Tag: Non-partisan blog posts

Silent Steve

Remember how he was there all the time in the election? Making us feel like he could smile and wave and knew we were out here? I was thinking about how Stevie has gone silent even while his MP roasted a bit in the first week of his mandate and the Globe has been thinking about it as well:

Peter Donolo, an executive vice-president at the Strategic Counsel who was communications director for former prime minister Jean Chrétien when the Liberals came to power in 1993, said the Conservatives have had the worst start of any federal government he can remember. “Mr. Harper had this Day One which I don’t think went according to plan . . . and he has kind of disappeared.” There is not much the Prime Minister could have done to help the Emerson situation by speaking about it publicly, Mr. Donolo said. “It’s not like he can solve it by making an appearance or going on a TV show for an interview.” …

In the six weeks until MPs return to the House of Commons, the Opposition and press gallery members will be looking for ways to occupy their idle hands. And while Mr. Harper works on his Throne Speech, prepares legislation and receives briefings, the news generated in his absence is unlikely to be positive. But Tim Powers, a Conservative strategist, said it would be wrong to create meaningless news events. “You can’t just do things for the sake of doing things. That’s never been Harper,” he said. “I think people would prefer the substance to the sizzle and I think Harper gives them substance.”

Me, I don’t mind. We have had about 3 years of way too much Federal politics and a break is nice. Plus the Olympics are on. But sooner or later I will be looking at my tax forms and figuring out how much I had to send to Ottawa and it would be nice to get a little bit of a show for my money. Aside from the politics, it will be excruciating if the new Prime Minister decides that he does not have a public role and need not lead only decide, though it will be a new and unexpected way for a Tory government to shoot itself in the foot.

But if the silence is to come up with new plans like equalization that does not take into account Alberta’s oil and gas revenue but costs Ontario a billion more instead of, day, ten billion less…well, maybe we ought to get noisy.

NPR Expansion

Rob, who drew me into this gig of his as a volunteer, points out a very interesting phenomena: NPR is expanding:

While many newsrooms are shedding reporters—from the New York Times to the Dallas Morning News—NPR is one of the few places an experienced journalist can hope to get a job.
“I wouldn’t call it a binge,” says Bill Marimow, himself a former denizen of the print world. Fired from the Baltimore Sun in 2004, Marimow went to NPR and this week took over as its news chief. “I would call it significant growth.”

The NPR news operation has added 50 journalists in the past three years, raising the total from 350 to 400. Ten years ago NPR had six foreign bureaus; it just opened its 16th, in Shanghai, putting it in the running with major national news organizations. The New York Times and CNN both have 26, the Los Angeles Times has 22, the Washington Post has 19.

It is no secret that I love NPR and, frankly, I wish Canada had its own version that was more closely connected to the listener and viewer than the CBC is. For all the big yap about how the main stream media is bowing to losers like me who type in their pajamas and pretend (to the embarassment of our spouses) we are Edward R. Murrow reporting from the blitz…that is simply not what is occurring. We are watching re-ordering of news media not collapse.

Nothing new. It is part of the same phenomena that same the rise of talk-radio including political talk radio in the US. When I sketched out my seminal but now dust-coated plan for the left in North America, the first thing I thought of was taking back a solid part of the media. I am doing my part but apparently the $200 million gift to NPR from the estate of a nice person called Joan Kroc is being the NPR news boom. What good folk who want objective thorough news reporting (professional unbiased news being a classic progressive or liberal goal just as much as a cheap quality and broadly available education) need to do is put their money where their mouths are.

Others have proven this works. This is just the same as the US right realized it needed to do something and fund something somewhere back in the 60s, achieved break-through in the 80s and achieving inordinate dominance in the last decade. Just as with that shift, the change that NPR is part of is not a single path. Remember how many foretold the demise of Air America during its first days? Well, it is still there and has 89 stations. What we are watching in the reshuffle is an enrichment of news sources, just in the same way that broadcast shortwave radio provided and then cable TV again provided before the internet. The strengthening of NPR is one compliment to the strenghtening of talk-radio of all sorts along with pajamastan and the next new thing that we have not even heard of yet. More voices please.

De-Yankification

Thinking about the children. It’s all about the children:

The Class A Lowell Spinners of the New York-Penn League say that if youth baseball leagues across New England change the name of a team from the Yankees to the Spinners, Lowell would pay for new uniforms. In a message on the Spinners’ Web site, general manager Tim Bawmann said many children in New England are devastated when they are assigned to be on a team called the Yankees.

Save the children from the trauma of being associated with the Yankees. Give today.

Update: best search string reaching this blog this month so far: “cheater baseball”.

Chat for Friday

It’s here again. Why does this work? Why do you demand bullet points on Friday but separate posts the rest of the week?

  • Update: New Canadian hero!
  • Update #2: BTW, if anyone suggests that the economy was not strong at the end of 2005, before the Tories, think again. High dollar and exports growing faster than import growth.
  • I hate opening ceremonies to the Olympics. It is like a great joke on us all:

    As in past opening ceremonies, viewers might have a tough time deciphering many of the elements, some of which are meant to convey a deeper meaning. Rollerbladers clad in red bodystockings with giant flames shooting out the back of their heads will symbolize the passion, speed and energy of both Italians and Olympic athletes. Dancing trees and artificial cows pulled on rollers will pay tribute to the Alps and their farming culture. Performers suspended by wires will create a mid-air version of Boticelli’s Venus.

    What is an artificial cow? I remember the worst was at the end of the Montreal Olympics teens with big flags ran around in formation to the tune “Thanks to the Volunteers”. Or that could have been the Commonwealth games in ’78. I watched so much of the TV then that when I went to sleep I could still hear Ernie Afaganis’s voice.

  • I would love to take a day off ribbing Tories so just let me say I have a new favorite Tory – Garth Turner, he of the mid-90’s mid-Saturday afternoon financial self-help TV show. Why? Because yesterday he said he campaigned on the position that party switchers should have to run in a by-election and he repeated it again unlike someone in the cabinet who actually said that was then and this is now. Then was three weeks ago.
  • Wayney, Wayney, Wayney. Dear oh dear oh dear. Steve Somers on WFAN 660 AM was taking non-stop calls on Waynegate last night. Apparently if you possibly know that your assistant coach is running a betting racket that is not enough to tarnish the golden boy. And – as a co-owner of the team – if your GM is allegedly involved, too, that is not any of your problem. Maybe it’s not but when you say you knew nothing about it and then you are supposedly heard speaking of it before you knew nothing one does not know what to think. Rumours spin around. Do you care?

Moneyball?

The New York Times has a good article this morning re-evaluating the concept of Moneyball:

“Moneyball” extolled the talents of Beane, portraying him as superior to other teams’ general managers. Lewis celebrated Beane for his ability to produce winning teams with small payrolls, but Terry Ryan has done the same thing with the Twins, a fact Lewis didn’t acknowledge. As little as Beane might have thought of Howe, the Athletics reached the playoffs three straight seasons under him and have not been there the last two years with Ken Macha as their manager after making it in his first year.

It has been three years since the publication of “Moneyball,” and it is worth assessing other matters the book discusses. Several times, Lewis wrote about the Athletics’ infatuation with Kevin Youkilis, a young player who had a high on-base percentage, the gold standard of Beane’s player evaluation. In limited playing time with Boston the past two seasons, Youkilis has compiled a .376 on-base percentage but has yet to show the Red Sox he is ready to help them on a daily basis. They are planning to try Youkilis, a converted third baseman, as a platooned first baseman this year.

So many consultants’ schemes and management theories turn out like the evil counsel to the king in bad movies set in the Middle Ages. They focus on the ends but not the means or the means but not the ends. Usually a lot of villages get flayed in the process. Moneyball seems to me like that, focusing on the average to get above average. It is like the trap in hockey – an intervention in the game from outside the game to win the game that loses the game. Focusing on Youkilis is like that. A cornerstone of not a lot.

Google Chat

Not being an instant messaging sort of guy, I wonder why Google would get into it now that it is so long established. Their last move into the specialties of others, Google Analytics, fell decidedly flat and is the most useless thing I have ever signed up for.

This is an interesting statement:

“We are breaking down some of the artificial barriers between e-mail and web browsing,” said Salar Kamangar, a Google vice-president. “We observed by talking with our users that there is no reason to think of IM [instant messaging] as different from an e-mail message.”

It is a good point that email and IM are the same thing with a slightly different appearance to the user giving a false sense of cool. But that is no different than any fashion or bauble. But why invest in those?

NuEthics for NuCons

The days events are best summed up by Bob at Let It Bleed:

IF …in May 2005 you were OPPOSED to Belinda Stronach crossing the floor to the Liberals

THEN …in February 2006 you should be OPPOSED to David Emerson crossing the floor to the Conservatives…

There is of course more so go read the whole post. How delicious to watch out new rural overlords ineptly and unnecessarily fall on their faces on day one and watching their bloggy pals split off the thinnest shavings of a hair you will ever see to distinguish the bad old Grits (quite evil actually) from the new ethical Tories. Thankfully, there are many blue bloggers and fellow libertarian travellers who are as disgusted as I am. Actually I am more amused than disgusted as I have every expectation the Tories will operate exactly like the Grits except for the sanctimonious grin on their mugs.

Now…to be fair…Don points out that PM Harper never said that this flipping of parties was wrong. He just never quite said it was #1 on his plan for governance.

Update: Steve the Angry Man twigs to what this new math means:

…There is also the independent. That means that a tie does not actually exist. Either the CPC+NDP or the Liberal+Bloc would have to entice Andre Arthur to their side…

So the Quebec City shock jock André Arthur now holds the balance of power in the Parliament of my country. Excellent. Thanks Prime Minister Steve.

The Red Ensign Standard #36 Flies

The Phantom Observer has done a masterful job with the latest issue of the Red Ensign Standard, a group of which I am proud to be a early adopting member though only an editor once. Go have a read of some interesting writers many of which are, admittedly, to the right of where I stand but who try to raise the discourse a wee bit more than is usually for we pajamistani.

Dang!

I wasn’t paying attention and I’ve already missed the pre-pre-game show for Super Bowl Extra Large. I hope the pre-warm-up-show is still on the other channel.

Predictions? The team I pick will lose. That makes it Pittsburg. Jerome Bettis, however, will win MVP for guys with guts everywhere. My newly discovered but slowly loading pal Deadspin has a post on what you might watch on TV other than the Super Bowl this evening.