Tuesday, July 14, 2009

 

So, Cheney's Cheney, Cheney, Cheney....

.

....Was not the janitor.

OrganizationalCharts
MadeInHellVille



Instead, it was, apparently, David Addington.

Billmon, as only he can, makes some sense of it all.

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Monday, July 13, 2009

 

I'm Not Bored With Healthcare Reform In The USA! (Part 5)

TheOnlyWayToTalkToASerialObfuscator
IsDownVille


Dennis Kucinich defends Canada against own of our own.




For background on the good Dr. Gratzer, the object of Rep. Kucinich's ire, check this out.


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RailGate Retrenched: The Dippers Back Down

WhoseFightin'Now?
BCMaryVille


Seriously.

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RailGate Re-Surfacing.....Who Should Have Protected The E-Mails?

WeDon'tNeedNoStinking
MinistryOfInformationRetrievalVille


You know, the E-Mails that, according to Mark Hume, writing in the Globe recently, Gordon Campbell's man in court says no longer exist:

.....Two weeks ago, the defence filed an application for the disclosure of the e-mail records of Mr. Campbell, several cabinet ministers and numerous staff, arguing the communications could shed light on whether the accused were acting on their own, or under directions from superiors.

But earlier this week George Copley, a lawyer representing the Executive Council of the B.C. government, told court a search had failed to produce the e-mails sought because the data system keeps backup tapes for only 13 months.....


Well.

Regardless the fact that it is now 2009, one of the accused's lawyers suggests that Gordon Campbell's Solicitor General of the time should have taken care to see that the E-mails were protected as potential evidence as early as the fall of 2003:

....Michael Bolton, who is defending Dave Basi, told court the government should have safeguarded the e-mails because it was evident as early as the fall of 2003 that police were investigating suspicions of fraud surrounding the BC Rail deal.

He said the Solicitor-General was advised of the investigation, and if that didn't make it clear there could be legal action, the dramatic police raid on the legislature certainly should have.

So.

Given all that, what was then Solicitor General, Rich Coleman, actually up to at the time.

Well, we don't know that for sure.

But we do know how he felt about the entire Railgate situation a year later, in the fall of 2004, when the Ledge Raid search warrants were 'finally' made public.

And we know this because of the work of Sean Holman who recorded a media scrum involving Mr. Coleman at that time for posterity:

Media Given some of these very serious allegations, have you had a chance to go back over any of Basi or Virk's other files to see whether everything is up to spec there?

Solicitor General Coleman I'm not going to comment on anything that may have taken place that may be germaine to the investigation or have any impact on it.

Media But seperate files...

Solicitor General Coleman I can't comment on that?

Media Why can't you comment on that?

Solicitor General Coleman Because I'm not involved in that. So I have no information that would lead me to believe that one way or another.

Media Who would be involved with that?

Solicitor General Coleman I don't know. From my standpoint, there's an ongoing police investigation. We're going to allow that investigation and what's before the courts to take place. And we're not going to comment on that.


So there you have it....Sgt. Schultz.....errrrr....Mr. Coleman.....He 'knows nothing!'

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Sunday, July 12, 2009

 

Hey, Rickey!

EvenTheGreatIlleistOfAllTimeDeservesToBeIn
TheHallOfFameVille



When C. and I lived in in the Bay Area we often hopped on the BART train at the North Berkeley station and headed down the EastBay line to what was then officially known as Oakland Alameda County Coliseum.

Heckfire, if truth really be told....

...After the then tiny e. was born, I would often postpone the day's delivery of S35-methionine to the lab and take off for the ballpark with the baby-in-backpack to watch the Bash Brothers crush balls, one after the other, into the left field bleachers during batting practice.

And, moving in-and-out of the batting cage with Canseco and McGwire, in sequence, was Rickey Henderson, who didn't hit 'em as far, but almost always hit 'em out just as often.

****

But here's the thing.

During the 80 or 90 games I saw in Oakland during those glory days, Rickey was not actually my favorite Henderson patrolling the Athletics' outfield.

Instead, Dave was.

The Outlaw Josey Wales was in right....Rickey was in left...... and David Henderson, the journeyman who feasted on hitting between the two of them in the batting order, was in center.

And while Canseco and the self-proclaimed 'Greatest Base-Stealer Of All Time' clearly loved themselves, it was Dave Henderson who loved the fans in the cheapseats, and back then, back before Al Davis wrecked those bleachers as a prerequisite for the return of his stupid football team, the fans out there loved him.

That's the thing about baseball that is gone from the other professional sports - you can still kinda/sorta buy reasonably cheap seats and really get to know the players - at least the on-field, no needles-in butts version of the players.

Anyway......

By 1994 Dave was gone and Rickey was back from yet another free agency-assisted money grab.

Unfortunately, by then the A's were on their invevitable downhill, pre-Billy Beane, slide.

Which, to my mind at least, hit bottom on a cold, wind-swept afternoon in early the fall when a mean-nothing second division day game slowed to a late-inning crawl and a single voice rang out from the bleachers with one of the best heckles I've heard - before or since.

It went like this:

.....Hey!.....Rickey!.....They Traded The Wrong Henderson!...


Of course, these days R. Henderson is getting ready to enter The Hall of Fame.

For all the right reasons.

Including the fact that, as SI's Dave Verducci noted not so long ago:

Rickey is the modern-day Yogi Berra, only faster.


As for Dave?

Well.

He's still having fun (and making a little green) with the fans.....


_______
The image at the top of the post comes from a 20 year reunion of the 1989 champion A's. The accompanying story in the SF Chronicle by Ray Ratto is here.
Why am I writing about this now? Well, blame Ishmael and/or a final post from a guy whose stuff I used to read quite often named Ray Arneson. Ray's idea machine, which he shut down just before spring training earlier this year (I'd missed that) somehow represents just about everything I recall fondly when I find myself, often out of the blue, thinking about the crazed, intelligent, whack-a-doodle energy that powers the Bay Area's real innovation engine.


.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

 

I'm Not Bored With Healthcare Reform In The USA! (part 4)

EvilWillTriumph
IfGoodMenDoNothingVille



A former insurance company shill wakes up when he realizes that many of his fellow countrymen have been reduced to taking their healthcare in animal stalls.




Americans should thank their favorite deity, every single day, for Bill Moyers.


_____
Thanks to reader Astro for the heads-up!
In part 2 of the same interview, Mr. Moyers talks to the former shill about the industry's concerted effort to discredit Michael Moore. You can stream the entire program here.


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Friday, July 10, 2009

 

Can CanWest Go Any Lower?

'CauseThey'reFree.....Free-Fallin'
MagnificentAsperSonVille



Because, as Mr. Kilian reports, it's down to 6 cents a share.

Which means it's market cap is now a mere $28 million.

Can't somebody sane swoop in and scoop the bleeding carcass up off the pavement?



(before, as Crawford kinda/sorta tongue-in-cheek suggests, somebody crazy like, say, ol' Uncle Rupert does).

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BC's Burgeoning Budget Deficit: Mr. Hansen's Ridiculous 5K Solution

AllTheMeannessThatFits
LineItemVille



Yesterday Sean Holman reported that Gordon Campbell's Finance Minister has decided that one way to deal with the deficit is to put the screws to social service agencies, line by line:

The provincial government could be putting discretionary grants to social service agencies on the chopping block. Speaking with reporters today, Finance Minister Colin Hansen acknowledged discretionary grants could be "impacted" by the government's effort to find $1.9 billion in administrative efficiencies over three years......

{snippety-doodle-dandy}

"There are cases where we've identified that there might be dollars going out the door to an organization when, in fact, those services should be provided by front-line government workers. So we're not looking at it from the perspective of whoever has been funded in the past should get funded in the future. We're saying how best can we deliver those services in the most cost-effective way. And I can tell you, just in the last month and a half, there has been many, many, many hours sitting in committee literally going through line by line and you wind up with something that's $5,000. And somebody says, 'Well, it's only $5,000.' And I say, 'No, no. It is $5,000.' It's been a pretty intense process as we've gone through this."


To which I responded:

Hmmmmm......

How many times, exactly, does $5K go into this?

Or this?

Or this?

Or even this?


So.

How many times, indeed?

(Answer later)

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I'm Not Bored With Healthcare Reform In The USA! (Reason #3)

WhipIt
WhipItGoodVille



The indomitable Ms. Hamsher....



Here's the FDL post that more fully explains the video....



______
Essentially, Ms. Hamsher and friends are acting as public option 'whips' to bring progressive democratic congress crittters into line (and they only need 40!).

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Thursday, July 09, 2009

 

I'm Not Bored With Healthcare Reform In The USA! (part 2)

WhenDemonstrableFalsehoodsRule
AndProMediaRollsOverVille



Why is the going so tough?

Because folks like this are actually taken seriously.


______
Part 1 is here.

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BC's Burgeoning Budget Deficit: Ignore The Deflector Spin

What'sPastIsDefinitelyNotPrologue
LotuslandSinkingVille


Specifically, ignore all the local 'led-by-the-nose' stories that are focussed on this 'thin' surplus codswallop regarding 2008/9.

Instead, go read the Reuters bizness report that focusses on what is coming for 2009/10.

Here's the lede:

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 9 (Reuters) - British Columbia's budget deficit will almost certainly be worse than the forecast C$495 million ($427 million) as the Canadian province's economy continues to sag, Finance Minister Colin Hansen said on Thursday.

Hansen said residents will have to wait until September to learn how much larger, but revenues from corporate and personal income taxes were lower than expected when the annual spending plan was unveiled in February.

"Given what I know today I am not optimistic at all that a C$495 million number is anywhere near possible," Hansen told reporters.....


Then ask yourself....

Why isn't that last quote, from a particularly candid Mr. Colin Hansen, not the headline of every single local story?

OK?

____
Update: Apologies to Mr. Holman....He got it right right out of the gate.....Apparently, according to time stamps, I beat him to the punch by 11 minutes (well, actually, 'teh' reader did).

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How Crawford Got His Pen

Lotusland'sMostProlific
BloggodomeVille



If you've spent anytime at all hanging around the pixel heaps of Lotusland you've probably run into the words of the extremely prolific Crawford Kilian.

And most of the time those words have something pretty darned interesting to say.

Anyway......

It turns out that Mr. K. really has had a most interesting life, and Tom Hawthorn tells us all about in today's Globe.

My favorite part is about the young Crawford's befriending of Dalton Trumbo in Mexico City after his Dad moved the family there because he, like Trumbo, had been blacklisted for refusing to name names in front of the HUAC committee.


________
Full Disclosure: Mr. Kilian, who also scours local blogsites on behalf of the Big Fish, almost made my head explode when something he (I think) wrote there pushed this particular F-troop list blogs traffic up exponentially (although 10 times small is still pretty darned small) for a couple of weeks during the recent provincial election campaign......And here's the real kicker....If you read Tom Hawthorn's piece carefully, those that know a little bit about my background in the real world (apparently it took Laila about 30 seconds to figure that out because, unlike a certain prominent local pro-media reporter, Ms. Y. actually knows how to use the 'Teh'), it turns out that Mr. K. and I once worked at the same fed gov. installation at the top of Strawberry Canyon.

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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

 

Mr. Harper's Big Conservative Secret Rainbow Society

HavingCakeAndEatingItTooOffensives
DeserveDerisionVille



How else to explain the multitude of gay friendly events supported by him and his.

David Akin has the list:



_____
Apparently, a 'little birdie' passed this info onto the good Mr. Akin. Presumably, as Ms. O'Malley is so fond of saying......'It wasn't a Sparrow'.....

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Why Should Gordon Campbell Care...

InTheseDaysOfEvilPresidentes
ClampdownVille


.....About Poor Kids.


After all, British Columbia only has 126,000 of them.

Sheesh.


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Tuesday, July 07, 2009

 

I'm Not Bored With HealthCare Reform In The USA!

InALongMarchEvenBabyStepsCount
PublicOptionVille


The best rationale I've read so far for not going for the whole single-payer enchilada right out of the gate comes from Kirk James Murphy, one of the denizens of the FeverSwamps/Firedoglake:

Over the last six years I've evaluated and treated hundreds of patients who have very little access to health care. These patients qualified for mental health care, but a great many didn't qualify for access to Medicare or Medicaid (which Californians know as Medi-Cal). For these folks, I've been able to diagnose severe medical illnesses simply using lab results and clinical history - and for most of them, I could offer no treatment. We all need health care - and folks with serious psychiatric disorders, the need is even greater: as a group, they have far more physical illness and die far earlier than those without such burdens. This year's fight for public health care could solve this problem - if the fight succeeds. If the fight fails, the patients I've served will keep suffering and dying from avoidable causes. Should progressives continue a circular firing squad over the mechanism for universal public access, I fear that's exactly what will happen......."


Obviously, Kirk really is a real doctor.

And, to the best of my knowledge, he has never played one on TeeVee.

Which is very likely why the things he has to say actually make sense.


_____
And before anybody starts screaming at me....As a Canuckistanian who started his family in the States (ie. C. and I had Bigger E. down there), the US system scared the bejeebuz out of me.....Oh, ya....And just so you know, we were never, ever able to choose our own doctor and, despite the fact that we were with one of the 'best' HMO's in the country (the one that was willing to, apparently, pay the WaPo big money to hook-up their lobbyists with lawmakers over dinner at the publisher's office), we still had to lay out for user fees and co-pays up the whazoo.....

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Which Side Are You On?

WhichLeftIsWhich
DipperVille



Two groups of provincial NDP types are meeting tonight......

One group is apparently made up of the pragmatist establishment types that currently control the party and want to figure out how to do just a wee bit better next time out.

And the other group consists of a bunch of upstart southpaw types that want to 'take back the party'.

And in our opinion, a lot can be gleaned about each group just by examining venues they've chosen for their get togethers.

The PraggiEstistas are going to do their brainstorming at the Hotel Vancouver.

And as for those lonely lefthanders who were long ago banished to the bullpen?

Well....

They're meeting at the YWCA.



_____
Gosh. How would we ever get by without PublicEye?

.

 

If A Program Is Cut In The Forest....

PolicyBySecrecy
CatchUsIfYouCanVille


....Will Anybody Hear?


Or even know?

Especially if those cuts are kept hidden from the media's glare?

These are all good questions about what the British Columbia government of Gordon Campbell is really up to as it secretly plans for its September budget.

And they are questions that are being asked on the not-so secretive editorial pages of the Victoria Times-Colonist.

(that's two good ones from those folks this week, by the way).

_____
Tip of the cyber-chapeau to Mr. Willcocks for pointing the way.

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Monday, July 06, 2009

 

Does FABula Never Sleep?

ShakingUpLotuslandians
FromThousandsOfMilesAwayVille



Despite the fact that she's away on holiday in Europe, Frances Bula's site is the still the place to go for meaningful discussion on all issues Lotuslandian.

Case in point....The thought provoking comment thread she jump-started on the weekend on the topic of a possible 'Bike-Only-Bridge' across False Creek.....



______
There is one thing I know that Ms. B. doesn't (yet?)....This morning, while cycling along 33rd I noticed the chain-link fencing surrounding the doomed Main St. housing complex is now up.....Film at 11 (maybe)....

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Sure, Sure Mr. Smyth.....

TheRealAnswerIsHiddenUnderTheFifth'W'
RailGateVille



....We're all outraged at the compensation being paid to the lackeys to run a 40km spur line.

But why don't you ask why?

As in....

Why is something that appears, on the the surface at least, to be so worthless clearly worth so much to the Campbellites.

And while you're at it, maybe you could cash-in what little remains hidden away in that back corner of the CanWest expense account vault so that you can spring for a long distance call to Denver.

Why?

So that you can ask the good folks at OmniTRAX the same question.

OK?

_____
Meanwhile, the true day of reckoning/loss of all our public assets forever is less than two weeks away.

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Saturday, July 04, 2009

 

Born On The 4th Of July...

WhyArtMatters
TheLongingVille



....My growing appreciation for the work of former Drive-By Trucker Jason Isbell:






Help Mr. Isbell create more stuff like this by buying some of it here.


_______
The more famous DBT Live version of 'Dress Blues' is here.

.

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