George Walker Liar

The pre-media release of the U.S. Presidents State of the Union Speech the other night focused on oil man George Bush announcing that 'America must overcome it's oil addiction', in particular oil from the Middle East.

It was a lie.

It made all the headlines pre and post STOU.Bush Acknowledges U.S. Reliance on Oil

It was a lie.

It made the blogs. It was a major focus of discussion.

It was a lie.

Like his father before him it was George W. Bush's 'read my lips' line of the night.

It was a lie.

Bush aides clarify statements about oil


Mideast Still a Player in Oil Markets

On Wednesday, Hubbard and Bodman acknowledged that Persian Gulf oil may, in fact, not be replaced at all, even if overall oil imports were to drop because of the increased availability of alternative motor fuels.

Bodman said the president's reference to a 75 percent replacement of Persian Gulf oil was "purely an example" of the kinds of reductions in overall imports that might be possible if U.S. demand for oil were reduced.

"It was not meant to suggest anything related to the politics of the situation. ... It was merely meant to give an example," Bodman added.

Hubbard, when pressed further, abandoned the suggestion that Middle East oil would be "replaced" as the president said. Instead, he said the oil savings would be "equivalent" to three-fourths of the projected imports from the Persian Gulf.

Bush running out of energy

Bush's focus on reducing the percentage of oil imported from the Middle East, which currently accounts for only about 17% of all US oil imports, even drew scorn from neo-conservative allies of the president. They have argued that the impact on global prices created by Washington's demand for oil - regardless of its origin - is what empowers and enriches Middle Eastern exporters, such as Saudi Arabia, that in their view contribute directly or indirectly to radical Islamist movements that threaten the US and Israel.

"It doesn't matter if we don't buy oil from the Middle East," Gal Luft, a co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, told the New York Times. If the US doesn't buy oil from the region, "someone else will, supporting the same regimes".

One commentator, the Washington Post's economics columnist, Steven Pearlstein, took a particularly cynical view of Bush's proposals. "Does anyone really believe that a president and vice president who became wealthy from their association with the oil and gas industry, who never failed to tout the industry line and who presided over the biggest transfer of wealth from consumers to industry in the history of mankind - that these same leaders will move us beyond a 'petroleum-based economy' to one based on 'wood chips, stalks or switch grass'?" he wrote, referring to Bush's description of the sources of cellulosic ethanol.

On the eve of Bush's address, the world's largest energy company, ExxonMobil, announced that it had set a record last year for profits among US companies - $36 billion - apparently as a result of skyrocketing oil and gas prices, as well as generous tax breaks and other subsidies promoted by Bush and the Republican-led Congress.

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Bush
SOTU
America
Politics
President Bush
USA
oil
Middle East
State of the Union

Yo Ho Ho

While George Bush told America "not to worry" that the victory in Iraq was all but assured and the War on Terror was progressing he missed this little fact.

That the destabilization of the region has now, for the first time, made Iraq is a hotbed of piracy.

Iraq stood out "as a new world piracy hotspot," with 10 attacks in 2005 after none the year before.

"Opportunists whose main motivation is robbery and financial gain, and who use extreme violence towards crews in most cases perpetrate these attacks," the IMB report said.

Most of Iraq's attacks were on vessels anchored near the Basrah oil terminal and Umm Qasr off the country's southeastern coast, it said.

tags
Iraq
Bush
pirates
piracy

Gay Liberal Leader

I think Paul Martin pulled the ultimate Jean Chretien, exploding issue thingee when he announced on election night he was stepping down as Leader of the Liberals and the official opposition.

Like the Chretien Adscam which dominated his short lived reign as PM, now Paul has made the Liberal party news again. It's overshadowing the Harper victory with masses of media speculation on who will be running for the Liberal leadership. Clever.

The one successful tactic that worked for the Liberals in the whole election comes the night they lose.

Lots of speculation has dominated the political blogs, left, liberal and right. And frankly I could really care less.

But Adam Rawdwaski makes an interesting point in his National Pest column;

Last week, I got into an online debate with a fellow blogger about why urbanites are so obsessed with the Conservatives' position on gay marriage.

There's another reason for Harper to hurry up with this. To this point, the Liberals haven't been able to fully exploit gay marriage as a wedge issue because Paul Martin was himself unwilling to make a proper case for it. The next Liberal leader probably won't be so squeamish. If the Conservatives wait even until later in this parliament to hold the vote, they'll be handing him a ready-made cause to wrap himself around.

Which is why it is likely this guy will run for the Liberal leadership.



Brison getting calls to lead - Calgary Sun - 30 Jan 2006
Scott Brison mulls Liberal leadership run - Toronto Star - 29 Jan 2006
Brison says he's getting calls about running for Liberal ... - Canada.com - 29 Jan 2006

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Canada
Liberals
Liberal Leadership
politics
Scott Brison

Seperated at Birth

In his State of the Union Address the other night U.S. President George Bush called for a ban on human cloning.Could this be the reason why?





"Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research, human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling or patenting human embryos," Bush said to a joint session of Congress (Bush speech text, 1/31). After the U.N. General Assembly 59th Session in March 2005 approved a nonbinding statement urging governments to ban all forms of human cloning, including cloning for embryonic stem cell research, Bush said, "I look forward to working with members of Congress to enact legislation to ban all human cloning in the United States" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 3/9/05). Congress is considering at least six bills relating to embryonic stem cell research and human cloning (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 7/25/05).

President panders to anti-manimal lobby! Dr Moreau flees country in rage!

Tags

Bush
SOTU
cloning

Majority of Americans Defend Privacy

If you are innocent you have nothing to hide, so why worry about wire tapping.

Can we translate this stupid arguement into German so it can be put into context, complete with sound track of jack boots marching off to the Nuremburg rally.


Wenn Sie unschuldig sind, haben Sie nichts sich zu verstecken, so warum Sorge über Leitung das Klopfen.

There thats more like it.

However often it has been repeated at least Americans are not sucked in by it.

They oppose the illegal (and dare I say IMPEACH - able offense, a real impeachable offense, not like lying to the American public about a girl and a cigar, ) wiretapping of the Bush Administration.

NBC Wall St. Journal poll finds 53% oppose the warrantless wiretapping.

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Bush
wiretapping
impeach
America

Workers Control Versus Trade Unions

Workers control of production is directly opposite of trades unionism. Trades or craft unionism attempts to secure work by limiting access to their trade or craft. Hence on a large industrial site you can not have multitasking or flexible work conditions as it would be a violation of a trades area of work.

Toyotaism created the modern form of multitasking which challenges even non-trades/craft industrial unions which still modeled themselves on the specialist does one job notion.

Toyotaism and self management models of team work orginated in the workers councils movements that arose during the Russian revolution and in Italy and Germany and later appeared in spontaneous workers revolts around the world through out the twentieth century.

Peter Drucker was one of those who recuperated this radical socialist idea for use as a modern management method. But the contradiction still occurs. When workers seize control of production, as I said here, they produce for the good of society not just shareholders. They also challenge the trades union model of production, by adapting flexible, work choices, rotational skills, and multitasking because it makes sense and it makes work easier.

This is what Zanon workers (made famous by the NFB film the Take) reported at a special meeting on Workers Control at the World Social Forum last week;

Under workers’ control, the workers’ assembly is now the maximum authority in the factory, and the workers themselves elect the ones who coordinate the work, decide upon all the in-goings and out-goings, makes decisions on employment, and so on. They also have a certain rotation in the factory so that everyone learns new abilities and knows how all the machines work, how the process of production functions, etc. Thus the productivity of the plant is being raised.

The situation they faced was that none of the three main trade union confederations in Argentina gave them any kind of support. But a key to the situation, as they explained, was the unity of the workers, not just in their own factory, but as a class. Therefore, they had gone to the other nearby factories to appeal for help and support and received a massive response.

Workers Self Management is also community self management, it means that the factory becomes a community insitution, with support from other workers and members of the communtiy where the workers live and work.

While these workers called for the nationalization of their plant, it is because we as a community have no other way of owning it under the current conditions of capitalism.

Something that even the free market libertarians understand is the limitation of capitalism as it exists today.

Tags
anarchism
socialism
unions
labour
Zanon
World Social Forum
workers councils
Libertarian
syndicalism

International Solidarity

Iran and Iraq are in the news, what is not in the news is the treatment that workers and their unions face under these regimes. A tip o the blog to Leftnews for this.

Iranian workers are in trouble

The state owned bus company and the Iranian government have colluded to raid the homes of Union executives and supporters, throwing their wives and children in jail. This is absolutely disgusting. Canadians have to support these workers in any way we can.

Trade Unionist murdered in Iraq

Alaa Issa Khalaf, a member of the Executive Board of the Baghdad branch of the mechanics union, and a prominent member of the recently created General Federation of Iraqi Workers, GFIW, has been killed. He was shot dead at around 7.30 am on January 25 by several unidentified men as he left for work from his home in Baghdad. In a letter to the authorities of the country, the ICFTU firmly condemned what it considers to be a targeted attack on a trade union activist.


Tags
labour
unions
strikes
murder
Iran
Iraq

The Gloves Are Off

Wow what a short honeymoon. Harper is still only a designated hitter, err PM, has no cabinet yet isn't sworn in and already King Ralph of Alberta has come out swinging. It gives new meaning to the Battle of Alberta. Calgary Premier against Calgary PM.

EDMONTON - The Alberta government is considering legislation that would no longer recognize the supremacy of the Canada Health Act, would allow doctors to practice medicine concurrently in the private and public systems and could open the door to for-profit hospitals operated by foreign corporations, the Edmonton Journal has learned.

The new Alberta Health Care Assurance Act, which Premier Ralph Klein insists will be tabled in the legislature this spring, replaces three existing laws, including the once-controversial Health Care Protection Act, known widely as Bill 11.

Some members of the government are worried Mr. Klein is deliberately testing the limits of the federal government, and that he will cause a rift between Alberta and the newly elected Conservative government.

In a worst-case scenario, Ottawa could cut some of the $2-billion in health transfers it sends to Alberta for public health services.

Blogging Tory Dissonance and Disrespect chortles with glee (what did you expect with a blog title like that) that Harper is between a rock and a hard place. He is hopeful of course that Harper will allow Klein to dismantle medicare in Alberta, which he and other rightwingers call a public monopoly.

I would rather have a public system (it's far from a monopoly there are hospitals, and health clinics as well as specialist services covered by medicare) than a private one any day.

The creation of the private utility monopolies/oligopolies with electrical deregulation in Alberta has meant increasing costs to consumers.Something we will look forward to if Klein gets his way with privatizing health care.

Specialists will move out of public hospitals to create competing services in the private sector. Which will not reduce wait times. Wait times main barrier to specialized care: study

A clear example is the abundance of private laser surgery eye clinics in Alberta. Ironically laser eye surgery was first developed in the Soviet Union, to reduce cataract operation wait times.

On the other hand the rational Blogging Tory Political Staples is worried about the Klein challenge to Harper and well he should be, it will be the first real crisis the new PM faces.

Klein likes to talk about how much money Alberta spends on healthcare, which is just behind Newfoundland in per person spending. But our healthcare still costs less than the privatized system south of the border costs each person! And as the Conference Board report on health care issued today says;

the findings demonstrate that "money is not the panacea in providing better health care. Spending larger sums of money does not necessarily translate into high performance. It is how the money is spent rather than how much, that appears to make the difference."

Also see:

Showdown at the OK Corral

Klein My Way Healthcare Reform

Klein Dares Harper

Beware the Boogey Man

Two Tier Alberta

Alberta Cowboys Hijack Health Care

Whose The Real Rodeo Clown

Tags
Canada
Alberta
Politics
Ralph Klein
Harper
Health Care
medicare
Privatization
Conservatives

Marriage Debate

A year ago when I launched this blog I posted this as one of my first articles:

The Sanctity of Marriage Debate What’s Love got to do with it?

An Anarchist Response to The Sanctity of Marriage Debate

Today I see it is still relevant, since there are idiots out there saying this:

Marriage is not merely a right. It is an institution that predates all states.

Once again the christian fundamentalist right wing will try any arguement to deny the reality that Same Sex Marriage is now legal in Canada. And will probably remain so despite the Harper government promise to revist this.

Originally posted by Burkean Canuck, which should tell you something of his politics, aristocratic apologist that Edmund Burke was. Appropriately he has a union jack on his blog page, still thinks we are a bloody colony of the British Empire. Probably a loyalist, slave owners that they were.

Which is not that far off since the Author, Russ Kuykendall is also a Research Director for t the Work Research Foundation.

WRF is a front group for the anti-union right wing labour 'association' CLAC (Christian Labour Association of Canada). Both the WRF and CLAC were founded by members of the Dutch based Christian Reformed Church of Canada. The CRCC was one of the last of the Reformed churches to break with it's partner in Aparthied the CRC of South Africa.

The article was cross posted to the Shotgun blog, where it has generated much heat and little light, around sixty or more comments. Some libertarians going to battle for the fact that human sexual relationships were not based on marriage but on communal sexual relationships in tribes. This is true, they were also not based on private property which is the sole source for the institution of marriage, property relations, as I argued. Matrilinear inheritance was that the child carried the mothers name, not the fathers in these societies.

To sum up my arguement contrary to the B.S. floated around by right wing fundamentalist christians, MARRIAGE IS A STATE INSTITUTION AND A PROPERTY RELATIONSHIP. It is a modern development of the city states of the Ancient world, post Etruscan, where the woman owned property as did her husband, and is codified into law by Greeks and Romans.


A tip o the blog to Ianism for this.

Also see:

Whose Family Values?

Marx on Bigamy

Tags

gay

anarchism

feminism

socialism

Canada

Politics

women

marriage

Same Sex Marriage

Stick This In Yer Pipe

And smoke it. Anti-smoking activists who claim that their attack on our right to smoke in well ventilated public spaces advocating laws against smoking and forcing us to butt out completely, has no economic or minimal economic impact are LIARS.

Ontario May Lose C$500 Mln From Casino Smoking Ban, Study Says

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Ontario may lose as much as C$500 million ($438 million) a year by implementing a smoking ban in casinos because it will drive some smokers to U.S. gambling halls, an Ontario government study said.

To make up for this shortfall from their stupid smoking ban the Ontario government has a solution. Ont. tobacco taxes up $1.25 a carton


Also see:Smoking Mad

Smoking At Home Will Be Banned

Where there's Smoke there's Smokers

Tags
Canada
smoking
Ontario
smokers rights
anti-smoking
ASH