Lenin Was Right

"When we go to hang the last aristocrat it will be the capitalist that sells us the rope." Lenin.

As American Capitalism fails it will be Chinese State Capitalism that bails it out.

Kill the competition: China bails out Morgan Stanley,

The Times: Morgan Stanley reported the first quarterly loss in its 73-year history after taking writedowns of $9.4 billion (£4.7 billion) on mortgage-related investments. The bank was forced to agree a $5 billion cash injection from Beijing.

The reason is that they are sitting on trillions in Foreign Direct Investment funds that they have not expended yet. Allowing them to be able to come in and bail out their capitalist competitors.

Dr. Kathryn Dominguez of the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy presented her paper on this topic at the U of A School of Business annual Eldon Foote Lecture in October which I attended.

I recommend reading her paper as it will explain why China's investment in Morgan Stanley is not unexpected, and in fact is the beginning of their bail out of big banks and financial corporation which are suffering as the credit crunch expands from the subprime meltdown.

International Reserves and Underdeveloped Capital Markets

International reserve accumulation by developing countries is just one example of the puzzling behavior of international capital flows. Capital should flow to where its return is highest, which ought to be where capital is scare. Yet recent data suggest the opposite – net capital flows from developing countries to industrialized countries. This paper examines the role of financial market development in the accumulation of international reserves. In countries with underdeveloped capital markets the government’s accumulation of reserves may substitute for what would otherwise be private sector capital outflows. Effectively, these governments are acting as financial intermediaries, channeling domestic savings away from local uses and into international capital markets, thereby offsetting the effects of domestic financial constraints that lead to excessive private sector exposure to potential capital shortfalls.

SEE

China: The Truimph of State Capitalism

State Capitalism By Any Other Name

Petro Dollars Bail Out The CITI

Bank Smack Down

U.S. Economy Entering Twilight Zone

Sub Prime Exploitation

Wall Street Deja Vu

Housing Crash the New S&L Crisis

US Housing Market Crash

America's Debt Economy

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Abstinence Education Gets an F

On the popular kids' TV show Zoey 101, she plays a butter-wouldn't-melt-in-her mouth goodie-goodie. In real life, her character was a little different. Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old sister of troubled pop star Britney Spears, announced her pregnancy to the world Wednesday.

In an "exclusive interview" with OK magazine, the younger Spears said she was "shocked" to be in the family way after having sex with her boyfriend, Casey Aldridge, the 19-year-old son of a papermill worker in her home state of Louisiana, whom she reportedly met at church.

So let me get this straight Lil ol teen ager Jamie Lynn has sexual intercourse and is shocked she got pregnant. She is not on the pill, her boyfriend did not wrap his willy and she is shocked she got pregnant. Her mother obviously failed to discuss the 'facts of life' with her, but she was planning on writing a book on parenting for a Christian publisher.

This is an excellent example of the failure of the right wing politically correct morality of abstinence and of abstinence education. It is also an excellent example, as if we needed one, of why family planning education/sex education/relationship education is needed in our public education system. Leaving sex ed up to parents means more teen pregnancies.

Now here is another point, Jamie Lynn told her family she missed her period back in November, why didn't she take the morning after pill? And while the white social conservatives condemn black American teen mothers, they will be gushing all over lil Ms. Spears. She well be redeemed in their eyes because given the choice of not being a teen mother,she chose to keep the baby. The fetus fetishists will embrace her 'choice' and forgive her the sin of teen pregnancy.

Janie Lynn Spears is a bad example to teens every where for the stupidity of having unprotected sex and sex without birth control, and for believing being a mother at 16 is a 'choice' when it is in reality a consequence of stupidity.

Fortunately the Spears family is a living breathing example of stupidity when it comes to children and child rearing. An example in the negative. And example of what is wrong when it comes to the real life consequences of the PC morality of Christian Social Conservative Family Values.


Every child a wanted child does not mean it's ok to have an 'accidental' child. We can see from Britney's predicament what happens when this family has children by accident.

SEE

Unsafe Abortions Continue

God Is Pro Abortion

Abortion, Adoption, or Abandonment

Procreation To Save The White Race

Britney Needs A Liberal

Miss Nevada

Feminizing the Proletariat

Kids Are Commodities

Abolishing Adolescence

Pro Life?



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Tasers Are Lethal

Tasers are supposedly an alternative to lethal force, right. So if the taser doesn't work......Winnipeg police shoot man dead after taser fails

And they say the death penalty is outlawed in Canada. In this case the police abetted a public suicide.

She said neighbours told her the man was yelling "shoot me" at the officers before police opened fire.

This is another case of the police failure to be able to deal with mentally distressed people in public, and in this case the victim was a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, suffering post traumatic stress. Another failure of the Conservative Law And Order Government to provide for our veterans leaving them to fend for themselves.

A delusional Roy Thomas Bell confronted police with an air pellet gun Monday night in a bid to get help for his mental illness, not to compel officers to shoot him, a woman speaking on behalf of the family said Wednesday.

"This man died trying to get help," she said. "Suicidal people don't do that. He was just not in his right mind at the time."

The woman said Bell, 44, had a history of mental illness that was getting progressively worse since his discharge from the Canadian Forces about three years ago.

Bell worked in the post office of CFB Winnipeg and was discharged after 23 1/2 years on a reduced pension. He was deemed unfit to serve in Afghanistan.

Matthew Gray, a retired soldier, told CBC News that Bell, known to many as Tom, had long struggled with mental-health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder, following a training deployment overseas as part of his military service.

"Roy Bell was struggling — as many other soldiers I know — to try and get assistance for his PTSD, trying to get understanding as to why he got it and what it's doing to him, trying to get an understanding of the system and how it employs the help that we get, and, you know, it's the same thing with a lot of soldiers," Gray said.

SEE:

The Week That Was

Video Not Taser Creates Inquiry

Police Brutality

Ban Handguns From Cops

Policing the Police


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Bad Headline

This is a great example of a bad headline courtesy of Canada's 'National Newspaper', the Globe and Mail.

Suspect charged in Christmas-card killing

Read literally, it means the Christmas Card died.




SEE:
Headline Says It All

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Boy Soldiers, Boy Brides

In Afghanistan child soldiers, boys, are increasingly being used and abused.

Afghanistan's Child Soldiers

And in another old tradition child brides are not just girls in Afghanistan but boys as well, who are used by patriarchal warlords, police chiefs and other older men as boy brides.

Young boys are being sexually abused in Afghanistan

"Some men enjoy playing with dogs, some with women. I enjoy playing with boys," said 44-year-old Allah Daad, a one-time Mujahedin commander in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz

The practice of "bacha baazi", meaning "boy-play", is enjoying a resurgence in the North of Afghanistan where ownership is seen as a status symbol by militia leaders according to Afghan news site, e-Ariana.

While condemned by clerics and human rights groups, authorities are doing little to end it.Dancers, known as "bacha bereesh" or "beardless boys", are under 18, with 14 being the "ideal" age.

Owners or "kaatah" meet at bacha baazi parties in large halls where the boys dance late into the night, before being sexually abused.

Of course these manly he men are not gay, since there are no homosexuals in Islam. Nope of course not after all these are just boys dancing in drag.

This is not a new phenomena but a rather old one nor is it restricted to Afghanistan.


It was first reported on in the 19th Century by Sir Captain Richard Burton, who went undercover into the Hindu Kush and discovered the tradition of boy brides amongst the peoples of the region. He also discovered that British officers were using boy brides for their entertainment. His report got him summarily punished by the High Command who were embarrassed by his findings.

In revenge it is told that Burton held a dinner party and invited his commanding officers to attend. When they did they were treated to boy brides being present. Typical of Burton's rapacious wit and nasty sense of humour when the officers protested that they were scandalized by his use of boy brides, he assured them they were no such thing. He revealed they were in fact monkeys in drag.

Burton had actually worked on developing an early form of communication with the monkeys, which was lost when his collected notes and works were burnt posthumously by his widow.

Boy brides, child brides, child labour and child soldiers, the legacy of our war in Afghanistan.

It reveals the hypocrisy of the Conservatives claim we are there fighting for the rights of women and children.

This sobering image, showing a 40-year-old groom sitting beside his 11-year-old future bride in Afghanistan, brought Stephanie Sinclair top honors in the annual Photo of the Year 2007 contest sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

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Huckabee: Paul is Dead.

Republican candidate Mike Huckabee seems to have slammed Ron Paul yesterday when he defended his Christian Christmas TV Ad.

"I will confess this: If you play the spot backwards it says, 'Paul is dead. Paul is dead,'"

Was that a subliminal smear against Ron Paul? Since the National Journal Poll found Ron Paul was dead last in national polling for Republican candidates.

"Merry Christmas," Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said simply Tuesday in Houston in response to criticism that his latest campaign commercial mixes too much religion with politics.

Huckabee, here to raise campaign money, said the nation is in serious trouble if it is politically incorrect for him to use his TV spot to remind voters about the religious meaning of this holiday season.

Departing from the standard pitches for the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary two weeks from now, the former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist minister appears on television screens in some states with the shape of a cross behind him and Silent Night playing in the background.

"Are you about worn out by all the television commercials you've been seeing, mostly about politics? Well, I don't blame you," he says in the commercial. "At this time of year, sometimes it's nice to pull aside from all of that and just remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and friends."

Subliminal message?

Some political observers see the ad as appealing directly to evangelical voters and tapping into the religious differences between Huckabee and one of his chief rivals for the GOP presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, a Mormon. Others such as candidate Ron Paul, the Republican congressman from Lake Jackson, said the ad goes overboard.

"It reminds me of what Sinclair Lewis once said. He says, 'when fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross,' " Paul, a Protestant, told Fox News. "Now I don't know whether that's a fair assessment or not, but you wonder about using a cross, like he is the only Christian or implying that subtly. So, I don't think I would ever use anything like that."

Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights President Bill Donohue said images of a cross in the commercial are an attempt to send a subliminal message.

"What he's trying to say to the evangelicals in western Iowa (is): 'I'm the real thing,' " Donohue said on the same news network. "You know what? Sell yourself on your issues, not on what your religion is."

Play it backward

Huckabee said Tuesday that he mentioned Jesus Christ in his unscripted commercial because, considering the meaning of the holiday, "I don't know what else to say about Christmas."

Some people are drawing such wild inferences from the commercial, Huckabee joked, that they might believe the ad says "Paul is dead" when played backward. It was a reference to the myth that the hidden news of Beatle Paul McCartney's "death" was revealed in the backward playing of one of the band's songs.

Really I heard Huckabee's quote and he said Paul is Dead, three times with no reference to McCartney. Now he is claiming he was referring to Paul McCartney but was he really?

After all Huckabee has no money and Ron Paul again broke a record for one day fund raising this week; when he raised over $6 million on internet donations. The previous record had been $4 million, raised by Paul a couple of months ago. And Paul was the first Republican candidate to criticize Huckabee's ad. And both are contenders in New Hampshire as I have pointed out.

Both these guys were once the so called second tier candidates in the Republican race. Huckabee now has the support of the evangelical conservative base in the party and Paul has become the most successful fund raiser, beating out all the front runners.

Huckabee is hated by the Republican establishment, who have abandoned their Moral Majority evangelical base that is the Reagan Republicans that Huckabee is shamelessly appealing to. He has little money or organizational staff with which to beat his opponents so he is doing the next best thing, talking to the folks, the base of the party who are alienated by the the current crop of 'liberals' running as Republicans; in this case the two front runners Mitt and Rudy.

This ad will come back to haunt him of course because he forgot that Hanukkah is also being celebrated this time of the year, and that Jesus was a Jew not a Republican.

In both races, Democrats and Republicans, this is not politics as usual, it is about the politics of change. Making this one of the most interesting U.S. Presidential elections in decades.




SEE:

Lieberman Endorses McCain

Huckabee A Red Tory

Republican Presidential Paul-itics

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Lieberman Endorses McCain

Last January I published this:


This would be a chicken hawks ultimate fantasy dream team for the Republican entry in the 2008 Presidential race.










And now the chicken hawks wet dream has come true; Joe Lieberman Endorses McCain

Lieberman said McCain's approach to Iraq and his credentials on national security are the main reasons he is supporting a Republican for president.

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Harpers Nuclear Opportunism

The Nuclear Crisis in Canada produced an opportunity for Stephen Harper to not only engage in political opportunism but to set the AECL and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the path to privatization. His former appointed head could not get the job done, so time to replace him

Never one to miss an opportunity to make a purse out of a sows ear, Harper once again used his autocratic power as PM to supposedly solve the crisis by 'firing' the head of the AECL and demand the reactor be put back on line. Except the 'firing' was a big lie.

AECL chair tendered his resignation in November, long before controversy was made public

The former chairman of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. lashed out Tuesday at attempts to blame him for the Chalk River nuclear reactor controversy, calling the Harper government's handling of his resignation “a clumsy piece of political opportunism.”

Michael Burns told The Globe and Mail he submitted his resignation as chair of the Crown corporation on Nov. 29, before the medical isotope crisis stemming from the Chalk River shutdown became public. His departure was announced last Friday with no explanation, but was soon linked by a key cabinet minister to the Chalk River situation.

“I was quite taken aback two weeks later when I heard my resignation had been accepted by the Prime Minister in the midst of the crisis,” Mr. Burns said.

Health Minister Tony Clement has since connected leadership changes at AECL, including the replacement of Mr. Burns, a Vancouver energy executive and onetime Tory fundraiser, as well as the appointment of a new CEO, with the need to give the organization better management.

“Well, maybe they do [need better management],” Mr. Burns shot back. “But this is a clumsy piece of political opportunism. If they're going to do it, they could do it with a little more skill.”

Mr. Burns said he submitted his resignation, which becomes effective on Dec. 31, after a little over a year in the job because of delays in getting a series of proposed reforms instituted at the Crown corporation. He would not elaborate on the nature of the reforms.

Mr. Burns also took issue with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's attack on Linda Keen, chair of the Canadian Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which ordered the Chalk River reactor to extend a routine maintenance shutdown in order to install additional safety equipment, provoking the isotope shortage. Emergency legislation was passed by Parliament last week overriding the regulator and forcing the reactor to restart.

Mr. Harper labelled Ms. Keen, a career public servant, as a Liberal appointee who put the lives of Canadians in danger by cutting off the supply of isotopes.

Asked whether he thought Ms. Keen had acted in a partisan manner, Mr. Burns responded: “I think not. There's no politics in that. There may be administrative politics but there are no party politics in that dispute.”

SEE:

CANDU

Nuclear NIMBY

Tarsands To Go Nuclear

Conservatives Glow Green





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2007 Canadian Blog Awards

It's that time again. Time for the annual Canadian Blog Awards. Nominations are now open.Voting will be taking place later on.

And this blog has been nominated in two categories; best political blog and best progressive blog.

The awards this year are being organized by a collective editorial group.

Rules

Eligibility

All blogs written by persons living in Canada or by Canadian citizens living abroad are eligible for nomination. In the case of group blogs, the aforementioned persons must be significant contributors to the blog.

Organizers of the awards must abstain from making any judgment as to eligibility of other participants in only the categories they have also been nominated for.

Voting

(2006 & 2007 Awards) Two rounds of voting will take place with each round lasting 7 days. The first round of voting will include all nominees. The second round of voting will narrow the list of nominees in each category down to the top 5 from the first round of voting.

SEE:

I Won I Won

Lefty Blog Awards

Vote For Me

Canadian Blog Awards 2005

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I Won, I Won.

See what happens when you don't pay attention someone springs an award on ya. I got nominated in various categories in the unofficial 2007 Blogging Dippers Awards. And I won the award for best Labour Blog.

Aw Shucks. Guess this blog is union made; 'I'm stickin with the union.'

The One Big Union, that is.













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