Fat Cats

Oh this is rich, King Ralph complaining about fat cats.
(let's play count his chins)

While "fat cats'' may want to spend the province's oil wealth on social programs, Premier Ralph Klein said Wednesday the average folks he's talked to appreciate some cool, hard cash. "You get some of the fat cats, you know the rich guys, saying, `you know, you should spend it on education and you should do this and you should do that.' But the guy who handles the towels says, `Hey, right on!'''Klein wants more prosperity cheques


Klein was working out at his private club. So Fat Cats want more money spent on education. Gee could that be because our school boards are in deficits in the land of billion dollar surpluses. Seems like these fat cats are not quite as fat headed as our short dumpy drunk Premier.


Also See Alberta Surplus

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Same Sex Marriage Attacked in Alberta, Again

Never say never. Ted Morton wannabe Premier,former member of the inner circle of the Reform Party and Stephen Harpers mentor, is using this sitting of the legislature to mobilize the social conservative base in the PC's to gain support for his leadership bid.

Already the alerts are out and the email campaign has begun by the Save Straight Marriage types. You see Morton has cleverly introduced a private members bill that attacks Same Sex Marriage

And the right wing neandrethals are mobilizing the emails and phone banks, the church brunches, and the gatherings at Gus's Garage to get the word out to lobby their MLA's in support of Mortons bill which Lifesite News says; " would offer protection to those who oppose homosexual “rights.”"

Not Same Sex Marriage, homosexual rights (you have to drawl on hoooommmooosexual to get the full effect). And why is Morton doing this, knowing private members bills usually have zip possibility of passing in the house, especially controversial ones. Well when you are running for party leader as a backbencher (not even trusted to be in the cabinet) on a beer budget what a better way to get free publicity and campaign support than being a shameless opportunitst.

Yep that's Morton. Shameless.

How do you spell loser....M O R T O N

Also See Same Sex Marriage

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Privacy for Harper

Let's not use the families of the fallen as the excuse for the Harpocrites draconian decision to ban the media from CFB Trenton. That is shameful and crass politicking as it gets. Or indeed for the reason the government refuses to fly the flag at half mast. Father of dead soldier wants flag lowered, MP says

Defense Minister O'Connor in defending the indefensible actually said in question period today that the media should show up at family funerals instead. Yep he said that. He also said that the arrival of the fallen at Trenton would be the first opportunity for the families to see their sons, fathers, husbands and brothers. Yes them and hundreds of dignitaries.



The arrival of the bodies of our fallen soldiers arrive at Trenton is not for a private viewing by the family but for the full state reception, the military brass, the DND officials, the minister and other government members, representatives of the queen, and other politicians are present. It is a day and should be a day of national morning, since War is a public affair, not a private affair, that went out with the days of Richard the Lion Hearted.

And all Canada should share in the grief. The families private funeral is the time for their privacy. But then again O'Connor never consulted the families on this policy. Military families criticize new media policy

The real reason is simple, it's to protect the Harper. You see he will not be showing up at all the arrivals in fact he failed to show up yesterday.

And there are going to be more and more as this war continues. The fact he missed this arrival for the four most recently killed shows he is a more chicken than hawk. These deaths are a direct result of his stroke of the pen.

Canada leader accused of trying to de-emphasize danger to troops

We know that all that very well contrived media hype of his trip to Kandahar was. Just another attempt to look like his mentor; George Bush. Just like this policy is an imitation of Bush's Dayton policy. Cause Bush doesn't visit there either when the body bags come home.

The Tories are using the families of our fallen as a human shield to protect Harper.

That is the lowest of low in politics. And the Tories have hit rock bottom with this one. In all the bruhaha about the families, the Harper was not noticed missing in action. If one were cynical one would believe the PMO thought they could pull off a fast one by using the flag and banning the media as a smokescreen so they wouldn't notice his nibs abscence.

Harper decided arbitrarily to take over the American operations in Kandahar. For what reason we do not know. Did Bush ask him too? Likely. Because this operation is seperate from the British/NATO operation that was only launched last week in the North of Afghanistan. The Americans are now concentrating on finding bin Laden, while Canadians are left to handle the Taliban and Opium War Lords around Kandahar.

The Canadian Armed Forces were sent to war in Afghanistan by stealth and Harper and Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor believe, incorrectly, will only be kept in Afghanistan by muzzling the truth about what is transpiring on the ground. This approach has not worked for U.S. President George W. Bush and it most certainly will not work for Harper. Very extensive and oppressive media censorship during World Wars I and II is no longer acceptable in contemporary democratic societies. The age of deference to political and religious authority is long past. War is not a private matter. It is the most public of all public policies. The Canadian state, which represents every Canadian citizen, is responsible for arming and engaging Canadian soldiers to kill on its behalf. Canadian citizens have a right and a responsibility to know what is transpiring on the battleground, even if the news is unpalatable and, on occasion, downright depressing. Michael D. Behiels, Professor of Canadian History, University of Ottawa

The real reason that the media was banned is that Harper failed to show, and had no intention of showing up for the arrival of the four most recent fallen soldiers. Men who died by the stroke of his pen. Coward.

Media ‘not allowed’

Casualties of war hidden from the public eye

J.P. MOCZULSKI/REUTERS

The flag-draped casket, containing the body of one of four Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, is carried to a hearse after being unloaded from a military transport plane at the air force base in Trenton, Ont., yesterday.

The airport ceremony was precise, well-practised, and for the first time in years, private and off limits to reporters. This is the new face of Canada’s war in Afghanistan.

A military Airbus, bearing the bodies of the four Canadian soldiers killed in Saturday’s roadside blast north of Kandahar, touched down at this eastern Ontario air base at 6.25 p.m. yesterday.

But in sharp contrast to the reception given Canada’s “fallen heroes” in the past, the government tried to bring the latest casualties of the Afghan conflict home away from public eyes.

JONATHAN HAYWARD/CANADIAN PRESS

Anne Bennett and her son Brandon show support for the four soldiers killed on Saturday by standing at the main gate to CFB Trenton with a flag at half-mast yesterday.

The bodies of Cpl. Matthew Dinning of Richmond Hill, Bombardier Myles Mansell, of Victoria, Lieut. William Turner, of Toronto, and Cpl. Randy Payne, from CFB Wainwright, Alta. were returned to Canadian soil — and the care of grieving family members last night. A beefed up cadre of military police officers patrolled the property to keep reporters and photographers off the base.

“Here in Trenton, you’re not allowed on any (defence department) property,” Capt. Nicole Meszaros told one reporter



More on:

Flag Flap

Afghanistan





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No Nukes

Twenty years after Chernobyl and Ontario is facing a massive PR campaign to approve nuclear power as a clean, green energy.

Indeed since Kyoto the nuclear industry in the US and around the world has been rubbing its hands with glee over the prospect of a renewed interest in expanding the industry.

Regardless of the financing
scheme, clean air credits are
a legitimate incentive that
will help stimulate nuclear
construction and provide a
mechanism for addressing
the challenge of Kyoto.

The status and future of nuclear power in the United States

The reality is that nuclear power is no more safe now than it was twenty years ago. Nailed: the lie about Chernobyl's death toll

And in fact it was construction short cuts that resulted in Chernobyl failure as it did with Three Mile Island and Hanford in the U.S. Short cuts made to save money. Nuclear power is all about making money, not creating safe energy.

In fact the United States promised twenty years ago it would pay for the sarcaphogus to cover Chernobyl, but that too is another broken promise, caught up in the crony capitalism that has overtaken the Ukraine. Ukraine to demand new tender conditions for Chernobyl casing

I have had three Westinghouse coffee makers fail on me in less than a month, why would I trust them to build a nuclear reactor. And they are one of the major builders of nuclear power plants. The CANDU is safer and better constructed but it too is problematic as we found out at Pickering.

I am not against nuclear power in principle, I am opposed to it as it is now, and as if functions under capitalism. The principle is to make a profit, to cut corners at all levels of construction and post construction safety. Radioactive materials cannot be profitabley disposed of, so they will be disposed of at the expense of communities and watersheds. The plants are operated until they become a liability, and only then are they taken offline, glowing in the dark from excess radiation.

Top executives are out amid huge cost overruns at Pickering

Nuclear power production is frankly irrational. It is using the 18h century principle of steam turpines as applied to the 19th Century power generation by boilers, and powering it by steam created by superhot radiation.

In other words nuclear power is simply tacked onto the old model of coal and gas fired power plants. That's like putting a kettle over a lava flow to make tea.

Think nuclear power is clean, reliable and affordable...sure but at what cost. Chernobyl monitoring to go on at least 50 years - chief doctor

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CAW Moves Right

"We will move ahead and we will have a stronger position in terms of progressive politics down the road," union president Buzz Hargrove said after the vote CAW ends all support for NDP


Yep Forward into the past, backwards into the future. Been there done that, we have had Liberal Labour and Conservative Labour candidates back in the 1906. A hunderd years later, and several workers parties, socialist parties, and even a couple of communist parties later and Buzz and the CAW return to the Gomperism of the past, reward your friends and punish your enemies.

Except what happens when no-one wants to be your friend.

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Canada (tm)

Your tax dollars well wasted. Apparently the Treasury department is looking to stop folks who dare to use the Canadian coat of arms, or any official government logo's, in their material. They have told these folks to cease and desist.

But they aren't the only ones, apparently Blogs in Canada has been told to cease and desist too. And the cost for all these cease and desist letters, a cool quarter of a million. Now what was that about the Tories cutting government waste?


A tip o' the blog to opinionated lesbian for this.





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Babble update

The labour dispute that dare not speak its name, continues over at Rabble.ca on their Babble page.

And it continues to be an issue with the creation of a babble counter site set up by protesting babblers, and a petition of reinstatement, for those who are outraged at the firing of the Babble editor; Audra Williamson.

And while some have said this is much ballyhoo about nothing, I would point out that this was a FIRING not a layoff. An arbitrary decision by the collective management, whose power is that they can fire each other, etu brute.

And all Audra wants is quite reasonable, workers control of her hours of work , being paid for it and not expected to do the work as unpaid overtime , which rabble.ca progressive management justify as 'doing it for the love of the cause'. And she is even willing to share othe work load.


People keep asking me what I want to happen. Would I go back? It feels egotistical to think in those terms when there has certainly been no indication from management that this is even a possibility. But I guess my dream result would be that babble be given 32 hours of paid moderating a week (currently it's got 24) and I get 16 of those hours and Michelle gets 16 of those hours. I would feel that we could really do some great things with babble with that much paid time, and the weight of having to constantly make subjective decisions would be lifted from me if I had an equally-responsible (as in, with as many paid hours) colleague with whom to discuss and collaborate with.

It's the story that won't die.

And shows why all workers in the Internet media, especially those that are exploited as contract workers , need the Industrial Workers of the World, the union for the rest of us.




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IWW,

Harper's Bush League

The Harpocrite has taken as his play book all the wrong White House moves. Let's review shall we.

Banning the media from CFB Trenton when our war dead come home.

"It's a very fine balancing act the prime minister has to manage, communicating to Canadians that Afghanistan is not Iraq," Griffiths said. As reports of Afghan civilian and Canadian military casualties mount, "it's going to transfer that negative image of a bungled enterprise, of hopelessness, from George Bush to Stephen Harper."

The comparison came quickly Tuesday after the government ordered journalists away from the Trenton, Ontario, air base when the coffins of the four soldiers arrived.

"Mr. Bush instituted the policy of not allowing the caskets to be open to the media, and now Mr. Harper has lifted a page from George Bush's book," Ujjal Dosanjh, a member of Parliament and the Liberal Party's point man on defense, said in an interview from Ottawa. "This is absolutely unacceptable and un-Canadian. You don't build support with Canadians by trying to hide casualties." In Canada, An Uproar Over Army Casualties Washington Post,

Gagging all his ministers and then gagging the military including the CF highest ranking officer. Which some suspect is because the fix is in for a Tory pal to get the military aircraft contract and the Haprocrite doesn't want any complaining or leaks out of Hillier.

We were promised a made in Canada environment policy by the Harpocrites. Which of course was code for Not Supporting Kyoto. So instead we get a made in the USA environment policy. Tories consider US-led effort to fight pollution

Betcha the NDP are sorry they kept harping on this; saying that the Liberals had a worse record than George Bush on the environment. Now Harper has taken Jack Layton at his word, and is aligning Canada's environmental policy with George's.


And then there is that God Bless Canada thingee he is doing at the end of all his speeches. Just like George with his God Bless America. And Tiny Tim with his God Bless us everyone. But that's ok because that most Liberal of all Liberals; Warren Kinsella gives it his blessing.


The list goes on an on, but to spare you the lengthy details here, consider this fair, balanced and objective view; The Prime Minister who would be president




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Conservatives Revolt

Ah there are signs of intelligent life in the Conservative party. The Harpocrite faces a revolt in his backbenches, about time too....Harper defends ban on images of coffins

Caucus rebels against Harper media ban as soldiers' bodies return 'Don't believe the government,' says Manitoba Tory

Gee thanks for the advice, I never do.

This is the picture that the Harpocrite doesn't want you to see.

TANNIS TOOHEY/TORONTO STAR

One of the four Canadian soldiers killed Saturday in Afghanistan arrives at CFB Trenton yesterday. Photographers and reporters viewed the ceremony from the road.Return of fallen soldiers not meant for public eyes

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Thank Goodness For Gun Control

Whew good thing we have gun control, and the long gun registry. I hope this guy is registered.

"I'll tell you one thing -- if they brought my son home from that war in a body bag, I'd shoot the first media that come on site," Wild Rose MP Myron Thompson said.

Of course under the new Conservative tough- on-gun- crime laws he would be jailed and the key would be thrown away. But being the red neck idiot Thompson is he would probably try and claim it was justifiable homocide.

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