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Post by prepared on May 1, 2007 11:00:43 GMT -5
If Mr. John Forrest wishes the government to keep things in perspective, he should probably heed his own advice as well. Perhaps there is so much bickering over the mistreatment of Afghan prisoners because there is a portion of our elected officials who hold that Canadian soldiers should not even be in Afghanistan or other theatres? Possibly? If your agenda is to get Canadian soldiers out of places like Afghanistan, then you must debate the issue on every possible front. This means that there is debate about how Afghan prisoners are treated, and a re-examination of Canada's role in places like Afghanistan. I'm sure Mr. Forrest would much less prefer that our minority Conservative government ruled by decree and ignored the realities of situations in Afghanistan. While I agree that many Parliamentarians conduct themselves in a juvenile manner, the spirit of debate is alive and well in the House of Commons. That's a good thing.
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Post by REALITY on May 4, 2007 21:27:32 GMT -5
Hillary's Mother-F'ing Tour Business by Greg Palast
ImageBefore his untimely death in a plane crash, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown said, "I'm not Hillary's mother-f****** tour guide!" That wasn't a nice thing for a member of the President's cabinet to say about the First Lady, now my Senator, Hillary Clinton. And it's probably not polite for me to bring it up now. But if I don't, surely the Karl Rovarians will - if Senator Mrs. Clinton nails the Presidential nomination. Bill Clinton used to say that, once he became president, he finally earned more money than his wife. That was a carefully crafted bit of modesty to show Bill as an aw-shucks regular guy versus Richie Rich-kid George Bush. But Bill's cute remark raised a question in my mind: How did Hillary get that big ol' salary? And another question arises: how has she stayed out of prison? The story's a little complicated, involving a New Orleans power company, Indonesian billionaires, a New York nuclear plant and plain old influence peddling. But if we follow the money, we'll get the picture. And it ain't pretty. But first, let's stop at Wal-Mart. Read an official biography of the Senator and you'll find her six-month stint on a child-protection task force. Yet you won't find her SIX YEARS on the board of directors of Wal-Mart Corporation. She may have earned a Grammy for "It Takes a Village to Raise a Child." But it takes a Governor's wife to provide cover for Wal-Mart's profiteering off systematic wage-enslavement of children in its factories in South America. Sam Walton called Hillary, "My little lady." Sam paid her an eyebrow raising sum for a director - equal to 60% of her entire not-insubstantial salary as a lawyer. By contrast, Wendy Diaz (her real name), a 13-year-old in Honduras, was paid 25 cents an hour to make shirts for the "little lady's" label. Hillary's rake-in was made possible by Wal-Mart's 100% union-free operation and out-sourcing of 100% of its manufacturing, some to prison factories in China. Now, you could say that Hillary couldn't hear the screams of the kiddies in Kamp Wal-Mart in Honduras. After all, she relied on the intelligence provided her by the President (of Wal-Mart). Fast forward to 1994 and the Brown 'mother-f'ing tour guide' business. According to Nolanda Hill, the Commerce Secretary's long-time business partner and love interest, Brown, who died in 1996, endorsed a Hillary cash-for-access scheme ($10,000 for coffee with the President, $100,000 for a night in the Lincoln bedroom). However, Brown resented the discount rate the First Lady put on US executives joining Brown's lucrative trade missions. 'I'm worth more than $50,000 a pop!' he said. One company more than happy to pony up for a cash joy-ride with Brown was Entergy International. This electric company, based in Little Rock, became one of the world's biggest power system operators on the planet under the Clinton regime. Interestingly, Bill Clinton began his political climb by running for Arkansas Attorney General campaigning on a pledge to fight Entergy's electric price hikes. His pro-consumer plan was defeated in court by Entergy's law firm - which included one Hillary Rodham. There were more favors for Entergy. In 1998, I discovered, while working under cover for the Guardian and Observer, that Tony Blair was personally fixing the system to let Entergy to violate British policy on coal plants. Why? I picked up in my secret recordings of Blair's cronies that calls to take care of Entergy, rules be damned, had come in from the office of 'the Flotus' - the First Lady of the United States. It gets creepier. In June of 1994, Entergy's partner in Asia, the Riady family of Indonesia paid recently-resigned Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell a $100,000 consulting fee. Odd that: Hubbell was on his way to prison for the felony crime of inflating his legal bills. Why would Asians pay a lawyer for advice on Asia who was on his way to the pokey? Maybe it had to do with his partner in crime. I've conducted investigations of lawyer over-billing. It is nearly impossible for a senior lawyer to pad billing records unless the junior partner also fraudulently monkeys with time logs to make sure the records don't give away the game. Who was Hubbell's "little lady" junior partner? Today we call her Madame Senator. Hillary's logs were worth close inspection by authorities, no? But the funny thing about Hillary's billing records: when requested for disclosure in another suit, they disappeared. First, her law firm's computers went ka-blooey. Then the paper printouts vanished, but not before, during the 1992 Presidential campaign, they were secretly combed over, line by line, by … Web Hubbell. Hubbell knew his own logs were phonied, and he understood the consequences of exposure. Ultimately, bloated hours on those records caused him to lose his law license, his Associate Attorney General post and his freedom. He got 21 months in the slammer. What did Hubbell see and know about Hillary's logs? Hubbell won't say, except for a cryptic remark, after seeing her bills, that 'every lawyer' fabricates records. Hubbell pleaded guilty, but refused to answer investigators' questions, a requirement in any plea bargain - so the judge had to sentence him to prison. Why would Hubbell choose to do time on the chain gang over testifying about the First Lady? His prosecutors did not know at the time of the $100,000 Riady payment, the first of over half a million dollars Hubbell would receive from Clinton friends in the weeks up to his entering jail. And those Hillary billing records? Hubbell lost them - how convenient. Then they reappeared two years later, just outside Hillary's office, right after Hubbell announced he would refuse to testify against her. Maybe the Clintons knew nothing about the big money flowing to prison-bound Hubbell. Knowledge of the payments would suggest they were buying Hubbell's silence. In 1996, when the LA Times uncovered the payments, Mrs. Clinton's First Man Bill stone-cold denied he knew anything about it. Then, in 2000, in a deposition by the Justice Department, the President changed his tune. Investigators confronted the President with this: on June 20, 1994, Hubbell met with Hillary. Two days later, James Riady, the Asian billionaire Entergy partner, met with Hubbell for breakfast. Just a few hours later, Riady returned to the White House, then met again with Hubbell, then made two more treks to the White House. Two days later, a videotape shows the beginning of another meeting in the Oval Office between Clinton and Riady -- but oddly, before they talk, the tape goes blank. Two days after that, Hubbell gets his $100,000 through a Riady bank. Lying to journalists is a venal sin, but lying to the Feds is perjury. In his deposition, the President's denial transformed into amnesia. He couldn't remember if Riady mentioned the payment. Then, the President slyly opened the door to the truth. "I wouldn't be surprised if James told me," Clinton said. Neither would I. What did Riady get? The Flotus herself, says Nolanda Hill, forced Brown to accept the appointment of Riady's bag man, John Huang, as a Commerce Department deputy. According to records of calls the Guardian obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, Huang's first order of business was to wheedle his way into confidential CIA briefings on Indonesia and China, then call Riady and his Entergy partners. The same day Riady met the President, documents show he called on a Clinton crony at the top of the department's Export-Import Bank. "We just came over from the Oval Office," is a nice way to provide assurance of the 'political connection' required for help. These and other Riady team meetings at Commerce are marked 'social'. Yet, shortly thereafter, the department agreed to promote and fund the Riady-Entergy China venture. Influence is not a victimless crime. Riady and his minions' visits to the White House (94 times!) included successful requests for the President to meet Indonesian dictator Suharto and to kill negative reports on East Timor and working conditions in Indonesia. Timorese and Indonesians paid for these policy flips with blood. Has Entergy's investment in Hillary's jail-bird partner continued to pay dividends? Code Pink and New York environmentalists have been pulling out their hair over Senator Clinton's backing of the operation of the creaky old Indian Point nuclear plant just above - and within irradiating distance of - New York City. The owner of the Indian Point nuke? Hillary's old buck buddies, Entergy.
Am I saying Hillary would arrange for a payoff to keep witnesses wanker, to poison US foreign policy for the profit of corporate cronies, to vote in Washington loaded down with conflicts of interest? I would never say so. Even if the evidence will.
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Post by REALITY on May 8, 2007 20:30:14 GMT -5
Prosperity gap is growing; Officials see it in Sarnia too
LINDSEY COAD
Tuesday, May 08, 2007 - 16:00
Local News - When Marie Marcy-Smids started at Sarnia's food bank 10 years ago, many clients were on government assistance.
Today, many of them are working but still need help with food, rent and hydro.
"It seems the gap between the haves and the have-nots is growing," said Marcy-Smids, manager of funding and community relations for the Inn of the Good Shepherd.
She's not surprised inequality between Ontario's richest and poorest families is at an all-time high and outpacing national trends, according to a new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
The organization found that the richest 10 per cent of Ontario families earned 75 times the amount of the poorest 10 per cent in 2004.
The economy is growing, people are better educated, and more households have two parents working, yet the poorest 40 per cent have seen almost no income gain and are stretching cheques to cover the rising costs of housing, child care, hydro and gas.
"Growing income inequality is not 'just about poverty,' nor is it just about incomes. It is also about affordability of the basics," the report concluded.
That's the case for a 42-year-old Sarnia woman who is on social assistance and living in a motel with one of her teen daughters after being evicted from her apartment last month.
"Life is a struggle. I can't get ahead. I'm lucky because I do get (child) support even though it's little," said the woman, who asked for anonymity.
But she knows the wealthy end too.
"People that have money work hard to get where they're at," she said, recalling her dad who was a Chemical Valley manager.
"Because I had, I want that for my kids. Sometimes you just can't do it, that's hard on me. I want to be working again. I've worked my whole life."
She hopes to return to hairstyling or the coffee shop where she worked before suffering an injury. Looking for affordable housing is the next step.
"We'll get by," she said. "I've been there before. We'll be OK but right now, being at the bottom, it hurts."
It can hurt for the working poor, too.
Sales and service make up the largest occupational category in Lambton County with most wages being $10 an hour or less.
And 31 per cent of local residents earned less than $20,000 a year in 2003, according to a poverty report by the Lambton County social services department.
"It's not just that incomes aren't rising. It's that everything else is rising," Marcy-Smids said. "Most people in a difficult situation are paying more than they can afford for housing."
Sarnia Coun. Jim Foubister, who chairs the recently formed child poverty task force, said solutions will require provincial and federal funding.
"Poverty has very, very deep roots," he said. "It's a large problem. It's not something that's going to go away quickly."
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Post by REALITY on May 8, 2007 20:33:22 GMT -5
Report aims to solve local child poverty
CATHY DOBSON Local News - Monday, May 07, 2007 @ 16:00
Sarnia Coun. Jim Foubister has named six members to his task force on child poverty.
As chairman, he will work with vice-chairman Gord Perry, mayor of Oil Springs; business rep. Doubleday Canada Limited Tony Doucette; Father Rob Lemon; education rep. Margaret Dragan of Lambton College; poverty advocate Brian McManaman, and parent Rhonda Janess.
Foubister has pledged to find solutions to child poverty in Sarnia-Lambton as quickly as possible.
One in six local children lives in poverty, according to the latest statistics.
County government decided in December to take aggressive action by striking the task force and appointing Foubister as chairman.
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Post by REALITY on Jun 4, 2007 21:47:56 GMT -5
Cellphone bill among many to hit floor as legislature rises
Jun 04, 2007 05:41 PM Canadian Press
New drivers who like chatting on their cellphones while behind the wheel can breathe a sigh of relief.
Legislation that would have banned the habit is among the more than 100 bills that will die on the order paper when the Ontario legislature adjourns this week.
The Liberals are quickly passing a slew of government bills, before the house rises and remains adjourned until after the October election.
Left in the wake of fast-tracked legislation are at least 107 private member bills ranging from declaring the "apple capital of Ontario" to a bill requiring people to fill out organ donation cards before renewing their driver's licences.
Such bills have survived various votes in the legislature and dissection in legislative committees, only to die on the order paper when the government adjourns the house this week – three weeks ahead of schedule.
"At any other job, if you left work early and skipped off, you would be fired," said Opposition Leader John Tory. "There's a whole host of these bills. It's not as if there are a shortage of issues."
Bringing down the "guillotine on the sittings of the house," means the government is killing good pieces of legislation, including several bills on organ donation and one which would stiffen penalties for people who abuse animals, Tory added.
"You're always disappointed when a private member's bill doesn't go through," said Oakville Liberal Kevin Flynn, whose bill would have banned new drivers from using cellphones and MP3 players behind the wheel.
"But you know that from the start, the odds are stacked against you. All you can do is be hopeful."
Even if his bill doesn't become law, Flynn said just introducing it has sparked a debate about distracted driving which has made the whole effort worthwhile.
Others aren't so charitable.
Conservative Frank Klees – whose bill requiring people to sign an organ donation card was endorsed by a government-appointed citizen's panel – said it's "unconscionable" that legislation like his will likely die and blames the Liberals for not being interested in any ideas other than their own.
"This government can't get past petty, partisan politics, and it is hurting the public," said Klees, adding voters should keep that in mind when they go to the polls Oct. 10th.
New Democrat Gilles Bisson said the Liberal tactic of late has been to allow backbencher bills to pass through various stages in the legislature, but to then leave them to die in committee or when the house adjourns.
Bisson, whose bill to create a watchdog to monitor soaring gasoline prices will not become law this time around, said the good pieces of legislation that are being killed this week show the ``weakness of the system."
NDP Leader Howard Hampton said there was still "lots of work" to be done.
"We could be here for the next month . . . but this is a government that would rather take their pay hike, cut and run and avoid any public scrutiny."
In the last week, the government has passed a bill to increase fines for street racing and another to create a child and youth advocate as it gears up for the fall vote.
The Liberals were scheduled to pass their last remaining bills late today and are expected to adjourn the legislature by Wednesday at the latest.
Also left on the legislature order paper: a bill that would require background checks for referees in amateur sport and a bill that would allow Ontario wine and beer to be sold in corner stores.
Others tackling less weighty subjects include proclaiming Archives Awareness week and naming the last Saturday in September as Outdoor Heritage Day.
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Post by REALITY on Jun 28, 2007 21:40:52 GMT -5
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