Here are some thoughts on the 2008 federal elections in Canada:

Like many US presidents before him, George W. Bush is taking the exact same path.

During most of his first and second term, they are pro-Israel and pretty hawkish when it comes to the Middle East. For example, Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, attempted to redefine "occupied territories" in 2002, by calling them "so-called occupied territories", contrary to UN resolutions and internationa law.

Media bias is a well known fact. Here is an example on how two Canadian news organizations are reporting on Christmas celebrations by the Christian Palestinians in Gaza.

While CBC highlights the plight of Palestinians under Israeli occupation and border closure, CTV has taken a more biased view where it presents Christians are oppressed by Muslims in Gaza, specially under the rule of Hamas.

Ignored are the facts that Christians and Muslims have lived side by side in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East for more than 13 centuries.

An oft-repeated cliche is how Neville Chamberlain appeased Adolf Hitler in 1938 in the Munich conference. By doing so, Chamberlain caused Czecksolvakia to be swallowed by the Nazis, and World War II ensued.

Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times writes about how this repeated mantra in today's politics is the wrong lesson learned, and details several cases from recent history of how this is indeed not the case, and that it can cause more harm to "be tough".

According to a recent poll, more than a million Iraqis have been killed since the 2003 invasion by the US.

Via Opinion Business Research (ORB).