The Traffic the Grinch couldn’t Steal #nlpoli

Muppets, lawyers and politicians.

Problems in the fishery, bad grammar and blatant political patronage.

Just another week in the live action edition of the National Midnight Star, otherwise known as politics in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Last week’s top 10 most read posts at SRBP:

1. A bad week for Penashue
2. Change in the fishery
3. The Crowd in the Dark
4. Globe and Mail goes American
5. Danger:  Lawyer at Work
6. Muskrat Falls deal will succeed:  Nalcor boss
7. Ball takes over as Liberal leader
8. Connies pork up offshore board
9. A grain of salt
10. Yes, it IS a Muppet movie, ya wingnut

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There’s no changing the channel traffic #nlpoli

The top stories as chosen by SRBP readers:

1. The problem with the Liberals (post by Craig Westcott)
2. Muskrat Falls Friday Trash Dump
3. The truth hurts
4. Emera buys NL line service company
5. Margin of error defined
6. Dazed and confused, Muskrat proponents version
7. Speech writing
8. “…particularly hypocritical…”
9. We’re sorry – Scouts Canada
10. The price of hydro exports

Someone said recently that the Muskrat Falls story is over, that people need to change the channel and get on with something else.

The only people who think that way are people who back the project.

The more other people learn about the project, the more those other people oppose it.

That’s why the people who back the project want everyone to stop talking about it.

This week’s traffic bears out the continued interest in Muskrat Falls.

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Traffic for the start of December #nlpoli

How do you know Peter MacKay lied about the helicopter flight? 

When PMSH stepped in to defend him he said nothing about the “training flight” story MacKay started with.

1. Stupid politicians and their staffers
2. Offshore board slags CBC
3. Habeas corpus for kids
4. Adult conversation
5. Muskrat Falls plot points
6. More of the same
7. In case you missed it, MF political panel version
8. Rush job
9. The Muskrat Morass deepens
10. With friends like these, Muskrat Falls version

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Traffic for the New Dawn #nlpoli

1. Nalcor’s own studies back NG as Muskrat alternative
2. Quebec adds 300 MW of wind
3. Free advice
4. Court docket now online
5. One statement, three stories
6. The Truth Deficit
7. Typical
8. Economy to slow down?
9. Unseen wounds are no less real
10. Vote SRBP as best political blog in Canada

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Traffic that Tweets itself #nlpoli

1. We all can’t be wrong
2. Dunderdale in tweet debate with opposition leader… or was she?
3. The orchestra pit theory of political news coverage
4. Weird or what?
5. Bloc NDP wants more seats for Quebec
6. The Age of Social Media
7. Banging around the Echo Chamber
8. Remember those they left behind
9. A step in the right democratic direction
10. Funny how things come together

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SRBP’s Shocktober Traffic

1. Kent demoted by Dunderdale
2. CBC torques poll coverage
3. Here’s what an opposition party looks like
4. Telelink releases campaign’s only independent poll
5. Whither the Liberals
6. Astroturf
7. Muskrat Falls support plummets:  poll
8. When is “nutbar” an unacceptable term?
9. Williams set to offer comms director plum patronage job
10. The Morning After the Night Before

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Campaign Week 1 Traffic #nlpoli #nlvotes

The Top 10 stories for last week, as selected by SRBP readers:

1. Dippers on point for first CBC political election panel
2. New Poll.  New Result.
3. Advertising group has Tory, Nalcor ties
4. The NDP and Regressive Social Policy:  education
5. The Hebron Give-away
6. The Public Sector Pensions thing explained
7. Some old habits must die really hard:  Telly edition
8. Ceeb spins story for Tories
9. The Damn-Fool Fisheries Policy
10. A come-to-Jesus moment

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Traffic Flow: August 29 – September 2, 2011

1. Robots in dead heat (poll goosing)
2. NL ratepayers to carry full load for Muskrat falls plus more
3. The Politics of Cynicism, NDP style
4. Uniting the Left:  a reminder
5. Nalcor royalties:  yet more information
6. Muskrat Falls:  lost opportunity
7. Court docket now online
8. Paving the way (political donations by paving companies)
9. Political Reporting 2011
10. About SRBP

 

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The traffic that shook the world

Plenty of people shit bricks this week, from the leaders of two of the province’s political parties to the people who thought they had a lock on leading the third one.

The week started with word that Liberal leader Yvonne Jones had to leave the job due to illness.

That likely clenched a few bums.

As the race heated up to replace her, those same bums likely tried tried to swallow themselves as word tweeted that no less a star than former chief of defence staff was considering a run at the job.

As the week ended, the Liberals had seven declared candidates to replace Jones with an election only 60 days away.

Both the province’s Tories and New Democrats figured everything was nice and predictable.

Boy were they wrong.

In a mere five day span in the middle of August, the political world in Newfoundland and Labrador has seen more upheaval than it has in the previous decade.

Not only will the Liberals have a new leader before the next week begins, but the public firestorm of speculation over Rick Hillier shook the assumptions of all those people who believed that the incumbent Tories had a lock on their votes.

People switch.

And for all those people who think 60 days isn’t enough time for people to shift their political minds for lesser mortals than Rick, consider how quickly once cozy beliefs have vanished in the past year.

All those people who believed Danny would not disappear until after 2011 got the rudest shock of their lives when he skedaddled in the space of a week in late November/early December 2010.

Poof.

The Tories falling in the polls?

Unthinkable until now, but fall they have.

Tories in danger of losing seats?

What else could possibly explain the orgy of public spending in the undeclared election campaign.

Dear friends, the next 60 days are going to be some of the most exciting times in recent political history in Newfoundland and Labrador.

And for the record, here are the posts at SRBP that people were reading during this historic week”

1. If Rick Hillier really runs for Liberal leader…
2. Soper Inquiry
3. Changing the game
4. The truth is out there:  Nalcor version
5. Nalcor royalties – more information
6. Minister’s bullshite in excellent shape
7. Yvonne Jones:  profile in courage
8. Liberal leadership:  the process
9. Worshipping at the trough
10. Yvonne Jones newser – the details

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The 2011 Regatta Week Top 10

1. The continued taberization of political reporting in Canada
2. When bullshit fails…
3. No thought, please.  We’re Danny.
4. Debt, electricity rates and Muskrat Falls
5. Jane Taber – Twit
6. Blochead-Dipper Watch
7. The medium of the bread and circuses message
8. Dunderdale tops in senior management churn
9. Opening the doors on government information
10. Resource give-away

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The July 2011 Traffic

Top 10 posts for July 2011, as decided by Bond Papers readers:

1. Trade talks with Europeans = “doing back-room deal with a bunch of serial rapists”
2. Forecasting the fall
3. Skinner makes false statement in letter to Telegram
4. Free tuition at NL university for Nova Scotians:  NL NDP leader
5. Politicians and illness
6. Cross Sheila off your list
7. All three NL parties back Muskrat Falls project
8. Makes it official, then
9. I knew Marilyn Monroe
10. Definitely cabinet material

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The Traffic: 25–29 July 2011

1. Turd buffing
2. Politicians and illness
3. Nalcor ignores natural gas, local studies back cheaper alternative to Muskrat Falls
4. An endorsement that rings a little hollow
5. Follow the money
6. Paternalism in pictures
7. Nutbar Factor 6 and The Politics of Perpetual Panic
8. Where isn’t the democracy in that?
9. Plastic, packaged and preaching to the choir
10. The Politics of Public Spending

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Traffic in the heat of the Summer of Love 2011

Fire trucks, Twitter and a 60 year old who dropped a hundred pounds in six months wanting a job today she didn’t want six months ago.

Must be the Summer of Love 2011.

All that is fodder for another post.  For now let’s just check out the 10 stories most Bond Papers readers were pondering last week.

1. Free tuition at NL university for Nova Scotians;  NL NDP leader
2. Like Momma always said…Part Deux und Trois
3. From the Earth to the moon
4. And Harry won’t be running either
5. Rumpole and the Cardinal Rule
6. Nurturing a democratic revolution
7. Bullshit then or now?  Nalcor boss changes story on Muskrat megadebt project and natural gas
8. Making the Most of our Energy Resources – Oil and Gas in the Future
9. Former Tory fin min not giving up fight against Muskrat
10. Containing Ottawa’s Skyrocketing Power Bill

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Traffic that never flip flops

The weekly top 10 Bond Papers posts for the week of July 11 to 15, 2011, selected by you, the readers.

1. Forecasting the fall
2. All three NL parties back Muskrat project
3. A world of their own
4. Ahem
5. Political parties and debt:  the Kennedy perspective
6. You might know it as bribery, Ma’am
7. Cross yet another one off your list and Not much to see [tie]
8. Cross Sheila off your list
9. The Ballot Question:  October 2011
10. Did I say “yes” to Muskrat?  I meant “no”:  Jones

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That Was The Canada Week That Was

Political mythology was the top of the reading list here at Bond Papers in the days leading up to Canada Day.

The top post noted that a national Conservative insider complaining about political myths was a bit like Aesop bitching about fables.

The second most popular post brought some evidently embarrassing attention to local lover of political myths who went out for the Olympic medal in political bullshit by making what he himself subsequently criticized as ridiculous comments.

The third post noted some problems with a local news story on the same political controversy that the second post covered. You’ll find another critique of a local news story in the one on gouging consumers that ended up tied for the fifth spot on the Top 10 list.

Not done with the political mythology theme, readers also loved the fourth place post.  Another in the Dundernomics series made a penetrating insight into the obvious:  Premier Kathy Dunderdale can’t seem to get her story straight on Muskrat Falls.

The rest of the stories on the list – with one exception – are all about Kathy Dunderdale and Muskrat Falls.  The exception, the story at Number 8 on the list, is about a huge energy story in Vermont that involves  a local company that just happens to be one of the largest private utility companies in Canada. 

It also went pretty much unreported by media in this province.

1. Payback is a mother
2. The federal government is out to kill you
3. Get me re-write
4. Dundernomics 101:  dazed and confused
5. Gouging consumers on gas and Taken up by the ferries
6. A room with a view of the pork barrel
7. The price of a loan guarantee
8. Fortis, Gaz Metro in war for Vermont utility
9. Wealth transfer
10. A tisket, a tasket... and Phriday Photo Phunny

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The Tops for June

Muskrat Falls.

Provincial Tory political fortunes.

Those are the two main themes running through the most popular posts for June.

1. Nalcor negotiating Muskrat transmission with Hydro-Quebec
2. Dunderdale disapproval doubles
3. Well, she asked for one…
4. Cross Sheila off your list...
5. Will bad Tory polls change candidate slates
6. Payback is a mother:  Conservative edition
7. United the Left and Well, did she know in advance?
8. Nightmare on Muskrat Falls
9. Phriday Photo Phunny
10. Minister Chickenshit

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Traffic that transcends the overpass

1. Well, did she know in advance?
2. Minister Chickenshit
3. Kremlinology 36:  Thinking with your ass
4. Will one of them change parties?
5. Like Momma says, stupid is…
6. Penis Envy
7. Belize dannys Fortis
8. Making the most of our electricity resources – Part I:  Electricity Reform
9. US has surplus electricity
10. Dunderdale dunder-fail on SAR call centre

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The Weekly Traffic Report, June 13 to 17, 2011

1. Nalcor negotiating Muskrat transmission with Hydro-Quebec
2. Cross Sheila off your list
3. Titanic records available from UK National Archives
4. 24 French
5. Belize wants to buy out Fortis interest in Belize power company
6. 15 ideas (and more) for a stronger Newfoundland and Labrador – Introduction
7. Spend ‘em if ya got ‘em:  the Alberta version
8. 15 ideas (and more)  - Setting the Table
9. Building the fishery of the future (15 ideas series)
10. The looming debt problem:  update and Politics and Disasters

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Traffic by the numbers for May 23 to 27, 2011

Danny Williams says that the provincial government would see a $10 million return on its $500,000 subsidy…that is, if they spent.

If they could make $10 million by spending a half million, it would be a no brainer.

But they won’t.

Heck, if the numbers looked like that, multi-millionaire Williams would be spending his pocket change and fighting to keep others out of it.

So logically we know Danny’s claim is a massive pile of shite.

Even if the Angry Old Man’s numbers don’t add up, folks – and they never, ever do - you can bet these are the top 10 stories at Bond Papers for last week:

1. Meet your newest frankenparty:  the Bloc NDP
2. What am I supporting today?  asks Abbass
3. In which Dunderdale blunders…again
4. Dunderdale using rigged deck against public on Muskrat Falls
5. Tit rejects suck:  no taxpayer cash for hockey franchise after all
6. Dundernomics 101:  how to lose money
7. A tourist in her own land
8. Show us the tit and we’ll such:  AHL franchise edition
9. Dunderdale and her desperation
10. Dunderdale in action:  one Homer moment after another

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April Showers Traffic for 2011

A fascinating month of April for traffic at ye olde e-scribbler’s corner of cyberspace shows a wind range of stories.

There’s the surprise first place honours for a post about rather sleazy piece of editing in order to fabricate a political attack.  One media outlet got suckered into using it.

Not surprisingly, most of the posts in the Top 10 in April are about Muskrat Falls and the possible implications of the federal election on Kathy Dunderdale’s leadership.

The really amazing thing is that a post on the last day of the month hit Number 10.

If you think this is all curious stuff, though wait until next month.  There’s a federal election on Monday and then the provincial government has to struggle through three more weeks of the provincial legislature (plus its a polling period) before they can head off to the summer campaign runs.

2011 will be an amazing political year across Canada.

1. Invented story:  political appointee and CBC attack government political opponent
2. A new Sprung greenhouse in the wilds of Labrador
3. Average NL family to pay $1000 per year more for Muskrat Falls power:  former PC finance minister
4. Another cheaper, greener alternative to Muskrat Falls
5. Buckingham not only local Tory to buck Dunderdale line on Harper
6. NTV/Telelink poll:  close, closer, no cigar and a referendum on Dunderdale
7. Conservative householder a multilevel bust
8. Dipper sleazeball tactics refuted
9. One big happy Conservative family... maybe
10. A little perspective, people

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