Bring Out Your Dead

The continuing scandal of capitalist business as usual or unusal in this case.We have gone from accounting scandals, cooking da books as it is called, with Enron. And there is just plain good old fashioned racketering and fraud as we have with Lord Black. And now we have the scandal of backdating of stock options for corporate executives. Major companies are being investigated by the SEC and the U.S. Attorney. But this one takes the cake....

In a regulatory filing made Thursday, Cablevision disclosed that it had granted options to an executive after his death, but improperly recorded the date of the grant to an earlier time when the executive was still alive.


SEE:

Criminal Capitalism

Primitive Accumulation of Capital



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The Tories Green Plan

With an integrated approach of the Federal Energy, Agriculture and Environment Ministries, and its reliance on focus groups from Calgary's Oil Industry HQ's I wonder if the Harpocrites Green Plan was influenced by this.Because their plan is all about air quality, that means the greatest source of pollution and Green House gases the Tar Sands and the Petro-industry in Alberta will get off scott free. Again.

Alberta's energy future - What plan? Andrew Nikiforuk
From the June 5-18, 2006 issue of Canadian Business magazine

It's only 16 pages long and hasn't yet been shared with the public, but Alberta's Integrated Energy Strategy, if adopted as currently drafted, could eventually leave a hefty fossil-fuel footprint on every Canadian business. Given that the federal government has no coherent energy plan of any kind, the province's document could simply fill the bill by default. And just what does Alberta, which supplies Canada with 70% of its oil and 80% of its natural gas, have in store for the rest of the country? Well, the answer is pretty much business as usual.

The blueprint, which was recently sent to "energy stakeholders" for comment, is billed as the vision of Greg Melchin, the politician in charge of Alberta's powerful ministry of energy (which supplies the province with about 33% of its revenue). It calls for "an aggressive pace of development" for oil, gas and coal, and also envisions more exports to China and the United States. Remarkably, the words "energy conservation" or "efficiency" rarely appear, and global warming gets short shift altogether, as though the clouds of carbon dioxide pouring out of the oilsands simply don't exist. Even the term "peak oil" (the point at which extraction begins to decline) fails to get a nod.

The paper's collection of clichés ("an integrated approach to unleashing energy innovation") and glaring omissions have many energy experts dumbfounded, if not worried. "If you have a scarce resource and the whole world wants it, you should have a plan that maximizes the benefits and provides the best opportunities before it's gone," says Bruce Smedley, a Calgary-based global development consultant and former oilpatch engineer. "This strategy doesn't do that. It's a liquidation policy. You could go so far as to say this isn't a plan at all."

Also See

Kyoto

Ambrose

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Severely Normal Albertans Go Bye Bye

Ralph says bye bye and still manages to be insulting....Of course it wasn't the PC'st that were in power it was Ralphs Team, which is different from the Getty Team or the Lougheed Team...or the Edmonton Eskimo Team or the Calgary Flames Team....

Just like Alberta isn't really our province its Ralphs World. And the folks that live in Ralphs World the only ones that count are the ones that support him the severely normal Albertans...the rest of us don't count.

I didn't do it by myself. I owe a great deal of thanks to all those who were part of Ralph's Team — both elected and non-elected. Most importantly, however are the severely normal Albertans who supported me and helped guide our province through the past 13 years, during my watch as Premier. I tried to avoid "Dome Disease" so that I could listen and hear the advice of people on the street, at their jobs and on their doorsteps. Severely normal Albertans are the people who really made the difference. Klein’s statement on his resignation

Way back in 1996 Ralph defined who his severely normal Albertan was....

"Those are our instructions from the people who matter most, the severely, wonderfully normal Albertans. They, like you, are the Albertans who work hard, pay their taxes, drive their kids to the rink; the Albertans who worship in their own way, who volunteer in their community, who understand the value of a dollar but who also know that dollars mean nothing when a neighbor needs help."

The phrase "severely normal Albertans" was not originally Ralphs, it was the phrase used by his drinking buddy the Dark Prince of Privatization; Steve West.

West used it to justify his policies of privatization of the liqour control board and other public services in the name of the neo-con agenda of the ninties. Severely normal Albertans were not members of unions, who of course were a special interest group since it was their jobs he was privatizing.


Ralph added a little personality to his cartoon characters the severely normal Albertans, he called them Martha and Henry. When ever he wanted to justify his actions he invoked Martha and Henry, who nodded in approval.

Legislative Assembly of Alberta

Mr. Klein: Mr. Speaker, as I pointed outyesterday inthe scrum, Mr.
and Mrs. Grundy or Martha and Henry, normal Albertans, don’t
appear at the government hangar requesting 10 years’ worth of
documents, manifests, some 12,000 different documents, don’t
request the use and the tying up of over 50 hours of public service
employee or employees’ time, doesn’t arrive decorated with a
microphone, with a bevy of media. So I suspect that there was some
media grandstanding going on.

Dr. Taft: To the Premier: is the Premier routinely informed by his
staff of information requests from the Liberal opposition and the
media?

Mr. Klein: Not routinely. Sometimes. Although I suspect that
many FOIP requests are from the Liberals or from the media, FOIP
requestsare kept confidential. You can tell by the questions that are
being asked that Martha and Henry or Mr. and Mrs. Grundy are not
asking those questions, because when you listen to the questions and
the kind of information they’re seeking, you say: “Gosh, this sounds
like a request from the Liberals or the media. I wonder who’s
trolling, who’s casting. I’m sure it’s not Martha and Henry


He liked his severely normal Albertans dumb, as in mute and stupid. Of course real Albertans were far from being either. As the sponteanous mass demonstrations opposing Bill 11 showed. When he could not defeat his opposition in the streets he labeled them special interests.

In Ralphs World severely normal Albertans are not poor and out of work.If they are Ralph would kick them while they were down.

Drunk in charge
The man who stumbled into the homeless shelter late at night was well dressed, and had obviously indulged in too much Christmas cheer. Slurring his words, he got into an argument with the residents, demanding to know why they were unemployed. Just another drunken rightwing jerk? Actually, it was Ralph Klein, the premier of the Alberta, dropping by for an unofficial visit on his way home from a party.

And his severely normal Albertans are not disabled

"I'm sure that none of you want to talk to me about AISH, do you? No, because you're normal - severely normal!"

Irony of ironies one of the leadership contenders for Ralphs job is; Gary McPherson. an Edmonton businessman who has led the Premier's Council on the Status of Persons with Disabilities.

Severely normal Albertans are MLA's in the Klein government, no others need apply. In the 1997 election Ralph used the severely normal Albertans line whenever he could. Since his original messaging He Listens He Cares was met with collective guffaws and ridicule. When Dr. Raj Pannu was elected NDP MLA in 1997 he was to find out that he was not welcome in Ralphs World.

As I wrote in See magazine guest column at the time:

Stephen West spoke out in the Legislature full of moral indignation and self righteousness that only ‘heterosexual’ Albertans were ‘normal’. He later apologized but the truth was out of the bag.

Then the Premier gave it his best shot. Infuriated that anyone would challenge his regime over its treatment of the working poor, Ralph demanded that the University of Alberta kick the Parkland Institute off campus. Noting that their crime was to be a left wing think tank (as opposed to his pals at the taxpayer funded Fraser Institute a ‘right wing’ think tank) he claimed that Parkland was ‘factually’ challenged for daring to say that amidst wealth and plenty some of Ralph’s ‘severely normal Albertans’ had forgotten the less fortunate.

Not to be outdone Tory MLA Ivan Strang then took a kick at the cat and blurted out in the Legislature that New Democrat MLA Raj Pannu should ‘go back to India’ for daring to challenge the Premier in the house over his Parkland letter.

So now we finally have a definition for what is a ‘severely normal Albertan’. A right wing, heterosexual, white, able-bodied, male’. In other words a bigot.


And severely normal Albertans in Ralphs World are defintely not queer.

Queer Youth in the Province of the "Severely Normal"

Which is why in Ralphs World homosexual rights (sexual orientation) were not included in the provinces revised Individual Rights Protection act until the Supreme court forced them to be.

"Premier Klein's reaction was that he would ignore advice he received from the Coalition or the Liberal Official Opposition. He would only listen to "severely normal Albertans." The arguments by Conservative MLAs opposed to my amendments were interesting, if not entertaining. Government House Leader Stockwell Day suggested that some of the Liberal amendments, "...fly in the face of 2000 years of development of human rights," and stated that Alberta's human rights laws should be limited to only clearly recognized inalienable rights consistent with the "divine law of nature."

Gary Dickson, Former Alberta Liberal Human Rights Critic

That did not stop Ralph from making gays and lesbians his scapegoats to win Martha and Henry's support. He chose to fight to the death to oppose Same Sex marriage. Of course his severely normal Albertans oppose Same Sex Marriage. They still do as Ted Moron another backbench MLA, former deep thinker in the Reform party and pal of Harpers, attempted to rally them with his anti-gay privacy act this spring. A cheap ploy to win support from Martha and Henry for his Leadership bid.

And of course Ralphs fight to the death over gay marriage was a one armed fight because marriage laws are Federal. Like gun laws. Just like they opposed the Federal Gun Registry, which Ralph challenged all the way to the Supreme court and lost. Again.

And lets not forget all those Albertans who suffered at the hands of the Ralph Revolution the one that never completely privatized healthcare instead Ralph kept cutting the public funding, putting quotas on medical students,blowing up hostpitals, privatizing laundry services, in hopes we would all get desperate enough to approve more private healthcare (Ralphs 'Third Way') just because it was well healthcare.

Michael Broadhurst and Deborah Burkhart used to be what Premier Ralph Klein called 'severely normal Albertans.' That was before their 10-year-old daughter Maren died Dec. 4 from complications after surgery to repair a ruptured appendix. Now both Michael and Deborah find themselves mired deep in the quicksand of heartbreak, desolation and despair.

They are also asking legitimate questions that demand legitimate answers. Questions like: did the Klein government's cuts to health care over the past few years have anything to do with the fact their precious young daughter had to spend an agonizing eight hours waiting in the emergency room for help that may have come just a little too late? SEE Magazine:Thursday, January 22nd., 1998

Mr., Mason: “If the third ways is so controversial . . . what do you think normal Albertans will think about it?

Mr. Klein: “I’ll tell you what normal Albertans will think about it. Normal Albertans will think that $100. 6 billion is . . . (interjections) Well they don’t think it's much - $100.6 billion - and the NDs don’t think it’s much. Well their sense of money is a lot different than mine, Mr. Speaker.

ALBERTA LEGISLATURE SESSION
Thursday February 23/06, 1:30 pm


Why even the right wing lobby the Canadian Taxpayers Federation the very epitome of Ralphs severely normal Albertans were quick to point out that despite all the self promotion Ralphs World was nothing special just the same old tax and spend government.


After ten years in office, Premier Klein and his loyalists think the money is theirs, to be spent according to their discretion. And they think they can spend it with greater wisdom than the “severely normal” Albertans they once proudly claimed to represent. That’s why Alberta’s spending on government programs grew 58% from 1996 to 2002, while Alberta’s population grew only 12% during the same time period.

If Martha and Henry could keep an extra $88 per month by not paying the health care premium tax, they might waste it on holidays and renovations to their house, and saving for the education of their children or grandchildren. If a single mother had to pay less income tax, she might waste that money on nicer clothes and more books for her children. If Bill and Betty no longer had to pay provincial property tax, they might waste this money by giving more of it to charity, or by paying off their mortgage earlier. Let's Talk Taxes - Alberta politicians keeping $2.8 billion extra ...


And we know that the bubble of joy called Ralphs World isolated as it was from real Albertans had been been finally pricked last election. Despite winning 61 seats a vast majority over the opposition, he lost seats. Thanks to his old pal Steve West who ran his campaign.

“With their lost sense of purpose and vision, Klein and the Tories have gradually been losing support; the Liberals got more seats in the last election because voters didn’t feel committed to Klein, who seemed to lose interest in governing said University of Alberta political science professor Steve Patten.

Alberta Election Results

With the lowest voter turnout in Alberta's history, the Conservatives received 47 per cent of the votes cast, the Liberals 29 per cent, the NDP 10 per cent and the Alberta Alliance 9 per cent. Five per cent of voters cast ballots for independents and small parties who did not win any seats. In the 2000 election, the Klein government had 61.9 per cent of the votes cast, the Liberals 27 per cent and the NDP 8 per cent. The Alberta Alliance which received 9 per cent of the vote fielded candidates for the first time.

Which is why the prick we call Ralph was forced to finallly resign, despite all his kicking and screaming....and we can go back to being Albertans no longer the cartoon characters; the severely normal inhabitants of Ralphs World's .

See:

Klein

One Party State

Alberta




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Harper UN Address

He forgot to mention that Canada was a founding member of the UN, that we drafted the UN Human Rights accord. That we pushed for the International Labour Organization and its accords. We created the UN Peacekeeping force. That we helped create the new UN Human Rights commision that has a Canadian in charge.

That historically we saw the UN as a form of international governance promoting a liberal vision of the world after WWII. But of course these are all liberal/social democratic visions.

Promoted by past Liberal governments like those of Pearson and Trudeau. They had a vision for Canada in the World.

Not something our American syncophantic PM would want to admit to. His vision of Canada is being Bucky to Captain America.

His speech appears like it was written by the U.S. State Department. Read it here.
It's war mongering blather full of George Bush sound bites, that makes Canada look like the hand puppet of the U.S.



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Whose Energy?

Harper reminded an American business audience that Canada is an "emerging energy superpower" with vast oil, gas, hydro and uranium supplies. Canada's mutual security and trade interests with the U.S., our healthy economy and our shared values make Canada an indispensable ally, he told the Economic Club of New York.
Canada an emerging energy superpower: Harper

Uh huh whose energy? Its Alberta's. We supply Canada with 70% of its oil and 80% of its natural gas.

Imagine the howls of protest from the provincial PC's and their Federal Party if a Liberal PM had said this. Why comments like that smack of the NEP...

I await the PC leadership candidates like Ted Moron and the Link Byfields , the Sun editorial board, the Western Slander and the other Alberta Seperatists spewing of outrage over the pretensions of the federal government to speak about our energy.

Still waiting....waiting....hmmmm waiting....yep waiting....


But of course he is Alberta's PM. So the usual rightwing provincial rights advocates will excuse this federal incursion as being PR for the province.
Because after all the provincial right whingers are Harpocrites.

See:

Harper

Energy


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Democrats Divided On Chavez Speech

The Democrats being liberals that they are, not a socialist amongst them of course, are divided over Chavez calling Bush the Devil...Charlie Rangel on CNN blasted Chavez who visited his Harlem riding, saying that Chavez insulted "My President". Rangel: Only Americans Can Criticize Bush

"You don't come into my country; you don't come into my congressional district and you don't condemn my president," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, scolded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Gee Charlie maybe if your President would quit claiming to speak for the Free World, and the American media would quit refering to your Presidential elections as being the election of the Leader of the Free World then maybe you could say that. And by the way the UN is not America, it be on American soil but it is neutral territory.

Democratic House Leader Pelosi also on CNN said basically the same thing, my President right or wrong. But then she went on to show she was as much a tough guy as any Republican when it came to international relations....House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, was blunt in her criticism of the Venezuelan leader. "He is an everyday thug," she said.

However at least one Democrat got what Chavez was saying.....

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a democrat, today defended Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's United Nations speech in which Chavez called President George Bush the devil. Harkin said the comments were "incendiary", then went on to say, "Let me put it this way, I can understand the frustration, ah, and the anger of certain people around the world because of George Bush's policies." Harkin continued what has been frequent criticism of the president's foreign policy.

And at least the Left in America gets it even if the Democratic leadership doesn't.

The South American leader spoke at Cooper Union last night before a packed audience including professors and union organizers. Chavez proclaimed himself "a friend" of the people of the United States, but said he hopes next time, they'll choose, in his words, an "intelligent president." He got the standing ovation for comments accusing Bush of committing genocide in Iraq.

Hey he is expressing the wishes of the majority of Americans something that the Democrats have failed to do because of course they are Imperialists who have a fetish for the Presidency right or wrong. And despite the superficial differences with the Republicans their President declared war on Serbia and restricted civil liberties after the Oklahoma bombing.

The Americans lack a left wing party like the NDP in Canada who at least has the guts to call for our immediate withdrawl of troops out of Afghanistan, something the Democrats have failed to do and will not do when it comes to Iraq. Because they are part of the Imperial establishment, after all its their Empire too.

SEE:

Chavez

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Chavez Book Tour

Read This Book.....

Is this guy brilliant or what....he starts his speech promoting Chomsky, exhorting the UN delegates to read this book and just keeps on pushing Chomsky on the press....forget Bush is the Devil....the headlines should have been...Read Chomsky.
The result is....

Chavez UN speech bumps Chomsky book up bestseller lists

The U.N. address by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has had an unexpected impact — on the best seller lists of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.

As of Thursday afternoon, "Hegemony or Survival," originally published in 2003, had jumped into the top 10 of Amazon, where it was ranked 20,664 the day before, and Barnes & Noble.com, from a previous ranking of 748.

At the start of his talk Wednesday, during which Chavez referred to President Bush as "the devil," Chavez held up a book by Noam Chomsky, "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance," and recommended it to everyone in the General Assembly, as well as to the American people.

"The people of the United States should read this ... instead of the watching Superman movies," Chavez later told reporters.

Cheeky very cheeky.

"Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it. Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, 'Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States.'" [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.]

"It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet. The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of time," [flips through the pages, which are numerous] "I will just leave it as a recommendation

I can see it now the Chavez bookclub replaces Oprah.

SEE:

Chavez

Chomsky


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Pakistan Enabling the Taliban

As reported here before the key to the Taliban expansion into Afghanistan has been the dictatorship of Musharraf in Pakistan. First making a peace treaty with the Northern tribes and the Taliban then invading Balochistan. That province which happens to border on Kandahar province in Afghanistan.

Pakistan: The Worsening Conflict in Balochistan

Reliance on the Pashtun religious parties to counter its Baloch opposition has strengthened Pashtun Islamist forces at the cost of the moderate Baloch. With their chief Pakistani patron, Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam running the Balochistan government in alliance with Musharraf’s Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam), a reinvigorated Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are attacking international forces and the Kabul government across Balochistan’s border with Afghanistan. But the international community, particularly the U.S. and its Western allies, seem to ignore the domestic and regional implications of the Balochistan conflict, instead placing their faith in a military government that is targeting the anti-Taliban Baloch and Pashtuns and rewarding pro-Taliban Pashtun parties.


Also See:

Afghanistan

War






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Crusader for the Pope

Uh oh that wacky Pat Robertson is at it again. This time he is helping out his friend the Pope. With friends like these.....

From the September 19 edition of the Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club:

ROBERTSON: When somebody gives the clear, historic record and just says, "Let's have a dialogue," that person is set up for death. And now we understand the leaders of Al Qaeda are calling for a holy war between Islam and Christianity. It's going to come, ladies and gentlemen, and I hope that those of you who care about this pope will support him. He's a wonderful man.

Yep while the Pope tries to soothe the waters Pat just has to stir them up. He really really wants a crusade in the holy land to invoke the rapture.

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The Secret to a long life

World's oldest people live in Japan owing to seaweed, smoking and rice vodka

Hey I do all those, but I think the seaweed is over-rated and so is rice vodka, I prefer mine made from rye or potato. Though I hear beet vodka is the new hot thing. Any vodka as long as its very very cold. Going for another puff now.



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Smoking


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