Jack's Newswatch

The case of First Nations University of Canada is certainly sad, but timely. Sad, in that it’s another example of liberal hopes gone horribly awry. Timely, in that it’s yet another indication of how Ottawa intends to get serious about how it spends money.

To sum up the news story: both the Saskatchewan and federal governments have pulled more than $12 million in funding from FNUC: $5.2 million from Regina, $7.5 million from Ottawa. That’s over half of the university’s funding, and unless you’re planning on running a post-secondary institution on an austerity scheme, the double-whammy effectively kills FNUC for 2010-11.

The reason? Extended problems with the university’s governance. You’ll note that in neither Globe nor Star-Phoenix story, no Opposition politician, provincial or federal, is being quoted on the story. And that’s because the governance problems are so systemic, so far gone, and so well known, that no politician with any sense would be willing to argue with either government’s decision.

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While Barack Obama remains obsessed with George W. Bush, Sarah Palin hardly acknowledged his existence in Nashville at the Tea Party convention. Her back to the future vision for America skipped right over all the Bush years and went back to the principles of Ronald Reagan.

That was perfectly appropriate for the Tea Party convention. It is the zeitgeist of the movement.

The “kinder-gentler, compassionate conservatism” of Bushes 41 and 43 brought deeply flawed big spending concepts that have become confusing distractions. Those 12 years of drift — surrounding Newt Gingrich’s forcing of Bill Clinton to govern from the right — have allowed liberals to blur issues and blame the failure of big government on conservatism. Ironic, isn’t it? How’s that new tone working out again, Mr. Rove?

Not so well. Too many independents fell for the spin and assumed the Republican brand forever meant the undefined Bush mush. This confusion and a teleprompter helped folks conclude that Obama was a reasonable, articulate and super intelligent post-partisan and post-racial pragmatist.

For Sarah Palin and many others, the Tea Party movement is precisely about reversing all of that nonsense. Thus, in this context, Bush Republicanism must be ignored and replaced. Talk of a third party must be swatted aside. The imminent threat is the liberal agenda, period.

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It looks like February 11th will be the most violent confrontation to date. The regime is taking unusual measures to put down the promised demonstrations. In many ways it resembles the “Chinese solution.” First, an unprecedented mobilization: 120 trains and something like a thousand buses have been deployed from as far away as 250 kilometers from the capital. They will be used by the Revolutionary Guards and Basij to bring tens of thousands of paid “volunteers” to Tehran. These will consist of entire families (dependent on the regime) to counter the Green Wave. Each family gets $80 for the day, plus free food. The regime is aiming at 300,000 thugs in the streets. The Greens don’t think the numbers will be that high, and in any event they expect ten times that number of protesters, upwards of three million increasingly angry people, demanding freedom and justice.

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One of the sad characteristics of contemporary Western society is the tendency to embrace noble lies. These are assertions and acts that don’t square with reality, with what we see and hear—and are voiced for apparently noble social purposes. Here are a few politically-incorrect examples.

1) Debt and Deficits. At our current rate we will very soon pile up between $18 and $20 trillion in accumulated national debt. We use the euphemism “stimulus”, talk of massive borrowing in terms of percentages of GDP, and casually pontificate about “inflating” our way out of the debt. The fact is that the borrowing is now so massive that there is no way to pay back what we owe without massive cutbacks in accustomed services, and a probable decline in the apparent standard of living. I say “apparent” since many of the essentials that we are accustomed to—everything from sophisticated psychiatric counseling for long-term inmates, frivolous law suits, duplicate and needless medical procedures, to government employee expense accounts, farm subsidies, or grants to the arts and media—are not that essential and will gradually begin to disappear. Raising taxes will be in the short-term offered as a solution, but it won’t for long increase net aggregate revenue since it will eventually discourage economic activity.

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Popularity: 5% [?]

The potential criminality of the Climategate scandal is exactly the issue that is being investigated by authorities in Britain. The British Parliament has convened hearings to investigate East Anglia University and the Climate Research Unit to uncover unethical and illegal activities. As more information is revealed, the whole Climategate affair begins to take on the makings of a good mystery novel. Like any good mystery or crime plot, the web of involvement is widespread.

But in order for a reader to be drawn in, the author must establish the motive and opportunity for the crime to be believable. To understand Climategate, we must start at the center of the web. At the center is the now-discredited Dr. Phil Jones of East Anglia University and the work he orchestrated at the Climate Research Unit (CRU). This is exactly where the British Parliament has started its investigation for possible criminal wrongdoing.

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When the Climategate story first broke, a lot of adherents of the skeptical view of anthropogenic climate change were mightily excited — proclaiming it the “end of the global warming hoax.” They have been disappointed because the breaking story wasn’t immediately followed by the resignation of everyone involved, the termination of all U.S. action on cap and trade, and tar and feathers for Al Gore.

This was a little unrealistic. There are a lot of vested interests involved, a lot of money that depends on the CO2-driven AGW narrative, a lot of people with wealth and reputations on the line. That’s a lot of inertia, and the narrative won’t change course quickly.

That doesn’t mean nothing is happening, however.

One of the people mentioned often in the Climategate emails is Dr. Michael Mann, a professor at Pennsylvania State University and the original first author of the famous “hockey stick” papers. When Climategate broke, there were a number of emails that seemed to show Mann was connected to the climate clique and some misconduct. This prompted what must have been a flood of emails. Penn State announced an inquiry into Mann’s conduct just a few days later.

Today’s breaking news is that the initial report on Mann’s conduct has been released. The report itself isn’t very exciting. If not a whitewash, it’s at least a bit of a graywash, as they very carefully restricted the topics and questions they considered. But it’s not a complete vindication for Mann, either (no matter what the Huffington Post says). The report concluded that Mann should be subject to further investigation, saying there was a real question whether Mann’s conduct “may be undermining confidence in his findings as a scientist,” or “may be undermining public trust in science in general and climate science specifically.” In effect, the committee says there is evidence that Mann violated the social contract of science.

The report announces the formation of a university committee to investigate this further, and frankly, Mann could be in some trouble on this.

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I’ve been following this stupid organization with a political agenda for years now and I’m getting very tired of them. I never watch them on TV anymore and they are all I find wrong in news reporting in Canada this day.

A major news network that will do anything or say anything that calls our government into question with no regard to truth at all. I simply change the channel or (as today) never bother to watch at all.

Canada deserves better and I’ve decided to take them off my list of links because they are becoming revolting. It seems to me that CTV wants “Iggy” as the next PM and are doing everything they can to see that happen because they hate Harper so much.

No fair reporting to be found here — they are disgusting — and so “CTV is fired”.

You won’t find CTV here anymore.

Popularity: 8% [?]

If you click this link you’ll arrive at a page that, for now, reads, “Our apologies, the requested page was not found. Please double-check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization.”

Earlier today that link contained a story that drew heavy fire from the White House and Media Matters. Reuters produced an analysis of Obama’s budget that contained the following:

The Obama administration’s plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families. . . .

The targeted tax provisions were enacted under the Bush administration’s Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Among other things, the law lowered individual tax rates, slashed taxes on capital gains and dividends, and steadily scaled back the estate tax to zero in 2010.

If the provisions are allowed to expire on December 31, the top-tier personal income tax rate will rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. But lower-income families will pay more as well: the 25 percent tax bracket will revert back to 28 percent; the 28 percent bracket will increase to 31 percent; and the 33 percent bracket will increase to 36 percent. The special 10 percent bracket is eliminated.

Investors will pay more on their earnings next year as well, with the tax on dividends jumping to 39.6 percent from 15 percent and the capital-gains tax increasing to 20 percent from 15 percent. The estate tax is eliminated this year, but it will return in 2011 — though there has been talk about reinstating the death tax sooner.

The article then dissected the impact of the alternative minimum tax under Obama’s budget (it’d be painful) then provided a number of key bullet points about the budget:

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The Louisiana State Analytical and Fusion Exchange (LA-SAFE) today issued a notice titled Suspicious Activity: Helicopter Leasing Facilities for aviation interests in Louisiana. We received it at work via our membership in the Offshore Operators Committee.

Oil and gas operators use helicopters routinely to access platforms and rigs. There are several large shore bases across the Gulf that serve this activity.

Walk-up inquiries about helicopter leasing qualify as highly unusual. So do men hanging around observing operations at the fence.

Heck, at this point, I’m suspicious of anyone who drives a late-model black Impala.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

One of the most disturbing outgrowths of the global warming controversy over the last twenty or so years has been the increased politicization of science. Of course, this is far from the first time this has occurred, but it may be one of the most important, because we are at a particularly fragile moment in the global economy. Indeed, had it not been for the release of the Climategate emails and documents in November, the recent Copenhagen conference might have succeeded in reallocating billions, even trillions, of dollars, possibly leading to a form of global bankruptcy. Less than two months later, with the so-called science now unraveling on an almost daily basis, the whole thing seems close to insane. How could we have done it?

Well, how could we have done it?

Okay, I’ll take a pass at that – with the caveat that this is a very early narrative of a story that many will tell and examine in the future, undoubtedly in book form. In fact, it deserves several books.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

All politicians fudge on their promises. But this president manages to transcend the normal political exaggeration and dissimulation. Whereas past executives shaded the truth, Barack Obama trumps that: on almost every key issue, what Obama says he will do, and what he says is true, is a clear guide to what he will not do, and what is not true. It is as if “truth” is a mere problem of lesser mortals.

1. Obama now rails against a pernicious Washington and its insiders: ergo, Obama controls Washington through both houses of Congress and the White House, and wants to expand Washington’s control over the auto industry, health care, energy, student loans, transportation, etc.

2. Obama bashes the Supreme Court on weakening public efforts to curb campaign contributions. Therefore, we know Obama has done more than any other president in destroying public campaign financing by being the first presidential candidate in a general election to refuse public funds — in confidence that he could raise a record $1 billion, much of it from big moneyed interests on Wall Street.

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Let’s start with economics.  Here are three recent tweets:

• Updates on Iran’s economic situation: The price of bread has increased six-fold since subsidies slashed;

• Iran’s Energy Ministry: The price of electricity for households will soon be quadrupled;

• Bank Melli & Mellat have told AN (Ahmadinejad) if they don’t receive funds within 4 days, they’ll be bankrupt.

And here are some data on Ahmadinejad’s accomplishments from a Farsi web site:

• 47% under poverty line.

• 75% of all projects started remain unfinished&halted.

• Average inflation of 20%.

• Budget submitted one month late.

• Welfare under $20 aftr promising $70 during elections.

• Gov employees raises granted days before the election are now deduced in installments on paychecks.

• Failure to submit progress reports & answer to legal authorities for the past 4 years.

• No inflation-adjusting raises of Gov employees salaries & benefits.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that people are racing to the banks to get their rials and toumans out, and convert them to some harder currency.  But the banks won’t give them all their money;  withdrawals are limited to $15,000 per account, and there have been many angry scenes.  The people know that the rulers are shipping out their own wealth, and they hear terrible rumors about the impending failure of major banks.

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