It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Back in the USSR
Slain Russian journalist was writing on torture
Isn't Russian Democracy wonderful.
The difference between Putin and Stalin is the moustache.
Putin's harshest media critics shot dead
Wouldn't George Bush love to be able to that.
But he can't he can only torture.
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Fearmongering
Well our MIA Environment Minister has appeared but not in her shy retiring Dr. Jekyll disguise but as Mrs. Hyde;
- Canadians would see their hydro and natural-gas bills spike dramatically should the three opposition parties succeed in forcing the government to comply with Kyoto, Environment Minister Rona Ambrose warned yesterday.
Fearmongering at the Environment committee meeting, another reason to call for her resignation.
Ms. Ambrose told the committee she had asked her department to produce the cost estimates to consumers of meeting Canada's Kyoto targets solely through regulation within the country and not including buying of greenhouse-gas credits as outlined in the Kyoto Protocol.
The minister did not explain, however, how her department arrived at its details.
And another reason; she deliberately misreads studies to prove her point when pressed.....Environment minister angers Washington think tank
An academic from a progressive think tank based in Washington is furious that Environment Minister Rona Ambrose used recent remarks by her to attack the Kyoto protocol on climate change.
Daphne Wysham, a fellow from the Institute for Policy Studies, said Ambrose is using her think tank's criticism of the Clean Development Mechanism to abandon Canada's responsibility to live up to its commitment under the international agreement.
Ambrose made reference to the think tank on Thursday during a parliamentary committee arguing that the mechanism, which allows countries to get credits for investments in developing nations to reduce emissions, had no accountability.
And yet another reason; since they have been in power the emissions of Green House gases have only been matched by the Tories hot air.Canada's greenhouse emissions balloon; EU reports progress
And our final reason;
The Conservative government's plan to introduce a Clean Air Act and begin consultations with the provinces and industry groups is a strategy of delaying its climate change and air quality plan until beyond the next election, environment critics say. Conservative 'strategy of delay' on climate change, critics say
Consultations with these guys, Canada's largest companies inactive on climate change...thats just more hot air....they need regulation not consultation.
Addressing a meeting in Mexico, British government scientist and former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern said it makes economic as well as environmental sense to pursue green energy sources. Britain: acting on greenhouse emissions cheaper than doing nothing
See:
Ambrose
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Nyah, Nyah
With fingers in their ears the North Koreans defied the world. North Korea says it successfully performed its first-ever nuclear test
While Iran only wishes it could.Iran: Sanctions Threat a 'Rusty' Weapon
And all this gamesmanship would be unnecessary if the Americans would only agree to face to face negotiations with both countries.Iran to negotiate deals with US companies if sanctions dropped
Wait a minute this was North Korea's first ever nuclear test...you mean they had untested nuclear weapons? We were worried about untested untried nuclear weapons.
See:
Iran
North Korea
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First Oda Then Ambrose
Sung to First We Take Manhattan Then We Take Berlin by Leonard Cohen
Round 1. Progressives unite to lobby for Bev Oda's resignation. Politics and Poetry has a backgrounder and an action link to the contact page for you to email your MP. And the Opposition of course.
Round 2. Progresives unite with environmentalists, automakers, and unions to demand Environment Minister Rona Ambrose has to go. Use the same link page and email your MP demanding the Invisible Minister resign when she fails to come up with a Green Plan.
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Faith Based Capitalism
And in its current floating of the idea of defense of religion legislation should it lose the vote on defining marriage as a Christian heterosexual institution.
If that succeeds this would be the result.....
Of course this is just more North American christian revivalist fundamentalist protestant and Catholic influencing the neo-con right. Who in order to get elected to power lose any pretence to libertarianism.At any moment, state inspectors can step uninvited into one of the three child care centers that Ethel White runs in Auburn, Ala., to make sure they meet state requirements intended to ensure that the children are safe. There must be continuing training for the staff. Her nurseries must have two sinks, one exclusively for food preparation. All cabinets must have safety locks. Medications for the children must be kept under lock and key, and refrigerated.
The Rev. Ray Fuson of the Harvest Temple Church of God in Montgomery, Ala., does not have to worry about unannounced state inspections at the day care center his church runs. Alabama exempts church day care programs from state licensing requirements, which were tightened after almost a dozen children died in licensed and unlicensed day care centers in the state in two years.
The differences do not end there. As an employer, Ms. White must comply with the civil rights laws; if employees feel mistreated, they can take the center to court. Religious organizations, including Pastor Fuson’s, are protected by the courts from almost all lawsuits filed by their ministers or other religious staff members, no matter how unfairly those employees think they have been treated.
And if you are curious about how Ms. White’s nonprofit center uses its public grants and donations, read the financial statements she is required to file each year with the Internal Revenue Service. There are no I.R.S. reports from Harvest Temple. Federal law does not require churches to file them.
There is an outright injustice in tax payers paying twice to the church. First because it is tax free, so we carry the church load in social payments, second in that the government then subsidizes it with taxpayer grants. That the Canadian Taxpayers Federation those fiscal conservatives don't take this on, nor does the non-moralist conservative right, shows the disproportionate influence of the Church on the anti-state right.
More stories on Harper's imitation of Bush
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Bottom Feeders
"The Fisheries Council of Canada, which represents fish processors and marketers, said it supports Hearn's "responsible, pragmatic and effective" approach to bottom trawling."
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Indentured Servitude
I have written here before on the plight of modern slavery in Canada, the so called indentured servitude program of the Federal Government, that allows nannies and other guest workers into the country to work with no labour protection, and they face deporation if they do not remain with the family that sponsors them. Now it appears there is another form of slavery and exploitation of women occuring in Canada; mail order brides.
Mail order brides face exploitation in Canada, BC researcher says
A new study by Simon Fraser University's Jen Marchbank says the scenario is not unique. Mail-order brides coming to Canada have little knowledge of their rights and face exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous husbands.And the business in Canada is thriving, thanks in part to the Internet.
She details the situation Mail Order Brides: Causes, Experiences, and Policy Responses in North America
Many of the problems such women face in Canada come as a result of changes to this country's marriage laws as they relate to immigrants.
"Unlike many U.S. states, the industry is unregulated in Canada," says Marchbank. "In this country, there are no specific rules to control agencies, which work transnationally, and no specific provisions to ensure that brides know their rights."
Recent changes in Canadian marriage law regarding common-law spouses could also have implications.
"This might aid unscrupulous men in deceiving women into entry to Canada with a promise of marriage - then not being able to leave the man without threat of deportation."
The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act changed the definition of a spouse in 2001 so that certain common-law marriages are recognized under the family section of immigration rules.
Under those rules, a woman can come to Canada as a common-law spouse without being married elsewhere. That, however, puts a women at the mercy of her husband.
Should the relationship fail, she could be deported.
Congrats to the Green Party for speaking out on this issue. To bad it has not gotten more coverage.
Party Leader Elizabeth May says the situation is akin to "human trafficking."
May said women coming from countries outside of western cultures suffer due to their lack of language skills and support systems.
"All the more so in this particular group where women come in, potentially as mail-order brides without any support and are subject to abuse," May said. "We've heard about situations where it's really not a marriage; it's actually sexual exploitation."
While the Minister of the Status of Women, Bev Oda stood in the house this week justifying her funding cuts to that program, she stated one of reasons was that now the Conservative government was focusing on the international campaign against the trafficking in women.
"In a few short months the new Conservative government has provided safety in communities by putting more law enforcement officers on the street. We have provided $1.4 billion in affordable housing. We introduced legislation and movement on human trafficking.''
Thats ironic since it is clear that the Canadian government endorses and abets both indentured servitude and the trafficking in women.
So are they going to end indentured servitude in Canada and regulate the mail order bride progam? Guess she better talk to Monte Soldberg about it since it is his department that is in charge mail brides and the Minister of Labour who is charge of rules around indentured servitude. Because so far it is all talk that has come out of the Tories.
Bill C-49 the act to criminalize trafficking in human beings was passed by the Liberal Government in 2005.
And all the Tories want to do is address it in it's international context, as if it is just a case of what used to be called the white slave trade, the exploitation of women coming to Canada from Eastern Europe to work in the sex industry. They don't want to look at the real root causes of both indentured servitude of women workers, like nannies, and mail order brides from the third world; womens poverty. Of course not that would be advocacy as defined by Oda and the Conservatives.
Conservative Government Refuses to Address Women’s Economic Security
See:
Resign
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Afghanistan-Five Years After
This weekend marks the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan what the U.S. did in those five years was that it refused to allow the expansion of peacekeeping troops from Kabul to the rest of the country, saying that it would interfere with the so-called hunt for Taliban and al-Qaeda, and it re-empowered these misogynist and fundamentalist warlords in the northern part of the country and allowed them to take part in government. Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords and the Propaganda of Silence.
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Afghanistan
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India Is Now A Capitalist State
And who does India do export business with?
The US, India's biggest market accounting for 17% of India's total exports, the UAE, the second largest trade destination for Indian exports with an 8.5% share.
So who benefits from bribery? Look at which American companies have invested in India recently. And which Indian companies have been dominant players in global corporate takeovers.
US warns India of investment fallout from Coca-Cola, PepsiCo row
Gulf Arabs to pour billions into India real estate
Of course the UAE also has it's own corruption scandals in particular in Dubai, which has a Canadian connection.
India has a long history of corruption encouraged by British Imperialisms use of the Dutch East India Company for their own primitive accumulation of capital.
All capitalism is based upon the primitive accumulation of capital, that is the criminal acquisiton of wealth in its earliest period of development.
Democracy is less important to captialist development than corporate crime resulting from a capitalist state that allows for private accumulation through state policies of deregulation. See my article; Neo Liberal State Capitalism In Asia
Asia outsourcing: China, India and Southeast Asia as sourcing partners
The irony of these issues of transparency is that the it is based on WTO member capitalist states and their corporations that rate the countries invovled. You know corporations like Enron, Comcast, Apple, etc. all whom have been involved in some form of corporate malfiescence in their own countries. Kettle, pot, black.
See:
India
Mittal
Corporate Crime
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Organic Botulism
I have dumped my carrot juice down the drain.
Carrot juice linked with Toronto illnessesToronto Public Health believes two people became seriously ill after drinking carrot juice from a U.S. company.
Botulism is suspected, Dr. Elizabeth Rae, Toronto's associate medical officer of health, said Saturday.
A Florida woman has been in hospital, unresponsive, since mid-September. Three people in Georgia suffered respiratory failure and are on ventilators since drinking carrot juice a month ago.
One of the three brands of recalled carrot juice.
(CBC)'Dump it down the sink'
The recalled products, all sold in both one litre and 450-millilitre containers, are:
- Bolthouse Farms 100% Carrot Juice.
- Earthbound Farm Organic Carrot Juice.
- President’s Choice Organics 100% Pure Carrot Juice.
Products with a “best by” date up to Nov. 11 have been recalled.
This is a blow to the moralistic community of food faddists who proclaim a holier than thou philosophy that their diet is morally superior. I am of course speaking of PETA and Vegans. The fact is that vegetables in North American , even those proclaimed as being 'organic' are still produced by corporate agribusiness, capitalism by any other name.
Spinach Recall Becomes Criminal Investigation
So while they complain about corporate farming practices around animals to justify the morality of their diets, the fact is that all food stuffs produced by large corporate agribusiness, if not properly regulated and inspected can kill you.
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