The Republicant reports: Researchers at the National Archives today uncovered a stack of the president's test scores from the 1960s. On a standardized IQ test given to him in seventh grade, President Bush scored a 57, which is within the range of mental retardation.

“Psychiatrists consider a score in the high fifties to be only mild mental retardation,” said Dr. Herman Coddrick, White House staff physician. “There’s no reason that a person with such a mental capacity couldn't hold a regular job, like being server at Dairy Queen, a digger of ditches or Commander-in-Chief of the United States military.”

The documents further reveal that George W. Bush re-took the test every year through his senior year at high school, apparently scoring the same result: 57.

The Financial Times: The world’s leading banks have stepped up pressure to relax controversial accounting rules with a new plan aimed at breaking the “downward spiral” of huge writedowns, emergency fundraisings and fire-sales of assets.

The proposals on “fair value” accounting by the Institute of International Finance, an alliance of 300-plus companies chaired by Josef Ackermann, Deutsche Bank’s chairman, would enable financial companies to cushion the blow of financial crises by valuing illiquid assets using historical, rather than market, prices.


Under the plan, which has been obtained by the Financial Times, banks that decided to keep assets on their balance sheet would also be freed from the requirement to hold them to maturity and would be able to sell them after two years.

These are the "banks" that have lost trillions of dollars on bad loans that they conveniently call investment instruments and now want government to throw them even more rope to hang consumers with.

C|net reports: Microsoft has acknowledged that Windows Media Centers will block users from recording TV shows at the request of a broadcaster.

"Microsoft included technologies in Windows based on rules set forth by the (Federal Communications Commission)," a Microsoft spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com. "As part of these regulations, Windows Media Center fully adheres to the flags used by broadcasters and content owners to determine how their content is distributed and consumed."

The software company was responding to questions about why some users of Windows Vista Media Center were prevented from recording NBC Universal TV shows, American Gladiator and Medium on Monday night.

The "rules," in which the spokeswoman is apparently referring to are those proposed by the FCC, which would require software and hardware makers honor "broadcast flags." The flags are code that broadcasters can insert into the data stream of TV shows that typically require restrictions on the recording of the shows. What she didn't say is that the "rules" aren't rules at all.

The courts struck down the FCC's proposal in 2005, saying the regulator lacked the authority to tell electronics makers how to interpret the signals they receive. Since then, Microsoft and other manufacturers have retained the option of whether to honor the flags.

News that the world's largest software maker has voluntarily agreed to help broadcasters control the recording of their shows is bound to outrage enthusiasts of digital video recorders, as it represents the biggest threat to the practice known as time shifting since the FCC's attempt to require flag adherence.

Here is a perfect shining example of what is to come if DMCA styled copyright legislation comes to Canada. Now Microsoft and NBC "claim" it was all just a simple mistake! B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T! This is the future of fair-use in the digital age. First there will be "mistakes" eventually these mistakes will become copyright challenges. This is the first step down the long road killing fair-use.

The simple fact is that the FCC ruled broadcast flags illegal. So how is it that major corporations can engage in clearly illegal behaviours and then get a free pass by throwing their hands up and claiming it was all just an honest mistake? Hmmm...

Save yourself the trouble and ditch Microsoft Media Centre and use an open source alternative like MediaPortal for Windows or MythTV for Linux. While you're at it you can look for all kinds of open source alternatives to commercial software over at the Open Source as Alternative website. Choose freedom!

C|net reports: Online advertising has ballooned into a roughly $45 billion-a-year business, to the benefit of Google, Yahoo, ad networks, and innumerable speciality and hobbyist Web sites.

One corner of this ecosystem that hasn't managed to cash in on advertising is, by some measurements, the largest: broadband providers. So it may have been inevitable that they would seek additional revenue by monitoring their customers' online activities and creating behavioral profiles that could yield hyper-relevant ads.

The only problem with this practice is that it may not be entirely, well, legal. The first warning sign came last week when two members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter to Charter Communications, a large cable provider, raising "substantial questions" about the legality of deep packet inspection and asking the company to hold off.


In interviews with News.com over the last few days, privacy advocates and attorneys pointed to a collection of federal laws--written in the 1980s when broadband services were merely a pipe dream--that combine to create a treacherous legal landscape for broadband providers that plan to conduct Web monitoring.

It's "a problem for cable providers because the very collection of personal information is prohibited without consent," said Al Gidari, a partner at Perkins Coie in Seattle, whose clients include Google and broadband providers. "It's plainly a problem for Charter. I'm amazed we haven't seen a class action lawsuit on this."

Recently Federal regulators (CRTC) have ordered Bell Canada to provide tangible evidence that its broadband networks are congested to justify the company's Internet "traffic-shaping" policies. And you can bet the argument will go something like this... first they'll claim its for performance, then they'll claim it's for security and finally they'll claim it's for the very survival of their business models.

With the Federal government on the verge of tabling the "new' copyright legislation Canadians would be well advised to prepare for an all out attack on fair-use of the content YOU OWN and your privacy. All for the sake of PROFITS!

In Growing Up Online, FRONTLINE takes viewers inside the very public private worlds that kids are creating online, raising important questions about how the Internet is transforming childhood. "The Internet and the digital world was something that belonged to adults, and now it's something that really is the province of teenagers, " says C.J. Pascoe, a postdoctoral scholar with the University of California, Berkeley's Digital Youth Research project.

Another threat is "cyberbullying," as schoolyard taunts, insults and rumors find their way online. John Halligan's son Ryan was bullied for months at school and online before he ultimately hanged himself in October 2003. "I clearly made a mistake putting that computer in his room. I allowed the computer to become too much of his life," Halligan tells FRONTLINE. "The computer and the Internet were not the cause of my son's suicide, but I believe they helped amplify and accelerate the hurt and the pain that he was trying to deal with that started in person, in the real world."

"You have a generation faced with a society with fundamentally different properties, thanks to the Internet," says Danah Boyd, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. "It's a question for us of how we teach ourselves and our children to live in a society where these properties are fundamentally a way of life. This is public life today."

If you are a parent with children online today you NEED to watch this Frontline episode.

Salon reports: A stunning new report just issued by the Bush administration finds that for under 2 cents a day per household, Americans could get 300 gigawatts of wind by 2030. That would:

• Reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by 25 percent in 2030.
• Reduce natural gas use by 11 percent.
• Reduce cumulative water consumption associated with electricity generation by 4 trillion gallons by 2030.
• Support roughly 500,000 jobs in the U.S.

The report doesn't mention that this would require adopting policies the Bush administration opposes. But that's what elections are for.

Wind power is coming of age. In 2007, some 20,000 megawatts of wind were installed globally, enough to power 6 million homes. Sadly, most wind power manufacturers are no longer American, thanks to decades of funding cuts by conservatives. Still, new wind is poised to be a bigger contributor to U.S. (and global) electricity generation than new nuclear power in the coming decades.

The Chicago Tribune reports: Skinner said such regulations are "redundant and flawed," noting that Oak Brook-based McDonald's Corp. has offered abundant calorie information for 30 years. Industry observers have generally seen McDonald's as a leader; it posts nutritional information on its Web site, tray liners and some product packaging.

Still, advocates of menu-board calorie counts say Web site information isn't available at the point of sale, and packaging data isn't read until after a purchase is made.

Skinner called such regulatory activists "professional naysayers" and "CAVE people — Citizens Against Virtually Everything."

What is truly redundant and flawed is a business model that kills it's own customers. Slow death albeit but death none the less! And the fact that the he feels compelled to call out the "professional naysayers" is a bit of the pot calling the kettle black.

James Howard Kunstler's view, public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues, what we have in America is a nation of places not worth caring about.

Ok Minister Prentice doesn't even come close to answering any of Angus' questions but listen carefully to the near freudian slip at the end of the video when the Minister talks about striking a balance between consumers and indust - pause - ial consumers! Holy s-h-i-t he almost said industry because it's the "industr-ial" consumers that have had ALL the say about this legislation and Canada's have had NONE.

Time to throw these pocketed smucks out of office! Christ even the fumbling and stumbling Liberal have got to be better than these a-holes!

Not only does Juan Enriquez explain what oil, coal and gas possibly are but he layouts out a strategy that is sustainable and has virtually no environmental consequences. Oh and he demonstrates how the oil industry and cartels have been manipulating energy prices to ensure alternative energy systems WILL NEVER GAIN A FOOTHOLD so long as we allow the "free" market to control oil and energy prices.

The Guardian UK reports: George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.

The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.

The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.

Remarkably, little of Bush's dealings with Germany has received public scrutiny, partly because of the secret status of the documentation involving him. But now the multibillion dollar legal action for damages by two Holocaust survivors against the Bush family, and the imminent publication of three books on the subject are threatening to make Prescott Bush's business history an uncomfortable issue for his grandson, George W, as he seeks re-election.

So there you have it. The Bush family owe much of their wealth to either the Nazis or Muslim Oil Sheiks! A family that not only fights EVIL but PROFITS FROM IT! Ain't that America!

The Toronto Star reports: Utility customers could see a sharp jump in their natural gas bills starting July 1.

As oil prices hit record highs on world markets, natural gas is going along for the ride.

Enbridge customers may face a 40 per cent increase in the gas commodity price and a 20 per cent increase in the total gas bill, says Malini Giridhar, director of energy policy and analysis for Enbridge Gas Distribution.

Union Gas will probably also raise its rates on July 1, said spokesperson Andrea Stass, pointing out that market prices have been going up since January.

Enbridge has 1.8 million customers in the GTA, the Niagara peninsula and Ottawa. Union Gas Ltd. has 1.3 million customers from just west of Toronto to Windsor and across eastern Ontario from Port Hope to Cornwall.

The utilities don't make a profit on gas distribution. They pass through increases in their wholesale costs and often give retroactive credits to customers when their costs fall.

For that reason, the Ontario Energy Board usually approves requests by the utilities for quarterly changes to their commodity rates.

The average household currently pays about $1,400 a year for gas used to heat homes and water. A 20 per cent increase would add $280 to a household's annual bills – assuming gas prices stay at current levels into the fall and winter.

Enbridge's senior management is already starting to prepare the public for higher gas prices.

In a communications plan shared with the Toronto Star, Enbridge said the first step will come next week when it talks to government decision makers at Queen's Park.

In early June, Enbridge employees will be briefed on the application for a substantial rate boost.

MPPs, mayors and city councillors will receive letters, explaining the upcoming increase. (How about explaining it to consumers at the same time. Why do the politicians get "advanced" warning? What is the content of these letters?)

Let the gouging begin! And don't hand us this BS that it's a free market that's driving these artificial energy bubbles. Tjhere is NO shortage of gas. There is NO shortage of natural gas. There is NO shortage of electricity. There is a SHORTAGE OF POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND INTEGRITY. Period.

These bubbles are primarily caused be unchecked speculation. A phenomenon driven primarily by hedge funds who's managers rake in obscene amounts of money in a ANNUAL salary - try 1.7 BILLION! These are the criminals that are driving global markets to the brink. And coupled with a lunatic US administration that's printing money no faster than they are spending it are pushing the global economy to the very limits and will cause a catastrophic collapse that will take years to recover from.

the National Post reports: The phrase "avid video gamer" conjures up a stereotypical image of a lank-haired boy transfixed by a handheld game or computer monitor. But at Nintendo, the definition is getting a lot broader: think Mom.

Next week, the video game producer will unveil its latest product aimed mostly at women, the Wii Fit, as part of its strategy to vastly broaden the world of gaming. Marketing to women has helped Nintendo defy industry expectations and garner blockbuster sales, soaring profits, and an audience of loyalists along the way including senior citizens, teen girls, and working moms.

"Nintendo noticed prior to 2006 was that the amount of people who were participating in the video-game market over time was actually shrinking," said Matt Ryan, spokesman at Nintendo of Canada Ltd. "[Chief executive] Satoru Iwata and his team decided they needed to do something if they were to stay vital."

The solution? Women, who make or influence up to 85% of household purchases. In Nintendo-speak, women and moms in particular were the "chief household officer" that they were eager to attract. "We wanted to provide gaming experiences for everyone in the family," Mr. Ryan said. The Wii is at the heart of Nintendos' comeback in the game console segment after it was overtaken by Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. five years ago. "Getting the Wii into the household hinged on the chief household officer. She is the one that we are the most interested in."



Prior to developing Wii, Nintendo's research revealed women had numerous barriers when it came to gaming: traditional games were viewed as antisocial, sedentary, often violent, and seemed to take up much more free time than women were willing to spend to achieve a reasonable skill level. So rather than creating games with increasingly realistic graphics like its peers were making, Nintendo focused on quick, sports-and-leisure themed games and marketed them as a new alternative to board games for families. The Wii features motion-sensitive controllers "Wii wands" and physical games that encourages families to play together. Wii's fabricated name was crafted to suggest sociability in more ways than one - the two letter i's look like people, and the pronounciation, "we," inherently suggests a group activity to English-speakers.

The Toronto Star reports: A 25-year-old Fredericton man is behind bars today after surrendering to police.

His crime? Skateboarding on the streets.

Lee Breen was originally ticketed in the summer of 2007 for skateboarding on the streets of Fredericton. This was after receiving several warnings about Bylaw S-9, which makes it illegal to use a sled, toboggan, wagon or skateboard on the streets of New Brunswick's capital.

"I was skating on King St. in Fredericton (and) was actually going to buy my brother a skateboard helmet," he said yesterday. "(When) I saw the police car, I jumped off my board. The officer who pulled over and approached me had actually given me a warning the day before."

Breen, a local businessman who has no previous criminal record, said he politely told the officer he wasn't going to pay the fine or stop skateboarding.

In April, a judge increased the fine to $100 and gave him the choice of paying it or spending five days in jail.

What a complete waste of tax dollars. It seems that law enforcement swing wildly like a drunken bar patron on Saturday night from tasering seniors in hospital beds to busting those criminal skateboarders. With neither have a significant impact on the quality and safety of our communities.

The Globe and Mail reports: Canada's new defence strategy will cost up to $50-billion over two decades - $20-billion more than the Harper government announced earlier this week - one of the country's top generals said yesterday as the military scrambled to quell criticism that the plan lacks sufficient detail.

Lieutenant-General Walter Natynczyk, Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff, said the military would spend between $45-billion and $50-billion on planes, combat vehicles, ships and fighters under the Canada First Defence Strategy, the Conservative government's plan for the military that was originally released Monday without comprehensive details.

But senior military officers were constrained from talking openly as they tried to further flesh out the strategy yesterday.

Aside from an opening statement by Gen. Natynczyk, senior military officials who hosted a hastily arranged briefing were under orders not to let themselves be identified by name (since when does any Canadian government official, military or otherwise have the right not to discuss their name when speaking as a representative of the government) when answering reporters' questions.

So, using Harper's new military math if 48 hours = $2 billion then 20 years = $175,320,000,000,000. Perhaps we should be spending more on our crumbling city infrastructures or spiralling education or health care costs before we invest in a big stick to "project" Canada's military might around the globe. Does Harper mean project like Bush and War Inc. have been doing south of the 49th to the tune of $9 TRILLION! Let hope not... but then again it is Harper we're talking about. Bush 2.0!

Gridlock... in a circle!