General Calls Iraq "Nightmare"

"After more than four years of fighting, America continues its desperate struggle in Iraq without any concerted effort to devise a strategy that will achieve victory in that war-torn country or in the greater conflict against extremism."LT. GEN. RICARDO S. SANCHEZ, the retired former top commander of American forces in Iraq.

Now doesn't that just say it all.

If it were just Democrats or Bush-haters saying these things...but here is the guy with the credentials.

Here's the full story.

The Search for Alien Life

Headline: "Scientists hope new technology will find alien life by 2025."

Brother. What are they waiting for?

Vancouver is bursting with "Alien Life."

City Council, Vandu, DTES, the Mayor...

We are Spore City. Have been for a dog's age.

The ever-present fear is of falling asleep and becoming ONE OF THEM....

Pick me up - Throw me Down

A letter to the editor has stayed in my mind from yesterday's Sun.

The writer legitimately points out that we have survived almost 3 months without garbage pickup...and then asks a wonderful question.

If we have managed all this time somehow, then why does the City pick up residential garbage every week???

How about every 2 weeks?

I have been thinking about this all day.

And how much is this a reflection of ALL city hall functions?

What if...city hall spent HALF of what it now spends because at least half of its alleged services ARE COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY?

The Gift of Giving - 2010 Style

"Admission to a Dream" should be retitled "Dream About Admission."

The paper was chocker block full today with exhortations from Vanoc/2010 about how affordable all the events will be.

Hahahahahaha...

Let's even say you could get into line in the wind and snow to watch first-hand the fabulous luge for a bargain basement $55.

Who goes to things alone? Your partnered up with at least a spouse, partner, friend, kid...so right away 55 = 110. Then bring your entire family and it's really 220. Canadian dollars that is.

Does Vanoc have some deal with the press that they can corner page after page whenever they want for their fake news?

Canada POST - My New Torah

Political parties with single focus are flat stupid.

The Marijuana Party, The Sex Party, The Cream-Coloured Buttered Turtle Party, may they all go the way of the Dodo Bird Party.

Having said that, what's with Canada POST deciding it cannot carry messages from one of these groups?

Can the word "penis" be any more offensive than "plazma TV?"

For all my good friends and guardians of the public morality at Canada POST, herewith a list of words to consider:

Johnson, dick, cock, bird, thingee, snake, soldier, head, mushroom, POST and the inevitable Eddie.

NEWS ALERT - GORE WINS NOBEL

Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace prize for his work in making public the problems of global climate change.

Within minutes the hosannas and the denouncements followed. Read the NY Times report here.

A Pox on 2010 - Mortgage Your House for Tix

I haven't relented in my disapproval of 2010 since it was first breathed as a bilious rumor some years ago.

Now, the ticket prices are being revealed. Lovely.

A thousand bucks for opening or closing ceremonies. 500 for a hockey game or figure skating show.

Yes, of course. All B.C. families have that kind of money.

This is a tax-payer funded party for the elite.

May Gordon Campbell and friends slip on a big banana peel.

Can the Charter be Re-written or Expunged?

Prime Minister Harper plans to impose automatic jail terms on young people who commit violent crimes.

I have no problem with this. I believe that the basic sentiment is right. One in a hundred juveniles who murder and maim might be ripe candidates for rehabilitation. But the wooly-headed assumption that because a boy is 15, he's a dear who has just gone momentarily astray is nonsense.

There are killers and then there is everybody else; the divide between the two is enormous.

And some kid who crashes a human being's skull in 45 times with a rock is a crazed killer and needs, for my benefit and for yours, to be locked up forever.

Enter the Charter.

The Supreme Court is now being called upon to declare that the existing Youth Justice Act is unconstitutional because it violates the poor babies' rights under the famous Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Adult crimes call for adult courts and adult sentences.

You want to let the bastard out some years later for good behaviour or whatever spurious reason, that's another story. But until that day, stick to some principles that we understand and that work.

Is it the Fish or the Paper that Stinks?

Mildew has long been one of the worst writers at the local paper. He covers the courts.

He is also a self-confessed and proud pot head. If he had his way, most everything in life would be legal. Let the chips fall where they may.

I go out of my way to not read his poisonous rants.

But this morning I actually got as far as paragraph 2. That, of course, is where I stopped.

This is what the sad fool had to say:

"For a decade now, this city has led the nation in new approaches to the persistent and pernicious problem of illegal substance abuse."

How could anybody get anything so completely wrong, backwards, inside out?

Vancouver and Victoria are leading the nation and possibly the world in creating one of the greatest urban social disasters of all time.

Once you pass the gimmick "science" of the Insite apologists - all of whom have their hands in the till - you quickly learn that Insite cannot name ONE HUMAN BEING WHO HAS MOVED ON FROM DRUGS. NOT ONE.

Drug addicts don't bother me. Never did.

It's what we used to call "the mid-town sillies" who give me the willies. These university educated, over talkative, intellectually barren, undersexed meddlers in social policy who should all be put on the last melting ice flow out of Dodge. They are the modern day Joseph Mengeles, experimenting and torturing real people in the name of social progress.

Shame on the newspaper for continuing the employment of such a misinformed, consistently negative and utterly doctrinaire creep as Mildew.

Duh?

Librarians and Outside workers vote No???

Hired Guns Shooting Up Iraq

Two weeks it was Blackwater playing Wild West.

Yesterday another private "security" firm, RTI INternational, shot 2 completely innocent women in Baghdad. They only shot them about 40 times because the women's car was close to theirs.

Would someone please explain to me what is there in the so-called Iraq War that isn't sickening and totally corrupt?

More detestable details here.

Annie Lennox Every Time We Say Goodbye

She's one of the great great pop singers of our era. This is one of the great ballads from the American Song Book by Cole Porter. Nuff said?
Well, there's news. Annie has just released a new album and I've been told it's dynamite.

Where Have All the Cities Gone?

I have just returned from a 2 week stay in Victoria.

I rented a flat in a very modern, very chic new condo building right on the waterfront on the Inner Harbour.

Sounds good so far, yes?

No.

For all around the building were drug addicts and the homeless.

Practically attached to the condo were several social service agencies, including a shelter.

Every day, I walked the gauntlet of bug-eyed crazies. What fun.

But this is not some isolated issue confined to one short street.

The entire downtown core - other than the perennially shiny Government Street, which is given entirely over to tourists and I am sure has not seen a Victoria resident in 20 years -is a sewer.

The Hudson's Bay building will soon be condos. Douglas and Blanshard and Quadra, once the main strolling and shopping areas, are occupied by ugly, scruffy, directionless young thugs.

Oh yes, there are still beautiful old areas to be found in Victoria and even a few lovely new districts, as there are in Vancouver and other cities. But the downtown, the former lifeblood of the city, is a fetid stinking mess.

A few days before I went over to Victoria, I drove to downtown Vancouver on a Saturday for a couple of silly errands.

Same experience.

Robson Street west of Burrard still has all the Japanese tourists and Korean ESL students.

But everything else, everywhere else is ugly, scruffy people. Nobody is buying. You don't see people with full shopping bags like you do in the center of Seattle or San Fransisco on a Saturday morning.

So my question is this: What have we done to our cities?

Did we actually believe that communities and neighbourhoods can survive on condos and chai lattes alone?

I'm sure it's all very nice for Bob Rennie and his Marketing Systems, but what's it got to do with Real Life?

It's not just the DTES. It's Granville and Georgia that are deserts. I won't be going downtown again soon. Will you? Do you?

Vancouver and Victoria have HUGE planning staffs at their respective city halls. What are we getting for our money?

Sam, The Light Bulb King

Not since a certain French maiden shrieked, "Let them eat cake," has there been a more thoughtful and magnanimous offer from a leader to the scruffy plebes.

The Nutty Mayor clutches his microphone and his daily headline by pledging Two Million Taxpayers Dollars for Cambie merchants.

For what?

For compensation for mom and pop shops that have gone tits up? No.

For money for mom and pop shops to rebuild their broken and shuttered businesses? No.

Ready? Sitting down?

For lamp standards and benches!

I guess this means that in the new and perfect World According to Sam we will be able to sit under a bench and read at 10pm thanks to the new illumination from the new and improved lamp posts.

Sam, The Illumminator.

This guy has 9 paid personal advisors and this is what they come up with?

eric clapton - wonderful tonight

ooooo la la ...

Dan Russell's Language Lessons From the Prez

Can the English language survive Bush?

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country. "- George W. Bush

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."- George W. Bush

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that? one word is 'to be prepared'. "- George W. Bush

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."- George W. Bush

"The future will be better tomorrow. "? George W. Bush"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world. "- George W. Bush

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."- George W. Bush

" We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe We are a part of Europe."- George W. Bush?

"Public speaking is very easy."- George W. Bush

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."? - George W. Bush

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur. "- George W. Bush

"For NASA, space is still a high priority."- George W. Bush

" Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children."- George W. Bush

" It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it. "- George W. Bush

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."- George W. Bush

REJECT THE DEAL? COME ON, FOLKS!

No doubt we will learn to cope.

But the prospect of this infernal city strike riding into the New Year is infuriating.

Those of us with a few bucks in our jeans will call the private garbage haulers and pay to remove the stink and the bother.

But what about seniors who depend on their daily visit to the library? Kids and students who have Swim Club?

My heart is generally and in principle on the side of unions.

But I say to my union friends if you think job security is an attainable goal in the modern world, you've got to change your meds.

Americans don't have enough Regular Soldiers?

What is Blackwater doing in Iraq to begin with?

Iraq has been a diamond mine for American contractors of every kind, bringing billions of taxpayer dollars into the hands of oil, food, clothing, cement, and insect repellent suppliers.

But soldiers-for-hire? At twice the wage of the Yankee grunt?

Yes, kings and despots have been hiring farm boys for murder from the beginning of time.

Now, the Blackwater thugs are being exposed. So?

The corruption in this deadly, stupid campaign is breathtaking.

The NY Times editorial is overly polite, but on target.

Can't Act, Can't Debate, Can't Be Prez

The NY Times, normally a litmus test for reliability, has shot itself in at least one foot this morning.

Their article about that idiot gadfly, Fred Thompson, the Law & Order D.A. who would be President, is titled, "He can act, but can he Debate?"

Well, there. They got it wrong at the get-go. Mr. Thompson hasn't the first clue about acting. When you look up "Johnny One Note" in Wikipedia, his driver's license appears.

Jena - John Mellencamp Music Video