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Bill Allen is one of two new subscribers. (Four so far have been lost. One a Don from Landmark MB.)
Bill, "Silent Watchers" are my term for those who receive the Digest but have never contributed their thoughts. Aase does that on a
number of sites. She follows the various contributors and comments to me on some of their peccadilloes from time to time. Betcha
some receiving the DD do the same.
Am I able to answer your question posed below? Not really, except to suggest this, the most effective influence is my view is not contrarians such as myself but those known as CPC supporters. Their expressing to M.P.s they know concern about having to wage the coming election from a defensive position to those in the Riding opposing arbitrary changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act and other Acts would be as effective as anything could be.
"I am on a learning curve with your process. I would rather influence change Bill C-10 and the ideological additions to it re the Navigable Waters Protection Act in particular, than simply to talk about my concerns."
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From: "Suan H.Booiman"Subject: Grits dis PM's 'Tarzan' threat Joe the Grits have to wait for the cheque from Ottawa, without
it they would be bankrupt paying for an election. Simple.
Suan
===================================
From:Joerge Dyrkton
Subject: 'The Rights Revolution' by Michael Ignatieff - A Critique in the Light of Events
Hello Joe,
My offering this month is a little longer than usual (so I will not paste it onto your Daily Digest) but if you (or others) are interested in reading a critique of Michael Ignatieff's 'The Rights Revolution' check out my blog at:
www.joergedyrkton.blogspot.com
Thank you very much.
Joerge Dyrkton, D.Phil.
===================================
From: Gord Hill
Subject: Who is minding the store??
Our Passports are processed in Washington D.C.?
Our communications are processed in India?
Our country's markets and resources are processed at Head Offices throughout the World?
Our retail, wholesale, distribution, shipping are processed where??
Thomas Caldwell stated that we need Canadian CEO's and Canadian Corporations
in order to maintain our sovereignty, why are Canadians not listening?
Why is our country not accounting, assessing, regulating and managing all our resources for
the benefit and the sovereignty of its citizens???
We should and must trade with others, but, if we do not own the resources, products, patents, ideas that are produced and are within the boundaries of Canada is this in fact trading???or is it warehousing?
Balance is required and in order to create balance you must have sovereignty or others will balance things for you.
Canadians need to decide what is to be made here and what is to be bought elsewhere. Is this our decision any longer?
We Canadians are made of better stuff then this. Stand up!
We need to use everything we have or have had, to get our country back - income trusts, P3's, Canadian stock issues, where foreign companies that have control over Canadian resources fail or need to sell we must be ready to get back through legitimate purchases the control that we so easily gave away!
Our forefathers did not give up their lifes in two World Wars for us, so that we would treat their goals and accomplishments and reward them by giving away the country they fought so hard to preserve.
Stop it! My heart is breaking and so is theirs. If you feel that what is going on is wrong there is an alternative www.pcparty.org .
Gord Hill
Hamilton East - Stoney Creek
Candidate of Record
The Progressive Canadian Party
===================================
From: Ray Strachan
Subject: Well they did make the Newspapers
Joe
Yesterday in my praise of Steve and Pete I mentioned how the National
News,described the RUSSIAN BOMBER STORY. I made a little levity of it all.
But I did say "And The Morning Newspapers haven't even come out yet" Well, I
was very surprised on how little coverage showed up on the DD today. Just
the two stalwarts, The National Post and The Toronto Sun. Well they saw it
much as the National TV News Media did, very grave happening, altho it
sounds like an essay that could have been written in a Grade 1 class. But
what we do know is that those two Papers are so very,very,very classy,
demanding Fair and Balanced Coverage. And of course there could have been
many other stories in the other Dailies. I was sorry I cound not read them
all,front to back. I may have been further enlightened.
Ray Strachan
===================================
From: Judy Lewis
Good Letter to the Editor in the Star, Joe!
Judy Lewis
Bill C-10: Short-term gain at cost of long-term pain
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/594393
=====
Judy, Thanks. A major HIT! Joe
===================================
From: "Anne Dickinson"
Subject: Re: Daily Digest February 27, 2009
Hi Joe-
Someone should explain to the Fort MacMurray construction worker (that is, if he actually exists and is not just
another right wing urban legend)- lets call him Joe the Construction Worker- that working with heavy machinery
is dangerous work if impaired which is why he has to be tested.
That he suggests that this such testing is unfair and that welfare recipients in particular should also be tested suggest that he is also Joe the not very brght redneck.
Anne
===================================
From: "Rebecca Gingrich"
Subject: DD
Joe--the NP article--'what ever happened to strong and free' opens up a can
of worms that must be addressed. A government who legislates laws like this
must be stopped immediately. I find it more than reprehensible that the
same government making these stupid intrusive laws also makes billions on
the taxes they charge for this habit they pretend to abhor. Same with
alcohol--we spend large amounts of tax dollars on pretending to stop
drinking and driving when the sole controller of the product is the
government that taxes us into oblivion every time we use the product. I do
not drink at all but my tax dollars go to playing this game. Governments at
all levels have only one aim--to totally subjugate our every move to their
own dictates. The smoking in cars with minors present is just the latest
step to our total loss of control over our lives.
How well this story fits into the story about evolution posted on the DD.
Why don't we get taught the truth--that we are devolving at a faster and
faster rate with each passing year. We have lost almost any moral and ethic
we have ever had. Criminal action is condoned by the Injustice System in
our strong and free country. Innocent people are treated worse than
criminals if they speak their minds. The country is not only in an economic
depression, we are in a moral, ethical and freedom depression. I don't call
that 'evolution' by any standard.
becky
===================================
From: Zeb Landon
Subject: Gerard Kennedy proposes augmenting the Gas Tax Transfer in order
to delivery stimulus equitably (non-politically) to Canadian communities
Joe,
I thought Gerard Kennedy's proposal to use the Gas Tax Transfer as a proven non-politicized vehicle that could target federal stimulus monies to municipal infrastructure costs deserved more attention than the media has given it. I could not find anything on it in the media, since I heard about it on the news, late last week.
We do need a system of equitable (i.e., regionally and subregionally 'fiscally balanced') support for municipal-level infrastructure from federal monies. -- One that works like clockwork, i.e., every quarter the feds remit a certain amount (more or less depending on a per capita formula) to all Canadian municipalities (with no delays, if's, but's, etc.).
Right now, bureaucrats in my municipality must waste days writing up applications for grants, while other bureaucrats at higher levels (federal and provincial) often it seems on no particular schedule consider municipalities' applications, and then they second-guess what their political masters want to do. Nobody knows when the money will come, or how much or if: -- a system that wreaks havoc on planning budgets and on all that depends on the budgets. I consider this horrible system of grant application a pin the tail on the donkey system.
Zeb Landon
===================================
From: Caspar Davis
Subject: Tax Evasion, Swiss/Canadian Style
Thanks to Mel Hurtig, who writes:
I recently suggested that the IRS and the Department of Justice in the U.S. will be going after 17,000 Americans re the illegal UBS tax evasion schemes.
Wrong. The number is closer to 52,000. UBS has dumped their CEO and has already agreed to pay a $780 million US fine and promised to reveal the names of their clients in the U.S. Two UBS managers in the U.S, have been indicted and one has pleaded guilty in a scheme to allow wealthy Americans to evade U.S. income tax. Now, what about Canada?
I am waiting for some MP to raise the activities of UBS in Canada in The House of Commons. We already know that UBS had a long-time covert operation in Canada that funnelled billions of dollars offshore and that they had a countersurveillance team using encrypted computers to conceal billions of dollars from Canadian Revenue Service, and that UBS regularly sent agents into Canada (illegally) from Zurich to lure wealthy Canadians in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary into their bank's schemes. We also know that Michael Wilson was very much involved, and that he has refused to answer questions re UBS.
Shouldn't he be called to testify about such tax evasion before a House of Commons Committee? After all, he was Brian Mulroney's Minister of Finance.
I've written before about billions of dollars leaving Canada annually in transfer pricing. Bravo to the Canada Revenue Agency for nailing Chrysler with a $500 million charge (with more to come). Bear in mind we're talking here about only one bank and only one auto company.
I find it difficult to undertand why no NDP or Liberal MP has failed to ask our Prime Minister and current Revenue Minister about all of this in the House of Commons. Shouldn't we at least know the names of the wealthy Canadians who have been ripping off the tax system causing you and your friends and family to pay too much tax????
Mel Hurtig
=====
Wasn't there also an offshore tax evasion Bill introduced then withdrawn?
===================================
From: "Brian D. Marlatt"
Subject: Cat out of the bag.
Grafting parts of one system of government onto another can be expected to have unexpected or unfortunate results. Electing senators to represent provincial interest in imitation of the federalism of America's united states reverses the relationship between Canada's Parliament and its provinces in Canadian federalism; borrowing the practice of hearings to confirm Supreme Court appointments calls into question the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law as understood in Canada; allowing a prime minister and government to treat other members of parliament as if they were nobodies even within parliament or asking the GG to prorogue parliament so as to avoid a vote of non-confidence is to call into question the Canadian constitutional principle of responsible government. Those who would graft the practices of others onto our own constitutional practices show disdain for both constitutions and disrespect for the people when they are asked to accept them blindly or simply because they are done elsewhere. An agenda at odds with established constitutional practice calls into question a government's right to govern.
So it is with idea of "tack-ons" to the Throne Speech or the central money bill, the Budget. In December, political crisis nearly became a constitutional crisis when "tack-ons" to the Throne Speech and economic update proposed to reduce government's responsibility for a woman's right to pay equity to negotiable marketplace transactions and to transform the means of political financing in partisan ways. The borrowed practice of "tack-ons" are of a similar nature.
In the United States budgetary "tack-ons" force through measures that might otherwise fail; however unsavoury, they do so without the possibility of bringing down the government and forcing an election. Grafting the practice of "tack-ons" onto Canadian parliamentary practice via far-reaching amendments to the proposed Budget, to change the Competition Act, the Canada Investment Act, and Navigable Waters Protection Act without meaningful or separate debate, imperils our constitutional principle of responsible government, surely.
So the question arises, should this prime minister be allowed to continue or should the GG find another parliamentarian to replace him if the Prime Minister asks for dissolution based on the defeat of "tack-ons" to the proposed Budget.
===================================
From: "Brad Thomson"
Subject: RE: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke." BELOW 30
Joe,
It is painfully obvious what is going on.
Politicians worldwide are controlled by the international bankers and are doing exactly what the bankers tell them to do. If any of them threaten to disobey they are sent copies of the Zapruder film. Or, they are told that the next 911 will be staged against their country so as to scare their own people into submission. Thus, they may as well go along with it now. (Besides, the Russians are coming. That's what Peter MacKay is telling us so it must be true.)
First the gang of bankiing hoodlems implode the economy by pulling money out of the system, then they receive trillions in alleged stimulus funds to create further debt. Next they use this money (further debt) to consolidate and create one central world banking system. One world currency and one world government is not far off now.
The new world order.
These sick, insane maniacs are going to try to kill off most of the population of the planet. But they will fail and kill off everyone including themselves instead. We will be saved only when Jesus steps in at the last minute "lest no flesh be saved". There is no time left for politics and political discussion. Let us pray.
Militarily it is not difficult to determine what they have planned next. Every day the corporate-controlled media, which is nothing more than a mass brainwashing tool, is telling us Iran is now on the verge of having a nuclear (it would have been "nucular" if Bush was still around) weapon. Just like Saddam had them before, no doubt.
Nostradamus predicted the name of the antichrist: Mabus.
What do you get when you put the names Obama and Bush together?
obaMABUSh.
Brad Thomson
Gatineau
===================================
From: Charles Tupper
Subject: Re: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
MONKEY SEE (US) ::: MONKEY DO (CANADA)
...and how about this:
Mar 01 10:36
Canada backs Israeli attack on Iran?
Tags: IRAN ISRAEL
In his harshest rhetoric so far, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed steadfast support for Israel and claimed that the Iranian government has "evil" purposes for its technological achievements.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=87162§ionid=351020104
Webmaster's Commentary:
Canadians ought to give Stephen a rifle, a parachute, drop him into Iran and let him walk his talk.
===================================
From: John Duddy
Subject: Re: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
Thanks Joe.
Greetings from Mexico.
John Duddy. Usually live in Calgary.
===================================
From: Bob Taubman
Subject: Re: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
Hi Joe,
What's that saying about never having time to do things right the first time, but always having time to fix things? Let's do it right the first time.
While I do agree that there is a need to accelerate the approval for and delivering of funds, the need for oversight is more than a bit necessary. We should ask ourselves, would we allow the Liberals, or the NDP to spend said amount of funds without oversight or without proper explanation? Obviously, the answer is a loud and resounding "NO!!!". Same goes for the Conservatives, who screamed and hollered about the AdScam funds.
Haste Makes Waste.
SSDG.
Bob Taubman
===================================
From: "Jacob Rempel"
Subject: RE: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
I like your challenge, Joe, which you call -- "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
I say this: Let Mr.Harper open his poke. –
Let him very clearly commit to very specific national high employment infrastructure construction projects, education, and affordable housing across Canada including aboriginal communities, with Canadian sourced materials and contractors, -- projects with starting and completion dates and total costs for each such project. –
I will forgive some mistakes in cost estimates and dates if the explanations are reasonable and understandable.
Better still, resign and join the Fraser Institute.
---Jacob Rempel
===================================
From: "Suan H.Booiman"
Subject: 3 billion stimlation
Joe,
Harpers demands MPs put rush on $3-billion in stimulus spending
Start with a question "has there ever been a government that did not make
deals behind closed doors". Dear Iggy and his coalition have the opportunity
to call Harper's bluff, this Central Canadian coalition stands for nothing. I have
no clue where the three billion will go, but neither did we know and still don't
about the "adscam", "the wheeling and dealing of Mulroney and Schreiber".
"McDonald and the railroad"
The reality is that those brave oppositions have no money and are waiting
for the tax-payers cheque to keep them alive. There is an old Dutch saying:
the best sailors are those standing ashore. This economic down turn is not
of Canadian making, but be sure there are and will be many that stand in
the hall way to collect money, particular Central Canada, especially the left
leaning "you owe me" of the political created, since Canada became a country
of sort, industrial empires, including the labour unions.
Does it really mater where the money goes, there are always be politicians,
industrialists that will whine. besides that those forever available experts
that never have produced anything, in the environment we see such heroes
as Suzuki, Al Gore by name.
The voter, a large word for the electorate of all makings, as always has only
one chance to speak and that in an election, between, they, who ever disagrees,
can cry and complain all they want or use their democratic right, directed by
politicians, to call an election. this voter has no power by itself.
Suan
PS my Sunday morning sermon.
===================================
From: "Bill Allen"
Subject: Re: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
Joe,
This is my first time reading one of your posts so I am not sure about your process. It seems that you are posting a draft and gathering input from readers about the draft to position yourself to make adjustments before releasing the final draft. However, that may not be your process. I need some experience with your posts to see how the process plays out.
If I agree with the thoughts expressed you invite me to do so. It is not clear whether that response, if any, should come in direct response to Posting #1 (this 2:27 post) or to Posting #2 (the subsequent 3:24 post). Nor is it clear to me whether the response to you is for your eyes only or is shared in some way. The term "Silent Watchers" is not defined and the process for involving Silent Watchers is not described. That makes responding a pig in a poke of its own. This may be a non issue for those who may be reading my comment. Where a process is not transparent it may reduce participation but, again, this is my first time reading one of your posts so I am not sure about your process.
As to Post #2, I find the references helpful. I had read several of them previously when they were first issued. For me I need not just analysis of the actions of the politicians but more focus on the actions that I might take as a taxpayer to detail my concerns. I much prefer to express myself in my own words rather than place myself in a position of agreeing or disagreeing with lengthy comments made by other writers. Post #2 has so many different elements that my responses, however detailed, may not to going to people who are influencing the outcome of Bill C-10. This first time around my comments seem to be going into a black hole.
I am on a learning curve with your process. I would rather influence change Bill C-10 and the ideological additions to it re the Navigable Waters Protection Act in particular, than simply to talk about my concerns.
I also found Posting #2 to be lengthier than I had hoped for and is in the style of a shaggy dog story. I fear that too many days of this style would become wearisome and I would become a skimming Silent Watcher rather than a person truly engaging the contents.
I hope my comments are helpful.
Bill, New Kid on the Block
===================================
From: Larry Kazdan
To: Letters@globeandmail.com
Subject: Letter to Editor re: Harper demands MPs put rush on $3-billion in stimulus spending, Steven Chase, February 26
Re: Harper demands MPs put rush on $3-billion in stimulus spending, Steven Chase, February 26
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090226.wPOLstimulus0226/BNStory/politics/home
Stephen Harper brings new meaning to the term "parliamentary oversight". His government spends money and files a report. Then opposition MPs get to look it over. And then? Hey, mistakes were made. But get over it. Parliament saw it, and it's all over!
Larry Kazdan,
Vancouver, B.C.
===================================
From: James Waters
Subject: Re: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
Joe,
I was expecting something quite harsh, since you had cautioned us against reacting too strongly. I think Mr. Harper is trying to balance the need for quick action to help our country's economic recovery with the on-going demand for accountability to Parliament. While we don't need political grandstanding by the opposition, we do need serious oversight. Hopefully we will get that yet.
Jim Waters
===================================
From: "Ben & Millie Sveinson"
Hi Joe,
Keeping it simple, the one caveat is the only logical and transparent route to take and support.Ben Sveinson
===================================
From: "DA"
Hi Joe, A friend sent me your Canadian Daily Digest and I would like to subscribe to it. It would be much appreciated. Thanks, DA
=====
Makes my day -
Be a "friend " to others and pass the DD on with your recommendation,eh?
===================================
From: Ray Strachan
Subject: Re: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
Joe...Regarding the Three Billion, I absolutely think there should be a great
amount of oversight but I am not sure by whom. Hey,the whole World Banking
System
Collapsed. Who was running that, what oversight. There are just some
things of mystery that cannot be overseen. They can appear to be overseen
but, Presto, the magicians do their job. A puff of smoke, what seemed to be
honest is not honest anymore, what seemed to be truth is not truth anymore,
what seemed to be dishonest is not dishonest anymore, what seemed to be
DEMOCRACY is sure as hell not Democracy anymore. That is just a word allowing
the Pigs to Take over the Money Hose. You see it is the Politicians in the
Poke, The Pigs Just Run Everything from behind the curtain,. But please
folks "dont wake up". When you do wake up,if you had a wish,you will wish you
were in The Long Sleep.Not the Catnap. Ray Strachan
===================================
From: Real Gagne
Subject: Re: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
Joe:
Plus que ca change, plus que c'est la meme chose.
Contrary to what Travers implies (that the current Harper administration is somehow on a totally new path in terms of public spending irresponsibility), those of us with long memories are well aware that exactly the same kind of thing happened under the Chretien Liberals and the Mulroney Progressive Conservatives before them, and before that all the way back to the railway scandals of old John A.
Do I like it? No. Do I approve of it? No!
But I'm not about to attribute this kind of thing only to Harper. He seems to me to be no better, AND NO WORSE, than most of his predecessors.
Real
=====
. . . true.
And they may have all promised
Accountability and Transparency
as well.
===================================
From: "Barry Douglas"
Subject: thank you RE: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
Illuminating.
"Trust me"??? – you got to be kidding,
===================================
Subject: Re: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
From: The Natroses
Hi Joe - It really comes down to how much Harper wants to be in power,
and he is rolling the dice once again; counting on Canadians to be
asleep at the switches. Have you wonder why the Harper government is
doing this. I believe it is the long term cozy relationship between
big business and the input of massive dollars into government agencies
and banks to try to prevent real estate prices to take a steep dive,
as it did in the United States. In the last 10 years or so, as real
estate prices increase - so did easy credit in obtaining the mortgages
for the pricey real estate. Another factor that played into is the
high wages for many who work in the oil/mining industry. A great many
of them, plunked their money on over-price real estate without ever
thinking that the economy would take a dive. Part of the so-called
economic growth of Canada, is due part to paper assets such as new
housing construction and a giant increase in mortgage debt. The final
factor is the towns/cities jumping on the bandwagon of assessing
property at a market value level. Where property taxes increased on a
regular basis, just on the market value, and not necessarily on
improvements made to the property or services rendered by the town or
city. I believe the government is trying to save the paper assets from
taking a steep nose-dive where house values will be less than the
mortgages that are on the houses. Too many of the big guys would be
hurt by a nose-dive of property value, which is why one of the first
things that Harper did was to covered the backside of CHMC, and put
the taxpayer on the hook when people start to walk away from their
homes or go into bankruptcy. These days, it is no shame in doing
either, since we see plenty of examples coming from the big guys.
This is why Harper needs the 3 billion slush fund, not to provide aid
for the little guy but to try to prevent the slide of the paper
assets. I know 3 billlion is just a drop, for what is really needed -
but if Harper gets his way, this 3 billion could be the start of more
money directed where there is no accountability, and the taxpayers
will not get in his way.
The conservatives actually believe in the crap that Canadians are not
paying attention to what is being said in Ottawa. From where I am
sitting, Harper is a dirty word even for the people who do not bother
keeping up with the news. One just have to think of cancelling and on
again contracts of coast guard ships. Even the companies who have
bidded on the contracts, are very hesitate to bid on them the third
time - since the reason given was the bids all came in to high.
Government agencies seem to be in business only to collect the large
sums that companies pay to have a chance to bid on a contract.
So, the Liberals should call their buff on an election and insist that
the 3 billion dollars be tracked and notify to the public ahead of
releasing the money to whoever will benefit from this fund.
===================================
Subject: Re: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
From: Beverley Smith
A government that faced defeat and sneakily avoided it by shutting down, and that now wants our money to be spent in ways not endorsed by us, as an emergency and with a 'just trust me ' attitude is a very troubling scenario. Whatever the crisis the optics are very bad.
It is however consistent with the top-down management style this government has seemed to have, of not listening to the public, bypassing public hearings, holding token fast 'consultations' for the budget that for all 3 prairies provinces allowed only 3 hours to hear the hundreds who wanted to talk
This is a tokenism government with a clear clear agenda they want to push forward without the public having input. Now when it is clear this is illegal, they have to come out into the open and admit they want $3 billion from us, no questions asked.
Bev Smith
Calgary
===================================
Subject: Re: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
From: John Halonen
Harper stills tries to sell his future as being in tune with the previous BUSH government of the US.
One should learn and be aware that times have changed. We need oversight.
This is not to say that a stimulus is not required.
John Halonen
===================================
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