I was killing time and flipped on CNN for want of anything better to watch. “Welcome to the Future” said the CNN headline. “Lydia’s wish: escaping traffic”.

“I get up between 4:45 and 5:00 every day,” complained Lydia, “I have to be at work at 7:15 and I often find myself dashing across the parking lot to make it.”

“Time is such a valuable thing,” she continued as backdrops of congested highways flashed behind her. “I spend 3 hours of my life a day in my car and that’s a huge amount of my life wasted.”

Amazing, I thought. CNN was about to examine Raise the Hammer’s favourite issues: urban sprawl, inefficient [tag]public transportation[/tag], and society’s addiction to cars. Cue Miles O’Brien:

It is really painful when you add up all the time we spend in our cars, grinding our teeth as we drive our way through traffic. But what if we could commute through the wild blue yonder, breezing past the gridlock below?

Say what, Miles? Did you say “wild blue yonder”? Yes indeed: CNN’s featured solution to traffic congestion is the Air Scooter, your very own personal helicopter.

“Due to hit the market later this year with a price tag of fifty thousand dollars,” O’brien intones, “[it’s inventor] says the [tag]Air Scooter[/tag] could make rush hours a thing of the past.”

Welcome to the future: where rich people soar above the traffic below, occasionally descending in their noisy craft into specially marked parking spaces whose signage you ignore at the risk of stiff fines or decapitation, only to rise again above the masses like petrol-sucking dragonflies, designer label bags in tow. Someone ought to give this company a subsidy!

You can watch the clip yourself, but don’t blame me for CNN’s appalling website, which is likely to bombard you with popups.

I laughed really hard watching Rick Mercer Report last night. It was one of the funniest of his shows in recent memory. There were several overt jabs at Canadian politics and politicians. Check out the recaps here.

One spot entitled “Ignatieff – Man of the People” lampooned Liberal leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff. The skit was a mock television campaign ad plugging Mr. Ignatieff’s bid to become the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC). The ad played on the candidate’s career as an academic; it was another jab at Ignatieff’s supposed intellect. I’m not going to explain it any further – watch it yourself.

Now, I don’t doubt that Michael Ignatieff is a capable politician, but I have gone on record questioning his political acumen. Iggy fumbled his way into the last election as a star-candidate for the Liberals in Etobicoke. He was courted by party insiders to join the Canadian political scene. That’s the way things are done, but they may have pushed him into the limelight prematurely.

It is no secret that some former John Manley supporters and a handful of other party stalwarts are orchestrating his ascension within the LPC. The list of his supporters is growing. Since Belinda Stronach announced that she would not be running for the LPC crown, Iggy’s resources within the party have deepened. Arguably, his team is now the best in the race. They are well organized and well funded. The question is – can they pull it off? Can they make him a saleable politician?

Iggy may be book smart, but I wonder if that characteristic can be translated (spun) into political capital. He might be a hit with some segments of the Liberal party. He might be a hit with some segments of the Toronto chattering classes. But can LPC rainmakers turn Iggy into a candidate who is marketable beyond his already-established support base?

The biggest obstacle to their success, without a doubt, is Iggy’s academic baggage. As a Harvard professor, he has commented, in writing, on several contentious and political topics. His opinions are going to follow him like stink. It doesn’t matter what he said; his statements will polarize voters.

It is going to be a Herculean task for Iggy’s communications team to develop a strategy that will deflect criticisms of his academic writing. He has to define himself before his opponents do. His team will have to put his politics in context without saying too much – without sounding academic (without even using the word academic). Voters don’t do academic. They will have to convince folks like Rick Mercer that there are more compelling reasons to pay attention to Michael Ignatieff other than to call him an egghead.

Iggy’s public campaign will be watched closely. There are more folks like me, who watch politics for a living, waiting for it to implode than are waiting for it to take flight. Still, there is a growing expectation that something has to happen – too many egos are on the line for things to stand still. And when you’re dealing with the Liberal Party of Canada, egotistical ambition is what makes the machine turn.

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This post was written by alevo.

When you’re wrapped in the North American media cocoon, it’s sometimes hard to know what to think. Is Iraq on the brink of civil war? Should governments deal with a Palestinian administration formed by Hamas? Paying for stories to be planted in Iraqi media sounds an awful lot like propaganda, but is there any justification for it? Is Zarqawi dead, or does he even exist?

Amy Goodman’s interview with Robert Fisk today has some answers to those questions from someone who has spent years in the Middle East, on the ground, in the war zones, and in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza, not in the walled-off Green Zone or behind a desk.

You also get a fiery condemnation of American journalism by the renowned author. An absurd, even comical performance by an American military spokesman with a peculiar mustache in the Hitler style and a pathological inability to give a straight answer, even as the room erupts in laughter at his obvious discomfort and embarassment. And a call for the immediate end to the occupation of Iraq and why it needs to happen now.

This is 25 minutes of journalism that I guarantee you will enjoy. If you feel like you need to give your head a shake, this will do it. Check it out on Democracy Now! or pick one of these streams to watch:

Watch 128k stream | Watch 256k stream (You’ll need RealPlayer to watch these).

You can also get the MP3.

A year after he was shot by US troops in Mosul and then sent to Abu Ghraib, CBS cameraman Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein was acquitted in an Iraqi court today.

A three-judge Iraqi panel ruled there was insufficient evidence against Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, who was filming the bombing aftermath in the northern city of Mosul when he was apprehended.

…

The charges against Hussein were never made public but at one point it was said that he could get life in prison if convicted.

After his acquittal, US forces took Hussein back to Abu Ghraib and reimprisoned him, “pending final U.S. military approval of his release”.

If there was any doubt about who’s really in charge in Iraq, the case of this cameraman, who was found innocent on all charges by Iraqi judges and then sent back to prison by the US military, removes it.

Given that the US has sent judicial experts to Iraq to advise on the creation of an independent justice system, the message is clear: “Do as we say, not as we do.”

George Bush with another memorable quote:

One of the great things about America, one of the beauties of our country, is that when we see a young, innocent child blown up by an IED, we cry.

(An IED is an Improvised Explosive Device, which is military jargon for a roadside bomb, a common weapon used by Iraqi insurgents.)