It Brings a Tear to my Eye, a Beer to my Hand, and a Gnashing of Teeth (Not to Mention the Renting of Garments)

Outrageous, scandalous reading - perfidy, even - on local political blogs

(Vancouver, BC) - Yeah, politics is limited to nerds with bleeding hearts or thieves in suits - the players seem to be restricted to one or the other of these two narrow groups despite the fact it effects every single one of us. And it does, from urban planning (laying an asphalt city over the best loam in the world in Richmond - 10,000 years to create it and 40 years to fuck it up forever), resource management (why do you get to collect and sell the oil to everyone else - shouldn't it belong to everybody?), to culture and war (we underfund arts and misuse the military), to teaching children to read history, mathematics and art, to plain old police, enforcement of the law, and public order (we're not all brave enough to punch hooligans in the face or use a two by four to stop a murderer from completing his or her crime - thanks copper!)

I have a secret to share with you which I will deny in public for as long as I live (seriously - you never read this); in the eighties I voted for the Progressive Conservative candidates in Vancouver Centre in the first couple or three elections I was eligible to vote: Pat Carney and Kim Campbell. I voted for them because I thought they were capable and talented individuals (and I still do) who would represent the common interests well (and I stand corrected on this point). And they promised to fix the public debt, which even then had spiralled out of control like former sex symbol Gerard Depardieu's weight.

However, when Brian Mulroney left office (after a disappointing position on the Gulf War, a disastous negotiation on NAFTA) the debt was worse than ever and I realized that I needed to pay closer attention to the actual policy decisions made by The Man and it's been a slow slide into becoming a nerdy bleeding heart for me to this day.

Which brings me to Bill Tieleman and Sean Holman not because they are bleeding hearts or anything like it but because they both have excellent local political blogs that are dropping the shit right into the blades of the fan. I've been hurrying home from work to crack open a beer and read the latest revelations.

Remember the raids of the BC Legislature? Remember the sale of the BC Rail? Remember the Liberal promise of the 'most open and accountable government'? Well, the thieves with suits pushed the nerds with bleeding hearts and wishy washy ideas out of office with the promise of making us all rich except when they said all of us they actually meant a handful of them. Who wants to pay taxes when paying taxes means making four dozen guys rich so they can then skip town and leave unfunded the problems of homelessness, increased personal debt, terrible housing for low-income, a crumbling infrastructure in urban centres, disorganized medical care and overworked health care providers, etc, etc ad fucking nauseum? And when they skip town it'll be to Hawaii where they'll sit in their boxer shorts and black socks held up by garters while the catering staff prepare the appetizers and chill the wine for a soiree with the Archbishop and shallow talk of compassion and freedom (sure, the picture is a cheap shot but I wasn't able to spit on Mulroney before he left office so I'm piling it on Campbell - with apologies to his mom - a nice woman - and I'm not kidding about the catered evening either).

Click here to read and subscribe to Bill Tieleman. And click here to read and subscribe to Sean Holman.

And all you kids who just sit and whine...

xoxo

M