War on the Ice

Frustration, hot tempers and arrests mark start of Atlantic seal hunt

I dunno know do ya think that a lower than expected kill number might have something to do with it?

"So far the hunters have taken 3 000 to 4 000 seals. That's not ridiculously slow, but it's not fast either. It's the lower edge of the norm," Simon told Reuters.

Some sealers park boats after slow opening day

Which is not actually the celeberaties and anti-seal hunt protestors fault, but then they are there and are an easy target to lash out at. And the protestors will of course take credit for it.

"The hunters are very frustrated. About 60 fishing vessels have returned. The sealers needed to calm down," said Jean-Claude Lapierre, a spokesperson with the Magdalen Islands sealers association. "The animals are scarce because of the thinning ice conditions. And now they have to deal with Ms. Aldworth's group who is intervening with our livelihood."

The seal population was devasted by mother nature earlier this year. Reducing the herd count.

Seal Hunt Protest Cancelled
Hundreds of baby seals were washed out to sea and drowned by surging waves propelled by a major blizzard yesterday.

No species chauvinism there, just a mass genocide due to natural causes. The law of the biosevere that Captain Paul Watson loves so much.

Opps here comes Mother Nature again; Spring blizzard blankets eastern Newfoundland


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The Human Condition

René Magritte,

La condizione umana,

1935



Tip o the blog to fellow Now Public member Janeway for this elusive and rare painting by Magritte. Not the usual Magritte. I checked several image sites and you get the usual....

So consider this a little o' bit of Monday morning surrealism......the movement not just the art.....like a fine cup o coffee...the dialectic dances........

Which is better than the altenative....

Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays

The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload




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Paul Watson Green Conservative

Yep that's right I did not misspell Conservationist. Because he ain't. He is a self professed conservative who views humans as expendable.

Hmm we have heard of this somewhere before haven't we? Something about some Volk being more equal than others.....Scratch an animal rights activist and you find a fascist. Like Bardot. Darling of Stormfront and the White Wacists.

Bardot wrote "My homeland, my earth, is again invaded, with the blessing of successive governments, by an overpopulation of foreigners, notably Muslim." She called Le Pen "a very fine man" in her best-selling autobiography.


In Watson's Green fascism it's the planet that is 'Lebensraum' and the Volk for Watson are all the creatures on the earth, with the exception of those who suffer from species chavuinism, and guess who they are.....don't believe me well lets hear from the good Captain.....


Rejecting the Cultural Justification for Slaughter
Let me see, for defending whales, we are anti-Japanese, anti-Norwegian, anti-Icelandic, and anti-Native American. For defending seals, we are anti-Canadian, anti-Norwegian, anti-Russian, and anti-Namibian. For defending trees, we are anti-Hispanic and anti Native American, oh yes, and anti-working class. It appears that loggers who make four times the average income of an environmental activist are working-class and the lower-paid activists are viewed as wealthy. You see, when you work without pay because you feel that the entire future of the planet is at stake, this is viewed as a luxury. In other words, environmental activists have the luxury of sleeping in trees and not owning a home, a car, or recreational vehicles.

Clarification on Where Director Paul Watson Stands on Various Issues

I long ago decided that for this planet to be saved, we have to step outside the paradigm of anthropocentrism and adapt a ecocentric perspective.

A ecocentric perspective does not allow for consideration of special interest groups of human beings whose actions threaten the biosphere. The interests of the biosphere take precedence over the interests of hominid special interest groups.

Racism and Sexism for example are social issues but they are not issues relevant to the survival of the biosphere. They don't sit around the SPLC and the NACCP and discuss species protection and clear cut forestry issues. People don't go to feminist and gay rights meetings to discuss air pollution and wolf re-introduction programs. These issues have their place within the social environment of one species but they are not relevant to the rest of the citizens of the biosphere. Thus I believe that the role of an environmental organization is to discuss and act on environmental issues independent of human social issues.

I also don't believe that racism is relative to the ecocentric world. There is only one race that I recognize and that is the human race and racism is a form of behavior caused by abstract and nonsensical prejudices among members of the same species. No intelligent person can be a racist because it makes no ecological or biological sense. I have found it interesting that when I maintain that all humans are equal and all members of one species that some find this statement racist because I refuse to see any distinctions between people based on skin color or features.

I think that speciesism is a far more serious issue. Human discrimination against practically every other species on this planet has resulted, is resulting and will continue to result in mass extinctions, extirpations and diminishment. Whereas racism is acknowledged, speciesism is not even given a moment's thought by most people. It is willfully and arrogantly ignored.

I am first and foremost a conservationist and this means that I am a conservative. But being a conservationist conservative has no relationship to the present perversion of political conservatism - like this particular right wing Christian fundamentalist Republican rhetoric that is presently posing as conservative.

He condemn's himself in his own words, while he denies those who oppose him the same rights to free speech as he demands.

And those who think that this is the first time he has been criticized by the Anarchist Left well read on;

ECO-WARRIOR OR ECO-TERRORIST?

Pie Paul Watson?

At a joint Sea Shepherd and Jack Metcalf news conference yesterday, far right-wing racist Jack Metcalf complained that the civil rights of Sea Shepherd had been violated by the Makahs. This is the same Jack Metcalf that has spent a lifetime seeking to deny civil and human rights to people of color. The same Metcalf who, while in the Washington State Assembly, stated that "Black people are genetically incapable of governing themselves." The same Metcalf that the ACLU gave a 0 rating on his voting record on civil rights in Congress. To Metcalf, and others like him, rights only belong to rich white men.

A CERTAIN CALL FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE FOR THE MAKAH

And even better even the Vegans can see Watson for the racist fascist he really is.

Jun12

the knee-jerking that must end

Posted in race |

As to Paul Watson’s article, I’m unsure why the EF!J even printed it. Was it because Mr. Watson has achieved legendary status among Earth First!ers? Surely it wasn’t to prove that radical environmentalists aren’t racist. It would have been different if Watson used the space provided to renounce his past decisions, but instead he spends hundreds of words explaining how unapologetic he is for supporting the messed-up policies of groups like SUSPS. While Watson starts off by saying that he is unaware of any anti-immigration sentiment in the organizations he supports, he then goes immediately into explaining the negative costs of immigration. Yes, we need to question what roles humyn populations play throughout the world, but what questions are asked, who is asking them, and who feels entitled to answer? White Supremacy tells us to focus on overpopulation and to stop it through forced sterilization, refusal of health care, genocide, destruction of ecosystems, and other forms of violence. As someone who sees no need for (and has no respect for) centralized governments, I don’t understand anti-immigration sentiment. Borders are nothing but imaginary political boundaries. When we begin to look at why people take daily risks to cross those militarized boundaries (and why those in power prefer to keep them militarized) we can begin to understand why our population grows that 1.3 percent each year.

Watson comes from a tradition that sees Humans as expendable. Long live the Earth. The Nazi's to popularized this peasant belief in the sacredness of the land over the people, as the Land and Blood movement that later resurfaced as the right wing rump of Green Politics in the 1990's in Germany.

In fact the Green movement is not originally left wing, it arises out of isolationism ala the America first ideology of Buchanan and Nadar.

In England it appeals to the social reformers who would legislate against prostitution, fallen women, alcohol, etc. rather than addressing the real cause of the social problems, capitalism.

Darker shade of Green

Far-right attempts to influence the British Green movement take three forms. Firstly, an authoritarian strain in the environmental movement has proclaimed the need for a centralised and strongly 'eco'-policed state, since the publication of Garrett Hardin's 1968 essay 'The Tragedy of the Commons'. Immigration, seen as threatening the ecological carrying capacity of a country, should cease. Population must be cut, by coercion if necessary. Social issues such as homelessness and poverty are seen as a distraction from the essential job of tackling the environmental crisis. In Britain, this strain dominant in the environmental movement of the early 1970s has waned considerably. It is represented by the Campaign for Real Ecology and eco groups disillusioned with the Green Party, with an ideology rooted in the pessimistic conservatism of Malthus. Far from overtly racist, despite some frankly repellent views - neither can this conservative environmentalism be seen as a fascist movement - it is clearly positioned on the statist right.
Eco-fascism also has a lengthy lineage in Britain. The Soil Association, Britain's organic lobbyists, counted amongst their earliest members Jorian Jenks, former agriculture advisor to the British Union of Fascists. AK Chesterton, first Chairman of the National Front, was closely linked to far-right environmentalism of the 1930s. His uncle GK, Catholic apologist and purveyor of the Father Brown stories, invented the ideology of Distributism with Hillaire Belloc. Distributism, proclaiming the principle of 'three acres and a cow', seen as a 'third way' between capitalism and communism, drifted into the anti-semitic sphere before becoming the inspiration behind the modern remnants of the Front. Issues of Distributist newsletters in the 1950s advertised support for car free cities, decentralisation, the racist League of British Loyalists and Rudolf Hess.

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Why Am I Not Surprised

It appears that NAFTA may have impacted our National Savings Rate (NSR), as well as the Households Savings Rate (HSR). From 1994 to 2004 (the most recent year with data available), Canada’s NSR increased 6.6%, to 23.1%. However, with the exceptions of 2000 and 2001, the percentage of income Canadian households have devoted to savings has shrunk or stayed the same every year since NAFTA’s implementation. In 2005, Statistics Canada and the OECD reported that Canadians savings were –0.4%! So says Centrerion

NAFTA, the FTA, WTO, APEC, CARICOM, CAFTA, etc. etc. ad nauesum are all global agreements between govenrment and business. They are macroeconomics. However the neo-con's have always claimed that their supply side economics were trickle down, which this shows is a bunch of bunkum.

Canada last year enjoyed a greater than expected record $30.2 billion surplus in its trade and investment dealings with the rest of the world. But Canadian employees worked for less money in December, according to another set of Statistics Canada data released yesterday.Current account surplus passes $30 billion

As does a comparison between average wages in the same period and corporate profitablity including the stock market. Wages have remained stagnant in the Canadian economy. True unemployment has decreased, but wages have not increased significantly.

Globalisation, Technology and Wage Inequality, 1870-1970

Canada Wages, salaries and supplementary labour income 1926 to 1975

The economic boom that began in the late 1990s has likewise drawn attention away from this convergence of minimum wages and poverty, Goldberg says, persuading most Canadians that they are better off now, even as the largest portion of the boom’s benefits has gone to the richest 10 percent of Canadian families.Working for a living

Consumer Price Inflation Since 1750

- between 1750 and 2003, prices rose by around 140 times;

- most of the increase in prices has occurred since the Second World War: between 1750 and 1938, a period spanning nearly two centuries, prices rose by a little over three times; since then they have increased more than forty-fold.

Put another way, the index shows that one decimal penny in 1750 would have had greater purchasing power than one pound in 2003.

Consumer price index

1995 to present. Includes core inflation, CPI-XFET, CPIW, and the effect of changes in indirect taxes

Retail increases have been to blame for inflation,Retail Sales Lend To Loonie Strength because the regular judas goat of wage increases was not available for blame.

Higher wages could drive Canada inflation-analysts

Bank of Canada's press meet big draw for C$, bonds

Again despite the increasing ease and reduction in production costs, including a steady increase in productivity, the share earned by average workers remains static. And its impact is felt the most on female workers.

Women still losing wage wars

Pink ghetto lives on in workplace

Why single moms have a double load to carry

New research from Statistics Canada concludes the number of Canadian children in single parent families rose 50 per cent in 20 years. It also concludes single mothers are five times as likely as those with partners to end up with a low income. The study, published this week, found the proportion of children under age 18 in a single mother family rose to 21 per cent from 14 per cent in the two decades between 1981 and 2001.

What makes our economy attractive is the social wage, the taxes we pay for social services that supplement capitalist investment strategies. The taxes paid by the average Canadian worker are now 60% of the Federal and Provincial direct funding, while corporate taxes have decreased.

GST and PST consumer taxes and user fees, another form of taxation, are also aimed at the working class taxpayer along with the stupid tax; VLT's, lottery's, and gambling.

The tax breaks that business has instituted for itself with its neo-con agenda for government in North America has not trickled down to the working classes. Rather we have had to make up for those breaks from our own pockets. Either in tax increases, service reductions, loss of hours of work, minimal wage increases, increase costs in our benefit plans.


What Wages Tell You -- and What They Don't

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of September 2005, health insurance represented the largest single component of compensation costs for workers in private industry. In Canadian cities, for example, the BizCosts study estimates that benefits add only 20% of agents' annual wages to agents' annual compensation because Canadian residents are entitled to government-sponsored health care.

In a wealthy country that offers, for instance, government-sponsored health care and top-notch public education, you may pay more up front in hourly wages. Yet as a percentage of these wages, you might pay less for some types of benefits, like health care, if they're already available to residents of that country. According to the World Health Organization, as of 2002, private health care expenditures accounted for about 30% of all health care spending in Canada; the government took care of the rest. That same year, spending on health care in the U.S. was nearly evenly divided between public and private entities, with private expenditures representing 55%, or a slim majority, of health care spending.

Tymoshenko 'Evita'of the Ukraine

Or Maria Ukrayna the icon of the Ukraine the mother goddess motif which Tymesheko has milked in a media savy campaign out of the Eva Peron play book.


Hundreds Cheer Fallen Queen
The Moscow Times, Russia - 23 Mar 2006
... Yushchenko fired Tymoshenko as his prime minister, and since then the diminutive blond firebrand many have compared to Eva Peron has been out in the cold





I am speaking of her media and political savy in going wheat blonde and wearing a sacred cross hair braid, instead of her more Modern Euro look of long straight black hair pre the Orange Revolution. Ukraine: Interview -- Yuliya Tymoshenko Marks First 100 Days as PM



Her hair braid is based upon the sacred bread braids of the mother goddess of the fields of pagan Ukrainian tradition. It is specially used on Paska for Christmas and Easter pagents of the Christian faith.

On our trip to Russia, we saw numerous female "Babas" dating from as early as the Bronze Age (2000 BCE) and as late as the Middle Ages, and many of them have protruberances coming from the tops of their heads that later marked Shiva or the Buddha.

Tymeshenko needs to smile less severly, and more often. The Stern Mother though wins the Slavic heart far more than the Tzar/Batko. But like Evita she has the voice of the people.

And for her battles with both Yushchenko the privateer and Yanukovich Putin's puppet, she needs to be severe.YUSHCHENKO CHOOSING BETWEEN TYMOSHENKO AND YANUKOVYCH?






Strong willed, for all the babka's, which is also a sacred bread , a mushroom (which of course is how Ukrainians felt before the Orange Revolution last year),as well as being the affectionate name of the grandmothers who have faced the worst brutality of the Russian Ukranian rush to privatize.

Ukrainians' deal blow to reformist leadership

Maria Kompaneyets, 63, voted for Yanukovich in 2004, but had hopes that Yushchenko would use his popular mandate to improve life, especially the economy and pensions, recurrent complaints among those who are less well off.

"Nothing changed, at least nothing changed for better, neither in the country nor in our own life," she said, voting with her husband, Pyotr. "Of course we had hopes. So much had been said in those days. Who could expect that it would turn out so bad?"

Still, faced with the chance to turn again to Yanukovich and his party, which has promised to undo the mistakes of Yushchenko, she decided on Tymoshenko.

The politician's confrontational style has been blamed for much of the economy slowdown since 2004, but her fiery, charismatic oratory remains popular, as the initial results of the election showed.

"When I listen to her speaking," Kompaneyets said, "I get goose bumps."

Just like the people of Argentiana would get when they hear Evita Speak.



And in the grand theatrical tradition of the media and political savy Evita too knew how to gain focus with her hair style, forcing it into a wave, but unlike Tymoshenko, Evita had the winning smile. And there are other similarities with Evita; they are both wealthy.

The millionaire revolutionary
She has been a powerful voice during this week's protests in Kiev. But who is Yulia Tymoshenko?

And so the news from the Ukranian election is that the Revolution continues with Tymoshenko being the icon most likely to succeed. It was never about Yuskenko he is yesterdays man. A straw man, the real reformists were with Tymoshenko and Yuschenko buried himself when he booted her out of government.

But in a shock result, Ms Tymoshenko beat Mr Yushchenko into third place, raising new doubts about how the warring leaders will now be able to form a governing coalition.

According to three different exit polls earlier, Mr Yanukovich's Regions Party was forecast to win 27-33 per cent of the vote.

Mr Yushchenko's Our Ukraine was set to occupy an embarrassing third place with 13-17 per cent, behind Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko with 21-23 per cent.

But the Regions Party was expected to fall well short of an overall parliamentary majority, leaving the country with the prospect of prolonged political uncertainty as politicians struggle to form a coalition. Ukraine set to snub leaders of Orange revolution

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The Stalin Circle in Alberta

It was the New Left that created the term PC or Politically Correct to diferentiate itself from movements of Stalinism and Maoism which took the line that it was the Great Leaders way or the highway, to Siberia. Or in Alberta's case Fort McMurray.

In Alberta to be politically correct is to be PC, full caps.

Our PC's are the Party of Calgary, the Progressive Conservatives, under the Great Leader Ralph Klein.

The Party dominance is everywhere outside of Redmonton, which is the equivalent of revolutionary St. Petersburg (Leningrad).

The current power struggle in the party metaphorically is Stalinism rather than that of the earlier "Great Man" politicks; Bonapartism.

The dictator may pay a hypocritical homage to the tradition of popular consent by means of occasional plebiscites in which the people are asked to endorse some proposal desired by the government. But this purely formal consultation is usually carried out in an atmosphere of intimidation wherein the propagandists of the ruling clique predict the direst consequences unless the proposition is confirmed. What Are The Characteristics Of Bonapartism?

Why Stalin? Because the conflict in the Bolsheviks was a PARTY conflict. The same cannot be said of Fascist states of the time, which were Bonapartist, based solely on the Great Man; Hitler, Mussolini, Franco. Such Bonapartist regimes would become the model for post war Latin American nationalist movements such as Peronism.

Between 1928 and 1933, Stalin inaugurated the First and Second Five-Year Plans to achieve his goal of rapid industrialization. In many respects he was successful - by 1939 the USSR was behind only the United States and Germany in industrial output. The human costs, however, were enormous. Modern History Sourcebook: Josef Stalin (1879-1953 )

And Stalin oversaw the industrialization of Russia, while Ralph did the same in Alberta fulfilling Lougheeds original vision. Which makes Lougheed our Lenin.

But Bloshevism was all about the PARTY and internal faction fights. No different from the PARTY in Alberta. In Russia they sent you to work camps in Siberia, and in Alberta we too are now building work camps in our Siberia; Fort McMurray.

So in keeping with our metaphor, which is endorsed by no less an expert than Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason, here are the players in the game of the Bolshevik Power Struggle in Alberta as the Great Leader flounders and weakens.

Let's play pin the cult of personality on the Leadership contenders and the Great Leader, ala the politicks of the One Party State. Which are unique to the old Soviet Union and to Alberta politicks.

Think of it as a card game, for a pack of cards. Just in time for the Convention next weekend.

Seeking Klein's crown are: former provincial treasurer Jim Dinning, former economic development minister Mark Norris, backbench Tory MLA Ted Morton, Infrastructure Minister Lyle Oberg, Intergovernmental Relations Minister Ed Stelmach and Advanced Education Minister Dave Hancock

.





Ralph Klein Stalin

"He is an unprincipled intriguer who subordinates everything to his appetite for power. At any given moment he will change his theories in order to get rid of someone"

Lenin became increasing concerned about Stalin's character and wrote a testament in which he suggested that he be removed. "Comrade Stalin, having become General Secretary, has concentrated enormous power in his hands: and I am not sure that he always knows how to use that power with sufficient caution. I therefore propose to our comrades to consider a means of removing Stalin from this post and appointing someone else who differs from Stalin in one weighty respect: being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite, more considerate of his comrades."

While Vladimir Lenin was immobilized, Joseph Stalin made full use of his powers as General Secretary. At the Party Congress he had been granted permission to expel "unsatisfactory" party members. This enabled Stalin to remove thousands of supporters of Trotsky, his main rival for the leadership of the party. As General Secretary, Stalin also had the power to appoint and sack people from important positions in the government. The new holders of these posts were fully aware that they owed their promotion to Stalin. They also knew that if their behaviour did not please Stalin they would be replaced.

Ralph Stalin Purges Alberta Cabinet

Kliein: A man whose time has come?

The Social Credit Party, which ruled for 34 years, was seen as tired and out of fresh ideas when a newcomer on the scene, Peter Lougheed, swept them from power in an unthinkable rout in 1971. Klein himself has only been in power for 12 years, but the Tories have held onto Alberta for 35 years, since Lougheed’s first win. We don’t change governments very often, but for such a right-wing province, we do think collectively every three decades or so.)

EDITORIAL: Ralph has to go. Now.
Edmonton Sun, Canada -
It's time to go, Ralph. Next Friday, at your party's convention, you should do the honourable thing and resign as leader of the




Colleen Klein Nadezhda Krupskaya

Yep the brains in the outfit. Relegated by Stalin to the backstage, much like Ralph does with Colleen. She has attempted to ameliorate the Ralph Revolution with philanthropy.

Klein Outta Control

Ralph Klein Abuser

Krupskaya had opposed Lenin's calls for an early revolution but after its success she hid her political differences with her husband. Trotsky's main hope of gaining power was for Lenin's last testament to be published. In May, 1924, Lenin's widow, Nadezhda Krupskaya, demanded that the Central Committee announce its contents to the rest of the party. Gregory Zinoviev argued strongly against its publication. He finished his speech with the words: "You have all witnessed our harmonious cooperation in the last few months, and, like myself, you will be happy to say that Lenin's fears have proved baseless. The new members of the Central Committee, who had been sponsored by Stalin, guaranteed that the vote went against Lenin's testament being made public.

Jim Dinning Bukharin

Alberta's next CEO, Mr. P3, and leader in this pack of cards. Sitting on the outside looking in, and allowing the night of the longknives at the Convention to wreak havoc amongst the social conservatives in cabinet, causcus and the backbenches.

Bukharin's theory was that the small farmers only produced enough food to feed themselves. The large farmers, on the other hand, were able to provide a surplus that could be used to feed the factory workers in the towns. To motivate the kulaks to do this, they had to be given incentives, or what Bukharin called, "the ability to enrich" themselves.

Lyle Oberg Trotsky

Trotsky accused Stalin of being dictatorial and called for the introduction of more democracy into the party.

Calgary — Alberta Tory Premier Ralph Klein's long goodbye from politics is hurting the province and should be reassessed by party faithful, says a leadership hopeful who was turfed this week from cabinet for making “inappropriate comments” about the Premier.

Lyle Oberg, who was Alberta's infrastructure and transportation minister until he was stripped of the position for six months after a Thursday night caucus meeting, apologized yesterday for suggesting he would reveal government “skeletons.”

But he did not back away from his suggestion that delegates at next week's annual meeting of the Progressive Conservative Party should rethink Mr. Klein's plan to stay in the premier's chair effectively until the spring of 2008.

"Given the urgency of the challenges that face the province, and the amazing opportunities that lie before us, the impact of a two-year leadership race must seriously be considered," Oberg said Friday.

Deposed cabinet minister Lyle Oberg says he will spend the weekend considering his political future and whether he will remain in the race to replace Premier Ralph Klein as leader.

Appearing sombre and subdued, Oberg told reporters today the past couple days have been “a difficult time within caucus” but he gave no indication he plans to quit the race.

But he also appeared to criticize Klein’s decision to stick around for two more years and hinted that fellow Conservatives should send a message at a March 31 leadership review that they want a leadership contest before then.

“The vote is not a referendum on the premier’s leadership,” he said, reading from a prepared statement. “The premier has already said he is not running again. The vote is a vote on when the leadership should occur.”

Riding rallying for Oberg

Wendell Rommens, past president and treasurer of the Strathmore-Brooks riding association, said Oberg's call for delegates to vote their conscience was met with applause and reflects what has become a commonly-held view. "I think it's time for (Klein) to move on and I would say the sooner the better," Rommens said.

Gregory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev united behind Stalin and accused Trotsky of creating divisions in the party. In April, 1937, Trotsky appeared before a commission of inquiry in New York headed by John Dewey. Trotsky was found not guilty of the charges of treason being made by Stalin.

Stelmach Zinoviev

After the death of Lenin 1924, Zinoviev joined forces with Lev Kamenev and Joseph Stalin to keep Leon Trotsky from power. In 1925 Stalin was able to arrange for Trotsky to be dismissed as commissar of war and the following year the Politburo.With the decline of Trotsky, Joseph Stalin felt strong enough to stop sharing power with Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev

Ed Stelmach, Klein's intergovernmental relations minister, resigned a week after the premier ordered ministers who want to run for the Tory leadership to step down by June 1 - even though the premier himself doesn't plan to step down for two years. Premier Ralph Klein said he was somewhat surprised that Stelmach decided to resign from cabinet so quickly. "I set June 1 as a deadline and I didn't expect it to happen this fast," the premier told his daily news conference.

Stelmach's move may bolster a sense of urgency among those looking for change.

It's all very confusing for most Albertans watching Conservative politics from a distance. Stelmach's public comments are very reassuring. He's a team player, he supports Klein and all party policies. "Officially, there is no race," said Stelmach, until Klein steps down.

At the same time, he told reporters his resignation means: "Look, there's no doubt about it. We're here, we mean business and we're in the race."

Yes, and there's a new urgency about that business.

Ted Morton Kamanev

On his return to Russia he was elected Chairman of the Moscow Soviet and became a member of the party's five-man ruling Politburo. He reached the peak of his power in 1923 when with Joseph Stalin and Gregory Zinoviev he became one of the Triumvirate that planned to take over from Vladimir Lenin when he died.

When Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev eventually began attacking his policies, Joseph Stalin argued they were creating disunity in the party and managed to have them expelled from the Central Committee. The belief that the party would split into two opposing factions was a strong fear amongst active communists in the Soviet Union.

Alberta cabinet ministers who want to take a run at Ralph Klein’s job in two years will have to resign their portfolios by June 1, the premier said Wednesday. Ted Morton, another leadership contender, called Klein’s action “a good idea for obvious reasons.”

Until now, the many Albertans who want their next premier to be ready to at least threaten separation with Ottawa in order to get the kind of respect and deference Quebec has received over the past 40 years -- and there are many of them -- thought their best choice was political scientist and Calgary MLA Ted Morton.

Morton is one of the fellas who developed the idea of building the Alberta firewall -- an idea that basically advocates the province taking full advantage of its jurisdictional rights -- such as establishing its own pension plan, having its own provincial police force, controlling its immigration etc. -- Morton was the closest they could get to threatening Ottawa to keep its paws off of our valuable oil and gas resources.

Not anymore.

This, in effect, means Morton's leadership hopes are severely dampened, since Norris has already raised about $1.4 million from some heavy hitters with more surely to come as the race heats up.

Mark Norris Sergy Kirov,

As usual, that summer Kirov and Joseph Stalin went on holiday together. Stalin, who treated Kirov like a son, used this opportunity to try to persuade him to remain loyal to his leadership. Stalin asked him to leave Leningrad to join him in Moscow. Stalin wanted Kirov in a place where he could keep a close eye on him. When Kirov refused, Stalin knew he had lost control over his protégé.

Budget not bold enough, says Norris

Norris suggested this week that sitting ministers would have an unfair advantage if they remained in cabinet.

Mark Norris, a former cabinet minister who lost his seat in the 2004 election, said he's glad to see Stelmach stepping away from cabinet to focus on the leadership.

"I was a little surprised that it happened this early, but I'm very happy about it," Norris said in an interview. "It's going to be good to get this race going."

Norris said he's been paying all of his own leadership expenses and he'll be glad to see more of the candidates doing the same, especially cabinet ministers.

"It'll not only put interest into the race, but interest back into the party."

Norris, the 43-year-old Edmonton businessman and former Alberta economic development minister who is chock-a-block with fresh, concrete ideas delivered with a folksy, Ralphy kind of charm.

Norris wants to better care for Alberta's seniors and disabled, believes in strategic investing at all levels of education, would institute a two-term limit for a premier and set election dates for the province.

But it's Norris' willingness to play hardball with the feds and even lead this province down the road of separation if necessary that will set him apart from the others running in this race.

Dave Hancock Genrikh Yagoda

Yagoda was a close friend of Joseph Stalin and in 1934 he was put in charge of the Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD). In 1936 Yagoda arrested Lev Kamenev, Gregory Zinoviev, and fourteen others and accused them of being involved with Leon Trotsky in a plot to murder Joseph Stalin and other party leaders. All of these men were found guilty and were executed on 25th August, 1936.

Klein's rebate musings anger many in party
Short-term view slammed by leadership hopefuls

Advanced Education Minister and leadership hopeful Dave Hancock also indicated he's not too keen on the idea of more cheques. Rather, the dollars should be invested in endowment funds and savings accounts, he said.

"My priority is that non-renewable resource revenue should be saved for the future in a manner which can expand our economy, expand our society and pay dividends long-term into the future," Hancock said Tuesday.

11. This could change everything for Dave Hancock's leadership bid. Over the past week, I was beginning to be convinced that Advanced Education Minister Dave Hancock would drop out of the race in the face of Klein's June 1st deadline, but I now think he may stick around the racetrack. Though I don't think he stands much of a chance at winning the leadership, I think he could probably top the list of "best Tory Premiers Alberta never had." Daveberta

Iris Evans Alexandra Kollanti

Evans gives Klein healthy boost

Alberta Health Minister Iris Evans says she's squarely behind Premier Ralph Klein and his leadership.

When Joseph Stalin gained power he sent Kollantai abroad as a diplomat. This included periods in Norway (1923-25), Mexico (1925-27), Norway (1927-30) and Sweden (1930-45). Kollantai retired in 1945 and lived in Moscow until her death on 9th March, 1952. She was the only major critic of the Soviet government that Joseph Stalin did not exterminate.

Hey I Said That

Brian Mason leader of the Alberta NDP comes to the same conclusion I did about the purge of Lyle Oberg...........

"They're now resorting to extreme measures to shut up people who dare to criticize Ralph Klein," said NDP Leader Brian Mason. "This is Stalinesque, and I think that it is the beginning of a reign of terror in the Conservative party.

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Capitalism's Denial of Climate Catastrophe

Ok this is serious. So why aren't governments taking it seriously. Because they are the excutive of the capitalist state.

As such they must deny the contradiction which is the fact there is no such thing as infinite resources. Hence Hubbards theory of Peak Oil.

But capitalism as a machine ,out of control of its creators, must consume those resources transforming them into products for our consumption. In doing so capitalism as an ideology cannot declare that it is Finite. It must constantly expand. But such expansion is anti-human and anti-environmental and anti-nature.

Which is why politicians are ill equiped to deal with such momentous crisises. They can only "be here now", living in the ever present which is why capitalism is a-hisotrical, it is always coming into being.

It is always in the now, we can see nothing beyond it and its technological solutions to the crisises it manifests. That technological solution is based on once again subjecting us to the ideology that says there is something else, other than ourselves, that we can rely on to solve problems of our own creation.

Latest studies set timetable for catastrophic flooding

Margaret Munro, CanWest News Service

Published: Thursday, March 23, 2006

Half of Florida ends up underwater. So does much of Bangladesh and the Netherlands. Low-lying parts of British Columbia, the Maritimes and Canadian North would also be inundated, say scientists who warn in the journal Science today that the world appears headed for a catastrophic rise in sea level.They say temperatures are rising so fast and polar ice fields are melting so quickly, the planet is on track for inundation and flooding unlike anything seen on Earth for 130,000 years.

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He's Baaaack

Our old pal Werner Patels, the man with the multiblog personality is back with a new blog incarnation. Same old politics same old nattering just a new blog interface with no noticeable connections to his other blogs, except that the issues he discusses are the same. Gotcha again Werner.



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Ralph Stalin Purges Alberta Cabinet

Lyle, Trotsky, Oberg dared to say the unspeakable against the Great Leader Joseph Klein err Ralph Stalin.

That maybe all was not well in mudville and the Volk should not give the Great Leader carte blanche come the Peoples Show Convention next month.

In a move straight out of the autarchs play book;The Great Leader got his Molotov, Deputy Premier; Shirley McClellan, to call an emergency cabinet meeting of Zinovev's and Bukharins to purge Oberg-Trotsky from cabinet.

My gosh what fun we have in the one party state. The Great Leader was absent of course to make the purge look like it wasn't his idea.

Looking forward to show trials soon.

Alberta is one big flashback to the Thirties. First it's Ralph Bucks which was an idea from the old Socred days and now we have purges like in the old country.

S. P. Kolosov whose final fate is unknown expressed it in an anything but timid letter in 1937: "I am afraid to open my mouth. Whatever you say, if you say the wrong thing, you're an enemy of the people. Cowardice has become the norm."

What was that saying in French; Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Of course the difference between Uncle Joe and King Ralph is....the moustache.

But with comments like this Lyle better beware of Trotsky's fate.

"If I were the premier, I wouldn't want me as a backbencher,'' Oberg told the meeting, which was covered by the Brooks & County Chronicle newspaper. ``I know where the skeletons are.''



Oberg dumped
Calgary Sun, Canada -
EDMONTON -- Transportation Minister Lyle Oberg has been thrown out of the Tory caucus for six months for "inappropriate comments" which included threatening ...
Oberg stripped of cabinet post over Klein remarks CTV.ca
Oberg booted from cabinet for anti-Klein comments CBC.ca
Alberta Tories oust leadership contender Globe and Mail



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