Don’t we all. Via The Hook: A candidate trying to win a BC Liberal nomination in Kelowna is frustrated that his party doesn’t want him to debate his opponents. Jack Pinder, a businessman and consultant who is in a three-way race for the Liberal nomination in the riding of Kelowna-Mission, is adamant on the need for an all-candidates debate. “It’s a normal process to allow people to measure and get to know the (candidates),” he said. “All I want to do is have a normal, democratic process.” But

President Barack Obama today formally declared August next year to be the end date for America’s long, bloody and costly war in Iraq. Fulfilling a campaign pledge to bring US troops home, he said the combat mission would be completed by then, with the bulk of US troops out, with the remainder leaving by the end of 2011. In an emotional speech in front of 8,000 marines at their base in Fort Lejeune, North Carolina – many about to head to Afghanistan – Obama recalled the cost of the war in terms n

Greater Vancouver Crime Stoppers is a non profit community based crime solving program working in conjunction with the police, the media and the public to help make your community a safer place in which to live. Perpetrators of gang violence, purse snatching and armed holdups are shown clearly alongside victims and witnesses whose identities has been blurred. What makes Crime Stoppers unique is that tipsters do not have to give their name or testify in court. There is no call display operatin

Max is telling us to hunker down for a long campaign between the top 6 finishers at CPAC: The early polling indicates a 6-way race between Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul( or due to his age, someone similar carrying the banner for libertarians). He suggests others may join. The big problem here is that the CPAC strawpoll is pretty well worthless as a predictor of electoral fortunes or even top candidates. The poll makes no sense when c

Green Party candidate for the Taipei City No. 6 District by-election, Calvin Wen (溫炳原), spent 26 hours in a camphor tree on the site of the Old Songshan Tobacco Factory (松山菸廠) in Taipei to protest and prevent its removal. The protest began on Friday afternoon as Green Party Taiwan members discovered the last tree was about to be removed. Calvin was able to climb the tree with assistance from several other Green Party members who were  then removed from the site by police. An agreement wa

Winner of the week: State Rep. Dean Cannon: The Winter Park Republican this week will be installed as the Republican speaker designate for 2010-2012. He’ll likely be grappling with continuing budget woes, but he’ll also be top dog during the redistricting process where Florida is expected to gain one or two congressional seats. If Cannon wants a congressional seat carved for him, he’ll probably get it. Loser of the week: Adam Hasner: Florida is mired in the worst economic crisis in modern hi

Flow My Tears is one of PKD’s most decorated works.  PKD struggled to receive recognition from the mainstream literary society.  Outside of The Man in the High Castle, PKD received very little critical acclaim.  He blamed this on mainstream literary’s view of science-fiction as something for juveniles that was little more than space opera.  Flow My Tears, however, received the John W. Campbell Award for the best science fiction novel of the year and was also nominated for a Hugo and Nebula Awa

When I was a kid Smokey Bear was a big deal.  I even saw the real McCoy at the zoo in Washington, DC where I grew up.  The advertising campaign for Smokey Bearusually had him running like hell to get away from a raging inferno, with the announcer voicing over, “Only YOU can prevent forest fires.” Well…the same deal applies here.  Only YOU can save this member in distress.  Only YOU.  The story you are about to read is heartbreaking.  For me it is a chilling reminder of the same thing happeni

You Shouldn’t Have to Sell Your Soul Just to Download Some Music : Cory Doctorow/ Guardian UK “Here’s the world’s shortest, fairest, and simplest licence agreement: “Don’t violate copyright law.” If I had my way, every digital download from the music in the iTunes and Amazon MP3 store, to the ebooks for the Kindle and Sony Reader, to the games for your Xbox , would bear this – and only this – as its licence agreement. “Don’t violate copyright law” has a lot going for it, but the be

Maryland’s highest court has ruled in favor of Internet anonymity, saying Web sites involved in defamation suits don’t have to reveal the identity of readers who post comments on their site. The ruling Friday by the Maryland Court of Appeals reversed a lower-court decision and said NewsZap.com, an online forum run by Independent Newspapers Inc., doesn’t have to disclose the identities of participants in a 2006 online exchange about the cleanliness of a Dunkin’ Donuts shop in Centreville, Md.