The Raid - A Novel. By Ken Merkley

Anyone walking past Trafford Publishing in Victoria could drop in, pay $30., and have them print up a copy of Ken Merkley's book, The Raid - A Novel.

I was so eager to see the book, I paid the extra $15 to have it Priority Posted to me. After all, the cover shows the famous photo of the police carrying file boxes out of the B.C. Legislature on 28 December 2003. The cover also says "RCMP Corporal Tim Murphy uncovers inter-connected criminal activities leading him to a shocking secret with major implications for the Province of British Columbia and all of Canada." The back cover talks about a major federal political party which may have used the proceeds from drug sales to pay membership fees for thousands of new party recruits. With tragic ramifications for B.C. and Canada. Doesn't this sound like a book about The Legislature Raids?

Well, it isn't.

Not until the reader gets to Page 377, with only 2 more pages to go, does it become perfectly clear that those of us who search for the significance of the Legislature raids ... have been sucker-punched. Forget minor annoyances such as crossing "Georgia Straight" or hearing from "legal council". Forget where Tim chats up Tomm. Let's just go to where the hero (Tim, not Tomm) meets a political analyst who explains corruption, p.377. This is the nub of the story. Tim, our hero, has just arrested Mr Big and is being asked if he thought Mr Big would have got away with his evil schemes, if Tim hadn't caught him.

The analyst (Tim explains) says yes, with the political climate in B.C. "at a stage where it is feasible for someone like [Mr Big] to succeed ... where the stage has been set by many years of corrupt business-oriented governments being in power in the province and across the country. Especially in B.C., their policies have made the electorate truly cynical, apathetic, defeatist. When you combine that with a monopolistic media that supports their agenda, the voters feel that they can do nothing to change the situation and are truly open to manipulation."

RCMP Corporal Tim Murphy (believe it or not) continues: The political analyst "said you have to look at the effects of privatization and globalization ... wages and benefits have been driven down ... businesses increasingly manufacture their products offshore. Then they put in place laws that remove the right to strike for most public sector workers, destroyed the public health care system, and cut back on pensions and workers' compensation benefits. This created an atmosphere of fear amongst the working class.

"Naturally" continues our mythical hero, "you would expect them to turn to pro-labour parties to form an alternative government, but the media has hammered away at the dastardly consequences should they ever again obtain power ...

"Next you add corruption. Voters witness greedy governments and businesses working together to reward each others' friends." Legislating huge salary increases for themselves, switching parties, with punishment for blatant infractions going only to minor players or whistle-blowers. "This, in turn, causes the public to determine it is fine to take advantage of the system ... in fact, this political analyst thinks the political climate is now such that a majority of the electorate believes it is permissible to accept money for casting their votes and it's especially okay to be paid for voting for a particular party.

Not everybody feels this way, says Tim. "But enough do, that the same governments continue to be re-elected no matter how greedy and corrupt they are." [Which sounds like the story-outline for a really good book! - BC Mary]

So Tim has captured Mr Big, "the first to take advantage of this business-dominated political climate to attempt to obtain total control of the government anywhere in Canada. And if we don't learn quickly from this lesson, he won't be the last."

But Corporal Tim, his friend asks, "You say it is the first, but wasn't there a similar episode a few years ago that started out the same with a raid on the legislature?

"Yes ... some of the circumstances were the same, including the police pinpointing a couple of cabinet ministers' aides who were accused of taking advantage of their positions to better themselves economically. But it turned out they were just a couple of two-bit players who may have been trying to benefit from the provincial sell-off of a Crown corporation by feeding insider information to one of the bidders. I don't even remember what, if anything, they were charged with, but it pales in significance to this operation."

"So," says Tim's friend, "you wouldn't put Mr Big's scheme in the same category?"

"No," says the Corporal (soon to be Sergeant) Tim. [Now pay attention, folks, here's the big clue about this book ...] "Over the last 10 years matters have become a good deal worse than they were then. People are willing to play for keeps and be very brutal to get what they want when the rewards for success are so much more meaningful. After all, this is 2013."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ken Merkley is a retired senior military officer living near Victoria, B.C.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Posted By BC Mary to The Legislature Raids
The Legislature Raids

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Gordo getting ready to sail off, pillage, rob and
rape his way acoss B.C.

Neocon-Liberal Piracy of The People's Treasure...
BC Hydro, Our Creeks and Rivers

Below is an article sent to me by a reader of Freedom of Speech.ca, from a published source unknown to him or us. It is of an issue we have dealt with here many times of recent, and of sufficient interest that I am going to print it anyway. Should the author come across this article, contact me at jerry_coyote@yahoo.ca , and if he or she disapproves, I will certainly withdraw it. Otherwise I will put up such additional credits and links as this author might wish.


by Austin Boyd


A select few industrialists and their politician friends are withholding vital information about BC Hydro that could destroy the Crown corporation and send power prices soaring. Billions of dollars worth of electric power contracts are being negotiated in secret and supporting legislation passed through orders in council, with no public debate.

Premier Gordon Campbell is not allowing the public, or even municipal governments which most closely represent the public, to have input on any private hydroelectric developments, following passage of Bill 30. As a result, various stakeholder and citizen groups are now organizing their own meetings to examine the facts.

On March 22, World Water Day, we need to talk about dividing resources among the populations of Earth as corporations increasingly “buy” public water assets. Canadians are no different from the people of Congo or Bolivia. To believe we are immune to water thefts will cost us dearly. Former prime minister Brian Mulroney started it when he agreed to a NAFTA provision which included water as a commodity, after promising Canadians he would never sign away our water.

If readers take nothing else from this article, they should be aware of this: The people of BC have been receiving 100 percent of the benefits from BC Hydro because of a system put in place in the 1950s. Now we will get only three percent because of private power purchase agreements. BC Hydro is being loaded with enormous debt, enough to eventually bankrupt it as future income from hydroelectricity is being diverted into private contracts.

The BC energy plan was imposed on us without debate and utility rates will never stop rising because of it. The Ashlu River power licence, for instance, was sold to Ledcor for $10,000. The public overwhelmingly rejected Ledcor’s zoning application to the regional district. The BC government signed a power purchase agreement between Ledcor and BC Hydro that guarantees that the people of BC will buy power from the licensee at inflated prices for 40 years. After that the licence holder can sell BC power for whatever the market will bare anywhere in North America.

Water licences come with ownership of adjacent lands plus the dams, turbines, tunnels and other facilities will belong to the company in perpetuity. If the Ashlu River project gets connected to the grid, it will initially generate at least $50 million per year in income to the private owners.

Whether or not you know about TILMA, SPP, NAFTA, WTO or the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, BC is very close to an energy catastrophe. Hundreds of rivers are at risk and we will never get back to an efficient, functional BC Hydro if we don’t act now.

The BC Utilities Commission found that the premier’s offer of $203 million per year in perpetuity to Alcan for power was not in the public interest. The profit was 1,320 percent and there was an extra gift of $100 million as a signing bonus for Alcan.

Currently, there are private purchase orders with BC Hydro worth $24 billion, which need public scrutiny. The rule of law makes us different from other places in the world. It is time to invoke the rule of law. A fully transparent inquiry is necessary to avert what has the potential to become BC’s crime of the century. In the simplest of terms the people of British Columbia are being defrauded of their energy sources and their water.

All across the province, work crews are assembling for an assault on more than 500 wilderness rivers and the premier is still trying to give Alcan the Nechako River. When Campbell announces his next move soon, he will say the Natives are supportive of the government. A public inquiry would allow time for the truth to come out, which is that the indigenous people of BC are not nearly as supportive of these private hydro deals as the government would have us believe.

Replica of Actual Flag of Blackbeard

Time for Citizen Concern
About the Betrayal of
The Province and The Country to US Corporate Interests

Resources:

www.worldwaterday.org
www.ourrivers.ca
www.hydrofactsbc.ca
www.publicpowerbc.ca
www.canadians.org
www.citizensforpublicpower.ca

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Another

Soap Box
Open Thread.....













"Gord and His Scribe" by Bruno The Hairdresser

A blank piece of paper for you kiddies to scribble on, while Daddy is away tending to what has to be done today. Entertain yourselves and behave.

Be nice to each other, and don't worry about trolls or bogey men. Daddy has checked under the bed and in the closet, and vanquished all Evil. :-)

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NOT JUST CUTE, CUDDLY
NATIONAL COPS!!

What's wrong with this picture?

RCMP
The National Police Force Gone Bad

Something leaps out at you.
by Robin Matthews

RCMP team leader in December, 2003, "of the investigation into whether any fraud or breach of trust offences were committed in relation to [the sale of ] B.C. Rail" was Sergeant Debruyckere "brother-in-law of then-Executive Director of the B.C. Liberal Party, Kelly ReichertŠ. [who was] on the Provincial Liberal Party Election Campaign Team with [Finance] minister [Gary] Collins and acted as the Campaign DirectorŠ." (pp. 6-7)

In 2004 a leak of information was recorded regarding "star" crown witness against Basi and Virk, Eric Bornmann. "Specifically, the leaked information pertained to Mr. Richert knowing that Mr. Bornmann had been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange forŠinformation against Messrs. Basi and Virk." (p. 7)

This, and more, is in the Application for Disclosure of February 26, 2007, filed in the Supreme Court of B.C. by the Defence in the Basi, Basi, Virk matter of the legislature search warrant "raids" on Dec. 28, 2003 which seem - more and more - to be the tail that is wagging the dog in the dirty (perhaps criminal) sale of B.C. Rail by the Gordon Campbell government.

The implications of Liberal/RCMP connections to the legitimacy of the sale, to the role of Gordon Campbell and leading cabinet ministers, and to the focus on the three men charged may well turn out to be enormous. Ominously, the Application for Disclosure (item 62, p. 8) reports that finance minister Gary Collins may have been guilty of telling Dave Basi to inform U.S. OmniTRAX - a supposed bidder for B.C. Rail - that a "consolation prize" would be awarded if they would fake continued interest. Collins then met with OmniTRAX "Executives privately at Villa Del Luppo Restaurant" on December 12, 2003. Nonetheless, "the RCMP elected not to conduct further investigation of Minister Collins".

Before the search warrant "raids" on the legislature on December 28, "RCMP", according to the Application for Disclosure "were focused on developing a major communication and public relations strategy to be executed following the search of the Legislature". That, says the Application, involved "a massive media campaign, talk of the "cancer of organized crime", and an RCMP "media release and televised briefing on December 29 [which] drew a clear connection between Mr. Basi, Mr. Virk and organized crime." (item 59, p. 8)

We have to keep in mind that the Application for Disclosure comes from Defence which wishes to bring forward material demonstrating their clients are not guilty of crimes. The presentation to the court, however, pointing to evidence that is apparently solid must be taken seriously, for it is not in the interest of Defence counsel or of their clients to be frivolous or to appear to be misleading the court.

Perhaps to understand fully what a "major communication and public relations strategy" for the RCMP might entail we should look at a little history and experience.

What follows is information that suggests the RCMP has had highly questionable relations with the Liberal forces of Gordon Campbell, that the relations go a long way back, and that they appear to suggest the RCMP has gone bad and needs total national reconstruction from the top down. A point that has to be born in mind, of key importance, is that there is no effective RCMP oversight body in Canada. None. (The reasons for that go back to the McDonald Report in the 1980s).

The system which involves the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP (the ONLY review organization) is patently ridiculous, an obvious, expensive game of smoke and mirrors. The Commission - let us say - agrees an investigation should be made. The RCMP investigates itself. The Commission may interpret the investigation. The result goes to the top levels of the RCMP for consideration. RCMP has no obligation to do anything, to mete out penalty, to censure officers, anything. It usually writes a little note back to the Commission ( saying "get lost" in one way or another).

My own complaint concerned the RCMP investigation of Glen Clark, BC premier, charged with having accepted "favours" for influence. The RCMP alleged they had begun the investigation I asked for - the RCMP investigating the RCMP. I received a letter from an RCMP officer a few months after my complaint saying they had 28 or 29 volumes of "evidentiary material" and they were terminating the investigation. Period. I wrote in protest and heard absolutely nothing.

More than three years after I had lodged the complaint - having received not a single word for years - I received a telephone call from the second-in-command at the Commission saying they had completed their investigation and I would be receiving the report after it had been sent to the top level of the RCMP and had been finalized. It arrived with the conclusion that two experienced RCMP officers had WRONGFULLY terminated the investigation. The Commission recommended better training of officers to prevent such things happening, with which the RCMP top brass had no quarrel. And the Commission stated it would leave to the discretion of the RCMP whether they would re-open the investigation or not. The RCMP chose not to do so. For all intents and purposes there was no investigation whatever. The result is that I may fairly retain my conviction that the British Columbia RCMP worked with the Gordon Campbell forces to fake a case that could be fought against Glen Clark with the intention of destroying his political career.

The Glen Clark case arose out of the politics of the time - Liberals under Gordon Campbell, in fact, fighting to break the hold of the NDP on B.C. (More of that to come.)
A totally non-political complaint receiving the same kind of insane treatment as mine involved an ordinary citizen in the Kelowna area who believed he had very important information about the (still unsolved) Mindy Tran murder case. The RCMP refused to take his testimony, coerced him, and much more. The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP took years to do nothing whatever about his case. Find out about all that at <www.transfixed.net> or at <www.mindytran.com>

I cite the two widely different cases to show that the Commission for Public Complaints is not a genuine oversight body. Whatever it thinks it does, in fact it provides a cover for RCMP wrong-doing because it gives the public the impression that RCMP illegalities and other kinds of misbehaviour are dealt with - and they are not. As a result, the RCMP can work - legally and illegally - for political forces of its choice and face no penalty or serious review.

In B.C. - to trace a single, revealing line - we may ask if the RCMP has not only obstructed the court proceedings in regard to the Basi, Basi, Virk charges, but has it been working for Gordon Campbell Liberal interests over more than a decade? And has it been perfecting "major communications and public relations" strategies that involve what has come to be called (using RCMP phrasing) "smear and disinformation" tactics?

In the mid-nineties (with Ujjal Dosanjh in the Attorney General position), an almost insane "war" was conducted against Native people and non-Native supporters (about 30) at Gustafsen Lake. (read From Attica to Gastafsen Lake, by Splitting the Sky and Sandra Bruderer, self-published, 2001). The incident involved the RCMP, the Canadian Armed forces, and, it is alleged, wildly illegal activities on the part of "the forces of order". Of particular interest was one RCMP officer who had a significant place in the set of events.

His name is Sergeant Peter Montague. At one point he convinced CBC radio to give special emergency time to broadcast into the Gustafsen Lake community because, apparently, of an impending crisis involving threat to human life. Professor Anthony Hall, a Native Studies expert, and another researcher, concluded the supposed basis for impending crisis argued by Montague was, almost without question, a fabrication.

RCMP Media Relations officer, Montague was a very busy man throughout the operation. At one point in the set of events he was caught on an RCMP videotape - parts of which are missing - saying with a smile "Smear campaigns are our [the RCMP's] specialty" (p. 435, >From Attica to Gustafsen Lake). His words were echoed by Sergeant Dennis Ryan who admitted in court to his statement caught also on videotape that plans were to employ "smear and disinformation". Ryan admitted in court, also, that the RCMP "illegally used juvenile criminal records of some of the militants they believed to be in the camp" with the purpose of discrediting. (p. 435, From Attica to Gustafsen Lake)

At one level the Gustafsen Lake "standoff" was a huge experimental chamber for "smear and disinformation" tactics, RCMP/media collaboration, government complicity, and try-outs of illegal activity to further policy ends. I have barely touched on the astonishing story.

Ujjal Dosanjh made his way to the premiership after (as Attorney General) he had publicly reported the criminal investigation of Glen Clark who, then, resigned in the appropriate fashion. What ensued I call "the fraudulent investigation and trial of Glen Clark, premier of B.C." Dosanjh's New Democrats lost the election to Gordon Campbell (as I saw it, almost as if that was what Dosanjh wanted). Probably for the first time in Commonwealth history, a premier (Dosanjh) announced nearly a week before the election that he expected to lose it. In a short time Dosanjh was working for the Liberal Party. He became a part of Paul Martin's B.C. "dream team" and went to Ottawa to become a federal Liberal cabinet minister.

Peter Montague's transformation is equally interesting. He was twice wooed by Gordon Campbell, it is reported, to run for the B.C. Liberal Party, but refused. After Gustafsen Lake, however, he joined the branch of the B.C. RCMP that conducted the "investigation" of Glen Clark, becoming "the chief investigator in the Clark corruption case" (Globe and Mail, Oct 30 02). He was a part of the strange search warrant "raid" on Glen Clark's East Vancouver home that was marked by the presence of BCTV, filming what became in the minds of many people part of a smear campaign, part of - you might say, to quote from the February 26, 2007 Defence Application for Disclosure in the Supreme Court of B.C. - "a massive media campaignŠ." Glen Clark (in 2002) described the BCTV event as "a carefully orchestrated strategy to maximize media exposure".

Clark's comment was made in the context of a special retirement luncheon for Peter Montague held by journalists on October 29, 2002. Robert Matas, in his Globe and Mail story the next day, wrote "The Vancouver television crew that filmed former premier Glen Clark in his kitchen during a controversial police raid gave a retirement gift yesterday to the chief investigator in the Clark corruption case.

Gary Hanney, a cameraman with BCTV, made the presentationŠ. Senior BCTV reporter, John Daly, who was at Mr. Clark's house during the police raid on March 2, 1999, was also at the luncheon.

Both Mr. Daly and Mr. Hanney refused to explain why they presented a token gift to Staff Sergeant Montague."

Calls have been made in both cases - the Gustafsen Lake "stand-off" and the Glen Clark investigation and trial - for full-scale public inquiries. They have not been forthcoming. As a result, the RCMP feels more and more at ease in its behaviour and practice. On April 10, 2004, the Vancouver Sun reported "RCMP Commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli and members of Canada's diplomatic corps win honours as big spenders of expense accounts for cabinet ministers and top civil servants". (p. A9) Fallen into disgrace over his conduct involving the RCMP and Maher Arar three years later, Zaccardelli seems to have continued his grand "lifestyle". The Globe and Mail reported in March, 2007 that the "RCMP paid a communications consultant almost $25,000 to help Guiliano Zaccardelli prepare for parliamentary hearings that ultimately led to the former commissioner's resignation." What would he have said if he hadn't the benefit of $25,000 worth of help?

We should not forget that at RCMP headquarters the very large pension trouble and misuse of money commented upon by the auditor general involved misuse of expense accounts, "rampant" nepotism in human resources, miss-sourcing of contracts for $2 million, misuse of consultants, and a case in which "an officer was promoted after working on his superior's house". (Vanc. Sun, Sept 23 07 A4). Notice that no discipline or penalty was meted out to any of the people involved. But innocent Glen Clark, we remember, was charged, investigated for months and months in full public spotlight, tried for 136 days, and ruined for a rumour that he might have thought of giving a favour to someone who worked on his house. Was that whole piece of history the result of a carefully calculated "smear and disinformation" campaign?

Does the RCMP live in a world of double standards? Is it free to commit crimes, certain it will never be penalized? Does it work increasingly for and with - legally and illegally - particular political parties on the Right? The answer to all those questions seems to be: Yes.
Careful Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin did something of a summary of RCMP lows on December 7, 2006, listing many large fiascos - but neither the Gustafsen Lake nor the Glen Clark scandals were among them, perhaps because there are too many RCMP violations of integrity to keep track of. Martin gives room for "honest mistakes". Then he adds: "But too many of the RCMP's recent activities haven't had the look of honest mistakes" (A19). Will the "B.C. legislature raids" be added to the list of large, shady (perhaps criminal) undertakings by the RCMP?

Replacement (temporary?) for the disgraced Guiliano Zaccardelli is former top B.C. RCMP officer Beverley Busson. She was a senior officer and then top officer during many of the events described here. She was top officer when a brother-in-law of a leading B.C. Liberal was "the team leader of the investigation into whether any fraud or breach of trust offences [especially, of course, among Liberals] were committed in relation to B.C. Rail". (item 49, p. 6) She was top officer during the time when - some have alleged - there has been an appearance of a concentration upon the charges against Basi, Basi, and Virk and a parallel RCMP neglect, perhaps, of investigation and (maybe) charges against senior legislature and non-legislature Liberals. She was top officer when Defence was arguing that the RCMP was not cooperating and, perhaps, was blocking evidence necessary to the conduct of the trial presided over by Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett.

And so we come back to the Supreme Court of B.C. where the Basi, Basi, and Virk trial is imminent, though motions to stay proceedings and/or to call them invalid in the light of Charter violations must still be heard. Bets are still being taken on the likelihood of the trial going ahead. Madam Justice Bennett has said all documents not universally bearing a publication ban will be available to the public. The public's high interest in the case, she declares, must be served. That is reassuring, but it is relatively easy to say.

Much, much more difficult to say is how plain and direct have been the laying of charges and the pursuit of justice in the matter. Could the case against the three men charged have been purposefully fudged (a) to take attention away from the real malefactors? (b) Could it have been purposefully fudged in such a way as to be destroyed by a Charter challenge, declaring violations of the men's fundamental rights in a search for evidence? (c) Could it all be smoke and mirrors prepared by the Gordon Campbell forces and the RCMP working together? And could we all wake up some morning soon to be told the trial has been stayed, no charges exist, and no one will be found guilty of anything? And, in fact, might we be told that the Crown has decided the waters have been so muddied the best thing to do is to turn completely away from the whole matter And Get On With Building British Columbia?

Have the RCMP and the Gordon Campbell Liberals (and the Crown?) worked successfully together in the past to prevent justice from being done, or worse, to engage in acts of injustice (called "crimes")? If so, what is to stop them from being as successful in the present?

Robin Matthews frequently contributes to Vivelecanada
http://www.vivelecanada.ca/

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The Liberal Government
and
BC’s loss of competitive power










Jenny Kwan, NDP Economic Development Critic: Published on Global Chinese Press
9.3.2007, Dawa Business Press 10.3.2007 and Ming Pao Daily 12.3.2007


In British Columbia, we have the second lowest electricity prices in North America. Our people, businesses, and industries are able to enjoy this benefit because of the advantageous geographical position of the province, the energy policies of the former government, investment in hydroelectric power and the public hydro service.

However, as a result of the energy policy of the Liberal government, B.C. will lose this important competitive edge of cheap electricity.

Canada is rich in oil resources. However, we pay the highest prices in North America at the gas station. The crucial factor that creates this price gap between electricity and gas is the fact that the price of electricity is determined by the cost of publicly owned electricity generation, while gas prices are determined by the commercial market, which involves very complicated market factors and business interests.

The energy policy of the Liberal government in 2002 prohibited BC Hydro from building new, publicly owned electricity plants the way it did before the Liberals took power. The best locations to develop hydro electricity in the province, found by research-funded by taxpayers’ dollars, were given to private electricity companies. The provincial government then entered into agreements lasting 15-40 years with private electricity companies to buy electricity from them at a price double the expected market price.

In 2006 the average price of electricity in the contracts signed by the provincial government through BC Hydro was $87.50/MWh. Since the price in the contract was indexed, it will increase as the price index rises. So by the year 2051, the price could increase to $124/MWh. In view of the present price we pay, at $63/MWh, and $37/MWh for big volume industrial users, future increases in electricity fees are inevitable. When electricity fees increase, the cost of business and our cost of living will rise.

Because of the investments made in hydro-electrical generation in the 60s and 70s, the cost of electricity production is $5.81/MWh today. If BC Hydro built its new plants by itself, the cost would be $42/MWh. Under the old policy, BC Hydro was able to bring hundreds of millions of dollars per year to the public treasury.

What made the Liberal government so eager to sign electricity contracts with private companies lasting 40 years at such high prices? Why are the best locations for power generation given to private companies?

In order to justify its policy, large sums of money were spent last year by BC Hydro to put up ads to create the false impression of a future “energy crisis.” However, it is difficult for the B.C. Liberal Party to hide the real possibility that it is transferring rewards to its supporters.

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NOTE

Sorry folks. I note this morning that my "fix" of the moderating option in my settings did not "save" yesterday, and that "moderation" was still on this morning. I have "fixed" it again, and posted the comments that were backed up. We'll see as the day goes on if this holds.

I prostrate myself before your tender mercies. :-)

Coyote
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Is The Sky of Capitalism Falling In?
An Analysis of Recent Stock Market Events
by Coyote

There is not likely anyone out there who, at least known to me, really knows fully what is happening here or its full possible consequences, but clearly the global stock markets and investors in them are suddenly behaving extremely skittish.

Though the warning signs of impending difficulty have been there for awhile. They arise out of especially the highly speculative and super heated economic growth in China, upon which investment and markets growing numbers of US jobs depend, at the same time alongside reports of 10,000… Yes, ten thousand! … major civil unrest events occur annually, and have for a number of years now in China. Largely this civil unrest exists amongst rural, but include urban poor-, those masses of people who are cut out of and disaffected with the new so-called “liberal” capitalism practises of the Communist Party, and the huge differences in class income share between the top and bottom levels of Chinese society. .(Welcome to our world, folks!) At the same time there has also been all the warning signs of a perilous level of consumer (especially mortgaged homeowner) indebtedness and declining real purchasing power within the global engine of the world capitalist economy itself, the United States.

Yet, even major players were caught out, so to speak.

“Mark Headley, portfolio manager of Matthews Pacific Tiger fund, says it's not all about China. "This is more about the vulnerability of the U.S. economy," he says: A 9% decline in an index that was up 44% in 2007 on top of a 110% gain in 2006, was not surprising and, therefore, should not have warranted such a big sell-off here.” (USA Today)
http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/2007-02-27-wallstreet-daily_x.htm

Which quote I include here merely to demonstrate the shallowness of the analysis of many market players themselves. For clearly more is happening here than even this fellow is capable of understanding. (Stock markets reflect the “perceptions” of the players, as to what is happening in the stock market, and may or may not, more or less accurately reflect reality. The evidence of this is seen time and time again in the bubbles and panics such as frequently occur there.)

“Suddenly, the first major crisis facing the Bernanke Fed arrived without much advance warning - a rash of defaults on sub-prime home loans that if unchecked, can drive the US economy into recession in 2007. Shares of many US sub-prime lenders, such as New Century Financial (NEW.N), and NovaStar Financial (NFI.N), have been brutally hammered in recent weeks, as defaults mount among homeowners with poor credit histories, and where there is smoke, there is fire.
Skyrocketing property values during the US housing boom made it easy for homeowners to borrow heavily against their homes with second mortgages and home-equity loans. But if home prices continue to slide amid a glut of unsold homes and foreclosures, many over-extended homeowners will lose their ATM machines.” (By Gary Dorsch Editor Global Money Trends magazine Mar 1, 2007)

Still, the epicentre of this current collapse, which continues, after showing some early stabilization, started out not in the US, but in China.

“But the stock market plunge did not just affect China. It soon spread to the stock markets of Japan, Europe and the US. They fell by 3-4% in a day, not a huge fall but significant after the huge steady rise that these markets have seen since last summer.

That a hiccup in China should ripple throughout the world's stock markets shows how globalised capitalism, particularly its finance sector, has become. Truly, chaos theory applies in the anarchy of world capitalism: when the Beijing butterfly flaps its wings, the snow falls on New York.” (by Michael Roberts, World Socialist Web Site.)

And there, as old Ed Deake from Tyee might immediately recognize, is the nub of it. While there are a number of interplaying elements in this current problem with the financial markets of world capitalism, which now actually includes China, regardless of what flag flies from this or that pole, and local economic drivers in all countries that can add to bubbles and their popping, and compound either in particular ways, wild speculation in China and collapsing consumer/homeowner capacity in the US, it is the complexity of capitalism that is the underlying source of its fragility and vulnerability. It is precisely that very interdependency within its new “globalized” manifestation, thought to be the source of its strength on the one hand; the flow of cheap goods, cheap labour and money, that also sends crisis and collapse around the world in an instant. And it is what makes it difficult to control and contain in any situation for good or ill.

Clearly, capitalism is going through at least another one of its unsettling and periodic global gyrations, made worse in fact by its own increased and fragile global interdependency network system. But what of its significance for capitalism? Does it signal a major crisis ,or more particularly one that may go on and worsen for a very long time, like say the Great Depression of the 1930s?

Certainly I do not know the answers to this question. It might very well signal, given the return of capitalism to its Industrial Revolution roots of a more pure “market determined” rather than regulated/ managed practise, that we may see a more classic “bust” of old as well. Though I would not hang my hat on that possibility just yet though. (Nor would I totally discount it.)

But what is clear, is that even in its new globalized manifestation, there is still much that is familiar and recognizable within the so-called “new capitalism”, as has always been there; growth and development bubbles followed by bust, all the classic wide share disparities between the wealthy capitalist ruling class and the other lower stratas of capitalism’s class system, again asserting itself as well in the new Neocon "de-regulated" period (within and between all societies), laying environmental waste and poverty, and the ever present danger out of its greed and fear profit driven market workings that it will all suddenly go irretrievably south, at least for a very long time.

This latter possibility with which my parent’s generation was much more intimately and tragically familiar, coming out of the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Second Great War as they did, always exists, of course.The greater possibility is though, I really think, that it will finally be brought down by people simply getting irretrievably fully fed up with all of capitalism’s bullshit. Though these periodic economic crises that are a hallmark of capitalism, doubtless serve to hasten that eventuality.

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A SOAP-BOX OPEN THREAD...

I have a meeting I have to prepare some materials for tonight. Hence, unless I finish early, I will be unable to post new material today. So here is a blank page, Soapbox Open Thread, for those of you who as might wish to scribble your well worn or original thoughts upon-, or simply chat with each other. The subject(s) are entirely up to you.

Have a good day folks. Catch ya's later.

Coyote

Here is an article by a Yakov M Rabkin, a Professor of History at the University of Montreal, sent to me by a reader of Freedom of Speech, such as I just have to put up here and provide some minimum commentary. And I do so largely because Yakov Rabkin and his piece from the Baltimore Sun, March 8, 2007 again demonstrate a point that needs to be made again and again in these times; that the Jewish opinion and attitude toward Zionism in particular, and out of that toward Palestine and the Zionist Israel claim to it, is no less divided, complex and nuanced than opinion outside that secular AND religious Jewish community. (Which puts the lie to the continuing even modern fascist attempt, along with Zionist efforts no less, to create a unified and stereotypical theory of a single global Jewish conspiracy entity on the one hand, or out of the Zionists, that a critique of Israel and Zionism is an attack on all Jews and therefore, anti-Semitic "racism".

Coyote

Mustafa Al Hallaj's "Self-Portrait as God, the Devil, and Man" is part of a Palestinian artwork exhibit inSan Francisco

Gap among Jews widens on question of Zionism
By Yakov M. Rabkin
printed in the Baltimore Sun

A profound division has developed between Zionist advocates of Israel and Jews, secular and religious, who reject or question Zionism and actions taken by the state of Israel.

Public debate about Israel's place in Jewish continuity has become open and candid.

Many Jews try to come to terms with the contradictions between the Judaism they profess to adhere to and the Zionist ideology that has taken hold of them. This coincides with serious concerns expressed across Israel's political and religious spectrum about the future of Israel.

Quite a few Jews now publicly ask whether the chronically besieged ethnic nation-state in the Middle East is "good for the Jews." Many continue to be concerned that militant Zionism destroys Jewish moral values and endangers Jews in Israel and elsewhere. This debate has entered pop culture as well: The recent film Munich by Steven Spielberg sharply focuses on the moral cost of Israel's chronic reliance on force.

The Israel lobby in the United States, aligned with the nationalist right in Israel, viciously attacked the Jewish director and his film even before it was released. It also lashed out at several books published over the past few years - Prophets Outcast, Wrestling With Zion, The Question of Zion, The Myths of Zionism - all authored by Jews who are concerned about the same essential conflict between Zionism and Jewish values.

A few weeks ago, the Israel lobby (through its constituent American Jewish Committee) issued a report alleging that Jews who criticize Israel endanger its "right to exist" and foment anti-Semitism. This provoked a number of prominent Jews in Britain, Canada and the United States to speak out, moving candid debate about Israel into mainstream, even conservative, publications. In January, the eminently pro-establishment Economist published a survey of "the state of the Jews" and an editorial that called on rank-and-file Diaspora Jews to move away from the "my country, right or wrong" attitude adopted by many Jewish organizations.

Making a stand for Jewish emancipation from the state of Israel and its policies has bridged some old divides and created new ones. Thus, an ultra-Orthodox critic of Israel, usually antagonistic to Reform Judaism, commended a Reform rabbi for saying that "when Israel's Jewish supporters abroad don't speak out against disastrous policies that neither guarantee safety for her citizens nor produce the right climate in which to try and reach a just peace with the Palestinians ... they are betraying millennial Jewish values and acting against Israel's own long-term interests."

First, what leaps out at me, unlike as one finds on some self-proclaimed liberal online forums, for example, such as Tyee, here, though I have been unable to confirm it, from a person I nonetheless assume is either a secular or religious Jew, because of the intimate knowledge he has of his subject, he acknowledge firstly, the existance of an "Israel Lobby" in Britain, Canada, the US, and elsewhere throughout the West. Which I suggest is not so much, in his or my view, evidence of some fascist equivalent "theory" of a Jewish attempt to take over the world, as simply rather, the normal working of any attempt at fundamental democracy. Catholics have lobbies, such as the Knights of Columbus, and sundry other Catholic Leagues etc, and such, as likewise do Evangelicals, and sundry immigrant groups in this country and elsewhere, along with other more really conspiratorial "business" special interest lobbies. So, to acknowledge the existance of a "Jewish or Israeli Lobby", in and of itself, does not require the leap of faith that there is then a plot in any fascist or bigoted context at all. (We having our own resident British Blackshirt espouser frequenting our threads who nonetheless, would doubtless beg to differ. Whereupon one but merely considers the source, especially after one comes to know it as intimately as we do.)

That said, the complexities around Jewish action and reaction, attitudes and the Zionist effort first to steal the land of the Argentinians as a homeland for the Jews, and only later Palestine arise out of the desperation of the Jews in the WWII Holocaust aftermath, the deceits and scheming of the real Jewish fascists themselves, the Zionists, playing against and upon the then prevailing, especially British Empire interest in Palestine, and Europes desire to escape any real reparations itself for what happened to the Jews. There was, and remains to a degree, a complex dynamic that arose out of this reality, the homeland cost of which, of course, continues to be borne not by the Germans or the other former fascist states of Europe, the actual perpetrators of the Holocaust, but by the poor Palestinians and the other Arab states-, who had themselves been victims of Western imperialism throughout the war, where the then extant western imperial rivalries were also much fought out, upon Palestinian and/or other Arab lands, and spilled their blood as well. And dead is dead, no matter how you arrive there.

Emblem of Mossad (Israeli Intelligence)

Their relationship with the state of Israel and with Zionism has polarized the Jews. The axis along which this polarization has taken shape does not correspond to any of the habitual divisions:
Ashkenazi/Sephardic, observant/non-observant, Orthodox/non-Orthodox.

In each of these categories are Jews for whom national pride, even arrogance (chutzpah), is a positive value, and who give their enthusiastic support to the state that incarnates what they identify as a life force, a triumph of the will and a guarantee of Jewish survival.

But each of these categories also includes Jews who believe that the very idea of a Jewish state, and the human and moral price that it demands, undermines all that Judaism teaches, particularly the core values of humility, compassion and kindness. They, along with Israel's staunchest supporters, point up the paradox that has seen Israel, often presented as an ultimate haven, become one of the most precarious places for Jews. Israeli media report unprecedented levels of concern not only for the future of the state but also for the physical survival of its inhabitants. Some attempt to redefine "Israel's national purpose" as a means to revitalize Israel's largely demoralized society.

Divisions about Israel and Zionism are so acute that they may split Jews as irremediably as did the advent of Christianity two millennia ago. Christianity, which embodies a Greek reading of the Torah, eventually broke away from Judaism. Like Christianity, Zionism, reflecting a nationalist, romantic reading of the Torah and Jewish history, has come to fascinate many Jews.

It remains to be seen whether the fracture between those who hold fast to Jewish moral tradition and the converts to Jewish nationalism may one day be mended. However fateful for Jews and Judaism, this fracture may not necessarily affect Israel, which nowadays counts many more evangelical Christians than Jews among its unconditional supporters.

The circle of which history of war crimes, treachery and the theft of another people's land is now come back around to complete itself, in an effort to find a real lasting solution both for the crimes committed against the Jews, and the Zionists in turn against the Palestinians. (It is also much a story of the European attempt to avoid the real cost of their crimes against the Jews, just about successfully pulled off, were or are not yet the Palestinians able to endure in their ongoing struggle against Zionist Israel and the US Empire. It is there, in Washington, in the current period, and in London, no less than in Berlin lies the real reponisibility for all this.

It is all what really underlies the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and more recently in Lebanon, and continuing in their remnant toe hold on what remains to them of their Palestine homeland in Gaza, of the no less long suffering and struggling Palestinians, who are scarcely if any less victims than were Holocaust Jewry.

Time to deal with those in Europe who passed the original buck, and those imperial forces in Britain and the US who are responsible yet for attempting to utilize the long continuing crisis result to fulfill their own imperial/empire ambitions in the Middle East of today. The blame lies neither entirely with just the Jews, or even the Zionists for that matter. There is enough to go around for just about all the major players of Global Capitalism as well.

And a definite worthwhile read in all this, to complete one's understanding of the current major issue of our time, that underlies even 911, in the interconnectedness character of events within a titanic struggle, is this book below.

** Yakov M. Rabkin, author of "A Threat From Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism," is professor of history and associate of the Centre for International Studies at the University of Montreal. His e-mail is: yakov.rabkin@umontreal.ca.

Flag of Palestine

The Evolution of
The North American Union
The Final Stage in the NAFTA/Corporate Globalization
Process
by Coyote

October 3, 1987: The 20-chapter Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA or FTA) is finalized. U.S. trade representative Clayton Yeutter offers this observation: "We've signed a stunning new trade pact with Canada. The Canadians don't understand what they've signed. In twenty years, they will be sucked into the U.S. economy.

On the other hand, perhaps the Jean Chretien and later Paul Martin Liberals, and the corporate ruling class for whom they speak, did understand. The grounds for suspicion are mountainous. Certainly there is an ongoing continuous theme to their behaviours.

In 1993, Jean Chretien and The Liberal Party, after having promised, as part of their "Red Book" campaign platform, in the national election then taking place, to "renegotiate NAFTA", almost immediately thereafter, before the year was out, in December, evoking memories as well of another promise to scrap the GST, which is still with us, signed the NAFTA without any changes-, knuckling under to US pressure to do so.

But which was and is not the end of the matter, of course, because already "business elite class" continentalist forces were further gathering and marshaling their forces to build their case and advocate for an even closer "Union" with Amerika, later to include Mexico.

September, 1999: The Canadian right-wing think tank the Fraser Institute publishes a paper by Herbert G. Grubel titled "The Case for the Amero: The Economics and Politics of a North American Monetary Union." In the paper Grubel argues that a common currency is not inevitable but it is desirable. See: The Case for the Amero

But, bad enough as this proposal is, over the heads of all the national populations of the countries involved, in a separate "elite" process, bypassing even the limited norms of what has historically been corporatist controlled and manipulated "democracy" across the continent, even that is not the end of the matter. There is a wider neo-conservative ruling class vision beginning to take shape in its "think tanks", the ruling class based Trilateral Commission, and other continental "business councils and chambers".

• August 30, 2001: The Institute for International Economics issues a press release advocating that the United States and Mexico should use the occasion of the visit of President Vicente Fox of Mexico on September 4-7 to develop a North American Community as advocated by Robert Pastor in his book "Toward a North American Community." See: A Blueprint for a North American Community

And then again, by December of the same year, in what should be well remembered in broader circles even than the radical left in Canada, for its uniquely overt interfering and preachy imperialist advocacy style, likewise :

• December 2001: New U.S. Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci publicly advocates "NAFTA-plus". See: The Emergence of a North American Community?

And not only in US ruling class circles, and amongst its financed and beholden "tame" politicians, but here in Canada as well amongst our own "ambassadorial strata".

• September 11, 2002: The National Post publishes an article by Alan Gotlieb, the chairman of the Donner Canadian Foundation and Canada's ambassador to the United States from 1981 to 1989, titled "Why not a grand bargain with the U.S.?" In the article, Gotlieb asks "Rather than eschewing further integration with the United States, shouldn't we be building on NAFTA to create new rules, new tribunals, new institutions to secure our trade? Wouldn't this 'legal integration' be superior to ad hoc responses and largely ineffective lobbying to prevent harm from Congressional protectionist sorties? Wouldn't our economic security be enhanced by establishing a single North American competitive market without anti-dumping and countervail rules? Are there not elements of a grand bargain to be struck, combining North American economic, defence and security arrangements within a common perimeter?" See: Why not a grand bargain with the U.S.?

Until finally, in the US media, on CNN, even such right wing "populist" US nationalists and figures as Lou Dobbs and other Republican "nationalist" conservatives begin to take notice and become alarmed, heard even over the voices from the US Left, who actually seem to be caught by surprise. A strange responding concencus begins to emerge and take shape as well around this "national" and "democratic" issue.

Good evening, everybody. Tonight, an astonishing proposal to expand our borders to incorporate Mexico and Canada and simultaneously further diminish U.S. sovereignty. Have our political elites gone mad?

Lou Dobbs on Lou Dobbs Tonight, June 9, 2005

After which the pace of events suddenly quicken, while most of the citizenry of this country certainly, possibly over comfortable in the assumptions that they are "smarter than Americans" (from a Tyee article), or yet presumably preoccupied with the deteriorating social and economic minutia of their daily lives, going into 2006, participate in yet another staged, ruling class Big Money managed election, that in itself takes matters to a new and more dangerous, fraught with risk level-, at least for all categories of Canadian nationalists concerned with the sovereignty and self-sufficiency of this country. Afterall, we and the citizens of Mexico are the intended lambs being prepared to lie down with the US Empire lion.

• January 2006: Conservative Stephen Harper is elected Prime Minister of Canada with a minority government
• .
• March 31, 2006: At the Summit of the Americas in Cancun, Canada (under new Prime Minister Stephen Harper) along with the U.S. and Mexico release the Leaders' Joint Statement. The statement presents six action points to move toward a North American Union, aka a North American Community. These action points include: 1) Establishment of a Trilateral Regulatory Cooperative Framework 2) Establishment of the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) 3) Provision for North American Emergency Management 4) Provision for Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza Management 5) Development of North American Energy Security 6) Assure Smart, Secure North American Borders. Read the full statement at: Leaders' Joint Statement

Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling, (July 18, 1887 – October 24, 1945) was a Norwegian army officer and fascist politician. He was Minister President of German occupied Norway. Here he shakes Hitler's hand. The name Quisling is now synonymous with treason across the world.

The US scholar, Daneen G. Peterson, PH.D., (See ** below) says treason abounds in Canada and the U.S. over this elite sponsored, and surreptitious move toward a North American Union (NAU)

The American people and Canadians are being betrayed by government cabals associated with the U.S. George W. Bush administration and Stephen Harper government who are bent on destroying national sovereignty in order to create a North American Union. The miscreants include many who function at the highest levels in our government. Many hold membership in the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Trilateral Commission and pursue a subversive agenda. The cabal is deliberately circumventing the U.S. Congress and 'We the People' [and the Parliament of Canada] in blatant violation of U.S. and Canadian Constitutions. Collectively they are committing TREASON. In America specifically, If you continue to believe that the "illegal alien invasion" is the biggest threat to America, you will never understand that there is something far more dangerous to our country called the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America" (SPP). As bad as the illegal immigration situation is... you will learn that the U.S. is in dire peril far exceeding the "illegal alien" problem.

Further, in the online national magazine, The Canadian, she advises:

Educate yourself. For example, read what your own government has posted on their official websites such as the Whitehouse.gov, SPP.gov, State.gov and Canada.USembassy.gov. You will be aghast at the nearly complete destruction of our sovereignty, Bill of Rights, Constitution, laws, Republic, and freedoms they have ALREADY achieved. This heinous ongoing treason has been engineered by an entrenched cabal of legislators, courts, military brass, and government employees in this and prior administrations. The tyranny is being facilitated by hundreds of people embedded at all levels of the executive branch constituting a so called 'Shadow Government' who are working in concert to dismantle this country in plain sight. The agenda was engineered by political-military-industrial elites and kept secret by their deliberately mute media collaborators.

Many in the U.S. Senate AND the House AND the Executive (and their counterparts in the Stephen Harper government in Canada) are working in concert to create a North American Union. They are capitalists whose agenda is authoritarianism, which makes them classic fascists. These elites embrace the concept of a world run by a wealthy few, which they apparently believe will be themselves. Their goal is to achieve the few remaining unfulfilled tenets of a sort of Fascist Manifesto in order to put an end to America, along with Canada and Mexico.

RESIST!!!

Anti-globalization protesters in Mexico

The hour is late of course, and much of the populace is blissfully unaware for want of information and context, in which the corporatist media is complicit, or all merely somnambulate. There is desperate need of both a militant and broader nationalist movements to emerge in this country, in order to turn this state of the populace around and organize its willingness and capacity to resist. Additionally, it needs to be directed toward rebuilding posthaste, the independent economic and political self-sufficiency of this country, where necessary wresting control of threatened economic assets from their corporate owners, while at the same time building solidarity alliances across the hemisphere with all who have a shared "resistance to the US Empire ambition" interest with us. Which doesn't exclude progressive US citizens either, as part of the laying a foundation, on the other side of this period, to formulating and establishing the preconditions for new friendly relations between all peoples-, based on mutual respect for each others independence and shared need for self-sufficiency first however.

Notes:

** Daneen G. Peterson, Ph.D., an author who writes and speaks about the illegal alien problem and the coming North American Union. Her articles are heavily researched and referenced with 'clickable' URLs that will take the reader directly to the source material. Her accompanying photos and graphics add to her vivid exposes. All of her articles can be found archived on the StopTheNorthAmericanUnion.com website.

At one time she was a professor at both Temple and Jefferson Universities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she taught behavioral science research statistics and methodology. After leaving academia, she created and directed the first Department of Research and Program Evaluation for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America's National Office in Philadelphia.

Dr. Peterson is currently researching and writing on the issue of the One World Order and the United States Government's covert acts to create a North American Union without consent of Congress or 'We The People.'

** Much of the reference material here was secured from ViveleCanada, though from other sources as well.

Is Anyone Out there
out there
out there
out there?

This week, west coast environmental activist Betty Krawczyk was sentenced to 10 months in Jail, by so-called Madan Justice Brenda Brown of the Supreme Court of BC. She was sentenced for protesting against the Eagle Bluffs highway expansion in West Vancouver, as part of the construction project in advance of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games.

Betty Krawczyk if a grandmother, and the harshness of the sentence is generally viewed, and certainly by myself, as a message that is being sent to all those many citizens from many walks of life and social classes, not only opposed for social and economic reasons to these games, as a huge expenditure of capital that could be better spent in more socially useful ways (low income housing, day care etc.), but also to such destruction of the environment as that at Eagle Bluffs, in order to facilitate the games and move more polluting vehicular traffic. The message being, behave your fucking selves, don't interfere with the Big Money dreams of the Howe St. Big Boys at the Chamber of Commerce and the Vancouver Club. Tend to your goddamn knitting instead, Granny.

The viewpoint below is that of one of her friends and fellow activists, currently being widely circulated, and stands on its own merit.

For myself however, I would say that what has happened to Betty is part of the price that is going to have to be paid by far, far greater numbers of citizens, unfortunately, fed to the teeth with the neo-conservative ruling class agenda, driving not only these Winter Games but the general deterioration of such limited democracy as has only ever been in place at the best of times, the sell-out of the country, its people and resources to a likewise 2010 North American Union, already likewise apparently signed, sealed and just waiting to be finally delivered.

There are too few people yet, likewise unfortunately, possessed of the qualities of this woman of courage, prepared to make the sacrifice and engage in a struggle with the system. And until there is such a movement with more breadth and depth, the social retreat and rise of this more aggressive ruling class right, armed with its Madam Justices and Courts will continue to hold sway over all our lives.

The tip of my hat to ya, good woman. Takes me back to my own arrest and trial for blocking the Naval Dockyard in Victoria, years ago, during the Vietnam War, protesting the presence of US warships there. (I was hardly out of the navy myself, as I recall. :-)

Why I ask is I often wonder at the general unawareness on a subject that concerns each and every citizen and affects our lives on a daily basis. Canada is a democratic nation governed by the rule of law. This may sound like a rather simplistic statement of fact. However, many confuse justice, ethical and moral rightness with law and continue to labour under the delusion that because a certain subject matter is morally right and ethical it is enshrined in secular law.

I am a firm believer in the necessity of the Rule of Law as a tool (as slow and as cumbersome as the mechanics of it are) that offers recourse and protection for average citizens. However, I am not naïve enough to think there is justice apart from appropriately written, people-oriented law. There is NO justice, without the appropriate law, only law. Period. And, as soon as people who are fighting for the protection of citizens such as Betty Krawczyk, for example, realize this, the sooner positive steps may be taken to change, write or amend laws through legislation to further protect the rights of citizens.

Much more could be said about the process but I do not want to get bogged down in detail.

Recently there was an online suggestion to write letters of support for Betty Krawczyk and forward them along to Madam Justice Brown prior to sentencing Betty for contempt of court.

While I fully support environmental activists, being one myself, I do not support writing letters to any judge prior to sentencing on a contempt of court charge. I feel this is not a good idea and may do a lot of damage to defendants, perhaps even resulting in heavier sentences and the increase of jail time.

Pertaining to Madam Justice Brenda Brown (1), she was the judge who, in an unprecedented move, froze the assets of the BC Teachers Federation stopping the BCTF from (direct quote) “using their assets to further the breach of court order”.

Madam Justice Brown stressed emphatically in her ruling that it is (direct quote) “imperative that all citizens obey orders of the court”. She also used the term “immanent attribute”, which implies orders of the court as being (according to Webster’s New World College dictionary) “inherent” or “ without question”and to stress the seriousness, “present throughout the universe; distinguished from transcendent”. (2)

There is no doubt in my mind that Justice Brown would ever change her judgment as to the “immanent attribute” of court orders. Therefore, all the letter writing in the world, would neither budge nor influence this judge in lightening her sentencing. (3) The opposite may very well be true.

I am also reminded of the last court case I witnessed wherein the man accused was initially protecting his property and water source from being poisoned and was given advice from counsel prior to his sentencing. The lawyer told the man that when the judge asked, “Do you have anything to say in your defense”, to reply “No” and leave it at that. Why? Because, as the lawyer explained, too many people take this opportunity, rattle on as to the reasons why they did what they did, and all it does is annoy the judge and he has seen too many sentences come down harder because of it.

Likewise with letter writing judges in support of defendants prior to sentencing…bad idea…why run the risk of annoying the judge and making it harder on the defendant?

I would hope that supporters and/or advocates of those charged with contempt of court take this suggestion seriously. The criminal contempt of court charge is not about protecting the environment; it is about flying in the face of the rule of law by deliberately defying a judge’s order. There’s nothing like pissing off a judge!

It is wisdom on the part of citizens to gain accurate knowledge of the legal system under which we live and function, for to naively think that justice will prevail based solely on natural laws plus ethical and moral rightness leaves people vulnerable and open to all sorts of bitter disappointments, not to mention jail time.

What does the Rule of Law mean? “It means that everyone is subject to the law; that no one, no matter how important or powerful, is above the law…” it also means that, “If anyone were above the law, none of our liberties would be safe.” (4)

The time to lobby for people-oriented regulations and laws is well prior to the fact, not after it. Otherwise, the tune as sung by the Bobby Fuller Four, “I fought the law and the law won” could well become a jailhouse lament.

(1) http://www.justice.gc.ca/en/news/ja/2002/doc_30272.html

(2) http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/Jdb-txt/SC/05/14/2005BCSC1443.htm

(3) http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/workplace/archives/018631.php

(4) http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/idb/forsey/rule_of_law_print-e.asp

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Photo from Neturei Karta
Jews Against Zionism
http://www.nkusa.org/activities/demonstrations/israeliflag.cfm

Should It Be Legal Under International Law to Criticize The State of Israel?

(From the Anti-Empire report, by William Blum:)

http://members.aol.com/bblum6/aer35.htm

Should it be legal under international law to criticize the state of Israel?

"On Faith", an Internet feature of the Washington Post and Newsweek magazine, poses questions each week to a panel of more than 50 persons from the world of religion. A recent question was "Can you be critical of Israel and not be anti-Semitic?"

Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University replied: "Much depends on the motives of the critic. The unworthy critics today are easy to find. ... their shrill voices are neither moderated by love nor tinged with sadness. Their desire is to see the Jewish state destroyed. The worthy critics, by contrast, are more scarce. ... their words mingle praise along with reproof. They speak directly, sadly, and always in pain."

So there you have it. A question so ridiculous on its face that it should not even be raised by two media giants or anyone else with any intellectual pretensions, but is being raised because of the unrelenting pressure of the Israeli lobby in the United States and throughout the world. It then receives an appropriately ridiculous answer.

Can anyone express reservations about a papal decree and not be anti-Catholic? Can anyone be critical of the pilgrimages to Mecca, which often end in tragedy, and not be anti-Islam? Can anyone be critical of the African negligence on the AIDS crisis and not be racist?

For anyone in the world to criticize the US war in Iraq do they have to love the United States? To be taken seriously -- to be judged a "worthy critic" -- must they in the same breath offer some kind of praise for the US? Are we to judge that those who don't do so desire to see the American state destroyed? Can those in Palestine and Lebanon, upon whose heads and homes Israeli bombs fall, be worthy critics of Israeli policies? Are they not speaking "directly, sadly, and always in pain"?

An entirely legitimate question to be raised, in this time where any criticism of the Zionist State of Israel still tends to be scourged with the lash of unforgivable anti-semitism. Though I would certainly go further even than this article tends to.

And that is, I think it needs to be firmly established and accepted as well, as part of a simple and lesser right to simply "criticize" the State of Israel, were I a Palestinian suffering the loss of my country to the Zionists certainly, for example, though anyone else no less who has an understanding of the founding history of the State of Israel, that there is a right as well to question the very founding legitimacy of the Israeli State itself. This, to me, seems elementary, especially if the world, including such Jews themselves, as well as Palestinians, who question this founding legitimacy, are ever going to have the opportunity to have their critique and proposals heard and treated seriously, as well as their proposals for a viable and lasting solution to the problem of Palestine/Israel, such as increasingly threatens the peace and stability of the entire world.

It has gone on overly long already that the United States and Israel have been exclusively allowed to frame the issue, the discussion, what is and is not legitimate, and such solutions as may or may not be considered by the world community and its citizens. Meanwhile, the war danger, even a world war risk grows as a consequence.

It is time to move on from this repressive environment, such as we have seen even here, around the issue of my banishment from Tyee.

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SOAP BOX OPEN THREAD............

Bound for Salmon Arm early in the (Wednesday) morning. The Mrs. seems to have developed a "heart murmur" that they are going to check out. Catch ya's later in the day or Thursday, to put up some new material. Meanwhile, use this as an open thread to talk about the state of your love life, :-) or lack thereof, them friggin' Amurrikans still rampaging about the world, fuckin' it and themselves up, and digging a deeper poo hole for themselves, or as an even better idea, your favourite herb, beer, whiskey or other libation. Or anything else that just occurs to you.

The movie selection in this town isn't great. Just one theatre. Coming up is "Breach", about "the highest level security breach in US history". Anybody seen it? What's it like?

Know of any other good movies you've seen that I might not of yet, out here in the hinterland swamp?

Whatever, have a good one. Gotta take care of my sweetie. :-)

Update:

The Mrs has to get the report from her doctor yet, of course, but the guy doing the Cardio Echo Sound did say that he didn't see anything that looked too serious. Which I take as a positive. (She has the family history, unfortunately.) She looks and acts perfectly healthy.

I'll get some new stuff up today, posthaste.

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