what has sarah silverman been doing?

She's been...

Not safe for work!

I thought you could use some comic relief before I hit you with Chris Hedges.

ko on fisa

Time for a little Keith Olbermann. It's always time for Keith Olbermann!

Transcript via Truthout:

In a presidency of hypocrisy - an administration of exploitation - a labyrinth of leadership - in which every vital fact is a puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma hidden under a claim of executive privilege supervised by an idiot - this one... is surprisingly easy.

President Bush has put protecting the telecom giants from the laws... ahead of protecting you from the terrorists.

He has demanded an extension of the FISA law - the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - but only an extension that includes retroactive immunity for the telecoms who helped him spy on you.

Congress has given him, and he has today signed a fifteen-day extension which simply kicks the time bomb down the field, and has changed nothing of his insipid rhetoric, in which he portrays the Democrats as 'soft on terror' and getting in the way of his superhuman efforts to protect the nation… when, in fact, and with bitter irony, if anybody is 'soft on terror' here… it is Mr. Bush.

In the State of the Union Address, sir, you told Congress, "if you do not act by Friday, our ability to track terrorist threats would be weakened and our citizens will be in greater danger."

Yet you are willing to weaken that ability!

You will subject us, your citizens, to that greater danger.

This, Mr. Bush, is simple enough even for you to understand: If Congress approves a new FISA act without telecom immunity and sends it to your desk and you veto it - you, by your own terms and your own definitions, you will have just sided with the terrorists.

Ya gotta have this law, or we're all gonna die. But you might veto this law!

It's bad enough, sir, that you are demanding an ex post facto law which would clear the phone giants from responsibility for their systematic, aggressive, and blatant collaboration with your illegal and unjustified spying on Americans, under the flimsy guise of looking for any terrorists stupid enough to make a collect call or send a mass e-mail.

But when you then demanded again, during the State of the Union address, that Congress retroactively clear the Verizons and the AT&T's, you wouldn't even confirm that they actually did anything for which they deserved to be cleared!

"The Congress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend America."

Believed?

Don't you know?

Does the endless hair-splitting of your presidential fine print, extend even here?

If you, sir, are asking Congress, and us, to join you in this shameless, breathless, literal, textbook example of fascism - the merged efforts of government and corporations who answer to no government - you still don't have the guts to even say the telecom companies did assist you, in your efforts?

Will you and the equivocators who surround you like a cocoon never go on the record about anything?

Even the stuff you claim to believe in?

Silly me.

Of course Mr. Bush is going to say "believed."

Yes, it sounds dumber than if he had referred to himself as "the alleged president," or had said today was "reportedly Thursday," or had claimed "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq.

But the moment he says anything else, any doubt that the telecoms knowingly broke the law, is out the window, and with it, any chance that even the Republicans who are fighting this like they were trying to fend off terrorists using nothing but broken beer bottles and swear words couldn't consent to retroactively immunize corporate criminals.

Which is why the Vice President probably shouldn't have phoned in to the Rush Limbaugh Propaganda-Festival yesterday.

Sixth sentence out of Mr. Cheney's mouth: The FISA bill is about, quote, "retroactive liability protection for the companies that have worked with us and helped us prevent further attacks against the United States."

Oops.

Mr. Cheney is something of a loose cannon, of course.

But he kind of let the wrong cat out of the bag there.

Because Mr. Bush - and the corporations he values more than people - didn't want anybody to verify what Mark Klein says.

Mark Klein is the AT&T whistleblower who appeared on this newscast last November, who explained, in the placid, dull terms of your local neighborhood I-T desk, how he personally attached all of AT&T's circuits - everything carrying every phone call, every e-mail, every bit of web browsing - into a secure room...

...Room Number 641-A, at the Folsom Street facility in San Francisco - where it was all copied so the government could look at it.

Not some of it; not just the international part of it; certainly not just the stuff some truly patriotic and telepathic spy might be able to divine had been sent or spoken by or to a terrorist.

Everything.

Every time you looked at a naked picture, every time you bid on eBay, every time you phoned-in a donation to a Democrat.

"My thought was 'George Orwell's 1984,'" Mr. Klein told me, reflecting back, "and here I am, being forced to… connect the Big Brother machine."

You know, Mr. Bush, if Mr. Klein's "Big Brother Machine" - the one the Vice President conveniently just confirmed for us - if it was of any damn use at all at actually finding anything, you could probably program it to find out who started that slanderous e-mail about Barack Obama.

Use Room 641-A to identify that E–assassin, sir, and I'll stand up and applaud you.

Yeah, I'm holding my breath on that one, too.

But of course, sir, this isn't about finding that kind of needle in a haystack. This isn't even about finding a haystack. This is about scooping up every piece of hay there ever was, and laying the groundwork for the next little job which you have to outsource to AT&T and Verizon.

It was your Director of National Intelligence, Mr. McConnell, letting this one out of the same bag.

The need for Homeland Security to stave off cyber-attacks against the government's computer networks.

And how do they do that, sir?

By constantly monitoring the internet - the whole internet.

And who actually, physically, does that, Mr. Bush?

Right. The same telecom giants for whom you want immunity - Quickly. So quickly, you wouldn't believe it.

Because this previous domestic spying, and this upcoming policing of the internet - they may be completely evil, indiscriminate, unlawful. So you have to dress it up, as something just the opposite.

It isn't evil... it's "to protect America."

It isn't indiscriminate... it's "the ability to monitor terrorist communications."

It isn't unlawful... it's just the kind of perfectly legal thing, for which you happen to need immunity!

There's yet another level to this, and here we move from Big Brother... to Sleazy Son.

Mr. Bush's new Attorney General, Mr. Mukasey, the one who has already taken four different positions on water-boarding, and who may yet tie that record on this subject of telecom immunity - he has a very personal stake in this.

There happens to be a partner in the law firm of Bracewell and Giuliani, named Marc Mukasey. And Bracewell and Giuliani and the Attorney General's son Marc, just happen to represent... Verizon.

You know, Verizon - Telecom Giant.

And all of a sudden this is no longer just a farce in which "protecting the telecoms" is dressed up for us as, 'protecting us from terrorist conference calls.'

Now it begins to look like the bureaucrats of the Third Reich trying to protect the Krupp Family industrial giants by literally re-writing the laws for their benefit.

And we know how that turned out: Alfried Krupp and eleven of his directors were convicted of War Crimes at Nuremburg.

Nevertheless.

For those of us watching a President demanding this very specific law (the one the Germans had was called the "Lex Krupp") there is one surprising bit of comfort in all this:

Clearly, Mr. Bush is at his hyperbolic worst here.

Consider how his former chief of staff Andy Card came on and scolded Chris Matthews and me after the State of the Union address.

"The President's address tonight was very important," Card said, "because it really was a sobering call to reality for us.

"And the reality is, we have an enemy who wants to hurt us. The primary job of the president to protect us.

"He talked about protecting us. He talked about the needs to have the tools to protect us."

Indeed, Mr. Bush.

The primary job of any president is to protect us.

Not just those of us who own Internet and Telephone companies - All of us.

And even you, sir, with your intermittent grasp of reality... even with your ego greater than a 100-percent approval rating... even with your messianic petulance - even you could not truly choose to protect the corporations instead of the people.

I am not talking about ethics here. I am talking about blame.

Even if it's you throwing out the baby with the bathwater, Mr. Bush, it still means we can safely conclude... there is no baby!

This is not a choice of protecting the telecoms from prosecution, or protecting the people from terrorists, sir.

It is a choice of protecting the telecoms from prosecution, or pretending to protect the people from terrorists.

Sorry, Mr. Bush. The eavesdropping provisions of FISA have obviously had no impact on counter-terrorism, and there is no current or perceived terrorist threat, the thwarting of which could hinge on an e-mail or a phone call going through room 641-A at AT&T in San Francisco next week or next month.

Because if there were, Mr. Bush, and you were to, by your own hand, veto an extension of this eavesdropping, and some terrorist attack were to follow, you would not merely be guilty of siding with the terrorists, you would not merely be guilty of prioritizing the telecoms over the people, you would not merely be guilty of stupidity, you would not merely be guilty of treason… but you would be personally, and eternally, responsible.

And if there is one thing we know about you, Mr. Bush, one thing that you have proved time and time again under any and all circumstances, it is that you are never responsible.

Good night and good luck.

canada out of afghanistan, part...

There's been a lot of Afghanistan-related news lately, and I haven't blogged about any of it. Most of it has been political news - people talking about what might and might not happen - and I generally don't blog about politics in that sense. I just pay attention.

About Canada's mission war in Afghanistan, I can only say the one word that matters: out. Canada has to get out, and the sooner, the better.

Afghanistan is not a peacekeeping mission, it's not in support of democracy, and Canada has no more business being there than the US does in Iraq.

To borrow Linda McQuaig's excellent phrase, Canada is "holding the bully's coat": making it easier for the US to do its dirty job, while giving the appearance of keeping its hands clean. And it's getting increasingly difficult to maintain even that:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper wouldn't answer questions Friday about allegations the governor of Kandahar was personally involved in the torture and abuse of detainees.

As The Globe and Mail reported Friday, the Harper government knew, but tried to keep secret since last spring, the allegations against Governor Asadullah Khalid...

Canada's presence in Afghanistan also makes it easier for Canada to deal with the US politically. And it seems to make many people - mostly Conservatives - feel good in a macho, players-on-the-world-stage kind of way. More thoughts on that coming soon, as I've just started reading Chris Hedges's War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning.

Maintaining my (inadvertant) tradition of blogging about news events after they've left the headlines, I'll remind you that in a torture-awareness training manual, Canada named the US and Israel on its list of countries that torture.

Oops, did we say that? Surely it was a mistake. Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said he ordered the manual to be rewritten and assured those fine countries that the document did not reflect the Government's position.

You can re-write a manual, but that won't change the truth.

art adventurers freeze grand central terminal

While I'm posting short non sequiturs, how about some site-specific performance art from New York City? 207 people stood perfectly still for five minutes in the main hall of Grand Central Terminal. Go to Improv Everywhere to see some of the results.

I love this kind of thing. And it's wonderful to see the main hall in Grand Central, one of the most beautiful public spaces anywhere (although marred by those huge ugly flags). If you've read Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale, you'll always look up to see the stars. A nice click-to-enlarge photo (sans flag) here.

I'm a bit shocked that, for all the work that must have gone into staging this event, Improv Everywhere didn't bother to get the name of the building right. It's Grand Central Terminal. There is a Grand Central Station, but it's a nondescript postal facility.

Thanks to James, via Boing Boing. But go here to see more.

let them stay: reports from u.s. actions

Courage To Resist has posted reports from the January 25 Day of Action. Americans delivered the message to Canadian consulates in eight cities: let US war resisters stay in Canada.

Good reports, photos and some audio here.

quick! someone get me a calendar!

What year is this? What century is this???

Judge orders HIV-positive witness to wear mask in court: says "dried HIV virus" will reactivate in water.

Thanks to Slap Upside The Head. Check out the blog, it's great.

learning spanish for your nanny

Trouble with immigrants? Try learning their language!

Thanks to AWE.

"the norm is disaster, the extreme is slavery"

Do you need any more reasons not to eat fast food?

Last week in The Nation, editor by Katrina vanden Heuvel wrote about conditions among migrant farm workers in Immokalee, Florida.

These farmworkers pick the tomatoes many Americans eat at McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King and other fast food chains. They are paid 45 cents for a 32-pound bucket of tomatoes. It's grueling work, as Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser noted recently in a New York Times op-ed: "During a typical day each migrant picks, carries and unloads two tons of tomatoes." For that two tons the worker can expect about $50, and annual wages of $10,000-$14,000. Wages have been stagnant for more than two decades. Two weeks ago, six people were indicted on slavery charges for beating workers, chaining and locking them inside U-haul trucks, and threatening physical harm if the workers left their jobs. This is far from a rare occurrence, as the Miami Herald wrote, "...farm crew slavery stories and the brutal exploitation of undocumented workers have long since lost their shock value in Florida."

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) - a community-based worker organization - has "exposed a half-dozen slavery cases" that helped trigger the freeing of more than 1,000 workers, and also advocated for better wages, living conditions, respect from the industry, and an end to indentured servitude. CIW recently scored critical victories in negotiating a penny-per-pound surcharge - so workers would now receive about 77 cents per 32-pound bucket - with McDonald’s and Yum! Brands (owner of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC). The corporations - not the tomato growers - would pay the 40 percent salary increase. Astonishingly, Burger King has refused to go along with the deal (tell Burger King to pony up) - it would cost them less than $300,000 annually and the corporation took in $2.23 billion in revenues in 2007. Not to mention three private equity firms control most of Burger King’s stock, including Goldman Sachs. In 2006 Goldman Sachs' top 12 execs took home bonuses exceeding $200 million - "more than twice as much money as all of the roughly 10,000 tomato pickers in southern Florida earned that year," according to Schlosser.) Even more outrageous is the response of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, representing 90 percent of the state's growers. The group has said it will fine any member $100,000 for accepting the extra penny per pound for worker wages.

Bernie Sanders, the maverick Senator from Vermont, joined Eric Schlosser in Immokalee, where they met with worker representatives and witnessed the working and living conditions for themselves. Here's what Sanders told vanden Heuvel.

...when we talk about the race to the bottom here in the United States I would say that Immokalee, Florida is the bottom. I think those are workers who are more ruthlessly exploited and treated with more contempt than any group of workers that I've ever seen and I suspect exist in the US.

What I observed is... I was out at 5:30 in the morning, where tomato pickers from all over the community assemble at several locations, primarily in a large parking lot. School buses come by to pick them up and take them to different growers' tomato fields. Some are selected and some are not. So, for a start, when you line up at 5:30 in the morning, you don’t know if you’re going to make a nickel during that day. You're standing there, and someone is pointing, 'you, you, you... but not you...' and you can see people dejected, because by 8:30 the buses are out and if you're not selected you're not gonna work. So these are desperate people then who have just discovered that that day they're not gonna earn a penny.

Then you get on the bus and depending on which farm you're going to it will be longer or shorter, but perhaps you’re going a half hour away.... You're getting to the field at 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning, and you don't go to work right away. You're getting paid piecemeal. The pay is very, very low to begin with, but you're getting paid piecemeal. You can’t pick until the sun comes out and dries the tomatoes. So we got photographs of workers just hanging around the bus waiting for the tomatoes to dry and that might be an hour, hour and a half. Now it's not only that this is your time, it is in a sense the contempt that you are so disposable, that we can get you out here just to sit around doing nothing while you're waiting for the tomatoes to dry...

Then you go out and you're picking tomatoes and you make on average about 45 cents for a 32 pound bucket of tomatoes - about a penny and a half per pound. That is not a lot of money. My understanding is that at the end of the year these are workers that will make 10,000, 12,000, 14,000 a year, working a very, very difficult job, under a very hot sun. After you do this job for a number of years your knees go out because you're bending over all of the time. Obviously there are no benefits that go with the job. I went over to the health center to see what was going on... I met with these workers, and talked to them - they just don't go to the doctor. Some of them are able to take their children to the doctor, they have no real access to healthcare.

In terms of their living conditions, I visited trailers… and these trailers were old, decrepit trailers where you had 8 to 10 people living in the trailer. In the morning to get to the bathroom, sink, or stove, you gotta wait in line to do it, because there are a lot of people in front of you. And they’re paying in some cases $50 per person, per week! You got that? So, the landlord who owns this old trailer is getting $2000 a month. And what someone there told me - I don't know if it's true or not - they buy these old trailers for about $2000 so they get their money back at the end of one month.

The days I was there - it was raining, when it rains you don't pick. The next day it rained mid-day so you had half a day of picking. Then, an amazing coincidence - when I was there the US Attorney announced an indictment on slavery charges. So we have seen now - I don't remember exactly the number - of different indictments that have been made against different individuals for slavery… which means that some of these people are being held in captivity, in some cases in chains. I think in the last instances, a couple of workers literally forcibly busted out of truck in which they were held against their will. So, the norm there is a disaster, and the extreme is slavery. And this is taking place in the United States of America in the year 2008.

Now some people might say, 'Well, I don't pick tomatoes why do I have to worry about it?' And the answer is that so long as these types of abysmal working conditions exist in the US, they create a culture which leads us to the race to the bottom… which says that any worker can be subject to arbitrary actions on the part of an employer. Just create a very, very strong anti-worker culture, which is part of the destruction of the middle class, the increase in poverty, the lack of respect for working people in this country.

Now the good news is there is a very wonderful group called the Coalition of Immokalee Workers who have managed to put pressure on large buyers of tomatoes, i.e., fast food chains like Yum! which owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, and McDonald's, to pay an additional penny a pound. And if you understand that if someone is making a penny and a half a pound, and they get an additional penny, that's a very significant increase. Burger King has been resistant, and there is now pressure being put on Burger King and other companies. And I would hope that as Americans, we all do everything we can, to demand that companies pay these workers a living wage and end this horrendous exploitation.

The Tomato Growers Exchange seems to be playing a very reactionary role. They are claiming that this additional penny a pound is in violation of antitrust law... I myself think that the issue - if you look at the amount of money that is being asked to be contributed by McDonald's, Burger King, and so forth - it is nothing. Very, very small number. I don’t think the money is the issue. I think truthfully, in my gut, the issue is a question of a balance of power. It is a feeling right now that you have workers who are absolutely helpless, the feeling that if they achieve some victories, they may have more confidence in themselves and more of an ability to stand up for their rights.

So, imagine, just put yourself in their place. You don't know whether you’re gonna work or not, there are no guarantees that you are - I may pick you, I may not - if you come there, if I pick you, you're gonna wait around for an hour and a half. What does that do to you as a human being? But these are desperate people who need the work, so to my mind it was an eye-opening experience, and I hope that as a nation we can end that kind of exploitation.

The very good news - what was positive about my visit down there was - we did a press conference, and the reporters went to Burger King, and Burger King came forth with what appeared to be a conciliatory response. Now whether it is just talk or not, we can't tell. But we want to pursue that. And certainly what we released when I was down there was a letter that was written by Senator Kennedy, Sen. Durbin, Sen. Brown and myself. And Sen. Kennedy has been very clear in telling me that he is prepared to do hearings on this issue. And I think that's terribly important, not only in exposing the exploitation, but trying to explain to the American people how slavery can take place in the United States in the year 2008.

Full story with links here.

Wherever there are farms, there is migrant labour, and Canada has a surprisingly large agricultural economy. I'm reading online about conditions of migrant workers here, trying to educate myself. As with so many issues, it seems that Canada is better than the US, but only by degree. That is, an improvement over a shamefully low standard. I found this story in "Arthur," an excellent publication written by students at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.

Every year, over 20,000 migrant farm workers from the Caribbean and Mexico are employed in Canada through the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP), with over 90% working in Ontario. The SAWP, one of Canada’s several "guest worker" programs, stipulates some basic labour rights --- protection from wage discrimination, the right to refuse over-time, entitlement to collect Workers' Compensation when injured on the job, and more recently, the right to refuse unsafe work.

But, as Min Sook Lee’s compelling 2003 documentary "El Contrato" reveals, these rights are mostly elusive for migrant farm workers. While "the Contract" provides an appearance of accountability and fairness, its foundations stipulate conditions that ensure that migrant workers are "unfree" while working on Canadian soil. Most fundamentally, by denying citizenship status to migrant workers, Canadian governments ensure an ongoing supply of "permanently temporary" (i.e., uniquely exploitable) workers on Canadian farms. Migrant workers cannot change employers without permission, and they must leave Canada at the end of their contract. The Contract also includes a unique and powerful "breach of contract" clause, a ready-made tool for use by employers who wish to "repatriate" (send home) workers. While employers are free to invoke this clause without scrutiny or penalty, workers are not free to appeal its use. By gesturing to formal labour rights but providing no means to access them, Canadian governments are fully complicit in a cover-up of the vast abuses, discriminations and inequalities that pervade migrant workers' experiences.

Despite immense challenges, migrant farm workers have been fighting to improve their working and social conditions and to gain legal rights. Just last summer, for example, migrant farm workers in BC staged a wild-cat strike - withdrawing their labour power to force the employer and the government to provide adequate housing - and they won.

Migrant workers have also built alliances with labour organizers in Ontario. Since 2001, migrant farm workers have been organizing with Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW), a grass-roots organization that works through community outreach and activism to create a worker-driven movement for migrant and non-status agricultural workers in Ontario. Through self-organizing and working with allies, migrant workers are making an impact. They are leading the labour movement in pushing for rights for some of the most vulnerable workers in Canada. They are also a leading voice against racism in Canada, including institutionalized state racism.

The story continues with an interview with a representative from Justicia, a coalition organizing for the rights of migrant workers.

Migrant workers in Manitoba won the right to organize and to collective bargaining just last year. In June 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that collective bargaining is a right protected by the Charter.

I'm still reading and learning. If any reader has knowledge of conditions in Canada (or elsewhere) or the fight to improve them, I hope you'll leave a comment.

Please take a moment to tell Burger King to pay the penny per pound. And don't eat that crap.

great dog pics

Originally uploaded by JnL

On New Year's Day, Tala and Cody had a playdate with their friend Cobalt. James, Cobalt's dad, photographed the mayhem. Photos are here. Enjoy!

Update: you can read about Cobalt and Tala's emerging (and amusing) friendship here.

vermont town calls for indictment and arrest of white house war criminals

In the town of Brattleboro, Vermont, this petition received enough votes to advance to a town-wide vote on March 4.

Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro Police, pursuant to the above-mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecute or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?

The town's website has been besieged by wingnuts, so if you'd like to post a message of support, go here and click on "Your Comments".

The petition has no legal standing, of course. It's just a great idea.

And while we're in the nation of my birth, I'll break my self-imposed silence on the electoral goings-on to offer four words on Rudy Giuliani: I TOLD YOU SO!!

Apparently many people thought this man was really going to run for President of the United States! What a hoot.

New Yorkers know what Rudy is all about. You know, the people who actually lived through "America's mayor" [insert gagging noise here] as mayor? And yeah, the Republicans are going to nominate a pro-choice, Catholic, serial adulterer with two gay best friends. Sadly for us all, Republicans are not that stupid.

And now back to my boycott of the circus.

more truth on tasers

A study of Taser stun guns done in Chicago in 2006 refutes the manufacturer's about the weapons' safety. From CBC:

The team of doctors and scientists at the trauma centre in Chicago's Cook County hospital stunned 11 pigs with Taser guns in 2006, hitting their chests with 40-second jolts of electricity, pausing for 10 to 15 seconds, then hitting them for 40 more seconds.

When the jolts ended, every animal was left with heart rhythm problems, the researchers said. Two of the animals died from cardiac arrest, one three minutes after receiving a shock.

. . .

Bob Walker, one of the lead researchers on the Chicago study, said the fact that one of the pigs died three minutes after being stunned is significant.

"It says that the effect of the Taser shot can last beyond the time when it's being delivered," he said. "So, after the Taser shock ends, there can still be effects that can be evoked and you can still see cardiac effects."

This is also significant because up most so-called studies on Taser safety derive from one source: Taser Inc. When questioned about Taser safety, police departments all over North America simply quote their Taser-produced instruction manuals, and city governments nod their heads.

Tom Smith, chairman and CEO of Taser, was in Ottawa yesterday, defending his product to the House Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security. The hearings were prompted by the tasering death of Robert Dziekanski, who was murdered by RCMP officers in the Vancouver airport in October.

Some of the most difficult questions came from Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who was attorney-general of British Columbia around the time that Victoria police became the first force in the country to try tasers.

Mr. Dosanjh asked Mr. Smith whether he was suggesting that tasers played absolutely no role in the 300 or so North American deaths that occurred after the device's use in the past few years. Mr. Smith said the use of tasers was deemed a contributing factor in only about 30 of the cases.

It was during subsequent questioning about Taser International's financial relationship with Canadian police officers that Mr. Smith revealed the company had paid two Canadian officers for services.

One of those officers, Darren Laur of the Victoria police, was compensated with Taser stock after designing a holster for the device. However, it was not publicly known that a second officer was paid until yesterday's hearing. After the session, Mr. Smith said he believes the second officer was from a Montreal police force and was paid to provide taser training in Europe because he could speak French.

Yesterday marked Mr. Smith's second Canadian public appearance this month. Two weeks ago, the Taser CEO was in Toronto, fielding questions at police headquarters. The Toronto Police Services Board is considering a request by Chief Bill Blair to spend about $8.6-million to equip and train every front-line officer with a taser.

A research analyst covering Taser International said a resulting purchase may be worth more than $3-million in revenue for the company. However, it is unclear when, or if, the deal will go ahead.

As usual, there's big money to be made from deadly force. And potentially big corruption, too.

The best source I've found for information on Taser use - and advocacy against its deadly use - is Truth Not Tasers. TNT's statement:

1) The safety implications of Tasers require urgent independent and unbiased study.

2) Until such time as independent and unbiased study into the safety implications of Tasers has been properly completed, a moratorium must be imposed upon these weapons.

3) If, after independent and unbiased study has been completed, the Taser is going to remain in the police arsenal, it must be placed at a level equal to lethal force on the continuum of force and used only as a second-to-last resort.

4) Safety standards must be developed for Tasers. There are currently no Canadian safety standards in place for this weapon.

5) Police must not be allowed to investigate themselves but must be subject to independent and unbiased civilian oversight.

6) Families of people who die in police custody in Canada must be provided with funding so that they may be properly represented by legal counsel.

An important list, worthy of our support.

I'm not sure where that leaves us with wackos like this: a man in Portland, Oregon used a taser on his 18-month-old son. He wanted to toughen him up. And this is a weapon people can own in their own homes, no questions asked. People like this make me question my core belief on reproductive freedom. (Child abuse story from James. Beautiful pictures of some non-abused canine babies on his blog!)

james bow endorses wmtc for best progressive blog

Thank you very much to Bow. James Bow. for choosing wmtc for Best Progressive Blog in the Canadian Blog Awards. It's not exactly a run-don't-walk endorsement, but I very much appreciate the mention.

Today is the last day to vote.

what i'm reading: the omnivore's dilemma: a natural history of four meals

I haven't had a chance to blog about The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, which I wrote about here, and finished last week. It's a fascinating book, remarkable in many ways.

Think about food. Brainstorm every aspect of food in our lives, and that's what this book is about: the political, moral, ethical, philosophical, environmental, social, cultural, and even spiritual aspects of the entire food chain.

Pollan touches on anthropology, biology, nutrition and human health, human psychology, animal behaviour, cultural norms, humans' relationship to nature and the animal world (both over time and across cultures), philosophy, cooking, and undoubtedly several disciplines that I haven't named. The book is often described as being about "everything in the world," and now I can understand why. Pollan is saying, in a sense, that how we get our nourishment - the choices we make, both individually and as a society - is intimately connected to everything in the world.

This dense melange is structured through four meals, derived from four different food chains: industrial, organic, hunted-gathered, and a fourth Pollan discovers during his research, best called "industrial organic". He traces each meal back through its chain, and through that journey, shows us the true origins and costs of our food.

In an entirely fascinating book, I want to highlight two areas that were particularly fascinating to me.

Pollan spends a lot of time at Polyface Farm, run by Joel Salatin of Viriginia. Through an amazingly ingenious plan, and extremely labour-intensive methods, Salatin runs a farm that is completely self-sustaining and uses virtually no fossil fuels. Chickens, cows, pigs, and - especially, above all, grass - all fertilize, feed and sustain each other. It is the healthiest environment imaginable: for the earth, for the animals and for the people who consume its products.

Salatin is a radical, and fully conceives of his work as socially and politically radical, as well as spiritual. (He is a devout Christian, and his farming is an expression of his faith.) Omnivore's Dilemma is worth reading for the trip to Joel Salatin's farm alone.

Another intensely interesting thread involved the meal that Pollan created entirely from ingredients that he had hunted and gathered himself. (Pollan is not suggesting this as a viable method of eating in the modern world. It was more of an educational exercise for him and for us.)

In this section, I had to ask myself, Did I know that fungi are neither plant nor animal? I must have known this once upon a time, but forgot. (That's my answer to everything now.) When I cook or eat mushrooms, I think of them as vegetables. But they are not. They are a third form of life, neither animal nor vegetable, and humans understand very little about them.

Well, I just learned something about mushrooms. And if that sounds dull, read this book and you'll change your mind.

* * * *

I have been reading Michael Pollan's work in magazine form for many years, but I had been avoiding reading The Omnivore's Dilemma for two reasons.

One, I had the impression Pollan had drifted into a very elitist sphere, disconnected from the reality of most ordinary people's lives - something along the lines of lecturing people who work at Wal-Mart on the importance of buying organic strawberries for $4.00 a pint.

This was unfounded. The world Pollan would build would be a healthier world for everyone. Food would cost more, that is true. But one of the central points of this book is that modern food prices are artificially low, and we never see the true cost of those low prices. Wresting food production from industrial control, educating people on nutrition, making more healthy choices available, would benefit everyone.

And since the people most directly affected by environmental degradation, unsafe labour conditions and other related ills, are low-income people, a healthier food chain would directly benefit the world's poor.

The other reason I was avoiding reading this book was more personal. In a sense I was avoiding it for the same reason I wanted to read it. I knew it would lead me to make changes in my own shopping, cooking and eating habits.

For a long time, I've been troubled by contributing to factory farming by buying and eating factory-farmed meat, but I haven't done anything about it. Now I'm finally ready to.

When I was growing up and throughout my young-adulthood, I was very prone to all-or-nothing thinking. It's a great way to paralyze yourself into inaction. Every decision becomes impossibly weighty, because it carries with it your entire future.

One of my biggest areas of growth as an adult has been moving away from that all-or-nothing trap. For many years now, I've understood the value of making incremental changes. I encourage myself (and others) to be flexible, and to remember that doing anything is better than doing nothing. Every step in a positive direction is worth taking, all by itself.

With these lessons foremost in my mind, I'm now investigating where I can buy pasture-raised meat. It won't be a perfect system, as (for various boring reasons) we'll mainly do this in the warmer months when we make dinner on the barbecue grill almost every night. And it won't effect food we eat in restaurants.

But it will be a positive action, and it may lead to other positive actions, and it's a step I'm ready to take.

* * * *

Michael Pollan has a new book out, called In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. But if you haven't read him yet, I think you'll want to read Omnivore's Dilemma first.

racism has a new code word: canadian

Have you seen this yet? "In the U.S. south, is Canadian a new racial slur?" It's not anti-Canadian: it's a new racist code word.

People discuss its possible origins here.

Thanks to my researcher-in-chief. (Please don't forget to vote for Joy of Sox!) (And wmtc, while you're at it!)

olivia chow and bob rae say let them stay!

it's tala day!

One year ago, we brought Tala home.

Tala started out life in Tennessee, then was taken by a rescue group to Ohio. Next she was adopted by Husky Savers in western New York State. From there, it was only a short drive to Mississauga. Tennessee to Ohio to New York to Canada: she was on the Underground Railroad!

For a long time after we lost Buster, we didn't want another dog. Our six years with our emotionally damaged and physically frail pit-mix left us exhausted and bereft. His death left a tremendous void, but it was also liberating (something I was loathe to admit at the time). Our life was suddenly so much easier, and we were in no rush to change that.

Then one day, about a year later, I felt our family just wasn't complete. When I mentioned this to Allan, he told me he had been thinking the same thing. We made the leap, and it's been even more rewarding that we imagined.

It had been such a long time since we had a healthy, young dog! Buster was never that, and Cody was always a cat dressed up in a dog costume. That means we're going back to our first dogs, in the late 80s and early 90s.

And through all those years, we lived in an apartment. Having a bundle of energy that needs a ton of exercise is a whole lot easier when you live in a house with a big backyard. So not only has it been a terrific year, it's been a lot less work than we remembered.

Tala has brought so much joy into our lives. She's very smart, funny, mischievous and super affectionate. She keeps us smiling and laughing all day long. Even Cody loves her now.

Tala Bobala
Also known as: Talabo, The Bobala, T-bo, Skinny-Face Jones, Skinny Face, Skin, Little T, Little Bo, and sometimes just The Evil One. But in a good way.

Tala and Cody are both enjoying winter, but you know we're all waiting for the spring. Remember this?

moral illogic: supporting peace, but not war resistance

Wmtc readers, once again, I ask for your help.

You helped me find my way in my new country when I thought Canadian Tire sold only tires and a Green P was a choice of side dish. You taught me strange expressions like Meech Lake Accord and Arrogant Worms. You comforted us when we lost our dearest Buster, and cheered for us when we found jobs. You helped me fashion my comment policy and keep this blog free of trolls.

You're an intelligent lot, with a strong moral compass and finely tuned bullshit detectors. So once again, I ask you to explain something to me.

A person claims to oppose the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. He (I'll use "he" for argument's sake) claims to "100% oppose" the Resident and the current US agenda. He claims to want peace.

Yet he also says, "Soldiers sign contracts, and they have to do what they're told. It's up to civilians to end the war. But until it ends, if soldiers refuse orders, they must pay the consequences, whatever the US determines that to be."

I ask you, knowing...

... how military recruiters lie,

... how soldiers are involuntarily re-enlisted ("stop-lossed"),

... how under the internationally recognized Nuremberg Principles, a perpetrator of war crimes is responsible for his own behaviour, that "I was under orders" is not a legal excuse, and that international law supersedes the orders of any sovereign nation,

... how the Uniform Code of Military Justice says a soldier has a right and a duty to refuse to obey illegal orders,

... how history shows that there will never be a shortage of people to blindly follow orders, with horrific results, but there has always been a shortage of moral courage to refuse immoral orders,

...knowing all this, tell me how can a person who claims to oppose the war also claim that all soldiers must continue serving, or else go to prison?

Please explain this to me.

let them stay: saturday's event in toronto (now with photos)

Yesterday's event was awesomely fabulous! As one Campaigner said: we kicked out the jams.

The plan was fairly complicated, but everyone played their parts perfectly, and the whole thing ran very smoothly. The Bloor Street United Church was packed with supporters, and best of all, most of them were new faces. All but a small handful of people stayed until the end.

The speakers were in turn moving, inspiring and uplifting. I won't try to list them all, because I'll surely leave someone out. But I think the crowd was especially affected by hearing war resisters themselves speak. Their stories are so moving, you feel awed by their presence. Sara Marlowe, a singer and songwriter who is a central Campaigner, was the emcee, and she did an amazing job of pulling everything together and keeping the event moving briskly.

When the speeches concluded, Jamine Aponte, one of our incredible organizers (who is married to a war resister), announced the letter writing. As she got the crowd pumped, Campaigners fanned out with the materials we had assembled. A slide show helped with talking points and names, and Chris Brown played while everyone worked on their letters. No one left during the letter-writing, which was really cool to see.

For a while everyone was just scribbling away. Then the doors flew open, a whistle broke the silence, and Samba Elegua came a-banging in. The samba squad led all the people - and their letters - off to the post office. I stayed at the church to staff the lobby table (donations were pouring in), but I heard the short march was really high-spirited and fun.

Later, while celebrating at a pub, we heard reports from rallies in Ottawa, Vancouver and elsewhere: all smashing successes.

There were tons of media there yesterday, including CBC Radio, CTV, CityTV and Global. Global did a very positive story that included a brief clip from our Victoria chapter, showing this to be a national campaign. If you go here and choose "resisting with letters," you can watch it.

Here's coverage from: the Sudbury Star, the Toronto Sun, the London (Ontario) Free Press and the Ottawa Sun. Rabble.ca posted this first-person account from a resister.

About the demonstrations at Canadian Consulates in the US, the CBC website had this report, and this account from San Francisco - including an excellent photo - was posted on Bay Area IndyMedia.

Allan photographed the Toronto event for the Campaign, but we're working today and haven't been able to post the photos. I did get a link to this beautiful slide show of the event - which includes a photo of Tom from Canadian Hope mailing his letter! Nick from Life Without Borders is half-hidden behind Tom. (I was so happy they came to the event.)

Now it's up to Stéphane Dion. Will he stand for the illegal, immoral war, or stand behind people of conscience?

Posts on something other than war resisters coming soon, I promise!

* * * *

Photos from the Toronto event are here, here, here and here.

let them stay: war resisters on common dreams

Common Dreams ran my piece about the war resisters. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to reach a wider audience on this issue.

If you've come here through Common Dreams, welcome. No new post today, as I can't think about anything but today's event.

Don't forget to write your letters! Thank you.

let them stay: today and tomorrow, u.s. and canada

A final reminder: today in the U.S., and tomorrow in Canada, there are important events in support of Iraq War resisters in Canada.

In the US, Courage to Resist, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and the thousands of peace groups belonging to United for Peace and Justice will hold vigils and demonstrations outside Canadian Consulates in San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York, Minneapolis and Dallas.

In Canada, there will be events in: Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, Saskatoon, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Marathon, Ottawa, Grand Forks, Nelson, Victoria.

If you can't attend any of these, you can still help the resisters. We need you to do one thing, and to do it now: write to Stéphane Dion.

Make it a handwritten letter. It doesn't have to be lengthy or especially eloquent.

Tell Mr Dion that you support US war resisters in Canada. Tell him you want an immediate end to deportation proceedings against all war resisters and conscientious objectors. Tell him you want the Liberal Party to support a resolution that will allow the resisters to gain legal status in Canada.

Then, if you have time, write the same letter to Stephen Harper, and to Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

Names and addresses are here; you don't even need postage.

This letter-writing campaign is not an empty exercise. Through this concerted effort and the persistent lobbying of the Support Campaign, we have seen support for the war resisters among Parliamentarians steadily increase. Most of the key Liberals are now on board. We are waiting on Dion to give the official green light.

I urge you to write a letter this weekend.

Deportation proceedings have already begun against four resisters, two with young children. When the Canadian Parliament resumes on January 29, we want Dion to have received thousands of letters, all demanding one thing: Let Them Stay.

During the Vietnam War, at least 50,000 – possibly as many as 80,000 – Americans came to Canada to escape the draft or because they did not want to live in a country that was perpetrating such an immoral, needless war. What many people don't know is that Canada did not immediately allow the Vietnam resisters to stay. The Canadian peace movement campaigned on behalf of the resisters and pressured their government to do the right thing. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau said, "Canada should be a refuge from militarism."

Once again, Canadians are calling on Canada to be a refuge from militarism. You can help make this happen.