Getting Drafty Down South

Bush Says US Needs to Boost Size of Army, Marines

Gee and how do you do that?

Can you say; D R A F T





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Poetic Science

Moths drink the tears of sleeping birds


This headline is a fine example of

surrealist

poetic

imagery

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Surrealism

Art

Dada

Avante Garde

Science

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PM's Toughest Decision

Was not to send our men and women in dangers way in Afghanistan. Nope. No need for any thought about that. It was the post election victory Photo Op for Mr. Macho.

Nope his toughest decision was to Tax Income Trusts.



2006 death toll in Afghanistan - 37

The majority after Harper moved troops to Kandahar

Total Casualties- 45

Total Wounded- 111

At least 110 injured Canadian soldiers have been flown to the centre for treatment since Canada began its mission in Afghanistan in early 2002. Of those, about 100 have gone to the hospital in the past year.


Another soldier was injured the other day by a landmine. As many Candian soldiers have been injured by landmines and accidents as by enemy IED's.

Total Cost of War in Afghanistan- $9 Billion


Current Death Toll from Income Trust Taxation - 0

Total Wounded- 0

Total Cost of Income Trust Tax Announcement - $20 Billion

The income trust sector plunged in the wake of the federal government's bombshell announcement of tax changes, and it dragged the TSX index down with it. Analysts described a bloodbath as income trust investors saw more than $20 billion in paper losses, and pulled out of companies that had planned on converting to the legal structure.

Yep that sure was a tough decision to make. The toughest. A real bloodbath versus a financial one.




So whats the price of our soldiers lives? Why the cost of Glory and Fame.

Soldiers' deaths in Afghanistan the price of leadership: Harper

They whom serve give their lives not for freedom, nor Canada, nor Afghanistan's liberation, nor against terrorism, but for the vain glory of the RH Stephen Harper, PM.



Also See:

Kandahar

Friendly Fire

Afghanistan

War

Income Trusts




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Privateer Runs Wheat Board

The Conservatives have pulled their coup on the farmers run Wheat Board.

And in firing the current CEO his replacement is pro privatization, pro corporate monopolies. Strahl made his firing public complete with staged rally.

Gosh the PM reads the biography of Stalin this summer and we get an autocratic PMO. Wonder what Strahl was reading this summer?

How To Stage Nuremburg Rallies, maybe.

Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl has moved on an opponent of his plans to end the monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Board.

He fired Adrian Measner, the board's president and a 34-year veteran of the organization, on Tuesday.

"It's time for the wheat board to make a buck for Canadian farmers and to quit fiddling around in the political game," Strahl said.

The minister made his announcement at a staged rally west of Winnipeg. Farmers who oppose the wheat board's current monopoly on international wheat and barley sales surrounded him.

Greg Arason, a former wheat board president, is the interim president. Arason supports the government's plan to end the board's monopoly.

Mr. Arason was President and CEO of the CWB between 1998 and 2002 and prior to that was CEO of Manitoba Pool Elevators. He has served as a director of a number of agri-business companies and industry associations including CanAmera Foods, Can-Oat Milling, The Chamber of Maritime Commerce, Canada Grains Council, Prince Rupert Grain, Westco Fertilizers, Western Grain Elevator Association, and XCAN Grain.


For more coverage of the Wheat Board from the Left see Buckdog.

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Wheat Board

WTO

Farmers


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Deck Chairs on Tory Titanic

Moving the deck chairs. In doing so Oda loses out.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will shunt aside embattled Environment Minister Rona Ambrose early next month in favour of one of his top lieutenants, sources tell The Canadian Press.

Jim Prentice, Indian affairs minister and head of cabinet's powerful operations committee, is expected to take on the pivotal environment portfolio.

He is to be replaced at Indian Affairs by Peter Van Loan, now heading up the Intergovernmental Affairs Department, say government and Conservative party sources

Pete Van who???

And the removal of Prentice from Indian Affairs, which is his personal peccadilo, has upset at least one Blogging Tory.

And where does Ambrose go, well where she came from Intergovernmental affairs.

Will she be in denial after todays story?

Environment Minister Rona Ambrose told reporters Monday: "I know that my position has been widely publicized by the media, but so far there doesn't appear to be any takers," she said

.

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Oda

Ambrose

Prentice

Harper

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Tannenbaum

Lets get Christ out of Christmas and just go back to celebrating it as a pagan heathen holiday.

Is There Too Much Christian Influence in Christmas?

Ever since a bunch of evangelical right wingers and their Fox media syncophants decided to put Christ back into Christmas everyone is attacking poor Christmas Trees.

Judge's Christmas tree ban triggers protest

Rabbi wants menorah in airport, Christmas trees removed instead

Heck they aren't even a Christian symbol, never have been. Even some Christians recognize that, those of the Calvinist persuasion as well as the World Wide Church of God.

There was a strong Calvinist element in Lochdubh which frowned on Christmas. Christmas had nothing to do with the birth of Christ, they said, but was really the old Roman Saturnalia which the early Christians had taken over. And as for Santa Claus -- forget it.

The Christmas tree represents the eternal life, the ever-green tree. Which was absorbed into Christian mythology as they adapted pagan traditions into their syncratic Catholicism. The Holy Roman Empire strode Borg like across Europe. The later Reformist revolts continued to subdue the pagan peasants and absorb their radical theologies, pagan as well as protest-ant.

In the German-speaking countries the Christmas tree is part of the pre-Christian tradition of the "12 Rauhnächte" (12 harsh or wild nights), which later became the "Twelve Nights of Christmas." The tree is put up on December 24 and taken down after New Years or on January 6, known as "Twelfth Night." A part of the tradition of taking down the tree is the "Plündern," raiding the tree of cookies and sugar plums, an event, anxiously awaited by the children. January 6 is also known as "Three Kings." On that evening carolers, three of them dressed as the three kings or Magi, stroll from house to house. In some areas the old trees will be brought to a public place and burnt in a big bon-fire. January 7 ushers in the pre-Lenten Fasching or Carnival season.O TANNENBAUM - O CHRISTMAS TREE

Deutsch Tannenbaum TEXT: Ernst Anschütz, 1824 MELODIE: Volksweise (traditional) O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, wie treu sind deine Blätter! Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit, Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit. O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, wie treu sind deine Blätter! O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum! Du kannst mir sehr gefallen! Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut! O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum! Du kannst mir sehr gefallen! O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum! Dein Kleid will mich was lehren: Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit Gibt Trost und Kraft zu jeder Zeit. O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum! Das soll dein Kleid mich lehren.

English O Christmas Tree Literal English translation - HF Traditional melody O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree How loyal are your leaves/needles! You're green not only in the summertime, No, also in winter when it snows. O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree How loyal are your leaves/needles! O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree You can please me very much! How often has not at Christmastime A tree like you given me such joy! O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, You can please me very much! O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree Your dress wants to teach me something: Your hope and durability Provide comfort and strength at any time. O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, That's what your dress should teach me.

And for those of you who celebrate it as the orgy of capitalist consumption it really is well $ea$on$ Greeting$, to you too.

Which is what this is really all about, the commercialization and materialist consumer nature of secular Christmas season. Capitalist Christmas if you like. Christmas in North America today is a secular holiday.

Disagreement focuses on whether decorations are religious or seecular

It's a season not a day, it is the season of the dying and returning Sun, transformed by Christians into the birth of their dying and reborn Son. It is Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. It is the season of light in the darkness hence Hanukkah, by the by Happy Hanukkah.

All three are celebrated in Hawaii.

Trees, Menorahs Light Up Hawaii Airports

And even as a secular holiday it celebrates the season of fraternity, sorority and solidarity, that of giving from thems thats got to thems with not. Which is why the Alaister Sim version of Scrooge resonates with us as does the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Moral tales for an era of unbridled Capitalism, past and present. For like its pagan origins the Solstice season of giving comes from an earler tradition that of the gift economy.

Happy Yuletide,

Merry Christmas,

Happy Hannukkah,

Blessed Be,

One and all,

this Solstice Day,

from a Pagan and a Heathen ,

friend of the Rebel Jesus.

Original recording from the chieftain’s album the bells of dublin All the streets are filled with laughter and light And the music of the season And the merchants’ windows are all bright With the faces of the children And the families hurrying to their homes As the sky darkens and freezes They’ll be gathering around the hearths and tales Giving thanks for all god’s graces And the birth of the rebel jesus Well they call him by the prince of peace And they call him by the savior And they pray to him upon the seas And in every bold endeavor As they fill his churches with their pride and gold And their faith in him increases But they’ve turned the nature that I worshipped in From a temple to a robber’s den In the words of the rebel jesus We guard our world with locks and guns And we guard our fine possessions And once a year when christmas comes We give to our relations And perhaps we give a little to the poor If the generosity should seize us But if any one of us should interfere In the business of why they are poor They get the same as the rebel jesus But please forgive me if I seem To take the tone of judgement For I’ve no wish to come between This day and your enjoyment In this life of hardship and of earthly toil We have need for anything that frees us So I bid you pleasure And I bid you cheer From a heathen and a pagan On the side of the rebel jesus.

See

Christmas

Xmas

Solstice




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Bush Spins

BUSH: We Are Not Winning - We Are Not Losing
We are standing in one spot spinning like a top.



It is after all Hanukkah, and time for dreidel games.

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l'affaire de Lavigne

Never under estimate the power of the blogosphere....

Turning on their own With their party sinking in the polls, New Democrat bloggers are starting to get cranky

Kady O'Malley, Macleans.ca | Updated Tuesday, December 19, 2006, at 22:45 EST

Not the news story of the week the Communications wonks would have liked to see, but the one they created.

Not about the Party but about messaging and the messanger. Hell hath no fury like blogger scorn. WEESA SURRENDER

But never say Dippers only bitch and complain, Devin Johnson is offering a mitt full of good suggerstions.NDP Online Communications: Consulations Part I

And as a former chair of Communications and Strategy I concur.

Alberta put the NDP on the internet map back in the 1997 election. That was before the Democrats, or Dean. Alberta had the first election web sites in Canada battling it out during that election. The web was key to getting the message out. By the next election in 2000, it was a wide spread phenomena.

It hit its stride with the last Federal Election with real bloggers blogging about the election for CTV and CBC websites as well as election blogs in most major newspapers.

And while the Federal NDP have done some good things with their webpage and web prescence, like hip hop Ed, the Paul Martin Flag Ship campaign, etc. these were all Communications driven, they don't understand citizen media.

Whereas it was candidates pages like Linda Duncan, Edmonton Strathcona, that blogged, and linked to bloggers stories about her campaign, good and bad comments.

But the Federal Party had nothing. And since then as I said their blogging efforts are amatuerish at best; "Hi I'm Charlie from Timmins." But it is their sad lack of content compared to real Dipper bloggers, that is the embarassment.

The roar that will occur over this Macleans article will in all likelyhood turn on the big bad blogosphere and how dare we undermine party messaging. To late for that, the party communications wonks took care of that already, for the past four months.




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Bumph And Grind

Brad Lavigne

NDP


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We Did It, Brad Removed

From the NDP web page as their Director of Communications.

Media Contacts

Canada’s NDP
Joanne Deer, Director of Communications
(613) 236-3613 x2228

NDP Leader
Karl Belanger, Leader’s Media Officer
(613) 995-6767

NDP Caucus
Ian Capstick, Caucus Media Officer
(613) 995-8259

A correction that was not there yesterday or earlier this morning.

Reminds me a little of the Stalin School of Falsification; now you see Trotsky, now you don't.




Of course Brad is still being the caucus mouthpiece, so my criticism still stands. New Communications director or not.

The Deer has to prove herself, and one way will be to see what happens to Brad. But don't expect too much, she has only been on the jobe since October. October.

And they only changed the NDP Web Page, today. Today being December 19. That's a pretty sttep learning curve for such a simple thing. Hello appointed in October and only chaning the web page now. And only after we blogged about it in the context of Brad's numerous failures.

Joanne is also selective in whom she emails, I still didn't get her missive she sent. I blogged, got email address, comment space. Hmm selective in whom she communicates with.

Hey Joanne I am on the email list, and party donor list, Blogging Dippers list, email you guys regularly with comments. Did I mention I am on the PAC? Hey.....

Yoo Hoo over here. Waving at ya.

The NDP communications gurus still don't get it. Hello, the blogosphere is important. And just assigning your inept crew to blog occassionally , from your own convention or the Liberals, is pathetic and patronising to real Dipper bloggers.

And shows you still agree with Brad that blogging is irrelevant to the NDP.



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Brad Lavigne

NDP


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Bumph And Grind

Liberals under Dion got big bumph in Quebec. So much for the "Dion Hurts Us In Quebec" campaign. And this was before he announced Iggy as his Deputy Leader, he could do no less for the Leadership front runner.


The pro-independence Bloc Quebecois campaigns only in French-speaking Quebec and the poll put support for the party in the province at 44 percent, compared to 31 percent for the Liberals and 13 percent for the Conservatives.

But not good news for the NDP. Their message just isn't getting out. Clearly the Liberals mushy muddle has appeal to NDP voters. Not hardcore dippers, but Buzz types. Down six points from November. Ouch.

The message, repeated again by Jack yesterday, that the NDP Makes Government Work, is just not resonating. Though irony drips off the phrase when you see it in print. Maybe they should change it to Harper Promises,We Deliver.

Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research

December 19, 2006

(ARGM) - The opposition Liberal party holds a slight advantage in Canada, according to a poll by Ipsos-Reid released by CanWest Global. 36 per cent of respondents would vote for the Liberals in the next federal election.

The governing Conservative party is second with 34 per cent, followed by the New Democratic Party (NDP) with 13 per cent, the Bloc Québécois with 10 per cent, and the Green party with five per cent. Support for the Grits dropped by two points in a week, while backing for the Tories increased by the same margin.

Canadians renewed the House of Commons in January. The Conservative party—led by Stephen Harper—received 36.3 per cent of the vote, and secured 124 seats in the 308-member lower house. Since February, Harper leads a minority administration after more than 12 years of government by the Liberal party.

On Dec. 2, former environment minister Stéphane Dion became the new leader of the Liberal party, defeating academic Michael Ignatieff in the fourth and final delegate ballot with 54.7 per cent.

Yesterday, Dion said his party would not support a call made by Bloc Québécois leader Giles Duceppe to topple the Harper government over its handling of Canada’s military role in Afghanistan, saying, "I don’t understand the Bloc’s position at all. It doesn’t seem very useful to me to want to bring down the government on that in February as Duceppe is proposing. (...) We’ll prepare for an election, but it doesn’t seem to me that Canadians want an election in the middle of winter."

Polling Data

What party would you vote for in the next federal election?

	Dec. 14	Dec. 7	Nov. 2006
Liberal	36%	38%	29%
Conservative	34%	32%	37%
New Democratic Party	13%	13%	19%
Bloc Québécois	10%	11%	9%
Green	5%	5%	5%

Source: Ipsos-Reid / CanWest Global
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,004 Canadian adults, conducted from Dec. 12 to Dec. 14, 2006. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

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Canadian Politics

Polling


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