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Our opinions of and advice to the world. Updated whenever we get around to it.
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Dana - virtual_zero@hotmail.com
Bob - bobtheright@hotmail.com
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Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Check out this story from Reuters, it says that John Kerry is willing to offer the Iranians a deal to let them keep their nuclear reactors. Give the whole thing a read and see if you think its a good idea.
I have to agree with John McCain on this one, it could be a good idea, but only if the US was dealing with a trustworthy adversary, which we all know they are not. So why come up with the hair brained scheme in the first place? Is Kerry trying to score political points by showing he's willing to make deals and be even handed with everybody?
Its ideas like this that scare me about John Kerry, his utopian world view just doesn't lead me to believe he is capable of making sound decisions when it comes to dealing with the nations and people that wish the US and its allies harm.
Monday, August 30, 2004
What are your feelings regarding Canada's showing at this year's Olympics? Are you satisfied with the status quo or should the country spend more money on our athletes in preparation for the next games? If you think that we should spend more money, then how should we do it, spend the budget surplus, raise taxes, booklet bingos or as PEI would do, VLTs?
Saturday, August 28, 2004
Since you're here read Letters About Jews: In Search Of Conspiracy.
As well from Nealenews (Why hasn't he provided us with an RSS feed yet?) we find out that Jacques Chirac is proud of the UNs efforts in freeing Iraq. A comedian couldn't make this stuff up. I'll just sit here and shake my head for a few more minutes...
Friday, August 27, 2004
From John Derbyshire's Kaiser Bill And Me:
We should not forget the Great War for Civilization. If, as I believe, it has no particular lessons in diplomacy or strategy to teach us, it nonetheless stands as a ghastly reminder of just how badly things can go wrong when History means business.Very true.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
The Pat Binns government of Prince Edward Island has its priorities a little out of wack, here's why. The Binns government, in cooperation with the Atlantic Lotto Corporation (ALC) are planning to sink 25 million dollars into PEI's failing harness racing industry, the same time as they are making across the board cuts to most government services because of the large budget deficit they are running.
The Binns government has recently reduced dental care services for Island children, won't give emergency room doctors billing numbers so that they can work extra hours at health clinics, won't hire enough full-time nurses, closed PEI access centers across the province and raised drug costs for seniors and diabetics. Yet Binns pulls out all the stops to save a dying industry that apparently not enough people care about anymore, why else would it be failing?
The center piece of the Binns plan to save harness racing is to have the ALC install over 200 Video Lottery Terminals at the Charlottetown Driving Park to generate revenue, so the government can raise race purses to make the industry more viable, brilliant! Let's create a whole shit load of gambling addicts to prop up horse racing. Maybe if this works out as good as planned, then we could use the same strategy to bring back the fur trade and the shipbuilding industries to PEI. As you all know nothing makes better economic sense than subsidizing a dying or dead industry.
Once shipbuilding and the fur trade are established again, maybe the government will move on to our hospitals, we could line the halls of them with VLTs, come get your blood pressure checked and piss your pay check away in the VLTs all in the same stop. People will flock from miles and miles to take in our gaming and health facilities, and then all our problems as a small province will disappear.
The future of Prince Edward Island is bright, so bright hafta wear shades. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against government cuts to help balance the books, but this idea stinks. Harming the Islands society to make a quick dollar to save harness racing, come on.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Silent Running provides one of the best summations of the Kerry campaign that I've read so far:
Taking apart John Kerry's tales of his experiences in Vietnam, while worthwhile in that the exercise reveals his embellishments and downright fabrications of the circumstances over the years, derails discussion of a key point. His contention that his shortened tour of duty in a war zone as a junior officer somehow serves to qualify him to become the Chief Executive of the United States. The insistence that the situation of spending a short amount of time as at the entry levels of executive authority in a military construct is a powerful prerequisite, a 'filled square' on his resume.Read it all.
While notable, and laudable that he was there, it is actually irrelevant.
Kerry's tenure in the Navy was solely as a junior officer, exposed to the day to day, in your face, close at hand tactical decision making - management with limited execution authority. His service before that was as a junior supply officer onboard a destroyer - a period during which he was most likely in charge of routine paperwork, not making such a jackass of himself that the Chief Petty Officers actually running the section didn't toss him off the fantail, making sure he got himself out of his rack in the morning, and not much else. At no time during his tenure in Southeast Asia was he involved, nor does he claim to be involved, in any sort of 'bigger picture' types of activities in any sort of official capacity.
...
I'm doing my best to pay as little attention as possible to politics these days but I'm quite amused about how John Kerry and his campaign team whine and complain whenever someone says something bad about him.
I'm only getting on this rant because of Max Cleland's trip to Crawford to whine in front of Mr. Bush's ranch. Of course the Kerry campaign can't simply refute the assertions made by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth so they instead put on a little circus hoping to distract people long enough for the story to fade away.
We've also had the Kerry campaign trying to pressure distributors from carrying Unfit For Command because heaven forbid they say some 'mean things' about Kerry. John... grow the hell up! Learn to take a bit of criticism would you.
You didn't criticize any of the authors or publishers of the mountains of anti-Bush books. Are you speaking against Unfit For Command based on principle or politics?
We've also got Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia story, his 'I threw away someone else's medals' story, the possibility that one of his medals was earned for a self-inflicted wound, and the idiot 'home movies' of his time in Vietnam.
And yet the media doesn't make the slightest effort to investigate these stories. If the facts become overwhelming then a grundging mention will be made. The media seems to have worn itself out on G.W. Bush's non-story about his time in the National Guard.
There is no media bias. Of course not. And to claim otherwise is a lie!
Its nice to see a conservative like Dick Cheney, who is often vilified by the left, take a stand on the issue of gay marriage. A lot of conservatives may not be very happy with Cheney's recent statement about gay rights, but I for one applaud his truthful answer and candor with regards to the subject. Full story here
Cheney now has a more transparent stand on gay marriage than most liberals do, they should be ashamed of themselves for not taking sides on the issue as Cheney has done. Hopefully Cheney's example will lead other politicians to pick sides in the gay marriage debate and not just sit on the fence as long as possible as most do.
Read the title, you've already done that, O.K., now read the latest comments from Carolyn Parrish regarding our neighbors to the south.
[ Via Neale News ]
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Howard Dean might finally have figured out why Europe and friends were against the war in Iraq, judging by this quote from him,
"Every day that goes by without meaningful sanctions and even military intervention in Sudan by African, European and if necessary U.N. forces is a day where hundreds of innocent civilians die and thousands are displaced from their land. Every day that goes by without action to stop the Sudan genocide is a day that the anti-Iraq war position so widely held in the rest of the world appears to be based less on principle and more on politics. And every day that goes by is a day in which George Bush's contempt for the international community, which I have denounced every day for two years, becomes more difficult to criticize."Mr. Dean may have figured out that those superior European morals are nothing more than a mask for their true feelings. When are the rest of the anti-war crowd going to stop using Europe as an example of how America should use its power? Full Howard Dean article.
[ Via Let It Bleed ]
It turns out that George W. Bush and the folks at the White House used Janet Jackson's nipple to distract the nation from what was going on in Iraq. This does make perfect sense, doesn't it? Well maybe not, I guess only if you use the Jackson family's special brand of reasoning. Full story here
[ Via Neale News ]
[Via littlegreenfootballs]
Alice Cooper has this to say about people who take musicians political opinions seriously:
If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal.I should add that Alice Cooper supports G.W. Bush but at least he doesn't believe that his fans should value his political judgement.
Saturday, August 21, 2004
Ken Wiwa is a sharp-witted writer from Nigeria who periodically has a piece in The Globe And Mail. I was reading his latest online article and I've realized that everything he writes follows the exact same script:
- identify a popular lefty complaint reflected in a current news event
- make some generic witty comments
- blame globalization and the West for all the problems of the world
His latest story is spent complaining that the Summer Olympics occuring in August is a result of past European empires and colonialism. Ken seems to forget that the modern Olympics began as a ragtag attempt in 1896 to revive the ancient Olympics which occured in Greece over two-thousand years ago. Greece of course exists in the Northern Hemisphere, not the south. Ken seems to think that someone in this group must have said: 'You know what guys, someday these games will be so popular that we should instead have the games in December to avoid Nigeria's rainy season.'
Of course some racist/un-caring/bigot must have responded: 'Screw them. We don't want them anyways.'
The point of all this is that I would like to point out to Ken that the world is in fact round and that the world is titled on its axis causing one hemisphere to experience winter while the other experiences summer. Now Ken may blame the nature of this world on globalization or American commercial interests but I can assume him it has nothing to do with us humans. Ken may think it is unfair that it rains in Nigeria whenever the Olympics take place but I think it is equally unfair that I grew up in a place that had two months of summer and 10 months of winter.
Life sucks Ken, get a helmet.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
I would like to talk about Ron Bensimhon for a minute, for those of you that don't recognize his name, he's the guy who jumped off of the diving board with a dress on at the Olympics in Greece. Let's start by saying that I thought what he did was funny as hell, we Canadians are pretty crazy aren't we. But we all knew the authorities in Greece were going to throw the book at him, right?
All of us except Bensimhon, apparently he thought it was no biggie, never mind the threat of terrorism or the embarrassment he caused the police and security staff who had trained for months in the lead up to the games. Nope, Ron thought he was going to get a slap on the wrist and sent home with a good story to tell all his buddies,
Apparently poor Ronnie never put much thought into is decision, now did he. All that people talked about in the few months before the games was security, security and more security. Yet Ron thinks it would be funny to jump the rail and take a dive with a dress on during the synchroized diving competition. Well I have to admit it was funny, but I knew the police weren't going to find it very amusing."I wanted to have fun but I never knew it would end up like this, I thought they'd laugh about it."
In the end Bensimhon got a fine of $3225 (Cdn) and a 5 month jail sentence, that he's appealing. Not all that bad, but for somebody who thought they were going to get away with nothing, a rude awakening. Maybe next time Bensimhon will think a little further ahead next time he plans one of his stunts, but for my sake, I hope not because I enjoy his exploits too much.
This week's nominee for lack of prespriction drugs is, the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It seems that the leadership of Iran is sick and tired of being bullied by America and Israel with regards to it's nuclear program and are not going to take it any longer, God damn it. If the Mullahs want nuclear weapons, then they are going to have nuclear weapons and nobody is going to tell them any different. Full story here
Today, Iran has threatened pre-emptive strikes to stop America and Israel from destroying its nuclear facilities. Here are some comments by Ali Shamkhani, the Iranian defence minister.
"Some military commanders in Iran are convinced that preventive operations which the Americans talk about are not their monopoly."
"America is not the only one present in the region. We are also present, from Khost to Kandahar in Afghanistan; we are present in the Gulf and we can be present in Iraq."Sounds like somebody is feeling a little suicidal if you ask me, can you imagine how much shit would hit the fan if Iran attacked Israel and America pre-emptively, it wouldn't be pretty. I can see Iran's point, all their enemies have nukes (America, U.K., Israel) and they feel threatened by this, but don't you think they are biting off a little more than they can chew?
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Sucks.
The vacation itself was great. Got myself hitched. Got some sun. And managed to relax a bit.
All in all quite productive I think.
Unfortunately, I return to find that my job is not exactly what one would consider as secure. That's life I guess. Spend twenty-some-odd years being a total slackarse and life is a breeze. Get married, buy a house, and all of a sudden the shit prepares itself to hit the fan.
Oh well what can a person do? Sit tight and hope everything works out for the best I guess.
So now that I've been back a few days I've had a bit of time to check out the latest news and see how the world has changed from four weeks ago. What changes have I observed. Well none. The world is still every bit as deranged as the day I left. John Kerry: still babbling on as if his memory is erased by the vast right wing conspiracy every morning. Europe: still screwed. Olympics: as boring as I expected.
Also I see that Bob did a pretty good job of manning the ship while I was overboard. Good stuff.
Anyways, my writing will still be light over the next couple of days. I've got a lot of reading to catch up on and quite frankly I'ld much rather read than write. As well I've got to get ready to move into this house that I suddenly don't think I can afford.
Whatever. Take care.
Friday, August 13, 2004
Say what you want, but I sort of feel sorry for the Mahdi Army, al-Sadr has his poor followers filled so full of shit that they don't even know who they are fighting against anymore. Judging from this quote from Hassan Naji al-Mousawi, an aide to al-Sadr, the Mahdi Amry may be a little confused.
The Jews and the Zionists, did I miss something? The poor folks in the Mahdi Army have no idea that they are fighting against a nation that's trying to rebuild their country for them, or the fact that their own countrymen are also locked in battle against them to put their misguided rebellion down."We are fighting for the liberation of our people from the Jewish and Zionists occupiers."
Its too bad that so many are losing their lives for no good reason, most I imagine have no idea why they are even fighting, the Jews and Zionists, oh the propaganda, the cruel propaganda.
Thursday, August 12, 2004
I am the first person to admit that Bill Clinton is loved by more people around the globe than George W. Bush ever will be, and there is a good reason for that. Clinton wanted to be loved by the masses, Clinton worried about what his legacy was going to be, while George W. is more concerned about getting the job done, no matter how many toes he has to step on. That's why.
For some reason people seem to think that things were more peaceful under Clinton and those people are dead wrong. Clinton just tried to ignore all of the threats that international terrorism posed to America, does anybody remember the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Towers, the embassy bombings in Africa, the USS Cole or any of the bombings in Saudi Arabia? All those things happened under Clinton.
And what did Clinton do? As little as possible, Clinton ignored the source of the problem, hoped that it would go away. He was happy to get though his 8 years without a major attack and then pass the buck onto the next President. Yes Clinton did blow up a couple of camps and a baby food factory in retaliation, but those were only measured responses, so as not to appear impotent, doing just enough each time so the event would blow over as quickly as possible.
Clinton could have tackled the problems facing America, but he knew as well as the next guy, that tough choices would have had to have been made and not all the tough decisions were going to be popular. So Clinton did what was in Clinton's best interests, he took the easy way out, leaving the mess for others to clean up. And for some reason he's celebrated for this.
George W. may not be the smartest President or the most likable one either, believe me, but he has taken on a large problem and is attempting to solve it. Where Clinton passed the buck, W. has faced the dangers facing America head on with resolve. There were easier and more popular options Bush could have followed but they wouldn't have solved the problem either.
Bush could have bombed Afganistan for a couple of weeks after 9/11 and claimed victory, could have got all the boys home safely. But what would that have solved? He could have used Clinton's strategy of a token strike and then let the horrible memory of 9/11 fade away just as Clinton had done so many times in the past. Bush is making the tough choices, some are unpopular, but he seems to care more about America than about his own popularity, unlike some former Presidents.
Bush is now tackling problems at the expense of his popularity, so that future generations won't have to deal with same problems over and over. Clinton passed the problem on to the next generation to save his popularity.
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
As far as Jew haters go, this one takes the cake. A group of Jewish students from United States, Israel and Poland were touring the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, while they were on the tour of the former concentration camp, no doubt where many of their relatives were put to death by the Nazi, a group of French tourists cursed and intimidated the Jewish students. Full story here
Public displays of anti-Semitism are bad enough, but at Auschwitz, what a disgrace. What kind of arsehole goes to Auschwitz to abuse and curse Jewish students? This type of behavior cannot be tolerated for any reason. The terrible thing about this situation is that no matter what is said or done to the offender, there is no way that the offender will learn a lesson from this act of ignorance because the type of person that would do this type of thing is simply to far gone.
Have you ever wondered what kind of effect Wahhabism, spread by the Saudis and their money, have had on Muslim society?If you have, then you should read this quote by Bernard Lewis, he puts the threat Wahhabism poses in Western terms, so the problem is easier to understand for the regular Joe.
"Imagine if the Ku Klux Klan or the Aryan Nation obtained total control of Texas and had at its disposal all the oil revenues, and used this money to establish a network of well-endowed schools and colleges all over Christendom, peddling their particular brand of Christianity. This was what the Saudis have done with Wahhabism. The oil money has enabled them to spread this fanatical, destructive form of Islam all over the Muslim world and among Muslims in the West. Without oil and the creation of the Saudis Kingdom, Wahhabism would have remained a lunatic fringe."Its not a very pretty picture, is it?
Saturday, August 07, 2004
Its about time that the new Iraqi forces and U.S. lead coalition took care of Muqtada al-Sadr and his army, this should have been done months ago. Every time al-Sadr gets weakened by the U.S., he calls for a truce, so he can restock and rearm his Mahdi Army. Al-Sadr can not be let off the hook again, this has to be ended now, the quicker the better. Full story here
A marine spokesman estimates that up to 300 of al-Sadr's men have been killed since the fighting started earlier this week. Najaf's governor, Adnan al-Zurufi, put the toll even higher, saying 400 members of Sadr's militia were killed and more than 1,000 arrested. Enough said, its time to finish off al-Sadr once and for all, get a body bag ready for him.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
I just love this story, crack cocaine users want the government to fund them so they can have a safe place to smoke up without being harassed by the police. First it was injection drug users getting a spot, their very own little club, now the smokers think they need one too.
"Right now, on the street, if you're even carrying a pipe and you're not smoking it, you get roughed up by the police. That shouldn't happen."What is the country coming to, you can't even walk around with a crack pipe anymore, what's wrong with the cops anyway, trying to stop people from doing things that are illegal, what gives? This is totally retarded, I know of a place where you can put crack users to keep them off the street, its called jail.
If the government gives into this group, where will it end? The next thing you know, rapist will want funding to start their own little safe haven, then the child molesters would be next in line, then the murders and so on and so fourth. I repeat, where will it all end?
Let's give every criminal in Canada their own little hang-out, get everybody off the streets, end crime as we know it. This is how I want my tax dollars spent, I have been wondering for years why more of my money isn't going to drug addicts. You would think that the government is responsible for all the crack cocaine users of Vancouver, the government made them smoke crack as teens and got them all hooked on the shit, we better fix the problem right away.
Nobody takes responsibility for their own actions anymore, not just in the case of addicts, everyday I read the newspaper, somebody is blaming everybody else for the stupid thing that they did. Some idiot steals from an old lady, wasn't his fault, he was high on drugs because he didn't have a job. Somebody was drinking and driving, wasn't his fault, stress at work. Caught cheating the welfare system, government's fault for not giving them enough money. It goes on and on, where or when is it going to end?
People need to be held accountable for the choices they make in life, or the culture of blame everybody but yourself will only get worse. What will things be like in 50 or 60 years if no one is held accountable for the decisions that they make in life. When the crack cocaine user or the murder have their excuses excepted by the public, what incentive do they have to improve themselves, why should they care if its not their fault? Where will it end?
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Here are some thoughts from a Muslim who has lived in Kosovo his whole life. He is starting to notice some of the effects that Saudi influence is having on his people, and like in most cases around the globe where the Saudis spread Wahhabism, trouble is near by.
"For more that a century, civilized countries have separated religion from state... We now see attempts, not only in Kosovo but everywhere Albanians live, to introduce religion into public schools... Supplemental courses for children have been set up by foreign (Saudi) Islamic organizations who hide behind assistance programs, some radio stations... now offer nightly broadcasts in Arabic, which nobody understands and which lead many to ask, are we in an Arab country? It is time for Albanian mosques to be separated from Arab connections and for Islam to be devolved on the basis of Albanian culture and custom."The man also went on to talk about how the Saudis have destroyed many of the ancient mosques in Albanian, simply because they didn't fit into the Wahhabis' vision of what a mosque should be. The Saudis either change the existing mosque or build a new one set to their standards, in the process destroying much of the history of Muslims in Kosovo.
With Wahhabism taking over the classrooms and education of many children in Kosovo, things don't look that good for the future in the region, that is unless the Muslims of Kosovo can hold onto their traditions and culture under the onslaught of Saudi extremism. The alternatives for the people of the region are scary, as the Sudan and the Taliban are just two governments who are Wahhabi influenced.
The Saudi version of Islam, which preaches intolerance and hatred for all other religions is not the way to move a country to prosperity and I can only hope that the Muslims of Kosovo don't have to learn this lesson the hard way.
Here is a quote from Anton La Guardia from a couple of years ago,
"The indispensability of Arafat only magnifies the seriousness of his errors. Israel may have portrayed him as the cynical mastermind behind the uprising. But more than Arafat's supposed strategy of violence, his greater fault may be the lack of any strategy, political or military. Having failed to win over the Israeli public, Arafat is also increasingly distant from his own people. Corruption, lack of democracy, inefficiency have weakened his position. None of these are as damaging as his failure to make real headway toward ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state."Don't you think that's a pretty good call on the situation that Arafat had put himself into since Camp David and Taba.
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
For an interim progress report on how Iraq's government is handling its tasks, click here.
The report is over at MEMRI and is by Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli. It goes to to stat some of the difficulties the interim government faces, plus some for the things that have been accomplished in the short time that Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has held power, such as
- Gaining acceptance for his government both internally and externally, and asserting himself as the Iraqi leader to be reckoned with.
- Backing up the Law for National Safety with a rapid deployment force connected with the National Guard to pursue terrorists.
- Acting upon a policy of national reconciliation by co-opting various political groupings, including representatives of the Ba'th Party, into the political process.
- Establishing a Supreme Council for Oil and Gas which will oversee the pricing and marketing of Iraqi oil.
- Mending relations with neighboring countries and re-establishing diplomatic relations that were severed by Saddam Hussein.
I know that these aren't amazing steps yet, but its good to see Iraqis having more responsibility for their country. Once Prime Minister Iyad Allawi gets a handle on the security situation, Iraq's reconstruction and economy will move at a much faster pace, and that's good news no matter what the people on the political left tell you. Brighter days are ahead for the freedom loving people of Iraq and I wish them all the prosperity the world has to offer.
I think that people like Al Gore, Howard Dean, Micheal Moore and the long list of Hollywood celebrities that support John Kerry for president in 2004 are a major reason that the Democratic party is not getting more support from the center of the political spectrum. The left-wing of the Democratic party is going to cost them the election, which is alright with me. Keep up the good work guys and girls.
I was reading the local newspaper today and came across a letter to the editor by Richard K. Ball of Charlottetown. Mr. Ball was talking about the situation in Darfur and he was wondering why the anti-war movement and peace protesters that were outraged over the war in Iraq aren't outraged over Sudan's war against the blacks of Darfur.
"There is currently a war being waged in Sudan by Arab Islamists against black Africans. Over one million black Africans have already been driven from their homes. The World Health Organization reports that up to 10,000 refugees are dying per month. The UN says that the war entails a campaign of mass rape, ethnic cleaning and murder, yet the once-vocal PEI 'peace protesters' are strangely silent. Where are the anti-war people today, and why aren't they protesting the war in the Sudan?"Mr. Ball does have a point. Why did the anti-war movement feel so strongly about the war in Iraq, which freed people from a brutal tyrant and then remain silent when genocide has been carried out by the Islamic government of the Sudan?
Monday, August 02, 2004
I'm not really sure that China threatening to invade Taiwan is breaking news, because it happens so often, but if there was ever a time when China could get away with it, it would be now. Full story here
With America tried up in Iraq for the foreseeable future and add the fact that China just completed a mock invasion of the island, its seems like the ideal time to return Taiwan to the motherland. But I can't see anything happening, China has talked tough for years and has never followed up on their threats, but you never know, there's always a first time.
All we can do is hope China doesn't do anything stupid. It would be a sad day in history if the world sat by and let a communist nation invade a small democratic country, but crazier things have happened. The only way I would like to see Taiwan returned to China, is if China was a full and functioning democracy, but I'm not holding my breath on that one option either.
If you are one of the many people who are keeping track of Iran's nuclear program then you may find this opinion piece by Ed Blanche interesting. He thinks that Iran is very close to the point of no-return and that Israel and the U.S. may be dusting off their plans for pre-emptive strikes.
There has been more chaos in the West Bank this week, there have been rallies in support of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, also Al-Aqsa militants also attacked the offices of Jenin governor, Qaddura Musa, and tore down pictures of Yasser Arafat off the walls to burn them.
Out of all this chaos I had hoped that the reformers within the PA would improve their position, but its not sounding good for those who wish to see democratic reforms take place, as Arafat loyalists showed as they broke up a meeting of reformers in Nablus.
Severance packages for up to 40 of Jean Chretien's former aides has come to about 2 million dollars. It is just me, or is it comforting to still be finding out how Chretien was throwing our money around? Full story here