The Cone of Silence Over Kyoto

Do not say the word Kyoto to Conservative Environment Minister; that sensitive policy wonk Rona Ambrose, or she will refuse to be interviewed by you. Even though she is in charge of the next round of Kyoto talks. As the Calgary Herald columnist Don Martin discovers.

Don't publish a fictional novel about Climate Change if you work as a scientist for the Department of the Environment. Or ever sensitive Rona will call you and tell you NOT to attend your own book launch if you want to continue working for the department. Minister stops book talk by Environment Canada scientist

The PMO says he knows nothing of it......but hey its a good idea if the Minister clamps down on the beuracrats so they all sing from the same songsheet.....the Conservatives; Just say NO Kyoto......Ottawa plans cuts to green programs: documents

Ottawa plan hacks green programs


BLACK DAY FOR GREENS AS TORY BLUE TAKES OVER

Welcome to Ottawa, Alberta.

The Kyoto accord is the most worrying. Because if it was ever implemented as Paul Martin's discredited Liberals planned, it would have imposed impossibly steep reduction targets and severe economic pressures on what's become known as the Alberta Advantage - the most powerful and important provincial economy in Canada today.But while the Conservatives aren't about to tear up the United Nations agreement - and give the other three parties in the House of Commons their political hill to die on - at least Environment Minister Rona Ambrose is doing the next best thing. EDITORIAL: Rona is a realist


Now what was that about more open transparent government? No that's not a platform of the Harpocrites that was a reccomendation from Gomery It's still business as usual in Ottawa.....sadly lacking in the governments practice or its new accounatability bill.

Harper Keeps Ministers From Ottawa Reporters

Press Gallery, PMO not talking, relations continue to deteriorate




More on Harper



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Protesting the Protestors

Turn about is fair play so quit yer whining. Seal-hunt supporters confront protesters

Rebecca Aldworth, the humane society's Montreal-based Canadian issues director, criticized Blanc-Sablon residents for interfering with the observers' work. "What has happened out here has crossed a line," Aldworth said. "Of course they have a right to protest, and I respect that, but when you put human lives at risk and prevent people from engaging in lawful activities, you've crossed the line into assault and reckless endangerment. Fishermen keep anti-sealing activists grounded

Gee sounds like the pot calling the kettle black.

My Seal Hunt Articles


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The Friendly Fascist

Berlusconi's poll fraud claim, and power, fade away

Ah the friendly fascism of Berlusconi reminds me of the 1933 elections in Germany.

Good thing Prodi won.

Otherwise Berlusconi would have found a way to start his own Reichstag fire.

Now of course there is always the Vatican. Would that Anti-Communist institution halt Italy's slide to the right.....under a German Pope.....right...just like they did when Spain fell to Franco, Italy to Mussolini and Germany to Hitler.






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The Limits of the Market

The MySpace economy With success comes great responsibility.My Space: Warning Children About Online Dangers And of course it has taken them this long to do this because its owned by Fox owner Rupert Murdoch. Who will milk the market until regulated not to. In this case what can we say about Fox which has been strangely silent about all this. Where is Bill O'Riley when you need him? Avoiding discussing how Fox profits from pederasty.




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Venusian Weather Report

European scientists released new photos of Venus' south pole Thursday, revealing a swirling mass of sulfuric acid clouds powered by 350 km/h winds Clouds of acid swirl around Venus

And keeping with our Morning Star iconography Hot Discovery: Dark Vortex on Venus Space.com this site also has the best pics.



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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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The Morning Star

Venus: Earth's evil twin
As the first mission in a decade reaches toxic, red-hot Venus, Steve Connor asks, what can we learn from our nearest neighbour?

Gee I dunno know, maybe; "this is what global warming looks like".Mass extinctions a risk: Climate study

But something happened to Venus that turned it into the hellish place it is today. Rather than possessing oceans of liquid water and a life-sustaining atmosphere, Venus is a dry, hot place with a runaway greenhouse effect that traps heat tightly to its surface. For all its similarities to Earth, Venus is in fact a very different type of planet to its nearest neighbour. Over the next two years, Venus Express should help to explain why our close neighbour has turned from a potentially habitable haven to a place of hellish activity.

And there is that demiurge iconograhy in the headlines again; Venus = the other. Hellish, evil, satanic, etc. Venus firetrap

Of course Venus has long been associated with Lucifer, as the morning star.



Also see:

Judas the Obscure

For a Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing

New Age Libertarian Manifesto

Another Prehistoric Woman

My Favorite Muslim

Antinominalist Anarchism


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Rabble Needs A Union

Uh oh. Canada's left wing,progressive, trade union supported Rabble.ca has engaged in the lowest form of management sleaze; firing by email.

In this case the Babble editor; Audra Williams.

Opps wrong move, you idiots, she runs the discussion forum, babble.

Which just blew up in a mass strike by its reader/contributors in solidarity with Audra.

Oh yes and Rabble.ca is NOT unionized.

Do I sense a 'boycott'.....



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We're In Afghanistan For How Long?!

Shades of George Bush. Do I hear an echo?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canadian troops will remain in Afghanistan for "years," a sure sign soldiers will stay in the war-torn nation long after the current commitment expires in 2007.

Since we are already in Afghanistan and all troop activity will be troop renewal there will never be a vote in the house. Harper has already said that.

"Our troops are already deployed in Afghanistan, have been deployed for some time and as we know, will be there in some form in the next few years," Harper told the Commons during the afternoon question period.Canada now has 2,200 troops in Kandahar, a commitment that ends in February. Harper said a decision on the next deployment would be made in the "very near" future but left little doubt that more troops would be deployed."We're there for the long term and we support the mission of our troops," Harper said.

To go to war will remain the Governments prerogative, despite Canadians opposition.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor isn't answering those questions either. In an interview with Maclean's, he interpreted Harper's position as an open-ended rejection of any debate or vote by MPs on troops in Afghanistan -- even if a further deployment is contemplated after the current commitment ends in February 2007. O'Connor said any future phase of Canada's armed presence in Afghanistan would be regarded as an extension of the previous Liberal government's decision to send troops over, a position fully supported by the Conservatives. "I think the Prime Minister has been pretty clear that we're not going to have a debate or vote on Afghanistan," he said. "That's his position, and I'm right in line with his position. This is a continuing commitment." Canada in combat

And without a vote you get a consensus parliament, proving that only having a No-Vote Debate is useless; Afghan debate not really a debate

All four parties voiced strong support for Canadian troops.

More articles on Afghanistan



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Afghanistan Debate Too Late

Watching the Canadian Political Parties in Parliament debate Afghanistan (noted a lot of empty seats in the house ) on CPAC, and I come to the conclusion that for all the high and mighty moral rhetoric about the rights of the Afghan people, women's rights, the need for economic development, security of person and property, the need for reconstruction, the debate is three decades late.

This should have been the debate that happened when the Mujahedin guerrillas swept out of the hills, inspired by the Iranian Islamic reactionary coup, to overthrow the Soviet allied government. An independent government that provided for education, healthcare, women's rights, and economic development that was not based upon opium. All the reasons the Conservatives have given for being in Afghanistan now. Tch, tch.

She can remember the cinemas and the picnics in the sun. She can remember the packed cafes and the student parties and the libraries with their shelves heaving with books and the clean, modern hospitals with the calm, competent doctors that made her decide she wanted to be a doctor herself. 'They were the good times,' she says. 'When the Soviet Union was in control. Since then everything has been a long dark night.' The Observer | Special reports | The Afghan women who saw freedom ...


The centuries-old burka, variations of which have been worn in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Asia, has often been a symbol of the struggle between competing conservative and modernist factions in Afghanistan. During the Soviet regime in the 1980s, women were not obliged to wear it. They participated actively in public life in the cities: 50 percent of government workers, 70 percent of schoolteachers and 40 percent of doctors in Kabul were women. The rural areas were more conservative, but women moved about relatively freely as professionals, aid workers, and members of the community. Afghanistan/Stories from the field-About-face for Afghan women: to ...

But of course we forget that the reason the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan was thanks to CIA funding of their overthrow of the Soviet regime, under Reagans dirty war. And the millions paid for stinger missiles to the CIA saw an expotential growth in opium production in order to pay for those missiles. The Taliban and their ilk were the direct result of America's Cold War. Then the chickens came home to roost.


Now we are claiming that we are there to defend democracy and economic development, that was destroyed by the CIA and the Mujahedin. US Brought Grief To Afghan Women

The warlords and Mujahedin in Afghanistan do not want our help, and will overthrow whatever tenuous regime is in place within the next decade. Despite all the rhetoric about pluralism and democratic values the Karzai regime has, it is ruled by Sharia law, one that denies basic democratic rights of free speech, religion etc. as has been shown over the past few months.

Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan is considered a U.S. puppet by most Afghans. His authority outside Kabul is merely symbolic. Local control in the provinces is left to a mix of opium gangsters, former Taliban commanders and tribal elders. Mark Schneider, president of International Crisis Group has said, “It's not merely about drug money financing candidates. Drug lords are candidates.”Why are we in Afghanistan?

Had we really wanted to halt the Mujahedin and the Taliban and supported a pluralist civilization in Afghanistan we would have supported the Soviet 'invasion' , instead of supporting the American 'invasion' twenty years later.


More articles on Afghanistan


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Seal Hunt Debate

I cross posted my article Your Sealing Hunt Donation At Work at Vive Le Canada where a mighty debate has ensued in the comments column. Meanwhile I have received the following email which represents the unsung voices in this debate;

I read your article in Vive la Canada. Thank you for the support and your
recognition that these animal rights groups are taking advantage of the
visual senses to make a fraudulent living. We need the support of your
farming industry and labour groups across the country. It is time this
country eliminated influence from American organizations established to
destroy our livelihood and markets while lining their pockets.
This is also a conservation issue for our ground-fish species. Our fishery
has been destroyed and our shellfish is being undermined by European tariffs
and cheap labour in China. This must stop, we have to get control of our
primary food sector. We need to protect our economic sovereignty as well.


My Seal Hunt Articles


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seals, sealing, seal-hunt, anti-sealing, Newfoundland, Canada, Watson, HSUS, IFAW,

Marx Was Right

Marx's reserve army of labour is about to go global

The eruption of the Indian and Chinese economies could shift the balance of power sharply in favour of capital in the rich world

At first glance, the eruption of China into the world economy seems to be just the latest example of Asian countries catching up with the leading industrial powers. China's export growth has been spectacular, but so was that of Japan and Korea in earlier decades.

What makes China (and India) fundamentally different, however, are their vast labour reserves. Total employment in China is estimated at around 750 million, or about one and a half times that of all the rich economies, and nearly 10 times the combined employment of Japan and Korea. About one half of China's employment is still in agriculture; together with tens of millions of urban underemployed, they constitute a reserve army of labour of quite unprecedented magnitude.

The effect of this reserve army has been to hold down wages. After nearly 25 years of rapid economic growth, wages in China's manufacturing sector are still only 3% of the US level; after similar periods of rapid expansion in Japan and Korea, wages were some 10 times as high.

It is not too far-fetched to imagine a long period of investment stagnation in the industrialised countries, with "emerging markets" being so much more profitable. This could bring intense pressure on jobs and working conditions in Britain and elsewhere. Even sectors where relocation was not possible, like retailing or education, would be flooded with job seekers. The bargaining chips would be in the hands of capital to a degree not seen since the industrial revolution. Fluctuations in labour's share being confined to the range of 65-75% could disappear too, with Marx's rising rate of exploitation re-emerging, a century and a half after he first predicted it.

Also See:

Capitalist Crisis

Free Trade; Hong Kong & Somalia

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Marx, labour, China, India, unemployment, capitalism, ciris

Another Miracle on Ice

Jesus Christ on hockey skates! Well, not exactly. But a new theory suggests Christ was walking on ice, not water

Quick sign him up for the Oilers. They need a miracle on ice.



Also see: Judas the Obscure


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Jesus, Christ, miracles, water, ice

Victory in France

Proving once again that the only way to make change is through mass struggle/mass protest and the General Strike.

France scraps youth job law, bowing to mass unrest

If Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin had intended to weaken the power of trade unions by acting unilaterally and pushing the measure through Parliament without consulting union leaders, he made the mistake of his life. The unions come out of the crisis stronger than ever, while Villepin and Chirac, his longtime ally and friend, have been left with almost no political capital or credibility. If there are any unqualified winners in this drawn-out affair, it is the trade unions, whose leaders acted with unaccustomed unity and managed to bring millions of people into the streets against the CPE. Who won, who lost in French youth jobs crisis?

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France, Protests, Students, Workers, CPE, politics, unions, labour, labour-law, youth, protests, Paris

The Vimy Myth

Today is the 89th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge during WWI. The battle that changed the war.

Edmonton has Le Academie de Vimy Ridge, a Junior Senior High School set up in partnership with Canada's military for Cadet education. Very nice, lots of military history on the walls of the school.

Vimy Ridge was the hill no-one could take during WWI. Until the Canadians took it using our engineering corp and artillary assault. It cost thousands of lives. But it was a major Canadian victory, and defined our relationship with the paternalistic British command. Unfortunately that relationship, one of being expendable colonial troops like the the Newfoundlanders,Australians and New Zealanders at Gallopoli, didn't really change as we were to find out at Dieppe during WWII.

The myth of Vimy Ridge is that it was Canada's military coming of age.

In reality our coming of age as a country with its own military was during the Boer War, in South Africa. Where we sent our first indpendent contingents of troops, which included the mustering of the Alberta based Lord Strathcona's Horse. Many of those involved were members of the NWMP. Showing that the NWMP/RCMP were not just a national police force but an Imperial Military force.

Canadians who participated in the South African War did so as volunteers in regiments funded by wealthy patrons or the British government.

Before Dawn has an excellent series of posts on the Boer War and Canadian involvement.

This too was an imperialist war, for the heart of Africa. A small irregular army of Dutch settlers and native Zulu fighters were able to defeat the greatest army of the day, it was the begining of the end of the British Empire. During the same period the American Empire was overtaking the British in importance, the Americans had invaded and conquered the Phillipines, Cuba and Puerto Rico during the Spanish American war.

The foundation of the Canadian Expeditionary Force was the creation of a soverign military unit of volunteers during WWI. But it was not the first volunteer army in Canada, that was created during the Boer War.

The CEF took Vimy Ridge and then were involved in the secret British attempt to invade Bolshevik Russia at the end of the war in Operation Archangel.

That assault resulted in the repression the Bolsheviks then unleashed on the left opposition and anarchists in Russia, using the invasion as the basis for claiming they were under attack from White Russians and Imperialists and that all opposition to the Bolsheviks would be considered counter revolutionary. It was on this basis that the Bolsheviks attacked the Worker Sailors Soviet at Kronstadt.
The Allies including the CEF were as responsible for the statist ending of the Russian Revolution, and the solidification of the Bolsheviks in State Power,
as was the signing of the Peace Treaty with Germany.


Also see:

WWI Xmas Mutiny

Christmas in the Trenches

Canada’s Long History of Criminalizing Dissent

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Vimy, Ridge, CEF, WWI, Russia, Boer, War, South, Africa, Canada, Gallopoli, Canada, War, military, historyKronstafdt, Bolsheviks

Werner Patels Doesn't Like My Politics

The politically confused (provincial Liberal/federal Conservative/rabid anti-NDP) multipleblog personality Werner Patels is back with yet another blog. Another one. Sheesh. This guy just never gives up. Let's see that makes six blogs in one year, counting on my fingers. I may have missed one or three.

In one of his missives on his new homepage, not to be confused with another of his anonymous blogs, he defends everyone's right to be political, except yours truly.

Just like in politics, you have to stick to your principles. Don't pay any attention to ill-meaning or envious detractors. Those that criticize your ideas the loudest - and, particularly, those that want to deny you your right to express your ideas (such as a certain communist high-school janitor in Edmonton, who's been hounding and maligning me in his broken English, which is clearly not his first language) - disqualify themselves by the sheer vehemence of their "arguments".

Gee I thought I was principled. Now how could I deny anyone their right to express their ideas, what am I the ISP? Why to deny ones opinions is positively counter to my Libertarian principles. On the other hand I reserve the right to comment on the stupidity of ones opinions, which is more often than not in Herr Patels case.

Unless of course they aren't opinions but are threats to my person, my relatives, my work, my right to blog, etc., because of my opinions, in other words cyberstalking, which Herr Patels has done in the past.

Broken English. Wasn't that a hit comeback album by Marianne Faithful.

Do I detect a hint of classic Austrian racism here; 'broken English, not his first language,' janitor=immigrant. Nah......Herr Patels would never stoop to such stereotyping.

Welcome back Werner, ya still got nothing important to say.

This article was originally written in Esperanto and translated into broken English for the benefit of my readers.

Broken English Lyrics

Could have come through anytime,
Cold lonely, puritan
What are you fighting for ?
It’s not my security.

It’s just an old war,
Not even a cold war,
Don’t say it in russian,
Don’t say it in german.
Say it in broken english,
Say it in broken english.

Lose your father, your husband,
Your mother, your children.
What are you dying for ?
It’s not my reality.

It’s just an old war,
Not even a cold war,
Don’t say it in russian,
Don’t say it in german.
Say it in broken english,
Say it in broken english.




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