Rain Rain Go Away

Enough already if I had wanted to live in B.C. I would have moved there. We have had this weather forecast for the past two weeks. From Spring to Summer. I thought solstice brought the return of the sun not rain and clouds. Enough. My garden needs sun not more water. Unfortunately next week looks like much the same.

Severe thunderstorm watch for:
City of Edmonton-St. Albert-Sherwood Park

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH LARGE HAIL ARE POSSIBLE THIS EVENING. THIS IS AN ALERT TO THE POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS..LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS. IF THREATENING WEATHER APPROACHES TAKE IMMEDIATE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS.

THUNDERSTORMS ARE DEVELOPING OVER THE FOOTHILLS AND SWAN HILLS THIS AFTERNOON AND MOVED NORTHEASTWARD ACROSS THE PROVINCE. THE POTENTIAL EXISTS FOR SOME THUNDERSTORMS TO PRODUCE LARGE HAIL, HEAVY RAIN AND STRONG WIND GUSTS.

	Sunday Overnight	Monday Morning	Monday Afternoon	Monday Evening
Temperature	9°C	11°C	14°C	12°C
Condition	Chance of thunder- showers	Rain	Thunder- showers	Cloudy with showers
P.O.P.	80%	90%	60%	90%
Wind	NE 10km/h	N 15km/h	NW 15km/h	NW 20km/h
Humidity	93%	100%	96%	100%
Rain	close to 5mm	5-10mm	5-10mm	close to 10mm

From Sunday Overnight to Monday Evening we expect 25-30mm of rain.

Long Term Forecast

	Tuesday June 26	Wednesday June 27	Thursday June 28	Friday June 29	Saturday June 30	Sunday July 1
High	19°C	22°C	20°C	25°C	25°C	25°C
Low	10°C	10°C	14°C	15°C	16°C	15°C
Condition	Cloudy periods	Mainly sunny	Mainly cloudy	Cloudy periods	Thunder- showers	Scattered showers
P.O.P.	30%	0%	30%	10%	80%	40%
Wind	NW 20 km/h	SE 25 km/h	SE 25 km/h	NW 10 km/h	W 5 km/h	NE 10 km/h

See:

Wetmonton

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Steady Eddie in Decline

Repeat after me; I am not Harry Strom. Really. I am not Harry Strom.

Premier Stelmach's own approval ratings have slipped from our last sounding, with a bare majority (54%) of Albertans saying they approve of his performance as Premier, down 12 percentage-points from April. Of that, 15% "strongly approve" (down 6-points) while 39% "moderately approve" (down 6-points). Notably, Stelmach's approval rating is much lower in Calgary (42%) than in either Edmonton (58%) or the rest of Alberta (63%).

Beware of the wrath of the Party of Calgary.

Stelmach Tanks

After the blow out in Calgary Elbow the Stelmach government tries to make amends by appointing three more Calgarians, and one Edmonton MLA who is Ukrainian and a popular a former Liberal, to cabinet.


To add insult to injury they are not even real cabinet ministers, they are mere 'associates'. You know like WalMart Associates.

Unfortunately it is too little too late.

Honeymoon Officially Over For Stelmach Government

CALGARY/AB--(Marketwire - June 23, 2007) - A new Ipsos Reid poll finds a substantial decline in support for the Ed Stelmach-led Progressive Conservatives. The Progressive Conservatives currently have the backing of 47% of Alberta's decided voters, down 12 points from 59% just two months ago (April). This returns the Progressive Conservatives to the same level of voter support they achieved in the 2004 Alberta provincial election. In fact, all four major parties have returned to exactly where they stood in the last election. Among decided voters, 29% say they would vote Liberal, 10% would vote New Democrat and 9% would vote for the Alberta Alliance Party.

A look at voter support by region produces some telling results for the Progressive Conservatives. In Calgary, Stelmach's party has the support of 42% of decided voters. This is a decline of 8-points from the 50% support the Progressive Conservatives achieved in the last election. In contrast, the Progressive Conservatives are up 12 points in the Edmonton CMA (47% today vs. 35% in election) and up 2-points in the rest of Alberta (53% today vs. 51% in election).

SEE

• Stelmach Blames Eastern Bums
• Terrror In Tory Town
• Calgary Elbow Goes Liberal
• It's A Sweep
• Alberta Election Results
• Where's The NDP?
• Election Day In Alberta

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Ding Dong Tories

Even if it meant protecting Canadians who elected them from being subjected to a communications monopoly, the likelihood that the privatizing Conservatives, whose love of big business is expressed my its Industry Minister , would do anything like interfere in the market well ferget about it. Canada telecoms merger up to regulators: Harper

A consumer advocate warned Thursday that a proposed $50-billion merger between Bell Canada Inc. and Telus Corp. would be a loser for customers of the two telecom giants.

"The government and the regulators should simply turn down this merger," said Charles Tanguay, communications manager for Quebec's Union des Consommateurs. "This is critical because it would weaken competition in both the traditional wireline and wireless markets and expose consumers to continuing high prices and second-rate services."

Canadian consumers already pay almost twice the average per-minute charged in the U.S. and Europe and the market has too few players, Tanguay noted.

"A monopoly would be worse than today's duopoly, influence regulated markets unduly and freeze out new entrants."

See:

Monopoly Capitalism in Cyberspace

Telus

BCE

CRTC

Bernier

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My Post To the Carnival of Anarchy

Here is my post to this weekends Carnival of Anarchy on Anarchism and Ecology.

Murray Bookchin An Apprectiation

While the Mainstream Media, and the right, have been focusing on Rachel Carson, whose 100th birthday is this year, and her work Silent Spring as the foundation of the modern North American ecological/environmental movement it is important for anarchists to point out that Murray Bookchin was also a founder of the modern ecology/environmental movement.

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Afghan Civilian Deaths No Accident

Accident, murder is the word, murdered not by accident but by deliberate strategic air attacks.

Afghan police said overnight bombing in Helmand province left 25 villagers dead, which by one count would mean at least 250 civilians have died by accident this year under fire from international forces and their Afghan allies.

By one estimate, that suggests civilian casualties are running at twice the rate of last year. Human Rights Watch has estimated that NATO and U.S. military operations killed 230 civilians in 2006.

And its not International forces, its American air support.

Americans are infamous for air support friendly fire incidents in Afghanistan, where they have killed our own troops, and in Iraq, where they killed British troops. Let alone the regular civilian casualties which have occurred this year almost every time air support operations were launched in Afghanistan.

Which is why land based tank and infantry missions are more successful in NOT killing villagers. You can see who the bad guys are, while from the air everyone looks the same, little blips on the computer screen.

This is a great way NOT to win hearts and minds. And all the PR fluff about the Taliban using human shields cannot cover up the fact that air support is a sure fire way to get civilians killed.


Also See:

Friendly Fire

Afghanistan

War





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Anarchy and Ecology

Beginning today, though as per usual with our little anarchist cooperative someone posted early and someone will likely post late, the Carnival of Anarchy will be hosting a weekend of blogging on the topic of Anarchism and Ecology. Green Anarchy, environmental anarchy, social ecology,etc.

Dust off your old Murray Bookchin books.

The period of contribution runs from Friday June 22nd to Sunday June 24th.

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Land Mine?

As I have posted here and here Afghanistan is a country full of land mines. And why does this incident have to be anything other than another land mine accident.

Three Canadians travelling between two checkpoints just a few hundred metres apart died Wednesday in Afghanistan when their all-terrain vehicle hit a roadside bomb that insurgents apparently managed to plant without being detected.

Worse yet the soldiers were unprepared, unprotected since they were riding in an unarmored ATV. An ATV for gods sakes.

The small John Deere-made open-top six-wheeler had no armour to protect its occupants.

Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, commander of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, shrugged off questions about what soldiers were doing riding around dangerous trails in an all-terrain vehicle primarily used to whip supplies around military bases. The risk seemed manageable and, besides, it was about the only type of vehicle that could weave through the tight off-road trails in the area, he argued.

While the accident could force the military to give its procedures a second look, the sketchy details suggest the military has already decided this is a tragic accident and not a case of procedural or protocol carelessness.

"The vehicle was appropriate for the task at hand and the terrain that they were travelling in," he told reporters.

Facts & Figures - Landmine casualties (2004)

Also See:

Friendly Fire

Afghanistan

War





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Vroom Vroom

Seems that my and other bloggers comments on the Conservatives 'C' Car in the Canadian NASCAR races has raised hackles on the right; here and here.

They of course both fit the NASCAR profile of 'voters' the Conservatives claim to 'want' to represent.

63% of fans at the track and viewers at home are between the ages of 30-49.
69% of motorsports fans make between $30,000 - $75,000 a year.
74% are homeowners.
75% are males.

Running a car in NASCAR Canada is what we call advertising to the converted.

The 12-race series will likely attract about 70,000 people across Canada -- the only B.C. stop is Vernon -- with some additional viewers on TV.

"This is a unique opportunity for the Conservative party to reach out to Canadians," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in a release.

NASCAR has a big middle-class fan base that the Tories want to get their message out to.

Immigration Minister Diane Finley says sponsoring a car is a way for the Conservatives to tap into that following.

A Conservative source said the goal is to reach middle-class voters who don't like current Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and have bad memories of Brian Mulroney's leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party from 1984 to 1993.

"We're targeting what we have termed the Canadian Tire voter. It's basically a middle-income house owner in suburban areas, regional centres and rural communities with a do-it-yourself mentality. These people in the past have often seen the Conservative Party as out-of-touch and elitist," the source said.

Despite its popularity in America, in Canada motor sports are still elitist, as are Harpers Conservatives.

This spring's budget served up a sprinkling of tax and spending initiatives for everyone from seniors to farmers, and Conservative strategists have identified a number of segments to target, such as the "Tim Hortons" crowd and the "Canadian Tire" crowd.

Greg Weston of the Sun makes a good point about why we should be concerned about this and other Conservative party political advertising. We pay for it as taxpayers, but the party is not accountable to the public for its spending, which even the boys on the right should be outraged about.

But so far, they have all missed the real question that should be of interest to the vast majority of Canadian taxpayers: Whose money is it, anyway?

If the NASCAR deal were being paid entirely by donors to the Conservative party, it would not be an issue to anyone but those who have coughed up the contributions.

But it's not a private party issue.

Thanks to the genius of Jean Chretien's banning of corporate and union donations, Canadian taxpayers now fund the federal parties to the tune of roughly $28 million this year.

More than $10 million of that will go directly into the coffers of the Conservative party to spend on pretty much anything it wants.

Add to that the tax deductions for individual contributions to the Conservative party, and probably close to two-thirds of the money in the Tories' overflowing till is coming from taxpayers' pockets.

And while NASCAR fans express their outrage over comments made about the Conservatives opportunism lets not forget that other little fact, this is a kick back to their pal Pierre Bourque who writes his headlines for them.

It turns out the party logo - a big blue "C" - appears on the hood of the car driven by Pierre Bourque, whose popular Internet news aggregator sells torqued headlines to political operatives.

Bourque's website confirmed the connection Monday, linking to a story by Inside Track Motorsport News that noted his Dodge Charger is the sponsored Tory vehicle.

Research on the business model for Bourque Newswatch suggests the federal Conservative party has just guaranteed itself favourable coverage for the foreseeable future by sponsoring Bourque's hobby.

Past and current Bourque clients have confirmed to The Canadian Press that advertisers on the site can expect flattering headlines or links, or headlines and links denigrating their opponents.

The Conservative party refuses to confirm or deny that it employs Bourque's headline service directly. But months of negative headlines and links to scathing blogs about Liberal Leader Stephane Dion on Bourque Newswatch indicate someone with an axe to grind is paying the news aggregator, which openly advertises its headline service for sale.

When the Conservatives announced the NASCAR sponsorship Sunday, they also neglected to mention the sponsored vehicle is driven by Bourque.

Instead, the party's news release referred to Whitlock Motor Sports.

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I Thunk It

I must say thank you to Politics n Poetry and Werner Patels who nominated me for a Thinking Blog Award. And so as this is a meme I will now nominate my five favorite blogs that make me think.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (There is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).

These will be shameless plugs for folks who I consider kindred spirits.

1. Larry Gambone, my old pal who publishes Porcupine Blog, and is a long time anarchist activist. Larry represents the ideals of Proudhon and the mutualist traditions in Anarchism, voluntary cooperation, self management, and is a fellow pantheist.

2. Pat Murtagh, another old anarchist pal who publishes Molly's Blog under the pseudonym of Molly's Mews. He is decidedly not a fellow heathen, but that can be forgiven since he is critical of scientific fundamentalism as he is of religious fundamentalism. And I like the fact he does a weekly round up on his blog.

3.BigCityLib Strikes Back who shares with me a fascination with cryptozoology.

4. Mike over at Rational Reasons, because he comments here, and because his blog should be read by more folks, who think you can't be libertarian and support the NDP.

5. Idealistic Pragmatist a fellow Redmontonian and anonymous female blogger, whose commentary on fellow bloggers and political news is always worth reading.


There you go, I could add more, but the meme says five. So thats what ya get, a high five guys.

On to you.


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