Main Reason to be Scared, Truly Scared

Non, je ne regret rien.

No Edith Piaf, he.

But Gordon Campbell tells us that he has no regrets.

“You never have difficulty sleeping when you think you’ve made the right choices.”

His modesty is exemplary...and touching.

He means, of course, "when you know you've made the right choices."

Let's see now.

The Monumental Premier has spent billions on one road and one event, while cutting schools, libraries, the arts, social programs, and health care programs among others.

He has been consistent and insistent in helping the Big Guys and shutting out the little and the ones who have little.

But he has no regrets.

And he has no regrets.

We could line up on the legislature lawn and sing out our regrets all in a minor key.

But let's save the time and energy and simplify for the hard of hearing.

Our regret, sir, is you.

We will welcome a new administration whomever it may be and as soon as it may thankfully arrive.

71

That's the new number of former Canadian ambassadors and other diplomats who are lining up to make clear to Mr. Harper and Mr. MacKay that if you keep shooting the messenger, you might not get much mail.

One.

That's the number and the position of Canada's top soldier who has reversed yesterday's testimony and now made clear that yes, a prisoner taken into custody was in fact abused by Afghan authorities.

What is so disappointing about all of this is not that torture and abuse occurred. That is to be expected in war, even if it may violate international understandings.

No.

It is the hysterical denials and counter-accusations and POSING, POSING, POSING by the sitting government of the day.

Why not just face the bad news and accept that untoward things have happened and we are dealing with it.

We must be driven optimists.

We keep expecting more from leaders and the elected who keep impostering themselves as grown-ups.

Everything is Political - Even The Law

The Conservative government wants to toughen up crime legislation.

There are those among us who watch way too many movies and are convinced that this will result of thousand of more prisons and prisoners.

Some such have found their way into the Senate, who have changed several key elements in the government's new bill.

This is, of course, and for the next few minutes at least, a Liberal Senate so they must score political points while they can, spurious though those points may be.

The Red Chamber wants to remove the minimum six-month mandatory sentence for some drug crimes, including running a grow-op with 200 or fewer marijuana plants.

This, in spite of the clear fact that most grow-ops - even those with fewer than 200 plants - are illegal commercial enterprises aimed at selling Mary Jane to school kids, financed by criminal gangs and controlled by guns and violence.

Somehow, the chowder heads in Ottawa have to get over the fantasy of cute couples and their dog, Brewster, growing a few in Nelson, B.C. and playing folk songs.

Of course, the chamber is peopled with deep thinkers like Larry Campbell. Nuff said?

The Senate also wants the exemption of aboriginal offenders from mandatory minimum sentences.

This is the worst kind of muddle-headed sentimental non-thinking.

Do I get a pass from criminal prosecution if I am a Jew, Scot or Filipino?

Come on, kids.

Now, an amusing sidebar to this story is the one about the Liberal Senator who is:

a) under indictment for fraud and obstruction of justice, and

b) on leave from the Senate, but still drawing his considerable salary.

The fool's name is Raymond Lavigne and his crimes are too cheesy and pathetic to write about here when you can read the sordid little tale for yourself.

What is so entertaining and sad is that he had an assistant, a grown man, who would sort Lavigne's mail in the morning then, drive across the river to Quebec and cut down trees on a property to prepare it for a new house.

The assistant's quote is a classic:

"I would have jumped in front of a car for him."

For this loyalty, Daniel Cote was payed $55,000 a year.

And what?

Oral sex?

A quick snapshot of how your tax money is being so creatvely used day in and day out on the hill.