The Cost Of Democracy In Alberta

What's the cost of democracy. In Alberta; five bucks. Thats cost of a Conservative Party membership.And Democracy in Alberta is all about the Party of Calgary.

Whoever becomes the CEO of this Grant Corporation, this one party state, rules until the next election. So if you want to choose your boss then rush on down and buy a membership, there are lots of little PC's willing to sell you one.

I think that the folks who consider themseleves progressive should join up in droves. No really.

Since Jim Dinning, Mr. Corporate Lobbyist for the backroom boys of Calgary is the front runner, then just to throw a span in the works, Progressives should support either Ted Morton or Lyle Oberg.

Think of what would happen if either of these two right wing dinosaurs got to be leader of the PC's. Why the party would split apart. Better a right wing demagouge than a corporate stooge from Calgary.

At least then we would would not have liberal Albertans voting Tory. Which is what Dinning is hoping for. And of course if Dinning wins then its just the same old same old as it was under Klein and the Calgary boys. Just ask Ted Morton. He agrees with me.

So come on folks, join the fun, lets all elect our next King and make sure he is the right madman for the job.




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The Joy Of Deregulation

Blackouts strike Edmonton, Calgary as power cut

When our City owned EPCOR was not a P3, which it has become, its responsibilities were to the Citizens of Edmonton. As we saw yesterday its responsibilities are to its shareholders and only the citizens it serves incidentally. The deliberate power outage which blew my computer and TV remote, which downed power to stores, created traffic havoc with failing traffic lights, was predicatble.

Since last week we have had a heat wave with history making above average tempratures in the high thirties. A warning should have been issued that folks should reduce their power consumption during peak hours. No such warning was given. Rather an order from the deregulated Electrical Grid management was given to EPCOR and they complied, with no warning.

When contacted by one of the few radio stations left on air, several were off due to power brown outs, CHED News, EPCOR denied it was responsible and blamed the Alberta Electric System Operator, call them they told reporters. Then when pushed they said they were ordered to shut down power by AESO. Then half an hour later they explained what and why they had done it.

This is unacceptable, but predicatable when you deregulate and privatize power. EPCOR is currently selling a $22 a share, and while the city appoints board members, its arms length relationship means EPCOR cares more about the bottomline than the good of its citizen owners.

Ours was a brown out, how about those poor folks in Queens going on ten days with No Power and record tempratures thansk to aptly named Con-Ed. Its enough to turn one into a George Metesky.

If NY politicians can blow their fuses over Con-Ed I expect no less from our City Council over this EPCOR debacle. And folks should tell them so. Oh yeah and send a note of Thank You to Jim Dinning the next CEO of Alberta Inc. who pushed for electrical deregulation as a Board member of TransAlta Utilities.






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Ceasefire Inevitable

Contrary to the assertions of Peter McKay and his girlfriend Condi Rice, there are no long term political solutions to the current Middle East Crisis as they envision them.

The Palestinian ambassador, Salah Zavavi, said he believes the chances for a comprehensive political solution have passed. “The resistance groups will not accept a political end to this,” he said. “They will not put down their weapons.”

"At the same time, if the conflict (between Israel and Hezbollah) means something to the Palestinians, it means that the creaking railway carriage of peace has already derailed and there is no way to put it back on track," Mamdouh Qenawi, political analyst and chief of the Constitutional Social Liberal Party,

And it won't help matters if US diplomacy continues to exclude Syria and Iran.
The only deal that will be brokered with the Arab states intervention is a ceasefire and prisoner exchange. Which is what should have happened in the first place.


Also See:

Israel

Lebanon


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Canadas Foreign Adventurism

Two good critical articles on the Harpocrites new Foreign Affairs policies I came across;

Canada's shifting position on the Middle East

The Folly of Afghanistan and the Pearsonian Solution

Also See:

Israel

Lebanon

Afghanistan



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Puppet McKay

The foreign affairs handpuppet of King Stephen was on CTV Question Period today doing his impersonation of a ventriloquist dummy Canada not parroting US pro-Israel policy: MacKay

Really not parroting the US? Peter wanna another cracker?
Bush: Hezbollah, Syria, Iran Must be Confronted

Oh and when are they going to denounce Israel for its continued destruction of infrastructure? "Canada is going to continue to speak up for the protection of people and people's rights and the cessation of violence," said MacKay, adding that a long-term solution will not be achieved by a unilateral pullback by Israel. Gee when are they going to speak up about this;Sidon full of refugees as Israel destroys more infrastructure ...

I particualrly liked McKay's quote about taking history into consideration when saying Canada unconditionally supports Israel. Is that Stockwell Days history or Lester Pearsons? And speaking of history what about Richard Cohens comments in the Washington Post;

The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake. It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable, but the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now. Israel fights Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, but its most formidable enemy is history itself.

Also See:

Israel

Lebanon

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Toronto Star Bias Is Showing

Horde? That's a biased perjorative term for citizens excercising their right to protest. It's a not so subtle put down. Is the Toronto Star trying to keep up with the National Pest?

Calls for end to bombing

Jul. 23, 2006. 07:21 AM

Hundreds of red and white Lebanese flags waved on Toronto's downtown streets as thousands of protestors called for an end to the violence in Lebanon. The crowd also slammed Prime Minister Stephen Harper's comment that Israel's response was "measured", Thulasi Srikanthan reports
The horde chanted slogans condemning Israel for the deaths of Lebanese civilians and slammed Prime Minister Stephen Harper's comments calling Israel's response "measured."



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Vote of Confidence

With this recent ruling what happens when the Harpocrite government demands that the vote on its compardor Softwood deal be a confidence vote? Looking at a fall election are we. I don't think so. Like the current debacle in Afghanistan and Lebanon, the Softwood deal which looked like a winner for Harper is turning against him. His confrontational style of provoking the opposition to dare defeat the government will backfire.

In politics what appears as a golden opportunity can soon turn to merde, as the Harper is finding out. Just like the GST deal which was paid for by increased taxes on low income earners, and the baby bonus, which was paid for by reducing the child tax credit, again for low income earners. Now there is the seceret meetings to kill the Wheat Board, and of course the recent deaths of two more RCMP officers calls into question the whole Harpocrite promise to kill the "long Gun Registry".

It's going to continue to be a long hot summer for the Tories, and in the fall they will have no priorities left to announce or promote. But they will have chickens coming home to roost.



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The Israel Lobby

Any criticsim of Israel is always condemned as anti-Semitism by the powerful Israel lobby and its syncophantic supporters in North America. While the lobby is most powerful in the U.S., its origins are Canadian. Surpise, Surprise. I wondered where Kinsella got his inspiration from.

A sweet deal for Israel

Because of the perceived power of the Jewish lobby -- it has been called the National Rifle Association of U.S. foreign policy -- working Capitol Hill for Jewish organizations these days is, to quote one of their own lobbyists, 'like pushing at an open door.'

The organization was founded in the early 1950s by Canadian-born former journalist I.L. Kenen, with funding from various Jewish groups. Kenen was a tireless advocate for Israel in the 1950s and early '60s, when it had to claw for dollars and votes against a powerful lobby of oil interests, Arab-oriented diplomats and lawmakers such as J. William Fulbright, the legendary chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who saw U.S. support of the fledgling Jewish state as a serious mistake that threatened regional stability.

Fulbright was right.

Also See:

Israel

Lebanon

Anti-Zionism



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Reflections On Lebanon Crisis

Nice to see comments I have made here reflected in this weekends news stories on the Canada wide protests against Harper, Israel and the Lebanon debacle. The Conservatives Born Again Politics of the Rapture have created their first serious political crisis for the Harpocrites one that will lose them votes as I have said.

The Death Of A Tory Majority
In being too cavalier about civilian casualties and too slow to evacuate Canadians from Lebanon, the Prime Minister and the federal government created his administration's first significant crisis. Even worse, much of the criticism comes from Quebec where the Arab population is large and where Harper hopes to fashion his majority.It's not yet clear that the Prime Minister and an inner circle obsessed with micromanagement have the capacity to meet international or domestic challenges. Harper learns a lesson in geopolitics

Harper Micro-Management Disaster
What was initially an astute move ended up looking like a hollow political gesture. Why didn’t the prime minister send the Airbus to Cyprus empty and return home by other means? He could have easily sent for a Challenger jet for himself and had the rest of his entourage return to Canada on commercial flights.We could call it ‘The Harper plan’

If Harper has any chance of turning this situation around, he must abandon his controlling style. It is one thing to be a decisive, action-oriented leader. It is another to micro-manage the activities of cabinet ministers and those public servants who have more experience in the field than their political masters.Harper's decision to manage the crisis largely from his office reinforces a dangerous trend. He, and he alone, inflicted severe damage on the government this week.Inexperienced PM spoke too soon

Lebanon Protest At Alberta Legislature
"The amount of people who showed up today, it's inspiring," she said. "It shows that Canadians do care and that our prime minister is not reflective of the country."Anti-war protestors march on Israeli, US consulates


We Are Hezbolah
Hussein Hammoud, his wife Maryan and their four children watched from the back of the crowd at the Toronto protest, peeking over hundreds of placards and Lebanese flags to see the speakers.The Lebanese-Canadian couple have scores of family members in southern Lebanon, some of whom have had houses destroyed since the bombings started."We are all with the leader of Hezbollah," said Hammoud. "God bless him and we are praying for him to defend us, and defend our children."Protests leave no doubt about public feeling

Right Wing Rapture Over Israels War

Closet classical liberal Buchanan also alleged that "Israel and her paid and pro-bono agents here appear determined to expand the Iraq war into Syria and Iran, and have America fight and finish all of Israel's enemies." He also said that already "Bush is ranting about Syria being behind the Hezbollah capture of the Israeli soldiers . . . Who is whispering in his ear?"

Besides me, there are the right Reverend John Hagee, the right Reverend Jerry Falwell and the Christians United for Israel (CUFI). But they don't have to whisper anymore. The day of election cometh, and cometh right soon. Even Dubya knows that you dance with them that brought you. John Hagee and Jerry Falwell are among those brought Dubya to the big dance. So they can speak as loudly as they please in preaching to the president and members of Congress that a war with Iran is necessary in order to get Armageddon rolling so Jesus can come again. According to writer Sarah Posner, "Hagee has spent the past six months mobilizing popular support for a war with Iran." Hagee argues that America and Israeli should launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran before it can develop any nuclear capability.

By mere convenient coincidence, CUFI is throwing a national hoe-down in Washington. The convention has been scheduled for some time and is believed the first time conservative Christians have come together to lobby Congress to fully support Israel and its middle east policies. Some thirty five-hundred conservative Christians attended the opening night, Wednesday, July, 19 where they danced and sung the Star Spangled Banner and Hatikva in Hebrew as they waved American and Israeli flags.Pat Buchanan asks "Where are the Christians?"

Most Americans who hold these beliefs today describe themselves as evangelical or born again. Depending on how they define themselves, their numbers range in polls from 50 million to 102 million. Not all adhere to strict fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible.

But many do believe the Second Coming of Christ will occur in the Middle East after a titanic battle with the Antichrist, and that what is written in Revelation will come to pass – exactly as written.

Polls from organizations such as CNN and Time found that while 36 percent of all Americans believe the Bible is God's word and should be taken literally, even more – 59 percent – say they believe that events predicted in the Book of Revelation will come to pass, and nearly one in five believes that he or she will live long enough to see the end of the world.

Those studies also found that more than a third of Americans who support Israel do so because the Bible teaches that Jews must possess their own country in the Holy Land before Jesus can return. Different readings of the Bible's final chapter

World On Fire-Who Sells The Matches

On Capitol Hill, the Israel lobby commands large majorities in the House and Senate. Polls show strong public support for Israel, a connection that has grown deeper after the Sept. 11 attacks. This is the popular equation: Israelis equal good guys, Arabs equal terrorists.

Working the Hill these days, says Josh Block, spokesperson for the premier Israeli lobbying group known as AIPAC, the American Israel Political Action Committee, "is like pushing at an open door."

Not everyone believes this is a good thing.

In March, two distinguished political scientists, Stephen Walt from Harvard and John Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago, published a 42-page, heavily footnoted essay arguing that the Bush administration's support for Israel and its related effort to spread democracy throughout the Middle East have "inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized U.S. security."

The professors claim the intimate partnership with Israel is dangerous and unprecedented. "Other special-interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest," they argue. They go on to say that the war in Iraq "was due in large part to the lobby's influence," and that it's "using all of the strategies in its playbook" to pressure the administration into being aggressive and belligerent with Iran.

The bottom line: "Israel's enemies get weakened or overthrown, Israel gets a free hand with the Palestinians and the United States does most of the fighting, dying, rebuilding and paying."
A sweet deal for Israel

Also See:

Israel

Lebanon

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We Are Hezbolah

As Israel makes war on two fronts, Lebanon and Palestine, the Palestinian front has been pushed out of the news by the attacks on Lebanon.

During this week attacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Israeli army killed 26 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including five children and two women, and injured at least 200 civilians including 55 children, 5 women, and two journalists. Two children also died from previous wounds.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli army killed 20 people, including 16 in offensives on the city of Beit Hanoun and al-Maghazi refugee camp, bringing the number dead to 108 since Israel began the military operation Summer Rain on June 28.

In the West Bank city of Nablus the Israeli army killed four residents; three were members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of Fateh. Thirty-three civilians were also injured, including journalists and members of a medical crew.

In the West Bank city of Nablus the Israeli army demolished a municipal headquarters that includes a central jail, the military intelligence department and the police department. In Gaza, the Israeli army bombed and destroyed the Ministries of the Economy and Foreign Affairs, in addition to several houses and two bridges.

The Israeli army temporarily reopened Rafah Crossing border in coordination with the third party observers after holding six thousand people hostage at the crossing for three weeks. Five people died at the crossing before Israel lifted the closure for two days.

The Israeli army illegally arrested at least 31 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and 5 in the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank city of Nablus at least 150 Palestinians were illegally detained for various lengths of time and held without charges.

While demonising Hamas and Hezbolah as terrorist organizations, the reality is that both organizations are political and military, whose existence is the result of Imperialist machinations of the West in the Middle East. Their origins begin with the American war in Lebanon twenty years ago, and the Iraq Iran war, which the Americans aided and abetted, in order to destabilize the region for the benefit of their client state Israel.

Hezbolah is begrudgingly credited with being a serious military organization, better prepared to battle Israel than Lebanon's army or even Hamas. And we need to remember that. This is not a terrorist organization, nor is it a minor armed struggle faction, it is in fact a well armed and organized military force.

Its existence was the result of the Iraq/Iran war, thank you America. I could go on here about chickens coming home to roost, but that point seems lost on the commentators who would rather run around like chickens with their heads cut off, or chicken little, saying "gee why is this happening?".

The reality is that Hezbollah should be given credit where credit is due, they did something none of their Arab allies dared to, that is show military support for the Palestinians after the Israelis invaded Gaza.

What reporters and commentators continue to ignore, is that Israel had already been bombing and attacking Gaza, including the killing of innocent civilians which it denied doing, prior to the kidnapping of one of its soldiers.

Hezbollah then kidnapped another set of soldiers in solidarity with Palestine. Seems straight forward to me. Since Israel is holding thousands of Palestinians illegally in jails, the demand was for their release. Which Israel has complied with before, so the expectation is that they would again.

With a concerted effort by the West to delegtimize the Hamas government in Palestine, complete with economic boycotts producing a real humanitarian crisis in the region, Israel has been at war with the Palestinians since the beginning of the year.


Of course with the worlds attention diverted by the American war in Iraq and Afghanistan, another two front war, Israel knows it can declare war on the Palestinians with nary a peep from the West. And in fact can expect the Americans to support it without question, which they do, since the Israeli state is doing its masters bidding.

Hezbollah made a bold and daring political and military feint at the Israeli military state. This so called bastion of parliamentary democracy in the Middle East is nothing of the kind, they are a militarized state capitalist regime, fascism by any other name, a terrorist founded state that uses state terror against its enemies.

Israel's strategy of retaliation dates back to the 1950s when it was largely conducted by a young officer named Ariel Sharon.


Hezbollah is not Hamas, nor are they Fateh, allowing Nablus and other Palestinian cities to be pounded mercilessly while holding press conferences denouncing Israel.

The systematic bombing of Southern Beirut has created an exodus of civilians, and the disappearance of Hezbollah fighters into the hills, preparing for the inevitable Israeli invasion.

Hezbollah, defeated Israel before, and can face a strategic military fight with Israel again. Israel admits as much, thus it is attacking Lebanon's infrastructure to demoralize the population, it is a terror attack, to undermine support for Hezbollah. Its impact has been the opposite.

What really worries Israel is the potential for a three front war, that is if Syria becomes involved, so the merciless destruction of Lebanon is a warning to neighboring states to keep out of this battle.

So the focus on Syria has been their supposed link to Hezbollah, as if anyone could tell Hezbollah what to do, in reality the subtext has been keep out of this.
Israel and its American allies are worried about a third front being opened up in this war.

Two front wars historically lead to defeat as we saw with both Napoleon and Hitler. Hezbollah has correctly estimated that if they attack Israel, it creates a military problem for Israel, and reduces its ability to continue attacking Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

While the world moans and groans about Lebanon, the continued war against the Palestinians gets lost in the news coverage. We need to remember this through all the lies and distortions, that Israel declared war on the Palestinians, economically, politically and militarily, with support of America and its Western syncophants, back when Hamas was "democratically' elected.

The Palestinians and Hezbollah have no real allies amongst the Arab nations. They are fascist medievalist states, oil partners with America or its economic dependents, like Jordan, fearful of the Palestinian cause being used to rally the masses to overthrow the regimes in power. The Arab Leagues denunciation of Hezbollah has more to do with this than with their alliance with the West in the War on Terror. Whatever that is.

America and Israel now fight losing battles in the their two front wars, the worlds greatest military power and its client state are being stretched beyond their capabilities militarily in the Middle East.

Having failed to learn the lessons of the British Empire, the American Empire is bogged down in the very region that led to the demise of that earlier Empire. The military politics of the Cold War are at work here again, instead of Commies its Terrorists. When the Cold War heated up in Viet Nam, the lessons learned from that war have been lost on the American Empire, both Republicans and Democrats have failed to remember that a peoples war can defeat a more technologically superior military power.

Hezbollah has not forgotten that lesson, and in taking the fight to Israel has become a rallying point for Arab dissention in the Middle East. When the Lebanese population, regardless of religious beliefs, cry We Are Hezbollah, then America, Israel and the Arab League, tremble in fear.

The war on Hezbollah is a war against mass uprising in the Middle East. A victory for Hezbollah, could well precipitate such a revolt. Defeating Israel on the battle field and forcing it back across the border, could ignite a fire storm of revolution in the Middle East.

That America wants Israel to take out Hezbollah is clear, it helps their oil allies in the Arab League as much as it helps Israel. America refuses a ceasefire agreement, in hopes Israel can defeat Hezbollah militarily. The hopes of the Arab League are that Israel can defeat Hezbollah as well, for if not, their regimes will crumble as the Arab masses see that the Great Powers can be challenged and defeated. We Are Hezbollah will be the rallying cry of revolt in the Middle East if they are successful, and woe betide the regimes in Egypt,Jordan, Saudi Arabia, etc.

Also See:

Israel

Lebanon

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