I Will Be Speaking In Edmonton Tonight

I will be on a panel tonight in Edmonton Celebrating the launch of Richard Day's book,

Gramsci is Dead: Anarchist
Currents in the Newest Social Movements (Pluto Press/Between the Lines)

Monday, December 5th 2005, 7pm
2nd Floor 10832 82nd Avenue

Earth's General Store

What strategies and tactics are today's activists using to achieve social
transformation? Are taking over the state or trying to reform its
structures the only way to achieve meaningful social change? Or are
direct-action tactics, for example, potentially more effective?

Join us for a participant-led conversation and celebration around these
questions. Some of our guests include long time labour activist Eugene
Plawiuk, IWW fundraiser Des Schell, the U of A Women's Centre, and others
to be confirmed.

The Road To Hell

is paved with good intentions. Like the Liberals attempt to impose affirmative action programs for candidates from visible minorities and the female majority.
Which were created under Chretien, and ended up with the current debacle of the Michael Ignatieff Affair. Another legacy of the Chretien Liberals that haunts Paul Martin. No wonder there has been a deafening silence from Scott Reid over this.

Whose party is it, anyway?
But the Liberals — unlike the other parties — added a new twist at their 1992 national convention, when they gave their leader, then Jean Chrétien, the specific power to appoint candidates directly, not just veto those he didn't' like. The intent was, perhaps, noble: Chrétien wanted to ensure more women and minorities made it into the House of Commons. Less uplifting was the implication that, left to their own devices, the riding associations wouldn't produce candidates nearly so dear to the leader's heart.

More Election Buzz

Buzz gets slammed again today from none other than the founder of the Waffle, no not the pancake the left wing rump of the NDP in the seventies. Herr Professor Doctor Mel Watkins no less, in collaboration with Straight Goods publisher Ish Theilheimer write the follwing as a front page editorial on their website journal (which predates Rabble.ca as a left online daily news journal).

Time to deal with the Buzz problem

Labour and NDP must confront the rogue elephant in the living room

In no case will Hargrove's message help the party that has always been labour's best friend politically.

Ouch. Say isn't the Elephant a symbol of a political party south of the border.

Nerd Stuff

I have added the following items into the left hand column here.

A technocrati link and search engine with my profile.

A chat box where you can leave instant messages. I liked this item over at Modblog and now there is one free online you can put on your page. So there it is. Abusers will be pumelled.

Also added the Activista search bar, this is for left wing and activist sites on the web. Great tool. And when they let me join their club I will add the search this blog feature.

Currently if you wish to search my articles here, which are running around 300 since I launched this blog last year at this time, my gawd he said I am prolific.
You can use the search bar in blogger above or use the technocrati search, the latter is more effective I find. Just type in the word an viola up come my articles

I reorganized the left hand bar as well as you can see. Blogs I belong to are down near the bottom along with my blog roll. If you have a blog and aren't in either than check my bloglines links I may have stuck you in there.

All the commercial junk I belong to which seems to be a good idea when in blogspace, is at the very bottom of the page. Though one I would highly reccomend is the spampoison. Killer little application.

Modblog Redux

My pal Critical has moved off Modblog as well and set up shop here at blogspot. It appears that like Battle Star Galactica a whole group of bloggers went here, to create an alternative to the near month long abscence of Modblog after it crashed. Critical has written a very good piece on ModBlog, at the exile page before moving to blogspot.Much nicer and helpful than I would be. Check out his new site he is a progressive blogger from Sri Lanka. My what a small world.

Harpers Day Care Policy Made In Alberta

Well as predicted Harpers Child Care policy was re-announced today. It was orginally announced after the Liberals made their child care program announcement last spring. So it's old news.

It is a made in Alberta policy. Modeled directly off the Klein Reichs policy of not funding public daycare centres in favour of giving everybody a hundred bucks to hire their grandmother to babysit. This is NOT an early childhood education policy, its a two tier day care program.

Tax credits are a sop to parents who can afford nannies. But it leaves working parents ( usually with two jobs to make ends meet) out in the cold trying to find space in overcrowded public daycares. And when they are rejected being forced to cough up extra dough for private day cares, which are notoriously under regulated and prone to child accidents. Yep nothing to see here move on.

Let The Green Party In

I posted my blog article on Vive Canada about the campaign to get the Green Party more media coverage, such as having them mentioned in articles, having their Green Blog linked at MSM election web sites and the all important involvement in the Leaders Debate. A good debate is going on at Vive Canada and we have at least twenty comments. I have also posted the two petitions in my left side bar under Election 2006. And I have been emailing comments out to the Media and on my email lists. How about you?

Brian Masse Slams Liberals

Here is an exerpt from NDP MP Brian Masse of Windsor to the CAW delegates;

I stood up in the House of Commons and voted to implement anti-scab legislation in federal jurisdiction.

I was proud to do that because I know it’s the right thing to do.

And I watched every single Liberal Cabinet minister – including some of the ones who were in this hall yesterday – vote to kill that legislation.

I was proud to stand next to David Christopherson when he introduced a law to put pension payments at the front of the line if a company goes bankrupt.

Yep he does the workers proud, but CAW still follows Buzz.......unfortunately.
CAW wants NDP to hold balance of power

Chavez Re-Elected

Here is the strategy straight out of Iraq, must be getting their political advice from the CIA, now lets understand how this works; Sunni's boycott bad, but doesn't undermine democracy in Iraq. Venezuelan boycott good, undermines democracy in Venezuela. Hmm yep that makes alot of sense, to Dick Cheney and Pat Robertson.Chavez's party claims major victory in Venezuelan poll The poll was boycotted by the country's five main opposition parties, who accused election officials of favouring Chavez and manipulating electronic voting machines. Prove It! Whine, Whine, Whine, would you like some cheese with that.

Liberals Get Their Own Grewal

In Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont. Liberals have nominated Amerjit Grewal (no relation to the Conservative Grewal). The old David Kilgour riding, the Liberal nomination on the weekend went to a Trade Unionist and the only Indo= Canadian running in a riding dominated by Indo-Canadians.

The Conservative and NDP candidates are relatively unkown White Guys. Last time around Conservative Indo-Canadian Tim Uppal almost defeated David Kilgour. Kilgour had a machine in the riding, and was well connected to the community. Such is not the case with Mr. Unknown White Guy running for the Tories. Big mistake and as rumour has it while Uppal went for the nomination this time around the constiuency association pulled a Ignatieff type move. See the Liberals and Conservatives both do it.

This gives the Liberals an advantage, as they have the only credible candidate, cause he is left wing, a trade unionist and Indo-Canadian. Gee aren't those NDP credentials? So this is where the Buzz Theory will be applied in Edmonton, vote Liberal rather than splitting the vote and letting Mr. White Guy Conservative get in.

Big fight for nomination in Alta. Liberal riding

61-year-old who works driving a transit van for the physically disabled has won the Liberal nomination in one of only two Alberta seats the party took in the last federal election.

Amarjit Grewal, 61, was chosen on the second ballot to succeed veteran MP David Kilgour in Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont. Grewal places himself on the party's left wing and says he wants more spending on affordable housing and supports public health care.