WIND, OIL & MISFIT MINISTERS!

Canadian Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt just keeps stepping in the

big poop pile! Last week her aide, Jasmine MacDonnell, had to resign over

the political tempest that ensued when secret documents about Canada's

Nuclear Industry were left behind at a CTV News station. Now the Halifax

Chronicle Herald newspaper is printing excerpts from a 5 hour tape that

reveals monies allocated for "alternative energy" development were

diverted to Alberta Tar Sand oil production. The tapes suggest that money

for "wind power" were surreptitiously shuffled from the $1 Billion dollar

fund by Environment Minister Jim Prentice just prior to the January budget.

Mr. Prentice represents a Calgary, Alberta riding thick wilh Oilmen.

The tapes also reveals how upset the Canadian Wind Energy Association

( CanWEA) became after finding out their funding was reduced.

The Alberta Tar Sands are an Environmental disaster. Huge tracts of land

the size of Rhode Island have been deforested and scraped to extract

the oil-rich sand. Billions of gallons of precious water must be used to

steam and wash the gunk out of the soil. Huge, oily settling ponds have been

created to store the water. Migratory water fowl have been dying in the

thousands. Almost all of this oil goes south to feed the hunger of American

cars. Our Government heavily subsidizes these oil companies with our

Canadian tax dollars. Funny how the Americans can bitch about our

soft-wood lumber (supposed) subsidy..but makes no bones about how

they get their oil! Or who pays for it either financially or through devastation

of our Environment. Please feel free to read some Info about the TAR SANDS

at this link;

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thespiralbalance.info/OilSandsNGM.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.thespiralbalance.info/&usg=__SG9lGdsFwoEWOeF5qePgGpdF0B0=&h=410&w=615&sz=70&hl=en&start=95&um=1&;tbnid=XNVkCkGtz-63nM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=136&prev=/images%3Fq%3Doil%2Bsands%2B%252B%2Benvironment%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7ADBS%26sa%3DN%26start%3D80%26um%3D1

Meanwhile, poor Lisa Raitt must again face the wrath of an irate Stephen

Harper as he figures out how to plug this leaky Minister. Otherwise..it is

all just politics & business as usual. Perhaps it is time we sent a Mr. Smith

to Ottawa!

A great John Prine song about "things lost" in the Video Section!