Ahhh, it's tough during these dog days of summer and soccer to come up with witty, insightful missives day after day after day.So in the random thoughts department:
* Congrats to Carol Bellringer, Manitoba's new provincial auditor general. She comes to the position with a great reputation and an even better name for the post, Bellringer.
Even better than Newfoundland's John Noseworthy, who has sniffed out a spending scandal that appears to touch the houses of all three political parties in that province.
* A question, or two, for Hugh McFadyen. Was Stu Murray's mug photoshopped out of the Tory caucus website photo? Or did Stu's invite to the photo shoot get lost in the mail?
We can only guess Baby Huey didn't want to be stuck in the middle with Stuey. Those McFadyenites tasked with washing the website clean might might want to try a little light reading next: Stu's website bio still has him as the leader of Manitoba's official opposition. Delete, delete...
* Thumbs up to the Winnipeg Free Press city hall reporters for making a bit of hay out of the "secret poll" done by the mayor's office. After all, transparency is transparency is transparency, regardless of political stripe.
Still waiting, though, for a dramatic weekend editorial titled "Shame Mr. Katz."
* A nod to our friend the Hack for the interesting piece on the imminent race for the NDP nomination in Fort Rouge. The good news for Dippers: the race may feature as many as four talented younger candidates - a sign interest in the party is running high.
The bad news? Four more years of MLAs who should be retiring to make way for this new generation, like Diane McGifford in neighbouring Lord Roberts. Memo to party brass: puhleeze appoint her to something ... anything.
* A raspberry to Shannon Martin of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. After years of beating up the Doer government for more tax cuts, the former Filmon government hack is proposing a harmonized GST/PST that would raise taxes for Manitobans by about $200 million.
And whose wallets would be hit hardest? Working people, of course, as a "harmonized" tax (the word sounds soooo lovely) would apply to things that aren't currently subject to the PST, things like children's clothing, books and home heating fuel. Doer says "thanks but no thanks." Well, duh.
* And finally - thumb's down, waaaaay down, to England's Wayne Rooney. Rooney did bugger all to help his team advance, and then added to his profound non-performance by being booted from the quarter final for booting a Portugal player in the, ummmm... soccer balls. Yes, watching those replays, it was clearly a deliberate stomp on Rooney's part.
No wonder we started to loose interest when Ghana and their pretty orange uniforms were sent packing...