The Bush Dollar

Duncan Cameron at Rabble writes an interesting piece on the US Dollar.

Correction:

Duncan said that the Canadian dollar has dropped. However, Between March 2003, when the US invaded Iraq, and June 2007, the Canadian dollar has risen 5 cents against the Euro. During this time, the Canadian dollar has also risen about 30 cents against the US dollar, and the US dollar has dropped about 20 cents against the Euro.

From The Desk Of Stephen Harper

Rick Mercer tells it like it is, with hardly any embellishment.

NDP - "A Voice In The Wilderness"

Some issues of note, brought to light by Vive le Canada blog:

Throwing Cold Water On Deep Integration

and

NDP on Foreign Takeovers

Absinthe - how to drink it

By request, here is my favourite way to drink absinthe.

The absinthe I get in Canada is Hill's Absinthe.

To drink it, you either need a special "absinthe spoon" or, you can use a fork.
Get a small drink glass. Place the absinthe spoon over it. Put a sugar cube of demarara sugar on it. Pour a shot of absinthe over it into the glass. Wait a few seconds for the fumes to dissipate (or you will light everything on fire). Then, light the sugar cube on fire. Let it burn for a bit until it starts getting bubbly on the surface. Then pour a shot of warm water over it into the glass, putting out the fire. Dump the remnants of the cube into the glass and stir it into the drink. Gulp it down or sip it, whatever your preference.

If you really want a good wormwood buzz, have at least 5 of these.

Pleasant dreams!
:)

Proportional Representation - Looking at New Zealand

Mushroom brings to light a good point about coalition governments in New Zealand. That they CAN work.

UPDATES
Support for proportional representation from a Progressive Conservative.

Why electoral reform will work, from democraticSPACE.

And, another from democraticSPACE

Bush the Dictator?

"The Bush administration has released a directive called the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive. The directive released on May 9th, 2007 has gone almost unnoticed by the mainstream and alternative media. This is understandable considering the huge Ron Paul and immigration news but this story is equally as huge. In this directive, Bush declares that in the event of a “Catastrophic Emergency” the President will be entrusted with leading the activities to ensure constitutional government. The language in this directive would in effect make the President a dictator in the case of such an emergency."
Read on at Rogue Government.

News Roundup

I've been busy lately, but I wanted to bring a few important news items to your attention:

Undermining Canada, Undermining the World
A post regarding the behind the scenes work going on that will shift decisions from the people and their government, to the corporations, making the people and the government answerable to the corporations (instead of the other way around).

An Open Question for Heather Stilwell
From Scott's Diatribes:
She’s the school trustee in Surrey, BC trying to either get Al Gore’s documentary on global warming and climate change banned from being viewed in Surrey public schools, or at least to also offer an “alternative theory” to global warming showed; which for the dwindling few members of the Flat-Earth Society would be the documentary “The Global Warming Swindle”. We also find out that she’s a co-founder of the Christian Heritage Party - which according to its own website, wants to govern Canada according to biblical teachings.

NDP Leadership
from Devon Johnston
With the amendments in place, the Conservatives decided to stonewall the legislation by not allowing it to come to a discussion and vote in the House of Commons. So, Jack Layton invited the other opposition parties to demonstrate environmental leadership by using their opposition days to bring the bill in front of the House for a vote. The Liberals declined.

Reform Party, Again?

There are a group of Conservatives pondering re-forming the Reform party. And, I think the Conservatives should go back to using the previous name: Conservative Reform Alliance Party (CRAP!). And, what about a Bloc Alberta party?

Stephen Harper's Scandal Sheet

The NDP site has a great summary of the major Conservative party scandals.

For a party that campaigned on improving accountability, it sure seems like they changed their minds on that topic.

Treason Anyone?

This nonsense from Mike Harris, Preston Manning at The Fraser Institute borders on treason. The document "International Leadership By A Canada Strong & Free" promotes giving up our sovereignty to virtually become another state of the USA. It should be titled "Giving Up and Selling Out; Engulfing Canada in the USA"

I've seen a couple of good posts on this already.
One is How To Kill A Country. By The Fraser Institute at The Galloping Beaver. One of the labels tagging this post sums up Harris and Manning nicely: "Dorks With Pens".

Another is "Why Do Conservatives Hate Canada?" from Scott's Diatribes.

Blog for Peace In Iraq

If you have a blog, whether your country is involved or not, go to One Million Blogs For Peace and sign up to help use your blog to withdraw foreign troops from Iraq. One of the main reasons why there is so much continuing violence in this country is the presence of foreign troops (which are mainly American, but there are many other countries involved directly).

Mother Earth's Revenge By Hurricaine

Mother Nature continues her karmic response to the harm wrought by the USA - the biggest polluters of Earth.

Stupidity & Misguided Belief = Child's Death

Stupidity and the mistaken belief that omnivores can properly sustain themselves on a herbivorous diet resulted in a baby's death. I've seen something similar with pet owners who try to keep carnivorous pets on a herbivore's diet.

Vegan parents jailed for baby's death.

Good News, Bad News for Canada

Canada is trading more and more with Europe and less with the U.S. This is a very good thing as the US dollar is dropping, and if Canada is tied too much with US trade when the bottom falls out of the US dollar (when the creditor countries come calling on the US' huge foreign debt, and when oil-trading switches more to other currencies), Canada will fall with the US, unless we have established a more diversified trading network.

And the bad news? Conservatives are working hard to increase trade with the U.S. We need to fight these conservative forces on this issues or Canada will be decimated when the bottom falls out of the U.S.

Another Reason To Stop Supporting the War In Afghanistan

The Afghani government wants us to stop. Let's stop killing Afghani civilians and start helping them (like we used to do when Canadians were peacekeepers).

Ontario Proportional Representation - Update

Check out this new article in the Toronto Star by Joe Murray, President of Fair Vote Ontario.

My previous post on this issue.

Who is the Worst Canadian? Vote Now

Choose who you think is the most despicable Canadian of all time. You can vote up to 3 times.

Canada joins the Climate Axis of Evil

Read the story here at ecoFraud.

Climate Change Updates

In today's Toronto Star, experts are saying that the Arctic Ocean is melting much faster than even the worst predictions. And this faster melting could cause an acceleration of global warming.

There is also an excellent post from Monbiot about how governments are using outdated science in calculating global warming issues, and how this is going to affect us.

EcoFraud - check it out before it's gone!

There is a new site up that takes a humorous poke a the Conservative government's latest "green" plan. Check it out before it gets taken down.

Cutting Corners: The Conservative Climate Change Challenge

Take the NDP's quiz on the Conservatives new environmental plan. Fun and educational.

The Canadian Afghanistan Torture Scandal

If you haven't been following this in the news, and maybe you haven't as some major news media haven't really been covering it, there is an excellent post about it on rabble.ca by Derrick O'Keefe.

Basically, Canadian soldiers have been handing prisoners of war over to local Afghanistan military and the local military have been torturing prisoners and doing other nasty things all in violation of the Geneva Convention, and the Canadian government has known about it since at least last year. Stephen Harper and the defence minister have basically denied that there has been anything wrong and that everything is a Taliban lie.

Here are some key quotes from Derrick's article:

On Wednesday, The Globe and Mail delivered the knockout punch to Harper's and the Conservatives' evasions and denials. The headline summed it all up, “What Ottawa doesn't want you to know: Government was told detainees often faced 'extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial'.”

A 2006 report on Afghanistan compiled for Foreign Affairs Canada provides proof that the Conservative government knew about all of this, contrary to everything O'Connor and the PM have been saying for months - and what they, incredibly, continued to assert in the House this week. Key passages of the Afghanistan report were blacked out, but The Globe and Mail obtained an original copy. The censored content, what Ottawa didn't want us to know, includes the following passages:

Despite some positive developments, the overall human rights situation in Afghanistan deteriorated in 2006.

Extra judicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial are all too common. Freedom of expression still faces serious obstacles, there are serious deficiencies in adherence to the rule of law and due process by police and judicial officials. Impunity remains a problem in the aftermath of three decades of war and much needed reforms of the judiciary systems remain to be implemented. (The Globe and Mail, A1, April 25, 2007)

... Canada was in violation of the Geneva Convention by handing over detainees to almost certain torture and abuse.

This includes, lest we forget, handing over prisoners to U.S. authorities, who have established their own facilities for “enemy combatants” at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan and the infamous Guantanamo base on occupied Cuban territory.

Those who have defended the current NATO mission as a “humanitarian intervention” have lost a lot of credibility this week.

It's time to stop the lying and killing and support our troops and the people of Afghanistan and bring our troops home. In the past, as Canadians, our troops would have been helping to stop the fighting and help rebuild infrastructure. Instead, our current and previous government decided to end our historic and proud tradition as peacekeepers, and make us warmongers - killers for hire for an oil pipeline - instead. Now we are war criminals. Remember who decided to make us war criminals next federal election time (the Conservatives and Liberals).


For more information on the recent history of the conflict in and about Afghanistan, check out James Laxer's series on rabble.ca

UPDATE
More cover-up here.
The Conservatives signed a deal regarding prisoner transfer, but won't say whether they are being transfered to Guantanamo or where.

More About Ethanol

Here is an update to my last post about Ethanol.

Murray Dobbin's latest column on rabble.ca is entitled Last Stage Of Denial: ethanol will save us!
In the article, Murray sites more evidence about how ethanol is not the answer and will not only NOT reduce pollution, but will threaten our food sources. A quote that caught my attention from Fidel Castro: More than three billion people in the world are being condemned to a premature death from hunger and thirst ... The sinister idea of turning foodstuffs into fuel was definitely established as the economic strategy of the U.S. foreign policy on Monday, March 26th last.

Sympatico Email Server Problems

In case anyone was wondering what happened to their email on April 30th...

For those of you using Sympatico as an ISP in Canada, you may have experienced problems today receiving email. Sympatico's email server system was on the fritz today, at least for the Toronto area, if not other parts of Ontario and/or Canada as well.

The problems began in the middle of the day Monday April 30th and lasted until just after midnight (and hopefully it won't go down again, as I am writing this just after midnight the morning of May 1st).

You could send email, but not receive it (unless you logged onto the Hotmail web site for your Sympatico email account. So, the problem was not with the MSN hotmail server, it was with some Sympatico process.)

Every once in a while, something like this will happen. But, the funny thing is, Sympatico usually doesn't notify it's customers or admit that they had an outage. To see if they had listed anything about this email server problem, I visited their old Outages & Maintenance page. But, instead of that, it said the page had moved, and to visit the main page as they had rearranged their web site. So, I went to the main page. And, as suspected, there was no link for an outage page. After extensive searching, I found that there is no longer an outage & maintenance page. Go figure.

I'm sure there is something in the agreement relating to how they can have outages and maintenance, and totally deny that they are having any outage and maintenance, even with proof, and that you can't get any credit for the downtime, let alone get them to acknowledge that there was any downtime.

Anyway, remember these key points if you ever find that you can't connect to the internet via Sympatico:

IF you know that your computer is working fine and you didn't change anything that could affect you getting on-line, then
1) Shut down your computer, unplug your modem and router
2) Wait a few minutes, then plug in your modem, then router, then start up your computer again
3) If you still can't connect, DO NOT call Sympatico. Wait until they fix the problem (as it is a problem on their end, not yours).
4) Waiting could be an hour to a couple of days

If you DO decide to call Sympatico, just politely tell the operator to tell their supervisor that you are experiencing an outage in your area, give them your area code, and hang up if they continue to try to get you to do unnecessary things to your computer. Hopefully, he/she will mention this and your area code to the supervisor and they will get the problem fixed. The operator is not to blame. It is Sympatico policy that before they can listen to you, they MUST put you through the ringer of a bunch of basic things, whether the problem is at your end or not, whether they know there is an outage or not. Operators are NEVER told of maintenance or outages.

UPDATE
Yep. I was right about there being something in the agreement about all this:

e. Loss of Service Due to ... Internet Service ... Failure. You acknowledge and understand that ... in the event of an outage ... you will continue to be billed for the Service ...

...

f. Service Subject to Maintenance or Other Service Outages. You acknowledge and understand that Bell may perform maintenance on the Service from time to time without notice to you, ...

When I first switched to Sympatico, they used to give you advance notice of regular maintenance - when there would be an outage, and, you would be credited with time if there was an unexpected outage. But now, not only do they not give any advance notice, they won't admit that there is or was an outage. It would be nice if they would at least say "yes, we have maintenance in your area and service should be up again soon". That would be nice and that is what I would expect from someone I am paying money to for a service every month.

Now, after all that, I have to say I am generally happy with the service from Sympatico. It still seems to be about the most reliable ISP around (for a while I thought another large ISP was better, until I read that they limited bandwidth for anyone using any sort of sharing software or sending or receiving any encrypted files - they have less outages, but they secretly limit bandwidth (so, while you pay to have a high bandwidth, they give you a low bandwidth)). From my experience, Sympatico doesn't do this, so they are still tops in my book.

UPDATE 2
It was down again off and on in the evening of May 1st, so I guess they are aware of and working on the problem. So, maybe there will be more intermittent outages in the evenings for the next few days. Or, maybe not. Hopefully they will have the problem fixed soon.

The Conservative Environmental Plan Does Not Deal "with the 300-pound gorilla in the room"

There is an excellent post at democraticSPACE about the new Conservative environmental plan and what it really means for Canada as a country and to individuals.

The plan falls way-short of responsible targets, including the Kyoto targets. Individual consumers are targeted instead of the big pollution-producing industries who produce a far greater share of pollution in Canada.

Don't be fooled.

UPDATE

More from The Globe & Mail

"Former U.S. vice-president blasts Conservative environmental platform as 'complete and total fraud designed to mislead the Canadian public.'"

Good News for NDP in the Polls

The latest Decima poll results show the NDP support up to 18%, while the Conservatives have dropped to 30%, virtually tied with the Liberals at 29%. The Greens are at 11% and the Bloc is at 8%.

The NDP had dropped down to about 13% earlier this year, but support for them has been slowly rising since.

Standings at the last election were:
Conservatives: 36.3%
Liberals: 30.2%
NDP: 17.5%
Bloc: 10.5%
Green: 4.5%

The NDP Plan To Remove Troops From Afghanistan Now

Contrary to what the Liberals and the MSM would have you believe, the NDP were NOT supporting the Conservatives when they voted against the recent motion to withdraw Canadian troops from Afghanistan in 2009. The NDP wants to begin to withdraw the troops now - that is why they voted against the motion. The motion did nothing to change the Afghanistan situation - which was agreed upon by both the Conservatives and the Liberals in the first place.

Today, the NDP has tabled a new motion regarding withdrawing the troops now.

For details, read here.

UPDATE
from James Laxer

Useless Trivia

Some of the items are not true, or not fully true, but they're fun.

5. Giraffes and rats can last longer without water than camels.

16. In ancient Rome, when a man testified in court he would swear on his testicles.

35. 55.1% of all US prisoners are in prison for drug offenses.

60. If you put a drop of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

103. A snail can sleep for 3 years.

117. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

133. On a Canadian two-dollar bill, the American flag is flying over the Parliament Building. [Not true. See Myth here] In actuality, although it looks like the American flag, it’s really an old Canadian flag called the “Red Ensign”. This flag was flown over Canada from 1870 to 1965 when it was replaced by the new “Maple Leaf” flag.

195. Cats’ urine glows under a black light.

For the full list, visit Single Grain.

Ontario Proportional Representation

The Ontario Citizen's Assembly On Electoral Reform has voted to endorse MMP over the our current first-past-the-post system. Thanks to democraticSPACE for bringing this to light.

If you want to learn about the details of what this would mean for you at election time, go to this page. There is a link on the page to download the Citizen's Assembly report as a PDF file. You'll see from this that the ballot would be divided into 2 parts - you vote for one local representative, and you vote for one regional representative - and you get to pick the regional person, not just the party. It looks like they have come up with a very simple and feasible solution.

The next step towards PR now lies with the Liberals and Conservatives. The current system of FPTP (first past the post) helps them get majority governments when their party is in power. PR would only give a majority government if the party actually gets a majority of the votes (50%+).

IF they support this, then the step after that is the referendum vote next election time. And they have set the bar at 60% of the vote or more. This means that the general public must be fully educated on the issue. A daunting task. Will the MSM (mainstream media) be up to the task? Hopefully, the contents of the PDF report (above) will be fully distributed and explained throughout the coming months.

UPDATES
• Toronto Star, April 15, 2007

What I'm Currently Listening To

I recently got a few new batches of CDs in and I've been listening through them. Here they are:

• VNV Nation - Judgement - new. See review in other post. Genre: EBM. 7/10
  

• Angelspit - Krankhaus - new. Genre: Industrial Punk Fetish. This band rocks! They are from Australia. I've been into their tunes since their ep Nurse Grenade. This is their first album. I would LOVE to see them play a double-bill with Hanzel und Gretyl. Anyway, I got the version of the album that included the Surgically Atoned Limited Edition Remix Disc. I like it a bit better than the album. 2 of the songs I really like on it are 100% (110% F*cked Mix) remixed by Combichrist, and Make You Sin remixed by Diverje. And the artwork and costumes on the cover and inside are almost worth the price of the album. 8/10

• And One - Bodypop - somewhat new. Genre: EBM. Another very good album from And One. The 2 songs on here that you will definitely hear (at the right clubs) are Military Fashion Show and Body Company - With these songs, And One continue on with their tradition of stylish and sexy futurepop dance numbers. Overall: 7/10, but, I'll give it an 8/10 just for those 2 songs.

• Skinny Puppy - Mythmaker - new. Genre: Industrial. A bit softer than their previous material. I haven't listened to it enough to really say much about it or rate it yet. Interesting, but nothing has really jumped out at me from it.

• Hawkwind - Live Chronicles - old. Genre: space rock. The original vinyl version of this came out in 1986. In 1985 they released The Chronicle Of The Black Sword - basically songs based on stories of Elric by Michael Moorcock - sword and sorcery stuff (for those not initiated in Moorcock's Eternal Champion cycle of novels). The band toured with Moorcock and some mimes and dancers and put on a very elaborate stage show, with visuals and the performers all inspired by the Moorcock Elric stories. The resulting live album Live Chronicles was, IMHO, one of the best live recordings of the band ever. I have the vinyl, but I've wanted to get the CD version for ages. It has been out of print now for a long time (as the CD came out in 1994), but you can still get it, used, on-line via Amazon for about $100 - $200. Well worth it though if you are rabid Hawkwind fan as I am. It's a 2 CD set with extra songs added that are not on the original vinyl release. 8/10

• Tactical Sekt - Syncope - not new. Genre: EBM/Industrial. This came out earlier last year. It rocks so much I am still listening to it fairly regularly. Very up-beat, very danceable, very cyber-goth! The album is packed with great songs. The songs are also full of interesting samples from movies and (possibly) tv shows and other things. If you can get one, get the limited edition that includes a remix CD as well. With that you get 2x the aural fun. 9/10

• Headscan - Pattern Recognition - not new. Genre: EBM/Electronic... And this album came out over a year ago, and I'm still listening to it regularly. It MOOOOOVES. Electronic throbbing and pulsing goodness. VERY danceable. I saw them perform this music live a few months ago at the Reverb in Toronto, opening for Assemblage 23, and I liked the Headscan performance much better. Assemblage was good, but Headscan smoked. They are playing live again at Darkrave on May 5th in Toronto at the Funhaus. Again, here is another album that is packed from start to finish with great songs. It doesn't stop, and you don't want it to. Headscan is from Montreal. 9/10

• Wumpscut - Goth Census - new. Genre: Industrial. Up to their usual dark sounds, this EP includes 2 remixes (among other tunes) of a humorous song You Are A Goth. My fave is the Yendri Club Remix version ('cause of the added trippy sh*t). The original songs are from their new album (which I haven't heard yet) Body Census. Besides the fave song, I haven't listened to this enough to rate it.

• Steril - Realism - not so new. Genre: Industrial/EBM/electronic. Fun stuff with some good dance numbers. There are probably a couple of tunes on here you might recognize from clubs, especially the first track Realist. 7/10

• Velvet Acid Christ - Lust For Blood - not so new. Genre: Industrial... More dark scary danceable stuff from VAC. Big dance tune here: Wound - very good. Pretty artwork. If you are into this band at all, especially more recent material, you will like this album. 7/10

• Apoptygma Berzerk - You And Me Against The World - not so new. Genre: EBM/Futurepop. Lots of great dance tracks on this. Light, uplifting poppy stuff. 3 of my faves are: In This Together, You Keep Me From Breaking Apart (you might recognize these from the dance floor at clubs), and Tuning Into The Frequency Of Your Soul. 8/10

• Distorted Circuitry w/DJ Morgana - the March 5, 2007 show. Morgana and a few other DJs post 2-hour shows at Distortedcircuitry.com Much of the above-mentioned music I hear on Morgana's shows. You can listen to it streaming, or download it to your computer and listen to it when/where you will.

And, I'm eagerly awaiting (supposed to show up in the next couple of weeks) the new Zombie Girl album Blood, Brains & Rock'n Roll.

I used to go to the HMV on Yonge hear Dundas as it had a great Industrial/Goth section. But it shrank and they don't have as much now. But, no big loss as I found (through Distorted Circuitry) a local mail-order on-line store: Storming The Base. Low prices, great selection of industrial, ebm, goth, electronic... check out the site.


Till next time, happy listening/dancing...

VNV Nation - Judgement - new album.

I just received the latest VNV Nation album - Judgement - in the mail yesterday.

Overall, it is a little mellower than Matter + Form. It has more slow songs with vocals. But, it still has some up-beat driving dance songs, particularly Momentum and Nemesis. And it has some really floaty, sparkley stuff.

At first I felt a little disappointed, since what I like the most about VNV is their up-tempo music. But, after a few listens on my Creative Zen Nano, the other material on this album began to grow on me.

Compared to other albums, I still like Empires the best, but I would rate Judgement on par with the 2002 Futureperfect album.

If you are fan of VNV at all, you will like this album. Listen to it in the dark (with candles and/or trip-lights on) with headphones and watch the lights come on in your mind.

I'm going to see them at the Docks in Toronto April 21st and I can't wait to dance to Momentum and Nemesis. And And One is opening! Their latest album Bodypop is very good too.

VNV Nation - Judgement
Ratings:
General Danceability: 6/10
Overall: 7/10

What Has Free Trade Done For You?

Free trade in North America has done a lot for a very few rich people and corporations and has done little or negatively impacted everyone else.
Read on...

Why Are Canadian Troops In Afghanistan?

The government and media spoon feed us lies about what is going on in Afghanistan.

Check out this article from Murray Dobbin ...

This situation reveals how naive we are as a nation. That old adage — the first casualty of war is truth — applies here in spades because this war is based on lies, including:

• This has nothing to do with oil and gas pipelines.
• This is a fight against terrorism. (The truth: It's an occupation being resisted by indigenous militants.)
• The current Afghan government is democratic. (The truth: Many senior figures should be tried for war crimes, and others are drug lords.)
• Girls are now going to school. (Really? How many?)
• Bombing villages will provide them with security.
• We can “win.”

What we are doing in Afghanistan is unsupportable. But what we are doing to ourselves is not so obvious. We are corrupting Canada's own institutions, including our military, our foreign service, our foreign aide program, and our public broadcaster. Worst of all, as long as we stay in Afghanistan, we are corrupting our political culture.


For more background on what NATO is doing in Afghanistan, read this article by the Canadian Peace Alliance from April 2006:

Why are we in Afghanistan?

The people of Afghanistan want peace. The occupiers and their puppet and former Unocal employee, Hamid Karzai, want oil.

>by Canadian Peace Alliance
April 10, 2006

Canada has 2250 Canadian soldiers stationed in Kandahar Afghanistan. The soldiers are fighting alongside about 8,000 U.S. soldiers and are under the command of Operation Archer in support of the U.S. led “Operation Enduring Freedom.” It is expected that command of the Canadian units will shift to NATO control by 2007.

Canada is operating along the southern border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Kandahar province. This is a crucial area for two reasons: it is the location of Taliban strongholds and it is the proposed route for the multibillion dollar Trans-Afghan pipeline.

It is no secret that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, U.S. oil companies have been keen to exploit Caspian Sea oil and gas. They lobbied the Clinton administration to have a pipeline built from Turkmenistan in the north through Afghanistan to ports in Pakistan. They see even more opportunity with George Bush as president.

Afghanistan is important to U.S. oil companies because it is the only route that would provide total control for them. The other possible routes for the pipeline run through Iran, an enemy of the U.S., China, a competitor of the U.S., or Russia, an unreliable and heavily armed ally.

The Department of National Defence says that Canadians, and the other international forces, are there to “reinforce the authority of the Afghan government in and around Kandahar and help local authorities stabilize and rebuild the region.”

Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan is considered a U.S. puppet by most Afghans. His authority outside Kabul is merely symbolic. Local control in the provinces is left to a mix of opium gangsters, former Taliban commanders and tribal elders. Mark Schneider, president of International Crisis Group has said, “It's not merely about drug money financing candidates. Drug lords are candidates.”

The United States and the Karzai Administration are, in most cases, happy to work and make deals with these local rulers. According to of Human Rights Watch the majority (60 per cent) of those elected to the Afghan parliament in the October 18, 2005 elections were these local criminals and power brokers or their associates.

U.S. forces and allied local warlords are responsible for human rights abuses in the country. According to Human Rights Watch: “U.S. forces operating against Taliban insurgents continue to generate numerous claims of human rights abuses against the civilian population, including arbitrary arrests, use of excessive force, and mistreatment of detainees … Local military and police forces, even in Kabul, have been involved in arbitrary arrests, kidnapping, extortion, torture and extrajudicial killings of criminal suspects.

“Outside Kabul, commanders and their troops in many areas have been implicated in widespread rape of women, girls and boys, murder, illegal detention, forced displacement, and other specific abuses against women and children, including human trafficking and forced marriage.”

According to the much-publicized remarks of General Rick Hillier, Canadians are in Afghanistan to “kill detestable murderers and scumbags.” The reality is that we are supporting some of the worst human rights abusers the country has ever seen. This deadly combination of abuses by both U.S. forces and their local allies ensures that Canadians will face growing resistance from the Afghan people.

State of reconstruction

We are told that the Canadian soldiers will be engaging in development work as part of their mission. This type of intervention, generally referred to as the 3-D approach (disarmament, diplomacy and development) has come under heavy criticism from NGOs for confusing the process and endangering aid workers. It is argued that having the development component so intertwined with the defense operation results in corruption and the use of development initiatives as bribes to local authorities and civilians. It also eliminates the possibility of development work being neutral in the conflict.

According to a report in the Guardian, Vickie Hawkins, acting head of the of Médecin Sans Frontières mission in Afghanistan said the international humanitarian group left Afghanistan for these very reasons.

The U.S.-led coalition has made the situation worse by blurring the line between humanitarian work and military operations. During the war in 2001, Hawkins said, U.S. soldiers were driving around in civilian clothes in white cars, taking on the appearance of humanitarian aid workers. Last May, the Pentagon was forced to apologize for dropping leaflets in southern Afghanistan which promised humanitarian assistance if local people gave the coalition information about the Taliban and al-Qaida.

She despaired that military campaigns were employing “hearts and minds” strategies more and more often, making it difficult for aid workers to maintain their aura of all-important impartiality. “If armies are handing out food assistance and medical equipment, it becomes harder for locals to tell the aid workers from the occupiers.”

Opium

Revenue from poppy cultivation — between $2-3 billion annually — is now double the amount of international aid. Ironically, the money coming from opium production is now the chief source of “reconstruction funds” in the country. Afghan farmers have little option but to produce poppies and will continue to do so. It is the only crop that will generate enough money to survive on.

The British Government, worried that most of the heroin ending up on UK streets came from Afghanistan, began an eradication program for poppy cultivation. Afghan farmers were promised aid and new seeds in return for ending their production but the aid never arrived and many have returned to poppy cultivation. Attempts at a new eradication program will likely end in conflict unless there is a real commitment to provide viable alternatives to the farmers.

Fraser Nelson, a Scottish journalist, of summarizes the contradiction, “Today, some two million Afghans rely on opium poppies for their livelihood, generating $2.7bn of illegal wealth. They will not give this up readily, nor will the farmers whose desire to feed their families is stronger than their desire to placate NATO.” i

British Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that, “The Taliban regime is funded in large part on the drug trade — 90 per cent of all heroin sold in Britain originates from Afghanistan. Stopping that trade is directly in our interests.”

The Taliban has many faults but by May 2001 it had virtually eradicated opium production. The resurgence in poppy production is a consequence of the US invasion and continuing occupation.

Canadian corporations in the Caspian

According to the of Energy Information Administration there are proven reserves of between 17 and 44 billion barrels of oil and 232 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Caspian region. Production of these reserves is very limited. As of 2004, only about 11 per cent of the region’s gas reserves, which equal those of Saudi Arabia, were under production.

On December 27, 2002 Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan signed an agreement to build a 1500 kilometre long Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline — a $3.2 billion project expected to deliver 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year. The only stumbling block to finally realizing this deal is the lack of stability in Afghanistan.

In September, 2004 a joint Omani-Canadian delegation led by Yusuf bin Alavi, foreign minister of Oman, and Jean Chrétien, former Prime Minister of Canada, of met in Turkmenistan to negotiate a deal between Edmonton based Buried Hill Energy and the government of Turkmenistan to develop the Serdar block in the Caspian area.

This is not the first or only time that the former Prime Minister, a man responsible for sending thousands of Canadian soldiers to Afghanistan, has intervened on behalf of Canadian corporations for contracts in the area. On the same trip Chrétien met with Saparmurat Niyazov, the self proclaimed president for life of Turkmenistan, and of discussed potential involvement from Canadian corporations in the Trans-Afghan pipeline.

On October 20, 2004 Thermo Design of received a contract worth $42 million for the production of an LPG and gas condensate plant in Turkmenistan that would produce 50,000 tons of LPG and 200,000 tons of condensate gas (light gasoline) annually.

The hypocrisy of signing multi-million dollar deals with one of the worst human rights abusers in the region while simultaneously of arguing that Canada's soldiers are bringing peace is obvious. It is also standard operating procedure for successive governments of Canada to ignore issues of human rights if there is money to be made in international deals. These facts call into question the real reasons why Canada is in Afghanistan.

The people of Afghanistan want peace. The occupiers and their puppet and former Unocal employee, Hamid Karzai want oil. We have seen the U.S. and its Allies in this scenario before. Whether in Chile in 1973 when the U.S. sponsored a coup to make sure that the copper mines were not nationalized or in Iraq where they have killed more than a million people to control the oil resources, they will brutally enforce a corrupt and divisive political process to keep the people divided so they can pillage the land of its resources. They don't care who is in power or what type of society they are creating.

In this case they are building a society based on corruption, drugs and violence. Canada is now the cop trying to impose these realities on the people of Afghanistan.

For further reading and information, please visit the Canadian Peace Alliance.

War is never the solution

War is not heroic and it is not the solution.

Vimy: Was It Worth It?

Jet Li & Jackie Chan to team up with Yuen Woo-Ping!

Jet Li said he wasn't going to do any more martial arts movies. But ...

Biofuel vs Food

Biofuels, ethanol, are not the answer to clean fuels as they use up food growing land and they encourage cutting down forests (which absorb CO2, which helps to cut down on Greenhouse gases).

Here is a new article regarding this.

Canada, America's Fuel Tank

Take back our resources for Canada.

Watch the video for information:

Tar Sands: Fuel Tank for US Empire
by Gordon Laxer

Invavsion of Iran Postponed

Last week, I mentioned that Russian intelligence figured that the US would invade Iran on April 6th. Well, with the peaceful resolution of the "hostage crisis" between Iran and Britain, a possible catalyst has been diffused and the invasion has been put on pause . Here are a couple of interesting posts about:
- How Blair basically told Bush to back off
- How the MSM has reported on the aftermath of the situation vs. reality.

Hopefully there won't be another opportunity arising anytime soon that the US sees as an invitation to invade Iran.

NDP And Liberals Don't Stand For The Same Thing

Sean in Saskatchewan has a good post regarding the thought of an NDP/Liberal Alliance.

He hits in on the nail, as to why there couldn't be such an alliance, with:
the Liberals only represent the social and environmental policies that represent the backbone of the NDP when it will grab them a few votes, not because they are fundamentally the right policies for the country.
The fundamental policies of the NDP and the Liberal party are quite different, so such an alliance would not work.

And, we all know the trick of the Liberals campaigning on the Left, and then, if elected, governing from the Right.


UPDATE
Here's another good post on the topic:
NDP Exists For Many Reasons

Uglydoll Jeero Video

For your entertainment, check out this video of Jeero, an UglyDoll, exercising.

And below is a picture of one of the Giant uglies with lots of little uglies.


and Here is a picture of Bigtoe, one of the newest uglies.

USA, Oil, War and the US Dollar

Le Revue Gauche brought this to light in his recent post Petro Dollars and the US Debt
The full story is here at Court Fool.info

Basically, if you are not familiar with this and you want the short summary:

The World mainly trades oil for US dollars. This artificially boosts the value of the US Dollar, and gives the US a lot of buying power in the world. So, it is in the USA's best interest for everyone to keep trading oil for US Dollars.
If the big oil producing nations switched to trading oil for another currency, then the US dollar would drop drastically and the US would be in big trouble. It would also affect the rest of the world economy, but the US would suffer the worst of it. At very worst it might turn the US into a third world nation as the creditors clamour for their money. The US is in debt over its eyeballs to the rest of the world right now.

So, when I Iraq switched to trading oil for Euros (the US dollar then dropped sharply) , the US invaded them under false pretences (WMD) to take control of their oil. And now Iraq trades in US dollars again and the US dollar has climbed back up a bit.

The US wants to get rid of Chavez in Venezuela because he nationalized oil and instead of selling it for US dollars, he trades it in a barter system for goods and services.

Iran has been trading in Euros instead of the US dollar since 2003. Because of a falling out between the 2 countries and the US embargo against Iran, Iran does not trade any oil to the US now. So, it is no wonder that the US is fabricating the story that Iran is planning on making nuclear weapons. The US wants to solve its problem again by going to war and taking control of the oil in Iran and make it go back to trading in US dollars.

Read the story at Court Fool.info for all the details on this issue.

What should Canada do to avoid problems with this in the near future? Canada should slowly diversify its holdings to currency from other countries, increase trade with other countries and reduce the amount of US dollars we have. So, when the sh*t hits the fan, we are not dragged down with the US.

The Wonders of Lard

Are you allergic to everything under the sun except pork? Do you miss peanut butter, ice cream, and assorted other gooey/creamy foods? Well, you can create a million different pseudo-foods with lard. Available at a low price at any grocery store in big tubs. It's pretty much tasteless and oderless, so you can add any flavouring you like.

I think I'll go have a peanut butter, I mean lard sandwich now ...

Proportional Representation Made Easy

Don't understand Proportional Representation? Let John Cleese explain the basics to you.

There is a catch to beer and wine in corner stores

Having beer and wine available at corner stores may sound like a good idea, but it's not. Here's why:
Currently, the LCBO is one of the single largest purchaser of wine & spirits in the world. Yes, that's IN THE WORLD. And guess what buying in such large quantities does for consumers. Low prices. Yes, due to being able to buy in such large quantities, the LCBO can then pass on the savings to you, and they do. Compared with other areas of Canada, we have about the lowest prices. (Note: in other regions, you may find lower prices, but that is only on items that are large sellers, not on other items. In Ontario in LCBO stores, the prices are generally lower across-the-board.) Another bonus of the current set up is the variety. Compared to other regions of Canada, we have the widest variety of wines and spirits available.
And last, but not least, control of sales to minors. By NOT having booze sold in corner stores, but, by having it only available at LCBO, Beer stores and private wine stores, it is easier to keep control of sales to minors.

If it was available in corner stores, the prices would be higher, the variety would be very slim, and control of sales to minors would be much less enforceable.

If you are a minor and are thinking, great, it will be easier for me to get some alcohol for the party this weekend, think also how your allowance might not be able to cover the increased price. Okay, so maybe you have to pay the 19 year old a bit extra for delivery anyway, so this might not be such a bad thing for you. But, you're not supposed to be drinking anyway.

Anyway, for a bit of added convenience, we would pay more for less of a variety.

No thanks.

I Guess She Was Having A Sh*tty Day

Here I was, all set to read the details of this bizarre and disgusting crime. But, when I read the article, the news was not to be found - the details. No details about the crime were there. I'm not talking about the feces, but , how would the principal have got into a situation where she just happened to have some dog sh*t in her hand (I'm assuming that is what it was. I can't imagine she went to the washroom and ....). Maybe she was out in the schoolyard and the kids and the feces just happened to both be in the same place when the incident occurred. Or, maybe, she went out and collected some, then later, called the kids to her office and whipped it at them. Either way, I would think that some psychiatric evaluation would be called for in this situation before letting her continue to be a principal.

The NDP In Quebec

While one blogger interprets what Jack Layton said and turns it into an April Fool's joke (by saying that Jack thinks that "Conservatives are actually Socialists"), another blogger reports on reality in Another Star Recruit.

1) What Jack meant was that if the ADQ breakthrough in Quebec in the provincial election means that the people of Quebec were dissatisfied with the usual 2 parties and chose another party, then there may be a chance for the NDP to breakthrough in Quebec federally - the NDP are "another" party in Quebec that has not been given a chance. If the people are dissatisfied with the Bloc and Liberals, they might vote NDP.

2) However, there is another point here. The ADQ are a right-wing party, as are the Conservatives. IF the people of Quebec were ALSO voting for the ADQ agenda, they very well might turn around and vote for the Conservatives in a federal election.

But, Quebec is generally a socialist province with values contrary to conservative agenda. So, I'm more inclined to agree with point 1 than point 2. I do agree with Accidental Deliberations in that even one Quebec seat in a general election would be a major breakthrough for the NDP.

A Perspective on Prisoner Treatment

Iranian prisoner treatment VS Brit and US prisoners

Turney may have been "forced to wear the hijab", as the Daily Mail noted with fury, but so far as we know she has not been forced into an orange jumpsuit. Her comrades have not been shackled, blindfolded, forced into excruciating physical contortions for long periods, or denied liquids and food. As far as we know they have not had the Bible spat on, torn up or urinated on in front of their faces. They have not had electrodes attached to their genitals or been set on by attack dogs.

Article continues
They have not been hung from a forklift truck and photographed for the amusement of their captors. They have not been pictured naked and smeared in their own excrement. They have not been bundled into a CIA-chartered plane and secretly "rendered" to a basement prison in a country where torturers are experienced and free to do their worst.

IOF filmed beating Palestinian Youth

IOF filmed beating Palestinian youth and attacked by dogs

Drugs are ... well, some are less bad than others

Just legalize it already!

Bad Cookie

Visit badcookie.com for a different kind of fortune cookie.

WARNING: Not for anyone who is depressed or is currently down in their luck.

Save now for future calamity.

Depart not from the path which fate has assigned you or you will die a hideous death.

You have a poor sense of humour and don't know a good time.