Our Allies The Taliban

Our alliance with Pakistan is the biggest reason we will lose in Afghanistan. Which War Minister O'Conor finally admitted, after having met with Musharraf. Coincidence? I think not.


PAKISTAN PRESIDENT PERVEZ Musharraf is supposedly a key US ally in the “war on terror.”

But is he, in fact, more of a liability than an asset in combating Al Qaeda and the increasingly menacing Taleban forces in Afghanistan?

Musharraf has been an opportunist from the start who has continued to help the Taleban (just as he had done before Sept 11) and who has gone after Al Qaeda cells in Pakistan only to the extent necessary to fend off US and British pressure.

On Sept 19, 2001, Musharraf made a revealing TV address in Urdu, not noticed at the time by many Americans, in which he reassured Pakistanis who sympathised with Al Qaeda and the Taleban that his decision to line up with the US was a temporary expedient.

To Taleban sympathisers, Musharraf directed an explicit message, saying: “I have done everything for the ... Taleban when the whole world was against them ... We are trying our best to come out of this critical situation without any damage to Afghanistan and the Taleban.”He has kept his promise to the latter.

Why the US needs the Taliban

On July 16, speaking to Electronic Telegraph of the United Kingdom, US troop commander General Frank "Buster" Hagenbeck, based at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, reported increased attacks over recent weeks on US and Afghan forces by the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other anti-US groups that have joined hands. He also revealed some other very interesting information: the Taliban and its allies have regrouped in Pakistan and are recruiting fighters from religious schools in Quetta in a campaign funded by drug trafficking. Hagenbeck also said that these enemies of US and Afghan forces have been joined by Al-Qaeda commanders who are establishing new cells and sponsoring the attempted capture of American troops. One other piece of news of import from Hagenbeck is that the Taliban have seized whole swathes of the country. What is happening? Both Hagenbeck, who boasts to the media about the high quality of his intelligence, and Khalilzad, who is unquestionably in a position to know, have stated that the Taliban and al-Qaeda are being nurtured, not in some inaccessible terrain along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border but in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province where the Pakistan Army and the ISI have a major presence. Yet, President Bush and his neo-conservative henchmen have remained strangely quiet, allowing Pakistan to strengthen the Taliban in Quetta, and, as a consequence, re-energize al-Qaeda - the killers of thousands of Americans in the fall of 2001.


Also See:

Afghanistan

War






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Coincidence

On the fifth anniversary of 9/11 both George W. Bush and Stephen Harper will address their respective nations on the war on terror.

Harper plans TV addresses to mark Sept. 11

Bush To End 9/11 Remembrances With Prime Time Address

Coincidence? I think not. Rather it shows that Ottawa is now the White House North. And of course this will all be about the war on terror, which has failed, will continue to fail, and will leave these two dorks flailing around for excuses.

Canada is cleaning up the mess left behind in Afghanistan by the U.S. rapid departure team. That quickly departed for Iraq, which was their original goal until diverted to Afghanistan by the events of 9/11.



Also See:

Afghanistan

War

Bush

US Imperialism

Harper




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Capital Punishment For Blair

This is a great headline...Execution date awaits Tony Blair

To bad it isn't literally true, it could be since he is wanted for war crimes after all.

WAR CRIMES

Tony Blair

Aliases: Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, Bambi, Bush's Poodle DESCRIPTION Age: Late 40's Build: Medium Sex: Male Hair: Brown Height: ?? Eyes: Weight: xxx pounds Race: White

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Catholics For Harper

The big guy in the white hat and dress has put his two bits worth into the upcoming fall sitting of the Canadian Parliament.Pope scolds Canada on gay marriage, abortion

I didn't know the Pope was a card carrying Conservative. Bet you didn't either. However there is a solution to this clear cut case of the Catholic Church attempting to influence Canadian politicians; Make the bigots pay! Tax the Churches!

"In the name of tolerance, your country has had to endure the folly of the redefinition of spouse," the Pope told a group of bishops from Ontario. "In the name of freedom of choice, it is confronted with the daily destruction of unborn children."

Such laws, Benedict said, are the result of "the exclusion of God from the public sphere."

He lamented that Catholic politicians had yielded to "ephemeral social trends and the spurious demands of opinion polls."

Uh huh homosexuality and abortion are hardly 'ephemeral', sorry Benny they have been with us since the begining of human society. Historical abortion beliefs of the Christian church

Of course there is a certain irony in his saying any of this since he was once a Nazi. nd his predecessor, to whom Benny was a close advisor, was a supporter of the extreme rightwing Catholic movements in Latin America and Eastern Europe.

It's not often you hear a paean of praise to the Spanish fascist dictator General Franco these days. And you certainly don't expect to hear it in the European Parliament."Thanks to the Spanish army and Franco the communist attack on Catholic Spain was thwarted. The presence of such people in European politics as Franco guaranteed the maintenance of traditional values in Europe and we lack such statesmen today. Christian Europe is losing against atheistic socialists today and this has to change."

And though there is dissent in the Church it is a minority who do not reflect the intoleance of this ossified institution.

The Catholic Church is historically a venal and evil political insititution, who tortured and murdered those whom opposed it or would not convert.Reminding us that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones....Practising Catholicism

Oggun

All the incoming slaves were automatically baptised as Catholics and were encouraged (forcibly, or through more indirect pressure) to practice the new religion. The result was a complex process of disguise, accommodation, and incorporation. Joseph Murphy says it well: "In the New World, the Yoruba were forced into a new religious system of pervasive power. This new tradition shaped their lives, and their native vision of the world was gradually adapted to complement and reflect the Catholic worldview. A new bilingual tradition emerged, at once a resistance to Catholic oppression and an accommodation to Catholic values. It came to be called santería, the way of the saints, because the devotions to the orishas were carried out beneath the images of the Catholic saints. What may have once begun as a subterfuge, an attempt to fool Catholic observers while preserving the ways of the orishas, became a genuine universal religious vision in which a Catholic saint and a Lucumi [Yoruba] orisha were seen as different manifestations of the same spiritual entity" (31-32).

THE INTEGRATION OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM INTO VODOU IN HAITI

Catholicism was brought to Haiti and indeed to the new world with the arrival of the colonialists. The Roman Catholic church was a strong power that had influence in every European country as well as in their colonies. With the "discovery" of the new world the Roman Catholic church set out to "civilize" and convert any pagan civilizations. The role of the church in Haiti was typical of many different colonies up to the time of the Haitian Revolution. The Vatican assigned all church positions in Haiti and ordained the Catholic priests. The vast majority of the priests were therefore white colonialists, with only very few colored priests being ordained over the years. Since the church set out to abolish paganism, vodou was a practice that in the eyes of the church had to cease to exist. The Catholic church was also aware of the power given to the vodouiants through the practice and participation in vodou rituals. The sense of belonging and the connection to their heritage empowered the enslaved people and many times drove them to revolt. This endangered the power the church held over the enslaved people. They therefore set to persecute vodou and they used every means available to them to do this.

Also See:

Pope

Catholic Church

Abortion

Same Sex Marriage

Gothic Captialism

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Summerville A Liberal

Paul Summerville, the former Bay Street economist who became a star candidate for the New Democratic Party in the last federal election, has defected to the Liberals because he is disillusioned with the NDP’s economic policies.Former star candidate abandons NDP for Grits

Paul Summerville always was an economic and political liberal.....but this is not good news on the eve of the NDP Convention in Montreal.

And it shows how a Liberal party led by Bob Rae or even Gerard Kennedy will hurt the NDP in urban Ontario. And with a shift to the left as appears may happen at this convention, it gives an opening to the Green Party too.


In July 2006 he posted a blog on his website where he wrote that he would support Bob Rae arguing that Canada would be very well served by Rae's return to public office. In that blog he was also critical of the NDP's stance on the economy among other things. He has given up his membership in the NDP in order to join the federal Liberal Party to give his full support to Rae. Paul Summerville - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One man, Paul Summerville, was given a place of prominence by NDP leaders and was heralded as having a new vision for the future of the party. Summerville was a keynote speaker at both conferences, and is being strongly promoted by the heads of the party as a top priority candidate. These facts show quite clearly that Summerville’s vision, made clear in his speeches, is one that the leadership shares.

A former investment banker and economist, Summerville insisted that for the NDP to be a factor in Canadian politics, it had to re-adapt itself to the new world economy. “Today, virtually every social democratic political party in the world understands one simple truth. The truth is, whatever we may think about the rules of global capitalism, today with a bias to trade that is free, investment that is global, labour that is mobile, a central bank that is independent, and annual government budgets that are balanced, Canada does not have much say in how the global economy operates and if we want a seat at this table then these are the rules we are going to be working with.” The Progressive Liberal Party of Canada - NDP

And while I support the Socialist Caucus in the NDP and a shift to the left the fact is that the old party is old, and lacking not an economic vision so much as any vision that appeals to Canadians interested in change. Under Layton the party has become a smorgasborg of issues, all aimed at gaining seats. The party needs to champion one cause and one cause only, Parliamentary reform. And that seems to have been last years issue, unfortunately.

Also See:

NDP

Liberal Leadership Race

Green Party

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Between a Bloc and A Hard Place

Bloc sees no alternative but to back softwood pact

I would suggest an alternative title; Conservatives survive thanks to Seperatists.
Or perhaps, Quebec First, Canada Last. Or even; Softheaded Poltics Save Harper. Or... well you get the idea.

So what is the deal the Tories will make the Bloc for their support inquiring minds want to know.

But the Bloc also wants the federal government to come up with a $390-million aide package to prop up the struggling industry. ''The question is not to say what is better for the Bloc but what is better for Quebec,'' Duceppe said.

Of course that is a cheap price to pay by the desperate Tories to gain back votes in that nation. However in this play for votes in Quebec, the Bloc has not only sold out Canada, but their own industry in Quebec. They come away with a pig in the poke.

The Bloc yesterday also pressed the Tories for more aid to the Quebec softwood industry, but did not make this a condition of voting for the deal. Mr. Bernier offered no promises of aid for the softwood sector, saying what forestry companies really want is their share of the $4-billion in refunded duties. "What industry asks us is to [get their] money back," he said. "That will be the best aid we can give to the industry."Bloc move assures softwood agreement will pass

Contrary to Mr. Duceppe's assertions its about what is best for Quebec it is what is best for positioning both the Bloc and the Tories in Quebec for votes. Its a sellout by anyother name, all for a bump in the polls. Shame, shame. NDP blasts Bloc for supporting Harper softwood sell-out

Also See

Softwood

Free Trade



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Defying the Law of Gravity

A very interesting article on the current Iran U.S. crisis and its impact on oil prices . The article has a dispassionate, for an American investment newsletter, analysis of Hugo Chavez and Venezuelas growth as a world player in the Petro-Economy. However this cracked me up....

Defying the Laws of Supply and demand

For the past two years, crude oil prices have doubled, while US crude oil inventories increased by roughly 22% during the same time period. Spot oil prices climbed the slippery slope to as high as $78.40 /barrel, supported by fears of supply disruption due to Iran's nuclear program, attacks on Nigeria and Iraq's oil pipelines, and political mischief by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. On the demand side, a robust world economy, growing at a 5% annualized clip, led by China and India has underpinned oil demand, enabling prices to defy the laws of gravity.

So much for the laws of capitalist economics. Monopolization and Oligopolies distort the market is the real law, not supply and demand. The investment newsletter goes on to explain what the U.S. strategy may be around Iran, the real politick.

If the US knocked out Iran’s oil refineries and interrupted both its exports of crude oil in the Gulf region and the import of gasoline to Iran, with unemployment rates as high as 20%, any disruption in both food and gasoline subsidies, as a result of the drying up of oil revenues, could trigger violent Iranian street uprisings and lead to the downfall of the Ayatollah’s regime within a few months.

Wishful thinking that. As our investment advisor says;

Does the Bush administration hold a straight flush, capable of beating Iran’s four aces?

For now, sentiment in the crude oil market is ruling out these dire scenarios, after placing great faith in them for the past 12-months.

Also See

Iran


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Cherniak the Troll

I couldn't have said it better.

Jason Cherniak, on the other hand, has demonstrated himself in this affair to be precisely what I have described him above to be, little more than a cheap Internet troll whose ego has been so stroked by his elevation to a trivial campaign post by Stéphane Dion that he ostensibly believes that he has demonstrated to us something of greater significance than his willingness to twist and lie. Liberal blogger engages in standard discussion-board troll whine

Cherniak continues his one man band campaign to smear a 'Christian' preacher who is an NDP candidate. Having been exposed as a troll he continues his campaign of personal attacks and vilification;

Mr. Cherniak explained: "Ms DiNovo seems like a nice enough person. However, she has also implied that pedophiles and axe murderers should be ordained as ministers

Gee that seems horrible until you realize that anyone can become a "born again" Christian, regardless of sin. Like George Bush or these guys; Ken Lay and Son of Sam

Of course I would be loathe to say that Cherniak is vilifing DiNovo because of her religion. He would never do that because that would be insulting and show his religious intolerance.

Nor would he stoop to denigrate her because of her sexual orientation. Nope that would be insulting too.

Must be because she is an NDP candidate, since he loathes the party. And of course smearing her then is fair game for this cowardly Liberal dweeb.


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