The much ballyhooed Secret Mulroney Tapes aired on the CBC Monday night and you know it’s not your normal Canadian documentary when you get the warning ”This Program contains coarse language, viewer discretion is advised”, it was a warning that appeared after each commercial break over the 104 minutes of the documentary.
With a musical score by Bruce Fowler that leaned heavily on ominous synthesizers and reminded one of such television fare as Miami Vice; or the movies Manhunter or Midnight Express, the illusion of great tension was kept alive throughout the program.
For those wishing to keep score at home, here is the scorecard of Mulroney’s verbal vulgarisms; one assumes he’s been to the parish priest for confession more than a few times in the last twenty years.
Number of times he barked out a God Damn – 17
Number of times he used the term Bastards-- 2
Number of variations on the word shit
(Horse shit, Bull shit or just plain shit)-------- 6
Using the F*&$ word for full effect---- 3
Number of times he said Jesus or Jesus Christ—8
If nothing else he seems to be fond of God and his only begotten son’s name, just not in the best use of those names.
Total number of obscenities 36! This works out to 1 obscenity for every 2.8 minutes of programming.
But if you could get beyond the shock of hearing a former Prime Minister sounding like the local guy on the docks, there was a world of interesting material in the CBCs’ Passionate Eye special.
Taken from the tapes of Peter C. Newman’s recent book, the documentary presented a picture of a Prime Minister so obsessed with his image and his place in history that he failed to take any responsibility for any of his own shortcomings.
This was a two hour expression of cattiness, cheap shots, bold faced bitchiness and a tinge of vindictiveness.
Mulroney was portrayed as a guy fixated on the media and its impression of him; he referred to the press as practitioners of mediocrity. He would express disgust and contempt for many of the major media figures of the time. Outlining how he frequently had to go above or around the media to get his messages out to the public. Mulroney was convinced that there was a whole cadre of journalists just in the game to get him. He seemed to smell conspiracy with the approach of every journalist in Ottawa, a town of which he said was crawling with an incestuous media with their own agenda.
He goes over his days of sharing the world stage with Ronald Reagan, expressing a rather steep sense of delusion over his importance with the American President. True he did seem to have a great personal relationship with Reagan, but as far as foreign polciy went, the Americans were just glad to have someone more onside with their beliefs. Iin the end American interests were much more global, than just that nation above the 49th.
There were clips of the much vaunted “Shamrock Summit’ of Quebec City held early on in the Mulroney years, the beginning of closer ties with the USA. With a musical score and visual images out of a Lawrence Welk episode it had a surreal quality in review, as the Prime Minister took the microphone to serenade his new best friend with a chorus of when Irish eyes are smiling. It of course was an image that gave many a journalist, satirist and editorial cartoonist a free reign to make mischief.
If as Mulroney believes, it was a period of time which the media tried to paint him as being in servility to Reagan, he really had no one to blame but himself. His whole agenda was to create closer economic ties to the United States, even if the country seemed rather split on the idea at the time. Surely even he must have realized that there was going to be some press coverage that did not fall into lock step with the Mulroney camp.
Using his chats with Newman (who comes across as rather sycophantic in his dealings with the former PM), he continually reinforces the importance of these sessions that he and Newman share together. Newman in fact seems to relish in the impression that he is perhaps the Prime Ministers' closest confidant at times,(or as Newman self describes himself, I was “Mulroney’s Pet Journalist”) in one memorable exchange Newman is found urging Mulroney to distance himself from Joe Clark and effectively hang Clark out to dry. Newman apparently became not so much a journalist, but apparently someone so close to a Prime Minister that he felt comfortable in making policy and internal discipline suggestions. Another telling moment is when Mulroney cautions Newman that thses conversatons are "just between us" and as things would turn out about 30 million other Canadians!
But it was his impressions of the other public figures of the day that served up the most contemptuous of statements. Mulroney seems dismissive of pretty well every other political leader of the day, no one apparently equal to his brilliance as a Canadian leader.
On John Turner he’s almost patronizing, saying how he feels sorry for Turner who in Mulroney’s impression had become nothing but a broken down and beaten man. Sharing an inside story on how Turner was making the rounds looking for corporate work but was having no luck, something that didn’t surprise Mulroney at all. At one point, Mulroney trots out some internal poll that shows of 17 key points of leadership, he trounced Turner on all 17. In the end he dismisses Turner as a shell of a man, stepped in bitterness and malice. An interesting observation, considering that by the end of the documentary one might say the same thing about Mulroney.
Betrayal was another one of the themes that would re-occur in the documentary, the betrayal of Clyde Wells on Meech Lake ; Mulroney denigrates Wells education suggesting that a simple tax lawyer from Corner Brook surely could not have the necessary intelligence to see the big picture of Constitutional studies. With Wells stand on Meech Lake part of the end of that Constitutional battle, Mulroney lashed out at the Newfoundland Prime Minister as well as former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Trudeau was in Mulroney’s mind, so jealous of the Conservative Prime Ministers success that he purposely had the Meech Accord scuttled, and then went to work on the Charlottetown Accord. Mulroney proclaiming that it was Trudeau that ruined this country and it was up to me to save it again. He seems to frequently take on the role of the great knight battling the forces of darkness.
He’s equally dismissive of Jean Chretien, a man that Mulroney seems to have little good to say. His demeaning language about the successor to Turner shows a certain amount of snootiness that seems steeped in the old Westmount traditions, rather than the streets of Baie Comeau that Mulroney frequently rattled on about. Mulroney shrugs off any importance of Chretien by suggesting that he’s not a well read man. Barely able to get through the Montreal Gazette, said Mulroney, “I’ll bet you the man has not read a book in twenty years”. We’ll hazard a guess that he’s read at least one book in the last three months!
But if you want to hear the pain of betrayal, it was the era of the ugly split with Lucien Bouchard that brings out some of the pain of the Mulroney years. In this section of the show he seemed to wear his emotions on his sleeve as he expressed the hurt of having a close friend betray him in such a public fashion.
The program ends with a look at the most disastrous election campaign of Kim Campbell, a person that Mulroney claims threw the election away. Suggesting that even at his worst John Turner was a more competent campaigner (about the only nice thing that Mulroney had to say about Turner) than Mulroney’s successor. Mulroney was shocked that she distanced herself from his legacy and ran her campaign without mentioning his record or achievements while in office, in the end he feels this is what cost her the election. When he describes her as vain and arrogant, well, geez are we the pot calling the kettle black here, the viewer wonders.
It was a most fascinating glimpse inside the deepest thoughts of a political leader in Canada, an expose full of rudeness, vulgarity and steeped of vanity to make one wonder what power does to those we send to elected office.
While he would frequently proclaim a God Damn during his screeds, Mulroney curiously would also offer up a God Bless to Newman, at the end of many of those same conversations, making for a strange combination of rudeness and reverence.
In the end we are left to wonder if power truly turns our leaders into bitter individuals, steeped in venom and self-importance? If this is the norm rather than the exception, then all we can say is God Help Us!
Update: Sean at seanincognito has an interesting take on the story from the point of view of Peter Newman's side of the screen, well worth the read to see the machinations of the reporting class.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Rick Mercer, photo shop fanatic!
Rick Mercer's blog has some pretty good submissions from fans of the Rick Mercer Report, on his TV show he asks viewers to take a photo from his blog and let their imaginations run wild.
This week, it was the mighty little guy from the Shawinigan himself, Jean Chretien who got the Mercer Report Photo challenge and healthy helping of photo shop treatment.
Check things out for a couple of chuckles!
This week, it was the mighty little guy from the Shawinigan himself, Jean Chretien who got the Mercer Report Photo challenge and healthy helping of photo shop treatment.
Check things out for a couple of chuckles!
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Brian Mulroney, unplugged!
The CBC will once again poke that media stick into the eyes of Brian Mulroney, as the Mother Corp airs an interesting documentary Monday night at 8 pm on the main network. The program is based on Peter C. Newman’s book; The Secret Mulroney Tapes. Part of the Passionate Eye series, the documentary will show a rather passionate and occasionally profane Mulroney as he chatted with Newman about the events of the day during his time as Prime Minister.
The course of the evening’s show will feature, Mulroney in his own words expressing his contempt at some and delight with others and features that Irish bluster of his that made him fodder for satirical magazines and television shows for years.
The main target of most of Mulroney’s most vociferous venom is none other than the press, with special attention paid to the CBC. This should make the show Must See TV at the CBC, as layers and layers of bureaucrats secretly hope they’ll be called an asshole or something much worse.
There’s a small preview of the program’s highlights in the Globe and Mail, another part of the media that frequently found itself on the Mulroney dirt list. The Globe interviews the director of the Tapes, Mike Sherrin who poured over nine years of taped material to put together the overview of the Mulroney Tapes.
From Ronald Reagan to Lucien Bouchard, John Turner to Pierre Trudeau, Mulroney had comments for all and didn’t hold back with his thoughts. The documentary also explores the rather unusual relationship between Mulroney and Newman, sometimes appearing to cross the lines between journalist and subject and turning more towards confidant at times. Regardless, with it all on tape, we’ll get to make our own decisions about who was using whom in that relationship.
Mulroney was reportedly devastated that his most innermost thoughts had been turned into a book, one which seems to have made Newman a fair amount of money. One wonders what he will think of becoming a prime time attraction on the CBC!
The course of the evening’s show will feature, Mulroney in his own words expressing his contempt at some and delight with others and features that Irish bluster of his that made him fodder for satirical magazines and television shows for years.
The main target of most of Mulroney’s most vociferous venom is none other than the press, with special attention paid to the CBC. This should make the show Must See TV at the CBC, as layers and layers of bureaucrats secretly hope they’ll be called an asshole or something much worse.
There’s a small preview of the program’s highlights in the Globe and Mail, another part of the media that frequently found itself on the Mulroney dirt list. The Globe interviews the director of the Tapes, Mike Sherrin who poured over nine years of taped material to put together the overview of the Mulroney Tapes.
From Ronald Reagan to Lucien Bouchard, John Turner to Pierre Trudeau, Mulroney had comments for all and didn’t hold back with his thoughts. The documentary also explores the rather unusual relationship between Mulroney and Newman, sometimes appearing to cross the lines between journalist and subject and turning more towards confidant at times. Regardless, with it all on tape, we’ll get to make our own decisions about who was using whom in that relationship.
Mulroney was reportedly devastated that his most innermost thoughts had been turned into a book, one which seems to have made Newman a fair amount of money. One wonders what he will think of becoming a prime time attraction on the CBC!
No More Mighty Lions Roar, Get Your Grey Cup tickets at the door!
We can here the cry up Robson Street and down Granville right now, Tickets; Tickets get your tickets…….Please!
After a season which started full of promise, the BC Lions 2005 campaign came to a sudden and unexpected end. The Leos came out flat in the first half of their Western Conference Final against the Edmonton Eskimos, taking too many penalties and giving away too many footballs at key points of the game. That combined with yet another unscheduled relief performance by Eskie Jason Maas, led the Eskimos to a 28-23 victory over the Defending Western Champions. A loss that sent thousands of Leo’s fans home to vent, many of whom called up the post game shows to suggest some changes are needed in the Lions den.
The quarterback controversy that has dogged this team since the start of the season, played out probably its final act on Sunday afternoon at BC Place. As Wally Buono turned the ball over to Casey Printers late in the fourth quarter hoping the spark would lead to a last minute comeback and a chance to star in their own homefiled Grey Cup game. But in the end it wasn’t meant to be, some last second excitement only served to bring the fans up high, only to drop them down hard by the games completion.
The final minutes of play were as exciting as a CFL game can give you, but like many a CFL game calls by the officiating crew were a tad hard to follow. A drive by the Leos, was kept alive on a pass interference call as time ticked down, but another play which featured a pass route diversion by a hit was left as is, running out the clock and the Lions season. Consistency never seems to be gold standard in CFL officiating at times.
Regardless, the Lions have no one to blame but themselves for their predicament. They never seemed to get untracked until the mid part of the second quarter, falling behind by a score of 21- 3 and then coming back to tie the game at 21 before falling behind for good. Dickenson analyzed his game in the dressing afterwards and declared that the effort was not his best game, and how you want to perform in the big games and he didn’t get the job done.
An emotional Casey Printers proclaimed how he gave it all for this club this year and was quite frustrated at not being able to pull the Western Final out of the fire. The timing of his insertion into the game will be the thing of debate for much of the off season, at least until either he or Dickenson find themselves with a new home in 2006. The uncomfortable situation between the two determined quarterbacks seemed to sap this team of its energy as the season went along, culminating in last gasp grab for the home playoff date, only to lose that advantage by half time, leaving the team to scramble to keep things hopeful til the end.
For Vancouver itself, a Lion less Grey Cup might put a bit of a damper on many of the Grey Cup activities, as the normally fickle Lions fans lose their zeal to Party on the Pacific. A smart Edmonton football fan is already placing his or her ad in the Vancouver Sun or Province for Monday morning. The game already announced as a sell out may find some serious re-allocation of football colours in the stands by next Sunday.
The Orange and Black sweaters, flags and fingers will be making way for the Green and Gold of the Eskimos, with a smaller section of red white and Blue Alouette material.
It’s not the way it was supposed to be this Grey Cup Week, in Bob Ackles and Wally Buono’s world this was the week to climb that final mountain and claim the Grey Cup in their home city.
Instead, the Eskimos and Als will battle it out on the field, while the Lions clean it out in the dressing room!
The above posting first appeared in my Twelve Men on the Field blog, a spot I occassionally recount Canadian Football items. Check it out and see if I've become more dedicated in the last few weeks!
After a season which started full of promise, the BC Lions 2005 campaign came to a sudden and unexpected end. The Leos came out flat in the first half of their Western Conference Final against the Edmonton Eskimos, taking too many penalties and giving away too many footballs at key points of the game. That combined with yet another unscheduled relief performance by Eskie Jason Maas, led the Eskimos to a 28-23 victory over the Defending Western Champions. A loss that sent thousands of Leo’s fans home to vent, many of whom called up the post game shows to suggest some changes are needed in the Lions den.
The quarterback controversy that has dogged this team since the start of the season, played out probably its final act on Sunday afternoon at BC Place. As Wally Buono turned the ball over to Casey Printers late in the fourth quarter hoping the spark would lead to a last minute comeback and a chance to star in their own homefiled Grey Cup game. But in the end it wasn’t meant to be, some last second excitement only served to bring the fans up high, only to drop them down hard by the games completion.
The final minutes of play were as exciting as a CFL game can give you, but like many a CFL game calls by the officiating crew were a tad hard to follow. A drive by the Leos, was kept alive on a pass interference call as time ticked down, but another play which featured a pass route diversion by a hit was left as is, running out the clock and the Lions season. Consistency never seems to be gold standard in CFL officiating at times.
Regardless, the Lions have no one to blame but themselves for their predicament. They never seemed to get untracked until the mid part of the second quarter, falling behind by a score of 21- 3 and then coming back to tie the game at 21 before falling behind for good. Dickenson analyzed his game in the dressing afterwards and declared that the effort was not his best game, and how you want to perform in the big games and he didn’t get the job done.
An emotional Casey Printers proclaimed how he gave it all for this club this year and was quite frustrated at not being able to pull the Western Final out of the fire. The timing of his insertion into the game will be the thing of debate for much of the off season, at least until either he or Dickenson find themselves with a new home in 2006. The uncomfortable situation between the two determined quarterbacks seemed to sap this team of its energy as the season went along, culminating in last gasp grab for the home playoff date, only to lose that advantage by half time, leaving the team to scramble to keep things hopeful til the end.
For Vancouver itself, a Lion less Grey Cup might put a bit of a damper on many of the Grey Cup activities, as the normally fickle Lions fans lose their zeal to Party on the Pacific. A smart Edmonton football fan is already placing his or her ad in the Vancouver Sun or Province for Monday morning. The game already announced as a sell out may find some serious re-allocation of football colours in the stands by next Sunday.
The Orange and Black sweaters, flags and fingers will be making way for the Green and Gold of the Eskimos, with a smaller section of red white and Blue Alouette material.
It’s not the way it was supposed to be this Grey Cup Week, in Bob Ackles and Wally Buono’s world this was the week to climb that final mountain and claim the Grey Cup in their home city.
Instead, the Eskimos and Als will battle it out on the field, while the Lions clean it out in the dressing room!
The above posting first appeared in my Twelve Men on the Field blog, a spot I occassionally recount Canadian Football items. Check it out and see if I've become more dedicated in the last few weeks!
Was It a Big Box Blunder?
No contest, that sums up the Mayoralty campaign for Podunk for 2005. Herb Pond took an early lead in the counting on Saturday night and never looked back, as Podunkians chose to stay the course that Herb has laid out for them over the last three years. The competition for mayor, which at times threatened to deteriorate into a bout of partisanship not seen in Podunk for years, became a tad underwhelming by the time the votes were counted. There was no mass migration of voters away from Pond’s message of continuity at City Council, his wish to keep his team together was for the most part, granted by the voters of Podunk
Pond easily turned aside the challenge from Gloria Rendell, winning the Mayoralty with a comfortable 2,684 vote margin. The final tallies gave Herb Pond 3,377 votes and Gloria Rendell 693. The margin surely a sign that the people of Podunk had not been convinced that all was as dire as Ms. Rendell had portrayed at the all candidates meeting, preferring to accept the Mayor’s cautious optimism that the worst was past, over Rendells’ worries that worst may be yet to come.
His advertising blitz of Friday promised a Yes to development and A Yes to shopping choice. And if the Rendell camp wishes to look for one issue that perhaps harmed their chances the most, it might very well have been the shopping options for Podunkians. Never mind fiscal responsibility and infrastructure degradation, Podunkians as many on the hackingthemainframe forums would say, apparently want their big box stores and woe be the politician to stand in the way.
As reported in our Podunk debate posting, the challenger did not exactly come out strongly in favour of welcoming the big box stores into the community, a stand that gave the Mayor an opening to proclaim that if you’re against Big Box stores then don’t vote for me. As the election has shown, we voted with our shopping carts it seems.
The issue seemed to catch the Rendell camp by surprise by the end of the campaign, a letter late in the campaign to the Nivlac portal, as well as comments for the Daily News did some damage control but obviously not enough to erase the perception that candidate might not be as development minded as many Podunkians would like.
We at Podunk didn’t really expect the challenger to defeat the congenial mayor, though we were surprised by the margin of his victory. We thought that the race might be a little tighter (we felt for sure that the Rendell camp would have at least busted the 1,000 vote line), but in the end that the Mayor would still have won with a fairly convincing margin.
The reasoning was quite simple; this mayor has managed to create a pretty good name for himself in the public eye around the city. Frequently requested for public charity events, he easily engages in the gift of gab that successful politicians the world over strive for. For some of his occasional quirks, most folks here seem to think he has done an admirable job of running the city under rather trying times.
The secrecy issue at city hall, while good for a lot of talk around town, never seemed to stick to the mayor. Despite the well documented local issues over the last year that have seemed to pop up unannounced, with nary a word of public debate. It’s a testimony to Pond’s visibility in the community and his sense of civic boosterism, that he could make what could have been a major issue nothing but an inconvenience of the campaign.
The fact his margin of victory was so large, lays to rest for now the issue of a secret cabal of councilors and bureaucrats at City Hall, meeting in dark rooms with whispered plans for the community. It seems to be a campaign issue that while tantalizing for the voters, in the end just didn’t seem to amount to much.
As we said on November 10th, can an election be lost in fifteen minutes? That first introduction to the challenger at that mayoralty debate came at the same time as the major development on Highway 16 was announced. By appearing lukewarm at best and possibly against a project that for all intents and purposes is a go, the challenger found herself on the wrong end of an issue that she really needn’t have had to be on. The fact that the project would be approved on the departing council’s watch, gave her an opportunity to just go with the Podunk voter flow and avoid a tactical blunder and not give her opponent some ground to work with.
That issue coupled with her constant recitation of the downside of Podunk’s present situation didn’t work in synch with the general wish of Podunkians for better times. The Mayor played up the possibilities and the opportunities, the challenger the past controversies and the less than positive present.
Whether Podunkians voted with facts or just wishful thinking, they made their decision that Pond was the person to lead them through this latest rough stretch and hopefully on to the golden years so many say are just around the corner.
In the end, Podunk chose to look at the glass half full, rather than half empty. Returning Mayor Pond for another three year term, it will prove be an interesting period of time for Podunk. The Mayor and his council have many struggles ahead of them, as even the Mayor said during the campaign; we’re not out of the woods yet.
For the next three years, the guy at the front of the line out of those dark and dangerous woods will be Herb Pond. He has the flashlight, and for now we’re all falling in behind for the hike.
Pond easily turned aside the challenge from Gloria Rendell, winning the Mayoralty with a comfortable 2,684 vote margin. The final tallies gave Herb Pond 3,377 votes and Gloria Rendell 693. The margin surely a sign that the people of Podunk had not been convinced that all was as dire as Ms. Rendell had portrayed at the all candidates meeting, preferring to accept the Mayor’s cautious optimism that the worst was past, over Rendells’ worries that worst may be yet to come.
His advertising blitz of Friday promised a Yes to development and A Yes to shopping choice. And if the Rendell camp wishes to look for one issue that perhaps harmed their chances the most, it might very well have been the shopping options for Podunkians. Never mind fiscal responsibility and infrastructure degradation, Podunkians as many on the hackingthemainframe forums would say, apparently want their big box stores and woe be the politician to stand in the way.
As reported in our Podunk debate posting, the challenger did not exactly come out strongly in favour of welcoming the big box stores into the community, a stand that gave the Mayor an opening to proclaim that if you’re against Big Box stores then don’t vote for me. As the election has shown, we voted with our shopping carts it seems.
The issue seemed to catch the Rendell camp by surprise by the end of the campaign, a letter late in the campaign to the Nivlac portal, as well as comments for the Daily News did some damage control but obviously not enough to erase the perception that candidate might not be as development minded as many Podunkians would like.
We at Podunk didn’t really expect the challenger to defeat the congenial mayor, though we were surprised by the margin of his victory. We thought that the race might be a little tighter (we felt for sure that the Rendell camp would have at least busted the 1,000 vote line), but in the end that the Mayor would still have won with a fairly convincing margin.
The reasoning was quite simple; this mayor has managed to create a pretty good name for himself in the public eye around the city. Frequently requested for public charity events, he easily engages in the gift of gab that successful politicians the world over strive for. For some of his occasional quirks, most folks here seem to think he has done an admirable job of running the city under rather trying times.
The secrecy issue at city hall, while good for a lot of talk around town, never seemed to stick to the mayor. Despite the well documented local issues over the last year that have seemed to pop up unannounced, with nary a word of public debate. It’s a testimony to Pond’s visibility in the community and his sense of civic boosterism, that he could make what could have been a major issue nothing but an inconvenience of the campaign.
The fact his margin of victory was so large, lays to rest for now the issue of a secret cabal of councilors and bureaucrats at City Hall, meeting in dark rooms with whispered plans for the community. It seems to be a campaign issue that while tantalizing for the voters, in the end just didn’t seem to amount to much.
As we said on November 10th, can an election be lost in fifteen minutes? That first introduction to the challenger at that mayoralty debate came at the same time as the major development on Highway 16 was announced. By appearing lukewarm at best and possibly against a project that for all intents and purposes is a go, the challenger found herself on the wrong end of an issue that she really needn’t have had to be on. The fact that the project would be approved on the departing council’s watch, gave her an opportunity to just go with the Podunk voter flow and avoid a tactical blunder and not give her opponent some ground to work with.
That issue coupled with her constant recitation of the downside of Podunk’s present situation didn’t work in synch with the general wish of Podunkians for better times. The Mayor played up the possibilities and the opportunities, the challenger the past controversies and the less than positive present.
Whether Podunkians voted with facts or just wishful thinking, they made their decision that Pond was the person to lead them through this latest rough stretch and hopefully on to the golden years so many say are just around the corner.
In the end, Podunk chose to look at the glass half full, rather than half empty. Returning Mayor Pond for another three year term, it will prove be an interesting period of time for Podunk. The Mayor and his council have many struggles ahead of them, as even the Mayor said during the campaign; we’re not out of the woods yet.
For the next three years, the guy at the front of the line out of those dark and dangerous woods will be Herb Pond. He has the flashlight, and for now we’re all falling in behind for the hike.
Pond Spoke, Podunk Listened!
In the end, Podunkians listened to their mayor; they stayed his course and returned not only him, but many of the councilors he had said he wanted to bring back to work with him. As the voting wrapped up on Saturday night, Podunk had decided to keep Herb's team together with the addition of a few progressive subs.
Despite much talk of a column of lefties ready to usurp control of Podunk's council of governance, the end result looks pretty well as it did before Podunk went to the polls. As the tallies were counted up, there was no slate of activists sent to sack the offices of City Hall, we weren't singing the Internationale today, nor are there wild eyed radical Rendellistas storming the steps of City Hall demanding widespread change.
One incumbent, Jack Rudolph, was denied his place, replaced by a hopefully progressive new voice in Sheila Gordon-Payne. Podunkians saw something they liked in Ms. Gordon-Paynes' campaign, as the newcomer to municipal politics received the second highest vote count on Saturday. At 2,017 votes, she was only 46 votes shy of the vote leader incumbent, Ken Cote. Not a bad introduction to a public looking for someone to be more representative and inquisitive on council.
The other vacancy that of Paul Kennedy's chair, was filled by Joy Thorkelson a long time union activist and well known social commentator. Not too unfamiliar with some of the points of view of the departing Kennedy. It was Thorkelson's vote count that bumped Rudolph out of office, as she collected 1,496 votes to Rudolph's 1,408. Thorkelson could be that bit of social consciousness that seems to be missing from time to time at City Hall.
The net result of this election would seem to this observer anyways, to be pretty well status quo with perhaps a chance for a more investigative and vocal council to come in the next term.
The idea of a silent force of leftists sneaking around arranging slates of candidates seems a tad far fetched, for if it was true then somebody forgot to watch the "get out the vote" video. The perceived "union" or "leftie" candidates bunched up basically in the middle of the pack, no doubt bleeding votes from one another, rather than the candidates who may have been more to the right of the political spectrum. DeBartolo, Bowles and Casteilli were all within one hundred votes or so of each other, not high enough to grab a seat, not low enough to be considered irrelevant.
To be honest we at the Podunk were rather surprised to see the high number of returning councilors get another shot at fame. It did not seem far fetched to think that up to four of the most recent council, would be thanked for their service and sent off with lovely parting gifts. Instead, the incumbents seemed to overcome some thin skins and lethargic campaigning at times, to still re-capture their seats.
The large slate of candidates no doubt assisted the incumbents, splitting that vote count into any number of directions. Mitch Myers captured the imagination of the youth vote by attracting 1068 votes. Not enough for a serious shot at a council seat, but surely indicative of having hit a note or two with the voters.
It's the remaining numbers from the rest of the seventeen candidates that offer up an interesting study. If you total up the votes for everyone below the Castelli line of 1007 votes, you come up with 3,215 votes up for grabs. If the names of Dalton, Fitzpatrick, McLean, Rolston, Cook and Schiese had not been on the ballots, would there have been a major change of the chairs at council? It's a question that we may never know an answer for, but it isn't much of a stretch to think that those 3,215 votes might have been more enough to move a few of the mid pack challengers past the post.
That being said, everyone deserves the opportunity to present their views to the public and for the most part these seventeen candidates did an admirable job of putting their points across. It was a widely diverse group of candidates who offered up their services and subjected themselves up for scrutiny, something that can't be an easy process. For that they should be commended for their civic mindedness.
However, for all the talk of change, the new Podunk council is not that far removed from the old Podunk council. In the end, the final words always goes to the voter and the words this year were stay the course. It will be interesting to watch how the newcomers try to find their niche in this council. We wonder if there will be a more concentrated effort in the future, to at least be more transparent in civic dealings in the next three years.
If the newcomers want to hit a home run in their first term, one simple tactic might do the trick. Keeping the mayor and the returning four councilors inclined to keep the public more informed, might go a long way to providing the best of public service.
Despite much talk of a column of lefties ready to usurp control of Podunk's council of governance, the end result looks pretty well as it did before Podunk went to the polls. As the tallies were counted up, there was no slate of activists sent to sack the offices of City Hall, we weren't singing the Internationale today, nor are there wild eyed radical Rendellistas storming the steps of City Hall demanding widespread change.
One incumbent, Jack Rudolph, was denied his place, replaced by a hopefully progressive new voice in Sheila Gordon-Payne. Podunkians saw something they liked in Ms. Gordon-Paynes' campaign, as the newcomer to municipal politics received the second highest vote count on Saturday. At 2,017 votes, she was only 46 votes shy of the vote leader incumbent, Ken Cote. Not a bad introduction to a public looking for someone to be more representative and inquisitive on council.
The other vacancy that of Paul Kennedy's chair, was filled by Joy Thorkelson a long time union activist and well known social commentator. Not too unfamiliar with some of the points of view of the departing Kennedy. It was Thorkelson's vote count that bumped Rudolph out of office, as she collected 1,496 votes to Rudolph's 1,408. Thorkelson could be that bit of social consciousness that seems to be missing from time to time at City Hall.
The net result of this election would seem to this observer anyways, to be pretty well status quo with perhaps a chance for a more investigative and vocal council to come in the next term.
The idea of a silent force of leftists sneaking around arranging slates of candidates seems a tad far fetched, for if it was true then somebody forgot to watch the "get out the vote" video. The perceived "union" or "leftie" candidates bunched up basically in the middle of the pack, no doubt bleeding votes from one another, rather than the candidates who may have been more to the right of the political spectrum. DeBartolo, Bowles and Casteilli were all within one hundred votes or so of each other, not high enough to grab a seat, not low enough to be considered irrelevant.
To be honest we at the Podunk were rather surprised to see the high number of returning councilors get another shot at fame. It did not seem far fetched to think that up to four of the most recent council, would be thanked for their service and sent off with lovely parting gifts. Instead, the incumbents seemed to overcome some thin skins and lethargic campaigning at times, to still re-capture their seats.
The large slate of candidates no doubt assisted the incumbents, splitting that vote count into any number of directions. Mitch Myers captured the imagination of the youth vote by attracting 1068 votes. Not enough for a serious shot at a council seat, but surely indicative of having hit a note or two with the voters.
It's the remaining numbers from the rest of the seventeen candidates that offer up an interesting study. If you total up the votes for everyone below the Castelli line of 1007 votes, you come up with 3,215 votes up for grabs. If the names of Dalton, Fitzpatrick, McLean, Rolston, Cook and Schiese had not been on the ballots, would there have been a major change of the chairs at council? It's a question that we may never know an answer for, but it isn't much of a stretch to think that those 3,215 votes might have been more enough to move a few of the mid pack challengers past the post.
That being said, everyone deserves the opportunity to present their views to the public and for the most part these seventeen candidates did an admirable job of putting their points across. It was a widely diverse group of candidates who offered up their services and subjected themselves up for scrutiny, something that can't be an easy process. For that they should be commended for their civic mindedness.
However, for all the talk of change, the new Podunk council is not that far removed from the old Podunk council. In the end, the final words always goes to the voter and the words this year were stay the course. It will be interesting to watch how the newcomers try to find their niche in this council. We wonder if there will be a more concentrated effort in the future, to at least be more transparent in civic dealings in the next three years.
If the newcomers want to hit a home run in their first term, one simple tactic might do the trick. Keeping the mayor and the returning four councilors inclined to keep the public more informed, might go a long way to providing the best of public service.
CBC's HOUSE LEAGUE HOCKEY
Can somebody please explain to me why Saturday night after Saturday Night, the rest of Canada must sit transfixed to the big screen TV, watching the Maple Leaf Nation's skating warriors. When did Hockey Night In Canada become Toronto Night in Canada? Yeah Ok, don't answer that I already know the answer, it always has been, but surely some forward progress can be made in 2005!
HNIC has followed the Leafs each and every Saturday night it seems, since the new NHL kicked off this 2005-06 season. We see so much of the Leafs on a weekly basis, I'm beginning to think I should be hitting the showers with Mats, Tie, Eddie and Bryan after the final whistle on Saturday nights.
You know I've heard these rumours that there are other Canadian teams in the Eastern half of the NHL, matter of fact I've even seen them on occasional Saturday nights, but then of course they were playing the Leafs at the time.
Tonight is a prime example of how this CBC House Team, has taken control of our clickers. The Leafs hosted Atlanta, which might be ok for a diversion but as far as end to end rushing and entertaining hockey, well geez somebody find us that well known offensive power the New Jersey Devils.
Oh wait, they were in Ottawa on Saturday night, a team that despite it's rather remarkable record thus far in the year, rarely gets to the national audience unless the Leafs game ends early. And well those guys in Quebec, remember them? Some team called the Montreal Canadiens? Well, perhaps the CBC knows something the rest of us don't. Maybe Quebec is planning on separating after all, so in order to cushion the blow were not to see any more Habs games (out of sight, out of mind). There have been Mobsters in the witness relocation program that have received more exposure across this country, than the Habs do these days.
Nope for Canada that early game has to be Leafs game, even if it's the lamest, most tedious game on the night's schedule, we won't be denied Bob and Harry and the quaint love affair they have with those Blue and White Bud boys.
Thank God the CBC at least rotates the western games, considering the NHL schedule makers love for Minnesota and Vancouver I'm not sure I could take that firewagon hockey on a weekly basis. The rotation of Saturday's between Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton works just fine, don't change it.
In fact maybe expand the idea back east. Hockey fans can find the likes of Ottawa and Montreal at the top of the NHL standings, too bad we can't find them on Hockey Night in Canada from time to time !
The above posting first appeared on my HockeyNation blog, for more items about hockey check it out!
HNIC has followed the Leafs each and every Saturday night it seems, since the new NHL kicked off this 2005-06 season. We see so much of the Leafs on a weekly basis, I'm beginning to think I should be hitting the showers with Mats, Tie, Eddie and Bryan after the final whistle on Saturday nights.
You know I've heard these rumours that there are other Canadian teams in the Eastern half of the NHL, matter of fact I've even seen them on occasional Saturday nights, but then of course they were playing the Leafs at the time.
Tonight is a prime example of how this CBC House Team, has taken control of our clickers. The Leafs hosted Atlanta, which might be ok for a diversion but as far as end to end rushing and entertaining hockey, well geez somebody find us that well known offensive power the New Jersey Devils.
Oh wait, they were in Ottawa on Saturday night, a team that despite it's rather remarkable record thus far in the year, rarely gets to the national audience unless the Leafs game ends early. And well those guys in Quebec, remember them? Some team called the Montreal Canadiens? Well, perhaps the CBC knows something the rest of us don't. Maybe Quebec is planning on separating after all, so in order to cushion the blow were not to see any more Habs games (out of sight, out of mind). There have been Mobsters in the witness relocation program that have received more exposure across this country, than the Habs do these days.
Nope for Canada that early game has to be Leafs game, even if it's the lamest, most tedious game on the night's schedule, we won't be denied Bob and Harry and the quaint love affair they have with those Blue and White Bud boys.
Thank God the CBC at least rotates the western games, considering the NHL schedule makers love for Minnesota and Vancouver I'm not sure I could take that firewagon hockey on a weekly basis. The rotation of Saturday's between Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton works just fine, don't change it.
In fact maybe expand the idea back east. Hockey fans can find the likes of Ottawa and Montreal at the top of the NHL standings, too bad we can't find them on Hockey Night in Canada from time to time !
The above posting first appeared on my HockeyNation blog, for more items about hockey check it out!
It's a Herbie kind of Podunk
In the end, Mayor Herb Pond got his wish, with the exception of councilor Jack Rudolph, Pond's council compatriots all were returned to City Council and for the most part by rather comfortable margins.
The Mayor who trounced his competitor Gloria Rendell by a vote total of 3377 to 693 will look around that chamber at the next meeting and see his old pals, Ken, Kathy, Tony and Nelson still settling in for another night of riveting debate and civic boosterism. Joining the returning four, will be newcomers Sheila Gordon-Payne and Joy Thorkelson. Jack Rudolph's wishes of returning for another term were dashed, as Thorkelson edged him aside by 88 votes.
We'll digest the results and offer up a post mortem of the campaign in the days to come, as well as take a look at what the results may mean for Podunk's civic governance over the next three years.
To tide you faithful Podunkians over til then, check out the city's election page here, and see how your favourite candidate fared in Podunk 2005.
The Mayor who trounced his competitor Gloria Rendell by a vote total of 3377 to 693 will look around that chamber at the next meeting and see his old pals, Ken, Kathy, Tony and Nelson still settling in for another night of riveting debate and civic boosterism. Joining the returning four, will be newcomers Sheila Gordon-Payne and Joy Thorkelson. Jack Rudolph's wishes of returning for another term were dashed, as Thorkelson edged him aside by 88 votes.
We'll digest the results and offer up a post mortem of the campaign in the days to come, as well as take a look at what the results may mean for Podunk's civic governance over the next three years.
To tide you faithful Podunkians over til then, check out the city's election page here, and see how your favourite candidate fared in Podunk 2005.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Money and the Podunk vote (or an orgy of advertising)
Friday's edition of the Daily News hit 22 pages, not a bad page count for a town mired in an economic malaise and with the Christmas advertising season just starting to get underway. Thanks to the our candidates for mayor, council and in one case for school board, ad reps at the Daily News were able to order up an extra round (or two) at the bar of their choice this weekend.
As the election eve issue appeared at newsstands and at doorsteps, a few extra dollars made it into the accounts receivable books at the Daily News. Although to be fair there were surprisingly fewer ads than the ole Podunk thought would be in Friday's last chance for message making edition.
By far the king and champion of the advertising age was Mayor Herb Pond, he was the largest media buyer in the campaign with a total of 7 ads purchased for Friday's final campaign edition. Starting with a Page one banner 11 x 2 inch ad on the bottom emphasizing his Yes campaign. From there Pond's journey in print took him to page two with a 2 x 2 inch corner square, copied over on page three. Flip a few pages and there's Herb again a page seven bottom corner measuring 6 3/4 x 5 inches. We zoom through the sports and classified til we reach page 14 for the next Herb sighting a 2 x 2 inch square. The page 5 ad gets a replay on page 15, with a wrap up 2 x 2 inch square on page 17 a farewell wave in Friday's advertising blitz.
Competitor Gloria Rendell had but a solitary ad in the Daily Friday, a page 3 sidebar measuring 3 inches by 4 1/2.
Only three candidates for council purchased the larger style ads as well. Sheila Gordon-Payne had a 2 x 4 1/2 inch sidebar on the crowded page three destination.
Mario Castelli used more space to get his message across on page 5 with 7 inch by 5 1/2 inch recap of his campaign and what made him seek office this year.
Marty Bowles played up the secrecy angle one final time with a page 17 ad measuring 3 1/4 x 5 inches. His theme was it was time to end that secrecy at City Hall.
The political action group Save Our Salmon replayed their aquaculture is bad ad of a few days ago, taking page 19 as their own with a 4 1/2 by 6 1/2 inch advertisement.
Two candidates Brenda Cook and Lothar Shciese chose not to have any advertising, anywhere and as the vote count began to trickle in, they would find that no message, translates into no votes I guess.
Gloria Rendell was the only mayoralty candidate to use the Business Card approach, the incumbent Herb Pond preferring to keep his ads in the more visible locations of the paper.
Pond's high profile approach seems to have fulfilled its purpose, as the returns came in he had jumped to a sizeable lead over his opponent. Apparently his investment in image proving to have been money wisely spent, but judging by the gap in votes, in the end he probably could have saved a few dollars.
Friday's 7 page Pond hop is possibly a record in local municipal politics (Though I believe the Peter Lester era was good for the ad reps too). By comparison Monday's Daily News is going to seem awfully thin in the advertising lineage, good thing Christmas buys are coming up, otherwise ad reps would be going into withdrawal.
As the election eve issue appeared at newsstands and at doorsteps, a few extra dollars made it into the accounts receivable books at the Daily News. Although to be fair there were surprisingly fewer ads than the ole Podunk thought would be in Friday's last chance for message making edition.
By far the king and champion of the advertising age was Mayor Herb Pond, he was the largest media buyer in the campaign with a total of 7 ads purchased for Friday's final campaign edition. Starting with a Page one banner 11 x 2 inch ad on the bottom emphasizing his Yes campaign. From there Pond's journey in print took him to page two with a 2 x 2 inch corner square, copied over on page three. Flip a few pages and there's Herb again a page seven bottom corner measuring 6 3/4 x 5 inches. We zoom through the sports and classified til we reach page 14 for the next Herb sighting a 2 x 2 inch square. The page 5 ad gets a replay on page 15, with a wrap up 2 x 2 inch square on page 17 a farewell wave in Friday's advertising blitz.
Competitor Gloria Rendell had but a solitary ad in the Daily Friday, a page 3 sidebar measuring 3 inches by 4 1/2.
Only three candidates for council purchased the larger style ads as well. Sheila Gordon-Payne had a 2 x 4 1/2 inch sidebar on the crowded page three destination.
Mario Castelli used more space to get his message across on page 5 with 7 inch by 5 1/2 inch recap of his campaign and what made him seek office this year.
Marty Bowles played up the secrecy angle one final time with a page 17 ad measuring 3 1/4 x 5 inches. His theme was it was time to end that secrecy at City Hall.
The political action group Save Our Salmon replayed their aquaculture is bad ad of a few days ago, taking page 19 as their own with a 4 1/2 by 6 1/2 inch advertisement.
School Board Contender Janet Mirau also took advantage of larger type and more space, with 4 1/2 x 2 box on page 7.
And mercifully it was the final day for those business card ads that have been cluttering up the classified ad pages the last three weeks or so. 15 of the 17 candidates offered up these little snap shots of their campaign pledges. Hoping not to get lost in the mix of the moving sales, garage sales, death notices and even occasional help wanted ads (holy cow how did they get in there?). Two councilors, Cote and Rudolph thought so highly of the approach that they doubled their ads in the section for the final day.Two candidates Brenda Cook and Lothar Shciese chose not to have any advertising, anywhere and as the vote count began to trickle in, they would find that no message, translates into no votes I guess.
Gloria Rendell was the only mayoralty candidate to use the Business Card approach, the incumbent Herb Pond preferring to keep his ads in the more visible locations of the paper.
Pond's high profile approach seems to have fulfilled its purpose, as the returns came in he had jumped to a sizeable lead over his opponent. Apparently his investment in image proving to have been money wisely spent, but judging by the gap in votes, in the end he probably could have saved a few dollars.
Friday's 7 page Pond hop is possibly a record in local municipal politics (Though I believe the Peter Lester era was good for the ad reps too). By comparison Monday's Daily News is going to seem awfully thin in the advertising lineage, good thing Christmas buys are coming up, otherwise ad reps would be going into withdrawal.
Friday, November 18, 2005
If you can mark an X, you're our kind of people!
Our apologies to Greg Thomey (and his Jerry Boyle character), formerly of 22 minutes for the theft of a slogan. But the title to this post, pretty well sums up the waning hours of the 2005 Podunk election.
The last minute proliferation of lawn signs everywhere, is one of the final signs of the end of this campaign. From the polished and professional designs of a Ken Cote, Sheila Gordon Payne or Mario Castelli, to the more homespun efforts of Erika Rolston, the signs have been getting their last bit of exposure with less than a day to go til voting day. Sprouting up like dandelions on a sunny spring day (oh remember those podunkians), they line roadsides and hold their ground on the hills (until at least the kids knock them all over on the way home from school) the last line of information on your way to the voting booth.
The bulletin boards at the hackingthemainframe site are filling up with last minute discussions, one poster apparently in possession of a letter from the mayor that outlines the reasons to vote for him. Others debate the merits of one or another candidate, or the reasons not to mark your X for someone else.
Over at the nivlac portal, the last minute osbervations are there for the reading. Including a letter from the contender for mayor, Gloria Rendell, who was quick to reply to questions provided by the portal's host. A wee bit of damage control on the big box issue there and a few more details on where that particular campaign issue has gone.
There have even been last minute radio ads gracing the airwaves of the local radio station (not being a frequent listener, I only caught one while browsing in Zellers) urging your support on election day.
And of course we all await patiently tonight's Daily News, which if yesterday was any indication, will be jammed to the edges with those last minute ads, letters and business cards all asking for our support and promising to get the job done for us.
Like the Christmas rush to come in five short weeks, today is the day for that last minute Election advertising shopping.
In the end, though it comes down to what you mark in a little box, on a piece of paper. All the noise and clutter is behind you come Saturday. Tomorrow, it's just you, a ballot and a pencil.
Make your decisions wisely!
The last minute proliferation of lawn signs everywhere, is one of the final signs of the end of this campaign. From the polished and professional designs of a Ken Cote, Sheila Gordon Payne or Mario Castelli, to the more homespun efforts of Erika Rolston, the signs have been getting their last bit of exposure with less than a day to go til voting day. Sprouting up like dandelions on a sunny spring day (oh remember those podunkians), they line roadsides and hold their ground on the hills (until at least the kids knock them all over on the way home from school) the last line of information on your way to the voting booth.
The bulletin boards at the hackingthemainframe site are filling up with last minute discussions, one poster apparently in possession of a letter from the mayor that outlines the reasons to vote for him. Others debate the merits of one or another candidate, or the reasons not to mark your X for someone else.
Over at the nivlac portal, the last minute osbervations are there for the reading. Including a letter from the contender for mayor, Gloria Rendell, who was quick to reply to questions provided by the portal's host. A wee bit of damage control on the big box issue there and a few more details on where that particular campaign issue has gone.
There have even been last minute radio ads gracing the airwaves of the local radio station (not being a frequent listener, I only caught one while browsing in Zellers) urging your support on election day.
And of course we all await patiently tonight's Daily News, which if yesterday was any indication, will be jammed to the edges with those last minute ads, letters and business cards all asking for our support and promising to get the job done for us.
Like the Christmas rush to come in five short weeks, today is the day for that last minute Election advertising shopping.
In the end, though it comes down to what you mark in a little box, on a piece of paper. All the noise and clutter is behind you come Saturday. Tomorrow, it's just you, a ballot and a pencil.
Make your decisions wisely!
CN's Harrison hails Podunk
While the local candidates ready themselves for election day on Saturday, far away from Podunk rests the real economic future of the city. Canadian National Railways, CEO, E. Hunter Harrison gave an interview to a number of media outlets on Thursday, in which he predicted big things for his railway and with that big things for Prince Rupert. In short to paraphrase the old General Motors adage, what's good for CN is good for Prince Rupert!
In an article in Friday's Financial Post, Harrison said that CN (which has been dubbed North America's best railway) will experience revenue growth of five to six percent in the next year and that the railway plans to double its 1 billion dollar container business by the end of the decade.
Harrison went on to say a good portion of that growth will come from the opening of the Prince Rupert Port to container traffic in 2007, which will provide up to one third of the companies long term growth.
The CN CEO said he expected Prince Rupert to hit and hit big. A sentiment no doubt that many of our local political types will be hoping is proven true over the next few years.
We wonder if it's too late to place those last minute newspaper ads? Tying ones campaign to Harrison's train, may be the push to get them into office!
In an article in Friday's Financial Post, Harrison said that CN (which has been dubbed North America's best railway) will experience revenue growth of five to six percent in the next year and that the railway plans to double its 1 billion dollar container business by the end of the decade.
Harrison went on to say a good portion of that growth will come from the opening of the Prince Rupert Port to container traffic in 2007, which will provide up to one third of the companies long term growth.
The CN CEO said he expected Prince Rupert to hit and hit big. A sentiment no doubt that many of our local political types will be hoping is proven true over the next few years.
We wonder if it's too late to place those last minute newspaper ads? Tying ones campaign to Harrison's train, may be the push to get them into office!
Men and Women of Action!
In what could be a record amount of speed, BC’s legislators moved a piece of government business through the legislative process in less than 2 hours. We’re talking about all three readings required to pass a bill, no need for study, no need for debate (as a matter of fact it took but one minute for this bill to be debated), just a simple aye or nay, and baby did the ayes have the day!
The Legislatures speed was a far cry from the normal 2 or 3 days of acrid debate and stonewalling, no partisan sniping, nor nays of dissent for this Bill. In fact the winds were in the sails on this day, such speed we haven't seen in many a year. For our MLA’s, it was a case of last one out the door is a rotten egg.
What major initiative has united both Liberal Government member and NDP opposition MLA to take such fast paced action?
Was it to legislation to improve Health Care, reducing those waiting lists and making sure that even the most marginalized of British Columbian’s has access to a doctor? No, that would be an issue for another day.
Then perhaps it was a Bill designed to put educating children on the front burner, this in a province that just witnessed a bitter and disruptive teachers strike? Well, you know we’re sure that our MLA’s are busy on that file as well, it just didn’t have their attention on a sunny Thursday afternoon in Victoria.
So then it must have been a piece of social legislation that would bring an end to poverty in BC and take care of children, making sure that they have all they need to succeed. Uh, well no, that wasn’t the ground breaking initiative put forward by the government and welcomed with open arms by the opposition.
The single piece of legislation that has brought both socialist and capitalist together in a fine show of unity was a simple bit of legislation called Bill 17. A finely crafted piece of legislation that will increase our MLA’s base salary by 15% and re introduce pension benefits to our representatives in Victoria.
No ZERO-ZERO AND ZERO for this crew, instead it’s a pretty good windfall for ALL of our MLA’s. With Thursday’s rapid passing of legislation, an MLA will now take home 86,560 dollars. The Premier will see a pay increase of 21.5% when all of your benefits are included to the pay stub, an increase of 26,000 dollars giving the Premier a yearly pay of 146,320.
And it’s not just the Liberals that will benefit from this glorious day of financial liberation, four long serving NDP members are among the top earners in the new financial era of public service. House leader Mike Farnworth, caucus chairwoman Jenny Kwan, deputy whip John Horgan and whip Katrine Conroy all will receive close to 31% more for their work, as well as Liberal caucus chairman Gordon Hogg and Liberal whip Randy Haas both of whom join the top earners club.
And the dispersal of monies didn’t end with just salaries, our MLA’s will also receive 35,000 dollars more to run their constituency offices, the price of paper clips and photo copy paper obviously is on an inflationary spiral.
Our MLA’s also voted to take care of themselves in their old age, as a pension plan was re-introduced to the Legislature. On that golden day of retirement, MLA’s will be able to claim a maximum of 65% of their salaries (which of course just went up today, not a bad idea eh?).
Liberal House Leader Michael De Jong, who introduced Thursday’s lottery winnings er, piece of legislation, defended Bill 17 claiming that it only makes our MLA’s the third highest legislators in the nation. And hey you know, they’re still only making 60% of what our Federal MP’s make. Which judging by our lack of respect for the folks in Ottawa these days, is akin to claiming that you’re only taking about 60% of the souls that Satan himself has harvested.
The timing of the announcement seemed rather odious, considering the bigger story of the day. That of the BC Government announcing that the deaths of over 713 children had not been properly reviewed, having fallen through the social cracks of the British Columbia social system since the children’s commissioner position was eliminated.
Yes our elected officials found some money to take care of some pressing problems, just not the problems that we might have wished for them to work on. As always, it would seem that the term "in the best interest", really matters when it’s a self interest!
Bill 17 was hardly on the radar, before it was passed late in the afternoon and everyone disappeared for the day. Even better for our MLA's, now that they've taken care of personal business, they need only spend four more days in the Legislature for 2005. The last day of business is November 24th, providing our MLA's with more time to consult a financial planner in order to properly safeguard yesterdays pay gains.
But hey, if we’re looking for some good news here how about this: A major contract negotiation was handled without a labor disruption, nor any of the nastiness that usually happens in a typical British Columbia salary discussion.
No picket lines for our MLA’s, no gathering around those huge metal barrels filled with burning wood to show solidarity. In fact the only barrels in sight this time, were the ones that our MLA’s have gleefully pulled money out of to increase their paydays.
Yes we truly have seen that Government works! When our elected officials want to, they have shown that they can put aside their differences and hammer out legislation for the common good.
Even if that common good stops at the last MLA to stand up and say AYE!
The Legislatures speed was a far cry from the normal 2 or 3 days of acrid debate and stonewalling, no partisan sniping, nor nays of dissent for this Bill. In fact the winds were in the sails on this day, such speed we haven't seen in many a year. For our MLA’s, it was a case of last one out the door is a rotten egg.
What major initiative has united both Liberal Government member and NDP opposition MLA to take such fast paced action?
Was it to legislation to improve Health Care, reducing those waiting lists and making sure that even the most marginalized of British Columbian’s has access to a doctor? No, that would be an issue for another day.
Then perhaps it was a Bill designed to put educating children on the front burner, this in a province that just witnessed a bitter and disruptive teachers strike? Well, you know we’re sure that our MLA’s are busy on that file as well, it just didn’t have their attention on a sunny Thursday afternoon in Victoria.
So then it must have been a piece of social legislation that would bring an end to poverty in BC and take care of children, making sure that they have all they need to succeed. Uh, well no, that wasn’t the ground breaking initiative put forward by the government and welcomed with open arms by the opposition.
The single piece of legislation that has brought both socialist and capitalist together in a fine show of unity was a simple bit of legislation called Bill 17. A finely crafted piece of legislation that will increase our MLA’s base salary by 15% and re introduce pension benefits to our representatives in Victoria.
No ZERO-ZERO AND ZERO for this crew, instead it’s a pretty good windfall for ALL of our MLA’s. With Thursday’s rapid passing of legislation, an MLA will now take home 86,560 dollars. The Premier will see a pay increase of 21.5% when all of your benefits are included to the pay stub, an increase of 26,000 dollars giving the Premier a yearly pay of 146,320.
And it’s not just the Liberals that will benefit from this glorious day of financial liberation, four long serving NDP members are among the top earners in the new financial era of public service. House leader Mike Farnworth, caucus chairwoman Jenny Kwan, deputy whip John Horgan and whip Katrine Conroy all will receive close to 31% more for their work, as well as Liberal caucus chairman Gordon Hogg and Liberal whip Randy Haas both of whom join the top earners club.
And the dispersal of monies didn’t end with just salaries, our MLA’s will also receive 35,000 dollars more to run their constituency offices, the price of paper clips and photo copy paper obviously is on an inflationary spiral.
Our MLA’s also voted to take care of themselves in their old age, as a pension plan was re-introduced to the Legislature. On that golden day of retirement, MLA’s will be able to claim a maximum of 65% of their salaries (which of course just went up today, not a bad idea eh?).
Liberal House Leader Michael De Jong, who introduced Thursday’s lottery winnings er, piece of legislation, defended Bill 17 claiming that it only makes our MLA’s the third highest legislators in the nation. And hey you know, they’re still only making 60% of what our Federal MP’s make. Which judging by our lack of respect for the folks in Ottawa these days, is akin to claiming that you’re only taking about 60% of the souls that Satan himself has harvested.
The timing of the announcement seemed rather odious, considering the bigger story of the day. That of the BC Government announcing that the deaths of over 713 children had not been properly reviewed, having fallen through the social cracks of the British Columbia social system since the children’s commissioner position was eliminated.
Yes our elected officials found some money to take care of some pressing problems, just not the problems that we might have wished for them to work on. As always, it would seem that the term "in the best interest", really matters when it’s a self interest!
Bill 17 was hardly on the radar, before it was passed late in the afternoon and everyone disappeared for the day. Even better for our MLA's, now that they've taken care of personal business, they need only spend four more days in the Legislature for 2005. The last day of business is November 24th, providing our MLA's with more time to consult a financial planner in order to properly safeguard yesterdays pay gains.
But hey, if we’re looking for some good news here how about this: A major contract negotiation was handled without a labor disruption, nor any of the nastiness that usually happens in a typical British Columbia salary discussion.
No picket lines for our MLA’s, no gathering around those huge metal barrels filled with burning wood to show solidarity. In fact the only barrels in sight this time, were the ones that our MLA’s have gleefully pulled money out of to increase their paydays.
Yes we truly have seen that Government works! When our elected officials want to, they have shown that they can put aside their differences and hammer out legislation for the common good.
Even if that common good stops at the last MLA to stand up and say AYE!
Still Droppin' the Gloves in the AHL.
It's all fine manners and genteel behavior for Gary Bettman's boys, but down on the farm they're still settling their differences the old fashioned way, with a nightly dose of Don Cherry's Rock em Sock em.
While the NHL trumpets its stats that fighting is down by 42%, the AHL is home to the new tough guys, players not afraid to run up those penalty minutes. One player that seems on a pace to setting a new AHL record is Dennis Bonvie, who plays for Hamilton the Montreal Canadiens farm club. Bonvie has appeared in 14 games thus far in this years AHL season, spending over 103 minutes of them in the penalty box for a number of infractions. Should he keep that pace up over the entire season, he would be on his way to a 600 minute penalty year and a new record for the rough and tumble AHL.
Then again if Bonvie is going to find himself infamously in the record books, he's going to have to actually pick up the pace. At the moment he finds himself trailing the Penalty minutes parade by 6 minutes, as Grand Rapids Darryl Bootland holds court over the top of the penalty roost with 109.
As a form of comparison the top penalty taker in the NHL is Steve Ott of Dallas, this bad boy has played in 19 games so far this year and earned 60 minutes in penalties. Almost half of what an AHL enforcer might take to the box.
It's hard to determine why there is such a difference in the style of play between the two leagues, one theory is that many of the tough guys now in the AHL are placed there because the NHL has moved to a less physical and more punitive phase. Many NHL teams can't take the risk of keeping a roster spot open for a player who only can provide the fisticuffs over the finesse.
The only team that seems to have used a player considered to be a tough guy properly, is the Ottawa Senators Brian McGratton. He not only plays the role of a John Ferguson policeman type on the ice, he also contributes in the subtle art of creating some room for his team mates. So far he's managed to do that without a huge cost of penalty time checking in at fifth place with 53 minutes, a total that wouldn't even get him a mention in the AHL.
McGratton's spot on the Sens though is giving hope for a legion of tough guys in the AHL that there may be hope for a call up one day. But the word is out, a ticket back to the bigs takes much more than just a good set of fists.
The above post first appeared in my HockeyNation blog, for more items about hockey check it out!
While the NHL trumpets its stats that fighting is down by 42%, the AHL is home to the new tough guys, players not afraid to run up those penalty minutes. One player that seems on a pace to setting a new AHL record is Dennis Bonvie, who plays for Hamilton the Montreal Canadiens farm club. Bonvie has appeared in 14 games thus far in this years AHL season, spending over 103 minutes of them in the penalty box for a number of infractions. Should he keep that pace up over the entire season, he would be on his way to a 600 minute penalty year and a new record for the rough and tumble AHL.
Then again if Bonvie is going to find himself infamously in the record books, he's going to have to actually pick up the pace. At the moment he finds himself trailing the Penalty minutes parade by 6 minutes, as Grand Rapids Darryl Bootland holds court over the top of the penalty roost with 109.
As a form of comparison the top penalty taker in the NHL is Steve Ott of Dallas, this bad boy has played in 19 games so far this year and earned 60 minutes in penalties. Almost half of what an AHL enforcer might take to the box.
It's hard to determine why there is such a difference in the style of play between the two leagues, one theory is that many of the tough guys now in the AHL are placed there because the NHL has moved to a less physical and more punitive phase. Many NHL teams can't take the risk of keeping a roster spot open for a player who only can provide the fisticuffs over the finesse.
The only team that seems to have used a player considered to be a tough guy properly, is the Ottawa Senators Brian McGratton. He not only plays the role of a John Ferguson policeman type on the ice, he also contributes in the subtle art of creating some room for his team mates. So far he's managed to do that without a huge cost of penalty time checking in at fifth place with 53 minutes, a total that wouldn't even get him a mention in the AHL.
McGratton's spot on the Sens though is giving hope for a legion of tough guys in the AHL that there may be hope for a call up one day. But the word is out, a ticket back to the bigs takes much more than just a good set of fists.
The above post first appeared in my HockeyNation blog, for more items about hockey check it out!
Thursday, November 17, 2005
The folks down the road
Well since I'm in the mood for some blogsite maintanence, I guess I'll add one more thing to the links section, underneath our Podunk below the Masthead section, which can be found along the right column of this blog.
Considering the competitive nature of Podunk and its neighbour to the east, I'll begin to track the major issues in Terrace. If nothing else it gives us a heads up on what store is about to locate there, a store that somehow passed Podunk by. Of a more serious vein, it should give us a better idea on how they handle issues such as development, finances and infrastructure there.
We take our items from the Terrace Standard (full website available here), and we will post the main stories in weekly installments.
Nov 30-- Police Search for Missing woman continues
Nov 30-- High School students given longer term
Nov 30-- Second company wants deal with Tahltan
Nov 30-- Wild Cats get ok to stay on Co-op lands
Nov 30-- More Beds for Terraceview Lodge
Nov 23-- Lerclerc tops race for city council
Nov 23-- Fee to be charged for liquor licences
Nov 23-- Robin Austin to lead legislative aquaculture committe
Nov 23-- RCMP Inspector transfers to Edmonton
Nov 23-- City seeks major boost for outdoor recreation
Nov 16-- Hockey players draft picks for municipal election
Nov 16-- City wants to spur development
Nov 16-- Plex money issues arrises
Nov 16-- Feds offer Thaltan info on governing
Nov 16-- Thaltan asked to approve mine plan
Nov 9-- Gov't in jam over Thaltan dispute.
Nov 9-- Tiny Jenna needs a heart transplant.
Nov 9-- Opinions differ over Sportsplex project.
Nov 9-- Local realtors upset over city’s decision to use outside agency for Co-op buyout
Considering the competitive nature of Podunk and its neighbour to the east, I'll begin to track the major issues in Terrace. If nothing else it gives us a heads up on what store is about to locate there, a store that somehow passed Podunk by. Of a more serious vein, it should give us a better idea on how they handle issues such as development, finances and infrastructure there.
We take our items from the Terrace Standard (full website available here), and we will post the main stories in weekly installments.
Nov 30-- Police Search for Missing woman continues
Nov 30-- High School students given longer term
Nov 30-- Second company wants deal with Tahltan
Nov 30-- Wild Cats get ok to stay on Co-op lands
Nov 30-- More Beds for Terraceview Lodge
Nov 23-- Lerclerc tops race for city council
Nov 23-- Fee to be charged for liquor licences
Nov 23-- Robin Austin to lead legislative aquaculture committe
Nov 23-- RCMP Inspector transfers to Edmonton
Nov 23-- City seeks major boost for outdoor recreation
Nov 16-- Hockey players draft picks for municipal election
Nov 16-- City wants to spur development
Nov 16-- Plex money issues arrises
Nov 16-- Feds offer Thaltan info on governing
Nov 16-- Thaltan asked to approve mine plan
Nov 9-- Gov't in jam over Thaltan dispute.
Nov 9-- Tiny Jenna needs a heart transplant.
Nov 9-- Opinions differ over Sportsplex project.
Nov 9-- Local realtors upset over city’s decision to use outside agency for Co-op buyout
Look Inside November
Since I've added a section to the links area called Podunk Below the Masthead, I suspect I should provide equal time to the weekly paper Look Inside, in addition to the Daily News section. Actually, considering the fact that the weekly provides its full content on line as opposed to the Daily's daily tease format, perhaps the weekly will be a better local resource.
So for the record here are the Look Inside's, Below the mastheads for the month of November.
November 30, 2005
November 23, 2005
November 16, 2005
November 9, 2005
November 2, 2005
So for the record here are the Look Inside's, Below the mastheads for the month of November.
November 30, 2005
November 23, 2005
November 16, 2005
November 9, 2005
November 2, 2005
48 Hours and counting
Podunk heads to the polls on Saturday, then again maybe they just go for the crafts fair and snacks, using the voting booth as a break between sampling fudge and bartering over knit sweaters and wooden craft projects. Regardless of the motivation, the electorate will have passed judgment on the crop of candidates by Saturday night.
With this large a number of council candidates a sense of weariness has dawned over this campaign, it's hard enough to keep track of the candidates names, let alone what they believe in. A number of interesting notes on this campaign have been made at the Nivlac portal, another local posting board of thought on matters Podunk.
As explained on Nivlac the lawn signs seem to be the extent of many of the candidates political exertion. The signs gathered in clusters around town, the only contact with the public on a daily basis.
Indeed, with the exception of the odd front page picture of a current councilor shaking hands accepting a cheque for a hospital or other candidates doing some other local good deed, the visibility of the candidates has been rather faint.
Nivlac observes the lack of the personal touch so far, as many candidates seem content to let those lawn signs do their talking . And it's a valid observation. Now perhaps municipal politics is not the place for the door to door campaign style of the Federal and provincial campaigns. But I've not seen sign of a candidates handout, let alone the candidate him or herself this campaign. I've spotted one or two at various local events, Remembrance Day obviously a must be seen at event, but for the most part the politicos are keeping low to the ground as the big day arrives. Perhaps they're afraid of a last minute blunder that may bleed their support to other candidate, then again maybe they've run out of things to say.
The battle for mayor also seems to have slowed to a crawl of late, with little in the way of fresh comment and no surge in getting issues a more prominent place in the minds of Podunkians. Mainly the election issues have been left to the spin of the paid ads (and letters section) of the newspaper to get the word out.
There has been the odd testimonial in the letters to the Editor page of the Daily Podunk, glowing tributes to one candidate or the other and how they would be a darn fine councilor or mayor in our fine burg. As well, a few of the hotter campaign issues have played out on the Editorial page, the big box debate and the ever popular "secrecy" at city hall seem to have been the two main items of interest to Podunkians. However, there certainly hasn't been much of the emotion or sense of importance to the campaigns of late, it's as though everyone has decided that they'll just sit back and wait and see what happens by Sunday.
Maybe the final two days will provide a flurry of last minute efforts, the ad reps at the Daily probably hope so. But for the most part, it seems we'll be making our decisions based on the last view of the candidates at their respective debates, the last time we actually heard or saw most of them.
At any rate, time marches on and the day of voting dawns in less than 48 hours. One hopes that the local populace are not like some of the politicians and seemingly losing interest, resulting in a low voter turnout. While it sometimes does seem that it really doesn't matter who gets elected, it still is a basic principle of democracy that we have that choice.
The old adage that if you didn't, vote you can't complain, still holds true.
And since we all love to complain about politicians, lets hope we exercise that right to vote (and complain!)
With this large a number of council candidates a sense of weariness has dawned over this campaign, it's hard enough to keep track of the candidates names, let alone what they believe in. A number of interesting notes on this campaign have been made at the Nivlac portal, another local posting board of thought on matters Podunk.
As explained on Nivlac the lawn signs seem to be the extent of many of the candidates political exertion. The signs gathered in clusters around town, the only contact with the public on a daily basis.
Indeed, with the exception of the odd front page picture of a current councilor shaking hands accepting a cheque for a hospital or other candidates doing some other local good deed, the visibility of the candidates has been rather faint.
Nivlac observes the lack of the personal touch so far, as many candidates seem content to let those lawn signs do their talking . And it's a valid observation. Now perhaps municipal politics is not the place for the door to door campaign style of the Federal and provincial campaigns. But I've not seen sign of a candidates handout, let alone the candidate him or herself this campaign. I've spotted one or two at various local events, Remembrance Day obviously a must be seen at event, but for the most part the politicos are keeping low to the ground as the big day arrives. Perhaps they're afraid of a last minute blunder that may bleed their support to other candidate, then again maybe they've run out of things to say.
The battle for mayor also seems to have slowed to a crawl of late, with little in the way of fresh comment and no surge in getting issues a more prominent place in the minds of Podunkians. Mainly the election issues have been left to the spin of the paid ads (and letters section) of the newspaper to get the word out.
There has been the odd testimonial in the letters to the Editor page of the Daily Podunk, glowing tributes to one candidate or the other and how they would be a darn fine councilor or mayor in our fine burg. As well, a few of the hotter campaign issues have played out on the Editorial page, the big box debate and the ever popular "secrecy" at city hall seem to have been the two main items of interest to Podunkians. However, there certainly hasn't been much of the emotion or sense of importance to the campaigns of late, it's as though everyone has decided that they'll just sit back and wait and see what happens by Sunday.
Maybe the final two days will provide a flurry of last minute efforts, the ad reps at the Daily probably hope so. But for the most part, it seems we'll be making our decisions based on the last view of the candidates at their respective debates, the last time we actually heard or saw most of them.
At any rate, time marches on and the day of voting dawns in less than 48 hours. One hopes that the local populace are not like some of the politicians and seemingly losing interest, resulting in a low voter turnout. While it sometimes does seem that it really doesn't matter who gets elected, it still is a basic principle of democracy that we have that choice.
The old adage that if you didn't, vote you can't complain, still holds true.
And since we all love to complain about politicians, lets hope we exercise that right to vote (and complain!)
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
George Bush, the Booksellers Best Friend (The Sequel)
It was only about eighteen months ago I first went for a browse through the amazon.ca booklists and discovered that George W. Bush was good for the book business, more than one year later and he’s still the champ of the bestseller shelves and the delete bins.
As the opinion polls continue to track downwards in pretty well every category that can be measured. The President may feel like he’s an unloved guy, but if there is one group that perhaps has a soft spot for the embattled US prez; it might be the Book sellers of the world.
George to put it simply is still good for business, putting aside the usual tomes by Al Franken and Maureen Dowd there is a an entire forest being clear cut as we speak, dedicated to books to bash Bush.
A quick scan of the Amazaon.ca books list find dozens of titles all with the same theme, America Good, Bush Bad. No wonder the President is reported to have retreated more and more into the bowels of the White House, eschewing conversations with anyone beyond his closest aides. One thing is certain he’s not hanging out in the Presidential Library, since it seems there wouldn’t be much in the way of positive re-enforcement for him to peruse.
Some of the more vitriolic books include,
Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove made George Bush look Presidential, by James Moore and Wayne Slater. It basically tells the story of the Machiavelli of the West Wing and how he has been able to create a President out of a reluctant warrior. One assumes that the sequel is in the works should Rove end up in political or criminal trouble over his current situation.
Such Men Are Dangerous: The fanatics of 1692 and 2004, by Frances Hill. Described as a chilling commentary, that compares the President and his neo-con buddies to the same crew that conducted the Salem Witch Hunts.
How much are you making on the war Daddy? A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration, by William Hartung. Going well beyond those great debates about Dick Cheney and Halliburton, this one shows how many of the current Bush insiders have earned and in some ways created their fortunes with public policy.
The President of Good and Evil: Questioning the ethics of George W. Bush, by Peter Singer. From Iraq to the Supreme Court, Singer examines pretty well every decision that the President has made and suggests that he leaves his nation underserved.
The above is only a miniscule sample of the pages and pages to click through at Amazon.ca. If you have some time do a search of the many books listed about Bush and try as you might, it would be quite a feat to find more than a handful suggesting that the Bush Presidency is one of great achievement and anything close to being a success.
Even some of those tomes that praise the leader don’t seem to scream off the page with glee. Take the Bush biography by David Frum, The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush. Sheesh, when even your own side can’t muster up more than the term “surprise”, it’s time to get busy on legacy building. Of course to be fair to the President, Frum is probably the fairest of fair weather supporters, living off his 15 minutes of fame in the Bush White house and his Axis of Evil slogan.
Moved out of the White House a few years ago, he most recently he spent a fair amount of time ambushing the President’s first choice of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, so Frum may not have been the most dedicated of foot soldiers.
And to add insult to all of this injury, even John Dean has risen from the political dead and weighed in with his own unflattering look at the Bush agenda. Dean has written an interesting examination of the bush Presidency called, Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush. That title alone, must give the President pause to reflect on his popularity.
When the author and main participant in what has been described as arguably the most crooked presidency ever, suggests that your Presidency is a bad one, well it may be time for a serious image makeover. Not to mention time for some serious rewriting of your agenda and an urgent call to improve your place in American History. It also is a hint that you can put your library card away for awhile, there's nothing there for you to read.
As the opinion polls continue to track downwards in pretty well every category that can be measured. The President may feel like he’s an unloved guy, but if there is one group that perhaps has a soft spot for the embattled US prez; it might be the Book sellers of the world.
George to put it simply is still good for business, putting aside the usual tomes by Al Franken and Maureen Dowd there is a an entire forest being clear cut as we speak, dedicated to books to bash Bush.
A quick scan of the Amazaon.ca books list find dozens of titles all with the same theme, America Good, Bush Bad. No wonder the President is reported to have retreated more and more into the bowels of the White House, eschewing conversations with anyone beyond his closest aides. One thing is certain he’s not hanging out in the Presidential Library, since it seems there wouldn’t be much in the way of positive re-enforcement for him to peruse.
Some of the more vitriolic books include,
Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove made George Bush look Presidential, by James Moore and Wayne Slater. It basically tells the story of the Machiavelli of the West Wing and how he has been able to create a President out of a reluctant warrior. One assumes that the sequel is in the works should Rove end up in political or criminal trouble over his current situation.
Such Men Are Dangerous: The fanatics of 1692 and 2004, by Frances Hill. Described as a chilling commentary, that compares the President and his neo-con buddies to the same crew that conducted the Salem Witch Hunts.
How much are you making on the war Daddy? A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration, by William Hartung. Going well beyond those great debates about Dick Cheney and Halliburton, this one shows how many of the current Bush insiders have earned and in some ways created their fortunes with public policy.
The President of Good and Evil: Questioning the ethics of George W. Bush, by Peter Singer. From Iraq to the Supreme Court, Singer examines pretty well every decision that the President has made and suggests that he leaves his nation underserved.
The above is only a miniscule sample of the pages and pages to click through at Amazon.ca. If you have some time do a search of the many books listed about Bush and try as you might, it would be quite a feat to find more than a handful suggesting that the Bush Presidency is one of great achievement and anything close to being a success.
Even some of those tomes that praise the leader don’t seem to scream off the page with glee. Take the Bush biography by David Frum, The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush. Sheesh, when even your own side can’t muster up more than the term “surprise”, it’s time to get busy on legacy building. Of course to be fair to the President, Frum is probably the fairest of fair weather supporters, living off his 15 minutes of fame in the Bush White house and his Axis of Evil slogan.
Moved out of the White House a few years ago, he most recently he spent a fair amount of time ambushing the President’s first choice of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, so Frum may not have been the most dedicated of foot soldiers.
And to add insult to all of this injury, even John Dean has risen from the political dead and weighed in with his own unflattering look at the Bush agenda. Dean has written an interesting examination of the bush Presidency called, Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush. That title alone, must give the President pause to reflect on his popularity.
When the author and main participant in what has been described as arguably the most crooked presidency ever, suggests that your Presidency is a bad one, well it may be time for a serious image makeover. Not to mention time for some serious rewriting of your agenda and an urgent call to improve your place in American History. It also is a hint that you can put your library card away for awhile, there's nothing there for you to read.
Ketchikan's bridge to nowhere comes under intense scrutiny
It was a 315 million dollar construction project that has raised many an eyebrow since it was first announced. The Gravina bridge, a fanciful project that would eliminate a ferry ride and link the Ketchikan airport (hey is that familiar or what) and 50 residents of Gravina Island with the city of Ketchikan is suddenly not a sure thing anymore.
The pride and joy of Representative Don Young and receiving some strong vocal backing from Senator Lisa Murkowski (daughter of the State's Governor), it has come to define the term pork in the world of the pork barrel.
The bridge which was to be almost as long as the Golden Gate Bridge and taller than the Brooklyn Bridge has been the talk of Ketchikan ever since the idea was floated, but the real interest came from a number of tax payer groups tired of uncontrolled spending. With America's infrastructure crumbling from neglect and disasters, many Americans have begun to question the logic in building a bridge for a city of 8,000 when cities like New Orleans still have major sections laying in ruin.
Apparently someone in Washington heard some noise as the Senate Appropriations committee has removed the Federal earmarks for the project and effectively sent it to the State level for further financing. Which puts the project into the hands of Governor Frank Murkowski, who if required to foot the bill with Alaskan money, may find that the old Ketchikan ferries with their current daily timetable will do just fine.
The debate over the project has descended into farce at times, wrong information, misstatements and threats have all been part of the lore of the Gravina Bridge. It has even made it to the big times, getting mentioned in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous, all of whom have been scathing in their indictment of the plans. If nothing else, Ketchikan is getting more publicity than the Chamber of Commerce could ever afford to buy, mind you not all that publicity is particularly good. But as they say in advertising, just make sure to spell the client's name right.
It makes for a cautionary tale for the folks of Podunk and the ever popular Tsimpsean Access project, at one time a dream of local politicians, who said they one day saw a bridge to the airport and across the way to Port Simpson. One wonders if the Digby Island bridge would attract the same kind of national attention in Canada that Gravina has generated in the States.
As the folks in Ketchikan are quickly learning, wishing so, doesn't necessarily make it so!
The pride and joy of Representative Don Young and receiving some strong vocal backing from Senator Lisa Murkowski (daughter of the State's Governor), it has come to define the term pork in the world of the pork barrel.
The bridge which was to be almost as long as the Golden Gate Bridge and taller than the Brooklyn Bridge has been the talk of Ketchikan ever since the idea was floated, but the real interest came from a number of tax payer groups tired of uncontrolled spending. With America's infrastructure crumbling from neglect and disasters, many Americans have begun to question the logic in building a bridge for a city of 8,000 when cities like New Orleans still have major sections laying in ruin.
Apparently someone in Washington heard some noise as the Senate Appropriations committee has removed the Federal earmarks for the project and effectively sent it to the State level for further financing. Which puts the project into the hands of Governor Frank Murkowski, who if required to foot the bill with Alaskan money, may find that the old Ketchikan ferries with their current daily timetable will do just fine.
The debate over the project has descended into farce at times, wrong information, misstatements and threats have all been part of the lore of the Gravina Bridge. It has even made it to the big times, getting mentioned in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous, all of whom have been scathing in their indictment of the plans. If nothing else, Ketchikan is getting more publicity than the Chamber of Commerce could ever afford to buy, mind you not all that publicity is particularly good. But as they say in advertising, just make sure to spell the client's name right.
It makes for a cautionary tale for the folks of Podunk and the ever popular Tsimpsean Access project, at one time a dream of local politicians, who said they one day saw a bridge to the airport and across the way to Port Simpson. One wonders if the Digby Island bridge would attract the same kind of national attention in Canada that Gravina has generated in the States.
As the folks in Ketchikan are quickly learning, wishing so, doesn't necessarily make it so!
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
From the Lester playbook
As the days of Podunk Decision 2005 wind down, the incumbent mayor has reached back to the days of Peter Lester to get his message across. Herb Pond began a series of information notes in the Daily News on Monday, A Fragile but Tangible Recovery refreshed the publics memory about the history of this term as mayor. The Cruise Ship dock, the construction of NWCC, lobbying on behalf of McMillan Fish when it appeared that they were going to not rebuild in Prince Rupert, all of that and more took up about one fifth of a page on both Monday and Tuesday.
Pond touched on the frustrations of not being able to get the Pulp Mill up and running yet, his hope that with China Paper "on the hook" (as he put it) the mill will soon start up and bring much needed relief to the city . He recounted the city's flirtations with the world of aquaculture. In the Pond verses, he recounts that Fish Farms offered up the only ray of hope in those darkest days of the city. Marine Harvest the only bit of investment that had come knocking on the door, with a prospect of year round jobs. He then says with a bit of understatement, that it became clear that open net technology and the people of the north coast were not ready for each other and Council moved on to other things.
It was interesting to note a contribution to the Daily News by the Prince Rupert Environmental Society , just one page over from Ponds thoughts was an advertisement, that listed those candidates that were against the idea of open net fin fish farms on the North coast. Pond's name was not on the list of those calling for a moratorium .
As for the Pond puclicity push, it's a case of everything old is new again. If one thinks back to the days of Lester, a similar tactic of getting the candidates message to the people was used as the election day came close. We had the same kind of print reminders of the incumbents achievements and previews of the plans to come. Lester at the time, would also take advantage of the Letters to the Editor pages, frequently appearing to pen his third person accounts of life in Podunk. So far Pond has managed to remain in the first person and on message.
His cause of late has been to keep that old gang of his together, Pond has done some valiant spade work for his current group of councilors, continuing on the theme that they have had to make the tough decisions that have us on the right path (in his opinion). It has almost become a crusade of Pond's to try to bring his "team" along with him on election day.
It will be interesting to see if Part Three on Wednesday, the rebuilding of our future, is the final installment of the Pond Trilogies or if we receive bonus material on Thursday and Friday. We also anxiously await the Rendell rebuttall''s.
One thing is certain, the ad reps at the Daily have had a pretty good month in sales.
Pond touched on the frustrations of not being able to get the Pulp Mill up and running yet, his hope that with China Paper "on the hook" (as he put it) the mill will soon start up and bring much needed relief to the city . He recounted the city's flirtations with the world of aquaculture. In the Pond verses, he recounts that Fish Farms offered up the only ray of hope in those darkest days of the city. Marine Harvest the only bit of investment that had come knocking on the door, with a prospect of year round jobs. He then says with a bit of understatement, that it became clear that open net technology and the people of the north coast were not ready for each other and Council moved on to other things.
It was interesting to note a contribution to the Daily News by the Prince Rupert Environmental Society , just one page over from Ponds thoughts was an advertisement, that listed those candidates that were against the idea of open net fin fish farms on the North coast. Pond's name was not on the list of those calling for a moratorium .
As for the Pond puclicity push, it's a case of everything old is new again. If one thinks back to the days of Lester, a similar tactic of getting the candidates message to the people was used as the election day came close. We had the same kind of print reminders of the incumbents achievements and previews of the plans to come. Lester at the time, would also take advantage of the Letters to the Editor pages, frequently appearing to pen his third person accounts of life in Podunk. So far Pond has managed to remain in the first person and on message.
His cause of late has been to keep that old gang of his together, Pond has done some valiant spade work for his current group of councilors, continuing on the theme that they have had to make the tough decisions that have us on the right path (in his opinion). It has almost become a crusade of Pond's to try to bring his "team" along with him on election day.
It will be interesting to see if Part Three on Wednesday, the rebuilding of our future, is the final installment of the Pond Trilogies or if we receive bonus material on Thursday and Friday. We also anxiously await the Rendell rebuttall''s.
One thing is certain, the ad reps at the Daily have had a pretty good month in sales.
Making Mother Nature work for you
Now this little bit of advice will be of no use to us in Podunk, sadly (well ok, lets be honest here, maybe not sadly) our "snow" days and freeze days are few and far between. But having seen this from seanincognito, I felt I should give our neighbours in Manitoba (and everywhere else eastwards it seems) something to be glad about.
With a dump of snow that brought a months worth of the white stuff in less than twenty four hours, they'll be wanting to make the best out of their new situation.
So, for those in climates where the hard work will pay off, instructions on how to build your own personal rink of dreams. A skating utopia, the temple of shinny.
From the blueprints to the supply list it's all here, the dimensions, the rate of water supply and the duration of the flood. Everything is provided but the kids to skate in the backyard, that is the domain of the builder.
As they said in Field of Dreams, if you build it, they will come!
Let's see there, snow by mid November! Hmm that should give you what, five months of good skating ahead, enjoy!
With a dump of snow that brought a months worth of the white stuff in less than twenty four hours, they'll be wanting to make the best out of their new situation.
So, for those in climates where the hard work will pay off, instructions on how to build your own personal rink of dreams. A skating utopia, the temple of shinny.
From the blueprints to the supply list it's all here, the dimensions, the rate of water supply and the duration of the flood. Everything is provided but the kids to skate in the backyard, that is the domain of the builder.
As they said in Field of Dreams, if you build it, they will come!
Let's see there, snow by mid November! Hmm that should give you what, five months of good skating ahead, enjoy!
Goodale's goodies and the art of the call
With the Liberal's unwrapping some early Christmas gifts for Canadians on Monday, the talk of a Holiday Season election seems to be heating up. The Day's drama began with a tough talking Prime Minister pretty well dismissing the call for a mid February election, as was suggested by Jack Layton, and seconded by Stephen Harper and Gilles Duceppe last Thursday.
This was followed by the Finance Ministers Economic Statement or as it's starting to look like, Ralph Goodales 12 gifts (give or take) of Christmas, personal and corporate tax cuts (take that eh Jack), money for education, workplace training initiatives, assistance to immigrants, help for the trades and broadband service to remote areas across Canada. And for good measure a suggestion that tax benefits for the working poor might be a dandy idea. All the goodies poured out of Santa Ralph's bag on Monday afternoon.
The Liberals will use the financial statement to suggest that if the government is brought down, the opposition leaders will have more in common with Scrooge, than those Wise Men who went following a star. The Liberals are effectively daring the opposition to bring down this government and stop all this progress, while at the same time intruding on the Christmas season.
How the opposition will handle the gift of giving from their Liberal opponents, could go a long way to determining when Canadians will trudge off to the polls to render a verdict on this Parliament and its participants.
Politics Watch provides us with the dates to watch and a few hints as to just what might be behind the machinations of each party. How they plan jockey for the high ground, in a campaign that may not have much of that land left to hold.
With the talk of an election taking up so much of the time today, it was of interest that an advertisement in the Daily Podunkian caught my eye this evening. Our Local NDP MP, Nathan Cullen is advertising for a local constituency office worker, to work a part time basis of 7.5 hours a week. The employee will help to bring the concerns of the riding to Cullen's Ottawa staff and assist the MP in his duties representing the area. However, this could be the most temporary of temporary jobs, in a town that can set records for short term employment.
The position is posted as lasting three months, but if the election is called and Mr. Cullen should lose his seat, the lucky candidate could be back on the job hunt before his or her boss has had a chance to clean out the Ottawa office.
This was followed by the Finance Ministers Economic Statement or as it's starting to look like, Ralph Goodales 12 gifts (give or take) of Christmas, personal and corporate tax cuts (take that eh Jack), money for education, workplace training initiatives, assistance to immigrants, help for the trades and broadband service to remote areas across Canada. And for good measure a suggestion that tax benefits for the working poor might be a dandy idea. All the goodies poured out of Santa Ralph's bag on Monday afternoon.
The Liberals will use the financial statement to suggest that if the government is brought down, the opposition leaders will have more in common with Scrooge, than those Wise Men who went following a star. The Liberals are effectively daring the opposition to bring down this government and stop all this progress, while at the same time intruding on the Christmas season.
How the opposition will handle the gift of giving from their Liberal opponents, could go a long way to determining when Canadians will trudge off to the polls to render a verdict on this Parliament and its participants.
Politics Watch provides us with the dates to watch and a few hints as to just what might be behind the machinations of each party. How they plan jockey for the high ground, in a campaign that may not have much of that land left to hold.
With the talk of an election taking up so much of the time today, it was of interest that an advertisement in the Daily Podunkian caught my eye this evening. Our Local NDP MP, Nathan Cullen is advertising for a local constituency office worker, to work a part time basis of 7.5 hours a week. The employee will help to bring the concerns of the riding to Cullen's Ottawa staff and assist the MP in his duties representing the area. However, this could be the most temporary of temporary jobs, in a town that can set records for short term employment.
The position is posted as lasting three months, but if the election is called and Mr. Cullen should lose his seat, the lucky candidate could be back on the job hunt before his or her boss has had a chance to clean out the Ottawa office.
Now this is financial planning!
It's too bad that Dawn Fraser probably won't be in the Financial Planning business much longer, because anyone that can turn six dollars into 27.2 million is probably going to have a few customers.
Fraser, was the single winner of Saturday's 27.2 million dollar 6/49 draw, the third largest in 6/49 history and the largest jackpot ever won in Manitoba.
Fraser points out that her horoscope in the last few days has pointed out that her sign, Libra would be dealing with money in a meaningful way shortly. She normally doesn't pay much heed to her horoscope, but as of Saturday...............
For the record your humble servant at Podunk is also a Libra and uh, well I'm not exactly stuffing the mattresses today, but hey, always hopeful, always hopeful.
Fraser who is 54, works at (or most likely worked) at a Winnipeg Credit Union. One suspects that a certain CFP position is about to open up, as Fraser puts her financial knowledge to work on a personal mission.
She's a walking, talking advertisement for Freedom 55, the easy way!
Fraser, was the single winner of Saturday's 27.2 million dollar 6/49 draw, the third largest in 6/49 history and the largest jackpot ever won in Manitoba.
Fraser points out that her horoscope in the last few days has pointed out that her sign, Libra would be dealing with money in a meaningful way shortly. She normally doesn't pay much heed to her horoscope, but as of Saturday...............
For the record your humble servant at Podunk is also a Libra and uh, well I'm not exactly stuffing the mattresses today, but hey, always hopeful, always hopeful.
Fraser who is 54, works at (or most likely worked) at a Winnipeg Credit Union. One suspects that a certain CFP position is about to open up, as Fraser puts her financial knowledge to work on a personal mission.
She's a walking, talking advertisement for Freedom 55, the easy way!
Monday, November 14, 2005
A road or two to re-election
Rule number one for incumbent politicians one week before election day.
Make sure the people can get around!
Podunk faced Monday morning with an overnight freeze, which left the roads shall we say a little interesting for the morning commute. The odd sanding truck was spotted working the main routes (like the road in front of City Hall) but other roads, including some pretty major ways around town, were left to the Black Ice Gods and podunks notoriously unawares drivers.
Now if I were mayor for a day or a sitting councilor for a day, my one rule would be blow the entire sanding budget in the week before the election. Call out those sanding trucks early in the morning! Have battalions of city workers with shovels in hand spreading sand to every corner of the Podunk, a team of action will show that you mean business.
If you lose you won't care, if you win well you have three years to make amends. But giving Podunk's fickle electorate another reason to be annoyed with the elected ones, seems like an unnecessary pothole on the way to electoral success.
Well of course I exaggerate a tad, but one thing is certain, I'll bet that the Mayors office receives one or two phone calls about the roads this morning, one or two votes that may go to the competition purely by frustration. And in a close election one doesn't want to needlessly send the voters sliding to the other side.
Make sure the people can get around!
Podunk faced Monday morning with an overnight freeze, which left the roads shall we say a little interesting for the morning commute. The odd sanding truck was spotted working the main routes (like the road in front of City Hall) but other roads, including some pretty major ways around town, were left to the Black Ice Gods and podunks notoriously unawares drivers.
Now if I were mayor for a day or a sitting councilor for a day, my one rule would be blow the entire sanding budget in the week before the election. Call out those sanding trucks early in the morning! Have battalions of city workers with shovels in hand spreading sand to every corner of the Podunk, a team of action will show that you mean business.
If you lose you won't care, if you win well you have three years to make amends. But giving Podunk's fickle electorate another reason to be annoyed with the elected ones, seems like an unnecessary pothole on the way to electoral success.
Well of course I exaggerate a tad, but one thing is certain, I'll bet that the Mayors office receives one or two phone calls about the roads this morning, one or two votes that may go to the competition purely by frustration. And in a close election one doesn't want to needlessly send the voters sliding to the other side.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
From Podunk to the World
While working on my HockeyNation website I discovered a neat little tool that can translate our blogpages into different languages. Now I'm pretty sure I'll get more interest in the feature on my HockeyNation site, but hey, may as well add the new toy here in Podunk as well.
Just think somewhere in Germany, Italy, Russia or Greece to name a few, people are hanging on every word about the outcome of the Podunk council and mayoralty elections. I'm sure they also are anxiously awaiting word as to whether it's Wal Mart or Canadian Tire, or both for Podunk.
The program is called Babel Fish, it's provided by Alta Vista and is a pretty easy program to work. You add Babel Fish to your site by copying and pasting the link into your template. Then your viewer just copies the article from the blog and pastes into the text box provided by Babel Fish, they hit translate and your thoughts have a whole new world waiting for your next post.
Just think somewhere in Germany, Italy, Russia or Greece to name a few, people are hanging on every word about the outcome of the Podunk council and mayoralty elections. I'm sure they also are anxiously awaiting word as to whether it's Wal Mart or Canadian Tire, or both for Podunk.
The program is called Babel Fish, it's provided by Alta Vista and is a pretty easy program to work. You add Babel Fish to your site by copying and pasting the link into your template. Then your viewer just copies the article from the blog and pastes into the text box provided by Babel Fish, they hit translate and your thoughts have a whole new world waiting for your next post.
Friday, November 11, 2005
TV Decompression-Television without pity
Here at Podunk central it's not all blogging you know. Once and a while I unchain myself from the mighty blogmaster 1000 and read a newspaper, magazine or a book (what are they you say?) If I'm really ready to zone out I'll watch some TV.
With that in mind, I'll launch a new feature on the Podunk site today, something called TV Decompression. It will feature some links to resources on the net that may revere, or more than likely satire our friends on that family gathering hearth, the television set.
Check our right hand side of the blog in between the radio, radio links and the blogs log links.
Television without Pity- It's a great little source of entertainment for the TV viewer, miss a show? Check out the synopsis of the program you missed, if the episode was a dog the review will probably be more entertaining than the episode. Browse the forums, sometimes the best stuff comes from those parked on the couch. Below are some of the shows I've bookmarked for frequent review.
24 -- the reviews -- the forum
House -- the reviews -- the forum
Rome -- the reviews -- the forum
The Sopranos -- the reviews -- the forum
The West Wing -- the reviews -- the forum
With that in mind, I'll launch a new feature on the Podunk site today, something called TV Decompression. It will feature some links to resources on the net that may revere, or more than likely satire our friends on that family gathering hearth, the television set.
Check our right hand side of the blog in between the radio, radio links and the blogs log links.
Television without Pity- It's a great little source of entertainment for the TV viewer, miss a show? Check out the synopsis of the program you missed, if the episode was a dog the review will probably be more entertaining than the episode. Browse the forums, sometimes the best stuff comes from those parked on the couch. Below are some of the shows I've bookmarked for frequent review.
24 -- the reviews -- the forum
House -- the reviews -- the forum
Rome -- the reviews -- the forum
The Sopranos -- the reviews -- the forum
The West Wing -- the reviews -- the forum
Concerned but calm at GM Place
A three game skid, normally in Vancouver that's cause to trade the team on the Vancouver talk shows. But strangely, so far anyways, there's no wild trade Naslund/Bertuzzi/Cloutier rumour making the rounds of the over excited radio listeners of British Columbia.
That doesn't mean that people haven't noticed that the last few games, have not been much in the way of gems. The Canucks have gone into a mini slump, lethargic on the ice and empty on the scoresheets. Costly mistakes, giveaways and untimely penalties have all contributed to the recent decline of the Canuck play. Things that coach Marc Crawford will be spending more than a little time with in practice trying to turn around.
The latest worrisome sign, was a total lack of focus in the first period of Thursday's game against the Colorado Avalanche. The Avs had a four goal lead before the game was fourteen minutes old. With the Canucks giving away so many points, so early on, the game was probably lost before the first intermission. The final score of 5-3 no way indicative of the control of play that Colorado exhibited in that first period of play. The last time the Avs and Canucks matched up, Todd Bertuzzi was under siege by journalists and gave a simple answer of "it is, what it is". Had he used that term for the first period on Thursday night, the it would have been translated as ugly.
The whole evening was not a lost cause, the Canucks did manage to battle their way back to at least keeping the game close, at seom points giving the Avs the impression that a full takeover of the play was possible. But as the game wound down, costly mistakes would return the advantage to Colorado for good.
There isn't any panic yet in Vancouver, despite the losing skid, this is a rather talented squad that once it gets untracked will be back to filling the net regularly. Even with three games lost in a row, the Canucks still rule the northwest division, though that gap has narrowed to 2 points in the last three games. The power play needs to improve, its presently rated as 19th in the NHL and penalty killing also is a concern as the Canucks are currently ranked as the 18th most effective in the league. Championship teams don't generally live in the middle of the pack, so work needs to be done quickly on those two special team requirements. Add to that the mental errors they make and the penalty problems they find themselves in nightly, and Crawford has some work to do.
He'll try and get them back on track again on Saturday night, that's when the Detroit Red Wings come to town. They'll provide a pretty effective snap test for Crawford's students, one hopes they've been studying hard these last two days.
The above posting first appeared on my HockeyNation blog site, for more items about hockey check things out.
That doesn't mean that people haven't noticed that the last few games, have not been much in the way of gems. The Canucks have gone into a mini slump, lethargic on the ice and empty on the scoresheets. Costly mistakes, giveaways and untimely penalties have all contributed to the recent decline of the Canuck play. Things that coach Marc Crawford will be spending more than a little time with in practice trying to turn around.
The latest worrisome sign, was a total lack of focus in the first period of Thursday's game against the Colorado Avalanche. The Avs had a four goal lead before the game was fourteen minutes old. With the Canucks giving away so many points, so early on, the game was probably lost before the first intermission. The final score of 5-3 no way indicative of the control of play that Colorado exhibited in that first period of play. The last time the Avs and Canucks matched up, Todd Bertuzzi was under siege by journalists and gave a simple answer of "it is, what it is". Had he used that term for the first period on Thursday night, the it would have been translated as ugly.
The whole evening was not a lost cause, the Canucks did manage to battle their way back to at least keeping the game close, at seom points giving the Avs the impression that a full takeover of the play was possible. But as the game wound down, costly mistakes would return the advantage to Colorado for good.
There isn't any panic yet in Vancouver, despite the losing skid, this is a rather talented squad that once it gets untracked will be back to filling the net regularly. Even with three games lost in a row, the Canucks still rule the northwest division, though that gap has narrowed to 2 points in the last three games. The power play needs to improve, its presently rated as 19th in the NHL and penalty killing also is a concern as the Canucks are currently ranked as the 18th most effective in the league. Championship teams don't generally live in the middle of the pack, so work needs to be done quickly on those two special team requirements. Add to that the mental errors they make and the penalty problems they find themselves in nightly, and Crawford has some work to do.
He'll try and get them back on track again on Saturday night, that's when the Detroit Red Wings come to town. They'll provide a pretty effective snap test for Crawford's students, one hopes they've been studying hard these last two days.
The above posting first appeared on my HockeyNation blog site, for more items about hockey check things out.
Does God have caller ID? And if so, does he use it?
One imagines St. Peter working the big desk, the phone rings and he goes oh, no not him again. At least that’s how I figure it is up in heaven, as Pat Robertson lets loose with another blast of his now legendary Robertsonisms.
Today it’s the unfortunate people of Dover, Pa; a small little town in rural Pennsylvania which recently tossed all eight members of its school board into the electoral has been pile. It seems that the eight former board members were proponents of teaching Intelligent Design, an alternate way of thinking to the theory of evolution. The folks in Dover, involved in a major debate on this issue, take their separation of church and sate seriously and chose to replace those that were in the forefront of the program change. However, by rebuking the ID believers, Robertson suggested that Dover is on a path to destruction.
The decision by the people of Dover sent Robertson off into a full hyperbolic meltdown, as he chastised Dover residents with dire warnings. Said Robertson: "I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city. God is tolerant and loving, but we can't keep sticking our finger in his eye forever.If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them."
It would seem that since the voters of Dover and Pat didn’t see eye to eye, then for Pat it’s a sign that its time for an eye for an eye.
The call for a plague of misfortune is just the latest in a rather strange bit of public speaking for the controversial 700 club minister. Robertson made news over the summer when he publicly called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez; comments which even the Bush White House were quick to disassociate themselves from.
In 2003, Robertson raised more than a few eyebrows with his comments that what was needed was for a nuclear device to be blown up at the State Department, as a way of getting their attention.
As the years have gone by, his comments have become more off the wall and far from the mainstream. He’s taken credit for steering a Hurricane away from his buildings and been an outspoken supporter of an African dictator while investing heavily in his country. He frequently launches attacks on the feminist, gay and lesbian movements, at one time suggesting that they; along with pagans and the People for the American Way were responsible for the attacks on the twin Towers in New York City. He even blamed Hurricane Katrina on the selection of Ellen DeGeneres to host the Emmys, somehow also finding a tie between DeGeneres' hosting gigs and the tragedy of September 11th.
In short he’s been rather loose cannon for a pretty long time now. In fact it seems that Robertson issues more of his kind of personal fatwa’s, than all of those Muslim clerics (of which he is so suspicious) combined.
When the phone rings up by those pearly gates, you can’t help but think that St. Peter is earning his pay. Earning it large, each and every day that he keeps Pat Robertson’s calls away.
Today it’s the unfortunate people of Dover, Pa; a small little town in rural Pennsylvania which recently tossed all eight members of its school board into the electoral has been pile. It seems that the eight former board members were proponents of teaching Intelligent Design, an alternate way of thinking to the theory of evolution. The folks in Dover, involved in a major debate on this issue, take their separation of church and sate seriously and chose to replace those that were in the forefront of the program change. However, by rebuking the ID believers, Robertson suggested that Dover is on a path to destruction.
The decision by the people of Dover sent Robertson off into a full hyperbolic meltdown, as he chastised Dover residents with dire warnings. Said Robertson: "I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city. God is tolerant and loving, but we can't keep sticking our finger in his eye forever.If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them."
It would seem that since the voters of Dover and Pat didn’t see eye to eye, then for Pat it’s a sign that its time for an eye for an eye.
The call for a plague of misfortune is just the latest in a rather strange bit of public speaking for the controversial 700 club minister. Robertson made news over the summer when he publicly called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez; comments which even the Bush White House were quick to disassociate themselves from.
In 2003, Robertson raised more than a few eyebrows with his comments that what was needed was for a nuclear device to be blown up at the State Department, as a way of getting their attention.
As the years have gone by, his comments have become more off the wall and far from the mainstream. He’s taken credit for steering a Hurricane away from his buildings and been an outspoken supporter of an African dictator while investing heavily in his country. He frequently launches attacks on the feminist, gay and lesbian movements, at one time suggesting that they; along with pagans and the People for the American Way were responsible for the attacks on the twin Towers in New York City. He even blamed Hurricane Katrina on the selection of Ellen DeGeneres to host the Emmys, somehow also finding a tie between DeGeneres' hosting gigs and the tragedy of September 11th.
In short he’s been rather loose cannon for a pretty long time now. In fact it seems that Robertson issues more of his kind of personal fatwa’s, than all of those Muslim clerics (of which he is so suspicious) combined.
When the phone rings up by those pearly gates, you can’t help but think that St. Peter is earning his pay. Earning it large, each and every day that he keeps Pat Robertson’s calls away.
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