Sunday, December 29, 2013

Ten Years Ago...The Birth Of The League of RailGate Cultists.

AllTheLotuslandianBloggingThat
Fit(BackThen)Ville


Yup.

That's right.

It was 10 years ago yesterday that the Ledge Raids went down.

And the best compendium of the players, followers and watchers is still the one generated by Bill Tieleman back at the five year mark.

I particularly like this entry:

BC MARY. Media.

The indefatigable proprietor of the only website exclusively devoted to the Basi-Virk case. BC Mary's blog -- The Legislature Raids -- is the repository of hundreds of thousands of words on the case, including links and excerpts from media reports going back to 2003 and original reporting, plus BC Mary's own unique takes on the case.

From mainstream media stories to conspiracy theories, it's a one-stop shop for Basi-Virk aficionados. BC Mary is known by her blog name only.



_________
My tribute to a great friend of many in the Lotuslandian Bloggodome, Mary Mackie, who passed away too soon not long ago, is...Here.
And, just for the Heckfire of it...My very first Railgate post from the era of dinosaurs (in blog years/epochs at least) is...Here.
Finally, if you'd like a bit of a break from the endless, and almost always obvious, year end lists in the public prints, Batocchio has kept JonSwift/AlWeisel's round-up of the Best of Left Blogistan (U.S. Division), large and small, alive and well...Here.


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3 comments:

e.a.f. said...

yes, that was the most interesting political day in many a year. Life has not been the same for many bloggers and commentors since. Its been great entertainment, since t.v. has deteriorated during this time. Now if in another 10 yrs. some of the players could be brought out of the closet and into jail, it would be wonderful.

scotty on denman said...

Ten Years? Holy whoa! Feel like Edvard Munch just painted me (cue the echo machine while I scream," Noooooooo.....!")

BC's tumult of the last couple years will definitely make the history books many years from now, if only to note that, for the first time in 800 years of Commonwealth parliamentary history, a legislated tax was rescinded by popular measure. BC remains the only province to have passed Citizens' Initiative laws that enabled this precedent to be set. . But I think most scholars of BC political history would agree the BC Rail fiasco, and especially the corruption of the corruption trial, is what really turned against Gordon Campbell---the HST fiasco was simply the last straw. In this sense BC Rail will never be forgotten.

The whole thing started when Campbell, who had made selling publicly owned BC Rail on ideological grounds central to his campaign, failed to win a majority over Glen Clark, despite winning the so-called "popular vote". I recall the bitterness in his voice as he conceded the loss to crowds of supporters and told them he would follow the advice someone had just given him,"to just be yourself..." ---implying, it seemed, that he would have won had campaign handlers not somehow obscured the "real Gord".

Blaming his ideological position on privatizing
BCR for his election loss, Gordo decided to make a promise NOT to sell it off--- one which he had no intention of keeping--during the next election. He might have saved himself a lot of trouble since he would have won anyway without lying---the NDP was almost shut out of even official party status. Three elections later he lied about not bringing in the HST, then again about when, exactly, did he first plan to implement the HST, then again about giving us all an immediate 15% income tax cut as the HST shit really started coming down---but it was too late: his caucus had already decided to fire him by then.

I think Gordo really was just being himself, obsessively controlling, self-lisensing, with psychopathic faculties that exempt the chosen, that emphasize the chump status of voters who believe in campaign promises. I believe he was emboldened to tell the HST lie because he thought he'd gotten away with the BC Rail scandal and that, of course, led to the tax-cut lie---which is why BCR cladistically owns everything that came after, including Carole James' ouster, Dix's disappointing loss and the pickle we and Christy find ourselves in. I sure won't forget it.

I won't be surprised if more salacious BC Rail evidence is revealed from time to time as the years go by; there are just too many people who know something and, in the fullness of life, may have nothing to lose--- or a grudge to settle---by confessing some part of the truth. Thanks, Ross K, for "BC Rail One Decade Later". I look forward to the next instalment.

Anonymous said...

IMO this will not go away. The corruption is too deep. The old saying, what goes around comes around will hold true and we'll all be better off for it. Those involved in this whole corrupt giveaway can rot in their graves and let their families live it. The truth shall prevail.