It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Oaxaca-Mexican Revolution Continues
As I wrote here Mexico is currently in a pre-revolutionary political condition of dual power. Little reported in the MSM is the current crisis in Oaxaca province, where Vincente Fox has declared he intends to use military force to put down the popular uprising. Crisis Escalates as Marines Land in Oaxaca Guess he never watched Battleship Potemkin.
Canadian Solidarity With Oaxaca information can be found here.
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Vincente, Fox, Oaxaca, Mexico, revolution, uprising, protest, left-wing, strike, Potemkin, Eisenstien, revolution, dual-power, marines
P3 Scandal Down Under
In a scenario that sounds like something one expects from the Alberta Government or their clones in Ottawa, Australians in Victoria have found out P3's are public funds paying for private profit.
And key to the scandal is the fact that P3's are neither accountable nor transparent. Gee just like here.
And the government has a problem underestimating its surpluses. Gee just like here.
Secret deals with private sector under fire
■ Melbourne's formula one Grand Prix posted a record loss this year, leaving state taxpayers with a $21 million bill.
■ Departing Auditor-General Wayne Cameron put himself at odds with Mr Brumby by insisting the Government's budget surplus was more than $3 billion above that reported this week.
■ An independent consultants' report said the EastLink tollway would boost Victoria's economy by $15 billion and provide thousands of jobs.
EastLink is among 16 public-private partnerships entered into by the Bracks Government since its election in 1999. Others include Southern Cross Station and the Melbourne Convention Centre redevelopment. But the process of attracting private investment to help pay for public infrastructure has prompted concerns.
The public accounts committee's final report, tabled in Parliament yesterday, found the Government's reliance on "commercial in confidence" to limit access to important information about PPPs had "diminished the accountability of government to the Parliament for substantial state expenditure".See:
P3
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P3, P3's, Australia, Victoria, Melbourne, Canada, Alberta, private-public-partnerships, privatization, privatisation, reinventing-government, neo-con, neo-liberal, taxpayer, politiccs, economics, governement, infrastructure
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Armes sans frontières
Legal Loopholes Allow Arms Traders to Dodge Embargoes
Including Canadian arms dealers. Unlike our troop commitments our arms are ending up in the Sudan to be used for genocide. Gee just like our Oil companies.
“Arms without Borders” reveals that Canadian, US and EU companies are among those able to take advantage of inconsistencies in national regulations by selling weapons components and subcontracting arms manufacturing overseas. The report details how weapons, including attack helicopters and combat trucks, are being assembled from foreign components and manufactured under license in such countries as China, Egypt, India, Israel and Turkey.
The report shows how these and other conventional weapons have ended up in destinations such as Colombia, Sudan and Uzbekistan where they have reportedly been used for the killing and displacement of civilians, highlighting the urgent need for global rules to regulate an increasingly globalized industry.
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Canada, weapons, arms, guns, Sudan, arms-sales, Oil, Talisman, peacekeeping, UN, Darfur,
Being Right For The Wrong Reasons
McGuinty and Hargrove oppose Ottawa's Green Plan
They are declarining it an attack on provincial autonomy, that holy grail of the Harpocrites. Of course like Rumsfelds attack on Old Europe, the Conservatives are attacking an Old Ontario industry while ignoring booming Alberta's Green House gases. What is good for the Alberta gander gets Ontario the goose.
However that being said, both McGuinty and Hargrove are guilty of old industrial thinking, as I have said here. They could have adopted the NDP Green Auto plan for subsidizing the auto sector, but instead they just handed out no strings attached corporate welfare. So much for Hargroves strategic politics.
Now they are being forced to do the right thing for the wrong reasons. That is the Conservatives Smog Elimination Plan is not a Green Plan. And while they regulate one industrial sector the Harpocrites fail to regulate Alberta's energy sector.
See:
Kyoto
Ambrose
industrial ecology
Social Ecology.
Green Capitalism