Victor Hits the Mother Lode on America, the Left

I finally got it. I've been trying to nail Joe Biden. He's the
reincarnation of Max Headroom. If you missed the 80's, you can always
Google.

Max was a square headed white guy trying to be cool.

Joe and his hair plugs reprise this by trying to shine within the
Obama halo. (as in media saint)

As long as we're having fun (we still are, aren't we) Michelle Obama
and a young Mike Tyson in drag could be doubles. Here are the steps.
First, Google photos of each. Second, photoshop a Supremes wig on
Tyson ( assuming you can do that which any 10 year old does daily)
Presto, Michelle- Diana Ross- Tyson.

Politics like sex should be fun. The religious right didn't understand
that when they tried to teach abstinence-or-else in AIDS infected
countries. The Obamites don't understand that ridicule and a brutal
media challenge are part of the democracy tableau.

Ohhhhh. Sorry. We're not supposed to have fun anymore now that the
Messiah has returned. Or challenge. Alex Baldwin wouldn't approve.
Nor Streisand. Nor any of the Hollywood glitterati who co-produced his
mega-show last night.

We are now living in Iran, circa 1978. The loving Ayatollah has
arrived. World peace, benign tolerance, an economic boom, universal
reverence for the USA are mere weeks away.

The American Christian right has been consigned to the trashbag of
American political derision. The custodians of that religious
trashbag are, ironically, the "liberal"media.

In my memory, the last time a Christian minority was laughed out of
consequence was in the 1970's , in Northern Ireland. Catholics in
Bogside (that's the poor Catholic part of Belfast to the truly
stupid) became a joke to the Protestant establishment. They were
scorned and marginalized in the places of power. No laughter or scorn
was allowed to be directed to the ruling Protestant elites.

A terrible thing happened during the course of suppressing this
Christian minority. School buses were bombed in England. Harrods
Department Store was bombed with the loss of 80 Christmas shoppers.
Hundreds of young British soldiers got bullets in the back.

Finally, thankfully, the British government tried a better way. As
did the British media. They realized that religious ridicule only
results in bringing your dead sons to your door. Some of those doors
belonged to journalists.

So. Where are we.

There are 60 million American "so-called" right wing Christians. You
can fool yourself thinking they are all cross-eyed banjo players, ripe
for ridicule. You would be really fucking stupid to believe that.

My hope is that humour will come back. And informed criticism. And a
truly feral media ripping pretension to bloody shreds. That is my only
reason to invest and believe in democracy.

In the meantime, the greatest, industrial-strength media blowjob in
history will continue. Media, actually spend most of their time on
their knees.

Ever notice the hand-held bobbing mike between interviewer and
interviewee. It says " You blow me and I'll blow you". Translation:
"Give me a good clip and you will be prominent on the news. "

Wake me when it's over.


Victor Godin

Moments to Savour

You gotta love Steven Hill, the great actor who played D.A. Adam Schiff in the original 200+ episodes pf NBC's "Law and Order."

And his writers.

It is a terrific example of writers writing in an actor's "voice."

In a repeat episode on Bravo this evening, the focus is on a neo-Nazi group.

When the news is given to Schiff that they killed "one of their own," he mutters dryly as only Hill could - "What's the matter? They run out of people to hate?"

Hill was a founding member of the Actor's Studio and, as such, knew and worked with Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Gene Hackman before they became famous.

Only a wonderful actor with his wealth of personal and professional experience could turn that dire situation into an almost comedic moment.

Money Can't Buy me Love...or a seat in the House

Arthur Griffiths lost in the by-election yesterday.



What was Campbell thinking when he signed the original little-rich-kid-who-blows-the-family-fortune to the team?

ZAP! The Pawn Shop Windows are More Important than your Life, Buddy!

Another man has died after being tasered by the police.

This "incident" (murder?) took place in Edmonton yesterday.

I have an idea.

Why not have police carry swords.

Then they could just behead people who are causing a disturbance.

How have we slipped into this new mode of accepted savagery on the part of our police forces?

Aren't these people supposed to be experts at subduing the out-of-control folk?

A Name

RCMP officer Monty Robinson has been identified as the man facing impaired driving charges that resulted in the death of a motorcyclist on Saturday night in Delta.

Liz James on the RCMP

David: I think you know I am no bleeding-heart excuser of either this kind of behaviour, or of our pitiful excuse for a justice system. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, I do believe in the concept of innocence until guilt is proven. With respect to the Delta tragedy, there are a couple of items I'd like to know about possible contributing factors to the crash itself, before I render my citizen's sentence of "life" imprisonment on the officer for vehicular homicide: 1. What speed was each vehicle traveling at? 2. Did the jeep drift over into the oncoming lane because the officer was drunk, or was he trying to make a legitimate left-hand turn, misjudging the speed at which the motorcycle was traveling? 3. Where were the traffic lights in their sequence? or was it an uncontrolled intersection? 4. Were there, as the media has - inappropriately - leaked, children in the officer's jeep? 5. Despite the fact that the officer was returned to active duty, what has been his REAL state of mind since the airport tasering one year ago? Which leads me to the second subject... Thanks to a quick-thinking bystander, we all know what we saw on that airport video - pretty cut and dried. In my opinion, the officers moved in too quickly; no-one held back while insisting that an interpreter be found; and a man who was unarmed but for a piece of furniture was tasered to death. The single most disturbing sight for me, was that one officer stood looking down on a dying Robert Dziekanski, and matter-of-factly coiled up his equipment - not one of those officers attempted CPR. That seen and said, one of the most important questions I have wanted answered by the much-delayed hearings is this: Did ALL the officers make that ill-considered, split-second decision together to taser Mr. Dziekanski? Or did one or more demur but have their cautions over-ridden by a trigger-happy superior? It's happened before with both guns and tasers and, no doubt, it will happen again. If we just suppose for a moment that one RCMP member cautioned his fellow-officers to hold back from the tasering, but was over-ridden, and suppose, also, that he turned to drink to shut out the memories of that failure...while in no way would that excuse his impaired driving, it might just cause us to lay most of the blame on a system that we, ourselves, have tolerated for far too long...a system that, itself, has tolerated not only impaired driving by police officers, but which has also re-elected a premier who did likewise. No more than any other right-thinking person do I want to see EITHER investigation white-washed - but nor do I want to see a rush to judgment - on these or any other cases. As citizens, we have an important responsibility to carry out here. Every single one of us who is angry with the intolerable delays in our so-called justice system, needs to write or email Premier Campbell, copied to the Prime Minister and to Attorney-General Wally Oppal. We need to draw our line in the sand, with something like this: "Enough is enough! Mr. Premier. We don't care what you have to do to kick-into high gear on three investigations: 1. Basi-Virk 2. Robert Dziekanski 3. The Delta drunk-driving crash. Too bad if it spoils the lead up to Christmas for some politicians, judges and investigators. Too bad if it ruins your re-election plans. Just get on with it - NOW! Because we aren't going to stand for it any more." And we also need to pay attention to the fact that a renewal of the 2012 contract between the province and the RCMP, looks set to slide through Victoria's own non-stick system, with nary a peep from British Columbians. WE NEED TO WAKE UP, FOLKS. Last but not least - I could not end this piece without offering my condolences to Orion's family and friends...and also to RCMP officer Tim Shields whose genuine distress as he answered questions from the media must have been evident to all. Liz. J.