The only conclusion that I can draw!

The only conclusion that I can draw from this news - GM forced into bankruptcy by bondholders - is that Obama and Harper conspired to smash the Unions. If the bondholders aren't forced into concessions by Obama and harper/clement.maguinty then why did they set up the union for a haircut? Smash the union that's why. If Obama is so union friendly where is his "card check" legislation? Nope the neo-cons did the workers in and it was set up to be so from the beginning.

gatherings

In this email, copied from another site in cyberspace it shows that the authorities are taking the case of the "Nasty woman at the lake" very seriously, well at least the email says so. But what can they do? The Police have already spoken to the woman about her conduct. The woman, presumably has told the Police that she will defend her position and her land, against trespassers. Unfortunately under the law that's what all beach walkers are at that end of the beach - trespassers.

The really unfortunate part about this is that years ago, when Tremaine Terrace was being built the Town secured public access to the West side of the Factory Creek and now access to the rest of the beach going Eastward is not possible. There could have been a solution years ago before the "nasty people: bought the place - the Town could have bought it and severed off the access, but it didn't. But it should now be Town policy to do just that in future when lakefront real estate properties are put up for sale.

What we, as taxpayers, should be wary of is any deal that reduces taxes for property owners just because they give us an easement. And if there are deals like this floating around the public must know how much the deal is, not just a resolution passed at Council "authorising the Mayor and the Deputy Clerk to sign such a deal"

In the meantime all we as citizens can do is to hope that the pending legislation, in the provincial Parliament passes. This is just not a Cobourg problem - remember the case of the burnt fence at Wasaga beach a few months back? Municipal pols are quite powerless in this case if land-owners are not cooperative, despite what they may say.

From: “Stan Frost”
Date: May 26, 2009 2:04:01 PM EDT (CA)
To: “‘Greg Hancock’”
Subject: RE: Beachfront

Hi Greg,

I attended a meeting this morning with the Mayor, Police Chief, CAO and Town Directors concerning this issue. Yes we ware taking this very seriously and action will be forthcoming. I cannot say more at this point.

Stan

A black bear was spotted in the Elgin/D'Arcy area on Monday, not surprisingly as BBs have been seen to live in the woods at the Southern end of N'land Forest just up on Hwy 45. I just hope that this time around the Police handle the bear a little more sensitively than the last time we had a BB in Town. A few years back the Town Police Service became impatient about the way to handle it and a certain Sgt, who is still a Sgt., shot it out of the tree much to the disgust of the animal lovers on scene.

Talking yesterday about the new world record for a craps roll, I just happened to be at a Casino yesterday, I had to have an interview with US Border Agency about a FAST card, in Fort Erie, and decided to drop in at the table at NF. Seeing it was a $10.00 table it kinda made me aware of just how much money was at stake. My roll lasted the average 5 rolls but the guy after me made three points and rolled for about 18 so I made my money back and won enough for dinner on the way back!

A tussle at the Shoreline

All are commenting about this, a story that an older person hit another older person over the head with a walking stick when the first one trespassed on the second's one's beach and a heated discussion ensued.
This is a common story one person in particular, a person who moved in a couple of years ago has made it her mission in life to shout, scream, wave and generally become abusive towards people that encroach on her property. I would say get another life but she won't. So confrontations occur often and much Police time is wasted on this.
The Question here is the one posed by John Draper in his commentary yesterday "Why isn't Council doing something?" It's not as though they haven't worked on the file. I know that much legal opinion exists and we have yet to see the results. I know that discussions have taken place with a few of the owners with the potential of lower taxes for access being the topic. But no progress - why. If we can, at Council, agree to commit the taxpayers to a multimillion dollar project like the Community Centre and revamp a road allowance into a four lane highway in about six months and approve it all in six minutes speed can be achieved. But why not on this file? I would suggest that the mayor get into the act complete negotiations or at least make a public statement that explains the impediments to a free beach or else he runs the risk of the Boardwalk becoming known as "Delanty's Folly" - a road going to nowhere - just like some of the present Council!

One of those, "I wish I was there moments. In this story a new world record for a roll at a craps table was set. Just wish I had been there to participate. My normal record is roll once, set a point, put some money on the table and then seven out - LOSE!. The average roll on a table before the seven appears is about 5 so a hot roll is usually about 50 or sixty rolls., most players are happy with about 30. With an average of 60 rolls per hour the average roll goes down as payouts increase. A roll that took 4 hrs and 18 mins and only 154 rolls there must have been a whack of money being paid out to slow down the average.

Monday

First the news that not only are the Harperites considering changes to the EI, and will release the ideas today, but the "we are the only ruling party" Libs are considering an election over the changes. A couple of things. Firstly the libs despite what they say are not ready for an election, secondly the country doesn't want an election, thirdly there are 83 MPs who will qualify for the gravy train next Spring. They will have been in the House for six years and then the pension kicks in. Besides apart from the Community Colleges and the retraining industry, who are just drooling with the thought of more money for their overpriced and inadequate training seats, who else will benfit from changes to EI. Certainly not the unemployed. "Training for what?" is the buzzword. Can anyone remember back in the 80s when training money was flowing like an outdated six gallon flush toilet what people were being trained on? Wordperfect that's what! and how many unemployed got to use WP - not many. But it did make the government feel good about throwing money towards people who were forced to get out of the house for a few weeks.
So what are the hot retraining courses this depression? The main one is the old standby that always works - Personal Support Worker. Kudos to the union for getting the wage levels up so that anybody who takes a short course on how to change Granma's diaper and help out at the nursing home can at least earn a living wage. The people who do this type of work, PSW, can never be paid enough as they are doing the jobs that the majority of us wouldn't even look at and they deserve all the thanks from us they can get. But it's a sad commentary on our society when it's the only identifiable training that an unemployed person can get that guarantees employment.

This really bugs me, but when I heard that the commercial building on the corner of Swayne St and Division St, in Cobourg, was going to remodeled into 14 units of low income housing I was cheered. But now the true plans have been revealed I am more than a little disgusted. The Northumberland Services for Women have been working with the developer and now have assumed management of the building - very good. Except that the low income units are not universally accessible to the people on the waiting list. This is happening because the units are going to be used for "second stage housing". Mike Harris killed off the "second stage housing" in the 90s and there's been no money since. To use low income housing funds for this program is a perversion of the policy and should be condemned.
There are now 14 people on the County housing list who will never get to move up 14 places faster because of a bureaucratic manipulation of policy - shame.

The first of the roosting chickens are home. This story out of Los Angeles, but I'm sure that the Toronto Star will be following with a similar story soon, talks about applications for early retirement sharply increasing. Yep, to nobody's surprise older unemployed workers are dropping like flies when their weeks run out and applying for pension. At least a couple of thousand in this area alone in the last year. And the trend will continue. SO more pressure on the taxpayers left in the system and less commercial activity for the merchants - hey pensioners are cheap and don't spend money - so much for the economic recovery!

Bill Maher on the Video page here

Really avid readers will notice that theBurdReport now has another author (see top left) - Bill Hayes - yet to contribute but he has put up a nice pic of himself even with a Peter C Newman hat on he looks like the writer he is - looking forward to seeing posts - welcome aboard.

I'm sure that this is not the last word

Those who are intrigued by the UK scandal over MP's expenses and the fallout should click here The "Daily Telegraph probably got more than it bargained for when it started to bash the Labour Party for the transgressions of its members - after all they are the governing party and the DT, a rabidly right wing newspaper, would do anything to push the conservative party line. But when the conservative MPs were identified as the most flagrant offenders they, the DT, reverted to journalistic balance and assembled a page for the masses. This page is the "Scandal for Dummies" - click on it , it is entertaining. John Prescott, who is a heavy chap, actually claimed for two replacement toilet seats. One Tory MP clamed for a 3000GBP duck hoose in his garden and one stately home owner claimed for the cleaning of his "moat".

Another clip for from the "Daily Mail" it details the response from an angry Tory MP click here who claims that people are just jealous of his big house. Not jealous I would say just fed up with helping to pay to run it!

You can't make this stuff up, this story outlines the 13 people, some people hold responsible for the Bush torture implementation and policies. The defence of conservatives and "realists" against some of the wilder theories about world events is that those theories are too fictional - don't sound true. Well sometimes truth is stranger than fiction and the positions advanced by some to show that Obama is in the pocket of Wall St manipulators and that nothing has changed to make the lives of "ordinary" Americans despite rhetoric and claims from Obama will be shown to be true. Just ask yourself in two years time just what has changed?

And a piece from Noam Chomsky here

Garth writes a story for me, plus and an invitation for you!

Garth Turner has outlined why the GM fiasco reaches beyond the neo-con claim that the government is paying $400,000 for each GM job and therefore the money is wasted. In this story he talks about the dealerships, the people who work there and the loss to the community in lost sponsorships.

Thomas Pontiac/Buick stays; Spencer Chev/Olds goes. GoNorthumberland.net is reporting (1745 on May 21) that's the result of the letters that GM sent to their dealerships. The news could have been a lot worse if Thomas had splurged on a new building the way GM honchos had wanted them to. President Bill Campbell appears to have made a wise business decision by stalling GM. This way he can now work a deal with Bill Spencer, if Spencer wants to get out of the car business, for his new facility expand the business and some of Spencer's employees may get a job with an expanded Thomas.

OK here's the deal, I would like others to contribute news, and some opinion, to the site and am willing to open up the site you, the readers. Blogspot has the capacity to accept multiple authors. I am willing to experiment and let others contribute. The rules will be simple -

1. I will not edit the post before submission, authors can rule on their own content
2. Content rules: must be of interest to local readers, must reflect good taste and decorum, must not be repetitive in nature (one, two at most posts about the same thing) supplementary posts must only supply new information not the same point.
   
3. I will have veto on a contributor only if the posts go bad and reflect badly on the BurdReport

If you have some thing to say that needs to be in public send me your name and tell me that you want to be an author. We will take it from here. let's build a community based on local news and opinion.

How do I get a job like this?

The HKPR Health Unit has released a list of restaurants who have been awarded "Eat Smart" badges. Without releasing the criteria for such badges they are as good as useless. Do they sample all the meals, study the menus or just sniff around for cockroaches?
Looking at the list only two establishments in Port Hope got a badge: Mr Sub and Subway. The rest of the County was well represented. I can imagine that the owners of the fine restaurants in PH don't think much of this award. Anyway back to the lead, I would be perfect for the job of EatSmart tester. According to the love of my life all I ever do is eat junk food, ergo I can recognise it and any place serving it will not get a badge!

Have you driven about the Beer Store lately? Because if you have you will notice that when you go to drive North on Division from Munroe there is a new sign facing you. A "No right turn on Red". Wondering about this, I travel this intersection daily and hadn't noticed it until a passenger pointed it out to me, just who ordered this and when did this take place? I phoned the Police, thinking that a change in traffic signs might have something to do with them. Deputy-Chief Cromlish (deputydave) told me he knew nothing about it so it hadn't been placed there as a result of being a dangerous intersection. I then phoned Public Works and spoke to "I have been here so long I am part of the furniture" Ted MacDonald, the major domo of traffic. "Yep we did it!" he said. Acknowledging that the funny shaped intersection is a bugger to put lights on he said, "You can't have it both ways, either make turns from Park St illegal or allow the pedestrians priority on the arrowed green light from Munroe!" "This way it is safe" Telling me that this is the last change to a $100K project the traffic controller was only installed last week. This installer allows a Pedestrian walk to operate on the green arrow. Now we all know that every single driver who turns on a red knows that the pedestrian has the right of way - don't we? But just to be sure Ted put up a sign disallowing right turns on red.

No word yet for the local GM dealers about just which one is going to disappear. Cobourg has two - Thomas Pontiac-Buick and Spencer Chev-Olds. Talking informally to a local GM salesman he agreed that consolidation will take place. But who will be the top dog; Thomas or Spencer?

For those who have been following it

The British House of Commons's financial scandal. There are so many facets to this that I don't where to begin, but I will point readers to the commentary by the infamous George Galloway in this morning's "Guardian" George's opinion is that the establishment did him in to cover up the problem and finish the deal with a scapegoat. The Speaker was an easy target because he used to be a working class shop steward from the "Gorbals". The "Gorbals" is the notorious slum area of Glasgow. A bit of history. It is alleged, and referred to by GG, that the system of MP's expenses was developed to offset the politically sensitive subject of MP's raises. Allowing MPs to claim for a second home and then not policing the system properly was a recipe for 'fiddling'. Add into the mix that the majority of MPs have never had a real job in their lives, the MP selection system is done by Party Central, only rising to the job by virtue of being an MPs aide somewhere or being a star candidate and then being placed in a Riding. This lack of industrial integrity and the age group that most of the miscreant's came from fostered the feeling of entitlement. The fact that MPs of all parties did it shows that greed and lack of ethics had replaced the feeling of 'public service'.
The resignation of the Speaker will not quell the public demand for vengeance. The general public is on a feeding frenzy for MP's scalps. In fact political scientists and pundits are now scared sh**less that extremist parties will be the beneficiaries of diverted votes. The first test will be elections for the European Parliament this summer.
Talk about life imitating art: one of the summer programs on PBS last year was a series from England called "The Amazing Mrs Pritchard" (Wikipedia) The manager of a supermarket , fed up with the local area politicians decided to run for office and became the Prime Minister leading a feminist party. The series depicted her election and the subsequent trials of office. In the end the family scandals, unknown to her when she first ran, were too much and she resigned and went back to Yorkshire. But the parallel is going to dangerously similar when all kinds of ordinary people decide to run as independents, or join a new party yet to be formed.

In another related story, the fury is unabated over the Speaker's resignation. In a story from the Daily Mail, the establishment, led by the Lords of the Lords, are demanding that a disgraced commoner not receive the obligatory peerage given to any Speaker when they leave office. Amazing how these chinless wonders still can sway public opinion to their side - the aristocracy. Even more amazing that the Brits would even listen to them.
The principal proponent of the ban is Lord Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby. One of Thatchers henchmen, elevated to the Lords he has obviously very quickly acquired the attitudes of the hereditary peers - that of "we know what best for the working man, and we are here to decide for you!" The sooner we have elected upper houses the better, both here and over there!

Check out the video page - another Jesse V clip.

Back to work!

Tonight's Cobourg Council meeting will be interesting, there is a bylaw coming up to establish a "Tree Preservation Policy". Good job then that the Deputy Mayor has just finished chopping down a healthy Maple tree on his own property; because , I am told, that the leaves annoyed his wife. After tonight tree chopping on your own property will probably be illegal!

John Dean was a discredited aide to President Nixon, but he does know how the Government of the USA works. In this piece he opines that the civil servants - read career bureaucrats - got to Obama about the release of the torture pics that he promised to release but now won't.

Just one last word on the GM situation. Last Thursday the TO Sun published the results of it editorial board meeting, which took place in Oshawa. One of the stories they heard was from an angry pensioner who blamed the Province for the legacy costs. The situation for him was that he had to contribute 15% of his wages to the pensions. The Company was supposed to do the same but because Bob Rae, in the middle of the last recession gave GM, and others, a "pension holiday" Company contributions were suspended or severely reduced putting the plan into deficit. By making 15% contributions he had little opportunity to contribute to an RRSP. because of reduced pension room So now he is faced with a reduced pension plan because of Provincial laxity and the federal tax rules. No wonder he is POd. Everybody thinks he is on the gravy train and the Province is telling Ken Lewenza to make more pension cuts, when the real culprits have been the last three provincial Premiers!

This skydiver left it a bit late to open his chute and crashed after a 6,000' drop. Check out the video page and look carefully.

If you happen to listen to your MP in the next week?

The story below just got bumped out by the sequel. The document to the right and the links to and from the originating story have vaporised into cyberspace. Broken links and removed source material ... wonder who got the wind up about this? and who got the job of rewriting the May Caucus document? Just in case the Con cyberpolice start tracking the doc down in the middle of the night I have stashed it and can pull it out any time to check against Mr Norlock's delivery at will.

If you happen to listen to your MP in the next week just check the speech against this - an eight page speaking note for delivery by the Cons in power when they get back in the Ridings. Boy things must be getting back if this kind of caucus document is being leaked.

Maybe we should consider ourselves lucky with this proposal: a plan to fingerprint people who haven't been charged and then make them request the removal of prints from the system, instead of automatically being deleted after a period of time. In the UK ID cards are coming and with the arrival are some pretty big offences against civil rights: everybody will be fingerprinted to get one, all ID cards when used will be linked to the tax database and ID cards will be used to track financial transactions. Horrifying to a civil libertarian.