Polls taken by EKOS Research in Ottawa found a majority of respondents in Britain, Canada and Mexico believe George W. Bush poses a threat to world peace, according to Beth Duff-Brown of the AP. They also worry about American invasion into North Korea and Iran.

Canadian, British, Mexican and Israeli citizens rank Osama bin Laden as the #1 (out of 5) greatest threat, followed by Kim Jong Il of North Korea, then President Bush, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and finally Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah.

The poll found 69 per cent of Britons, 62 percent of Canadians, 57 per cent of Mexicans and 36 per cent of those polled in Israel believe Mr. Bush's Foreign policy has made the world less safe.

The polling also found that 89 per cent of those polled in Mexico, 73 per cent in Canada, 71 per cent in Britain and 34 percent of respondents in Israel now believe the U.S. decision to invade Iraq was not justified.

The poll also found that 68 per cent of Mexican respondents, 60 per cent of Israelis and 57 per cent of Canadians believe the United States will “intervene militarily” in Iran or North Korea in an effort to block the development of nuclear weapons. British respondents were not asked the question.

The polls were asked of 1,000 residents in each of the four countries at the end of October. Results are considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

After ABC’s hit piece on Clinton’s handling of terrorism, he probably got a lot of stupid questions from idiots thinking that a Hollywood interpretation of factual events was true. After getting the same question from a known right-wing conservative outlet (Fox News), he had it and blew a stack. He ran rings around Chris Wallace about the facts but he was a bit hot with Chris who looked like a moron. Wallace attempted to smear Richard A. Clarke whom I think and know did more to combat terrorism than anybody else did.

What I liked about the interview has that he talked about inside information, visa vie Rupert Murdoch’s support with Clinton’s Global Warming initiative. Also, he came out and called a spade a spade by saying, in effect, Fox News is a conservatively biased news organization.

I also didn’t like the way Wallace continually interrupted Clinton. Mike Wallace, Chris’ father, would never have done that to a former President on 60 Minutes.

Depending on how this is played, I think this might work in favour of the Democrats and against the GOP and Fox News. Since President Clinton had a 63% approval rating, including independents and even some Republicans, his influence should get many to question the veracity of the slogan ‘Fair and Balanced’.

Chris said he also asked Bush Administration officials about not getting Osama bin Laden. ThinkProgress.org found out that Chris Wallace never asked any Bush official the same questions

Go to Crooks and Liars for the whole interview.

I have a friend who said this speech was hilarious. I guess it loses its punchline in the translation. Why he is holding a book by Noam Chomsky, a self-proclaimed anarhist, is beyond me. CNN had the story

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tore into his U.S. counterpart and his U.N. hosts Wednesday, likening President Bush to the devil and declaring to the annual meeting of the General Assembly that its system is "worthless."

"The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said, referring to Bush, who addressed the world body Tuesday from the same lectern. "And it smells of sulfur still today."

Chavez accused Bush of having spoken "as if he owned the world," and said a psychiatrist could be called to analyze the statement.

"As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: 'The Devil's Recipe.' "

A majority of Canadians believe U.S. foreign policy was one of the root causes that led to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and Quebecers are quicker to criticize the U.S. administration for its international actions than other Canadians, a recent poll suggests.

Those conclusions are found in a newly released poll conducted by Léger Marketing for the Association for Canadian Studies.

The poll suggests that 77 per cent of Quebecers polled primarily blame American foreign policy for the Sept. 11 attacks. The results suggest 57 per cent in Ontario hold a similar view.

When participants were given the option of choosing more than one cause for the attacks, two-thirds blamed Islamic fundamentalists and their anti-Western views, while a third pointed the finger at Israel and its position in the Middle East.

Canadian opinions have hardened against the United States and its role on the world stage, said Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have contributed to a change of heart among people, he said.

But Canadians are divided on whether their government should pay more attention to issues fuelling extremist organizations in the Middle East, he said.

"There are a lot of people who think we should be listening closely [to extremist groups] and that there is an opportunity to dialogue with these sort of groups," said Jedwab Wednesday. "So it is showing a real ideological divide on some of these issues."

There's a growing need since the Sept. 11 attacks for balanced public education about terrorism, added Jedwab. "There is a tendency to see in these movements something more romantic than actually exists. That's something we need to keep debating in the country."

Léger Marketing interviewed 1,508 Canadian adults from Aug. 22 to Aug. 27. The poll results are considered accurate within 2.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

This is the dramatic moment when President George Bush is gunned down by a sniper after a public address at a hotel, in a gripping new docudrama soon to be aired on TV.

Set around October 2007, President Bush is assassinated as he leaves the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago.

Death of a President, shot in the style of a retrospective documentary, looks at the effect the assassination of Bush has on America in light of its 'War on Terror'.

The 90 minutes feature explores who could have planned the murder, with a Syrian-born man wrongly put in the frame.

It's paying first at the Cumberland theatre in Toronto on September 10, 2006; a day before the 5-year anniversity of the 9/11 attacks. I don't think I'm going to see it.

My new pundit review is on Jon Stewart. Click here to view.

In case you haven’t heard, Joe Scarborough of MSNBC did a twenty minute piece on the war of words between Bill O’Reilly and Geraldo Rivera versus Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I highly suggest you download it on www.crooksandliars.com.

Joe did a decent job but he and his correspondents failed to get at the heart of the problem. The reason the Fox News personalities dislike the Comedy Central personalities is because Stewart and Colbert have far more influence on contemporary America’s social and political views. It kills Bill that people take Jon more seriously then they do him.

Bill O’Reilly and Geraldo Rivera should stop trying to battle Stewart because there is no way they can win. Stewart and Colbert are too popular and too funny compared with the Fox guys, not to mention the fact that the Comedy Central guys are also more truthful (or more truthinessful). If I were Bill I’d move on to someone he can take on, like Paula Zahn.

One other thing Scarborough forgot to mention is that The Daily Show ratings are roughly the same as The O’Reilly Factor.

I normally don’t pay attention to stories like this but for some reason this peaked my interest. Two Members of Parliament want to reverse a 2002 decision by Jean Chretien in order to get Hezbollah off the terrorist group ban. This decision made financial donations to Hezbollah illegal because of fear they would spend it on weapons.

The two members of Parliament, who probably should resign for their remarks, are Liberal MP Boris Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke-central) and New Demicrat MP Peggy Nash (Parkdale-High Park).

Boris Wrzesnewskyj as quoted from the Toronto Star:

"You want to encourage the politicians of this military organization, you want to encourage the political wing, so that the centre of gravity shifts to them."

Wrzesnewskyj compared the situation in Lebanon to the decades of sectarian violence by the Irish Republican Army.

"If there wasn't a possibility for London to negotiate with Sinn Fein [the IRA's political party], we'd still have bombings in Northern Ireland," he said.

Wrzesnewskyj dismisses criticism that placing Hezbollah on Canada's banned list helps ensure money donated to Hezbollah's social programs won't be spent on weapons.

"It's a red herring. Take a look around here. Has the fact that we've listed it in that way prevented a war?" he said.

Wrzesnewskyj says he plans to deliver a report recommending the Liberal caucus support reversing the ban.

How can you deal with a political party when their sole function is to destroy a neighbouring state. Mr. Wrzesnewskyj, you can encourage the Hezbollah politicians by asking them to denounce the violence of its military wing. The comparison to the IRA is foolish, not to mention stupid. The IRA wanted to force England out of Ireland, not to destroy England. Their struggle was morally justified; something you can’t say about the Hezbollah. I don’t agree with a lot of what the Israelis have done with their military might but that doesn’t mean I have to agree and help the other side.

By the way, Boris, the 2002 decision was not intended to prevent a war. It was to stop funding terrorist so they could not carry out their suicide bombings.

Take a look at this picture I saw at Michelle Malkin's site. Pay particular attention to the upper part where the flags are. Notice anyone missing? That's right!! No Canada. I'm glad. I should say though I'd rather be in the so-called 'evil' camp rather than the Islamic Thinkers Society.

What did Norway do to get on that list, huh? I mean the United States, Great Britain, and Israel I can understand why they are on the list. The Danes published those mohammed cartoons. Germany and the E.U.? those are complete mysteries to me?

Mikhail Gorbachev came out swinging on Monday saying, “We have made some mistakes, so what? Please don’t put even more obstacles in our way. Do you really think you are smarter than we are? Americans have a severe disease – worse than AIDS. It’s called the winner’s complex. you want an American style-democracy here. That will not work.”

As for Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the former communist leader said this, “They are just hawks protecting the interests of the military – shallow people.”

Yeah, you know what disease Russia has? The Russian Mob, which in my opinion is much worse. Still, he has a point. One thing you can say about American’s is that as an article of faith they believe that all problems can be solved. They are trying to form a new democratic state by western standards to a region that does not play by those rules.

Going back to Gorbachev’s quote, I think I would choose having a winner’s complex than having AIDS. What was he thinking when he compared the two?

Ya know, I read this story and the first thing I thought was, “GOOD.” American ignorance of our hand in America’s oil addiction is a blessing. Can you imagine if Canada got the same kind of American attention that is given to Venezuela, Iraq, Iran or Saudi Arabia? I hate it when other Canadians say that Americans don’t know anything about us. You know what I say to them? “Good, I’m glad we don’t show up on their ‘ripe for invasion’ radar.”

The Canadian American Business Council (CABC) took a survey of 1000 Americans and asked “Who is America’s largest foreign oil supplier?” Only 4% were able to identify Canada as the #1 supplier.

Jon talks about how absurd it is that some people have genuine hatred toward Canada, even though we didn't join the war in Iraq. Video here

From CTV News:

Canadians are healthier and have better access to health care than U.S. residents. And, according to a new study, Canadians obtain better care for half of what Americans spend on their medical system.

"The data is clear and really irrefutable: Canadians are healthier than Americans and they have better access to medical care," Dr. Steffy Woolhandler of the Harvard Medical School said Tuesday. She added that medical care is easier to access for Canadians. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, was conducted by Harvard Medical School researchers. They also found that:

• Canadians were seven per cent more likely to have a regular doctor
• Canadians were 19 per cent less likely than Americans to have their health needs go unmet.
• Americans were more than twice as likely to forgo needed medicines because of cost.

Discrepancies in health care become even wider when taking into account income, age, sex, race and immigrant status. In those kind of detailed comparisons, Canadians were 33 per cent more likely to have a regular doctor and 27 per cent less likely to have an unmet health need.

Meanwhile, Americans had higher rates of nearly every serious chronic disease, including obesity, diabetes and chronic lung disease, even though U.S. residents were less likely to be smokers.

"We pay almost twice what Canada does for care, more than $6,000 for every American, yet Canadians are healthier, and live two to three years longer," said Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor at Harvard and study co-author.

This first-ever cross-national health survey analyzed data from the Joint Canada/U.S. Survey of Health, with data collected by Statistics Canada and the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics.

It follows a similar study released earlier this month that found white, middle-aged Americans were less healthy than their British counterparts, who spent half as much on health care.

In the latest study, the researchers suggest the biggest barrier to health care in the United States is cost. More than seven times as many U.S. residents reported going without needed care due to cost, compared to Canadians.

Uninsured U.S. residents were particularly vulnerable, with 30.4 per cent having an unmet health need due to cost, the study reported.

Ah, probably because many German people did nothing and let it happen. I think some of them even joined the Hitler Youth Camp and eventually the German military. There is a famous religious guy who did this, but I just can’t remember what his name is.

Here is an excerpt of his speech:

In a place like this, words fail; in the end, there can be only a dread silence, a silence which itself is a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?

He’s basically asking “Where was God during the Holocaust?”, to which I would retort: “Where was Man?” Don’t blame God for the ills of mankind. Leave him out of it.

It’s not so much that he said what he said, it’s that he said it while Jon is on vacation and doesn’t have a chance to immediately rebut Bill. During his “Talking Points Memo” last night, Bill said this,

Now, many of these young Americans vote and they are influenced by celebrities and the press that fawns over them. In some young precincts it is hip to be dumb, cool to be uninformed. In fact, you're a geek if you know a lot about current events. Thus we have millions of Americans who get their news from Jon Stewart and their point of view from bomb-throwing entertainers.

Typical of bully mentality, he doesn’t have the stones to go after him while he’s currently working. He figures he can throw a bomb like he accuses so many others of doing. One might want to remind Bill that Jon’s audience is smarter than his.

"The president of Iran sent President Bush an 18-page letter. Yeah, right, like he's going to read that."

"Lincoln had an IQ of 120. Bush's IQ is under four score and seven."

"Did you know former president James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other at the same time?" Leno asked his audience. "That was Garfield. When President Bush heard about it, he said, `We had a talking cat for president?'"

"The new issue of Rolling Stone magazine features a cover story about President Bush called `The Worst President in History.'

"President Bush said, `That's not fair. I'm also the worst president in math, English and geography.'"

"The White House says President Bush is in no hurry to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court — which makes sense, since it took him four weeks to pick his favourite Teletubby."

He brought out tea and crumpets for Christ's sake. The man is loving it. Wait until CNN's Suzanne Malveux asks Press Secretary Scott McClellan, "Did the Presidnet know the Vice President was the shooter?"

Jon's Interview with Rob Corddry about the Vice President's hunting accident turns out to have some similarities to the Iraq War. Funny clip!

This is from the United Kingdom Guardian. While I agree with the erosion of good news services in the United States, I don't know if I want the world to be watching arabic news instead.

Arabic-language media have an unprecedented chance to take over as the world's premier news source because trust in their US counterparts plummeted following their "shameful coverage" of the war in Iraq, a conference heard today.

The US media reached an "all-time low" in failing to reflect public opinion and Americans' desire for trusted information, instead acting as a "cheerleader" for war, said Amy Goodman, the executive producer and host of US TV and radio news show Democracy Now!, at a news forum organised by al-Jazeera.

Newsweek's Paris bureau chief, Christopher Dickey, said the US media were dying because of cutbacks and weren't interested in covering the world outside America.

"The US media have done a shameful job of reporting on the Arab world. With the rise of al-Jazeera and independent media there is a chance for the Arab media to react back, but instead what we get is a clash," said Ethan Zuckerman, the co-founder of Global Voices Online and research fellow at the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School."If people in the US had a true picture of war - dead babies, women with their legs blown off, dead and dying soldiers - they would say 'no'," she said.

"There is nothing more important than the media - it is more powerful than any bomb or missile and we have to take it back ... we need a media that is independent and honestly showing us the images, the hell, ugliness and brutality of war, not selling us war."

Mr Dickey, the Middle East regional editor and Paris bureau chief at Newsweek magazine, said US media were "dying".

"After 25 years as a foreign correspondent I know what the US wants from the rest of the world: to forget about it."