LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Friday, February 10, 2006

The World According to Adam

The new generation Tory Turk Adam Daifallah has weighed in on the Conservatives scandal and crisis with this. Emerson / Fortier, the Energizer bunny story

Where he says this about his elders; I fail to see how anyone can make excuses for what happened. I was particularly surprised to see two rock-ribbed conservatives whom I respect greatly, Ted Morton and Ezra Levant, engaging in excuse-making for these incidents on TV yesterday and today. They appear to have bought into the "it's for the greater long-term good" argument, the line the Harper people are trying to sell.

But Adam is from Ottawa and these guys are from Calgary....as I said before with the Calgary Gang in power at last it's the politics of Alberta that are being played in Ottawa.

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Emerson, Fortier, Levant, Morton, Conservatives, Government, Harper, blogs, Cabinet, Daillah, Tories

Five days and Counting

Here are my Blog articles on topics around this first week of our new Conservative government which is doing politics differently (sic). The last few articles were written during the week after the election. But the majority have been written since Monday. Has it only been five days. My gawd.

And it's still fifty days till Parliment recovenes, will the Conservativeslast that long? Or will their heads explode?!

And then watch the fireworks in Question Period. Ah this is delicious. It's the country bumpkins go to Ottawa.

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Canada, Harper, Emerson, Pallister, Toews, Burney, Fortier, Mulroney, Government, Cabinet, MP's, Solberg, Anders

Kettle Calling the Pot Black

Oh this is rich. Now the unelected Senator Fortier, I won't run in a byelection, I didn't want to run in the election, I'll wait to run in the general election, is saying that Emerson should run in a byelection. Just to keep on with the cliches; this is a case of there being no honour amongst thieves.

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Government, Canada, Senate, Senators, MP, Harper, Cabinet, Montreal, Fortier, Conservatives

Naughty Naughty

A new private health care clinic has opened in Alberta in violation of both the Canada Health Act and provincial regulations. Being Alberta home of deregulation where NO enforcement rules, well all the Minister of Health had to say was; Naughty, naughty musn't do that.

Health officials keep close eye on private clinic's access fees
Alberta Health Minister Iris Evans said that provincial officials are currently investigating whether the Calgary clinic is violating any laws. In Alberta, there is a law that prohibits doctors from billing patients as a condition of providing insured health service.Ms. Evans said that if the private clinic is violating the law, she is hopeful there could be an "amicable conclusion to it."We will have to tell them that that isn't permitted. . . . To my way of thinking, we can't tolerate that," she said.

Which of course is such an effective deterent that a competing private healthcare hotel is planning to also open up in Alberta and they could care less about violating the Canadian Healthcare Act or Alberta's Bill 11. Cause it ain't about healthcare its about business and the bottom line. So far the Conservative government has been deafeningly silent over all this, while Minister Evans dithers.

Calgary doctors make waves with $3,600 annual 'access' fee
The program also follows news that Vancouver-based Copeman Healthcare plans to open private clinics with 24-hour access to physicians and specialists around the country. Don Copeman, company founder, said Ultimate Health Care's opening in Calgary won't deter his company from coming here. "We could care less," said Copeman. "Our phones are ringing off the hook."

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Alberta, Canada, Healthcare, medicare, privatization
government, Harper, Klein, Evans, CHA,

Emerson another Grewal

Oh dear here comes the ghost of Grewal to haunt the Tories even after he is gone. In this case he and Emerson share so many commonalities, both from Vancouver, both offered cabinet positions, both lacking in ethics. Do I smell a byelection?

Emerson accused of violating Parliament's conflict code

Ian Waddell, the New Democratic Party candidate who came a close second to Emerson in the Jan. 23 election, accused Harper, Emerson and John Reynolds, the just-retired Conservative MP who allegedly helped recruit Emerson to the Tories, of breaking the parliamentary conflict-of-interest code.

He said the ethics commissioner has ruled that had former Liberal cabinet minister Ujjal Dosanjh offered former Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal a government appointment to induce him to cross the floor, then Dosanjh would have broken the guidelines.

"This is precisely what the prime minister has done. I'm accusing him of breaking the members' code. The evidence is overwhelming. They offered him a cabinet post and he took it. When such things have happened in the past it's been hidden, but this is so blatant," said Waddell.

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Canada, Conservatives, Harper, Emerson, NDP, Waddel, Emerson, Vancouver, Grewal, ethics,

Blasphemous Cartoon

Here is my contribution to Blasphemous cartoons:

Hi I Am God/Allah/YHVH

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God, Allah, YHVH, Jew, Christian, Muslim, Islam, Israel, Islamism, Christianity, Judaism, Hebrew Blasphemy, Blasphemous, cartoon,

Why Rob Anders Supports TheFalun Gong

The cult group the Falun Gong in China which has gotten a lot of support in Canada, including from members of our new Conservative Government like rightwhingnut MP Rob Anders ,has a less than savory background.

MP Rob Anders' Speech at "A Closer Look into China" Forum Special to The Epoch Times

And while the repression they face in China is not acceptable, neither is their ideology except to people like Rob Anders. They are anti-gay and anti-Semitic!

The cult is politically active in Canada distributing their propaganda paper Epoch Times in Canada's cities.

In San Francisco the cult has caused controversy with Republican members of the Board of Supervisors calling for support for them which has alienated both the gay and Chinese American community.

Supes support 'homophobic cult'
SF.Indymedia.org, CA - 6 Feb 2006

Amid accusations it is giving a San Francisco seal of approval to what some contend is a "homophobic cult," the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution this week in support of ending persecution of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned since 1999 in China, where members of the group are routinely imprisoned.

Both the city's gay supervisors, Bevan Dufty and Tom Ammiano, joined in the 9-2 vote to pass the resolution, despite calls for them not to give any support to Falun Gong, whose founder has called gays "demonic" and has said that "the priority of the gods will be to eliminate homosexual people."

"People need to be aware of what their leader or founder has written. It is not just the homosexual community, but all the other things he said in the book about who gets to go to what level. It is very anti-Semitic also," said Hu. "I am hoping for support from the entire city, whether the gay community or the entire city."

Falun Gong, Barred From San Francisco Parade, to Show Up Anyway

Falun Gong's practices and meditation were introduced in China in 1992. It has 10,000 followers in the U.S. and tens of millions in more than 60 countries, the group says on its Web site. Sherry Zhang, a spokeswoman for the group, said the parade's decision extends oppression of the group from Asia to the U.S.

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China, cults, sects, religion, gays, Chinese, Falun Gong, San Fransisco, Rob Anders, Conservatives, MP, Canada

US and Iran Allies

Despite the current furor over Irans nuclear energy plans the U.S. and Iran found common cause at the UN. The US delegation supported Irans motion not to recognize gay organizations as official consultants to the UN. Religious fndamentalist Iran has a friend in Religious fundamentalist Amerika.

The vote occurred in the U.N. Economic and Social Council‘s Committee on Nongovernmental Organizations.

Washington then voted in favor of Iran‘s proposal to deny their applications, which carried 10-5 with three abstentions.
Following the vote, German envoy Martin Thuemmel said the committee decision "will haunt us for a long time" because it sent a message that it was acceptable to discriminate on the basis of an individual‘s sexual orientation.

The January 23 vote denying "consultative status" at the world body to the Belgium-based International Gay and Lesbian Association and the Danish National Association for Gays and Lesbians was a "drastic reversal" of Washington‘s previous stand on the issue, the U.S. House of Representatives members wrote.

Nearly 3,000 nongovernmental organizations have such status, which enables them to distribute documents and speak at meetings of some U.N. bodies and conferences.

In voting for Iran‘s proposal, "the United States joined some of the world‘s most oppressive regimes, among them China, Cuba, Sudan and Zimbabwe" and demonstrated "a reprehensible inconsistency" in the protection of rights based on sexual orientation, the lawmakers said.

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Iran, USA, America, gays, UN,

Yes Virgina There Are Gay Men In China

So how long will it take China to discover Lesbians, Bi-Sexual and Transgendererd minorities exist as well?

China's first report on gays published

BEIJING: China has teamed up with Ford Foundation to publish its first-ever comprehensive report on the sexual behaviours of the nation's gay population.

The report, 'MSM (men having sex with men) in China: Surveying Sex and Self-identity', probes into the sexual behaviours of the country's male homosexuals with 400 detailed interviews and case studies.

"It offers a look into the feelings, identity and expression of the gay group amid different social and cultural backgrounds," director of Sexual Sociology Institute in People's University of China, Pan Shiming said in the report's preface.

The 650,000-word report, written by scholar and writer Tong Ge, is comprised of 15 chapters, including a comparison of attitudes towards MSM between Chinese and Western societies, aesthetics in MSM, and MSM group & marriage between opposite sex, the 'Beijing News' reported.

China has 5-10 million gay men: MoH

BEIJING, Feb. 8 -- According to the survey by the Ministry of Health, sexually active gay men in China account for approximately 2% to 4% of the total number of sexually active men.

Based on these percentages, China has a total of about 5 million to 10 million gay men. It is the first time China released the number of gay men and people infected with AIDS.

In recent years, China has quietly attended to the health issue of gays. In 2003, the government conducted an AIDS survey on six population groups in 138 regions in its 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

The six groups included drug users, prostitutes, gays, venereal disease patients, paid blood donors and anonymous people under examination in hospitals.

Through the survey, the country obtained information on infection rate and the behavior patterns of different groups in different regions. Data obtained through this survey supplemented the AIDS surveillance system. So far, China has set up 42 behavior surveillance agencies in 19 provinces.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com/Chinanews.cn)

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China, gay, homosexual, men, homosexuality, sexuality,

Telecos want to Monopolize the Net

As reported here the big telco oligopolies in the U.S. want to change the rules of the game to charge other oligopolies that own search enignes, Yahoo, Google, more and allow them free access to our accounts for bulk mass spamming. In the end we get screwed.

The tech reporter for the Washington Post has an interesting column on all this in todays paper. He says:

Charge E-Mailers, but Keep Pipeline Open
The second notion -- in which Internet service providers would charge Web sites for better delivery of their data -- may not be ridiculous per se, but it is a serious departure from the Internet's traditional openness. And it would be open to abuse without clear ground rules. But companies like Verizon and BellSouth won't answer some basic questions: Would they disclose which sites are paying these business-class fares? Would they let any site pay for better access, or only those they like?
They will gladly talk about how they want the flexibility to dream up new business models (as BellSouth and Verizon executives did during a panel discussion at a Capitol Hill conference on Wednesday). Fine. But as long as AT&T, Verizon and their ilk seem to be having so much trouble getting customers connected and keeping then contented, let's broaden this discussion of new economic models.
Here's one question to ponder: When an Internet service provider makes you wait weeks to get your DSL turned on, allows service to drop out for no apparent reason, then puts you on hold until an overworked tech-support rep dishes out incorrect advice, doesn't the customer deserve some compensation, as well?

And another article makes this point, which I made in my orginal article damn nice to have confirmation that I am not the only one concerned about this, AOL anti-spam scheme takes aim at wrong target TMCnet

That's the other dangerous incentive in the Goodmail system. AOL, Yahoo and Goodmail all make more money, the more their spam filters target "other" legitimate mailers who aren't yet signed up on Goodmail. There's a dangerous cash incentive here for them to cut out non-paying mass mailers. By instigating a private e-mail tax, AOL and Yahoo! have to punish not spammers, but those who seem to be evading their tax. Spammers aren't tax evaders, because they'll never pay anyway. Ordinary netizens who send out "mass" mails and could be "encouraged" to pay are, in other words, non-profits, individuals and communities who run mailing lists.

Commoditisation and the erosion of value-added ISPs like AOL into simple data conduits looms over all these companies. Spam they can live with. Lower prices and fewer people to charge they cannot.

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Telcos, AOL, Verizon, Yahoo, Google, email, spam, bandwidth, broadband, internet