Biggest Pork Item In History?
Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) got Congress to pass his amendment to the Deep Water Energy Resources Act that had nothing to do with deep water or energy resources. Instead, HR 3496 earmarked $1.5 billion for the Washington DC Metro system, which operates above water in all senses except financially. The Heritage Foundation's Ronald Utt describes the amendment as "the biggest pork earmark in history", and it's headed for the Senate.
I discuss this in my latest post at the Heritage Foundation. Most amazing, the earmark comes because the constituent cities and states involved have little interest in funding improvements to their own system -- so Davis decided to charge every man, woman, and child in America $5 to have someone else ride the bus or train in our nation's capital.
Why, exactly, is this a federal problem? Davis has an explanation that will make you roll your eyes, and the Washington Post editorial supporting it should make you laugh out loud. Be sure to read it, and perhaps point out the folly of this earmark to your Senators.
Posted by Captain Ed at 11:32 AM | Comments (12)
Is the fabric of democracy unravelling in Ontario? [More updates]
Posted by Steve Janke at 10:42 PM
Related articles: Technorati Cosmos :: Canadian Blog Exchange
del.icio.us: Technorati tags: Caledonia , land dispute , Ontario Provincial Police , OPP , Ontario , Dalton McGuinty , censorship
After my musings on the disturbing story about how a website critical of the performance of the Ontario Provincial Police during the land dispute in Caledonia was blocked, an even more disturbing comment was posted:
Steve
I am an OPP officer who regularily surfs your site (from home). I know for a fact that the OPP has blocked the Caledonia web site from being viewed from any computer on the Ontario Government network.
The original story alleged that the site was made inaccessible to police computers only. But this comment indicates that all provincial government computers are subject to the restriction.
I'm hoping for more confirmation from other people who work for the Ontario government, in particular those who do not work for the Ontario Provincial Police.
The comment says it clearly. No one who works for the Ontario government -- from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Education to the Ontario Provincial Police -- can access Caledonia Wake Up Call.
Consider this carefully. A website keeps a careful record of the actions (or lack of action) of the OPP, and the OPP somehow removes the ability to access this site from all government employees. Just when did Premier Dalton McGuinty decide to hand the power to make decisions concerning the flow of information over to the OPP?
As far as I know, the Ministry of Health has not blocked access to the Freedom Party webpage that advocates private health insurance. Maybe it's just a matter of time.
Back to the OPP-related website though. Let's consider one very specific, immediate, and practical implication of this. Put aside the unsettling philosophical question of how a police force stung by criticism can dictate internet policy to the government as a whole. Recall that the questions being posed about the OPP are quite valid, and are the subject of court proceedings:
An Ontario judge is again demanding to know why his orders to police to end the aboriginal land dispute in Caledonia haven't been carried out.
Justice David Marshall today called into court representatives from provincial police, the Ministry of the Attorney General, and the aboriginal occupiers.
Marshall is hearing legal arguments about why the protesters remain at the housing development.
"This is a matter at the very heart of the administration of justice," Marshall said in court.
"If court orders can be disregarded the whole fabric of democracy falls to pieces."
Here's the practical question I want you to consider. Justice Marshall and his clerks will be considering the actions of the OPP (actions that have already deeply frustrated the court) and part of their research might include scouring the web for reports of the events in Caledonia, web surfing that will be done from Ontario government computers installed in these provincial court offices.
What if the court decides to follow a link to Caledonia Wake Up Call, then finds out the site can't be reached from the provincial government computer by order of the OPP?
I wonder how Justice Marshall will react.
I bet he won't be too happy. And maybe just a bit more worried about the fabric of democracy.
Update: Maybe it is just the OPP computers after all:
Hi Steve, I work for the Government of Ontario, in a Ministry head office. I'm not sure where "mapleleaf4ever" got his information from, but I can access the Caledonia Wake-Up Call website just fine. As a matter of fact, I'm looking at it right now from my work computer (latest updates are "Jul 24 - Internet Polls" and "Jul 25 - Four Males Arrested in Caledonia Disturbance"), which is directly hooked up to the government network, behind the Ministry's firewall and everything.
Interesting. So there is some confusion about just what is being blocked and where. I'd like to hear from more people about whether the site is indeed blocked, and whether the ability to reach the site has changed over the last few days.
Alt.Muslim "reviews" Islam: What the West Needs to Know
When I wrote my book Islam Unveiled in 2001, I hoped that thoughtful Muslims would address the points I raised in it, and that we could open up a dialogue that might be useful in illuminating what could be done about the elements of Islam that give rise to fanaticism and violence. In that I was naive. The response by critics to that book as well as to every other book that I have written has consisted only of vague assertions that I am ignorant of Islam, without ever providing a single substantive refutation of anything I wrote.
It's the same with this Alt.Muslim review of the documentary in which I appear, Islam: What The West Needs To Know. Reviewer Zahir Janmohamed seems to think that sneering is a good substitute for argumentation. He raises not a single substantive point to attempt to show that what the movie says is wrong. Posted by Robert at 12:28 PM | Comments (26)
UPDATE: In a related item, Cathy Seipp has thoughts on the media, immigration, and Islam.