You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

Ralph Kleins brain was on Mike Duffy Live today. I am speaking of Rod Love of course. Now that Rod is no longer Ralph's EA he is in Ottawa doing his usual, working the backrooms of the Conservative party.

In a heated debate with Liberal and NDP strategists about the four days of Conservative screw ups, Love with typical Alberta PC arrogance after being told that Harpers Conservatives shouldn't be smug, replied smugly " You ain't seen nothing yet".

Love, like Klein indeed like Stockwell Day and all the boys from Calgary are smug bastards. They make Trudeau look loveable in comparison. The fact is that Harper has inherited this Calgary disease, though folks outside of the province mistake this for an Alberta smugness, which it isn't of course. It comes from being in power, a virtual dictatorship a one party state for so long that when it comes to Ottawa politics these guys are out of their league.

While Klein has media savvy and a relationship with the press that allows him to appear congenial, when push comes to shove, he too throws hissy fits and the old Calgary arrogance gets the better of him.Eleven Days of Scandal Alberta Style

Same with our new Conservative government in Ottawa. Harper ran away from the traditional photo op press scrum opening day of his first cabinet meeting. Black cars carrying the new cabinet and to their Meech lake retreat sped past the media.

Harper's ministerial rookies attend all-day training session There was one group of people not allowed to ask questions of ministers on Wednesday - the media. The few reporters who covered the meeting were forced to stand alongside the highway leading onto the property while ministerial sedans drove past

Then the media goes to cover the first family moving into the rundown mansion that is the offical residence of the PM and again the Harpers become camera shy.
So they snap pictures of the moving vans and 24 Sussex Drive. They have an easier time interviewing the moving guys than the PM.

Peter McKay has a private conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and there is no media briefing. Harper has a conversation with Jean Charest Premier of Quebec and a deal is made over day care funding, making a special deal with Quebec while stating he will cancel the Liberal deal with the other provinces.

His child-care vision
Scant days into his hard-won mandate, Stephen Harper is apparently succumbing to the insidious temptation to buy peace at any cost to this precarious federation. In a conversation with Quebec Premier Jean Charest this week, the Prime Minister gravely agreed to discuss a possible "transition period" for Quebec that could extend its federal funding for child care beyond the program's new termination date of March 31, 2007. The result was predictable. The other provinces are scrambling to form a united front to demand continued funding for themselves, arguing that all provinces should be treated equally. The drama has become a parable on how not to handle the federation.

Then David Emerson calls two conference call press conferences. One yesterday that was postponed till today. After waiting 25 minutes reporters in Ottawa get told the controversial Minister is stuck in traffic and the conference call is canceled. Mike Duffy Live: David Emerson conference call cancelled The problem was that Emerson was in Ottawa, there was no traffic jam and he was in the same building as the media. Truly this is the gang that couldn't shot straight.

What has the Ottawa wags talking is that Harper has essentially blown it this week. When Greg Weston of the Sun, a Tory symp, gets in a lather over the lack of communications from the Conservatives, well you are in trouble.

The Conservatives arrogantly asumed the Emerson affair would be a one day news story and go away. PM: criticism 'superficial' track Harper defends Emerson's appointment in interview Well that didn't happen. Then their syncophants in the media suggested it would blow over in four days. Well its four days later and beside the stupid press conference call mistake here are todays headlines;

Outrage grows over defection

Controversy dogs Emerson move

Turncoat MP Emerson unbowed by criticism

'I don't really care' about reaction to party switch: Emerson

Yep arrogance and smugness. Welcome to Ottawa, Alberta. The media is about to get a taste of what the media, the public, the voters, the taxpayers of Alberta have faced for 13 years under Love and Klein. Harper brings the same paranoid secretaive governing style as he ran his party with, and as the Calgary gang runs Alberta.

Clearly this week Harper has been PM, chief strategist, chief policy wonk and chief media coordinator. Because we have returned to the old politics of the Alliance and the Alberta Tories. Which may go over in Airdrie and Red Deer but won't fly in Ottawa. The media in Ottawa is political, it has teeth and you don't shut them out like you do the media in Alberta.

So Rod Love better be prepared to wipe that smug look off his mug he is playing with the big boys now, not the backroom boys he is used to. Mr. Harper had better hire some communications people quick, like yesterday, and should reconsider the wisdom of not appointing a deputy PM. He should also drop the cone of silence routine, that may sell in Calgary but it's political suicide in Ottawa.





More Love stories:
The Love Affair is Over
Political Piggies At The Trough
Gomery in Love

More Emerson



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You Are Paying For This

While collecting his MP's salary ......Pallister tours province to gauge support for Tory leadership run





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Good Point

Another attack on unionized city workers, you know the stories we all hear, about the guys standing around doing nothing. Well such was the case when the City of Montreal decided to secretly spy on its blue collar workers and see how they were working. As a result the city bosses alleged they found workers taking to long to fill potholes. However there are always two sides to a story. This one will make the rounds of course because it is a stereotype, but the union side will probably get less coverage. So lets hear from them...

"The city is trying to advance its own interests by turning the public against the blue collar workers," says union spokesman Michel Fontaine. He's worried the city will use this issue to promote privatization of its municipal work force. Fontaine also has questions about how the investigation was undertaken. "How could the workers in question not have done their work for so many hours and be under surveillance, but not have a supervisor present?"

Yeah that was convenient having the supervisor the shift foreman away when the workers were being video taped. So where was he, and how come he didn't get suspended....I smell a rat.




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Will Tories Goose Workers

Sorry I just couldn't resist that headline after seeing this;

Tory government worries Goose base workers
Workers at the Goose Bay air base are wondering if the new government in Ottawa will implement $50-million of improvements promised by the Liberals in November.

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Canada

Science or Tourism

First NASA science research gets censored by the Bush regime then they do this;

Science will play a diminishing role at NASA as the space agency emphasizes lunar exploration in the next five years, according to a new governmental budget.

Budget would squeeze NASA spending
Bush, who two years ago called on NASA to recapture its former glory by mounting an ambitious program to return astronauts to the moon, is asking Congress to give the space agency a minimal raise. (Related items: White House version of NASA budget | Full NASA budget document (both PDF)

And how do they plan to fund their next moon mission, well through P3's.

NASA makes hard cuts in research to preserve shoot for the moon
Yet the budget also breaks ground for NASA, which proposes to invest $500 million over five years to nurture a fledgling commercial-rocket industry outside the usual cast of major aerospace characters. Start-ups such as SpaceX in Redondo Beach, Calif., are designing and building rockets aimed at driving down launch costs far below the shuttle's pricey $10,000 a pound. Space entrepreneurs have long complained that NASA has steeply tilted the playing field toward behemoths such as Boeing and Lockheed-Martin, even as it professed a sometimes grudging willingness to expand commercial development of space.

"Using money intended for science programs to find continued operation of the shuttle is a serious setback to the US space program," according to Wesley Huntress Jr., former associate administrator for space science at NASA who heads the geophysics department at the Carnegie Institution in Washington.

He argued the agency is using money from "a popular and highly productive program" to pay for a program slated for cancellation.

Which means expect less of this; NASA's Spitzer Uncovers Hints of Mega Solar Systems and this:Hot Halo Find Confirms Theory

And more of this:Tourism and Travel Commercial space flights may be on horizon
In Business Las Vegas, NV - 3 Feb 2006
... The FAA says a recent space tourism study that included a poll of affluent Americans indicates that space tourism could generate more than $1 billion in ...

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Krakatoa

Sea levels would have risen higher and ocean temperatures would have been warmer in the 20th century if the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia had not erupted in 1883, scientists said on Wednesday. But the effect of Pinatubo on ocean temperatures was much smaller because of the impact of greenhouse gases which were much higher in 1991 than in 1883. "The Pinatubo eruption influence on sea level and heat content was dampened by this background warming," said Gleckler.
Krakatoa effect lasted decades - study





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Criminal Capitalism

Those who say that Enron was an exception, like oh say Tyco and WorldCom and QWest and Hollinger under Conrad Black well here are a couple of more exceptions proving the rule, that capitalism is a criminal enterprize.

Nortel settlement adds to the disgrace heaped upon execs

'Payola' probe turns towards radio conglomerates


The only reason business doesn't get caught or convicted more often is because of the golden rule, dem dat has da gold makes da rules. And then they have their pals enforce the rules.
New questions raised over Mulroney's ties with German businessmanLast Updated Wed, 08 Feb 2006 21:59:22 EST

CBC News

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney received $300,000 from a secret Swiss bank account after he left office because he was strapped for cash, German businessman Karlheinz Schreiber has told The Fifth Estate

And while there are those who break the 'rules' that is the function of capitalism, which is why capitalist complain about all dem der rules and regulations, cause even when they are doing business as usual they still can't help themsleves.

DoJ to investigate Mittal bid for Arcelor
MSNBC - 10 hours ago
The US Justice Department has begun an antitrust investigation of Mittal Steel's $23bn hostile bid for Arcelor, creating a potential regulatory hurdle for a proposed ...
Culture Clash Cited in Mittal's Arcelor Bid ABC News
Global behemoth Globe and Mail

We can add these stories I reported on;

Mittal

Japan's Dot.Com Scandal

Wal-Mart A Toxic Success

War and the Market State

Criminal Capitalism



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Scabs Cause Olympic Cost Overruns

Yep the private sector construction companies and their pals in the Olympic Organizing Committee in their usual Anti-Union enthusiasim for contracting out screwed taxpayers out of millions and probably by the end of it billions since they refused to bargain with the Construction Unions in B.C. They would rather do it their way, cause guess whose gonna pay....you and me. See the bosses like team work only when its on their terms. And so far their non-union labour has NOT been cheaper.

Olympic overrun could have been avoided: unions

B.C.'s construction unions say part of the $110-million Olympic cost overrun could have been avoided if the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) had made them partners in the project. B.C. and Yukon Building and Construction Trades Council spokesperson Wayne Peppard says the 2000 Olympics in Sydney showed how Olympic organizers, labour and industry could work together.

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CIA Secret Flights in Canada

It is being reported that the CIA has been using Canada for a base for its secret rendering flights.

What is interesting in this news report is this:

Records indicate aircraft allegedly controlled by the CIA continue to use Canadian airports amid unanswered questions about their activities.

Last fall, the Bloc Quebecois pressed the federal government to reveal details of the flights, concerned U.S. intelligence may be ferrying terrorist suspects through Canada to countries where they could be tortured.

The Public Safety Department said last month a federal review of landings by alleged CIA planes at Canadian airports found no evidence of "illegal activities."

Nope its perfectly legal for them to fly here as private aircraft on business. Clever folks in the PSD eh, not denying the CIA is using Canada, just that they aren't doing anything illegal, oh like running drugs for guns for hostages......


Other Stories on the CIA: Irans Nuclear Program Is A CIA Oops


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Team Work

As I have said here before;Socialized Medicine Began In Alberta we need to put doctors on salary, reduce the restrictions of grade point averages and the guild like control that universities and the CMA has over who qualifies for medical education, and look at creating medical services that are community owned and operated.

It appears I am not alone in believing this is the real reform we need to apply to healthcare in Canada. Of course this report doesn't quite go that far but it's a beginning.

Joint health-care training applauded by watchdog
Thu, February 9, 2006
Michael Decter will give a public speech tomorrow at the University of Western Ontario.
By JOHN MINER, FREE PRESS REPORTER

Providing separate training for different health-care professions makes as much sense as providing separate training for members of a hockey team, the chairperson of the Health Council of Canada said yesterday.

Praising the University of Western Ontario for starting to train different professions together, Michael Decter said it is important to build teamwork from the start.

"If you are going to train a hockey team by having a school for defencemen in one city and a school for goalies in another and a school for forwards in another, you wouldn't expect them to play as a team when you put them together," he said.

"Similarly, if we train doctors and nurses and pharmacists and physiotherapists all separately and don't involve them in any kind of teamwork through their training, then it shouldn't be surprising that they find it hard when they get out into the real world to form up into teams to practice."


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