In swing-state Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State conducted the biggest purge of voters in history, dumping a fifth of all registrations. Guess their color.
In swing-state Florida, the state is refusing to accept about 85,000 new registrations from voter drives – overwhelming Black voters.
In swing state New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor.

In swing states Ohio and Nevada, new federal law is knocking out tens of thousands of voters who lost their homes to foreclosure.

My investigations partner spoke directly to Barack Obama about it. (When your partner is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., candidates take your phone call.) The cool, cool Senator Obama told Kennedy he was “concerned” about the integrity of the vote in the Southwest in particular.
He’s concerned. I’m sweating.
It’s time SOMEBODY raised the alarm about these missing voters; not to save Obama’s candidacy – journalists should stay the heck away from partisan endorsements - but raise the alarm to save our sick democracy.

This is a list of items that are in demand to keep up with the care of all the animals taken into the care of the SPCA and other shelters from the seizures in Cape Breton this past week. Even the donation of one item goes a long way in making the care of these needy animals a little easier. Please find it in your heart to give whatever you can. Thank you.

* non clumping litter
* blankets
* towels
* laundry soap
* bleach
* Royal Canin cat and dog food
* toys
* beds
* scratch posts and climbers
* quality animal shampoo to suit both dogs and cats
* leashes
* collars
* Advantage
* kennels
* stainless steel bowls
and whatever else you can think of

Donations can be dropped off at the Metro Shelter, 5 Scarfe Court, Burnside Industrial Park.

Dear Ms. Curry:

Thank you for your email of September 25, 2007, concerning the situation in Burma. I regret the delay in replying to you.

I share your concern about the situation in Burma and the safety and well-being of its people. Over the last months I have made several statements on Burma. I have strongly reiterated Canada's condemnation of the use of deadly force by the military and police against monks and other protesters in Burma who were exercising their right to peaceful dissent. I sent a Canadian diplomat to Rangoon to assess the situation and to show Canada's support for the democratic movement. Canadian embassies and high commissions around the world have been working with representatives of other like-minded countries to seek creative solutions and to coordinate our approach to Burma. In Ottawa, senior officials of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) called in the Burmese Chargé d'affaires to ensure that Canada's interest in this matter was clearly understood.

I have also called upon the Government of Burma to release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi. On October 2, 2007, I stated at the United Nations General Assembly that it was imperative to restore democracy and human rights in Burma. I invite you to view my news releases and statements on Burma at w01.international.gc.ca/minpub/ListPublications.aspx?isRedirect=True&PubTypeId=261&Year=2007&language=E.

On October 17, 2007, the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, tabled a motion in the House of Commons to confer honorary citizenship on Aung San Suu Kyi, which was adopted by all party agreement. In doing so, he stated: " We must ally ourselves with those in the world who share our values, and especially those who are denied them.... The adoption of today's motion sends a message to her, her people, and the world, that Canada stands up for the universal values that are under siege in Burma today."

On November 14, 2007, I announced that Canada intends to impose economic sanctions against Burma under the Special Economic Measures Act in order to demonstrate Canada's abhorrence for the regime's complete disregard for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Burma. These sanctions, the toughest in the world, will:

*ban all goods exported from Canada to Burma, with the exception of the export of humanitarian goods;
*ban all goods imported from Burma into Canada;
*freeze assets in Canada of any designated Burmese nationals connected with the Burmese state;
*prohibit the provision of Canadian financial services to and from Burma;
*prohibit the export of any technical data to Burma;
*ban new investment in Burma by Canadian persons and companies;
*prohibit Canadian-registered ships or aircraft from docking or landing in Burma; and
*prohibit Burmese-registered ships or aircraft from docking or landing in Canada and passing through Canada.

Furthermore, a number of measures have been taken at the multilateral level to address this situation. At the G8 Foreign Ministers meeting in New York on September 26, 2007, I joined my counterparts in unanimously condemning the violence in Burma and calling for a resumption of dialogue. Canada continues to urge Burma's neighbours such as China and India to encourage Burma to undertake genuine reform.

On October 12, 2007, I issued a news release following the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) statement on Burma, which strongly deplores the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators and emphasizes the importance of the early release of all political prisoners and remaining detainees. Moreover, Canada welcomes the UNSC's reaffirmation of its strong and unwavering support for the mission of Mr. Ibrahim Gambari, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Burma, as well as its recognition of the resolution adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council on October 2, 2007. Canada also welcomes the efforts of Mr. Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, to address the situation in Burma, and has called upon the Government of Burma to facilitate his work.

Canada will continue to work with the international community to put pressure on the Burmese government to respect the human rights and fundamental freedom of the people of Burma, and engage in a genuine dialogue with the democratic opposition.

The promotion and protection of human rights is an integral part of Canadian foreign policy. Canada will continue to stand up for human rights and take principled positions on important issues to ensure that freedom, democracy and the rule of law, values that define our country, are enjoyed around the world.

Thank you again for writing and sharing your concerns.

Sincerely,





Maxime Bernier
Minister of Foreign Affairs

If you're a Canadian and you want to talk to Industry Minister Jim Prentice about his proposal for a Canadian DMCA, a copyright law that's even worse than the ten-year-old American legislation that resulted in lawsuits against 20,000+ Americans without stopping infringement or paying artists, now's your chance!

This Saturday, Minister Prentice is hosting an open house in Calgary at his constituency office. This is the best chance we will ever have to make our feelings known about the Canadian DMCA. If you are in or near Calgary, plan on attending this event, along with local activist Kempton Lam...read more here.

audrawilliams

Shame on Barbara Kay for perpetrating outright lies in her piece 'The last white ribbon' (Dec. 6, 07). Kay must be a devotee of male rights advocate Warren Farrell. His oft-quoted false statements regarding the extent of Laurie Dann's crimes do not stand up to even the most elementary fact checking (cf. NYT " Police Still Unraveling Trail Left by Woman in Rampage" May 22, 1988 -- although Dann's Wikipedia entry may be more Kay's speed).

Contrary to Farrell's assertions (which appear to have been taken from thin air) Laurie Dann did not solely target males In reality, no child was raped, one male child was killed, no frats or Jewish Councils were burned down, and two male and two female children along with one adult man were injured during Dann's spree, before her suicide. Dann was clearly insane in the years leading up to her crimes, as a pattern of harassment toward both males and females shows, but she was not solely a man-hater.

Sarah Curry
Halifax NS

...The best they could say about the relationship between fat and exercise was this: 'It is reasonable to assume that persons with relatively high daily energy expenditures would be less likely to gain weight over time compared with those who have low energy expenditures. So far, data to support this hypothesis is not particularly compelling.' In other words, despite half a century of efforts to prove otherwise, scientists still can't say exercise will help keep the pounds off.

...The one thing that might be said with certainty about exercise is that it tends to make us hungry. Maybe not immediately, but eventually. Burn more calories and the odds are very good that we'll consume more as well. And this simple fact alone might explain both the scientific evidence and a nation's worth of sorely disappointing anecdotal experience.

...For the past 60 years, researchers studying obesity and weight regulation have insisted on treating the human body as a thermodynamic black box: calories go in one side, they come out the other, and the difference (calories in minus calories out) ends up as either more or less fat....And in the strict sense this is true - you can starve a human, or a rat, and they will indeed lose weight - but that misses the point....When we deprive ourselves of food, we get hungry. When we push ourselves physically, we get tired....

Our bodies, like all living organisms, have evolved a fantastically complex web of feedback loops...The key is that among the many things regulated in this homeostatic system - along with blood pressure and blood sugar, body temperature, respiration etc - is the amount of fat we carry. From this biological or homeostatic perspective, lean people are not those who have the willpower to exercise more and eat less. They are people whose bodies are programmed to send the calories they consume to the muscles to be burned rather than to the fat tissue to be stored...

...If it's biology, and not a lack of willpower, that explains why exercise fails so many of us as a weight-loss tool, then we can still find reason for optimism. Since insulin is the primary hormone affecting the activity of LPL on our cells, it's not surprising that insulin is the primary regulator of how fat we get...Because insulin determines fat accumulation, it's quite possible that we get fat not because we eat too much or exercise too little, but because we secrete too much insulin or because our insulin levels remain elevated far longer than might be ideal.

...As it turns out, it's carbohydrates - particularly easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars - that primarily stimulate insulin secretion. 'Carbohydrates is driving insulin is driving fat,' as George Cahill Jr, a retired Harvard professor of medicine and expert on insulin, recently phrased it for me...

This would explain the slew of recent clinical trials demonstrating that dieters who restrict carbohydrates but not calories invariably lose more weight than dieters who restrict calories but not necessarily carbohydrates.