Russia denies plane approached Canadian airspace

[CHIMO]

Last Updated: Friday, February 27, 2009 | 1:11 PM CT

Russia is denying that one of its aircraft approached Canadian airspace three days before U.S. President Barack Obama visited Ottawa on Feb 19.

Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Friday that Canadian CF-18 fighter jets at Cold Lake, Alta., scrambled to intercept the plane on Feb. 16 after North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) detected the Russian Bear long-range bomber headed for Canada.

The aircraft never did enter North American airspace.

MacKay confirmed the incident at a news conference in Ottawa with the chief of the defence staff, Gen. Walter Natynczyk, and the commander of Norad, Gen. Gene Renuart.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/02/27/arctic-russia.html

Afghan mission test of NATO, Harper says

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the NATO mission in Afghanistan is a serious test and its failure could have major ramifications for the military alliance, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Harper also said the Iranian government's ideology was "evil," the newspaper reported in its online edition late Friday.

"NATO has taken on a United Nations mission and NATO must succeed or I do think the future of NATO as we've known it is in considerable doubt," Harper said in an interview with the newspaper's editorial board.

"We have to get our act together . . . or NATO will not be able to undertake these kinds of missions in the future. There may be some around the NATO table who don't think it should. But if that's their position, that's not what they are saying."

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/594660

Canada's foreign affairs minister in Middle East

Canada's Foreign affairs minister travelled to the Middle East on Saturday for talks with several leaders on how to achieve a lasting peace in the region.

Lawrence Cannon planned to meet in Amman, Jordan with his Jordanian counterpart, Nasir Joudeh, and later with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

On Sunday, Cannon will be in Jerusalem to meet with Israeli officials and Monday he'll be in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for a conference on reconstruction in Gaza. Delegates will discuss how to meet the humanitarian needs of Gaza's population.

Cannon has said he hopes the meetings will offer some insights on how the international community can best support peace efforts.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/02/28/cannon.html

Just what is going on?

Flaherty wants a pass on three billion dollars. The Conservative bring out their justice bill that they killed by calling the unconditional election last year. And now we have this flurry of activity.

Is it to get our minds away from the coming bad news. Or is it to cut off something that is coming down the road?

I don't know. But Harper might have an idea!

Climate of Change

Elections have consequences. President Obama’s new budget represents a huge break, not just with the policies of the past eight years, but with policy trends over the past 30 years. If he can get anything like the plan he announced on Thursday through Congress, he will set America on a fundamentally new course.

The budget will, among other things, come as a huge relief to Democrats who were starting to feel a bit of postpartisan depression. The stimulus bill that Congress passed may have been too weak and too focused on tax cuts. The administration’s refusal to get tough on the banks may be deeply disappointing. But fears that Mr. Obama would sacrifice progressive priorities in his budget plans, and satisfy himself with fiddling around the edges of the tax system, have now been banished.

For this budget allocates $634 billion over the next decade for health reform. That’s not enough to pay for universal coverage, but it’s an impressive start. And Mr. Obama plans to pay for health reform, not just with higher taxes on the affluent, but by putting a halt to the creeping privatization of Medicare, eliminating overpayments to insurance companies.

On another front, it’s also heartening to see that the budget projects $645 billion in revenues from the sale of emission allowances. After years of denial and delay by its predecessor, the Obama administration is signaling that it’s ready to take on climate change.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/opinion/27krugman.html

Maybe you can make some sense out of it.