The Blanche Report: The Elusive Man , The Weed Man & The Strike

About 25 years ago there was a great video game called Where in the World is Carmen San Diego. The rules were simple:  Via clues that had to do with different countries, one had determine which city or country Carmen San Diego was in. Well, for the past few days the entire world is playing the newest version of that game. It’s called Where in the World is Edward Snowden.

As of today, Vladimir Putin said that Snowden is still in the transit zone in the Moscow airport. Putin is making minced meat out of Obama and his administration and probably enjoying every second of it. The US wants him back so badly they are foaming at the mouth. Putin calmly told the United States, and we quote: …”Snowden committed no crime in Russia. He has not crossed into a part of the airport that requires him to show his passport to Russian authorities. Because Russia does not have an extradition agreement with the United States,  Snowden will not be extradited as the United States has requested.” Case closed. Over and out.

Embarrassing, n’est pas?

Montreal has another mayor. His name is Laurent Blanchard. Given his name, we would venture a guess that he’s not Jewish and not Anglo. He was president of the city council’s executive committee since November. Not much else to say except that he says he’s clean. Next. Part of the construction strike was settled yesterday, but the bulk of the workers are not going back to work before next week at the earliest. Construction workers on residential job sites across Quebec will be back at work on Wednesday.  Yesterday 45,000 workers from the civil engineering and roads sector reached an agreement. We saved the best part of this story for last.

First of all, the princess is going out of town for a few days so you can be sure nothing will happen until she returns. Then one of her missives, minister for economic development Elaine Zakaïb got her knickers in a uproar when refuting the opposition’s statement that this strike is costing the Quebec economy $1 billion a week. Instead of replying to the question with something relatively intelligent, she said the following: The government has no assessment of how much the on-going construction strike may be costing the Quebec economy. “We have no evaluation. It’s certain that there’s an impact and the economic cost will be calculated when the dispute has been settled.” Yes Blanche, she is one of the geniuses running this province.

Anthony Weiner is in the lead for the mayoralty race in New York.  Imagine – Mayor Weiner. Maybe don’t imagine…

Hold onto your seat for this one. Although Hilary Clinton has refused to say if she’s running for president in 2016, the ‘Ready for Hilary’ unofficial super-Pac has already launched. In case you forgot what a super-pac is, we will remind you: It is a political action committee that is allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions, individuals and associations. The key word in that definition is ‘unlimited’.

The group opened an online store featuring T-shirts and buttons emblazoned with Clinton’s face and the word “Ready” in block letters. The group is also selling other merchandise, ranging from hats to stickers to iPhone buttons, with its logo. We hope they used a good picture of her. Let the games begin.

Aerialist and daredevil Nik Wallenda of the flying Wallenda family, successfully walked across the Grand Canyon on Sunday night – sans harness. Since Sunday he obviously has had nothing to do, so he thought of another insane feat to accomplish: Walk between the Chrysler and Empire State buildings in New York city. Mercifully, police commissioner Ray Kelly told him to either go fly a kite or find another city for his wares.

Yesterday in Times Square there was a clash between the Weed Man and the Beer Man.

The weed man walks around with a cardboard box on his head and a sign over his chest that said: “I am the weed man. I’m too sexy for you to see me.” The beer man carries a sign requesting “spare change for pot, pizza and beer.” Seems these two dudes got into some kind of scuffle that got the attention of the press and the story wound up on the front page of the New York Times. Only in America.

We’ll talk…