Well it's official; Cobourg is an old Farts Town and there's more coming!

In the latest edition of "Money Sense", and you will hear a lot about this one - Cobourg has been named as #22 on the list of the top 154 places to live in Canada. If you look deeper into the webpage that explains this you will notice that Cobourg is #8 for the best place to retire to. So it's official, after decades of Council decrying retirement communities and Cobourg not wanting to be one - we are one. How's it feel folks to get old so fast? Interestingly enough we are not even mentioned on the list for "The best places to work" , or the "best place to buy a house" so the message is clear all the unemployed and young had better clear out of Town the Old Farts want your spot!

In the wake of the GM announcement that Pontiac will bite the dust, I had a conversation with one of Cobourg's local historians - Don Macklin - whose prestigious memory is worthy of the adjective. Anyway Don, who is in his 80s told me that the first Pontiac dealer in Town was owned by "Windy" (a wonderful monicker for a car salesman) MacDonald working out of his garage on King St. where the Masterbed place is now. He gave it up and a guy called Ralph Rennie took it over and finally after the War Wib Thomas who was selling International Trucks, on University Ave decided to take over the Pontaic franchise and built it into the place it is now. So when people tell you about the demise of Pontiac and dismiss it as "change" just remember the heritage of the Brand and the number of people that have been, and will be, affected today.

Today is the "Workers' Day of Mourning" it will be interesting to see if any of our local pols turn out for the event. Considering it took ten years of struggle by myself and then finally John Lindsay succeeded in getting Council to lower the Municipal Flags just how much further than that will Cobourg go? I see that Sid Ryan is the Speaker - congrats to Carol Kirton for getting him, perhaps that will persuade the right wing to drive this event further away from the mainstream because of him.

Another one for the conspiracy theorists

In a post on the video page here there is a clip of an interview with the head of eight Danish researchers who claim to have found explosive dust in the World Centre rubble. The aim of the disseminators isn't to propagate the hoary old tale of 9/11 being an inside job but to wonder why the MSM is not picking up the story.

We will be hearing more about the "torture memos". In fact as I type this Radio 1 is doing a piece on it with a guy who wrote a book five years ago about it. But here is a story that calls into question Karl Rove's use of the truth. Rove is claiming that torturing Khalid Sheik Muhammed (the waterboard victim - 183 times in a month) stopped a plane flying into a tower on the West Coast. Fortunately that plot was detected using normal intelligence methods befiore Khalid's torture, one year later. This sets the background for this delicious quote from the writer, Jed Lewison of Daily KOS.
"But the plot was already a dead letter. If foiling the Library Tower plot was the reason to water-board Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, then that water-boarding was more than cruel and unjust. It was a waste of water."

Just the usual election woes for BC liberals. In every election candidates will not perform well, some will exposed as homophobic and racist, based on some email or You-tube clip from years before, and despite these blips most parties can shrug them off.
"A top cop who's a chronic speeder. Another candidate who was charged with drunk driving. Yet another one who sent out a hateful e-mail comparing the gay "lifestyle" to "gambling, abortion, adultery and pornography." Another who cancelled a "free-beer" rally to comply with election laws". This was the lead in an article published in the Province newspaper this morning

At least some people are making money off the unemployed. This story details how ServiceCanada has spent $5 million in overtime just to process EI claims.

Just what is upsetting people in Colborne? Local news outlets report two dead people in separate incidents. One guy fished out of Little Lake and another one in an apartment building downtown. If it wasn't such a bad joke I'd talk about something being in the water!

Tragedy strikes twice sad, sad!

Firstly because another Canadian death has been reported and secondly because the person involved, Major Michelle Mendes is from Wicklow. The pic to the left came from the G&M site - sue me; and shows Major Mendes in obviously happier times.

Just when are we going to stop this waste of life and money?









Sean Penn makes a very good case for sensible spending and policy

The unemployment industry circles the wagons

In this story here the County's unemployment retraining service providers have formed another group, created a website and trumpeted their own horn. For some time now the members of this group have been very aware of the other's activities, after all they all chase the same magic pot of funding, but for some mystical reason they have now decided to collaborate. It is telling that every member of this group not only provides services to the unemployed but their rationale for being depends on the unemployed. No unemployed to buy their seats in their training courses or no unemployed to be passed from each agency to the next (each statistic meticulously tracked for funding purposes) then the agencies involved have no budgets.

Of these 11 agencies when one examines their mandates as described on their website you learn that there are 4 agencies supplying, for a fee, training courses. 4 of them are geared to those on Social Assistance and ODSP, 5 refer clients to the other 4 and 3 support an exclusive group - the poor souls on disability. Not one of them is what the old guys would call the "Labour Exchange" Now do I want to go back to the old days of having to go to "Manpower" everyday to look for the new job on the card on the rack and then take it to a councellor for information - No. We can do that just as efficiently online now here But on the other hand let's look at this new collaborative effort as the first step in what has to happen in the true rationalisation of resources - One Stop Shopping (OSS) for the unemployed. In that case I find it amazing that the only non-government agency that is dedicated to serving the unemployed is missing from the list. The Northumberland Help Centre, a referral agency has been omitted from the meetings, why is that?

Let's really have OSS and establish a phone number that will access this information. For instance when I was researching the number of people currently collecting SA I looked in the 'white pages' for "Northumberland County Social Services" not there. You have to rummage in the "Blue Pages" and trudge through lines of other agencies to get to what you want. Wrong and Unnecessary! Get one phone number not a fancy website.
One Stop Shopping means collapsing eleven administrations, killing eleven siloes and saving taxpayers dollars.. The majority of the unemployed losing their jobs will never qualify for the services and them knowing about them is no real advantage. We have eleven administrations servicing the clients of SA and ODSP - categorizing them into eligible and non-eligible and then putting them into programs that will enhance their employability. All very good! After reading all this you must be wondering just how many cases these hardworking dedicated members of the eleven agencies look after, for their own monetary gain of course? As of March 31st 2009 we had 869 case files open at the County office. An increase of 150 case files since January 2008. Hardly a swamping of the department.

So if you want to help the unemployed don't waste valuable resources blowing your own horns and breaking your arms patting yourselves on the back - provide realistic services to the unemployed from one location where all the unemployed can be served instead of justifying your own little kingdom and referring those that don't fit your narrow mandate to someone who does! Kill admin costs and provide services!

Culls from the morning read

Does this guy look like a tough guy - James Bond type?
The US government thought so they Waterboarded him 183 times. I guess 182 times just didn't give them the info they needed or he just decided to give in.Online reporters studied the memos released by the JD and the documents showed waterboarding was used 183 times on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who admitted planning the 9/11 attacks, the New York Times reported today.


You want email, say something controversial. The Governor of Texas did just that here. One action generated 4,300 emails some are quite revealing.

A story about some Police methods. In the UK debate has hotted up about the methods used by Police in controlling crowds. Four weeks ago a man, walking through the demonstration was hit by Police and collapsed and died on the spot. Police said he attacked them but video, shown later and taken by a spectator showed differently. Last week a video appeared where a Policeman was seen hitting a female demonstrator. Both incidents led to investigations. A senior Police Official wrote in a report the following, which appears to sum up the differences in policing ideology. Perhaps civil society may be a little more civil if the report was adopted.

This aggression is no doubt linked to the government's nasty habit of writing laws that prefer the convenience of security forces to the rights of free citizens. But the police are public servants, not government enforcers. Their job is to keep the peace, not clear the streets of dissent.

President Obama has created a firestorm by releasing the memos, that exist in the Justice Department, that allowed the use of questionable interrogation techniques, some say torture, used in the aftermath of 9/11. Some of the Press, on Sunday morning op-ed shows agree that torture may be advantageous. However what struck me was the way one technique was justified - head-banging on a wall. A quote from Britt Hume

"What we really need is to have all these techniques at our disposal... they talk about the banging of the guy's head against the wall. It turns out to be very controlled and it's a soft wall that gives way... I'm not at all sure that's torture."The program's host, Chris Wallace, agreed with Hume's assessment of the "soft wall" technique -- "it strikes me as fairly cautious and careful."

What would the start of the week be like without a CAW story. Jim Stanford, the CAW economist lays out here how the establishment doesn't want concessions but the elimination of the unions.

A week's worth of comment, between sneezes

The Kraft sale. This is not going down well in the boonies - the County buying 15% of the place for 50% of the sale price has inflamed County (read rural) taxpayers. The feeling of impotency with the councillors has made it worse. Just who are these remote decision makers and how do they get to be influenced by the voters? At least this deal has made some people aware of the distant level of County government.

The lack of writing this week. I have been subjected to the usual fate of a cold. Not normally prone to these types of afflictions this one hit quite hard. All I wanted to do was sleep for days. Today is the last day - day seven. It is true you can't do a damn thing about the malady but drink liquids and wait it out.

The Chrysler fiasco. This week the CAW has been subjected to the fury of the MSM; if ever there was case for the left having a newspaper this episode confirmed the need. This is an unwinnable fight for the CAW and I hope they have the balls to tell Minister Clement and his Chrysler friends to take a hike. principles are worth defending, even in the face of unsympathetic public opinion. I'll say it again if Chrysler, with 25% of its production here in Canada pulls out and attempts to sell cars from Detroit then I wish them luck in trying to sell those cars here in Canada.

Meeting Jack Layton. On Wednesday a group of us met JL to discuss the "problems of the middle class". Sitting around a big table laying out the problems of the collected community groups is not a new thing for us. What was new this time was, one that JL genuinely appeared to listen, despite having heard all the collected complaints and problems many times before. The other impression was the appearingly futility of the day. Community groups telling the opposition party pol what he had heard many times before, raising the issues he raises in the House every day and the impression of insanity (repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result). But considering the apparent futility the day was not wasted. For without the opportunity to have our say the process would really be futile. I did get to speak and was invited to email Jack my comments; here they are

Stuff I have been reading about this week:

• The double standard of modern reporting Fox news style
• The adventures of a gambler on holiday. This guy writes a detailed commentary on the days he spends on vacation in Las Vegas. He specialises in working for his free points and gambles to get them. This last trip was 14 days long this page - day 13 of 14 - is typical, I find it entertaining.
• The Conquest Vacations debacle. The idea of being stranded in the middle of nowhere and being held to ransom to get back home is not a pleasant one. The absolute failure of the many Canadian Consulates' ability to help in any way possible is appalling. We expect, naively, that when in a foreign spot the Consulate will be able to help. The advise given this week in Cancun, and other places, "Just pay what you have to and claim it back later" was facile and ineffective.
  

This is interesting and novel

The owner of this site - Paul Synott - is trying to change the dynamics of the provincial  Tory leadership race and he may succeed. On his site "Grassroots Voice" he is following the leadership race closely. Now he has given the candidates both a challenge and an opportunity. Asking his readers to submit questions that they would like the contenders to answer he'll grade them into one, the most popular, and then email the question to the contenders and ask them to reply with a Youtube video. An simple concept that the contenders will ignore at their peril. Score one for the innovators.

Reading between the lines!

There is an old adage - "the length of the meeting is inversely proportional to the length of the agenda". If that is so tonight's Council meeting in Cobourg is going to be be brief. Six pages long, at first glance the agenda looks impressive, but the contents are laden with boredom for the experienced and wonder at the minutiae for the new folk. Of the 20 listed items one should definitely provoke discussion but not substance. It is a motion directing Council to establish a working committee to meet with Port Hope and hash out the Policing issue. Most will agree with the concept, all will vote for it and the grandstanders will want to take credit for it.
Of the other 19 three are memos from Staff telling Council about an activity they, the Staff, think that Council should know about. Four items are ratifications of committee work and rubberstamp applications for heritage work, three memos, from Directors, are received for information (that is code for we told you and don't expect us to do any more on this issue) and a bundle are for community event permissions: road closings for a Legion Auxiliary parade, dog walks and scavenger hunt type events and of the course the High School Formal. Tucked away is a motion to spend an annual $5,000 for three years, of Town's money, on Heritage Street Signs. Housekeeping items (these are items that have to be done to keep the lights on at City Hall) are, an application to the province for a share of the Gas Tax Fund, a motion to appoint building inspectors and a motion to initiate bylaw amendments that state that contraventions of said bylaws constitute an offence and will be subject to a fine (Goodies that raise more money for us!).
Such is the grease of local democracy for another week. The sad part of this ritual is that because this meeting is a committee of the whole the same agenda is repeated, almost identically next week when the decisions made tonight are ratified and published at a full Council meeting next week. No wonder some people question the way we do things - but more on that later - there can be a better way,

For those political junkies amongst us Jack Layton is doing a tour. He will be in Belleville. at the Public Library from 10am to 1pm on Wednesday April 15th (this week). All are invited to discuss the economy and present ideas and concerns. I will be going and should have a an empty car - room for three.

Not just me pointing out the obvious

Other writers are now starting to pile on Obama for his financial picks to run the Country. This will be the issue that buries him unless he starts to weed out the crooks who ran Wall St who are now in his administration. Geitner, Summers,Liddy, and gary Gensler. All these people had extensive links to Wall St failures and now Obama has put them in charge - amazing.

Chump change or just chumps?

This editorial must be disseminated because it lays out the case for an investigation into a murky deal. It comes from the NT.com

"Northumberland County is set to spend $3-million of taxpayers' money on a property deal that raises serious accountability questions.The county is paying $1.5-million to purchase 4.6 acres of the 69-acre former Kraft property that sold for $2.6-million last month. The county then intends to spend another $1.5-million to refurbish the building. The emergency and ambulance response headquarters will relocate to the new building from its present headquarters near a railway crossing in Cobourg. So, too, the Food 4 All warehouse will relocate from the Colborne Industrial Park to the new county-owned Cobourg building. We're told all this is going to save county taxpayers an estimated $85,000 annually in rent. Given the $3-million price tag, that's a 35-year payback. We're not so sure we can stay happy for quite that span of time. True, no one's going to argue with the need to move the Emergency Measures Services (EMS) headquarters to a safer location. No one wants a death because the ambulance was held up by a freight train going through town. Though there are some questions about pulling the Food 4 All warehouse out of Colborne which, frankly, needs some economic bolstering these days, there are arguments to be made for economic consolidation of resources. The warehouse is really a bit of icing on the county argument: it makes the deal more economically palatable.

The real question is this: why are Northumberland County taxpayers footing over half the purchase price of the entire 69- acre former Kraft property? That's over 50% of the cost for 15% of the property. Further, at what point was the county involved in the purchase negotiations? From the beginning? Just weeks before last month's announcement of the final sale? The sale was overseen by a mayor's task force. Keep in mind the mayors of Northumberland's seven municipalities are also the only county councillors. If this were a private sale, it would be none of our business. But it isn't. It's taxpayers' money. There needs to be a public accounting of the pre-sale process.

Call an ambulance. The taxpayers are hemorrhaging. "

As outlined in this publication weeks before we have not been supportive of the deal being completely private. The land is too valuable to have been scooped up cheap by flipartists. Now the details are emerging and I fear that the people involved at the County, and don't forget that the Mayor of Cobourg is a big player in this by virtue of being a County Councillor and the leader of the "Mayor's Task Force", are being belittled for the lack of business acumen. Playing fast and loose with taxpayers money.