We're Off To See The Wizard....

....The Wonderful Wizard of Flaws

HowManyPublicAffairsBureauStaffers
CanDanceOnTheHeadOfAPin?Ville


Hmmmmm......

Why would the Canadian Press suddenly throw something like this into the whirlitzer smack-dab in the middle of one of the slowest news weekend's of the entire year:

VICTORIA (CP/Sunday May20/07) - On the day the B.C. government tabled its bill to raise the pay of provincial politicians by close to 30 per cent to $98,000 a year, Premier Gordon Campbell walked into the legislature looking like a million bucks.

A sharp, dark-coloured pin-striped suit, his greying hair appearing to shine almost pure white, Campbell exuded confidence, and looked like he'd been at an exclusive spa.

You'd never know to look at him that controversy and scandal allegations - the stuff that has slayed many a B.C. premier - are beginning to swirl like a dust devil around the six-year-old Liberal government.

He calmly answered a growing chorus of dirty tricks and political conflict-of-interest allegations the Opposition New Democrats hurled his way in question period and essentially shut them down.

That's why Campbell is the wizard, says veteran New Democrat Corky Evans, who says he's been watching the premier work on a bulletproof image while his own relatively inexperienced New Democrats struggle to find their range.

It seems the Liberals under Campbell have largely been able to snuff out what appears as the first whiffs of scandal raised by the New Democrats, says Evans. But he's seen a previously indifferent Liberal backbench taking notice of the Opposition amid the yelling and table thumping that dominates legislature debates.

The New Democrats have raised issues of conflict involving a former top Campbell deputy. Accusations of dirty tricks at pre-trial arguments at the trial of two former Liberal aides has fuelled shooting matches in question period. And the deaths of farmworkers in a highway accident has the Opposition demanding safer and better treatment of workers.

It's all part of an ongoing strategy to pull back the curtain and reveal that the wizard is a mere mortal.

"I give (Campbell) credit," says Evans, the Opposition's agriculture critic and three-term veteran of at least four NDP premiers.

"Shoot, man, one day he's drunk and behind bars and the next day he's on TV making it all better," he said about Campbell. "That is an amazing skill."

"One day, he's seen as taking away seniors' bus passes, closing down their old age home and carrying them out of their building on (expletive) TV and the next day he's all for seniors. He's got a great skill."


I mean really - why would the CP do it?

Unless, of course, the real wizards......

People, like, say, oh I dunno, Andy Orr, are no longer around to protect the faux Wizard in Pinstripe Clothing's back.

Regardless, just goes to show that, until the Opposition is willing to raise, or even re-raise, an issue (see: Drunktank/Hawaii), the press will say nothing.

Which is why a fall session of the Ledge, when the BCRailGate Trial should be riding the rails, full steam ahead (assuming it is not de-railed before it even leaves the station), will be critical if the opposition truly does decide the time has come to get up front and start driving the engines for real.

OK?

.

Hey Mr. Hahn......

.....We Don't Need No Stinking Cookies!

PrivatizationForAGreedheadedNation
MiddlemanVille

Just got back from another $200 plus round-trip family of four excursion to Vancouver Island on what used to be a ferry service we were proud to call our own.

And aside from the craptactular cookies at the ticket booth that didn't placate me one bit when I was forced to fork over that 2nd $17.50 reservation charge to make Mr. Hahn's middling minions merrier (have you ever had, say, an airline charge you extra for booking early?) , the thing that really get's me is that No Kidz Zone.

You don't know what I'm talkin' about?

Well this a place (the old coffee bar at the stern) where you are now only allowed to go if you don't have any kids and you have an extra 10 bucks that you don't care about.

Which is all fine and good, as far as it goes.

After all, we are now getting quite used to being treated like 2nd class citizens on all of these motor vessels that we bought and paid for with our own money.

But Jiminy Crickets!

(as my Grandma, she who worshipped the ground that the Wacky One walked on, and went to her grave extolling the value of BC Sugar shack shares, used to say when she was really upset)

This was the 5pm sailing from Swartz Bay back to the Mainland.

And it was packed.

Packed with families who were quite literally packed in like sardines.

In fact, many parents with strollers were forced to stand there was so little room.

And then, on our way down to Peter Toigo's liscence to print money area, I peek into that bloody lounge and I see space everywhere.

And I start cursing you all over again.

And wonder how much moola, we the people, would save if we just got rid of you and all your middling yes men?

As in immediately.


.

The Man Who Saved Fitzmas

TheMadeMan
DoesTheRightThingVille


I must confess I never understood.......

How did a guy who was made by Rudy Giuliani, who was hired by George Bush, and who was taken under the wing of John Ashcroft ever manage to do the right thing?

Twice.

****

Who the heckfire am I talking about?

A guy named James Comey, the former Deputy Attorney General of the United States.

Here's a capsule summary of the man written by New York Magazine's Chris Smith on the eve of his appointment as the Deputy AG in late 2003.

Comey has been savaged by William Safire and lauded by Chuck Schumer; just what kind of Republican is he, anyway?

This sets Comey howling again. “I must be doing something right!” he says. “In college, I was left of center, and through a gradual process I found myself more comfortable with a lot of the ideas and approaches the Republicans were using.” He voted for Carter in 1980, but in ’84, “I voted for Reagan—I’d moved from Communist to whatever I am now. I’m not even sure how to characterize myself politically. Maybe at some point, I’ll have to figure it out.”

Or maybe he’s being disingenuous. Because three hours later, Comey gets a phone call from Washington: President George W. Bush is nominating him as the No. 2 man to Attorney General John Ashcroft. On the surface, it’s an odd pairing: Comey—who cites liberal theologian Reinhold Niebuhr as a formative influence, and who can sing along with Good Charlotte pop-punk hits—and Ashcroft, a reactionary born-again Christian who breaks into spirited renditions of biblical hymns. There’s little risk Comey will lose his sense of humor in his new job.

It’s only his soul that’s up for grabs.

And this week Mr. Comey demonstrated that he kept his soul between then and now when he testified before the very same Chuck Schumer named above at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing (see testimony above and/or this fantastic capsule summary by the fabulous Marcy Wheeler) and told the whole world about how then Counsel to the President Alberto Gonzales and Whitehouse Chief of Staff Andrew Card once burst in to the hospital room of a gravely ill Aschroft and tried to force him to sign off on an egregious wiretapping/evesdropping bill that everyone concerned at the Dept of Justice, including Ashcroft, Comey and all their deputies figured was completely illegal.

Comey was in that hospital room with reinforcements from his own office and the FBI because he had been alerted to Gonzales' and Card's impending arrival by Ashcroft's wife who had been informed of the coming 'visit' by, reportedly, Mr. Bush himself.

And in that hospital room Comey stared the President's men down.

As a result, Gonzales and Card left without Ashcroft's signature.

It's really quite a remarkable story that demonstrates the depths to which these people will go to steal souls.

But, clearly, they didn't get Comey's.

****

Now, you may have noticed that I said Mr. Comey did the right thing twice.

The second thing he did right was appoint Patrick Fitzgerald as the special prosecutor in the PlameGate/Libby Case.

And then as it became clear that Mr. Fitzgerald was going to go to the mat on the matter of the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame in order to discredit her wife Joseph Wilson because he had exposed the bogus Whitehouse claims that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from Niger during the run-up to the sowing of the killing fields in Iraq, I could never quite figure out how Mr. Comey managed to keep the Rovians from firing Mr. Fitzgerald.

Or, put another way, how did Mr. Comey keep the Whitehouse jackals at bay while Fitzgerald kept digging and set the stage for all that has come after, including the conviction of Scooter Libby and the exposure of the co-opting of everything by people like Mr. Cheney, Mr. Wolfowitz, Mr. Feith, Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Rove and all the others who were wiping their feet daily on the U.S. Constitution?

Now, I think we know.

Because in the aftermath of Gonzales' and Card's attempt at the drive-by hospital bed extortion in March of 2004, Card attempted to browbeat Comey and the entire Dept of Justice into submission.

But Comey did not back down.

Instead, he convinced Mr. Ashcroft and all their underlings in the Dept of Justice to resign if the bill went through. He also, apparently, convinced FBI boss Robert Mueller to resign also.

Comey then went to the Whitehouse and fought back.

In the end, after a private meeting with George Bush, the Rovians backed down.

And Comey stayed, secure in the knowledge that the Rovians knew darned well that there were people with some principle, even if they were Republicans, that had his back.

And Fitzgerald was able to do his job.

And now it looks like maybe, just maybe, the United States is starting to become a nation of laws rather than men once again.

And that is very, very very good news indeed.

_____
Written to Bruce Springsteen's Darkness, especially 'Racing In The Streets'.

.

We're getting more people with teaspoons all the time...

DeCo-OptationForTheNation
PeopleVille


A while ago I wrote a post about a fantastic interview Pete Seeger gave to DIY progressive journalist extraordinare Amy Goodman.

Now, first off, let me say that ever since I came out of my callow shell some time ago, I have had the greatest admiration for Mr. Seeger.

Both because of all that he has done, and because of all that he still believes we can do:

"I honestly believe that the future is going to be millions of little things saving us. I imagine a big seesaw, and at one end of this seesaw is on the ground with a basket half-full of big rocks in it. The other end of the seesaw is up in the air. It's got a basket one-quarter full of sand. And some of us got teaspoons, and we're trying to fill up sand.

A lot of people are laughing at us, and they say, "Ah, people like you have been trying to do that for thousands of years, and it's leaking out as fast as you're putting it in." But we're saying, "We're getting more people with teaspoons all the time." And we think, "One of these years, you'll see that whole seesaw go zooop in the other direction." And people will say, "Gee, how did it happen so suddenly?"

Now the fact that the government of Gordon Campbell is designed to take away as many teaspoons from people as possible is the reason that I took great exception to the following statement in the Canadian Press earlier this week that was made without a trace of irony:

(Mr. Campbell) said he'd always wanted to learn the banjo and the guitar, having been inspired by the legendary folk singer Pete Seeger."

So, rather than recount specific examples of programs that I have seen dismantled by Mr. Campbell's bean counters who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing, I thought I would instead point you towards a project that is helping fill those teaspoons.

It's the Al Gerwing Foundation the link to which you can find on the Honourable Roll on the sidebar:

The Foundation is really a local charity as all of the directors are Al's relatives and volunteer their services. As a result there is no 'bureaucracy' and all of the earnings go directly to the designated projects decided upon by Al and the directors of Rainbow of Hope for Children. They include continued work on behalf of street children and the landless poor in northeastern Brazil and recently, a teacher education centre in Guatemala to help allow the Mayans to educate their children in their native language and culture in addition to Spanish.

There's lots of great stuff there and, yes, donations are tax deductible.

And here's a quote buried deep within the site that I found pretty darned inspiring, maybe even for those who think, for whatever reason, ideological or not, that their own worldly wealth is all there is:

"When you die, the only things you can take with you are what you've given away"

- Esther Gerwing"

OK?

.

On The Goodship Water Carrier

BCRailGate
WhyTheShrinking98IsNoLongerGiantVille

Wow.

Who'd a thunk it.

After CBC Radio's better-late-than-never discovery of the 'Trial of the Century' earlier in the week, this morning Bill Good almost followed suit when he decided to spend exactly one minute to devote to the subject this morning on the Ledgie Boys.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Exactly one minute.

Keith Baldrey said nothing.

Vaughn Palmer fill-in Sean Leslie did a half a cuppa momma mia culpa of sorts when he said he now wishes that he had been in Studio54 for the last three weeks covering the thing.

Ya.

Sure.

.

Mr. T. Goes To P.G.

BCRailGate
LINO'sWaterlooVille

Prince George, the Gateway to the North, is out there in the Hurtland.

Thus, even the business community is not quite living the pre-Olympic building boom dream that we are being forced to hallucinate our way through down here in the Southwestern British Columbia.

It is also a place that really benefitted from B.C. Rail, a once public asset which, thanks to Gordon Campbell's forced, and allegedly bribe-assisted, privatization putsch, no longer belongs to the people of this province.

Thus, unlike down here, where the only thing most folks think about, if they think about B.C. Rail at all, is the luridness of the growing scandal associated with the trial, up in Prince George some folks are really angry because of the harm they feel the actual deal has done to their community. Here is a short list that was enunciated recently by local pundit Ben Meisner:

• Loss of some $15 - $18 million dollars in annual salaries in the Prince George Region.
• Forest companies are now paying higher transportation costs making it more difficult to get their goods to market at a competitive price.
• Loss of some $100 million dollars a year in profit that could be channeled back into the B.C. economy.
• Loss of the ability to transport goods into Alaska (lost opportunity)

Mr. Meisner was part of a recent public panel that discussed the B.C. Rail sale in Prince George.

And our own favorite RailGate studio scribe, Bill 'Mr. T' Tieleman, was also there and, apparently, he let his virtual hair down and had some pretty interesting things to say:

Tieleman has been covering the Basi-Virk case in the B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver. He says the case is so bizarre “It seems like the X Files some times, you know the show’s slogan was the truth is out there, well in this case the truth is way, way, way, out there.”

Tieleman says the allegations are unbelievable. There have been allegations of dirty tricks, with planted phone calls to open line shows. There are allegations of lobby group links to some politicians, and allegations the sale (lease) to CN was a done deal from the very beginning. “There was even an alleged plan to dump manure on Jim Sinclair’s front lawn because Sinclair (head of the B.C. Federation of Labour) opposed the sale. I must say, I always knew the Liberals were full of bull, I just didn’t know they made home deliveries.”

Tielman believes the case will eventually go to trial, but he has questions. He wonders aloud why the Ministerial Aide for Gary Collins is facing charges, but no charges against the Minister. He wonders aloud why the lobbiest at the core of the case has not been charged. Tieleman says while it is not his intention to presume guilt or innocence, he is left to ask why those who are well connected or members of the Liberal party have been spared prosecution?

Gee, Mr. T.

Can't you tell us what you really think?

____
And, just for the record, Mr. T. is now reporting over at his place that he actually added the poop to the bull when he spoke.

.

The Ceeb Learns That There Is A Trial Goin' On...

BCRailGate
LINOVille

Finally, CBC Radio sends somebody to Studio.....errrr...Courtroom 54 so that they can tell us a whole lotta things that we who have been paying attention have known for, what, about a week?

The judge in the political corruption trial of two former B.C. Liberal ministerial aides will rule June 4 on a disclosure application by the defence that focuses on the Crown's star witness.

Lawyers for David Basi and Bob Virk — who are charged with fraud and breach of trust in connection with the sale of B.C. Rail — say the Crown hasn't given them the material they need to defend their clients.

At the top of the defence list of concerns is the deal they say the Crown had with star witness Eric Bornman, a former lobbyist in Victoria.

Michael Bolton, representing Basi, said Bornman admitted giving money to the accused in connection with the B.C. Rail deal. And he wants to know why Bornman is off the hook while Basi and Virk are not.

"It's one or the other," said Bolton. "He either did something wrong or he didn't do something wrong. If he didn't do something wrong, then our clients are not guilty."

He wants to put Bornman, his lawyer and the special prosecutor on the stand to answer questions about the agreement Bornman reached with authorities.

The Crown says there is no immunity deal with Bornman because he breached an earlier agreement.

So mark June 4th on your calendars, but in the meantime, let's start speculating and making bets......

Such as....Who's willing to give me decent odds on the possiblity that Mr. Bornmann and at least one of his former Pilothouse LINO Lobbshop colleagues are charged by the time the Summer Solstice rolls around?

Right now I'd seriously consider making book at 9-2 (which changes to 5-4 if Mr. Berardino does not show up in the Studio on June 4th).

.

Will The Senior and The Junior Both Get Grilled?

BCRailGate
LINOVille

Yesterday we mentioned that Neal Hall had reported that the defence team in the BCRailGate Fiasco was demanding that one of the junior special prosecutors, Andrea MacKay be cross-examined over her role in the setting up of the Deal/NoDeal immunity thingy for Eric Bornmann.

You may remember the good Mr. Bormann. He is the very fine fellow and former Liberal insider who is also known, depending on who you are talking to at the time, as Spiderman, the Star Witness, the alleged self-professed bribe giver, the almost/kinda/sorta lawyer, and/or the most excellent self-exonerator.

But today, Bill Tieleman is reporting that the defence actually wants to cross-examine both the junior and the senior prosecutors in the case:

The defence wants to cross-examine the Special Prosecutor team in the B.C. Legislature raid case in order to get details on an immunity deal with key Crown witness Erik Bornmann, B.C. Supreme Court was told yesterday.

Michael Bolton, lawyer for former ministerial aide David Basi in the breach of trust and fraud case, told Justice Elizabeth Bennett that the defence needs to take the unusual step of cross-examining Special Prosecutor Bill Berardino and his associate Andrea MacKay on an unwritten agreement with Bornmann.

"I remain very, very troubled by the lack of candour and incomplete nature of the Bornmann transaction," Bolton said.

"That will require cross-examination of Mr. Berardino, unfortunately, and probably Ms. MacKay as well."


All of which sounds like a capital idea, indeed.

Except, of course, for it to happen it would mean that Mr. Berardino would actually have to show up in court once in awhile.

OK?

_______
Oh, and just in case you were wondering, based on your earlier reading of our synopsis of the trial so far, it was, indeed, Ms. MacKay who also acted as the junior to Mr. Berardino's senior when they worked the opposite side of the street....errrrrr.....'aisle' together representing Imperial Tobacco against the people of British Columbia not so very long ago.

.

Will A Special Prosecutor Get Grilled?

BCRailGate
LINOVille

Neal Hall got a little more time and space in the Vancouver Sun today and as a result his piece is both informative and insightful.

One small tidbit was the following:

Defence lawyer Michael Bolton, representing Dave Basi, said in court today that Bornmann claimed he bribed government officials but cut an immunity deal with police and the Crown.

He reiterated today that details of the deal have not been disclosed, so counsel can't properly prepare their defence of the three accused.

Bolton asked the court to order Bill Berardino, the special prosecutor assigned to the case, to appear in court for cross-examination.

He added the defence also wants to cross-examine Bornmann, his lawyer George Macintosh and Andi MacKay, a member of the special prosecution team.

The cross-examination of a special prosecutor would be highly unusual if allowed by the judge.

Pretty wild, eh?

Looks like the defence is trying to make the issue of the Bornmann immunity Deal/NoDeal thing stick.

Still think they should bring in a Howie Mandel look-alike to do the questioning.

Alternatively, the defense team could shave their heads and start working on their soul patches.

And/or send in a real clown like, say, J.P. Patches.......

.

Mr. Chase's Job Description....

BCRailGate
TrialVille


Mr. Stuart Chase is a British Columbia government employee.

That means that we, the people, pay his salary.

As part of his job the good Mr. Chase apparently makes his way to BC Supreme Courtroom #54 in downtown Vancouver to sit in on the BC RailGate pre-trial hearings.

And ,according to one of BC Mary's eyewitness Anon-O-Mice, this is what the good Mr. Chase does:

Mr. Chase doesn't talk with reporters. He doesn't talk with members of the public. He sits on his own on the left hand side of the gallery.

When court rises he gathers his things and leaves directly, takes the elevator down to the Smythe street entrance, jaywalks across the street towards Hornby, crosses at the light and strides into 865 Hornby, where the Ministry of Tourism has offices. It is there, I presume, that he files his reports, twice daily.

I'd say he has more than a hundred pages of hand written notes to date to draw from. Oddly, he seems much more engaged and active in the note taking department when the defence is before the court.

According to Attorney General Wally Oppal, however, the good Mr. Chase is actually there to help the media and members of the public in the courtroom gallery and, I dunno, perhaps wayward schoolchildren and folks who get lost heading back to their cars in the courthouse parking garage after shopping on Robson St., understand the intricacies of our legal system.

Which, of course, is quite at odds with the Anon-O-Mouse's description.

But who ya gonna believe these days, anyway......

A highly respected member of the British Columbia legislature who works in the highest capacity for the Premier, Mr. Gordon Campbell, or some lowly member of the public who is just doing his or her best to find out what is really going on.

Well, luckily, we have a report from Les Leyne in the Times-Colonist who discovered what the good Mr. Chase is really up to by, get this, asking him:

At the risk of putting the young man on the outs with his boss, it was Chase himself who cheerfully set the record straight.

In an interview later, Chase said he sits in on the trial daily and sends a straight factual report on proceedings twice each day to the director and the manager of the attorney general's public affairs division. Those reports give them a sense of what's going on. He doesn't brief reporters, he doesn't talk to the public.

Hmmmm......

Looks like the highly respected, and highly respectable, Mr. Oppal has some explaining to do.

And it also looks like it is getting to the point where we, the public, may wish to consider the possibility that everything Mr. Oppal has to say about this matter from now on may actually be a highly respectable and respected attempt at, how shall we phrase it.....

Obfuscation?

Which is, of course, just a very respectable and highly respected way of saying lying.


_____
If it is, in fact, true that the good Mr. Chase does file his reports from the Ministry of Tourism offices on Hornby St. it is hard not to recognize the irony in the fact that is the very same Ministry that released those highly respected and highly respectable 'Cultural Precinct' funds to the City of Vancouver, some of which are currently being used by that most highly respectable and even more highly respected Mr. Ken Dobell to creatively consult with, but not lobby, his former Boss in whose office he still has a desk so that he can creatively consult right back at, well, everybody else who has attained the highest level of respectability with all of whom are known to be extremely well respected.......Or some such thing.

.

Dobrano Dirty Tricks....

...More Than Just A Few Phone Calls?

Double Secret Probation Update: 7:30pm Tuesday May 15th - Camille Bains CP story is out. In it she backs up Mr. Tielemans account and she obliquely raises the spector of the possibility that the RCMP may have held off on all of this until after the last provincial election.


Update: 6:30pm Tuesday May 15th - CKNW is reporting that BC Fed leader Jim Sinclair is calling for a public inquiry because he thinks this dirty tricks thing was a way of discrediting the Fed when it was calling into question the then, as yet not done, BC Rail sale........Meanwhile, StoneWally says he can't say actually say anything because he must hold himself to a higher standard than does the press.....



BCRailGate
LINOVille

Remember those alleged 'media monitoring contracts' between one of the accused in the BCRailGate Trial, David Basi, and the British Columbia Liberal Party?

Remember how all the pundits said, not long ago, that they didn't matter because of the well known but innocuous political party pathology known as 'everyone-does-it-itis'.

Well, according to Bill Tieleman's latest report from B.C. Supreme Court Courtroom 54 it looks like things might be getting a little stickier, not to mention stinkier, than a few prank phone calls to local talk shows:

.....there were new details on those (media monitoring contract) dirty tricks, including an allegation that Basi was involved with dumping a load of manure on the front lawn of the home of Jim Sinclair, BC Federation of Labour President and organizing phony protestors outside the 2003 Federation of Labour convention.

Defence lawyer Kevin McCullough alleged that BC Liberal Party Executive Director Kelly Reichert was consulted by the RCMP and told Premier Gordon Campbell that criminal charges were being recommended.

The allegations come from a previously undislosed document provided by the Special Prosecutor to the defence, an RCMP report titled: "Kelly Reichert - Do Not Disclose".


And, as you might expect, the defense has decided to try and spread the stinky stuff around as much as they possibly can.

Again from Mr. Tieleman's report:

(Defense lawyer) McCullough alleged that Reichert told Campbell that day that the RCMP was recommending charges be laid against Basi.

"When the tape was turned off, he [Reichert] didn't want charges approved against Basi because it would be embarrassing that manure was dumped on the lawn of Jim Sinclair and protestors were sent to the BC Federation of Labour," McCullough alleged.

"The wishes of the Liberal Party and Mr. Reichert, the same day he notifies the Premier, all came true," McCullough concluded, noting that charge were indeed never approved against Basi for those activities.

"We have the effort by Reichert to not have the charges approved. That reeks of political interference," McCullough alleged.


Big question is, will any of the stinky stuff stick as it spreads?

Stay tuned.......


____
Smaller question is: Did Mr. Campbell find about this before Mr. T. posted it on his blog from the good Mr. Chase.



.

Play Us A Song....

.....You're The Dobrano Man

ThisIsNotNigeria
FundTheSchoolsVille

Look, the Sarah McLachlan's Music Outreach program is a marvellous thing.

But.

Five hundred large thrown at a special program for a photo-op and a strum of the guitar does not in any way ameliorate what Mr. Gordon Campbell's neoconnnish bashing of the VSB has done to exterminate extracurricular programs in Vancouver's schools.

Especially inner city schools where parents can't raise the thousands of dollars required that those in the creme de la creme belt can generate with a snap of their fingers.

What the heckfire am I talking about?

Here's the story from Sarah Rowlands:

Inner-city kids with dreams of gracing the cover of Rolling Stone got a helping hand from the provincial government yesterday.

Premier Gordon Campbell announced B.C. will give a $500,000 grant to Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach, an Arts Umbrella Project that offers free music lessons to underprivileged students attending select East Van schools.

"Arts touch the lives of kids in ways we can't anticipate or measure," said Campbell, who thanked McLachlan profusely for her dedication to the five-year-old after-school program.

A glowing, gracious and very pregnant McLachlan was on hand at the Arts Umbrella instructional facility to accept the donation.

"It's a huge understatement to say that music made a difference in my life," said the Canadian songstress. "It's been an amazing gift to see this program come to life."

After their respective statements, the premier and McLachlan grabbed a couple of guitars and started jamming with some of the kids.

About halfway through their Radiohead cover the bespectacled politician asked, "What chord are we playing?"

A truly surreal moment.

Oh, just so you know, the Canadian Press is reporting that:

"The premier said he'd always wanted to learn the banjo and the guitar, having been inspired by the legendary folk singer Pete Seeger."

Pete the Commie-Pinko Seeger?

The guy who has spent his entire life supporting unions and trying to really help people?

Guess this just goes to show.....

If you can't beat 'em, co-opt 'em.

Sheesh.

______

The Dobranos....

.....The Plotline So Far

(Please Note: Reposted because Haloscream ate all the previous comments - sorry, especially to Mary and l.g.)

Update: Bill Tieleman now has a satire-free post on many of the same developments, with considerably greater factual detail, up at The Tyee

WhatAreTheyReallyDoingInThere?
Courtroom54Ville

Not long ago, somebody, I'm not sure who, although it may have been Mr. T., suggested on a comment thread somewhere that perhaps Courtroom 54 of The Supreme Court of British Columbia, where The BC Railgate Trial is finally sputtering to life, should instead be known as 'Car 54, Where Are You?'

Why?

Because it seems that there are all kinds of people who are, for all intents and purposes, doing their best to send the entire thing hurtling down a deserted, cliff-lined back-road hidden behind the bustling metropolis of Spuzzum, British Columbia.

After all, you have lawyers for absent former cabinet ministers hanging around, not saying, but suggesting, that the public purse is paying them.

Interestingly, one former lawyered-up Minister who used to be a flight instructor of some repute actually left government before the 'Pilot' episode of 'The Dobranos: SPU' was even in the can (or the 'House', as it were) so that he could, allegedly, run a now defunct Airline that might still exist if only the former Minister had had the foresight to hire Leslie Nielsen as a spokesmodel (not to mention the possibility that the jocular personality of Mr. Nielsen may have been able to help the former Airline's owner slip free of a decidedly sticky situation recently).

You also have the investigators that were apparently interested in following the tracks leading towards the former Minister described above but who didn't actually follow those tracks. But not to worry, because this lack of follow-up most certainly/absolutely/couldn't have possibly had anything to do with the fact that this particular investigator was also related to somebody who was high up in the very same political party that the former Minister above belonged to. This is also the same political party that apparently drew up 'contracts' that were designed to win friends, influence uncles, and smear people who had the audacity to suggest that selling off one of the Province's most valuable public assets might, just might, be a bad idea (and/or, at the very least rip them new orifices).

Interestingly, some of the specifics of how those 'contracts' were implemented were apparently detailed in a taped converstion between one of the co-accused currently sitting in the back seat of Car 54 and the former Minister described above. Even more interestingly, one of those taped conversations also contained details of the current Premier's involvement in the alleged stacking of a blue ribbonesqueish commission which, was, apparently, not this one.

And, get this, apparently those contracts were also the subject of investigations by other investigators, most of whom didn't show up in court, but one of whom who did, with notes that nobody had seen before. And apparently those contracts, and who signed them, are deemed important by everybody in the Car, but nobody can actually find them, at least not at right now.

And then there are all those other investigators who were investigating all kinds of other stuff, like the laundering of drug money (no word of lawyers and guns so far however, which would be interesting if it were to happen somewhere down the road, if only because it would complete the trifecta once so aptly chronicled by Warren Zevon when he wasn't singing about werewolves which would, of course, also make a fantastic theme song for 'The Dobranos: SPU').

And, speaking of lawyers, one of them has apparently disappeared from the courtroom that is Car 54. And that lawyer can only be described as the biggest of the Big Cheeses who is, allegedly, working for 'The People' whose assets were forcibly privatized by the former Minister and the current Premier described above, but who also once most definitely did not work for 'The People' when he and one of his current littler cheeses worked instead against us (ie. The People) for Imperial Tobacco (hmmmmmm.....perhaps the producers of this series that is not-quite-good-enough for network Tee-Vee should consider changing that Dobranos:SPU theme song to 'Lawyers, Smokes and Money' instead).

At this point it is probably worth mentioning, if only in passing, that the currently missing Big Cheese is the very same Grand Fromage who apparently made a Deal that wasn't quite a Deal with the so-called 'Star' witness who used to be lobbyist and who is now a not-quite-lawyer that the Big Cheese may have once taught in law school - sort of. This former lobbyist/not-quite-lawyer, who once had, but may not now have, immunity from prosecution also used to, apparently, play tricks for the very same political party that apparently signed the contracts described above that were supposed to help 'sell' the Bigger Deal by the former Minister and the current Premier to liquidate The People's assets.

All which brings us to The Judge, who is doing her best to actually steer Car 54 back to a place where the mainstream media, especially the electronic variety, can actually find it. In doing so, she has asked all the little cheeses currently standing in for the absent Big Cheese to get the latter to come back and tell them where the suitcase is hidden that is holding the above described Deal/No Deal .

And if the Deal for Immunity is, indeed, No Deal, then why aren't the guys who apparently did the actual bribing (ie. the no longer immune former lobbyist/not-quite-lawyer and his side-kicks who have all sorts of connections with the Political Party and the former and current government officials described above) not trapped in Car 54's backseat between the co-accused who allegedly took their apparent bribes?

And finally, in a most elegant display of double-clutching designed to get a little traction under the wheels of Car 54, the Judge has also asked the little cheeses sitting in for the Big Cheese to produce any and all records of any and all involvement of a former Solicitor General, now the current Minister of Forests and Cowboys, in any and all efforts to prevent the above- mentioned investigatory multitudes from actually investigating the former minister described above, who himself apparently liked to have dinner with potential future receivers of that which was to be liquidated who were also, allegedly the very same potential receivers that bankrolled the alleged bribes that were paid to the co-accused by the non-accused former lobbyist/not-quite-lawyer/ party trickster who also goes by the moniker of 'Spiderman'.

You got all that?

Good.

Because every last tidbit came from just the first few weeks of the run of 'The Dobrano's: SPU' which is actually scheduled for at least twenty-four.

Here's hoping it gets a prime-time slot somewhere down the road.

OK?

______
*Mr. T. is also known as Bill Tieleman, one of the members of the press gang that has been chasing down Car 54 since the beginning. Me, I actually like the moniker 'Studio 54' a little better what with all the Dancin' and Shakin' going down, not to mention all that Snortin' (in disbelief and derision) that is going on the public gallery.
And apologies to kootcoot, who had a Car54 reference way back in ancient times, in an Apr 26 posting over at the very famous and infamous 'House of Infamy'. (kootcoot picked it up due to Mary's kind posting of the plot synopsis at the source here 'The Legistlature Raids' site.

.

Who Knew.....

....Moms Hate War

WhatAreTheyGoodFor?
AbsolutelyEverthing!Ville


The "Mother's Day Proclamation" by Julia Ward Howe was one of the early calls to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States. Written in 1870, Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War.

The Proclamation was tied to Howe's feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.

Mother's Day Proclamation

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

______
Cribbed in its entirety from Wiki, but here is an even better link about the life and times of the most impressive Julia Ward Howe - she fought against slavery too!
And just so she knows, I owe my Mom a really good story. It's coming, promise......


.

On The Latest The Dobranos.....

.....Lets Make No Deal

(please see Update at bottom of Post)

WhenNoIsYes
EveryWhichWayButStraightVille

Yesterday, we broke into our daily silence period (ie. workday) to comment on Neal Hall's report in the Sun in which he concluded that the Crown's major witness, the alleged bribemaster in the BC RailGate Fiasco, was no longer being offered immunity.

Now Bill Tieleman is reporting that the Special Prosecutor* is saying that there never was a deal, sort of:

Justice Elizabeth Bennett got the surprise answer from Special Prosecutor Janet Winteringham, who has handled most Crown duties during Berardino’s unexplained absence from the proceedings.

“The only question I had – was there an immunity agreement as outlined in Crown policy and the answer is there was not. But there’s no written agreement signed by Mr. Bornmann?” Bennett asked.

“No, there’s not, “Winteringham replied.


Now, why are we suggesting that this apparently straight answer to a very direct question that did not involve choosing between Door #1, #2 or #3 actually indicates that there may have only 'sort of' been no deal?

Because if you parse the language, which seems to be increasingly necessary in this case, and indeed in the case of everything that the Dobranos are involved in, you will notice that there is a little qualifier there in the question from the Judge that could be implied in the answer from the Special Prosecutor.

And that is the word 'written'.

The action in the Studio 54 courtroom is now adjourned until Tuesday.

Stay tuned for more on following the money trail......

_____
*Of course, the 'senior' Special Prosecutor, Bill Berardino, was not in Court to answer the Judge. Instead, he was nowhere to be found and his 'juniors' were left to twist in the wind.
Will be interesting to see if the folks on the GoodShip Watercarrier still think that none of this is such a big deal on this morning's edition of the Ledgie Boys (notsoGiant98 @ ~ 9:00am).

________________

Update......

It looks like we may have used the wrong Canadian Game Show host's image at the top of the post, because today Neal Hall reports that:

Earlier this week, ('junior' prosecutor Janet)Winteringham told the judge that the (currently absent 'senior) special prosecutor, Bill Berardino, could make a statement in court as to why the deal with Bornmann was cancelled in 2004.

The prosecutor has said there was no signed deal with Bornmann, so there was no document disclosed to the defence, so the terms of deal haven't been disclosed.

So, does that mean that the terms of the 'Deal/No Deal' are actually hidden away in a suitcase somewhere?

And is Howie Mandel holding said piece of luggage?

Sheesh.

.