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bcfiberals links 12 Reasons Women Should Not Vote BC Liberal
huge list of Campbell articles Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society
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Citizens Rule CD available for purchase, 19 anti-Campbell songs by all BC musicians, instant payment via paypal, buy it for $10. CAD Postpaid, over half the money goes directly to anti-poverty groups around BC. Or send $10. to Box 476 Parksville BC V9P 2G6
This blog has fairly silent of late, not for lack of issues, but because I've been working on a book project that has required my focus and attention. I'm happy to say the book is now finished, and you can read more about it here Meanwhile.... May 17, 2006 Will Campbell Still Be Eligible For $2.2 Million Pension Once He's Convicted Of Fraud? A simple question, one would say, and one I posed to Premier Campbell and my own MLA, Ron Cantelon, in an email this week. A reasonable question, too, considering the allegations wrought by the Basi - Virk trial (including media manipulation, dirty lobbyists, RCMP manipulation, kickbacks and faulty bidding processes in the sale of BC Rail). Here's what Campbell said about gold-plated pensions in 1996. "For too long, taxpayers have had to pay for gold-plated pensions, arranged for in secret by MLAs for themselves. This bill challenges all MLAs in this House to cut the strings of their million-dollar pensions and to accept the same standards that other British Columbians have to accept in their lives. In order for us to change the public image of MLAs as self-serving, it's going to require MLAs to stop being self-serving. Being an MLA should be a public service, not a career. We cannot ask others to tighten their belts if we're not willing to tighten our own. Politicians have been quick to tell others what to do but have been unwilling to do the same themselves."
Less British, More Columbia - Legislature's fall sitting to last one day
November 16 2006 Olympic Spirit - poor folk get bent March 11 2006 The new Vancouver City Council has reneged on the public and low income housing portion of the South False Creek Olympic Athletes Village. In keeping with the original spirit of the bid and Gordon Campbell's involvement and influence, all the benefits to the lower income and disadvantaged citizens of our province can get bent. Besides, It's better if everyone in the downtown core is rich, that keeps the burger-flippers and public school teachers out in the suburbs driving their cars which necessitates more road infrastructure and oil and gas dependency. Guess what, that's good for the rich too. Pre-Requisite, Deception and Avoidance 101 1000's of hugely sensitive personal and medical records of BC residents sold for a few hundred dollars at a government auction. Double-Speaking Minister Mike De Jong, King of the Angry Spin blamed the NDP and promised it would never happen again. You hear this tactic from all the Liberal Ministers in responding to most questions. They deliberately act aggressive, sound exasperated by the question, use some out of context statistic, and make the listener feel stupid. It deflects opposition and backlash and usually avoids answering the question in the first place. The tactic is coached to them in special seminars by some of the 261 members of their bloated Communications Staff. And think about it, if you or I got to be 60 years old with a life-time spent playing and studying guitar or writing or cooking or something honourable, we'd be pretty damn good at it. Instead these people study deception, avoidance and influence with the same zeal and passion. And they're pretty good at it. "British PPP Health Rocks" says Campbell - "I Quit" says its director Gordon Campbell's exhaltations of the British two-tier ppp health system goes tits up in his face the very next day as their chief systems executive resigns with their hospital system mired in chaos wrought by cost-cutting from profit-seeking and competition with a deficit nearing $1.6 billion.. What an idiot. Chief Privatization Bureaucrat Gets RICHRICHRICH The unelected chief of Partnerships BC, Larry Blain earned almost $500,000 in 2004-2005 and stands to earn up to $600,000 thanks to bonuses for pissing away the public's assets and funnelling them to local and international rich people. Well why not, it takes a lot of work to bankrupt the upcoming generation.
Children's Budget, Spin Spin Spin. So Carole Taylor donned her $600. Gucci shoes to deliver her bogusly titled Children's Budget last week. The $28 million allotted to their communications and advertising departments, more than any bc government in history, has helped spin this budget admirably The 'Corporate Budget' of September slated much more in tax cut benefits to big corporations than this one did for any children or families, approximately $529 million for the wealthy and corporate citizens. The $421 million over 4 years given to the Children's and Families Ministry brings the level of funding to this department to that where it stood in 2001 before the drastic, and indeed fatal, cuts. The amount allotted to education barely keeps up with inflation and the 1000 or so new teaching positions created leave our schools with a continued 1000 fewer teachers than in 2001 when those positions were cut. The revised home ownership grant is a defacto tax cut for the rich. The level has been raised again to include homes of $790,000 in value. To buy a home at that rate a family needs an income between $175,000 to $200,000 with a downpayment of $100,000. Will this tax-cut for mansion owners come close to the $8. million dedicated to homelessness over 3 years? The Provincial debt continues to rise to a record $40 billion, even as the boom cycle in our natural resource industries comes to a close. Does anyone remember the railing Campbell did when Glen Clarke's government reached a debt of $37. billion? Meanwhile, Gordon Campbell hightailed it out of town immediately to avoid any responsibilty or questioning, taking his brother in law, an admitted advocate of two-tier medicine on a junket to Europe to investigate for profit health care models (and drink vodka in brothels).
BCLiberals - Still working for the rich and lying to the rest of us.
What This Province Really Needs - Tax Cuts For Banks And the winner of this year's I'm Alright Jack award goes to the Vancouver Board of Trade for recommending that the upcoming Provincial Budget feature tax cuts to the highest tax bracket and Banks (yeah you read that right, Banks - Royal Bank net income over 3$ billion in 2005). They recommend a spending increase of only 3% focused on health care (private no doubt), education and road infrastructure. This in a city with skyrocketing poverty rates, homelessness and a province wide child poverty rate of %25.
Here Piggy Piggy Piggy - De Jong pushes bill for 15% MLA Pay Hike Not surprising that the labour minister who stonewalled the teachers with his offer of nothing, nothing and nothing again has offered himself and his pork-belly compadres an $11,000 dollar raise (over $25,000 for head honcho and dictator-for-life Gordon Campbell). Lucky for us it won't come directly out of the taxpayers pockets. Instead they'll fund it by cutting back elsewhere, 2 welfare recipients kicked off the program per MLA will fund the yearly salary boost. They'll gouge somewhere else to fund the Golden Pension Plan they've re-instated, originally scrapped by the spendthrift NDP. Here's a question to ponder, Would the cost of this pay raise and pension package have funded the scrapped Children's Commisioner and the over 700 deaths ignored by this Government? You might think this loosening of purse strings would bode well for upcoming public sector negotiations, setting a precedent as it does for similar raises. I suspect that time will prove again, the BCLiberals just don't care what's fair.
Why The Liberals' Rule of Law Position is Unmitigated Bullshit
This teachers' strike has successfully polarized our population and sadly it's coming to a close with the teachers not really winning anything. It's probably the most important issue facing me today, having as I do a child in grade 2 and another in his first year of kindergarten. My family will be suffering from any underfunding and overcrowding in education for a long long time, and so I take this issue very seriously. I'm concerned about the future for my children and can imagine the legacy the Liberals will be leaving as my two boys reach adulthood in BC, with no trees, no oil, a poisoned coastline, no social programs to help them in need and no public assets left to ensure their independence. BC will be a playground for the rich and the Yanks. The Liberals and their electors will be mostly dead or living large in Hawaii having bankrupted our healthcare system, our pensions and our public trust. This government is determined to not give so much as a sniff to the poor, the women or the left, with an almost personal vendetta against the teachers in particular To hear Gordon, bully that he is, digging at the teachers to remind them that they themselves will be paying for the few improvements in Vince Ready's recommendations with the salaries the employers saved is so offensive I can barely contain myself. You can be sure the Liberals will not make any changes to the School Act before June, their promises are as worthless today as the ones they campaigned on in 2001 and 2005. The teachers walked off the job in support of their students' education. Meanwhile our government still hasn't changed their tune to address any of the teachers' concerns other than to talk ceaselessly about the sanctity of the 'Rule of law'. But they can't even get their own Crown Prosecutors to support their actions since the Crown Prosecutors are embroiled in a lawsuit against this same government for breaking the law themselves. The BC Crown Counsel Association has twice won binding arbitration in relation to wages and working conditions but in true "rule of law' style have had those victories overturned by legislation and imposed contracts. Gordo-llini's government has torn up countless collective agreements and legal contracts (which is against the law, right?) They've also broken international laws with this particular anti-education legislation. They've broken promises made in throne speeches and have harmed the people they have pledged to protect with those broken promises. When your adversary makes the rules and changes those rules to suit their purposes, those rules no longer apply. This Government hates women, hates the poor, hates the left, hates the planet, hates my kids and hates me. Luckily I still have the strength left to hate them back.
"The Right Honourable Suckybaby Poopypants"
Where would our society be without heroes who've stood against unjust laws with courage and conviction. Without Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the Suffragettes, or Clayoquot protesters. Come to think of it, we'd probably be exactly where the Liberals wish we were, and where they're driving us to right now.
By the way, I spent a little time on the picket line with my two school-age kids on Friday and was overwhelmed by the spirit and the resolve of the teachers and the support staff out walking in the pouring rain. They feel the solidarity that's out there and look forward to even more support on Monday. Hopefully it won't be necessary, if the government would just put away the bluster and negotiate the way they're supposed to.
"We Won't Negotiate With Criminals"
"In a society built around the rule of law, you don't get to pick and choose because if that's how we're going to run this thing then we're one step away from anarchy," he said. Let's ignore for a moment that it's the employer who made the law in the first place, an illegal law contrary to international standards set out by the UN. Keep your chin up Jenny Sims, they might not settle any contracts with criminals, but they might just make you Premier.
Gordon Campbell Hates Your Kids Day one of the 'illegal' teachers strike, either me or my wife will not be working today as we stay home to take care of our children who should be in class, learning. Typical spin response from the minister Mike de Jong, "If you're a law-abiding citizen you can't choose which law you're going to follow...", which of course you can and you must, if that law is a corrupt law by a corrupt government (even the United Nations condemns the BCLiberal tactic) put in place specifically to avoid negotiating a fair settlement. The government is going to use all its resources, from bloated ad budgets to their pals at CanWest Global to villify these teachers. Meanwhile they'll be saving money every day they're out and hoping to dodge the responsibility for their failure to come to an agreement. Screw Campbell, support the teachers, hit the picket lines and fight for our children.
October 4, 2005 It seems a certainty that the teachers will yet again be legislated back to work by Campbell's Liberals. Not only do workers here in BC know this action is typically wrong, rotten and illegal, so does the United Nations. experpted from NUPGE news More On The Teachers October 3, 2005 original message excerpted from email conversation - throw the left a bone "I swear if my kids miss one day of school over this job action I will literally flip my lid. I don't care what they want but I'm reading about another 163 million in corporate tax cuts and skyrocketing fuel tax revenues, meanwhile the people in question spend as much daytime with my kids I do. seriously, I made better money mowing lawns than these chumps. and they finished high school. God, I miss the cbc. Where's the lesbian feminist agenda when you need it. staffer reply goes here, omitted for privacy to which I respond "Or we could privatize the whole affair and auction off subjects to the highest bidder, Shell can take over Geography and re-educate us all about the benefits of climate change, Nortel could sponsor the math department, the ad industry and Hollywood could handle the English department. Shakespeare in 90 minutes, Spartacus just wanted a Pepsi. Or the government can fulfill one of the few remaining responsibilities they haven't ducked and pay the teachers an appropriate wage for the important, skilled and difficult work they do. How would you like to capture the attention and imaginations of 20+ sugar-addicted, media-addled un-smackable brats? Details I'll leave to the professionals but 673 million is only a little more than the added revenue gained by expanded gambling and substantially less than the corporate handouts offered to Teck/Cominco, Jimmy Pattison and the like. They could always claw back some of the reduced personal income taxes so wealthy people in a wealthy land, ie the generation of people who got their educations for free, along with free busing and full curriculae and sports programs can pay more for their grandchildren's future and a little less on sunroofs for their motorized scooters. Kids are going to need as much book-learning as they can get as they face a future with no oil, no trees and no public assets. As I understand, 50-60 k is the max after 10 years service, you need a Masters to earn more. Any 23 year old hillbillly on the oil patch can make that much with grade 10. My real estate agent makes that easily and the last book he read was Playboy. One teacher I know with only 5 years experience paints houses in the summer. I remember first hand the workload of the teacher goes far beyond 9:00 to 3:00. And 60 k is peanuts, especially if you're, dare I say, a single parent family. Another female-dominated profession into the crapper. Does their benefits package come close to the ones offered to Jeff Bray or Virginia Greene? This government has to spend some of its' wealth on the future and not just work the quick buck as if the world is going to end at any moment. Screw Campbell. Dan
Pinching Nickels, Hemmorhaging Dollars When it comes to my children and their future I say give the teachers anything they need. The fact is, I can make better money mowing lawns than these poor chumps and not only did they finish high school, they all have post-secondary degrees and the student loans to prove it. Not to mention that they spend as much daytime with my children as I do. Simply put, teachers are doing the most important job in the province, preparing our next group of citizens who will hopefully do a better job at stewardship than the generations previous to them. Share the wealth Gordon Campbell, and not just with the wealthy.
Summertime in Paradise
Bridge Over Budget and Behind Schedule
As Good As We Could Hope For
Knocked Up - Knocked Down April 30th, British Columbia single moms living in poverty is a UN human rights issue according to some poverty and legal experts. The state of poverty in BC among women and children is examined in a report called Human Rights Denied Single Mothers on Social Assistance in British Columbia. No wonder Gordon doesn't want to be seen on this campaign by anyone who's not a card-carrying Liberal. Honestly, how good can an economy be if there are hungry children as a result. The Georgia Straight has a good article on the issue.
Citizens Rule Hits the News
Money For Money
Eyewitness Evidence "Anecdotal at Best"
This Tax Cut Is Costing Me A Fortune
Gordon's First Big Fib April 20th 2005, CBC TV has met with and taped Betty Kracker and Joey Only in performance for a story they're doing on the cd and election music. Watch for it Friday on Newsworld April 15th 2005, Gordon Campbell can't stand dissent. He can try to gag any health care worker who dares critisize the state of our hospitals by threatening to fire them. He can bury all the facts about the raid on the legislature by refusing to release any info before the election. And he can disappear all the facts about our hospital waiting list crisis by revamping the website. But he can't mess with rock and roll. Citizens Rule! April 13th 2005, Thanks to the Tyee for the reference in their elections blog "Campbell, The Premier We Love to Hate". A minor correction, the CD is not made up of all-Vancouver area musicians, but musicians from all across BC, from Quesnel to Courtenay, Nelson to Parksville and Vancouver and Victoria too.
March 25/05 - Full mp3 list of all 19 songs, please download and share any and all songs at will. March 24/05 - CD has gone to press, it should be back in our hands by April 4th. We've had a little controversy already with a Vancouver Sun reporter calling and asking whether we're aware of the libel issues of such a project. Why would a Sun reporter be asking questions like that? We have to wonder. No matter, our answer to his question is Satire, Satire, Satire and artistic expression. Will have all 19 mp3s online here in the next day or so, plus a statement regarding legal issues. Watch for official cd release parties May 12th in Vancouver, May 13th in Courtenay and May 14th in Victoria, line-ups tba
Feb 25/05 - Way to go Gordon, on the very week of the implementing of the Kyoto accord, his government's BC Utilities Commission approves a natural gas fired power plant on Vancouver Island. Nice forward thinking Feb 11/05 - Citizens Rule Update - The CD is in its final mastering stages and will include 20 original songs and original artists from all over BC including Todd Butler, Joe Keithley, Parksville Rancher, Amy Honey, Pete Campbell and more. It'll be very diverse, enjoyable and hopefully well-received. It's a completely non-partisan, not-for-profit project put together by all-volunteer musicians and artists. Our only goal is to call attention to the damage our Premier has done to the less fortunate in our province, tell stories of how we despise him, and have a little fun in the process. We'll be offering these CD's to BC social agencies who've been affected by the Liberal Government's cuts over the past four years. CD's will be sold at cost for $5. each postage paid and can be sold by your agency for $10 or $15. Any profits made by us through other sales avenues will be diverted to BC social agencies too, primarily womens groups, childrens groups and food banks. Dec 10/04 - Project Update - Citizens Rule Anti Campbell CD Compilation - Submissions are closed, we're very proud to have received at least 20 songs from many different genres and communities around BC with one common enemy. The CD will be mastered in December and pressed in time for an April 1st release. This CD is a non-profit enterprise with the intention of raising funds for some of the many social programs cut by the vicious Campbell government. November 12/04 Typical BS announcement re: funding for people with disabilities, an extra $70 dollars a month just before the election. Seems like a lot of money, and will almost make up for the cuts on physiotherapy, counselling, subsidized housing, chiropractic visits and then some that these people have suffered under this heartless government. Thanks for nothing. November 10/04 - Don't be fooled by Campbell's new "softer stance" on social programs. With an election coming up he knows full well how much we despise him, and how desperate is his plight. He's trying to buy us with our own money. His budget surplus has risen out of milliions iin new user fees, 100 million in extra tuition fees, higher pst, higher gasoline tax revenues and higher lumber and gas earnings, never mind the 2500 fewer teachers, 100 fewer schools, health care and social program underfunding. Remember the cuts of the last three years and don't believe this jerk. Also 3 new songs for your downloads.
My recent favorite load of nonsense, education minister proudly announces $10 million for new textbooks for BC students. Gee, thanks, a half a book for each and every student in the province on the same day the transportation minister announces 4 BILLION for road upgrades in the lower mainland. The message here? Cars take a 400 fold priority over the children of our province. It all started in 2002 with new Larry / Dan LaRocque material featuring an ode to our despicable Premier Gordon Campbell and his unprovoked attack on British Columbia's poor and vulnerable. Point Grey Gordon (He Doesn't Care About You). Free Mp3 and RealAudio files
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Never in my life have I felt such contempt, disdain and disgust for my government as I do today. I'm furious at the way Gordon Campbell's Liberals use misinformation to spin their agenda and divide the issues one from the other with the intent of dividing the people. 
What a pack of babies this government is made of, stubbornly hanging onto their sad little 'rule of law' position while the teachers are just asking to get to the table, get what's fair and get back to class. Meanwhile De Jong and Bond sing the same old song dripping with high-road attitude as if the law is more important than reason, creative thinking and respect.
Must they serve us up this easy softball? Labour Minister Mike De Jong refused to hold last minute talks with the BCTF, saying there is already a contract in place through legislation. 
United Nations? - We Don't Need No Stinking United Nations
April 12th 2005, Just opened this page as a regularly updated blog to be able to keep the 
