What a comment

So where are all these jobs that the lazy unemployed are avoiding?

Not wanting to be redundant, you know where I stand on this

The CobourgBlog has an interesting thread entitled Capitalism - not perfect but better than alternatives. John lays out the modern view of capitalism, Adam Smith and Ayn Rand modified to make it palatable. Unfortunately the discussion about the auto industry is splitting down predictable ideology, perhaps John and I perpetuate this but we make no apologies. But there is some enlightening opinion emerging in cyberspace. in "Cars, Banks and Confusion" by Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post who examines the double standard of relief being pushed by Obama.. AP has another story in a similar vein, "Workers say Obama treated autos worse than Wall St". I don't know what the volume of differing views say about the overall perspective but it is very interesting to read what others say. But in this debate who appointed Dennis DesRosier King of the analysts. This man has proved himself partial every time he opens his mouth and confirms that his advice is not balanced when he says things like, "Kenny Lewenza has no brains!" as he did on the CBC last night. If all he does is pander to the right wing talk shows, 640AM loves him ,it makes me me wonder how good his analysis is and who pays for it?
This article, by Terence Corcoran of the NP does it for me - a different POV. Questioning all of the conventional wisdom and laying out the composition of Obama's auto team with their competing interests made me wonder, as others do, just what does Obama want for the engine of the American economy.

BTW I have posted all of the 42 minute 30 seconds of George Gallways speech made to Canadians last night. Look on the video page here.

So now it's down to Legacy Costs

The Auto bailout fiasco continues. Watching a bit of it and making my mind up pretty qyickly, isn't that what all you you do? I quickly decide that the reason the gap between the new guys and the old guys is the "Legacy Cost". But what to do with them. It appears that the elites, bankers and government will want to ditch them. But how can they politically put the boots to the pensioners that will be the next challenge. An orderly transition will do the same thing that always gets done when bankrupts fail to pay their bills. The banks move in, get their money and the rest of the creditors, usually people deserving severance and pensions get tossed over board. It looks bleak and if the government has to pick up the pieces and pay pensions how much will it cost the rest of us.

Besides how come the simple alternatives are never considered? For example we may have all received this email

This was an article from the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper on Sunday. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on "How Would You Fix the Economy?"

I thought this was the BEST idea. I think this guy nailed it!

Dear Mr.President,
Patriotic retirement:There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force; pay them $1 million a piece severance with stipulations:
1) They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.
2) They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.
3) They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage- Housing Crisis fixed.

All this and it's still cheaper than the "bailout".

A real potpourri

For those conspiracy theorists amongst us. here is an article that backs up the moves made by Obama this morning - to enforce financial oversight on the auto industry by the financial industry. For years now late talk night radio has been living on theories of the "New World Order" and how the "Illuminati" have been running the world by proxies. Every single US President has had links to the Rothschilds, the Bushes and the Royal Family and others :according to those guys all of life is preordained to maintain the control of us all by the elites. With Obama now putting Wall Streeters in the auto fix , when many blame these very same people for the mess in the first place, especially Tim Geitner, who wrote the legislation allowing AIC and others to become unregulated the writer of the article questions motives.

So did you put your lights out on Saturday? I have refrained from writing about earth day as it is a PR stunt designed to make the participants look good. How many of the participants have actually reduced their consumption in the last couple of years? Earth day, like womens' day and other festivals should be an everyday thing not a flash in the pan appearance.

The Greens have a Federal candidate. Stan Grizzle has been nominated. This fellow has been a member of three of the five main parties, and run for nominations in two. Wonder what he wants to be in later life. But as they say "Variety is the spice of life"

Will Brighton join the other paranoic municipalities by installing CCTV in their downtown. Research has shown that CCTV does not reduce crime, it barely makes crime-solving possible and usually the camera operators spend their working time looking for public nudity and sex acts. But if it makes Brightonians feel better let them go for it. I just hope that the signs advertising the presence of CCTV are large enough to alert those of us who don't like them to stay away.

Cobourg has reopened the debate about Development Fees. The Cobourg Home Builders Association has approached Council and asked them to reexamine the fees. The CHBA has decided that DFs are an impediment to progress and are stopping home sales, despite the recession. I would disagree and say that DFs are good and probably not high enough. New development must be paid for by new residents not existing taxpayers. I see this request is part of the ongoing discussion centreing around the Official Plan. In this discussion, which has yet to be resolved, the "Places to Grow" document at the County level has to be reconciled with the aspirations of Cobourg to plan for 16,000 more residents, despite Cobourg having the ability to "infill" inside thie present boundaries, with the potential of 9,000 residents.

A link from Wally Keeler. Wally sent an email that details some articles of local relevence Here.

Congratulations. These young people are champs - well done!

Another idea goes down well in the Dutch Oven

Councillor, I have to look good now, Bob Spooner, finally has done some thing productive. He has put his name on a story about how the local YMCA can really become the recreation department of the Town and get paid for it. The NNews in its lead story, tells of a salivating Kyle barber, the CEO of the YMCA, talking about the Y and the Town becoming partners in the proposed Community Centre. Just how productive this idea is depends on your perspective of public/private partnerships. But look at it from the Ys perspective, get a brand new building paid for by the public and then get paid to administer recreation! Look at it from BS's perspective, after finally having been woken up in Council by his "Yea/Nay" moment he has been ostensibly encouraged by his very own focus group - the Dutch Oven dead white men, to support such an idea. After all what politician wouldn't. They get all the hard work done for them by the Y and all they have to do is to shovel over taxpayers' money to let the Y run it. How the taxpayers are going to react to this will be interesting. There are some who think that the YMCA walks on water and there are others who regularly complain about everything the Y does. From the swimming pool water being too cold (that's why some people prefer to go to Port hope) to the perceived high (for some) membership fees. It will be intriguing to see how the partners balance the public/private ownership/administration but let's look at the way the Town owns the present building and the consequential bickering about the amount of money needed for the upkeep that the Town has to provide as an example of future discussions. The Town has never played hardball in its negotiations and the Y usually gets what it needs. Just look for more of the same but expect the amount of money that taxpayers have to pay for recreation to get much bigger. Personally if I have to pay more money i want more shares! And as John Draper has said before, "Why can't we just have a $2 million dollar Seniors centre?" We will be getting a $50 million dollar complex if the Y comes in and adds an aquatic centre.

Remember the posts about newspapers last week? Well here is another look. It comes from David Sirota who is the best-selling author of the books “Hostile Takeover” (2006) and “The Uprising” (2008). He is a fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future. Find his blog at OpenLeft.com or e-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com. He argues that the woes of the news industry are self-inflicted.

Ok now the time for the bean counters

In this story, which will be used to beat the opponents over the head, Mayor Delanty gloats about the success, in his mind, of the frink. What should happen now is a back of the envelope accounting of the total costs of the operation since its introduction. Some how i doubt we will see one!

The truth will out!

We don't know all the details of the timelines that govern the "Galloway" issue but they are emerging daily. Kady O'Malley, here, of the Globe & Mail, has been detailing the machinations of the issue as it happens hourly on Parliament hill. Now we find that the Jewish Defense League has claimed credit for the ban here in the TO Star. The question now is how many more of the jewish organisations in the Country will now also claim credit. If they do surely the people who denied that the "Jewish Lobby" exists will reexamine their positions!

Now for the Ontario Budget. Harmonization of the GST and the PST is the biggie. But wait we are going to be bribed with our own money - we will get $1,000 per household (under $160,000) to accept the HST. So the whiners will be out on this one, especially the Real Estate industry.

Advise to the mayor

When the Mayor of Cobourg replaces his stolen bike read about it here it is recommended that he take precautions to secure his replacement.
Just like this one:

The BBC says that the Jewish Defense league asked for the Galloway ban

This video (10 minutes long) covers the Galloway issue from the British side.

As usual Jason Kenney is blaming the Canadian Border Security Agency, once again begging the question who tipped off the CBSC about the visit of a UK citizen that requires no visa or advance permission.

Not much this Monday morning

CobourgBlog has a very interesting opinion about the Community centre study and wonders if it may not subjective rather than objective because it relies so much on a minuscule response to a survey. A good point. But Cobourg Council has a peculiar bent to it. They decide on what they want (usually a position impressed upon them by special interests) and then they go for it. The CB brings up a good point about the numbers game, if 2,000 people on a petition wasn't representative in the frink debate then how can 300 drive a $30 million dollar project? But don't forget these people (Mayor et al) have a history of using phony figures. The Harbourfront has been converted into a playground for the affluent because the Mayor pushed through his vision of "greenspace" based on that concocted survey, Oh Brocanier was fond of quoting it too.

So Iggy wants to do something with EI. A goodplace to start would be to undo the changes that the Libs implemented in the 90s. This story explains that changing EI is a "Priority". "People are shedding jobs like crazy," Mr. Ignatieff said on CTV's Question Period. "We've got to have a government that steps in and says 'Let's put some floor under this. Let's give people an employment insurance system that allows them to get training for new jobs.' "
Question for Iggy. How do you train the older worker with limited education. Talking to a service worker this week about this very issue she told me there is not much for those folk, factory workers with long-term attachments - in the system. besides training for what. Does anybody know what jobs are going to be needed in the next fifteen years? We don't have a national jobs inventory or a succession planning policy. besides does anybody share my scepticism about the need for wholesale post-secondary education. The only use for a degree these days is to be used as a screening device to reduce the number of applicants for any vacant job!

Randy Hillier (who's he?) may want to be the top dog PC. Randy Hillier a person that scares the living crap out of the Toronto pundits is mulling a run at the vacant PC leadership position. Bring it on! All it will do is widen the political spectrum to its natural environment in a three party Legislature. PC on the right, Dalton on the centre-right and the Dippers on the left. A good pole position for the next election.

Monday evening the Cobourg Council will move to establish the D'Arcy St. location for the Community Centre. This is the last piece of the puzzle that needs to fall into place for the application for "stimulus (shovel-ready) funding". This $30 million dollar plus project is going to be sold to us as the biggest bargoon of the Century and as taxpayers we would be foolish to speak against it. Hey it's a gift from the recession gods. 33 cent dollars falling from the sky. Never mind the questions: why pay for the lawn Bowling Club to be there, how much will it cost to compensate the Cobourg Soccer Club for its lost pitches, why no swimming pool when there is demonstrated demand, etc? We will be informed in due course and asked for a stamp of approval and you can all be present at the opening of the Peter Delanty Community Centre at about the time of October 2010 (next election campaign and woe betide any candidate that doesn't support the magnificance!).

When has this guy won?

Peter McKay has lost again. This guy gives losers a good name - he keeps on going just like the Duracell Bunny. First the PC leadership, then Belinda's heart and now the post of head of NATO. Last week's shoo-in lasted as long as the US was on his side and that's not long. A story here tells of the US shifting positions. Poor Peter.

First point to George

Here is the story of George Galloway from the UK. GG writing in the Guardian says some colourful things about Jason Kenney. He also says that the ban be will challenged in the courts. We will follow this one.

I love the words being used in this dispute firstly Kenney's spokesman Alykhan Velshi (the xenophobes would have a field day with that name) said, 'We're going to uphold the law, not give special treatment to this infandous (*'infandous: too odious to be expressed or mentioned) street-corner Cromwell who actually brags about giving 'financial support' to Hamas, a terrorist organisation banned in Canada. I'm sure Galloway has a large Rolodex of friends in regimes elsewhere in the world willing to roll out the red carpet for him. Canada, however, won't be one of them.'

It should be noted that the financial support given to Hamas was humanitarian aid.

Then the response from Galloway, "Kenney is quite a card. A quick trawl establishes he's a gay-baiter, gung-ho armchair warrior, with an odd habit of exceeding his immigration brief. Three years ago he attacked the pro-western Lebanese prime minister, Fuad Siniora, for being ungrateful to Canada for its support of Israeli bombardment of his country. Most curiously of all, in 2006 he addressed a rally of the so-called People's Mujahideen of Iran, a Waco-style cult, banned in the European Union as a terrorist organisation. On one level being banned by such a man is like being told to sit up straight by the hunchback of Notre Dame or being lectured on due diligence by Conrad Black."

The war of words can only get more florid and entertaining to lovers of prose!

People who don't like Arabs should not apply

I have kept very quiet about the influence of the Israeli lobby - Bnai Brith, JDL and the Canadian Jewish Congress. Allowing people to voice their opinions about Mid-Eastern affirs is not a matter of taking sides. That is why the BurdReport is apalled by this decision - to bar George Galloway from speaking in Canada. It is obvious to me that this federal Government is taking sides and not only taking sides but doing it with gusto. Jews in, Palestinians out. This story in the Star is only going to get louder.

Who has this guy POd

Local businessman Dave Tredree tried to get a rezoning amendment through Hamilton Twp council and failed again. DT owns a patch of land on Hwy 45 just north of the ramp, a great big piece of open dirt space. He has spent the last few years trucking in and levelling dirt from 401 remodels. He intends to make the land drainable and useable. But he has been stymied in every way by neighbours. Last night was no exception. He asked for permission to park U-Haul trucks on the larg site. But neighbours fearing "grow-ops" (really read about it here) asked to be heard and asked Council to refuse the rezoning. Council agreed and now DT has to keep his land, his money and hopes for further development on hold. Of course Hamilton Twp doesn't put the taxes down. But this decision will probably cost the Twp as it will enevitably end up at the OMB. I can't wait for the application to build a Holiday Inn to come in.

Special interests always seem to prevail

As the Community Centre plans get to be examined some things jump out at you. Why is there no aquatic centre, why is the emphasis on hockey when it started off as a Seniors project and why is the Lawn Bowling in on it?
In every large scale project something slips in that may not be part of the mandate of the project. In the last 'big dig' - the Library, which coincidentally was handed off the GillBrocanier to stickhandle through the process (even when he decided not to run in the next election he kept the job as chair of the building committee) there is a question of vested interests being slipped a quick one. The original concept of the Library build (also called the Cultural Centre) it was thought the Library, Art Gallery and Archives as well as other unnamed cultural entities could have a home on a controversial site (where it is now but the Town had to move a Tee-Ball pitch much to the chagrin of parents and the Legion). In the end, because of cost and design restrictions (As usual the most innovative designs were left on the cutting room floor) the Art Gallery was excluded. The building went ahead as a Library, and the Historical Society, with its subsidy, was moved into rooms at the Library.
This time the CCC has moved forward without an aquatic centre, despite the fact that 54% of those surveyed use aquatic facilities and the only one in Cobourg is maxed out and the other one is in Port Hope, but the Lawn Bowling Club is included - why? Does the Town want the existing land for more grass cutting opportunities? Does the LBC want to move? All questions to be answered as the steamroller moves inexorably forward to its conclusion - hurry up the design to make it shovel ready for the stimulus funds and get on with it in time for the coronation of Mayor Brocanier in 2010. All we have to do is finance another $10 million on the local taxes (1/3 of the total)

More on Kraft

Well the rumour guy appeared to have it half right. The new buyer is not a scrapman but a person who understands the intricacies of the scrap market as part of his own background as Owner of TrentFab, a Trenton based manufacturing company. Having walked past the plant last night I can say that there is a lot of scrap that has to cleaned out before anybody can go in as tenants. Still it is encouraging that a person with a fabricating background has purchased the place even if he stands to make his investment back in months, and the job promises are tenuous, if the steel market goes back to the highs of last summer.

The Readers are always right

When I asked the question who was GritGirl and the subsequent followup about ToryBoy1 it was pointed out to me by the readers that, quite rightly, I had overestimated the cost and technical expertise needed to produce such videos. Now it has been confirmed by Warren Kinsella that this is a fact. "I am excited by the vid below because someone calling themselves "OneTenGrand" did it. Why is that exciting? Because it means what Grit Girl started is spreading - Liberals (likely young Liberals) are using their acquired computer skills to defeat the discredited Harper regime." To see an example of the latest that Kinsella has posted go the video page.

A rumour confirmed

Earlier this week I heard that the Kraft property has been sold. The way the story goes is that two smart businessmen with a background in Scrap and Salvage, had bought the place to strip it out. Apparently Kraft sold it the way it is complete with some forklifts, the rumour said over 40. Anyway these guys allegedly have already leased out the Lab area to the County, presumably for the Land Ambulances who were looking for a home. The rest of the area has a fortune in scrap metal and raw inventory. Good luck to them but in order to remain less critical than normal we will have to wait and see just what other businesses these guy will put in there. I guess any sale would be deemed a success to a Council that is so "laissez-faire" it gives the French a bad name. Can't wait for the Town Crier to welcome the first Rolloff truck on its way to do business into the community! Another opportunity wasted. The Town could have done this months ago. Just put that "play money" into action, hire a project manager and we could have made money for the taxpayer.

PS I stand to be corrected if this rumour doesn't pan out.

Love those conservative editorials. I read a lot of online stuff and it runs the gamut. Here is an editorial from the las Vegas Review and Journal. It details some background to the AIG bonus outrage. BTW I feel that the rage is all phony designed to make lawmakers look good in a very embarrassing situation.

Who said journalism is dead, we still have backgrounders amongst us. How about this one describing just who got what in the AIG mess.

He's back in the public eye

Mike Harris, remember him? Well he's poked his head over the trenches at the law firm he's bunkered in and is back here Reputedly to be working his rolodex and calling party members to support the leadership hopes of Tim Hudak. Well the TO Star acts as though this is a big surprise - duh. Why would MH support anybody else? Hudak is married to the wicked witch of the revolution - Deb Hutton, Harris's righthand hatchet person. If these are the people on Hudak's team Christine Elliot doesn't stand a chance - never mind who her husband is!


In another vein here is a interesting piece written by Jo Cruddas MP for Dagenham entitled new socialism it is a new take on an old problem - dogma.

Remember when I asked who GritGirl was?

Well now somebody called Toryboy1 has appeared on the internet using the same style of videos as GritGirl we now get the other side of the story:
I just wonder who is paying for these things.

How about this a Minister of Science that will not acknowledge science

“I'm not going to answer that question. I am a Christian, and I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate,” Gary Goodyear, the federal Minister of State for Science and Technology, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. In this story here Gary Goodyear will not tell us if he believes in evolution. Leading some in the science community to speculate that he is a "creationist"

Speculation proves to be true

In this story Bob, I have troubling making my mind up, Spooner told Cobourg just what the BurdReport suspected a couple of days ago. There will be no aquatic facility in the new MULTI Million dollar recreation facility (CCC), and you know why --- because the YMCA has one. Well tough for them if the Town builds one, we need one and it should be in the CCC. In fact this study fails to do what irtshould have been told to do, and wasn't - consolidate recreational facilities under municipal control.
If all we are going to get out of the MILLIONS of dollars spent on this thing is more hockey facilities we have failed the general population of the Town and caved to the hockey rink rats and moms who hang out at the rink. Is hockey a rising demographic, are the facilities we have overloaded, could that overload be accomodated by one more pad instead of three? We will never know as this report will not change much in the travels through bureaucracy. So we started off with a simple request for more floor space by Seniors and ended up with an Arena fit for a Junior A team - some metamorphis!

Is this the future of newspapers?

The "SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER: 1863-2009" is the tribute to the end of a print newspaper. However as it ends the paper era it is asking that all of its loyal readers go to the online version here.
Will it work and is this webpage any different from any other newspaper webpage, and will it retain or repel readers? These questions are up for answering, but what we do know is that ad revenue is down and the operating costs of papers are the same, a lttle lower now that newsprint prices have tumbled, so deficits loom.
Joel Connelly write an op-ed piece extolling the virtue of the new online venture (he would,and as a survivor of the move he'd better make it work to save his job) here . However all of these optimists forget one thing - advertising revenue. You still need lots of it and it's hard to fit it into an online design without becoming overpowering.
I bet the Sun-Media gurus are watching this move very carefully, why else would the new consolidated Northumberland paper have .com in its title. Perhaps the most telling argument against local success in the online edition of both local papers is that the "interactive part" - blogs and comments sections are not well used. Can't say I blame the journos who have been asked to write blogs, what is there to say after you have banged out the maximum number of words for a pay cheque? And checking the names of the commenters there a few who I recognise as being multiple posters - they will comment on all and sundry no matter where the operation is.
Drudge has posted this link wherein former staffers of the Rocky Mountain News, the latest large market newspaper to shut down leaving inhabitants of a large urban area without newspaper coverage, have announced their answer to the problem. They will offer free content but charge a subscription for commentary and special content.
For another in depth look at the problem read this only on the web would you get this much distribution of such a long article (for instance in the NT.com columnists have been told to reduce their contributions from 750 words to 400. An edict like that would never happen online.

Finally back to the top here is a video from Seattle. It may take time to load, it's a busy day in Seattle today!

It goes on and on today, I guess the failure of the Seattle PI has brought everybody in on the discussion, here is an opinion about how the Internet will save local papers. I can really relate to this one. The hits on this site have doubled in the last two weeks. Now why is that? perhaps local content reigned supreme in the last couple of days!

A nice tidy job!

The Spooner affair will be put to bed next Monday when the committee report will reveal that the vote to put Miriam in her place will remain at 5-2. So much for Spooner's efforts to stay on side.

Into the Breach

This is the ad that pushes the biggest load of BS that I have seen for many days. Not that Earth Day isn't important for outlining the need to conserve the Earth's resources. Where the BS comes in is the great PR campaign by local municipalities to push the idea that we should all switch our lights off to bring attention to the matter. Talk about "bread and circuses" this push by our local leaders is an exercise in hypocricy and designed to make them look good whilst doing not much.
What these guys should be doing is to not put up hydro rates to maintain their revenue in the declining consumptive environment. What they should be doing is to establish teams of reno-conservation tradesmen and then back up those teams with grants to fix up our houses. We have been bombarded with exhortations for years now from all kinds of agencies to reduce our consumption and fix up our old and leaky houses, yet people still ignore those pleadings - Why?
Probably because they don't have the money to take advantage of the offers to renovate. They are reeling under the increases that utilities have demanded. If governments want us to reduce, let them help pay for it. Slick PR campaigns are just that - spin to make politicians feel good. If they want to good things mandate energy audits, enter every house and take stock. Make the bad homeowners fix up their houses and have the utilities pay for it. Local utilities should not be penalised by the market place for declining revenues brought on by reduced consumption. The Province saves money by not having to expand the hydro production and transmission systems, they should compensate local utilities from those savings.
How about working on the real problems instead of engaging in silly games that only illustrate the stupid competition between local municipalities!

Just a quick Sunday post

Manfred Schumann has copied me a letter that he has written to NT.com and I decided to rerun it here as it may not be published because he has already written about the situation and been published. So here it is:
Dear Editor,
Until now, the recent "censure" fiasco at Cobourg Council could have been cast as a minor blemish but that is no longer accurate. It has quickly become something more comparable to an infected pimple, or worse, an abscess, in a sensitive nether-region.

While the debate circles around words implied yet unspoken, questions characterized as accusations, anonymities and revelations, it has yet to be dealt with in an honest and forthright manner, in order to set the records straight and provide, to the public, a factual explanation of the issue. That one issue, as it was, has now erupted into several more. It reminds me of the theorem 'lies beget lies'.

As everyone who has been in attendance is aware, the issue stems from one councillor asking a straight forward and perfectly legitimate question (or two). Instead of a simple answer, the response was framed as an accusation of impropriety and interestingly remains unanswered. Subsequently, compromise turns into betrayal as names are made public by a third but significant party (mayor). Immediately, the original question is yet again characterized by the deputy-mayor, as an outright accusation aimed at those now publicly named, and is further vilified as an attack on staff who have no means of self-defense in the public forum, where they were surprisingly thrust by the third-party's (mayor) highly improper revelation just moments before.

While council accepts without question, such an improper and treacherous betrayal of a confidence in open council and then votes to censure a perfectly legitimate question of process by a councillor, is incredibly valuable material for a study in municipal practices that are close enough to being corrupt that light would not pass through that gap. Such conduct is not often found in isolation, but as an escalation and further deterioration of practices already exhibiting dubious tendencies. Why should this be any different. This is where scandals find their genesis.

To complicate the matter even further, the records show the vote to censure resulted in a 5 - 2 count in favour. However, since then, a purported 'correction' has apparently been noted by the flip-flop councillor to amend the vote to 6 - 1. Rules of order are clear on what must be done to change the record of a vote, and that has not yet been done here. More shenanigans! - just when we thought it was as bad as it could get. Can the 'C' word be far behind?

As we can all see, 'perplexing' is heavily outvoted by 'deplorable' as an appropriate word to describe what has been going on and shows no sign of abating in this council's term. As more such instances occur, as they are likely to, the decline of confidence in this council will gather momentum and the securely entrenched 'old guard' has no one to blame but itself.

Just as the blemish becomes a pimple, the festering underneath creates a full-blown boil, and the only remedy for healing to begin is a lancing to exorcise the underlying infection that characterizes the antagonism, revilement, viciousness, ostracism, distrust, and cronyism that appears to be emerging from this collective we acknowledge as our council. The question is - how?

M. Schumann
Cobourg
905-372-8906
Mar. 13, 2009

So after much money this is what we get

This is the portion of tomorrow's agenda for the CoW to discuss. It is a recommendation from the highly paid consultants, that studied the need for a Recreation/Community Centre. Look carefully and you will see that a key component of any Community Centre - a swimming pool is missing. So the Hockey guys get THREE pads and the swimmers still have to pay above market prices in a small pool at the NON-profit YMCA, of which we pay to uphold.
Silly me I thought the idea of such a grandiose scheme was to consolidate recreational needs and that includes cutting off the annual subsidy to the YMCA because we will need every penny for this. But if the nabobs and manipulators leave out a swimming pool then the Y can get the subsidy and the taxpayer still gets the shaft.
BTW the site for this grandiose structure has yet to be announced it was buried in the report that was not posted on the internet. There are seven sites and one involves using existing soccer fields, but the CSC has been promised replacement fields (further adding to the end cost!)

This vote thing has a life of its own

Just in: a link to another posting about Bob Spooner's changed vote here

Who is gritgirl?

The only political videos to surface this week have been coming from Warren Kinsella's website. He is publishing videos from a person called "Gritgirl". These videos are obviously not amateur garage photoshop ones and that has led John Ivison, of the national Post, to wonder if Kinsella whose real job is to advise Iggy on Political Stuff and to lead the Liberal War Room,is directing the Liberals to match the Conservatives video for video by using a proxy - Gritgirl. I have posted the video on my video page and John's article can be read here

Was it legal to change the Vote?

An extract from "The Scott, Foresman "Robert's Rules of Order"":






Page 345 sect.44

So there you have it foks the plot thickens with Councillor Spooner's vote. If the Official Recorder, the Manager of Legislative Services records the vote as 5-2 and the Chair of the meeting announces the result as 5-2 officially it is is 5-2. It will be interesting to see if the minutes are amended for the next Council meeting in the adoption of those minutes. If they have been changed it will be disputable and subject to discussion.

In another vein a comment has been posted on a previous post but must be repeated here for wider education of the readers:

I am the original "anonymous" about the Spooner vote-change trick. For the record, I am NOT any of the "anonymous" since then until now --though those anonymouses had interesting comments. Every person I spoke to who was at the meeting all agree Bob Spooner cast a "Nay" vote. Every person I spoke to who watched the meeting on TVCogeco agree Bob Spooner cast a "Nay" vote. People at the meeting and watching on TV all agree that the Town Clerk read it back that way and Councillor Spooner did not correct her. The vote was announced as 5 - 2.
The fact that the Town Clerk acknowledges a change happened THE NEXT MORNING clearly confirms that Spooner voted "nay" at the meeting. He was not correcting an error. He was changing his vote after the fact.

What is the legality, in a Recorded Vote, to cast the vote one way at the meeting and then change it the following morning? What does the Municipal Act say about this?

As is his habit, the morning of Tuesday March 10, Councillor Spooner was out and about in different places downtown. He told anyone who asked that he had voted "Nay" and also said he went into the in-camera meeting that came right after the meeting with the censure vote to tell all who voted "Yay" that he did not agree what they did. Apparently he underwent an adjustment to his p.o.v. soon after that, contacted Lorraine Brace and changed his vote. Make no mistake. He changed his vote. He did not just correct an error in the way everyone else in the world heard him.

Who gave him a viewpoint adjustment? How can this be "not important"? Councillors know a recorded vote is a significant event. How can such a significant formal procedure be revised 16 hours after the fact? Ben, what does the Municipal Act or Robert's Rules say about changing a vote after the vote is taken and announced, after the meeting ends, after 16 hours elapses? To know what he did, we don't need Spooner to tell us what he did, we saw it for ourselves. We need him or someone to tell us why he did it. We need Mayor Delanty or someone to tell us why he was allowed to do it.

If Bob Spooner thought this was going to go away because he says so he is wrong a lot of people are now really talking about this situation. It doesn't look good!

The Mystery Sale

This is the Daves No Frills flyer that whizzed through the mail slot yesterday. What could this sale be? And whatever it is saves you $50.00. So armed with a huge sense of curiosity I walked up the store. Joined the other twelve people waiting to get in (last sale there were fifty people waiting but I guess advertised turkeys were more than a come-on than a big question mark) and entered when open.

So you ask yourself what was the sale item, the piece worth lining up for and if bought will save $50? Looking in all the usual bargains bins I flailed around until the obvious hit me - a skid of B&D Toasters was standing where the knocked down toilet paper usually stood. These black, trimmed with chrome double bagel toasters were it! Remembering the words of the love of my life, "Have you got $20.00 if you find out what it is, it has to be worth $20 and useful!" So wondering if this item fell into that category I wandered off home knowing that Dave wouldn't be moving two skids of these things before we got back. Will we buy one? Maybe. The $9.00 Wallymart one we use is due for replacement but I don't know if we can go upscale just yet!

First post of the day

The beat goes on. Did Bob Spooner vote Yea or Nay. The audience and the tallyman heard what they though to be Nay but that does sound an awful lot like a nasal Nyay. Anyway that doesn't matter because he told the tallyman to change the result and he committed himself on the Yea side. All he has to do is live with himself!

A very local comment with national perspective.

Dave Chomitz, a friend of mine in the Real Estate industry sent me an email today with some really interesting implications, if you are a statistician. lookee here:

click on the pic to enlarge

This is a graph showing the listings to the sellings for the last three months. You can draw all kinds of conclusions from it It could be said that sales improved 25% over the month before ..... (January 31 - February 39) ... things are going great !!! while that would be accurate mathematically it would also be misleading. But listings are up and sales are down over the year and year to year sales 07-08 were down 43%. But the the telling stat was about inventory. The inventory balance is 5.5 months at the moment the inventory is 17.4 ahead. Now let the house builders say that there is a demand!

But the most interesting part of the email was the link to his web TV show The Real-Ality-Show a professional commentary purportedly about real Estate, but he does wander look at it!

A unanimous vote?

The vote of censure that was reported to be unanimous has been questioned by people at the meeting and watchers of Cogeco. Some observers claim that Councillor, I really am too old for this bulls**t, Spooner voted Nay thus making the final vote 5 to 2. But confusion reigns and until BS speaks up we won't know.

But the BurdReport has obtained an email from M Mutton between her and the Manager of Legislative Services (the tallyman for the votes) this email states the reason for changing the vote count from 5-2 to 6-1:

Subject: Re: vote tally

Councillor Mutton:

Councillor Spooner informed me that I had made an error and that he had voted 'yea' and not 'nay' which was what I had heard and in response I advised the press accordingly of Councillor Spooner's correction to me. I would ask that you speak directly with Councillor Spooner in regards to this matter. The original record showed that the vote was 5-2 regarding the motion. I met with Councillor Spooner this morning and he confirmed same and he will contact you as well.

- Lorraine Brace

But a person that I spoke to this morning told me that BS had told him/her on Monday evening, after the meeting, that he had indeed voted NO. So what gives?

Only the shadow knows!! Until we all view the tape.

Chrysler threatens to take its ball away from the playground

Chrysler, in this report here,threatens to close up shop in Canada and transfer its 25% of overall production to the States if it doesn't get what it wants. Hey Mr LaSorda nobody is getting what it wants. Besides let 'em go and then we can really apply people power and boycott Chrysler products. Does he really want to put the weak link in the auto chain out of business? We could easily put all the Chrysler dealerships ouot of business by refusing to buy any more Chrysler products. Mr LaSorda wants to threaten why don't we take his bluff!!

Time for one post

If you thought the airwaves turned blue every time the Con war room cranked up in the last eighteen months you ain't see nuthin' yet. I refer to the obscene amount of money that is being spent and more to come in the fight over the "Employees Fair Choice Act (EFCA) in the USA. Both Congress and the Senate introduced the bill yesterday and the opposition has gone berserk.

What is the EFCA? It is a bill that proposes change to the Union Organising rules in the States. At the moment only 13% of workers are unionised. Critics say that is because rules make it very hard for a worker to get a union. The biggest complaint is that it takes too long for supervised votes to take place. During that time workers will be coerced, intimidated and in some cases threatened if they maintain their membership and don't vote the union out.

For a good description of the problem read this. If you live anywhere the US airwaves exist be prepared for some rabid advertisements. I bet both the Libs and Cons are watching very carefully.

A busy day for me but a guest link instead

For the second day in a row I am pleased to link to Wally K's site to push traffic (isn't that what the internet is all about - sharing the airwaves) to display his latest column. Well illustrated he outlines his opinion in prose that the MSM will not publish - hurray for brave cyberspace.


Click here to read the full piece

An invitation from Wally K

Hello Cobourgerers

This emailing marks a new milestone. The BCC list now contains over 100 subscribers. My mail distribution program requires me to package the list in two blocs. Thank you for forwarding my email to other interested parties, who are welcome to become part of the list.

Today's emailing is an invitation to a blog entry in COBOURG OF ALL THINGS. Just click here. It consists of a few short videos of poetry readings -- I especially want to draw your attention to one woman poet, Vanessa Hidary. I've performed at several venues in Canada, mostly Toronto, and they are all too often bloated with banality and piety. My good friend, Robert Priest, gives great performance. But Vanessa Hidary is head and bare shoulders a babe with blast. Click on the videos, and see that poetry is not an arcane art form consisting of pious tut-tuts drinking tea with white gloves & raised pinkies.

For a bit of visual poetry, click here to see the latest news on the development of a new drug called WRITE AWAY, a decongestant to break writer's blockade. Below it is the first advertisement, and below that is the transportation system and highway system. Stay tuned for further developments from the Imagine Nation of the Peoples Republic of Poetry.

Enjoy.

All good things
Wally Keeler

Another Council on the lighter side!

A fart interrupts the show. This reminds me of the occasions when a former councillor and later to be Deputy Reeve couldn't stop giggling whenever the phrase "cause to be erected," or the single word "erection(s)" was read into bylaws.

And I thought this was going to a boring week

"Councillor Dean McCaughey, a member of the committee and the councillor putting forth the motion of censure, asked for an apology and retraction of her remark last week. These were not proffered."
This sentence came from an article in the new CDS, story here. What it really means is that the dead white men on Council - all the other councillors - have found a way to slap down the uppity woman. These guys have never forgotten the rebuke that was given to them, a reduced numbers of votes than the election before, and have never forgotten that a woman beginner got more votes than them. Admittedly Miriam Mutton may have been out on a limb when she accused Dean McCaughey of having undeclared conflicts of interests when dealing with items in the past. But she should have been able to back up what she said, if as she states that the suspected people on the committee who may have had connections to AECOM but naming them is a matter of privacy, then her stand is defensible.
It is not hard to imagine that when Dean McCaughey sat down last week after a public rebuke from Miriam Mutton, that he realised revenge is best served cold. So he sandbagged her at Council in public. Obviously every other councillor was in on it because none of them came to her defense about the timing of the motion. At least it should have been a "notice of motion" to be voted on next week.
More to come tomorrow when the new CDS publishes her side. This event is going to be dragged out - mainly to sell newspapers.

Video in the page - it works!

This is a test of embedding video

Hey it worked enjoy
ben

Not quite "I told you so"

Obama is now talking about having a discussion with the Taliban, what kept you buddy? Taliban Jack has been saying we should talk to these guys for over three years now and all he got was the nickname and abuse. Funny old world isn't it.

Another two needless deaths out west. Two skiers, who ignored both signs and yellow tape have killed themselves and injured a couple of others, pity! But how do we as a society approach the problem of public recklessness? Not very well apparently because it is still a problem. We know better in Cobourg though, we have stamped out that kind of foolishness. We have banned ice fishing in the harbour.

GM and the CAW have come to an agreement about what the workers will have to take out of their CBA. Pensions raises frozen, extra days off lost, and a cost of living increase. killed Not much impact on the pockets of the workers but a huge concession to the Company. Now let's stop the bleating about labour costs being too high.

An interesting article here about solar power operations in the Nevada desert. But with the news that a Company is coming to the east of town to setup a solar farm one should read it. The really fascinating point is tucked away in the middle where it is explained in a large solar-voltaic plant (I believe that that is what is proposed for here) there is only ONE fulltime employee hired to operate the plant.

A new leader same old problem

This picture tells all. There is not a party establishment person in it. None of the Lewis clan, none of the Energy Probe sect just a couple of working class males and a person with community roots in the middle. Whether the party caucus accepts this win, but obviously the party has, fully is yet to be seen but with a brand new, uppity (only been in the Leg five years) woman leader we will have to wait and see. The last woman leader - Lynn Mcleod certainly had to prove more than her chops in the first couple of years. Let's see how Andrea can cope with the traditional settling in period.

Do this but only if you have 30 mins to spare

Garth Turner was interviewed here on a recent TVO programme by Allen Gregg. Pushing his book "After the Crash" Garth gives his opinion on how anyone can come out this depression with as little damage to themselves as possible. Very interesting. Blogspot, or I, haven't figured out how to embed video clips so this clip will open in a new window. Expand to full size and the resolution is better than I would have expected. But as I said it is 26 minutes long - all of it rivetting.

The political stars realign in Ontario

With both opposition parties in rebuilding phases (the ONDP electing a leader yesterday, and the OConParty still without one) Dalton McG has the most room to maneuver. The Cons will probably elect a leader that will puul the party into its natural position, much to the right of where John Tory wanted it to be and the ONDP will have the space on the left when DM moves the Libs to the centre right (where he is most comfortable)

With Andrea Horvath (I am proud to say that for the first time in years I have actually backed a winner - much to my partner's chagrin) the new NDP leader look for much social policy based in the class struggle. That's where the battles are going to be in this coming depression. Just how will the province deal with the EI victims as they drop off the rolls and have to collapse all their assets before being allowed one penny of Provincial welfare money. Working class folk will be suffering more than then shrinking middle class and their knowledge based jobs. One can only sustain a service industry for so long and DM will bearing the brunt of the problem.

So look for the change in attitude that AH will bring to the house and I look forward to real working class issues being the centre of attention instead of airy-fairy environmentalist based ones. "It's the economy stupid!"

25 years later - have we learned anything?

Today is the 25th anniversary of the UK Miners' Strike. This may not mean much to North Americans but it does to the UK and it should matter to NA. To get the background to the Strike from the most hated man of the time Arthur Scargill you should read this here In stark terms Scargill was convinced that Margaret Thatcher was determined to beat the Miners into submission, previous Conservative PMs had been beaten by the miners and she was not going to have any of it. Rather Like Bush, in creating conditions for the replacement of Sadam Hussein, Thatcher had a master plan. This plan put in the context of her ideology was designed to de-industrialise Britain. Thatcher, who believed in individualism to the nth degree, some may even call it the instutionalisation of selfishness, was determined to eliminate the class system of Britain by proving to the world that if she, the daughter of a middle class shopkeeper could become the most powerful person in Britain anybody could despite class restrictions.

For an analytical opinion about the Miners' Strike read this, it is the editorial in today's "Guardian" and it declares that no-one won the dispute.

Thatcher was successful and the Miners' lost. Britain became the hotbed of new technology and high finance. The Country's manufacturing base was decimated and "New Industry" emerged. Society became more reliant on "lifestyle" and debt. This led to the immolation of the UK as the economy based on the same shaky finances as NA and now is playing catchup, as is the rest of the world, in trying to preserve an economy and society.

A taxing problem

In a story printed today in the NT.com here the announcement of another Seniors complex is trumpeted. 118 units of expensive retirement dwellings has passed the first planning stage. Unfortunately Councillor Bill MacDonald reveals his ignorance of the problem of these units by declaring,:"this kind of facility could have an unexpected spinoff in alleviating a situation at Northumberland Hills Hospital (meaning that he thinks the problem of long term care beds will be relieved by these 118 units)"
Unfortunately what he says is pure fiction designed to allow the units to proceed without much delay. Ever since these facilities have been coming to Cobourg in the late 80s all we see is another burden on the local hospital. Retirement facilities are notorious for not providing health-care, why should they after all all they do is provide small overpriced rooms and three squares a day. Sitting outside of the Health-Care system all they do is aggregate the population of seniors and overload the local hospital. There isn't a day that goes past without me seeing, at about wake-up time at the Seniors residence just up the road from me, an ambulance , with its llights flashing, indicating an emergency, on its way to the NHH. Allowing more seniors to be brought into town to fill these facilities is not good unless we know just what the impact on the NHH is going to be. We have never had a Council commission one of these studies before granting permission to have one built - that is wrong.

Friday Fluff

In an interesting piece that spans remembrance and nostalgia, politicised folk music and the UK Miners' strike are tied together here . But the novel supposition in the article is that when Maggie Thatcher smashed the Miners' Union she unwittingly set the world off on the economic crisis.

Spring is here. Skating has officially finished on both the Assiniboine River Trail and the Rideau Canal. How long will we in Cobourg extend the skating season?

Monday evening at Cobourg Council, the agenda shows, for the second week, a closed meeting item. Titled "a matter that relates to consideration of a request under the Freedom of Information Act" Ummm interesting, who is asking impertinent questions that must be so sensitive that it requires Council's full attention, in private, for a full two weeks? I wonder if the public will ever know. And they say that the Federal Government is the secret one!!

This week in Colborne, Council discussed the budget. In an interesting juxtposition they decided to give the Campbellford Memorial Hospital $10,000 a year for its CT Scanner fundraising. As you should know the King of Campbellford has made it his mission to install a CT scanner in the CMH. He approached the County for funding and was rebuffed, although the economic arguement made a lot of sense the fear that the County would end up funding Health Care overrode that argument. But in giving the money to CMH the Colborne Council then cut its conditional funding of the transit van. This van would transport the people who cannot either drive themselves or don't have a car around the County, mainly to Cobourg. As expected this Council has listened to their voters; the middle class sick people will get to travel to Campbellford for their CT scans, a greater convenience than having to come to Cobourg, they will probably save 10 minutes in the drive and not have to wait so long at the hospital, and the poor and elderly get the shaft. I suppose it serves them right, they don't usually vote so why should the Council be on their side!

A bit of a surprise this morning. Reading in the MSM (G&M story here) John Tory was defeated in his attempt to get back into the Ontario Legislature. The Blue Rinse crowd and the Reformers will now have something to crow about tomorrow when the Puffster comes to lunch. "The start of a journey begins with the first step" - that will be the cliche on the minds of the ReformaCons as they start to plot the demise of Dalton.

The story about the guy who pepper-sprayed by American Border Guards, is still running in the G&M, I guess some editor has a burr under his saddle about the way things went down. The Story is here but basically when the BGs asked him to turn off his car's engine he asked them to say please. “I just said please,” Mr. Fortunato explained Thursday. “He said 'get out of the car or I spray you' and ... I thought he was just trying to scare me off or something and I was pepper sprayed from a foot or two away.” I bet he won't do that again!

Another brave soul has stuck his head above the trenches. Rick Salutin, of the G&M has written a piece about "Jewish Apartheid Week" here and suggests that the very issue should mean the question of Jewish behaviour towards non-jews should be the issue not just yelling at the organisors and labelling them "anti-semites" because they dare to discuss the issue.

The most moving piece I have heard in a long time

This sound clip culled from tonight's CBC As It Happens is a gem and also the most moving tribute I have heard for many a year. Mishelle Brown, wife of one of the three latest Canadians killed in Afghanistan, calls her husband a hero and her 'powerhouse' is heard here talking to the press, in St Catherines, this afternoon

click here Warning: This may not work for you I had to play with this code it is MP3.

A small opinion about the LCBO

The current debate about the LCBO is an exercise in hypocrisy. The LCBO has for years resisted the urge to move, they could have had a large store at the foot of Third St years ago but they pulled the plug on it, leaving the Town and the developer with redfaces and a lot of wasted time on their hands, saying the other stores in Eastern Ontario needed the money. The regional argument (building a large store for Cob & PH in Victoria Place) doesn't make sense when they, the LCBO, are putting franchise stores in every rinky-dink community in the County: Roseneath, Vernonville, Grafton etc. But perhaps the biggest piece of hypocrisy will be when the Council, with a couple of exceptions votes to approve the rezoning. All of them will be spooked by the lawyers report that will probably recommend that the Council not object to the rezoning based on OMB precedent. I hope that is not the case, even though the Official Plan is explicit in this case. The Mandate of the Council is to maintain the integrity of the OP by protecting the Downtown core.

Boy do I feel old! Reported in the G&M here the University of Manchester, England, is going to establish an MA programme in the study of the Beatles. Perhaps the Beatles did change pop culture and had a consequent effect on the youth of the Nation but as a person who lived through it I didn't think the time would come when I would be part of a generational, almost historical, study.

Anybody want any free money? The Bank of Canada has lowered the bank Rate to .5%, as they say in Foreign Countries when the kids on the street want to sell you something, "Almost free!". I'm tempted to max out my line of credit and sink it into stocks - after all the same experts doing this are also saying the there is a great 'buying opportunity'. But wait that doesn't get the economy moving, might make me some money, but won't stimulate anything, but neither will this B 0f C move unless the Banks pass it on to those wanting operating loans but then who wants those as demand has dropped and nobody wants to buy anything so just what is one supposed to do?

This just in - The Puffster is coming

If you are a fan of the Puffster - Senator Mike Duffy - hurry on down to the Columbus Centre in Cobourg on Saturday for a luncheon. Billed as a fundraiser for the local PC party and ex-Reform candidate and sitting MP Rick Norlock, this event is guaranteed to get out the 'blue-rinse' crowd. It will be interesting to see if the Puffster can stay on message about how his party will lead us to the promised land or if he goes down deep and dirty with partisan cracks about his opponents.

A little birdy tells me that he might be appearing on Cogeco, Gawd help us the reruns will go on for weeks!

PPS take a look here

The conflicting issues faced by investors and managers

I have written of my disappointment with money managers not acting in the real interests of their customers - the investors before. Here is a story that illustrates just how when managers act in the interests of their clients they sometimes make career limiting moves. Read about it here. But you should drill down and read the comments, it appears that this practice, docking the pay of "bad" money managers, is quite prevalent.

In an interesting aside, I have just returned from the "No Frills" store. As a beneficiary of perhaps the most successful $1 sale in its history I enquired about the turkeys. Last week NF had turkeys on for a $1 a lb. People were breaking the doors down to get them. On the day the sale opened the 1200 turkeys allocated for the start of the sale had gone by noon (four hours). To date it has been estimated that over 5000 of the suckers have been snapped up by all of us survivalists and our freezers. So if the Stocks go any lower and our pension payouts fail we can all eat turkey for the weeks after!

OK the guessing starts now

With the release of the news about the upcoming sale of the Kraft property, here, the guessing about the buyers identity and the proposed new uses has begun. The special Kraft committee has number of people on it, the Council has seven people on it and many more are involved in Real Estate so if this news doesn't get out before the official date it will be remarkable. So how about a pool on the eventual outcome: new industrial plant, new residential development or anything else?
The new residential development is an interesting one for if it proposes to build hundreds of houses, using the available sewage capacity, then it will blow the Official Plan out of the water by infilling and put a lot of development plans in Area C in jeopardy. What a waste of the last few planning years and really does question the expansion ideas of the "Progressive Councils".
PS if anybody hears any rumours about the identity of the mystery buyer post it here!

If you have time to kill - check this out!

Tourism Queensland, a Province/State in Northern Australia advertised, what they called the best job in the world. Officials with the tourism department of Australia's Queensland state on Tuesday revealed the 50 finalists from a pool of nearly 35,000 applicants for the job — a $150,000 Australian ($96,000 U.S.) contract to relax on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef for six months while writing a blog to promote the area. The 50 finalists on the shortlist are featured on a webpage here. The submitted videos are really something, but as you watch them just wonder why you didn't submit one for the best job in the world. Imagine living on the Barrier reef for half a year and writing a webpage about your daily activities. One word of warning, I did a travelogue recently and it's not as easy as you think to write a new piece every day. You will need imagination to go with your good looks and new tan!
BTW a Canadian is fourth in the running!

Is it time for another committee?

With the NToday.com - a newspaper despite its masthead being a URL - deciding to advertise Cobourg with a special edition of a blurb being distributed in other newspapers read here. This begs the question in these times of alleged fiscal restraint; how much does Cobourg spend on ads? Advertising, unless you do a lot of it is usually a waste of money. With its limited budget Cobourg should be reexamining its advertising budget. For example I don't know how much time and money we spend at the Dressler House writing ad copy and putting magazines and booklets together but I bet it is substantial. I don't know how much free advertising the Town gets from other media outlets and their puff pieces about Cobourg but it seems to be a pretty easy sell, and the number of publications, and their costs, should be known to bigwigs at City Hall and an advertising strategy should be implemented to take advantage of other's magazines. If this means job losses at the Dressler House so be it. But why should we have people on staff doing ad stuff that has been overtaken by other's efforts that are potentially a lot cheaper? Time to strike another committee this time it will probably save us money!

Sunday Snippets

What is the undercurrent of Conflict of Interest at Cobourg Council? Reports of heated words at last Monday's Council meeting appeared in the MSM this week. NNews here In a description of the event by a Council watcher who was at the meeting and submitted as a comment to a previous post, below, an undercurrent of a potential C of I involving a mystery councillor emerges.
"During earlier discussions about the makeup of the committee struck to assess the bids for the engineering consultants contract, Miriam asked if there had been any disclosures, or was there a need for any disclosures, concerning potential conflict of interests on the part of any members of the committee. One would deduce from her question that she had wind of some questionable choices and at one time she questioned if there was any kind of possible connection between any member of the committee and any one in the employment, at some point, of one of the firms bidding for the contract. Both McCaughey and Brocanier took exception to her questions and spoke at council about it, with McCaughey demanding a formal apology from her. Miriam flew off the handle and told McCaughey in no uncertain terms that he was "the last person on earth in a position to demand such an apology!" to which McCaughey put his tail between his legs and sat down. Before that skirmish, Brocanier asked for an apology, Miriam did not respond directly, the mayor asked Miriam if she was prepared to offer an apology and she emphatically stated that she was not prepared to do so. In that moment of nothingness, McCaughey made his embarrassing stab at it."
Will the world know what is going on? Perhaps not but details will filter out via the "dead white man's club" in time. As conspiracy theorists know nothing stays silent long, especially in the case of older conspiracies, as people die off they want to confess. Not saying that Bob Spooner is dying off but he will probably let his colleagues at the Dutch oven in on the secret.

I was intrigued by a National Post article about Conrad Black. As we all know he is prison in Florida serving a six year sentence for bilking shareholders. In this collection of email answers to questions posed by Theresa Tedesco he describes what he is up to. What I find interesting is the connection, made by observers, that great writing often emerges from people in prison. I guess they use the time productively!. In Black's case he is an historian and therefore he can effectively write about the impact of both liars and cheats in his case and whether he will be vindicated by the facts.

I guess Bob Rae is in a state of vindication amid reports that Dalton McGuinty's response to the looming depression is to unleash cases of red ink at the problem. The interesting thing in this case is just how it is perfectly alright for Dalton to run a deficit and Bob Rae was pilloried for doing the same thing. My response to that is that DM is not out of favour with the voters. BR never had the approval of anybody other than his supporters at the start and they rapidly dwindled as he ruled by ignoring party policy. It's hard to govern with only 38% support at the best of times - just ask Harper how hard it is! So run the deficits Dalton, the province is with you!

"Just get the money out there, mistakes be damned" that's the message from the Federal Government. So what mistakes can we expect? One that is emerging very quickly is the charge leveled by opposition MPs is that Conservative MPs are getting a leg up in the infrastructure applications. Let's hope that that's not true. "Follow the Money" Jerry McGuire used to say and in this case I hope that the MSM will do just that and expose any cases of "porkbarreling" in Con Ridings.