Rainfall in Edmonton varies from 36.0 to 258.0 (mm/month).
Oh what a clown King Ralph is. Having spent a decade denouncing Keynesianism, he ups and turns out to be one....
Klein's advice to cities illogical
Ralph Klein found the biggest cow pie in the field this week and jumped right in -- with both feet.
The premier now says Edmonton and Calgary should put off building new roads and arenas because it's just too expensive in this overheated economy. Don't worry about all those new citizens who need libraries, more transit and fire halls.
"Delay the projects. Put them on hold until they're affordable," thundered Klein, who will retire shortly -- though it's not soon enough in our view.
The premier then proceeded to pass on a little helpful advice.
"The best time to build is during a recession or depression. That's when you get the best possible prices," he said.
Really? So why did Klein spend a decade doing exactly the opposite?
Because he is a neo-con who said Keynesianism was dead all that is important is to fight the debt and deficit. And of course toss in the privatizing of public services, which leads to private profit at public expense.
Alberta Liberals say Ralph Klein is being hypocritical for telling cities to delay projects with runaway costs when his own government is routinely approving massive cost increases on its own projects.
The Liberals produced documents showing more than 50 projects with cost overruns as high as 106% in the past two years - and that doesn't even include recent projects.
"Ralph is saying you have to get your costs under control," said Liberal MLA Maurice Tougas.
"Maybe he should practise what he preaches. We've found cost overruns by the truckload."
Tougas said he was concerned millions of dollars in overruns are being quietly approved behind closed doors without any discussion in the legislature.
It appears that the some in the Evangelical Movement in the United States have seen the light and are now concerned that Global Warming might not be good for God's creatures.
United CEO Glenn Tilton is calling on U.S. regulators to lift ownership restrictions that limit how much of a U.S. airline can be owned by foreign investors. Such rules have so far blocked a global consolidation that some in the industry say is needed, Tilton says. "U.S. airlines should have the right to grow their businesses in the global marketplace," Tilton is quoted as saying Thursday to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. "It's about time we abandon the policy of fragmentation," he adds. Reuters writes that "Tilton, long an advocate for international airline partnerships, reiterated his view that foreign airlines are better positioned to thrive than those in the United States partly because foreign carriers face fewer restrictions to cross-border consolidation." Current rules dictate that U.S. carriers must be controlled by American citizens, though foreign investors are allowed to hold up to 25% of a U.S. airline's voting stock. Reuters adds that "there is little or no foreign investment because of [that] long-standing federal regulation that prohibits overseas interests from having a say in airline operations."
The Senate has refused to confirm former coal company executive Richard Stickler as the head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). So, while they were out, Bush gave him a recess appointment to the post. According to the Charleston Gazette, Stickler's mines had accident rates of twice the national average. At a Senate hearing in March, Stickler explained that if U.S. mines were unsafe, it wasn't an "enforcement problem," merely a "compliance problem.".
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