Laxer Wrong

James Laxer, the old new leftie is wrong again. He predicts that Kennedy will win the Liberal Leadership race and be a threat to both the NDP and Conservatives. Wishful thinking that. He dismisses Bob Rae outright. Of course that was yesterday. Today we know that Bob Rae has raised more filthy Liberal lucre than any other Leadership hopeful. Leaving the likes of Ken Dryden to reconsider their campaigns.

Its a race between the back room boys candidate Ignatieff and Rae. No other Liberals need apply.

Ignatieff remains the voice of the right wing of the party, apparently Rae can mobilize the progressive wing at least in Toronto. While Laxer claims Kennedy has sold more memberships, that merely places him as King Maker, not a contender. Kennedy is dull, dull, dull as a candidate.

Rae has been underestimated because of the debacle of his NDP government in Ontario. And while the Liberal base is strong in Ontario, it is a National Leadership race. And the only thing that wins such a race is money. And the Liberals are all about money. Grassroots support is nice rhetoric, but its cold hard cash that buys, err...wins races.

So it behooves me to ask the remaining Liberal Leadership candidates to do us all a big favour; quit. This is a two man race, lets get it on before December. How about doing it in September, so we can have a nice fall election. Huh, how about it?




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Pets Perish

Like the debacle of the evacuation of New Orleans after Katrina, once again peoples animal companions were denied the right to evacuate with their human owners from Lebanon. While this item covers the US evacuation, the Canadian State also denied its citizens the right to bring their pets with them from Lebanon.

US Rescue Efforts Again Fail Animals and their People
The cruise ships and helicopters sent by the U.S. to rescue Americans from war torn Lebanon are poignant symbols of our government’s commitment to its citizens, wherever they may be. Yet for many of the people who are desperate to escape the strife, the government’s plan comes at a high cost. U.S. officials forced these men, women and children, who already lost their homes and belongings, to leave their dogs, cats and other companion animals behind. Beloved animals were ordered out of their owners’ arms, abandoned on the streets and left to starve amidst the rubble.
Motro: In war, all living creatures can use some luck

Luna the albino boxer lolls indolently on her queen-size doggy bed in a Tel Aviv beauty salon while her master's customers stream through to be permed, streaked and touched up. Fat and secure, nothing disrupts Luna's quiet life of privileged luxury.

In contrast Luna's compatriot a mere 60 miles away is living life on the edge. A long-haired spaniel is featured smack on Page 1 of Haaretz, Israel's most prestigious newspaper. She stares at the camera with limpid gaze, showing off pink tongue, fluffy ears and snappy red leash. Around her paws lie jagged chunks of collapsed wall, smashed glass, shredded curtain and twisted metal.

Of course unlike Corporations that are defined as 'persons' under US law, animals are still defined as property, thus evacuations limit the amount of 'property' evacuees can travel with. Catch 22 until we change the laws around companion animals to be deemed 'persons'.

Pets are property, and people traditionally have received little more than the animal's market value, according to Joyce Tischler, founding director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, an advocacy group based in Cotati, Calif.


And of course the indiscriminate bombing of the Lebanese coastline by Israel has created suffering for animals there too. Oil slicks are now contaminating the Mediterranean coast line.

Coastal animals latest casualty in war-torn Lebanon Discovery Reports Canada

Lebanon Oil Spill Makes Animals Casualties of War National Geographic



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The New Cuban Revolution

David Suzuki covers the Cuban Green Revolution in his TV Series the Nature of Things. Rather timely it should show this week. Proving that the revolution in Cuba is alive and kicking, regardless of the embargo by the US and the declining health of el presidente.



cuba:
the accidental revolution

Cuba: The Accidental Revolution are two one-hour documentaries celebrating the country's success in providing for itself in the face of a massive economic crisis, and how its latest revolutions, an agricultural revolution and a revolution in science and medicine are having repercussions around the world.

Without fertilizer and pesticides, Cubans turned to organic methods. Without fuel and machinery parts, Cubans turned to oxen. Without fuel to transport food, Cubans started to grow food in the cities where it is consumed. Urban gardens were established in vacant lots, school playgrounds, patios and back yards. As a result Cuba created the largest program in sustainable agriculture ever undertaken. By 1999 Cuba's agricultural production had recovered and in some cases reached historic levels.

It is this adaptablitiy of the Cuban State that will allow it to survive the eventual death of Castro. And no it won't turn reactionary and collapse into Mafia Capitalism like the Soviet Union did. Despite the rhetoric about the 'Castro dictatorship' the Cuban revolution is still a 'Peoples Revolution', and the people will defend their gains.

Also See:
CUBA


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Business As Usual

US Senator Elizabeth Dole likes to say in defense of the US invasion of Iraq that it is bringing the poor oppressed people there "Free Market Democracy". Truly American enteprize and business have taken over Iraq;

Judge Radi Hamza Radi, head of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity set up in 2004, says corruption has “exploded" since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003.

US auditor lists failures in rebuilding of Iraq

The top auditor of the US reconstruction effort in Iraq yesterday detailed a series of failures, including a $218.5 million emergency radio network that doesn't work, a hospital that is turning out to be twice as expensive as planned, an oil pipeline that is spewing lakes of crude oil onto the ground, and a prison that was meant to hold 4,400 inmates but can house only about 800.

Stuart Bowen Jr. , the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, cited multiple causes for the failures at a Senate hearing yesterday, among them the growth of the Iraqi insurgency, poor planning by the US government, and corruption in the Iraqi government.

But he also took aim at the ``cost-plus" contracts given to American construction firms -- including Bechtel, part of the consortium that oversaw Boston's Big Dig -- which guaranteed profits on top of the cost of the project, even with huge overruns.

Thats Iraq now ask yourselves what is happening in Afghanistan? Same thing.

"Everybody complains about corruption in government administration, especially with the judiciary," Hazami told The Associated Press.

Mission Impossible?

NATO faces a culmination of challenges aside from the Taliban military threat. The poppy culture of the south runs the local economy and serves the interests of the Taliban. It is run by tribes that live on both sides of the border with Pakistan, forging stronger ties amongst themselves and pushing any allegiance with Kabul further away. The area is dominated by a Pakistani sphere of influence; politically, economically and socially. Many businesses trade the Pakistani rupee as a means of legitimate currency and cross border trading and businesses are only second to opium production as the most profitable commercial activity in the area. This is a tough challenge for international troops to overcome as they try to prop up a central government’s control where it is already widely mistrusted and unwanted.

NEWS ANALYSIS: Rogue States Within States Pose Growing Threat

Although the United States largely destroyed al Qaeda's haven in Afghanistan, the terrorist network remains the world's most feared -- and probably the hardest to contain -- transnational group.

"The only thing that we found works is if we can convert (groups like al Qaeda) ... isolate them in a state, so that it looks more or less like a state threat," said Chet Richards, a former U.S. Air Force Reserve air attache to Saudi Arabia, who has written extensively about nontraditional enemies the United States is likely to face in the 21st century.

"We did it in Afghanistan. But once ... you've taken down their main state basis, they become basically organized crime."

Although it lost control of Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban has returned -- this time, as a nonstate actor, which in recent months appears to have gone from strength to strength, launching incursions into Afghanistan out of the tribal provinces of western Pakistan, where the Pakistani government has been unable -- or, some experts say, unwilling -- to rein it in.

Also See:

Iraq

Afghanistan


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Tie

One party is rudderless and the other is leaderless Conservatives, Liberals almost level in poll

The latest results by Decima Research, released to The Canadian Press, put the Conservatives and Liberals in a virtual tie nationally.



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Another US Faliure

While the Middle East burns, and Afghanistan moves towards becoming the same old Islamic Republic it was under the Taliban, let us not forget that other American regional faliure; Somalia. Clearly freedom and democracy to these folks means Islam, not capitalist democracy. Opps.

Lawmakers' exodus leaves Somalia reeling

Somalia's government was trying to regroup on Wednesday after nearly 30 lawmakers resigned in less than a week, saying the virtually powerless administration has failed to reconcile with Islamic militants who have taken over the capital.

"The prime minister has failed to talk to the Islamic union," said Hasaan Abshir Farah, one of six ministers who stepped down overnight from Somalia's 275-member parliament.

Four resigned on Tuesday and 18 resigned late last week.

The administration was formed two years ago with the support of the United Nations to help Somalia emerge from more than a decade of anarchy, but it has no power outside its base in Baidoa, 250km from the capital, Mogadishu.


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Hezbollah Are Not Terrorists

As I said here Hezbollah is a nationalist movement, a poltical organization and civil defense army for the imporverished residents of Lebanon. As Juan Cole succinctly points out;

What is Hizbullah?

Western and Israeli pundits keep comparing Hizbullah to al-Qaeda. It is a huge conceptual error. There is a crucial difference between an international terrorist network like al-Qaeda, which can be disrupted by good old policing techniques (such as inserting an agent in the Western Union office in Karachi), and a sub-nationalist movement.

Al-Qaeda is some 5,000 multinational volunteers organized in tiny cells.

Hizbullah is a mass expression of subnationalism that has the loyalty of some 1.3 million highly connected and politically mobilized peasants and slum dwellers. Over a relatively compact area.

I take sub-nationalism as a concept from Anthony D. Smith. It would be most familiar to Western readers under the rubric of the Irish Catholics of North Ireland, or even the Scots of the UK. Subnationalism, like the larger, over-arching nationalism, is a mass movement.

Thus, a very large number of the Pushtuns in Afghanistan are sub-nationalists with a commitment to Pushtun dominance. They deeply resent the victory of the Northern Alliance (i.e. Tajiks, Hazara Shiites, and Uzbeks) in 2001-2002. A lot of what our press calls resurgent "Taliban" activity is just Pushtun irredentism. There are approximately 14 million Pushtuns in Afghanistan and another 14 million or so in Pakistan.

The continuing war in Afghanistan is not against the Taliban but the Pashtun, poor farmers and their only economical crop.

Fierce clashes around Afghan opium centre

War on Afghan opium farming an "absolute disaster"

So why is Canada involved in this opium war? Which the Harpocrites refuse to call a war! And which is causing the deaths of our troops. Why be where we are not wanted. Afghan Farmers Resentful

Oh yeah we are protecting democracy, Afghani women and girls and their ability to go to school and work in the new fledgling Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Islamic republic. Afghan 'virtue' cops concern diplomats

A republic that allowed a Canadian to die for opening a school for women and girls. A Canadian abandoned by the Harpocrites, doing the real work of reconstruction, which was what the current Afghan mission was supposed to be about, but of course isn't.

A tip o the blog to Rusty Idols for this.

Also See:

Afghanistan

Israel

Lebanon



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Don't Cry For Me Little Havana

I like it when I can say; I told ya so.

Experts: Belief that Castro’s Illness Will Trigger Change in Cuba,
Premature

When news reports hit early this week that Fidel Castro had transferred the reins of power to his brother while he underwent serious gastrointestinal surgery, pictures of dancing expatriate Cubans and Cuban Americans in the streets of Miami flashed on television screens.

But suggestions of the Cuban leader’s imminent demise, as well as that of his form of government, may be greatly exaggerated.

Fidel Castro: The Last Titan

While the Cuban community in Miami is ecstatic, believing that Fidel’s illness and possible absence brings their day closer, the evidence points to the contrary. Going by all news reports there is a stark contrast between the scenes of exultation in Miami and the widespread mood, somber, hopeful, stoic, in Cuba. There is also a glaring gap between the reactions in Miami and those in the rest of Latin America. Whatever the outcome of Fidel’s health crisis, the repugnant scenes in Miami have widened the moral gulf between native and rightwing émigré Cubans, and between the latter and the rest of Latin America. Whatever the mirages of transition pursued by the White House, Fidel’s illness makes the reclaiming of Havana by Miami less not more likely.

In his Cuba: A New History, a work that is rather critical of Fidel Castro, Richard Gott, veteran commentator on Latin America, author of a standard work on the region’s guerrilla movements and one of those who identified Che Guevara’s body in Bolivia, concludes with an unconventional observation, namely that the post Castro transition had already taken place:

‘Personally I expect little change in the years ahead, or even when Castro dies. Cuba has already been governed for several years by a post-Castro government. Raul Castro runs the armed forces today as he has done since 1959. Ricardo Alarcon at the national assembly is the country’s political guru, aware of shifts in public opinion as well as a long serving and expert negotiator with the United States. Carlos lage is the prime minister and controller of the country’s economy. Felipe Perez Roque is a sure hand at foreign affairs, sustaining Cuba’s extraordinary worldwide support. This is a more than competent team that could run the affairs of any country at any time, as one admiring western ambassador explained to me.

Cubans calm over Castro illness

By Stephen Gibbs BBC News, Cuba

On the streets of Havana there has been a remarkable sense of calm, almost nonchalance, in the face of the dramatic news that President Castro has undergone complicated surgery to stem intestinal bleeding.

President Castro's exhortations to Cuban remain highly visible

People have been going to work as normal. Shops remain open. Cinemas are full.

In the shadow of one of the posters of the smiling president that last year were put up around the capital, pasted with the words "Vamos Bien" ("we are doing well"), Dinorah Padron, a retired nurse in her 60s, expresses an opinion that reflects the thoughts of many Cubans of her generation.

"We think he will be better very soon", she says. "He's healthy".

After 47 years in power many assume that President Castro will live, if not for ever, then at least for the foreseeable future.

"He has to recover", said David Santos, 54, who was wearing a revolutionary T-shirt and was on his way to see his grandchildren. "He is our leader, the maximum, the best."

Also See:

Cuba



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Hey Richard I R A Communist

Richard over at the misnamed Let Fredom Reign, or is it Rain? Cry me a river Richard.Anyways he takes umberage at those of us supporting Cuba. Cuba stupid, the people, not Castro. And not the exile terrorist community in Maimi. He says:

Under the SpotLight - Blogging Dippers

Here are some of the headlines from the "Blogging Dippers" aggregator this morning:
Ever wonder what would happen if we let the socialists retake control of Canada? Methinks they should rename themselves. "The Blogging Communists" would be more appropriate.

Yep wll ya got me on that one, Richard I already am a blogging Communist, albeit a Libertarian one. Heh, Heh.

As for the claim about socialists taking control of Canada, we already have a one party state here, its called Alberta, and it is ruled by Conservatives, so we couldn't do worse.

Also See:

Cuba

One Party State

Libertarian Communist



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Before MTV

MTV celebrates its 25th birthday. Its all growed up now. However its claim to fame being the rise and advent of the Rock Video and the Video VJ is suspect. The first ever Rock Video was Frank Zappa's 200 Motels made in 1971. While it was a movie, it was actually recorded on Video and transfered to 35mm. Making Zappa the first Rock Video producer and VJ.


Also See:

Classical Rock

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