Looking for a way to give to New Orleans? Send your cheques to Maclean’s back-pager Paul Wells who has organized a benefit dinner for NOCCA, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. Details at the link above. And while you’re at it, read this week’s Wells column for some great N’Orleanian history. The past speaks […] More »

From a BBC story: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said he takes personal responsibility for the failures of the oil-for-food programme, highlighted in a new report. Wow, I wonder what that’s like, having a leader who accepts personal responsibility for the failures of his government. And just when does that Gomery report come down […] More »

“This can only be the start of a new era of public transit expansion, the beginning of a true renaissance of public transit.” This quote from Michael Roschlau, president of the Canadian Urban Transit Association, appears in the Toronto Star report on Ontario government plans, multi-billion dollar plans, to take a new leading role in […] More »

This is painful for me: Frank Stronach is doing very good work. Roy MacGregor reports on beautiful action from the patriarch. If you can get past the standard “he arrived with $40 in his pocket, blah, blah, self-made blah, blah (sometimes it’s $40, sometimes $10, sometimes just $1 — dammit how much money did Frank […] More »

I go away for a while and all sorts of nastiness breaks out. I’d hate to think that I was a voice of moderation around these parts. At any rate, John and Mason and Lynda and Paul S are going to have to keep carrying the pail for the time being. After multiple false starts, […] More »

“Why the hell can we send troops to Iraq and give Bush a blank check after 9/11 and not save the people of New Orleans?”—Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans, today, throwing away his political career to try and help dying people on the streets of his city. Here’s some more: “They don’t have a […] More »

New Orleans media watch update—I saw this post on both bookninja and boing boing today. Wire service photos showing post hurricane activity in New Orleans spot black people “looting,” and white people “finding” groceries and supplies in the flood-ravaged city. More »

The US president takes it on the chin this morning in an editorial from the NYTimes. No surprises there, what with the Times being the figurehead for “liberal” bias in the American media. Fox News, on the other hand, leads today with a surreal story about Bush flying over New Orleans in Air Force One, […] More »