Not sure what’s more compelling: the quality and fearlessness of journalism then, or the desperation of people whose lives and ethics have been ravaged by war. Either way, this video is difficult to watch.

Every day, every moment, every second, we have to ask ourselves what is important and what isn’t, and we have to ask our leaders to prove their judgment and honesty. We have to avoid armed conflict, at almost any cost. It may be true that sometimes there are no choices. It’s also true, that often, choices have been overlooked. My allegiance remains with our veterans, our fallen heroes, and perhaps most importantly, with our young men and women who currently serve. We owe it to them to demand that government remains transparent and open and justifies any foreign policy that places them in harm’s way. We owe them our diligence.

From Wikipedia, there is a footnote to the Vietnam War entry (known in Vietnam as the American War):

General Maxwell Taylor, one of the principal architects of the war, noted “first, we didn’t know ourselves. We thought that we were going into another Korean war, but this was a different country. Secondly, we didn’t know our South Vietnamese allies … And we knew less about North Vietnam. Who was Ho Chi Minh? Nobody really knew. So, until we know the enemy and know our allies and know ourselves, we’d better keep out of this kind of dirty business. It’s very dangerous.”

via kottke

In her Iowa stump speech, Clinton also said, "We used to say in the White House that if a place is too dangerous, too small or too poor, send the First Lady."

Say what? As Sinbad put it: "What kind of president would say, ‘Hey, man, I can’t go ’cause I might get shot so I’m going to send my wife…oh, and take a guitar player and a comedian with you.’"

Sinbad Unloads on Hillary Clinton – The Sleuth

Hilary Clinton is running fear-mongering ads suggesting that only she is capable of answering the "Red Phone".

As if there are no advisors, no military strategists, no diplomats in the Oval Office when that phone gets answered. Just one, lone, tough Leader. This is the problem: an overemphasis on the dictator and an underempahasis on the democracy. Leadership is about listening, consensus-building, a respect for the enemy as much as a fear of him. 

Put Obama in there. He’s ready. Ready to listen, ready to act—ready to lead. 

It’ll be interesting to see how much media play this gets…

Watch the video – some serious people make a pretty compelling case that Federal laws were broken. Will this make it to mainstream media? I haven’t researched it deeply, so I can’t attest to it’s veracity. You be the judge:

Part 1:

Part II

Some of you may have even seen the original post I made about how much I liked Ron Paul, updated with a retraction some time ago when I learned about a newsletter published under his name that was filled with racist commentary. Then the mainstream media got wind of that story (Wolf Blitzer on CNN interviewed Paul about it) and it really started to muddy the waters for Paul.

It really is too bad. Not just because it exposes the bad things that can happen when you’re asleep on the watch (Paul claims the articles where published under his name but without his knowledge or endorsement – that’s not just asleep; that’s comatose), but also how some great ideas might get taken off the table. The baby is going out with the bath-water, but this bath-water is really rancid.

One of the things that Paul has brought to national attention is the whole concept of the Federal Reserve. While discussions about banking generally make my eyes glaze over, Paul appeared in a doc that explained the whole concept pretty thoroughly. It’s a question that Americans should be asking (and Canadians, as well, being their largest trading partner): is the Federal Reserve accountable, open, necessary, good, evil–or even understood? Who’s driving this bus?

It was Paul’s comments about the Fed that led me to this documentary, Zeitgeist. I know enough about film-making to understand that it’s surprisingly easy to skew a point-of-view and give it weight and meaning. The presentation of information can truly mislead. Moreover, controversial documentaries can stir the pot, but the sources in Zeitgeist are poorly credited even if some of the message might be sound.

But I’m curious to hear what others think about this position: is the Federal Reserve the enslaver of a free people? Or is that just a left-wing propagandist bogeyman?

And the final clip in this post about Paul’s unswerving Republican beliefs… Here he rips a very smarmy and didactic little prig from Fox News, who seems infatuated with his own voice and drips condescension (“Sir…”) Paul initially takes it in stride, but then ramps his response up to stinging indictment of the other candidates.

And in a move that all of us—from every political stripe—should applaud, Stephen Harper’s government has put a plan in place to help keep it that way. From The Washington Post’s coverage of the story:

Canada’s government yesterday set aside 25 million acres of wilderness — 11 times the size of Yellowstone National Park — for conservation, a move that environmentalists called one of North America’s most important acts of nature preservation.

A 3.7 million-acre wildlife area will be created in the Northwest Territories called the Ramparts. (Ducks Unlimited Of Canada)

Also from the Post:

“The whole scale of the boreal landscape is staggering for an American,” Joshua Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group, which helped shepherd the projects, said by telephone from Philadelphia. “We have a lot of what we consider vast landscapes in the West, but nothing like the boreal. You really have to fly over it — it just goes on and on.”

Yellowstone National Park, which includes land in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, is about 2.2 million acres.

The land designated yesterday “isn’t just Canada. This is a global resource and a worldwide treasure,” said Steven Kallick, the Seattle-based manager of the International Boreal Conservation Campaign for the Pew Environment Group. “It’s the largest largely intact forest left in the planet. It rivals the Amazon and Siberia in size. It’s one of the few places left in the world like it.”

It seems that Canada’s historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored. Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.

Sadly, it is still true today.

Sunday Telegraph Article 2002 – (380k PDF)

The interview was conducted after he had clearly lost his bid for election in a Quebec riding. The final question was in the what’s-next-for-Marc-Garneau vein. He thought, and then announced that he had given up his job at the Space Agency in order to run, and now was unemployed and in the market for work. He needed to find a job, he explained, as he had “a young family”.

Here was a true Canadian hero, the first astronaut to carry our nation’s pride into space, admitting that he was job-hunting now to support his family after trying to win a seat in parliament to further serve the public.

And it occurred to me – why? Why can’t any individual who secures a registered party’s nomination be given the same status that we extend to expecting parents. Just like maternity leave, one should be able to leave their position temporarily to run for office and have it waiting for them if they lose the election.

Otherwise, we have a parliament stuffed full of lawyers, who can more easily be temporarily absent from their firms long enough to take a run at a seat.

So maybe – in the metaphorical sense – we should get rid of all the lawyers that run this country And make room for some of the bright and successful entrepreneurs, plumbers, teachers – and astronauts.

For what it’s worth, here’s a point-of-view on Shakespeare’s famous quotation. Worth a read.