Blogging

OfficiallyScrewed.com Outpaces Toronto Star

Mulder

In 2006, this blog hired no one. But we also did not have to restructure and lay off anyone either.

(disclosure: we are not a company and their is only one person who blogs here…me. I am the marketing department, the news department, the sports department, the editorial department, the financial department, etc.)

But TorStar Corporation, the parent company of the Toronto Star newspaper, announced they would be restructuring and laying off about 85 employees. The cause, according to local radio, was lower revenues from advertising.

TORONTO, ONTARIO – December 20, 2006 – Further to the formation of the Metroland Media Group and the Star Media Group, Torstar today announces that its newspaper division has undertaken a combination of voluntary and involuntary restructurings which will result in a net reduction of approximately 85 positions. Torstar expects that the restructuring charge, which will be recorded in the fourth quarter, will be approximately $11.0 million. The savings associated with this initiative are expected to be in the range of $5.5 million annually.

This tidbit is meant to be a bit of inspiration for all you bloggers out there. The MSM is taking their hits and it is showing.

Ottawa Bloggers Gathering – Some New Faces In The Crowd

Mulder

Tonight’s Ottawa Blogger gathering (my third) at Marshy’s in Nepean seemed like a good time for all. The conversation primarily stayed political and topics that came up ranged from Income Trusts to Quebec as a Nation to Mark Steyn’s book to Hugh Segal to David Dingwall to makework government programs getting cut to the Income Splitting session on parliament hill this coming January. Sara will do her darndest to make that one well known and I will do my best to attend since it directly affects my family.

Their are two pictures below of the 9 of us who attended this one.

On the left side we have Paul O., a frequent commenter on this blog and a few others. This was Paul’s first venture out. Paul has a blog but we are going to have to bribe him with a beer to get the URL. Next is Victoria, a very politically minded non blogger who hopes to have a blog up and running by Christmas. Listening to many of her views, I would say she would get a good ear from BloggingTories. The next one down the table is yours truly. A hefty 30 to 40 lbs more since I quit smoking. Time to cut out the ribs and wings and get a few salads under my belt. And bringing up the anchor position on the left side is OttawaBlogger mainstay Victor, the Phantom Observer. Victor has been to every one of these that I have been to and is well known to the Blogging Tories and the Red Ensign Brigade. As usual, he had his patented fedora.

On the right from the front of the table moving backwards we have Nikki, a politically minded friend of Sara who is right beside her. I noticed that like many of the female blog crowd, she had some good strong views on topics and it was nice to have her speak her mind. As we all enjoy, some disagreement in the discussions always makes it interesting and fun to debate. next we have Sara. You might know Sara from A Choice For Childcare. Sara is making a lot of headway pleading the case for single income families and stay at home moms and doing a great job of it. Next is Shameer of ShamTheToryMan. Shameer has quite astute at both Canadian Politics and American Politics and I learn something new from him everytime we sit down. He has also been to every one of these meetings that I have attended. Beside him is Matt from A Step To The Right. Matt is always smiling and we discovered that like many other right leaning bloggers, we are both reading Mark Steyn’s book right now. Beside Matt is his girlfriend Jenn who seemed to enjoy herself. I think her and Matt are a bit down as they just lost one of their two cats. (Maybe they can adopt a new one from the Harpers!!)

Ottawa Bloggers November 25, 2006

Ottawa Bloggers2 November 25, 2006

We were all disappointed our friend Brent Colbert didn’t make it out, but apparently Brent was the recipient of a surprise birthday party this evening. I think if the planners had told him he couldn’t make the blogger gathering that it would have ruined the surprise so we forgive him… THIS time!! Happy Birthday Brent!!

It was great getting five new faces out to this gathering. Hopefully YOU will come attend the next one.

Ottawa Has A New Mayor But Returns Every Incumbent Councillor

Mulder

Tonight I had the privilege of attending the campaign party for Larry O’Brien, who just happens to be the new mayor of Ottawa.

Larry swept to an early lead taking just under 50% of the vote. The right leaning voters united behind his banner while the left leaning voters divvied themselves up between incumbent Bob Chiarelli and Alex Munter.

Funny, that’s just what I said would happen back in February. Albeit back then the right leaning candidate was to be Terry Kilrea and not Larry O’Brien.

I had the luxury of attending the event with ShamTheToryMan and Matt from A Step To The Right and below are a few pictures that I snapped with my cell phone.

BobConceding

Bob Chiarelli shows up to concede in a classy speech.

Larry1Small

Larry gets the crowd going with his victory speech. Plough those furrows straight Larry. Plough ’em straight.

LisaSmall

Provincial MPP Lisa MacLeod showed up to celebrate with Larry. I seem to run into her everywhere.

MattNLarry

Matt (A Step To The Right) with Larry.

ShamNMatt

ShamTheToryMan and Matt (A Step To The Right)

All in all a surprising evening. We now have a straight arrow businessman in charge but we have returned a left leaning council so it is going to be interesting to see how things develop.

Phew. Hopefully, tomorrow I can stop looking at the sign farms.
signssigns.jpg

Another Ottawa Blog Mafia Gathering Scheduled

Mulder

With the municipal election wrapping up, we are now ready for our next Ottawa Blog Mafia gathering. This event is open to all bloggers or politically minded people so don’t be shy. We may bark a lot, but we don’t bite.

Where: Marshy’s Bar and Grill at Centrepointe

When: Saturday November 25th at 7pm

Of note, Marshy’s now has free wireless internet access so if you feel dangerous, you can bring your laptop. There is no Sens game that night so traffic shouldn’t be too bad for anyone on the 417.

If you are thinking of attending, please drop me a note or comment below so we can make accommodations should the numbers get too far out of hand. If anyone has any questions feel free to email me at webmaster@officiallyscrewed.com

See you there!!

ADDENDUM: This gathering is in no way directly (or indirectly) tied to this blog site or the owner of this blog site. This gathering is just an announcement of the owner of this blogsite’s intent to be at the above location at the above specified time. This gathering is taking place at a bar/restaurant that is open to everyone in the general public, including the bloggers that seem to want to join in.

Sorry for the legalese, but since the event is an open event, I don’t want to be held liable for any actions or anything that may happen as a result of anyone attending this gettogether. i.e. if you choose to attend and drink and drive, I am absolving myself of any legal control over you. I also suggest that you do not attend this event alone if you have no familiarity with the area where we are gathering or any of the people attending.

You are your own keeper. I am not your keeper, nor am I to be held responsible for your actions or the actions of anyone but myself.

Ok, now that that is out of the way we have about a dozen or so people tentatively confirmed already. So spread the word, grab a friend who likes talking politics and drag them on down next Saturday night.

Lock Me Up And Throw Away The Key

Mulder

This blew me away. (I know I know, it’s a couple of weeks old but I haven’t had much time to surf a few of my favourite blogs the past month).

A writer for Grist, an environmental magazine that in the past has featured interviews with Al Gore and Bill Moyers, is calling for war crimes trials against so-called climate change “deniers” who disagree with the theory that humans have caused global warming. David Roberts says: “when the impacts are really hitting us and we’re in a full worldwide scramble to minimize the damage, we should have war crimes trials for these bastards — some sort of climate Nuremberg.”

The Holocaust references drew criticism from Roger Pielke Jr. of the University of Colorado’s Center for Science and Technology Policy Research — who says he believes in human-caused global warming. He said “this allusion is an affront to those who suffered and died in the Holocaust. This allusion has no place in the discourse on climate change.”

Considering I have been a huge proponent of the fact that over 97% of Green House Gases are water vapour, and that the earth has a self healing process that has produced ice age after ice age and warming after warming, I guess I am going to be one of those that eventually get locked up for putting science ahead of leftist fear mongering.

When that day comes, I will once again be able to say that I have been Officially Screwed.

H/T to ShamTheToryMan

Say Goodnight Garthy … Goodnight Garthy

Mulder

What many had predicted has come to pass. Garth Turner was suspended from the Conservative Caucus today and will sit as an independent.

I know I have had a few different views than Garth and made them clear on my site.

Ironically, Stephen Taylor has located a changed blog post that may be the key to what caused the break up. Apparently it had to do with broken party confidences (i.e. the camel’s back). But considering it refers to the billions of unauditable dollars going to Indian Affairs, one has to wonder if this being public is really a bad thing. I, for one, am appauled that this money from the public purse for IA cannot be audited.

One might put Indian Affairs in with a group of Senators milking our tax dollars to the tune of $150,000 for a week long vacation in the middle east.

In any case, I am very curious what is going to happen with the Halton nomination.

All Good Videos Must Come To An End

Mulder

I just arrived home to find a note in my email box from YouTube telling me that the Dan Matheson vs. Dan McTeague video that I had on my YouTube channel (via CTV Newsnet) was removed due to a third party complaint regarding it infringing on copyright. The third party was Holland and Hart LLC, a law firm out of the western US states.

I have no clue why an American law firm would complain about a Canadian blogger/YouTube video post unless it is either a) a firm helping protect YouTube or b) a firm tied to some Canadian entity that must dislike my blog.

In light of this, I am encouraging you all to go to my YouTube channel and view any of my video posts now because I will be removing many of them over the long weekend. i.e. consider now to Sunday your Last Chance Viewing!!

When all is said and done, I will only have my Red Friday videos.

If any lawyers out there would care to defend me leaving these videos up there (for free) please email me. Otherwise, enjoy them while they last.

Dear Member:

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Holland & Hart LLP claiming that this material is infringing:

Dan The Man Matheson Rocks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACi25M4o0mk

OSTV Is On The Air

Mulder

OK so I stole the catch phrase from SCTV.SCTV

After the Granola Policy Conference last weekend, I had created three new videos bringing my total at youtube to five. With the new session of parliament coming up, I think the footage will be fast and furious so I have a feeling this online TV network will be growing nicely.

In fact, it already has. Lunatic Fringe has been viewed over 250 times to date, Hit The Road Jack Layton almost 150 times, NDP Surfin’ On Heroin over 150 times.

But thanks to Blogging Tory TV, Dan The Man Matheson has been viewed almost 600 times. But far and away the most viewed has been the video on Why the WTC Towers Fell. This video has been viewed over 1100 times.

I can’t wait to get my WinTV programmed for QP on CPAC starting Monday. I think it’s going to be a great fall session.

I Guess I Am Not The Only One Thinking We Are Getting Screwed

Mulder

I would love to think I inspired this artwork, but with the cost of the stamp at 49 cents I think it was created before my blog as the price of sending a letter in Canada is higher these days.

The below stamp can be found at CaledoniaWakeupCall.com

(H/T to Joanne)

screwed taxpayer

Now I have been toying with the idea of a new logo. So far my terrible paint shop pro skills have garnered this.

borderless logo 1

Can you comment on what you think the shaded circles represent?