god bless ezra and his western standards.

It appears as if Aaron is in a full pitched epic battle with Western Standard Editor, Ezra Levant (Who apparently got an "A" in "undergraduate stats." Of course, Ralph Klein got a "B" on his Chilean History paper, so we here at daveberta remain more than a little skeptical).

We recommend that Aaron use the trusty "left hook jab" in his battle.

Most sincerely,

daveberta editorial board

blog of the week: folk fest blog!

For pure entertainment purposes, we recommend that EVERYONE with access to the blogosphere stop and check out the hip and cool Folk Fest Blog.

We first discovered this blog about 3 months ago, and we sincerely thank the always wonderful Sheamus Murphy for letting us know that it's back up and running in preparation for this weekend's Edmonton Folk Music Festival.

And on that note, the Folk Fest Blog is this week's "blog of the week."

Sadly, us folk fest loving cowboys over at daveberta won't be joining the Folk Festivities this weekend. :-( Instead, we're spending our weekend moving Daveberta's International Headquarters from the awesome west-downtown Oliver area to the chic-University area of Garneau.

But rest assured, we will only be listening to Johnny Cash, Ruthie Foster, and Allison Krauss. ;-)

Cheers.

D :)

mtv ad's banned by us gov't

Thanks to the always cool and attentive daveberta readership for passing these images our way.

We're not sure if this has hit the MSM yet, but apparently, these are clips from a MTV commercial that were recently banned by the US Government.

According to the email, they only aired once before the strong arm of the US Government took them down.

We haven't heard anything else about this issue, but they make some pretty bold and strong statements.

So, either it's a hoax, or it just hasn't hit the MSM yet. Does anyone know? Thoughts? Comments?

UPDATE: Geoff over at What the Deuce? has written his take on this.

daveberta rebuked by the mighty alberta ndp

The mighty Alberta NDP Army marches on daveberta.

It seems that we may have struck a nerve with a recent post (now we know how Warren feels ;-)...

In our post titled, "raj resigning?" we mused about a rumour that we had heard from two separate individuals that ND MLA Dr. Raj Pannu may be planning to resign this fall to make way for Larry Booi to run in a by-election.

Now, we must reiterate, these are simply rumours. Rumours come and rumours go. Most of them actually die when they're left be. The editorial board at daveberta was perfectly fine in letting this post simply be that: one post.

One post, left to wither for eternity, forgotten in the archives of this great blog.

But alas, through the miracle of blog comment sections, the Communications Director of the Mighty Alberta NDP Caucus of 4, Ms. Shannon Phillips, has responded in full force to our post and the comments left by ourselves and your fellow daveberta readers.

Of course, we would never dream of letting daveberta's loyal readers miss out on such an exciting event. So, here is Ms. Phillips response in full to our post, followed by our response to Ms. Phillips.

Ms. Phillips Response:

"This is the most preposterous thing I have heard all day.

First, Raj is not resigning anytime soon.

Second, people have been lining up to contest the NDP nomination in Edm-Strathcona, for like, 5 years. There are lots of them. There are even some in the rumour mill that would rival Larry in the name rec department. Not that Larry is interested in running, at least not at this stage.

Third, it's a nice idea that the Libs could run a strong campaign, but nice ideas aren't what carries the day in politics. I suspect that when it comes to the next general election (or the one after that, one never knows, especially if Ralph retires sooner rather than later), the Strath NDP will have nominated someone of sufficient calibre that the Strath Liberals will have a hard time, as a central campaign, justifying putting money into that race (given the state of the finances, still after all these years since that disastrous MacBeth campaign), and the riding association will remain as moribund as it has been for the last few years.

Of course, the Liberals could just step up their fundraising efforts from corporate Alberta, which is certainly how they financed a large chunk of the 2004 campaign. Maybe Big Oil would be willing to bankroll someone?"

Our response:
"Thanks for the post, Shannon.

Hope you at least enjoyed the rest of our blog!

First, thanks for so suspiciously promptly refuting our post.

Second, we're sure there are those who will run for the ND nomination in Strathcona when Raj resigns. We never challenged that.

Third, "nice ideas aren't what carries the day in politics" is why the Alberta NDP will never come even close to forming Government or Official Opposition in Alberta. But, seeing as how you are seem to be so connected with information on the Alberta Liberals, we'll just have to take your word for it. ;-)

Fourth, we don't speak for the Alberta Liberals or control their fundraising. If you don't like their methods, we suggest you call their office.

Cheers,

D :-)"

Perhaps the rumours are simply that, rumours. We're willing to accept that. But, it makes us wonder, if it was simply a chalked up rumour, then why is it even worth a response? Especially from someone as high in up the Alberta NDP echelons as Ms. Phillips?

Is the Alberta NDP hiding something?

UPDATE: We thought "Jim's" response to Shannon was pretty fun:

"Yes, the staggering financial power of the "Alberta Views"-backed Alberta Liberal Party is really indicative of the large piles of corporate cash they're rolling in, Shannon. [/sarcasm]

Honestly, when Alberta Views magazine is your largest business backer, the case that the Alberta Liberal Party is fueled by corporate cash is weak at best. Corporations have better things to do with their money than buy the Alberta Liberal Party -- like buying the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, for instance.

holy schmoly! senate appointments!

Today, the gods of patronage have blessed five lucky Canadians with Senatorial tenure to 75.

The PMO released the names today of 5 new Senators.

Here's the list:

Andrée Champagne (Quebec-Tory): Former Mulroney Cabinet Minister

Dennis Dawson (Quebec-Liberal): Former Trudeau Cabinet Minister.

Hugh Segal (Ontario-Tory): Former Chief of Staff to Brian Mulroney; Former PC Leadership Candidate; and President of the Institute for Research on Public Policy.

Larry Campbell (BC-Liberal): Mayor of Vancouver; DaVinci's Inquest guy (but not as cool as Quincy).

Rod Zimmer (Manitoba-Liberal): Businessman; Liberal Bagman.

You can read their full bios here

grandinite's top 40

Aaron over at Grandinite has put together a top 40 annoying Canadians list. Check it out.

raj resigning?

I've heard two separate rumours that Edmonton Strathcona ND MLA Raj Pannu is planning to retire this fall to clear the way for Larry Booi to contest the seat in a by-election for the Dippers.

Pannu, 71, was elected as the MLA for Edmonton Strathcona in 1997 in a close 3-way race which saw Pannu defeat Liberal Mary MacDonald by less than 60 votes with Tory John Logan less than 200 votes behind. He was the Alberta NDP Leader from 2000 to 2004 and led to them to a massive 2-seat landslide in 2001!

Larry Booi, former Alberta Teacher's Association President, ran for the ND's in Edmonton Glenora during last November's provincial election. He was defeated by Liberal Bruce Miller.

Here are the results from Edmonton Strathcona since 1989:

1989
Gordon Wright, ND- 6,696
Philip Lister, Lib- 4,237
Jack Scott, PC- 3,724

1990* By-Election
Barrie Chivers, ND- 4,927
Nadene Thomas, Lib- 2,252
Eric Young, PC- 1,512
Betty Paschen, Grn- 424
Robert Alford, SC- 224

1993
Al Zariwny, Lib- 6,542
Barrie Chivers, ND- 5,121
Don Grimble, PC- 4,071
Patrick Ellis, SC- 460
Betty Paschen, Grn- 253
Ben Toane, NLP- 108
Noami Rankin, Com- 47

1997
Raj Pannu, ND- 4,274
Mary MacDonald, Lib- 4,214
John Logan, PC- 4,096
John Forget, SC- 552
Myles Kitagawa, Grn- 236
Eshwar Jagdeo, NLP- 47

2001
Raj Pannu, ND- 6,998
John Logan, PC- 4,749
Jim Jacuta, Lib- 1,944
James Lakinn, AFP- 136

2004
Raj Pannu, ND- 7,430
Shannon Stubbs, PC- 2,256
Steven Leard, Lib- 1,850
Adrian Cole, Grn- 287
Jeremy Burns, AA- 275
Kelly Graham, SC- 162