Remember that "agreement in principle" regarding the release of documents relating to the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan? When it was announced on May 14th, I wrote the following: A deal "in principle" is not a final deal when the memorandum that actually spells it all out won't be ready for over two more weeks. And if that memo isn't available until the end of May, when will the specially selected committee of MPs actually be selected, sworn in and get down to work? ... ...As long as we remain in the dark, the winner is Stephen Harper who suspended parliament to avoid the demands of a …
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Liberal MP Joe Volpe tweets: "I stand with Israel. Critics would be wise to reserve judgment until all the facts are clear." Clearly, Volpe considers his own advice to be valueless. …
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HARPER'S MAGAZINE has a chilling article, "Silencing the Lawyers", by Scott Horton. Of Gitmo:What happened to the 600–800 Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders for whom the prison was originally conceived? We now have a pretty good idea. In the late fall of 2001, military operations in Afghanistan were successful, and Taliban and Al Qaeda leadership figures had fled to two last redoubts—the city of Kunduz in the northeast, and the Tora Bora region along the Pakistani frontier. But for reasons known only to him, Vice President Dick Cheney ordered a halt to the bombardment of Kunduz and opened an air …
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Though under current conditions it’s unlikely that any legal culpability will ever be proven, it’s always been clear that the assassination of Dr. George Tiller one year ago today wasn’t exactly the act of a single demented nutjob.  Scott Roeder has a longstanding association with the farthest whacked out fringes of the anti-abortion movement, many of whom openly and unabashedly advocate violence against abortion providers or have proudly committed it themselves.   It’s a nest of cockroaches that only scatter when one of them actually kills someone. Arguing against …
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“The conduct exhibited by Mr. Mulroney in accepting cash-stuffed envelopes from Mr. Schreiber on three separate occasions, failing to record the fact of the cash payments, failing to deposit the cash into a bank or other financial institution, and failing to disclose the fact of the cash payments when given the opportunity to do so goes a long way, in my view, to supporting my position that the financial dealings between Mr. Schreiber and Mr. Mulroney were inappropriate.”Commissioner Jeffrey Oliphant Commission of Inquiry into Certain Allegationsrespecting Business and Financial …
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Now, after more than 2 decades we now know that he and the deported lobbyist-tax evader jailbird Karlheinz Schreiber had an ‘inappropriate’ relationship.  Well, I think most of us have come to that conclusion. Two years, ago, Steve throws Lyin’ Brian under the ol’ airbus and demands an inquiry from Justice Jefferey Oliphant.  Apparently, there was a condition though,  Oliphant was not to make any findings of criminal  activities nor civil liability.  All 850 pages of no findings of criminal activity nor civil liability, all at a cost of of 16 million $ Kinda makes …
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Good news for pirates: According to Netahanyu, international waters are Israeli jurisdiction.  Not only that, but if you board a ship and slaughter the unarmed civilian passengers in international waters, it is an act of “self-defense“. I’m sure there are a few boatloads of relieved Nigerians out there today. In other news, Canadian Prime Minister Harper expressed his regret that Israel’s unprovoked massacre of a humanitarian aid convoy in international waters ruined what could otherwise have been a great photo op for Harper. “I’m sorry this has coloured this …
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"The single-member plurality system, which allows a candidate to win without a majority of electoral support, has several other natural consequences: it leads to long periods of governance without effective opposition, as opposing parties typically receive far fewer seats than their vote count should represent. It also leads to an erosion of checks and balances over power. And it leads to …
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Ian Welsh points to this brief story: Ankara warned that further supply vessels will be sent to Gaza, escorted by the Turkish Navy, a development with unpredictable consequences. I suspect there's going to be some serious diplomatic activity over the next couple of days. …
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INTERNATIONAL POLITICS-ICELAND:WILL THE JOKE GO STALE ?: While anarchists have often run farce candidates in various elections there are others who have done the same. The most famous Canadian examples were the Rhinoceros Party and the Workless Party, and in Britain the Raving Monster Looney Party had its day in the sun. The basic idea is to mock the regular political parties when all seem to be merely different sides of a disgusting mess. As such farce candidates offer a place to put "protest votes", something akin to a none-of-the-above option. What happens, however, when the farce …
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CEP does not bargain concessions? Wow CEP is the expert at bargaining concessions just look at the pulp and paper industry. Does bargaining concessions do any good ask those folks in Gatineau CEP Members Protect Company in Giving Back $8,900 a Year For Four YearsIf you would have given back a little bit more maybe Gatineau would have been saved. You don't see CEP National executive members giving back any of their wages. If fact I am sure they are going to say that they have been over worked and need a raise. Let hope the CEP National officers go backwards as well. FROM CEP SaskCouncil. May …
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We received an interesting comment from a post Time for a Fresh Start in Elk Falls does the union have the obligation to take the offer to the membership? I guess it is up to the membership. One only has to look at what happened at Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Local 29 or for that matter Communications Energy and Paperworker Local 592 when they accepted deals that we thought to be outside the pattern. You can look at CEP Endorsed Deal That Will See Pensions Cut where originally the CEP National came out against taking cuts but the members rallied at the gates of the Mill and CEP …
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Since the lead ship in the Freedom Flotilla was flying a Turkish flag and most of the dead are Turkish, how will the Harper government respond if Turkey invokes Article 5 of the NATO charter and urges its NATO allies to join it in declaring war on Israel? Of course when the thought first occurred to me, it was really just snark on my part. But the Turkish president has already called for an emergency meeting of NATO. And as long we're wondering, let's wonder along with Glenn Greenwald. Just ponder what we'd be hearing if Iran had raided a humanitarian ship in international waters and killed 15 …
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Elk ProposalAt the town hall meeting the company on May 20th a member off the floor had asked the company to turn their proposal into something that looks like a proposed contract. They did that and sent Ian and myself a copy of that on Thursday night. As we are both out of town right now and won’t be returning until Tuesday, it is our intention to have another joint 630-1123 information meeting this coming week to show it to the members and fill them in on the latest news.We are looking at tentatively scheduling a meeting for Wed night at 7:00PM depending on the availability of our hall. I …
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Up to 19 killed in Israeli attack on Gaza aid flotilla What started as a peaceful demonstration of support for the 1.7 million people of Gaza, turned bloody Monday as Israeli forces boarded six ships attempting to run the three-year-old blockade Israel has maintained of the Gaza Strip. Reports of as many as 19 of the human rights activists being killed in the assault are giving Israel an international black eye, and threaten to dramatically change the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A quick review of other media stories shows the death toll being reported as anywhere from 10 to the 19 reported …
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Hours after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was presented with this Toronto Maple Leafs jersey in Toronto, Israeli commandos dropped from helicopters onto the lead vessel of a six ship international aid flotilla bound for Gaza and opened fire.Israeli Radio is reporting 16 to 19 killed with 30 injured and confirms the flotilla was in international waters. According to AFP, "the Israeli military censor ordered a block on all information regarding those injured or killed during the storming of the ship."The six ships bearing 10,000 tons of supplies and over 600 activists from 40 countries, …
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Hours after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was presented with this Toronto Maple Leafs jersey in Toronto, Israeli commandos dropped from helicopters onto the lead vessel of a six ship international aid flotilla bound for Gaza and opened fire. Israeli Radio is reporting 16 to 19 killed with 30 injured and confirms the flotilla was in international waters. According to AFP, "the Israeli military censor ordered a block on all information regarding those injured or killed during the storming of the ship."The six ships bearing 10,000 tons of supplies and over 600 activists from 40 countries, …
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Hat tip to Dale at Faith in Honest Doubt for reminding me what a clueless dickhead Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is when it comes to understanding internet privacy concerns. In his own words: Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity No, Mark.  Having two identities for yourself is an example of “having a job”.  Would it be great if nobody had to have a job?  Hell, yeah, sure it would.  But that’s not the world you or I live in.  You and I, Mark, live in a world where a Catholic school educator can be fired from her job for ticking …
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HUMOUR:BP'S PLAN C ????? …
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My 19 year old daughter on hiatus from her environmental studies program at UVic arrived in Australia on May 11th so I am finishing off her travels to South East Asia with her final journal entries for Vietnam, Thailand (again for the Full Moon party), Malaysia and Indonesia.  She informed me a few days ago she is now in Cairns and has acquired a job taking wildlife photos for a website that sells boat tours.  She obtained a temporary visa to work in Australia before she left so she could work and keep the cost of her trip down.  Last time I talked to her she was off to the wilds of Oz …
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Wo wir schon bei Mobilisierungsvideos sind, hier gleich noch zwei zum aktuellen Bildungsstreik. Auf einen heissen Sommer!Mobi-Video zum Bildungsstreik 2010 (9. Juni) from Bildungsstreik on Vimeo. …
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CEP National office not just undermines in Forestry it also does that in the telecommunications sector.More BCE bluesPosted: April 21, 2008, 8:38 AM by Diane FrancisHere are excerpts from a letter emailed to me from Paul MacIntyre, one of the unionized technicians and another he wrote (in Italics) to "Mike" Sabia after he "crowed" in the press and in a newsletter to employees about obtaining Industry Canada approving this deal which I have written is not in Canada's best interests:“We are currently in the midst of difficult "negotiations", with voting on a second ultimatum underway. Bell has …
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I’m really getting less and less impressed with things like doctorates, medical degrees and now, this. Just when we think Ezzy just can’t get more paranoid or stupid, he outdoes himself: …so did Gilles Duceppe of the xenophobic Bloc Quebecois, the party that gave us Jacques Parizeau and his “money and the ethnic vote” gibe against the Jews. Plus ca change. Must I correct him? I mean, must I, really? Okay, I will do just that.  How in your twisted little demented world did Gilles Duceppe’s Bloc Quebecois give us Jacques Parizeau when Parizeau was a Parti …
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Auch von Kanada aus helfe ich gerne bei der Mobilisierung zu den Anti-Krisen-Demos am 12. Juni. Hier also ein erster Mobiclip:Wir sind alle GriechInnen! Solidarität gegen Rassismus und Sozialabbau! Mehr Infos unter http://www.kapitalismuskrise.org/. …
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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economyRight. So they're just doing their very darnedest to deal with this completely unexpected environmental tragedy with their miles of boom and their top hats and their junk shots and their top kills - exactly the same useless shit that didn't work 30 years ago either.Still, they have to tiddle about with something while the media cameras are rolling and Obama frowns on a beach. Meanwhile according to this guy the real plume is five to seven miles away and spewing oil into the Gulf at the rate of 120,000 barrels a day. What …
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Who will I take my orders from, now? And in three….two….one!  How long will it take the creep to come up with a blog post for that one? …
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Ok, I don’t know if she tops it, but  she is definitely in a horse race with Vic Toews blaming the Liberals for G-8/G-20 debacle.  Yes! Our resident socon, philandering, Colonel Sanders look-a-like really did tell Craig Oliver that he is spending this obscene amount of money because he’s afraid the Liberals will talk. Catch the highlights here.  Craig Oliver suggested using the military as their payroll is lower and there is no overtime pay to worry about…and that’s when Vic Toews basically had his but…but…the Liberals! mode. Now there’s a switch! …
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ENVIRONMENT:EXPLOSION DEAD NOT LIKELY ONLY VICTIMS: The 11 workers who died during the explosion that started the largest oil spill ever seen in the world are unlikely to be the only victims. Clean-up workers on the Gulf Coast are reporting an increasing number of illnesses caused by their exposure to the oil washing up on the beaches. There is now a Facebook group dedicated to pressuring for proper safety procedures for the workers involved in the cleanup. It also has a wealth of information from previous similar accidents. See 'Support Health and Safety protections for Gulf Oil Spill …
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Dr. Dawg has the right idea -- a month away from the blog. Of course, he has an actual excuse -- academic research.Me? I'm just tired.Now I could yammer on endlessly regarding my justification ... hey, why don't I do just that? In a nutshell, I'm tired not so much of blogging but what it's turned into. Used to be it represented some humour, some snark and -- most importantly -- actual, genuine intellectual discourse.Well, those times are long gone, aren't they? Look around. If you're a Canadian progressive, who exactly are you going to exchange intellectual banter with? Hunter? Dodo? …
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Dr. Dawg has the right idea -- a month away from the blog. Of course, he has an actual excuse -- academic research.Me? I'm just tired.Now I could yammer on endlessly regarding my justification ... hey, why don't I do just that? In a nutshell, I'm tired not so much of blogging but what it's turned into. Used to be it represented some humour, some snark and -- most importantly -- actual, genuine intellectual discourse.Well, those times are long gone, aren't they? Look around. If you're a Canadian progressive, who exactly are you going to exchange intellectual banter with? Hunter? Dodo? …
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Shorter Toews:"The only thing preventing us from deploying armed troops in the streets of Toronto is what the Liberals might say."Remember this when pondering what a Conservative majority would do when faced with public protests and marches against it. …
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Law prof James Morton asks an interesting question on the G20 summit in Toronto:There doesn't appear to be a lawful authority to close Toronto to the public or to demand ID outside of the War Measures Act. Am I missing something or should we be expecting a proclamation? Well, aside from it actually being the Emergencies Act since 1988, one does wonder. …
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… but I play one on TV More videos in this series Related Posts (auto generated and almost random):A good video series on climate change Climate Change — isn’t it natural? Why are deniers afraid of debate? [UPDATED] Denier graph contradictions The problem with judging an argument by its merits …
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Conor made a major breakthrough today with a little help from Shrek and some careful planning by Mom and Dad.  Conor has not gone to a theater to see a movie since we took him to see Cars and left 5 minutes into that movie.  That was about 4 years ago and Conor has not wanted to go into a theater in the time since.  In fact Conor does not generally want to go into crowded environments like malls but we noticed he had been improving lately and we were waiting for an opportunity to try our luck with another movie. Recently he has been watching an old Shrek video so we had decided …
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