Putins Enemies

As Viktor Yushchenko of the Ukraine learned it is poisionious to be on Putins bad side.

A former agent in the Russian successor to the KGB who was apparently poisoned by a toxic chemical while dining with a contact in London is in a "serious but stable" condition, University College Hospital said Monday.

Alexander Litvinenko, 43, a former lieutenant-colonel in Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) who defected to Britain six years ago, fell ill on November 1 after a meeting at a London sushi bar.

A clinical toxicologist, John Henry, has said Litvinenko had been poisoned with a potentially lethal dose of the metal thallium.

Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb, who has been visiting him in hospital, said doctors told him he had a 50/50 chance of surviving the next three to four weeks.

Litvinenko, who is under armed guard in hospital, looked "like a ghost," Goldfarb reported.

The Times of London said Monday that the affair could plunge Britain into its "worst crisis with Russia" since President Vladimir Putin came to power.

Litvinenko had been investigating the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of Mr Putin and Russian policy in Chechnya, who was shot dead in her Moscow apartment building last month.

See:

Back in the USSR

Oligarchs

Tymoshenko 'Evita'of the Ukraine

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Scientology Wedding

So Tom and Kat were married in a Scientology ceremony. I wonder if they took their oaths while using an E-meter.

Hubbard electro-psychometer (E-meter): a crude lie detector used by Scientology auditors (counselors) to examine a person's mental state. Scientologists claim the device allows people to "see a thought". In the hands of a trained auditor, they believe it can uncover "hidden crimes".

The E-meter is never wrong. It sees all; it knows all. It tells everything.

-- L. Ron Hubbard

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BT Flacks For Ambrose

So while Rona Ambrose's media spokesperson is off working on London North Conservative candidate Dianne Hasketts campaign they are forwarding her press contacts to the Blogging Tories.

Ambrose's speech won Canada its third and fourth fossil awards of the conference.Asked about the awards and subsequent news coverage around them, Ambrose spokesman Bob Klager referred Sun Media to a Conservative blogger's website that blames the media for being biased.

See:

Ambrose

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A Real Made In Canada Green Plan

What the Conservatives could not do the NDP has. They have produced a realistic Green Plan for Canada.

While the Liberals and BQ played patisan politics with the environment in Nairobi, the NDP developed a plan that will rescue Ambrose and Harper from their time in perdition.

As the NDP did with the Liberal Government in rescuing them with their Alternative Budget. It is all about the politics of the possible. Kudos to Jack and his team.

It took weeks of work. First to negotiate with an intransigent minority government. And then to do the hard work in the backrooms to draft this while the Liberal and BQ spouted off hot air about the environment in sparing matches with Ambrose.

NDP Leader Jack Layton has revealed the significant changes he wants to the Tories' Clean Air Act, a piece of legislation he says is "not honest."

Layton unveiled his party's demands Sunday on CTV's Question Period. Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently invited the NDP to help refine the widely unpopular document which all three opposition parties slammed, saying it did little to tackle climate change.

The NDP-proposed amendments include the following:

• To rename the act the Healthy Air and Climate Act, indicating that Kyoto Protocol targets, which were absent from the original bill, would become a key priority of the revised act;
• To set targets that Canada must meet, such as the Kyoto Protocol 2008 to 2012 targets, an 80 per cent reduction in emissions below 1990 levels, by 2050;
• To set interim targets at five year intervals between 2015 and 2050;
• To give new authority to the environment minister that would allow him or her to designate significant areas under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act;
• And a "just-transition fund" to help the automobile move from voluntary to mandatory targets.

The proposed changes would effectively gut the Conservative legislation as it currently stands.

See:

Ambrose

Envrionment

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BT Condolences

It was nice to see these two Blogging Tories being non-partisan enough to publish their condolences about the passing of Lucille Broadbent.

My condolences to Ed Broadbent

A Sad Day for the NDP



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Sweatshop Secrets of Success

You know its serious when its reported in Business Week. And while this is about American companies in China lets not forget that we have our own sweatshop companies here in Canada investing in Nicaragua and Haiti. Like Gilden Active Wear. They too use third party codes of conduct.


For more than a decade, major American retailers and name brands have answered accusations that they exploit "sweatshop" labor with elaborate codes of conduct and on-site monitoring. But in China many factories have just gotten better at concealing abuses. Internal industry documents reviewed by BusinessWeek reveal that numerous Chinese factories keep double sets of books to fool auditors and distribute scripts for employees to recite if they are questioned. And a new breed of Chinese consultant has sprung up to assist companies like Beifa in evading audits. "Tutoring and helping factories deal with audits has become an industry in China," says Tang, 34, who recently left Beifa of his own volition to start a Web site for workers.

Some American companies now concede that the cheating is far more pervasive than they had imagined. "We've come to realize that, while monitoring is crucial to measuring the performance of our suppliers, it doesn't per se lead to sustainable improvements," says Hannah Jones, Nike Inc.'s (NKE ) vice-president for corporate responsibility. "We still have the same core problems."

This raises disturbing questions. Guarantees by multi-nationals that offshore suppliers are meeting widely accepted codes of conduct have been important to maintaining political support in the U.S. for growing trade ties with China, especially in the wake of protests by unions and antiglobalization activists. "For many retailers, audits are a way of covering themselves," says Auret van Heerden, chief executive of the Fair Labor Assn., a coalition of 20 apparel and sporting goods makers and retailers, including Nike, Adidas Group, Eddie Bauer, and Nordstrom (JWN ). But can corporations successfully impose Western labor standards on a nation that lacks real unions and a meaningful rule of law?

See:

China Needs Free Unions

Independent Unions In China

Sweatshops


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Hitchens on Religion

One of Christopher Hitchens redeeming values is that, despite his support for Imperialism, he remains an outspoken atheist.

He described his forthcoming book, God Is Not Great, as "a general case against religion." He says religions promote hatred, while demanding protection from hatred for themselves, usually in the form of censorship, to which he is intensely opposed in all its forms.

"Religion is now in the position of being an optional belief, which is quite new for it. You can say, if you like, that God is behind all this, and people say, 'Well maybe that's a point of view.' But it can no longer be said that God would explain what is otherwise mysterious to us. That's out, it's gone, and I think people haven't fully appreciated how important it is for religion to be one opinion among many on such an important question," he said.

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The Alberta Disadvantage

As the province rolls about in surplus cash, we still face a crisis in our medical and long term care facilities. Health Care Reform begins with replacing the cuts in beds and staffing that have occured in this province since the bad old days of 1995. And this is not just a provincial problem but another Federal Conservative broken promise; wait times.

Nurses are being physically abused and verbally threatened because of staff and bed shortages in Calgary hospitals, say leaders with the United Nurses of Alberta.

Patients who face longer wait times in emergency rooms, and lack privacy and beds for treatment are taking out their frustrations on nurses more than ever, health-care workers say.

Documented cases in which nurses have reported unsafe working conditions have jumped significantly over the last year at Foothills, Peter Lougheed Centre, Rockyview and Alberta Children's Hospital.

"Nurse abuse is huge. It's huge in the emergency room, it's huge in the psych units, it's rising all over the hospital," says Tanice Olson, a day surgery nurse at the Peter Lougheed and second vice-president for UNA Local 1.

"Patients are attacking nurses. They're hitting them, they're scratching them, they're throwing phones at them.

"Everything is backed up. We're short of beds. People are waiting longer for care. And the longer they wait, the more anxious and frustrated they become."

Statistics from the Professional Responsibility Committee, a health-care group that includes union and management representatives, show incidents in which nurses reported unsafe working conditions are clearly on the rise.

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Harper Supports Morton

In the race for leader to replace Ralph Klein, extreme republican right winger Ted Morton is geting support from his pals in Ottawa. Morton's team has reportedly benefited from lists of supporters from federal Conservatives Stockwell Day and Prime Minister Stephen Harper

As I said this leadership race is important for the whole nation. one Calgary blogger wrote. "If the **** hits the fan with the Liberals and the Quebec thing, I'm a Morton man."

Its not only the Blogging Tories that are going gaa-gaa over Morton. His campaign is a grassroots social conservative mobilization. The Candian Taxpayers Federation, Jason Kenneys old employer, has ranked Morton #1 in their books.

Be afraid Canada. Be very afraid. Morton Tory leadership campaign showing surprising strength

See:

Conservative Leadership Race

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Did He Or Didn't He

After all the bravado and bluster about how the Harper was going to give it to the Chinese over human rights well did he or didn't he? Nope he got his Andy Warhol moment with the Chinese president and he did not discuss human rights. It was alot of hot air media hype for the Conservative supporters back home.

Harper had said previously that he hoped for a full bilateral meeting with the Chinese president, and said on his way to Hanoi that the Chinese had actually withdrawn an offer to meet. But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters earlier Sunday that they had never planned such a meeting. Hu met with at least six other leaders in the 30-to-60 minute one-on-ones. A Hong-Kong based reporter tried to ask Harper a question about being snubbed by China, but he walked away.

Harper himself was reluctant to discuss human rights issues he raised with Hu. "We spoke about 15 minutes, I certainly touched on a range of issues but obviously we only discussed a couple of issues in any detail. I made it clear there where I've made clear elsewhere, which is that Canada will in its relationships bring a range of concerns to the table." Jianchao said that while the two men discussed the case of Celil — whom China regards as one of its citizens — human rights issues were not discussed. "I don't really think that the human rights issue was raised during the meeting," said Liu.

See:

PMO Spies On Cabinet Ministers

Harper Is No Statesman

Harpercrsy

Gong Show Redux

Harper




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