Japan's Dot.Com Scandal

How Japan's internet king lost his crown Consider the Enron affair and the Dot.Com bubble burst occuring simultaneously and you have what happened in Japan this week.

When the Japanese internet company Livedoor and its owner Takafumi Horie were busted for fraud,The Japanese boy's stock at rock bottom ,it saw the Nikkei stock market crash and burn only to recover days later. Scandal fails to halt Tokyo's rising sums

Another fine example that capitalism is a criminal enterprise (the primitive accumulation of capital), it's about accumulation by any means neccasary.

Livedoor's Horie Gives Up Holiday for Meetings, His Blog Says

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Takafumi Horie, the 33-year-old founder of Livedoor Co., is kept busy running between his home and office dealing with allegations the company violated Japanese securities law, he wrote in a Web log posting dated today.

``I am meeting daily on measures,'' the 33-year-old Internet entrepreneur wrote, giving up days off and hurrying between his home and office in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills office-entertainment complex. It was his first blog posting since Jan. 19.

Livedoor was raided by prosecutors Jan. 16, triggering a plunge in Japanese stocks that led to the Tokyo Stock Exchange to halt trading for the second time in its history.

The Prosecutors Office has alleged that Livedoor's marketing unit in October 2004 announced it would buy publisher Money Life with stock, while the acquisition had already been made with cash.

Livedoor has said it didn't consider Money Life to be a subsidiary as of the date it announced it would buy it with shares. Livedoor also said its unit used stock because it didn't have enough cash for the purchase.

Horie's blog posting noted that the company's financial statement is approaching, and he is being pressed to prepare for the expected Feb. 9 posting as ``most of the documents have been confiscated.''

Horie himself is to be questioned in the investigation, Kyodo News reported today, citing investigative sources it didn't identify by name.

Funny he doesn't mention the suicide of one of his executives, due to embarrasment at Horie's dealings.

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Japan
Nikkei
internet
Livedoor
scandal
Takafumi Horie

Big Brother Bush

Subpoena for Google Records Raises Privacy Fears



Don't Be Evil:
Google fights back against the Orwellian
Bush Administration and
says 'no' to handing over search data.

The attempt by the Bush administration to get Google to allow it to spy online on millions of the world citizens is another good reason that the Internet Protocol should not be controlled by one country.

China, Arab-League Build New Internets

Recently there was controversy of the addition of a .xxx domain name as the US government twisted the arm of Icann to squash this new domain name. Other countries cited this example of how the US controls the Internet and have subsequently pressed for Icann to be under the UN’s control. As the Internet becomes a bigger part of every country’s daily lives and economy the fear of having US control over such an important network is growing.

In response, the US is saying that countries like China, Libya, Syria and Cuba who complain about US-based Internet control don’t have democracies and as such taking control of the Internet for them means they will use their power for censorship.

Alternatives to Icann are also popping up in Europe where the Open Root Server Network or ORSN mirrors Icann and is there almost as a safeguard in case Icann starts to behave badly. In other words this root can be used as leverage to ensure Icann operates in a fair and equitable manner.

Should World Make Room For Another Wide Web?

Grundmann told Vixie that he set up ORSN in February 2002 because of his distrust of the Bush administration and its foreign policy. He fears that Washington could easily "turn off" the domain name of a country it wanted to attack, crippling the Internet communications of that country's military and government.

To build a better Net

Reforming the Internet to fence off thieves and to shore up performance could make cyberspace safer and possibly faster. In the transition, however, much of what is appealing about the Internet — the abandon with which information is traded; the ability to sound off anonymously; the wealth of links built over the brief, rich history of the World Wide Web — could be lost.

Those are among the reasons researchers are at work on a better Internet. In a room whirring with the soft buzz of computer hard drives financed by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security, computer scientists set up a mock battlefield at the Cyber Defense Technology Experimental Research Network, or DETER, on the campus of the University of Southern California. Stocked with a thick library of subversive software, the project offers a “test bed” equal to 2,000 quarantined personal computers where worms and viruses are set free to war against good-guy software.

While Google is an American corporation, its reach is world wide, and as a truly transnational corporation it has responbilities to those who use its search engine, to gurantee our privacy whether we are American citizens or not.

Which is what Google has done in rejecting the search demand made by the Bush Big Brother Regime. While also protecting its commercial software search engine. Intellectual property rights, patent and corporate secrecy trump the American State. Ironic that.

While being done under the auspices of protecting children this is no different than the recent scandals in the US about the Bush administrations warrentless spying on emails, phone calls, mail etc of thousands of Americans.

How Cheney used the NSA for domestic spying prior to 9/11

Instead of using the excuse of National Security or War on Terror, which would immediate raise the hackles of civil libertarians, the Bush administraion uses the red herring of child porn to attempt to sweep through weeks of Google searches.

Spying on innocent Americans unlawful

It doesn't stop with Google, and what is scary is that unnamed commercial Internet sites have been sited as having already complied.

By trying to get Googles records, the Bush Administration is threatening the privacy of the worlds citizens and not just its own.

If Russia or China attempted this same kind of move we would rightly call them authoritarian and view this as a threat to Free Speech. The same applies in this case.

Good for Google, Bad Bush Bad.

Tags
USA
WWW
internet
spyingGoogle

Martin and Harper Reward The Wealthy

66 economists deplore tax cuts And you thought all economists loved tax cuts did you. If these economists deplore tax cuts what are they in favour of you ask. Why social investment of course.

Pointing out something the Conservatives keep Harpering on, that the 1995 balanced budget was made off of cutting Federal transfer payments and funding to the provinces.

Of course ignoring the fact the provinces did the same with their budgets prior to the Federal budget cuts. And then the Federal government spent the next twelve years plunderng social programs like EI and by reductions in department spending, except for their various boondoggles when they attempted to create public private partnerships.

“By failing to tax income trusts, reducing the tax on dividends, and virtually eliminating the tax on capital gains, Martin and Harper have rewarded the wealthy and punished the poor” says David Langille of the Centre for Social Justice. “It means taking money from needy Canadians – money that could have been spent improving our health system, making education more accessible, renewing our crumbling infrastructure, or reducing poverty in Canada and around the world.”

But wait the Conservatives do plan to invest in infrastructure. Well ok private infrastructure, with another...wait for it.....tax cut.Conservatives Would Seriously Consider Tax Deductibility for Gym Memberships So now you can fund your Private Fitness Club membership at taxpayers expense. I can see it now. cuts to social housing to pay for Fitness Club Memberships.

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Canada
Federal Election
Politics
Conservatives
Liberals

A Little Hoodoo

Here is another example of what Robert Fife calls Voodoo Economics.

-- The Canadian dollar strengthened yesterday as "positive mojo" ahead of Monday's election and an interest rate increase Tuesday added to the currency's solid fundamentals.



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Canada
Federal Election
Politics
economy
dollar
Voodoo Economics

Andy Is Running Where

Our Liberal Candidate for Edmonton Strathcona, Andy Hladyshevsky is apparently also listed as residing in Edmonton Centre. The real ha ha is his explaination as to why he was too busy to do anything to correct this.

City voters list mix-up fixed, official says

Elections Canada probing registration irregularities in Edmonton Centre

Among the professionals erroneously included in the revised Edmonton Centre voters list is Edmonton Strathcona Liberal candidate Andy Hladyshevsky.

The address for Hladyshevsky and his wife, Daria, is given as Manulife Place, the building where his law firm, Fraser Milner Casgrain, is located. The couple lives on Strathearn Drive.

The mistake happened because federal income tax records are used for voter registration, and like many lawyers Hladyshevsky's personal and business tax correspondence is sent to his office, he said.

Although he knew about the error, he couldn't find the time in the midst of campaigning to get it corrected, Hladyshevsky said. "I will have to go and do that. This is a subject that has caused a lot of discussion around the (kitchen) table for the last couple of weeks."

As a long-time Strathcona resident, he has always voted in his home riding, he said.

The Blogging Tories have made a proverbial mountain out of a mole hill over this.Update: Edmonton-Centre Voter Fraud

To which I can only say methinks they doth protest too much. Voter Fraud really is over the top.


Tags
Canada
Federal Election
Politics
Edmonton Strathcona
Liberals
Edmonton Centre
Anne McLellan
Edmonton

Back To Harvard

And its nice to know that Michael Ignatieff will NOT be around to contest the Liberal Leadership after Monday Night. Michael Ignatieff: Under siege

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Canada
Federal Election
Politics
Liberals

My Election Precognitations

Precogitation \Pre*cog`i*ta/tion\,
n. [L. praecogitatio.]
Previous cogitation. [R.] --Bailey

Here are my precogitations for Edmonton. Redmonton Not In The Bag for the Conservatives

Its too close to call horse race in four ridings. Yep four. Count em.

Edmonton Centre- Conservative Edmonton Strathcona-NDP
Edmonton East -Liberal
Edmonton Millwoods Beaumont-Liberal

National:
Conservative Minority
Liberal wipe out
NDP more seats than Liberals
Green Party one seat
BQ official opposition

Oh did I mention these are my fantasy precognitations.

But I stick by my four ridings too close to call.

I would like to say Rob Anders will lose in Calgary West but the sucttlebutt out of the riding says it ain't so, better luck next time in getting rid of this parasite.

cogitation

NOUN:

The act or process of thinking: brainwork, cerebration, contemplation, deliberation, excogitation, meditation, reflection, rumination, speculation, thought. See THOUGHTS.

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Canada
Federal Election
Politics
Green Party
NDP
Conservatives
BQ
Liberals

Rabble Election Coverage

For your weekend reading along with your latte's is the Rabble.ca Election News page. Enjoy.

Tags
Canada
Federal Election

Why Vote Liberal When You Can Vote NDP

Points of Information has an interesting post about the attack on the NDP by what he calls the far left; Buzz Hargrove and Jim Laxer. And their defense of supporting the Liberals as a progressive alternative to the Conservatives, thus abandoning the NDP.

For a Blogging Tory he does a downright good job of defending the NDP as NOT being the Liberals. For being the real voice of progressives and the left. He actually says there is no difference between the Liberals and Conservatives, Harper having softened his stances by going towards the centre.

As for his characterization of Buzz and Laxer as the far left, they are far from it.

The actual left is the NDP Socialist Caucus. And candidates like Bev Mezlo who ran for leadership of the party as a member of the NDP SC.

Unlike the pink social democrats like Judy Rebick and Jim Stanford who created the NPI and then Rabble.ca, only to abandon the NPI intiative once Layton was elected Leader. The left in the NDP comes from a mixed political heritage of the socialist movement in Canada, predominated by Troskyists.

And unlike these liberal pink social democrats the socialist left in Canada does not call for strategic voting, it calls for workers to vote NDP.

What should socialists do in the coming Canadian elections?

No support for Martin – vote NDP – and build the movements

In the January 23d Election: Elect an NDP Government Fight for a Workers’ Agenda

Canadian elections herald a dramatic intensification of class conflict

Laxer is an academic not an activist, an ex Waffle member, we could call him the Old New Left, like Rebick and Stanford. Academic leftists if you like, rocking chair activists at best.

Some veteran members of the NDP, such as Waffle movement founder James Laxer, recently expressed concern with what appears to be a party strategy of focusing primarily on the Liberals -- saying Mr. Layton will bear responsibility for electing a Conservative government.

No Jim its not the NDP that is going to elect Conservatives or defeat the Liberals it is Canadians. Here are more of Laxers moaning and groaning.

Is Harper not for turning?

Mulroney's children are poised for power

Canada Conservatives face tricky task in minority

Buzz is well Buzz, an opportunist. Now that Sam Gidin is gone from CAW, he was the socialist behind Buzz, Buzz pronouncements about being Left Wing are more akin to the Wizard of Oz.

Buzz is only concerned with the bread and butter issues of his declining auto industry membership. And the Liberals both federally and provincially have bailed out his auto industry. That's what he is worried about.

Ford may trim jobs in Canada as revamp plan to slash 25,000

Stanford his right hand man is working for the Liberal Candidate who is a Toyota Executive member.

CAW vote support raises stir

Jan. 20, 2006. 06:45 AM

TONY VAN ALPHEN

BUSINESS REPORTER

Politics makes strange bedfellows. And no one knows that better than Buzz Hargrove these days.For example, Hargrove, the president of the Canadian Auto Workers union and a long-time card-carrying NDP member, is endorsing Windsor area Liberal candidate Susan Whelan. She's trying to unseat a Conservative who just happens to be a CAW member in the riding of Essex. And what's more, CAW locals are supporting the NDP candidate in the same riding.If you think that's confusing, Hargrove gave Prime Minister Paul Martin a bulky black CAW jacket recently and the two of them hugged in front of almost a thousand union members. Hargrove has also endorsed a few other Liberal candidates around the country including auto parts heiress Belinda Stronach, whose former company has fought union organizers. These moves are part of the CAW's national strategy to stop the Tories at almost any cost from gaining power in Monday's election.

Laxer, Stanford and Buzz will be judged by their actions in this election which have been more of a discredit to themselves than the NDP. They will be subjected to the political post mortems after Monday night. And the autopsies will be nasty.B.C. labour grapples with Harper's surge

"We're going to be on the job next Tuesday, no matter what the election result, unlike the Liberal Party, that's going to be out of business until it cleans itself up,"Using even stronger language later, Mr. Layton said: "Who is really going to stand up for working Canadians? The smoking hulk of a defeated Liberal Party? Or a strong, united, renewed and effective NDP?"

More of my Buzz Stories

Also See: It's All About Paul

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Canada
Federal Election
Buzz Hargrove
Politics
Strategic Voting
NDP
unions
Labour
Liberals 
Paul Martin

The Wit and Wisdom of Warren Buffet

I love this guy. He is a straight shooting capitalist who tells it like it is.

Buffett warns of trouble

The U.S. trade deficit is a bigger threat to the domestic economy than either the federal budget deficit or consumer debt and could lead to “political turmoil,”-billionaire investor Warren Buffett warned.

“Right now, the rest of the world owns $3-trillion more of us than we own of them,” Mr. Buffett told business students and faculty Tuesday at the University of Nevada, Reno. “In my view, it will create political turmoil at some point .... Pretty soon, I think there will be a big adjustment,” he said without elaborating.

The U.S. trade deficit for the first 11 months of 2005 totaled $661.8-billion (U.S.), surpassing the previous annual record of $617.6-billion set in 2004. Economists say when December figures are included, the final deficit for 2005 will top $710-billion. Mr. Buffett said he expects it to top $700-billion this year.

“That's $2-billion a day,” he said. “We are like a super rich family that owns a farm the size of Texas. You sell off a little bit of the farm and you don't see it.”

Fifteen years ago, the U.S. had no trade deficit with China, he said.

“Now it's $200-billion. If we don't change the course, the rest of the world could own $15-trillion of us. That's pretty substantial. That's equal to the value of all American stock,” Mr. Buffett said.

“That's the big danger. Our national debt does not bother me. Our public debt is not at a crazy level,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Buffett said U.S. companies generally are enjoying some of their best times ever.

“Profits are at close to record levels. So business in America is doing very well — better than its lower-paid workers, by some margin,” he said.

“This is a pro-business United States,” he said. “If you get a group of businessmen together, they'll complain about regulation and liability suits, all kinds of things. Some of those things they are right about and some of it they are just complaining to complain.”

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economics
USA
Warren Buffett