your nigga Nigo and Lil' Skateboard P



and a BBC website actually worth going to (that's not a dig on Brit Broadcasters- that's a hateon the official Boys Club site)

Yeah, the Conservatives finally translated the tapes and released them today (why it takes nearly two weeks to translate four hours of Punjabi is beyond me...). My own take is that either the ethics commissioner or the RCMP (or both) should investigate and air the situation out, just because there are too many speculative questions surrounding the whole affair (What else is on the tapes? What's the role of the PMO in all this? What, if anything, was being offered? etc.)

My question about this story, though, stems from something that my Dad mentioned when I was discussing this with him yesterday. He said something to the effect that this will end up tarnishing the East Indian community. I had difficulty believing this; mostly because the only overt reference to the nationalities of the Grewals and Ujjal Dosanjh in the media (other than their names, of course) is the fact that the bulk of the recordings were in Punjabi.

(On a side note, my Dad also believes that there exists a popular opinion that Asians are taking over the country's universities (with the implication that this is a somewhat conspiratorial and patently unfair takeover), but he wouldn't divulge to me the source of such an opinion.)

Supposing for a momment I grant that most Canadians (or Albertans, for that matter) can associate the "Grewal", "Dosanjh", and "Punjabi" with India without some sort of prompting, is the potential tarnishing of the image of the East Indian community because of this incident a valid concern? I get the feeling that the only people who would consider that possibility are either East Indians themselves or those with some prior standing issue with the community.

I realize this may not be the best group to ask this of, and that this story perhaps isn't prominent enough to get a conclusive answer to my question. Nevertheless, I am curious if anyone else, either from opinions of other around you or from the media representation of this story, considers this an "East Indian" issue, or simply a "bah, politics. who cares?" kind of issue?

Bah, I forgot to close a tag...

Anways, here is another link with a bit more about Grewal and his past.

Well, I have to say that the Zolf article was a bit of a surprise. Generally he expresses a more partisan twist.

Here is another link from CTV today. The interesting stuff in this one was:

"Transcripts of Grewal's taped conversations show Prime Minister Paul Martin was ready to talk to Grewal about defecting and to offer him a government post within two weeks of the vote, CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife reported Monday."

Yet, PM PM had always said "No offer was made". My impressions are that it sounded like something was in the works...

Also, that links says that Grewal had asked for Volpe to be involved... yet the impressions I had from the news before was that the PM's aide Murphy that had offered that up. Either way, Murphy did mention it to Volpe (link)

Oh yeah, here is that link to the Andrew Coyne acticle that Zolf mentioned: "He started it" is not a defence

Anyways, I would have thought the ethics commisioner or RCMP would have been involved by now and that the other party leaders wouldn't have to be calling for it. Maybe everyone is waiting for the tapes.

Here's that George Galloway transcript, Gaut. (That's the Scottish MP that dressed down the US Senate committee on its allegations against him relating to Iraq.) The BBC has video, too.

Assigned reading, class: L’affaire Grewal.

Seriously, though, if some of you could read this, I have some questions later. (I apologize for selecting an opinion piece, but this seems to give a good overview of the story. If you prefer, here are a couple of CTV stories about the topic.)

I appreciate your help on this one.

Bored? Need something to do for fun? You could always beat a homeless guy to death.

The secret of Sasparilla solved:

Sasparilla
and it's Dennis the Menace's sippage of choice.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon baking yeast
4 1/2 pounds light brown sugar
3 ounces root beer extract
4 gallons water

Preparation:

Dissolve yeast in one cup of lukewarm water. Let sit. In a pot, combine the four gallons of water, sugar, and extract. Mix thoroughly and heat slightly until the mixture is consistent. Turn off the heat. Let cool. Add yeast. Mix well. Bottle. Let sit for seven to ten days. Makes four gallons.

On Baby Geniuses:

Weird, the ciritcs hated this movie. I LOVED it. Its so funny, and the babies are superbly acted. Its amazing, like watching that doggie show where they are all trained and junmp the fences. SPECTACLUAR.

In a few years your cell-phone may be nuclear powered.

And on a semi-related topic: why the fuck do people still insist on pronouncing it NOO-KYU-LER? It's NOO-KLEE-ER, you dipshits!!! Sound it the fuck out already!


That one's a bit of a pet-peeve of mine in case you couldn't tell.