The Reich Wing
& Property Rights

Shills for Sarah Palin......NOT!

"The modern conservative is engaged,in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
_________________________________John Kenneth Galbraith

Private property, which includes real estate, money and other material possessions is right up there with, or maybe even above, individual freedom in the conservative/right wing dogma. Well, at least as long as it is private property that is already owned by the aforementioned right wing/con - if it belongs to somebody else, not so much

This post won't be about the can of worms that is "eminent domain" and the power of the state to confiscate someone's home or business (or otherwise degrade its value ala Susan Heyes and the Cambie Street Merchants, the Delta residents and BC Transmission) or the Kelo v. City of New London (Connecticut)decision that transferred private property to another "private" interest supposedly in the public interest (that resulted in a big vacant area when the private project in the public interest had its voodoo financing fall through after going to the Supreme Court to win the right to tear down the homes of the residents). A brief summary of this case from Wikipedia follows:

Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005)was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another to further economic development. The case arose from the condemnation by New London, Connecticut, of privately owned real property so that it could be used as part of a comprehensive redevelopment plan which promised 3,169 new jobs and $1.2 million a year in tax revenues. The Court held in a 5–4 decision that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified such redevelopment plans as a permissible "public use" under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

The City eventually agreed to move Kelo's house to a new location and to pay substantial additional compensation to other homeowners. The redeveloper was unable to obtain financing and had to abandon the redevelopment project, leaving the land as an empty lot.

Today I want to discuss the right wing inability to either understand or respect property rights as they apply to intellectual property beyond the idea that major corporations should control the rights to characters and stories hundreds of years old like Snow White or Pocahontas.

As a musician and occasional software developer/hacker of the white hat variety, I often think about the ongoing debate about copyright law in the modern age and how it can interface with new technology AND actual content creators and not just kow tow to the interests of the corporate media conglomerates. The issue was brought to the fore in Canada last week by the latest round of US style pre-election attack ads flooding the airwaves courtesy of the ever campaigning Harper Cons. The CBC took exception to the cavalier use of copyrighted CBC footage of Michael Ignatieff without even the semblence of asking permission. In a nutshell, according to the Globe and Mail:

Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are not known for their love of the public broadcaster. So it should come as no surprise they will not comply with demands by the CBC to remove its footage from new Tory attack ads.

“We have received the CBC’s request and disagree with their interpretation,” Tory strategists say in a toughly-worded memo to supporters.

The response from the PMO shouldn't surprise anyone who has been paying attention for the last five years of rule by the Canadian Taliban. It should by now be obvious that Steven Harper will do whatever he wants to do, unless and until someone with big ones puts the cuffs on him and perp walks him out of the Pariliament Buildings. And this, if I do it, it is legal, attitude is with a minority government for which two thirds of Canadians have repeatedly expressed their distaste! If Harper should ever achieve his coveted majority (which the attack ads are designed to promote) he wouldn't even talk to the current CBC management as he would probably give the peoples broadcaster to Lenny Asper to make up for the broadcasting empire he drove into bankruptcy and had to give up.

But our triple A Canadian reich wingers are amateurs at appropriating intellectual property compared to their ideological heroes to the south, otherwise known as Republicans. It seems as if it is completely impossible for a serious Republican to even enter a primary race without stealing some musician's work without permission and often without even paying royalties due, for the use to which they have put it.

The idea of politicians appropriating popular songs as campaign themes isn't new and goes back about as far as both American politics and popular music. Frank Sinatra performed "High Hopes" in 1960 in SUPPORT of John F. Kennedy. Hillary Clinton used Canadian songbird Celine Dion's "You and I" in her primary run, BECAUSE Celine supported Ms. Clinton and wanted to support her effort to garner the nomination. Hillary had to scrounge for musical support though compared to Barrack Obama for whom musicians put together a political equivalent of "We Are the World" based on the hook - "Yes We Can," including musicians the calibre of Herbie Hancock. Milt Romney uses "A Little Less Conversation" by Elvis, and at least Elvis hasn't complained, not even when I ran into him at CostCo!

Republicans aren't so lucky, since the gene pool of successful musicians with recognizable tunes that willingly shill for RePuke candidates is limited to the likes of Ted "Michigan's Militia Man" Nugent, Kid Rock, Gene "KISS" Simmons, Donny Osmond and Wayne Newton.

The trend of "good" musicians getting shafted (and pissed off at) by ReThug politicos really got underway when Ronnie Raygun (perhaps absentmindedly) appropriated "Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen. At the time the Album and its title song were the biggest thing in American rock music. As the blog Jurisprude explains:

Back in 1984, Ronald Reagan famously interpreted Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” as being a “message of hope,” even though the song was more an attack against the treatment and prospects of Vietnam veterans upon their return to the USA. Reagan stated, “America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside our hearts. It rests in the message of hope so many young people admire: New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen.’”

At the time, “Born in the USA” was the number one song in America, and Springsteen was clearly not in favor of his song being connected or interpreted in this manner:

“I think people have a need to feel good about the country they live in,” he later told Rolling Stone. “But what’s happening, I think, is that that need — which is a good thing — is getting manipulated and exploited. You see in the Reagan election ads on TV, you know, ‘It’s morning in America,’ and you say, ‘Well, it’s not morning in Pittsburgh.’ “

Ironically and, perhaps, shrewdly, this year the Democratic Party used “Born in the USA” as one of the main songs before Barack Obama’s keynote speech at the Democratic Convention (Springsteen supports Obama), although analysts say this time the song was used to promote its original message:

The fact that Republicans often demonstrate that they don't even understand the songs they inappropriately appropriate just goes to the old saw that "All conservatives aren't stupid, but most stupid people are conservative."

Years ago my respect for Merle Haggard, which was already immense, took a leap upward when he was invited to the White House by then President Nixon and refused to sing "Okie from Muskogee" when Mr. "I am not a crook" requested it, because Merle felt that he didn't get what Merle was saying in the lyrics - at all! Merle never intended to write an anthem to divisiveness or "wedge" politics, no matter how stupid conservatives who want to intepret it that way want to think so!

Other examples of the Right's tone deafness!

Sarah Palin and the Wilson Sisters

During the 2008 campaign Sarah Palin started using the Heart tune "Barracuda," apparently that being too difficult to resist as that was Caribou Barbie's nickname when she was an elbow wielding guard on her high school basketball team - which prompted a statement from Ann and Nancy Wilson:

“Sarah Palin’s views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song ‘Barracuda’ no longer be used to promote her image. The song ‘Barracuda’ was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The ‘barracuda’ represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there’s irony in Republican strategists’ choice to make use of it there.”

Daddy McShame and Jackson Browne

In August of 2008, Jackson Browne, took exception to John McCain's use of his song "Running on Empty" (to attack Obama) and issued a law suit against

......the McCain campaign, the Republican Party, and the Ohio Republican Party alleging copyright infringement and a violation of Browne’s right of publicity:

Copyright infringement aside, Browne’s lawsuit also alleges that the song’s usage falsely suggests that he is a McCain supporter. Browne is seeking a permanent injunction prohibiting the use of the song, as well as undisclosed damages.

Other examples include:

Tom Scholz of Boston blasting Mike Huckabee for using his song "More than a Feeling." Scholz said that he supported Obama and resented his song being used by a candidate who was "the polar opposite of most everything Boston stands for."

John "Cougar" Mellencamp who being from Indiana suffers the indignity of all kinds of whack jobs using "Pink Houses,"Our Country" and other songs from his ouvre.

Tom Petty took exception in 2000 to George Bush the Lesser using his "I Won't Back Down," and the lesser Bu$h actually quit using it, but still won (through questinable means) Petty's home state of Florida and thus stole the election of 2000!

Bush the Lesser also used Foo Fighter Dave Grohl's "Times Like These" in 2004, inspiring Mr. Grohl to campaign for John Kerry.

In the recent mid-terms, a California Senate Republican candidate poked perhaps the wrong songwriter by stealing and re-writing a couple songs by the any thing but mild mannered Don Henley, of Eagles fame. As Variety describes the sh*tstorm that candidate DeVore stepped into:

It seems that a right-wing candidate for the California Senate seat, Republican Chuck DeVore, borrowed two classic Don Henley songs, “Boys of Summer” and “All She Wants To Do Is Dance”, altered some of the lyrics himself and had his campaign strategist re-record some of the vocals to make attack spots on his opposing candidates– he then put the ads up on the internet. I’m not sure which part of this is actually the most egregious: the fact that a politician is now thinking he can write song lyrics, that he thinks he is a comedian, or that he considers his campaign strategist qualified to replace vocals by Don Henley. First there’s an action hero that wants to be governor, now there’s a politician who thinks he’s a co-writer with the guy who wrote “Hotel California”.

Of course, none of those concerns are the primary ones for Don Henley, who has a reputation for a healthy temper, an unwillingness to suffer fools, and a staunchly liberal political point of view. Henley and his co-writers, Mike Campbell (“Boys of Summer”) and Danny Kortchmar (“All She Wants To Do Is Dance”) reacted quickly and have already sued DeVore for copyright infringement in the US District Court, on the basis that the new versions implied that they were supporting DeVore’s candidacy, a prospect that Henley probably found more upsetting than a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.

So all you need to remember is - the Right Wing (by that I mean the BC LIEberals, the HarperCons, the US RePukelicans and whoever is currently running Alberta) worship at the altar of "PRIVATE PROPERTY" and really truly respect property rights - well as long as it is their property, or even yours, if they are done with it or just don't need it for anything.

What Broadcast
Standards?

PAB Bots Bill and Pam

Update at bottom : updated @4:30PM

Probably a lot of Canadians didn't even realize there was an organization created to define and encourage standards in broadcasting, which is understandable to anyone who has watched what passes for news/information programming in British Columbia. When ONE person, who obviously doesn't even understand irony and/or satire complained to the CBSC about the lyrics to the Mark Knopfler song "Money for Nothing" and the CBSC in its own obvious opposite of wisdom decided to ban the offending lyric from the airwaves after twenty five years, undoubtably many Canadians first became aware of this body that supposedly protects them from distasteful and dishonest content. Along with many other commentators and radio programmers, my colleague the Powell River Persuader takes up this insanity in his post "I Want My MTV."

It is difficult to comprehend how anyone who might be offended by the term "faggot," wouldn't understand that Mr. Knopfler, one of my absolutely favorite guitarists btw, was condemning the characters in his song who were tossing around that term. Noticeable by their absence from this debate also are those like Ezra Levant who stand up on their chicken legs any time some neo-Nazi is accused of "hate speech" or those who call anyone defending the Palestinians "anti-Semetic," apparently forgetting from the get go that Palestinians themselves are Semites.

But these tempests in teapots that would probably be suited for TeaHadist gatherings are nothing compared to the corporate controlled media's complete disregard for any kind of fairness in political reporting, especially in the "Bestest Place on Earth" - for those who happen to be sleaze bags who thrive on betraying the public trust and stealing the assets once held by the citizens of British Columbia. As the Persuader points out:

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC)...Red tape run amok, for those that don`t know what the CBSC does, or what their supposed to do....What they are is a so-called independent body where one can take and or file complaints against TV or radio broadcasters regarding something they have broadcast, complaints can range from inaccuracy, to racism, to hate speech even lies can be reported, we here at the Straight Goods are well aware of the range the CBSC gives or doesn`t give, for example, news broadcasts must be accurate, the bar is set higher for formal programs, yet with say radio opinion show hosts, like say Christy Clark or Bill Good, they can lie with almost a blanket immunity, as far as the CBSC you can`t prove a radio host was deliberately lying or just plain old stupid, in the case of Chrity Clark she merely had to retract and the CBSC considered the case resolved, but with music....A 25 year old song with lyrics that could be interpreted any number of ways......There was one person in eastern Canada who complained

A case in point is the news at six last night on CeeTeeVee and GlowBall. I may have to start watching the news in a padded room with nothing, not even shoes, allowed in the room to throw at the TeeVee when I watch these sorry excuses for news shows as I can't really afford to keep replacing TeeVee sets. Both channels tend to ignore as much as possible the ongoing crime spree operating out of Victoria led by Gordon Campbell involving the theft of railroads, ferry systems, public utilities, rivers and general disregard for the environment in favor of profit for friends. When these things can't be ignored entirely they are minimized or attentionn is directed at some minor aspect of the situation like the payoff to Basi and Virk rather than the underlying scandal about the loss of a railroad, or the salary of Admiral Hahn rather than the much more questonable dealings and book keeping around BC Ferries and our forced subsidization of the German health care system to acquire poor quality and poorly performing vessels.

Earlier this week CeeTeeVee broke the story of the latest chapter in the ongoing Kash Heed soap opera and the fact that on top of the six criminal charges recommended by the since dis-credited "oh so" Special Prosecutor that Kash himself is now facing possible charges. By last night though it was all about poor Kash Heed and how he was a martyr being persecuted by those corrupt mounties. This is the former police chief who HAD to leave his post in West Vancouver to avoid facing investigation for allegedly tipping off an accussed child porn suspect to an impending search. Poor little Kash "the stallion who wants to put Wally Oppal out to pasture."

No, CeeTeeVee spent much more time and laid much more disapprobation exposing the qu;estionable bulk membership sign ups by Adrian Dix, running for NDP leader. Maximum attention was paid to what while not desirable, is at worst a technical violation of NDP PARTY RULES, while Mr. Heed gets treated as the victim when he is actually potentially accused of breaking the LAW. Oh right, I forgot, the law doesn't apply to BC LIEberals.

Over on Glow Ball they didn't even address the Kash Heed affair, but then with one of their reporters actually CHARGED with child molestation and another outed in the search warrant documents in the Kash Heed affair as virtually Kash Heed's communications director, I guess they were too embarrassed to mention the case at all. Yep, Catherine Urquhart, currently living like a disgraced cop, on paid leave, supposedly an unbiased journalist, charged with helping the public understand their democracy was apparently instead working to elect and get into cabinet, Kash and Karry Heed. From the Vancouver Sun:

........a recently unsealed search warrant revealed an email exchange between Urquhart and former solicitor-general Kash Heed's campaign manager Barinder Sall.

“I can honestly say Kash would not be SG [solicitor-general] today if it hadn’t been for some key people behind the scenes,” Sall wrote to Urquhart on June 10, 2009.

“There were only truly 3 people that played a major role: Me, Peter Dhillon and yourself and Kash knows this,” he added.

“Peter was the money guy, I’m the brown tanned James Bond strategy girl-chasing guy and you were like the communications director . . . your stories, coverage and timing gave Kash a lot of profile and built him a following from day 1 at West Van and then leading into the election.”

In response, Urquhart wrote: “Hey . . . that’s really sweet of you. Have to say — there were a number of people along the way (cops and reporters — mostly cops) who seemed to have it out for Kash. But I always believed he was a good guy. I’m truly glad it worked out!

The Mainstream Media continues to whine about their diminishing market, and cast blame on technology and those nasty bloggers with no concern for the truth (as if they even considered truth to be relevant). Don't they realize we all get enough biased crap for free in our mailboxes? Hate mail from Stephen Harper and his minions telling us how Iggy doesn't live in or care about Canada, or other junk mail designed to convince us to buy more crap. Who needs to pay almost two bucks (if you don't live in the lower Vainland) for more of the same?

There's Hope for Vaughn Palmer!

I don't know if Vaughn Palmer put a new filter on his water tap, swore off drinking the kool-aid, had a psychedelic experience that reminded him who he once hoped to be when he grew up or is merely trying to abandon the LIEberal Titanic, but in today's Vancouver Sun he delivers an amazingly searing, yet balanced column on the Kash Heed affair. The title and sub-title alone sum up more than Les(s) Leyne has managed to say in at least a decade .

Opinion: Heed's vanity runs amok and leaves the stallion looking more like a jackass

Conspiratorial storyline that cops are out to get him is nothing short of incredible

It is only fair to give the "Dean of the Legislative Press Corps," credit when credit is due, lord knows I certainly don't hesitate to slag him when I feel it appropriate to do so. He even mentions the infamous deck in East Van and the dreaded 1990's, but not in order to change the subject, but to make a very valid point. The excerpt below shouldn't stop you from reading the entire column here.

But it is one thing for Heed to make himself look ridiculous. It should nevertheless be noted that the person accusing the RCMP of a vendetta is a former chief of police, former solicitor-general and member of the government caucus.

Time was when the B.C. Liberals would never stand for such a thing.

Back in the 1990s, the police, acting under the direction of a special prosecutor, raided the home of the then premier Glen Clark. Some New Democrats branded the raid a "witch hunt," "a home invasion" and the product of a "conspiracy" involving the news media and the then Liberal Opposition.

"Outrageous," replied the Liberals and demanded that the government dissociate itself from such a "disgraceful" attack on the police and the special prosecutor.

To his credit, the then NDP attorney-general, Ujjal Dosanjh, did just that. "Highly inappropriate," said Dosanjh in reference to the comments of his colleagues and party. "It's inappropriate for ministers of the Crown or elected officials to be criticizing the judiciary or law enforcement agencies directly or indirectly."

So what about it? I asked Liberal leadership hopeful George Abbott this week. Heed is supporting him for leader and Abbott professes to be "honoured" by the endorsement. But would Abbott condemn Heed's attack on the integrity of the police?

He would not. "I am not going to condemn anyone," said Abbott, and reminded me that Heed has the right to be "presumed innocent until he is determined to be otherwise by a court of law."

The issue is not the presumption of innocence.

Heed hasn't been charged with anything in any event. But that shouldn't prevent Abbott or any other Liberal from acknowledging that their self-styled stallion turned out to be a jackass.

A Waste of Trees
& Bandwidth!

ProMedia's Pressroom Equipment

The mainstream media of British Columbia has a shameful almost (at least) twenty year disgraceful record of not serving the public, choosing instead to serve their corporate masters and their masters' puppets the BC Liberal Liars. It has gotten so bad, that Canned Waste and Global were on the verge of bankruptcy and have lost so much respect and market share amongst the public, that should be their market, that they now can only depend on the government itself and the corporate elite (and new ownership) to save them from complete failure.

Back in the day when Glen Clark built a small deck on his modest East Vancouver home, we were treated nightly to rehashed coverage of Glen nervously pacing by his kitchen window and two guys who looked like extras from a Sopranos episode exiting a North Burnaby card club. Meanwhile the NDP today can't get covered at all, unless they can be made to appear foolish, in disarray or somehow inadequate to actually run government.

Meanwhile, the cast of Gordon Campbell wannabe clones are treated as if they were actually bringing issues and real policy options to the table in the contest to replace the completely disgraced Mr. 9% Gordon Campbell, who keeps threatening to someday actually quit abusing the people of British Columbia. The other night CeeTeeVee and Glow Ball gave overwhelming coverage to a bunch of yuppie youth who gathered to hear Ding Dong, Bird Brain and Crusty the Campbell Clone spout nonsense, while almost ignoring the entrance of John Horgan to the leadership contest for the NDP.

Carole James, who couldn't get mentioned for seven years, unless she could be slagged, all of a sudden became all the usual suspects', Vaughn the Pawn, Keith Balderdash, slimey Les Leyne and the rest, favorite choice for leader of the party and her stepping down was surely the death of the party. Of course when you are an ass kisser to the LIEberals, what's not to like about a woman who alienates half of her own party's natural support and can lose two elections to a thieving, womanizing, lying drunk, that is running for your guys. Now that John Horgan is in the race, the knock on him is that he can't appeal to most of the province, because he comes from the Victoria area. Do these fools even remember what they were saying last month about Carole the Greatest (for the BC liaRs) who also represents a Victoria area riding?

Of course now that Mike Farnsworth is in the race, the media is falling all over themselves to say nice things about him - only Crusty herself actually lets the cat out of the bag as she (the biggest baggage handler of all herself) points out that he has a lot of baggage, having been involved with BC's own versionn of Satan - Glen Clark and the dark dark days of the nineties when NDP tyranny was choking the province to death - well that's the "official" story. Of course now that they don't have Carole James to kick around, it is obvious they would rather have whichever idiot wins their leadership go against Farnsworth or Dix, or Lali, than John Horgan.

Today in the Stun Vaughn the Pawn out does himself as he goes after those who dare criticize the weasel Craig James, the improperly appointed and illegally acting Chief Electoral Officer. It seems poor Craig has recieved some death threats. Now it is unimportant that recall canvassers in Ida Chongs riding are being intimidated and blogger Laila Yuile is even assaulted by a Liberal supporter while out with her children, but poor, poor Craig - another victim, just like Sarah Palin.

It isn't right to threaten anyones life. As a matter of fact, it is AGAINST THE LAW to utter threats. So why haven't the sterling RCMP investigated these threats, that came in November and WHY are they an issue now? Could it be that the recall campaign is going better than Ida "Chomp Chomp" Chong would like?

For starters, Craig James is improperly serving as chief electoral officer, the job description requires that he have no other employment, which he obviously does as Norm Farrell has pointed out. At every step of the way Craig James has acted inappropriately from refusing to pass on the original anti-HST petition (until forced to by the court) to firing the 28 year veteran second in command at Elections BC from his "temporary" posting. Then there is the matter of trying to scare 80+ year old women who signed the petition twice, most likely by accident, with JAIL time. And now in the light of the events in Tucson last Saturday, Craigie's death threats come to the fore. It doesn't matter if that was the fault of the media or Craigie himself, they both are on the LIEberal team. Gordon Campbell's personal PR Hack, Vaughn Palmer tried in todays garbage of a column to denounce Chris Delany for the following accurate statement:

"We have a chief electoral officer who makes up the rules when he goes along....whenever you do that you're going to have people get upset because his role, his job, is to actually be the impartial arbiter of the elections process. But what he's doing right now is conducting a surrogate role for the B.C. Liberal government and its interests....He's a cheater, a blatant cheater."

Vaughn, not surprisingly considers that an "unproven, personalized attack on the official and his integrity." I say if it walks like a duck and quacks.....you all know the rest of that.

I sense desperation in the Liberal camp and in the fawning media that has supported them and thrown away all semblance of journalistic integrity and I like it!


Vaughn or Keith spreading the B.S.

BC Supreme Court
HIJINKS

Our bereft of ethics criminal organization posing as the BC Liberal Government, still acting on the orders of the supposedly resigned Capo Gordon Campbell has a busy week of abuse of both judicial process and the people of British Columbia.

The Non-existent Plaintiff

First up is a hearing/trial start or whatever occurring in BC Supreme Court today regarding the Sinixt Nation and their assertion that they exist, have valid land claims in the Kootenays and are entitled to consultation on logging and other resource extraction projects on land they consider their original territory. Late last year in an almost unheard of action from a court in BC, a hearing about an injunction to stop a blockade of a logging show on Perry Ridge was denied to Sunshine Logging pending the findings of the action beginning today regarding the status of the Sinixt and their claims.

Though I knew this hearing/trial was to happen today, it seems to be like the Basi-Virk trial, being kept almost secret as much as possible. I did hear mention of it on the CBC Daybreak Show local news out of Kelowna, yet could find no mention of it on the CBC website or anywhere else on the web through Google or Google news. Even though I know it is based on a Writ of Summons filed July 28, 2008 under BC Supreme Court File No. 14324, initiating an aboriginal title action against the Crown, I was unable to find it on any court schedule published online. On CBC this morning Marilyn James, often spokeswoman for the Sinixt said essentially that:

"Everytime they make us go this route we get stronger and their denials look even more ridiculous"

For more background on this case go to waterwalk and scroll down the front page to Dispatch from Perry Ridge, posted on November 7, 2010.

For background on the history of the Sinixt and/or Arrow Lakes Band and the questionable declaration of their extinction see Legal Action at sinixtnation.org.

I Thought Aneal Got Off!

While searching the online docket for the BCSC (I almost typed BSBS, which somehow doesn't seem all that far from the truth), I came across this:


I'm not clear what this is about, I had thought Aneal was charged with only laundering money for his cousin Big Dave, and those charges had been dismissed as part of the Six Million Dollar Bribe for Silence. Are these new charges, is he bribing people again. Anyway if you click on the image, it will get big enough so can can see that Aneal, Bobby Virk and Mr. "Limited Access" are all facing charges today of "accepting a bribe from a person dealing with government" and "breach of trust by a public official."

The Old Destruction of Evidence Gambit

Tomorrow, January 11, according to the dean of observers of the BC Rail Corruption Trial, Robin Mathews:

Through the pre-trial hearings of nearly three years, documentation was piled up in tens of thousands of pages. In that documentation I believe (as a regular observer of the court processes) that a solid basis for the commencement of criminal investigation of others, superiors to the three accused, is present. I wrote formally to then top BC RCMP officer Gary Bass and asked him to open that investigation. He refused.

And now on January 11, 2011, the (improperly appointed) Crown Prosecutor will appear before Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie and ask her to order Defence counsel to return all documentation.

The conventional wisdom would suggest that this is so the real crooks in this case can then destroy the evidence and get clean away with their crimes and successful frame job on sleazy individuals, but not the real bad guys. If I wasn't over 500 miles away, with other things to do, I would be in front of that courthouse tomorrow with a sign, maybe a pitchfork or maybe even more serious implements, all of which I would surrender to enter the courtroom to see if I could decipher the mumbling of the fakers who have spent the last seven or eight years subverting justice and trying to make the truth go away.


TeaHadists, take note!

The Teabaggers don't seem to realize that you are only supposed to steep tea (well Mu tea for the flu is best boiled into paste), but through their ill concieved, irresponsible rhetoric they have allowed the pot to boil over starting in Tucson on Saturday afternoon. My hopes go out to Congresswoman Giffords for her recovery and my condolences to the six folks who so unnecessarily died as a result of an army reject/college dropout fueled by the idiotic screechings of Sharron "second amendment solutions" Angle, Sarah "crosshairs on dem districts" Palin and the barking chorus of Faux News and talk radio like Rush Limpballs, Glenn Beck and the rest of their ilk.

I have been giving this tragedy much thought and hope maybe it will lead to a turning point in the approach to the issues, the current approach accomplishing nothing but failure and in the case of Saturday, death and injury. I will probably take it up here later or tomorrow - after all, the House of representatives is just another House of Infamy and thus completely within the mandate here!

The Holidays are Over
Back to
ABNORMALITY!

Ms. Tundra Trailer Trash
Creeping out Sane Folks Everywhere!

2011 promises to be a fascinating year for political observers at every level municipal, provincial/state, national and international.

In British Columbia we have a virtual clown show of leadership contests and ongoing corruption being covered by a media full of idiots or tools who consistently refuse to actually address a relevant issue almost ever.

BC liaR's Club<

It's a wonder I have a TeeVee in my home that still works, it is a sign of self discipline that I haven't thrown shoes, mugs or anything at hand through them all when I watch the fawning coverage of the leadership races in the only parties that have a chance of forming the government in British Columbia. On the one hand there is the fawning attempt to treat those vying to take over the Campbell Crime Family as if they offered any real change and weren't all accessories to a ten year crime spree as is the (as RossK refers to it) the proMedia itself - both on paper and through the air or cable.

First, and currently considered the favorite is Christy Clark, who on the one hand is portrayed as an outsider, but in reality is the most soiled by the depredations of BC Rail and the assault on public education AND the most involved with the very players who participated most intimately in the theft of BC Rail. After all, it wasn't Kevin Falcon's wife or Mike DeJong's brother whose homes were also searched contemporaneously with the Raid on the Legislature. Except for the genitalia, Christy is the closest to a Gordon Campbell clone in the race, so if you liked Gordo, you'll love Cluck Cluck.

Then there is Mike DeJong, who allegedly graduated from law school. Then again, when I hear the following exchange (when an NW softball pitcher went rogue and actually tried to get an answer or two - Michael Smythe the other day), I wonder who actually sat for his bar exam:

Smythe: "I'm suggesting that there is an appearance that the trial was shut down because you guys were going to pay $6 million to these guys' lawyers."

De Jong: "OK, well then let's not talk about appearances, Mike, let's talk about what happened. And let's talk about a role played by an independent prosecutor, who by the way, I've never met, never spoken with, so you know I get why people were angry. An eight-year criminal investigation and trial that led to the criminal conviction of two people for the worst possible breeches of the public trust. No one should be happy about any of that."

Smythe: "Yeah, the worst possible breeches of the public trust and we give their lawyers six million bucks. They're set for life."

De Jong: "Pursuant to a policy Mike that was established in the 1990s."

Smythe: "Well hang on a minute, because the policy as far as I know said that you are indemnified for your lawyer unless you're guilty. I remember when Glen Clark had his house searched, and the government of the day said 'Hey we'll pay for Glen Clark's lawyer unless he's guilty, then we want the money back', right?

De Jong: "Right."

Smythe: "That's the policy. Here we have a situation where these guys plead guilty to these very serious crimes - corruption crimes - and their lawyers are set for life. They're laughing all the way to the bank."

De Jong: "Yes, and your point, Mike?"

The POINT is Mike, that in spite of your attempt to blame it on the policy and the policy on the NDP (jeepers, there's that deck in East Van), the POINT is AS Mr. Smythe already pointed out, THEY WERE FOUND GUILTY - I would think a person who could get into and through law school would be able to see that.

Then we have Kevvie "birdbrain" Falcon, BC's own latent brownshirt. Merit pay for teachers - wow! Merit pay for guys like Falcon would make more sense, we could have had government for free (as far as politician's salaries) for the last ten years with that kind of policy. It would make more sense to have contracts with your buddies with Rape of the River deals that obligated BC Hydro (us - for now) to pay them for their power a price related to what it is worth. Let's be clear here, at least electical power is something that CAN be measured - unlike education "results."

Actually George Abbott is the least offensive candidate from the liaR Mob. However, you know that thing with his head? I think it is a sign of his own discomfort with having to lie regularly to stay in cabinet and caucus. Or for those familiar with poker, it is Abbott's "tell." He truly seems like a person who means well, but obviously doesn't understand that if you run with crooks, you are one as well.

The Comic Relief Party

While the proMedia prefers as much a possible to ignore the (perhaps) Loyal (maybe) Opposition NDP, when they can't ignore them they never miss a chance to either make them look foolish, silly or hopeless. During the last election when Carole James attempted to go inspect Rape of the River project on the central coast, all we heard about was how windy it was (as if she controlled the weather) and the effect it had on her hair. Somehow the massive rip-off and environmental destruction that the project represented wasn't a relevant part of the story.

Harry Lali is apparently going to announce his candidacy later today and already he is being portrayed as kinda out there on the CBC Radio because he suggested that the whole deal with Glen Clark's deck smelled of a conspiracy. Well let's compare that small deck in East Van to say the BC Rail Trial. For one thing anyone with a TeeVee watched Glen Clark pace by his kitchen window and the two extras from a Sopranos shoot leaving a North Burnaby card club EVERY effing night, FOR MONTHS. Then when it got to court there actually was a trial that lasted 136 days, resulting in an aquittal - meanwhile Glen Clark was destroyed politically and combined with the showboating over the Fast Cats, so was the party. Meanwhile the proMedia has been trying as hard as possible to ignore the BC Rail Scam and when that doesn't work, convince everyone it doesn't matter anymore, if it ever did.

Even more disturbing is the destructive attitude and behaviour of those one would think share the professed values of the NDP and would prefer to have a government that wasn't a criminal organization in disguise, folks like the articulate but often stunned Norman Farrell, or the petulant former Carole Jame's Chief of Staff, Ian Reid or the shrieking David Shreck. Hell with guys like them on the other side, the BC liaRs don't have to even air their own attack ads.

Yesterday Norm Farrell continued his sniping campaign against all the sane folks who accepted the fact that Carole James HAD to go (as does MOE) by publishing a letter from an old school mate from Powell River attacking the first actual MLA to throw his hat in the ring for the leadership. An excerpt:

I find it disturbing that a Judas who has being an ineffectual MLA and considered a lightweight by the Party would now to think he can lead a Party that he tried to tear apart as a member of a pack of dissidents who disregarded all Party protocol and tradition.

Well, well, the Judas part refers to the fact that Mr. Simons was conspicous by his lack of fashion sense, ie. he doesn't wear yellow(belly) scarves. The part about being "an ineffectual MLA and considered a lightweight" is laughable. Ever since the days when Joy and Jenny were the opposition the NDP has been an entire caucus of ineffectual MLAs, tasked with passively watching an ongoing crime spree against the people of British Columbia with hardly an occassional peep, while being busy trying to court the same corporate elite that already own the BC Liberal Party and whomever winds up being their servant/so called leader. For the last seven years this has been a party where the "heavyweights" act like lightweights without even the speed of a good lightweight. Give me a break!

Elsewhere

As bizzare and fascinating as BC Politics is, even more so now than usual, things are just as bizzare seemingly everywhere.

To the south we have the new Weeper of the House, John Boehner ("Boner" to Dubya) taking the big gavel, which he will undoubtably need to beat down the TeaHadists whose election made it possible for him to take the gavel away from Fidel Castro's twin sister, separated at birth, little Nancy Pelosi. For an excellent discussion of Mr. Tears see Matt Taibbi's fine piece from the Rolling Stone - The Crying Shame of John Boehner - a sample paragraph:

When he wasn't busy protecting sex offenders, Boehner was gracing the hallowed grounds of the Capitol building with all the dignity and class of a boxing promoter, calling one legislative deal a "crap sandwich" and blasting an Obama tax compromise as "chicken crap" (an unfortunate choice of words, given that massive amounts of poultry waste have created an ecological disaster in his own district). Boehner is also an innovator in the loathsome new political phenomenon of men crying in public, co-owning mastery of the habit with screeching media dillweed Glenn Beck.

Then there's the intriguing game of trying to guess which European country will go broke next, when the combined immprisoned, unemployed and homeless (due partly to an upcoming foreclosure Tsunami) of the US will outnumber those with jobs and/or homes.

Of course Parliament fires itself up again at the end of the month and we can start a pool about when either prorogation or an election will occur. Of course we can set odds on whether the next war will be in the Korean penninsula, Pakistan or Iran or ?

So much to comment on and so little time!