We Have Become A Society Too Easily Offended.....

....by words and who utters those words.

Satire: a work or manner that blends a censorious attitude with humor and wit for improving human institutions or humanity. Satirists attempt through laughter not so much to tear down as to inspire a remodeling.

Drawing the line on satire TheStar.com - Opinion - Drawing the line on satire

July 19, 2008

Kathy English

The most potent editorial cartoons draw on witty satire, cruel caricature and wild exaggeration to amuse us, stir controversy and provoke debate.

These visual commentaries, likely the most well-perused element of this editorial page, are meant to lambaste and lampoon the pompous and the powerful, skewer silliness and ridicule the ridiculous to make a point and make us think.

Quite often, the best of them also offend – and even infuriate – some readers. Satire and humour are, after all, highly subjective and what's hilarious to one may be offensive to another.

Does that mean that editorial cartoonists are free to colour outside all the lines of ethical journalism in the name of free expression, or does creating what's been called "journalism's strongest weapon" also entail some level of journalistic responsibility?

More

No laughing matter

Oh, dear. There's such a fuss about that New Yorker cover featuring Barack and Michelle Obama. Worse, the cover is a cartoon. It really is too bad that the Americans don't have human-rights commissions to swaddle cartoonaphobics. MORE...

Criminals Are Disadvantaged Canadians - The Star

There is no question that the present prison system isn't working so let's change the system......let's quit coddling those that break the law, forget giving them the same rights that honest citizens have and let's make prisons so tough that maybe more inmates will think twice about re-offending. Let's put the emphasis back on punishment.

Getting tough on the taxpayer

LUCAS OLENIUK/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

Sandro Contenta,
Jim Rankin, Betsy Powell and Patty Winsa Jul. 19, 2008

Canadians firmly support federal measures that will put more offenders behind bars for longer, according to a poll conducted for the Star.

Crime & Punishment series

Charts & graphics


Your Present Criminal Justice System At Work:

'Unprecedented' sexual predator paroled eight years early
National Parole Board released Joshua Innes, against the advice of his case management team, less than a year after he was sentenced to nine years in prison for his crimes.


More stupid parole board tricks
This sicko got a 9 year sentence( it was already reduced by the judge by three years because this pedophile is young) and is out in less than 1 year! Its a good example for pedophiles everywhere in Canada. The parole board will let you out. The professionals that worked with this pedophile recommended against parole. No wonder so few us trust the "justice" system.Unprecedented' sexual predator
Dr Roy's Thoughts

$30 Million Slush Fund To Garner Votes Note Enough For Most Councilors.....

You City Council Led By

Bozo The Clown

......so they tap their extremely generous office budget.

Say thanks to the sassy Rob Ford TheStar.com - Columnist - Say thanks to the sassy Rob Ford

July 19, 2008

Royson James

We can thank Councillor Rob Ford for the latest restrictions placed on the outrageous spending habits of some Toronto city councillors.

Council had to be dragged, prodded and embarrassed into the new regime this week. Normally immune to the kind of criticism that moves mere mortals to reform, the outcry this time was too pointed and persistent.

And it was Ford's relentless, confrontational, sassy, irreverent tactics that turned the trick.

He got help from skinflint Councillor Doug Holyday. The integrity commissioner and auditor general got in their jabs. The city clerk finally stiffened her back to challenge some indiscretions. But it was Ford who led the assault in the face of strident, petty opposition and hostility from his colleagues.

The mayor didn't help. He provided cover for the profligate few who sullied the reputation of the many.

Veterans, insulated by a sense of entitlement and an acquired taste for public largesse, operated as if oblivious to the discontent over spending.

They took $200 limo rides outside the city late at night, with no explanation of which constituent they were visiting. They used taxis as their private autos. They eschewed coffee machines just outside their office door to purchase espresso machines. They funded all kind of teams and agencies and enterprises that returned the favour – and votes – come election time. They wined and dined on the public purse, supper after lunch after supper.

And some rookie councillors arriving at city hall immediately fell into bed with the spendaholics.

Ford, in an extreme way, would have none of it. He violated council rules himself by not filing expenses that the rules say must be recorded, though the money came from his own pocket. Seizing on this, councillors sought to persecute him.

But on this, the irascible Ford was on the side of the angels.

While council this week made some changes, based on a report from the city clerk, don't go back to sleep thinking all is well.

Two recommendations were rejected, including a proposed ban on handouts to sports teams and ward agencies and groups. That was too sweet to let go.

Councillors have become adept at currying favour with local groups by using their office budget as a slush fund to finance favoured friends. The disbursed money is in addition to the $30 million in city grants to such groups. There is no open ward grant system. Money is not openly available to all ward groups who apply and are judged on merit. It is usually distributed quietly to those in the know and is rightly viewed as inappropriate and a form of political patronage.

Yet the practice will continue.

Take the heralded annual limit of $500 placed on restaurant meals (sans alcohol) that councillors can have with staff and each other. One councillor was flabbergasted that she was expected to live on that. You can expect she and others will find loopholes to get around it: Call in a councillor friend from Vaughan or Mississauga and, bingo, you can charge beyond the $500 limit.

The new rules are tighter, better. Expense claims will be posted on the city's website. That should keep honest people honest. But you can't legislate integrity.

All things considered, the office budget, at $53,100, is $13,000 too high. It's this extra play money that ensnares them. And that's why there'll always be room for a Rob Ford at city hall.

Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

We Know We Are Getting Screwed BUT....

...there is damn little we can do about it. At present the ballot box seems to be our only recourse but when you look at the turnout on election day, at all levels, apathy is a disgrace. Promise are made and not kept but there is little we can do and this highlights the need for recall legislation. It must be a sense of entitlement

By SUN MEDIA

Another day, another sign our elected representatives just don't get it. They don't understand who they are representing and what their responsibility is with our tax dollars.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board trustees, even while under fire from the Toronto Sun over questionable expenses, continued to spend and spend and spend.

As the Sun's Don Peat revealed yesterday, the school trustees' penchant for spending didn't run into any Catholic guilt, as trustees added iPods, an iPod Touch, paid $1,000 for a Parade of Tenors concert, and one even spent $219 buying a picture of himself and his wife. How is that a reasonable expense for a school trustee?

These expenses came after repeated staff warnings and well into the Sun investigation, stopping when supervisor Norbert Hartmann took over the board in 2008.

We're just plain exhausted with the untethered spending. Why, knowing this, should the trustees continue to earn salaries while Hartmann has control of the board?

At City Hall, expenses were also under the spotlight. After a series of Sun articles about councillors expensing everything from limo rides to liquor-filled lunches on council days, the city moved to bring in new, tighter rules to clear up any misunderstanding and add transparency to the $53,100 office budgets.

The changes proposed by the clerk's office were reasonable. Some didn't go far enough, but it was an appropriate saw-off. Hopefully enforcement will follow.

Still, councillors couldn't stop themselves. They insisted money to sponsor local teams be included. Staff rejected it saying the money appears to be an attempt to curry favour.

"It's not done anywhere else," city clerk Ulli Watkiss told councillors.

Too bad. Council voted 24-15 to allow sponsorships up to $500 per group.

No doubt all those sponsored teams won't have the councillors' names, right? The shirts will say "Taxpayers sponsored my kid" or just have a city logo on it, right?

If it's so important to sponsor teams, councillors should be using part of their salary to do so, not taxpayer money.

But the real question is why do councillors and trustees get to make their own rules anyway?

Comrade Miller Can Add This To His BAN List

Man threatens Home Depot patrons with a drill
Tampa Bay's 10 - St. Petersburg,FL,USA
A man stole a drill at the Park Blvd. Home Depot and was threatening customers with it. Around noon, police took a suspect into custody after he created ...
See all stories on this topic

At Toronto Silly Hall.......

An investment in the community and an organization that has a proven track record:

City bets $120M on project $1B Woodbine Live plan Toronto Council is betting its $120-million tax break for the ritzy Woodbine Live project will bring new life to the struggling Rexdale neighbourhood.

Councilors should dig into their salaries the same as I do when I want to support sports and community activities.

Council sports team funding limit now $500 Toronto councillors have opted to continue funding sports teams and community groups out of their taxpayer-funded office budgets despite concerns it can be seen as vote buying.

A Prime Example Of How Dysfunctional Miller And His Puppets Are......

City's watchdogs escape Discouraged by their experience, lobbyist registrar, integrity Commissioner depart City Hall

Toronto's first lobbyist registrar, Marilyn Abraham, says she leaves the city at month's end "disappointed" and "frustrated" that she could not do more to get the fledgling registry up and running the way she'd hoped.

"We're months and months behind where we should have been," she said during a revealing interview earlier this week. "To be honest, I think it will be another term of office before the registry is well-accepted by council."

The delightful 65-year-old Abraham said she joined the city in April of 2007 with great vigour, unable to resist the appeal of starting up the city's new registry -- which keeps track of those paid to influence councillors on city business or policies.

Abraham had committed to two years. But after just 10 months on the job, she resigned this past February, discouraged with council's lack of commitment to the registry -- even for all Mayor David Miller's talk of cleaning up the backroom deals so rampant during his predecessor's era.

She said she first considered whether she should stay following the council meeting of last July when her proposed budget of $711,304 got cut to $366,949 per year on a 29-9 vote.

The recorded vote from that meeting shows that Miller and many of his minions -- including his deputy mayor Joe Pantalone and speaker Sandra Bussin -- voted for the cutback, even though this same cast of characters consider it nothing to approve tens of millions of dollars for green and arts grants.

Despite that "very hard start," Abraham said she decided to get the registry up and running, doing what she could with what she had. But when she couldn't even get a $150 fee approved for the labour-intensive paper applications her registry might have to process -- a request that came before council this past January -- Abraham decided it was time to call it a day.

"It was very discouraging," she said, noting the fee issue has been "in abeyance" to this day

The hurdles notwithstanding, nearly 600 lobbyists are listed on an online registry that just became operational in mid-February. She believes there are a lot more that should be registered, at least 1,000.

She identifies a number of outstanding matters in her report to yesterday's council meeting -- including the pressing need for enforcement and consideration of whether grant recipients who get "sizable amounts" from the city should be registered.

But Abraham says the bottom line was she could never really figure out who the registry's champions really were. Those councillors who were against the registry "made it very difficult," she adds.

"Different people (councillors) would be supportive at each (council) meeting ... I could not see a cohesive group that was committed," she said, adding nevertheless she's been "absolutely delighted" with the professional lobbyists she's met and her excellent staff.

Integrity Commissioner David Mullan, who presented two final reports to council yesterday before he leaves the city on Aug. 31, has as much reason as Abraham to feel frustrated. Yet he says he's found the four years he's spent as the city's first integrity commissioner to be "fascinating."

That's an interesting choice of words. For in one of his reports to council, he says he too "considered resigning" in April of 2007 when council voted to receive one of his rulings -- meaning they opted to do nothing -- that concluded Coun. Maria Augimeri was in "serious violation" of the Code of Conduct and that sanctions should be imposed against her.

The finding was related to a voice-mail message Augimeri admitted leaving on MP Judy Sgro's machine during the 2006 election advising her that then Coun. Peter Li Preti was "under active police investigation."

Mullan told me earlier this week he didn't resign at the time because he had the sense council did not want to use this case "as the first occasion" on which to impose sanctions authorized by the City of Toronto Act.

SOME SUPPORT

Asked whether there's a will on council to have an integrity commissioner, he says "yes" -- that councillors recognize it's "not a bad idea" to have someone around who can give advice and "free pass" on what can be done under council's Code of Conduct.

But he concedes the "jury is still out" on whether council would impose sanctions recommended by his office or always "protect their own.

"I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that," Mullan said. "But if council routinely ignores the integrity commissioner's finding of a serious violation of the code, there's something seriously amiss."

DESERTERS, DESERTERS, DESERTERS.......

Gohar S. Razi should look up the difference between DESERTER and resistor and he might want to also remember that there was a draft during Viet Nam but the current crop of DESERTERS voluntarily joined the military.

Opposing the war machine TheStar.com - Opinion - Opposing the war machine

July 16, 2008

Kudos to Bob Rae for having the courage to take a firm and committed stand for these intelligent, educated and principled young people coming to Canada and opposing the U.S. war machine.

As we have seen from Haditha, Abu Ghraib and a host of other atrocities across the Middle East, the U.S. military has constantly engaged in acts of barbarity, depravity and violence. The resisters coming to Canada are opposing the violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions and should be welcomed.

Forty years ago, Canada bravely stood up to the angry U.S. elephant and took in young people escaping an immoral war. It brought bright, articulate and resourceful people who contributed significantly to this country.

I hope Canada has the fortitude to again make the right decision.

Gohar S. Razi, Ottawa

Don't compare Iraq deserters to draft dodgers TheStar.com - Opinion - Don't compare Iraq deserters to draft dodgers

July 16, 2008

What political hog wash by Bob Rae. To compare AWOL American military personnel today to the draft dodgers of the Vietnam era is ludicrous and insults the military men and women who are doing their jobs in an honourable and heroic way.

During the Vietnam war there was a draft of people who genuinely believed that that war was wrong. They would never have joined the military if given a choice.

If you voluntarily join the military, you have to expect to fight. It sure would be a terrific world if you could be assured that military service would never involve war.

Perhaps when these people enlisted, they should have indicated on the form the specific duties that they were willing to perform and what areas of the world they would like to see during their service.

The thought of Canada accepting draft dodgers from the Vietnam War never bothered me. But accepting deserters from the Iraq war, which I also don't agree with, does bother me.

Pat Duronio, Lion's Head, Ont.

Moira Has Hit The Nail On The Head BUT....

.....people choose to get on the internet (blogs, message boards, forums, etc.) and most keyboards have an ENTER key which allows the user to select what they will view. Like society in general you don't have to associate with people whose personality offends you. Cyberbullies are the 21st centuries old maid spinister neighbor who was constantly peeking out of her lace curtains.

Taking on the cyberbullies
Hidden behind online names and aliases, they taunt, even lay down death threats
By MOIRA MACDONALD

Listen to the stories of the lows cyberbullying has sunk to and you wonder what Franz Kafka would have made of it.

Full Column

An Apt Assessment Of Smithermon As Health Minister

Health's a tough job, but Caplan's capable
By FRANCESCA GROSSO

To improve Ontario's health-care system, does it really matter who is the minister of health? The answer is yes if he or she is focused on results and doesn't get lost in the weeds of sound bites, photo ops and special interests. Very few health ministers have resisted the temptation.

Full Column

What Jesse really said about Obama

Sunday, July 13, 2008

What Jesse really said about Obama

Been wondering about the other stuff Jesse Jackson said about Barack Obama during his “hot mic” fiasco last week? The stuff that Fox News held back because, as Bill O’Reilly put it, “We are not out to get Jesse Jackson”?

Well, the Daily Kos tonight passes along what New York radio host James Mtume supposedly said on the air this morning: that (according to Mtume’s “respected source”) Jesse called Sen. Obama a “no-good half-breed nigger.” Or words to that effect.

If this is anywhere close to true, you can bet Fox News will find a way to put this sound bite on the air. Probably this week.

You Have To Admire Her Efforts.....

....but IMHO she has lost sight of the fact that individuals like Long are DESERTERS not war resistors.

to-do list

Things to do tomorrow:

1. Call Stockwell Day. Demand he stop the deportation of war resister Robin Long.

2. Join a demonstration to demand the Harper Government respect the will of the Canadian people and implement the June 3 motion calling for war resisters to be allowed to stay in Canada.

3. Call Stockwell Day.

4. Email Diane Finley and Stephen Harper.

5. Call Stockwell Day.

6. Spread the word, get others to call, email and fax.

7. Keep fighting.

Things not to do tomorrow:

1. Lose hope.

2. Give up.

Christie Deals With "Is It Worth It?"

The Globe's Christie Blatchford looks at the charitable efforts of Maureen Eykelenboom—mother of Cpl. Andrew Eykelenboom, a Canadian medic killed in Afghanistan in 2006—whose organization has so far donated $128,000 to the Assistance to Afghanistan fund. Blatchford's impression has always been of a "resolutely composed" woman, "seeming if not quite cheerful, always sanguine." But after a recent trip to Afghanistan to view the fruits of her and her son's labour, Blatchford reports Eykelenboom finally became "alive to the enormity of her loss and the grief she had kept at bay with the work and travel." After all, Blatchford notes, for her and other parents of fallen soldiers, the question of "is it worth it?" takes on a particular poignancy.

Macleans Analyzes Worthington

"Is it not presumptuous to suppose that we humans, with our SUVs, have the power, to influence nature and destroy the world?" Peter Worthington asks in the Toronto Sun. The answer is yes—because climate change science is not settled, because the UN excludes dissenting scientists from its reports, because Kyoto was just a wealth-transfer mechanism, and because carbon dioxide is "nature's fertilizer." We feel so much better!

Harper Understands The Canadian Physche...

....and his decisions cater to it. Spector delves into the back bacon, poutine and beer priorities.

Norman Spector, writing in The Globe and Mail, suggests Stephen Harper might be leery of adopting "a firm foreign policy on the issue of climate change" given Canadians' wavering commitment to the Afghanistan mission, and their aversion to tough policy initiatives in general. Afghanistan is a "Liberal war," it "satisfied all Jean Chrétien's professed reasons for staying out of Iraq" and it fulfilled our stated desire "to play an active role on the international stage," Spector argues, but for many Canadians, "foreign policy is about feeling good about themselves, not about Afghans … or any other people." Chrétien understood that perfectly, Spector suggests, when he agreed to aggressive Kyoto targets with no intention of honouring them. And Harper may be catching on as well.

It Was Only A Matter Of Time.......

Mayor Miller reportedly mulling...
...ban on cutlery sales in Greater Toronto area. -- TORONTO -- Police are looking for two suspects after a man was stabbed to death in a midtown apartment last night.Officers were called to a building on 40 Delisle Ave. in the Yonge St. and St. Clair Ave. area around 10:45 p.m.*
halls of macadamia | more from this author | 3 hours ago

What Can President Oboma Do To Solve The Problem

Jonathan Kay: Proof that Jesse Jackson is wrong (and Barack Obama is right) about the roots of black social dysfunction ... in one easy-to-read data table

Posted: July 13, 2008, 9:36 PM by Jonathan Kay
Filed under: Jonathan Kay

Social Conservatives Find A Likely Ally

In molecular DNA;

Three genes may play a strong role in determining why some young men raised in rough neighborhoods or deprived families become violent criminals, while others do not, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

[...]

They found specific variations in three genes -- the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene, the dopamine transporter 1 (DAT1) gene and the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) gene -- were associated with bad behavior, but only when the boys suffered some other stress, such as family issues, low popularity and failing school.

MAOA regulates several message-carrying chemicals called neurotransmitters that are important in aggression, emotion and cognition such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine.

The links were very specific.

The effect of repeating a grade depended on whether a boy had a certain mutation in MAOA called a 2 repeat, they found.

And a certain mutation in DRD2 seemed to set off a young man if he did not have regular meals with his family.

"But if people with the same gene have a parent who has regular meals with them, then the risk is gone," Guo said.

"Having a family meal is probably a proxy for parental involvement," he added. "It suggests that parenting is very important."

Posted by Kate at 7:01 AM

Court Misunderstood The Situation?????

Where is the misunderstanding? Long joined the military voluntarily and then deserted which doesn't qualify him as a refugee and he is being kicked out of the country. If he truly believes the he is being asked to do something contrary to what he signed up for let him fight this battle on the lawn of the White House not Parliament Hill.

Canada to deport U.S. war deserter

ROBERT MATAS

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

July 14, 2008 at 9:48 PM EDT

VANCOUVER — U.S. army deserter Robin Long is slated to be deported back to his army base in Fort Knox, Ky., Tuesday, which would make him the first resister to the U.S. war effort in Iraq to be sent out of Canada.

Madam Justice Anne Mactavish of the Federal Court of Canada cleared the way for the deportation late Monday, dismissing a last-ditch attempt to delay the process while the 25-year-old pursued further appeals.

“I was just shocked at some things in [the] ruling,” Bob Ages, a spokesman for an informal group called Vancouver War Resisters Support Campaign, told reporters outside the courtroom. “It just flies in the face of everything that we and every Canadian know about the reality of what is going on.”

Mr. Ages said the court misunderstood the situation facing Mr. Long upon his return.

More On The Green Shaft From Within The Caucus

Leaders normally are able to control the troops.....this doesn't seem to be the case with Dion and he wants us to lead the country? The Green Shift's Liberal saboteurs

Stephane Dion is learning the old adage about what happens while the cat's away. In his absence, three members of his caucus have been undermining the boss's message. Though they've put themselves in Mr. Dion's bad books, the trio.. MORE...

Comrade Miller's Plan B

There Sould Be A Holmes On Homes Champion For City Projects

Loopy plans for the Gardiner
Mayor dreams of a boulevard where pedestrians, light rail vehicles and cyclists live in harmony

By SUE-ANN LEVY, SUN MEDIA

Council's clutch of car haters and their environmental kingpin -- Mayor David Miller -- are poised once again today to put their war against motorists into overdrive.

At today's last council meeting before Toronto's hardworking (?) politicians dissipate for their summer break, they'll debate whether to proceed with a $11-million environmental assessment that could ultimately lead to the dismantling of a 2.9-km stretch of the Gardiner Expressway between Jarvis St. and the DVP.

Waterfront Toronto has projected the cost of that takedown to be in the neighbourhood of $300 million -- although given Silly Hall's inability to accurately calculate the cost of most projects, I suspect this one could be closer to $500 million when all is said and done.

But that's not all. Another little project costing in the ballpark of $30 million -- the removal of the Gardiner's York/Bay/Yonge Sts. off-ramp and the Bay St. eastbound on ramp -- has found its way onto the council agenda.

A companion report calling for an additional environmental assessment for this project first appeared on the June 26 executive committee agenda. The impression given at the executive committee meeting was that this project had to be done in conjunction with the east Gardiner takedown.

More details

It wasn't until I took a tour of the proposed Gardiner project sites last week -- along with the mayor, his most loyal minions, a plethora of city staff and other media colleagues -- that I learned more details of this project.

The plan is to conduct an "expedited" EA -- of no more than 18 months -- on the removal of the two ramps, including the highly congested loop ramp in the southeast corner of York St., and on upgrades to the York off-ramp park (located underneath the loop.)

It quickly became clear this project has nothing to do with Waterfront Toronto's plans for the stretch of the Gardiner between Jarvis and the DVP -- leading me to suspect that Miller and Co. intended to push this little add-on through hoping it would get lost in the shuffle of the larger Gardiner project and in the summer doldrums.

Nevertheless, you might say it was a full court press on the tour that day as deputy mayor Joe Pantalone waxed poetic about making an "amazing marble of concrete road disappear" and turning a "premier street" (Bay St.) into the "gateway to Harbourfront" for pedestrians and cyclists.

TTC chairman Adam Giambrone -- replete with his colourful charts -- took up the rear, claiming the Transit City Light Rail plan of new routes will be up and running by the time the entire eastern stretch of the Gardiner is dismantled in 2016 (conveniently ignoring that there's no money to build any of the transit plan).

It was all such pie in the sky. Being the realist I asked how their plans (for the two ramps) will affect traffic, especially on the forever-congested loop that off-loads traffic from the Gardiner onto Bay and York Sts.

'Minimal' traffic impacts

"The traffic impacts will be minimal," said Pantalone, who evidently did not see the picture provided to the media with cars backed right up to the Gardiner from the loop.

"We'll have a traffic management plan," said transportation services general manager Gary Welsh in response to questions about how the congestion will be dealt with during construction.

Yesterday I asked Welsh how much the EA will cost. He said "very loosely a couple hundred thousand" because it won't be a "major" study. (Details, details.)

He also claimed only 850 vehicles per hour use the loop ramp during the morning peak (675 in the afternoon) and there will be "operational advantages" to removing the two ramps, although I couldn't really understand what those were.

I smell a traffic nightmare -- and not just related to the two ramps but the 120,000 cars who use the eastern stretch of the Gardiner each day.

The thought may have escaped Miller and his minions as they dream about a waterfront boulevard where downtown-dwelling pedestrians, light rail vehicles and cyclists live in perfect harmony, but the Gardiner is readily used by commercial vehicles attempting to transport goods to points outside of the centre of the universe (a.ka. Toronto).

Coun. Doug Holyday is totally against the takedown of the two ramps and the eastern stretch of the Gardiner.

"It's a continued attack on the car," he said yesterday. "This doesn't do anything to alleviate the congestion and the pollution caused by it ... the traffic will pile up but they (the mayor and his minions) don't care at all about that."

DidObama Supporters Expect A Walk In The Park?????

New Yorker's satirical Obama cover triggers uproar

Updated Mon. Jul. 14 2008 6:29 PM ET

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama's campaign says a satirical New Yorker magazine cover showing the Democratic presidential candidate dressed as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist is "tasteless and offensive."

The illustration on the issue that hits newsstands Monday, titled "The Politics of Fear" and drawn by Barry Blitt, depicts Barack Obama wearing traditional Muslim garb -- sandals, robe and turban -- and his wife, Michelle -- dressed in camouflage, combat boots and an assault rifle strapped over her shoulder -- standing in the Oval Office.

The couple is bumping fists in front of a fireplace in which an American flag is burning. Over the mantel hangs a portrait of Osama bin Laden.

"The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

"But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

In a statement Monday, the magazine said the cover "combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are."

"The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits, the fist-bump, the portrait on the wall? All of them echo one attack or another. Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover," the New Yorker statement said.

The statement also pointed to the two articles on Obama contained inside the magazine, calling them "very serious."

Republican John McCain's campaign spokesman, Tucker Bonds, agreed that the cover was "tasteless and offensive."

Already the cover was generating controversy on the Internet.

The Huffington Post, a left-leaning blog, said: "Anyone who's tried to paint Obama as a Muslim, anyone who's tried to portray Michelle as angry or a secret revolutionary out to get Whitey, anyone who has questioned their patriotism -- well, here's your image."

Few People Can Wear A Stetson......

....and while Stephen looks better than his last attempt he should leave this type of posturing to dorks like Dion and Layton.

Cowboy hat clad PM roasts Liberals during Stampede BBQ

Dressed up as a cowboy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper blasted away at the Opposition Liberals Sunday night and promised more action to his government's law and order agenda. MORE...

Harper uses Calgary Stampede to attack Liberal green plan

If You Don't Want To Make Mistakes DON"T Keep Promises

Jumping on and off the bandwagon TheStar.com - Opinion - Jumping on and off the bandwagon

July 14, 2008

Jim Coyle

It's obvious that Dalton McGuinty keeps a set of mental file cards in his head. Sometimes, when he's asked a question, or at a podium, you can almost hear them riffling. You don't have to be around him long to become familiar with some of his favourites from this collection.

For instance, you'll often hear McGuinty say his job as premier, as with any leader, is "to represent the future to the present."

You'll also hear him boast that his government – in a world seeking solutions in everything from climate change to cancer care – "is all over the innovation agenda."

You might hear the story of how he met a local mayor on his travels in China, how he asked the chap what the chief concern was of his citizens, and how the response, unequivocally, was "pollution."

Together, these bits and pieces sketch a little picture of the premier for anyone trying to understand his recent second thoughts about Ontario's plan to increase the required amount of ethanol in gasoline by 2010.

More

Gardiner removal raises questions TheStar.com - Opinion - Gardiner removal raises questions

July 14, 2008

Two minutes added to the length of a downtown commute seems a small price to pay for a great city. It's a point Mayor David Miller repeatedly makes in pressing to demolish the Gardiner Expressway east of Jarvis St., a section that carries about 120,000 motorists a day.

The source of the two-minute miracle is a recent report from Waterfront Toronto, which concluded that a drive from Queen St. and Woodbine Ave. to King and Bay Sts. would take an extra 1.8 minutes with the Gardiner gone.

But how can experts be so precise about traffic flow years into the future? The short answer is that they can't.

"The accuracy of that is misleading," conceded Waterfront Toronto president John Campbell in a recent interview. The waterfront agency obtained its numbers by plugging 2006 data into a city traffic computer. That approach produces "a very broad-brush" estimate meant only to check for "showstopper" commuter snarls, Campbell said. If a lengthy delay had been found, the agency would not have approved a $10 million environmental assessment of the proposal.

More

If It Is Safe & Doesn't Present Any Health Concerns......

......what is the problem other than brain dead bureaucrats and politicians want to show the public who is in charge. Politicians like Smitherman is doing bugger all about seniors so is it surprising people are doing the right thing when it comes to their parents.

No room for 'granny flats'
Bill Taylor Jul. 14, 2008 The city's planning department says a homeowner cannot convert part of a three-car garage into an apartment for her mother.

I Strongly Disagree.......

.....the police are doing their job and the failure can be put directly on the heads of left wing municipal and provincial politicians and judiciary who refuse to apply the law on bail, mandatory sentencing, concurrent sentencing, etc. At the municipal level these leftwing nuts refuse to bring in/apply the broken window concept when it comes to law and order. At the federal level just take a look at those committee members and senators who hold up law and order legislation.....LIBERALS.

Do you feel police are doing enough to deal with gang violence?
Yes		23%
No		77%

Thanks To Flaggman For This Insight Into Goreism

“A Sick-Souled Religion” - WSJ’s Bret Stephens on the Climate Change Enviro-Fraud

The code has been cracked! Global Warming/Climate Change believers use the issue to fulfill one of three main purposes. Thanks to Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal for articulating it so beautifully in his July 1 op-ed, “Global Warming as Mass Neurosis”:

1) a Vehicle of Ideological Convenience (advancing the cause of internationalist socialism - the Al Gore/UN/World Economic Forum jet-setting elite set);

2) a new theology (fulfilling the need of secular atheists to have belonging and meaning);

3) a punishment for the evils of a corpulent modern Western culture (the harsh, painful, anti-modern “cures” are seen as the penance that is due to clear the conscience).

Stephens’ conclusion hits it right on the head:

In “The Varieties of Religious Experience,” William James distinguishes between healthy, life-affirming religion and the monastically inclined, “morbid-minded” religion of the sick-souled. Global warming is sick-souled religion.

Tougher Gun Laws Under Harper's Leadership.....+

.....but to be fair the liberals also attacked the problem of illegal guns with their billion $$$$ boondogle called the gun registry.

Guns seized at border, tough new law gets test

SARNIA -- An Ohio soldier and a California prison guard charged with bringing guns into Canada would face tougher jail terms if convicted under a new federal gun law. Changes that took effect May 1 call for mandatory three-year jail terms for offences including possession of prohibited firearms with ammunition. [...more]

Making Toronto Great......

......can be done simply by bringing in recall legislation at all three levels of government so that if candidates don't keep the promises they make they are out of there. Add to that a civilian oversight group that would monitor the actions of the bureaucrats and city employees with the right to fire.

The first step to Saving Toronto is a plan: Tory

By JOHN TORY

The assignment from the Toronto Sun's editor was clear-cut -- write us a column about the one thing Toronto needs most.

My answer is as straight-forward as the question; what this city needs is the same thing it's needed for years ... a real, honest to goodness overall plan for the future. A plan based on real partnerships between all governments, business and the non-profit sector to get our city back on top.

Let's face it: This is still a fabulous city with a lot to offer, but governments and leaders have let it slip. I think it's time to face up to that and get Toronto back on top with a plan that starts with:

1. Attracting jobs and growth. Our city should be the leader in economic growth -- nothing less. We need a solid, detailed plan to compete against the world for jobs, investment and tourists. What infrastructure, what skills, what tourism attractions do we need to be putting in place now for jobs tomorrow? How do we keep financial services jobs? How do we get jobs faster for skilled immigrants? These decisions are crucial. They will ensure a bright future for our kids and help us pay for renewal and quality public services.

2. Clearing gridlock. We can't have our mayor and council beg for transit funding with a tin cup each year. We need a multi-year plan with all governments behind it, not one project at a time. It must focus heavily on transit and providing an alternative to cars, without ignoring our roads and the people and businesses that rely on them. And we need to get on with it now before we strangle the economy, smother our ability to breathe, and wipe out what little family time people have left.

3. Cleaning our city up. I visit a lot of other cities and, whatever we think people say, ours is far from the cleanest. I have always believed we should ask people, schools and businesses to adopt parks and public spaces and help make them look their best. However it's done, let's just do it and stop talking about it. And while we're at it, let's not think about excellence in urban design once in awhile or here and there. Let's make it something our city is known for, every time, everywhere.

4. Fixing Toronto's finances. Governments are still fooling themselves as they raise taxes, create new taxes, run up more debt and pretend everything is okay. Some work has been done but much remains. Other levels of government must help but leadership starts at City Hall. When taxpaying citizens and businesses are struggling, isn't it time for government to really manage costs and lead by example?

5. Bringing hope back to our challenged neighbourhoods. We can't go on turning a blind eye to the physical and social decline that has spread across our city. It's unfair, it's a tremendous waste of human potential and it's a root cause of crime.

These neighbourhoods need physical renewal and they need effective programs that don't duplicate each other or disappear every few months when funding runs out. So, let's pool all of the resources -- governments, private sector, non-profits and community associations -- into a comprehensive and funded program, commit the money and resources for the long haul and the big picture, and get on with helping every neighbourhood in need with a real sense of urgency. A GOOD START

.......but I am sorry John it is just more bullshit. Show me some goals; ie: how many jobs do we want to see each year; put the homeless to work cleaning up our streets, a freeze on wages and a cutback in councilors salaries/budgets, neighborhoods need to step forward when crime is committed instead of setting up a wall of silence, etc.

What's Happening At The Politboro (Toronto Silly Hall)

Maybe those condo owners, who don't live in waterfront condos and supported Comrade Miller, who didn't take the time to vote in the last election will do so in the next election.......

High-rise robbery City's garbage fees will hammer condos

By SUE-ANN LEVY, TORONTO SUN

Two weeks ago -- on Canada Day to be exact -- the new socialist garbage fee meter, a.k.a. waste reduction levy, turned on with little fanfare, catching most apartment and condo dwellers completely by surprise.

The city did not provide any in-unit blue boxes or soft-type bags to tenants and condo owners to ease the collection of recyclable materials, as had been promised.

The request for proposals for those 500,000 containers or soft-type bags will be issued next month, with the 12-month rollout expected to start in November, says Rob Orpin, the city's director of collections.

As for the green bin (kitchen catcher), that rollout is also expected to start in November -- provided that processing capacity for the material is found. "We're still working on it," Orpin said late last week.

About the only thing officials did do was put some propaganda on the city's website about the dire need to divert more, along with suggested materials on what residents can put in their blue boxes.

More

...and it takes media attention to get beauracracy to do their job:

Cleanup spurred by Sun story

Two Sides Of The Coin

Is it possible that groups within co-op housing have more of a voice than the tenants in affordable housing.? Didn't, and maybe still do, Jack and Olivia live in co-op housing?

Toronto Housing Corp. keeps building miracles TheStar.com - Columnist - Toronto Housing Corp. keeps building miracles

July 11, 2008

Christopher Hume

Even in a city not known for administrative genius, there are exceptions.

One is that perennial paragon of progress and productivity, the Toronto Public Library. Never have so few made so little go so far.

The other is Toronto Community Housing Corporation.

Tenants are in a fix Public housing repairs are taking several years

By BEN SPENCER AND ANTONELLA ARTUSO, SUN MEDIA

Follow The Bouncing Ball.......

Bike thefts 'really big problem' More than 50,000 have been reported stolen since 1997 -- 4,600 last year alone

By BRETT CLARKSON, SUN MEDIA

Full story

Hmm! I wonder where all those bikes go........

Euphoria Feels Great But Somewhere In That State Is Reality.....

....and it will be interesting to see how the American people respond when reality hits them. In Canada we had the opposite, doom and gloom, but we found that the reality is that Harper's "hidden agenda" never existed and that he is proving to be a leader worthy of note. You know you have a winner when leftwing nutbars accuse you of "kissing ass" and you can sympathize with them because they were having their necks kissed by cretin/martin/dion while they were getting their asses reamed.

Obama euphoria
One of the byproducts of a euphoria is that everything is perceived as good news. A good example is the recent news coverage of Obama, in particular these two news items. Jackson’s `Crude’ Remarks May Give Boost to Obama Ironically, success of the surge in Iraq is helping Obama Is there anything that won’t help Obama?

Barrel Strength

Coloring Freedom Of Speech?

I don't deny Jessie Jackson the right to express himself but I would think that same right should be extended to include people like Imus, Limbaugh, etc. without in-activists like Sharpton calling on blacks to take to the streets.......

FOX LIKE A SHEEP: WHAT ELSE DID JESSE JACKSON SAY?

JESSE'S 'OOPS' WASN'T AN ACCIDENT...

Jesse Jackson: relic...

Dion Revises Canadian History.......

......or is it just that he isn't knowledgable about Canadian history. I have to admit I didn't know about King's doctorate but then I am not trying to con you into letting me run the country.

And he was a political science professor?!

By COREY LAROCQUE, SUN MEDIA

NIAGRA FALLS -- Fifty bucks says Stephane Dion won't repeat this mistake.

The federal Liberal Leader short-shrifted William Lyon Mackenzie King, one of his predecessors as party leader, Wednesday in a speech in St. Catharines.

During a town hall meeting promoting the Green Shift platform, Dion answered a Brock University student's question by professing his own lifelong commitment to higher learning.

If the Liberals win the next election, "it will be the first time in the history of Canada that the prime minister of Canada will have a PhD," Dion said.

A couple hundred Liberals signalled their approval with applause.

It was a good sales pitch. But it's not true.

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Scarborough An Alternative To Leslieville?

But does this mean WalMart will have to close it's outlets........

Comments from a restaurant critic:
The emerging Leslieville, I'm told by real estate agents, is for twenty- and thirtysomethings with no children or young children; a place to invest in a first home before our entitled, middle-class spawn will need the comforts of a more affluent branch of our public school system. I looked at three houses for sale (a reporter has to take the neighbourhood's pulse) and two of them were already outfitted with yoga studios.

Except now we're thinking even Queen East is overpriced and overhyped, and we're actually considering Scarborough, which apparently has a secret, or maybe not-so-secret-anymore, thriving artistic community. I probably shouldn't have let that cat out of the bag."

Too late, Sarah. Now all the cool kids are going to buy homes in Scarborough before you. It's going to lose all its cachet

A growing hunger for Leslieville

July 12, 2008

Corey Mintz
Restaurant Critic

It Is Always Someone Elses Fault

I have noticed lately that if you have a problem it is always someone elses fault. Rather than stepping up to the plate and resolving the problem you are put off while the problem is studied, etc. In this case why don't the just pickup the f*^#king garbage and satisfy those people who pay their wages.

Trash for the taking Tenants fear rat invasion as garbage piles up uncollected for 5 weeks

By DON PEAT, SUN MEDIA

Call it Etobicoke's lost laneway.

The short lane off Evans Ave. near Royal York Rd. hasn't had a garbage, recycling or green bin pickup for at least three weeks -- and it's been the city of Toronto's responsibility since July 1.

Ronald Meredith, 75, has been phoning the city steadily as trash from apartments and businesses piles up.

Yesterday bags overflowed from the wooden cabinets used to hold them, sitting on top of piles of recyclables.

It's fortunate there's a rose garden in front of his Evans Ave. apartment.

The pyramids of trash now littering the lane "would fill a truck," Meredith said. "If you'd come down this laneway a few months ago, you wouldn't see a speck of garbage."

He called Turtle Island Recycling, which used to pick up the garbage every Monday and the recycling bin every Tuesday, but said he was told the city has taken over the contract for the tiny stretch backed onto by several Royal York Rd. stores.

When Meredith called the city, he didn't get results, so yesterday the retiree called the Sun.

"We're worried about rats," he said. "We've already had squirrels, raccoons and cats going through it."

He wants Mayor David Mil ler to deal with the trash.

"I'd like to put it on his front lawn, that's what I'd like to do," Meredith said. "I voted for him but I'll never vote for him again."

Neighbour Jason Rapsey, 34, agrees.

'REALLY FRUSTRATING'

"It's really frustrating ... It makes me not want to live in the city of Toronto any more," Rapsey said. "We're just starting to have too many problems with lack of services ...you wonder what you're paying for."

Robert Orpin of the city's solid waste management services said all businesses along that stretch of Royal York Rd. were notified mid-June the city was taking over commercial collection effective July 1.

City staff told them another time that garbage would be collected in front of their businesses.

Orpin said commercial garbage should have been picked up last night, provided it is out front and inside the city's yellow garbage bags. Because the city collects commercial garbage at night, the trucks have ended laneway pickups to eliminate excessive noise.

As for the apartment dwellers, Orpin said his staff will follow up on their stinky situation.

"Turtle Island is still picking up the residential portion in Etobicoke ... I don't know what happened there," he said. "If something slipped through the cracks, we'll look into it and find out."

This isn't the first time the little lane has had problems.

Last winter residents had to team up to keep it clean after the city stopped plowing it.

Even when city trucks sprinkled salt over a sea of fallen snow -- instead of plowing --it didn't help much, Meredith said.

The building's landlord died shovelling the extra snow, he said.

"They found him with a shovel in his hand," Meredith said, shaking his head. "This is getting ridiculous."

Obamaism.......

"I want to cut his nuts off," Rev. Jackson
Jackson sorry for 'crude, hurtful' remarks about Obama caught by live microphone



I am waiting for the hue and cry and type of condemnation that would occur if something similar, no matter how innocent, was said by Limbaugh, Imus, etc.

The big boys strut their small stuff

It wasn't so long ago that Barack Obama, in Martin Luther King parlance, was talking about the "fierce urgency of now." And here he is now, moving from inspirational idealist to a middle-of-the-road panderer. MORE...

Another Media Circus By Our Three Leading Bozos

Mayors, ministers and kings TheStar.com - Opinion - Mayors, ministers and kings

July 11, 2008

Jim Coyle

Bertolt Brecht would surely have smiled at the scene this week on Toronto's waterfront.

To Queens Quay, at Lower Jarvis St., the locally great and powerful, their apparatus and entourages, and the media chroniclers of grand moment had trooped. An "exciting announcement" had been promised about the development of the East Bayfront lands. But what was this?

"The venue is within an active construction site; flat, closed-toe shoes are recommended."

To the air-conditioned and limo classes, such a state of affairs came close to warranting danger pay. Even so, it was immediately apparent on arrival that not all had heeded the counsel.

With some bemusement, the T-shirted men in safety helmets and steel-toed boots, taking respite from labours at the site's entrance, watched as the gathering convened.

Of all the wide chasms in the world, there is probably none quite so great as that between those who work manually and outdoors for a living and those who don't. So a walkway had been fenced off to keep the visitors, stepping daintily over the grit and muck in their heeled, open-toe shoes, from harm's way.

At walkway's end, in the middle of a rough-hewn empty lot, a large awning, as at an outdoor wedding, had been erected to shade guests from the scorching sun. Beneath were rows of folding chairs, occupied by folks in breezy frocks and finery, fanning themselves against the heat.

A lectern had been set up at the awning's western end – the cranes and city skyline behind it the point of the exercise. Though high noon was scarcely past, TV lights had been installed. Speakers were erected to ensure all words were heard, a recording table arranged, explanatory material provided by public affairs professionals.

For a time, soft white hands shaking others of their kind, there was the expectant buzz, cocktail party nicety and practised bonhomie of the chattering classes on the job.

Then, presently, the mayor – for he was there – summoned the province's new minister of energy and infrastructure – for he was too – and whispered that the moment had arrived. The two men left together briefly, then made their formal entrance with a third – for the premier had been delivered by his security detail, and it was he who had brought the cheque.

By turn, George Smitherman and Dalton McGuinty and David Miller were invited to the microphone. One after another, they spoke of how the $61.5 million contributed by the province to construction of a new campus of George Brown College would enable a great step forward in the revitalization of the city's waterfront.

To generous applause, they made jokes that the assembled found charming. The three acknowledged the considerable privilege it was to be in each other's company. They praised the vision, dedication and courage such endeavours demanded. "Extraordinarily important," "building a city," "glorious day."

In time, their pieces were spoken, a place in city history staked. Congratulations were exchanged. The trappings of the ceremony were torn down, all sign of their fleeting presence removed.

A mere construction site it was again. And the folks in boots and helmets, who eat dust and dirt all day, who hoist and shift and pour and bolt, who put up the buildings to which the names of the great will one day be affixed, went back to work.

And Brecht?

Well, it was he who famously wondered how credit came to be given for the pyramids, and how the history books were filled with the "names of kings."

"Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone?"

Jim Coyle's provincial affairs column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The Bumbler At Queen's Park Supports The Bumbler At Silly Hall...

...and wants to give him more power including the right to keep information from the taxpayers.

Huge housing boondoggle
Runaway costs, incompetent management on Finch Ave. building, all while the city bumbled

By SUE-ANN LEVY, TORONTO SUN

At the last executive committee meeting, councillors took all of eight minutes to approve yet another top-up from scarce city reserves -- this one $1.7 million -- to prop up a controversial affordable housing project on Finch Ave. W.

Full Column

I Think The Lawsuit, Like Dion's Plan, Is Much Ado About Nothing.......

....and Dion could put the whole matter to rest by simply changing the name of his debacle from Green Shift to Green SHAFT.

Dion calls 'Green Shift' lawsuit 'deplorable'

Updated Wed. Jul. 9 2008 10:46 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Liberal leader Stephane Dion called the decision to sue his party over its carbon tax plan's name "deplorable" Wednesday.

Jennifer Wright, the owner of Green Shift Inc., a company that helps businesses adapt to more environmental friendly products and practices, has launched a lawsuit seeking $8.5 million from the Liberals.

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The Message Will Probably Be Lost.......

......by many on the left.

Harper And G8

Sandy: PM Harper makes a difference at G8!

While the media and anti-conservatives in the media and blogosphere go on and on about the "Yo Harper" comment from U.S. President Bush, I have been following what Prime Minister Harper is ACTUALLY doing. He is not obeying Bush, as some would have us believe. He is actually being polite and personable. He is also maintaining a positive relationship with the president of our largest trading partner and ally. [...more]

The Proof Is In The Telling

Even with everything the Conservatives (Harper) have done I am disappointed that the party is moving so close to the center......this might make disenchanted liberals think twice before they continue support Dion's henchmen.

“Harper Gov’t Accomplishments” at www.scrbd.com

Thanks to a tip from Jack at Jack's Newswatch, I discovered the www.scribd.com website where you can publish your own material online. As a result, I have been able to publish the Harper Government's List of Accomplishments. [...more]

Harper Government’s List of Accomplishments.

DUH! Is He Just Becoming Aware Of The Problem

Everytime there is a media report of abuse in nursing homes, which is quite frequently, McGinty's minions hold a media scrum where they denounce the abuse and make promises to fix the problem.....how many years have the liberals been in power at Queen's Park,

Better care for seniors needed: McGuinty

Canwest News Service

Published: Wednesday, July 09, 2008

TORONTO - Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty acknowledged yesterday the province had "more work to do" to care for seniors in nursing homes as opposition parties and unions slammed the government over conditions in long-term care facilities.

"I think we want the best for them and we've got to do a better job," Mr. McGuinty said after unions representing long-term care workers and nurses renewed demands for the province to provide more funding.

Representatives from the unions said their calls for a standard of three-and-a-half hours of hands-on daily care for residents is even more urgent following recent media reports that found more than 60 per cent of nursing homes have been cited for failing to meet some of the 400 standards the province requires to ensure the health and safety of residents.

More

Are You Protected?

Entire internet at risk from flaw

• Serious flaw found in Domain Name System
• Companies worked "in secret" to fix problem

COMPUTER industry heavyweights are rushing to fix a flaw in the foundation of the internet that would let hackers control traffic on the worldwide web.

Major software and hardware makers worked in secret for months to create a software "patch'' released overnight to repair the problem, which is in the way computers are routed to web page addresses.

"It's a very fundamental issue with how the entire addressing scheme of the internet works,'' Securosis analyst Rich Mogul said.

"You'd have the internet, but it wouldn't be the internet you expect. (Hackers) would control everything.''

The flaw would be a boon for "phishing'' cons that involve leading people to imitation web pages of businesses such as bank or credit card companies to trick them into disclosing account numbers, passwords and other information.

Attackers could use the vulnerability to route internet users wherever they wanted no matter what website address was typed into a web browser.

Security researcher Dan Kaminsky of IOActive stumbled upon the Domain Name System (DNS) vulnerability about six months ago and warned industry giants including Microsoft, Sun and Cisco to collaborate on a solution.

DNS is used by every computer that links to the internet and works similar to a telephone system routing calls to proper numbers, in this case the online numerical addresses of websites.

"People should be concerned but they should not be panicking,'' Mr Kaminsky said.

"We have bought you as much time as possible to test and apply the patch. Something of this scale has not happened before.''

Mr Kaminsky built a web page where people can find out whether their computers have the DNS vulnerability.

Read the full report at NEWS.com.au Technology »

Anyone Surprised?

Ignoring an ill economic wind

We've seen massive layoffs in the private sector, but McGuinty government keeps on hiring. Premier Dalton McGuinty was talking about "strong economic winds" yesterday. That's one way of understating an economy that is half way.. MORE...

Not The Kind Of News I Need While Having Breakfast....

.....and my digestion doesn't get any better when the possible challenger might be Smithermum. 'Yes,' Miller says; he'll run again

I Am Sure Most Criminals Are Shocked......

.....when they learn the price of breaking the law.

News of imminent deportation shocks American army deserter

ROD MICKLEBURGH

July 9, 2008

VANCOUVER -- Just days after a key Federal Court decision in favour of U.S. army deserters trying to stay in Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency is preparing to deport "war resister" Robin Long.

If he is deported, he will be the first of an estimated 200 deserters who have sought refuge in Canada to be returned to the United States, marking an official end to the country's policy of welcoming American draft dodgers and deserters that began during the Vietnam War.

The 25-year-old failed refugee claimant was arrested in Nelson on a deportation warrant on Friday, the same day as deserter Joshua Key successfully appealed the denial of his refugee claim.

Mr. Long remains in jail in the idyllic Interior city, home to many young men who have fled U.S. military service because of the war in Iraq.

More