Ed Stelmach=Harry Strom

Its a day of joy in mudville, the safe guy won the PC Leadership Race...Ed Stelmach.Yeee Haw as Howard Dean once said. The joy the joy. Just counting the days till the dissolution of the PC's. They just elected their very own Harry Strom.



So will Jim Dinning run for Kevin Tafts job? Inquiring minds want to know.

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Conservative Leadership Race

Harry Strom

Socreds

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Tanks For The Memories

Call it Deja Vu we are now in the same situation the Russians were at the end of their war in Afghanistan and we know how that turned out. And they had 40,000 to 60,000 troops and far more tanks then we have.

PANJWAII -- Canadian troops in the war-torn Panjwaii district rolled out the 42-tonne Leopards yesterday in the first combat deployment of Canadian tanks since the Korean War.

Hours later, they rumbled down the streets of the village of Panjwaii in an impressive show of force on their way to the nearby forward operating base (FOB).

Residents of the village of Panjwaii rushed from their homes to watch the biggest display of foreign firepower since their war with the Soviets in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Jonathan Neale: Afghanistan - the horse changes riders (1988)

Economically speaking, the cost of the war varies, according to the varying Soviet figures, but the most agreeable figure is given as $8.2 billion per year. As for casualties, it too is an arguable topic, due to the strict censorship of the Soviet Union. The official 15,000 dead is a gross underestimation. Experts agree that at least 40,000 - 50,000 Soviets lost their lives in action, besides the wounded, suicides, and murders.

And this war still is not about freeing Afghani's from the Taliban, but securing Afghanistan for Americas Oil Security. At the cost of Canadian lives.

Cotter | Afghanistan and its Neighbors


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Caspian Oil






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White Collar Crime Reporter 1

In Canada it is fashionable for Acccounting Companies like Ernest and Young, and KPMG to publish annual reports on corporate fraud, and the losses incurred through white collar crime.

Of course they focus on the employee theft and fraud, not real corporate fraud or true white collar crime, of which these same companies and their coprorate clients like Enron have been implicated.

They like the banks involved, CIBC, Royal Bank, pay a fine and go on their merry way. While ordinary folks charged with shoplifting, B&E, or other none violent property crimes go to jail.

Even in the recent rash of cases in the U.S. like Enron where corporate executives go to jail, these are rare occasions compared to the usual treatment corporate crime gets, which is little or no attention. Until they impact society as whole, as Enron did.

Want to be a corporate criminologist? 
Prepare for the cold winds of
academic Siberia. 

The American Society of Criminology held its 50th Annual Meeting recently
in Washington, D.C. The program for the meeting lists 503 sessions. Fewer
than ten of those sessions dealt in any way with issues of white-collar
and corporate crime.

Laureen Snider, a Professor of Sociology at Queen's University in
Kingston, Ontario, Canada, attended the conference. She anticipated the
dearth of papers on corporate crime. The title of her paper: "The
Sociology of Corporate Crime: An Obituary."

Snider's point: while corporate crime itself might be increasing around
the globe, the study of corporate crime by academics has been declining
rapidly over the years.

If academics study in the field of white collar crime, they study not the
crimes committed by corporations, but crimes against corporations -- the
traditional white-collar crimes of theft, embezzlement and the like, plus
newly defined white-collar crimes such as "theft of time."

Instead of focusing on criminal pollution, or the manufacture of hazardous
pharmaceuticals that kill, or illegal union-busting by major corporations,
the few researchers studying white collar crime are looking at how
employees steal from employers.

"If, for example, you take too long on your coffee break, of if you surf
the net when you 'should' be looking at something that is directly
relevant to the employer's interest, you are guilty of the offense of
theft of time," Snider says. "You are stealing the employer's money by
taking their time."

This focus fits well with a power structure that rewards ideas supportive
of the corporate domination of society, while punishing those who would
question that domination.

Snider is one of the world's handful of corporate criminologists --
academics who focus primarily on the study of corporate crime. She is the
author of Bad Business: Corporate Crime in Canada (Nelson, 1993 and is the
editor, along with Frank Pearce, of Corporate Crime: Contemporary Debates
(University of Toronto Press, 1995).

Corporate criminologists like Snider tend to be found in out of the way
places, like Kingston, Ontario, Canada, or Adelaide, Australia, or
Scranton, Pennsylvania. For some reason, the big city major universities
in the United States find it inconvenient to put up with a corporate
criminologist.

David Friedrichs is a corporate criminologist who has settled in at the
University of Scranton in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

There, he has written Trusted Criminals: White Collar Crime In
Contemporary Society (Wadsworth Publishing, 1996), the most comprehensive
text book on the subject.

Corporate crime and violence inflicts far more damage on society than all
street crime combined? So why are Snider and Friedrichs in the tiny
minority of criminologists?

Friedrichs says the reasons are complex, but one reason is that there is
no broad-based social movement against corporate crime. 

One major reason why corporate crime gets little attention from reporters,
academics and government officials has little to do with complexity, and
more to do with the simple reality of corporate power. Big corporations
have marinated our formerly independent institutions in corporate cash and
influence.

Why should reporters tackle tough issues of corporate power and crime when
such a foray might lead to loss of job, income and family support? Why
should an academics study corporate crime when government funding sources
send signals that such study is unwelcome? And why should a Justice
Department researcher propose to keep track of corporate crime statistics,
knowing that business politicians lurk in the hallways, waiting to make
life miserable?

Snider makes the obvious point that "certain ideas are much more
appealing" to the powerful ruling interests.

"The idea of corporate crime is one that is simply unappealing to business
elites," she says. "Ever since it was first invented by Edwin Sutherland,
the concept of white collar crime, and specifically corporate crime, has
been actively resisted. Corporations have certainly argued, if they have
had to face up to the idea at all, that corporate executives are not
criminals. We have reserved the concept of 'criminal' for people we think
are different from ourselves."

The result: our prisons are filled with the poor, the minorities  and the
underrepresented.

In law, as in modern corporate life, you get what you pay for.


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Criminal Capitalism Blog

Too Greedy

Bring Out Your Dead

Conrad Black

Money Laundering Canadian Style

Bank Theft

Credit Card Fraud

Primitive Accumulation of Capital

Corporate Crime

White Collar Crime

Criminal Capitalism

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Science Sunday

Sometimes there is an advantage to living north of the 49th parallel. Like being hit by metorites.

Meteorite's Organic Matter Older Than the Sun, Study Says

Enlarge Image
(Dave Chidley/CP)

Peter Brown, a planetary scientist at the University of Western Ontario, points in this October, 2000, photo, to a meteorite found on Tagish Lake, B.C.

Scientists believe it to be the most primitive meteorite ever recovered, a relic from the early moments of our solar system.

Meteorite yields life origin clue

the meteorite scientists call 'the real time machine

Ancient Meteorites from Outer Solar System May Have Provided Raw Material For Life

Building blocks of solar system detected

Finding Our Origin in a Meteorite

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science

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Sacrilegious Sushi

This gives new meaning to Fishers of Men......

UK pastor behind worldwide shark smuggling racket

A British pastor of the Moonies church faces jail for masterminding a world-wide shark poaching and smuggling racket.

As a result of his illicit trade, many exotic fish fanciers in the UK may be in for a shock. What they bought as an unusual addition to their fish tanks could grow to 7ft long.

Kevin Thompson, 48, from Jarrow, near Newcastle, now based at the Unification church in San Leandro, California, is one of six men arrested for taking, then selling, thousands of undersized leopard sharks.

One FBI theory is that Thompson was trying to impress his leader, the Rev Sun Myung Moon, who has repeatedly extolled the virtues of fishing and refers to himself as King of the Ocean. Where Jesus referred to “fishers of men”, the Rev Moon’s church has become a major distributor of raw fish to more than six thousand restaurants in the US.




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Religion

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Sunday Sermon

It's tough getting around preparing the faithful for the end times. Wait a minute if its the end times why the heck do you need a lear jet?

Benny Hinn Ministries:

At recent partners conferences I have talked about the cost to secure this
state-of-the-art jet aircraft, the tool we must have for declaring the Gospel to the nations in this last hour.....

Another Great Canadian.....who gives new meaning to white collar crime.

Benny Hinn - Investigative Report On November 3, 2005, the fifth estate, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s investigative documentary program, broadcast, “Do You Believe in Miracles?”:

Benny Hinn may be the most popular personality in the Christian world today. Thousands pack arenas to see him heal the sick and the afflicted. Tens of thousands more watch his television program. Millions of dollars are donated every year to his ministry, none of which he says goes to him personally. But, what about those miracles? And where does all that money go? Bob McKeown investigates.
- Source: the fifth estate, 2004-2005 season

the fifth estate has now made some of its most popular documentaries available online, including its investigative report on Benny Hinn.

Benny Hinn: Controversy follows TV evangelist
Mass hypnotism, unproven healings, an extravagant lifestyle and lack of financial accountability are some of the allegations levelled against US televangelist Benny Hinn in the six hour, three DVD set The Many Faces of Benny Hinn.

Benny Hinn - A False Prophet

Religion News Blog's archive of news items on Benny Hinn.

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Corporate Crime

Religion

Christianity

Crime

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Same Old Liberals

As I said here despite the rhetoric of renewal and rebirthing of the Liberal Party with their Leadership race, somethings never change.

A long-time Liberal strategist is being accused of sneaking around Canada's political financing laws in his bid to get his party to promote climate change as its top priority to win the next election.

John Duffy, a former adviser to ex-prime minister Paul Martin, has set up a new website, climateliberal.ca, part of a non-profit organization to promote Liberal policies on climate change.

He argues his party has a duty to get the country moving to take action on global warming.

But NDP ethics critic Pat Martin has already fired off a letter of complaint to Canada's elections commissioner. Martin is demanding an investigation into the new outfit, which he suggested could fundraise for Liberal activities and boost the party's profile without being subject to existing restrictions on political financing.

''I call it sleazy and they're trying to pull a fast one on the election financing laws,'' Martin said in an interview. ''One of their (the Liberals) best and brightest operatives is thumbing his nose at the election financing laws by fundraising outside of the (Elections) Act.''

Duffy said his outfit does not fall under existing election laws since its goal is to push the Liberals to change, rather than promoting the party.

Oh, and just to round out his part-time environmental pedigree, John Duffy is also a full-time lobbyist for the nuclear industry. He proposes to fix one environmental problem by creating another.

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Liberals

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Mitt Romney Hypocrite

I guess the first bust will be at the Govenors Mansion.

Governor Mitt Romney has reached an agreement with federal authorities that allows the Massachusetts State Police to arrest immigrants who are in the state illegally, his spokesman said.

GOP Prez Hopeful Used Illegal Workers
Even as Romney travels the country, vowing to curb the flood of low-skilled illegal immigrants into the United States, some of those workers maintain his own yard, cutting grass, pruning shrubs, and mulching trees.

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Liberal Blogger Owes Jack An Apology

The Liberal blogger who mis-identifies his politics as Views From The Left, slags Jack Layton, in a style that is typical of the Blogging Tories or Jason Cherniak. He smears Jack for apparently dissing newly elected Liberal Leader Stephane Dion. He lambasts Jack personally, when Jack never said what he is quoted as saying by AVFTL. And he engages in typical over the top rhetoric, attacking a strawman of his own creation;

Next, I want to turn to the baseless and rediculous attempt by those bastions of integrity, the NDP. I want to tell you that I just want to say I used to have a lot of respect for Jack Layton before he just completely lost his mind. The NDP today is a party that is so out of touch with Canada's priorities, they do nothing but scream, shout and protest, but they really don't have any agenda except to throw softball questions to Cabinet Ministers.

So this is what the NDP said

Stephane Dion is an out of touch academic who spent 10 years in a scandal-ridden cabinet.

Can I actually dignify this attack with a response? I'm pretty much speechless, really this attack just doesn't hold any water. You know what I'm just going to say that I'm not even going to dignify this drivel with a response if Mr. Layton wants to actually talk about the issues then fine I'll disprove him but this stupid baseless attack just isn't worth my time.



So I replied in his moderated comments section with this;

Since you didn't bother to link to the NDP site which you are quoting here is what Jack actually said.

"I want to congratulate Stéphane Dion on his election as the new leader of the Liberal Party. I am looking forward to debating with him and getting to work on the issues that are important to today’s families.

“Public service is a noble calling. All who are willing to dedicate their lives to serving Canada should be congratulated.”

That is a damn polite non-partisan statement. Get yer facts straight if you are going to slander someone for your own partisan political purposes.



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Black Shirts

For the Morton campaign it was all about Black and White, the politics of extremism and polarization.

As always, his supporters at the Alberta Aviation Museum wore black “I’m supportin’ Morton” shirts and buttons.

They remind me of those other 'Black Shirts'. Mortons politics are right wing, not libertarian, though he tried to appeal to libertarians to support him. He is a fascist, albeit a friendly one. Black Shirts, extreme right wing politics, and the unwavering politics of Alberta Uber Alles. Says it all.

Will his supporters pull a Putsch? Nah they will just shift to the Alberta Alliance and other rump right wing parties calling for Alberta Seperation. Nationalism is always the home of the right. Look at the Federal Conservatives, who supported the Quebec Nation motion. Harpers spokesman was the Quebec Pure Laine Minister Laurence Cannon.

And Morton made strange allies in this race. Well not strange for fascists, like the Nazi's whose hatred of gays was only matched by their fear of Jews.

We've all heard that old cliche about politics making strange bedfellows. But there are few couplings more odd in the race to succeed Ralph Klein as Tory leader and premier than the one between Ted Morton and the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada.On Wednesday, the Morton campaign proudly issued a press release announcing the support of the Calgary-based council, and its leader, Syed Soharwardy.

But Soharwardy, whose views have been disavowed by more mainstream Muslim leaders, has made headlines for years with his provocative political views.

In a newspaper article in 2000, Soharwardy wrote that what the Israelis have done to the Palestinians "is worse than the Holocaust of World War II."

In an interview with the Calgary Herald in August, he termed the Israeli bombings of Lebanon an act of genocide. In the past, he's also accused the United States of committing genocide in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In January 2005, after the devastating tsunami, Soharwardy accused Christian missionaries of kidnapping Muslim children in Indonesia. Last year, he called for a boycott of The Da Vinci Code, calling the film blasphemous. He's also been a strong proponent of introducing traditional Islamic sharia law to Canada for Muslim family arbitration.

And what exactly got Morton and Soharwardy into bed together?

Homosexuality, of course.

Morton's press people say Soharwardy supports their candidate because of Morton's stand against gay marriage and in defence of traditional family values.

Ted Morton lost the PC leadership race, but his right wing friendly fascist ideology still found rich soil in Alberta's South, which rivals the American south as a Confederacy of Dunces, where like winter wheat it will sprout up again. With new black shirts whose slogan is Alberta Uber Alles.

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Conservative Leadership Race


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