Ticket photo of the week: Steely abs in just 14 hours a day

It's been a while since the U.S. border with neighboring Canada (or "neighbouring," if you're reading this up there) was wired and mined every few feet against marauding commandos infiltrating the lower 48 to assassinate or kidnap average citizens.

So many Americans might find it hard to grasp the preparedness mentality that perpetually grips the Republic of Korea and its own version of special forces, shown here during recent training exercises preparing for something.

For more than half a century, the democratic nation and close U.S. ally has lived with the threat of a possible repeat invasion of the hermit folks from North Korea led by that champagne-loving, looney little guy Kim with the Carol Channing sunglasses.

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-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Bae Jae-Man / Reuters

Social media wrap: Brewer, Issa, Thompson and others react to Arizona immigration law [updated]

 

[Updated at 5:27 p.m.:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.): my reaction to the court ruling on the #Arizona #immigration law http://tinyurl.com/2vs7q4g

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa: According to the Supremacy Clause of our constitution, immigration is a federal issue. Today’s decision is the right one ... The court decision to enjoin the worst parts of AZ’s SB 1070 reaffirms Americans' most basic constitutional rights.

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.): Disappointed in this ruling today – our immigration laws need to be strengthened, not weakened. http://fb.me/uclMVqAp

Michigan Atty. Gen. Mike Cox: Today a fed judge enjoined AZ immigration law from taking effect. We will assist Gov Brewer's appeal to allow AZ to protects its citizens

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: This is no longer a government of the people, by the people and for the people. It's a government of the government, by the government and for the government.
 

 

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer: The fight is far from over. Arizona will prevail in its right to protect our citizens. Read my statement: http://bit.ly/btFPFS]

 

Oh, say can you see banning the National Anthem?

 

 

Now that both the United States and Canada have celebrated their respective national summer holidays, there comes news out of Florida of a simmering dispute over their respective national anthems. With the result that both got banned.

Canada celebrated the oddly named Canada Day on July 1 with much playing of "O Canada," the national anthem that became official in 1980 and, this being Canada, has two versions, one in French and one in English. The versions actually have different lyrics, but that's another story.

July 1 each summer is about the time many eager Canadian families up in North America's attic begin laying out the planks for their backyard ice rinks.

The peaceful Canadian holiday that roughly coincides with the start of that country's pro ...

 

Ah, those Canadians really know how to put on a G-something diplomatic party

As the renowned statesman Mel Brooks once put it, "It's good to be king." And queen.

Having solved many of the world's problems, hunger, disease and capped the gulf oil spill, Nicolas and Stephen and Barack, Dmitry, Angela and David share jokes about voters back home picking up the tab for their party in Toronto at the G-8 part of this weekend's gathering of international leaders.

The Salahis were unable to attend due to other commitments.

Meanwhile elsewhere in Toronto, Canadians and others celebrate the Lakers NBA championsh...oh no, wait.

These folks are displaying their unhappiness with the diplomatic do-dah in a fashion fast becoming a tradition at such regular international gatherings -- the ceremonial police car burning.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photos: Jason Reed / Pool (Nicolas Sarkozy, Stephen Harper, Obama, Dmitry Medvedev, Angela Merkel and David Cameron); Ryan Remiorz / Canadian Press

Dennis Miller to Steve Nash: How about we bus illegal immigrants up to Canada?

Count Dennis Miller in the camp that likes Steve Nash the basketball player but doesn't think much of Steve Nash the political activist.

Nash, a two-time (cough, cough) recipient of the National Basketball Assn.'s "most valuable player" award doesn't like Arizona's new immigration law (unlike the majority of Americans, who do approve).

"I think the law is very misguided," said Nash, a Canadian. "I think it is unfortunately to the detriment of our society and our civil liberties, and I think it is very important for us to stand up for things we believe in."

So Nash, and the rest of the Phoenix Suns players, wore "Los Suns" jerseys last night to protest the controversial new immigration law. 

Miller, appearing on Bill O'Reilly's program last night, called his statements "kid-like" (not Jason Kidd-like) and offered Nash a suggestion.
 
"Steve, what if we were empathetic with the illegals coming in and we met them at our border and gave them all a shower and a full hot meal and a hundred American dollars and put them in a beautiful Stratocruiser bus and took them up -- you're Canadian -- to the Canada border, and just set them free across the border? Miller asked.

"You know you'd have problems with that," he said.

Miller said he had empathy for those who have issues with the law, but is more concerned with the family of a cattle rancher who authorities suspect was killed by an illegal immigrant who worked as a scout for drug smugglers.

"I'm empathetic to the family who's looking up at the end of their dining room table and the old man's dead 'cause he was croaked by some drug addict who was in the country illegally from Mexico," Miller said.

"I'll get to the empathy for the guy who might be rousted by a bad cop down the road. Right now, my heart aches for that family and that guy," he said.

Twitter reaction was mostly positive on Miller's appearance, but our favorite tweet came from RyanRMiner who said: "If you don't think Dennis Miller is funny, you need educated."

-- Jimmy Orr

Photo: Sign held by a fan at the Phoenix Suns basketball game Wednesday.  Credit: Associated Press

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William Shatner for commander of Canada? Why not!

Dammit Jim, he's an actor, not a politician!

But if fans of William Shatner have their way, the captain of the USS Enterprise will be the head honcho of Canada. Sort of. Head appointed one anyway.

Set your phazers on stunned. A technology reporter from Canada's National Post, apparently having a slow news day, created a Facebook page promoting the Canadian-born Shatner for the position of Governor General of Canada, the Queen's official representative. And at this writing, nearly 40,000 people had signed up for the cause.

"Little did I know, the quirky project I started on a lark would soon become...

American Robert Gibbs eats Canadian hockey crow

It's not been a good week for Obama White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, sportswise.

First, he had to endure a celebratory visit to the White House with the big boss by the national collegiate football champion University of Alabama Crimson Tide. Honoring his allegiance to Auburn, Gibbs boycotted that event, as The Ticket reported here.

Today, as an apparent sign of shame, a good-natured Gibbs was forced to don a Canadian hockey jersey because on their second try in the recent Olympics, the Canadian pro players beat the United States' pro players.

Apparently, like thousands of Americans and millions of Canadians, Gibbs was paying attention to the hockey rematch recently and placed a wager with his Canadian counterpart, Dimitri Soudas, said wager reportedly also to involve delivery of some alcoholic libations to the office of Canada's President Stephen Harper.

Yes, of course, we know he's really a prime minister. But it was Gibbs' boss, the ex-state senator and Harvard grad, who referred to Canada's leader as president during the U.S. presidential campaign.

After a moment before the cameras to honor the wager, Gibbs switched to a Hockey USA sweater.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press

Sarah Palin says her family once went to Canada for healthcare

Sarah Palin could see Canada's healthcare from her window.

The former Alaska governor and current media favorite told an audience in Calgary on Saturday that her family had sneaked to Canada when she was growing up to take advantage of the universal healthcare system.

She described in a somewhat fishy story hopping the border one time when her brother injured himself, according to the Canadian Press.

"Believe it or not -- this was in the '60s -- we used to hustle on over the border for healthcare that we would receive in Whitehorse," she told the crowd.

"I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing, and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn't that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting healthcare from Canada?"

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-- Mark Milian

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Photo: Associated Press

Oh, Canada! Even without government healthcare, USA thumps them 5-3 in Olympic hockey

Canada is a really cute little country, that is 10% larger than the United States with about 10% of its population. They're usually very polite in Canada, eh? Off the ice anyway.

Canadians do spell some words funny for North Americans. But they have a comfortable standard of living up there, despite having a whopping federal sales tax and only being able to afford three downs in their version of football.

For generations Canadians have taken great pride in their prowess at moving a deadly piece of rubber -- or even a frozen wad of horse manure -- around on outdoor and indoor sheets of ice with a stick. They call the game hockey and have been frustrated that the world does not fall down in awe at Canada's decades-long dominance.

Especially frustrating to the fragile Canadian psyche has been the widespread indifference toward the wonderfully rapid, violent, finessed, non-stop game by most Americans, who'd rather watch overweight football players pat each other's butts and spend 40 seconds planning the next play.

But now Canadians may be regretting what they wished for. Earlier this winter in the World Junior Championships of hockey so closely followed by Canadians and completely missed by all Americans except the players' families, the red-white-and-blue Team USA of mostly 20-year-olds defeated the Canadian wannabes, among other on-ice victims.

This occurred in a Canadian place called Saskatoon, which is a lovely city of mud streets and log cabins. Just kidding. It hasn't been that way for years.

And then in an exciting back-and-forth game at the Olympics on Sunday, the skilled, experienced Canadian team and its irrational, cocky fans already anticipating a gold medal game against Russia got blown away in a preliminary round by a younger, less-experienced but hungrier team of Americans who out-hustled the perennial, suddenly embarrassed favorites to win 5-3.

No, it wasn't the Miracle of 1980. But it was the first time the homegrown U.S. players had beaten Canada in Olympic competition in a half-century. And, as in Saskatoon, on Canadian home ice no less. Canadians are incapable of seeing the loss and the U.S. celebration as final recognition that the Canadian game really matters.

So, Canadians, including the once-wise Wayne Gretzky, were shocked and stunned and disappointed and crushed and angry and, did we mention, shocked.

Not that many Americans will notice, but now (see photo of the good sports above) the Canadians would like to change the subject away from their disastrous Olympic hockey showing in-progress over to the subject of healthcare. That would be as exciting as watching football on PBS.

Actually healthcare is what many Americans are trying to avoid by watching Edward Scissorhands and crowd dance around on skates in Vancouver instead of watching what's-his-name in the White House.

Obama couldn't be bothered going to the Olympics in next-door Canada, so he sent Joe I Used to Ride the Train Every Day Biden. And last year Obama wouldn't motorcade even a few blocks to an NHL playoff game when Washington was in them. If he can't hold yet another town yawn on healthcare, Obama much prefers basketball. Which, btw, was invented by Canadian James Naismith.

Did we mention the USA-Canada hockey score Sunday was 5-3 with the northerners on the short end.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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No hard feelings over Copenhagen: Obama sends B team Biden to Canada's Vancouver Olympics

Not that there's any hard feelings in the Obama White House toward the International Olympic Committee.

All the international conglomerate of elderly delegates did was allow Mr. and Mrs. Barack Obama to fly the 4,000 miles from Washington to Copenhagen last fall to pitch the 2016 Summer Olympics bid by Chicago and listen politely to the glamorous couple and then unceremoniously dump the Windy City on the opening vote before the first pair even got home.

That's not the Chicago way. Not how things usually go for Mayor Richard M. Daley and the Democratic political machine that is unaccustomed to losing and totally accustomed to getting however many votes it needs for whatever it wants from wherever it can, dead or alive.

This machine that allowed Obama to thrive as long as he made no local waves has run everything in Chicago for longer than most of those Olympic geezers have been alive. Good thing the IOC won't be needing any building permits, health inspections or garbage pickups there anytime soon.

It might encounter some real problems. If you catch our drift.

As one result of that civic rejection, the American president, who could fly up to Boston on a moment's notice in a hopeless bid to salvage one U.S. Senate race, cannot possibly fit into his impossibly important schedule a visit to the IOC's 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics to send off hundreds of U.S. athletes.

The Winter Games open this week a few miles north of Washington state. Just too far to go and too much to do changing the way Washington works, you understand. So that it's more Chicago-like.

So Obama is sending in the second string for Friday's opening ceremonies, Delaware's Joe "I Rode Amtrak for Years Without a Crash" Biden.

Of course, to avoid wasting any trip, after a Wednesday evening fundraiser in Washington on his way to represent the United States in Vancouver, Biden will squeeze in a fundraiser for Washington Democrat Sen. Patty Murray.

And for the closing ceremonies, it's even worse. The White House is dispatching whatever string Homeland Security Secy. Janet "The System Worked" Napolitano is.

Too bad.

The Obamas will miss out on seeing arguably North America's most beautiful city. And their absence will be taken quietly as another snub by the United States' closest, friendliest, most important neighbor -- or neighbour, if you're reading this north of the border.

This is Canada's biggest moment on the world stage in years. And its partner in the world's largest bilateral economic relationship sends in the same gaffe-prone gabber who was assigned the secondary chore of briefing Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Obama's Afghan surge speech last fall.

While the Main Man briefed the world's really important leaders himself.

For all that, the judges would probably give the administration a 1.2.

(UPDATE, Feb. 11`: Here is the president's complete announced Friday schedule, as provided by the White House, that is so crammed he was unable to attend the Olympic opening: "In the morning, the President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing, the Economic Daily Briefing, and meet with senior advisors in the Oval Office. These meetings are closed press."

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Getty Images (file).