End of Summer Slowdown

Greetings, Hammerheads.

Regular readers will have noticed that my output as of late has been spotty, and the reason for this is a combination of a poor Internet connection, blogging fatigue, and other priorities that require attention around the house. I'm also going to be taking a vacation pretty soon so I won't have regular access to a computer even if I wanted it, so don't expect things to improve over the next month or so. I would urge everyone to bookmark the site and check back periodically as I may do the odd review or daily digest over the next few weeks, but not at a rate at which you might have become accustomed. With my batteries recharged, I am hoping that my mojo will return and I'll be back in full swing by the time the fall rolls around, which is sadly less than thirty days away.

In the meantime, check out some of the archives on the sidebar for some retro Road Hammer and be sure to take advantage of the links I've provided.

Cheers.

Book Review: "Time To Say Goodbye: Building a Better Canada Without Quebec" by Reed Scowen (2007)

Montrealer, former member of the Quebec legislature and long-time anglophone rights activist Reed Scowen makes the case here for a split between English Canada and Quebec. Normally, a book like this would have me recoiling as books concerning our navelgazing political culture are anthema to me - I have standards - but I grabbed this one at the airport Friday as it was a short read and nothing else really jumped out at me that I hadn't already read.

I had to put this book down at some points when I was reading it over the weekend because the basic unfairness of the Canadian federal arrangement, biased as it is towards Quebec, makes me so angry. On top of that, forty years of appeasement hasn't worked, André Boisclair's recent third-place showing aside. Scowen also makes a convincing case that Canada was not born as an agreement between two founding nations but rather one between four provinces that united for utilitarian reasons above all else, a point built on by Scowen as he delves further and argues that over time, Quebec as a political entity has not defined itself by the liberal constitutional framework that the rest of Canada does. In other words, there is a group of nine provinces which are bound by a common belief in pluralism and the freedom of individuals to pursue their own goals against the backdrop of a government that exists to facilitate those pursuits in a uniquely English Canadian way. On the other hand, for Scowen, Quebec, via its state apparatus, defines itself by the primacy of the French language and culture and is openly willing to cast pluralism aside in order to further entrench that belief. In so doing, he makes the case that the political worlds of the two sides are incompatible and so English Canada should offer Quebec terms upon which it can decide to stay within Canada or not.

Scowen's case is well written and well argued, and there are certain undeniable truths implicit within it - such as how much better off the rest of Canada would be economically if they didn't have to subsidize Quebec as they do - but I think he overstates the case by half. By virtue of my marriage, I am intimately connected to Quebec in such a way that many English Canadians are not, even though I don't, never have and probably never will live there as Scowen has. I also think that while the politicians in Quebec are a breed unto themselves, Quebecois are too busy working, raising kids and dealing with every day concerns to bother tuning out the voices in the entertainment world, in the press and coming from Quebec City to investigate just how dependent they are on the rest of Canada to subsidize their child care centres, universities and health care system (failing as it is). Moreover, when one casts a ballot for the PQ, they likely aren't thinking about the cost of establishing borders, a military or determining which currency to use in a sovereign Quebec of the future. Much more likely is that they are simply asserting themselves in a North America that is becoming increasingly integrated and a world that is becoming more complicated. So, for Scowen to assert that the political cultures are incompatible is a considerable exaggeration. Plainly speaking, one shouldn't confuse the chattering classes with the folks.

Also, Scowen is writing from the position of an aggrieved English Montrealer. He admits that he decided not to learn French until he was 41 years of age. To me, this is unacceptable because I am an assimilationist. Further, I am not one who has a lot of time for linguistic minorities who demand the same treatment and status as the majority, which partly explains why I have a lot of affection for franco-Ontarians since in my experience they, by and large, realize that Trudeaupian bilingualism was a nice idea rather than a practical possibility (notwithstanding coattail riding on the federal government's hiring practices, designed to make Quebec feel more part of the federal family by what is, in effect, the equivalent of racial preferences). By way of comparison, anglophones in Quebec angrily complain about the decision of their provincial government to ignore the Charter of Rights and Freedoms rather than dealing with the reality of the choice they have made, to stay in a province where a greater level of intolerance of "les autres" is just a fact of life that requires adjustment if you want to live there as a non-"pur laine". More broadly, as unjust as this is, does it present a fundamental contradiction on which Canada cannot sustain itself? I don't think so, as it should be seen as a farcical irritation more than anything else.

In sum, as aggravating as the entire national unity debate can be, and Scowen makes a good if unrealistic contribution to it, I am only somewhat on side with his thesis, even if, in my darker moments, I would be the first one to serve Quebec's political class with divorce papers.

Now if only leaders would lead, we might be able to get somewhere.

Overall rating: 7.25/10

Live Review: Kenny Chesney's Flip Flop Summer Tour - Ford Field, Detroit, MI, August 18, 2007

This summer's edition of the annual Redneck Roadtrip saw the fellas and I head down to Motown for a day-long event at the mind-blowing Ford Field. After flying to Toronto and checking out the Jays against the Orioles on Friday night with my brothers (and purchasing a very sweet old-school Lloyd Moseby uni in the process), I met my co-travellers David (owner of the barely-breathing Parking Lot) and Chris Farley's Ghost bright and early. After driving through the Sarnia/Port Huron border crossing and downing a hearty lunch at the Cracker Barrel, it was southward to Detroit Rock City, where we arrived to begin the tailgating festivities shortly after 2 PM. We put a healthy dent in a case of Bud Light, making friends from Toledo to Tennessee and enjoying the many sights, sounds and smells amidst an embarassing incident involving watersports in between parked cars before going in to the venue for the concert's 4:30 start.

First, Grammy nominee Pat Green kicked things off with an unremarkable half-hour set I'll mostly remember for complaints from the stage about the disinterested and sparse crowd, although he did interestingly segue into U2's "With Or Without You" at one point.

Next up was sweetheart Sara Evans who was given close to an hour to deliver her many hits. For being the second one up and playing on a massive stage, she was extremely confident and her vocals were pitch perfect, sounding better live than they do on record via tracks like "Suds In the Bucket", "Perfect", "Born to Fly" and "Always Be My Baby". I've always liked her a lot because she strikes me as extremely real, and the fact that she had her sisters doing background vocals and her brother on bass underlined that for me. (Oh, and she's stunningly beautiful.) By this time, the place was pretty much packed for Ms. Evans, numbering over 47,000 honkytonkers according to yesterday's news coverage. I also appreciated how she ended her set with Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way", an inside nod to those in the crowd familiar with why she left last fall's "Dancing with the Stars" competition.

The third act of the afternoon was the duo Sugarland, made famous by hits like "Baby Girl", "Settlin'" and "Something More", not to mention lead singer Jennifer Nettles' duet with New Jersey's favourite sons, the boys from Bon Jovi, on mega-smash "Who Says You Can't Go Home". Curiously, they entered to a cover of Pearl Jam's "Better Man" and also delivered a bluegrass version of Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable" during their set, which also included new single "Everyday America". I have never been a huge fan of Sugarland but I think that they will be a force to be to be reckoned with over the next few years in country music as they know how to give the fans what they want, which included a final number with Nettles donning a Detroit Lions jersey embossed with starting QB Jon Kitna's #8.

The second to last slot belonged to Brooks and Dunn who entered to a chorus of boos because their opening video was an advertisement for sponsor Toyota and their Tundra line of pick-up trucks. They should have known better than to pull that kind of stunt in the beleagured Motor City. However, the ill will was not to last, and how could it, really? These fellas are country music royalty, but I have to say that they didn't blow me away, especially compared when I saw them in 2001 as part of their Wild West and Neon Circus Sideshow, a tour which also featured Keith Urban, Montgomery Gentry and Toby Keith. Kix Brooks in particular was much less energetic tonight than he was on that occasion, and the newer material released since then by the boys like "Believe", "Building Bridges", "Play Something Country" and "Hillbilly Deluxe" doesn't compare to their older hits, of which there were understandably less. That said, latest single "Proud Of The House We Built" sounded quite good. Set closer, the flag-waving anthem "Only In America", was the highlight even though the crowd was not as enthusiastic as I had expected them to be. Half of us were already on our feet and the other half only got up when a corps of troops came out on to the stage about halfway through the song which concluded with a pair of boots, a helmet and a bayonet left on the stage in tribute to the fallen. It was extremely moving.

Finally, headliner Kenny Chesney delivered a high-octane hour and forty-five minute show that did not disappoint. Opening with "Beer In Mexico", the laid-back, Caribbean theme that Chesney has appropriated for himself and parlayed into a massively successful career was on big-time display tonight, and on a tour sponsored by Cruzan Rum, I would hope so. Other party tunes like "Keg In the Closet", "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem", "When the Sun Goes Down" (featuring a guest appearance by homeboy Uncle Kracker), and "Summertime" were delivered alongside ballads like "Anything But Mine" and "The Good Stuff", odes to home and family like "Back Where I Come From" and "I Go Back", and the obligatory classic rock cover, which on this evening was "Honky Tonk Women", featuring Brooks and (I think) a sunglasses-wearing Pat Green. The only disappointment was that he didn't play "There Goes My Life", one of my favourite country songs ever. (Oh, and I would have preferred an appearance by Kid Rock rather than Kracker, but that's OK.) This guy loves what he does and is very fan-friendly (how many other shows have you been to at an NFL-sized stadium where the headliner doesn't run off while the band plays things out, but instead, stands at the lip of the stage signing autographs?) and knows how to deliver the goods. Now, if only he'd come to Ottawa, a trip for which he is long overdue.

Unfortunately, we had to return to Toronto early on Sunday afternoon as the rain in Detroit was too heavy to run the scheduled NASCAR race for which we had tickets, but this just gives us another experience to look forward to some other time.

Overall ratings:

Kenny Chesney: 9.5/10
Brooks and Dunn: 6.75/10
Sugarland: 7/10
Sara Evans: 8.75/10
Pat Green: 5/10

Overall rating: 9.25/10

Book Review: "The Assassin's Gate" by George Packer (paperback version released 2006)

Well, it looks like Michael Ignatieff now has some company as he's not the only public intellectual now reconsidering his support for the Iraq war. Yes, yours truly, quite possibly the most fervent believer in the Administration's efforts to remove Saddam Hussein living north of the 49th parallel, is having a little trouble supporting the whole thing the way I once did ,and it's largely due to material like "The Assassin's Gate" by New Yorker reporter George Packer.

Not a piece of advocacy but refreshingly, journalism in its truest and most authentic sense, Packer begins by weaving the work of Iraqi dissident Kanan Makiya who authored the expose "Republic of Fear" in 1989. His sermonizing about the horrors of the butcher of Baghdad soon found a captive audience in certain Washington circles, mostly among the Wolfowitz-Feith-Kristol crowd, who found their champion in Donald Rumsfeld. To his credit (as we all know what happens next), familar arguments about exaggerated intel, selective hearing by the White House, and facile sloganeering like "Bush Lied - Thousands Died" and "No Blood for Oil" are eschewed. Instead, Packer offers an illustration of the extremely troubling extent to which there was absolutely no foresight when it came to post-Saddam planning. As Packer illustrates, the crowd mentioned above seemed uninterested, and at times, proudly so, in alternative views concerning how Iraqis (a mythical term if there ever was one) would respond to a power vacuum. The looting, gangsterism and religious extremism that filled the void after Hussein's downfall, and the honourable yet nearly vain efforts of American men and women in their mid-twenties to try and install some order after their political leadership let them down as masterfully portrayed by Packer left me with a sense of broken faith in the righteousness of the whole endeavour.

After reading this and other accounts, I remain staunchly in favour of the removal of Saddam from power, but although I am an optimist by nature, I view grand schemes with skepticism largely because they fail to incorporate the foibles and shortcomings of human beings laid over top of the intricacies and delicacies that culture and history inflict upon every individual on the face of the Earth.

By ignoring these fundamental realities via their management of the war after Hussein's fall and deludedly holding on to their expectation that modern Western civilization would replicate itself over a period of one thousand days in a place that has never known anything resembling it, Wolfowitz et al. should be ashamed of themselves.

The question the reader is left with after completing Packer's work is thus this: how can one define success in Iraq?

I don't think anyone knows the answer to that question at this point.

Overall rating: 9.5/10

Wednesday digest

- After a lifetime of paying taxes, one blue-collar family of modest means tells of their experience with the Canadian health care system, here. Those of us who have been fortunate enough not to have to make the choice that the couple in the above clip had to ought to be sensitive to stories from real people who would have been sentenced to essentially death had they relied only on government-provided care, or for that matter, penthouse-dwelling, limousine liberal "documentarians" to draw attention to their plight.

- Pulpit socialism out of the Netherlands, where a Roman Catholic bishop wants to reach out to Muslims by having members of his faith pray to "Allah" instead of God during Mass. Predictably, the Council on American-Islamic Relations is in favour of the idea, but no word on whether or not - in a move which would clearly demonstrate goodwill - American Muslims are considering incorporating the names "Yahweh" or "Jehovah" during Friday prayers.

In other news from the cultural affirmation and dialogue front, doctors working in Scotland's hospitals have been asked not to eat at their desks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this year so as not to tempt their colleagues who might be fasting.

- This happens so regularly, it's starting to become a bit of a yawner: a federal Quebec Liberal is facing criminal charges because he misused taxpayers' dollars for his own personal gain.

- The debate over reasonable accomodation in Quebec is heating up again. I'm an assimilationist, but in Quebec the slope from that position towards outright ethnocentrism is much slippier (see Parizeau, Jacques and Landry, Bernard) than it is in the rest of Canada. In other words, this could get ugly.

- Democrats under fire: last week, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said that progress towards victory in Iraq could pose a problem for Democrats who want an immediate troop withdrawal. This week, Senator Barack Obama suggested that the only thing American troops are doing in Afghanistan is conducting air raids and killing civilians.

Keep in mind that these are not just average members of that party.

- Proof that university professors are overwhelmingly and almost uniformly left-wing, here.

- A look at the income tax burden faced by middle-class American families, here.

- Quiz time:

On what date did the following headline run in the Washington Post: "Arctic Ocean Getting Warm: Seals Vanish and Icebergs Melt"?

1. May 9, 2006
2. June 2, 1989
3. September 29, 1974
4. November 2, 1922

Answer here. By the way, I'm still waiting on the 24-hour news channels to report on NASA's massive screw-up that took 1998 out of the top spot for hottest year on record.

Monday digest

- Separated at birth: Democratic political operative Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos fame (top) and socialist/gay rights activist/failed Ottawa mayoral candidate Alex Munter (bottom).

- You may not have heard about it, but there is some contention concerning 1998's claim to the mantle of "hottest year on record", giving it up for 1934 from the decade where, as Mark Steyn reminds us, we were all driving around in SUVs with the A/C on full blast.

On that note, an interview with Bjorn Lormborg, here.

- Quiz time: On May 29 of this year, who said "(t)here is no greater force for economic growth than free markets"?

A. Steve Forbes
B. Canada's Minister of Industry, Maxime Bernier
C. Nikolas Sarkozy
D. Hillary Rodham Clinton

Answer here.

- A Toronto tourist has died after being beat up by four panhandlers in their early 20's.

It must somehow be society's fault.

- I have to give him props for recognizing that incentives matter, but does anyone other than Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty seriously think that dropping the provincial sales tax on smoking cessation aids is really going to prompt those who pay $10 a day for a pack of cancer sticks to consider quitting?

- African-Americans comprise 13% of the US population, yet make up half of the murder victims, and BIC factories worth of ink are spilled on some 70-year-old loudmouth flapping his gums about "nappy headed hos" on AM radio rather than far more serious issues like this and this.

- Speaking of disproportion, I really think J.C. Watts has a point here.

- What happened to this guy between 1994 and 2003?

- This past weekend, I engaged in some woodworking around my place with my father-in-law. A considerable amount of my time was spent with a power sander in hand, and I stopped and marveled at how much more difficult our project would have been without that handy little tool, both in terms of workmanship and time spent.

And what do I have to thank for that and countless other labour-saving inventions which we so easily take for granted?

Capitalism.

God bless it.

- Today on the Michael Coren Show (a rerun from Friday night), Canadian Union of Public Employees boss Sid Ryan said that this unfortunate (yet isolated) incident in a British Columbia McDonald's restaurant demonstrated why unions are needed in the fast food industry. Ryan also said that working full-time at a minimum wage job like those at the Golden Arches, and which this woman did, happily I might add, for 23 years, is inconceivable in today's day and age.

I usually don't like to draw on anecdotes to make an argument, but in this case, I'll make an exception.

Well over 15 years ago, my sister and I started working at McDonald's in our teens after we got too old to deliver newspapers, handing that responsibility down to our brothers. (My starting wage was $3.90 per hour.) From there, we both went on to bigger and better things after putting in a couple of years, and not long after that when we moved to a neighbouring town and my brothers were forced to give up the paper route, they too worked for Ron's Diner albeit at a different restaurant, but doing the same kind of work - flipping burgers, pouring drinks and gaining valuable skills.

For a moment, then, let's imagine that the franchisee for whom I worked was forced to pay a wage of $5 or $6 to every pimply-faced 14-year old Def Leppard fan he had working for him because of a collectively-bargained contract. I don't think he would have been able to afford to hire my sister because it would have been prohibitive to pay that much for the epitome of unskilled labour, given the mistakes, errors and wrong judgments that someone in their first real gig would make - the costs incurred which come directly out of the entrepreneur's pocket, I might add?

Moreover, as Ryan's sparring partner Clare Hoy said on the show, what customer would have wanted to pay not just $3.99 for a combo but $3.99 for a medium fry in order for him to pay the wages to those under contract? Certainly not the bulk of the burger-eating citizenry of the middle-class environs in which we lived.

Now as it were, a few years went by and the franchisee was able to re-invest his profits made from his first venture and open another McDonald's in a neighbouring town, creating more opportunities and where lo and behold, two of my younger cousins were able to get jobs as teens, working for minimum wage but also gaining valuable skills and life experience along the way before moving on to bigger and better things as literally hundreds of thousands of Canadian kids before them have done as well and tens of thousands are doing today.

Let me then ask you this: if the industry was unionized, would it create jobs for adolescents looking for ways to develop themselves by taking that crucial first step into the labour market as plentifully and with as little difficulty as it does now?

I think you know the answer.

Sid Ryan should, too.

- Has anyone out there thought about how they're going to vote in this fall's referendum concerning electoral reform in Ontario? The Libra in me - fair and balanced, to borrow a phrase - likes the mixed-member proportional (MMP) system, but the ideas guy in me likes first-past-the-post because under MMP, I fear that lowest-common-denominator, brokerage politics rather than clear legislative mandates will be the order of the day. I also have some misgivings about how candidates would be chosen under MMP, and I would hope that political parties would install a grassroots process, giving power to their memberships in an amount at least equal to what they would grant to the hacks in the back rooms.

Saturday digest

- A couple of things that we shouldn't read too much in to, but are interesting nonetheless: Mike Huckabee's second place showing in the Iowa straw poll, and this Dick Morris piece on Hillary Clinton.

- Two independent studies have confirmed that the vast majority of insurgents in Iraq are nationals from other countries.

- An op/ed columnist from Philly says that we need another 9/11 to focus the American mind, which is a very shameful way to call for unity considering it would imply that he's willing to trade in the lives of another 3,000 innocent people to get it.

- Both sides of my family (and that of my wife) have lived in Canada since before Confederation, which might partially explain why I don't get this. Having left Lebanon physically, I'd think one would want to leave its hatreds behind, too, rather than going to the trouble to erect a billboard with adorned by the visage of Hezbollah's leadership in Windsor, Ontario.

- I'd say the toothpaste is officially out of the tube. Personally, I really don't care if someone wants to have more than one wife or whatever, and I've long thought that if we as a society are going to decide to expand the definition of marriage to include same-sex partners, then it would be discriminatory not to expand it based on the number of individuals involved.

We are nothing if not consistent here at the Hammer.

Film Review: "The Bourne Ultimatum" (2007)

The third chapter in the "Bourne" series of films finds the protagonist coming full circle delivered via a script which is a taut, briskly-paced affair based on internal power struggles and underhandedness within an arrogant CIA. Perhaps it's because I was seated in the third row at the cinema tonight, but I found "The Bourne Ultimatum" to be much, much better than either of its predecessors, both of which I saw on DVD. However, if, like me, you don't like "24" because of the hand-held camera shots, you ought to be forewarned, especially if you end up sitting as close as I did. Heralded by critics as the best action movie to come along in quite some time, I would agree, but there's a small plot hole and a couple of unbelievable moments, all of which occur in the last third of the movie, leaving both a bad taste in my mouth and shaving a little bit off the overall rating. Still, it's a good ride.

Overall rating: 8/10

Thursday digest

- This week, Barack Obama demonstrated his lack of foreign policy acumen by referring to "the president of Canada". Problem is, we have a Prime Minister. He might take "ignorant and naive" positions, but at least Obama's not from Texas, right?

- Does Hillary have a hidden agenda?

- It's enough to turn me into a 100% stark raving libertarian: just why is it the government's business what this woman wants to call herself?!?

- The more things change, the more they stay the same on the Canadian national unity file.

- Stephen Harper ought to take note of the Republican decline in the US, which can be directly traced to selling out one's base.

- The latest indication that the Chinese economic threat is overblown, here.

- Every little guy should be taught how to fail, and more importantly, how to bounce back, from a very young age.

Wednesday digest

- In Canada, we have two credible choices for Prime Minister of our country at the moment. The first is Stephane Dion, leader of the Liberal party, pictured above tiptoeing through the tulips. The other is this fella who is currently in the office and unable to get the support of more than one in three voters.

A sad state of affairs, I'd say.

- The surest sign of a loser in politics is someone who blames the public for being too stupid to vote the way they ought to have.

- If some folks worked as hard at gaining employment as they do at pulling stunts like holding beg-a-thons on the front lawn of Ottawa City Hall, they'd be a lot better off.

- What an utterly pointless bylaw. Who's going to enforce it?

- I think this is utterly irresponsible journalism. Shame on the New York Times. One ought to also eye Newsweek with skepticism as this op/ed demonstrates.

- About a week and a half ago, Newt Gingrich called out the special interests in Motown. More here.

- My 75-year old, diabetic neighbour is suffering from kidney failure and it's going to be six months before he gets in to see a specialist. Be careful what you wish for, Wisconsin.

- Hillary Clinton, running first in her party's primary, has the support of less than 10% of the Netroots because she supported the Iraq invasion, is a fan of NAFTA, refuses to reverse welfare reform and is a backer of traditional marriage, among other things. How far left is she going to have to move to placate the base, and will it all unravel when she faces the public?

Tuesday digest

- John Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, recently stated that one of the things her husband doesn't have going for him in his candidacy for the Democratic nomination is that he's neither black nor a woman. This comment could lead one to believe that in Mrs. Edwards' opinion, Obama and Clinton bring little more to the table other than their race and gender, respectively.

I find that to be more than a tad distasteful. I also would suggest that had a Republican made a similar comment, his candidacy would be sunk faster than you can say "macaca".

- Speaking of double standards, it seems we have our latest breach of journalistic integrity, courtesy of the New Republic.

- Almost 200,000 weapons given by the US military to Iraq security forces in 2004/2005 are now unaccounted for.

Nice job, Wolfowitz.

- Can any of the Conservative yes-men and women out there explain to me a) what the word "nation" means and why it was necessary, b) why the federal government is larger than ever these days, and c) why I shouldn't spoil my ballot come the next election?

- Last word on the Minnesota bridge disaster, here.

Album Review: "Hospital Music" by Matthew Good (2007)

A tortured and ill Matthew Good has released the followup to the sub-par "White Light Rock n' Roll Review", which was a huge disappointment after the back-to-back-to-back trifecta of "Beautiful Midnight", "The Audio of Being" and "Avalanche". Is he back on track? Not 100%, however, it's getting there. (I fully recognize that Good couldn't give two craps about what I or anyone else thinks, but I'll cut him some slack because from all reports this album is intended to be more a diary than a comeback.)

Lots of light and shade here, with few venomous scorchers along the lines of previous tracks like "The Future Is X-Rated" or "Anti-Pop". Instead, with tracks about a golddigging ex-wife and addiction to prescription meds, among other things, this is probably Good's most Radiohead-esque record, a band that he has sometimes been accused of ripping off, unfairly in my view. This is the first disc on which I can hear the similarities for myself, and is somewhat fitting given what inspired it.

If you're looking to get into Matt Good, I wouldn't start here, but if you're already a fan, you'll probably find it to be a solid pick-up. I remain firmly in the fold.

Overall rating: 7.75/10

Book Review: "The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End" by Peter W. Galbraith (2006; first paperback edition, June 2007)

Peter W. Galbraith, son of John Kenneth, former staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, ex-ambassador to Croatia and at one time a professor at the National War College, tells of the execution of the Iraq War from his perspective as a longtime liberal champion of the Kurdish cause. This is both a critical look at the policies of the Bush administration as well as a sort of memoir of his own involvement with the dispossessed Kurds of northern Iraq, and so it comes off as a bit vain, being more about Galbraith and how smart/integral he is rather than a detached analysis of the successes and failures of the war effort so far. If you can set the author's ego aside, it's a very eye-opening look at how many missteps and follies were made by the neocons in their assumptions prior to the invasion, which in many ways is the mirror reflection of the laughable kind of grand schemes that far-left social engineers embrace with regularity - certainly anthema to this reviewer - not to mention the complete betrayal of the Shi'ites and Kurds by the American government after Gulf War One.

Not the definitive account of Iraq - subtly partisan as US policy towards Iraq during the Bill Clinton era warrants less than five pages out of 238 in total - but certainly an extremely valuable contextual piece, and kudos to Galbraith for not just throwing stones but for concluding with the offer of an uneasy solution - a federal system whereby Kurds, Sunnis and Shi'ites would all have autonomy within a larger state.

More here.

Overall rating: 7.25/10

Sunday digest

- A couple of weeks back, I linked to the pompous, sophomoric and condescending Avi Lewis' interview of Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Canada's state broadcaster. In case you missed that, it's here. Now, watch Michael Coren completely dissect both Lewis and his apolologist Marilyn Churley, late of Bob Rae's cabinet, here and here.

- Noted foreign policy mind Sean Penn recently went to Venezuela to pat Hugo Chavez on the back, allowing himself to be used as a propaganda tool in the process. Now that Jeff Spicoli is seen as a credible commentator on international economic and security issues, should we expect to see Tony Blair appear on "Inside the Actor's Studio"?

- Bang on: "If the fifties were the decade of infrastructure, the sixties were the decade of entitlements and social services—and the sixties haven’t ended."

Saturday digest

- Now before everyone piles on the federal government for the accident in Minnesota because it's headed by a Republican, it's instructive to read what my buddy Neal Boortz has to say below in Friday's edition of Nealz Nuze. (Keep in mind the fact that this bridge was seen to be structurally unsound as far back as 1990 and it's a proven fact that cutting income taxes leads to more economic activity and therefore more overall revenue for the public purse):

THE BLAME GAME BEGINS

The media waited less than 17 hours after the tragic bridge collapse before pointing fingers. At least one U.S. Senator, Patty Murray, seemed to blame Bush when she said yesterday that the Bush Administration has not supported Democrat efforts to increase spending on critical infrastructure. One of the problems here is that in so many instances a Democrat demand for infrastructure spending is merely a thinly disguised attempt to funnel money to construction unions as thanks for electoral and financial support.

Nick Coleman at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune says that this collapse never would have happened if it wasn't for Governor Tim Pawlenty (a Republican) and his refusal to raise taxes.

He writes:

"For half a dozen years, the motto of state government and particularly that of Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been No New Taxes. It's been popular with a lot of voters and it has mostly prevailed. So much so that Pawlenty vetoed a 5-cent gas tax increase - the first in 20 years - last spring and millions were lost that might have gone to road repair. And yes, it would have fallen even if the gas tax had gone through, because we are years behind a dangerous curve when it comes to the replacement of infrastructure that everyone but wingnuts in coonskin caps agree is one of the basic duties of government."

What Mr. Coleman fails to point out is that there was no need for a tax increase. None. Because at the time when Governor Pawlenty vetoed this 5-cent gas tax increase, the state of Minnesota already had a $2.1 billion budget surplus. This surplus came from over-taxation.

Over-taxation in America? Imagine that! And around the same time that the Governor vetoed the tax, the state legislature passed an amendment to spend all, rather than half, of the motor vehicle sales tax revenue on transportation. This added $60 million a year to road, bridge and transit spending. And that is expected to more than double in five years.

Coleman wants us to believe that more taxes would have saved these people, and it is all the Governor's fault for refusing to increase those taxes. The fact is that the problem wasn't low taxes, the problem was fiscal irresponsibility.

Let's take a look at Citizens for Government Waste's" The Pig Booklet" for the state of Minnesota for the year 2006. Take a look at all of the "pork" projects. I'll give you a taste of a few:

The state bailout of the Minneapolis Teacher's Retirement Fund, which puts state taxpayers on the hook for $972 million in unfunded liabilities

A new $776 million Twins Stadium to be paid for with a Hennepin County sales tax increase -- (approved by state legislators with no voter referendum)

$97.5 million for the Northstar Commuter Rail line

$34 million in subsidies to ethanol producers that have seen a 300 percent increase in profits in the last year
$30 million for bear exhibits at the Minnesota and Como Zoos
$12 million to renovate the Shubert Theater in downtown Minneapolis
$1 million for a replica Vikings ship in Moorhead
$500,000 for a skating rink in Roseville
$310,000 for a Shakespeare festival in Winona
$129,000 for state art grants for North Dakota museums and theaters

And the list goes on and on, folks. This was all tax money spent in Minnesota while that bridge remained un-repaired. Now we're told that the problem is that taxes weren't high enough.

As I've pointed out before, even in jurisdictions where the tax burden is astronomical, politicians won't deal with their core responsibilities, which should include the proper management of basic infrastructure, because they're too busy doing things like building baseball stadiums (see above) or focusing on how to turn nannies into civil servants for $7 a day (like in the province of Quebec) while completely avoidable tragedies take place around them, resulting in loss of life.

More here and here.

- Just in case you weren't sure what the Daily Kos website is all about, here's another article on the group who every Dem candidate except for Joe Biden is meeting with this weekend in Chicago.

- If you're a member of the Royal Family and you marry a Catholic, you forfeit any right you may have to the throne. You know how many human rights complaints alleging discrimination and riots in the streets there will be over this? None, thank you very much.

- The Bulgarian sex trade is undergoing a shift, allegedly because of global warming, as skiiers have nothing to do but rent hookers now that there's no snow on the mountains.

I'm still waiting for the severe thunderstorm that was supposed to hit us yesterday.

The most meaningless job in Ottawa? Tory backbencher, bar none.

- Kanye West, race-relations expert.

- Ah, to be a member of Leafs Nation, and all the class and romance that goes along with inclusion in that most exclusive of clubs.

- Newt Gingrich just doesn't care what anyone thinks of him. I admire that.

- You also gotta love Ozzie Guillen, manager of the Chicago White Sox. Here's a top ten list of his quotes. My personal favourite is number five:

''Those ceremonies -- 'Oh, let's bring back those guys from 2005,' we're all crippled and fucked up, pushing wheelchairs, kids crying because his dad was on the ballclub -- fuck that. I don't need that bull. A bunch of fat guys, another one is broke. 'Hey, where's your ring?' 'Oh, I don't know, I sold that son of a bitch two years ago.'''

Thursday digest

- I'm going to a wedding on Sunday that is being held outdoors. When I woke up yesterday, the chance of precipitation for that day was 60%. By mid-afternoon, it had been downgraded to 40%, and as of last night, it was at 0%, where it has held ever since. Now explain to me why meteorologists can be way off about rain four days out and no one bats an eyelash, but if you dare question Al Gore's ability to see into the crystal ball hundreds of years down the road you're shouted down.

- Here's some good stuff from our friends at the Daily Kos. You know, life is just so damn unfair. Some excerpts, with my comments added:

***

The most important people in Democratic politics don't even know it.

It's the overweight mom I see in my neighborhood. The one with two young children who has pre-diabetes and doesn't know it yet. She lives in a society that won't give her preventative care or nutritional education, but which underwrites big corporations that sell her super-sized food that is silently eating away at her body.

(Because it's the taxpayer's job to teach her how to eat properly and pay for it when she doesn't.)

It's the small town single mom sitting at the kitchen table late at night smoking a cigarette...taxed to the last dollar like all the working poor...trying to figure out how to pay the electric bill and still have rent money on a cleaning woman's wages.

(Because asking her to reconsider spending scarce dollars on her pack-a-day habit would be cruel.)

It's that hopeful nurse in a rural hospital who spends her day cradling low birth-weight babies in a society that stopped caring about some of its children with the rise of the political party that's "abstinence-only."

(Because a government which encourages the termination of inconvenient pregnancies instead would foster a society that is "caring about some of its children".)

It's that girl I saw on the subway who looked at me with that curious stare. She doesn't even know about global warming.

(Lucky her.)

None of these people care about Democratic politics. None of these people care about YearlyKos or Bill O'Reilly.

But if you can fully understand what they are going through, the policy implications, the political task-at-hand, what steps we need to take in our system of government, the laws we need to pass...if you can put yourself in their shoes...then you can also understand what I mean when I say tonight: the most important person in Democratic politics is you.

(Because if we only try hard enough, we can protect people from the consequences of repeatedly making bad choices in life promote social justice!)

***

- Here's a business idea for the budding entrepreneurs out there.

- I am so not into Facebook.

- Any guesses as to the over/under on how long the blame for Minneapolis is laid at the White House doorstep by the liberal media? Hell, it's been over 24 hours since the tragedy so there must be some way someone has found a way to pin this on Bush and Cheney. I am going out on a limb here and saying that at least one Dem nominee will publicly insinuate just that at Yearly Kos in Chicago this weekend. In fact, a quick check of the Huffington Post's comments section is entirely predictable, with some going so far as to suggest that Rove engineered the collapse to deflect attention away from Alberto Gonzalez and other Republican problems.

You know, the term "Bush Derangement Syndrome" is just a little too mild sometimes. How about just good ol' "frothing at the mouth" instead?

- Larry O'Brien is a desperate man.

Wednesday digest

- According to this study, the average worker screws around for over 2 hours a day. That seems low to me for some reason, but then again, I live in Ottawa, a town dominated by government employees and techophiles, two subgroups of the labour market which are probably more apt to spend their time goofing around on Facebook, Blogger, MSN Messenger or Myspace than is the rest of the world.

- Johnny Stossel talks about the economically illiterate voter, here. Is it any wonder you haven't heard any pol (with the exception of the current President a few summers ago) ever discuss the need to reform entitlement spending, or articulate a clear argument against raising the minimum wage?

- Right on cue, we've got some loony lefties wishing death on Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court John Roberts after he suffered a seizure this week.

- An Ohio mother is upset because her condo association won't let her bring her 1-year old boy into the community pool because they are afraid he might take a leak, or worse, pinch a loaf in the water. Hey lady - if you don't like it, why not just move?