A general view of Edinburgh Castle in Scotland.

Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?

That is the question Scotland’s separatist First Minister, Alex Salmond, proposes to put to Scottish voters in a referendum sometime in late 2014. Ten words, no subordinate clauses, its meaning incapable of confusion. Compare it with this little essay in obscurity:

Do you agree that Quebec should become sovereign after having made a formal offer to Canada for a new economic and political partnership within the scope of the bill respecting the future of Quebec and of the agreement signed on June 12, 1995?.

Or how about that lengthy brain-teaser, posed to Quebecers in 1980, which began with the words “The Government of Quebec has made public its proposal to negotiate a new agreement with the rest of Canada …,” and ended, many, many words later, with “Do you give the Government of Quebec the mandate to negotiate the proposed agreement between Quebec and Canada?”

Yet, remarkably enough, Salmond’s proposed question has run into fierce opposition, on the grounds that it is loaded in favour of the separatist side. “Do you agree,” it is argued, invites people to say yes: Who wants to be disagreeable? Proposed alternatives include “Do you want Scotland to remain a part of the United Kingdom?” or “Do you want Scotland to leave the United Kingdom and become an independent country?”

[More]

#1 — CNews | Harper brings home Pandas from China

BEIJING – Brace yourself for a little Canadian Panda-monium.

Canada and China announced here Thursday that they’ve struck a widely expected agreement that will see a pair of the rare black-and-white bears spend a decade in the Great White North.

[...]

Globe | Canaccord, Chinese bank unveil $1-billion fund to invest in Canadian resources

Globe | PM lands investor protection deal, raises human rights in China

NP | China and Canada set for free trade talks as Harper pens multibillion-dollar deals

#2 — Globe | Pickton investigator details gap between clues, evidence in late 90s

All the clues pointing to a Port Coquitlam pig farmer as a killer were adding up for the first Mountie probing Robert Pickton when women were vanishing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, but the officer has told an inquiry he just couldn’t gather the firm evidence required to launch a full-scale investigation.

[...]

NP | B.C. police let ‘slam-dunk’ attempted murder case against Pickton slip away in 2000, inquiry hears

#3 — LFP | Enbridge won’t offer natives better terms

Canada’s Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO) will not offer better financial terms to aboriginal bands standing in the way of a major oil pipeline from energy-rich Alberta to the Pacific Coast, the firm’s chief executive officer said on Thursday.

[...]

#4 — NP | Taylor: Car hacking, the crime of tomorrow

Omar Ramos-Lopez was none too pleased when fired from his job at an Austin, Tex., car dealership in 2010. So he decided to get even. Getting revenge on former employers may not be a particularly novel reaction, but his choice of payback was cutting-edge.

[...]

#5 — OC | More members of top Mountie brass jumping ship

The RCMP is in the midst of another wave of departures from its senior ranks, including two deputy commissioners, two assistant commissioners and a senior executive.

[...]

WORLD

#6 — BBC | Spain’s Judge Baltasar Garzon convicted for wiretapping

Spain’s Supreme Court has found the country’s best-known judge, Baltasar Garzon, guilty of authorising illegal recordings of lawyers’ conversations.

[...]

#7 — CNN | Romney promises to get more aggressive with Santorum

(CNN) – Suddenly facing new questions about the strength of his candidacy, GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney indicated Wednesday he’s prepared to wage a more aggressive campaign against Rick Santorum, the surprise winner of all three of Tuesday’s Republican contests.

[...]

Sowell: The Anti-Romney Vote

#8 — Fox | Obama to give 10 states a pass on No Child Left Behind deadline

WASHINGTON –  President Obama is set to give 10 states a pass regarding an approaching deadline under the No Child Left Behind law, after the states struggled to meet the proficiency standards for reading and math.

[...]

#9 — DM | Pentagon weighing up military options in Syria as shelling of Homs continues for sixth consecutive day

Arming Syrian rebels to oust Bashar Assad’s ruling regime has not been ‘completely ruled out’ by the Pentagon, the U.S. State Department has revealed.

[...]

Telegraph | Syria uprising: live

#10 — Telegraph | ‘We will defend ourselves’: Argentine defence minister ups the ante over Falklands

Argentina’s defence minister has heated up the rhetoric over the Falkland Islands by warning that if British armed forces land “in our territory we will defend ourselves”.

[...]

But prime minister Lucas Papademos said he hoped to strike a deal within hours following the gruelling seven hours’ negotiation.

He said chiefs of the three parties in his coalition had agreed on every point except one.

The Greek leader is now determined to get the go-ahead before a eurozone finance meeting in Brussels at 5pm today.

The long-awaited bailout would be the second for troubled Greece since 2010, with a dire year forecast for the economy.

Mr Papademos said party leaders had agreed on all points ‘with one exception which requires further inspection and discussion with the troika (Greece’s international lenders)’.

[More]

See Also

Airline industry split widens over EU carbon ‘tax’ row

Spengler: Gold and bonds as options on the inflation rate

Greece bailout: Coalition fails to agree cuts

Hannan: Where the bailout money goes

Evans-Pritchard: Trigger-happy central banks spark bond euphoria

Afternoon Updates:

12:02 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 – Greek unemployment passes 20 percent, 48 for youth

12:04 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Walter: Germany’s Hidden Weaknesses

12:09 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 – Greece strikes bailout deal 

Note:

Don’t get to excited about this yet.  The Greek parliament still has to ratify the deal and that is not at all assured.

12:12 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Bank of England injects £50bn into economy

12:14 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Britain could be hit with additional £1 billion demand for EU payments

12:17 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Caldwell: Über Alles After All

12:22 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Anti-German Mood Heats Up in Greece

12:30 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Evans-Pritchard: Greek death spiral accelerates

12:35 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Hungary’s central bank burns old currency notes to help needy in cold snap

12:41 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Debt crisis and Greek talks: live

Their fears have been stoked by the apparent re-emergence of a group calling itself Liberals for Life, which is promoting Trifon Haitas’s bid to represent the party in a March 19 byelection in Toronto-Danforth.

The group has issued an “urgent message” to Liberals in the riding, urging them to support Haitas, a Greek-Canadian journalist who formerly ran for the Green party.

“Trifon Haitas is the only candidate who is committed to stop the slaughter of unborn children in Canada,” the electronic message states.

The message includes a link to an endorsement of Haitas by Campaign Life Coalition, a national organization opposed to abortion.

The byelection in Toronto-Danforth, a riding just east of downtown Toronto, was necessitated by the death of NDP Leader Jack Layton last August. Liberals are set to nominate their candidate Thursday, with Haitas facing off against advertising executive Grant Gordon.

[More]

Rice called the vetoes “unforgivable,” and said that “any further blood that flows will be on their hands.” She said the US was “disgusted.”

Clinton called the move by Moscow and Beijing a “travesty.” She then said that the US will take action outside the UN, “with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people’s right to have a better future.”

The rhetoric employed by Obama’s top officials is striking for what it reveals about how the Obama administration perceives the purpose of rhetoric in foreign policy.

Most US leaders have used rhetoric to explain their policies. But if you take the Obama administration’s statements at face value you are left scratching your head in wonder. Specifically on Syria, if you take these statements literally, you are left wondering if Obama and his advisers are simply clueless. Because if they are serious, their indignation bespeaks a remarkable ignorance about how decisions are made at the Security Council.

[More]

Afternoon Updates:

1:06 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Critics slam Obama’s handling of Arab Spring

The articulate utility executive is nervous at the beginning of the conversation. He is groping for words — not a common occurrence for the practiced provocateur. After all, Fritz Vahrenholt, 62, who holds a doctorate in chemistry, has been a rebel throughout his life. “Perhaps it’s just part of my generation,” he says.

He is typical of someone who came of age during the student protest movement of the late 1960s, and who fought against the chemical industry’s toxic manufacturing plants in the 1970s. His party, Germany’s center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), chose him as environment senator in the city-state of Hamburg, where he incurred the wrath of the environmental lobby by building a waste incineration plant, earning him the nickname “Feuerfritze” (Fire Fritz). He worked in industry after that, first for oil multinational Shell and then for wind turbine maker RePower, which he helped develop. Now, as the outgoing CEO of the renewable energy group RWE Innogy, he is about to embark on his next major battle. “I’m going to make enemies in all camps,” he says.

[More]

See Also:

Body Blow To German Global Warming Movement! Major Media Outlets Unload On “CO2 Lies!”

Germany’s Top Environmentalist Turns Climate Sceptic

Germany in skeptical turmoil on both Climate and Solar/Windfarms

The Himalayas and nearby peaks have lost no ice in past 10 years, study shows

Windfarms: An ill wind of change?

Afternoon Updates:

12:40 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Solyndra sold assets cheap for fast cash

12:43 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — The Next Wave In Renewable Energy From the Ocean

12:45 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Solar subsidies slashed for second time as scheme balloons over budget

12:51 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Delingpole: The best article on wind farms you will ever read (read the column James linked — I think he’s correct)

“Mad, isn’t it? And madder still that RTE or the BBC will continue to trot out their pet wind-enthusiasts to bluster balderdash and poppycock about global warming and how renewables are the solution — and without the contrary point of view ever being given an airing. This is dogma, as created, promulgated and enforced by the John Charles McQuaids of our time — and if sceptics are not actually anathematised from the pulpit, they are ruthlessly and systematically ignored. These dishonest, hypocritical and deceitful energy policies are now widely accepted by our political and teaching classes as being the very embodiment of environmentalist virtue. Such imbecilic virtue, if implemented as energy policy across Europe, could have brought about a human catastrophe last weekend.”

Among eight contenders now vying for the job of party leader, only two – B.C. MP Nathan Cullen and Manitoba MP Niki Ashton – are from the West, which has long provided a strong base of support for provincial New Democrats.

Provincial support, however, doesn’t automatically translate into federal votes.

And the party may be facing an uphill battle in the region as a result of its environmental platform.

[More]

The balance of power has shifted and that trend will continue as long as the commodity-driven economy in western Canada draws new immigrants and people from other regions of Canada.

Yet, despite the arresting development in the west (Alberta has grown 10.8% since 2006), there are still not enough people to fill all the jobs there, particularly in the skilled trades. To take just a few examples: the mining industry will need 100,000 workers in the next eight years; 150,000 construction workers will retire in the next three years; welders are needed in British Columbia; and even retailers and hoteliers are worried they can’t fill positions.

At the same time, there are parts of the country where the economy has stagnated and the unemployment rate is over 15%.

This is a country of jobs without people to fill them and, at the same time, people without jobs. Government policy is making the situation worse.

[More]

See Also:

Wente: Go west, young Canadians

In sworn testimony in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last week, U.S. Attorney Eric Holder continued with this stance. Holder was supported by congressional Democrats who cited a lack of evidence of corruption — corruption that the Oversight majority speculated was a result of the DOJ refusing to hand over the majority of the documents and witnesses requested.

Retired DEA official Tony Coulson was in charge of DEA-Tucson during Operation Fast and Furious. He now states that his agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were not only aware of the gunwalking plot, but that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were actively interdicting the plot, confiscating weapons the ATF was walking to Mexican narco-terrorists:

[More]

Beyond the Caterpillar story, however, a much bigger development seems to be unfolding. The squeeze on Canadian manufacturing in Ontario and elsewhere is being offset by reports of a resurgence in the United States. A Wall Street Journal story Wednesday lists a score of U.S. corporations that are boosting investments at home. Emerson Electric, Cummins, automakers and other companies are expanding operations and hiring workers in manufacturing.

[More]

#1 — CNews | Driver in fatal crash failed to stop: Police

LONDON, ONT. – The driver of a cargo van involved in a crash that killed 11 people Monday ran a stop sign, police confirmed Wednesday.

[...]

#2 — Globe | Man sought in shooting of Mounties

A gun battle in rural Alberta that left one man dead and two Mounties recovering from bullet wounds has turned into a manhunt for a “person of interest” who police warn may be armed with long-barrelled weapons.

[...]

#3 — LFP | Canada gets noticed as top U.S. conservatives gather

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Canadians used to being ignored by the American political system might be surprised to see just how much the Great White North will be discussed this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

[...]

#4 — NP | Slave Lake fire investigation seeks six people who may have key information

EDMONTON — Police are looking to speak with at least half a dozen people who may have information linked to the massive wildfires that destroyed one-third of Slave Lake, Alta., last spring.

[...]

#5 — OC | Top court to hear historic battle over public service pension surplus

OTTAWA — Federal unions are making a final appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada this week in a long battle to recover the $28-billion surplus in public service, military and RCMP pension plans that the federal government used to help pay down the deficit more than a decade ago.

[...]

WORLD

#6 — BBC | Syria crisis: Deadly shelling resumes in Homs

The Syrian army has resumed shelling in Homs killing at least 13 people so far on Thursday, activists say.

[...]

Telegraph | International ‘militarisation’ in Syria growing closer, warns US official

#7 — CNN | Big states set to make mortgage deal real

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) — New York and California will join just about all the other states in a settlement with the nation’s largest banks aimed at helping homeowners struggling with loans bigger than the value of their homes, according to a person familiar with the talks.

[...]

#8 — Fox | Modern treasure hunters claim they’ve found billions in sunken ship off Boston

Modern-day treasure hunters say they’ve found a sunken ship off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass., holding one of the biggest fortunes ever discovered in the ocean depths.

[...]

#9 — DM | Gangs behind a quarter of violent crime

Scotland Yard declared war on gangs yesterday as it emerged they are responsible for half of London’s shootings and one in seven rapes.

[...]

#10 — Telegraph | Christchurch earthquake: CTV building did not meet safety standards, report finds

A six-story building that collapsed and killed 115 people during last year’s New Zealand earthquake did not meet construction standards, according to a government report released Thursday.

[...]