Michael A. Cohen looks at Ron Paul’s foreign policy who, in some respects, sounds like a Canadian New Democrat:
As Adele Stan, who has covered Paul closely for Alternet said to me, “progressives don’t get Paul’s anti-war talk from their own people (i.e. Democrats) and to hear it from him satisfies this deep spiritual yearning to hear someone say that we shouldn’t be bombing other people around the world.” Continue reading Foreign Policy: The World According to Ron Paul
Even as monitoring teams from the Arab League arrived on the ground in Syria, security forces continue to attack and kill protestors. Foreign Affairs Minister John Just issued the following statement: Continue reading Canada condemns violence in Syria
On my program last night, writer Christian Caryl picks up on something he blogged about a few days ago:
As of today, it can be assumed that the most powerful man in North Korea is Kim [Jong Un]’s uncle, Chang Song Taek, widely regarded as the designated regent. Chang, who is 65 (health status unknown), has going for him both strong family ties Continue reading The Most Powerful Uncle in the World is the One with the Nukes
It’s from Christian Caryl, a Senior Fellow at the Legatum Institute and a Contributing Editor at Foreign Policy magazine, writing at the blog of the New York Review of Books. And I say it’s encouraging because of lines like these that suggest there is some hope for limited change in the Hermit Kingdom:
After all, isn’t the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea a staunchly totalitarian state where nothing ever changes? Actually, no. You could have gotten away with writing that just a few years ago. But too much has happened in North Korea in the interim . . . Continue reading An encouraging take on Kim Jong-Il's death: Signs of change!
Over at the CBS News web site, GlobalPost has compiled 10 “weird facts” about Kim Jong-Il. Here’s the propaganda about what a “High Achiever” Kim was:
Official records reportedly show that Kim learned to walk at the age of three weeks, and was talking at eight weeks. While at Kim Il Sung University, he apparently wrote 1,500 books over a period of three years, along with six full operas. According to his official biography, all of his operas are “better than any in the history of music.” Then there’s his sporting prowess. In 1994, Pyongyang media reported that the first time Kim picked up a golf club, he shot a 38-under par round on North Korea’s only golf course, including 11 holes-in-one. Reports say each of his 17 bodyguards verified the record-breaking feat. He then decided to retire from the sport forever.
Read ’em all at: Kim Jong Il: 10 weird facts, propaganda – World Watch – CBS News.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued the following statement this morning, on the death of North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il:
“Kim Jong-il will be remembered as the leader of a totalitarian regime who violated the basic rights of the North Korean people for nearly two decades. Continue reading Harper on the death of Kim Jong-Il: He "violated basic human rights"
Meanwhile in Europe…
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund has warned that the global economy faces the prospect of “economic retraction, rising protectionism, isolation and . . . what happened in the 30s [Depression]”, as European tensions again flared over suggestions in Paris that the UK’s credit rating should be downgraded before France’s.
[Read the rest: IMF chief warns over 1930s-style threats – FT.com.]
In a few minutes, Conservative MP Russ Hiebert, NDP MP Wayne Marston, and Liberal MP Irwin Cotler will hold a joint news conference about the following: Continue reading MPs "sound the alarm" on Camp Ashraf
They are half-a-world away and there are only seven of them, but the members of Parliament on a House of Commons human rights committee are doing whatever they can for the 3,400 refugees at Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, who, the MPs believe, are in imminent danger.
There are two Canadians among that group. They remain at Ashraf voluntarily despite offers from Canadian consular officials to get them out of what could, within days, become a very dicey situation. Continue reading Iranian terrorists or refugees? Either way, MPs say those at Camp Ashraf are in danger
Getting any kind of a deal with the Americans these days on just about anything can be considered a big deal.
U.S. President Barack Obama is, if the polls can be believed, not having a good time of it. He has been politically neutered by his Republic opponents in Congress and in the U.S. Senate. There is a virtual logjam in Washington on most issues because those Republicans refuse to play nice with Democrats and vice versa.
And so against that background two deals announced this afternoon between Canada and the U.S. can be considered an accomplishment of sorts.
Continue reading New border deals: More aspirational than actual changes