Happy Birthday Mom

It's Earth Day be kind to your mother, no need to send her a card, just clean up your mess. Earth Day began after we saw our home from space and after we landed on the moon.

Thanks to the Space Race we came to a global conciousness of how small we are in the universe, and how important our planet is, hence the creation of Earth Day. It will be nice once we realize we are all Earthlings now. OPr to misquote JFK who launched the space race; Ich bin ein Erdenbürger.

The problem we face is two fold, capitalism and nationalism. Both the creation of the Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century. Today in order to clean up their mess we must become more than internationalists we must become as
The Internationale says; the human race. One Planet, One People.

As I have blogged here recently we need an Industrial Ecology for the planet somethng that capitalism cannot and will not develop. It is a contradiction to continual expansion and profit taking. Which of course leads to entropy called by Marx the falling rate of profit.James Lovelock and Gaia’s revenge

A successful greening economy, an industrial ecology of waste reduction and recycling, such as was done during War Rationing in WWII, with greening of end use, means a permanent fall in the rate of profit and an eventual steady state econonmic ecology; socialism by any other name.

Figure 3: Industrial Ecosystem at Kalundborg

Also See:

Petrocan's Arctic Sovereignty

The Truth About the Farm Crisis

Capitalism's Denial of Climate Catastrophe

After Montreal A View From the Past

Climate Change and Social Barbarism

Capitalism=Climate Change

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Harpers Flag

Maybe this is the real reason Harper feels less patriotic about our Flag
See previous post.

Image courtesy andrew currie. A tip o' the blog and thanx for the use.


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Lower The Flag

I oppose our war in Afghanistan, but not our men and women who have to fight and die there.

I object to their officers the war mongers and professional soldiers, and their political bosses.

And in this case I REALLY object to the failure of the Conservative Government to do the right thing and lower the flag each time our men and women are killed in battle. No more flag lowering for Canadian soldiers

The Flag is being used to hide behind by the coward that talks tough with others lives. The Harpocrite is taking his burying of anything Liberal too far.

The flag continued to fly yesterday on the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. The newly elected Conservative government has said it will no longer lower the flag to half-staff every time a Canadian soldier is killed, a break with tradition established by the Liberals. A terrible price

A challenge to the Blogging Tories and Progressives For War, you support this war, demand that Harper lower the flag. Let your Legion and Veterans associations know, get them to raise the hue and cry. Email your MP. Raise the call.

If you live in (R)Edmonton let the city council and the school boards as well as the legislature know you want the flags lowered. It's the least we can do.

Chickenhawk that the Harpocrite is he won't listen to you anymore than he listens to anyone else.

We lower the damn flag for Royalty and Pontiffs, lower it for those who fight your wars.

Never Again!- War Amps

We Remember Them- Royal Canadian Legion

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Business As Usual

They call it crony capitalism, as if it is somehow different from capitalism in general. It ain't it's business as usual.

Prosecutors have been investigating Hyundai Motor over allegations that it embezzled money from affiliates. The money allegedly went into a slush fund that was used to bribe government officials. Over the past month, prosecutors have raided offices of Hyundai and its three affiliates, Kia Motors, logistics unit Glovis Co. and auto parts maker Hyundai Autonet, questioning key officials. Hyundai chairman to be questioned in S. Korean bribery scandal

Their real crime is their closing their plant in Canada to move south to non-union state's like Alabama and Georgia. And of course demanding tax breaks to move there.





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Pension Plunder

So if public pension funds like the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund has made money why is it forcing its workers on strike, and demanding its members pay rate hikes and face benefit cuts? Is the word greed?

"The average Canadian pension plan has realized a robust 15.8 per cent annualized return over three years" with a return of 14.9 per cent over the past year, McDougall said.

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has called for benefit cuts and a hike in member contributions. Pension funds continue to do well in first quarter

Could it because it has to pay this guys salary? Because Teachers has been making a profit, if it didn't then instead of giving him a $1 million dollar bonus, they should have shown him the door. But some peoples greed knows no bounds.

Teachers last month reported investment income of C$14.1 billion ($12.4 billion) for 2005. Its net assets were C$96.1 billion, making it a mammoth on the Canadian investing landscape.

On Friday, union negotiator Brock Suddaby took aim at compensation paid to Claude Lamoureux, the plan's chief executive.

According to Teachers' annual report, Lamoureux made C$5.54 million in total compensation for 2005, including salary, bonus, and payments under a long-term incentive plan, as well as other compensation. This was an increase of almost C$1 million from 2004.

"The CEO ... made more money last year than our members will make in their entire lifetimes," Suddaby said in a statement. "He made as much money in 2005 as 100 of our members. Yet he has the gall to demand a longer work week from our members. He has the gall to demand that a portion of staff pay be allotted to individuals hand-picked by management." Strike set at Ontario Teachers Pension Plan

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Tories Tinker with Taxes

The Harpocrites are in the backroom this weekend, avoiding Earth Day working on your taxes. Well actually working on their wonky budget. It seems some have them have seen the light, that their GST tax cut and their baby bonuse won't help the average Canadian working family. Slow learners.Flaherty vows big tax cuts in budget

Critics say that Canadians earning between $10,000 and $85,000 annually who don't have children under six years old would be better off under the Liberal income-tax breaks enacted last November than they would be under the one-percentage-point GST cut and targeted measures the Tories pledged in the recent election campaign.

That's because this group doesn't benefit from the annual $1,200-a-child daycare payment the Tories are giving to parents with children under 6.

The Conservatives are working this weekend in hopes of shortly finalizing the budget, expected to be delivered the week of May 2, and are still considering measures that might offer Canadians additional tax relief, sources say.

PM looks to sweeten tax plan

Fine but how about a couple of really radical ideas; like eliminating the GST completely. Or the deficit finance tax on gas. Or gasp Income Taxes on anyone earning $100,000 or less a year.

Yes you read that right. I have said it time and again. Something not even the Blogging Tories ,theCanadian Taxpayers Federation, Fraser Institute or the Conservatives have dared to say, ever. Period. From the left a more radical tax cut then anything the right has ever advocated. Oh right because its for workers not business. Damn pinko.

More On Harpers Tax Cuts




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Tory Piggies At The Trough

Put your finger on your nose and say oink, oink. In the land of the Fraser Institute home of the cheerleaders of Harpers less is more, the folks who hate to see taxpayers (read business) gouged by the government comes this gem. See the Harpocrites are just like the Liberals. Wait a minute wasn't Emerson a Liberal once? This is another case of meet the new boss same as the old boss.

$14,000: EXPENSES Four civil servants flew here to brief Emerson; he says it was worth the cost

Senior federal civil servants spent thousands of dollars travelling to Vancouver to brief embattled International Trade Minister David Emerson, disclosure documents show.

Fonberg, and assistant deputy ministers Robert Dery, Michael Martin and Ken Sunquist were among the eight senior staffers who travelled to meet with Emerson between Feb. 19 and Feb. 23.

At the time, Emerson was weathering a political storm over his decision to join the Conservative cabinet as minister of international trade after having won election as a Liberal in Vancouver-Kingsway.

ADDING UP COST OF OFFICIALS' TRAVEL

Federal International Trade Minister David Emerson approved the travel of eight senior staff members to Vancouver to brief him on key files including:

- Robert Fonberg, deputy minister: Expenses, $3,506.08

- Robert Dery, acting assistant deputy minister and chief trade commissioner: Expenses, $3,172.04

- Michael Martin, assistant deputy minister: Expenses $3,381.58

- Ken Sunquist, assistant deputy minister: Expenses $3,862.53

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What Causes Inflation

Is it really inflation if wages don't rise? Economists used to peg inflation to workers wages, remember the nasty seventies with Wage and Price controls. Of course those are capitalist economists, or more correctly apologists. They now peg inflation to what really causes it; not wages but prices and the creation of profit.

Gas prices may stoke inflation, economists say


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Wisdom of the East

A comment from the Khaleej Times, which sounds like something I said here.

Oil prices and refineries
By Mohammed A. R. Galadari

So, it is not correct to say that oil prices go up because of shortage or war. The fact is that there is more production of oil today than was the case some 10 years ago. The production is going up, the consumption is going up, but refinery capacities are not increasing in a matching way.

More important is the fact that the industrialized world does not have enough refineries, even as they have access to oil. More shipments to the US, for example, alone will not help, as long as the country does not increase and upgrade its refining capacity. Increasing the refinery capacity is not easy, for the reason that it would have to be done in tandem with the environment standards set by the country. Pollution is a big issue for the developed world in particular, also the reason why those countries use mostly light crude in their refineries.

Dear readers, some are however tempted to see a coincidence between the oil price rise and the Bush presidency. If Bush won the elections with the backing and support of the Texas oil companies, it would also be that he created the necessary conditions for them to make extra gains during his presidency, is how the argument goes. Nothing can be ruled out in politics.

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Day of Reckoning

Dire IMF warning clouds gather over the US economy like buzzards in the Iraq desert. But is anyone in the Bush regime listening?

The US's enormous current account deficit, now worth almost 7 per cent of its GDP, will have to be unwound eventually: like anyone living beyond their means, it will have to have a day of reckoning. The IMF warned again last week that without co-ordinated action to bring the value of the dollar down smoothly, and boost growth in Europe and Asia to compensate for slower growth in the US, there is an increased chance that the imbalances unwind suddenly, leading to a devastating global downturn. Do we need an IMF? Yes, but not this one


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