is indeed the author of the column.
* "KAIROS [is] an 'ecumenical partnership' that had adopted a vehemently anti-Israel policy and been at the forefront of boycotts against the importation of Israeli goods and visits by Israeli professors.
"For too long, Ottawa has subsidized NGOs that claim to be after peace, but that in truth seek to demonize Israel."
KAIROS' comprehensive refutation of these well-circulated smears may be found here; it is hard to believe that the NP editorial team was not aware of it.
Canadian democracy...
For [Kelowna-Lake Country Conservative MP Ron Cannan], prorogation is an opportunity for the Conservative government to concentrate on the economy by implementing the next phase of its economic stimulus program and prepare a new budget.
If parliament was in session then the opposition parties could vote non-confidence and force an election before those tasks are complete.
"That's what we don't want," said Cannan. [emphasis added]
[H/t BCL, via CC]
Rights and Democracy: Aurel Braun gags staff
Paul Wells, writing of the mysterious burglary of the ICHRDD during the funeral of the late President Rémy Beauregard earlier this week, noted the new gag rule almost en passant. Good luck with that, Dr. Braun.
Incidentally, if by some chance any of those staff members happen to read my humble blog, they should feel free to send me their comments and updates by email, on a strictly no-attribution basis. No point letting Wells have all the fun.
UPDATE: More on the reign of Braun.
Ed Broadbent:
I do not recall, in my long public life, such an unwarranted assault on a senior public servant, none, and I don't recall a sequence of events where you had such a total undermining of a PMO appointee being treated so shabbily and dying in the middle of it.
Without drawing a direct parallel, I can think of only one incident, Herbert Norman, our envoy to Egypt, a friend of Lester B. Pearson, committing suicide [in 1957, after having been accused of being a Communist sympathizer].
That was the McCarthy era.
And to those of us watching the ballooning of the democratic deficit:
"This is another example of another independent agency having their independence either totally ignored or squashed or interfered with," Broadbent said.
"This is extraordinarily serious in terms of Canadian democracy."
[H/t Antonia in Bread and Roses]
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Never again.
And let the Holocaust be fully remembered. The Nazis attempted two genocides: of the Jews and of the Roma.
My friend Kateland, proudly Jewish and Roma both, put up a moving post this morning about the latter. It is not easy reading.
Grievous persecution of "Gypsies" still persists. The news has been full of reports of thugs in Eastern Europe making their lives a living hell.
To rub salt in a wound that will never heal--the Porraimós, the "devouring" that is the Romani word for "Holocaust"-- Canada is being represented at ceremonies in Auschwitz today by none other than Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.
Kenney recently slammed the door in the faces of Roma refugees trying to escape from the age-old ethnic persecution that continues to deform the cultural landscape of Europe to this day. On his desk sits a photograph of the Nazi collaborator and accomplice in genocide, Aloysius Stepinac, whom he considers one of his heroes.
It is hard to think of a more appallingly inappropriate choice of a Canadian representative at the ceremonies. I share Kateland's disgust, and I hope others do as well.
Never again.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Rideau Hall strikes a blow
Conrad Black, convict. Gave up his Canadian citizenship. Plundered a newspaper empire. Rich.
Keeps his Order of Canada.
Steve Fonyo, convict. Proud Canadian. Raised $13 million for charity. Poor.
Stripped of his medal.
Nice to see the Governor-General keeping the lower orders in their place. But to avoid future unpleasantness, why not just institute a property qualification for the OoC?
In which
[H/t LeDaro]
UPDATE: More from Mentarch.
For those interested in strange duets, here are best buds Maynard Keynes and Friedrich August von Hayek giving us a crash course in what I used to call "bourgeois economics." (These days, alas, it's just "economics.")
Ignatieff: democracy if necessary, but not necessarily democracy
We had no shape
Because he never took sides,
And no sides
Because he never allowed them to take shape.
He skilfully avoided what was wrong
Without saying what was right,
And never let his on the one hand
Know what his on the other hand was doing.
Always he led us back to where we were before.
He seemed to be in the centre
Because we had no centre,
No vision
To pierce the smoke-screen of his politics.
Let us raise up a temple
To the cult of mediocrity,
Do nothing by halves
Which can be done by quarters.
--F.R. Scott
Sound familiar?
Scott was writing about Liberal Prime Minister Mackenzie King, but were he alive today, I'm pretty sure the poet would see Michael Ignatieff as gamely carrying on that slippery, ambiguous Liberal tradition.
After the requisite few days of dithering, Ignatieff appears to be on-side with the NDP's position on prorogation, which was elegant in its simplicity: Parliament, as an assembly of the people's representatives, should decide as a body if and when it will rise.
But hold on, wait one. Ignatieff's position is nuanced:
To prevent future abuses of prorogation, the Liberal Party of Canada will seek to amend the Standing Orders of the House of Commons to:
• Require at least 10 days written notice from the Prime Minister of his intention to seek to prorogue, together with his specific reasons for doing so;
• Require the Prime Minister to bring the issue of prorogation before the House of Commons for a full debate;
• Prevent a request for prorogation within the first year after a Speech from the Throne, unless the House consents;
• Prevent a prorogation longer than one calendar month without the consent of the House;
• Prevent a request for prorogation if a matter of confidence has been scheduled in the House unless the House consents; and,
• Allow Parliamentary Committees to continue to function during the period when Parliament is prorogued until the start of the new session.
"Parliament should not prevent a Prime Minister from using prorogation in proper circumstances," said Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale. "But the Prime Minister must be held to account for why he is using it, and the rules must be clear on when shutting down Parliament would be wrong."
Instead of adopting the perfectly reasonable and principled position that Parliament should decide when Parliament sits, Ignatieff, no doubt thinking of himself occupying the PMO someday, is proposing as little as he dares. Goodale's statement should be taken very seriously: "proper circumstances" can mean just about anything.
What are the dangers of this equivocating approach to democracy? Well, here are a couple of easy examples. The Prime Minister may sign and ratify treaties, and even declare war, all by himself. (Cabinet approval, as we have seen under this government and indeed under previous Liberal administrations, is a virtual guarantee: the powerful PM, after all, can appoint and dis-appoint Cabinet members at will.)
Until prorogation, the Liberals were in full support of a government move to sign a free trade treaty with the genocidal Colombian regime of Álvaro Uribe. (I've posted rather angrily about this before.)
Imagine a hypothetical minority Parliament where the opposition were actually opposed to this sort of thing, and were threatening to make noise about it during Question Period. It's not unthinkable that a one-month-less-a-day prorogation could be called to silence Parliament, while Ignatieff went about signing a bloody treaty with Colombia to help out our mining companies. Parliamentary approval of treaties is not mandatory: it's simply a courtesy extended to Parliament by the government.
Nor is it inconceivable that Prime Minister Ignatieff could decide, all on his own, and without a sitting Parliament to ask impertinent questions, to declare war on some country or other, perhaps as a member of a fresh new "coalition of the willing" led by the US.
And one can imagine many other circumstances under which a four-week break from the Opposition could stand a PM in good stead.
There's another problem, too, and one of more immediate consequence. With the current groundswell of public concern about Canadian democracy, this is precisely the time when fundamental democratic reform as a whole should be up for review: the electoral system, the question of the Senate (elected or abolished), checks and balances to offset the entire range of the Prime Minister's considerable powers, and so on. Call it a democratic recalibration.
But the Liberal piecemeal approach will change very little about our cobbled-together, historical pastiche of a democracy, that odd and increasingly dysfunctional amalgam of elected representation and Royal Prerogative. This is, of course, exactly the way the Liberals want it. Just as Jean Chrétien, concentrating vast power in the Prime Minister's Office, paved the way for even more egregious abuses of power by the present Prime Minister, so too has Harper established precedents undreamed of even a decade ago.
Ignatieff's weak prorogation proposals will be a minor impediment indeed if he manages to leapfrog Stephen Harper to exercise for himself the ever-expanding powers of the Executive over an ever-more-weakened Parliament. His current shallow pro-democracy stance falls lamentably short of defending the fundamental notion of Parliamentary supremacy. And if we have learned anything from recent Canadian history, we know that's no accident.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Give those lug nuts another quarter turn.
The latest wrench is a new paper published early in January titled On the reliability of the U.S. Surface Temperature Record. If you are like me and have done any looking around skeptical sites, you are exposed to shot after shot of US weather stations that show poor siting factors followed by claims that the data is hopelessly corrupted. This paper has looked at the actual data involved, not just the photos of the stations.
The authors took the data from the poorly sited stations and compared it to the best sited stations and found very little difference (hat tip to John V who did this years ago). However the efforts of Mr. Watts and his team of volunteers has not been in vain. The paper does detect a small problem with the current temperature trend - the current trend is actually a little (very little) biased towards the cool. This means that the temperatures are actually increasing slightly more than thought.
If you are interested in the details, John Cook over at Skeptical Science has a nice analysis and I encourage you to visit. Now, this is obviously not the last word (there seldom is a last word in science), but what is interesting about this is that since the paper has been published, the responses should be published as well. Reading those will be interesting.
Rights and Democracy: dirty work at the crossroads
Haroon Siddiqui, writing in yesterday's Toronto Star, has been speaking to Board members who recently left in protest, as well as to four previous chairs of the Board. What emerges is an ugly picture of political partisanship, secretiveness and bully tactics.
[Aurel] Braun, a University of Toronto professor of political science, was named chair of the board early last year. It was not long before he clashed with [the late President Rémy] Beauregard, who it seems was not duly deferential.
Worse, Beauregard had approved the three Mideast grants of about $10,000 each – to B'Tselem, Israel's leading human rights group, and its partner agency in the West Bank, Al Haq, as well as Al Mezan in Gaza.
All have repeatedly criticized both Israeli and Palestinian human rights violations, including the Israeli war on Gaza last year.
Beauregard had also attended a 2008 Arab League meeting on freedom of association in Cairo.
Braun did not like any of that.
But Beauregard had already been given a highly favourable evaluation by the board in March.
Braun initiated a new evaluation. He did not show it to the majority of the board, nor to Beauregard, who got a copy of it anyway, by filing a Freedom of Information request.
On June 1, four directors complained to the Privy Council about the secrecy. On Sept. 8, one director suddenly resigned. Donica Pottie, a career diplomat who had served as ambassador to Cambodia, was said to have been eased out by the Prime Minister's Office because she had sided with Beauregard, not Braun.
Her departure left no Canadian woman on the board.
On Oct. 23, [Sima] Samar* and four others wrote to Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, saying the board was "dysfunctional." They wanted Braun replaced.--
In approving the three Middle East grants [terminated by Braun and his colleagues], Beauregard had the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs, according to both [Warren] Allmand and [Ed] Broadbent [former Board Chairs].
Said Broadbent: "After the war in Gaza, the two Palestinian and one Israeli group were checking if there had been human rights abuses. When Mr. Braun found out, I'm told, he went completely bonkers."
Braun could not be reached Saturday. But he told The Canadian Press the three groups were "toxic" and linked to "extremists" and terrorists. [emphases added]
He has over 20 years of experience in public life, including advocacy with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the Chamber of Commerce and serving as a municipal Councillor. He continues to consult widely, helping institutions connect their beliefs with their behaviours.
Brad Farquar, an old Saskatchewan Party hand, ran (unsuccessfully) for the Conservatives in 2006, with the enthusiastic endorsement of the far-right "pro-life" Lifesite News: he opposes same-sex marriage. Rights and democracy, eh?
Paul Wells, meanwhile, is stuck to this story like a limpet.
Today he reveals that one of the three Board members whom the entire staff demanded be fired for harassment, Jacques Gauthier, is now the new Chair of the Board--by a vote of the Board.
Wells fishes up even more sordid details about the treatment of the late President by Harper's late arrivals. This snippet about another new appointee (David Matas, chief counsel to B'nai Brith) is particularly precious:
[I]n a thoughtful analysis of events that took place before he rejoined the board, Matas takes issue with a staff allegation I repeat in my own column, which is that a small group on the board, led by Braun, had sent an evaluation of Beauregard to the Privy Council Office in Ottawa without letting Beauregard see it. Matas writes:
The (staff) letter omits to mention a number of relevant facts. One is that the performance evaluation committee had obtained a legal opinion that its evaluation was a confidence of the Privy Council and could not be disclosed to the President. Second, the President nonetheless obtained a copy of the evaluation through an access to information request. Third, the committee had agreed to reconsider and amend its evaluation based on the comments the President had made after having seen the copy of the evaluation he had obtained through access to information. Fourth, the committee had made a number of changes based on these comments. Fifth, the President was free to write to the Privy Council himself to express any disagreement he might have with the evaluation as amended.
Students of logic, or of its glaring absence, will note that this is a bucket defence. Beauregard couldn't see the evaluation because it was a "confidence of the Privy Council." Beauregard could see the evaluation, so what's the problem. The board committee agreed to change the evaluation after Beauregard saw the evaluation he wasn't allowed to see, so double-what's-the-problem. Finally, Beauregard could examine the changes to an evaluation he wasn't allowed to see and suggest further changes, so what's the etc. etc.
But it gets better. Just as selected memos were leaked to the Globe & Mail's hawkish Christie Blatchford awhile back to make Richard Colvin look bad, so too are documents in this case finding their way into the public gaze--from a perhaps not unsurprising source:But here's what's most intriguing about Matas's essay defending the new board majority's claim that all Rights and Democracy needs is a little transparency and openness. It's that the essay is, for the moment, available here and nowhere else. On the website of author, erstwhile publisher and 2008 Conservative war room staffer Ezra Levant. That's fair, but it seems worth pointing out.
Oh, it does, indeed it does. Keep digging, Paul. The rest of us will hold our noses.
*Sima Samar was, until her resignation, one of three foreign members on the Board. Siddiqui: "She was an Afghan women's rights advocate who won world fame for standing up to Taliban rule in the 1990s and is now chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission."
RCMP watchdog replaced by kitteh
A Conservative real estate lawyer has been appointed "interim chair" of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP. Ian McPhail replaces outgoing chair Paul Kennedy, whose critical reports offended the Harper administration.
McPhail cheerfully admits knowing next to nothing about policing, criminal law or federal oversight agencies. His role doesn't require it, he says. He just has to know "how an administrative agency should operate." He is in place for a minimum of one year.
Kennedy says, "If you don't know the law, I don't know what value you can bring to the job." His predecessor, Shirley Heafy, is more blunt: the Mounties, she says, "are going to love to have him there. He's just a caretaker. There's no power to do anything unless you really push the envelope. He's coming in cold. There's no way he can do anything in a year … he's a complete neophyte."
Critical public reporting has really been the only lever for change available to the largely toothless CPCAR. "My style tends to be collegial," says McPhail. Purr-r-r.
UPDATE: Over the protests of Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin, a report from the Liberal majority on a Senate Committee inquiring into the practices of the RCMP is due to be released shortly. It is expected to be deeply critical of the RCMP, and to call for more effective civilian oversight--which Kennedy had been pressing for before his ouster. Conservative Senators reportedly disagree with the draft report's "tenor and tone."
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Our Adolf
"Harper = Hitler." Unacceptable. Over the top when progressives do it; surely even worse when Tories do it!
The photograph above is of two Tory agentes provocatrices at the anti-prorogue demo in Winnipeg yesterday, taken by an agent provocateur. For your delectation, here are the straight goods, from a student at the University of Manitoba:
I was enjoying the speeches today, and I noticed someone I know to be a big Tory supporter and a member of the University of Manitoba Campus Conservatives observing the event, and taking pictures. I figured he was trying to get pictures of radical signs and what not to malign the protestors, but that didn't bother me much. It's his right to be there and observe.
Anyways, I got back to watching the speeches and noticed that this Tory had climbed the fire escape of the University of Winnipeg building to get a better view, and I noticed he motioned at people beyond where I was to come forward or come into view. So I turned around and saw some people wearing masks, coming forward, and one of them was carrying a sign that said, I kid you not, in big letters, "Harper = Hitler."
I thought no, there's no way, this Tory guy would go to these lengths to get these people to come to the rally to make the people there look bad, and radical. I couldn't tell for sure that he had motioned at these specific people. So I went back to watching the speeches and what not. But as the speeches were winding down I turned around again, and what do I see? I see the Tory guy getting together with the masked people. He took the Hitler sign and walked away with the phony radicals!
I was pretty angry to see that garbage. So I chased him down and called him out about it. It is disgusting to see such a horrific historical character as Adolf Hitler used in this surreptitious and disgusting way. I imagine the victims of Hitler's genocidal actions in Poland, Germany, Hungary, Ukraine, and elsewhere would be appalled.
Those of us at the rally oppose Stephen Harper's latest maneuvers but the overwhelming majority of us would never make such an obscene comparison.
I know a lot of Tories. Many of whom are some of the nicest people I know. It's too bad their reputation will be marred by this event.
Needless to say, the pic, prominently displaying a spelling error as well for the riffraff to mock, has been duly seeded on the right side of the blogosphere. Award-winning blogger Kate McMillan is on the job, spreading the hoax widely, although to be fair she might have been duped. (Turnabout is fair play.) The huffing and puffing from the Usual Suspects is, in any case, something to behold.
Similar signs were, reportedly, seen at other protest sites as well. I think we might be forgiven, at this point, for suspecting that the balaclava-clad Winnipeg infiltrators were not the only ringers in the festive Saturday crowds.
[H/t Scott Tribe and Canadian Sentinel]
UPDATE: Now there's a Facebook group, calling them out. Join!
"Rip Van Winkle"
All week, at a hearing to determine whether the security certificate against Harkat should be quashed, a federal court has heard testimony from John the Agent (his identity is protected).
John read books on the subject of terrorism to prepare him for what has been a gruelling cross-examination. He has reviewed what must be at least a five-foot shelf of documentary material. He's bright, and has been careful on the stand. But I suspect the outcome of this hearing is not in doubt, despite an interesting comment from the bench by the judge hearing the case, Simon Noël.
The judge seems to be scrupulously fair, and he has been scathing in the past about the reliability of CSIS. I suspect that he was sending that signal (about secret evidence concerning Harkat's time in Pakistan) to the defence team, to allow it to prepare a response.
In any case, this is how John's testimony has come under question during the past week:
- Meeting with Ahmed Said Khadr:
John agreed there was no public information linking Khadr to terrorism at the time, and he was known to be a man who ran a legitimate charity once supported by the Canadian International Development Agency. John acknowledged that the meeting could have been an innocent one. Khadr's arrest for terrorism came much later. [emphasis added]
- Links with another figure, Ibn Khattab, in Pakistan:
When he lived in Pakistan, Harkat is alleged by CSIS to have worked for Kattab. But, whatever the truth of this allegation, another judge, Richard Mosely, has already rejected CSIS' contention that Khattab was a terrorist in any case.
- Harkat's possession of a fake passport when entering Canada:
Harkat, an Algerian national seeking refugee status, declared to immigration officials upon entry that his Saudi passport was a fake. As the defence points out, this is odd behaviour indeed for a sleeper.
- Harkat's behaviour in Ottawa:
In the course of his work at a gas station and then as a pizza deliveryman, Harkat had several encounters with the Ottawa police, to whom he reported a robbery, thefts and one assault. The defence argues that sleepers, by virtue of their profession, lie low rather than making their presence continually known to local law enforcement.
CSIS declares that Harkat carried out one mission as a sleeper, allegedly on behalf of Abu Zubaydah, described as a senior al-Qaeda lieutenant: he paid $1000 towards the immigration legal fees of Abu Messab Al Shehre, a man later deported to Saudi Arabia as a security risk. Harkat visited Al Shehre in the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre. As the defence notes, visitors there are logged in and out, and their actions monitored--again, such a visit was atypical for a sleeper.
- CSIS' use of questionable sources:
Zubaydah, whose alleged importance to al-Qaeda is now in some dispute, was waterboarded 83 times by US officials. The suspect validity of his evidence had, I thought, already been acknowledged by Canadian officials. Judge Noël has stated, in any case, that he will not accept evidence obtained through torture.
CSIS' own informants, meanwhile, seem to escape close scrutiny by the agency that utilizes them:
Boxhall [a lawyer for Harkat] then pointed out that a critical source in the agency's case against Harkat had failed "all relevent questions" when issued the polygraph in 2002. [emphasis added]
"You place great weight on the polygraph," Boxall suggested, asking how such a fact could be left out of the report that led to Harkat being arrested in 2002. He was released in 2006, but faced the most stringent bail conditions in Canadian history.
"It should not have happened," the agent replied.
- Muddled timelines:
Boxall zeroed in on a 2005 letter the Algerian government sent to Canada's foreign affairs department, detailing an alleged sojourn by Harkat in Afghanistan in 1991 -- information John acknowledged was inaccurate.
Earlier in the day, "John" acknowledged he "muddled up" a timeline in previous testimony that put Harkat on a Toronto-bound road trip with high-profile Canadian al-Qaida operative Ahmed Said Khadr.
"It's not that I didn't know the details. I simply muddled it when I was testifying on the stand," said the agent about incorrectly testifying in November 2008 that Khadr had already been arrested on terrorism charges when he took the van trip with Harkat.
"John" said his error occurred to him a few days after his testimony but he didn't inform lawyers representing the federal immigration ministry, which is seeking Harkat's deportation to his native Algeria.
"It didn't occur to me that anything else was required," "John" told Webber of correcting his testimony.
Indeed so. But Harkat himself awaits the opinion of the judge--for him, and for his spouse Sophie Lamarche, the only opinion that really counts.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
"Canadians don't care." —Stephen Harper
3,500 in Ottawa, 7,000 in Toronto, thousands more in Vancouver, 60 rallies across the country. Canada's very own democracy movement.
Trevor Strong of the Arrogant Worms: "As a good Canadian I'm most comfortable sitting on the fence. If I'm at a rally, something's gone horribly wrong."
Bloggers were there too.
UPDATE: David Akin eats crow.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Blog for choice: a matter of trust
What does "Trust Women" mean to me? That's easy in the pro-choice context. A pregnant woman has a better grip on her own circumstances than I do, or a judge, or Stockwell Day, or a priest, or the guy down the block, or even her husband or partner or boyfriend. And I, for one, trust those who actually have the required knowledge when they make decisions. So if a woman chooses to have a child, who am I to say no? And if she chooses not to, who am I to say no?
For anyone who believes that women are full-fledged, thinking human beings, trust is the default position.
We're actually pretty big on trust in Canada, even if it is sorely tested on occasion. And I'd say that if we can trust that woman-hating punk Jean-Guy Tremblay, who went to the Supreme Court in 1989 to try to prevent his girlfriend from obtaining an abortion, and has been criminally harassing and assaulting women ever since--then trusting women ought to be a slam-dunk.
Seventeen convictions he's had since 1981. Not a "dangerous offender," said the judge. Not a danger to "all women." Just the ones, it seems, who wander into view.
A man who assaults, harasses and forcibly confines women on multiple occasions--and was the "pro-life" poster boy twenty-one years ago for putting his partner through judicial hell--can be trusted to do the right thing. He still has time to turn his life around, said the judge. It's not as though he's ever committed a sexual offence. Narrowly construed, at least.
Yet trust, as it turns out, isn't nearly so simple where women themselves are concerned.
Women have apparently not earned the trust of nearly half of the Canadian public, who think that our health care system should cover abortion only in medical emergencies--or not at all. A medical procedure, in other words, should be denied because...women simply can't be trusted to make the right choice. Which is nearly always, of course, procreation.
So we need the state, argue the anti-statists, to tell women what to do, say the advocates of individualism, and if they won't, shriek the get-the-government-off-our-backs folks, then make them. Or, failing that, at least ensure that abortion is as difficult and expensive to obtain as possible.
We aren't really talking about choice here at all, of course. We're talking about its opposite: compulsory pregnancy. If you want the other, then here are some hoops and hurdles for you. Jump! Jump! And if you make it, here's the bill.
Abortion is legal in Canada--there has been no law against it since the Supreme Court struck down the last one in 1988. But that doesn't mean that all Canadian women have reasonable access to it. As reported by the feminist website section15.ca, some of our provinces are in direct violation of the Canada Health Act (which is meant to guarantee consistency of medical services across the country):
- New Brunswick will only cover the cost of an abortion if a woman has received approval from two doctors and if the procedure is performed in a hospital (but not in a clinic); procedures by family physicians are not covered. [The battle continues --ed.]
- There is no access to abortion in Prince Edward Island, no funded clinics in Manitoba, and no clinics at all in Saskatchewan.
- Similarly, women in northern Canada, which is made up mainly of Aboriginal communities, must often travel hundreds of kilometers to the nearest clinic. Whether abortion is funded or not, this distance often means women cannot go. Statistically, Aboriginal women experience significantly higher rates of sexual assault and domestic abuse than other populations.
- Access is limited in areas where procedures are only covered at hospitals, because fewer than one in five hospitals across the country offer abortions, most require a doctor's referral (which can be difficult to obtain in more conservative areas), and hospitals generally offer little or no counseling. Moreover, many hospitals have long waiting lists – up to six weeks – but will not perform abortions after the first trimester.
But they're in no hurry. The issue consumes enormous quantities of political fuel, and the outcome is never a certainty. Better to duck and cover, talk about EI reform or the economy, anything, anything at all, while Aboriginal women take those long sad bus rides into the city, and PEI women take the ferry to New Brunswick with a wad of bills in their purse and a story they hope will satisfy two doctors who will sit in judgment over them.
This is 2010, and here we are.
A combination of political inertia and the package of prejudice, fossilized religion and misogyny known as social conservatism remain solidly in the way of full reproductive choice for Canadian women. And trust is part of it--or rather, distrust, that lurking patriarchal paleo-notion that women are "the weaker sex," requiring protection and, more importantly, direction. In an important variation on this theme, the "pro-life" crowd sees women as mere vessels, incubators, soft procreation machines.
As I said at the beginning of this post, trust is, or should be, a given when it comes to a woman's right to make what I suspect is rarely an easy decision. Yet there is still so much troubling and widespread resistance, a blank refusal to concede that women have that right, the fundamental, unquestionable right, to decide their own reproductive futures. And this on-going social and political obstinacy has already caused, and is still causing, and will for the foreseeable future continue to cause, no end of real suffering and humiliation.
Will Canadian women someday be deemed more trustworthy than Jean-Guy Tremblay? Almost certainly. But, unfortunately for too many of them, not this year, or the next--or the one after that.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The best government that money can buy
[H/t A Creative Revolution]
Rights and Democracy: Board members strike back
The seven Board members in the thick of the controversy are David Matas, Aurel Braun, Jacques Gauthier, Marco Navarro Génie, Michael Van Pelt, Elliot Tepper and Brad Farquhar. As reported, staff members have, by letter, explicitly demanded the resignations of Braun, Gauthier and Tepper, for what they describe as on-going harassment and intimidation, not to mention racial profiling:
À l'interne, des membres du CA auraient demandé l'origine ethnique de plusieurs employés et s'ils parlaient arabe. «Ils estiment que l'organisme est trop pro-arabe, ce qui est ridicule. On fait du développement démocratique là où la situation l'exige. Mais il y a du harcèlement constant depuis quelques mois», souligne une source à l'interne.
[Internally, the Board members have asked about the ethnic origin of many employees and if they speak Arabic. "They think that the organization is too pro-Arab, which is ridiculous. We do democratic development there, as the situation demands. But there's been constant harassment for several months," an internal source emphasized.]
All seven of the Board members in question have now responded.They attempt to throw doubt upon the reported unanimity of their opposition amongst their staff, claiming that managers pressured their employees to sign the letter, and that not all of them did so. They have heard from concerned non-signatories, they claim, but no numbers are provided.
Certainly some welcome clarifications have now been offered: for example, the freezing of the late President's discretionary fund had the support of the President himself, while a new financial accountability framework was being put into place. The reported refusal to fund a project assisting rape victims in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is apparently erroneous: funds were indeed allocated, but there were "some adjustments to the staging of the project."
As I suspected, the central issue here is Middle East politics. And on that subject, the seven Board members reveal their own political parti pris. Here are the salient paragraphs:
[I]n February 2009, three questionable organizations were provided grants through discretionary funds which have had little to no board oversight. These organizations are Al Haq, headquartered in the West Bank, Al Mazan, headquartered in Gaza and BT'selem, headquartered in Israel. They were each granted $10,000.
Al Haq's general director, Shawan Jabarin, has been denied exit visas by Israel and Jordan because of his ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP is a listed terrorist organization in Canada. In 2007, the Supreme Court of Israel rejected Mr. Jabarin's petition to have his travel ban lifted because "he is an activist in a terrorist organization." It should come as no surprise that the board reacted with shock when it found Mr. Jabarin's own signature on the paperwork accepting this grant from Rights & Democracy.
Furthermore, two of the three named organizations are active in the lawfare movement, which is a strategy of abusing law to achieve military objectives — in this case, to punish Israel for anti-terror operations. Al Haq has even pursued a strategy of lawfare in Canada, where it has backed the use of the courts to harass Canadian companies based in Quebec which have business operations in Israel.
Shawan Jabarin is a respected human rights worker in Ramallah, who has been harassed by Israeli authorities since 2006. He is accused by the Board members of having "ties" to a listed terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. ("Is linked to" is my favourite non-specific innuendo, followed by "associated with," but "ties" is effective as well.)
Jabarin himself strongly denies any such "ties," but the guilty always protest their innocence, right? After all, the Supreme Court of Israel says otherwise, and that's good enough for the Board members.
But the Court in question, it turns out, heard secret evidence ex parte, and upheld a travel ban on Jabarin, preventing him from receiving, on his organization's behalf, a prestigious human rights prize from the Netherlands last year. Ten Israeli human rights groups were less than impressed, and wrote to then-Defence Minister Ehud Barak to protest:
The blatant blow to the freedom of movement of one of the best-known human rights activists in the West Bank is contrary to the basic principles of a state that is governed by the rule of law.
Jabarin himself asked: "How can it be that my stay in the Netherlands constitutes a higher security threat than my being in Ramallah?" Good question.
So try to follow the chain here: secret evidence was delivered to a court in Israel, without the opportunity for an accused person to respond, much like the now-discredited CSIS evidence in two recent security certificate cases right here at home. The court ruled in favour of denying the man an exit visa to collect a human rights prize. And for the seven Board members, this was proof of guilt, and a grant to his human rights organization was accordingly repudiated.
We then learn that two of the "questionable" organizations that received grants from the President before his discretionary account was frozen have been going to court to settle issues of concern to them. Terrorism is bad enough: but now these wily Palestinians are pursuing legal remedies! "Lawfare," the seven Board members call this. But perhaps we should let the courts, and not the seven Board members, decide whether the legal cases in question have merit or not.
Never mind. The two organizations Al-Haq and Al Mezan have suitably Arabic-sounding names, and they're critical of Israel. Case closed.
But wait. There's a third "questionable" organization on the list: BT'selem, an Israeli human rights group. At this point the collective mask of the seven Board members slips.
There are no terrorist "ties" here: in fact, the organization is merely named by the Board members in classic McCarthyist fashion, and then never mentioned again. The very first commenter on their National Post piece is not slow to see what's going on:
The inclusion of B'Tselem in a list of groups called "questionable" and associated with the word "appalled" is a shameful smear. B'Tselem is a mostly Jewish organization of Israeli human rights advocates, and one of the beacons of democracy in the region. B'Tselem members face harassment and threats daily; it is an example of non-partisan courage.
Readers may quickly assure themselves with a Google search that B'Tselem is indeed a respectable human rights organization, painstakingly collecting data, distributing cameras in the West Bank to record human rights abuses, lobbying members of the Knesset (Israel's parliament), and so on.
No doubt it is a thorn in the side to the settlers and the Israel Defence Forces who would prefer not to be embarrassed by such publicity. Assuredly it has been a pain in the neck for various Israeli governments. Its data and methods have certainly been debated by organizations with their own right-wing agendas, like CAMERA and NGO Monitor. But B'Tselem is a prominent mainstream advocacy organization within Israel, and enjoys considerable international credibility.
By including B'Tselem in their mix of "questionable" organizations, the seven Board members reveal nothing less than crass partisanship on behalf of official Israeli state policy. It is their right, of course, to hold strong political opinions. But is acting upon them in this narrow fashion, throwing up clouds of innuendo and unsubstantiated accusations and smears, appropriate conduct for governing members of a non-partisan institution created by, funded by and accountable to Parliament?
UPDATE: (January 22) Paul Wells weighs in on destructive Board member hi-jinks and the underlying politics. [H/t Antonia]


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Editor's Note: Dr. Aaron E. Carroll is an associate professor and vice chairman of health policy and outcomes research in the department of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He blogs about health policy at the Incidental Economist and tweets at @aaronecarroll.
Story highlights
Aaron Carroll: It's not true that Medicaid is a universal health care program for all poor people
Carroll: Medicaid has a chance to become a full safety net under the Affordable Care Act
But states are free to say no to the Medicaid expansion under the health care law, he says
Carroll: We'll have to make compromises, but first let's see if law will be stripped down
The big summer showdown has come and gone. The Supreme Court decided the Affordable Care Act could stand, and so it remains, for the most part, undisturbed. The next hurdle will occur in November, when the country goes to the polls.
For the sake of argument, though, let's assume the health care law will not be stripped down by a new president and Congress. In which case, we need to start asking an important question: What will happen with Medicaid?
Many Americans still don't understand how Medicaid works. The biggest misperception is that Medicaid is a universal health care program for all poor people. That's just not true. Many people with little to no income do not qualify for Mediaid.
Yes, all children up to 100% of the poverty line, and children under 6 up to 133% of poverty line, are covered. Pregnant women up to 133% of the poverty line are covered as well. So are elderly and disabled Americans who qualify for Social Security's Supplemental Security Income. But there's where things start to break down.
Parents are covered, but only to 1996 welfare levels. This keeps a lot of parents, even those who are very poor, from qualifying for Medicaid. Two parents and a child living in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana or Texas with an income of $4,850 a year actually earn too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid. And if you're not a parent, then things are even worse. In most states, if you have no children, you can't qualify for Medicaid no matter how little you make. In most states, even if you make no money at all, there's no Medicaid for you.
This means Medicaid is far from the safety net many imagine it to be. It has so many holes that when the heath care law really gets going in 2014, more than half (PDF) of the newly insured will be those earning less than 133% of the poverty line. The poor still constitute a significant percent of the uninsured.
When the House and the Senate were debating how to cover all of the uninsured, they disagreed. Both bodies agree that those making more than 133% of the poverty line should get private insurance in the exchanges, albeit with subsidies for those making less than 400% of the poverty line. But what to do with those making less than 133% of the poverty line? The Democrats favored the idea of expanding Medicaid, as Medicaid is cheaper than private insurance. In fact, so much so that the House pushed to raise the eligibility for Medicaid for all Americans to 133% of the poverty line, above the Senate's suggested 100%, as it made the entire Affordable Care Act cheaper.
This is a radical change for Medicaid. It will finally be the fully universal safety net that many believe it already is. All Americans, regardless of age and parental status, will qualify if they are poor.
This won't be cheap, of course. States currently are on the hook for 50% to 75% of all Medicaid costs. Asking them to cover the many millions of newly eligible recipients would be too much for many to bear. Therefore, the federal government decided it would pay for the full cost of the expansion when it begins in 2014.
There are two problems, though. The first is that the federal portion decreases to 90% by 2020. That may still sound like a great deal, but even that 10% is a lot of money, and many states fear they won't have it. The second is that the individual mandate and Affordable Care Act in general will probably bring forward a lot of people who already qualified for Medicaid and just never signed up. The federal government won't pay for them, and a lot of states fear this expense. They feared it so much that they brought a case against the expansion that made it all the way to the Supreme Court.
The court decided in the states' favor. The health care law can ask states to expand Medicaid and offer them extra money if they will agree to the expansion. The law can even refuse states the extra money if they refuse to expand the program. But what the law can't do is threaten states with removal of their traditional Medicaid money if they won't expand.
What this means is that states are free to say no to the Medicaid expansion. That will mean some big problems in implementing the Affordable Care Act. There are really no provisions for people making less than 100% of the poverty lines to receive subsidies to buy insurance on the exchanges. Many will not be penalized by the mandate because they make too little (PDF), but that will still leave them without health insurance. In essence, without the Medicaid expansion, millions of the poorest among us will still be uninsured, with few options to rectify the situation.
I still believe that few states will choose to refuse the expansion money. It's hard to say no to a full funding of insurance for millions of constituents when it will cost you nothing. Moreover, it will be politically difficult to say no when so many other states are saying yes. There will also be enormous pressure from physicians, hospitals and other providers, who stand to lose a ton of money if people aren't insured. Let's remember that there were holdouts when Medicaid was passed decades ago. Today, threatening to take away that program is "coercive."
That said, plenty of states have shown their willingness to turn down such deals in the past. Likely, some will in the future. They are certainly threatening to already. Since those threats are nothing more than words at the moment, I'd take them with a grain of salt. But that doesn't mean a few won't hold fast.
There are ways to fix this, of course. Subsidies could be provided for everyone, for instance. States could ask for new deals. Or the federal government could make the expansion a federal burden for all time. The various solutions will cost money and require compromise. That's not happening soon.
So, for the moment, we will wait. On November 7, we will have a better idea of whether the Affordable Care Act will stand. And maybe then, we'll be able to get to work.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Aaron Carroll.


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Williams Tops With Forbes, Unigo
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — You know fall's around the corner when the inevitable lists of the best schools start appearing. And, inevitably, the Williams College is on them.
This month, Williams' selection as one of the "New Ivies" by college-rater Unigo.com comes on the heel's of its top ranking as America's best college by Forbes Magazine.
The private liberal arts institution, and the second-oldest college in the state after Harvard, has been a perennial top-lister in various "best of" lists, including U.S. News and World Report's annual rankings. Forbes ranked Williams as No. 4 last year; this year, it popped to the top, beating out archrival Amherst at No. 3.
Forbes ranks colleges on academics and students' experiences and achievements. Unigo.com's rankings are similar and it gleans all of its information directly from students. The site offers information to help collegebound students choose the right school. The list of "The New Ivies" is among the site's "10 for 10" that includes ranking for the 10 safest, best party, most intellectual and sports.
The information culled from some 30,000 respondents placed Williams among the New Ivies with Duke and Johns Hopkins for its low student-instructor ratio, communal atmosphere and emphasis on academic experience over grades.
|Williamstown is isolated. But the athletic, outdoorsy and social students don't seem to mind spending time on campus together. 'We come here for the academics, and for one another.' That, in a nutshell, is Williams' largest selling point.
|Tags: Williams, rankings
Williams Student Dies in Avalanche
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A Williams College junior was killed when he and other students in the college's Williams-Exeter Programme were caught in an avalanche in the Swiss Alps on Sunday.
According to a letter to the Williams community by President Adam Falk, 20-year-old Henry Lo of Franklin Square, N.Y., fell to his death and his classmate Amy Nolan of Williamstown, also a junior, suffered a blow to her head while hiking near Kandersteg, south of the capital Bern.
Falk wrote:
|While walking yesterday, they were hit by an avalanche of snow, ice, and rocks. Henry Lo '11 was swept to his death, and Amy Nolan '11 suffered a blow to her head. Swiss rescuers responded quickly, retrieving Henry's body and taking Amy by helicopter to a hospital in Bern. We're told that she never lost consciousness. She was operated on yesterday, and the student who was allowed to visit her today reports that she was talking and smiling. Her parents, Cathy and Jim Nolan, professor of sociology, are now there with her.
There were five other Williams students and two Oxford University students in the party. No one else was injured and the rest of the students were taken back to Oxford, where the program is based. Lo was a math and religion major whom his classmates described as gregarious, hard working, competitive and fun loving.
"At this profoundly sad moment our hearts are first with Henry's family for their sudden and devastating loss," wrote Falk. "No plans have yet been set for any services."
The Swiss Avalanche Institute says an average two dozen people die each year in avalanches there.
For Falk's full letter, click here.
|Tags: Williams
Prof's Fraud Past Cancels Caucus
Williams College abruptly canceled a return visit by the Congressional Black Caucus on Friday, just days after discovering its organizer was in hot water in Washington.
Visiting political science professor Bernard Moore turns out to be Ernest B. Moore, whose trail of fraud goes back nearly a quarter century. He admitted Tuesday in federal court of taking more than $800,000 over the past five years in credit card and student aid fraud. Moore had 90 (!) fake credit cards.
The Williams Record did a terrific job of digging into Moore's past here. Moore, who came across as a personable sort when we talked to him last year, apparently has real academic degrees - just under fake names.
Moore's been teaching in the political science and African Studies programs for two years and was instrumental in bringing the Congressional Black Caucus to Williams last year. The roundtable discussion packed Chapin Hall; Gov. Deval Patrick was there as well.
In an e-mail sent early Friday afternoon, the college's public affairs office said:
"The symposium with members of the Congressional Black Caucus scheduled for Monday, Nov. 16, has had to be postponed. The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the College will reschedule a similar event on campus in the near future."
Moore's been suspended indefinitely (his bio is still posted here) and faces up to 41 months in prison when he's sentenced in February.
Update 11/14/2009: A reader sends us this link from the Office of the Inspector General, Department of Education, which seems to indicate Moore never actually earned a bachelor's degree.
Update 11/16/2009: The Ephblog has also been digging into Moore's past and the current situation at Williams, where posters say his names been removed from his office door but that the rules in the faculty handbook say he may still be getting paid under the current suspension.
One poster on the Ephblog also says pictures of Moore are scarce as hen's teeth. We've posted a portrait shot and here's one of him with Jim Brown taken recently by our eagle-eyed photographer Paul Guillotte:
Update 11/17/2009: Professor Moore was fired effective Monday, Nov. 16, according to a letter to the Williams community. Interim President William Wagner said their was no evidence Moore had serioulsy misused college resources.
Update Nov. 26, 2009: The Williams Record talks with some of Moore's students, who describe a disengaged instructor with a tendency to name drop but who also was a helpful mentor to some.
|Tags: congressional, caucus, Williams, Moore, professor


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Flossing – Remove Your Plaque With Couple of Hassles
How Important Is Flossing?
In a single word…very! Flossing not just cleans regions of one's teeth where ordinary toothbrushes can't achieve, it's a main factor in stopping gums and teeth. Brushing is a superb beginning, but flossing is an important factor with regards to keeping healthy teeth. The bacteria that will get caught within the the nooks and crannies between teeth as well as in the tight spaces that toothbrushes can't achieve is taken away by flossing.
Bacteria, otherwise removed regularly, could cause a number of problems inside a person's mouth. For example, a consequence from the bacteria is acidity this acidity eats in to the enamel of otherwise teeth and helps to create tooth decay. Another consequence from the bacteria is really a sulfur compound which in turn causes halitosis
Remains of food, coupled with remaining bacteria becomes plaque. Plaque, left hanging out between your teeth will end up a more powerful more toothbrush resistant substance known as tarter. Tarter isn't removed by normal brushing. Tarter remover necessitates the expertise of the dental professional.
Tarter left alone enables the bacteria to reproduce and result in a more serous condition known as gum disease. Gum disease takes place when the bacteria emits toxins that irritate the gums and results in swelling and redness. Left alone, it worsens and results in periodontal disease.
Periodontal disease takes place when the bacteria happen to be permitted to manifest and invade not just the gums, but the bones. This really is harmful since the bones would be the very support structure that holds teeth in position. Not treated, teeth will drop out.
I've Not Flossed Shortly. What Must I Expect?
There are flossed in a long time, there's possible that you might visit a hint of bloodstream around the floss as well as in the mouth area. Which means that your gums are somewhat inflammed and therefore are really looking for flossing. Don't quit. Keep flossing. During a period of time, with regular flossing and brushing, the red should diminish and finally disappear. If it doesn't, visit your dental professional.
How Frequently Must I floss?
Based on the Ada, you need to brush two times each day
having a fluoride tooth paste and floss at least one time each day.
How About The Kids? When Whenever They Get Flossing?
The moment two teeth can rub together, thus developing a condition whereby food and bacteria can hide and also be, get flossing. Obviously when they're youthful, they'll require parental guidance. Continue doing so before you feel at ease that the child can correctly floss unaided.
How Do You Floss?
1.) Use about 18 inches of floss and wind the majority of it round the middle finger of 1 hands and also the rest round the middle finger from the other hands.
2.) Lightly advice the floss involving the teeth having a rubbing motion.
3.) When the floss gets near your gumline curve the floss against one tooth inside a 'C' shape. Slide it lightly within the space between you tooth and gum.
4.) And keep the floss from the tooth, lightly, by having an up and lower motion, slowly move the floss from the gum.
5.) Repeat when needed.
6.) Make sure to floss between all your teeth, the difficult to achieve ones at the back of the mouth area. Also floss the rear of the final teeth.
7.) Remember this can be a gentle motion. Don't use a frontward, backward sawing motion. That induce injuries and end up being painful.


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CRS: An Overview and Funding History of Select Department of Justice (DOJ) Grant Programs, January 16, 2008
From WikiLeaks
About this CRS report
This document was obtained by Wikileaks from the United States Congressional Research Service.
The CRS is a Congressional "think tank" with a staff of around 700. Reports are commissioned by members of Congress on topics relevant to current political events. Despite CRS costs to the tax payer of over $100M a year, its electronic archives are, as a matter of policy, not made available to the public.
Individual members of Congress will release specific CRS reports if they believe it to assist them politically, but CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.
This report was obtained by Wikileaks staff from CRS computers accessible only from Congressional offices.
For other CRS information see: Congressional Research Service.
For press enquiries, consult our media kit.
If you have other confidential material let us know!.
For previous editions of this report, try OpenCRS.
Wikileaks release: February 2, 2009
Publisher: United States Congressional Research Service
Title: An Overview and Funding History of Select Department of Justice (DOJ) Grant Programs
CRS report number: RL33489
Author(s): Nathan James, Domestic Social Policy Division
Date: January 16, 2008
- Abstract
- In recent years, Congress has questioned the effectiveness of many DOJ grant programs. As Congress continues to cut appropriations for many discretionary grant programs, there may be greater scrutiny of these programs. This report discusses this issue as well as issues concerning the effective management and accounting of DOJ grant programs.
- Download