Short BLOGs

Here are some quick thoughts for you

WILL THIS CONCEPT FLOAT

Now you know why Gord Henderson said this:

• "I’m in awe of Moroun and his hired hands. These folks are the masters. They’re always two or three cunning moves ahead of the other players…"

It is not a new concept. Major companies collectively for years have invested in massive computer backup systems that just sit there waiting for the day that a Company has a catastrophe and needs a new computer system in operation immediately.

The floating bridge concept for the Ambassador Bridge first was mentioned as far as I know at one of the hearings in Lansing about a year ago. As I Blogged at the time in respect to redundancy

• "I have to admit that if I was a Senator in Michigan, and I would have to wonder about some of the people at MDOT.
  
  There was some discussion at the Cropsey hearings about redundancy. No, I do not mean building an entirely new Ambassador Gateway project for the DRIC bridge at a cost of a quarter of $1 billion or more in the event that the Customs area is damaged so that truckers have a four or five day problem.
  
  There was a suggestion that they would be massive problems in the event that Ambassador Bridge was out of circulation. Of course, the MDOT people seem to have forgotten about the “floating bridge” concept that the Bridge Company presented to the House hearings which would eliminate that issue. The strong suggestion however was that a new bridge was needed for redundancy concerns."

The floating bridge now eliminates the terrorism threat that anti-Bridge Company people have raised to justify the DRIC bridge. Of course, those people forgot how terrorists operate with multi-targets or that reverse customs should have been introduced a long time ago. The DRIC bridge was never the solution.

This idea will help the Ambassador Bridge and other bridges as well

• "Not only will Moroun store a floating bridge for use locally in event of an emergency, he is working on a proposal to offer it in an emergency to others — if they pay an insurance fee.
  
  “It’s a recovery proposal not just for here, but for any bridge or underwater tunnel,” Stamper said. “We are designing it and looking into offering it as an insurance policy to other locations...”
  
  “Our floating bridge would be available not only for Detroit, but any location to install as a replacement,” Stamper said."

The real beauty of the concept is that it will minimize attacks on key transportation infrastructure targets since, if they can be replaced easily, they are no longer of value to a terrorist since disruption will be minimal.

Senator Kenny can rest easy now.

RECALL TLIAB

Interesting story for those who believe that our system of elections is unresponsive to citizen needs especially at the municipal level.

What I like is the concept of being able to recall a politician who is NOT doing his or her job without having to wait for the next election.

What could we as citizens in Windsor have done with a situation similar to that of Detroit and its ex-Mayor. Nothing, unless there was a specific breach of a statute. There, as I BLOGGED before, there were six recall petitions aimed at removing the Mayor from office.

As I have said before, Premier McGuinty did us a huge disservice by adding another year to the term of our municipal politicians without giving citizens a remedy to guard against politicans being out of touch and ruining a City.

Voting people out at a ballot box every four years is hardly an option any longer with such huge issues being dealt with by municipalities and with so much money at stake.

Check out what I wrote before and my suggested language for a recall statute:
http://windsorcityon.blogspot.com/2008/03/right-of-recall-part-1.html
http://windsorcityon.blogspot.com/2008/03/right-of-recall-part-2.html

Will we ever get such legislation? Do not hold your breath municipally. If the Province gave us that for Mayors and Councillors then citizens would ask for the right of recall for MPPs too.

Now THAT would never be allowed.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

I think this quote by our Mayor should be framed. It was in relation to the proposed big-box mall by Windsor Raceway:

• "Francis said municipal planners should not decide who competes with whom.
  
  “Obviously we agree with the OMB that the market will drive and dictate what happens where,” Francis said. “It reinforces the principle that you can’t use planning to stop competition. You can’t use planning policy to prevent a development from taking place in an adjoining municipality.”

Hmmmm can that apply to competition in border crossings too? Were planning tools like Interim Control by-laws and anti-demolition by-laws or heritage studies or CIPs used "to stop competition" with the Tunnel or to help in the sale of Brighton Beach lands? Were those tools designed to prevent the Enhancement Bridge development being built or to at least stall it for years and to help out the competitive DRIC project?

One day if there is no resolution of the border file, we may find out whether market forces applied.

MATTY CONTROLS EVERYONE

It must be silly season.

Matty Moroun is being attacked for everything under the sun these days. I guess he must be winning the border file.

Read this from Jack Lessenberry who also writes for the Windsor Star. It is in relation to the Feds being reluctant to sink in more money for the Ferry project which is a third over budget.

• "Gregg Ward worries too. He thinks Moroun is trying to put him out of business. The government of Canada had promised $2.9 million to improve approaches to his truck ferry on their side of the river. Suddenly, that's been held up at the federal level. They are also, he says, charging him exorbitant fees for ice-breaking services, and throwing up other roadblocks.
  
  He wonders if Matty, notorious for his campaign contributions, is throwing money around in Canada. But he intends to keep on fighting, no matter what. Ironically, if the DRIC bridge is ever built, it may well be certified for hazmat, which might put him out of business. He knows that."

Now he controls the Canadian Federal Government too! If so, why are they holding him up and supporting a DRIC bridge!

Don't you find it odd how seemingly uncaring Ward is about being put out of business by a DRIC bridge?

BLOGGER CHILL

Thank goodness that the Star did the big Editorial about the action against Google whereby Google was required to disclose the identity of an anonymous Blogger who slandered a person on the Internet. It is a nice precedent to use in Court one day in Canada.

• "The playing field changed abruptly last week, when a Supreme Court judge in New York State ruled that Google must turn over the e-mail address of a blogger who had posted derogatory comments and photos of a Canadian woman through one of its sites.
  
  Liskula Cohen, a former super model, had demanded to know who entered five posts about her last year, all of them on a not-so-charming site called "Skanks of NYC."
  
  The postings, said the 37-year-old's attorney, included "defamatory statements concerning her appearance, hygiene and sexual conduct that are malicious and untrue."
  
  Cohen wanted to bring suit against the blogger. To do that, she needed a name. When Madame Justice Joan Madden agreed Cohen should have it, she did so having determined that the relatively new "online world" was not entitled to be held to a different standard when it came to issues of defamation and free speech.
  
  "The thrust of the blog is that Cohen is a sexually promiscuous woman," Madden wrote in her decision. Forced to comply, Google handed over the information. Ironically, the blogger -- 29-year-old Rosemary Port -- turned out to be an acquaintance of Cohen's."

As a person who has strong views about a number of topics in Windsor and who expresses them, I expect to have my ideas challenged by those who do not agree with me. People read me not only because they agree with my perspective but because they want to read an alternative point of view even if they disagree.

What I do not expect, although it has happened in the past and will again, is to be smeared because of my beliefs whether the poster is anonymous or not.

• "It's easy to say anonymous, defamatory comments posted on the Internet are nothing more than the trivial thoughts of cowardly people. Unless, of course, you're the one being victimized.
  
  Then, it's not so easy to shrug off such malicious and hurtful statements. With the push of a button -- and often intending to cause harm -- bloggers can spew forth whatever they want. And they do, increasingly.
  
  Emboldened by the fact their privacy is protected even as they violate yours, bloggers seem to be growing meaner and their comments more offensive with each passing year. Recourse? There hasn't been any. Until now."

As I have said before, I do NOT permit unmoderated commenting because I will not tolerate slander on my BLOG nor risk being sued because of it. I moderate what is sent to me and, contrary to what some believe, I do post almost everything emailed to me in my reader comments BLOGs reserving of course the right to edit the comments for legal reasons and often to protect the identity of the writer. It is like a Letter to the Editor in a newspaper.

What I find interesting however, is WHEN I get smeared. It usually happens when someone thinks I am getting too close to something that the person does not want disclosed or perhaps wants to curry favour with someone. Thus the attempt to destroy my credibility so others will ignore me.

As you will recall, I discussed this subject within the past few months.

It is the WHY though that should be really frightening to everyone.

The Internet smears are not expected to be read by many others. Rather, they are designed to find their way to me or the target person to deliver the message to knuckle under or else.

It is blackmail pure and simple. Say anything we do not like and be destroyed. That is the whole purpose of it.

I am not read by millions in a syndicated news column. I am not read by multi-thousands as one of the top political BLOGs on the Internet. I am read by a bunch of LOCAL readers who follow my ramblings most days with blips of increased numbers as took place during the CUPE strike.

I am in reality a lonely Blogger who uses this BLOG to express my point of view to those who choose to read it, regardless of numbers. That I am so important to some anonymous person who has a destruction agenda to smear me so that no one will read me again or so that I tone down my comments is very scary in our Democracy.

That's how it is and I guess I have to learn to live with it. At least now, I have a precedent that I can use to protect myself and will do so at the appropriate time to set a legal precedent in Canada! And so do other Bloggers who will also be targetted one day.