Giant Political Mouse

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

This made me laugh so hard I cried

But I'll admit - I didn't get the joke the first few times

and I don't even know if this is a joke...

TILMA in Saskatchewan

The provincial government has finally gotten of its collective behinds and released the TILMA assessment done for Saskatchewan by the Conference Board of Canada.

For the flaws in these types of studies, read these different assesments of the same analysis done for the original BA/Alberta agreement.

However, a quote from page 6 should make people think twice:

As with any comprehensive agreement, the TILMA presents not only opportunities for Saskatchewan Economy [sic] but also contains potential risks. Reduced legislative independence of the provincial and municipal governing bodies, a potential loss of local procurement contracts and short-term increased provincial out-migration would lower the potential positive economic impact on the province

And this is from the PRO-TILMA side! Yikes!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Interview with the Federal NDP about thier blogging strategy

If you are a frequent reader of this blog (and I know there are at least 2 of you) then you will remember all the kurfuffle that happened back at the beginning of March. To refresh your memory I include links to my posts here and here

Long story short, a blogging dipper made a post that many found to be offensive. The federal NDP denounced him in a letter but gave that letter to a Liberal blogger to post.

Chaos ensued.

Well, I sent in the following request for an Interview on March 10th . I simply went to the "contact us" section of the NDP website and submitted the following:

To Whom it May Concern:

I am a blogger who also happens to be a member of the New Democratic Party. You can access by blog at http://giantpoliticalmouse.blogspot.com. Recently I have made some posts regarding the party and their initiatives to create a blogroll or some sort of affiliated blog system and quite frankly, my comments were not very positive. In the interests of fairness I would like to request an e-mail interview with somebody from the Federal NDP, preferably the President, but another suitable person will do. I will propose a series of questions by e-mail, they will respond the same way, and I will place the entire transcript, without edits, on my blog.

If the Leader of the Party can agree to do a video interview with the head of the blogging tories, then surly it is not asking too much to get the president or someone similar to answer a few questions by e-mail.

There is currently a bit of a backlash against the blogging initiatives that the federal party is undertaking and this might be a way of dealing with some of that backlash.

Sincerely,

Giant Political Mouse

I got an e-mail response on Monday of this week (April 23rd) and sent in my questions on Tuesday (April 24th) . The questions and answers are included below.

The person who responded was Joanne Deer who is the Director of Communications for the Federal NDP. The interview is below:

Interview

Question: My original request for an interview was made on March 10th. Your e-mail response was received on April 23rd. Obviously I used the incorrect method to obtain an interview. I (or other bloggers) may want to get an interview or have questions answered by the party in the future. If they do they would need a method of obtaining that information in "internet time" so to speak. What is the process that bloggers should use to get a prompt response from the Federal NDP?

Answer: Interview requests and questions needing a quick response can be sent directly to me at joanne[at]ndp[dot]ca

Question: The Federal NDP seems to be starting to have a "blogging strategy". Let me begin by asking, what is the Federal Party's vision for political blogs (of all partisan stripes)?

Answer: We view blogs as an increasingly important and influential tool for informing and engaging the online community. We want to engage with bloggers as we would with any media to get the federal Party's message out.

Question: As a follow-up to that, how does the NDP view the "blogging dippers"? Will they be setting up their own blogroll that will be separate from that group?

Answer: Blogging Dippers is an important progressive community, and we appreciate their desire to maintain independence from the Party's federal office.

We are not developing a separate blogroll and are optimistic the new elected moderators format will hopefully help strengthen Blogging Dippers community.

Question: If the party "endorses" or even just "selects" certain bloggers as "NDP bloggers" what safeguards and/or media damage control plans are in place if one of these bloggers says something that is clearly not party policy or messaging and ends up being offensive or used against the party?

We have never had any plans to endorse or select bloggers.

Question: So far the (arguably) two biggest "NDP party office/blogger" interactions have been the interview by Jack Layton by one of the Blogging Tories and the release of a letter from the President of the Party to a Liberal blogger (Jason Cherniak). It appears (to some) that the outreach component of the party has been to all the bloggers EXCEPT the blogging dippers. I assume this was unintentional - but how is the party going to ensure that friendly bloggers get access to information and responses?

Answer: Our philosophy is to treat bloggers as we would traditional media - to respond to requests and interact with them regardless of their affiliation.

We are absolutely identifying and actively developing relationships with bloggers who are 'friendly' and open to receiving tips and information. Many of the bloggers we are have been working with are already in touch with us through bloggers[at]ndp[dot]ca and my email.

Bloggers wanting access to information should feel free to contact me.

Question: What is the timeline for any blogging initiatives from the federal NDP?

Answer: In the coming weeks we will unveil some "blogging tools", including NDP video and banner ads to help interested bloggers enhance their pages.

Interview ends here.....

My Take:

I am glad to hear that the Federal NDP is not looking at developing a blogroll (answer # 3) but you can see where one might get that idea from this part of the President's letter:

The NDP is undertaking the development of a new blog roll that better reflects the views and needs of the New Democrats in the blogosphere

I assume that since that time, sensible heads have prevailed at party office.

Other than that the answers are quite good and I am looking forward to seeing the video components that the party will put together for bloggers. I am also glad to see that they "get" the relationship between the blogging dippers and the NDP.

First Habitaible Planet other than Earth found!

This is just freeking cool!

An international team of astronomers from Switzerland, France and Portugal have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date.
“We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid,” said Stéphane Udry from the Geneva Observatory, Switzerland and lead-author of the paper in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
“Moreover, its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth’s radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky – like our Earth – or covered with oceans,” he said.
“Liquid water is critical to life as we know it and because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extra-terrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X,” added Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University, France.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Gore might just be running for President

If this is true

Friends of Al Gore have secretly started assembling a campaign team in preparation for the former American vice-president to make a fresh bid for the White House.

Two members of Mr Gore's staff from his unsuccessful attempt in 2000 say they have been approached to see if they would be available to work with him again.

I think that Gore would easily win the nomination and then the Presidency if he ran.

That would be a good thing for the entire world

Sask Progressives