-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.12/pageone.html <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.12/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times - Volume 3 Issue 12</A> ----- The Laissez Faire City Times March 22, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 12 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Art of Tyranny by Peter Topolewski Though the transgressions stare us in the face from the TV everyday, we in the Western world�mired in leisure activity and the merry-go-round of work�casually assume that holy democracy is as given and as sure as the sun rising each day. Hardly. Democracy is a precious thing, and its survival demands our vigilance and our unyielding participation�for democracy is apt to be tread upon by any politician given a whiff of power and the opportunity to grab more of it. Such power plays are of course as old as rulers themselves, but as we toot the horns of our increasingly refined world, we�ve convinced ourselves that power for power�s sake is a barbaric and appropriately extinct goal among our politicians. Not so, and ironically�in this most sophisticated society�the politicians� tools have become more child-like. Rhetoric is passe, blackmail too tricky, force too messy. To secure control today the weapon of choice must be more insulting, more effective, and more dangerous: it is the pure unadulterated lie, the in-your-face delusional lie, to stand before voters on a sunny day and call it night; to hell with proof, there is no such thing as proof. To argue with a politician is to argue with a stone. Clinton has the technique nailed. And in British Columbia (BC) we have our own little tyrant, a premier who, though his fiefdom measures but a fraction of Clinton�s, can certainly match the president�s brazen and menacing bullshit for quality. His name is Glen Clark. Those most offended by his rule have just recently hung over his head the threat of "recalling" his government, a unique process by which he and the members of his government would be removed from office for failing to fulfill their duties. The voters mobilizing to recall Clark�s government count among his party�s offenses: �8 consecutive budget deficits. These date from BC�s days of coveted prosperity and include Clark�s first budget as premier, one he labeled "balanced" by way of an election promise. In the red ink aftermath he claims his government had "been mislead." They are currently facing a lawsuit for this lie. �A cozy agreement with labor unions that created a government force of unionized construction workers to be employed on all government construction projects over $50 million. Unions happen to be Clark�s biggest (and now only) supporters. �Negotiating an irreversible and possibly unconstitutional native land treaty without public consultation. �Handing nearly $400 million to the most inefficient pulp mill in the province to save a spate of jobs for recalcitrant union workers. �Fast tracking a $1.5 billion rapid transit system without public consultation. By circumventing the decision process, Clark has unfettered the project of any proper financial scrutiny and has okayed construction to begin with incomplete building plans, his recipe for bringing projects in on budget. His love of attention and disdain for rules led to the resignation en masse of the project�s blue-ribbon panel of business advisors. �Most recently a $450 million union job-creation scheme aimed to resurrect a long dead ship building industry. Three years overdue and taxpayers can lay claim to one floating hull, which is likely to be as close to sea worthy as this project ever gets. Throw in charges of stealing from a charity bingo and forcing his government owned slot machines upon municipalities like some mob wannabes, and not only is the impetus of the recall movement brilliantly clear, but so is the outcome. Or so we thought. The recall militants, however, are not likely to get their much-deserved chance to bag the premier. The problem is that in last two weeks he�s come under a whole new siege. Police raided Clark�s house while investigating a friend and neighbor who was awarded a provincial license for a charity gaming casino despite complete municipal opposition to the site and the operation. This friend and neighbor�who completed an $11,000 renovation on Clark�s house, and with whom Clark vacationed last summer�is linked to an illegal gambling den, strip joints, and Internet porn and gambling. He is, in other words, precisely the man a sane society would choose to run a provincially licensed charity casino. In the days since the unprecedented police raid, Clark has lived and breathed one unbroken strategy of bald-faced lies. At the public expense he hired Vancouver�s most prominent criminal lawyer, the kind we tell mean-spirited jokes about while only half kidding. When asked who gets the legal bill, the lawyer spit, "That�s none of your business," as though we�re out of our minds wondering what he or anyone else is doing with our money. Zero accountability: right out of Clark�s lexicon. With his impudent lawyer�s assistance, Clark moved to keep the search warrant for his house sealed from his employers (the public), and proceeded to make an uncharacteristically tame statement about his relationship with his entrepreneurial neighbor, calmly lying that they knew each other strictly as acquaintances whose children play together. With the technicalities out of the way, Clark moved on to trample democracy. He began by suggesting that the media (who were on hand to film the police raid of his house) were themselves now under investigation for breaking privacy laws. Judicial authorities swiftly and unequivocally condemned his consummate disregard for the separate roles of government: only the police can initiate such an investigation, and while Clark can formally request the police look into it, the decision remains with them. There is no such investigation. Not surprisingly, calls for his resignation grew louder. In the midst of all this, Clark gathered his party to learn where they stood on his leadership. After giving the opening nod to a lackey who had likened Clark�s persecution in the media to Jesus� trial, there was no mistaking that the entire meeting had been carefully orchestrated. The only opinions Clark heard through the rest of the meeting were the ones he had given his minions to speak. With the leadership debate over, Clark moved on to what he called the "business of governmen." The people of British Columbia have learned that for Clark the "business of government" is anything that will, in his mind, help him hold onto his corrupting and corrupted power. During the last week he has demonstrated his command of the new art of tyranny. It began when his government quietly ran out of money. With the end of the fiscal year three weeks away, his government promptly issued $170 million in special warrants�special permission to keep spending money without the approval of the legislature. This $170 million will be added to the $95 million budget deficit his government produced this year, and overall will contribute handsomely to a provincial debt now running at $31.2 billion. In 1991, when Clark was a member of the opposition party, he claimed that the then government�s use of special warrant spending "undermines the very democracy that we are here to uphold". In 1996 the auditor general agreed, attacking special warrants and stating outright that approval by the legislature of government spending is one of the fundamental cornerstones of parliamentary democracy. It surely is, and so it comes as no surprise that since becoming premier in 1996 the little tyrant Clark has wracked up $6 billion in special warrant spending, the most in BC history. The spending continues. Everyday in recent weeks Clark and his gang have announced new plans, among them a union-run bridge expansion project financed with 74 million borrowed dollars, and a commitment for the open-ended financing of a new convention center in Vancouver. The construction plans aren�t in, but Clark has given the go ahead for the money. It�s that easy when every morning you can get out of bed and decide what color the sky will be that day. It�s no more than a matter of telling your poor subjects. -30- from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 12, March 22, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc. Copyright 1998 - Trademark Registered with LFC Public Registrar All Rights Reserved Disclaimer The Laissez Faire City Times is a private newspaper. Although it is published by a corporation domiciled within the sovereign domain of Laissez Faire City, it is not an "official organ" of the city or its founding trust. Just as the New York Times is unaffiliated with the city of New York, the City Times is only one of what may be several news publications located in, or domiciled at, Laissez Faire City proper. For information about LFC, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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