Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Hate Speech

On rare occasions I agree with Werner Patels, very rare, far less often than I agree with Sun Columnist Neil Waugh. However his post on the despicable but predictable venomous hate speech against Lebanese Canadians at the Western Standard, says it all. Also see his Holy Cow. Nuff said. Of course this kind of ranting can be expected from those on the right and those who support Israel unconditionally.



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The Cost Of Democracy In Alberta

What's the cost of democracy. In Alberta; five bucks. Thats cost of a Conservative Party membership.And Democracy in Alberta is all about the Party of Calgary.

Whoever becomes the CEO of this Grant Corporation, this one party state, rules until the next election. So if you want to choose your boss then rush on down and buy a membership, there are lots of little PC's willing to sell you one.

I think that the folks who consider themseleves progressive should join up in droves. No really.

Since Jim Dinning, Mr. Corporate Lobbyist for the backroom boys of Calgary is the front runner, then just to throw a span in the works, Progressives should support either Ted Morton or Lyle Oberg.

Think of what would happen if either of these two right wing dinosaurs got to be leader of the PC's. Why the party would split apart. Better a right wing demagouge than a corporate stooge from Calgary.

At least then we would would not have liberal Albertans voting Tory. Which is what Dinning is hoping for. And of course if Dinning wins then its just the same old same old as it was under Klein and the Calgary boys. Just ask Ted Morton. He agrees with me.

So come on folks, join the fun, lets all elect our next King and make sure he is the right madman for the job.




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The Joy Of Deregulation

Blackouts strike Edmonton, Calgary as power cut

When our City owned EPCOR was not a P3, which it has become, its responsibilities were to the Citizens of Edmonton. As we saw yesterday its responsibilities are to its shareholders and only the citizens it serves incidentally. The deliberate power outage which blew my computer and TV remote, which downed power to stores, created traffic havoc with failing traffic lights, was predicatble.

Since last week we have had a heat wave with history making above average tempratures in the high thirties. A warning should have been issued that folks should reduce their power consumption during peak hours. No such warning was given. Rather an order from the deregulated Electrical Grid management was given to EPCOR and they complied, with no warning.

When contacted by one of the few radio stations left on air, several were off due to power brown outs, CHED News, EPCOR denied it was responsible and blamed the
Alberta Electric System Operator, call them they told reporters. Then when pushed they said they were ordered to shut down power by AESO. Then half an hour later they explained what and why they had done it.

This is unacceptable, but predicatable when you deregulate and privatize power. EPCOR is currently selling a $22 a share, and while the city appoints board members, its arms length relationship means EPCOR cares more about the bottomline than the good of its citizen owners.

Ours was a brown out, how about those poor folks in Queens going on ten days with No Power and record tempratures thansk to aptly named Con-Ed. Its enough to turn one into a George Metesky.

If NY politicians can blow their fuses over Con-Ed
I expect no less from our City Council over this EPCOR debacle. And folks should tell them so. Oh yeah and send a note of Thank You to Jim Dinning the next CEO of Alberta Inc. who pushed for electrical deregulation as a Board member of TransAlta Utilities.






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