Sometimes A Myth Is Just A Myth

RidingTheLongWave
EditorsVille

The word, as they say, is out.

In case you haven't noticed, most of the 'HST Friday' stuff and a few chunks of associated detrius have been archived at the top of the sidebar on the left.

And the Gonzocrats have taken notice.

As a result, my inbox is suddenly full to bursting with Thompson Trivia of all manner and description.

Which is not necessarily a bad, or even an unwanted, thing.

Here's one of them, a fine, if somewhat tangential, memorial from David McCumber who worked with Thompson at the SF Examiner back in the salad days of the middle-80's.

"Back in '85, everybody at the Examiner figured Hunter's column would last maybe three weeks before it blew up in a bloody froth of disputes over deadlines, editing and expenses. (One of Hunter's truisms about journalism: "Given money for expenses, anything is possible.")

Indeed, he and editor Dave Burgin clashed quickly -- and publisher Will Hearst decided somebody more expendable than the editor of the newspaper should handle Hunter's column, or that's the impression I got when he ominously invited me into his office to discuss being Hunter's new "control."

When I said, "sure," Hunter burst out of Will's bathroom, fell to the floor, did 10 pushups, then grabbed two tumblers, filled them with scotch, jammed one into my hand, shook the other hand, and the hog, as he would say, was in the tunnel. He would write the column for five years, three of them with a little help from me, and the best of them would make a book, "Generation of Swine," that sold a quarter-million copies in hardback."

Good stuff, huh. One myth destroyed and one confirmed.

Me, I'm just the steno.

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The Return Of Ms. Mallick

PokingTheNotSoMagnificentAspersonsInTheEye
MotherCorpVille

Our favorite defender of the realm, Heather Mallick, is back.

This morning she was on The Current (RAudio, at the top of Part 2 is here).

And she's also writing an on-line column for.....wait for it...... the CBC.

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Is There A Codswallop In The House?

WilliamZanzinger
LedgeVille


A couple of days ago we took BC's current Child and Family Minister, Stan Hagen, to task for smearing Nicholas Simons about his role in the Sherry Charlie review when the rookie NDP MLA is under a gag order from Hagen's own Ministry:

How twisted is that, on a whole lot of levels?

Well, twisted enough that Mr. Hagen has come under enough fire that he hid in the legislature today and wouldn't come out to answer questions from Sean Holman about the affair.

But, apparently, Ministerial feelings have been hurt because here's what happened when Holman finally caught up with Mr. Hagen:

During that brief encounter, he told us his staff would be seeking a legal opinion as to whether Mr. Simons could be released from his agreement. We also asked Minister Hagen whether he thought it was fair for him to attack Mr. Simons when the New Democrat MLA was legally prevented from defending himself. After a short, hollow laugh, he replied "I think it's funny that you would ask that question given what people have been saying about me" before re-entering the house.

Once again, we call - Codswallop!

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Should He Stay Or Should He Go?

WhizzingOnKingsway
LivingLargeInQuadraVille


A lot of people have been asking me what I think about the David Emerson situation.

Well, of course, I think the right and honourable thing for him to do would be to step down and run in a by-election.

And I just love those 'De-Elect Emerson' signs that line the lawns all over the neighborhood (we live in the Vancouver-Kingsway riding in question).

And my thirteen year old kid thinks those signs are great too, especially that long continuous string of them that lines the northside of King Edward between Cambie and Main.

But she really got me thinking yesterday when she asked, 'Hey, Dad. If Emerson quit wouldn't everybody start thinking he's a good guy?'

Cazart!

She's right, of course.

Which means we don't want him to take himself to the cleaners and remove all that self-produced slime with a wash and rinse of cheap-jack 'One Hour Martyrizing'

Instead, we want him to be in Ottawa every single day, stinkin' the joint out, from now until the next election.

So, given the huge, purely pragmatic-pol potential upside on this issue, my answer now is most definitely is an emphatic - STAY.

And besides, I can't wait to hear Mr. Harper state after, oh say, the 19th VANOC overrun 18 months from now:

'You're doin' a heckuva job Emmie!'

OK?

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For Those Canadians Who Hate Gun Control

WitherTheABA
NoLongerDrJVille


There's always this to look forward to:

Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association are offering free tickets to people who turn in a gun. The team's ownership says the offer will be a success if only one gun is turned in.


Sheesh.

What weaponry, exactly, does it take to actually kill irony anyway?

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Ms. Mallick Where Are You?

ThePeopleTriedToTakeTheField
TheSpinMachineRefusedToYieldVille

Sheesh.

Where is Heather Mallick when we need her, anyway:

Bill O'Reilly claimed that "if Al Qaeda wanted to get in here [the United States], it's easy," because "[t]hey've got all kinds of Muslim crazies up in Canada running around."

Funny how these ChickenStalkers always seem to 'Blame Canada' when the going gets tough.

For the record, here is a bit in which our Heather, clearly and simply, once wiped the Fox Network's studio floor with Mr. O'Reilly's loofah when he called for yet another boycott after two deserters from Operation Iraqi (not)Liberation made their way to Canuckistan:

O'REILLY: then Americans are going to take action. Are you willing to accept that boycott which will hurt your economy, drastically.

MALLICK: I don't think for a moment such a boycott would take place because we are your biggest trading partners.

O'REILLY: No, it will take place, madam. In France ...

MALLICK: I don't think that your French boycott has done too well ...

O'REILLY: ...they've lost billions of dollars in France according to "The Paris Business Review.*"

MALLICK: I think that's nonsense.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again - Ms. Mallick is an Anti-Coulter to call our own.

(And we sure miss her cup of truth serum every Saturday morning)

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*btw: According to Media Matters, the 'billions and billions' is completely bogus and there is no such thing as the "Paris Business Review".
And if you haven't been over to Mike Stark's place to listen to him play these ChickenStalkers for the chumps they are, get thee to his funnery - now.
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We Didn't Do Anything Wrong....

NotPavel
MorleyVille


Well, British Columbia's (anything but) independent child, family and youth (supposed) advocate Jane Morley has reached her verdict.

Dirk Meisner from CP has this report:

Victoria — British Columbia's Child and Youth Officer says a case review of a toddler's death was not a conspiracy and cover-up, but a story of organizational failure.

In a 77-page report on the case review, Jane Morley addresses why the Ministry of Children and Family Development changed the terms of reference of its review into the death of Sherry Charlie and why it took almost three years to complete......

<>snip<>

....Ms. Morley said it took so long because of “periods of minimal productive work,” the frequent turnover of managers, uncertainty over who was in charge of the case review and the fixed election date.

She said she found no indication of efforts to delay the case review because of last May's election, but its release was suspended during the election period from April 19 to June 16.

“The disturbing observation remains that the provincial election need not have been a factor, were it not for all the avoidable delay that happened long before April 19, 2005,” the report said.

Ms. Morley said the report went through as many as 25 draft versions before it became public.

Which has us wondering.....why only 77 pages?

After all, we figure that a whitewash this thick could use at least a nice round jumbo jet number like, say, 777 pages.

As an added bonus, Ms. Morley's current boss has chosen to start shooting messengers:

Children's Minister Stan Hagen said he agreed with Ms. Morley's finding that the report took too long.

Mr. Hagen was critical of Nicholas Simons, who was hired by the ministry on a contract basis to do the director's case review.

Mr. Simons, elected last May as a first-time New Democrat MLA, was working as the director of another aboriginal child welfare agency when he was asked to do the review in 2002.

“Could we have chosen a better reviewer?” said Mr. Hagen. “Probably.”

Now, we understand that it's important for Mr. Hagen to take every possible opportunity to smack down uppity rookies over on the opposition benches. Which would be fine, as far as it goes, if that was all there is to it. But is this not the same Mr. Simons that was not allowed to speak at last week's Coroner's Inquest because his name was struck from the witness list at the last minute, as reported by Sean Holman at Public Eye?

And if, indeed, this is the same Mr. Simons we call 'codswallop!' because you, Mr. Hagen, are innoculating against the day he speaks out.

And you, and now we, both know it.

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Contempt Is Mine Sayeth The Twig

HuntMeDownByTheWaterfrontDocks
WhereTheSailorsCan'tComeInVille

On this 'Look Marge -The Arabs Are Running Our Ports!' deal, I was all set to do a whole lotta gloating, especially given the fact that it looks to be what some might call a cheap-jack money laundering operation:

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The oil-rich United Arab Emirates is a major investor in The Carlyle Group, the private equity investment firm where President Bush's father once served as senior adviser and is a who's who of former high-level government officials. Just last year, Dubai International Capital, a government-backed buyout firm, invested in an $8 billion Carlyle fund.

Another family connection, the president's brother, Neil Bush, has reportedly received funding for his educational software company from the UAE investors. A call to his company was not returned......

But as I went-a-googling on this issue, I come across the following, which was a bit of a surprise, to put it mildly:

"Dubai Ports World has taken over the running of a cargo terminal in Vancouver, and the sale seems to have raised no alarms in Ottawa......"

Geez, Louise!

A scant couple of months ago I headed down to a swanky restaurant perched on the Vancouver waterfront with my wife and friends from out of town that we were trying to impress.

Imagine our surprise when we discovered that our own harbour is being held hostage behind barbwire-topped security fences, guards, surveillance cameras and goddess knows what else.

At the time I asked - Why?

Why are we willingly partaking in all of this 'Fortress North America' balderdash for no good reason at all?

Now, I guess we know the reason, and it's not a particularly good one.

Apparently it's so that we, too, can lay out the Large that is being sent to Dubai so that it then can be sent directly to the Carlyle Group.

Wow.

That sure is some kinda Neandercon BigTent NAFTA-assisted DeeLuxe-type Dealmaking.

Clearly, we are living once again in the gilded-age, and we're lovin' every minute of it.

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Update: Longtime reader and Quebec correspondent, eteba, uses the comments to inform us that Halifax and Montreal are two more of our ports that are sending money to the Bush Family Robinson by way of Dubai. And, apparently, one impetus for all of this is something called 'CSI' which is not a TV show, but rather a multinational 'Container Security Initiative' foisted on the world, by, guess who? - US Customs and Border Protection czar Robert Bonner. So now we know that it is only a matter of time before the Twig announces to the world......'You're doin' a heckuva job Bonnie!'.
Why am I making such a fuss about this? Well, again, according to people who actually know something about stuff like this, and one of the reasons that the noted leftwing commie pinko rag known as the 'The Economist' magazine, recently ranked Vancouver as the world's #1 city to live in is precisely because we are a large metropolitan area that is NOT, I repeat, NOT, perceived to be a major terrorist target.

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The Creme Also Rises

SaveTheirBlackberryBrambles!
ArbutusVille

So the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the right of the City of Vancouver to make bylaws and thus prevent the CPR from selling off their $100 million windfall to the highest bidder.

Which, on the face of it, is a good thing because, Goddess knows, we don't need more Condos in this town.

But what I still can't understand is why that decrepit old 11 km railway that meanders out of Kitsilano and then pretty much makes a North/South beeline for the River is not actually being used as the transportation corridor that the City says it wants it to be.

I mean, I heard the NPA's Suzanne Anton positively crowing about this this morning with Paul Grant on CBC Radio One* and it was the big story all day long on every single media outlet in town.

So, why is it then, exactly, that I can't get across Cambie Street to get to and from work every day because the City is digging up a major North/South transportation (not to mention commercial) artery instead of an old Railroad track to build the RAV line?

I mean what is it about those blackberry brambles that line those tracks - are they Creme de la Creme-spattered along their entire length, or what?

Perhaps our newly appointed Cabinet Minister, who represents my cut-and-cover neighbourhood but actually lives in the creme-filled neighbourhood can explain it to me.

Or, perhaps not.

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*As an aside, it's been fantastic to have Mr. Grant sitting in The Puffmaster's chair all week. While he is not exactly Mr. Personality, Grant is reliable and, gasp!, he actually knows a thing or two about Vancouver. Case in point: in this morning's excellent piece about Chinatown's alleys Mr. Grant was filling in the blanks all over the place with stories about the old green and orange door restaurants/gambling dens. As for Cluffie, well, we're pretty sure he knows where the White Spot on Georgia is.......
Update: Boy, the Condo Kings sure are mad about this Supreme Court ruling; apparently they think it's a threat to private property laws or some such thing. That's a good one, especially if one hikes out to the far Western reaches of Point Grey these days to take a gander at how developer-driven million dollar private property rights are running roughshod over what used to be public property. But, then again, way out there where the City holds no sway the Condo Kings have their own guy on the inside who's been helping to keep things running smoothly since the Strangest of days and ways. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the Province's new Pary School in Kelowna also has a King to call its own on the board as well.

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Good Lawyers Are Expensive....

FleecingTheFlockOneLastTime
ScooterVille


Freakonomics is one thing, but how about Freaks-O-Fundraising.

Because this is unBeFreakin'Lievable:

"The Libby Legal Defense Trust was formed to help defray the legal defense costs for Lewis "Scooter" Libby and his family against the recent legal charges brought against him.

Scooter has pled “not guilty” to each and every count in the recent indictment. In pleading not guilty, Scooter has declared his innocence and his intention to fight the charges in the indictment. But good lawyers are very expensive. And Scooter and his family already have made many sacrifices during Scooter’s ten years of dedicated public service. Now they need our help to win this fight.

We are confident that at the end of this process, Scooter Libby will be fully exonerated. Our Constitution guarantees Scooter a presumption of innocence. We invite you to join Scooter’s many friends and colleagues in supporting the defense of this good man in clearing his good name.

All money collected will be deposited with the Trustee of the Legal Defense Trust and will be disbursed, over time, to the legal team representing Scooter for professional services as the services are performed. "

They're raising money?

For high-powered lawyers????

It sure will be interesting to see who has the higher hit rate, Mr. Libby's friends in high places or Robert Mugabe's third cousin's wife's brother's gardener's uncle's grandaughter from Harare....

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Original Link Source: SpinD from the AllSpinZone.
Update: So far I. Lewis appears to be winning the battle of the Fund-O-Freaks....The WaPo has him at a cool $2 million and rising.

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It's The Slush Fund, Stupid

AllThePower/AllTheCash
PremierVille


Vaughn Palmer made an important point in today's VSun NonFunRun post-budget analysis (hidden behind the subscription wailing wall*):

"The budget continues to bankroll the relentless centralization of power and policy-making in the office of Permier Gordon Campbell.

Campbell's office has been on the receiving end of a $3.6 million, 40% budget increase over just two years.

Most of the extra money has gone into a high-powered secreteriat under deputy minister Jessica McDonald.

The premier's office is everywhere in government these day, most often in the form of special advisers working directly for Campbell bypassing the line ministries."


Now, let's leave aside, for the moment, the dictatorial nature of such a strategy given that the existence of such a huge slush fund allows Mr. Campbell and his minions to skirt legislative scrutiny, both from the opposition and from his own caucus (note that Mr. Palmer said the last 'two' years and remember that two years ago that 77 of 79 MLA's were members of Campbell's own party).

Instead, let's call a spade a spade in terms of policy.

Specifically, how can you develop coherent, consultation-based policis when you're so paranoid that you do everything in-house, behind closed doors, hidden away from everyone, even your friends?

Then again, I suppose it is possibe that Mr. Campbell is actually a secret fan of HST.

After all, it was Thompson who once said:

'Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.'

Clearly, something is not quite right in the State of LINO**.

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*You've got to wonder if established, old guard columnists that rely on even older media, folks like Mr. Palmer, are starting to get a little ancy about having all their stuff hidden away behind the firewall, especially when they see themselves constantly being lapped by a DIY-type like Mr. Holman or even that old curmudgeon Rafe Mair.
**Liberal In Name Only

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Creatively Spinning The Wingnuts' Evil Axis

DIY
AlwaysWinsVille


Mike Stark's site is called 'Calling All Wingnuts'.

And it is a fantastic testament to how fragile the veiled, pus-encrusted membrane that envelops wingnut talk radio really is.

It is also kinghell funny.

Essentially, Mr. Stark calls the Screamers and does his best to have them hoist themselves on their own petards. Throughout, he records the conversations and then posts them with an explanatory note that puts the best colour men in the business, John Madden included, to shame .

My favorite close encounter with a shill is this one, where Stark forces Rush Limbaugh to cut him off and then spend a full minute bloviating on the integrity and impartiality of the Moonie-owned Washington Times.

This is fantastic, fantastic stuff.

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Came across Mr. Stark's site by way of another great post at Fever Swamp Central, FireDogLake.

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Careful, ProgRockers!!!

NewsCycleManagement
FrameVille

Listen.

I too have been screaming to high heaven about the miserable state of BC's Ministry of Child and Families for a long , long time.

And, as much as anyone, I'm extremely skeptical/cynical about how the 'new' money announced in today's budget will be used/disbursed.

But now is not the time for progressive spinmeisters and/or legitimately concerned folks to snark at the new money for kids, even if it is not really new.

What I'm really trying to say is.....don't get suckered in by the government whirlitzer workers' attempts to re-frame this issue in their favor.

Because now is the time for us to bite our collective lip and hold off on banging the negatives on this issue for a moment or two.

Instead, we need to be magnanimous to show the public and the waterheads in the superficial electronic media that we can be positive when the government does the right thing (even if they are only pretending). And besides, the focus of the frame that this is the 'Kids' Budget' by the government is actually an admission that we were right and they were wrong.

So take the highroad and let this newscycle go.

And then start hammering them on specifics tomorrow.

OK?

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And The Key Fiscal Sensitivity Is......

BurnBabyBurn
TaylorVille

Nothing to do with megaprojects, tax cuts, bond ratings, or propaganda machines.

No.

Instead, it's all about passing gas.

The price that is.

Because every dollar swing in the price equals a $300 million dollar in government revenues.

Talk about an idiot wind(fall).

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Homeless Stiffed?

NittyGritty
TaylorVille

$8 million for the homeless?

Over three years?

Is Ms. Taylor kidding us?

Or is this just the logical extension of all that 'groundbreaking' codswallop from Big Rich and his BrokeTheBackOfThePoorMountain WelfareKings during the last couple of weeks.

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Oh, and one more thing, as Rafe Mair is pointing out on CBC Radio, both SUV sellers and buyers are the real winners with this budget.

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