Which Little Step(v)hen Would You Vote For?

AutomaticForTheSheeple
BeeBopBelugaVille


Campaign Day Three's Issue......DEALING WITH THE CAPOS....

"What? Where do you get these freakin' idiots, huh? Where do you get them?"

Little Steven van Zandt as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos.

Phil McColeman's campaign manager John Huigenbos tells CBC reporter Margot Kelly that National Conservative Party officials told his candidate not to speak to the media because.....
"You don't want to get a fragmented, poor message, nor do you want one that's not right."

Little Stephen Harper as Maximum Leader with Edict #347.i.2a silencing The Candidates.

You decide....


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Later the same day, Mon Sept 08/08, Mr. Huigenbos changed his story telling his local paper, the Brantford Expositor, that restricting (media) access to (Con Candidate) McColeman was a local directive relating to a family matter, not a national edict. Sure thing. But does that mean that he is suggesting that members of Mr. McColeman's family might say some stupid.....errrrr..... 'wrong' things, or are we to infer that that he, Mr. McColemen, only gets stupid and says things that aren't 'right' when he is around them?

Still no word from Mr. Dante's people regarding where he and his get their not-so-useful idiots from. Maybe everybody on both sides of the great p(v)h divide will just have to stay tuned for a re-run running near you.

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What About THEIR Songs?

ThePowerOfSong
FloatingEphemerallyVille

In the comments to a post yesterday about what is arguably the song that best captured the zeitgeist in Australia after their conscripts (yes conscripts!) returned home from fighting in Vietnam, GWest mentioned that the song below gave voice to the feelings of hope, despair and connection too for Berliners on both sides of the wall a number of years BEFORE it actually fell.

And even in the original German that last verse is almost unbearably beautiful for these pretty much entirely English language-only ears:




Any others?

Songs, I mean.


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English version here, solid Wiki summary here.
And for some reason, this excercise has me wondering what folks think about all the changes at CBC Radio 2. Have to admit that I'm enjoying Buck 65 in the afternoon but, still, I have to agree with many longtime listeners/devotees that it's all too much, too fast.


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Which Little Step(v)hen Would You Vote For?

AutomaticForThePeople
DumbandDumberPolloramalamadingdongVille


Campaign Day Two's Issue......PERSONAL ATTACKS

"Look, T, if my vote counts for anything, I cannot believe that Pussy would fear the can enough to hurt his friends."

Little Steven as Silvio Dante on 'The Sopranos', Season One.

"To be really honest, I anticipate a very nasty, kind of personal-attack campaign (against me)."

Little Stephen speaking to more than willing water carrier Lloyd Robertson on campaign eve.

You decide*.


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*But before you do, you may wish to recall at least a few of those 8,472, 377 personal-attack ads that Little Stephen's Miracles had already run against Mr. Dion before he made that statement to Mr. Robertson..... It's called innoculation for a (hopefully) dumbed-down nation baby!


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Who Will Write OUR Soldiers' Songs?

WhenTheFlagWavingStops
SolaceVille


Dave, a guy who knows a thing or two about such matters, just wrote a post about how folks in Australia are suddenly becoming aware of just how dangerous their contribution to the mission in Afghanistan is becoming.

And with that awareness has come an increased questioning of the validity and the value of said 'mission'.

All of which has parallels with a different mission that Australia became heavily involved in almost two generations ago now.

In Vietnam.

Here's Dave:

(T)he question of involvement in Vietnam had less to do with the unstable Diem government at the time and more to do with an opportunity to lever the United States into a position favourable to Australia in the future.

Countries do that. I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine when an itch develops. Mutual alliance.

Unfortunately, Australia's Vietnam history runs close to parallel with that the of U.S. in the same period, including resorting to conscription to fill army ranks and jailing protesters opposed to the war.

But it was the fact that Australia's primary reason for entry into Vietnam had little to do with Vietnam itself. It was to elicit a form of guarantee that Australia could demand U.S. military and political favour, quickly and without question, should the need ever arise. As ugly as it sounds, the Australian government was prepared to, and did, shed the blood of its own people in a conflict in which they had less than serious interest to enhance the relationship with the United States, gain a position under the U.S. military umbrella and develop a level of influence.

It struck me that perhaps a similarity exists now with Canada's involvement in Afghanistan.

That Harper is trying to gain leverage with the Bush administration......


Now, that last point is something we are bound to debate over and over and over and over again during the coming weeks, months and likely even years.

And regardless the consensus (or not) that is ultimately reached, our soldiers are eventually going to come home after they've done their best to contribute to 'our' mission in Afghanistan.

And when the flag waving stops some of those folks are going to need something more than political debating points and/or long forgotten dockside guarantees to get them through those days and nights when they're having a rough go of it.

Something like, maybe, this......




So, who's gonna write the Canadian version of Khe Sanh for our kids who have served in Kandahar?

I dunno.

But I hope to hear it soon.

OK?



______
Here's a weird anecdote.....Recently, I was at a 'Pacific-Rim' science geek conference that had researchers from both sides of the Pacific, top to bottom. The conference was at a reasonably nearby Lotuslandian mountain hideaway so I drove the VW (notso)Microbus there, which meant I had the guitar. And on a couple of nights a bunch of us sat around in the woods goofing around with the box. Heckfire, I even managed to put together a halfway decent rendition of this, which led to all manner of hooting, hollering and footstomping from the Australian contingent (who were great fun by the way - and good scientists too, hardly really geekish at all). But the Aussies were not satisfied - nearly every single one of them, young/old/man/woman, wanted Khe Sanh. Unfortunately, I didn't have it tabbed at the time (but I sure do now).


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Well, After All, She's A Hockey Mom Too.....

LittleStephen'sRunningMate
NorthernRepublic?Ville



Ya, but...... enquiring minds want to know......

What about the moose?

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Unadulterated screen shot from the front page of The Conservative Party of Canada's website, Sunday Sept 07/2008.


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Which Little Step(v)hen Would You Vote For?

AutomaticForThePeople
PolloramalamadingdongVille

Today's issue........EDUCATION

"This relationship between music education and better performance in life is not accidental."

Little Steven Van Zandt on his 'Rock and Roll High School Music' music program

"If Ottawa giveth, then Ottawa can taketh (your thinking hats?) away."

Little Stephen Harper with kindergartners at the Int'l Youth Environment Summit

So.

On an issue as important as education, who would you vote for?



______
Thanks to reader Gary E for passing along the germs of the wicked snarkolepsy.


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If He Wasn't A Liberal....

....What The Heckfire Was He?

Well, well, well.

My Member of Parliament is stepping down for all the usual reasons.......blah, blah, blah, nosebleeds, blah, blah, blah, blah......

But that doesn't mean Mr. David Emerson is in any way chastened, as he told the soon to be non-existent CBC yesterday:

"I think I had a good shot at winning."

Which, of course, is laughable on its face, and could be easily trumpeted as so if any reporter/interviewer/commentator would bother to go below the surface (and/or if any editor/producer would let them).


But never mind reporters and editors and such because this unchallenged bit of codswallop was actually uttered on the Puffmaster Flash's drive time radio show out here in Lotusland yesterday morning.

****

Some folks 'round here, people like Mike Watkins, actually remember the January 2006 federal election campaign.

It was was the campaign where Mr. Emerson ran as the Liberal in our (still kinda/sorta) working class neighbourhood of Vancouver Kingsway (a neighbourhood, by the way, in which he does not live).

After he won that election locally he, Mr. Emerson, said the following about the scary, scary guy who won the election federally:

"I would like to be Stephen Harper's worst nightmare."

Now, here's the thing......

In 2004, Mr. Emerson also ran in Vancouver Kingsway.

As a Liberal.

And he won that time out too.

Which must mean that Mr. Emerson is a pretty popular guy around these here parts, eh?

Well, that is debatable.

What is not debatable, however, is the fact that a conservative, which Mr. Emerson now most undeniably is, has not won in this riding since 1958.

Oh, and regarding old promise from Mr. Emerson about becoming the Mr. Harper's worst nightmare.....

Well, there are more than a few folks out here in Vancouver Kingsway that would like Mr. Emerson to finally fulfill that promise on Oct 14th, 2008.

After all, Mr. Emerson has just signed on to become Mr. Harper's campaign co-chair for the next five weeks.

Thus, we can only hope he screws that job us badly as he did when he negotiated the softwood lumber agreement that royally screwed all the people in this riding and this province (and Ontario and Quebec too, battleground provinces all) who work, or more likely 'worked', in the forest industry for a living*.


OK?


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*As opposed to those that collect big, fat forest industry 'entitlement' cheques dropped down to them by golden parachute every month.


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The Miracle Of Text.....

AllThatEnglishClassStuff
Non-LiteralCommunicationVille


Author John Green is a genius.

On a whole lotta levels.





OK.


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Mr. Green's intro is here and Part 1 of the Catcher In The Rye Vlog Bros bookclub is here.
And as for that third of a third of a third third that doesn't know that Ms. Nunes is going on the Paper Towns book tour? Well, like Mr. T., we should all pity the fool(s).

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Boss, Boss..........The The!

Strikes Again!

On the left: Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington D.C.

On the right: Walter Reed Middle School in Hollywood California.

Guess which one was the backdrop for John McCain's day-glow green speech at the Squanes'd-Up/Hookers and Blow-Assisted Republican National Convention ?

Yup, you guessed it.

And the school is not happy. The following, as reported by Talking Points Memo (who has pulled the MSM into the story screaming and kicking), is a statement from the principal:

"It has been brought to the school's attention that a picture of the front of our school, Walter Reed Middle School, was used as a backdrop at the Republican National Convention. Permission to use the front of our school for the Republican National Convention was not given by our school nor is the use of our school's picture an endorsement of any political party or view."


That's not Googling we can believe in.

____
Of course, the real irony here is that the hunt-and-peck, last minute, google-image-search-driven desire to find a photo of the Med Ctr. suitable for blowing up behind Mr. McCain's head was very likely just one more attempt to exploit the sick and the injured who have been maimed in Mr. Bush's war of insanity.

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Palindrome-O-Gate.....

Slappin'HerselfUpTheSideOfTheHead
AtTheStonewallInnVille



Palindrome (n.):

1. A word, phrase, verse, or sentence that reads the same backward or forward. For example: A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!

2. A segment of double-stranded DNA in which the nucleotide sequence of one strand reads in reverse order to that of the complementary strand.
3. Doing the same thing to yourself as you do to others for the reverse reasons.


OK, OK, OK.

I made that last one up.

But I did not make up the following, from today's Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News:

Gov. Sarah Palin is taking the wrong approach to Troopergate. She should be practicing the open and transparent, ethical and accountable government she promised when running for governor and boasts about now that she's on the national stage.......

{snippety doodle dandy}

Palin's lawyer has asked the Legislature to drop its investigation. He had the governor file an ethics complaint against herself, in a bid to turn the entire matter over to the state Personnel Board, which would hire an independent investigator.


Which begs the question.....How long before John McCain starts screaming from the stump that his running mate is....

"...so ethical she files ethics complaints against herself and then sells the complaints on eBay, for a profit!"

Sheesh.

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Boss, Boss......The Teh!

AllTheGooglingThatFits
Toobzville


Persuant to the 'breaking' story described immediately below in which the following statement made by John McCain at a stump speech TODAY, Sept 05, 2008......

"You know what I enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her predecessor and sold it on eBay -- and made a profit!" McCain declared in Wisconsin at a campaign stop on Friday.


Is debunked.

Well, it turns out that the most thorough debunking was not, and will not, be done by any and/or all of the press poodles currently scurrying around places like Juneau, New York, Washington, or even Moscow Idaho.

Because the best debunkinator is actually a bit of old news, from Aug 2007 (yes, 2007) in that teeny-tiny, difficult to seach for and/or through, news organ called........The New York (freaking!) Times.

A businessman from Valdez, Alaska, Larry Reynolds, paid $2.1 million this week for the state-owned Westwind II jet that Mr. Murkowski’s successor, Gov. Sarah S. Palin, promised to purge from the state inventory when she ran against Mr. Murkowski last fall in the Republican primary......

{snippety doo-dah}

In December, barely a week after being inaugurated, Ms. Palin said the plane would be sold on eBay. One serious offer was posted, for a similar price, but the deal fell apart when the state hesitated on the terms and the prospective buyer found another jet, said Dan Spencer, director of administrative services for the Public Safety Department.

Mr. Reynolds learned of the plane through Speaker John L. Harris, Republican of Valdez, Mr. Spencer said.

“He picked it up this morning,” Mr. Spencer said yesterday. “He had a couple of pilots.”

So.

Did the McCainiacs vet her or didn't they?

Or......

Did they just to decide to start making stuff up as fast as they could on, say, last Thursday?

Not the two things are necessarily mutually exclusive.

OK?

____
And don't forget, this codswallop was also in the campaign video that ran at the RNC convention, so do not be fooled by all the 'Palin never actually said it' business that is sure to come.

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Boss, Boss.......The Plane!

AllTheMythsThatFit
McCainVille


Myth #1:

One of the compelling anecdotes about Sarah Palin is that she auctioned off the Alaska governor's jet on eBay after taking office -- a swift move made by a reformer hoping to clean up the excesses of her predecessor.


It started with the speech at the RNC and has been flogged non-stop by John McCain ever since.

Only problem is, the reality is just a wee bit different:

It appears that, as promised during her bid for governor in 2006, Palin did try to sell the plane on eBay but that doing so was not as easy as it might have sounded. After putting it up to auction, there was one serious bid, in December 2006, and it fell through. Still, the Westwind II was sold about eight months later, achieving Palin's goal of ridding the state of a luxury item.


Of course, this can all be massaged as just a slight bit of we mispoke ourselveseitis, right?

Not so fast, Batman!

Because McCain keeps shoveling on the shite with statements like the following (a.k.a. Myth #2):

"You know what I enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her predecessor and sold it on eBay -- and made a profit!" McCain declared in Wisconsin at a campaign stop on Friday.


Which is total crapola, as Anne Kornblut, the author of the above quoted speech has just told MSNBC - it was sold at a loss.

And here's the kicker.

According to Kornblut, it was actually sold to a Palin campaign contributor.

Officials in McCain's campaign did not immediately reply to requests for comment.


Surprise!

_____
Update: San Jose Mercury News now reports the plane was sold for significantly under book to an Alaskan 'Businessman'.
DoubleSecretProbationUpdate: ChiTrib is reporting that the plane was sold to an entrepreneur from Valdez.

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The Return Of The Content Consultant

IronyDeaderThanAThousandDoornails

LINOVille



When last we saw him, Kenneth Dobell was headed, as our man Mr. Young once put it, "for the turnstiles".

Transit turnstiles to be precise:

The premier's former special advisor and top bureaucrat has been talking to the Campbell administration on behalf of Cubic Transportation Systems Inc., an American company that "designs, manufactures and integrates automatic fare collection systems for public transit projects throughout the world." This, according to the provincial government's lobbyist registry. Ken Dobell registered as a lobbyist for the San Diego firm on November 23 (2007), declaring an intent to contact transportation minister Kevin Falcon and Partnerships British Columbia regarding "transit system gates and smart cards."


Or course, that bit of 'registered' lobbying came hot on the heels of a bit of previous "non-registered" lobbying that led to a trip to the courthouse:

VANCOUVER (Thurs Mar 13, 2008, Canadian Press) — Former B.C. deputy minister Ken Dobell has been handed an absolute discharge by a provincial court judge for violating B.C.'s lobbying legislation.

Judge Joseph Galati called Dobell's actions a "trivial breach" of the regulations.

Dobell pleaded guilty yesterday to breaking lobbying laws by failing to register before the 10 day deadline, as required while working with the province for the city of Vancouver on a social housing project.

Outside the court, Dobell said he was pleased the judge reached the conclusion, adding he didn't want to end his career with a conviction in a related area.

Now, one may wish to argue about whether or not Mr. Dobell's failure to register as a lobbyist was or was not a trivial matter.

But it would be very hard to successfully argue that something called "influence peddling" is.

Trivial, I mean.

Why do I raise that issue here?

Well, because it was an issue that was specifically raised by the special prosecutor in Mr. Dobell's case two days before he, Mr. Dobell, pleaded guilty to the 'trivial' matter of non-registration as reported at the time by Jonathan Fowlie in the VSun:

In a statement released Monday (Mar 10, 2008), special prosecutor Terrence Robertson said Dobell plans to plead guilty to a charge of failing to register as a lobbyist, and to return nearly $7,000 he received in fees from the City of Vancouver.

Dobell could face a fine of up to $25,000 under Section 10 of the Lobbyists Registration Act.

In his report, Robertson said he believed Dobell could have been convicted of influence peddling - a Criminal Code offence. But he said it was not in the public interest to charge Dobell with influence peddling because the career civil servant "held an honest but mistaken belief throughout that this activities were lawful."

So, in the end, the apparently trivial was processed by the courts and the decidedly non-trivial was ignored.

As a result, Mr. Dobell walked away with an absolute discharge, but only after a very serious dual bout of fee renumeration and (oh, the horror!) essay writing:

He returned nearly $7,000 in fees to the city and also wrote an essay for the federal Department of Justice warning other retiring bureaucrats to make sure they don't contravene lobbyist laws.


So.

Why did Mr. Dobell not register as a lobbyist way back when (ie. before registering to work for the turnstiles*)?

Well, when the matter was first raised publicly, months before he had his day (of pleading 'guilty') in court, Mr. Dobell insisted that he was not a 'lobbyist' but instead was, as Michael Smyth reported, a 'content consultant':

How can he (Mr. Dobell) "advise" and "lobby" (B.C. Premier Gordon) Campbell at the same time?

How can a professional lobbyist have a desk right inside the premier's office?

Isn't it all a conflict of interest?

But as the NDP screams "cover-up!" at the legislature, Dobell came to Victoria yesterday and offered a surprising explanation: He's not really a "lobbyist" at all, you see. "

I'd regard myself as a content consultant," he told a news conference.

Smyth then asked an obvious question that, at the time, was much on many people's minds:

What the hell is a content consultant?

Which is a question that, to the best of my knowledge, has never been explicitly answered.

But here's the thing.

It turns out that there IS such a thing as a "consultant lobbyist".

And there is currently a whole passel of them working in British Columbia.

How do we know this?

Well, it was in a story today in the Globe and Mail under Justine Hunter's byline:

There are currently 120 consultant lobbyists registered in B.C. They do not have to register if they are employed by a lobbying firm, only if they are working for a client.

And why was Ms. Hunter writing about this strange new hybrid-breed?

Well, it turns out that Mr. Dobell has just been hired by the Lotuslandian branch plant of one of Canada's biggest lobbying firms to 'coach' a bunch of them:

VICTORIA (Sept 04, 2007) -- He's now the head of one of the top public relations firms in B.C. - but don't call Ken Dobell a lobbyist.

Mr. Dobell, formerly a top political fixer for Premier Gordon Campbell, was named yesterday as the new chair of Hill & Knowlton British Columbia, which bills itself as the province's "most senior strategic public affairs practitioners."

He said he doesn't expect to register as a lobbyist on behalf of the firm: He'll be offering strategic advice and coaching a new crop of consultants.

"You said, 'Head lobbyist for a top lobbying firm?' That would be totally inappropriate," he said in an interview.

Inappropriate.......?

Maybe.

Trivial.......?

Absolutely not.

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*Just in case you my have forgotten, Mr. Dobell was also once the CEO of an outfit called 'Translink' that will be one of the major end users of any and all 'turnstiles' if and when their purchase is approved by Mr. Falcon.
Mr Holman asks, pointedly, "What content will he be consulting on?"


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Mr. Campbell's Mamma Mia Culpa

Non-ResponsibleResponsibility
LINOVille

So.

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, fresh from being thrown under the bus by one of Little Stephen's Miracles, is taking full responsibility for the public's hate-on regarding the massive pay hikes for his lackeys:

Speaking to CTV's Jim Beatty in Vancouver Wednesday, Campbell took full responsibility for the public relations blunder.

"I can tell you this Jim, I did not do a good job with you or with the public. I certainly understand the challenge that this presents to people. They look at that and they say, boy that's an awful lot of money."

So (the second).

Is he going to rescind the egregious pay hikes?

Not on your life:

However, Campbell said there is no way that the pay increases will be withdrawn.

"We're not backing away from a policy of being number three in Canada and we're not backing away from a policy of valuing our public servants," he said.

So (the third).

That's it is it?

Mr. Campbell is telling folks that he's got to screw them over with their own money so that he can shout the following from the TeeVee stations' rooftops:

"We're Number Three!"

Well, at least that gets him on the podium.

Unfortunately we, the people of British Columbia, no longer own it.



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In non-related related news, the master content consultant, who used to be the boss of the most well-paid current lackey/ear whisperer back when he himself was then head lackey/ear whisperer (ie. before the currently best paid ear whisperer wrote a letter that exonerated him)has landed on his feet with, gasp!, a lobbying firm. There is just not enough sheesh in all of Lotusland to go around on that one.
And.....if you roll the video below, by all means please feel free to, as Mr. Willcocks says, 'pay attention' to the first two lines of the tune. OK?






.

Hey! People! Leave That Kid Alone.

NoPropIsGoodProp
WhenItDestroysLivesVille


Listen.

All this denigrating of a 17 year old kid because of the potential and/or perceived sins of the parents and the pols has got to stop.

****

The best take I've read on the issue comes from 'Citizen E' commenting at Firedoglake:

As a 60’s Berkeley and 70’s & 80’s Mendocino County lefty, whose oldest daughter got pregnant as teenager, I fervently hope that the left, netroots, Democrats take their nose out of the Palin family business. This is exactly the kind of trivialization Obama spoke of in his speech. We’ve got our eyes in the Palin nomination headlights, when just last week, whether one agrees with each and every policy decision, we heard for the first time in I don’t know how long from a Democrat running for President a real champion. Enough! Let’s get on the stick and make them own their failure, rather than rubbernecking the love life of a seventeen year old girl.


OK?



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Liberal Catnip makes good sense too.
Oh, and regarding the real failures of the pols, there is, of course, this b/w this.


.