It pays to be rich: Conrad Black to come back to Canada

The Conservative government won't confirm a report saying Conrad Black has been given permission to return to Canada for a year, even though he gave up his citizenship in 2001 and has criminal record in the U.S.

The Globe and Mail is reporting that Citizenship and Immigration Canada has granted Black a temporary resident permit, which would allow him to live in Canada from May 2012 until May 2013.

Black would normally be inadmissible because he isn't a Canadian citizen and has a criminal record.

According to a government website, a temporary resident permit temporarily overcomes inadmissibility.

So does being one of the club...

Read more here.

Nina Easton: Idiot of the Day

Don't blame the 1% for America's pay gap

It's time to end the myth that the nation's wealthy are getting rich off the backs of the poor. Instead let's figure out what they're doing right.

It just gets worse after that...

Read more here.

Note to Mitt Romney: F*ck you

According to Mitt Romney, the nation's growing focus on income inequality is all about envy.

"You know, I think it's about envy. I think it's about class warfare," the leading Republican presidential candidate said Wednesday on The Today Show.

When asked if there are any fair questions about wealth distribution, Romney replied, "It's fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms and discussions about tax policy and the like."

Romney has accused President Obama of promoting the "bitter politics of envy." The president is ramping up his talks about the nation's growing income divide and the shrinking of the middle class. He is focusing on the tax benefits afforded to millionaires and executives.

Read more here.

Bloomberg wants us to feel sorry for the poor downtrodden millionaires and billionaires

If successful businesspeople don’t go public to share their stories and talk about their troubles, “they deserve what they’re going to get,” said Marcus, 82, a founding member of Job Creators Alliance, a Dallas-based nonprofit that develops talking points and op-ed pieces aimed at “shaping the national agenda,” according to the group’s website. He said he isn’t worried that speaking out might make him a target of protesters.

“Who gives a crap about some imbecile?” Marcus said. “Are you kidding me?”

Read more here.

UK to those with private jets: Come on in! The rest of you, take off your shoes

Thousands of passengers from all over the world arriving on private jets were allowed into Britain this summer without any passport checks as a matter of official policy, according to leaked UK Border Agency emails.

The internal reports show that immigration and customs staff were instructed not to meet passengers on private charter flights, including executive jets, as part of the "light touch" targeted approach secretly adopted this summer.

The emails also reveal the extent that full passport checks on European passengers were scaled back under the "limited pilot scheme" authorised by the home secretary, Theresa May, on 28 July.

The level 2 checks, which suspended the checks on biometric passports of EU travellers, were used hundreds of times each week during the summer.

Read more here.

Let them drink Champagne

Tony and Cherie Blair: Idiots of the Day

Tony and Cherie Blair are ruffling feathers by charging a fee for a party they are hosting for their son Leo's schoolmates, according to the Daily Mail.

The high-profile couple generated excitement in their community when they agreed to hold an end-of-term party for their 11-year-old son Leo and his peers at school.

However, fellow parents at the school are now miffed over the chintzy approach the Blairs are taking to their hosting duties.

Though the couple's fortune is estimated at £60million, the Blairs are charging each party guest £10 for a seat on the coach that will transport them from London school to the Buckinghamshire mansion that will be the site of the shindig.

Parents will also be banned from driving their kids to the estate for security reasons, so guests have little option but to pay the fee for the bus.

Westmount wealthy continue to embarrass themselves on the world stage

And here you thought arrogant behavior by the rich was confined only to Toronto

City tags dog? Nothing new there, but what if the city licenses the dog’s keeper instead?

Montreal’s wealthy town-within-the-city called Westmount has found a novel way to impose on residents and outsiders alike while, to hear locals tell it, chipping away at personal liberty and neighbourliness. Since May, the town has required dog walkers to carry their own licence if they intend to have their pooch set a paw in Westmount.

Westmount has a long history of discouraging outsiders from using public services. And the small plastic card, obtained with the usual dog tags, carries an annual fee of $20 for Westmounters, $40 for everyone else. The tag must be carried by the human walker at all times, even while traversing the small enclave in canine accompaniment, at risk of a fine of $75 to $300 for a first offence.

Read more here.

Super Injunctions, Twitter, and another big f*ck you from the rich to you

A senior executive from Twitter yesterday admitted for the first time that the website would turn over information to authorities if it was "legally required" to do so.

Experts had previously assumed that people who breached gagging orders on Twitter were protected from legal reprisals because the website is outside the jurisdiction of British courts.

The admission came after Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General, warned earlier this week that people who breached injunctions online were in for a "rude shock".

Translation: we have money and lawyers. Don't fuck with us.

Response: The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

Read more here.

Former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn moves to "plush" new house..without maid service

Former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn moved Wednesday from a temporary space in a high-rise to a plush, four-bedroom brick town house in Manhattan where he will remain under house arrest as he awaits trial on charges he tried to rape a hotel maid, officials said.

The one-time French presidential contender was seen smiling as he got into a grey sport utility vehicle under tight security. He was moved about two kilometres away to the stately red brick town home in Manhattan's Tribeca neighbourhood

Read more here.

GTA gas prices soar, knowing the public will do f*ck all about it

They're not even trying anymore:

the reason for the price jump isn't exactly clear.

Some reports say a chilly European winter and low reserves are putting a drain on world supply.

Others say the soaring price of wheat has pushed up the price of other commodities, such as gasoline.

Roger McKnight, a petroleum analyst with En Pro International, said the price increase can be partly blamed on the world economy getting back on its feet.

SKdjaldfjafasdkfal;s. That made more sense than the reasons stated.

Read more here.

Ireland and massive injustice

It needs be 1848 again.

The Irish story began with a genuine economic miracle. But eventually this gave way to a speculative frenzy driven by runaway banks and real estate developers, all in a cozy relationship with leading politicians. The frenzy was financed with huge borrowing on the part of Irish banks, largely from banks in other European nations.

Then the bubble burst, and those banks faced huge losses. You might have expected those who lent money to the banks to share in the losses. After all, they were consenting adults, and if they failed to understand the risks they were taking that was nobody’s fault but their own. But, no, the Irish government stepped in to guarantee the banks’ debt, turning private losses into public obligations.

Read more here.

Move your money

Hillary Clinton: "Rich people, God bless us".

Ok, now I really don't like her.

On today’s “state of the race” conference call, a reporter asked about an exchange between Hillary Clinton and Bill O’Reilly on yesterday’s show in which Clinton uttered the words, “Rich people—God bless us.”

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson denied that’s what she said: “She said ‘God blessed us.’ B-L-E-S-S-E-D.”

Umm no.

Cheeseburger to cost beefy £85

Hey, if some fat rich fuck wants to spend his/her money like a complete clown, who am I to judge...they already think condos are a good deal.

FAST food chain Burger King are to serve up the world’s most expensive takeaway – costing a whopping £85.

There’s no common old meat in this burger. It will contain top-quality Kobe beef from Japan. And instead of ketchup and cheddar, it will be garnished with foie gras – a goose delicacy – and rare blue cheese.

But BK customers will still be able to buy regular fries and a fizzy drink to help it down.

It will be launched in selected branches next month, with London’s upmarket Kensington and Chelsea tipped to get the posh burger first.

At £85, it is in marked contrast to deadly rival McDonald’s who offer a budget burger for just 99p.

Launching the most expensive takeaway in town may seem odd during the credit crunch.

But Lucy Barrett, of Marketing Magazine, said: “The idea of a burger that no one buys is not as ludicrous as it seems. Burger King will use it to promote a gap in perception between it and McDonald’s. It could lead consumers to reassess the quality of the brand.”

Yet another fucking condo project

This time at the corner of Yonge and Bloor.

And they aren't fooling around this time. 80 stories. A block away 2 other condo towers are rising ("to over 2 million!" See more here.)

So another area will be closed off to street life (yes, this corner could use a face lift...but a condo?) and the rich take over.

Fuck 'em.

The councilor Kyle Rae* thinks he's doing us all a favour too:

If the tower does get built at Yonge and Bloor, the building may earn another distinction – by blotting out a few other towering eyesores, according to Rae.

"I sorely would like to hide the Royal Bank building on the northeast corner," he says. "It's brutal. Hiding that building at the northeast corner by this one on the southeast corner would, I think, be a gracious thing to do.

"I'm in favour of masking the unfortunate."

That could be the slogan of condo builders everywhere....

*Thanks to Andrew at blogto.com for the correction