Bush's Reply to Clinton -"Not enough time to fingerpoint"

As you listen to this response, keep in mind that the question was "Former President Clinton has commented that your office did not meet about bin Laden for 9 months, is that factually correct?"

You would have hoped he'd be better prepared for this question.

Media on a Roll:Road to Impeaching a President?

Keith Olbermann of MSNBC has taken a look back at Bush’s first months in office leading up to 9/11 as he joins in the Fox News interview fallout. The debate is still raging over Mr. Clinton’s remarks in this previously blogged interview. Unfortunately the interview "blow-up" has overshadowed the inaction debate Mr. Clinton suggested. Olbermann had engaged in a discussion of what steps the Bush administration failed to take to get Osama bin Laden or destroy al Qaeda before September 11th.

Yesterday, Mr. Bush declined to address Mr. Clinton’s remarks, saying we’ve already had the 'look-back this' and 'look-back that.' A bold statement from someone who shouts "9/11! 9/11! 9/11!" as a defence for seemingly anything, has yet to fire Rumsfeld and once landed on an aircraft carrier and declared "Mission Acccomplished" on an action just getting started.

Weird News: Don't forget to take the Dog

What do you do when you need your dog to start your car?

Global Temperature Highest in millennia

The planet's temperature has climbed to levels not seen in thousands of years, warming that has begun to affect plants and animals, researchers report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Earth has been warming at a rate of 0.36 degree Fahrenheit per decade for the last 30 years, according to the research team led by James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. That brings the overall temperature to the warmest in the current interglacial period, which began about 12,000 years ago.

Commentary on NIE Report... (How the Iraq War fuels Terrorism)

The National Intelligence Estimate's conclusion that the war in Iraq is "a cause celebre for jihadists" and "breeds a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world..." is the intelligence equivalent of the little boy who pointed out that the emperor had no clothes. The NIE accepts something that neither President Bush nor his close ally Tony Blair have acknowledged - that Iraq has fuelled international Islamic terrorism.

The NIE, compiled from the views of all 16 US intelligence agencies, clouds the narrative that President Bush is trying to present - that Iraq was chosen by the jihadists as their "battlefield" and that it is simply a challenge that must be faced and a war that must be won.

Declassified excerpts were released in Washington on Tuesday after a report about the assessment were leaked to the New York Times and the White House came under pressure to publish its conclusions.

More on the Clinton Interview

Yesterday I credited Fox News for running the Clinton interview. Unsaid was that Fox was also allowing the video to crawl around YouTube and the online community. Well that interview is no longer available. Perhaps it was a bandwith issue or it's true that as YouTube posts "This video has been removed at the request of copyright owner Fox News Network, LLC because its content was used without permission" (searching "clinton fox interview"). But you can still track it down...

Let's see how long this stands up.

Stewart Critiques the Media, Fox spins Clinton interview

It's true, my news commentary comes from a comedy show. Unfortunately. mainstream media can't seem to do it (although I do like the BBC and CBC). The above segment isn't new, but is poignant as Fox tries to spin the Clinton interview:

Bulgaria and Romania join Europe

The European Commission has announced that Romania and Bulgaria will be admitted to the EU in January 2007, but under strict conditions.The two countries missed out on the EU's big eastward expansion in 2004. The primary challenge for Bulgaria is cracking down on organized crime - both countries also have issues with corruption.

Karina starts pedometer challenge

Karina is taking a week-long pedometer challenge - she's running on the spot in the living room and needs to do 775 more steps to make her daily quota of 10,000. This follows her wandering the parking lot while we loaded the groceries and volunteering to do all kinds of errands. She has also determined that she cannot jump on one leg. (but why do that? really?)

It's all done, 10,005.

Big Tobacco Opposes WHO and Malaria Control in Uganda

British American Tobacco plc (BAT) has emerged as a front runner in a corporate coalition opposing the highly effective public health insecticide, DDT, in Uganda. DDT has been endorsed and supported for malaria control by the World Health Organization and is being used for malaria control by many governments and several donors, such as USAID and the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Top China leader fired for graft;Political Power Struggle

The most senior Chinese Communist Party official in Shanghai has been sacked for corruption, state media reported.

Party secretary Chen Liangyu was dismissed after a high-level probe into alleged misuse of the city's pension fund, Xinhua news agency said. He has also been suspended from the Politburo, the party's top leadership council. Mr Chen is the most senior official to be sacked since President Hu Jintao became party secretary in 2002.

Speculation over Chen Liangyu's political future has swirled since August, when his former secretary Qin Yu was removed from his post as a district governor for his alleged part in the scandal.

The sacking of Chen Liangyu comes ahead of the key Communist Party Congress later this year when President Hu Jintao will be hoping to consolidate his leadership.

Bill Clinton on Fox

As one might expect, Clinton appearing on Fox News Sunday gets a lot of attention - online the backlash against the channel and Chris Wallace has been remarkable. They did run the interview though which is to their credit.

Chavez smells sulphur( Not winning any friends )

On the Thai Coup

Today Thailand's new leaders have banned all meetings and other activities by political parties, two days after taking power in a military coup.

They also say they have assumed legislative powers and duties in the absence of a parliament. Ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra said he would take a 'deserved rest', but called for quick elections.

Thailand has been in political limbo for months, but the events of Tuesday night apparently still caught everyone off guard.

The Big Picture:Not the Debate I had hoped for.

Tonight's The Big Picture has proven something of a disappointment - the quality of the debate has been fairly poor. Specifically several of the loudest speakers among the selected participants unfortunately have strong beliefs and poor reasoning/debating skills. Argh.

Darfur Rally.

On the weekend I attended a rally at Ramsden Park to stop the violence in Africa's Darfur region - it was organized by the Save Darfur Coalition. This was part of a global Day for Darfur and marked the anniversary of the UN's unfulfilled promise to protect civilians around the world.

Retired General and now Senator Romeo Dallaire was one of several speakers to call for an end to the violence in the beleaguered region of Sudan.

"Twelve years ago I failed to mobilize anybody to come to try and protect hundreds of thousands of Rwandans from slaughter," said Dallaire, who led an unsuccessful United Nations mission during the Rwandan genocide and is now pushing for a major international force to go into Sudan and stabilize Darfur.

"Darfur is tasting, smelling, looking in every way, shape and form like a repetition on a similar scale of what happened in Rwanda," he said.

Bet U.S. Sports?

PicksPal is a free sports site where people “bet” on upcoming games. No money is involved. If they win, their point total goes up and they have bragging rights around the office. Since launching about a year ago over 100,000 people have joined the site, making daily picks on just about every kind of sporting event in the U.S. - boxing, NFL football, pro football, bass fishing, ultimate fighting, basketball, baseball, etc. The site makes money from advertising.

Recently, however, the PicksPal team noticed that a very small percentage of users tend to be correct in their picks significantly more often that they should be statistically. When they grouped these special users they found them to be a powerful predictive force.

The PicksPal team realized that there was a potentially massive business here. And next Tuesday they are going to start tapping into that business when they launch what they call “Genius Picks”. For $10, users can get access to the collective wisdom of the 30 best PicksPal players over the previous five weeks in a given sport, and get five predictions on upcoming games.

New Terracotta Warrior

A German art student briefly fooled police by posing as one of China's terracotta warriors at the heritage site in the ancient capital, Xian.


Pablo Wendel, made up like an ancient warrior, jumped into a pit showcasing the 2,200-year-old pottery soldiers and stood motionless for several minutes before being nabbed.

Eyezmaze Puzzle

I haven't been able to get beyond here on the eyezmaze cube.

How did I miss this story?McDonald's stops the hedgehog cull

London - Hedgehogs have finally humbled burger giant McDonald's after years of campaigning, forcing the company to redesign its killer McFlurry ice-cream containers.

Up to now the opening in the container has been large enough for hedgehogs to get their heads into for a lick of the left-over dessert -- a trap they have then been unable to withdraw from, so dying of starvation in untold numbers.

Expecting Bigger Chrysler Loss

Automaker DaimlerChrysler AG lowered its 2006 operating profit forecast Friday, saying its Chrysler Group expects a $1.52 billion loss in the third quarter, more than double the amount anticipated.

The German-American automaker said the Chrysler Group will make additional production cuts in the third and fourth quarters to reduce dealer inventories.
The Stuttgart-based company lowered its operating profit forecast for the full year to about 5 billion euros ($6.34 billion), based on an expected full-year loss for the Chrysler Group of 1 billion euros ($1.27 billion).

That includes an operating loss of 1.2 billion euros for the Chrysler Group in the third quarter, wider than the anticipated loss of up to 500 million euros ($633.75 million).

'The Chrysler Group is facing a difficult market environment in the United States with excess inventory, noncompetitive legacy costs for employees and retirees, continuing high fuel prices and a stronger shift in demand toward smaller vehicles,' DaimlerChrysler said in a statement.

Observing those pesky Geneva Conventions

The Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday voted 15-9 to recommend a bill -- over the objections of the Bush administration -- that would authorize tribunals for terror suspects in a way that it says would protect suspects' rights.

The bill was backed by Republican Sens. John Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

It differs from the administration's proposal in two major ways: It would permit terror suspects to view classified evidence against them and does not include a proposal that critics say reinterprets a Geneva Conventions rule that prohibits cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees.

Call from Iceland:"Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah"

Went to see a Toronto Film Festival Presentation last night with Heather and caught "The Pleasure of Your Company" - we both enjoyed it.

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I forgot to mention that on Wednesday Humberto laid down the law and told me that our workouts are going to get harder - although he acknowledges that I am sweating, he thinks that I can pretty much walkthrough the current regimen. The revised focus will be cardio -- uh oh.

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Two weddings this weekend - one tonight at Hart House and another tomorrow (I don't know where or when).

Big buyout offers from Ford

Ford Motor Co. is reportedly set to offer buyouts to 75,000 union workers in a bid to slash costs and rein in growing losses in its core North American auto operations.

In the e-mail, which Reuters said it got from a union official, UAW Vice-President Bob King said the union was 'deeply concerned' about Ford's declining share of the U.S. auto market. The development came after Ford said details of its accelerated turnaround plan will be unveiled early Friday.

US Iran report branded dishonest; Last Night's "The Big Picture" on CBC

The UN nuclear watchdog has protested to the US government over a report on Iran's nuclear programme it called 'outrageous' and 'dishonest' .

In a letter, the IAEA said a congressional report suggested Iran's programme was more advanced than had actually been determined.

The agency also took 'strong exception' to claims made over the removal of a senior safeguards inspector.

The IAEA said the letter was sent to 'set the record straight on the facts'.

'This is a matter of the integrity of the IAEA and its inspectors,' spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said in a statement.

The letter, signed by a senior official at the International Atomic Energy Agency, says the 23 August report by the US House intelligence committee contains 'erroneous, misleading... information'. "

Here we go again? I have a hard time understanding why again we have such a ridiculous lack of coherent intelligence?

On the excellent The Big Picture episode last night, one of the commentators - Chris Hedges -characterized the clash of Muslim Fundamentalism and current American political doctrine as the clash of apocalypse-seeking cultures - it was a fascinating program.

Next week on the show, Richard Dawkins delivers an indictment of religion's growing power in the post 9-11 world. Dawkins travels the physical and spiritual landscape of three great religions with pointed questions about the "process of non-thinking called faith." Should be fascinating as the panel discussion will feature Dawkins go head-to-head with religious figures - Dawkins' impassioned defence of Darwinian evolution has earned him the nickname "Darwin's rottweiler."

New El Nino

The periodic phenomenon known as El Nino has developed in the Pacific Ocean threatening extreme weather in many parts of the world, US scientists say.

El Ninos begin with a warming of waters in the eastern Pacific, and there has been a steep rise in water temperature in recent weeks. This El Nino is likely to strengthen towards the end of the year and early into 2007.

It's 18:40 in Iceland -do you know where your fiancee is?

I don't.

Continuing to scratch away on our 6 month strategy, but thought I'd spend a few minutes throwing something on my blog.

News today is that Apple yesterday released the new version of their iPod family - video is the big scene and we've already seen a flood of media firms position themselves for video streaming (iTunes to name one). The new iPod shuffle is 1GB and half it's former size -- perhaps the size of my thumb. Seeing that I am yet to get through more than 30 songs at one sitting with my current 4GB mini, I am thinking that the $79 Shuffle would be a sufficient replacement when the time comes (I haven't had any problems!)

Talk about Coincidences; Web 2.0; Second Life

So the other day I'm clamouring through my computer stuff (trying to restore my external HDD) when I come across Caesar II, a game I really enjoyed some ten years ago. In Caesar, you are a Roman Provincial Governor that is tasked with building a city and protecting a province (image: hours of time spent responding to the call "plebs are needed" and wondering why the trade ships were taking so long to arrive).

Today I find out that Caesar IV is being released! I wonder if Karina would mind being a widow to the Legions of Rome? These city-builder games are so addictive to me...

At work I've been tasked with finding some Web 2.0 mashups for our FXTrade platform. Asking around (thanks MkWtrsn), I now have a few "way out there" ideas ... this is real "out of the box" type stuff, but could be very interesting to develop.

On another note, I suggest the tech savvy check out Second Life [summary article] if they haven't had a chance... if this the future of e-commerce? Virtual communities and economies are a very interesting study. Perhaps I should spend some time creating a virtual store for some passive income.

Remembering September 11th, 2001

Five years ago today...

Did the 9/11 attacks change the world? There's not much doubt that the answer is "definitely", but how much will be a question of history.

On an associated note, the percentage of Americans who blame the Bush administration for the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington has risen from almost a third to almost half over the past four years, a CNN poll released Monday found.

Asked whether they blame the Bush administration for the attacks, 45 percent said either a "great deal" or a "moderate amount," up from 32 percent in a June 2002 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.

Then there is Bush's reaction...(or lack thereof) to the news of the attack. This footage still scares the hell out of me as it doesn't convey ANY confidence that there is decisive leadership in the White House.

Unsuccessful Olympic Hopefuls

Behind every Gold there's a plaster.

Karina on her way.

Dropped Karina off at the airport this afternoon as she heads toIceland for a week or so. Just got an email from her and it seems that she can't get to Boston and is now instead heading to Heathrow in order to make the journey. }sigh{

I've been helping Jeff re-paint the front door this afternoon - here's a photo after we took the door off...

Senate Report: 'No Saddam link to al-Qaeda'

The Senate Intelligence Commitee has today reported that there is no evidence of formal links between Iraqi ex-leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq prior to the 2003 war.

In the report: "Saddam Hussein was distrustful of al-Qaeda and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from al-Qaeda to provide material or operational support".

Sen. Carl Levin, a member of the committee, said the long-awaited report was 'a devastating indictment of the Bush-Cheney administration's unrelenting, misleading and deceptive attempts" to link Saddam to al Qaeda'.

The finding is contained in a 2005 CIA report released by the Senate's Intelligence Committee on Friday. US President George W Bush has said that the presence of late al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq before the war was evidence of a link.

Amusing Video.

Blair: "I will quit within a year"

Tony Blair has confirmed he will be stepping down as prime minister within the next 12 months.

Mr Blair said the Labour conference in two weeks' time would be his last - but he did not name a precise departure date, saying it should be left to him.

He also apologised for Labour's conduct in recent days, admitting it 'has not been our finest hour, to be frank'.

Allies have suggested Mr Blair will announce a timetable early in the New Year and hand over power in May. Mr Blair has been under pressure to quit earlier than May in order to get a new leader in place before the elections in England, Scotland and Wales - which are expected to be disastrous for the Labour Party.

Evening Report.

No luck on that "Work out with Humberto" angle today.

Instead I attended a winetasting at The Spoke Club - the wines of Tuscany - then had an excellent dinner in the dining room (some people had foie gras). A nice evening all-in-all.

Tons of work to do -- none of which I'm doing right now.

Morning Report

Well my new laptop has been a big hit at the office - and once I figure out how to get the script-to-text feature working it should be a fantastic tool. Already I've been able to use it in a meeting.

Had a very easy commute in this morning - again driving (sigh), but this time there was no traffic to speak of (having left at 7:30). Dropped straight down Avenue Rd. Tonight I'm working out with Humberto.

Spoke and exchanged emails with Karina last night - she was isolated at the work site after spending more than 24 hours travelling to get there (I still don't have the phone vm code). She's taking a city tour today. Amanda has been stirring up trouble by playing upon Karina's fears -- she sent an attachment that she knew would upset her and then tried to pin it on me. Not too smart.

In other news, Japan is celebrating news that Princess Kiko, wife of the emperor's second son, has given birth to a baby boy. The birth of a boy, the first in the imperial family for more than four decades, potentially resolves the country's succession crisis.

And, the father of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin has spoken out against a state funeral for his late son being offered by the government saying he was just an ordinary bloke.

Calderon declared Mexico winner; No end to unrest?

Mexico's top electoral court has declared Felipe Calderon president-elect after ruling on the validity of the 2 July election.

The Federal Electoral Tribunal rejected claims by the losing candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, that the election campaign had been unfair.

A final count gave Mr Calderon victory by 233,831 votes out of 41.6m cast. Mr Lopez Obrador, whose supporters have staged widespread protests, has hinted he might set up a parallel government.

No weather report from Santiago (updated)

Well I haven't heard anything from Santiago, so I hope Karina is OK. It might help if I could recall the code for the voicemail on our phone...

5:30 - heard from Karina briefly... she just got in from the work site. Is going to email later.

That wasn't fun.

Absolutely terrible commute in this morning - there was no crossing St. Clair and the traffic was terribly backed up. I ended up driving almost to Eglinton and then crawling along Bathurst, Davenport and Spadina. Was well over an hour in the car. Grr!

Crocodile Hunter killed.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has led tributes to naturalist Steve Irwin who was killed by a stingray while diving off the Queensland coast.

He was known for his Crocodile Hunter TV show and his work with wildlife.

We'll miss your passion, Steve.

Not many of these! Sea battle erupts off Sri Lanka

A sea battle has broken out between government patrol boats and Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka's northern sea.

The fighting erupted when naval boats intercepted a flotilla of Tamil rebel boats near Point Pedro in Jaffna, officials said.

They said six rebel boats had been sunk, with all those on board - an estimated 30 people - believed dead.

In Medical Science |Gene therapy frees men of cancer

Two men have been cleared of deadly skin cancer using genetically modified versions of their own immune cells.

The US National Cancer Institute team in Bethesda has shown it can manipulate immune cells to attack breast, liver and lung cancers.

The men were two members of a group of 17 people with advanced melanoma who received the treatment, and the only members who were completely free of cancer 18 months later. Still, experts say the results are extremely exciting and proof that this new therapy can work.