Afghanistan Cover Up?

Calgary Sun Columnist Bill Kaufmann sent me a friendly note taking umberage at being referred to as a 'token liberal' at the Calgary Sun. He insists he is no mere token.

"I'm merely a "token liberal columnist" at the Calgary Sun?

Oh, my - I'm hurt. Heh, heh.

Well, I suppose you could say that, though the paper would likely prefer I not write this stuff at all, that all their writers drink their koolaid. They've certainly never sought a token.

Thanks for the mention on the blog."

And he pointed out that he had written another column recently questioning our role in Afghanistan. Which I thought I would share with you as long as the link lasts. As he says; "It'd be good to get into the real origins and reasons the foreign troops are in Afghanistan in the MSM though, wouldn't it? "

Ugly truth
Corruption clouds coalition achievements in Afghanistan

Late last month, the Christian Science Monitor reported corruption among an Afghan government Canadians are dying for is so rife, some members collude with the Taliban.

Paraphrasing Afghan government officials the paper states "many villagers have little incentive to co-operate when they see government representatives siding with the enemy."

When they're not directly aiding the ousted extremists, the corruption is playing into the rebels' hands by reminding Afghans why the Taliban came to power in the first place.

Why, that sounds even more treasonous than journalists reporting unpatriotic inconveniences. Numerous chiefs of police and governors use their offices and even foreign military muscle to settle old scores and to blackmail, while drug trafficking is often part of the equation, states the CSM article.

See: Afghanistan


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Made In Canada Solution

Rona Ambrose our phoney environment minister likes to pitch the Harpocrites alternative to Kyoto as the Made In Canada solution. She likes to talk about the Conservatives investing in new technologies as the reason for shutting down the Liberals Kyoto programs. New technology, made in Canada like oh I don't know solar panels maybe. Wouldn't this qualify as a Made In Canada solution? So how come they are going broke? Wheres the government inverstment in new technology to bail these guys out? Like everything else Ambrose says, its a lie.

ATS to lay off 60 solar-power workers

$65 million writedown of unit hits fourth-quarter results
Cambridge company still planning IPO for summer or fall

The Cambridge, Ont.-based company also said yesterday it has written down the value of Spheral Solar Power by $65 million after tax, causing it to post a loss of $65.6 million in the fourth quarter ended March 31.

Spheral's flexible, thin-film solar technology is regarded as a breakthrough because it can be integrated into roofing materials, vehicle roof-tops and other applications that aren't suitable for rigid solar panels.ATS, which has invested more than $120 million in Spheral over four years, has produced high-efficiency cells and modules that are currently being field tested. But, it said it will take at least 12 months of intensive engineering and development to solve technical problems preventing it from profitably making the product in large volumes. Shortcuts the company took to go quickly from development to full-scale production "were not the right ones," said Syl Ghirardi, president of ATS's solar group

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Liberals Tories Same Old Stories

And where have we heard this before? Why under thirteen years of Paul Martin and the Liberals! Clearly someone needs to get these Finance Ministers an abacus, because their calculators obviously don't work, neither does counting on their fingers and toes.

Feds post whopping $12 billion budget surplus
And it's a lot larger than the $8-billion surplus forecast by Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in his first federal budget delivered on May 2.

And what do they plan to do with the surplus why pay down the debt....which will be a drop in the bucket. Better to spend it, err invest it on social programs.

The rest of the surplus -- just over $8 billion -- will be spent on reducing Canada's $490-billion debt.

And our National Deficit is now all but non existent. So there is no excuse for not investing in social programs oh say like a real national daycare program. But knowing our Republican friends in Ottawa they will spend it on more guns for the Army.

UPDATE 1-Canada's 2005-06 budget surplus seen at C$8.4 bln

After taking into account C$5.0 billion of costs incurred by personal income tax reductions, overall budgetary revenues for the year were up C$7.2 billion, or 3.6 percent.

Expenditures rose by C$4.3 billion, or 2.8 percent, mainly due to higher defense spending.

The budget deficit for March 2006 was C$1.05 billion, down from the C$9.9 billion deficit recorded in March 2005. The year-ago deficit was particularly large because it reflected a one-time C$7.2 billion transfer from Ottawa to the provinces to help cover health-care costs.

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Our Living Earth

Quake kills 3,000 and sparks 'Krakatoa' fear
The Indonesian archipelago is in the centre of the world's most active volcanic zone, and includes the island of Krakatoa, west of Java, scene in 1883 of one of the fiercest volcanic eruptions in history.

KRAKATAU, INDONESIA (1883)

Krakatoa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Strong quakes rattle islands in South Pacific

Of course as this region is 'alive' and growing disasters to humans are to be expected. Tragic but expected. The recent massive undersea earthquake and Tsunami that resulted in the tragedy of December 2004 continues to reveal its earth shattering consequences. See my Earth in Upheaval-Updated for an earlier look at the Earthquake and Tsunami in light of Velikovsky's theories.

Krakatoa

At the site of the old Krakatoa island, a new volcano has slowly emerged from the sea, like Godzilla returning for a romp through Tokyo. Anak Krakatau (literally "Son of Krakatau") is much smaller than the original edition, but it's growing steadily. The most optimistic scenario sees another earth-changing explosion within a few hundred years. Those with a more Apocalyptic bent need not despair, however. Volcanologists assure us that -- sooner or later -- we will be witness to a supervolcano explosion that stands a reasonably good chance of obliterating all life on earth.

Which may explain the urge of some of those in the Indonesian archipelago to commit the ancient art of human sacrifice to apease the gods.Violence erupts in East Timor, again


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Werner Patels Cesspool

His cesspools runneth over. In an aptly titled blog article Blogging "cesspool" Herr Werner Patels promises to continue blogging his repetitive, turgid, uninformed opinions on three more new blogs.

I have decided to publish my editorials and columns on three mirror sites with different providers each, so that they remain accessible at all times.

• The Alberta Pundit (Wordpress)
• The Alberta Times (Blogging/Domain Direct)
  and
• My Opinion (Blogger)

Conservative Notes on Politics & Society and to Media Notes

These are just the latest blogs incarnations in his ceaseless campaign of Blog Spamming. Here is a listing of his previous blogs. You have been warned.

The guy just does not give up. It's not like he has anything of value to say. So he figures lacking any foundation in reality if he repeats himself over and over, in multiple blogs people might begin to believe he is an entire community

PS. at least he has dropped the pretenious MA after his name. And that only took a day of blog criticism to do. On with the show this is it.

PPS. and as you can tell I am Herr Patels biggest fan.

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Make Up Your Mind

Sunlight healthy in small quantities

In what has turned out to be a delicate balancing act, the group is advising that while too much time in the sun raises the risk of skin cancer, avoiding it entirely can lead to a deficiency in vitamin D -- and that may elevate the risk of other types of cancers and diseases.

Cancer research is another form of social hysteria fueled by speculation, and lack of empirical data, by the medical pharmaceutical establishment.

Like the myth of Second Hand Smoke and the myth that associates Lung Cancer with smoking.

Cancer is a direct result of the industrial revolution, it is the 'social disease' of capitalism. Of course a little bit of sushine never hurt anyone. Even if the Ozone layer is being depleted. Another result of industrial development.

We ban sunshine and cigarettes because it's easier than banning capitalism.

What does this tell you when the environmental causes of cancer have NOT been studied by the medical pharmecutical establishment till now.

The University of Pittsburgh has created a center—considered the first of its kind anywhere—that will identify environmental causes of cancer. The center’s first director is more than ready to do battle against the disease. In fact, battles are her specialty.

Cancer Crusade

Now as director of the new Center for Environmental Oncology, a collaborative venture between the Graduate School of Public Health and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Davis will be fighting to find environmental causes of cancer. The center is the only one of its kind within a cancer institute, says Bernard Goldstein, professor and retiring GSPH dean.

The first project is a collaboration between the center and the University’s Center for Minority Health that will investigate why more young Black women have breast cancer than their White counterparts. They will examine whether beauty products for African American women contribute to increased occurrences of breast cancer. Environment isn’t limited to forests, rivers, lakes, fields, and sky. It is what we eat, what we use, and what we wear. Beauty products that target African American women often contain estrogen. This affects women in a few ways. For instance, these products might induce early menstruation, and researchers believe that women who menstruate earlier are more likely to get breast cancer. And it’s commonly believed that higher levels of estrogen contribute to increased risks of breast cancer. If African American women are using products that increase the level of estrogen in their bodies, they may be at higher risk.

Bad Air a 'Genetic Risk'

Hamilton scientists' findings show genetic damage from the tiny chemically coated particles of soot regularly spewed out by both industry smokestacks and vehicle exhaust pipes. Soot particles mutate genes in male mice, scientists find. Genetic mutations passed along to offspring via sperm.

Rare lung cancer is leaving sorrowful legacy among working class

Mesothelioma, caused by asbestos, may one day strike rescuers and survivors of World Trade Center attacks

Lung Cancer in a Steel City: A Personal Historical Perspective

In my 1972-74 studies, the male death rate from lung cancer in the most heavily polluted residential zone was 65/100,000, which was 2.83 times higher than the national average of 23/100,000 (2), compared with a 2.42 times higher rate reported in a 1988 study of the same zone involving a correction for age which reduced the ratio to 1.99, along with an additional correction for smoking which further decreased the ratio to 1.40 (5). In terms of my own experience, I suspect that the correction(s) for smoking might be excessive, because the lung cancer victims which I studied had not smoked as many cigarettes as did their "white collar" colleagues. Nevertheless, the main point to remember is that even a suspected over-correction of the raw data revealed a significant difference in lung cancer deaths between the heavily polluted zone and other areas, even when based on "guestimates" calculated 14 years later.

Age and smoking-adjusted lung cancer incidence in a Utah county with a steel mill.

In a recent study of urban air pollution, a Utah county with a steel mill was compared with a county without a steel mill. The result was that 38% of respiratory cancer deaths could be attributed to the air pollution emanating from the mill.


Lung cancer among steelworkers in Ontario.
In internal comparisons within the steel companies, increased lung cancer risk was observed among foundry, coke oven, and pouring pit workers. Retrospective hygiene assessment suggested that the increased risk of lung cancer among steel pourers might be related to the use of tar-based mold coating agents or to exposure to mineral fibers.

Male Breast Cancer
Men who work in steel mills, blast furnaces, rolling mills, or other environments of intense heat have a slightly increased incidence of breast cancer ...


Pollution Poses High Cancer Risk

Residents in Indiana’s heavily industrialized areas - particularly Lake County and Indianapolis - face an elevated risk of developing cancer from breathing air pollution, according to a new federal analysis.

The study released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the agency’s most ambitious look to date at cancer risks from breathing chemicals.

In its National Air Toxics Assessment, the EPA studied 133 chemicals emitted in 1999 by businesses and traffic. It outlines lifetime cancer risks in states, counties and census tracts.

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My Lai Redux

Marines Killed Civilians "In Cold Blood"

By Michael Scherer and Mark Benjamin

Senior House Democrat Jack Murtha warns that the details of a reported massacre in Iraq last year will prove "a very bad thing" for the US.

DPA US Representative John Murtha says the US military may be in for some bad press.

A senior House Democrat with close ties to the military claimed Wednesday that U.S. Marines wantonly killed innocent Iraqi civilians, including women and children, in an early morning raid last November, buttressing a March report by Time.

"Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood," said Jack Murtha of Pennsylvania, a decorated Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam and is among the most influential Democratic voices on military matters. "This is going to be a very, very bad thing for the United States."

Flashback

by TChris

The secretary of defense and the national security adviser debate "whether there was any way to stop newspapers and television news programs from showing graphic photographs of the victims."

Pictures of Abu Ghraib? No. Pictures of My Lai, 1969.

A transcript of this 1969 telephone conversation, with its uncanny echoes of the Iraq war and the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, at least in the fact of the photographs, if not in the severity of the wrongdoing, was released on Wednesday by the National Archives as part of 20,000 pages of records of Mr. Kissinger's telephone conversations.

The tapes show a secretary of defense frustrated by his inability to bury the truth.

In their conversation on Nov. 21, 1969, about the My Lai massacre, Mr. Laird told Mr. Kissinger that while he would like "to sweep it under the rug," the photographs prevented it.

United for Peace : Press Release: Haditha Massacre Is Iraq's Mai Lai


Marines accused of cover-up after Haditha killings

— Stark evidence is emerging of deliberate reprisal killings of about two dozen civilians, including women and children, by a handful of U.S. Marines last November in what may prove to be the worst atrocity yet by U.S. forces in Iraq.Details surface of US ‘atrocity' in Iraq

Stay the Lie: Iraq equivilant of Viet Nam Mai Lai Massacre? Why is there no outrage?

The massacre in this farming town on the Euphrates, about 150 miles northwest of Baghdad, may not be precisely part of Operation Iraqi Freedom's official mission, but neither is it an aberration. Indeed, it is, as Iraq vet Charlie Anderson said to me, a "foreseeable consequence" of an occupation that from day one was clumsy, brutal and clueless. As it grinds into its fourth year, with thousands of GIs caught by stop-loss orders in a tour of duty without end, and with all claims of noble purpose long since abandoned by our government like burned-out tanks in the desert, the frustrations and hatreds generated by our presence continue to intensify.

What happened in Haditha six months ago -- two days after Rep. John Murtha introduced his brave, lonely resolution to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq -- shatters every argument of the stay-the-course crowd and throws the dithering cowardice of Congress into stark relief. The longer we force our exhausted troops to stay not the "course" but the lie, the more dangerous the occupation becomes, for the Iraqis, for us, for the world.

The Politics of Evil versus Boston Legal

The 2002 invasion of Afghanistan showcased the "march-in-shooting" strategy of US house searches, which served to boost support for bin Laden. There were reports of massacres. It was alleged that 30 to 40 U.S. Special Forces assisted in the massacre of 3,000 Taliban prisoners. When Amnesty International viewed the documentary footage, much of it wisely shot in secret, it stated there was prima facie evidence of serious war crimes. In July, US planes and helicopters swooped on a wedding party southwest of Kabul, killing 54 guests and injuring over 100. "It was like an abattoir", said a survivor. "There was blood everywhere." One of the guests, Mohammad Anwar, whose wife was killed in the raid, told Yahoo News that after the bombing, US soldiers "stormed into the houses and tied the hands of men and women. They refused to let the people help the victims." A week later, the local District Commissioner Abdur Rahim, paid out to relatives US$200 on behalf of each person killed and US$75 for each of the wounded. Little was made of this at the time. The US military has had four years to learn how to win Afghani hearts and minds. Last week, when A-10 "Warthog" warplanes strafed the village of Azizi from midnight till dawn, suspected Taliban ran from a religious school into nearby mud brick homes, which were then attacked. "I saw 35 to 40 dead Taliban", said Haji Ikhlaf, a blood smeared witness, "and around 50 dead or wounded civilians". Another villager, Zurmina Bibi, cradled her wounded 8-month-old. She said about 10 people were killed in her home, including three or four children. Attah Mohammad, said at the hospital that 24 members of his family were dead , including children. In New York Times speak, such houses would be considered "legitimately bombed".


American Experience | Vietnam Online | The My Lai Massacre | PBS On March 16, 1968 the angry and frustrated men of Charlie Company, 11th Brigade, Americal Division entered the Vietnamese village of My Lai. "This is what you've been waiting for -- search and destroy -- and you've got it," said their superior officers. A short time later the killing began. When news of the atrocities surfaced, it sent shockwaves through the U.S. political establishment, the military's chain of command, and an already divided American public. Word of the atrocities did not reach the American public until November 1969, when journalist Seymour Hersh published a story detailing his conversations with a Vietnam veteran, Ron Ridenhour. Ridenhour learned of the events at My Lai from members of Charlie Company who had been there. Before speaking with Hersh, he had appealed to Congress, the White House, and the Pentagon to investigate the matter. The military investigation resulted in Calley's being charged with murder in September 1969 -- a full two months before the Hersh story hit the streets.


My Lai Massacre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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No More Mr. Nice Guy

Provinces won't dictate equalization, Harper says

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the national equalization program falls under Ottawa's jurisdiction and none of the provinces can dictate how the money collected from taxpayers gets divvied up among poorer regions.

So much for Asymmetrical Federalism. Gee this guy is sounding more and more like Trudeau.

In representative first past the pole parliamentary democracy it's so much easier to be an autarch than a democrat.

If Trudeau was Canada's Philosopher King, then the Harpocrite is Pooh-Ba, the Minister of Everything.




Also See: He Won't Share


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Greedy Banks

Royal posts $1.1B profit Analysts said the Royal, which delivered a record $3.4-billion annual profit last year, is on track to achieve its 2006 targets, including more than 20 per cent growth in earnings per share.

So how much is too much profit. Why it's never enough since the Royal Bank intends to up its service charges on Canada Day. While some folks worry about gouging gas prices, the real gouging we face is Bank Service charges. Something that should be outlawed.



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The Big Lie

Emissions reality check
environmental activists and individual scientists claimed the Conservative government was deliberately misleading the public on climate-change matters, especially on international comparisons and the payoff from its new domestic programs

Gee do ya think the Conservatives would rig the data to make good on their promise, err priority to get out of Kyoto?! That they would mispeak the facts?!

Of course they wold, they are from Alberta after all home of the big lie. As I said before Rona Ambrose Lied. And now it looks as if her script written for her by the PMO has worn thin. As thin as the ozone layer over the Antarctic.


Also See:

Harper Has Already Abandoned Kyoto

The Cone of Silence Over Kyoto

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