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Credit Card Thieves Latest Tool to Steal Info: Skimmers

Authorities say thieves have been caught using the theft device at ATMs, gas pumps and restaurants.
5:22 | 07/23/14

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Transcript for Credit Card Thieves Latest Tool to Steal Info: Skimmers
Test Text1 plain Tonight a high-tech scam that is increasingly common, incredibly easy to pull off, and could be inflicted upon you by the friendly face at your local gas station or fast food check-out counter. Police are now turning to an unlikely source to bust these bandits. And here's ABC's Rebecca Jarvis with another look at skimming. Reporter: He may look like an ordinary McDonald's drive-thru attendant. But he's actually a brazen credit card thief caught on tape. I would have never pointed my finger at the drive-thru because you're sitting right there. You're watching them use your card. Reporter: Let's see that again. He's swiping an unsuspecting customer's credit card not once but twice. First the legitimate charge for the food. Then again on a separate device called a skimmer that allows crooks to steal your credit card info from right under your nose. A lesson Richard Norris learned the hard way. He had gotten me three different times. Reporter: He had never given much thought to his morning ritual stopping at McDonald's -- May help you? Reporter: -- For his guilty pleasure. Can I have a large sweet tea, please? Reporter: Until he and his wife noticed mysterious charges popping up on all three of their credit cards. So he was able to skim all three cards at the same location. Reporter: Those golden arches. When the cops checked the security camera, paydirt. They actually were able to catch the individual sliding the card and then grabbing the receipt and handing it to me all in one nice movement. You'd never know that he was doing anything wrong. Reporter: This unabashed face-to-face banditry is more common than you think, and it's not just restaurants. From atms to gas stations, wherever you swipe, criminals could be cashing in. Just ask detective Jeffrey Marshall of the Nassau county police department in New York. Little device. That little device. Could fit in the palm of your hand. You never see it. In the pocket. And the waitress's apron. You don't know. Reporter: These days some electronic skimmers are so advanced that they don't even need a human to operate. He takes the device out of the backpack. Reporter: Detective Marshall showed thus video of a crook modifying an atm inside a convenience store. Watch as he places a fake card slot that contains a skimmer over the real one. In four seconds he has it attached. Wow. Reporter: But he's not done. He then adds a tiny camera to catch you entering your pin. You'd use this atm and that cheat has enough Intel to shop with your credit card and make cash withdrawals straight from your account. This is the skimming device, right here. Yes. Reporter: A scam so easy to pull off detective Marshall let me try it for myself with the deactivated skimmer he confiscated. If I were a criminal and I walked up, this is all I would have to do? Yep. Reporter: Of course we removed the device immediately. So how do the cops stay ahead of the high-tech crook curve? Turns out they're getting help from an unlikely source. The atm cashing was the easiest and best way to make money. And I was making thousands of dollars a day in cash doing that. Reporter: Dan dephillippe is a reformed credit card hacker who got busted and switched sides to avoid prison time. He spent two years training agents in the dark art of skimming. Dephillippe's favorite target -- gas stations. Installing gadgets like this one inside the pump. So this is the reader that would be inside the gas pump. So you would just swipe it through and it would read it right here. Nobody would know the difference. Reporter: When investigators at the Arizona department of weights and measures -- We're here checking for skimming devices. Reporter: -- Found a skimmer inside this gas pump, they decided to fight fire with fire. We inserted one of these little nightvision spy cams in the back of the dispenser. Reporter: And bingo. Here's the view from that camera inside. Apparently showing a man and a woman team caught red-handed. What we have here, we have the guy. And I have the missus. Reporter: They start bickering when they can't find any of their devices. It's almost like a husband and wife team arguing about wherever their skimmer is because somebody got it. And that was us. We got it. Reporter: Law enforcement is still on the hunt for Mr. And Mrs. Skimmer. But in the meantime there are some things you can and should do to protect your digits. If you're fueling up choose a pump near the attendant. Crooks prefer to operate in the shadows. Or you can always pay in cash. At the atm give the machine a good look. If anything appears off, keep on walking. And always remember to cover your hand when you enter your pin. Lastly, no matter where you are, check your account. A lot. Once you report a fraudulent charge, the law says you have no responsibility for paying charges you didn't make. It worked for Richard Norris back in Florida. Thanks to his careful monitoring, that McDonald's drive-thru attendant pled guilty and got two years probation. And Norris still heads to McDonald's every morning for his sweet tea fix. Thank you. Have a nice day. Reporter: For "Nightline" I'm Rebecca Jarvis in Westbury, new York.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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White House Says Daschle's Tax Failure Was a 'Serious Mistake'

After a closed-door session before the Senate Finance Committee this evening, embattled Health and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle apologized and said his failure to pay taxes was unintentional.

"I deeply apologize to President Obama, to my colleagues and the American people," Daschle said. "I would hope that my mistake could be viewed in the context of 30 years of public service."

The failure by the former Senate majority leader to pay taxes on the free use of a car and driver for several years, first reported Friday by ABC News, complicates Daschle's nomination and erodes the chances that it will sail through the Senate.

Daschle said tonight he did not realize his car service was income and not a gift from a good friend.

After the closed-door session, the Democratic senators on the Finance Committee expressed support en masse for their former colleague.

"There is a completely understandable, rational, reasonable and acceptable explanation" for his mistakes," Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said.

Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said that everything discovered so far was discovered by Daschle himself. "None of it was intentional, none of it willful," Rockefeller said.

The White House today called Daschle's failure to pay more than $100,000 in back taxes a "serious mistake," but the president still "absolutely" supports his nomination to be secretary of Health and Human Services.

In a letter to Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and ranking Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, Daschle said he was "deeply embarrassed" and offered up a timeline to explain how he had overlooked taxes on more than $300,000 worth of income he gained through consulting work, including the use of a car and driver.

"I apologize for the errors and profoundly regret that you have had to devote time to them," Daschle wrote.

Baucus issued a statement voicing his support for his former colleague, with whom he has tangled in the past, and said he is eager to move forward with the nomination.

"I have applauded Sen. Daschle's nomination to the post of HHS secretary and my faith in his dedication and qualifications has only been bolstered in recent weeks by our numerous conversations about the pressing need for comprehensive health care reform," the statement from Baucus read.

At the White House, Obama expressed his unequivocal support for his choice to head HHS.

"Absolutely," Obama said today in the Oval Office when asked whether he still supports Daschle.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later said that Daschle's failure to pay the taxes was a "serious mistake, one that he caught and remedied. We still think that he is the best person to do health care reform."

A Cadillac and a Driver Lead to Tax Problems

The tax issue centers around a car and driver lent to Daschle by a wealthy Democratic friend, a chauffeur service the former senator used for years without declaring its use on his taxes.

After being defeated in his 2004 re-election campaign to the Senate, Daschle in 2005 became a consultant and chairman of the executive advisory board at InterMedia Advisors.

Based in New York City, InterMedia Advisors is a private equity firm founded in part by longtime Daschle friend and Democratic fundraiser Leo Hindery, the former president of the YES cable TV network that carries Yankees baseball and Devils hockey games. The same year he began his professional relationship with InterMedia 2005, Daschle began using the services of Hindery's car and driver.

The Cadillac and driver were never part of Daschle's official compensation package at InterMedia, but Daschle -- who as Senate majority leader enjoyed the use of a car and driver at taxpayer expense -- didn't declare their services on his income taxes, as tax laws require.

During the vetting process to become HHS Secretary, Daschle corrected the tax violation, voluntarily paying $101,943 in back taxes plus interest, working with his accountant to amend his tax returns for 2005 through 2007. Daschle reimbursed the IRS $31,462 in taxes and interest for tax year 2005; $35,546 for 2006; and $34,935, Daschle spokesperson Jenny Backus said.

Daschle explained in his apology letter that the issue of the unpaid taxes for the car and driver came up after the presidential transition team flagged charitable contributions they said were deducted in error.

"When my accountant realized I would need to file amended returns, he suggested addressing another matter I had raised with him earlier in the year: whether the use of a car service offered to me by a close friend might be a tax issue," Daschle wrote. "In December, my accountant advised me that it should be reported as imputed income in the amended returns."

Backus explained that the car was not provided as part of his compensation. "So it never occurred to him that it should be considered income. The senator simply and probably naively considered its use a generous offer by a longtime friend."

Daschle Faces Tax Questions

According to a source close to Daschle, the former senator asked his accountant in June 2008 to look into whether there were tax implications for the car and driver he'd been using.

Daschle said in his letter that he has been transparent since these issues were discovered.

"We provided all this information to the committee in addition to the completed committee questionnaire and my responses to your staff's questions. I disclosed this information to the committee voluntarily, and paid the taxes and any interest owed promptly. My mistakes were unintentional," he wrote.

This is the second Obama Cabinet nominee to face questions of tax malfeasance. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner paid more than $34,000 in taxes during his vetting process for income earned at the International Monetary Fund. Earlier, Commerce Secretary nominee Bill Richardson withdrew his name from consideration after reports of a federal investigation involving whether his office had engaged in pay to play, an allegation the New Mexico governor denied.

Daschle has long been one of Obama's closest advisers and was one of the early supporters for his presidential bid. The former Democratic leader was officially nominated for HHS secretary Dec. 11, 2008.

ABC News' Sunlen Miller contributed to this report.

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Sarah Palin Says She Isn't Responsible for the GOP's Loss

Sarah Palin speaks with Oprah WinfreyABC News
Former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin speaks today with Oprah Winfrey, discussing the campaign, her family and Levi Johnston.

On the eve of the release of her new book, Sarah Palin reiterated in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that she's not to blame for the Republican Party's loss in the 2008 presidential election.

"I think the reason we lost is that the economy tanked under a Republican and people were very seriously looking for a change," Palin said today on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

"I don't think I was to blame for losing the race more than I could have been credited for winning the race if I had done a better job."

Palin, whose book, "Going Rogue: An American Life," hits bookstores Tuesday, spoke candidly with Winfrey about the way she says she was told to act and speak during the campaign and the effect it had on her family.

Having been given flashcards to prepare her for the debates, the vice presidential candidate told Winfrey, one side of the card would have a question and the other side would have a series of "non-answers."

Watch Barbara Walters' interview with Sarah Palin starting Tuesday on "Good Morning America", "World News" and "Nightline", more Wednesday on "Good Morning America," and the full interview on "20/20" Friday, Nov. 20 at 10 p.m. ET.

"If I were to respond to a reporter's question very candidly, very honestly … I'd be told afterwards that 'you screwed up,'" Palin said.

Palin said she liked having her clothes laid out for her during the campaign because it was "one less thing to worry about," adding, however, that there were times, particularly before her family appeared at the Republican National Convention, when she felt as though she were on the popular makeover show "What Not to Wear."

Also questioned about what she was told to eat during the campaign, Palin said she found it strange that campaign operatives talked to her about sticking to the Atkins diet at the same time the McCain-Palin numbers were tanking.

Couric Wore the 'Annoyance on Her Sleeve'

Referring to CBS' Katie Couric as "the perky one with the microphone," the former Alaska governor said she didn't' blame the U.S. public for thinking she was ill prepared for the vice presidential post after seeing her interview with Couric.

"It was supposed to be kind of a light-hearted, fun [interview]," Palin said. "If people only know me from that interview, I don't blame them for thinking I'm not qualified.

"I think that [Couric's] agenda was to not necessarily show me in the best light and not allow my mistake, my gaffe to go uncaught," said Palin, who flubbed Couric's question about which newspapers, books or magazines she read regularly.

Admitting that she had been annoyed with Couric's "badgering" and had even rolled her eyes at times, Palin, 45, said it was unprofessional of her to wear that "annoyance on her sleeve."

The first time Palin said she realized the McCain camp would control a lot of what she wanted to say was when news broke that daughter Bristol, then 17, was pregnant.

While Palin wanted to send a message that did not glamorize the issue of teen pregnancy, she said, she had little control over the final media statement, one Palin describes as suggesting that she and her husband, Todd Palin, were "giddy, happy" to become grandparents.

Palin described a call she received from Bristol, in tears and embarrassed that news of her pregnancy had become a "top news story."

Palin was reluctant to discuss Levi Johnston, the father of her now nearly 1-year-old grandson, Tripp, saying to Winfrey, "I don't think a national television show is the place to discuss [him]."

Joking that she hears Johnston goes by the name "Ricky Hollywood" now, Palins said that his preparing for a nude appearance in Playgirl magazine -- as "heartbreaking."

"He's on a road that isn't a healthy place to be," Palin said, adding that Johnston is "quite busy with his media tours and he hasn't seen the baby in awhile."

Johnston Invited to Dinner With the Palins

Pressed by Winfrey about the family's plans for Thanksgiving, Palin extended an "open invitation for Levi" to join them for the holiday.

Winfrey also addressed last year's rumors accusing her of snubbing the then-vice presidential nominee and not inviting her to be a guest on her show, a move many of her fans disapproved of at the time.

"What really happened was for the first time in my life I decided to publicly support a candidate and because of that I had made a decision to not have any of the candidates on my show during the campaign and so, for the record, Sarah Palin never asked to be on the show," Winfrey said.

At the time, Palin added, she was unaware of the controversy and had only heard about it in recent weeks. Back then, she said, Winfrey's show "wasn't the center of my universe."

Having resigned from her post as governor in July, Palin was asked by Winfrey what prompted her decision to leave office and whether it was a move calculated to pave the way for the 2012 presidential election.

"I resigned as governor of Alaska because I wasn't going to run for a second term," Palin said.

Asked why she didn't "finish what she started," Palin said, "Alaska was being hampered by my presence there."

Unwilling to entertain discussions about the 2012 election, Palin said she's only thinking about 2010, and that running for president is not on her "radar screen" right now.

"You don't need a title to make a difference," Palin said.


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Satanists Use Hobby Lobby Decision to Play Devil's Advocate

PHOTO: A Hobby Lobby store is seen in this June 30, 2014, file photo in Plantation, Fla.PlayJoe Raedle/Getty Images
WATCH Newt Gingrich: 'Hysteria' on Left on Hobby Lobby 'Unbelievable'

A group of Satanists are using the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision to promote their own political initiatives -- which are the polar opposite of the Christian craft store giant.

The Supreme Court ruling allows Hobby Lobby to opt out of providing contraceptives to employees on the basis of their religious beliefs. Now, The Satanic Temple plans to cite the verdict as justification for the protection of their own beliefs.

The Satanic Temple, a religious group based in New York but with followers across the country, is using the ruling to fight informed consent laws which mandate that women considering abortions must be given state-approved literature about the procedure.

Where they exist, informed consent laws differ by state, with some requiring women to watch videos or read information of varying amounts of time before scheduling their procedures.

Satanic Temple Monument in Okla. May Include ‘Interactive Display’ for Kids

Hobby Lobby Wins Contraceptive Ruling in Supreme Court

"We should only have to review medical or scientific information based solely on fact and not politicized," said Jex Blackmore, the head of the Detroit chapter of The Satanic Temple. "Some of that state-drafted information is medical in nature [but] it's just that it's written in a very biased format."

The group announced the initiative last week and have provided a form letter intended to enable women to opt-out of receiving the pamphlets distributed under the informed consent laws. They contend that the informed consent pamphlets run counter to their religious beliefs. Women are able to print off the opt-out form, fill it out and hand it to their doctor. If the doctor still gives them the state-mandated forms in spite of the letter, The Satanic Temple says it will file a lawsuit on their behalf.

Blackmore said they have not filed any such suits since the initiative was launched.

"It’s an opening statement, as it were," W. James MacNaughton, The Satanic Temple's attorney, told ABC. "It’s a statement from the patient to the physician and to the world at large that 'here’s my position, here's what i believe'. actually going to court and picking the test case actually depends on the facts. At this stage, we don't know who that will be."

The Satanic Temple remains a mystery to many but their spokesman Lucien Greaves told ABC News that they have gained 10,000 members in the past year and a half. They gained notoriety earlier this year when they pushed for a 7-foot Satanic statue to be approved to stand alongside a 10 Commandments monument at the Oklahoma State Capital. The statue is under construction.

PHOTO: The New York-based Satanic Temple plans to erect this statue of Satan on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma city. The Satanic Temple
The New York-based Satanic Temple plans to erect this statue of Satan on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma city.

Cardozo School of Law professor Marci Hamilton, who has written extensively about the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), said that The Satanic Temple's plan to use the Hobby Lobby ruling as the basis for their initiative could be effective if and when they bring a lawsuit to the courts.

"This was inevitable," Hamilton told ABC News. "This is following exactly on that line of thinking that a regulation that impedes the ability of the believer to practice that religion is going to be challenged."

She said that an important distinction to keep in mind is that both the Hobby Lobby decision and The Satanic Temple's initiative both rely on RFRA, which helps individuals fight laws that counter their religious beliefs, as opposed to the First Amendment of the Constitution.

RFRA was passed in 1993 and adds more protections than the Constitution lays out for religious freedom. A number of legal experts, including Hamilton, believe RFRA is unconstitutional. In her view, Hamilton believes RFRA caused "this wave of extreme religious liberty that is untethered from the constitution."

"For those of us who have been working on RFRA issues for two decades... inevitably it was going to be groups that raised claims that made either ordinary Americans or the far right find uncomfortable," Hamilton said.

When it comes to fighting any lawsuits that The Satanic Temple brings forward regarding informed consent laws, it appears that the devil is truly in the details.

"It really puts the conservative Christians and the anti-contraceptive Catholics in a bind: They're going to have to argue that a religious group should lose a RFRA claim that is on par with the Hobby Lobby claim," Hamilton said.

"The courts cant pick and choose between beliefs."


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Bold GMs highlight of Deadline Day

Wow. What a day.

Who among us woke up Thursday morning saying to ourselves, "I bet that by the end of the day, David Price will be a Tiger and Jon Lester will be in Oakland?"

Anyone? Not even Miss Cleo, right?

But that's what trade deadline day 2014 brought us:

Two first-place teams reaching for the stars, trying to "ace" each other out.

Two of the best general managers in the business finding two other bold, creative GMs to do business with.

And two teams with win-the-World Series dreams that suddenly, shockingly, used the trading-deadline madness to transform themselves, almost literally overnight.

"That was incredible," said one NL executive. "That was great drama."

Remember three weeks ago, when Billy Beane and the A's swooped in and traded for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel, and across the continent in Detroit, Justin Verlander's reaction was: "They made that trade for us?"

Well, there's no indication that when Dave Dombrowski and the Tigers answered the Lester deal by adding a third Cy Young winner to their ever-growing collection Thursday, they made that trade with the A's on their mind.

But we're allowed to think that way, whether it was on their mind or not. And even in other front offices, the admiration flowed at the sight of two sharp, visionary GMs doing their thing as well as it can be done.

"I tip my hat to Billy Beane," said another NL exec. "He's got a lot of guts to do what he did, and the same with Dave Dombrowski. You can't be scared if you're trying to win, and he's never scared. You utilize your scouting. You utilize your instincts. And you have to have the courage to make a move."

Beane did something in this deal that nobody I surveyed could ever remember: He was willing to trade away his cleanup hitter ( Yoenis Cespedes) because he had a chance to get Lester. Amazing.

"I never heard of that," said an official of one AL team. "Ever."

But if you doubted whether the A's had an October-ready rotation a month ago, um, you don't have to wonder anymore: Lester (with his 2.11 career postseason ERA and 0.43 World Series ERA) ... Sonny Gray (who gave up just three runs in 13 innings in two starts against Detroit last October) ... Scott Kazmir (with seven postseason starts under his belt and now roaring through a career year) ... and Samardzija (who was supposed to be this team's marquee addition and now might be its Game 4 starter).

"To have four guys like that," said one exec, "it will be really tough to top."

No doubt. Unless they run up against the Tigers again, that is.

Detroit, incredibly, can start last year's AL Cy Young winner ( Max Scherzer) in Game 1 and the previous year's Cy Young (Price) in Game 2 and then pitch the Cy Young from the year before that ( Justin Verlander) in Game 3. Hmmm, that'll work.

And, just so you know, only one team in history before this one -- the 1997  Braves -- has ever had the winner of the previous three Cy Young awards in its rotation at the same time. (That Braves team, by the way, had the winner of the previous six Cy Youngs on the payroll, but that's a Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz story for another time.)

As another AL exec observed, though, the Tigers also have last year's ERA champ ( Anibal Sanchez) to keep their Cy Youngs company, "so the manager's got some options," he laughed. "Let's put it that way."

The Tigers also left themselves a big hole by shipping off their center fielder, Austin Jackson, in this trade. And not many teams in go-for-it mode do that, either.

"But you know Oakland wasn't too thrilled giving up Cespedes in their deal," said one of the execs quoted earlier. "You've gotta do what you've gotta do."

Precisely. And that's what made these two trades so mesmerizing. How refreshing was it to run across two GMs who weren't looking for reasons not to do something? They got the right deal in their sights, then they found a way to work their magic. It was a clinic on trade-deadline shopping for the whole baseball world to see.

But now that we've got that out of the way, we've got a season to finish off. So let's get to the only questions about these two blockbusters that really matter:

Which of these two teams now has the better rotation? And which has the better team?

"I'm not sold on the third guy in Detroit, and by that I mean Verlander," said one of the NL execs quoted earlier. "But that said, I'll still take the Tigers. He's got history in October, and Samardzija really doesn't yet. So I'm going to take the experience."

"If Verlander gets going, they'll have a lights-out, lockdown rotation in Detroit," said another exec. "If everything sets up right, they'll be up 3-0 before the other team can take a deep breath -- even over Oakland. That pitching is going to shut down Oakland's offense."

On the other hand, you could easily argue the A's have the better lineup and bullpen now. But is that what wins in October?

Obviously, these two teams were telling us exactly what they think wins in October -- with the kind of trades they made on deadline day.

It was highly unusual, after all, to see both of them actually subtracting offense in these deals. Who does that, unless you're trading for the ultimate October difference-makers -- true, dominating, No. 1 starters?

"They don't have the same lineups today that they had yesterday," said one exec. "But it doesn't matter. In October, it's going to come down to pitching anyway."


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Oprah Winfrey Gives Lindsay Lohan Tough Love

The troubled star gets an earful on her bad behavior from the queen of talk.
3:00 | 03/06/14

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Transcript for Oprah Winfrey Gives Lindsay Lohan Tough Love
All right skinny -- and -- begin with a Major League smack down from Lindsay Lohan by none other than Oprah Winfrey -- -- happened during the filming of the new donkey series Lindsay fork over its network alone. This series features an unflinching moments with Lohan as she deals with recovery and fame. The two minute trailer for the series was released yesterday and it shows an honest. And brutal moment between Oprah and the actress after Winfrey heard about -- nonsense that Lindsay was pulling during the shoot. Why choose this that I -- you seem to want -- to win and you need to -- that is what you want. I'm okay with you know I'll tell these guys to pack up and lead to date Soul Asylum patient I didn't want him we need to come. This is -- so don't take. -- the series premiere is on home this Sunday night at some tough love. -- get the legal right you know it's gotten -- have had to you know at night we just can't -- this next story alone by now you've probably have heard John Travolta's. Massive mistake at the Oscars when he introduced it Dina -- Zell has something quite different. We want to make sure that I got it right. Hey can I mean that's what we are still scratching our heads about the little -- get to the story. Because we love this -- much publicity when my time. Please welcome that we should -- talented women and only a 101000. Calls that check out the fake playing over and and sells new show on Broadway shows her role is being played by none other then. And -- does he that we can we talent and no less in the biography section we learn that does he made her debut inert. -- -- only -- to speak for rent. -- -- received a Tony for her role in we did lean as opposed to weight gain the and it notes that disease voice can be heard in the Disney musical. -- think new yeah. Yes that of friends and sadly this. I didn't really go to Broadway audiences on the little joke amongst the -- well and I think that could be a collector's item right there. Ager named to a -- -- -- -- national network that. A lot of publicity really and I wanted to move -- to a movie that is sure to be a blockbuster hit this holiday season. It is a remake of -- but before you saying that marriage done that he can't see this trailer that movie star as. -- -- -- It's totally gets its name -- what men today wallet -- from -- pronouncing it she's a little girl from -- of the southern while -- wonder -- not there yet. They are -- but she started and -- Jamie Foxx. -- the -- -- tycoon and camera and he actually play the obsolete -- -- this -- -- check this out. -- having to inspect. That home -- that I think because he did -- are -- both be married George clean who joined. -- exactly girlfriend. Exactly. Don't practice -- this place is spotless and you. Are you -- -- need places could. -- Will this. Really gonna help crowd looks like a lot -- Jay-Z co produced and as well as. Update in the songs and little auto tune actions the only bad news we have to wait until Christmas to see it and opens December 19. To -- I hope that they didn't make all of the changes I would love to see Cameron -- -- singing little girls Myanmar and that didn't stop them are right. Not a single and some celebrities who were celebrating birthdays today Mary Wilson of the screen. Seven and director producer rapper. 87 today actor Tom Arnold fifty. -- -- Karen political commentator DR Healey celebrates his 51 birthday today. Actress -- in -- started -- ABC show national 47.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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text:
Doug Jones is projected winner in Alabama Senate race
Doug Jones is projected winner in Alabama Senate race

George Will: Gay Marriage Opposition Dying
PHOTO: ABC News George Will on This Week

(ABC News)

While Supreme Court watchers ponder how justices will come down in the debate over gay marriage, ABC's George Will said Sunday on ABC News " This Week" it's clear where public opinion is headed.

"There is something like an emerging consensus," Will said, noting voters in three states recently endorsed same-sex marriage initiatives. "Quite literally, the opposition to gay marriage is dying. It's old people."

Democratic strategist James Carville agreed the 2012 election marked a "profound" shift on the controversial issue.

"Look in Salt Lake City, the 12 Apostles. The Mormon Church after the election says, well, 'Maybe we're going to change our position on homosexuality is a choice. You're not born that way,'" he said. "I mean, the effects of an election reverberate all the way through society."

On the table is a case challenging Proposition 8, the hot-button 2008 California ballot measure restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples. The Court will also hear a challenge to a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said the Court's decision to take on gay marriage could have a major impact on upcoming elections.

"It's actually a positive [for Democrats]," Krugman said. "This is a significant bloc of voters that will make a decision based on which party they see as being favorable to equal rights."

But Republican strategist Mary Matalin said there are other issues at play.

"There are important constitutional, biological, theological, ontological questions relative to homosexual marriage, but people who live in the real world say the greatest threat to civil order is heterosexuals who don't get married and are making babies," Matalin said.

"That's an epidemic in crisis proportions. That is irrefutably more problematic for our culture than homosexuals getting married," she added.

Currently, gay marriage is legal in just nine states and in the District of Columbia - but polls suggest support is growing. A recent ABC News-Washington Post poll found 51 percent of Americans support gay marriage, while a recent Pew poll shows national support at 48 percent - up from 35 percent in 2001.

"To me, the consensus has already emerged on this issue," said ABC News' Matthew Dowd. "It's just a question of … is the Supreme Court going to catch up and follow that wind of the pack, or get ahead of it or put a block in the path of it?"

Watch George Will's comments here:

Like "This Week" on Facebook here. You can also follow the show on Twitter here.

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Doug Jones is projected winner in Alabama Senate race
Doug Jones is projected winner in Alabama Senate race

2 Shark Attacks in Shallow Fla. Water
PHOTO: Sign warning of dangerous marine life

Two men on a Florida beach have suffered shark attacks in water as shallow as three feet.

The men were treated for wounds to their lower legs Saturday at New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County, Fla. Both received on scene treatment and drove themselves to a nearby hospital for a follow-up.

Marco Cardiel, 25, went to the beach for a day of fun with friends and was in the water for five minutes before he decided to submerge himself under the surf to cool off.

"I was sitting on the ocean floor for about 15 seconds and felt some pressure and then the shark latched on to my leg," Cardiel told ABC News. Cardiel said the small shark, about three to four feet in length, thrashed back and forth across the surface. He was finally able to yank his leg from the shark and was left with a small souvenir - a shark tooth fragment in his lower right leg.

Cardiel is recovering at home.

The New Smyrna Beach Patrol had a busy Saturday as another victim was also attacked around the same time as Cardiel. The second victim was a male surfer who fell off his surfboard and stepped on the shark in shallow waters. It is not known whether it was the same shark that preyed on both victims.

A purple flag had been raised over the weekend to indicate a hazard from dangerous marine life. In this case, the purple flag served as a warning that there was a higher than average amount of baitfish in the water. An abundance of baitfish is often an indication sharks may be nearby ready to feed.

"If you want to reduce your chances of being attacked by a shark, don't go in the water when the flag goes up," George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research, told ABC News.

Off the shore at New Smyrna Beach, Burgess explained there is a "highway of water where animals, especially fish, ride in and out with the tides." Predators, such as sharks and barracudas, sit outside the mouth of the inlet and have their dinners delivered to them as the tide moves, he said.

Surfers are also drawn to the area because of the good surf in the area developed by the eroded underwater sand bars. When surfers are thrown into the mix, it is their "provocative activity" such as the kicking and the inevitable wipeout, that attracts the sharks.

As of Jan. 1, there have been six shark attack incidents in Volusia County and seven other incidents throughout Florida. There have been 13 additional attacks in the United States and another 13 internationally.

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The Adoration of the Christ Child

The Adoration of the Christ Child
See if you can spot why I like this image

Everything in its Right Place

A blog about disability, life, parenting, and learning what it means to live well in this world.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Thanksgiving retrospect

I fully intended to do a post last night but got waylaid. I thought that maybe the moment had gone, but did not want to be ungrateful, or for anyone to think that I've lived in Britain long enough to not care about turkeys and such anymore. Actually, to be honest, the latter might just be true...our "Thanksgiving Dinner" consisted of leftover roasted vegetable enchiladas from Agnes' baptism lunch, a creamy Brussels sprout and Romanesco dish and peas. I did make a pumpkin pie for dessert, but I made it out of sweet potatoes--my favourite fake of all time! :) I was actually quite pleased with myself that no animal had to die for my family last night. Call me sentimental, but I guess I don't always see the point, especially when roasted carrots taste so yummy. That, and my oven is too small to host a turkey!

So, I spent the day in what I consider a very appropriate manner for the occasion: I went to be pampered at a spa day for mothers whose children have been recently diagnosed with cancer, paid for by some businessmen of Aberdeen who donated money to Clic Sergeant (a children's cancer charity who also pay for the nurses who keep an eye on Adam at home).

The pampering, I was very thankful for that! The rich businessmen, very thankful for their generosity. And the other mothers: very thankful for their stories that helped put ours into perspective. Adam is doing really well when I place his journey next to some of the other kids' journeys. Many have spent months, yes months, in isolation. Many have been extremely sick during chemotherapy. Many have not been able to go to school. Many mothers are still struggling with the diagnosis a year on and worry every day about relapse. Many are also finished and we still have a long, long way to go.

I'm not saying I don't struggle, or worry though. Last night the reason I didn't post is because Adam spiked a temperature and I found myself too distracted to concentrate. Would we have to take him in? Should we go now, at 8pm, or wait for 2am when he spiked again? Does it count that they told us to call when it reached 38.5 and it was 38.4? In the end we put him to bed and his fever broke and he was fine all night, but I don't know if I'll ever get used to the feeling of impending doom all the time. I was also thankful, meeting the other mums, to see that I'm not the only one, and also to see that life goes on and it is still possible to have a nice lunch and massage and "forget" for a while.

But let me not forget to say Happy Thanksgiving all. Enjoy the blessings of whatever you have--health, wealth, physical strength to help others, the chance to listen to or comfort someone, children, a soft pillow, laughter,'s all part of the journey.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Adam on wheels

I could not let one more minute go by without sharing the good news: Adam now has a bike!!

The charity Cyclists Fighting Cancer have graciously given Adam a specialised trailer bike, complete with harness so that he doesn't run away (or fall out when Mom accidentally hits a dip and spills him over! More on that later--he was ok, by the way!)

It's amazing, and yet another part of the silver lining around the clouds that have hovered the last few months. Adam was thrilled, clapping all the way home as cars dashed around us and mom rode slowly along, terrified! I can't believe we can all actually ride together now--will take a bit more work before this learner is used to the weight distribution of the trailer, but the look on Adam's face last night was and will be worth it all.

Pics to come when we ride again--in daylight this time!!

p.s. For those of you who have asked what you can do to help and are still hoping for a chance, here is one option: you can always donate to those charities that have helped us, and CFC is one of them. The bike they donated is easily worth £500. AND you can also keep kicking my butt to fundraise for them one day, when time and energy and treatment regimes permit. You choose :)

Monday, November 14, 2011

Just wanted to say that we are officially on the mend from dose number four: six days in and Adam's numbers are starting to go the right way again. This one has been the hardest, with his mouth and the skin on his bottom the hardest hit. We rapidly assembled a host of salt water, bicarb, gels, foam spray, creams, lotions and special pain relief of the opiate variety to treat Adam's pain, and it seems to have helped him get through. Not much hope that dose number 5 won't send him over the edge again, but at least we are prepared and at least that's the last one.

Now let me brag for a minute: the doctor today said once again that they are impressed with how well Adam has been doing, and with how much he's taken during this course. Adam has been able to tolerate more doses so far than many children do, even those without Down Syndrome.

So there: if you're going to have an extra chromosome, you might as well have it made from steel.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Safety net

I have a lot to do: this is a fact of my every waking moment (and my sleeping ones too, though I'm less aware of it then). However, there are some things that deserve a rant no matter how busy one is, and this is one of them. Stop reading now if you don't want to "get involved."

As a parent--as a mother--of a child with Down Syndrome, it behooves me to point out that a new prenatal test is being released soon that will make testing an unborn child for Trisomy 21 safer, more reliable and available earlier. This is not good news, obviously, especially for those of us who love one of "these children" and all those who might have had the chance to discover the adventure for themselves.

I'm not going to point fingers at anyone who gets prenatal testing, that's not my intention. It just grieves me that it's so commonplace now that we have become immune to what it is we are doing when we let a doctor take a sample of blood and look for "abnormalities." I do, however, want to point out one very obvious fact that I think gets left out of most discussions, at least among plebes like me, and that is the issue of who profits from the test.

When a mother gets this "MaterniT21" test, as it's being called (for one full article on the subject read here), no matter what the diagnosis is, who profits? Full marks if you said the company that produced the test, i.e. Sequenom.

We may think that it's the woman, or the couple, or their family who "profit", but the fact is that Sequenom want you to take their test, they want your money and they don't give a damn what the result is for you. This is evidenced by the fact that they don't put one red cent into developing education or training materials for those who perform or take this test. There is no moral dilemma for them, this is not a child's life in limbo, or a family's journey, it is simply a few billion dollars they stand to make if people buy the jargon of "safety" and get the test.

Here is another fact, just as unappealing to many people: there is no such thing as safety. You can have all the tests in the world and your child is still unknown until he or she is born. There is no test to see what their grades will be, if they will be predisposed to stealing (or worse). If they will have friends or finish school or end up on the streets. You can never know, you just have to live with and love the people you've been given, and you get to find out along the way how blessed you have been.

Sorry for the rant, but I have to speak out. If not for myself, then for one of "those children"-- and two others who learn, in part by my example, what it means to walk beside him every day. I know Adam, and all my children, not from tests but by asking the one who made them to help me know them.

It is not easy, but it is surprisingly very safe.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Ground Zero

Well, we are officially on our own again: California Oma left this morning to return to her home, and I drove home slowly with what I'm sure were glazed, panic-stricken eyes!

It's not so bad, and while we are TOTALLY grateful for the help she gave us for THREE months, I always knew I would need to pull up my bootstraps and get back to flying solo. I kind of hoped that time would go a little slower, but on the bright side three months of Adam's treatment have whizzed by, and we only have just under three months left before the maintenance phase.

I was actually quite proud of myself at dinner, and commented to Brian that we had "made it" fine. He reminded me that we haven't actually done a whole day yet. Always the realist, that boy!

Here's to the baby remembering what sleeping at night is, to Adam's mouth being zero tomorrow (on the scale of mouth damage, 0 being none and 4 being where we don't want to go), and Caleb keeping to the "not before seven dot dot oh oh" rule. Peace, love, mercies small and large and enough caffeine to keep the ship sailing.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

I have to apologise...I may have been misleading in that last short post. I do not mean to mislead my dear faithful readers, so let me tell you the story:

Many of you know that Adam's favourite TV character is Mr Tumble, aka Justin Fletcher. Justin is a man kind enough to write back to fans when they send a message on facebook, and also kind enough to give the address to which said fans should write when they want to request a visit. I wrote and did not hear back, so wrote again and included my phone number. I then received a call from a woman at the Make-a-Wish Foundation asking for Adam's details so they can begin to organise a trip for him to meet Mr Tumble (Justin) in Surrey, England, sometime. This all happened because Justin called her and asked for her to pursue it.

He (Justin) then had a bunch of Mr Tumble stuff--magazines with fun activities and stickers (Adam LOVES stickers!), DVD's, cards and a picture of himself, much of which was signed by Justin/Mr Tumble--sent to our house, and all this arrived last Tuesday. Needless to say I was amazed and grateful a second whole time, so I tried to get a picture to send to Mr Tumble to say "thanks". It was not a great shot as Adam was really grumpy that day (and who can blame him I ask?), but the result is what you saw in the last post. I think he looks solemnly pleased :)

At any rate, things continue here on a fairly even keel. Adam received his 4th dose today, and we should be seeing the effects of that in a few days, by Saturday at the latest. The doctors are amazed that he has come this far in this particular part of the treatment. He's been enjoying school and his bus rides to and from, though he is still refusing to keep a hat on in our late-Autumn dropping temps. The man is tough, I tell you!

I went to Caleb's parent-teacher conference this evening and his teacher had nothing but good things to say about him, his conduct in the class and the speed with which he is picking up language and maths. I do think he might have my brain for math, but also his daddy's brain for concepts and liking to know how things work. It's a winning combination and a sweet boy to hold it all together.

The baby, well she is practicing her standing up and her new "Ab. Ad. Ab. Ab. Ad." during the day AND the night just now, enjoying several opportunities to call me in and politely ask to be laid down again. "Ab. Ad." It's sweet, and wonderful to see her come on so much and enjoy a little rough play and new foods and the attention of strangers everywhere she goes. If you are in Aberdeen and walk past the Starbucks at Marischal college and see a gorgeous little pink puff lady in the window, it's probably Agnes! :)

That's all for now. It is, as usual, bed time for this mama.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Mr Tumble made my day!

Thanks Mr Tumble (Justin) for bringing some light to a hard week!


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Saturday, October 17, 2009

The reviews are in

Stephen Maher:
Last month in Oakville, when asked about the allegation — made by a Tory candidate — that one project was killed because the riding was Liberal, the prime minister said don’t worry: "We can give you a list of announcements made across the country."

Three weeks later, after repeated requests for that list, his office told me this week to stop bothering them. Turns out the prime minister was joking, or lying. They are not going to cough up a list. Instead, they directed me to the useless site, and suggested I click on 6,000 individual links and draw up my own list.

These people are either cynically withholding information that would allow voters to see where their tax dollars are beings spent, or they are idiots, or maybe both.

They think they are smart to hide this information — perhaps because it could be politically damaging if they are shown to be shovelling pork into Tory ridings nationwide — but they are not smart.

Canadians want their government to be accountable, and the Tories ought to know that.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Musical interlude

Billie Ray Martin - Honey (Chicane Club Mix)

Breaking the silence

The Leader-Post reports on how quiet the Regina municipal elections have been to date. And it's all too true that there's been somewhat less talk about the election than one would hope for so far.

But for those looking for some of the discussion which hasn't yet been processed for media consumption, the City has posted video statements from a large number of candidates - and some are going beyond that in bringing their ideas to voters.

Burning questions

Does anybody honestly think that hundreds of millions of dollars in prison construction costs - along with increased expenses involved in actually running the new prison space which don't seem to have been costed out yet - will actually produce benefits anywhere near the expenses involved? And if not, then shouldn't there be room for one or more opposition parties to mount a strong criticism of the Cons' pandering on crime simply as a matter of cost and government waste?

On closed-door decisions

It's definitely worth pointing out that Rob Nicholson has rejected the consensus (among the opposition parties as well as past Information Commissioners) that the Access to Information Act should serve to actually enable the flow of information rather than providing cover for the Cons' habitual secrecy. But while the latest reporting has focused on the latest round of sparring over a set of committee recommendations, it's worth keeping in mind that the Cons themselves promised exactly what they're now trying to avoid:
The Conservative pledge to implement the Information Commissioner's recommendations to reform the Access to Information Act -- which included a duty for public servants to document their decisions and a public interest injury test on information considered exempt -- was dropped quietly when the government eventually tabled its Federal Accountability Act.

As one government insider said: "The bureaucrats pushed back hard on that stuff and appealed to the Prime Minister's secrecy tendency."
Which means that the goes far beyond merely a disagreement between the parties today. Instead, the Cons' complete rejection of any attempt to shine some light into the darker corners of the federal government also reflects a broken promise that makes a mockery of the Cons' now-laughable claim to value openness and accountability. And as always, that kind of obstructionism offers nothing but reason for suspicion about what they're keeping hidden.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

On big projects

I'll have plenty more to say about the Regina municipal races over the next little while. But for now, I'll take a moment to mention my stake in one of the campaigns, as I'll be contributing some content to the web presence for Heather McIntyre's campaign in Ward 2.

But of course I'll also continue to put together content which is purely mine rather than having anything to do with the campaign - such as this first response to the "The ONLY" theme which McIntyre's opponent Jocelyn Hutchinson is pushing:

Needless to say, suggestions working off the theme are more than welcome.

On practical suggestions

Of course, in addition to managing images to turn the Cons' misuse of government resources for partisan gain into a criticism that sticks, it also can't hurt for the opposition parties to bring up some policy suggestions to ensure that similar problems don't pop up in the future. And fortunately, the NDP is on the case.

On image management

There have been plenty of strong argument raised against the Cons' attempt to attach party logos and MP names/faces to federal spending. But I have to wonder whether the debate so far - consisting largely of opposition supporters pointing toward the Cons' cheque photo-ops attached to critical statements - is playing largely into the Cons' hands.

After all, there's a reason why the Cons were perfectly happy to make sure that Gerald Keddy, Peter Van Loan, Scott Reid and others were photographed in ways that mixed up partisan and government messaging: the image of an MP delivering a cheque to a riding is generally seen as a plus, meaning that the normal result would be to build a positive association for the Cons' partisan symbols. And while there's certainly reason to try to reverse the usual associations by tying the Cons' images to scandal and waste, I have to wonder whether the current path will prove to be an example of the theory (attributed to Ronald Reagan's image handlers) that "the eye always predominates over the ear when there is a fundamental clash between the two" - in other words, that viewers will ultimately pick up more from Con-friendly visuals than they will from the scandal being discussed in the background.

So I'll suggest that a change in tactic is in order. Rather than spending a lot of time discussing and pointing to the Cons' photo ops themselves, better to play up the fact that there's a need to counterbalance the Cons' use of public money to build up their partisan symbols - and use the wonders of Photoshop to attach those same symbols to rather less flattering images associated with the Cons' actual or potential negatives (closed factories, environmental devastation, etc.) And if the Cons want to complain that their symbols shouldn't be used that way, it'll be awfully difficult to dispute that it's their own MPs themselves who first extended their use beyond legitimate activities of the Conservative Party.

Back to the source

The Cons' misuse of public money for their own ends has managed to become far more widely recognized over the past few days thanks to Gerald Keddy and others.

But the more important damage to the public interest almost certainly involves money spent with far less attention. Which means that the newly-installed procurement ombudsman's report that there's serious reason for concern about billions of sole-sourced contracts would look to be the type of development which can tie the party logo issue into wider mismanagement and partisan favouritism:
Too many federal contracts are being snapped up by favoured suppliers without real competition, says Canada's procurement watchdog.

Departments hand out plum contracts to lone suppliers at prices that might be lower if other companies were given a proper chance to bid, Shahid Minto suggests in his first report to Parliament.

The report draws on a review of some of the $1.7 billion worth of sole-source contracts the federal government signed between 2005 and 2007.
Minto's report, which focused on Health Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency, National Defence and Fisheries and Oceans, found it was too easy to skew the procurement process in favour of suppliers that officials preferred. For example, there was scant evidence in the files that bureaucrats did any homework about other potential suppliers.
While there are plenty of possible follow-up questions, the most important one for now would seem to be whether any Con-connected suppliers who weren't getting federal business in 2005 suddenly found themselves as "preferred" suppliers sharing in federal largesse once Harper took power. And if there is evidence of that combination of mismanagement and partisan preference in spending going back to Harper's first days in power, then it'll be all the tougher for the Cons to pretend they've done anything but rebrand the worst of the Libs' patronage politics with a blue colour scheme.

On distorted inputs

Shorter Star Phoenix editorial board:

Enough of this pesky pretense of "democracy". We demand that the province officially turn the task of governing Saskatchewan over to some unspecified set of corporations for once and for all.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

On misplaced growth

The Ottawa Citizen is criticizing the growth of the federal civil service over the past few years. But isn't it even more noteworthy that while the civil service as a whole has expanded, the department responsible for managing Canada's infrastructre spending has been in a state of perpetual neglect - which the Cons are just getting around to noticing now that Infrastructure Canada's most important work is largely in the past?

On exclusivity

Far too much political commentary seems to be based on the idea of drawing distinctions between the interests of the unwashed masses and their ruling betters. But it isn't often that a candidate goes so far as to campaign on the idea of keeping out any new blood lest it interfere with the club currently in charge.

Which brings us to Wade Murray:
Ward 6 -- In this northeast and central Regina ward, incumbent Coun. Wade Murray is seeking a third term based on his hard work for the community through participation at the ground level and track record at council. He plans to work to implement the many studies undertaken by the city. He noted his goal is to "keep council a cohesive group"...
Needless to say, it seems unlikely that there are more than about 11 people in the city who are more concerned with preserving the chumminess within the departing council than with making sure that the next council listens to their concerns. And if the best argument Murray can muster to try to defend his seat is that he thinks City Hall should be protected from anybody who might have new ideas to offer, then he'd seem to be ripe for replacement.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Deliberately misleading (Giant Novelty Cheque Edition)

Even by the standards of Gerald Keddy's tenuous connection to reality, the apparent explanation for today's blatant misuse of public funds for Con propaganda is a doozy:
The CBC reported getting an email from Keddy’s office late Tuesday that said the Conservative logo was “inadvertently” put on the cheque.
Let's leave aside for now the use of the passive voice to avoid saying who it was that actually put the logo on the cheque. (Though the "who" of the matter would figure to be one of the next areas deserving of investigation - and presumably some lower-level staffer will take a temporary fall as a result.)

More fundamentally, how on earth could one claim that it's possible to "inadvertently" place a Con logo on a large piece of printed material? Will Keddy's office clarify that it just happened to have a logo stamp the size of Keddy's hand which accidentally got waved around in the general direction of the cheque? Or that a logo graphic which by sheer coincidence fits perfectly into the cheque in terms of colour and size was cut-and-pasted by a staffer who just happened to be ending a shift working for the Cons and starting one working for Keddy's publicly-funded office?

Not that it's at all surprising that Keddy's office is trying to minimize the fallout in classic Con fashion by saying that the blatant misuse of the Cons' logo on a cheque representing public funds wasn't intentional, with anything even remotely resembling truth be damned. But how on earth can one pretend that Keddy's cheque design was anything but a conscious choice?

On disengagement

Michael Ignatieff plays to his B.C. audience by mentioning the disastrous drop in wild salmon stocks:
We’ve just seen an entire Fraser River sockeye run evaporate. Millions of salmon just didn’t show up.

Ask upstream communities about the consequences. Ask Aboriginal communities. Ask fishers. Experts are already talking about a connection with climate change.

We need an urgent, independent public inquiry, using the best ocean and climate scientists to figure out what happened, and how we can to keep it from happening again.
Of course, it's certainly worth mentioning the vast array of potential impacts of climate change. But Ignatieff seems to have rather glaringly omitted a far more important explanation:
Morton's new research has begun to reveal that the lice and disease problem is huge in B.C. Her research indicates that sockeye smolts migrating up Johnstone Strait from the Fraser River have been infected with lethal numbers of infected lice as they swim through the Campbell River area. Little wonder this year's run of Fraser sockeye was one of the poorest on record -- and the problem will continue unless we do something.
Morton has now found lethal levels of fish farm sea lice in chinook smolts from the Megin River that flows into Clayoquot Sound, meaning all the United Nations World Heritage 650,000-acre Site salt-waters are a gauntlet of sea-lice death for all species of salmon migrating through the narrow fjords near Tofino.

Morton and others have discovered viral outbreaks from now antibiotic resistant infected lice from the Johnstone Strait all the way up to Bella Bella on the mid-coast.
From 2001 to 2003, 12,000,000 farmed Atlantic salmon died in B.C. from the infectious haematopoietic necrosis epidemic. The first problem was more than 15 years ago in B.C. Even Canada's highly regarded -- and DFO's own scientist -- Dick Beamish, has published research showing that when Atlantic salmon are removed wild salmon smolts thrive.
See also Rafe Mair, passim - but particularly his advice that Ignatieff take on the harmful effects of fish farming directly.

So why is it that Ignatieff doesn't apparently see fit to mention sea lice and other issues related to fish farming as factors in the loss of salmon? There are two obvious explanations, but it's hard to see either reflecting well on Ignatieff or his party.

On the one hand, it could be that Ignatieff is planning to label anything even remotely environmental as a matter of climate change in order to justify building a campaign on the Libs' "green energy" theme. But it's no more honest for Ignatieff to try to ram every environmental issue into a climate change-shaped hole than it is for the Cons to deliberately confuse other types of pollution with reducing greenhouse gases.

On the other hand, it could be that the decision not to even mention one of the more glaring recent examples of corporate intrusion on the Canadian environment is based on a desire to avoid stepping on any toes in the fish-farming industry. But again, it's hard to see how the Libs can expect to be trusted if they're trying to patronize British Columbia by paying lip service to the decline in salmon stocks while ultimately planning to put corporate interests first.

Either way, though, Ignatieff's wilful omission looks to speak volumes as to whether he can be trusted to take environmental issues seriously. And neither the cause of combatting climate change nor the broader environmental movement figures to be better off if the Libs continue to distort the facts to support their policy plans rather than actually recognizing the problems which need to be solved.

So much to learn

I noted earlier how the Libs' leadership foibles figure to have made it difficult for them to develop consistent messages. But apparently they're in worse shape than I'd thought when it comes to even the basic rules of communication, as even a couple of their supposedly-brighter MPs don't seem to recognize that it's a bad idea to launch into a public speech when nobody is listening.

(Though in fairness, I'd fully expect the "scrum without reporters" idea to be taken up by the Cons at some point as a means of further insulating themselves from journalistic scrutiny.)

On power plays

I'll follow up on the subject in more detail later. But for now, let's note that Erin has pointed out a possibility for new power generation in Saskatchewan which has been left out of the public discussion of the province's energy future to date - a particularly glaring omission considering that the only argument that ever seems to be mustered against hydro is "it would be nice, but we're already using as much as we can":
Despite hydroelectricity’s huge advantages, it garners little attention in political debates about future energy sources because most North American utilities have fully exploited available hydroelectric sites. Saskatchewan is exceptional because it only built a few small dams, but balked at larger projects.

In the 1970s, SaskPower proposed the Wintego Dam on the Churchill River. A public inquiry rejected the plan in order to preserve the natural area and traditional ways of life there.

These same issues would again confront large-scale hydroelectric development today. However, the historic decision to not dam the Churchill was made in a context of it being perfectly acceptable to just burn more fossil fuel instead. Today, I suspect that climate change and carbon pricing would far outweigh the original objections to the Wintego Dam.

Such a project would generate hundreds of megawatts. It would also enable a much larger expansion of wind power. Large-scale hydro provides the perfect balance for intermittent wind.

When the wind is blowing, SaskPower could close the hydro turbines and allow water to build up behind the dam. When the wind is not blowing, it could open the turbines to replace the lost electricity.

On distorted pictures

In other ridiculous Con stories originating in Nova Scotia, Stephen Maher and the Chronicle Herald have assembled a conclusive set of proof that federal stimulus spending has been strongly biased toward Con-held ridings within the province. But it's their response even more than their pork-barrel politics that most thoroughly demonstrates the problems with the Harper government.

Here's the list of sources assembled by Maher in putting together his article:
The Chronicle Herald compiled a database of federal stimulus projects using several lists on the federal government’s Building Canada website. The longest list — Nova Scotia Infrastructure Initiatives — is missing the dollar amount for many of the projects, so the newspaper acquired them from the provincial and municipal governments.

The paper also included all projects that aren’t on the lists but have been the subject of news releases under the federal government’s Economic Action Plan — for example, $10.3 million in federal funding for the Lunenburg County Lifestyle Centre, a new recreation centre planned for Bridgewater, in Conservative MP Gerald Keddy’s riding of South Shore-St. Margarets.
And Maher went to that trouble because...
The main federal website tracking the spending — — has a map of the country with icons showing projects but no details about the amount of spending or the schedule.
In other words, then, the Cons are doing an absolutely atrocious job of actually informing the public as to what money has gone where. But the Chronicle Herald has assembled all of the information publicly available to determine that the three Con-held ridings in Nova Scotia are receiving more money than the other eight put together.

So what can the Cons possibly say in the face of such damning evidence?
(A spokesflack for Peter MacKay) pointed out that the final numbers may paint a different picture than this database does.

"When you look at figures out of context, you paint a picture that isn’t complete," he said.
Naturally, the first obvious problem with that claim is that there's exactly one entity with the theoretical ability to provide a "complete" picture. And it's because the Con government has chosen to hide its spending numbers that any accountability has had to come from third parties sorting through a mishmash of information which could easily be made accessible to all if the Cons were the least bit interested in facilitating an honest evaluation of their spending practices.

But given that it's the Cons themselves who have spent millions on self-promotion while keeping the facts hidden, it's particularly stunning that they're now suggesting that Canadians should hope that some combination of hidden and/or uncommitted spending could counterbalance a glaring partisan slant in the first 90% of their stimulus budget. Leaving aside the question of whether it's even mathematically possible for the money left to be committed to level out an imbalance as glaring as the Chronicle Herald and others have found, it defies belief to suggest that the Cons are somehow being more even-handed in the spending that they're keeping hidden than in what they've made public, or that they'll suddenly reach an epiphany about governing in the interests of the country rather than their political ambitions before doling out what's left.

In sum, there's no apparent reason to give the benefit of the doubt to a governemnt which is vehemently if implausibly denying that the current slanted numbers reflect any problem, and whose penchant for selective information suggests that what's being buried is far more likely to reflect even more waste and pork-barrelling rather than an out-of-character outburst of fairness. And the more the Cons ask the public to simply hope that their government will be reasonable in the face of ever-mounting evidence to the contrary, the more reason Canadians will have to be wary of everything that comes from the Harper government.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Deliberately misleading

Blogging Horse has partially demolished Con MP Gerald Keddy's sad attempt to attack the NDP's position on EI. But there are a couple more points in Keddy's letter which are equally obviously false or let's set the record straight.

If (the NDP) actually cared about improving the EI system, why did they join the Liberals in refusing to even sit on the panel?
Now, it's worth pointing out that this goes beyond mere falsehood to the realm of absurdity. After all, the "EI panel" which Keddy is referring to was based on a deal cut between Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper - who both had obvious reasons not to offer the NDP any chance to participate, and by all accounts designed the panel to exclude the NDP and the Bloc precisely to remove them from the table.

Of course, if Keddy wants to provide even a shred of evidence that the NDP was offered the chance to join the Libs in lunching with Pierre Poilievre but declined the opportunity, he's welcome to do so. But as best I can tell, this passage makes about as much sense as pointing fingers at the NDP for the progress of a bill through the Senate, or the Bloc for failing to represent their constituents outside Quebec.

In sum, Keddy looks to have taken a step past the Tom Flanagan standard for credibility. Never mind even trying to be plausible; better instead to make an utterly nonsensical accusation and let one's opponents try to spend explain why it's firmly grounded in the Cons' Kool-Aid rather than anything even remotely resembling reality.
Worse yet, the only suggestion the NDP have made to reform EI is to give a full year of benefits to anyone who works a mere 45 days!
This time, the statement can actually be classified as true or false based on some grounding in reality. But even if one ignores the fact that the criticism of the 360-hour eligibility standard as giving rise to a "full year of benefits" is itself false, the statement that the NDP hasn't offered any other proposals ranges somewhere between more false, even more false and so false it may have originated with Deficit Jim Flaherty himself.
Deliberately misleading and disingenuous come to mind.
Here at least Keddy deserves some credit for honesty: "deliberately misleading" and "disingenuous" are certainly words which deserve to be linked to him, both in the rest of this particular letter and in his general dealings with the public. Which leaves only the question of whether he can deceive enough voters into clinging to a seat which otherwise figures to go orange.

(Edit: fixed wording.)

A position of weakness

Thomas Walkom's column on the dangers of racing into another set of free-trade negotiations is worth a read in general. But it's particularly worth highlighting that even those who think there's some need to keep tying government hands on both sides of the border have reason to worry about how the Cons have undermined Canada's bargaining position:
(A)ll trade deals come at a price. The original Canada-U.S. free trade deal bound this country to a permanent energy-sharing arrangement with America. Its successor, the North American Free Trade Agreement, limited the ability of Canadian governments to set up social programs that might interfere with private business, such as public auto insurance schemes.

The new deal under consideration will almost certainly curtail Ontario's efforts to refocus manufacturing around so-called green industries. Ultimately, the price could be higher...

For state and congressional politicians, forcing Canadian and other foreign suppliers to manufacture in the U.S. makes more electoral sense than allowing them to supply the American market from abroad.

Unless, of course, the Canadian side is willing to give away the store.

Which brings us to the second problem. What is Canada preparing to give up?

In any negotiation, the desperate are easy meat. In these talks – regardless of the fact that Canada has so far weathered the recession better than the U.S. – it is Ottawa that sounds desperate.

As Obama noted recently, "Prime Minister Harper ... has brought this up with me every single time we've met."

If I understand Trade Minister Stockwell Day's strategy correctly, he would have Canada's provinces unilaterally agree to end discrimination against U.S. firms as a gesture of good faith, in the hope that Washington might agree to a Buy America exemption immediately before beginning negotiations on a more detailed pact.

But aside from the logistical problems this scenario entails there is the more important question of what Washington will demand in return?
Walkom raises a few possibilities as to what the U.S. might demand, such as an Afghanistan extension or even more privileged energy access. But while it's difficult to guess at exactly what the U.S. would pursue first, it's not at all hard to anticipate that they'll smell blood in the water based on the Cons' desperation to push to bind all levels of government under NAFTA. And considering what happened last time the Cons decided they had to get a deal done with the U.S., there's plenty of reason to worry about what they'll be willing to give away this time.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

On message cultivation

The NDP has re-launched its Unite4Change site for this fall's set of by-elections, and in the process looks to be even further ahead of the other parties than it was last year. (From what I can tell, the closest any of the Cons, Libs or Greens come to mentioning the by-elections on their respective sites is the inclusion of one event on Michael Ignatieff's events schedule.) But while it's worth noting the NDP's apparent head start in preparing for the November by-election dates, it's particularly worth pointing out one of the more subtle advantages it may hold compared to some of its competitors.

After years of planning out messages and strategies under a leader with a long-term vision for the party, the NDP has had a chance to develop plenty of messages which can be accessed and reinforced on a moment's notice while being left dormant when they don't apply. Which means that for virtually any major development in Canadian politics (based on issues or events), the NDP will have a ready response supported by past communication work.

Are there by-elections happening? Time to bring out "Unite4Change" both as a familiar message to those who have followed NDP by-election activity for awhile, and as a building block for a national message.

Are the Cons looking for excuses to once again extend Canada's military role in Afghanistan? There's a ready response to that. Climate change? Check. Tax fairness? Check. And so on.

Mind you, in every case there's some need for adaptation to the current issues at play: the tax message is only reinforced in the case of the HST where needless corporate cuts are paired with hikes on individuals, while action on climate change is now aimed toward establishing new global targets at Copenhagen rather than meeting the ones set at Kyoto. But in general, the NDP has been able to build up a consistent set of messages which it can tap into at any point while never pushing any of them to the point of fatigue at any time.

Not surprisingly, that makes for a huge contrast against the circumstances of the Libs. They've of course had four different leaders in the past four years - with all but interim chief Bill Graham spending much of their time trying to distance themselves from their predecessors, and most key party staff changing as well during that time. And to top it all off the Libs have actually changed substantive positions on plenty of issues (a prime example being their Afghanistan swings from starting a combat mission while in government, treating it as a free vote when they first went to opposition, then demanding an end to combat before agreeing to an extension), making for an even more complicated communications problem.

Based on that combination of regularly changing personnel and messages, the Libs are bound to have a far more limited number of themes even remotely developed for public consumption - meaning that they largely have to start from scratch in developing a message in any particular area. And even before that process starts, there's presumably some workload involved in documenting and cataloguing what the last few incarnations of the party have had to say on the details of each issue so as to limit the number of contradictions that can be avoided.

All of which suggests that whatever advantage the Libs may have had in fund-raising early this year, it may be serving to do little more than try to catch up to the NDP's head start in planning and message development. And to the extent that much of the goal of political messaging is to plant seeds which will come to fruition at the right time, it's questionable whether the Libs have enough time to develop any meaningful harvest by the next general election.

Sunday Morning 'Rider Blogging

There was plenty of good news for the 'Riders in last night's win over Toronto. But while an underwhelming victory over a weak team counts for just as much in the standings as any other win, there were a couple of obvious problems which the 'Riders will have to fix in order to keep adding wins against their tougher opponents to come.

The best news for the game was almost certainly the offence's performance in the first half. After a couple of games where the offence had struggled early, the 'Riders managed to turn their first five possessions into four touchdowns and a drive into what would normally be field-goal range, racking up what would prove to be enough points to take the game by making use of nearly every weapon at the team's disposal.

And it's a good thing the offence managed to give the team that cushion to work with, as it was once again nowhere near as effective after halftime. The 'Riders' running game took some time off the clock with a few first downs in the third quarter, but the passing attack was thoroughly ineffective until the latter half of the fourth quarter. And while that late-game resurgence was enough to put the game away by adding another 3 points on the scoreboard while running most of the remaining time off the clock, it has to be worrisome that the team once again showed little inclination to put its opponent away earlier.

Meanwhile, the defence had a generally effective game, if not one to write home about. Ideally one would prefer to see the 'Riders control the run a bit better, as both Jamal Robertson and Jeff Johnson managed to put up some significant yardage. But those two never figured to be able to win the game on their own; instead, the real danger was Kerry Joseph, and the 'Riders managed to bottle him up on the ground throughout the game and anticipate much of his passing game beginning in the second quarter. There was still some room for improvement, as the Argos missed obvious opportunities due to both dropped passes and inaccurate throws - but in the end the 'Riders didn't give up more than they could afford, which has to be the ultimate goal.

And then there are the special teams, where the 'Riders have swapped out one major weakness for another. On the bright side, while Ian Hamilton describes Jason Armstead as "returning to form", I'd take a step beyond that. While Armstead has long been a dangerous all-or-nothing threat, I can't ever remember him being as consistently effective as he has this season. Which means that while it would be a bonus for him to indeed break a return or two to the end zone, the most important message the team can send is to make sure he keeps doing what he's doing to give the 'Riders better field position throughout the game rather than hinting that he should take more chances in order to score points himself.

Unfortunately, the 'Riders also faced one major problem in the battle for field position, as the punting took far more of a hit in Jamie Boreham's absence than I'd expected. That's particularly disappointing since Luca Congi managed to blast the ball when he had the chance to punt in the pre-season - but returning to the role now, he struggled with both distance and direction. And that may force the 'Riders into another strategic change if Boreham is out for long (and Congi stays in the role), as I'd have to figure it'll be worth trying a few more third-down gambles from the opponents' side of half if we can't expect to gain much yardage from a punt anyway. Or alternatively they may need to look at bringing in another punter, though the likelihood of finding a major upgrade may be low at this point in the season.

Needless to say, the 'Riders' next challenge in Calgary looks to be a far more difficult one than the Argos were able to pose last night. But the game plan shouldn't be all that different: like last night the main goals will be to keep an athletic quarterback from getting into positions where he can make plays on his own, while using a variety of weapons to find the weak points in an aggressive defence. And if the 'Riders can piece together a more effective punting game and stay more consistent on offence, it shouldn't be out of the question for the same strategy to help propel the team to the top of the West standings.


WARC-Truncated: length

text: Action Town Florida is Rated #1 as South Florida’s hot spot for family fun entertainment. Action Town Florida has been serving Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami Dade, and Broward County. Here at Action Town Florida battles take place with paint, lasers, and putters. A professional paintball team designed the attractive paintball arena and its paintball storefront, which sprawls across 2 acres and encompasses urban-warfare and garage areas. Area 51, Miami’s largest indoor laser tag arena, fuels competition with high-tempo music and glow-in-the-dark obstacles. The nine-hole miniature golf course also glows in the dark, offering a helpful way to distinguish between real obstacles and imaginary friends’ heads. Action Town Family Fun Center located in Hialeah also fills its facility with arcade games, glow in the dark bumper cars as well as an inflatable city. Its indoor party packages give guests a taste of all offerings, along with refreshments and food. Action Town Family Fun Center in Miami specializes as an indoor party place and paintball facility with many attractions for all ages to enjoy.


text:
17 Oct 2016

E Gone - Advice to Hill Walkers

Reviewed by Joseph Murphy

E Gone (Daniel Westerlund of Swedish band, The Goner) released "Advice to Hill Walkers" on cassette in 2015 via Zeon Lights. Mixing electronic and traditional instrumentation, E Gone proved on this sophomore release that he well deserved a wider audience. So now, Sunrise Ocean Bender and Deep Water Acres have teamed up to make that happen; "Advice to Hill Walkers" was remixed, remastered, repackaged and expanded – and beautifully so in every way.

"Advice to Hill Walkers" sounds like an artifact, uncovered in some far-off and forgotten land, like a nomadic people lost in the skies. Instrumental, eclectic, and lush, E Gone’s music nods Eastward, upward, inward and just beyond the canny. Opening tracks find inspiration in Eastern musicians – and at least to my ear, Tuareg guitars – particularly in the wonderful “Follow Moonmilk Rivers.” Westerlund even adapts a Syrian traditional song, “Ya Bent Ehkimini,” in “You Don’t Know It yet but We are Losing You.” But “Build Your Camp Out of Alpine Moss” twists that same approach until its wrung to a few sci-fi whirs that give way to a brooding, horror film’s synth lead.

Closing tracks, “Continue Ascent while Blindfolded” and “Reach the Summit, Egg,” serve as final posts in the journey and recall the many paths to reach the pass. “Continue the Ascent while Blindfolded” blends glitchy electronics with a woozy, reverb-heavy progression, while “Reach the Summit, Egg” revisits drones, deep hand-percussion, and mesmerizing, looping string themes. At just under ten minutes, the song ends in a current of sounds that becomes a trickle, then finally silence. One can’t help feeling relief, in a way, the same relief one feels at the end of a long hike upward, where one hears the same wash of sound – and then silence. It’s a reward, and though recognizably difficult, you’ll do it again and again.

"Advice to Hill Walkers" is available on CD from Sunrise Ocean Bender’s website and Bandcamp.

If you’re not convinced, check out the video for “Record the Humming of Melodious Caves” linked below.

Highly recommended.

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