A Cantankerous Moment

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Sometimes you Hold your Nose

Ombudsman Andre Marin has stated that "unscrupulous" lottery-ticket retailers in Ontario have collected at least $100 million in fraudulent claims since 1999, under the "watchful eye" (what happened to the other eye) of the OLG which allowed the practice to persist.

Marin said that lottery officials who raised concerns about suspect claims by retailers in 2003 and 2004 - including on $12.5 million prize - were told by Brown: "Sometimes you hold your nose."

Wrong Duncan!!!!! You hold YOUR BROWN NOSE, probably as a result of walking too close behind your masters when they suddenly stopped ..... I'M KICKING BUTT!!!!

Let's go through some of Andre Marin's findings:

1. There have been at least $100 million in fraudulent claims. - Question: how many of these "unscrupulous" lottery-ticket retailers have been criminally charged? How many have been convicted and are currently serving time with big hairy men who would like to dance the mambo in one of our fine correctional facilities? Let me guess ...none...nada...zilch...WHY?
2. The OLG is "hopelessly conflicted." - Question: Conflicted about what? To steal or not to steal? Oh the dilema of multiplke choice!
3. Marin said the OLG ignored allegations of fraud because it was "fixated on profit rather than public service." Question: How many of these "fixated" public service trolls will now be dismissed? Or will Duncan Brown be the only one to walk the plank, because his high profile dismissal might mitigate some of the damage suffered by DUHlton McGuinty and the crew of The Black Pearl? Oh by the way, it didn't happen to be you DUHlton who was the prime fixator was it? Now was it DUHlton...comon, was it?
4. Customers who complained were rarely taken seriously, said Morin, who called the corporation's customer complaints department "rude and inept" when dealing with them ...not surprising Mes Amis....have you had to deal with the boys at Queens Park lately? Like government - like government agency!
5. There was too much hanky panky between retailers and the OLG. The question still stands ... how many folks at the OLG have been shown the front door and how many retailers have been criminally charged?

The Cantankerous One has a few additional questions, namely: Why does David Caplan, the minister responsible for the OLG still hold that porfolio? Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character give him power. Caplan was given power and voila ....behold his character.

Why does OLG Chairman Michael Gough still hold his position? He shows all the backbone of a chocolate eclair. In the midst of a scandal, Gough thumps his chest with pride, as he announces that despite the fact that some unscrupulous vendors stole money out of our pockets lottery ticket sales are in fact up. How stupid of me to not understand that sales increases make theft allright.

Gough goes on to say "that's a ...reflection of Ontarian's basic trust in this corporation." As usual Mr. Gough, you have mastered many things, but common sense is not one of them. Where would I go if I wanted to play big-payout lotteries which are not controlled by the government? I guess one does not deal much in facts when one is contemplating saving ones butt.

Let's go back to David Caplan for a moment. Here's the Caplan Clincher. He said that the government and OLG would try to find people who had their legitimate lottery winnings stolen by someone else and pay them the jackpot they were entitled to have. There was no mention of cleaning out the complicit vipers nests within OLG who knew what was going on and looked the other way ... can these people be criminally charged for aiding and abetting the facilitation of a crime? ...no mention of criminally charging all of those retailers involved in theft ... no mention of forcing these thieves to pay restitution ... no mention of pulling OLG kiosks from retailers directly involved with these thefts.

We need to arrange for a quick Cat Scan of Mr. Caplan's cranium to ensure that there is something of substance inside, instead of as it appears now, a resting place for his hair follicles.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, DUHlton McGuinty defended Caplan and accused the opposition parties of playing political games by demanding Caplan's resignation.

Hold the fort Martha...we need to order up another one of them there Cat Scans for that DUHlton fella. OOps forgot. With the health care system being what it is, we'll probably have to wait untill after the next election to get an appointment.

Memo to: Dianne

On February 21/07 you made the statement that "Frank Klees always endorses Lois."

Blogger Val Zans then challenged you to "show one reference on the web, in print, or anywhere where Frank Klees endorses Lois Brown."

Now I don't want to be pushy, but it's been a while now, but there's still no proof of your claim. If Frank's always endorsing Lois there should be no problem ...should be a veritable plethora of material.

Hold it ... I just went on to Lois' website....www.loisbrown.ca...that's hers right? My oh my she's added a web page that wasn't there a few days ago. Boy now I'm really confused. There are only 6 supporters...let's see...an M.P. from Barie, looks like 1 aquaintance or neighbour, 1 Newmarket Aurora riding association member...2 high school students and 1 university student. Doesn't seem like an awful for a woman who has been in politics all of these years ...... but NO FRANK KLEES! Mmmmm I guess the internet must be a little slow.

Dianne, What am I going to do wth you?

My fellow blogospherians, I just received this comment from Dianne (I've posted it in the comments section). It's so lame that I just had to share it with you!

Dianne said....
"anonymous makes a good point though Mr. Otto. We have no way of knowing who we are actually talking to so you could easily be from the Belindah camp, or you could be Mr. West. I on the other hand am upfront with who I am. Click on my name and email me Mr. Otto and expose yourself otherwise everything on this blog may as well be an urban legend."

The Cantankerous one says.....

• as Strother Martin said to Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke ..."what we got here is a failure to communicate". I'll go real slow m'am ... I--Am--Robert Otto! Quite frankly it's not my problem if you don't know who I am. Seems as though you folks in the Lois Brown camp have been spending a lot of time trying to find out ...why is that Dianne? Has the Cantankerous one been hitting a little too close to home?
• what's more important ... that you know where Robert Otto is (that's what you folks really want to know isn't it) or the exchange of opinions?
• if I'm so off the mark, Lois Brown has had plenty of time to respond to me directly, instead of cowering behind your skirt. Where's Lois...where's Lois...where's Lois (sorry I got carried away with that chant)
• Is Lois Brown really all that shook up that she can't have a tete-a-tete avec moi?
• do you have a last name, or is Dianne a nom de plume? Just going back to the comment which you made about identifying yourself.
• oh my ... an urban legend already after only 7 short blogs. Where will I be after 14?
• if you had bothered to read any of my archived blogs, instead of getting yourself all worked up about me "exposing myself" you would have actually read some uncomplimentary comments about B.S. (Belinduh). To suggest that I may be actually in Belinduh's camp is a very astute observation on your part.
• could I be Mr. West? ... don't overestimate the powers of your perception.
• as far as Emailing you....guess what Dianne...I'm glad you asked. I actually tried to expose myself but you just weren't looking. I clicked your name on one of your Emails on 19Feb2007 20:16:41-000. Your message to me was "Thank-you Robert I do see your point and it would be a good idea to have a debate." "I'll see what I can do about organizing one." "Thank you for your help in this matter."
• I responded via Email by clicking on your name. My message to you was "That's fabulous Dianne. Looking forward to getting these two together for the benefit of the riding. By the way, I wonder if you would be kind enough to resubmit your last two comments so that I may publish them. My computer was acting up. I've remedied the problem...I fed the mice."

Here's what came back to me on 19Feb2007 20:16:41-000 from Mailer DAEMON.... "Hi, this is the qmail-send program at yahoo.com. I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses."

"This is a permamnent error." "" recipient address rejected: Access denied."

Que sera sera