High Tech Keyensians

Once again the harsh reality of capitalism and its state once again debunk the fantasy world of the anarcho-capitalists and their lazzie faire comrades. Here again capitalism cannot function without some kind of prime the pump state intrusion into the marketplace. Because the market place is disfunctional. Unfortunately unlike my friends in the Libertarian Left I do not believe that the market place of capitalism can ever be anything but what it is; a Harsh Mistress. And here again we see it in it's neo-coservative version of Keyensian economics.

This is the same ideology of neo-conservative statist economics, as those who would have the state promote venture capital schemes as Alberta did and then sold off.

High-tech firms need government help, executive says

Last updated Mar 29 2006 11:19 AM MST CBC News

An Edmonton entrepreneur says the Alberta government has to do more to encourage investment in the province's small but burgeoning high-tech sector. Adrian Banica owns Synodon Inc., a small high-tech company that specializes in gas detection technology. He said without government help, the high-tech sector will disappear from the Alberta landscape because it can't compete for investment with the oil and gas industry. Banica added that he has had trouble for years raising money to develop his product and expand his business. He said for an economy to be strong, it has to be diverse, so the province should provide more incentive for investment in high-tech. "The government has to put some dollars forward and then demand that private investors match it at least. But one thing that could make a big difference is to have some sort of tax credit that's issued on certain investments." A recent survey of 128 high-tech firms by Ernst & Young discovered that 49 per cent of high-tech companies are thinking of moving to other provinces that offer tax credits and financial considerations for technology businesses. ERNST & YOUNG: Alberta Technology Report 2006 High-tech companies are also concerned about finding new customers in what they consider to be a limited marketplace. In the Ernst & Young report, 91 per cent cited that as their greatest challenge.

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Dildo Residents Given the Shaft

I know I know I just coudn't resist the great headline, however this is a case of a company that is just this side of a Ponzi scheme. The result is still the same; screwing investors.

Don't blame us, Edmonton company tells Newfoundlanders

Last summer, the company came to Newfoundland and Labrador communities to find people willing to buy the products and work as independent distributors. Organizer Tracey Piercey said about 200 people signed up with the company last summer. She and others who attended a meeting Sunday night in the community of Dildo said they were promised high rates of returns within months of becoming involved.

As they say Cavet Emptor, or perhaps Invest Emptor, while the folks fleecing those gullible would say Carpe Diem.

Piercey said participants were told that when houses were sold, they would earn back their money – and a profit. Company president Dexter Dombro said the plan was never supposed to be about easy money.



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What's The Rush

Despite a declared amnesty for underground workers, those sans papiers as they are known in Europe, those without papers, now the Conservative government is deporting these foreign workers, giving them the bums rush, as they try and figure out how to run the department.

So the new Minister in charge, Monte Solberg, instead of declaring an amnesty on any further deportations till he actually knows what is going on, instead says steady as she goes.

And off goes the border guard to deport not criminals, not gunrunners or drug smugglers, nope just hard working construction workers. So much for securing the border in Canada against illegal guns, all the Tories have done is sicked the border cops on taxpaying foreign workers. The New Multitdue

And wanting to show they are tough on immigration; like Lou Dobbs, and tougher than George Bush, the Conservatives make an example of hard working folks kicking them out of Canada and telling them to reapply. A real fine example of compassionate conservativism. Ottawa rejects US model on workers

The past three Liberal immigration ministers all announced plans to regularize the status of illegal immigrants who toil in the vast underground economy -- 10,000 to 15,000 in Ontario alone and an estimated 200,000 nationally. Past promises of an amnesty gave false hope to these underground workers, some of whom came forward to file refugee claims and/or humanitarian applications in an attempt to stay -- only to be ordered deported.Foreign labourers shown the door

Ironically this will come to bite them on the ass as the big Tar Sands companies need and want temporary workers to come to work in Alberta which is going through a labour shortage. Lack of Planning Created Skills Shortage in Alberta

They're Alberta bound

So which is it going to be welcome temporary workers or deport workers already here. The mind boggles but at least we know that the labour crisis in Canada is a low priority for the newly appointed Minister.

Solberg says the numbers of Portuguese the Conservative government has removed pale in comparison to the roughly 700 the former Liberal government had deported in the past three years. Last week, he said that dealing with this issue is a "low priority" for the government -- although he denies Ottawa is stepping up deportations or singling out Portuguese. The Canadian Border Services Agency is on track to deport about 10,000 people this year.

Also See: No Place At Home


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A Little Bit Of Heaven In Ottawa

Alberta is fondly refered to as Gods Country. In the house that King Peter Lougheed built; the post 1971 PC controled Alberta Legislature, the TV cameras all focus on the Government Bench and the Premiers front row.

There is no ability to pan across to the opposition or even the public gallery. And if the Premier moves out of range of these anchored camera's well they miss the action... as occured recently when King Ralph threw legislation at a page.

The Press gallery was two floors below any offices of importance. But the fridge used to have beer so that made it barable.

The Press in Alberta is dominated by Kleins autarchy, obey the rules or don't get called. Bite the hand that feeds you press tips and well, so much for your career as a political reporter. And then there is the Alberta Media version of FAUX News the CFCN network, and Limbaugh in Ruthordford.

Back in the ninties the only provincial public radio station in Canada; CKUA was fully privatized and lost its perennial contract to broadcast live from the Alberta Legislature during Question Period when it was held.

They had done this for seventy five years, and even survived the tyranny of the Social Credit government of Bible Bill. But in one fell swoop of anti-democracy the only station willing to carry the QP was cut off from access due to increased costs charged to them now that they were privatized. The logic befuddles the mind.

So good luck in Ottawa, you mighty media giants. You are about to face the wrath of Gods country. How DARE YOU PRESUME on the PM. Welcome to a little bit of Alberta in Ottawa. A little bit of Heaven for Cesar Harper.

Reporters face off with PMO over limits on access

Harper tightens secrecy, limits access

Tory gov't secrecy blasted by Graham

Battle heats up between media and Prime Minister's Office

Security on Parliament Hill barred reporters from attending a pair of Stephen Harper photo opportunities Monday as the Prime Ministers Office flexed its media messaging muscles.

The made-for-TV confrontation between security and reporters outside Harper's office door graphically illustrated the deteriorating relations between a PMO seeking total message control and news media defending their hard-won access.

It's a battle that may be beginning to resonate beyond the cozy precincts of the Peace Tower as the Conservatives threaten to hold secret cabinet meetings and withhold information about visiting heads of state.

"Harper ran on a campaign of open and accountable government," New Democrat MP Charlie Angus said Monday.

"And the first thing we see him doing is putting plywood up over all his windows and barring access to the doors. My question is, why? What is Harper afraid of?"

Among a series of media access restrictions already imposed or being contemplated, the most inflammatory is a plan to bar reporters from staking out cabinet meetings, where they can ask departing ministers about their portfolios.

In order to stop the practice, the PMO is suggesting it will keep the weekly meetings secret. At a minimum, it hopes to force reporters to wait a floor below the cabinet room, so that only ministers who want to speak - or have permission - will face the media.

Emmanuelle Latraverse, a Radio-Canada reporter and president of the press gallery, said the PMO is attempting to claw back access rights that have taken years to win.


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Hey Ralph Smell The Coffee

In Alberta it is very bad to be spoken of in the same breathe as Jean Chretien. Very bad indeed. Just ask Paul Martin......And it is reoccuring more frequently......Ralph and Jean, two who took too long to say goodbye........

Like Jean Chretien, Ralph Klein can't see that times have changed

Major tactical errors have touched our previously Teflon premier

Sheila Pratt, The Edmonton Journal

Published: Sunday, March 26, 2006

So how did Ralph Klein, for years the leader who could do no wrong, get himself into such a mess this week?

Mr. Populist Premier, just "Ralph" to most Albertans, the mastermind of massive Conservative majorities for a decade, suddenly finds his grip is slipping. One cabinet minister, Lyle Oberg, openly says it's time Klein is gone and another, Ed Stelmach steps down. With party rank and file torn in their loyalties, the top brass worry Klein may take the party down with him.

It seemed to happen so fast, but signs have been there for awhile.

Who could forget that great moment after the 2001 election when an ecstatic, yes, gloating Klein grinned into the cameras "Welcome to Ralph's world!" He'd crushed the opposition to nine seats and took back much of Edmonton. He had the world in his hands.

That was the zenith. The cult of Klein soon began to fray at the edges and it was evident after the 2004 election,which laid the groundwork for today's mess

A new fear factor: Speaking up to Ralph

Globe and Mail, Canada
By Deborah Yedlin.

CALGARY — Lyle Oberg has been a hot topic in Calgary's business community since he broke ranks with Alberta Premier Ralph Klein and dared to voice what many in this province have been thinking for at least the past 12 months.

One oil patch industry insider went as far as saying "people were very happy" that someone finally had the gumption to challenge Mr. Klein, even if it has cost Mr. Oberg a run at the top job in provincial politics.

Many business leaders in both Edmonton and Calgary have been equally reticent to confront him. They too have been nattering for months that it's time for the Premier to go but because the oil patch depends on the government for favourable rulings on everything from royalty rates to approvals for new projects, the silence has been deafening.

Now, Mr. Oberg has spoken up and will likely pay the ultimate political price. With luck, his comments will resonate with delegates when they walk into the voting booth this weekend and anonymously cast their ballots during Mr. Klein's leadership review.

Mr. Klein has said he's willing to accept a 70-per-cent approval rating. He'd do better to think of two Jeans: Mr. Béliveau -- who retired after helping the Montreal Canadiens to win 10 Stanley Cups -- or Mr. Chrétien, who will go down in Canadian history books as a leader who held on to power at a huge cost to the country and his party.

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The Truth Is Missing

The Canadian Blogging Community Page over at The Truth Laid Bear has been missing in action for a week now. The page pops up with the following message;Sorry; this page is not yet available. Check back in a few hours... Hours is one thing, days and weeks are another.Anyone know why the page is not available?


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CAW To Leave CLC?

CAW leadership urges members to abandon NDP

This is the syndicalism of Sam Gompers; reward your friends and punish your enemies.

Mr. Hargrove said a CAW council decided that the union should endorse strategic voting. Jim Stanford, an economist in the CAW research department, said many members felt it was inevitable that their organization would part ways with the NDP. Recent consultations showed that members wanted the CAW's political action to be driven by issues rather than by party affiliation, he said. "If you force people to choose between their union and a party, it's the union they'll choose. It's the union that delivers their bread and butter.

The CLC is aligned to the NDP as are its affiliates. The only union that isn't is the real heirs of radical Canadian syndicalism is CUPW.

CUPW is one of the most radical unions prepared to back up its demands with the mass strike, wildcats and direct action. Whose president showed what militant leadership is when he went to jail on behalf of his members who staged a strike despite a Federal Government ban.

Something Buzz has never done, gone to jail for the rank and file. And so his syndicalism is that of Gomperism, bread and butter issues, his politics of strategic voting is to reward his friends, the Liberals and NDP while punishing the Conservatives. This is a step backwards politically.

It also allows for right wing locals to become non involved, and really in the CAW was predicated upon the shift to the right by the Oshawa local which under the tutelage of the right supported the Reform party federally.

Something that Buzz avoids talking about.

Just like he refuses to accept that his strategic voting politics won nothing last time around. His political acumen is as limited as his nationalist left trade unionism.

Is this part of a Buzz plan to create a seperate Labour Federation in Canada?

I have speculated on that before.

And it is begining to look like a battle royal in the House of Labour and on the Labour Left.

Where is the CAW Going (Buzz Hargrove and Sam Gindin Exchange Views)

Which is why it is time for One Big Union, not through mergers and acquisitions like USWA and IWA, nor through misanthropic attempts to create yet another Labour Federation. No its through revolutionary syndicalism. The IWW shows the way this can be done historically and currently.

Buzz and the CAW show that the days of the trades unions and their industrial union counterparts are now to be spent in retirement from the Class War. Despite their comments to the contrary they are off the social battlefield while immersed in internecine ego-trips of building Empires as their's crumbles.

In the early 1990s, the CAW responded to management's notions of work reorganization with their own agenda for defending workers. Today, the union sounds uncomfortably like management as it reinforces GM demands for 'flexibility'.^* In 1996, the CAW struck GM - successfully - over the very outsourcing issue it was now giving up in the middle of an agreement (endorsing the loss of some 400 janitors - preferred work for some senior workers - and indicating more 'flexibility' as needed). Since the breakaway from the UAW the CAW consistently fought for improvements in work time. Now, in spite of added pressures on workers and an older workforce, relief time is being surrendered.

The leadership's defence has echoed the earlier refrain of the UAW (not to mention the familiar mantras of Thatcher then Blair): 'The world has changed', 'there is no alternative', 'expectations have to be lowered'. These lame phrases reveal a sad memory loss of the risks and uncertainties of that earlier time when the union resisted in spite of global and national trends, the warnings of its American parent, double-digit unemployment rates in the economy, and concerns about industry trends that were at least as great as today's. The world had changed back then and it is continuing to change today, but the lesson to be learned is not that becoming a spokesperson for the companies or forging closer ties to Liberal politicians will save us. Nor that our expectations should be lowered as technology develops and the economy becomes more productive. The question rather is whether unions are up to changing their own structures, building the appropriate allies, and developing a vision that can excite and mobilize their own members as part of challenging, rather than giving into, corporate power.

Mar 22, 2006

Sam Gindin

Concessions in Oshawa: The End of an Era?

Get All The Buzz




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No Place At Home

The reason that folks get frustrated trying to legally get into Canada, refugees at that. Which would explain the unconsciousable delays resulting in the worst of atrocities.

Family trying to get kids out of refugee camp A family that has been trying for almost two years to get their children out of an African refugee camp recently learned that one of their children was raped in the camp.

And if that is not bad enough our new Conservative government is deporting so called illegal aliens, folks who have lived here without becoming citizens, though they work and pay taxes, go figure.....

A reluctant new life Over the weekend, 24 people are deported to Portugal ...
Toronto Star, Canada - 5 hours ago
... They were told to go to the Immigration Canada office on Airport Rd. on March 10. ... Report to Canada Immigration Centre Pearson International Airport. ... ...
Plane load of deportees flown to Portugal CTV.ca
'Come back' Toronto Sun
all 5 related »

Nope they aren't deporting them they are just carrying on with Liberal policy.....and gee I was naive to think that the Conservatives actually meant it during the eelction when they said that they would govern differently...NOT

Rumours of immigration crackdown untrue: Solberg
CTV.ca, Canada - 18 hours ago
... record. They were expected to board a plane Sunday to return to Portugal after exhausting all avenues with Immigration Canada. Members ...
Deal with illegal workers, online readers tell Ottawa Toronto Star
Solberg mum on illegal workers issue Metro Toronto
Working in the shadows Toronto Star
all 4 related »

I guess the Harpocrites are trying to be just like their role models in the U.S.

Immigration debate heating up in US Senate

LA Immigrant Rights March

However by continuing the policy of the Liberals, a policy that has been twelve years in the making and even then its was not implemented under Volpe before the election. So the stay the course policy of Solberg results in this;

Ottawa deports Iran-native despite torture fears

And so Canadians had better wake up to the stupidity of blame the immigrants/refugees/sans papier, becuase otherwise we end up getting to be known as this.......

Challenging immigration control in Canada
Bordering On Apartheid

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War on the Ice

Frustration, hot tempers and arrests mark start of Atlantic seal hunt

I dunno know do ya think that a lower than expected kill number might have something to do with it?

"So far the hunters have taken 3 000 to 4 000 seals. That's not ridiculously slow, but it's not fast either. It's the lower edge of the norm," Simon told Reuters.

Some sealers park boats after slow opening day

Which is not actually the celeberaties and anti-seal hunt protestors fault, but then they are there and are an easy target to lash out at. And the protestors will of course take credit for it.

"The hunters are very frustrated. About 60 fishing vessels have returned. The sealers needed to calm down," said Jean-Claude Lapierre, a spokesperson with the Magdalen Islands sealers association. "The animals are scarce because of the thinning ice conditions. And now they have to deal with Ms. Aldworth's group who is intervening with our livelihood."

The seal population was devasted by mother nature earlier this year. Reducing the herd count.

Seal Hunt Protest Cancelled
Hundreds of baby seals were washed out to sea and drowned by surging waves propelled by a major blizzard yesterday.

No species chauvinism there, just a mass genocide due to natural causes. The law of the biosevere that Captain Paul Watson loves so much.

Opps here comes Mother Nature again; Spring blizzard blankets eastern Newfoundland


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The Human Condition

René Magritte,

La condizione umana,

1935



Tip o the blog to fellow Now Public member Janeway for this elusive and rare painting by Magritte. Not the usual Magritte. I checked several image sites and you get the usual....

So consider this a little o' bit of Monday morning surrealism......the movement not just the art.....like a fine cup o coffee...the dialectic dances........

Which is better than the altenative....

Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays

The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload




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