Sir Bandelot

See my post immediately above yours

That article is dated July 30 2005, almost a year before major operations began on the new mission and 2-year extension. Thats not quite the same as the new more dangerous mission that began in spring of 2006. I'm not going to defend anyone who sends troops to war without proper equipment, although whats done is done and we should be doing something now, not arguing about who to blame while the mission continues to be at risk. But obviously, the current government is not doing that much either, although they did vote for an even more dangerous mission. Along with power mongering Liberals like Ignatieff, they are all responsible.

Been drinking this morning?

Here's one to help drive my point home about the failure of leadership: May. 17 2006 "Harper argued that extending the mission meant backing Canada's troops. He said, "We honour those who take risks and make the ultimate sacrifice by staying the course and supporting their mission." Layton hit back at Harper's suggestion, saying Canadians know that a vote against the motion is not a vote against Canada's military. "Let me be very clear: Canadians will not be lured into this false trap of the prime minister's borrowed sloganeering," he said. Liberal member Dennis Coderre agreed that the debate was not about defending Canada's troops. He also said MPs needed more time to go over the extension's details before rushing to any decision. "The issue is not about whether we are supporting the troops, the issue is do we have the capacity right now to address the extension of the mission by two years. The answer is no," he said. Meanwhile, an Ottawa think tank slammed the government for "virtually abandoning UN peacekeeping." Polaris analyst Steven Staples said operations in the war-torn country were "consuming all available resources" and preventing vital resources being diverted elsewhere, such as in Darfur. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...60517/20060517/ The truth outs itself, eventually.

"From August 2003 to December 2005, Canada's military commitment was largely Operation Athena, based in the capital, Kabul, as part of the International Assistance Force, which had the aim of providing intelligence and security to allow rebuilding the democratic process. On July 31, 2006, NATO troops assumed command of all military operations in southern Afghanistan." http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/afghanistan/canada.html For your info the CPC won the federal election in January 2006. Operation Archer began about one month later. There's genius, and theres mere trolling.

Who said anything about the sea kings, or a helicopter crash... been drinking already this morning?

Is he a politician?

Thats exactly the problem, they wanted a copter that could do so many different things it is now marginalized, which usually means it won't do anything particularly well. It was designed by committee- the maple platypus. The government was warned during the procurement process that this deadline could not be met. They put a clause in the contract to bill the company $100k per day if late, up to a maximum of $36 million. Out of a $5 billion contract its a mere drop in the bucket. Thats called good business savy on the part of the company sales team. Anyway its only for some helicopters. Is this alone enough to provide everything our forces need in combat?

The irony of your post is not lost on me.

What facts have you presented then, other than what "Kimmy said..." In fact, if you read back to before what "Kimmy said", you'll see I made several contributions to the thread. quotes and news articles. And I raised the point about her religious fanaticism in post 64, not Kengs33, which got Kimmy all excited. Now ask yourself, whose cheerleader are you

It benefits no one other than the banks, who risk seeing a dip in their profits due to their financial connection to bad US loans. This solves nothing in terms of boosting consumer spending. Thats what gives Flaherty means by levelling the playing field. His Flatulence is full of gas

He's just saying that to get the religious right to shut up. He don't really believe that crap like Palin does. Besides, they thought he was a MUSLIM.

And the mission was expanded beyind our obligations in 2006. At that point Canada became leaders of the multi-national brigade hunting the taliban in southern Afghanistan. Are you saying that it's ok for the CPC to continue to do nothing, and blame it on the Liberals because they did nothing?

FYI the "God Particle" you're referring to is actually called the Higgs Boson.

Because it is not good for the government or taxpayer. I don't believe this will achieve anything. Interest rates are so low now, the banks do not want to loan money. That is why they are not lending, not because they are "strapped for cash" from having issued too many loans. There's no money to be made in lending at such low rates. Yet they can't raise the rates either. People are not spending, thats the problem. The economy is grinding to a halt, and it's a viscous cycle. but this will not help to solve that problem. Several Canadian banks operate in the United States and are involved in the mortgage crisis there, but the US plan does not include money to help foreign banks. Those Canadian banks are holding bad loans in the US are not going to get any help unless Canada steps in and gives them some money. I think this has more to do with the problems in US than in Canada. Rather than call it a bail-out of bad US mortgages the government is using this scheme. Thats why Harper said our banks do not need a bailout, and then they announced they have to do this one.

There wasn't as much going on during those 13 years. I'm not making excuses for anyone, but we are at war now, in case you haven't noticed... now is the time to do something for sure. And lest we forget, the CPC government authorized the mission to go into southern Afghanistan and hunt for the Taliban, a more dangerous mission. So that was all the more reason to make sure, the troops have adequate resources. But instead, the CPC wasted the surplus that the Liberals created. They coulda bought a lot of new Jeeps with that money. What did they do with it? Well now it seems the banks are getting some.

By now the CPC should have done something about it. But they chose to bail out banks who make windfall profits year after year instead.

So? "Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Canada." If the individual receiving the loan goes bankrupt then the bank who gave the loan would not lose money, but instead would be reimbursed by the government. In other words, we bought it, not the banks! tada

No, I'm a neo-cynical anarchist

Palin is obviously a religious kook. Thats what America really needs now... another president who thinks god is speaking to them

They are conservative with money... except when it comes to lining the pockets of their friends

Here's what I mean... you listen closely MLS home sales plunge to weakest level since 2002 Fri. Nov. 14 2008 The Canadian Press TORONTO -- The number of homes sold through the Canadian multiple listing service plunged 14 per cent last month to the weakest level since July 2002. It was the steepest month-to-month decline since June 1994, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Friday. The association added that the impact was heaviest in big cities -- notably Toronto, which accounted for one-third of the national decline. The average MLS home sale price was $281,133, a reduction of 9.9 per cent from October of last year. BMO's Porter "there is no doubt that Canada's housing market continues to soften markedly. We look for a further decline in sales and some further correction in prices in the year ahead, especially in the cities that had the biggest booms in recent years."

We should not trust the government to do whats in our best interests. Canadians should be especially concerned because Flaherty was finance minister in Ontario when the provincial Conservative government of former premier Mike Harris sold the electronic toll Highway 407 north of Toronto for $3.1 billion in 1999. Three years later, a private investment bank valued the property at four times the sale price. "After three years of bad tax policy, and big spending , Flaherty has put the country in deficit. Now he wants to sell the house to pay for the groceries" http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...1114?hub=Canada

In the thread "Lest We Forget" I said that our government does not honour the Geneva Conventions, and in doing so they disrespect the memories and achievements of those who fought in the world wars. This article was published today and is exactly what I was talking about. The government of Canada wants to cover this up by blocking these hearings. If they are guilty of knowingly breaking international law then they are not very different from the people for whom these laws were written. Letting someone else do the torturing doesn't absolve them from being guilty of crimes. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/11/14/...er.html#Scene_1 In February 2007, the MPCC received a complaint from Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Union over the treatment of transferred detainees, saying Ottawa was violating the Geneva Conventions. Under the conventions, it is a war crime to turn over prisoners to a party who might abuse them. In April 2007, the Globe published a report it had received under the Access to Information Act that suggested the government knew prisoners in Afghanistan jails could be subject to poor conditions. Although parts were blacked out, the newspaper said it was able to confirm that these blacked-out sections showed that the Canadian Embassy in Kabul had alerted the government last year that prisoners could be tortured once transferred to Afghan detention centres. Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Union alleged in their complaint the government authorized the transfer of prisoners on at least 18 occasions, knowing the detainees were likely to be tortured.

If its so profitable for government to buy up these mortgages, why don't the banks just keep it for themselves then. Or sell to other financial groups who can do the same thing. Why should the government be involved at all. Does the bank ever give its money away? Naa. If there's a profit in something, financial companies don't want to snap it up? Naa. Tell you why, if it goes tits-up, thats the government money being lost, not their money so they are protected. theres no way that banks ever lose in any transaction. This is like a surety, in which the government uses the peoples money as collateral to absolve banks fo all risk. You think housing prices are guaranteed to rise? Maybe, but not certainly. Look at the US market. The price of houses was over-inflated. Now those prices are in free-fall, and people have mortgages higher than the market value of their house. Now look at whats happened to the price of houses in the greater Toronto area over the past 6 years. Houses have almost doubled. If the market collapses, people stop buying and the price of those homes could fall in the same way. Default mortgages are bound to happen.But the banks don't need to worry about it because the government is buying those mortgages. It's a pre-emptive buyout.