Unexpected! Unemployment Rate Falls ... in Canada

A corollary effect of a conservative government.

Canada added more jobs than economists forecast in April and the unemployment rate declined on increased hiring by service companies and part-time work.

Employment rose by 58,300 after a March decline of 1,500, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. The jobless rate fell to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent, as the labor force grew by 47,400. Economists forecast no change in unemployment and 20,000 new jobs in Bloomberg News surveys that had 24 and 25 estimates, respectively. The largest estimate was for 40,000 new jobs.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper won a majority government May 2 after campaigning on his Conservative government’s record of helping Canada restore output and employment following the global recession. The Bank of Canada said last month economic growth is likely to slow to a 2 percent annual pace in the April-June period after a surge in the first quarter.

Dire Straits: Banned In Canada

Oh the horror of it. The prudes in Canada who sit on something called the Broadcast Standards Council have banned the playing of an almost 30 year old song performed by Dire Straits entitled "Money for Nothing" over objectionable lyrics. It seems they used the word faggot. Just so those who weren't aware here is the verse that has caused such anguish in the Great Frozen North.

The little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy, that's his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he's a millionaire

No word on if they find any of the lyrics contained in the gangsta' rap style songs where they talk about rape, killing cops, and glorification of drugs and violence as objectionable.

BTW, you stupid Canucks with your frost bitten brains, there are versions of the song which were released commercially that do not contain that particular verse, but hey don't let that stop you from slapping yourselves on the back and shoving your noses into the air from high atop your lofty perch on the moral high ground.

Ho, Canada: 'Bondage Bungalow' Madam Wins Court Challenge

Enough legal maneuvering and Canada may soon become famous for activities involving things other than beer, hockey and curling.

An Ontario court struck down key provisions of Canada’s prostitution laws on Tuesday after finding that they endanger women by forcing them to work on the streets rather than from their homes. While prostitution is legal in Canada, federal criminal law bans almost every activity that makes it possible. The decision, by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, overturns laws prohibiting “the keeping of a bawdy house, communicating for the purposes of prostitution and living on the avails of the trade.” The constitutional challenge was brought by two prostitutes and a dominatrix who was convicted under the bawdy-house law for running what she called the “Bondage Bungalow.”

That dominatrix pictured above looks eerily familiar. Well, at least her hair does.

In case you're now planning a trip north to get your freak on, just make sure you're up on provincial laws.

IOC 'Investigating' Canadian Women Hockey Players

Those stuffed shirts at the International Olympic Committee, people who've probably never donned a uniform for any athletic endeavor, really need to get a grip. They're going to investigate the Canadian women's gold medal team for celebrating inappropriately? Good grief, get a life, people.

The International Olympic Committee will investigate the actions of Canadian women's hockey players who celebrated their gold medal victory Thursday night by swigging beer and smoking cigars on the ice in Vancouver.

A number of players, including 18-year-old superstar Marie-Philip Poulin, were drinking alcohol on the ice following the team's 2-0 defeat of the United States. (The legal drinking age in British Columbia is 19.) Players lingered for more than 70 minutes after the awards ceremony reveling in the arena, which was empty except for media and arena staff.

Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director of the Olympic Games, said that drinking in public was "not what we want to see" from athletes at an Olympic venue. The organization will investigate the actions and will speak with the international hockey federation and Canadian Olympic Committee and ask them to "act accordingly."

Steve Keough, a spokesman for the Canadian Olympic Committee, told the Associated Press, “We condone celebrations. … We don’t condone actions of irresponsibility. I think Canadians understand it’s quite an emotional moment for our team. It was not our intention to go against any IOC protocols.”

Yes, let's punish these young ladies who've spent the better part of thier lives to get to this point.

Let it go, folks.

As an aside, I'd really like to have been at the after-party.

Napolitano to Canada: Stop Reminding Me of My Idiocy

Seems Janet Napolitano is yet another member of the Obama administration who doesn't like freedom of speech. What a shame. Maybe she shouldn't say such stupid things on the record.

U.S. Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano wanted to make it clear to Canada on Wednesday that she knows she misspoke when she erroneously said that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists entered the United States through Canada.

Napolitano, on her first trip to Canada since joining President Barack Obama's Cabinet in January, was discussing security issues with Canadian Minister of Public Safety Peter Van Loan.

Napolitano was trying to get past the diplomatic gaffe after an interview last month with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in which she said—incorrectly—that the Sept. 11 terrorists crossed into the U.S. from Canada. The comments caused an uproar in America's neighbor to the north.

The Sept. 11 commission found that none came through Canada. But other extremists have, such as the would-be millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian convicted on multiple counts for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport around Jan. 1, 2000.

"We know, and I know, that 9-11 terrorists did not cross the Canadian border. I regret that the Canadian media only seems to hear that earlier misstatement by me to that effect," Napolitano said at a brief news conference, adding that she wants to move on.

"So let me be perfectly clear: We know that. But what they also need to hear, and what you need to hear from me, are all the things we are doing with Canada, and will continue to do with Canada, to further our joint security because we share the same interests."

Other U.S. politicians have also claimed that the Sept. 11 terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada, a myth the Canadian government continues to try to dispel.

Van Loan said Canada has accepted Napolitano's correction and "moved on."

Opposition Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said in Washington last month that he thought Napolitano was seriously ill-informed about the border. Napolitano has also said that Canada "lets people into its country that we don't allow into ours."

AP fails to identify who these "other politicians" are who made such claims. Seems to me they're trying to give cover to Napolitano by saying others are as dumb as she is.

I always find it amusing when liberals are caught saying something idiotic, they want to move on. When a conservative says something dumb, they're never allowed to move on. Usually their careers are ruined.

Aren't double standards wonderful?

Improving Cross-border Relations

Security Paranoia Defies Logic
This is borderline insanity. The most worrisome U. S. official confronting Canada today is a former Arizona governor who thinks the U. S. northern border, which she's only flown over and never actually crossed on the ground, is a security threat on par with the drug-running, immigrant-smuggling, terrorist-sneaking border wall with Mexico.

And there's simply no comparison between the illegal entry trickle from Canada and the alien immigrant wave and drug smuggling surge pouring into the United States from the south. Of the estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants who enter the United States each year, 57% come from Mexico. Just 6% of those living illegally in the United States are Canadian. Somebody should also warn the Secretary that recent statistics show 500,000 Canadians spent tourist dollars in her Mexican border state in 2006 and that Arizona rates Canada its second-largest trading partner with almost $3-billion in trade.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is moving unapologetically forward on beefed-up border staffing and enhanced documentation requirements that will make Canadians and travelling Americans yearn for the security paranoia of the George W. Bush administration.

Ouch. Methinks someone's a bit pissed that Hopenchange isn't all that it was cracked up to be. On the other hand, maybe it is, you know, cracked up and stuff. So to speak.

Ms. Napolitano's brief interview with the CBC this week was jaw-dropping confirmation we're dealing with an irrational senior U.S. official who can't differentiate between a secure border linking the world's largest trading partners and one that's a giant sucking sound for jobs going south and what's been described as an 'invasion' of desperate Mexicans illegally sneaking north.

Ya think???

She actually invoked the bogeyman of 9/11 terrorists sneaking into the United States from Canada to bolster the case for a crackdown, even though the most elementary research would've told her there's no evidence to support that bogus claim.

When challenged on her concerns, she insisted still-secret data, undoubtedly buried with the aliens at Roswell, justifies her concern. She surely must know that only 12 of the 48 al-Qaeda operatives caught between 1993 and 2001 were illegal immigrants and none of those came from Canada.


The infamous quote from early in her Homeland Security posting was to fret at Mexico's hurt feelings. "If things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border."

What's that precisely? Build another Texas wall? Does she have any concept that this 5,013-kilometre land border bisects towns and villages (heck, it even divides the stage from the seats in one Vermont-Quebec movie theatre)?

"The pattern at the Canadian border has been informality," she went on to say. "The borders are going to be enabled with greater technology, but it's not going to be going back and forth as if there's no border anymore."

Having crossed the border last week, let me assure you there's nothing informal or lacking about it. When friends on an annual golf getaway crossed at the 1,000 Islands, we joined a bunch of others in getting a major passport shakedown by armed American guards casting a very suspicious eyes at our duty-free haul of booze sandwiched between the bags carrying our instruments of fairway destruction.

They called me forward and demanded to know if I'd ever been arrested. Yes, yes, I confessed, there was a minor drug possession charge when I was just 18 (and I still insist it was Bob Green's pot), but it was wiped clean by a judge. It took a long discussion with border guards about the dangers of allowing in somebody never convicted of anything criminal before my born-in-the-U.S.A. birth certificate got me waved across.

I digress, but my point is that technology which can alert guards to a 34-year-old minor arrest that never resulted in a conviction shouldn't have much trouble fingering a known terrorist.

The new Homeland Security boss has a well-known Monty Python fetish. Perhaps she's decided to pattern herself after the black knight of Holy Grail movie fame, who declares "none shall pass," only to have his arms and legs hacked off in a sword fight even while insisting the amputations are ''but a scratch.''

If Janet Napolitano adopts a similarly defiant posture to squeeze her northern border into a business barrier, the United States will be cutting off the arms and legs of its integrated manufacturing base to block an enemy that doesn't exist.

Canuckians, unclench thy fists!

Via The National Post

Canadian Lefties Warmly Greet Bush on Visit

Looks like some folks will just never move on. Especially the media. Not even a pretense of objectivity in this story. I have to at least give the idiot in the above photo credit for using the term Club Gitmo.

More than 100 protesters chanted "war criminal" and flung shoes in Calgary on Tuesday, angry that former U.S. President George W. Bush was in the Canadian city to give his first speech since leaving the White House.

At least two demonstrators were hauled away by police after brief skirmishes, as 1,500 business people in the oil patch city waited outside a convention center for an hour to pass through tight security and enter the C$400-a-plate ($315) luncheon.

Media were barred from the invitation-only event, during which Bush had been expected to reflect on his eight years as president.

"He is a war criminal who fought an illegal war, and there are some who say he was never elected democratically, so there are some who say he should be arrested as soon as he comes here," said a woman dressed as a Guantanamo Bay prisoner, who called herself Ivana Nomobush.

She had brought with her a makeshift "shoe cannon" that catapulted footwear, but complained that security personnel were not letting her use it.

The shoe theme is an homage to Iraqi reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi, who was sentenced last week to three years in prison for hurling his shoes at Bush in December.

he reaction was in stark contrast to President Barack Obama's first official visit to Canada last month, when he was fawned on by citizens and politicians alike.

Not to mention the media.

Here's another kook protester.


Apparently she hasn't gotten the message that the term terrorist is no longer in vogue.

Update: Unlike Democrats, Bush refuses to criticize a sitting president while on foreign soil.

Former President George W. Bush says he won't criticize President Barack Obama because Obama "deserves my silence," and says he plans to write a book about the 12 toughest decisions he made in office. Bush's speech Tuesday at a luncheon in Calgary, Alberta was his first since leaving office.

Canadian Beheader Found Not Criminally Responsible

How long until the Buffalo headchopper Muzzammil Hassan has his attorney try the insanity defense?

He's got some precedent across the border.

Vince Li has been found not criminally responsible for the unprovoked killing and beheading of fellow passenger Timothy McLean on a Greyhound bus last summer.

Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Judge John Scurfield said Thursday that Li, 40, could not be found guilty of murder and is not criminally responsible for the crime because he was mentally ill at the time of the killing.

"These grotesque acts are appalling... but are suggestive of a mental disorder," the judge said.

"He did not appreciate the act he committed was wrong."

Li had pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder. Psychiatric evidence at his trial suggested he is a schizophrenic who suffered a major psychotic episode last July 30 when he fatally stabbed McLean, 22, ate some of the body parts, and cut off McLean's head.

For five hours after the killing, Li wandered around on the bus, from which passengers had fled along the Trans-Canada Highway, defiling the body while an RCMP tactical team waited to subdue him.

Rather than go to prison, Li will be kept in a secure psychiatric facility, most likely in Selkirk, Man.

McLean, a carnival worker, was returning home to Winnipeg on the bus from Edmonton. Listening to his iPod while sitting in the back row of Greyhound bus 1170, he gave Li a friendly greeting as the stranger sat down beside him.

Then, around 8:30 p.m. CT, when the bus was near Portage La Prairie, Man., Li pulled a buck knife from his side and began stabbing McLean — for no apparent reason, witnesses said. After passengers fled the bus, Li was barricaded inside the vehicle.

During the stabbing, Li was heard to say, "get emergency." During the five-hour standoff, he walked around the bus carrying the severed head in one hand, the knife in the other. At one point, he threw McLean's head into the bus's stairwell.

Bumbling Obama Doesn't Realize He's In Canada: 'It's a Great Pleasure to Be Here in Iowa - Ottawa'

No doubt the media will just claim the poor thing is tired from working so hard to save America.

OTTAWA, Canada - President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper just started their joint news conference, the first such dual podium event for the new president.

The newness is showing - the president began his remarks with, "It's a great pleasure to be here in Iowa - Ottawa."

Obama says "it's great to be" pretty much anywhere he goes. Iowa was a key battleground state, but also the Jan. 4, 2008 caucus was his first win during the Democratic primary election. It swung his way in November, and a Downtown Des Moines rally on Halloween was one of his last campaign stops before winning the presidency.

Flubbing the name of a location has happened to many politicians, and has happened to the president before.

Republicans had great fun mocking Obama the candidate last year when he goofed Sioux Falls and Sioux City; and Sunshine and Sunrise.

Yeah, but nobody really noticed those boneheaded flubs last year since 99% of the media was rooting for this boob.

He apparently can't get through a coherent sentence without his trusty TelePrompter.

Last week he bumped his head getting on Marine and somehow avoided widespread ridicule. A couple weeks earlier he tried walking through a window and the humorless left found nothing funny about it.

George W. Bush utters a couple of malaprops and we get eight years of lame jokes about it.

Obama apparently can't walk and chew gum simultaneously and he's anointed the greatest being to ever walk the earth.

Canada Refuses to Admit Bill Ayers: 'If It Were Me I Would Have Let Me In'

Why is he trying to get into Canada when he should be in DC celebrating with his buddy? I'm surprised they didn't have him on stage with Pete Seeger yesterday.

An American education professor, one of the founders of a radical 1960s group known as the Weather Underground, which was responsible for a number of bombings in the United States in the early 1970s, was turned back at the Canadian border last night.

Dr. William Ayers, a professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a leader in educational reform, was scheduled to speak at the Centre for Urban Schooling at University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. But that appearance has now been temporarily cancelled.

"I don't know why I was turned back," Ayers said in an interview this morning from Chicago. "I got off the plane like everyone else and I was asked to come over to the other side. The border guards reviewed some stuff and said I wasn't going to be allowed into Canada. To me it seems quite bureaucratic and not at all interesting ... If it were me I would have let me in. I couldn't possibly be a threat to Canada."

Ayers made headlines this summer after Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin suggested that then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama hung around with domestic terrorists like Ayers. The professor had hosted a meet-the-candidate event at his home for Obama in 1995, during his run for the state Senate. They also worked together on Chicago school reform and served on a charity board together.

Ayers first rose to notoriety in the early 1970s with the Weather Underground. The group claimed responsibility for bombings at the U.S. Capitol, a Pentagon restroom and New York City police headquarters. In 1970, a townhouse in New York the group was using to build a bomb blew up.

Nowadays, Ayers is known more for his work in educational reform. He has written or edited more than a dozen books — including his 2001 memoir Fugitive Days — and travels around the world giving lectures on education.

Yes, in places like Venezuela.

Terrorist Bomber Turned College Instructor Arrested

No, not Bill Ayers. He's busy reveling in his celebrity and hitting the interview circuit.

This terrorist was nabbed in Canada for a synagouge bombing in France back in 1980.

How is it these radicals seems to wind up in academia?

An Ottawa university instructor has been arrested for the infamous terrorist bombing of a Paris synagogue in 1980 that killed four people, injured scores of others and put synagogues around the world on a tough new security footing.

Hassan Diab, 54, was arrested by the RCMP at Gatineau residence Thursday morning as he was getting dressed, and placed in custody at the RCMP's A division on McArthur Road, said his lawyer, René Duval. He is to appear in an Ottawa court on Friday.

The RCMP would not confirm the identity of the person they arrested, but a justice department official confirmed it to be Mr. Diab.

Two French judges reportedly issued an international arrest warrant against Mr. Diab earlier this month, believed to be the first such international warrant for terrorism ever executed in Canada.

The Oct. 3, 1980, bombing of central Paris' Copernic Road synagogue was triggered by high explosives planted in the saddlebags of a parked motorcycle outside the building. The blast killed three Frenchmen and a young Israeli woman. Hundreds of worshippers gathered inside the synagogue for a Sabbath service were to emerge minutes later. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Operations was blamed.

As one of the first contemporary terrorist strikes on a synagogue outside the Middle East, the blast trigged the fortification of Jewish community sites across Europe and North America.

France's Le Figaro newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, reported last fall that French authorities suspect Mr. Diab was the leader of the small commando team responsible for the attack and had asked Canada for assistance with their investigation.

Liberals, Canada Is Waiting

Please move to Canada this time if you lose. Liberals say it every election cycle, but just like their candidates they never keep their word. Well Canada is sweetening the pot this year.

Army Deserter Allowed to Remain in Canada

Perhaps not permanently, however, but this worm gets to stay for now.

A high-profile American war dodger won a desperate bid to stay in Canada on Monday as a judge refused to allow Canada to send him back to the United States to face prosecution for desertion.

Jeremy Hinzman's reprieve from scheduled deportation on Tuesday came after Federal Court heard an Immigration official had made serious errors in assessing the hardships the deserter and his family would face if forced back to the U.S.

"Of course, we're elated -- we weren't expecting this much, so it's a nice surprise," Hinzman said moments after the decision was released.

"(But) we're not out of the woods at all. We just have a stay of removal."

Earlier in the day, Hinzman's lawyer Alyssa Manning told Justice Richard Mosley that new evidence suggests outspoken critics of the 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq face harsher treatment than other deserters.

For example, she said, deserter Robin Long was sentenced to 15 months in prison last month after prosecutors made mention of a media interview he had given in Canada before he was deported in July.

As one of the first of scores of deserters to seek refuge in Canada rather than fight in Iraq, Hinzman's case has been even more public.

"He is the person associated with objections to the war in Iraq," Manning told the court.

The issue of "differential" treatment for those who have spoken out against the U.S.-led invasion appeared to trouble Mosley.

"I don't know how it is an aggravating feature or element to be introduced in sentencing," the judge said.

Crown lawyer Stephen Gold called it "speculation and surmise" that criticizing the U.S. military in public has led to harsher sentences for deserters.

"It is not really for us to pass judgment on a military code in a foreign country," Gold said.

Hinzman, 29, deserted the 82nd Airborne Division in January 2004 just before he was scheduled to deploy to Iraq. He fled to Toronto with his wife and young son after his application for conscientious-objector status was rejected.

Canada rejected his refugee claim -- a decision two courts upheld -- on the basis he faces prosecution, not persecution, in the U.S.

Previously.

Finally, An Outlet For Repressed Canadian Porn Stars

Here all this time you thought they were just into drinking and hockey, eh?

Canadians who may have become tired of being passed over as porn stars will have a new, home-grown outlet to showcase their erotic talents.

Federal regulators have granted Alberta-based Real Productions approval to launch a new digital pornography channel, which promises to serve up at least 50 percent domestic content.

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved the Category 2 pay-television service on Wednesday, allowing Northern Peaks to become "Canada's first adult video channel offering significant Canadian adult content."

"I think as Canadians there is a bit of a tiredness in seeing all American stuff," Shaun Donnelly, president of Real Productions, said during an interview on Friday.

"There is always that thrill for something that is local and you get the sense that these are people you can meet at the supermarket."

Canada Boots Army Deserter

Time to hit the road, punk.

One of the first U.S. army deserters from Iraq to seek refugee status has been ordered deported in a decision that sends the message that the Conservative government isn't going to protect American soldiers who want to stay in Canada, immigration lawyers say.

Jeremy Hinzman, 29, deserted the army in 2004 after learning his unit was to be deployed to Iraq. He was handed the deportation order yesterday after a Citizenship and Immigration officer decided his application, filed under the preremoval risk assessment program, didn't qualify. The program evaluates the risk a claimant will face if he or she is to be sent back.

Outside the Canada Border Services Agency office where the order came down, Mr. Hinzman was stoic as he walked out with his son, Liam, and his wife, Nga Nguyen, who cradled their three-month-old Canadian-born daughter in her arms. After meeting with his lawyer to discuss whether they'll appeal the decision, he said he is resigned to going back to the United States. He joked that he'll miss the traditional Québécois fast food poutine, as well as "everybody that we've had the opportunity to meet."

"Life goes on," he said. "We're disappointed, but what can you do?"

Figures he enjoyed that disgusting poutine.

Now these cowardly deserters are all freaking out. Too bad.

Canada's Largest Mosque Open For Business

Congratulations to Canada as they take yet another step on the path to joining the caliphate.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier are among dignitaries scheduled to help inaugurate the mosque on Saturday.

This mosque was built in Calgary, a city I have been to. It is in the province of Alberta which is in the western portion of Canada, just above Montana. The other major city in Alberta is Edmonton. There is very little out in this part of Canada. In fact the reason I was up there was to conduct some military training out there. The area was so rugged we referred to it as the "Bad Lands."
There is one disturbing part in the story, and as with all things regarding Muslims it just isn't a story unless some other Muslim is outraged, and so it is with this story.

The well-wishing is a far cry from the reaction in countries like Indonesia, where the government last month warned that followers of Ahmadiyya, whose slogan is "Love for All, Hatred for None," could face jail time for tarnishing Islam.

So while CAIR continues to tell us that Islam is a "Religion of Peace", it seems that message just never makes it to the rank and file Muslim. I guess I am left to assume that the Indonesians, who have suffered from tsunami's and the western world has spent billions in aid to help them have a philosophy of "Love for None, Hatred for All" or something like that.
So infidels take heart, it isn't just us that they get all outraged at and get their kaffiyah in wad over. But by all means continue to send money.

Some Prank

This is some sick stuff.

VANCOUVER - The British Columbia Coroner's Service says a prankster is responsible for a sixth foot that apparently washed ashore on the south coast of the province.

The latest foot was discovered Wednesday, when a woman walking along a beach near Campbell River, B.C., on Vancouver Island said she spotted some bones protruding from a size 10 black Adidas running shoe.

Five other feet have been found in the Vancouver area since last August, including four right feet and a left foot.

But the coroner's service says a forensic pathologist and anthropologist have examined the latest foot and it's actually an animal paw that was inserted into the shoe, along with a sock packed with dried seaweed.

The coroner's service called the hoax reprehensible and disrespectful to the families of missing people.

Ace relates a theory on these mystery feet washing up.

Hezbollah to Strike in Canada?

Looks like Canada may be receiving thanks for bending over backwards to accomodate the Mohammedans.

Intelligence agencies in the United States and Canada are warning of mounting signs that Hezbollah, backed by Iran, is poised to mount a terror attack against "Jewish targets" somewhere outside the Middle East.

Intelligence officials tell ABC News the group has activated suspected "sleeper cells" in Canada and key operatives have been tracked moving outside the group's Lebanon base to Canada, Europe and Africa.

Officials say Hezbollah is seeking revenge for the February assassination of Hezbollah's military commander, Imad Mugniyah, killed by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria.

The group's leaders blamed Israel, an allegation denied by Israeli officials.

There is no credible information on a specific target, according to the officials.

Suspected Hezbollah operatives have conducted recent surveillance on the Israeli embassy in Ottawa, Canada and on several synagogues in Toronto, according to the officials.

I can already see the Canadian left asking "what did we do to offend them?"

"They want to kill as many people as they can, they want it to be a big splash," said former CIA intelligence officer Bob Baer, who says he met with Hezbollah leaders in Beirut last month.

"They cannot have an operation fail," said Baer, "and I don't think they will. They're the A-team of terrorism."

Alarms were first raised in Canada, where as many as 20 suspected Hezbollah members have been under surveillance after as many as four suspected "sleeper cells" were activated, including one known as "Rashedan," intelligence officials tell ABC News. The members also received instruction to send their family members home to Lebanon, according to officials.

Canadian Court Overturns Grounding

This is how sickly litigious we've become. Now in Canada a father can't even ground his 12-year-old daughter without being hauled into court. Just Ridiculous.

The girl used a court-appointed lawyer. Naturally.

A Canadian court has lifted a 12-year-old girl's grounding, overturning her father's punishment for disobeying his orders to stay off the Internet, his lawyer said Wednesday.

The girl had taken her father to Quebec Superior Court after he refused to allow her to go on a school trip for chatting on websites he tried to block, and then posting "inappropriate" pictures of herself online using a friend's computer.

The father's lawyer Kim Beaudoin said the disciplinary measures were for the girl's "own protection" and is appealing the ruling.

"She's a child," Beaudoin told AFP. "At her age, children test their limits and it's up to their parents to set boundaries."

"I started an appeal of the decision today to reestablish parental authority, and to ensure that this case doesn't set a precedent," she said. Otherwise, said Beaudoin, "parents are going to be walking on egg shells from now on."

Allahpundit links and adds this:

There has to be more to this than what’s here. The fact that the decision was made in the context of a custody dispute makes me think maybe the girl’s mother disagreed with the father about the punishment and consented to let the girl ask the judge to decide between them. A cursory googling reveals precious little information, though, aside from this report from Canwest, in which the father’s lawyer is quoted as lamenting the fact that this wasn’t settled the way parent/child disputes are supposed to be settled — in “youth court.”

Canuck Cook Caged in Guadalajara

Here's a little inconvenient fact for folks that constantly go harping on how America treats illegal aliens in this country who actually wind up in a jail cell or constantly whine about Gitmo.

Martin was a chef for Alyn Richard Waage, who was arrested in 2001 and jailed for investment fraud. Five years later, Martin was picked up and detained, although she hasn't been charged with anything, CTV said.

The Martin mentioned is a 51-year-old Canadian woman named Brenda Martin. The prison she is in is in Mexico. So we hold chauffeurs for Bin Laden and Mexico imprisons chefs for investment bankers. So let me see do a little math and she has been held for two years with no charges.

Earlier this week, former Prime Minister Paul Martin visited the woman during an unrelated trip to Mexico. He reportedly talked with prison officials to ask for better conditions for her, as she shares a 9-by-12 foot cell with 11 women.

"Eight of them sleep on the floor so you have to crawl over their heads to get to an outhouse bathroom," she said.

If I was her I would appeal to the Americans and claim ties to the Taliban just to get a transfer to Gitmo.