A very scary PM:

You know, there's two schools in economics on this. One is that there are some good taxes and the other is that no taxes are good taxes. I'm in the latter category. I don't believe that any taxes are good taxes.

– Stephen Harper, July 10

This assertion, from an interview the Prime Minister gave The Globe and Mail after the G8 summit in Italy, is one of the most stunning, revealing and, frankly, ignorant statements ever made by a prime minister, let alone one who keeps purporting to be an economist, despite doing so many things that economists deplore.

A very scary PM: ‘I don’t believe that any taxes are good taxes’ - The Globe and Mail

Swapping technologies fails to address the root causes of climate change

Technology is part of the solution to climate change. But only part. Techno-fixes like some of those in the Guardian's Manchester Report simply cannot deliver the carbon cuts science demands of us without being accompanied by drastic reductions in our consumption. That means radical economic and social transformation. Merely swapping technologies fails to address the root causes of climate change.


Swapping technologies fails to address the root causes of climate change | Merrick Godhaven | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Washington & the Coup in Honduras: Here is the Evidence

Eva Gorlinger

• The Department of State had prior knowledge of the coup.
  
• The Department of State and the US Congress funded and advised the actors and organizations in Honduras that participated in the coup.
  
• The Pentagon trained, schooled, commanded, funded and armed the Honduran armed forces that perpetrated the coup and that continue to repress the people of Honduras by force.

Here is the Evidence

Canadan ignored rights at US jail

Canada's spy agency ignored human rights principles when questioning a teenage Canadian suspect held at the US military prison on Guantanamo Bay, a Canadian review panel has said.

feedback@aljazeera.net

US Lobbyists with Clinton Ties Hired to Defend Honduran Coup Regime

Worthwhile interviews on Democracy Today. Looks like the US is looking south again and it's not to it's liking. Over a week after the coup and the word hasn't passed the lips of anyone in Washington.

Supporters of the coup in Honduras have begun hiring advisers and lobbyists with close ties to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an attempt to strengthen support in Washington for the coup. A Honduran business group has hired lobbyist Lanny Davis, who served as White House counsel for President Bill Clinton. The coup government has also hired Bennet Ratcliff, a public relations specialist with ties to former President Bill Clinton. [includes rush transcript]

US Lobbyists with Clinton Ties Hired to Defend Honduran Coup Regime
mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)

UPDATES: 2 HONDURAS ACTIVISTS KILLED; VENEZUELAN JOURNALISTS EXPELLED; COUP LEADERS HIRE TOP DEMOCRAT LOBBYISTS TO JUSTIFY THEIR DE FACTO GOVERNMENT

 

Things are getting worse each day inside Honduras. Over the weekend, two well-known social leaders were assassinated by the coup forces. Roger Bados leader of the Bloque Popular & the National Resistance Front against the coup d'etat, was killed in the northern city of San Pedro Sula. Approximately at 8pm on Saturday evening, Bados was assassinated and killed immediately by three gun shots.

UPDATES:

Mandatory Swine Flu Vaccination Alert

It's crucial to understand that these vaccines are experimental, untested, toxic and extremely dangerous to the human immune system. They contain squalene-based adjuvants that cause a host of annoying to life-threatening autoimmune diseases. They must be avoided, even if mandated. It's also known that vaccines don't protect against diseases they're designed to prevent and often cause them. They should be banned but proliferate anyway because they're so profitable, and if globally mandated to the greatest extent ever.

Mandatory Swine Flu Vaccination Alert

The End Of Democracy And The End Of...The World

Latest article from Robin Mathews.

Failing democracy, globally, (and in Canada) parallels and connects with the potential environmental collapse of the planet.

Honduras recently began a move towards a real and effective democracy. The military – trained and equipped by the U.S.A. – stopped it…in order to protect the rapacious, oppressive, so-called “democracy” in place.
The U.S. president has muttered…things…and the coup regime remains because U.S. power in the world cannot have “Bolivarian (peaceful) revolutions” in Latin America delivering real democracy and a just redistribution of wealth, taking away the right to destroy people by Capitalist corporations.

The End Of Democracy And The End Of...The World

Canada Supports the Military Coup in Honduras

Image via Wikipedia

For the first time in decades, the world's eyes are on Honduras, a tiny country many Canadians know for those little stickers on exported bananas and the surplus of coffee it floods onto the global market each year. The world is less aware of the ongoing role that the Canadian government and Canadian mining companies play in pushing many Hondurans further into poverty.

Now that the world is watching, it's a good time to reveal these secrets.

For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

Canada Supports the Military Coup in Honduras

The Steve Harper War on Climate Science

The government of Prime Minster Stephen Harper just appointed two "climate skeptics" with connections to the oil industry to important federal scientific bodies. The scientific community is appalled.



Mitchell Anderson | The Stephen Harper War on Climate Science

Getting Loaded in Tennessee

 

Believe it or not, Tennessee is relaxing its already liberal gun laws even more. Starting Tuesday, residents of the state will legally be able to go to bars and restaurants with loaded guns. Letting people get drunk in public places while they’re packing heat = a really really smart decision.

 

Read More

Photo-essays from around the world

Gaia Photos is "Your global team of local photojournalists," with contributions ranging from Nepal to Canada, and Mongolia to Texas. via The Press Photographer's Year 2009.

Photo-essays from around the world

Copyright laws threaten our online freedom

Image via Wikipedia

Article by the first Pirate Bay Party rep in the EU assembly.


For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

Copyright laws threaten our online freedom

Washington is Playing a Deeper Game with China

Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Georgia, China, etc. A full dance card indeed. And some new NGOs you've never heard of. From laundry girl to millionaire and more.

Washington is Playing a Deeper Game with China
Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:29:00 GMT

Democracy, Canadian-Style

By Bea Vongdouangchanh - The Hill Times

The [Canadian Council of Chief Executives] has played an influential role in the country's fiscal, taxation, trade, energy, environmental, competitiveness and corporate governance issues for decades. When the CCCE talks, the government listens..."I think they have almost absolute control and influence. Governments dance when they say, 'dance,' and they jump when they say, 'jump,'..."

read more

Happy Birthday, Nikolai Tesla!

 

This Studio 360 episode is a wonderful place to start in today's appreciation of "the father of electricity." (thanks, Jesse Thorn)

 

 Happy Birthday, Nikolai Tesla!

The US takes to the shadows in Iraq

American activities in Iraq now take place in the dark of night, so fewer Iraqis are likely to see that the United States withdrawal from the cities and towns is not total. What is emerging is the silhouette of a new American posture, and what it doesn't look like is an occupying power preparing to close up shop and head for home. - Michael Schwartz (Jul 10,'09)

The US takes to the shadows in Iraq

Niger Delta Standoff

Image by Terry Wha via Flickr

 

by Kia Mistilis

Behind fighter-planes and gunboats, Nigerian forces launched a full-scale offensive in the Niger Delta on May 13, displacing 30,000 people and sparking a humanitarian crisis. Thousands of civilians fleeing destroyed villages are now trapped between armed resistance groups and the Nigerian military. These civilians are hiding in the bush without food, water, or medical supplies, let alone Internet access to alert the world of their plight, as Iranians are doing via Twitter.

read more

 

A little light on Sweden

"As Jonathan Power argues in an exclusive online essay for Prospect, Swedish culture and society really is distinct from the rest of Europe in a number of crucial ways. From sexual habits to foreign policy, Power’s adoptive home is a place where the “pursuit of equality goes deeper,” with consequences both good and bad. Swedes marry later, work harder, travel less and pay more tax than the rest of us. Quite possibly they are happier,too.

First Drafts - The Prospect magazine blog