Canadian Exceptionalism

The Conservatives since they were the Reform Party, then the Alliance, have been staunch supporters of Israeli Imperialism in the Middle East. So what else is new. Well they now have made this internal policy a national policy in response to the current illegal war being conducted by a rogue nation whom they support unconditionally. Once again forgetting that they are a MINORITY government, and do not speak for all Canadians. If anything will lead to further terrorist targeting of Canada it is this.

With Israel exercising its military might on the ground in Gaza and in skies over Lebanon, leaders around the world — with the notable exception of our own Prime Minister — are calling on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to apply less force. Speaking for Israel's closest ally, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says: "It is extremely important that Israel exercise restraint in its acts of self-defence." Onus for restraint not just on Israel


Also See:

Israel



Bush, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Hezzbollah, war, invasion, eiruit, hostage, USA, Middle-East, crisis
Canada, Harper, G-8,

No Money For Carbon Credits But Lots for LNG

Here is the irony of the Harpocrites international policies, they denounce Kyoto because Canada would be spending millions on European carbon credits, while promoting Canadian investment in Russian Gas and Oil instead. Hmmmm. And this should make us all more wary of LNG development in Canada.

Canada hopes to turn itself into a key transit point for liquefied natural gas shipped to North America, in part by allowing gas companies to bypass more stringent regulatory requirements along the U.S.'s heavily populated eastern seaboard. At least eight Canadian gas projects are scheduled for construction by the end of this decade.



Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Harper, oil, gas, Russia, Putin, Canada, government, petroindustry, LNG, Conservatives, NEP, Alberta, tarsands, export,

Maggie Harper

Stephen Harper got a vote of confidence from Margaret Thatcher,

Oh be still my beating heart, the Harpocrite is now in the Reagan/Thatcher club of Neo-Con artists. Yep what Maggie did for England, Harper intends to do to Canada. Too bad the neo-con strategy is so out of date, some one should tell the Harpocrites their ideology is past its expiry date. It only works during a debt and deficit hysteria, not during a boom.


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
neo-cons, conservatives, Maggie, Thatcher, Sthephen, Harper, Canada, England, UK, Government, politics,

Russia Is Right

'One cannot justify the continued destruction by Israel in Lebanon and in Palestinian territory, involving disproportionate use of force in which the civilian population suffers,'' Moscow said a statement Thursday. ''We firmly reaffirm support for Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity.''

While the Harpocrite quizling sounds like Polly Parrot.

Bush emphasized Israel's right to defend itself.

''Israel has the right to defend itself,'' Harper said repeatedly during his 6 1/2-hour transatlantic flight to London.

G-8 leaders at odds over latest Mideast conflict





Also See: Israel


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Bush, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Hezzbollah, war, invasion, eiruit, hostage, USA, Middle-East, crisis
Canada, Harper, G-8,

Sex Can Be Dangerous

T-Rex Sex that is. Like horny teen agers everywhere, T-Rex becomes a juvenile delinquent at puberty.

Tyrannosaur Life Span Similar to Large Mammals, Study Says

The researchers found that mortality rates for Albertosaurus were high in the first two years of life, possibly due to predation, and then decreased until the teenage years, according to the researchers.

After age 13, the mortality rates jumped to 23 percent, researchers found. Dinosaurs lived roughly 30 years, about the same length of time as bears. Some reptiles can live 50 to 100 years or more.

``It was a real mid-life crisis, so to speak,'' Erickson said in a telephone interview today. ``Something happened to these animals at mid-life.''

Combat during mating is a possible reason the mortality rates spiked in the dinosaur's teenage years, Erickson said.

``Love was a dangerous game for tyrannosaurs,'' he said. ``Some animals today will often have combat and that can be lethal.''

Even T. rex struggled with midlife crisis

Study charts dinosaur survival rates

The living was easy for young tyrannosaurs

For Tyrannosaurs, Teen Years Were Murder

Also See:

Dinosaurs

Fossils

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
T-Rex, Marc-Bolan, Tyranasaurus, Albertasaurus, Badlands, Drumheller, Alberta, puberty, sexdinosaurs, UofA, Currie,fossils, prehistory, paleontology, creationism, ID, fossil, dinosaur, missing-link, Canada, SSHRC, evolution, biology,

Headline Says It All

Humiliating spectacle of a world leader caught without a policy

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Bush, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Hezzbollah, war, invasion, eiruit, hostage, USA, Middle-East, crisis

Liberals Military Heritage

Fleet plagued by problems

Crash of a Canadian Forces helicopter, which killed 3 and injured 4 off Nova Scotia, occurred while aircraft was under restrictions because of past mechanical troubles

EDITORIAL: Keep our Snowbirds airworthy

Under the Trudeau government the Canadian state focused less on external military operational capacity and more on the use of the military for domestic problems.

One was the Trudeau fear of insurrection in Quebec post the FLQ crisis, the other was the idea that the military should also be used for domestic emergencies, like clearling snow from Toronto streets or clean up after storms.

The Trudeau government also looked at the military as an opportunity to offer jobs to Maritimers whose local fishing industry was in decline. Along with the policy of promoting the depopulation of the Maritimes by promoting fishers to take up work elsewhere in Canada, the military offered trades training to the unemployed.

Combined with the Liberals ideology that the military was for peace keeping, and their disdane for NATO (though unlike the NDP they never admitted to wanting to leave NATO, they merely provided the absolute minimum required to maintain membership) military equipment purchased was for domestic use.

After WWII the dismantling of the merchant marine directly impacted on Canada's ability to maintain its ship building ability.

Under the Mulroney government the final destruction of Canada's indigenous ship and aircraft building industry was sealed with the Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA. What the Liberals had wrecked with indifference, the Conservatives now finally killed with its sucking up to the U.S.

Under the Chretien Liberals, a new policy was introduced, one that bespoke the Liberals frugality with taxpayers money, post-Mulroney's spending spree, the government would only buy used military equipment at bargain basement prices, and would continue to maintain old outdated equipment past their expiry date.

There are no such thing as accidents. The failure of the Submarine fleet, the aging helicopter fleets, the dangerous outdated fleet of Tudor aircraft for Canada's Snowbirds, all this is the direct result not only of the Canadian Governments failure to fund the military but the result of the death of Canada's own homegrown ship and aircraft industries. The Liberals had no use for an indigenous Military Industrial complex, satisfied being a branch plant supplier to the US for its war operations.

The Liberals focused their policies on domestic peace keeping, increasing the capabilities of the military and police to monitor the Left, Labour, the Anti-War movement and Quebec nationalists.

Under the Conservatives, both Mulroney and now the Harpocrites, the military industrial complex that did exist in Canada was further reduced to hewers of wood and drawers of water for the benefit of the Americans.

Today the military is being funded to buy new equipment, from the U.S. And that includes secondary manufacturing and maintance, something Canada once was famous for, is now being contracted out.

The failure to subsidizde the Canadian Military Industrial complex was a political choice of the Liberals, they had little use for the Military, except to quell another Quebec crisis. For the Conservatives its a political choice as well, to integrate the Canadian Military Industrial complex into the American one. Meaning that our military will be supplied by the American Military Industrial complex.

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.




Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
military, helicopters, commorants, Snowbirds, Tudor, aircraft, Military-Industrial-Complex, Liberals, Harper, Trudeau, Chretien, Mulroney, Conservatives, government, military-spending, submaries, SeaKing, helicopters, Armed-Corced, Canadian-military

The Alternative To CBC

Is private monopoly;
Bell/GlobeMedia/CTV.
Yep, be still my beating heart.
The right and private broadcasters like to attack CBC and claim that the private sector should provide news, sports etc. The usual blah blah blah about competition. Right-o like this; CTV buys out rival CHUM.

CHUM announces layoffs in morning, while a friendly take over by CTV halts share trading yesterday on the TSX in the afternoon. Can you spell monopoly? Yep I can its three little letters; CTV. And you gotta love this bit;

Bell Globemedia president and chief executive, Ivan Fecan, said in an interview that news operations at CTV and CHUM will remain independent. “We’ll have two separate news organizations, one at CTV and one in Citytv, and they won’t report to each other in any way,” Fecan said. “I don’t think there’s any upside in having them being the same. You actually want them to be different because they have different approaches.

Sure no sooner did this come out of his mouth than across the country CITY TV has laid off its front of house staff, including its news anchors. Layoffs come as deal is unveiled

Citytv has been downsized.

Yesterday's takeover of its parent company CHUM Ltd. by CTV parent company, Bell Globemedia, for $1.7 billion wipes most local Citytv content off the air.

Breakfast Television survives -- and may be expanded -- but the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts are gone.

But at least Frank and Gordon kept their jobs. But they only do commercials. And they aren't part of the union, like real folks who are getting laid off. Stop the CHUM deal and the layoffs says CEP

This comes after CHUM recently bought out its competitor Craig Broadcasting.

Thus in becoming a bigger fish in the media marketplace, CHUM got swallowed by an even Bigger Fish.

Bay Street calls it mergers and acquisitions, I call it monopoly. And it will impact the non-pay/non-cable portion of your TV. Which includes of course local news.

The reason for the merger, was that CHUM dominates the specialty/cable channels. Which make money.

TV sector growth slows: Statscan

A day after one of the biggest mergers in Canadian television history was announced, Statistics Canada reported growth in that sector slowed significantly last year. While the overall television industry slowed because of sluggish results from conventional television, the pay-television and specialty channel segment showed strong increases in revenue and profit.

Also See:

Monopoly

Media

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Canada, media, CHUM, Bell, Globe&Mail, TV, mergers, layoffs, news, CITY-TV, CTV, monopoly, MUCH, CEP, cable

Eyeless In Gaza

The outrage against the illegal Israeli invasion of Gaza and its armed assault on the Palestinian Authority and its terror attacks on the Palestinian population is growing. Albeit amongst the leftwing blogs.

My Blahg On Gaza

It's Time to End the "Last Taboo" and Hold Israel Accountable for Its Actions - by Stephen Lendman



The left folks.

Not liberals like Mindelle Jacobs of the Sun who on the issue of Israel and Gaza sounds more like that other bitch queen at the the Sun; Michael Coren.
And like the proverbial Israeli Apologist and Suck Up Warren Kinsella liberals in Canada defend the aparthied state. In fact that is how they define themselves as liberals. For liberals Israel is the very model of a modern major democratic state.

For the Left the State of Israel is Imperialist and an occupying power, that is barely legitimate, the liberals paen that Israel is somehow democratic forgets the disenfranchised Arab population.

"The extermination of the Native Americans can be admitted, the morality of Hiroshima attacked, the national flag (of the US) publicly committed to flames. But the systematic continuity of Israel's 52-year oppression and maltreatment of the Palestinians is virtually unmentionable, a narrative that has no permission to appear."

--Edward Said, Palestinian writer, scholar and activist

And then as I googled Eyeless in Gaza, which is a novel by Aldous Huxely ( and an avante garde band) , I found these complimentary articles;

A critique of the media coverage from Australia Eyeless in Gaza

And from the US Arms and influence: Eyeless in Gaza

And in an article from last year after the Israeli withdrawl from Gaza we are reminded of the economic differences between the Palestinians and the Israelis. An economic relationship of indentured servitude by one group to the other.

According to the Palestinian Economic Council for Reconstruction and Development (PECDAR), annual per capita income in Gaza continues to average roughly $700, compared to the $16,000 per capita income enjoyed by Israelis. In the absence of relatively well-paying jobs, what will happen to the lines of unemployed Gazans? The potential flight of employment seekers -- a formidable phenomenon worldwide -- is only one problem. More immediately, if Gazans cannot feed their families, the recurrence of cross-border violence, if not a third intifada, will only be a matter of time. Eyeless in Gaza - Salon

Also See:

Gaza

Israel

Zionism/Anti-Zionism


Israel, deaths, Gaza, children, artillery, Paestine, Palestinians, US, slaughter, missles, Zionist, Zionism,
Hamas, Fateh, IDF, Abbas, Palestinian-Authority,hostage, Hamas, war, Gaza, invasion,

Free Market Economics=Cooperatives

Found this interesting article at GNN on the nature of the Free Market, one that exists without capitalism. Of course in order to have a free market it has to be cooperative. Something my pals in the Mutualist movement have been at pains to point out.

Frances Moore Lappe finds a cooperative approach to living that actually enhances human dignity

A market economy and capitalism are synonymous—- or at least joined at the hip. That’s what most Americans grow up assuming. But it is not necessarily so. Capitalism—control by those supplying the capital in order to return wealth to shareholders—is only one way to drive a market.

Granted, it is hard to imagine another possibility for how an economy could work in the abstract. It helps to have a real-life example.

And now I do.

In May I spent five days in Emilia Romagna, a region of four million people in northern central Italy. There, over the last 150 years, a network of consumer, farmer and worker-driven cooperatives has come to generate 30 percent to 40 percent of the region’s GDP. Two of every three people in Emilia Romagna are members of co-ops.

The region, whose hub city is Bologna, is home to 8,000 co-ops, producing everything from ceramics to fashion to specialty cheese. Their industriousness is woven into networks based on what cooperative leaders like to call “reciprocity.” All co-ops return 3 percent of profits to a national fund for cooperative development, and the movement supports centers providing help in finance, marketing, research and technical expertise.

The fact is that these counter economic experiments in Italy began in the Hot Autumn of the early seventies. They also gave rise to the autonomist movement of the working class in the cities who took part in rent strikes and food strikes, where they decided the price of the products they would buy. A different kind of wage and price control regime than that of the State which was also embracing this during the economic crisis of the time.


Also See: Free Market

Toni Negri

Anarchist Mayor of Milan

Workers Control Versus Trade Unions

A Libertarian defense of Communism

State-less Socialism

The New Multitdue

Free Trade; Hong Kong & Somalia

The War For Chocolate

Development Versus Population Growth

WTO

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
market, cooperation, free-mmarket, agora, agorist, left-libertarian, Gramsci, libertarian, anarchy, anarchism, coops, cooperatives, Italy, Bologna, counter-economics, capitalism, anti-capitalism

Tags
anarchism
socialism
unions
labour
Zanon
World Social Forum
workers councils
Libertarian
syndicalism