Targeting Bin Laden

It has only been a few months since Bin Laden was killed in a "top secret" Navy Seal operation, and already the Discovery channel has a full length documentary outlining the event in extraordinary detail (including a full set of interviews with Obama about the decision making process). Boy that was fast! How long is sensitive information like this normally supposed to stay classified? You rarely see television documentaries on highly classified black ops, especially so soon after the event. I watched the doc with great interest and enjoyed it, even Obama's detailed descriptions of his decisions was entertaining. Obama has every right to thump his chest on this one, and I can understand if they fast tracked the declassification process in order to get the film crew in and out before the 10th year anniversary of 9/11. Had I been President and killed Bin Laden, I would probably have done the same thing.

Bin Laden Dead!

Wow, the night before the Canadian Election, news is breaking that the United States has recovered the body of Osama Bin Laden who was killed by an American special ops unit deep inside Pakistan personally authorized by President Obama (initial reports that it was a predator drone attack were not correct). Well done America! If this is indeed true, expect Obama to get a big bounce in the polls. This dramatically increases his probability of re-election in 2012. This will be the big conversation around the water cooler on Canada's election day. Canadian troops are preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan, which is great timing.

A Very Cherry Christmas In Kandahar

I was delighted to see that our troops were treated to a surprise visit from none other than Canadian icon Don Cherry. While I'm sure that most left wing kooks will roll their eyes at this gesture, it is a great gift for our fighting men and women on this special holiday. Good on you Don! Incredibly enough, Cherry even exchanged artillery fire with insurgents. After saying "Taliban, here I come" he launched an artillery shell deep in insurgent territory, to which the Taliban responded with rocket fire.

Should Parliament Have To Vote On Military Missions?

Courtesy of the Soloman Show, today's poll question; "Should the government be required to hold parliamentary votes on all of Canada's military missions?" I was actually kind of shocked that Evan's audience only voted 63% yes. Extending the Afghanistan mission without a vote is the sort of thing that typically gets Evan's panties in a bunch, and often his audience will vote 90% plus in favour of Soloman's opinion. Granted I think Ryan Hicks sets the agenda at the Soloman Show, E-Solo just reads the cue cards like a liberal Ron Burgundy. I think there was some pull back by Ignatieff supporters who don't want to put a pox on Iggy for supporting the extension without a vote. Many on the right want to stay in Afghanistan in some capacity while many on the left want to leave altogether. And where this kind of poll question would have normally voted 90% to vote on it, I think many of Evan's Liberal viewers are trying to defend Iggy's position to shore up their left flank.

Ignatieff, you have a problem. It is among the left-wing swing votes that you don't want to see turn NDP.

Ignatieff Layton Divided

When Liberal leader Mike Ignatieff announced that he supported the Prime Minister's decision to extend our mission in Afghanistan in a reduced role without a vote in the House of Commons, evidently he did not take it to a show of hands in his caucus or among his would-be coalition allies. Jack Layton is furious. Not only is Jack furious, but several members of Iggy's own caucus are furious. If it went to a vote, Iggy may have a majority of his own caucus voting against him, which is why I don't expect to see him on TV demanding a vote on the matter.

I think it is great that he supports the Prime Minister on this because I do too. I just think it is outstanding that he risks alienating himself from his own allies for supporting the decision of a PM that he has worked so diligently to vilify.

Afghanistan 2011

Today's Remembrance Day poll question; what should Canada's role be in Afghanistan beyond 2011? Should we stay in a combat role, a support role, or should we leave altogether? I support the Prime Minister's position on this matter, and whether or not we stay in a major combat role, we should stay so long as NATO stays. What say you?

Tribute To Our Soldiers

A day ahead of Remembrance Day, I just want to thank our Canadian troops currently serving in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Thank you for doing what you are doing, and that is from the bottom of my heart. If you want to listen to a fantastic monologue about our military, I would direct to http://www.charlesadler.com/. Scroll down the audio archive on the right hand side of the page and hear the Boss of Talk tell the story the way it is (October 9th monologue). In Vancouver, tune in daily to CKNW Newstalk 980 from 7pm-9pm to listen the the best Canadian political orator of our current era.

I would like to ask you for recommendations for poll questions to run on Remembrance Day. I know that my visitors strongly support our troops, so what poll question should I ask on the day that we remember our war fallen?

Adler On Khadr

If you would like to listen to a first class analysis of Omar Khadr's potential return to Canada, go to http://www.charlesadler.com/ and listen to his October 27th monologue. The Boss of Talk sets it up magnificently. I am a proud citizen of Adler Nation on the Corus Radio Network. Charles Adler gets my vote for the best political orator in Canada. You can download his podcast for free on I-Tunes, or visit his website. In Vancouver his show airs 7-9pm on CKNW 980. This is the best pundit in our country, followed by Dave Rutherford, Rex Murphy, and Roy Green in no particular order.

Where Should Omar Khadr Serve His Sentence?

Today's poll question; do you think that Omar Khadr should serve his prison sentence in a Canadian prison? You may have noticed that despite Obama campaigning on the promise of closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, Gitmo is still open for business. You'd think if it is good enough for Bernardo it should be good enough for Khadr, but once he is back on Canadian soil, if our left leaning Supreme Court rules that he should never have been imprisoned in the first place, can we even legally keep him in custody at that point? I would suspect that the motive of the guilty plea was to try and get him to serve his sentence in Canada, then once he's back on Canadian soil, fight to have him freed. What is the probability that Khadr is released shortly after returning to Canada?

Canadians are not eager to have Khadr released into their neighbourhood, but do you mind if he is locked up in a Canadian prison? A year ago I ran the poll question:

WOULD YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH OMAR KHADR LIVING NEXT DOOR?

No (83%)
Yes (8%)
Decline to answer for fear of Jihad (8%)

The bottom line is that Canadians don't want this guy moving into their neighbourhood, as much as Bob Rae wants to paint as a child soldier and a victim. I suppose my next poll question should be "do you think Omar Khadr is a terrorist or victim?"

Leaving Camp Mirage

Another story making news today; the United Arab Emirates is evicting Canada from Camp Mirage and according to Mike Ignatieff, this is a story about the incompetence of our government. What's at the heart of the story is that Dubai and Abu Dhabi have purchased hundreds of large commercial passenger jets and are seeking expanded landing rights at airports across the world. Evidently they are not satisfied with the status quo and are using the only real leverage they have to extract a better deal. So should we be allowing more UAE jets to land in Canada in exchange for being allowed to rent Camp Mirage? I'm sure that if we are there, we are already paying them some form of benefit.

There are plenty of NATO bases around the world that we can use to stage our withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011. We don't need to use that base and I don't think we should respond with concessions to them refusing to allow our Minister of Defense and top General to land at a base where there were Canadian troops. I think Canadian airspace should be closed to "Air Dubai", as direct flights to and from the UAE is not something that Canadians need. For those who want to travel there, you can catch a connecting flight from Europe, no big deal. Once a country decides to refuse our military leadership to land at a base where there are Canadian soldiers and personnel in order to get better landing rights for their fleet of commercial airliners, we should withdraw from the base immediately.

Afghanistan: Gold In Them There Mountains

In a fantastic turn of events, a giant deposit of precious and industrial metals has been found in Afghanistan worth an estimated one trillion dollars. In memory of Bre-X we may want a second opinion before we start buying shares of Afme Drilling Co, but this is excellent news for a war torn country that counts illegal opium as its largest export. As their country will be facing a long insurgency, it is important for them to have a source of wealth that can be used in part to fund the fight against the extremists who want to take them back to the Stone Age.

I don't yet know what our long term role will be in Afghanistan, but if they have the resources to pay for our services, then that benefits everyone but the Taliban.

Access To Information Not A Constitutional Right

Interesting that on the same day that all non-NDP Members of Parliament consummated a deal to review military documents, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that access to information is not a constitutional right. The vote was a tight one, 7-0. There exists sensitive information that the regular citizenry should not be privy to, such as military documents which discuss our combat tactics. What's odd is that our highest court waited 18 months to release this decision (which is very long by SC standards). The judges were unanimous in their support, but it took 18 months? Could they not have decided this 12 months ago in a 4-3 vote, or did they have to deliberate until there was unanimous support?

Jack Layton could not have liked this Supreme Court ruling. The NDP want more documents made public, even if it compromises the safety of our troops currently deployed in the field. If any of our soldiers behave badly, they are subject to a court martial. The military regularly investigates the conduct of our soldiers and prosecutes and punishes where necessary, kind of like the TV show JAG.

Iggy Policy Announcements

Ignatieff has had a busy day of policy announcements, which surely caught most pundits off guard because he so seldom discusses real policy. Generally his press conferences are exhibitions of out of control hyperbole while staying very vague on anything to do with actual tangible policy. He had his standard spiel on being ashamed of Canada, and that we need a foreign policy that Canadians can be proud of. As a matter fact Mr. Ignatieff, I have been very proud of the role Canada has been playing internationally under the leadership of Stephen Harper.

I do agree that we should maintain a presence in Afghanistan after 2011. At least that much Iggy and I agree on. I'm not sure how the Dippers are going to feel about that one. But I strongly disagree that we need a massive foreign policy overhaul, including creating a slew of new diplomatic posts and assignments. I disagree that more bureaucrats is the solution to any problem. I also disagree that building abortion clinics in Africa is the most effective means of spending the money that has been set aside to save lives. If your goal is reducing mortality rates, there is a much more effective way to spend the money.

Detainee Deal Reached

I was very skeptical that this was going to happen, but I am pleased that it has to all's satisfaction. Each party will get to have one representative to review the documents; therefore if anything is leaked there will be a very short list of possible perpetrators. Do we yet know who will get to be privy to this information? Who do you think should be each party's rep? I don't expect much Tory support for Ujjal Dosangh or Bob Rae, who most centrists see as divisive figures. Ralph Goodale helped negotiate the deal, so will he be sitting on the new board? It won't be Ignatieff, as that would require him showing up to work.

Soloman Interviews Bill Graham

I must confess that it was amusing to watch Evan Soloman throw some left handed jabs at former Liberal Defense Minister Bill Graham over his 2005 prisoner transfer agreement which may or may not have violated the Geneva conventions. I did not watch Graham's testimony before committee, but he was specifically asked by Soloman why there was not a monitoring mechanism in the agreement to ensure that prisoners would not be tortured. Graham says that it was impossible, there was absolutely no way that we would ever have that capacity, thus it was not included. Case closed. Now we know why we were not monitoring. It was not possible.

Then E-Solo steers Graham towards the NDS who ended being the ones who took custody of transferred detainees, and that the NDS was widely speculated at the time to be engaging in torture. Graham's response was that he had no idea who the NDS were and that they never came up in conversation; ergo "how can I be expected to know about something that we didn't talk about?" Ladies and gentlemen, your 2005 Minister of Defense. He was a co-architect of the prisoner transfer agreement, which ignored monitoring prisoners turned over to an already allegedly brutal police force; because monitoring was impossible and Bill Graham was not yet aware that the NDS existed.

Detainee Deadline Today

This afternoon marks the two week deadline set by Peter Milliken for the opposition and the government to come to a file sharing agreement on Detainee-gate. When negotiations first began, chief Liberal negotiator Ralph Goodale said that everything was going great and that they would likely reach an agreement before the deadline, catching many Tory and Liberal pundits off guard. But since then, talks seem to have hit a snag and the general public can't be sure what they are snagged on (don't worry, if you want to know, Donolo will likely leak the snag to Taber soon)

To make matters more interesting, the rumour mill is a buzz with word that the NDP has some pointed non confidence or contempt motion that they are waiting to introduce should negotiations fail. Granted it may be more bark than bite, but it should be some time before we see it. I expect if an agreement is not reached by the afternoon deadline today, then the Speaker will simply extend the deadline.

Culture of Cooperation???

I think the breaking news today that the Government is fully cooperating with Ralph Goodale of all people took many pundits by surprise on both sides of the aisle. You had right wingers expecting the Government to take a stand on sensitive documents being made public, and left wingers expecting the Government to stonewall in order to cover up their own alleged war crimes. I was surprised myself to see Goodale so excited about cooperation, and I am still trying to wrap my brain around it.

I went to visit the Liblogs for some left wing commentary on Goodale's happy feelings of cooperation, and I was stunned by the sound of their silence. The only Liblogger who even wrote about it was skeptical, and they as a group clearly don't know what to make of this. If the Government committed war crimes as many leftards assert, then why would they possibly cooperate? If they are covering up their own evils, then they should in theory fight any sharing of the documents to the bitter end. If they are willing to share, then perhaps the initial claim that it was about national security was in fact an honest reality.

Kady O'Malley's words on the matter were "cautious optimism...for now"

Detainee-gate: Can't We All Just Get Along?

Wow, apparently Ralph Goodale is being agreeable. I fully confess that I didn't see that one coming. Ralph was even speculating that we might have an agreement before the Speaker's deadline. For Ralph to be this happy and agreeable, the Government has to be cooperating. Is it possible that the Government did not take this stand to cover up their own wrong doing, but that perhaps maybe just maybe this was always about not releasing sensitive information which could assist the enemies we are currently fighting?

I will be interested to see what compromise is reached, and who will be sitting on this counsel. I know that I wouldn't trust Ujjal Dosangh with my pizza order, much less sensitive military documents. I don't care if he was once Premier because he was never elected Premier. When he ran as Premier, the NDP was reduced from majority to 2 seats. Not unlike Kim Campbell, but without her integrity.

Then Let's Make it a Confidence Motion

Today the Speaker ruled that Ujjal Dosangh gets to read detailed information about our combat operations, and that the Government has breached the confidence of Parliament. Now the house must vote to confirm the Speaker's decision. It sure sounds to me as though declaring the Government in contempt is a matter of confidence, and I think that the Government should make it a confidence motion.

Personally I disagree with the Speaker's decision, but it is still his decision to make. As I said from the time when Lee first filed the motion, if it is granted it should stand as a confidence motion. I suspect that the Government will do that. Swearing in MPs such that they can't discuss the combat operations publicly is all fine and dandy, I just really don't trust that they won't show up on CBC.ca with Kady O'Malley encouraging the whole wide world to read detailed information about how we wage war.

I am growing sick and tired of Canada's 40th Parliament. Bring on 41.

The Speaker's Choice

Speaker of the House Peter Milliken is expected to finally rule this week on Derek Lee's contempt of Parliament motion. He will either rule that the Government is in contempt, setting up a showdown on a possible confidence vote; or he will acknowledge that we shouldn't give detailed information of our current combat operations to Ujjal Dosangh. Guaranteed all the parties in our House of Commons have already decided how they are going to spin this decision, be it yes or no. I know that I already have some jokes in mind regardless of which way the ruling breaks.

Should he defeat Lee's motion, I will be in the Speaker's corner! Ha ha. I couldn’t contain myself any longer. The wait has been unbearable.

I am curious to know how you expect him to rule. I believe that he will turf the motion, but I suppose anything is possible. Technically Milliken is a Liberal MP. Last month I asked the poll question:

DO YOU THINK PARLIAMENT FINDING THE GOVERNMENT IN CONTEMPT REPRESENTS A MOTION OF NON CONFIDENCE?

Yes (79%)
No (21%)

PS: Can anyone confirm if Marlene Jennings was wearing the giant sun glasses in Parliament for a medical condition? Otherwise I have a few jokes I'd like to make in my next blog post...