Does The Empress Of The Stoopid Have The First Amendment Right To.....

.

.....Make Patently False Statements About The First Amendment?

Well, now that I think of it (way harder than I should, by the way), I guess Ms. Palin has a right to say anything she wants.

But that doesn't make what she has to say right.

Or even remotely correct......

ABC News has the latest story:

In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by "attacks" from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama.

(Sarah) Palin told WMAL-AM that her criticism of Obama's associations, like those with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate's free speech rights under the Constitution, Palin said.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

And Glenn Greenwald has the analysis:

If anything, Palin has this exactly backwards, since one thing that the First Amendment does actually guarantee is a free press. Thus, when the press criticizes a political candidate and a Governor such as Palin, that is a classic example of First Amendment rights being exercised, not abridged.


All of which has me wondering if Ms. Palin and her handlers think, perhaps, that the Unencyclopedia is actually Wikipedia, only betterer.

After all, such a moronic madcap mix-up just might explain a whole lot when it comes to Ms. Palin's ridiculous comments regarding biomedical usefulness of, say, Fruit Fly Research.

Regardless, it would appear that even Hockey Moms are now starting to sing 'You Don't Speak For Me Sarah Palin'.....




.

What Is The Real Reason That Mr. Lunn Was Demoted To Minister Of Hockey Rinks?

ChaosTheoryComesTo
ConVille

Hmmmmmm......

Was it the phantom passel of third party advertisements plastered all over the Timmy's next to the Langevin Block extolling the virtues of Mr. Lunn's plans for energy self-sufficiency for Exxon that have absolutely nothing but everything to do with the demise of the offshore tanker moratorium?

Was it the unlogged and unaccounted for middle-of-the-night Robocalls to Gorffwysfa pretending to be Ben's coach changing the time of practice from 8:00 to 5:30am that were inexplicitly linked to Joe Who's caller ID?

Or was it the wanton Warroom warnings about Warren's future use of YouTube videos of nuclear plants waving over the Witaskawin horizon?

Well.....

According to Ms. O'Malley, by way of the always excellent Mr. Akin (who has been, apparently, making up for lost questions in the wake of the Campaign Trail's Famous-8 Question Clampdown), it may very well have been something quite different:

1:16:51 PM (at the PM's Oct 30th Presser)
David Akin challenges the PM over BC’s representation in cabinet, and asks him to “square the circle’ as far as appointing a rookie - Raitt - to Natural Resources; and demoting BC’s Gary Lunn to a minister of state gig. Not surprisingly, Harper doesn’t see it that way; he claims that the total number of BC ministers remains unchanged - is that right? - and praises Raitt for her qualifications as a businesswoman who “won a tough electoral battle”. So basically, if you beat a Garth Turner, you’re almost guaranteed a cabinet post. Keep that in mind for the future, y’all.


Turner?

Garth Turner's demise precipititated the whackin' of Mr. Lunn?

Ya, sure.

And if a butterfly flaps its wings in Juneau in February........?

Wait.

That's not possible.

Is it?



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Is Gordon Campbell's Right Flank Exposed?

WhenWingnutsDefect
GasTaxVille


Rink-rat poet extraordinare Mr. Beer 'N Hockey likes to pretend he hates politics.

But I'm not so sure about that.

Case in point, in the comments to one of the recent provincial by-election posts Beer had this to say:

Should the Conservatives poll a broad 3.58% in the next provincial election, that could sink the Liberals in what is shaping up as a real beer drinking Hell raiser of an election in '09. And I do not think I am pipe dreaming about this: there is a percentage of people who would never switch their support from the current incarnation of the Social Credit party to the NDP who have a history of voting for upstart right wing parties when the right wing power of the day makes them choke on their own vomit.

Mr. Beer N. Hockey | Homepage | 10.31.08 - 12:28 am | #

---

Now, I'm not entirely convinced that 3.58% would make the nut.

But double that, and I figure it could swing quite a few ridings in places like, oh, I dunno.....

Vancouver Point Grey?

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The Big O - Smart, Reasoned and Reasonable Enough For All?

SwingBabySwing
VoterVille


Including reasonable Republicans?

I think so.

But you don't have to take my word for it, because it's all there in the interview below in which Obama pushes back to the middle while responding to Rachel Maddow's questions from the left side of the ledger.

And, amazingly, he, Obama I mean, only drops one 'g' in eight full minutes (interview starts @ 3:20').




Sounds like a centrist to me.

OK?


____
Second half of interview is here in which Obama uses the term 'necessary but not sufficient' which is also favoured by 'gasp!' fruit fly geneticists after a comprehensive analysis of both gain and loss of function mutations of a particular gene and/or wine and chloroform-soaked visit to the infamous Mendel lab in Melbourne Mississippi. Or some such thing.

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Mr. Lunn's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

IronyIsNotAFourLetterWord
ConVille


And, no, we're not talking about Mr. Lunn's demotion to Minister of Hockey Rinks, a story that was given some play in today's Victoria Times Colonist:

Saanich-Gulf Islands MP Gary Lunn has been replaced as natural resources minister in today's federal cabinet shuffle, moving to a junior cabinet position as minister of state for sport.



Instead, we're talking about a different piece in today's Times-Colonist by Paul Willcocks that shines a spotlight on questionable, and so far pretty much uninvestigated, goings on that took place during the Saanich and the Isles election campaign:

Some odd -- even worrying -- things happened in the Saanich-Gulf Island's riding successfully held by Conservative cabinet minister Gary Lunn.

One election dirty trick involved phone fraud and seemed both unethical and illegal. The RCMP response, which suggested election fraud allegations just aren't a priority, was disturbing.

And while there is no evidence of wrongdoing, it appears third-party advertisers played a disproportionate role in the riding.

And that's just the lede.

It's a good piece that asks some tough questions that are based largely on the investigative work of Andrew Macleod in the Tyee who is given full attribution by Mr. Willcocks.

Anyway......

What I'm really wondering is why?

Why did Little Stephen decide to demote one of his first term's Miracles?

Could it be that he has answers to some of the questions raised by Messrs Macleod and Willcocks and doesn't like what they tell him?

Or did he just decide that have a Minister who wants to bring nuclear power to the tarsands is just a little too far 'out there' when the real task at hand is getting rid of that goldarned coastal drill-baby-drill oil-filled tanker traffic moratorium?


______
And if things don't work out for him driving all those Zambonis, Mr. Lunn could always try Australia.


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Fairview-Comes-A-Live...... Blogging The B.C. By-Election

DoYouFeelLikeIDo?
DoobieWahVille

_____

Update 11:05pm....It's a Double - Dipper Win in Burrard And Fairview...The Night In Narrative form in this post, below; hard numbers in following posts
_____

8:15pm.....no polls reporting; no results......how many e-officers does the Goodship Gordo have working tonight anyway?......Heading back to the pumpkin carving upstairs with the Two E's...

8:48pm....Now E-BC is giving the following message, "Error establishing a database connection"....Oh, the humanity!......

9:02pm.....In the absence of real results CKNW resorts to reports from the political parties themselves on its 9pm newscast which is, of course, worth something less than zero.....LINOs say they are up in Fairview, down in Burrard.....Dippers say they are up in both.....methodology unknown....Bigger E is now estimating her Eco-footprint in Subterranean Blues Room's nextdoor cubicle....

9:04pm.....Meanwhile, the chattering classes want to know - will the 'Harvey-O Effect' influence tonight's results?.....off to lullaby littler e. to bed....

9:09pm.....WX has what looks to be some real numbers up.....

New Democrat Herbert Spencer leads with 2428 votes in Vancouver Burrard compared to Liberal Arthur Griffiths' 1321 votes.

In Vancouver-Fairview Jenn McGinn of the NDP has 4049 votes, while Liberal candidate Dr. Margaret MacDiarmid has just over 3500 votes with 100 polls reporting.

Elections BC officials say today's voter turnout was low and there was some concern that the by-elections were being held in between the federal and municipal elections.

Looks like maybe little Arthur is going down (again)......

10:09pm.....WX is calling it a double Dipper win....they have crazy high numbers....On E-BC site it is Dipper Herbert 1434 - LINO Griffiths 974 in Fairview and LINO McDiarmid 667 - Dipper McGinn 591......Hmmmmm....

10:20pm.....Burrard almost done....It's Dipper Herbert in a cakewalk....E-BC numbers with 174/195 boxes counted directly below.....the real Fairview numbers are still really slow coming in.....Bigger E is carving the Obama symbol into her pumpkin.....Rosalita (yes, THAT Rosie) the puppy went to bed with littler e.....they both dozed off to 'The Rising' in the key of D (that E-flat is just too sad for me).....

10:32.....Real Fairview numbers (139/149 boxes) in......Dipper McGinn up by 600.....really does look like a double dip (full numbers in post right below).....

10:33pm.....I've got turnout at about 22-23% for both ......looks like Gordo's voter suppression strategy worked, but backfired badly anyway......

10:40pm.....Charlie Smith of the GStraight is peeved at E-BC, and it's not just because of the website problems.....All the free pro-media time in all of Lotusland couldn't help the LINO's this time around.....Thanks Harvey!

10:46pm.....Just like the Griffiths Family's lost empire itself, it's amazing to see how far the family's former asset, the (nolongerso)Giant98 has fallen.....still nothing, absolutely nothing, on their website about the Bye-Bye's for BC's former 'NewsLeader'.....maybe Bill Good is out in Point Grey somewhere carrying water with a sieve?....

10:55pm.....Somewhere a lady with a generous panniculus is starting to sing, because this thing is done......The Dippers win the Pennant!......50% plus for Herbert in Burrard, burying Wee Arthur.....47% for McGinn in Fairview topping high profile McDiarmid, she of the LINO-CON lawnsigns, by 600 votes......Meanwhile, the Emery Family Singers are heading back to the Bong as Jodie and Marc pull in just over 500 votes...... combined....

11:01pm.....CKNW finally has something concrete on 11pm newscast.... calls it double-dipper....reports that Wee Arthur says he will run again, but likely in a 'different' riding which is weird, because last I knew he actually lives in the near WestEnd.....Gordo is already downplaying defeat (ha!) saying he didn't really try too hard (ha! ha! ha!)....if that's the case why did he have people doing crazy mixed-up stuff like Big Rich Coleman suddenly opening offices for Tenants in the Westend two days before the election?....and why too did he lock up the herd media before his aforementioned free media freakout last week?.....

11:05pm....That's it, I'm done!.....Only a few ballot boxes left to report....if you want to look them up here are the E-BC links for the counts from Burrard and Fairview.....gotta go get the teenager E. to bed..... G'night all......

.

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Vancouver Fairview By-Election.....You Ain't Seen Nothin' Like The Mighty McGinn....

It really does look like the Double-Dip for the Dippers is in play.....

Direct from the E-BC website

As of October 29, 2008 - 10:27 p.m.

Electoral District	Candidate Ballot Name	Affiliation	Total Valid Votes	Percentage of Popular Vote
Vancouver-Fairview	Emery, Jodie	British Columbia Marijuana Party	133	1.37%
Vancouver-Fairview	Hanni, Wilf	BC Conserative Party	348	3.58%
Vancouver-Fairview	MacDiarmid, Margaret	BC Liberal Party	3,948	40.58%
Vancouver-Fairview	McGinn, Jenn	New Democratic Party of B.C.	4.559	46.86%
Vancouver-Fairview	Sterk, Jane	Green Party of BC	742	7.63%
139 of 149 ballot boxes reported		Total	9,730	100.00%

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Vancouver Burrard By-Election.....Spencer 'Fred Astaire' Herbert In A Walk!

Straight from Elections BC Website

As of October 29, 2008 - 10:11 p.m.

Electoral District	Candidate Ballot Name	Affiliation	Total Valid Votes	Percentage of Popular Vote
Vancouver-Burrard	Emery, Marc	British Columbia Marijuana Party	335	2.76%
Vancouver-Burrard	Griffiths, Arthur	BC Liberal Party	4,507	37.11%
Vancouver-Burrard	Herbert, Spencer	New Democratic Party of B.C.	6,120	50.39%
Vancouver-Burrard	McLeod, Ian	BC Conservative Party	545	4.49%
Vancouver-Burrard	Read, Drina Alicia	Green Party of BC	639	5.26%
174 of 195 ballot boxes reported		Total	12,146	100.00%

_____
For a previous report on Mr. Herbert's Dancin' chops, see here.
And we're waiting for eyewitness reports from West End Bob and macadavy who I'm pretty sure are at the party.....

.

Double Dipper Win In BC By-Election Looks Likely

10:14pm.....CKWX 1130.....The only Lotuslandian radio station that is actually working tonight has these 'unofficial numbers from the CP up.....

New Democrat Herbert Spencer leads with 5700 votes in Vancouver Burrard compared to Liberal Arthur Griffiths' 4127 votes.

In Vancouver-Fairview Jenn McGinn of the NDP has 4488 votes, while Liberal candidate Dr. Margaret MacDiarmid has just over 3985 votes.

Thus, it would appear that the 'Harvey-O Effect' is in play......

Liquidity Held Hostage: Puttin' On The Puts

AllTheMoneyThatFits
BigBankHoardingVille


So.

Here's the thing.

If it was all that cheap money in the form of liquidity handouts from Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Bernacke et al. (ie. the oft-repeated 'Greenspan Puts') that brought the world's financial system to the brink of total disaster in the first place why, exactly, are we doing it again?

The Fed dropped its key interest rate from 1.5 percent to 1 percent in a bid to boost economic growth and increase the availability of credit. Today's (Oct 29, 2008) rate cut follows a 50-basis-point reduction earlier in the month, when the Fed acted in concert with several central banks around the world to address what has clearly become a global credit crisis.



Now, of course, the business-types (ie. the ticker-chasers) will tell you that we have to do this to oil up the credit markets to avert further disaster.

Which kinda/sorta makes some sense, on the face of it I guess.

Except for one thing....

Which is the thing that anyone who has ever seen 'It's a Wonderful Life' (ie. everybody) should never forget.

And that is the fact that the big banks are, by-and-large, run by folks who don't give a hoot-in-heckfire about the rest of us or the greater good because they are too busy stepping on each others necks in an effort to become the supreme leader/lender in Potterville:

Many countries cannot quickly access the credit they need because banks are hoarding money and refuse to lend to each other.


Which means that, unless we stop this madness, the entire world may soon be running around loose screaming:

"Mary!.....Mary!.....Mary, it's George!......Don't you know me?!"

OK?

____
My suggestion? Pay the Greedheads off with Zsu-Zsu's petals and save the real money for the rest of us.

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Accentuating The Negative Positively

DefinedByHisOwnChoice
McCainVille




OK?

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FOX News Officially Joins Palin Campaign

AllTheLipstickThatFits
EmpressOfTheStoopiderVille

So here it is, part of Mr. Sean Hannity's hard hitting 'road-trip' interview with his party's V.P. nominee Ms. Sarah Palin:

HANNITY: Now, we're going to walk together because I'm going to walk you, literally, right out under the.....

S. PALIN: Oh good, thank you.

{snippety doodle-dandy}

HANNITY: Now, I want to show everybody over here because this is now, I don't know, I guess, it's sort of like, if we look here — let our camera man catch up with us here. All right. Thousands and thousands of people await you out there.

What is it like, you know, in terms of, your life has changed so dramatically, you're going to walk out there, there's a big crowd, very enthusiastic? They're all happy to see you and excited. Did you ever expect that in your life? Nine weeks ago, did you think you'd be in this position?

S. PALIN: Never anticipated it, no. But, at the same time, Sean, it kind of feels comfortable. Not so much a crowd out there cheering. But again, Americans desiring representation of who they are and what they believe in and what is important to them......

Hmmmmm.......what the heckfire was Ms. Palin saying there about U.S. Americans exactly?

Regardless, one thing is abundantly clear from this wee bit of super sillyness - A FOX News' patriarchical power-mad man has proven Heather Mallick right.

And it's not the first time that has happened.

OK?


_____
Returning once again to the following infamous comment from Ms. Mallick back in September of this year: "Palin has a toned-down version of the porn actress look favoured by this decade's woman, the overtreated hair, puffy lips and permanently alarmed expression......", the image at the top of this post comes directly from the FOX News 'Hannity and Colmes' page.
And for those who require further evidence of The Empress' stoopideriousness, please see this. Alternatively, you may be interested in clear-cut evidence of her fraudulent stoopideriostupendiosity, here.


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The Luntzification Of Canuckistanmikitaville

AllTheWatercarryingThatFits
MediaVille


Donald Gutstein has a very interesting post up at The Tyee in which he details how much of Canada's corporate media amplified the Luntzian message being spoonfed to them, right from the beginning, that Stephane Dion was John Kerry while Stephen Harper was the Decider.

I found the following passages especially illuminating:

No sooner was Dion crowned leader than the Conservatives pulled out all the stops to implant a Dion-as-flip-flopper frame in voters' minds, attempting to define Dion for the voters before Dion did it himself.

For this work, they turned to Frank Luntz, then a prominent Republican spin doctor, a master at framing the political debate through his use of language. He's credited with the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 via his bogus Contract with America.

Luntz visited Canada in May 2006 to meet privately with Harper and to address the shadowy Civitas Society, whose members include Harper's then chief-of-staff Ian Brodie, his long-time political mentor Tom Flanagan, and Environment Minister John Baird. Montreal Gazette reporter Elizabeth Thompson heard Luntz tell the 200 libertarians and neoconservatives that voters want someone who is credible and they can trust more than someone who shares their ideas. "More than anything else, they want to know you are a straight shooter," he added.

{snippety-doo-dah}

Harper kicked off the flip-flop campaign in the House of Commons during the debate over the extension of sunset provisions in the Anti-terrorism Act regarding preventive arrests and investigative hearings. The Liberals had enacted the law in 2001 and Liberals were voting against an extension. This was a flip-flop of colossal proportions, they charged. The accusations of Liberal flip-floppery were relentless, occurring 33 times over the next three weeks. Most were about the Anti-terrorism Act, but accusations of flip-flopping spread to Liberal policies on Kyoto and sending troops to Afghanistan. Harper himself used the term five times.

{snippety-doodle-dandy}

One vehicle for disseminating the flip-flop message was the nightly Mike Duffy Countdown segment on CTV, where the Conservative frame was provided a friendly welcome. Anti-Dion ads played during the commercial breaks were reinforced by Duffy's guests.

Government Whip Jay Hill led off by slamming "the flip-flop on Afghanistan, or the flip-flop now of the anti-terrorism act ..." Next, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day skewered Dion's flip-flop on the anti-terrorism law and its implications for the Air India investigation. Jay Hill was back several days later, as the vote on the anti-terrorism law extension neared. Harper appeared the same evening, repeating the phrase "abruptly flip-flopped" he used twice in Parliament. Apparently abrupt flip-flopping is worse than gradual flip-flopping.

Conservative strategist Roxanna Benoit couldn't understand why Dion needed to flip-flop, parliamentary secretary Pierre Poilievre hoped Dion would flip-flop once again on the environment and backbencher Garry Breitkreuz accused Dion of being like a fish out of water, going flip, flop, flip, flop, repeating the phrase for the benefit of slow learners in the audience.

Apologies for pasting so much of Mr. Gutstein's piece - but it's really, really good.

Thing is, now that this garbage has proven effective, what's the likelihood that it's not going to get even worse?

_____
And, just in case anybody from They Tyee stops by here occasionally...... we've noticed your turn back to harder- edged analysis at the expense of some of the fluffiness in the last few weeks....and we like it..... a lot......and if it came about because your readers told you that's what they wanted when you surveyed them a few weeks ago, all the better.
And, for the record, we too were onto the Luntzification thing back in the Spring of 2006, as was Alison, who is currently throwing a little light on a much scarier, darker no-longer-stealth-frame.
Dr. Prole does a great job of handing Mr. Luntz his hat here.

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Sarah Palin's Fruit Fly Obsession - Attack Of The Killer Armadillos

TemperatureSensitiveScience
SuzukiVille

_________________________

Please see Updates and New Sidebar Bits at bottom of post
_________________________

So.

Apparently, based on her comments at least, Sarah Palin is now going after the US government's funding of science.

The science of genetics to be more precise.

Now, as David Suzuki demonstrated in work that made him a famous scientist long BEFORE he became famous for being a TeeVee star, fruit flies (a.k.a. Drosophila melanogaster) are a model organism ripe for genetic manipulation.

Why?

Because they are super fast breeders and it is easy to mutate their genes and then screen for physical changes that occur because of those mutations.

And one of those mutations causes flies to become sort of hunchbacked and segmented. As a result the researchers who did the work, which was funded by US government grants, called the gene 'Armadillo'.

****

But I digress....

Returning to the matter at hand, the Empress Sarah Palin recently denounced a certain type of research as an egregious 'earmark' because it leads to the disbersement of......

"....dollars that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruitfly research in Paris France......I kid you not!"

Sure.

Whatever you say there your Empress of the Stoopidness.

But here's the real thing.

That Armadillo gene mentioned above?

Guess what?

It turns out that the human form is a critical component of an entire genetic pathway that now forms the basis for the genetic screening of familial colon cancer.

And correcting those mutations and/or blocking their function is now the focus of a huge therapeutic initiative for treating ALL colon cancers. In fact, this approach forms the basis of modern cancer research's 'holy-grail', in which the goal is to develop of patient-specific treatments that are way less toxic than the old-fashioned 'slash-and burn' chemo treatments that are still in widespread use today.

And if you click through on the links you will see that all that work, from flies to man (weird that bizarre little bit of evolutionary conservation of a critical gene pathway, eh?), was done by Americans whose research was funded by the American government.

And all of that is just one example amongst many.

Because there are dozens of other diseases, including autism, research for which Palin was pushing when she suddenly started spouting nonsense, in which work originally done in fruit flies, and/or tadpoles, and/or round worms, and/or tiny little transluscent Zebrafish, and/or stinky old hypermutable yeast is leading to a revolution in molecular medicine.

Sure sounds like dumb stuff to waste public money on when you could be spending it on, oh I dunno, Bridges To Nowhere, the Greed-Headed Deadender Followers of Mr. Greenspan and/or Haliburton.

Right Empress?

Sheesh!


_____
And why Paris France you might be asking if American Fly Research is so strong? Well, it turns out that, due to its importance to fundamental life science research, fruit fly work is now done all over the world (although its birthplace was most definitely the United States).
And for a slightly different perspective, (but not much) here is noted scientist-blogger PZ Meyer's take on the subject of the stoopid.
And, for the record, Mr. Olbermann agrees (thanks to Lotuslandian Greeniac and fellow baseball freak Bob Broughton for the link).
Update: Looks like our old friend Mike the Mad Biologist and wise commenter Reginald S. might have real scoop on the funded research derided by the Empress of the Stoopid. And, despite the fact that intent of Palin's remark was to tag fly research as eggheaded, elitist and wasteful, it looks like the specific stuff being funded here will only make her look stoopider than even the stupidest can possibly be. If that's even possible.



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This Fly Has Legs.....Sticking Out Of Its Head!

AllTheAntennapediaThatFits
MutantVille


So last night, just before bed, I sat down and wrote a snark-o-leptic ode to 'The Empress of the Stoopid', Sarah Palin, based on her comments about the evils of spending public money on ridiculously wasteful and elitist things like 'Fruit Fly research'*

And despite the fact that it had some facts in it (the post I mean), it was really little more than one of those 'letting go rants' that I just felt compelled to write while sitting hunched over my desk in the subterranean blues room (ie. the basement) late on a cold, dark autumnal Friday night.

Now, this being the little F-troop list blog that it is, and this now being a Saturday morning and all, I figured that maybe, if I was lucky, a hundred people might read the post over the entire weekend.

So......

Imagine my surprise when I woke-up this morning to find that people were reading the thing at the rate of over 100.

One hundred per hour that is.

Which kind of made me go hmmmmmmmmmm......

Until I dug into the sitemeter and found this.

Later, somebody wrote off-line to tell me the thing got Farked, whatever the heckfire that actually is.

All of which got me wondering if maybe, just maybe, there are at least a few folks in the States that really do loath the possibility that they may soon be ruled by mutants whose antennae are actually legs (which is the fly mutant, sans make-up and/or Gucci shoes, at the top right).

Which would make them, the mutants I mean, really, really, really stupider than stoopid, indeed.

OK?

_____
*The original post has since been updated, which is why it now sits above this one and has a Monday Oct 27/08 time stamp.



.

Whistler Revisited: Have No Fear, The Content Consultant Is Here!

AllTheManufacturedCitiesThatFit
IntrawestVille


Ooooh, baby!

A whole lotta 'Doob-in-Halfpipers' sure are relieved today.

And that relief has absolutely nothing to do with the last minute deal that Fortress Investments made with its creditors to refinance the crap.....errrrrrr.....'debt' that was used to buy Intrawest/Whistler.

No.

What's really important for all those boarder, skiier, five-ringed (and real estate) types is the news that everybody's favorite content consultant and non-lobbyist lobbyist, Mr. Kenneth Dobell, will soon arrive to save the day.

It's just one more story that Sean Holman, with an assist from Jennifer Miller, broke this week on his website, Public Eye:

Premier's Gordon Campbell former deputy minister and special advisor Ken Dobell continues to remain active in his retirement. According to The Whistler Question's Jennifer Miller, Mr. Dobell - lobbying firm Hill and Knowlton Canada Ltd.'s British Columbia chair - has been named to a volunteer steering committee that will be updating Whistler's long term financial plan......


And yes, just in case you thought your eyes were playing tricks on you, you read that right. The Content Consulterer is, indeed, going to be helping update Whisler's long term FINANCIAL plan.

Which is kind of surprising, given that Mr. Dobell was recently the Head Consulterer who ran the Vancouver Convention Center hundreds of millions of dollars into the red and, for once, actually had one of his many different hats handed to him for doing so.

But that is not the end of it.

Because it never is when you are a Consulterer who likes to change hats.

Case in point, Mr. Dobell, who was once the manager of the City of Vancouver, starting way back in the day when former developer Gordon Campbell was the mayor, is still a Board Member of VANOC whose Athlete's Village/KingCondoland Extravaganza is being built by Millenium Developments which, just like Intrawest/Whistler, is also being financed by..........

You guessed it - Fortress Investments.

Anyone noticing a pattern here?

Just askin'?

OK?


_______
Oh, and for those that still remember the good ol' days of HST Fridays, Intrawest, or at least a former Whistler pol who went to work for them, was once a tangential theme to one our more snarkoleptic posts titled 'Fat City'.

.

The Empress' New Clothes Horse?

MenWithoutHats
LobbyVille

Well, whaddy'a know....

Former B.C. Attorney General and Vancouver's Highly Civil Society Man, Geoff Plant, is going to work for Sarah Palin.

Sean Holman has the story.


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Lock Up All The Reporters!

Experts?
WeDon'tNeedNoStinkin'ExpertsVille


Mr. Willcocks makes an interesting, and illuminating, point regarding yesterday's herding, command and control of the media by B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell's handlers:

The whole deal was set up for political effect. Reporters were in a mini-lockup starting at 5:15 and forbidden from filing until after Campbell finished speaking. The aim, in part, was to make it tough for any opposition or expert reaction to make it into the evening newscasts or even into the papers.


Which begs the question....

What was Mr. Campbell so afraid of?

That somebody might capitalize on early knowledge of the temporary and bogus 'cuts to ferry fares' to game the marine worker's 'Hahn-Must-Go!' locker-room betting pool?

Sheesh.


.

A Serious Accusation of Evidence Withholding in the BC Rail Trial

ReleaseALLTheDocuments
BCRailgateDe-SuppressionVille


Now the header to this post refers to something that you might find deep on a comment deep within the bowels of an Anon-O-Mouse-laden comment thread over at our friend Mary's place.

And originally it was.

But then Mary liberated it and posted it up on her front page.

And, just to be clear, the comment in question was written by me.

The accusation, however, was not made by me.

Nor was it made by any other member of the Railgate-Obsessives club.

Instead, it was levelled by the editorial page writers of the Vancouver Times Colonist, and it was made way back in February of this year in regards to the continued suppression of documents by the British Columbia government of Gordon Campbell because they are hidden beneath his (ie. Mr. Campbell's) self-assembled umbrella known as 'solicitor-client' privilege.

Now, there was a lot of fuss made earlier this week about how the Crown and the government of Mr. Gordon Campbell have recently released 1100 previously lawyered-up documents of privilege to the defense.

Which sounds impressive, eh?

Kinda/sorta even sounds like maybe just maybe the government of Gordon Campbell has finally decided to stop Stonewalling almost five (yes, five!) years after the original BC Legislature Raid.

But here's the thing.

If eleven hundred have been released that means that there are STILL approximately 400 documents being suppressed, documents that could very well contain information regarding, as the Judge in the case has already described it, matters of 'innocence at stake' for the defendents.

And why are these documents and this information being suppressed?

Well, as the Times-Colonist editorial writers made very clear back in February , it is really for no good legal reason at all:

It (the government of Gordon Campbell) is claiming lawyer-client privilege, a legal principle intended to ensure that people can communicate freely with their lawyers without fear that any conversations or letters will later be used against them.

The principle is important to protect the rights of the parties in a legal case. But there is no requirement that solicitor-client privilege be maintained; it is not law. The government is not a defendant in these proceedings.

It could choose to be open, transparent and co-operative and provide the evidence.

Instead, it is seeking to withhold the evidence."


And, despite those recent news reports that imply otherwise, it still is.

Withholding evidence I mean.

OK?

______
Just in case the original T-C Editorial disappears down an Asperian pay-to-play-hole in the future, here is what I originally had to say about it - and it really was filled to bursting with good, strong conclusions based on an examination of all the evidence at hand.

.

Gordon Campbell Cuts Taxes....Buys Palin Glasses

AllThePosturingThatFits
LINOVille


And as for the oodles of other grievous goodies* that will, apparently, be discussed when, gasp!, Mr. Campbell re-opens the padlocked legislature for five about minutes in late November?

Will they be chock-a-block full of earmarks and/or a bridge-to-nowhere rammed through by closure (again)?

Why, apparently they will.

Otherwise, how else to explain the following:

"Accelerated public spending for capital projects"

Hmmmmmm......

So now we're going to cut taxes and accelerate spending just when things are going south and folks are strapped with made-for-good-times User-Fees up the ying-yang.

Which begs one last Fraser-Institutes'RUs - type question.....

Is 'Brownie' now working for British Columbia's Premier?

Because, clearly, somebody is sure doin' a heckuva job.

OK?

____
*Case in point, the proposed fare reduction at BC Ferries for (Get This!) December and January only.....Ooooooohhhhhh, thanks so much Mr. Campbell for your little Christmas present that means nothing at all given the last five years of German-built Ferry-assisted price-gouging .....I'll be sure to remember that in February when Mr. Hahn's starts ripping out huge chunks of my epidermis once more. Interestingly, on the 11pm Wednesday night notsoGiant98 newscast they were already reporting it as a 'cut in ferry fares' (there's that 'mediocre media' again that some folks were jumping on me about earlier in the week); and how about the following weasel words direct from the GordotronicNewsNetwork PressRelease....."on top of the upcoming 50 per cent reduction in the fuel surcharge on ferry fees" Sheesh!
And just in case you were wondering, apparently just like Ms. Palin, Mr. Campbell sometimes likes to go hog-wild with the make-up also.

.

What Is One Thing That Gary Lunn's Third Party Advertisers Have In Common?

AllInNoOut
BigConVille


Besides being the creme de la creme of Saanich I mean?

Well, based on the very fine work of Andrew MacLeod in The Tyee, it would appear that they all registered with Elections Canada using the contact information of a very fine Victoria lawyer named Bruce Hallsor:

Hallsor is a long-time associate of Conservative incumbent Gary Lunn and worked on his campaign in a hard-fought victory against Liberal challenger Briony Penn. In 2006, Hallsor was a co-chair of the Conservative campaigns in B.C. The groups using Hallsor's contact information were all supporting Lunn, he said. "That's how I know them." They did things like buy lawn signs and ads in the local daily newspaper, he said.


All of which begs the question - why?

Why would groups of Mr. Lunn's supporters decide to register as third party advertisers with very impressive tartan-turf names like "Citizens Against Higher Taxes", "Common Sense Advocacy of Victoria" and "The Economic Advisory Council of Saanich" want to do such a thing?

Well, that is not entirely clear.

After all, none of the five has any profile or web presence whatsoever.

One thing is clear, however they do not appear to be averse to spending money for Mr. Lunn:

Donna Evans of Common Sense Advocacy was a little more talkative (about why she was involved with one of the groups). "I really don't have anything to tell you about it," she said. "It's just a little group of friends that I know."

The group, pooling their money, bought an ad in a newspaper for around $3,000 to support Gary Lunn, said the Victoria real estate agent. "I had some concern we might be losing a responsible MP." Support for Lunn had to get out directly, she said. "The media tends to report things in a biased way."

Why not just give to his campaign? "Because I don't generally contribute to campaigns, that's all," she said. "I actually thought I would have more impact by pointing out some of the benefits Gary had done for our community... This way I could direct what I wanted to spend it on. We raised the money. Why couldn't we have a say in spending it?"

Hmmmmmmm.....

Can you say 527?

Not that we would dare to suggest that Mr. Lunn's friends were playing by Rovian rules or anything.

After all, Mr. Lunn hates Robo-Calling.

And third-party advertisers.

At least then they are not his.

OK?

.

The Kids Are Alright

Writers'RRockStarsToo
Barnes&John&HankVille

I dunno why, exactly.....

But, despite the fact that I turned 49 yesterday, I just can't quit this stuff.

I think, maybe, that it has something to do with that passage in Catcher-In-The-Rye where Holden reflects on how much he would like to call up his favorite authors and actually talk to them.

Or some such thing.

OK?


_____
You can find Mr. Green the Puffier's ruminations on Catcher here, here and here.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, my girls, C and the two E's, got me a mixing board for my birthday. My first ever, unless you count the one that WhyZed used to borrow from BF down at the roller rink so that we could plug about 7 channels into the bazooka-ya, with real tubes in the back(!), circa 1978. How do you like them almost, but not quite, half-century old apples?
And why zed, you may be asking? Because Zep(pelin) was already taken, of course.

(Note to Mr O'Connell, my ninth grade English teacher, and Junior Highschool rugby coach who liked to give me a hard time for quitting to play basketball, the repeated use of the digressive phrases in this post, bookended by commas, was not entirely unintentional. Unfortunately, however, I couldn't come up with a good way to slip in a good old fashioned semi-colon, although I did think of sticking it in after the word 'basketball' .)

.

The Wisdom Of Mr. Bridges

There'sNoThinkingInBaseball
ClearingTheBasesVille


Rocky Bridges is a lifer.

A baseball lifer who spent 10 years in the majors as a barely-hanging-on utility infielder followed by something like 872 years managing in the minor leagues.

Heckfire, Rocky even spent one summer in Vancouver back in the days when we had a real team.

But, as much as I enjoyed his antics, I never thought of Rocky as a deep thinker.

That all changed last week when, during a break from the election coverage and analysis, I stumbled across the following quote from Mr. Bridges in my old dog-eared copy of 'Baseball's Most Wanted':

"I know what the word 'media' means. It's plural for mediocre."

Which pretty much says it all, don't you think?



_______
Turns out Rocky was actually a one man quote-making machine on par, albeit perhaps slightly more cerebrally, with maybe even The Yogi. Here's one I especially like: "Sitting on the bench as a major leaguer was like being a little boy forever. I got a big charge out of seeing Ted Williams hit. Once in a while they let me try to field some of them, which sort of dimmed my enthusiasm."

.

Free The Snowbirds!

AllTheBeerThatFits
HockeyVille.


Listen.

If you're not reading the work of Mr. Beer 'N Hockey occasionally you're missing out.

On great stuff like this:

Us young Hockeys never could skate as fast as the other kids but I think we had more fun at the rink than anybody. When you are skating you are Free and there is nothing more fun than Freedom. Even the tyrannically coached '72 Russian national team were free when they were skating.....

And this:

...Dad loved to skate. He would be first on the ice and usually had to be ushered off the rink by one of the teenage rink pigs who were always there to make sure everybody was skating in the right direction and being polite. He still wore the skates he wore when he played the wing with his army team. CCMs.....

{snippety doodle dandy}

...A few steps above the ice another teenager manned the turntable which provided the music we skated to. He played traditional boring skating music, the sort of crap figure skaters used to skate to; loads of Christmas music in December; Anne Murray's "Snowbird"; and as many top 40 hits the teenage disc jockey could get away with. When I was a teenager myself I used to walk up the stairs to the disc jockey's room and ask him (it was always a him) to play "Snowbird" and "Freebird" back to back....

Beer and Hockey.

They're not just for Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting John Ferguson.

Anymore.

OK?

_____
Lynyrd Skynyrd is one thing, but you have to understand that Mr. Beer also, apparently, has a real thing for our Miss Anne.

.

Swiftboating? .... In Canada?......Pity

AllYourStrengthsAreMine
SweaterVestVille


So.

According to the Globe and (nolongerEmpire)Mail's chief gossip columnist, Stephane Dion will be stepping down Monday.


JANE TABER
SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER , October 18, 2008

Stéphane Dion has called a news conference for Monday where he is expected to announce he will step down as Leader of the Liberal Party, but it's unclear whether he will leave right away or wait until a replacement is chosen........


Of course, one of the reasons that Mr. Dion was creamed was the fact that he was painted as a retarded environmentalist by an anti-environmentalist who pretended, and is still pretending, that he is actually the real environmentalist.

And how did the Party of the Entrenched Anti-Environmentalists do this?

Well, based on the evidence, it would appear that they went all-swiftboat-all-the-time.

Starting in January.

January 2007 that is.

Here is what I had to say about it at the time......

_______________

Swiftboats Come To Canada (Jan 28/2007)

TheyOnlySmearThat
WhichTheyFearMostVille

John Kerry was a Vietnam War hero.

George Bush was a man who did everything he could to avoid the Vietnam War.

So in the run-up to the 2004 election, what did the Rovian's do?

Why, of course, they invented the 'Swiftboat Liars For Truth' and turned Kerry's greatest strength into his greatest weakness while simultaneously portraying 'The Avoider' as 'The War President'.

And the disaster that ensued is something the United States will now spend decades and trillions of dollars trying to correct.

Not to mention lives.

****

Arguably, Stephane Dion's biggest political asset is that he has demonstrated to Canadians that he truly believes in real environmental legislation.

And until about a month ago Stephen Harper, as he demonstrated so well to his base (see: Ambrose, Rona), was a well known his anti-environmentalist.

But all that has changed now, just in time for that most hallowed of Canadian days - SuperBowl Sunday:

Canadian Press
Pulished: Sunday, Jan 28, 2007

OTTAWA -- The Harper government is set to unveil TV attack ads against new Liberal Leader Stephane Dion on Sunday.

CTV News reports Secretary of State for Multiculturalism Jason Kenny will launch the ads at a briefing in Ottawa.

Sources tell the network the commercials, which will air during prime time and the Super Bowl, will mock Dion's leadership abilities and his environmental record.

Clearly, this 'stratergy' was test-marketed with that little bit dual citizenship codswallop that the herd media bit on, bigtime.

So now it appears that the Cons have been emboldened to the point where they figure they can win it all by going all the way down the Rovian Road and creating their own reality by pushing really big lies as abject truths.

Sheesh.

No wonder they want to do away with the CBC and bring FOX News to Canada.

But the really big question is the following......

If Canadians are fooled by all this crap and we end up giving the CPC a majority, how much will it ultimately cost us to correct the disasters they will no doubt heap upon us during the ensuing years and decades?

________________

Now, while we didn't end up giving the CPC a majority this week, it was damn close.

And ask yourself this, 22 months after the Swiftboat Strate(r)gy began in earnest....

What are the two things Canadians think of most when they think of Mr. Dion now?

Did you answer "poor leader" and "crazy, whackadoodle environmentalist bent on destroying our way of life"?

Of course you did.

Which means that the Swiftboat Squadrons will only grow even larger and more ferocious the next time out.

In fact, I'll be very interested to learn which domestic terrorists Iggy was paling around with while touring with the Stooges back in the day.

My guess is that it will be the MC-5.

As for Mr. Dryden?

Well, didn't he once share a dressing room with the Pocket Rocket?

And didn't the P.Rocket's older brother, the noted Quebecois Firebrand, once attend a gala dinner in 1965 where one of the future members of the FLQ was working as a waiter?

******

Playing dirty to destroy the very fabric of political discourse in Canada.

While wearing sweater vests.

It's the Harpoonian way.

OK?

.

But Who Will They Hire To Write The Report?

Oversight?
WeDon'tNeedNoStinkin'OversightVille


This just in.

RCMP investigates itself!

Again.

The RCMP are conducting an internal review into a decision to fund research that raised questions about Vancouver's supervised injection site.....

Hmmmmmm......

Maybe they could hire the good Dr. Mangham to write the meta-analysis of all that very finest-of-the-fine, internally generated, non-peer-reviewed data.

Alternatively, The Horsemen could always turn to another of the good Doctor's paymasters.....The United States Department Of Justice (Never-Ending War On Drugs Division - see bottom of page).

*******

Look.

No matter how you slice it, shillin' is shillin'.

And I'll take the peer-reviewed work of scientists published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, the British Medical Journal, and the American Journal of Public Health over the codswallop that is published 'online' in the Wingnut Welfare-assisted 'Journal Of Global Drug Policy And Practice' anyday.

Which begs the question - why wouldn't the RCMP do the same?

Unless, of course, a certain Canadian politician who just won re-election and whose last name is 'Clement', told them differently.

OK?

.

Ujjal......We Have A Problem.....

Recounts,WeDon'NeedNoStinkin'
RecountsVille


Must be that no good, terrible, awful, evil Jack Layton's fault:

Elections Canada has ordered a judicial recount of votes in the riding of Vancouver South, where incumbent Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh won a close race on Tuesday's federal election.

When electoral officials validated the results on Wednesday, the difference between the two leading candidates was officially 33 votes, less than one one-thousandth of the 42,076 ballots cast, an Elections Canada news release said Thursday......

And Olivia Chow's too.

Fault, I mean.

Regardless, sure hope somebody has the blood pressure medicine handy.

.

Live By The Developer.....Die By The Developer?

TheyAllComeTumblingDown
HouseOfCondoCardsVille


Well, well, well......

What began with a couple of crash and burns in Surrey is reportedly, at least according to Frances Bula, going to keep on going on:

"I understand there’s also another (not good) Millennium-related story about to break on a news radio station tomorrow."

Hmmmmm.....Millenium?

Aren't they developing that Olympic Village and a bunch of those surrounding Luxury King Cong Condos that just had to be built because the NPA decided it would have been a drain on the City of Vancouver's Property Endowment Fund if a better mix of assisted, affordable and market housing had been developed in South East False Creek from the get go (see: Green Jim, not James)?

Well, it looks like that that the Village in the heart of the Luxury Kings is undersold and over budget.

But have no fear, because NPA Mayoral Candidate Peter Ladner says he and his have a plan:

Ladner, a current city councillor, originally voted in favour of the project. According to the CBC, he said he hopes that the private sector developers of the project will be able to finance the overruns.

If this is not possible, he (Ladner) said the city has a plan to underwrite the losses without big tax increases.

But what, exactly, is Mr. Ladner's plan?

Might it have something to do with, oh I dunno, the city's Property Endowment Fund?

Stay tuned......


____
FABula also has a great example of all the stoopid that can possibly be crammed into a puffed-up piece of flack-hackery up. Specifically, it is the Surrey developer's spam-a-whole-lotta-lovin 'news release' about all the 'interest' that other high rollers have shown in refinancing their smouldering bankruptcy pile (go to bottom of FABulous post).

.

Obama......Pow!!!!

AllTheSmearsThatStink
FalseEquivalenciesMustDieVille

Commenting on US debate a little (bottom to top)...

....Closing McCain up first....will he go all POW on America's behind?....starts with Maverickyness....healthcare affordable, quality education for all, not just privileged few, clean-up Wall Street...Is McCain a liberal??? Going to service of nation....long line of McCains....proud to serve...only POW code....guess it doesn't play so well anymore....Here comes Obama, first ties McCain to Bush....requires fundamental change...goes on the 20 months....decency and you know me.....goes to Morning for America invoking Reagan !!! but with democratic policies.....he's going straight at the swing.....goes with responsibility.....it's rugged individualism with a collective bent?.....Done.....

....Obama asks how McCain is going to pay for all his goodies....McCain ignores the question and obfuscates on 'rewards' 'autism' precious children 'Sarah Palin', we'll spend the money to find a cure, even though the moderator asks him to answer it....will Obama go back at him?.....

.....Bad schooling....it's the civil rights issue of the century? Is McCain crazy....or is it just coding again?...Troops to teachers....go straight to teaching from the forces without having to take all those crazy exams and stuff.....ya, that'll do it....Obama comes back with funding, policy and charter school specifics again, all with a centrist bent again - right down the center of the road...

....'Eloquence' (as in Obama's) it's the new 'Elitist'!!!....McCain codes again....

....Third rail....Roe v. Wade, but tied to Supreme Court litmus test....what a chicken out....McCain codes out with States' rights then obfuscates and mixes up judicial appointments with judicial elections.....Scheiffer tries to nail McCain.....McCain wants his litmus test and to eat it too....Obama tells it like it is....Roe v. Wade hangs in the balance and states unequivocally that he believes that Roe v. Wade was the right decision because women should make their own decision with a right to privacy withOUT the ability of States to interfere....let's see McCain go back on this one....ahhhh, he goes back to the whackadoodle crap about killing aborted babies....well prepped here, but if he holds the base and loses the center.....?

....McCain blames it all on 'gold plated' insurance plans....calls O 'Senator Government'....O responds by showing how his plan gives them McCain's codswallop and brings more folks into employer-based plans.

....McCain loves Canadian oil, but he hates Canadian healthcare?....Obama talks to Amercians like they're adults again on healthcare....somebody has gotta pay for it....and somebody has to help bring premiums down by incentivizing folks that employ the uninsured....whacks the crap out of McCain's $5K plan that will throw even more people to the wolves because it costs $12K to cover....and McCain will be taxing peoples benefits.

....McCain just loves Columbian free trade....Obama whacks him....McCain goes back to it....ties O to Herbert Hoover.....wtf????!!!! Moderator Schieffer lets it stand by moving on immediately.....this is THE problem with political discourse in North America.....too much crap is allowed to stand.

....Obama says help the auto cos AND hold them accountable....what kind of crazy talk is that anyway?

.....Obama now using Free trade canard to his advantage....enforce rules....to China and South Korea....cars.....jobs.....inequities in trade directions...

.....Oh boy...Obama's going with specifics again on decreasing dependence on foreign oil....

...McCain says Canadian oil is 'fine'.....pulls out the renegotiate NAFTA smear....how's that Zombie now Stephen?.....

...Obama responds to the Ayers and the ACORN smears from McCain by speaking to Americans like adults.

How will the media respond?

.

Does Stephen Harper Have A Voter Suppression Strategy?

AllTheRovianismThatFits
Where'sFrummyVille


Well, Cliff, in an excellent post, sure as heckfire is not ruling it out:

So an absurd over-reaction to the non-existent problem of voter fraud has helped contribute to the very real problem of low voter turnout - particularly among young people, seniors and the homeless.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that's by accident.


Which has me wondering if, next time around, certain 'types' of folks will be warned away from the polls if they have outstanding traffic tickets and/or library fines.

.

Fe...Fi...Fo...Fum.......

DayOfTheLongKnives
LibberVille

.....Does Ujji Smell The Blood Of The Marrissen's One?

After a squeaker win in his formerly firewalled fortress of SouthVancouver, Ujjal Dosanjh was on with the Cluffmaster Flash this morning ranting and raving and screaming and blaming the NDP for everything.

Then he pretty much promised to never vote with the HarperCons on anything.

Finally, after being mildly admonished to let others speak by the normally always acquiescing Cluffie, Ujji slammed down the phone and headed off into the new day dawning.

And, as far as we know, there is absolutely no truth to the not-yet-existent rumour that Mr. Dosanjh has already filed his papers to run for the Leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.

After all, it's not like the Ujj doesn't already have a track record of ramming rusted political party hulks aground for good.....

Mr. Dosanjh was B.C. premier when the Liberals swept the two-term NDP government from office in May 2001. It was the most lopsided political drubbing in provincial history, with the Gordon Campbell Liberals winning 77 of 79 seats.

OK?

.

Was It The Bloc.......

PouletsRoosting
Arts'RFrenchiesTooVille

......Or The Phoque?

.

All The Good That Fits....

SomeUnintendedConsequences
AreReallyInconsequentialVille


As the no-longer-so Big Red Machine gets ready to swab the decks, one of the more feral members of their very own Operation Rodentia says he is going to jump ship.

Let's hope it's true.

.

Rolling Con-Stopping Updates In B.C........

AllTheLiveBlogsThatFit
Lotuslandia

You think it's all bad?

Ha! Think again.....will roll with LiveBlogging with actual numbers rather than the pablum you get in the ProMedia.....

_______
11:25pm....A lot of of the Bloggodome chatter is saying that the Bloc saved Canada....Me, I figure it was the Phoque.......That's it, I'm done - G'night all....

With VanIsleNorth going Con despite a pretty good looking StratVote......here's pretty much the final at 11:oopm Pacific, scary, but not disastrous as Cons will wear the big bank bailout that got lost in all the deflector spin today.....

Leading: Popular vote (%):

Cons. 143 37.7 Lib. 77 26.3 B.Q. 49 10.0 N.D.P. 37 18.1 Other 2 7.9

Total 308 100

Total seats: 308 Majority: 155

10:56pm.....Esquimalt......Lib Martin wins by ~ 150 with one poll left to report...... Sure hope my Mom and Dad were two of those....

10:53pm.....VanCentre....Dr. Fry will win with ~35%, but this one is crazy with 80 polls still to report....Dipper Byers, Little Lord Con and Greeniac Adriane Carr will split the rest pretty evenly....

10:51pm....Esquimalt.....Not convinced yet that Lib Martin has beaten Con DeSouza due to the split with Dipper Burgis....Martin up by 105 votes with five polls left to report...

10:50pm....VanSouth.....Lib Dosanjh will win, but not by much, up by 800 with one poll left to report.....

10:41pm....The two Nanaimos split....Cowichan goes to Dipper Crowder due at least in part maybe to StratVote given that both Greeniac and Lib were <10%.... style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">The StratVote buttkicker was in VanQuadra...Amazing to me how it was the original StealthCon who got crushed in VanQuadra former EarthWind&Fire LINOphile Joyce Murray will win by ~ 5,000.....Re: the StratVote - both Dipper Caplan and Greeniac Grice below 10%.....

10:26 Mistah Tee is hanging the Carbon Tax around elGordo's neck already on the notsoGiant98.....enough already Bill...Sheesh

10:25pm....VanIsleNord....Con Duncan is going to win Dipper Bell is done....8.2% for Greens might have done it

10:16pm....Saanich Gulf Islands.....Nukes For Tarsands ConMinister Lunn is going to win, but check out votes for non-existent Dipper and think of those phantom RoboCalls for him....Kinda makes you go hmmmmmm....eh? 228/241 polls reporting....it's done lLib Green Penn loses... and the Greeniac vote for Lewis at 10.6% helped the Con no matter how you slice it - OK? Essentially what you have here is a Green vote of 50% that lost....

Saanich--Gulf Islands Last updated: 01:14 ET
Party Candidate Votes % Votes

CAP	Jeremy Arney	122	0.2
Libertarian	Dale P. Leier	214	0.4
Green Party	Andrew Lewis	5,933	10.6
Conservative	Gary Lunn	24,014	42.8
Christian Heritage Party	Dan Moreau	96	0.2
WBP	Patricia O'Brien	173	0.3
Liberal	Briony Penn	22,338	39.8
NDP-New Democratic Party	Julian West	3,237	5.8

Total number of valid votes:

56,127

______

10:15pm.....Van South and Esquimalt....Libs now slightly ahead in both...

9:51pm.....Saanich and the Isles....really really tightening now....Lib Penn now at 40% and less than 1,300 votes behind.....if that RoboCalling crap is the margin of victory there oughta be an investigation!

9:49pm.....On the Tyee's Hook Blog Crawdaddy Killiam is already attacking the Strat Voters in North Van.....Huh!.....

9:47pm....Here come's the Harpoon....Hmmmmm.....his French sounds kind of bad, maybe somebody from RCI should attack him....speaking of which, why not start right now with the Politics of Destruction.....sheesh.....Are those Dion-Not-A-Leader ads still running? Did they send the StayPufftMarsmallowDuffy his gold bullion yet....Now thanking the unelected Co-Leader of his party...

9:45pm Esquimalt....pretty much dead heat between Con DeSouza and Lib Martin....split to Dipper Burgis is killing Lib here...

9:43pm....Burnaby DoogieHowser now way close, Dipper Siksay by a whisker over Con Leung...175/208... decks cleared by StratVoting here...

9:40pm.....VanSouth.....Lib Dosanjh back on top, barely over Con Yong....

9:36pm.....StealthConMinister Lunn just on basking in glow of gopher balls served up by the Cluffmaster Flash.....think this might be premature....despite Greeniac split and RoboCalls for Dipper, Lib Penn is closing the gap somewhat....162.241

Saanich--Gulf Islands Last updated: 00:33 ET
Party Candidate Votes % Votes

CAP	Jeremy Arney	71	0.2
Libertarian	Dale P. Leier	147	0.4
Green Party	Andrew Lewis	3,980	10.4
Conservative	Gary Lunn	16,586	43.5
Christian Heritage Party	Dan Moreau	68	0.2
WBP	Patricia O'Brien	122	0.3
Liberal	Briony Penn	15,016	39.4
NDP-New Democratic Party	Julian West	2,138	5.6

Total number of valid votes:

38,128

______
9:33pm.....Vancouver/Kingsway.....Dipper Davies looks safe....StealthCon Rayek is neck and neck for big money Lib Yuan....a pox on both of Emerson's houses!!!!! 126/206 polls reporting...

9:30pm....Victoria Dipper Savoie wins....NanaimoCowichan Dipper Crowder crushes with 46%

9:29pm....NorthSurrey.....DonaCon is going to win....pretty good Strat for Dipper Arab, but DonaCon is above magic 40%.....Ugggggghhhhhh....125/179

9:27pm....BurnabyNewWest....Dipper Julian winning going away 110/206

9:21pm....Esquimalt Frenchy Fuqua.....Lib Martin looks to be fading, split from Dipper Burgis is killing him and handing it to Con DeSouza....but only 50/225 polls reporting so far....

9:19pm.... VanCentre....Lib Fry looks to be in but it's a massive split-o-rama...amongst everybody else especially impressive has been Greeniac Carr

9:17pm....VanIsleNord....Dipper Bell just slightly ahead of Con Duncan....If she loses it will be due to Greeniac split....150/298...

9:10pm....Saanich and the Isles Lunn ahead by less than 2K....the splitting of the Green vote to Lewis is killing Lib Penn....not to mention the 1.7 K that has gone to RoboCalls for non-existent Dipper!!!!.....129/241.....Let's hope there is still a big UVIC vote to come (maybe)....

9:07pm......CBC projection now down to 142 Con.....if they get knocked down below 140 I'll be happy because they will be wearing all the crap that is coming down by the time the next equinox comes...
____

9:06pm....Richmond....Way, way gone to ConWong....Lib Chan is done (and it has nothing to do with splitting)....125/207 polls
_____

9:04pm.....NorthVan....The Strat is on, but it doesn't look like it's going to be enough for Lib Bell to Stop the Con Saxton....
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9:02pm.....Jack L. on with his riding victory speech.....if the Cons get held below 140 I'll congratulate him.....if it's more I'm not so sure.....what really bugs me here is that it looks like the Politics of Destruction has worked in Canuckistan (assisted by the split of course)....Thank the Goddess for the Bloc....
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9:01pm NewWest/Coquitlam.....Dipper Black looks reasonably OK, but it is not yet in the bag over Con Martin....smart voting here....118/214 reporting...

9:00pm Newton North Dallas Fourty.....Lib Dhaliwal holding on, but Dipper Townsley could still sink him...80/196 reporting
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8:55pm CadillacFleetwoodPortKells.... the con of all Cons Nina G is running away because of the total (and I mean total) lack of StratVoting....It's a complete ticket split (half the polls in)

Party	Candidate	Votes	% Votes

NDP-New Democratic Party	Nao Fernando	5,491	22.5
Conservative	Nina Grewal	10,805	44.3
Liberal	Brenda Locke	6,610	27.1
Green Party	Brian Newbold	1,512	6.2

Total number of valid votes:

24,418

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8:51pm WestVanSunshineResortVille - ConStopping won't do it here Weston way ahead, Greeniac turncoat Wilson not a factor.....

Party	Candidate	Votes	% Votes

NDP-New Democratic Party	Bill Forst	1,892	11.2
Liberal	Ian Sutherland	4,944	29.3
Conservative	John Weston	7,597	45.0
Green Party	Blair Wilson	2,440	14.5

Total number of valid votes:

16,873

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8:43pm Burnaby Doogie-Howser...Dipper Siksay holding on....looks like StratVote holding here

Liberal	Bill Cunningham	3,397	19.2
Communist	George Gidora	77	0.4
Conservative	Ronald Leung	6,392	36.1
Green Party	Doug Perry	1,079	6.1
NDP-New Democratic Party	Bill Siksay	6,761	38.2

Total number of valid votes:

17,706

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8:40pm....VanSouth

Ujji's in tough, but coming back....I think the early bad results were probably poll specific

Marxist-Leninist	Charles Boylan	52	0.4
NDP-New Democratic Party	Ann Chambers	2,161	17.6
Liberal	Ujjal Dosanjh	4,642	37.7
Green Party	Csaba Gulyas	728	5.9
Conservative	Wai Young	4,728	38.4

Total number of valid votes:

12,311

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8:37pm .....StealthCon is going down in Van Quadra! Former EarthWind&Fire Minister Murray will win.

Libertarian	Norris Barens	124	0.6
NDP-New Democratic Party	David Caplan	1,555	7.4
Green Party	Dan Grice	1,711	8.2
Conservative	Deborah Meredith	7,925	37.8
Liberal	Joyce Murray	9,668	46.1

Total number of valid votes:

20,983