Stephane, We hardly Knew You

If you check the hilarious results of my Prime Minister survey - in the right hand cloumn - you will see that NOBODY trusts Stephane Dion

I think I will take to calling him Le Petite Weasel.

My Friday Province Column

will appear in the paper on Monday.

Don't even ask...

The many Scams of Methadone Exposed

Mark Hasiuk, writing in the Vancouver Courier, has been proving himself in recent months to be one of Vancouver's best journalists.

In this weekend's cover story - "Juiced Up" - he has shown once again why he is so worth reading.

This must-read is all about methadone and it is thorough and bang-on.

You thought you knew something about this scourge. Well, read this and then you'll really understand.

Here's Lookin' in Yer Cup, Mate

Now that the LPGA, bowing to waves of criticism, has backed off its deeply offensive directive that only English speaking lady golfers may play with them, perhaps it's time for the Vancouver Golf Club in sunny, downtown Coquitlam to drag itself screaming into the 19th Century.

Read the LPGA story, as covered bu this morning's NY Times, here.

Fairy tales Can Come True...

The Sun editorial this morning urges our schools to "instill hope in out children."

Hard to argue with that.

But hope is hard to come by without the commitment of real resources.

Where is the money for school libraries and library staff? Where are the physical education teachers who will supervise the 30 minutes a day of exercise now mandated by the province?

Where are the music classes?

Where are the books and school supplies that cash-strapped parents don't have to pay for?

Yellow brick roads are so much smoother when they have little ATMs along the way.

White Elephant

$65 Million to update BC Place stadium.

And will that be shown on the Olympic books?

Keep 'em Coming

The Harper government has sent me another flyer about crime.

This one shows some middle-class actor boy pretending to be a beer-guzzling scofflaw.

The message is that the government supports jail sentences for serious offences.

OK by me.

Michael Sims on Sarah Sunshine & The Ozark Mountain Gang

f you want to find an important line of continuity between the current Bush-Cheney administration and a potential McCain-Palin one, it was in the speech that Sarah Palin gave to the Republican Convention on Wednesday.

She said, "Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he (Obama) is worried that someone won't read them their rights"

"Read them their rights" is a metaphor. If she would not "read them their rights" then it means suspected terrorists are to be treated differently. How differently? This is undefined. Does it include torture, indefinite imprisonment without trial, sending them to third-world countries for "special treatment"? Does it include spying on American citizens? We simply don't know.

Ms. Palin, in one off-the-cuff phrase, wants to eliminate all of the protections and rights that that the American judicial system has developed over 232 years and replace them with--nothing. Only the whim a bureaucrat that happens to be in charge of the interrogation. The rights and freedoms that, until recently, had made the USA the beacon of freedom and tolerance in the world, are simply wiped away.

As we now are aware, this is just what has been happening under Bush and Cheney. Clearly, it would continue under McCain and Palin. Is this the kind of "change" we want?

Michael Sims September, 2008

It gets Worse Every Night

Last night, one speaker after another issued relentless verbal assaults on Barack Obama.

Each of them with the now patented Republican smirk. The smirk, which at first just seemed like a psychotic nervous tick on the part of the inadequate President, has now jumped faces. It is everywhere.

Rudy "I personally saved New York from Eveything Bad" Guiliani made rude remarks about Obama and laughed at every one of his terribly clever barbs. So did the rubes in the Texas cowboy hats and veteran's caps.

Then, Little Miss Family Values came aboard, wrapped in the flag, wrapped in war and victory and fighting men, and attacked Obama some more. This is the fundamentalist lintball who has her congregation convinced that God is directing American troops into Iraq and that they must all pray for a $30 Billion pipe line in the hood.

I think that's in Leviticus, isn't it? Or is Ecclesiastes? And the Lord said, "Go unto the North and build pipe lines, my children."

I'm not sure if it's 1930 or 1950 in St. Paul this week, but it doesn 't look very much like 2008 to me.

One speaker after another drew cheers and tears for sabre-rattling simple-minded reducing-it-all-to-us-vs.-them talk.

Let me say this in as simple a way as I can.

I like Barack Obama.

I hope he becomes the next President.

I do not understand the cynicism about him.

Yes, he is a politician.

But, he is the first politician in a great long while that has inspired something approaching hope.

He has no experience being president.

No one has experience being president until he or she becomes so.

I believe Obama can learn quickly and rise to the occasion.

Everybody dismissed the haberdasher from Missouri and Truman became a great president.

The Republicans have found great success, beginning with Nixon, in selling fear, so they are doing it again.

We are at war. The terrorists are coming. Obama can't lead. McCain is a war hero. Blah, blah, blah.

So tiresome. So predictable. So transparent.

Except, of course, for the dopes in funny hats and the sad veterans, who are being used as pawns.

What a detestable exhibition that was last night.

Sarah Palin is downright creepy.

May Obama win.

Brave New (Furry) World

Prozac for pets may be panacea for owners

Our four-legged friends can get depressed, too. Sometimes drugs can help ease the pain

When I read a headline like this, I turn the page.

Life is very short.

Now, look at the photo and tell me who's on heavy meds?

Shed His Light on Thee

I find watching the Republican Convention an astonishing experience.

What am I seeing? Where am I? Who are these people? What planet are we on? Have I awoken yet? Is this a school day?

Laura Bush, with total conviction and a straight face, tells us that her husband, the worst president in history, has kept "our land safe."

Aside from Al Qaeda and the Taliban and the lunatics who run Iran and North Korea has there been anyone more dangerous in the world these past eight years than George Bush?

Bush appears by satellite grinning and smirking as usual and talking drivel.

Then, Fred Thompson, that completely bogus, false one-note actor (disdain and smirk) gets up and waves the hot button flags - honor, decency, strength, country - while images of warriors flash behind him.

Then, that self-serving ambitious turncoat, Joe "I'll stump for anyone who gives me a big job" Lieberman, piles on the heroics.

Through it all, old and ugly and stupid people cheer and cry and wave the banner.

I tell you honestly, I completely don't get it.

You don't have to accuse me of not getting it.

I confess. I don't get it.

I can only watch these scary little people for moments at a time. I always think I'm watching a satire or a zombie movie or something.

So some of you don't buy into the Obama mythology.

Fair enough.

But this is the vision you share for the future?

Simplistic, old, tired shallow patriotism, sabre-rattling and so-called "family values?"

The idea of John McCain -with or without Little Miss Baked Alaska - running the show gives me the total willies.

I know many lovely Americans.

I have have met so many of these bombastic simpletons as well.

So right, so conviced of their rightfulness, their superiority, their claim to God's special graces.

- 30 -

Ray

Anthem Re-visited

Please Note

Discussions and comments about "The Pregnancy" will not appear on this site.

Such trivia is distasteful, irrelevant and a meaningless distraction.

The real issues are being obscured by the fate of a girl in Alaska, who a week ago was anonymous.

The real issues in this American election are War, health care, education, housing, mortgages, productivity, jobs and pride.

Wait.

Here's a better summary:

"Our nation is in trouble on two fronts. The American dream is under siege at home, and America’s leadership in the world has been weakened. Middle-class and low-income Americans are hurting — with incomes declining; job losses, poverty and inequality rising; mortgage foreclosures and credit card debt increasing; health care coverage disappearing; and a very big spike in the cost of food, utilities and gasoline.

“And our position in the world has been weakened by too much unilateralism and too little cooperation, by a perilous dependence on imported oil, by a refusal to lead on global warming, by a growing indebtedness and a dependence on foreign lenders, by a severely burdened military, by a backsliding on global nonproliferation and arms control agreements, and by a failure to consistently use the power of diplomacy, from the Middle East to Africa to Latin America to Central and Eastern Europe.”

That was Bill Clinton at the Democratic Convention last Wednesday.

The fortunes of one family in Anchorage haven't changed those priorities.

Talk to me about the election. Talk about Palin, McCain, Obama, Biden, housing, race, money, Iraq, Iran, jobs.

But the "P" word will go unheeded in these pages.

Chet Atkins Plays Scott Joplin

How LRT was Sabotaged in Favor of SkyTRain

A much more complete story on SkyTrain vs. LRT has become available through one man's Freedom of Information pursuits.

This is a lengthy document, but it is real and it is very much worth your reading.

Camp No Pot Luck

This extraordinary letter to the editor in the Langley Times was brought to our attention thanks to a diligent commenter. Note especially the last paragraph with which many of us can identify.

"Experience the difference." Indeed.

Ferries can’t handle emergencies

Published: August 30, 2008 12:00 PM

Editor: I was recently on the Coastal Inspiration ferry with my three baby girls, young niece, and much of my extended family including our children’s grandmother and their 82-year-old great-grandfather.

Unfortunately, it was the trip where there was a truck fire on the car deck.

I would like to start with compliments to the staff on board who seemed to do a good job organizing people into one area of the ship calmly. It seemed there was a lot of confusion, but the on-board staff did a good job keeping people calm.

However the rest of BC Ferries’ staff should be fired; especially whoever is in charge of emergency response.

After walking off ship, we were all corralled into a concrete area for four to five hours.

It was over one hour before anyone even came to talk to us, telling us they had no idea what was going on.

One person was handing out free water bottles and cookies — thanks; not much good for my twin one-year-old girls though. I looked around at the two-hour mark for elusive BC Ferries employees and could find none.

There were none. No BC Ferries people were with us for hours.

I called BC Ferries on my cell phone and got no further. The lady basically ignored me, and in the courtyard we sat — uninformed, with no food, no milk and no place for my kids to nap. That’s right; I called from the courtyard we were stuck in, and was still ignored with undue diligence.

By now my three girls, my niece, and my 82-year-old grandpa were all getting tired and hungry. The twins had proceeded to throw themselves on their backs on the concrete surroundings and scream. I asked everyone I could find (which totalled the cookie and water guy) “was it going to be one hour or five hours?”

The point was that, if I had some idea, I could take my family somewhere to eat. No one knew, no BC Ferries employees were to be found. All I found were some girls selling walk on tickets for the other ferries, and they were no help at all.

At the two and one-half hour mark, the spokesperson wandered back, talking about tour buses coming for people to rest in. These buses never appeared. He then disappeared again.

I found the one BC Ferries employee, the cookie and water guy again, and asked if we could just leave since my kids were now in hysterics, hungry and way over tired. He told me I might get a fine for leaving my van on the deck of the ferry.

I would like to say to BC Ferries — you terrorized my family more than the fire did.

You left my family, old and young, sitting on a concrete pad helpless, told we can’t leave, and offered nothing in the way of help.

Special high pay for special training you always claim, but when it comes down to it you suck and a private company could do no worse.

Try providing food for kids, a nap place, and let us know about how long so we can not feel stuck there helpless, with hungry screaming tired kids. It is obvious you have no plan for handling emergencies properly. How about at least one employee staying with the people for five hours?

BC Ferries, not the fire, terrorized my family, forcing us to sit in a concrete area. There were two one-year-olds, a two-year-old, a five-year-old, four adults, a grandma and our 82-year-old great-grandpa.

By the way, we were going to look at buying a cabin on the Island, but decided BC Ferries is too incompetent to depend on. Instead, we spent some time looking at the MLS website for cabins in the Interior of B.C.

Mike MacDonald,

Langley

Province Letter Writer Spills the Insite Beans

Monday, Sept. 1/08

Letter writer Callum Milne of Prince George would like some "evidence" to support David Berner's assertions that Insite has not been telling the truth about its operation.

Here's one: Not every injection supplied by Insite is supervised.

As the former partner of a heroin addict, I can tell you that Insite routinely gives out handfuls of needles to its "clients" to take home, or wherever, to help them shoot up.

That is not what Insite says it does.

As much as it was against my better judgment, I would drive her to the facility and she would run in and be back in five minutes with a handful of needles. I did it to ensure she was safe because she was going to do it anyway.

But how is handing out handfuls of needles to addicts helping them?

If you want to know why Insite is still around, just follow the money. Those running the facility are stuffing their pockets with our tax dollars and will never tell you how much they are making to see addicts strung out all over the city. ,

Nelson Thomas Reekie

Sailing Away

Excellent short editorial on today's Province about the dangers - read "scam" - hands-off crown corporations, so perfectly exemplified by BC Ferries.

Read it here.

From a Commenter on Palin/McCain

Troopergate
excerpt:
"So now we have Gov. Palin, whom evidence suggests may have abused her power as governor of Alaska to fire the state’s public security director after he blocked her efforts to destroy the career of a low-level state trooper who happened to be her former brother-in-law, because she wanted to avenge a sister engaged in an ugly post-divorce custody dispute.

Published allegations would show that both Gov. Palin’s husband Todd Palin, and members of her staff, repeatedly called and harangued state Public Safety Director Walt Monegan, who says he was “pressured” to fire the brother-in-law, Officer Mike Wooten. The Palins have charged that Wooten drank beer in his patrol car, hunted moose illegally and that he once fired his taser at his 11-year-old step son—charges that Wooten has denied. They have also claimed that Wooten threatened Sarah Palin’s father—also denied by Wooten.

Also interesting—the charges that were made against Wooten were for things that he allegedly did years before, and for which, where appropriate, he had already been disciplined or exonerated by his employer. That taser incident, if it happened, was when the stepson was 11. The boy, now 17, reportedly lives these days with the allegedly trigger-happy step dad. The alleged beer and hunting incidents also predate the divorce, which raises questions of why, if those charges warranted Wooten’s firing from the police force, the supposedly ethics-obsessed Palin would not have raised them back at the time with his superiors.

Palin has improbably denied that she had “anything to do with” her husband’s calls to Monegan. She subsequently fired Monegan and got his successor to fire her sister’s ex from the police force. (Her pick to replace Monegan is being accused of sexual harassment!).

The Republican state legislature has voted $100,000 to fund an independent investigation into the abuse of power charges against Palin, and there is talk of a possible impeachment proceeding, too. Palin has denied that she did anything wrong. The investigation, which is expected to take three months to complete, will drag on through the entire presidential election campaign.

One thing is clear: Whatever Palin’s troglodyte social and political views, Americans don’t need another vice president who views public office as an opportunity to abuse his or her power for personal or political vendettas.

The other thing that is clear in all this is that McCain, who is running for president in part on a claim of competence, has certainly demonstrated a lack of same in his naming of Palin, whom he reportedly only decided on this past week and after only speaking with her last Sunday by phone. (His campaign says he also met her once briefly last February at a state governors’ convention in Washington.)

The Alaskan “troopergate” abuse of power scandal, which will now play out through the coming weeks, clearly was not vetted by McCain and his staff, and no doubt will turn off a lot of one natural Republican constituency: law enforcement officers, who expect to have any charges leveled against them handled by due process.

If even some of the charges against Palin are true, her actions should make her unfit for the office of vice president, particularly on the ticket with a man who is pushing the actuarial envelope in running for president."


DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net