Why Canada is in Libya; F-35

Even Harper's original Political Military advisor Derek Burney questions Canada's role in bombing Libya. Burney is also a lobbyist for the Military Industrial complex in Canada so if he doesn't know why we are bombing Libya he is either being disingenuous or he no longer has the confidence of the PMO.

The man who once led Stephen Harper's transition team is questioning the government's military entanglement in Libya.

"We have jumped into Libya with our eyes wide open but does anyone know where it will lead or why Canada is so directly engaged?" Derek Burney, who headed the transition team when the Conservatives took power in 2006, writes in a new paper for the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute.

"The emotions and humanitarian instincts to do 'something' are understandable but so, too, are arguments advocating prudence."

Burney, one-time chief-of-staff to prime minister Brian Mulroney and former ambassador to the United States, even wonders whether the Harper government committed air power to Operation Odyssey Dawn to regain global ground after last year's embarrassing loss in the bid for a seat on the UN Security Council.

"Is it because we were snubbed for a Security Council seat and want to re-establish our credentials for 'peacekeeping'?

"Is it because we regard ourselves as an architect of the (UN) Responsibility to Protect concept?" which obligates states or the international community to protect civilian populations.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Canada+Libya+role+questioned/4486176/story.html#ixzz1Hc4evjgh

Well the straight forward anwser is that it might have something to do with the Harper Government (c)(tm)(r) wanting to buy F-35's which are stealth combat planes, not really what Canada needs for Defense of its claims to Arctic sovereignty, or for its defense of North America. But certainly what would be needed to change our role from Peacekeeping, to 'peace-making' which is simply Orwellian Harper speak for war making.

Only a handful of fighter interceptors remain of the many U.S. and Canadian squadrons once available. NORAD’s founding raison d’être, standing by to fight a vast air defence battle, is also gone. Long gone. Those arguments for retaining NORAD are not strong, though, and it is even harder to argue that NORAD is functionally essential for Canada-U.S. defence co-operation. In other words, Canada does not need to be part of a binational aerospace defence command. Nor is a binational homeland defence command necessary.

As Canada uses its outdated CF-18's to bomb Libya it gives the Harpocrites justification to say that they need to upgrade to F-35's.

The other reason is that it is good for his masculine tough guy image. Just as he did in 2006 after first getting elected, he donned his Khaki's and went to Afghanistan for a photo op.

And with a pending federal election being a tough guy internationally helps his tough guy image at home. Of course that means he probably won't be wearing sweater vests this election campaign, unless they are Khaki.

F35 boondoogle

So the Parliamentary Budget Office declares that the Harpocrites have low balled the costs of their F35 fighter purchase, which they sole sourced. They say prove it...that's hard to do when the DOD fails to provide the PBO with any cost estimates, being under the cone of silence imposed by the PMO.

The F35 is a white elephant that has not gotten off the runway yet, you want too know the costs of this ,OK that's easy you just have read the press...The American and International press that is. Something the PBO did while the Harpocrites continue to deny, deny, deny....So what did Lockheed Martin promise the Harpocrites?

After all Lockheed Martin now also does the information collection for Stats Canada as it does for Stats UK.

Ironically the only persons to protest the mandatory census law in Canada and get charged, which the Harpocrites used to justify the canceling of the Long Form census, were Anti-War/ Anti-Lockheed Martin protesters.

Gates Shakes Up Leadership for F-35 - NYTimes.com

McCain Says F-35 Cost Overruns Have Been `Obscene': Video - Bloomberg


The cost overrun on the main engine for the Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) F-35 fighter jet has grown by $600 million over the past year, despite tough cost-cutting measures by engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp (UTX.N), a Navy document shows.

The total cost to complete the Pratt F135 engine is now estimated to be $7.28 billion -- $2.5 billion more than the $4.8 billion initially projected for the engine, according to the document, which was first reported by Aviation Week magazine on its website on Wednesday.

That is an increase of $600 million from the $1.9 billion cost overrun that was reported last year by the House Armed Services Committee.

Pratt spokeswoman Erin Dick said she was not familiar with the new number, and emphasized that the company's aggressive cost-cutting measures were taking effect.

Pentagon officials disclosed last week that the F-35 joint strike fighter program so far has exceeded its original cost estimates by more than 50 percent.

These revelations come as no surprise considering the history of this program. The Government Accountability Office concluded that F-35 estimated acquisition costs have increased $46 billion and development extended two-and-a-half years compared to the program baseline approved in 2007.

The price per aircraft projected at $69 million in 2001 is now up to $112 million, according to GAO. The Pentagon plans to acquire 2,443 jets for the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. Foreign nations also are expected to buy the aircraft.

A congressional auditor said Thursday that the Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program, "continues to struggle with increased costs and slowed progress," leading to "substantial risk" that the defense contractor will not be able to build the jet on time or deliver as many aircraft as expected.

Michael Sullivan, the U.S. Government Accountability Office's top analyst on Lockheed Martin's jet fighter, also known as the F-35 Lightning II, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a hearing that the cost of the program has increased substantially and that development is 2 1/2 years behind schedule.

The United States plans to buy about 2,400 of the fighter jets for the Air Force, the Marine Corps and the Navy. The projected cost for the program appears to have increased to $323 billion from $231 billion in 2001, when Bethesda-based Lockheed won the deal, according to Sullivan. Eight other countries -- Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Norway -- also plan to buy the jets.

The cost to build the plane is now expected to be $112 million per aircraft, according to a GAO auditor.

US Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) Hits Afterburners on Cost Overrun

POSTED BY: Robert Charette / Fri, March 12, 2010

The US Department of Defense officially announced that the Joint Strike Fighter aka F-35 Lightning II will breach a Nunn-McCurdy Amendment critical threshold on 1 April - an appropriate day, I think.

The Nunn-McCurdy Amendment says that a major defense program is considered to have incurred a "critical breach" if it exceeds the current baseline cost estimate by more than 25% or the original baseline cost estimate by 50%.

Defense officials told the US Senate Armed Services Committee in a hearing yesterday that the estimated cost per F-35 aircraft had risen from $50.2 million to somewhere between $80 to $95 million in 2002 constant dollars. The program has also slipped its schedule by at least two and a half years as well for the USAF and Navy versions of the aircraft (it was slipped by 2 years in 2004 as well).

As a result of the breach, the DoD must certify to the US Congress that the program is essential for national security, which it will, of course; and Congress - which is very unhappy with the program's management (the government's program manager was recently fired) - will continue to fund the F-35 because there is little other choice.

The other eight nations participating in the program - Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey and the U.K. - aren't going to be happy about the cost increases either. I suspect some sweetheart deal will be made to make them less unhappy.

The F-35 program, which has a total life cycle cost of over $1 trillion dollars, was promised to be a "model acquisition program" which would avoid the cost overruns and schedule slips of past aircraft programs like the F-22 Raptor and provide an "affordable next generation strike aircraft."

The JSF website says that, "The focus of the program is affordability -- reducing the development cost, production cost, and cost of ownership of the JSF family of aircraft."

They may want to now amend that sentence.

The Australians are now seriously reconsidering their purchase of the F35

Because the RAAF’s Hornets are aging, Canberra approved the purchase of
Super Hornets as an interim aircraft between the classic Hornet and the
F-35. Aerospace industry and military officials contend that without the
Super Hornet to make the task of integration incremental, the shift
from Hornet to F-35 would likely have become a nightmare of increased cost, complexity and schedule overruns.

And yes Joe and Janey Canuk there is an alternative to this overpriced piece of war machinery...And Japan is looking at buying it....

The F-35, otherwise known as the ball and chain seemingly the entire Western world finds itself chained to, is probably not looking so good to Tokyo right now.

Now, delays suggest the F-35, another stealthy, state-of-the-art option, will not be available until 2020, which could leave a longer-than-acceptable gap for Japan.

Enter the Eurofighter, which is not as advanced as the F-22 or F-35 _ known as fifth-generation fighters_ but is already in service.

The supersonic aircraft, which made its first flight in 1994, is used by six countries: Germany, Italy, Spain, Britain, Austria and Saudi Arabia. Its makers are looking to sell the fighter to Greece, Denmark, Romania, Qatar and India. It is believed to cost about $100 million per aircraft.

A big part of the Eurofighter sales pitch is that it will not tightly restrict the transfer of technology, which means some of it could eventually be built in Japan _ a significant plus for Japanese planners concerned with domestic industry. The U.S. options may not be as generous.

"The Eurofighter group has offered Tokyo lots of sweeteners, including industrial participation," he said. "If the U.S. side can't come up with something equally attractive, then I think it will be difficult for Tokyo to choose a less beneficial deal."

Christopher Hughes, a Japan specialist and political scientist at the University of Warwick, said he believes Tokyo may go for the Eurofighter as a gap-filler, then buy the F-35 once it is ready.

"My feeling is that the Eurofighter might have a chance, but not as the main F-X," he said. "It ticks a lot of boxes and is ready to go, and whilst not cheap, probably nowhere near as costly as the F-35."

Besides budget Hawks like McCain even the Conservative think tank the Hudson Institute is critical of the F35 boondoggle.

Do you know "Cheop's Law"? Named for the Pharaoh who built the great pyramid, and postulated by the author Robert Heinlein, it runs:"Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget." Anyone who questions the wisdom of this maxim should examine the Defense budgets of the world's democracies, apart from the average home remodeling project.

The US should be getting better results for the money it spends. The quality of an F-22 air superiority fighter , for example, is not in question, but if the President and Congress decide that we can only afford 187 of them, compared to a certified need for 380, then something is terribly wrong. The same problem of excessive costs leading to a severely curtailed procurement, afflicted the B-2 bomber: only 21 were bought when the air force needed about 120. Today, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is in danger of being canceled or curtailed due to an estimated overall 65% cost increase since 2002.

The problem with the military projects in the US is that it is their form of state capitalism, which Eisenhower called the 'Military Industrial Complex.'

"Big military contractors, like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman or Boeing, have a relationship with the government that is unusual and tight. In some ways, they operate almost as wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pentagon, which can provide the bulk of their revenues."

Harpers War The Manley Solution

All the conditions for the Manley recommendation to become Harpers War Wet Dream were already made in the back rooms.

The Harper government will set the stage for a possible spring election on Canada's role in the Afghanistan war by tabling a motion as early as this week calling for an extension of the mission in line with last month's Manley report.The motion is expected to adopt the central recommendation of the panel led by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley. In its report, the panel recommended extending the mission beyond February 2009, the current expiration date, provided Canada can secure more equipment and convince its allies to commit roughly 1,000 more troops.

Let's see Poland has offered to help.

Poland to share choppers in Afghanistan

The irony of the former Warsaw Pact nation now extending its mission in Afghanistan is rich indeed. Too bad they hadn't done this when the Russians were there and none of this would have been needed.

Meanwhile MacKay is off lobbying NATO.

MacKay to stress demand for 1,000 troops from NATO

And he may get them.

In a rare piece of good news, there were suggestions that the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, would provide an extra 1,000 troops.

British officials hope the extra troops will be stationed in areas of the bloodiest conflict in Kandahar in the south, but Nato defence chiefs will discuss the position at an informal summit starting today. Nato is seeking to draw together a new three-year structural plan for the country.

Rice did not disguise her concern at the scale of the threat in Afghanistan. "I do think the alliance is facing a real test here. Our populations need to understand this is not a peacekeeping mission" but rather a long-term fight against extremists, she added. "This is a different fight from what Nato was structured to do.

The messaging is the same from the White House and Harpers House; prepare for a long war.

Meanwhile the Taliban will have Pakistan's support in going back into Afghanistan to conduct their operations.

Of course Pakistan is not a member of NATO.

Pakistan Taliban declare ceasefire - spokesman

Pakistan calls truce with Taliban after secret talks
Ismail Khan, a journalist who reports on the border area for the newspaper Dawn, said both sides appeared to be respecting the truce. But he said the military's apparent decision to halt its operation against militants in south Waziristan raised questions about Pakistan's strategy in dealing with the Taliban.

Also See:

Afghanistan




Job Protection for

Canadian Reservists

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Same Old Conservatives

They may have dropped the Progressive from their name but the Harper Conservative Government suddenly looks just like the old Brian Mulroney Conservative party. Coincidence? I think not.

Conservatives ensuring federal cash spent in Quebec, big time

Ministers Prentice and Fortier announced Boeing money being spread to Quebec today: Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) says it has awarded contracts worth more than $420 million to companies in Quebec, linked to the Canadian government's 2007 order for four C-17 Globemaster 3 aircraft.The first two long-distance transport planes are already in service with Canadian Forces, having been used to support the military in Afghanistan.As part of the original order, Boeing agreed to match the price of the four aircraft with dollar-for-dollar investments in Canada through a program co-ordinated by Industry Canada....Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin also announced Monday it is providing Quebec companies with contracts worth a total of $240 million.Federal Public Works Minister Michael Fortier and Industry Minister Jim Prentice made the announcement at a news conference in nearby Laval.

Junior MacKay: "we're going to be getting our share"

The bounty spreads as we get word of a Tuesday announcement of more federal spending, following up on Monday's Quebec spending with respect to those military contracts for new transport aircraft. The Conservatives look to shore up Nova Scotia with some good old fashioned sprinkling of federal funds: Atlantic Canadian aerospace companies will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in defence contracts as the result of a move to replace the military's Hercules transport aircraft, two federal cabinet ministers are expected to announce Tuesday.The announcement of funding to aerospace companies in Nova Scotia will be made by Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Industry Minister Jim Prentice.

And remember this.....

Reports of Quebec getting Boeing spinoffs premature: Toews

Last Updated: Thursday, January 25, 2007

Treasury Board president Vic Toews denied reports that Ottawa may give Quebec a bigger share of a $3.5-billion federal contract for military aircraft — a bigger share that Manitoba worries might come at its own industry's expense.

The federal government is discussing a deal with Boeing Corp. to buy four new C-17 cargo planes.

While the Boeing airplanes would be built in the U.S., the federal deal hinges on Boeing pledging to spend an amount equal to the purchase price on projects in Canada.

About 20 per cent of the benefits could go to Western Canada. But earlier this week, federal Public Works Minister Michel Fortier said in published reports that he would not sign the contracts unless Quebec receives the biggest share.

Toews, the Conservative MP for Provencher in Manitoba, said Thursday that the reports are premature and "are completely without foundation.

The Conservatives remain the party of the Big Lie and Big Liars.


SEE

Stephen Mulroney

Stephen Mulroney Brian Harper

Canada's Real Prime Minister

Not Your Daddies Conservative Party, well...

Mulroney's Ghost

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Fatalities and Near Misses In Afghanistan

I am sorry but this Taliban rockets slam near Mackay

Is not as important as this Over 100 killed, injured in suicide attack in N Afghanistan

After all they missed Mackay. And they didn't know he was there because it was another Conservative 'secret', 'unannounced', 'surprise' visit. So much for security.

Hillier told reporters he believed the base was the intended target — not MacKay. “The minister was not subjected to an attack,” he said.

Whereas the suicide attack north of Kabul, remember Kabul we used to have peace keepers there, was far worse.

A senior Afghan opposition politician was among scores of people killed Tuesday by a suicide bomb attack in a previously peaceful northern province of Afghanistan.

Reports of the number of people killed or injured varied from as low as 13 to as many as 100. But because many of the victims were young children, observers say, the attack was one of the most devastating to hit Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Some analysts, including Wadir Safi, a law professor at Kabul University, agreed that the attack was a political assassination.

Whether or not the Taliban do eventually take responsibility, Tuesday's bombing may feed popular fears that the Afghan government and the international military forces that support it are unable to control the insurgents, observers say.

More than 200 people have died in more than 130 suicide attacks this year amid signs that public confidence in the future of the country is starting to slip.

Though you wouldn't know it by the media coverage in Canada which focused on Mackay with the suicide bombing getting pushed aside.

And we are fighting in the south to protect the women and children of Afghanistan as Mackay likes to remind us. To bad the worst attack since 2001 occurred in the North.





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Huh?

A comment by an Ontario Green activist Mike Casselman on his blog, which leaves me incredulous.

Yes folks at 1:54AM on CFRA news my interview was aired. Of course the Liberal, NDP, and Green panelist misinterpreted what I had said with the question on the dollar and jobs, but I forgive them.

I had answered a question on factory workers and factories moving to Mexico and they all thought I said Canadian workers should be happy to work for minimum wage.

however what I said was

"If factory workers go on strike, jobs that would've been there in 20 years won't be because they'll be hiring Mexicans to do the work for a fraction of the cost."

Remove foot, place back in mouth.

Nope the panelists didn't get it wrong Mike you did say Canadian workers should be happy with their jobs. Worse you said that if they went on strike they should expect to be replaced by scabs. Which you imply you approve of.

Whether the scabs are Canadian or Mexican is irrelevant, your anti-worker, anti-union screed is fear mongering, nativist, jingoism.

The Greens will have this kind of Green Right Whingnut speak for them, while they give the muddy boot to this guy.

Of course it only proves this point; “Greens, The True Conservatives”

Which I have said they were all along.



h/t to My Blahg




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Harpers Equalization

King Stephen I will be on a whirlwind trip across Canada today to make equalization payment announcements that have nothing to do with equalization, provincial resource rights or the Atlantic Accord.

Instead in Nova Scotia he will re-announce military spending, in Saskatchewan he will re-announce bio fuel spending. And he will be going solo having not bothered to inform the Premiers of the respective provinces of his pending dog and pony show on their turf.

This is strictly a show for the Conservative Federal Government, to pretend they did not screw these two provinces in their last budget.

The fact that there is no new money being announced, just a rehash of previous announcements is straight out of the Ralph Klein playbook.

For years the Alberta government has announced, re-announced, and announced yet again funding announcements.

It is euphemistically called buying votes.


SEE:

Tories Blame Premiers for Equalization Crisis

Chickens, Home, Roost

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Return of the Progressive Conservatives

On CTV's Question Period yesterday ousted Nova Scotia Conservative MP Bill Casey called himself an Independent "Progressive" Conservative, "emphasis on the progressive", he said.

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams also declares himself a "Progressive" Conservative in opposition to the Harpocrites and is carrying out a Anybody But Conservative federal election campaign.

Add to that this weekends rejection of the Conservative Governments equalization bait and switch by the "Progressive" Conservative Premier of Nova Scotia and we see the beginnings of a new movement to recognize the political reality of truly "Progressive" Conservatives.

The party that former Nova Scotia PC leader Peter Mackay opportunistically scuttled, after agreeing in writing not to, in order to try to be leader of the political Frankenstein known as the Reform/Alliance/PC/Conservatives.

Bill Casey is breathing a sigh of relief after Premier Rodney MacDonald called on Nova Scotia members of Parliament yesterday to vote against the federal budget.

"Premier MacDonald called me today and told me," the Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley MP said in a phone interview from his Amherst home yesterday.

"I was just really surprised," he said.

Casey won support from many Nova Scotians last week after voting against the federal budget.

He was immediately tossed out of the party after the vote.

Casey now considers himself an Independent Progressive Conservative.

Also glad is Progressive Conservative Association of Nova Scotia president Scott Armstrong.

"It makes things very easy for people in northern Nova Scotia if the premier and our MP Bill Casey are singing from the same song sheet," Armstrong said.

"Bill Casey's really done Nova Scotia a favour."

With the Liberals abandoning Nova Central, MacKays riding, to Elizabeth May and the Greens, her brand of "Progressive" conservatism will likely appeal to Conservative voters disgusted with the Harpocrites and Howdy Doody MacKay.

In Nova Scotia, satisfaction with Ottawa declined from 50 per cent in February to 37 per cent in May, while dissatisfaction rose from 41 per cent to 56 per cent.

A Red tide could sweep the Maritimes next federal election, not just Liberals but Red Tories; the "Progressive" conservatives, Casey, May etc.

Nova Scotians have long memories – and the Conservative government knows it. There are people down here who are still bitter over the fact that Stanfield, the late Progressive Conservative leader, never became prime minister. To this day Stanfield is commonly referred to in these parts as "the best prime minister Canada never had."

The Tories' expulsion of Casey, who was first elected in 1988, has upset Nova Scotians.

People say they elected him to represent their interests, not play the part of a trained seal in Ottawa.

In Truro and elsewhere in the riding, Casey is being cast as the quiet-spoken constituency man who stood up to the bullies in Ottawa.

"It seems to have struck a nerve because I'm getting emails from all over Canada. ... I am truly overwhelmed because all I am doing is asking the government of Canada to honour a signed agreement," Casey told the Star yesterday.

Meanwhile, angry callers to talk radio shows want to know why fellow Nova Scotia Tory MPs Peter MacKay, who is foreign affairs minister, and Gerald Keddy (South Shore-St. Margaret's) didn't have the guts to stick up for their home province.

See:

Tory Cuts For All

You Tell 'em Danny Boy

Red Tories Are Progressives

Conservatives New Nanny State

No Room for Red Tories

Canada's New Progressive Right

Elizabeth May and Red Tories

Liberals The New PC's

PC=Liberals

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Not A Budget Vote?

Well this is interesting two faced Peter Mackay of the Humpty Dumpty Conservatives is now saying last weeks vote was not a whipped budget vote. So explain why Bill Casey was turfed out of caucus, well he can't.

Furthermore he puts to lie Jim Flaherty's comments yesterday in the Chronicle Herald where he said no side deals were being hatched with Nova Scotia.

Hansard, Friday, June 8, 2007

The Budget

Mr. Rodger Cuzner (Cape Breton—Canso, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, since the Minister of Foreign Affairs has conveniently forgotten his inconvenient words of a couple of weeks ago, allow me the opportunity to remind the House. He said:

We will not throw a member out of caucus for voting his conscience. There will be no whipping, flipping, hiring or firing on budget votes....

Is this 180 degree flip more an example of the lack of influence that the minister has at the cabinet table or did he actually think that his former caucus colleague would surrender his principles, as the minister did?

Hon. Peter MacKay (Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member has been here for awhile he should know that was not in fact the budget vote. The budget vote will take place next week.

However, with respect to that particular comment, I had hoped and fully expected that the hon. member would continue to work with other members of the Atlantic caucus and with the Minister of Finance to see that we follow through in finishing this discussion with the Province of Nova Scotia, with our premier, direct discussions which I continued yesterday.

The member opposite may be chirping from the cheap seats but, unlike him, we are actually getting the job done for Nova Scotia.

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Chickens, Home, Roost

Here is a lesson to remember, silence is golden, however sticking your foot in your mouth is not an effective way to shut up.

Ottawa respects Atlantic accords

By JIM FLAHERTY

"Over the past few weeks, members of the Atlantic caucus and our entire government have been working diligently towards the same goal: ensuring the people of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador realize the full benefits of the Atlantic accords.

But there should be no misunderstanding: Our government is not in the process of making any side deals for a few extra votes. You cannot run a country on side deals. Equalization has been restored to a principles-based program for the first time in many years. That’s what all premiers asked us to do and that’s what all Canadians expect us to do."

NS premier urges revolt against federal budget

Nova Scotia's Premier Rodney MacDonald wants all the province's MPs to vote against the federal budget that alters his province's deal on offshore resources.

In addition, the Conservative would like the Senate to hold up passage of the 2007 budget.

MacDonald said Sunday that a letter from federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty published in a Nova Scotia newspaper prompted his move.

Flaherty said in the letter that the government is not making any side deals on the Atlantic Accord just to win a few votes.

"It became clear that he was determined to undermine these efforts and undermine our good faith discussions. Mr. Flaherty has turned his back on Nova Scotians, and our quiet talks are about to get a whole lot louder," MacDonald said.

Atlantic Accord, Hansard June 7, 2007

Mr. Bill Casey (Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, Ind.):

Mr. Speaker, I am glad the Minister of Finance brought up the equalization payments. Every day he stands in the House and says that Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador can have the new formula and the old accord, but that is not accurate.

I know the minister will want to be accurate. I would like him to acknowledge his own amendments to the Atlantic accord, the 12 paragraphs of amendments in sections 80, 81 and 82 that amend it and the 6 paragraphs that amend the John Hamm agreement of 2005.

I would like the minister to acknowledge his own five amendments and refer to this from now on as the amended Atlantic accord.

Here are the pertinent changes made by Flaherty and the Conservatives referred to by Bill Casey.

Bill C 52 Budget Bill

Canada-Newfoundland Atlantic Accord Implementation Act

Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador Additional Fiscal Equalization Offset Payments Act

See:
Humpty Dumpty Conservatives

Casey Up To Bat



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Canada Celebrates Star Wars

Gee it was only two weeks ago that Star Wars celebrated its 30th Anniversary. And long time Trekkie; Stephen Harper celebrates by quietly changing Canada's Space Program to a Space War program.

As usual with the Harper Humpty Dumpty Government, what they have done in secret they deny in public. With Foreign Minister MacKay in the house denying that Canada has any interest in Ballistic Missile Defense. After all their other broken promises how can anyone believe anything Peter says.

Hon. Peter MacKay (Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, I can assure the hon. member, and I thank for her concern, that clearly there has been no ask whatsoever to revisit this issue. We are not pursuing missile defence.

While claiming to be broker Harper was out maneuvered by Putin who offered Bush a base for his missile defense system in Azerbaijan if as the Americans claimed their BMD was for protection from Iran.

PM backs 'Star Wars': Critics

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is quietly throwing his weight behind the U.S. missile defence program while he's at the G-8 summit, even though Canada officially opposed the controversial scheme two years ago, opposition leaders say.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said yesterday he's concerned over the way Harper has stepped up to defend U.S. President George W. Bush and the missile-defence scheme in an ongoing showdown with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Harper is to sit down with today.

Weston: Space program morphing

Less money and more military

By GREG WESTON -- Sun Media

Just for fun, we dug out the space agency's three-year "report on planning and priorities," presented to Parliament in March 2001 by the then Liberal industry minister, John Manley.

The documents boasted Canada's ability to use its orbiting satellites to help monitor the environment and manage Canada's natural resources.

But nowhere in the entire 42-page document did we find a single mention of using the space program for anything remotely military.

Everything referred to the "peaceful use of space" and meant just that.

Six months after Manley's report on Sept. 11, 2001, the world changed and the Canadian space program was apparently no exception.

At first, the use of space-based surveillance systems for national and international security was not touted publicly, presumably for fear of embroiling the largely apolitical space program in the very political debate over George Bush's proposed ballistic missile defence proposal.

Alas, times have definitely changed. As Sun Media's national correspondent Kathleen Harris reports elsewhere in the paper today, military applications of space technologies are now simply a fact of life, if not a primary reason for public funding.

Reviewing a substantial compendium of official space agency documents Harris obtained under the Access to Information Act, it is difficult to go more than a few pages without finding words such as "sovereignty and national security," and "supporting the implementation of foreign policy."

SPY SATELLITE

Translation: Canada has an extraordinary seeing-eye satellite called Radarsat that would fit very nicely into the Bush missile defence system for North America, and a new version about to be launched that could probably spot an enemy convoy in Afghanistan.

Let's Talk about Creeping Canadian Militarism

Only Stephen Harper has a clear long-term strategy -- an ever-increasing military and a far more "engaged" foreign policy, which means likely participation in more American-sponsored wars. And that likelihood in turn justifies enlarging the military.

On both the material and ideological fronts, this militarization is well under way. The overall Department of National Defense budget has increased from $13 billion to $15.1 billion in the past two years, with a $1.1 billion rise over the next two and $5.3 billion in the next five years. Additional security costs -- paramilitary border guards and increased internal counter-espionage, all elements of modern militarism -- will go up another $1.5 billion in the next two years.

The military has embarked on an expensive expenditure program for transport planes, helicopters, supply ships, tanks, trucks and missiles, as well as more troops.

Planning for the next two decades, the Canadian military command has called for more than doubling the military budget to $36 billion by 2025, not to mention attendant security add-ons, which could double that figure to $72 billion if accelerated at the current pace. General Rick Hillier frequently trumpets the need for massive increases to the Canadian military establishment, and he does this in a public and politically partisan way that is radically contrary to the traditional public stance of Canadian commanders in chief. He, not the Minister of National Defense, is the vocal point man for militarism.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper is really leading the charge. Not only is he tailoring his budgets to substantially increase the military each year, he is the chief ideologue of speeded up militarization.

US space first strike program well underway

Disguised as "missile defense" the Pentagon's Star Wars program is all about offense and global control and domination. The planned deployments in Europe are just one more piece in the military space architecture that would give the U.S. "full spectrum dominance." Last October the Bush administration released its new National Space Policy that essentially gave the Pentagon a green light to move ahead with deployments of space war-fighting technologies.

The Air Force Space Command's Strategic Master Plan: FY06 and Beyond says, "Air Force Space Command will deploy a new generation of responsive space access, prompt global strike, and space superiority capabilities.....Our vision calls for prompt global strike space systems with the capability to directly apply force from or through space against terrestrial targets."

The Globalization of Military Power

The military projects being propelled by the United States, several NATO allies in Europe (namely Britain, Poland, and the Czech Republic), and the Japanese for the establishment of two parallel missile shield projects, threatens both Russia and China. One missile shield will be located in Europe and the other missile shield in the Far East. These missile shields are being elevated under the pretext of hypothetical Iranian and North Korean threats to the United States, Europe, South Korea, and Japan.

“This [meaning the missile shields being planted on Russia’s borders] is a very urgent and politically important issue, and could drag us into a new arms race,” Colonel-General Yuri Solovyov, a commander of the Russian military has commented in regards to the facilities that are part of the missile shield project that are going to be set up near the Russian border in Eastern Europe.

There is also discussion of another missile shield being erected in the Caucasus, or even possibly in the Ukraine. The Republic of Azerbaijan and Georgia are potential candidates for housing the missile shield project in the Caucasus.

“Our analysis shows that the placing of a radio locating station in the Czech Republic and anti-missile equipment in Poland is a real threat to us [Russia],” clarified Lieutenant-General Vladimir Popovkin, Commander of Russia’s Space Forces, and additionally explained, “It’s very doubtful that elements of the national U.S. Missile defence system in Eastern Europe were aimed at Iranian missiles, as has been stated [by U.S. officials].”

The U.S. missile project in the Czech Republic is also opposed by the majority of the Czech population. The wishes of the Czech people are being ignored, just as the wishes of the American, British, Italian, Canadian, and Japanese people are continuously being ignored by their respective governments. In other words, these so-called democratic governments are extremely undemocratic when it comes to military planning and foreign wars.

The borders of Russia and China are being militarized by NATO and the broader network of military alliances organized by the United States. Surprisingly, Turkey which is a Middle Eastern member of NATO, Iran’s direct neighbour and a logical choice for any missile shield facilities meant to protect against an alleged Iranian ballistic missile threat, has not been selected as a location for a missile defence shield. The fact that the missile shield project is being positioned in Poland and the Czech Republic rather than Turkey and the Balkans suggests that the project is not directed mainly against Iran, but against Russia.

Putin offers joint missile shield

But after the meeting on the fringes of the summit in Germany, the Russian leader said the threat to re-target Russian missiles could be withdrawn if Washington agreed to use the former Soviet radar base at Gabala in Azerbaijan.

This will make it possible for us not to change our stance on the targeting of our missiles Vladimir Putin

"This will make it possible for us not to change our stance on the targeting of our missiles," Mr Putin said. "On the contrary, this will create the necessary grounds for common work."

"This work should be multi-faceted with the engagement of the states concerned in Europe."

Mr Putin added that if Washington and Moscow co-operated transparently on missile defence, "then we will have no problems".

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