The first work week of the new year

This is it, everybody energised yet for the big slog? Not particularly enthused much in the news lately, I pick over the bones of local snippets and try to add some colour. For instance there is an interesting story here out of Campbellford that the lone bidder for the antique fire truck has had his bid rejected. The Mayor is leading the charge to refuse the bidder to claim his prize even though there are no other plans for it. One may conclude that perhaps there is a back story here, maybe the Mayor - King Hec. doesn't like the bidder!

The other topic bothering me is the situation in the Middle East. So everybody is down on Hamas because they refuse, on religious grounds to recognise Israel.and carry out acts of violence. They did win an election and were immediately shunned by the free world. After Hamas pumping rockets into Israel, the Israelis retaliated and invaded the Gaza Strip. So we now have a humanitarian disaster and a military stalemate. I say that because there will still be rockets fired during and after the invasion. What's the answer - I don't know but the situation is not helped by people taking a hard line on either side. In true Canadian fashion we may have the answer - street demos should replace bullets. Two sides of angry opponents separated by a security force allowed to shout at each other in public; an amazing spectacle.

Local politicians dazzled their constituents with Levee speeches and self-congratulatory moves. Mayor Delanty was quoted as speaking longer than normal. Perhaps he sees stuff that others don't. All I know is that if taxes go up a lot of people will be mightily upset. Let's all wait for the usual budget game - you know the one - a press release is issued saying that the staff wants a huge increase to fund all their pet projects. The budget chief retorts that we can't afford a big raise and proceeds to tell staff (behind closed doors) to get real. The DM then produces a budget that will be 1-2% more than the actual and proceed to get to the lower level by means of a couple of meetings designed to show that the process is working to help beleaguered taxpayers. Finally in a show of municipal muscle councillors will finalise the budget at a "marathon session". Fueled by chicken salad sandwiches and butter tarts the Council will vote on a reasonable budget. This year we should try to get it right in one go. Produce the last but one draft first and then have the sandwiches and vote on the final draft. It can be done in a month if the will is there.

Finally Minnesota may have a result in their Senatorial election. To the delight of the Dems and the disgust of the GOP the canvassing board may rule that Al Franken has won the seat. It is possible that the losers will appeal to the courts for more counting. As Tom Stoppard said, "Democracy isn't the voting but the counting!"

If you thought your holiday was boring take up with these guys

Another conspiracy theory, this time it's proven

Look at this Powerpoint file here, and then think about the amount of time and money that has gone into the destruction of the electric car. I just don't understand it, if the car companies went to the effort to create these cars who has enough money to bribe them to destroy them. In other words why create something just to tear it down? Where's the business case in that?

I just had to link this

This is a beautiful story and must tell all of us that the dippers have something going for them! Jack and Olivia are Britain's most popular baby names. read about it here.

A touch of Christmas and the New Year

Only one observation about Cobourg's seasonal recreation - the frink was used by people. As one of the opponents of this facility I am not eating crow, as some writers to the editor are suggesting, because we knew that the facility would be used. Things like the location, cost and maintenance obligations just led the majority of the taxpayers to gag on the project. The fact that the frink is being used is not a demonstration of success, I would prefer to judge that at the end of the operating cycle when we can see just how much it costs to provide recreation to the few. Unfortunately a Council that lives on "Bread and Circuses" only diverts attention from the real issue - can we afford to tax the population anymore and if we can't what do we stop funding. This issue is going to reappear when the Community Centre report is issued, hopefully just before the next election and then we will see which candidates have the "cajones" to defend it in public.

Another year end note - the Kenora police issue and the way Kenora Council handled it
In an editorial in the Kenora Miner and News here Bob Stewart, the news editor, has an illuminating piece, titled "Contempt for Citizens Damaging" about the way Kenora Council handled its decision to use the OPP and disband the local force. It will be telling for all municipalities to revisit Kenora in two years time and look for the promised savings.

Sad news
Bob MacCoubrey has died. Very sad and relatively young too. A great loss to the community. I liked Bob, didn't speak to him much but we knew each other - I respected and liked him. Condolences to his family.

Is this a conspiracy or just sour grapes?

Dan Rather, remember him, the dashing correspondent who was a figure in "Nam" and continued to sensationalise stories on "60 Minutes"? Well he is back in the news today with a 70 million dollar lawsuit against CBS, read it here. Funny how this case is not printed in the US where ViaCom controls a large amount of the media! Anyway it is interesting reading because it brings the last eight years of Bush back into focus.

I love conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories usually are proven to be true when the people involved start to talk. For instance it took thirty odd years before "Deep Throat" revealed himself. The Kennedy assassination cannot be proved because nobody is talking, how could an alleged conspiracy involving many not have at least one blabbermouth? Now in this story here we have General Patton, of WW2 fame, in a story about his assassination by the OSS, the forerunner to the CIA. As all the warriors in the secret wars get close to death watch for more deathbed confessions - I can hardly wait.

And now consider this obscenity
AP is reporting here that 1.6 Billion of the bailout has gone to pay bankers perks and bonuses, this at the same time Bush and the hypocritical Southern Senators want to wipeout the UAW. Just another example of class warfare. Support the workers and jail the crooks and liars in Wall St.

More on the Puffster
Chris Selley of the National Post sums up the reaction in the MSM here.

Yep the Puffster made the list

The list of the lifetime Senate lottery winners is here. One pundit has estimated the cost of a Senator as nearly $850,000 a year, that includes all costs - 18 more what a cost for Democracy. Oh I forgot these folks aren't democratic, they never had to shake a hand or get vote in their lives.

The Monday Morn

I'm not one of the lucky ones
Well it never happened - my sitting by the phone and sending telepathic messages to the PM didn't work. I am not one of the 18 people who will win the lottery this morning. The PM is to announce the names of his new Senators today, or tomorrow - but soon. All we have to do is wonder at the qualifications needed to be one of the lucky 18 as we scan the list and look for character to jump out at us so we can say, "Good Choice, Steve!". My bet for one of them is the Puffster, the four foot cubed personality that oozes unction - Mike Duffy. of CTV. Well at least the appointment will do two things: increase the minimum width of a Senate stool and get him off the airwaves.

The Nanny State strikes again
Say goodbye to the best buy of the Season, "Buck a Beer" is dead. In a story in the G&M this morning here, one of the regulatory boards that the Government has (buried so far deep in the bowels of the Province nobody knew about it) has decided to raise the minimum price of a box of beer. Citing its "Social responsibility" mandate this obscure board has raised the price from $24 to $25.60 a case. This is supposed to send the message that beer is too cheap and some people may abuse it and the raise will forestall that possibility. [that message stands by itself - ed]

Now how about that snow?
The snow must have been cumulatively 30 inches high at the end of the driveway. The plethora of ploughs pushed the piles [enough -ed] higher all weekend. All we have to do is to sit for another day and we can have more - can't wait!. Seriously as a spectator on the main road that the Town trucks travel on it has been my privilige to observe just how much salt this stretch of University gets - a lot. Surely two applications might do it not a dump from each truck.

How to steal an election (a Conservative view)
Normally it is the left of centre pundits who scream about stolen elections, but Minnesota has produced the same cry from Conservatives, inevitable really they are now losing. Here is an article written from the Con perspective about (the author calls himself the Intellectual Conservative) Franken stealing the votes. BTW he is now ahead by a slim margin giving the Dems in the Senate another seat.

Where's the snow?

This post may come back to bite me, but no snow here yet. Snowmageddon, as Enviro Can has dubbed it already has claimed victims - air travellers and school buses. One nauseating point, AM 640 has for the past 18 hours has been poohpoohing the idea of a snow warning. Encouraging "Real Canadians" to ignore the deal, "Are we a Nation of Wimps?". Callers are being encouraged to recall how they used to crawl naked through the snow to appear in the one room schoolhouse that produced university grads on a regular basis.
The National Post has someone liveblogging the storm here

What Don Martin (G&M #1 pundit) has to say about "Snouts at the Trough":
read it here

Snouts at the trough

Is anyone else getting offended at the number of people speculating upon the common good. Lists of potential Senators are being tossed around like lottery winners' tickets. Even if you like the idea of an appointed Senate, each one costing $150,000 plus plus, turns some noses. An unelected Senate is a throwback to to the class riddled, House of Lords at Westminster, where chinless wonders affected by years of inbreeding strut their stuff and sit in Pater's seat. Totally unrepresentive and devoid of the knowledge needed to govern common folk. Just look at the recent spat in the Island of Sark where the two richest men on the Island didn't get their slate elected in an exercise of democracy, the first in 400 years, and promptly shut their businesses down and destroyed the island's economy. That's the same attitude as in an unelected Senate - feudalism!

Today, a patrician of the G&M - Lawrence Martin, another man elevated to the stratosphere by the quality of his thinking (or so he implies) makes his list. And even more offensive than his punditry, to progressives, is his number one choice - Mike Harris. Read the article here

Just to change the subject, there is no place to escape the snow, but I'd rather be here to enjoy it!