Traveling Abroad

[Asinine]

So, I'm sure we all remember that Enron defrauded so many financial statements and created so many off-shore legal entities that it drove itself into bankruptcy, and in doing so financially devastated thousands of employees and share holders. Both the CEO and i believe CFO are still being prosecuted.

Similar story applies for Worldcom which practiced some nifty accounting and hid billions of dollars in losses. The former CEO Bernie Ebbers has been sentenced to jail time as a result.

The list of accounting offenders goes on and on. Tyco execs, Conrad Black, Martha Stewart, etc. all facing difficult trials and many facing or have already served jail time.

So, what's the point?

Well, today or yesterday the US government released it's account of the national response to hurricane Katrina. That Katrina oh yeah! killed a bunch of people, reduced a great number of people to anarchy, turned a great city into a pond with roofs like lillypads, etc. etc.

Also, I heard from John Stewart or Stephen Colbert that the US government is re-classifying previously declassified documents.

Moreover, if you watch any interview with an US politicians these days it's the conversationalists equivalent to riding a stationary bike because they won't answer anything.

So, my question is - when is George W. Bush going to jail? The US people are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to investigate Enron which bankrupted a bunch of people, but no one is being prosecuted for the gross mis-managment of Katrina.

What about casualties of a war based on Colin Powells 'intelligence'. What prosecution is being carried out against people who colluded to take a nation to war based on lies, then see thousands of young Americans injured or killed as a result of that collusion.

Is it becoming clear to anyone else that the US government is attaining Nazi-esque control over the US. GWB was elected by the supreme court, not the American people. On his watch terrorists have struck his nation, he is surrounded by secrecy, his second in command can shoot someone and not have it reported for hours, he's setting new records for fiscal mismanagment to fund a war, his government failed to react to impending domestic threats such as Hurricane Katrina. And within the past 72 hours his office has approved the sale of many US ports to the UAE, a country which has had a spotty record at best for harbouring terrorists.

Moreover, up until the past few weeks or maybe now months, GWB never advised Americans to conserve energy or oil, and never supported the Kyoto accord. Now he is pleading with Americans to reduce their dependence on oil. He said in his sate of the union speech that America is ADDICTED to oil - that's quite a significant change in policy.

My concern here, is that for the past 6 years the President has generally done a pretty good job running his office wihout letting the American people have one iota of an idea of what's really going on. His cronies make policy decisions and go forth, creating facts as they see fit and informing only when absolutly necessary. This scares me as a Canadian as a neighbour, and also becasue Steven Harper is as much of a nice guy as GWB and his policy with respect to the media is very much the same - which is, say nothing, be accountable for nothing.

Accountability eh. Ken Lay (former Enron CEO) should be held accountable for his mistakes in oversight. He claims he didn't know exactly what was going on, and in doing so he's a lot like the President who continually tries to dodge accountability bullets. George W. Bush should be held accountable for his mistakes in oversight, which include but are not limited to all casualties of the war in Iraq (if you don't know by now, that was a HUGE mistake), and the casualties in New Orleans.

The US government is jerk BACKWARDS. If the republicans have as much political power in 2008 I'm moving, becasue Canada is either going to be taken over for our oil, or destroyed by the catastropic path that 'good ol boy' administration believes in.

In closing, this rant comes one day after Canada lost to Russia in the Olympics. Canada brought a team of old players who were used to commercial breaks, and extended intermissions. Many Canadian players admitted afterward that putting on a Team Canada jersey doesn't mean the same to them as putting on a Russian jersey does for the Russians - or pretty much any european team. We assembled a bunch of Canadian super stars expecting a cake walk. My point here is that this is serious business, if you're in it for the prestige or resume building you're in it for the wrong reason. Our hockey players need to LOVE Canada to win, and the US politicians need to LOVE America to accomplish anything real. Hockey used to be Canada's game, as geopolitical dominance used to be Americas!

The New Orleans area is being re-built with mobile homes as 'temporary housing'. That area has been devastated and is being rebuilt as a trailer park, while real expensive rebuilding goes on in Iraq, or are they even at rebuilting yet. Again, CEOs are punished for breaking accounting laws, but the President of the USA is unscathed for wasting life on account of his administrations stupidity. Not to mention engineering future crisis' such as Social Security, health care, education, etc.

Demand Accountability!!!

[Andrea]

Well, I don't have a neat-o post like yours with all kinds of examples and stuff.. but I do have to say this... I voted for GWB this last time and I supported him when everyone else said he was a horrible president. As time goes on, I am loosing confidence in the president I voted for. Hopefully we can make it these remaining two years and get someone in office that will help fix some of these problems our current president has caused.

[gdizzle]

So, I'm sure we all remember that Enron defrauded so many financial statements and created so many off-shore legal entities that it drove itself into bankruptcy, and in doing so financially devastated thousands of employees and share holders. Both the CEO and i believe CFO are still being prosecuted.

Similar story applies for Worldcom which practiced some nifty accounting and hid billions of dollars in losses. The former CEO Bernie Ebbers has been sentenced to jail time as a result.

The list of accounting offenders goes on and on. Tyco execs, Conrad Black, Martha Stewart, etc. all facing difficult trials and many facing or have already served jail time.

So, what's the point?

Well, today or yesterday the US government released it's account of the national response to hurricane Katrina. That Katrina bitch killed a bunch of people, reduced a great number of people to anarchy, turned a great city into a pond with roofs like lillypads, etc. etc.

Also, I heard from John Stewart or Stephen Colbert that the US government is re-classifying previously declassified documents.

Moreover, if you watch any interview with an US politicians these days it's the conversationalists equivalent to riding a stationary bike because they won't answer anything.

So, my question is - when is George W. Bush going to jail? The US people are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to investigate Enron which bankrupted a bunch of people, but no one is being prosecuted for the gross mis-managment of Katrina.

What about casualties of a war based on Colin Powells 'intelligence'. What prosecution is being carried out against people who colluded to take a nation to war based on lies, then see thousands of young Americans injured or killed as a result of that collusion.

Is it becoming clear to anyone else that the US government is attaining Nazi-esque control over the US. GWB was elected by the supreme court, not the American people. On his watch terrorists have struck his nation, he is surrounded by secrecy, his second in command can shoot someone and not have it reported for hours, he's setting new records for fiscal mismanagment to fund a war, his government failed to react to impending domestic threats such as Hurricane Katrina. And within the past 72 hours his office has approved the sale of many US ports to the UAE, a country which has had a spotty record at best for harbouring terrorists.

Moreover, up until the past few weeks or maybe now months, GWB never advised Americans to conserve energy or oil, and never supported the Kyoto accord. Now he is pleading with Americans to reduce their dependence on oil. He said in his sate of the union speech that America is ADDICTED to oil - that's quite a significant change in policy.

My concern here, is that for the past 6 years the President has generally done a pretty good job running his office wihout letting the American people have one iota of an idea of what's really going on. His cronies make policy decisions and go forth, creating facts as they see fit and informing only when absolutly necessary. This scares me as a Canadian as a neighbour, and also becasue Steven Harper is as much of a nice guy as GWB and his policy with respect to the media is very much the same - which is, say nothing, be accountable for nothing.

Accountability eh. Ken Lay (former Enron CEO) should be held accountable for his mistakes in oversight. He claims he didn't know exactly what was going on, and in doing so he's a lot like the President who continually tries to dodge accountability bullets. George W. Bush should be held accountable for his mistakes in oversight, which include but are not limited to all casualties of the war in Iraq (if you don't know by now, that was a HUGE mistake), and the casualties in New Orleans.

The US government is jerk BACKWARDS. If the republicans have as much political power in 2008 I'm moving, becasue Canada is either going to be taken over for our oil, or destroyed by the catastropic path that 'good ol boy' administration believes in.

In closing, this rant comes one day after Canada lost to Russia in the Olympics. Canada brought a team of old players who were used to commercial breaks, and extended intermissions. Many Canadian players admitted afterward that putting on a Team Canada jersey doesn't mean the same to them as putting on a Russian jersey does for the Russians - or pretty much any european team. We assembled a bunch of Canadian super stars expecting a cake walk. My point here is that this is serious business, if you're in it for the prestige or resume building you're in it for the wrong reason. Our hockey players need to LOVE Canada to win, and the US politicians need to LOVE America to accomplish anything real. Hockey used to be Canada's game, as geopolitical dominance used to be Americas!

The New Orleans area is being re-built with mobile homes as 'temporary housing'. That area has been devastated and is being rebuilt as a trailer park, while real expensive rebuilding goes on in Iraq, or are they even at rebuilting yet. Again, CEOs are punished for breaking accounting laws, but the President of the USA is unscathed for wasting life on account of his administrations stupidity. Not to mention engineering future crisis' such as Social Security, health care, education, etc.

Demand Accountability!!!

Don't you live in Canada? Don't worry about what we're doing. :monkey:

[the underlørd]

Don't you live in Canada? Don't worry about what we're doing.

+1.

[HtownTurboBrick]

Don't you live in Canada? Don't worry about what we're doing.

lol thats messed up, they're our neighbors...they're worried about collateral damage from terrorist retaliation lol. seriously tho i think he's more informed about our issues then a lot of ppl from this country.

most ppl are losing faith in GW, i didn't like him when he was governor n i still don't like him now.

[Asinine]

This isn't a USA vs. USA or USA vs. Iraq thing. The world is very interconnected, and the US' poor political (domestic and foreign) decisions are effecting all of us.

Frankly, if i was looking out for Canada's best interest in the short sighted manner US politicians look at theirs, i should be happy. Look at our stock market, look at our dollar, look at the money we are making selling oil to the USA - not sure if you know this, but the #1 oil import nation of the US is.. Canada.

Now, I hate to use examples from decades ago to prove my point but is this the excuse your nation used to keep itself out of Europe in WW2? -> "We're not British, the Nazi's aren't our problem"

Cause the bottom line is the mistakes of your government are making this whole globe a significantly more dangerous place to live, which makes that little red necks decisions very important to me!

As if you'd be upset, I'd like to see affordable health care for you, or a national pension plan that might actually work - kind of like the rest of the developed world has, but if you'd rather I stop being upset on your account.. well, i just can't do that!

[RAzOR]

I think the "system" is continuing to move in a direction towards an impotent mixture of bureaucracy and elitism.

While I agree with Republicans on most issues and voted for W twice I am not sure that W has much to do with the problems we face today.

1. Governments at all levels are run by "opportunists" working together to form a circle. They make very weak leaders and back off when any special interest challenges any policy- meaning most-nothing gets done. The ultimate fault lies with the public who keeps electing these professional political "used car salesmen". The California Legislature is case and point.

2. The US economy is in grave danger in the face of union power, tough competition, over protective environemental regulations, a hostile legal environment (lawsuits), and horrible/dishonest managment. This will continue, due to 1.

3. The American citizen needs to take a far greeater interest in issues and to spend far more time researching their information. This will help them make solid, better informed decisions. They will also have a clearer undertsanding of what is going on and therefore will make better and more meaningful decisions in the voting booth.

IMHO "W" has nothing to do with any of this other than not really doing anything about it. If anything, I think he has been more of a leader than the past President, sticking to his policies in the face of loud and persistent opposition. Right or Wrong- he is leading.

The root problem is huge. Start with a better educated and better self-regulated citizens the rest should just happen. Take away education and self-regulation and you get what has been occuring since the 60's.

Edited February 23, 2006 by RAzOR

[javadoc]

Don't you live in Canada? Don't worry about what we're doing.

[Asinine]

Razor, i love the post, but i really think your government is running all over the globe pointing fingers at individuals - bin Laden, Kimmy from Korea, Saddam. Even domesticly with the CEOs that are being indicted.

If US organizations are so hung up on pin pointing accountability on individuals I don't understand how no one inside the government is getting a finger pointed at them!

To be honest, all the US governments priorities are wack. Concentration on war, not affordable health care or emergency response. The US continues to slip from their acceptable level in academic competitions, could illiteracy be on the rise?

Millions of dollars are being spent prosecuting white collar crime while hand gun ownership proliferates in inner cities (I'm Canadian, I'm morally opposed to citizens having hand guns).

With the help of unions and legacy manufacturing the US work force has become globally uncompetitive, and with tuitions on the rise, there are fewer and fewer formally educated people leaving US schools to drive new innovation.

---

Anyhow, Javadoc, I didn't get pwned at all. Really, if I have no right being concerned about US politics, then i should make a "PWNED" picture with some planes flying into a couple buildings. But I am concerned, and worried, and really, not enough Americans are as politically realistic as you have to be, becasue you have to protect yourself, your government is too busy protecting itself!

[merlin390]

(I'm Canadian, I'm morally opposed to citizens having hand guns).

I really hope you aren't that stupid. Im a private citizen and my side arm stays on me 90% of the time. Im at work right now and its on me.

I'll agree our economy is not in great shape and its sad when companies like GM spend more on healthcare than they do in raw materials for the vehicles they produce. I think unions are a thing of the past for the most part and should be downsized greatly. I voted for Bush twice and I think he has dropped the ball a couple of times. Would I elect him for a third term I am not sure, it would depend who else there was to chose from (lesser of two or three evils).

I think our government has gotten a little sloppy and needs to change some things but I would rather live here than anywhere else.

[RAzOR]

Fellas,

Our economy is in great shape, and I think our US "organizations" are just doing what they do.

Our gov't is going after some bad dudes.

But there are sooo many things that really need a direction and haven't gotten it because it's too tough for the current set of weenies.

White collar crime is one.

Handgun ownership is NOT.

Guns do not kill people. Bad people kill people.

Make good people and they can all own guns.

Edited February 23, 2006 by RAzOR

[Asinine]

I'm not that stupid to be against handguns, but if you think i'm stupid for being against casual ownership of handguns, then i think you're stupid for carrying one 90% of the time.

Razor, at least from your last post i have to assume you're more politically enfranchised than most Americans, even most 'educated' Americans. But things are not all good.

Here's a few things that are of SERIOUS concern:

1) Oil - currently the US is a huge consumer of oil, most of which comes from Canada or the Middle east. China and India are becomming huge consumers of oil, with greater economic growth prospects. If I was OPEC I'd be looking at solidifying supply contracts with China and India and worrying less about America - in part cause OPEC is mostly mid. easter nations that hate America.

2) Health Care - The single greatest cost for manufacturing a vehicle in the US is health care related costs. The Pharmacuetical lobby in the US is so strong that the US government has been rendered incapable of passing price controls on drugs, or getting anywhere close to a universal system as it exists throughout the developed world. In fact American health care economics continue to get worse as more and more Americans fall into the target market for Wal-Mart where they are looking to save $0.60 on underwear, god forbid having to buy brand name drugs.

3) The economy - The American economy is not all that great. You're looking at 3% GDP growth in 2006 vs. 7 - 9% in China and India. You are setting new trade deficit records every month as more and more of the consumable goods come from abroad.

4) Education - not that America has been near the top in at least a decade, but you continue to slip further down the rankings. More and more high level scholarships from Ivy schools are going to Chinese and Indian kids who want to learn the science and math that will drive innovation, and then upon graduation can't get jobs in the US because Homeland Security makes it almost impossible to get a Green Card.

5) Social Security - It's toast. The numbers of 50 year old without and retirement savings in the US are staggering. The failure of that system will result in an old age poverty pandemic, and extreme resentment toward older people.

There's the short list of ideas bouncing around in my head - and i didn't even mention the wasteful wars that are waging

So, what does America have going for it right now?

1) Lazy disenfranchised work force. I love when commentators talk about how all these Mexicans do jobs 'no American would do'. That makes me laugh, because soon, primary service jobs are going to make up a significantly larger part of the labour market as the once good blue collar jobs go away through outsourcing or productivity gains.

2) The 30-year bond. This will probably prove to be the 'saviour' of forseeable funding issues - MORE DEBT, which ironically will be owned mostly by.. the Chinese Central Bank, the BOJ, etc.

That's about it. It's great that the US still holds on to the real innovation centres (google campus, microsoft HQ, Texas Instruments, etc., etc.) but high tech, highly innovative companies are finding a lot more passion for innovation on the other side of the world than they can find domestically.

My inital point here was that GWB is a nice guy, and is as responsible for a number of sensless deaths as Ken Lay is for financially devastating a few thousand people. Death is worse than lost money last time i checked, and i think the punishment should fit the crime, but am continually angered by the absolute lack of punishment.

My point now is that the US just rides on what we have or what we had, and is blind to the massive changes that are occuring in the global economy.

I have purposly thrown in a lot of "we" or "our" because Canada is plauged with a lot of the same social opinions of "best place to live", and while I'd agree that Canada is still the best place to live in the world, I don't think i could objectivly hold on to that opinion in say 10 years becasue there are 2.5 billion people that want to live as well as we do, even if it means we don't get to live as well as we do!

Wow.. i'm definitly over capacity on ranting today!

[HtownTurboBrick]

I really hope you aren't that stupid. Im a private citizen and my side arm stays on me 90% of the time. Im at work right now and its on me.

+1 mine is too

Fellas,

Our economy is in great shape, and I think our US "organizations" are just doing what they do.

Our gov't is going after some bad dudes.

But there are sooo many things that really need a direction and haven't gotten it because it's too tough for the current set of weenies.

White collar crime is one.

Handgun ownership is NOT.

Guns do not kill people. Bad people kill people.

Make good people and they can all own guns.

its true guns don't kill people, its just as possible to be killed by a knife, car or someone's bare hands. its the hands of the person u need to worry about, not whats in it.

i wouldn't want to live in any other country then this one, the reason our goverment is the way it is, is because the people put them there. we have no one to blame, but ourselves. honestly tho, i think this country would be a lot different if ALL the american public was well informed enough to make decisions when they voted. and ALL american people need to get out and vote before they should start complaining about whats going on.

[RAzOR]

I'm not that stupid to be against handguns, but if you think i'm stupid for being against casual ownership of handguns, then i think you're stupid for carrying one 90% of the time.

Razor, at least from your last post i have to assume you're more politically enfranchised than most Americans, even most 'educated' Americans. But things are not all good.

Here's a few things that are of SERIOUS concern:

1) Oil - currently the US is a huge consumer of oil, most of which comes from Canada or the Middle east. China and India are becomming huge consumers of oil, with greater economic growth prospects. If I was OPEC I'd be looking at solidifying supply contracts with China and India and worrying less about America - in part cause OPEC is mostly mid. easter nations that hate America.

2) Health Care - The single greatest cost for manufacturing a vehicle in the US is health care related costs. The Pharmacuetical lobby in the US is so strong that the US government has been rendered incapable of passing price controls on drugs, or getting anywhere close to a universal system as it exists throughout the developed world. In fact American health care economics continue to get worse as more and more Americans fall into the target market for Wal-Mart where they are looking to save $0.60 on underwear, god forbid having to buy brand name drugs.

3) The economy - The American economy is not all that great. You're looking at 3% GDP growth in 2006 vs. 7 - 9% in China and India. You are setting new trade deficit records every month as more and more of the consumable goods come from abroad.

4) Education - not that America has been near the top in at least a decade, but you continue to slip further down the rankings. More and more high level scholarships from Ivy schools are going to Chinese and Indian kids who want to learn the science and math that will drive innovation, and then upon graduation can't get jobs in the US because Homeland Security makes it almost impossible to get a Green Card.

5) Social Security - It's toast. The numbers of 50 year old without and retirement savings in the US are staggering. The failure of that system will result in an old age poverty pandemic, and extreme resentment toward older people.

There's the short list of ideas bouncing around in my head - and i didn't even mention the wasteful wars that are waging

So, what does America have going for it right now?

1) Lazy disenfranchised work force. I love when commentators talk about how all these Mexicans do jobs 'no American would do'. That makes me laugh, because soon, primary service jobs are going to make up a significantly larger part of the labour market as the once good blue collar jobs go away through outsourcing or productivity gains.

2) The 30-year bond. This will probably prove to be the 'saviour' of forseeable funding issues - MORE DEBT, which ironically will be owned mostly by.. the Chinese Central Bank, the BOJ, etc.

That's about it. It's great that the US still holds on to the real innovation centres (google campus, microsoft HQ, Texas Instruments, etc., etc.) but high tech, highly innovative companies are finding a lot more passion for innovation on the other side of the world than they can find domestically.

My inital point here was that GWB is a nice guy, and is as responsible for a number of sensless deaths as Ken Lay is for financially devastating a few thousand people. Death is worse than lost money last time i checked, and i think the punishment should fit the crime, but am continually angered by the absolute lack of punishment.

My point now is that the US just rides on what we have or what we had, and is blind to the massive changes that are occuring in the global economy.

I have purposly thrown in a lot of "we" or "our" because Canada is plauged with a lot of the same social opinions of "best place to live", and while I'd agree that Canada is still the best place to live in the world, I don't think i could objectivly hold on to that opinion in say 10 years becasue there are 2.5 billion people that want to live as well as we do, even if it means we don't get to live as well as we do!

Wow.. i'm definitly over capacity on ranting today!

You ARE on fire!

Let me go by each.

1. The Mid east hates "The West" Canada included. You are speakng very broadly. I agree there must be a serious effort to get "THE WEST"- Canada included off oil. Government billions and letting the free-market develop it has proven to be a dud at bringing an alternate source of energy. The higher gas prices will definitely help push now.

2. I agree Health Care System needs a major fix. I'm not sure price controls are gonna do it. It's far more complex than that. The current system is expensive but its the most capable in the world. It is a victim of governmental neglect and lack of resolve.

3. You are comparing Apples to Oranges. Compare the US Economic Growth Rate with its past performance and against that of Europe and Japan (the closest in model), China and India are developing and not comparable. From your perspective might as well include Mexico and Indonesia.

4. America has a broad and open education system that is bloated, innefficient and impotent and needs a major overhaul. See 2.

5. I have increasing resentment to older people as I get older! Social Security isn't broke yet but it will be. For the reason See 2.

Saddam Hussein, Al Qaida et al are responsible for the deaths, not W. He is just doing what he thinks is best protecting his country. I agree it is sloppy and ugly but this kind of war is new and tough. But don't mix the blame, that is crazy.

Edited February 23, 2006 by RAzOR

[Asinine]

The fact that the US federal government isn't resolute on fixing issues such as education, health care and social security is still not enough. Those are much bigger priorities to the American people than the 1/2 trillion dollar effort in Iraq.

As for china and indias growth rates. True the rates aren't comparable, but let me tell you if i had anything to sell or make right now I'd want to be doing so in China. They have a population that is mobilizing to and past the wal-mart style consumer, while domestically more and more noth americans are being forced into wal-marts.

North Americans (moreso Americans than Canadians, but we're still behind the 8 ball) have lost the competitive edge, and wasting money the way the Bush administration does isn't helping to rectify that problem.