Random News & Views Roundup

- There's a military coup going on in Thailand.

The coup was necessary because Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government had divided the country and corruption was rampant, he said.

Sound familiar? Anyway, Reuters has a chronological history of the events that lead up to this. Let's hope everybody stays safe.

- What's Senator George Allen hiding?

Update: Allen tries to explain himself. Why didn't he just do that when he was asked the question in the first place? Wanker.

- Bush spoke to preached at the UN on Tuesday. Here's the text of his speechifyin'.

- Meanwhile, Republican Senator Voinovich says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is like Hitler.

"Ahmadinejad -- I call him Ahmad-in-a-head -- I think he's a Hitler type of person," Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

How mature is that??

What's with this obsession with Hitler? Haven't these people ever heard of Godwin's Law?

- LondonYank has a thought-provoking diary over at Daily Kos which asks much needed questions about the US relationship with Pakistan: The REAL Reason for Secret Tribunals? Pakistan Terrorism Timeline.

- During Canada's Question Period, NDP leader Jack Layton asked Steve (Harper) if the Conservative government will apologize to Maher Arar. Steve deflected the question by blaming the previous Liberal government for what happened. Why is it so damn hard for this prime minister to just apologize?

- In an interview with CBC's Peter Mansbridge on Monday, Steve insulted the Canadian military:

"But, you know, the shoe was often on the other foot. For a lot of the last 30 or 40 years, we were the ones hanging back."

You just know that when he addresses the UN on Thursday, he'll by pumping up Canada's supposed new military might to impress Bush.

Harper said it has been years since Canadian troops have been involved in the kind of sustained fighting that they have encountered in Afghanistan and the commitment made by Canada to root out the Taliban to create a more stable Afghanistan has enhanced the image of Canada abroad.

"It's certainly raising Canada's leadership role, once again, in the United Nations and in the world community where we used to have an important leadership role," he said.

"used to have"? He seems to think that the only way Canada can project a 'leadership role' is to send our soldiers around the world like Bush does. What an insult to Canadians.

- It's Talk Like a Pirate Day! Arrrr....

- The softwood lumber deal has passed in parliament with the support of the Bloc Quebecois.