59 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation, we have Sergei Rachmaninov performing the Adagio Sostenuto from his Second Piano Concerto, with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, directed by Leopold Stokowski, as recorded by the Radio Corporation of America in 1929:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RXnorFwfPA

  3. Look out below !
    The Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services cut it’s rating on The New York Times to BBB- That is just one rating level above Junk Bond status.
    Who would of thought ? Most, here at sda, that’s who.

  5. Whether it is oil, soybeans, silver — commodities periodically come under attack from Speculators. Goes with the territory. (Google Hunt Brothers Silver bubble)
    But never like the present. Hedge Funds are huge.
    [Many grain elevators are “at their ropes’ end financially,” says Michael Swanson, an agriculture economist at Wells Fargo, a big lender to farm country. But as grain prices continue to rise, “a lot of lending institutions will call into question whether they can write another $50 million check for another margin call. The credit crunch is very real”…Stuart Selinger, bureau chief of the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Warehouses, which regulates grain dealers, says he is concerned about a potential wave of defaults by grain elevators. His staff is currently liquidating the assets of a small Illinois grain elevator, The Grain Exchange, based near St. Louis.] Badlands Journal
    The Markets usually welcome speculators to provide liquidity (and cash that is ripe for the picking, as most specs are net loosers)
    But it seems the Funds have turned the tables and are stomping on the Big Boys now. Even food giants, Cargil and Con Agra, are worried about their future.
    I believe is is only recently that some exchanges allowed speculators (Funds) unlimited trades. Before, only actual buyers and sellers of the physical commodity had unlimited trading rights.
    When the Funds are in control of the paper, physical and Futures may not converge in the month of expiry. That is a huge problem.
    If there is a way to screw-up, man will think of it.
    My take – I stand to be corrected.

  7. [In 1973, the Hunt family of Texas, possibly the richest family in America at the time, decided to buy precious metals as a hedge against inflation. Gold could not be held by private citizens at that time, so the Hunts began to buy silver in enormous quantity.
    In 1979 the sons of patriarch H.L. Hunt, Nelson Bunker and William Herbert, together with some wealthy Arabs, formed a silver pool. In a short period of time they had amassed more than 200 million ounces of silver, equivalent to half the world’s deliverable supply.
    When the Hunt’s had begun accumulating silver back in 1973 the price was in the $1.95 / ounce range. Early in ’79, the price was about $5. Late ’79 / early ’80 the price was in the $50’s, peaking at $54.
    Once the silver market was cornered, outsiders joined the chase but a combination of changed trading rules on the New York Metals Market (COMEX) and the intervention of the Federal Reserve put an end to the game. The price began to slide, culminating in a 50% one-day decline on March 27, 1980 as the price plummeted from $21.62 to $10.80.
    The collapse of the silver market meant countless losses for speculators. The Hunt brothers declared bankruptcy. By 1987 their liabilities had grown to nearly $2.5 billion against assets of $1.5 billion. In August of 1988 the Hunts were convicted of conspiring to manipulate the market.] Liberty Post

  8. You know the saying — ‘History repeats itself’. Just saying.
    [Those bashful bullionaire brothers W. Herbert and Nelson Bunker Hunt showed up in public last week for the first time since their speculative bubble burst on “Silver Thursday,” March 27. The Hunts were testifying before two congressional subcommittees looking into their metal market machinations over the past year. As the brothers told the tale, they were just worrying, like most Americans, about the worsening economy. As Bunker Hunt has reportedly said, “A billion dollars is not what it used to be.” Inflation had destroyed their faith in the dollar, so early in 1979 they began putting even more of their wealth into a “harder” currency: silver. By late March they allegedly controlled almost two-thirds of the world’s privately held supply of the shiny metal, but “artificial factors,” like higher margin requirements and limits on the amount of silver futures contracts they could hold, spoiled all the fun.] Time, May 12 1980
    Multiply Silver many, many times and perhaps we have ‘oil’.
    Any chance the Hedge Funds of today may spoil our Pension Fun ? (Yes, Fun. Without the d)

  9. This has to do with the cbc bias and the global warming from above. Tonight,cbc did a story on a huge iceberg that floated into St.John’s harbour. The story went on about the trouble it was and could cause……….but then Mother Nature took care of it ‘OVERNIGHT’.The impression left on impressionable viewers was that it is so warm there that iceberg’s don’t even stand a chance. But the real story is that it is so frigging cold that an iceberg actually made it into the harbour. Cbc,the unofficial opposition.

  10. The Hunts had two out of three.
    One: buy low. Two:sell high and most difficult. . .
    Three sell near peak, BEFORE the slump.
    BTW, it is past prime for Sask Potash [ symb. POT]. Two year run was nice but everyone*s favourite and no buyers left. Too late.
    Think Ford is a turnaround? [ F – $8] One world trader Financier does. He*s buying into Ford with a huge block.
    Tata Motors India looks good to me. They are selling the $2,500 Nanao while other car makers are still promising. [symb TTM Nyse]
    India is also expanding road systems from mud and pot holes to asphalt, much as the US did in the fifties..Eisenhour*s time. Did a lot for booming auto sales.
    Forbes points out, *India’s population is among the world’s youngest, with 60% of its people under age 32. An emerging middle class of 300 million provides a phenomenal growth prospect.*
    [From a long sales pitch for Motley Fool news letter.] Also . .
    ** No wonder investors in Russia (up 430%)… India (up 604%)… Mexico (up 381%) … plus more than 50 other nations all outperformed their U.S. counterparts since October ’02. **
    Personally, I have no trust in Russia and consider China very tricky, but India has respect for law and institutions. Government is getting rid of the *graft system*, removing red tape for business and the cost for good labour is low.
    http://tinyurl.com/4zsl54
    ============================
    = TG

  12. It seems that CBC’s Katherine Walker has figured out that Saskatchewan seems to have more than it’s fair share of bigots.
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_walker/20080428.html
    Somehow Walker, an aboriginal issues columnist, has combined the antics of David Ahenakew, an old video featuring MP Tom Lukiwski joking around and Kate’s blog piece on Saskatoon’s Station 20, and decided that the province is a hotbed of bigotry.
    It’an op ed piece I know, but it shows how leftoids can put turnips, apples and peaches together to get a watermelon. Maybe this “alter-Native” looker can open her eyes to the mess at Caladonia but I’d wager it would still be my (old male whitey) fault.

  14. Calgary Herald – Wednesday
    The AB gov’t has just announced a new $100M project to encourage the giving of money to charities and wouldn’t you know – it is housed in the new Department of Culture and Community Spirit. The same department that is focusing on bankrolling the film industry and probably the Stanley Cup Playoff announced for 2009 in Calgary. The PCs way of funneling money for votes and let’s hope that the record keeping (i.e. recipients/amounts) is as public as this announcement.
    This is the same department that is i/c of the AB Human Rights Commission with its paltry-by-comparison budget of about $5.5M.
    For anyone who has followed the Air India inquiry on CPAC, this is totally mind boggling. Evidence given during the hearings as regards charities would suggest that the only thing that should be happening both federally and provincially with charities is a considerable tightening up of legislation as regards both profit and non-profit charities – not bankrolling them. Has anyone thought this though as to what it could mean for terrorist funding – well known to be happening in Canada with Alberta not being somehow immune.
    In terms of objectives – how is this funding going to bring harmony amongst diversity. It will be a charge to the trough with the sole intent of getting “my fair share”. It will further exacerbate the isolationism of cultural groups. I guess the bully lever of the AB HRC, housed in the same department, will just keep on doing what it has always done – enforce Official Multiculturalism and allow Political Correctness to become even more extreme.
    And some of us think that ON is going the wrong direction under Czarina Hall.

  15. If the NYT drops further I would love it if Mr. Murdoch would pick it up and turn it in a rightward direction. the agonies that would cause those on the left would be absolutely delicious.
    2. Dan McTeague of the LP is beaking-off almost daily about high has prices and the profits and taxes the oilcos and the federal gov’t are recieving.
    Shouldn’t he and the LP happy as the high pricing will reduce CO2 emissions – that the market is helping fight AGW – that we should all be happy that prices are as high as they are and that we should be sheering them ever higher? Some one in the press needs to nail Dion and get him to either side with McTeague or rebuke him and his pro-carbon rhetoric.

  16. Calgary Clipper – Are you sure you don’t mean “Grey Cup” for 2009 as opposed to Stanley Cup?

  19. Reuters/Palestinian cameraman killed:
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080430/ts_nm/palestinians_israel_reuters_dc_1;_ylt=AnheLDVkg5_41uUPXcMwFO_7kPUI
    There’s 51 pictures attached to this as I look at it. #42 shows the bodies lying on the ground, with the damaged vehicle, and an ambulance. #44 shows the bodies gone, the ambulance gone, but the damaged vehicle is now on fire.
    Torching the truck after recovering the bodies may make good photos, but they should space them out in the slideshow to be a little less obvious.
    Also, as a rule, i don’t think it’s a good idea to park in a defile like that and point a big black thing at a tank.

  20. Reuters/Palestinian cameraman killed:
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080430/ts_nm/palestinians_israel_reuters_dc_1;_ylt=AnheLDVkg5_41uUPXcMwFO_7kPUI
    There’s 51 pictures attached to this as I look at it. #42 shows the bodies lying on the ground, with the damaged vehicle, and an ambulance. #44 shows the bodies gone, the ambulance gone, but the damaged vehicle is now on fire.
    Torching the truck after recovering the bodies may make good photos, but they should space them out in the slideshow to be a little less obvious.
    Also, as a rule, i don’t think it’s a good idea to park in a defile like that and point a big black thing at a tank.

  21. Late heads-up
    Author Joe Boot of Ravi Zacharias Ministeries was a one-on-one guest on last nights Michael Coren Show on CTS-TV. Repeats today Wednesday, April 30 at 12 noon Eastern.

  22. Not waiting for the asteroid sequel:
    http://tinyurl.com/6pohzm
    “I don’t think that’s unique to newspapers – much less unique to Torstar,” Mr. Prichard said, adding that the company is optimistic the year will rebound in the second half. Torstar has seen April ad sales pick up, he said.
    “We view it as clearly a soft start for the year, but we don’t view it as indicative of the full year,” he said.
    Torstar took a $20.8-million restructuring charge in the quarter and expects annual savings of $12-million. It recently cut about 160 positions at the Toronto Star through layoffs and voluntary severance.
    Torstar’s net debt was $639.4-million at the end of March, up $19.1-million from the end of 2007. The company will also address shareholders at its annual meeting Wednesday.

  23. Heather MacDonald, The Wright Side of the Brain
    The list of Afrocentric “educators” whom the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has invoked in his media escapades since Sunday is a disturbing reminder that academia’s follies can enter the public world in harmful ways. Now the pressing question is whether they have entered Barack Obama’s worldview as well.

  24. Calgary Clipper – Are you sure you don’t mean “Grey Cup” for 2009 as opposed to Stanley Cup?
    That’s the only way there will be a Cup playoff in Calgary, buy one. LOL

  25. ” Department of Culture and Community Spirit” WTF???
    When will politicians learn you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Creating another government is just another exercise in creating simple servent jobs and a place to waste money.
    And in case nobody has figured it out, charity can’t be bought. Charity is also indirectly proportional to socialism and the entitlement crowd. I’ve noticed that people will tend to give more of a helping hand to those who need it than those who figure they are entitled to it. As more and more groups figure they are entitled to suckle off the government teat, the willingness of the taxpayer to fork over more of his/her hard earned pay goes down. This is ’cause guvm’t gonna hep them anyhow.
    Just my $.02 cents (before taxes).

  26. [quote]Three sell near peak, BEFORE the slump.[/quote]
    TG,
    That requires intuition… The Computer generation programmed trading depends on the Market reacting to speculation & calculated projections. The observer has become the Market! Stock is not valued by IT’S performance (think .Com).
    It is easy, with the help of MSM, to drive the price of Oil but…. a couple of possible
    scenarios will result in a total Loss because there is no time to react.
    a) The Exchange suspends trading, for any reason, and oil pricing is found to be the cause of the instability.
    B) Any action by law enforcement that results in a run down…. suspension triggered
    You can not buy or sell when the Market is Suspended… Makes for expensive Wall paper

  27. (Via Comment Central) Drake Bennett, The future of dirt
    THE EARTH’S UNCERTAIN oil reserves and dwindling freshwater supply may get all the attention, but modern society is also overtaxing the ground itself.
    At the same time that a growing population and the newfound appetites of the global middle class are straining our food supply, governments all over the world are also pushing for more ethanol-generating energy crops. To support all that production on a limited amount of arable land, scientists and farmers have long focused on technical improvements such as plant breeding, bioengineering, and creating new fertilizers and pesticides.
    But some are now asking a different question: What if we could create better dirt?

  28. robertJago Re Syd Ryan Complaint: “Another sign of bias surely.” Not necessarily. Accusing Ryan of having links to terrorism and circulating the accusation on his home territory would make anyone mad. What is critical here is the truth of the accusation. Was there good reason to make it? An investigation will reveal.

  29. Theodore Karasik and Ghassan Schbley, A House of Tribes for Iraq
    Many western notions of governance may be struggling to take hold in Iraq, but one that deserves a close look is the effort to create what would amount to a unique upper legislative body: The House of Tribes.
    Iraq has over 100 tribes, some of whose roots trace back a thousand years. While modernization and urbanization have eroded tribal affiliations, tribal loyalties remain a bedrock of Iraqi society. Indeed, tribal affinities may matter as much as national, ethnic or religious identities…

  30. Advice to the lovelorn from an American Presidential candidate:
    http://iowahawk.typepad. com/iowahawk/2008/04/advice-for-the.html
    Glenn Reynolds at instapundit deserves the credit for this one. I don’t.

  31. When the Funds are in control of the paper, physical and Futures may not converge in the month of expiry. That is a huge problem Posted by: ron in kelowna at April 30, 2008 1:03 AM
    Say ron in kelowna – how exactly do the funds ‘take on the big boys’? And 2nd, physical month deliveries MUST converge with monthly paper – at least at contract expiry, otherwise there is arbitrage.
    Or, the market moves to daily deliveries – with an index built upon daily fixed priced deals.
    Can you explain why thius isn’t the case?

  32. Potash Corp … yes they will correct.
    Should also initiate a stock split !
    About 5 to one would put the shares back into the price range that small investors would be attracted to.
    IMO

  33. Advice to the lovelorn from an American Presidential candidate:
    http://iowahawk.typepad. com/iowahawk/2008/04/advice-for-the.html
    Glenn Reynolds at instapundit deserves the credit for this one. I don’t.

  34. Remember, keep repeating to yourself: Elections Canada is biased, any criticism of Conservatives is a sign of corruption and bias, everyone is out to get us, all the other parties did the same thing, facts don’t matter, reality is a liberal concept, the law and our own principles do not apply to us, and whatever else are in the Conservative talking points on this scam.
    ———————–
    Tories making matters worse
    Courier-Islander (Campbell River)
    Wed 30 Apr 2008
    Page: A12
    Section: Opinion
    Byline: Paul Willcocks
    Column: BC
    Source: Courier-Islander
    Here are the allegations, boiled down.
    There are advertising spending limits for parties in federal election
    campaigns.
    Parliament decided that a party with a big pile of cash shouldn’t be
    able to buy a victory.
    In the last election campaign, the Conservatives’ national campaign was
    allowed to spend $18.3 million on advertising – no more.
    Candidates had separate individual spending limits.
    The allegation is that the party wanted to spend more than $18.3
    million on national advertising.
    Many local candidates couldn’t raise enough to reach their spending
    limits.
    So, the national party arranged to send cheques for $4,000 to $29,000
    to selected local candidates.
    And they turned around and wrote cheques back to the party for the same
    amount, often in the same day.
    Ostensibly, the local candidates were saying they wanted to run more TV
    and radio ads to help in their local races. The national office was
    supposed to help by buying them.
    But really, Elections Canada alleges, it was a just a shuffle to get
    around the election spending limits    .
    The result, according to the elections office, was that the
    Conservatives spent $1.1 million more on ads than they were allowed.
    It gets worse. Local campaigns are eligible for a 60-per-cent rebate
    from taxpayers on the money they spend. The national campaigns aren’t.
    The deal, if it worked as Election Canada claims, cost taxpayers
    $700,000    .
    The Conservatives have offered two defences.
    First, they say the candidates really wanted those national ad
    campaigns to run.
    They recognized that they mattered less than the leaders and hoped the
    party effort would help them to victory.
    But Elections Canada has evidence that contradicts that. Mostly, the
    local candidates and their volunteer agents just did what they were told.
    Sometimes, they said the national ads actually hurt them.
    Here on Vancouver Island, the Nanaimo-Cowichan Conservatives complained
    they were made to pay for advertising that hurt their effort. The ads,
    directed at a national audience, attacked the Liberals. The local
    Conservatives’ main opponent was New Democrat incumbent Jean Crowder. The
    attacks, by discouraging Liberal votes, might have helped Crowder to
    victory. [Ed note: curious as well that only ridings that were expected to be sure wins or sure losses were chosen, showing even more it was NOT about a local campaign trying to benefit from the successes of the national campaign. Also, the national funds amounted to up to 90% of spending for those local campaigns. Very curious indeed.]
    The second defence is the really damning one.
    The Conservatives have claimed Elections Canada is picking on them, a
    theme echoed by some commentators.
    All the other parties do it too, the Conservatives complain.
    It’s a defence that never worked at my house. Wrong doesn’t become
    right if enough people vote for it. (If the other kids jumped off the
    bridge. . . )
    Worse for the Conservatives, there’s no evidence that the other parties
    did do it too    . Former candidates for other parties and observers say
    they don’t recall any large-scale funding shuffles to pay for national
    ads     or other dubious transactions. [Ed note: i.e. it is not that individual ridings haven’t taken money from the national campaign and repaid it, but that these funding arrangements were not organized and orchestrated by the national campaign and the local ridings were not required to participate as the national campaign dictated; AND the local ridings in those examples benefitted from the national funding, unlike here.]
    By making that claim, the Conservatives haven’t claimed the high road.
    They’ve chosen to argue that they obeyed the letter of the law. (Even
    that has been cast into doubt by some of the evidence, including early
    questions about the shuffle’s possible illegality.)
    Harper’s defence – and the claim that Elections Canada is picking on
    the Conservatives – will fly with the party’s core supporters.
    But most uncommitted voters will likely find the allegation that
    Elections Canada is singling out the party for harassment unbelievable    .
    The Conservatives won a minority government in large part because     they
    promised an end to dubious campaign practices    .
    Now it looks more like they embraced them.
    ——————–
    And the question Conservative supporters avoid like the plague is: since when did a highly technical legal reading of the fine print of any piece of legislation (which is what the Conservative defence amounts to) become an acceptable response to an ethics question?
    The Right Honourable Stephen Brian Jean Harper, indeed.

  35. CNN reporting that the latest figures out show the US in NOT in a recession, GDP grew, not by much but it did grow, just like it grew in the last quarter. Recession is when it falls for 2 consecutive quarters.

  37. Since economics seems to be the teep du jour, here is the latest from a Canadian investment house – fresh as it comes:
    Last month we published the first part of a study of the bipolar financial and economic power shift which is simultaneously creating new global economic leaders, dethroning Wall Street as the ruler of the international financial system, and spawning a financial crisis and recession. It is our thesis that Wall Street’s two cynical ampaigns to enrich itself by inflating bubbles and draining investor savings (the tech mania and housing bubble) have done more than spawn two unnecessary recessions and a global financial crisis: they force investors to rethink their risk appraisals and investment policies.
    Those Wall Street-created disasters came at a time major new econoic powers were emerging across the Pacific. The investment thesis for participation in these spectacular growth stories isn’t based on something as insubstantial as the fraudulent tech accounting and flawed CDO formulas peddled by Wall Street shills and mountebanks: it is based on the global scarcities of food, fuels and metals as millions of new consumers are added to the global economy. The shares of the companies that the world relies on to find and produce what Asia must have should no longer be rated as low-investmentquality cyclicals. They deserve higher investment ratings than Wall Street banks, because they do what is necessary and they have real, clear assets and
    real, clear earnings. This month, we conclude our arguments about the relative merits of investing
    in firms that are viable only because of Fed and Treasury interventions, compared with those which are our low-risk ways to benefit from the
    continuing global scarcities of energy, metal and food. We believe the US and most global stock markets are in bear markets, and that the worst
    is yet to come from the fallout of Wall Street’s financial follies.

  38. Blowback is picking up speed:
    “Italy views Muslim immigrants as harmful: study”
    ROME (Reuters)
    As a new centre-right government that has vowed to be tougher on immigration prepares to take office, a new study on Tuesday showed that most Italians have negative views about having immigrants from Muslim countries.
    According to the study carried out by the Makno research organization, and commissioned by the interior ministry, 55.3 percent of those asked said immigration from Islamic countries was more problematic than that from other, Christian, countries.
    Only 39.7 percent said Muslims should be allowed to practice their religion and build mosques unconditionally._Nearly 10 percent were firmly against allowing Muslim religious practices or mosques and the rest posed various conditions, such as reciprocity for Christians in Islamic countries to practice their religion.
    On the Islamic side, nearly 40 percent of Muslim immigrants said they found it difficult to respect their religious traditions in Italy while 30.2 percent feared they would lose their culture.
    Italy, a predominantly Catholic country which once sent millions of immigrants to the world, is still grappling with how it should integrate immigrants of different cultures, languages and religions.
    More than 17 percent in survey feared terrorist attacks, nearly 25 percent said they believed Muslims were critical of Italians and their culture and 28.2 percent said Muslims were intolerant of Catholicism.
    Various parties in the coalition of prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi, who is expected to form his government by next week, have vowed to crack down on immigrants.
    Umberto Bossi, the firebrand leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League, took a surprising 8 percent in this month’s national elections and is expected to get several cabinet posts, perhaps including the interior ministry.
    One League member, Roberto Calderoli, outraged Muslims with past antics such as wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with Danish cartoons showing the Prophet Mohammad.
    Renato Schifani, a member of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, said minutes after he was elected Senate speaker on Tuesday that among Italy’s pressing priorities was to promote only “healthy and regular immigration” and to defend Italy’s “Christian roots”.
    According to official figures, there are more than a million Muslim immigrants in Italy but aid groups say the figure is higher.
    The attitude of non-Islamic immigrants in Italy, most of them Christians, was just as critical towards Muslims or in some cases even more so than that of Italians.

  39. No property rights so socialist city councillors can do as they please. Welcome to Trudeauopia!
    =================
    Christine and Paul Coma are devastated the home they bought 38 years ago and raised their family in might be expropriated by the city to make way for the completion of the west end Transitway.
    […]
    The Comas said they were told the news last month during a meeting with city officials and ward councillor, Alex Cullen.
    “They’ve given us two options. Expropriate it and take it down or rent it back to us,” she said. “It’s heart wrenching.”
    http://www.ottawasun.com/News/OttawaAndRegion/2008/04/30/5426496-sun.html

  41. What else but weasel words from a true weasel:
    Fantino said he’s committed to working for peace as well as upholding the law.
    “I am totally committed to do what is in my power to reach peaceful solutions, however, I am equally unwavering in my resolve to hold accountable anyone who would break the law and jeopardize public safety.”
    http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/419850
    Cops as politicians, and politicians as cops.

  43. ooopps – mixing pucks and footballs is pretty bad :). Come to think of it – mixing either or both of these things in with the AB Human Rights Commission is even more bizarre.
    Of course it is the Grey Cup coming to Calgary in ’09, not the Stanley Cup. I was listening to the announcement on the radio and right up front were Premier Ed and the new Minister of Culture and Community Spirit along with the mayor plus all the sports people. Now we know why.
    I was in Calgary when the last Grey Cup was here, I think in the year 2000. As Calgary was not in the game – the interest of a whole lot of Calgarians was not much at all. Had it not been for the Green & White (SK), the Grey cup parade would have been a very quiet happening. The Grey Cup Museum (rather stark) was located on the third floor of a downtown office complex and was not at all easy to find.
    Let’s hope that the ’09 Grey Cup is a much more supported by the public at large. Success won’t likely be for lack of money spent with the Dep’t of Community Spirit on the scene.

  44. April 30th/08…..Has the CIC made thier statement of settlement to MacLean’s magazine yet? Does anyone know someone who might have attended?

  45. Hardboiled @ 11:57am
    ** and that the worst
    is yet to come from the fallout of Wall Street’s financial follies. **
    So true! And the best is yet to come for getting in low for the ride back up. . . eh?
    Ommag, 11:31am
    1 to 5 split for Pot Corp is a cheery idea.
    Do the old Sask boys do flash? Or is it, * if it ain*t broke, don*t touch nothin*?
    Phillip G Shaw, 10:49am
    ** You can not buy or sell when the Market is Suspended… Makes for expensive Wall paper. **
    Ya just gotta hold through.
    Money Bags like *Texas Pacific Group* frost me when they take your pet stock private. They buy, lock stock and barrel, install a top CEO and sell after the ride uphill.
    Quebec government did that to me too. They bought out my *Nordair* in the 70s. That had a long up-ride ahead of it.
    Still, a share in a carefully chosen part of the future is THE best investment. = TG

  46. I’m sure everyone is tired of seeing and hearing all the Happy Birthday well wishes from dignitaries,Parliamentarians and media types towards PM Stephen Harper, who is celebrating his 49th birthday today, but I would like to wish him a happy birthday anyways.
    Happy 49th Birthday Mr. Prime Minister Stephen Harper!
    Er wait a second….http://tinyurl.com/4clyaw

  48. OK Ted, how about we just eliminate spending limits on parties and third parties during elections, and eliminate rebates to parties for expenses and votes received? Spending limit is essentially how much a party can legally raise from individual donors.
    Nice of you to try to frame this as an ethics question…it’s not. It is not unethical to use a loophole.
    Now, please tell everyone why EC wouldn’t apply penalties or perform serious investigations into irregularities in voting in Edmonton during the past few elections, and questionable donations received by Liberal candidates during the leadership campaign. Why were there no raids on Liberal offices that were covered by the CBC and the CPC?
    You know Ted, it is illegal to make a $20,000 donation to the Liberal party by breaking it up into 4 donations and having your relatives donate it for you. And when I peruse the records of Liberal party donations I see LOTS of situations where a bunch of people with the same last name are all donating the maximum allowed by law. Why doesn’t EC look into these?
    I read somewhere that there were a whole bunch of donations made to the LPC on December 31. Seems a little strange. One by Mr. Chretien IIRC. Maxing out their donations to the LPC. On December 31, of any year, I can guarantee that the last thing I am doing is making a political donation. Think if we compared the cheque numbers that the LPC received with the dates the cheques before and after it were written/processed we might find a discontinuity? Because if these cheques were written after December 31, and then predated, that would be a crime. Why doesn’t EC look into this Ted?
    I have a relative who works for the federal government. Her hatred of Harper is disturbing…and I can understand why, Harper’s long term goal is to eliminate waste in the civil service. That means thousands of bureaucrats are out of jobs or have to do real work. They know what party supports a bloated bureaucracy, and they aren’t going to bite the hand that feeds them. So don’t try to feed us a line about EC being non-partisan.

  49. Someone figuring out how much they’ve paid through the year and then maxing out at the end of the year is your evidence that Elections Canada – which is headed by a Harper appointee don’t forget – is biased?
    This has gone into bizzarro world now.
    But if you don’t like the Conservatives’ whiny excuses for breaking the law today… wait a minute: they’ll have a whole bag of new whiny excuses and deflections tomorrow.

  50. Citoyen Dion’s Liberalsocialists are in the turmoil.
    …-
    “Même frappé par une perquisition policière et par les déboires diplomatiques de Maxime Bernier, les conservateurs restent en bonne position au Québec, et demeurent nez à nez avec le Bloc québécois.”
    http://tinyurl.com/6fgu94 (lapresse)
    On The Hill with E. Thompson:
    “For Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, the news is bleak.”
    “don’t be surprised to see another bout of turmoil in the party’s Quebec wing.”

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