From the New York Times: “The time for diplomacy is now,” Condoleezza Rice told senators at her confirmation hearing to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state. What spectacularly bad luck for Colin Powell. His time arrives just as he heads for the golf course. On the other hand, I’m looking forward to Ms. Rice […] More »

Salon has a great list of 34 noteworthy scandals the Bush Admin has been involved with in the past 4 years. The ones we’ve heard about, like Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and the outting of CIA operative Valerie Plame are all on the list, as well as many other eyebrow-raising schemes that most folks didn’t hear […] More »

Anybody catch The Hour, the new show on Newsworld by former VJ and This Mag promoter and winner of the Greatest Canadian contest George Stroumboulopoulos? I don’t get Newsworld. Is it worth getting cable for? Reviews plz. More »

Last week over at Brand Autopsy, they spilled the beans about the Dark Room Magic at NPR; the tricks they use to make everyone sound so smooth and articulate. I’m keen on this, because starting this week my co-author and I are pimping our book Nation of Rebels to the folks south of the 49th […] More »

From Today’s Globe: VANCOUVER — British Columbia appears poised to offer improved incentives to its $1-billion dollar film industry, as it tries to level the tax playing field with other Canadian provinces, including Ontario. B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell is set to hold talks with film sector officials this week, a sign his government may be […] More »

So, Ms. Sgro is finally stepping down, after an affidavit was leaked in which “pizza shop owner Harjit Singh claims Sgro pressed him to supply food and workers for her campaign last spring. …when word of his arrangement with Sgro started to leak out, Sgro suddenly reneged on the deal and last month ordered his […] More »

I was going to do my usual shtick and complain about the Tsunami benefit concerts and so on, since I’m getting a bit concerned that we’re approaching the Dianification of the disaster. But Paul Wells has a nice piece here, with the lovely conclusion: As a rule of thumb, you can’t change the world with […] More »

“The purpose of New Labour is to encourage personal prosperity and well-being, not just for a few but for all.” With that, Brit-PM Tony Blair launches his re-election bid and puts in the grave forever the idea that a party called Labour might have significant ideological differences from one called Conservative. The Guardian story about […] More »

Over at Slate, Malcolm Gladwell and James Surowieki are debating their respective books Blink and The Wisdom of Crowds. It is a great pairing, since the books are, in a sense, siblings. Wisdom of Crowds is about how, in a crowd, the partial information that each member contributes can often give a better answer to […] More »

So, it looks like Paul Martin is using an unusual source for floating his policy decisions these days… the White House, or at least its heavily fortified northern wing on Sussex Drive. US Ambassador to Canada, the ever-diplomatic and respectful Paul “shut up and do what we say” Celucci let Canadians know yesterday that our […] More »

Happy Birthday, Sir John A! Things are going along swimmingly here in your great Dominion. Newfoundland is going to separate (yes, we got them at last), Quebec is going to separate, Alberta is going to separate, and B.C. would separate except they’re too busy sea-kayaking in the morning and snowboarding in the afternoon to bother. […] More »