Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
Bill Curry, Globe and Mail
November 18, 2008
Mr. Harper is suing the Liberals for defamation over allegations Conservatives attempted to bribe the late independent MP Chuck Cadman before a key vote in 2005.
“I don’t remember in the annals of history anybody firing the Prime Minister as a client, but that seems to be what happened,” said Chris Paliare, the lawyer representing the Liberal Party.
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
Tess Kalinowski, Toronto Star
November 18, 2008
How else to raise $38 billion still needed for Metrolinx transit expansion plan?
The biggest transportation plan in the Toronto region’s history failed to recommend road tolls as a way to pay for billions in needed transit improvements.
But if the absence of tolls from Metrolinx’s $50 billion transit expansion plan suggests the idea is dead, nobody told the 125 people, including almost two dozen from the provincial government, who packed a one-day conference in Toronto last week.
With only $11.5 billion dollars committed for the plan so far, by the province, the question of where the other $38.5 billion will come from looms large.
Metrolinx chair Rob MacIsaac reiterated as recently as the weekend that the idea of a road toll or other tax will be easier to sell publicly once transit and other improvements are in place.
A 10-cent-per-kilometre charge on the QEW from Hamilton to Toronto, for example, would cost a commuter about $260 a month.
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
John Swain, The Telegraph
November 18, 2008
Pilots have threatened to strike over Government plans to use them as “guinea pigs” in its ID card scheme.
The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), which represents most of the country’s commercial pilots, said the Government’s “early warning system should be flashing” over its opposition to plans to force aviation workers be the first Britons to carry ID cards.
Jim McAuslan, Balpa’s general secretary, said his members resented being treated as guinea pigs and added: “It may come to an industrial dispute.
“We would want to avoid that. We would want the Government to think again about the whole scheme,” he told The Independent.
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
Jeannine Aversa, The Associated Press
November 18, 2008
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke waged a stout defence on Capitol Hill Tuesday of their management of a $700-billion (U.S.) financial bailout just one week after the administration abandoned the original strategy behind the rescue.
Focusing the program on infusing billions into banks — and possibly other types of companies — to pump up their capital and bolster lending to customers was deemed a faster and more effective approach to stabilizing the financial system than buying rotten assets from financial institutions, the centrepiece of the original plan, Mr. Paulson said.
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
Joseph Hall, Toronto star
November 18, 2008
People get enough from toothpaste, he argues
Back in the 1960s, when the fluoridation of water became widespread, objections to the practice tended to come from the fringes.
It was a communist plot to poison the water supply, came the cry from some quarters. [Ed. Note - The source for this is a Peter Sellers farce, Dr. Strangelove. Unsure if any real activists on the issue ever held this strawman position.]
Today, as municipalities begin to debate fluoridation anew, the arguments against it are more mainstream.
Halton’s Health and Social Services Committee recently voted to recommend to the full regional council that Halton stop fluoridating its water.
Added in trace concentrations to the drinking water of some 43 per cent of Canadian municipalities, fluoride has a proven track record of preventing tooth decay.
But today, many experts argue, we no longer need to run fluoride out of our taps.
That’s the conclusion University of Toronto dental professor Dr. Hardy Limeback came to long ago, after studying the issue extensively.
Limeback, whose fluoridation stance has caused some consternation in the dental and public health communities, says almost everyone gets enough fluoride from toothpaste and other oral hygiene products.
(more…)
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
If you don’t happen to know why you should care about this, you should have a look here and here.
Steve Watson, Infowars.net
November 18, 2008
Commodities experts are in agreement that the price of gold and silver is being manipulated by bankers and government officials in order to halt a mass abandonment of paper currencies and the debt based economy.
The New York Post today carries a column by John Crudele declaring that there is a global run on gold coins and that demand is not being met by government mints.
“The price that the government charges coin dealers has recently been increased by as much as 10 percent for a 10-ounce coin.” Crudele comments, also pointing out that gold purchases that were easily filled immediately six months ago are now subject to two week waiting periods.
“There’s another more puzzling aspect to the recent gold rush.” Crudele writes, referring to the fact that the market price of gold is declining, despite the increase in demand.
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