Do you know the feeling you get when you hear somebody who is working from a completely different data set than you, yet who reaches the same conclusion as you have?
That is the feeling I got listening to the following interview. It is long, but well worth listening to.
Listen and come to your own conclusions about what she says…
Remember, what some people describe as a ‘conspiracy theory’ is simply ‘effective marketing’ to others.
H/T: Dvorak Uncensored
This morning, CFRA – a radio station in Ottawa (accessible through the web) – had a most informative program.
The credit goes to the veteran journalist Lowell Green and Rob Snow, who have done some serious investigative journalism – as have some regular listeners to the show.
What is the latest scandal about?
Well, it’s hard to tell….
The McGuinty Liberals have locked Ontario into a 20 year, multi-billion-dollar contract with two Koran companies to do something with ‘Green Energy’. Something about wind-mills, and perhaps solar panels.
But, exactly what, we really don’t know.
Not for lack of trying – I would very much like to know.
It’s just that, the information is not so easy to come by…
The contract was, to the best of my understanding, reached through ‘a consensus’ – so it wasn’t necessary for anyone to air any of the details about it in public.
Like, say, what exactly does the contract obligate us to, what is (or, more importantly, what isn’t) included the cited cost, and so on.
But, let’s listen to ‘Mr. Transparent’s’ own words (as a CFRA listener asked him a question about this last week – and posted the video of the answer on YouTube):
That contract mentioned in the beginning of the video – the one McGuinty refuses to answer the question about, that was the subject of today’s CFRA call-in show.
As in, Lowell Green and Rob Snow requested the document under the Freedom of Information Act – and, today, they received it!
Well, that might be a strong term….
You see, Mr. McGuinty and his regime seem to think that ‘transparent’ means ‘redacted so much, the holes (where ‘confidential’ bits have been cut out) in the documents ought to be much larger than the bits left over with any sort of lettering on them…
To the point where just about the only bits we are permitted to see are the definitions of the terms to be used in the contract – and not the bits that actually use the terms in sentences (like, say, the actual body of the contract).
The heavily redacted document is here: Read it and weep!
Oh, and by the way….
The radio program pointed out that al the public discussion (the little bit of the known facts there was) has discussed this as a deal between Ontario and Samsung. There was no mention of the second Korean company in the contract, Korea Electric Power Corporation.
Why would anyone want to keep that second company’s name so very quiet?
The answer is unknown.
It is curious, however, that for the days just around the time the contract was announced, there is a curious movement in the stock price of Korea Electric Power Corporation.
I am not educated in financial matters, but, to my layman’s eyes, it looks like somebody who knew the contract was going to be announced could, potentially, have made a killing on the stock!
Of course, I have no idea if any ‘insider trading’ did indeed occur – and if it did, by whom.
I’m just saying this ‘Green Energy’ deal stinks more than a particularly vile heap of compost….
P.S. I’ll pop more links into the post if I dig them out…
I sound like a broken record when I start writing about the Human Rights racket in Canada: from tribunals to commissions, from the federal mama-bureaucracy to the provincial daughter-bureaucracies.
As far as I can see, they have completely and uterly failed to achieve the purpose for which they were created – and instead of making the situation better and working towards an equal treatment of all the citizens of our wonderful country, they have worked to striate the society and declare which ‘groups’ were ‘more equal’ than the rest of us. And even though the mainstream media (msm) has begun to wake up to what is going on, most of its members are still too cowardly to actually say so (much less do some serious investigative journalism on the topic).
Perhaps I should not be judging them so harshly: the political indoctrination most acredited journalists got at our ‘places of higher learning’ is hard to break through….and then there is the fear that if they say what they see, they will be out of a job. But, I’m a bit of an idealist who thinks that if one has to lie to keep one’s job, and one does not quit that job but chooses to lie, they are, well, the sort of stuff you scrape off the bottom of your shoe with a stick…
So, I did a double take when I went to the local corner store for some milk (my kids will not drink the ‘supermarket’ milk) and I caught a sight of this headline in the Ottawa Citizen:
Human Rights Tribunal in turmoil: union
Employees describe work environment that has deteriorated ‘to point of toxicity’
Front page, above the fold!
I was impressed!
Coming home, I googled the article and eagerly read on.
More than half of the 25-member staff, including middle and senior level managers, have left, taken sick leave or retired over the past year. At least three have filed formal harassment complaints.
Unions representing workers confirmed they received numerous complaints of abuse of authority, intimidation and personal harassment. They say employees describe a work environment that has deteriorated “to the point of toxicity.”
Hi Mr. Snow!
There are some very important questions we need to learn about Orgaworld – how they got awarded the contract and what type of due diligence was or was not done leading up to this. Forensic audit should only be one step in this process.
I wonder if there is a clause in the Ottawa ‘deal’ with Orgaworld which would permit us to cancel the contract without penalties (to us):
If independent tests show that the compost Orgaworld produces is so toxic that it cannot be used as fertilizer, would this constitute ‘non-compliance’ and/or ‘breech of contract’ by Orgaworld?
What percentage of the ‘Ottawa green-bin materials’ we think is being composted does Orgaworld dispose of as ‘garbage’?
We are paying much more for ‘composting’ than we would be for ‘garbage disposal’: if Orgaworld does not actually compost a certain percentage of the material, should they not refund us that percentage of the fees we pay them?
Would ‘not-composting’ materials we pay them to ‘compost’ constitute ‘non-compliance’ and/or ‘breech of contract’ by Orgaworld?
In an separate incident, it was found that Orgaworld had dumped tons of semi-processed bio-matter – ‘unfinished’ and in various stages of decomposition in places like gravel pits, farm fields and city-owned land without preparing these places to accept bio-waste.
This is an active threat to public health!
Rotting food contains bacteria and other micro-organisms which are toxic to us, humans. The composting process kills these infectious agents, so that by the time the finished compost is spread on land, the deadly pathogens are neutralized and cannot enter the drinking water system and/or cling to the produce grown in that soil (like, say, e-coli contamination of spinach…). Some pathogens can become airborne, causing people who inhale them to become ill.
The ‘accelerated’ processes in use in the modern ‘composting factories’ rely on a highly controlled and regulated environment to achieve the composting process which kills these deadly germs. (In the natural, non-accelerated composting process, this takes years and this is why our ancestors had exact composting practices instead of just dumping rotting food on their fields.)
(In addition to the ‘leaching’ and ‘airborn pathogen’ dangers, this could lead to a type of decompostion during which Nitrous Oxide (N2O) is released: this ‘greenhouse gas’ is 240 times ‘stronger’ than Carbon Dioxide (CO2)!) 😉
Would endangering public health through disposal of only partially-neutralized bio-waste constitute ‘non-compliance’ and/or ‘breech of contract’?
Which brings me to some questions:
Has anyone tested it?
If so, who?
And where?
How independent are the testing facilities?
The Orgaworld’s Ottawa composting factory had a fire a few months ago. Fire/smoke is an indicator of ‘improper composting practices’. Has there ever been an investigation to ascertain which ‘best practices’ were breached in the composting process and caused the fire and how the resultant product will be impacted?
What are the provisions in the Ottawa-Orgaworld contract for non-compliance/breech of contract? What are the penalties specified?
Are these provisions/penalties ‘similar’ to the ‘industry standard’?
How does this compare to the ‘standard’ for other ‘City contracts’?
How does this compare to the ‘standard contracts’ in the private sector?
Who is responsible for the oversight? What are the terms and conditions? Are they being fulfilled?
Who is responsible for any action should there be non-compliance/breech of contract?
Where/how can citizens (especially taxpayers) monitor this process?
Mr. Snow: you are an excellent journalist who often interviews our City Officials as well as all kinds of other interesting people. Would you, please, find the answers to these questions?
If you do find any answers to these questions – or any other relevant information – I would be very happy to publish all of it on my blog.
Sincerely yours,
Alexandra,
blogging as Xanthippa
References (in case the links get stripped out from the text):
http://www.thestar.com/iphone/article/660864
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/660862
http://www2.macleans.ca/tag/orgaworld/
http://www.ehow.com/list_7313994_hazards-composting.html
http://www.pma.com/resources/issues-monitoring/food-safety/key-learnings-real-world-terms
http://www.extension.org/article/28585
http://www.owma.org/committees/members.asp?mode=d&org=244
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Smouldering+compost+sends+firefighters+Orgaworld+plant/3427666/story.html
Thomas Sowell is one of the smartest people on the nets.
Really.
And, he highly recommends ‘Justice, Denied’ by Quin Hillyer published by ‘The American Spectator’:
‘Under attorney general Eric Holder, the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) is dangerously politicized, radically leftist, racialist, lawless, and at times corrupt. The good news is that it’s also often incompetent. This means the Holderites can bungle their leftist lawlessness so badly that even the most reticent of judges are obliged to smack them down.
The abuses by the Holderites are legion. They range from DOJ’s infamous abandonment of the already-won voter-intimidation case against several New Black Panthers to multi-faceted assaults on traditional standards of voting rights and obligations; from a growing list of lawsuits deliberately destructive of border security and citizenship laws to outrageously race-based bullying tactics; from efforts to undermine military discipline and state sovereignty on homosexual-related issues to the dangerous obsession with terrorists’ “rights” to the detriment of national security; and, finally, to the selection of judges openly contemptuous of the existing law-all while dedicated to a vision of judge-imposed “universal justice” based not on the text of American statutes but instead on the reigning cultural standards of coastal and international elites. While doing all this, the Holderites operate the least transparent DOJ in decades, treat congressmen and independent agencies with contempt, and claim breathtakingly spurious “privileges” against disclosure of public information.
This isn’t law enforcement and it isn’t justice, but instead is subversive of both.’
People who give up freedom for security will get neither.
This phrase – in various permutations – has been attributed to several different people: perhaps because it is very true.
Last week, I posed questions about the propriety of the current procedures we are asked to submit to at airports in the name of security as well as an audio of an interview with a woman who, along with her children, was subjected to what amounts to sexual assault during an ‘airport security check‘.
Since the state derives its rights from us, citizens, nobody – not even when they are acting on behalf of the state – has more rights than any other citizen: because if ‘regular citizens’ do not have the right to touch you in private areas of your body, then they cannot delegate this right to the State and its agents. Therefore, if a touch is assault if another person on the street touched you that way, it is assault if a TSA or another agent of the State touches you that way.
This week, there is renewed debate on this topic following a YouTube video of a guy who refused to enter the full body scanners telling the TSA agent: “If you touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested.”
Here he describes the encounter in his own words. (H/T –TheRawStory)
Perhaps the most interesting part of this story is the flat assertion by the TSA agent that by purchasing an airline ticket, every citizen is voluntarily surrendering their rights and freedoms…
And – even after the police and TSA agents escorted him out of the screening area on the instructions of their supervisor’s supervisor because he chose to not proceed with his travel plans, he was told that as a condition of leaving the airport, he had to go back to the screening area and submit to the patdown!
From his blog (my emphasis) – this conversation is taking place after he was escorted out of the secure area by the police and got his ticket refunded:
‘He informed me that I could not leave the airport. He said that once I start the screening in the secure area, I could not leave until it was completed. Having left the area, he stated, I would be subject to a civil suit and a $10,000 fine. I asked him if he was also going to fine the 6 TSA agents and the local police officer who escorted me from the secure area. After all, I did exactly what I was told. He said that they didn’t know the rules, and that he would deal with them later. They would not be subject to civil penalties. I then pointed to Mr. Silva and asked if he would be subject to any penalties. He is the agents’ supervisor, and he directed them to escort me out. The man informed me that Mr. Silva was new and he would not be subject to penalties, either. He again asserted the necessity that I return to the screening area.
…
‘I asked if tried to leave if he would have the officer arrest me. He again said that no one was forcing me to stay. I looked him in the eye, and said, “then I’m leaving”. He replied, “then we’ll bring a civil suit against you”, to which I said, “you bring that suit” and walked out of the airport.’
A few very interesting points in there….
No wonder everyone is talking about this incident!
But, that is not all…
Then there is that report of an airline pilot who was traveling with his teenage daughter and overheard the person who checked their bags say into a mike to the people running the full body scanners: “Heads up – got a cutie for you!” The daughter found the following patdown ‘invasive’…
When the video of the little girl (perhaps 2-3 years old) being ‘patted down’ while screaming hysterically that she does not want to be touched that way surfaced, we were told this was an isolated incident of a child which got cranky and just went hysterical for no good reason. yet, perhaps this child’s instincts were not as wrong as all that: now we learn that pedophiles have been shown to be applying to become TSA agents who perform the ‘patdowns’ on children…
Sounds to me like this child is telling us the Emperor is wearing no clothes!
(Well, actually, this is worse: at least the naked Emperor was not groping anyone!)
UPDATE: new videos are being added, as they are being posted (….and the duplicate video has been replaced by the one that was meant to have been posted.)
Yesterday’s anti-McGuinty/Watson saw a smaller, but dedicated, group of honest citizens express their disgust at how these corrupt collectivists are ruining our lives.
Though I could not be there myself (my ‘technical difficulties’ are still putting a damper on my mobility), VideoManOttawa has posted the following videos:
Update: More videos, as they are being posted
‘Everybody’ has been following the trial of Col. Russel Williams… who had just been sentenced to 25 years in jail with no possibility of parole.
All that needs to be said about what he did has probably already been said – and I’ll not bore you by repeating it.
What I do want to call your attention to is the absolutely awesome work done by OPP’s Behaviour Sciences Section Detective Sgt. Jim Smyth. Honestly, I am rather impressed by how quickly this Williams guy has been caught: a highly skilled military man… he had skills well beyond what one might expect of an ‘ordinary’ criminal.
And, he had been trained how to withstand interrogation, too. Which is what makes Sgt. Jim Smyth’s accomplishment while interrogating Williams that much more impressive.
Here is part of the interrogation video, as posted by the Global Toronto. Sgt. Smyth – well done!
My sympathy to all the victims of this criminal and their families.
However, I do get very angry when some people attempt to group Russel Williams’ wife, Mary Elisabeth Harriman, in with the victims!
That very idea is highly offensive. Remember, Harriman is employed by a charity organization – and draws a ‘six-figure-salary’... in my eyes, this makes her a kind of a rapist, too!
BlazingCatfur has the scoop!
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 