All-purpose news and politics thread

[Gryphon]

That being said, there have been things that have made me dissapointed in him as our mayor.
He isnt a great mayor by any means but he isnt the horrible person people are making him out to be.

The Toronto Star was agaisnt him in his campaign from day one and since he was elected, they have printed story after story really playing up how bad he is. In the letters to the editor they will uslaly print 5 or 6 anti ford letters and one pro ford letter. One of the pro ford letters from I think three weeks ago was from a librarian who lamented that the situation is beign taken advantage of by people who want to maintain the staus quo and noted that while she didnt vote for ford, she feels he is unjustly being targeted.

[Gryphon]

Although his plans for redevelopment of some parts of the city have left me confused. Im not sure what the idea is. I am not sure if its a good or bad thing. I am just confused, and if the mayor's plans confuse you thats not a good sign but I want to see if I can figure this out.

[mikekerrIII]

No, and neither should it be. There are further ways to illegitimately inflict damage than simply spreading lies. People should be protected against malicious gossip.

If its the truth it is fact not malicious gossip. I'm glad you agree with me that In the UK you can be sued for speaking the truth

[the4thpip]

Firstly Pip, my whole point has been that market behaviour is multi-causal and unpredictable. The fact that markets dropped further after my previous comment hardly invalidates that.

Secondly, if you insist on pointing to single factors as The Cause of market movements how do you know, for example, that it was Bernanke's speech and not a private survey in China that showed manufacturing output had contracted for a third straight month?

The latter probably had as much or more impact on Asian markets than anything Bernanke said - and the sell-off started in Asia.

Note for the slow of understanding: I am not saying "The Cause was Chinese manufacturing not Bernanke", I'm saying "attempts to identify any single Cause of short-term market movements is largely futile."

Oh, I am the last person to go for "simple answers" in complex situations. But the markets have a herd mentality sometimes, and when they see something as a starting shot, panic tends to spread. And of course all the other factor you mentioned play a role when people decide to take Bernanke's speech and actions as a signal to sell off, but the temporal correlation is very strong in this case: The DJI was essentially flat all day, and then it was like a flood gate was opened.

Personally I find it fascinating that all those people who studied economics do so hang on the lips of Bernanke. It's not like he has a lot more information than they do. They all know about the employment data in the US, the debt crisis in Europe, the grid-locking GOP in Washington and so on and so forth. Yet for a few days, they acted as if all that was priced into the market already. Then Bernanke (and as Charles pointed out, later on the World Bank and the IMF) finally admits that the economy faces a "significant downside risk." And immediately the markets go into free fall.

Who didn't know there was a "significant downside risk?" They're all bankers and economists, right? They read the newspaper?

I really wish we did not have to read headlines like this:

Fed chief's unnerving words drive market downward

Yet it seems too many people controlling the markets can't think for themselves.

[the4thpip]

Disgraced comic publisher Rick Olney has announced the Adirondack ComicFest announced for November has been cancelled. If it ever existed - it never had a confirmed location.


http://tonyisabella.blogspot.com/201...o-detroit.html

[Gryphon]

When does the UN vote on Palestine?

[LtMarvel]

A Tea Party Rep who is getting heat for praising the federal government.

Billy Long is a Tea Party stalwart who ran for Congress as a man fed up with Washington.
Long won in a landslide and now represents Joplin, Mo., where he fired up a Tea Party crowd in April pretending to auction off the national debt.
Five weeks later, Long was back in Joplin, this time in the dark and rain, surveying the aftermath of an apocalyptic tornado. And this time, the federal government was his friend.
"FEMA called as soon as I got there and said, 'Congressman Long, we're on the way. We'll have boots on the ground in an hour or two,' " he says. "And I said, 'No you won't; they're already here.' "
What followed, Long says, has been a superb relief effort.
"The president came in, he was great. [Homeland Security Secretary] Janet Napolitano came in, she's been great," he says. "[House Minority] Leader Pelosi came up to me on the floor, hugged me and said, 'Billy, anything the people of Joplin need they'll have.' "
And that's just what they've gotten: FEMA has spent close to $100 million on the cleanup, and an additional $19 million plus on rent and home repairs. Napolitano was back in Joplin on Thursday, praising Joplin's "can-do attitude" and Long.
"He's worked well with our office, with our shop," she said. "When he was asked about FEMA, to rank it shortly after the fact, on a scale of 1 to 10, he said he'd give it a 12."


[...]

[Charles RB]

What baffles me is how obvious this outcome was. Private sector ideology wins out over sensible policy once again.

A bunch of the NHS trusts named have accused Health Sec Lansley of fibbing for party political reasons, like being able to blame the damage of upcoming Tory hospital cuts on PFI. But since we know PFI has been causing financial problems and will continue to do so, I'm betting the trusts are doing their own fib as part of a defensive action against the cuts.

And one bit by someone trying to claim PFI isn't a problem brings up... well:

"If PFI is seen to be the key problem, it doesn't augur that well for the future when... the plan is under the new Government's reforms [that] the NHS will be doing deals with the private sector... not just to build hospitals but to supply healthcare services, a much more complicated system and a much more complicated exercise."

That's the big question. Which Labour won't ask because they started PFI. So unless the Lib Dems do it, we're a bit stuffed in the same way Judge Death is a bit smelly.

it's come around the same time this piece of news popped up.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2067855/

Well that doesn't look suspicious and bastardy at all.

Rob Ford, described as a Conservative mayor, came into power in Toronto by promising to "end the gravy train" of municipal overspending and waste... The recommendation that the consultants made to city council, was that the majority of municipal spending was on essential services, and it was within acceptable limits... the gravy he was expecting to find and cut to balance the books just did not exist.

And herein lies the problem of trumpeting cuts as the key or only strategy.

[Charles RB]

Only if you're a total cunt.

People who aren't total cunts can see that malicious gossip, even if true, should sometimes be kept to your bloody self.

We've had libel tourists turn up here who aren't about stopping malicious gossip, they're about stopping inconvenient facts coming out.

And there was that time Trafigura took out a super-injunction against the press reporting on something an MP said in Commons. About Trafigura muzzling the press, no less.

[the4thpip]

When does the UN vote on Palestine?

The security council has to vote on it, and they already signaled that they will take their time. Months, possibly years. They might want to sit out the current Israeli government.

[Paul McEnery]

We've had libel tourists turn up here who aren't about stopping malicious gossip, they're about stopping inconvenient facts coming out.

And there was that time Trafigura took out a super-injunction against the press reporting on something an MP said in Commons. About Trafigura muzzling the press, no less.

This is true. And the superinjunctions need to go.

Nevertheless, this did not work in Trafigura's favour, did it.

[Adam C]

To be fair to Ford, he inherited large problems from Miller and has been trying his best to find a way to make evverything work. The problem is that there is no clear answer and he is trying anything even ideas that are unpopular. Plus from what I read the plan wasnt to close down libraries but just ones with low traffic and transfer the resources. The fact is Miller did a really crappy job as mayor.

I dunno, that seems an awfully generous assessment of Ford as a politician. Wasn't this guy who claimed he would lower costs and NOT cut essential services, only to go and say that he was going to?

I think Marcus Gee sums it up best...

Why drop the Port Lands bomb in the midst of a big fight over budget-cutting at city council? Why kick over a hornet’s nest by attacking Waterfront Toronto, the respected development agency? Why muse about closing libraries, a cherished service with a legion of supporters, including a little-known scribbler named Atwood? Why even consider lowering the axe on a beloved institution such as Riverdale Farm, where half the parents in the city have taken their kids. Mr. Ford did not just shoot himself in the foot. He took careful aim at each toe.

A cannier politician would have tried to bring Waterfront Toronto and other interests on board before springing a new Port Lands scheme on an unsuspecting city. Instead, he and his brother, Doug, browbeat the agency, brought in pricey consultants on the sly and plowed ahead.

[...]

A wiser politician would have delivered a high-profile speech laying out the case for sensible, cautious cuts to end the city’s annual budget crisis. Instead, the mayor told reporters on Monday that there were no cuts, only “efficiencies.” Later in the week, he tried to scare voters by warning that they faced a 35-per-cent property-tax hike if the city didn’t close its budget gap.

This sounds less like a man facing difficult choices and trying to make things work, than a huckster whose unrealistic promises are smashing hard up against reality and who has no real ideas. Even the National Post is pillorying this buffon.

He isnt a great mayor by any means but he isnt the horrible person people are making him out to be.

During his campaign he vilified cyclists saying, "My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day." In 2006 he said you probably wouldn't get AIDs if you weren't gay." Said of Asian immigrants, "Those Oriental people work like dogs. They work their hearts out. They are workers non-stop. They sleep beside their machines. That's why they're successful in life. I went to Seoul, South Korea, I went to Taipei, Taiwan. I went to Tokyo, Japan. That's why these people are so hard workers (sic). I'm telling you, the Oriental people, they're slowly taking over."

Yeah, wonderful guy. In addition to being an incompetent, unimaginative mayor, he's a bigot to boot.

[the4thpip]

Russia's President Medvedev just announced that Putin will be Russia's next president, and that he will continue to breathe in exchange.

[king mob]

This is true. And the superinjunctions need to go.

Nevertheless, this did not work in Trafigura's favour, did it.

The fact they were able to get away with it for so long is a disgrace, as is the fact that there's loads of these superinjunctions still flying around and nobody can report on them in England and Wales. the legal position for Scotland is slightly different but as the Ryan Giggs situation showed, it'd have to take a brave newspaper to breach one of those.

[Iangould]

Putin to run for President of Russia in 2012.

Or, in other words, "Russian dictator to change his job title after meaningless farce "