Remember that old "Axis of Evil" thingie concocted by Bush and Co.? Here's a refresher (emphasis added):

Remember this little tidbit of news (via here) from last month? Here's a refresher:

The increasing erosion of our constitutions, civil rights and democracies as they are being gradually subjugated by Authoritarian Security Surveillance States. The bloating no-fly lists and terrorist watch-lists. The continuing inhumane and barbaric renditions, "enhanced interrogations" and indefinite detentions - of children, teenagers and adults alike. The continuing standing of Military Commissions, which are nothing more than politically-driven, rigged, kangaroo courts. The seemingly unending wars of choice and occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq - both based on lies to justify a vengeance operation for 9/11 and the securing of foreign oil resources. The ever mounting toll of civilian deaths, displaced refugees and soldier casualties.

This is the overall state of things today with regards to our so-called "Western civilization" - especially with regards to the U.S.A., the U.K. and Canada.

As the world turns and seasons come and go, the Afghanistan adventure remains a disastrous quagmire.

Except, of course, in the feverish minds of those (neocon) cheerleading supporters of this FUBAR and dedicated Bush supporters/emulators/followers, such as Canada's very own Defense Minister Peter McKay (emphasis mine):

It would seem that our democracies in Canada and the U.S.A. are not the only ones ailing - especially with regards to the increasing - and successful - assaults on our privacy and civil liberties ... all in the name of the false God of Security.

Indeed - things are not looking so good either in the U.K. Case in point with the following article (and I invite you good folks to rejoin me below after reading it):

The following report from ABC says a lot about our current Semi-Dark Ages (h/t):

No one is safe - at all. Not even agents of the government.

The plight of activist journalist Susan Lindauer is proof enough that when an administration seeks to cover its tracks for its sheer incompetence, it will go to great lenghts in order to do so - including destroying the lives of citizens.

Yes, it can happen. It has happened.

And there's no reason to think that it won't ever happen again.

Via Raw Story: A new poll of citizens’ attitudes about torture in 19 nations finds Americans among the most accepting of the practice. Although a slight majority say torture should be universally prohibited, 44 percent think torture of terrorist suspects should be allowed.

Think about this: almost half of Americans actually support torture of suspected terrorists.

No, really: Think. About. This.

Hard.

Things have now reached such a sorry state of affairs in Afghanistan, that if one would wish to cherry-pick failures over "successes" simply could not do so - however much one would try.

For before, failures "only" overwhelmingly outnumbered small, inconsequential "successes". Now, even such small, inconsequential "successes" have become a full fledged rarity.

So, "they" capitulated on FISA in order to grant telecom companies and corporations immunity from lawsuits for illegally using and providing private information of their consumers to security agencies at the behest of the U.S. government.

Here's a question that has been nagging at me all along with this desire on the part of telecom companies to be granted such immunity: was it really in order to avoid lawsuits?

President George W. Bush launched a "farewell tour" to Europe in order to "solidify" relations, among other delusional objectives to bolster his self-importance in the judging eyes of History, as opposed to remedy in a small measure his demonstrated incompetence - and that of his administration - over his two mandates as President.

A newly declassified report reveals true motivations for sending Maher Arar to Syria - where he was tortured - as the U.S. reopens the probe into his mistreatment (h/t) (emphasis added):

Two items.

First one: the long-awaited Senate Select Intelligence Committee report is out, confirming what everyone in the reality-based progressive community has known for a long time - that the Bush administration (including President Bush and V.-P. Cheney) made public statements to promote their invasion of Iraq which they knew full well were not supported by available intelligence.

(i.e. they "lied their asses off")

Behold incompetence defending itself (the 4th Principle of Incompetence in action) (emphasis added):

With all the fearmongering that has been going on over the last 4-5 years with regards to Iran's nuclear energy program, including the typical evocations of WMDs, WWIII and "mushroom clouds", I dug up the following article from the vault of Project Censored ("The news that didn't make the News") which has been ranked as No. 2 in the Top 25 censored stories for 2007.

In the wake of former WH press secretary Scott McClellan's revelations, especially concerning the traditional media's shameful neglect of their watchdog role in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, whereby reporters were essentially "complicit enablers" of the Bush administration’s push for war, some reporters and anchor persons have come out to corroborate such revelations (particularly concerning the roles of corporate hacks), while others remain in their self-deluded ivory towers of denial.

In any case, my (not-so-rhetorical) question is: is there anything about the MSM's subservience to the Bushies and the right-wing noise machine new here?

(Note: although the following deals with what has been happening in my own province, I feel that the subject of the matter and its dénouement are quite à propos for any secular, free and "open" society - especially with regards to the still on-going debates about immigrants and immigration)

The Bouchard-Taylor Commission on cultural differences and immigrant integration in Québec launched a series of public hearings in September 2007, travelling throughout the province in order to hear from individual citizens, groups and institutions, in addition to experts on cultural communities, immigrant issues, religion and Québec's identity.

The commission, headed by philosopher Charles Taylor and sociologist Gérard Bouchard, aimed at capping the often bitter public debate on reasonable accomodation and integration of immigrants in the province.

The report has been released and is now available online for public consultation (the english version is to come "shortly").

(Updated below)

The following constitutes mainly a repost of something I've written last year, along with new commentary added. The reasons for this are two-fold: A) there has been zero development on the matter since last year; and B) today is BloggersUnite's Human Rights day.