Owner: Le Revue Gauche URL:http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:17:50 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Left Analysis And Comment from Canada
An Alberta Red...and it ain't just my neck
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Afghanistan the UNwinnable war 2008-03-05 05:12:00 The Liberal Conservative Government of Canada will be holding a vote on continuing the Harper War in Afghanistan
for another three years.Vote on Afghanistan motion set for March 13Or maybe four years or heck lets make it five.A WHOLE post-Cold War European generation has grown up in peace, give or take "some Balkan horror on television," which makes it hard to explain that "it's a political and moral imperative to fight for our core values in the Hindu Kush."The words are those of Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of the Netherlands, the NATO secretary general. As he utters them, he leans forward, insisting that he doesn't think "Europe is becoming pacifist." But Afghanistan is testing European military resolve. It's the long war. It's Europe's Iraq.Just back from Afghanistan, where NATO now has some
McCain Presumptious 2008-03-05 04:42:00 Well Bomb, Bomb Iran McCain
made it official last night he is the presumptive Republican candidate for President. And Mike Huckabee gave him his crown of thorns by bowing out. But wait there is still another candidate who has not dropped out of the Republican race and is the thorn in McCain's side; Ron Paul.Despite calls from his supporters, Paul insists he will not run for president as an independent. But he has pledged to continue his Republican presidential bid, knowing full well that the odds — and delegate math — are now firmly against him.And last night McCain flip flopped on the war in Iraq. No longer is it going to be a hundred years war, but one that is concluded soon, after victory is declared and then troops moved out to fight the real war on terror; in Afghanistan. That's a
Come Back Kid Or Pyrrhic Victory 2008-03-05 04:17:00 Repeating her husbands famous 'comeback kid' routine Hillary Clinton tried to make her win in Rhode Island and Ohio and tie in Texas the big come back. Well it was a Pyrrhic victory of sorts. She has no mo', Obama has mo', she has the fight of her life, still. She was the front runner, she is the front runner, she is the inevitable candidate. Except she lost eleven primaries in a row until last night. And she lost Vermont in a big way.Despite the her landslides in Rhode Island, and Ohio it was a squeaker in Texas, it was a virtual tie.In Texas, with 77 percent of precincts reporting primary results, Clinton had 51 percent of the vote and Obama had 47 percent. Obama led in caucuses held after the primary vote, with 56 percent to Clinton's 44 percent, with 5 percent of precincts reporting.U Read more:Victory
Taft Toast 2008-03-05 03:50:00 Before the electionAfter the electionTaft says he won't make a hasty exitThat's why it's called the bums rush......but there will be an automatic leadership review in six to eight months.d blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:Alberta Kevin Taft, Alberta, Alberta Liberals,Alberta Election, Read more:Toast
Tories Lack Of Planning Wins Election 2008-03-05 03:27:00 There was no enumeration done between the 2004 an 2008 election despite thousands of new people coming to the province to gain from the current boom. Instant Albertans, you only have to live here for six months to be eligible to be called an Albertan and vote, became eligible to vote during that time. But did the Tired Old Tories
do a new enumeration. Nope. So massive amounts of voters found themselves having to fill out forms at polling stations identifying where they live. On line attempts to register also failed.I scrutineered the advance poll in Edmonton Strathcona and again election night and watched as frustrate voters were directed to identify themselves with a picture id and a power bill showing where they lived. In many cases these folks had voted in the last provincial and fede Read more:Election
Alberta No Longer Rat Free 2008-03-04 00:08:00 Alberta has long prided itself on being rat free. No longer. There are now 73 of the little buggers newly elected as the Tired Old Tory Government. Ed Stelmach of course is King Rat now having even beat King Ralph's election record. . Yep its the year of the rat I should have known this would happen.When Buddha invited the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac to his New Year party those many years ago, the cunning little rat was the one who took the first seat by his side.While the tale is told differently in each eastern culture, the rat's manipulative nature is always connected to his ability to be the first animal to arrive at the party and the first to be selected for the Chinese Zodiac.Thus, this year, 2008, is not only the Year of the Rat, but also the beginning of a new 12-year zodiac c Read more:Alberta
1 vs 100 2008-03-02 09:34:00 No not the TV game show. Just another example of Israel's 'measured response' , as the Harpocrites call it, in it's one sided war of occupation .One Israeli death results in the death of 100 Palestinian citizens. The Palestinian death toll was one of the highest for a single day since the beginning of the intifada more than seven years ago, and included militants and civilians, among them several children and a 21-month-old baby. Two Israeli soldiers were also killed in heavy fighting with Hamas gunmen.Yep that's measure for measure. ( Moti Milrod/AP) An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires from a position outside the Gaza Strip The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, d
Ed Gets The Bird 2008-03-02 09:09:00 Calgary giving Tories cold shoulder....and a bit more....Some of the brewing hostility in Calgary toward the PC leader was exemplified Saturday, though, when an older woman stopped her car in the middle of a busy north-end street to honk the horn and flip a one-finger salute at the Stelmach campaign bus.So much for Calgary being the Conservative Heartland.....Some Calgary Conservative candidates say they're facing the wrath of voters who don't believe Premier Ed Stelmach understands the city.TagsAlberta, Premier, Ed Stelmach,election,PC, politics, Conservatives,Calgary, politics, Alberta election,
It's Not A Leadership Race 2008-03-02 08:15:00 Not since the ill fated Don Getty regime have the Tired Old Tories been in such a sorry state. Before Getty the Lougheed Team could do no wrong. After Getty the man of the people; King Ralph could do no wrong. The Tories would do well in the polls because of the Leader. The leaders polling numbers would often be stronger than the party's, and thus the party was buoyed by the popularity of its leader.Now with wimpy Ed as leader the election comes down to hard fisted Realpolitiks. Despite polls saying Ed's Tired Old Tories are at 40% that is a serious crash in popularity, the direct result of Ed's mushy leadership.The leadership debate showed that this is not a race about who will be premier, but rather which party will govern and which one is the opposition. While Taft and Stelmach vied for Read more:Leadership
Calgary Home of Conservatives Of All Ilks 2008-03-01 15:19:00 Premier Ed Stelmach calls Calgary
"Conservative Heartland ...Sure is....Neo-Nazis Firebomb Calgary Activists Thursday, 28 February 2008 On Tuesday, February 12, two prominent members of the Communist Party of Canada were the target of an attack by suspected Neo-Nazis in Calgary. A firebomb was thrown at the home of Jason Devine and Bonnie Collins. Luckily they and their four children escaped unharmed, but considerable damage was done to the home itself. The Molotov cocktail just missed the rear window of the home, but torched their patio and fence. Jason was a candidate for the Communist Party in 2006 and Bonnie is running in the current Alberta election. The two are known in Calgary as activists with Anti Racist Action.White supremacists have been on the marc Read more:Conservatives
The Modern Tudors 2008-03-01 14:25:00 Anglican church split over gays widens in CanadaUh huh this is the Church of England, you know the Church formed by Henry the VIII ( and you know him from the wonderful CBC TV series the Tudors
) in order to obtain a divorce so he could marry his mistress(es).You know the Church that sanctioned each of his marriages one after another eight times.The Church that caused a schism in Catholic World of its day. Yep same church and now those who are the 'catholics', that is the conservatives, in the Anglican Church don't want to recognize gay marriage. They have opted out of the Canadian Church and are aligning with the African Bishops, you know those progressive folks in Africa that sanction attacks on women who dress provocatively and call gays; satanic sodomites.'Breakaway' Anglican churches Read more:Modern
Ed's Glass Half Empty 2008-02-27 19:19:00 CanWest Media; the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald this morning greeted Albertans with this screaming election headline; Another Tory majority in sight.Well actually no. Their latest poll puts Ed Stelmach and his team at 40%. Now that would be a sweep in any other province. But this is Alberta. Where previous Tory Governments had pre-election poll numbers of 65%, 75%, 80%, 90%.So this is a decline. Ed's glass is not half full, it's half empty. Worse yet a poll last week had Ed's Team at 49% so in a week he has dropped 9%. Like just under 10% in week. That means by next Monday they could fall even further, in the poll that counts.The headline should have said 60% of Albertans unhappy with Ed and his team.And so the sub header ih the Herald and Journal reveal the truth;'Enormous' undeci Read more:Empty
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Alberta Election Debate 2008-02-21 22:35:00 Watching the leaders debate tonight ...Mason hits Taft with a zinger over the issue of capping greenhouse gas, the NDP brought a motion into the legislature that would cap greenhouse gases but both the Liberals and PC's voted against it. Zingo, bang, direct hit. Taft stumbles backtracks doesn't answer the question. Mason hits back and says the legislature is where laws are made not election campaigns. So Kevin why did you and the Liberals not support the NDP motion on greenhouse caps. Waiting Waiting.The debate formate is counter productive, far to short a time for answers. CBC is doing online polling of viewers and it is not realistic at all. The whole format is counter productive.Watching CBC, though this is a joint CBC, CTV, CPAC, Global production, it is amtuer hour.The Media running t Read more:Alberta
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Caldwells Bad Investment Advice 2008-02-20 03:49:00 Theo Caldwell, yes the Caldwell Investment Banker,- Theo Caldwell, president of Caldwell Asset Management, Inc., is an investment advisor in the United States and Canada.in the National Pest whines about Canada's support for Cuba through both business investment and tourism. He makes spurious claims, unsubstantiated by a single fact, in his opinion piece.He claims; "It grates against our national character that Canada continues to do business with Cuba, thereby helping to prop up Fidel Castro's tyrannical regime."Oh really. Which national character is that? Perhaps it grates the right wing supporters of the Reform/Alliance/Conservative Party, but they are far from the majority of Canadians. In fact one of the ironies is that Alberta, home of the Republican Lite Right Wing in Canada is also Read more:Investment Advice
Dictator 2008-02-20 02:30:00 With the resignation announcement of Cuba's Comrade Commandante El Presidente Fidel Castro, as I have been predicting for months, the usual media reference to him is as 'dictator'.I guess that is because he is appointed leader by his party without being directly elected.But then again I guess if you use that definition then this guy was a dictator for the past year.Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:Fidel, Castro, Cuba, Alberta,, Ed Stelmach, Stelmach, democratic deficit, One Party State,, , Alberta election, Read more:Dictator
Dynamic Leadership 2008-02-18 09:21:00 The difference between the Tories and Tory Light...is the NDP. Keith Brownsey, political science professor at Mount Royal College; "Taft has performed well," Brownsey said, although he noted the Grit leader isn't connecting on a personal level with voters. "He speaks too much like a business professor." NDP Leader Mason is showing himself to be a more "dynamic individual,"It's all a question of leadership dynamics. For those that dismiss Brian Mason as Premier material well look at whose Premier now. And that guy leading the Liberals who wants to be Premier. Nope they both make look Brian look positively Premier like.SEE:Sun Love In With NDPCareful Of What You Ask ForFind blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:Alberta,Alberta NDP, Kevin Taftelection,Brian Mason, Edmonton, polit Read more:Dynamic
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Dog Fighting In Afghanistan. 2008-02-18 09:15:00 Our troops are fighting in Afghanistan
to defend abuse of women, children and now animals.Assignment Kandahar: Dog Fights, then a BloodbathA suicide bomber killed scores of Afghans attending a dog fighting "festival" being held just outside the city.There is no official word if the suicide bomber was a member of PETA.No report on the number of dogs killed. And apparently the bodyguards were responsible for as many deaths as the suicide bomber.Men and boys were enjoying picnics or watching dog and cock fights when the blast happened. Six children and thirteen auxiliary policemen were among the dead. Many of the wounded were critically injured and the death toll was expected to rise. Witnesses claimed panicking bodyguards fired wildly after the explosion, hitting dazed survivors.Faizullah Read more:Fighting
Liberals Call For Strategic Voting 2008-02-17 18:36:00 Tim Vant the invisible Liberal candidate in Edmonton Strathcona has good advise to voters and fellow Liberals
. VOTE STRATEGICALLY Don't throw your vote away. Seeing as he doesn't stand a snowballs chance in hell against the well organized NDP candidate Rachel Notley.Reading on we discover that the Liberals are an environmentally friendly party; recycling old campaign strategies. Across the province they are calling for strategic voting...for them of course.The Alberta Liberal Team is the only party with a realistic chance of taking power away from the Conservatives and bringing change after 37 years of tired Tory government. If you want change, Tim Vant needs your vote. Except the only time they actually came close to beating the PC's was way, way, way, back in 1993. Under the leader Read more:Strategic
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Edmonton Strarthcona PC Candidate MIA 2008-02-17 18:08:00 Meet another PC candidate who is internet challenged. Unlike his boss though this guy is a member of the net generation.T. J. Keil is Ed's boy in Edmonton
Strathcona.TJ to his friends. But he doesn't have much of a campaign or a hope in hell of winning . The PC's have given up on Edmonton Strathcona leaving it for the NDP to retain.Not for signs or literature would I have known who this guy was, Nor do I find out much from his sparse web page. T.J. enjoys many different sports, traveling, and participating in journalism and broadcasting.For instance we find that this is on the candidates itinerary page;T.J.'s upcoming appearancesComing soon.And then we find he has no events planned, half way through the election......Events This page will soon hold information about T.J.'s campaign events Read more:Candidate
False Advertising 2008-02-17 17:49:00 Yeah made a commitment to be delivered in 2009,or 2010 or maybe 2011....As for a plan they have no plan...except to get re-elected...Stelmach's sophomore-year throne speech will try to further convince voters he has a clear plan, contrary to the ominous whispers of "no plan" in union-funded ads that have run on TV for weeks.The premier whispered back, "We have a plan" in a news conference last week, and now Kwong will reiterate that message on his behalf.nd blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:Alberta, Premier,oil royalties Ed Stelmach,election,PC, Edmonton, politics, Conservatives,media, politics, Read more:Advertising
Insurance Woes and Whines 2008-02-16 04:06:00 Insurance firms feel profit pinchIndustry giants blame roiling markets, high loonie for dampening fourth-quarter earnings and outlookSez the headline. But the reality is that it has less to do with the loonie, and more about their investments in the U.S. including of course their exposure to the sub-prime credit mess. Ah the joys of global capitalism. The reason that banks want to merge of course is to compete for positions in the global financial markets, that is the U.S. market. And this is what happens when they do.....Manulife is Canada's largest insurer. Approximately 64 per cent of its earnings are generated in the United States and Asia. Smaller rival Sun Life faces a similar predicament with about 52 per cent of its earnings originating from the U.S., U.K. and Asia.For the October-
Sun Love In With NDP 2008-02-14 18:42:00 Is subversive socialism creeping into the Sun Editorial Room. After all their new marketing slogan smacks of Bolshevism; Read Red. Red being their banner colour.And they are saying nice things about Brian Mason and the NDP after Brian met with them yesterday. When Mason appeared yesterday to talk to the Sun's editorial board he didn't seem to have any blood-sucking socialist fangs and wasn't wearing a red beret. Instead, he wore a tie and jacket and patiently outlined a policy platform aimed at what ex-premier Ralph Klein dubbed severely normal Albertans. Kerry Diotte, a transplanted Ontario libertarian, gushes again over Brian and the NDP. There's long been an innate fear of socialism here and it has been reflected by the poor showing by NDP candidates who run federally and provincially.
Costing Promises 2008-02-14 09:04:00 Liberals Tories same old stories; make plenty of spending promises but leave the calculator at home.Plenty of Promises
, but Little AccountingThe Liberals and Progressive Conservatives are proving least accountable with public dollars when it comes to slapping price tags on their big-spending election promises, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation argued Wednesday.The NDP proved to be most transparent with expenditure commitments. The party has attached sticker prices on two of the four applicable spending promises to date, totalling more than $2.1 billion annually, with most of that allocated to a green energy fund.Taxpayers federation wants answers for big promises Feb, 13 2008 - 3:50 PM EDMONTON - The Canadian Taxpayers' Federation wants to see the bott
Spring Has Sprung 2008-03-09 19:02:00 In Edmonton, Spring
is now officially here. The pods covering my pussy willow tree burst this week, and the pussy willows are now blooming a sure sign spring is here. Pussy Willow branch with catkins in early spring Today we turned our clocks back to Mountain Daylight Time another sign of spring, and it came a week early due to the alignment with the Americans.Yesterday and today I drank beer on the outdoor patio at my corner pub, a sure sign of spring. People watching I saw someone wearing shorts and the motorcycles were out. Spring is here, though not officially until March 21, which this year coincides with Good Friday. So we actually get a day off to celebrate the return and resurrection of the Sun, and the end of winter. Which after all is what Easter is all about.Not surprisingl
100 Years Of Bread and Roses 2008-03-08 17:24:00 Today marks the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day one of two Internationalist Workers Holidays begun in the United States. And it is one that recognized women as workers, that as workers women's needs and rights are key to all our struggles hence the term Bread
and Roses
.Women have led all revolutions through out modern history beginning as far back as the 14th Century with bread riots. Bread riots would become a revolutionary phenomena through out the next several hundred years in England and Europe.It would be bread riots of women who would lead the French Revolution and again the Paris Commune, led by the anarchist Louise Michel.Bread riots occurred in America during the Civil War.It would be the mass womens protest and bread riots in Russia in 1917 that led to the Revoluti Read more:Years
Childhoods End 2008-03-18 19:38:00 Arthur C. Clarke the great SF writer who put the 'science' into science fiction has passed on. He was a humanist who believed in the spirit of man. I got emails from Clarke because he supported the SETI project. In 1945, a UK periodical magazine “Wireless World” published his landmark technical paper "Extra-terrestrial Relays" in which he first set out the principles of satellite communication with satellites in geostationary orbits - a speculation realised 25 years later. During the evolution of his discovery, he worked with scientists and engineers in the USA in the development of spacecraft and launch systems, and addressed the United Nations during their deliberations on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Today, the geostationary orbit at 36,000 kilometres above the Equator is name
Crash 2008-03-18 19:12:00 While President Bush and his fan club over at Fox Business News refuse to admit America is in a recession the economists have moved on from fears of stagflation to absolute terror;Wall Street fears for next Great Depression IndependentBut there's no mistaking the mood within the US Federal Reserve at the moment. Pessimism was replaced by fear months ago. While the economy is moving inexorably towards a slowdown, a high-speed train wreck is taking place on Wall Street. It is that combination that has scared the living daylights out of the Fed's hierarchy and prompted them into a history-making bail-out of the Wall Street broker Bear Stearns. To put the weekend's action into context, this is the first time since the Great Depression that the US central bank has funded the rescue of a financ
Spring Has Sprung 2 2008-03-18 18:41:00 Well it is official spring has sprung earl. With the Liberals winning three of four by elections yesterday they are now gearing up for a spring election. How do I know?Well it could be that big honking Claudette Roy Liberal Candidate for Edmonton Strathcona sign gracing the corner of 99th st. and Whyte Avenue over the launderette.Or like pussy willows it could just be another sign of spring; the same sign was up last year too, same location.Dion mum on election plans after byelection winstags Linda Duncan, Rahim Jaffer, Edmonton, Alberta, NDP, Liberals, Edmonton StrathconaClaudette Roy, NDP, Read more:Spring
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