Jim Is Doing His Job.........

The burden might not be as heavy if we eliminated those expenditures wanted by Iggy, Layton and the other guy......

Dodge Says Canadian Deficit Is Appropriate, Must Be Cut Later
Former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge said today that the Canadian government’s deficit, which will exceed C$50 billion this year, is right given the recession, though lawmakers must commit to cut it later.

Michael Ignatieff's questionable fury about the deficit Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 05:56 PM Comments: 26

Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff is mad about the $50 billion deficit. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty must resign, or so says Ignatieff. Like his patriotism, Michael Ignatieff's anger seems fake.(like that of his supporters.....) Former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge said that the level of the deficit is appropriate under the circumstances. And David Dodge had a secret meeting with Michael Ignatieff just last week, lending his wisdom to Michael Ignatieff on questions about the economy.The Liberals (presumably) leaked the details of this meeting, but it wasn't reported that Michael Ignatieff gave David Dodge a hard time about what Dodge would have told Ignatieff was an appropriate level of deficit.

Click the title to read the whole story...

OCAP Versus TCHC! I Hope OCAP Wins This One

IMHO TCHC and the city are on edge of being labelled as the largest city slum landlord.

OCAP rallies for affordable housing, demands an end to the sell-off of public housing units| ByJohn Bonnar|

• The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) slammed the planned sale of 371 public housing units by the City of Toronto at a rally Saturday, claiming it will displace tenants from neighbourhoods they’ve lived in for years.

  In December 2008, Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) presented a 10-year Real Estate Asset Investment Strategy to its Board of Directors. Among other things, the report recommended the sale and replacement of 371 units of housing through new construction and/or the acquisition of existing rental buildings in order to maintain the current levels of rent-geared-to-income.

  “All replacement would happen either on vacancy or with a long notice period to tenants,” said TCHC. “In cases of replacement, policies currently in place for relocation of tenants will apply, such as ability to access a similar unit, preservation of geared-to-income status based on continued eligibility and reasonable moving expenses.”

  TCHC continued: “Currently, only one of these buildings is fully vacant due to mould and structural issues. A relocation program will be required in order to ensure all tenants remain housed with the same geared-to-income benefits as is presently the case.”

  OCAP argued that the 371 units (326 apartments and 45 single-family homes) are located in sought-after neighbourhoods, primarily downtown and in the Beaches, and said “these sales and the City’s displacement of poor people through redevelopment mean that many TCHC residents are being displaced from their schools, friends and communities.”

  “TCHC says that the units up for sale are in such a state of disrepair that they cannot be fixed,” said Kelly Bentley, an OCAP member and TCHC tenant. “The units that are in serious need of repair were purposely not maintained by TCHC so that they could sell the units off down the road and use their dilapidation as an excuse.”

  OCAP spokesperson Levi Waldron said: “We are in the midst of an economic crisis when we know we are going to see an increase in homelessness, and the need for affordable housing in this city is already way too high. We cannot let a single unit be sold off under these conditions, let alone 371, of which 85% are in an excellent state of repair.”

  Waldron contends the TCHC investment strategy is really “about moving poor people out of wealthy neighbourhoods and making money in the process.”

  From 1999 to 2005, Waldron added, the City’s budget for public housing dropped $30 million a year, with no capital expenditures for new building.

  In their letter of March 13, 2009, TCHC told OCAP that part of the 10-year Investment Strategy calls for the revitalization of communities “that are no longer viable through the creation of mixed-income communities with better quality housing, improved parks, schools and transit, more jobs and training for tenants and better access to shops and services.”

  “What that means,” said Waldron, “is that TCHC is going to demolish a large public housing project, disperse the tenants throughout the city, sell as much of the land as possible to condo developers and then replace those units on as little area as possible.”

  In the meantime, Waldron said, years of housing are lost during the demolition and reconstruction.

  Upon completion, rent-geared-to-income (RGI) units and market rent units will form a mixed income neighbourhood. About 93 per cent of current tenants pay a subsidized rent. There are, however, over 70,000 people on the waiting list (with an average wait time of 10-12 years) for this type of housing.

  Toronto Community Housing also has units available immediately for singles, families and seniors, who can afford to pay market rent rates.

  “Who’s gonna lend us the frickin’ money,” said one protestor.

  “That’s right,” said Waldron.

  For OCAP, the sale of 371 public housing units is “part of the same program of clearing poor people out of wealthy neighbourhoods while moving rich people into the previously poor neighbourhoods, of closing down shelter beds in the downtown east side and the general moving out of poor people from the places where wealthy people live.”

  “I have kids, I’m going to school, trying to improve,” said Amina, who’s been on the public housing waiting list for 10 years. “But I can’t pay my rent. A lot of people are in the same situation.”

Help needed: Is anybody listening? TheStar.com - Columnist - Help needed: Is anybody listening?

May 27, 2009

Joe Fiorito

The woman who lives in community housing on Adanac Dr. has been moved, temporarily, into another apartment in the building.

Her place, according to the neighbours, is being radically cleaned. Some of her furniture and her carpets have been bagged and disposed of. Teams of people have been coming and going. Building staff have been staying late. She has had care.

All of which is nice.

But who is responsible for ignoring her until the situation got so severe that teams of people had to swoop in, and why did it take a newspaper column to provoke a little action? The woman's neighbour had been calling for help for years.

Is anyone listening at Toronto Community Housing?

MORE

Here Are Your Choices....

New patriot love
The Liberal leader's new book is 'a slim and disappointing brochure intended to advertise the author's ... Canadian pedigree' New patriot love


Yaffe: Liberals' first West Coast convention draws few of the faithful

Steve Janke: Still some work needed on Ignatieff charm front

Posted: April 25, 2009,

It seems to be that Michael Ignatieff is destined for great things for politics. A great speaker with charm and strength in equal measure.Or so some of his more enthusiastic friends in the media would have us believe. Mr. Ignatieff's release of a new book was treated like the latest from Margaret Atwood, with profiles and excerpts in all the mainstream media.But outside the radius of Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, a different story is being told.

Click here to read more...

Is Layton's half-built house starting to collapse?
Last fall, Jack Layton was continuing his slow but steady efforts to build his party into a professional political machine. Who could have known how damaging it would be for the NDP leader to...

Thank Lorrie

Praying at church of hot air

Science minister takes heat for religious beliefs, why don't climate 'believers' face same scrutiny?

By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN

Last month federal Science Minister Gary Goodyear got himself into a whole heap of trouble by initially refusing to state whether he believed in evolution.

Asked the question by Globe and Mail science reporter Anne McIlroy, Goodyear said he was a Christian, adding: "I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate."

That horrified many in Canada's scientific community, who also accuse the Conservatives of cutting funding for research.

Their concern was Goodyear's response suggested he might be a closet creationist and therefore someone apt to confuse religion with science, clearly the wrong choice for science minister.

A day later, under heavy fire, Goodyear told CTV news -- twice -- he believed in evolution, and while that quieted the firestorm, suspicion of him and his views in the scientific community obviously remains.

And I can understand why. A science minister who refuses to state he believes in evolution -- even if he considers the question hostile -- is worrisome, especially since his answer should have been easy.

All sorts of sensible people believe simultaneously in evolution and that God, or, if you prefer, a guiding intelligence, was behind creation, and therefore evolution.

The difference is that while evolution is based on scientific evidence, belief in God is based on personal faith, and, in the context of one's job, such personal beliefs need not be shared with every Tom, Dick, Harry or Anne who asks.

In other words, when Goodyear was asked whether he believed in evolution, the simple and correct answer, assuming he was sincere in saying a day later that he does, was: "Yes."

Understandably, Goodyear's belated acknowledgement of this didn't satisfy those roused to suspicion by his initial comments, which brings me to my point.

That is, when are the scientists who complained about Goodyear confusing science with religion going to apply the same standard to some of their colleagues -- the high priests of global warming?

That is, scientists who treat anthropogenic (man-made) climate change, not as a science, but a religion?

Take the highest priest of all, "climatologist" James Hansen, Al Gore's science adviser on An Inconvenient Truth, who first sounded the alarm about global warming 20 years ago and has been getting increasingly hysterical ever since.

These days Hansen, whose day job is director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, sounds much like an Old Testament prophet, absolutely certain of the truth and righteousness of his cause, devoid of any doubt, ready to smite the evil non-believers and offering the world salvation from a fiery Armageddon, if only we do exactly what he says.

Among Hansen's recent pronouncements is that democracy isn't working in addressing climate change, that fossil fuel company executives should be tried for crimes against humanity, that he has considered personally targeting for defeat members of Congress insufficiently aghast about climate change, that there should be a global moratorium on new coal-fired energy plants, that these plants are "factories of death" and that "trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains" reminiscent of the Nazis.

And all this from a ... uh ... "scientist"!

Ironically, Hansen, who justifiably accused the Bush administration of trying to censor his views and research, has now shown the flip side of the problem.

That is, scientists who mistake the relatively new field of anthropogenic climate science, in which a great deal is unknown, for a religion in which they possess the absolute truth, and who then lobby for policies to which they say all must bow down, if the planet is to be saved.

Well, in a word, or three, nuts to that.

Hansen sounds like someone suffering from delusions of grandeur, in which case politics would be a perfect line of work for him. He can pontificate to his heart's content while trying to convince enough people to get himself elected.

CLIMB MT. SINAI

Or, since he doesn't seem to be a huge fan of democracy, he can climb to the top of Mt. Sinai (where the Bible says Moses received the Ten Commandments) and write 10 of his own, starting with "Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbour's Solar Panels," then come back to Earth and try to convince the rest of us to believe.

In any event, one would have thought he would have resigned from NASA long ago as too confining a job for someone with his religious sense of mission. Then again, maybe he likes being a space cadet.

So, are any ... uh ... "scientists" alarmed about him?

So Much For "Freedom Of Expression" Zealots

Galloway tried to stop visit by far-right French politician
George Galloway, the British MP who's been declared persona non grata by the Harper government, once demanded that Britain's Labour government block a visit by far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Canada should let British MP speak
Gunter: I don't like George Galloway. I don't like his politics. His tactics are too showy and deliberately designed to provoke authorities and offend ordinary people whose views are opposed to his own. He gives aid and comfort to terrorists.. MORE...

So the Times Has a Comment On the Galloway Ban After AllI
t’s not exactly a front-pager; more like a social note. But the Times of London has finally seen fit to take notice of George Galloway’s plight — in the form of, what is, presumably, a humour column. I say “presumably” because it’s written by some fella named Rod Liddle, who lists among his accomplishments a stint as speechwriter for the Labour Party. Which meThe Phantom Observer

Galloway Ban Related Items
Walkom: Banning British MP a clumsy, dangerous move
Bell: Kenney bunk
GM: Needless publicity

Reality Check

Editorial: Let The Inquisition Start With Frank (1)

Oversight: Congressman Barney Frank says he wants some of those responsible for our current financial meltdown to be prosecuted. And we couldn’t agree more. First up in the court dock: Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
Even by the extraordinarily loose standards of Congress, it takes some chutzpah for someone such as Frank to suggest that he’ll seek prosecutions for those behind the housing and financial crunch and for what he called “a strongly empowered systemic risk regulator.”
For Frank, perhaps more than any single individual in private or public life, is responsible for both the housing market mess and subsequent bank disaster. And no, this isn’t partisan hyperbole or historical exaggeration.
But first, a little trip down memory lane.
It was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two so-called Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), that lay behind the crisis. After regulatory changes made to the Community Reinvestment Act by President Clinton in 1995, Fannie and Freddie went into hyper-drive, channeling literally trillions of dollars into the housing markets, using leverage and implicit taxpayers’ guarantees.
In November 2000, President Clinton’s Housing and Urban Development Department would trumpet “new regulations to provide $2.4 trillion in mortgages for affordable housing for 28.1 million families.” The vehicles for this were Fannie and Freddie. It was the largest expansion in housing aid ever.
Still, from the early 1990s on, many people both inside and outside Washington were alarmed by what they saw at Fannie and Freddie.
Not Barney Frank: Starting in the early 1990s, he (and other Democrats) stood athwart efforts by regulators, Congress and the White House to get the runaway housing market under control.
He opposed reform as early as 1992. And, in response to another attempt bring Fannie-Freddie to heel in 2000, Frank responded it wasn’t needed because there was “no federal liability there whatsoever.”
In 2002, Frank nixed reforms again. See a pattern here?

continue reading

What Is Good For The Goose Is.........

Sword of Allah cuts both ways
By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN

Dear Israeli Apartheid Week enthusiasts:
Greetings and congratulations on your ongoing fifth annual Israeli Apartheid Week, which I understand began at the University of Toronto in 2005 and has now spread to 40 universities around the world.
While I don't agree with your mindlessly simplistic likening of Israel to apartheid South Africa in its treatment of the Palestinians -- just as I would never describe the Palestinians as terrorists because that would be wrong and inhuman -- I also believe in free speech.
That's why I'm not calling for your event to be cancelled, or to have your posters depicting Israeli gunships swooping down on Palestinian children in Gaza taken down.
That said, since the Sword of Allah cuts both ways, so to speak, I will be urging my alma mater to accommodate the following on-campus events next year at this time.
---
Darfur Destruction Week: An examination of the slaughter in Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children have been forced from their homes, starved, tortured, raped and murdered in the world's worst ongoing human rights disaster and old, familiar pastime -- Muslims killing other Muslims.
---
Iranian Intelligence Week: An exploration of the comedic stylings of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who unforgettably told a Columbia University audience in 2007 that Iran has no gays or lesbians. To wit: "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country ... I don't know who has told you we have that."
---
Syrian Bulldozer Week: A retrospective on the savage attack on the city of Hama by the late Syrian dictator Hafez al-Hassad, during which thousands of innocent civilians died while Syrian forces mercilessly crushed a revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood. Particular attention will be paid to the bulldozing of the rubble, apparently the Syrian idea of "urban renewal."
---
Hamas Hitler Week: A study and discussion of the similarities between the philosophies of Hamas and Hitler, drawing on the Hamas Charter and Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. A special seminar will be devoted to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem's support of Hitler and the Nazis during the Second World War.
---
Pakistani Honour Killing Week: Examining the ... uh ... intellectual basis behind "honour killings" in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, described by Amnesty International thusly: "Women in Pakistan live in fear. They face death by shooting, burning or killing with axes if they are deemed to have brought shame on the family ... They are even murdered by their kin if they are raped, as they are thereby deemed to have brought shame on their family."
---
Saudi Arabian Suicide Week: A study of the role played by Saudi Arabia in funding and exporting radical Islamist Wahhabi theology throughout the world, while many among its oil-rich ruling class would be the first to be beheaded for their decadent lifestyles, should Islamists ever seize power.
---
Anyway, those are just some of the events I'm working on for next year. And not to worry. I doubt any of them will steal your thunder. Heck, you can just blame them all on the Jews ... oops ... I mean "on Israel" anyway, eh?
Shalom,
Lorrie Goldstein

COMMENTS

And Harper Should Make The Announcement On Plains Of Abraham

Editorial: Tell Quebec where to get off

Enough of the decades of appeasement; it's time for Ottawa to adopt a tough-love attitude toward Quebec

Gregory: Plains battle wasn’t the end of the story
It is a sad fact that much of the current debate about the Battle of the Plains of Abraham is based on a misunderstanding of the historical significance of the battle. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was successful in the capture of Quebec City, but what people forget is that New France remained in the control of French forces. After retreating from Quebec after the disaster of the Plains of Abraham on Sept. 13, 1759, the French army regrouped in Montreal under General Lévis. Meanwhile the British army, left behind in Quebec after the fleet sailed at the end of October 1759, suffered from hunger and the travails of living in a city largely destroyed in the siege. [...more]

Canada - Friday, February 27th, 2009
CTV Plains of Abraham staging might go ahead in U.S

MONTREAL -- The organizer of the re-enactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham says the event will likely go ahead this summer, but not in Canada. [...more]

The Other Side Of Father's Day

I would guess only a small percentage are deadbeat dads, child abusers, etc.

For some, Father's Day is a sad and bitter occasion

For some tens of thousands of fathers, in this Canadian province alone, "Father's Day" is an especially bitter occasion. These are the men separated from their children by court order, many never to see them again. Each knows that his.. MORE...

High Gas Preices, High Gas Prices........

Perspective people, perspective

18,000 STILL BURIED IN CHINA

BANGLADESH FERRY TIP-OVER KILLS 36

50 DEAD IN INDIA BOMB ATTACKS

The Picture Of Haves And Have-Nots Skewed By Stats Can

StatsCan omissions stir class war

I cannot for the life of me understand why Statistics Canada publishes income numbers that do not include money received by individuals from government, unless the nation's official number cruncher is deliberately attempting to fan.. MORE...

They Not Only Work On Trucks.......

NAUGHTY NEW YORK RIDDLE

Q: How do you slow down a fast-moving prostitute?

A: You put a governor on her.

Isn't That The First Step In Succeeding?

Take the money from returning the empties and call one of the drug/alcohol abuse organizations, call your family and ask for help, do something. Frank O'Dea, founder of the Second Cup franchise did it........

Hypocrisy Or Seeing The Right Light

Hypocrisy and the Left

February 11th, 2008

There is a very interesting tempest in a Babble teapot going on right now. Seems that rabble.ca has posted an ad for k.d. lang’s new album, Watershed, that links to the Indigo music website.

But the Jew-hating lefties on Babble are really upset, because they loathe Heather Reisman and her HESEG Foundation.

Well its pretty clear that ethics play no role here.

Let me see if i have this straight; Chapters Indigo owned by Heather Reisman is part and parcel of the Zionist chain that permits apartheid israel to flourish. Babble endorses a full boycott of Chapters Indigo for that reason. I understand this, i passonately disagree but i understand.

Yet,and here’s the kicker, Babble itself allows its site to be used by Chapters Indigo(for money of course) as a tool by which to advertise its goods. If this isn’t total hypocricy i honestly don’t know what is.

Posted in Hypocrisy | No Comments »

Hmmmmmm?

If Bill Clinton had made the following comment about Obama would it be considered a racial slur............

"Obama praised the former president, then added, "I would have to investigate more fully Bill's dancing abilities . . . before I could accurately judge where he was, in fact, a brother.''

Democrat debate takes angry turn

Things are only getting funnier and funnier..........

Bill Clinton ‘has a dream’, falls asleep during MLK speech
The campaign is taking its toll on former US president Bill Clinton. He fell asleep yesterday during a ceremony to honour Martin Luther King Jr at a church in New York.

Everyone Should Take A First Aid Training Course

And I have to commend The Red Cross, particularly the International Red Cross for offering these courses........

First aid lessons, Gaza style

Making A Decision On A Sound Bite Is Ludicrous

What the video doesn't tell us

Lorne Gunter
National Post
Monday, November 19, 2007

Here are the things I didn't see watching Paul Pritchard's famous 10-minute video of Mounties Tasering Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport last month. I didn't see what Mr. Dziekanski did that apparently convinced immigration officers that they should abandon their office and leave him alone inside, pacing frantically back and forth in front of the windows looking on to the international arrivals lounge. I didn't see anything he did during his more than six hours on hold before the police were called in. I didn't hear what immigration officials and airport security told police by phone or radio when they called for help.

In other words, what I don't know about the deadly Tasering is almost everything I need to know to pass judgment on whether the four RCMP officers acted appropriately.

The video gives me too little context. And everyone who has made his or her mind up about the wrongness of the Mounties' actions based only on seeing the video on the news or YouTube lacks sufficient context, too.

This is especially true for those who have seen only the three-minute version of the video that seems to be the most common on the Internet. Mr. Pritchard shot nearly 10 minutes, the best (and fullest) version of which is at http://youtube.com/ watch?v=Ftp7IQph0_o.

MORE

Is There A Downside To Loonie Peaking?

Will we still see Toronto and Vancouver as a backdrop in films and television shows?

Is a 6 cent increase at the gas pumps one of the impacts?

Will tourism from south of the border take a hit?

Etc.

There Is No One More Qualified Than Blatchford To Tell The Stories

Witness to war

Globe and Mail Update

October 30, 2007 at 7:30 AM EDT

The Globe and Mail's Christie Blatchford has done four tours of Afghanistan since Canada took over the major security role in Kandahar province in 2006.

She's been embedded with the Canadian troops and witnessed first hand the losses and victories on the battlefield. In the quiet moments between unspeakable horrors and the ever-present threat of death, the soldiers opened up to Ms. Blatchford, sharing their personal histories, their hopes for the future and their take on the Afghan people.

These stories form the basis of Ms. Blatchord's new book, Fifteen Days, Stories of bravery, friendship, life and death from inside the new Canadian army. The book pays tribute to the men and women serving with the Canadian military in Afghanistan.

Ms. Blatchford will answer questions on her war reporting experiences and her views on the Canadian military today from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EDT. Submit a question in advance through the comment function on this story, or come back later to join the conversation.

Your questions and Ms. Blatchford's answers will appear at the bottom of this page when the discussion begins.

Ms. Blatchford started her newspaper career working as a sports reporter for the The Globe and Mail. She then became a columnist at the Toronto Star, before joining the Toronto Sun. She was a columnist for the Sun for almost 20 years before being hired away by The National Post when it was launched. She later returned to the Globe to take up a free-ranging columnist's job, which she uses to venture far and wide, geographically and intellectually.

Editor's Note: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question/comment. Comments/questions may be edited for length or clarity. HTML is not allowed. We will not publish questions/comments that include personal attacks on participants in these discussions, that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions/comments that include vulgar language or libellous statements. Preference will be given to readers who submit questions/comments using their full name and home town, rather than a pseudonym.

IS/Was He A Supporter Of NAMBLA Or Visit Their Site

Wikepedia reports:"Since 1995, public criticism and law enforcement infiltration have heavily impaired the organization. Its national headquarters now consists of little more than a private mail box service in San Francisco, and they rarely respond to inquiries; it has essentially ceased to exist. Some reports state that the group no longer has regular national meetings and few local monthly meetings" but they still have a website. And how about that Ryerson professor......Tricks of the Trade

Canadian pedophile suspect arrested in Thailand