Total Eclipse of
The Vancouver Sun

The Vancouver Sun of the New Millennium

First, I must make a disclosure or confession. Undoubtably due to some inner masochism or unconscious atonement for sins I won't admit to myself, I PURCHASED both the Friday and the Saturday issues of the once eminent newspaper turned advertising broadsheet for real estate, automobiles and the BC LIEberal Criminal Organization. Living in the Hurtland, this means I've lost not only the time I've wasted reading their drivel, but also almost four dollars that could have been more constructively spent on alcohol or poppies. This Monday morning the only part that is still legible, due to involuntary crumpling as I read the usual crap from the usual crap distributors (Fowlie, Palmer, Cayo, etc.)is the New York Times Crossword, perhaps the most valuable feature in the entire waste of wood fibre that could perhaps stand a better chance of winning a Pulitzer for Fiction than any awards for journalism.

The thing that struck me about these two editions was the fact that though I've read much more egregious drivel in the Sun and the sister publications the Times-Colonial Watercarrier and the pro-liaR Province, the mundane acceptance of a priori falsehoods that is regularly taken for granted and asserted as gospel is stunning once noticed. Even when they aren't spending years ignoring the Basi-Virk Trial (because as Lucinda Chodan and Kirk LaPointe pointed out - it wasn't newsworthy) or like now spilling barrels of ink to convince the regular folks its all over and it was just the two brown guys so move along, they continually promote the agenda of their masters so subtly that one has to pay attention to even notice. For example in Saturdays not surprisingly unsigned editorial (who would admit to such crap?) Income tax cut creates perspective for HST debate*, the same old pro-Campbell fluff is presented as dispassionate rational analysis (sic).

The net result of the latest cut is that by the beginning of next year, most British Columbians will be better off in the HST era than they were before as a result of the combination of income tax cuts and HST tax credits that cover the entire income range. While the earlier measures benefited lower income brackets more, the latest cuts spreads more benefits through average households....../snip

In fact, personal after-tax income has increased on average by 2.4 per cent each year since 2001. In other words, British Columbians are better off financially since the Liberals took office.

That is really cute, un-named liars. Most of the British Columbians I know here in the hurtland aren't better off. Those without jobs because their sawmill moved to China aren't better off. Those who are making the minimum wage or worse the sub-minimum wage and living in their parents' basement or their old room at 28 aren't better off. The kids who have to ride a bus two or three hours a day to school aren't better off. Of course if my friends were folks like Paul Taylor, Brian Kenning, Admiral Vlad Hahn, and that ilk, I too would assume most British Columbians were better off too!

But then the un-named dispensers of wisdom really swing for the fences with:

When Campbell cut taxes by 25 per cent in 2001, the economy responded and the net result over time was that revenues increased, pulling the government out of the red.

That sounds pretty impressive as long as you forget that the government was only in the red because of the 25% tax cut to reward the BC liaR supporters and provide a reason for drastic cuts to education, health and social service as well as forestry, environmental regulation and so on.

In Saturday's Issues and Ideas section Harvey Enchin takes a break from attacking the NDP and all other non-Fraser Stink Tank economic theories to assess the situation in the insane asylum to our south with QE2 (quantitative expansion (or printing even more worthless money for the non-accountants)sails in the wrong direction. Speaking of the tough spot in which Obama finds himself facing tomorrow's predicted romp of the fringe candidates like Rand Paul, Angle, O'Donnell and the rest of the tea-bags he sez:

All this puts U.S. President Barrack Obama in a tough spot........../snip

His approval rating has slipped to 46 percent (jealous Gord?)largely because his $787-billion stimulus package failed to spur growth and job creation, while racking up total debt of $13 trillion.

I guess Harvey Inchworm considers irrelevant the fact that the US was shedding MILLIONS of jobs when Obama took over - in spite of the THREE QUARTER TRILLION TARP initiated by DUBYA and while the stimulus may not have spurred much growth, there has been small modest job growth and so far (but not much longer in my view) has avoided the second REALLY GREAT DEPRESSION which was imminent back in 2008 and still atalking across Europe and North America.

And then there is the casual way in which Inchworm leaves the implication that it was the "stimulus" that racked up "total debt of $13 trillion - which is the total debt of the United States after forty four presidents, number 43 (DUBYA) being responsible for as much alone as the first 42.

There was more disgusting stuff in that waste of almost four dollars, like Don Cayo slurring (Slurs trump substance in what passes for political debate) readers for calling scum like Campbell names, and implying that that is the real problem, but that is in today's paper and I'm tired of even thinking about it for the moment. Hopefully we'll have some cold weather soon and the Friday and Saturday Sun can actually contribute something constructive by helping me start some fires in the woodstove.

* as per my new policy I'm refusing to link to crap, anyone feeling masochistic enough to read the whole articles is hopefully smart enough to use the info I've provided to google the articles fetid entiriety. You may want to wait an hour or two after eating though to avoid either vomitus or heartburn!