Bribing public officials isn’t unique to Chicago, Washington DC or even this country. Canadian officials are down for a little quid pro quo although their demands are uniquely America Jr.

Montreal is caught up in the rapture of the Charbonneau corruption inquiry. It’s got everything you would want. Bribery, mafia involvement, bid rigging, price fixing and free hockey tickets.

A half-dozen employees from the city’s engineering department have testified and every single one of them has admitted to taking free hockey tickets whenever they could get them.

They were wined, dined and bribed by construction bosses. Some took gifts ranging from golf vacations to free home renovations. Some accepted money, some said they refused it. One witness said he drew the line at prostitutes and declined to accept the paid company of young women.

But nobody said no to Habs games — the hottest ticket in a hockey-mad town.

Imagine if Richard Daley could have bought off Chicago aldermen with nothing but Blackhawk tickets. Flying cars and moving sidewalks everywhere. A Kuma’s and Tuman’s Alcohol Abuse Center on every corner.

Habs tickets are serious business in Montreal. Individual tickets can go for almost $100 before they hit the resale market. Once they do, forget about it unless you work for the city of Montreal.

Some Montreal municipal employees managed to get tickets for $0.

In exchange, they did a few favours for construction bosses.

Some allegedly doctored work plans, approved false expenses, or shared inside information that ensured certain companies won bids and subsequently inflated the price of a project.

Their work helped businessmen set up a construction cartel in the city, in which a small cabal rigged bids and overcharged for public works. Under that system, illicit profits were divvied up between companies, municipal officials, political parties, and the Italian Mafia.

In at least one case, the hockey tickets appeared to have been as coveted as a bribe.

Taking Habs tickets in return for favors was “standard procedure”.

Hockey tickets also work as currency at the national level. Ottawa is flush with lobbyists handing out Senators tickets like hot cakes. One can only hope they’re more discreet and have a little more pride than Mayor Adrian Fenty and the DC City Council members who fought over Nationals tickets like children. That’s nothing new to DC residents.

Then there was the recent report of a Canadian diplomat charging taxpayers $10,000 to host business officials in a private box at a game in Pittsburgh — a practice that Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird ordered stopped.

Forget international fact-finding junkets to exotic locales. We goin’ to Pittsburgh to see the Pens and get some Primanti Bros. for the drive back to Ottawa! Saku Koivu! That’s what I’m talkin’ aboot!

It’s good to see the Canadians aren’t letting a little inquiry get in the way of business as usual. The Star reports that the Montreal City Council is still awarding contracts to construction firms that are still under investigation. Keep it réel, Habs.

Just wait until J.R. Smith T’s up Joey Crawford. It only a matter of when.

“Now that is a disgusting act by Randy Moss.” Who can forget where they were when Joe Buck expressed the disgust of a nation after Randy Moss pretended to moon Packers fans? Won’t someone please think about the children? Imagine his reaction upon seeing Mirko Vucinic strip off his shorts and wave them over his head like a lasso.

What is it with people thinking video needs crap music instead of the original sound? Too bad Vucinic doesn’t play for Lazio. The poster could have put his goal celebration to “Accidental Racist“.

Picture: Yahoo! Eurosport Blog

See what I did there? All day.

Aww look at that little guy swing from a helicopter and slide down the side of a building! Hey that little girl singing at the Olympics is so cute! Slow your roll and have a seat. Remember where you were when you found out Santa Claus wasn’t real or Stefan Urquel and Steve Urkel were the same person? This is worse.

Little did we know that Jackie Chan and Lin Miaoke are nothing but puppets of an evil regime hellbent on killing every tasty animal in the world. Miaoke, best known for lip-syncing for another girl who was deemed to ugly to show in public, went on Chinese social media site Weibao to espouse the benefits of state censorship.

We make our home here [at Weibo] and should be protected by Sina. The type of speech that is harmful to people’s physical and mental health should be eradicated. Such speech should not be allowed to exist on the Internet and pollute the air on the Internet. Sina, you can do it.

People were somewhat surprised to hear Miaoke tow the official party line. However endorsement of state censorship is old hat to Chan. It was only last December that Chan said, “There should be regulations on what can and cannot be protested.”

All hell broke loose in 2009 when the action star went even further and stated that Chinese people needed to be controlled.

“I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not,” the 55-year-old action superstar told delegates when pressed by fellow panel members to give his views on China’s rigorous controls on the media and restrictions on film-makers.

“I’m really confused now. If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic.

“I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled,” he continued. “If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.”

The Communist Party approved Chan’s comments while legislators and fans in his native Hong Kong lost their minds. Oh he also isn’t a big fan of the United States either.

Shanghaiist wonders why anyone should care about what a 13 year old says about anything. We probably shouldn’t. At the end of the day, Miaoke is a prop used by the Chinese government to disseminate propaganda. It’s more palatable to hear official views coming from movie stars and “singers” than directly from the source. However it comes at the cost of decreased credibility with fans and apparently declining talent when it comes to making movies if the last couple of Jackie Chan stinkers are anything to go by. Who knows how much, if any, credibility Miaoke has with the public. It’s well known that she didn’t sing live at the Olympics. Needless to say, we have not and will not be following her career or lack of one. We have plenty of child celebrities who are way more interesting here (read: batshit crazy, high and drunk).