Ouch That Hurts

Its a baaaad news day when the Left, the Centre and the Right hit you on your way down. Americans Wary of Action on Iran, Gloomy on Iraq, Poll Shows

And its worse when even an objective attempt to explain US policy on Iran looks bad.

Seymour Hersh's story in this week's issue of The New Yorker detailing how the Bush administration has "increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack" ought to be big news. For the most part, outside of our corner of the Internet, it's not. BUSH PREPARES FOR ANOTHER WAR, AND THE NATION YAWNS OpEdNews


The combination of reaction to news reports of U.S. plans for military strikes on Iran and Iran's claim to have mastered uranium processing brought out the best (and worst) in the comments section. The Great Iran Debate


But the Bushites have also painted us into a corner. Vice President Cheney has said Iran will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. Sen. John McCain says, "The military option is on the table." And Israel is demanding that the United States stop dithering. Writes Yaakov Katz in the March 10 Jerusalem Post, "The United States has until now not done enough to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, a senior Defense Ministry official has told the Jerusalem Post ..." Pat Buchanan IS WAR WITH IRAN INEVITABLE? The Conservative Voice


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The US has WMD

Call the Security Council, there should be an Emergency international debate. Call in the UN Oversight committee and the WMD Inspectors there is a rogue state that has continually failed to fufill its legal obligations under international treaty to destroy its chemical WMD.

We need to immediately put all the sites under UN control or the world community will have to look at all options, including but not limited to regime change.

U.S. will miss an extended deadline to dispose of the country's chemical weapons stockpiles

Rumsfeld said he expects only two-thirds of the stockpile to be destroyed by April 2012. That date is a five-year extension from the previous deadline, set in a 1997 international treaty.

An activist group in Richmond, Kentucky, -- the Chemical Weapons Working Group -- says new schedules indicate disposal at sites in Alabama, Arkansas, Oregon, Colorado and Kentucky all will miss the deadline. A Maryland site has completed the disposal and Utah and Indiana remain on schedule.

Why should we single out Iran?

Since the US has set the precident of international intervention around WMD.

Even if Bush II did lie.

Its not like its the first time the US has lied to justify its Imperial mission.


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3 Strikes

If you are an Afro American dealing street drugs, three arrests, the three strike law says you go to jail with no get out of jail free card. If you are the Bush Administration Defense Secretary, it takes more than three strikes to get you out of office.

It takes more than 2700 dead American Soldiers, 18,000 wounded troops, over 100,000 dead or wounded Iraqi's.

And it takes more than 4 retired General's denouncing you. Three Generals and you should strike out, but not Donny, he is Georgie Porgie's pal.

'You know, it speaks volumes that guys like me are speaking out from retirement about the leadership climate in the Department of Defense,' Batiste said. 'But when decisions are made without taking into account sound military recommendations, sound military decision making, sound planning, then we're bound to make mistakes.' Retired General Calls For Rumsfeld to Resign

Joining the criticism earlier this week was retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who served as an infantry division commander in Iraq until last November. He called for a "fresh start at the Pentagon," accusing Rumsfeld of ignoring sound military decision-making and seeking to intimidate those in uniform.

Earlier calls for Rumsfeld's replacement came from retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, retired Marine Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold and retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton. Analysis: Criticism mounts vs. Rumsfeld

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Lawyers Beaten Cops Cheer

How many times have cops around the world fantasized what it be like to be given the chance to meet lawyers on the street.

Nepalese troops used rubber bullets, tear gas and batons to disperse hundreds of lawyers trying to stage a pro-democracy rally in the capital, Kathmandu Thursday. Nepal Troops Fire on Lawyers, 3 Wounded




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Hanging Chad

My geopolitical thesis is that when the former Imperialist powers that controled the African nations surrounding land locked Chad need a distraction they foment a crisis which puts Chad back in the news. Troops quash rebel attack on capital of Chad Of course Chad is rich in oil, and heavy metals. Quite rich indeed. And any destabilization will increase oil prices in the market.


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Paper Tigers

Ninety percent of the Sri Lankan Tamils living in Canada entered the country as Refugees in fear of the atrocities of the state machinery.

Opps forgot about that did we in our rush to outlaw the Tamil Tigers. As they have done with Palestine, the Conservatives foriegn policy is to support repressive regimes, under the guise that they are democratic while overlooking their policies of torture and abuse. Canadian Tamils Disappointed by LTTE Listing

Israel and Sri Lanka get Stockwell Day's and Peter McKays support, while those who oppose these regimes are described as 'terrorists'. The massacres conducted by Sharon are forgotten and forgiven by the Conservatives. So to do they forget the JVP government massacre of the Tamils, bodies floating down rivers for weeks, that launched the Tamil Tiger resistance.

Sri Lanka, once a role model for third world democracies, is now for the last 20 years, a scene of obdurate violence and war ( See Broken Palmyra, The Tamil Secessionist Movement in Sri Lanka (Ceylon):A Case of Secession by Default? , Sri Lanka:The Arrogance of Power: Myths, Decadence & Murder on this site). The long simmering ethnic crisis, which metamorphosed into a full-scale war, has now gone through several phases. From 1956, the Tamil community was at the receiving end of several bouts of ethnically motivated violence that had the connivance of the State. This compounded the increasingly blatant discriminatory policies of the Sri Lankan State. Ethnicisation of the political landscape has resulted in a polarization that now appears difficult to disentangle.

The intransigence and opportunism of the Sinhalese polity in its turn gave boost to an insensitive Tamil nationalist politics that was high on rhetoric. The chauvinist camp among the Sinhalese capitalized on this, playing on the fears of the Sinhalese. Though a majority in Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese are in relation to the Tamils a minority in the region. Both communities had launched into a confrontational political course and for both internal and external reasons, the rights of the Tamils and their quality of life suffered progressive degradation.

The armed struggle of Tamil youth to achieve a separate state, which commenced in the 1970s, attracted an unprecedented number of Tamil youth to its banner following the government sponsored pogrom of July 1983 which left about 2000 Tamils dead. India, fearing the Sri Lankan government's canvassing of Western military assistance, provided arms and training to the Tamil militants. Various militant formations sprang up. The internal and internecine killings by the militant groups, introduced a new horrifying dynamism that altogether changed the character of the struggle.

In July 1983 President Jayawardene of Sri Lanka and his government were implicated in the worst bout of communal violence against the Tamils,which was followed by India covertly backing the Tamil militancy. Arbitrary violence by the almost exclusively Sinhalese government forces led to a mounting toll of massacres and disappearances of Tamil civilians running into the thousands². As a means of territorially marginalising the Tamils, the government also took the first steps towards militarily-imposed settlements of marginalised Sinhalese in predominantly Tamil areas,such as Manal Aru (Weli Oya), along the lines of the trans-migration policies of the militarised regime in Indonesia³. The regime in Colombo enjoyed very little sympathy abroad and large sections of the Sinhalese watched with alarm as democratic freedoms were trodden under and the country plunged headlong into militarisation of its polity. By 1985 the legitimacy of the Tamil separatist cause stood at its peak. The University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) (UTHR(J))

Or the continued massacres of Tamils that are conducted by the 'democratically' elected State, which is in fact a Terrorist State.

International human rights groups expressed concern on the failure of Sri Lankan justice system to bring the culprits of a massacre in a rehabilitation centre, where young Tamil Tiger suspects were being held, to justiceBBCSinhala.com

Terrorism, Counterterrrorism and Challenges to Human Rights Advocacy: 2nd April 2006The University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) (UTHR(J))

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Say No More

Justice cannot just be done, it must be seen to be done.

One day after tabling landmark legislation to "clean up" Ottawa, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has found a new job for an old friend. Former B.C. Conservative MP Jim Gouk has been appointed to fill one of the three government positions on the board of Nav Canada, the private corporation that runs Canada's civil air navigation service. But officials from the office of Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon insist he was nominated because of his qualifications and expertise as a former pilot and air traffic controller. PM's friend lands air-control post

While the purge of the ancien regime in Ottawa begins. Chretien's daughter could lose plum job

Stephen the Harpocrite does it again.Harper: Do as I say, not as I do



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AFL Agrees With Me

I wrote last August; Lack of Planning Created Skills Shortage in Alberta

Now the Alberta Federation of Labour has issued a report that agrees with my hypothesis. AFL seeks free tuitions in high-demand jobs

How efficient is the Alberta apprenticeship system?

The public school system in Alberta views a 25% failure to complete rate a disgrace at the high school level. By contrast, over half (57.3%) of all apprentices in Alberta fail to complete their apprenticeship within the optimum program time. Even after eleven years, the failure to complete rate is over 40%.

The Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry training Board claims that 75% of apprentices complete their training - however, the Board does not include apprentices who fail to complete their first year in their calculations. That is like a high school not counting anyone who fails to finish grade 10 in their overall failure rate.

Do employers fully support the apprenticeship program?

Only 18 % of Canadian employers take on and train young apprentices - although 41 % of all employers had the capacity to do so - according to a recently released joint study by the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum and Skills Canada.

Business and government have it all wrong on labour shortage

Report disputes need for foreign workers

Stricter rules urged over employment of foreign oilsands workers

Chinese workers already here?

Oilsands to rescue

No matter who you’re talking to,” gloomed Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan, “they all seem to say the sky is falling.”

And the heat is on to adopt what he calls “radical solutions” – which is a codeword for massive importation of foreign workers.

Yesterday, the rumours came true when Canadian Natural Resource Development Ltd. vice president Lynn Zeidler confirmed that the contract to build the $30-billion Horizon project’s massive tank farm has been awarded to a Chinese company. Soon 250 guest workers from China will be on site north of Fort McMurray.

“Compared to the 6,000-man job we’re running,” Zeidler said, “it’s not a very big contract.

“These workers, like every other worker on site, will be paid competitive wages and housed in union-approved camps,” she added.

The Chinese government-owned company won the tendered contract fair and square, she insisted.

While Business of course which has failed to meet the needs of the labour market sing the same old song; gimme more tax breaks, deregulate the market.

Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan says the restaurant industry has benefitted from government intervention in the labour market—intervention designed to keep a lid on wages. “Instead of raising the minimum wage, they increased supply, by making it easier to hire children as young as 12. The laws of the market, it seems, are only allowed to work when they dictate the prices of the goods employers sell. But when they push up labour costs, and increase workers’ share of the Alberta Advantage, the government steps in.” ARE ALBERTA WORKERS BEING LEFT OUT OF THE BOOM?



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The Cradle of Humanity

Ethiopia, which any African will proudly tell you, is the 'homeland' of humanity.

Giday WoldeGabriel, a geologist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and another leader of the team, said the abundance of monkey and other mammal bones and petrified wood found at the sites showed that this was a woodland ecology between four million and six million years ago.Paleontologists Find Species With Links to 'Lucy Skeleton'

All ancient civilizations passed through it, all ancient civilizations are represented in its fertile plains. All the monothiestic religions and even the gnostic heresies are represented in Ethiopia in their earliest forms.

And of course the great journey of modern humanity begins in Ethopia.

'Missing link' to earliest humans revealed

Professor Tim White, from the University of California at Berkeley, USA, one of the leaders of the team that discovered the fossils, said: "Australopithecus became a superior omnivore, able to eat tubers and roots with more fibre and grit, adapting it better to times of scarcity during periods of extended drought.

Note to vegans; Omnivore

Note to Creationists: that makes two 'missing links' in a week.
Evolution 2
Creationism 0
Intelligent Design 0

"They may have been small brained, but they stuck around a long time, fully half of our zoological family's 6 million-year existence on the planet."

The scientists believe Australopithecus evolved from some species of Ardipithecus.

In all, teeth and jawbones of eight individuals were found, all dated to about 4.1 million years ago.

A partial thigh bone and hand and foot bones similar to those of "Lucy" dating from 3 million to 3.4 million years were also found 60 kilometres away from the site.

A Link in Lucy's Past

Paleoanthropologist Tim White of the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues have unearthed fossils representing the oldest species of Australopithecus, Au. anamensis, in northeastern Ethiopia's Middle Awash valley. The 4.1-million- to 4.2-million-year-old remains--including jaw fragments, teeth and a femur--extend the range of this hominid, which was previously known only from two sites in Kenya. And in terms of age and anatomy, they are intermediate between two other hominids found in the Middle Awash: the older Ardipithecus ramidus and the younger Au. afarensis (Lucy's species).

Asa Issie, Aramis and the origin of Australopithecus

Humanity is widely believed to have descended from the genus Australopithecus, but the beginnings of that genus are shrouded in mystery. Newly discovered fossils from a previously unsampled time slice in the Middle Awash study area of Ethiopia add important information on the subject. They represent the earliest known member of the genus, Australopithecus anamensis, the first to be found outside the Turkana basin in Kenya. The finds are from a woodland context and show how Australopithecus may have evolved from the more primitive Ardipithecus, and may have been ancestral to Australopithecus afarensis, popularly known as 'Lucy'.

Also see Primates

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Migration

Immigration is when the State imports people into a country.

Imperialism creates migration.

Migration is displaced,' free', labour forced to seek work elsewhere because of underdevelopment of the local economy.

Globalization is the corporate face of Imperialism in the 21st Century.

Immigration is the States ability to import labour to add to the 'army of underemployed/unemployed', for the purposes of taxing them.

Migrant labour will displace our jobs/migrants do the jobs our (insert country here) workers won't goes the arguement.

In reality just like immigrants brought in by the State, migrant workers will find low paid jobs in sweat shop economies of the black market. Jobs that indigenous workers do not have access to normally. In other words there exists a 'free' or black market in labour.

Nannies are one of the legal forms of chattel slavery that the State sanctions and has been a large source of labour migration into Canada that functions similarly to the black market operations such as sewing sweat shops.

Where migrant labour and immigrant labour meet is in the black market; the underground economy as Finacial Post editor Diane Francis calls it. That is the world of unregulated labour, labour that is not covered by government labour laws.

Farm workers were not covered by provincial employment standards acts in the but UFCW won the right to unionize them in a Supreme Court ruling.

This is a significant step forward for undocumented, temporary workers as well as documented imported temporary workers. It also bodes well for temporary construction workers imported into Alberta. Unfortunately management goons associated with labour contractors can easily replace real unions as 'workers representatives' in Alberta. Again showing the coorespondence between the 'legal' economy and the 'underground economy'.

This can be sub contracted trades work, taxi cab driving, janitorial companies, delivery services, fast food joints, small craft businesses; tailoring, shoemakers, etc. A large number of the service industries that business writers and neo-con apologist term; the new service economy.

There was an interesting liberaltarian perspective on migration published at Vive le Canada. Interesting because Vive is part of the nationalist Canadian left. The article is from a right wing libertarian site. For a Left Libertarian perspective on immigration reform in the U.S. see;the view from below . And actually we all agree, that migration is not problematic however contradictory its economic function is.

Condradictory because it exposes the developmental weakness of decadent capitalism. This is the crux of Negri and Hardts theory of Empire and its contradiction; the Multitude. The multitude is free labour, migration, rather than immigration. It is not yet a negation of globalized capitalism, since as a class the 'multitude'; the migratory proletariat have not yet become self concious. Yet.

The spontaneous demonstrations, the growing mass rallies in the US over the last ten days against their jingoist racist security laws over undocumented workers shows that the 'multitude is beocming class conscious. labour is leading the fight for migrants rights in the U.S. as it did with the IWW at the begining of last century when migration and immigration swelled in North America.

This shows that the movement that Negri and Hardt call the multitude, comes from rural underdeveloped economies, not yet industrialized enough to become economic Tigers.

I don't say countries, because much of the exodus North from Latin America and Africa is by peasants farmers displaced by corporate agribusiness, and water privateers. In effect it is provincial movement from countries, whose national capital is export business rather than the creation of regional market based capitalism. Sustainable capitalism in the world economy. Another contradicition. To be sustainable the market has to be small and based on the village cooperatives.

These cooperatives are destroyed and displaced by global investment capital, aiming for production for export, secondary production for export, and IMF funding for imports.

The destruction of nomadic and traditional farming results in famines which then impact the traditional geographical economies. Actual village cooperatives have survived the current ten year drought in some areas of Africa by the development of local economies, such as maize production from farming to its grinding into meal. Because they have taken care of the land which is the basis of their production.

The nomadic cattle herders, have been the ones to suffer the worst effects of the drought creating a landless multitude swarming to the capitols of Central Africa to end up dying enmasse. Those that survive move towards work, survival.

The entire Middle East is made up of masses of imported workers. The Arab republics of oil could not function without them. In the case of Kuwait for instance the entire indigenous population are property owners, a small wealthy population who consume and act as managers. The real working class, is imported. This then is one aspect of the global market state.

The migration of workers from the hinterlands to the metropols is as old as capitalism, since the mechanization of production, production that begins with agriculture. Capitalism developed out of agriculture, and its displacement historically is of peasants, through enclosure, forcing them to become a new industrial proletariat.

Migration is the result of the underdevelopment of local sustainable economies, the destruction of those economies, in order to colonize the people as consumers rather than producers.










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