A typical member of the Alberta Twitterati, pretty much any time of year except yesterday. Your blogger and other renowned Wild Rose Country Twittarians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Daveberta author Dave Cournoyer, apparently Tweeting. I may not be on Alberta Venture magazine’s list of the 50 most
Continue readingTag: Barack Obama
The Canadian Progressive: Obama’s Climate Action Plan a “Full-Throttle Endorsement” of Fracking: Experts
by: Institute for Public Accuracy | Press Release: STEVE HORN, @steve_horn1022: Horn is a research fellow for DeSmogBlog. He wrote yesterday: “President Obama announced his administration’s ‘Climate Action Plan‘ for cutting carbon pollution in his second term in the Oval Office at Georgetown University and unfortunately, it’s a full-throttle endorsement of every aspect
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: President Obama showed leadership on climate change: Environmental Defence
President Barack Obama (Photo: Pete Souza) In his much-anticipated speech on climate change and the environment this week, US President Barack didn’t exactly kill TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline as environmentalists had hoped. He simply stated that Keystone should only be approved if it doesn’t lead to an increase in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On key decisions
I’ll generally concur with Paul Wells’ take on Barack Obama’s reference to Keystone XL yesterday. But it’s worth taking a slightly closer look at both the broad issue framed by Obama, and the Cons’ narrow means of avoiding it. The point of greatest significance in Obama’s speech was indeed the
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Six-Point-Four-Billion-Dollar Question: will the Redford Tories drop their budget balancing act?
Alberta Premier Alison Redford, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi talk to reporters with the swollen Bow River and Calgary’s skyline in the background. (Photo from Ms. Redford’s Facebook page.) Below: U.S. Republican contender Mitt Romney; Calgary talk show host Dave Rutherford. It is not unreasonable, in
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: President Barack Obama’s speech on climate change
by: Obert Madondo President Barack Obama (Photo: Pete Souza) Here’s the full text of U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech on climate change, delivered Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you! (Applause.) Thank you, Georgetown! Thank you so much. Everybody, please be seated. And my first
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: The President’s Climate Action Plan
From the fact sheet:We have a moral obligation to leave our children a planet that’s not polluted or damaged, and by taking an all of-the-above approach to develop homegrown energy and steady, responsible steps to cut carbon pollution, we can protect our kids’ health and begin to slow the effects
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Another Portrait In Integrity
While Edward Snoden will undoubtedly be portrayed in the days and weeks to come as a traitor to his country, his courageous revelation of the domestic spying that the NSA is engaged in earns my admiration. Not only has he demonstrated his personal courage and convictions by his willingness to
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Schadenfreude, evidence and politics: a half-hearted defence of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford as he might have appeared in ancient Rome, whence comes the idea that in politics public figures and their associates must be above suspicion. Below: The real Rob Ford; Caesar’s wife. Schadenfreude is all very well, but this whole Rob Ford video scandal has me feeling
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Annals of Digital Recording: ‘Preston is out of the country and cannot comment’
Your blogger with Preston Manning, both exactly as illustrated, although, in fairness, Mr. Manning may not have known just who your blogger was. Then again, maybe he did. He did say something like, “Oh, you…” Below: Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Is somebody going around trying to pull a
Continue readingAutonomy For All: America’s Political Nightmare in One Paragraph
My god this may be the finest paragraph Paul Rosenberg has ever written: In truth, the Republican party only has three problems: its policies are unpopular, its policies do not work, and they hate everybody who does not agree with them. In contrast, the Democratic party has only one problem:
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Bitumen bubble deflates as Redford visits Washington D.C.
TweetRemember the “Bitumen Bubble?” The “bitumen bubble” spin was unleashed by Premier Alison Redford during her January 24, 2013 televised address that claimed our province was in the midst of a fiscal crisis caused by the so-called “bitumen bubble” — the difference between the price Alberta can get for its
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: J’accuse! Thomas Mulcair’s treason and the Keystone XL Pipeline.
TweetThe rhetoric is running high this week with President Barack Obama expected to soon decide the fate of the controversial TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline. In Washington D.C. last week, federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair criticized the pipeline that would ship bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to refineries in Texas. Mr. Mulcair also
Continue readingLeDaro: Barack Obama visits Israel
Obama is reporting to his boss Benjamin Netanyahu. It is baffling how a small country like Israel has so much influence over Obama, Harper and many European leaders. These very leaders complain and criticize Syria, and before that Libya, and provide help to overthrow their leaders. Yet no complaint about Israel’s atrocities
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has unveiled its alternative federal budget – which highlights the choice between the Cons’ needless austerity, and the 200,000-300,000 extra jobs which could be created alongside important social improvements which could be brought about through well-placed
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Selling the lie
Shorter Brad Wall: Of course neither Stephen Harper nor any of his provincial mini-petro-states has any interest in actually dealing with climate change. But as long as we rev up our PR machine to claim otherwise, surely Barack Obama will be none the wiser.
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: An Open Letter to Barack Obama and John Kerry
Dear President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry: As a concerned Canadian, I am writing to urge you to reject TransCanada’s application to build the Keystone XL pipeline for purposes of transporting dirty oil from Alberta’s tar sands to refineries in the United States. I assure you that
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta has a revenue problem and a pipeline problem.
TweetOne month ago, Premier Alison Redford took to the airwaves to warn Albertans about the revenue problem, or ‘bitumen bubble‘, the government will face in the 2013 provincial budget. The Premier cited the lack of pipelines pumping bitumen from our oilsands to external markets as a reason for the low price of
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Americans Now Primed for WWIII
(Gallup: Staggering 99 Percent of Americans See Iran’s Nuclear Program as ‘Threat’ Americans See Civilian Program as a Bigger Threat Than North Korea’s Actual Nukes by Jason Ditz, February 20, 2013) ”A grim new poll from Gallup shows an overwhelming majority of Americans, indeed 99 percent of them, believe
Continue reading