LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Stephen Trudeau Pierre Harper

Gallery dinner looks like a bust as GG declines
"We already know that Mr. Harper doesn't want to go. Gilles Duceppe hasn't been in years, and CTV has found out that the Governor General won't go to the dinner either," Thompson told CTV Newsnet. Pierre Trudeau was the last prime minister to boycott the dinner.

Oh this is rich. It took a couple of years for Trudeau to dis the media and the media to dis Trudeau. In three short months Harper has managed to Fuddle Duddle the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Ah well I am sure Jack would want to attend.

Experts weigh in on the Conservative media ban
Luc Lavoie, former communications director for Brian Mulroney, dismissed the notion that controlling the media is a Conservative tendency, arguing instead that it has a Liberal precedent.

"If a page was torn from anyone, it was torn from Pierre Elliott Trudeau," he said.

"The years of Pierre Eliot Trudeau Elliott Trudeau were years when Trudeau never spoke to (reporters). There were fights all the time and he couldn't care less about the media."

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On the Diotte

Kerry Diotte whose passion for privatization is only matched by his passion for sports is the city hall columnist for the Edmonton Sun. On rare occassions do I find myself agreeing with him. Yesterday was just such a case. He wrote a column about the failure of the Eastern Canadian Media to give the Oilers their due. Oilers getting short shrift

Comments I have seen in some blogs and in some press reports from folks in Toronto Canada attest to this. In fact the paucity of cheering for the Oilers by non-Edmonton bloggers even appears in the hockey column of the Canadian Blog Exchange.

Too bad sore losers. The Oilers are after all Canada's team. Not unlike the Blue Jays if they were to make the World Cup. But no for some folks in Toronto if the Leafs ain't in it, or Montreal, well we will move on to cheering the perennial losers the Raptors.

So now I find myself agreeing with Diotte two days in a row, yoiks. Wake up, Don! You're in Edmonton

I was downtown at a Quiznos and who should I line up behind but a gaggle of American sports reporters including Fox Sports Network, ABC, ESPN, etc. here to cover the game on Tuesday. Why? Because this is the real playoff game, Canada versus the U.S. Let me repeat that Canada versus the U.S.

It's time that the rest of the country joins in celebrating Canada's team cause we are going to the Stanely Cup.

Even this die hard Calgary Flames Fan is cheering for Edmonton.
Go Oilers Go!

Premier Klein holds up an Edmonton Oilers jersey in support of Alberta's team in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Now when will the Harper wear the Oilers jersey in the House?! Any day now would be good.

Also See: Hockey

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Blogging Freedom in the Middle East

As blogs grow in numbers and influence, Arab states have become worried. A number of bloggers have been arrested in Bahrain, Syria and Tunisia. Throughout the recent conflict between the Egyptian government and the judiciary, bloggers have expressed their solidarity with the judges on the internet. When the security forces arrested a number of protestors who took to the street in support of the judges, six of those detained were renowned bloggers. They included Alaa Ahmad Said al Islam, who started a blog with his wife Manal. Governments vs. Bloggers: The Battle Continues… : Diana Mukkaled

Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | Battle of the blogs

The arrest and then release of an Alexandria blogger has pushed the vibrant Egyptian blogosphere into the limelight. Amira Howeidy talks to some of its stars

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blogs, blogging, blog, blogger, Egypt, Baharain, Syria, Tunisia, Iran, freedom, arrests, censorship, WWW, internet, Mukkaled, Howiedy, Al-Aharam

More Alberta in Ottawa

Ah more evidence of the practices of the Conservative Government in Ottawa mirroring the practices of the Conservative Government in Alberta, again. In this case the Official Government of Canada Web Site morphing into the Conservative Party of Canada website. Yep just another little treat from Alberta for all you folks.

Ralph Klein Premiers Page

Ralph Klein PC Leaders Page

Also see: Ottawa, Alberta

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Calgary Fraud Funds Dubai Boom

A criminal cell operating across Canada is funnelling millions of dollars to Dubai to fund terrorist activities through a sophisticated credit/debit card fraud scheme, says the head of Alberta's Integrated Response to Organized Crime unit.''For one of the groups, it (cash) goes straight to terrorism in Dubai and some of the other countries. They live on nothing and send all their money to fund terrorist activities.'Canada fraud scheme linked to terrorist activities

This is idle speculation, with no factual basis to say it is going to terrorists. Or she would have named the guilty parties. Sure they know its going to Dubai, but it is just as likely to end up here.

Or considering the booming economy of Dubai, being hot money invested into this;

Dubai’s building frenzy lays foundation for global power The Gulf emirate is spending £140bn to transform itself into a capitalist powerhouse that will be a model for its neighbours.

Terrorism indeed. Obviously someone here is trying to get more funding for their department.

After this week's budget, taxpayers as well as voters and concerned citizens have even more reason to demand a full exposure of RCMP actions. Those reasons are only reinforced by a national capital consensus that, for a policeman, Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli is an usually skilled and determined politician. Budget renews concerns about RCMP

Terrorism is so much sexier than saying White Collar Crime which the RCMP have failed to prosecute effectively. The RCMP's IMET has little to show for itself

Also See:

The Joys of Telemarketing

Credit Card Fraud

Free Trade: Primitive Accumulation of Capital

White Collar Crime

Criminal Capitalism

Ponzi Schemes

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Time Stands Still

On Parliament Hill. We knew that. The Conservatives in an attempt to turn back the clock on thirteen years of Liberal rule, have somehow created a cosmic conundrum with the horology of the Peace Tower Clock. It has stopped for the first time since it was installed during the last Trudeau reign. Shocked perhaps by the antics of the Harpocrites, even the Peace Tower is protesting our new war mongering, law and order government.

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He Won't Share

Klein issues warning on sharing the wealth heck he won't share with Albertan's why would he share with the rest of Canada. Besides the fact that the only folks who really share in Alberta's wealth are the Petro Chemical Industry Cartel in Calgary. Come to think of it they are the Party of Calgary that Klein speaks for. And so does the Harpocrite.

Poll queries royalty

Albertans want a public review of the oilsands royalty system because they don't think the province is reaping maximum revenues, according to a new Pembina Institute poll.

The survey suggests 84% of Albertans want a review of the program that allows companies to pay a 1% royalty until their capital costs are paid.

Pembina economist Amy Taylor said oilsands production rose 88% between 1997 and 2005, but royalty revenues increased only 14%.

'DECLINING AMOUNT OF REVENUE'

"We're getting a declining amount of revenue from each barrel we're pulling out of the oilsands."

She said the royalty scheme, which requires companies to pay 25% only after paying off project costs, was created when oil prices were lower, costs were higher and oilsands technology was in its infancy.

"We think the regime should be updated to reflect current developments," Taylor said.

The Pembina findings are based on a phone survey of 500 Albertans between April 7 and 13, with a margin of error of 4.4%, 19 times out of 20.

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Canada, Provinces, Alberta, Oil, Energy, Klein, Royalties, Tar-Sands, Harper, Equalization, politics, wealth, surplus, economics, PC, Conservatives, Calgary, PetroIndustry

ACLU Hypocrites

They purged founding member and free speech fighter; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the IWW Rebel Girl, from the ACLU Board in the Forties for being a communist.

Today they demand their board take an oath of silence. ACLU May Block Criticism by Its Board

Typical liberals.

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Love Me I'mA Liberal, by Phil Ochs

A tip o' the blog to Alberta Ardvark

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Happy Birthday Bob

Bob Dylan turned 65 yesterday.

He obviously survived.

Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

And now he is a DJ on Sattelite Radio.

Even wierder; Australian actress Cate Blanchett has confirmed that she will play a young Bob Dylan - the name Zimmerman is slightly more familiar as across the globe -- in I'm Not There, reportedly the first Hollywood film the iconic and eccentric singer-songwriter has authorised on his life.

"It's horrible," he told Playboy 40 years ago, on one of the countless occasions when he was asked if being a folk hero was a position of great responsibility. "I'll bet Tony Bennett doesn't have to go through this kind of thing. I wonder what Billy the Kid would have answered to such a question."

Billy the Kid didn't engage in a book's worth of verbal showdowns with the press. But Dylan has, and now those interviews have been invaluably collected. In an irresistible new anthology edited by Jonathan Cott, one of the original editors of Rolling Stone and arguably the most simpatico writer ever to converse with Dylan, the interview format remains eminently readable through more than 400 pages.Bob Dylan and The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia

For fans of Bob see My Back Pages and Bringing It All Back Homepage

And what goes around comes around, Dylan the protest singer seems just as relevant today as he was waaay back in the early sixties.

It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.

Masters of War

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

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