THE CAIRNS BLOG

ROMNEY CLOBBERS GINGRICH IN FLORIDA

2012-01-31T20:30:00.000-08:00

Just as recent polls from the weekend predicted, Mitt Romney socked it to Newt Gingrich in the Florida primary tonight. Fifty delegates were at stake and Romney now claims all of them from Florida.

Now it is on to the caucuses in my favorite state -- Nevada.

Already Rick Santorum and Ron Paul have been hard at work campaigning in the Silver State already, so Mitt and Newt have some catching up to do there in the desert.

The good news for Floridians now is that they don't have to watch any more attack ads on TV for a while now, at least. Unfortunately, folks elsewhere are not likely to be spared the same fate, as Newt pledges to fight on to the bitter end. The sooner this primary fight is over with, the better it will be for the GOP as far as I am concerned.

WASTED WEEKEND OF SPORTS ON TV

2012-01-29T15:28:00.000-08:00

With the NATIONAL (Dunt dunt dun da!) Football League's Super Bowl game still a week away, this is proving to be a washout of a weekend sports-wise, as the suffering fans at home struggle with an annual syndrome that hits this time of year: football-withdrawal.

It is particularly worse for people in football-mad places such as where I live, Saskatchewan. With football wrapping up pretty much everywhere (including college football and the CFL) it is really tough on the fans who tune in and follow the sport every week.

I have been struggling with it myself all weekend. This has been my weekend: I spent Saturday watching the UFC on Sportsnet and horse racing feeds on the Internet; spent earlier today watching Mexican soccer over the Internet (talk about desperation); and now, this evening, I am semi-watching the NHL All-Star Game and later the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl. Two complete nothing games that I could care not one bit about. Yeah, and I know the Pro Bowl is technically a football game, but it is a nothing football game as far as all football fans are concerned.

What's made this weekend worse for the football fans has been the lack of any real NHL games to watch. That means I have been reduced to following the SJHL the last few days. I tried turning into SJHL junior hockey on the radio while driving home last night, which was okay. But even the SJHL will be over soon, so I'll soon be in withdrawal over that, too.

Needless to say, as a fan I am definitely not looking forward to the months of February and March, two true nothing months as far as sports is concerned. I don't care what anyone says - basketball is no substitute for the NFL. The only saving grace is my beloved NASCAR is coming back, but that is no replacement either.

The only saving grace about February and March is that hopefully it'll be a little warmer than it is now. But that's about it.

FLORIDA NEXT

2012-01-25T16:03:00.000-08:00

Well, I do not have much to say about the upcoming Florida primary -- except that I am not likely to be at home watching the coverage on television.

Just today I looked at the calendar and realized the primary runs head-first into some big local event I'm going to be covering, so I'll have to be on the job that night instead. Rats! Darnit! To say I am not pleased is an understatement.

So DON'T expect much coverage from me of the Florida primary next week at the CAIRNS BLOG. It's too bad, too, because the race is really heating up between Mitt and Newt. Here's what POLITICO has to say about what's going on in Florida.

------------------------------------

In other political news, Stephen Colbert has finally abandoned his joke candidacy for the Presidency.

TUNE IN, TURN ON, DROP OUT

2012-01-24T20:05:00.000-08:00

This is my week for posting all the stuff that I had meant to get around to posting links to, but never did. Anyway, on the heels of my Top of the Pops post comes a link to my column this month about radio and how big a radio listener I am, particularly when it comes to AM radio. So it's kind of a related topic since radio used to be the "music medium" and so on, although it really isn't that way on AM anymore.

Basically, the reason I wrote a column about radio this month was because there was basically nothing to write about around here and I was bored out of my skull. Just as the reason why I posted something about Pan's People was because I was bored out of my skull.

THE ACADEMY AWARDS NOMINATIONS

2012-01-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

Fun stuff:

AND NOW, A REAL BLAST FROM THE PAST FEATURING PAN'S PEOPLE

2012-01-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

The great thing about the Internet is that you occasionally turn up gems from the old days such as old ads and so on. This is a British ad from the early Seventies for an otherwise boring automotive product -- livened up by the exciting appearance of some very leggy gorgeous babes, who, upon close examination of the fine print, are none other than the female dance troupe Pan's People of BBC Top of the Pops fame.

From what I gather Pan's People were best known for, ahem, wearing hotpants a lot on TV. And, apparently, in ads such as this. I love it. Enjoy, guys!

2011 BOX OFFICE YEAR IN REVIEW

2012-01-23T20:24:00.000-08:00

I was going to post this earlier but the website to my newspaper was down and I couldn't link to this as early as I wanted to. Anyway, the site is back up and now I am finally able to link to my annual Box Office Year in Review, which was published last week. There I run down the full Top Ten list of box office winners in North American domestic grosses. This year's big winner: Harry Potter (right).

Not much more to say, other than it was a down year overall for the box office for all kinds of reasons (3D, skyrocketing ticket prices) and a big year for complaints about how sub-par the moviegoing experience is these days for so many people.

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL IS ON

2012-01-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

Actually, it has been on for a few days now, since Jan. 19, but I have been preoccupied elsewhere (politics, football, etc.)

I am simply offering up this link to the Sundance website and also coverage from Movieline, Variety and Hollywood Reporter, as well as Hollywood-Elsewhere's usual amusing rants. I unfortunately have little to say about it all, mainly because I'm not there in snowy Utah and haven't bothered reading any of these articles about the coverage yet. I think Seth Rogen has something showing there. Anyway, let's just say I was more interested in the Toronto festival's happenings when it was going full tilt.

See, this is what happens when you put the Sundance Film Festival up against the NFL playoffs -- the football fans like me tend to be a little distracted.

Life is good for the entertainment reporters because, coming this Tuesday, it's OSCAR nominations! WOO HOO!

JOE PATERNO IS DEAD

2012-01-22T13:06:00.000-08:00

It could not have been a sadder end for the longtime former football coach of Penn State. The story here from ESPN.

NEWT GINGRICH WINS THE SOUTH CAROLINA PRIMARY

2012-01-21T16:07:00.000-08:00

This race has officially gone crazy. Link to NBC News' projection.

On to Florida, where there is an NBC debate scheduled for Monday night. I wonder what Newt has up his sleeve for THAT debate! The fun never ends in GOP politics.

SC RESULTS

2012-01-21T15:09:00.000-08:00

As usual, here are links to all the election coverage tonight from South Carolina from CNN complete with live blog, Fox News complete with poll-by-poll results, MSNBC, C-SPAN, WIS-TV, and Politico. Polls close at 7PM Eastern, less than an hour from now.

Will Newt complete his comeback from the dead to win this thing? Stay tuned, folks.

SOUTH CAROLINA RACE IS WILD AND WOOLY

2012-01-20T18:53:00.000-08:00

I have not posted about American politics here for a few days now. Wow, have there ever been changes in the race leading up to the South Carolina primary tomorrow, including two more presidential candidacies packing up and going home.

First of all, after putting on a brave face for a few days, Jon Huntsman dropped out of the race and endorsed Mitt Romney. Romney seemed to be flying high. However, he has been wilting in South Carolina under a heavy fire of attack ads. Then on Thursday, Rick Perry finally threw in his own towel and endorsed the suddenly surging Newt Gingrich. A few days ago he looked dead, but South Carolinians seem to like his take-no-prisoners approach to this primary race.

Then there came word that Gingrich's ex-wife was going to ABC News to rat on Gingrich, with sensational, explosive claims that Gingrich wanted an "open marriage" when she was married to him.

Wow. All I could say is that Gingrich really was in a lousy marriage, given this public backstabbing he got from this woman. on TV. She seemed really bitter. No wonder they split up.

Anyway, that led up to the infamous first question of the CNN debate later that night in Charleston, SC. Debate moderator John King lobs up the first question to Gingrich, asking him if he'd "like to take some time to respond" to the ABC interview and the open marriage allegations. To which Gingrich replies: "no, but I will."

Gingrich then puts King in his place, saying "I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that," and gets a big standing ovation.

Later on, David Gergen said on CNN that this was one of the most explosive moments in debate history and a home run for Newt, though he also defended King asking the question because it was the "elephant in the room". Maybe, but I have to say watching the whole exchange, even I was going: "way to go Newt."

Also in the debate, Mitt Romney hems and haws in fumbling an answer on when he is going to release his tax records. Then, when the moderator looked like he was going to skip over and ignore Ron Paul, the crowd booed. So they had to ask Paul the question!

Wild stuff, but I gotta say --- why were these questions relevant to this debate!? We all know Newt Gingrich's marriage troubles already, and as for these guys' tax records, who really cares?

CNN should really be asking these guys questions relevant to whether any of them would do any better than the current guy in power, Mr. Barack Obama. The next time these folks have a presidential debate, I want more time devoted to how these guys will fix the economy and deal with these rogue regimes around the world. That's what is important -- not this other nonsense they were dredging up instead.

Anyway, that's my take on the whole thing, and you can read the live blog about what happened here. I also watched the CNN live streaming from the spin room and it was fascinating stuff. I gotta say, I am hooked on this political coverage and quite frankly wouldn't be too sad to see the primary race last a few more weeks yet -- this is too good.

I suppose the other news we should mention is that now we are getting word that it was Rick Santorum who actually won the Iowa Caucuses by 34 votes, not Romney. But it really doesn't matter in the delegate count, anyway.

I'll be back with coverage of the South Carolina primary, tomorrow.

I'M BACK WITH NEWS FROM FREEZING COLD NOWHERE

2012-01-19T16:40:00.000-08:00

Just want to say I'm back.

I know, I've been away a while but I was busy at work the last several days. Then, last night I thought I might post, but then I realized that the whole World Wide Web (Wikipedia, Google etc) had shut down or otherwise launched their own protests over the USA's proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, and I thought I might as well join in the protest along with everyone else by not posting a thing here.

Anyway, it looks like that act won't be going ahead now, thanks to the stand taken by all the online people. I'm not in favor of piracy either, but that act really was overreaching in my view.

To say the least, I missed out on a lot of news from the past week due to all the work I was doing, such as that cruise ship that went down, as well as the Miss America Pageant won by Miss Wisconsin, and the Golden Globe awards hosted again by Ricky Gervais, and these exciting NFL games, and the US government saying no to the Keystone XL pipeline, and all the rest of it. Of course, there has been a lot of activity on the campaign trail in the United States, and I'll do a full post on that later on with the South Carolina primary campaign news, of which there was a considerable amount today.

In other news, a major mass of Arctic air has swept through my region and is sweeping North America, dipping the temperatures down to minus 30 degrees where I am! To make a long story short, I am just shivering here in frozen Canada.

That amounts to News from Nowhere for right now. I simply felt the need to show my face.

WINNERS AND LOSERS

2012-01-10T18:33:00.000-08:00

So the winner of the GOP primary in New Hampshire is Mitt Romney with 36 percent of the vote. (UPDATE: It's now up to 40 percent.)

The consolation prize goes to Ron Paul, who finishes second.

And the loser of the election is the entire Republican right wing, who have totally failed to find a credible alternative to Romney after two states.

Rick Santorum went down the drain in New Hampshire, Rick Perry didn't even compete and Newt Gingrich is mortally wounded after this showing. This is two terrible showings in a row for Newt, and keep in mind -- he was endorsed here by the Union Leader, and he still couldn't win.

I don't know why anyone thinks Newt still has a shot at this race. Newt should give up before he takes down the whole party with his attacks, ads and documentaries about Romney's role with Bain Capital, etc. etc. Concede already, Newt.

As for Jon Huntsman, for all the work he did in New Hampshire, his third place showing is just plain disappointing. He has hardly any money and probably ought to throw in the towel soon, which is too bad because he's more credible and far less crazy than some of these others in this race.

STAY TUNED FOR COVERAGE OF MITT ROMNEY'S LANDSLIDE VICTORY IN NEW HAMPSHIRE RIGHT HERE

2012-01-10T15:20:00.000-08:00

It's either that, or coverage of Jon Huntsman's thrilling second-place finish. Or maybe it's Ron Paul's thrilling second-place finish. We'll see.

Coverage from CNN, Fox News, the New Hampshire Union Leader which has both results and a live blog, and of course C-SPAN which is running WMUR's coverage tonight at 8 PM ET. WMUR also has its live wire going.

CHANGES FOR FINANCIAL NEWS REPORTERS

2012-01-10T15:12:00.000-08:00

Read that a couple of TV business reporters changed their TV biz news addresses this week. On Monday Trish Regan made her debut on Bloomberg TV after leaving CNBC. As well, longtime CNBC reporter Melissa Francis also left CNBC and is now on the air at Fox Business.

There are a few stories out there about CNBC business reporters bailing out to go elsewhere, including rumors in this article that David Faber might be thinking of jumping ship. And of course, Erin Burnett was seen last week on the election coverage on CNN. Who's to blame for all these CNBC people jumping ship? Well, the NY Post is blaming the "glass ceiling that is Maria Bartiromo." Their quotes, not mine.

Why do I mention all this? I dunno, maybe because I still harbor ambitions to report on Wall Street happenings one of these days. I also notice TVNewser has been running videos of interviews they did with Fox Business reporter Sandra Smith, so I found that interesting as well.

Anyway, enough about all that, there is a presidential primary to cover.

SERIOUS NEWS IS GOING TO HAVE TO WAIT

2012-01-07T16:27:00.000-08:00

Because I am watching the NFL PLAYOFFS!!!!

Latest scores: Houston winning big 31-10 in the 4th quarter. Still to come: New Orleans hosts Detroit.

EIGHT VOTES

2012-01-04T15:39:00.000-08:00

That was how thin the margin of victory was for Mitt Romney in Iowa over Rick Santorum. This was the closest primary or caucus vote in the history of the United States.

Already there has been some movement on the campaign trail as Michele Bachmann suspended her campaign today.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Also, Rick Perry had gone back to Texas to "reassess" his campaign. Apparently the reassessment is over, though, and he's decided to bet his hat on South Carolina.

Meanwhile Romney got an endorsement today from former presidential hopeful John McCain, while Santorum moves on with considerable momentum and possibly an infusion of money as the apparent leading right-of-centre option to Romney. Also continuing on is Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich, and the worry about the sinking Gingrich campaign is that he'll just go scorched-earth negative and do all kinds of damage to the rest of the field.

We'll see. New Hampshire, the "first in the nation" primary, is up next Tuesday.

SANTORUM, ROMNEY TIED IN IOWA

2012-01-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

Basically, virtually. It looks like the final margin is going to be about a hundred votes either way. Either way Santorum comes away the big winner in all this.

CAUCUSES ARE ON

2012-01-03T17:46:00.000-08:00

The Iowa caucuses are currently under way and I am watching a live stream of a live caucus in progress at the WHO TV website. For results you can go to WHO, the Des Moines Register, CNN or Fox News. Also live video at CSPAN. See you later.

FIRST RESULTS: Rick Santorum LEADING with 27 percent to Ron Paul's 23. Mitt Romney third at 18 percent.

MORE RESULTS: CNN now predicting it's a three-way tie among these three right now!!!

IOWA CAUCUSES TOMORROW

2012-01-02T15:31:00.000-08:00

I will be here tomorrow with coverage of the Iowa caucuses, which are turning into a three-way battle between Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and surging Rick Santorum. Santorum has come out of nowhere to contention, probably because he has been in Iowa longer than the other candidates. Sometimes the retail politicking does work. The latest poll numbers show a dead heat among the three leaders.

Meanwhile Newt Gingrich is sinking under a barrage of attack ads, while Michele Bachmann has had organizational troubles with her Iowa campaign chair quitting her to go to Ron Paul.

Meanwhile, Rick Perry vows to fight on regardless of what happens. His focus seems to be on suing Virginia for not being allowed on their ballot. A few other contenders have joined in, protesting the state's restrictive rules. Wow, what good is democracy if you cannot be on a ballot?

We'll see what transpires tomorrow night.

BIG DAY OF SPORTS

2012-01-02T12:38:00.000-08:00

I am spending the last day of my time off from work watching the bowl games and the NHL Winter Classic from Philadelphia. Obviously I am trying to rest up as much as possible for another hectic year ahead.

Hopefully I'll have something more to say later tonight about the big Iowa caucuses tomorrow, but right now I am watching the games.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE CAIRNS BLOG

2011-12-31T20:18:00.000-08:00

I could talk about the world juniors or the bowl games, or the Iowa caucuses, but not tonight. I'll talk about it later, maybe tomorrow. That is it for now.

GOP RACE IN IOWA DOWN TO ITS FINAL WEEK

2011-12-28T15:32:00.000-08:00

Exciting times in US presidential politics! The Iowa caucuses are less than one week away, coming up next Tuesday. The latest buzz is that Newt Gingrich is sinking like a rock because of new divorce revelations from years ago. Someone needs to tell the media that this is 2011 and people get divorced all the time.

Also, in a big news flash, apparently people in Iowa are finally realizing that Rick Santorum is a presidential candidate. Better late than never, I say.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE LED BY MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

2011-12-28T15:20:00.000-08:00

So the Christmas weekend box office is in and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol led the way, but you can't really say that it was so great a weekend overall as the box office was only up a percent or two. Big deal. The weekend was basically good for one movie and it was the usual mediocre showing for the rest.

Anyway, so much for 2011 at the movies. Coming soon from me: my annual 2011 Box Office Year in Review.

WORLD JUNIORS ARE ON

2011-12-26T19:44:00.000-08:00

Christmas is over and today is Boxing Day, and for Canadians it can only mean one thing -- the World Junior Hockey Championship has started in Alberta.

For others, though, Boxing Day simply means people return their unwanted gifts to the store. Such is life.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

2011-12-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

Yes, today is Festivus. Enjoy goofing off and watching TV, folks.

BOWL SEASON IS ON!

2011-12-21T18:50:00.000-08:00

Watching football is all I am really doing these days around here. You know, even though there's all this criticism of the bowl games and the BCS, I think it's great there is football to watch just about every day and night during this holiday season -- even if these games essentially mean absolutely nothing.

The ESPN link to the bowl game scores is here.

POLITICAL UPDATE ON HAPPENINGS IN THE USA WITH THESE REPUBLICANS

2011-12-21T18:37:00.000-08:00

I am now officially off for the Christmas break and thought I would provide this update on what's happening in the USA before I hibernate for a few days.

First of all, just as I predicted would eventually happen, Newt Gingrich seems to be sliding. I dunno the exact reason why. Maybe the Republicans have wised up. Maybe Newt's organizational woes are showing up at the worst possible time. Maybe it's all the attack ads against him and the gang-up against him by the other candidates at the last debate. It's probably the last sentence.

In any event, the Iowa race suddenly got more exciting. Meanwhile, the Des Moines Register has endorsed Mitt Romney. Whether that is a good thing or not for him, I don't know.

As for Congress, all I will say about them is that the Republican Tea Party wing continues to show that they are rank amateurs when it comes to politics. These folks in Congress need to make a deal on the payroll tazw and get the extension done before all the taxes go up, but these nutty Tea Partiers would rather stand on principle regardless of the consequences to taxpayers of the United States of America, come hell or high water. And in doing so they are hurting their own cause and hurting their party.

Really, guys, I thought you folks in the GOP were supposed to be the cut-the-taxes crowd. Well, if you don't do this deal the taxes will go up and President Barack Obama will be pointing the finger at you. Tea Partiers, you need to swallow your pride, save your fights for later and get a deal done for the good of the country -- before you sink your whole party. That's my comment.

DAY OF DEATH ON THE WORLD STAGE

2011-12-18T20:26:00.000-08:00

Earlier today Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic, died.
And just tonight, news is in that Kim Jong Il, North Korean dictator, has died.

Oh, and a couple of days ago Christopher Hitchens died, too.

MOVIE SLUMP IS STILL ON

2011-12-17T18:41:00.000-08:00

More thoughts on the great movie box office slump of 2011 today. First, here's a link to my Cairns on Cinema column this week where I give my reasons why people aren't showing up.

I said the slump was due to 3D and increased ticket prices, and this was why people were no longer supporting the "same old junk" that they used to spend money on in the past. Although truth be told, they're not even really supporting the good movies, either.

As for this weekend's box office, it looks like the grim domestic trend is continuing. Nikki Finke is reporting this weekend's releases Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (pictured) are way off their previous instalments' box office. Just 24 hours earlier Finke was claiming that pent-up demand was going to mean big audiences for both of them, but Saturday is seeing a different story play out. As for the reasons these two aren't setting the world on fire, you can look no further to my theories: 3D (both of them), increased ticket prices (ditto), contributing to people refusing to support the same old junk (two sequels). And this is definitely junk -- especially the Chipmunks.

Memo to Hollywood: no more high ticket prices, and no more sequel junk. Please.

About the only good news is Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is doing great business on the IMAX screens. But when was the last time we saw a decent action movie on screens? A long time ago, I say. No wonder it's doing so well.

WORST MOVIE ATTENDANCE OF THE "YEAR". LITERALLY

2011-12-12T21:09:00.000-08:00

I was not at the movie theater this weekend, and from what I hear, neither were you. But if you were, let me introduce you to a fellow from Massachusetts who's willing to bet you $10,000 that the theater was pretty empty.

The word is that this past weekend was the worst box office weekend of 2011. In fact, it was worse than that -- you had to go back to September of 2008 for a weekend this terrible. The total domestic movie gross: $78 million.

To show you how bad a showing this is for the entire movie industry: one blockbuster summer movie can normally expect to make this much in a weekend all by itself.

Part of the problem was that nobody was too interested in New Year's Eve, Garry Marshall's star-studded New Year's movie that was along the same lines as his previous Valentine's Day. It was expected to finish Number One.

What happened was the critics pelted the movie with tomatoes, and then the fans didn't show up. It did finish first, in the end, but with a haul of only $13.7 million dollars! Also, Jonah Hill's flick The Sitter looked simply lame and did even less business, at $10 million.

I am planning to do my movie column later this week on the miserable box office numbers we have seen, not only this weekend but the entire year. It really has been a year to forget at the box office in 2011. My theories basically all have to do with 3D and with a populace refusing to put up with these increased ticket prices. Especially since Hollywood is insisting on sending our way the "same old, same old" all the time.

Anyway, look for a column on all my thoughts on the box office numbers later this week.

FIGHT NIGHT IN IOWA

2011-12-10T18:50:00.000-08:00

Not only is it Fight Night in Toronto but it is Debate Night in Iowa. The US presidential contenders are going at it on ABC. Live blog of the event is here.

IT'S UFC FIGHT NIGHT TONIGHT IN TORONTO

2011-12-10T11:17:00.000-08:00

Enough about the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Tonight is FIGHT NIGHT in Toronto, and instead of the usual hockey fights at the Air Canada Centre we have MIXED MARTIAL ARTS as Jon "Bones" Jones takes on Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida. It's UFC 140. Here's a sneak peak at the weigh-in.

May I also add that I heard sales were kind of slow for this one. While UFC absolutely packed the Rogers Centre for their inaugural fight with Georges St.Pierre, there were reports this wasn't even sold out as of a few days ago.

Bleacher Report has a few reasons why. Steve Buffery of the Toronto Sun was scratching his head about it too. I am also scratching my head because I would have thought if there was any place in North America that was a UFC hotbed, it's Toronto. Maybe people there just don't have any money.

As for live coverage, here's the link to Sportsnet. Enjoy fight night!

ON THE BIG SALE OF THE LEAFS, RAPTORS AND FC

2011-12-09T23:23:00.000-08:00

Here are my thoughts about the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund selling their stake in the Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors, Marlies and FC, not to mention Air Canada Centre, to media conglomerates Rogers and BCE.

I dunno. A lot of people are worried that these two media and telecom giants are just going to take advantage of this acquisition to hose the public and monopolize their control over content in this country. I think people believe the new owners are going to regard the sports fans in Toronto as a bottomless pit of money to be taken advantage of, and ignore putting together winning teams. Besides, we've seen what Rogers ownership has done for the Toronto Blue Jays on the field. That's right: nothing. Just as MLSE current ownership has done absolutely nothing.

I'm not opposed to conglomerates owning teams as long as they don't hose the fans and commit to winning. In some ways, I think it would have been better for these teams if they were owned by some sole billionaire whose sole focus is winning - a George Steinbrenner type, or maybe a Jerry Jones or a Mark Cuban. Their teams may not win titles every year, but you can be sure they will make an effort to get top players. If their teams lose, you can be sure these owners will blow their tops and make changes.

But with conglomerates, they generally tend to look at teams more as revenue generators for their properties. I think in this case it all comes down to attitude. If these new corporate owners only care about enriching themselves and selling a product, that will be a bad thing. But if they care about actually having a winning product and spending the money that needs spent to do it, that's different. Look at Labatt's when they owned the Blue Jays -- they actually cared about having a winning product on the field, and made sure the team was well-financed to acquire top players. It was more than simply about beer sales for them.

I say the only way you'll make money in the long run with these properties is if these teams win. I don't think you can count on the fans to shell out for products that don't perform on the field, the ice or the court -- even if the team is called the Toronto Maple Leafs. Seriously, all this losing by all these Toronto teams is testing the patience of the fans to no end. The new owners need to pay attention to keeping their suffering fans happy, otherwise they're going to have a very unhappy balance sheet in the long run.

JAIME EDMONDSON DOES IT AGAIN: COUNTS DOWN COLLEGE FOOTBALL'S TOP TEN PROGRAMS

2011-12-09T23:15:00.000-08:00

College football's regular season is basically over; all that is left is the big Army-Navy game tomorrow on TV and the awarding of the Heisman Trophy. After that, it's bowl season.

So, with that, I thought I would pass along this fun item which I had been meaning to post for a number of days now. Hopefully, it will also get all the "girl" posts out of my system -- for a while, at least.

As you know, this blog is crazy for Jaime Edmondson of Miami Dolphins, Amazing Race and Playboy fame. That gorgeous redhead has really done her part to make the whole sport of football fun for the fans. Last year, the ex-Dolphins cheerleader did a wildly popular pictorial where she donned outfits in the colors of everyone's favorite NFL teams. This year, in a unique twist, Jaime's part of Playboy's countdown of the top college football programs of the Playboy Era, post-1953.

Number one on their list? USC. (Which, I notice, is having some troubles as of late with the NCAA.)

As an example of what to expect, here's a photo where Jaime dons the famed maize and blue of the Michigan Wolverines. (Photo credit: Playboy.) You can see the whole countdown here, but be warned: the site is kind of not safe for work.

The folks over there at Playboy, by the way, have quite a rich history when it comes to college football coverage. Every fall, they would put out an issue where they would do a "Pigskin Preview" with a thorough ranking of all of the college football programs in the USA. It's great the folks at Playboy have remembered their heritage and it's great to see Jaime back reminding the fans how hot she is. She's also been heating up the cover of Guitar World these days, too.

What else is there to say? Jaime Edmondson rocks. I still think she should've been Playmate of the Year. Oh, well.

ON THE US PRESIDENTIAL RACE AS IT STANDS NOW

2011-12-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

My monthly News Watch column is now up in which I dissect the state of affairs in the USA presidential race.

Needless to say, it has not been an impressive display on the Republican side so far by either the candidates or these befuddled GOP voters. Make up your minds, folks.

MORE BAD TV NEWS: ROGER EBERT GETTING GROUNDED

2011-12-06T10:46:00.000-08:00

More bad cancellation news, this time from the ranks of public television. Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies on PBS will be going on hiatus. The reason: lack of funding.

Ebert had sent out an SOS not long ago, saying they needed a big financial angel to come through, or else the show was toast. Apparently Roger and his wife Chaz were financing the show out of their own pockets. You can't expect that to go on forever.

It's really too bad because it seemed like a good show with a loyal following of viewers. This begs the question -- what the heck are these PBS pledge breaks for if they don't keep your favorite shows on the air? Seriously, I don't get it.

A lot of people are saying they should just continue the show as a web-only venture, but that is just unrealistic -- you really do need a TV partner to be able to make a go of it with a quality production. I mean, look at Richard Roeper -- he does a lot of video stuff online these days, but still needs a TV partner for all that, too, in Reelz Channel. Anyway, I hope Ebert finds a way to finance this show so it can get back on the air before long. This news gets a big thumbs down from me.

PAN AM LOOKS LIKE IT IS GROUNDED

2011-12-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

Despite the recent hoopla over Ashley Greene (of Twilight fame) getting a role on Pan Am, the word that just came in recently is that the network cut the order for the show, which can only mean one thing -- this show's doomed.

So much for all these Mad Men imitations on TV this season, then. The real reason I think all these shows have flopped on TV can be summed up, I think, by the following words: the Sixties are over, man.

Way over.

NHL REALIGNMENT IS TOO RADICAL FOR MY LIKING

2011-12-06T00:58:00.000-08:00

On the heels of the BCS decision-making comes more crazy-slash-stupid decisions from the powers that be in the sports world.

As has been much-rumored or feared, the NHL went ahead and approved radical realignment today. They are scrapping the two conferences with three divisions each, and will now go to four conferences with no divisions at all. For more on the realignment, here's the release here.

Now for my own thoughts. This is really, really unnecessary and quite a bizarre-looking setup, especially compared to the other sports leagues who still have three or four divisions within two conferences. I know the NHL had to move the Winnipeg Jets out of the Southeast, but all they had to do was simply move the Jets to the Central and the Nashville Predators to the Southeast to take their place. They didn't have to go ahead with this craziness, moving teams all over the place and blowing up the divisions and conferences.

I also know there were these travel and scheduling concerns of various teams, but I think these could all have been addressed while keeping the current division format. You could have moved Dallas out of the Pacific to the Central, for example, or even the Southeast, and moved Colorado to the Pacific.

But instead, this league went and blew the whole thing up. Now we have four conferences and they make little sense, with these southern teams all over the place. These don't even have the same number of teams, these conferences -- two have seven teams and two have eight. This isn't realignment like what the NFL did when they went from six to eight divisions. At least those divisions made sense in how they were set up. This NHL setup, though, is just nuts. Four conferences, not two? Really?!

It's crazy stuff like this that is the reason why the NHL isn't more popular in the USA. The league does this kind of realigning over and over again, and they keep on moving teams around and messing things up. First they had the six-team league, and then when they expanded to 12 teams they split them into two divisions. Then, when they expanded to 18 teams, they split them into the Campbells and the Wales and divided them into four divisions --- but instead of having the conference champions face each other in the end, they had a crazy playoff format which simply ranked all 12 teams and had them play off for the Stanley Cup. Then came the merger with the WHA, so they moved some teams again, and this time ranked the teams 1 to 16 for the playoffs! Then in 1982 they finally got around to ranking teams 1-through-4 in the divisions and had them play off, with the divisional winners meeting for the conference title and the two conference champions eventually facing for the Stanley Cup.

Then after a number of years they changed it to 1-through-8 in the conferences, and then after that they split the league into six divisions and moved the teams around again so that Montreal and Toronto could finally be in the same division, while the southern teams could be in their own division, too. Somewhere along the line they also got rid of the Campbells and the Wales conferences and called them the Western and Eastern Conferences, but kept on awarding Campbell and Wales trophies to the conference champions and well, anyway -- now they're blowing it up again and moving to four conferences, and who knows what they will be named.

I heard they might be called the Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr and Howe Conferences. That is too hilarious. We'll probably even see these four guys handing the winning teams their trophies in the playoffs!

I'm sorry, but this kind of realignment insanity is exactly the reason why people in the United States don't take the NHL seriously. The league had a good thing going with the division alignment they already had, and didn't have to shake up things. You just watch. This new format is going to land with a thud with the public.

I DON'T SEE WHAT THE FUSS WAS ALL ABOUT

2011-12-06T00:02:00.000-08:00

Some interesting/weird Christmas news to tell you about from this side of the world.

About a week or so back, I attended our staff Christmas party and went up to the bar and asked for a Coca-Cola. They gave me a can of Coke -- but it was a strange-looking white can with polar bears on it. The folks at the bar assured me that, indeed, this was regular Coke, not diet Coke or something else.

Despite the initial confusion I got used to drinking Coke out of the special white can. I guess it was all part of the company's fine efforts to save the polar bears.

It turned out, though, that the Coke drinkers were all up in arms over the color of the cans and were complaining they were getting confused as to whether it was Coke or Diet Coke, or whatever.

The backlash got so bad that Coca-Cola finally got rid of the white cans and returned to red cans for their cola.

Honestly, I don't see what the fuss was all about! I figured out the white Coke cans were special white Coke cans for the Christmas season easily enough, but I suppose other Coke drinkers are easily confused and get easily upset over things like this.

Are Coke drinkers really that dumb? I guess so, eh!!!! And that is my comment on Coke's white cans.

THE BCS IS STILL A JOKE

2011-12-05T17:43:00.000-08:00

TEAMS ANNOUNCED YESTERDAY

The final tally is in for the Bowl Championship Series standings, and LSU and Alabama will meet for the national title, shutting out Oklahoma State.

Well, great -- that's two SEC teams playing for the title. Why the heck does anyone from any of the other conferences bother even fielding a football team, then, if this is what we get? Alabama already lost to LSU. Why not give a deserving champion from another conference a chance? At the very least, have some sort of system that allows them to play off against one another for a title shot?

Oklahoma State won its conference while Alabama didn't, but Alabama gets to play for the national title while OSU gets stuck with a nothing game against Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl. Like I said -- this is ridiculous. Teams from outside the SEC are all getting robbed under this system.

In other BCS news, I notice that the Sugar Bowl shafted Boise State, Kansas State, Arkansas, Michigan State and maybe some other deserving schools by picking lower-ranked Virginia Tech and Michigan to play in its bowl game, and this stinks to high heaven with me. Virginia Tech got clobbered in its championship game, and Michigan wasn't even the best team in its own state! Yet these two both go to the BCS!

People are ranting and raving that these two got picked because more tickets can be sold for the game.

Is this what it has come down to -- BCS bowls picking teams based on how popular they are, as opposed to whether or not they are any good? This is truly a joke. Boise State and Kansas State might as well not even have football programs if this is the kind of treatment they are going to get from these bowl committees. Really, why even bother playing the games? All that will happen is you'll get screwed in the end!!

I guess I should be glad to be living in a country where college football has an actual playoff system, unlike Division 1-A in the United States. The BCS really has to go.

As for the bowl game schedule, here it is.

HAROLD AND KUMAR IN 2D

2011-12-05T17:18:00.000-08:00

Well, my latest Cairns on Cinema column is now up on my experience last week watching A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas --- except I watched it in 2D in a 2D theater! That proved to be, uh, very interesting.

Word of advice: never watch a 3D movie in 2D, because you'll miss all the special effects.

Anyway, here's that column. Have a good one.

HERMAN CAIN THROWS IN THE TOWEL

2011-12-03T19:58:00.000-08:00

Well, in the GOP presidential race another one bites the dust. Today in Atlanta at the grand opening of Herman Cain's new campaign office, Cain went to the microphones and announced he was suspending his campaign. No doubt about the reason why -- the Cain campaign was wilting under all the accusations of sexual harassment and so on.

May I add I thought it was a very strange, surreal announcement. I watched the whole thing online, and it had people going up there to the podium and giving speeches saying why they wanted Cain in the White House and how great he would be for America, all completely oblivious to the reality that he was going to withdraw. Anyway, he's now out of the race. I just hope he doesn't come back from the dead the way Gary Hart did on the Democratic side after his campaign blew up on him in 1988 -- that would just mean further embarrassment.

That leaves a Republican field topped at the moment by Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. The primaries and caucuses are getting closer: Iowa is just a month away, folks.

ON THIS CONRAD MURRAY SENTENCE

2011-11-29T19:03:00.000-08:00

Well, today Dr. Conrad Murray got his sentence for his involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson, and California's justice system yet again proved a mockery. Murray got the maximum, all right: four years, but he'll be serving less than two years of it in total in county jail. Why? Because all the jails in California are overcrowded and have no room for convicts like him. So he'll be out in no time, making room for other, more violent offenders.

Is it any wonder that people are ticked off over this? California's justice system -- what a joke. Again.

Conrad Murray Sentenced to Four Years Behind Bars: MyFoxLA.com

THE LAST WORD ON THIS MONTH'S PROVINCIAL ELECTION

2011-11-27T00:04:00.000-08:00

Since Sunday mornings are usually the time for political talk on TV, I thought I would provide this long-overdue link to my monthly column with thoughts on the Saskatchewan provincial election results from November 7, focusing my attention on the local results of the Battlefords riding.

Also, here is my First Person Adventures on the Campaign Trail story, where I recount what it was like following the leaders during the election. Sort of like "The Boys on the Bus", except I never actually made it onto the bus: I only took the picture of it (see opposite).

As for post-election news -- there is no change to the cabinet, at least for now, and the legislature returns to work on December 5th for the Throne Speech. Meanwhile the NDP have picked Regina MLA John Nilson to serve as interim leader until a permanent leader is selected next year.

---------------------------------------------

That is finally it for my Saskatchewan election coverage. Honestly, I don't know what will keep my interest where I am right now, as the major news has completely dried up and we are looking at no more federal or provincial elections around here until 2015. There was also no official "Black Friday" where I was here in frozen Canada, so I couldn't even cover that (although to be honest, I had the day off anyway because I had worked the previous weekend). Life is dull around here.

NBA LOCKOUT IS OVER!!!

2011-11-26T09:28:00.000-08:00

The NBA owners and players have reached a deal after marathon talks. About time, I say.

They finally came to their senses and realized they ran the risk of turning off all their fans if this kept up much longer. The season starts just in time --- on Christmas Day, so they saved Christmas for the NBA.

NICKELBACK

2011-11-24T19:43:00.000-08:00

Despite all the controversy from Detroiters who wanted someone from Detroit's musical tradition, or anyone else for that matter to play at halftime of the Lions-Packers Thanksgiving game today, the folks in charge said to heck with the paying customers and chose Canadian band Nickelback. That drew protests from people who thought Nickelback was terrible and a terrible choice, etc etc. There was even an online petition.

Anyway, the organizers stood firm and Nickelback played at halftime today. Indeed, there were some people booing. All I have to say is that there is a reason why folks were up at arms over this decision: these guys are no good!

It's not that they gave a particularly lousy performance at halftime today: it was more that they were simply lousy to begin with, period! I don't even remember what the heck it was they played, and that's the problem right there: all their music is forgetable.

Please, folks in the USA, whatever you do, do not blame Canada for this. It's not our fault these guys are from our country.

Oh, and I understand they play at the Grey Cup on Sunday. So much for that halftime show, then. You can't escape Nickelback, even if you want to.

HAPPY FOOTBALL DAY

2011-11-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

It's Thanksgiving Day in the USA, and you know what that means. Lots of NFL action. And you know what that ALSO means. That's right, it's my annual excuse to put up a picture of the hottest Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader I can find.

Well, here she is. (Hey, something for the fans to be thankful, for, right?) Enjoy the games, guys.

MOVIE BOX OFFICE: BREAKING DAWN, PLUS THE RETURN OF THE MUPPETS

2011-11-23T16:07:00.000-08:00

I haven't really been following the movie box office too much lately, as I've been preoccupied with other more important business over the last several weeks.

Apparently, the box office was in a bit of a slump for a number of months, based on what I've read at Deadline Hollywood. But according to them, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 has broken that long slump.

It almost set the Twilight record opening, based on this report at Box Office Mojo. Not bad for a movie getting killed by the critics. It just seems to me, though, that it doesn't matter. The Twilight fans are Twilight fans and they love the Twilight movies no matter what anyone else thinks. As for guys, you won't find many of us caught dead in a theater watching it, that's for sure.

There are some predictions out there for the Thanksgiving weekend that this flick will hold the Number One spot, which surprises me a little because The Muppets are coming out. I would have thought The Muppets would just clean up and dominate, because I don't know one person who doesn't like the Muppets.

The movie, co-written by big Muppet fan Jason Segel (who also stars in it), is getting exceptional reviews. The story is about how all the Muppets reunite to save the Muppet Theater from being razed. You'd think kids would go crazy over it, but maybe the Muppets have just been gone from the scene too long. Anyway, I still think it might do very well and rake in the dough in the end. The Muppets are due for a huge comeback.

Here's an interesting thread in the National Post all about the Muppets, with readers voting on who is the greatest Muppet of them all.

Check it out, it's fun reading. That's it for now.

THE US CONGRESS IS A JOKE

2011-11-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

So the big bipartisan Super Committee in the USA, that was supposed to find spending cuts in the wake of the budget deal compromise and subsequent credit-rating debacle, has disbanded over their partisan differences.

Why am I not surprised? There might have been a time in US history not too long ago when the two parties could bridge their differences, but not anymore. The rot of partisan politics is crippling the US government and is splitting apart and ruining the United States. Common sense seems to have left the building.

VERY COLD NEWS FROM NOWHERE FOR THIS MONDAY: SID THE KID RETURNS, AND THE GOP STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHO TO NOMINATE

2011-11-21T16:21:00.000-08:00

And now, another News from Nowhere from my cold neck of the woods. Yes, where I am there is snow on the ground everywhere and conditions are getting terrible already. They tell me it will warm up later this week. I'm not holding out hope.

After watching Tony Stewart wrap up the NASCAR title in a thrilling nail-biter finish, and after seeing David Beckham lift the MLS Cup for the LA Galaxy (good luck ever seeing Toronto do that), it's been a hectic weekend of sports. What could possibly top all that?

What else -- the return of Sidney Crosby to the Penguins from a concussion. Can you believe this was the top story on the CBC News earlier today? Someone tell the CBC that Crosby plays for a team in the 'States.

Other stuff -- a big week of TV wrapped last week with the departure of Regis Philbin from the airwaves of Regis and Kelly. Definitely the end of an era.

In other TV news and proof that TV news is going to hell, NBC News has hired media-hating Chelsea Clinton (refused to grant media interviews, etc.) as a correspondent. Why couldn't they have phoned me up for the gig?? Even I have more news and TV experience. I've even agreed to be interviewed by the press, something Ms. Clinton has apparently refused. I don't get it!!!

One more piece of TV news to tell you about: there's an online petition that about 100,000 have signed calling for the Kardashians and their TV shows to be booted from TV.

Now, that's an idea. Here's another: why not also boot off all the Real Housewives, too, while we are at it? Seriously, reality TV is the reason why so many people would rather go surfing videos on the Web or playing Angry Birds on their iPhones.

In the USA presidential sweepstakes, nothing has changed. The Republicans still don't seem to want Mitt Romney (pictured), who with every passing day appears doomed to be the Best President America Never Had.

Meanwhile, these silly GOPers still have no clue who else to support in his place. Apparently the Tea Partiers are starting to be bored with Herman Cain and all of his problems (just as they got bored with Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann). Their latest infatuation: Newt Gingrich.

The polls have Gingrich leading now, which is amazing since earlier this year his campaign was in the tank and his entire staff quit. Apparently, he's now possibly on the brink of beating Romney in New Hampshire, a state Romney ought to have locked up. Will this Gingrich boom last? I dunno. He still has all kinds of skeletons in his closet just waiting to be unearthed.

I think eventually this Gingrich boom, too, will pass. Something will finish him off, and these Republicans will be back supporting Michele Bachmann in no time flat, having forgiven and forgotten all her past nutty statements. Or maybe they'll finally say to heck with it and nominate Ron Paul. Apparently, he's supposed to be surging in Iowa, now, too, just like Gingrich is. It has been that sort of a race.

I really do think these hard-line GOP radicals are going to hurl the party right off the cliff if they are not careful. They're going to hand the next election to the Democrats. I still say the GOP should just nominate Romney if they have any sense at all, but the GOP seems to have lost their senses, as David Frum is rightly pointing out in New York magazine today.

Read this blurb that the death of Natalie Wood from years ago is back under investigation as the case is reopened.

Finally, some baseball news. The Toronto Blue Jays are taking a retro page from their glory years with their redesigned uniforms. Meanwhile, the Baltimore Orioles are reviving their goofy cartoon bird logo.

Good moves. It's stuff like silly cartoon birds that makes baseball fun for the fans. That's all for now.

NASCAR ROARS TO A FINISH

2011-11-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder to myself that there is just one race left on the NASCAR Sprint Cup calendar today at Homestead-Miami in Florida. It's the finale of the Chase and it's either going to be Carl Edwards or Tony Stewart lifting the Sprint Cup.

All I want to say is I hope this NASCAR season finale doesn't end the way the INDYCAR season finale did in Las Vegas earlier this year. The race fans definitely do not want to see another scary death on the track like what happened to Dan Wheldon.

Needless to say I care about this race a lot more than I care about the current CFL playoffs, particularly because a certain team isn't in them this year. So auto racing gets my vote for one final week before I turn all my attention to the NFL. That's all, folks. Boogity, boogity, boogity!

FRIDAY NIGHT WITHOUT THE NBA

2011-11-18T19:20:00.000-08:00

I'm learning to live without these greedy bums in the NBA. Friday night is usually a big NBA night from ESPN at this time of year, but because these jokers are still locked out and since the NBA has cancelled even more games now through mid-December, I am reduced to watching college football and whatever else I can find on TV. Tonight Oklahoma State is playing Iowa State in an important game with BCS implications. And that's basically about it.

I'm just trying to not be bored. My main objective right now is to find ways to fill my time so that I don't find myself feeling deprived of my usual sports fix. Right now Thursdays are taken care of with the NFL, Fridays usually have a good college football game, Saturday is college football, hockey, soccer and the fights, Sunday is the NFL (and NASCAR for one final week), and more soccer (and by the way, the MLS CUP is this Sunday). And Mondays is Monday Night Football.

That leaves Tuesdays and Wednesdays as days when I need to fill some time up with something. I figure college hoops, the NHL, and poker reruns will do me fine.

It's not as if I really care that the NBA is gone, since my favorite team the Raptors would be losing anyway. But the main reason I don't really care is because it's obvious the NBA doesn't care. My attitude, and the attitude fans really ought to take, is this: if NBA owners and players don't care about whether their games are played, why should we?

Anyway, this fiasco has completely messed up the TV schedules of the NBA rights holders and you can see from this article what their alternative plans are.

All in all, I should be fine as long as football season lasts. Let them eat cake, that's what I say about the NBA owners and players right now.

UPDATE: Well, that college football game sure had major BCS implications, now, didn't it? Happy times for supporters of Iowa State, winners in double-overtime 37-31. Who cares about the NBA when you have games like that.

PLAYERS REJECT OWNERS' OFFER, NBA SEASON IN BIG TROUBLE NOW

2011-11-14T15:54:00.000-08:00

All in all I am not surprised by what happened today, I was totally prepared for the bad news. The NBA players union rejected the owners' latest offer -- and furthermore, they are decertifying the union and taking the league to court. All I have to say is this is likely to put the whole NBA season on the scrapheap. I just don't see any real possibility for a deal now. Enjoy college hoops, and the NHL, folks, because there isn't much else to look forward to once the NFL ends.

UFC ON FOX WAS A KNOCKOUT

2011-11-12T19:55:00.000-08:00

First of all I want to congratulate UFC president Dana White for bringing his sport to prime time TV with the UFC on FOX. This is not only great for mixed martial arts, but great for the fans and an excellent way to promote the sport and keep in in the public eye. So I hope this continues for a long time to come.

I also want to thank Dana White, for another reason. By putting tonight's Heavyweight Championship fight in Anaheim between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos on in prime time instead of Pay Per View, he saved fight fans TONS of MONEY that they otherwise would have been forced to shell out. For that, fans are very thankful on this night in particular...

... because IT WAS A LOUSY FIGHT. Dos Santos knocked out Velasquez in the first round in swift fashion to gain the heavyweight title. So, yes, it was a good thing this was on free TV in prime time, because otherwise a lot of fans would have completely wasted their money.

So, thanks again, Dana White, for looking out for the fans and saving them money! Better luck next time.

RICK PERRY OOPS, JOE PATERNO FIRED, AND OTHER NEWS FROM NOWHERE

2011-11-10T16:55:00.000-08:00

In a week when Silvio Berlusconi walks the plank in Italy with that country's debt levels out of control and threatening to sink Europe, here is my latest News from Nowhere on this side of the earth.

Well, after a heavy week covering political wins and losses in Saskatchewan, you would think I would be ready to be done with politics for a while.

But no. Instead I watched the hilarious CNBC Republican presidential debate from Detroit. If you missed it, believe me, you really missed out.

First they went after Herman Cain on all these latest sexual harassment allegations against him. He got big applause from the audience for denying those charges. But that was nothing compared to Rick Perry, who embarrassed himself when he made a case for eliminating three federal US departments, only to forget which one of them to eliminate. He couldn't remember the third one, and even said "oops."

My goodness. If it is possible for a presidential campaign to end because of a bad debate performance, this was it. This has to rank as one of the worst debate gaffes ever.

Anyway, as I have said before -- why the heck don't these Republicans simply get on with nominating Mitt Romney already? He's clearly the only one of the bunch who's electable. He's clearly not a lunatic. Moreover, it's also clear he's the only one who can actually hold his own in a televised debate after last night's display of incompetence by Rick Perry!

Yet these GOP voters still can't make up their bleeping minds whether to vote for him or not. Get on with it, folks.

Other news: Penn State University is in an uproar today over all these terrible criminal sex and abuse allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, all involving children. Joe Paterno was fired as head football coach last night, apparently for not doing enough to report it or stop it when he was told of it. He went to the athletic director and a vice-president at the university with what he was told. Both of them are now charged with failing to report it to authorities. What Paterno should have done was call the cops in the first place. He didn't, and now he's out of a job.

Now you have these students protesting and demanding Paterno be reinstated, which kind of misses the point in my view. Paterno had a responsibility as head coach, as a leader, to intervene and call in the authorities, and just didn't do it. So he had to go, in spite of all the rest of the good things he did during his coaching career. Anyway, it is a very sad situation, and the revelations of what went on are getting to be very ugly, with rumors being reported now of the university possibly covering it up. If that really happened, then this university is going to be in big trouble.

Finally I want to say that I am really starting to miss the NBA, there is literally nothing interesting to watch as far as sports is concerned these days on the weeknights. Talks went on Wednesday and there seems to be some movement and more reason for optimism, but there is no deal yet. Again, just as I said with Mitt Romney: get on with it, guys. Do a deal and get it over with. We sports fans are suffering right now.

And some fun news to end on now. The Miss World contest was last weekend, and guess who won the whole thing? That's right -- Miss Venezuela won it all. Again. Venezuela is DEFINITELY still the home of the beauty queens! (Oh, and there was a lot of picketing outside by uptight protesters.)

That's all for now.

LEEANN TWEEDEN IS A GODDESS. ENOUGH SAID

2011-11-10T16:53:00.000-08:00

I know a lot of people are excited about the Lindsay Lohan issue of Playboy coming soon, but I'm not holding my breath about it because of all the reports I read about the whole pictorial shoot being a gong show and so on.

I'll tell you who I'm much more excited about: Leeann Tweeden. I love this woman!!!

Leeann is on the December 2011 cover of Playboy, and I'm really excited about that because Leeann is one of my all-time favorite babes out there. Until recently she was the hostess on NBC's Poker After Dark and on NBC's National Heads-Up Poker Championship, both of which are now cancelled. She had done a lot of sportscasting work before on Fox Sports' The Best Damn Sports Show Period.

I always thought Leeann was classy and totally gorgeous on Poker After Dark. Plus she's done so many of these photo shoots for the guys' magazines, including gracing several covers of the American edition of FHM, including the final one before it went out of business. Usually, she's photographed wearing swimsuits and the like. This time, she is doing something she hasn't done very much in her career, and that is to get naked.

She's calling this shoot "empowering" and points to Elle Macpherson, Cindy Crawford and Bo Derek's pictorials as inspiration. Well, if it makes her feel good, that's great. Leeann is 38 years old and is still absolutely stunning.

It turns out Leeann Tweeden is even better than I thought she was. In addition to being gorgeous and a big sports fan, Leeann is a patriot and a big supporter of the armed forces. Her dad was in the Air Force and she married an Air Force pilot, and she's been abroad to several USO shows to boost morale for the troops.

She also appears on Sean Hannity's show quite a bit on Fox News. If Hannity has a problem with Leeann Tweeden being in Playboy, then he's got real problems. Doing this pictorial is absolutely the morale-booster these courageous troops need.

It's so appropriate that Leeann's December issue of Playboy comes out the same week as both the World Series of Poker Main Event as well as Remembrance Day, November 11, when we honor those who fought for freedom around the world. It's safe to say Christmas has come early for us guys.

I gotta say that for her love of sports, poker and the armed forces, Leeann is definitely my type of woman. Leeann Tweeden is a goddess.

( And I again apologize for getting too carried away. Enough is enough -- no more girls on this blog.)

WSOP HAS A CHAMPION

2011-11-09T16:21:00.000-08:00

I ended up not staying up late to see the end of the World Series of Poker final table on ESPN -- I guess I was too tired after all that election coverage the previous night. In any event, the final heads-up matchup lasted a very long time and saw several lead changes.

Pius Heinz ended up the winner and becomes the first German to win the Main Event title. He collects both the WSOP bracelet as well as $8,711,956. For a full live-blog recap of the final night at the Rio in Las Vegas, here's Tao of Poker.

WSOP MAIN EVENT FINAL THREE GO AT IT TONIGHT

2011-11-08T16:22:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder to the whole wide world that the World Series of Poker final table resumes tonight with the final table of three remaining players tonight in Las Vegas. Updates here, and live coverage here. They're also doing inductions to the Poker Hall of Fame prior to the final table tonight.

It's the culmination of what has been an absolutely terrible year for poker in the US of A, but at least this tournament has been good for getting peoples' minds off of the Internet poker situation and has provided a lot of excitement. As well, the live TV coverage this year from ESPN has been excellent.

(Except in Canada, where TSN didn't even bother to show us the final table coverage on Sunday, forcing the poker fans to follow the action on the Web instead. Typical. They don't show enough NCAA football games up here either.)

Who will take home the grand prize: Pius Heinz, Ben Lamb or Martin Staszko? We shall soon find out.

UPDATE: Lamb busted out in third place and right now it's a tug of war between Staszko and Heinz.

HUGE VICTORY FOR BRAD WALL AND THE SASKPARTY

2011-11-07T21:29:00.000-08:00

49 SEATS TO 9!!!! Even NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter lost his seat. Biggest popular vote landslide in Saskatchewan history (64 percent)!

Story from the CBC. Story from the Star-Phoenix. More about the results soon.

SASKATCHEWAN ELECTION NIGHT

2011-11-07T15:57:00.000-08:00

Well, it's finally here. Election Night. The results will come in beginning at 8PM CST. That's 9PM Eastern, 6PM Pacific for the rest of you out there. And no, I am not expecting a long night.

I'll be helping with the News-Optimist election coverage which you can find here. Also, here are links to the other election coverage:
CBC News
Star-Phoenix
Global TV
CTV
CKOM
Sun News Network

I'll post results here eventually, but those are your best bets for the live breaking coverage. Enjoy, political junkies.

DR. CONRAD MURRAY FOUND GUILTY

2011-11-07T15:45:00.000-08:00

The big verdict came down today. Guilty of involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson. And it all ended with Dr. Murray being escorted out of the courtroom in cuffs.

The story here. More later.

WORLD SERIES OF POKER FINAL TABLE TODAY

2011-11-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

We interrupt live continuing coverage of the situation in Greece to let you know that today the World Series of Poker Main Event goes to a final table in Las Vegas! The way it will work today is nine players will play down to three remaining, and then the final three will play Tuesday for the title.

The format last year had them playing down to two on Saturday and then reconvening on Monday with heads-up play. I think the WSOP wanted to avoid a situation like last year, when the two chipleaders Jonathan Duhamel and Joseph Cheong decided to get it over with before heads-up play even began and went all-in for the biggest pot ever. Heck, there's no glory in finishing second anyway, so why not go for it all right away. Cheong lost the pot, busted out soon after in third place and it led to a very boring heads-up showdown with Duhamel having an absolutely insurmountable chip lead on John Racener. Needless to say, it ended pretty quickly. In short, it made for very dull poker. At least with the way it is set up this year, you figure there will be more drama going to Tuesday with three players still in it.

PokerNews has final table coverage here. Also, the live stream is back up here.

BRAD WALL TALKS TO EZRA LEVANT

2011-11-04T23:45:00.000-07:00

I have to say that I've really enjoyed what Sun News Network has been doing this fall with their "Election Season" coverage of the provincial elections all over Canada. They are basically giving the provinces their due and going from place to place providing election coverage, and I think it's great. It's really putting that news operation on the map.

Next week, they're planning to put up a similar effort in providing live results from Saskatchewan, which may seem a little surprising since there is hardly any interest in this foregone conclusion of an election. I haven't even seen many blog posts about it anywhere from too many political people -- meanwhile, there were lots of people out there commenting on the Ontario and Manitoba votes. Still, I think it's good that Sun News is showcasing Saskatchewan and showing the rest of the country the interesting political scene here.

Today, Ezra Levant of Sun News was on the banks of Wascana Lake interviewing Premier Brad Wall, and you can see that here.

NEWS FLASH: ELECTION IS STILL A BLOWOUT

2011-11-04T23:25:00.000-07:00

Well, the latest poll numbers are in for the Saskatchewan election, and they remain about as bad as they have been before for the NDP. In fact, it's even worse: the Saskatchewan Party has an unheard-of 40-point lead! The numbers are 66 to 26 percent.

I gotta say, this really looks ridiculous, and we are looking at the biggest rout in the history of Saskatchewan on Monday. It'll possibly make the 1982 Grant Devine "Monday Night Massacre" look like a minor flesh wound. But I think this poll is on to something about where the public is at in Saskatchewan. You know, the final results could still end up closer, but I have to say, even a 30-point margin would be damaging to the NDP. Even a 20-point spread would be a terrible result. There is nothing good about the situation the NDP is in today in Saskatchewan three days to the big vote.

Here's the story on the poll numbers from Praxis Analytics' poll for the Leader-Post and Star-Phoenix. Also, here's Murray Mandryk's take on the whole situation.

Also, here is my analysis of the state of the campaigns in the Northwest region heading to election day.

ON THE GONG SHOW IN GREECE

2011-11-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

Enough about the election in Saskatchewan. Now on to some talk about the situation in Greece, which is really getting to gong show proportions. The scary thing about it all is that the whole European economy, not to mention the world economy, might be riding on what is happening.

First there was the idiot decision by Prime Minister George Papandreou to put the issue of a debt deal to a referendum, only to back away after a hostile market reaction and some heavy lobbying from Euro leaders like France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel. Actually, it kind of sounds as if they read them the Riot Act.

Also, you had the opposition storm out of Parliament, and now it looks like they're going to try and vote non-confidence in the prime minister tomorrow. All in all, this looks like a mess.

I think everyone needs to take a step back, and try and restore sanity right away to the parliamentary situation for the greater good of Europe and the whole wide world. The world's stock markets don't need this chaos from the Greeks, they need some order restored. Maybe it will do Greece a lot of good in the long run if they kick the current prime minister out, but not right now. Right now they need to just get a freaking debt deal through so that the entire world economy doesn't fall off a cliff. AGAIN. Enough said.

CHANGE OF PLANS: TRUDEAU A NO SHOW

2011-11-03T16:49:00.000-07:00

Well, when it rains it pours, and it was definitely pouring on the Liberals in Saskatchewan. This is definitely not what the local Liberals needed to win the Battlefords riding. Justin Trudeau was supposed to be in Saskatchewan today helping the Ryan Bater Liberal campaign in North Battleford and Saskatoon. It was much anticipated, even promoted on the Liberals' own website.

Unfortunately a bill went before the House at the last minute, so Trudeau had to stay in Ottawa and his whole tour ended up on the scrapheap. He never showed up.

At least, not in person. I guess he appeared by Skype at these events today. Well, I guess that's one way to use new media in politics, by making virtual public appearances.

What's worse for the Liberals was the fact that Premier Brad Wall WAS in North Battleford today, as were four cabinet ministers. My account of the day here.

SASK ELECTION: BRAD WALL, JUSTIN TRUDEAU TO VISIT NORTHWEST TOMORROW

2011-11-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well, we are sort of in a holding pattern on the Saskatchewan election trail where I am, with some big political visits scheduled for tomorrow in the Northwest. Premier Brad Wall is holding a big event at the Tropical Inn in North Battleford for the Saskatchewan Party. Also due to visit Saskatchewan tomorrow: Justin Trudeau, here to help out Liberal Ryan Bater.

Last week it was Ralph Goodale in the city for a joint press conference with Bater on the Liberals' plans to cut spending. So I was there covering that. Also, here are two, yes two, of my stories on the Battlefords election candidates forum that went on last week.

It sometimes seems like I'm the only reporter in Saskatchewan who even bothers covering the Liberals on a regular basis. Anyway, it's good that Premier Brad Wall is coming here tomorrow, it'll save me from covering the Liberals yet again.

In other election news, a new poll is meant to be released tomorrow by the Star-Phoenix and Leader-Post showing whether this race has stopped being a complete blowout yet. The last two polls done last week showed pretty ridiculous margins in favor of the Saskatchewan Party. Premier Wall has been going around downplaying them, warning about complacency and so on.

Also, I've decided to link you to some election pages with media coverage of the campaign. The Star-Phoenix page is here. The Rawlco Radio (CKOM, CJME) page is here. And the CBC page is here.

THE BIGGEST NEWS TODAY IN THE WORLD IS THAT KIM KARDASHIAN IS FILING FOR DIVORCE

2011-10-31T18:03:00.000-07:00

THAT didn't take long, did it? It's pretty much official -- as the headline says, Kim and Kris are kaput. Try not to let this news ruin your Halloween, folks.

AREN'T YOU GLAD YOU DON'T LIVE THERE?

2011-10-30T10:37:00.000-07:00

Big Nor'easter Snowtober! Snow, power outages, etc. --- what a mess.
Thankfully, none of this is happening where I am. Yet.

Happy Halloween, I guess.

POLITICAL HAPPENINGS IN SASKATCHEWAN: FEDERAL MPs ROMEO SAGANASH, RALPH GOODALE IN NORTHWEST

2011-10-29T19:47:00.000-07:00

Who would think that northwest Saskatchewan would be such a popular place for the politicians to visit these days?

Earlier this week we had a visit from Romeo Saganash, a northern Quebec MP and a candidate to succeed Jack Layton in the hotly-competitive federal NDP leadership race. My story on his visit to the region and his candidacy can be found here. I also understand one of the other leadership candidates, Paul Dewar, was also in Saskatchewan, campaigning with the local NDP in Regina. So a lot of NDPers have been coming here to get their message out.

As well, the local Liberals are pulling out all the stops trying to help leader Ryan Bater capture the Battlefords seat in the provincial election. They brought in Ralph Goodale for a press conference with Bater, where they talked about their policies to reign in spending. I am also told by the campaign that they have another big name planned to come to the area before the week is out. I leave it to you to speculate -- it is a very big name, indeed.

The Liberals have also lodged a complaint over one of the NDP campaign offices. The NDP call the complaint frivolous.

As for the rest of the race, two polls came out showing Brad Wall and the Saskatchewan Party way ahead.

One poll had them at 60 percent while the other had them as high as 66 percent, which is really ridiculous. That would put them in Alberta PC/Peter Lougheed-type territory if true. The televised debate wasn't up to much either, most people say they didn't bother to tune in.

This really is starting to look like a runaway and the only question now is whether the NDP can salvage a respectable contingent of caucus members after November 7. Jordon Cooper at his blog had a good rundown on the problems the NDP is facing in this campaign.

I fully expect a lot of provincial election activity in the coming week around here, so stay tuned for links to more of my stories from the campaign.

GAME SEVEN

2011-10-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

Well, Game Seven of the World Series is on right now and after the great game last night, when the Texas Rangers had the St. Louis Cardinals down to their last strike not once but twice, only to lose 10-9 in 11 innings, I think it's a foregone conclusion. I think the Rangers have had it.

I see no way they can win now. Texas looks like they're about to go down in history as the Buffalo Bills of major league baseball, right into the same dustbin as the '97 Cleveland Indians who blew a World Series to Florida in similar fashion. Last night was their opportunity, and they let it get away. And when you let opportunity get away like that, chances are it won't come back. Right now they're down by three runs. Well, anyway, at least it's nice to know there are other sports fans suffering (folks in football-mad Saskatchewan are not alone...).

Speaking of suffering sports fans -- get ready for a full month of nothing after this, because the NBA just got rid of two more weeks of the season.

GAME 6 TONIGHT IN WORLD SERIES

2011-10-27T18:36:00.000-07:00

The great thing about baseball is sometimes it RAINS. Fortunately, it rained last night when I was covering an all-candidates meeting, and that's good because I would've missed it otherwise had the game gone ahead. Texas takes on St.Louis in Game 6 right now of a very cold World Series. Someone tell these folks it's hockey season.

I DON'T THINK LINDSAY LOHAN GETS MY VOTE

2011-10-25T23:19:00.000-07:00

You know, I think there was once a time when people would have been excited over news that Lindsay Lohan has agreed to pose nude for Playboy for almost a million dollars.

Unfortunately, Lindsay's career and life have really gone downhill in every respect, as she just can't stay out of jail to save her life. I think people are just going to look at this and say this is Lindsay being desperate, and Playboy being desperate.

I don't think there are too many red-blooded American males still interested in her anymore, frankly. Then again, maybe she can summon up the strength to do at least one last good magazine cover before she heads to the jail cells, again. Maybe she can remind us all how captivating she can be (see Entertainment Weekly cover below).

Maybe. One can hope.

DEBATE TONIGHT

2011-10-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

The party leaders from the Saskatchewan Party and the NDP in the Saskatchewan election go at it tonight at 6PM Saskatchewan time.

(That's 8PM Eastern and 5PM Pacific for the rest of you normal people in time zones where people actually understand what time it is.)

While you wait, here is my article on NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter's second visit to the Battlefords last week to talk about his policies on mental health care. Expect more fun articles focusing on the other parties and their amusing activities in the coming days.

POKER PROS RELOCATING TO TORONTO

2011-10-24T21:09:00.000-07:00

Coverage of the April 15th "Black Friday" USA poker crackdown continues here at the blog, as the exodus of American online poker players from the United States continues. (And they wonder why the American economy is in the tank right now -- they still haven't gotten around to legalizing it yet.)

With online poker shut down in the States, the online pros continue to move to other, freer, poker-friendly countries to play. A lot of them are choosing to move to Canada, mainly due to the similar culture and its easy proximity to the USA, plus the fact you don't need to learn a second language to live there (unlike, say, Costa Rica or Panama, two other popular spots for the poker exiles these days).

Here's an article on the PokerNews website all about the pros and cons of relocating to Toronto, a popular spot for many online pros to move to. Among other things, famed poker player Daniel Negreanu is from there and moved back from Las Vegas after the online crackdown hit.

You know, after reading this article I want to move to Toronto, and I used to live there! I think Toronto offers a lot of advantages -- plenty of baseball, football, hockey and rock concerts to see, plus easy proximity to a lot of nearby casinos for the players who want to also get their live fix. Plus, they mention in the article the Hockey Hall of Fame -- a place I have been to more than once. It is definitely not to be missed by any sports fan.

You know, other cities in western Canada might also be worth a look by poker pros. One option that seems to be getting overlooked by a lot of people is Calgary, Alberta. Among other things, it's a very easy plane ride to Las Vegas from there. So folks who still want their regular live Vegas fix and like the "wild West" atmosphere in general might find Calgary a good fit. Anyway, it's just a thought.

SASKATCHEWAN ELECTION: WALL RELEASES HIS PLATFORM

2011-10-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

Well, the Saskatchewan election campaign continues on -- only a couple more weeks to go. Today, Premier Brad Wall announced and released his party's platform, which you can read here in its PDF format.

Also, earlier this week he was in North Battleford unveiling his party's health care platform and my story on that is now up.

CONRAD MURRAY TRIAL STILL GOING: PROSECUTION ON A ROLL, IT SEEMS

2011-10-21T16:21:00.000-07:00

The testimony continues in the Dr. Conrad Murray involuntary manslaughter trial related to the death of Michael Jackson. This week has seen prosecution expert star witness Dr. Steven Shafer on the stand doing demonstrations and simulations for the jury to show how Murray hooked Jackson up to a propofol drip and how Murray deviated from what his medical duties should have been.

It's been described by numerous legal observers as really damaging testimony. The general feeling seems to be that Murray and his entire defence team are going down with the Titanic.

Anyway, the defence lawyer Ed Chernoff is cross-examining Shafer and trying to somehow discredit him, but Shafer seems to have made a big impression on the jury and everyone else watching this trial. Murray definitely looks like he's doomed. Still, you never know -- this is Los Angeles after all, where juries routinely allow people to walk free.

Just as I write this now, the testimony has ended for the day and week. See you again next week for more fun. You can catch up on the happenings in the trial here at the In Session blog.

THINGS GOING DOWNHILL FAST FOR THE NBA

2011-10-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, I sure hope you are enjoying the World Series and the current NFL season, because you have ZILCH to look forward to as far as the NBA is concerned.

It's day 112 of the lockout, and after three days of talks involving a federal mediator, they have now broken off completely and everyone has gone home.

Here's the story from ESPN. To say things look grim is an understatement.

HE'S DEAD

2011-10-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

Moammar Qadhafi --- or Gadhafi, Khadafy, Kadhafi or however you want to spell it --- HAS BEEN KILLED!!!! Bye bye to one of the world's most brutal and crazed dictators.

MORE ON THE INDYCAR TRAGEDY

2011-10-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

I am still shaken up from witnessing that horrible Las Vegas 15-car wreck from the weekend Indycar season finale, the incident that cost Dan Wheldon his life.

This has affected both race fans and people within the auto racing community, and has brought a renewed and much welcomed soul-searching about safety on the track. Ironically, Wheldon was test-piloting the new, safer Indycars that were going to replace the current batch that were on the racetrack this season. Among other features, the new cars are supposed to be less likely to go airborne in a spill. Sad irony.

Anyway, five-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson weighed in on the whole situation and he says that INDYCAR should just not race on ovals. Later, though, Johnson backtracked and clarified his statements after a lot of Indy people got mad at him, thinking he was slamming Indycar.

He has a point, though, about the safety issues at the ovals. There have been some very scary open-wheel crashes on the ovals, where these cars have hit the walls and come to a very fiery end. These Indycars need to slow down, some way, on these tracks.

I mostly agree that it would be safer for Indycar to stick to the road courses where cars are forced to slow down -- except I think they should still be able to race at Indianapolis because that oval is bigger, wider and safer. The bottom line is that if Indycar is going to race on ovals, they have to race on ones that are built for Indycar -- not these crowded NASCAR tracks with the high embankments. They're built for big, hulky, slower cars like the NASCAR machines -- not these top-speed Indycars.

The problem at Las Vegas was that the Indycar machines were too crowded on the track and had nowhere to go in an accident. As well, the Vegas track has these embankments on it making it too easy for an Indycar to wipe out and go airborne into a wall, just like what killed Wheldon.

In short, these were Indycars driving at crazy speeds on a track that is built for NASCAR. Sorry, but I wouldn't race Indycars at Las Vegas Motor Speedway again. If Indycar goes back to Vegas, they've got to race on a road course -- in this case, the streets. No other way.

That's it for now -- time to tune in the World Series and relax. It's been a hard week.

SASKATCHEWAN ELECTION: LINGENFELTER'S TURN

2011-10-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday was Brad Wall Day in the Battlefords. Today was Dwain Lingenfelter's turn as he outlined the party's mental health policy at the CUPE office in downtown North Battleford. Nothing earth-shattering, as we pretty much knew the NDP was in support of mental health care and the building of a new Saskatchewan Hospital.

It was a much busier news day elsewhere. Maple Leaf Foods announced they were cutting 1550 jobs across Canada and closing the North Battleford plant. That's 330 area jobs up in smoke right here.

So that ended up being my afternoon, getting comments for THAT story after I got back to the office. Unfortunately, it also pushes politics right off the front page around here with that unexpected turn of events. Anyway, that was today in the campaign.

As for story links to what's happened here over the past week, here are links to stories I filed on the Ryan Bater Liberal campaign office grand opening from last week, as well as the previous Dwain Lingenfelter visit.

SASKATCHEWAN ELECTION NEWS: BRAD WALL ON THE ATTACK ON NDP PROMISES

2011-10-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

Observations of the second week of the Saskatchewan provincial election campaign:

I have been busy this past week covering campaign events. Today, I was at a Sask Party media event for Premier Brad Wall at candidate Herb Cox's campaign office in North Battleford.

The focus of the event was on health care and on a student loan forgiveness program the Sask Party were offering to rural health care workers. But I noticed that Wall really wanted to talk about something else. He came back over and over again in his news conference to the subject of the costs of the NDP campaign promises. Wall was really laying into NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter today over the NDP's daily policy announcements, which he contends will drive the deficit up. One day it's school dental care for the kids, the next day it's resource royalty deals with the First Nations, another day it's a tuition freeze for students. Just the other day Link was offering a $500 property tax rebate to seniors. During the news conference today Wall was told by the reporter from CTV News that Link had just done it again and announced something on childcare that morning. Wall looked unimpressed and said this was yet another example.

It's been like this the entire campaign from the NDP with one promise after another. At least the NDP campaign hasn't gone negative, which is a relief to many. There hasn't been any mudslinging, just "positive" announcements daily from Lingenfelter of "positive change where you benefit", according to the NDP campaign slogan.

Wall is claiming all these promises are costing a boatload of money and he was telling the media today the Lingenfelter promises now cost over $2 billion. At least, they think it is $2 billion but they aren't too sure of that either because they say the NDP hasn't bothered to give us specific details on costs.

Anyway, Wall really was sounding the alarm at his news conference and raising the spectre that in order to keep their election promises the NDP would either run a deficit, or make cuts.

Say this for the NDP, at least with all these election promises Lingenfelter has shifted the focus away from all these terrible poll numbers and terrible columns and news stories that have been running about the state of his party. Those stories are gone now. People no longer are writing about how badly the NDP is going to get clobbered; instead, they're talking about costs of election promises. I guess that's an improvement.

Eventually, I'm sure, Lingenfelter will hold his big press conference declaring that the books will be balanced at the end of all this, with plenty of NDP math from NDP accountants to back it up. That will probably lead to another Brad Wall press conference claiming the numbers still don't add up.

Anyway, there is never a dull moment in Saskatchewan politics, we have Ontario and Quebec all beat.

Last week I was at two Lingenfelter events on Wednesday and Thursday -- one was a campaign office opening and the other was a media conference where Lingenfelter promised to eliminate the small business tax. I was also at a local Liberal event for party leader Ryan Bater last Friday night, in my usual attempt to make sure everyone gets their share of coverage.

The Liberals aren't running much of a provincial campaign in this election, but they are throwing their entire effort towards winning a seat in the Battlefords. So it's making for a far more interesting race around here than might otherwise be the case.

One of these days I will link to my news reports about what's been going on in politics around here -- look for that in the coming days. Stay tuned for more election coverage right here at the blog as the campaign unfolds.

INDYCAR'S DAY OF DEATH IN LAS VEGAS

2011-10-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

What a horrible day this has been for auto racing.

Today, I planned to catch the Indycar World Championships race from Las Vegas on TV before driving off to Saskatoon for the afternoon. I ended up watching in horror, along with everyone else, the 15-car pileup that occured on lap 11 of the race. This was truly unlike any other 15-car pileup I have ever seen before -- this had vehicles on fire and flying through the air, and hitting the wall at top speed.

Usually when 15-car wipeouts happen in NASCAR, they're actually kind of fun and nobody really gets hurt, but this was different. This was downright frightening. When people are saying this was the worst auto-racing crash they have ever seen, they aren't lying.

Initially it looked like nobody had died, and my first thought was that it was amazing no one had been killed in this carnage. People like Paul Tracy had gotten out of their cars and were walking away seemingly unhurt. But then the word started to leak out about how bad a shape Dan Wheldon, the reigning Indy 500 champion, was in, and he was airlifted to the hospital.

It was around that point that I decided to hit the road early, because it was clear the race was going to be red-flagged for a long time. I had thought I might hear updates on Wheldon's condition on the radio, but there was nothing. The sports guys were just too busy covering the bleeping NFL to be concerned about a life-and-death situation like this.

So once I finally got to a TV in Saskatoon I turned the channel to ABC thinking the race might have resumed. Instead, I happened to tune in right at the moment when the drivers were starting to do their five laps around the track in salute to Dan Wheldon. You can imagine my shock and surprise when I tuned in at that moment. I knew, just looking at the scene of people crying, that all the worst fears of everyone had been realized. It was truly one of the saddest scenes I've seen in sports.

For the whole story of what happened, here's the account at ESPN.

What's really sad for me is that I had made a point of watching this race because it was the final race of the 2011 season. If I wanted to watch Indycar, this was my last chance until next year. This race was supposed to be the battle for the championship between Dario Franchitti and Will Power. Plus, this was going to be Danica Patrick's final race as a regular driver in the Indycar series before joining NASCAR full time (she might still come back to the Indy 500). There was this huge buildup all season to this race in Las Vegas that was supposed to be the culmination of the season for Indycar, a showcase for the sport. Instead it ends up turning into this unspeakable tragedy.

What happened today was on a par with what happened to Ayrton Senna and Dale Earnhardt, because Wheldon was a two-time Indy 500 winner and a former Indy series champion. In fact, it's worse that what happened with Earnhardt's death because of the circumstances surrounding it --a scary, horrific, terrifying crash during the last race of the season. It really puts a black mark on the whole season, seeing such an end to it like this. It's yet another reminder of how dangerous this sport really is.

Frankly, this incident has really shaken me up as an auto racing fan. In fact it has turned me off the sport -- for the next couple of weeks, anyway. I'm sure I'll be back watching before too long, but it is going to be very tough for auto racing fans to get over this horrible day in a hurry.

RIP Dan Wheldon -- you will be missed.

GOODBYE TO CHARLIE'S ANGELS

2011-10-14T22:58:00.000-07:00

That didn't take long. The new Charlie's Angels joins such names as Dragnet, The Bionic Woman, Knight Rider and even Get Smart as revivals that couldn't make it the second time around. It's GONE from ABC after four shows.

Well, at least it lasted longer than The Playboy Club. Now, how long before ABC gets rid of Pan Am?

MORE BAD POKER NEWS: NATIONAL HEADS-UP POKER CHAMPIONSHIP SCRAPPED BY NBC

2011-10-14T22:47:00.000-07:00

It's fair to say this has been a terrible year for all poker fans. First came Black Friday, which shut down online poker and shuttered a lot of your favorite poker TV shows, and then came the ongoing problems at Full Tilt Poker -- so many, in fact, that it's getting a bit too comical. That leads us to the latest bit of poker TV news surrounding NBC.

To make a long story short, NBC is now out of the poker TV business. A few weeks ago they cancelled Poker After Dark, their excellent late-night poker TV show that aired every night after Last Call with Carson Daly. It was done in mainly by the fact the whole show was underwritten by Full Tilt Poker, which was being called a Ponzi scheme by the Department of Justice. Needless to say, NBC doesn't want to be associated in any way with any crooks, so they put an end to the show and took down the NBC poker website.

Now comes word that NBC has cancelled the annual NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship held at Caesar's Palace every year. This was the tournament where 64 big name players would be invited to do heads-up battle, and it would air over a few weekends on NBC. Again, sponsorship woes the issue, what with the online poker advertisers all out of business and so on. As well, the hosts including Leeann Tweeden and Ali Nejad were all also on Poker After Dark.

This tournament got its start way back when the NHL lockout wiped out the 2004-05 hockey season. No doubt, it would probably have been welcome spring TV viewing next year, especially if the NBA lockout takes down their entire season. Maybe this is an opportunity for ESPN-ABC to take the thing over, since ESPN is still in the poker business. Barely.

Anyway, the whole online poker situation in the United States continues to boggle my mind. It beats me why the US government doesn't simply get on with ushering in regulation right away. Really, this is millions of dollars in economic activity down the drain and a lot of American jobs lost. I notice a lot of professional poker players have now moved to online-friendly countries to be able to continue to play online poker. A lot of folks have moved to Canada, and a good many number of them have set up in Vancouver as this PokerNews article notes. According to the article, they say the poker players now living in Vancouver include "Brian Hastings, Phil Galfond, Randy “nanonoko” Lew, Maria Ho, Christina Lindley, Tom Marchese, David “Doc” Sands, Erika Moutinho, Shane Schegler, and William Reynolds."

As well, a lot of poker players have set up in Toronto (including Daniel Negreanu, who has returned there from Las Vegas) and a few other places in Canada. A few are opting for warmer climes, though. There's a company set up called Poker Refugees who are helping American poker players move not only to Canada, but to Costa Rica and Panama. The UK also seems to be a popular spot for poker exiles.

All in all, I am just shaking my head. This self-imposed US poker crackdown is forcing a lot of talented players with a lot of money to permanently leave the United States, the supposed "land of the free". I know the US justice department needs to throw the book at some of these crooks who ran these online operations into the ground and refused to pay players back, but really, couldn't they come up with a way to let the players play?! This continuing refusal to let talented Americans play in a regulated online environment in their home country is just overkill.

Is it any wonder the United States is in trouble? The USA seems absolutely determined to do everything possible to hurl itself off the financial cliff.

NOW, NEWS FROM NOWHERE FOR ALL 99 PERCENT OF YOU

2011-10-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to this edition of News from Nowhere for this Wednesday night, and since the baseball games are over and there are no NBA games, either (hee hee), I figured I might as well update this blog.

The trend that has been all the rage in the past weeks has been the "Occupy Wall Street" movement with these sit-ins going on all over the financial district. You know -- "we are the 99 percent" and all that.

Now they are spreading across the continent, even to Canada. Just this week I found out the city I cover, North Battleford, is having its own Occupy Wall Street protest, too! I kind of find the whole thing bizarre and a waste of time. I know everyone feels hosed because of what went on in 2008, but trying to bring down Wall Street is just going to make things worse for everyone. If measures are brought in aimed at these Wall Street bigshots, all that will happen is the bigshots will simply insulate themselves and send the misery elsewhere by cutting jobs and cutting thei own spending. And what will end up happening is that other more vulnerable folks will end up getting hurt. They'll lose their jobs while these corporate bigshots will get off scott free again! So that is my take on this Occupy Wall Street movement. The "99 Percent" need to try another tack.

---------------------------------------------------------

Other news: the Dr. Conrad Murray involuntary manslaughter trial surrounding the death of Michael Jackson continues on down in Los Angeles and I once again am having no luck at all trying to find time to watch this thing, given all the important election news I am covering for the moment. Apparently the case revolves around Murray administering propofol to Jackson in Jackson's home, when in fact this drug should be administered nowhere outside a hospital setting. They have been putting up on the stand all these experts and it actually reminds me of a lot of cases I've actually covered where expert witnesses would be called to give testimony.

The folks at HLN have coverage going and you can follow the happenings here. That's what I intend to do, as I need to do a lot of catching up. There are also live streams from the likes of KTLA during the open sessions.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In legal news from around the world last week, Amanda Knox was freed of murder charges in Italy but apparently the prosecutors there still want to go after her and think she's no angel. If I were her I would stay as far away from Italy as possible.

Also, thanks to being preoccupied elsewhere I missed the whole Hank Williams Jr. departure from ESPN Monday Night Football over comments comparing President Obama to Hitler, the debut of Erin Burnett's new CNN show, and the passing of legendary Raiders owner Al Davis, described as a rebel to the end.

Just win baby! That's all for now.

SASKATCHEWAN ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN ITS FIRST WEEK

2011-10-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

So the results are in from the Newfoundland and Yukon votes (with the respective conservative parties winning both of them), and we now focus our remaining concentration on the Saskatchewan election race for the next month.

They go to the polls on November 7, 2011. I wrote up this piece on the start of the campaign, mainly focused on the competitive race expected in the Battlefords. (I call it "competitive" rather than "close" because it could yet end up being a blowout, for all we know.) Also, I mentioned before that I attended a weekend rock-and-roll fundraiser event put on by the provincial Liberals. Here's my account of that.

More election coverage to come in the next few days and weeks.

YUKON RESULTS

2011-10-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

May I add that you have to be a big political geek to be interested in THIS election. Results from the CBC.

NBA BEGINS CANCELLING REGULAR SEASON GAMES

2011-10-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

To no one's surprise commissioner David Stern announced Monday the NBA has scrapped the first two weeks of its season. That's about 100 games down the tubes.

Talks did actually resume on Sunday to try and find a last-ditch deal, but no common ground was found. So the lockout goes on, now over three months and counting. All in all I think people are disappointed but not surprised by this news. Both sides have dug in their heels and I expect it will be a long time before we come to a resolution.

People still don't miss the NBA yet because this is still technically the NBA pre-season period and people are too interested in all the other sports going on right now (the Detroit Lions are 5-0!!!!). But wait until December rolls around when baseball is over and when everyone's favorite football teams are out of the playoffs. THAT is when people will start to miss the NBA -- assuming they miss these greedy players at all.

NEWFOUNDLAND ELECTION RESULTS COMING IN NOW

2011-10-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

Here are links to the live Newfoundland and Labrador election returns coming in:
CBC Newfoundland, and VOCM.

Already, the PCs are in the commanding lead with the NDP in second place. Later tonight, the Yukon results. See you later.

ELECTION WEEK IN CANADA CONTINUES TO ROLL

2011-10-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I just looked at the stats and my viewership last week was way up. After scratching my head about it a while I finally figured out why I managed to get more hits on this blog. It was because I was talking about all the elections.

With that said, I just want to say -- stay tuned for coverage of the Newfoundland and Yukon elections tomorrow night.

(There you go. Instant hits. Life is good here at the blog. Oh, by the way, Saskatchewan just called an election today.)

DICK VAN DYKE SHOW IS BACK

2011-10-10T15:04:00.000-07:00

Some time ago I was musing on this blog about where the heck The Dick Van Dyke Show went, because I couldn't find it in reruns anywhere. I found it odd given the current fascination with all things 1961.

It turns out this marks the 50th anniversary of the premiere season of The Dick Van Dyke Show on TV. As a result there is quite a bit of commemorating going on about the show. In fact last Sunday was the 50th anniversary of the show's premiere.

TV Land has picked up the show for its schedule and ran a marathon for the show this past week. As well, a new book is out with the whole behind-the-scenes history. Good stuff.

F1'S COMPLETELY BORING SEASON HAS A CHAMPION

2011-10-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to say we now have a new Formula 1 champion after the Japan Grand Prix race earlier today -- Sebastian Vettel.

As it turns out, he is the same guy who won last year. Honestly, is it any wonder why I tune into NASCAR and IndyCar so much these days when Formula 1 has gotten so dull and predictable? Much as I am a fan of Formula 1, I hate it when the season ends up a foregone conclusion with no excitement.

This F1 season is basically over, and yet we are still nowhere near the end! We've got four more races left through the end of November in South Korea, India, Abu Dhabi and Brazil, all of which mean nothing as far as the drivers standings are concerned! In fact, Red Bull could clinch the constructors title in the very next race in South Korea, which will mean the last three races will count for absolutely nothing at all!

I'll tell you this much -- I'm not getting up in the middle of the night to watch these next races coming up in F1, that's for sure.

SIMPSONS ARE BACK FOR TWO MORE YEARS OF LAUGHS

2011-10-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

I want to say right now that I am very happy with the news that The Simpsons will be back for two more seasons of new episodes on FOX. There was a big dispute this week with all this talk that the show would be forced to cut costs across the board, including the big salaries of their voice actors, to stay on the air. The talk was that the show was going to be cancelled if the actors balked! Fortunately, that situation was happily resolved this week.

Now I'm reading all the usual miserable no-lives people on the comments sections of these news articles, making snide remarks claiming the show sucks and that they stopped watching years ago. Well, I for one am still watching this show and getting a chuckle out of it. This show is a television institution and I would hate to see it go (especially since there isn't much left that's worth watching in network prime time these days).

It's great to see a deal reached to keep The SImpsons. Now, if only the NBA owners and players could resolve their differences, too.

START OF NEW NBA SEASON IN MAJOR PERIL RIGHT NOW

2011-10-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

Well, it's tough for fans to get their minds turned to the fortunes of the NBA given all the rest of the sports going on right now, but there have been some worrisome developments lately in the league with the union negotiations. It seems the latest talks have been cancelled because the league won't move off their demand to a 50-50 split of basketball-related revenue. As a result the first two weeks of the season are sure to be cancelled.

All in all this looks worrisome for the NBA. I am certain we are going to have a shortened season. I would like to think the NBA won't hurl themselves off the cliff and cancel the entire season over this situation, but I am afraid they can and will. The owners seem hard-line about getting a deal done on their own terms, and now we're hearing all these stories of players signing deals in Europe, including Kobe Bryant going to Italy.

I wonder if these owners and players really understand what they are doing. They threaten to marginalize their own sport in the USA and reverse years of work building up the NBA. Frankly, with all the other sporting alternatives out there including the NFL, the NHL, college football and the like, I don't think most regular NBA fans will miss the NBA for months. Already it's clear that in hockey-mad Canada, nobody misses them at all right now.

Speaking of which -- fans in Winnipeg are celebrating the return of the Jets, playing their first NHL game of the season this afternoon versus Montreal.

MONEYBALL

2011-10-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to see the new movie Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt. It's about how the cash-strapped Oakland A's, decimated by free agency, put together a winning team on the field during the 2002 season, using sabermetrics and other fancy computerized mumbo-jumbo. It's a movie that will hit home for a lot of fans of cash-strapped baseball teams fed up with the rich teams winning all the time.

My review of the movie is here. Get a chance to see it in between playoff baseball games. (Fans of the Yankees and Phillies might have some unexpected time on their hands and may want to watch, too.)

MINORITY RULE

2011-10-07T16:46:00.000-07:00

So Dalton McGuinty's Liberals have been reduced to a minority -- denied a majority by a single solitary seat. Meanwhile Tim Hudak's PCs don't feel too good today after blowing a lead in the polls.

So yeah, I think it's fair to say Ron MacLean won the election -- because nobody really won in the end and more folks were interested in the NHL games on TV than in voting in the election. Turnout was below 50 percent. Pathetic.

No doubt a lot of PCs will be mad about the result and we'll get these usual knife-the-leader stories coming out in the press. I hope the PCs keep their calm and look soberly at what they need to do next, because we all saw how well the knife-the-leader routine worked the last time they tried that stunt: the party was made to look really bad.

I think the real problem in this 2011 election wasn't leadership but policy, or lack of it. That cost the party both the usual endorsement of the Toronto Sun as well as the election. Anyway, it could have been worse.

----------------------------------------------------

In other news, Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall is set to call an election on Monday and I wrote up this column in advance of the writ drop, looking ahead to this fall's vote. Things look pretty grim for the opposition provincial NDP here, at least as it stands right now.

Tomorrow night I plan to hang out with the provincial Liberals, covering their rock/blues concert fundraiser event. Expect more Saskatchewan vote coverage here as the campaign unfolds.

IT'S ELECTION NIGHT IN ONTARIO

2011-10-06T16:05:00.000-07:00

That's right, folks, it's Election Night in the provincial Ontario election. The good news is we already know the winner of the election.

No, it's not Dalton McGuinty or Tim Hudak, or even Andrea Horwath. No, the projected winner is -- Ron MacLean.

The reason is because election night coverage runs right against Hockey Night in Canada. Because CBC is covering the entire opening night of the hockey season including the game between the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, the CBC has been forced to move its live Ontario results coverage to cable to the CBC News Channel, and to the Internet instead.

The hockey fans are reacting by saying they don't want to watch boring election night coverage -- but I don't understand why anyone would call elections boring. In fact, they're pretty exciting with a lot of human drama! (Politicians losing their jobs, leaders resigning, etc.)

ELECTION LINKS

Anyway, those of you wanting to catch the election night coverage can tune in the CBC coverage on the Internet, as well as CTV Toronto, Global Ontario, and CityNews. Also, the Sun News channel has live streaming election coverage, and the radio fans can tune in on Newstalk 1010. I think it really helps that 1010 doesn't have the Leafs rights, which AM 640 is still stuck with.

Polls close at 9PM EST, so maybe you can catch the results after the first game is over.

Try and have a happy election night -- especially to any of you political folks who might be gathering as usual at Joe Maggiano's Restaurant in north Toronto. (At least I'm assuming it'll be the same crowd gathering there as in previous years. Maybe they'll just go home instead.)