THE THREADLESS BUDGET

Perhaps the BBC blunder was an auger of things to come.

The normally Perfect Broadcasting Corporation offered an hysterically funny miscue the other day.

An interviewer was quizzing someone on the upcoming Canadian budget and what we might expect.

Amazing enough that we colonials would make the Big Time Show.

But what added to the hilarity is that a title was emblazoned across the screen and stayed there for many minutes throughout the chatter.

Here's what it said:

CANDIAN BUDGET

Eh?

When are Candians know to drop an "A?"

Well, now we have our Candian budget, and I am not smart enough to comment in any deep and useful way about all the minutia of this document.

But I do think this.

This is a patchwork, a quilt of unrelated, unthemed, non-ideas.

It is a bit of this and a bit of that with no discernible guiding principles.

It is short-term stuff with no strengthening long-term vision or goals.

It is not horrible; it is just not much of an anything. What we would have called in another era "a dog's breakfast."

I thought the Globe's editorial was sound and much worth a read.

Should Ignatieff and Layton bring down the government on the basis of this document?

Absolutely not.

We have enough on our plates to deal with without the costly and pointless absurdity of yet another election and another government.

Should they harass Harper into fine tuning this budget?

Sure, by all means.

Then, go back to your corners and get on with the business of Parliament.

Such as it is.

THE SAMANDGORD ULTIMATUM

As yet another debt rating agency puts Vancouver into the dark negative column following the Olympic Village mess, I find myself wondering why two or three of the greatest culprits have been mysteriously shmeer-free.

Sam Sullivan.

Gordon Campbell.

Larry Campbell.

I didn't ask for the Olympics. I didn't go to Prague to wave the flag. I didn't blithely sign documents that would indebt the city for years to come on shaky land deals.

Did these three, for example, get some mystical-political get-out-of-jail-free card on this colossal blunder?

Of course, the current Mayor Robertson must work hand in glove with the Province and he not likely to slander or attack the Premier.

He is also a reasonably gracious man and, while he didn't shy away from scrapping with Ladner during the election, he is also unlikely to take unnecessary potshots at Sammy or Larry.

Leave that to me.

I'm just a citizen and a payer of taxes at every turn, who would ask that those responsible for truly bad decisions stand up and be counted.

Taser Testimony Continues to Disturb

DZIEKANSKI DEATH

Officers did not help tasered man, firefighter testifies

The Canadian Press

January 28, 2009

VANCOUVER -- Firefighters who rushed to Vancouver's airport in the minutes after Robert Dziekanski was stunned by an RCMP taser found a pale, unresponsive man face down in handcuffs as officers stood metres away doing nothing, a public inquiry into the man's death heard yesterday.

Richmond Fire Department Captain Kirby Graeme said when he arrived in the early morning of Oct. 14, 2007, the officers weren't helping or monitoring Mr. Dziekanski, and at one point even refused to remove his handcuffs so he could be properly assessed.

Minutes earlier, the same four Mounties had confronted the Polish immigrant, who had been throwing furniture around in the airport's international arrivals area.

"To see a patient face-down, handcuffed and not being tended to in some way, shape or form, I thought, 'Something's not right here,' " said Mr. Graeme, a firefighter with more than two decades of experience.

The above are the headlines and opening paragraphs of a report in this morning's Globe. I think it tells us more of what we need to learn and raises the questions again about these four officers of the law.

Read the full story here.

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