Jack's Newswatch

Stephen Harper has instructed his ministers to explore the prospect of buying the Windsor-Detroit bridge — the busiest international border crossing in North America — from its American owner.

The Ambassador Bridge is owned by billionaire Manuel “Matty” Moroun and carries one quarter of all merchandise trade between Canada and the United States.

Lawrence Cannon, the Foreign Minister, said buying the bridge from the private sector is one option being examined. “My understanding is that the file is progressing and there are options being looked at,” he said.

He added the government’s first choice would be to pursue development of a new publicly owned bridge, the Detroit River International Crossing, down river from the Ambassador Bridge. But he said that deal is complicated by the involvement of state governments in the United States. “No decision has been taken on what specific option to take,” he said.

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Popularity: 1% [?]

TORONTO • Richard Warman, Canada’s top online hate-hunter and scourge of free speech advocates, offered his first public response on Monday to the online campaign against him led by conservative blogger and lawyer Ezra Levant.

In court filings for a libel suit, Mr. Warman calls Mr. Levant’s conduct toward him “obsessive,” states he “has no respect for authority,” and says it is “surprising” he is a member in good standing of the Law Society of Alberta.

“Mr. Levant is in the habit of fabricating extremely serious allegations of misconduct against others,” Mr. Warman states in an affidavit filed in Ontario Superior Court.

“He describes various human rights tribunals across Canada as ‘kangaroo courts.’ He vilifies their members, he accuses their lawyers of lying to them (without any evidence) and he mocks those who would dare to disagree with him.”

In a brief hearing on Monday, Mr. Levant’s lawyer Peter Jacobsen said Mr. Warman has made “irrelevant and scandalous accusations,” and that he will file a full written response in two weeks. Mr. Levant declined to comment on them on Monday.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Ukraine looks to be heading for political stalemate after Sunday’s runoff presidential election. With over 95 percent of the votes counted, opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych appears to have won, but he has failed to achieve a convicing lead over his rival Yulia Tymoshenko. She may contest the result in court.

As Yulia Tymoshenko prepared to speak at a press conference in Kiev on Sunday evening, it had already become clear that she had not manage to achieve the majority she hoped for in Ukraine’s presidential runoff election. Exit polls indicated that she trailed her rival Viktor Yanukovych by several percentage points.

Dressed in a brilliant white dress with a large shiny brooch, she strode energetically up to the podium, making her way through a throng of supporters and journalists. “I am convinced,” she told the crowd, “that the majority of citizens have voted for a democratic, European and strong Ukraine.”

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Notes:

I can hear it now.

Yanukovych: “Will nobody rid me of this vexatious woman?”

Maybe he should check with Obama.

“Heh”…

Popularity: 3% [?]

Four years ago during the XX Winter Olympics, the Russia House was by far the hottest party venue in Turin. It even had an open-air ice skating rink on the roof, where skaters were treated to free shots of vodka and an unending parade of scantily clad young women. There were plenty of brutish middle-aged men, too, but they somehow seemed less scary — and therefore more fascinating — since then-President Vladimir Putin had curbed the excesses of Russia’s wild capitalism.

The New York Times ran the headline “In Parties as Well as Podiums, Russia is Red-Hot.” The red-and-white apparel designed by the Italian-sounding but thoroughly Russian label Bosco di Ciliegi (rather ugly, in my view) was ubiquitous that year in Piedmont, and envious Swedes and Norwegians, abandoning their Nordic restraint, accosted Russian fans in the street and begged them for the coveted tickets to those all-night Russia House parties. It was the height of Russia’s worldwide popularity.

Unlike its far larger summer cousin, the Winter Olympics is a cozy affair held not during the season of mass tourism but in February, when only the rich and the idle can come out to play. By definition, it takes place at upscale, exclusive winter resorts. People going in for downhill skiing or figure skating are mainly upper class.

This makes the Winter Olympics an exclusive rich men’s club, the sports equivalent of the Group of Seven. It was quite a coup for Russia to be acknowledged as the unofficial social center in Turin. It seems that it was after the Turin Games in 2006 that Putin became obsessed with bringing the 2014 Olympics to Sochi.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. John Murtha, the first veteran of the Vietnam war to enter Congress and one of the body’s most powerful lawmakers, died Monday afternoon at Virginia Hospital Center after complications from gallbladder surgery. Murtha was 77.

“Congressman John P. Murtha (PA-12) passed away peacefully this afternoon at 1:18 p.m. at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va. At his bedside was his family,” reads a statement from his office.

A native of New Martinsville, W.Va., voters elected first elected Murtha to Congress in a 1974 special election that spelled impending doom for President Nixon and congressional Republicans. That fall, Democrats wrestled away 49 House seats from the GOP, reeling from the scourge of Watergate and a presidency in shambles.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

A senior military official faces a pair of first-degree murder charges in two separate Ontario slayings.

Police said Monday that Colonel Russell Williams, 46, of Tweed, Ont., has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jessica Lloyd, of Belleville, Ont., who went missing Jan. 28.

As well, he faces a second count of first-degree murder in the death of Marie Comeau, a Corporal with 437 Squadron at Canadian Forces Base Trenton.

Col. Williams, who is a commander at CFB Trenton, also faces two counts of forcible confinement and two counts of break and enter and sexual assault.

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Related:

Senior soldier arrested in death of Jessica Lloyd

Updates:

4:15 pm EST, February 8th, 2010 — CFB Trenton chief charged with murder of two women

Popularity: 10% [?]

Cost of the corruption of climate science by the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC) is likely a trillion dollars already and there is no measure of the lives lost because of unnecessary reactions like biofuels affecting food supplies. Stories appear about the corruption at the IPCC and others about the leaked emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU). Most people, including the media, don’t seem to realize the IPCC is the CRU. Some articles mention both but don’t make the connection. A recent article in the Globe and Mail is a good example.

The article is a small shift because the Globe has consistently promoted human caused warming and attacked skeptics. However, failure to make the connection allows people involved to develop defenses, withdraw from associations or go into hiding.

A Very Large Cast

Universities and governments are already whitewashing the behavior of prominent individuals like Phil Jones and Michael Mann. Nobody else involved with the scandal is facing even biased internal investigation. Many are not mentioned in the limited media reports on the scandal. People like Mike Hulme, Tom Wigley, Benjamin Santer, Kevin Trenberth, Keith Briffa, Malcolm Hughes, Raymond Bradley, John Holdren, Jonathan Overpeck, Caspar Amman, Michael Oppenheimer, Tom Crowley, Gavin Schmidt, William Connolley, Tim Osborn, Thomas Karl, Andrew Weaver, Eric Steig, and all names on the CRU emails require investigation. They had to know what was going on, partly because they all used the same vehicles of attack and deception. By investigating only two individuals the collective culpability of the CRU and the IPCC goes unchallenged. Investigation of two individuals underscores the false claim there are one or two “bad apples” but the overall science is unaffected. The IPCC received a Nobel Prize collectively; they must bear the blame collectively.

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See Also:

The fear and farce of climate-change science

Indian climate chief endures attacks at home

UN Climate Cronies

Climategate Part II: Help us follow the money

Updates:

2:25 pm EST, February 8th, 2010 — Africa-Gate? U.N. Fears of Food Shortages Questioned

2:29 pm EST, February 8th, 2010 — Dutch Point Out New Mistakes in U.N. Climate Report

3:39 pm EST, February 8th, 2010 — Obama Proposes New Global Warming Agency

Notes:

Pay attention to the the 3:39 pm link and the name Thomas Karl, who also figures in Tim’s article.

“The new agency will initially be led by Thomas Karl, director of the current National Climatic Data Center. The Climate Service will be headquartered in Washington and will have six regional directors across the country.”

Popularity: 8% [?]

‘He who pays the piper calls the tune”: That old saying captures perfectly America’s growing dependence on our No. 1 creditor in the world, Communist China.

By their carelessness Congress and the Obama administration are steadily handing over control of America’s economic and financial future to a handful of Chinese officials and generals in Beijing. Those who think the Chinese won’t use that control if they feel they have to are ignoring history — and the Chinese.

The ancient military strategist Sun Tzu said that the best strategy was to render an opponent’s army helpless even before the battle began. America may still have the biggest and best military in the world.

But many at the Pentagon are starting to realize that, thanks to our growing fiscal irresponsibility, we may be surrendering control of America’s destiny to a rival superpower — and all without a shot being fired.

Consider the scale of the problem.

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Popularity: 7% [?]

The Democratic agenda is “running out of time,” former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Saturday at the National Tea Party Convention, claiming that the conservative tea party movement is part of a brewing “revolution” that constitutes the “future of politics.”

Palin, who delivered the keynote speech on the closing night of the three-day gathering of conservative activists, aligned herself squarely with the movement, frequently using the word “us” in describing it.

“This is the future of our country. The tea party movement is the future of politics,” she said.

The former GOP vice presidential nominee pointed to the room full of activists, as well as the recent election of Republican Scott Brown to U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, as the sign of a political tide change.

“If Scott Brown is any indication, it’s running out of time,” Palin said of the Democratic agenda.

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Related:

Palin whips up Tea Party convention

Sarah Palin talks of ‘revolution’ at Tea Party meeting

Palin Assails Obama at Tea Party Meeting

Tea Party activists rally around champion of the Right

Sarah Palin Dinner Speech (video — 69 min)

Updates:

1:30 pm EST, February 7th, 2010 — Palin ‘Would Be Willing’ to Take On Obama in 2012

2:37 pm EST, February 7th, 2010 — Tapscott: Sarah Palin is miles ahead of every other politician in America

2:51 pm EST, February 7th, 2010 — Rubin: Palin at the Tea Party

Notes:

There’s a fair bit of negative Palin news available on the net again today for those who want to hunt it up but I’m not interested in posting it here because I’m clearly a Palin partisan and why would I hide on this topic? Suffice to say she continues to give old established political types a heart attack and that’s a good thing in my view.

Popularity: 13% [?]

If the premier’s office is guilty of spying on Danielle Smith, as she claims, it’s for good reason.

Agree with her or not, there are few political figures in the province more effective at delivering a message.

That was evident this weekend at a conference on Alberta’s future, hosted by Preston Manning. The opening event Friday night featured a question-and-answer session with Smith, the leader of the Wildrose Alliance, and first-term Calgary MLA Kyle Fawcett, the low-profile government representative Ed Stelmach sent as a late fill-in for a cabinet minister.

It wasn’t a fair fight. Fawcett stuck mostly to government talking points while Smith hammered away at public policy specifics. Perhaps her most effective punch came when she had the courage to acknowledge that the oilsands have become a national embarrassment.

“Restoring the reputation of the oilsands is Job 1,” said Smith. She accused business and government of doing a lousy job of communicating that 80 per cent of the resource will be developed by underground “in situ” methods rather than by ugly, open-pit mines.

Tailings ponds and belching plants, Smith added, don’t look good.

She portrayed the work being done north of Fort McMurray as practically heroic, under extremely difficult conditions, almost as if it were Afghanistan. It was a good pep talk.

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Notes:

What is it with these women? Palin in the states, Daniele up here in the great white north? They boggle my mind.

Popularity: 4% [?]

IQALUIT, NUNAVUT–A summit-ending community feast with raw seal among the local offerings was boycotted by the ministers and central bankers of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom on Saturday.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, who was born in the Northwest Territories, were the only participants to appear at the feast.

The two-day meeting for Group of 7 finance ministers drew to a close Saturday, with all ministers saying they were determined to make financial institutions bear the cost of crises they cause. They expressed confidence that a global economic recovery is underway but cautioned it was still too fragile for governments to start withdrawing stimulus spending.

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Popularity: 5% [?]

Mass casualties and multiple injuries were reported Sunday after a huge explosion at a Connecticut power plant, police confirmed to Fox News.

Al Santostefano, the deputy fire marshal in Middletown, told The Associated Press the explosion happened at 11:17 a.m. Sunday at the Kleen Energy Systems plant there and portions of the building blew away.

“There are bodies everywhere,” a witness told the Hartford Courant.

Medical rescue personnel told the newspaper there were at least two fatalities, and at least 100 people injured — including four in critical condition. The paper also reported that as many as 20 ambulances were on the scene.

Santostefano said 50 workers were inside the building at the time of the explosion.

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Popularity: 2% [?]