Wednesday, November 15, 2006

New Island






While news from the Pacific usually focuses on disasters; monsoons, tsunamis, islands burning, earthquakes, etc. NASA reports that a new island has appeared and a mysterious shelf of pumice has arisen in the region. It is the dance of the dialectic in nature.











August 2006 brought two new things to the Tonga Islands in the South Pacific. One was a raft of lightweight, frothy volcanic rock—pumice—floating on the ocean surface. The other was a new island emerging out of the water.


See:

Boreno is Burning

Did Nuke Cause Earth Quake

Our Living Earth

Dialectics of Extinction

(r)Evolutionary Theory




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Ambrose Admits the Truth


The Kyoto Protocol is being used to divide Canada, Environment Minister Rona Ambrose told the UN Climate Conference today

Yes by Ambrose and the Harpocrites. Of course thats not what she said.





See:

Rona Ambrose

Environment


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Iraq Inspector General

The rebuilding of Iraq is a case of corporate fraud extrodinare.

If it was a comedy it would be starring Danny Kaye.

Unfortunately like the failed reconstruction in Afghanistan, and after Katerina when it comes to nation building, America is better at nation destruction than reconstruction as today's PBS Newshour reports (transcript available tommorow)

The news remains business as usual for American crony capitalism in the rip off that is Iraq reconstruction.

Little scrutiny for firms in Iraq

Iraq's health care a shambles

Pentagon lacks independent watchdog




A
year after these reports;

Inspector General Report Confirms Iraq Reconstruction Still Failing

US inspector general for Iraq paints 'grim' picture of reconstruction effort

Report to Congress says problems exacerbated by lack of cooperation between State Department, Pentagon.

Reconstruction is just War profiteering by any other name.


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Death Of Laissez-Faire Politics


A cheeky and insightful political comment from Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post on the impact of the election in the United States last week on Laissez-Faire politics of the right. Which of course never really were the politics of the post Reagan Republicans. They have not been real laissez-faire conservatives since Goldwater ran for President.


Besides, when Americans think of isms, they think -- at least they think first -- of how liberals and conservatives stand on social issues. A liberal backs abortion rights and gun regulations; a conservative wants to ban abortions and legalize all guns. By that measure, what has defined conservatism in the popular mind over the past couple of years has been its willingness to enlist government to block stem cell research, stop the teaching of evolution and supersede the duties of Terri Schiavo's husband.

This may be a conservatism that makes libertarians cringe, but it is the conservatism that dominates the Republican Party we have. Republicans generally and conservatives particularly have profited mightily from the rise and politicization of fundamentalism over the past few decades. The decimation of Republican moderates from the Northeast and Midwest in last week's elections came at the hands of centrist and independent voters who'd had it with the Southernized religious conservatism of the Republicans' base -- and with its moderate Republican enablers.

Finally, conservatives argue that the newly elected Democrats are really conservatives, too -- proof that the ideology is in no need of a tuneup. It's true that some of the Democrats take conservative positions on guns and abortion. But it's also true that virtually all the new Democrats look askance at free trade, want to raise the minimum wage and back a bigger role for government in making health care more affordable.

At a time when corporations abandon their employee benefits, globalization depresses wages, and individuals are compelled to shoulder more and more risk, the last thing Americans need is a government that tells them -- as it told their countrymen in New Orleans last year -- they're on their own.

That's why Republicans just ran a campaign devoid of new ideas. In a laissez-faire world that already induces anxiety and that becomes more laissez-faire with each passing day, who needs a laissez-faire party? Conservative, heal thyself.



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Conservative State Capitalism


Andrew a stalwart conservative is shocked, shocked I say, that the New Canadian Government is acting just like the last Canadian Government. The Harpocrites will continue to hand out taxpayer monies to Bombardier Inc.

Corporate Welfare, Conservative Style
15-11-06, 8:14 am @ Bound By Gravity
Stephen Harper's government continues to disappoint...


What right wing idealist ideologues fail to understand is that Canada's capitalist system is not laissez faire but a state capitalist economy, always has been always will be. Especially in Quebec. State Capitalism Quebec Style

Its what we call a mixed economy, to use Ed Broadbents phrase, a mix of private investment and taxpayer subsidization of capitalism. Whether that is done directly as in subsidies, indirectly as in increasing military purchases, or through P3's. It is all still state-capitalism. Or socialism for the rich as my pal Larry Gambone calls it.

It is the historic nature of post WWI capitalism. The concept of a free market is a myth. So get over it.


See:

Corporate Welfare Bums

Plundering Tax Payers




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Temp Workers For Timmies

Rules eased for hiring foreign workers
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re in Camrose or Calgary, Edson or Edmonton, ‘Help Wanted’ signs are everywhere,” Solberg said “And you know, when it starts to affect our ability to go to Tim Horton’s and get a double-double, it ceases to be a laughing matter. It’s a serious issue.”

Well we know there is a labour crisis when our Immigration Minister Monte Solberg can't get a coffee at Tim Hortons cause its closed due to worker shortages. And of course he would never go to Starbucks cause that would make him a latte liberal. And the reason for many businesses closing is that they will not pay well or offer benefits. The result is that more folks are going into construction trades, thus shortages abound for low paying jobs.

And the reason we have a labour shortage, well its called lack of planning;
The Labour Shortage Myth Instead of planning for labour needs the province has avoided doing anything with the word 'plan' in it. Alberta's Free Market In Labour

The result is the return of child labour in the province and now the use of temporary foreign workers both forms of 'cheap labour'.

And the result is more deaths in the construction industry which is benefiting from this boom and the use of underskilled labour. $345,000 fine a record-breaker

The most recent accident involved a 16 year old who should have been in school not working in a trench on a construction site. But the temptation to make big bucks in Alberta's construction boom economy is too great. And in a conservative hands off business province like Alberta, regulations and legislation around worker rights and health and safety are not only woefully inadequate, they are not enforced.

Relaxed Foreign Worker Rules Will Lead to More Abuse of System says AFL
"Streamlining" is Shorthand for "Letting Employers Do What They Want"


See;

Better Late Than Never




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Vote For Me


I cleaned up my page so it loads faster, I hope the pop-ups have finally disappeared, and I am making a desperate plea for your support. Vote Le Revue Gauche as the best Progressive Blog for the 2006 Canadian Blog Awards.

Yes this is shameless self promotion.

See:

Canadian Blog Awards


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Stunned

Well we are stunned too. This is ridiculous. As ridiculous as believing that Karla Homolka is NOT a killer.

Lynnette Traverse listened in stunned disbelief yesterday as a Manitoba judge told her she would be free in a matter of hours despite having been convicted of one the province's most shocking sex crimes.


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Clueless Ambrose

Maybe she should have attended the Nairobi conference earlier. Then she would be in the know. Time for her to resign.

The Prime Minister of France is urging the European Union to impose a punitive import tax on goods from countries such as Canada that refuse to sign on to a tougher second phase of the global warming deal.

Dominique de Villepin said countries that do not commit to new targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions should not be allowed to benefit by avoiding the costs associated with reducing global warming. He said France would make specific proposals for the European Union to discuss in the new year.

Environment Minister Rona Ambrose was not aware of the details of the French proposal, a spokesman said, but opposition MPs said it shows Canada is increasingly viewed as an environmental laggard on the world stage.

See:

Rona Ambrose




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Three Times Lucky

The Federal Conservatives are pulling an Alberta hoodwink on Canadians. This announcement is the kind that we are used to here from Ralph and his cronies. Repeat your funding announcements over and over again and make it look new.
For third time, Tories promise anti-terrorism funds for transit systems in six big cities

See:

Public Waste


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