"A date which will live in infamy"

Today is the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  The following day, on December 8, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his declaration of war to a joint session of congress.

This speech is one of the most famous of the 20th century.  FDR made a deliberate decision to deliver a brief, uncomplicated appeal and decided against a thorough recitation of Japanese perfidies, as his Secretary of State urged.

After delivery, normal procedure was for him, or a staffer, to take the speech back to the White House for filing.  On that day, the speech was left behind and presumed lost.

That speech was composed by FDR himself, first in his head, then dictated to a secretary and then revised from typed copy.  It was truly a product of the man himself.

In March 1984, an archivist located his reading copy among the Records of the U.S. Senate.  It turned out that when FDR left his copy behind, it was picked up by a Senate clerk who took charge of it, endorsed it "Dec 8, 1941, Read in joint session," and filed it.

Delivered at a pivotal moment in history, it is clear, unambiguous, elegant, forceful and appropriate.  You can see from the scans below that he revised right up to the last draft.  The famous line "a day that will live in infamy" was revised by him by hand from the original " ... live in history."

 

Power

Mythbusting - What if NL did the same?

Then a few scattered blogs here and there would vanish from the ether, I'm sure.  As would some newspapers.

On the other hand, others have been doing yeoman's service in carefully and systematically demolishing longtime received "truths".

When you base choices for the future on myths of the past, don't be surprised when things go awry and others look askance at you.

Simpson's column today covers another province looking hard at myths of their past.  We are overdue in doing the same.

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Hard sell: What if Quebeckers turned their backs on false history?

In the dream palace of Quebec's existential politics, articulate and forceful federalists are at a premium.

Provincial politics has evolved into a competition among secessionists (Parti Québécois), autonomists (Action Démocratique) and federalists who seem chronically unhappy with most aspects of the Canadian status quo (provincial Liberals).

Federally, politics plays itself out among secessionists (Bloc Québécois), asymmetrical federalists (NDP), Quebeckers-are-a-nation (Conservatives) and Stéphane Dion Liberals. That the Liberals are now third or even fourth in Quebec says much about the leader, and attitudes toward federalism.

Federalism is a devotion in Quebec that often dares not speak its name. That it might be an excellent form of government, and beneficial, is an argument seldom advanced, except in cold mechanical terms in which Quebec's financial "gains" are recorded, then quickly forgotten in a welter of fresh demands.

It is, therefore, refreshing (although likely not consequential) that a group of federalists recently produced a collection of essays defending federalism. That the authors are swimming against the tide of elite opinion in Quebec makes their enterprise the more laudable, since they represent the few voices ready to state their federalist credentials clearly and largely without equivocation (although the contribution from the ADQ representative is as muddled as the party's attitudes toward Canada).

Reconquérir le Canada was the brainchild of André Pratte, editorial pages editor at La Presse. It brings together academics, political organizers, past candidates for the Conservatives, Liberals and ADQ, Quebec Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Benoît Pelletier and former federal Liberal justice minister Martin Cauchon.

Even among these redoubtable federalists, however, an undercurrent of dissatisfaction exists with current constitutional arrangements. Most of them say further constitutional changes (at some point) will be required to "satisfy" Quebec by way of allowing the province to sign on to the Constitution that the PQ government did not accept in 1981.

The time is obviously not right to reopen constitutional discussions (will the time ever be right?), but many of these authors suggest it must come.

Mr. Pelletier observes, correctly, that politics in Quebec is driven by identity over language, institutions and other manifestations of the "nation."

History, too, indelibly shapes the collective sense of the "nation," and that sense is exceptionally strong in Quebec. It is also a received sense, in that it is handed down in a certain way, largely as a trail of tears for Quebec within Canada, offset by ephemeral triumphs by provincial politics to "defend" the interests of Quebec.

Mr. Pratte's essay, therefore, is the bravest and most interesting because it is the most iconoclastic, for he takes issue with some of the received assertions of Quebec history.

The Conquest, for example, was a trade of one colonial master for another, and it allowed francophone Quebec to join the winning team in world affairs for the subsequent century and a half -- which meant the Industrial Revolution, parliamentary government, rule of law, and huge export opportunities, all while retaining its language and religion.

The Second World War is presented in Quebec as a doughty struggle against conscription wanted by les anglais, whereas, as Mr. Pratte points out, francophone Quebec's Pétainist preferences and its cultural/religious elites' disengagement from the fight against Nazism left too much of the province on the wrong side of history. To this day, Quebec has not faced up to that sad chapter in its "national" history, preferring the self-comforting saga of valiantly opposing conscription.

Mr. Pratte also takes issue with the premise that the Quiet Revolution turned a backward society toward modernity. Quebec, he argues, had an entrepreneurial class and spirit long before the 1960s.

Quebeckers, he urges, should be more outward looking, more embracing of the idea they can succeed in Canada, and less reliant on the clutches of false history that lead them toward the comforting but inward-looking options of secession and disengagement.

This is the book's most important idea. It will not be an easy one to sell, given the intellectual forces, conventional wisdoms and political choices ranged against it.

Dirty politics

It's all over but the nastiest politics has to be about candidates and their religion.

It's bad enough when you think certain candidates might be questionable but when God tells you they are bad, well, you get something like this video aimed at Mormon presidential candidate Mitt Romney's wife, Ann.

Evel Knievel makes last jump

Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel, Jr. recently passed away on November 30, 2007.

It's hard to describe who and what Evel was but this comes close:

Evel Knievel was kitsch. He was an Elvis who couldn't sing. He was a stuntman without a movie. But none of that mattered.

As my friends cheered, I saw that Evel Knievel was a visionary. Decked out in his Captain America jumpsuit, he created the first and perhaps the greatest reality show of all time. He embodied the American dream: getting paid to take risks, and getting famous along the way. In less than 10 years, he made $60 million in exchange for 40 broken bones, multiple concussions and a coma.

Hypocrisy unbound

From today's Telegram's jeers and cheers:

Jeers: to a reality check. Wednesday, the province's Liberal opposition party asked the board that oversees the affairs of the House of Assembly for more money than the rules would normally give them, saying they needed the funds to be an effective opposition. They asked for $450,000 - the ruling Conservatives offered $100,000, saying they had to protect the taxpayers. Here's some of the comments: "You can't always get what you want. This is the people's money. We have to spend it wisely." - Finance Minister Tom Marshall. Cost of operating Marshall's ministerial office last year: $283,900. Cost this year: $339,100. Single-year increase - $55,200, or 19.4 per cent. "I would think that the request before us now is pretty rich. I don't see how we can deal with it as it is." - Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout. Amount budgeted to operate Rideout's cabinet office last year: $264,000. Amount budgeted this year: $354,000. Increase: $90,000, or a single-year increase of 34 per cent. Thank goodness they're standing on guard for us taxpayers.

Maybe we should just peg the budget of the Opposition office to the budget of the Finance Minster's office.

Antonio Lamer

This column from Greg Weston of the Ottawa Sun puts a new spin on the life and habits of Justice Antonio Lamer.  Lamer always had the reputation as a person with a hardcore work ethic.  This, however, really goes above and beyond the call of duty.

I can assure you that I would never advise a client, nor would I ever permit myself, to conduct an interview while in the midst of a heart attack:

Turns out he had called us to do the interview after his wife had dialed 911.

His pulse had dropped to near-coma levels, and she was terrified her husband was having another heart attack like the one that had stopped his ticker for a full three minutes a couple of years before.

Throughout most of the interview, he later confessed, the voices we heard in the background (and assumed were office staff) were actually ambulance attendants impatiently wanting to put an oxygen mask where the phone was, and get him to hospital under full siren.

It's worth reading the whole column to learn how rare this gentleman was.

(h/t to my old friend RF for the link)

Poker face

The look of a real negotiator who gives nothing away.

Constitutional conflict resolved

It's rare that you see a true and genuine constructional conflict in the political realm with as many interesting qualities as this one.

In case you missed it, Karlheinz Schreiber, in custody of the crown, is now under subpoena to appear before a House of Common committee.  The Speaker of the House issued a “Speaker's warrant” to force his appearance.

Bet you didn't know a parliamentary committee could do that!

This rare procedure was forced by the actions, or inactions by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.  He insisted he lacked the ability to prevent Schreiber's deportation on Dec. 1. 

Experts directly contradicted Nicholson's claim that that he has no power under the Extradition Act to stay Schreiber's removal, and furthermore, that Schreiber is being held in an Ontario jail.  According to the Globe, Nicholson was pilloried:

"It ought to be straightforward," Mr. Walsh, the impartial Commons legal counsel, told MPs on the ethics committee. "It's within the power of the Justice Minister. It's his call. It's his judgment."

Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff accused Mr. Nicholson of "defying the will of Parliament."

"He refuses to delay extradition, claiming that he has no such authority. But he is wrong, the minister has the power to choose the date Canada surrenders Schreiber to Germany," Mr. Ignatieff said.

Errol Mendes, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, said he was "astonished" by the minister's comments, given that the Ontario Court of Appeal has said the "ultimate decision" in extradition matters is political.

"I'm not sure if [the minister] really understands the extradition process," he said.

Mr. Schreiber's lawyer, Edward Greenspan, accused the Harper government of wanting to get the lobbyist out of Canada, despite plans to hold a public inquiry into his past dealings with former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

Nicholson's uncooperative stance set in motion a rush to secure the first Canadian Speaker's warrant issued 1913.

According to the House of Commons Procedure and Practice (edited by Robert Marleau and Camille Montpetit):

Censure, Reprimand and the Summoning of Individuals to the Bar of the House

On a number of occasions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, individuals were summoned to appear before the Bar of the House. The Bar is a brass rod extending across the floor of the Chamber inside its south entrance beyond which strangers are not allowed.

Individuals who are in contempt of the House — that is, are guilty of an offence against the dignity or authority of Parliament — may be formally summoned by the House to appear before it, if the House adopts a motion to that effect. When summoned, the individual stands at the Bar. The House has ordered Members to attend in their places in the House and has summoned others to the Bar of the House, to answer questions or to receive censures, admonitions or reprimands. Although, at first view, this may not appear to be a punishment, the summoning of a Member to attend in his or her place or of an individual to the Bar is an extraordinary event which places the Member or individual under the authority of the House vested with its full disciplinary powers.

...

In 1913, R.C. Miller, a witness before the Public Accounts Committee, refused to answer questions. This was reported to the House, whereupon it adopted a motion summoning Mr. Miller to appear before the Bar and answer questions. Mr. Miller made two appearances before the Bar and on both occasions was permitted to have counsel. He was directed to withdraw after he refused to give the information requested by the Committee. The House then adopted a motion stating that Mr. Miller was in contempt of the House and that he should be imprisoned. Mr. Miller was again brought before the Bar and the resolution was read to him. [212]

At that time, apparently, Montreal businessman R.C. Miller of the Diamond Light and Heating Company was called before a committee to explain $41,000 in grease money related to heating contracts.  He refused to say who he gave the money to and ended up being consigned to the county jailhouse for the duration of the parliamentary session.  You can read about it here.

Schreiber is being held at the Toronto West Detention Centre, where he's awaiting extradition to Germany on charges of bribery, fraud and tax evasion.

A full-blown crisis was averted Tuesday evening when Nicholson allowed the negotiation of logistics of escorting Schreiber from that jail cell in Toronto to the parliamentary hearing 500 kilometres away in Ottawa and the Speaker's warrant was drafted and sent to Toronto.  Schreiber will remain in the secure escort of police and the House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms and will spend his nights at a local detention centre if he needs to remain in Ottawa for more than a day.

It's not everyday the House of Commons issues an order to pluck a person from the custody of the Crown in order to extract information.

In a showdown between the crown and the people, the people prevailed.

Now let's see if this all comes to pass.

Aluminium poisoning

Aluminium poisoning in the body manifests itself with progressive dementia, bad judgement and hypersensitivity.

Aluminium poisoning in governments manifests itself in the same way.

This starts when normally rational governments suddenly get the idea that running cheap electricity to aluminium smelters automatically presents great development opportunities.

Because the jobs are high paying and numerous, these are tempting plums to bring into hardpressed areas.  I'm sure that was in the Premier's mind when, announced today in the Telegram, Premier Williams said he is pitching for an aluminium smelter in Labrador.

And smelters do present great development opportunities.  Sometimes.   But many times they don't.  For smelters to work out for people and government (jobs, taxes), you need to have specific and clearly definable conditions in place.

And because these facilities are huge energy consumers, one of those conditions is a large and reliable source of energy.

Iceland is a great example.  It has energy that is surplus to their needs and cheap to produce (geothermal energy).

But more important than cheap is that it is stranded energy.  Stranded means what you think it might mean - it's pretty well stuck in one place because it's too expensive to move around because it's isolated from end-user markets.

So Iceland generates power for cheap and then feeds it into smelters.  And except for the fact that the country itself has taken on substantial debt to make it all happen, Iceland appears to have been reasonably successful with that.

Because they do appear to be so success, other jurisdictions with cheaply generated energy figure it's smart for them to do that too.  Like Quebec.

In Quebec they take cheap hydro power and feed it into smelters and are planning more soon.  Except in their case, the power they are using is not stranded power.  The power they use has lots of potential alternative markets nearby in the US and Ontario.

Because these markets will pay far more for the power than the smelter does, government ends up subsidizing the power to the smelters through forgoing the difference in the electricity rates they could get elsewhere.

So what, you might say.  Isn't that subsidy worth the jobs created?  Maybe.  It depends on how much you want to pay in subsidies.

Would it make sense to pay, say, $300,000 per year per job?  Most, I think, would consider that level of subsidy ridiculous.  After all, at that level, doesn't it make more sense sell the power elsewhere, pay off each potential jobholder $100,000 year and then government can pocket the other $200,000 year and use it for services for everybody else?

Yet in Quebec, the ridiculous is actually happening.

In recently announced projects, to create 740 jobs, the government is giving up $2.7 billion in revenues in exchange for a $2-billion investment by Alcan.

The total cost to the government of the subsidy to Alcan equals nearly $274,338 per job each year for 35 years.

But the government calculus is that a $2.7 billion subsidy stretching out into the the future is worth the political benefit of having jobs in place today (or very soon).

The government of Quebec has aluminium poisoning.

Now we have to watch for signs of aluminium poisoning here.

NL exports

This Telegram article triggered by this news release about this report notes the latest NL export figures.

According to the report, international exports from Newfoundland Labrador will surge 17% this year and a further 5% in 2008.

This year is being led by higher energy and ore shipments, and to a much smaller degree, transportation equipment. Next year, a weaker Canadian dollar will help give exports a kick. Seafood will moderate slightly but energy, forestry and industrial goods should rise.

Because the forecast covers international exports only, most Voisey’s Bay and some other mining activity does not show up their data.

The NL section of the report notes:

EDC is forecasting a 16% increase in energy exports this year and another 7% increase in 2008. We forecast total production of 130 million barrels of crude this year with about half destined for international markets. Next year, production is expected to rise to nearly 150 million barrels on higher output from White Rose and Hibernia.

With no planned production increases slated for the Come-by-Chance refinery, we expect export receipts to move in line with refined petroleum product prices. EDC Economics is forecasting WTI crude to average US$64/barrel in 2008, down slightly from 2007. The longer term outlook for energy is positive, with possible consideration being given to construction of a second refinery and the go-ahead given for Hebron.

Seafood exports rebounded slightly in 2007, but are expected to drop modestly in 2008. Higher prices for crab are the principal driver this year and could surprise on the upside. Shrimp exports to Europe should improve as the autonomous tariff rate quota for that market was increased from 10,000 tons to 20,000 tons in July 2007. While there are no major quota reductions expected for next year, consumers in the US, Japan and Europe appear fatigued, leading to lower seafood prices and a 2.5% drop in agri-food exports in 2008.

Competition from overseas, a strong dollar and high energy costs are hitting the bottom lines of paper manufacturers. Demand is also suffering as North American newspapers get 10% of their revenues from real estate classifieds.

Newfoundland paper often goes to European markets, so exports could fare better for the province than was previously expected. While lumber prices are expected to increase slightly in 2008, this comes after significant price declines in each of the previous 3 years. Regardless, lumber will have little impact on the forestry sector as it accounts for only 6% of the sector’s exports. In sum, forestry exports are expected to rise 5% in 2008 after dropping 13% in 2007.

Exports of industrial goods posted a massive increase this year, as summer shipments of nickel and copper totalled $400 million. This ore is normally processed within Canada but was instead sent to customers in Europe, so while the impact on international exports will be large there will be no extra kick to the province’s real GDP. With respect to iron ore, even with global economic activity slowing, Asian steel demand should remain fairly high, supporting iron ore prices. This, along with a lower C$ and higher production levels, are expected to boost exports of iron ore by 14% in 2008, after a healthy increase in 2007.

Transportation equipment surged in 2007. Increases came from shipbuilding activities and aerospace parts manufacturing, which could hit $60 million this year versus $15 million in 2006.

Next year is difficult to gauge, with growth coming from only a few companies and information scarce. Either way, the gain is impressive and bodes well for future exports of higher valueadded manufactured goods.

So let's see how it all works out.

Whores and politics

As Lawrence Martin writes today:

"Politics," in the immortal words of former Liberal MP Stan Keyes, "is a whore's game." A shell-shocked Stéphane Dion has just spent a year learning what he meant.

In Ottawa, the teams march out on the field, the media referees take their positions and the shout that goes up cannot be said to be one that suits him: "May the best whore win."

I'm not sure the implications of that.  Does that mean the party needs a leader who is more whorish?  Or does that mean Dion needs to become more whorish?

Or does that mean that whorishness is necessary for success?

Is non-whorishness a bar to success?  I'd hate to think so.

Weekend political news

Yesterday, the Russian police detained opposition leader and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov when they broke up an anti-Kremlin protest. Organized by the opposition Other Russia group, they accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of destroying personal liberties and the freedom of the press.

Scuffles broke out between police and protesters in central Moscow after around 3,000 people tried to march to the central election commission's headquarters.

It's one week to Russia's parliamentary election.

Last night, a Moscow judge sentenced Kasparov to five days in jail for holding an unauthorized march. City officials argued they had given Kasparov permission to conduct a rally but not a march.

Rally versus march: that might seem like a negligible difference around here but in Putin's Russia, that distinction lands you in jail.

Mr. Kasparov said the court proceedings had been “a choreographed farce from beginning to end ... It was a symbol of what has happened to justice and the rule of law under Putin.”

Your (Lame) Slogan Here

A year ago last summer, the blogs and media were abuzz with MUN's new name, logo and slogan.

Gone was Memorial University of Newfoundland and the red shield crest.

In came a truncated  Memorial name accompanied by a rock-like logo and the cryptic slogan, Become.

A year later it attracts little comment anymore although I still think it looks and sounds silly.  This article on college slogans will reopen old wound by noting:

A good motto is hard to find.

Just ask the University of Idaho. Last year it dropped its motto "From Here You Can Go Anywhere" for a new marketing theme dubbed "No Fences," with the accompanying tag line "Open Space. Open Minds." The words were intended to evoke both the romantic landscape of Idaho and the boundless intellectual opportunities at the university. It was perfect.

Except no one really liked it. So recently both slogans were scrapped in favor of "A Legacy of Leading," which has tested better with alumni and parents. A spokeswoman says the new campaign, expected to cost $900,000 a year, will be "more impactful" with the institution's various audiences.

Political health

Politics is not just economics and public policy and ethics and other such stuff on a high abstract plane.

Sometimes, issues facing politicians are simple and personal.  Things like whether or not to use hand sanitizer when you're shaking hands all day.

On a similar theme of political health comes this story in the New York Times on the hazards of campaign food.

The misconception is that politicians on the campaign keep trim and fit merely by "running".  Most politicians I know get grossly out of shape during campaigns and many of them gain lots of weight.  And they have no choice.  As the Times notes:

The candidates are “for all intents and purposes out of control of their diets,” said Walter Scheib, former White House chef to the Clintons and the Bushes. Many big events on the preprimary calendar — the Harkin Steak Fry in Iowa; the Clyburn Fish Fry in South Carolina; the Iowa State Fair, an everything-fry — seem as likely to produce heart attacks as votes.

Those wanting to be president must never, ever refuse or fumble the local specialties, lest they repeat the sins of John Kerry (dismissed as effete when he ordered a Philly cheese steak with Swiss in 2004) or Gerald R. Ford (on a 1976 swing through Texas, he bit into a tamale with the corn husk still on).

Downing a regional delicacy with aplomb, Mr. Scheib said, tells voters: “I’m one of you. I’m part of this area. Vote for me.”

“There are few things more personal than eating,” he said, “and if you reject someone’s food, you kind of reject them.”

This is not just an American phenomena.  In Canada too there are the regional delicacies politicians have to indulge in for the cameras.  Most every national politician I've ever I accompanied around this city schedules a stop into Ches's.  In Montreal, it's smoked meat, poutine and anything drenched in maple syrup.  I'm not sure what it would be in Ontario (although beaver tails comes to mind) but on the prairies a politician is sure to face a plate of perogies sooner or later.

I never ate so much fish and brewis before I was assigned the semi-regular duty of accompanying Clyde Wells to one Sunday church luncheon or another; haven't since either.

All foods that are high fat or high carbohydrates or high salt or high sugar or some combination thereof.

It's a wonder more politicians don't die in office.

February election

Bring it on.

Peckford on equity

It's hard to remember a time when oil project equity was generally considered to be a good idea.  It used to be that when discussed at all, it was only discussed in terms of it being a bad idea.

Only in the most crypto-nationalist cabals or radical NDP workers-should-own-the-means-of-production economic circles was the notion taken seriously.

So if anybody was going to be in favour of it at the time or in hindsight, you would think it would be the recent father of the NL nationalist movement, A. Brian Peckford.

Consider this, the NL Heritage website (generally non-political though sympathetic to the nationalists) describes the Peckford regime this way:

He tapped into a resurgent provincial nationalism and successfully won several elections by arguing that he was going to fight  for a better deal within Confederation for Newfoundland and Labrador, and end the province's "inferiority complex".

But if you expected him to launch a drive  for equity, you would be mistaken.  As the Telegram writes today, Peckford says of equity:

"I was never in favour of it."

The province had considered equity in the late 1970s, studied it carefully and abandoned the notion in favour of less risky benefits - royalties, technology transfers, education and infrastructure.

With any offshore project, Peckford says the end-goal is money.

"The issue becomes how do you get that? You can get that through royalties just as easy as you can through equity.

"And the royalty situation means there's no downside in the sense that, (with an equity stake) if something goes wrong with the project, you've got to take your 10 per cent or five per cent hit."

Mark this day: OffalNews and former premier Peckford are on the same page.

As a side note on his personal relationship with Prime Ministers, he says:

"In my worst days with Mr. Trudeau, he was  always the prime minister and always Mr. Trudeau ... . When I was attacking the federal government, I was attacking the government.

"I always respected the office and the person, but I disagreed with them and I always said that."

How times have changed.

Province suffers 'democratic deficit,' says political scientist

According to CBC today, MUN political science professor Chris Dunn says we are suffering a 'democratic deficit'.  That would be in this article published in Policy Options referenced in this post.

Roman origins

The origin legend of Rome says the city was founded on the Palatine Hill (one of the famous seven hills on which the city was built) in 753 BC by the twin sons of the god Mars and priestess Rhea Silvia.

According to mythology Romulus and Remus were nursed by a she-wolf and raised in a cave after being left on the River Tiber's banks.

Now the archeological department of the city of Rome have announced  the discovery of the cave in which the twins were raised.  It is right under the Palatine Hill where it is supposed to be.

It was very close to the palace of the Emperor Augustus who was keen to be associated with the location as he used ancient Roman myths as support for his regime.  The cave itself was ornately decorated and likely used as a place of worship. 

The discoverers were reluctant to enter the cave due to fear of collapse but they did insert a camera.  The images are impressive and amazing.

Augustus was supposed to have decorated the cave with a white eagle.  The camera shows a white eagle in the centre of the cave's ceiling.

If you are keen on more information on the ancient city of Rome, you can check out this digital reconstruction.

Now if I could just find a package tour company who could take me back there . . .

Tuna

VOCM has this story today on Hearn's response to overfishing ("concerned") in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea.  Remember that I noted before that tuna are on their way to commercial extinction unless and until somebody takes charge of the issue and takes concrete action.

 

As it turns out, that won't be Canada.