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The Conservative government is set to unveil a new approach to its relations with Canada?"s First Nations that will see fresh money flowing to bands when Ottawa believes there is a good prospect of economic success, while bands with a track record of failure will be frozen out.

As part of its move toward a more market-oriented approach, the government is also keen to reform the electoral system used to elect aboriginal chiefs.

Chuck Strahl, the Minister for Indian Affairs and Northern Development, will outline the policy Thursday in a speech in Ottawa. ?SThere will be a shifting of resources. If you take economic development as an example, there has been a tendency to sprinkle it like pixie dust and hope for magic results. I?"m increasingly convinced we have to reward those who are ready to take that kind of help,? he said in an interview with the National Post.

In his speech, he will say that the single defining feature of the new approach is that the government is not prepared to ?Swaste time on unproductive and unsuccessful processes?.

Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said that he was surprised that the government is going down this path. ?SThe Prime Minister spoke of reconciliation last year with the historic apology [on residential schools], in effect setting the stage for a new era that ended unilateral decisions and the ??we-know-best?" approach. We?"re committed to partnership but we don?"t want the imposition of government will,? he said in an interview.

In its most recent budget, the government announced $1.4-billion of new spending on aboriginal Canadians -- including $200-million on skills and training, $400-million for on-reserve housing, $515-million for on-reserve infrastructure and $325-million for health programs and child and family services.

Mr. Strahl said that new money will be directed towards bands that can strike partnership agreements - with provinces on education and health issues, and with the private sector on economic development and infrastructure. However, he said that base funding for other First Nations would not be cut as part of the new strategy. ?SYou?"re just not going to get extra funding, if you?"re not doing something different and better.?

The government is intent on rolling out pilot projects in education, where the minister said partnership agreements with provincial and First Nation governments were proving successful in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; and, in skills development, where it hopes to replicate deals with private sector employers like uranium producer Cameco, with which Ottawa has a $30-million training agreement. ?SWhat I?"m not prepared to do is have a system where each schoolhouse has its own school-board. It?"s not practical and the results are no good. There?"s not much doubt about where we want to go with this,? he said.

Mr. Strahl contrasted the benefits of co-operation and partnership with the situation on the Akwesasne reserve, near Cornwall, where residents have closed the Seaway International Bridge as part of a protest opposing the arming of border guards.
The Mohawks of Akwesasne see themselves as a sovereign nation that is not part of Canada, despite receiving millions of dollars for schools, health and social development from the Canadian taxpayer.  

Mr. Strahl said  the government of Canada does not recognize that sovereignty claim and said the rule of law applies to everyone. ?SMohawk communities have a particular perspective about pre-Confederation and so on. I hope that nothing I?"m saying is disrespectful but my observation is, notwithstanding all the other interesting discussions, if you don?"t develop healthy working relations and partnerships with other levels of government, and your neighbours, you will suffer because you lack opportunities,? he said.

Mr. Strahl said that a number of provincial premiers have told him that the single most important change he could introduce would be to engage in electoral reform to make the system of electing chiefs more accountable. He said chiefs in Atlantic Canada and Manitoba have approached him about resolving what he called a ?Srevolving door? of aboriginal leaders that made tripartite striking deals difficult. He said Ottawa could intervene by striking legislation that, for example, would introduce fixed election dates, standardized rules on a voters?" list and a common appeals process. ?SAny legislation would have to pass muster in those communities,? he said.
National Post
jivison@nationalpost.com

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released its preliminary analysis of crime trends in the U.S. for 2008 and there's plenty of good news:

... the nation experienced a 2.5 percent decrease in the number of violent crimes and a 1.6 percent decline in the number of property crimes for 2008 compared with data from 2007. The report is based on information that the FBI gathered from 12,750 law enforcement agencies that submitted six to 12 comparable months of data to the FBI for both 2007 and 2008.

... In 2008, all four of the violent crime offense categories declined nationwide compared with data from 2007. Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter declined 4.4 percent, aggravated assault was down 3.2 percent, forcible rape decreased 2.2 percent, and robbery decreased 1.1 percent.

See FBI press release detailing crime trends here. 

Over at NRO I have an article suggesting that the Tea Party movement adopt as its program what I am calling “Reagan’s Unfinished Agenda.”? In one sentence, it describes a way of going on offense, and getting out of the defensive crouch that is the dominant posture of conservatives at the moment.

… starting in 1987, Reagan offered a more comprehensive package he called the ?SEconomic Bill of Rights.? In addition to the balanced-budget and line-item veto amendments, Reagan proposed three additional amendments that would impose a federal spending limit, require a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate for any tax increases, and prohibit wage and price controls.

On Friday's Special Report with Bret Baier, FNC host Baier informed viewers that the Justice Department had dropped charges against New Black Panther members who engaged in blatant voter intimidation in Philadelphia last November. As previously documented by Newsbuster Noel Sheppard, last November Fox News ran a report by Rick Leventhal detailing the activity which was ignored by the mainstream media. On Friday's Special Report, Baier quoted a former 1960s civil rights lawyer: "The most blatant form of voter intimidation. They were positioned in a location that forced every voter to pass in close proximity to them. The weapon was openly displayed and brandished in plain sight of voters."

Below is a transcript of the report from the Friday, May 29, Special Report with Bret Baier on FNC, which aired during the show's "Political Grapevine" segment:

BRET BAIER: A lawsuit brought by the Bush administrationNew Black Panther Party has been dropped by the Obama Justice Department. The move comes despite an eye witness account of a You Tube video of the men seemingly attempting to scare away would-be voters on Election Day, an apparent violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The civil complaint accused the men of coercion, making threats, intimidation, and hurling racial slurs while at a Philadelphia polling station on November 4. Prosecutors say one of the men brandished a night stick, which they called a deadly weapon.

A former 1960's civil rights lawyer said in an affidavit that it was, quote, "The most blatant form of voter intimidation. They were positioned in a location that forced every voter to pass in close proximity to them. The weapon was openly displayed and brandished in plain sight of voters." A Justice Department spokesman said officials obtained "an injunction that prohibits the defendant, who brandished the weapon, from doing so again. Claims were dismissed from the other defendants based on a careful assessment of the facts and the law."

President Barack Obama, according to a headline in The New York Times, is "Upbeat for G.M.'s Future."

That seems a bit, well, wacky. But then, this is the same guy who is "upbeat" about the Middle East peace process, according to AFP. So that puts the remark in perspective, I suppose. After all, as Justice-to-be Sonia Sotomayor now knows, context is everything.

Over at Out of Control, the Reason Foundation's Shikha Dalmia, with some entertaining snippiness followed by good economic analysis of G.M.'s situation: 

"I am confident that the steps I'm announcing will mark the end of the old G.M., and the beginning of a new G.M.," [Obama] said. Great! Then what do, we, the taxpayers, who have just been forced to fork over $50 billion to G.M.—in what is it? loans? stock?—have to worry about? The president is cool with it. And he, after all, has an Ivy League degree, a silver tongue, not to mention a glamorous wife with lovely arms who dotes on him. But even His Awesomeness can't command a drowning man to swim after tying lead weights around his ankles.

The president seems to think that there is nothing that G.M. has that a visit to bankruptcy court won't cure. Amputate its liabilities to bondholders, excise all its promises to unions (no, actually, scratch that one, that didn't quite happen) and, presto, it'll be ready, once again, to kick some foreign ass.

If only!

Read the whole thing, and stay tuned for an upcoming cover package on the GM fiasco in our next print edition.

Of course, as Spencer catches, the media did take it up (and I haven't even seen the cable shows yet). Jake Tapper's take on the new emphasis on the president's Muslim heritage reflects the ambiguity about this issue that I criticized during the campaign. On one hand, it's hard to blame Obama for wanting his religion to be correctly identified (yup, he's a Christian) and there were and continue to be bigoted attacks against him based on this false perception. On the other hand, though, by continually emphasizing that Obama was not a Muslim, it almost created the impression that maybe there is something wrong with that.

With the campaign over and his heritage now valuable on the world stage, I'm happy to see the president reclaiming his cosmopolitan background to help protect America's interests abroad and recall that American Muslims are real Americans, too. But I hope this new understanding doesn't drift away in the face of electoral battles to come in 2010 or 2012.

-- Tim Fernholz

Photo of Obama visiting the Blue Mosque in Turkey, courtesy the White House

Update: Hadn't seen Adam's post below and thus missed out on Michael Goldfarb's ridiculous insinuations. Classy!

Human behavior is changing at a blistering pace.

Why, someone in Starbucks held the door for me today and actually waited until I could grab the door from him, rather than letting it swing tantalizingly before I could get there.

However, a British office worker called James Coleman has pointed us towards the perils of over-committed tweeting.

According to a report in the Telegraph, Coleman, 23, was jogging when he suddenly felt the enormous uncontrollable urge to pull out his BlackBerry and Twitter.

Perhaps you have experienced a similar sensation. The buttocks tighten, the eyebrows begin to quiver and your hand reaches into the pocket of your tracksuit, desperate to clutch your most precious jewel.

You grab your BlackBerry with the intention of informing your 25 followers that you have, indeed, just reached into your pocket to grab your BlackBerry while jogging.

Should there be "Danger. No Twittering" signs?

(Credit: CC Angelin Richmond/Flickr)

Coleman, as almost everyone on the streets of Manhattan, temporarily lost sight of his own proportions.

Twitter can do that to you.

Before he could even finish his tweet, he thought he might have temporarily lost sight in an eye. Even more strangely, he was lying on the sidewalk and his head was beginning to throb.

Had a passerby, appalled at this arrogant thrust towards modernity, karate-chopped him to the ground? No, it was a tree.

More precisely, a substantial, low-hanging branch that decided to play lumberjack.

"I could only see through one eye for a couple of days afterwards, but the swelling has started to go down now," Coleman told the Telegraph.

The experience hasn't, however, dampened Coleman's enthusiasm for ensuring that his 27 followers stay close to his footsteps, as well as his missteps.

Monday morning, he tweeted: "I am somewhat disappointed that my 15 minutes of fame stem from running into a tree whilst tweeting..."

Sir, but we are not disappointed. You have taught us so much. You have made us think very carefully about the wisdom of jogging and tweeting. However, you don't seem to have been put off by your own Twittering headbanging.

As I see that your latest tweet reads: "Running home--looking out for curbs, lamp-posts, cars, trees and all things stationary and moving :)"

Oh, Coleman, I am worried for the future of British business.