Craig Read

It is the first step i fear towards; 1. Drug price controls which will destroy the US pharma industry and its great R&D which is keeping people the world over - alive and healthy. 2. Socialised universal health access for US citizens. This will cost US taxpayers a huge amount of money and would stop the US' high technology innovation in health care products and services. This would have repercussions the world over. This bill is large, complex and contains too many plans and ideas. It should have been targeted to 1 or 2 areas that need reform with other bills targeted likewise so the public and even the politicians can make sense of it. Frankly after reading parts of it, i don't understand what they are trying to do - except spend $40 billion per year to cap drug prices and gain senior votes and sometime after 2006 start HSA's which i agree with, but fail to see how that offsets the $400 billion in entitlement spend.

That is such garbage. You obviously don't work in the real world, or hold a real job. According to your thesis the Soviets were right, Cuba is a paradise, and the Democratic message of tax, spend and re-regulate [which would destroy the US economy] is moral. Piffle. Innovation cannot be regulated. Productivity cannot be regulated. Living standards cannot be regulated. Open standard Communications should never be regulated [this is why you pay 5x more for your phone than you need to, due to your lovely gov't oligopoly]. Regulating the Internet and managing it would destroy hundreds of companies and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs as application providers, software firms, e-tailers and big software integrators exited the business. Taxing the internet is nothing more than an illegal tax grab - you pay taxes for services consumed in YOUR area. Some website selling product from Canada should NOT pay taxes in 50 states on each and every sale to a person in that state, since the Cdn firm has never consumed any of the states' services. Never mind the idiotic bureacracy needed to keep track of sales by person by state by tax area and submitting such tax accounts. Soviet/Socialist/Fascist control of innovation and the internet would set back technology and jobs by a generation and would presage the disruption of the internet and wireless world we are now building which is creating wealth and jobs.

Well crime and immigration are linked - as is the lack of local police talent and force to cope with escalating crime. There is a big difference between Toronto and the big cities and the rural areas [excepting the reservations] of course. Toronto needs better policing or private property [remember Tent City and the taking of Home depot property by drug addicts and assorted freaks ?], and wealth creation will decline. Toronto is full of gangs, shootings, beatings and drug trafficking. Part of the problem is our lousy immigration system. Apparently we need lots more Tamils and less Englishmen, more Jamaicans and less Dutch and more Chinese snakeheads than Italians. Obviously those nasty white Europeans are no match for the diversity circus that the Federal Gov't of Canada wants to create here - all paid by Toronto of course. When the criminals are caught we can't even deport them due to the 'Charter of Rights' and other legal impediments. Here is another story from the NP - 51 Tamil gang members were to be sent home 3 years ago, and 49 are still here and back on the streets. Wonderful. http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.htm...82-0CE02D8DA90E

Passion vs. Reason ? Reason and facts indicate that crime IS a problem leading to lower property values, less investment and entire parts of some cities inaccessible to enterprise, good housing or good schooling. Hugo is right, more cops are needed, more training and more community monitoring and control. Crime is a huge issue and needs to be addressed. Like I stated cities in the US which are revitalised and growing [especially their centre's] fought crime with a zero tolerance policy including getting the riff raff off the streets. At least for Toronto, the same attitude is needed, but with left wing aging hippies running the place, that will never happen. In fact here, they pass out 'clean' needles and blankets to the dispossessed. Soon it will be pot and beer. The gun registry had little to do with reason or facts. It was based on political grandstanding and the desire for regulation and associated fees.

There are WMDs as i posted AQ has them. Where did they get them ? Walmart ? WMD was either destroyed, hidden or sold or all three. They will be found but only after the country is secured. Read my posts i have posted reasons on why Iraq is a priority. Stop repeating yourself endlessly.

Well a lot depends on a couple of things: 1. Tax policy - the EUnuchs are already taxing internet commerce [this is insane, you pay local/state taxes for public goods consumed, how does a website consume goods ??]. If the US follows and taxes Internet access [this is being discussed] and perhaps levels a national tax on internet commerce, then this will be the first step in gov't regulation over the Internet space. After this more regulations would follow on not only access, but setting up internet businesses and so on. 2. Standards bodies. If the Telco's can get control of the standards processes that drive forward the internet than they and the gov't can dictate what and how things are built. Telco's are gov't proxies since they exist in a gov't monopoly or oligopoly setting. If these guys and their gov't friends start managing the standards and technology processes we are in big trouble. The UNO is such a blathering bunch of incompetents that they will only aid in the restriction of innovation and enterprise - both of which are vital for living standards and incomes. Can't someone tell these boneheads to go away ?

Is this a needed Bill to help Seniors buy drugs ? Or is it Hitlery-Care writ large with $40 billion in entitlements each year for 10 years ? Or is it a needed bill of reform to allow health savings accounts and personal choice ? Here is a summary of this plan:

The internet is a series of inter-networks and layers that have evoled through 'open standards' and user group communities building interoperable layers and protocols. It is without doubt one of the greatest inventions ever. Imagine a snot faced pimply bureaucrat in Ottawa 'planning' and then 'controlling' the Internet. Innovation would plumment, applications would not be made and information would wither. Dec 10-12 the UNO is meeting in Geneva to discuss how the UNO can control the Internet so that all people [ie. 3rd world fascist and socialist states] can use the medium. [World Summit on Information Society from 10 to 12 December 2003] They will discuss ways of regulating the Internet. This conference is paid by northern taxpayers of course. Is anyone else as sick as I am when hearing of this ?

Sure Riff, gov't should do everything, there should be no consumer or market driven products or services. Everyone should work only 20 hours per week, apparently according to the socialist-fascist camp total work hours in society are finite [how dumb is that idea?]. Young French flee to London to work and make money and French businesses are subject to huge tax and regulation just to police the # of hours their employees work. This is insanity. The fact that none of the EU's labor, finance or tax regulations are rationale and supported by historical evidence in creating wealthy prosperous nations obviously has no impact on your settled mind. In your world, freedom, contracts, choice and profits are illegal and immoral and gov't glorious and pure. I suggest you go LIVE in Europe as i did for 10 years and see if the list i made really suits a world of freedom and choice. It doesn't and this is why the standard of living in Europe is lower and its economy stagnant and its welfare services crumbling. But maybe you would enjoy being amongst other people that piss and moan and don't work......

Well the EU and its constitution suffers from some severe ailments: -Low productivity and lowered living standards -Ageing population and future liabilities -Low Employment rate [62%] -High debt levels -Rigid labor and regulatory markets -High non-tariff barriers between countries -Imobile populations -Cultural apathy -Broken education systems [average age of graduation in Germany = 29] -Maastricht criteria broken by France and Germany The principle of subsidiarity is key, but that is the EU rhetoric. In practice Brussels makes over 50 % of the national legislation currently. This will rise. Fiscal policy is now in the hands of the nations, but this too will change. Like monetary policy slowly tax, fiscal and non monetary affairs will be centralised. An EU superstate is not efficient nor necessary. Europeans are nationalists and regionalists first not Europeans.

Amen brother. It is a WAR. Liberals have a hard time with this. After all they defended Communism, wanted unilteral disarmament and I don't remember seeing the Liberals, and 20 something brainless warriors parading in the streets against Hussein, Castro, Mugabe and Iranian oppression. These regimes are after all the heroic 'reformers' for the Liberals. Bush said it best - this is a war to determine if the Middle East wants to join the real world. Remember that other Rep. idiot Reagan ? Said the same thing about Soviet Communism 9 years before it collapsed. Stupid Americans. They should be more like Canadians - appeasing, snide, spineless.

Lost, my point is the following [according to the link i read]: 1. Shifting tax burdens according the ND means that no old taxes will be reduced only new ones introduced. 2. The ND states that over time Property taxes will go down by 50 %. No chance. City Council will never relinquish this tax base and neither would the province. 3. There is no constitutional reforms or legal reforms on the city vs. the province. Due to this i fail to see how business or the tax payer can trust the words of politicians and not expect higher rate increases. 4. There is no spending reforms mentioned. The biggest issue with city's besides Ottawa and the provinces stealing their money, is the wasteful spend and huge debts they have incurred [and lower credit ratings]. Spend and debt reduction with legally enforceable balanced budgets [ie. no accounting fraud, and one strike you are in jail Mr and Mrs City Councillor] is needed. I don't believe that politicians willingly relinquish power or tax money. It would take a bold mayor declaring unilateral re-confederation to enact far reaching legal, constitutional, tax and spend changes. Basically what i am proposing is a radical agenda - for instance Toronto exports $25 billion out of the city. That money would be kept here, we would renegotiate tax powers and would institute a new charter clearly dividing up tax and other royalties between the 3 levels. A legally enforceable taxpayer and debt reduction pact would be made and the city would crack down on abusive spending. The ND from Winnipeg while it contains a few good ideas does not solve the main issues.

Your post is senseless anti-american drivel. In an anarchic world, power and military projection is vital. Read some works by R. Gilpin, they might help you to wash away your brainwashed rah rah Canadiana. On your posts on US aggression, they are the shopworn, incorrect, anti-US pro Liberal insanity i read daily. On the events you listed: 1898 Spanish-American War begins (April 21); US troops invade Puerto Rico (July 25) >Actually the US invaded to help the rebels in a civil war throw off Spanish oppression. Forgot to add that did you? 1901 Platt Amendment, allowing US intervention in Cuba, adopted by US Senate >Congress has to approve war. Forgot that did you? 1903 US forces from the USS Nashville halt the advancing Colombian army at Panama; United States recognizes independence of the Republic of Panama >Yes and well they did, plus this allowed the Canal to be built. Good one. 1904 US intervention in Dominican Republic to enforce debt repayments and administer customs from 1905 to 1907 >Yes no kidding and so what. 1906 US intervention in Cuba, lasting until 1909 >And your point is ? The US won the war rebuilt the gov't and then left. 1912 Renewed intervention in Cuba, lasting until 1917 >This is the same as the point above. 1912 US Marines invade Nicaragua on conservative side of civil war; remaining until 1933 >At the behest of Nicaraguans you should add and the force was tiny. So what is the point ? 1914 Tampico incident in Mexico leads to landing of US forces; Veracruz, Mexico bombarded; war averted by mediation of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile >Pancho Villa and Mexican raiders abetted by German money were stealing property and killing US citizens. So what is your point here ? The US retaliated when the Mexcian gov't did nothing. 1915 Military occupation of Haiti begins; treaty efectively makes Haiti a US protectorate; troops stay until 1934 1916 US Marines intervene in Dominican Republic, lasting until 1924 >Again both instances in accord with wishes of both countries trying to fight insurgency. So what is your point ? 1917 US Marines occupy Cuba, lasting until 1923 >Already mentioned. 1919 US Marines occupy Honduran ports >To protect US shipping 1924 US Marines land in Honduras >After being asked by the gov't. 1926 US Marines organize Nicaraguan National Guard; the Somoza dynasty (1936 to 1979) uses Nicaraguan National Guard as guarantor of their political control >Actually the Somoza dynasty so called was never organised by the US. The Nicaraguans organised this themselves quite nicely. 1932 US Navy on standby during the natanza (suppression of a peasant rebellion) in El Salvador >And so what ? 1954 Guatemalan President Jacobo Ärbenz ousted by CIA-inspired coup >Not true, ousted by his own military. Good try though. 1962 Cuban missile crisis >And ??? Started by the Russians, your point is ? 1965 US Marines sent to Dominican Republic to prevent a left-wing takeover during the Dominican civil war >Funded by Cubans and Soviets, what do you want them to do ? 1973 CIA helps orchestrate and fund military coup of President Salvador Allende in Chile >Total nonsense. Allende was taken down by his own people and military. 1981 Contra War in Nicaragua begins; United States involved legally and illegally in support of Contras >No only illegal in 1986 - read some history. Nic. was funded by cubans and soviets. What do you want them to do ? 1983 Invasion of Granada >Restored democracy. Great invasion. 1989 Invasion of Panama >Restored democracy. Great invasion. 1994 Intervention in Haiti >To save the Island from starvation. Great invasion. You can also add to your sad sorry list the 35 nations that are free due to US activity in WW2 and during the Cold War plus the nations that today free ride off of US security and military power. Forgot about those did you ? Your pathological irrelevant and historically inaccurate US bashing is nothing more than --- senselessness. Get some help.

Morgan is correct and so is Hugo - crime is on the rise - and the nature and violence is disturbing. You can state that crime does not affect you and therefore no change is needed. This strikes me as nonsense. That is akin to saying that the war on terror does not affect me so no need for us to fight it. Solving crime, protecting property and rights, gettng scum off the streets, cleaning up the drug laundering and preventing scams is THE prime responsibility of local governments. To state that the status quo is okay is nonsense. The value of property, business, wealth and income is directly tied to the saftey and security of the city in question. Capital is mobile and investments will be made where security is supreme. Russia is experiencing capital flight [no private property rights there], and no one invests in Afghanistan or the Sudan or Somalia. Ever wonder why? [remember the liberal nonsense that the invasion of Afghan. was to secure the oil pipeline and allow US investment? Hmmm where is the reality to back up that moronic idea ?] Major US cities that have been reformed such as Milwaukee, NYC and Philadelphia have seen an increase in business, tax revenues and urban revitalisation. The fomer mayor of Milwaukee - Nordquist - published a great book 'The Wealth of Cities' - i encourage people to read it. Reducing crime is central to wealth accretion. Try transforming communities riven by crime - you can't until crime is reduced and property rights and human rights protected.

Well interesting to you, who does not bother to read the posts on the topic or information sources other than the French or Cdn media which propagates the 'all is woe' theory. Iraq will be secured and WMD will be found. Huge stockpiles of weapons and ammunition are being uncovered weekly.

Supply side economics have stimulated the recent US economic surge. The Dumbocruds would like to do the following: -Repeal all the tax cuts -Increase even more than the Reps. gov't spend and fund it through higher taxes on the rich and business -Re-Regulate [Dean's term] US society and impose Gov't everywhere [read Dean's speech] -Move to Universal socialised health care -Make sure there is no Tort reform so their legal friends can keep suing companies out of business and deposit received funds in Democratic coffers -Ensure that no new energy sources in the US are found [other than hydrogen power to be funded by the gov't of course] so that the US is dependent on Saudi oil -Further socialise the education system and disavow school choice. Yes the Dumbo's are very left wing, and as Lenin said they are nothing more than Useful Idiots. Add to the above the fact that Dean and co. would pull out of Iraq and we have a sad mix of left wing politics and ignorant foreign policy.

I have posted UNO reports on Al Qaeda having WMD. How did AQ receive WMD ? Where did they develop it ? Who funded it ? Who taught them how to mix and make the weapons material ? Nation states and their govt's and agents of course including Iraq. Iraq-AQ links go back to the late 1980s and i have posted sources on this elsewhere. WMD might have been sold to AQ or other groups, it might be buried, might be in Syria or other countries and part of it might have been destroyed. Until the violence abates in Iraq we will not know for sure what happened to the WMD. I am still confident it will be found. 100 tonnes is easy to hide and until Iraq is secure it will be difficult to get Iraqi's to talk and help us find the holes or crates containing the WMD.

A New Deal ? Morgan is right - this is the same deal - escalating tax and spend burdens with lots of promises of 'in the future trust me, taxes will go down.' Never in the history of mankind has a tax gone down. GST, Property Tax, Income Tax, PST, and so on ... they only go one way - UP. This Winnipeg package has no reforms, no consumer oriented fees or usage rates, says nothing about the reform of health care or social welfare, has nothing to say on the needed reduction in the # of politicians and their handsome pensions, no transportation improvements and no improvement in Canada's very basic tier one democratic processes at the municipal level. If you want reforms you need to base systems around the consumer. This includes health and energy systems. Even the Swedes are privatising health care, the Brits have privatised energy. Consumer based reforms work and that would go for social services and municipal services. Basically this plan and Martin's are concerned not with a constitutional reformation of powers and taxation between the various levels but only with securing the current tax base and increasing tax burdens on selective groups - namely business mainly; through a host of new tax schemes. In Ontario our 'New Deal' with 2 left wing jokers running the province and Toronto includes the following: From Howdy Doody at Queen's park: -Increase the minimum wage [this will cost jobs] -increase business taxes by $2.2 billion [good one, this really attracts investment] -cancel private school tax credits [good one,no need for choice or competition in schooling] -cancelling personal income tax deductions [thanks, like we are rolling in disposable income here] and of course Howdy said that to slay the deficit taxes will most probably go higher. Gee thanks. No need for reforms, consumer based -choice based health care or reducing the billions wasted each year in each ministry. From Miller the Left wing clown [a lawyer what else do you need to know ?], who won Toronto's Mayoralship: -cancelling the Island airport and bridge, to buy downtown votes [costs jobs and money but hey in Canada profits are bad] -has stated that property taxes will go up [Toronto has the worst rates in North America already] -will do nothing to reform the spending and waste at left wing city hall - including union power which must be eradicated Looking at this mess, and tossing in King Martin, 'mr tax and spend' who increased program spending in the 90s, my conclusion is that Canada will ressemble the pre-Arnie Mexifornia within about 3 years. Time for Toronto to keep its own money and unilaterally declare a new deal. That is the only way to get things done in a muddled Con-Federation whose constitution is out of date and whose tax payers are out of control.

As well i should add [again] that the UNO [not my favorite jamboree], has again emphasized that Al Qaeda has WMD. Terrorism is going to get uglier and bloodier before it is defeated. Another good reason to be in Iraq, Afghanistan and soon, hopefully, other countries. If we have to, we will need to fight door to door to win this.

Martin supported Chretien's policies. Taxes were not cut. It was legerdemain - decrease personal taxes increase business taxes et voila, with Ont. and Alta growing, military cuts and downloading the deficit is gone and we have surpluses - thanks to EI over taxation which is by the way unconstitutional. Martin is a liberal who promises everyone everything. His supports socialised health care, redistribution, regional subsidies, tax cuts, spending increases, indian affairs, and no military. His program is an amalgram of confusing and competing claims. So what will he do ? As little reform as possible. He will play the shell game - taxes will continue to rise, spending will increase and through accounting tricks and EI over taxation and further downloading he will declare fiscal surpluses. No democratic, health, welfare, tax or military reforms. After all it WAS Martin who said that Canadians like high taxes. That one comment is all you need to know about Martin.

I have listed sources from the past - 1990s - including Clinton, the UNO and European sources and one from CSIS. Do a search on this site. As well i quoted extensively from Kay's latest submission. That is on this site as well. WMD exists, will be found and until the terror in Iraq is halted will take more time than originally forecasted [6 months was the original estimate]. As I also stated, I am part of the 'who cares' about WMD group. Bush made a mistake [i said this just after the invasion on this site] in emphasising WMD. Iraq is the front line of the war on terror. That should have been the party line. In any event we [or at least the boys with balls, sans les grands canadiens], are there, so we have to get Iraq organised within 5 years. This is a notable and needed first step in the war against terror. Stop crying about WMD.

Well crime is a present danger in any society. Paris has a higher murder and crime rate than New York, so much for socialism and peace. In Toronto we have had a wave of crime - mostly - i hate to say it - from poor blacks, largely Jamaican. Crime and immigration are closely allied. Russian mafia control the prostitution and drug trade in Europe. I have even seen Russian mafia buying units in my building. Toronto is rife with strippers and girls from eastern europe who are chattel in the sex trade - out of sight, out of mind for most of us - but nevertheless part of the criminal gangs that litter society. Immigration needs massive reform and the police need more resources to tackle the heinous and violence that 'seems' to be on the rise - in fact murder and other violent crime stats support this belief. Law and order have a direct impact on national prosperity - just ask Russians who are witnessing capital flight as Putin throws an oligarch into jail for 2 years with no proof and no trial. Private property must be protected. This is where Chretien and his group have failed - security and immigration and policing resources are in dire need of transformation.

Lost, thanks for the info - did you see the show ? What did you think ? What was her thesis re change and reform in Islam ? Is she a practicing muslim ? Most people that i have seen interviewed who are devout Islamacists do not apologise one whit for terror, the killing of innocent jews or other nationalities, nor the fascist regimes that control most of their nation states. I have not heard one mullah recant and publicly state that 9-11 was an immoral and reprehensible act. Islam is in such dire need of repair that reforms are impossible. Transforming is the only option and let's hope Iraqi reconstruction stimulates this.

Well you are wrong on a number of accounts. First i get pretty tired of hearing that all opinions are equal. No they are not. Some are intelligent and well formed. Many are just rambling obnoxious paens to ego, nationalism and ignorance. Opinions are like arses everyone has one but most are rather uninteresting and malformed. Second the French fund terrorist regimes including Hussein's former regime and the US does not. There is a list i have of about 20 fascist/terrorist regimes that France actively supports today and the US has embargoed and does not give money to. They include Syria, Nigeria and the Sudan. The French are doing little if nothing in the war on terror and are like the Canadians, free loading off the US. French opposition to the Iraq war was based wholly on economics and money and political funding ties to the Iraqi regime. Third, Churchill did not envisage the UNO being a replacement for state power. Churchill believed rightly in the balance of great powers and of the great nations managing foreign affairs and military confrontations. He would be appalled at putting national sovereignty at the mercy of an unelected, unaccountable and corrupt UNO system. France is a lightweight - a state which is going insolvent and is anti-american for reasons of ego and money - the French actively support corrupt regimes. Should such a rogue state as France be on the UN security council? Of course not.

Actually petty crime in Canada is rising [Economist world in numbers 2003 and Stas Can] and is higer per capita than the USA. Homicide rates are rising in Toronto - i don't know about the rest of the country - at far higher rates than most major US cities. NYC for instance has seen a per capita decline. Again i don't know the homicide rates for the US as a whole, but Toronto's is on the rise. According to Stats Can crime rates are rising in Canada.