“F**k You Very Much, FCC”: Eric Idle

Radio

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Despairing for the state of radio, and a fan of Monty Python?
VanRamblings has just discovered this delightful little song by ex-Rutle, Eric Idle, the most musical of the Monty Python crew.
Needless to say (but we’ll say it anyway), VanRamblings is just thrilled that Eric has a message for the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (the U.S. equivalent of the CRTC), as well as Bush and Cheney.

“Here’s a little number I wrote while out duck hunting with a judge,” Idle announces, then croons in soft-shoe English music-hall mode: “Fuck you very much the FCC / Fuck you very much for fining me.”


After razzing U.S. corporate radio giant, Clear Channel, Idle flips off Condoleezza Rice the ‘intellectual tart’ and ‘Dickhead Mr. Cheney,’ rhymes ‘Bush’ with ‘tush’, and thanks all concerned for locking up ‘uppity rich bitch’ Martha Stewart instead of Enron and saving ‘the great white male’.
By VanRamblings’ calculations it would cost a radio station a mere $70,000.00 each time the song was played.
For background on the genesis of the song go to Wikipedia, which also provides the song lyrics.

New Downtown Stadium On Vancouver Waterfront On Its Way

Vancouver

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In an exclusive story published on CanuckSource.com, the site reports that Vancouver Whitecaps owner, Greg Kerfoot, “has completed the purchase of waterfront property just east of the downtown Seabus terminal for a 30,000 seat outdoor soccer stadium, expandable to 50,000 … with transit, Skytrain, the Seabus, the West Coast Express, and the new RAV line right on its doorstep … and within walking distance of dozens of pubs, restaurants and cafés, not to mention the expanded Trade and Convention Centre. A grass pitched stadium right by the ocean with mountain and skyline backdrops at the heart of downtown Vancouver.” Excitement is mounting already.
According to CanuckSource.com’s Kenneth Chan, the BC Lions “are being courted as potential co-tenants as BC Place’s days are numbered as it is rumoured that the stadium will likely be imploded after the Olympics for condos.” Activists may oppose construction of the new stadium given that the project borders the politically sensitive Downtown Eastside community.
Vancouver City Councillor, and Vision Vancouver mayoralty candidate, Jim Green, has reported that the Whitecaps have presented preliminary designs and a full development application to city planners for the Coal Harbour site. Mr. Green has not gone on record as stating whether he and his nascent political party support the construction of a harbourside sports facility.

A Sad Day for Canadian Sovereignty: Canada Now 51st U.S. State?
Marijuana Activist Marc Emery Nabbed By U.S. for Seed Sales

BC Politics

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On Friday July 29th, marijuana activist Marc Emery — the 47-year-old leader of the British Columbia Marijuana Party — was arrested in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on a U.S. indictment charging him with selling millions of dollars worth of marijuana seeds to customers throughout the United States.
Jennifer Garner, in an article titled Canada Now Officially 51st State, suggests that “the highest levels of the Canadian provincial and federal governments were involved in setting up the (US-authored Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters treaty between the US and Canada) investigation and raid, in the process raising obvious issues of Canadian sovereignty and revealing to Canadians in a very stark way that Canadian law enforcement can sometimes be a tool of US drug agents.”
Vancouver Police spokesperson Howard Chow admitted that Emery’s selling of marijuana seeds “is not enough” for him to have been arrested by Canadian authorities acting on their own, and confirmed that the arrests came solely as a consequence of DEA motivation and information.
Libby Davies, Vancouver East NDP Member of Parliament, stated that the arrests go against the views of most Canadians, who support decriminalization of marijuana and who had not demanded that Emery’s marijuana businesses be shut down.

“I think it’s very disturbing that the Vancouver police department is raiding a local business and arresting people for the U.S. war on drugs,” Davies told The Vancouver Sun. “It feels to me like the long arm of U.S. enforcement reaching into Canada.”


Here’s the video of the US DEA press conference. In this video, Halifax Police provide information on their role in the arrest. At BlogsCanada, Canadians have begun to express their alarm at Emery’s arrest, detention and possible extradition, taking the federal government to task — most pointedly federal two others are wanted in the United States to face charges of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, conspiracy to distribute seeds and conspiracy to engage in money laundering. Mr. Emery was in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, where he was scheduled to speak at a music festival that raises funds for the organization, Maritimers Unite for Medical Marijuana.
Mr. Emery spent Friday night in a Halifax holding cell, and was remanded to another correctional facility by midday Saturday, where he’ll remain pending arrangements to transfer him to British Columbia early this coming week.