Alec Saunders SquawkBox

More Civics Lessons for Justice. Judges in the USA have ordered the release of 1200 or so detainees following the Sept 11 bombing.  I wonder if they include Mohamed Mansour Jabarah. Since Jabarah is a Canadian, will he be entitled to the same treatment?

Apparently George Bush was briefed on Monday on military options in Iraq.  I am amazed that this is in the NY Times.  Do they invite reporters to these briefings?  Or is this just the CNN trial balloon strategy taken to print?

Scathing report blames Ottawa-Carleton school trustees for budget shortfall. This is ridiculous.  Even if the Ottawa-Carleton trustees are a bunch of incompetent spendthrifts, and "self-inflicted their financial crisis", it’s completely wrong to follow the recommendation of this auditor.  According to the article, the report rejects the idea of having the province bail out the Ottawa-Carleton board this year, saying "trustees would not be motivated" to find more cost savings if they get extra money from Queen’s Park.

I don’t give a darn about the motivation levels of the trustees.  What about the kids?  There are 4 or 5 kids per textbook for 8th Grade History at Rideau Valley Middle School!

If the trustees are the problem, then replace the trustees and bail the board out.

The Economists op-ed on Iraq.  The quick precis is:

1. We’d all be safer if Saddam wasn’t there.
2. He has it coming to him.
3. The US should act unilaterally because it’s easier to ask for forgiveness after the fact, than permission.

In the Globe and Mail’s opinion piece Saddam: Bluff or Bullets, Erik Wang, Canada’s former ambassador to Iraq, makes the case that all the public information about war plans is simply the American political process operating "at it’s most open and transparent".  The National Post’s piece A ‘light’ war won’t work in Iraq, takes a slightly different view, arguing that the "openness and transparency" may be deliberately orchestrated.  Quite a bit of detail in this piece on the military options available.

German leaders are warning that an Iraq attack could wreck the anti-terror coalition.  In the same article, Iraqi Kurd leader Jalal Talabani says that he will not "blindly follow" any US plan, and that the issues that prevented Bush senior from deposing Saddam a decade ago still remain.

And Conflict could soon be nuclear from The Times of London writes about an assessment done by a former Pentagon official arguing that Israel might choose nuclear weapons should Iraq attack them with chemical or biological weapons as in the Gulf War.

Inconstant Speed of Light May Debunk Einstein. Whoa!