Canada Geese Menace

I'm supposed to be finishing my Ottawa Jazz Festival picks but just remembered a conversation I heard on the radio last night.

I'm listening to As It Happens last night on my way to Roddy Elias' 60th birthday party and they are interviewing Martin Lowney (sp?) in NY who says they are going to start culling Canada Geese around the NY airports. Not that controversial if you ask me. Early on he mentioned that they have "resident" geese who stay all year round which seemed off to me. He distinguished between migratory geese and resident geese but to my knowledge ALL Canada Geese migrate. I know ducks have a habit of becoming "resident" if they can find a year round source of food but I doubt Canada Geese can sustain themselves in NY through the winter.

Then he explained how they were planning to catch the geese and said this method has been used elsewhere. He says during the summer the geese lose their feathers and become flightless. Then they will herd the geese into pens so they can be removed and euthanized. Now Carol Off didn't seem at all phased by this plan. Am I missing something or is this nuts? Canada Geese are never flightless ... they are just too lazy and stubborn to fly when crossing the road and just prefer to hiss at passing cars and cyclists but they can fly all summer, at least as far as I'm aware. And I can say definitively that Canada Geese never lose ALL of their feathers. I think I would have noticed dozens of butt-ugly bald Canada Geese lounging around the Ottawa parks. I can't believe this guy is totally out to lunch but he clearly was not talking about the same bird I would call a Canada Goose.

Ottawa Jazz Festival 2009

The Ottawa Jazz Festival looks particularly good this year. The last couple of years they have seriously returned to seeking out actual jazz acts. I'm pretty out of touch with what's really going on in the jazz world but here's my top ten list anyway -

1. Esperanza Spaulding - Tuesday June 30th Confederation Park - She's a 24 yr old bassist already teaching at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. She's not exactly a virtuoso bassist but very tasteful and with a beautiful voice. Oh yeah, did I mention sexy, sexy, sexy?? She recently played the White House.
2. Gary Burton Quartet - Sunday June 28th Confederation Park - Great band (Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow and Antonio Sanchez) and Gary Burton is a true virtuoso on the vibes. Here's a sample of that band. Steve Swallow has one of the most refreshing approaches to the electric bass and I have never had the opportunity to see him live.
   
3. MARIA SCHNEIDER ORCHESTRA - Monday June 29th Confederation Park - One of the greatest big bands in existence. It's an all-star band and she writes extremely original, cutting edge compositions. She's also one of the jazz world's most sought after arrangers. Youtube sample.
4. The Bad Plus - Saturday July 4th Confederation Park - In some ways a pretty controversial band. Alot of jazz purists hate them because they play mostly covers of pop tunes. I actually discovered them thru the band's blog. I haven't read it in a while but they had some great interviews awhile back. Here's their version of Everybody Wants to Rule the World. They also do Tom Sawyer, Smells Like Teens Spirit, When the Levee Breaks, etc, etc.
5. Thursday July 2nd at 9:00 is a tough choice. There is Seven Strands of Sound featuring Petr Cancura, who I've played with many times but haven't heard in years. I've been hearing great things about his playing. Plus Truro homegirl Tena Palmer is singing with the group and Pierre-Yves Martel is playing the Viola de Gamba. Sounds like a great show. Unfortunately they are up against Wayne Shorter of the 1960s classic Miles Davis Quintet and Weather Report. He has written some of the greatest modern jazz classics (Footprints, ESP, Fee Fi Fo Fum, Infant Eyes, Witch Hunt, Speak No Evil). Tough choice. I may actually cheat and go see Wayne Shorter in Montreal. Later the same evening is a chance to see Ilmiliekki Quartet followed by Mark Dresser with Trio M at 4th Stage but that's mostly just me speaking as a bass player.
   
6. Brian Blade and the Freedom Band followed by Charles Lloyd's New Quartet - Sunday July 5th, Confederation Park - I don't know that much about Brian Blade or the Freedom Band but its one of those bands that I have been meaning to check-out based on fantastic word-of-mouth. Charles Lloyd is another musician that I don't know alot about except his bands have often introduced some of the best musicians of the day, including Keith Jarrett. One thing I learn about him on Wikipedia is he took time of from jazz in the late 60's - early 70's to practice Transcendental Meditation and played and toured with the Beach Boys.
7. Dave Douglas and Brass Ecstasy - Thursday June 25 Confederation Park. I'm a big fan of Dave Douglas' work with Masada and the Tiny Bell Trio. This group sounds amazing and I'm always keen on hearing improve based music without chording instruments (guitar/piano). Hears a sample without the french horn player. Followed by Roberta Gambarini with an incredible band (Cyrus Chestnut, Neil Swainson and Jimmy Cobb).
   
8. Chucho Valdés Quintet - Friday July 3rd, Confederation Park - - I'm a big Afro-Cuban fan but I find it difficult to find (or describe) the kind of Cuban music I like. Chucho Valdés fits the bill just fine. Here's a nice sample with a great bass solo.
9. Claudia Acuna - Friday July 3, Confederation Park - More Latin Jazz from this Chilean born, New York based singer. OK, I stole this one from Peter Hum's top ten in the Ottawa Citizen this morning. Chucho Valdés and Claudia Acuna back to back on a Friday night sounds like a party in the park to me. Without dancing ofcourse; this is Ottawa after all.
   
10. and my final jazz festival recommendation - drumroll please - the Steve Groves Quartet at the Rideau Centre, Saturday July 4th at noon. Steve has been mainstay of the Ottawa jazz scene for many years. The group includes 15 year old Daniel Ko on Alto sax, Don Johnson on drums and yours truly on bass. Shameless self promotion is a persistent feature of blogging, don't you know.

Please come out and support the Ottawa Jazz Festival's decision to choose jazz artists as opposed to pseudo-jazz pop artists.

Obama's Policies

I've been inactive on this blog for quite a but as an alternative to writing a letter to the editor of the Citizen, I thought I would express some ideas here first and maybe follow up with said letter. First I'd like to be clear, I don't read Dave Warren. I have read his editorial contributions to the Citizen in the past and sometimes I read the headline and the first couple of lines but then I think to myself "Nothing good will come of this. Read no further. Don't do it to yourself". Today I failed to follow that advice and read this column.

First of all I've been following some of the polling on Obama's performance and I have no idea where Warren is getting this idea that Obama's policies are not going over very well. This poll is from a month ago but I don't think its wise to change course on a day to day basis according to the latest polls. People aren't happy about the economy. They don't feel confident the steps Obama is taking are going to be sufficient to turn the economy around and they have every right to feel uncertain about the future. According to the latest Rasmussen polls 68% believe that the majority of bailout money is going to the people who caused the crisis and I don't see how anyone can dispute that is the case. And Americans are hesitant to push forward on health reform duing an economic crisis but its ludicrous to sugggest that Americans don't overwhelmingly favor comprehensive health care reform. However, those who are decidely negative about Obama's performance and policies are the pundit class, which includes Mr. Warren. And it seems to me that these negative opinions have been getting more than their fair share of airplay.

The main argument I take exception to is this idea that the American people voted for Obama because they were sick of the Republicans, not because they were in favor of his policies. Odd how we've been told in the past two US elections that "anyone but Bush" was a strategy that could not win. A Democrat could only get elected by suggesting alternative policies. And now we're told that in fact people only voted for Obama because he wasn't a Republican. But remember Obama wasn't just a Democrat with liberal policies. He had the most liberal voting record in the Senate (I won't dwell on the fact that oddly enough John Kerry was the previous "most liberal Senator"). He was the number one liberal in the Senate but somehow when people elect this uber-liberal they are expressing their desire to be a center-right nation. Mr.Warren's explanation for this phenomenom? Middle America is stupid.

But then comes the kicker - "The video to Iran is the latest catastrophe. Mr. Obama simply does not understand how his 'olive branch' will be received, not only by the mullahs in Iran itself, but wherever else on the surface of the planet the United States has enemies."

I'm going to go out on a limb here but I'm willing to speculate that David Warren has no idea how this olive branch will be received by the mullahs in Iran. I'd be willing to bet that David Warren has never been to Iran. Just for the record, since it is a fact which is grossly under reported, the Iranian mullahs have declared nuclear weapons un-Islamic and sworn to never develop them. I think we can all agree that the mullahs take religious matters seriously. Whether, as a matter of foreign policy, we choose to believe this is a sincere fatwah against nuclear weapons is debatable but I for one would like to see this fact mentioned everytime someone mentions Ahmadinehad's professed desire to wipe Israel off the map because the truth is, regardless of what Ahmadinejad says, the mullahs run Iran and call all the shots.

I can say without a shadow of a doubt that President Obama's olive branch to Iran has an infinitely greater chance of resolving the ongoing conflict between the US and Iran than more tough talk as a way to avoid showing any signs of weakness. You know what is a sign of weakness? When we all laughed and laughed at the idea that the Iraqis could withstand the full force of the American military and now 4,000 American soldiers are dead. 4,000. 90% of those deaths don't even involve the Iraqi military or any kind of serious military arsenal. How about Afghanistan? How about Bin Laden? That old saying "Better to be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt" also applies to looking weak and incompetent.

The whole world knows that the US can talk tough about Iran and Syria and Pakistan all it wants but it's hands are tied. How exactly does one launch a war against Iran with 130,000 troops stationed next door? And in term of being state sponsors of terrorism, Iraq has nothing on Iran. Iraq should never have even made the list. Iran has a seriously outdated military but a military none-the-less (Iraq had basically nothing left by 2003) and a huge terrorist network at its command.

See ... now I've spent two hours writing this rant when I should be reading my CCNA study guide and doing the labs. Just say no to David Warren.

Update: I'd also like to point out how sick I am of hearing how unqualified and inexperienced Obama is. Bush had never been outside the US before he was elected president ... not even to Canada! To quote Lewis Black "Even drunk on a bet you make it to Canada!". Based on that alone, Bush was never qualified to make foreign policy decisions.

Update 2: Warren has a kindred spirit in William the Bloody who, along with Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, holds the dubious distinction of never having been right about anything. Kristol objects to Obama referring to Iran as the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is the official name of the country, and laments the fact the Obama doesn't make any explicit or implied threat of consequences if Iran doesn't stop it program of developing nuclear weapons. A program which Iran says it doesn't have and the US has no credibile evidence of the existence of such a program. I ask you, Mr. Kristol, when did you stop beating your wife?

Update 3: Boy, Obama's approval ratings sure have taken a beating. Hmmmm let's compare that graph with this graph.

From today's LA Times -

The war crimes case against Salim Ahmed Hamdan today goes to a jury of his enemies, hand-selected by the Pentagon official who charged him on behalf of a president who has ordered him imprisoned even if acquitted.

Even in Kangaroo Court, if you some how manage to get acquitted, you get to go free. What a sham ...



Update: Breaking news!! Hamdam convicted of four counts of supporting terrorism. Well, duh!

Update2: Here's a traffic stop excuse you don't hear everyday -

The six senior U.S. officers serving as jurors in the first war crimes trial here watched with rapt attention as an unseen interrogator asked Hamdan about two SA-7 surface-to-air missiles found in the car he said he had borrowed for the trip out of Kandahar.

Hamdan acknowledged that the missiles were in the Toyota but said they belonged to the friend who had lent him the vehicle, as did a weapons license and other documents found inside.

Episodes 5 and 6

"Just 'cause they're in the streets doesn't mean that they lack opinions" - Ep.5

"If you got a problem with this, I completely understand" -Ep.6

I've been reading a fair bit about season five on other blogs and Salon. There's been alot of criticism about Scott Templeton's character and McNulty's serial killer, specifically that Templeton is a very two dimensional character and that the whole serial killer storyline is way out of character for McNulty. On the first criticism, I'd have to agree. One blogger mentioned that David Simon was involved in "outing" a reporter who fabricated stories during his time at the Balitmore Sun. Clearly Simon has some unresolved resentments against the newspaper business and he left long before people like Conrad Black started snatching up every paper they could get there hands on, laying waste to the staff and politicizing the content. I'm not entirely onboard with the serial killer criticism. True, it does seem pretty out of character for McNulty to start something this ... well, stupid, but McNulty has never been very good at reigning in his impulses. And he always has a typical alcoholic justification for why his self-destructive and selfish actions are really the logical result of the incompetence of others.

One one thing I haven't seen discussed in these other forums, and it is particularly evident in episodes 5 and 6, is how incredibly funny this season has been which speaks directly to the serial killer storyline. I have no doubt that the serial killer story is going to have tragic results but its still delivered us lines like "How do I write that into my bullshit homeless killer's M.O.?" and "I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I can see why Daniels cringed every time you opened your fucking mouth. You’re a supervisor's worst nightmare.". On top of that there's all the great facial comedy - Lester's look when Bunk starts talking about the homeless guy they kidnapped and Bunk almost constant look of impending meltdown whenever the homeless killer is mentioned. Its the kind of comedy that I've loved in The Wire - the best kind of situational comedy - a believable situation gradually becomes more and more ridiculous and only escalates as the characters struggle to hold it together for "a couple more days".

I've also been intrigued by the co-op storyline. I find it a bit unbelievable that the other dealers in the co-op have put up with Marlo for as long as they have. It was a real struggle to them to put aside there differences for the common good and just because Marlo has the best muscle, I don't see them taking this shit lying down and I think its starting to show. I'd be a bit surprised at this point if Marlo even survives long enough to get caught. No connect is so good its worth getting picked off one by one.

And that certainly was some "Spiderman shit" from Omar at the end of episode five. I've seen Omar pull off some pretty spectacular stuff but that must have been a five or six story drop, followed by an immediate retreat back into the building. It was sad to see someone finally get the drop on old Omar but he's started to turn the tables in episode six and hit Marlo where it hurts - his reputation.

As the world turns ...

Wow, you take one family day off and come back to a Cuba without Castro and a Pakistan without Musharraf. Sometimes the world turns very slowly and sometimes the whole landscape changes in a day.

Another Omar

I'm the first to admit I'm a bit confused about the Omar Khadr trial. Let me start by saying I have very little sympathy for the Khadrs. There is no question their father was knowingly involved in the financing of terrorism. Here's what we know, which I don't believe is being disputed - The US government sent US soldiers to Afghanistan to remove the Taliban regime by force and to capture or kill as many members of Al-Qaeda as possible, as the primary response to September 11 attacks. There's pretty good reasons to believe that this is exactly the response Osama Bin Laden was hoping 9/11 would provoke. Either way, a lot of people make the mistake of confusing al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization with the Taliban, the government of Afghanistan, but in this case it doesn't really matter. The Khadrs were members of Al-Qaeda. They were part of a terrorist organization. So I have no problem with US forces killing Ahmed Said Khadr, he's about as fair game as Ayman al-Zawahri or Bin Laden himself. I think we can agree on that. Honestly, in the heat of the battlefield, I don't even have a problem with shooting and killing a fifteen year old boy. These things happen; its an unfortunate fact of war. But in Omar's case things get a bit fuzzy especially with the release of this today -

It has long been assumed by many that Mr. Khadr was the only combatant alive, and so must have been the one who threw the grenade. But the first U.S. service member on the scene described coming across another living fighter, and shooting him dead with a bullet to the head, before finding the wounded Mr. Khadr and shooting him twice in the back but not killing him.

The revelations, mistakenly released in never-before-seen documents, came during a military tribunal hearing for Mr. Khadr yesterday at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

Documents that were supposed to be censored in their entirety were accidentally handed out to reporters in the courtroom, taking both defence and prosecution lawyers by surprise.

Somebody's gonna get shot in the face over letting that dossier split out.

Omar was fifteen years old at the time and he didn't exactly choose to live as a jihadist in Afghanistan. Maybe he's a sociopathic killer - I don't know but he was fifteen years old. And he's been held in Guantanamo for over five years because he killed a US soldier. A US soldier who was sent to Afghanistan to kill him and his kind. Now we find out that not only is it possible he didn't throw the grenade that killed the soldier but another soldier shot him in the back. Twice. So I'm a bit confused - isn't Omar Khadr supposed to be trying to kill American soldiers? Isn't that how war works? How does this constitute a "war crime"? It seems that "unlawful combatant" also means its "unlawful" for you to actually participate in a "combatant" role i.e. fighting back. Providing material support for a terrorist organization make him a criminal. A common criminal not a war criminal but, of course, if he was a criminal he'd be entitled a regular trial.

And don't even get me started on how the inmates at Guantanamo are the "worst of the worst" yet the US has "discharged" two thirds of the estimated 750 inmates since 2002 without charges. Three people have been charged. Three.