44 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  5. Hood Wink Robin
    Rob the poor to pay the rich.
    “Congressional investigators demanded State Street Corp., Citigroup Inc., and seven other banks justify billions of dollars in pay and bonuses after they accepted $125 billion as part of a taxpayer-funded bailout.
    In letters to the nine firms yesterday, Representative Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said they collectively will pay $108 billion in employee compensation and bonuses in the first nine months of 2008, almost the same amount as last year.”
    “Waxman also asked for the number of employees paid or projected to be paid more than $500,000, and the total and projected compensation for the banks’ 10 highest-paid employees.”
    http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/10/29/waxman_tells_banks_to_justify_bonuses/
    Is this what the CWB fight is actually about?
    “In many countries, private investors are buying up huge areas to be run as natural parks or conservation areas. And wherever you look, the new biofuels industry, promoted as an answer to climate change, seems to rely on throwing people off their land.”
    “.an underlying food-for-energy swap in so far as numerous projects involve contracts to provide oil and gas supplies in return.”
    Money in money out.
    “The private sector rush into farmland acquisitions this year has been dizzying. Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, for instance, are taking control of China’s livestock industry. While all eyes were focused nervously on Wall Street in late September 2008, these two were tucking their money away into China’s biggest piggeries, poultry farms and meat processing plants – including rights to the farmland. New York-based BlackRock Inc, one of the world’s largest money managers with nearly US$1.5 trillion on its books, has just set up a massive US$200m agricultural hedge fund, US$30m of which will be used to acquire farmland around the world. Morgan Stanley, which nearly joined the queue for a US Treasury Department bail-out, recently bought 40,000 ha of farmland in the Ukraine. This pales in comparison to the 300,000 ha of Ukrainian farmland that Renaissance Capital, a Russian investment house, has acquired rights to, but still. In fact, throughout the highly fertile belt from Ukraine across southern Russia, the competition is hot. Black Earth Farming, a Swedish investment group, has acquired control of 331,000 ha of farmland in the black earth region of Russia. Alpcot-Agro, another Swedish investment firm, has bought rights to 128,000 ha there. Landkom, the British investment group, has bought up 100,000 ha of agricultural land in Ukraine and vows to expand this to 350,000 ha by 2011. All of these land acquisitions are to produce grains, oils, meat and dairy for those in the hungry world market … that is, for those who can pay.”
    http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=212

  6. It was reported earlier that Doug Finley is leaving his job as campaign director. This was wishful thinking on the liberals’ part, perhaps. Interesting that Canwest would run with it though…

  7. Thought I’d ask, is anyone using minefield? Outside of it not liking some links on NNW, (instant crash), it’s much faster than Firefox in XPPro sp3. I’m gonna install it on the other desktop running Fedora 9 tomorrow.
    ianv

  10. Have to wonder just how desperate the Liberals really are when they’re still pushing Justin Trudeau to run for the leadership, even after he wisely said he was not several times over.
    Even he realizes they’re eager to use the Trudeau name to advantage, it’s name over qualification in this case. If he were Justin anybody else he wouldn’t be on the radar.

  11. Thanks Vit for the Victor Borg piece. He never fails to amuse and amaze me with his talents although his wordrobe taste is as bad as Herb Tarlek’s.

  13. >>>>> Florida: “It was a record for Oct. 29 and the second lowest temperature ever recorded in October since 1850.”
    Meanwhile down in south Florida Willy the Tool speaks for O:
    “”Folks, we can’t fool with this,” Clinton told the boisterous crowd that braved the chilly conditions at Osceola Heritage Park.”
    (miamiherald)
    “Record cold swept over the region Wednesday (FL)
    OCALA – Twice the temperature dipped to freezing at the Ocala International Airport early Wednesday before it began making a gradual climb to the mid-60s. Bruce Ackerman/Star-Banner Frost covers a field off U.S. 27 northwest of Ocala on Wednesday. Temperatures in the Ocala area dipped into the mid-30s overnight.
    Though there was a reading of freezing or below throughout northwest Marion County, Wednesday morning’s official low temperature was 33 degrees.
    It was a record for Oct. 29 and the second lowest temperature ever recorded in October since 1850. Ocala’s official weather site is at the city water treatment plant on Southeast 24th Street.
    Until Wednesday, Oct. 29’s record temperature was 37 in 1943 and a close second was 38 degrees in 1957.”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2119539/posts

  15. Comment from Mac:
    “Imagine that! Greg Weston must be reading the blogs. I can’t imagine him coming up with this on his own…”
    …-
    “Weston: No cash of titans?
    When the newly re-elected Conservative government recalls Parliament sometime late next month, one of the first orders of business will probably be to kick the leaderless Liberals where it hurts — squarely in the bank account.
    A senior government official says Stephen Harper’s administration will move quickly to bar political candidates and parties from accepting loans as a way to dodge electoral financing laws.
    The move could leave the already cash-strapped Liberals trying to run their coming leadership race on pennies, hot air and used buttons.
    Too bad, so sad. The loophole makes a mockery of everything political financing reforms were supposed to achieve.
    Current federal law bans political donations from corporations and unions, and limits individual contributions to $1,100 a year.
    Instead, the last Liberal leadership contest that crowned Stephane Dion was fuelled by millions of dollars in IOUs, many of them five-figure loans to individual candidates from banks, private corporations and wealthy individuals.
    Most of the likely Grit leadership contenders are still mired in red ink from their last try, and without a change in law, the coming race to replace Dion is almost certain to be even more heavily dependent on borrowing.
    Indeed, only last week, Elections Canada ruled that former Liberal leadership candidates don’t even have to pay off their old debts before running up new ones going for the brass ring again.
    To put it politely, this is nuts.”
    http://jacksnewswatch.com/2008/10/30/weston-no-cash-of-titans/

  16. R.R. Reno, Optimism About America
    The multicultural ideologues and the post-patriotic, postmodern, self-styled citizens of the world have tried to reduce the power of the American myth with critique, counter-history, and a carefully cultivated pedagogy of ignorance. But they have not been terribly successful, in large part because collective self-criticism, whether measured and constructive or loud and petulant, has long been a central element of the American character. Not since the Roman Empire has a society in the West been so capable of absorbing and socializing diverse peoples into its national project. By my reckoning this record of success is likely to continue…

  17. (Via MESH) Ethan Bronner, Find of Ancient City Could Alter Notions of Biblical David
    Overlooking the verdant Valley of Elah, where the Bible says David toppled Goliath, archaeologists are unearthing a 3,000-year-old fortified city that could reshape views of the period when David ruled over the Israelites. Five lines on pottery uncovered here appear to be the oldest Hebrew text ever found and are likely to have a major impact on knowledge about the history of literacy and alphabet development…

  20. Liz J,at 8:08, I think it is moreso the media pushing JT for the leadership of the sinking ship. This way they can keep the liberal brand on the front page/top story for a while,and then later when again they have nothing even remotely interesting to report about the libs,they can trot out the “BREAKING NEWS” story and do a few days on how the little emperor will graciously spend a few more years amongst the great unwashed before he leads us to nirvana.

  21. Best news of the day; TO RedStar tells the Turth.
    …-
    “Torstar loses $2.7M on restructuring charge
    Toronto Star – 3 hours ago
    Torstar Corp. reported weaker third-quarter operating earnings on flat sales, citing reduced advertising revenue due to a slowing Ontario economy.”

  22. “UN peacekeepers” go to war? No, as MSM says, they are “braced for full-scale war”.
    Will they cut’n’run?
    The “UN peacekeepers” have lost the peace.
    New slogan for the UN: Make war, not peace.
    What will Lloyd “Soft Power” Axworthy have to say?
    …-
    “UN peacekeepers braced for full-scale war in central Africa
    United Nations fears regional war as thousands flee Tutsi onslaught”
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5043727.ece

  24. (Via JCI) Fouad Ajami, Obama and the Politics of Crowds
    And the tragedy of Arab political culture has been the unending expectation of the crowd — the street, we call it — in the redeemer who will put an end to the decline, who will restore faded splendor and greatness. When I came into my own, in the late 1950s and ’60s, those hopes were invested in the Egyptian Gamal Abdul Nasser. He faltered, and broke the hearts of generations of Arabs. But the faith in the Awaited One lives on, and it would forever circle the Arab world looking for the next redeemer.
    America is a different land, for me exceptional in all the ways that matter. In recent days, those vast Obama crowds, though, have recalled for me the politics of charisma that wrecked Arab and Muslim societies. A leader does not have to say much, or be much. The crowd is left to its most powerful possession — its imagination…

  25. Ottawa reviewing rules for company plans hit by market crisis, finance minister says – The company pension plans of millions of Canadians, battered and bloodied by weeks of stock market turmoil, will likely receive some form of relief from the federal government, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty indicated yesterday. Flaherty said the government is considering easing rules that require companies to top up plans that fall below levels required to meet pension commitments.
    “We’re reviewing (the rules) now in the Department of Finance with a view to seeing what can be done to help the pension funds at this particular time given the global circumstance.”
    I wonder if the little leprechan will forgive some of the taxes I’m being charged today, in lieu of paying more when the economy improves. Maybe not. This gerbil has already given banks $25 billion by taking non-impaired mortgage assets off bank books. Without being asked.
    This clown is screwing taxpayers silly. A real ‘conservative’ government ya got there.

  26. Meanwhile, three MPs from vote-rich Ontario will be in charge of key economic posts in the new cabinet. Jim Flaherty holds on to his post as finance minister while Tony Clement takes on industry and John Baird handles transport. Clement’s new assignment as industry minister is going to be a tough one, Fife said.
    The transition to Central Canada cutting all of the cheques is complete. While Prentice gets to kiss oily behinds now in environment, at least his failure in C-61 and the Canadian DRM is at bay for now.
    The real story though is: “In total, Harper expanded his cabinet from 31 members to 38.”
    Nothing like paying out all of that hard earned grease to reward party insiders.
    Naturally, the faux-cons in here won’t recall who had the largest cabinet in Canadian history, and how many were in it.
    Either that, or you’d have to recognize our ‘conservative’ prime minister has an awful lot of pink in the centre. Unless of course, the gun registry, CWB, Sec 13 coverage by the HRC’s, electoral reform, smaller government, Senate reform, broad based tax reduction….
    None of that’s been done yet. Silly me. I believed they were a conservative government at first too!

  27. Hardboiled, rules require ratios of assets to liabilities, and define the timeframe allowed to meet these. The current market losses put these assets, (only on paper), below the required ratios. If companies were required to top up these funds today, many of the companies would be bankrupt. End game, do we want these pension funds to continue, or be disolved with no payout today? There is NO MENTION OR EVIDENCE the taxpayer will spend a cent on these plans. However, IF these plans are forced into insolvency, it is guaranteed that the outcry would FORCE the Government to ‘RESCUE’ them, costing us billions of dollars.

  28. “Chill in the air part 2 – U.S. breaks or ties 115 of cold and sets 63 new snowfall records
    Of course many of you that live in this weather already know this, but there is an early start to winter this year, not only in the USA, but also in London, where it snowed in October for the first time in over 70 years.
    So far, no mention of this nationwide record event in the mainstream media. There are a few individual mentions or record lows in Florida. See this Google News search.
    Here, from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), is a list of these new or tied records for October 29th, 2008.
    I find the -25 below in Alaska interesting, since it bested the old record by 4 degrees.
    Here are the 115 new or tied low temperature records:
    The table below has been formatting to fit the blog, Here is a direct link to the original data from NCDC.”
    http://tinyurl.com/6xel3h (wattsup)

  29. Although hardboiled’s method of questioning the government at first irks me, as it’s primarily a visceral reaction, once I really think about it I tend to agree with him: where’s the “conservative” part of this government? I mean, I’m all for pragmatism and incrementalism, as I understand that in this political climate (left, lefter and leftest) moving to the right must be done ever-so-slowly. But come on, increasing the size of cabinet? At worst, ABSOLUTE worst, keep it the same size.
    And how about those policies that, as conservatives, should be slam-dunks to at least introduce, if not have them passed (if they don’t get watered down beyond recognition in committee): CWB deregulation, abolition of the farmer Bob gun registry, Section 13, senate reform, and tougher sentences for gun crime and violent crime?

  30. That being said, I still think Harper’s the best out of the lot: especially compared to a socialist, a communist, and a separatist.

  31. Good to have a laugh with Victor this morning.
    And, Bruce, that black preacher certainly is afraid of the big O. Wonder why he calls him Senator Tarzan?

  33. Re: Banning Small Chested People. I can see Vietnamese women getting boob jobs just to drive to work. One of the sillier ideas, fer sure.

  34. There is NO MENTION OR EVIDENCE the taxpayer will spend a cent on these plans Posted by: ian Vaughan at October 30, 2008 1:26 PM
    No, not yet. I think this is an end run to get in front of some liquidations. That is, there likely exists many underfunded plans that won’t make it. Prudent business mangagement would seek relief from throwing more cash at a mutt, if they didn’t have to, especially heading into an (expected) ‘protracted recession’. If you are old enough, you might remember Pauley ‘The Vice’ Martin, and his shafting of bus company employees vis a vis their pension plan, which had contributions diverted for operations as a short term measure. Business undertakes a fidicuary duty to honour pension obligations. That failure needs to land on shareholders and management, not taxpayers – imho.

  35. It’s official!!!!
    Longest “brink of recession” recorded. Breaks the previous record. The last record was set by John Foster Dulles, Ike’s Brinkmanship Czar, ’round ’bout May 17, 1958.
    This brink has lasted seven years, 9 months.
    >>>>> Mind you, this record is a conservative estimate.
    Commenter said*.
    …-
    “US economy officially on brink of recession”
    http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article5047418.ece
    …-
    *”I realise there is an official standard by which we’re judged to be in a recession, but when did the brink become official? This headline tends to imply there are two brinks, an official brink and an unofficial brink. What’s the difference? And when are we officially teetering on the edge?
    R Wilson, Salisbury, UK”

  36. The game continues in Vancouver South. The judge doing the required judicial recount is going to ‘count’ the ballots another time. Wait – no, he isn’t. He’s simply going to check the arithmetic; he’s not going to recount the ballots. He’s only going to add up the numbers on the outside of the sealed box.
    By law, Canada Elections Rule 304, a mandated recount can be carried out in any of three models. The judge can simply check the arithmetic on the outside of the sealed box. Or, he can open the boxes and recount all, I repeat, all, of the valid ballots. Or, he can recount all, and I repeat, all of both the valid and invalid ballots.
    Judge Dohm did none of these three steps, as required by law. Instead, he recounted only the invalid (spoiled) ballots, and opened only four (some say 18)of the 184 boxes. This doesn’t follow the Law. Even with this recount of the spoiled ballots, the vote reduced to a victory by 22 votes.
    Now, instead of counting all the valid ballots Judge Dohm is taking the step of only checking the arithmetic on the outside of the boxes. He won’t recount the ballots.
    I wonder why. Why is he just doing the most superficial act in a recount as narrow as this. Why did he, in the first place, disobey the law and only count the invalid ballots? Is it because he’s concerned that a proper recount means that Dosanjh might actually lose his seat as MP?

  37. There are probably a lot more, they’re just not saying:
    “Well, whaddya know? Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry is a lifelong Republican who opposes Obama.” The Boston Herald reports:
    Aerosmith has generally left the politics to bands like U2 and the Dixie Chicks, but axeman Joe Perry says national security and economic woes have prompted him to split from the rest of the entertainment world and throw his support behind John McCain.
    “We pretty much stay out of it, but seeing so many people come out for Obama, I just felt like ‘What the hell, I might as well raise my hand for this side,” Perry said from his Duxbury home.
    The Bay State rockers have done a few fund-raisers for the Kennedy family over the years, but Perry’s endorsement of McCain marks a first for the platinum-selling guitarist/songwriter.
    …“I’ve been a hardcore Republican my whole life,” he told the Herald. “My mother and father drilled into me from the very start that if you work hard and be positive, you’ll get what you’re working for. I guess I’m living proof of that.”
    …“I’m an optimist. It ain’t over till its over,” he said. “I think that he’s got a chance.”

  39. ET: I talked about this Judge last saturday under reader tips.
    Is he a Liberal Hack? He sure is starting to look like it.
    the thing that gets me though, is that the MSM is not picking up on this story, they are treating this recount & Judge as if Its a nothing article & what really surprises me is that Duffy has not brought this forward on his show.

  40. O’s Long Reach: Into the Heart of Darkness*.
    Quote:
    “This is like counting chicken before the eggs hatch.”
    It’s a dark tale of literal physical censorship: “about her grandson who may take over as the first black ruler in America.”
    …-
    “Censuring Obama’s grandmother:
    She is being censured by the police so that she does not say anything – a slip of a tongue may occur – that may reveal the identity and birth place of her grandson. If she were to say something in the line of – another citizenship, or that he was born in Kenya or Hawaii and adopted by a foreigner, and Obama is elected, that may create a constitutional crisis in the US because that will open for lawsuits to ensure Obama is not sworn in as President.
    This is a big surprise for the old woman who loves to talk to the local and international media about her grandson who may take over as the first black ruler in America. The Kenya police must have been instructed by the highest offices in the land to stop her from giving interviews between now and the election day.
    The report says she will be allowed to speak to the media on the 5th of November – a presumption that she will be telling the media of the grandson’s victory in America. It is understood that she has assembled a delegation of 30 people and tickets already paid for in order to travel to the US on the 6th of November to attend what they say will be Obama’s victory celebration. This is like counting chicken before the eggs hatch.”
    http://tinyurl.com/5svsdk (africanpress)
    (*H/T J.Conrad)

  41. Good to have a laugh with Victor this morning.
    And, Bruce, that black preacher certainly is afraid of the big O. Wonder why he calls him Senator Tarzan?
    Posted by: gellen
    I think the reverend is referring to The One as Tarzan because of his swinging past, something to do with his relationship with Frank and his mother’s parents in good ole Hawaii. The real reason in my opinion for the tear filled hop to Honolulu this past week without the family.
    http://lamecherry.blogspot.com
    Puts all the secretive actions of The One in perspective.

  42. Stick to politics, Preston.
    NDP does: “Former B.C. premier Mike Harcourt also stressed the importance of sustainable development.”
    Citoyen Dionky was not invited; in fact, he has gone AWOL, according to relaible anonymouse sourceses.
    …-
    “”In the political arena, because we’re such a tolerant and moderate people, the quickest way to discredit your political opponent is not to argue against their position, but to take it to an extreme and argue against the extreme,” Manning said at the conference, Securing Canada’s Future in a Climate-Changing World, organized by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.”
    …-
    “Climate change debate should be above politics, Manning says” (canwest)

  43. bryanr – what is also objectionable is how the Press who do report this, don’t do any research on the topic.
    We’ve been told by the MSM that the judge merely opened a few of the total boxes. The fact that this is in violation of Elections Canada rules for a recount is never spoken of, and obviously, the reporter hasn’t done the research to know that this is a violation.
    Then, we’re told that he only counted the invalid ballots, plus a few boxes (4?). Again, this is a direct violation of Elections Canada’s Rules for doing a recount.
    We’ve even got some bloggers doing this. Kady O’Malley blogged quite a bit about this, but not even once did she bother to go to the RuleBook of Elections Canada, section 304, to check on the actual laws about recounts.
    As for Duffy, he, as well as the rest of the MSM, are primarily Liberal, so, why would he talk about this?
    Again, what puzzles me is that the Rules, outlined in the Elections Canada Act and its Manual, are so clear, so simple, so basic – and yet, the judge didn’t follow even one of the three options he had, to carry out the review.
    He could add up the arithmetic on the outside of the boxes. He could recount the valid ballots; he could recount the valid and invalid ballots. The Elections Canada Manual section 2.7.2 is very specific even as to how to carry out the actual count.
    But this judge didn’t do any of these three options. He recounted only the invalid ballots, and only four valid boxes. That’s a violation of the Law.
    Now, apparently, he’s still not going to touch the ballots. He’s just going to count up the numbers on the outside of the boxes. Whether those numbers validly repesent the ballots inside – he doesn’t want to know.
    From what I’ve heard, that riding is filled with trouble about votes outnumbering registrants outnumbering citizens…outnumbering..etc.

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