Liberal Genocide; The Lubicon

Back in the early 1970's the University of Alberta student newspaper the Gateway was a radical collective of left and right wingers, all opposed to the War in Vietnam and pro-student democracy. This was part of the move to democratize institutions and work places that was the New Left. The university took exception to their publishing the FLQ manifesto during the October Crisis, and offence to their front page picture of Uncle Sam humping a Canadian Beaver with the headline Fighting for Peace is like F***ing for Virginity. This got the paper banned and the collective was disqualified from running the paper.

I was still in high school, and part of the high school student radical movement, we also produced our own underground newspapers, as well as a Radio Program on CKUA and were active in the embryonic Video Guerrilla movement.. We produced an underground paper for the city that was called The Orb, much like the Georgia Straight, and had followed after the demise of the city’s first underground paper, the Rice Street Fish Market.

The Gateway staff did something unheard of and never done before or since, they took the paper, its advertising revenues and its membership in Canadian University Press (CUP), off campus. They killed the Gateway on campus and were reborn as a radical people’s community newspaper called, appropriately; Poundmaker; named after the Cree Chief who fought with Riel. Those of us working on The Orb, who were also doing a Peoples Defence Fund, providing the inner city youth, poor, and druggies with free legal aid, were approached by the Poundmaker folks to join forces in one newspaper. So we did.

One of the people in the collective was Bob Beal, a noted journalist and Prairie Historian, who has co authored one of the best books on the Riel Rebellion; Prairie Fire.

The paper identified a common struggle in Alberta, between workers fighting to unionize the then embryonic Tar Sands, the native peoples struggles in the same region, and the corporate dominance of Alberta under the new Lougheed Government. One of the stories that we broke that made the news was the disaster at Buffalo Lake, the outbreak of TB and the extreme poverty of the Woodland Cree people who belonged to the Lubicon Nation.

Because the paper also had members of the collective working for the Mainstream Press we were able to get national coverage of this disaster. A disaster of the then genocidal policies of the Department of Indian Affairs of the Trudeau Liberals, under the Minister of the day; Jean Chrétien. It was a paper policy of assimilation at all costs and here it was in all its horrible reality Northern Alberta. The independence of the aboriginal peoples was being denied by the Liberal Government of the day, and native resistance was growing to the policies of assimilation or death.

The Lubicon have been without treaty rights and denied a historical and geographical existence because they remained autonomous from Treaty 6. There are other aboriginal groups across Canada who remain autonomous, outside of the treaties, though small in number they actively supported the American Indian Movement, and in Alberta they developed their own schools, and community services, without State funding or regulation. And during the seventies one of these autonomous aboriginal communities gave ‘sanctuary’ to Leonard Peltier who was later illegally kidnapped from this autonomous zone by the RCMP on behalf of the FBI.

The Lubicon and their rights to the land, land they never gave up, land that has been sold by the Federal and Provincial governments to the Oil Companies and to the Logging industry, remains the longest unresolved land deal in Canadian history.

And it belies the current Liberal governments claim to be dealing with Aboriginal rights. The recent Aboriginal round table and the accord, was between federations of treaty Indians, and Métis who the colonialist Department of Indian Affairs approves. Who led these 'first peoples' discussions, who set their agenda, none other than Phil Fontaine, Liberal flack and President of the AFN, a comprador ogranization that is just an extension of the Department of Indian Affairs. Nothing was said, or done for the Lubicon.

Blogger Dr. Dawg has done an exceptional job on documenting this history of injustice, and yes modern day genocide by the Liberal Government in its treatment of the Lubicon. I thought I would end this article and quote his closing comments from his excellent article; Paul Martin: Crossing the Lubicon

It is an issue as important as that of the recent disasters on reserves over the unhealthy living conditions they have been left in. And unless a boycott campaign, such as was launched by the Friends of the Lubicon, draws attention to them, the Federal Government continues to ignore the Lubicon, and continues to perpetuate this injustice.

Dr. Dawg says it’s an issue for this election. I agree. It is a disgrace, and it exposes the real scandal that is the historical role of the Liberal Government and its policies towards Canada’s aboriginal peoples; Assimilation or Death.

Successive federal governments have intervened shamelessly to break the Lubicon resolve. Using its power to create Indian bands under the Indian Act, the Liberal government under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien invented two other bands, hoping to lure away Lubicon; the members of one band, the "Woodland Cree," had been promised $1000 each if they voted for a federal offer of a pitifully inadequate reserve, but they later found out that this would be deducted from their welfare payments.

This brings us almost to the present day, and Paul Martin's shameful continuation of this miserable tradition. He promised to start negotiations with the Lubicon by the end of March 2004, but this never took place, and federal officials claim that they have been given no mandate to negotiate. It's been bad faith all the way with Mr. Dithers.

Amnesty International has denounced Canada for its treatment of the Lubicon; and the UN Committee on Human Rights, which heard the Lubicon complaint and found against Canada in 1990, repeated its concerns only last month.

Decency demands that we make Martin and his Liberal "team" accountable for this outrage during the current campaign campaign. But we ought to be even-handed about it. We should embarrass the Conservatives, whose own record has been nothing to be proud of on aboriginal affairs, and we should force the NDP to put this issue on the front burner. The survival of the Lubicon--those who are left--depends upon it. Let's stand up for them before it's too late."

Summer Flashback

So winter has returned to Redmonton, just in time to be official, next week Dec. 21. Brrrr -14c, but no snow. There is more snow on the ski hills, thanks to snow machines. So looks like a brown winter. Which gets me wishing for Summer again.

So I made a new drink this week, Orange Crush and Papaya juice. The juice is 100% not concentrate. Mix it 1/2 and 1/2 with Crush, not Fanta, not some generic orange pop (yech). And actually to be specific Diet Orange Crush which is made with Splenda (tm) not Aspertame or the other carcinogenic sweetners.



The flavour of the the Diet is like the old time Orange Crush** I grew up with which was produced here localy by Wild Rose Bottleing Co., a company originally owned by Bill Hawerlak, and his ethnic partners, he was the first Non Anglo Mayor of Edmonton, but that is a story for another day.

Anyways, great drink. If you want mix in Vodka, or White Rum, or Tequila, or not, and viola Summer returns in a glass even at -14c.

**And lastly but thankfully, nothing is known of the origins of the name Orange Crush. A truly wonderful name that became a slang term for an infamous defoliant used in the Vietnam War, a nickname for the Denver Bronco’s defense, a song and, sadly, a mixed drink that contains no Orange Crush but rather Vodka, Triple Sec, Orange Juice and yes, 7up.

Clever Canadians

I love this country. Canadians have a great sense of humour, we not only tell it like it is but we often do so with our tongues firmly in our cheeks. Especially when pollsters ask us leading questions like this one;

In terms of style, English-speaking Canadians say Martin (45 per cent) acted and sounded the most like a Prime Minister.

See what I mean, very dry wit. Now the follow up question should have been; Who is the Prime Minister of Canada

a tip o the blog to political staples for this

A Word from the Wobblies

The newest issue of our branch newsletter The Wobbly Dispatch
is available for download now.

If you want to see how the class struggle is doing in Alberta

feel free to download it from our web site at:

http://edmonton.iww.ca/Wob-Dispatch-Iss3.pdf

IWW Edmonton GMB.

Told Ya So

Yep the MSM and the Liberals can try and go after Harper on Same Sex Marriage but its all moot now. As I said here after the French Debate Harper admitted that its over. He WILL NOT use the Not Withstanding clause.And as I said the gnashing of teeth, renting of clothes and howling of the homophobic rightwhing will begin and it has. Damn I love it when I am right.

Duceppe Gaffe

Apparently Gilles Duceppes comment last night;"We shouldn't have a free vote every six months on a question that's already been decided." has gotten the blogoshpere left and right and centre all in a tizzy.Of course he was talking about SSM and the Tory plan to revisit the issue if they become government. And of course as predictable the response from the above folks has been to remind Duceppe about all those Quebec referendums.

A couple of points the last referendum was a decade ago and fifteen years after the first one. And they were REFERENDUM's not Legislature or Parlimentary votes. They were the voice of the people. This is comparing, for the sake of cliche, apples and oranges.......

Liberals Torys Same Old Story

A tip o the blog to Calgary Grit for this quote from last night.
7:21 pm: "Putting money in your hands is the best way to go." Guess who? ....Paul?!? Paul!?!
Which allows me to use this Harper quote again...
"there really are no differences between a conservative and a Paul Martin. "


Tags
Paul Martin
Canada
Federal Election
Politics
Conservative
Liberal
Stephen Harper
blogs
tax cuts

Election 2006 Stop the Privatization of Health Care

The Council of Canadians has launched their Election campaign around the privatization of health care. They have an online PDF file for a window poster you can down load and print.






Tags
privatization
medicare
Federal Election 2006
Canada
health care

Blogging the WTO

This is the first time Canadians who are attending the WTO have blogged about it.

Paul Moist President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, CUPE, is blogging from the WTO Ministerial meetings in Hong Kong. Remember them, of course you do despite the current case of the National Media and Blogosphere navel gazing over the coming election (yes I plead guilty). Moists blog gives daily impressions of protests and actions outside the WTO meetings as well as about the Labour delegations inside the meetings.

The Council of Canadians is also in attendance as an NGO group and their Trade Council Member Jean-Yves LeFort, is blogging from the Ministerial meetings.


Tags
WTO
blogs
unions
Canada
globalization

WTO: Privatization of Water

This round of WTO Ministerial talks is not just about agriclutural subsidies, but also about international agreements to create the Market State, specifically around the privatization of public services.

WTO releases the first draft on services


Saturday, 17 December , 2005, 12:37

Hong Kong: The WTO on Saturday released the first version of the draft text on services negotiations, scaling down expectations and reflecting little movement in the sector, on the penultimate day of the Ministerial in Hong Kong.

The first version of services draft meets the demands of G-90 group of developing countries and completely rules out the launch of plurilateral negotiations, which could have helped countries like India having offensive interest in the sector to secure greater market access.

The draft leaves the date for finalisation of agreement undecided. It has also left out any proposal for a possible framework agreement on government procurement of services, another key demand of G-90 countries. This provision was important for countries like India, who face a threat of legislation in the US on outsourcing.

So its not just opening the market up to more outsourcing of Telework or IT but also opening the markets up for essential services such as water and utilities privatization. And as former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed warned Canada yesterday we must be prepared for the push to sell our water to the U.S. And while our current Premier agreed with Lougheed that Canada should oppose selling our water south of the border, he left himself an out.

But Klein also says water exports shouldn't be decided by the federal government because it's an environmental issue over which provinces have authority.

This services agreement means a further expansion of corporate governance of the emerging Market State over the soveriegnty of people and their ability to govern themselves. In other words the Nation State. And as limited as self governance is under the Nation State, it would and will be even less in the privatized Market State. Corporate governance would dominate.

The current development of the Market State is a convergence of Civil Society (TM), that is the NGO community, National Governments and the Transnational Corporations. The NGO community which claims to speak for you an me in opposition to both the National State and the TNC's. But does it? As we have seen from numerous disasters in the past year, the NGO's are bound hand and foot to the UN, and the national governements. Now European based NGO's are becoming a third party in the delivery of privatized services, through disaster relief.

The issue of privatization of water shows them as being agents of the Market State, promoting the private delivery of water services first during disasters and then allowing for its expansion as an alternative to the so called failure of National governments to provide for their citizens.

And the companies that are benefiting are the same old rogues gallery Halliburton, Bechtel, Nestles, Coca Cola etc! These are the privateers of water. And they are not just focusing on the Third World, as Lougheed says expect them to come knocking at our door soon. This is not just about America wanting Canada's water, as the nationalists like Maude Barlow have proclaimed, its about the creation of the Market State, where corporations rule by dominating how services are delivered. And the so called organizations of Civil Society, the NGO's are now its partners. Its newset form of P3, Public Private Partnerships. Its the new Trilateralism neccasary for the Market State.

The Canadian state has been outsourcing and privatizing services for the past twelve years, it has promoted more P3's as the new model of the State both in policy decisions and through the recent pronouncements of the Bank of Canada President David Dodge. This is the devlolution of the National State as the Market State comes into being.

An execellent article on this which I feel obliged to quote a lengthy excerpt from is below. The whole article is very detailed and much longer and worth saving in your files.

Global Wars for Water, Facts on World Hunger and Poverty

Belgium (HAN) December 17, 2005 -

In Manila, the capital of the Philippines, with a population of 12 million, cholera broke out in November 2003 as a result of E coli bacteria being transmitted by the drinking water-supply. Two transnational companies, Suez (France) and Bechtel (USA), have been responsible for the public water system in the huge metropolis since 1997. Bechtel had already hit the headlines in the year 2000 on account of another affair: after the giant company took over the public water system in Cochabamba/Bolivia and increased water-rates by an exorbitant amount, public protests and revolts broke out. Many people were left wounded and one person dead, after the government declared a state of martial law and protestors were fired on with live ammunition. Bechtel employees “fled” and the water privatisation deal had to be called off. Less well-known is the fact that a $25 million legal action, which Bechtel subsequently filed against Bolivia in a WTO secretive trade court operated by the World Bank, is still pending at this moment in time.

The largest water companies have their headquarters in Europe:

• Suez Lyonnaise; Véolia; Danone; SAUR in France
• RWE/ Thames Water/ American Water Works; Aqua Mundo; Berlinwasser; Gelsenwasser in Germany
• Biwater; Severn Trend and United Utilities in Great Britain and
• Nestle in Switzerland
• Add to this list the two US heavyweights: Bechtel and Coca Cola.

Alongside France and Great Britain, those pioneers of water privatisation, Germany plays a unique role in all of this because two government departments, the BMZ (Department of Agricultural Cooperation and Development) and the BMWA (Department of Finance and Employment) have meanwhile become two of the most aggressive architects of water privatisation not only at EU level but also at the WTO level: hundreds of millions of euros are being invested via “development aid funds” in order to make it easier for German companies to gain access to public water systems in the Third World as well as in EU countries. The BMZ offers companies a veritable “conjuring set” of assistance in the form of: loans, “insurance facilities”, Hermes sureties, offices in foreign countries which can be used as bases, German embassies acting as contact partners, profit guarantees and useful advice on how to gain the trust of decision-makers in foreign countries. Under the guise of providing “aid”, a “powerful German water industry” (Dr Uschi Eid, permanent secretary at the BMZ) is to be set up, which will be able to defy and even outstrip the two largest water companies in the world (Suez and Véolia, France). Well-known organisations such as the GTZ (German Association for Technical Cooperation), the KFW (Credit Institution for Reconstruction), the DEG (German Investments and Development Limited), the European Central Bank and others are all helpers faithful to the cause.

One of the most recent campaigns is the “Multi-Stakeholder Review”, a worldwide “study” intended to clarify whether or not and in which areas water privatisation “makes sense”. Large numbers of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) are being dragged in and integrated into the process. The day-to -day running of this business lies with the “relief organisation” Water Aid (Great Britain) and is funded mainly by the German companies GTZ and RWE/Thames Water, the third largest water company in the world. The slogan “Water is a human right” is being linked in this campaign to the “Millenium Target 2015” which is to halve the number of people in the world who have no access to drinking water by the year 2015 (United Nations Conference on the Environment 2000). The World Bank, the BMZ and the companies involved have named the sum necessary in order to achieve this goal: 180 billion US dollars per annum. Since governments are not (any longer) able to raise this money, people will now have to rely on the readiness of companies to invest.

This financial “assistance” would, however, have consequences: with regard to the public water systems, the right of disposal would pass into the hands of the companies, who would then proceed to make millions of dollars in profit by exploiting the predicament of those dependent on the water for their survival.

Tags
WTO
Water
privatization
Africa
globalization

News Flash From Iraq

Syria/Iraq border 4,500 BCE.

Cradle of Civilization Rocked by War .

"The whole area of our most recent excavation was a war zone,

" Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Tags
Iraq
archaeology
Syria
War
Ancient Civilizations

You Gotta Log In

I added the blogger word verification to cut down spam. Robert at My Blahg found it difficult, gee Robert its only a bunch of letters now if you ate more carrots you could probably read them easier, and I turned it off and then I got spam comments on how to invest in the Grand Caymans.....so back on it went. Now I am getting too many Anon-My-Ass kinda postings, and while I appreciate most of them even if we disagree...well its kinda useless to discuss anything with someone who doesn't have the courtesy to have a name. I don't care if its a psuedonym but Anon don't cut ya gotta register here now to leave a comment. That goes for you too WK, enough with the Anon posts. There now back to our regular programing.

Climate Change and Social Barbarism

Did desertification change a utopian idylic society into a harsh mean and brutal authoritarian one? My pal Larry Gambone asks the question and provides some links to this fascinating theory.

Progressive Bloggers down but not out

Progressive Bloggers and Liblog went down last night, came up gasped for air, and disappeared again. Server problems.....uh oh.... So if this page is slow in loading thats the reason. The links to PB are not loading. Wayne Chu was working on the problem when last I checked very early in the AM. Hey I hear that, ok the Blogging Tory's can quit cheering now.

Same Sex Marriage is here to stay

Well its nice to know that I am not the only one who interpreted Harpers comments on Same Sex Marriage in the debate last night as being an admission it's here to stay. GayandRight also came to the same conclusion.

"Stephen Harper has said the magic words. He will NOT use the notwithstanding clause to eradicate the right to same-sex marriage. So, what Harper has done is historic - it really makes SSM firm, and it also shows that this is NOT an issue that he is willing to expend a significant amount of political capital on."

Yep Harper staked the homophobic right in the heart......you will hear the screaming start in the morning. Once a few pundits and media types realise how he has extracated himself out this mess. By saying the Supreme Court directed parliment to decide, which it has, and that he won't use the Not Withstanding Clause, its done, fini. Non issue in the election. Except for the right wing which has a faint hope clause that a private members bill to overturn SSM would pass in the house. Fat chance. And after last night No Chance.

Twelve Long Years of Scandal.....

In Ottawa......and Alberta. A tip o the blog to BBS who did this long massive documentation of twelve years of Liberal scandals. But I am still not voting for Harper.

I believe that the NDP electoral reform plan along with with Ed Schreyer's criticism today of the whole PMO/Cabinet/Treasury Board failures, presents the best way of cleaning up the Mulroney/Chretien/Martin mess.

Oh yes the Blogging Tories convinently forget that Chuck Guite did the same kind of dirty deals for the Mulroney PC government before his new masters gave him an open check book. I certainly would love to see a similar list of Alberta scandals done on King Ralph and the Tory Tyranny here. I mean in one month we have had more scandals in Alberta than Ottawa had in two years. And lets not forget BreX which ran up as a penny stock on the ASE and crashed big time.

The effort and outrage over the purported leak and profiting from the Income Trust Announcement is another issue the BT's are thumping their chests over. Now a lot of these folks are from Alberta so how come they ain't talking about the scandals in the Alberta Corporate Sector, the Alberta Stock Exchange and its monitor, the Alberta Securities Exchange Commission.

Here is a Tory appointed head of the ASC and he is fined for insider trading. To assuage his guilt over his illegal actions, he has a chat with Ralph who suggests he donate his ill gotten gains to the food bank. Yep thats just good old boy Alberta cronyism.

Now had the Liberals in Ottawa done this the howling of the BT's would have been blood curdling. But in Alberta, not a peep out of them. So if anything does come of the Goodale affair, perhaps he can take a page from Ralph Klein and visit a food bank.

But of course don't expect any outrage from the Blogging Tory's. Because what is s a democratic deficit, a tyranny, a one party dictatorship in Ottawa, applies in Alberta but even more so. But of course you know what they say about consistency and hobgoblins......

I Thought of Kinsella

I came across this blog and immediately thought of Warren Kinsella. Don't know why that would be...he said sarcastically.

Green Party Seal Hunt Flippers

Another Green Party member in Newfoundland has quit.
The party had nominated Jane McGillivray, a Happy Valley-Goose Bay medical doctor and environmentalist.But McGillivray, who was only in the race for the Jan. 23 election for two weeks, has the left the campaign, saying a ban on the seal hunt would be unfair to people on Canada's East Coast.

Last week they lost an organizer now its a high profile candidate. And its all over the seal hunt, which party boss Harris (no relation to Mike) has insisted is party policy. A party policy that was adopted by the executive not the members. But it sells well off the Rock.

And just in time too because of course in the midst of the election the annual seal hunt will happen. And the usual suspects will launch their international fundraising campaigns against the hunt, see Green Opportunism: The Anti-Sealing Lobby

The good doctor complained about the lack of consistency in the Green Party platform on the enviornment and climate change.But hey consistency is the bugaboo of political opportunism."I don't see the Green party standing up and banning feed lots in southern Ontario, which are clearly contributing to all sorts of greenhouse gases and in fact are very inhumane in terms of the way pigs are treated and cows are treated."

A tip o' the blog to GayandRight for this

Wow That Is Rapid Response

First off the mark is the NDP with no less than five rapid responses to comments made in tonights debates. Wow that is fast fact checking. I may give them a hard time about not blogging, but this blows the Liberals out of the water...their's is old news from yesterday. The Conservatives have just issued a press release tonight about the debate, but no Reality Check since Dec. 14. Yep the NDP is fast tonight....

Thu 15 Dec 2005
Layton Scores In Debate
Thu 15 Dec 2005
Gilles Duceppe claims he supports the development of French language communities outside of Quebec
Thu 15 Dec 2005
Paul Martin to Worried Acadian – Move!
Thu 15 Dec 2005
Martin's Health Care Claim
Thu 15 Dec 2005
Paul Martin’s Child Care Promises

And The Winner Is......

Jack. Yep it was Jack who scored the most hits on Martin and Harper and Duceppe, in tonights debate. He appealed to the Quebec audience as an alternative to (best line of the night) "Duceppes Canada without Quebec, Harpers Americanized Canada and Martins Canada for Liberals."

And while the media and the other leaders complained in the scrum that the format of the debate was dull, Jack loved 'talking to Canadians', and enjoyed the debate format. Cause you could actually hear the policy differences.

This format could be tweeked as Duceppe said to allow more direct encounters, and probably should be for round two. But it was a refreshing change from last years English language debates that went over the top due to bad moderators and format.

Distraction of the night will he or won't he use the not withstanding clause. Harper backing off using it, which means that he would hold a useless free vote in the house. Martin demanding he anwser will you won't you use the accord. Jack got the hit in during the scrum, its a moot point, parliment has passed SSM and you don't take human rights back.

Goof. Martin claiming that a cut to income tax is better than a cut to the GST. Huh? The GST is a regressive consumption tax. And this guy was finance minister.

Best punchline goes to Duceppe 'We must punish the Liberals'. He said punish over and over again with relish. In Quebec it's code for Vote BQ. In the ROC its a call to vote NDP or Conservative so its not much of message. Of course the pundits and commentators give the win to Duceppe, but thats a given if all you look at is his ability to debate in French. What he had to say, was not as effective as Jack.
Jack looked at the camera and said that there was an alterantive to Duceppe and the Liberals and it wasn't Stephen Harper. Points for that.

Straight Answer Please. Harper the policy wonk has a hard time anwsering simple straight forward questions. Tonight was another gaffe on the same level as his failure to say he loves Canada. Asked if he would swear on a bible to keep his election promises, he said he didn't undertand the question and talked around it.
Jack on the other hand said 'absolutely', no hesitation there.

Check out the CBC Blow by Blow Report on the Debate.

Klein Endorses Jack Layton

Yep its true, I must have missed this in the article. But here it is the NDP released it on their web page today.Alberta Premier Ralph Klein has been reported as saying that Jack Layton has a “genuine stance on protecting universal public health care” – and the other leaders don’t.

“Klein suggested there is little to differentiate between Martin and Harper on what Canadians claim is their leading policy concern in this federal election.

"‘I think that both Mr. Martin and Mr. Harper understand that the system is not sustainable. They don't want to address it and they don't want to talk about it, but they're going to have to at some point in this campaign.’

Ouch! Coming from The King of Privatization thats a shot......of the truth. King Ralph knows who will stop him if elected and it ain't Martin or Harper.

The New ED P

I know it actually spells NEP, clever eh. So the NDP has seen one Ed off only to welcome another Ed back. Ed Schreyer will run for the NDP in Manitoba But can he rap dat hip hop thang like Ed Broadbent did last election?

Well he certainly carries weight, as the first ex GG to run for MP in the Commonwealth. He stepped into the ring today with several boxing references, showing his political pugilistic ecumen. And he is the first candidate of any party in English Canada to attack the Liberals over AdScam. Which I thought this election was all about, you know the moral trupitude of the Liberals meant they had lost the trust of parliment.

"I believe for starters that we cannot really get at the main issues in a way that is meaningful until we manage to straighten out and clean up parliament and parliamentary control of cabinet, and through cabinet, control of a Prime Minister's Office, a PMO, that is getting out of control and almost presidential. That's step one," Schreyer said.

With all the announcements on GST cuts, Tax Cuts, Day Care, Health care Military Spending, etc. etc. Gomery and Ad Scam seem to have been pushed to the side until Ed came out today swinging. He picked up right where Broadbent left off, on the ethices and morality of government. And he attacked the PMO, Cabinet and the whole parlimentary edifice. Something the Conservatives failed to do. But of course as an ex-GG he is in the know. This looks like it could get real exciting real fast.

Test Results

Androgynous You scored 80 masculinity and 60 femininity!

You scored high on both masculinity and femininity. You have a strong personality exhibiting characteristics of both traditional sex roles.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 79% on masculinity You scored higher than 44% on femininity

Link: The Bem Sex Role Inventory Test written by weirdscience on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Alberta Ignored

CP has picked up the story that ran on CBC on the weekend about how Alberta is being dis'ed by the party Leaders. Well with the exception of Duceppe of course. Bill Doskotch comments on this on his blog on the CTV site. And I have added my two bits to the discussion there as well. Complete with my election predictions for good old Redmonton. And if you have been paying attention here, and who hasn't, you know what they are, and if you don't read my comment.

US Marshals Coming to a Town Near You

Well if you live in the U.S. Witnesses in Miami airport shooting differ on whether Alpizar made bomb threat Yep trigger happy U.S. marshals who shoot first and ask questions later will now be patroling on the ground. Undercover air marshals to expand to trains, buses In Britain when the police shot and killed an unarmed Brazilian, they were roundly chastised, and a public investigation was conducted.UK police admit error in shoot-to-kill policy In the U.S. the new terror state, they promote you to patroling even more areas. So now if you get on the Greyhound and look funny, blam you're dead.

Blog Notes

Ah the vagaries of the blogosphere. I seem to be passing between phases in the TTLB Ecosystem I go from Slithering Reptile (very Slitherin, I like that) to Flappy Bird, and back again. Over the weekend I was a bird for a couple of days and then back sunning on my rock as a snake. Yesterday I was flapping around for a couple of hours and suddenly the feathers were gone and I was back looking for a rock to sun on....


I discovered these through Knappster, a tip o' the blog to ya.

Wikiblog


I would encourage fellow bloggers to join this international site. Based in the UK. Easiest wiki I have used. So I joined, and I added some catagories. Alberta, Redmonton, Union.

They said it shouldn't be done, and they were probably right, but here it is anyway: The Wikablog, so called because it's a big wiki of blogs. We, the Wikablog's shadowy masters, hope that it will fast become the ultimate wiki of blogs -- and why shouldn't it? All it needs is you. Yes, you.

Union Bloggers



And speaking of Unions,found this website for trade unionists that blog.
you don't have to talk specifically about unions or labour issues, nor do you have to be a union member, just support unions. Clever idea. From Australia.

Union Label weblogs
Union Label is a group whose purpose is to promote trade unionism by displaying a union label on its members' weblogs. If every blogger who was a member of a trade union made that fact clear to their readers, it would generate excellent publicity for the labour movement. By displaying a union label on your weblog, you can help support unionism while tapping in to a network of unionist bloggers and their readers. Note: These weblogs are not necessarily related to the labour movement or politics. Any weblog run by a member of a trade union is entitled to participate.


And a tip o the Blog to BBS for letting us know about this new Election Wiki for Blogs covering the Canadian Election 2006






Ok Its not a blog its a website but after being offline for the past year I am pleased to say that its back up and active. Lots of good stuff here, and glad its back up because it was a real loss when it went away.

Klein Sez Vote Liberal

Klein: Harper will have problems in Central Canada It's not the first time Klein has offered his frank opinion of Harper's chances. And what he has to say contrasts sharply with the positions of other Tory premiers. A political analyst in Calgary is bewildered about why Klein continues to wade into the fray. "I'm not sure what his motives are here, if there are any motives,'' says Keith Brownsey, a professor at Mount Royal College. "It's just Ralph Klein shooting from the lip."This is very hurtful (to) the federal Conservatives.''

His motives are as clear as the nose on his face, and this prof sure is either naive or disingenuous (either way I hope he doesn't have tenure he is obviously out of his league) to suggest that he is just shooting form the lip. Clearly he is not. It is part of the politics of Alberta a long standing strategy of using the mythical historical fued between Ottawa and Alberta to gurantee the ruling party in the provincial legislature to remain in power . Its what has given the PC rule in the province its longevity.

When the peasants are revolting, the party in power looks eastward and sez its them bastards in Ottawa, look look over there. This is no different. Klein ever the consumate politician knows that with the Liberals in power in Ottawa Alberta will have someone to kick around. He fears, dreads actually a Conservative government in Ottawa. As did his predecesors.

When Mulroney ruled, he too wa an eastern bastard as was his party regradless of its Alberta base. The right wing in Alberta that revolted against the Mulroney Bouchard Progressive Conservatives, created the Reform Party which revitalized a populist movement that began to question the long standing PC power in Edmonton. It was not just a movement against Ottawa, but against politics as usual. And when you unleash populist political movements they do not stay within the nice closed parameters of politics as usual.

So of course Klein wants you to vote Liberal, it gurantees his party, even with out him, a better chance of staying in power come the next provincial election. And despite their overwhelming majority, which slipped last election, the PC's are terrified of any form of slippage in the vote. Bashing Ottawa is Alberta's favorite poltical sport, and it gets votes. Have an Alberta based Conservative party in Ottawa and the Liberals provincially will gain ground. Cause we are a province of contrarians.

New Devil Party

Oh this is rich, this is way too good, this is well a good case of watch what ya say cause it can come back to haunt you. Booo! "The NDP could be described as basically a party of liberal Democrats, but it's actually worse than that, I have to say. And forgive me jesting again, but the NDP is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in the affairs of men," said Harper in his speech.

Time For A Canadian Steel Workers Union

During the NAFTA and FTA debates here in Alberta waaaay back in the late 1980's I took a contrarian position to the rest of the left. Call it pragmatic criticism. I said that the labour movement should get over its knee jerk response to these accords because the Americans were inherently protectionist, and that those in Canada who opposed the accords were no more pro union or pro worker than their American counterparts. In the later case I was refering to Mel Hurtig, Mr. Canadian Nationalism and his Council of Canadians. I worked for Hurtig publishers in the seventies, and tried to organize a union at his site. Well needless to say Hurtig publishing was as anti-union as any other company, despite publishing progressive liberal left books. He also printed his books offshore, using his connection with a Japanese publishing company for whom he had distribution rights for North America.

In the case of the Americans, I stated that the Democrats and Republicans were birds of a feather when it came to fair trade, they talked free trade when it was to their advantage and practiced protectionism against opening their markets to the world.

Well the chickens came home to roost. I opposed FTA and NAFTA because they were not Fair Trade deals, and the Mulroney Tories gave up too much to the U.S.
So now we have various NAFTA rulings, on wheat this week, on soft wood lumber, as well as on free movement of cattle. etc. etc. in favour of Canada and America ignores them.

We have the most productive manufacturing sector in North America, our manufacturing base has expanded under NAFTA despite off shoring. For a couple of reasons, one being health care and social benefits that reduce costs and better educated technologically adaptable workers. The other is the secondary manufacturing like Magna that supplies the auto industry, and Toyota and Honda etc. moving here to expand into the North American market via the Auto Pact.

While we still are waiting for the Americans to pay us back for their illegal tarrifs and duties on soft wood a new fight is brewing south of the border. During his first term George W. put an illegal tarrif on steel coming into the U.S. while directed at China, Japan and Europe it impacted directly on our steel industry. Ironically a steel industry that shares the same union, the United Steelworkers of America (USWA).

During the anti-globalization rallies begining in Seattle in 99 the USWA campaigned against China and its steel production demanding protection for American jobs. It was a very jingoist campaign, which brought on side the likes of America First Pat Buchanan. What the USWA was doing was the work for its corporate bosses, bosses who over the last six years have changed ownership and have been integrated into the global market. As many steel companies now are under foriegn ownership.

Only Canada has an independent home grown steel industry. Split between unionized Stelco and non union Dofasco. And so we are a foreign industry, accused of dumping into the U.S. When the elephant sneezes we get a cold.

Bush Jr.'s tarrifs hurt Canada as much as it hurt China. Probably more so, and it can be credited as a factor in Stelco's decline into bankruptcy. It pitted union brother against union brother, and USWA true to form, even with a Canadian VP on its international board, emphasised the America in USW.

Well the WTO discussions are on. And USWA is at it again; doing their corporate masters biding lobbying for protectionism for American steel with little regard for its Canadian members. In their narrow jingoist America First nationalism, they seem to have forgotten they are an 'International' union, meaning that they operate in Canada representing Canadian workers.

The Canadian auto worker used to suffer these same kind of indignities when they were members of the UAW. And while American trade unionists were smashing Japanese cars in protest, Canadian workers split from the UAW and formed the CAW. As jobs get trashed in Ford and GM in the US, and pensions and benefits are slashed under the sell out leadership of the UAW, in Canada CAW has saved jobs, gotten pension payouts, and most job losses will be ameliorated through attrition. And CAW has gotten Ford and GM lucrative government handouts. Now that did not stop these two American companies from cutting their noses to spite their faces, by closing productive plants in Canada. American corporations and their unions are a joint venture in jingoistic America First nationalism, see my Whats Good For GM is Not Good for Canadian Workers.

While USWA in Canada has adapted over the years to plant shut downs, by developing training programs and expanding who it represents it still faces the hard fact that it is an American union in Canada. And America comes first to the USWA. While in the US the declining membership in USWA and other large industrial unions has forced them to consider mergers and acquisitons just like corporate America, to keep themselves afloat. In Canada diversification of representation and organizing the unorganized, as well as raiding other unions, has kept CAW alive and kicking. While USWA struggles in declining membership in Canada so much so that it merged with the Woodworkers union in B.C. But mergers and aquisitions in the labour movement are a limited opportunity and do not represent real growth.

For steel workers in Canada it is time for autonomy and independence and creating a real democratic union run by the members themselves not by hacks in Washington. Despite having an token International VP, USWA is still an American union, it only keeps Canadians on its board to say it is an International.

The time is now. USWA is launching another protectionist campaign that could hurt Canadian steel. And Stelco is coming out of bankruptcy, which would allow a new independent union to actively demand represntation on the board to guarntee job protection. And the workers could have a Canadian Union President instead of a token International VP. It worked for autoworkers. It can work for Steelworkers. And the irony is this, USWA came to power and dominance in Canada during the Cold War, when it was used to smash the Independent Canadian Mine and Mill Workers Union, which was declared a Red Union by the AFL/CIO.

Bush Admits To Being Stupid

This headline says it all, Bush admits intelligence failures So much for the theory of Intelligent Design.

1812 Remembered

As I said in my blog on Amb-ass-asdor Wilkins, without Canada the US wouldn't have the Star Spangled banner. Little did I know that my remarks would be aired on Fox TV.

Hey buddy before you go declaring Canada a Terrorist State or part of the Axis of Evil remember we got yer oil. And we whupped yer ass the last time ya invaded us. And we have been eating Laura Secord choclates ever since.

A tip o the blog to Scott Tribe for this.

1+1=2

Robert Novak the disgruntled Democrat turned Republican mouthpiece says that George Bush knows who Deep Throat is in the Plame affair. Novak and Karl Rove are old cronies, and their little trysts of dishing dirt go all the way back to leaks during George W campaign for Governor. Rove used Novak then for his dirty tricks campaigns too. So despite the red herring of 'another White House source' (which is like the guys on the grassy knoll) its a simple case of 1+1=2 .If Bush knows, and Novak knows it must be Karl Rove. Nes pas.

No One Believes You

Tory TV Ads Backfire

While the Liberal TV Ads were exposed by the NDP to be full of Liberals posing as ordinary Canadians.In the case of the Conservative Party TV ads to make Harper look, soft, human and reasonable, no one had to tell Canadians that the folks in the ads were Conservatives. And despite all his best efforts to look human, approachable, and of the people, no one was fooled by Harpers performance. He didn't win an Academy or a Gemini Award. The Canadian people have given him a Raspberry.


A survey of 1,350 undecided voters who saw the Tory television ads were asked last week to pass judgment. Fifty-nine per cent said the ads would have no impact on their vote. But 19 per cent said the spots made them more likely to vote Liberal, and nine per cent said the ads pushed them toward the NDP. In other words, more than a quarter said they were inclined to do the opposite of what the ads intended. Only 12 per cent said the ads made them more likely to vote for the party that actually paid for them, raising questions about whether the Tory campaign has backfired.

Singing We Won't Get Fooled Again, Canadians held their noses turned off the TV ads for Trust Me Tory and told the guy on the phone that well Harpers TV ads worked, they are definetly not voting for him now.

The same survey found that six per cent of 1,046 undecided voters who saw a Liberal television ad said it made them more likely to vote Tory, and eight per cent said it pushed them toward the NDP. Decima's chief pollster says it's unusual that a political party would get so much advertising bang from its rival's buck. "It's an unusual circumstance and obviously it's something the Conservatives would need to take a look at,'' said Bruce Anderson."There's more than anecdotal evidence . . . that the Conservative advertising doesn't seem to be all that effective. The numbers say it's not.''

Which begs the question, if the Party War Rooms believe this; Television the main medium for strategists How come the Liberals and Conservatives blew it? The winner in the TV Ad war, the NDP. They had a message, they had humour, and they didn't use party members as actors. Cause Canadians now have higher standards for our actors. And we have higher standards for TV production. The country that brings you CSI, NCSI, etc. should not have to put up with ads that look like the Friendly Giant or Mr. Dress up.

Mea Culpa 100,000 Deaths later

Well he finally admited it, he lied, and he led America into a war that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's and thousands of Americans. He forced them to fight, with out supplies, without a break, with no national draft, with no kids of the rich in the War. He Lied! They Died!

But hey this is no Mea Culpa, this is No apology from the War President he is still defending the indefesible. But now we know, He Lied.




War Criminal

Bush: Iraq Invasion My Responsibility

President Bush said Wednesday the responsibility for invading Iraq based in part on faulty weapons intelligence rested solely with him, taking on the issue in his most direct and personal terms in the 1,000-plus days since the war's first shots."It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush said. "As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq."

War and the Market State

A tip o' the blog to bradspangler.com for drawing my attention to these articles.

Which led to inadvertent connections between two articles. Because again in the syncronistic universe that is the WWW, I was looking for his link to this, Counter-Economics: review of excellent book on smuggling and came across another article, which describes the actual nature of what folks mistakenly call globalization.

The creation of the new market states is the result of NAFTA, the EU, and other new evolving models of contractual corporate and state cooperation. They are the WTO, APEC , etcagreements and meetings that are occuring that have set in motion the evolution of the market state that Bobbitt speaks of below.

The War in the Balkans followed by the war in Afghanistan followed by the war in Iraq is not just the war of Empire and Imperialism but of private armies and private contractors, becoming in effect a state, since they provide privatized functions of the state as I have blogged about.See; War! What's it Good For? Profit

The attack on the Balkans was an attempt to end the last vestiges of State Capitalism and pound the Serbians into submissive acceptance of the privatization of the State through strategic bombing of industries.

It is the same with Iraq. It too was the last state capitalist country in the Middle East that had to be privatized. The other countries were less vulnerable since they are hierarchical societies that had opened their markets to capitalism, while remaining fuedalistic social constructs.

An interesting analysis of this concept of the War of the Market State can be found at Global Guerrillas which reviews this book;

The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History

by Philip Bobbitt

" A new form of the State — the market state – is emerging from this relationship in much the same way that earlier forms since the 15th century have emerged, as a consequence of the sixth great epochal war in modern history.

The “market-state” is the latest constitutional order, one that is just emerging in a struggle for primacy with the dominant constitutional order of the 20th century, the nation-state. Whereas the nation-state based its legitimacy on a promise to better the material well-being of the nation, the market-state promises to maximize the opportunity of each individual citizen. The current conflict is one of several possible wars of the market-states as they seek to open up societies to trade in commerce, ideas, and immigration which excite hostility in those groups that want to use law to enforce religious or ethnic orthodoxy.

A state that privatizes most of its functions will inevitably defend itself by employing its own people as mercenaries-with equally profound strategic consequences. "

So if the exisiting nation states are using private armies, and further privatization due to the transformation of these new models of transnational corporate/state agreements creates the historic conditions for the development of market states then the current conflict called the War on Terror is a conflict between the black market states, such as Bin Laden Inc. against 'legitimate' transnational corporate states like Halliburton USA Inc.

In fact all of the current 'Stan states (Afghanistan, Kyhrigistan, etc.) which were once colonial outposts of the Soviet Union and were not fully developed state capitalist economies are now home to much of the black market. And while they are dictatorships still, they are ones that capitalism finds friendly, and able to do business with. But within these states exists another state, that is international in scope and is linked with organized crime, international intelligence agencies, terrorist networks, drug smugglers. etc. etc.

The way these black market states are funded is through what Libertarians call counter economics. Piracy by any other name. The very origins of the primitive accumulation of capital under fuedalism that gave rise to banking, trade and eventually full blown capitalism.

The Necessity of Gangster Capitalism: Primitive Accumulation in Russia and China

It is useful at this point to quote from the book review of Illicit from Global Guerrillas

Moises Naim, the editor of Foreign Policy Magazine, has an excellent new book called Illicit on the rise of global smuggling networks. It's a must read.

Globalization Melts the Map

Moises copiously documents how globalization and rampant interconnectivity has led to the rise of vast global smuggling networks. These networks live in the space between states. They are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere at the same time. He shows how these networks make money through an arbitrage of the differences between the legal systems (and a desire to prosecute) of our isolated islands of sovereignty. He also shows how their flagrant use of corruption can enable them to completely take over sections of otherwise functional states.

By all accounts the amount of money involved is immense. In aggregate, the networks that form this parallel "black" global supply chain, have a "GDP" of $1-3 trillion (some estimates are as high as 10% of the world's economy) and are growing seven times faster than legal trade. These networks supply the huge demand for:

• Drugs (both recreational and pharmaceutical).
• Undocumented workers (for corporations, home services, and the sex trade).
• Weapons (from small arms to RPGs, many come from cold war arsenals).
• Rip-offs of intellectual property (from digital content to brand named consumer goods).
• Laundered and unregulated financial flows.

This supply chain isn't run by the vertically integrated cartels and mafias of the last century (those hierarchies are too vulnerable, slow, and unresponsive to be competitive in the current environment). The new undifferentiated structures are highly decentralized, horizontal, and fluid. They specialize in cross border movement and therefore can handle all types of smuggling simultaneously. They are also very reliant on modern technologies to rapidly transport and coordinate their global operations.

I would also reccomend Robert Naylors Hot Money, though dated, from the 1970's, it was one of the first to talk about International Finance and the black market and its impact on the bank meltdowns like BCIC and the connection of the banking industry to the black markets and their involvement in the debt crisis in the developing world. It was published by Black Rose books. A new edition is out as well he has written another work along similar lines, critiquing international relations, crime and hot money, entitled the Wages of Crime.

Thus the War on Terror is a war on two fronts. One to smash and transform the last outposts of state capitalism in Europe and the Middle East, and a war on the unregulated market.

Global Guerrillas says; The similarity between these commercial networks and those of modern terrorism (my global guerrillas) is not incidental.

Nor is it incidental that the American Empire is sowing the seeds of its own self destruction, not only in expensive military operations that rack up thousands of corpses and trillions in deficits, but in the fact that like the British Empire before it in order to finance these wars, it too relies on the black market. The British Empire set itself up for decline as it persued its Opium Wars against China. The US set itself up in the 1980's providing stinger missles to the Mujahadin in Afghanistan who paid for them in opium money. Who transported them through smuggling routes, still with us today used by Bin Laden Inc.

And quoting Bobitt again;
The current conflict is one of several possible wars of the market-states as they seek to open up societies to trade in commerce, ideas, and immigration which excite hostility in those groups that want to use law to enforce religious or ethnic orthodoxy. States make war, not brigands; and the Al Qaeda network is a sort of virtual state, with a consistent source of finance, a recognized hierarchy of officials, foreign alliances, an army, published laws, even a rudimentary welfare system. It has declared war on the U.S. for much the same reason that Japan did in 1941: because we appear to frustrate its ambitions to regional hegemony.

Capitalism has outgrown the Nation State. It reguired it for its period of ascendency. Now that it is the real domination of everything , of all social relations it needs a new state, a market state. One that can continually destroy its overproductive capacities. As capitalism evolves better technonological production, increases productivity and reduces the need for real labour, it amasses capital, which becomes unproductive. It is here that the new market state can use this capital to create permanent war, small scale localized war, that does not threaten its global expansion, but allows it areas for wide scale destruction of productive capabilities to offset its cancerous growth.

If war is privatized and all state functions are privatized, then the individual is no longer identified as a citizen, or as a wage labourer, but as 'free' individual, a contractor in a market state. Capitalism will have evolved to its logical conlusion; that we remain wage slaves but no longer to a particular boss or business but to the market. Our alientation will be complete. And it will be a society of barbarism, of all against all.

Labour 'is and remains the presupposition' of capital (Marx, 1973, p. 399). Capital cannot liberate itself from labour; it depends on the imposition of necessary labour, the constituent side of surplus labour, upon the world's working classes. It has to posit necessary labour at the same time as which it has to reduce necessary labour to the utmost in order to increase surplus value. This reduction develops labour's productive power and, at the same time, the real possibility of the realm of freedom.

The circumstance that less and less socially necessary labour time is required to produce, for want of a better expression, the necessities of life, limits the realm of necessity and so allows the blossoming of what Marx characterised as the realm of freedom. Within capitalist society, this contradiction can be contained only through force (Gewalt), including not only the destruction of productive capacities, unemployment, worsening conditions, and widespread poverty, but also the destruction of human life through war, ecological disaster, famine, the burning of land, poisoning of water, devastation of communities, the production of babies for profit, the usage of the human body as a commodity to be exchange or operated on, the industrialisation of human production through cloning etc.

The existence of Man as a degraded, exploited, debased, forsaken and enslaved being, indicates that capitalist production is not production for humans - it is production through humans. In other words, the value form represents not just an abstraction from the real social individual. It is an abstraction that is 'true in practice' (cf. Marx, 1973, p. 105). The universal reduction of all specific human social practice to the one, some abstract form of labour, from the battlefield to the cloning laboratory, indicates that the separation which began with primitive accumulation appears now in the biotechnical determination to expropriate human beings. Capitalism has gone a long way. Indifferent to life, it 'was satisfied with nothing more than appropriating an excessive number of working hours' (Dalla Costa, 1995a, p. 21). It is now engaged in the production of human-workers.

The Permanence of Primitive Accumulation: Notes on Social Constitution

We Don't Blog Cause We Are Honest

A tip o the blog to Accidental Deliberation for this item

While some NDP candidates have blogs, the party opted against a general election blog, because it didn't want something that didn't look sincere, said party spokesman Brad Lavigne."The Web world is a particularly savvy one and I think visitors can smell bogus blogs a mile away," Mr. Lavigne said.

So what are you saying Brad that if you had someone blog it would be like the Conservatives Flog, that all political campaign blogs are flogs? Or that blogging is inherently dishonest. Just admit you screwed up and will get a blog soon. Better sooner than later. This is an even lamer excuse than your earlier comment.

"In the NDP camp, insider Brad Lavigne says blogs have had a minimal impact so far on leader Jack Layton's campaign. The top priority is to track the other leaders' daily campaigns and mainstream news coverage.'' Why Jack Doesn't Blog

Admit it you just didn't think of it, and now that everyone has one your brain trust in the War Room figures it's clever not to have one. Just admit it you screwed up.

Other NDP Stories

Bullies Who Us?

So both Don Newman and Mike Duffy had talking heads from American Think Tanks on their shows this afternoon, commenting on the lamentable breakdown in Canada US relations and U.S. Amb-ass-ador Wilkins comments. Both were right wing apologists, you can tell by how they dressed and by the insititutes they spoke for.

Newmans guest stated that he was surprised at Harpers sudden about face on the US after he had been handed a "creem puff on a silver platter by the Cato Insititute' editorial in the Washington Times. Yep Harper did a St. Peter and denied his lord.U.S. ambassador should stay out of election: Harper

Wilkins was directed to criticize Martin and Canada from no less than the Darth Vader of the Empire; Dick Cheney.

But the stupidest comment came from the commentator on Mike Duffy's show who claimed, and this is not the first time I have heard this, we were 'bullying' the U.S. Yep little old us, the polite Canadians, those mousy folks up north,with the less population than California, and No Guns. Bullies! Kicking the shins of Uncle Sam to get his attention obviously got his attention, and we are bullies. Yep guess we aren't going to be invited to the lighting of the White House Holiday Tree.

Michael Ignatieff the Gentle Imperialist

It's the syncronicity of cyberspace research. While researching on the internet for material for an article I come across something interesting, a quote, an article, a reference that pops out and while not directly related to what I may be writing I clip to use later. This is one of those.......

In the face of this attempt to extend what can only be called the American Empire, intellectuals and political figures are not only returning to the idea of imperialism, but also to the view of it propounded by its earlier nineteenth century proponents as constituting a grand civilizing mission. Comparisons of the United States to Imperial Rome and Imperial Britain are now common within the mainstream press. All that is needed to make it completely serviceable is to rid the concept of its old Marxist associations of economic hierarchy and exploitation—not to mention racism.

According to Michael Ignatieff, Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, writing in the New York Times Magazine (July 28, 2002), “[I]mperialism used to be the white man’s burden. This gave it a bad reputation. But imperialism doesn’t stop being necessary because it is politically incorrect.” In referring to U.S. war operations in Afghanistan he writes: “Yet the Special Forces aren’t social workers. They are an imperial detachment, advancing American power and interests in Central Asia. Call it peacekeeping or nation-building, call it what you like, imperial policing is what is going on in Mazar. In fact, Americaentire war on terror is an exercise in imperialism. This may come as a shock to Americans, who don’t like to think of their country as an empire. But what else can you call America’s legions of soldiers, spooks and Special Forces straddling the globe?” The Rediscovery of Imperialism by John Bellamy Foster

Also See Ignatieff