In the flap over allowing the media to cover repatriation ceremonies, Alberta Conservative MP Myron Thompson, first elected as Reformer, said if it were his son coming home from Afghanistan in a body bag, he'd "shoot the first media" covering the arrival.

My friend Deborah Jones is a journalist who has a son serving in the military as a reservist. Here's a copy of a letter she sent to Thompson, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, her own MP (Stephen Owen) and Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor.

She wrote a related essay in Time magazine recently.

Hussein Abdel Ghani has been charged with making a false report in connection with the Sinai bombings.

I did a couple of features for CTV.ca. One profiles Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, or as Paul Martin liked to call him during the 2006 federal election, Mike Harris Plus. :)

Another is headlined Budgeting for a majority, and it looks at the political purpose of this first budget and the role of tax cuts within it.

Investigative journo Murray Waas (the new Bob Woodward, sez Jay Rosen) on the case of Sen. Pat Roberts vs. CIA staffer Mary McCarthy.

More Jonathan Landman. I like this guy's online style. His answers have the ring of truth, which means he's either being honest or is a supremely gifted spinner! :)

I clipped out some online highlights, but he also answered some print questions.

The French government is putting up an online budget game for French citizens to hack around with.

This story has me wondering whether CIA employees get frequent flyer miles for any extraordinary renditions they perform using Company aircraft.