Posted by: Ish Theilheimer BC First Nation rescinds earlier support for Northern Gateway deal - Friday, January 20, 2012: From Vancouver Sun
OTTAWA - An agreement struck by Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. last month, which was supposed to prove to Canadians that there is aboriginal support for the $5.5 billion Northern Gateway pipeline, has officially collapsed, the company confirmed Wednesday...
Posted by: Penney Kome Romney's campaign paid for by biggest banks - Thursday, January 19, 2012:from Conservative Action Alerts
A new independent analysis of 2012 presidential candidates' campaign contributions confirms that Mitt Romney is the banksters' choice for the GOP nominee, and indeed for President.
Records of campaign contributions based on Federal Election Commission data released electronically this past weekend, reveal that Romney's top 20 donors are made up almost exclusively of the biggest private banks on the planet.
Among Romney's top twenty donors are Credit Suisse Group, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo and Citigroup Inc.
By far and away Romney's largest campaign contributions have emanated from employees and officials at Goldman Sachs, with a total of $354,700 donated. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer &*#34;The Operators": the inside story of America's war in Afghanistan - Thursday, January 19, 2012: From Democracy Now
We speak with reporter Michael Hastings about the "disastrous past year" in Afghanistan and the mentality a decade of war has bred there. The U.S. has "funneled billions of dollars in weapons and training into a chaotic place like Afghanistan, training these young guys to kill people, and then are shocked when they see the results," Hastings says of the outcry that followed last week’s appearance of a video showing four uniformed U.S. marines urinating on the corpses of three Afghan men, which has been widely condemned by officials in the United States and in Afghanistan. His new book, "The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan," originated with his 2010 Rolling Stone article, "The Runaway General," about Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then commander of the war in Afghanistan, and his inner circle. McChrystal was fired after the article was published...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Iran subs poised to torpedo US warships in Gulf - Thursday, January 19, 2012: From RT News An Iranian commander has warned that Tehran is on full alert in case of enemy threats, and has the best submarines in the world ready to "ambush and hit enemy vessels, especially US Aircraft carriers, from the seabed throughout the Persian Gulf..."
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer France steps forward with Robin Hood Tax - Wednesday, January 18, 2012: From truthout
Paris - The decision by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to push ahead with a financial transactions tax (FTT) may be a political ploy ahead of elections, but it has the approval of many non-governmental organisations, even as support lags elsewhere...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Radioactive iodine in rainwater: Public was in the dark - Wednesday, January 18, 2012: From The Montreal Gazette
After the Fukushima nuclear accident, Canadian health officials assured a nervous public that virtually no radioactive fallout had drifted to Canada....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer 66 percent of Cdns favour pot legalization - Wednesday, January 18, 2012: From National Post
Canadians have green on their minds, but not in the environmental sense, according to a new poll.
Released on Tuesday, the poll suggests 66% of Canadians are in favour of the legalization or decriminalization of marijuana, with just 20% supporting leaving the laws as they are now....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Inspectors criticize plan to cut inspections at meat plants - Tuesday, January 17, 2012: From PostMedia
OTTAWA — The government's plan to cut inspectors put in place to plug holes in Canada's meat-inspection system in the aftermath of a deadly listeriosis outbreak would be a big step backwards, meat inspectors warned Monday...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer PSAC files grievance over EI delays - Tuesday, January 17, 2012: From CBC News
The union that represents Service Canada workers has filed a grievance against Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Diane Finley over recent slowdowns in processing Employment Insurance claims...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Deep demoralization in Cdn public service - Tuesday, January 17, 2012: From The Hill Times
PSAC's John Gordon says civil servants are ‘getting demoralized’ as Finance Minister Jim Flaherty talks about cutting some departments by more than 10 per cent...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Inside Mossad's war On Tehran - Tuesday, January 17, 2012: From informationclearinghouse.info
January 16, 2012 "Sunday Times" -- EARLY in Tehran's grey wintry morning last Wednesday, Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan, a young scientist in Iran's controversial nuclear program, got dressed at his home in the northern suburbs. The events of this last hour of his life could have come out of a spy film.
Small groups of Israeli agents were watching key points in the Iranian capital. Their target was Roshan. They would be dead themselves if they were caught....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer UFCW inks deal with Mexcican state to protect migrants - Tuesday, January 17, 2012: OAXACA, OAXACA, MEXICO--(Marketwire - Jan. 16, 2012) - Migrant workers from the Mexican state of Oaxaca traveling to Canada will receive better protection this 2012 season after the signing of an agreement between the Instituto Oaxaqueno de Atencion a Migrantes (IOAM) and UFCW Canada.
On January 16, Wayne Hanley, National President of UFCW Canada, and Rufino Dominguez, Director of the IOAM signed a co-operation agreement to protect and assist Oaxacan migrants working temporarily in Canada. The agreement addresses issues of human rights, labor rights and social security, proposing a framework for transnational cooperation.
"Mexican migrant workers make an enormous contribution to the Canadian society and economy," says National President Hanley. "This must be acknowledged and we look forward to working with Mexican institutions to improve the living and working conditions of Mexican migrant workers in Canada."
UFCW Canada and the IOAM will collaborate to increase the level of protection of Oaxacan migrants before, during and after their stay in Canada. From now on, Oaxacan workers will be assisted in Canada through the network of 10 agriculture worker support centers operated by UFCW Canada in association with the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA).
The centres offer Spanish-speaking staff who deal with legal support services and training in human rights, labor rights, housing, and health and safety problems. Services also include a toll-free telephone assistance number from anywhere in Canada and Mexico, both for workers and their families.
Meanwhile, the IOAM will benefit from workshops offered by UFCW Canada to insure workers receive proper information about their rights. The plan of action will therefore focus not only on legal assistance, but also on prevention, information, and training of migrant workers. The program will also will help the migrant workers access Canadian legal benefits to which they are entitled.
The IOAM consolidates its commitment to the people of Oaxaca, actively developing policies to protect its citizens abroad. Other actors who have joined this international cooperation strategy with UFCW Canada include the governments of Michoacan, Tlaxcala and Distrito Federal, as well as two of the biggest agricultural workers labour federations. In this spirit of cooperation, the federal temporary worker programs will continue to be an important link for labour between Mexico and Canada, and these cooperation partnerships will strengthen the programs by involving all the strategic partners to ensure the workers' experience is fair, safe and productive.
Posted by: Staff Post-Fukishima, public kept in dark about radioactive iodine in rainwater - Monday, January 16, 2012:By ALEX ROSLIN, The Gazette January 14, 2012
After the Fukushima nuclear accident, Canadian health officials assured a nervous public that virtually no radioactive fallout had drifted to Canada.
But last March, a Health Canada monitoring station in Calgary detected an average of 8.18 becquerels per litre of radioactive iodine (an isotope released by the nuclear accident) in rainwater, the data shows.
The level easily exceeded the Canadian guideline of six becquerels of iodine per litre for drinking water, acknowledged Eric Pellerin, chief of Health Canada's radiation-surveillance division.
"It's above the recommended level (for drinking water)," he said in an interview. "At any time you sample it, it should not exceed the guideline."
Canadian authorities didn't disclose the high radiation reading at the time. ...
Posted by: Staff Environment Canada to get rid of 60 scientists - Monday, January 16, 2012:By Kathryn May, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Environment Canada is sending notices to 60 scientists and other researchers that their jobs are being declared surplus.
Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, confirmed his union was notified by the department that surplus notices would be going out this week. They are fallout from the department's announcement last August that it would be cutting or reassigning 776 people — which is about 10 per cent of the workforce.
But Corbett said the department is under "strict orders" not to reveal precisely what work these surplus scientists are doing. They broadly include engineers, scientists, biologists, climatologists, and chemical analysts from across the country, including 18 or so in the national capital region. They work in areas such as pollution, monitoring water quality, and climate research. ...
Posted by: Staff EI Minister's comments cause 2500 grievances - Saturday, January 14, 2012:by Gloria Galloway for The Globe and Mail
Workers who help Canadians obtain employment insurance benefits are demanding that Human Resources Minister Diane Finley apologize and resign for implying they have caused the backlogs that are forcing some jobless people to wait months for their first cheque.
The Canada Employment and Immigration Union (CEIU) said Thursday that about 2,500 of its members have filed grievances against Ms Finley over a letter she wrote in November to the Charlottetown Guardian. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Cons aware of same-sex marriage issue for months - NDP - Friday, January 13, 2012: JANUARY 13, 2012
CONSERVATIVES AWARE OF SAME SEX MARRIAGE LEGAL ISSUES FOR MONTHS
OTTAWA- With the Harper government scrambling to fix the confusion it has caused around the validity of thousands of same sex marriages, New Democrats are pointing out that the Harper government has repeatedly tried to roll back equal marriage rights.
“This isn’t something that happened over night, this has been going on for months now,” said Randall Garrison, the New Democrat critic for LGBT Issues. “It was a government lawyer that was once again trying to use a loophole in the current law to erode the rights of these families. It is hard to believe that no one in Cabinet knew about this as I had asked the Minister of Justice about this problem in the House of Commons last October.”
This is the second time the Harper government has intervened in a court case regarding same sex divorce. In October, they intervened to try and deny legal validity to gay civil partnerships from the UK.
“We welcome today’s statement that the Harper government accepts the validity of all same sex marriages in Canada and will move to amend the Divorce Act to allow marriages entered into in Canada to be dissolved here regardless of their legal status elsewhere,” Garrison said.
“However the Minister of Justice has now been twice caught trying to chip away at same sex marriage rights by intervening in court cases to oppose equal marriage,” said Garrison. “If the Prime Minister is serious about not reopening this issue he will instruct his Minister of Justice to stop trying to roll back the clock on equal marriage.”
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer More Burma prisoners freed, truce with Karens - Friday, January 13, 2012: From Al Jazeera
Opposition says at least 100 political prisoners released including leader of 1988 pro-democracy uprising and an ex-PM....
Government officials and rebel leaders agree on pact aimed to end one of world's longest-running civil conflicts....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Enbridge reported 170+ leaks and spills since 2002 - Friday, January 13, 2012: From The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Subsidiaries of the company that wants to build the Gateway pipeline through northern B.C. have reported more than 170 pipeline leaks and spills in the United States since 2002, accident reporting data show.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Republican parade of pygmies - Siddiqui - Thursday, January 12, 2012: From The Toronto Star
I am disappointed at the emergence of Mitt Romney as the most likely Republican presidential nominee. I was rooting, by turn, for Michelle Bachman, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich.
Any one of them as the nominee would have suffered the same fate as Barry Goldwater in 1964 — wiped out by Lyndon Johnson, who also won the House for the Democrats. That landslide jolted moderate Republicans into reclaiming their party from the racist rump that had taken control of it...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Guantánamo detainees launch hunger strike to protest prison's 10th anniversary - Wednesday, January 11, 2012: From Democracy Now
Bay launched a hunger strike today marking the prison’s 10th anniversary, inspired in part by U.S. activists who have called for a national day of action. "They will be staging a series of peaceful protests that will involve sit-ins with signs and banners in the part of the prison that has communal areas, as well as hunger strikes," says Ramzi Kassem, counsel to a number of Guantánamo prisoners. He notes his clients pay "particularly close attention to any gestures of protest in the United States... And they’re always very moved by the fact that Americans stand in solidarity with what they’re going through and what their families are experiencing." On Wednesday, a major demonstration is planned in Washington, D.C., where organizers say they will form a human chain stretching from the White House to the Capitol, with participants wearing orange jumpsuits to represent the prisoners at Guantánamo and at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan who are still held without charge or trial...
uantánamo Exclusive: Former Chief Prosecutor, Ex-Prisoner Call on Obama to Close Prison
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Shawinigan voters angry over defection - Wednesday, January 11, 2012: From Montreal Gazette
MONTREAL - Voters in Lise St-Denis’s Shawinigan riding expressed outrage yesterday after learning that their New Democratic Party MP crossed the floor to join the Liberals....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Ontario missing in action on biodiversity plan - commissioner - Tuesday, January 10, 2012: Toronto, January 10, 2012 - The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario says the Government of Ontario must come up with a new strategy to stem the continuing decline in Ontario's species and natural spaces. In a special report released today, "Biodiversity: A Nation's Commitment, an Obligation for Ontario," Gord Miller says unless Ontario and all other provinces take action, the international commitments made by the federal government will be meaningless.
"The Ontario government did adopt a Biodiversity Strategy in 2005," says Gord Miller. "Unfortunately, it expired in 2010, and the government has so far chosen not to adopt an updated plan. Our government cannot avoid its obligation," says Miller, "to guide Ontario's response to this urgent crisis."
In 2010, Canada met with almost 200 nations in Nagoya, Japan and agreed on 20 biodiversity conservation targets that should be achieved by 2020. But the Commissioner says most of the constitutional responsibility for meeting these targets lies with Ontario and the other provincial governments. "Efforts to halt the loss of biodiversity must be implemented at the provincial level if they are to be effective. And Ontario won't be able to do that unless it has a new Biodiversity Strategy."
In Ontario, the most significant threats to the province's species and natural spaces are habitat degradation, climate change, invasive species, overexploitation and pollution. The Commissioner has previously warned about the lack of action to safeguard the province's 200 species at risk such as snapping turtles, cougars, and Jefferson salamanders. Gord Miller has said the government also needs to address the threats from invasive species like Asian carp, and protect wetlands and woodlands in southern Ontario.
The Environmental Commissioner says, "the federal government has promised, during the current International Decade for Biodiversity, to conserve biodiversity on behalf of all Canadians." It is imperative that the Government of Ontario acts quickly and come up with a plan to implement those commitments. This requires a new Biodiversity Strategy. Rhetoric alone will not suffice."
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Leaked: US to Start ‘Trade Wars’ with Nations Opposed to Monsanto, GMO Crops - Monday, January 09, 2012: From Natural Society
The United States is threatening nations who oppose Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) crops with military-style trade wars, according to information obtained and released by the organization WikiLeaks. Nations like France, which have moved to ban one of Monsanto’s GM corn varieties, were requested to be ‘penalized’ by the United States for opposing Monsanto and genetically modified foods. The information reveals just how deep Monsanto’s roots have penetrated key positions within the United States government, with the cables reporting that many U.S. diplomats work directly for Monsanto...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer PM filling Senate with party hacks - Angus - Monday, January 09, 2012: OTTAWA - OTTAWA - Seven new senators are being dismissed as partisan "political hand puppets" by the official Opposition.
NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus sneered at Prime Minister Stephen Harper's new inductees on Saturday, saying Harper was using the Upper Chamber as a "patronage dumping ground for party buddies and hacks."...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Caterpillar lockout a bleak omen for Canadian workers - Monday, January 09, 2012: From The Toronto Star
Canadians knew as they headed into 2012 that the job outlook was bleak, but the lockout of 465 workers at a diesel plant in London sets a grim new standard...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Climate change could end maple syrup - Monday, January 09, 2012: From Mother Jones
A few years ago, Martha Carlson, a veteran maple farmer, began noticing subtle changes in her 60-acre "sugar bush" in Sandwich, New Hampshire: Maple sap was unusually dark, and leaves were falling too early, never having reached postcard New England color. Her sugar maples, some of them nearly 300 years old, were sick.
At 65, Martha now leads the crusade to save the New Hampshire sugar maples—and the multimillion dollar local syrup and tourism industries they provide—from disastrous climate change. And in the process she's mobilizing a crack team of researchers: a group of elementary school kids...
Posted by: Staff Study: Fukushima killed at least 14,000 people in the US, mostly babies - Saturday, January 07, 2012:by Jonathan Benson
(NaturalNews) For the very first time, a scientific study published in a peer-reviewed journal has come up with a solid estimate of the total number of US deaths caused by the Fukushima nuclear disaster in the weeks following it. Epidemiologist Joseph Mangano, MPH, MBA, and his colleagues say that, based on compiled data, at least 14,000 people in the US were killed during the 14 weeks following the Fukushima catastrophe -- and the majority of these deaths were in children under age one.
Published in the International Journal of Health Services, Mangano's study looked at both infant and adult death rates during the time when Fukushima occurred, as well as in previous months and years. During the 14 weeks prior to Fukushima, for instance, infant deaths had been declining by 8.37 percent, while in the weeks following the disaster they increased by 1.8 percent. Among adults, a 4.46 percent death rate was observed in the weeks after Fukushima, compared to 2.34 percent, which is about half that rate, a year prior.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Secret recall of Tylenol sparks suit after child deaths - Friday, January 06, 2012: From readersupportednews "In a scorching complaint that cites internal company memos, parents say their child died because Johnson & Johnson issued a "phantom or stealth recall" of tainted Children's Tylenol, buying up the drugs from stores on the sly without issuing a recall, "so the general public, ignorant of the dangers, would continue buying and administering these brand name drugs to their children."...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Cdn mining company ignoring court decision over project in Panama - Friday, January 06, 2012: From MiningWatch Canada
While Toronto-based Inmet is widely distributing news of the approval of its ESIA by Panamanian environmental authorities in order to pave the way for further investment in the project, the company is ignoring a decision made one day earlier by the country's Supreme Court of Justice to maintain the protected status of the area.
The following article has been translated from the original Spanish available here: http://www.prensa.com/impreso/panorama/corte-mantiene-area-protegida-cedida-minera/53451
The original text of the court decision, available in Spanish only, is available here: http://media.gestorsutil.com/CIAM_web/57/documentos/docs/0936146001325799235.pdf
Court maintains protected status of area granted to mining company
Mary Triny Zea
While the National Environmental Authority of Panama (ANAM) has approved mining extraction in Donoso, Colón, the Supreme Court of Justice decides in favour of maintaining the protected status of the area.
The court’s decision responds to an injunction sought by the Panama Mining company (subsidiary of Toronto-based Inmet) submitted in May 2009 with the objective of overturning the resolution by ANAM, that two months earlier, designated the area for conservation.
The category III Environmental Impact Study for copper production in Donoso was approved by ANAM on December 28, 2011. The court made its pronouncement a day earlier.
The Panama Mining company (Inmet) will be able to extract minerals from within a 13,600 hectare concession that falls within the Mesoamerican Biological Corredor, which crosses seven countries in the region.
The declaration of Donoso as a protected area promotes ecotourism, scientific and investigative activities toward the conservation of its ecosystems.
Additionally, it prohibits activities that threaten its ecological integrity. Contradicting this, the mining company advises that the main impact of its project will be the loss of habitat, which will affect the fauna and flora in the protected area.
Commitments
February 1997
Panama makes an international commitment to protect the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.
March 2009
195,000 hectares in Donoso are declared a protected area, within the corridor.
May 2009
The mining company seeks an injunction against the declaration of this area as protected.
December 2011
ANAM approves the mining project, while the Supreme Court of Justice rules against the company’s petition.
From the original in Spanish, here: http://www.prensa.com/impreso/panorama/corte-mantiene-area-protegida-cedida-minera/53451
Posted by: Staff Ohio earthquake blamed on fracking - Wednesday, January 04, 2012:from Reauters
CLEVELAND (Reuters) — A 4.0 magnitude earthquake in Ohio on New Year's Eve did not occur naturally and may have been caused by high-pressure liquid injection related to oil and gas exploration and production, an expert hired by the state of Ohio said on Tuesday.
Ohio's Department of Natural Resources on Sunday suspended operations at five deep well sites in Youngstown, Ohio, where the injection of water was taking place, while they evaluate seismological data from a rare quake in the area.
The wells are about 9,000 feet deep and are used to dispose of water from oil and gas wells. The process is related to fracking, the controversial injection of chemical-laced water and sand into rock to release oil and gas. Critics say that the high pressure injection of the liquid causes seismic activity.
Won-Young Kim, a research professor of Seismology Geology and Tectonophysics at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that circumstantial evidence suggests a link between the earthquake and the high-pressure well activity.
"We know the depth (of the quake on Saturday) is two miles and that is different from a natural earthquake," said Kim, who is advising the state of Ohio. ...
Posted by: Staff Mounties spy on activists, share results with corporations - Tuesday, January 03, 2012:by Brent Patterson for the Council of Canadians
RCMP records obtained under freedom of information legislation reveal a disturbing relationship between the national police force and corporations.
According to a CBC news report, the Joint Intelligence Group, an RCMP-led intelligence team that has extensively spied on community organizations and activists, "made a series of presentations to private-sector corporations, including one to 'energy sector stakeholders' in November 2011. Other corporations that received intelligence from police included Canada's major banks, telecom firms, airlines, downtown property companies and other businesses seen to be vulnerable to the effects of summit protests." ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Highest-paid Canadian CEOs got 27 per cent pay hike - Tuesday, January 03, 2012: From The Toronto Star
By noon on Tuesday, Jan. 3, the highest-paid chief executives officers in Canada will have earned as much as the average Canadian makes in an entire year, according to a new report...
Posted by: Staff Americans buy record numbers of guns for Christmas - Monday, January 02, 2012:by Nick Allen for The Telegraph
According to the FBI, over 1.5 million background checks on customers were requested by gun dealers to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System in December. Nearly 500,000 of those were in the six days before Christmas.
It was the highest number ever in a single month, surpassing the previous record set in November.
On Dec 23 alone there were 102,222 background checks, making it the second busiest single day for buying guns in history. ...
...Explanations for America's surge in gun buying include that it is a response to the stalled economy with people fearing crime waves. Another theory is that buyers are rushing to gun shops because they believe tighter firearms laws will be introduced in the future. ...
Posted by: Penney Kome AMERICA'S WELFARE "REFORM" LAWS DEEPENING AND PERPETUATING POVERTY - Thursday, December 29, 2011: By Sherwood Ross
The tougher welfare laws instituted by President Bill Clinton with great fanfare have only worked to keep the poor poverty-stricken longer, a former welfare mother who knows the story from the inside, contends.
Since 1996, politicians have bragged about the success of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families(TANF) but "successful at what?" asks Diana Spatz, executive director of LIFETIME, a California organization working to encourage low-income parents to pursue higher education as their path out of poverty.
"If kicking low-income children and their families off welfare is the measure, than TANF was a huge success," she writes in the January 2, 2012, issue of The Nation magazine.
States were given bonuses for reducing their caseloads rather than reducing actual poverty, Spatz charges. "As long as families were off the rolls, it didn’t matter how or why."
TANF's mantra that &334;any job is a good job" put even make-work jobs ahead of education. &334;Tens of thousands of low-income mothers were made to quit college to do up to 35 hours per week of unpaid &339;workfare,&339;" Spatz writes, "sweeping streets, picking up trash in parks and cleaning public restrooms in exchange for benefits as low as $240 a month."
&334;Contrary to the 'welfare queen' stereotypes, like most welfare mothers, I worked first. Work wasn’t the problem; it was the nature of the work — low-wage, dead-end jobs with no benefits and little chance for advancement — that kept families like mine on the welfare rolls," Spatz explains.
Studies showed parents were 10 times more likely to get cut off welfare because of punitive sanctions than because they got jobs paying enough to "income off." In many states, Spatz points out, " 'full family' sanctions cut low-income children off welfare along with their parents. Under the 'work first' mantra, TANF caseloads plummeted by almost 70 percent, as nearly 9 million low-income parents and children were purged from the national welfare rolls by 2008."
Restrictions on postsecondary education and training — the most effective pathway out of poverty for parents on welfare — made earning an associate degree, much less a bachelor’s degree, "nearly impossible," Spatz writes. Mothers in the "work first" programs "earn less than $9,000 a year" whereas the same women might have become, say, nurses, and earned a good living if they had taken the education route.
In California, home to one-third of all welfare families nationally, recipients have been "timed off" the rolls automatically after 60 months. In 2003, Spatz recalls, "the vast majority" of parents in CalWORKS who had reached the limit were timed off for the rest of their lives. Since then California, like many another state, has reduced the welfare payment limit to 48 months. Last July alone, 22,500 parents there were cut off in the teeth of the current Depression.
Not only are welfare recipients being cut from payments earlier but States are making it tougher for new applicants to get help. In Georgia, for example, families applying for TANF must face waiting periods before they can get cash assistance, which Spatz calls &#@34;the welfare equivalent of a poll tax or literacy test — with caseworkers offering to send children into foster care or put them up for adoption to ease the burden."
As a result, Georgia is now spending more on adoption services and foster care than it does on assistance to families, Spatz writes. Similarly, Arizona, Rhode Island, and Texas are spending nearly half of their TANF block grants on child welfare-related cases while parents wail as their families are broken up. "I'm not a bad mother, I'm just unemployed," one woman complained to Georgia State Senator Donzella James, who is getting calls from constituents whose children are being taken away by the Department of Family and Child Services.
Now, as Americans slide ever deeper into poverty, the number of children living in deep poverty is higher than ever. What's more, the unemployment rate for single mothers (who represent 90 percent of parents in the welfare system) "has nearly doubled to a 25-year high," Spatz points out.
In 1995, the old welfare program served at least six out of every 10 low-income children, Spatz writes. Today, TANF serves only two out of every 10 poor children nationally. "In passing TANF, Congress and Bill Clinton made good on their promise to 'end welfare as we know it.' It's time to end welfare reform as we know it instead," Spatz concludes.
It is ironic that a nation that allows giant corporations to evade huge sums in taxes via loopholes and that supports the wealthy with a variety of entitlements, should come down so hard on the poorest of the poor, condemning them to lifetimes of squalor, even to the point of breaking up their families. Of course, this "reform" was started by the same Bill Clinton who created mass starvation in Iraq and inaugurated international kidnapping by the CIA. We need to ask ourselves, "Have we lost all human values?"
#
Sherwood Ross is a public relations consultant for colleges, entrepreneurial start-ups and other worthy causes. Reach him at sherwoodross10@gmail.com
Posted by: Staff Sanctions in Eritrea, unspoken biographies for Havel and Hitchens - Wednesday, December 28, 2011:by Phil Taylor
Featured Guests: Thomas Mountain, Stephen Gowans
Program Description:
Thomas Mountain is in a part of the world that has a lot of combat. In this episode, he discusses the US-driven sanctions against Eritrea. In the second half of the program, Stephen Gowans assesses the current situation in the Koreas after the death of Kim Jong-il. Despite worries over the North's leadership transition, Gowans asserts that the leaders of the US and South Korea are the ones driving the tensions. Phil and Gowans also revisit elements of Vaclav Havel&339;s biography that are left out of the official remembrances.
The hosts also pass on assessments of Christopher Hitchens, made by Alexander Cockburn and Norman Finkelstein.
Audio files below — first URL is to listen on-line; second URL is to download MP3.
Posted by: Staff The abortion debate? Please, not again! - Wednesday, December 28, 2011:BY GEOFFREY STEVENS for the Waterloo Region Record and Guelph Mercury
"MP wants abortion 'dialogue'" — page one headline, Waterloo Region Record, Dec. 22, 2011
As Parliament heads into a new year, is this really what the country has to look forward to? A revival of the ugly, divisive abortion debate that most sensible people hoped had been put to rest more than two decades ago?
Stephen Woodworth, the very Conservative MP for Kitchener Centre, issued a press release last week in which he challenged government policy by calling for Parliament to lead a public examination of the rights of the unborn.
Woodworth is not alone. Nor is he a fool. Nor, to my knowledge, does he harbour a political death wish. So why is he trying to coordinate a campaign to reopen an issue that his leader, the prime minister, insists should remain closed?
Stephen Harper declared during last May’s election campaign: "As long as I am prime minister, we are not opening the abortion debate. The government will not bring forward any such legislation, and any such legislation that is brought forward will be defeated as long as I am prime minister."
That seems clear enough, doesn't it? So does the comment from Harper's press secretary when she was asked for comment on Woodworth's statement: ^#34;We've been very clear, we're not going to reopen this debate."
So what is Woodworth up to? As the unfortunate Helena Guergis, for one, could attest, crossing Harper is not a career-enhancing move. Yet the prime minister has not moved to silence Woodworth.
Hope persists among some members of the religious right in Parliament (not all of them Conservatives) that Harper has, if not exactly a hidden agenda, at least a secret willingness to see the abortion question revisited — so long as his fingerprints are not on the reopening.
Abortion is one of those issues, like capital punishment, gay rights, gun control and official bilingualism, that never really goes away. When religious conviction combines in politics with ideological certainty, as it does with abortion, the debate is bound to generate more passion than intelligence.
The abortion issue has been simmering on the back burner ever since the 1988 Morgentaler decision. That's when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Criminal Code restrictions on abortion were unconstitutional because they violated the right of Canadian women to "security of person" under Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court struck down that abortion law. So the Mulroney Conservative government of the day drafted a revised law to make abortion illegal again, but that bill failed on (of all things) a tie vote in the Senate.
Since then, Canada has gotten along with no abortion law — and the sky has not fallen.
Will Stephen Woodworth and his allies succeed in reopening the debate? Probably not this time around. But if Parliament does debate the issue, it would be fascinating to see if Harper is prepared to stand up in defence of a woman's right to choose.
CORRECTION: Two readers, both former MPs, have reported an egregious error in last week's column. Commenting on the new legislation to add 30 MPs to the Commons, I suggested money could be saved (and Parliament made more productive) by reducing, rather than increasing, the numbers of both MPs and senators. The column stated that senators and MPs make the same basic wage ($132,300 a year). Not so, I now know. The salaries have been delinked. Senators make $132,300, but ordinary MPs (with no extra duties) now make $157,731 per year.
One of the former MPs also tells me the Harper government is deliberately low-balling the cost of 30 new MPs. The government puts it at $19.3 million annually (or about $640,000 per MP) for salary, office, travel, etc.) But the former MP, who should know, says tells that when all costs are included (including such costs for staff members as pension contributions, cell phones, travel and per-diems), the true total is closer to $1 million. Thirty MPs for $30 million. A bargain at any price, eh?
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Mass protests in Homs as Arab monitors visit - Wednesday, December 28, 2011: From Al Jazeera
Estimated 70,000 demonstrate in Syria's protest hub, with Arab League observers expected to return on Wednesday...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Tories keeping tight reins on RCMP communications - Wednesday, December 28, 2011: From Montreal Gazette
Last week, Tonda MacCharles of the Toronto Star received a brown envelope containing a leaked copy of the new Communications Protocol Between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Public Safety Canada.
The two-page document outlines a new, closer relation-ship between the Mounties and the government, and raises the worrying possibility that the Tories will rebrand the force as the Royal Conservative Mounted Police.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Conference Board makes pitch for guaranteed annual income - Wednesday, December 28, 2011: From The Financial Post As indicators stack up showing the gap between Canada's rich and poor continues to widen, the Conference Board of Canada is calling for a renewed look at the idea of a guaranteed annual income (GAI)...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Ontario mega-quarry fight unites activists - Wednesday, December 28, 2011: From Policy Mic
Back in 2006, the investment group Highland Companies began buying land from farmers in Melancthon Township, in Canada’s Ontario province, claiming it wanted to be a major potato producer. Yet it soon became clear to locals that Highland’s intentions were different: It was preparing the site for a mega quarry that would enable the extraction of limestone for road building and construction. The proposed quarry, at 2,300 acres, would be Canada’s largest and the second largest in North America. It is proposed for Canada’s most productive farmland in a region responsible for half of the potato production for the greater Toronto area...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Israelis to protest against religious extremism - Tuesday, December 27, 2011: From Haaratz
More than 10,000 people expected at a rally in Beit Shemesh to protest exclusion of women; President says all citizens of Israel must defend the character of the country against ultra-Orthodox fanatics...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Philippine flood death toll surges - Tuesday, December 27, 2011: From Al Jazeera
The death toll from killer floods in the Philippines has risen by more than 200, more than a week after the disaster struck, with officials expecting more corpses to be found.
The confirmed toll reached 1,453 on Tuesday, up sharply from 1,236 the previous day as navy and coastguard ships fished more bodies out of the waters off the southern island of Mindanao, the civil defence office said...
Posted by: Staff One less ($6B) subsidy for oil and agrbusiness companies - Monday, December 26, 2011:from Friends of the Earth
WASHINGTON — December 23 — Congress finished its tax legislation today without including a provision to extend a massive subsidy for corn ethanol that is set to expire at the end of the year.
The subsidy — the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit — has provided the oil and agribusiness industries with $0.45 per gallon of ethanol blended into gasoline, amounting to a total of approximately $6 billion each year.
The elimination of the subsidy, cherished by the once-mighty ethanol lobby, comes after a multi-year campaign to end it waged by Friends of the Earth and an ideologically diverse coalition of allies.
Friends of the Earth biofuels policy campaigner Michal Rosenoer had the following response:
"The end of this giant subsidy for dirty corn ethanol is a win for taxpayers, the environment and people struggling to put food on their tables.
"Corn ethanol is extremely dirty. It leads to more climate pollution than conventional gasoline, and it causes deforestation as well as agricultural runoff that pollutes our water.
"The growing demand for fuel crops also means less land is available for growing food, so food prices are going up. This is something many families simply cannot afford.
"Given corn ethanol's downsides, it's outrageous that taxpayers have been subsidizing the industry to the tune of $6 billion a year. The industry's inability to get this tax credit extended signals that it no longer has carte blanche in Washington — corn ethanol is no longer a sacred cow.
"Even though the corn ethanol industry has been weakened we must remain vigilant. Pork like this has a way of ending up back in the barrel without sustained opposition.
"We will now also turn our attention to ending other federal policies that support dirty corn ethanol, including the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires a radical increase in biofuel consumption by 2022."
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Friends of the Earth is the US voice of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, with member groups in 77 countries. Since 1969, Friends of the Earth has fought to create a more healthy, just world.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Vale Inco convicted of unfair labour practice - Friday, December 23, 2011: Vale Inco convicted of unfair labour practice in landmark decision of Ont. Labour Board
TORONTO, Dec. 23, 2011 /CNW/ - United Steelworkers won a major victory at the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) against Vale mining company in a case stemming from their year long strike. Sixteen months after the strike at Vale during which time Vale banned USW Local 6500 Vice-President Patrick Veinot from its property and thereby denied membership access to him on company property, in a stinging rebuke to the company, the OLRB has found that Vale's conduct is unlawful. The Board has ordered that the company cease and desist.
OLRB Chair Bernard Fishbein wrote: "I think the message Vale Inco has sought to communicate is cold and hard (regardless of its precise motivations) and I conclude that there has been a substantial interference both in the administration of the Union and its representation of employees (or in the words of the Canada Labour Relations Board that have "the effect of undercutting or weakening the union").
"Our membership welcomes the Vice President back to their workplaces to perform his duties on their behalf and so do I" beamed Local 6500 President Rick Bertrand, a long time colleague and associate of Veinot. As Vice-President, Veinot chairs the important Local 6500 grievance committee, meeting with grievors and union stewards on company property to work through the grievance procedure and enforce the collective agreement. "Controlling this company is no easy task," added Bertrand, but this union will ensure that the rights of its members are advanced and protected, whatever it takes." added Bertrand.
USW District 6 Director Wayne Fraser, a former Vale employee and a Sudbury Ontario local said: "Recovery from such a bitter strike is no easy task. Perhaps this decision is the beginning of the recovery process. The Board has made it quite clear: Vale's post strike assault on the continuing determination and solidarity of our members will not be tolerated. The interference in the union's administration must stop. This is a major victory that all right-thinking people will savour for a long time."
USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann congratulated Veinot, "Patrick has become a living symbol of the union's strength. Like all discharged strikers, Patrick and his family have suffered at the hands of this autocratic employer hell bent on achieving its goals without regard to the interests of its employees. We all hope that this decision is the beginning of a new era of working together."
Like eight others fired because of alleged strike-related conduct, Veinot was discharged from employment during the strike. The matter of the discharged strikers forms the core of a separate proceeding before the OLRB. "The USW eagerly awaits release of the decision on the company's failure to make every reasonable effort to make a collective agreement - the bad faith bargaining complaint," emphasized Neumann. In that case the union is asking the OLRB to direct that Vale allow the discharges to be heard by an independent arbitrator who can reinstate the employees to employment if the company fails to establish proper cause for their discharges.
Veinot was discharged from employment during the strike, when he held no union office. Vale said he engaged in wrongdoing in connection with an alleged incident involving a strike replacement employee. Along with two other strikers, he was charged with criminal harassment and a trial was held early in 2011. All three were acquitted of the harassment charges. As the OLRB noted, "in the words of the trial judge, 'there is insufficient evidence to link any or all of them with this allegation of criminal harassment.' "
Because Veinot remains a discharged employee subject to the complaint pending before the OLRB, Vale refused him entry on comp any property to engage in union business even though he assumed the Vice-Presidency following the strike.
"We could not have asked for a better Christmas present" Wes Dowsett, USW Area Co-ordinator said when he read the decision of the Board. "Not only can Patrick walk with his head high through the mines and mills of Vale and speak with our members, but all workers in Ontario - workers everywhere - benefit from the Board's findings and rulings. You just cannot interfere with the work we do for our members. Our members have rights and so does the union. The tragedy is that Vale continues to challenge the union, everyday. Perhaps this decision will be a bit of a damper on their fire. I hope so"
As our history shows, the United Steelworkers will always stand up and fight back when its members and or its leaders are under attack. My main hope now is that Vale begins to learn the lesson that working people and their unions need to be treated fairly, and the law needs to be obeyed. Hopefully, today's decision will cause Vale to start treating its workers with respect under the law," added Leo Gerard, USW international President.
USW counsel Brian Shell said: "The prohibition against interference in the union's administration has been a controversial provisions for many decades. Its scope and breadth has never been fully appreciated. In this case the new Chair of the OLRB has moved the section to a higher plane and has applied the law in a plain and purposive manner to limit the imperial authority of a powerful employer's practice of unilateralism. The decision reflects a Board willing to engage and intervene to set matters right. It is a welcomed change."
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer KPMG gets Grinch award for recommending deep cuts to Toronto WSIB - Friday, December 23, 2011: Injured workers, their families and friends will be outside KPMG headquarters on Friday, December 23rd, insisting that the consulting firm is the 'Grinch Who Stole Christmas' for recommending that the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board drastically cut compensation to workers who have been injured on the job. KPMG, the management consulting company that was recently hired by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford to recommend cuts to city services, was commissioned by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) as part of an annual Value for Money Audit; this year on Adjudication and Claims Administration.
Instead of a routine audit the report recommends sweeping changes to workers compensation in Ontario that will especially target older workers who the Liberals traditionally rely on for support. Betty Campbell, a 54 year old single mother from Toronto, is one of the hundreds of thousands of Ontarians who are being affected. She will be giving KPMG executives the Grinch Who Stole Christmas Award. "KPMG is the Grinch who wants to steal from injured workers this Christmas but I'm still hopeful for a quick and ultimately happy ending to this ordeal," she says.
Maryth Yachnin, staff lawyer at IAVGO community clinic wants the report to be immediately rejected by the WSIB and Province. "Not only does KPMG's report argue that a successful workers compensation system is one that does not compensate injured workers, it erroneously concludes that the quality and consistency of decisions has improved because workers benefits are being slashed. This is no way to treat people who have sacrificed their health for their employers and the economy." Among the extensive recommendations of KPMG's report that Yachnin calls "shoddy and devastating" is to limit compensation to workers with pre-existing but non-evident conditions (like degenerative disc disease), even though a workplace accident directly causes a severe and long-term disability. This will have a significant impact on older workers and people whose bodies have degenerated because of years of strenuous labour. Injured workers are especially upset because KPMG did not have the mandate, medical or legal expertise to recommend wide-scale policy and legislative change, or to challenge years of jurisprudence which forms the basis for workers compensation law and principles.
Nonetheless, WSIB President and CEO, David Marshall, has accepted and endorsed the report. The WSIB is now moving to revise its policies in line with the cutbacks KPMG recommends. Injured workers have united with groups like Toronto Stop the Cuts and the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty to demand the WSIB and the Province immediately reject KPMG's report.
Endorsers: Toronto Stop the Cuts, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Workers Action Centre, Toronto Workers Health and Safety Legal Clinic, Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, Justice for Migrant Workers, Sudbury Community Legal Clinic, Injured Workers Consultants, IAVGO Community Legal Clinic, Greater Toronto Workers Assembly, Canadian Autoworkers Union.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer LA votes against corporate personhood - Thursday, December 22, 2011: From Great News Network
Thanks to ground work by the US Green Party, the wave of Occupy Wall Street empowerment and Human Rights Aler, Los Angeles became the first major US city to vote against corporate personhood and call for a Constitutional Amendment asserting corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights and that money is not free speech...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Three million could lose jobless pay in US impasse - Thursday, December 22, 2011: From truthout
by: Robert Pear, The New York Times News Service | Report
Washington - More than three million people stand to lose unemployment insurance benefits in the near future because of an impasse in Congress over how to extend the aid and how to offset the cost...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer EU stems flow of execution drugs to US - Thursday, December 22, 2011: From RT News
The EU has imposed tough new restrictions on the sale of drugs used to execute people in the US. The move, which is likely to squeeze an already short supply across the Atlantic, is aimed at fighting capital punishment and its controversial methods...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Death toll in Russian oil platform disaster rises to 17 - Thursday, December 22, 2011: From RT News
The number of confirmed fatalities from the weekend's oil rig disaster in Russia's Far East has risen to 17, after six more bodies were recovered from the sea.
Of the 67 people aboard the Kolskaya platform, 36 are still missing after it capsized while under tow to port and sank within just 20 minutes. Fourteen people were rescued from the waters within the first few hours of the rig going down and were transported to the island of Sakhalin for treatment. Four of them have already been discharged...
Posted by: Staff ETFO donates $5,000 to assist with crisis in Attawapiskat - Thursday, December 22, 2011:From the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario
Toronto, ON — The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) has donated $5,000 to assist with the crisis in Attawapiskat First Nation, as part of a longstanding commitment to the people of that community.
"We support the fundamental right of all children to a good education and to live in a safe and healthy environment," said ETFO President Sam Hammond in a letter to Band Chief Theresa Spence. He added that, "We are greatly saddened by the situation. This donation is one way for us to reach out and support you and all the people of Attawapiskat in this time of dire need."
Hammond also welcomed today's statement from the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples regarding Attawapiskat, which paints a bleak picture of the crisis. UN Rapporteur S James Anaya is requesting details from the government about programs in place to address the disparate social and economic conditions of Canada’s First Nations communities.
"The Special Rapporteur is highlighting the government's inadequate responses to requests for assistance from First Nations communities", added Hammond. "We've known for a long time that structural and institutional problems created by the federal government have denied Aboriginal people equality rights when it comes to housing, clean water, viable economic opportunities, and education funding. Those inequities must be corrected."
Just over a year ago, ETFO provided support for the Shannen's Dream campaign to ensure the children and youth of Attawapiskat and other reserves realize the same fundamental right to decent schools and education that is afforded to every other child in Canada. "The young activist Shannen Koostachin helped all of us see the intolerable conditions that children and their families face while living on northern reserves," said Hammond.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---- The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario represents 76,000 elementary public school teachers and education professionals across the province and is the largest teacher federation in Canada.
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Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Chisholm withdraws from NDP leadership - Wednesday, December 21, 2011: Dear Friends,
I entered the leadership race because as a former Leader of the Nova Scotia NDP and Leader of the Official Opposition I believed my experience was important and relevant. I also understood and respected the need for the next leader to become bilingual and I committed myself to that goal.
Over the past few weeks I have met hundreds of New Democrats from across Canada. Our conversations have convinced me that our party wants a leader to speak fluently in both official languages from day one.
I cannot reach that objective by March 24, 2012 and therefore I am withdrawing from the Leadership race of the New Democratic Party of Canada.
On May 2, 2011, over 4 million Canadians voted for us and we need to work hard to prove their confidence in us was not misplaced. I look forward to returning to the House of Commons in January to work with Nycole Turmel and our caucus to do the important work Canadians have asked of us.
It has been a privilege to meet so many New Democrats as I traveled the country. I look forward to working with all of you to create a brighter future for all Canadians.
In solidarity, Robert Chisholm
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Bradley Manning only allowed three witnesses, supporter thrown out of hearing - Wednesday, December 21, 2011: From Democracy Now
The pretrial military hearing for accused Army whistleblower Private Bradley Manning has entered its sixth day. Prosecutors have finished laying out their case, and today the defense witnesses are expected to testify. Manning has been imprisoned for the past 19 months for allegedly leaking classified videos and diplomatic U.S. cables to the website WikiLeaks. On Monday, military prosecutors claimed they had discovered what they believe is email correspondence between Manning and WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. If convicted, Manning could face life in prison, possibly death. We get an update from Ed Pilkington, a correspondent for The Guardian, which has been blogging about the hearing since it began last Friday. "[The defense is] claiming ... that Manning has not been given the right to a fair pretrial hearing, because we think they’re only likely to be able to call three witnesses. Now that’s in addition to 10 witnesses they shared with the prosecution, but it’s still a tiny number compared with the total of 48 that Manning’s lawyer, David Coombs, asked for," Pilkington says. "And if, by contrast, the defense is only allowed to call three of its own witnesses, that looks pretty unequal to me."...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Harperites dole out Christmas plums to cronies - Wednesday, December 21, 2011: From the federal NDP
OTTAWA--In the week before Christmas, Conservatives have been quietly pushing through more than 125 patronage appointments to various federal positions.
Headlining Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s patronage spree were appointments of defeated Conservative Cabinet Ministers Jean-Pierre Blackburn to a coveted job at UNESCO and Bernard Généreux to an influential position with the Quebec City Port Authority.
Official Opposition Ethics Critic Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay) and Treasury Board critic Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont—La Petite Patrie) are crying foul.
"For the Harper Conservatives, there’s no better time to announce the appointment of failed candidates, Conservative donors and well-connected insiders to plum taxpayer-funded gigs than after the House of Commons has risen and in the final days before Christmas," said Angus.
The New Democrats pointed out that rounding out the list of patronage appointees – to positions like Employment Insurance referees and IRB members – are 2011, 2008 and 2006 Conservative candidates and party donors.
"By continuing his pork patronage appointments to taxpayer-sponsored positions, Stephen Harper is sending one message loud and clear: Conservative friends get all the benefits while Canadians are left behind," concluded Boulerice.
Posted by: Staff How poor nations prop up Canadian health care - Wednesday, December 21, 2011:from the Toronto Star
Consider it the great brain robbery. Canadians have for years been quietly stripping poor nations of a precious commodity — their doctors, nurses and other health professionals.
In fact, Canada is prominent among poachers of medical talent from other countries, especially from developing nations where this talent is desperately needed and in lamentably short supply. Other major offenders include the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.
Exactly how much they gain, and what poor countries forfeit, is impossible to tally. But a new Canadian study manages to put a dollar figure on at least a portion of our windfall and the developing world's loss. It's a sobering result, one that cries out for more ways to repair the damage that we cause.
Researchers studied nine sub-Saharan nations and found they spent almost $2.2 billion training doctors who subsequently left for Canada, Australia, the U.S. or Britain. All nine, including Uganda, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, are struggling to cope with AIDS and a host of other ills that together kill millions of Africans every year. ...
Posted by: Staff Welcoming the winter solstice - Wednesday, December 21, 2011:by Indian Country Today Media Network staff
The winter solstice is almost upon us. In scientific terms, the winter solstice occurs at the precise moment when the axial tilt of earth's polar hemisphere is the farthest away from the sun. That moment will arrive tomorrow night, at 12:30 a.m. EST (officially occurring on December 22nd) when the North Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun, bringing about the shortest day and the longest night of the year. The winter solstice, by definition, is a term used to describe this single moment when the Earth's maximum axial tilt to the sun is 23°23’.
In cultural terms, the winter solstice has been a special moment that was recognized as far back as Neolithic times. These astronomical events in ancient times impacted the sowing of crops, mating of animals, and handling of winter reserves between harvests.
The winter solstice was an important part of many indigenous cultures spiritual beliefs, a time of cosmic change and renewal, as well as a time where indigenous communities faced existential questions. Surviving winter was far from guaranteed for those in colder climates, and celebrations that took place during the winter solstice were epic. For example, cattle were slaughtered (they couldn't be kept alive over winter) and so it was often the only time an indigenous community could enjoy fresh meat. Because the winter solstice is also an event that marks the return of the sun's presence in the sky, it has been connected with renewal, birth, sun gods, and life-death-rebirth deities. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Poll numbers tank for BC's Christy Clark - Tuesday, December 20, 2011: From Vancouver Sun
Christy Clark's job-disapproval rating has climbed above 50 per cent for the first time since the B.C. Liberal leader became premier nine months ago, a new poll has found.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Toronto deserved third-party management, like Attawapiskat - lawyer - Monday, December 19, 2011: Should Toronto be put under third party management? That community has been running a deficit for years, and the combined total of all government spending (federal, provincial and municipal) is $24,000 a year for each Torontonian....
Two of the country’s most prominent unions are quietly holding merger talks in what could become the biggest consolidation in Canadian labour history...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Occupy the Food System - Willie Nelson - Saturday, December 17, 2011: From Reader Supported News
Thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement, there's a deeper understanding about the power that corporations wield over the great majority of us. It's not just in the financial sector, but in all facets of our lives. The disparity between the top 1 percent and everyone else has been laid bare - there's no more denying that those at the top get their share at the expense of the 99 percent. Lobbyists, loopholes, tax breaks... how can ordinary folks expect a fair shake?
No one knows this better than family farmers, whose struggle to make a living on the land has gotten far more difficult since corporations came to dominate our farm and food system. We saw signs of it when Farm Aid started in 1985, but corporate control of our food system has since exploded...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer DFO scientist contradicts government on salmon die-off in BC - Saturday, December 17, 2011: From TheCanadian.org
Dr. Kristi Miller took the stage for a curtain call at the Cohen Commission into disappearing Fraser River sockeye yesterday, delivering a dramatic follow-up performance to her headline-grabbing run in September...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer US withdrawal: "In Terms of Destroying Iraq, It’s 'Mission Accomplished'" - Friday, December 16, 2011: From Democracy Now
The U.S. military may be leaving Iraq, but the U.S. government is not. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad is the largest in the world, and thousands of private contractors will fill the role of the departing U.S. troops. We begin our coverage of the U.S. withdrawal with Sami Rasouli, the founder and director of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams in Iraq, who joins us from the city of Najaf. Invoking George W. Bush’s infamous declaration after the fall of Baghdad, Rasouli says, "In terms of destroying Iraq, it’s really 'mission accomplished.'"...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Bradley Manning appears in US court - Friday, December 16, 2011: Soldier accused of giving classified US documents to Wikileaks appears in public for first time since arrest in 2010...
Posted by: Staff Tens of thousands march on Koch Industries for auppressing voting rights - Thursday, December 15, 2011:from ThinkProgress
This past Saturday, tens of thousands of civil rights activists marched on the New York offices of Koch Industries to protest the Koch brothers' support of restrictive voting laws that disenfranchise millions. In dozens of states, Republican politicians have pushed laws that disproportionately keep Democratic voters, including blacks, Latinos, students, and the poor, from the polls. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Protestors are the Person of the Year - Time Magazine - Thursday, December 15, 2011: From Time Magazine
In 2011, Yuri Kozyrev traveled to seven countries covering protests and uprisings for TIME, including Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen, Russia, Greece and Tunisia. Here, he writes about the remarkable experience and what all the revolutions had in common...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer DFO scientists intimidated from discussing cuts - Thursday, December 15, 2011: from The Chronical Herald
OTTAWA — Scientists are worried about cuts at Fisheries and Oceans Canada but cannot speak out for fear of being blacklisted, their union says.
On Monday, Fisheries and Oceans notified about 400 people that their jobs could be eliminated. About half the people put on notice were scientists....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Fracking can turn rural communities into industrial wastelands - Wednesday, December 14, 2011: From Alternet
Drilling is just the tip of the iceberg. Compressor stations have been associated with significant headaches, bloody noses, skin lesions, blisters, and rashes....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Niqab ban is nonsense - Ottawa Citizen - Wednesday, December 14, 2011: From The Ottawa Citizen
The new rule banning niqabs and burkas at citizenship ceremonies is ludicrous and backwards. "It is a matter of deep principle that goes to the heart of our identity and our values of openness and equality," says Jason Kenney, Canada's immigration minister.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Canada's withdrawal from Kyoto is an affront to the world's poor - OXFAM - Tuesday, December 13, 2011: In reaction to the announcement by Canada's Environment Minister Peter Kent that the Canadian government is going to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, Tim Gore, International Climate Change Advisor for Oxfam, said:
"Canada's exit from the Kyoto Protocol, the one existing agreement that legally binds some countries to emission cuts targets, is an affront to the nearly one billion people who struggle every day to feed their families in the face of increasingly frequent and severe droughts, floods, heat waves and storms.
"It's a stark reminder that the world is not doing enough to address the needs of the world and in particular poor people fighting climate change right now. The risk of a ten year timeout in doing more than what was pledged two years ago in Copenhagen is far too high -- action is needed immediately and the European Union and developing countries must work hard to ensure that the intransigence of Canada and the US does not drag the world in the wrong direction."
"Canada has failed to cut its emissions under Kyoto's first phase, arguing that it would only act if the US and emerging economies did so too. Just days after these very same countries have agreed at the climate talks in Durban to negotiate a new deal that would cut their emissions in the future, and despite no requirement for Canada to increase the emissions cuts target agreed two years ago in Copenhagen, Canada has decided to withdraw from the Protocol.
"It is a real shame that a country with such strong record on many development issues would seek to undermine global action on climate change. We want Canada to join the coalition of countries, led by the European Union and the most vulnerable and poorest countries, that are pushing for more ambition in terms of reduction of emissions before 2020. If Canada is not willing it should step aside and at least not harm efforts of those who want to move forward."
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer 'That's not a free market, that's a game - Jeffrey Sachs - Tuesday, December 13, 2011: From Al Jazeera
The controversial economist talks about the collapse of the global financial system and how to end the crisis...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Rare Ohio quakes blamed on fracking - Tuesday, December 13, 2011: From The New York Times
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Until this year, this Rust Belt city and surrounding Mahoning County had been about as dead, seismically, as a place can be, without even a hint of an earthquake since Scots-Irish settlers arrived in the 18th century...
BANGKOK, Dec 10, 2011 (IPS) - The Burmese army has been following a policy of systematically raping women and girls to subjugate the country’s rebellious ethnic minorities, according to a new report...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Bankers are the dictators of the West - Fisk - Monday, December 12, 2011: From The Independent
Writing from the very region that produces more clichés per square foot than any other "story" – the Middle East – I should perhaps pause before I say I have never read so much garbage, so much utter drivel, as I have about the world financial crisis...
OTTAWA – The federal Conservatives could be cutting more than 200 jobs, mostly in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, according to a union representative.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Durban climate deal struck after tense all-night session - Sunday, December 11, 2011: From The Guardian Talks came close to collapse when India insisted on concessions for developing countries, forcing 3am 'huddle to save the planet'...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Governors ask Obama to reclassify pot - Friday, December 09, 2011: From Rolling Stone
Christine Gregoire and Lincoln Chaffee, governors of Washington and Rhode Island, respectively, fired off an open letter to the federal government yesterday, urging the Obama administration to recognize marijuana as a substance with acceptable medical uses. Pot is legal for medicinal use in both states – as well as 15 others and the District of Columbia – but as far as the feds are concerned it's an evil, illegal drug on par with heroin and LSD. In fact, the Obama administration has made a big point, especially lately, of busting medical marijuana operations in states where they're legal, in defiance not only of state laws but of public opinion. (About 70 percent of Americans are ok with medical marijuana.)
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer US investigators link water contamination to fracking - Friday, December 09, 2011: From ProPublica.org
In a first, federal environment officials today scientifically linked underground water pollution with hydraulic fracturing, concluding that contaminants found in central Wyoming were likely caused by the gas drilling process...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer The CIA's most secret prison revealed - Friday, December 09, 2011: From RT News
In the historic city of Bucharest, the CIA tortured and interrogated high-risk terrorists for years in a basement prison, under the nose of roughly two million Romanians...
Posted by: Staff Circuit court overturns Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriages - Thursday, December 08, 2011:by Sam Stein
In a major victory for gay rights activists, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday that a voter initiative banning same-sex marriage in California violated the Constitution's equal protection and due process rights clauses.
After a five-month wait, 9th Circuit District Court Judge Vaughn Walker offered a 136-page decision in the case of Perry v Schwarzenegger, firmly rejecting Proposition 8, which was passed by voters in November 2008.
"Although Proposition 8 fails to possess even a rational basis, the evidence presented at trial shows that gays and lesbians are the type of minority strict scrutiny was designed to protect," Walker ruled. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Australian woman killed by pygmy elephant - Thursday, December 08, 2011: Tourist fatally gored in a remote Malaysian wildlife reserve on Borneo island...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Mumia Abu-Jamal won't get death penalty - Thursday, December 08, 2011: From RT News
Just days before the thirtieth anniversary of his conviction, Mumia Abu-Jamal is being spared the death penalty after the district attorney in Philadelphia announced Wednesday that prosecutors will no longer be pursuing that sentence...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer No exemptions for tar sands in climate talks - Europe leaders - Thursday, December 08, 2011: From Canada.com
DURBAN, South Africa — European leaders warned Canadian oilsands producers Wednesday that they should not expect any special exemptions from proposed climate legislation in their parliament designed to reduce pollution from transportation fuels...
Posted by: Staff "Kids for cash" judge gets 28 years - Thursday, December 08, 2011:by Warren Richey
A former juvenile court judge in Pennsylvania was sentenced to 28 years in prison on Thursday for his part in an alleged "kids for cash" scam considered one of the worst judicial scandals in US history.
Mark Ciavarella Jr, 61, a former judge in Luzerne County, was also ordered to pay $1.17 million in restitution.
Mr Ciavarella was convicted in federal court in Scranton, Pa., in February on charges that he and a second judge, Michael Conahan, ran the local court system as a racketeering enterprise.
The federal indictment says the two judges accepted $2.8 million in kickbacks from the owner and builder of two privately-run juvenile detention facilities. In exchange, the judges agreed to close down the county's own juvenile detention center, which would have competed with the new, privately-run facilities. In addition they guaranteed that juvenile offenders from their court would be directed to the privately-run facilities....
Posted by: Staff Federal court ruling on Wheat Board scathing comments about government - Wednesday, December 07, 2011:Decision written by The Honourable Mr Justice Campbell
...The Applicants each request a Declaration that the Minister’s conduct is an affront to the rule of law. For the reasons that follow, I have no hesitation in granting this request. ...
Posted by: Staff Chiefs from across Canada stand with Attawapiskat - Wednesday, December 07, 2011:by Gloria Galloway
OTTAWA — The chief of the Northern Ontario reserve who declared a state of emergency because her people are living in plywood shacks with no heating or running water has been given a strong endorsement from fellow first-nation leaders in her battle with the federal government.
Chiefs from across Canada, who are meeting in Ottawa this week, stood one after the other to condemn Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan for sending a third party into Attawapiskat to manage its finances after Chief Theresa Spence issued a cry for help. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer UK lobbyists boast how they influence PM - Tuesday, December 06, 2011: From The Independent
Special undercover investigation: Executives from Bell Pottinger reveal 'dark arts' they use to burnish reputations of countries accused of human rights violations...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Occupy movement targets foreclosed properties - Tuesday, December 06, 2011: From Mother Jones
Last Thursday in New York City, a soft-spoken man with a thick beard, whom I'll call Paul, casually approached a brick apartment building and broke off a padlock with a bolt cutter. A spotter called to say a squad car was on its way, but Paul didn't feel his phone vibrate; he was too busy jamming a crowbar in the door. "Fortunately, the cop car just drove up the street and turned," he recalls a few days later as he and his wife wait at a subway stop to meet up with members of his cleanup crew. He'd installed his own lock on the door, which led to a vacant unit where the crew hoped to install a family of squatters.
Paul has asked me not to publish the names of his crew, the location of the building, or too much detail about the single mother who wants to squat there with her two children. The family was evicted from its apartment two weeks ago after a city-subsidized housing program ran out of money. "The reason I am doing this," Paul told me, "is that there are people who are really hurting."...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Assange granted appeal in UK Supreme Court - Tuesday, December 06, 2011: From RT News
Julian Assange has been granted an appeal to the UK Supreme Court to halt his extradition to Sweden over sex crimes allegations. If the appeal had been denied the WikiLeaks founder would have been en route to Stockholm within 10 days...
Posted by: Staff Obama announces $4 billion for public and private green upgrades - Monday, December 05, 2011:from the White House
WASHINGTON, DC — President Obama today announced nearly $4 billion in combined federal and private sector energy upgrades to buildings over the next 2 years. These investments will save billions in energy costs, promote energy independence, and, according to independent estimates, create tens of thousands of jobs in the hard-hit construction sector.
The $4 billion investment announced today includes a $2 billion commitment, made through the issuance of a Presidential Memorandum, to energy upgrades of federal buildings using long term energy savings to pay for up-front costs, at no cost to taxpayers. In addition, 60 CEOs, mayors, university presidents, and labor leaders today committed to invest nearly $2 billion of private capital into energy efficiency projects; and to upgrade energy performance by a minimum of 20 percent by 2020 in 1.6 billion square feet of office, industrial, municipal, hospital, university, community college and school buildings.
This announcement builds on a commitment made by 14 partners at the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in June to make energy upgrades across 300 million square feet, and to invest $500 million in private sector financing in energy efficiency projects. Today's commitments were announced by President Obama and former President Clinton along with representatives from more than 60 organizations as part of the Better Buildings Challenge. The Challenge is part of the Better Buildings Initiative launched in February by President Obama, and is spearheaded by former President Clinton and the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness to support job creation by catalyzing private sector investment in commercial and industrial building energy upgrades to make America's buildings 20 percent more efficient over the next decade, reducing energy costs for American businesses by nearly $40 billion. Last year, commercial buildings consumed roughly 20 percent of all the energy used by the US economy. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Time bomb in Obamacare will devastate health insurance corporations - Monday, December 05, 2011: From Forbes
...the provision of the law, called the medical loss ratio, that requires health insurance companies to spend 80% of the consumers’ premium dollars they collect—85% for large group insurers—on actual medical care rather than overhead, marketing expenses and profit. Failure on the part of insurers to meet this requirement will result in the insurers having to send their customers a rebate check representing the amount in which they underspend on actual medical care.
This is the true ‘bomb’ contained in Obamacare and the one item that will have more impact on the future of how medical care is paid for in this country than anything we’ve seen in quite some time. Indeed, it is this aspect of the law that represents the true ‘death panel’ found in Obamacare—but not one that is going to lead to the death of American consumers. Rather, the medical loss ratio will, ultimately, lead to the death of large parts of the private, for-profit health insurance industry.
Why? Because there is absolutely no way for-profit health insurers are going to be able to learn how to get by and still make a profit while being forced to spend at least 80 percent of their receipts providing their customers with the coverage for which they paid...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Hank Paulson, as US Treasury secretary, tipped insiders to financial crisis - Monday, December 05, 2011: From Rolling Stone Crony capitalism isn't usually this bald. But then again, this is Hank Paulson we're talking about.
This week, Bloomberg reported that in the summer of 2008, while serving as Treasury secretary under president George W. Bush, Paulson gave a gathering of Wall Street titans detailed, inside information about the government's plans for the troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac....
Time Magazine:
When Paulson left the top job at Goldman Sachs to become Treasury Secretary in 2006, his big concern was whether he'd have an impact. He ended up almost single-handedly running the country's economic policy for the last year of the Bush Administration. Impact? You bet. Positive? Not yet. The three main gripes against Paulson are that he was late to the party in battling the financial crisis, letting Lehman Brothers fail was a big mistake and the big bailout bill he pushed through Congress has been a wasteful mess.
And Max Keiser in The Keiser Report says Paulson deserves the Gaddafi treatment. "They should have hung him while they had the chance."...
Then there's Bloomberg News: How Paulson Gave Hedge Funds Advance Word of Fannie Mae Rescue http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-29/how-henry-paulson-gave-hedge-funds-advance-word-of-2008-fannie-mae-rescue.html
Posted by: Staff Holmes: Stop building crap on reserves - Sunday, December 04, 2011:by Janet Davison
For Canada's most famous and outspoken home renovator, the solution to the First Nations housing crisis is remarkably simple.
"When I heard years ago the problems they were having, to me it was like, 'Oh, OK, this is easy. Why isn't anyone else doing it?'" Mike Holmes, star of HGTV's home renovation show Holmes on Homes, said in an interview.
"We need to stop building crap. It's as simple as that."
Holmes teamed up with the Assembly of First Nations in 2010 to create a pilot project on the Whitefish Lake First Nation west of Sudbury, Ont., to build energy-efficient, environmentally friendly homes and other infrastructure. The ongoing project also aims to develop trade skills for people living on reserves. ...
Posted by: Staff US tax department to go easy on American residents in Canada - Sunday, December 04, 2011:by Barrie Mckenna
Americans living in Canada who've neglected to pay their US taxes are getting a big break from Uncle Sam.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is poised to waive potentially massive penalties for Americans who agree to come clean and don't owe any taxes, The Globe and Mail has learned.
The new rules will be announced within weeks by the IRS, according to David Jacobson, the US Ambassador to Canada, who has been swamped with complaints from anxious Canadians. ...
Posted by: Staff Harperites defend dirty tricks - Sunday, December 04, 2011:by Bruce Anderson
...For a while now, there's been a dirty-trick rumour in circulation: that organized callers have been phoning Liberal MP Irwin Cotler's constituents, leaving the false impression he is leaving politics and they would need a new MP soon.
Eventually, Government House Leader Peter Van Loan admitted that this was being done on an organized basis by the Conservatives. A sad, cynical enough moment in Canadian politics. Then he took cynicism to a new, jaw dropping level.
No mumbling the normal apologies about "overzealous workers, blah, blah, blah, won’t happen again, etc" Instead, Canadians were told that this kind of grime should be considered vital free speech — and must be protected, not prevented, by our laws. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Cocaine found on 11 percent of UK banknotes - Friday, December 02, 2011: Longer pub hours linked to rise in cocaine use among white men, government advisory council for the misuse of drugs is told...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Drone warfare industry took over US Congress - Friday, December 02, 2011: From truthout
by: Tom Barry, AlterNet | News Analysis
Drones play an increasing role in foreign wars, on the border, and in Congress.
At the Unmanned Systems Fair on September 21, the latest drone technology was on display. The drone fair, which took place in the lobby of the Rayburn House Office Building, also displayed the easy mix of government and business. Also on exhibit was the kind of bipartisan unity often seen when Democrats and Republicans rally around security and federal pork...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Russian president threatens counterforce to US missile defense system in Europe - Friday, December 02, 2011: From RT News
President Dmitry Medvedev has said that Russia may be forced to take new steps in response to further deployment of American missile defense system in Europe...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Egyptians as angry as ever - Fisk - Friday, December 02, 2011: From The Independent When they massed to call for the fall of Mubarak, Egypt's protesters were filled with hope. Now they are disillusioned with the army they trusted – but just as angry as ever...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Unions beat GOP candidates as NH blocks anti-labour law - Friday, December 02, 2011: From truthout
Mitt Romney can attack public-employee unions all he wants. Rick Perry can attack collective-bargaining rights. Newt Gingrich can call for eliminating child labor laws so that school janitors can be replaced with adolescents.
But those are not winning positions in mainstream America, where polling suggests Americans recognize the value of labor unions and of laws that maintain the right to organize and bargain for better wages, better benefits and better services for children and communities...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Cons admit organizing false byelection calls in Cotler's riding - Thursday, December 01, 2011: From National Post
OTTAWA — The Conservatives have confirmed they are behind a rash of phone calls to Liberal MP Irwin Cotler’s Montreal-riding over the past couple of weeks in which constituents allegedly were told of Cotler’s resignation and a pending byelection...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Germany arrests former US presidential candidate David Dukes - Thursday, December 01, 2011: From RT News
David Duke has said a few, ahem, controversial things during his time. In-between successfully running for elected office in Louisiana and failing to capture the presidency of the United States, Duke also was kind of the Grand Wizard of the KKK...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Bailout Bombers: Italy's billion-euro F35 'suicide mission' - Thursday, December 01, 2011: From RT News
Italy is heading deeper into the crisis quagmire, with its debt already nearing the 2-trillion-euro mark. But while average Italians are ready to save, the government has another plan on the table, which critics consider “economic suicide”.
The government’s plan is called The Joint Strike Fighter program or JSF – a defense project based on international effort, with the US, UK and Italy just some of the participants.
Still in its developmental stage, the project the final assembly line is supposed to be based in Italy. The town of Novara is 8 km from the military base where the final stage of the F35 project is supposed to take place...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Facts contradict Kenney's IRB patronage defence - Thursday, December 01, 2011: From NDP Research
In the House of Commons, Jason Kenney has been claiming that only two appointments to the Immigration and Refugee Board have links to the Conservative Party of Canada.
The facts contradict his claim, as the board is brimming with Conservative donors, ex-candidates and Conservative staffers.
So which of these many Conservative-linked appointees were the two Jason Kenney was talking about?
Political advisor:
Normand Forest - Senior policy advisor to labour minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn Appointed to Board in 2008
Candidates:
Rose Andrachuk – 2003 Ontario PC candidate in Etobicoke Centre Appointed in 2008
Gilles Guenette - 1988 Ontario PC candidate in Ottawa-Vanier Appointed in 2007 Atam Uppal - Conservative nominee in Don Valley East in 2005, Appointed in 2006
Harriet Wolman - Two time Former Ontario PC candidate in Oakwood Appointed in 2007
Donors:
Michel Byczak – Lucien Richard campaign 2004 Appointed in 2007
Pasquale Fiorino - Jeff Watson campaign 2005/06 & 2008 Appointed in 2009
Marlene Hogarth – Thunder Bay, Ontario Progressive Conservatives 2000-2007 Appointed in 2006
John Kivlichan - Joe Oliver 2008 campaign Appointed in 2009
Robert Rushowy – York-Simcoe EDA 2008 Appointed in 2008 Sonia Rodrigue – Conservative Party of Canada 2008-2009 Appointed in 2009
Irvin Sherman - Pauline Browes 2005/06 campaign Appointed in 2007
Darcy Tkachuk - Conservative Party of Canada 2008, Yukon EDA 2007-2009 Appointed in 2009
Cheryl Walker – Conservative Party of Canada 2007-2010 Appointed in 2009
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Harper now has army of 1500 flaks - Wednesday, November 30, 2011: From The Hill Times
There are an estimated 1,500 communications staffers working in the offices of ministers and departments, including 87 in the PMO and PCO...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Gulf "spillionaires'" powerbroker loses LA re-election bid - Wednesday, November 30, 2011: From ProPublica.org
A southeast Louisiana powerbroker at the heart of a ProPublica investigation into "spillionaires," or people profiting from the BP oil spill clean-up, has lost his bid for reelection...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Movie "Margin Call" unveils big truths about Wall Street - Wednesday, November 30, 2011: From ProPublica.org
J. C. Chandor has embraced Rahm Emanuel's dictum "never let a serious crisis go to waste." The 37-year-old writer and director used the financial crisis as a springboard to create the most insightful Wall Street movie ever filmed. Margin Call captures a day in the life of a Lehman Brothers-like bank as it scrambles to avoid falling into the first cracks of the financial crisis. Briskly paced and marvelously acted, the movie reveals how large financial institutions operate and the motivations of the people who work within them....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Novotel hotel workers struggling to organize - Wednesday, November 30, 2011: From From the Ontario Federation of Labour
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 30, 2011) - More than 1000 delegates representing over one million Ontario workers and 51 unions showed their resounding support for hotel workers' determination to organize unions at three Ontario Novotel hotels owned by French hotel giant Accor.
Workers at the three non-union Novotels in Mississauga, North York and Ottawa, Ontario have been struggling to form a union in their workplaces since late 2008. Independent elected officials have verified strong majority support for the union in each of the non-union hotels two times since the organizing drives began.
Rather than recognizing the union, Accor has disciplined, suspended, and even terminated a number of workers who are known union supporters. The company's actions are now the subject of ongoing hearings before the Province of Ontario's Labour Relations Board.
Last week, the Ontario New Democratic Party pledged to honour a boycott of the Novotel Hotels should UNITE HERE, the North American hotel workers union the Novotel workers are seeking to join, call for it. Sid Ryan, re-elected as President of the Ontario Federation of Labour, Canada's largest labour federation, commented:
"Accor's behaviour at the Novotels in Ontario is unacceptable and places it among one of the most anti-union employers in Canada. We cannot let foreign corporations like French-based Accor come into our communities and treat workers this way."
Rekha Sharma - a server working at the Novotel Mississauga - told delegates that UNITE HERE was starting to work with other Accor hotel workers around the world who, like the workers in Canada, want to organize themselves into unions:
"Whether we work for Accor in Canada or Indonesia or anywhere else, we need to organize ourselves and work together to make sure that Accor respects our basic human right to join a union."
The OFL will closely monitor the situation and will work with UNITE HERE Locals 75 and 261 to protect the human and labour rights of workers seeking to organize.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Harperites say they won't prorogue - Wednesday, November 30, 2011: From The Hill Times
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has no plans to prorogue Parliament during its winter recess, despite a rush of major bills through the Commons in the past two months, the PMO says...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer CBC would lose a half billion annually if deprived of advertising - Tuesday, November 29, 2011: From The Hill Times
PARLIAMENT HILL—CBC revenue losses and new programming costs would total more than $500-million if it is forced to give up all its English and French-language advertising space to private networks, says a groundbreaking study the Crown corporation commissioned from an independent media consulting firm...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Conservatives proroguing Parliament 'plausible,' - opposition MPs - Tuesday, November 29, 2011: From The Hill Times
Senate sitting extra days to pass budget implementation, House seats, Wheat Board and long-gun registry elimination bills a signal Parliament could be prorogued, say opposition MpPs...
Posted by: Staff TEPCO: We don't "own" radioactive substances on golf courses - Monday, November 28, 2011:By TOMOHIRO IWATA
During court proceedings concerning a radioactive golf course, Tokyo Electric Power Co. stunned lawyers by saying the utility was not responsible for decontamination because it no longer "owned" the radioactive substances.
"Radioactive materials (such as cesium) that scattered and fell from the Fukushima No 1 nuclear plant belong to individual landowners there, not TEPCO," the utility said.
That argument did not sit well with the companies that own and operate the Sunfield Nihonmatsu Golf Club, just 45 kilometers west of the stricken TEPCO plant in Fukushima Prefecture.
The Tokyo District Court also rejected that idea.
But in a ruling described as inconsistent by lawyers, the court essentially freed TEPCO from responsibility for decontamination work, saying the cleanup efforts should be done by the central and local governments. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer UK secretly supporting tar sands - British report - Monday, November 28, 2011: From ipolitics.ca
OTTAWA — A British media report says the U.K. government has been giving secret support at the very highest levels to Ottawa's campaign against European penalties on its oilsands fuel, prompting environmentalists to call Britain Canada's "partner in crime."..
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Police brutalize AZ grandpa shopping on Black Friday - Monday, November 28, 2011: From RT News
Black Friday turned into Red Friday for Jerald Newman, 54, who was out on Thanksgiving evening shopping with his grandson. Consumers prepped themselves for long lines in retail shops, but Newman didn’t think he’d have to brave for a police assault...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Google gives up on Renewable Energy campaign - Monday, November 28, 2011: From RT News
Four years after Google launched a campaign to make renewable energy an affordable and mainstream alternative power, the Internet giant is tossing in the towel as their plan to help the world go green encounters a red light...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Red Cross assists with aid and relief on Attawapiskat, ON reserve - Monday, November 28, 2011: THUNDER BAY – Editorial – With the move by the Red Cross into assisting with aid and relief in Attawapiskat, there is an opportunity for the McGuinty Government and the Harper Government to step up. Often when there is a disaster, or crisis, the federal government will offer to match the funds raised by Canadians to make sure there is a maximum effort to help in the disaster. Right now that opportunity sits before both governments....
Posted by: Staff Lobbying Firm's Memo Spells Out Plan to Undermine Occupy Wall Street - Saturday, November 26, 2011:by Jonathan Larsen and Ken Olshansky (crossposted from MSNBC's "Open Channel" blog)
A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program "Up w/ Chris Hayes."
The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC's clients, the American Bankers Association. ...
Posted by: Staff The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy - Saturday, November 26, 2011:by Naomi Wolf
US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week.
An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women — targeted seemingly for their gender — screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.
But just when Americans thought we had the picture — was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? — the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists.
The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being — falsely — informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."
In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer We Are the 99.9 percent - Paul Krugman - Friday, November 25, 2011: From The New York Times
"We are the 99 percent" is a great slogan. It correctly defines the issue as being the middle class versus the elite (as opposed to the middle class versus the poor). And it also gets past the common but wrong establishment notion that rising inequality is mainly about the well educated doing better than the less educated; the big winners in this new Gilded Age have been a handful of very wealthy people, not college graduates in general. Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Paul Krugman Go to Columnist Page " Blog: The Conscience of a Liberal Readers' Comments
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If anything, however, the 99 percent slogan aims too low...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Exile dreams of a bloodless return after a lifetime opposing Assad regime - Fisk - Friday, November 25, 2011: From The Independent
Opposition leader Khaled Khoja tells our writer in Istanbul why revenge is not on the table...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer JK Rowling: tabloid journalists tried to get to me via note in my daughter's bag - Friday, November 25, 2011: From The Independent
Harry Potter author testifies how newspapers targeted her children and forced her family out of their Edinburgh home...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer CA wind farm cancelled due to concern for birds - Friday, November 25, 2011: From truthout
A San Francisco company said it has abandoned plans for a large-scale wind farm near Winters because the turbines could have harmed golden eagles, bald eagles and other local bird species...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Supercommittee failure helps Obama - Mother Jones - Thursday, November 24, 2011: Okay, remember when Democrats and progressives during the debt ceiling showdown last summer were bitching that President Barack Obama was triangulating and wimping out by negotiating (and yielding much) with the tea-party-controlled Republicans? Well, that was then. In the latest twist of this never-ending saga, Obama is both calling out the Republicans and holding what appears to be a position of strength. That may all shift suddenly. This is politics. But Obama's Democratic fans should savor the moment...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Fox viewers know less than those who watch nothing at all - Thursday, November 24, 2011: From The Toronto Star
Fox News viewers in the U.S. are less informed than those who watch nothing at all, a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll says.
The New Jersey university’s PublicMind Poll, which surveyed 612 state residents, was commissioned by a local radio station celebrating its 40th anniversary. It wanted to find out what media people were watching and how much they actually knew as a result of that...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Warmongers, including Harperites beat Iran war drums despite evidence - Siddiqi - Thursday, November 24, 2011: From The Toronto Star
You don’t have to be a nuclear engineer to know that much of what’s being said about the Iranian nuclear program, including by the Stephen Harper government, is humbug...
Posted by: Staff Cops watched porn, skipped work instead of investigating missing women: Galliford - Wednesday, November 23, 2011:By SUZANNE FOURNIER, The Province
RCMP Cpl Catherine Galliford, the former calm, professional voice and face of the Missing Women Task Force, said Tuesday she knows her evidence will be "explosive" when she appears at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.
Galliford, 44, is slated to testify at the inquiry in January, but says she won't be testifying for the RCMP, but rather on behalf of the victims.
In an interview, and in a 115-page statement given to the RCMP, Galliford said top Mounties had "enough evidence for a search warrant" of serial killer Robert Pickton's farm in 1999. From 1999 to 2002 14 women were brutally murdered by Pickton, a fact that haunts Galliford.
She says she will testify that both RCMP and VPD officers, even after the Missing Women Task Force was formed in 2001, engaged in sexual liaisons and harassment, watched porn and left work early "to go drinking and partying."
"The saddest part of this is that the women who were killed were the most vulnerable people in our society, other than children," she said.
"I will not be testifying on behalf of the RCMP at the inquiry," she said, saying her first concern is for people whose loved ones didn’t have to die.
"Tell the families," said Galliford, her voice breaking, in an interview with The Province on Tuesday. "I’ve got their back." ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Michael Moore proposes ten-point plan for Occupy movement - Wednesday, November 23, 2011: From Michael Moore.com
By Michael Moore
This past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and goals of the movement. It was attended by 40+ people and the discussion was both inspiring and invigorating. Here is what we ended up proposing as the movement's "vision statement" to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:
We Envision: [1] a truly free, democratic, and just society; [2] where we, the people, come together and solve our problems by consensus; [3] where people are encouraged to take personal and collective responsibility and participate in decision making; [4] where we learn to live in harmony and embrace principles of toleration and respect for diversity and the differing views of others; [5] where we secure the civil and human rights of all from violation by tyrannical forces and unjust governments; [6] where political and economic institutions work to benefit all, not just the privileged few; [7] where we provide full and free education to everyone, not merely to get jobs but to grow and flourish as human beings; [8] where we value human needs over monetary gain, to ensure decent standards of living without which effective democracy is impossible; [9] where we work together to protect the global environment to ensure that future generations will have safe and clean air, water and food supplies, and will be able to enjoy the beauty and bounty of nature that past generations have enjoyed.
The next step will be to develop a specific list of goals and demands. As one of the millions of people who are participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement, I would like to respectfully offer my suggestions of what we can all get behind now to wrestle the control of our country out of the hands of the 1% and place it squarely with the 99% majority.
Here is what I will propose to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Ex-inspector rejects IAEA Iran bomb-test-chamber claim - Wednesday, November 23, 2011: From antiwar.com
A former inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repudiated its major new claim that Iran built an explosives chamber to test components of a nuclear weapon and carry out a simulated nuclear explosion. The IAEA claim that a foreign scientist – identified in news reports as Vyacheslav Danilenko – had been involved in building the alleged containment chamber has now been denied firmly by Danilenko himself in an interview with Radio Free Europe published Friday...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Seymour Hersh: Pre-war propaganda mounting on Iran - Tuesday, November 22, 2011: From Reader-Supported News
"They [JSOC] found nothing. Nothing. No evidence of any weaponization,':; Hersh says. ':;In other words, no evidence of a facility to build the bomb. They have facilities to enrich, but not separate facilities to build the bomb. This is simply a fact. "...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Million man march planned in Tahrir Square - Tuesday, November 22, 2011: From The Guardian
...The million man march is not due to start until 4pm local time, but already Tahrir Square is filling and already the makeshift hospitals located at spots around the site are struggling to cope with the number of patients....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson wins second term - Tuesday, November 22, 2011: From straight.com
Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Vision Vancouver party were elected to a second majority term Saturday, winning seven seats on council, five on park board and five on school board...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Police assault protestors in Cairo's Tahrir Square - Monday, November 21, 2011: From The Guardian
...The situation in Tahrir square appears to be escalating, with heavy clouds of tear gas swirling and a field hospital seeing multiple casualties. While the main square remains secure, the Mohamad Mahmoud Street has become a focal point....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Harper pal working to unite Alberta Right - Monday, November 21, 2011: From Edmonton Journal
Top political Stephen Harper crony Ken Boessenkool is chairman of the Alberta Blue Committee, a new organization he believes can unite conservative forces in the province and potentially help him launch his own political career...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer F35 cost overruns alarm US Senators - Monday, November 21, 2011: From The Ottawa Citizen
U. S. Sen. John Mc-Cain and two other members of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee expressed concerns about the F-35 fighter plane on Saturday, a day after the U.S. defence secretary said his country was committed to the project.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer DC lobby firm plans $850,000 anti-Occupy strategy - Sunday, November 20, 2011: From Truthout
"A well-known DC lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program 'Up w/ Chris Hayes.' The memo proposes to pay the firm to conduct 'opposition research' on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct 'negative narratives' about the protests and allied politicians."
Posted by: Staff This is the photo that will start a revolution - Sunday, November 20, 2011:by Lloyd Alter
This image by Louise Macabitas is similar to those that Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing shows from another angle. It is of Lt John Pike walking along a line of University of California at Davis students and acting as if he was spraying Febreze on some smelly hippies. But it isn't Febreze, it's pepper spray. The cop looks happy, almost bored as he does this to students who could be my kids, your brothers and sisters or you or me. ...
Posted by: Staff Koch industries flout law: Bloomberg - Saturday, November 19, 2011: By Asjylyn Loder and David Evans
In May 2008, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., one of the world's largest privately held companies, sent Ludmila Egorova-Farines, its newly hired compliance officer and ethics manager, to investigate the management of a subsidiary in Arles in southern France. In less than a week, she discovered that the company had paid bribes to win contracts.
"I uncovered the practices within a few days," Egorova- Farines says. "They were not hidden at all."
She immediately notified her supervisors in the US. A week later, Wichita, Kansas-based Koch Industries dispatched an investigative team to look into her findings, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its November issue.
By September of that year, the researchers had found evidence of improper payments to secure contracts in six countries dating back to 2002, authorized by the business director of the company’s Koch-Glitsch affiliate in France.
"Those activities constitute violations of criminal law," Koch Industries wrote in a Dec 8, 2008, letter giving details of its findings. The letter was made public in a civil court ruling in France in September 2010; the document has never before been reported by the media.
Egorova-Farines wasn't rewarded for bringing the illicit payments to the company's attention. Her superiors removed her from the inquiry in August 2008 and fired her in June 2009, calling her incompetent, even after Koch’s investigators substantiated her findings. She sued Koch-Glitsch in France for wrongful termination. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer ON gains on BC in NDP memberships - Friday, November 18, 2011: From Pundit's Guide
Just-released NDP membership figures show that Ontario is gaining on British Columbia and may soon rival the west coast in influence over the outcome of the March 24, 2012 Federal NDP Leadership race...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Postal workers win 28-year pay equity fight - Friday, November 18, 2011: From CBC News
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of workers Thursday in a pay equity case involving women at Canada Post that was originally filed 28 years ago...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer 58 percent favour recall of WI governor - poll - Thursday, November 17, 2011: From The Nation
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s support has collapsed, according to a new poll that shows that 58 percent of voters favor recalling the Republican whose anti-labor initiatives provoked the mass demonstrations that anticipated the Occupy Wall Street movement...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Assad will only go if his own tanks turn against him - Fisk - Thursday, November 17, 2011: From The Independent Predictions of Syrian leader's imminent demise are hopelessly optimistic...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Mackay and Fantino contradict each other on "Plans A and B" for F35 jets - Thursday, November 17, 2011: From The Ottawa Citizen
It was another interesting day on the F-35 file Wednesday. The opposition was still going after the Conservatives about increasing concerns over the F-35, including worries that the U.S. may have to shut the program down...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Syrian army defectors 'attack air force base' - Wednesday, November 16, 2011: Reported attack on Damascus intelligence complex appears to be one of Free Syrian Army's boldest operations so far...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Harperites entertain back-door lobbying with reception for elite club - Wednesday, November 16, 2011: From The Hill Times
PARLIAMENT HILL—An exclusive reception Conservative Cabinet ministers and Mps are hosting on behalf of a high-end private club connected to the Conservative Party in Toronto is an example of “disturbing” informal lobbying that has grown under Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, says NDP MP Charlie Angus...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer BC mining rush threatens salmon - Wednesday, November 16, 2011: From Terrace Daily
...In a letter to British Columbia Premier Christy Clark today, 36 scientists asked for her leadership to balance impending industrial development in northwest B.C. with the outstanding fish, wildlife and ecological values of this largely pristine region....
Posted by: Dylan Kome How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich - Tuesday, November 15, 2011:by Tim Dickinson The nation is still recovering from a crushing recession that sent unemployment hovering above nine percent for two straight years. The president, mindful of soaring deficits, is pushing bold action to shore up the nation's balance sheet. Cloaking himself in the language of class warfare, he calls on a hostile Congress to end wasteful tax breaks for the rich. "We're going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share," he thunders to a crowd in Georgia. Such tax loopholes, he adds, "sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary – and that's crazy."
Preacherlike, the president draws the crowd into a call-and-response. "Do you think the millionaire ought to pay more in taxes than the bus driver," he demands, "or less?"
The crowd, sounding every bit like the protesters from Occupy Wall Street, roars back: "MORE!"
The year was 1985. The president was Ronald Wilson Reagan.
"We're being evicted!" the text message went out to Occupy Wall Street supporters around 1 am.
"The park has been cleared," the fourth text message read a few hours later, as bedraggled, pepper-sprayed protesters, having lost their home in the park, reconvened for a GA in Foley Square and vowed to keep the occupation going. Over 200 had been arrested, including city council member Ydanis Rodriguez. Blocks away, Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a press conference at which he declared that police would be now able to search all people entering the park. Read his press release, which contains the memorable phrase "no right is absolute", here...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Grassroots movement seeks recall for WI governor Walker - Tuesday, November 15, 2011:from Mother Jones
In late September, Democratic pollster Paul Maslin met with staffers from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin in a bright conference room with a view of the state Capitol in Madison. He sensed disappointment in the room. That summer, the party had forced recall elections for six Republican state senators but unseated just two of them - one short of retaking control of the majority. Maslin's reason for visiting was to discuss his new poll for a different recall effort, one targeting the most controversial man in Wisconsin: Republican Gov. Scott Walker...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Italy and Greece: Rule by the Bankers - Monday, November 14, 2011:from The Bullet
It looks as though, by Monday, both Greece and Italy will be ruled by so-called 'technocratic' governments. Even though both Greek prime minister George Papandreou and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi were elected comfortably in parliamentary polls and were never defeated in any vote of confidence in parliament, they have been ousted – to be replaced by unelected ex-central bankers and former executives of hedge funds and investment banks. From now on, financial markets will rule directly over the lives of the Italian and Greek people...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer With Occupy, "The new progressive age has begun" - Jeffrey D. Sachs - Monday, November 14, 2011:from The New York Times
OCCUPY WALL STREET and its allied movements around the country are more than a walk in the park. They are most likely the start of a new era in America. Historians have noted that American politics moves in long swings. We are at the end of the 30-year Reagan era, a period that has culminated in soaring income for the top 1% and crushing unemployment or income stagnation for much of the rest. The overarching challenge of the coming years is to restore prosperity and power for the 99%...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Study debunks myths on organic farms - Monday, November 14, 2011:from The StarPhoenix
The results are in from a 30-year side-by-side trial of conventional and organic farming methods at Pennsylvania's Rodale Institute. Contrary to conventional wisdom, organic farming outperformed conventional farming in every measure...
Posted by: Staff Miss World pageant 2011 not what 1970s feminists protested - Sunday, November 13, 2011:by Mary Beard, writer and academic, BBC News Magazine
Miss World 2011 was crowned last week at Earls Court. Miss Venezuela, a 22-year-old graduate in human resources, took the title. She was closely followed by Miss Philippines, who majored in marketing; and Miss Puerto Rico, who wants to go on to a PhD in comparative literature.
A hundred or so feminist demonstrators turned up, outside the venue, to object to what they saw as a degrading human cattle market. It was a fairly sedate affair, certainly a far cry from the protests against Miss World 1970 when a group of "women's libbers" (as people used to call them then), swapped their dungarees for little frocks, infiltrated the ceremony, and managed to land some bags of flour very close to the compere Bob Hope, some wilting lettuces on the assembled reporters, and squirts of blue ink on the bouncers' shirts. They had a great slogan — "We're not beautiful, we're not ugly, we're angry." And, as a radical feminist teenager, I was right behind them.
After all those years, I couldn't resist taking a peek at the 2011 contest last weekend. It's no longer shown on UK television, but you can get it streamed live online. I found myself slightly puzzled, slightly turned off — but not any longer very angry. For a start, the contest has tried to clean up its act. ...
Posted by: Staff Canada's right-wing media monopolies move further right - Friday, November 11, 2011:by Donald Gutstein
The Canadian news media landscape has changed dramatically since the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications released its underwhelming report on the state of Canadian media in 2006.
Three major players — CanWest Global Communications, CHUM Ltd. and Alliance Atlantis Communications — are gone, while others scrambled to pick up the spoils and adjust to life in the wireless-online world, some more successfully than others.
Those changes, however, did not translate into a more diverse and balanced media system. If anything, Canadian news coverage and commentary is more conservative than it was five years ago, and just as concentrated, as the Harper government ignored every recommendation the committee made. True, alternative media have made great strides to provide more balanced coverage of major issues in the intervening years, but a great gap still persists between advertising-financed journalism and everything else.
Canadian news reporting and commentary is controlled today by a handful of wealthy families and corporations. Let's call them the Gang of Seven. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Tories plead guilty of in-and-out scam - Friday, November 11, 2011:from The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA – After four years of denying any wrongdoing, the Conservative Party and its fundraising arm have pleaded guilty to overspending on advertising in the 2006 election campaign and violating Canada's electoral law in the long-running "in and out" case.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Fracking compound found in Wyoming aquifer - Friday, November 11, 2011: From ProPublica.org
As the country awaits results from a nationwide safety study on the natural gas drilling process of fracking, a separate government investigation into contamination in a place where residents have long complained that drilling fouled their water has turned up alarming levels of underground pollution...
Posted by: Staff Keystone postponed until 2013 for environmental assessment - Friday, November 11, 2011:from CBC News
The US State Department has ordered an environmental assessment for a new Keystone XL pipeline route, allowing US President Barack Obama to shelve the controversial issue until after the 2012 elections.
Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. has been trying to build the $7-billion pipeline to carry mostly Canadian oilsands bitumen from Hardisty, Alta., to the Texas coastline in the Gulf of Mexico since 2008.
The Department will assess the potential of alternative routes in Nebraska after public concerns surfaced regarding the environmental sensitivities of the current proposed route through the Sand Hills area. ...
Posted by: Staff Regulation and business — not the relationship Republicans claim - Thursday, November 10, 2011:By CATHERINE RAMPELL and BINYAMIN APPELBAUM for the New York Times
In Wednesday night's Republican debate on the economy, Herman Cain suggested that the chief problem holding back companies was regulatory uncertainty. Other candidates, including Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, have made similar claims about regulatory burdens.
But in surveys of small businesses conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business, a plurality of companies consistently say that the "single biggest problem" they face is low sales, not red tape or taxes.
The Labor Department’s data on mass layoffs echo this finding. For the last three quarters, "governmental regulations/intervention" have accounted for less than 1 percent of layoffs. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer US E-Day 2011: progressives win big - Thursday, November 10, 2011: From Democracy Now
Advocates for labor, women's and immigration rights are celebrating a number of key victories in Tuesday's state elections. In Ohio, voters defeated Republican Gov. John Kasich's controversial limits on the collective bargaining rights of state employees....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Right-wing zealots justify baby-beating - Thursday, November 10, 2011: From Alternet
There is a brutal movement in America that legitimizes child abuse in the name of God. November 8, 2011.
There is a brutal movement in America that legitimizes child abuse in the name of God. Two stories recently converged to make us pay attention. Last week, a video went viral of a Texas judge brutally whipping his disabled daughter. And on Monday, the New York Times published a story about child deaths in homes that have embraced the teachings of To Train Up a Child, a book by Christian preacher Michael Pearl that advocates using a switch on children as young as six months old...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Ringling Bros. - The Cruelest Show on Earth - Thursday, November 10, 2011: From Mother Jones
Bullhooks. Whippings. Electric shocks. Three-day train rides without breaks. Our yearlong investigation rips the big top off how Ringling Bros. treats its elephants...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Most US store honey isn't honey - Thursday, November 10, 2011: From Food Safety News
More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn't exactly what the bees produce, according to testing done exclusively for Food Safety News...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Voters deal Republican-backed measures setbacks across USA - Wednesday, November 09, 2011: From The New York Times
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A year after Republicans swept legislatures across the country, voters in Ohio delivered their verdict Tuesday on a centerpiece of the conservative legislative agenda, striking down a law that restricted public workers’ rights to bargain collectively. ..
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer US spending more on nuclear weapons than during Cold War - Wednesday, November 09, 2011: From Mother Jones
On April 5, 2009, President Barack Obama took the stage before 20,000 people in Prague's Hradcany Square to offer an ambitious global vision. "Today, I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," he told the open-air audience in the former Eastern Bloc capital. "To put an end to Cold War thinking, we will reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy, and urge others to do the same."...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Netanyahu leading fight against Israel's peace activists - Wednesday, November 09, 2011: From Haaratz
Right-wing parties blame Israel human rights organizations for aiding what they call 'campaign to delegitimize Israel', and have turned them into a scapegoat...
Posted by: Staff Ohio voters reject anti-union proposition - Tuesday, November 08, 2011:by Amanda Terkel and John Celock
WASHINGTON — Ohioans overturned a divisive anti-union law on Tuesday, delivering a significant defeat to Republican Gov John Kasich and a victory to labor unions.
Ohio voters rejected Issue 2, a ballot referendum on Senate Bill 5, a measure that restricts collective bargaining rights for more than 360,000 public employees, among other provisions. Opposition to the legislation inspired large protests from residents around the state this year.
Immediately after the results came in, union officials sent out statements declaring success. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer IAEA credibility at stake with Iran report - Monday, November 07, 2011: From The Guardian
The UN nuclear watchdog will unveil details of what it claims to be an advanced warhead blueprint and a site where it may have been tested. The report is controversial because of claims it is politically motivated, like the unfounded claims that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction, which led to the invasion of Iraq.
In June, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article in The New Yorker that cites US intelligence reports which indicate that claims of a nuclear weapons program in Iran are not true, or, at best, far from confirmed.
Posted by: Staff Bill Moyers: How Wall Street occupied America - Sunday, November 06, 2011:Bill Moyers
This article is adapted from a speech Bill Moyers gave in October at Public Citizen's fortieth-anniversary gala.   During the prairie revolt that swept the Great Plains in 1890, populist orator Mary Elizabeth Lease exclaimed, "Wall Street owns the country…. Money rules…. Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us."
She should see us now. John Boehner calls on the bankers, holds out his cup and offers them total obeisance from the House majority if only they fill it. Barack Obama criticizes bankers as "fat cats," then invites them to dine at a pricey New York restaurant where the tasting menu runs to $195 a person.
That's now the norm, and they get away with it. The president has raised more money from employees of banks, hedge funds and private equity managers than any Republican candidate, including Mitt Romney. Inch by inch he has conceded ground to them while espousing populist rhetoric that his very actions betray.
Let's name this for what it is: hypocrisy made worse, the further perversion of democracy. Our politicians are little more than money launderers in the trafficking of power and policy -- fewer than six degrees of separation from the spirit and tactics of Tony Soprano.
Why New York's Zuccotti Park is filled with people is no mystery. Reporters keep scratching their heads and asking, "Why are you here?" But it's clear they are occupying Wall Street because Wall Street has occupied the country.
And that's why in public places across the nation workaday Americans are standing up in solidarity. Did you see the sign a woman was carrying at a fraternal march in Iowa the other day? It read, I Can't Afford to Buy a Politician So I Bought This Sign. Americans have learned the hard way that when rich organizations and wealthy individuals shower Washington with millions in campaign contributions, they get what they want. ...
This article appeared in the November 21, 2011 edition of The Nation.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Anthony Weiner gets revenge on Glenn Beck - Friday, November 04, 2011: From Mother Jones
When prosecutors charged executives from the precious metals company Goldline with fraud on Tuesday, it marked an unusual victory for someone who hasn't had many wins lately: former New York congressman Anthony Weiner...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Killing of Mexican mayor 26th since 2006 - Friday, November 04, 2011: From Al Jazeera
The mayor of La Piedad has been assassinated in a brazen drive-by shooting, one of more than two dozen Mexican mayors who have been murdered since 2006, the majority presumed victims of drug violence.
It was announced on Thursday that Ricardo Guzman, 45, died late night in an ambulance after being shot while handing out campaign fliers outside a fast-food restaurant. According to reports, a black SUV pulled up, a hand holding a pistol appeared at its window, and Guzman went down with a shot...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Olivia Chow campaigns in in SK provincial elxn - Friday, November 04, 2011: From The Leader-Post
Saskatchewan Party Leader Brad Wall is more interested in "defending" the CEO of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan than in helping those left behind by his government's policies, prominent federal New Democrat Olivia Chow told cheering supporters at a Saskatoon rally Thursday evening...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Taxpayers to pony up $360 million for old-off AECL reactor division - Friday, November 04, 2011: From The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — The Conservative government will spend at least $285 million this fiscal year on the Atomic Energy of Canada nuclear reactor division it sold last month for just $15 million plus royalties to SNC-Lavalin, the Montreal-based engineering and construction giant.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Glen Beck gold gurus charged with fraud - Thursday, November 03, 2011: From Mother Jones
TUNE IN TO GLENN BECK'S Fox News show or his syndicated radio program, and you'll soon learn about the precarious state of the US dollar, a currency on the verge of collapse due to runaway government spending, a ballooning national debt, and imminent Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation. To defend yourself against the coming financial holocaust, Beck explained on his radio show last November, you need to "think like a German Jew in 1934, maybe 1931." And that means thinking about buying some gold...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Occupy shuts down Port of Oakland with general strike - Thursday, November 03, 2011: From Democracy Now
We turn now to Oakland, California, where thousands of protesters shut down the nation’s fifth largest port on Wednesday as part of a general strike called by the Occupy Oakland movement. It was the first general strike called in the city since 1946. Much of the city was unaffected by the strike, however many business shut down and nearly 20 percent of the city’s teachers did not report to work. While the strike was largely peaceful, tension escalated overnight. Police arrested at least three dozen people and repeatedly fired tear gas and other projectiles to break up late night protests. "As we demonstrate to the government of the city of Oakland that we do not assent to police violence, that we stand in defense of Scott Olsen and the memory of Oscar Grant, we do assent to community, to education, to free education, to health care, to free health care, to housing, to happiness, to justice, to creativity, to hope for the future,” said longtime activist and academic Angela Davis. Democracy Now! correspondent John Hamilton filed this report from Oakland...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Mining watchdog agency called 'bogus PR job' - Tuesday, November 01, 2011:CBC News
A mining watchdog agency that was supposed to hold Canadian companies accountable for their actions overseas has done little to protect communities abroad, critics say...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Army of volunteer lawyers helps Occupy protestors - Tuesday, November 01, 2011: From truthout
Washington - As copycat Occupy Wall Street encampments around the country confront the inevitable legal tangles that come with a nationwide sit-in style protest, a growing army of First Amendment-loving lawyers is shepherding the demonstrators through the legal system at no charge.
Growing numbers of protesters are being arrested for trespassing, failure to disperse and disobeying a lawful order, as city after city confronts the question of whether individual rights to free speech and assembly include the right to camp out on public property...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer UN probe unveils new suspected Syrian nuclear facility - Tuesday, November 01, 2011: From Haaratz
Investigators identify previously unknown complex in northwest of country, bolstering suspicions of nuclear ties between Assad regime and the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Many Cdn docs won't prescribe pot - Tuesday, November 01, 2011: From The Ottawa Citizen
A decade after Canada legalized the medical use of marijuana, most doctors are still refusing to sign the declarations patients need to get legal access to pot - meaning patients in pain risk being jailed if they use a drug that helps them function.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Corporations taking over life itself - medical ethicist - Monday, October 31, 2011: From Democracy Now
One of the major themes raised by the Occupy movement is the increasing power of large corporations over more and more aspects of our lives. We spend the hour looking into the issue of the corporate control of life itself...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer From Oakland to Melbourne, over 2,000 Occupy arrests - Monday, October 31, 2011: From Mother Jones
The loose-knit protest movement known as Occupy Wall Street has stirred action from New York City to LA and spread overseas. Here we present an expanding map of protest hot spots and reported arrests, and track the movement's growth...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer UNESCO grants Palestinians full membership - Monday, October 31, 2011: From Haaratz
Cultural body is first UN agency Palestinians have sought to join since opening bid for recognitionl Brazil, Russia, China, India, South Africa and France vote in favor; U.S., Canada and Germany oppose, while Britain abstains...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer US Christian Right threatens democracy - Monday, October 31, 2011: by Chris Hedges
Chris Hedges, whose column is published Mondays on Truthdig, spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years. He holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School . Please see the rest of his Bio at the bottom of this article.
Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School , told us that when we were his age, he was then close to 80, we would all be fighting the “Christian fascists.â€
The warning, given to me 25 years ago, came at the moment Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists began speaking about a new political religion that would direct its efforts at taking control of all institutions, including mainstream denominations and the government. Its stated goal was to use the United States to create a global, Christian empire. It was hard, at the time, to take such fantastic rhetoric seriously, especially given the buffoonish quality of those who expounded it. But Adams warned us against the blindness caused by intellectual snobbery. The Nazis, he said, were not going to return with swastikas and brown shirts. Their ideological inheritors had found a mask for fascism in the pages of the Bible...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Julian Assange to hear extradition ruling - Friday, October 28, 2011: From The Independent
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will learn next week if he has won or lost his High Court bid to block extradition to Sweden where he faces sex crime allegations...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Iraq War Vet shot by police at Occupy Oakland, has fractured skull - Friday, October 28, 2011: From Democracy Now
Thousands of people reclaimed the Occupy Oakland encampment in front of City Hall Wednesday after police dispersed them twice on Tuesday — first in a pre-dawn raid on the camp and 12 hours later at night when protesters attempted to retake the park — using beanbag projectiles and tear gas. Many protesters expressed outrage over of the injury of Oakland protester Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old Iraq War veteran whose skull was fractured by a projectile fired by police Tuesday night. He is hospitalized in critical condition and is reportedly under sedation by doctors monitoring his injury...
Harper's new winning strategy – War on Labour iPolitics Insight Posted on Fri, Oct 28, 2011, 5:21 am by Lawrence Martin
When they had a minority government, the Conservatives soft-pedaled labour issues. Now that they have a majority and a labour-backed NDP in opposition, they have moved into attack mode...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Halloween make-up no treat for children's health - Friday, October 28, 2011: Be aware of haunting Halloween health hazards OTTAWA – Parents should exercise caution this Halloween before their kids go trick-or-treating. Sierra Club Canada is reminding parents to be wary of using Halloween make-up and face-paint that may contain toxic chemicals and dangerous metals.
"Parents should know what they are putting on their children's faces. Lead, nickel and pesticides are not part of Halloween fun," said John Bennett, Executive Director of Sierra Club Canada.
"There is a serious lack of regulation of cosmetics in Canada. Companies are not required to disclose that these products may contain dangerous chemicals."
In a report by the US-based Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, all the children’s face-paint products they tested contained lead. Lead exposure of any level can be harmful to children, potentially leading to hyperactivity, aggression, reduced school performance, and irresponsible behaviour.
In the same report, 6 out of the 10 products contained nickel, chromium, and/or cobalt that were above safety recommendations. Even some products that claimed to be “non-toxic” contained these heavy metals.
Pigment green 7 and blue 15, also found in face-paints and make-up, were never approved for use in cosmetics and some Halloween hair-sprays contain dangerous chemicals like butane and thiram (which is used as a pesticide).
While Sierra Club Canada does not want to take the fun out of Halloween, care should be taken when planning costume ideas for children since they are the most sensitive to chemical exposure. Always try to avoid costumes that require face paint. If face paint is required, make your own safe face-paint at home.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer NAFTA x3 as corporate trade deals sweep through US Congress - Thursday, October 27, 2011: From Alternet
Congress last week approved three long-pending trade deals with Panama, South Korea and Colombia that will likely lead to massive job loss, not job creation...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer How the legal system favors the 1 percent - Thursday, October 27, 2011: From Mother Jones
Wall Street tycoons have destroyed the economic security of millions of people around the world—yet they have not faced the slightest legal repercussions...
Posted by: Staff Canada's new plastic money yields spooky, sexy images for some - Wednesday, October 26, 2011:by Steve Rennie
OTTAWA— The Canadian Press
Canada's new plastic money may give you a little more bang for your buck.
New documents show a focus group mistook the depiction of a strand of DNA on the $100 bill for a sex toy, and most people thought the see-through window on the polymer notes was shaped like the contours of a woman’s body.
Tweaked versions of the new bills will go into circulation next month. ...
Posted by: Staff Scientists identify capitalist network that runs the world - Friday, October 21, 2011:from the New Scientist
As protest against financial power sweep the world this week, science may have confirmed the protesters' worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.
The study's assumptions have attracted some criticism, but complex systems analysts contacted by New Scientist say it is a unique effort to untangle control in the global economy. Pushing the analysis further, they say, could help to identify ways of making global capitalism more stable.
The idea that a few bankers control a large chunk of the global economy might not seem like news to New York's Occupy Wall Street movement and protesters elsewhere. But the study, by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power. It combines the mathematics long used to model natural systems with comprehensive corporate data to map ownership among the world's transnational corporations (TNCs). ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Ohio a longtime leader in breakaway beasts - Friday, October 21, 2011: Wednesday's release of more than 50 exotic animals including lions, tigers, and yes, bears from a farm in Zanesville, Ohio, certainly ranks among the most dramatic animal escapes – and one of the most tragic, as most of the animals were killed. But fleeing feral fauna are not new, especially in Ohio, one of fewer than 10 states that do not regulate private ownership of wild animals, according to the Humane Society of the United States...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Gas pipelines - big business but lightly regulated - Friday, October 21, 2011: The gas pipeline industry is hardly glamorous. But it is lucrative and loosely regulated...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Gaddafi - We loved him. We hated him. - Fisk - Friday, October 21, 2011: From The Independent
We loved him. We hated him. Then we loved him again. Blair slobbered over him. Then we hated him again. Then La Clinton slobbered over her BlackBerry and we really hated him even more again. Let us all pray that he wasn't murdered. "Died of wounds suffered during capture." What did that mean? ...
Posted by: Staff What Quebecor won't tell you about its attacks on CBC - Thursday, October 20, 2011:from the CBC
For more than three years, Quebecor has been using its newspapers, and more recently, its SunNews Network TV license to pursue a campaign against CBC/Radio-Canada. But there are some things Quebecor won't tell you:
Quebecor has received more than half a billion dollars in direct and indirect subsidies and benefits from Canadian taxpayers over the past three years, yet it is not accountable to them.
Quebecor uses this public subsidy and its dominant position in protected industries to make record profits yet complains that its TVA television network "competes" against Radio-Canada.
Quebecor boss Pierre Karl Péladeau has sent over a dozen letters to the Prime Minister and others in government to complain that Radio-Canada does not spend enough money advertising in his newspapers. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Haiti marks grim anniversary - one year after cholera outbreak - Wednesday, October 19, 2011: From Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)
Washington, D.C.- The United Nations should provide restitution to Haiti for reintroducing cholera into the country, according to Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). Today marks the one-year anniversary of the discovery of new cholera cases in Haiti. Previously, the disease had been unknown in Haiti for over 100 years. Over 6,500 people have died from cholera-related symptoms and over 460,000 have been infected over the past year.
“There are no credible experts who doubt that it was UN troops who brought cholera back to Haiti, and are responsible for the deadly epidemic that has followed,” Weisbrot said. “Yet the UN stubbornly continues to deny responsibility. If the UN Mission is in Haiti to provide safety and security to the Haitian people, the least it can do is offer to make amends for causing one of Haiti’s deadliest disease outbreaks in its history.”
The one-year anniversary of the cholera outbreak comes as medical groups such as Medicins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) have warned that cholera cases are spiking yet again, following a decrease earlier in the summer. Haiti’s Health Ministry reports that there are as many as 700 new infections each day. Despite this, some providers are cutting back on cholera [PDF] and sanitation assistance, due to a lack of funding. The current budget for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) is close to $1 billion USD per year, almost nine times the $130 million that the international community has disbursed to fight cholera.
Despite statements from UN officials over the past year, several scientific studies have matched the cholera strain now infecting Haitian patients with one endemic to Nepal, and the first cholera infections in 2010 were located downriver from a MINUSTAH base of Nepalese troops. An Associated Press visit to the camp in October 2010 documented the waste from the base contaminating the Artibonite river, and photographs also corroborate eyewitness testimony that MINUSTAH troops have dumped sewage into the river.
“Considering the lack of safe drinking water in many parts of Haiti, the MINUSTAH troops’ dumping sewage into rivers was an act of clear criminal negligence,” Weisbrot said. “The susceptibility of the Haitian population to a cholera epidemic, in the aftermath of the earthquake, was already a serious concern for health professionals months before the outbreak began.
“The MINUSTAH authorities should be held responsible for this negligence. This is a disaster of proportions on par with Union Carbide’s gas leak disaster in Bhopal, but much worse in terms of the human impact.”
Weisbrot also noted that the UN’s own recommendations [PDF] for responding to the cholera epidemic include prioritizing “investment in piped, treated drinking water supplies and improved sanitation throughout Haiti.”
Posted by: Staff US Supreme Court to rule on charging corporations with crimes against humanity - Tuesday, October 18, 2011:from the Huffington Post
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday morning agreed to hear a case over whether corporations can be sued in federal courts for human rights violations occurring overseas.
The case, Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum, arises out of a suit by a dozen Nigerian plaintiffs claiming that Royal Dutch and two of its Shell Oil subsidiaries worked with the Nigerian government to torture and extrajudicially execute individuals protesting against the companies' oil exploration.
The plaintiffs filed suit in United States district court under the Alien Tort Statute, which empowers the federal courts to hear cases by "an alien" bringing a civil suit for wrongs committed "in violation of the law of nations." The first Congress passed the ATS into law in 1789....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer CA prison hunger strike ends, conditions of "immense torture" continue - Tuesday, October 18, 2011: From truthout
Imagine a concrete room no more than eight by ten feet. It has no windows, only a perforated steel door facing a solid concrete wall. Fluorescent lights stay on 24 hours a day.
Posted by: Staff Iceland regains sovereignty, turfs the privatizers - Monday, October 17, 2011:By Deena Stryker
An Italian radio program's story about Iceland's ongoing revolution is a stunning example of how little our media tells us about the rest of the world. Americans may remember that at the start of the 2008 financial crisis, Iceland literally went bankrupt. The reasons were mentioned only in passing, and since then, this little-known member of the European Union fell back into oblivion.
As one European country after another fails or risks failing, imperiling the Euro, with repercussions for the entire world, the last thing the powers that be want is for Iceland to become an example. Here's why:
Five years of a pure neo-liberal regime had made Iceland, (population 320,000, no army), one of the richest countries in the world. In 2003 all the country's banks were privatized, and in an effort to attract foreign investors, they offered on-line banking whose minimal costs allowed them to offer relatively high rates of return.
The accounts, called IceSave, attracted many English and Dutch small investors. But as investments grew, so did the banks' foreign debt. In 2003, Iceland's debt was equal to 200 times its GNP, but in 2007, it was 900 percent. The 2008 world financial crisis was the coup de grace. The three main Icelandic banks, Landbanki, Kapthing and Glitnir, went belly up and were nationalized, while the Kroner lost 85 percent of its value with respect to the Euro. At the end of the year Iceland declared bankruptcy.
Contrary to what could be expected, the crisis resulted in Icelanders recovering their sovereign rights, through a process of direct participatory democracy that eventually led to a new Constitution. But only after much pain. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Intl. Scrabble championship marred by cheating charges - Monday, October 17, 2011: From The Independent
In a week filled with sporting controversy, it was a missing letter 'G' that threatened to set the Scrabble World Championship on fire, as wordsmiths from around the world gathered in Warsaw to do battle...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Harper appoints hard-liners to Supreme Court - Monday, October 17, 2011: From ipolitics.ca
OTTAWA — CTV News is reporting that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to name two judges from the Ontario Court of Appeal to Canada’s highest court as early as Monday. One is known for strong law and order views, the other has close ties, as a senior public servant, to the Mike Harris Tories, especially Jim Flaherty. One more and Harper will have appointed a majority of the Supreme Court judges....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Harperites cut environment network off without notice - Saturday, October 15, 2011: From The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Environment Minister Peter Kent has cancelled a 34-year-old funding partnership with a major grassroots network that has helped the federal government deliver landmark policy and legislative changes to crack down on industrial polluters and protect fragile ecosystems.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Gulf residents accuse BP of harassment - Saturday, October 15, 2011: From Al Jazeera
A simple swim in the Gulf of Mexico has complicated Steven Aguinaga's life in ways he could have never imagined.
In July 2010, Aguinaga, now 33-years-old, had gone on a vacation with his wife and some friends to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. After he and his close friend Merrick Vallian went swimming in the Gulf, they both became extremely sick from what Aguinaga believes were chemicals in BP's oil and dispersants from the largest marine oil spill in US history that began in April 2010...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer New Murdoch tabloid hacking shame - Friday, October 14, 2011: From The Independent
Police were given evidence in 2002 that News of the World had access to illegally obtained messages from Milly Dowler's phone – but did nothing about it...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Occupy Wall St. prepares for crackdown - Friday, October 14, 2011: From Alternet
Free health care, a sanitation team, a public library, solar power, and free childcare are just a few of the services the Occupy Wall Street protesters are providing...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Biofuels, speculators driving food price surges - Thursday, October 13, 2011: From Alternet
Washington - A new report on global hunger pinpoints factors at the heart of spikes in food prices it says are exacerbating the unfolding food crisis in the Horn of Africa...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Assassination plot scenario doesn't fit past Iranian behavior - Thursday, October 13, 2011: From ProPublica.org The alleged Iranian plot to use Mexican cartel gunmen to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington is one of the strangest, most serious terrorism cases to surface in years, a mix of seemingly credible evidence and unlikely scenarios that departs dramatically from Iran's past record of global terrorist activity...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Topp no shoe-in for NDP leader - NL MP Cleary - Thursday, October 13, 2011: From The Hill Times
A Newfoundland and Labrador New Democrat MP has publicly indicated what other New Democrats have so far been hinting at or saying only privately as the party’s leadership race begins building up steam—front-runner Brian Topp may be in store for a rougher ride than he expects...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Hamilton steelworkers to vote on US Steel offer after 11 months out - Wednesday, October 12, 2011: HAMILTON - Local 1005 called on all active members and pensioners to attend an information meeting to consider the tentative agreement reached between Local 1005 USW and U.S. Steel on Monday, October 10...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Burma grants amnesty to 6,300 prisoners - Wednesday, October 12, 2011: From CBC News
Burma's newly elected civilian government announced Tuesday it will release more than 6,300 prisoners in an amnesty that could help patch up the country's human rights record and normalize relations with Western nations...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Honduran govt denies involvement in string of reporter killings - Wednesday, October 12, 2011: From the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)
As always, but with an unusual quota of aggression since 2010, freedom of speech and the personal security of Honduran journalists are under permanent attack from groups, gangs, and individuals who launch their strikes under a cloak of anonymity. The journalist Medardo Flores, a relentless supporter of former President Manuel Zelaya, is the latest victim of the wave of violence directed toward members of the Honduran working press. With all the disrespect attributable to the government of Porfirio Lobo, as demonstrated here, it is not unreasonable to presume that the perpetrators, along with their underlying political motives, want to silence such journalists at any cost...
Posted by: Staff Monbiot: warning -- Great Depression ahead - Tuesday, October 11, 2011:by George Monbiot
I stumbled out into the autumn sunshine, figures ricocheting around in my head, still trying to absorb what I had heard. I felt as if I had just attended a funeral: a funeral at which all of us got buried.
I cannot claim to have understood everything in the lecture: Sonnenschein-Mantel-Debreu Theory and the 41-line differential equation were approximately 15.8 metres over my head. But the points I grasped were clear enough. We’re stuffed: stuffed to a degree that scarcely anyone yet appreciates.
Professor Steve Keen was one of the few economists to predict the financial crisis. While the OECD and the US Federal Reserve foresaw a "great moderation", unprecedented stability and steadily rising wealth, he warned that a crash was bound to happen. Now he warns that the same factors which caused the crash show that what we've heard so far is merely the first rumble of the storm. Without a radical change of policy, another Great Depression is all but inevitable. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer USA has 40-50,000 food chain slaves - Tuesday, October 11, 2011: n the opening episode of Slavery: A 21st Century Evil, Al Jazeera's Rageh Omaar investigates food chain slavery, considered the easiest form of slavery to stamp out, in the US.
The US has been leading the global fight against modern slavery. But, according to conservative estimates, there are between 40,000 and 50,000 slaves in the US today...
Posted by: Staff DC Occupy Wall Street wins four month reprieve - Monday, October 10, 2011:by David Swanson
Freedom Plaza is now ours, and we're never giving it back. Our permit for Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, expired, we refused to leave, and the Park Police has just proposed to let us stay for four more months.
We've agreed. We have not said that when the four months are over and the American Spring is here we will leave.
In fact, we intend to make it possible for anyone to visit DC with free accommodations. Just bring a sleeping bag and agree to work with us to pressure Congress, the White House, K Street, the Pentagon, and all the lobbyists and profiteers for peace and justice. We have free food, we have free drink, we have free trainings and seminars, we have tents, we have peace keepers, we have a big victory under our belts, and we welcome all peace makers for they shall inherit Freedom Plaza. We own it. It is ours. It shall remain ours world without end.
The Taste of DC food festival just gave us all their remaining food. Or at least all the individual booths did. Ben and Jerry's just endorsed us. Busboys and Poets just fed us. Businesses that support us will be honored and supported by 99 percent of this country.
So, here's the plan: Bring us your reports from around the country at your local Occupations. Fill us in here in the Empire's Capital. We will fill you in too. We will train and inspire and connect you with the rest of this global movement. Then go back home energized. Come down from New York and go back up. We need to coordinate on a personal level.
Our brothers and sisters in McPherson Square have a growing occupation too. Join them. Join us. We're family. We disrupted the work of the NSA today, and the Association of the Army's convention at which our women had generals crawling under tanks to avoid cameras. We shut down a celebration of Christopher Columbus as well.
And Tuesday morning at 9 am sharp in Our Freedom Plaza we will set off to "welcome" Congress back to town. Join us. We are legion.
The one thing that we need now is money, and you can contribute it at http://october2011.org
Or you can wait for the bankster war machine to confiscate your money, eat your retirement, swallow your healthcare, foreclose on your home, and tax you into debt to pay for plutocrats' profiteering.
Posted by: Staff Occupy Wall Street is the most important place to be: Naomi Klein - Sunday, October 09, 2011:Naomi Klein spoke at Occupy Wall Street on Oct 6, saying that the OWS movement is "the most important thing in the world now". Here is an excerpt from her talk, published on her blog.
... "Why are they protesting?" ask the baffled pundits on TV. Meanwhile, the rest of the world asks: "What took you so long?" "We’ve been wondering when you were going to show up." And most of all: "Welcome."
Many people have drawn parallels between Occupy Wall Street and the so-called anti-globalization protests that came to world attention in Seattle in 1999. That was the last time a global, youth-led, decentralized movement took direct aim at corporate power. And I am proud to have been part of what we called "the movement of movements."
But there are important differences too. For instance, we chose summits as our targets: the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the G8. Summits are transient by their nature, they only last a week. That made us transient too. We'd appear, grab world headlines, then disappear. And in the frenzy of hyper patriotism and militarism that followed the 9/11 attacks, it was easy to sweep us away completely, at least in North America.
Occupy Wall Street, on the other hand, has chosen a fixed target. And you have put no end date on your presence here. This is wise. Only when you stay put can you grow roots. This is crucial. It is a fact of the information age that too many movements spring up like beautiful flowers but quickly die off. It's because they don’t have roots. And they don't have long term plans for how they are going to sustain themselves. So when storms come, they get washed away.
Being horizontal and deeply democratic is wonderful. But these principles are compatible with the hard work of building structures and institutions that are sturdy enough to weather the storms ahead. I have great faith that this will happen." ...
Posted by: Staff Dalton McGuinty, an underrated politician, is tougher than he looks - Sunday, October 09, 2011:BY GEOFFREY STEVENS (published Oct 8, 2011 in Waterloo Region Record and Guelph Mercury)
You have to hand it to Dalton McGuinty. Although he does not come across as an inspirational leader of men and women, he has other qualities that earned him a third term as Premier of Ontario this week.
He is moderate, consistent, determined, resolute when he encounters obstacles, and a good deal tougher than he appears. We tend to forget how hard he had to fight to get where he is today.
First elected in Ottawa in 1990 (when the province was abandoning the Liberals for the NDP) and re-elected in 1995 (in the teeth of Mike Harris's "Common Sense Revolution"), he ran for the Liberal leadership in 1996, placing fourth on the first ballot. A less determined (or stubborn) politician would have thrown in the towel, but McGuinty hung in, eventually beating the populist left-Liberal Gerard Kennedy on the fifth ballot.
His early years as leader were no picnic. Many unhappy Liberals believed the party had made a grave miscalculation in choosing the relatively colourless McGuinty over the more charismatic Kennedy. To some, he appeared too weak and too indecisive to be an effective leader.
The Harris Conservatives played on that perception in the 1999 election, mounting a series of vicious attack ads proclaiming, "Dalton McGuinty — not up to the job!" After the Liberals lost that election, McGuinty had to beat back a "Dump Dalton" movement in his own ranks.
In the 2003 election — after Mike Harris had retired and was succeeded by Ernie Eves as Tory leader and premier — McGuinty was the target of one of the more bizarre attacks in the annals of Canadian politics. A Conservative press release labelled him an "evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet."
What McGuinty, an innocuous enough fellow by most standards, had done to deserve that slagging — and what actually it meant — I have no idea, but it did not damage him. The Liberals won a majority in that election.
He won his second majority in 2007, but it was no cakewalk. The Conservatives appeared poised in the early going to make McGuinty a one-term wonder — until their new leader, John Tory, shot himself and his party in the foot with his pledge to extend public funding to faith-based schools. Handed this winning lottery ticket, McGuinty triumphed easily.
This year, with the winds of change seemingly in the air, poor dull Dalton appeared doomed. The Progressive Conservatives, led Tim Hudak, a former Harris cabinet minister, enjoyed a seemingly insurmountable double-digit lead before the campaign began. Meanwhile, the New Democrats under a new leader Andrea Horwath, and buoyed by their success in the federal election in May, were cutting into Liberal strength on the left.
The pundits started writing McGuinty off. But wait! Politics is full of premature obituaries, from Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and Richard Nixon to John Diefenbaker, Jean Charest and, now, Dalton McGuinty.
He did not secure the majority he wanted, but given the steep hill he was forced to climb, a strong minority government, which is what he won, is no mean achievement. McGuinty did not do it alone, of course. Just as he had help from John Tory in 2007, he had help this time from Hudak, who ran as bad a provincial campaign as I have seen in years (the 2007 Tory one excepted).
Relentlessly negative, Hudak failed to define himself and his party in the minds of voters. He offered voters various reasons to reject the Liberals without giving them reasons, other than negative ones, for embracing the PCs. Who, really, was Tim Hudak? It was clear he was no Bill Davis, but was he the second coming of Mike Harris? Even voters who are prepared to invest in change like to know what they are buying before they mark their ballot.
As long as he is careful, McGuinty should be able govern as though he has a majority. And Ontario will be led by a "reptilian kitten-eater" for a few more years.
Cambridge resident Geoffrey Stevens, an author and former Ottawa columnist and managing editor of the Globe and Mail, teaches political science at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph. He welcomes comments at geoffstevens@sympatico.ca
Posted by: Staff We, the 99 Percent, demand the end of the wars now - Saturday, October 08, 2011:by: Robert Naiman, Truthout
After ten years of war, now is a perfect time to act to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Friends Committee on National Legislation has set up a toll-free number for us to call Congress: 1-877-429-0678. A Congressional "supercommittee" is charged with coming up with $1.5 trillion in reduced debt over ten years, and the wars and the bloated Pentagon budget dangle before the supercommittee like overripe fruit.
A recent CBS poll shows how far out of step with the 99 percent the Pentagon's plans are. Sixty-two percent want US troops out within two years.
But the Pentagon wants to stay for at least 13 more years.
A key lesson from Iraq for Afghanistan is this: we can force the Pentagon to eat a timetable for military withdrawal, and once we've forced them to eat it, we have the ability to force them to keep it down. ...
Posted by: Staff Alabama chicken plants idled by anti-immigrant laws - Saturday, October 08, 2011:La Opinión, News Report, Valeria Fernandez, translated by Suzanne Manneh
ALBERTVILLE, Ala — Adela, an undocumented worker hurries back to the chicken processing factory Ala Trade because the lack of workers leaves no time for a break. "Today we were missing six lines," said Adela, each line represents about 13 to 16 people.
In Albertville, a community located 66 miles from Birmingham, the psychological impact of the HB56 law which makes being undocumented a state crime, has been quickly felt.
In half a dozen chicken processing plants such as this one, which is an important source of employment in the town of 21,000 inhabitants, the absence of immigrants has become visible. "I want to go to Texas for my children. I'm leaving from here. I don't want immigration (ICE) take me," said Adela, 40, who has spent nearly half of her life living in Alabama.
For some immigrants like Adela, it is not the fear of being discovered at work that concerns them, but that the police could detain them in the street and their children would be in the government’s custody, should they be deported. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Immigrant TO workers feel "abandoned" by provincial Grits - Thursday, October 06, 2011: from USW
TORONTO - Immigrant workers who have fought for nearly two years to keep good manufacturing jobs in Toronto say they feel abandoned by Liberal MPP Laurel Broten and her party...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer UK tabloid paid spies for scoops - Wednesday, October 05, 2011: From Miami Herald via Pro Publica
LONDON -- No one suspected the secretary....
Efficient, well-dressed and well-liked, Sue Harris was at the heart of the Sunday People, the smallest of Britain's weekly tabloids. She booked flights, reserved accommodation, and tallied expenses for the populist paper's dozen or so full-time reporters. These journalists implicitly trusted the petite, 40-something south Londoner who'd spent most if not all of her working life at the tabloid.
Maybe they shouldn't have.
In 1995 Harris was dismissed over an allegation that she'd been feeding her paper's juiciest scoops to the Piers Morgan-edited News of the World,
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Koch has 'direct and substantial interest' in Keystone XL - Wednesday, October 05, 2011: From InsideClimate News
A document filed with Canada's Energy Board appears to cast doubt on claims by Koch Industries that it has no interest in the controversial pipeline...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Ottawa mayor and police chief oppose safe injection site regardless of facts - Wednesday, October 05, 2011: From The Ottawa Citizen
Let's compare and contrast statements about Insite, the supervised injection centre in Vancouver's downtown eastside neighbourhood.
Posted by: Staff Manitoba: NDP machine massacres Tories - Wednesday, October 05, 2011:By Dan Lett for the Winnipeg Free Press
New leader, new and nasty approach to campaigning, same result.
Premier Greg Selinger secured the NDP's fourth consecutive majority government, an achievement that puts them into rare company in this province’s electoral history.
Let's be clear, this wasn't just a win. It was a hands-down massacre of the Tories at the hand of the NDP machine. The Tories not only failed to gain any real ground in the Manitoba legislature, they appear to have lost all but two of the swing seats they had targeted. At this point, holding onto Brandon West and River East, solid Tory seats the NDP targeted in this campaign, is a victory but really only a moral victory. ...
Posted by: Staff Amy Goodman and crew win settlement over Republican convention bust - Tuesday, October 04, 2011:from Democracy Now!'
WASHINGTON — October 4 — Award-winning journalist Amy Goodman announced that a final settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit brought by Goodman and Democracy Now! producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar against the cities of Minneapolis-St Paul and the US Secret Service, challenging the policies and conduct of law enforcement at the 2008 Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities. Goodman and her colleagues were unlawfully arrested and subject to excessive force while reporting on public protest and political dissent surrounding the Convention.
"When journalists are arrested, it is not only a violation of the freedom the press, but of the public's right to know," said Goodman. "When journalists are handcuffed and abused, so is democracy. We should not have to get a record when we put things on the record."
Filed last year on behalf of Democracy Now! by the Center for Constitutional Rights and pro bono attorneys Steven Reiss from Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP in New York and Albert Goins of Minneapolis, the federal lawsuit asserted that the government cannot, in the name of security, limit the flow of information by intimidating and arresting journalists who engaged in constitutionally protected reporting on speech protected by the First Amendment such as dissent or law enforcement activities.
The settlement includes compensation of $100,000 for the three journalists and an agreement by the St Paul police department to implement a training program aimed at educating officers regarding the First Amendment rights of the press and public with respect to police operations -- including police handling of media coverage of mass demonstrations -- and to pursue implementation of the training program in Minneapolis and statewide.
CCR Legal Director Baher Azmy said "CCR is proud to stand with the courageous journalists from Democracy Now! and dozens of other media organizations in their fight to ensure that the right of the press to document political events is preserved. This lawsuit sends an important message to police departments all over the country, especially ones responding to lawful demonstrations and political protests, that failure to respect the constitutional rights of citizens and journalists may expose municipalities to serious liability."
Ms Salazar was filming a demonstration outside the RNC Convention when riot police cornered her, forced her violently to the ground, bloodying her face, handcuffed her and disabled her camera, all while ignoring her protests that she was a member of the press. Mr. Kouddous, who was also covering the protests, tried to come to Ms Salazar's aid by explaining to the police she and he were journalists; the police slammed him against the wall and repeatedly kicked him in the chest.
Ms Goodman, upon hearing that her colleagues were arrested, rushed to the scene from the convention floor and asked to speak with a supervising police officer. Without any lawful basis, police pulled Ms Goodman over a police line and arrested her. All three journalists were detained for several hours. Mr. Kouddous was again unlawfully arrested three days later along with a large group of journalists.
All charges against the journalists were later dropped. Videos of the violent arrests are available on CCR’s legal case page. Video of their arrests is also available at URL below.
Steven Reiss of the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, which provided pro bono assistance on the case, added: "This resounding vindication of the right of journalists to gather news free from unconstitutional interference by the authorities is a victory for democracy. The lawyers at Weil are pleased that we helped achieve this important result."
Goodman added: "As we move into the next conventions and cover protests like Occupy Wall Street, this largest settlement to come out of the 2008 RNC arrests should be a warning to police departments around the country to stop arresting and intimidating journalists. We see the financial settlement and the requirement that the police departments receive First Amendment training on the rights of the press as a major step forward."
The legal team in the case included CCR Senior Staff Attorney Anjana Samant, Steven Reiss and Christine DiGuglielmo from Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, based in New York, and Albert Goins of Minneapolis.
Watch video of the arrests and the announcement of the settlement on Democracy Now! (includes video embed code): http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/3/settlement_reached_over_arrest_of_amy
For more information on the case, visit CCR's legal case page at URL below.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer US border patrol accused of 30,000 human rights abuses in 3 years - Tuesday, October 04, 2011: From Alternet
Allegations range from Border Patrol agents denying food and water to adults and children in detention for several days, to purposely separating families during deportation...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Cons widen attacks on unions - Tuesday, October 04, 2011: From The Hill Times
The Conservative attack against the NDP and its union affiliates widened on Monday with a backbench Conservative MP tabling a bill to force public disclosure of union finances, while Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Parliamentary Secretary, Dean Del Mastro, criticized Elections Canada on how it is handling a Conservative complaint over the NDP and union links...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer I was tortured in Bahrain police cell - doctor - Monday, October 03, 2011: From The Independent
As one of 20 Bahraini doctors and nurses given up to 15 years in prison, Dr Roula al-Saffar recalls with outrage the tortures inflicted as police tried to force her and other medical specialists to confess to "a doctors' plot" to overthrow the Bahraini government...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Ties growing between unions and Occupy Wall Street - Monday, October 03, 2011: From Daily KOS
As Chris Bowers reported yesterday, unions are moving to support Occupy Wall Street. Although unions are only now getting officially involved in the current protest, the labor movement has been targeting Wall Street excesses from pushing for financial reform to pushing for a financial transaction tax to shining a light on CEO pay for years, and including several large rallies on Wall Street staged by unions and other progressive organizations in recent years...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Cullen, Dewar and unknown Singh to enter NDP leadership race - Friday, September 30, 2011: From Postmedia News
OTTAWA — A little-known but longtime New Democrat with few ties to the Ottawa political scene is expected to steal a little of Paul Dewar's limelight Sunday when he announces his bid for leadership of the party...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Baird demands gold, drops the word "Canada" on his ministerial business cards - Friday, September 30, 2011: From The Canadian Press
...The Conservative foreign affairs minister demanded — and got — gold embossing on his business cards shortly after being shuffled into the portfolio last May, contrary to government rules.
Baird then ordered the word "Canada" dropped from the standard design, also against federal policy....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer NDP surges in key ON ridings - poll - Friday, September 30, 2011: From Ontario Federation of Labour
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Sept. 30, 2011) - New poll numbers released today demonstrate a strong surge of support for the NDP in the Ontario Election. Responding to a weekend poll published in the Toronto Star, the Ontario Federation of Labour hired the same company to conduct a larger sampling with a more in-depth questionnaire in nine key ridings. The results show the NDP poised to win several ridings that are currently held by Liberals and is holding strong in incumbent seats.
"We polled a large number of people in several ridings about support for local candidates and discovered an incredible momentum behind Andrea Horwath and the NDP," said OFL President Sid Ryan. "We zeroed in on the tight races and found that the NDP candidate is the front-runner in eight out of the nine ridings surveyed, often with considerable margins."
The study, conducted by Forum Research Inc., interviewed over 6,000 respondents in nine ridings on September 26 and 27 and found the NDP candidate in the lead in eight of the races. The average number of respondents in each riding is 690, with a margin of error of +/- 3.8%, 19 times out of 20. The poll also found that the NDP has the largest growth potential in the final days before the October 6 election. The NDP secured the highest level of support of any party as a second choice for decided voters, with 60% of Liberal voters giving the NDP serious consideration...
Posted by: Staff Fence on US-Canada border "an option": leaked report - Friday, September 30, 2011:CTVNews.ca Staff
Canada's ambassador to the United States says despite a leaked report that suggests US officials are considering erecting a security fence along the Canadian border, there is "no indication" that such a plan will go ahead.
Building fences along the Canadian border is one of the options the US government is considering as it mulls how to handle "trouble spots" and keep out criminals and other threats. ...
Posted by: Staff Fence on US-Canada border "an option": leaked report - Friday, September 30, 2011:CTVNews.ca Staff
Canada's ambassador to the United States says despite a leaked report that suggests US officials are considering erecting a security fence along the Canadian border, there is "no indication" that such a plan will go ahead.
Building fences along the Canadian border is one of the options the US government is considering as it mulls how to handle "trouble spots" and keep out criminals and other threats. ...
Posted by: Staff Ontario election: is this the best we can do? - Friday, September 30, 2011:BY GEOFFREY STEVENS (published Sept 29, 2011 in Waterloo Region Record and Guelph Mercury)
This should be the most exciting Ontario election in many, many years.
For starters, the fight is desperately close. The polls all tell us this — and they can't all be wrong. All three parties are viable. Two, the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives, have approximately equal chances of forming the next government while the third party, the New Democrats, is poised the wield the balance of power when neither of the old parties wins a majority on Oct 6.
Yet a campaign that should be exciting instead is discouraging, even depressing. The thought that kept coming to my mind during the leaders' debate on Tuesday night was: Is this the best Ontario can do?
The leaders, even Andrea Horwath at times, seemed more intent on fighting past elections and old battles — whether Dalton McGuinty's promises in 2003 and 2007 or Mike Harris's cuts to hospitals and schools between 1995 and 2002 — than on addressing the very serious issues (economic growth, provincial debt, job creation, an ageing population, cost of living and environmental degradation, to mention a few) that the government must address when the last ballots have been counted next Thursday.
It has seemed to me throughout the campaign, especially during the leaders' debate, that the parties are more concerned about singing to the choir, to locking up their own base support, than they are about reaching out to swing voters or attracting the votes of independents. The election has become a defensive game, fought between the blue lines, with no one daring to break away for a shot on goal.
Getting out their own vote is more important than growing that support.
Each of the leaders was desperately anxious not to make a mistake in the debate — and they all succeeded in achieving that exceedingly modest objective. They stuck resolutely to their scripts, to the talking points they and their candidates have been wedded to since the election began. For example, Tim Hudak's attack on McGuinty over the harmonized sales tax was virtually word-for-word the same as the attacks I had heard coming from the mouths of Conservative candidates in Kitchener-Conestoga, Cambridge and other ridings. This repetition — or lack of originality — did nothing to enhance the message's impact.
A lack of spontaneity has become one of the hallmarks of the election. So is lack of vision. Why — why? why? — couldn't the leaders (or at least one of them) relax a bit or unbend enough to offer a personal vision of the Ontario they want to create? And to tell voters how far along that road they hope to carry the province by 2015 when their mandate ends?
They don't have to be eloquent, although that would be nice. They don't have to have a John Diefenbaker "Northern Vision" or a Pierre Trudeau "Just Society," but they need something to raise the Ontario electorate out of its lethargy. A little passion would go a long away. (Petty arguments over job-creation statistics just don't cut it.)
Not least, why is there no humour in this election? Why are the leaders so determined to reinforce the popular perception of Ontario politics and politicians as the most boring in Canada? Which, frankly, they are. Did someone make it illegal to have fun in Ontario? Is excitement banned from Ontario politics?
Ontario in 2011 needs a Tommy Douglas, a John Crosbie, a Stephen Lewis or even a (young) Bill Davis instead of the "same old suits" as Horwath labelled McGuinty and Hudak.
So who won the debate? No one, really. McGuinty, who was on the defensive throughout, reminded me of a hyperactive kid with a peashooter as he fired off statistics that no one will remember. Tim Hudak gave the impression of auditioning for the role of opposition leader, not premier.
Andrea Horwath may not be quite ready for prime time, but if "winning" means exceeding expectations, then she "won." But, I ask again, is this the best Ontario can do?
Cambridge resident Geoffrey Stevens, an author and former Ottawa columnist and managing editor of the Globe and Mail, teaches political science at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph. He welcomes comments at geoffstevens@sympatico.ca
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Fracking may be behind BC earthquakes - Thursday, September 29, 2011: From CBC News
B. C.':;s energy regulator is investigating a cluster of earthquakes in a busy gas drilling area of the province, CBC News has learned.
Since 2009, more than 30 earthquakes have been registered in the Horn River area, a region that has also seen extensive drilling and a process called hydraulic fracturing used by companies extracting natural gas...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Environmentalists go to court to halt new Ontario nuclear reactors - Thursday, September 29, 2011: From waterkeeper,ca
Current Darlington facility on the shores of Lake Ontario.
Risks to Lake Ontario and surrounding communities unclear after flawed assessment
September 29, 2011 (TORONTO) ? Environmental groups have asked a federal court to stop government agencies from approving construction of new nuclear reactors at Darlington until an environmental assessment is fully completed and shows the project won’t negatively impact the environment or human health as required by law.
“The Fukushima nuclear disaster has been a global wake-up call on the risks posed by nuclear power, but here in Canada our authorities have pretended these risks don’t exist. In light of Fukushima, Canadian environmental protection laws must be respected before the next Ontario government can proceed with new reactors,” said Shawn-Patrick Stensil, a nuclear analyst with Greenpeace.
Lawyers with Ecojustice and the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA), on behalf of Greenpeace Canada, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, CELA, and Northwatch, filed an application for judicial review with the Federal Court of Canada. The application states that the federal environmental assessment (EA) of the new reactors is flawed for several reasons, including:
- it failed to examine a specific reactor or cooling water technology;
- it failed to consider the long-term environmental effects of radioactive waste; and
- it failed to look at alternatives to the project, such as green energy.
“The application alleges that the federal panel responsible for the assessment failed to gather the evidence required to evaluate the project’s need, alternatives, and likely environmental effects, contrary to the requirements of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act,” said CELA lawyer Richard Lindgren.
Following direction from the Ontario government in 2006, OPG submitted a proposal to build up to four new reactors at its Darlington site in Clarington, Ont. The Joint Review Panel issued its report on the proposal last month, saying no significant adverse environmental effects were likely. However, the panel did find numerous gaps in information and analysis that needed to be assessed before the project can advance.
“No shovel should enter the ground until every gap is filled and every step is taken to ensure the health and safety of Ontarians,” said John Swaigen, staff lawyer for Ecojustice. “This is the first time a new nuclear reactor in Can ada has been subject to modern environmental assessment laws and we want to ensure they do it right.”
“Lake Ontario is too precious to justify such an inadequate environmental review,” said Mark Mattson, President of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper. “Nine million people rely on the lake for their drinking water. Billions of fish, eggs, and larvae call its waters home. We feel a sense duty to protect them and a judicial review is an essential part of that protection.”
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Occupy Wall St. protests could spark a movement - Michael Moore - Thursday, September 29, 2011: Oscar-winning filmmaker, best-selling author,and provocateur laureate Michael Moore joins us for the hour. One of the world’s most acclaimed — and notorious — independent filmmakers and rabble-rousers, his documentary films include Roger and Me; Bowling for Columbine for which he won the Academy Award, Fahrenheit 9/11, SICKO; and Capitalism: A Love Story. In the first part of our interview, Moore talks about the growing "Occupy Wall Street" protests in Lower Manhattan, which he visited on Monday night. "This is literally an uprising of people who have had it," Moore says. "It has already started to spread across the country in other cities. It will continue to spread. ... It will be tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people ... Their work ahead is not as difficult as other movements in the past ... The majority of Americans are really upset at Wall Street ... So you have already got an army of Americans who are just waiting for somebody to do something, and something has started."
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Deaths from Colorado listeria cantalopes at 16, climbing - Thursday, September 29, 2011: From The Guardian
An outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe melons in the US may cause more illness and deaths in coming weeks, say health officials.
So far, the outbreak has caused at least 72 illnesses and up to 16 deaths, in 18 states, making it the deadliest food outbreak in the country in more than a decade...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Keystone XL could kill more US jobs than it creates - Wednesday, September 28, 2011: from Cornell Global Labor Institute
NEW YORK, Sept. 27 – The proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline could destroy more U.S. jobs than it creates, according to a new economic analysis from the Cornell University Global Labor Institute: Pipe Dreams? Jobs Gained, Jobs Lost by the Construction of Keystone XL. (PDF)
The proposed pipeline would transport tar sands oil along a nearly 2,000-mile route from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas. The U.S. State Department is reviewing the proposal and, along with President Obama, must determine if the project is in the national interest before issuing a decision.
“The jobs claims promoted by TransCanada Corp., the American Petroleum Institute and other proponents of the pipeline appear to be significantly inflated," said Sean Sweeney, director of the Cornell Global Labor Institute. "The United States should be highly skeptical of KXL as an important source of American jobs."...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Cdn ransom for diplomats rankles allies, destablized Nigerian politics - Tuesday, September 27, 2011: From ipolitics.ca
There is every indication now that Prime Minister Harper approved a ransom payment of several million dollars to the shadowy North African branch of Al Qaeda, the AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) to secure the release of two high-profile Canadians were kidnapped by the group..
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer How McChrystal and Petraeus built an indiscriminate "killing machine" - Tuesday, September 27, 2011: From truthout
Even if the rest of the US military effort in Afghanistan has been largely written off by the news media as a failure, the campaign of targeted raids against insurgents by commandoes under the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) has gotten a reputation for devastating effectiveness. As an Associated Press story in early September 2010 put it, the "mystique of elite, highly trained commandos swooping
down on an unsuspecting Taliban leader in the dead of night plays well back home...."
Central to this larger-than-life image of the Special Ops night raids in Afghanistan is the assumption that their targeting has been highly accurate....
Posted by: Staff How global investors make money out of hunger - Sunday, September 25, 2011:By Horand Knaup, Michaela Schiessl and Anne Seith for der Spiegel
In recent years, the financial markets have discovered the huge opportunities presented by agricultural commodities. The consequences are devastating, as speculators drive up food prices and plunge millions of people into poverty. But investors care little about the effects of their deals in the real world. ...
Posted by: Staff Women in Saudi Arabia get voting rights - Sunday, September 25, 2011:from Reuters
— Jeddah , September 25, 2011
Saudi Arabia will allow women to stand for election and vote, the king announced on Sunday, in a significant policy shift in the conservative Islamic kingdom. In a five-minute speech, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud said women will also take part in the next session of the unelected, advisory Shura Council, which vets legislation but has no binding powers.
"Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulama (clerics) and others... to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from the next term," he said in a speech delivered to the advisory body.
"Women will be able to run as candidates in the municipal election and will even have a right to vote." ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Protestors face penning, tasers in Wall Street occupation - Sunday, September 25, 2011: From Reader Supported News
24 September 11
Occupywallstreet.org is reporting at least 80 arrests during today's community march. While the live feeds were up I witnessed a very powerful arrest of a law student whose parents were recently evicted from their home. He dropped to his knees and gave an impassioned plea for the American people to wake up! There are reports of police kettling protesters with a big orange net, at least five maced, and police using tasers...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Libby Davies opts out of NDP leadership race - Friday, September 23, 2011: From The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — New Democratic Party deputy leader Libby Davies, described Wednesday as the "heart" of the party's left flank, has decided she won't be a candidate in the contest to replace Jack Layton.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer US House passes stopgap government funding bill - Friday, September 23, 2011: From Daily KOS
By a vote of 219-203, the House just voted to pass a temporary funding bill that will keep the federal government in operation through November 18. Twenty-four Republicans voted nay and six Democrats voted aye...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Assange autobiography describes a childhood on the run - Friday, September 23, 2011: From The Independent
In further exclusive extracts from his unauthorised autobiography, Assange describes a childhood on the run, his memories of school and his experience in Wandsworth prison...
Posted by: Staff Behind the Euro debt crisis lie more bank bail-outs - Thursday, September 22, 2011:by David McNally
...these cuts, known in the jargon as austerity measures, represent political crimes of equal if not greater magnitude to that burglary at the Watergate — though you would never know it by consulting the mainstream press, which long ago lost any inclination to follow the money.
But were journalists to heed Deep Throat's counsel, they would be forced to draw an inescapable conclusion: The multi-trillion dollar rescue of the banks that started in 2008 has not ended. It continues today under the guise of sovereign debt bailouts. And the cutbacks — to pensions, education, welfare, and public sector jobs — that wreak havoc on the lives of millions are all about funnelling public wealth to banks, pure and simple. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Search-and-rescue chopper picked up vacationing MacKay - Thursday, September 22, 2011: From CTV News
Defence Minister Peter MacKay used one of only three search-and-rescue helicopters available in Newfoundland to transport him from a vacation spot last year, CTV News has learned...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Megan Leslie out of NDP leadership - Wednesday, September 21, 2011: From ipolitics.ca
The race for the NDP narrowed Wednesday after NDP MP Megan Leslie said she has decided not to seek the top job. "I have decided it is not my time to run for #ndplr, despite incredible support & encouragement," she tweeted this morning. "Thank you all so much."...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer GA execution goes ahead today, appeal quashed - Wednesday, September 21, 2011: From Democracy Now
Shortly before our broadcast ended, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles announced it rejected clemency for Troy Anthony Davis. The Board has the sole authority to stay the execution under Georgia state law. Davis is now set to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Davis was convicted for the 1989 killing of an off-duty white police officer. Since then, seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted their testimony, and there is no physical evidence tying Davis to the crime scene. Amnesty International, the NAACP and numerous other groups have called for clemency. Former FBI Director William Sessions is among those calling for a closer examination of whether Davis is guilty, joining a list that includes Pope Benedict XVI, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu. We speak with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, who has been a vocal supporter of the campaign to spare Davis's life. We also speak with Mary Schmid Mergler, senior counsel for the Constitution Project's Criminal Justice Program, who assembled statements from a former Georgia Supreme Court justice, congressman and prosecutors, as well as a former Texas governor, who urged the Supreme Court, and now the Georgia pardons board, to halt Davis's execution and commute his death sentence to life in prison...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Omnibus bill could bankrupt Canada - Tuesday, September 20, 2011: Joint Statement re: Omnibus Bill - John Howard Society of Canada and Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies - September 20, 2011 (Ottawa) - Many Canadians are extremely concerned about the potential costs of the proposed Omnibus crime bill. As many in the United States are working to undo the fiscal and social devastation of so-called American style criminal and social justice approaches of longer sentences, the government plans to introduce new laws that will cost us tens of billions of dollars.
The government's Parliamentary Budget office projected the increase costs related to just one of bills would be more than five billion dollars - more than doubling current expenditures for the corrections system alone. Furthermore, he revealed that the provinces and territories would have to contribute the largest proportion of the increase.
Most people in jail are considered non-violent, by police and correctional authorities. In order to prevent more men, women, and especially children, from being marginalized, victimized, criminalized and imprisoned, Canadians are telling us and politicians that they would rather see their hard-earned tax dollars spent on public housing, child care, pensions, health care, mental health services, public education, victims and other social services.
Most of these services, as well as many policing and prison services are the responsibility of provincial and territorial governments. As such, we do not believe the federal government should be permitted to enact their proposed Omnibus Bill until the provinces, territories and the federal government:
1) have a clear understanding of the price tag attached to each proposed legislative or policy reform that is disclosed to the public; and
2) can assure Parliament that the expected increase in costs can be accommodated without exceeding 100% capacity of the correctional facilities and without increasing our current deficit.
Posted by: Staff HuffPo solicits 13-year-old bloggers for new local media sites - Monday, September 19, 2011:from Simon Dumenco
You need to read this Forbes.com post if you haven't already: "Huffpo and Patch Recruiting Bloggers as Young as 13." It perhaps fell under the radar a bit because of when it was published — Friday afternoon during the lunch hour for many North American readers — so I'm calling attention to it here.
In it, Forbes reporter/blogger Jeff Bercovici notes that AOL's Huffington Post Media Group (HPMG) is prepping the launch of a vertical called HuffPost High School, which will be edited by a (paid) 17-year-old staffer, but which will apparently solicit unpaid blog contributions from teenagers.
That may not bother you so much — maybe some teen journalists can get some class credit or something out of blogging for HuffPo — but Bercovici goes on to report that Patch, AOL's massive (and highly risky) experiment in creating more than 800 hyperlocal news sites across the country, will also be soliciting unpaid contributions from young'uns.
How young? Bercovici posed the question to a Patch spokeswoman, who responded: "Patch is not geared toward users under 13." She basically suggested that AOL is engaging in an act of generosity: "We'll be expanding our sharing platform to teens" is how she put it to Bercovici.
This, of course, is a semantic feint: AOL refers to unpaid bloggers as "users" because they're using its "sharing platform." Don't you see? AOL is just sharin' and carin'! ...
But make no mistake: HuffPo High may or may not prove to be a traffic juggernaut, but Patch is already a massive undertaking that was specifically designed to steal readers -- and page views and revenues -- from local newspapers
Posted by: Staff Alec Baldwin walks out of Emmys after Fox removes Rupert Murdoch joke - Monday, September 19, 2011:by Grady Smith
Sept 18 — Alec Baldwin has pulled out of tonight's Emmy telecast after a joke about News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch was cut from a segment that he had recorded to open the broadcast. EW has confirmed the story, originally reported by Deadline.
On Thursday, Baldwin had tweeted, "I did a short Emmy pretape a few days ago. Now they tell me NewsCorp may cut the funniest line."...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Obama gains ground in polling on jobs speech - Friday, September 16, 2011: From Ipsos
...Key findings include:
President Obama received a small bump in approval ratings after his recent jobs speech according to the recently released Rueters-Ipsos poll conducted Sept 8-12, 2011. His approval rating climbed two points to 47% approve after hitting to 45% in August. His rally is most pronounced among Democrats, where his approval climbed from 71% in August to 77% in September.
However, Obama’s advantage vis-à-vis several of the potential Republican challengers has faded since May. The closest competitor is Mitt Romney, currently at a 6 point deficit among registered voters (49% Obama, 43% Romney). The other Republican challengers continue to have larger margins to surmount (all among registered voters).
Ron Paul is down 7 points (49 Obama to 42) Rick Perry is down 8 points (50 to 42) Huntsman is down 14 points (51 to 37) Michelle Bachmann is down 18 points (54 to 36) ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Blowback in Somalia: misguided US policy created playground for Islamic militants - Friday, September 16, 2011: From The Nation
The notorious Somali paramilitary warlord who goes by the nom de guerre Indha Adde, or White Eyes, walks alongside trenches on the outskirts of Mogadishu's Bakara Market once occupied by fighters from the Shabab, the Islamic militant group that has pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda. In one of the trenches, the foot of a corpse pokes out from a makeshift grave consisting of some sand dumped loosely over the body. One of Indha Adde's militiamen says the body is that of a foreigner who fought alongside the Shabab. '"We bury their dead, and we also capture them alive,'" says Indha Adde in a low, raspy voice. '"We take care of them if they are Somali, but if we capture a foreigner we execute them so that others will see we have no mercy.'"...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Members of US debt panel have ties to lobbyists - Thursday, September 15, 2011: From The Washington Post via Pro Publica
Like many federal contractors, General Electric has a lot riding on the work of a new congressional “supercommittee” that will help decide whether to impose massive cuts in defense and health-care spending.
But the Connecticut-based conglomerate also has a potential advantage: A number of its lobbyists used to work for members of the committee and will be able to lobby their former employers to limit the effect of any reductions in the weeks ahead...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer US banks took $6b in reinsurance kickbacks - investigators - Thursday, September 15, 2011: From American Banker
Many of the country's largest banks received $6 billion in kickbacks from mortgage insurers over the course of a decade, according to a previously undisclosed investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Contracting out costs more than govt workers - study - Wednesday, September 14, 2011: From The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Despite a widespread belief that contracting out services to the private sector saves the federal government money, a new study suggests just the opposite — that the government actually pays more when it farms out work...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Tea Party campaign mngr dies for lack of hospital insurance - Wednesday, September 14, 2011: From National Nurses United
The nation'slargest representative of registered nurses today expressed revulsion at the cheering by some audience members in the CNN-Tea Party Republican debate Monday night at the prospect of letting a sick person die just because they do not have health insurance...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Outrageous contagion theories of Michelle Bachman make Rick Perry look moderate - Wednesday, September 14, 2011: From The New Yorker
...Last night, carrying the mantle of fear and ignorance that are hallmarks of anti-vaccine activists, Bachmann denounced Texas Governor Rick Perry for mandating vaccines for schoolgirls, starting in the sixth grade, against the human papillomavirus...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Germany crafts its nuclear power exit strategy - Monday, September 12, 2011: From truthout
One surprising development this summer is the international vogue for shutting down nuclear plants. Germany led the way in the spring — startling even its own industry leaders — after the disaster at Fukushima. Since then Switzerland, Italy, Taiwan, and Japan have either started serious debates or actively resolved to forego nuclear power in the next decade or two...
Posted by: Staff Skateboarders take over downtown Toronto - Monday, September 12, 2011:
Several hundred longboarders surprised drivers, and police, when they took over downtown streets Saturday.
Decked in white dress shirts and ties — "because it's a board meeting," skateboarder Dan Slater quipped — they held up traffic as they zipped through stop lights, riding from Yonge St and St Clair Ave to Bellevue Square in Kensington Market.
Pedestrians stopped to take pictures and several drivers honked in support of the event.
A dozen police officers on bicycles followed the group to "keep the peace and make sure everyone's safe," said Staff Sgt. Andy Norrie, adding that skateboarding on roads is "technically illegal."
The organizers didn't apply for a permit or give police any notice. "At this point, we're not in a position to arrest hundreds of people," Norrie said. ...
Posted by: Staff Canadian reflections on a decade of human rights and counter-terrorism - Saturday, September 10, 2011:By Alex Neve
It is a somber anniversary. Ten years ago nearly 3000 people from 90 countries were killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks — on the four planes, in the Twin Towers, at the Pentagon and in the rescue effort.
In the ten years since, thousands more have been killed in terrorist attacks from London to Mumbai, Bali to Moscow. It has also been ten years of many thousands of people killed and untold hundreds of billions of dollars expended on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; and on financing the massive counter-terrorism programs that have been brought on line in countries around the world, including Canada.
And it is ten years during which a disturbing lexicon and geography of human rights abuse has insidiously shaped world affairs: extraordinary rendition, black-hole sites, Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Baghram, enhanced interrogation, stress and duress, waterboarding, unlawful enemy combatants, and no-fly lists. The list grows long — words and phrases that have in many instances simply become euphemisms for torture and abuse. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer IMF and World Bank created African famine - Friday, September 09, 2011: From Alternet
Lending policies pushed by the World Bank and IMF transformed a self-sufficient, food-producing Africa into a continent vulnerable to food emergencies and famine...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Japanese monks encourage sunflower growth to absorb radiation - Thursday, September 08, 2011: From Good News Network
To combat excessive radiation levels in the agricultural regions surrounding the Fukashima nuclear plant, monks at a Japanese Buddhist temple began growing and distributing sunflowers, which are known to absorb radiation.,,
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Documents prove public servants received "Harper Government"direcfive - Thursday, September 08, 2011: From Canadian Press
OTTAWA - Despite Conservative assertions to the contrary, a directive did go out to some civil servants last fall ordering them to use the term "Harper Government" in official government of Canada communications...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Colombia gold rush provides silver lining for paramilitaries and guerrillas - Thursday, September 08, 2011: From the Council on Hemispheric Affairs
With gold prices soaring to around USD 1,600 per ounce, Colombia has made a concerted effort to stimulate foreign investment in its mining sector. As a result, the Colombian government has favored multinational mining companies over small to medium scale local miners. While this new gold rush represents a significant source of investment and finance for the federal government, it also helps fund Colombia’s four-decade long civil war. After years of government-sponsored eradication, paramilitary and guerrilla armies have begun to abandon coca production and are turning to gold mining, as well as the extortion of mining communities, to generate significant sources of revenue. Moreover, as a result of governmental favoritism, multinational mining corporations utilize national military forces and paramilitaries to harass native populations, local miners, and unionized workers in an effort to force them from their gold-laden lands....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Oil exploration under Arctic ice could cause 'uncontrollable' natural disaster - Tuesday, September 06, 2011: From The Independent
Any serious oil spill in the ice of the Arctic, the "new frontier" for oil exploration, is likely to be an uncontrollable environmental disaster despoiling vast areas of the world's most untouched ecosystem, one of the world's leading polar scientists has told The Independent...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Pressure on NDP contenders to stay out of leadership process debate - Tuesday, September 06, 2011: From The Hill Times
PARLIAMENT HILL—Pressure from NDP Mps mounted Thursday for NDP president and prospective leadership contender Brian Topp to recuse himself from key party deliberations and decisions over the terms and timing of a party leadership convention that until now was expected to take place as soon as next January...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Hampton brought NDP back to relevance in ON - Blizzard - Tuesday, September 06, 2011: From The Toronto Sun
Around here’s he’s just known as Howie.
When Howard Hampton quietly announced last month that he wouldn’t be running in the Oct. 6 election, it caused surprisingly few ripples in the Queen’s Park political pond...
Posted by: Staff Few charities can get food into Somalia: MSF - Monday, September 05, 2011:by Tracy McVeigh for The Guardian
The head of an international medical charity has called on aid agencies to stop presenting a misleading picture of the famine in Somalia and admit that helping the worst-affected people is almost impossible.
The international president of Médecins Sans Frontiêres (MSF), Dr Unni Karunakara, returned from Somalia last week and said that, even though there was chronic malnutrition and drought across east Africa, hardly any agencies were able to work inside war-torn Somalia, where the picture was "profoundly distressing". He condemned other organisations and the media for "glossing over" the reality in order to convince people that simply giving money for food was the answer. ...
Posted by: Staff Arizona charges first-time prison visitors $25 fee - Monday, September 05, 2011:By ERICA GOODE for the New York Times
For the Arizona Department of Corrections, crime has finally started to pay.
New legislation allows the department to impose a $25 fee on adults who wish to visit inmates at any of the 15 prison complexes that house state prisoners. The one-time "background check fee" for visitors, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, has angered prisoner advocacy groups and family members of inmates, who in many cases already shoulder the expense of traveling long distances to the remote areas where many prisons are located. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Canucks now pity Yanks - poll - Saturday, September 03, 2011: From The Globe and Mail
When Canadians look at their American neighbours, they no longer gaze with envy at a powerful greenback, a low unemployment rate or deep pools of capital sloshing around an entrepreneurial paradise...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Naomi Klein arrested in DC tar sands protest - Saturday, September 03, 2011: From The Toronto Star
WASHINGTON—More than 1,000 people have been busted at the gates of the White House the past two weeks, as the most ambitious of climate protests against Canadian oil comes to a head.
Toronto author and activist Naomi Klein was not planning to be among them...
Posted by: Staff US government to sue major banks over mortgage securities - Friday, September 02, 2011:by Justin Sullivan for AFP
The United States plans to file lawsuits against more than a dozen big banks over mortgage-backed securities seen to have fueled the 2008 economic crisis, the New York Times said.
The lawsuits are set to be filed Friday or early next week against Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and others, the newspaper reported, citing three unnamed individuals briefed on the matter.
The lawsuits will accuse the banks of bundling toxic mortgages — held by borrowers with inflated or falsified incomes — as securities and marketing them to investors. ...
Posted by: Staff 16 percent of US youth unemployed - Friday, September 02, 2011:from Our Time
WASHINGTON, DC — Today at 8:30 am (ET), the US Department of Labor released its monthly jobs report for August 2011 showing American workers 18-24 face a 16.4 percent unemployment rate. This marks at least the sixth straight month of youth joblessness exceeding 16 percent while millions more remain underemployed or in "generational limbo," according to the New York Times.
"Today's unemployment numbers for American workers under the age of 30 is yet again the highest of any age demographic in America and is approximately double the average for Americans over 30," said Matthew Segal, co-founder and president of OUR TIME, a national non-profit organization that stands up for Americans under 30. "This staggering statistic exposes our nation’s ongoing neglect of young workers who also face the deepest student loan debt in history." ...
Posted by: Staff Lord of the Ward: Conrad Black talks to Vanity Fair - Wednesday, August 31, 2011:from Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair Exclusive: Conrad Black blames Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. for his legal woes
"The myth is that the price war put so much pressure on our profits that I was forced to steal money to maintain my opulent lifestyle," Conrad Black tells Vanity Fair’s Bryan Burrough. "It's part of the whole News Corp. mythmaking apparatus," he explains. "It was Rupert, you know. He originated that one. He certainly parroted it. Rupert always says reasonably nice things about me, but then he throws in something like that for effect. I don't really blame Rupert. He's not a non-friend. Rupert is just Darwinian."
Black opens up to Burrough about every aspect of his experience in jail at Coleman Federal Correction Complex where he served for over two years and where he is likely to return this fall. "I'm not embarrassed in the least bit I was in prison — not the slightest," he says. "There's nothing to be embarrassed about. You can't talk to Martha Stewart about it, or Alfred Taubman. They didn't see it as I did, as a nightmarish change in careers. I see it as a temporary vocation." ...
Posted by: Staff 25 top CEOs earned more than their corporations paid in taxes - Wednesday, August 31, 2011:from the Institute for Policy Studies
WASHINGTON - August 31 - Of last year's 100 highest-paid US corporate chief executives, 25 took home more in CEO pay than their company paid in 2010 federal corporate income taxes, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies.
Executive Excess 2011: The Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging, the Institute's 18th annual compensation report, details "the pernicious impact of hundreds of millions of dollars spent lobbying for corporate tax loopholes and shifting profits to offshore tax havens," says report co-author Chuck Collins.
"Instead of sharing responsibility for addressing our nation's fiscal challenges,” notes Collins, a senior scholar at IPS. "Corporations are rewarding CEOs for aggressive tax avoidance." ...
Posted by: Staff Avaaz petitions Obama to stop Keystone XL pipeline - Tuesday, August 30, 2011:from Avaaz.org
Canada mines deadly oil that creates toxic sludge lakes and destroys forests in Alberta — and Harper needs Obama's help to sell it. Our own government is captured by powerful oil interests, but Obama is wavering on building a new cross-border pipeline. If enough Canadians ask him to protect the world from our deadly oil, we could tip the balance away from pollution. ...
The petition:
To US President Barack Obama:
As concerned Canadians, we urge you to deny the application to build the Keystone XL pipeline that would pump millions of barrels of deadly tar sands oil to Texas from Alberta. Prime Minister Harper won't act to protect Canada or the world but you can. By denying this application you will save thousands of acres of pristine forest, precious water resources and directly prevent the emission of climate killing greenhouse gasses. ...
Posted by: Staff New US rule: bosses must inform workers of right to organize - Tuesday, August 30, 2011:from In These Times
Today, August 30, a rule will be published in the federal register that mandates that almost all private employers must post a notice informing employees of their rights to organize under the National Labor Relations Act.
The decision, announced last week by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), applies to companies whether or not they have federal contracts. Currently, under an executive order signed by President Obama in January 2009, federal contractors are required to post an 11x17 inch notice outlining workers' rights to:
"Self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations; to bargain collectively; to engage in other concerted activities; and to refrain from such activities." ...
Posted by: Staff Top US climate scientist arrested at tarsands protest - Tuesday, August 30, 2011:from Commondreams.org
The foremost US expert on climate change was arrested outside the White House for protesting against Canada's Keystone tar sands pipeline. Dr James Hansen, who runs NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, became one of over 520 activists arrested. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer We're not in Lake Wobegon anymore - Garrison Keillor - Tuesday, August 30, 2011: From Reader-Supported News
By Garrison Keillor
Something has gone seriously haywire with the Republican Party. Once, it was the party of pragmatic Main Street businessmen in steel-rimmed spectacles who decried profligacy and waste, were devoted to their communities and supported the sort of prosperity that raises all ships. They were good-hearted people who vanquished the gnarlier elements of their party, the paranoid Roosevelt-haters, the flat Earthers and Prohibitionists, the antipapist antiforeigner element...
Posted by: Staff Ten reasons to move Dick Cheney's book to the crime section - Monday, August 29, 2011:by Medea Benjamin
Former Vice President Dick Cheney was given a multi-million contract to write a book about his political career. According to Cheney's media hype, the book, called In My Time, will have "heads exploding all over Washington." The Darth Vader of the Bush administration offers no apologies and feels no remorse. But peace activists around the country are stealthily gearing up to visit bookstores, grab a stack of books, and deposit them where they belong — the Crime Section.
Here are ten of Cheney's many offenses to inspire you to move Cheney’s book, and to insert these bookmarks explaining why the author of In My Time should be "doin' time."
1. Cheney lied; Iraqis and US soldiers died. As Vice President, Cheney lied about (nonexistent) weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein's (nonexistent) ties to the 9/11 attack as a way to justify a war with a country that never attacked us. Thanks to Cheney and company, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and over 4,000 American soldiers perished in a war that should never have been fought.
2. Committing War Crimes in Iraq. During the course of the Iraq war, the Bush/Cheney administration violated the Geneva Conventions by targeting civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, and using illegal weapons, including white phosphorous, depleted uranium, and a new type of napalm.
3. War profiteering. US taxpayers shelled out about three trillion dollars for the Bush/Cheney wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — a major factor in our nation's present economic meltdown. But Cheney and his cronies at Halliburton made out like bandits, getting billions in contracts for everything from feeding troops in Iraq to constructing the US Embassy in Afghanistan to building the infamous Guantanamo prison.
Cheney was CEO of Halliburton from 1995-2000, leaving for the VP position with a $20 million retirement package, plus millions in stock options and deferred salary. Before the Iraq War began, Halliburton was 19th on the US Army's list of top contractors; with Cheney's help, by 2003 it was number one — increasing the value of Cheney's stocks by over 3,000 percent. ...
Posted by: Staff Why liberals are more intelligent than conservatives: Psychology Today - Monday, August 29, 2011:by Satoshi Kanazawa
It is difficult to define a whole school of political ideology precisely, but one may reasonably define liberalism (as opposed to conservatism) in the contemporary United States as the genuine concern for the welfare of genetically unrelated others and the willingness to contribute larger proportions of private resources for the welfare of such others. In the modern political and economic context, this willingness usually translates into paying higher proportions of individual incomes in taxes toward the government and its social welfare programs. Liberals usually support such social welfare programs and higher taxes to finance them, and conservatives usually oppose them. ...
Posted by: Staff Stephen King launches leftwing radio talkshow - Sunday, August 28, 2011:by Alison Flood for The Guardian
Stephen King is hoping to "make some people a little bit angry" with a new, left-leaning morning talk show which will offer a counterbalance to the proliferation of conservative American radio hosts.
"We're a little to the left, but we're right," the bestselling horror author said at a rare press conference announcing the new show. To be hosted by Pat LaMarche, a Green party vice-presidential candidate in 2004, and former reporter Don Cookson, The Pulse Morning Show will air on the King-owned radio stations WZON 103.1 FM and 620 AM from 12 September on weekday mornings and online at zoneradio.com. ..
Posted by: Staff Funding Islamophobia: 7 foundations, $42 million US - Sunday, August 28, 2011:from the Center for American Progress
This in-depth investigation conducted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund reveals not a vast right-wing conspiracy behind the rise of Islamophobia in our nation but rather a small, tightly networked group of misinformation experts guiding an effort that reaches millions of Americans through effective advocates, media partners, and grassroots organizing. This spreading of hate and misinformation primarily starts with five key people and their organizations, which are sustained by funding from a clutch of key foundations.
The funding
More than $40 million flowed from seven foundations over 10 years.
The foundations funding the misinformation experts: Donors Capital Fund; Richard Mellon Scaife Foundation; Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation; Newton and Rochelle Becker Foundation and Newton and Rochelle Becker Charitable Trust; Russell Berrie Foundation, Anchorage Charitable Fund and William Rosenwald Family Fund; Fairbrook Foundation.
The misinformation experts
Five experts generate the false facts and materials used by political leaders, grassroots groups, and the media:
Frank Gaffney at the Center for Security Policy
David Yerushalmi at the Society of Americans for National Existence
Daniel Pipes at the Middle East Forum
Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch and Stop Islamization of America
Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism
These experts travel the country and work with or testify before state legislatures calling for a ban on the nonexisting threat of Sharia law in America and proclaiming that the vast majority of mosques in our country harbor Islamist terrorists or sympathizers.
• David Yerushalmi's "model legislation" banning Sharia law has been cut and pasted into bills in South Carolina, Texas, and Alaska. His video on how to draft an anti-Sharia bill and his online tools have been picked up nationwide. ...
Posted by: Staff Lithium-ion batteries and the stealth US manufacturing strategy - Sunday, August 28, 2011:By Jon Gertner for The New York Times Magazine
You can drive almost anywhere in the state of Michigan — pick a point at random and start moving — and you will soon come upon the wreckage of American industry. If you happen to be driving on the outer edge of Midland, you'll also come upon a cavern of steel beams and ductwork, 400,000 square feet in all.
When this plant, which is being constructed by Dow Kokam, a new venture partly owned by Dow Chemical, is up and running early next year, it will produce hundreds of thousands of advanced lithium-ion battery cells for hybrid and electric cars. Just as important, it will provide about 350 jobs in a state with one of the nation's highest unemployment rates.
Over the last two years, the federal government has doled out nearly $2.5 billion in stimulus dollars to roughly 30 companies involved in advanced battery technology. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer US rural backlash against Republicans developing - Saturday, August 27, 2011: From The Nation
Democrats looking to Washington during the long, hot summer for signs of their party’s renewal got little in the way of relief. President Obama’s approval ratings tanked after he compromised away historic Democratic positions in the debt-ceiling fight. The party’s Congressional leaders, who in the spring had seemed prepared to fight off Republican attempts to erode Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, sent so many mixed signals that it was difficult to tell whether the party wanted to fight austerity or embrace it.
Yet beyond the Beltway, a different story has been unfolding. And it holds out promise for a party that needs not just hope but a coherent strategy for the 2012 election season. Dramatic overreach by newly elected Republican governors, who sought to curtail labor rights, undermine local democracy and slash spending for education and local services, has provoked a backlash that draws stark ideological and political lines on fundamental economic questions. And that is winning substantial Democratic victories in unexpected territory, including rural areas where the party suffered its greatest setbacks in 2010...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Iraq mistakes being repeated in Libya - Robert Fisk - Friday, August 26, 2011: Doomed always to fight the last war, we are recommitting the same old sin in Libya....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Site helps ON college students calculate how "screwed" they are by debt - Friday, August 26, 2011: Support staff send message to public in preparation for strike.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Arab awakening will require patience and support - Thursday, August 25, 2011:The Nation
When Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in rural Tunisia on December 17, 2010, he set in motion a dynamic that goes far beyond the overthrow of individual dictators. We are witnessing nothing less than the awakening, throughout the Arab world, of several phenomena that are critical for stable statehood: the citizen, the citizenry, legitimacy of authority, a commitment to social justice, genuine politics, national self-determination and, ultimately, true sovereignty.
It took hundreds of years for the United States and Western Europe to develop governance and civil society systems that affirmed those principles, even if incompletely or erratically, so we should be realistic in our expectations of how long it will take Arab societies to do so...
Posted by: Staff TD warns of Canadian recession - Wednesday, August 24, 2011:The Canadian Press (CBC News)
A major Canadian bank says the economy ground to a halt in the second quarter and could slip into recession if the United States continues to weaken.
In a report Wednesday, TD Bank estimated zero growth for Canada in the second quarter which ended June 30. The bank also said there's a reasonable chance the economy actually shrank in the spring quarter...
Posted by: Michael Cowley-Owen Olivia Chow, NDP MPs greet Layton mourners - Wednesday, August 24, 2011:by Laura Payton and Meagan Fitzpatrick, CBC News
Jack Layton's wife, Olivia Chow, stood by his casket for hours Wednesday, comforting friends and fellow members of the New Democratic Party who passed by to mourn the late NDP leader.
Once Canadian dignitaries, cabinet ministers, MPs, diplomats and top NDP staff had made their way through the House of Commons foyer, Chow went outside to acknowledge some of the crowd of hundreds who were lined up to say goodbye to a man many had likely never met.
NDP MPs positioned themselves throughout the public line, which snaked over to the next building and around it, thanking people for coming and chatting with them. Toronto MP Andrew Cash and Timmins MP Charlie Angus were among them...
Posted by: Staff Margot Kidder and Tantoo Cardinal arrested at tar sands protest - Tuesday, August 23, 2011:from Tar Sands Action
WASHINGTON - August 23 - The iconic Canadian actors Margot Kidder and Tantoo Cardinal were arrested this morning at 11:30 AM in Washington, DC as part of an ongoing sit-in at the White House to pressure President Obama to deny the permit for a massive new tar sands oil pipeline.
"I can't think of a more important place to be," said Kidder, who is best known for her role as Lois Lane in four of the original Superman movies. "President Obama has the chance here to do the right thing and stop this pipeline. I’m here to help make sure he does it."
"It's an honor to be here with so many people from across the US," said Tantoo Cardinal, the iconic indigenous actor best known for her roles in Legends of the Fall, Dances with Wolves, and Smoke Signals. Cardinal was born in the capitol of the tar sands, Ft. McMurray, Alberta. "This is about protecting our land, our water, and our climate. The tar sands destruction has to stop."
Cardinal and Kidder gathered with a crowd of over 150 people in Lafeyette Square park this morning to hear from environmental author, Bill McKibben, who is spearheading the protests. In an effort to "deter future participants," the DC Park Police had held McKibben and 55 other participants from last Saturday's demonstration in jail for two nights before dropping all charges and releasing them on Monday afternoon. Sunday and Monday's protestors were released after being arrested, taken to a Park Police station, and paying $100 fine for "disobeying a police order."
"When we were in jail, the only thing we wanted was more company," said McKibben to a cheering crowd this morning. "Your work has helped make this the most important environmental question President Obama has to make before the 2012 election. And we'll be here every day this week and next to make sure he makes the right call."
Tomorrow, a group of 20 Gulf Coast residents will join the White House protest to try and prevent another BP style disaster in America's heartland, over one of the country's largest sources of fresh drinking water.
President Obama will decide later this year on TransCanada's permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which will send 900,000 barrels a day of the world's dirtiest oil to US refineries, allowing further development of the Alberta tar sands. The pipeline would pass through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Mining oil from tar sands creates three times more carbon emissions than conventional oil extraction. ###
Tar Sands Action is a program of Peaceful Uprising, which is a project of International Humanities Center a 501(c)(3) charitable trust.
Posted by: Staff US tax crackdown hits Canadian residents - Tuesday, August 23, 2011:by Roma Luciw
A tax crackdown by the United States has sent more than one million Americans and green-card holders living in Canada scrambling to figure out how to comply.
The move is part of a push by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to make sure US taxpayers are paying what they owe on foreign accounts. Unlike most countries, the US requires its citizens to file annual tax returns based on their worldwide income, regardless of where they live. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Love is better than anger - Jack Layton's farewell letter to Canadians - Monday, August 22, 2011: Jack Layton, MP, Député Toronto – Danforth Leader of the Official Opposition/Chef de l'Opposition officielle Leader, New Democratic Party/Chef, Nouveau Parti démocratique August 20, 2011 Toronto, Ontario
Dear Friends, Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.
Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.
I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected.
I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election.
A few additional thoughts: To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don't be discouraged that my own journey hasn't gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.
To the members of my party: we've done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let's continue to move forward. Let's demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government.
To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election.
To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada's Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all.
To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.
And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one - a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world's environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don't let them tell you it can't be done.
My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.
All my very best, Jack Layton
Posted by: Staff Obama, allies demand resignation of Syria's Assad - Thursday, August 18, 2011:CBC News
US President Barack Obama on Thursday issued his first direct call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.
Obama said Assad must go "for the sake of the Syrian people."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper echoed Obama's demand that the Syrian leader must leave power immediately. European leaders also issued similar calls.
"The Assad regime has lost all legitimacy by killing its own people to stay in power," Harper said in a written statement...
North American markets closed sharply down Thursday, mired in worries about a possible US recession and the health of European banks.
Canada's benchmark S&P/TSX composite index finished down 392.90 points, or 3.12 percent, at 12,186.71. The Dow Jones industrial average in New York traded down 419.63 points, or 3.68 percent, to 10,990.58. Earlier, it was down as much as 530 points. The Nasdaq composite fell 131.05 points, or 5.22 percent, to 2,380.43 and the S&P 500 was lower by 53.24 points, or 4.46 percent, to 1,140.65...
Posted by: Staff Slain caregiver unaware of danger, family says - Thursday, August 18, 2011:CBC News
Alberta mental health worker Valerie Wolski never would have agreed to care for the mentally disabled man later accused of killing her if she had known how dangerous he was, her family said in an exclusive interview with CBC News.
Terrence Saddleback, 26, was charged with manslaughter in the Feb. 12, 2011, strangulation of Wolski, 41, a worker with the Canadian Mental Health Association in Camrose, AB In March, he was found unfit to stand trial...
Some drugs used to treat cancer, infections and other ailments in hospitals could be in short supply, Health Canada says.
Health Canada sent letters to chiefs of medical staff, dated Wednesday, to notify them of a potential shortage of drugs produced by Ben Venue Laboratories of Bedford, Ohio, which the department calls a large contract manufacturer of "injectable and inhalational sterile drug products." ...
Posted by: Staff "New" Iraq a nightmare for women, minority groups - Wednesday, August 17, 2011:by Denis Foynes, for InterPress Service
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 9 (IPS) - A United Nations report on Iraq says the human rights situation there remains fragile, and huge development challenges loom as the country transitions out of a near decade-long conflict. Torture and poor judicial practices are widespread, says the report, released Monday by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
The report claims the 2,953 civilian deaths it attributed to violence in 2010 were mostly carried out by insurgent and terrorist groups. It stressed that minorities, women and children suffered disproportionately from these abuses. While there have been improvements in some areas of human rights, many challenges remain and some areas were actually worse off in 2010 than previous war-torn years.
"Particularly women's rights levels and standards have gone down. They suffer from widespread violence, especially from domestic violence," Rupert Colville, the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told IPS. "There is little legislation to prevent this from occurring and the criminal code in Iraq almost encourages these crimes. There needs to be laws in the region against domestic violence," Colville said. ...
Posted by: Staff Wisconsin voters recall two more Republicans - Wednesday, August 17, 2011:by John Nichols for The Nation
Wisconsin Democrats have won the last two of nine state Senate recall elections held over the course of the summer, meaning that the opponents of Governor Scott Walker's attacks on collective-bargaining rights have prevailed in the majority of recall elections and claimed the majority of votes cast in what many saw as a statewide referendum on Walker's policies.
Democratic state Senator Bob Wirch of Kenosha won his southeastern Wisconsin district with 58 percent of the vote Tuesday, while Democratic Senator Jim Holperin won his northern Wisconsin district with 55 percent.
Holperin won by a significantly wider margin than he gained in his 2008 campaign, while Wirch more than doubled the margin he won in his last closely contested race — a 2004 match-up with Reince Priebus, who went on to become chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Their wins come on the heels of victories last week by two Democratic challengers to Republican senators who faced recall votes.
That means that Democrat have narrowed the Republican advantage in the Wisconsin Senate to a razor-thin 17-16 split, which puts a moderate Republican senator who opposed Walker's assault on collective-bargaining rights in a position to work with Democrats to temper the extremes of the governor and his allies. ...
Posted by: Staff Naomi Klein: the other looting of UK wealth - Wednesday, August 17, 2011: by Naomi Klein for The Nation
I keep hearing comparisons between the London riots and riots in other European cities — window smashing in Athens or car bonfires in Paris. And there are parallels, to be sure: a spark set by police violence, a generation that feels forgotten.
But those events were marked by mass destruction; the looting was minor. There have, however, been other mass lootings in recent years, and perhaps we should talk about them too. There was Baghdad in the aftermath of the US invasion — a frenzy of arson and looting that emptied libraries and museums. The factories got hit too. In 2004 I visited one that used to make refrigerators. Its workers had stripped it of everything valuable, then torched it so thoroughly that the warehouse was a sculpture of buckled sheet metal.
Back then the people on cable news thought looting was highly political. They said this is what happens when a regime has no legitimacy in the eyes of the people. After watching for so long as Saddam and his sons helped themselves to whatever and whomever they wanted, many regular Iraqis felt they had earned the right to take a few things for themselves. But London isn’t Baghdad, and British Prime Minister David Cameron is hardly Saddam, so surely there is nothing to learn there.
How about a democratic example then? Argentina, circa 2001. The economy was in freefall and thousands of people living in rough neighborhoods (which had been thriving manufacturing zones before the neoliberal era) stormed foreign-owned superstores. They came out pushing shopping carts overflowing with the goods they could no longer afford — clothes, electronics, meat. The government called a "state of siege" to restore order; the people didn't like that and overthrew the government.
Argentina's mass looting was called El Saqueo — the sacking. That was politically significant because it was the very same word used to describe what that country's elites had done by selling off the country's national assets in flagrantly corrupt privatization deals, hiding their money offshore, then passing on the bill to the people with a brutal austerity package. Argentines understood that the saqueo of the shopping centers would not have happened without the bigger saqueo of the country, and that the real gangsters were the ones in charge. ...
Posted by: Staff Toronto teacher re-elected to Executive of Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario - Tuesday, August 16, 2011: TORONTO, ON — Karen Brown, a Toronto teacher and vice-president of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto, was re-elected to the Executive of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) today.
Brown told over 800 members at the Federation's Annual Meeting that every ETFO member needed to be informed and engaged in the upcoming provincial election.
"The political landscape of education in Ontario is at a critical juncture and ETFO members must be ready to be leaders in advancing public education in Ontario," said Brown. "From crowded classrooms to increased paper work, lack of professional autonomy, and increased violence against teachers, it is time that teachers' working conditions improve."
Brown began her teaching career with the Toronto District School Board in 1993. Along with serving as vice-president of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto since 2003, Brown has served as grievance officer, benefits coordinator, strike team coordinator and member of the local’s negotiation team. Brown was also a member of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council Executive Board.
At the provincial level, Brown has served on the ETFO Executive since 2009. She has been a member of the Federation's Standing Committee Task Force, the Hardship Fund Task Force, the Grievance Arbitration Committee, and the Legal Assistance Committee, and has served as the Federation's OTIP (Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan) Director.
The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario represents 76,000 elementary public school teachers and education professionals across the province and is the largest teacher federation in Canada.
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Posted by: Staff Hudak's government would be like Harper's - Tuesday, August 16, 2011:BY GEOFFREY STEVENS (published Aug 15, 2011 in Waterloo Region Record and Guelph Mercury)
Labour Day is fast approaching, meaning the countdown to the Oct 6 Ontario provincial election is about to begin. This is as good a time as any to take a peek ahead.
After eight years in power, the Liberals, led by Premier Dalton McGuinty will be seeking a third term and, they hope, a third consecutive majority government — a feat not accomplished by any Ontario leader since Leslie Frost. (Bill Davis won four elections, but two of them produced minority governments.)
Don't expect any surprises from the Liberal campaign. McGuinty will run on his record, such as it is, but with a deficit in the $16 billion range and provincial debt that has almost doubled during his tenure, he won't be able to throw vast amounts of money at electors.
A year ago, I probably would have said the Liberals were doomed. The provincial economy had tanked. The government was mired in the eHealth scandal. The harmonized sales tax, introduced by McGuinty, was almost as unpopular in Ontario as in British Columbia, where the uproar cost former Premier Gordon Campbell his job and where 1.6 million people cast ballots this summer in a mail-in referendum to rescind the HST (the results are expected in the next 10 days).
A poll last September reported that 71 per cent of Ontarians thought the province was on the wrong track and 76 per cent wanted a change of government. As recently as May this year, McGuinty's approval rating was just 24 per cent.
Polls in a pre-writ period are notoriously unreliable indicators, but there seems to have been some improvement in Liberal fortunes of late. The Progressive Conservatives' lead over the Liberals may be shrinking; an Ipsos Reid poll last week asked Ontarians which leader would make the best premier — 38 per cent chose the Tories' Tim Hudak, 33 per cent McGuinty and 24 per cent for New Democrat Andrea Horwath. Not great numbers for the Liberals, but not as bad as they have been, or could be.
It may be that as the election approaches (and free of the distraction of the May 2 federal vote), Ontarians are looking beyond their unhappiness with the Liberal government and beginning to take the measure of the alternative. They see that Hudak is more of a Rob Ford/Mike Harris conservative than a Stephen Harper conservative. Harper may be no Red Tory, but the reality of power has caused him to moderate some of his right-wing positions. That hasn't happened yet with Hudak.
Hudak will go into the campaign with one big advantage. People are tired of "Premier Dad." Even some card-carrying Liberals think the charisma-deprived McGuinty has already gone to the well often enough; they would be content if his third trip produces a minority Liberal government with NDP support.
But Hudak also has a large potential disadvantage. Like Quebecers, Ontarians are most comfortable politically when they perform a balancing act with their federal and provincial governments — Liberals in Ottawa, Conservatives at Queen’s Park, and vice versa. Conservative Brian Mulroney became prime minister in 1984; the next year, the Conservatives were driven out of Queen's Park, replaced by David Peterson's Liberals, then by Bob Rae's New Democrats. Liberal Jean Chrétien won the federal election of 1993. In next Ontario election, in 1995, Harris and the Conservatives recaptured Queen's Park.
Do Ontario voters really want or need two Harper governments — the real one in Ottawa and a mini-clone of even deeper blue at Queen’s Park?
Some of Hudak's policies make little sense, but he will presumably sort them out as the campaign gets going after Labour Day.
On law and order issues, Hudak seems bent on one-upping Harper. The prime minister just wants to build more prisons. He hasn't embraced the full Hudak: Alabama-style chain gangs with prisoners from provincial institutions, supervised by armed guards, picking up trash along the highways, cleaning off graffiti, shovelling snow, and so on.
Or perhaps Harper simply hasn't thought of chain gangs yet.
Posted by: Staff New Ed Broadbent Institute coming this fall - Tuesday, August 16, 2011: VANCOUVER — Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent announces he is setting up a think-tank in his name that will promote social democratic principles.
The Broadbent Institute will be an arms-length body that will, through education, training and the development of ideas, propose new directions for the government of Canada to implement. ...
Posted by: Staff Five health and safety rules that save lives - Tuesday, August 16, 2011: WASHINGTON — August 15 — Five major worker health and safety rules, most of which were initially opposed by industry, have saved thousands of lives, prevented tens of thousands of injuries and in at least one case improved productivity, a Public Citizen analysis released today shows.
The analysis comes as corporate interests ramp up efforts to gut the federal regulatory system. To make their case, they claim that rules are burdensome and costly, but they fail to acknowledge that the rules have benefits.
Regulations often yield enormous advantages, sometimes at minimal costs to industry, Public Citizen's analysis found. The five major worker health and safety rules outlined in the report include:
A rule requiring the cotton industry to reduce dust in textile factories lowered the prevalence of brown lung among industry employees by 97 percent in the first five years. In addition, when factories upgraded their equipment to comply with the rule, they found the new machines were seven times faster than the old ones. Also, compliance cost far less than originally anticipated.
A rule requiring manufacturers to place locks and warning labels on powered equipment prevents 50,000 injuries and 120 fatalities per year.
A rule on excavations at construction sites has reduced the fatality rate from cave-ins by 40 percent.
A grain-handling facilities standard has reduced the number of fatalities caused by dust-related explosions by 95 percent. When the rule was being considered, industry groups and the Reagan administration opposed it. Years after the standard was issued, however, the National Grain and Feed Association said it is remarkably effective.
A law instituting inspections in coal mines as well as new mine health and safety standards led to a rapid 50 percent decrease in the coal mine fatality rate.
"Corporate interests love to bash regulations in the abstract, so it is important that we recognize the benefits that we — the public — enjoy from particular safeguards," said Justin Feldman, worker health and safety advocate with Public Citizen's Congress Watch division. "These are rules that keep us healthy and keep our friends and family members alive."
Many corporate-backed GOP lawmakers in Congress are pushing to prevent federal health and safety agencies from being able to issue rules at all. Over the past several months, they have introduced several bills that would undermine the regulatory process or, in one instance, place a moratorium on all new regulations. Just recently, Gang of Six member Sen Tom Coburn (R-Okla) called for cuts to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's budget that would be devastating to workers relying on government protections.
"If anything, we need more public protections — not fewer" said Lisa Gilbert, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. "The BP oil spill disaster, the Massey mine explosion and the Wall Street crash were all caused by too little regulation of profit-hungry, corner-cutting corporations."
### Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization founded in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts.
Posted by: Michael Cowley-Owen UK's broken social contract blamed for riots - Monday, August 15, 2011:CBC News – August 13, 2011
The spark that lit riots in Britain last week is rooted in the government's radical alteration of the social contract with its citizens, says a Toronto psychiatrist who was born and raised in the UK.
People at the lower margins of society feel abandoned and powerless to the point where they lash out in fear, says Dr. Kwame McKenzie.
British society is undergoing a psychological realignment along American lines rather than traditional European values, where there is a straightforward social contract between the individual and the state, he says...
A Montreal company says it is confident a plan to revive one of Canada's last asbestos mines will go ahead.
The owners of the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, QC were given until Monday to raise $25 million from the private sector to secure financing from the Quebec government.
Just as it seemed time was running out, a consortium of investors led by Montreal company Balcorp Ltd. said it's confident it can raise the money to purchase the mine...
Posted by: Staff Gang leader reported killed in BC shooting - Monday, August 15, 2011:CBC News
A man is dead and several others have been wounded in a shooting outside a hotel and casino in Kelowna, BC.
Several media outlets have reported the deceased is Jonathan Bacon, a gang leader with a long history of criminal activity in the Lower Mainland.
Witnesses told several media outlets they saw a masked gunman on foot fire multiple shots from an automatic weapon at a white luxury vehicle parked outside the Delta Grand hotel on Water St...
Posted by: Staff How the internet has all but destroyed the market for films, music and newspapers - Sunday, August 14, 2011:by Robert Levine for The Observer
For most of the 1980s and '90s, NBC dominated US television: Miami Vice, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends. The network earned its ratings by pushing boundaries — Miami Vice stylized the police drama, while Hill Street Blues gave it gritty realism. These shows also brought in big money.
NBC was once one of the most profitable divisions of General Electric. But when the parent company was acquired by Comcast this year, the deal reportedly gave the network a value of zero.
NBC isn't the only major media business that has fallen on hard times. EMI, home of the Beatles and Pink Floyd, has trimmed its roster and cut thousands of jobs. The Washington Post, which set a high-water mark for US journalism with its Watergate reporting, has reduced its newsroom staff, closed its national bureaux, and declared: "We are not a national news organization of record." MGM, with its roaring lion logo, was recently acquired for less than half its 2005 value.
All of these companies faced the same problem: they weren't collecting enough of the revenue being generated by their work. The public hasn't lost its appetite for television, journalism or film; shows, articles and movies reach more consumers than ever online. The problem is that, although the internet has expanded the audience for media, it has all but destroyed the market for it. ...
Posted by: Staff Other countries vulnerable to youth riots - Friday, August 12, 2011:by Spiegel Online Staff
For four days earlier this week, young people in Britain rioted, marauding through the streets of England's big cities. Prime Minister David Cameron called off his summer holiday in Tuscany to deal with the situation, and members of parliament were recalled from their recess.
Cameron's government has described the rioters as criminals looking to plunge the country into chaos, but that's only part of the truth. A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reveals another piece of the puzzle: Of all the European Union countries, only Portugal is home to greater wealth disparity than Great Britain.
These riots are a specifically English problem — at least for now. But the divide between rich and poor is growing all across Europe, helped along by austerity measures, especially those implemented by the countries worst stricken in the debt crisis, including Greece, Spain and Italy.
Not only are social services being slashed, but school budgets and health care services as well. And nearly every European city has its disadvantaged neighborhoods, places where opportunities for young people in particular are limited...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Recall elections today could take WI back from Tea Party crazies - Tuesday, August 09, 2011: From Bloomberg News
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker knows how to attract crowds -- especially shouting, fist-shaking ones waving recall placards and clamoring for his political scalp.... While Walker’s name is not on any of the ballots, his agenda provoked the record number of recall elections, and they are seen as a referendum on his policies, Franklin said. If Republicans suffer a net loss of three seats, Democrats will control the state Senate, blunting Walker’s agenda...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer NDP's Horwath says minerals mined in Ontario should be processed there - Tuesday, August 09, 2011: From The Toronto Star
In a campaign swing through northern Ontario, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath vowed to stop resources mined in the province from being exported if they can be processed here...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Shock doctrine: conservatives and corporate elites force catastrophic cuts with economic hysteria - Tuesday, August 09, 2011: From Alternet
Conservative and corporate elites are stoking the turmoil, and using fear to panic a public into accepting harsh measures that would be otherwise unacceptable...
Posted by: Staff Six Wisconsin senators face recall votes on Tuesday - Monday, August 08, 2011:from Alternet.org
Tuesday, August 9 is going to be a big day not just for Wisconsin politics, but nationally. It was this winter, after all, that the Capitol building in Madison was the scene of not just protest, but a full-on occupation by workers and allies enraged by Republican governor Scott Walker's bill stripping collective bargaining rights from the state's public employees.
Teachers, students, organized labor, local and national progressive groups, leaders, and even rock stars convened in Wisconsin to join the rallies, but the bill was passed anyway.
The movement in Wisconsin pivoted then from massive protest to massive organizing, and now Tuesday will see the recall elections of six Republican state senators who supported Walker's anti-worker bill. One Democratic state senator, Dave Hansen, has already successfully retained his seat after a July 19 election, and two other Democrats face recalls on August 16. ...
Posted by: Staff Peacekeeping has never been easy — or safe - Monday, August 08, 2011: CALGARY, AB, Aug. 5, 2011/ Troy Media/ — On August 9th, 1974, an unarmed Buffalo transport aircraft carrying a Canadian Peacekeeping contingent was destroyed by a Syrian surface-to-air missile. The Syrians claimed that they mistook the slow, ungainly Buffalo for an attack fighter. It was a lie. It was also the largest single day loss of life on a UN Peacekeeping mission — nine Canadian soldiers wearing the blue beret died that day.
Each year on August 9th, in commemoration, we stop to remember those Canadian peacekeepers who have given their lives serving on UN duties. The official ceremony in cities across Canada will be this Sunday – August 7th (the Sunday closest to the 9th).
So far the day is not an official holiday — like Remembrance Day — but it should be. Since 1949, 272 Canadians have been killed while serving with the United Nations, including 157 killed in Afghanistan.
Canadians seem to think that peacekeeping is an easier and safer way to fight a war. That if we just stuck to peacekeeping all of our soldiers, sailors and airman would come home safely, as thought peacekeeping was just some kind of international holiday. They could not be more wrong. ...
There's a serious unease in the NDP over interim leader Nycole Turmel's memberships in two Quebec sovereigntist parties, a party staffer said Thursday.
The staffer, speaking anonymously to RDI's La période des questions, said it shows a lack of integrity that Turmel held memberships in the Bloc Québécois for four years – until weeks before she announced her NDP candidacy – and in provincial party Québec Solidaire...
Posted by: Staff Wife compares Guy Turcotte to OJ Simpson - Saturday, August 06, 2011:CBC News
Speaking to a crowd gathered outside the Montreal Courthouse, Guy Turcotte's estranged wife compared the former cardiologist's case to that of former football great OJ Simpson.
Isabelle Gaston was joining about a hundred people protesting the Turcotte verdict, one of 14 scheduled demonstrations across Quebec.
Turcotte admitted to killing his two children but was found not criminally responsible for the crime by a jury in early July because of his mental state...
Canada has a "range of measures" to deal with potential global economic troubles but could eventually be affected by Standard & Poor's downgrade of the US credit rating, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says.
"Canada is not an island," Flaherty said late Friday in a statement. "We are a trading nation, with about a third of output generated by exports and deep linkages with the US economy."...
Posted by: Staff Mr. Bean actor recovering after crashing supercar - Friday, August 05, 2011:CBC News
British actor Rowan Atkinson, known for his Mr. Bean television and movie character, crashed his high-powered McLaren F1 supercar this week but escaped with just minor injuries.
Atkinson, 56, was released from Peterborough City Hospital in England on Friday afternoon, but made no comment to reporters.
On Thursday, he lost control of the vehicle and struck a tree and then a lamp post before the supercar caught fire, authorities said. The accident occurred shortly after 7:30 pm near Haddon, Cambridgeshire, about 140 kilometres north of London...
Posted by: Michael Cowley-Owen MPs mull possible Supreme Court nominees - Friday, August 05, 2011:Laura Payton, CBC News
MPs helping to narrow down a list of potential Supreme Court of Canada nominees held their first meeting Friday – and got their first peek at who's on the list.
Conservative MPs Bob Dechert, Candice Hoeppner and Brent Rathgeber, NDP MP Joe Comartin and Liberal Irwin Cotler will pare down a list of qualified candidates to six to replace two departing justices from Ontario. Ian Binnie, 72, and Louise Charron, 60, are retiring this year.
The initial list was put together by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson in consultation with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and legal experts from Ontario...
North American markets took investors on a wild ride Friday as the Toronto Stock Exchange closed with a loss of more than 200 points, while the Dow, after seesawing 400 points in less than an hour, finished with a gain.
Markets opened higher after a stronger than expected report on US employment for July, then retreated sharply before gaining again as European leaders reached a deal with Italy on fiscal reforms that promised to ease concerns about the spread of Europe's debt crisis...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Environment Canada could slash 700 jobs - Thursday, August 04, 2011: From The Toronto Star
OTTAWA—Meteorologists, scientists, chemists and engineers are among more than 700 Environment Canada employees on the chopping block as the department launches sweeping cuts to cope with federal belt-tightening...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Top one percent control 40 percent of US wealth - Wednesday, August 03, 2011: From Al Jazeera
The richest one per cent of Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country's income and control an astonishing 40 per cent of its wealth.... The budget debate and the economy are the battleground on which the 2012 presidential election race will be fought. And the US has never seemed so divided - both politically and economically....
How did the gap grow so wide, and so quickly? And how are the convictions, campaign contributions and charitable donations of the top one per cent impacting the other 99 per cent of Americans? Fault Lines investigates the gap between the rich and the rest....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Canadians want public libraries - poll - Wednesday, August 03, 2011: From The Toronto Sun
TORONTO - Politicians across Canada may want to close the book on pulling public funding for libraries.
A new Leger marketing survey released exclusively to QMI Agency found an overwhelming majority of Canadians want their libraries kept publicly funded....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Lithuanian mayor crushes car in bike lane with a tank - Wednesday, August 03, 2011: From New York Times blogs
Sometimes it takes a tank to send a message.
Fed up with the number of luxury vehicles parking in a bike path along a main thoroughfare in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, the city’s mayor, Arturas Zuokas, released a video in which he uses some military-grade machinery to crush an illegally parked Mercedes Benz...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Five ways media misreported deficit debate - Tuesday, August 02, 2011: From FAIR
There are specific patterns in corporate media coverage of political debates: Progressive ideas are generally marginalized. "Compromise" between the major parties is encouraged. Democrats should "move to the center," which in practical terms actually means moving to the right.
All of these tendencies have driven the discussion over the federal debt and the debt ceiling. In the end, the political process has produced an agreement that can be cheered by pundits and analysts for adhering to media's built-in bias for center-right economics and bogus ideas about centrism and political compromise....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Fatal radiation levels found in Fukushima plant - Tuesday, August 02, 2011: From The New York Times
TOKYO — The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant said Monday that it measured the highest radiation levels within the plant since it was crippled by a devastating earthquake. However, it said the discovery would not slow continuing efforts to bring the plant’s damaged reactors under control...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Battle on US debt ending, cuts yet to be named - Tuesday, August 02, 2011: From The New York Times
WASHINGTON – The Senate prepared on Tuesday to take up the budget agreement that passed the House after months of partisan impasse, in hopes that President Obama could sign it into law before the government's borrowing authority was set to run out at midnight...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Democracy is public - Lakoff - Friday, July 29, 2011: ...We are now faced with a nontraditional, radical view of "democracy" coming from the Republican party. It says that "democracy" means that nobody should care about anybody else, that "democracy" means only personal responsibility, not responsibility for anyone else, and it means no trust. If America accepts this radical view of "democracy," then all that we have given each other in the past under traditional democracy will be lost: all that we have called public. Public roads and bridges: gone. Public schools: gone. Publicly funded police and firemen: gone. Safe food, air, and water: gone. Public health: gone. Everything that made America America, the crucial things that you and your family and your friends have taken for granted: gone....
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Haiti shown as pawn in US foreign policy - Wikileaks - Thursday, July 28, 2011: From the Council on Hemispheric Affairs
...When WikiLeaks announced its plan to release tens of thousands of classified U.S. diplomatic cables to the public, the U.S. government feared a massive international backlash and threat to national security. Although WikiLeaks’ impact on Latin America does not severely jeopardize U.S. security, the diplomatic cables could nevertheless cause irreparable harm to U.S. relations with several Latin American nations. Information released by WikiLeaks points to a continuation of U.S. dominance and the application of “neo-imperialist” diplomacy in Latin America, and the cables regarding Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, exemplify the persistence of U.S. interference...
Florida is seeking bids from private companies to take over management of 30 state prisons in an 18-country area in South Florida. The "fastest privatization venture ever undertaken by the state of Florida" is an effort by Gov. Rick Scott (R) to save the state money by outsourcing prison oversight to the lowest bidder...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Stieg Larsson lamented right-wing extremism - Thursday, July 28, 2011: From Democracy Now
In the aftermath of the Norway attacks, we look at the work of Stieg Larsson, an author known less for his extensive research into right-wing extremism in Scandavia and Europe than for his international blockbuster books, published after his death and known as the Millennium Trilogy: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played with Fire,” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.” As part of his passion to "counteract the growth of the extreme right and the white power-culture in schools and among young people," Larsson founded the Swedish Expo Foundation and edited its magazine, Expo. We go to Stockholm, Sweden, to speak with Larsson’s lifelong partner, Eva Gabrielsson, about the research they did together before his death...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Iowa eclipses Canada in Grain Production - Wednesday, July 27, 2011:Earth Policy Institute
... The bottom line: Iowa is at the heart of the US Corn Belt, a phenomenally productive piece of agricultural real estate. It enables the United States, with only 4 percent of the world's people, to produce 40 percent of the world's corn, the leading grain, and 35 percent of its soybeans...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Hispanics, blacks, Asians hit hardest by US recession - Tuesday, July 26, 2011: From The New York Times
...WOODBRIDGE, Va. — Hispanic families accounted for the largest single decline in wealth of any ethnic and racial group in the country during the recession, according to a study published Tuesday by the Pew Foundation. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Hidden hegemony: Canadian mining in Latin America - Tuesday, July 26, 2011: From the Council on Hemispheric Affairs
..Canada's mining industry is the largest in the world, and in 2004 its world market share accounted for 60 percent of all mining companies. In fact, the entire Latin American region is second only to Canada in terms of the breadth of its mining exploration and development activity. In what some call the "halo effect," Canadian industries have been perceived as the more conscientious alternative to their U.S. equivalents. Since Canadian industries are understood to have socially responsible practices, especially in contrast to those of American companies, they are typically welcomed abroad.Nonetheless, recent accusations that the Canadian mining company Pacific Rim played a role in the death squad killings of anti-mining activists in El Salvador has brought this reputation into question, while further investigation into the Canadian government's regulation reveals that the government has mandated no true restrictions on its industry's mining practices abroad. Left to its own accord, the Canadian mining industry has no problem destroying landscapes, uprooting communities, and even resorting to violence to promote its interests; for this reason, only government regulation can affect true change. A recent move by the Peruvian government to protect citizens near the city of Puno demonstrates that Latin American governments may finally be willing and able to regulate Canadian mining companies operating within their nations...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Masonic blackmail could be behind Murdoch case - Monday, July 25, 2011: From henrymakow.com
"My hunch is that, with police collaboration, Murdoch and his newspaper ran an intelligence gathering operation designed to blackmail England's Masonic elite and ensure they toe the line. "...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Canada cuts immigration from famine-struck East Africa - Monday, July 25, 2011: from The Montreal Gazette
...Kenney said he has recently added resources to deal with the huge backlog at the Nairobi mission, which serves 18 countries in East Africa, most of them in conflict, and now also struck by famine. But he also put a cap on the number of privately sponsored refugee applications out of the Nairobi office...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Jane Fonda: The Truth About My Trip to Hanoi - Sunday, July 24, 2011: From Reader-supported News
...It is unconscionable that extremist groups circulate letters which accuse me of horrific things, saying that I am a traitor, that POWs in Hanoi were tied up and in chains and marched past me while I spat at them and called them 'baby killers.'...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Norway attacks suspect is 'Christian fundamentalist': police - Saturday, July 23, 2011: From Jakarta Globe
Strangely there have been no reports of "Christian terrorists." - ed
Oslo. Norwegian police on Saturday described the main suspect in twin bomb and shooting attacks that left at least 91 dead as a Christian fundamentalist...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Murdoch denials hard believe – former WSJ reporter - Thursday, July 21, 2011:Democracy Now
To discuss the phone-hacking scandal engulfing the Rupert Murdoch media empire from Britain to the United States, we are joined by longtime journalist Sarah Ellison. She is a Vanity Fair contributing editor and author of the book "War at the Wall Street Journal: Inside the Struggle to Control an American Business Empire," which chronicled the sweeping changes at the publication after Murdoch acquired the newspaper in 2007. Ellison spent 10 years working at the Wall Street Journal.
Commenting on Murdoch denying responsibility for the scandal, Ellison says, "It's even more difficult to really believe that when you know the way that his news organizations work... There's a sort of myth that we all know about Rupert Murdoch, that his editors know what he wants without him even having to tell them. And so he creates a culture in which everyone is of one like mind... It's difficult to imagine that some of the responsibility wouldn't lie at his feet, given that it is his organization."...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency takes 43 percent hit - Thursday, July 21, 2011: From Vancouver Sun
OTTAWA — The federal government will slash funding to the environmental agency that evaluates potentially harmful policies and projects before they get the green light...
Posted by: Staff Greg Palast: The other Harry Potter ending - Tuesday, July 19, 2011:By Jo (JK) Rowling as told to Greg Palast and the Palast twins
Some of you may recall that, years ago, when I lived in England, writing for The Guardian, when I shared the bestseller list with Jo Rowling (she at the pinnacle, me in the valley), we became buds through my twins' love for her astonishing work.
But Jo knows that I found the conclusion of her series a sorry let-down, a second-rate "Show Down at the OK Corral" for Wizards. In my opinion (and she does not at all agree), Jo was too distracted by a concern for how the ending would play on film.
I bugged her about it until she told me the "other" endings. Every author has them — and we all look over our old drafts, after publication, and say, "Damn! I should have used that version" — then we lock it away before someone sees it and agrees.
No, Jo wouldn't show me typed copies, but she told me a couple of "I could have done this" endings.
Much of Canada and the US are entrenched in extreme heat and humidity that are making people cranky and prompting them to crank up air conditioners and electricity demand.
Temperatures of 30°C and higher – with the humidity making it feel more like upwards of 40°C – are also good reason to take precautions to prevent heat exhaustion and other health emergencies.
CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe says high temperature records were broken again Monday across Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.
The US House of Representatives is to vote on a bill that will require drastic spending cuts as the price for raising the government's $14.3 trillion US borrowing limit.
There's almost no chance of the bill, which was proposed by Republicans as a response to Tea Party activists, ever becoming law. But it did delay focusing lawmakers' attention on a plan, which is expected to win passage, to avert a US default.
The Republican bill would require Congress to approve a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution as the price for increasing the debt ceiling.
Former News International executive and News of the World chief editor Rebekah Brooks opened her testimony before a British parliamentary hearing on Tuesday by apologizing for cell phone hacking performed by people working for the now-defunct newspaper under her watch.
Brooks told MPs on the committee looking into the phone-hacking scandal she intended to answer their questions as openly as possible mindful of ongoing criminal investigations.
"Mistakes have been made, but we are trying to put things right," she told the committee.
Posted by: Michael Cowley-Owen CUPE launches campaign to encourage Canadians to speak out before premiers' meeting - Tuesday, July 19, 2011: CUPE has launched a new campaign to encourage Canadians to speak out on issues that are important to them in the lead up to the meeting. Writing the letter is easy. Just go to heypremiers.ca, choose the letter you want to send, fill in the necessary boxes and click send.
Letters to provincial premiers can be sent on one of these four issues:
Quality public health care A stronger Canada Pension Plan Public services, not a dangerous trade deal like CETA Public infrastructure that works for communities
CUPE National President Paul Moist has written a letter to the premiers on these issues as well. You can see it at heypremiers.ca. We want the premiers to hear our message leading up to their big national meeting, the Council of the Federation, taking place July 20-22 in Vancouver. We are also running radio ads to promote the site.
Please check out the website, send a letter, and share the site via email, Twitter and Facebook.
Posted by: Staff Beyond bitumen: vision for a true national energy strategy - Monday, July 18, 2011:By Gil McGowan
As energy ministers from around the country gather in Kananaskis this week, it's starting to look like the Alberta government is engaging in an old-fashioned game of bait and switch.
Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert has billed the meeting as a potentially historic gathering at which politicians will begin long-overdue discussions towards the creation of a truly pan-Canadian energy strategy.
But are Liepert and other members of the Alberta government really interested in using the meeting in Kananaskis to develop an energy strategy that works for Canadians in all regions of the country?
Or is this whole exercise an elaborate attempt on the part of the Alberta government and its patrons in the oil patch to win support from other provinces and the federal government for their controversial plans to build bitumen export pipelines to the US Gulf Coast and the port of Kitamat in BC. (the "gateway" to China)?
It's clear that some groups involved in the process are sincerely committed to a wide-ranging discussion about what's really best for Canadians when it comes to energy policy (the respected and even-handed Canada West Foundation is particularly notable in this regard). But it's also clear that a number of extremely influential individuals and groups have already made up their minds: they want bitumen pipelines, no matter how many good jobs in upgrading, refining and petrochemical production those pipelines might end up exporting to the US and China. Unfortunately, Minister Liepert appears to fall into the category of pipeline salesmen rather than the category of big-picture policy thinkers. The same can be said for the Canadian Council of Chief Executive Officers and EPIC, a new think tank created by a coalition of major oil companies, which have both recently released reports calling for — you guessed it — more bitumen export pipelines and quicker approvals for oil and gas projects in general.
Instead of slapping together a plan for a couple of questionable pipelines and calling it an energy policy, Canada's energy ministers should set their sights much higher. Here are a few issues that cannot be ignored if federal and provincial politicians are serious about doing more than putting a bow on the status quo and declaring their work done.
Energy Security: Like it or not, we live in a world that runs on oil. For the time being at least, individuals and businesses simply can't make do without the stuff. Yet Canada is the only major oil producing jurisdiction in the world that doesn't have a coherent national strategy that puts their interest of its citizens first. The results are perverse. Despite our status as a net energy exporter, Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces import roughly 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day from places like Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Nigeria and Venezuela. In fact, Quebec and the Maritime province import more than 80 percent of the oil they use from outside Canada.
Why? Because almost all of our pipelines run north-south. Shockingly, we don't have the infrastructure to send western oil to our fellow citizens in the eastern half of the country.
Minister Liepert and others are right when they say we should be looking for new markets for our oil: after all, demand from our biggest costumer, the US, is stagnating — and quirks of the US distribution system mean we're not getting world price for what we sell.
But if new markets are what we're looking for, doesn't it make more sense to build pipelines connecting west and east within our own country before building pipelines to supply refineries in Texas and China? Building pipelines to supply the Canadian east (as opposed to the Far East) also has the benefit of keeping the jobs, profits and tax revenue associated with upgrading and refining within Canada.
Economic Impact of Oil: Driven by massive investment in the oil sands, Alberta's energy sector has become the driving force behind the Canadian economy. This has been great news for Albertans and the hundreds of thousands of other Canadians who have flocked to our province to participate in the boom.
But from a national perspective, by relying too heavily on the energy sector, we run the risk of developing what economists call Dutch Disease. This is an economic condition in which a booming energy sector drives up the currency and oil-related investment but, in the process, drives down investment, profits and jobs in other sectors, particularly manufacturing.
Any national energy strategy worth its salt would recognize this threat and take steps to deal with it. One possible solution is the one offered by former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed: set a slower pace for development in the oil sands.
By proceeding with five or ten projects at a time (instead of the sixty-plus that are currently on the books) we would reduce the likelihood of developing a full-blown case of Dutch Disease. As added benefits, a more reasonable pace for development would also make it easier to address cumulative environmental impacts and it would reduce (perhaps eliminate) the need to bring thousands of temporary foreign workers into the country to supplement the domestic construction labour force.
In other words, a slower pace for development would ensure that it would be Canadian workers who would benefit most from the construction of major Canadian resource projects.
Royalties: Royalties are not taxes. They are the price that forestry, mining and energy companies pay to develop resource assets owned by Canadian citizens.
The good news is that royalties generate billions of dollars each year, especially in resource-rich provinces like Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland. This is money that we use to build needed infrastructure and fund vital public services like education and health care. The bad news is that we don�t always (or even often) get the best possible price for the sale of our assets.
In Alberta, for example, under the Stelmach government, we�re actually collecting fewer royalties as a share of our overall energy oil and gas sector&39;s revenue than the Social Credit government did in the late sixties (and less than a third of the proportion that was collected under Lougheed).
To rectify this problem, and ensure Canadians get the best possible price for the sale of their assets, a national energy strategy could introduce a truly national process for setting and bargaining royalty rates, so that energy companies could no longer play one jurisdiction against the other.
The bottom line is this: in an environment characterized by historically high oil prices and rapidly declining options for oil companies in other parts of the world, provinces like and Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland hold all the cards. By cooperating, we can play those cards more aggressively and successfully. Energy companies won't fold or leave the table, because they have nowhere else to go.
Transition: A post-carbon economy is years away, but make no mistake, it's coming. It's coming because the science around global warming is real and frightening; because a global political consensus has emerged in support of a greener economy; and because, more practically, the world is running out of oil (at least cheap oil).
This doesn't mean that we should stop developing our oil resources. The oil sands are one of our countries most valuable assets at the moment and it would be foolish not to exploit them.
However, what the coming of a post-carbon economy does mean is that we're going to have to start looking at the oil sands in a different way. In particular, we should very consciously start thinking of the oil sands as a transitional resource: a resource that will help provide us with the revenue necessary to build the next, greener economy in Canada. If Alberta find a way to join other provinces in crafting and supporting a national energy strategy that uses the oil sands as a bridge to a better future for the entire country, then not only will our country�s economic prospects be brighter, we may also be able to manage the "politics of envy" that inevitably come from one province having so much more wealth than others.
In the end, Minister Liepert is right about one thing: the meeting in Kananaskis has the potential to be historic. But that will only happen if he and other provincial energy ministers dare to think and dream big. Most importantly they have to understand that a true national energy strategy has to be much more than a plan to build a couple of pipelines that export jobs along with our oil.
We can do so much better. In fact, for sake for future generations of Canadian, we need to do much better.
Gil McGowan is president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. The AFL represents 145,000 unionized Albertans, including about 25,000 who work in the energy sector or energy-related construction.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Inmates could replace unionized workers in WI - Thursday, July 14, 2011: From Madison.com
Gov. Scott Walker ran for election on a promise to create 250,000 jobs during his first term in office. Now it seems some of that job growth has found its way to at least one county jail in Wisconsin...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Rupert on the run: MPs turn on Murdoch - Thursday, July 14, 2011: From The Independent
The prospect of Rupert Murdoch abandoning his British media interests became a real possibility last night as News Corp dropped plans to take control of BskyB and it emerged that the media mogul has discussed selling his News International newspaper titles...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer A reader's guide to the phone hacking scandal - Wednesday, July 13, 2011: From ProPublica.org
Though News of the World shut its doors on Sunday, the UK's hacking scandal is deepening. Allegations of illegal activity have spread beyond News of the World to other Murdoch papers, and far beyond hacking into people's voice mails. With all the new details emerging, it's getting hard to keep track. Here's a brief rundown of the latest revelations...
Posted by: Staff Budget slasher sips $350/bottle wine - Monday, July 11, 2011:by Susan Crabtree for Talking Points Memo
Rep Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leading advocate of shrinking entitlement spending and the architect of the plan to privatize Medicare, spent Wednesday evening sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro Bis.
It was the same night reports started trickling out about President Obama pressing Congressional leaders to consider changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for GOP support for targeted tax increases.
The pomp and circumstance surrounding the waiter's presentation, uncorking and decanting of the pricey Pinot Noir caught the attention of another diner who had already recognized Ryan sitting with two other men nearby.
Susan Feinberg, an associate business professor at Rutgers, was at Bistro Bis celebrating her birthday with her husband that night. When she saw the label on the bottle of Jayer-Gilles 2004 Echezeaux Grand Cru Ryan's table had ordered, she quickly looked it up on the wine list and saw that it sold for an eye-popping $350, the most expensive wine in the house along with one other with the same pricetag. ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer One quarter of non-voters weren't interested - Stats Can - Monday, July 11, 2011: From Statistics Canada
More than one-quarter of the 7.5 million eligible voters who reported they did not cast a ballot in the May 2, 2011 federal election indicated they did not do so because they were not interested in voting. Another 23% said they were too busy to vote...
Posted by: Staff Federal re-districting raises questions - Friday, July 08, 2011:by Geoffrey Stevens (published July 4, 2011 in Waterloo Region Record and Guelph Mercury)
How many elected representatives does it take to run a country?
No, this is not a trick question. Nor is it a simple one. It is, however, a relevant question, because the Harper government will be asking Parliament this fall to reallocate seats in the House of Commons to compensate for population growth in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta.
There is no doubt that the three provinces are under-represented today and have been for a number of years. The imbalance will only worsen the longer it remains unaddressed.
The simplest solution — you might think — would be to determine an optimal size for the Commons (as the United States did when it fixed the size of the House of Representatives at 435 members), then to divide that number into the national population (current estimate: 34.5 million Canadians) to produce an average population per electoral district. Then use that number to distribute seats among the provinces (as the US does, with the proviso that each state must have at least one seat).
No one has ever tried to calculate an optimal size for the Commons — in other words, no one has the foggiest idea how many MPs the country really needs or can keep productively occupied. (It's a question that would require at least three royal commissions and four federal-provincial conferences — so we won't go there.)
At present, there are 308 seats in the Commons, which works out to one MP for every 112,000 Canadians. So why not simply assign each province one MP for every 112,000 people?
Hah!
That would be too simple. The Harper government (and it's not its fault) is locked in a constitutional and political straightjacket. It can ask Parliament to increase the number of seats for under-represented provinces, but it cannot reduce the seats in provinces that are over-represented.
A constitutional scholar with a doctorate in mathematics could explain this. All I will say is this straightjacket has three arms. One is Quebec, which has an absolute guarantee of 75 seats regardless of what happens to its population or that of the other provinces.
In 1992, at the time of the Charlottetown Accord, then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney offered Quebec an even sweeter deal: a guaranteed minimum of 25 percent of the seats in perpetuity, meaning if Commons membership increased 400 members (which it could before too long), Quebec would be entitled to 100 MPs. The Charlottetown Accord collapsed, but Quebec still has its 75-MP guarantee.
Second, to complicate matters, the "Senatorial Clause" of 1915 is still in effect. It provides that no province can have fewer Commons seats than Senate seats — which is why Prince Edward Island will have four MPs, forever.
Third, along came the Representation Act of 1985, which introduced a new "Grandfather Clause" — no province can have fewer MPs than it had in the base year of 1976. This means, for example, that Newfoundland must always have at least seven seats, New Brunswick 10, Nova Scotia 11 and Manitoba and Saskatchewan 14 apiece, regardless of population changes.
So the government has no wiggle room. It can give extra seats to fast-growth provinces, but it cannot take seats away from the others. Parliament will be asked this fall to expand itself by 30 seats — 18 for Ontario, seven for BC and five for Alberta — to bring the Commons to 338 MPs.
That may or may not be the "right" number. All that is certain is that it will increase inexorably over time.
Let's not even think about the number of elected members at the provincial level. The legislatures of the 10 provinces have a total of 697 members. The three territories have another 56 to raise the tally to 753. Add the 308 MPs in Ottawa and we are up to 1,061 elected federal and provincial representatives. Plus, of course, those 105 senators whom Harper wants to turn into elected representatives, too.
Some people claim Canada is over-governed. I can't imagine why.
Posted by: Staff IPS: UN Women's agency being "strangled at birth" - Wednesday, July 06, 2011:By Tahlif Deen
UNITED NATIONS — When the United Nations inaugurated a landmark special agency for women last January, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon set an initial target of 500 million dollars as the proposed annual budget for the new gender-empowered body.
But nearly six months later, the voluntary funding for U.N. Women (UNW) from the 192 member states has remained painfully slow.
Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, expressed disappointment over the funding shortfall.
Nearly six months after its operationalisation, the actual contributions and pledges received are modest and only around 80 million dollars, he said.
"This is not commensurate with the aspiration and ambition assigned to UN Women," he complained. ...
Stephen Lewis speaks on gender equality in the world and at the UN.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Martin's one-man battle to ban asbestos mining in Canada gains traction - Wednesday, July 06, 2011: From The Hill Times
NDP MP Pat Martin, who has been fighting to ban asbestos mining in Canada ever since he was elected to the House in 1997, and who has been waging a vocal battle in the House against federal government support for it, has his own personal asbestos story...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer 5 Approaching a world of seven billion people - Wednesday, July 06, 2011: From The Independent
On 31 October 2011, world population will reach 7 billion, according to the United Nations Population Division. This global milestone presents a challenge, an opportunity, and a call to action. Whether we can live together on a healthy planet will depend on the choices that we make now. Therefore, on Monday 11th July, World Population Day, UNFPA is launching a global campaign called 7 Billion Actions to create a more just and sustainable world...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Encouraging cycling pays dividends in USA - Wednesday, July 06, 2011: From The New York Times
More Americans are biking or walking to work these days, in part because public-sector investment is improving the infrastructure they need to get there safely. Further public investments in bike paths and bike lanes are likely to offer a big social payoff.
Federal spending on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure has more than doubled since 2006 but amounted to less than $4 a person in 2010...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Ending nuclear evil - Desmond Tutu - Monday, July 04, 2011: From truthout Cape Town - Eliminating nuclear weapons is the democratic wish of the world's people. Yet no nuclear-armed country currently appears to be preparing for a future without these terrifying devices. In fact, all are squandering billions of dollars on modernization of their nuclear forces, making a mockery of United Nations disarmament pledges...
For 10 years now, a major question about 9/11 has remained unresolved. It was, as 9/11-commission chairmen Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton recalled, "Had the hijackers received any support from foreign governments?" There was information that pointed to the answer, but the commissioners apparently deemed it too disquieting to share in full with the public.
The idea that al-Qaeda had not acted alone was there from the start. "The terrorists do not function in a vacuum," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters the week after 9/11. "I know a lot, and what I have said, as clearly as I know how, is that states are supporting these people." Pressed to elaborate, Rumsfeld was silent for a long moment. Then, saying it was a sensitive matter, he changed the subject.
Three years later, the commission would consider whether any of three foreign countries in particular might have had a role in the attacks. Two were avowed foes of the United States: Iraq and Iran. The third had long been billed as a close friend: Saudi Arabia. ...
Posted by: Staff UK government invited nuke power to plan PR post-Fukushima - Thursday, June 30, 2011:by Rob Edwards for the Guardian
British government officials approached nuclear companies to draw up a co-ordinated public relations strategy to play down the Fukushima nuclear accident just two days after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and before the extent of the radiation leak was known.
Internal emails seen by the Guardian show how the business and energy departments worked closely behind the scenes with the multinational companies EDF Energy, Areva and Westinghouse to try to ensure the accident did not derail their plans for a new generation of nuclear stations in the UK.
"This has the potential to set the nuclear industry back globally," wrote one official at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), whose name has been redacted. "We need to ensure the anti-nuclear chaps and chapesses do not gain ground on this. We need to occupy the territory and hold it. We really need to show the safety of nuclear." ...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer Taxpayers' AECL losses won't end with sale - Thursday, June 30, 2011:by Greg Weston, CBC News
While the federal government is apparently set to sell off its money-losing nuclear reactor business to a Quebec company, Canadian taxpayers will be stuck with the fiscal fallout for years to come...
Posted by: Staff Nasty new medical fad: bipolar diagnosis in children - Thursday, June 30, 2011:By Stuart L Kaplan
June 29, 2011
In the autumn of 1994, a novel idea was afoot in my profession. At the annual conference of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, I attended a workshop on bipolar disorder in children. About 10 of us attended the meeting, held in a small, poorly lit room. Only one or two doctors reported having actually seen a child with bipolar disorder, but we all agreed to keep our eyes open for other sightings.
Three years later I attended another session about bipolar disorder in children at the academy's annual meeting. In a large ballroom beneath a gleaming chandelier, several hundred child psychiatrists buzzed with excitement. As a mainstream concept, the diagnosis had arrived.
I have been a child psychiatrist for nearly five decades and have seen diagnostic fads come and go. But I have never witnessed anything like the tidal wave of unwarranted enthusiasm for the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children that now engulfs the public and the profession.
Before 1995, bipolar disorder, once known as manic-depressive illness, was rarely diagnosed in children; today nearly one-third of all children and adolescents discharged from child psychiatric hospitals are diagnosed with the disorder and medicated accordingly.
The rise of outpatient office visits for children and adolescents with bipolar disorder increased 40-fold from 20,000 in 1994-1995 to 800,000 in 2002–2003. A Harvard child-psychiatry group led by Dr. Joseph Biederman, a prominent supporter of the diagnosis, recently insisted, "Juvenile bipolar disorder is a serious illness that is estimated to affect approximately 1 percent to 4 percent of children."
I believe, to the contrary, that there is no scientific evidence to support the belief that bipolar disorder surfaces in childhood. In fact, the opposite seems to be the case: The evidence against the existence of pediatric bipolar disorder is so strong that it's difficult to imagine how it has gained the endorsement of anyone in the scientific community. And the effect of this trendy thinking can have devastating consequences. Such children are regularl
