Inco Strike

The reason for the pending Inco Strike is simple, share the wealth.

Canadian miners may advance Monday as nickel prices are expected to hit a record high.


Union says Inco offer 'an insult'

The possible strike comes as supplies of nickel, which is used in the production of stainless steel, have become increasingly tight.

Inventories of nickel on the London Metal Exchange hit their lowest level since October 2005 on Friday, falling 246 tonnes to 18,432 tonnes.

The price of nickel shot up on Friday by $900, hitting $22,900 a tonne, after union members urged workers to strike.

The increase represented a 4% increase on Thursday's close.

Tight supplies come amid moves to consolidate the industry.

Inco has been in the running to acquire Canada's Falconbridge, also a nickel producer, but Swiss mining group Xstrata recently entered the race, offering a higher bid.

Meanwhile Inco is the target of a hostile takeover from Teck Cominco, the world's largest zinc producer.

Also See:

Criminal Capitalism: Xstrata

Monopoly

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Death in Naples

Canadian envoy found slain in Naples
Calls at the Canadian Embassy in Rome went unanswered Monday.

Probably waiting for permission from the PMO.

This could get serious for the Italians if they don't find out what happened. Because the last time a Canadian diplomat was killed we sent in Canadian Armed Forces.

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Conservative Nanny State

A tip o the blog to Contiental Op for this.

The Conservative Nanny State
How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer

A free e-book by Dean Baker, published May 2006
Download as a PDF | Read book in HTML | See the press release

In his new book, economist Dean Baker debunks the myth that conservatives favor the market over government intervention. In fact, conservatives rely on a range of “nanny state” policies that ensure the rich get richer while leaving most Americans worse off. It’s time for the rules to change. Sound economic policy should harness the market in ways that produce desirable social outcomes – decent wages, good jobs and affordable health care.

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SOS

As in Save Our Stugeon, the source of fresh lake water monster sightings in North America.

Scientist studies decline of lake sturgeon
The lake sturgeon was designated an endangered species under the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada last May.Lake sturgeon, which have remained virtually unchanged as a species since the time of dinosaurs, are Canada's largest freshwater fish, reaching lengths of over two metres and weights of up to 140 kilograms.They can live for more than 100 years, but can take as long as 20 years to reach maturity, and spawn as infrequently as once every five years. Experts say overfishing and pollution have also contributed to the decimation of the fish's population.


Also See Cryptozoology


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Harpers Micromanagement

Harpers autocratic style has come down to this, his Ministers cannot speak for their departments. He truly is Pooh-ba, Minister of Everything. Really this is getting ridiculous.

EI sick benefits don't go far enough, couple says
Watson says worries they won't have enough money to pay the mortgage and other bills while Corey undergoes cancer treatment. The couple has written letters to the minister, but say none of them have been answered so far. CBC News contacted the office of the Minister of Human Resources for an interview, where officials declined comment on the story and referred the issue to the Prime Minister's Office.


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RBC Centre

So I am watching the Carolina Hurricanes play Buffalo last night, and noticed that the stadium they are playing is called RBC Center. As in Royal Bank of Canada. The folks who made record profits this year but are still increasing their service charges to the rest of us. So when folks whine about players salaries let's remember who really is making money off the game, the owners, including the owners of the Stadiums. Like RBC.

Also see:

Pro Sports and Criminal Capitalism

NFL IN TORONTO?

SPORTS

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Debtors Nation

The impact of the Bank of Canada's stupid inflationary policy of raising interest rates adversely affects working class Canadians. As I have said here. The current North American economy is NOT being driven by production and manufacturing but by consumer debt.

Too much debt puts consumers in a bind

Latest rate hike adds to already heavy burden
Many Canadians spending more than they earn

Alberta farmers reap bitter harvest
Incomes plunge 50% while neighbours in energy sector enjoy good times

They live among millionaires, and yet Alberta's farmers have seen their net incomes drop more steeply than their peers in any other Canadian province.

Provincial government coffers are bubbling over, oil-and-gas corporate profits are sky high, and per-capita income in the province is by far the highest in the country.

And yet, Alberta farmers' net incomes dropped 50 per cent in 2005, compared with a national average decline of 7.7 per cent, Statistics Canada said in a recent report.

The 50-per-cent drop is not just a numbers trick caused by a good year in 2004, Statistics Canada pointed out. Net income in 2005 was 30.5 per cent lower than the average income over the previous five years -- and those years were notable for their troubles with droughts, beef bans and bad weather.

See my:

The Truth About the Farm Crisis

For an analysis of the US Debt Crisis see the latest issue of Monthly Review online.

The Household Debt Bubble
by John Bellamy Foster

The End of Retirement
by Teresa Ghilarducci

Trouble, Trouble, Debt, and Bubble
by William K. Tabb

And see my:

Storm Clouds Over The US Economy

Housing Boom or Bust

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Cloaking Device

Scientists have discovered how to create a cloaking device is warp drive far behind? And will the United Federation of Planets let us in?

Scientists shed new light on invisibility

- the scientists' cloaking device would use newly developed materials that can bend light in unexpected ways. Scientists not involved in the work said the plans appear feasible but that they would require more-advanced substances than currently exist. Still, scientists said that the work represents an important theoretical advance likely to inspire new ideas in the booming field of materials science.

``It is a fascinating concept," said Steven G. Johnson, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an e-mail. ``But I suspect that you're unlikely to find it for sale anytime soon (except on Daigon Alley)."

The research has obvious applications for the military, which is looking for ways to improve on the stealth technology used in the B-2 stealth bomber. But the technology could also be used to protect equipment by steering radiation around it and would likely have other uses in basic scientific research, according to the scientists, whose work was published online by the journal Science.

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Border Insecurity

Playing the card of National Security xenophobic racist white Americans are planning to close all their borders.

The Mexican border is only one focus of groups like the Minutemen the other is the US Canada border.

Less pronounced perhaps, but still there is the plan.

I was watching the Minutemen on the news yesterday building their own private security wall in Arizona. And they were flashing Minutemen Close the Border signs, which not only showed a fence on the Mexico border but also one on the Canadian border between Washington State and B.C.

Which makes the jingoist statist idea of National ID/ Passports/BioMetric cards even more stupid. Of course the US has no such national ID card yet though they have passed legislation on it. Its all smoke and mirrors.

Many would go to U.S. less if ID plan became law: poll

Canada wins minor victory in US border dispute

Its not about Security, thats just the face card. It's the joker in the pack that is driving this; racist anti-immigration xenophobes of the Protestant Right in America. In other words good old American Nativism.

American Nativism, 1830-1845
During the 1830s and 1840s Americans with nativist sentiments made a concerted effort to enter into the local and national political arenas. Nativism's political relevance grew out of the increase of immigrants during the ‘20s and ‘30s and the anti-foreign writings that abounded during these decades. While pivoting between anti-foreign and anti-catholic appeals, nativism became both practical and ideological in nature: platforms for the movement ranged from extending the length naturalization to protecting the sacredness of the Protestant Republic. In New York city's 1844 elections, the nativist movement formed the American Republican Party, which allied with the Whigs and resulted in the defeat of the Democratic Party. This political advancement, although local and short lived, presented a glimpse of the national nativist power later found in the know- nothings. Clearly, early nineteenth-century nativism participated in significant political changes, and the goal of this paper is to summarize nativism between 1830 and 1845 while analyzing these major political developments.

Border history repeated
Just as the Bush administration sees Canada as an indifferent ally in the war on terror, in late 1864 Abraham Lincoln's administration felt much the same way. Annoyed by raids across the frontier by Confederate States agents based in Canada and puzzled by Canadian sympathy for the Southern cause, Lincoln decided to act, ending the laissez-faire attitude towards cross-border traffic that had existed for half a century.Although the law lasted just three months, it stifled trade, created long lines at the border and was condemned in the court of public opinion on both sides of the frontier. But just as the Bush administration's actions have forced Canada to take notice, so did Lincoln's. John A. Macdonald formed a border police and Parliament passed a law aimed at dealing with suspected terrorists.

Also see: Migration

Build A Wall And They Will Still Come

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Note To Blogging Tories

I was going to comment on the joy in mudville over the Tories polling at 40% Rarely do I agree with rabid rightwinger Lorrie Goldstein, very rarely, in fact practically never, until he wrote this.

A word of advice for rabid Conservative partisans and charter members of the right-wing blogosphere.

Stop gloating over last week's Ipsos-Reid poll showing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives would win a majority government if an election was held today, with 43% of the popular vote compared to 25% for the Liberals.

Stop using it and other polls showing the Tories are up significantly from their election night support of 36%, while the Liberals are down from 30%, to thump your chest and smugly declare that whatever Harper is doing, it must be right.

You're being as foolish as rabid Liberal partisans and bloggers were last fall when the polls showed the Grits bouncing back from AdScam with a shot at a majority government.

Polls taken today mean nothing. If pollsters and pundits (present company included) could tell you what's going to happen in the next election based on polls taken now, none of us would be pollsters and pundits. We'd be bookies.

LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, TORONTO SUN

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