Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Stelmach Sells Out

Uh oh prepare for a sell out by Prince Ed. He has appointed Ron Stevens to oversee reactions to the Royalty Report , the most negative coming form the self interested oil tycoons, and he announced in Toronto that any decision will be in favour of big oil.

"I've promised Albertans a royalty regime that is fair to the companies who are investing billions of dollars to develop Alberta's resources," Stelmach said, according to a text copy of his speech.

Ron is also Minister responsible for the Oil Sands Secretariat, so the deal is sealed.

Rick Bell commenting in the Calgary Sun wonders too if Prince Eddie will take on the dragon of big oil, and has his doubts.

Now, Premier Ed has this panel report. Those in Big Oil's culture of entitlement who cry catastrophe but still strut the flash-the-cash attitude downtown won't surrender a copper, reminding the Tories who wags the dog.

Big Oil wring their well-manicured pinkies in front of Deputy Premier Ron Stevens, a Calgary lawyer who hears more blues than in the old days at the King Eddy.

Energy Minister Mel Knight, the Spymaster, so named because of the Energy and Utilities Board's hiring of private eyes to spy on citizens opposing a power line, has his deep thinkers give the panel report a look-see.

Those numbskulls couldn't do the math on the existing royalties. Beautiful.

NDP Leader Brian Mason likens the move to handing over the keys of the new locomotive to those who have been asleep at the wheel.

No matter. It comes down to Ed. Does he have the guts to be the leader for all Albertans or is he just the latest dude along for the ride willing to risk a train wreck?
Since Ed wants to hear from all Albertans make sure he hears from you.

SEE:

More Shills For Big Oil


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Myanmar Ghost Dance

The ghost dance of the Myanmar Buddhists. And we know how ghost dances end.

And notice how young the monks are. Another children's crusade.

Buddhist monks march to downtown Yangon. Myanmar security forces fired tear gas and warning shots and beat protesters with batons, hoping to crush the mass rallies that have erupted nationwide against the military regime.

Undeterred despite the baton charge, the monks regrouped and 1,000 marched into downtown Yangon in defiance of the security forces, greeted with deafening cheers from thousands of bystanders as they approached the iconic Sule Pagoda.

Roars of approval erupted when storm clouds gathered overhead, dramatically blotting out the blazing sunshine. Many in this country, where superstitions are deeply held, took it to be a sign from the spirits.

But in a second onslaught, the security forces fired more warning shots and again unleashed tear gas to disperse the crowd, sending people swarming to seek shelter indoors.

'They even insult our religion and our monks,' a businessman aged in his 50s said as he ran from the tear gas alongside monks who held wet cloths to their face.

Elsewhere in Yangon, monks marching to the home of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi urged supporters to stand back and let them alone challenge the might of the hardline regime that has ruled Myanmar for more than four decades.

'We monks will do this, please don't join us,' they said.

'Don't do anything violent. We will send loving kindness to them,' they said of the military presence.

Myanmar protests

In this photo released by the National League for Democracy-Liberated Area, Buddhist monk walks past a motorcycle which was get burned in Yangon, Myanmar on Wednesday September 26,2007. Security forces fired warning shots and tear gas canisters while hauling militant Buddhist monks away in trucks Wednesday as they tried to stop anti-government demonstrations in defiance of a ban on assembly. (National League for Democracy-Liberated Area/AP Photo)

Few can fail to be intensely moved by the exhilarating images of the "crimson revolution" -
thousands of monks chanting "democracy, democracy" or reciting the Metta Sutta - the Buddha sermon on loving kindness, while civilian demonstrators, on a practical level, also call for the release of hundreds of political prisoners and a reduction in the price of fuel (raised 500% last month, the root cause of the protests).

The Asian Human Rights Commission has reported how the monks, in a pre-rally ceremony on Monday, have solemnly refused to accept donations from anyone junta-connected, people they have dubbed "pitiless soldier kings". This very serious act amounts to nothing less than a Buddhist form of excommunication.

Anti-riot troops in full battle gear now surround the six biggest monasteries in Yangon. Monks run the risk of at least being attacked with tear gas - some reports indicate this has already happened. Internet access (there's only one state-owned provider) has been cut off. Activists - and even some monks - have been arrested. During the 1988 protest movement - Myanmar's predecessor of China's Tiananmen - the regime is said to have killed more than 3,000 unarmed people.

This year China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the junta's human-rights record. It's virtually impossible that the collective leadership in Beijing will let one of its neighbors, a key pawn in the 21st-century energy wars, be swamped by non-violent Buddhists and pro-democracy students - as this would constitute a daring precedent for the aspirations of Tibetans, the Uighurs in Xinjiang and, most of all, Falungong militants all over China, the embryo of a true rainbow-revolution push defying the monopoly of the Chinese Communist Party.

So this seems to be the trillion-yuan question: Will Chinese President Hu Jintao sanction a Tiananmen remix - with Buddhist subtitles - less than one year before the Olympics that will signal to the whole world the renewed power and glory of the Middle Kingdom? If only the Buddha would contemplate direct intervention.

Of course as with all authoritarian regimes the first victim of a political crackdown are the clowns/jesters and poets. After all humour is subversive, and poetry is revolutionary.

Soldiers and police patrolled monasteries and other flashpoints of anti-government protests Wednesday after Myanmar's junta imposed a nighttime curfew and banned public gatherings to quell mounting demonstrations.

A comedian famed for his anti-government jibes became the first well-known activist rounded up after the curfew imposed Tuesday, following the largest street protests against the country's military rulers in nearly two decades.

Zargana, who uses only one name, was taken away from his home by authorities shortly after midnight. Zargana, along with actor Kyaw Thu and poet Aung Way, led a committee that provided food and other necessities to the Buddhist monks who have spearheaded the protests.

The fates of the actor and poet were not immediately known.



SEE:

No Reincarnation Without Permission

The Road Out of Mandalay


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Harpers War Costs Another Canadian Life

Harpers War

Body Count: 63


71 Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002. True but the vast majority have been killed since March 2006 when it became Harpers War.

And we still don't have an accurate total count of troops who are injured. That has not been released by the Department of Defense.


SEE:

Kandahar

Afghanistan

War




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More Shills For Big Oil

Add Link Byfield to the list along with Ralph Klein and Ezra Levant of those who don't believe Albertans deserve a fair share for our resources. Heck I say we should charge 100% royalties on our resources. Given that I am a socialist after all, most Albertans being reasonable folks like the Royalty Report.

And Link, like other conservatives of his ilk, always dismisses the fact that some of those resources also belong to the First Nations.

Funny thing though his announcement at the first meeting of his new political party fell flat amongst the severely normal Albertans that were there.

A townhall meeting by Alberta‘s newest political party was marked by bickering among the 60 people who attended over whether the province should increase energy royalties.

The fledging Wildrose Party has yet to gain party status or adopt policies, but called the meeting to talk about a government-appointed review panel‘s call for a 20 per cent hike in royalties.

Senate nominee Link Byfield chaired the meeting and denounced the proposed royalty increase, saying it would force energy firms to curtail exploration, resulting in thousands of job losses.

But others at the meeting disagreed, arguing that energy companies earning record profits can afford to pay higher royalties and that other countries are getting a larger take from their resources.

The crowd included former supporters of Alberta‘s governing Progressive Conservatives and some who had been members of the Alberta Alliance Party, which holds one seat in the legislature.

Byfield says putting an extra $2 billion in the hands of Premier Ed Stelmach‘s government would simply generate more waste, while leaving this money in the oilpatch generates jobs and prosperity.

EDMONTON/630 CHED - A townhall meeting called by a hopeful new political party brought in a few dozen people, and they weren't all on-side.

Even after the microphones were turned off, people kept up the debate. The Wildrose Party is yet to be officially registered in the province, but called a town hall to talk about why royalty rates need to stay where they are.

we seem to have the assumption that that money's going to go to us," said the party's executive director, Link Byfield. "I mean, how foolish can you be?"

Byfield talked to the small crowd about driving Alberta's economy with prosperous energy companies, and how a proposed hike in royalties would drive out investment. More than a few people taking to the mic were against that idea though, and were for the report recently released which calls for Albertans to take a larger share of oil and gas profits. (js, jk)


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A Contient of Children

If the Harper Government is so concerned about ending; violence against children, their exploitation and impoverishment, then its abandonment of the former Liberal government focus on African Aid is the biggest moral betrayl of those aims.

Because at the beginning of this century, seven years ago, one in two Africans were under 18. In other words 50% of the continent is populated by children. Many of them war children.

And as he made clear at the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday Harpers development and foreign aid focus is not Africa. He has abandoned the continent of children for a policy of neo-liberal colonialism in this hemisphere.



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Thoughtful

Fellow blogger thoughtinterrupted was kind enough to redo my CBC/Ezra ad.


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Thank you for the much better designed ad. I have replaced my crude one on the sidebar.

She comments on yet another dreadful appearance of this opportunist self promoting partisan of the right on Don Newman's Politics on CBC yesterday.

And Ken Chapman another thoughtful Alberta blogger concurs.

Expand your Alberta based Rolodex Mr. Newman and do the province - and the country a favour.


But is CBC listening?

Well Ezra is apparently, since as thoughtinteruppted points out, he finally mentioned the Alberta NDP, who have four seats in Redmonton.

Levant proclaimed that after Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, by having commissioned a panel of mostly pro-business types including one former Fraser Institute associate to review Alberta’s energy royalties, has become so far left that “everyone” in Alberta is “wondering when we elected Brian Mason and the New Democrats”.
Business type's, Fraser Institute alumni are left wing? Give your head a shake, Mr. Newman. Is this the kind of politically challenged comment you would accept from someone talking about Ontario or Quebec or heck even Newfoundland politics? I think not. This would be like having Kate from Small Dead Animals comment on Saskatchewan politics.

Uh oh maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that, it might give the Politics producer ideas, since the CBC has already bowed to right wing pressure for political correctness by having Ezra on, to try and show they are not liberal lefties.

As for Ezra's comment itself he is shilling pro-bono for Big Oil, repeating comments made by Ralph Klein. They are the only ones in Alberta upset over the royalty report. Albertans support our ownership of our own resources, a key plank of the right in fact, that socialist idea that the resources belong to the people, not big oil. And that they should pay us for the privilege of processing them.

Perhaps Ezra ever the opportunist hopes to get some cash injected into his fiscally challenged Western Standard from the oil boys. Watch for an WS email ad solicitation campaign to target oil companies.


SEE:

Conservative Broadcasting Corporation


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