Ron Paul

Even the Democratic Candidates for President have not been this radical when it comes to the war in Iraq. Ron Paul is the self styled 'Libertarian' candidate in the Republican Primaries. He is not as libertarian when it comes to other issues like abortion, gay rights, or immigration.

Of course he has as much chance as the Democratic libertarian Dennis Kucinich does.

This is from the last Republican candidates debate.

Ron Paul

Voted against use of military force in Iraq. Supports withdrawing troops from Iraq, but opposed war spending bill which included a plan to withdraw most U.S. troops by March 2008. Calls for repealing authority given to the president in 2002 Iraq war authorization vote. Opposed Bush plan to increase the number of American troops in Iraq. Says military victory in Iraq is "unattainable."

You’d abolish the Department of Homeland Security in the middle of a war?

Ron Paul: We were already spending billions of dollars on homeland security prior to 9/11 and it didn’t prevent the attacks; inefficiency was the problem. Adding another huge, expensive, inefficient level of bureaucracy makes things worse.

You’re the only one on this stage who opposes the war. Are you out of step with your party, and why are you seeking its nomination?

Ron Paul: The Republican Party has lost its way. The conservative wing was always anti-interventionist: Taft was against NATO; Bush ran on a promise of a humble foreign policy, anti-nation-building, anti-global-policing; Republicans were elected to end the Korean and Vietnam wars; it’s the Constitutional position; the founders’ advice was to pursue friendship with other nations but avoid entangling alliances. We should negotiate, talk, trade with other countries; we lost 60,000 soldiers in Vietnam and lost the war, and now we invest there. We shouldn’t go to war so carelessly.

Follow-up: Is noninterventionism still a viable position after 9/11?

Ron Paul: 9/11 was a response to our previous interventions. We’d been bombing Iraq for a decade; we’re now building 14 permanent bases there and an embassy bigger than the Vatican. If China were doing this in the Gulf of Mexico we’d be upset.

Follow-up: Are you suggesting we invited the 9/11 attacks?

Ron Paul: I suggest we believe their reasons are what they say they are; also bin Laden says he’s delighted our soldiers are over there where they can be targeted more easily.

Giuliani intervenes: As NYC mayor during 9/11, I’ve never before heard such a shocking claim that we invited 9/11 and I ask Ron Paul to withdraw it or clarify whether he believes it.

Ron Paul: I believe the CIA is correct when it warns us about blowback. We overthrew the Iranian government in 1953 and their taking the hostages was the reaction. This dynamic persists and we ignore it at our risk. They’re not attacking us because we’re rich and free, they’re attacking us because we’re over there.

(Later on Tancredo also attacked Paul, saying that regardless of what our foreign policy was or whether Israel existed, the terrorists would still attack us because they view it as a religious imperative. Paul did not have a chance to respond.)

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Made In America Royalty Scheme

Alberta has the dubious distinction of being at the bottom of the royalty payments made by oil companies to governments. It is in good company though.

GAO: U.S. gives oil companies a big break

Revenue cut for feds from resource taking is far below states like Alaska, Louisiana

Apparently we have a made in the USA royalty scheme here in Alberta. And Big Oil would like to keep it that way.CAPP Presents to the Alberta Royalty Review Panel


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More Made In Canada Nonsense

The latest twist on the Conservatives Made in Alberta Green Plan is the position Harper and Baird will present at the G8 meeting this week;

The official who briefed reporters on Friday also said Canada will be looking for a solution that works internationally while respecting Canada's unique needs. "We're special, we're unique in the G8. We're not like Europe, we're not like the United States in all respects," said the official.

Of course we are special and unique, just like Russia, Nigeria, Mexico, Venezuela, Norway, etc., etc., and all the other oil/gas producing countries.

Irony further abounds as this is Environment Week in Canada. And Harper and Baird will not be around to celebrate it. Instead they will be shilling for the U.S. at the G8. While telling Canadians that we must pay for their Made In Canada Green Plan.

And while John Baird has said it is all about China, Sheila Copps in her column in the SUN points out that has always been the case, even when the Liberals were in power.

Merkel's environmental credentials are long-standing. As environment minister, she sowed the seeds for the Kyoto Protocol by negotiating a world consensus on greenhouse gas reductions known as the Berlin Mandate.

The United States was offside, and Canada was trapped between our significant oil revenues and a European pro-reduction consensus. Canada joined a no-reduction negotiating group including the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Meanwhile, Merkel's conference was about to crater. If she could not get any movement, China was threatening to walk, dooming talks.

I got a phone call from Merkel at midnight. She was desperate to turn the tide and asked if we could meet on an urgent basis for breakfast. At the 7 a.m. meeting Merkel asked whether Canada could support some reductions to keep China at the table.

I told her that Canada would be prepared to support 2% reductions. I had already explained the fluidity of the situation to economic cabinet chairman Andre Ouellet. He refused to undermine my mandate and realized the Berlin meeting would be in shambles if China bolted. He agreed that Canada should help keep the climate change agenda on track.

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The Trouble With Being Harry

Is that he promised his lads he would be with them in Basara but low and behold he is too special so he gets sent to Medicine Hat while his lads get sent to the meat grinder of Iraq.

Prince Harry training at Alberta military base

Of course there is talk that because he is at Suffield base in Medicine Hat, training ground for the Afghan mission and Canada's version of Area 51, he is going to Afghanistan. Sure, like he was going to Iraq.

Prince Harry may yet fulfil his desire to serve in a war zone - in Afghanistan rather than Iraq. Last month, military chiefs decided almost at the last minute that Harry, third in line to the throne, could not go to Iraq with his regiment, the Blues and Royals. The Army Chief of Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, said the prince had been the target of specific threats, exposing "not only him, but also those around him, to a degree of risk that I now deem unacceptable".

The Blues and Royals are now deploying to Iraq without Cornet, or 2nd Lieutenant, Wales. According to reports last week, however, Army commanders are considering sending him to Afghanistan instead, where he might join a small group of fellow officers training the Afghan army.

But is Afghanistan any less dangerous? Last week two British soldiers were killed in Helmand province, where most of Britain's 6,500 troops are stationed. A third, who died the previous week, was named.

As a great Brit once wrote; "All animals are created, equal but some animals are more equal than others". Especially if they are Royals.

Perhaps he could dress up for the occasion of his deployment.

In 2005 he made a most foolish mistake when he attended a private fancy-dress party in the uniform of an Afrika Korps officer with the accessory of a Nazi armband.



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CEO Cream Sour Milk for Workers

Explain this to workers laid off who do not get golden parachute and may not even qualify for EI for weeks if not months. Or those who were sold out for a sweetheart contract to improve Loblaws capacity to compete with Wal-Mart.

For those CEOs ousted for poor performance or because their companies are targets of takeovers, golden parachutes are also getting bigger, and not only because they are based on multiples of ever-increasing base pay. Loblaw Cos. Ltd. president John Lederer, who left the struggling grocery chain last fall with almost $22-million, including a $12-million payment under the terms of his employment contract.

Sometime in 2002, senior executives at the hugely profitable Loblaw Co's summoned their UFCW partners , to a high-level meeting where they announced that they had competition. Wal-Mart was coming to town with its Sam's Club warehouse stores and its Wal-Mart Supercenter's. The Supercenters sell groceries and, for this reason, must have been a major part of the selling pitch. In response to the impending invasion the hugely profitable Loblaw Co's had come up with a business strategy to make it more competitive.

It planned to launch a chain of new stores, called Real Canadian Super Stores (RCSS's) which were going to sell groceries and some department store merchandise, sort of like Wal-mart's Supercenter stores in the US. The company intended to get the RCSS's happening really soon. No more conventional Loblaws, Zehr's of Fortino's supermarkets would be opened. From here on in, it would be RCSS all the way. Some RCSS's would be newly built stores while others would be existing supermarkets converted to the RCSS format.

So that these new stores had a good shot at keeping the company hugely profitable, the guys from Loblaw Co's told the union leaders that they wanted to put the Loblaws, Fortino's and Zehr's "banners" on them. This was because the grocery-shopping public recognizes these "brand names" and is more likely to shop at the RCSS's if they think they're pretty much like Loblaws, Fortino's or Zehr's.

Doing so, however, would mean that the RCSS's would be stuck with the current contracts with UFCW Locals 1000a, 1977 and 175 and that's not what the hugely profitable Loblaw Co's wanted. Wal-Mart pays its workers low wages and provides minimal benefits. The RCSS's would be that much more competitive if they could pay low wages and provide minimal benefits too. So the representatives from the hugely profitable Loblaw Co's put a deal to their UFCW partners: We'll fork over the thousands of new RCSS workers to your bargaining units if you agree to lower wages and benefits for them. If you don't, we'll screw you and your current members and what are you going to do about it? According to President Corporon, the hugely profitable Loblaw Co's threatened to close unionized stores, throw unionized members out of work and open new non-union supermarkets.

See:

CEO Profits From Ford Failure

Criminal Capitalist Gets Honorary Degree

Criminal Capitalism Business As Usual

CN Whines

Banks Profit From Job Cuts

BMO More ATM's Less People

Golden Parachutes

Canadian CEO Blinks Earns $38,000

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Camcorder Nation

Why does Canada have to change its Criminal Code to protect the American Film Industry from pirates in the Nation of Quebec? Shouldn't that Nation take responsibility for it's citizens illegal actions?

A U.S. Motion Picture Association analysis of counterfeit discs in 2005 revealed nearly 75 per cent of all films illegally recorded in Canada came from theatres in and around Montreal, recently identified as the No. 1 city in the world for surreptitious camcording.

Kevin Tierney, the producer of the popular Canadian film Bon Cop Bad Cop, said he learned two days before his film was to have been released that a man had been found with 2,500 copies of the movie. He was selling it door-to-door in a Montreal neighbourhood along with alcohol and cigarettes.

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camcorder

Heinlein Centennial

Actions Have Consequences

When you flip flop on an important bill of rights for workers, don't be surprised when you are held accountable by those you have betrayed. Liberals Defeat Anti Scab Law

Dion heckled off stage at Ottawa labour rally

The hecklers chanted "anti-scab, anti-scab" in reference to Dion's withdrawal of Liberal caucus support nearly three months ago for legislation banning the use of replacement workers during strikes in federally regulated industries.

HAMILTON (AM900 CHML) - A Hamilton steelworker has played a lead role, in booing Liberal Leader Stephane Dion off the stage during a big labour rally on Parliament Hill.

Dion was trying to speak to several thousand unionized workers, who turned out in Ottawa to protest job losses in the manufacturing sector.

He never finished, loudly booed off the stage as Hamilton's Jake Lombardo accused him of double-speak and held him to account for the Liberal Party's stand against anti-scab legislation.

The rally comes on the heels of the closure of Hamilton Specialty Bar, and the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs in Hamilton alone over the past year.

Lombardo adding that Dion also can't escape his government's record on the issue, insisting that the Liberals did nothing while in power.

Photos courtesy of NUPGE

See;

Anti-Scab

Dion

Buzz

Gomperism

Liberals

Unions


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Mike Harris and State Terrorism

Golf Pro; Mike Harris, created the conditions that lead to Dudley George's death, yet he remains unrepentant. After all he was only protecting a golf course from uppity natives.

The result was once again the State and its police acting against the first nations peoples,to protect property they stole.

This decision, and Harris's refusal to do the right thing, will add fuel to fire the native resistance movement that is growing across Kanada.

In an unwarranted rush to end an aboriginal protest in 1995, former premier Mike Harris made a vulgar, racist remark and "created the risk of placing political pressure on the police" hours before an officer killed unarmed protester Dudley George, the commissioner of a public inquiry has found.

Later, Mr. Harris misled the Ontario Legislature about a high-level meeting he attended, with Ontario Provincial Police officers present, before the shooting, which gave "the appearance of inappropriate interference in police operations" and thus prompted the $25.6-million inquiry, Judge Sidney Linden found.

Harris lawyer offers no apology for aboriginal protester's death

In the historical context, Ipperwash was not surrendered but the lands were taken under the War Measures Act in 1942. The land was taken to build a military camp and it was supposed to be returned immediately when it was no longer in use but the government failed to do so. During the years that followed the First Nations at Aazhoodena (Ipperwash), Stoney Point did try to get their traditional lands back. Since the military encampment was built on an ancient Indian burial ground it is only natural for the First Nations people of the area to want to put there ancestors back to rest. Especially so, considering the encampment did disturb the grounds where there ancestors slept peacefully. Also, since the bulldozing that was going on to build a golf course destroyed most of the burial site.

The claim was settled in 1998 and the land was finally returned to reserve members after more than five decades. A $26-million settlement was made and each member of the Stoney and Kettle Point First Nations reserves received a share that ranged between $150,000 and $400,000.

SEE:

Tories Crush Whistleblower

Land claim

Alcoholism Is Colonialism

Bev Oda Minister of Aboriginal Affairs

Hewers of Wood

Cardston Home of Bigots

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Power Failure

Americans are facing an increase in electricity rates thanks to deregulation.

Illinois residents have seen a jump in electricity rates recently. NewsHour correspondent Elizabeth Brackett looks at the debate over deregulation and freezing rates in Illnois.

Which of course Albertans have faced since 2001.

A number of industry watchers, including Alberta Energy Minister Mel Knight, have been forecasting higher electricity costs for Albertans even before the Ed Stelmach government announced a new $15-per-tonne tax on carbon dioxide emissions.

And that's come on top of a $4.5-billion bill Alberta consumers are being asked to pay for desperately needed new transmission infrastructure.

Hydro Quebec rated Edmonton's residential electricity rate the fifth highest out of 11 cities in 10 provinces in 2006.

Here is the irony deregulation was supposed to create competition and thus fund infrastructure expansion. Instead it has cost consumers more, reduced competition creating power oligopolies and no new transmission infrastructure has been created.

Service, well we have increasing brown outs and black outs now thanks to deregulation. Something we now share with California.

EPCOR has begun rolling blackouts, cutting power to certain areas on alternating days to help conserve energy. It's not a terrible idea, but it makes day to day living a pain. There's no official schedule anywhere, so you just kind of have to guess when power in your area is going out.

However city owned EPCOR has increased its profits thanks to deregulation.

But these profits have not benefited consumers or tax payers, they have been shoveled into an income trust created by EPCOR. This is the real meaning of deregulation;

Epcor recently acquired TransCanada Power Limited Partnership, which now operates as Epcor Power L.P. The merger included the integration of 11 new power generation facilities located in Ontario, New York, British Columbia and Colorado. The new publicly-traded subsidiary is the largest publicly-traded company based in Edmonton.

EPCOR Power L.P. (the Partnership) is a limited partnership organized under the laws of the Province of Ontario, which owns and operates a portfolio of power generation assets in Canada and the United States.

The Partnership's mission is to be Canada's premier income fund, providing a growing, stable cash distribution to unitholders. This will be accomplished by being growth-oriented while providing unitholders with reliable long-term cash flows. Superior operating and commercial management practices will be applied to a quality portfolio of energy assets.

	Stock Quote: EP.UN
		$26.12

See:

What's That Smell?

Blowing in the Wind

Citizen Klein

The Wild West Buyout

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