(no subject)

[gwydion]

* Russia is responding to the EU lifting the arms embargo to the Syrian rebels by openly planning to send surface to air missiles to Assad so he can shoot down European Planes if they decide to make a no fly zone. Lebanon has pledged full support to Assad. Assad has been arming Hezbollah. Israel understandably is furious at Russia and says they will take steps if Syria and Lebanon get the missiles. Meanwhile, John Mccain went over there to further inflame the already rapidly escalating and spreading conflict in an attempt to undermine John Kerry's attempt to get a peace conference going. After all, undermining US Diplomacy is an important political goal for the Republicans. Who cares if the War has already killed more than 80,000 people, a majority of them civilians, is prolonged and continues to spread if it denies the President a diplomatic victory and the Republicans can make him look weak. Look, I'm not saying there is huge hope for a diplomatic solution, but I am really scared about what happens if we don't get one. Shouldn't we at least try that? Apparently not.

* Richard Engle explains how much more complicated things are on the ground in Syria than is being generally understood in the West:

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* That Canadian Political Scandal gets weirder:

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* Thanks to climate change, plants in the Canadian arctic frozen for 400+ years are thawing and starting to grow again.

* They have arrested a man in the stabbing of a French soldier. The attack happened three days after the London attack leading to a lot of speculation. The soldier has left the hospital. Authorities in Paris say the attack was "religiously motivated."

* Congratulations to all the same sex couples in France getting married today!

* There has been a dry ice related explosion at the Toon Town attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim. Luckily, no one was injured.

* I've been seeing reporting of the rape kit backlog since at least the mid-90's. It's getting worse.

* Remember Those Oil Rigs that Crashed up in Alaskan Waters last Winter? It turns out that happened as part of a tax avoidance scheme.:

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* "Whatever Happened To 'The Dallas Principles'?" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2013/05/whatever-happened-to-dallas-principles.html

* They forgot the 50% they spend on trying to strip women's Rights: http://doonesbury.slate.com/strip/archive/2013/5/28

* How did I get to be past forty without knowing that Lancelot had a male love interest also?

* The Clutch:

Comments

[fobok.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, that Rob Ford stuff is weird. Though, it's hardly the only scandal, what with the Senate spending scandal going on, and the conservative government trying to sneak language into a legislation that would give it say over who is hired and fired at the CBC (as well as other Crown Corporations, like the Bank of Canada). Not to mention the whole robocalls scandal from the last election, which has apparently as of Wednesday resulted fines to people from all three national parties and an Alberta provincial party, as well as RackNine, who I guess was the company supplying the robocalls. That's just stuff in the news this week.

Rob Ford is, admittedly, the most entertaining.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

The other scandals aren't making it to Us National News and my Canadian Radio station isn't very political. Do you have links to the other scandals? It's okay if it's too much hassle, but I like to keep up.

[fobok.livejournal.com]

Sure!

Senate scandal (though there's hundreds of other news stories, this one covers the basics pretty well): http://ca.news.yahoo.com/harper-remains-mum-dealt-unfolding-expense-scandal-last-182111187.html

The robocalls stuff: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/head-elections-canada-confirms-witnesses-not-co-operating-175116320.html

The CBC scandal: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/05/30/canadian_budget_bill_contains_rude_shock_for_the_cbc.html

and related: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/will-omnibus-bill-influence-bank-of-canadas-independence-flaherty-should-explain/article12212675/

Adding on, a few weeks ago this was in the news: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/04/30/pol-auditor-general-spring-report-federal-spending.html

and this:
http://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2013/05/08/star_investigation_millions_in_taxpayerfunded_consulting_work_kept_secret.html