West Coast Can-Am Politics

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's meetings with President Bush, including a joint press conference, seems to have been largely overlooked by the U.S. news media. It certainly has NOT been ignored in Canada.....

Born July 6, 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut, today mark's George W. Bush's 60th birthday. In simple words: Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

Saturday, July 1, 2006 marked 139 years of the formation of Canada's Federal Government. Note my emphasis here: Canada as a nation existed before July 1, 1867, but there doesn't seem to be a cut-and-dried date at which Canada declared itself as happened in the American Colonies on July 4, 1776. Perhaps Canadians would consider the September 1864 Charlottetown Conference as being their time of officially obtaining the spirit, if not the legal substance, of nationhood. It's worth noting that while Americans observe Independence Day as being the birth of the United States as a nation, the actual implementation of the United States Federal Government as we know it did not actually occur until the adoption of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787, and the effective date of the U.S. Government actually being March 4, 1789. On Canada Day 2006, yours truly traveled early in the morning from the Seattle area to a few Canada Day observances in the British Columbia Lower Mainl...

In recent weeks, I've been avoiding writing on my blog for various reasons including the recent death of two people who played important roles in my life. It may take some time to share a bit more about the grief around those losses. I am briefly expressing my extraordinary disappointment at the U.S. Senate's bizarre "Immigration Reform" legislation. If passed by the House, this legislation would cheapen the rule of law by rewarding individuals who have illegally entered the United States. To my Canadian friends: has anyone talked to Michel Jalbert of Pohenegamook, Quebec about what HE thinks of the Senate's action? Most Yanks have forgotten M. Jalbert's miserable experience of being arrested and imprisoned by U.S. border patrol officers in the tiny hole-in-the-border "Gaz Bar" at Estcourt Station, Maine in October, 2002 for allegedly entering the U.S. illegally. I understand after several months of legal hassles by Uncle Sam, he was forced to s...

Country music legend Alvis E. "Buck" Owens passed away early this morning at his Bakersfield, California home. The Buck Owens web site notice has these biographical remarks: Buck was born on August 12, 1929 in Sherman, Texas. The son of a sharecropper, Buck traveled with his family to the Phoenix, Arizona area in 1937 as they searched for a better life. Eventually, they traveled to California's San Joaquin Valley, doing farm work. At a young age Buck vowed that when he grew up, he would not be poor. He found a way out of his family's poverty through his musical talent. During the years I was born and raised in the Seattle area, my parents exposed me to a lot of country-and-western music on a day-to-day level. Buck Owens brought a very distinctive sound to his vocals and to his backup accompaniment (which became known in music circles as the "Bakersfield Sound"). I also recall watching "Hee Haw" when it was a current network telecast including B...

Associated Press : Cartoon Protesters kill, injure, and burn MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - Nigerian Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad attacked Christians and burned churches on Saturday, killing at least 15 people in the deadliest confrontation yet in the whirlwind of Muslim anger over the drawings. CNN - 16 die in cartoon protest "Maiduguri [Nigeria] bore the brunt of Saturday's violence. Fifteen people were killed, 11 churches were burned and 115 people were arrested there, a national police spokesman said...... In Katsina [Nigeria], one person was killed, two police officers were injured and 25 were arrested, a police spokesman said." Associated Press - 9 Foreign Oil Workers Seized (Kidnapped?) "WARRI, Nigeria - Militants launched a wave of attacks across Nigeria's troubled delta region Saturday, blowing up oil installations and seizing nine foreigners, including three Americans. The violence cut the West African nation's crude oil exports ...

CBC News reports on a deadly protest in Nigeria earlier today: " Nigerian Muslims killed 15 people and burned at least 11 churches on Saturday in the country's first violent protests over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, police say . " The violence level seems to be worsening. I'll post more on this breaking story.