““So today we see the seething resentment of British voters – including established migrants – towards those they blame for taking their jobs, living off benefits they haven’t paid for… and threatening to harm the very country that provides them with a home.”

Socialist Worker tackles some of the key myths about immigration.”

–This is my favorite part:

The commission admits though, that it prepared the report, “without having been able to conduct an observation visit to Venezuela, due the government’s refusal to grant its consent. The Commission’s last visit to Venezuela took place in May 2002.” It states though, that its analysis is based on, “information submitted by the State of Venezuela in response to requests made by the Commission.”

How exactly can one produce a report on human rights like this without actually going to the country that you are supposed to be reporting on? It is absurd that such a report would get any play in the media except one that is utterly biased.

The other obvious question is where is the report on the rest of the nations within the OAS and if there isn’t a report, why was Venezuela targeted in such a way. I think the answer is pretty obvious — and it has little to do with the true nature of human rights in Venezuela.

–Aid is a strange thing, it has been used as a political tool by the imperialist nations and it regulation has been used as a tool by democratic and undemocratic government receiving aid alike. What the USA is doing in Haiti is not exactly new, but it is extremely telling of the priorities that they have there and the necessity of an alternative plan.

“Had it been approved by the court, the referendum would ask voters to amend the constitution to allow the president to run for a third term in office.

57-year-old Uribe, primarily elected in 2002, is the staunchest US ally in South American and was re-elected in 2006 after a sympathetic Congress amended the constitution to allow him the second term. ”

– But of course the right-wing who defended the Honduran coup, and opposed the Venezuelan amendments to the constitution are not up-in-arms about Uribe’s attempt to extend term limits.

“Class resentment used to be the preserve of the left. That workers were too poor could be blamed on the fact that bosses were too wealthy. If governments needed money, the preferred solution – rhetorically at least – was to make the rich pay [...] Today, class resentments have been turned on their head. The focus of anger is not the silk-hatted capitalist but his unionized workers, with their job protection guarantees, their pension plans and their good wages.”

I think we can all agree that the fundamental problem was never that the bosses were too wealthy; it’s that there are bosses at all. Nevertheless, this article fairly accurately reports the ideological shift that occurred in Canada sometime in the 1980s, even if it does not adequately explain this shift.

“Spain approved a sweeping new law on Wednesday that eases restrictions on abortion, declaring the procedure a woman’s right and doing away with the threat of imprisonment, despite opposition from conservatives and the Catholic church.

The new law allows the procedure without restrictions up to 14 weeks and gives 16 and 17-year-olds the right to have abortions without parental consent.

The senate’s passage of the Bill on Wednesday gives it final approval.”

“US legislators voted to extend controversial provisions of the notorious Bush-era Patriot Act on Thursday…. President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law this weekend… Legislators renewed three sections of the Patriot Act, which was originally rushed through both houses of Congress in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks.”

“Forgive an outsider and staunch atheist like myself who, on reading the recent French press comments relating to Ilhem Moussaid the hijab-wearing NPA candidate in Avignon, gets the impression that something is rotten in French political culture. Let’s take the debate at face-value. A young Muslim woman joins the NPA [New Anti-Capitalist Party]. She obviously agrees with its program that defends abortion, contraception, etc, i.e. a woman’s right to choose. She is then told that despite this she does not have the right to choose what she wears on her head. It’s astonishing.”

“So, what’s Sheehan doing? Plenty. She’s moving to Washington, D. C. in March to erect Camp OUT NOW, the prelude to Peace of the Action. I don’t want to call this an event. Because it’s so much more than that. This is a Cindy-inspired MOVEMENT. And it’s an investment in humanity. Visit the website and see for yourselves: www.peaceoftheaction.org “

Some Thoughts on Vancouver and the Black Bloc | By David Rovics

“It seems to me not implausible that the techniques that women might have used in a similarly pragmatic vein to ‘get a man’ and thus secure some sort of economic stability are now used, in a rather more limitless way, to ‘get a job’. The sexualisation of contemporary women, from which men are of course not exempt from either, reflects less a freely-chosen desire to express oneself as a fully-rounded sensual being and far more the desperate, yet eminently comprehensible, desire to insert oneself in whatever way possible into a cruel economic structure that will selectively use and value the ‘assets’ of its workers whenever it needs to.”

AB: Are taxes on polluting industries a solution?

JBF: If you mean an ultimate solution, the answer is No. The only real solution is to get rid of capitalism and put an egalitarian, sustainable society, run by the associated producers, in its place. But we have to face the fact that the environmental problem, including climate change, is accelerating, that this is a question of survival for humanity and most species on the earth. … Under these circumstances we need both short-term radical responses and a longer-term ecological revolution. … The immediate, short-term response requires, I am convinced, a carbon tax of the kind proposed by James Hansen: a progressively increasing tax imposed at well head, mine shaft, or point of entry with 100 percent of the revenue going back to the population on a monthly basis.

“The calendar is available at kalvellido.net/wp-img-kalvellido/KalendarioKalvellido2010.pdf , free of charge.”

“[Dubai] police say they have identified 15 more suspects – using British, French, Irish and Australian documents – taking the total to 26. … On Tuesday, Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni applauded the killing [of a Hamas commander], which Dubai believes was organised by Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad.”

“Tips are flowing in from the public about a cross-burning this week in a small community in Hants County, RCMP say.

Early Sunday morning, Shayne Howe and his family looked out to find a two-metre high cross, with a hanging noose, burning on their front lawn of their home in Poplar Grove, just outside of the town of Windsor, N.S. Someone also shouted racial slurs.

Police suspect at least two people were involved, and they’re urging anyone with information to come forward.”

“Agents of Canada’s spy agency, who travelled to Egypt and corresponded with Egyptian officials, indirectly led to the mistreatment of a Toronto man by authorities there, according to previously classified information released on Tuesday.”

- More evidence demonstrating CSIS’s involvement in using outsourced torture.

“Barlagne and his wife Sophie moved to Montreal from the French island of Guadeloupe five years ago with their handicapped daughter and another child. Barlagne said officials at the Canadian Embassy in Paris granted him a temporary work permit after convincing him Canada was a great location for his software development business.”

“But when the Barlagnes applied to stay permanently in Canada, their bid was rejected on the grounds that Rachel’s care would create an excessive burden on health and social services.

Rachel’s care would cost the system $5,259 per year, said the Barlagnes’ lawyer, Stéphane Minson.”

“Canadian cardiac surgeons say there was no need for the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador to cross the border for world-class health care.

The treatment Danny Williams received in the United States is available in at least four Canadian centres including hospitals in Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, doctors told CBC News.

Williams has made no apologies for following what he said were doctors’ orders in flying to Miami to have “minimally invasive” surgery earlier this month to repair a leaky heart valve.

However, Montreal cardiac surgeon Dr. Hugues Jeanmart finds that medical advice puzzling.

“I was very surprised, especially for the reason he [Williams] advanced, saying that we didn’t have this kind of expertise in Canada, which I completely disagree with,” he said.

Jeanmart repairs heart valves using the latest in robotic technology. Instead of open-heart surgery, the operation is performed through an incision under the arm, so there is no large chest scar and there are other benefits as well, Jeanmart said.”

“The family of the American activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza seven years ago, is to bring a civil suit over her death against the Israeli defence ministry.

The case, which begins on 10 March in Haifa, northern Israel, is seen by her parents as an opportunity to put on public record the events that led to their daughter’s death in March 2003. Four key witnesses – three Britons and an American – who were at the scene in Rafah when Corrie was killed will give evidence, according the family lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein.”

-What a ridiculous title to have chosen.

“Recommendations contained in the report titled Pact for the Competitive Financing of our Universities, released today, would lead to skyrocketing student debt for Québec students.”

All of them are First Nations reservations. The analysis in the article is, of course atrocious, and plays with the idea that the poverty may be caused by corrupt chiefs, instead of examining the continuing colonial policies of Canada.

“The N.B. postal codes that rank among the 10 poorest according to income are all First Nations communities: Kingsclear, Eel Ground, Tobique, Elsipogtog, Red Bank and Esgenoopetitj, also known as Burnt Church.

The median income in those areas was below $14,000 in 2006, with Esgenoopetitj ranking as the poorest neighbourhood in Canada, with a median income of $9,200.”