Friday, April 24, 2009

Campaign Day 11....Will The Ledgie Boys Get Theirs Today?

AllThePunditryThatFits
PuffAddledVille


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ScatteredLive Blogging Of Today's 'Wedgies From The Ledgies' Session, With Interjections!... Below.....
Update: There was no call from Brian in Garden Bay - hope he's OK....
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You'll have to hold your nose and tune into the Goodship Watercarrier on the IncredibleShrinking'98 after 9:00am this morning.

Why do we wonder, you may be asking yourself?

Well......

It turns out that the good Mr. Good's favorite caller and/or arch-nemesis, Brian From Garden Bay, who likes to keep his eyes wide open imagining His Gordness in a Tutu, has forewarned us that he's got killer questions ready for each and every one of them.

The Ledgie Boys I mean.

Not the guy in the tutu.


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Live Blog Follows......

9:07am.....Waiting for segment to start.....just heard news item from Mr. Campbell about how the James Gang has 'plagerized' from his party's position on the policing/gang issue.....this after the heavy-bassed leaden lead-in to Mr. Good's show at 8:30 about 'GANGS!....WHICH PARTY WILL REALLY DO SOMETHING!'....Coordinated? ....Heck no...

9:09am....Here we go....Goodship WC leads with the issue of 'personal attacks' on Mr. Campbell by Carole James on The NDP that 'came up' during yesterday's debate that he 'mederated'......Mr. Good plays tape from debate...It's the passage that David Beers from the The Tyee made the fuss about.....there's the 'pause' from Mr. Good after an answer from Ms. James....it's long (the pause)....you can then hear the 'audible sigh' at the end dead air that Mr. Beers mentioned as Mr. Good goes to the next caller....

9:10am...Mr. Palmer says there was derisive laughter in the press room (also reported by Mr. Beers yesterday)....Palmer says it was because of what James' gang has done re: personal attacks on Mr. Campbell...(me: they're going to attack James on this?????)....especially through the surrogates....Baldrey then piles on....(me: So, apparently the 'pause' was a good, non-partisan thing!!! Oh, now I get it...The members of the Press Gallery were all laughing because they figured Ms. James deserved what Mr. Good gave her....in a totally 'impartial' way, of course...what codswallop)....

9:11am....OK...Here comes the GoodshipWC's half -a-momma-mia-culpa....He explains that the 'pause' did turn out to be longer than he originally thought it was....And, regardless, the only reason that it happened at all (this is kinda/sorta what he said in his 'reply to Mr. Beers yesterday - see bottom of post) was becaue he (Good) was just weighing whether he, himself, should have 'debated' Ms. James' response (me: nope, no partisanship showing there, no sireee, completely impartial 'moderator' who waits while he decides whether he should attack or not...didn't know he was actually one of the participants in the debate....which party, exactly is he the leader of anyway?)...Mr. Good then says that he didn't realize, until after the debate, the effect the pause had it had 'outside' the (debate?) room....

(me: And what was that 'effect' was that?....Mr. Beers response?...Somebody elses?....Who elses?...Mr. Good, in responding to Mr. Beers post said that he'd be 'told' that Mr. Campbell and Ms. James said he did a bang-up job....So, other than Mr. Beers who else did the pause 'effect' outside the room?.....I really think we have to hear from some other, shall we say, less 'involved' members of the Press Gallery on this one.....Really, and this is setting all snark aside, I am outraged!...Here you have the three people with perhaps the highest pro-media profiles in this province carrying on like this and nobody calls them on it?....Was Mason there, 'outside the room', but inside the Gallery room?.....He might be the only one with the fortitude to split himself off from on the herd on this one.....Why?.... Because , after listening to this, clearly the 'juniors' in the Press Gallery will have received the message, loud and clear, from 'The Deans'....)

9:12am....Baldrey starts to backtrack...personal attacks are perfectly acceptable as long as you're up front about it or some such thing....doesn't really make sense...Baldrey then returns to the derisive laughter in press room being in response to James, not to Good....

(me: this is unbelievable...)

9:13am....That's it....Good moves them on to climate....Plays another clip...In it we get to hear Mr. Good interrupt Ms James on Cap 'N Trade before she finishes answering a question....(me: that's not 'injecting'himself into the debate- this comes from his reply to Mr. Beers where he says there as no intent to do so with his 'pause', again, unbelievable)....The edit of the clip here is pretty darned anti-James, although they at least move through the 'revenue neutral' part of later response....

9:15am....Palmer says the NDP themselves have turned climate change into a key campaign issue, to their detriment (me: point taken, but when you think of the Wurlitzer that whirred to life after Mr. Berman's 'defection' from NDP last week?)....Baldrey jumps right in, goes on about how the NDP's problems are compounded by the 'split' in the Environmental lobby (me....Why don't they go after, or at least talk about, the apparent 'orchestration', backed by front group money, of that split....doesn't stuff like that matter to these people?)

9:16 am....Goodship WC moves to how the NDP is in trouble....goes to Zubyck quote....lack of narrarative is problme for NDP.....To Palmer and he backs that up followed about how there have been no stumbles from Campbell while the NDP has had some....Palmer goes back to his blog post from a couple of days ago.....it's all about how the reporters perceive things, apparently (me: here it comes....the rough and turbulent plane ride for all those poor reporters in the press pool that turned them against Ms. James)....Baldrey - NDP has only had one good event , a 'union' event (me: emphasis was all Baldrey's)....GoodshipWC goes implies it is James that is in the bubble this time, not Campbell....Baldrey jumps on that...says it is a reversal from 2005....oh, and just so you know.....the ambulance drivers (at least one of them)...love him.... (me: what hogwash....again, for these people it really does seem to be all about the 'perceptions', for example of one single driver, rather than the 'reality of what ALL of the Ambulance drivers are going through right now)

9:19am....Here it comes for real from all three of them....the bad plane ride....the reporters got tummy aches...therefore she, Ms. James, deserves to be crapped on....(me: OK, now I get it...this is why the 400 vs 40 litre fuel thingy screaming header from the CP that got wurlitzered to the top of the Google heap within hours was not yellow journalism?...Again, James 'deserved' it for not taking reporters down to, say to the the harbour, for a leisurely boat ride to see a bogus 'greening' of the pilings under the billion dollar white elephant also known as the convention center....Hey wouldn't that billion dollar pachyderm be an interesting point of substance to discuss re: Mr. Campbell's ability as a prudent fiscal manager of British Columbian's tax...yes TAX! dollars?)....

9:20am...OK...here comes more pullback because they're now all now muddling on with a bunch of 'but we're not really piling on' talk....And besides, the NDP could still turn it around...Palmer does break out a bit and speaks to James' previously demonstrated strengths and previously demonstrated toughness, even with faction in her own party....Baldrey just can't bring himself to agree on that one though....then Baldrey argues against himself by saying that 'British Columbians haven't been paying attention yet...

(me: oh ya - well if they haven't been paying attention Mr. Baldrey, why does the codswallop you've been spouting above even matter?)

back from commercial....

9:23am....Lead in with a clip from yesterday's debate...starts with a James smack-down caller on Cap and Trade....Good (during debate) jumps right in and asks Mr. Campbell to clarify (ie. gets the Premier to state explicitly) that he wants both a tax and a c 'n trade system (me: no 'injection' into the debate there, no siree)....After clip is done Palmer - points out that the enviros came to Ms. James awhile back asking her to 'modify' the tax...

(me- nothing, absolutely nothing about the co-optation of the enviros...nothing about what Pat Bell had to say?....regardless, if Ms. James had made a change, lets ask ourselves if these same fine media folks would now be attacking her for flip-flopping....naw....they would never attack Ms. James for changing a postion on something would they?)

9:25am....Here comes Sterk discussion....will it be as Gordon Wilson?.....(interjection from Good into the discussion, completely off topic about the phantom 'moderator ' in the debate yesterday....me: Apparently this is in reference to Baldrey's newscast last night?....There is much guffawing all around during the extended interjection...me: are these people having a pop?...Good comes back with this, and they still won't deal with the fact that he did, in fact, 'inject' himself into the debate...again, unbelievable to me)....

9:27am....Here comes a live caller...first one...whacking James for taking the flight on 'Earth Day' (me: well, whadd'ya know!!!!....telegraph much?)....Baldrey says the plane ride is 'the talk of all the reporters'.....(me: guess this is different than being a reporter of 'special' status who gets to take a small plane ride with the CEO of BC Ferries to see the site of ferry that long ago sunk)...Baldrey then gives an anecdote about talking to the pilot of the James Gang's plane....Apparently the pilot didn't get lost looking for the IPP projects - it was all the NDP's fault (me: Wow! That Mr. Baldrey, he sure digs into the issues...Wonder if he can dig into how much the media company he works for gave the party of Mr. Gordon Campbell during the last election cycle....sheesh)

(me...interesting caller, that first caller....no?)

...bottom of hour newsbreak ....

9:33am...Lead back in with more discussion of debateperformance of Green Leader, Ms. Sterk....Waiting for the Gordon Wilson reference....Oooooh...hang on....it's pop time againg... They're all laughin' about how Baldrey didn't have the Goodship in his TeeVee show again....Palmer won't go GWilson on the Sterk issue..he, Palmer,even wonders a little why Sterk was even there (me: is he almost asking 'If Sterk was there why wasn't Hanni?')....Here comes Goodship right back in saying that the Greens got 9% last time, that's why they were there....Palmer now says Sterk wasn't bad...Baldrey says he doubts Greens will get seats but says Sterk was good and might do well in TeeVee debate.

9:35am....Live Caller #2...Rest of province (ie. not Lotusland)hates Carbon Tax; most folks don't understand Cap'NTrade; an allusion to the conservatives maybe having some clout in land of hurt....Good jumps right in and cuts off that last bit by asking if folks ticked off about the CTax would switch their vote from Liberal to NDP (me: good kiboshes any discussion about a possible Con hive-off in North and other rural ridings like, say some in the Kootenays?)...Palmer at least brings it back to Cons for a moment but the Watercarrier quickly deflects.

9:37am....Live Caller #3....Carole James is making personal attacks....Alludes to N Island Dipper candidate using a paid surrogates to staging a question at a meeting....'it was taped' says caller.....(another 'interesting' call)....Palmer: doesn't know why the NDP and 'allies' needs to go this way when they could go to.....Wurprise!....BC Rail (the promise breaking)...

(me: this is something, of course, that I agree with Palmer on)

9:39am....Baldrey jumps in James used to be fair and honest...now she's negative....Good jumps in about how she flip-flopped on Port Mann (me: imagine that!....see my comment above)...

(me: wtf....where'd BC Rail go?)

9:40am....Now it's all about how James is a flip-flopper (me: I hate to say 'I told you so'....well, not really)....

(me: here's a question for the Ledgie's et al.....If Ms. James talked every single time she was on with you about BC Rail...would you cover it????.....Mr. Good has already made it clear that it doesn't matter because it happened before the last election - repeatedly....Mr. Baldrey has already stated that the only British Columbians that actually care about it are members of a 'cult'?....So, is it any wonder that, maybe, the Dippers haven't gone all Rail, all the time, ....yet.......Which has me wondering something more generally......Can you go negative at the end of a campaign?...Or is it better strategy to plant the seed early, then go the other way?)

(me again.....where's Brian from Garden Bay, I wonder....?)

back from commercial...

9:44am....Caller #4....Whacking James for referring to Gordon Campbell as....wait for it...'Gordon Campbell!'....Baldrey prattles on....then finally notes that the Campbell won't actually refer to Ms. James by name...

(me: so which is worse....no name or name....oh, and who runs the Liberal party and the BC Government with a centralized, iron fist?)

9:46am...Here comes Good, actually returning to BC Rail..it was all before the previous election, who cares, really anyway (me: told you so - again, ha!)....Palmer goes back to it also(sans Kinsella) -says it is one of the biggest broken promises ever, really...says something about Leckstrom....Good cuts it off and jumps right back in asking' but it is in the minds of voters?...Then Good telegraphs his own personal hammer coming down with 'I ask this having no preconceived notions', but he asks, was it a bad deal?

(me: no 'injection' there either Mr. Good?...Nope?....OK then, you're golden, and the rusting hull of your watercarrier has been nicely patched, apparently)

9:47am....Caller #5, identifies himself as a swing voter, but.....Does not like BC Rail and 12cents per KW guarantee for IPP generated electricity.....Also doesn't like how Hydro's ability to expand own power generation has been curtailed by Libs....Doesn't like how libs have stripped off processing requirements for Lumber mills (me: therefore helping pump raw log exports and close mills)....Good jumps in with both feet on this one....How many times in your 'swing career' have you voted lib or socred he asks (me: ie. tries to cut off substance of questions on this one)....However, caller whacks him up the side of the head with response ....Palmer talks about the strong stuff James could talk about....Good says James was crap on forest industry, needs something better than 'silvaculture....completely ignores the caller's raw, mill policy/raw log policy...Baldrey piles on the raw logs thing wouldn't matter and that the mills might have been doomed anyway.... Good- they were dinosaurs! (exclamation point his)....

last commercial break..... (one is from 'MARS'....is it a joke?....Another is that smackdown commercial on Carole James...authorized by surrogates of who, exactly?)

9:54am....Caller #7 (not Brian)....Leads with a quote from IF Stone.....(me: Lets go!).....Wants the media to do its job....wants them to ask the big questions, especially those about selling off all the public assets....what's the actual business case....(me: this is a great call)......Says there used to be revenues....(me: oh, no....too bad he said that)...Here comes Palmer and Baldrey and Good jumping on him about that....Good does return to Hydro as being positive on the revenue side (me: so why did they try to sell it then before Nettleton forced them to back down and just chunk out a bit toto Accenture)...Good - run of river, first nations are partnering - they will benefit 'I'm told' (me: who told you Mr. Good?)...Hey! Where'd the caller go...Baldrey throws him a bone re: public v. private - says folks should only worry about Hydro and ICBC....

(me: My real question is: Is private BC Rail better for the people of British Columbia????....Is private BC Ferries?????....Again, what about the caller's real question...Why don't these people do their jobs instead of just complaining about how some of them had to use barf bags on a turbulent flight on a small plane on a windy day?....no Brian from Garden Bay?....he didn't call?....somehow I doubt it???....Good closes with 'GANGS! NEXT!...see my comment at top of live blog....sheesh)


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