Monday, August 31, 2009

No-deficit 'Gordon Campbell is a sociopath', oh, and a liar too.

Best comment of the day, regarding Gordon Campbell's sudden arts funding cuts :

Jay1237:

"The Campbell liberals lied their way into power. they have consistently lied and mislead about things. there is money for bridges and olympics, tax cuts for the rich and corporations but the regular guy is screwed.
Buddies of Campbell keep getting deals under the table: BC rail, rivers, whatever they like in droves.

Still he smiles for the camera.

[Gordon Campbell] is a sociopathic person.

He is destroying the very inner fabric of society.

He has to go. He is a liar and thief living in luxury. [Colin Hansen] is no better and a mere yes man.

When is health care, education going to be cut. you have lied about everything so far....with a nice smile!"
Well said, Jay! Let's see how the idea of Gordon Campbell being a sociopath holds water when compared to Wikipedia's definition of Sociopath:
Three or more of the following are required:
  1. Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest;
    => THINK GORDON CAMPBELL INSIDER CORRUPTION CASES (INCLUDING BC RAIL), AND GORDONS DRUNK DRIVING CASE

  2. Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;
    => THINK ALL THE FALSE ELECTION PROMISES HE MADE
    , SUCH AS THE "NO DEFICIT" LIE.
  3. Reckless disregard for safety of self or others;
    => THINK GORDON CAMPBELL'S DRUNK DRIVING CASE
  4. Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations;
    => THINK BUDGET DEFICIT

  5. Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another.
    => THINK THE 4 BILLION HST TAX HIKE STEALING FROM THE POOR WHILE INCREASING HIS OWN PAY AND THAT OF HIS POLITICAL AND BIG BUSINESS CRONIES
Wow, that's a significant match.

Congratulations, jay 1237, I couldn't agree more.


Premier Gordon Campbell has been creating room over the past few days for the possibility of a provincial deficit.

While Campbell continues to say he wants to avoid deficits at all costs, the certainty of just a few weeks is clearly gone.

I've written a little about this already, but here are two exchanges that shed some light on the shifting position.

January 27, 2009
Phone interview


Vancouver Sun: Can you clarify your position on the provincial deficit? It seems like for a while you've said there will absolutely be no deficit and I'm not hearing that as strongly from you now.

Premier Gordon Campbell: I think that's fair to say. We've got twin commitments: one is to a balanced budget, which is critical, but a balanced budget where we protect healthcare and education spending the things that are critical for British Columbians.

So when you have economies that are effectively falling off, when you have revenues that are in free fall it's very difficult to see how you make that equation work... 

VS: So it is possible we will run a deficit?

GC: I'm not saying that. We're trying to do our best to see how we can handle all of this, with all of the information. Every piece is moving right now and it's a big challenge to find a way to make this work to protect healthcare and education.


October 22, 2008
Meeting with a group of reporters after the economic update


Lindsay Kines, Victoria Times Colonist: If things get even worse globally, are you willing to ever run a deficit?

Premier Gordon Campbell: Let me be very clear, we are not going to run a deficit in the province of British Columbia.

LK: Ever?

GC: Let's just be clear, Lindsay, when we talk about, when you talk about a deficit, or anyone talks about a deficit, they're talking about turning their back on the next generation and sending our problems forward to them.

I think one of the things that British Columbians are very clear on is they expect us to think about the generations that will follow us. We've just spent seven years digging ourselves out of an enormous debt hole that was created by deficit after deficit after deficit. I do not accept that we should have deficits. We don't need to run deficits, we actually need to run a strong healthy economy and government should always live within its means.


Friday, August 28, 2009

iPods and iPhones explode; Enjoy!


Apple is getting worried about exploding iPhones and iPods. Read this:

Apple attempted to silence a father and daughter with a gagging order after the child’s iPod exploded and the family sought a refund from the company.

The Times has learnt that the company would offer the family a full refund only if they were willing to sign a settlement form. The proposed agreement left them open to legal action if they ever disclosed the terms of the settlement.

Nice one, Apple!

And this one about an iPhone:

A 15-year old Belgian by the name of Salvatore is the latest victim in a series of mysterious iPhone explosions that have captured the attention of France’s and the European Commissions’ consumer affair watchdogs.

[The] teenager was holding his iPhone in his hand, about to make a call, when the iPhone suddenly ‘imploded’. The incident didn’t cause any serious injuries but reportedly gave Salvatore a headache for a couple of days.

UPDATE

Apple is more concerned than ever. Look who was visiting this blog:

IP Address 17.246.49.# (APPLE COMPUTER)
ISP APPLE COMPUTER
Location
Continent : North America
Country : United States (Facts)
State : California
City : Cupertino
Lat/Long : 37.3042, -122.0946 (Map)
Language English (U.S.)
en-us
Operating System Macintosh MacOSX
Browser Safari 1.3
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_8; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.3 Safari/531.9
Javascript version 1.5
Monitor
Resolution : 1440 x 900


LINKS

- TechCrunch: iPhone explodes; fun!
- TimesOnline: iPod explodes; fun!



Wednesday, August 19, 2009

TN!s of the Week: Bob and Mike Wasylyshen, Edmonton Police

It took almost seven years, but there seems to be some movement in the 2002 Bob and Mike Wasylyshen Taser Kids for fun case:

[Mike Wasylyshen, the] Edmonton police constable who Tasered a passed-out teen in 2002 and avoided punishment from the police chief of the day--his father [Bob Wasylyshen] --will likely now have to face a disciplinary hearing.
Great, well done, Mike. And you too, Bob, for supporting taser use on drunk kids. What a hell of father you make!

In a ruling last week, the Law Enforcement Review Board ordered Police Chief Mike Boyd to lay several charges against Const. Mike Wasylyshen related to the Oct. 5, 2002, incident in which 16-year-old Randy Fryingpan was Tasered eight times in about one minute.

Fryingpan was passed out drunk in the back of a car that police were called to investigate. Everyone in the vehicle, except Fryingpan, got out when police ordered them, and Fryingpan was Tasered.

Not so cool, Mike, but let's not forget who thought that what Mike was doing was "all fine": indeed, his own father Bob Wasylyshen.

The then Edmonton Chief Bob Wasylyshen had plenty of reason for disciplining his son; the Law Enforcement Review Board:
1. Mike deployed his Taser on (Fryingpan) eight times in the span of 68 seconds, in what appeared to be an effort to remove the passed-out youth from the vehicle

2. No evidence was presented to justify the use of a Taser; nor was any evidence presented to explain why the Taser was deployed eight times in just over a minute
Congrats, Bob and Mike Wasylyshen, you both are Taser Nazis of the Week!

UPDATE:

Mike Wasylyshen doesn't only Taser 16-year old kids, oh no, he also loves beating up people on crutches:
[Mike] Wasylyshen had been out drinking with some other officers at a bar on Whyte Avenue (Edmonton) in December 2005 and had become very drunk.

At about 2:30 in the morning, he left the club and spotted Devin Stacey, who was hailing a cab across the street. Stacey had just had knee surgery and was using crutches to get around.

Crown prosecutor Marta Juzwiak told the court [Mike] Wasylyshen started yelling and berating the 22-year-old man, and called him a "cripple". He then ran across the street and punched Stacey in the ear, and moments later struck a security guard who was trying to stop the altercation that had broken out.

Wow! And this jerk is still working for the police? What's wrong with the Edmonton Police?

In an interview with CBC News on Thursday afternoon, [Devin] Stacey said he thinks Wasylyshen should no longer be a member of the force.

"If you're a cop and you assault someone, especially on Whyte Avenue, you shouldn't be able to be a cop anymore," he said.

Well said, Devin!

LINKS

- Edmonton Sun
- Calgary Herald
- CBC: When Mike has been drinking he will beat up crippled people too.

Former Israeli head of Shin Beth, Ami Ayalon, charged of torture practises.

The former head of the Israeli security service Shin Beth is being prosecuted on charges of torture in the Netherlands. The case is in front of the The Hague courts tomorrow. That is the commitment of a case tomorrow, when the Court in Den Haag.

Torture
The indictment comes from Palestinian Chalid Al Shami after his torture charges were considered unfounded by an Israeli court. Human Rights Lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld is taking on the case for Chalid Al Shami. The Israeli Ami Ayalon was at this time head of the Israeli secret service Shin Beth and would be responsible for the torture.

more...

LINK
- NOVA: Nederland moet Israelische oudminister vervolgen (dutch)


Saturday, August 08, 2009

Best comment of the day: BC HST is good for corporations, bad for the rest of us

This from "blurredbyitall":

What Hansen should have said was that $1.9 billion of the corporate sector's share of paying for public services and infrastructure (that they use too) will be loaded onto already-overburdened BC citizens/taxpayers. The Liberal's communications machine will be cranking out spin til we drown in it.
Yes, that's the best way to sum the BC HST up. Read all the comments here:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/08/07/bc-statistics-canada-unemployment-hansen.html#socialcomments

LINKS
- CBC: Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals are flirting with the rich and fucking the rest of us, again.


Monday, August 03, 2009

Braidwood Taser Inquiry missed opportunity

At least someone got it right on the Braidwood Taser Inquiry, and this time it's nobody less than Emile Therien, past president of the Canada Safety Council. In short, he argues that there currently are no standards when it comes to the use of tasers in Canada, and that this is inexcusable. Emile suggests that a moratorium should be put on the purchase of new tasers.

I like to go one step further. Given all the "un-explainable" deaths soon after being tasered, Braidwood should have put a moratorium on the use of tasers until country-wide standards are in place, and that ALL tasers (those in use and those scheduled to be acquired) proof to comply to these standards:

Taser inquiry missed opportunity
Jul 31, 2009 04:30 AM

Re: Lessons learned in Taser tragedy, Editorial July 27

In failing to recommend that standards be developed for Tasers, the Braidwood inquiry, unfortunately, has squandered an outstanding opportunity to move this agenda that much more forward. The federal government, as recommended in an RCMP report, must now take the initiative and set standards for Tasers used by all police services in Canada, under its power in the Criminal Code to regulate firearms. Standards for their efficacy and use must be developed.

The fact, acknowledged by the manufacturer, is that one in 20 of these devices fail. This failure rate defies all logic, is inexcusable and smacks of shoddy manufacturing and quality control. No other electrical product can be legally sold in Canada unless it is tested and certified by a recognized national standards organization.

Until these standards are in place, police services should place a moratorium on the purchase of these electrical devices. Establishing minimum standards would further ensure police accountability and allay public fears and concerns.

Emile Therien, Past President, Canada Safety Council, Ottawa

LINKS
- Toronto Star: Taser inquiry missed opportunity
- Canada Safety Council