If It Were Only The Rich

LordBlackInTheCrossHairs
NoSafeHarbourVille


A number of folks I know, some of whom visit this site occasionally, don't understand why I've been making such a big deal about the coming trial of Mr. Conrad Black.

After all, they say, if it's true what he did, well, isn't it just one more example of the rich stealing from the rich.

To which I say, hmmmmmm..........

And then, if I can get them to listen to another rant, I mention that it's not just the monied rich who have found themselves on the receiving end of one of Mr. Black's oft-repeated rapier-like recoupments of resourses that he considers to be his righteous recompense.

One of the most egregious examples of which is the Dominon Stores pension fund incident from the 1980's.

Essentially, this was a situation wherein Mr. Black decided that a pension fund 'surplus' belonged not to the people that worked for one of the companies that his holding company held*, but rather to, well, him.

Here's the story from the Union local that fought for years to get (some?) of the money back:

Local 414 (of the CAW) has a proud and colourful history, the original Charter dates back to 1945, as a Provincial Local representing in the early days primarily Dominion Stores. The Local has gone through some rough and tumultuous times over the past 58 years. We presently have over 14, 000 members.

Years were spent battling with Conrad Black as he dismantled the Dominion Stores. At that time Dominion Stores Limited were the most profitable, highest volume Company in the Canadian grocery industry. Other changes we had to deal with were the practice of franchising grocery stores. Many of our No Frills Stores, Valumart Stores and Food Basics stores are franchised today.

We fought with Conrad Black for several years to recover pension monies that were owing to Local 4l4 members who worked in the Dominion Stores. As of today, $46 million dollars has been recovered and divided among the qualified active and retired members that worked at Dominion Stores who were entitled to pensions.


So, if things happen to go Patrick Fitzgerald's way during the coming trial I'll be cheering not just for the fat-cat stockholders of Hollinger International but also for all the little people who found themselves caught in the good Lord's crosshairs over the years as well.

OK?

_____
*And the story of how the good Lord came to acquire that holding company that owned Dominion stores at the time is an interesting example of righteous recompense in and of itself. But perhaps we'll save that one for another day.
The Star has a succinct, yet relatively complete, timeline of the good Lord's career up today on this, Fitzmas Eve, The Second.



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The Fetid Boil

TheEvilsOfAccess
ShillVille

Don't do this very often but......

Digby was so good yesterday re: the Pandering of the Political Press Posing by the Potomac that was exposed during the Libby trial, and all of the whirlitzing that has gone on since in an effort to hide the lanced boil from squeamish eyes, that I just can't resist:

This isn't brain surgery. A reporter's privilege should not be used to help powerful people in government lie to the public about what it's doing or punish its enemies for speaking out against it. It exists to protect people who are risking their livlihoods by speaking out against those same powerful people. This is not hard for rational people to understand and yet in Washington they are so confused by their relationships with the powerful that they seem to be speaking in tongues on this issue.

The political press is not a monolith. There are incredible reporters like (Dana) Priest who have done extraordinary work under very difficult circumstances. We can't do without them. But the insider culture of Washington that (Colin) McEnroe describes in his piece above is a decadent and insular little circle of celebrity and power that has affirmatively harmed this country. The Libby trial opened up that fetid boil and did this country a favor. I'm not surprised that they are squealing as loudly as they can --- or that the rightwing freakshow is behaving as if they were born yesterday. After all, they all know they are compromised. They just didn't think we did.


Sure hope that the Ottawa(sh) Press Corps took careful notes.

(and our own local lilliputians of lotuslandia that cover the ledge as well).

OK?

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LedgeRaid Coverage Breakthrough?

ThePowerOfTheSpotlight
BCMaryVille


Well, whaddya know.

Vaughn Palmer, he the most powerful pundit at that CanWest newspaper monolith sometimes known as the Pacific Press, is actually paying attention to Bill Tieleman as well as BC Mary and her Anon-O-Mice:


Coming soon, some answers about the 2003 raid on the legislature
Vaughn Palmer, Vancouver Sun
Saturday, March 10, 2007

VICTORIA - For everyone still wondering about that police raid at the legislature three years ago, there was encouraging news in a Vancouver courtroom this week......

{snip}

......The case has generated considerable interest and much speculation in both conventional news media and the online variety. Check out Bill Tieleman's latest piece on the Tyee website. Or Google "BC Mary."



This is not a trival development.

After all, when the watchers know that they too are being watched they are much more likely to be more vigilant.*

Which is a very good thing indeed.

OK?

____
*Alternatively, and not necessarily mutually exclusively, it also likely makes it easier for the watchers to push their editors for more time and space on the story.


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When Elected (not appointed) Directors Go Bad

Conflicts?WeDon'tNeedNoStinkin'Conflicts!
TransLinkVille

(Updated at bottom to include Port Moody Mayor, and current TransLink Director, Joe Trasolini's response to suggestions that he may be in a conflict of interest over property he owns near the Evergreen Skytrain Line)

Yesterday we speculated on the potential 'shill set' that could come to populate Kevin Falcon's new Fiefdom.......errrrr.....appointed (ie. not elected) board that will run the Republic of LotusLandia's transit network in the very near future.

Anyway, in the comments, Alison pointed us towards something from S.M. Holman which indicates that strange goings on can happen on elected (ie. not appointed) boards as well.

Essentially, it turns out the Port Moody Mayor, and Translink Board member, Joe Trasolini owns a chunk of property along the Evergreen SkyTrain Line.

It also turns out that Mr. Trasolini has been trying to sell the chunk of property, which he bought for a reported $2.6 million in 2004, and which is located about a quarter of a mile from the Evergreen Line's Buller St. Station, for almost a year.

All of which is, at the very least, a mega-whopping perceived conflict of interest, especially since Mr. Trasolini was elected chair of the Evergreen Line's Communications Committee in March 2006 which just happens to be, coincidentally(?), two months before he started trying to sell the property.

In defending his actions Mr. Trasolini said this to Mr. Holman's Public Eye:

On Monday, Mr. Trasolini also said the property didn’t put him in a perceived conflict because, "If you read the definition of conflict, it's if I make a decision that's only for me. And, in fact, (supporting the Evergreen Line) doesn't. It benefits the whole northeast sector."


Wow.

We would likely to humbly suggest that that is one ethically-challenged public official.

Luckily, when they were informed of the situation by Mr. Holman, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority swung into action and has decided to convene a special meeting in which the perception of conflict of interest will be addressed. Chair of the Authority, Malcom Brodie, told Holman that:

(The) recommended measures "will include the exclusion of Director Trasolini from future board discussions and decisions relating to the (proposed) Evergreen Line project."

Which is as it should be.

We do wonder, however, if the Directors of the coming Fiefdom........errrrr..... appointed (not elected) TransLink Board will be held to such account when there are invevitably perceived conflicts given that the members will be, according to Minister Falcon himself, business people with the 'skill set' to run the operation including, presumably, the new fangled real estate portion (ie. these very fine folks will be players in the big business game).

Or will the Board of the Fiefdom be shielded from such ridiculously restrictive regulatory rulings (ie. public accountability) as is, say, oh, I dunno, the Board of Directors of another LotusLandia transportation asset, that the public no longer controls, which runs on water rather than solid ground?

OK?


_____
Mr. Trasolini responds: Asked why he didn't excuse himself from TransLink discussions for pecuniary interests, Trasolini said there was never any direct talk about acquisition of or near his land. "There's nothing that happened that specifically affects me," he said.
Oh, and just for the record, according to the local Tri-City News, Mr. Trasolini's property is currently assessed at approximately $3.5 million.



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Nobody Understands, It Can Happen Again

FridayNightPunkFlogging
ThreeChordsThatSavedOurLivesVille

For lenin's ghost, wherever he may roam.....

.

Billy Bragg and The Mighty Levellers playing The Clash's 'English Civil War'.

None of 'em ever let us down.




_____
OK, OK, OK!......It's four chords; damn that bloody Mick Jones anyhow.

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Are Those Skills Or Shills?

Where'dThatDemocracyGo?
CronyVille


So I'm listening to Kevin Falcon field questions from Stephen Quinn on CBC Radio One this morning.......

And Mr. Quinn is actually listening to what Mr. Falcon is spinning, and then coming right back at him - straight on.

Which probably surprised Mr. Falcon (ie. he was likely expecting softballs from the Puffmaster Flash who was away, again, today), because the Minister actually let slip that taxes will go up as a result of his de-democratizing of rapid transit decisions in British Columbia's Lotusland.

But what I found even more interesting than that admission was Mr. Falcon's blatantly obvious 'talking point' that he was used to explain why the Lower Mainland's Translink board will now be appointed instead of consisting of democratically-elected members.

And that was that these newly appointed (ie. not elected) board members will have the right 'skill set' to run a multi-billion dollar operation.

When Mr. Quinn, in response, asked why the senior management team now acting under the currently elected (ie. not appointed) board could not use their 'skill set' to run the operation Mr. Falcon had no answer, but he kept returning to the this couplet over and over again, regardless.

Which, of course, is what a talking point is for when you are trying to catapault your own propaganda.

All of which left me wondering if any of the same business people with the appropriate 'skill set' that will be appointed (ie. not elected) to the new Translink board will also be some of the very fine folks who also have a different, but not necessarily mutually exclusive, 'skill set' that allows them to recognize when it is to their best advantage to make the appropriate political donations to the very same people who will be appointing them (ie. not electing them) to the said board.

You know, people who have the 'shill set' to know when the time is right to pay big money to take three hour cruises so that they can be blinded-by-the-light with people like, well, Mr. Falcon himself.

OK?

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All The News That Doesn't Fit

AFreePressIsOnlyFree
ToThoseWhoOwnItVille


Bill Tieleman, who has been on top of the LedgeRaid/BC Rail case from the beginning, clearly and succinctly reported the significance of Madame Justice Bennett's statements in another (in a string of endless) pre-trial hearings yesterday:

Bennett warned that she would make the case as open as possible after receiving a complaint letter from a member of the public about being unable to access the defence document through the court registry.

"Just so we're clear, the public interest in having this case heard outweighs just about everything else," Justice Bennett told the courtroom full of lawyers at the end of yesterday's hearing.

Mr. Tieleman also named Robin Mathews as the member of the public most likely responsible for facilitating this important courtroom development.

Robin Mathews, a retired professor of Canadian studies who has been closely following the case, told 24 hours he was the complainant.


And today Mr. T., who writes for 24 Hours and The Tyee, wondered aloud why so few print organs in British Columbia reported on this important courtroom development:

".....neither the Vancouver Sun, the Province nor the Victoria Times-Colonist reported that the most important political criminal trial in British Columbia has been delayed again, or that serious questions were raised about the evidence and about the lack of public access to court documents."


Now Mr. T. may be surprised by this development (or lack thereof), but we are not.

After all, when BC Mary enquired as to the reasons behind a similar lack of reporting after a pre-trial hearing last September she received this response from Times-Colonist Editor-in-Chief Lucinda Chodan:

"There was indeed a pretrial appearance by Basi, Virk et al yesterday. Our reporter staffed the appearance, and nothing of note happened. As is the case in such instances, the reporter consulted with his editor and did not write a story. When there is news, we plan to report it."


To which we can only ask.....

Is it news yet?

____
At the time, back in Sept 2006, we made a list of some of the 'news' that kept the Ledge Trial story out of the pages of the T-C. Details are here.


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Striking A Blow For Citizen Journalism

DoingTheRightThing
JudgeVille

(Updated at bottom re: CorpMedia coverage)

Robin Mathews was in B.C. Supreme court yesterday.

He wasn't in trouble or anything.

Quite the contrary.

He was there to observe the latest goings on in the BC Rail/Ledge Raid Trial which is showing real signs of sputtering to life.

And he sent a full report to Mary.

This is only one, amongst many, of the interesting items that caught our eye:

Madam Justice Bennett referred, in opening, to two matters of document release. The first, I gather, was that the Globe and Mail appeared to have the Jan. 26 Application for Disclosure (covered on this blog) before Madam Justice Bennett did.

Some kind of a leak it would seem.

Surprise.

In addition, a "member of the public" complained to the Justice about the fact that when major media were reporting upon and quoting from the Application, that person asked Criminal Registry for a copy and was bluntly refused.

She passed the letter to counsel.

Discussion followed among the judge and counsel, with the outcome that - apparently because of the public interest in this trial - all documents not under publishing ban will be available upon request from Criminal Registry (perhaps for a slight fee).

Madam Justice Bennett graciously opened up scrutiny of documents concerning this trial. She remarked that there is a presumption in the law of public access.


Two things.

First, it is important to realize that in a nation of laws, not media manipulation, the public must have as much access to court documents as either side's favorite corporate mouthpiece/stenographer of the day.

Second, everyone should know that the 'member of the public' referred to above is none other than Mr. Mathews himself.

As such, we owe him a great debt of gratitude.

And I, for one, very much look forward to his future, non-stenographic, reports from the trial over at Mary's place.

OK?

_____
Update: Mark Hume, who most definitely was not the original stenographer, has a piece about this up in today's Globe (andnolongerempire)Mail. It is interesting (telling?), however, that Mr. Hume does not name the "member of the public had written a letter of complaint saying he had sought, and been refused, a copy of the application from the court registry". Is that because Hume did not know who it was, or was there another reason? Given that Bill Tieleman reported that the media including, apparently, The Globe, were all over Mr. Mathew's yesterday after Judge Bennett's ruling I have a hard time believing it was the former.

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The Willful And The Ignorant

ARisingTideFloatsAllCondos
BlissVille

OK, now that the Republicans no longer control either the House or the Senate in the U.S. Congress we finally understand why the far right American Enterprise Institute is looking so hard, and is willing to pay, scientists to shill for them and say that humans and Lincoln Navigators are not contributing to climate change.

Mark Morford makes it all clear:

And then there's this: Only 13 percent of congressional Republicans see global warming as a human-caused issue, compared with 95 percent of Dems. That's right, despite the National Academy of Sciences, despite the American Association for the Advancement of Science, despite the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, despite the United Nations, despite every reputable (and often, very conservative) scientific body on the planet, half of our own Congress denies that humans have had anything to do with global warming. Ah, how proud they must be.


Gosh.

We sure hope the Republicans aren't in control of congress when we find the cause of, oh say, Alzheimer's disease, if it turns out that it has an anthropormorphic component.

OK?

_____
Be interesting to have a similar poll taken of Cons vs. the Rest up hear in Canuckistan.
Have a new Lincoln Navigator story that does not involve Toys'RUs replica models......Was riding along the 10th Ave bike route this afternoon and could feel an SUV on my shoulder so I pulled into a relatively tight space between two parked cars to let it go by. Of course the guy driving the thing sped up and roared right through the puddle next to me. I got soaked; he lost a chunk of good karma. Fair trade I figure.


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No Rest For Fitz

ChasingDownGreedheads
JusticeVille


OK, he didn't do a bad job on the Libby thing.

In fact, a whole lotta folks, including some who are in a pretty good position to know, figure that what he did actually demonstrates that America can still be a nation of laws, not men.

But that doesn't mean that Patrick Fitzgerald can rest on his laurels.

After all, the time has now come for him to get David Radler to sing like a canary in an effort to bring down Lord Black in the Crosshairs:

Conrad Black's lawyers will be in a Chicago courtroom today to begin the lengthy process of selecting 12 people who will make up the jury that will decide the former media baron's fate.

More than 100 potential jurors have already filled out long questionnaires seeking details about their background, political views and thoughts on Big Business. A proposed questionnaire filed in court in January contained 114 questions ranging from basic information such as education and work experience to feelings about Canadians and people entitled "Lord." Several other questions asked whether the prospective juror agreed or disagreed with a series of statements such as "Corporate executives make too much money" and "Most corporate executives would break the law if they thought they would not get caught."

Looks like they missed the one that asks that really crazy hypothetical about.....

"Corporate executives that break into their own offices and steal boxes of court-protected evidence under the glare of security cameras"

Or some such thing.

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Conventional (un)Wisdom

FiskingTheFiskers
MediaWatchVille

Last week a leftsided think tank, the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, published a study which concluded that the rich have gotten richer and the poorer have gotten poorer in Canada over the last few decades.

And the Globe and Mail (gasp!) actually ran a follow-up piece by Webber and Bonoguore which agreed that much of the data the CCPA based its conclusions on were, in fact, verifiable.

Which of course, couldn't be left to stand.

Even by the Globe itself.

So, the very next day, along came John Ibbitson to lay on the codswallop, the pungent odour of which hits the nostrils, hard, even from the relatively safe distance of the lede:

A new study suggests that Canada has become a mean and brutal place, in which the wealthiest are becoming ever wealthier, while the rest are barely hanging on.Who would want to live in such a society? I would, and so should you. Most think tanks in Canada are a waste of time. Those on the right twist and distort data to prove the country is overtaxed and underproducing. Those on the left use the same data to prove that society is increasingly unequal and unjust.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at these things) the rest is hidden behind the subscription wailing wall.

But Declan of 'Crawl Across The Ocean' has liberated just enough of Mr. Ibbitson's pungent prose to keep everyone's eyes watering:

Governments that took this report at its word would increase upper-income taxes, raise the minimum wage, bolster union rights, and increase subsidies to manufacturers.

Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, governments did all those things. In the process, inflation, unemployment and deficits grew, while recessions came and went and came again.

Desperate, governments began cutting taxes, reining in inflation (through the central bank) and balancing budgets. The results were spectacular. Growth took off, along with the incomes of those who were responsible for that growth: entrepreneurs and highly skilled workers who added the most value to the economy.

The left-wing think tanks ignore this reality.


Hmmmmmm....... there's that term 'reality' again.

Which, when it comes from one with Neanderconnish tendencies, should, especially at this point in history, always make one wonder the following:

Just how real is this so-called reality of theirs anyway?

Well, based on a thorough fisking from Declan it looks like it is about as close to the real thing as cool whip is to the stuff you used to lick off the eggbeater when your Mom was making white stuff from scratch to plop on top of your pumpkin pie.

For example:

....far from rising gradually over time as a function of pro blue-collar policies, inflation was introduced into the system in a pair of shocks in the 70's primarily related to oil prices....

and.......

.....rather than being an event which occurred in the mid-90's and triggered growth, as Ibbitson argues, the decrease in inflation was clearly brought about via the two recessions in which interest rate increases (by the central banks) drove up unemployment lowering workers wage claims and reducing total demand, thus leading to lower prices - i.e. less inflation.

and.....

.....contrary to Ibbitson's argument that economic growth in the late 90's was caused by cutting taxes, the record shows that taxes were steady during this period.

and, saving the best for last.....

....as we can see from this report, the 'low growth' period was marked by substantial decreases in the minimum wage, whereas the 'spectacular results' period was when governments arrested the decline in minimum wage rates and began to increase them again.

So there you have it - once again the notion that we have to screw ourselves and make the rich richer to keep the price of George Foreman grills cheap at 'Best Buy' and our healthcare system intact is proven to be nothing more than rubbish.

Which is very important, indeed.

Because getting people to vote and rail against their own best interests in the name of prosperity b/w security are keystones of the Big Blue Slime Machine's election/governance strategy.

OK?

____
Oh, and by the way, Declan has charts and everything to make his points.
Oh , and by the way the second; It's not just income inequality that we are screwing ourselves with. It's hours worked as well. From the Globe's first piece: “Year by year variation makes it hard to say whether they (families in the top 10% of income) unequivocally worked fewer or the same number of hours over this nine-year period; but it is clear that they are not working more over time,” the study said. (In contrast, the study found that the average Canadian household put in nearly 200 hours more a year in 2004, compared with nine years earlier.

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Anon-O-Mouse To The Rescue

CitizenJournalism
FiskingTheCourtDocsVille

Well, well, well.

It looks like BC Mary has found us BCRail-O-Philes an Emptywheel* we can call our own.

Specifically, she has recruited an anonymous commenter to comb through the court documents and tell us what they actually mean.

It's fantastic stuff, so far dealing with the Defense's 32 page 'Notice of Application For Disclosure'

Stuff like this:

Paragraph 2, for example, tells us that the RCMP launched the investigation that eventually became this case ‘sometime in 2002’ – an operation that they called “Project Everywhichway” and that, by June of 2003 they had already decided that Udhe Singh (Dave) Basi was, in the usual usage of the force, ‘a person of interest in this investigation.’

The press has covered various bits and pieces of this narrative but we’ve never really seen the whole thing laid out like this. It’s quite a story and I wouldn’t be surprised if Mary will publish a lot of it over the next little while. But first, let’s finish our first calm walk through of the whole 32 pages.


And this:

Part III comprises paragraphs 79 – 138 and is headed Disclosure Issues Arising From the Project Room Review.

There are several sub-headings in this section but you could really call these paragraphs the prima facie case for the defence attorneys’ strong suggestion that the crown – by that I mean the special prosecutor and the police – have not been playing ball. Of course, the prosecution will no doubt take issue with what the defence alleges but, based on this material, it’s hard to come to any conclusion other than that there’s been a lot of foot-dragging going on.

And this:

First of all, a caution. This is the defence version of the libretto and it’s undoubtedly the one Gary Mason’s been singing from. As Mary’s posted below – thanks again to Bill, there will be an opportunity for the other side – the prosecution, to weigh in on all these issues. I’m not going to try and point this out at every step of this narrative, but it’s a good idea to keep the notion in the back of your mind; after all, a place like the rockpile in James Bay does have a street address that’s hardly a secret. But, we’ll let the RCMP, the Crown and Gary Mason argue about that.

And, especially, this:

From ¶ 24 onwards, the document begins to deal with the actual results of the RCMP’s surveillance of Mr. Basi’s Ministerial Office and Cell phone conversations. Paragraphs 24 – 29 contain some of the information about which the public, and those of you who’ve been reading Mary’s blog regularly, have been wondering about ever since December 28, 2003.

I think they may be worth transcribing in full – again, keeping in mind that this is the defence version of this little drama.

¶ 24. As a result of listening to Mr. Basi’s intercepted private communications, the RCMP were aware that Mr. Basi was working on the sale of the BC Rail asset for Minister Collins.

¶ 25. As a result of significant information gathering, the RCMP knew that the sale of BC Rail was a highly political matter in which the Government was seen to be breaking a key election promise.

¶ 26. There were originally five (5) bids tendered in the BC Rail bidding process. In the final analysis, only three bids were competitive; those were CN Rail, CP Rail, and OmniTrax.

¶ 27. Through the interception of communications, the RCMP learned that one of the final bidders, CP Rail, was dropping out of the bidding process because of their belief that the process was flawed and that it had been predetermined that CN Rail would be the successful bidder.

¶ 28. In early November 2003, as a result of listening to intercepted communications on the Ministerial Cell Phone, the RCMP learned that OmniTRAX was considering dropping out of the process for precisely the same reasons cited by CP Rail.

¶ 29. Through intercepted communications, the RCMP learned that OmniTRAX had retained the services of Pilothouse Public Affairs Group (hereinafter “Pilothouse”), a British Columbia based lobbying company, to assist them in their bid for the BC Rail asset. Pilothouse at the time was made up of three principal partners, Brian Kieran (hereinafter “Mr. Kieran”), Erik Bornmann (hereinafter “Mr. Bornmann”) and Jamie Elmhirst (hereinafter “Mr. Elmhirst”).


I mean, just read those last three paragraphs and ponder the possibilities if any of this is even remotely verifiable.

Again, as I said over at Mary's place......The work of these exceptional Anon-O-Mice can only lead one to make like 'The Zalm' b/w 'Country Joe and the Fish' and exclaim:

FaaaaaanFreakin'tastic!

____
*Emptywheel is Marcy Wheeler, the woman who has turned the Plame case inside-out with the folks at Firedoglake and the Next Hurrah (and done some fantastic live blogging of the Libby trial along with a number of other FDL'ers).

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Can The Libs and Dippers Both Win?

NoNeedToUnite
SelectiveSeatingVille

In the comments to the last post on the Big Blue Slime Machine a correspondent who goes by the monicker of 'Get Used To It' suggested that the Liberals and the NDP could both pick up seats in B.C. at the expense of the Cons if they would both just get a little more selective about which ridings they put money and strong candidates into.

In my naive way, I responded thusly:

Excellent point, but.....what if the NDP had managed to pull off Van Kingsway last time out? I mean, then we wouldn't have that very fine fellow Mr. Emerson to deal with, whose act is especially tough to stomach on a retail level (I know this because I live right down the street from his riding office).

And here's what 'Get Used' fired back:

Ian Wadell has tried to win twice in what has been a safe liberal riding for the past decade and a half , there was no indication that Emerson would ever do this. This is exactly what i am talking about. NDP should stop chasing Liberal seats. Liberals need seats in the West to make them a credible alternative at the national level. NDP already has all of Burnaby, New West and East Van.

Now that's good solid stuff and, in spite of myself (and my disdain for Mr. Emerson), I found my head bobbing up and down as I read it.

And it only got better from there:


The real gains for NDP could come at the expense of the Cons and they are not putting even a minimal effort in making sure that happens e.g. they went after the Liberal seat of Victoria with a strong candidate but right next to that riding Gary Lunn, arguably the strongest Tory candidate on the Island won with just 37% percent of the vote while the combined LIB/NDP vote was 52%.


Wow.

Can you imagine? That would have shut out the Cons completely on 'The People's Republic of VanIsle'.

Not only that, but we would have been spared the embarrassment of all that babble about the inevitable liberation of diesel fuel via nuclear explosion.

And then, to cap it all off, 'Get Used' gave us a rapid fire round-up mixed in with a national perspective.


The same story in so many other ridings - Pitt Meadows-Maple ridge-mission went Con because of vote spliting between NDP and LIBS, NDP should target ridings like that not Fleetwood-port kells or Vancouver Kingsway, stop hurting the liberals and start hurting the cons, thats what really matters. There are at least 5-7 seats that Cons don't deserve in BC. They could be reduced to just 10 odd seats if the NDP develops a real strategy, this would hurt the cons badly elsewhere in Urban West(especially Winnipeg) if it becomes a trend (i.e cons getting only a third of BC seats every time)...also it brings the total seat count of the Conservatives down by at least 7 which would be a disaster for them in case they are close to a majority, since Liberals have a slight edge in ON and Conservatives are at 45, while Bloc is blocking a great deal of Quebec seats; also if the Cons gain seats in ON, it would not be more than 10 seats. So if they lose 7 in BC that wipes off their gains in ON.

Another scenario would be if Libs and Cons are both close to a minority, Liberals will need every single seat they can get in BC to stay on top in total seat count. But I guess NDP has too many Union leaders sitting in the lower mainland that want to be MP's, so they ignore seats like Kamloops, Saanich Gulf Islands, Pitt Meadows- Maple ridge-Mission, Nanaimo-Alberni and a few others where only they can beat the Conservatives, and could do so easily as Liberal voters there would be much more willing to switch over to the NDP and top brass of the Liberals recognizes that in BC, by putting their resources elsewhere. Thats how the NDP won Skeena-Bulkley Valley and Southern Interior ridings.
get used to it | 03.03.07 - 4:24 am | #

---

Now I don't know if 'Get Used' is a working Pol (there's no Email for me to check on this one).

But, regardless, there sure is a lot worth considering there, especially if we were able to couple this kind of thing with a wave of hardnosed, retail level strategic voting.

OK?

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Slime And Defend, Part III

MakingTheirOwnReality
CPCVille


So, I'm over at the Dan Report which, by the way, is a very fine place to spend a little time if you want to get an interesting take on things.

And I'm reading the Liberal pushback piece that Dan has posted up that was penned, presumably, by the very finest wordsmiths that Mr. Dion's money can buy.

And I'm actually liking the thing, which was written in response to Johnathan Kay's smear piece about how the Liberal party in general, and now Mr. Dion specifically, have sold their souls to those evilist of evildoers with the catchy name which is..... wait for it.......

'Ethnopolitical Special Interests'.

Now, of course, 'ethnopolitical special interests' could just as easily be Oatmeal savages as Sikh separatists.

But that's not the point.

The point is that these are code words

And code words can be, and have been, used to disguise a lot of things in politics.

Almost all of which are ugly.

*****

Anyway, when I get to the last paragraph of the Liberal pushback piece, which makes the point that if you are really and truly a 'big tent' political party you will always strive reach out to all Canadians regardless their ethnicity or shoe size, I'm thinking that that ought to be the end of it.

But then I realize that this is not 1997, or even 2002.

This is 2007.

Which, unfortunately, for us is still a time when conservative politics are played by the Rovian Rules.

And Rovian Rule #1 is that to win you have to make your own reality.

And to do that you have to get the media to play along, willingly or otherwise.

****

So far, by my count at least, the CPC strategists have created two new realities since Mr. Dion was elected the leader of the Liberal party last fall.

Reality #1: Mr. Dion, who has a long history of being a supporter of environmental programs, is actually an anti-environmentalist.

Reality #2: Mr. Dion, who is a centrist, is actually an extremist.

Now, notice how these new realities actually play to Rovian Rule #2, which is that when you make a new reality it must turn your opponent's greatest strength into his greatest weakness and vice versa. (if you flip John Kerry/war hero vs. George Bush /war avoider on its head you'll get the idea).

Which got me to thinking......

What will then next big play in the slime and defend game be to create Reality #3?

At first I thought the smear merchants might dredge up the fact that Mr. Dion was involved with the sovereignty movement when he was a teenager which they could then use to turn Mr. Dion, 'the federalist', into Mr. Dion 'the super separatist'.

But then I remembered that there is an election going on in Quebec that Mr. Harper wants Mr. Charest to win so that one is probably on the shelf.

At least for the time being.

Then I read that there are, apparently, gasoline shortages in Ontario.

Which got me to thinking about......'Energy Security'.

Ya.

That's the ticket.

After all.....

Mr. Dion is a Liberal.....Liberals were once ruled by Pierre Trudeau..... Pierre Trudeau brought in the National Energy Program.....the Program failed and now, as a result, Ontarians have to wait in line to buy gas....Justin Trudeau is Pierre Trudeau's son....Justin Trudeau is running for Mr. Dion's Liberals.....Ergo.....Mr. Dion is trying to destroy Canada's energy industry.

Sound far fetched?

Sure it does.

But does anyone have a better prediction?

_____
Before you place your bets, don't forget that the 'Energy Security' gambit has the added bonus in that it, if it worked, it would help cement common cause between Albertans and Ontarians, which means I've got to stop this now because I'm scaring myself.

.

Hey Everybody, It's a Shoving Match!

OfficeOfPushbackDevelopment
GritVille


OK, OK, OK, it's only a press release.

But, as the actual text of these things rarely becomes part of the record we thought we'd post it up.

And besides, it came our way from someone who loves to see pol-piloted media whirlitzers collide but who, unfortunately, is too busy at the moment with other things to stop and watch the sparks fly.

For Immediate Release
February 28, 2007


Liberals Demand Apology from Pierre Poilievre


Ottawa - Lawyers on behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada
and Liberal MP Navdeep Bains today delivered a letter to Conservative MP
Pierre Poilievre demanding that he withdraw his false, misleading and
defamatory statements made during an interview on CFRA radio in Ottawa
on February 22, 2007.

The statements were calculated to cause damage to the Liberal Party of
Canada and to injure the reputation of Mr. Bains and to discredit Mr. Bains
as a person and as an elected official. The letter serves as Notice of Action
as required by section 5(1) of the Ontario Libel and Slander Act.


-30-


Office of Navdeep Bains
(613) 995-7784

Renée Filiatrault
Liberal Party of Canada
(613) 783-8423

Oh, and by the way, here is the audio to the interview cited (mp3 file).

We have to admit, there are some pretty wild-eyed statements in there from Mr. Poilievere.

One of the wildest and most Luntzian is this one:

"....we know there is an extremist element in the Liberal party generally that has been very vocal in opposing measures that are designed to combat terrorism."


I also noted, with interest, the use of talking points like 'flip-flop' and 'loonie-left' that are being used over and over again by other fellow travellers like Mr. Day.

All joking aside, please notice the frame that the CPC Strategists/Junior Rovians are trying to build around their newly birthed News Zombie.

Specifically, that it is the centrist Liberals who are the extremists rather than Mr. P. and his bosses who, of course, are actually doing their best, even from a minority position, to radically re-jig the country formerly known as Canuckistan.


____
We also thank Mary for bringing the thing to our attention in the comment threads. Mary is definitely not too busy to chase down media whirlitzers. In fact, she is trying her best to find the ones that should be covering the BC Rail/Ledge Trial saga (although, finally, it looks like there is some media interest due to a little pushback from the defense).
TheTorStar has a partial transcript of the interview up.

.