Monday, December 6, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
John Prine : Angel From Montgomery
I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that's grown old
If dreams were lightning thunder was desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago
Chorus:
Make me an angel that flies from montgom'ry
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go
When I was a young girl well, I had me a cowboy
He weren't much to look at, just free rambling man
But that was a long time and no matter how I try
The years just flow by like a broken down dam.
Repeat chorus:
There's flies in the kitchen I can hear 'em there buzzing
Friday, November 26, 2010
Student protests: the riot girls | UK news | The Guardian
Student protests: the riot girls | UK news | The Guardian
They are conscious of what they look like – angelic spirits of 1968. Their school ties are knotted around their heads as if dressing up as the Woodstock generation for a classroom history play, but this act of street theatre is for real. Some who were at the student protests this week accuse police of deliberately leaving a solitary van in the middle of the "kettled" crowd to invite trouble and provide incriminating media images of an out-of-control mob attacking it. Whatever, the schoolgirls who brought attacks on the police vehicle to an end by standing around it with linked hands in flower-power poses understood the power of images better than their elders.
For this picture tells a lot, very quickly. It tells us the menace of violence is real as anger grows among groups directly afflicted by the coalition's cuts. Yet it also reveals that most protesters are peaceful, idealistic, with a sense of history and of the gravity of their actions. Most of all it tells us how amazingly young many of them are.
Future historians may well write that the Conservative-Liberal coalition was doomed the day schoolchildren took to the streets to assert their right to a university education. Yet this picture tells us that this is not
They are conscious of what they look like – angelic spirits of 1968. Their school ties are knotted around their heads as if dressing up as the Woodstock generation for a classroom history play, but this act of street theatre is for real. Some who were at the student protests this week accuse police of deliberately leaving a solitary van in the middle of the "kettled" crowd to invite trouble and provide incriminating media images of an out-of-control mob attacking it. Whatever, the schoolgirls who brought attacks on the police vehicle to an end by standing around it with linked hands in flower-power poses understood the power of images better than their elders.
For this picture tells a lot, very quickly. It tells us the menace of violence is real as anger grows among groups directly afflicted by the coalition's cuts. Yet it also reveals that most protesters are peaceful, idealistic, with a sense of history and of the gravity of their actions. Most of all it tells us how amazingly young many of them are.
Future historians may well write that the Conservative-Liberal coalition was doomed the day schoolchildren took to the streets to assert their right to a university education. Yet this picture tells us that this is not
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Public Values - Bills come due for British privatizations
Public Values - Bills come due for British privatizations
care and education
by G.Monbiot- The Guardian
You've been told that nothing is sacred; that no state spending is safe from being cut or eroded through inflation. You've been misled. As the new public spending data released by the government shows, a £267bn bill has been both ringfenced and index-linked. This sum, spread over the next 50 years or so, guarantees the welfare not of state pensioners or children or the unemployed, but of a different class of customer. To make way, everything else must be cut, further and faster than it would otherwise have been.
This is the money the state owes to private corporations: the banks, construction and service companies that built infrastructure under the private finance initiative. In September 1997 the Labour government gave companies a legal guarantee that their payments would never be cut. Whenever there was a conflict between the needs of patients or pupils and private finance initiative (PFI) payments, it would thenceforth be resolved in favour of the consortia. The NHS owes private companies £50bn for infrastructure that cost only £11bn to build, plus £15bn for maintenance charges.
PFI contracts typically last for 25 or 30 years; in one case (Norfolk and Norwich University hospitals) for 60 years. In 1997 the British Medical Association warned: "The NHS could find itself with a facility which is obsolete in 10 or 20 years' time, but for which it will still have to pay for 30 years or more." No one's celebrating being proved right.
care and education
by G.Monbiot- The Guardian
You've been told that nothing is sacred; that no state spending is safe from being cut or eroded through inflation. You've been misled. As the new public spending data released by the government shows, a £267bn bill has been both ringfenced and index-linked. This sum, spread over the next 50 years or so, guarantees the welfare not of state pensioners or children or the unemployed, but of a different class of customer. To make way, everything else must be cut, further and faster than it would otherwise have been.
This is the money the state owes to private corporations: the banks, construction and service companies that built infrastructure under the private finance initiative. In September 1997 the Labour government gave companies a legal guarantee that their payments would never be cut. Whenever there was a conflict between the needs of patients or pupils and private finance initiative (PFI) payments, it would thenceforth be resolved in favour of the consortia. The NHS owes private companies £50bn for infrastructure that cost only £11bn to build, plus £15bn for maintenance charges.
PFI contracts typically last for 25 or 30 years; in one case (Norfolk and Norwich University hospitals) for 60 years. In 1997 the British Medical Association warned: "The NHS could find itself with a facility which is obsolete in 10 or 20 years' time, but for which it will still have to pay for 30 years or more." No one's celebrating being proved right.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Rae at the Toronto C.C. 24/11/10
Bob Rae accuses Tories of perverting foreign policy - The Globe and Mail
Saving his strongest language for the Conservatives, Mr. Rae said the Harper government has “tarnished” Canada’s reputation as a leader on human rights. He asserted, too, that the Tories will “embarrass” Canadians in Cancun at the upcoming UN climate change conference as they are sending a “part-time Environment Minister.”
Indeed, John Baird was put into the Environment portfolio recently after Jim Prentice stepped down to take a senior position at the CIBC. But he also still serves as Government House Leader.
“The problem is a dangerous cocktail of too many poor ideas and too few people of talent and ability,” Mr. Rae asserted. “It’s a ‘captain control’ government that sees the world in simplistic terms: good guys and bad guys, more money for weapons, less for aid, and on it goes.”
In an interview after his speech, Mr. Rae said he has encountered raised eyebrows and questions from both political friends and foes about his work with the government. “There is an obligation on those of us in public life to put some issues beyond partisanship and something like that seems to me to be very clear,” he said.
His speech was harsh – and it was not the only one. Two other Liberal MPs, Dominic LeBlanc and Siobhan Coady, were delivering similar messages in Ottawa and Halifax.
Saving his strongest language for the Conservatives, Mr. Rae said the Harper government has “tarnished” Canada’s reputation as a leader on human rights. He asserted, too, that the Tories will “embarrass” Canadians in Cancun at the upcoming UN climate change conference as they are sending a “part-time Environment Minister.”
Indeed, John Baird was put into the Environment portfolio recently after Jim Prentice stepped down to take a senior position at the CIBC. But he also still serves as Government House Leader.
“The problem is a dangerous cocktail of too many poor ideas and too few people of talent and ability,” Mr. Rae asserted. “It’s a ‘captain control’ government that sees the world in simplistic terms: good guys and bad guys, more money for weapons, less for aid, and on it goes.”
In an interview after his speech, Mr. Rae said he has encountered raised eyebrows and questions from both political friends and foes about his work with the government. “There is an obligation on those of us in public life to put some issues beyond partisanship and something like that seems to me to be very clear,” he said.
His speech was harsh – and it was not the only one. Two other Liberal MPs, Dominic LeBlanc and Siobhan Coady, were delivering similar messages in Ottawa and Halifax.
PhD grad rejects diploma | theVARSITY.ca
PhD grad rejects diploma | theVARSITY.ca
His main issue of concern was the new Munk School of Global Affairs, launched after a $35 million donation from Peter Munk and his wife. Munk is Chairman of Barrick Gold, a mining company registered in Canada.
It was a sentence in the April press release, detailing the donation that upset Zoghi: “The Munk School positions U of T as a leading player in a broad range of subjects from water to cyber security.”
Zoghi alleges Barrick Gold is “known for water disputes around its gold mines” and mentioned an ongoing lawsuit between the company and the authors of Noir Canada, a book examining mining-related corruption in Africa.
His main issue of concern was the new Munk School of Global Affairs, launched after a $35 million donation from Peter Munk and his wife. Munk is Chairman of Barrick Gold, a mining company registered in Canada.
It was a sentence in the April press release, detailing the donation that upset Zoghi: “The Munk School positions U of T as a leading player in a broad range of subjects from water to cyber security.”
Zoghi alleges Barrick Gold is “known for water disputes around its gold mines” and mentioned an ongoing lawsuit between the company and the authors of Noir Canada, a book examining mining-related corruption in Africa.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Sedes y expectativas | El Periódico de Quintana Roo
Sedes y expectativas | El Periódico de Quintana Roo
The world's attention will focus on both sites for 16 days, in which the COP-16 will also showcase to reflect on the devastation of natural resources under the pretext of investment and jobs, as an example of what should and not happen; lesson on the proper way to use resources and how to finish them, real-time evidence that the change of focus, there is resistance, but also signs of change unavoidable.
Parallel to this, the COP-16 summit aims to be green. An event that generates the smallest footprint. A ministerial meeting is intended to include some form of civil society, though it disempower decision to discuss the agreements.
A space that will incorporate technological advances, taking advantage of the
The world's attention will focus on both sites for 16 days, in which the COP-16 will also showcase to reflect on the devastation of natural resources under the pretext of investment and jobs, as an example of what should and not happen; lesson on the proper way to use resources and how to finish them, real-time evidence that the change of focus, there is resistance, but also signs of change unavoidable.
Parallel to this, the COP-16 summit aims to be green. An event that generates the smallest footprint. A ministerial meeting is intended to include some form of civil society, though it disempower decision to discuss the agreements.
A space that will incorporate technological advances, taking advantage of the
Monday, November 22, 2010
Balancing budgets: Don’t do it on backs of cities
Balancing budgets: Don’t do it on backs of cities - thestar.com
Balancing budgets: Don’t do it on backs of cities
Published On Thu Nov 18 2010EmailPrint(36) Share Rss ArticleComments (36)Ads by Google
Debt Bomb is Coming
The U.S. dollar is a ticking time
bomb and we have the countdown
MoneyMorning.com/Debt_Bomb
If history is any measure of what’s to come, Canada’s municipal leaders have good reason to worry about a possible new round of downloading by federal and provincial governments. In the 1990s, cities nationwide were saddled with downloaded costs as the upper levels of government balanced their books by slashing transfers and forcing more responsibilities onto communities. Now Queen’s Park and Ottawa are, again, struggling with multi-billion-dollar deficits.
Seeking to avoid a repetition of past disaster, more than 100 civic leaders in Ottawa Wednesday urged the Conservative government to exempt the municipal level from future cost-cutting and new federally-imposed expenses.
“Canadians want Ottawa to deal with its budget deficit without shifting more costs onto their property tax bills,” said Hans Cunningham, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). He’s right. When cities are stuck with bills that rightly belong to another government, they are forced to divert scarce property tax dollars from their core services, including efforts to fix a $123 billion municipal infrastructure deficit.
Diversion of spending away from infrastructure can lead to lost productivity as a result of worsening transportation gridlock and corroding water systems. The FCM was especially concerned yesterday about new federal wastewater rules that could impose $20 billion in additional costs on communities, mainly outside Ontario.
Municipalities are primarily the responsibility of the provinces. Burt since 2004, Ottawa has made a series of commendable investments in the municipal sector, including sharing money from the federal tax on gasoline, rebating the GST charged on city purchases, and funding certain infrastructure projects. Toronto has also received federal funding for waterfront redevelopment.
It would be a major step backward if the federal government were to attempt to balance its budget by rolling back these gains.
Balancing budgets: Don’t do it on backs of cities
Published On Thu Nov 18 2010EmailPrint(36) Share Rss ArticleComments (36)Ads by Google
Debt Bomb is Coming
The U.S. dollar is a ticking time
bomb and we have the countdown
MoneyMorning.com/Debt_Bomb
If history is any measure of what’s to come, Canada’s municipal leaders have good reason to worry about a possible new round of downloading by federal and provincial governments. In the 1990s, cities nationwide were saddled with downloaded costs as the upper levels of government balanced their books by slashing transfers and forcing more responsibilities onto communities. Now Queen’s Park and Ottawa are, again, struggling with multi-billion-dollar deficits.
Seeking to avoid a repetition of past disaster, more than 100 civic leaders in Ottawa Wednesday urged the Conservative government to exempt the municipal level from future cost-cutting and new federally-imposed expenses.
“Canadians want Ottawa to deal with its budget deficit without shifting more costs onto their property tax bills,” said Hans Cunningham, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). He’s right. When cities are stuck with bills that rightly belong to another government, they are forced to divert scarce property tax dollars from their core services, including efforts to fix a $123 billion municipal infrastructure deficit.
Diversion of spending away from infrastructure can lead to lost productivity as a result of worsening transportation gridlock and corroding water systems. The FCM was especially concerned yesterday about new federal wastewater rules that could impose $20 billion in additional costs on communities, mainly outside Ontario.
Municipalities are primarily the responsibility of the provinces. Burt since 2004, Ottawa has made a series of commendable investments in the municipal sector, including sharing money from the federal tax on gasoline, rebating the GST charged on city purchases, and funding certain infrastructure projects. Toronto has also received federal funding for waterfront redevelopment.
It would be a major step backward if the federal government were to attempt to balance its budget by rolling back these gains.
Selinger goes to Washington: water the issue - Winnipeg Free Press
Selinger goes to Washington: water the issue - Winnipeg Free Press
U.S. and Canadian leaders say they made progress Monday in resolving a number of long-standing water policy differences between them, including on the thorny issue of the rising Devils Lake.
Premier Greg Selinger was in Washington Monday for meetings with U.S. federal and state officials. Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Gary Doer, was also involved in the talks.
Canadian and American officials issued a joint communique late in the day saying that preventing a Devils Lake overflow through its natural outlet at Tolna Coulee was a top priority. Water quality there is at least 250 per cent worse than at East Devils Lake.
The U.S. Geological Service estimates there is a a one-in-20 chance of natural flooding through Tolna Coulee by 2013, and a one in 15 chance by 2015.
To prevent that worst-case scenario, Canadian and U.S. officials have agreed to transfer more water out of Devils Lake through controlled outlets.
"The parties agreed to expedite analysis of the effects of proposed outlet expansions on downstream water quality," the communique said.
Meanwhile, the two countries also discussed the potential for flooding along the Red River next spring. North Dakota and Manitoba agreed to share information and expertise in an effort to protect citizens on both sides of the border.
The two sides also made progress towards an integrated Red River basin nutrient-management strategy. They said they will identify measures to reduce nutrient loading in co-operation with neighbouring jurisdictions.
U.S. and Canadian leaders say they made progress Monday in resolving a number of long-standing water policy differences between them, including on the thorny issue of the rising Devils Lake.
Premier Greg Selinger was in Washington Monday for meetings with U.S. federal and state officials. Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Gary Doer, was also involved in the talks.
Canadian and American officials issued a joint communique late in the day saying that preventing a Devils Lake overflow through its natural outlet at Tolna Coulee was a top priority. Water quality there is at least 250 per cent worse than at East Devils Lake.
The U.S. Geological Service estimates there is a a one-in-20 chance of natural flooding through Tolna Coulee by 2013, and a one in 15 chance by 2015.
To prevent that worst-case scenario, Canadian and U.S. officials have agreed to transfer more water out of Devils Lake through controlled outlets.
"The parties agreed to expedite analysis of the effects of proposed outlet expansions on downstream water quality," the communique said.
Meanwhile, the two countries also discussed the potential for flooding along the Red River next spring. North Dakota and Manitoba agreed to share information and expertise in an effort to protect citizens on both sides of the border.
The two sides also made progress towards an integrated Red River basin nutrient-management strategy. They said they will identify measures to reduce nutrient loading in co-operation with neighbouring jurisdictions.
Your Defence News - $3.5 Billion Full-Funding Contract Awarded For Fourth Lot Of Lockheed Martin F-35s
Your Defence News - $3.5 Billion Full-Funding Contract Awarded For Fourth Lot Of Lockheed Martin F-35s
$3.5 Billion Full-Funding Contract Awarded For Fourth Lot Of Lockheed Martin F-35s
Monday, Nov 22, 2010
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has received a $3.5 billion contract modification from the U.S. Department of Defense to manufacture 31 F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters in the fourth lot of low-rate initial production (LRIP). The contract also funds manufacturing-support equipment, flight test instrumentation and ancillary mission equipment. Including the long-lead funding previously received, the total contract value for LRIP 4 is $3.9 billion..
Under the contract, Lockheed Martin will produce 10 F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variants for the U.S. Air Force, 16 F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variants for the U.S. Marine Corps, four F-35C carrier variants for the U.S. Navy and one F-35B for the United Kingdom. Additionally, the Netherlands has the option to procure one F-35A..
“We are focused on getting 5th generation fighter capability into the hands of U.S. and allied pilots as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible,” said Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and F-35 program general manager..
The LRIP 4 order is in addition to 31 F-35s contracted under LRIPs 1-3, three of which already have exited Lockheed Martin’s mile-long factory in Fort Worth. Nineteen test aircraft also have rolled out. The U.S. and eight nations partnering in the project plan to acquire more than 3,100 F-35 fighters, and Israel recently announced plans to purchase
The F-35 program has about 900 suppliers in 45 states, and directly and indirectly employs more than 127,000 people. Thousands more are employed in the F-35 partner countries, which have invested more than $4 billion in the project. Those countries are the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Norway..
The F-35 is a supersonic, multi-role, 5th generation stealth fighter. Three F-35 variants are in production, each derived from a common design, developed together and using the same sustainment infrastructure worldwide..
Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems..
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 133,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation’s 2009 sales from continuing operations were $44.0 billion..
F-35 are all the fashion these days...
$3.5 Billion Full-Funding Contract Awarded For Fourth Lot Of Lockheed Martin F-35s
Monday, Nov 22, 2010
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has received a $3.5 billion contract modification from the U.S. Department of Defense to manufacture 31 F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters in the fourth lot of low-rate initial production (LRIP). The contract also funds manufacturing-support equipment, flight test instrumentation and ancillary mission equipment. Including the long-lead funding previously received, the total contract value for LRIP 4 is $3.9 billion..
Under the contract, Lockheed Martin will produce 10 F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variants for the U.S. Air Force, 16 F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variants for the U.S. Marine Corps, four F-35C carrier variants for the U.S. Navy and one F-35B for the United Kingdom. Additionally, the Netherlands has the option to procure one F-35A..
“We are focused on getting 5th generation fighter capability into the hands of U.S. and allied pilots as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible,” said Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and F-35 program general manager..
The LRIP 4 order is in addition to 31 F-35s contracted under LRIPs 1-3, three of which already have exited Lockheed Martin’s mile-long factory in Fort Worth. Nineteen test aircraft also have rolled out. The U.S. and eight nations partnering in the project plan to acquire more than 3,100 F-35 fighters, and Israel recently announced plans to purchase
The F-35 program has about 900 suppliers in 45 states, and directly and indirectly employs more than 127,000 people. Thousands more are employed in the F-35 partner countries, which have invested more than $4 billion in the project. Those countries are the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Norway..
The F-35 is a supersonic, multi-role, 5th generation stealth fighter. Three F-35 variants are in production, each derived from a common design, developed together and using the same sustainment infrastructure worldwide..
Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems..
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 133,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation’s 2009 sales from continuing operations were $44.0 billion..
F-35 are all the fashion these days...
Manitoba Mining - Vale cuts Thompson residents
CBC News - Manitoba - Vale cuts startle Thompson residents
People in the Manitoba city of Thompson are wondering how the community will cope in the wake of an impending closure of its largest employer.
Brazilian mining company Vale SA announced Wednesday it will close its smelter and refinery by 2015, meaning the loss of 500 jobs in the community.
The city's top politician suggested he was blindsided by the cuts.
"We certainly didn't see that at this current time," said Mayor Tim Johnson.
Johnson said he hopes something can be done to change the company's mind.
"No one wants to see the loss of 500 jobs, but one of the opportunities that we have is to take a look at the window that's been provided of five years and say, 'how does this play out?,'" Johnson said.
David Krueger, who works at a local boat and snowmobile shop, suggested the closure would spell bad news for the city of about 14,000.
"It's going to definitely affect business, for sure," Krueger said.
Premier Greg Selinger, along with ministers Dave Chomiak and Steve Ashton are in the city Thursday to talk with company officials to see if Vale SA's plans could somehow be revised.
Thompson is located about 750 kilometres north of Winnipeg
People in the Manitoba city of Thompson are wondering how the community will cope in the wake of an impending closure of its largest employer.
Brazilian mining company Vale SA announced Wednesday it will close its smelter and refinery by 2015, meaning the loss of 500 jobs in the community.
The city's top politician suggested he was blindsided by the cuts.
"We certainly didn't see that at this current time," said Mayor Tim Johnson.
Johnson said he hopes something can be done to change the company's mind.
"No one wants to see the loss of 500 jobs, but one of the opportunities that we have is to take a look at the window that's been provided of five years and say, 'how does this play out?,'" Johnson said.
David Krueger, who works at a local boat and snowmobile shop, suggested the closure would spell bad news for the city of about 14,000.
"It's going to definitely affect business, for sure," Krueger said.
Premier Greg Selinger, along with ministers Dave Chomiak and Steve Ashton are in the city Thursday to talk with company officials to see if Vale SA's plans could somehow be revised.
Thompson is located about 750 kilometres north of Winnipeg
Saturday, November 20, 2010
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