CTV Liberal Bias

Various Blogging Torys have discovered that CTV political reporters seem to have a Liberal bias. Or a bias in favour of the Liberals. No more so than Mike Duffy.

Conservative Life hits it on the head when he writes about the conflict of interest in the managment of CTV/Global Media and the fact that Charles Bird is the Ontario Liberal campaign manager and vice-president at Bell Globemedia (parent company of CTV and The Globe and Mail).

This is a conflict of interest but in Canada this is business as usual between the media and political parties. It is no different than Lord Blacks backing of the Reform/Alliance through his creature the National Post.

Or the Asper families editorial interference in the Canada.com papers by providing editorial content they had to run. Their direct interefence in stories about the middle east, defending Israel and labeling and opposition to Israeli as 'terorist'. And the Aspers also were long time funders and supporters of the Liberals.

While the Blogging Torys cry about CTV or the Globe and Mail bias in favour of the Liberals, their party is not on the recieving end of this bias as much as the Bloc is.

Duffy on his Mike Duffy Live and Countdown, literally oozes and gushes when he reports on the Liberals in Quebec taking on the Bloc. And it is not often he has any BQ spokespeople on his program. Whenever he has a federalist on whether a Conservative or Liberal he fawns over them if they take on the nasty seperatistes of the Bloc. It's the closest he gets to editorializing.

Mind you the NDP also get short shrift on Duffy's programs, for instance on his afternoon show, which runs opposite Don Newmans Politics on CBC Newsworld,
he has a segment called He Said She Said between Conservative and Liberal strategists. No NDP no BQ. What are only two parties running in this election.
One would think so watching Duffy's shows.



The same bias cannot be said of CTV's Question Period, where they have all four parties represented. Though apparently some is detected by Conservative Life and his readers, which is simply nit picking on their part much as they did recently over a change in a newstory on the CTV web site. Its called editing, but they saw in it a more nefarious conspiracy. Though again the Pro Federalist bias is still there.

Marc Garneau hopes to keep Canada together Liberal candidate Marc Garneau has represented Canada in space, but now he wants to represent a riding in Quebec to keep his country together.

On Don Newmans Politics, the supposedly 'liberal' (though not Liberal) media,CBC, all four party's are represented in debates between Party strategists or Media spokespeople.

Such was not the case last election in 2004. The bias was claring in the abscence of any Bloc prescence on either Politics or QP. I think in no small way my emailing and writing about this helped push Politics at least to finally invite the Bloc spokespeople on more often.

I mean here you have a party that was the Official Opposition, has the majority of seats in Quebec, and is the third party in the house and they get no recognition or very little on English Canadian media. As Monte Solberg would say, that's alien-nation.

So to the Blogging Tory's welcome to the wonderful world of corporate capitalism, where convergance means interlocking boards of directors, and interconnected management between corporate media and political parties. Where those in power in the corporate sector and the media sector want to be on the inside of political power. And for the last twelve years the Natural Ruling Party has been the Liberals. So you are surprised that the movers and shakers at CTV/ Bell Globemedia are Liberals?

Well let me tell you about a mover and shaker here in Alberta that works for the Conservatives, fundraises, and while not a media mogul has the ear of Ralph. Does Rod Love sound familiar? And he recently was a consultant to the Gomery Comission on democratic reform (sic) something he and his boss would never ever consider for Alberta.

So quit whining. If the Conservatives are ever elected as the Government the same thing will occur in the corridors of power and the media. And the BQ and NDP will still not be on He Said She Said.

The only Free Press belongs to those that own one.

A.J. Liebling





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CBC
Canada
Federal Election
CTV
Globe & Mail
Mike Duffy
Don Newman
Blogging Torys
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NDP

An NDP Coalition Government

Chatel Herbert in the Toronto Star says so. She is everyone's favorite and respected columnist, usually when she says nice things about their party or bad things about the other guys.

Warren K. was cheerful that Chantel had, like him, discovered that the Harper was now a born again 'progressive' (conservative) just like him. And Greg Staples joy that she likes Harper. She really likes him, Staples gushed.

I found that what Chantel said about the NDP was far more important despit the Harper Headline.

the minority Parliament has given the country a glimpse at a different future for the NDP.By co-authoring a federal budget, the NDP not only gave itself a record to showcase in the campaign but, for the first time in its federal history, the party has also had to defend its choices rather than just criticize those of others. That has forced it to start speaking the language of trade-offs, as Jack Layton did when he admitted that privately delivered health-care services and the Clarity Act were both here to stay. If New Democrats are to continue to hold sway in the Commons, they will have to become even more familiar with the practice of the art of the possible.To most Canadians, the notion that Ed Schreyer, Alexa McDonough, Bill Blaikie or Jack Layton could one day sit around a federal cabinet table alongside Liberal or even Conservative ministers seems far-fetched.But if the NDP ever gets the more proportional election system it is advocating, minority governments would become the rule rather than the exception. And the presence for the foreseeable future of a sovereignist party in the Commons would make the New Democrats the most likely bedfellows of any minority government, regardless of ideology.With the potential advent next month of a Parliament at least as sharply divided as the previous one, the notion of a coalition government may become a reality long before electoral reform stops being a policy abstraction in Canada.




Tags
Canada
Federal Election
Toronto Star
Chantal Herbert
Conservative
NDP
politics

Spellng

I hav alwys beleived that to critisize peuple for there spellng and gramma mythtakes wuz the lowest kinda attak its reely a cheep shoot. It avods discusing the reel argument that I or othrs might make. B-sides ths blogg dsnt alloww four spllchckng. Often I hav speling erors becuase I typo so fast that I make typ os rther than spellng mithtakes. So when you vsit and red my stuf here pleas excus the erors they realli r only typos. On the othr hnd all mythtakes here may b deliberite. Just 2 see IF yu are paying attntion.

Ayn Rand 100

It turns out that not only did 1905 usher in the first Russian Revolution, Dada, Einsteins Theory of Relativity, the IWW, Modernism and the avante garde as I wrote of here earlier, but it was also the year that Ayn Rand was born.

She was the ideologist of glorious unbridled individualist capitalism, sometimes mistaken for Libertarianism; the individualist ideology of Stirner, Netizche, Tucker, and Emma Goldman.

Such was not the case, hers was philosophy for Engineers who never took a liberal arts course. Her novels, dull and pedantic were seen by these same Engineers as great literature.

Her novel the Fountainhead was made into a forgetable movie, at the time that America began the Cold War, and mass consumerism abolished the memories of the pre war Depression. Her hero an architect was her ideal self sufficient individual, of course it helped he was rich and had lots of others to work for him.

Born in Russia she left in 1926. Her writing was influenced by the great Russian writer and individualist Eugene Zamaytin, whom she copied but never surpassed or even matched.

Hers was a materialist philosophy called Objectivism,a radical subjective psychology of making others into objects of appropriation for her selfish indvidual.

In normal situations, each man is responsible for himself and his own life, and that, socially, he should deal with others as a trader, meaning trading value for value, and dealing with others only by mutual voluntary consent. Never initiating force against another human being. Never sacrificing himself to others, or others to himself. That, in very brief, is the essence of the Objectivist ethics.

"Morality, And Why Man Requires It"

As a result her individualist psychology (morality) was that of happy adulter, her individualist morality that of the wife swapper, or in her case the husband swapper. For Ayn liked to wear the pants in the relationship. Her lifestyle like her philosophy was De Sadean. She dominated her circle of friends and students and partners.

She asked in her novel Atlas Shrugged; Who is John Galt? To which the reply is; Who Cares.

For more information click here.

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Ayn Rand
capitalism
individualism
objectivism
psychology
Atlas Shrugged
The Fountainhead
libertarian

I Won! I Won!

Why are you laughing?

MR. TOM WALKER.
ATLANTIC PROMOTIONS INTL
REF NUMBER: ATP/505/998/05
BATCH NUMBER: AT-770-SN13-05
Dear Winner,

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held on the 19th of December 2005. Your e-mail address attached to ticket
number 00742086-84 with serial number 7759-1882 drew lucky numbers
09-10-23-24-26-29-38, which consequently won in the 2nd category. You have
therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of ?2,000,000.00 (Two
Million, Euros only)

Note that all participants in this lottery program have been selected
randomly through a computer ballot system drawn from over 20,000 companies
and 30,000,000 individual email addresses from all search engines and
websites. This promotional program takes place every year, and is promoted
and sponsored by eminent personalities like the Sultan of Brunei and other
corporate organizations to encourage the use of the Internet and computers
worldwide.

For security purpose and clarity, we advise that you keep your winning
information confidential until your claims have been processed and your
money remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid
double claims and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants.

You are requested to contact our Lottery coordinator strictly by the email
below: freecoordinator@netscape.net. This is to assist you with your
winnings and subsequent payments immediately. All winnings must be claimed
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NOTE: YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFIED IF YOU ARE BELOW 18 YEARS OF AGE
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(LOTTERY COORDINATOR)
freecoordinator@netscape.net

Merry Christmaskah

Today is Christmas Eve and Chanuakah
So Don't Be A Scrooge or a Grinch
Share some cheer and mirth
With family and Friends

You Take Quebec, I'll Take Alberta

SEPERATIST ALLIANCE

You take Quebec, I'll Take Alberta

(sung to Leonard Cohens First They Took Manhatan)

They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
For trying to change the system from within
I'm coming now, I'm coming to reward them
First you take Quebec, then I'll take Alberta
I'm guided by a signal in the heavens
I'm guided by this birthmark on my skin
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons
First you take Quebec, then I'll take Alberta

Ah you loved me as a loser, but now you're worried that I just might win
You know the way to stop me, but you don't have the discipline
How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin
First you take Quebec, then I'll take Alberta

Tags
Duceppe
Canada
Federal Election
Politics
Conservative
Liberal
BQ
Stephen Harper

Vote Out Anders

Is notorious right wing anti-union, pro aparthied hack Rob Anders in trouble in Calgary West?

We can only hope so.

Like his pals Jason Kenney and Ezra LeRant, Anders is a graduate of the Fraser Insititute intern program.

He went on to become the point man for the joint Fraser Institute/ National Citizens Coalition campaign against unions in the ninties.

And like Kenney he cut his teeth in politics south of the border working for the Republicans. And he still keeps his Republican ties.

He was the spokesman for Canadians Against Forced Unionisation, a Fraser Institute/NCC front group to push for Right To Work laws in Alberta,in 1995, thinking the Klein government would be open to these 'reforms'.

In his bio on the Conservative.ca election page they coyly refer to his union busting attempts;

"Prior to entering Parliament, Mr. Anders directed a labour market project (sic) for the National Citizens Coalition."

Labour market project, yeah right, he was pushing for Right to Work laws, and ending 'compulsory unionization' in Alberta.


In 2000 Anders got into hot water for denying, whether by commission or ommission, student employment projects for his riding.

Rob Anders, Canadian Alliance MP for Calgary West, refused to approve 83 out of about 200 grants recommended for his riding by Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC), which has been the subject of an ongoing financial scandal. The funding provides summer jobs and work experience for students by helping organizations and businesses cover the cost of hiring them.

And then he really made the news with his denouncing Nelson Mandela;

In 2001, the Federal Government decided to give Mandela honorary Canadian citizenship, making him only the second foreigner to receive such an honour. Rob Anders disagreed, calling Mandela, "a communist and a terrorist," decrying Mandela as "the politically correct Left-lib poster boy of today", and predicting that he would be forgotten in 30 years.

For this Warren Kinsella placed Rob Anders in both the second and third place catagories for top ten political outrages of the Parlimentary session of 2000-2001

As a poster boy for the extreme right in the Reform/Alliance and now Conservative party, he has used his position as an MP to do little for his constiuents and much to advance his own personal right wing agenda.

As a result in the 2004 election residents in his Calgary West riding launched the Vote Out Anders Campaign, complete with website. And apparently they are back as of this week.

His problems don't end there. On the CBC forum on Calgary West where folks can leave their comments they are overwhelming against Anders.

One of his personal political campaigns is against China. Now being the complete opportunist he is, he has latched onto the Galun Fong and Tibetans in order to persue his personal anti-communist agenda.

Just as the old right wing would admonish about the communist reds in Russia and Cuba, Anders is opposed to Red China. And he has the support of friends who are even slimier, like the notorious racist and fascist, Paul Fromm who is associated with White Power and Nazi groups in Canada and internationally.

It is typical of proto-fascists to disguise their poitics as anti-communism. It was traditional in the the 1960's for folks involved in the KKK and White Power and Nazi movements to claim that they weren't racist but saving America from communism. When it came to Martin Luther King these same creeps claimed he was a communist. Anders is no different, his attack on Mandela was racist and fascist, using red baiting as a cover.

Today he does the same around China.

Reform MP Rob Anders was asked to leave a Chinese New Year celebration
on Parliament Hill because he was wearing a T-shirt calling for China to
get out of Tibet. The 27-year-old MP for Calgary West appeared at the Wednesday night event wearing the T-shirt, which a1so bore the slogans Stop Tiananmen
tanks, forced abortions, burning books, and independent Indo-China,
Korea and Taiwan.

As a flack for the NCC he is Stephen Harpers loyal syncophant. Harper defended Anders outrageous comments about Mandeala and offered no criticism around his Anti-China provocations.

Certainly we all remember Tianamen square, and I have blogged here critically of the state captialist regime in China but Anders is an opportunist. He is not genuinely concered with Tibet or even the Falun Gong. He is doing this because he is a fascist and red baiting anti-communist propaganda is a sure sign of it.

At a Conservative fundraiser in Calgary this past spring it is reported that he raised the old right wing bugaboo about bilingualism being forced on all us good White English Canadians.

"Bilingualism is a problem today" Rob said. He complained that plaques that had been unilingual are now English and French and that it "didn't help" that people spoke "Chinese and Arab and other languages too" in Canada.

Yep he really feels for the oppressed Chinese peoples.

During the second week of the election campaign Anders used his parlimentary franking privleges to send out a torrid pamphlet denouncing crack addicts, homosexual sex marriage, and calling for law and order, in Richmond B.C.!

But take a look at the front of this pamphlet, typical scare tactics and fearmongering so commonly used in Nazi like propaganda campaigns.
Does this look like an election pamphlet to you?

Wow I didn't know Richmond B.C. was New York. But considering the crime rate and the increasing gun violence in the Lower mainland which has people worried this was a provocation. And you paid for it with your tax dollars.

The term homosexual sex marriage, used in this pamphlet is another provocation. He deliberately called it that. He did not call it Same Sex Marriage. He attempted to conjure up lewd sexual imagery with his misanthropic malapropism. Again from last spring Anders said this;

Then we got to Rob's favourite topic - "moral decay". "The problem with homosexuality and gay marriage" was that it led to a declining birth rate

Huh? The man defintely has sex on the brain, but the decline in the birth rate is not the fault of gays or lesbians.

Rob is a Roman scholar as well. He like many reactionaries before him uses the decline of the Roman empire to explain what he sees as moral decay in modern society. During the Same Sex Marriage debate in the House of Commons he said this;

Edward Gibbon goes on in his work, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, to cite several things that made for the decline of the Roman Empire. One of those, the first that he cites, was the immorality that destroyed the integrity of family life.The second thing that Gibbon talks about is gender confusion and the problems that had in the Roman Empire. The third is disregard for religion. I think we can see some parallels today.

Once again, Augustus Caesar, to elongate the Roman Empire, restored the sanctity of marriage.

Those guilty of initiating divorce lost three-quarters of their property to their spouse. They did not get 50%. A woman would be stripped of her wealth and ornaments, and if the man introduced a new bride into his bed, his fortune would be lawfully seized by the vengeance of the exiled wife. We should think about that in terms of divorce rates. Offenders were even disabled from the repetition of nuptials. In other words, if people had a divorce they could not get remarried.

He stimulated the birth rate. He rewarded the parents of large families. As a matter of fact, if parents had as many as five children under the Emperor Augustus, they no longer paid any tax. One can imagine what not having to pay tax would do for a Canadian family with five children.

Yep you read that right Rob opposes divorce, and supports tax breaks for families with five children or more.

Another politician that was impressed by Augustus Ceaser and applied these same policies to his Reich was Adolph Hitler.

Augustus himself was not innocent of plotting executions to eliminate personal enemies. He favored loyalists like Herod who controlled their subjects, whatever the method. In fact, when he found that Herod was more effective in suppressing revolts than Roman governors In running the empire as a centralized corporation, he was more concerned to suppress public dissent than to promote social justice. Thus, he was also the father of the totalitarian state.

Both Hitler and Mussolin were fascinated with ancient Rome and attempted to ressurect it in the modern age.

For a self professed Christian, Rob sure does like them authoritarian pagan Roman Emperors who were slave owners and drenched in the blood of conquered peoples.

And despite his admonions about how great Augustus was, how moral, Rob did overlook Augustus Ceasars incestous affair with his sister. But then they hadn't run the HBO mini series Rome on cable yet.

Augustus' personal life, on the other hand, was a series of disappointments & disasters. He had no son & his only daughter's sons all died before him. So, he was forced to adopt his wife's son, Tiberius, whom he disliked. In public Augustus posed as champion of traditional family values; but the intrigues & scandalous behavior of his own family, including his wife, daughter & their children produced one of history's most lurid soap operas, complete with the murder of kin, public debauchery & incest.

In a commentary article in the right wing National Review Online Rob had an article on humour, a Canadian export south, where he said;

the Liberal party supports what is increasingly becoming a dogmatic, one-party-state (secular) theocracy.

Huh? A what? How can you be a secular theocracy, is Paul Martin the Pope or Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire? Is this another Roman refernce by Rob? After all Canada is a Catholic country.

And Rob wrote this last January the Liberals were a Minority government. Minority as in there were more opposition members than Liberals. I think Rob has gotten Ottawa confused with Alberta.

Besides voting against Same Sex Marriage, during the past sitting of the House,
Anders voted against:

C-2, Child Pornography
C-278, Employment Insurance

C-263, Prohibition of replacement workers in labour disputes

C-272, Sponsorship of a relative for immigration purposes
C-283, Immigration and refugee protection and sponsorships
C-206, Alcohol warning labels

C-14, Tlicho Land Claims and Self-Government Agreement

C-21, Not-for-profit corporations
C-13, DNA data bank
C-11, Whistleblower protection and procedure
C-17, Marijuana
C-65, Street racing
C-64, Prohibit removal of Vehicle Identification Number
C-63 An Act to amend An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act and the Income Tax Act
C-260 An Act respecting the negotiation, approval, tabling and publication of treaties (Treaties Act)
C-48, Budget Amendments

But he did vote in favour of
C-30, Parliamentarian salaries to increase in accordance with private sector salaries

Rob has a real thingee about drugs, in an article in the conservatice weekly Human Events he attempted to link the bust of B.C. provincial Liberal party staffers, members of Gordon Campells government, with Paul Martin and the booming B.C. marijuana trade.

So the citizens of Calgary West are once again being asked to vote, but unlike last election they have an alternative to Mr. Anders.

Jennifer Pollack the former chair of the Calgary Board of Education is running against Mr. Anders. Ms. Pollack is a high profile canadidate.

And one who has faced the wrath of Ralph Klein. She and members of her democratically elected board were ousted after the Klein government, in an unprecidented move, because they refused to be his scapegoat for deficits that were a direct result of his governments failure to fully fund public education.
It appeared this coup de dat was organized with the conivance of Conservatives on the the board. Fights began right after the election between the minority of Conservatives and the majority Liberals on the board. After being deposed by the Klein government, Pollack ran again and was relected to the school board.

Last election Anders got over 55% of the vote, with a lower voter turn out. than the 2000 election. The Liberals got just over 29% with a low impact campaign with a no name candidate. With an active Vote Out Anders campaign, pragmatic politicks calls for a united front vote for Pollack.

Tags
NCC
Canada
Federal Election
Politics
Calgary West
Conservative
Rob Anders
Nelson Mandela

B.C. will determine the winner

The battle field may be Ontario, but in reality it will be the West, sans Alberta, where the race will be run and won come election night. In particular it will finally be B.C.'s turn to determine who is in or out of government. The polls shows the largest variation between the Conservatives and Liberals occurs in Western Canada. Leaving out Tory Blue Alberta which carries little variance, the poll has been jumping up for the Liberals ,NDP and yes the Greens and a steady decline for the Conservatives.

Western Canada
Includes: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia

DATE	CON	LIB	NDP	GRN			FIRM
12/22/05	38	36	19	7			SES
12/21/05	39	35	20	7			SES
12/20/05	41	33	19	6			SES

Manitoba and Saskatchewan

DATE	CON	NDP	LIB	GRN			FIRM
12/22/05	41	29	27	3			Strategic Counsel

DATE	LIB	CON	NDP	GRN			FIRM
12/21/05	35	27	25	13			Leger

British Columbia

DATE	LIB	NDP	CON	GRN			FIRM
12/22/05	35	34	26	5			Strategic Counsel
12/21/05	39	29	26	6			Strategic Counsel
12/20/05	38	26	32	4			Strategic Counsel

DATE	LIB	CON	NDP	GRN			FIRM
12/21/05	34	32	24	5			Leger

Tags
Canada
Federal Election
Politics

Lets Not Forget the Hostages

The Christian Peace Keepers Team is still being held hostage in Iraq. These pacifist observers and activists are two Canadians a Brit and an American. Bush blathered on this week about the success he is having in Iraq and forgot to mention these hostages or the other victims of his imperial war. Their execution date has come and gone, and now their families and friends are still waiting.

Families of Iraq hostages issue new appeal

Christian Peacemaker Teams member Canadian James Loney, of Toronto, is seen in this undated handout photo.

This Christmas season our thoughts should be with them and the hunderds of Iraqi civilians held hostage by the Iraqi state and its American Occupying army. Light a candle, sign the petition, send an email of solidarity to the CPT.

I recieved this email on line from Sojourners, and since the article is only available by email I am posting it here.

'Waiting has taken on a whole new meaning'

by Rose Marie Berger

Living in Baghdad outside the Green Zone, Christian peacemaker Maxine Nash talks about what Advent means while four of her team members are held hostage.

WEB EXCLUSIVE

When Maxine Nash volunteered to go to Iraq, she didn't go with weapons ready. She went armed with her faith, her skills in conflict resolution, and her courage to be as defenseless as those she was serving: the ordinary people of Iraq.

Nash, 43, a Quaker from Waukon, Iowa, joined the Christian Peacemaker Teams' steering committee in June 2002. CPT provides organizational support to persons committed to faith-based nonviolent alternatives in situations where lethal conflict is an immediate reality. As her service with CPT continued she was hooked by CPT's fundamental question: What would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war? In the summer of 2003, Nash went through CPT's rigorous training in nonviolent intervention in conflict situations. In February 2004 she was on her way to Iraq, where she has been stationed full-time ever since.

CPT member Tom Fox visits with refugee children the month before he and three other team members were abducted.

On Nov. 26, four of Nash's team members were kidnapped by people calling themselves the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. In the days following the kidnapping, the group released videos of Tom Fox, 54, Norman Kember, 74, James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Sooden, 32, to al Jazeera threatening to kill the four men by Dec. 8 if detainees in U.S. and Iraqi prisons were not freed. The deadline was extended to Dec. 10; the date passed and there has been no further news. These four join hundreds of Iraqis who are currently held by kidnappers.

On Friday, Dec. 16, I called the CPT apartment in Baghdad and spoke with Maxine Nash about the four men, the Iraqi elections, and Advent. - RMB

BERGER: Maxine, thanks for talking to us. What are you and fellow Iraq team members Greg Rollins and Anita David doing in the midst of the kidnapping situation and the elections?

NASH: Well, right now we are pretty restricted to our apartment and our small neighborhood in Baghdad during the elections because of the road closures. They've been closed for three days and everybody is stuck right now. We haven't been able to get out and see what's happening very well, but we've been hearing lots from our neighbors.

BERGER: How was the voter turnout for this election?

NASH: There was an incredible voter turnout. People have told us that they waited in long lines and that the lines at the end of the day were as long as earlier on. This is different from the first election and referendum where the lines were pretty thinned out by the end of the day. This time it seemed pretty quiet. There was not a lot of violence or disturbances. In the past there has been a lot of on-the-ground violence in the voter lines. But the reports we hear is that this time everyone was smiling and friendly, and it was a good election.

BERGER: Were there any bombings?

NASH: The most we heard was mortars hitting the Green Zone. We heard one around 7 a.m. [Dec. 15] and a few more this morning. Because the mortars were clearly aimed at the Green Zone, the message seems to be clearly against the occupying force or the existing Iraqi government who are all headquartered in the Green Zone.

BERGER: Do you think the election outcomes will affect the work of CPT at all?

NASH: It's hard to know if the elections will affect our work. It's just wait and see for us, but we don't expect that the outcomes will have much effect on our ongoing work.

BERGER: Tell me about your ongoing work.

NASH: We have worked a lot on the detainee issue because we were getting requests from families who had a member taken into the American detention system and they needed English speakers to help them navigate the system. We first started doing that work when the Red Cross has been bombed. The Red Cross wasn't available to help, so people came to us. Now the U.S. has developed a better tracking system. We don't have to do so much of this work any more. It's easier for families to find people. Now we are doing a lot of human rights work to give media attention to situations that we think need more coverage.

BERGER: What are the current situations you are focusing on?

NASH: We are getting reports about people being disappeared within the U.S. detention system or in the Iraqi prison systems. We are trying to follow up on this.

BERGER: Have you seen a change in the presence of U.S. forces? The news we are getting is that they are pulling back.

NASH: The U.S. forces have pulled out of a few urban areas. In Karbala, for example, the Iraqi troops have taken over the area and the U.S. is much less visible. But Karbala is a pretty settled area. In Baghdad, there are still house raids and people being detained in the middle of the night - but we are seeing less of the U.S. troops. What we are learning though is that now the Iraqi troops have taken over doing the house raids and detaining people and are now putting people in Iraqi prisons. In areas with increased violence, like Ramadi, the U.S. troop presence has increased exponentially, according to the reports we hear.

BERGER: Thousands of people, including us here at Sojourners, are praying for the safe release of your four team members who are currently being held hostage.

NASH: Please tell every one thank you for us for the prayers. We wish that the four guys could somehow know that everyone is praying for them. In particular, I think Tom [Fox] is very aware of that kind of spiritual presence and I'm sure he feels it. A few weeks before they were taken we had a worship where we were doing centering prayer. Tom said that the word that kept coming to him in prayer was "open." Can you believe that? I think they all know that people are praying for them. Tom, I know, feels the spiritual support. And if he feels it, then he will tell the others.

BERGER: Has there been any further news about their fate?

NASH: There is no news yet. Continued prayers are our best hope. It really is the best thing we think to do. Also, please keep the story alive in the media. It keeps pressure on the kidnappers to acknowledge that the guys are who they say they are and to release them.

BERGER: What are your next steps?

NASH: We are looking for ways to expand attention to our human rights work. Tom, James, Harmeet, and Norman have now become part of that monitoring of human rights abuses. Our human rights work now includes the abduction of our four guys.

BERGER: What has waiting meant to you this Advent season?

NASH: My personal reflection is that waiting has taken on a whole new meaning. Advent is a season of hope. I am personally drawing strength from that. The comparisons between our Iraq and Jesus' Israel run through my mind. The season before Jesus was born was a troubling time. It was the time of an occupation. Jesus' parents were going to register for a census. We know what happened at the end: There was a miracle! We are hoping for the same thing at this point.

BERGER: How has your local community responded to the news of the kidnapping?

NASH: Our neighbors here are very saddened by what has happened. Many of the families here have had members kidnapped. For them it is not a new situation. But they know that we are here for the right reasons and that we are one of the few NGOs still here. They are very much against what has happened. They tell me, "I saw Tom on the TV and I cried," because that's how they found out the news. They bring us meals or ask if they can do shopping for us. The 10-year-old daughter of our neighbor told us she was doing her daily prayers for our kidnapped folks. It's very, very touching.

BERGER: Is there anything else you would like to say?

NASH: We want to express our deepest and sincere thanks for the outpouring of support that we have received. We've found out about all kinds of people doing things for us. Even the variety of people who have come out in support. There are people we would never have imagined - Muslim clerics and religious leaders. We are so thankful for the amount of support we've received. It's very hard for us even to imagine here in our cocoon in Baghdad, but we hear about all the vigils and prayers and things people are doing. We are very grateful.

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Iraq Team Message to the Missing CPTers
17 December

Dear Harmeet, Jim, Norman, and Tom,

We still are longing to see your faces. So many people continue to let us know that they are thinking of you and praying for you. As Christmas approaches, we continue to hope that you will be able to join us and your families for the celebrations. Anita has written her aunt for the best turkey dressing recipe known to the world. We continue to stay in touch with your families. Your friends in Iraq ask about you all the time. We don't know how much you get outside, but the weather is nice here in Baghdad. We hope to see you soon.

With much love,
Your Teammates in Baghdad

+ See CPT's response to President Bush's address about the war in Iraq

+ Keep up with the CPT captives' news on the "Free the Captives" blog

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