City Of Ottawa - Casino Wars

At the end of reasons comes persuasion.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty, Sec. 612

As Ottawa fries like an egg on a curb in Death Valley who would ever think that the summer of 2013 would contain so much entertainment? Usually in the bake of the summer months in Ottawa very little of note takes place, especially the clash of titans and mice. That, in the past, has always waited for the commencement of the standard social season that starts sometime after Labour Day.

The winner is: Eugene Melnyk?

It all just blew up out of nowhere didn't it? One day nothing and then Ka-Boom! Gentleman Jim the Mayor of Ottawa thought he could brush off the boorish Eugene Melnyk just as he would a poor stakeholder or long time employee that has actually taken the high ground and refuses to step down. That bit that showed up on the Oracle of Ottawas supper time news recently explained every thing. That Melnyk guy was hotter than hell, at that last City Council meeting, wasn't he? That is all quite easy to explain, if you are familiar with the recent workings at the present city of wall - mart. Gentleman Jim and his band of pathetic burg(h)ers thought they could tell old Gene one thing behind closed doors and place the knife in his back in public just like a pesky outraged small stakeholder or senior employee. 

Well as we all know, that didn't work this time. Eugene Melnyk is the real deal. He is the 75th richest person in Canada, with a present net worth of around a billion dollars. More than enough money to carry out his threats. More than enough money to hire every private dick in Canada and totally destroy the present creepy altar boy of City Hall, once and for all. Many items would no doubt be hauled out of many dark closets, why not even the Chinese could save him...

Coming soon to Kanata??

As real power would have it, old Gene won't have to spend a cent. The creepy altar boy has done everything that he was told to do save and except bending over and spreading them. And to add insult to injury, he won't be getting his name on it, or anything near or around it. That bit where he showed up on CBC Radio news recently was an absolute howler of fear and collapse.

The last municipal election proved how the people are reacting today, it was the largest flush out of a council in the history of Ottawa. At the time of this writing it appears to the Oracle of Ottawa that it really is true that sometimes one has to flush twice. The Oracle of Ottawa like many stakeholders in Ottawa can hardly wait...

Backed Up In Bytown

There was none to curse and none to pray, we just watched.
Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, p. 133

Well Dear Reader, it was a hell of week in old Ottawa, once known as Bytown, when it was run and owned by the timber barons. The illusion, or rather the delusion, that government at any level can be run as a public relations exercise by spin doctors and fart catchers has all but crashed and burned and the fire of the wreckage still burns.

Thoroughbreds will be coming to Ottawa after all!

It all started during the dinner hour earlier in the week when the Oracle of Ottawa's old style vulgar media supper news broke to "breaking news" and announced that Gentleman Jim Watson had folded and thrown in the towel on the insane, but much treasured idea, of a downtown casino in Ottawa! We were all duly informed that the head Burg(h)er of the City of Ottawa had sent off his letter to the Ontario Gaming Commission to announce that the new casino will only be allowed at the present site of the Rideau Carleton Race Track, where the Oracle of Ottawa reasoned many months ago was the only logical choice. No doubt one of the Mayors unpaid contractor interns probably read the Oracle of Ottawa's blog and realized that any other plan was indeed hopeless. The trial balloon to get the site beside the Canadian War Museum did not fly very well at all with the knuckle dragging Conservatives from the Prime Ministers Office. The dream died.

The Senate, that Harper wanted to abolish,
is going to abolish Harper!!

Meanwhile the encampment of the outta town Conservatives down on Wellington Street suffered many rattling death blows, so much so that many movers have been called and reserved for sometime in the near future. The "state broadcaster" the great Mother ship of the CBC is pulling out only one or two stops in the fight for its life. The stories are breaking daily and the slip of secret revenge dumps in thick envelopes are turning into a flood at all the media outlets in Ottawa. It seems to the Oracle of Ottawa that all the people from under the bus have risen up. The Oracle of Ottawa will admit freely that he is enjoying every moment of the slow motion train wreck. The spin is clashing and the talking points are causing more trouble than the effort to write them, that at present, goes on late into the night, to no avail.

Brent Rathgeber a back bench sock puppet of the 'Harper Government' has finally sickened of the little jackie bastards in short pants from the Prime Ministers Office and has resigned from the Conservative Party of Canada! The Oracle of Ottawa strongly suspects that the trickle will soon turn into a flood. Soon the so called majority will be under numerical threat as the Oracle of Ottawa predicted the day after the last election. It is not long now Dear Reader, when the social swirl of Ottawa will return to its grandeur that is only known when the leftist elites of the Liberal Party of Canada are strongly in control, which is their destiny. Why the Oracle of Ottawa has booked his fitting for his formals that will be greatly in use and demand again after this period of Canada's darkest age....

     

Meanwhile it is another day at Ottawa City Hall of the dying administration of Gentleman Jim and his Burg(h)ers... Someone E-mail the media! LOL!!

City of Ottawa - Demand Price Parking

"do not lift your horn on high, or speak with insolent neck."
Psalms, 75:5, NRSV

The Oracle of Ottawa was quite surprised today to discover that his usual Saturday routine parking spot downtown at the City owned Laurier garage has been turned into an automated billing, no person present, paid parking garage, even on Saturday! Well, the Oracle of Ottawa had to make a decision. And he threw it into reverse and headed elsewhere.

Heads will someday roll?

There has been much in the old style local vulgar visual and print media lately about another new insane idea of the City of Ottawa to bring in demand price parking. This simply means taking the opportunity to gouge your worthless ass because some skid mark contractor has managed to bullshit (bribe?) it by some hapless City manager.

The Oracle of Ottawa is always ready to be a good citizen and be as helpful as he can be. As regards to downtown demand price parking, you have to include a numerical value for demand. Please allow the oracle of Ottawa to help the worthy skidmarks at City Hall with a starting value for down town parking demand. Set the value to ZERO! Because it dawned on the Oracle of Ottawa that he really doesn't have to be downtown at all! Ottawa is a big city now, and the downtown can be easily skipped.

If you happen to be some poor hapless "entre-pren-whore" who is trying hard now to eek out a minimum wage living from a bar, grill or other eating spot, and you have your lease coming due, take the Oracle of Ottawa's advice and do not renew it. This is all going to backfire so bad, that, soon, the only thing that will be rolling down Bank Street are skateboards, bicycles and tumbleweeds!!

If you thought the earth moved on that day councilor, just wait until the next election...

The Awe And Wonder Of Hazel McCallion

How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!
James, 3:5, NRSV

At the time of this writing, 'Hurricane' Hazel McCallion is 92 years old, and is still in elected political office as the Mayor of Mississauga, Ontario. The Oracle of Ottawa is a big fan of 'Hurricane' Hazel and has been a reverent admirer for many years. 'Hurricane' Hazel is the Oracle of Ottawa's living proof that the art of government is not rocket science, but rather a well applied algorithm, that when properly applied and strictly followed, with out deviance to the left or to the right, is in reality all pretty easy and truth be told, pretty boring after a while.

Her Worship 'Hurricane' Hazel McCallion

The Oracle of Ottawa has been meaning to do this positive tribute piece for the longest while. But the final impetuous to do it came late in the night sometime last week when the Oracle of Ottawa was aimlessly surfing his 999 cable TV channels only to discover that there was still nothing on, when he stumbled upon the Ontario Legislature channel and observed Her Worship 'Hurricane' Hazel giving very animated  hearing testimony at a hearing that seemed to be investigating municipal governance.

The Oracle of Ottawa perked up, upped the volume and paid attention. Surely the fine woman is not as smooth as in her past? Well the Oracle of Ottawa discovered that she isn't, but rather, now, it seems, she has got even better! The Oracle of Ottawa marveled at the woman's mental speed and total lucidity that made the fat arsed committee guys less than half her age appear to be suffering from early onset dementia! But perhaps, the Oracle of Ottawa conceded, they were probably Conservatives, and Christian Mercy must always be shown to persons less gifted then our awesome Liberal Leftie selves.
    

That clip of her talking about municipal government, and its importance, that it should be enacted by law as an official tier of over government, should be posted to You-Tube! It was total magic to watch. The Oracle of Ottawa found himself hanging upon every word, and truly and deeply agreeing with her every word. And as she was talking, she would pick up up the ring of her unused three ring binder notes and at just the right time for emphasis she would let it drop just the right distance, and it sounded like a 220 lb. man banging his fist on the table! The Oracle of Ottawa realized that he truly was not worthy to be witness to such an awesome display of oration. 

The Oracle of Ottawa continued to be riveted, and again wondered how much the present Mayor of Ottawa would gain be sitting at her feet. Perhaps she could put some steel in his rubber spin doctored spine, maybe even, she could get him to have his own opinion! But the Oracle of Ottawa soon caught himself, not even the Mayor of Mississauga could do that.

City of Ottawa - LRT - Some Perspective

We must not measure nature by ourselves, but by itself.
Blaise Pascal, Pensees, No. 149

Well, it is all in, and done. (?) The Oracle of Ottawa was in transit doing the obligatory Christmas Shopping when he heard of the completion of the momentous event. Twenty four to zero. That was hard to believe. The Oracle of Ottawa can only marvel at the full court press results of the best spin doctors and fart catchers that the corporate over - whores could buy. Why they were so proud of the event that they made sure it happened at one of the busiest times of the year. No one would be looking, let alone paying any attention. Pure masterful. The City of Ottawa has signed on for a 12.5 kilometer trolley way  with four "trains" and a tunnel, that has now been modified to a Barrhaven tunnel, that is a ditch with a lid added later... For 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS ! That is not a lot of railroad is it?

CPR AC 4400CW  - What you are not going to get!

 Surely the utmost of value has been received by the bumbling burg(h)ers of Ottawa? Well the Oracle of Ottawa must surely agree, of course. I mean it is the most efficient way to get anything done isn't it, a foreign based sole sourced forever contract. You and yours can bet your last nickel there is a ton of very fine print included at no extra cost. Oh yes, your grandchildren will be still be scouring this monster long after you are gone dear taxpayer... But to be fair, what could you have bought, right now, with 2.1 billion through an efficient capital market where ownership of capital goods is bought and sold right out in the open? You know it as the Toronto Stock Exchange. It is all so much more efficient than soul sourced contracts that are done behind closed doors, yes indeed!  The Oracle of Ottawa has decided on two demonstration cases, the names of which you are all most familiar. What else could we have bought with 2.1 billion dollars?

Case I: Surely you have heard of RioCan REIT? It is the largest real estate investment trust in Canada. Why, it is one of the largest REITs in the Western World! It contains over 350 commercial properties all over North America. From Smithfalls, Ontario, to Texas! Yes; Texas United States. For even more perspective it all adds up to over 80 million square feet all in! How much would it cost to buy something like that?  Well that is easy to find out. You can simply go to Yahoo Financial and enter the stock symbol REI.UN and it will all come up. As of the close of Friday last trading, you could have bought all the outstanding shares for a mere 8.15 billion dollars! Why for the cost of an Ottawa trolley way, the City of Ottawa could have purchased a 25.77% interest in RioCan REIT! And that quarter interest would surely be a hands down controlling interest! And on top of that, all RioCan unit holders receive a monthly "rent check" and it amounts to much more than simple bank interest. It all surely puts a crummy 12.5 kilometre trolley way with four train sets to shame don't it? Why is it you can buy so much in the light of day compared to a closed darkened room. Weird ain't it?

Case II: You have no doubt heard of Canadian Pacific Railway, surely, dear reader? This is a legend monster of a company! It is a Class I rail carrier, operating over 14,000 miles (22,400 km) of track from Vancouver to Montreal! It also has around 1650 engines and all in around 50,000 pieces of rolling stock! Damn! Not to count all that endless real estate! And all the other juicy hidden assets that could be worth more than the mere railroad itself! Well, as of last Friday, you could buy the whole damn lot for a mere 17.51 billion dollars! A 2.1 billion dollar investment would secure you with a 11.99 % interest! This again would be way more than required for a controlling interest! This would happen because CP is most widely held. There are practically no large monster shareholders, and it has an enterprise value of over 21.5 billion. Yes dear reader, you could buy a monster railway at a fire sale price! One of the finest roads, with the finest, newest gear on Earth! So why  did the City of Ottawa pay 2.1 billion dollars for a mere stupid trolley way with a crummy set of four measly French train sets?

 Oh! But if only this was the worst of it dear reader! The Oracle of Ottawa sadly suspects that the shit will get deeper, so to speak. One of the phrases that was heard all through this "train wreck" of a project was: soul sourced foreign contract. That means that the contractor will run and maintain the 2.1 billion dollar trolley way through out it's entire operational life! When one hears soul sourced foreign contract, just say to your self TFW's or temporary foreign workers. How many third world temporary foreign workers does it take to run a 2.1 billion dollar trolley way? The Oracle of Ottawa could not find out the answer to that question. Can you?  

 What you could have got for 2.1 billion dollars. Railroads are cheap in the open market, aren't they?

City of Ottawa - Chop Stick Lackeys?

Something that is merely negative creates nothing.
Karl Marx, Grundrisse, p. 532

Well we can all check off another one the secret agreements that the 'Harper Government' made with the Peoples Republic of China concerning the CNOOC - NEXEN deal, can't we? That entails all the harvesting of all our finest tech talent to the buck toothed Chinese peasants. Why I saw it on the vulgar media with my own eyes no less!

Which way to the tech incubator?

There it was on the six o'clock CBC supper news, the pretty show boy from the central casting of the Bejing Politburo announcing a crummy ten million dollars to be invested in Kanata, now only a mere shadow of itself, due to its successful rape of the corporate over - whores, for a mind robbing high tech "incubator", which in the United States would be called a intellectual property theft and spy center! Many Ottawa burg(h)ers were on hand, some of them all smiles, only that they are too ignorant to know any better, or else too well greased in their 15 random digit accounts in some offshore shit hole, that of course will never materialize at the end of the day.

But the Oracle of Ottawa was shocked, simply shocked, at how subdued the august mayor Gentleman Jim looked throughout the whole process that the CBC crew captured for my supper viewing enjoyment. He in no way looked at all in charge. And the Oracle of Ottawa wondered just how low would the City of Ottawa go for some buck toothed Asian peasant that could claim to wave a few paltry million dollars under their respective noses?

Why would any one with a truly good idea give up on iota of ownership to a buck toothed peasant from China? Why would any one in their right mind that was truly informed even want to do business in China, which is essentially a social ticking time bomb waiting to unfold? Then it dawned on the Oracle of Ottawa, it was not a decision that was made in Ottawa, well certainly not at Ottawa city hall anyway. It was a decision that was made in Bejing, from a deal cut by the 'Harper Government' somewhere in the wilds of Russia, that was greatly sped up when the buck toothed peasants flashed the pictures and the tapes. There will be many more such "investments". And you better be able to speak mandiran if you are hoping for a piss cleaning job at the new down town Ottawa casino! Yes of course you stupid rube! There will be no jobs for locals. With a foreign soul sourced contract, everything from the piss wipers to the whores will be imported, indentured slave labour from China, just like the first wave of "coal miners" out at Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia!    

If all this wasn't bad enough, we stakeholders, were informed and treated to another gift of some stupid sound stage that is being proposed for the City of Ottawa! Who in the hell wants that shit here? Oy vey...If you want to go into media; piss off to Hollywood! That is not a business that is suitable for the fine up standing people of Ottawa! We are meant for higher things of a more cerebral nature. Members of the Civil Service that runs Canada in all fact and reality. That is our traditional role, and will be again...In the mean time keep your ideas dry and most importantly to yourself!

Find the chatter of your new masters irritating? You voted for it and now you got it! So pucker that bung hole and bend over you stupid gajin skidmark! Welcome in the New World Order!!

City of Ottawa - Referendum Questions?

Sadly, our society is so contaminated with the notion that acting for greed and self-interest is "normal" that we have weakened the essential fibre of society. 
Elizabeth May, Losing Confidence - Power, Politics, And The Crisis Of Democracy, p. 179

If, back in the 1970's, had you  have asked the Oracle of Ottawa if in Ottawa, cleaning up the piss between the Super Slots and the grannies washroom would be a career choice, the Oracle of Ottawa would probably have "clocked" you cold. But, alas, the future has not been kind to Ottawa or the youngsters of today. Since even being a piss wiper in a casino is all but out of the cards, due to the fact that the contract will no doubt be open to foreign gaming contractors. And will no doubt be won by some buck toothed Chinese peasant from Macau! Who will in turn, due to it being forever and sole sourced, bring his or its own guest workers! This of course was flown by the lads at CUPE 503 and all that was recorded was a vacant glassy far away stare.

Why don't we get a meth lab instead of a casino?

It all boggles the mind of the Oracle of Ottawa, that we can't get our garbage picked up once a week because we can't afford it, and yet we will be able to piss the rent money away at a foreign run gambling house! (24/7) The knuckle dragging burg(h)ers and the local police chief just freak at the idea of a safe injection site, yet see no problem with a casino within walking distance of the Parliament of Canada! Me thinks the prescription career aiding drugs of our swivel servants is starting to affect their judgement?

Macau - Ottawa Division?

The major point of all this that really irks the Oracle of Ottawa is that the City of Ottawa is ready to sell it's soul for a mere 5.0 to 7.0% cut of the gross! If you check into it yourself dear reader, you will soon discover that, all in, it is a real rip off of a deal. Just ask anyone from Windsor Ontario! Now if Gentleman Jim the mayor was really clever he would negotiate something less damaging from the Government of Ontario, like an industrial meth lab! We could hide it in the deepest part of the trunk sewers and keep all the money and send the product to China! Now, that's a plan? The money would be way better, and it would all be out of site, and undetectable deep underground. And once the money starts rolling in and no one in Ottawa would have to pay property taxes ever again, and our property values would go up! Seriously, what is the difference? Well?

No doubt these poor exploited honey's will be provided by the soul source contractor also....

Gentleman Jim Peddles The Lead Nugget Saloon

Still humping the American Dream, that vision of the Big Winner somehow emerging from the last minute pre-dawn chaos of a stale Vegas casino. 
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, p. 57

Ottawa ain't Monte Carlo! Why any mayor of Ottawa would want his legacy to be a gambling house, simply leaves the Oracle of Ottawa totally befuddled. And according to the local vulgar media, the public "consultation" didn't go too smoothly tonight. The ethically challenged  mayor cites the argument that Quebec is getting all the gambling dollars and leaving us, the citizens of Ottawa, with all the problems. And, therefore the solution is to build an even more tempting gambling house in Ottawa and make the problem twice as bad!  One can readily see that Carleton University does not do very well on the installation of the moral compass.

Starting point for new Ottawa Casino....

As mentioned in an earlier posting, the Oracle of Ottawa has related the fact that we already have the seed and perfect location and venue for a high end gambling house in Ottawa, and it is out in the boonies, where it should be, the Rideau-Carleton Race track. The Oracle of Ottawa simply can not understand what the Mayor of Ottawa has against the shit-fur interface of the horsey community?  The Oracle of Ottawa understands that the powers that be really hate dark brown and black arse holes, but did you ever try to apply an anus bleach kit to a horse? Pretty tricky, to say the least. One has to accept nature as it is, on certain occasions.

The key to this whole problem is that we must have something that Quebec can't hope to ever offer. Building a copy of the Gatineau Casino less then two miles from the original will be a total fail. They are established and they have brand. A hick and his bur(h)gers won't have a chance in Hell in matching them at there core competency! Why is that so hard to understand? What else is really at play here? What is in it for Gentleman Jim to persue this insane idea?

The key is to posh up the Rideau-Carleton Raceway! It is all too easy, over half of it is already there, and there sure won't be a parking problem! It is bush for as far as the eye can see! And it is very close to the Ottawa International Airport. This will be very important when Rideau-Carleton goes thoroughbred! That will be the angle that Quebec will not be able to touch! Improvements will include a new turf track! Why even the Queen of England would ship her horses to compete here in Ottawa! Ottawa could get into the Queens Plate cycle! Why not? Then the Arabs will come, do you see where all this is going? And then the spring annual Ottawa Derby! World class, international. Think with me people!!

As of late the Oracle of Ottawa has had a troubling and very recurring thought at where that down town casino will end up. Since the commercial tenants aren't exactly fighting over the available spaces at the Landsdowne Live train wreck, and the City of Ottawa taxpayer is already in for now over 200 million dollars, that shit hole casino could end up in the Glebe! As a matter of fact, that may have been the long term plan all along! What better way to rapidly depress all those nice old Glebe piles, that at present sell for over a million bucks a pop! Think about it people....What better way to land bank for all those throw away 500 square foot vinyl shoe boxes?  And I thought that nice David Chernushenko lad was way smart. But you can feel that he is sensing something is wrong, and he has no idea how right he is.... Now the only problem is to find who is leaking the master plan.....

Is Ottawa ready to pay this price? As an Ottawa taxpayer, are you ready for this 24/7??

City of Ottawa - State of The Burg(h)ers

I affect not reserves, which I do not feel. 
Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, No. 1

The Oracle of Ottawa has recently become more and more befuddled at the actions of Gentleman Jim the mayor and his merry band of burg(h)ers. The vulgar media coverage of the great mans latest obsession to score Ottawa its very own gambling house just boggles the ordinary mind. And his obsession that it has to be "downtown" in Ottawa, which is the federal capital of Canada, is all rather appearing  to resemble salient behavior. Yet like a dog chasing a hubcap, he just pushes on. His first light bulb of an idea, to have said new casino in the old train station, which is now known as the Ottawa Conference Center was shot down in flames by the National Capital Commission, as was the brilliant idea to build it in the new disposable building recently completed at Rideau Center.

Gentleman Jim beckons to the Lead Nugget Casino....

 It has not crossed the little hay seeds mind that any Casino in downtown Ottawa would be less than two miles away from the very posh Casino already in operation in Gatineau Quebec! The befuddled mayor fails to realize that Ottawa has been beat to the gambling dollar punch by several years by the Frenchmen. And any Casino built in Ottawa, that will certainly look like a McDonalds burger joint,  certainly won't endear the spoiled rotten low rollers of Ottawa!

Let us put all these recent events into perspective dear reader. The mayor and council of the City of Ottawa want to build a new Casino, posher than the one in Quebec, very close by. The City of Ottawa is going to build an insane "light rail" system and subway for a mere 1.5 billion dollars, starting anytime soon. We are screwed into a public -private partnership in Landsdowne Park that is ready over budget... In the meantime people are driving their cars into massive "sink holes" that was actually the failure of a structure that hadn't been looked at in God Knows how long! The people of Ottawa cannot even afford to get their garbage picked up once a week! Those poor souls living the burbs are terrified at when the next overloaded garbage truck is going to collide with another garbage truck or just end up in the living room! All in an attempt by City HR to make all the Garbage truck drivers, better truck drivers and better garbage men, with two or more routes a day! You can do it if you TRY!!!  Well it appears not.... The small town cheap hypocrisy is simply astounding, and will prove soon enough to be utterly fatal.

Yes, we will get that shit hole casino, it won't be downtown though. The Oracle of Ottawa has realized just today where it will in the end, be situated. Due to the inability to attract retailers to the Landsdowne Live site, and the utterly laughable suggestion that any one will shell out fifty million dollars to get their name on a certain train wreck, which has as about as much of chance of happening as Gentleman Jim catching AIDS. Oh yeah.. About as much chance of being hit by lightning... Gentleman Jim's  Lead Nugget Casino will be the feature attraction!! The people of the Glebe will no doubt be thrilled!

The year is 2016. The site is Landsdowne Live, Gentleman Jim's Lead Nugget Casino beckons, can you feel the ambiance??

Ottawa "Sinkhole" - The Real Story...

There is a point at which a transformation has to take place.
Peter Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, p. 640

Well it was another day that the Oracle of Ottawa was gratefully thanking his Maker that he was retired! There will be no two and a half hour commute for the Oracle of Ottawa, for endless weeks on end. Hasn't amalgamation been wonderful? Why look at the money you are saving! How could something like this even happen? Well, we will get into that...

Mohr's Circle - Too much information?

First of all let us clear up one large detail. What actually happened when that car drove into that large hole in the middle of Highway 174 was not a sinkhole! What actually happened was a structural failure. Big difference. The Oracle of Ottawa has provided a reference so that you can make an intelligent decision. Old school civil engineers would also remind you that a structural failure is also known as a "whole lot of law suites"!! But not to worry, the City of Ottawa doesn't have any of those pesky old school engineers left. They have all since been dismissed since amalgamation. Although they were always right, no one "liked them".

And who was that pathetic "pepsi" that was calling himself director of infrastructure? Was Jean-Guy a real engineer? I mean one that is presently in good standing with the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario? Did his story sound true to you dear tax payer? No? Sure sounded thin and made up off the cuff at the last moment to the Oracle of Ottawa.  Why don't you, dear taxpayer, call 311 and find out for yourself? Maybe the Mayors office could tell you all the required information...or not. And what about that pathetic Counsellor Bob "Low Rent" Monette? I am sure at the next municipal election those murderous feelings of frustration that you experienced today will come back very clearly...vote accordingly.

Well in the days of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa - Carleton something like this would have never happened. Back in the olden days before amalgamation the lads from RMOC actually checked over all and  every one of these structures more than once a year! Do you think that is being done today? Are you sure? Why don't you call 311 and ask... And especially this huge storm drain culvert that opened up on Highway 174... You could actually walk upright in this mother! You know it is huge when the car has actually, at the time of this writing, not yet been found! That is one Mother of a culvert!! Do ya think??

The top of the culvert was 2.5 metres under the roadway. If you look at the video below you will see that there is no bedding at all. They just literally  paved over the dirt in 1975. But back in 1975 Orleans was all but and still a rural community. The Ottawa Citizen has all the details, just Google it and read carefully, all very interesting. Now in 2012, it is a major part of Ottawa. The traffic on this roadway has increased exponentially since 1975, and you don't need the Oracle of Ottawa to describe the heavy truck traffic do you?  Didn't think so...

For all of you stakeholders, that actually have the required professional qualifications for your job, you know what a Mohr Circle is. And you of course will have no problem visualizing all those heavy truck tires as a bunch of rolling Mohr Circles... transmitting very high jolts of load that just hammered the top of  that, all but unprotected, culvert. Along with all those years of steady but sure salt seepage, the sucker finally packed in and failed. When you think about it, it is amazing it lasted this long... What!? Too much information?

If you thought today was bad dear stakeholder, you ain't seen nothing yet! You will be living in your crawling car for many weeks to come. And since you are nothing but a part of the New World Orders obedient and frightened workforce you will bitch but you won't dare make a peep that anyone else will hear, will you? You wouldn't dare start and or join a class action law suite would you? Didn't think so. God's Speed skid....         

This will be awesome for tourism, wont it? Look at all the money the City saved....

The City Of Ottawa Presto Ankle Bracelet

A fair body of scholarship has come to challenge the view that elected officials reign supreme. 
John W. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies, (Second Edition), p. 43

It was the last straw, as far as the Oracle of Ottawa was concerned. When the tired and past date Diane Deans stood to and up last week on the local vulgar media and finally announced the demise and death of the Presto Card ankle bracelet. People of the City of Ottawa really needed this! We had a perfectly working system before the brain fart of the Presto card. The only problem with it was that the City of Ottawa would not allow OC-Transpo the budget to hire more people to man the Ticket booths where they were sold! And with the old card pass system you could remain anonymous. Thence proving what the Oracle of Ottawa was suspecting all along. Starve - Kill - Privatize!! Here we are folks, again...

Stop RFID

It seems that quiet a few people did their due diligence about the Presto card. The Oracle of Ottawa has provided a link to the basic information. Now just read carefully. Note the aligned organizations with this ankle bracelet! The one that should scare the living shit out of you is that of Accenture! How the hell is Accenture got anything to do with your stupid bus card? Well just go to Google and enter Accenture - Bilderberg Group, go ahead, the Oracle of Ottawa dares ya!

The Oracle of Ottawa's "gaydar" went off when he realized that if you use this RFID device, it could not be used anonmously. Your credit or debit card will link your identity to it. All your movement data will be tracked and data based. Why don't you call 311 and ask what the City of Ottawa is going to do with all that data revenue? The data will be sold to the marketing firms, the insurance companies; life and health, the corporate land flipping whores, and a host of others, to long to mention. Not to mention all the users that will automatically be served due to the wording in the fine print of that sole sourced iron clad we are up your arse for ever service contract! And these parties are Homeland Security of the United States and of course CSIS. You don't think that monster building that is going up at CSIS headquarters on Ogilvie Road is a visiting centre do you? Well do you rube?

In closing, the Oracle of Ottawa must make note of yet another sad observation. It was all so eerie and spooky.... Next time you see Diane Deans on the vulgar media, you realize that there is this eerie resemblance to someone else, do yo see it? Ya, me to. She really looks looks Bob Rae in drag....

Well maybe not?

Ottawa Does FIFA

And some the Architect: his hand was known
In Heav'n by many Towered structure high,
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, Lines 732-733

Once Ottawa was one of the top ten cities of the world. One can only imagine what was going through the minds of the stakeholders located in Alta Vista and Rothwell Heights as they separated their slops from their dinner and continue to wonder where they can hide the garbage from the By-Law officer until the next garbage pick-up! Yes folks, the City of Ottawa had $400,000 to spend to get a FIFA sanctioned woman's soccer tournament, but they can't afford to pick up my garbage once a week!

Not wanted here...

The footage on the vulgar media was enough to make one puke in utter disgust. The designated money must have gotten to the correct hands after all, why even the Septic Bladder from FIFA showed up with the token ethnic assistant cabinet minister from the 'Harper Government'! And yet you think the Oracle of Ottawa is out of line to question who is really running the City of Ottawa? My recent bit on the Prime Ministers Office appointment of the new City Librarian cost the Oracle of Ottawa his Ad-Sense stream! Can you imagine dear stakeholder how many of your tax dollars went into that? The phone lines must have been buzzing from Ottawa City Hall to the main headquarters of Google somewhere in California... Well! As far as the Oracle of Ottawa knows, Google has not given up the Oracle of Ottawa, yet... Although, the Oracle of Ottawa hears from people who know about such things, that being served can only greatly increase hits to the blog! Perhaps everything of the New World Order, is not totally so bad after all.

 

We will do business with anybody?

The Oracle of Ottawa does not venture very far from the secure bunker very much any more, but for the life of me, I can not remember where the 60,000 seat soccer stadium is located in the City of Ottawa! One simply can't see how 'Gentleman Jim' is going to get that together by 2015!  So for all you poor soccer schmucks who expect a world class facility, you can forget about it! Don't bother coming to my patch, start making your own better, so I can continue to enjoy mine! Got that? Good...

It seems that Ottawa has totally lost it's way. It seems that the Burgers of Ottawa will do business with any body. We will take any body's money. For example, it is still and will be always a real burr in the Oracle of Ottawa's shorts that Ottawa's sister city is stinking Beijing, China! Jesus! Not only will the Burgers of Ottawa bow, but they will suck cock also! The proper sister city for my home, the city of Ottawa is Bergen, Norway.
These people have nothing to learn from us, but we have a lot to learn from them! But when you get sucked into the Canada - China friendship society, your doomed. They have tapes, pictures, and receipts..., when it blows and it will, hold on to your seat folks.

The Oracle of Ottawa can only wonder what is next? Perhaps we will score the Mid Western United States Crystal Meth Cooks Convention....





Ya, I guess we will, like we soo need the money.....

Signalling At Ottawa Public Library

In the process of experimentation there are endless opportunities for error, and the free search for truth therefore involves friction and waste.
L. T. Hobhouse, Liberalism, p. 59

Could you imagine the uproar in the City of Walmart, er, ah, the City of Ottawa if a person with a graduate degree in Library Science was promoted to the position of Chief Urban Planner for the City of Ottawa!? Why all the land rapers and soulless corporate house flipping whores would be in a totally catatonic state. But when a want'a be failed urban planner (?) gets set up as the replacement for the retiring Head Librarian of the the venerable Ottawa Public Library, well you just get the contractor spin doctors out and put the story into the Sunday edition of the skanky Ottawa Citizen! Nobody reads the Ottawa Citizen, especially on Sunday... You only buy the Ottawa Citizen for the TV guide... (and the cat box and bird cage....)

A library is not a "business"...

 For the first time since the utterly disastrous amalgamation of the City of Ottawa the new head of the Ottawa Public Library will not be a librarian! One can only surmise which office that this decision came from. But the signal it sends is wrought with doom if you are a fan of the Ottawa Public Library. And when you hear the expression that the Ottawa Public Library is a "business", well you can conclude that the decision came down from the Prime Ministers Office, not the mayors office. And as you may have have noticed anything that is named McDonald is getting a pretty free ride today.

Ottawa Public Library - Main Branch
Future site of Bayshore Phase III?

Did you know dear reader that the Ottawa Public Library is the largest French-English library in North America? Did you know that it is the second largest public library in Canada? The only larger public library is  in the City of Toronto! With an annual budget of over 50 million dollars, don't you think the incompetent powers that presently are could get a search on for a posh "Cadillac" Head Librarian? Why the Oracle of Ottawa has a pretty good picture of the successful candidate already! Let us take a break from the spiral to the bottom and shoot high... Lets see... Undergraduate degree from a prestigious College at Oxford, you know, a Rhodes Scholar.  The University of Oxford has books! Over 11 million of them! And a very large percentage of them are all but priceless. One hears that the Oxford library science program is world class. A side degree in the "Greats" and /or philosophy would be utterly perfect also. Why not? The stature and presence of the second largest public library in Canada deserves a Head Librarian with a doctorate in library science. I mean really...

Now dear reader, we all know what a job like this should pay. I figure the starting salary should be about $125,000 per year to start. And then there are the language requirements. Ottawa, even in the 'Harper Government' era,  is a very cosmopolitan city, don't you know! Why the Oracle of Ottawa figures that the new Head Librarian of the Ottawa Public Library should be able to speak the big four languages of the Western Civilized World, don't you? That of course means English, French, German, and Spanish. A bonus should be offered and payed if the new Head Librarian could speak the core languages of the Classical World also, those being of course Greek and Latin. The Oracle of Ottawa deeply regrets that all pass arts degree trots from Cartoon U need not apply....

Books are sacred. A Library is not a "business". It does not market and sell products for the purpose of "profit". Go back to the drawing board and start the open selection process for a proper and posh Head Librarian. Chop chop, of you go little people....

Alain Mercier - Compensation Package?

There are countries where a man is worth nothing; there are others where he is worth less than nothing.
Baron Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, Volume II, Book XXIII, Section 17

Well, we all now know how to leave a job large. Just screw up early and often! The only thing that shocked the Oracle of Ottawa about this matter more than why the City just didn't leave it's former manager "under the bus" with nothing, is why Diane Deans appeared to be all choked up about it! Gee whiz! The City of Walmart regularly discharges union hands, often with over twenty years of good service, with nothing! No one seems to get very choked up about that. But the Oracle of Ottawa supposes it is that ethereal bond of the managing class that arises when one of the class invariably has to offered up to the great mass of the unwashed skidmarks in the symbol of sacrifice so that that the remaining weakness of the class can continue to subsist. Well at least until the next election.

Relief has finally arrived at OC Transpo....

Meanwhile down at the union office, the posh French bubbly flowed like the Ottawa River past Hull in springtime! The very rotund Gary Q. had the look of a very satisfied man. There will be, no doubt, very many more media opportunities for the rotund Gary to grab onto the Mayors podium with both hands to reassure the good stakeholders of the Great City of Ottawa that someone indeed has a full package, and is wearing the pants! It just isn't the guy that you voted for in the last municipal election....

John "The Don" Manconi is the newly annointed chief of the OC Transpo crew. Here is a guy that has gotten deeply in touch with his inner godfather. It is all simply a matter of being a stand up guy, and making sure that everyone knows "what it is"...

Good Riddance!! Everything, and I mean everything this actor touched transformed itself into a screw-up...

City Of Ottawa - Free Market Fail?

The most violent, mean and malignant passions of the human breast, the Furies of private interest. 
Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Buch I, Author's prefaces to the First Edition

When the Oracle of Ottawa first heard of the story on the local vulgar media about the City of Ottawa all but contracting out parking ticket placement on private lots to some company, the Oracle of Ottawa was appalled. The first picture that went through my mind was that often covered story of Ottawa's biggest slumlord, you know the one, that has the appalling third world conditions right here in Ottawa, that not even a City work order can get repaired...I somehow immediately pictured those guys with a City of Ottawa parking ticket hand held! While their tenants were living in water soaked squalor, with the roaches fighting for the kids dinner, there would be a minimum wage minion of a real estate scum lord out ticketing their cars! Who ever in their wildest dreams thought it would all come to this?

The City of whored out souls?

This is all the result of "reinventing government". For all of us taxpayers of a certain age, that are now referred as "old school", traffic tickets and parking tickets were deterrents, now they are part of an ever increasing tax base! One of the end results of this is that all future "developments" are going to be designed on purpose as parking lot hells just to keep the revenue flowing, not to the City, but to the "contractor"! Who ever thought that the Next Big Thing in Ottawa was going to be owning a Bill Collection agency! I am just thinking about that bit that was in the Sun about Ken Hughes and the young lad with the dozen traffic tickets that added up to $117,000. (See earlier postings) Wouldn't it be most prudent and ethical for an entity as large as the City of Ottawa to collect its own bills? You know like it was in the old days, before "amalgamation"?

There is only one thing to call this present situation; market failure! Rest assured dear reader, you will start to hear of ever increasing horror stories in the days ahead. As sure as market failure is inefficient, once the concept of "countervailing power" is ditched it is all third world from now on. It is all but bad enough to have a Mayor with the nickname "Gentleman Jim", the only worse nickname is "One Termer Jim."

Of course it cost the City "nothing" of 2.5 million dollars? We have many public housing units that could use serious renovation. And that rub of a corporate entity, that can park itself right on the doorstep of the Municipal Government power, leaves me feeling very uneasy indeed. But I guess, that is the subliminal message of the present "burgers" of Ottawa to the world, we have our price, and it is not very high....

Did You Ever See A Corporation Vote?

As Hegel well knew, the ascent of reason has never followed a straight line.
Paul A. Baran, The Political Economy of Growth, p. 298

You know the whole world is in deep do-do when the founder of the World Economic Forum stands up in Davos and finally admits right out loud that something is wrong with capitalism! Now you can't knock old Klaus Schwab. The big hoe-down at Davos is not the Bilderberg Group. All the meetings are covered by accredited Press of the vulgar old media and the the hot new media. Why you can catch quite a bit of it on BBC. The conclusion that you have to come to is that old Klaus is at least really trying to make the world a better place, free of the Washington Consensus.

Klaus informs us that capitalism is busted...

Why even Steve Harper of the 'Harper Government' is in attendance. Hoping that he will hit on some strange, near as good looking as that other young ministers wife, what's his name... But he better pay attention to the lectures, he doesn't have a chance in hell of trapping the hot exotic stuff. Even though he is the leader of a 'super power' it is all Wal-Mart clad muffins for him for ever. Of course, as far as the Conservatives are concerned, there is nothing at all wrong with capitalism. We just have to lower costs, i.e. taxes, and dismantle what remains of the Canadian state even quicker! This will make capitalism work better.

The Keystone XL pipeline has recently bitten the dust. The Gateway pipeline  is no doubt soon going to be toast also and shortly. You know it is in trouble when the federal Minister of Natural Resources, one Joe Oliver, sends out letters and press releases shitting over all the legal NGO's and the environmental lobby for showing up at the hearings!  Of course he doesn't mention the presence of the money of big oil and is always very silent of the monster money from the Peoples Republic of China! Yes sir Bubba! It appears that there are a lot of people in public life that are just now discovering the cost of their fulfilled "ricer" fantasies as provided by the Chinese Embassy! With tapes and video to back up their chits, the China-men want results now!

With all the focused attention on serving corporate interests you would swear to God that corporations voted! The Oracle of Ottawa has never missed a chance to vote when he could. But for the life of me, I have yet to see a corporation vote! Have you? Then you have to ask yourself why the 'Harper Government' goes to such lengths and trouble to serve an entity that cannot finance or vote for them in the next election.What ever could be the driving force?

The same malady has descended to us in the City of Ottawa. Instead of standing up to the 'Harper Government' even symbolically, Gentleman Jim Watson the fearless burger of Ottawa has stated in his State of the City report that he is just going to roll-over and cave. Allowing the 'Harper Government' to dismantle the unionized civil service, that will be replaced by the same people working now on  for minimum wage for some scum sucking Calgary contractor! The same is being planned for OC Transpo, as that international sole sourced contract for the great Ottawa "subway" is soon to be awarded, manned forever with cheap Chinese contract workers? Can't happen? Really...

The perfect metaphoric analogy of the current situation of Canada and the City of Ottawa... Just try to watch....

Ottawa IKEA Monster Store Opening - Total Fail

The essence and composition of external bodies are so obscure, that we must necessarily, in our reasonings, or rather conjectures concerning them, involves ourselves in contradictions and absurdities.
David Hume, A Treatise Of Human Nature, Book II, Part II, Section VI, p. 366

The guys in marketing are scratching their heads in amazement and shock. They did everything right. They made sure that the new store was grossly over size and a definite blight on the neighborhood where it was built. They made sure that the color scheme was offensive to the locals. They threw their weight around with the City of Ottawa by strong arming in a monster digital bill board just to make sure that every one, even those that couldn't care less, knew that the big bad IKEA was in Ottawa.

Never got touched...

Then the lads at marketing really turned the screws and made sure that the opening of just another monster blight box store became "news" in all the local Ottawa media markets. You know the ploy. Planting advertising in local news casts as news instead of as advertising. With the present situation of the arrival of the 'Harper Government' and the attending horseman of the New World Order, the people in Ottawa totally rebelled and totally rejected the tactics. As they worry for the future and the fact that they may have to become skidmark IKEA shoppers themselves...

An underwhelmed OPP traffic cruiser at IKEA opening...

 It was in the local vulgar media, starting at lunchtime, firstly on the local CTV lunch time news cast. It was a laughably sheepish talking head, that for the life of her, could not find one good thing to say about the total fail. The expectations were for thousands and thousands of customers panting and foaming at the mouth to grab the least scummy third world produced detritus. The only people that slept out over night (!) for a good place in line seem to be the planted marketing types to get all the latest intelligence from the proles, that failed to show up! The Oracle of Ottawa just loved it! There were installed lines of pylons to marshal the rabble, that never showed up. Acres of empty parking. Valuable Police resources were on hand from the Ottawa Police Department and the Ontario Provincial Police standing by on the Highway 417 to control the access ramps that were surely to be backed up, standing around like vagrants ditched by the Conservative Party of Canada with their collective thumbs up their bum's! It was along lonely day...

A total doodle of a day, like it never happened!!

The train wreck continued on the all the local evening hour broadcasts. The thousands predicted became a modest five hundred people. The Oracle of Ottawa can reassure the good readers that this figure was totally wrong! The actual figure was more like 175 - 250, including all the called in employee families and spouses. The sound of the logo'd plastic clappers was slightly louder than one hand clapping.

OPP code 3 response to boredom in progress at Ottawa IKEA opening. Well actually, it was the Timmy's run of coffee and donuts for the lads so they wouldn't fall asleep from the non-event.....

Jim Watson's Burgher Summit

In society the values of freedom and democracy are accepted as the norm. In contrast, the relationship between employers and employees is based on the subordination of the employee, and this is the source of conflict.
Larry Suffield, Labour Relations, Second Edition, 2008, p. 9

If the buses stop rolling, Gentleman Jim's political career is over. If you don't believe that last statement is true, just call up Larry O'Brien and ask him! So when the Oracle of Ottawa got the first word that the Mayor of
Ottawa called the interested parties to lunch to hammer out the recent kinks at OC Transpo, the Oracle of Ottawa figured that His Worship would come to his senses and employ some of the perquisites that comes with his office. And let the Oracle of Ottawa tell you dear reader the mayor of Ottawa has a very nice office! I can say that, because quite simply, I have seen it! Ensuite shower, lots of room(s), and there are several very nice conference rooms nearby that would provide a most congenial setting for the breaking of bread in a most collegial atmosphere. Considering what was at stake, if the Oracle of Ottawa was holding this event, it would have been somewhat understated epicurean! I mean considering the money at stake, what is the pocket change for the services of a decent executive caterer?

Some management styles don't work very well...

But alas no, the squeaking little man opted out for burgers at Wendy's? The party included His Worship, Diane Deans, present transit chairwoman, union boss Gary Queale and aide, and that vertically challenged acting mangler of OC Transpo, one Alain Mercier. Later in the day the press conference appeared on the local vulgar media. The Oracle of Ottawa caught the CBC local version. One can learn a lot from not only listening but from watching. The real leader in the group is Gary Queale, when he stepped up and took over the mayors lectern with both hands, (!) all the players watching now knew who was really wearing the pants, so to speak. The shocked look on the Mayors face was priceless. It was brilliant proof that Mr. Queale was not from CUPE 503! Then came that little insect manager, who realizing he is hanging by a thread, was doing the French bullshit hand ballet...the Oracle of Ottawa immediately concluded that he is toast. That guy looked like some one from history, I just can't place who, but it is really creepy...

Adrien Arcand looks a lot like....

This is the same manager that was caught dead to rights texting / talking and driving a short while back. End result nothing! Catch a union card carrying bus driver on video talking on a cell phone dead heading an empty bus and you would think the guy was Adolf Eichmann! The person hurt the most by all this is Diane Deans. There will be no more approaches by any political party for anything. All the hands at the City know that many many longer serving people have been ditched "under the bus" so to speak for so much less than what some of these pathetic alleged "managers" get away with...Credibility once lost at that level is all but unrecoverable.

One ponders the mystery of the destruction of once promising careers by the unfounded faith in a little pathetic skid mark that is more suited to running a wall mart in Mexico... I will leave that to you the readers and the hapless taxpayers...

We used to have every reason in the world to be proud of our bus system, is this string of events a neo-liberal case of starve, kill and privatize?

A Street Car Named Desire - Ottawa Style

It was sex, violence, crime, craziness and filth - all in one package.
Hunter S. Thompson, Hell's Angels, p. 23

Every wally, trot, skidmark and prep in the City of Ottawa with a camera phone thinks he and / or she or "it"  is freaking Cecil B. DeMille! But this story has nothing to do with that. This story is about one of the most blatant and basest "labour consultant" hatchet jobs that the Oracle of Ottawa has ever had the pleasure to witness. The said video of the incident has been attached below. Take a moment now to peruse it. All you can see is some pathetic skanky geek whispering into the "alleged" bus drivers ear. You hear a voice of a very annoyed person, sight unseen, giving the said pretty geek the verbal lashing of a lifetime, no doubt from this viewers position, very well deserved. Another day in the big city. You got a problem with that?

Now just another shit job...

You can see the blatant foreign American consultant influence in the said video. It is all engineered to help the pathetic come to a easy, snap, confident decision of smug guilt of the "alleged" bus driver. This came about no doubt from the recent utter trashing the City took at the bargaining table recently. Did you see Jim "Alcibiades" Watson in the local vulgar media announcing the contract? The Oracle of Ottawa watched very closely. One has to admire Gentleman Jim's greatest talent as a small market politician; that of being able to speak coherently while grinding his teeth! I started to count the days before the face saving incident would come to light. The Oracle of Ottawa was not to be disappointed.

An OC Transpo driver familiar with the "alleged victim" told the Oracle of Ottawa by phone, that the said driver in the video, that was unseen in the video, was constantly being harassed by the pretty "alleged victim" attempting to get the said "alleged" driver to provide the main musical instrument for a skin flute concerto that the young pretty thing was dying to perform for the pleasure of all involved. It appears that the "alleged" driver did not have the said and desired instrument available, clearly and in no uncertain terms. Good man!!

Alcibiades and"friend"...

According to the brilliance of the Oracle of Ottawa the only "crime" here is that of the pretty "alleged victim" harassing the operator of a commercial vehicle. See the Highway Traffic Act!! The driver was protecting the safety of his vehicle and his passenger. So? Do you have a problem with that? Didn't think so...

What I am really disappointed about is the reaction of the Mayor of Ottawa. It appeared to the Oracle of Ottawa that the said "alleged" mayor came to a very fast and certain decision of guilt in his twitter message. Perhaps someone in the "alleged" mayors office should gently persuade the said "alleged" mayor that people as intelligent as he is should not "twitter". Only twits twitter. Lets face it people. The present "alleged" mayor of Ottawa has been a dismal fail. The only good thing to come out of this is that there is not recall legislation on the books! The Oracle of Ottawa is now going to make it official. Gentle Jim is but a one termer or less.

And the Oracle of Ottawa will tell you who could possibly be the next Mayor of Ottawa. Ottawa needs some royalty, from Ottawa, not some altar boy hick from the boonies! Someone from a legendary Ottawa family, yet someone that has grown out and alone from his famous fathers shadow. The Oracle of Ottawa really likes the thought of Ryan Keon as the mayor of Ottawa. The Oracle of Ottawa like many citizens of this once fine City is tired of being embarrassed by out of town hay seed hicks.

A great set up job! One of the best I have ever seen....