Posts from our progressive community

We have seen many happy, well-cared-for dogs on this trip, dogs of all shapes and sizes, all obviously loved. We have seen no street dogs. There are some feral cats living in the Alhambra. That is always sad to see. But the street dogs that have broken our hearts in Mexico and Peru and elsewhere do not seem to be in Spain, at least not where we have been.

* * * *

On the drive from Barcelona to Granada, I realized that we brought no music with us. We never even thought of it. I blipped through radio stations, even though I knew it would be useless. Radio sounds exactly the same, regardless of language. Top-40 hits, classic rock, sports talk, the scourge of "lite FM" - all of it sounds exactly the same. On one station, I heard the words "Yustin Beiber". I looked at Allan. "Did I just hear the name Justin Beiber?" Yes, he heard it, too. There is no escape. (Non-Canadians: you have no idea.)

* * * *

Everyone says hola here. That may seem ridiculously obvious, as "hola" means "hello," and we are in Spain. But in Latin America, you rarely hear the word. People say "Buenas dias" in the morning and "Buenas noches" in the evening. Kids say "Que tal", like "hey" or "what's up". Hola, in my experience, is how you answer the phone. But so far in Spain, everyone says "Hola," very brightly and clearly. "Buen dia" - without the s - is used occasionally, but sounds more formal and less friendly.

* * * *

The coffee is not very strong here. I don't know how Latin America learned to make such rich and delicious coffee, but it wasn't from Spain. I get a cafe con leche in the morning, and it barely registers on my caffeine scale. I need at least two of them to scratch the surface, but I'm definitely lowering my threshold, getting by with less.

* * * *

More Arabic on the highway signs on route from Granada! There is a ferry from Tarifa to Tangier, Morocco, and the highway signs in that direction are in Spanish and Arabic. The Alhambra and upcoming Cordoba have me dreaming of Morocco.

* * * *

We hear good things about Tala and Diego. They seem to be having a good time with Essie, and not driving her too crazy. The Red Sox have remembered how to win. Allan's writing partner is doing interviews and keeping him posted. Thanks for reading my blather.

We changed our plans, then changed them again. Originally, we had pencilled in a drive to the very southern tip of Spain, where on a clear day you can see Morocco, and where there is a supposedly wonderfully intact set of Roman ruins, Baelo Claudio.

From the start, I was skeptical that we could do this and still do everything else on our wish-list. I think Allan had forgotten how everything takes longer than you think it's going to, and how sleeping in a different town every night can mean not seeing anything very well. In Granada, it was time to firm up the flexible spots in our itinerary.

We love seeing Roman ruins. But we've seen a fair number of them. On our big trip in 1993 - we spent a month in France and Italy - we drove through Provence and saw a huge number of amazing Roman ruins. And of course, we've been to Rome. On the other hand, this current trip includes something we've never seen and may never see again: neolithic cave paintings. I have wanted to see cave paintings since I first read about the caves in Lescaux and Altamira (now both closed to the public). As soon as the Bilbao Guggenheim opened, and I saw its proximity to caves where there are paintings, I started thinking about going to Spain.

So cave paintings are a major incentive for this trip, and we have planned them for the very end. I was concerned that if we went to Baelo Claudia, we would never make it up to Basque Country in the north, and we'd end up seeing more Roman ruins, but no caves.

So we reconfigured the remaining part of the trip for less time in the south and more time in the north. Our plans for today were to drive to Ronda, walk around the town, then continue on to Zuhero, about an hour away from Cordoba - not spend the night in Ronda, but stay two nights in Zuhero.

* * * *

We woke up in Grenada to the sound of cannon fire, or maybe kettle drums, or maybe fireworks. It was 8:00 a.m. and we have no idea what that was about.

After breakfast, we bought a few things at a small supermarket across from the hotel, then went to a tiny panderia (bakery) - so tiny that customers queue up in the street, because only one customer at a time can fit in the shop. We bought a wonderful fresh baguette, two pastries, and two cookies for 2.50 euros.

The lovely woman at our hotel, plus a gentleman who helped direct Allan out of our tiny parking spot, both assured us it was much easier to get out of town than it was to get in. Armed with great directions, we nervously hit the road, but had no problem finding the highway. We did stop once for directions, just to confirm. A man said "...go to the left," while motioning right. I said, "A la derecha?" ("To the right?") And he said, "Si, derecha" which tells you something about miscommunication! But we found the highway easily and soon I was navigating us to Ronda.

* * * *

We stopped once to eat some of our ham, cheese, and bread, but otherwise were driving through beautiful, hilly orchards, with steep mountains in the distance. We could have taken fairly fast roads all the way to Ronda, but against my better judgement, wevdecided to use a tiny adjoining "cut-through" road. I knew that would be very slow and take us through mountains, and Allan said he also knew that, but... let's just say I don't think he understood how tiny and how slow that road would be. Or where he'd be driving. Allan is afraid of heights. Let it not be said I didn't warn him.

The road to Ronda turned out to be one of the more dramatic drives we've ever done, on par with the Big Sur coast in California or the Almalfi coast of Italy. (The latter we did by bus and Allan couldn't look out the window.) First we wound our way through two tiny "white towns" - the typical towns of Spain, with white-washed buildings and red-tiled roofs - called Andarle and El Burgos, then there were no towns.

The road was barely wide enough for one car. When a car approached from the other direction, Allan stopped and we held our breath. We went up and up and up, into the mountains, with a very steep drop-off on my side, and so close to the side of the road that I didn't want to look down. On all sides of us, there were dramatic rock outcroppings, and in the valleys there were pastures, with the occasional hacienda and pick-up truck visible. It looked a lot like scenery I've seen in the western US, with the same huge sky and dramatic peaks.

At one point, we found ourselves behind a herd of goats. A man and two dogs were working them down the road, then off the road and down the cliffs to the right. I scrambled for the camera and we drove slowly behind them until all the animals were safely off the road. I waved and yelled to the shepherd.

Another time we saw a nice dog sitting in the road. Allan looked very upset and was determined to continue driving. We have rescued some strays while traveling, and other times staggered away, heartbroken, from dogs we could not help. I thought we could at least take this dog to a town. I made Allan stop and ran back to the dog, but when I found it, I realized it was fine, just a country dog out for the day. She wasn't skinny, her coat looked good, and the last thing we want to do is abscond with somebody's dog. So I ran back to the car and tried to assure Allan, and we continued on.

This drive went on for hours, real white-knuckle driving, no more than 20 or 30 kms/hour. At the highest point, we stopped at a lookout with some information about the Seirra de las Nieves range. After that, the drop-off was on the driver's side, not ideal for our man behind the wheel! I'm pretty sure Allan was forcing himself not to look out his window.

When I noticed that it was 3:00 and the road was just beginning to flatten out towards Ronda, I suggested we spend the night there. Zuheros has to be three hours away. Did we really want to do that tonight?

* * * *

We entered Ronda from the ordinary, non-historic part of town and put the car in an underground parking lot. We very quickly saw the train station and a hotel right across the street, and figured, what the hell, let's give it a go. At the Hotel Analucia, the man said he had a vacancy... for 35 euros. Allan thought I heard wrong but no, it was 35 euros. I asked to see the room. It's a simple, clean room with a spotless bathroom, and a closet nearly as big as our hotel room in Paris. The hotel has a parking deal with the lot where our car is already parked, so overnight parking will cost 6 euros. Wifi is free and in all the rooms. Wow.

Next we had to change our reservation in Zuheros. I couldn't get it done through Hotels.com, so I called the hotel directly. They were very accommodating, allowing us to cancel one night on such short notice, but they said they did need to receive something from whatever internet site we booked with, or else they would be charged a commission for an unused room.

Trying to work with Hotels.com was awful. One, their phone number - which says, "A free call from anywhere, 24/7!" - is only free within the United States. Two, their number is listed as 1-800-CA-HOTELS, with no actual number given beside it. Does anyone have a phone with letters on it anymore?? There are millions of people traveling today who have never even seen a rotary phone with letters! After waiting on hold, and being transferred, the person who actually helped me wanted to keep me on hold while he called the hotel in Zuhero. I don't think so.

So that was awful, but we got it done, then headed off into Ronda.

* * * *

We walked through the commercial area of town, a pedestrian-only mall, past a bullfighting ring, and down to the edge of town. Literally, the edge. There is a wall, beyond which the town drops off a cliff. You can see towns in the valley, then huge mountains in the distance. From the cliffs on this side of town, you can walk around a walkway to a bridge.

The bridge passes over a dramatic gorge, a huge steep drop, with giant stone finger-like projections on all sides, on top of which the town seems to be growing. On the other side of the bridge is the old, historic part of town, with narrow cobblestone streets, white houses with red roofs and wrought-iron gates, and a zillion schlocky touristy stores. Tacky, but beneath that, beautiful.

In between the two sides of town, upstream from the bridge, you can see the gorge, the rushing water, people walking up and down a scenic walkway, and in the distance, farms. It is very dramatic, very beautiful. From the old-city side, looking back on the bridge, you see the full height and impressive arches of the bridge. Allan couldn't get too close to the rail, so I took all the photos. Some view of Ronda, the gorge, and the bridge are here.

This town is supposedly a magnet for fans of Ernest Hemingway. Ronda's Wikipedia page mentions something about a bit of For Whom The Bell Tolls being based on Ronda. I re-read that novel only a month or so ago (I loved it), and I don't remember anything remotely like this town being in it.There are also pictures of Charlie Chaplin in several places, but I don't know why.

After our walk, we were ready for dinner, but it was still too early. The whole town appeared to be having coffee, ice cream, and dessert. Hundreds of families with children, older folks in groups, teenagers on dates, absolutely everyone, were gathered in dozens of cafes, gelaterias, and confiterias. After all, it was "only" 7:00 p.m.!

We reluctantly stopped for coffee and tea, at a cafe selling all manner of baked goodies and "bombs" (bonbons). When I ordered Allan's "the con leche", they made the tea with steamed milk, instead of water. That was new for us. We used the time to further reconfigure the rest of the trip. We're both concerned that things may take a long time in the north - that it may take time to get there or to find a cave tour. As I've said, it's a focal point of the trip, and we don't want it to be cut short. So we actually cut a day out of our planned three days in Madrid.

I only wanted to do one thing in Madrid: see painting at the three big museums. We are also meeting up with our friend David Heap! But I'm not particularly interested in running around Madrid seeing El Escorial and other famous sites, given the time and priorities of this trip. (Of course I'd see any city for any reason, and I'm sure Madrid has many things to recommend it, but in context of this trip: art only.) So now I will have two full days to see the greatest highlights from all three museums. It should work.

After planning over coffee, we found a simple place for dinner. We were clearly the "early bird special" at 7:30. We are both a bit tired of tapas. (Who knew such a thing could happen?) I want to have some great paella somewhere, but this is not paella country. The menus here favour game, stews (including bull-tail stew), and grilled fish. I had a version of huevos rancheros - scrambled eggs with potatoes and chorizos - and Allan had fried calmari that looked like fishsticks. We also had some kind of yummy white bean soup that was made with sausage. We drank vino verano and I had yet more coffee, and the bill barely scraped 20 euros.

This doesn't seem to be a big foodie area. Basque Country, in the north, is supposed to have some of the best food in Spain (or anywhere). I don't know if we'll find any, or perhaps it's impossible to miss. But somewhere, somewhere on this trip, will I get a big bowl of really good paella?

Our little hotel was super easy to find, because it's across from the train station. We were happy to see it again; it has been a long day. I called my mother, who was thrilled to hear from me. I called her two or three times on our long drive from Barcelona to Granada, but she wasn't in, and I knew she'd be massively disappointed to miss my call. She is reading this blog, and she has been to Ronda, among many other places in Spain. It was great to hear her voice!

I can only hope that the growing public cynicism evident in these Star letters translates into a deep and abiding anger that lasts until at least 2015. Here is a sampling:

Beyond money, audit reveals a bigger problem for Duffy, May 15

This column described Mike Duffy’s problem but the Senate-appointed auditors might have used terminology that was more fitting of the crime, instead of “inappropriately claimed” expenses it might have said “fraudulently claimed.” After all, Duffy’s problem is not much different from that of Harold Ballard when the latter did time for fraudulently using funds from Maple Leaf Gardens to pay for renovations to his house and cottage.

Apparently under the Harper government there are two laws in Canada, one for politicians and the other for the public. Stephen Harper’s democracy is not the one that I served to defend in World War II.

Bill Tuer, Cobourg

Duffy's sweet deal, Editorial, May 16

“According to Harper's staff . . . Harper knew nothing of the Wright/Duffy arrangement.” Sure he didn't. How stupid do we all look? Sadly, if we cannot count on honesty and integrity from the PMO, then we really can't expect it elsewhere in their government. For sure, Canadians deserve a way lot better than this. For a change, how about some real action from the prime minister — not just words — to clear out the cheats and buffoons?

Don Dorward, Pickering

When Sen. Mike Duffy said on the news a few weeks back, “The old Duffer is a man of his word,” I believed him. He went on to say that after a discussion with his wife, in order to put this distraction behind them, they would pay back the money that people were saying he should not have claimed. I was really surprised, though, to learn that his wife is Nigel Wright.

Bob Larocque, Carrying Place
Recommend this Post

This might be why Alberta isn't too crazy about refining Athabasca bitumen on site and why British Columbia should reject the proposal to refine it in Kitimat.


"This" is a 3-storey high, city block sized pile of bitumen coke steadily growing ever larger across the Detroit River from Windsor's waterfront Assumption Park.   The stuff belongs to Koch Carbon, one of David and Charlie's operations of course.  In terms of emissions, even Alberta won't touch it.   That's why Koch Carbon looks to peddle the stuff overseas.

How does all this garbage get from Athabasca to Detroit?  You guessed it, via a pipeline that delivers 28,000 barrels a day of diluted bitumen, or dilbit, to Marathon Petroleum's refinery in the Motor City.

That's the contaminated petroleum coke residue from 28,000 barrels a day of Athabasca bitumen.   Enbridge is looking to move 800,000 barrels a day to Kitimat.   Imagine the mountains of petroleum coke that would scar the coast if that garbage was to be refined in Kitimat.

Fom The New York Times:

An initial refining process known as coking, which releases the oil from the tarlike bitumen in the oil sands, also leaves the petroleum coke, of which Canada has 79.8 million tons stockpiled. Some is dumped in open-pit oil sands mines and tailing ponds in Alberta. Much is just piled up there.
Detroit’s pile will not be the only one. Canada’s efforts to sell more products derived from oil sands to the United States, which include transporting it through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, have pulled more coking south to American refineries, creating more waste product here.
“Here’s a little bit of Alberta,” said Brian Masse, one of Windsor’s Parliament members. “For those that thought they were immune from the oil sands and the consequences of them, we’re now seeing up front and center that we’re not.”
Coke, which is mainly carbon, is an essential ingredient in steelmaking as well as producing the electrical anodes used to make aluminum.
While there is high demand from both those industries, the small grains and high sulfur content of this petroleum coke make it largely unusable for those purposes, said Kerry Satterthwaite, a petroleum coke analyst at Roskill Information Services, a commodities analysis company based in London.
“It is worse than a byproduct,” Ms. Satterthwaite said.“It’s a waste byproduct that is costly and inconvenient to store, but effectively costs nothing to produce.”
Murray Gray, the scientific director for the Center for Oil Sands Innovation at the University of Alberta, said that about two years ago, Alberta backed away from plans to use the petroleum coke as a fuel source, partly over concerns about greenhouse-gas emissions. Some of it is burned there, however, to power coking plants.  
In a nutshell, when we export Athabasca bitumen part of the package includes super cheap and super dirty petroleum coke that can only be flogged to the sort of overseas buyers who don't have qualms about burning it.  And, naturally, it's got big appeal to Charlie and David Coke er, Koch. 

 And what about the leftover coke? The Environmental Protection Agency will no longer allow any new licenses permitting the burning of petroleum coke in the United States. But D. Mark Routt, a staff energy consultant at KBC Advanced Technologies in Houston, said that overseas companies saw it as a cheap alternative to low-grade coal. In China, it is used to generate electricity, adding to that country’s air-quality problems. There is also strong demand from India and Latin America for American petroleum coke, where it mainly fuels cement-making kilns.
“I’m not making a value statement, but it comes down to emission controls,” Mr. Routt said. “Other people don’t seem to have a problem, which is why it is going to Mexico, which is why it is going to China.”
Oh, Mr. Routt, you're making a statement all right, a clear statement about the people who are trafficking in petroleum coke and the petro-pols who would rather this little problem not be raised. 

Breath-taking beauty of the nature.

Mr. Ford, your accusation of a vendetta is, to use your word, ridiculous. Toronto is entitled to straight answers to straight questions, and here are a few being asked in your city right now over this holiday weekend:

• Do you understand why this damning videotape requires a proper and thoughtful explanation?
• Have you ever smoked crack cocaine?
• How well do you know the men in the photograph that appeared on Friday’s front page? Did you know the man who was subsequently shot dead?
• Did you refer to Justin Trudeau by a homosexual slur?
• Did you refer to your football team as f------ minorities?
• Will you call for a police investigation into these latest allegations?

So many questions. No real answers.

In what has become a long list of questionable incidents involving your behaviour, does it ever occur to you that you have a problem and it isn’t the Toronto Star?Source here.


So to sum up: A decades-long record of fuckups, vulgarity, buffoonery, drunkenness, ignorance, racism, homophobia, entitlement, laziness, lawlessness, denials, lies, avoidance, playing the victim, blaming other people, paranoia, and above all, Zero Effort to Take Responsibility For His Own Behaviour. And then we have a substantial proportion of the electorate who excuse, identify with, and enable this, and even see it as evidence of leadership ability.

To paraphrase Michael Cooke: Does it ever occur to you, Toronto, that you have a bigger problem, and it isn't Mayor Crackhead?

Related posts:

• @ThomsonTO fires back at @TOMayorFord. Cue flying-monkey / Sun "reader" attack | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid plays grabass with @ThomsonTO. Fuckwits rush to excuse it | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid on the Danzig shootings
• The downtown/suburban divide and its fetid offshoots
• Rob Ford's mayoral trajectory | #TOpoli
• Mayor Stupid makes @KeithOlbermann's list ... AGAIN (h/t @OccupyTO)
• @TOMayorFord puts Toronto on @KeithOlbermann 's map
• So Mayor Stupid takes one in the nads on the waterfront ...
• @cityslikr on Team Ford's bullshit, and our complicity therein | #TOpoli
• Team Ford's malignancy: It's not just the Jarvis bike lanes | #TOpoli #bikeTO

The giant accounting firm, Deloitte, was retained to conduct a forensic audit of the expenses claimed by specific senators.   In three cases there were questions of whether the individuals were in fact entitled to the extra housing allowance the senate provides to members not from Ottawa and environs.

And then, because her travel expenses seemed out of line, they also looked into the spending/reiumbursement of senator Pam Wallin of Wadena, Saskatchewan.

Something happened yesterday that raises new questions - this time concerning the auditor, Deloitte, in its audit of Pam Wallin.

It began when Pam Wallin announced she was temporarily "recusing" herself from the Conservative caucus.  That fell apart when CTV reported that she didn't jump, she was pushed, by the Prime Minister's Office after Harper officials had reviewed the preliminary audit into Wallin's expenses.

That one little detail speaks volumes.  Just what was Deloitte doing feeding preliminary audit results directly to Information Control Central, the PMO, if, as the CTV report suggests, that's what actually happened?

This certainly raises the appearance that the audit process is being manipulated for spin control purposes - the prime minister gets to see the results and cull the herd long  before the public or the opposition gets a whiff of what's coming.   And if that is in fact what's going on, surely Deloitte has become co-opted into the partisan political process of the PMO which raises questions about the integrity of the audit itself and what else Deloitte has been up to in the course of its investigations.

Stephen Harper is renowned as a control freak and he's shown that he's obsessed with maintaining an iron grip on information in all aspects.

The public needs to know if Deloitte was independent of the government in these audits as claimed.

So many questions.  Did the independent auditor give the PMO a sneak preview of Mike Duffy's political urine test results too?  Did the auditor, deliberately or inadvertently, help the prime minister and his staff shape their now failed plans to simply slip Duffy a cheque to make this all go away?  Has Deloitte been an insider all along?

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Not surprisingly, plenty of commentators have weighed in on the latest set of Senate scandals engulfing Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, Nigel Wright and Stephen Harper among others. Diane Francis takes the opportunity to point out that the Senate is an institutional anachronism (a point with which I of course agree). Murray Mandryk notes that the Cons' story involves the belief that their clan can do no wrong, Chantal Hebert sees the Cons having simply changed the party name in the Liberal culture of entitlement they once claimed to despise, while Andrew Coyne views the latest incidents as an example of the Cons' general distaste for audits and other accountability mechanisms. And Tabatha Southey nicely details just how many laughable claims one would have to believe in order to take the Cons' side in defending their Senate abuses.

- Meanwhile, Aaron Wherry points out that as far as Jim Flaherty is concerned, expensive, publicly-funded self-promotion is the new accountability.

- Don Lenihan theorizes that the Cons would be well-positioned to create a sustainable development charter if they wanted to. But "if they wanted to" is a rather important qualification - particularly given that they seem to have put J. Wellington Wimpy in charge of the sales pitch for environmental action ("I'd gladly regulate them next decade for an increase in profits today!")

- Nathan VanderKlippe writes that TransCanada has roughly matched the Cons' level of interest in dealing constructively with anybody who raises concerns about pipelines - which serves as one of the main reasons why it's run into so much opposition. And Esther Hsieh contrasts the massive public benefits provided by Norway's resource development plan against the glaring lack of a development strategy in Canada.

- Jason Kenney makes it abundantly clear that family-class immigrants in less-than-wealthy families aren't welcome in his country - singling out for particular scorn anybody who "(goes) back to being poor" after being joined by family in Canada.

- Finally, Robyn Benson makes the case for engagement - on whatever level possible - as a key to reaching positive outcomes within unions and other organizations.

[Edit: fixed wording.]

Here is Rex Murphy holding forth on the current 'troubles' in Ottawa:

Or how about this from Margaret Wente? I do so love it when the right starts eating their young.Recommend this Post

Following the news that Pamela Wallin has resigned from the Conservative caucus, Andrew Coyne takes a hard look at the Mike Duffy fiasco:

So Duffy’s behaviour is not the issue. The issue is the culture that enabled it. The Tories may find it expedient to disown him now, but it wasn’t five minutes ago they were cheering him to the rafters, inviting him to campaign in their ridings and defending him in public, long after his misconduct was known. Expelling him from caucus at this late date changes nothing. The time to discipline him was when when he was first caught out, not after every alternative had been exhausted. Indeed, he should never have been appointed, if for no other reason than that he was legally ineligible: to be the senator from PEI, you have to be from PEI.
The Harperites went to great lengths to protect Duffy. They offered Patrick Brazeau no such protection. The question -- the elephant in the room -- is Why?

The revelations of recent days suggest one reason: because of the sorts of things the auditors were likely to uncover, had they been allowed to do their work. And, perhaps, because of the many other rocks that might be overturned as a result: for example, Duffy’s alleged lobbying on behalf of Sun News. (Who was the “Conservative insider with connections to the CRTC” Duffy is reported to have approached? What could possibly have led him to believe his efforts to influence a quasi-judicial tribunal would be fruitful? Did he do this entirely on his own? Unprompted? Unpaid?)
Duffy was a Conservative Party operative on the public payroll. He wasn't the first. And the problem certainly extends to senators  from other parties. But this party -- this government  -- came to office railing against the corruption in the House of Sober Second Thought and in government in general. Rather than insisting on accountability, the Harperites have hopped on the bandwagon. Michael Harris  reminded us of the numbers last week: "By October 2015, 62 per cent of the 105-member Senate will have been appointed by Stephen Harper."

And Harris simply stated the obvious this week. Mike Duffy may be gone. But Stephen Harper is the one who should be roasted. It is he who drives the current culture of entitlement.

Wherever you went in Toronto today you couldn't get away from Rob Ford.

Everybody was talking about him eh?

Wondering whether he's a crack head, or just plain crazy.

So I wasn't really surprised to find him waiting for me on my way home.

And as I stared at this ghastly apparition, I could almost hear him screaming " Somebody get me that !@#!! TAPE.
Read more »

Earlier today, Harper-appointed senator Pam Wallin purported to "recuse" herself from the Conservative caucus pending the outcome of a forensic audit into her expenses.

Nice try, Pam.  According to CTV, Pam actually did the "PMO Perp Walk."   She didn't so much leave as she was shown the door after Harper's big guns got a gander at the preliminary audit report.

Nice of the "independent" auditors to give Harper the heads up, no?

"...a source told CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife that the audit has already raised serious questions about Wallin’s spending, which involves hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Insiders told Fife that Wallin repaid $25,000 before the forensic audit began. She has since returned about $15,000 more to taxpayers, but sources say she will likely have to give more money back.
As the controversy over senate expenses grows, Fife reported there’s word Prime Minister Stephen Harper may prorogue Parliament in early June.

Yes, of course, Steve.   When the going gets ugly shut down Parliament and lay low until the heat dies.

Wallin, the darling of her hometown of Wadena, Saskatchewan, gave yoeman service to Harper for a good while before she earned her berth in the upper bunk.   She seemed to get a taste for the high life when Jean Chretien had her appointed Canada's consul-general in the Big Apple.  It has been reported she maintains residences in Ottawa, New York, Toronto and, of course, Wasilla, er Wadena.

By the way, if you're cruising through Wadena, be sure to have your picture taken at the Pam Wallin Drive street sign.   You'll have no problem finding it.  Just look for the town stop sign.  You can't miss it.


And if you simply cannot get enough of the Senate Mardi Gras fete, Coyne has a dandy wrap up today.

Damien S - Stars Collide (Timothy Allan Remix)

I would like to thank everyone for the remarkable and surprising support. It is heartening. Rather ironic to stop posting on the very week in which occurs what is arguably the biggest (as in most public) ethical scandal to clearly involve the Prime Minister.

Anyway, for a while I am going to turn my attentions away from politics and to one of my other interests, literature. I am going to start a new blog entitled Footnotes; Adventures in 19th Century Literature. You can see it here. Please visit me there if you have literary interests. (I hope to start posting at the end of the weekend) Well, Marx retreated into the British Museum after the disappointing events of 1848. I am no Marx and my personal library pales in comparison to the British Museum but it will be my own small retreat.

I have two books that I am just finishing on 19th century literature  one is about Mary and Charles Lamb and the other is a biography of Mary Mitford. But I hope to use my new blog to develop ideas for a longterm project on the large tapestry of interconnected friendship that existed between the authors of the English Romantic period. It is something I have been working on little by little over the past few years and I will continue to explore on my blog as the project slowly coalesces.

As for politics, I am sure I will explode back into this more political blog sometime in the not too distant future.

Thanks again for all the support.

The previous night, when we finally found the hotel, I asked about tickets to the Alhambra. We had read in the guidebook that only a certain number of tickets are issued for every entrance time, and going up there without tickets is not advised. As it turns out, every hotel in town has a certain number of tickets they can sell to guests. The hotel's computer showed how many tickets were available for each hour. We purposely booked late in the day, both to avoid massive crowds and to give ourselves a break. Our friend at the desk also gave us detailed instructions on how to collect our tickets - very necessary.

We had breakfast at the hotel's little cafe area. There's only wireless internet in the lobby and cafe, not in the rooms (often the case in this country, we see from listings), so we took my netbook and spent some time trying to book a hotel room in Cordoba, our next stop. There was nothing. Absolutely no rooms available, except in very high-end places, well beyond our budget and our desires. Completely stumped, we asked at our hotel desk and learned there is a huge festival in Cordoba this weekend and all through next week.

We decided we'd rather stay in another town and drive into Cordoba than spend a lot of money for an expensive room that we don't even want. We found some towns to try, but we had already spent more time at the computer than we wanted, and we quit for the time being. I realized we hadn't eaten anything but bread or cookies in way too long, so we found a place in the neighbourhood to have a nice lunch.

The area where we're staying is beautiful (as long as you're not driving!) - narrow winding cobblestone streets, white-washed buildings with red roofs climbing hills, many streets with steps, for foot-traffic only. There are a few touristy places but mostly it's a local neighbourhood. After a time, we took a local bus to the Alhambra. It's only 10 minutes by bus or taxi, but all uphill - steep hills that afford beautiful views.

At the Alhambra, we had to queue up to present our documents in order to get our tickets. Many tourists were incensed that, even though they had booked ahead, they still had to wait. From our experience on this trip, I will say that the stereotype of "the ugly American" is alive and well in France, Italy, Germany, Australia, Japan, and the UK. We have seen almost no Americans, but have seen a lot of ugly-acting tourists.

In any case, the wait was very brief, but the system at La Alhambra is a bit bizarre. To get your tickets, you must present your passport, plus a letter that the hotel prints out verifying that they booked for you, plus the credit card you used to pay for the tickets. I understand using the credit card, but why the passport and why the hotel letter? They scrutinized and double-checked everything before issuing the tickets, and they check the tickets with scanners at several access points along the way. No idea what's up with that.

The Alhambra sits on a large hill with commanding views of the valleys below, and consists of several different buildings. The Generalife (pronounced "hen-er-ahl-lee-fay") was like a hangout and pleasure spot for the ruling Islamic dynasty. It has beautiful views and nice gardens. I'm not much for gardens, and these were added in the 20th century anyway, so it was a bit underwhelming in my opinion. The views of the valleys - all the houses with the red-tiled rooves, churches and cathedrals - was really nice.

We walked around and saw the grounds until it was time for our admittance to the Nasrid Palace. That's the main attraction, and the area for which you buy your tickets. This is an elaborately decorated Islamic palace. I love the Islamic decorative style - the repetition of interlocking geometric designs - and this was the first time I had seen any in person, outside of a museum. As you walk through the palace, the decoration in the rooms become increasingly elaborate, patterns forming horizontal bands around the room - tile on the bottom, stonework above, inlaid woodwork on the ceilings. Much of it is very intricate, surrounding you on all sides and above, creating an almost dizzying effect. There's a courtyard with a fountain that's very famous, and some other courtyards where with orange trees - currently loaded with oranges.

Much of the decoration is restored to its original splendor, after first being allowed to fall into disrepair, then "re-discovered" by the American writer Washington Irving, and subsequently being badly restored by clumsy 19th century efforts. The intricate stonework is incredible. I find the repetition of the geometric shapes so satisfying. It feels related to my love of cubism and many modernists. Walking through the Nasrid Palace in the Alhambra, I started thinking, hmmm, we should go to
Istambul... The Alhambra's wikipedia page has a good overview and some key photographs of the royal complex.

After the palace, we walked through and around the giant fortress that sits on the highest point of the hill. It's impressive in its size and sheer mass. The Alhambra site also contains the Palacio de Carlos V (Palace of Charles V), built in the 1490s, celebrating Catholic Spain's takeover of the site. It's an imperial monstrosity, completely incongruous with the graceful beauty of the rest of the architecture. It does make its point, though.

All in all, the whole site is very impressive and totally unique in my own experience. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage site, our third or maybe fourth of the trip. We both enjoyed it a lot. And one bonus of our long driving day - our feet were well rested! This helped make the day even more enjoyable.

The weather was changeable all day, alternating between bright blue skies and cold drizzle. (It's supposed to be much warmer this time of year, usually around 19 or 20 C, but now around 15 C. Fine with me!) From the fortress, we could see very dark storm clouds rolling in. We had just finished our walk and entered the gift shop when it started to pour. Excellent timing! We waited out the storm in the gift shop, then jumped in a cab for a quick ride to the hotel. Allan is collecting bookmarks at most of our stops. I love the idea of these inexpensive little mementos that will follow him around in his books.

Back at the hotel, we did more hotel research, finally booking a room in a town called Zuheros, about an hour outside Cordoba. It sounds like a little rural spot.

Looking for a place for dinner, we noticed a joint a few doors down called... La Tala! Yay! A restaurant named after my little girl. Of course we had to go there. As I asked for a table, the host said, "Ah, you want to watch the football?" Sure, why not?! Allan and I have a fine tradition of watching local sporting events in pubs and cafes. In Ireland, I fell in love with rugby. I'm not much for football (soccer), but that's hardly the point. Real Madrid was playing Madrid Atletico, I gather a Goliath vs David match-up. A huge group in matching t-shirts ("Bienvenido al lado oscuro" - Darth Vader meets soccer?) was getting ready to watch the game together.

Our guidebook tells us that Granada is one of the few places that keeps the old Spanish tradition of serving a free tapa with a drink. At La Tala, you choose your free tapa or pincho (spelled in Spanish here, not the basque pintxo) from a long list. They didn't have sangria, but served something called vino verano - summer wine - which tasted like sangria without the fruit. With our second drink, another round of free tapa. We also ordered some tapas, which you are strongly encouraged to do, but with every drink came more freebies. There was actually too much food! We had: marinated mussels - big meaty mussels marinated like herring or sardines, served dry, and you put them on bread or toasts, potato croquettes, mini hamburgers, and some serrano ham. The score was tied 1-1 when we left, but back in our room we saw ATM score for the 2-1 win.

Next we are off for the town of Ronda. We've tweaked our itinerary event, which I'll explain in my next post. Thank you for reading!

...but he is losing some gas now and stinking up the Senate.

Many politically active people in BC are grieving right now and there is much angst and blame being laid.  I personally have experienced this process and will be for some time to come, well, probably for the rest of my life.

 

I’m not sure which stage I’m in today yet, but I have . . . → Read More: Grief, Blame and Anger

If you've spent any time in grizzly territory, chances are you have wondered at some point what it might be like if you found yourself face to face with the big brown bear.  Wonder no more.

Crews filming The Great Bear StakeOut had a Go-Pro camera attached to a rock, hoping to catch some grizzly video.   The bear, and her cub, thought it looked tasty.   So here, for your weekend amusement, is what you never, ever want to see in person.



Now it's been a real bitch of a week and so I think I'll take my leave.  Have a great holiday weekend everyone.  Next week is bound to be better.

It's official.  The United States of America is a permanent warfare state.   Perhaps now the country should adopt the flag Mark Twain designed for this very occasion. 

At a Senate hearing this week, Michael Sheehan, assistant secretary of defense for special operations, testified that the American war on al Qaeda will go on for at least another 10 to 20-years, minimum.  That pretty much is what you call the "foreseeable future" and that then marks the explicit recognition of America as the world's one and only permanent warfare state.

Last October, senior Obama officials anonymously unveiled to the Washington Post their newly minted "disposition matrix", a complex computer system that will be used to determine how a terrorist suspect will be "disposed of": indefinite detention, prosecution in a real court, assassination-by-CIA-drones, etc. Their rationale for why this was needed now, a full 12 years after the 9/11 attack:

Among senior Obama administration officials, there is a broad consensus that such operations are likely to be extended at least another decade. Given the way al-Qaida continues to metastasize, some officials said no clear end is in sight. . . . That timeline suggests that the United States has reached only the midpoint of what was once known as the global war on terrorism."

This happily serves America's healthiest industry, its military/industrial/commercial warfighting complex.   This has to be music to their ears with the knowledge that al Qaeda-type groups will form a lovely bridge while they're waiting for a more direct and lucrative confrontation engagement with China.

...military historian Andrew Bacevich has spent years warning that US policy planners have adopted an explicit doctrine of "endless war". (Read more on Bacevich's warning on this blog here, and here, and here.) Obama officials, despite repeatedly boasting that they have delivered permanently crippling blows to al-Qaida, are now, as clearly as the English language permits, openly declaring this to be so.

Greenwald sums it up perfectly.  Heed his warning and those of Bacevich linked above because Canada is going to get sucked into this, especially on China.


It is hard to resist the conclusion that this war has no purpose other than its own eternal perpetuation. This war is not a means to any end but rather is the end in itself. Not only is it the end itself, but it is also its own fuel: it is precisely this endless war - justified in the name of stopping the threat of terrorism - that is the single greatest cause of that threat.

...the "war on terror" cannot and will not end on its own for two reasons: (1) it is designed by its very terms to be permanent, incapable of ending, since the war itself ironically ensures that there will never come a time when people stop wanting to bring violence back to the US (the operational definition of "terrorism"), and (2) the nation's most powerful political and economic factions reap a bonanza of benefits from its continuation. 

Though rarely visible, the costs are nonetheless gargantuan. Just in financial terms, as Americans are told they must sacrifice Social Security and Medicare benefits and place their children in a crumbling educational system, the Pentagon remains the world's largest employer and continues to militarily outspend the rest of the world by a significant margin.


Then there are the threats to Americans' security. Having their government spend decades proudly touting itself as "A Nation at War" and bringing horrific violence to the world is certain to prompt more and more people to want to attack Americans 


And then there's the most intangible yet most significant cost: each year of endless war that passes further normalizes the endless rights erosions justified in its name. The second term of the Bush administration and first five years of the Obama presidency have been devoted to codifying and institutionalizing the vast and unchecked powers that are typically vested in leaders in the name of war. Those powers of secrecy, indefinite detention, mass surveillance, and due-process-free assassination are not going anywhere. They are now permanent fixtures not only in the US political system but, worse, in American political culture. 

Greenwald, Bacevich, Chalmers Johnson, Chomsky and many others have microscopically dissected this madness and revealed it to be a self-fulfilling prophesy not of conflict and triumph but of self-inflicted defeat, democratic collapse and economic ruin (except for the few running this fiendish plan).  This is also where fascism is birthed and nurtured and muscled.   We have to stop believing this couldn't happen to us.  It already is.

In today's Guardian, another look at the lengths the Harper regime goes to crush dissent, especially informed dissent, in Canada.  Another shameful black mark on Canada's international reputation, courtesy of our prime ministerial bully and his thuggish minions.

This story is about enviro-artist Franke James and how she was targeted by the Harper machine - even as far away as Croatia - because of her views on climate change and outspoken opposition to the Tar Sands.


I won't go through the disgusting details.   Follow the link if you want to read it for yourself.