Nothing To Fear Here

Amerika is threatening to call for sanctions against the democratically elected government in Nicaragua.

Sandinista comeback alarms US

Ah freedom and democracy, that of course does not mean what you think it does when it comes from the White House. They mean freedom and democracy to accept American Imperialism. Failure to do that makes you enemies of the State.

However perhaps Americans have more in common with Ortega than they think. After all he is anti-abortion just like them.

Former supporters disillusioned by his deals with a corrupt former president, Arnoldo Alemán, and his support for a total abortion ban, backed the dissident Sandinista candidate, Edmundo Jarquin.

Opportunism is spelled O R T E G A.

The Guardian UK writes:

An editing error in the report below introduced a value judgment on the Nicaraguan presidential election with the phrase, "From a social progressive, he [Daniel Ortega] has changed into an ego-driven opportunist ..." when the original article made it clear that this was the opinion of disillusioned Sandinistas.

It was no mistake he is an opportunist.

A change of policy

· No longer advocates central planning but wants to promote "fair markets" and may renegotiate US trade agreement. Hints that landless peasants ought to receive own plots.

· Preaches reconciliation and appointed Jamie Morales, former Contra spokesman, as running mate. Paid Morales compensation for seizing his home in 1980s. Ortega still lives in it.

· Apologised to Mesqitos, a rural community whose homes were torched by Sandinistas for cooperating with Contra rebels.

· Still chummy with Cuba's Fidel Castro, and also Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, but pledges to seek good relations with all countries, including the US.

· Has abandoned secularism and embraced Catholic church.

Ortega tries to ease worries about reign

Ortega poised to return in Nicaragua

At stake is millions of dollars in potential investment, much of it from foreign companies drawn to Nicaragua by the country's cheap labour, low crime rates and decision to join the new Central American Free Trade Agreement. Many are waiting to see if Mr Ortega wins and stays true to promises to continue free-trade policies.

See:

Deja Vu

abortion


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Leaders of Tomorrow

You know how older folks always talk about you't as the future and leaders of tomorow. Well in Alberta you can be sure that these tiny tinpot tories to be, whom PC Leadership hopeful Jim Dinning wooed last year, are living up to being the future leaders of business and politics in Canada. Its good to see that wildlife is not endangered in Canda's National Parks.

RCMP breaks up Lake Louise party

Approximately 30 students from the U of A along with teams from the universities of Lethbridge, Calgary, British Columbia, Northern British Columbia and Regina were attending the 16th annual Western Business Games (WBG), which was hosted by Paradigm Promotion Ltd, a private company. The event wasn’t officially sanctioned by any of the universities and none of the teams—which were composed primarily of business students—were sponsored or supported by their universities. The U of A stopped funding WBG teams in 2001.

Marketed as a team-building session, and “the best networking opportunities available for students” in the delegate package, many of the events and activities scheduled for the weekend involved drinking, including one dubbed “The Beer Pond.”

“In terms of defending the conference itself, I can’t condone what happened because really there’s no academic content at all and it shouldn’t have any association with the school and we’ve made that clear right from the start,” explained James Matsuba, a co-organizer of the U of A team.

According to a press release issued by the RCMP, they along with other federal and provincial agencies were called out to the hotel numerous times over weekend due to WBG activities. Upon arrival, officers were confronted at times by “students walking around the hotel with open liquor and portable stereos; in underwear and G-strings.”

Of course who can blame them when you have tourist packages like this;
Ski Naked in Lake Louise


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Piracy on the High Seas

Capitalism rules the high seas, eye matey tis true....

Study: World's Fish Population to Collapse in 50 Years; 'The Last Century of Wild Seafood'

Because of this....

Overfishing, technology making fish species increasingly rare in Mediterranean

Many small fishing companies are waging a desperate battle against large, sometimes multinational ones, which see the sea only as a source of money.

The number of fishermen has halved to about 50 000 since 1990 in Spain, which has the largest fishing fleet in the European Union (EU).

At the same time, improved technology has increased the size of catches, leading to an unscrupulous pillage of the sea's resources.

Many Spanish and French fishing companies have used EU subsidies to overhaul their fleets, installing sonar systems and new engines.

Fishing boats may have engines four times as powerful as the law allows them to have in the Mediterranean, according to El Pais.

They also use banned gear such as drift nets, which haul up vast quantities of unwanted fish and other marine life, and target juvenile fish despite size restrictions.

Large companies even use radar and spotter planes to track down schools of bluefin tuna, the consumption of which has been fuelled by the growth of the global sushi market.

Tuna are fattened in special ranches around the Mediterranean for the Japanese market, and taken away by Asian ships which pick up the cargo off shore without informing the authorities, according to media reports.

About 50 000 tons of bluefin tuna are captured annually in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, more than three times as much as what experts consider a sustainable amount.

And in Canada the Government continues to be in a state of denial of the fact that overfishing is the result of the industrialization of the sea; floating processing plants with dragnets.

Suddenly the Newfie Joke that is our Fisheries Minister realizes that climate change is affecting the oceans. That of course is the cause. Just like seals were the cause of the cod depletion. Not overfishing or new dragger fleets. Oh no. Its climate change. Something that concerns the Tories. Not.

Of course the fishing stalks will be depleted just about the same time the Tories hot air act comes into effect in 2050.

Fisheries Minister accepts link between climate, declining stocks

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn reluctantly acknowledged yesterday that climate change could be hastening the depletion of fish off the coast of Newfoundland.

Mr. Hearn said his department was taking seriously a study published yesterday in the journal Science that predicts a collapse of the global seafood industry by midcentury if current fishing trends continue unabated.

But the minister also defended his decision not to sanction a United Nations moratorium on bottom trawling, a fishing technique akin to clear-cutting trees on land and sharply criticized by scientists and nature conservationists.

"It's not just a matter of overfishing or the use of certain technologies," Mr. Hearn told reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons.

And let us not forget that Hearn says Canada's allies on this issue are Spain, Norway, Iceland, and the other illegal mass fishing violators of the high seas. We are in fine company. Historically of course the Maritimes and its politics has been a port for privateers, pirates and the European fishing fleet.

See:

Fishing

Pirates

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Hockey Fans

Gee who knew the BQ were hockey fans. Bloc MPs boo Don Cherry in House of Commons

I guess we can now call the BQ the Boo-Q.

What has happened to decorum in the house, why the horror of it. Don Cherry booed.

Good thing he has a thick skin and a big fat CBC taxpayer funded salary.

Of course I am surprized more MP's did't boo him considering the loud clothes he wears. Actually he was dressed conservatively as you can see.

And he wasn't just 'dressed' conservatively. Cherry had nice things to say about the Harper, so look for even more polling numbers to drop in Quebec for the Conservatives.

And at least Don has the Cheeries to go where he might get booed unlike our PM.
Critics slam Harper's EU summit cancellation

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Pelosi Gets Her Wish

Despite these headlines of denial;

Rumsfeld Has No Plans to Step Down, Despite Democrat Gains ...
FOX News - 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, a key target of Iraq war critics, gave no indication Wednesday that he planned to step down in the wake of ...
Democrats' win alone won't drive Rumsfeld out Washington Post
Rumsfeld not the only one to blame Asia Times Online
First, out with RumsfeldInternational Herald Tribune

It appears that Nancy Pelosi has gotten her wish;Bush Should Replace Rumsfeld for Starters, Pelosi Says

Report: Rumsfeld stepping down
WIS, SC - 16 minutes ago
(Washington-AP) November 8, 2006 - Republican officials say Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is stepping down, according to the Associated Press. ...
GOP Says Rumsfeld Is Stepping Down Newsday

See:

Purple Wave USA

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Deja Vu

It's fitting that the day that marked the end of Reagan Republicanism was the day that this happened; Daniel Ortega: Return of the Sandinista



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Purple Wave USA

It was a purple wave of petulant protest against politial pulchritude of the Bush Regime. Last night the Democrats with support from real conservatives, both fiscal and social, and from real liberals, sweeped the Republicans out of power in both the House and Senate.

And as I write the contest for America is still being contested. Senate Races were close even those that the Democrats lost like the Tennesse. In Virigina the race is so close its going to a recount. In Montana a supposedly solid Republican Red (neck) state they have voted for an organic lentil farmer and Democrat for Senate giving the boot to long term incumbent Republican Senator. In Missouri the Show Me state, they Showed Bush The Door.

And for those on the right who have made hay at the expense of Howard Dean, well he who laughs last.....Dean forced the Dem's to take on the Republicans in the South, what he called the fifty state challenge. In doing so the Democrats moved to the right, as Howard Ford Jr. best emulates. They took the Republican messaging and made it their own. Which is what Dean had predicted would be the winning formula back in the Presidential Primaries of 2004. And folks laughed and jeered him. Well not tonight. They have the crying towels out, and Dean has the last laugh.

What this portends is that the Democrats are regaining their hold in old Dixiecrat country which went Republican under the mobilization of the ultimate special interest group; the Evangelical Christian Right. Tonight the Democrats put serious chinks in the Republicans Armour of God. For instance in the still undecided Virgina Senate Race, the Democratic contender (and winner) got 36% of exit poll voters who identified themselves as evangelicals while voting to oppose Gay Marriage which was on the ballot.

In Tennesse you couldn't tell the difference between the Republican or Democrat, who were both pro-life, gun loving, evangelicals. In another race the Republican lost because the Democrat had all the right arguments and all the Republican incumbent could say was me too.

In California the Govenator said he loved sequels as he won a landslide second term. but that was because he distanced himself from Bush, and the Republican party, by hiring a Democratic Strategist for his Communications Director, and by moving to a bi-partisan position on key issues like minimum wage and the environment. In siding with the Democrats on crucial issues the first Austrian Govenor of Kali-fornia assured himself a win. Can we all say Kalifornia Uber Alles.

As that state goes, which after all gave the U.S. two Republican Presidents, so goes the 'values' of the Republicans. And Kalifornia has now given the Americans their first woman speaker in the House. Of course the hysteria of the right warned America against Nancy Pelosi. Can you say misogynist politics. Why of course you can. Its the ugly underside of the Republican core values. Along with race baiting as we saw with the attack ad against Ford. These are the core Republican values. As the expose of their corruption reminded everyone over the past three months right up to the last weekend, hypocrisy thy name is Republican became the battle cry of the citizens of America. Especially authentic conservatives.

In a sense this was predicted by the Libertarian movement in the United States, which called for support for the Democrats. The Libertarians that are not Republicans have opposed the war from the begining. But even as late as this fall they came out in favour of classical liberalism, from whence they came, and in its name called for a vote for the Democrats.

More on Libertarian Democrats
I don't think that anyone who is genuinely concerned about limiting government can vote for the Republicans. So, while the Democrats may be distasteful and unpleasant to deal with once they reach power, voting for them as a replacement for the Republicans makes the most sense

The neo-cons in the White House never considered the base important except to get elected and to hold the presidentcy. The Party never considered the base important, except to get elected and hold both houses. When in power they quickly abandoned any pretext to libertarian conservatism, and embraced Struassarian power politics that Rothbard warned against over forty years ago.

It was the independents that made the difference in this election, and the mass mobilization of voters, who were prepared to oust the Republicans. The significant loss of Repulican support can be seen in Lieberman's win, as it can be seen in Webbs.

The Democrats have manuvered to appeal to fiscal conservatives and liberal evangelicals. There is a growing trend for liberal evangelicals to identify themselves as such, being concerned with issues like AIDS, poverty and the environment. The social agenda is changing and the election reflects this sea change in the right. The Church of Global Warming

What was a unified Republican front since Reagan fell apart over the past six years in a morass of opportunism and power for the sake of power. Empire building was the goal of the Roverian Republicans, as it was for Bush and his neo-con advisors. The Empire was shaken to its foundations this morning.

The cry of the Democrats will be the Empire is Dead Long Live the Empire.







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A Taxpayers Timmies

Here is another example of Canadian state capitalism, or as it is called by the neo-liberals private public partnerships (p3's),regardless of who the New goverment of Canada is.

Who pays for Afghanistan's Tim Hortons? Why you and I do.

The total cost for the first year of operations at Tim Hortons' Kandahar operations was over $3.9 million. And keeping the operation running during the duration of Canada's mission in Afghanistan is estimated to cost as much as $5 million a year. The only major expense Canadians won't be paying is the $450,000 franchise fee, which Global National has learned that Tim Hortons has waived in this particular case.

Ah thats generous of them.

Lets see thats $4.5 mil for us and for Timmies its $.5 mil. And the Tories talk about tax farness and corporations paying their share. Yeah right. And we don't even get shares in Timmes for our investment.

Tim Hortons Inc. Announces Third-Quarter Results; Declares Second Quarterly Dividend

Total revenues were $413.6 million in the third quarter, up 7.1% compared
to $386.1 million in the third quarter of 2005. Rent and royalties revenues
were up 10.5%, in-line with systemwide sales growth of 11.5%(1). Same-store
sales growth momentum continued in the third quarter with Canada increasing by
5.9% and the U.S. increasing by 9.2%.

See:


Tim Hortons

Afghanistan

Harper In Kandahar for Timmies

Hockey Night in Kandahar

A little taste

The Other Afghanistan

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Samhain

Whose this Sam guy that witches celebrate. What does he have to do with Jack O' Lantern, and of course the Day of the Dead. And why is Halloween, or Hallo' mass the New Year?

You Call It Hallowe'en... We Call It Samhain






See:

New Age Libertarian Manifesto

Pagan

Witch

Gnostic

Heresy




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Monday Science Guy

It seems that my posts today have made this Monday, Science Day.

• Just Right Ice
• Elephants Cogitate
• Dialectics of Extinction
• Pay Now Or Pay Later

See:

Science

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