Solid Gold comments - with big hockey stick in tow...

The Premier's eye may be watching me or you or you ....


Thank you to Offal News for bringing to my attention - the discussion by the Premier made about about me and Ed (Bond Papers)today.

The quote was:

"That goes for Roger Grimes, that goes for Sue Kelland-Dyer and that goes for Ed Hollett. That goes for anybody who may attempt to disparage the reputations of people."I'm serving notice on people now that if there's people out there that are going to take away the good reputations of people in public life, then they're accountable to the courts."

This must be a new strategy designed to take the focus off the Premier and the fact - he said nothing about the $2875 2004 constituency (or other name) top-up to all MHA's.

No the Premier did not take the payment - so what? It was offered to him.

On the issue of John Hickey using taxpayer dollars to sue Roger Grimes - sure - another great move by the IEC.

Hickey double-billed - he has admitted to that and paid it back - what are the costs associated with the double-billing?

Costs of the Auditor General
Costs of Cabinet time reviewing
Costs of the Department of Justice reviewing
Costs of RNC investigation...

all because John double-billed....

Who is paying the costs for all the investigative measures?

All the overspending - lost accounting records - forensic accounting - and these guys are on their high horse checking the comments of citizens?

Maybe Danny should start a class action where all MHA's can join in and sue the citizens together. Be much cheaper on us that way.

Honestly the comments are Solid Gold - and I look forward to talking about the chat in the hockey locker-room.

What's next Premier - suing the Auditor General?


Rather than condemn the actions of MHA's who are costing the taxpayers untold millions before the final count is tallied - the Premier chooses to attack private citizens passing legitimate comment and asking legitimate questions regarding the HOA scandal.

What's most interesting about this is the local TV news and VOCM news chose not to report the Premier's unsubstantiated threats to sue both myself and Ed Hollett. The Premier's obvious attempts to silence critics should be reported by the news - and by not doing so - is failing to allow the citizens of the Province to make their own decisions on his behavior. Kudos to The Telegram and the Current and Randy Simms (Open-Line) for reporting what the Premier said - that's the news!

Failure of politicians on all sides of the House to condemn the Premier's attempts to block criticism of his government - is failure to protect our freedom of speech and our democracy. So what's next - conversations at Tim Hortons to be monitored - or maybe each community can have a spy to monitor those political debates around the kitchen table. What's new? It's all about them anyway.

The anti-seal activists can say what they want and run misleading commercials all they want - no law-suit from the Premier. But Newfoundlanders and Labradorians interested in and concerned about our own province will be closely monitored by the Premier? Last question Premier - how is shutting up Sue Kelland-Dyer and Ed Hollett in the best interests of the people or the Province?

House of Assembly - Pigs still at the Trough

No lessons learned yet!



At the House of Assembly the Pigs are still at the trough. No lessons have been learned yet and unlikely to be learned if the people do not demand a Public Inquiry.

Think for a minute - there have been 5 by-elections in the Province over the past 5 months - and each time leaders - Danny Williams - Gerry Reid - and Lorraine Michael have been spending our money out on the campaign trail - the PC and Liberal caucuses have followed suit. Our province has significant economic challenges with extreme outmigration - continued failure of the fishery - rural Newfoundland and Labrador collapsing - mill closure in Stephenville - problems with Gander Airport - continued loss of federal presence - and the abhorrent spending at the House of Assembly and these guys are spending our time and money to get themselves elected.

Our leaders are tied up - our MHA's are tied up - the Cabinet is tied up and they are not finished yet - with Labrador West around the corner. Then there is the general election October. Here they are door to door telling people what they will do if elected - when those elected are spending too much time on by-elections.

The Premier is here - house by house - trying to make sure he beats the Liberals in every race while the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers are holding a meeting on energy and the environment.

Now John Hickey who double-billed the taxpayers dozens of times - and he is going to sue Roger Grimes for commenting on that incompetence. None of these MHA's however want to grant a Public Inquiry on the mess at the House of Assembly - which has cost and will cost millions of dollars.

They have learned nothing - how much time do you think these people are spending on dealing with our problems and opportunities?

If the spending scandal only affected one party - do you think the other two would demand a Public Inquiry?

How much time do you believe was spent by MHA's over the past 5 months on by-elections?

Don't forget the time spent in Exploits when Roger Grimes resigned in 2005 and Placentia-St. Marys in early 2006.

All in all they want your vote - they want to spend your money - they will promise the moon - but cannot deliver because they spend too much time trying to get elected. Democracy in Newfoundland and Labrador is all but dead - and the only media giving it a real hearing is the Telegram.

Simon is Right - Russell is Right - Bill is Right

There must be a Public Inquiry into the whole House of Assembly Affair. Sue's Blog is going to call it the - PPP Politicians Plundering the Public and in some morbid respects public - private - partnership.

The issue of PPP is out of control and needs a real hearing. Russell Wangersky is correct when he writes the politicians want this to go away too quickly - especially the Premier.

Bill Rowe is right when he says that Marshall and Williams not taking the $2875 is either elitist or another attempt to cover - "sucking and blowing" at the same time is an appropriate analogy for those two intelligent people trying to skirt the scandal by saying they didn't take the cash.

Simon Lono is absolutely right when he says a Public Inquiry is the only way to go - to "clean the House".

Here are three astute people and are people who have been around politics in one way or another for many years. They know that fundamentally some politicians are going to have to be wiped out and exposed for this PPP mess to truly go away and deter it from happening again.

In our democracy we have a multi-party system - this is designed to bring light to positions so they may be fully exposed - debated - and resolved. When our democracy is faced with all parties being involved in questionable activities at the same time - the role of Opposition must fall to the media and the people - if not we are in a banana republic.

There are many viewpoints out there - many partisan - but many more reflect the disgust over the PPP. We must get to the bottom of this - and the public should make educated choices when voting - this cannot be done without all the information.

Some of the politicians have run for cover - with many more about to do the same.

Chief Justice Greene - with the stated mandate cannot get to the bottom of it.

The RNC with only some of the file cannot get to the bottom of it.

The Auditor General cannot call public witnesses nor release some of the information we need.


We need to hear from all MHA's and others from 2000 - 2007.
Call to the stand Beth Marshall (AG in 2000) - question her on the findings and why she requested to audit the books of the House of Assembly.

You must understand that when she was blocked - those who blocked the Office of the Auditor General are now administratively responsible for costing us millions in overpayment's - special investigations (forensic audits) - the cost of the Chief Justice (special review) - the cost of the RNC and its investigations. All of it may have been prevented if Beth Marshall had been permitted to audit in 2000.

On that note - all MHA's from 2000 should be called to a stand and publicly tell us why they voted for legislation that effectively removed the Auditor General.

Bring back Tobin - make him talk on a stand - under oath.
Bring back Furey - Dicks - Shelley - Byrne and yes Loyola Sullivan - make them talk under oath.
Bring back Lloyd Snow - Tom Lush - Lloyd Matthews - bring them all back.

If we do not hear all of the unfettered evidence from our elected officials - we will never know the truth and we will not deter similar behavior.

The 2004 PPP is the same - the IEC rendered that proposal (#) be approved and every MHA gets the $2875. We know that 2 did not take it - one sat on the IEC and was the former AG that supposedly wanted to bring these types of things to light - and the other is the Premier who claims he wants it all cleaned up.

What we have here are the politicians blocking the use of our taxpayer dollars to investigate them. After the fortune they have cost us to date - under their control - shouldn't we have the same right to answers under our rules?

Let me use this example:

We all remember the vote in the House of Assembly to boot Fraser March our of the position of Citizens Representative - we know there were some expenses that were questionable. They were not questionable enough to have the AG file a 15.1 on him. That's the part of the Act where the AG feels a recommendation for further investigation is warranted.

15.1 's have been issued for:

Ed Byrne
Wally Anderson
Randy Collins
Jim Walsh
Percy Barrett
John Hickey
Kathy Goudie

All but one of these MHA's were sitting in the House of Assembly when they fired Fraser March.

Then John Hickey upon being exonerated from any criminal wrong-doing forgets his incompetence which caused the numerous cases of double-billing and comes out swinging at Roger Grimes. Give me a break John - you are still responsible for too many cases of double billing - all that has changed is that you are incompetent - not corrupt.

Let me say that again - John Hickey you are incompetent not corrupt. Now sue me!

Now the 2006 budget is overspent - and nobody is going to deal with it.

I do not care what rules are put in place "on a go forward basis" it will not be a real deterrent to this type of activity - unless some measurable consequences come to all MHA's that were either incompetent or corrupt.

All MHA's are in a position of conflict regarding the calling of such a Public Inquiry - because it is they that will be examined. For instance - if you had a bank robber and those who watched it - participated in it - knew about it - determine whether or not they should be charged and face trial - we could close the courts.

All the MHA's say they are really concerned about this situation and being "under a cloud" of suspicion - when they are innocent - funny not one of them have said - let's have a Public Inquiry - and that way I can be removed from the pack of others guilty of incompetence or corruption.

The Liberals asked for a Public Inquiry on the fibre-optic deal yet will not demand a Public Inquiry over this - I can assure Gerry Reid the people who will not get out and vote are not deterred by the fibre-optic fiasco - they are deterred by an inability to vote for a perceived dirty house - and it's all about perception right?

Danny will do everything other than an Inquiry which will bring into the limelight more of his own members than he wants - and then there's also the reason he did not take the cash. Let's find out if Beth Marshall and Danny Williams tell the same story.

Let's see who is really serious here! Let's see which organizations will call for the Inquiry.

NAPE?
CUPE?
Federation of Municipalities?
Federation of Labour?
FFAW?
St. John's Board of Trade?
Canadian Federation of Taxpayers?
the Media?
how about the people?

The St. John's Board of Trade can go lie down out of it - if it's calling for the reduction of taxes - when it does not demand to know what the dollars went to and why.

The public service Unions are not that mad over the $2875 if they are not interested in what really took place.

And John Hickey - remember this - you were allowed to stay in Cabinet while after you double-billed expenses and were under investigation by the RNC. If all you had to do was pay back the money - will you stand and demand that Fraser March be returned to Office? Go on hypocrite - show your stuff! Do you think you look any less ridiculous as your former colleague Kathy Goudie because she cried and you yelled?