Ted Kennedy and the health care debate

By John Parisella - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 4:13 PM - 18 Comments

UPDATE: When I wrote the post below, I was inspired by the words of a close friend and colleague of Ted Kennedy’s, John McCain, who last Sunday pointed out the need to hear Kennedy’s voice in the healthcare debate. Unfortunately, Kennedy’s voice was silenced during the night when the long-serving Massachussets senator died at his home on Cape Cod. It is important to remember that Ted Kennedy was perhaps the most influential Senator of all time. Unlike his brothers John and Robert, Ted Kennedy loved the Senate and preferred it to any other public office. In 1980, he ran for president but his heart was not in it. He was a champion of the poor, the underprivileged, and the forgotten. There is virtually no social policy passed by Congress over the past 40 years that does not have Teddy’s imprint on it. His charm and his idealism brought many to his side, even opponents who did not share his goals. Above all, Kennedy should be remembered as a man who valued public service as the highest calling. Many tributes will follow but I saw him for what he was at this crucial moment in history—a leader who could have made a difference. Like John and Bobby, Teddy will be missed.

Over the past two weeks, two news items have successfully cut through the US health care debate and both involved America’s most famous family—the Kennedys. On August 11, Eunice Kennedy Shriver passed away at the age of 88. She will be remembered as the founder of the Special Olympics which now involve over 1 million disabled athletes. Robert Kennedy once said of his sister that “she was the Kennedy we all wanted to be” and, judging by the eulogies, she was perhaps the most successful and least controversial member of that illustrious family. Then, last week, cancer-stricken Senator Edward Kennedy sent a letter to legislators in Massachusetts requesting that a change be made to state law to allow for a replacement senator be named quickly should a sudden vacancy—in all likelihood, his own seat—occur. Otherwise, a special election would take place within a five-month period and the ailing senator does not want Massachusetts to be deprived of a vote on a looming healthcare bill. Never mind that state Democrats had passed the current legislation to prevent then-Governor Mitt Romney from appointing a replacement for John Kerry, who was running for president at the time; the Kennedy letter brought to light the deteriorating state of the senator’s health and in so doing may be reminding the public about the importance of this moment in history.

Continue…

Quick, bring me the head of a genius

By Brian Bethune - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 4:05 PM - 0 Comments

When the famed Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn died at age 77 on May 31, 1809, Vienna was in a shambles, bombarded and occupied by Napoleon’s troops. It wasn’t until 1820 that Haydn’s noble patron was ready to move the musician, one of the Hapsburg empire’s most honoured subjects, to a more monumental grave. Prince Esterhazy was outraged, to put it mildly, to discover there was nothing left north of Haydn’s neck other than his wig. His skull had been stolen. The government of Spain was rather more phlegmatic in 1898 when it set out to repatriate the remains of the famous painter Francisco Goya, buried in France 70 years before. The Spanish consul in Bordeaux telegraphed Madrid that “Goya skeleton without a head. Please instruct me,” and received the equally terse response, “Send Goya, with or without head.”

Haydn and Goya were not alone in their fate. A church sexton tied a wire around Mozart’s neck while he lay on his deathbed, which helped him identify and remove the composer’s head when he dug up the communal grave in which Mozart was buried. Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, English philosopher Thomas Browne and a host of less celebrated individuals were also victims of a mania for skulls that raged virulently from the late 18th century to the mid-19th. Skull theft was partly prompted by a lust for trophies, partly by a secular version of the medieval demand for saints’ relics, but mostly by the burgeoning pseudo-science of phrenology. Continue…

Just what happened to the public option

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 4:00 PM - 6 Comments

It was never going to be a Canadian-style single-payer, government-run insurance system, but the congressional Democrats, backed by Barack Obama, have for months been pushing for a “public option”—an alternative government-run insurance plan as part of the wide-ranging health care reform that is to be the legacy-making policy centrepiece of Obama’s first term as president.

The “public option” was supposed to help cover the 45 million uninsured Americans, and put downward pressure on skyrocketing health care costs by allowing a government entity to negotiate low bulk rates with medical providers and forcing private insurers to compete with a not-for-profit alternative. To some liberal Democrats, it was the heart of the comprehensive health care reform scheme and offered a first step toward laying down the infrastructure for those who clung to the currently impossible dream of a single-payer system. Given Democratic control of the White House and both houses of Congress, and a protracted recession in which legions of Americans are losing their health care insurance along with their jobs, it seemed at the outset like a fortuitous moment to pass the plan—despite objections by the Republican minority that it would amount to a “socialist” takeover of health care. Continue…

And speaking of what Michael Ignatieff's been up to this summer

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 3:32 PM - 7 Comments

Here is Michael Ignatieff speaking about what he’s been up to this summer.

There's one for you, 19 for me

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 2:54 PM - 10 Comments

According to Mark Steyn’s latest column in the Orange Country Register, the U.S., Britain and Italy have at least two things in common when it comes to their finances: all three spent untold billions stimulating their economies and all three are the only major economies that are still in a downturn. Of the three, the U.S. has the most shameful record: “Gordon Brown and Silvio Berlusconi can’t compete with Obama’s $800-billion porkapalooza,” Steyn writes. “The president has borrowed more money to spend to less effect than anybody on the planet.” Steyn’s real fear, though, is that those stimulus dollars, along with the White House’s ambitious healthcare reforms, will burden future generations with a crippling debt load that can only be lessened through higher taxes. Americans are realizing this, Steyn argues, even if their fears seem perversely optimistic. “More and more Americans are beginning to figure out what percentage of them will wind up in ‘the richest 5 percent’ [on which the Democrats will purportedly raise taxes] before this binge is over,” he writes. “According to Gallup, nearly 70 percent of Americans now expect higher taxes under Obama.”

Orange Country Register

At long last, Paul explains relationship with John

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 2:53 PM - 5 Comments

In an interview with Radio Times, McCartney spoke more openly about his relationship with Lennon than perhaps he ever has. McCartney told the magazine that the abrasive image of Lennon is “seriously flawed” and attributed Lennon’s outbursts to drugs and showing off. “John said so much crap that he later said he hadn’t meant,” he said. Noting that his favorite song as a child was “a smoochy old standard that his mum liked,” called Little White Lies. McCartney also noted that “he was a very soft-centered guy and we had a lot more in common than people think. Whatever bad things John said about me, he would also slip his glasses down to the end of his nose and say, ‘I love you.’ ”

Sky News

Global… cooling?

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 2:52 PM - 19 Comments

For all the geophysicists out there, last weekend was huge. A paper published in the American Geophysical Union’s journal Eos made the claim that the world may be plunged into another mini ice age. The climate-change culprit this time around? Not man, not machine—but the sun itself. According to the report, the sun appears to be returning to a state of low activity—as evidenced by a noticeable decline in sunspots [those dark spots you sometimes see on the sun’s surface] over the past few years. What’s a sunspot, anyway? Basically, it’s an area of strong magnetic activity that, in fact, causes the sun to emit more light than usual. Some models predict that we could continue to see a sunspot decline. The last time this happened was in the 17th century, when a “Little Ice Age” (or, Maunder Minimum) swept over Europe, lowering the global mean temperature by 0.4 degrees Celsius. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but scientists said it made a difference (and Europeans recorded some cool winters). But could cooler temperatures means a reversal of the global warming trends? Unlikely. Figures show that global warming would cancel out—and exceed—the effect of cooling. But still, some say a few degrees of cool could be just what we need. Says an article in Ars Technica: “even a relatively small effect may buy humanity valuable time in coming to grips with the CO2 we’re putting into the atmosphere.”

Ars Technica

Enormous H1N1 contamination

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 2:51 PM - 3 Comments

Half of Americans could fall ill, and 90,000 may die, from swine flu this season, according to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Their new report says between 60 and 120 million people could get sick, that 1.8 million may need to be hospitalized, and that the annual death toll associated with the flu could double. The White House is asking for the vaccine to be delivered a month early, while it is still undergoing testing, but a delay in production has just cut the possible amount of available doses from 120 million to 45 million. As it stands now the vaccine is scheduled to be delivered on October 15—the same day infections are expected to peak.

ABC News

A new, and legal, form of meth

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 2:50 PM - 0 Comments

Law enforcement officials in the United States have noticed a new formula for methamphetamine spreading like wildfire. The highly addictive drug is now no longer made in big, highly toxic and explosive labs but can be whipped up by anyone. All it takes is a pop bottle, some cold tablets and a few chemicals. And most importantly, the new combo is still legal in many jurisdictions. So addicts are cutting out their dealer middle men and shaking up batches all by themselves. However it is still addictive and just as volatile.

The Associated Press

Hello, Caraquet!

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 2:49 PM - 10 Comments

David Akin charts the summer travels of Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff with possibly revealing results.

It seems that, so far on their respective summer tours, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been pretty much staying in friendly Conservative-held territory while Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has been largely touring around ridings that the Liberals do not hold.

Indeed, despite having apparently eluded the vision of various keen observers of politics, Mr. Ignatieff has apparently made it to some 22 cities and towns.

And if you like to follow your political leaders more graphically, there’s our official Maclean’s map.

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Jack Found There

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 2:30 PM - 79 Comments

Yes, yes; ITQ is well aware that Colleague Wherry has gone with the Oz theme, but she prefers her literary allusions to have a Carrollian twist. Check back here at 2:45 or so for full liveblogging coverage of the pre-meeting scrum/photo-op, and then vicariously experience the glamourous life of the Hill journalist by hanging around aimlessly for the next hour or so as we wait for the closing press conference.

And yes, she’ll try to take pictures this time too.

2:33:10 PM
Well, with — just under twenty minutes to go til Jack Layton heads into the hallowed halls of Langevin to meet with destiny and/or the prime minister, ITQ is the only print-or-pixel journalist to join the stakeout so far, but the cameras are out in force. We’re on Wellington, at what I gather is actually the main entrance to the Department of Mysteries, although as far as I know, most of the senior denizens — up to and including the PM — tend to use the Metcalfe exit, since it’s not quite so rife with pedestrians, tourist and otherwise.

We’ve also been joined by a seal mascot — or, more accurately, an anti-seal mascot in a seal costume — who, with admirable initiative, is picketing the sidewalk in front of the media throng, complete with a sign imploring the PM to “stop the slaughter”. I wonder if protester mascots, like their sporting event cousins, are discouraged from speaking while — be-headed? He’s getting lots of honks, though. Unless those are for us, which I somehow doubt.

2:47:33 PM
Ooh, I wonder if Jack will stop to shake hands — or fins with the seal! You’d have to think that of all the party leaders, he’d be the most likely to secretly oppose — or even be agnostic to — the seal hunt, but for all those Atlantic Canadian seats — actual and aspirational — that he thinks it would cost him.

2:53:03 PM
Apparently, Anne McGrath will be joining Jack for a fourway with the PM and Giorno The Great and Terrible. (Yeah, I finally Baum’d up.)

Continue…

He's off to see the wizard (V)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 1:29 PM - 16 Comments

I am reliably informed that the NDP requested the meeting. That they will be meeting with all of the party leaders over the next while. And that Jack Layton will be raising the issue of Canadians stranded abroad.

So there.

He's off to see the wizard (IV)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 1:18 PM - 3 Comments

Althia Raj hears different things.

he said/she said. NDP says PM called the meeting. PMO says layton requested in the meeting earlier in the summer.

Polar bears are literally shrinking

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 12:55 PM - 2 Comments

Researchers have concluded that polar bears are shrinking and that stress is to blame. The study concludes that bear skulls have changed in both size and shape compared with the earlier half of the 20th century. Bear skulls in the latter decades of the century were between two to nine per cent smaller. The stress is linked to an increase of pollutants in the bears’ bodies and the reduction of sea ice, which now demands extra energy to hunt. “Polar bears are one of the most polluted mammals on the globe,” says Christian Sonne, a veterinary scientist involved with the study.

BBC News

He's off to see the wizard (III)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 12:53 PM - 18 Comments

Susan Delacourt is mischevious.

Okay, who’s going to be the first to talk about the “undemocratic” NDP-Conservative coalition after Layton meets Harper today?

Canada v. Khadr, the Empire Strikes Back

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 12:49 PM - 25 Comments

After the jump, the official statement from Foreign Affairs on the government’s second appeal of the Federal Court ruling that it repatriate Omar Khadr.

For the sake of argument, here is the Supreme Court’s previous ruling on issues related to Khadr’s imprisonment and here is the Federal Court’s ruling.

Both links courtesy of the indispensable Khadr files database maintained here. Continue…

He's off to see the wizard (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 12:42 PM - 4 Comments

The Sun’s Althia Raj says the Prime Minister requested the meeting.

Layton to meet Harper at 3pm. NDP says the PM requested the meeting. Oh la la!

Haven't we done this whole Layton/Harper meeting before?

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 12:20 PM - 35 Comments

No, really: ITQ was there — although not liveblogging for some reason. She has berrypics of the whole thing, even!

Which isn’t to say that she won’t be hanging around outside Langevin this afternoon, of course, but it seems to her that this is just the start of the recent tradition of pre-session meet-and-greet-and-pretend-we’re-all-trying-to-make-parliament-work between the prime minister and the various opposition leaders.

Which means that unless the PM is on one of his periodic ‘This government will never negotiate with separatists’ kicks, Gilles Duceppe will almost certainly be next on the invite list for a cosy one-on-one-chat, with a Ignatieff/Harper tete a tete as the grand finale, likely sometime late next week, just before the pre-Labour Day round of Senate appointments.

Oops. Should I have put that in spoilertext? Sorry about that.

Anyway, ITQ will also be heading to the National Press Theatre for Layton’s post-meeting media availability, so check back later for the designated liveblogging thread.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, in Yellowknife, Ignatieff is “[trying] to dispel rumours of a fall election,” according to Canadian Press, with vague platitudes about wanting “good government, not an election”, and then immediately falling into a self-dug logic hole by pointing out the “50 billion deficit and 1.5 million unemployed,” and saying that “the Harper government isn’t doing enough to deal with the situation.”

Woman who helped accused murderer Jenkins is found by police

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 12:03 PM - 2 Comments

The woman who assisted accused murderer Ryan Jenkins to check into a motel three days before he was found dead has been identified by police. The woman is not considered a risk to public safety—but the police aren’t releasing any other specific information about her. She may be charged by Canadian authorities for helping Jenkins illegally enter Canada as well as by U.S. authorities for being an accessory to the murder of Jenkins’ ex-wife, Jasmine Fiore. Jenkins was charged with first-degree murder in California last Thursday. He hung himself on Sunday at the Thunderbird Motel in Hope, B.C.

CBC

Ottawa fighting Khadr ruling

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 11:27 AM - 7 Comments

The Canadian government is planning to fight a federal court of appeal decision upholding a lower court ruling that ordered Ottawa to demand the  return of Omar Khadr from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. Khadr, who is a  Canadian citizen, was arrested in Afghanistan for the murder of a U.S.  soldier. He was 15 at the time, and has been imprisoned since 2002 under  murder, conspiracy and support of terrorism charges. The lower court ruled that his charter rights are being violated and that the government must press for his repatriation. Ottawa is refusing, saying Khadr has been “accused of serious crimes including murder” and that “its position remains unchanged.”

CBC

He's off to see the wizard

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 11:26 AM - 20 Comments

The press gallery is informed that Jack Layton will be stopping by Langevin Block at 2:50pm today to have his picture taken on his way to meeting with the Prime Minister.

A press conference will follow at 4pm in the National Press Theatre.

Gemini Is Truly Outrageous, Truly, Truly, Truly Outrageous

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 11:14 AM - 2 Comments

The Gemini Award Nominations have been announced.

This may not be a golden age for Canadian programming, but we do have enough worthwhile stuff that we can actually have arguments about which shows deserved to be nominated. For example, Murdoch Mysteries got a nomination for writing, but not for best drama. Flashpoint got the most nominations, though I wouldn’t necessarily translate that to mean it’s the favourite to win; it does demonstrate, though, that the show is kind of a breakthrough in terms of creating a slick, up-to-date, technically-proficient look in a Canadian series. (Canadian shows, particularly those filmed in Toronto, often look a bit technically out of date, whereas U.S. crews come to Canada and create that glossy studio-system look. Part of what Flashpoint has done is to look as good as American shows do when they film here, while not trying to disguise Toronto as New York or Baltimore.)

Update: Careless wording (particularly the use of “U.S. crews” when I should have said something like “U.S. producers”) made the above sound like a dis on the quality of Canadian crews/technicians, which obviously it isn’t — many of the technicians working on shows produced here are Canadian, whether the show is U.S. or Canadian-made. (Sort of like Star Wars is an American film, but it was produced in England and most of the crew was English, and brilliant.) As pointed out in comments, the key difference is the amount of money involved, particularly the fact that the budget was stretched to use 35mm film stock like the U.S. procedurals do.

Update 2: Speaking of Flashpoint, CTV has announced September 25 as its return date, along with several other fall premiere dates.

Update 3: The srangest omission on any of these lists is the final season of Corner Gas, which doesn’t appear to have been nominated for anything at all even though it was eligible. This story is, as they say, developing, since it sounds like some kind of mistake might have been made (normally when a big show doesn’t get nominated for the big awards, it will at least get nominated for something).

What happened to Leaf Nation?

By Michael Travers - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 11:06 AM - 11 Comments

I was on Bay Street in Toronto to watch the line of convertibles carry my Maple Leaf heroes as they drove to meet the mayor at City Hall following their Stanley Cup victories in 1962, ’63, ’64 and ’67. There used to be a black and white photo of the 1962 parade hanging on the wall on the second floor of Maple Leaf Gardens. I was the kid hanging from the lamppost in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. Just my being there, as a fan during the Leafs’ glory years, probably qualifies me as a member of Leaf Nation.

Last week in Port Colborne, the 12th captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ted “Teeder” Kennedy, was laid to rest in his 84th year following a lengthy illness. The downtown church was crowded with friends and relatives. His wife of 61 years was there. His son delivered a wonderful, funny tribute. It was more like a conversation with friends than a speech. Those in attendance did not include Richard Peddie, Larry Tannenbaum, Tom Anselmi, or Brian Burke. There were no Leafs suits and no Leafs Alumni Association executives or members at the church’s funeral liturgy. Continue…

Obama re-appoints Bernanke

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 10:56 AM - 2 Comments

President Obama is re-appointing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for another term in office. Bernanke is a Republican who was appointed by George W. Bush to replace Alan Greenspan, and like Greenspan, he will have the distinction of being appointed to his post by both Republican and Democratic presidents. Obama considered picking a Democrat to replace Bernanke, but ultimately decided on continuity; his reasons for the re-appointment are that, according to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, he “has essentially been pulling the economy back from the brink of what would have been the second Great Depression.” Bernanke is the second major Bush appointee that Obama has chosen to keep on; the first was Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Bernanke is likely to win Senate confirmation for another term. However, some Senators may question him harshly about his role in helping both Bush and Obama throw huge amounts of money at the financial institutions that helped cause the recession in the first place.

The New York Times