Pubdate: Mon, 05 Sep 2005
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2005 The Calgary Sun
Contact:  http://www.calgarysun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: Bill Kaufmann
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

DOORMAT FACTOR

Johnny Appleseed Of Pot Falls Victim To 'Rogue Regime'

For some Canadians, being a doormat for the Bush administration is a sign 
of strength and fortitude.

Alberta always seems to harbour more of these types of Canadians than any 
other province; to them, servility to Washington over Iraq and missile 
defence is proof of having a spine.

Some arms of our government have followed suit, bending over every which 
way to accommodate the U.S. in its pursuit of B.C.-based marijuana seed 
peddler Marc Emery.

There's been no sign that our law enforcement authorities will alter their 
submissive ways even in the face of Washington's all-too characteristic 
flouting of international law -- this time in the softwood lumber dispute.

Mind-bogglingly, we're still willing to play ball with a rogue regime in 
its attempt to extradite Emery to face charges for what's legal in Canada. 
The DEA was having a slow week in its eternally dubious "war on drugs," so 
it was Canada to the rescue.

Bush tauntingly withholds $5 billion in duties that rightly belong to our 
lumber industry, while we grovellingly expend legal resources and 
sovereignty rounding up a botanist for a coun-try that won't do us any favours.

Instead, maybe Canada should insist on the extradition of those U.S. 
leaders who so incompetently invaded Afghanistan, setting up their warlord 
allies to transform that land into a narco state that's flooding the world 
with cheap heroin.

While the George W. Bush posse hunts a Canadian cannabis Johnny Appleseed, 
it crafts a plan to counter rapacious crystal meth that even fellow 
Republicans are condemning as toothless and a sop to big-business.

The plan would limit the amount of crystal meth precursor pseudo-ephedrine 
to be sold by retailers at 110 pills at a time -- not per month, nor 
confined to pharmacies.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said it appears the White House 
was "listening more to Wal-Mart than to the economic and social problems" 
sown by meth. That's only one instance of the U.S. government also 
kowtowing to a pharmaceutical industry -- whose products we're led to 
believe are essential but cause more damage to health than Emery ever could.

Law and order types in Canada so willing to offer up Emery should insist 
the U.S. tighten its death-friendly gun laws and rein in a weapons industry 
pumping out handguns it knows are smuggled in abundance across the border. 
Unlike Emery's seeds, it's an export that's ending lives.

Of course, none of that would occur to those who were readying the red 
carpet for U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who was heading this way to 
drool over the oilsands until he had to postpone because of Hurricane 
Katrina's aftermath.

When asked if a visit by the man whose lies led to an enduring bloodbath in 
a suspiciously oil-soaked Iraq makes him nervous, Premier Ralph Klein 
shrugged his shoulders.

"The U.S. administration is finally paying attention to the oilsands in 
particular," said Ralph.

Oh, they've been paying attention for some time, Ralph.

"As it relates to the U.S. national energy policy, as opposed to the NEP 
that we had, where (the U.S.) seeks to have a secure and reliable supply of 
oil abroad, it speaks to the fact they need to look no further than 
Can-ada," added Klein, who could've been describing the U.S. NEP in action 
"abroad" in Iraq.

Klein's successors may find they've a lot less reason to look with concern 
at Ottawa's covetousness than Washington's.

An energy-hungry bully that tells us how it's going to be in sectors like 
lumber regardless of trade rulings, fairness and law might find it even 
harder to resist reading us the riot act in who we sell our hydrocarbons to.

Nothing would focus the mind of someone like the champion 
of-secret-energy-policy Cheney than threatening to withhold preferential 
treatment on petroleum matters.

Meanwhile, with their border still closed to older Canadian cattle, the 
U.S. continues to screw us over beef. Our continued politeness over it is 
astounding.

At a recent press conference over just that issue, Conservative MP Myron 
Thompson, whose party serves as apologists for the outlaw Bush bunch, 
seemed to be getting an inkling.

"Stop the greed, stop the feuding -- let's get serious," implored Myron, on 
the verge of awakening to the Bush-Cheney scorn for international 
agreements unless it suits them.

Sorry, Myron -- the Bush cartel that ignores treaties on torture, military 
aggression, disarmament, global warming and trade isn't about to play nice 
with even a sycophantic Canada.

What has British submission to Bush won Tony Blair other than White House 
contempt and homegrown terrorism?
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman