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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.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
The good that can come out of the Schiavo affair
There's really only one thing: more people will likely have a living will. I know I'm talking about it now, and would not have even thought of it before.
May Terri rest in peace.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:18 PM
The world's worst regimes
Freedom House has just released its annual compilation of the world's worst regimes. You can read the report here. (PDF required.) Six of the countries are currently members of the U.N. Human Rights Commission: China, Cuba, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. Incredible.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:12 PM
Kazemi
Today's Globe and Mail contains explosive information from a doctor who treated Zahra Kazemi about how the Iranian-Canadian journalist was treated in Iran. Among the revelations of doctor Shahram Azam, who recently defected to Canada:
- Kazemi's body body had strange markings all over it.
- She had massive bruising around her head and ears, her skull had been fractured and her nose broken. Also, two fingers were broken and were missing fingernails.
- She had severe abdominal bruising and showed evidence of being flogged on the legs.
- Signs of a "very brutal rape" were present.
A few weeks ago at a foreign policy conference, I tried to grill Pierre Pettigrew about his weak-kneed handling of the Kazemi affair, which had then been out of the headlines for months and basically all but forgotten. (See paragraph beginning "Critized by a student...") Pettigrew trivialized my query and didn't really care to answer. Maybe now this important story will get the attention it deserves, and some form of retaliatory action will be taken against the barbarians ruling Iran.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:05 AM
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
The latest Ahmad Chalabi vindication
Remember him? He's the Iraqi dissident who, along with his opposition group, the Iraqi National Congress, was being pilloried in the press last year for supposedly providing U.S. intelligence services with faulty information about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs.
At that time, everyone was out to get Chalabi, most especially the press. Chalabi was thought to be finished politically, although he has survived attack after attack on his name and credibility. He is now a member of the new Iraqi legislature.
One of the news outlets out to get Chalabi was Knight-Ridder newspapers. Last year a couple of their reporters filed stories claiming that Chalabi and gang were behind the defection of a discredited Iraqi source, known as "Curveball." Curveball provided exaggerated claims about Saddam's WMD programs. Chalabi always maintained he knew nothing of the defector.
Guess what: He was telling the truth!
Way down low in a long story today about intelligence failures, Knight-Ridder is admitting they were incorrect:
It's now been determined that the INC wasn't behind Curveball's defection, as Knight Ridder reported last year.
Nice of them to admit that. Too bad they tried to bury it so nobody would see it.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:52 PM
No Rudy in '08?
Anyone following the story of the 2008 Republican presidential nomination should check out today's New York Observer story on Rudy Giuliani. Writer Ben Smith (a former colleague at The New York Sun, and an extremely good reporter) paints a portrait of a super-rich man whose two lives -- business and politics -- are increasingly conflicting. As Ben writes in a blog post about his article:
But the news in this piece is probably the most obvious instance of the strain between Rudy, Inc. and Rudy 2008, which occurred on February 8 in South Carolina:
"Mr. Giuliani had initially been booked by the South Carolina Hospital Association through the Washington Speakers Bureau to speak for his usual $100,000 fee. But then a massive tsunami devastated South Asia and “we just didn’t feel that a big old party was the right thing,” said Patti Smoake, the hospital association’s spokeswoman.
"Instead, the South Carolinians held a fund-raiser called 'From South Carolina to South Asia.'
"Mr. Giuliani agreed to speak at the new event. He even wrote a $20,000 check to the Red Cross, the event’s beneficiary, according to figures cited by a South Carolina hospital official and obtained by The Observer. He batted away the inevitable political speculation that accompanied his visit to the crucial Republican primary state, telling a local reporter he was visiting 'because I enjoy coming to South Carolina and because this is a worthy cause.'
"Mr. Giuliani didn’t mention it at the time, but he also walked away from the tsunami benefit with $80,000 at a time when celebrities from Bill Clinton and the first President Bush to George Clooney were donating time to the relief effort. There was nothing illegal, or even particularly unusual, about his taking a fee from a charity event-- his fee was, technically, underwritten by corporate sponsors. But taking the money was not the move of a man whose political future depends on the good will of the voters of South Carolina, the decisive state in the 2000 Republican primary widely viewed as the immovable object between a socially liberal Republican like Mr. Giuliani and the nomination.
"'It is not the gesture of someone who’s serious about running for the Republican Presidential nomination or someone who is getting sound political advice about South Carolina,' said Nelson Warfield, a Republican political consultant who was press secretary to Bob Dole’s bid for the Presidency. 'If you want to be President, you have to make some sacrifices, and one sacrifice would be giving it up for free to the good people of South Carolina and the tsunami victims.'
I won't pass judgement on whether he should have taken the money or not, but this does seem like peculiar behaviour for a presidential aspirant. At some point -- likely very soon -- Rudy will have to choose between his two lives.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:39 AM
I agree with Peter Kormos
Spending $200,000 on a European junket to visit brothels is a sickening use of taxpayer dollars:
"We're talking about five federal members on a junket touring European whorehouses at a cost of $40,000 each," Kormos said yesterday. "I can take anyone of them down to Bridge St. in Niagara Falls and get them laid for less than $50."
Kormos was mocking a plan by Ottawa politicians to travel to Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden and Nevada to study how those jurisdictions deal with the sex trade.
The five MPs, members of a federal justice subcommittee reviewing prostitution laws, have asked for funds to visit with law enforcement agencies, counsellors and brothel owners abroad.
"This is absolutely obscene that any of these members ... would even contemplate doing this," Kormos said. "It is an embarrassment, it's outrageous, it's a disgrace. They should be ashamed of themselves, every single one of them."
Just another day in Trudeaupia! Ho-hum.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:39 AM
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
My take on Terri Schiavo
Back in action
Sorry for the absence, but I went to New York City for Easter weekend. It was actually my first time really exploring the city. We saw a Broadway show called Wicked, which just finished a sold-out stint in Toronto. It was really good. We also saw the World Trade Center site, toured CNN, shopped, and visited with friends and colleagues.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:59 AM
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Haven't posted a picture in a while, so here's one
This pic, taken on the recent Sauve Scholar trip to Washington, was shot at the U.S. Capitol Building. We are standing on a little circle which is supposed to be the exact geographical center of the city.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:28 PM
Shivvy gets published
Senate appointments: WHAT A FARCE
The sad thing is the Prime Minister is going to get away with this because, well, no one can stop him. And by appointing Remeo Dallaire along with some of these other clowns, he's innoculating himself agains the charge that the appointments are all partisan.
I just love how he appoints two out of the nine to sit as "Progressive Conservatives". (Is anything "conservative" or even "progressive conservative" about Nancy Ruth? Don't think so.) These folks are going to sit with the rogue caucus of Joe Clarkites who declined to join the new Conservatives after the merger -- Norman Atkins, Lowell Murray, et al. Now Martin can say he is adding "diversity" to the Senate without enlarging the caucus of the Conservative Party. Oh, how clever.
Albertans must be furious. And they should be. How much longer can they take these slaps in the face?
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 5:16 PM
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Macleans is important to read again
Ken Whyte has only been in the editor (and publisher's!) chair for a couple of weeks at Macleans magazine, but you can already see changes. This week's issue contains an essay by Allan Gotlieb and two scholars about the urgent need to repair Canada-US relations:
Mr. Bush's invitation to Paul Martin and Mexican President Vicente Fox to meet with him to discuss the future of North America provides a golden opportunity to make clear that Canada wants to work with the United States to build a zone of mutual confidence and a community of law. We must articulate and pursue our broad political goals. We call on our political leaders to commit Canada to a course that will secure our future. If they allow the relationship to continue to drift, Canadians could judge them harshly. History certainly will.
You would not have seen a piece like that in the pre-Whyte Macleans.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:01 PM
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Congratulations Peter!
Ezra Levant notes at The Shotgun that Peter Jaworski, a friend from Queen's and cohort in various political adventures, has won this year's Felix Morley Journalism Competition. I am really happy for Peter. This recognition is much-deserved and, in my humble view, overdue. Peter has done much over the years to advance free market/conservative/libertarian ideas throug his writing, especially through avenues other than op-ed writing like reported articles, features and interviews. Good work Peter.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:45 PM
A conservative in Hollywood
Great work by Pat Sajak, holding the liberal media to account on the Terri Schiavo case.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:18 AM
Monday, March 21, 2005
Tory convention post-mortem
Lots in the papers today already on the Tory convention, but here are my thoughts:
Overall, it was a good convention. Harper and the leadership got what the wanted. A party that looked (relatively) united, a promise to not legislate on abortion, an endorsement of traditional marriage, a good leadership review vote (84% say no), no youth wing (51-49 against) and so on. No factions walked out, no one quit to start their own party, no one threw tomatoes at the leader. Not bad by Conservative Party standards. I was also pretty surprised at the turnout. The room was absolutely packed with people all the time.
The media coverage all weekend seemed to me to be a little too harsh. For instance, Saturday's La Presse headlined that Harper would reverse Martin's decision to not join missle defence. Harper never said that in his Friday speech. He said he would reconsider. The press predictably focused on Peter Mackay's hissy fit on Friday afternoon, in which he said the merger could come undone if MP Scott Reid's proposal to give ridings with more people more convention delegates passed. It didn't pass, so all is well.
I attended almost the whole thing, and leave with two impressions. One, this party still has a ways to go in the area of professionalization. For instance, there were not enough simultaneous translation headsets for the delegates, and those speaking at the mics in French were often ignored. Francophone delegates were understandably insulted and embarassed that they felt the need to speak English when talking to resolutions at the mics. That shouldn't ever happen at a national party convention in Canada.
Also, I very much felt that there were still two parties there: the old federal PCs and the Alliance. Votes on policy resolutions and constitutional amendments -- such as the one on the youth wing -- divived along the old party lines. You didn't see a lot of former federal PCs mingling with former Reformers/Alliance types in the hallways. The new party still has some gelling to do.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 4:58 PM
Friday, March 18, 2005
At the Tory convention
Pretty flat Day One. Not too much interesting stuff went on, but there wasn't expected to be. The opening ceremonies and early speeches were carefully crafted -- lots of French, lots of youth, lots of females wearing expensive suits. Very glossy. The Tories deserve credit: it was really professional-looking. After-parties were good, especially the Alberta caucus reception -- although I sense some uneasiness among delegates about where the party is headed. People genuinely don't have a clue what will happen today and tomorrow. We'll find out soon.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:34 AM
Thursday, March 17, 2005
The need for a youth movement
I wrote an article in today's National Post on the need for the federal Conservative party to create a formal youth wing at their weekend convention. The party doesn't have one now, unlike every other political party in the western world.
The piece is here (subscription required).
UPDATE: Norman Spector calls it a "fine piece." I think it's the first time Norman hasn't bashed my stuff. Thanks Norman!
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:08 AM
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
That's what you call growth
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Why I might not be blogging as much in the next few weeks
I'm writing a book. It's called "Rescuing Canada's Right" and it's supposed to come out early next year. So writing that has to be a priority, but my goal is still going to be to post here once a day.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:38 PM
Monday, March 14, 2005
Washington round-up
Great trip overall. Saw lots of old friends. During the last part of my stay I spoke with a lot more people about the Middle East. The picture they painted was of cautious optimism, although by all accounts the security situation on the ground in Iraq is still awful. As far as Lebanon is concerned, there's a feeling that the Syrian troop withdrawal is just a game. Syria still has thousands of agents on the ground in Lebanon and they won't be "leaving" the country any time soon.
But if demonstrations like the one that occurred today continue, this story won't go away. A million people in the streets! Just awesome.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:29 PM
I'm back!
Sorry for the technical glitches of the last few days. Everything should be back to normal now.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:12 PM
Thursday, March 10, 2005
So far...
...it's been a great trip to Washington! Weather has been very up-and-down, from almost-short-sleeves on Monday to a giant snow blizzard Tuesday. Still better than -30 in Montreal, though...
The most interesting thing so far was a couple of panel discussions organized by The Week magazine. One panel was on the utility of opinion journalism, the other on Iraq war coverage. I can't remember everything that was said but Jeff Jarvis from BuzzMachine was present and live-blogged here, so check him out for details. Geraldo Rivera got into a pretty lively spat with the Washington bureau chief for Al-Jazeera about bias during war coverage. Much fun.
I'm sort of in a rush, but quickly:
- No one here is really concerned about Canada's decision to opt-out of joining missile defence. They just think the move was pretty dumb, even inexplicable. But they don't really care.
- There is tremendous excitement amongst conservatives about what is happening in the Middle East, especially Iraq and Lebanon. Rightfully so. Many feel vindicated, especially those who had supported the Bush Doctrine from Day One. (Not a few of even the most die-hard Iraq war supporters admitted to starting to have doubts last year.)
- Conservatives here are also excited about Bush's domestic agenda. Top priorities are judicial nominations and tax/social security reform. Many innovative ideas are being advanced at present, the most interesting of which is the FairTax, being championed by Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Rep. John Linder. With the big Republican majorities in the House and Senate, real, fundamental reform actually might have a hope.
More later ...
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:25 AM
Friday, March 04, 2005
Headin' south
Blogging will be intermittent over the next week -- I'm off to Washington for a trip tomorrow. I'm planning on visiting with a lot of my old friends and sources. Should be interesting, and I'll be sure to report back any juicy info I pick up.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:41 PM
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Is Norman's Spectator a blog?
Nasty little dust-up between our friend Norman Spector and blogger Kate McMillan over in the comments section at The Shotgun. (Hat tip: JKelly.) A tad acrimonious, wouldn't you say? And quite unnecessarily so.
I very much appreciate and enjoy Norman's Spectator. Makes my life a lot easier, and I imagine it does for a lot of others too. Is it a blog or not? You decide.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:07 PM
New articles posted
I've added two articles to the site: the recent article on Harper's Quebec strategy is here, and a book review for the Montreal Gazette is here.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:39 AM
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Boy, talk about vindication for the Bush Doctrine
Mark Steyn sums it up best in today's Daily Telegraph:
Consider just the past couple of days' news: not the ever more desperate depravity of the floundering "insurgency", but the real popular Arab resistance the car-bombers and the head-hackers are flailing against: the Saudi foreign minister, who by remarkable coincidence goes by the name of Prince Saud, told Newsweek that women would be voting in the next Saudi election. "That is going to be good for the election," he said, "because I think women are more sensible voters than men." Four-time Egyptian election winner - and with 90 per cent of the vote! - President Mubarak announced that next polling day he wouldn't mind an opponent. Ordering his stenographer to change the constitution to permit the first multi-choice presidential elections in Egyptian history, His Excellency said the country would benefit from "more freedom and democracy". The state-run TV network hailed the president's speech as a "historical decision in the nation's 7,000-year-old march toward democracy". After 7,000 years on the march, they're barely out of the parking lot, so Mubarak's move is, as they say, a step in the right direction. Meanwhile in Damascus, Boy Assad, having badly overplayed his hand in Lebanon and after months of denying that he was harbouring any refugee Saddamites, suddenly discovered that - wouldja believe it? - Saddam's brother and 29 other bigshot Baghdad Baathists were holed up in north-eastern Syria, and promptly handed them over to the Iraqi government. And, for perhaps the most remarkable development, consider this report from Mohammed Ballas of Associated Press: "Palestinians expressed anger on Saturday at an overnight suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed four Israelis and threatened a fragile truce, a departure from former times when they welcomed attacks on their Israeli foes." No disrespect to Associated Press, but I was disinclined to take their word for it. However, Charles Johnson, whose Little Green Footballs website has done an invaluable job these past three years presenting the ugly truth about Palestinian death-cultism, reported that he went hunting around the internet for the usual photographs of deliriously happy Gazans dancing in the street and handing out sweets to celebrate the latest addition to the pile of Jew corpses - and, to his surprise, couldn't find any. Why is all this happening? Answer: January 30. Don't take my word for it, listen to Walid Jumblatt, big-time Lebanese Druze leader and a man of impeccable anti-American credentials: "I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, eight million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world. The Berlin Wall has fallen.
This is no time for gloating but it is very difficult not to.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:40 PM
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