Afghan Civilian Deaths No Accident

Accident, murder is the word, murdered not by accident but by deliberate strategic air attacks.

Afghan police said overnight bombing in Helmand province left 25 villagers dead, which by one count would mean at least 250 civilians have died by accident this year under fire from international forces and their Afghan allies.

By one estimate, that suggests civilian casualties are running at twice the rate of last year. Human Rights Watch has estimated that NATO and U.S. military operations killed 230 civilians in 2006.

And its not International forces, its American air support.

Americans are infamous for air support friendly fire incidents in Afghanistan, where they have killed our own troops, and in Iraq, where they killed British troops. Let alone the regular civilian casualties which have occurred this year almost every time air support operations were launched in Afghanistan.

Which is why land based tank and infantry missions are more successful in NOT killing villagers. You can see who the bad guys are, while from the air everyone looks the same, little blips on the computer screen.

This is a great way NOT to win hearts and minds. And all the PR fluff about the Taliban using human shields cannot cover up the fact that air support is a sure fire way to get civilians killed.


Also See:

Friendly Fire

Afghanistan

War





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Anarchy and Ecology

Beginning today, though as per usual with our little anarchist cooperative someone posted early and someone will likely post late, the Carnival of Anarchy will be hosting a weekend of blogging on the topic of Anarchism and Ecology. Green Anarchy, environmental anarchy, social ecology,etc.

Dust off your old Murray Bookchin books.

The period of contribution runs from Friday June 22nd to Sunday June 24th.

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Land Mine?

As I have posted here and here Afghanistan is a country full of land mines. And why does this incident have to be anything other than another land mine accident.

Three Canadians travelling between two checkpoints just a few hundred metres apart died Wednesday in Afghanistan when their all-terrain vehicle hit a roadside bomb that insurgents apparently managed to plant without being detected.

Worse yet the soldiers were unprepared, unprotected since they were riding in an unarmored ATV. An ATV for gods sakes.

The small John Deere-made open-top six-wheeler had no armour to protect its occupants.

Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, commander of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, shrugged off questions about what soldiers were doing riding around dangerous trails in an all-terrain vehicle primarily used to whip supplies around military bases. The risk seemed manageable and, besides, it was about the only type of vehicle that could weave through the tight off-road trails in the area, he argued.

While the accident could force the military to give its procedures a second look, the sketchy details suggest the military has already decided this is a tragic accident and not a case of procedural or protocol carelessness.

"The vehicle was appropriate for the task at hand and the terrain that they were travelling in," he told reporters.

Facts & Figures - Landmine casualties (2004)

Also See:

Friendly Fire

Afghanistan

War





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Vroom Vroom

Seems that my and other bloggers comments on the Conservatives 'C' Car in the Canadian NASCAR races has raised hackles on the right; here and here.

They of course both fit the NASCAR profile of 'voters' the Conservatives claim to 'want' to represent.

63% of fans at the track and viewers at home are between the ages of 30-49.
69% of motorsports fans make between $30,000 - $75,000 a year.
74% are homeowners.
75% are males.

Running a car in NASCAR Canada is what we call advertising to the converted.

The 12-race series will likely attract about 70,000 people across Canada -- the only B.C. stop is Vernon -- with some additional viewers on TV.

"This is a unique opportunity for the Conservative party to reach out to Canadians," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in a release.

NASCAR has a big middle-class fan base that the Tories want to get their message out to.

Immigration Minister Diane Finley says sponsoring a car is a way for the Conservatives to tap into that following.

A Conservative source said the goal is to reach middle-class voters who don't like current Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and have bad memories of Brian Mulroney's leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party from 1984 to 1993.

"We're targeting what we have termed the Canadian Tire voter. It's basically a middle-income house owner in suburban areas, regional centres and rural communities with a do-it-yourself mentality. These people in the past have often seen the Conservative Party as out-of-touch and elitist," the source said.

Despite its popularity in America, in Canada motor sports are still elitist, as are Harpers Conservatives.

This spring's budget served up a sprinkling of tax and spending initiatives for everyone from seniors to farmers, and Conservative strategists have identified a number of segments to target, such as the "Tim Hortons" crowd and the "Canadian Tire" crowd.

Greg Weston of the Sun makes a good point about why we should be concerned about this and other Conservative party political advertising. We pay for it as taxpayers, but the party is not accountable to the public for its spending, which even the boys on the right should be outraged about.

But so far, they have all missed the real question that should be of interest to the vast majority of Canadian taxpayers: Whose money is it, anyway?

If the NASCAR deal were being paid entirely by donors to the Conservative party, it would not be an issue to anyone but those who have coughed up the contributions.

But it's not a private party issue.

Thanks to the genius of Jean Chretien's banning of corporate and union donations, Canadian taxpayers now fund the federal parties to the tune of roughly $28 million this year.

More than $10 million of that will go directly into the coffers of the Conservative party to spend on pretty much anything it wants.

Add to that the tax deductions for individual contributions to the Conservative party, and probably close to two-thirds of the money in the Tories' overflowing till is coming from taxpayers' pockets.

And while NASCAR fans express their outrage over comments made about the Conservatives opportunism lets not forget that other little fact, this is a kick back to their pal Pierre Bourque who writes his headlines for them.

It turns out the party logo - a big blue "C" - appears on the hood of the car driven by Pierre Bourque, whose popular Internet news aggregator sells torqued headlines to political operatives.

Bourque's website confirmed the connection Monday, linking to a story by Inside Track Motorsport News that noted his Dodge Charger is the sponsored Tory vehicle.

Research on the business model for Bourque Newswatch suggests the federal Conservative party has just guaranteed itself favourable coverage for the foreseeable future by sponsoring Bourque's hobby.

Past and current Bourque clients have confirmed to The Canadian Press that advertisers on the site can expect flattering headlines or links, or headlines and links denigrating their opponents.

The Conservative party refuses to confirm or deny that it employs Bourque's headline service directly. But months of negative headlines and links to scathing blogs about Liberal Leader Stephane Dion on Bourque Newswatch indicate someone with an axe to grind is paying the news aggregator, which openly advertises its headline service for sale.

When the Conservatives announced the NASCAR sponsorship Sunday, they also neglected to mention the sponsored vehicle is driven by Bourque.

Instead, the party's news release referred to Whitlock Motor Sports.

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I Thunk It

I must say thank you to Politics n Poetry and Werner Patels who nominated me for a Thinking Blog Award. And so as this is a meme I will now nominate my five favorite blogs that make me think.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (There is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).

These will be shameless plugs for folks who I consider kindred spirits.

1. Larry Gambone, my old pal who publishes Porcupine Blog, and is a long time anarchist activist. Larry represents the ideals of Proudhon and the mutualist traditions in Anarchism, voluntary cooperation, self management, and is a fellow pantheist.

2. Pat Murtagh, another old anarchist pal who publishes Molly's Blog under the pseudonym of Molly's Mews. He is decidedly not a fellow heathen, but that can be forgiven since he is critical of scientific fundamentalism as he is of religious fundamentalism. And I like the fact he does a weekly round up on his blog.

3.BigCityLib Strikes Back who shares with me a fascination with cryptozoology.

4. Mike over at Rational Reasons, because he comments here, and because his blog should be read by more folks, who think you can't be libertarian and support the NDP.

5. Idealistic Pragmatist a fellow Redmontonian and anonymous female blogger, whose commentary on fellow bloggers and political news is always worth reading.


There you go, I could add more, but the meme says five. So thats what ya get, a high five guys.

On to you.


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How Do You Spell Monopoly

T E L U S. The former publicly owned phone company of the Province of Alberta was created because Bell Canada would not expand into Alberta at the beginning of last century.

The Edmonton Phone Company. EdTel, was formed because neither Alberta Government Telephones, AGT, nor Bell Canada would provide services to Edmonton. Over a decade ago it was sold off at a fire sale price by the city to its old nemesis the predatory AGT now privatized and called TELUS.

It was announced that the privatized Telus, which now includes Ed Tel as well as B.C. Tel, is preparing a take over bid of Bell Canada; BCE. How the wheel turns.

All this privatization of public enterprises was to end their 'state monopoly' and create 'competition'. So instead it creates privatized monopoly and reduces competition.

We are so much better off now. Except we sold the farm and now we buy back our milk and eggs.

See:

Monopoly Capitalism in Cyberspace

Telus

BCE

CRTC

Bernier

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Two Canadians In Afghanistan

This is a tale of two Canadians in Afghanistan, both end up in jail and the Canadian government ignores their plight. The irony is that one is there as a potential terrorist and the other a government employee employed to eradicate the opium and hashish trade who gets busted for drugs in Dubai.

In either case Foreign Affairs has remained woefully silent, as usual. Just as they remain silent on the plight of another Canadian in jail; Omar Kadhar.

When it comes to human rights the Conservative government seems to only care about Canadian prisoners in China.

It seems that our law and order Conservative government have extended their Napoleonic code to Canadians abroad. Guilty until proven innocent.

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Dog Bites Man

Wow like you couldn't see this coming a mile away.

Extend Afghan tour, Canada urged
BBC News - 1 hour ago
Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has urged Canada to keep its military mission in Afghanistan beyond the planned 2009 pullout date.

No wonder the Conservatives were in a hurry to end parliament early.


SEE:

Harpers Constituency

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Bowser A Terrorist

It's true. Air Canada taking advantage of the Conservative Governments No Fly List, has declared pets as a potential threat on airplanes. No really. No more traveling with bowser unless you ride the dog.

Air Canada has declared its aircraft no-fly zones for pets.

As of next month, animals will no longer be allowed aboard any Air Canada flights.

While the airline barred pets from aircraft cabins last September, the restriction now applies to the baggage compartment as well.

In a letter sent to the Canadian Transportation Agency on Wednesday, the national carrier said, "please be advised that Air Canada will cease the carriage of pets as checked luggage on domestic as well as international routes [including transborder routes], as of July 15, 2007."

See:

State Security Is A Secure State

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Summer Solstice Give Or Take A Day

Summer's official, astronomical start is at 2:06 p.m. today.

It's tough for pagans when Solstice falls on a work day like today.

Although the solstice is technically today, the druid ritual will be Saturday afternoon because druids have jobs, too.

Unless of course they are unionized pagans and have a clause in the collective agreement saying that employees are entitled to holy days off of their choice.

In Canada Wiccan and pagan holy days such as solstice are considered official religious holidays by the Ontario Supreme Court.

Which is why solstice, winter or summer, falls between the 21 and 23, to give time for the weekend to catch up.

Thousands of modern-day druids, pagans and partygoers converged on Stonehenge late Wednesday as people across the Northern Hemisphere prepared to welcome the summer solstice -- the longest day of the year.

Solstice celebrations were a highlight of the pre-Christian calendar. People in many countries still celebrate with bonfires, maypole dances, and courtship rituals.

Solstice celebrations also take place in other countries, although most are deferred until the last weekend in June. Swedes will gather to sip spiced schnapps, Danes will light bonfires, and Balts and Finns will flock to the countryside to dance, sing and make merry under the midnight sun.

The largest crowd in recent years gathered at Stone Henge overnight to celebrate the Summer Solstice this morning as a further 1,000 congregated at Avebury.

Visitor numbers at the 5,000-year-old English Heritage Site on the Salisbury Plain totalled 24,094, up from 18,700 last year, to watch the longest day of the year dawn.

A spokesman said numbers swelled above a predicted 20,000 because extra people, on their way to Glastonbury music festival, stopped off to join the party.

Police were pleased to see that those attending had also heeded their warning to use public transport to get to the area as vehicle numbers at the gathering were also down on last year's total, dropping from 4,536 to 3,577.

As the sun rose at 4.58am a cheer went up from those gathered overnight at the stone circle on Salisbury Plain.

Revellers clad in antlers, black cloaks and oak leaves gathered at the Heel stone - a twisted, pockmarked pillar at the edge of the prehistoric monument - to welcome the rising sun.

BBC online pictures of summer solstice sunrise.

Summer solstice

Are you in touch with your inner Druid?

SEE

Damn Accurate

Pagans Party

Here Comes The Sun

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