Words of
WALLY!

Grab the Good News....
.......................while it lasts

This afternoon while Charlie Wyse in Cariboo-Chilcotin seems to be falling behind his BC liaR opponent in the recount, currently The Great Stone Wall of Silence, Discretion, and Privilege, Attorney-General Wally Oppal, after surging ahead by 7 votes, has slipped 13 votes behind independent challenger Vicky Huntington in Delta South.

Word has it that if returned to private life Mr. Oppal will be publishing a one page book titled Famous and Impotent* Quotes of Wally Oppal, I won't spoil the book for you by previewing the quote that will form the body of the work.

There's still a lot of votes to count and one must stay calm, but it is nice to have something, even a small thing, to celebrate, even briefly.

* Not a Spelling Error or Sic on you too

Dem Business Prognosticators!

Dem business prognosticators, you know, the ones that always can find some reason to recommend that you BUY, something, anything! Well they proved they got the stuff to me this afternoon. I was going through some papers, building a fire to get rid of some of my tree prunings when I came across the business section of the Stunning Vancouver Sun for January 16, 2009! The was the Humongous Headline:

B.C. to lose more than
42,000 jobs in '09:forecast
One can't call anyone a liar about the headline above. Now one might say "conservative" or overly optimistic, considering that on the day this article was published B.C. may have already shed a quarter of the projected jobs lost, just over two weeks into the year. As Bill Tieleman points out here:

B.C. led the country in jobs losses in March with 23,000 and lost 63,000 from January to March, disastrous numbers that should have been the focus of hard-hitting NDP ads -- but they weren't.

So the "experts" did say "more" than 42,000, though I doubt if they would have been willing to consider over 20,000 more in the first three months of the year. Yep, that's business acumen and management that one can only find by blindly trusting in the wisdom and firm hand of those business whizzes Gordon Campbell and Gang. I mean really could the NDP or even the Commies or Marijuana Party do much worse?

If I was a so-called economist or "business forecaster" I would insist that my predictions were printed in disappearing ink, so I wouldn't look quite so stupid or naive a few months or weeks later!
In a column next to these optimistic forecasts, Harvey "what's his angle?" Enchin waxes poetic about how this is no Great Depression, and by the way the Grapes of Wrath was fiction. Jeez thanks Harvey, now I understand why they called John Steinbeck a "NOVELIST" and not a historian or social scientist - Jeeeeeeeeeeeez - and Canned Waste pays him for such pearls of wisdom before us swine (I assume, for now anyway)!

My own prediction is that with Harper in charge in Ottawa and Gordo with a fresh four year mandate in Victoria, things are likely to get just about as bad as possible and SOON! As a resident of the Kootenays, I can take comfort in the fact that the Campbelloids can't shut down much more in our area, seeing as they pretty much did a scorched earth campaign back in 2002. As Kris Kristofferson said "Freedom's just another word, for nothin' left to lose." And we're like Richard Farina, immune (except for, apparently, to dying on his motorcycle, in Big Sur, if I remember correctly)! We can't lose what we've already lost!

Daily
Irritations!

Ya'll re-elected the sleazebag!

Maybe Nixon really wasn't a crook, after all he got re-elected and heavily, after Water-gate! Maybe he just wasn't as successful at crime as some folks! Or maybe he got a bad deal. I'm gonna start a cult of worshippers of Richard "Shooter" Cheney. After all, anyone that can shoot a lawyer in the face and have the lawyer apologize for having his face in the way once he recovers enough to speak, must know special stuff. Maybe we'll call ourselves the International Brother/Sister Hood of DickHeads!


Sitting here doing some stats and listening to so-called environmentalists and Green Party poobahs bashing Carole James and singing the praises of Arnold the weight lifting hummer fleet operator and Gordo the environmentalist, on the CBC. Arnold is a "leader" in fighting climate change and Gordo MUST be right because he won a third term. I guess Nixon really shouldn't have resigned by that criteria.

Do these people ever actually listen to what they say? Gordo "good" because he's a good "salesman" (well it's easy to sell BC when you're GIVING IT AWAY) and Stephane Dion "Bad" because not only could he not sell a carbon tax, he couldn't sell his way out of a wet paper bag, I swear, they actually said THAT! So Gordo can make ranchers, loggers, everybody in the north and beyond the reach of transit PAY for pollution while subsidizing the big polluters and that's cool. He can build hiways, bridges and mega-ports for trucks and cars and wild salmon killing farms, push drilling and oil shipments off our coast, AND an LPG terminal on Texada and HE IS MR. ENVIRONMENT. And he can support the devastation that is the TAR SANDS of Alberta and even assist in getting it over to China, to pollute the atmosphere of the ENTIRE PLANET, after they are done devastating the MacKenzie drainage and the Arctic with the extraction alone. Do you see why I wonder why I even try to care?

By the way, the Fraser Welfare Work Project for Right Wing Wanks has determined that Kootenay Boundary Regional Medical Center (yep - ours in Trail) is in the bottom three in the province - but George "Bobble Head" Abbott says it doesn't matter cause there ain't that much difference between 'em, which I interpret to mean, none of 'em are very dependable and you could easily contract a fatal infection in any one of them - assuming you could actually obtain a bed there, of course!

By the way the people on the front lines at the Trail Regional are ACE Number One and wonderful during times of stress. They do the best they can with the lack of resources they have to manage and triage - with compassion and skill. As far as I know they might not have "entirely" privatized (read de-unionized - minimum waged) the support services there, after all, Trail is a Union Town!

I swear I'm teetering on not giving a half a shit anymore. I think today I'm gonna concentrate on what I did yesterday (tho I did do a post) and work in the garden, play some guitar and catch a hockey game. Playing a tune and growing a tomato may actually be more productive than trying to awaken sleeping minds.............

Bump and Grind!

There was quite a bump in traffic here at the house and some other blogs that are less than fan clubs for the BC liaR Party. I'm beginning to think that all the traffic was just guys WE PAY to sit in the basement of the Legislature monitoring what we might say. Then they can massage and reshape it before Canned Waste and Glow Ball feed it to the kept in a coma, or so busy they can't think, masses. Goodbye B.C., you once were truly "SuperNatural" and at least "one of" the Bestest Places on Earth!


Click on image to see full size and read text. The busiest day here was May 11, the Eve of the Disaster caused by less than half of the electorate! Let's face it, twenty percent of the eligible voters elected these guys, I hope the folks that didn't bother are happy with the results. I'm still rooting for Vicki Huntington and Charlie Wyse though, and who knows, with all the investigations ongoing, maybe he BC liaR caucus will shrink, if you catch my drift. If the finger is deep enough in the cookie jar, sometimes just resigning a cabinet post don't quite cut it!

Return to
Sender

I Don't Need Ding Dong
Van Dongen's Mail!

When the ole Koot checked his email this morning he was surprised to find a brochure from Finest Chauffeurs (and Escorts - as BC Mary pointed out). Aside from the fact that they only offer services in New York City and certain states of the empire to the south, and most of their services come at an hourly rate that would exhaust my monthly income in less than a day, it was difficult to understand why I of all people would be receiving this. This made even less sense than someone in Nigeria trying to find out my bank account numbers and passwords - they would only learn than Africa doesn't have a monopoly on poverty.

I finally concluded that this was somehow mis-directed and was originally a referral to John Van Dongen, former Minister of State for Street Racing by his buddy Gordo Campbell, who may well be a satisfied customer of Finest Chauffeurs, from the days when he was neither in Canada, nor allowed to drive himself. Fortunately for Gordo (and old Ding Dong Dongen) we the taxpayers are happy to pick up the tab for chauffeurs for them, whether thay are legally required or not. It is difficult to concentrate on traffic AND looting and pillaging the province at the same time, even for smart people.

Personal Escorts
If you require an escort only, Finest Chauffeurs can accommodate you. Our Personal escorts are ideal for busy executives, dignitaries, and public figures such as entertainers and sports figures, who may want to enjoy the night out.

Apparently Finest will provide services that go waaaay beyond just driving you in their or your car-car. And I hope Ding Dong ain't too disappointed that I've got his gift certificate.

 

Let the Truth Now Dribble Out!

Now that the purported election (in which 20% of the electorate was enough to certify four more years of larceny and lies) is over, even the faithful lackeys at Glow Ball/Canned Waste are free to allow the odd morsel of truth dribble from their lips, pens and keyboards. Little proofs of Gordo's superb economic management like the fact that the welfare rolls of so-called "employable" applicants in BC has jumped by 50% in the last six months. Wow -added to the fact that BC leads even Ontario (heavily affected by troubles in the Auto Sector) in job losses for the first three months of this year and we can rest assured we have a top-notch CEO.

The government has moved quickly to alleviate any inconvience that the little remaining access to the justice system people retained was giving their plans to sell off what little is left of our province. Almost the next day after the Election in Hell, the entire Attorney General's website was re-vamped and not so much to make it simpler, easier or more intuitive to access. Of course the promotion of Justice Bennett off the bench of Basi-Virk was just a coincidence because we all know that Stephen Harper and Gordon Campbell are mortal political foes, RIGHT! I'll need to be revising my various court links to the right when I quit feeling too disgusted!

But Canned Waste, et. al. haven't totally forgotten their lackey status and duties. It is amazing to listen to how much they can make over the fact that the NDP caucus, AS THEY ALWAYS SAID FROM DAY ONE, may be re-visiting how they deal with the, Gordon Campbell ram-rodded through the Ledge, unseemly pay raise. And don't be telling me about the "semi-secret" gold-plated pension benefits being "vested" as if the BC liaRs were passing on those - though they are stealing so much elsewhere and getting such cushy directorships etc. they hardly need them.

Meanwhile in the Land of Hate Harper!

Never failing in their efforts to keep the Republican flames of hate fully fanned and active the PsuedoCons (or Canadian Wing of the RePugnant Party) have launched their hate offensive on Iggy already, even though there is no election in sight, and Steve prefers to hide behind the skirts of the GG anymore, anyway. Stevie's PR hacks, and I do mean HACKS - including his own near and dear DRAFT-DODGING Flanagan - have decided that the fact that Michael Ignatieff, who went to university with that rabid commie, Bob Rae IN CANADA, is now just visiting. This is because he has be doing suspect things like teaching at HARVARD, a school Little Stevie could probably never even gain admittance to as a freshman or Cambridge/Oxford.

Now I myself find it strange, as an immigrant, that a man who might be P.M. may have spent less time in Canada than I, but that is better than a George W. Bush or Sarah Palin who never went anywhere until the public started paying the travel expenses. Besides, I thought Stephen Harper DEFECTED from Canada years ago, when he left Ontario to go to the agricultural extension of the Chicago School of Economics in Calgary, Alberta. BTW, is Alberta still part of Canada, and if so, should it be? I think a few hours in a land registry would prove that technically Alberta is just a colonial jurisdiction more properly considered a part of Greater Houston!

I'll be getting to you sisonosis

I haven't had time to check out your blog(s) yet, but you should give your head a shake (except it may be up somewhere too tight to do so, as you accuse Mary's of being). Your rant makes no sense, other than to dissect it may help me understand why the people of British Columbia are so anxious to elect and re-elect criminals and fools to high office. Your anti-union, anti-NDP, anti-Mary (and it is so obvious you don't have a clue where she's coming from) could come straight from the lips of Kerkoff himself, but we all know he has no "Special Interests" nor do GE, CN, Kinder-Morgan, Accenture and all the other sociopathic corporations that our CEO Campbell prefers to serve, rather than the people of BC.

I don't understand why you left your crap on an older post, unless you were embarrassed by it and hoped no one would see it. Anyway, I may well address your comment on the front page in the near future and do not expect a rave review.

Tear Down This
(crime scene) Tape

Tear Down This Tape!

It is pretty clear to this guy (this guy being me) that there is little reason to even bother having a "House of Infamy." It is clear that as "DEAN" Vaughn Palmer of the Puffery Corps of the Pretense of a Parliament in James Bay insists, less than eight people even care about the unprecedented raid on the Legislature, lo these many years ago, or about the history, present or future of BC Rail. In fact maybe Vaughn was over-estimating when he came up with the figure of eight and was counting either Bill Tieleman or BC Mary twice.

Yep, it is clearly a case of no fault, no foul, no reason to whine - after all, the 200-300 or whatever it is today at the Public Affairs Bureau, couldn't be wrong, could they.

It really is unimportant that during "Operation EveryWhichWay" the RCMP were listening to the top aide to the F#%$^&*&$ing Finance Minister of the F#$^$^$%%$&%#ing Province of BC, talk to his own cousin, who just "happened" to be the kingpin of the Cocaine Trade on Southern Vancouver Island, multiple times daily. In fact - since J. Bains was only the drug lord of the area around the Legislature itself, unlike say the UN Gang, Bacon Brothers or Scorpions, the fact that he was tried, convicted and sentenced to eight years or so, was ENTIRELY IRRELEVANT to those keepers of the newsgates like Pointy LaPointe or the Lucious Lucinda Chodan of the Times-Colonist. I know for me, I would much rather read about a Bacon Brother associate receiving a traffic ticket for an incomplete stop at a stop sign in Mission at 3:00am, who wouldn't?

How many wives and children our Premier of Criminal Activity (but only on Maui)may or may not have, is irrelevant compared to those of Winston Blackmore and his associates.

How many solicitor-generals resign over their own alleged criminal activity is another one of those types of topics only of interest to those with far too much time on their hands.

To state it simply, the Legislature was raided under search warrants over five years ago, some patsies were charged with something, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING will likely ever come of any of it because we live in the BESTEST PLACE ON EARTH, and if you don't like them potatoes, tough!!!!! You either need to move somewhere or read a lot more Canned Waste and watch a LOT MORE GlowBall TeeVee!

Larceny
Legalized!

Crime Does Pay, you bet!

Rule of Law
Officially Suspended in BC!

This morning I feel like a prize fighter who lost a fight last night. This morning I woke up flat on my back on the mat, having been unconcious all night from the knock-out. Canned Waste wrote a script for this election and the FEW people in British Columbia who even bothered to participate followed the script and returned the Criminal Organization known as the BC Liberal Party to a third (I am so tired of hearing this already) majority government.

It really becomes hard to care when it is so obvious that except for my immediate surroundings here in the Kootenays, no one else could even be bothered. Record low turn-out, less than half of the elegible voters even bothered to go out in the rain and cast a ballot. Why should I even give a shit, if nobody else can be bothered?

I am still trying to understand how the voters (both of them) of Prince George could actually return Pat Bell and Shirley "our kids don't need no damn education" Bond to Victoria, to presumably represent their interests. As Kenny Rogers sang "you gotta know when to fold."

I guess all that is left to say is the thank-yous to Canned Waste, GlowBall TeeVee and the deluded and manipulated "so-called" environmentalists like David Suzuki who convinced me that you don't have to be smart to go to, or necessarily get smart, by going to University! Thank you too, Tseporah, or however you spell your weird name - I hope you have a city lot sized patch of environment left to "protect" after four more years of an all out assault on what little is left of "SuperNatural BC!"

Fortunately for me, British Columbia isn't the only place on Earth, and though I always thought I would be happy to die here someday, I am having second thoughts about that. I can't decide whether to move, or apply for a job with the Public Affairs Bureau!

By the way, if anybody is still here by 2013, please turn off the lights as you leave, because they really need the power in Phoenix!

I've lost interest in British Columbia, I'll just amuse myself this morning by listening to Brian Mulroney lie his face off in Ottawa!

SELL BC!
VOTE BC liaR

Update ......10:03am May 11!

Raw Logs and Jobs Out
       Value Added Products In!

Hot off the presses over at Laila's place (I swear Laila must be the previously unacknowledged offspring produced by the union of Lois Lane and Clark Kent (as Superman)- Laila does more "journalism" in her sleep than the soon to be "re-deployed" massed minions of Can 'O Crap/ASSper Empire do while they're getting paid!

” Put Your Money Where Your Mouth is Premier”

Despite heralding the value of our precious BC lumber,and promising to help the desperate situation of forestry workers all over the province, the BC Liberals actually imported American lumber from Oregon based Stimson Lumber!!!!

The fool and his team actually used imported wood to hold up those very large and obnoxious like L.Ron Hubbard, self- promoting signs along highway 1 – you know the ones. Billboard size con-artist click Gateway Propaganda crap? Yep, all those posts could have been bought from a local Surrey mill, Mackenzie Sawmill, ensuring that whats made in BC, is used in BC. The company is only 3 Kilometres from the Port Mann Bridge….

Ironic? Yes.

Surprising? NO!!

While this may seem like a small and petty story, the sentiment is clear.

Put your money where your mouth is Premier Gordon Campbell. Using American lumber isn’t exactly going to ” Keep BC Strong!”

(bolded parts - kc)

Update ......6:53am, May 11!


Approximate quote off the air:

"People..(in the riding) are not happy about the little publicized "accomodation fee" (a mere, nominal $1,000.00 - just a "processing" fee or WTF - kc) that if paid to the Inferior Health Authority may help them be able to find an extended care bed faster or at all."

David French
Assoc. Producer
CBC Kelowna

I was awakening between six and seven AM into the middle of a discussion of various ridings (and the issues in them) served by the CBC outlet in Kelowna, that miraculously STILL exists and even has enough staff to broadcast still. I assumed that Mr. French was referring to the charges made for services to non-clients of the recently Gordonized Americanized (ie Maximus), BC Medical Plan, usually tourists or visitors - BUT NO!!!! Apparently the equivalent of a "key payment" that ethically questionable practice even in New York City, can even more ethically corruptly determine which patient in need gets the one bed left in our region after the IHA slash and burn campaign of the infamous first term of Gordon "the Terrible" Campbell version 1.0.

This protocol will speed up triage in the ER and elsewhere in the health care system. It will be much faster for the staff to diagnose the condition of the patient's bank account and dispense limited resources based on those vital (dollar) signs. Hmmmm, reminds me of somewhere else.......hmmmm, oh yeah, America the Beautiful!

 

What's wrong with this Picture?*

* The guy who looks like David Anderson, former Liberal (Liberal Party of Canada - no relation to the BC liaR Party of Gordon Campbell) MP from British Columbia, should have his hands full of Gordo Green C-Notes, to more accurately portray the manner in which so much of our province is being sold off or given away to mostly American interests. Even Canadian National is little more now than the Canadian subsidiary of an American (or North American - US/offshore controlled) Corporation. Add to the BC Rail treason the disbursements and gifts to Kinder-Morgan (descendent of Enron - the company that took corruption to a new level of low), Accenture (the refugees of the company that cooked the books for Enron), Maximus, and the list goes on.

The View from the House
The Official Endorsement
or un-Endorsement

Time to Take Out the Trash!

Tuesday May 12 is garbage day in my community, like every Tuesday that isn't also a holiday. Let's hope it is considered garbage day all across our province,and that the good people of British Columbia will join together to take out the trash in Victoria. I don't want to sound sexist, but maybe it is time to send a woman, Carole James, to "clean house!" Lord knows, we probably need a Haz-Mat crew to remove the stench from the Rockpile in James Bay.

Thanks Frank!

Commenter Frank, over at the Mild One that hands out a line, points out the the prediction from electionprediction.org is:

Libs 41
NDP 37

Too close to call 7

Frank reminds us that this organization called 35 of 36 seats correctily in Stevie's unecessary federal election exercise last fall!



The Juicy Bits

It has been extremely intriguing to observe the reaction of the Gordon Campbell forces, comprised of the Liberal Party of BC, the 233 +/- minions of the Public Affairs Bureau, and the combined forces of the ASSper (or Canned Western Feces) Empire, to last weekend's revelations by BC Mary of Gordon Campbell's almost Warren Jeffs style collection of families. No wonder Wally Oppal took so long to go after Winston Blackmore and the other guy in Bountiful, he probably had to seek legal advice that would allow him to leave the Gordon Campbell situation off of the charge sheet.

BC Mary has had a difficult time dealing with the story of CEO Campbell's confusing apparent duplication of families. On one level what consenting adults, even those in the public eye, do in their spare time is their business. However when those same officials not only put their personal, intimate or family friends on the public payroll and let the public underwrite what in the case of Lara Dauphinee are outrageous expenses compared to most, if not all, other public officials, both elected and non-elected, it becomes the public's BUSINESS.

If Gordon the Hypocrite manages to elude accountability yet again and remain the CEO premier of BC, he will owe Canned Waste/GlowBall an almost infinite amount of gratitude. These same sleazeballs, masquerading as news outlets, that joined and gave massive assistance to Gordo in the character assassination of Gordon Wilson and Judy Tyabji, over similiar activities, or Glen Clark about the most famous small back porch deck in the universe, have bent over both backwards and frontwards to protect their hero/frontman for the Corporate Agenda from any and all criticism of a personal, political, ethical or purely economic nature. As BC Mary noted yesterday at her place, the great Can 'O Crap may be only staying on life support until re-installing Gord in Victoria, after which they will do the right thing and DIE!

One correspondent wrote to point out the difference between how genuine liberal Pierre Elliot Trudeau handled a situation with some similarities to what appears to be happening with our CEO. When Pierre and Ms. Coyne, over twenty years ago, produced a child out of wedlock, they immediately, but without great fanfare, informed the press and Canadians in general about the arrival of their child. After that the child was accorded the privacy to grow up, without the indignity of having the resources of government and the media devoted to ignoring and denying the very possiblity of the child's existence or the relationship that spawned the child.

I can't really say what the true situation is vis-a-vis the Campbell family(ies) situation. With the entire resources of government and media erecting a cone of silence, how could I? However the fact that within twenty-four hours of BC Mary publishing the results of her painstaking research the BC Liberal PR Machine Vancouver Sun and GlowBall TeeVee News both had features about Gordon and Nancy's never ending Love Story speaks volumes. This is the woman who moved to Squamish, who had not been seen at the CEO's side since his lie encrusted, phoney crocodile tears dampened, apology to the people of BC for getting caught for drunk driving in America, the VERY FIRST TIME HE DRANK AND DROVE!!!!

If our CEO can't be trusted to be "transPARENT" about his own "family" life - what else can we take him on his word about?

Sometimes:
3 Pictures = 3,000 Words


This is not an NDP Site!

I wouldn't blame anyone who got the mistaken impression that the House supports the NDP in a general sense. Here at the House we are actually members of the ABC (Anybody but Campbell) Party, which is related to the ABC (Anybody but Conservatives) co-alition of Danny Williams in Newfoundland and Labrador. If I thought Jane Sterk had a chance of forming government on May 13th, I would consider voting for my Green Candidate, though in my riding a vote for anyone but the NDP candidate, Katrine Conroy, is essentially thrown away, this riding is a lock. However, due to the realities of BC Politics, I have to be NDP by default. Anyone that isn't a convicted felon would be an improvement over Gordon and his Merry Band of Thieves. Come to think of it, even a reformed but previously convicted felon would most likely be a step towards higher ethical standards in Victoria. The important thing is to get out and vote (unless you plan to for for Capo Campbell, that is).

Vote ABC May 12
Anybody But Campbell

No More Gordo stealing the store!

Endorsed by the
Fish Wrapper!

That multipurpose fish wrapper/bird cage liner that was once a newspaper, the Vancouver Sun, blessed its steadily diminishing (and I wonder why?) readership with their pick for next Tuesday's election in their Friday waste of wood fibre. To the surprise of no one with a functioning brain they came out solidly for four more years of mismanagement and criminality under the CEO to the Corporate Stars (thanks RossK), Gordon the Greedy and the BC liaR Party.

Of course, what else could anyone expect from the local flagship of the overlords of the ASSper Empire and the rest of the symbiotic spin factory comprised of the ASSpers, the Public Affairs Bureau and their outsourced back-up including National Public Relations. I will have to admit that even if they can't or won't investigate reality, they sure can write, or use words to create an alternate reality (kind of THE definition of writing FICTION). They manage to tell untruth after untruth, piled on completely mis-leading statements and outright lies in the lead editorial Campbell and the Liberals have earned right to a third term

As they attempt to seem oh so reasonable and unbiased, like they were forced to come to this conclusion by careful analysis, they make this statement this almost right out of the gate.

Statistics Canada reported that British Columbia’s economy shrank by 0.3 per cent in 2008 for the first time in more than a quarter century. The last time that happened, B.C. was in the grip of the 1982 recession.

Have the cuts at Canned Waste destroyed the institutional memory of the organization? As I recall in 1982 we were enjoying the business management smarts of the drunken, sleazy insider trading son of BC's greatest premier ever - the remains of whom (mini-WAC - there was no footage of real Wacky spinning in his grave) were seen yesterday on the shores of Okanagan Lake celebrating the third victory of his buddy Gordon Campbell already.

Businesses were being shuttered. Young people were leaving the province to find work elsewhere.

Some editor might have already lost his job over this line as this is only supposed to be used to refer to the dirty nineties, sister era to the Great Depression brought to us by the evil deck-builder and Mafioso associate Glen Clark. It should never be applied to a period of SoCrud/PsuedoCon/Reform/BC Liberal rule! (source -Official ASSper Empire Style Guide for Writers and Editors)

Like the recent presidential race in the United States, this provincial election is about change.

NewsFlash Fish Wrapper, McCain didn't win that one, and if BC votes for change, they certainly won't re-elect Gordo and his merry band. I can only hope it is about change.

Despite the weaknesses — and every government will have them — there is no question that for the most part the Liberals have run a successful government. Until the recession hit, British Columbians were enjoying the benefits of solid economic growth, in part due to major tax cuts and regulatory relief that the Liberal government initiated.

Do they mean the same policies that EVERYONE agrees have caused the current economic disaster world-wide, that British Columbia has managed to remain in denial about because of the blessing of the few resources that Campbell hasn't given away yet and the smoke and mirrors of the frenzy of activity focused on the Lower Vainland to prepare for the rich peoples' Circus/Olympics™, sure to be followed by an Olympic™ sized debt-ridden hangover?

Real disposable income per person was flat between 1992 and 2000 when the NDP was in power. But with the Liberals in office it rose 2.4 per cent a year between 2002 and 2007. By 2008, take-home income was 15 per cent higher than it was in 2002.

I'm not trying to be picky here, but I wonder why they didn't want to put this into perspective by pointing out how the cost of living, you know like housing, food, gasoline and other sundry luxuries have also increased, and I'm not going to bother to look up those stats, but rest assured, they make 15% seem trivial and in many cases require at least three figures. Of course maybe the already rich and steadily getting richer, don't notice this as much as say a minimum wage earner whose earnings have increased exactly 0% or maybe even declined for those lucky enough to qualify for Campbell's invention of the sub-minimum wage to help out small business.

With a couple of minor exceptions, compared to past B.C. governments, Campbell’s Liberals have been relatively scandal-free.

Reading this statement I can't decide whether to laugh, cry, defecate or go blind. I have heard of say, BingoGate or that famous deck in East Van, but other than the attention they were accorded by the giant spin factory when it was helpful to catapault the propaganda and give Gordo the keys to the kingdom, they are small potatoes. Small potatoes compared to say - the Legislature Raids, the ongoing obstruction of justice we know as the Basi-Virk Trial, John Les and his less ALR land exploits, ICBC shenanigans, stacking calls to radio shows at tax-payer expense, Doug Walls, the so called outsourced job placement programs like Job Wave, the betrayal of BC Rail, the outsourcing of services to outfits like Accenture and Maximus to pay higher costs for poorer services, the denial of science in the effort to kill wild salmon with fish farm lice, the devastation of pristine wilderness for so-called and overpriced run-of river projects and the complete removal of any local control over local issues, life in the fast lane with the Minister of Street-Racing John Van Dongen, the apparent disappearance of vast sums from the Norther Development Trust - an amount nobody knows because these figures are being illegally withheld from the public until after the election (in BC of course almost everything not "before the courts" is being withheld until after May 12), the incestous relationship between the Minister of Forests and the executive of TimberWest at a critical time in relation to the conversion of forest land to speculators' recreational real estate out Jordon River way, and the list of sins goes on longer than I feel like typing right now. If I tried to make this listing comprehensive right down to the little stuff equivalent to the deck and BingoGate, I would be still typing on May 13th - and I'm a fairly fast typist - all the fingers - no peeking, no one fingered hunter/peckers over here.

I am burned out, and can't even read anymore of the drivel that is the Sun's so dispassionately (in their view) delivered analysis of why we should give Gordo four more years to finish the job of completely destroying British Columbia. As more people are learning everyday, there is no reason to go pay money to the Aspers for the kind of crap you hate to even find for free in your mail-box as junk mail with an obvious and suspect agenda. That's why daily more people go to read about reality at blog of the patron saint of we who truly love this province - BC Mary - who with only the resources of her sharp mind, integrity and apparent ability to never sleep and just work 24/7 is able to use her measured skill with language to describe what is really going on. BC Mary wasn't/isn't really a partisan of any persuasion, but it is almost impossible to dig into the sewer that is the Campbell regime without at least being NOT BC liaR! I just fervently pray that enough people have awakened to the truth by Tuesday.

I should perhaps also applaud and recommend Laila, GaryE, the Pacific Gazetteer and Bill Tieleman who also manage to crawl out from under the ASSper imposed information blackout in BC and links to each are over at the right. But Mary is the inspiration to many of us and does more digging for the truth than all the journalists of the Canned Waste/GlowBall Empire combined. Perhaps I should give Canned Waste et. al. SOME credit, they do a lot of digging also, only they are usually digging holes in which they can bury any facts that might be embarrassing or incriminating to the Campbell Regime - not exactly journalism!

Power to the
People Campbelloids

IPPs "Raided!"

Yesterday morning as I woke up to the early CBC radio news as usual, I heard about some "strike" teams that were showing up at some of Captain Pegleg Campbell's Pirate Power, so-called run-of-river, projects that are already under construction. Later in the day I heard little or nothing more about this, and with what little time I had, was unable to find any more about it on the tooobz, even at the CBC's own website. Then later in the evening, thanks to Surrey's own cross between real citizen journalist and female Dick Tracey, I was able to find out both more about the subject and perhaps why I hadn't been able to locate more even even at CBC.com.

Apparently the Mother Network had decided that this issue, being so irrelevant and all to the current election supposedly underway in our province, belonged in the technology pages, where only geeks and other techo-wanks would be likely to run across it before May 12. Because of this I won't even give the Ceeb the courtesy of a link today and instead recommend you go over to Laila's place for the rest of the story beyond what I've excerpted below. Actually I would recommend that anyone interested in the issues important to the real people of British Columbia who aren't either land speculators, sleight of hand stock promoters, car salesmen, corporate CEOs and others of the already rich but still greedy for more ilk, go to her place at least daily to see "how Laila Yuile sees" many issues critical to British Columbians who are none of the above.

CBC News

Inspection reports and emails obtained by CBC News show B.C. government officials have raised concerns about environmental infractions during the construction of the rapidly growing number of run-of-river private power projects in the province.

In one email obtained by CBC News, a forestry official involved wrote, “I am becoming increasingly nervous about the lack of attention to the projects.”

Last fall, inspectors from the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Forests and Range — who dubbed themselves “strike teams” — dropped in on the construction sites of several private run-of-river hydro projects.

The eventual reports by the strike team obtained by CBC News through a Freedom of Information Act request noted at four sites, the inspectors found serveral violations of the expected best management practices and the construction environmental management plan, including:

Sloppy construction that could damage streams.

Overcutting old-growth forest.

Inadequate sewage treatment at work camps.

Construction during bird breeding season.

Replanting with non-native species.

No one was charged or fined for the violations.

....../snip

Marvin Rosenau, a former senior fisheries biologist with the B.C. government, said while the issues may seem minor, they trigger alarm bells.

“It says to me they’re cavalier about how they do business — ‘We’re a powerful industry there. The rules don’t quite apply to us like everybody else. We can just go ahead and do whatever we want’,'” said Rosenau.

Gwen Barlee, a policy director with the Wilderness Committee, said the reports suggest the environmental impact of private power is being kept from the public.

..../snip

“I think it’s kind of sad that we need a strike team for private power projects. It’s a reflection on the lack of planning and the fact that these projects are coming on fast and furious,” said Barlee.

Government officials involved in the strike teams say they can’t discuss what they found until after next week’s provincial election.

One point to note is that the "strike teams" aren't roving bands of wild-eyed "eco-terra-ists" with a "commie" agenda - but rather, taxpayer funded officials from the governmental agencies mandated to look after fish, forests and other environmental values for the government of the only governor or premier in North America other than Arnie the Hummer Man that is greener than Kermit the Frog and mostly (well he says) wants to preserve the paradise that is BC for his unknown number of children and grand-children.

BTW, though David Suzuki should be admired and thanked, if for nothing else other than the awareness of environmental issues he has helped bring about over the years, he is also supposed to be a "genuine" scientist. However, the way the 233 (or more or less) members of the PABlum brigade assisted by the likes of National Public Relations and such, have apparently turned him into a frontman from Gordon the Devastator is appalling. Mr. Suzuki seems to totally endorse the BC ConLibs because of the phoney and ineffective "carbon tax" to force people to make choices that are not even availble, unless you live in the favored portion - the Lower Mainland/Capitol Region. If you live in the north or the Kootenays etc. just suck it up and send your money down to the "hole where all the money goes" (apologies to John Prine). Heck we've been doing it forever, why stop now - but at least W.A.C. knew we deserved a couple pieces of pie, now and then!

Either it just proves what a tax-payer funded spin machine employing more professionals than all the media in BC assisted by PR firms from the private sector (also probably paid with taxpayer dollars) combined can accomplish, or David should go back to where ever he got his degrees and demand a refund for his tuition, in 2009 dollars.

If even David Suzuki, obviously an educated man who deeply and sincerely cares about the planet, can be taken in by the Campbell Spin & Rinse machine and a coat of green paint on Gord, what hope does the harried working parents of BC who may need to work two jobs to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table have of understanding the issues. About all they have time for is to catch a few minutes of broadcasting by Gordon's other PR firm that pretends to be a neutral media mega-conglomerate known as CanWest/Global.

I'm going to "flip-flop" and send you to the CBC after all, so that you can check out their comments thread for this "technology" report. After all we can't expect Laila to host that too, while she is so busy doing more "actual" reporting than the entire Lower Vainland media industry COMBINED!


(Or you could go on over to her place (and you should) where she provides this same link, complete with a handy-dandy thumnail preview of the CBC webpage from the Tech Section.)

crossposted @ WaterWalk


   No More GordistaShip

Dem Damn........
Statistics

Bucking the Economic Trends

As it rains outside, and I wait for this evening's debate, the only debate available through the air in my part of the Vast Hurtland, I thought I would amuse myself by looking at my traffic patterns of late. As the illustration above, showing the most recent ALMOST twelve weeks illustrates, traffic is on the upswing here at the house. Traffic always increases in a direct ratio to the frequency of posting here. However, this current positive trend I attribute mostly to the recent short Legislative sitting, the BC Rail hub-bub and Kinsella etc. flare-ups lately, but mostly the current election campaign with nine days left till the BIG DAY.

I thought I would share some of my findings and thoughts about this recent data and trends with my readers while we wait for the debate.
I also hope the debate is a bit more satisfying for us BCers than was last night's debacle at GM Place by our Canucks. But hey, I guess we couldn't expect 'em to go 16-0, eh?


Statistics themselves don't Lie

Most people are familiar with that chestnut about, "There are Lies, Damn Lies and then there's Statistics." But statistics are merely data, and they don't really do anything, they only exist to be seen or not seen. You can call the distance from one place to another one mile or one point six kilometres, but it is still the same distance, it is just expressed in different terms, and to walk it will require the same amount of time and energy, however you choose to express/measure those qualities. This is like Shakespeare's "rose by any other name."

Lies and Statistics get so mixed up in people's minds, especially in a society that is generally not interested in or well educated in numeracy and mathematics in general because people who do understand statistics/mathematics use them to confuse, mislead or exploit other people . This works to the advantage of bankers, stock promoters and other casino operators and snake oil salesmen of all varieties who tend to understand the principles of compound interest and probibility very well and profit greatly because of it. Likewise political operatives can use statistics to help them design their campaign - by getting accurate data and interpreting it properly - some folks call this type 'internal polling.' But then they can choose how to share the same data, after massaging it to convey whatever they want it to SEEM to PROVE - this is what the media or the parties put out to affect the public's perception!

Webmasters and bloggers who care to can track their visitors and the data thus collected once organized becomes what IT types usually call 'stats.' In the internal polling sense the web master can then analyze these stats to determine how to decrease, increase or otherwise change who from where comes to visit their site. If you are selling something, even just advertising, then sheer volume may be the goal. On the other hand if you are trying to rid yourself of annoying people, or people who can't afford what you are selling, or live too far away to hire your services, you might want to change your content to more efficiently attract the audience that satisfies the goals of the web-site.

Since I may someday sign up with Google Ads or something - volume is good, and as the illustration above illustrates, traffic is up lately at the House. But as much as I may appreciate a visitor from Burkina Faso, though that visitor could be someone traveling from British Columbia, I value visitors from the "bestest place on earth" the most, since the House is all about BC issues. So today when I decided to analyze my most recent 500 visitors I was extremely pleased with the results because:

1. 96% were from Canada
2. 90% of the total were from British Columbia
3. Approximately forty different communities from
   every part of BC supplied those visitors

Considering that some of those communities are large communities, like Victoria, Vancouver and smaller centers and that merely represents where the server is located, it is even more than the forty communities that are named. Nelson alone could represent visitors from Balfour, Kaslo, Slocan, New Denver, Silverton, etc.

Interestingly the single largest number of visits came from Victoria, which considering it is the capital, is quite satisfying, even if as I suspect, we are all paying for half or more of them, being as it is likely they are members of what the Pacific Gazetteer refers to as the PABst Blue/Red Ribbon Brigade. But still, I was surprised to see Victoria sending over 2 1/2 times the visitors as even the Big Smoke itself - Vancouver. I guess if you add in Burnaby and Surrey though, they almost even out.

To see the list of BC Communities who have visited the House most recently just click on the Click for More link as I will tuck the listing below the fold.


   More


Visitors – Percent - Community

115 - 23.00% Victoria
49 - 9.80% Vancouver
39 - 7.80% Burnaby
34 - 6.80% Surrey
22 - 4.40% Abbotsford
16 - 3.20% Coquitlam
15 - 3.00% Prince George
15 - 3.00% Langley
14 - 2.80% Campbell River
13 - 2.60% One Hundred Mile House
12 - 2.40% Delta
12 - 2.40% Qualicum Beach
11 - 2.20% Kelowna
10 - 2.00% Kamloops
9 - 1.80% Maple Ridge
9 - 1.80% Duncan
8 - 1.60% Cobble Hill
8 - 1.60% Nanaimo
7 - 1.40% North Vancouver
4 - 0.80% Port Alberni
4 - 0.80% Cranbrook
2 - 0.40% Courtenay
2 - 0.40% Grand Forks
2 -0.40% Powell River
2 - 0.40% Port Coquitlam
2 - 0.40% Fort Saint John
2 - 0.40% Nelson
2 - 0.40% Terrace
2 - 0.40% Chilliwack
2 - 0.40% Richmond
1 - 0.20% Salmo
1 - 0.20% Ganges
1 - 0.20% Bella Coola
1 - 0.20% Kitimat
1 - 0.20% New Westminster
1 - 0.20% Parksville

Do I Smell
Desperation?

Do You Really Want to Go Here,
......... Gordo?

As I was waking up to the CBC Radio news this morning I almost spewed up my beer, except I hadn't started drinking yet that early, at least not today! There was the voice of Premier CEO telling the fine folks of Logan Lake (a town that is a text-book example of the failures of the boom-bust approach to "business as usual" promoted by the BC liaRs and other neanderCons) that the nasty NDP, if elected would make them pay $3.00 more for a six-pack of beer. Oh yeah, and also cost how ever many thousand jobs (that he hasn't killed off already) that he chose to pull out of his rear orifice this morning.

Aside from the fact that this was a FLAT OUT lie, it doesn't even make any sense. What he was referring to was the fact that someone in the NDP had thought it wasn't right that private "Cold Beer" stores, usually attached to licensees who have "certain" connections, get a discount on their wholesale cost compared to so-called Franchised LCB outlets,* usually attached to general stores, and completely unknown, most likely, to residents of the part of BC that really matters and is well served by multitudinous actual BCLCB outlets open almost 24/7.

In my part of the province BCLCB outlets might be a hundred or more miles away and these "LCB franchise" outlets perform a service by making LCB products available AT LCB prices, which anyone who can count their change knows the "Cold Stores" DO NOT! Meanwhile these general store operators still have to hire staff and pay wages of AT LEAST as much, or sometimes more, than the typical clerk in the "Cold Store." Then of course there is the actual BCLCB stores where the UNION employees actually make a living wage WITH benefits AND return vast revenues to the provincial coffers for things like health care, social services Olympic (can I type that word without being sued?) venues, costly convention centres, new roofs for ugly mushrooms and other PPP3 games to rob the public's purse.

Meanwhile, in spite of the advantage Gordo gave the "Cold Stores" for purchasing stock, they INVARIABY charge a hefty premium over and above the price paid at the real or franchise BCLCB outlets.

But the real question, to me anyway, is why Gordo would even want to bring the subject of alcohol into the campaign. After all, he is the main guy I remember that got arrested for something that would have been a criminal offense had it occurred in his own jurisdiction. As it was, unlike most people, and cops who get transferred to a desk, he at least had a job that comes with a driver (paid for by us), making the whole thing just a minor inconvience except for having to fake an apology and most likely lie about the incident being the first time in 54 years that he had ever gotten behind the wheel while impaired. If anyone believes that one, I'll will sell them the new Port Mann bridge, after all, it is finished already!

As the headline implies -

I Love the Smell of Desperation in the Morning!

* Some folks refer to these as "LCB Agency Stores." I'm not certain what their exact title is, but living here in the hinterlands I often have occasion to patronize them! And this type of outlet was around, perhaps to keep us country mice from having to make two hundred mile round trips to pick up a six pack and waste all that time that we could otherwise devote to hewing wood and carrying water to provide riches for the city mice on Howe Street, long before the Social Credistas started handing out the now familiar "Cold Store" type of license.

More Work by the PABlum Brigade?

As an added aspect to this whole story, when I went looking for a different version of Gordo's world famous mugshot, other than the one that permanently lives to your right, was I in for a surprise! I sorta, kinda wanted to use the four panel version with ID, full frontal, and both profiles - but even though not that long ago all one had to do was type "Gordon Campbell" into the search text box at Google Images, multiple images in various sizes cluttered the screen, now that version seems to have gone the way of the dinosaurs! Not only that, but when I wanted to refresh my memory by re-reading some of the articles about Gordo Five-OH, many were now unavailable - even three out four in the CBC.com archives.

Meanwhile, everything questionable even mentioned over a neighbor's fence that reflects bad on Gordon Wilson or Judy Tyabji or anyone related to them even back before the turn of the century, is still up and accessible to the interested public. I can only speculate that this is the result of my tax dollars at work paying the PABst Blue Ribbon Brigade to scour the net and lean on various organizations to scrub images and prose that reflects badly on our Great Leeeder!

Of course as BC Mary's brand new post this morning illustrates, not that much in that vein (reflecting poorly on Our Leeeder) ever even makes it to any media controlled by Gordon's Private PR Firm run by the ASSperson Family.

If anyone finds the post linked above interesting or enlightening, they may be interested in checking out Rot in Press,Rot in Politics from ViveleCanada by Robin Matthews, or Is Campbell a Made Man? in the Republic of East Van!

If you read Mary's current post, and the two mentioned above, you might realize why this lady (to left) doesn't get to/have to glare at the Gord in person much anymore!


   No More Gordo!