Pro-Nun-See-Eight

Washington, District of Columbia
38°53' North; 77°02 West

Unbelievable - Looks like maybe the Twig really was cheating in the debates, and his opponent still beat him like a gong everytime.

Perhaps the Puppetmasters figured that having him visualize devine diction interdiction by a robed octect of the apocalypse was their only chance.

I knew that my God was bigger than his (God).

Baghdhad, Iraq
33°21' North; 44°25' West

That was William Boykin the American General who also said that Muslim's will lose because they worship Satan.

Now don't go thinking that Mr. Boykin is just a whacko fringe player, because he's not.

Why?

Because the good general is now the assistant to the Bush Adminations' current Undersecretary of Intelligence Stephen Cambone who was one of the architects of the Pre-emptive WMD strategy and is now on the hotseat for turning the Pentagon into a de-facto spy agency, a change that Boykin likes to call 'operationalizing the intelligence'.

Which some might suggest is just another way to 'sex-up' the documents.

Regardless, you've gotta wonder what Boykin and all the other purple-finger waving, zeig-heiling, waygone fundies think about this:

"Iraq's electoral commistion says 1.6 million ballots have been counted at its headquarters over the past two days....Partial results show the United Alliance, backed by Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, leading with more than one-million votes......(Sistani's) nearest rival so far is the list of candidates led by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, with about 360,000 votes."

In other words, if the will of the people holds the candidacy of the puppet Allawi is doomed which would mean that all the deaths and all the treasure expended by the PNACkian paddywackers will have been for naught because they will have facilitated the ascendancy of a new-fangled Demockthocracy in Iraq.

So, whose God is bigger now?

____
Update: Based on analysis of Burns of Filkins, two of New Pravda's last remaining real reporters, and others, Juan Cole weighs in with the prediction that the puppet Allawi will get only 40 seats of in the 275 member Congress.
Double- Secret Probation Update: Gilliard has the Sadr angle on the story: "The West is so proud that they have held the elections but I would ask: who is responsible for the blood that day?" Now that - that sure is a fundamentalist whacko - right Willy B.?
Triple-Secret Toga Probation Update: John Vernon, the iron-fisted Dean Wormer in Animal House and another Canuckistan infiltrator of the Empire who was rumored to be the first choice of Rob Reiner to play Willy B in the movie version of 'Lies and the Liars Who Love to Tell Them', is dead at age 72.

Scottie's Nose No Longer Grows.

Washington, District of Columbia
38°53' North; 77°02 West

Why?

Because Rovian press secretary Little Scottie McClellan no longer even feels the need to lie any longer.

Exhibit A: Here he his in his latest exchange with one of the very few members of the White House Press Corps with guts, Russell Mokhiber:

Mokhiber: Scott, last night, in an amicus brief filed before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Justice Department came down in favor of displaying the Ten Commandments at courthouses and statehouses around the country. My question is - does the President believe in Commandment Number Six - thou shalt not kill - as it applies to the U.S. invasion of Iraq?

Scott McLellan: Go ahead, next question

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If you want more, and more serious, Mokhiber you can find it here.

Lister Stomps On the Terra

Center of the Universeville, T.O.
43°40' North; 79°22' West

A few days ago we were lamenting the premature yanking of Lister Sinclair from his post as the hostest with the mostest on the perenially brainiacal 'Ideas' on CBC radio.

Of course, much like the story of Bob Edwards' firing from Morning Edition from NPR, the suits who make such bone headed decisions said that Mr. Sinclair was too old to get the job done.

But does this recent online exchange that occurred due to a celebration of Lister's 80th birthday sound like something somebody who has lost it would say?

Michael Longval asks: How did you get so damn smart? What vitamins did yer folks give you?

Lister Sinclair answers: Fortunately, I have no faults of any kind. I am perfect in every way, perfect in intelligence, good looks, attractiveness and general wisdom. I have only one fault - I'm a liar. No, seriously, I knew a lot of smart people, worked with many people many of whom were a lot smarter than I am and I had a lonely childhood made bearable by books. Good, bad and indifferent. The range of books didn't make me into a high brow, there was so much exciting trash around that I came out some kind of 'omni brow'.

Omni-brow. Ya. Definitely. Clearly nothing Spongiform going on in that brain.

Kicking Butt As An (almost) Non-Partisan

Vancouver, British Columbia
49°15' North; 123°08' West


Double Plus Ungood is fast becoming a 'go to' site for us.

It's got a local, Vancouver, flavour with wide ranging tastes. It also is willing to consider the other side, usually to probe for weaknesses, but also to consider giving them their due if warranted.

And how can you not love something like this, re: Joy McPhail's swansong:

'Joy is possibly the only politician that I've ever met that I think would give you a good hard kick in the nuts if she were mad enough. And the only one that has told me to go f*** myself to my face (half-jokingly - I had insulted her, also jokingly, when I worked on her first campaign). Plus she has a diploma from the London School of Economics to boot. A great combo, and she'll be missed.'

The Downtown Eastside's Own George Bailey

Vancouver, British Columbia
49°15' North; 123°08' West

Some of you may have noticed that we here at the Gazetteer are just a wee bit resistant to change.

In fact, we are only just now beginning to forgive Paul Kennedy for taking on the job of Ideas host on CBC Radio.

And it's not because we don't like Kennedy, because we do.

It's just that it was Kennedy who took over for Lister Sinclair after the deluded braintrust of the MotherCorp pushed out the latter prematurely for no good reason at all.

Our solution would have been to dump the useless replay of the morning shows at 8pm and go with back-to-back Kennedy/Lister free-form interviews/trials/lectures/documentaries and other assorted extravaganzas that would have expanded the nation's intellect to something like, well, maybe infinity.

Anyway, last night we were almost able to forgive Kennedy because of the fantastic hour long interview he had with a guy named Ken Lyotier who, along with a number of his down and out friends, has been able to develop a fantastically successful enterprise called 'United We Can' that gives dumpster divers a fair and honest shake in Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside.

It was an amazing and inspirational piece about an amazing and inspirational guy.

And a shining example of why everybody deseves a chance regardless their circumstances.

Sometimes a Percentage is Just a Percentage...

Saigon, Vietnam
10° 46' North; 106° 43' East

As the pom-pom waving and the cheerleading starts to recede, folks of sober second thought like Greg Mitchell from Editor and Publisher are starting to wonder what it all means for the Excited States (because, of course, it is always about them):

"What does "high turnout" mean? Is it a percentage of all eligible voters or just those who registered? Do the vast disparities suggest a coming civil war? Or did the insurgency suffer a death blow in failing to severely disrupt the process? And what are the results of the voting likely to show: a broadly representative government or one that may take Iraq in a direction troublesome for the United States?"


But regardless who does the counting and regardless the percentages ultimately generated, you've got to wonder if anything that emerges from that 'secret counting place' can possibly beat this:

"United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in (...#1) presidential election despite a (....#2) terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.

According to reports from (....#3), 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday....."

That report was from the New York Times in Sept of 1967 and the answers to the fill in the blanks are:

#1 - South Vietnam
#2 - Vietcong
#3 - Saigon

'Nuff said.

Weekend Update - Alternative Iraqi Version

Baghdhad, Iraq
33°21' North; 44°25' West

One of the things we can never forgive fellow Canuckistan passport holder Lorne Michaels for is the fact that he gave, however unwittingly, Dennis Miller the cachet to make a living as a neanderconnish opportunistic opiner based purely on the fact that he was lucky enough to follow the wacky/insightful duo of Chevy Chase and Jane Curtain on SNL's 'Weekend Update'.

But something that irks us even more is the fact that the CBC appeared to become part of the Neandercon Whirlitzer during its weekend updates on the Iraqi Election. For example, how could any offshore news organization give immediate credence to claims of first 72%, then above 60%, then above 57%, voting turnouts when live reports were only allowed at 5 of more than 5000 polling stations?

That's not to say that good things did not happen in Iraq yesterday, but clearly alternatives are required for anyone who wishes to really pay attention. Thus, the following are offered for your consideration:

Dahr Jamail: For our money, the best day-to-day coverage from anybody in Iraq.

Electronic Iraq: A clearing house with an anti-occupation stance that must always be taken into account. Regardless, Jo Wilding's posts are worth their weight in gold.

The Agonist: Combination wire service/clearinghouse/opinion/blog with an anti-war slant. Wide ranging, good, and up to the minute.

Christopher Allbritton: Western reporter on the ground in Iraq who is not afraid to venture out of the green zone; realtime reportage.

And don't forget Juan Cole, who once again connects the dots to demonstrate that the Iraqi election came about in spite of Mr. Bush and the Neandercons rather than because of them due to the constant pressure of Shiite cleric Sistani.

___
Thanks to ASZ man of international man of mystery Bradford Child for reminding us how important alternatives are.
Update: My Blahg takes the JCole view and supplements it with stuff from Needlenose; 'lively' discussion over there.

Flashbacks, sans Acid

CrocVille, California
32° 44' North; 117° 11' West


For a long time Hunter S. Thompson was scared to take LSD.

Ya, you read that right.

And it wasn't because Thompson was scared of shoving crap into his body, but rather because somebody along the way, somebody with Leary-like connections, told him that it would unleash all that repressed violence inside of him that he was always alluding to in his writing.

But all that changed around about the time that Mr. Thompson helped introduce Sonny Barger's boys to Ken Kesey's bunch at La Honda.

And by the time he hit it big with the Vegas thing there was No Beast available, chemical or otherwise, that could keep Thompson from Getting Rid of the Pain of Being a Man.

But HST could still smell hypocrisy from half a continent away. And so, when the criminal repressive Nixon finished washing the floor with the decent progressive McGovern, Thompson was crestfallen when he wrote this, just weeks after that doomed election:

"'On page 39 of California Living magazine I found a hand-lettered ad from the McDonald's Hamburger Corporation, one of Nixon's big contributors in the '72 presidential campaign: PRESS ON, it said. NOTHING IN THE WORLD CAN TAKE THE PLACE OF PERSISTENCE. TALENT WILL NOT: NOTHING IS MORE COMMON THAN UNSUCESSFUL MEN WITH TALENT. GENIUS WILL NOT: UNREWARDED GENIUS IS ALMOST A PROVERB. EDUCATION ALONE WILL NOT: THE WORLD IS FULL OF EDUCATED DERELICTS. PERSISTENCE AND DETERMINATION ALONE ARE OMNIPOTENT. I read it several times before I grasped the full meaning......'

The 'full meaning', indeed.

Now I, for a whole lot of reasons that have nothing to with repressed violence I hope, have never, ever, taken acid.

But just yesterday I flashed back to a late adolescent obsession with the writings of Thompson while flipping through the pages of the NYT.

What did it was another, very different, but somehow eerily similar, fullpage Ad from McDonalds on pg C3 that contained a picture of a guy named Charley Bell, the company's former CEO, with teeth impossibly white and a golden arches pin impossibly holographic on his lapel. The Ad also had the following quote:

"At our heart is the will to do and the soul to dare."

Why all this sentiment for a man who helped streamline the freedom-fry seller by cutting labour costs, again, while simultaneously hoodwinking a significant proportion of the population/electorate into thinking that those MSG/fat-laden salads they are having with their Big Macs are actually making them healthier?

Well, you see, Mr. Bell passed away on Jan 16th at the age of 45 from colorectal cancer.

Thanks to the writing of Mr. Thompson and other contrarians of his ilk, I only had to read the Ad once to grasp the full meaning of that thing.

Bob Broughton, Green Blogger

New Westminster, British Columbia
49° 13' North; 122° 55' West


Robert Broughton, the Green Party Candidate in New Westminister, is off and blogging.

Should be interesting to see if Bob can elbow his way into the race sans Big Media Machine*.


_____
*Unless, of course, Rafe Mair is serious and decides to get behind the GP for real.

There's Something About Mary

Montreal, Quebec
45°42' North; 73°58' West


The deal is done:

"Shareholders of historic Molson Inc. voted overwhelmingly Friday to approve a merger with U.S.-based Adolph Coors Co., clearing the main hurdle towards the creation of the world's fifth-largest brewer."

So, does this mean that Mary Cheney will soon be seen in the new Adolf/Molson commercial, sans leather chaps of course, screaming:

"I am Canadian!"

After all, such a move just might be an attractive deal for both Ms. Cheney and her life partner Heather Poe, particularly if Our Paul manages to prevail over the snidely whiplashed Mr. Harper in the gay marriage debate.

_____
And apparently Ms. Cheney's Dad, his Dickness, has already purchased, and broken in, his parka for his upcoming visits to the Great White North (Link Source: Blondesense)

When is Prem Not Spam?

Williams Lake, British Columbia
52°07' North; 122° 09' West


When it costs you, the taxpayer, a big wad of cash.

Because it looks like Prem, and/or Peter, Vinning received more than just the promise of a job standing on the bridge of the SS Gordo. It turns out that, while he's not in the trucking business, he is part owner in Jackpine Forest Products in Williams Lake.

Interestingly, as reported by Paul Willcocks:

"The federal government came up with a $55-million program to help B.C. cope with duties levied under the softwood dispute in late 2002. The first business to get money - and the only one in the first round of payments - was Vinning's Jackpine. (All the other recepients were community groups.) The company got a $2-million loan for a new plant. Two months later, it went to court to seek protection from its creditors. The committee that approved the loan said it was never told about the financial problems."

Is this a Monty Python skit written by Dr. Seuss or what.....

"Spam, spam, spam, green eggs, and spam."

Just hold the Prem, thank-you very much.

Not With A Bang But.....

The Blogosphere
Cyberspatulaspace

.....A Lawsuit?

Wouldn't it be ironic if Blogging went the way of the Dodo because the Nasties decided to sic the Lawyers on us?

Don't think it could happen?

Ya, well, riddle us this Batgirlieman....What if the big Media Trusts decided to go after, say, Blogger, or TypePad, or HaloScream?

____
Original Link Source: The Daou Report.

When is Spam not Spam?

Victoria, British Columbia
48° 39' North; 123° 26' West

Perhaps when it is Prem?

"Public Eye has learned the premier's new director of Asia-Pacific trade and economic development Prem Vinning, a veteran federal Liberal organizer, has quit his job - three days after being hired. That decision comes hours after Public Eye revealed Mr. Vinning used a different name other than his own when phoning in a question to a weekend Channel M call-in-show featuring Premier Gordon Campbell."

It's a story that was broken by Sean Holman that has now gone ballistic, at least in local terms (ie. it's up on the not-so Giant 98's website - with no original source citation we might add).

Now, one issue to consider here is the possibly questionable moral judgement of Mr. Vinning. But something else that could be interesting is the timing of Mr. Vinning's hiring.

Specifically, it looks like Mr. Vinning may have been hired on Monday Jan. 24th after he delivered the slow-moving softball call to el Gordo's wheelhouse on the previous weekend.

Now, if this is truly the case it might not be unreasonable for a reasonable person to ask if Mr. Vinning's hiring was based, at least in part, on a (morally questionable) job well done before he was hired.

And if that is true, should this incident not lead to some real hard questions from the press gallery being directed to the man who both responded to the phone call and did the hiring?

___
Update Thurs. 7:00am: Story went National on CBC Radio this morning.....kudos to local CBC guy, Jeff Davies, for properly sourcing the story back to first Joy McPhail and then Public Eye.

And Why Not?

Washington, District of Columbia
38°53' North; 77°02 West

Of course it's flat-out crazy, but then again the woman has guts, and she's willing to do the right thing.

So, why not?°

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°Especially if Howard Dean becomes DNC chair.