Bill Blair witch hunting

Maybe it will all work out for Bill Blair after all.

Here we are, a little more than three weeks from the end of that mass buildup of police in priority neighbourhoods announced after the Danzig Street shooting shocker, and no innocent people have been added to the body count ledger for the summer of 2012. Even the Caribbean Carnival went off without a hitch.

But just when it looked like the stars were aligning in Blair’s favour, another bomb got tossed his way by his arch nemesis at City Hall (evil villain Mayor Rob Ford). There’ll be another police hiring freeze in 2013. Or at least that’s the goal.

Israeli minister warns of 30-day war with Iran

Matan Vilnai, who is stepping down as home front defence minister to become ambassador to China, said the country was “ready as never before”.

“The assessments are for a war that will last 30 days on a number of fronts,” he told the Maariv newspaper.

“It could be that there will be less fatalities, but it could be there will be more, that is the scenario that we are preparing for according to the best experts.”

Julian Assange Will Not Be Allowed To Escape Britain, William Hague Says

William Hague has insisted the British government would not allow Julian Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom.

Hague said it was a "matter of regret" that the Ecuadorian government decided to grant the Wikileaks founder political asylum but warned that it "does not change the fundamentals" of the case.

Speaking at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, he also warned that the case could go on for some "considerable" time.

Angela Merkel In Canada: Stephen Harper, Merkel Aren't Playing Tit-For-Tat On Free Trade Deal, IMF Bailout

OTTAWA - Angela Merkel gave Stephen Harper what he wanted — strong public support for a Canada-European Union trade deal — but not before she gently but firmly noted "problems" with high carbon emissions from Alberta's oilsands.

Merkel's pointed observations about the need to reduce Canadian carbon emissions did not overshadow what was a genuinely warm 24-hour visit, spread over two days, in which a pair of like-minded politicians found much common ground.

Daniel Ellsberg: I Congratulate Ecuador for Standing Up to British Empire to Protect Julian Assange

Daniel Ellsberg, the most famous whistleblower in the United States, praises Ecuador for granting political asylum to Julian Assange to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over sex crime accusations. "I congratulate Ecuador, of course, for standing up to the British Empire here, for insisting that they are not a British colony, and acting as a sovereign state ought to act," said Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, the secret history of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. On Thursday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assange would be arrested if he left the embassy, saying Britain is "under a binding obligation to extradite him to Sweden." Ellsberg adds, "[Assange] has every reason to be wary that the real intent here is to whisk him away to America, where it really hasn’t been made as clear what might be waiting for him."

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Source: Democracy Now!
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Lawyer: Raid on Embassy to Arrest Assange Would Be "Unprecedented" Breach of Diplomatic Immunity

Britain is refusing to give Julian Assange of WikiLeaks safe passage out of the country even though Ecuador has granted him political asylum. On Thursday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assange would be arrested if he left the embassy. Britain has also threatened to raid the embassy in order to arrest Assange. "Under British law we can give them a week’s notice before entering the premises and the embassy will no longer have diplomatic protection," said a British foreign spokesperson. In response, Ecuador has asked the Organization of American States to hold a meeting Aug. 23 to discuss the diplomatic crisis. "The latest announcements by the British government are alarming," said Jennifer Robinson, legal adviser for Julian Assange.

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Source: Democracy Now!
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An Obscenity: The $2 Billion Presidential Race

Now that Mitt Romney has named Congressman Paul Ryan to his ticket the presidential race enters its final stages. Many can't wait for it to end. I hear from both my Democratic and Republican friends that they think spending over $2 billion on the presidential campaign is obscene.

I understand the costs of running a campaign and that some of the money goes back into the economy. But it appears that TV stations and consultants make most of it. There are thousands of workers with low-paying part-time jobs and no benefits working for each campaign while the makers of posters, bumper stickers, and American flag manufacturers are getting rich. There is the endless supply of tchotchkes (key rings, coffee mugs etc.) many made in China, that each campaign sells.

Stephen Harper's Religion: John McKay, Liberal MP, Defends PM From Charges His Faith Influences Policy

Liberal MP John McKay has come out swinging against those who have suggested Prime Minister Stephen Harper's religion influences his policy choices.

McKay, a Christian who voted against same sex marriage, takes issue with Lawrence Martin's widely-read column in the Globe and Mail in which the columnist muses about whether Harper's evangelical faith might be shaping his government's policies on climate change and the environment.

South African Miners Shot Dead In Violent Battle With Police Over Strike

At least 30 people have been killed in clashes between police and striking miners in South Africa, in what has been described as the worst violence since the apartheid.

Police opened fire on the 3,000 strikers, who were armed with machetes and sticks outside British-owned mine Lonmin, on Thursday.

Prior to that at least ten had been killed in the violence, with two police officers hacked to death, reported the Independent.

South Africa police open fire at striking mine workers

South African police opened fire Thursday on a crowd of striking miners that charged a line of officers trying to disperse them, killing some and wounding others in one of the worst shootings by authorities since the end of the apartheid era.

Police declined to offer casualty figures after the shooting at the Lonmin PLC mine near Marikana, a dusty town about 70 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. However, the main South African news agency, SAPA, has reported that 18 people have been killed. Police ministry spokesman Zweli Mnisi acknowledged late Thursday some of the miners there had died as more police and soldiers surrounded the hostels and shacks near Lonmin's shuttered platinum mine.