With guns blazing

As another weekend moved towards it's conclusion,dark forces were at work in the Okanagan town of Kelowna,BC.By days end,Jonathan Bacon,late of the Red Scorpions drug gang was dead and a full patch Hell's Angel named Larry Amato and an associate from the Independent Soldiers street crew were wounded.Amato is still in critical condition,fighting for his life.A niece of another Angel,a club president,was also wounded.This was just the first shoe dropping in what could be the start of another bloodbath like the one we just experienced in 2009.Word on the street(and the interweb)says the smart money is on the UN gang to have instigated this hit.That is the same UN gang that was put to rest by reporter Kim Bolan,in a documentary on the subject just this year.With their leader in prison and another member as the subject of said documentary it was easy to see how such a conclusion could have been reached.This shooting says that the demise of said gang was greatly exaggerated and totally incorrect.There are several members in prison,but this was a huge gang and able to rebuild.That one member,a former crack addict was out, meant nothing.As long as the prohibition of drugs is pursued by politicians with no idea who or what they are dealing with.There is no end in sight to the escalating violence that it takes to run a drug cartel or gang in this day and age.There is just too much easy money to be made and far too many people with little or no prospect of any kind of decent paying job with which to support their families.Drugs are the one thing that gets a lot of people through their otherwise unbearable day.Such it is,was and always will be.The current prohibition has only thrown gasoline on the fires that are the addiction to drugs and the use of other drugs by people.With an addiction to opiate drugs at 1-1&1/2% of the population,the traditional number throughout history,it has done nothing positive and had a lot of very negative things.The gang wars here are just a small example of the results that can be found throughout the world.40,000 have died in Mexico to date with no end in site in spite of protests by Mexico's people to end the violence.It's not just the gangs and cartels that make this situation so terrible.Law enforcement has been placed in the position of having to be the face of the war on drugs.They have been not only corrupted by the money and the use of criminal informants.They have had to take to hiding under balaclavas and carrying heavy weapons.They break into peoples homes and destroy their property or else seize it and forfeit it to the courts.This causes police to act in a manner that is non condusive to the proper restraint they used to show when doing their jobs.Many take it personally and lose sight of their impartiality.The current group in Ottawa never had any impartiality and have used their bully pulpit to further people's confusion over the issue by attacking harm reduction measures as a form of surrender.True war time jargon.Although we sit on the border of the most anti drug government on the face of the planet.That doesn't mean we have to repeat the horrible mistakes that have caused the US to have the largest prison population,by population on the planet.

The Harper Curse

This unbelievable prime minister,after catching flak for spending tax dollars to catch game 6 in Boston and cursing the team with horrible luck.Thinking how good for HIS career it would be if some of the Canuck luck could just rub off and make him look like a good guy.Comes to Vancouver and gives the team,usually unbeatable on home ice,the Harper curse.We all know that this guy is as far away from the phoney good guy image he's been faking for years.Now,his presence has cost our team the Stanley Cup.His selfish need for praise was just too much for this little man to avoid.This last two game washout will forever and from this day onward be known as the Harper Curse.No Canadian team has won since he entered politics and no Canadian team will ever win with Harper in the building.The man is pure poison to ordinary working Canadians and he is pure poison to Canadian hockey.Just look at the futility of his team,the Leafs.The Harper curse has them in last place seemingly forever.As long as the PM haunts Canadian arenas there will be no Stanley cup presented to any Canadian team.Just one photo op and the team is cursed.Forget the cost of flying this wind bag all over the place cursing our teams.Just think of Vancouverites,with 41 years of futility and who shows up for game 7 forever cursing us to mediocrity?Why,Stephen Harper,of course.What a boon to top off his great win(with 1% more of the vote than last time)in the election than to be at rinkside when the cup comes home to Canada.Too bad the guy is pure poison.Insincerity,fake niceness,phoney ads telling us how he saved the economy.The guy had to prorogue parliament to save his job and be forced into taking the action he did.Now he has cursed the Vancouver Canucks by just being here.Thanks a lot Stephen.We will NEVER forget this.

Look out,here comes the social engineering

1% more of the vote and Harper goes from zealot on a leash to zealot with the power of a god.If you thought he was an asshole before,and 60% of you voted against him,just wait.Remember the 6 billion dollar prison expansion that he suddenly couldn't put a price on?It's coming.He says he wants a new law passed to speed up the court system and he wants it passed before summer break,one month.No one disagrees with speeding up the courts.What we don't need is another of Harpers half baked put up jobs that won't pass a court challenge.The guy is in court because prostitutes find the world too dangerous.So what says Harper.He's in court trying to shut down insite.To all of you people out there who he has convinced this is free heroin(which would be an excellent idea),it isn't.It is simply a place to inject drugs where the addict has access to treatment and there are nurses in case of overdose.Not in my country says Harper.They're better off dead.We will be engaged in the global arms race for the first time in 20 years.Why?Because those are Harpers priorities.He is an evangelical born again christian who actually believes there is a guy in the sky watching over everything he does.Strange when you look at his record on race,morality and rule of parliament.The guy couldn't tell the truth if you had him at gunpoint.But there's a method to his madness.He thinks we are in the end times which explains his total lack of any environmental policy and the muzzling of climate scientists.Might as well use everything up if it's all going to end real soon.Like I said,insanity.We are about to see an erosion of our social safety net and the complete abandonment of Canadians home and abroad.Harper takes credit for the things that go right when he would have done either nothing or the opposite if he was in power at the time.The banking system and the recovery for two.Watch as we see an expansion of private health care and a further starving of the national system.Harper doesn't believe in helping others.What has earned us respect in the world is in danger of vanishing right before our eyes.There is absolutely nothing we can do about this.60% of the population of this country is without a voice for four years.I know Jack has a nice new home and is feeling really good about himself.Just wait till he sees how little say he has in anything till the next election.Harper,with an already healthy party bank balance and the bribes from every big business in the country is taking away the financing that made our system appear to be a little fair.Jack has all he can do to get enough cash to buy a few ads to run against the constant barrage of government paid ads and conservative party lies that fly so freely at all times of the year and increase at elections.I am so happy to be old because this country is about to become a much meaner and selfish place to live.

Ottawa drug problem visible to all but the politicians.

Another blog by sicntiredIt came as a surprise that the drug scene in Ottawa was similar to the one in Vancouver.Crack cocaine was the drug of choice and up until the appointment of a new police chief it was out in the open as police had come to terms with the fact that it made no sense to seize drugs or paraphernalia as it just caused either the sharing of same or new crime to replace the seized drugs.Then the new police chief changed all that and began arresting the very addict traffickers that it had been decided over years of policy changes that it made no sense to chase.I'm sure the new policy put a lot of addicted people in prison for a while and drove the drug scene under cover.The simple fact is that there is currently a situation in this country in which harm reduction measures have been brought to a halt and are being fought against by a conservative government that has no time for studies,research or empathy.They want people arrested,jailed and kept in prison for as long as possible.The fact that we have been there already means nothing to Harper and friends.Vancouver,which had the first heroin maintenance program in North America,saw that project ended.The safe injection site has had to submit paper after paper after paper and all for naught as this government has no time for addicts,the homeless or the poor.We have seen the drug scene explode everywhere and the gang problem grow from nothing to where there are so many the police can't keep track.Marijuana could have been legal in this country if the then conservatives,led by Brian Mulroney,hadn't seen to it that the bill died on the floor of the house of commons.There was also no shortage of pressure from the US.Now it is the number one cash crop in the country and it is run by gangsters instead of being taxed and regulated by our government.Look at any drug in this country and it is a worse problem today in spite of efforts to control,eradicate or interdict it.Canada is now named by the UN as a source country for drugs like methamphetamine and ecstasy.This in spite of the millions of our tax dollars that have been and continue to be spent on a US led War on Drugs.No one can take a sane look at this situation and say we are making progress or even holding the line.Things continue to deteriorate at an alarming rate and with every step taken there are unintended consequences that just seem to cause things to get worse.It is time to call a halt to the madness and end prohibition in this country now.The US seems to be coming around to this position but so very slowly.There is no reason that we in this country should have to wait for them to make the changes necessary.There is too much to lose by continuing down the road we have been on for almost 100 years.

Some people are just plain scary

Another blog by sicntired        Being somewhat of a paranoid,I like to watch certain political viewpoint shows.Especially when the Queen bitch of surrey takes the stage.Ms Watts,as anyone that's followed her career for 5 minuits knows,never saw a camers she didn't like.She took to the air on Vaughn Palmer's Voice of B.C.(Vaughn was on holiday),last week and it didn't take long before she showed her true colors.On a talk about heralth care and I'm paraphrasing here,she let it slip thaty in her opinion people who have made bad choices at one point in their lives,should have to pay in some way for those bad decisions.Most politico's have the sense to measure their words and attempt to mitigate the effects of their personal prejudices.Not so with Ms.Watts.It might be refreshing if she wasn't so intolerant and didn't have such a twisted hatred of those in society who have ,for whatever reason,fallen into the trap of addiction.What Ms.Watts was saying and I say this after years of listening to her rants about addicts and addiction,was that people with addictions shouldn't have the same access to health care as others as they have self inflicted wounds.Project this onto a fat person with type 2 diabetes,a failed suicide,a drunk with a bad liver.I'm not saying that this politician would include all of those,she probably doesn't even see the corelation.This woman went to Europe with a pre conceived vision and came back saying that her vision was correct.She went to one country,Italy,which has been long noted for it's failures and brutal repression of addicts,and assured everyone that she had found the perfect solution.You have to forgive prohibitionists as they are fighting against 100 years of failed policy and are still shouting as loud as they can that we just have to try harder.Einstein defined such strategy as insanity.I'll leave that up to dear reader to decide.The fact is,there are still people out there who are in positions of power who are projecting their own personal agendas on everyone else in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.

Failure to learn from history.

Another blog  It's something that makes one wonder ;should I laugh or cry.The United States passed the 19th ammendment and caused the expansion and growth of a mafia that was a tiny problem that mainly existed in the Italian sections of major cities.By the time they passed the 22nd it was a world wide criminal enterprize with enough money and influence to effect the second world war,elect presidents and to send one of their sons to be president.Drug lords have already offered to write off the entire debt of a South American country and the largest state in the union.Marijuana growing is one of if not the major business in B.C.Like with alcohol prohibition,there will always be times when disagreements will cause violent outbreaks amongst gangster groups.The worst of these always come after a major player is removed from the scene.Police never do anything in a planned action but,rather react to situations in which they have at best faulty information.Is a gangster cooperating to reduce the opposition?To eliminate a powerful adversary?The police are so far behind in this city because they denied the problem for so long.They reacted with ire when outside help was offered.Now we have a bunch of politicians chasing their tails because people are angry.People are always angry.Thats why we have a seperate and Indapendant judiciary.People experienced with the law and it's applications.It's always easiest to make tough speeches and toughen laws.All that ever does is take rights away from us all with no effect on those who opperate beyond the law.It's sad that with another failed and unpopular prohibition just 90 years back that our politicians seem oblivious to it's consequences.I could point to claims and speeches that these same politicians were making just 10 years ago that had this problem under control.Don't blame the judges.They have seen abuses on both sides of the law.If the laws prohibiting drugs from adult p[ossession were ended tomorrow,these gangs would move somewhere else where fools still think a drug free world is a possibility.Prohibition is a lie propagated by people making billions off of it.Heroin,like alcohol is a disease.All these problems have answers.Prohibition is the absolute worse approach possible.It won't get any better.You don't fight something that will grow almost anywhere by passing a law.Opium is thousands of years old.Even the police know this.they're just scared to say it out loud.

We can only wait and see

Another blog by sicntired With the recent election of the Obama/Biden team in the US and the various victories and defeats of the various drug reform measures,it's a toss up as to where the dog is going.That the tail is dragging us down a disastrous path is beyond a doubt.We saw what born again agenda's can do with 8 years of GWBush.Biden was an unfortunate choice as VP as his record as the flag carrier of the anti drug forces is well documented.We all have heard about Obama's former drug use and that makes him a living example of just how harmless a drug experiment can be.If a reasonably intelligent person looks at the whole drug situation it's fairly obvious that the majority of the damage and all of the criminal activity is as the direct result of the prohibition of drugs.If government was dumb enough to once again try to introduce the prohibition of alcohol,the death and organzed distribution would begin before the ink was dry on the paper the bill was written on.It's amazing that people just can't seem to make the connection.It's sad but I did say it takes a person of reasonable intelligence.Governments have all the demographics on just who and where the more intelligent people live and they aim their material at the rest.What will Obama do about the drug war and prison over crowding and jail time for minor drug offences?We'll just have to wait and see.Biden is attempting to reverse the 100-1 sentencing disparity on crack cocaine but who was the monster that thought such a travesty up in the first place?It's so obviously racist that it's become a world wide embarrasment.Too bad people won't take the time to look up the origines of current drug laws and the racism jumps out and slaps you right in the face.You can find all such information at drugsense .org or at stopthedrugwar.org.Both sites contain a wealth of information and links to other sites.If you agree,it'll show you you're on the right side of the issue.If you're against drug reform,it'll open your eyes to the racist and fear mongering that keeps the drug war wheels spinning in place year after year.

Busted-another drug war ad

Another blog by sicntired I was watching the news and all of a sudden there was a bust unfolding before my eyes.I soon realized it was another television program designed to promote the drug war and show the dangers of doing drugs.It turned out to be a pretty good way of exposing just how putrid the drug war really is.The people they showed being busted were young and fairly clueless.They were obviously doing the program as part of their punishment for being caught with pot.They all kept saying how scared they were,in fact that was pretty much the only truth the program displayed.The busts were all typical police harassment resulting in petty pot busts of less than a gram.They even had a pop up display saying that even traces were enough for an arrest.One of the guys was a third time arrest and had to make a statement as to how he was glad he was popped as it forced him to change his life direction.He seemed like a decent person and aside from the fact that he was facing up to 20 years in prison for a felony drug arrest(he only had a small amount but it was #3{?}).He was as sincere as he could muster and there was no doubt that he was scared but you could tell he was more pissed off than sorry.Who could blame him?One minute he was minding his own business and the next the cops kicked in his door and now he was looking at 20 years for pot.The other cases were far more petty than that and the people were still just as scared.The show proved one thing;that people should be very cautious when driving while young or black in the USA.The cops were all predators looking for young people partying as they knew they'd have marijuana.The arresting officer in case #2 even said that he was looking for young partiers and that he was sure he'd find marijuana.The people in the car were black.They were well groomed young people and looked as clean as anyone I've ever seen.Just that fact alone should tell people something.Is everyone out there a criminal or are the police looking for trouble where there is none.I know they always say they're just doing their jobs.It was very clear that they saw putting a kink in a young persons life as part of that job.None of the people shown on this show were criminals in the true sense of the word.They were victims of a society that lives by do as I say and not as I do.The cops on this show all seemed like the true believers.These are people who actually believe that all drugs are bad and they are saving the world.They would arrest their own mothers.I can't see how any one can watch this kind of program with anything but outrage.Like it's twin ,"cops",this show demonstrated how the drug war is a war on the poor,the young and the colored.Most people on cops are at least doing real crime.This show is all about young people and how a drug arrest can ruin your life.No question about that but what would have happened if the cop had really just done his job instead of going miles out of his way to find a problem?None of the people arrested looked like they were a menace to society.Quite the opposite.These were young people out to enjoy their youth and trying to have some harmless fun.At least they weren't out drinking and driving.People who say that people that smoke pot shouldn't drive a car.They obviously have never smoked and driven a car.The worst thing you'll do is drive way too slow.Pot does not a dangerous driver make.Impeding traffic,yes.Dangerous,no.I do not recomend driving high.It can be far scarier than it's worth.Just wait an hour and you're good to go anyway.If you're looking for a little insight into what's wrong with the war on drugs,watch a show called; Busted.

Wall Street Bailout is Main Street sellout

Try to limit huge pay packages for CEO's was the way it started and it just got worse from there.We will try to get Americans some of their investment back.The idea is to buy up toxic debt and sell it off when the economy gets going.This is outrageous and not in anybodies interest but the felons that laughed and joked their way into this crisis in the first place.Tapes have been heard in which these same Wall street bandits can be heard joking that they hope they're retired and long gone before this house of cards comes tumbling down.Paulson,when confronted with such avarice was visibly embarrassed but not embarrassed enough to retract his support for this theft of the American taxpayer.People,this is a travesty but it's not totally out of your hands.There can still be a reckoning here and it will come on income tax deadline day.The charlatans at the FED will have to release the plan and exactly how much each American taxpayer will have to kick in.Simply deduct it from your tax return and explain that you will have no part of bailing out the criminals of wall street.They can attack a few hold outs but recent polls have demonstrated their hatred and anger over this unjust and corrupt peice of legislation to the tune of 45% of those polled.You have the numbers and you know that the collusion between wall street and the beltway is conspiring to defraud you of a considerable chunk of cash.Are you going to let these carpetbaggers steal your hard earned money for the next few decades?They are addmitting right from the start that most of this money is toxic debt.That means it's beyond useless.The only message sent to wall street is that there is not one peice of this bill that increases regulation or restrictions on their conduct and it's business as usual with all bad behavior forgiven.Take this and you are fools,without the intestinal fortitude to stand up to a corrupt and out of control government that pays nothing but lip service to the people and that they can lie to you and you'll just take it.Are they right?

Israel has too much blood lust

Another blog by sicntired Today an Arab contractor lost it and razed a street before he was gunned down by an 18 year old kid who grabbed a cops gun and fired point blank into the driver.The man had taken his earthmover and was crushing cars and pushing buses over.A soldier then fired an automatic weapon into the dead body.That's not the reason for the header.Every one has the right to defend themselves.The leader,Ehud Olmert,demanded that the mans home be demolished and his family ,who knows.Israel has forgotten how they got to be a country in the first place.Now they condem arabs for fighting for their homeland the same way the jews did in 1947.The 10 to 1 kill ratio and the treatment of the Arab people is outrageous.Only the US with blinders on at all times and the Harper neocons support this outlaw regime.The so called war on terror is nothing but an apologist view of the middle east come home to haunt the perpetrators.There will be no peace until there is a settlement in the middle east.As long as our governments support the israelis no matter how brutal their approach,there will be the danger of a people with nothing to lose.acting like they have nothing to lose.

How can things change if we won't learn?

Another blog by sicntired Sometimes things become so frustrating you just want to shout.Fine for you or me but if you are the chief of the police force in the largest city in the west it behooves you to use common sense.Unfortunately,Jim Chiu likes to shoot from the lip.He's been on this "chronic offender" bandwagon again and it drives me crazy.If the chief was a student of Canadian law,or even of the local police force he would know that we have been down this road already.Of course that would require a little due diligence and that's in very short supply today.We have just seen the first case of trial by press.Tony Nguyen punched Michael Levy in the head and was sentenced to 20 months in prison.As he was entering the elevator,pursued by a camera crew,he laughed at the fact the press was all over him.The press decided he was laughing at the sentence and ran with the story till it was unrecognisable.The whole lunatic fringe went along for the ride and Wally Oppal decided it would be a good move to appeal the sentence.Score one for hysteria.The court,battered unmercifully for years now over being soft on crime finally buckled and sent him to jail.The comments made by Levy's mother said it all."Those people,they come here and they take everything."She had a whole lot more racist banter and the cameras ate it up.Score two for hysteria and racism.This is a dangerous precedent.We now have the lunatic fringe running the court system.I guess Chiu is just being an opportunist.He doesn't like the fact that addicts are being treated like human beings and he has to clean up the mess.I feel for the poor guy.It must be annoying having to chase criminals all day long.Seriously,these are addicts. knows it but he doesn't feel it's prudent to say it.Better to use the anonymous"chronic offender"like he's not kicking someone when their already down.Addicts are a problem.Have been for a long time now .If the chief looked up the habitual criminal act he would see that this whole concept was tried in the last century and was turfed as being cruel and unusual punishment.It is true that something has to be done about drug addiction.For 100 years now we have been using prison as the dumping ground for the broken people that have turned to heroin.Now we have a crack epidemic as well.Sending addicts to prison is going to help them is Chiu's claim.This is blatant B.S.and Chiu knows it.He just doesn't know what else to do.I'm a nobody that has spent 40 years as a drug addict and am as addicted today as I have been for the duration.Prison did nothing but embitter me and make me far more dangerous than I should or would have been under any other circumstances.I suppose Chiu would blame the heroin.That is B.S.as well.Addicts have a big hole in their soul.If you can't,won't or refuse to fix the hole.Don't expect the addict to change.I've heard a whole lot of talk about treatment and if there was any treatment that was effective the problem would certainly have been reduced by now.The simple truth is there is no effective treatment for the vast majority of hard core addicts.Treatment has to be available and it should be worked on and tinkered to try to find something that works.No-one expects or wants younger addicts to be given up on .It's the older,"Chronic offenders",and other long term addicts that must be put on a maintenance program like NAOMI.I'm sure Chiu knows this as well as I do .He just doesn't have the courage to say so.Police don't make policy.I understand that completely.I just don't think the kind of disingenuous pap that Chiu has chosen to toss around is going to help anyone.

No way to treat an old man

I received a letter from the provincial government last month informing me that as I was six months from my 60th birthday i had to submit information about my eligibility for a federal pension.It was not quite that polite as it threatened my check if I didn't comply.This means they threatened a near 60 year old man with multiple barriers(health problems)with zero money.To say this was stressful would be an understatement.So I managed to get the paperwork together and take it into the office and what was their response?I just received another letter threatening my check if I don't apply for said pension before the next check.As I said I am on disability and have a lot of trouble getting around.Some days are better than others but gathering all this is a lot of trouble and the result will be that my pension,when I am forced to count on it,will be reduced.I don't understand the need to threaten someone with financial ruin if they want something done.I have been prompt with all my paperwork since being put on disability.I do admit to having some difficulty when I had to live on $500 a month as I never had bus fare after the first week.Since then I am always early with everything I have to do as there is no necessity to do something to add to my income daily.I have been turned down twice for extra assistance for supplements in spite of meeting every requirement with the exception of threat of immediate death.That is the reason for the rejection,no threat of sudden death.I have been on a list for a pain clinic as that is the only way I can receive the care I need.It is very painful for me to be on my feet for more that 15 mins.My condition leaves me very vulnerable to stress and prone to panic attacks,which are very unpleasant and scary.I am very grateful that there is a system that takes care of people like myself who have a limited work history and are totally unfit for any job.That doesn't say I condone the way people on assistance are treated.I see no need to threaten a persons security for any reason.To do it so that the government can force me to apply for an early pension at a reduced rate is really sick.Are they so desperate for a hundred dollars a month?I have been without teeth for over three years because the dental coverage is a joke.I had three teeth pulled and found out that that was all the dental coverage I qualified for for two years.I have been in chronic and terrible pain since 2003.I have no idea how long I have to wait as no-one can tell me.I suppose I should be grateful as the way I am being treated I will probably have a shortened lifespan so I won't have to worry about what kind of future I will have.At least I am not living on the sidewalk yet and am able to eat once a day.As long as I can complete an application for an early pension that is.Otherwise i will have to learn to suck air and live in the park.

There's a big difference between legal and ethical

The current case of the investigation of former Solicitor General John Les by his own police forces and government will end with Les being exonerated.Like the police themselves,investigations of politicians by their colleagues rarely results in anything sticking in a legal sense.This case is brand new and there's a whole lot more to be learned before the thing is put to rest.From the information released one thing is clear.Les used knowledge gained while he was Mayor of Chilliwack to later make land deals that made him very wealthy.Did he break any laws?Probably not,Mr.Les is too savvy a politician to make any slips that could get him busted.Did he use insider knowledge to enrich himself and get around some rules he had intimate knowledge of?Beyond question.Les will be exonerated of any crime because he had all the rules and boundary exemptions at his fingertips.He refused permits or oversaw their refusal and waited for the right time to do the machinations that he,as former Mayor knew all about.He profited from his knowledge and position but probably did it in such a way that he is immune from prosecution.I sincerely hope that he won't be allowed to escape the obvious conflicts of interest that he used to enrich himself where the ordinary citizen was unable,even after two attempts,to do the same.This government has never had any concept of the meaning of conflict of interest.Even Ken Dobell is still lobbying for the company supplying the turnstiles for the skytrain terminals.They feel self enrichment of self and friends is a perk of the job.I thought the idea of the huge pay hike they just gave themselves was supposed to eliminate the impulse to cheat as they are well paid.Not well enough for any of the Campbell insiders as they are continually getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Party of the poor wants penny banished

I recently received an e-mail from Jack Layton telling me how the NDP was the only party providing an opposition(true,unfortunately)and extolling all the good things the NDP had done.I answered back that I had been a voter for the NDP all my life and was now leaving for the Green party as I felt they better represented my personal view of my country.I feel the NDP has abandoned it's roots and forgotten where it came from.Now i read this article in the paper about an NDP MP that wants to banish the penny to history.Pat Martin wants prices rounded off to the nearest five cent mark.I guess he finds it annoying having to mess with pennies when things could be rounded off.I happen to come from an upper middle class family.I have ,however been down on my luck a few times and was counting my pennies,literally.Mr Martin doesn't care any more about people that have to count pennies than he does for the penny.He would like the penny and all those that count them to be put somewhere and forgotten.The one thing that makes the penny so important,coincidentally,is that it is so unimportant to people like Mr.Martin and probably mr.Layton as well and therefore they're willing to part with them for charities and panhandlers and anyone else that's down on their luck.Like the old fellow that was just recently on the news because he was collecting pennies for charity.I see this as the same kind of mentality that you hear whenever the minimum wage is brought up.There are those that care about making life better for everyone and there are those that only care about themselves.You hear them complain that if the minimum wage is raised then they'll lose spending power on their money.So what if people are working and can't afford to eat.I'll have to pay more for my beer.The penny is always a way of anyone being able to put a few bucks aside for a rainy day and easier than collecting your empties for a few months.It's sad that the party of Tommy Douglas that gave us our health care system has forgotten where it comes from.Like the health care system that is being starved out of existence by politicians in collusion with the CMA in a selfish and greedy push for a two tiered medical system the NDP is now more about the money than it is about making life a little more even for everyone in this country.When I saw the country sign on for the necessity to possess picture ID in order to vote.I knew there was no-one in Ottawa that was working for the poor and lower income working stiff.If picture ID is to be a requirment,it must be provided free to every voter.Otherwise it's a means of disenfranchising a large segment of society that isn't capable of holding on to or keeping up to date,photo ID.

Just who's being conned with con-air?

When I first read about this program,I thought:"what's the harm?"So far the people sent back seem to be violent felons and I have no idea why they weren't on Canada wide warrants to begin with.Then I hear they want to ship out every-one with any kind of warrant at all.This begins to sound a lot like another of Sam's Civil City projects.These projects,no matter how pretty you dress them up,are cynical attempts to remove as many of the poor and homeless as possible before the Olympics.By shipping them now,it will do just the opposite.The last guy I saw being loaded on a plane(and what's with the media showing up at a convict extradition?)was very vocal about coming back and wreaking havoc.Can't the warrants be waved so these people can do their time here?This has vigilante written all over it.Now we have vigilante redcoats and vigilante guardian angels and now vigilante air lines.Yes,it's the Olympics at it's plutocratic best.All the security money can buy.Remember those cops Sam said we just couldn't afford.Amazing what you can find when there may be a vote or two in it.Let's get on with the mayoral election and find a Mayor with a sense of vision and one that won't sanction any vigilante group with an axe to grind.

pinecone-burke saved with upper Pitt river

At 12:00PM today,wed.Mar.26,2008.Environment minister Barry Penner announced the run of the river power project scheduled for the upper Pitt river is dead.I would like to thank every-one that responded to all the pleas for rejection of this project.I'm sure there are places where this is a workable kind of project but the upper Pitt is a special place and Pinecone Burke is a class A park.Again,thanks to everyone for opposing what would have been a disaster.

Hypocracy and the newspaper

It isn't bad enough that we have only one major media company in Vancouver.The papers don't actually even try to pretend that they speak with any semblance of independence.When Sam Sullivan first ran for mayor,the media loved the guy.Now he can't get decent press even if he does something right.Not that that happens very often anyway.Now the Media is in love with Dianne Watts.To read the papers she's just an election away from a coronation.Ms.Watts is a very clever politician that is very adept at courting the press.If there's anything happening,Dianne is there for any quotes and all available praise,whether or not it's deserved.I've seen different incarnations of Ms. Watts in my 59 years of watching the local political scene and she's one of the most ambitious and unethical I've seen since Bill Vander Zalm.He was also a mayor of Surrey with political ambitions.Not since Bill have I seen anyone so eager to walk to greater things over the backs of the regions poor and homeless.Now Bill didn't have a homeless problem to deal with but he never hesitated to lash out at the lowest end of the societal spectrum.It was Bills government that tried to have addiction declared a crime and to put addicts in jail forever.The thing is,there's always a mob out there that'll support this kind of poor bashing and it was only by attending meetings and exposing people to the truth that the infamous bill was allowed to slip into history without being put before the house.Ms.Watts is another hard line prohibitionist and is the first to the camera whenever there's a chance to take a pot shot at drug legislation.She took an all expenses trip to Europe to study the drug situation there but like all hardliners before her she saw only that which supported her twisted view of the situation and came back with drug courts and forced treatment.Both of these things have been tried and have failed but then that's the history of the drug war.Try it,shelve it wait a generation and then dredge it up and try it again.As long as we are stuck with these politicians that put their personal views over scientific evidence and studies of the problem,of which there are many,that expose the racist and hysteria based reasons for drug prohibition in the first place.We will continue to have social unrest and wanton killing in the streets.These people look to the south for their ideas and their inspiration.If you think the violence and bloodshed that goes on as a daily occurrence in America is a plan we should be looking at,Ms.Watts is for you.If you want the same old answers that have brought us to where we are today,She's your girl.She takes credit for everything that's going well.She must take credit for the whole picture.If you like what's going on in the lower mainland and don't mind dodging bullets,she's good for it.If you think people with addictions and mental problems are criminals and felons,so does she.The lower levels of society have always been an easy target for ambitious politicians with a sociopath's personality.These are unfortunately the people that last in politics as they have no empathy and no conscience.Such is Dianne Watts.If you would like to discover what Dianne has no time to look into there are many sites on the web that will tell you the true history of drug prohibition:drugsense.org,LEAP,stopthedrugwar.org.Any one of these sites contains links to the others and many more. Canada's Green Party wants to end the drug war.

Meet the Press leaves me Depressed

I hope most Americans were watching this Sunday's Meet the Press with Tim Russert.It was very clear from what the Clinton camp's mouthpiece was saying that the Clinton campaign knows they've lost the race for delegates and plan to try to either use delegates from Michigan & Florida which both camps had agreed were disqualified,or use the so called super delegates,Washington insiders the Clinton's feel they can dominate.Both schemes would require backroom dealings and under handed rule bending to succeed. This is classic Clinton politics and if it should come down to this kind of tactic at the Denver convention.It will be the one way that the democrats could conceivably lose the election in November.The people who support Hilary Clinton will support the Obama run for the presidency.The Obama people are so loyal to him and so opposed to everything the Clinton's stand for,they would probably not vote at all.Obama has drawn people who have never or have not recently felt any reason to participate in politics.They would probably rather stay home than to have any part in another four years of a Clinton in the White House.

Don't Let Them Get Away With It

The courts in Alberta have ruled that a company can fire an employee for giving(under threat of losing job)a dirty urine test.The court ruled that such a person would,like a cab or truck driver,be a danger on the jobsite.This precedent setting case,if allowed to stand.Would mean that any employer could demand a drug test as a condition of employment.It would also mean that,even in the absence of any test that can show any but up to 45 day exposure.Even though there's no way to show casual or active exposure.That any one in Canada could be fired for exposure to marijuana smoke,no matter how casual or accidental that may be.Let the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission know that you want this case appealed. Contact:humanrights@gov.ab.ca This is IMPORTANT!

The Story of the Year

There's no doubt what the story of the year is,especially if you have google earth.I was trying to check out the polar ice cap and guess what?It wasn't there.I had my room mate come and take a look and we fooled around with altitude and different angles and locations and there was not a single chunk of ice large enough to appear on the image.We found the Greenland and Icelandic glaciers and a few smaller skirts of ice around the northern most islands but no real ice.I hear they took sailboats through the NW Passage for five weeks without difficulty.The Harper government,along with it's sabotage of Bali,has increased it's purchases of SUV's by 80+%.This included the RCMP,ministerial motorcades and personal vehicles of Canada's "new"government.There's going to be an election soon and I would ask people to remember the way this government has acted and the way it's ripping the legacy right out of the hands of future generations.Why haven't we been told the truth about Afghanistan?If any one doubts we're there to protect American interest in Caspian oil,they don't read enough.Why are Canadian boys lives been sacrificed in the name of the American war on drugs?Ask Mr.Putin about Afghanistan.Ask any country that has tried to possess that country.What are we doing there?Do we actually believe that democracy can be spread from the barrel of a gun?Stephen Harper thinks Canadians support his climate denial and his invasion of a foreign country.Any one that buys that we were invited forgets who invited us and who put that government in place.To model our countries drug policies on a failed and disgraced US war on drugs.A policy that the Americans themselves are backing away from is both ironic and tragic.When the next election comes and it's very close.Please take the time to research what you can about the things I've mentioned.Don't just take my word for it.You might take a look at our military budget since the Conservatives took charge.You're paying for it.