Ralph's Ghost Haunts Alberta

Calgary Blogger Rusty Idols points out;

in any other province the sheer overwhelming profusion of one huge scandal after another would be government killers.

But in One Party State Alberta those in power as King Ralph's henchmen simply give the Nuremberg Defense for their high crimes and misdemeanors. We were just following orders. Along with the other pathetic excuses. Gosh shucks we didn't know. Not our Fault. Don't look back, lets move forward. It's all Ralph's fault.

Like the proverbial three monkeys they saw no evil, heard no evil, and spoke no evil.

The Department of Energy
Royalty Review Scandal.

Murray Smith, the former Energy Minister, went to Washington as a Tory Shill for Big Oil interests. Now he has retired in with a pile of patronage payola, to be replaced by Gary Mar, another former cabinet minister at the trough. And the past Minister Greg Melchin was demoted to Seniors. While the current Minister Mel Knight denies all knowledge of the cover up despite the fact he sat in the inner sanctum of Ralph's world.

Alberta’s auditor general suggested Monday that the province has been the woolly-headed chump of the global oilpatch for years by willingly allowing billions of dollars in royalties to slip through its fingers due to political inaction.

“The royalty resources belong to Albertans,” Fred Dunn told reporters as he released his annual report.

He said Alberta is among the lowest jurisdictions for royalties and has stood still while others moved ahead to charge more as prices in the industry rose.

“Why is Alberta selling it low? What is the support for Alberta to receive less for a similar commodity than other jurisdictions?” he asked.

“There’s good evidence going back to 2004 that the royalty regime was very low. What was needed, really, was just leadership.”

Dunn said that as far back as three years ago, researchers in Alberta’s Energy Department stated that the province’s share of royalties from its giant petroleum industry had fallen below its target range. They also said the government could easily collect an additional $1 billion or more per year without stifling industry profitability.

It even got to the point, said Dunn, that a specific request urging a decision moved up the department chain to then-energy minister Greg Melchin.

Dunn said Melchin, now minister in charge of seniors, told his investigators he decided to not go forward because more study was needed.

“It was paralysis by analysis.”

Overall, Dunn paints a damning picture of the energy department under former Minister Greg Melchin. He says it did not fully meet a single one of the audit's criteria. In particular, the ministry need to do a better job publicly explaining and justifying its work.

As early as 2000, Energy Department staffers were telling senior management that they weren't collecting their appropriate share. Dunn placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of senior management, including assistant deputy ministers, deputy minister and ultimately, Melchin.

Melchin defended his record as minister.

"I'm very proud of the work that we've done and in fact how successful our model has been. On balance I stand behind the decisions made at that time."

While Melchin was energy minister, his department publicly released almost no information about the royalty review and the outcomes. Much of the public information currently available comes from a Journal freedom of information request, which has big portions blacked out or excluded entirely.

That’s despite both Melchin and Klein saying publicly that the government’s studies showed Alberta was getting “a very generous” return, as Klein claimed on June 12, 2006.

"We get enough," said Klein about royalties before welcoming delegates to the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary.

Melchin said today he stands by his decisions, despite the majority of experts having claimed both at the time and presently that Albertans were being shortchanged.

“I was in receipt of that information. I was also in receipt of many other documents, and you have to make sure you look at all of the information available,” he said.

“I think when you realize that you’ve got something that’s going well, one can always look at the model and extrapolate a number. But we also have to look at what made us successful and you don’t lightly change those things.

“I stand by that as the best judgement at the time for Albertans.”

Dunn's audit set out to answer three questions about the province's royalty review systems: Do they exist? Are they well-designed? Do they operate as they should?

His findings paint a damning picture of the Energy Department under former energy ministers Greg Melchin and Murray Smith.

Current Energy Minister Mel Knight said Dunn's report actually reflects well on his ministry. He rejected the idea that his senior staff were negligent in failing to act on the department's internal recommendations. Knight also claimed Dunn, who is employed by the legislature, was airing personal grievances when he criticized the deputy minister.

"It absolutely was a personal attack and I really feel that it wasn't necessary," Knight said.

Evan Chrapko, a member of the government-appointed royalty review panel, said the auditor general's report reaffirms the conclusion that royalty rates need to be increased.

"It's an interesting coincidence that independent reviews conducted with different mandates reached the exact same conclusion given the same set of facts."

Chrapko noted, as Dunn's report concludes, that the government has known for several years that it hasn't received its fair share. All that was needed to rebalance the royalties to the proper level was the signature of Melchin or Smith.

Energy Minister Mel Knight has refused to review any actions taken by the department prior to his appointment earlier this year, despite a scathing report delivered yesterday that identifies "critical issues" by failing to collect billions in past oil royalties.

"We work from today forward. I can’t look back," he told reporters yesterday. "It wasn’t my responsibility at that point."

Would Be Premier Treated Government Credit Card
as Personal Expense Account

And Energy is not the only department Dunn found problems with. Another would be Ralph from last years leadership race; Edmontonian Mark Norris, a single term MLA and Cabinet Minister had his head handed to him by the Auditor General. Rumours abounded about his free spending ways during the Leadership race, and Norris whined about a smear campaign. However as we find out now, the rumours were true.

And while it pales in comparison to billions not collected, it still shows the Tired Old Tories have overspent their welcome. When they view the government and tax payers money as their personal piggy bank.

Norris top aide used gov't credit card to party in Vegas

Nobody in government bothered to crack down on the misuse as the top aide to former cabinet minister Mark Norris racked up more than $35,000 in personal debt on his government credit card, Auditor General Fred Dunn said Monday.

Norris himself was also inappropriately charging items on his government-issued card, Dunn found. Together, he and his executive assistant, Sasha Angus, rang up more than $47,700 in personal charges between 2003 and 2004.

Angus's expenses included a bachelor party in Las Vegas, CBC-TV reported earlier this year.

Norris was economic development minister from 2001 to 2004, before being voted out of office. His aide repaid the $30,000 he still owed government in November 2004, after the provincial election left Norris and Angus jobless.

Angus told auditors that he was never trained to properly use government credit cards, the report says. Dunn didn't buy the excuse.

"People knew what they're to be used for," he said. "They're supposed to be used for government purposes."

Norris was supposed to approve Angus's credit card statements monthly. "Mr. Norris told us that when he received credit card statements and supporting receipts for review and approval, he often approved them without a thorough review," the report says.

Norris claims that Angus paid his credit card expenses;

Norris, who mounted an failed bid to become Conservative leader and premier last year, told The Canadian Press it was "an unfortunate situation" that the credit card given to Angus "got used in that fashion," but he noted that taxpayers weren't affected because Angus repaid it.

Funny though that's not what the Auditor General says.

He rapped Norris's department, in particular. "It's not a good use of the government's senior resources, chasing down assistants for invoices," he said, adding Economic Development was "by far and away the worst."

Of Norris's $45,776.23 total spent on the card between 2002 and 2004, fully $9,466 was spent on "self-disclosed personal expenses". Another $10,500 went towards alleged government expenses with no supporting documentation.

Angus spent $143,426 on his card in the same period. More than half of that did not include supporting documentation, including some $38,291 in personal spending. The government eventually garnisheed his $80,000 annual salary to address repayment.

"The approval process for paying Mr. Angus's card included a review and approval by the minister," said Dunn. "Mr. Norris told us that when he received credit card statements and supporting receipts for review and approval, he often approved them without a thorough review."

And although Norris paid off his charges monthly, his assistant racked up tens of thousands of dollars in debts, including one period in 2004 when his bill reached nearly $30,000 and languished unpaid for months, costing Albertans thousands in interest that was never repaid.

Unfortunately they were not alone in abusing government credit cards. Just the guys with the most expensive tastes. After all this is a government that believes it is entitled to it's entitlements. Sounds familiar, heck some even bought golf balls.

By comparison, Dunn's office reviewed 1,300 recent credit-card transactions in other ministries between 2003 and 2006, and found only 14 of them were for personal use, worth a total of $7,100.

But the audit found also found shoddy paperwork throughout government. If found 383 transactions worth $36,346 that were identified as "gifts." Officials usually gave in receipts, but rarely disclosed who received the gifts and why, the report says.

The auditor eventually reviewed 80 government credit cards and found thousands in expenses that were simply identified as "gifts."

Some spent their money on fridge magnets or golf balls featuring their constituency address. Another bought 160 legislature watches as gifts for overachieving school kids.

In four cases, MLAs used the gift budget to supplement constituency assistants’ salaries to the tune of nearly $20,000.

But in many cases there was “little to no indication” of who received a gift or how the public would benefit.

While the previous stories made news, there are other departments that came under criticism from the Auditor General. And they did not make the news yet. One of those was the Department of Agriculture, a vote gathering slush fund.

The Ministry received $531 million in revenue in 2006–2007.

In 2006–2007, the Ministry spent $1.068 billion.

Its largest expenditures are:
Farm income support $ 573
Insurance $216
Environment and food safety $63
Infrastructure assistance $51
Industry development $46
Rural services $37
Farm fuel distribution allowance $32

The Review of the Department of Agriculture found a bigger boondoggle than just a loosey goosey farm fuel give away program. In fact the departments loans and support payments to farmers has a high failure rate. The department is a net loss, it spends more than it takes in. And fails to assess risk on farm loans it makes. And once again it is a question of failure of any oversight being taken. It in fact lost over $30 million in bad loans. And it could not account for how that happened.

The Agriculture Financial Services Corporation

The Corporation recorded an SLLA of $12.1 million and a GLLA of
$18.5 million at March 31, 2007.

The loan loss allowance is an estimate of the losses that exist in the loan portfolio at a specific time. The loan loss allowance has two parts—the specific
loan loss allowance (SLLA) and the general loan loss allowance (GLLA). The
Corporation records an SLLA for loans it identifies as impaired and a GLLA for
loans at risk of loss, but not specifically impaired.

However, the Corporation’s processes do not ensure that credit risk indicators and security values are updated regularly for all loans.

Account managers update the indicators annually for
commercial loans, through the annual commercial account review. However,
they do not update these indicators for farm loans annually—instead, they
update these loans only if a customer requests additional funds or a loan is
amended.

We found that 47% of the Corporation’s loan customers did not have the credit
risk indicators in the lending system. For 54% of the Corporation’s loan
customers, the Corporation had not updated the security values in the lending
system in more than two years.

Other recommendations, the Government can accurately budget but doesn't

Government’s revenue forecasting systems (Vol. 1, p. 142)—government has adequate systems for preparing revenue budgets and forecasts. The government’s actual revenues have exceeded budgets by an average of $5 billion in the last 4 years;

Your privacy is not protected. In fact the computer you are using to read this on is probably more secure than the ones used by the government and its departments. Let alone all those scandals around the loss of private information via contracted out registry services.

• Service Alberta may not be providing the right services, and the governments and Albertans’ confidential information may not be secure.

Yep Rusty Idols was right any other province and just one of these scandals would bring down the government. But in Alberta the Tired Old Tories simply arch an eyebrow and go back to being asleep at the wheel.


Read the report here.


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Red Sea Volcano

Three weeks after the tectonic plates moved in Indonesia they had an impact in Africa.

Jabal al-Tair, meaning bird mountain, is one of several volcanoes at the southern end of the Red Sea between Yemen and Sudan.

The island, two miles wide, has no civilian population, only military installations used for Yemeni naval control. It is not clear how many military personnel were there during the eruption.

Jabal al-Tair's last eruption was in 1883, according to the Washington-based Smithsonian Institute's global volcano programme.

There had been considerable seismic activity around the island ahead of yesterday's eruption, the Yemeni defence ministry said on its website, including an earthquake of magnitude 7.3 on Friday.

Canadian National Defence image shows lava flows and clouds of smoke and ash

This gives new meaning to Toronto the Good.

A Canadian navy ship rescued a Yemeni soldier Monday following a volcanic eruption on a small island in the Red Sea.

HMCS Toronto was part of a NATO fleet in the area that was called upon by the Yemeni government to help rescue its soldiers after the eruption began Sunday evening.

HMCS Toronto is seen during operations, part of Canada's contribution to Standing NATO Maritime Group 1, an international naval rapid deployment fleet. (Master Cpl. Kevin Paul / Canadian Forces Combat Camera)

Canadian Navy divers in small boats were seen searching the waters surrounding the island late Monday.

A survivor described to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa the first moments of the disaster.

"It was horrible. It started with shocks like quakes, and then we heard huge blasts with lava and rocks spewing out and dropping on us," Ahmad Abdullah al-Jalal, who was rescued by the Canadian frigate HMCS Toronto, told dpa aboard the vessel.

Al-Jalal said that he and six fellow soldiers decided to flee the island by trying to swim through "boiling water" surrounding the tiny island.

"Some of them cried 'the sea,' advising that we should jump to the water before it got hotter," he said.

"I saw four of my colleagues dying in the boiling water just behind me," al-Jalal said as he was being comforted by Yemeni Coast Guard officers who boarded the Canadian ship to receive him and the remains of the two soldiers recovered by the Canadian sailors.

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Royalty Is NOT A Tax

There seems to be some confusion on the pro-big-oil whiners on the right over the difference between a royalty and a tax. Royalties are before tax payments and thus are tax deductible.

If Alberta collects its back due royalties, plus increases the royalty rate on resource extraction it will be a TAX BREAK for big oil. And it will reduce payments to that loathsome traditional enemy of the Alberta First right wing; Ottawa. The irony is delicious.

Royalty payments are tax deductible. Hiking Alberta's royalty take by $2 billion annually would shave as much as $400 million off Ottawa's revenue from petroleum producers (the federal corporate income tax rate runs about 20%) and $200 million off Alberta's own income tax proceeds.

And it is also a provincial tax break. So quit yer whining and suck it up.

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Hey Ed You Were In Cabinet

Farmer Ed the man who is now Alberta CEO was in cabinet when this happened.

Albertans were shortchanged by as much as $2 billion annually over the last three years because the government failed to act on its own energy department's royalty recommendations, the auditor general has reported.

Oh yeah and he was Minister of Agriculture when this happened.

Province's farm fuel benefits program at centre of costly controversy

The provincial government sat on a report for seven years that outlined massive failures in policing its $100-million-a-year farm fuel benefit program, before similar concerns were raised by Alberta’s auditor general in 2006.

Now it must explain how Albertans can be sure the almost $1-billion spent on the program in that time was used wisely, said Liberal critic Hugh MacDonald.

Stelmach defended over farm fuel flap

"Premier Stelmach was the minister who identified the issue, period," said Sands. "First, Minister Stelmach ordered a renewal of the applications for the program in 1998. Second, Minister Stelmach ordered an internal review of the that very process. That's the document being banded about today - the very one Minister Stelmach ordered."

But Stelmach left the portfolio in May 1999, Sands said, and the internal review wasn't completed until a month later.

That doesn't explain why, in the following eight years that he was in other cabinet roles, Stelmach didn't notice that the most significant complaint against the program - that it had no way of verifying whether participants were eligible - hadn't been fixed, said Liberal critic Hugh MacDonald. It also doesn't explain why three more agriculture ministers after him didn't follow through, either.

In fact, the issue wasn't raised again until a 2003 recommendation from the auditor general that the portion of the program offering a rebate on diesel purchases was a "high risk" due to its low number of audits.

And his Tired Old Tory policies of government fiscal ineptitude have followed him as the unelected Premier. Instead of rent and condo controls the government shoveled out money to renters to pay for rent increases. And that too has turned into another boondoggle.What kind of fiscal conservative would do that? The kind that have been in power way, way, too long.

Nearly three-in-10 claims granted from a fund to help stave off homelessness were improperly approved -- but no fraud has been found, a provincial audit has concluded.

An internal investigation into the $7-million fund -- which is expected to balloon to $21 million by the end of the year -- found more than $60,000 of the nearly $200,000 put under the microscope was handed out without proper checks and balances.

The opposition wants the auditor general to look at Alberta's Homeless and Eviction Prevention Fund.

NDP Leader Brian Mason says an internal audit that isn't worth the paper it's written on. He says that's because the auditors only interviewed the staff administering the program.

Those are the same people whom news reports earlier this year suggested were ordered to hand out program money without proper documentation in the first place.

Nope no fraud just business as usual in Alberta.


And just to show how out of touch Prince Edward is.....

"The real test will come at the next general election," Stelmach stressed because "Alberta does not run on autopilot"

Ha, Ha, Ha, please stop it.


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LiberalTory Surplus Story

So the Throne Speech will be a Budget Speech. The new-con men; Harper's Neo-Con Government are preparing for a confidence vote. The only way they can bring themselves down.

Fresh from closing the books on last year's massive $13.8 billion surplus - about four billion more than it had recently predicted - the department said Friday that already in the first four months of this year it was operating on a $7.8 billion surplus, about one billion more than last year's monster haul for the same period.

Despite announced spending increases in the March federal budget, fiscal analysts have been watching with mild surprise as the surplus built up in government coffers month by month since April.

The new surplus was accumulating even though program spending rose by $3.7 billion during the first third of the year on higher transfer payments and increased expenses for such things as the war in Afghanistan.

But budgetary revenues also rose significantly by $4.9 billion, spurred on by higher tax receipts from corporations and individuals.

And July saw another $1.4 billion added as money continued to flow into Ottawa faster than the government can spend it.

"Wow," reacted John Williamson of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. "This is feeling little like the atmosphere we had prior to the Liberals rolling out their five-year tax cut plan that began in 2000.

The calls for broad-based tax relief, particularly from the corporate sector, grew louder yesterday as the federal government disclosed its surplus for the first four months of the current budget year, at $7.8-billion, is on pace to become the largest federal windfall in the country's history.

The total is nearly three times what it projected for 2007-08 and more than halfway to the $14.2-billion windfall recorded for 2006-07, which the government unveiled this week.

Assuming spending and the rate of tax revenue growth remain as they are, the surplus is headed toward $23-billion -- which would make it the highest on record, surpassing the $19.9-billion set in 2000-01.

"All the stars are aligning for the federal government to unleash some stimulus -- if not in next year's budget, then before," said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

"The confluence of events we have here is that there is pressure on the economy from the currency and the credit crunch; we have surplus numbers well above last year's lofty levels; and we have an election possibly looming."

He said the scenario was reminiscent of the fall of 2000, when the former Liberal government unveiled a $100-billion tax-cut package in an early mini-budget. Weeks later, an election was called, and the Liberals secured a third consecutive majority government.

For the four-month period ended July 31, the $7.8-billion surplus represents an increase of 15%, or just over $1-billion, compared with the same time last year. Corporate tax revenue climbed 25%, while revenue from personal taxes gained 3.5%, to $37.7-billion. On the whole, revenue for Ottawa increased 6.5%, to $80.5-billion.

The stars are aligning for Harper with a few clouds gathering. A budget speech means the government can fall, bets are increasing for a fall/winter election. Place your wagers now.

Harper pledges $725-million in tax cut

Harper's team gears up for election

Liberals ready for election, adviser says

And Harper uses his executive authority to pay down the countries debt, Alberta style, despite previously calling for parliamentary oversight. But then he was leader of the opposition and had to say that. Yeah right. $14 billion gets ya less than a billion in tax cuts. Peanuts.

The national debt now stands at $467 billion.

And speaking of peanuts,this surplus, shows that $1 billion in program cuts made last year, and those now pending in the Department of Environment, were not needed. They were purely for partisan political purposes.

With all the ceremony of an election stump speech, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Thursday that a $13.8-billion surplus - one which exceeded the federal government's own projections - has gone towards paying down the debt.

The move is an interesting role reversal for Harper, considering how loudly the Conservatives used to crow from the opposition benches when the previous Liberal government delivered massive surplus after massive surplus.

But when asked about the difference, Harper replied like a man headed to the polls: Liberals tax to spend, while Conservatives tax to put the fiscal house in order.

Despite that stance, echoed by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty as he fielded questions following Harper's quick exit, critics weren't impressed.

NDP Leader Jack Layton this week questioned the wisdom of using the surplus to pay down the national debt, suggesting that the government's failure to adequately fund social programs and infrastructure while swimming in dough makes it less likely his party would prop up the minority government.

Liberal finance critic John McCallum said the party's position on surpluses would be made clear when it releases its election platform, but noted that in the past Liberals have favoured a splitting the "surprise" windfalls between tax cuts, new spending and debt repayment.

"The lessons I draw from this is that there was certainly no need to raise the income tax rate and no need to cut the most vulnerable people, like women's groups, literacy programs and museums," he added. In the first Flaherty budget, the Conservatives reversed former Prime Minister Paul Martin's half-point reduction in the lowest income tax bracket in order to pay for a cut to the GST tax.

Paying down the debt Alberta style, meant that while Ralph Klein could symbolically burn the provincial mortgage, declaring Alberta debt free, the province was a mess.

On July 13, 2004, Premier Ralph Klein announced that Alberta was the only debt-free province in Canada. It had owed $23 billion when he took office in 1992

In order to pay down the debt it deferred much needed infrastructure funding, had unfunded pension liabilities, contracted out services and cut staff. Now in order to play catch up by funding infrastructure and services, and paying off pension liabilities, the costs are skyrocketing in an overheated economy. Causing the current treasurer to cry gloom and doom, hinting at future debt and deficits.

Paying down the debt is an illusion, it sounds good but it is unsound economics.

Like cuts to the GST rather than its elimination.

At least one neo-con press pundit, from Calgary of course, has claimed that Harpers good fortune economically has less to do with the belt tightening cuts made by then Finance Minister Paul Martin, than to the long term wisdom of Brian Mulroney.

No seriously, the man who left Canada in a debt and deficit crisis should be thanked for introducing NAFTA which she says is now paying off. Sure in sales of Canadian iconic industries to foreign capital and our link to the declining credit market.

Actually paying down the debt was Federal Liberal policy, and the debt reduction act was adopted under PM Paul Martin, one which was modeled on Ralph's. The Harpocrites are merely following through, well actually pushing through debt reduction as a priority. It is after all a policy of theirs since they were the Reform Party,created in those halcyon days of the debt and deficit bugaboo.

Meanwhile the rising dollar has offset the immediate impact that the credit market meltdown has had. And the surplus gives the illusion all is well in the marketplace.

One fly in the ointment is that the Canadian economy has yet to feel the full brunt of a credit crisis, which first surfaced in August and could result in fewer revenues for the government. But few expect that a mild economic downturn will do more than slow down the flow of cash from taxpayers.

But the inevitable storm clouds are gathering, despite the voluntary efforts of another Tory right winger; Purdy Crawford point man for Canada's big banks and credit unions.And despite viewing the melt down with rosy glasses for the past two months, David Dodge, finally had to bite the bullet Friday.

The Bank of Canada injected almost $1-billion into money markets yesterday, a stark reminder that all is not right in Canada's credit market.

Just two days after Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge declared that "the overnight market is now well on its way back to normal operations in Canada," the bank found itself having to defend its key interest rate with one of its largest cash injections to date.

The central bank also increased the amount that it leaves in its settlement system to allow for easy money transfers between banks. It has set aside $300-million, instead of the $150-million target of the past few weeks, and the $25-million during normal market conditions.

Something is definitely amiss in Canada's money markets.

The Bank of Canada, for the third business day in a row, injected about $1-billion into the overnight market to defend its key interest rate.

A bank spokesman said the liquidity provision was simply a technical move, a normal quarter-end demand for more cash.

But for the Bank of Canada's monetary policy to work properly, it's not enough to just defend the overnight rate. That rate needs to act as a benchmark for the short-term borrowing rates that corporations, home buyers and consumers pay.

That bail out was announced the same day that the second budget surplus was declared. And since paying down the debt results not in any real economic savings for Canadians simply a better credit rating, it is ironic that it could be wiped out in a credit market melt down.

But the Canadian economy is facing difficulties other than the strong loonie and the risk of a protracted U.S. slowdown, Mr. Hall said.

New elements in play have led the Bank of Canada to adopt a neutral approach to interest rates, Mr. Hall said. Those factors include the implicit tightening as a result of the widening of credit spreads and a reduction of liquidity as banks reverse a process in which they could push loans off their books by securitization. "It will take time for these effects to be felt," Mr. Hall said.

The freeze-up in the Canadian asset-backed commercial paper markets along with the rise in the Canadian dollar will make this Friday's release of the Bank of Canada's quarterly business outlook survey an important report, said David Wolf, economist and strategist for Merrill Lynch Canada Inc.

Government can only effectively pay down the debt when they have the secure asset base to do it. That is your infrastructure is paid for.

Instead of paying down the debt, the government needs to expand investment in its assets, not selling them off. Infrastructure needs investment which the Harpocrites deny since it runs counter to their neo-con monetarist policy.

Debt reduction only works if you have no liabilities, such as infrastructure. And to show exactly how hidebound the government is, they would rather have parliament literally fall down around their ears than abandon their neo-con ideology.

“Paying down the debt” means “reducing the public’s supply of T-bonds.” In other words, it means “reducing the public’s net financial wealth”

When the public’s T-bond supply gets too low, it puts a damper on the money creation process. And, as we saw in article 1 of this series, when new money is not created at a sufficient pace (or worse, when the money supply contracts), it results in economic stagnation or contraction. To me, that goes a long way to explaining our dubious history of paying down the debt.

As we reviewed in article 1, inflation is caused by too much money deflation is caused by too little money. But T-bonds are not money, they are merely “proto-money.” Because of that, and because it takes money to create inflation, it follows that increasing the public’s T-bond supply does not cause inflation. Let me say that another way: Deficits do not cause inflation, because deficit spending is the process of increasing the T-bond supply, not the money supply. Monetary policy causes inflation or deflation; fiscal policy does not.

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Gator Killer

See strange animal and shoot it. What a Dweeb! By crickey he missed the whole point of Crocodile Hunter; Steve Irwin's shows on croc's and gators. It is to preserve them not kill them.

Town of Farmington -Ed Long has a new, but strange for these parts, hunting trophy.

What Long thought was a snapping turtle slithering through the upper reaches of the Milwaukee River in Washington County was actually a nearly 4-foot-long alligator, which he promptly shot.

Of course this is all perfectly alright because croc's and gators are not indigenous to Wyoming. Despite being an endangered species around the globe.

Worried that Long may have broken some law, they called the state Department of Natural Resources violation hotline. They said a warden later called them and told them they were not in any trouble and had removed an invasive species from the river.

But the shoot first ask questions later hunter still proves he is an idiot, like most of his ilk; the irresponsible hunter.

Long said he is calling taxidermy shops to see if he can preserve the gator.

"I'd like to have it mounted," Long said. "Or at least get a belt or wallet out of it."

And this is not the first gator of its size to appear in the area. So how come there is no animal control policy for capture and release instead of shooting them in the head?

Alligators have popped up in Washington County before. In August 2006, two 4-foot-long alligators were found in the Rubicon River west of Hartford. Authorities believe those gators also were pets that got dumped.

Ah yes that other species of idiot; the irresponsible 'exotic' pet owner.

Whereas in Muncie, Indiana, and Virgina Beach, Virgina, also not noted for thriving croc and gator populations, folks have the right idea.

Muncie 'gator headed for Florida
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MUNCIE, Ind. -- A nearly 5-foot-long alligator nicknamed Vader Gator was heading to Florida two weeks after being rescued from the streets of Muncie.

The Muncie Animal Shelter sent Vader off Monday on the first leg of his journey to Croc Encounters, a reptile park and wildlife center in Tampa.

Shelter workers rescued Vader on Sept. 5 after it was found wandering through a neighborhood. The 4-foot-11 reptile had escaped an outdoor kennel by climbing over a fence, said Karen Gibson, the shelter's superintendent. Vader had outgrown a box it lived in inside its owners' home.

Vader spent 12 days at the shelter, confined to its own kennel, equipped with a heated water pool and a heat lamp.

Alligator captured in Virginia Beach, headed to zoo
Daily Press, VA - 11 Sep 2007
A private contractor caught the reptile Monday on the grass near Lake Holly. The resort city's animal control officers believe the alligator was released

The irony is that this poor gator would have been alive if he hung out in the Ukraine.

And even in areas of the U.S. which recently allowed limited 'hunting' of gators they are tough to kill. Which you would think would discourage folks from hunting them. You would think. But give a guy a gun and he thinks he can kill anything. And gator hunting is just another game for thrill seekers. And like other big game sport hunting, which is often excused as conservation; culling of over population, should be banned.

Jesse Latham, Eric Creigler, Stephen Creigler and Charlie Latham pose with 480-lb. alligator.

Four alligator hunters may have heard the theme music from the movie "Jaws" playing in the background as they wrestled with a hooked monster that pulled their boat around the Mobile River delta and then, in an outrage, charged the boat and bit into the fiberglass hull.

That was just part of the excitement of the midnight to almost daylight fight the gator hunters experienced the final night of the second state-sanctioned alligator hunt in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. They eventually landed the 12 foot-six inch reptile that weighed 480 lbs.

The gator was just shy of the state record of 12 feet, 10 inches but ranked in the top three killed during the season.

Jesse said the group learned a lot of things during the hunt. He said they were lucky that they had a larger boat. A smaller one could have been overturned by the gator's attack or as they tried to load it.

"I've been skydiving and gator hunting ranks right up there with that. I'd go again but next time we'll know to be better prepared. There are some big gators out there."

And then there are those folks who keep the gator alive to exploit it. 65 years old and in a tiny cage, I would be pissed off too.

BIG AL

Billed as a 65-year-old, 13-foot Florida alligator, it turns out Big Al is good at performing a single amazing trick: staying perfectly still.

"I think he's heavily medicated," said Phylicia Cardiel, 18, after paying a buck to see the once-proud reptile. "He doesn't do anything. He just looks pissed off."

Photo by John Harte

Big Al, the 13-foot long, 1,200-pound alligator, was photographed from a floorboard opening in the sleeping quarters of Tim Wilson, Big Al's handler.

Mind you those guys in Alabama could have just gathered around his cage and took a photo with him instead of having to kill the gator they did. Since Big Al is bigger than the gator they executed.

Oh by the by I am not opposed to hunting. Just trophy hunting and stupid hunters like the guy from Farmington..


SEE:

Another Croc

I Don't Do Mornings

Croc Tales

Animal Tales

Shark Bait

Coren Is An Idiot

Animal Crimes

Tigers As Commodities

Post Katrina Monster Executed

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Alligator, Milwaukee River, croc, crocodile, Alligator hunting, endangered species,

Weird Science

You can't make this stuff up.

Serial Killer Amoeba.

Here is another phenomena related to Global Warming. Brain eating amoeba. Watch for more of them in warm waters near you.

PHOENIX - It sounds like science fiction but it's true: A killer amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die.

Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are extraordinarily rare, it's killed six boys and young men this year. The spike in cases has health officials concerned, and they are predicting more cases in the future.

"This is definitely something we need to track," said Michael Beach, a specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better," Beach said. "In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases."

According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials noticed a spike with six cases - three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC knows of only several hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia in the 1960s.

Froggy Goes A Courtin'

For those opposed to having to dissect frogs in class because it is cruel to animals. You now have the genetically modified alternative. Gives a broader meaning to GMO; genetically modified organism. Wait a minute folks opposed to dissection are also opposed to GMO's.

Photo in the News: See-Through Frog Bred in Japan

Masayuki Sumida, a professor at the Institute for Amphibian Biology at Japan's Hiroshima University, bred the frog to be a humane learning tool.

"You can watch organs of the same frog over its entire life, as you don't have to dissect it," Sumida told the news agency Agence France-Presse. The scientist announced his research last week at an academic meeting.

Dissecting animals for science has sparked controversies worldwide, even prompting some companies to create computer simulations as cruelty-free alternatives.

Researchers bred the sheer creature—a type of Japanese brown frog—for two recessive genes that make it pale.

Though not yet patented, the frog is the first four-legged, see-through animal to be bred by scientists. Some fish species are also clear.

See Through Frog Video.

Genetically modified frogs also occur outside the lab.

The growing number of deformed frogs in recent years is caused at least partly by runoff from farming and ranching, new research indicates.

Nitrogen and phosphorous in the runoff fuel a cycle that results in a parasitic infection of tadpoles, resulting in loss of legs, extra legs or other deformities, according to researchers led by Pieter Johnson of the University of Colorado, Boulder.

But not to worry if frogs die out there is an alternative being developed by those clever Japanese.

Researches at the University of Tokyo developed a robot that can jump like a frog.

Reptiles Prove Two Heads Are Better Than One



Which do we go?

Unique Conjoined Two-Headed Turtle Goes On Display

Norristown, PA (AHN) - A rare two-headed turtle is on display at a Pennsylvania pet store. A unique example of a conjoined-twin birth, the turtle's heads are on opposite ends of the reptile's shell.

Jay Jacoby, manager of Big Al's Aquarium Supercenter in East Norriton told the Associated Press that he bought the tiny 2-month old turtle from the collector for an undisclosed price and would now keep it on display.

The turtle, known as a red-eared slider, was most likely to die if it had not taken care of as it moves awkwardly in two directions. It has two heads sticking out from opposite ends of its shell, along with a pair of front feet on each side. But there is just one set of back feet and one tail.

The owner of the pet store says he doesn't plan to sell the turtle that seems healthy. The species can live 15 to 20 years, Jacoby said adding he has yet to give a name to the exotic animal.

The turtle is rare but not 'unique' there are other two headed turtles and two headed reptiles. Like amphibians reptiles show the ability to regenerate.

Two heads are better than one when it comes to attracting visitors to Fred Lally's tent at the SEMO District Fair.

Lally set up shop this week at the fair grounds to display his exhibit of several reptilian oddities including a pair of two-headed turtles, a two-headed western diamondback rattlesnake and a two-headed albino black rat snake named Golden Girls.

Lally began handling reptiles as a child in Louisiana when he would collect turtles, fish and snakes to sell for extra money. He started buying and selling snakes out of country singer Tex Ritter's old tour bus in the 1970s and joined the fair and carnival circuit in 1992.

He started looking to buy his first two-headed reptile in the 1980s.

"It's not pollution," Lally said. "Everybody's real quick to jump on that."

The scientific explanation for a two-headed reptile is the same as a Siamese twin: It's simply two eggs that unsuccessfully tried to separate, he said.

"All the books say it's not genetic," Lally said. But just as human families have a preponderance of twins, he believes reptiles do as well.

Surprisingly what we know about reptile biology is very limited.

Meanwhile in Indonesia the Hawksbill turtle is endangered by humans. Garbage, pesticides, PCB, all that environmental junk of expanding capitalism, globalization means death to indigenous peoples and animals.

Hawksbill turtles fight losing pollution battle in Indonesia

SEE:

Fountain of Youth

Blonde Lobster, No Joke

Mad Science; Fluorescent Pigs


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science, turtle, biology, two headed turtle, frog, biology, amphibians, reptile, genetic modification,
see through frog, robot frog, global warming, brain eating amoeba, Amoeba,