Compare/contrast

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 3:53 PM - 3 Comments

John Mraz goes to Washington.

Back in DC, I arrived for lunch at one of the world’s great political bookstores and hangabouts: Kramerbooks and Afterwords Café.  The joint was jumping. I grabbed The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and headed for a nosh. I even grabbed The New York Post, but that was mostly for a laugh over dessert. According to the press, the U.S. is kicking and fighting for its economic, international and cultural life. Politicians are working around the clock, legislatures are sitting. The population is engaged, involved and at work to solve the challenges of these difficult days. Far from being tired, the electorate demand the constant thrum of federal elections every two years as they seek accountability and results from their leaders. The list of issues at play is encyclopedic: Iraq, Iran, Israel, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Arctic oil and sovereignty, the H1N1 pandemic, national health care, green protectionist tariffs, immigration reform and all manner of things economic are being vigorously debated by both the hoi polloi and the elected. All issues, I might add, that have an immense impact on Canada. As if we didn’t have enough of our own…

There is also room for more energy and engagement from Canadians on all things political – room for a little more of that American spirit if you will – if it could be catalyzed.

Dos & Don'ts of renting a villa

By Doug McArthur, Takeoffeh.com - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 3:36 PM - 0 Comments

Renting a villa in Europe is a wonderful alternative to staying in a hotel. It’s the nearest most of us will get to a “Year In Provence” type of experience, it’s affordable, and provides the setting for a truly communal experience among groups of friends or relatives. But picking the right one requires some amount of research and, more importantly, full agreement on style and amenities. (One person’s ’rustic’ may be another’s hell-hole.)

Our band of villa devotés, The Dorking Dozen, has been renting overseas properties since 1998 when 12 of us piled into a house near Dorking, England. Over the years we have rented in Scotland, Italy’s Umbria region and two locations in France. The group keeps growing as more old friends sign on to our band of Dorks. Continue…

'The great institutions in the past brought us together'

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 3:28 PM - 4 Comments

Glen Pearson laments disengagement…

Currently, citizenship is a status, a legal bond between an individual and her or his government.  It doesn’t proceed much past that point. It’s there, but only on the periphery – government doesn’t really matter.  We have ended up with a country disconnected, though remarkable democratic work is being done at certain levels. We have ended up with unreasonable special interest groups and citizens sniping from the bushes through their blogs – no real connection to the political process. We are left with politicians and parties making their decisions with little citizen input because we actually don’t know how to go about it. Above all, we are left with a citizenry that has thrown up its hands and doesn’t even bother to vote anymore.

… then finds an example of citizenship to celebrate.

Democratic reform will break out tomorrow

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 3:16 PM - 5 Comments

Michael Urban repeats the case for proportional representation.

This structural bias is exacerbated by the fact that despite claiming to desire more cooperative politics, voters routinely punish politicians when they seek to cooperate.

The 2008 coalition debacle demonstrated that many Canadians, apparently unaware of – or at least uncomfortable with – how our parliamentary system works, opposed an unprecedented level of cooperation that would have installed a government supported by representatives who garnered a greater percentage of the popular vote (53.72 per cent) than any other peacetime government in Canadian history. Granted, some of this opposition was based on certain reasonable objections, but no small amount of it emerged from other mistaken notions that what the coalition proposed to do was somehow unfair or unconstitutional.

Similarly, the critiques of Stephane Dion, and more recently Michael Ignatieff, for supporting their Conservative opponents in parliamentary votes – what cooperation actually looks like in action – show some of the dangers for any politician that seeks to cooperate with another party, even when this cooperation could arguably benefit the country in the long-term.

The wafer thing

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 2:55 PM - 104 Comments

I would say “This is getting silly,” but that happened a long time ago.

Unlike father, unlike son

By John Parisella - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 2:21 PM - 5 Comments

The recent edition of Time magazine contains a story describing the last days of the Bush-Cheney Administration. By then, Dick Cheney had developed a near-singular focus on obtaining a pardon for his former chief of staff, Scooter Libby. The issue was one of only a few on which George W. Bush disagreed with with his second-in-command. Libby had been found guilty of lying to investigators looking into the Valerie Plaine incident, in which Plame was outted as a CIA agent by officials in the administration. Cheney’s aide was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and to pay a fine of $250,000. President Bush, who had earlier vowed that he would fire anyone involved in the incident, decided to commute Libby’s prison term, to much criticism from the Democrats and the press. His decision nonetheless upheld the conviction, leaving Libby, a former high-profile lawyer, facing permanent disbarment.

Continue…

You know what we do to people like that

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 2:03 PM - 10 Comments

Doug Finley wants to know who might’ve whispered sometthing to the Telegraph-Journal.

Presumably so that person can be given a high-ranking job in government.

Can't catch Nortel in a bottle

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 2:01 PM - 34 Comments

It’s at times like this, with the future of Nortel’s coveted wireless technology up for grabs and billions of dollars at stake, that I like to recall the wise counsel of old John C. Lobb. He was a jowly fellow who became the president of Northern Electric, Nortel’s predecessor, in 1971. He picked that dusty old company up by the scruff of its neck and shook it wide awake. Profits tripled in his first year and doubled again in his second. He used to ask employees what the company made. They’d tell him it made telephone switching equipment. He’d bellow, “We don’t make switching, God damn it! We make money.”

I love those great Canadian success stories. John Lobb, incidentally, was a lawyer from Minneapolis who ran Crucible Steel of Pittsburgh before he moved north, and who died in Pennsylvania.

All of which teaches us two lessons that may be appropriate to the current fuss over ownership of Nortel assets. Continue…

Greg Berlanti No Longer Producing Every Show Ever Made

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 1:57 PM - 1 Comment

Things change fast in TV. Last year, producer Greg Berlanti had three shows on the air simultaneously (Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Brothers & Sisters) and was probably the busiest showrunner in Hollywood. Now two of those shows are gone, and he’s merely the producer of one successful show. Not that that’s any kind of fall from grace; it’s just that he’s gone from being the next superstar producer to being one of several good producers with one TV show and an upcoming movie (Green Lantern) — until things change again and he winds up with another two or three shows on the schedule.

This interview with Berlanti is worth reading, especially for his description of the problems of doing “character” dramas (dramas without procedural hooks) and his failed attempt to fuse his kind of drama with the procedural in Eli Stone, as well as his thoughts on the programming strategy of his network, ABC. Berlanti used to mostly work on WB shows, writing for Dawson’s Creek and creating Everwood. He argues convincingly that ABC has sort of taken over the now-defunct WB’s strategy of doing glossy character-based dramas with a lot of female appeal; the difference is in demographics, with ABC trying to get WB viewers after they’ve gotten a little older:

“I always call ABC the grown-up WB now,” he said. “It tends to be more female-skewing, which the WB was. I can see everyone who watched ‘Dawson’s’ now grows up and watches ‘Grey’s.’ Everyone who watched ‘Smallville’ grows up and now watches ‘Lost.’ We were at the WB and they were like, ‘Okay, what is a 16-year-old girl going to like about this story?’ Now they’re like, ‘What’s a 36-year-old woman going to like about this story?’ I think Fox grabbed the guy version of it. ABC does really well with these character-driven shows.”

Speaking of the WB and Everwood, the trade-off for getting that much-loved series on DVD was changing the music; this was probably unavoidable (WB had already released one complete, music-intact season and it didn’t sell enough to make back the cost), but I can’t help but feel slightly depressed reading about the process — apparently it involves letting someone else trash the show because the producer knows it needs to be done, but can’t stand to be involved himself.

“They made us change all of the music,” he explained. “The music that was on that show in particular was very important to certain elements. I didn’t want to go back through every single episode and switch out every song to some cheaper song just so we could release it. Finally we hired someone to go in and do that because I wanted people to be able to see the episodes.”

UPDATED: Wafergate-gate: It's not just ITQ — Doug Finley wants answers too!

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 1:20 PM - 239 Comments

From the ITQ inbox:

Inside caucus today Doug Finley did not mince his words. He threw down the gauntlet and bluntly told Caucus that Conservatives would be asking the following question to each and every Liberal; to each and every member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery:

“Can Michael Ignatieff assure Canadians that no Liberal staffer, executive or advisor contacted Jamie Irving or Shawna Richer regarding the Prime Minister’s acceptance of communion at Romeo LeBlanc’s funeral?”

Coincidentally — well, not really coincidentally; not being a complete idiot, ITQ can, in fact, spot a party talking point  just as well as anyone else — she had already submitted a very similar, if slightly less loaded question on that very subject to the OLO press office. She’ll let you know what the response is.

Oh, and in case Doug is reading this, I have no idea why you think ITQ, or any other “member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery” would have a clue what actually happened here. Contrary to some of your most cherished beliefs, we really aren’t that organized a conspiracy — and anyone who has followed my comments on this issue over the last day or so will know that I’ve got nothing but questions of my own about this whole affair.

UPDATED:

A response from the Office of the leader of the Opposition:

“This is nonsense. We didn’t record the videotape – CPAC did. And as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Canadians need only look at the video on You Tube to see what happened.”

KoryWatch: Nobody Actually, a lot of us are waving goodbye

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 1:02 PM - 14 Comments

I’m not sure how much this shocking revelation will actually, you know, shock anyone out there who knows either of us, but contrary to what some of y’all may have assumed, I’ve always gotten along just fine with Kory Teneycke, and as far as I know, he’s always gotten along right back — and I’m really going to miss him when he’s gone.

That’s not to say that we haven’t merrily made the other’s life more interesting on a regular basis, of course.  I thought the supersecret background briefings for bureau chiefs were ridiculous, and told him so; he, for his part,  never seemed to hold that against me, but I never did get an invite — probably because I would have cheerfully liveblogged every word, observing the rules by giving everyone present apropos and amusing (to me, at least) pseudonyms. I’ve no doubt that he has felt the same about any number of things that I’ve written as well; his very first contact with ITQ was to send me an email teasing me for my obsessive theorizing over the removal of the “s” from word “communications” in his title.

What it comes down to, I think, is this: Kory has been one of those (sadly, increasingly rare) Hill denizens who was always able to put aside partisanship and competing interests, and hang out on a patio talking politics over beer and chicken fingers with anyone possessing a similar sense of perspective and humour — whether a Liberal staffer or pixelstained liveblogger.  He always replied to my “official media query!”-headlined emails promptly, if not always with the answer to the question I thought I was asking, and he always seemed to appreciate the fact that reporters have a job to do, and, for the most part, didn’t personally hold it against us when we did it, which is more than you can say for some of his counterparts out there — on all sides of the aisle, not just the government.

As I said above, I’m going to miss him. Hopefully, he’ll still find time to visit those of us who haven’t yet made it Outside The Asylum.

(Confidential to KT: Sorry for outing you like this, but it’s not like they’re going to fire you for it after the fact, right? )

A "buff" Bernie Madoff gives his first prison interview

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 12:38 PM - 0 Comments

In his first interview since being jailed, a “buff” Bernie Madoff expressed disbelief he got away with his Ponzi scheme for as long as he did, ABC News reports. Madoff was speaking to Joseph Cotchett, a San Francisco lawyer who has threatened to sue Madoff’s wife, sons and brother on behalf of a group of victims. Cotchett, who, with his legal partner, spoke with Madoff for four and a half hours, believes it was the threat of Ruth Madoff being sued that garnered him the interview. “He cares about Ruth,” Cotchett said, “but he doesn’t give a s— about his two sons, Mark and Andrew.” The sons have not spoken with their father or mother since Madoff’s arrest on December 11. Cotchett said Madoff, who’s serving a 150-year sentence, was extremely candid, telling him: “There were several times that I met with the SEC and thought ‘they got me,’ ” The lawyer also said he did not yet know if he would name Ruth or the sons in the lawsuit, but that he was almost certain to name Madoff’s brother, Peter, who served as the firm’s chief compliance officer.

ABC News

Twilight Gets New Vampire Girl

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 12:37 PM - 2 Comments

When the cameras roll on the third movie in the popular, totally dreamy Twilight series, there will be a different actress playing Victoria, the evil vampire girl who comes between the two main lovers. Rachelle Lefevre played the part in Twilight and the sequel New Moon (which has been filmed but not yet released), but for the third film, Eclipse, she will be replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of director Ron Howard. Lefevre apparently pulled out of the franchise due to scheduling conflicts: at the same time as Eclipse is shooting, she will be in Quebec appearing with Dustin Hoffman in the movie version of Mordecai Richler’s Barney’s Version. Besides, she probably got tired of being hissed at by fans who think she’s really an evil vampire trying to break up the cutest romance ever. Now it’s Howard’s turn to be hated by tween girls all over the world.

People

This apparently actually happened

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 12:25 PM - 44 Comments

Surely this calls for a debate. Do you suppose Ari Fleischer could get Ujjal Dosanjh or Jack Layton on The Factor?

Surely in the next breath, Mr. O’Reilly said “just kidding” or “not” or “psych” or something. Right?

There's no way she gets it all done from 9 to 5

By Nathan Whitlock - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 12:17 PM - 1 Comment

A lot comes to mind when you think of Dolly Parton, the larger-than-life legend of country music. Aside, of course, from her famous figure and hair, is her voice, which can be bright and brassy or soft and sweet, but which, with its sharp Tennessee twang, is instantly recognizable. There are all those songs–from 9 to 5 and Why’d You Come in Here Looking Like That to I Will Always Love You, Put it Off Until Tomorrow and Jolene—and movies, including 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Rhinestone Cowboy, and Steel Magnolias (she has also appeared as Aunt Dolly on Hannah Montana). And then there’s Dollywood, the theme park that also happens to be Tennessee’s largest employer.

At 63, Parton remains one of the busiest people in show business. The Imagination Library, the charitable organization that sends free books to preschoolers in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. that she set up in 1996, is still going strong. And in early June, she published her first children’s book, I Am a Rainbow (Putnam/Penguin). All the money made through sales of the book, which is full of rhyming couplets linking kids’ moods to colours, goes to her Imagination Library.

Parton has also joined the screen-to-stage trend by turning 9 to 5 into a full-fledged Broadway musical, which debuted earlier this year to mix reviews. Variety said it “qualifies as what folks call ‘a fun show’: rarely any less, but at this point rarely more” but that didn’t stop the production from earning four Tony nominations. Parton herself performed in the award gala’s opening medley. And she just released the show’s soundtrack on her own music label. “It’s such a wonderful sound hearing that huge orchestra and all those wonderful singers,” she says. “It’s a thrill to hear your music done like that.”

So, with everything else going on, does she still try to write a song a day, as she has claimed to do in the past? “I don’t necessarily try to write one, it just seems that I do,” she says. “Sometimes I’ll write two or three songs in a day, sometimes I’ll just come up with an idea. It’s very seldom that I don’t have something to do with either a piece of a song or a great title.” She claims to have boxes and boxes of scrap paper with song lyrics scribbled on them, waiting for her to finish them up. “My life is just in rhyme,” she says. “I’ll look at anything or I’ll say something or I’ll hear somebody say something, and my mind just starts spinning in rhyme. There’s always creative thoughts every day for me.”

Since her flamboyant image tends to overshadow her genuine artistry, Parton’s songwriting hasn’t always been given the attention it deserves. Not that Parton cares. “People always say ‘oh, if you took yourself more seriously and don’t look this way or don’t look that way, people will take you more seriously as a writer,’ but you know what? I ain’t in this just for them,” she says. “When I’m dead and gone, they’ll look back and see what I’ve done. In the meantime, I’m just busy doing what I feel I need to do.”

Oh, for the silly season of yore

By Martin Patriquin - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 12:16 PM - 1 Comment

One of my favourite this-says-everything-about-Quebec-politics stories dates back to the summer of 1976, in what became the dying days of Robert Bourassa’s first stint as Premier of this fair land. A group of Quebecois air traffic controllers ignited the perfect summertime psychodrama when they pressed for the right to speak their native language to French pilots. In stepped the bad old federal government types at CACA, the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association, who said speaking French in the sky would confuse English pilots and cause them to fly into buildings.

The resulting kerfuffle proved to be a gift for French nationalists, who suggested that only a separate Quebec would have complete control over its airwaves. Bourassa, who never saw a populist issue he couldn’t duck, didn’t do anything when the federal government effectively vetoed airborne bilingualism, and was hence seen as a weakling on language issues. His perceived snub echoed throughout the province’s taverns and bars, and in 1976 he lost the election–even his own seat–and scurried out of politics “the most hated man in Quebec”, as one of his own MPs deemed him.

I can’t say I remember those heady silly days–in 1976, my routine was confined to suckling, crying and crapping–but good lord do I miss them. Back then our silliness could bring down governments; today, not so much. Take the case of Eric Amber, for example. I’m not going to revisit the sad and strange case of the Montreal theatre owner who told a Quebec theatre troupe to go fuck itself, then said his life was in danger, then refused to apologize, then apologized, except to say this: both he and his foes acted like twits, meaning Amber has some boffo material if he ever decides to mount a Brüno-style guerilla theatre thingy in the near future–if he decides that he was joking all along. It sure sounds like he was, judging from a letter he wrote to Patrick Lagacé, after Lagacé had the nerve to post a story about Amber on his popular blogue. It’s pure Brüno poetry, right down to the lip-smacking hyperbole and exaggerated self-importance: 

now i can add death threats to my list of life experience.
as i told you, I am french and do not hate french people or quebec.
i suppose getting people murdered is your thing?

why didnt you just meet with me and speak in person before
you spread your own message of hate.
this kind of thing will not help the french cause.
It only confirms that it is you who is the hurtful one.

I only told one person off.
your actions may get someone killed.
maybe you don’t care if I die.

It goes on, but I’ll spare you. The point is this: it used to be that stupid language issues could change the course of political history. Today, stupid language issues are just… stupid, regardless of the season.

Taking on Google

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 12:14 PM - 0 Comments

With the hope of creating a stronger competitor to industry leader Google, Microsoft and Yahoo announced a 10-year agreement in Internet search and advertising. Microsoft will provide the search technology on Yahoo’s sites while advertising will be divided between the companies. The deal will help support Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing. For Yahoo, the move will allow the firm to focus on its strengths as a producer of media sites and as a leader in online advertising.

The New York Times

Terrorist group ridiculed in Brüno lashes back

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 12:12 PM - 0 Comments

Apparently terrorists don’t take well to being publicly mocked. The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a coalition of Palestinian militias that boasts it was behind dozens of suicide bombings and shootings, has revealed in a statement it was “very upset” to have been featured in Sacha Baron Cohen’s satire Brüno, reports the Times of London. In the movie, Baron Cohen’s Austrian character ridicules the Martyrs’ Brigades when he attempts to get himself kidnapped during a meeting with Ayman Abu Aita, identified in the film as its leader. Brüno tells Abu Aita: “I want to be famous. I want the best guys in the business to kidnap me. Al-Qaeda is so 2001.” He then suggests that Abu Aita remove his moustache, explaining: “Because your king Osama looks like a kind of dirty wizard or homeless Santa.” The tenor of the Martyr Brigade’s message is threatening: “We reserve the right to respond in the way we find suitable against this man,” it said. The British comic is taking the threat seriously and has beefed up his personal security.

The Times

Conservatives do love a parade

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 12:10 PM - 5 Comments

The bureau was abuzz this morning with debate over the merits of John McCallum’s letter to Jim Flaherty this morning. Granted, it doesn’t take much in the middle of summer to excite us. Canadian Press and Canwest explain.

Sadly lost in the debate over Stockwell Day’s economic analysis is due recognition for the rhetorical flare with which he ends his dispatch to constituents.

As the drum beat of economic growth picks up around the world we’ll continue to do all we can to keep Canada at the front of the parade.

The Ronald Reagan Corollary

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 12:02 PM - 2 Comments

Doug Bell sort of dissents from those who long for Michael Ignatieff to be a policy wonk.

I’m not so sure that Ig’s policy prescriptions, whether delivered to big foots or scrubbers, are really the answer. When a pol speaks it’s not the policy that remains as the affective residue, it’s the underlying point of view…

Voters want to know what their representatives think. Not so much because they want to agree or disagree but because only in that way can they sense whether he or she is their guy.

10,000 Uighurs disappeared, leader claims

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 11:51 AM - 0 Comments

Rebiya Kadeer, head of the World Uighur Congress, says 10,000 of her people are missing after riots earlier this month in the Xinjiang region of China. She claims the Chinese government deployed “snatch squads” that kidnapped or arrested thousands of Uighurs in one night during a clash with Han Chinese. Government officials say only 1,687 people have been arrested. They also blame Kadeer for inciting the July 5th riots, which started after police tried to break up protests over the deaths of Uighur workers at the hands of Han colleagues. Kadeer says the government used the protests as an excuse to crackdown on Uighurs vying for an independent state.

Guardian.co.uk

Almost everyone now implicated

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 11:48 AM - 24 Comments

CTV’s Bob Fife reported last night that it was a Liberal source who tipped off the Telegraph-Journal publisher to the wafer story.

No health benefits to organic food

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 11:22 AM - 5 Comments

Organic produce has about the same nutritional value—and no proven extra health benefits—when compared to the regular stuff, UK researchers have found. A team from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine examined evidence on nutrition and health benefits over the last 50 years; among the 55 of 162 studies that were included in their analysis, a small number of differences cropped up in nutrition between organic and conventionally produced food. However, the differences were not large enough to indicate any public health relevance, study leader Dr. Alan Dangour told the BBC. Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study found no differences in nutrients (including vitamin C, calcium, and iron) in these vegetables, meat, dairy or eggs. The differences that were pinpointed (including levels of nitrogen and phosphorus) were probably due to different fertilizers and ripeness at time of harvest, the study said, and are unlikely to provide any health benefit.But Peter Melchett, policy director at the Soil Association, said that more research was needed.

BBC News

Swine flu hits pregnant women hard

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 11:21 AM - 0 Comments

Pregnant women with the H1N1 swine flu are at higher risk of severe illness and death, according to a new US study in the journal Lancet. Pregnant women have always faced a higher risk due to influenza, but the H1N1 virus is hitting them especially hard. “We do see a fourfold increase in hospitalization rates among ill pregnant women compared to the general population,” Dr. Denise Jamieson of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Reuters. “We’re also seeing a relatively large proportion of deaths among pregnant women.” The study looked at the deaths of six pregnant women (all of whom were healthy prior to infection) out of 45 H1N1-related deaths, reported to CBC from April 15 to June 16. Women should not delay pregnancy due to fears about H1N1, CDC officials said, as there’s no evidence they’re more likely to catch the flu—only that, once they’re infected, they’re at increased risk of severe illness.

Reuters