Money stolen from Merrill Lynch: $43 Million.
Money stolen or unlawfully possed and hidden in offshore bank accounts: $10.3 Million.
Money stolen through fraud in a US pyramid scheme: $230 Million.
Being denied bail AND facing extradition charges to the United States: Priceless.
Because, when Visa isn’t enough, there’s always theft, fraud, and money laundering.
Click here for the complete Michael Ritter Scandal Chronology…
Oui, c’est un press release…
Prof probes impact of post 9/11 surveillance
Immediately after the 9/11 Al-Qeada terrorist attacks, government officials in both the U.S. and Canada were quick to pass legislation to increase surveillance of their citizens. But now, four years later, as fear of further terrorist attacks has become less acute and suspicion of government leaders’ motives has heightened, more and more people are starting question the increased invasion of their privacy, says Dr. Kevin Haggerty, director of the criminology program in the University of Alberta Department of Sociology.
“Right after 9/11 it was impossible for anyone to say no to anything that would purportedly increase security,” said Haggerty, who recently co-authored a paper on the use of surveillance as response to terrorist threats, which was published in the Canadian Journal of Sociology.
Increasing the ability of lawmakers to monitor our Internet use, financial transactions, personal movements and cell phone use were just a few of the measures in the U.S. Patriot Act and the Canadian Public Safety Act that became law shortly after 9/11. But many of these measures had been proposed and rejected as unwarranted privacy invasions in previous years, Haggerty said.
The steep increase in surveillance infrastructure after 9/11 has been “intensive” and has “proceeded with little public debate or protest,” he added. “But polling and censor numbers are showing us that people have lost some of their trust in authorities, and we are now looking more critically at the restrictions being placed on our civil liberties.”
Read the rest here.
We thought this was interesting.
Check out the US National Debt Clock and the US Federal Government Budget Spending.
The United States Bureau of Public Debt has some pretty skyrocketing debt numbers as well.
In 2000, the US National Public Debt was $5,674,178,209,886.86.
As of yesterday, the US National Public Debt was sitting at $7,950,034,655,748.03.
holy shite.
Can anyone enlighten us?
(props to funcentral for the link to this quiz)
August 30-31: Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation Minister and Tory Leadership Candidate, Lyle Oberg visits the Ukraine and meets with Ukraine’s Minister of Transportation and other government and business officials.
Sept 9: Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko fires his cabinet.
Mere coincidence? Decide for yourself.
Top American researchers and analysts have disected the reason for United States President George W. Bush’s unique grasp of the English Language.
Brilliant. Freaking brilliant.
(Props to Expat for the link)
When we finish digging our hole from Garneau to the other side of the world, we now know we’ll end up in the south Indian Ocean!
From That Canadian Girl via Darren Barefoot.
An email from Aaron of Grandinite fame…
Friends of the Canadian Blogosphere:
As I stated, not one month ago, on Calgary’s QR 770 with Rob Breakenridge: you have not heard the last of Aaron Braaten.
I bring to you the Great Canadian Blog Survey at Canadianeconomist.com.
There’s info on the site if you want to direct people straight to the survey and cut out the middleman. If you get a pop-up, that’s the survey.
Please help me publicize it. If you link to it, just respond to this email so I can acknowledge you in the final reports.
Let’s get ‘er done.
The more respondents the survey gets, the faster the report will come out and the sooner you ‘linkers’ are immortalized in Canada’s best blog survey, done by a blogger for his fellow bloggers.
Plus you will be helping a budding young economist finish his master’s thesis.
Five minutes out of your busy day of blogging. Five minutes is all I ask.
To those of you who link to it: thank you. For those of you who do not, please take my survey!
Cheers,
Aaron Braaten
—
Founder of:http://www.canadianeconomist.com
http://www.albertablogs.com
http://www.grandinite.com
Don Martin that is.
Derek, from Born with a Tail, has posted his review of National Post columnist Don Martin’s inward looking five-part series on why Alberta is better than the rest of Canada. We very much enjoy the Raymakerian-style of blog posting.
Check it out.
Rod! Say it ain’t so!
From Wednesday’s Edmonton Journal…
“…the moustache, Love said he “hacked it off” because he got tired of looking at it after 35 years.“
Rod Love (seen here), who is “not a lobbyist,” recently re-left Premier Ralph Klein’s Office as Chief of Staff for the second time to rejoin the private sector. He also parted ways with his trademark massive moustache.
Mr. Love, who has been heavily involved in Kleinesian politics since 1980 was also one of the geniuses
Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft is suggesting that the Alberta Government instate a cooling off period for insiders like Love, who hop in between the private consulting jobs and high level political positions. The issue came up after Mr. Love’s new consulting firm took out a large advertizment in last Tuesday’s Globe & Mail business section praising the experiences of Mr. Love.
Currently, there is a one year cooling off period for retiring or defeated Cabinet Ministers.
We tend to agree. A cooling off period for political insiders wouldn’t be so bad.
And yes, if you would like to see the newly moustachless Mr. Love, check out this coverage by Kevin Rich at CFCN Calgary.
How long does a blog have to be dormant before it’s considered to be “dead?”
Is the Child of Reagan dead?
Warning! Only the eight year-old in us found this funny. Be warned.
Louisiana Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu…
Last week: “I’m not angry at anyone.”
This week: “If one persons criticizes our sheriffs, or says one more thing, including the President of the United States, he will hear from me – one more word about it after this show airs and I – might likely have to punch him – literally.”
(props to Mr. Taylor for the CNN coverage).
From the Calgary Herald…
[Advanced Education Minister Dave] Hancock disagreed that graduating with student debt totalling as much as $20,000 is unacceptable.
“It’s the best investment you’ll ever make,” he said, adding it took him a decade to repay his student loans.
So, at what point did personal debt become good and government debt become bad?
Klein auctions off his “maverick brand” on E-Bay…
