Mayor Stephen Mandel: I for one welcome our new alien overlords.

Global Edmonton News Hour August 27, 2008: In story about Mayor Mandel lining up to the Provincial Government money trough after the recent announcement of a large provincial budget surplus.

This sounds about right for our fiscally challenged mayor to be looking for more izzy money, but while watching the interview I noticed something very strange taking place behind Mayor Mandel, and it has me a bit worried.





Your eyes do not deceive you; that is a Klingon with purpose unknown mingling with some city councilors. All while the mayor distracts the media from the real story. Damn you MSM!

No matter the result of this strange alien encounter at city hall; I think that this city council will find a way to increase my taxes because of it. But don't blame me; I voted for Kodos!

Global's Tera Nelson; Just Making Stuff Up.

Does Global National's weekend anchor Tera Nelson know something that the rest of us do not?

Or is she just making stuff up?

Decide for yourself.

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From the Sunday June 8th edition of the Global National Evening News with anchor Tera Nelson.
(emphasis mine)

"An opposition plan to bring down gas prices and offset emissions is prompting political attacks tonight."

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Interesting, as this is the first I have heard of this. Just what 'plan' is Tera referring to in her lead up to a story on the latest CPC ads? Is there something out there that I missed on this 'plan' to lower prices at the pumps? I have read a few stories in the MSM on this subject and I have even read some of the more partisan Liberal blogs; yet nowhere have I read that Dion's carbon tax would reduce the price of gas at the pumps. Not even Garth or Cherniak have claimed such a thing and they both have been leading the spin on Dion's carbon tax from the very beginning.

So please help me out here as I am at a loss for words. When a news anchor says something like this on a 'trusted' national news program, where they charge advertisers big bucks for commercial time, I have to wonder if I am blinded by partisanship or perhaps just misinformed on all of the details.

Because a news anchor wouldn't just make stuff up would they?

My apologies about the poor quality of the video


Update June 13th: Global has acknowledged receipt of my email. Auto responder.

Update July 4th: Nothing else back from Global and my questions remain unanswered, but Global is back in the spotlight again. h/t Hunter

The PM's secret and other such oddities from yesterday.

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I see that there is breaking news that the PM Harper may be influencing the Democratic nomination. Unfreaking believable! I mean if it was to sabotage Obama, the only possible conclusion would be that PM Harper is keeping a dirty little secret. He is a Hillary supporter.

Come clean Mr.Harper, and reveal your secret agenda. Are you indeed a Hillary supporter, and when did you know it? Also why, after so clearly leaning towards Edwards early on, have you decided to switch teams now? The Canadian public supports honesty, time to be honest with the Canadian public sir.

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The day gets more strange as after discovering that my PM supports Hillary Clinton, I then learn that my Conservative MP supports Jack Layton. From The Phantom Observer "Does Mike Lake support the NDP" When will this madness end!!

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Oddities of science from Global TV reporter Mike Drolet as he told us on the Global National News of March 5, 2008 that "..there is still six weeks left until spring", also noting near the end of his story that "..with more than a month left of winter chances are good we are not out of the woods yet."

Hmm, maybe something has changed but.....

Link to the Global story : note link is time sensitive. Story titled "Stormy Weather"


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And some political oddness as Jack Layton tables the NDP non confidence motion . Why the NDP want to force Canadians into an election at a time their numbers bleed makes little sense, but I think Jack is putting the heat to Dion with this motion. Anyone with any type of political instinct should see that, but it is the Liberals we are talking about here.

Still on the motion(s)

Have you read some of this stuff in the motions?


.. this government’s budgetary policies have been marked by an unbalanced approach of corporate giveaways to the big banks and big polluters and have failed to address the priorities ordinary Canadians care about, such as health care, housing, infrastructure, manufacturing and forestry, climate change, child care, Aboriginals, women, seniors, poverty..

..this government has failed to introduce policies which will diminish the inequality between men and women, in particular by its refusal to provide adequate resources and policies governing child care; legal assistance; long-term care; home care; health care; support for women's equality seeking groups; support for seniors; support for Aboriginal and minority women; pay equity; reform of employment insurance; support for preventing violence against women; public housing and transportation and other services so vital to the hard working women of this country.


It is nice to know that I can always count on Jack Layton to bring me back to reality from such a day of strange happenings. I can always count on the fact that Jack Layton is and will always be a socialist.

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Latest update: Huh? The Liberals have a non confidence motion of their own against the Bloc and NDP! Dion seems to have lost it completely.

I haven't seen anyone comment on this yet on Liblogs, but I await the attempt to spin this as Dion somehow showing leadership. Good luck with that one btw.

Some comments on the motion from our liberal friends at liblogs. If this is any indication of how the devoted feel, Stephane and his impotent leadership is in even more trouble than many think.

Salt: Global National confuses Canadians Even More.

A Global National news story just may have confused Canadians on how to reduce their salt intake. Some background: A study from Stats Canada came out today stating that Canadians are eating too much salt for their own good.

This is something that we all should be paying attention to because increased salt intake has been linked to increased blood pressure (hypertension) which can also lead to numerous other serious conditions including among others, stroke and kidney disease. The recommended amount of salt intake for an adult is 2300 mg per day but the study found that the Canadian average in 2004 was closer to 3100 mg or almost 1/3 more than the maximum recommended intake! High salt (sodium) intake is a very serious problem to be sure, but the solutions are so simple that with just a little education Canadians can easily reduce their sodium intake and by dong so greatly reduce their risks for hypertension related diseases.

Education is the key but earlier tonight on Global National a story on the study may just have confused more people than it helped. Watch the segment here (under Tuesday Apr 10th. Note link will only be active for 1 week). While you watch the segment listen for when Hannah Bourdreau says the following "Health experts say read the label. If salt is listed in the first four ingredients, that means there is too much; so pick something else." and pay close attention to what he video shows while this is being spoken. Below is a screen shot of what has me concerned.

Did you notice anything wrong? I know some of you have figured it out but I am guessing that many if not most of you have no idea as to what my beef is with this story.

Hannah talks about ingredients yet the video is not showing the ingredients list but instead is showing the nutritional information. Call it nit picking, but if you are supposed to not eat anything with sodium listed in the top four ingredients and you look to the nutritional label as replacement for the ingredients list; you are going to either give up even trying to reduce your sodium intake or die of starvation because sodium, by law, is almost always listed forth from the top. I looked all over the house tonight to find a nutritional label that did not list sodium (give it a try yourself) in the top 4 but was not able to find even 1 item that qualified, or in fact one that contained 0 mg of salt.

Overall the story was well done and covered the basic points, but due to a short 10 second bit of video, the message and the concept as to just how easy it is to reduce your sodium intake may have been lost entirely to numerous people. In a country where many already find nutritional information labels confusing, poor editing of news stories is certainly not going to help out the situation.

Al