Vancouver Votes, Left - Reason #2

BeginningOfTheCentury
NoLongerNoFunVille


Last night Sam Sullivan, while exhorting supporters to grab on to his coat tails and elect NPA councillors, did as his Waltonesque Spindoctors ordered and went for the killer soundbite:

"Don't leave me alone with these people, please"

Of course, there is another way to separate he who knows where the KnowWards barrels of cash are buried from COPE and Vision Councillors.

Vote for the right Green.

That's Jim.*




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*Not James

Vancouver Votes, Left - Reason #1

TheBeginningOfTheCentury NoLongerNoFunVille

Because, like Manhattan (New York, not Kansas), we do not have a Wal-Mart.

Vote for Anne Roberts (COPE) - Councillor.

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Defending The Indefensible - Part III

ForShame
CareNetVille

The evidence of the extent of the tragedy caused by Gordon Campbell's ideological dismantling of the Ministry of Child and Family Development continues to mount:

"Solicitor General John Les has confirmed that the number of child death investigations shelved in 2002 when the government axed the children's commission could be significantly higher than the 80 reported on Monday."


And so far the Premier is content to spin soundbites:

"My expectation today remains exactly what it was nine years ago, even, six, five and four years ago. I expect children's deaths to be investigated," replied Campbell."

Sure. And two + two = five.

Because the fact of the matter is that it was Campbell, and no one else, that sent the independent Children's Commisioner packing.

Thus, one can only conclude that Mr. Campbell's 'expectation isn't worth the soundbite it was recorded on.

So now is the time that we will find out if Carole Taylor really is a liberal who truly cares about those in our society that cannot protect themselves.

If she is she will march into Mr. Campbell's office immediately, as I'm sure she did a many times when she we was a councillor and he was mayor of Vancouver, and demand that this be fixed and MCFD funding restored - yesterday.

Because ideology doesn't help any kid who goes to bed scared every night.

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Parts I and II of the indefensible is here and here.

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Defending The Indefensible - Part II

TheBigCon
GoldenEraVille


A while ago we commented on how the Neandercon's big 'Con' - that privatization is both more efficient and actually better at delivering the 'measurable outcomes' than are public institutions - has led to some business model-induced suffocations, if not outright decapitations, of a significant number of important British Columbia government services, departments and ministries.

And nowhere, in our opinion, is this more evident than in the Ministry of Children and Family Development which has been subjected to disaster after disaster because of ideology, pure and simple. We listed the litany here in a post that also mentioned the crusade of a former investigator who worked with the BC coroner named Kathleen Stephany who blew the whistle on the case of a dead little girl who's death was not investigated when all concerned thought it should have been.

Of course, immediately after that the savaging began when Ms. Stephany was dismissed in the Legislature as being 'disgruntled' by the current Soliciter General:

"A. Dix (NDP): Of course, the Solicitor General knows that the children's commissioner had a $4 million budget and that when that office was shut down — contrary to the express promises of the government — and all of those responsibilities were shifted over to the coroner, they shifted only 200,000 of those dollars. I would say, with great respect to the minister, that you'd call a $3.8 million cut on a $4 million budget a pretty big cut. What has happened is that we had 800 case reviews — every case reviewed under the children's commission — and we've had one public report under this process.

[1555]

I wanted to ask the Solicitor General, first of all…. We had a discussion yesterday in question period about a particular case, Savannah Hall, and the Solicitor General at that time made some comments about Kathleen Stephany, who is a former employee of the

[ Page 1665 ]

Coroners Service. He called her disgruntled. He discredited her point of view.

Is the Solicitor General aware that in fact the chief coroner of the province describes her work as excellent, that the Ministry of Children and Family Development and the government are using her work, which they have vigorously defended, in court cases? And does he not think it's inappropriate to take shots at people who care about the public interest and are participating in the public debate?

Hon. J. Les (Liberal): With respect to Ms. Stephany, I am personally not particularly aware of her work. Nor should I be, I would suggest. But I am aware that she is currently undertaking proceedings for wrongful dismissal, and I draw from that that she is, in fact, disgruntled.

2005 Legislative Session: First Session, 38th Parliament
HANSARD, Nov 3, 2005

Well, despite the nascent smear campaign against her, it now looks like the dam that Ms. Stephany poked a tiny hole in has burst wide open.

How did that happen, you might be asking yourself?

Well, it looks like the Province's chief coronor, Terry Smith, took a good, hard look at himself in the mirror and has decided to do the right thing:

"B.C.'s Chief Coroner has revealed that reviews of about 80 children's deaths were halted when the Campbell government eliminated the office of children's commissioner in 2002 – replacing it with the child and youth officer."

So, how is that for a measurable outcome?

Eighty deaths that have not been investigated, all of which occurred prior to the elimination of the independent oversight of the children's commissioner in 2002.

But have no fear, the very same Soliciter General, as of Nov 14, 2005 (ie. 11 days after he dismissed Ms. Stephany as disgruntled and indicated that he didn't feel that he should even be particularly aware of her work), is now on the case.

Solicitor General John Les says he only learned of all this a month ago, and that he asked the chief coroner to review the files.

"The bottom line is this. I want those files completed and I want them completed as soon as this can be done." (Les said).

And the 11 day 'month' notwithstanding, how, exactly, will those files be 'completed' ?

And what of all those children that have been lost since 2002, after the Children's Commissioner was eliminated?

What about them?

Do we even have files for all of them?

And if Mr. Les were to tell us that he is 'not aware of any such files' , has he given us any reason to be confident that this is indeed the case?

Based on his previous public statements on this subject, I would respectfully like to suggest that he has not.

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The Kids Are Alright

IdeasArePower
KidsVille

Matthew and Luke are Canadian (no sign of Mark and/or John).

They are 10 years old.

And they want our five billion dollars back.

"We need to tell the U.S. to "Stop being a bully!" The U.S. government needs to know that Canadians think this is important and they need to stop. But how can we tell them? Our Prime Minister and other leaders have tried to tell them but President Bush is not listening. He doesn't think it's a big deal. His closest advisor, Condoleezza Rice, visited Canada recently and she suggested that we are over-reacting. "It is important not to speak in apocalyptic language about this issue. It is a trade dispute. Frankly, I think we'll get through it." CNN reports have poked fun at Canadians for being concerned about this dispute, using the headline "What's the big deal, eh?". It IS a big deal for all the people who have lost their jobs and all the other people this affects. It's a big deal for Canadians!"

So, how do they want to get it?

Poke 'em in the eye where it counts - the US MultiNats, and start with the biggest and greasiest first:

" Help us send President Bush a message.
Boycott McDonald's for one day on December 3, 2005.
McDonald's is the most famous U.S. company in the world. And millions of Canadians buy food at McDonalds every day. If we all boycott McDonalds for one day, it will get people's attention. It will even get President Bush's attention."


Did I mention that these kids are geniuses with guts.

Only question is, if they are successful will the Shrubbery smear them or we he call them up and ask:

"Need some wood?"

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Original Link Source: CGB
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What Is It Good For?

Absolutely Placenames, Say It Again!
Ambrose Sundays, 1st EditionVille


He was a cynical misanthrope with a gimmick.

Like HST, he could flat out write. And like HST he worked for a maniacal egomaniac. Orson Welles played his boss in the movies, which has us wondering - who will play Wenner when the time comes?*

Anyway, his name was Ambrose Bierce and we figure his words will make an excellent book end to our longrunning HST Fridays.

Here is the first edition, short, but definitely not sweet:

"War is the Devil's way of teaching Americans geography."

Enough said.


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*And no, Bruno Kirby doesn't count.

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Vinyl Tapping On My Lumbar Spine....

Running Two, From, Back, And Fourth
To SaskatoonVille

Tonight the true King of CanCon, Randy Bachman, is going to set his oblique, but still dead to rights, sights on fellow Winnipeggedeer, Neil Young.

The show is called Vinyl Tap and it's on CBC Radio One at 7pm.

And if it's as good as last week's tribute to John Lennon it's going to be fantastic.

Heckfire, I even dug the Zeppelin show awhile back, and not just because of the true Zeppelin stories but also because I gained a new appreciation for the ultimate Zeppelin cover band/sister act.

Never thought I'd say this, but I think that the MotherCorp has managed to find a reasonably decent replacement for Finkelman.*

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*Bachman nailed the audition last week when, between Yoko stories, he explained that the original Casio digital watch was an abomination because it took not one, but instead two, hands to tell time. It was like Danny Vu all over again.
Update due to post-post googledoodlenoodling... Like the patriarch in Kesey's 'Sometimes A Great Notion' who was played by Henry Fonda in the movies, it looks like Bachman, who is definitely himself a patriarch, may not hold much truck with picket lines. If true, I'm saddened but, then again, sometimes Saltspring Island really is like Oregon.
DoubleSecretProbationPostShowUpdate: And all killer no filler it was - especially the 10 mins of the godfather of grunge playing with Bachman and his son Tal doing a block take of I'm a Canadian....there's just no burn-out or fade-away with this guy and it looks like there may never be.
TripleSecretSundayProbationWithACherryOnTopUpdate: Of course, it has been an all Neil all the time weekend, so some might be a little sick of it....but....Kevin Chong's 2 hour road piece to the heart of Young's fans souls on DNTO was also fantastic (I couldn't get myself out of the car for the entire bit) and his book of same was heralded in a review in the Globe's book supplement, but what I really, really enjoyed was commenter Davey-boy's comment tacked on to Chong's Tyee piece about what posterity has in store for the craziest horse - a supergroup of monumental proportions, "Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Young" (at least they won't have to deal with that madman Crosbie).

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Why Is George Bush Afraid Of An Old Lady?

HSTFridays
12thEditionVille


When he found out, after the fact, that he was not on Nixon's 'Enemies List' Hunter Thompson was not amused:

"I would almost have preferred a vindictive tax audit to that kind of crippling exclusion. Christ! What kind of waterheads compiled that list? How can I show my face in the Jerome Bar, when word finally reaches Aspen that I wasn't on it.

Fortunately, the list was drawn up in the summer of '71 - which partially explains why my name was missing. It was not until the autumn of '72 that I began referring to the The President, in nationally circulated print, as a Cheapjack Punk and a Lust-Maddened Werewolf, whose very existence was (and remains) a bad cancer on the American political tradition. Every ad the publishers prepared for my book on the 1972 Campaign led off with a savage slur on all that Richard Nixon ever hoped to represent or stand for. The man is a walking embarrassment to the human race - and especially, as Bobby Kennedy once noted, to that high, optimistic potential that fueled men like Jefferson and Madison, and which Abe Lincoln once described as " the last best hope of man."

There is slim satisfaction in the knowledge that my exclusion from the list of "White House enemies" has more to do with timing and Ron Ziegler's refusal to read Rolling Stone than twith the validity of all the things I've said and written about that evil bastard."

HST: Rude Notes from a Decompression Chamber in Miami
Rolling Stone # 140, August 1973; Reprinted in 'The Great Shark Hunt' Warner Books

Which is almost, but not quite, like 'presque vu all over before' given that the current crop of Whitehouse Press Poodles have finally begun to bark. So much so that Scottie 'Don't Call Me Ziegler' McLellan's answers have themselves become problematic enough that they have required some 'fixing of his statements to fit the policy.'

"At the Oct. 31 briefing, David Gregory of NBC News stated the following question to McClellan about White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby: "Whether there's a question of legality, we know for a fact that there was involvement. We know that Karl Rove, based on what he and his lawyer have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that Scooter Libby also had conversations."

The official White House transcript states that McClellan's response was "I don’t think that's accurate."

But two outside news agencies, Congressional Quarterly and Federal News Service -- which provide transcripts for a fee -- both reported the response as "that's accurate."

The differing accounts have sparked a flurry of buzz on numerous blogs, such as ThinkProgress, Wonkette, Eschaton and DailyKos. They say a video of the press briefing reveals McClellan saying "that's accurate."

White House officials contacted the news outlets and ask for a change to their versions of the transcript.

"They asked me to take a look at it about a week ago," said Kirk Hanneman, news director of Federal News Service, which provides transcripts of different government events. "We took a look at it because they did have a problem with it and in the end, we had what we originally had and we are sticking by that because we believe it is correct."


So, there are two points here.

First, that these people will do anything to maintain domination over the information, be it crap from McLellan or the super-dooper pineapple upside down caked yellow straight goods from the likes of Ahmed Chalabi, Donald Rumsfeld, Curveball, Scooter Libby, Not-Scooting el Libbi, Stephen Hadley, Ilyad Allawi, Dick Cheney, Rocco Martino, Judith Miller or Colin Powell's favorite aluminum tubemaker, the Maytag Repairman in Tikrit.

Second, that the press poodles must be smacked down now, at all costs, before they become emboldened and start making like octaganerian and former lone attack wolf in old lady's clothing Helen Thomas. Because if they did it would mean that they were suddenly doing their jobs for real. As a result, it was really the press poodles that Mr. and Mr. Karl W. B(R)ush were really talking to on Veterans' Day when they said:


"It is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how the war began,'' Bush told military families at an Army depot near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania today. "More than 100 Democrats in the House and Senate who had access to the same intelligence voted to remove Saddam Hussein from power.''

"Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war,'' Bush said in a Veterans Day speech. "These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgment related to Iraq's weapons programs,'' he said.


Most of which is complete and utter flim-flammery, of course. Which is why, now more than ever, this is no time for America's 4th estate to back down.

And besides, if they do turn away now with their tails between their legs Helen, not to mention posterity and the ghost of HST, will hunt each and every one of them down and bash them savagely upside the head until their ears bleed (or their coiffures muss up, whichever comes first).

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Update: Looks like Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus of the WaPo are the first of the emboldened poodles to demonstrate that they are more afraid of Ms. Thomas than the Rovians.

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Remembering on Remembrance Day

ALifeRemembered
IsALifeLivedVille


Just caught a whole bunch of stories for Remembrance (Veterans') Day from DPU. They're great. Here's one:


As I said, my grandfather was in the Home Guard, a volunteer organization organized along military lines. Some groups were a bit gung-ho on the military drills, and one night his troop was scheduled to practice advancing under fire across a neighbouring field. This involved a lot of crawling about in the dark, and on the night, it was pouring rain. “To hell with it”, he thought, and decided not to go. He knew that the field had just been ploughed, and what the rain would do to it.

At dawn, there was a knock on the door. My grandfather, fearing that a military squad had been sent to arrest him for desertion or something, sent my grandmother down to tell them that he was sick. When she opened the door, there were several high-ranking Home Guard officers there, covered head-to-toe with thick mud. And a chaplain.

“We’ve some bad news, missus,” said one of the officers. “Your husband has been lost in the mud during the maneuvers last night. We’ve had the entire company searching the field all night, but we haven’t been able to recover him. We’re very sorry.”


There's lots of other real thing stuff there also. Well worth the visit.

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Cluffie Must Go! #XL

DumbingItDown
MotherCorpVille


The Puffmeister and his not-so-wily Fluffmaker on remote after a particularly difficult round table discussion (ie. the participants were passionate and actually had something to say):


Cluffie: "Jenna I really need a break......"

Traffic Girl: "Ya, I know. Like, I almost came in with a gong."


All of which makes one wonder, does stuff like this make the producers out in the truck weep, or sing, or both?

"Ooooo Mama, could this really be the end?
Stuck inside the Mobile with the Cluffie Blues Again."

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Ropin' A Dope

ADraftDodgerWithGuts
StillTheGreatestVille


Ali cuts down the Shrubbery without throwing a punch.

"The Greatest of All Time" stole the show when President Bush bestowed the Medal of Freedom on them and 10 others in a White House ceremony yesterday.Bush, who appeared almost playful, fastened the heavy medal around Muhammad Ali's neck and whispered something in the heavyweight champion's ear. Then, as if to say "bring it on," the president put up his dukes in a mock challenge. Ali, 63, who has Parkinson's disease and moves slowly, looked the president in the eye -- and, finger to head, did the "crazy" twirl for a couple of seconds.

The room of about 200, including Cabinet secretaries, tittered with laughter. Ali, who was then escorted back to his chair, made the twirl again while sitting down. And the president looked visibly taken aback, laughing nervously.


Clearly Mr. Bush is no Joe Frazier.

Come to think of it, he's not even Leon Spinks.

Not to mention Jerry Quarry, who Ali first took on in 1970 after he did the time for refusing to kill in Vietnam straight up - compare that to the route the Shrub took back then.

Which just goes to show.......You can fool some of the people all of the time, and you can fool a few more on Diebold Day. But you can't fool an old guy with Parkinson's who has truth in his heart anytime.

What a wonderful world.

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OriginalLinkSource: Bernhard at MOA.

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Why Does Pat Robertson.....

VengeanceIsOurs
SayethTheVotersVille

.....Hate Democracy So Much?*

Friday November 11, 2005 1:46 AM

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town Thursday not to be surprised if disaster strikes there because ``you just voted God out of your city'' by ousting school board members who favored teaching ``intelligent design.''

``I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city,'' Robertson said Thursday on the Christian Broadcasting Network's ``The 700 Club.''

All eight Dover, Pa., school board members up for re-election were defeated Tuesday after trying to introduce ``intelligent design'' - the belief that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power - as an alternative to the theory of evolution.

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*Not to mention science

Cluffie Must Go! Vol XXXIX

TalkOfTheTown
NOTVille


Cluffie

Civic election coverage....

Disaster!

Case in point, when Ian King came on this morning to talk about the Surrey Mayoral race, the fact that the municipal media monarchist of merciless masticatory maladroitness actually had something interesting to say almost caused a catastrophic bilateral dislocation of my temporal mandibular joints due to sudden screams of pure, unadulterated joy.

In fact, it has gotten so bad that I'm almost willing to let my 12 year old tune into Nat and the Druid on the bad Zed for my 'hard news' in the morning.

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Update: Good Zed is still sorta/kinda here.

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How Much Is Enough?

Gouge-A-Rama-Lama
DingDongVille


Everybody loses when oil prices go through the roof - right?

Well, almost everybody.

Take Exxon, for example.

Please.

Why?

Their profits in the last quarter alone were $9.9 billion dollars.

Which just happens to be the most profit by any corporation in 90 days.

Ever.

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To put that in perspective, Exxon makes U.S. $45,000,000 an hour, every hour, on the hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Update: Regular reader, and bike rider man of early middle-age steel, DPU is so astute he should start an institute. On the comment thread he points out that my math is off a little (ie. the greedheads are actually only making $4,529,680.37 /hr). However, it turns out that's only the profit. In terms of revenue they are indeed raking in a very good sized Lotto 649 each and every hour on the hour.

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Who Will Defend The Defenseless in B.C.?

Cover-Up
WhatCover-UpVille

The central tenet of the neandercons' con is that the private sector can run absolutely everything more efficiently than government.

Thus, the mainstream media-driven mantra that 'privatization is good for everyone.'

Unfortunately, even in specific situations where skeptics like me might, in a weak moment, be willing to meet them halfway, things rarely work out as planned.

Witness CN's recent repeated derailments, or Maximus' repeated problems answering phone calls, or BC Ferries' repeated difficulties keeping propellors turning.

But all of these problems pale in comparison to those that have engulfed the Ministry of Children and Family Development since Mr. Campbell and his minions began to wreak their havoc in 2001.

Sound a little over the top?

Sure.

But.....

Remember Doug Walls?

Remember the ditching of community- based small non-profits for the centralized business model?

Remember how inefficient that turned out to be and how much it cost us?

Remember the eight, maybe nine, figure cutbacks?

Remember the bloviating of former BC Liberal cabinet ministers, one of whom later quit and tried to become Mayor of Vancouver?

Remember the death of the little girl at the hands of a clearly unsuitable relative acting as a foster parent?

Heard about the almost total breakdown of the effectiveness of social workers whose caseloads have skyrocketted?

Sure, we all know all about that.

And now we also know about the tragic case of another little girl's death that was never even investigated because of the total emasculation of child protection oversight initiated by the BC Liberals.

This tragedy is not something that can be waved away with rhetoric. It is political dynamite and a former special investigator who worked with the coroner's office named Kathleen Stephany is not pulling any punches as she comes out swinging with her side of the story.

Of course, as a prelude to the stonewall to come, the savaging of Ms. Stephany has already begun because, rumour has it, she is nothing more than a 'disgruntled former employee'.

Trains jumping the tracks repeatedly because a former crown, now private, corporation is cutting costs in narrow, twisting canyons is one thing, but business model-mediated mistreatment of defenseless children is an act malfeasance that must end.

Now.

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