No See-ums

King Ralph is at it again denying reality.....he looks out over the Calgary skyline and sees clear skies as if that means anything....I guess the logic is that if he can't see Greenhouse Gas it doesn't exist.....

Sask., Alberta worst greenhouse gas offenders: report

Alberta, Ontario lead in greenhouse gas emissions

“Those are my critics — I don’t agree with that,” said Klein. “I look at the beautiful air out here, and it’s just fine.” Klein scoffs at dirty Alberta

Oh yeah Ralph wasn't looking at the Fort McMurray sky line...

So how come Saskatchewan is reporting increased acid rain from the tar sands effluent

Oilsands acid rain hazard

Potential for Acid Rain in North SK

Acid rain now damaging soils in Western Canada: study

The study says emissions in the West are rising but doesn't discuss the reasons. One major source is believed to be oil development in Alberta, which is the next province to be mapped for acid damage under the research program.

"Acid deposition in Western Canada has not received as much attention as in the more highly industrialized areas of Eastern North America, but unlike other regions of the continent, emissions of acidifying gases . . . have increased," says the study.

SEE:

Tar Sands

Kyoto

Ambrose

Environment

Green Plan

Oil

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Anti-Kyoto

The New Conservative Government Clean Air Act will not to eliminate Greenhouse Gas emissions, nor even to reduce them. In the topsy-turvy world of the Harpocrites they will take Kyoto and stand it on its head. Emissions will be allowed to increase under their new legislation, just more slowly. Call it the Anti-Kyoto act, and bring on the clowns.....

Oil and gas have flexibility under new green plan
Canada.com, Canada - 22 hours ago
... The Conservative government will create safeguards for Alberta's booming oil and gas industry as it sets pollution and greenhouse gas reduction targets for the ...
Clean Air, or Hot Air? Epoch Times
Industrial world losing sight of Kyoto targets as greenhouse ... International Herald Tribune
Emissions to rise in short term — but slowly, Ambrose saysGlobe and Mail

See;

Ambrose

Environment


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Ed Woods Curse

The angora sweater curse of Ed Wood has struck.....

Hollywood heart-throb Johnny Depp developed an unhealthy obsession with women's clothes while starring in film biopic Ed Wood.

I would never have noticed from his manly roles of late as Pirate Jack Sparrow and Willy Wonka......




SEE:

Metrosexual







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Battle of Algiers

Is is not just a classic movie, it is a great political movie. It shows that the current so called Muslim Middle East grew out of nationalist, secular, anti-colonial struggles.


Battle of Algiers director dies

Pontecorvo was nominated for two Oscars

Italian film-maker Gillo Pontecorvo, who directed The Battle Of Algiers, has died at the age of 86.

Pontecorvo's film depicted the brutality of both sides during the guerrilla uprising against French colonial rule in 1950s Algeria.

Shot like a documentary, the highly influential film was banned in France for some time, while its scenes of torture were cut in the US and Britain.

Ironic since now this is common practice by the US and Britain in Iraq.

And even more irony......

In 2003 the Pentagon screened the film to officers and civilian experts who were considering the challenges faced by the U.S. military in Iraq, the New York Times reported. A flier inviting guests to the screening read: "How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas."

It is one of those political films that every progressive should have along with the films of Costa Gavas. Who recently co wrote a film on the Battle of Algiers, and has been given an honorary degree from SFU.




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Costa, Gavas

Bush School Summit

In the wake of the plural suicides in the US and Canada involving school children George Bush announced a School Summit on Violence and Security which happened this week.Chaired by the man who ok'd the Bush regimes right to violate the Geneva convention and approved the Admistrations right to use torture.Naked and afraid

Apparently though when it comes to school security in America the children were left behind in the interests of the War on Terror.....

The highlight of the summit seems to have been a rebuke of Bush administration policy by the manager of the Center for the Prevention of School Violence in Raleigh, N.C. He wanted to know why the administration attempted to cut the $347 million allotted for school-safety grants for states this year.


See:

Real Christian Values

The Solution To Columbine Syndrome

Gill


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Bye, Bye Baghdad

Look who wants to 'cut and run' from Bush's failed war.

Army chief declares war on Blair: 'We must quit Iraq soon'
The views of General Sir Richard Dannatt will send shockwaves through Tony Blair's government. The head of the Army is calling for British troops to withdraw from Iraq "soon" or risk catastophic consequences for both Iraq and British society. In a devastating broadside at Tony Blair's foreign policy, General Sir Richard Dannatt stated explicitly that the continuing presence of British troops "exacerbates the security problems" in Iraq."I am going to stand up for what is right for the army. Honesty is what it is about. The truth will out. We have got to speak the truth."


Sure leave Iraq and go to Afghanistan to repeat the mistake.

He understands why Prince William and Prince Harry want to serve on the frontline but has not yet decided whether they will be allowed to fight in Afghanistan.

Harry completes training to become troop leader

See:

Iraq

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Harpers Ghost Writer

It's Kinsella right....well it sounds like him....Liberals anti-Israel, Harper claims




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Canada's Napoleonic Code

Law & Order is the cry of the right wing historically. It is of course the defense of their property rights that they care about. In true conservative fashion of believing in traditional values, like going backwards into the future, or moving forward to the past the New Conservative Government has introduced the return of the Napoleonic Code.

Reverse Onus" for dangerous offenders

Typical of an autark like Harper who reads Stalin and models himself Canada's Emperor ala Napoleon.

The possibility for justice to endorse lengthy remand periods was one reason why the Napoleonic Code was criticized for de facto presumption of guilt, particularly in common law countries. The rules governing court proceedings, by today's standards, probably gave too much power to the prosecution; it must be said, however, that criminal justice in European countries in those days tended to side with repression.

Just like Canada today under Emperor Harper.

See:

Canada's Prison Indsustrial Complex

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Newspaper Follies

I was looking over the various papers available on the street, the dailies and the weekles, and low and behold if the National Pest boxes are missing around Edmonton Centre and the Library. Is this the final death knell of the paper that has been fiscally and politically bankrupt since its inception by the arch crime lord Conrad Black?!

The Edmonton Sun has had a makeover, not popular with the bus riding crowd nor seniors. Having gone to six columns, the paper of the proletariat has ticked off its readers. The columns make the print size smaller and harder to read. Not good for seniors, and they have grumbled about it. The white space is offset with more space for ads. As one reader pointed out the change makes the paper less news more ads. How you can have less news in a paper you can read in five minutes, well the Sun has managed it.

The RightWing Weekly Western Standard is less than a smashing success as a newstand seller. Over at Hub Cigar they report selling 15-20 weekly. Whereas the liberal Alberta Views sells 35 weekly, as do Harpers and Atlantic. Heck even the American liberal weekly the Nation sells 25. That's why we call it Redmonton.

See:

National Post

Western Standard

Edmonton Sun


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Having Faith

One of the evangelical advisors to George W. in his first term coined the phrase compassionate conservatism. Five years later it could be called an inconvenient Christianity. And following in the footsteps of the Foley follies this could be the blockbuster expose for fundamentalist Christians that Woodwords book was for Iraq.

More than five years after President Bush created the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, [David Kuo] the former second-in-command of that office is going public with an insider’s tell-all account that portrays an office used almost exclusively to win political points....Kuo alleges that then-White House political affairs director Ken Mehlman knowingly participated in a scheme to use the office, and taxpayer funds, to mount ostensibly “nonpartisan” events that were, in reality, designed with the intent of mobilizing religious voters in 20 targeted races. ... Nineteen out of the 20 targeted races were won by Republicans, Kuo reports.

ThinkProgress has obtained an excerpt from the book, set shortly after Bush’s 2001 inauguration:

Every other White House office was up and running. The faith-based initiative still operated out of the nearly vacant transition offices.

Three days later, a Tuesday, Karl Rove summoned [Don] Willett [a former Bush aide from Texas who initially shepharded the program] to his office to announce that the entire faith-based initiative would be rolled out the following Monday. Willett asked just how — without a director, staff, office, or plan — the president could do that. Rove looked at him, took a deep breath, and said, “I don’t know. Just get me a f—ing faith-based thing. Got it?” Willett was shown the door.

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