SHUT UP OR LES...I mean, OR ELSE!

When John Les was Solicitor-general of the Province of B.C., he threatened small-town Island business owners to be quiet or not do work with the government.

So says a story in this morning's province newspaper.

The article includes transcripts of Les' email to the operators of local liquor outlets.

We have become so placid and inured to injurious behaviour from people in high places that this strike at the heart of democratic government is not even front page material.

In what gulag exactly did Mr. Les think he was living at the time?

Recently I suggested that all men and women elected to office should be given mandatory seminars on democratic principles. Just as a refresher, of course.

Under such tutelege, Les and other of his ILK (Gee, I didn't know it was ILK season already!) would find Lesson Four: Have a Sense of Humor and Remember that Criticism is an Essential Part of a Healthy Society. Do we Have Public Beheadings? No. Therefore, You will Get Dissent From Time to Time. LIVE WITH IT, YOU SISSIE!

HOW CORRUPT WAS IT?

"Halliburton and its former KBR subsidiary have agreed to pay $579 million in fines to settle criminal and regulatory charges of having bribed foreign officials to win billions in construction contracts. There may be some taxpayer comfort in the fact that this scandal was rooted in Nigeria, not Iraq, where the Halliburton megacorporation (you know, the one Dick Cheney ran before he became vice president) reaped multibillions as the Bush administration’s most favored no-bid contractor"

That's the first paragraph of an editorial in this morning's NY Times.

Here's the full article, entitled, "More Annals of Global Greed Inc. "

By the way...

Speaking (as we were only a few days ago) of Dr. Strangelove, many of us have always associated the Peter Sellers character of the same name with Henry Kissinger.

But how hysterical was it to see this era's Strangelove, Cheney, being wheeled into the Obama inauguration in a wheelchair!

Did any of you notice him trying to stop his right arm from saluting?

Jason Mraz

AT LAST!