Ya, But......Did He Want Fries With That?

Frankly,TheShrubberyReallyDoesn'tCareAboutHimThatMuch
FundyWorld


Is it really possible?

Could an independent film maker on a shoestring budget really find the target that the Cheneyites have spent hundreds of billions and more than five years kinda/sorta/maybe(not?) looking for?

MSNBC News Services

updated 10:59 a.m. PT, Wed., Dec. 5, 2007

Rumors are flying that filmmaker Morgan Spurlock of "Super Size Me" fame may have done what the United States government has failed to do for the last six years — find Osama bin Laden.

The speculation first began at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, where Spurlock showed a select group of potential buyers 15 minutes of footage from his new documentary, "Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?" The film follows Spurlock through the Middle East in his search for the elusive leader of al-Qaida. According to Slashfilm.com, The Weinstein Co. quickly snapped up the picture after seeing the clips.

Adding to the belief, Daniel Marracino, the film's director of photography, is quoted in Variety, saying of the movie, "We've definitely got the Holy Grail."

Bunko?

Only Bobby Redford and, maybe, the Weinstein brothers know for sure.

Then again......

It is a crazy mixed-up world we live in, where tapestries of justice happen every day.

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Is Smilin' Sammy's Worst Nightmare ....

.....Becoming A Reality?

Where'sJames/NotJimNow?
SullivanVille


Looks like it is, maybe/kinda/sorta........

VANCOUVER - A former Vancouver mayor is ready to jump back into the municipal political ring, but not as a candidate.

Larry Campbell says he would gladly act as campaign manager if B.C. Finance Minister Carole Taylor seeks the mayor's chair in Vancouver. Campbell says he has called Taylor several times to discuss the idea and she "didn't leave the room" when the subject came up.

Hmmmmmm......

Maybe a huge fleet of big, shiny buses with the name "Carol Tailor" AND hundreds of images of Gucci shoes splashed all over them would work.

Not!


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Two Different Supreme Courts....Two Very Different Cases...

.....One Strangely Congruent Core Issue

AllQuietOnTheJudgesFront
WheelsOfJusticeGrindingVille

First there is the case(s) before the US Supreme Court:

The US Supreme Court is deciding whether inmates at Guantanamo Bay camp should have the right to contest their detention in US civilian courts.

Two cases challenge the removal by Congress of the "habeas corpus" right of detainees under the US constitution to be heard by an independent judge.



Then there is the case before the British Columbia Supreme Court:

The results of a secret B.C. Supreme Court hearing that excluded both the media and public in the case of three provincial government aides charged with breach of trust, fraud and money laundering will be announced Thursday.

Justice Elizabeth Bennett said yesterday she will decide whether even defence lawyers and defendants David Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi will be allowed to hear secret material to be presented by the Crown in an in-camera application.


So, where's 'congruency', you might be asking?

And you might even be muttering something under your breath about how it's ridiculous to even think about comparing the plight of the accused in the RailGate Trial to that the Guantanamo Bay detainees.

And you might even be right, on the face of it.

But, having said all that, you may wich togo back and read that lasted bolded sentence regarding what BC Supreme Court justice Bennett said about 'secret material' again and who might NOT get to see it.

And then read this extra tidbit from Mr. T., Bill Tieleman, posted on his blog:

Michael Bolton, lawyer for David Basi, was concerned about possible exclusion of defendants and their legal counsel.

"It goes well beyond an in-camera hearing. It's very, very, very unusual to the point of being almost an unconscionable concept to exclude the accused person from part of his trial," Bolton said outside court Monday.

OK?

.

How's That Softwood Lumber Agreement Going Anyway?

Where'sDaveyNow?
CanforcouverVille

Big troubles in the Canuckistanian forest industry:

VANCOUVER - Canfor Corp. (TSX:CFP) announced another round of job cuts Wednesday as Canada's biggest lumber producer looked to cut costs as poor lumber markets and the high Canadian dollar continue to take their toll on the forestry giant.

{snip}

On Tuesday, Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd. (TSX:ANS) said it will shutter its jointly owned Footner Forest Products Ltd. oriented strand board mill at High Level, Alta. just before Christmas.

So, what's the problem?

Well, of course it's the high dollar and the slumping US homebuilding market which is driving down prices:

But here's the thing - and its a thing we made a considerable fuss about back when Stephen Harper and his floor-crossing lackey David Emerson forced the softwood anschluss agreement down our throats a year-and-a-half ago - which is that SLA becomes egregious to Canadian producers as prices fall:

Salman Partners analyst Paul Quinn lumber producers are seeing some of the lowest prices in recent memory.

"And then if you're a Canadian producer you've got a Canadian dollar that's at all-time highs so you have that translation loss and then you signed a softwood lumber agreement which in a down market like right now sees you paying a 15 per cent export tax," Quinn said.

And don't forget this 'peace in our time' Neville Chamberlainish white paper/flag agreement also cost us a billion dollars and that it was signed at a time when we were winning tribunal judgements hand-over-fist.

I guess that's just one more 'Gnu' example of the Weather Office-assisted propagammon known as the gramatically-challenged 'Strong Leadership. A Better Canada'.

Sheesh.


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Is Our Province Full Of Rabbit Holes?

AllQuiteOnTheRailGateFront
BigMediaVille

So the deafening silence from the mainstream media on the secret witness/secret informer/secret document trails leading a projected every-which-way towards allegedly/perhaps/maybe the highest levels of government/organized crime/drug dealing/bribery/corruption/destruction of public trust and/or assets is one thing.

But what about this.....

.....The one reporter who has done the most to keep this story alive over the past three years, eleven months and three-hundred-forty-one days has his office broken into, his files ransacked, and an explicit RailGates'RUs calling card left behind atop the rubble and it doesn't warrant a single media report* except for short pieces from the two outlets he actually writes for (The Tyee and 24 Hours).

This most definitely is NOT a case of no news is good news.

____
*Luckily, however, we do have BC Mary, Robin Mathews, GWest et al., and the Anon-O-Mice.
**A silver lining has been generated by the many excellent and heart-felt well wishes in the comment thread to the expanded post at Bill Tieleman's personal blog.
Update, Late Tuesday: CKNW is now reporting on the robbery.
Update, Wednesday: According to commenter Off-The-Radar, CBC Radio in Vancouver had a story late Tuesday; and today BC Mary has the text of a short piece in the Victoria T.C. up. Looks like there maybe a little traction, but nothing from the Sun or Province yet - will have to see tomorrow after a full newscycle has passed.


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Why Did Someone Break Into Bill Tieleman's Office?

NoLaughingMatter
TrialOfTheCenturyVille

Last night, after we read a cryptic post on Bill Tieleman's blog, we speculated, half-tongue-in-cheek, that perhaps Mr. T. had become a person of interest in the Railgate affair.

At the time, of course, we were talking about his encyclopedic knowledge and his files being of interest to someone associated with the legal apparatus associated with the case.

Instead, in reality, it looks like Bill may have become a person of interest for the illegal apparatus.

From a post at 'The Tyee':

The office of a Vancouver journalist has been broken into in an incident he believes is linked to the political scandal he is covering.

Bill Tieleman, a regular contributor to The Tyee who has been writing about the B.C. legislature raid case, discovered upon his return from the courthouse Monday that someone had broken into his office via the ceiling and a vacant adjacent office after attempts to force his door apparently failed.

Although nothing was missing, Tieleman said the intruders had moved a copy of a book about the raid and an accompanying press kit across his office and placed them on top of fallen ceiling tiles.

"Somebody was sending me a clear message about the B.C. legislature raid," he told The Tyee.

"There's no question about it."


This is NOT a good thing.

OK?

.

Is Mr. T. About To Become A Person Of Interest?

RailGateGoneWild
TrialOfTheCenturyVille

Update: This post was originally written somewhat tongue-in-cheek. That was a mistake as it turns out that Mr. Tieleman's office was broken into and ransacked. The thugs also left behind a prominently displayed Railgate calling card that Bill believes was a warning. My apologies for having been so flippant at the outset.

_______________________________________

Original post......


Just came back from Bill Tieleman's site, looking for the latest on BC RailGate (non)trial, and look what I found:

An emergency situation occurred today that regrettably took me out of BC Supreme Court and reporting on a rare secret hearing that took place today in the Basi-Virk case.

You will be able to read about that emergency in tomorrow's 24 hours newspaper and The Tyee online publication, as well as on this blog Tuesday.

I can only say at this point that it does have to do with the BC Legislature Raid case and you will find it quite astonishing.


Now, assuming that all is well with Mr. T. in terms of life and limb, I can only wonder what, given all that has already gone on in the RailGate case, could actually 'astonish' me at this point.

Hmmmmmmm.......

How about this?

Mr. T., due to his encyclopedic knowledge and writings on the case, has actually become a person of interest in the case.

Sound crazy?

Sure thing.

But, then again, who would have been crazy enough to give anybody odds, even at 364-to-one, that the trial of this case wouldn't have even started yet, almost four years after the fact.


____
And why, you might ask, have we decided to make such a wild-eyed speculation? Well, when the public and the press are shut-out completely, what else can we do but speculate - OK?

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What Are We Gonna Do.........Now?

PublicationBans'RUs
TrialOfTheCenturyVille

"The voices in your head are calling....
Stop wasting your time, there's nothing coming.
Only a fool would think someone could save you"
                                    'The Clampdown', Strummer/Jones

B.C.RailGateDate - Year Three, Month 11, Day 340

Still no start to this trial

And is it possible that there will soon be......

No Public....

No Press....

And maybe even No Defense?

VANCOUVER/Canadian Press, Dec03/07 - The judge hearing a B.C. political corruption case has approved a Crown application for an in-camera session as part of the pre-trial process before the case gets underway in earnest next year.

Justice Elizabeth Bennett of B.C. Supreme Court granted the request by special prosecutor Bill Berardino to close the hearing to the public and reporters while she hears the Crown's argument regarding a question of privilege.

The reason for the Crown's application and details about it cannot be reported under a publication ban issued by Bennett.

Bennett rejected arguments by lawyers for news organizations, including The Canadian Press, that the hearing should be open to the media.

After making her ruling, the judge heard a separate application to exclude defence lawyers from the in-camera hearing, with a ruling on that issue expected Tuesday, which may reopen the door to media access.......

Apparently, according to petitions from the special prosecutor Mr. Beradino, this all has something to do with secret documents and/or witnesses that don't want their identities revealed to anyone.

Regardless, given the stakes involved, and the myriad possibilities re: identities of the whistleblowers and/or snitches and/or informers, you'd think that this would drive the local media into a speculative frenzy worthy of a hundred, if not a thousand-million-billion inquiries into the presumed missing payments for a little bit of shady tree-lined back deck work.

Doncha' think?

______
Text of Neal Hall's VSun story is up at BC Mary's, where the Anon-O-Mice are starting to sing.





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Mr. King Weighs In.....

...On Smilin' Sammy's Worst Nightmare

The(Re?)RisingOf
CivicTEAMVille


We have enjoyed Ian King's reportage on Vancouver civic politics for a long, long time (ie. since the halcyon days of the dead tree-only editions of the waylong gone 'Terminal City').

Now, after much cajoling, we've managed to get Mr. King to offer an opinion on what kind of mayor Carole Taylor might be.

He did so in the comments to an earlier post, and we thank him (and Paul Willcocks too):

Darn, and here I was hoping for Paul to fill us in on Taylor's vision for Vancouver (haw, haw). I get the sense that she's a deal-broker and aware of the need to deal with Vancouver's social ills -- but what motivates her? What approach would she take with council, City Hall, provincial agencies, senior governments? You can divine a little bit from her performance as finance minister and her recruiters. (Political columns are the modern-day answer to haruspexy.)

This council has been terrible for partisanship. Far worse than 2002-05. It's practically become the Parliament of Vancouver; positions are made in caucus and almost noone breaks the party line on any issue where there is a clear NPA/opposition split.

What really grates is that I know that most of the councillors are far, far more intelligent and open-minded than they come across when they're pissing away in chambers. Some of the blame has to go to Sullivan and how tightly he controls his caucus to keep that 6-5 majority on almost every substantial vote.

That's where Taylor would be a big shift, party or no party. Everyone else has noted her knack for defusing tense situations -- and I've seen the same in my more limited encouters. She might even be willing to let council go back to a looser, less party-line affair in the way most councils work. Well, a guy can dream.

I'm not sure that it would be practical to get parties out of Vancouver politics. The city is large and complex enough that citywide campaigns need a lot of resources, and that was true before the spending explosion of 2002. Very few independents can muster that on their own; they have to be either very wealthy or very good organisers. With parties, people like Raymond Louie can compete fully.

Interesting, n'est-ce pas?

____
For the record, Michael Smyth, filling in for the Watercarrier on the (nolonger)Giant '98 this morning, said that he too thinks that Ms. Taylor will make a run at the Mayor's chair. And like Rafe Mair, Mr. Smythe says that he saw this coming a few weeks back when Ms. Taylor broke with Mr. Campbell and The Dobranos because of their cruel and unusual punishment of the Cambie St. merchants (including our favorite, Black Dog Video).
Musing about that 'TEAM' resurrection thing.......Can't help but wonder if Ms. Taylor has had Nancy Chiavario over for tea lately.
And for what it's worth: If Ms. Taylor does take a run at the Smilin' One, Miro Cernetig adds considerable weight to our origninal speculation when he says that 'The Vancouver Sun has learned' that she will do it only as an Independent (ie. NPA Bagman-Free).


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Case 23299 Is Back!

TrialOfTheCentury
RailGateVille

Yes, that's right.

There is, indeed, yet another LedgeRaid/Railgate Trial hearing today in British Columbia Supreme Court.

Something about secret witnesses and in-camera petitions or some such thing.

Best place to get breaking info, as always, is over at BC Mary's where the erudite Anon-O-Mice are sure to soon be chattering away.

As for media coverage - you can always count on Bill Tieleman of 24 Hrs and The Tyee as well as Neal Hall of the Sun (especially when his editors give him the required time and space).


____
Please note the lack of 'lectronic media recommendations.

.

Is Erin Airton Working For Smilin' Sammy?

PunditsOnPuffballs
FlackHackeryVille

Unfortunately, the Cluffmaster Flash was back in the host's chair this morning on CBC Radio's Early Edition.

Thus, Stephen Quinn was not there to give Erin Airton the gears when she floated the preposterous idea that Carole Taylor might not run for Mayor of Vancouver because she was scared she would split the Westside and the, ahem, 'ethnic' vote with Sam Sullivan.

Laughable.

In the extreme.


_____
Luckily, Rafe Mair was able to set Ms. Airton straight regarding Ms. Taylor's interest in helping the businesses along Cambie that have fallen destitute due to the dastardly doings of the Dobranos.


.

Snow? In Lotusland?

HereToday
GoneTomorrowVille

Gotta go out and play in it, right now, because tomorrow it will be gone.

Which is why, of course, that so many friends and acquaintances from east of the Cascades are quite adamant that we are not actually a Truly-White-Until-April part of the real CanuckiStanMikitaVille (whatever the heckfire that is in these, the days of the darkest harpooning).

Anyway, best place for the sledding 'round these Davey Boy Emerson-ruled parts is Queen Elizabeth Park which, as far as I know, has not yet been sold off to the DeveloperBund*.

News at 11.

_____
*As for an adjacent affordable housing complex, well, that's an entirely different story.



.

Lawyers, Guns and Stockboy

AndTheBandWoreBlueShirts
Firearms'RUsVille

Why does Mr. Stockwell Day love the NRA's guns so much?

Dave, b/w Alison (in the comments), at The Galloping Beaver has the answer.

Sheesh.



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The Cosmic Kid....

.....Is Coming To Town

InFullCostumeDress
EngineOfAnOldParkedCarVille



And we've got tickets.

All of us.

C., Bigger E, littler e., and me too.

All of which has led to a fury of set-list and tea-leaf reading trying to figure out what we will see and hear.

I figure I'd like the current Set 'A', just for a 10 or 12 minute version of 'Kitty's Back!' although given the Phantom's unfortunate illness I'm not so sure that's gonna happen by the time the Circus comes to Lotusland

But then I stumbled upon a rumour that 'Growin' Up' might be in the mix.

Given how important that soaring excercise in self-preservatory fantastgoric-flim-flammery was to me when I was a kid, well......

I couldn't help blurting out, to no one in particular, something about how I might start balling if they did actually play it.

littler e., who was sitting across the Subterranean Blues Room (ie. the basement cubby hole where we keep our mind-control boxes) heard me and just said, kind of matter-of-factly:

"But I've never seen you cry before Dad."

Which is very strange thing for an 8 year old to say, indeed.

Then again, littler e. has never seen me 'stand stone-like at midnight, suspended in my masquerade' before either.

OK?

.

When The Going Gets Tough, Does Carole Taylor Get Going?

TimingIsEverything
PolVille

Yesterday, we suggested that an 'independent' mayor Carole Taylor might be a good thing for Vancouver regardless ideology.

Which is an outsider's* opinion we still kinda/sorta stand behind.

Today, however, The TimesColonist's Les Leyne raised an interesting, if somewhat tangential, point re: a possible accessory motive for Ms. Taylor's resignation as Gordon Campbell's provincial Finance Minister.

(H)er timing is impeccable. She said she's at a personal peak in terms of health, home and happiness. The B.C. Liberals are still comfortably on top politically. And the economic scene over which she has presided confidently is still booming.

It's that last measurement that has the most relevance to people. The quarterly report that she delivered along with her decision not to run again hints at how acute her sense of timing is.

Because it looks like the boom cycle is cresting in B.C. The boundless optimism that characterized previous economic updates isn't nearly as strong as it has been over the past few years.

Taylor's update shows B.C.'s domestic economy is still strong. But the critical "external conditions" by which a good part of the province thrives or lags are weakening to the point where the best guesses about what happens next are getting pessimistic.

Leyne then wrote that he doesn't think that Ms. Taylor is actually bailing on the people of the British Columbia now that it looks like the going might be getting a little tough.

Me, I'm not so sure.

One thing I do know for sure, however - if Ms. Taylor does become Mayor of Vancouver in November 2008, I sure as heck don't want her bailing on us as soon as the Olympics are done in 2010.

Especially if the going gets tough.

OK?


_____
*Of course, this is an opinion that could change once commentators with real insider info and insight, folks like Stephen Quinn and/or Ian King, weigh in.
Update: The I-Ching King has a couple of interesting things to say about potential undercover (of darkness?) motives in the comments.
Double-Not-So-Secret-Probation Update: Paul Willcocks throws in his two cents as well, together with the 'D' word which is no small matter when it comes to Vancouver civic politics.

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