Consultation Alberta Style

Ralph Klein promised consultation with the Volk of Alberta over his "discussion paper" on Third Way Health Care reform. When challenged by the Liberals to speak to Albertans at open forums they are sponsoring or in a televised debate, he balked and said the only discussion will be in the Legislature. Then he traveled to B.C. to discuss his ideas at a closed meeting where tickets sold for $100 per and $500 if you wanted to sit with Ralph.

The public is so worn down by years of Klein's threats on health reform, people hardly know where to turn. The democratic ethos is so eroded in this province with so few people prepared to contradict the premier, it's questionable whether a real debate is possible. An arrogant Klein said a few days ago he'll just make the legislature sit until he gets his way.Doctors' conditional support for Klein's third way a great letdown

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Prison Nation

Belarus held a farcical election today, with police patrols in the main square in order to avoid a Ukrainian like Orange Revolution. The people apparently voted for the dictator by over 80%. Mr. Lukashenko who rules Belarus was once a prison guard. Poor Belarus is a prison nation. Belarus vote ends in dubious landslide
Even in One Party State Alberta King Ralph only gets 72% in the popular opinion polls.


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The Spectacle of War on Terror

An excellent article in New Left Review, available online, is a review of NLR's Verso publication Afflicted Powers Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of War
by the Retort Collective based in the Bay Area of San Fransisco.

A collective effort they use Situationist theory of the Spectacle to analyze the current Bush phony war on Terror.

In light of the Pentagon release of Al-Qaeda materials this weekend that show Osama bin Laden understood the importance of media imaging of his war on the U.S. especially the attack on 9/11. It was the unreal reality of TV imaging, that then created the market response of 'reality' TV.

Retorts analysis of this as a Spectacular War, a media war fought in images and through media including the internet, becomes important for the Anti-War movement and the Left to understand.

They also use the theory that the permanent war economy that the US has embraced is a form of primitive accumulation of capital, which is also discussed in an earlier article in NLR.

It is this analysis that I have also posited here, that capitalism as globalization still requires primitive accumulation of capital, war zones with the consequential piracy and brigandism that marks the earliest form of capital accumulation.

Julian Stallabrass: Spectacle and Terror

The central claim of the book is that, with the attacks of 9-11, the us state was wounded at the level of the spectacle and cannot endure this ‘image death’ or ‘image defeat.

The perpetrators were fully conscious of what they were about, were in fact Debordian in their thinking, reasoning that capitalism is dependent on the colonized social circuits that comprise spectacle—including confidence in the market and the state, and an identification with commodity culture—and that to disrupt spectacle may have great and unpredictable consequences. The attacks, Retort claim, were not atavistic pinpricks but modern politics, an assault above all on the ‘ghost sociality’ purveyed by the media The assault on spectacle, not on economic power or even people, was their main business, and in this sense they were for a short time remarkably successful.

There is much that can be said to qualify this view. The motivations of the bombers themselves may never be known, although Retort point to tracts on media theory found in Al Qaeda camps. They must indeed have known that the consequences of their acts could not have been accurately predicted, and this makes their political motives—as opposed to their religious ones, or the desire for just revenge—murkier still. Retort are correct that the void at the level of the image in the mainstream broadcast media was remarkable

In any case, it may be that the point of terror is not merely to disrupt spectacle by producing indigestible images, but to exceed it. Retort highlight the paradox of the vanguard Islamic revolutionaries, who deny themselves all that capitalist spectacle has to offer, and harden themselves against mundane sentiment and appetite, yet who still hold to the effectiveness of the image, and propagate images of their acts through websites. Just as in their lives and deaths they seek the unmediated, so their atrocities perform it, being designed to produce real, bodily fear (not the sublime of air shows), to blanket a city with the smell of fire and blood, to bring to a people sunk in spectacle the ineluctability of arbitrary death. The July 2005 London underground bombings were not meant primarily to create images, but to spread the terror of living burial among the cityÂ’s populace.

Retort argue that the result of the spectacular defeat of 9-11 has been to push the state into actions that are as much governed by spectacle as by material considerations. Warfare has been elevated from an intermittent action to permanent imperial conflict. They claim that one frequently repeated charge of the anti-war movement—that the war was fought for oil—when taken too simply, ignores the ‘partially non-factual imperatives of capital accumulation. These include the effort to repair spectacle, and the drive to normalize war in the minds of citizens.

Retort are surely correct to point to the state’s efforts to create images that can counter the memory of 9-11, and to their insufficiency: Bush on the flight-deck proclaiming victory in Iraq, Saddam’s statue toppled, the dictator captured, the SmokinÂ’ Marine who was supposed to embody the cool courage of the us armed forces, and so on. It is not that these were ineffective pieces of propaganda, but they have subsequently soured as the war and acts of terror have continued. The most memorable images so far gathered by the us armed forces in Iraq are those taken on the phone-cameras of the torturers of Abu Ghraib. Similarly, us political support for Israel is seen as no longer being driven by strategic or military considerations, which now would operate against such an alliance, but rather as an attachment at the level of the image: both are simultaneously democratic consumer societies and highly militarized states with a pioneer ethos, and both harbour the guilt and pride of having taken their land by expelling and exterminating another population. The us in seeing Israel looks into a mirror and cannot abandon its own reflected image.

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War Faking

As I said here the other day; Iraqi Distraction, the sturm and drang in the media about Operation Swarmer in Iraq was a distraction in order to boost Bush's poll ratings. Galloping Beaver follows up with an excellent essay pointing out that the whole mission was a hoax, an elaborate media build up for a basic excercise with joint U.S. and Iraqi forces.

An excercise folks. A flexing of muscle to coinside with the muscular speeches given by the President this week. And here is the irony it was all made for the 24/7 TV news networks.

As Time magazine reported, though they own CNN which played right into the Defense Department/Pentagon PR campaign,

But contrary to what many many television networks erroneously reported, the operation was by no means the largest use of airpower since the start of the war. ("Air Assault" is a military term that refers specifically to transporting troops into an area.) In fact, there were no airstrikes and no leading insurgents were nabbed in an operation that some skeptical military analysts described as little more than a photo op.

Meanwhile with all the photo op material provided by the Pentagon, no media were allowed on this secret mission, it still was part of the attempt by the US to pretend its Iraqi puppet army was ready to deal with security. Which of course it isn't.

In fact this whole operation has managed to further upset the Sunni's and provide further fuel for political sectarian differences, and all they got out of it was peoples personal weapons. So much for defending the Second amendment.

One leading Sunni Arab, Iraqi presidential security adviser Wafiq al-Samaraie, urged that the operation ease restrictions on traffic across Samarra's vital Tigris River bridge, and cease "disarming the people of Samarra of their own authorized weapons."

But the US has to start pulling out troops this year, as the Brits have already begun. That was their timetable all along. However as much as the US has pushed for a government and army in Iraq that could take over based on this timetable, to extract troops prior to the November elections in the US, the Iraqi's have failed to live up to US expectations.

This excercise was a fake, it was nothing more than a regular police action, in order to distract from the serious failure of the US military and political strategy in Iraq. Three years after "Mission Accomplished".

U.S. lowering goals in Iraq

By Doyle McManus
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — Three years ago today, as they ordered more than 150,000 U.S. troops to race toward Baghdad, Iraq, Bush administration officials confidently predicted that Iraq quickly would evolve into a prosperous, oil-fueled democracy. When those goals proved optimistic, they lowered their sights, focusing on a military campaign to defeat Sunni-led insurgents and elections to jump-start a new political order.

John Moore, Associated Press

Iraqi security forces carry weapons turned in by militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr in Baghdad in October 2004.

Now, as the conflict enters its fourth year, the Bush administration faces a new challenge: the prospect of civil war. And, in response, officials appear to be redefining success downward again. If Iraq can avoid all-out civil war, they say, if Baghdad's new security forces can hold together, if Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds all participate in a new unity government, that may be enough to allow the administration to begin reducing the number of U.S. troops in the country by the second half of this year.
In increasingly sober public statements — and in slightly more candid assessments in interviews with officials who refused to be identified — administration officials are working to lower expectations.
"It may seem difficult at times to understand how we can say that progress is being made," President Bush said in his weekly radio address Saturday, acknowledging that much of the recent news from Iraq has been bad. "But . . . slowly but surely, our strategy is getting results."
"We may fail," warned a senior official directly involved in Iraq policy. "But I think we're going to succeed. I think we're going to nudge this ball down the road. . . . It's not going to be easy, and it's going to take time."


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Harpers Anti-Federalism

Well the Conservatives under Harper have shown their true nature, they are definitely NOT a federalist party. Conservatives pull plug on federalist agency
This allows them to satisfy their anti-bilingual Western right wing rump and consolidate the BQ's support for their minority government."Last night, Bloc Quebecois party whip Michel Guimond welcomed the news."We are happy that the contributions of citizens will no longer serve to finance this partisan organization, which has had its credibility called into question so many times," Guimond said."

Tories axe unity council funding
Toronto Star -
OTTAWA—The Conservative government is cutting off funding for the Canadian Unity Council, one of the most venerable Quebec-based federalist organizations, as part of a broader review of the way Ottawa promotes the federation.

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Softwood Redux

Another NAFTA victory for Canada over the softwood dispute with the U.S. and as usual another challenge by the U.S. protectionist lobby. Over to you Mr. Harper.

Canada wins final lumber ruling
National Post - 19 hours ago
WASHINGTON - Canada hailed a major victory yesterday in the long-running softwood lumber battle with the United States after a NAFTA panel made a final ruling in its favour. Spokesmen for the Canadian lumber ...
NAFTA panel ruling removes softwood duties if US doesn't appeal CBC News
Canada wins second NAFTA decision on softwood tariffs


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Is Paris Burning

France's global warning Once again, French students are leading the march - this time against an unpopular employment law - but these protests are also about the country's future on an increasingly globalised planet, writes Alex Duval Smith in Paris

Sunday March 19, 2006
The Observer

It was the same bright spring sunshine and the same familiar elegant landmarks, but the hundreds of thousands of young demonstrators on the streets yesterday were a whole new generation. Almost 40 years since the great student protests of 1968, France's students are again manning barricades, café tables are being thrown at police riot shields, and tear gas hangs over the Left Bank.

France was again showing its revolutionary fibre and, in the republican tradition, it looked last night as though victory was close to being with the people.

Flames erupt from a car and a motorbike in front of a hotel during clashes between youths and police that followed a student protest against the First Employment Contract (CPE), in Paris, March 16, 2006. REUTERS/Charles Platiau


It was only months ago that the sans papier, the immigrant youth outside of Paris began their protests with the burning of cars.

The torching of the French banlieues as both sequel to the No vote of May 2005 and symptom of a wider Western malaise. Rejection of official pieties of integration, and flames of revolt against an automated Europe. Jean Baudrillard: The Pyres of Autumn

Today half a million families along with students and trade unionists demonstrated across France peacefully against the new French Labour Law.

The best coverage was on BBC World News TV which distinguished between the demonstrations during the day, peaceful, with the later night time police instigated rioting. It was like night and day.Riots erupt after French protests BBC

The 24/7 cable news stations in the U.S. covered it as if only the rioting had occured. Why am I not surprized. Student-Worker Protests in Paris Turn Violent
FOX News

Also See:

May 68 Redux

Tout va Bien

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Horowitz the Trot

David Horowitz is a classic case of the the Trotskyist who becomes his opposite. The New Left idol who no longer idolisized becomes the 'other', in order to become famous once again. It happened with Shactman and Burnham, in whose shoes Horowitz has stepped. Nothing new here, except of course his whining and historical revisionism.

Such as this recent quote from the dweeb;

"If not for the sacrifices of white soldiers and a white American president who gave his life to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, blacks in America would still be slaves. If not for the dedication of Americans of all ethnicities and colors to a society based on the principle that all men are created equal, blacks in America would not enjoy the highest standard of living of blacks anywhere in the world, and indeed one of the highest standards of living of any people in the world. They would not enjoy the greatest freedoms and the most thoroughly protected individual rights anywhere. Where is the gratitude of black America and its leaders for those gifts?"

And to think Horowitz was the darling of the White Left who identified with the Black Panthers, back when he was editor of Ramparts. And then after his breakdown, and drift into paranoia claiming the Panthers were out to kill him he becomes a born again Conservative.

Of course he convienently forgets his Civil War history. Including the fact his White President, Lincoln, freeing the slaves, which of course he was reluctant to do, was only accomplished when the Federal Government needed more troops for the final big push on the Confederate army. Guess Horowitz missed the movie Glory.


What twit. But thats what you get from Trots who become Neo-Cons. Emphasis on the con. As in con artists.

In this case Horowitz the red diaper baby came from Stalinism, remained a Stalinist, despite toying with Trotskyism, so its no wonder he became a red baiting neo-con, and a white supremicist.


In addition to political alchemy, Horowitz has another new fixation: race, exemplified by his recent book, Hating Whitey and Other Progessive Causes. Last August, in a piece titled "A Real, Live Bigot," Time columnist Jack White took issue with an essay Horowitz wrote for Salon. In that piece, Horowitz excoriated the NAACP's class-action suit against gun manufacturers and wondered, "Am I alone in seeing this as an absurd act of political desperation by the civil rights establishment? What's next? Will Irish-Americans sue whiskey distillers, or Jews the gas company?" White, who is African-American, retorted that Horowitz's column was so repellent that it "made the anti-black rantings of Dinesh D'Souza seem like models of fair-minded social analysis."


He has become his own enemy, and his rantings are an attempt not to atone for his Left wing past, but to claim he always was a conservative. He has gone from Red to Red Neck.

In his book Hating Whitey, Horowitz dismissed Dr. Cornel West as "an intellectual of modest talents whose skin color has catapulted him into academic stardom with a six-figure income."

Do I detect the tone of green with jealousy in this statement? Of course.

A tip o' the blog to A Class Act.

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Water War

Politcal power grows out of the barrel of the gun. Mao Tse Tung

OROPOYI, Kenya - Akiru Lomukuny's clan already has seen one boy killed, a girl raped and dozens of women beaten just for trying to get a drink of water. Now, she says, things are about to get a lot worse.Generations of east Africans have clashed sporadically over cattle, pasture and, most importantly, water. The drought sweeping the region is making the fight for resources more desperate.

"The route through Uganda is like going between two dogs," Lomukuny said. "During the migration, the fighting is perpetual, all the way through, until we find a place to settle."

She said the biggest concern was the supply of bullets, because unlike in Uganda, the Kenyan government doesn't provide the nomadic tribes with arms and ammunition. She said if the government would only give them more well water, things would be different.

But Lomukuny said her clan has to take its chances and cross the border.

"I don't care if I lose a child, or my husband, it is a desperate state now," she said. "We have to go."

She looked a reporter straight in the eye.

"If you want to help me," the grandmother said with immense dignity. "Give me a gun."

Starving Kenyans are on the brink... "The Kenyan government has declared a national emergency. Dozens of people have already died in northeastern and eastern Kenya, while dead cattle and other animals dot the landscape. The UN estimates that hunger and thirst killed hundreds of people and tens of thousands of livestock in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia."


A tip o the blog to News Trolls for this.

Also See: Free Trade; Hong Kong & Somalia




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Gag Order Over Tax Increases?

King Stephen the Harpocrite has taken his cone of silence politics to their ultimate conclusion, he is now silencing his Ministers so that everyone is singing from his songbook.

Harper's new gag order
London Free Press - 4 hours ago
Retreating into a bunker mentality, the new prime minister has proclaimed that his office must approve all information, comments and even letters to the editor from government officials and cabinet ministers,

This is good old fashioned Alberta-Style politics, so reminiscent of another King.

King Ralph.

Alberta ministers must quit early to seek Klein's job CBC News


Could this new Stalinism in the PMO be because the Tories intend to introduce TAX INCREASES in their new budget?

So says the Canadian Taxpayers Federation;

Yet to finance their tax cut package (highlighted by the GST reduction), the Conservatives have said they’ll raise the bottom income tax rate back up to 16 per cent from 15 per cent. They’ll also cancel the $500 increase in the BPE. This increase would kick in for 2006 and not affect the income tax cut granted for 2005. Nonetheless, should Mr. Harper go this route, he will correctly be labelled a tax-hiker, and rightfully incur the wrath of taxpayers.


More Stories On: Harper


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