Editor’s Notes

Flying high, left, right, and centre

Carlius Dowius says a bird needs two wings to fly: a left wing, and a right wing, with the decisions, naturally, taken by the centre. In politics, the best decisions are made at the centre. A problem is that the centre tends to shift one way or another. Too many fail to meet the challenge and find themselves behind, too far right or too far left, and out of control. True North has a compass bearing on a centre that is too far right for some and too far left for others but one that is very comfortable for us.

One, on the right, cancelled his subscription to True North in outrage because of Marion Endicott’s story challenging John McCallum on the question of taxes. Another subscriber, who did not cancel his subscription, said Mr. McCallum had been treated unfairly. One subscriber expressed surprise at the space given Martin D. Weiss and his rightwing political and economic assessments. Another was amused, as well as surprised. Neither cancelled his subscription.

We don’t think Mr. McCallum is a villain. We’re going to have more to say about the question of taxes and will do our best to include Mr. McCallum’s explanation of his position. Off the top, I think personal income taxes, at least, are far too high — this includes the amount of money being raked off by the federal government from Employment Insurance payments. But Ms. Endicott’s position on how accumulated tax money is not being spent on promises that are still unfulfilled is well taken. It seems that we should be able to marry the two. But time will tell.

In the spirit of left, right, and centre, (and villains) we offer a transcript of a recording by the British Broadcasting Corporation of a telephone conversation between Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. Castro called Chavez from his recovery location in Havana while the latter was performing on his daily radio talk show called Hello President in Caracas. We’re to believe that the call was a surprise to Chavez (I’ll take that with more than a grain of salt) but what’s interesting is what they chose to talk about. For example, Chavez says that it will take 20 million hectares (50 million acres) to grow enough vegetation to make one million gallons of ethanol. How does that compare with the amount of fuel consumed by vehicles in North America today? And how many acres will it take to grow it? Somebody do the math and let us know. The concept is breathtaking but I won’t hold mine.

Bob Herbert of The New York Times reflects on African slavery in America and how it caused deep wounds that still fester today.

We have another must-read transcript of an interview with Karen Kwiatkowski, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, who formerly worked for the Pentagon and the National Security Agency. She’s a Pentagon whistler-blower who provides us with an inside look at shocking behaviour of Donald Rumsfeld and others. Let’s keep in mind, as we identify with our southern neighbour, we like to think of ourselves as the good guys. So when our good guys go bad it’s simply unacceptable.

Final for end the week, we have Ray McGovern who works with Tell the Word, the publishing ministry of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. He was a CIA analyst for 27 years and now serves on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). Mr. McGovern, in calm delivery, points to Vice-President Dick Cheney as the primary danger to mounting an unjustified war on Iran. Don’t miss this if you want to understand world politics during the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, slow down and find time this weekend to curl up with printouts from this issue of True North.

Looking forward

Carl Dow
Editor and Publisher.