QuickNews, Tuesday, Dec. 8.

The week ahead, Dec. 7-13. * Blame Teddy Roosevelt for Pearl Harbor. (NYT).

Did the "prosperity gospel" of modern American Christianity cause the Crash? (Atlantic)

 UPBEAT START TO HISTORIC CLIMATE-CHANGE SUMMIT

 
 
Greenpeace activists unfurl a banner on the facade of Parliament's West Block in Ottawa. The message is directed at Stephen Harper, prime minister, and Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal official opposition leader. In recent weeks, Greenpeace has rappelled the parliament buildings in London and Paris as well to display climate-change messages. In Copenhagen, one of many stylized globes throughout the city marking history's biggest climate summit, with more than 15,000 participants from 192 nations. The 12-day summit began yesterday.   

BROWN UPS THE CLIMATE-CHANGE ANTE | British PM sets bar higher for EU. Tells Guardian yesterday EU should pledge to cut emissions by 30%, not planned target of 20%, by 2020 from 1990 levels. Gordon Brown, who weeks ago was among first heads of state to say he would go to Copenhagen at a time when the talks seemed doomed, is still in the lead to be the political hero of this historic event. Obama, who conferred with Al Gore at WH yesterday and has a mini eco-summit at WH scheduled for Wednesday, is not far behind. His EPA yesterday declared greenhouse gas emissions a threat to human life, thereby giving itself the authority to monitor emissions, regardless of whether a climate bill now stalled in the U.S. Senate is passed or not. Bill Clinton urges Copenhagen participants to emphasize the upside of curbing climate change. Echoes Obama theme since last year's presidential campaign that green-tech jobs and investment will define 21st century. Clinton, whose post-presidency has largely been occupied with raising awareness and funds for climate-change progress, says global warming needs to be sold as an economic opportunity, not "a dose of castor oil you have to swallow." Spirits high in the Danish capital for the opening day kick-off. What a difference U.S. leadership makes. Canada, major CO2 emitter, effectively AWOL. Jim Prentice, environment minister, says Ottawa's widely condemned resistence to meaningful emission-reduction targets won't be changed by Copenhagen "hype." Globe says Canada in "climate doghouse." Twas ever thus, but no longer our dirty little secret. Canada yesterday awarded a "Fossil of the Day" by coalition of more than 450 eco-NGOs for its laggardness. Since our position is unlikely to change for the duration of the summit, we may end up bringing home 12 of these "trophies." Here's the official U.N. Climate Change Conference site for breaking news, calendar of events and more.

 
Richard Colvin, former Canadian diplomat, testifying to a Commons committee on Afghan detainee transfer practices, and the warnings he made to Ottawa about them. Right, Peter MacKay, defense minister, who responded to Colvin's testimony by mauling Colvin in Commons debate. Public-opinion polls a few days later found Canadians believed Colvin over the Tories by a 2-to-1 margin. 

RESIGN | 23 former Canadian ambassadors protest Tories' attack on Richard Colvin. Former Afghan diplomat exposed Harper government complicity in handing over detainees to Afghan National Army globally notorious for torture. Tories' instant reaction was attempt to discredit Colvin, rather than explain what Ottawa knew and when it knew it. In their letter, the 23 former ambassdors worry Colvin's fate will discourage candid reporting to Ottawa from foreign postings. Well, yes. Former senior foreign service officers rarely speak out in unison like this, but Defense Minister Peter MacKay's public vilifcation of Colvin prompted them to. "[MacKay] savaged [Colvin] in public, and ridiculed him. And that's not the way to treat a guy who's doing his job," said Paul Durand, former Canadian ambassador to the Organization of American States, Chile and Costa Rica. "He is not a whistleblower. He was hauled before a parliamentary committee and had to state the truth." It's MacKay, on whose watch the dubious 2006-era detainee handovers occurred, whose credibility is in tatters. He should resign until a public inquiry determines what exactly Canada knew about the real or likely fate of detainees it handed over to an Afghan army widely known to torture detainees for sport. Globe editorial on Tories' falsehoods.

 
Student supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi hold red roses during protests in central Tehran. Foreign press was ordered not to cover the event, and cellphone network and newspapers were shut down by ruling regime. (Photo: Reuters.)

IRAN'S DOMESTIC INSTABILITY | Regime forced to suppress still more student protests. In latest of several demos, at Tehran University and several other colleges, thuggish police beat up protesters yesterday while state shut down cellphone network so activists still angry over flawed June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can't communicate with fellow democracy advocates in other cities. Modesty requires the West to approach Iran realizing we know little about Iranian internal conditions. Having said that, waiting out an unstable status quo is an attractive alternative to external bullying that would almost certainly awaken national-unity sentiments that would trump growing internal dissent.

RUSSIAN NIGHTCLUB TRAGEDY DRAWS PUTIN'S IRE | PM excoriates local officials. These include fire marshalls whom, Putin hints, might have been on the take in failing to inspect frequently enough the Perm nightclub where 118 patrons died over the weekend. Putin also faulted the local hospital, which had insufficient supplies to treat the fire victims. With Putin and Medvedev around it's almost tough for outsiders to criticize Russia, since this pair does such a good job of that itself. Medvedev last month, in a high-profile speech to Duma, ripped the nation's cumbersome bureaucracy and rampant corruption, and Russian business sector's sloth in innovation. Another case where external pressure is adviseable in minor doses only, as Russia appears to be entering a period of self-criticism. China for now is a different story: euphoric over strong GDP growth, Beijing is convinced China can do no wrong. So stronger words with Beijing are appropriate within limits, especially as China finally seems intent on joining larger world community. Incidentally, not one BBC, NPR or other radio report of the Perm disaster that I heard failed to mention "Russia's notoriously lax fire regulations." Lax they might be. But it was only six years ago that 100 people died in a horrific fire that destroyed The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., preceded three days earlier, on Feb. 17, 2003, by a stampede at Chicago's E2 dance floor that killed 21 people as more than 1,500 patrons attempted to escape the over-crowded facility after a pepper-spray incident. In both cases, safety protections and regulatory inspections were inadequate and club owners went to prison. 

OBAMA WATCH | President says he'll be candid about Afghan conflict in his Nobel speech Thursday. Not that he was likely to ignore the elephant in the parlor in Oslo acceptance speech for Nobel Peace Prize, but it's been done before. On employment front, despite encouraging jobs report last Friday showing first decline in unemployment rate since beginning of U.S. recession in December 2007, Obama in speech today will outline additional proposed job-creation stimuli. These will include tax breaks for businesses that hire, and redeploying estimated $200-billion surplus from bank-bailout funds to finance job-creation projects. (Photo: Obama greets workers at Nestle Purina Pet Care plant in Allentown, Pa. on Friday.)

U.S. MEDICARE EXPANDED? | Senate Dems mull lowering Medicare eligibility to 55. Stunning move is response to GOP canard that seniors would suffer big reduction in benefits under proposed reforms. (Any losses would be minor, and many seniors would see increased benefits.) Dems also twisting "public option" all out of shape, contemplating Rube Goldberg idea of having a government agency merely monitor a public option that would be operated by private insurers. So the costly middleman and costly profit margins would remain, and the public option's appeal as the major device for lowering healthcare costs would, in this iteration, be a failure. But if Dem public-option holdouts like conservative Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) are to be won over, these are the kinds of sops to blockheads we're going to see. Atul Gawande, New Yorker contributor and surgeon, on how the Senate bill would contain spiralling healthcare costs. (This is the same Gawande who earlier this year wrote of wide disparities in medical costs among cities and regions for same-quality care, which was must-reading in the West Wing and Congress.)

ATHABASCA AND CARCINOGENS | Alberta water scientist discovers dangerous levels of toxins in Athabasca River. Faults Ottawa for under-funding federal monitoring. Enraged Alberta government accuses him of spreading mistruths, says its own monitoring is comprehensive and finds only tolerable levels of toxins in tar-sands effluent.

TODAY'S HEADLINES | Hunger and family homelessness on the rise in U.S. cities... Struggling Japan unveils $81 billion (U.S.) additional stimulus to head off double-dip recession...Toronto building permits up a stunning 42% in October, up 18% nationwide...Harper makes it official: Toronto, not Muskoka, to host G-20 next June 26-27. Second G-20 summit next year will be in Seoul. Doubly good news for Muskoka. It won't briefly be shut down to tourists, and instead will become refuge for Hogtowners fleeing security, protesters and entourages of 20 heads of state.. Scotiabank profit nearly triples. BNS is the last of our Big Five banking oligopoly members to report, on a spectacularly good year considering the global meltdown...Conrad Black's lawyers make last-ditch pitch today to U.S. Supreme Court to drop fraud charges...Possible foretaste of post-U.S.-occupation Iraq in string of Baghdad car bombs that kill 121 people...Resurgence in popularity of vinyl records and turntables... "New hottie outs tomcatting Tiger Woods" (I just like the tab Boston Herald's headline). And Orlando neighbors report that Elin Nordegren is no longer in the building. Counting the minutes before someone suggests Mrs. Mark Sandford as a roomie, or Mrs. John Ensign - no wait, don't think she's moved out yet...

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "Nature never did betray / the heart that loved her." -William Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey.

Courtesy, The New Yorker, Nov. 30 edition.  

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David   

 

 

QuickNews, Friday, Dec. 4.

Don't "reform" exec bonuses. Scrap them! (WSJ) * The week ahead, Nov. 30-Dec. 6.

Obama is having the best first year of any president since FDR. (Jacob Weisberg, Slate)

 THE HARPERS' EXCELLENT BEIJING ADVENTURE

 
    
  
   

Clockwise from top left: Stephen and Laureen Harper at the Great Wall of China at Badaling. (Photo: Sean Kilpatrick, CP.) Harper and Premier Wen Jiaboa inspect honour guard in welcoming ceremony. (Jason Lee, Reuters) Harper greeted by President Hu Jintao prior to their bilateral meeting. (Liu Jin, Reuters) Bilateral meeting in the Great Hall of the People. (Liu Jin) Harper and Premier Wen exchange toasts. (Sean Kilpatrick)
 
CHINA PAYOFF | After a cool welcome, Chinese shower Harper with goodies. Among them, preferential status for Canada-bound Chinese tourists, a big boost for a major, lagging Canadian industry; and codified assurances of less bureaucratic hassles for Canadian firms doing business in the Middle Kingdom. Harper was initially chastised, publicly, by Premier Wen Jiaboa for taking so long to make his first visit, and says local papers are full of similar chastisement. This is amusing, since stories in the local papers are all written by employees of Premier Jiaboa. Of course Chinese are miffed at Harper's hard line on China's abysmal human-rights record. But they showed how vital Canada is to Chinese interests with full-court charm offensive, including meets with Premier Wen, China's most popular leader, and President Hu Jintao, top leader, whom Harper has met before at world summits. Obama was criticized for no "takeaways" from his recent Beijing visit - unfairly so, I believe, since basic fence-mending was the WH goal. Harper by contrast will have a very productive four-day visit before heading to Seoul, having bagged several important deals, including technology exchanges. Canadian tourism industry hails Beijing deal.

SCRAP CHALK RIVER, BUILD A NEW REACTOR | Expert panel urges new world-class isotope facility. Chalk River, which supplied one-third of global medical isotopes, has long been a black eye for Canada with series of shutdowns, the latest confirming its utter unreliability. Panel created by Harper recommends building new, robust facility at admittedly high cost but re-establishing Canada's reliability, retaining and creating tech jobs, and making Canada a stronger player in nuclear and related high-tech medicine.

PARLIAMENT GREENLIGHTS HST | Many MPs are conveniently absent for the unpopular vote. Tories, Grits and Bloc-heads vote yes, only NDP nyet. (Guess what Layton will be running on in election expected next year.) Ontario and B.C. now have formal permission to proceed with harmonization of provincial sales tax and federal GST effective July 1. Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador harmonized years ago, to cut administrative costs and lift bureaucratic burden from local business.

POLL FINDS AMERICANS WANT PUBLIC HEALTH INSURER | 60% support "public option." Dems heavily favour, majority of independents do, only one-third of Republicans do in Thomson Reuters poll. Regardless of party alliegance, most respondents doubt successful passage of reform bill will provide better care or will lower costs in the short term.

HIGH STAKES IN COPENHAGEN | Climate-change expert rebukes resurgent denialists. Physicist Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, climate-change advisor to EU and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, reminds Reuters that scientists are in agreement on the threat - no small feat in academe. The issue now is political will. "It's like we're on the Titanic," says Schellnhuber, albeit with better navigation equipment. But "the problem is there are 192 captains on the ship," he said, referring to the nations in the climate-change talks next week in the Danish capital. "And that is a fatal situation." Schellnhuber with 25 fellow experts warned last month that global warming is occurring at a more rapid pace than expected. They said ocean levels could rise by up to two meters (6-1/2 ft) by 2100, a threat to coastal cities worldwide. They urged action to cap rising greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 to avoid the worst impact of climate change. Meanwhile, India further deflates Copenhagen expectations with statement yesterday that the world's second-largest country will reject any legally binding emissions-reduction scheme.

HE FEELS THEIR PAIN | Obama, prior to "jobs summit," acknowledges "desperation" of jobless. “Michelle and I have family members who are out of work. It hasn’t been that long since I was in some of the neighborhoods that are going through these tough times,” Obama said yesterday in interview with Detroit Free Press and USA Today. “And we know the desperation and difficulty that people are feeling." Obama downplayed likelihood of the "Son of Stimulus" second round of pump-priming that was much speculated on over the summer. But at WH summit yesterday with business, labour and community leaders the president discussed ideas including tax credits for firms that hire new workers; federal incentives for community banks extending credit to small businesses; ensuring the existing stimulus funds go to preserving the jobs of teachers, police and firefighters rather than tax cuts and other measures "that makes the governor look good"; and tax breaks for homeowners who better insulate their homes to save on energy costs in a "cash for caulkers" program to get contractors working again, modelled on the successful "cash for clunkers" scheme earlier this year. (Photo: Obama lighting the National Christmas Tree, a tradition that dates to 1923. -AFP.)

HOW NUANCED IS OBAMA'S AFGHAN STRATEGY? | Gen. McCrystal has to explain it to Afghans. The U.S. Afghan commander yesterday tells group of 11 top Afghan leaders the U.S. is not abandoning their nation, contrary to the notion they took away from Barack Obama's Tuesday evening speech on 30,000 additional troops for the Taliban fight. That's because Obama also said U.S. troops will start coming home in mid-2011, a concession to the war-weary home audience. But...Obama also said Tuesday that this departure goal is a flexible one, determined by success in subverting Taliban and political progress in corrupt Kabul. There will be more effective humanitarian assistance, Obama promised. But...it's also not an open-ended nation-building exercise, as Bush described Iraq. Confused yet? Punditocracy is. But actually it makes sense and is bluntly stated: We're here to serve U.S. interests only (killing off the last of al-Qaeda), with no grandiose ideas of "democratizing" your nation, among the justifications Bush used (and sort of meant, eventually) in Iraq. I still think the exercise is pointless. It turns on training an unreliable Afghan army and corrupt police who will use that training in civil wars and banditry after the U.S. and NATO depart. And Obama's just wrong that terrorism can't be fought at a distance. We're already doing so. The planning for 9/11 was largely done in Hamburg and at U.S. flight-training schools. Prior to Afghanistan, al-Qaeda called Sudan and then Yemen home. By now it has cells in about 60 nations. So "AfPak" is not the "central front in the war on terror." There isn't one. The central front is the coordinated effort by the world's intel agencies, national and community police to identify, monitor and, at the appropriate time, capture these murderous and not terribly bright "suiciders," as Bush called them. It's low-profile detective work, and it goes on now, at considerable expense. Why add to that cost with blood and treasure in the world's second-most lawless state, trailing only Somalia, according to the Brookings Institution? Having said all that, Obama on Tuesday cleverly laid out enough "exit strategies" to enable himself to declare "success" and quit Afghan at a time of his choosing. (Click on map to see the nation's crazy-quilt of ethnic groups.) My previous posts on quitting Afghanistan, here and here.

BUSINESS ROUND-UP | Judging from tepid "Black Friday" and November sales for leading retailers, from J.C. Penney to Abercrombie & Fitch, total 2009 holiday sales might be no improvement over dreadful 2008...Airbus's year-to-date sales eclipse those of Boeing...Leading U.S. luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers reports dismal 4Q...Toronto Dominion Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce each report much higher earnings, beating analysts' estimates, with sound balance sheets to finance U.S. expansion should they go on bargain-hunting trip in U.S. next year... Bank of America raises stunning $19.3 billion (U.S.) to shore up its weak balance sheet, comes closer to being able to retire borrowings from Uncle Sam...Messy creditor fight over true value of amusement parks as Six Flags languishes in bankruptcy court...Economist argues Russia is so corruption-ridden and bureaucratically sclerotic it should be dropped from BRIC, since it's not a rapidly growing economic superpower like Brazil, India and China.  

INGRATE BANK OF THE YEAR | My nominee: UBS AG. This is a coveted prize, as you know, fought over by many. But three weeks before year-end, I'm prepared to award it to Switzerland's largest bank, which also tops the cupidity ranks, having written off about $50 billion (U.S.) in toxic assets. UBS, Europe's biggest lender, would be dead save that Bern rescued it with Swiss taxpayer funds. Post-crisis, Swiss bank regulators now recognize the danger of the Swiss banking duopoly of UBS and Credit Suisse, which has assets several times larger than Switzerland's GDP. Which naturally has them fretting over the "Iceland syndrome," in which that nation's three hyperactive banks accumulated assets wildly in excess of Iceland's GDP, rendering the banks and Iceland itself insolvent when their toxic assets soured. UBS's response to Bern's understandable musing about reining in UBS and CS with stricter regulations - merely on par with those of the rest of the world - is a threat to relocate to another country. (Please God, not Canada). UBS also had to be threatened with lawsuits by Canada and the U.S. to surrender the names of tens of thousands of N.A. tax cheats. What spares UBS from the laughingstock/reckless-fatcat reputation of America's and Britain's most hapless big banks is only its comparatively remote location. But, trust me, if you think Citigroup and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) made every mistake in the book and are churlish about taking their medicine, they've got nothing on the chutzpah of UBS. 

STAR TURNS IN GOOD CAUSES | McCartney, Wonder exhort us to see the bigger picture. Sir Paul, of course, is pushing "Meatless Mondays" - easily enough adopted by fellow Catholics who like McCartney went meatless on Fridays in childhood, he says. I think It's too easy to dismiss artists who step into the public arena, suspected of everything from naivete to reviving a faltering career with a dose of publicity. Besides, the vegan ex-Beatle has the facts on his side - that grazing is among the least efficient means of harvesting protein, and among the most environmentally harmful. Stevie Wonder, meanwhile, has been selected as the latest U.N. peace envoy, with a special mandate for raising awareness of issues affecting the estimated 650 million people with disabilities. "It is beyond my ability to fathom that 10% of the people of this world don't matter to the other 90% of the people in the world," Wonder said yesterday at the U.N. The Saginaw, Mich., native himself has been blind since early childhood. I hope this appointment brings more attention to Wonder's overlooked but brilliant mid-1990s album, Conversation Peace. Ban Ki-moon jokes he wants "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" as theme for next week's Copenhagen climate-change summit. Sorry, the song's been taken: It was the 2008 campaign theme selected by Wonder fan Michelle Obama. (Photo: Ban Ki-moon, U.S. secretary-general, and Stevie Wonder. Bebeto Matthews, AP)

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "I understand that the war is unpopular. It's a long way off, and there's the legacy of Iraq and Vietnam." -Richard Holbrooke, U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, at a conference yesterday on Obama's Afghan strategy. Taking no chances on lefties invoking Vietnam, the administration has co-opted them in using the "V" word itself at every opportunity - starting with Obama's Afghan speech Tuesday.

 

Courtesy, The New Yorker, Nov. 16 edition.  

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David   
 
  
 
  

QuickNews, Tuesday, Dec. 1.

New feature: The week ahead, Nov. 30-Dec. 6. * Are we born with an urge to help?

An intimate Ella Fitzgerald, rediscovered * Jargon Watch is back!

   

Dubai's Emirates Towers carry a debt load of $59 billion (U.S.). How many more debt bombs are out there among emerging economies? Photo: Chris Jackson, Getty Images. 

THE NEXT DEBT CRISIS | Jitters over corporate debt coming due in emerging economies. There is an estimated $200 billion (U.S.) in corporate debt coming due this year and next in emerging economies, about half in Russia and the Emirates. But the contagion is much wider, covering most of the former Soviet republics, as well as formerly spendthrift companies in Turkey and the Baltics. Russia and Ukraine recently have allowed local big corporate borrowers to default. And "Dubai’s refusal to guarantee the debts of its investment arm, Dubai World, may set a precedent for other indebted governments to abandon companies that investors had in the past assumed enjoyed full state backing," the NYT reports. The burgeoning corporate debt of firms like Russia's troubled Rusal, world #1 aluminum maker, varies from 20% to 80% of national GDP. It's no wonder governments won't or can't stand behind it. This could be a replay of the so-called Third World debt crisis of the 1980s. Except that was government, or sovereign, debt and the IMF was able to step in. This is private-sector corporate debt held by bondholders and banks worldwide.

Using our troops as props. Harper's photo-op aboard HMCS Ville de Quebec last weekend offshore Trinidad in which he accused critics of his government's cloak-and-dagger handling of the Afghan detainees scandal of being unfaithful to Canadian soldiers. Our men and women in uniform are under suspicion only to the extent Harper has kept the orders they were given by Ottawa and field commanders under wraps.

HARPER STOOPS LOW ON DETAINEE CRISIS | Torys are pitbulls in detainees Commons debate. Government frontbenchers repeat earlier Harper lie that opposition is betraying rank-and-file soldiers in simply trying to determine why it took 18 months for Canadian Forces to change their detainee hand-over practices after learning of widespread detainee torture by Afghan National Army. Harper has stymied parliamentary inquiry. And more recently has so heavily redacted documents sought by inquiry as to make them useless. Milquetoast Iggy no match yesterday for Baird, who answered Grit's questions only with lies and bullying. It's actually the opposition that's on the soldiers' side, but hapless Grit leader can't seem to get that message across. In suspending last month the detainee inquiry he chaired for lack of government complaince in making documents available, erstwhile U.N. special war-crimes prosecutor and 28-year Canadian Forces veteran Peter Tinsley wrote that Canada's soldiers will “continue to live under a government-enforced dark cloud of unproven suspicion” as long as Harper withholds documents about what the likes of Rick Hillier and defence minister Peter MacKay knew and why were they so slow to act.

HOW SAFE ARE THE SKIES? | Airline safety inspectors cast doubt on Canadian airline safety. Citing horror stories of accidents and near-accidents, they testify that ever since Ottawa's decision to allow airlines to essentially self-regulate themselves, there's no way to know if they're in compliance with safety standards. Surprise government inspections are largely a thing of the past, while cost-cutting in a global industry that has been losing billions of dollars annually for several years is an everyday reality.

TEPID RECOVERY | Meagre 0.1% Canadian GDP growth in 3Q ends official recession but by a whisker. Indeed, the inevitable readjustment of that initial figure in a few weeks' time - common practice in Canada and the U.S. - may have us still in negative territory. Economists were predicting a figure 10 times' higher, more like 1% GDP growth, and even that would fall far short of robust U.S. 2.8% 3Q GDP growth as it emerged from recession. Canada is trailing most industrial nations in strength of recovery, largely due to impact of soaring loonie, which continues to cripple our exporters. Some good news: both personal and corporate spending rose at decent rates in the July-September period. Globe's Tavia Grant has reasons to be upbeat about 4Q prospects.

AUTOMAKERS TO REPORT GOOD NEWS TODAY | Sales flat with last year, which is progress. Analysts seem agreed that worst of the four-year slump in U.S. vehicle sales is over. But also that no time soon will we see a return to the average annual volume of 16.5 million vehicles.  

IS U.S. HEALTHCARE REFORM DEBATE WORTH THE CANDLE? | Benefits fall short of promises. In Senate version of the bill hotly debated in this and future weeks, some all-important provisions are so diluted there's scant genuine reform. Two key provisions stand out: Until 2014, private insurers could continue to deny coverage or charge steeper premiums to those with pre-existing health conditions. And the promised ban on annual or lifetime caps on coverage, which is to take effect next year, is riddled with exemptions. That makes a "public option" new government insurer all the more imperative. But its fate is especially contentious. And as to the provisions most senators do agree on, "there's no power to really hold the [private] insurance companies accountable," consumer advocate Betty Ahrens, executive director of the Iowa Citizen Action Network, tells the NYT. "It's toothless." If it works out this way, the private insurers and Big Pharma, with upward of 50 million uninsured Americans forced to buy insurance and become part of the system, will reap one of the greatest windfalls in the history of commerce. It would have been that in any case, but now without patient protections.

PREVIEW | The Afghan-surge case Obama will make to Americans in tonight's TV address is here. This is what the U.S. president has told his defense staff and NATO allies. Which is, 34,000 more U.S. troops, bringing the total to more than 100,000. No timeline for withdrawal, but an assurance that U.S. troop commitment is not "open ended. And that commitment will be tied to Karzai's progress in cleaning up Kabul corruption and extending the central government's ambit beyond the capital. In other words, Karzai making nice with warlords and tribal elders. I promise not to say it again: Good luck with all that. What's not for public consumption is the cost, about $75 billion (U.S.) a year. Obama will be vague on that because Americans are not only war-weary but feel their nation is fiscally tapped out. I expect the gambit here is to put enough pressure on the Taliban, and crimp somewhat its mobility in the country, to the point where the enemy is willing to discuss a negotiated settlement. That has to be the endgame against this undefeatable foe; otherwise it's a decades' long stalemate. Harper got a heads-up last night from Biden, not Obama. Yes, yes, we've been fighting in Afghanistan's most dangerous region and we've been in the country for eight years fighting on America's behalf while the Dutch are on patrol duty up north. But, as the WH explained, Obama has only so much time for calling around. Why waste it on Harper when the PM has been immovable about not increasing our Afghan troop levels or staying later than early 2011? You'd only do it as a courtesy to a loyal ally that's given up 133 of its precious young men and women to a cause we share...Well, I'll leave it at that before blood starts spurting from my eyes.

PBS NEWSHOUR OVERHAUL | Flagship program will become more Web-oriented.

HABS, NOT LEAFS, ARE OUR NATIONAL TEAM | So we tell pollsters. No surprise, given Canadiens' illustrious history and the abundance of non-Montrealer devotees of the franchise. What I did find a tad encouraging as a lifelong Torontoian is that some three-quarters of those polled would bet on the Habs to win another Cup before the Leafs do. I was expecting maybe 90%. (Photo: Tara Walton, Toronto Star.)

AND THE WINNER IS... | Bad sex-scene writing award goes to Goncourt winner Littell. Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones captured France's prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2006 and now is honoured with this year's Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award, founded in 1993 by Auberon Waugh, beating out Philip Roth, John Banville and Paul Theroux. The judges found "genius" in The Kindly Ones, but didn't take so kindly to lines such as "I came suddenly, a jolt that emptied my head like a spoon scraping the inside of a soft-boiled egg." I have no idea what that line means, but I'm just an innocent boy from Scarborough (who long hated soft-boiled eggs).

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "The fact that Canadians search twice as much as Americans, according to comScore data, is unbelievable. Canadians are [each] searching [an average] of 143 times a month - those aren't small differences or small changes, that's a pretty significant and quite powerful difference." -Jonathan Lister, country manager and managing director for Google Canada, on why Google Inc. is hiring across Canada. Canadians spend about one-third more time online than Americans, and Google's YouTube operation is more popular in Canada than any other nation. It's not that we don't have lives, you understand. It's that we're obliged to spend a third of them indoors. That's my theory.  

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David 
 
 

QuickNews, Friday, Nov. 27.

New feature: The Week Ahead, current events calendar for Nov. 23-29.

Click here for latest Jargon Watch.

 
A carousel is among the features of Frankfurt's Christmas Market. Photo: Michael Probst, AP. 

T.O. STORES APING U.S. "BLACK FRIDAY" SALES SPREE | Deep discounts and longer hours. Local retailers determined to stem defections of Canadian bargain-hunters shuffling off to Buffalo.

AFGHAN SCANDAL | Witnesses on detainee scandal offer riot of contraditions. Defiant blowhard Hillier calls accusations he knew of detainees' fate "ludicrous." Yet testimony of government's cover-up witnesses shows he must have known, since our local diplomats, more thin on the ground than military C.O.s, were aware since 2006 of Afghan National Army's reputation for torture, along with Red Cross, whose concerns about hand-overs are revealed in one of whistleblower Colvin's reports to Ottawa.

Harper embarks yesterday for Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. PMO told to brace for climate-change concerns from imperiled Commonwealth island nations - including the host country - if ocean levels rise as predicted. Photo: Sean Kilpatrick, CP. 

HARPER VOLTE-FACE | PM will attend Copenhagen climate-change summit, after all. Has been bad-mouthing it for weeks. But one day after Obama adds his name to world leaders attending, Harper says "critical mass" of leaders merits his presence. Eco-activist says PM merely "doesn't want to look like a weenie."

SUPPLY OF CANADIAN DOCS ON THE RISE | Ratio of docs to population finally improving. Result of big jump in med-school enrolments earlier this decade. Also physicians deferring retirement for want of replacements to care for their patient load. Progress is significant, but farming and remote communities remain underserved by caregivers, specialists in particular. And eventual retirement of over-65 docs will create a gap that the newest generation of physicians might not be able to quickly fill.

 
Dubai, booming Persian Gulf emirate when world oil prices were soaring, celebrated with spectacular new office towers and offshore, palm-shaped resort (right). With the sharp drop in oil prices, developer of "The Palm" now can't make its debt payments. 

"DUBAI INC." FLIRTING WITH INSOLVENCY | Debt moratorium rocks global financial markets. Dubai World, major sovereign wealth fund, seeks six-month moratorium on making debt payments. Closely related enterprises in oil-rich Persian Gulf emirate suffering from plunge in world oil prices and may all be in trouble. Lack of transparency rattles European and other banks with loans extended to giant Dubai firms, whose true state of financial health is unknown.

IAEA CHIEF DUMPS ON IRAN | ElBaradei washes hands of Tehran's reneging and trickery. Retiring IAEA chief ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Price laureate retiring in three days, has had it with Iranian games. So even have China and Russia. For the first time yesterday they joined other nations in threatening tougher sanctions if Tehran doesn't come clean about exact nature of its nuclear assets and ambitions.

GIRDING FOR TOUGH TIMES | Big layoffs announced by Bombardier and Rogers. Bombardier, hard-hit by aviation downturn, keen to hold onto engineering talent so it may consider federally subsidized working sharing program it has previously rejected. Rogers to cut 3% of workforce to maintain or lower wireless prices while offering more features, now that rivals Bell and Telus have broken its Canadian iPhone monopoly. And all three incumbents are facing new competition from upstart wireless entrants next year.   

CHEAPO VINO | World seems to be drowning its sorrows in bargain-priced wine. Globe reports on price downshift among recession-weary tipplers. Bad news for many New World wine producers focused on upscale product. Ontario might be an exception. Output of its boutique wineries is premium priced. But province's biggest wineries - Jackson-Triggs, Andres, Hillenbrand - have never shed their gronk heritage and offer VQA and jug wine side by side.

CHINA BLUES | Emerging economic superpower facing protectionist backlash. EU complains Beijing has used its enormous stimulus package to over-expand capacity, and already is dumping below-cost goods onto world market at a loss. This is only partly sour grapes. China continues its stubborn refusal to let currency rise to its natural level, effectively stealing jobs from other nations. And Beijing is compelled to run factories flat out to curb rioting and violence that has occurred at those few Chinese factories that have closed or trimmed production in response to global slump.

CEO OF THE YEAR? | Globe and Mail settles on Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne. Lavish profile of putative Chrysler saviour in paper's Report on Business Magazine today. If the Globe had to pick the CEO of a foreign company as "Canada's" CEO of the year, and it had to be in the profit-challenged auto sector, the only serious candidate would be Ford's turnaround CEO Alan Mullaly. So why Marchionne? Because he spent most of his career in Toronto, and because Eric Reguly, author of the piece, is Rome-based Globe correspondent with special access to the prickly Marchionne. Not the usual criteria for such picks. I might have held off until we see a coherent reclamation plan for Chrysler. Fortune was closer to the mark in lavishing Steve Jobs with "CEO of the Decade" honours, though devoting most of its Nov. 23 editon to one topic was a bit over the top.

MAMMOGRAM DEBATE | Folks taking sides on merit of procedure, and Pap smears too. Efficacy of mammograms, as described in NYT timeline, has long been questioned. Indeed, by detecting cancers that will not become problematic in the life of a patient, but are treated nonetheless, procedure is a cause of needless trauma and spiralling health care costs. Then again, advocates are speaking up about how they are alive today only because of a cancer detected at age 32. No easy answers on this one.

THE "8 TO 8" DIET | Body clock - more accurately, organ clocks - are set by food intake not brain. Salk Institute researcher says midnight snacks and 3 a.m. repasts throw liver and other organs out of whack. 

"Sopranos" bus tour includes stop under the Pulaski Skyway where character Christopher Moltisanti breathed his last. Photo: David Goldman for The New York Times

 

HAD TO HAPPEN | NYC outfit offers bus tours of "Sopranos" greatest hits (pardon the pun). I fondly recall my honeymoon Circle Line ferry cruise around the island, the Cloisters, Rockefeller Church, the U.N. hugging the East River shoreline. Oh, to go back and see where Tony was almost garrotted in the Holland Tunnel while keeping bad company enroute to a Jersey strip club.

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "All celebrated people lose on close view." -Napoleon.

 
 

Courtesy The New Yorker, Nov. 2 edition.

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David 
 

 

QuickNews, Thursday, Nov. 26.

New feature: The Week Ahead, current events calendar for Nov. 23-29

 

An Afghan vehicle clears a NATO checkpoint northeast of Kabul that is run in part by French Foreign Legion forces. U.S. to tap allies for more troops. Photo: Jerome Delay, AP.

UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU! | Obama seeks 10,000 more troops for Afghanistan from allies. Britain, Italy, Poland and Georgia likely to help, France and Germany won't, Canada and the Netherlands still committed to withdrawal. In TV address Tuesday, Obama will commit about 30,000 more U.S. troops, bringing American total to almost 100,000, and describe exit strategy that has U.S. out of Afghanistan no later than 2017 - 16 years after initial post-9/11 invasion.

CANADIANS DON'T TRUST HARPER ON AFGHAN DETAINEES | They believe the whistleblower. Richard Colvin's grim version of events trumps Harper's in believability by a 2 to 1 margin in survey by former Tory pollster Allan Gregg. Pollster says it was a PR blunder to attempt discrediting Colvin. Yet Tories persisting with that strategy, lining up career-protecting military and other officials to dispute Colvin testimony that for years has aligned with reports of human-rights groups.

A SPECIAL THANKSGIVING FOR U.S. BANKERS | Taxpayer bailout restores lavish pay. The idea, in the U.S. and Europe, was to prevent the bankers' self-inflicted wounds from triggering another Great Depression. The apocalypse was averted, but the public got stuck with the bill while the malefactors of great wealth, as Teddy Roosevelt called them, are hoovering up pre-recession-size bonuses. And fiercely resisting, with success, needed reforms to prevent an even bigger bailout down the road when the bankers are next consumed with recklessness - which happens every decade like clockwork. WaPo columnist Dana Milbank cuts to the nub of the bank lobbyists' special pleading: "Don't regulate us now because the economy is still suffering from the mess we made because we weren't regulated the last time. Chutzpah, it appears, is recession-proof."

"TOYOTA WAY" GOES AWRY | Former quality leader to recall 4 million vehicles. In latest Toyota stumble, company to repair faulty gas pedals that get stuck under floor mats in high-acceleration mode. Vaunted Toyota quality has suffered - this is the latest of several recalls over past two years - ever since firm decided to ramp up production to displace GM as top world automaker. Employees at hastily built new plants, especially in N.A., were not sufficiently trained in Toyota's quality-production methods. Global recession, which prompted Toyota to cut world production 50% for first six months of this year, might give company a chance to upgrade training at its newest assembly plants.

GM EXPANDS ONTARIO COMMITMENT | Will add employees to assemble Buick Regal at Oshawa. Redesigned Regal, Opel-engineered, has won auto-critics' acclaim in Europe. GM will also add employees to boost Oshawa production of hot-selling Camaro and forthcoming 2011 Camaro convertible. Company to will increase Ingersoll, Ont. output of popular Chev Equinox and GMC Terrain small crossovers. Even St. Catharines operations, especially battered by layoffs in recent years, to get new flexible transmission product. A fifth vehicle for GM Canada remains to be named under GM commitment in exchange for $10.5 billion in government rescue funds. But much of this largely unexpected increased activity is due to the popularity of models already assigned to Canada.

FORD THINKS SMALLER, NOT SMALL | Says smaller cars, not minis and micros, are the ticket. North American drivers insist on minimum comfort, capacity, power, while seeking higher fuel efficiency. "Just so nobody freaks out, we won't look like Europe," Ford spokesman reassures analysts. MarketWatch reviewer raves about reborn Taurus, which turnaround CEO Alan Mulally over-ruled subordinates in greenlighting after failure of blobby second-generation Taurus of the 1990s.

ROAD TO COPENHAGEN | Obama will go to climate change summit, Harper to join him. PM until yesterday adamant about not going, since no firm agreement will be struck until next year. But changed his mind this morning, citing what spokesman described as "critical mass" of other world leaders who will attend. Obama will bring commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. That's a big cheat on the 1990 baseline used by U.N. Also, Obama will duck out before the heads of state show up to collect his Nobel Peace Prize while he's in the neighbourhood.

ROBUST CANADIAN HOUSING | In stark contrast with U.S., housing supply is tight in Canada. Which means housing costs will rise here, since current low mortgage rates can't last forever, RBC warns in report. U.S. glut of housing inventory, after record housing bubble, will take years to wear off. But in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal supply is drying up, forcing price hikes and, one hopes, soon boosting new-home construction.

GIFT CARDS ARE A GIFT TO ISSUERS | Watch for cards with dormancy and other fees. Over past two years, Americans bought $185.4 billion (U.S.) worth of gift cards, and $14.4 billion (U.S.) was left unused. Think twice about whether these things will get used by recipient. At best, they're interest-free money for the issuer until redeemed. At worst, many cards expire or issuers demand fees for postponed usage.

SELL MORE COOKIES? | 16 of Ontario's 33 Girl Guide camps are slated to close. Roughly half of the Guides' camps will be sold or leases given up, after GG Ontario ran a $1.3-million deficit last year just on camp operation. With membership declining, most of the camps have been struggling for years.

CRY YOURSELF A RIVER | Seven reasons why crying is good for you. It helps prevent dehydration of eyes, kills bacteria, removes toxins and can elevate your mood, among other things. I feel justified now in making An Affair To Remember a quarterly ritual.

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "If you want to kill any idea around the world today, get a committee working on it." -Charles Kettering, U.S. industrialist and philanthropist.

Courtesy The New Yorker, Nov. 23 edition.

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David

  

QuickNews, Wednesday, Nov. 25.

 New feature: The Week Ahead, current events calendar for Nov. 23-29

 

The Lieberose solar farm about 150 km southeast of Berlin, world’s second-largest solar power plant, takes up equivalent of more than 210 football fields. Germany and China are among leaders in solar panel R&D, manufacturing and application. Photo, Reuters. 

GLOBAL WARNING | Pace of climate change faster than expected, say experts. At worst, sea levels could rise up to 2 metres (6-1/2 ft) by 2100, endangering coastal cities from New York to Buenos Aires to Shanghai. Researchers report that global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are almost 40% higher than in 1990. "Carbon dioxide emissions cannot be allowed to continue to rise if humanity intends to limit the risk of unacceptable climate change," said Richard Somerville of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California.

PIPE DREAM? | Ottawa to jointly finance $558-million CO2 pipeline. Idea is to inject CO2 into aging oil fields, squeeze more oil from played-out fields and sequester CO2 at same time. Sounds like a win-win, but technology isn't proven and enviros complain it diverts funds from R&D on alternative energy. Meanwhile, Australian opposition reaches agreement with Rudd government on CO2 trading scheme.

U.S REMAINS OUTLIER ON LAND MINES | America still won't sign treaty banning land mines. Treaty, spearheaded by Canada and others and now 10 years old, bans the use, production, stockpiling or export of anti-personnel mines. Treaty ratified by 156 nations. U.S., Russia, China and India among holdouts. U.S. spends more money than any nation on removal of land mines, which claimed 5,197 casualties last year alone, one-third of them children, but reserves right to use them. Describing renewed refusal to join treaty as "a default of U.S. leadership," U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), a leading advocate for the treaty, said: "It is a lost opportunity for the United States to show leadership instead of joining with China and Russia and impeding progress."

 

Yesterday the last group of Edmonton-based soldiers returned from Afghanistan. Maj. Joe Boland twirls his son Markhus Boland, 4, at the Edmonton Garrison. Dianne Perry hugs her husband, Master Warrant Officer Edward Perry. Photos by Dan Riedlhuber, Reuters.

U.S. BANK BREAK-UPS | Increasingly popular notion wins backing of FDIC. U.S. keen to avoid ever again having to bail out banks whose size poses systemic risk and are thus "too big to fail." The big U.S. banks hate the idea, of course. And it's true, unless non-U.S. nations follow suit, American lenders would be at competitive disadvantage. And it does seem a drastic remedy, given how the healthy Big Five Canadian banks have proved that size and diversity of businesses (lending, trust, brokerage under one roof) isn't the issue. The issues are (a) lousy managerial risk management, and (b) under-supervision by regulators who failed to enforce existing laws and devise new ones for "innovative" risky products and services banks came up with during the unsustainable, record U.S. housing boom. Americans are looking for needlessly complex solutions to a simple problem here. (Illustration: The September 2008 collapse of New York brokerage Lehman Brothers triggered the global capital freeze that in turn deepened the worldwide recession.)

HIV AIDS PROGRESS, SORT OF | Global rate of infection is down. But mostly because of progress in developing world, notably sub-Saharan Africa. Meanwhile, decline in infections has plateaued in U.S. and Europe, where complacency about safe sex has set in.

FULLER DISCLOSURE | Harper bends to pressure on Afghan detainee scandal. Ottawa will release additional "legally available" documents from 2006-07 period when Canadian Forces' transfer to detainees to Afghan National Army resulted in abused and often tortured detainees. "Legally available." You could run the Orient Express through that loophole.

BRAIN CRAMP | N.S. MP Gerald Keddy retracts slur on Halifax unemployed ("no-good bastards."). This is how it always goes, an outrageous utterance followed by a "clarification." Why not be a man and stick with what you really believe, that the jobless are lazy louts happily reliant on state handouts, rather than insulting our intelligence by trying to convince us you're not insensitive and unfit to serve in Parliament? Why not join the jobless, see what it's like, rather than living on the taxpayer's dime?

YET ANOTHER GM BRAND SALE FALLS THROUGH | Saab buyer bravely runs away. Swedish investor consortium with Chinese backing realizes only now that it hasn't the money or smarts to turn around failing niche automaker. Penske has backed out of buying Saturn. GM took Opel-Vauxhall off the market. And the Hummer sale to obscure Chinese firm is in limbo. The only brand the over-branded GM has rid itself of is Pontiac, which it reluctantly killed - on orders from Obama - since there were no buyers. Saab's fate, like Saturn, looks to be burial, since Stockholm adamantly will not devote a kroner to its rescue, unlike the four billion or so euros GM stands a good chance of extracting from European governments to repair the vastly larger Opel.

WAPO GIVES UP PRETENSE TO BEING IMPORTANT PAPER | Post kills last of its U.S. bureaus. Publisher justifies move, saying Post is not a national paper or "cable channel," whatever that's supposed to mean. Says paper will still cover the nation "as we always have" by sending intrepid reporters into the field. As if conceiving story ideas at WaPo office inside the Beltway is as good as tips from the soon-to-be-closed bureaus in Chicago, L.A. and NYC, where stories about the real America are far more easily identified and promptly reported.

ROBOTIC SURGERY | CAE teams with TSX-listed Titan Medical in robotic-surgery tech. Bedside manner not an issue since patients have been knocked out, but there's no one to sue. An ideal export to U.S., once perfected, to curb contribution that malpractice settlements make to spiralling healthcare costs.

THERE IS A GOD | Airlines finally fined for stranding passengers on aircraft. Culprits claimed they couldn't release passengers for lack of security in terminal. Irrelevant, say authorities, who correctly assert passengers could have been quarantined in terminal until security showed up.

An Andalusian horseman performs in front of a flamenco dancer during the opening show of Sicab the International Pre Horse Fair in Seville, devoted exclusively to Spanish thoroughbreds, Nov. 24, 2009. Photo: Marcelo del Pozo, Reuters.   

BABOON PLAGUE | Cape Town frets thieving critters will be a curse on World Cup next year. Natives know enough to roll up car windows, lock doors. But visitors will be gulled into feeding the "furry felons" whose proliferation and ransacking of cars whose unlocked doors they're able to open has become widespread nuisance.

YOUR R&D DOLLARS AT WORK | Australian researchers find that comfort food relieves anxiety in rats. Next step is to see if it works on humans. Oh, but wait - we already know it does. It's why my 7-Eleven restocks Doritos at five times the rate of Yoplait.

HONOURED SONGS | 25 tunes added to Grammy Hall of Fame. Latest inductees include Beach Boys' "California Girls," Louis Armstrong's "Lazy River" and the 1972 "Class Clown" album by George Carlin, who died last year. See complete list at www.grammy.com/Recording_Academy/Awards/Hall_Of_Fame. Oddly, despite list now numbering 851 in total, nothing from Celine Dion or the Dead Kennedys has made the cut.

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "Canada needs to dismantle its public health-care system and allow private enterprise to get involved and turn a profit." -Sarah Palin to Marg Delahunty (Mary Walsh), when "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" caught up with the twit at a book signing in Columbus, Ohio. I suppose you think this is funny. But recall that not long after George W. Bush sent his greetings to "Jean Poutine" via Rick Mercer, then also of "This Hour," Dubya became U.S. president and set about dismantling his country's constitution.

 

Courtesy: Politico.com. H/T: P.J. Dempsey.

 

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David  

   

 

QuickNews, Monday, Nov. 23.

CHINA MINE EXPLOSION | At least 92 dead in coal mine disaster in northeast China. Gas explosion on weekend claims scores of lives at Xinxing Coal Mine in Hegang, Heilongjiang province. (Photo below: Relatives of miners await news from mine officials. Aly Song, Reuters.)

 

CAPSIZED INDONESIAN FERRY CLAIMS 26 LIVES | Another 17 passengers still missing. Overloading is common in ferries serving Indonesia's thousands of islands. Ferry off Sumatra had 296 passengers and crew but capacity of only 273 people.

ROSY CANADIAN BANK FORECAST | Big Five will finish out year with strong 4Q numbers. Banks begin reporting this week. Their capital ratios are among world's best. Collectively, will come close to matching last year's profits. Loan losses expected to peak 1Q or 2Q of fiscal 2010. (Photo: "Centre ice," King and Bay Streets in Toronto, head office location of Canada's Big Five banks.)

ENCOURAGING U.S. ECONOMIC OUTLOOK | Economists upgrade forecast for 2010. Chicago Fed chief sees jobless rate peaking early next year, at 10.5%, a bit higher than current 10.2%. Small businesses, whose job creation usually leads employment recovery, are borrowing again. NYT reports Obama's stimulus package has done more good than it gets credit for - pushing U.S. GDP into positive territory by 3Q, for instance, less than half a year after his inauguration.  

AFGHAN QUAGMIRE | Two unnamed Karzai ministers target of embezzlement probe. Actually, almost all of Karzai's ministers are under suspicion, probably including the defense minister who impressed Globe and Mail's editorial board - in that paper's lead story this morning - with complaint that Obama is dragging his heels on more troops. CP has rather horrifying report on how Afghan detainee abuse has been routine for decades. Corrupt government, sadistic police force, army culturally allied with Taliban, and women treated even worse under Karzai than Taliban - this is what we're fighting and dying for in propping up Afghan government whose legitimacy is recognized by few locals or ISAF troop-contributing nations. Damned right Obama's thinking twice about more troops.

"PUBLIC OPTION" NOW CENTRE STAGE IN U.S. HEALTHCARE DEBATE | Dems win first Senate vote. But Saturday's 60-40 vote, with all Republicans opposed, is only "end of the beginning." Lieberman of Connecticut vows he will vote against a final Senate bill that includes the public option. But minus the new government-run "public option" insurer, reform largely amounts to a windfall for private insurers and Big Pharma. (Photo: Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) debate healthcare reforms yesterday on "Meet the Press.")

FUTILITY OF MICROSOFT TRYING TO "BUY" NEWS | In talks with Murdoch to take WSJ off Google. Rumoured deal would have Murdoch demand Google drop WSJ, New York Post and other News Corp. properties, with Microsoft's rival Bing engine getting exclusive access. But "exclusive" content migrates within 30 seconds, by most estimates. I noticed last night, for instance, that Reuters carried a rewritten Sunday New York Post exclusive that Jamie Dimon is tipped as Geithner's replacement, and a detailed synopsis of a Sunday NYT editorial calling on Goldman Sachs to turn over its bonus pool to Treasury to retire national debt.

SWINE FLU PEAK? | CDC reports H1N1, like most outbreaks, shifting east to Mideast, Central Europe. May have peaked in North America, but flu levels still far higher than usual at this point in flu season. Vaccine continues to be in shorter supply in U.S. than Canada.

 

One of the estimated 14,000 to 25,000 vacant homes in once-flourishing Buffalo, N.Y.  

BLIGHT ON BUFFALO | Decay of Rust Belt city "a slow-moving Katrina," says local official. Former industrial powerhouse has lost half its population, or 300,000 people, since 1950. In some recession-hit neighbourhoods, only 20% of the houses are occupied.

CLIMATE-CHANGE COST | Experts say $28 trillion (U.S.) in property damage to port cities by 2050. That would be result of expected 0.5%-metre rise in ocean levels as Greenland ice pack melts.

WIKI EXODUS | Thousands of Wikipedia contributors are quitting. All of the most important, most easily researched topics have been done. And remaining contributors are alienated by accumulation of rules restricting new entries and editing/updating of existing ones.

McDONALD'S LOSING LUSTRE | U.S. same-store sales down in October. Recession has finally caught up with Golden Arches, victim of high unemployment that has curbed out-of-home meals. Also, its McCafe concept has not been the blockbuster it expected. In Canada and at its U.S. outlets, Tim Hortons acted quickly on the McCafe threat, matching Mickey D in ubiquity and diverse menu offerings.

Honda Insight and Ford Escape. Which would you choose for your motor trip from Toronto to the Laurentians? On poor sales of small cars: "This doesn't mean Americans don't want fuel economy," writes auto critic Jerry Flint. "It may mean that vehicles that were small, unappealing, underpowered and uncomfortable are still small, unappealing, underpowered and uncomfortable."

NOT SO FAST | Forbes columnist breaks with consensus that small cars are next battleground. Notes that among heaviest casualties of current auto slump have been small cars. Industry volume is down 27% to September. Meanwhile, Yaris sales are down 40%, Aveo down 30%, Accent down 40%, VW New Beetle down 50%, Scion 1C down 60%. Meanwhile, sales are off only 10% as a group for small crossover SUVs: Honda CR-V and Pilot, Toyota RAV 4 and Venza, Ford Escape, Chevy Equinox and Dodge Journey.  "Americans drive more than Europeans and Asians," writes Jerry Flint, auto writer since 1958. "And thus it's reasonable that we want cars to be more powerful and more comfortable since we spend a lot of time in them. Larger vehicles are as a rule safer than smaller ones (another important topic on which government candour is lacking). Large vehicles carry more people, groceries and vacation stuff. What good does it do to move people into subcompacts if that kills carpooling? Cars will get smaller. How well they sell is another question." Flint also notes the up to $10,000 (U.S.) higher cost for going from gasoline to hybrid version of same vehicle (you're buying a car with two engines, after all; only plug-ins are all-electric) - one reason Honda's Insight, its smallest hybrid, sold just 16,000 cars YTD, about half what Honda expected.  

SNOOKERED | Travel website names ROM "Crystal" among world's 10 ugliest buildings. Joins "Beehive" in Wellington, N.Z. and Paris' Center Georges Pompidou. ROM head William Thorsell sold board and donors on what turned out to be inferior knock-off of celebrity architect Daniel Libeskind's own recent addition to the Denver Art Museum, which actually is mostly glass. For engineering and cost reasons, ROM "Crystal" is just a few strips of glass on metal cladding that has the allure of a construction-site outbuilding. Libeskind is pictured below in Denver; his ROM monstrosity at Inright.

  

INDIA LABOUR WOES | "Social contract," strong unions and GDP slump bring rampant labour unrest. Has sometimes turned to violence as strikes up 48% over last year at factories attempting layoffs, which go against Indian culture. Foreign employers hit by labour disruptions this year include Nestle, Nokia, Honda and Hyundai Motor.

CANDY WAR | Nestle joins Hershey, Ferrero and Kraft in pondering takeover bid for Cadbury. Kraft bid is hostile but would have easiest time with regulators. Nestle might try to play white knight. But candy giant Nestle (Kit Kat, Aero, Coffee Crisp, Smarties) would be forced to shed some of its own and Cadbury's brands to satisfy EU anti-trust authorities, maybe Canadian and American, as well.

CARCASS PICKED CLEAN | Ciena to pay bargain $769 million (U.S.) for core Nortel assets. Former pipsqueak rival to Nortel beats out bid by Nokia Siemens for bankrupt Nortel's optical networking and carrier ethernet business. Nortel once had a market cap north of $200 billion (U.S.). This one is up there with the Avro Arrow as a Canadian industrial tragedy.

Kate Moss in promotion shot for her Topshop collection. 

KATE MOSS GIVES COMFORT TO "PRO-ANOREXIC" MOVEMENT | Being a waif trumps eating. Moss endorsement last week of anorexics' motto raises new questions about how widespread is anorexia. Incredibly, so-called "pro-anorexic" websites outnumber by 5 to 1 sites for recovering anorexics and healthy dieting.

FRAIL MAIL | U.S. Postal Service in crisis after posting $11.6 billion (U.S.) in losses 2007-09. Volume of mail carried fell 13% in fiscal 2009. USPS wants to cut employer pension contributions and drop cherished Saturday service, eliminated eons ago by much healthier Canada Post.

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "Let's make cars people want to make out in again." -Chrysler turnaround tagline, as announced at a presentation for analysts and the auto press earlier this month, reported in current Business Week. And couldn't be further from the truth, except for the gymnastically adept, since the "new Chrysler" is to be built around Fiat minicars.

Courtesy The New Yorker, Nov. 16 edition.

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David 

  

Most unnecessary photo of the week.

In a report on pap smears, CNN online assumes the position. Thanks for reminding us.

 

QuickNews, Friday, Nov. 20.

Everybody's Business is a Sarah Palin-free zone.

CANADA'S AFGHAN DETAINEE SCANDAL

OTTAWA CHOOSES TO SHOOT MESSENGER

SIMILAR ALLEGATIONS BY NGOS DATE BACK TO 2007

 

Top photo: Canadian Afghan detainees. Below, right: Richard Colvin, former Canadian diplomat in Afghanistan, since reassigned to the U.S., who testified this week that Canada is complicit in abuse, even torture, of detainees handed over to the Afghan National Army, and that Canada's highest military and diplomatic officials have known this for years. Below, right, Peter MacKay, defense minister during the period of abusive treatment described by Colvin, sought yesterday to discredit Colvin. "His entire testimony is suspect," MacKay said. Yet in harsh Commons questionning, MacKay acknowledged it was Colvin's many secret cables warning of abuse that triggered Ottawa overhaul of hand-over procedures.

AFGHAN DETAINEE SCANDAL | Ottawa rejects widespread calls for public inquiry. Ex-diplomat Colvin's explosive allegations touch MacKay, former chief of defense staff Rick Hillier, top Foreign Affairs department mandarins. Tories better hope Colvin is a fantasist, as they yesterday depicted him, otherwise we have a government-defeating cover-up conspiracy on our hands. This is not a new development. Canadian officials discussed torture issue as early as 2006. Amnesty International among NGOs sounding early alarms, back in 2007, about abusive treatment of ISAF detainees, including those handed over to Afghan army by Canadian forces.

Harry Reid, Senate majority leader, and Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker. The House has narrowly passed a healthcare reform bill. Now it's the Senate's turn. 

CLIFFHANGER | Historic U.S. Senate healthcare reform vote set for tomorrow. Will be a close thing. First vote scheduled for 8 p.m. Reid is recounting heads every few hours as blue-dog Dems and moderate Republicans waver. Dem pollster Mark Mellman, in session with Senate Dems, reminds them of Dem loss of Senate after 1994 healthcare initiative died. Quoting Ben Franklin, Mellman says: "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." Call for party unity hasn't worked so far, not likely to this time either, even in rebuke to party's leader, Obama. Will come down to individual conscience - a chance to make history, or set back healthcare reform another 15 years.

OPRAH TO QUIT SHOW | Will announce today end of talk show in 2011, 25th year. World's first African-American woman billionaire wants to focus on entrepreneurial interests. LA Times has speculation on biggest winners and losers from long-rumoured decision. If nothing else - and she's done a great deal of good - Oprah will be remembered for popularizing reading with Book Club. And GM will miss her for all those free Pontiacs she gave away to entire first-day audience awhile back.

EUROPE'S FIRST FULL-TIME PRESIDENT | Meet Herman Van Rompuy, Belgian PM. EU chooses obscure figures for first president and first European foreign minister. Drives me nuts. Tony Blair's a lightening rod, I get that. But these two compromise candidates - neither of them widely known in Europe, never mind world stage - won't be the dynamic figures to rally Europe as a scold on Darfur or Iranian nukes, to create first pan-European armed forces so America needn't intervene in Balkans and other parts of Europe's backyard, or to contend with strong egos of a Sarkozy or Merkel.  

OBAMA REJECTS MAMMOGRAM REPORT | Will still fund tests for 40+. Government-appointed panel had recommended no mammograms for under-50s, finding them - and even self-examination - a pointless source of anxiety. Panel has since backed off own counsel, buckling under controversy. WaPo columnist bemoans missed chance to cut healthcare costs. NYT column on ritual of self-examination. Meanwhile, pap smears should begin at 21, OB-GYN group says.

SWINE FLU SNAFUS | Americans annoyed about vaccine distribution. So Canadian media not alone in playing up alleged Canadian concern about line-ups. Complaints flooding into CDC HQ in Atlanta.

CHINA BUBBLE | U.S. bond maven Bill Gross warns China economy overheating. Stimulus and rapid infrastructure spending will drive up prices, already triggering irrational exuberance. Consumer spending a disconnect with real incomes.

SACRAMENTO, NEW CAPITAL OF ONTARIO | Energy-hog big-screen TVs to be discouraged here too. Once green-conscious California does it, Ontario officials acknowledge, we're obliged to follow suit.

HIZZONER'S HIGHER AMBITIONS | Rudy to run for U.S. Senate. Will he represent Empire State or War on Terror State?

WHO KNEW? | New Yorker's Calvin Trillin on "Canada's national dish," poutine. Huh? Okay, the goopy mess is migrating west from Quebec, but Timbits still rule, no? Magazine also spends quality time with hyper-picky Michelin arbiter of restaurants and hotels.

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "The English instinctively admire any man who has no talent and is modest about it." -James Agate, British theatre critic.

Courtesy The New Yorker.

 

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David 

QuickNews, Thursday, Nov. 19.

CANADA'S DISGRACE?

AFGHAN DETAINEE SCANDAL | Probe sought in alleged abuse of Afghans detained by Canadian forces. High-level diplomat astonishes Commons committee with assertion of routine abuse, even torture, of Afghan detainees turned over to Afghan National Army. Norman Spector, former high-ranking PMO official, argues for full inquiry - strange bedfellow with NDP demanding same. Meanwhile, U.N. today declares Afghanistan the world's worst country in which to be born.  

 

Afghan detainee with Canadian troops in Kandahar.

CANADA LAGS IN SOLVING YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT | Richard Branson backs report released today in Toronto. Australia, Britain, U.S. all doing a better job in addressing youth joblessness.

CANADIAN HEALTHCARE COSTS TO HIT RECORD HIGH | Crisis is common to all affluent nations. Search is on in Canada, U.S, Europe, Japan for greater efficiencies, more emphasis on preventive medicine.

CANADIAN RETAILERS POISED FOR BIG HOLIDAY DISCOUNTS. Economy still soft. Jobs and income drought prompt merchants to promote lower-cost items, cut prices to bone on must-have kids' requests to Santa.

CREDIT CARD RELIEF? | Flaherty unveils voluntary code of practice for credit and debit card issuers, so merchants can determine lowest-cost transaction fees and pass savings on to customers in current highly competitive market conditions. Visa, Mastercard, et all are studying non-binding code. Resistance likely futile, though. Non-compliance, with federal election in the offing and Tories wanting to appear consumer-friendly, will only provoke feds to make the changes mandatory rather than voluntary.

Muslin pilgrims from more than 160 nations converge on Mecca's Grand Mosque, among the 2.5 million Muslims who make the annual hajj pilgrimmage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in western Saudi Arabia. Photo: Mahinud Hams, AFP-Getty Images.

NEXT GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS IS DEBT | Britain vows budget surplus in four years. Obama acknowledged this week that debt-reduction is a must to avoid double-dip recession. Just the same, two prominent U.S. deficit "hawks" say inflation not yet a problem.

U.S. FORECLOSURES STABLE BUT HIGH | One in seven U.S. homeowners faces foreclosure or delinquent. Especially hard hit are Florida, California and pockets of Midwest, where previous record housing boom was most pronounced. Congress and administration likely to push early in New Year for additional homeowner assistance with renegotiated mortgages and direct subsidy relief. Not much hope for recovery in broader consumer economy until distressed homeowners are able to keep their homes and jobless rate stops rising.

9/11 TRIALS | WaPo's Ezra Klein is short and sweet on why Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be tried in NYC. See later post.

INDIA AFFLUENCE | Forbes reports doubling in Indian billionaires in latest Forbes 400 ranking of world's weathiest people. David Olive, who again failed to make the cut, would have ranked higher than his 32,639,038th spot had he and Gus's power bill not skyrocketed from all this blogging.

INDO-CANADA TRADE PROGRESS NEGLIGIBLE | Harper's recent did little to advance the cause. Globe's John Ibbitson's back-to-back reports on necessary steps for stronger trade ties with emerging South Asia economic superpower.

AUTO SAFETY | Ford, Subaru and Volkwagen take top honours in insurance-industry safety ratings.

NOT SO FAST | VW declared world's largest carmaker. Maybe so, for large part of this year. But VW counts entire production of minority-owned affiliates, while former No. 1 Toyota does not. Also, Toyota cut production in half for first six months of 2009 as its key North American and home market in Japan collapsed. VW will soon lose its crown as Toyota brings idled production back onstream. Indeed, its increased production in this year's second half may yet see Toyota City triumphant for 2009 as a whole.

 
 
SOUTH AFRICAN SPORTS DRAMA |  South African runner Caster Semenya (above, left) to keep medal. Her gender tests following 800-metre gold medal victory in world championships will be kept confidential, South African sports ministry says today. Irish incensed at dubious goal by which France secures World Cup berth in South African games next year. Watch the video and decide for yourself. Here's list of the final 32-nation line-up for World Cup, in which U.S. once again qualifies and Canada once again doesn't. Brilliant Irish deserve better outcome, columnist argues.

INTERNET MILESTONES | Wikipedia, iPhone among 10 turning points, tech journal says.

NORTH KOREAN OVERTURE | Obama, in Seoul, extends friendly offer to North over nukes. U.S. president wants to work with Pyongyang toward nuclear free Korean peninsula. Music to ears of South Korean leadership, which has financially supported Hermit Kingdom for years and sought peaceful co-existence.

DUDE, WHERE'S MY SUMMIT? | Disorganized Ottawa hasn't settled on venue for G-20 next year. Mandarins are trapped in in pre-G-20 mindset, when soon-to-be defunct G-8 could have met at likes of Deerhurst Resort. But much larger, less intimate G-20, for which Canada has ostensibly selected the Muskokas as the venue, will inevitably end up in Toronto - for which neither Ottawa nor Toronto have prepared. Time to study this year's London and Pittsburgh G-20 summits for tips on accommodating 20 heads of state, their advisers and security details. 

DUBIOUS HONOUR | Will Farrell declared most overpaid actor. Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Cruise and Jim Carrey also made Forbes' top 10 ranking of actors whose compensation far exceeds their films' box-office proceeds. As noted here earlier, Hollywood is currently turned off A-list actors for this reason.

DUMB BLONDE | Kate Moss criticized for encouraging anorexics. Waif-like British supermodel, 35, says in interview she subscribes to motto found on many pro-anorexia websites, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." I'm guessing we can trace "dumb blonde" jokes back to the first woman of fair hair who said something this stupid and uncaring.

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "He had drifted into the habit of winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling them at his wife." -Arthur Conan Doyle, A Case of Identity.

Courtesy The New Yorker, Nov. 16 edition. 

 

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David