Life In The Slow Lane

OnTheLookoutForTurnouts
VWMicroBusVille

As noted Kerouacologist and sometimes sidekick to Raoul Duke, Emily Post, once noted:

"It is your troubles on the road that afterwards become your most treasured memories."

Which is just another way of saying that we are out on highways and biways looking for the perfect beach (ie. just south of Crescent City) and/or swimming hole (ie. Eel River near Redway).

Which also means that the News, as it were, takes two or three days to catch up to you. Like this Sunday morning, opening up the Santa Rosa Press Democrat to read last Friday's Krugman in which he notes that 50% of Americans now believe Mr. Hussein did have weapons of mass destruction.

Guess that means you can run away on holidays, but you just can't hide.

Sheesh.

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Karl Rove The Science Guy

UselessIdiots
FlackHackVille

Back in the days when I had too much time on my hands I used to follow sluggers, who like Crash Davis in Bull Durham, spent their entire careers hitting a ton of homers in the minors but for whatever reason never got a real shot in the big leagues.

One of my favorites was a guy named Bernardo B. who could hit like heckfire but couldn't field for crap.

There was also a rumour floating around amongst some of the more uncouth Bleacherites at Nat Bailey stadium that Bernardo's head was actually an empty suitcase.

Not that I mean to infer that the man sitting on the tarmac in front of a jumbo jet tire in the image above has anything less than, oh say, 400,000 embryos in his suitcase, and a whole bunch of really important stuff in his head, but.......

****

Bush Administration Chief of Staff Josh Bolten was on 'Press the Meat' today.

And a funny thing happened on the way to the slaughterhouse, because host Tim Russert actually decided to bare his teeth. In a discussion on 'murder', Russert asked Mr. Bolten if he agreed, or could find one credible scientist that backed up Karl Rove's contention that adult stem cells have shown far more promise than embryonic stem cells.

After mightily obfuscating for a while and saying he himself couldn't comment because he wasn't a scientist Mr. Bolten finally went on the offensive and blurted out:

"Karl knows a lot of stuff."

To which, particularly as it pertains to the concept of totipotency, we would ask:

"About what?"

Totipotent destruction of the world as we know it excepted, of course.

Sheesh.

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And When Will John Bolton Denounce Her?

TheRealCanadianExceptionalismSuperstore
HumanLeagueVille

While Prime Minister Stephen Harper takes us further and further down the doobed-up half-pipe that is the Neocons' wetdream called 'Creative Destructionism', another Canadian is talking sense and trying to keep innocent people from getting killed.

And she is doing this by reminding killers of the innocent that they killers regardless which side they are on.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said international law stressed the need to protect civilians.

There is an obligation on all parties to respect the "principle of proportionality", she said.

About 300 Lebanese, most of them civilians, have been killed in the violence. Thirty Israelis, including 15 civilians, have also been killed.The UN reported on Wednesday that about 100 Palestinians, civilians and fighters, have been killed since the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza in late June.

{snip}

"Indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians," Ms Arbour said.

"Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged military significance, but resulting invariably in the killing of innocent civilians, is unjustifiable."

{snip}

Ms Arbour expressed "grave concern over the continued killing and maiming of civilians in Lebanon, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory".

Without pointing to specific individuals, she suggested that leaders could bear personal responsibility.

"I do believe that on the basis of evidence that is available in the public domain there are very serious concerns that the level of civilian casualties, the indiscriminate shelling of cities and so on, on their face raise sufficient questions that I think one must issue a sobering signal to those who are behind these initiatives to examine very closely their personal exposure," she told the BBC.

And of course, because she is attempting to ensure that all of the perpetrators understand the consequences of their actions Ms. Arbour is now being smacked down - hard.

First here's the response from the Israeli ambassador to Canada, Alan Baker:

"I completely reject Louise Arbour's warning. Israel doesn't target civilian concentrations, and I think that by merely giving such a warning she's jumping to conclusions and as a judge she should know better," he says.

Which leaves us wondering which part of the phrase 'most of them civilians' Ms. Arbour got wrong when it comes to the 300 already dead in Lebanon?

Next up is the Montreal Gazette which had the following to say in an editorial under the title "Arbour Must Go":

The absurdity and counterproductive nature of current international law was proven once again by a bizarre statement on Wednesday by Louise Arbour, UN high commissioner for human rights and a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.


Of course, newspapers owned by the (not so) Magnificent Aspersons would never say anything absurd or counterproductive about things like, say, oh, I dunno, how about 'Iranian Badges'?

Speaking of which, here is Andrew Coyne who also convieniently ignores the business about the majority of the dead being civilians (talking point, anyone?) while at the same time trivializing the number 300 in the National Post:

...Remember that all of this was taking place before the death toll had mounted as "high" as it is now: about 300, military and civilian combined, on both sides. How "high" is that? Consider that in the Six Day War of 1967 the civilian death toll is estimated to have been about 50,000. You can look through all the bloody history of warfare and not find a conflict with fewer civilian casualties....

Well, at least Mr. Coyne did not say that death was life.

Of course, they only smear those that they fear most.

So, if this flurry of slime throwing has proves to be ineffective against Ms Arbour's call to account (for both sides!), how long will it be before the Rovians yank their new poodle's chain and tell Mr. Harper it's time to start gnawing on Ms. Arbour's ankles.

And if that doesn't work there is always the 'Master of Diplomatic Disaster', also known as the United States' Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton.

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Working On A Webster

LikeABirdOnAWire
CitizenJournalVille

Forget about the CBC, and CTV, and BCTV, and Global, and the Chorus of Weasels, and/or the network formerly known as Chum and/or CITY and/or whatever the heck it was and no longer will be ever again (good riddance?).

And most of all forget about the so-called heavyweights like Palmer, Smyth, Baldrey and, yes, even Holman.

Because it is B.C. Mary, and only Mary, our very favorite local Citizen Journalist, who has tracked down Mr. David Basi's next court appearance:

File No. 134750-1-D will come up again "for election" on 6 September 2006 at 9:30 AM.

"For election" means that the defendants decide whether to proceed to trial by judge and jury or by judge alone. Then they agree on when and where.

"File No. 134750-1-D" means Udhe Singh (Dave) Basi, James S. Duncan, and Anthony R. Young.

The charges are: against Basi: Breach of trust by a public officer. Against Duncan and Young: person dealing with government offering bribe.


To obtain this information, I spent hours in Victoria Court Room 101 that day without seeing Basi, Duncan, or Young. In the end, I had to rely upon the kindness of others to come up with these results. But I can tell you about the process ...


Go ahead.

Go try and find this information anywhere else other than Mary's site.

Could it be that, like pols, we get the journos we deserve?

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Nixonian (in)Sanity Rising?

WayWayWayWorseThanWatergate
HSTFridaysVille

You know, despite the fact that they occasionally drank together, I never really understood what Hunter Thompson saw in former Nixon speechwriter Patrick Buchanan. And, apparently, the friendship ran both ways because the following is a response from Buchanan to HST after the latter had asked him to write a screed for Rolling Stone. The thing to realize here is that the letter was written in early 1974 at a time when Buchanan was doing everything he could to save 'The Boss' from that summer's inevitable, ignoble and final defeat:

Dear Hunter:

Sorry I haven't been able to get back to you sooner; but all leaves and furloughs have been cancelled for the last sixty days, on orders of the General Staff. At the appropriate time, I may well deliver myself of the recommended 'hammerhead screed' but I must say I was dissillusioned to learn that Rolling Stone had excercised the bad judgement to throw away three good pages on Richard Goodwin. As the Old Man said in the final days of that wonderful year, 1968, it is "getting down to the nut-cutting." Tell your liberal friends we expect to be treated with all the deference and respect as outlined in the Geneva Conventions on the handling of prisoners of war.

Best,
Patrick J. Buchanan
Special Consultant to the President



But now, finally, I think maybe I get it, because while Buchanan may be a waygone, rightsided protectionist tinged with xenophobia, I've got to admit he is not afraid to stand on his principles as he does in this recent piece on the situation in Lebanon:

On American TV, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says the ruination of Lebanon is Hezbollah's doing. But is it Hezbollah that is using U.S.-built F-16s, with precision-guided bombs, and 155-mm artillery pieces to wreak death and devastation on Lebanon?

No, Israel is doing this, with the blessing and without a peep of protest from President Bush. And we wonder why they hate us.

"Today, we are all Israelis!" brayed Ken Mehlman of the Republican National Committee to a gathering of Christians United for Israel.

One wonders if these Christians care about what is happening to our Christian brethren in Lebanon and Gaza, who have had all power cut off by Israeli air strikes, an outlawed form of collective punishment, that has left them with no sanitation, rotting food, impure water and days without light or electricity in the horrible heat of July.....

{snip}

....But all this carnage and destruction has only piqued the blood lust of the hairy-chested warriors at The Weekly Standard. In a signed editorial, "It's Our War," William Kristol calls for America to play her rightful role in this war by "countering this act of aggression by Iran with a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Why wait?"

"Why wait?" Well, one reason is that the United States has not been attacked. A second is a small thing called the Constitution. Where does George W. Bush get the authority to launch a war on Iran? When did Congress declare war or authorize a war on Iran?

Answer: It never did. But these neoconservatives care no more about the Constitution than they cared about the truth when they lied into war in Iraq.....


So there you have it.

Clearly the Crazies and their Screamers really are in charge when one of Mistah' Nixon's men starts sounding like he's the sane, rational and sensical one.

OK?

_____
Update: The ever vigilant Bob Broughton gets to the heart of the matter in the comments. Nobody ever said the Nixon Agonistes didn't have ulterior motives. In related news, one of the Boss's lawyers in crime, Robert Mardian, has died. No doubt Mr. Mardian, if he were resurrected and sent straight to work for the Justice Dept. tomorrow, would look reasonable and sensical also compared to the current crop working for Alberto VO5.

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Which Axis Is This Anyway?

CowboyAntiDiplomacy
CollectivePunishmentVille

The image above is from the front page of today's 'Independent' from Britain.

It is, to say the least, very arresting.

Unfortunately, it may not be quite right.

Because if yesterday's Globe (and No Longer Empire) Mail is correct, the Maple Leaf is actually on the wrong side of the Independent's ledger.

Stephen Harper could have taken the safe route. When fighting broke out in the Middle East, it would have been easy to stick with the usual Canadian formula: denouncing the violence on both sides, calling for a ceasefire, proposing peace talks. Prime ministers down the decades have done precisely that, tiptoeing between the usual American support of Israel and the usual Arab denunciation.

Instead, Mr. Harper did something unusual and refreshing: He said what he thought. He didn’t denounce the violence on both sides; he denounced Hezbollah violence and said Israel had a right to defend itself. He didn’t say there should be a ceasefire; he said Hezbollah was primarily responsible for starting the fighting and must be primarily responsible for ending it. He didn’t call for peace talks; he called on Hezbollah to return kidnapped Israeli soldiers and stop attacking Israeli civilians.

I guess we are all neo-Straussians now.

Maybe it's time we all moved to Calgary for a little re-education.

Sheesh.

____
Original Link Source: Cloned Poster at the MoA.

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The Gift

DevilsWithTheirBlueDressOn
FullyStainedVille


The following were posted up by the notorious Uncle $cam on a 'Moon Of Alabama' content thread:

I think we ought to execute some air strikes against Syria, against the instruments of power of that state, against the airport, which is the place where the weapons shuttle through from Iran to Hezbollah and Hamas. I think both Syria and Iran think that we're cowards. [...] The last thing we ought to do now is to start talking about cease-fires and the rest.
-- James Woolsey, Former CIA Director

We might consider countering this act of Iranian aggression with a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Why wait? Does anyone think a nuclear Iran can be contained? That the current regime will negotiate in good faith? It would be easier to act sooner rather than later. Yes, there would be repercussions -- and they would be healthy ones, showing a strong America that has rejected further appeasement.
-- Bill Kristol, Weekly Standard

The one thing we want to avoid is stopping Israel before it gets a chance to do what it is trying to do to Hezbollah. So here's hoping that Rice's visit to the region "at some point in the future" comes later rather than sooner.
-- Rich Lowry, National Review Online

The answer lies in delivering an unequivocal blow to Syrian ground forces deployed near the Lebanese border. [...] Of course, Syria could respond with missile attacks against Israeli cities, but given the dilapidated state of Syria's army, the chances are greater that Assad will simply internalize the message.
-- Michael Oren, The New Republic

Here's what I do know about World War III and the impending apocalypse. One, we can't coexist with people who want to blow up trains and subways and bring down buildings. If somebody has a death wish, not really the best negotiating partner. [...] And it's not just us. It's the whole Western way of life that is in trouble. That's why we need to get on that World War III bandwagon.
-- Glenn Beck, CNN Headline News

Iran is behind the terror attacks on Israeli forces. The whole thing is part of World War III, ladies and gentlemen. Islamic fascism against the West. That global conflict, unfortunately, is here for the foreseeable future.
--Bill O'Reilly

That's why I think this is a gift to the world, folks. This is an opportunity finally to do something about Iran. Iran is the elephant in the room in all of this, and if we sit here and say it's Hezbollah or it's Assad or it's Syria or it's Hamas, we are blaming the tentacles and not the brain, and Iran is the center and the focus of this, and that's why this is a gift.
-- Rush Limbaugh

Pretty powerful stuff, huh.

And it's just the Neandercons and their Screamers, in their own carefully chosen words of anti-wisdom.

No wonder Billmon, and now Krugman, are both so into the form.

____
Also known affectionately as Gary 'U$' Bonds, and thus the 'Devil With A Blue Dress' reference which, even though it was written by Bonds, was actually made famous by Mitch Ryder and the Deeetroit Wheels which is not quite as good as the MC5, but it's close enough, especially for Uncle $cam.
To see a real devil with his blue dress on see: Neil Ornstein of Snorkblog.

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Floggin' The Floatie

ScienceSchmience
Optics'RUsVille

When commenting on the Victoria 'Raw Sewage' issue a few days ago I had missed Joel Connelly's commentary in the Seatle Post-Intellingencer.

I've long had the utmost respect for Mr. Connelly's opinions on environmental and political issues on both sides of the 49th:

Here he is on Mr. Floatie:

James Skwarok will assume his better-known identity as "Mr. Floatie" in Victoria this afternoon, dressing up in costume as a 6-foot-tall turd, donning a sailor's hat and speaking in a falsetto voice.

The get-up will draw TV cameras like flies to (bleep) as Skwarok delivers a "Frisk Assessment" at the Capital Regional District. The CRD is releasing a scientific and technical report on the discharge of untreated sewage by British Columbia's touristy capital and neighboring cities.

Mr. Floatie has become a national protest symbol in Canada, goading politicians to treat the raw, sometimes toxic effluent that gets flushed into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Victoria is renowned for its elegant gardens, its bicycle paths and the big vote it gives to Green Party candidates.

Each day, however, it uses an international waterway as a toilet for 31 million gallons of raw sewage -- enough effluent to fill 40,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools in a year.

And that's not all. According to the regional district's own monitoring figures, 5 million kilograms of oil and grease per year flow through the Clover and Macaulay Point sewage outfalls.

Port Townsend, Sequim and Port Angeles built sewage-treatment plants years ago. North of the border, an old rule has applied: Hell hath no fury like a bureaucracy defending itself.

Which is all good stuff.

But then Mr. Connelly really goes for the jugular when he quotes the Chamber of Commerce.

"To us it's a business issue," Robin Adair, chairman of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, said recently.

"I think there is an awful lot of science that is mixed," he added. "It's the optics. If our visitors are not happy with a lot of raw sewage in our strait, and a lot of people in Victoria are not happy about it, then we need to do something about it."

So there you have it.

It's all about 'mixed' science and 'optics'. Of course, this is from the impeccably credentialled Robin Adair who, before he became chair of the Chamber of Commerce, was reknowned for his nobel prize-nominated work as a Campbell Government-friendly flack-hack. And don't forget Mr. Adair's rigorous scientific, MIT/Harvard PhD comparable, scientific training as.........a news reader/legislative reporter at CHEK-TV.

Sheesh.

_____
Update: Here's Mr. Connelly's column from today in which he dubs the waterway concerned the 'Strait of Juan de Poopa'.
And here is the URL for the advocacy group 'Poop Victoria'.

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Burn, Baby Burn.....

.....Tar Sands Inferno

WellYouCanTellByTheWayIUseMyWalk
I'mAnOilManNoTimeToTalkVille


Billmon has the goods on the Rovian reaction to the skyrocketing rise in the price of Oil, at least in the short term:

Oil hit $78 a barrel today (Friday), and Bloomberg News is quoting analysts saying it could soon go to $100. As of this writing, the Dow is down 130 points. The Japanese, with their usual exquisite sense of timing, just raised interest rates for the first time in the professional lives of many Wall Street traders. Retail sales are down, consumer confidence is down. In other words, the financial markets are having another very bad, horrible, no good day -- as is the Cheney administration.....

{snip}

For the Rovians, it's a nightmarish dilemma: Do they pander shamelessly to the Israel lobby and its Christian conservative supporters (the default election-year position) or do they try to keep the Israelis, and the global oil markets, under some kind of adult supervision, even if it leaves Charlie Krauthammer sputtering with rage? You can already see the sweat popping out on Condi Rice's forehead.


Well, actually, there is an easier way, of course*.

And the path to this easy 'third way' can be seen in the numbers, US Department of Energy numbers to be precise.

Crude (US) Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries) (Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country	May-06	Apr-06	YTD 2006	May-05	Jan - May 2005
CANADA	1,877	1,710	1,757	1,722	1,586
MEXICO	1,576	1,601	1,668	1,748	1,559
SAUDI ARABIA	1,457	1,582	1,422	1,430	1,512
VENEZUELA	1,169	1,171	1,186	1,273	1,336
NIGERIA	1,075	1,022	1,134	1,111	1,046
IRAQ	666	531	533	588	536

Funny how high Canuckistan is on that list compared to, oh say, Iraq.

Or even the House of Saud.

And just to be clear, despite the fact that we are lengthening our lead month-by-month, these are all pre-Tar Sands numbers.

Kind of makes you wonder why they haven't just annexed Alberta already, doesn't it?

Luckily for us, as has been recently demonstrated by the Minister now responsible for 'Giving Our Billions to Boeing' and his tough-as-nails negotiating skills, we know we have a government that will never, ever knuckle under and hand the Cheney Administration a trouble-free soft Anschluss.

So everybody just relax, and don't worry about the fact that Carlyle Group and friends already have a deal in the works to get hold of the pipelines to the coast.

OK?

____
To be fair, Billmon has written about the soft anschluss before. It's just that I don't have time to find it this morning because I'm currently a folk festival widow and I've got more important things to do, apparently.

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Beautiful British Columbia

FridayFly-Over
LotusLandia

Still hot on the trail of finding out when the Trials for our 'Crime of The Century' actually start, BC Mary is working her way south. First it was Parksville, now it is Nanaimo. And while she didn't get an answer, she at least found a person at the Courthouse.....And despite her frustrations, one of the great things about her quest is that she is fast assembling her own Kesey-like band of Merry Pranksters along the way.

****

And too bad for all those Vancouver Islanders that the A Team has been dismantled by the BellGlobeMedia buy-out of CHUM. Must be a lot of folks pining for the long gone days of staid old CHEK I reckon, you know back when Robin and Marissa ruled the airwaves with an iron fist, although I'm not sure the RedTory would be one of them.

****

Speaking of the Red Tory, he has the story of Mr. Floatie, the piece of human poo, and the $600,000 study that was commissioned by the local burghers of Victoria which demonstrates that the dumping of millions upon millions of litres of raw sewage into the ocean year after year after year is actually a bad thing. I grew up in Victoria, and the argument has always been that it is OK because the tides move 'real fast' past Trial Island, which was weird, because the Southern Tip beaches were always closed because of the coliform counts. Then again, self-delusion is a powerful drug, especially when you've got tourism slots to fill.

But the real question is.....will anything be done? Apparently it will cost something like $500 million to build a decent secondary sewage treatment system from scratch. Which is probably impossible because, heckfire, that's almost two luge tracks and a speed skating oval's worth of pork.

Speaking of tourism, there has been a bit of a dust-up at the Victoria Times Colonist over a columnist who wrote a story about how people could come to little England and actually do stuff that doesn't cost a small fortune. The Gougers, errrr...Tourist Operators were incensed; they demanded, and were given, an audience with the publisher and the offending columnist was immediately fired. It's the old story I suppose.....A Free Press is Only Free to he who owns it. Does this mean that Paul Willcocks will have to watch his step the next time he prints something that is critical of, say, a big lumber company? Clearly, Sean Holman, the Last of the Independents, does not have to. He broke the story.

****

Of course, when they go to the Island all those tourists have got to use David Hahn's very fine BC Ferry fleet. Mr. Hahn, who is running a private corporation that is designed, reportedly, to stand on it's own two feet and never ask for hand-outs was, who would'a thunk it, asking for a hand-out this week. Specifically, he wants more money from the Provincial Government to buy a replacement for the Queen of the North. Sure, sure, Hand of God (where's Maradonna?) and all that, but wasn't that ship slated for decomissioning anyway? Which got us to wondering if maybe, just maybe, the Big Bossman called Keith Baldrey in the middle of the night when he was agonizing over the fact that some in the local press might call him a Corporate Welfare Queen for making the request? Then again, something like that is probably just idle, not to mention boneheaded, speculation. After all, if any columnist did get up the gumption to do such a thing the Bossman's Backers just might march into their publisher's office and have them fired.

And finally, forget the Morfitt thing, because that is actually just old news repackaged. What's really new and exciting at BC Ferries this week is that they've hired a pack of naturalists to talk to those tourists on board the ships about the, what else, Natural Wonders of Beautiful British Columbia. Which is probably a good thing I guess, because they will also be able to explain why there is poo floating in the water or, more to the point why there has been a decline in Orca stocks in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Southern Gulf Islands, which is actually one of the serious things that that $600K study on Raw Sewage looked at.

****

Have a great weekend everyone!

As for me?

Well, once again, just like always, I will be a Folk Festival widower.

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Kenny Boy Died For Somebody's Sins.....

WildHorsesCouldn'tDragMe
AwayVille

....But Not Mine

"Jesus? Sure, let's start a religion after Kenny boy, a religion of corporate crime. Blessed are the corporate weasels, for they shall inherit the workers retirement savings funds. He died for our cons."

Q, In the Comments

To a post on Ken Lay being compared favorably to MLK, JFK and Jesus.

Which immediately brought to mind a line from one of the greatest albums, and never mind the narrow type-casting of the rock and roll genre because we're talking about the greatest of everything that can make you feel anything here, of all times.

Of all times.

Jesus died for somebody's sins

but not mine

meltin' in a pot of thieves, wild card up my sleeve

thick heart of stone

my sins my own they belong to me.....

me

****

I first heard Patti Smith's Horses in Grade 12.

And I remember taking all kinds of crap from my friends, especially the guys in our soon-to-be-nascent garage band for pushing it.

But it was absolutely life changing for me.

This was all that the poetic, thinking, feeling, rebellious and, yes, even the Rock and Roll, life could and should be.

And it was coming from a girl.

And even when it wasn't her own stuff she turned it into magic, like Van Morrison's 'Gloria'.

Or my all time favorite added to the remastered version, which is her live rendition of Pete Townsend's 'My Generation' in which the tag line morphs from 'hope I die before I get old' into 'I don't want no f@#*ing sh*t!'

Oh, how I long for the days of the beautifully profane.

Instead, all I get now is Jessica Simpson, everywhere, including everytime I open Yahoo to check my mail.

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Vengeance Is Mine Sayeth The Swindled

TheSmartestGuyInTheRoom
TaskForceVille

So, when you think of the life and times of Kenny Boy Lay, what do you think of?

Swindler?

Fraud?

Convicted criminal?

Destroyer of retiree's savings?

All of the above?

Well, apparently not everyone feels that way, because at his funeral today Mr. Lay was compared, favourably, to four men that most people would never associate with the above descriptors.

The Rev. Bill Lawson, pastor of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, likened Lay to James Byrd, an African-American man who was dragged to death in a racially motivated murder near Jasper eight years ago.

"Ken Lay was neither black nor poor as James Byrd was," Lawson said. "But I'm angry because he was the victim of a lynching." Lawson, who also spoke at Lay's Colorado memorial service, likened the businessman to President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jesus — all of whom, the minister said, were wrongly victimized.

Sure thing.

And up really is down......

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What's the Frequency Philippa?

UnmaskingTheConsWhoWalkAmongstUs
CCRAPtacularVille

Phil Fontaine, the man who got the Kelowna Accord deal done before it was trashed by the Cons, has only one serious challenger in the Assembly of First Nations leadership vote that is being held today in Vancouver.

And that man is Bill Wilson, who had some rather interesting things to say during the leadership debate:

Bill Wilson said in his opening statement in the leadership debate at the AFN annual meeting that he does not want natives to "be on their knees under the white man's table" begging for scraps.

Mr. Wilson said that by fighting hard for land rights and access to natural resources, he would help natives break their dependence on the federal government.

"I can find the money to make us independent."

Now that's alright, as far as it goes, I suppose, but then came the hammer:

Mr. Wilson questioned the merits of the Kelowna deal, particularly with a new government in place.

"Let's face it. It's a dead dog on the Conservative highway," he said. "We can buy ourselves a new dog."

Now that last statement becomes really interesting, especially if you know a little of the local 'meet and greet' colour surrounding Mr. Wilson's visit to Vancouver, as supplied recently by Sean Holman:

.....it has come to our attention that former Non-Partisan Association board member Alex Tsakumis and Stephen Rogers, who ran for the (CCRAP/CPC) party in Vancouver-Quadra during the past two election, will be co-hosting a wine and cheese reception for the outspoken lawyer (Mr. Wilson) at the Pan Pacific Vancouver. But, in an interview with Public Eye, Mr. Tsakumis said his support for Mr. Wilson has nothing to do with Mr. Fontaine's tight relationship with the previous Liberal administration in Ottawa. Instead, the Conservative cardholder explained "I was asked by a mutual friend of Bill's and mine if I would be will to co-host the event. I've met the chief a few times in the past. And I'm an admirer of his tenacity and the forthright manner in which he conducts his affairs. And I was happy to be a co-host."

[party affiliation(s) etc. in (brackets) mine]

To which commenter 'Johnny Moonbeam' (any relation to the Reverand?) added that it didn't matter because Fontaine has the election wrapped up unless, of course, any local Lotuslandiers who so admire Mr. Wilson's tenacity manage to find a third person named 'Philip' or 'Philippa' Fontaine to split the ticket.

Which got us to wondering, purely hypothetically of course......If Philip and/or Philippa were to magically appear, would they be squired around town in a big, shiny Green bus that they couldn't pay for that was being driven by a guy named James?


____
Update, Later Wednesday: Well, looks like Phillip and Phillippa were no shows, because Phil cleaned-up.

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Blame Canada

DumbAndDumber
CongressCritterVille


Well, there must be an election coming, and the internal polling must be downright scary for the incumbents, because the American Congress Critters actually did something that helps people today:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. customs and border security agents would be banned from seizing prescription drugs that Americans import from Canada under a measure passed by the Senate on Tuesday.

The Senate voted 68-32 in favor of the provision, with supporters saying the federal government should stay out of the way of Americans seeking cheaper medicines in Canada for personal use. Many Americans import prescription drugs from abroad even though the practice is illegal.

68-32...... from a Republican-controlled Senate?

That's a pretty big swing, not to mention a nice fat whack upside the head 0f the Big Pharma lobby, at least in the short term.

But that doesn't mean that all the dumbness is done because it looks like the Waterheads are still baying at the moon

Exhibit A is from a previously self-gagged Republican Senator from New Hampshire named Judd Gregg:

"It's not an issue of defending the drug industry. It's an issue of making sure that the person who gets that (imported) drug is actually getting what they paid for (and) he's getting something that's safe," New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg said.

But don't go away quite yet because, believe it or not, Mr. Gregg actually gets dumber.

Gregg also said the measure would create "a massive hole in our borders and our ability to protect ourselves." He said terrorists could hide biological weapons such as anthrax in prescription drug bottles.

Hang on, gotta go check my kid's antibiotics to see if there's any deadly nerve toxin in there.

Sheesh.

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What Do We Really Care About In B.C.......

Expediency.gov.bc.ca
LINOVille

......Bobsled Runs Or Our Kids?

You remember John Les don't you?

Mr. Les is the Solicitor General of British Columbia, who together with his boss, last year denied and denied and denied and denied and denied and denied that we had any problem investigating child deaths in this province*?

Well it seems that Mr. Les was happy to crank himself up and start spinning once again after a new Coroner's Report was released recently.

B.C.'s Solicitor General John Les said the coroner's service report signals the strong commitment to conduct thorough reviews of child deaths in British Columbia.

"This report is a part of a process that was completely endorsed by Ted Hughes and others, and I think it represents some good work, albeit somewhat late," he said. "Hopefully, it will contribute to the safety of children in British Columbia."

If one has been paying attention (see links above, or not, if you want to keep your blood from boiling) it is impossible not to be extremely angry about this, because Mr. Les and the man he works for, Gordon Campbell, created this problem in the first place due to their ideologically based cost-cutting, and now they are claiming to have fixed a problem they created without ever taking responsibility for the havoc they wreaked in the first place, for no good reason at all.

The report actually came out a couple of weeks ago. And it is so lame that I was too disgusted to even write about it.

Luckily, Paul Willcocks has.

VICTORIA - It took the Coroners Service three years to complete its first annual review of child deaths.That in itself indicates serious problems. The report, which offers only obvious and general recommendations, confirms how wrong things have gone.

The Coroners Service was supposed to take the lead in learning from child deaths after the Liberals eliminated the Children's Commission. Nothing would be lost, Premier Gordon Campbell promised.The coroner took over child death reviews in 2003. You might have expected a report in 2004, or maybe the next year. After all, they're important in helping save lives.

But only now has the first annual report appeared.

It offers seven recommendations, all glaringly obvious and all lacking useful detail. Kids should use car seats, or least be buckled in; they should learn to swim; guns should be kept locked up; and there should be meetings to talk about child suicide and the high death rate of aboriginal children. (The report did have one concrete recommendation, calling on health authorities to do more to teach parents about safe sleeping practices for infants.)

.....{snip}

The report's weaknesses show how critical it is that the new Representative for Children and Youth get the mandate and budget to do the critical work needed. (Work has barely begun on setting the office up. There's no budget; the MLAs' committee that's to hire a representative has only met once.)

And that 'Representative For Children And Youth'?

Oh ya. That was something that Ted Hughes also recommended, in the strongest of terms, which is something else that Mr. Campbell's government previously scrapped for ideological reasons and/or to save a million or two.

Funny how Mr. Les didn't mention that.

But who really cares anyway?

After all, we've got Luge runs we need to build.

And stuff like that costs millions and millions and millions.

Which way to the shiny suits?


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*Thank the goddess for Kathleen Stephany.


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