| |
Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com. This summer I am joined by Keir Wilmut and Omar Soliman.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Murder on the Hill
Monday, November 29, 2004
Anyone watching CBC News?
Only on The National could have a segment featuring left-wing Americans complaining about how bad George W. Bush is (and how embarassed they are for their country) and left-wing Canadians talking about how much better Canada is and call it an "inquiry":
We'll be in Windsor, Ontario right on the border for a CBC News inquiry, "Continental Divide?" We'll be talking to Canadians and Americans who are trading spaces, Americans who are moving here, Canadians who are living there. What divides us? What unites us?
More business as usual from the Mother Corp.
UPDATE: They've really outdone themselves now. To show an example of the other side for "balance," they decide to air a 30-second clip from a Canadian person who doesn't mind Bush: a Christian evangelical woman from Saskatchewan who is ashamed of Canada because it doesn't respect God anymore!
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:57 PM
Why there may be no hope (for Canada)
Tommy Douglas has been declared the winner of CBC's Greatest Canadian contest:
To delirious cheers, [music VJ George] Stroumboulopoulos dramatically argued that if Douglas, who died in 1986, were removed from the national equation "you remove the caring, sharing legacy of everything that we value . . . you remove this, and this is our most treasured, treasured national characteristic!"
Some days I wonder why I even bother fighting.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:38 PM
Canadian anti-Americanism
I hope everyone -- Canadian and American readers -- will take a gander at this piece from yesteday's Washington Post. (Free registration required.)
It's a testimonial piece by an American socioloigst who moved to Toronto. She discusses in-depth the rampant anti-American sentiments she's encountered here (and trust me, she's no Bush-loving conservative.)
Just one of her observations:
Part of what's irksome about Canadian anti-Americanism and the obsession with the United States is that it seems so corrosive to Canada. Any country that defines itself through a negative ("Canada: We're not the United States") is doomed to an endless and repetitive cycle of hand-wringing and angst.
I've said that for a while, and glad others feel the same way.
This article is a very sobering and troubling account, and I'm sad to say it's true.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:42 PM
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Yawn
Iran is threatening Canada again to drop our demand for justice on the almost-forgotten Zahra Kazemi muder case.
So, what else is new?
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:10 AM
Friday, November 26, 2004
Sauve Scholars meet the principal
Here's a picture of this year's Sauve Scholars after a meeting this week with the Principal of McGill University, Heather Munroe-Blum.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:49 AM
Thursday, November 25, 2004
A victory for campus freedom
A couple of weeks back over at The Shotgun I noted the story of Dennis Crawford, a courageous Queen's University student who challenged the university's mandatory student fee in support of the school's pro-choice Sexual Health Resource Centre (SHRC). Crawford recently lost an appeal with the student government to allow pro-life students to opt-out of the fee. But, in what can only be described as a stunning development, Queen's University's nortoriously leftwing Human Rights Office has ruled that pro-life students can choose to direct the 85¢ annual fee elsewhere. According to an email I received from Crawford:
I went to talk to the Human Rights Office (HRO) ... The HRO actually agreed with me and told the AMS that they have a "duty to accomodate" students of faith. This means that the AMS is obliged, if you ask them, to re-direct your $0.85 fee from the SHRC to another part of the AMS. This is a huge victory for pro-life students on campus!! Having this decision by Human Rights come right after the JComm decision is kind of like losing the battle but winning the war. Students who are pro-life no longer have to, against their convictions, support something that is detestable to them!! I am totally astounded by this. This is a huge victory for freedom on campus. The only downsides are that the money will go towards funding some other aspect of the student government, and that students who do not want the 85¢ going to the SHRC must go to the SHRC themselves to make the request. Nevertheless, this could have serious ramifications for the future of mandatory student fees. Well done, Mr. Crawford, and good show, Human Rights Office!
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:28 PM
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Some guts for a change
The federal Liberals are joining the U.S. in refusing to accept the fraudulent election results in the Ukraine.
I'll give credit where credit it due: this is the right move, and the Martin government should be commended.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 5:14 PM
Does the Clinton library/Saudi funding story have legs?
Maybe:
A Tennessee congressman said yesterday that he may reintroduce legislation to require disclosure of large donations to presidential libraries, following a report in The New York Sun that President Clinton’s new archive and museum in Arkansas was built in part with millions of dollars in gifts from Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Persian Gulf countries.
“I tell you, it stinks,” Rep. John Duncan Jr. said in a telephone interview from his home in Knoxville. “It just doesn’t pass the smell test, what’s going on with these libraries.”
Mr. Duncan, a Republican who sits on the House Committee on Government Reform, first proposed a law mandating disclosure of gifts to presidential libraries in 1999. The measure received little attention until a scandal erupted in 2001 about pardons granted by Mr. Clinton as he left office, including one to a fugitive financier, Marc Rich. It was reported that Mr. Rich’s ex-wife, Denise, gave $450,000 to Mr. Clinton’s library fund while he was considering the pardon.
An overall reform of the funding system would be good, especially given the Rich incident. But if Mr. Duncan goes ahead and tries to do this using the Saudi giving as the main reason, he's going to run head-first into one of the most powerful lobbying shop in the world. Good luck to him.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:44 AM
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Old habits are hard to break
Even though he hasn't been leader of a political party for more than two years, the media can't stop looking for ways to bash Stockwell Day over the head with a cudgel. The latest whack: this wire story -- versions of which are in today's papers -- suggesting, quite tenuously, that Day didn't offer condolensces on the death of Yasser Arafat because he might have had AIDS.
Day is the foreign affairs critic for the Conservative Party.
Cited in the story is an email Day apparently sent to caucus members, which included in it this David Frum article, first published in the National Post.
In the article, which was an op-ed on Arafat's disgraceful record of support for terrorism, one paragraph out of 12 mentions the curious silence about the cause of Arafat's sickness, and repeats a claim that Arafat has AIDS -- a claim that originates with a former Romanian intelligence chief, not Frum.
For the Canadian Press to turn this into a "story" containing the lede: "Stockwell Day is pointing to a published report that includes the suggestion that Yasser Arafat had AIDS in explaining why he didn't send condolences on the death of the PLO leader" is a giant stretch, not to mention unprofessional.
This drive-by shooting ranks up there with Paul Hunter's disgraceful "documentary" on Day that appeared on CBC's The National during the 2000 federal election, in which years-old innuendo about Day and his religious beliefs were recycled to scare voters away from the Canadian Alliance.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:25 AM
Monday, November 22, 2004
Book reviews
I've posted a review I wrote of two books here. It was published in Saturday's Montreal Gazette.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:04 PM
Don't tell me it's only Bush who's beholden to the Saudis
According to The New York Sun, several Saudi businessmen are chipping in big bucks to underwrite the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 4:21 PM
Quebec Liberals
No blogging on the weekend because I was at the Quebec Liberal convention here in Montreal. Pretty boring overall, but still worthwhile. I might write something for the Post about it later.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 3:56 PM
Ukraine sucks
This has got to be maddening.
In an obvious fraud of an election, Ukraine's incumbent Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych, is coming in with 49.42%; his pro-Western and reform-minded opponent Viktor Yushchenko has 46.7%.
An exit poll funded by Western governments had Yushchenko at 54% and the incumbent at 43%.
My Ukrainian sources are saying that this is prototypical example of how badly the transition to democracy has gone the former Soviet states, and that this could create massive protests.
One source says that Western Ukraine -- the more pro-Western part of the country -- should be starting to look at separation.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 3:22 PM
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Finally
It's just being reported that Parrish has been kicked out of the Liberal caucus. Finally, Paul Martin does something right.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 2:02 PM
Is Carolyn Parrish mentally stable?
Given the fact that her antics get worse by the day, I think we have to stark asking that question with a straight face. Surely, Martin can't put up with this much longer. Or can he?
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:05 AM
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Quebec Universities: S.O.S.!
I have a piece in today's National Post (available free online here) about the need to scrap the ridiculous 10-year-old tuition cap at Quebec universities. The schools here are desperate for funding, and the Charest government's brilliant idea is to cut more than $100-million in grants that help the poorest students afford university. Pretty dumb.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 3:56 AM
I'm going to give Neil MacDonald some credit
Some, but not much.
In his report tonight from Washington on Colin Powell's departure, he actually introduced Phyllis Bennis, an anti-Bush commentator, as a "left-of-centre analyst."
I do not recall any such disclaimers from MacDonald in the past. Could this be a sign of things to come? (Note: His report was still pretty bad overall. He had two anti-Bush, pro-Powell people on to comment on the resignation, and spun it as "the only sane guy in the administration is gone.")
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:52 AM
What ever happened to Scott Ritter?
Drumroll please...
Please welcome conservative wunderkid Leith Coghlin to the blogosphere. (I do not accept any responsibility for him.)
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:04 AM
Monday, November 15, 2004
Helen Caldicott watch
Everyone's favourite anti-nuke nutcase is at it again. Just when you thought she couldn't discredit herself any further, she does:
Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr Helen Caldicott fears US President George Bush's re-election will lead to Armageddon and she isn't sure if mankind would survive another four years.
"This is the most serious election that has ever occurred in the history of the human race, without a scrag of doubt," she told smh.com.au.
"I don't know if we'll survive the next four years ... I don't think the Americans have, on the whole, the faintest idea - and I have to say also I don't think most Australians do either. But it's not just the threat from nuclear war. It's the threat of what's happening to the environment, the global warming which is occurring rapidly now, to ozone depletion, to species extinction, to deforestation - it's the whole thing."
I actually don't mind when Caldicott and other loony lefties engage in this type of condescending blather. The reason: every time they do it, the chances go down of a Democrat winning back the White House.
(Via Damian Penny, via Tim Blair)
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:31 PM
Random
Two non-political items: - I went to the REM concert in Montreal Friday night. They're my favourite band, so I was pretty excited. It was, unfortunately, a bit of a letdown. It was the second REM concert I've attended, and I wasn't too happy about the first either. Why? They always play a whole bunch of songs from their latest CD, most of which no one even knows. They only play 3 or 4 classics. so the fans can't sing and it's not as much fun. I understand the need to promote the latest offerings, but please! These concert tickets are not cheap, and spectators expect more! I wanted to hear The End of the World as We Know It, Everybody Hurts, Sidewinder, and Nightswimming. All we heard were What's the Frequency, Kenneth?, Losing My Religion, and Man on the Moon in the encore.
- There's this chi-chi restaurant in Montreal called Bice (actually part of an international chain.) We dined there on Saturday night and I came away disappointed. The food was quite good, actually -- it was the overall dining experience that was sub-par. The service was not that good; the waiters unattentive and slow. The dining room was too noisy. Again, nothing at all wrong with the food, but if you're going to pay that much for a meal there are much better places you can eat at in this city for the same price.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:26 AM
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Why Kerry lost
Arianna Huffington's widely-discussed column from Thursday is a good analysis (and surely the first of many more to come) on why John Kerry lost the election.
According to this article, which includes a decent number of on-the-record quotes from camapaign officials and insiders, there was a Titanic struggle behind the scenes between those who favoured taking on Bush's record on the war on terrorism (mainly luminaries from Democratic Party's left flank and Kerry's friends) and those who wanted to emphasize the economy and domestic issues (the old Clinton gang.) The Clinton folks won the day.
Hindsight is always 20/20, (although I always belived this election was about who could keep America safest) but obviously the Clinton people's counsel turned out to be a big disaster. I'm surprised they would be so off-base.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:01 PM
Thursday, November 11, 2004
On Arafat
I've been trying to think of something to say all day, but can't. I just pray that now there can be hope. Hope that maybe, finally, the wheels can roll again toward peace. A major impediment to that peace is now gone.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 7:52 PM
The Conservatives go wobbly
Terrific editorial in today's National Post (I am not there right now so can't claim credit) about Stephen Harper's recent trend towards moderation: Canada has little use for a pandering, anti-ideological opposition party that bases its positions on the polling numbers and spends more time sowing regional divides than putting forward serious policy proposals. What it needs instead is a principled right-of-centre alternative to the governing Liberals. Mr. Harper was elected leader because he seemed best able to provide that alternative. With the Liberals in minority status and the next election up for grabs, now is the time to start delivering. Here's to that. The news hook for this is Harper's recent equivocation on support for the U.S.'s missile defence shield. He previously supported it. Harper's recent behaviour is not a good sign.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 7:43 PM
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Not mincing words
Sen. Zell Miller called shrill New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd a "high brow hussy" on radio the other day.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:44 AM
Monday, November 08, 2004
One of the many reasons I love Iraqis
They aren't afraid to speak their mind:
FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's interim defense minister Hazem Sha'alan has lashed out at U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and leaders of other Arab countries during a pep talk for Iraqi troops before an expected assault on the insurgent-held city of Falluja.
Annan warned in a letter dated October 31 to the United States, Britain and Iraq that such an assault would have a "negative impact" on the prospects for elections, now scheduled for January.
But Sha'alan said on Sunday that Annan did nothing to help Iraqis under the rule of ousted leader Saddam Hussein.
"Where was Kofi Annan when Saddam was slaughtering the Iraqis like sheep?" Sha'alan said.
"Where were the calls we hear from Arab and Islamic countries when Saddam was messing up the country?"
Good for him.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 2:44 PM
Check it out
The cover story I co-wrote in the last issue of the Western Standard magazine is now available free online. A snippet:
But the notion that conservative ideas make for unwinnable platforms is only driving political strategy because parties have become so reliant on polls, focus groups and media spin. In other words, the public agenda is setting the course, and until voters embrace conservatism, it will remain, politically, a failing platform. For that to change, the conservative agenda must first drive the public agenda. Only then will it get the keys to the party machine. Change must come from the bottom up, not the top down. If the federal Conservative party is ever to win on a program of ideas that resembles conservatism, the national attitude of Canadians--and the media's perception of that attitude--must change.
What's needed goes far beyond the borders of the party and party organization. Simply padding the party with volunteers, platitudes, star candidates and clever campaign ads will not cure the problem. What's needed is a genuine movement to fuel the fire; an organized effort to build a critical mass of conservative counterculture. Such a movement would encompass the creation of think-tanks, publications and media organizations. It would require the training of bright young conservatives in professions traditionally dominated by liberals, such as the media and academia. It would mandate the establishment of legal action funds to bring forward conservative court challenges.
It would require something akin to a revolution.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:14 AM
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Queen's blogs
People should do this here
A bunch of high school students in Colorado had a sleep over protest, refusing to stop until Republican Party reps met with them:
About 85 Boulder High students camped out in the school library after classes Thursday, saying they wouldn't leave until Republican Party representatives pay them a visit.
Most of the students are too young to vote. But they said they're disgusted with the Bush administration's national debt, military recruitment in schools and disregard for the environment.
Many participants brought sleeping bags and enough food to last through the weekend. The principal OK'd their request to peacefully protest overnight until today, when they expected representatives from the offices of U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, and Democratic U.S. Senator-elect Ken Salazar to stop by.
I'd love to see a bunch of high school students do that here but against the federal Liberals. Protest government corruption, the state of healthcare and the military.
UPDATE: Wonkette, evidently, is not at all impressed.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:22 PM
Someone give Norman Spector a medal
I've yet to figure it out, but Norman Spector must either go to be really, really late or get up really, really early. His daily press review, which every news junky should read every morning, is such a great service, not to mention a time saver.
You can find it on Norman's site, or at the Western Standard's blog The Shotgun, and also now at Macleans magazine. I don't know how Norman finds time to read that much stuff everyday, but I hope he realizes that his efforts are appreciated.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:47 PM
Friday, November 05, 2004
Why the Clarity Act is good
According to this story by the Toronto Star's Graham Fraser, a new CROP Research poll has found that support for sovereignty in Quebec has increased to 49%.
But keep reading further down:
...44 per cent said they favoured Quebec becoming an independent country, and 33 per cent said they would vote for Quebec becoming "completely independent." Only 31 per cent said they would vote no if asked if they wanted Quebec to remain a province of Canada.
Amazing how wording changes can produce such wildly different results.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:17 AM
From the "interesting things to put on a blog" file
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Peggy Noonan is back!
Curling column is back!
Today marks the return of my On Curling column in the National Post. For now, Post subscribers can read it here -- but I'll be posting them in the "published work" section on this site a few days after they run.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:33 AM
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
On The Win
The win is now official. The thing I'm most excited about is that I finally made a correct prediction -- bang on, in fact, on the popular vote percentages!
There's a lot out there on the blogosphere about all this -- particularly good was Mark Steyn's realtime comments, NRO's The Corner, and Maderblog.
So what does it all mean? In this blog's tradition, I'll keep it brief and to the point:
1. The Bush presidency is vindicated. The American people chose the guy who will keep them safer, and who will more aggressively prosecute the war on terrorism. America is still very much at war.
2. The chasm between the elites in America -- the media, Hollywood, the academy -- and normal people is very wide. Indeed, has it ever been wider? Despite all of the resources used to fight this President, despite being massively outspent by liberal groups on advertising, despite Eminem and his new video, despite George Soros, despite a huge turnout that is supposed to favour the challenger, despite every European capital's opposition, Bush still won.
3. The Democrats are a mess. Republican gains in the House and Senate, including the loss of the Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle, is quite embarassing. They have clearly moved out of the American mainstream.
4. John Kerry was a bad candidate. He spent far too much time focusing on his Vietnam record -- which we learned was questionable -- and not enough on the state of the economy. He (arguably) won all three debates and still lost the election.
5. Karl Rove and the senior Republican strategists around Bush are the best in the world. No question about it. They are the best political tacticians modern politics has seen -- better than Lee Atwater or James Carville.
6. The impact of social conservatives voting will be fascinating to find out. Pro-traditional marriage, pro-life voters (essentially white evangelicals) were directly targeted by the Bush campaign. I'd wager that they were the ones who really put Bush over the top. This important group of voters will not, and cannot, ever be taken for granted again.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:18 PM
Four more years
Well, it's inevitable now that George W. Bush will be re-elected President. For once, I made a correct electoral prediction, and it looks like it's going to close to bang on.
It is very late and my eyes hurt, but it's just too much fun watching the CNN intelligentsia -- Jeff Greenfield, Larry King, Judy Woodruff, et al -- squirming and starting to make excuses for Kerry. They seem totally shellshocked! I love it.
Much to say about what happened tonight, including the Republican gains in Congress, and what it will all mean. But that can wait. All I have to say for now is: never underestimate the wisdom of the American people.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:24 AM
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Watching the results, bored as hell
I mean, can they please give us some real news? I understand the desire to be cautious so as to avoid a repeat of 2000, but please! One can only take so much commentary from Jeff Greenfield.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:53 PM
Best line I've seen in a while
From John Ivison's column on Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew in today's National Post (subscription required):
There is always the sense with Pettigrew that, if he were made of chocolate, he'd eat himself.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 5:24 PM
Monday, November 01, 2004
John Tory in Toronto Centre?
Good post on David Artemiw's blog here about Walter Robinson's recent speculating about an imminent McGuinty cabinet resignation. A quick and useful primer on the history of party leaders running in byelections.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:29 PM
|
