Vive Cuba

In power since the triumph of the Cuban revolution on Jan. 1, 1959, Castro is the world’s longest ruling head of government. Only Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, crowned in 1952, has been head of state longer. Castro undergoes surgery, delegates to brother

Castro has stepped down. Unheard of. And the reason is this; he has defeated the U.S. Thanks to the help of Canadians including Trudeau and Sherrit Gordon Inc.

Cuba Comes in from the Cold

Bolstered by New Investments and Beneficial Trade Agreements, the Island’s Economy Surges while Washington Grumbles over Havana’s Possible Big Oil Surprise

For a country long in the grip of a paralyzing economic malaise, and with living standards which have not always endeared government officials to ordinary citizens, Fidel Castro’s May Day boast of 11.8 percent growth in the first three months of 2006 came as welcome news to a long suffering population. The upbeat report, reflecting a far better-stocked national larder than ever before, replaced the usual exhortations for personal sacrifices that the average Cuban was used to hearing from the leadership, which usually offers more fiery rhetoric than caloric intake. In front of more than one million people gathered at Havana’s Revolution Square, Castro trumpeted progress in all sectors of the economy, despite an unshakeable U.S. trade embargo. Since then, and in widely different locales, Fidel has continued to boast a climbing rate of economic growth, claiming that Cuba’s economy had expanded by 12.5% in the first quarter of this year. “We should thank [the blockade] because it has forced us to grow and rise to the occasion,” the near-octogenarian leader satisfyingly declared on May Day.

Also See:

Made In Cuba Green Policy

Nothing To Worry About In Bolivia

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All the Tories Touch Turns To Merde

Let me count the ways;

The new foreign policy make war not love:Mideast, Afghanistan underpin Conservative slip in polls

Baby Bonus; clawed back by taxes

GST:GST cut arrives with a whimper, not a bang

Border Security which really is not about security at all but the creation of a North American Economic Union.

The Great Wizard of Oz is running the PMO.

What looked good in the Spring, today in the heat of summer, with apt tornado and severe weather warning across Canada, suddenly reminds me of Oz.

Speaking of Softwood as an example.


Lumber deal in trouble, Emerson warns
Scrambling to salvage the controversial Canada-U.S. softwood truce, International Trade Minister David Emerson warned the agreement could end up "dead before arrival" unless support for the deal grows within this country's forest industry.

His blunt words came as the head of Canfor Corp., Canada's largest lumber producer, predicted the deal is doomed unless it can be amended to assuage critics.

Industry unrest has continued unabated since July 1, when Ottawa and Washington initialled the deal that the minority Conservative government has celebrated as one of its major achievements to date.

Mr. Emerson, who began a public-relations counteroffensive yesterday to sell the deal, said there's no point in bringing an agreement before Parliament this fall -- as the Tories had planned -- unless industry support firms up.

"I think it is fair to say that if we do not have sufficient buy-in from industry there really isn't an agreement to bring before Parliament," he said.

"And so the first bridge we have to cross is to get the agreement supported by the appropriate number of players in the industry. Otherwise you're dead before arrival."

And if softwood is in trouble, imagine what a success a dual marketing scheme with the U.S. for Wheat and Barley will be like. The Tories are intent on killing the Goose, the Canadian Wheat Board, for the Golden Egg.

What priorities are left for the fall, and will they mean the fall of the teeny tiny Tory Minority Government. One can only hope.



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Wages of Sin

So we cannot trust the Harpocrite social conservatives to do the right thing, politically or ethically. They are just like any other party in government.
Critics irked by `quiet' pay hikes for senior brass



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Harpers Homophobia

Rough reception for Harper's stand-in
The inaugural event of the first World Outgames ended with a score of LGBT 1, Federal Government O, as 40,000 people at Montreal's Olympic Stadium booed Prime Minister Stephen Harper's representative long and lustily during Saturday night's opening ceremonies.

A beaming Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay was the most popular politician in the house. He had to start his welcoming speech twice, each time interrupted by a huge ovation.

But even the mayor couldn't help Public Works Minister Michael Fortier, Harper's Quebec lieutenant and stand-in for the event. Fortier's remarks were swallowed up in a rising tide of boos, which then grew more deafening as much of the crowd began slamming their folding seats up and down. Harper has promised to revisit the issue of same-sex marriage in Parliament.

"Shame! Shame! Shame!" spectators cried, wagging their upraised fingers in unison.

kd lang slags Harper, Tories for Outgames stance

And lets not forget the Harpocrite has failed even to this date to say he would attend the World AIDs conference next month. His Homophobia is showing.

Homophobia; self hate by those who suspect they are gay. Irrational fear of ones homosexual impulses, guilty feelings, heterosexuality defined as being opposed to homosexuality.

And in Harpers case he positively loathes his gay self. Which he only allows 'out' at Calgary Stampede breakfasts, where he feels comfortable in his village people drag. With all the other Brokeback cowboys.

Of course given the Harpers shift from libertarianism to embracing the right wing social conservatives, theres that homophobia again, he sides with them on the no Gay Marriage issue, thus he must maintain his distance from Gay Canadians in case he be cursed.

"[homosexuals are] brute beasts...part of a vile and satanic system [that] will be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven." Jerry Falwell: Quoted in Jim Hill & Rand Cheadle, "The Bible Tells Me So", Anchor Books (1996), Pages 69-70.

As the saying goes once you lay down with dogs you gert fleas. In for a penny in for a pound, etc. etc.

Harper must now become the ubermensch, the supreme ruler who is the extreme heterosexual. Which is why he shakes hands with his son. No male love can be shown. It is weakness, it is not manly.

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Silver City

Well Gold actually. But having recently watched Silver City it reminded me of this. Canadian

Groups call for action on cyanide spillage

a US-Canadian company, has spilled cyanide, an extremely poisonous chemical, twice into rivers in its operational area.

Gold Mining Companies have a notorious reputation for cyanide spillage in Ghana and other countries.

Though ironically it also should be noted that the John Sayles movie has a strange way of coming true. Son of longtime Silver City senator indicted on aggravated assault ...


A tip o the blog to Here On Planet Earth



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Peter Wanna Cracker

Gee I thought he said that we were not parroting the US.

But it was Canada's position at the Rome conference on Wednesday that stunned many. While 15 European and Arab countries called for an immediate ceasefire and a UN-mandated stabilization force to intervene, Canada lined up behind the U.S. and Britain in refusing to agree. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, parroting Condoleezza Rice, said a quick-fix ceasefire is not a good idea because it can't guarantee permanent peace. There's more politics than logic in that reasoning. Mr. Harper's foreign policy

Also See:

Israel

Lebanon

Peter McKay

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Which Priority Is This?

The destruction of the Canadian Wheat Board.

"Canada's new government campaigned on the idea that western Canadian wheat and barley producers should have a choice about whether to market their products through the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). AAFC: Ministerial Statement Following a Meeting with Farmers

Oh really which priority was that?! There was no such a debate. There has been the Reform/Alliance front to destroy the Wheat Board. Creating a dual marketing situation will leave Wheat and Barley farmers to face this;BSE halts US plans to boost Canada beef imports



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Dinning A Liberal

On a personal note, I worry that our governments across the country have become a 'hotbed of rest' and I can only hope that Mr. Martin and others might be able to re-inject a sense of urgency, passion and priority into the affairs of our nation. Soon.

Kind personal regards,
Jim Dinning


Jim tries to serve up that this was an official donation to the Martin Campaign from TransAlta Corp. Except its signed 'king personal regards' and even though corporations are recognized as 'persons' under the law, no corporation ever sent me a letter with kind personal regards. Oh yeah nor do they add a 'personal note' to their form mail. And if I am not mistaken the $25,000 donation is the maximum, 'personal' donation a 'person', not a corporation, can make.

A tip of' the blog to Calgary Grit for this.

Also See:

Dinning Alberta's Next CEO

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CIA Blows It, Again

Meanwhile, a different kind of authority was emerging in Mogadishu: The Islamic courts.

It was an attempt, paid for by local businessmen, to restore order by using religious law to settle disputes and punish criminals.

Each clan's court has jurisdiction only over its own clan members, but it was a start on rebuilding a law-abiding society, and in 2004 they all joined to form the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). Unfortunately, the mere use of the word "Islamic" spooked the U.S. government.

As usual, Washington's response was mainly military. It decided that the Union of Islamic Courts was a threat and in February, CIA planes delivered large amounts of money and guns to the three warlords who dominated Mogadishu. They named themselves the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, and started trying to suppress the UIC.

Rarely has any CIA plot backfired so comprehensively.

The White House horns in again
Hamilton Spectator
By Gwynne Dyer.

Not so, there was also the leak of nuclear bomb designs to the Iranians. Which is how the US knows that Iran can build nukes.

And once again we can thank the capitalists/businessmen for law and order. Any kind of governance that is to their benefit. Capitalism creates the State. Just watch Deadwood.

Also See:

CIA

Somalia


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Israels Measured Response

Kills another Canadian. In a deliberate attack on a UNILF lookout. So here is the real measure of Israels Measured response as King Stephen called it. Israel is now engaging in War Crimes and violations of the Geneva Convention on a daily basis.

It is the Terrorist State against the terrorists. With no criticism from the US. UK or Canada. It bombs civilians and infrasturucture in Lebanon and Gaza, while the ghosts of Guernica weep.

Our PM remains deafingly silent on the war crimes the terrorist state of Israel is conducting against our countries citizens, and those of Gaza and Lebanon.

Israel arose from the abyss and now is the face of the abyss, something I thought the Harper understood.

What do Chomsky, Saramago Think of us?

'The political objective of Israeli policy is the liquidation of the Palestinian nation,' Chomsky, Pinter, Saramago and Roy write in open letter in which they accuse Israel of deepening the crisis in the Middle East
Merav Yudilovitch

When the war began in northern Israel and the Gaza operation was expanded, Palestinian director and actor Juilano Mar Hamis sent out an e-mail asking who would paint the “Guernica” of Lebanon. Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica,” which shows the results of the Nazi bombing of Guernica in Spain, is still considered a symbol of the destruction and devastation that war leaves in its wake.

According to Mar Hamis, his e-mail was intended to awaken the world. “Just as Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ is black and white evidence of the slaughter in Spain under Franco’s reign of terror, someone needs to testify about the atrocities Israel is carrying out in Lebanon and Gaza,” he said.



Also See:

Israel

Lebanon

Harper


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