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when welsh rugby fans go wild…

…they cut off their testicles.

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ted morton’s head explodes…

We wonder what firewall Ted has to say about this.

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hinman elected alliance leader.

Cardston-Taber-Warner MLA Paul Hinman was elected leader of the Alberta Alliance Party this weekend at their convention in Red Deer.

Hinman, the only AA MLA in the Alberta Legislature, was easily knocked off fellow right-wing crazies Marilyn Burns, David Crutcher, and Ed Klop (Klop was endorsed by former leader Randy Thorsteinson – with endorsements like he’s an “incredibly nice guy” and he “grew up on a dairy farm,” we’re stunned Klop didn’t win with a landslide…) .

Here are the results…

1st Ballot
Paul Hinman – 485
Marilyn Burns – 244
David Crutcher – 211
Ed Klop – 188

2nd Ballot
Paul Hinman – 584
Marilyn Burns – 312
David Crutcher – 236

3rd Ballot
Paul Hinman – 626
Marilyn Burns – 387

It seems that Red Deer was a hot spot for right-wing fringe politicians this weekend as the Alberta Social Credit Party also held it’s convention this weekend…

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nerd alert.

Saturday night… too tired to do any-thing…

with 2 out of 142 polls reporting, Jim Green is leading Sam Sullivan 947 to 358 in Vancouver’s Mayoral Election.

You can see live results here.

UPDATE! RESULTS!

Sam Sullivan – 61,543
Jim Green – 57,796
James Green – 4,253

We call *shenanigans* on the part of James Green.

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uhg…

uhg. It has been a traumatic and busy couple of days.

Thursday: 5 hour wait in the Emergency Room. Lots of blood included.
Friday: Walk the Line! “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash
Saturday: Former US Ambassador Paul Cellucci

When we get the energy, we’ll write up a post.

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something about new zealand.

It’s very interesting how many hits we’ve been getting under the search word “Peter Kruselnicki.”

Is this what the Tories meant back in the 199o’s when they would always use New Zealand as a model of how Alberta should operate? 😉

See here, here, here, here, and here to see what we’re talking about.

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alberta bizarro world continued…

More weirdness coming out of Alberta’s right-wing columnists… first Lorne Gunter… this time, Tom Olsen from the Calgary Herald isn’t slamming the provincial Liberals… weird…

“Liberal scattergun takes shots at premier wannabes
The Calgary Herald
Wed 16 Nov 2005
By: Tom Olsen

Kevin Taft chose the scattergun approach, standing up in the legislature and letting loose with a spray of figurative bullets.

Five Tory ministers were the targets within Taft’s first five questions, starting with the three cabinet ministers who want to be king — Lyle Oberg, Dave Hancock and Ed Stelmach.

This opening day of the fall session wasn’t about health care at all. Instead, the official Opposition Liberals trained their guns on the Tories’ budgeting process — which, truth be told, doesn’t exist in any real sense.

The government spends billions of dollars. By happy circumstance, it has billions extra. So it spends billions more.

Taft went straight to Oberg, probably the first time the infrastructure minister has fielded the first question on the first day of a session.

“Can this minister tell us how far over budget his department is so far this year?” said Taft.

Oberg was nonchalant, first assuring the legislature his department was right on target, then acknowledging an extra $400 million in spending. Not sure how the two square.

Next up was Hancock, with a question Taft prefaced with “fiscal hawks turning into fiscal turkeys.”

The advanced education minister, freshly coiffed and trimmed down as befits a premierial wannabe, used a lot of words to run down all the things the province has done in education lately.

Then it was on to Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stelmach, a guy who seems to be about everybody’s second choice for next Tory leader.

Asked Taft: “Can this minister tell the assembly if his department is on target to finish the year on budget?”

Eddie ran through some stuff his department is doing, but no one really cares. It’s not like he’s building universities or hospitals. …”

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HOLY SMOKES!

We think we may have a small case of whiplash…. we actually don’t disagree with one of Mr. Lorne Gunter‘s articles… wow… Mr. Gunter as you may know, is a right-leaning columnist at the Edmonton Journal who’s articles are usually waaaaay off the mark (in our books, of course).

In today’s article he criticizes the Klein Tories…

Clips the article…

Arrogance of Klein Tories as bad as the Liberals’
What possessed our Premier to say extra revenues are nopne of our business?


It was infuriating this week to watch federal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale use the House of Commons finance committee to launch the federal Liberals re-election campaign with insincere promises of tax cuts, most of which won’t kick in until 2010 or 2011. …

But it was more enraging to hear Alberta Premier Ralph Klein insist any money his government receives over and above the revenues projected in its annual budget belong to the government and are no concern of the opposition or the legislature. Whether he realizes it or not, when Klein says that he is also saying they are no concern of voters and taxpayers, either.

Yet clearly they are very much our concern.

You may feel it is only fair that oil and gas companies pay royalties on the non-renewable resources they pump from under this province. After all the resources do not belong to them, they are public. But that doesn’t mean the resources are owned by the provincial government, either.

Alberta‘s resources are the property of Albertans. We merely elect governments to manage them on our behalf. That is an enormous power to give to a tiny group of people. So we elect an entire legislature to hold the government to account.

It is not enough that we voters can turn the government out every three or four years. For there to be effective accountability, the opposition must be able to scrutinize and publicize government actions on an ongoing basis, even if we don’t particularly like what the opposition has in mind.

….

Opposition is right

But when the opposition leaders are right, they’re right. And both Liberal Leader Kevin Taft and NDP boss Brian Mason were spot-on this week in their criticism of the Klein government’s unsupervised, unaccountable spending spree.

In its budget last spring, the Klein government outlined plans to spend $25.8 billion this year, for a province with just 3.3 million residents. That is already $7,800 per man, woman and child, far and away the highest spending level of any government in the country, federal or provincial.

Still, Alberta is likely to have revenues this year approaching $35 billion. So, since the budget, and since the legislature was last in session, the Klein government has pledged to spend an additional $7 billion — nearly a third more than planned — all without additional legislation, or debate, or even so much as a question answered in the legislature.

And just what are the Tories so preoccupied with in this fall sitting that they haven’t time to answer questions about the surplus? Well, there’s an act to clean up ambiguous wording in Post-Secondary Learning Act, some “minor changes” to the Police Act, a bill to let unborn babies sue their parents for negligent driving, a ban on criminals making money off the notoriety of their crimes and an act to foster “a spirit of community and good relations among current and former MLAs.”

Busy, very busy.

So when Taft says “If the premier thinks he can spend taxpayer dollars at his whim, it really is time for him to go,” and Mason says, “Mr. Klein is getting to the point where he thinks he’s entitled to absolute power in this province,” they’re both right.

Klein’s Tories announce $7 billion in spending (twice as much per capita as Goodale), then get mad when anyone suggests they might want to let the opposition question them about it.

That’s every bit as appallingly arrogant.”

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graham thomson’s blog

We’ve just discovered that our favorite Edmonton Journal columnist, Mr. Graham Thomson, has a blog!

Check it out here.

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blog meme meme meme meme meme meme.

It has come to our attention that Calgary Grit has tagged us in another elaborate blog meme scheme…

The rules are:

1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five people to do the same.

So… from February 17, 2005

“For those of you in Alberta – Happy Family Day long weekend!

Not exactly the most exciting post, but pleasant none the less. We were on the eve of our second apartment move of the year (there turned out to be another one 6 months later). Also, as you might notice, this post was posted in our pre-pluralistic singular days. Ah, what a crazy youth this blog did have. 😛

Now… we tag…

Chris-Face
Grandinite
Janet
Lotusland
Rempel

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kruselnicki in trouble?

It seems Premier Ralph Klein’s Chief of Staff, Mr. Peter Kruselnicki, has become part of some controversy related to his recent work in New Zealand.

From the New Zealand Herald:

Commission under attack over CYF head’s contract
 
15.11.05
By Ruth Berry

The State Services Commission’s handling of outgoing Child, Youth and Family head Paula Tyler’s contract is under fire on all fronts.

The Herald understands she blames the commission for her early departure.

Ms Tyler recently announced she would leave just 18 months into her three-year contract, prompting the National Party to complain she should refund part of the $70,000 spent recruiting her.

State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble said her contract made no provision for repayment of the costs in the event she left early.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday that she was concerned about the agreement.

“I think the contract should have been tighter. I think everyone appreciates that helping people relocate may well be part of the package, but I would have thought it should be tied to seeing out the term.” She expected that contracts would be better drawn up in future.

But a source told the Herald Ms Tyler believed the commission should take responsibility for her departure as it had failed to uphold a commitment it had made to find her partner a suitable job.

Peter Kruselnicki was a senior bureaucrat in Alberta, Canada, and one-time Deputy Minister of Finance.

The $70,000 included two return airfares between Canada and New Zealand to enable him to seek employment opportunities.

He was finally made a visiting fellow at Victoria University’s public administration faculty.

The Herald’s source said the job was essentially a sinecure and not at all the type of senior state sector position he was qualified to do and which the pair had been led to believe would be found for him.

The commitment had been informal but in good faith and Ms Tyler had expected it to be honoured.

Tired of “fiddling his thumbs”, Mr Kruselnicki had opted to return to Canada to work for Alberta Premier Ralph Klein.”
 

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the smell of a 20 dollar bill.

Soon, we may be $20 richer.

Mr. Bullerwell, we take cash and personal cheques only.

And to quote…

“And there’s no way you’re getting your $20. To quote my personal hero Paul Wells:

“No election before the New Year. There will be no election before the New Year. Tell yourself. Learn to love the idea. Learn to hate it. I don’t care. But deal: no election before the New Year.””

Huzzah!

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only four days until…

walk the line.

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85.71 cups.

According to the Death by Caffine Calculator:
85.71 cups of Brewed Coffee + daveberta = Death
(Props to Chris for the linkage)
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tory dynasty.

This lovely article was 100% lifted from last week’s edition of SEE Magazine.

“ON THE RECORD:

Immediately following the release of Justice John Gomery’s first report on the sponsorship scandal, Premier Ralph Klein said he would be tossed out for similar behaviour in Alberta.

“I would be hung,” Klein told reporters. The comment, coming from a politician who has publicly defended former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, drunkenly thrown money at the homeless, and given detractors the middle finger, raised more than a few eyebrows.

Klein isn’t the only member of his caucus with a colourful history. Conservative scandal gets public attention year after year, touching multiple cabinet portfolios, and tarnishing the most luminous Tories. Here are a few of the regime’s greatest hits from the last three years.

2005: Worst land deal deal ever

Earlier this year, ethics commissioner Donald Hamilton cleared Environment Minister Guy Boutilier of influencing an Alberta Social Housing Corporation decision to sell 231 acres of Fort McMurray land for affordable housing to the Timberlea Joint Venture Consortium. The consortium got the land at a price set for 158 acres. Not only was the deal sweet, but beneficiaries include Boutilier’s personal friend Tim Walsh, and other individuals who NDP critic Ray Martin says have contributed $14,000 to Boutilier’s campaigns since he became an MLA. To top things off, the $35,000 per acre price was based on 1990 land values. The government lost at least $2.5 million in potential revenue on the sale.

2004: Mar’s totally excellent misadventure

Alberta opposition leaders tore into Health Minister Gary Mar for awarding $400,000 worth of untendered contracts to his former executive assistant Kelly Charlebois. In a stunning parallel to the federal government’s sponsorship contracts, Mar had no record of any work performed by Charlebois for the money. Mar cancelled the contracts after considerable media attention, but the government never reformed their policy to allow contracts under $100,000 to
be awarded without tender, even if multiple contracts are awarded to one person or company over a short period of time. No reforms of contract tendering limits
came about in the wake of the fiasco, and Mar was allowed to keep his cabinet
seat.

2003: FOIP – Fuck Off, It’s Private

Just days before Christmas, Alberta Finance Minister Pat Nelson announced the settlement of a multi-million dollar legal dispute between West Edmonton Mall, Alberta Treasury Branches (ATB) and former ATB superintendent Elmer Leahy. Leahy had overseen the questionable approval of $353 million of loan guarantees for the financially troubled mall, and was later accused of accepting bribes to move the deal forward. Leahy turned the tables on his accusers at the ATB, swearing Ralph Klein, as economic development minister, ordered him to make the deal happen, along with then-deputy premier Ken Kowalski, and former treasurer Jim Dinning.

Then NDP leader Raj Pannu was steamed to discover details of the settlement were sealed in court. Subsequent Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) requests for information about the settlement were rejected. All documents had been given to the ATB, which enjoys an exemption from FOIP legislation. Government losses on the deal were never disclosed, although the ATB was reported to have estimated $115 million was sunk on the deal. Dinning is now a front-runner in the lurking Tory leadership race.”