There's No Whore Like An Elected Whore

And there's nothing to get those political streetwalkers fired up than the chance to stage a mega-event like the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games.   These professional harlots are masters at the art of the come-on and they know that lies don't matter once the cash changes hands.

So how did the Vancouver games fare?   What about that $10-billion windfall promised to the people of BC?  Well, according to The Tyee, we were had.

Vancouver Cops' New Drug Policy

I'm not sure this isn't merely a restatement of what has already become standard procedure but Vancouver police patrolling the city's troubled Downtown Eastside will no longer be arresting and charging druggies for simple possession. The policy is intended to free up officers for street duties. From the Vancouver Sun:

"We'll come across people all day long who have maybe a few rocks of cocaine in their pocket, or maybe a bit of methamphetamine, [for] personal use," said Const. Jana McGuinness. "Technically, yes, you could arrest and you could tie up two officers for four hours writing a report like that.
"That's where the discretion will be employed. Where they can, say, seize the drugs, get the drugs off the street and then go about their business of being out there stopping other crimes."

Less paperwork will mean more officers on the street to tackle street disorder, McGuinness said. The police business plan identifies a number of behaviours the force is trying to curb, including aggressive panhandling, squeegeeing, open-air drug markets, unlicensed street vending and sleeping in city parks.

It's curious there's no mention of street prostitution. Obviously Vancouver is trying to clean up its streets before the tourists arrive for the 2010 Olympics

The Rocky Road to 2010

Tuesday night's massive rockslide near Porteau Cove is a timely reminder of the endless problems associated with British Columbia's "Sea to Sky" highway, the road that will serve as the transport artery for the 2010 Olympic games in Whistler.

Scratch a roadway and rail bed out of the side of a mountain and you can expect problems like this. And they're nothing new either. This is one treacherous stretch of highway and it's been that way since it was built. The main culprits have been falling rocks and washouts. Add to that the inevitable mix of drunk, reckless or incompetent motorists and you've got endless fodder for the local papers.

The BC government, "Liberal" in name only, has been busy choking off essential services (closing hospital beds, etc.) while ponying up $600-million (critics claim it'll be more than $800-million) for improvements to the Olympic roadway. Now this.

It's not that the rockslide created an insurmountable problem. The whole thing is expected to be cleared within five days. The problem is that this slide has put the provincial government behind an 8-ball. Now it has to survey the entire route, searching for and fixing potential flaws. That could become an enormous expense that would swell the already engorged Sea to Sky budget.

Oh dear. You can almost hear those hospital doors slamming shut.