ITQ Committee Lookahead – If it’s August, this must be the Ethics committee

By kadyomalley - Monday, August 11, 2008 at 7:35 AM - 0 Comments

A quick rundown of the witness list for the first day of a full week of hearings on the Conservative in-and-out election financing scheme (which ITQ will, of course, be liveblogging from 10am onwards):

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In and Out: Round and round the conspiracy theories go …

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 8:19 AM - 0 Comments

ITQ will be liveblogging the second day of the In and Out hearings from 10:00 a.m. onwards – gavel to gavel to gavel, including the two hour lunch break. But before we head up to the Hill – gotta get there early in order to snag a good seat, after all – here’s a quick look at how the day could unfold:
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Summer school for scandal – An ITQ refresher course on in-and-out (and why it matters)

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 6:15 AM - 0 Comments

With just hours to go before the Ethics committee kicks off its eleven-months-in-the-making investigation into the Conservative in and out election spending scheme, it seems like as good a time as any to re-post the official ITQ In and Out FAQ, which was originally published on April 28, 2008.

What, exactly, are the Conservatives accused of?
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GiornoWatch Extra: Calling all obsessives …

By kadyomalley - Friday, July 11, 2008 at 9:18 AM - 0 Comments

As previously noted elsewhere on the site, ITQ is taking today off to get ready for next week’s Ethics committee spectacular, which means no GiornoWatch until Monday. Unless, of course, something actually happens, which is where the rest of you come into the picture.
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PolitigationWatch: Colourless Green Ideas Shift Furiously

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 9:08 AM - 0 Comments

After spending most of yesterday trying to sort out the latest twist and turns in the Tale of the Tape, ITQ will be going a field trip this morning – to Liberal Party HQ in downtown Ottawa, where Green Shift, Inc. founder Jennifer Wright will “hand-deliver documents” to bemused party officials, which most likely means her Statement of Claim.
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CPAC to air more parliamentary committees

By Paul Wells - Monday, July 7, 2008 at 11:12 AM - 0 Comments

It’s almost as though there was a sudden interest in committee hearings. Where, oh where could that have come from? Who’s been covering committee hearings in an entertaining and informative manner, live? A Monday-morning puzzle.

ITQ Committee Roundup: Once more unto the breach, dear friends …

By kadyomalley - Monday, June 9, 2008 at 10:19 AM - 0 Comments

With hearings on the Bernier Affair scheduled to kick off tomorrow, it’s not hard to guess what might be on the in camera agenda at Public Safety this afternoon, which is why ITQ – and other journalists, most likely – will trek over to West Block and set up camp in the hallway outside, just in case committee members decide to throw open the doors and let the media in — not entirely impossible, given the sensational subject matter.

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Psst! Having trouble reaching ITQ, Inkless Wells, Megapundit or any of your other must-read macleans.ca bloggers this morning?

By kadyomalley - Monday, June 2, 2008 at 10:19 AM - 0 Comments

TANGENTIALLY RELATED UPDATE: This site – downforeveryoneorjustme.com is a godsend at moments like this. At least, it would be, if it wasn’t on blogspot.com, which is among the casualties of the Great Internet Explosion of Aught Eight, that is …

UPDATE: Apparently, it’s not just us (and canada.com) – it’s a whole big provider-go-boom-literally-not-figuratively thing in Texas, according to SlashDot (which has been known to bring down a provider or two itself in the past, albeit through too much love, not explosions):

An anonymous reader writes “Customers hosting with ThePlanet, a major Texas hosting provider, are going through some tough times. Yesterday evening at 5:45 pm local time an electrical short caused a fire and explosion in the power room, knocking out walls and taking the entire facility offline. No-one was hurt and no servers were damaged. Estimates suggest 9,000 servers are offline, affecting 7,500 customers, with ETAs for repair of at least 24 hours from onset. While they claim redundant power, because of the nature of the problem they had to go completely dark. This goes to show that no matter how much planning you do, Murphy’s Law still applies.”

But still, change your bookmarks to the new URLs. It can’t hurt, right?

—

It’s not our fault, I swear — it’s something to do with our old provider (which apparently also powers canada.com, which is suffering laggedyness as well this morning). Or sun spots. Or maybe The Man is trying to take us down.

Anyway, if you’ve been experiencing technical difficulties, you might want to consider updating your bookmark(s) to the shiny new URL(s) that replaced the old forums.macleans.ca/advenis/heinousblockofrandomlettersandsymbols monstrosities. You know, the ones that you’ve probably been using for the last month, since they would automagically forward you here.

For ITQ:

http://blog.macleans.ca/category/blogs/national/inside-the-queensway/

or

http://www.insidethequeensway.com, which I set up during the Dark Ages of the aforementioned hideous URLs.

For everyone else – including Inkless! And Mega! – from Blog Central:

http://blog.macleans.ca/category/blog-central/

It's 8:15 am: Do you know where your ITQ is?

By kadyomalley - Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 8:36 AM - 0 Comments

Drinking a super-sized sugar-free Red Bull and preparing for another committee triple-header, of course.

For anyone interested in, oh, let’s see – Insite, ethics and/or Foreign Affairs, a quick preview of what we have in store for you here where democracy never sleeps, which is why it occasionally gets a bit cranky:
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ITQ Committee Lookahead Thingy

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 8:40 AM - 0 Comments

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Jim Flaherty, this is your life. Or, more accurately, this is your speechwriter – Hugh MacPhie, who you might remember from your past life as an Ontario cabinet minister, when he toiled in the office of your Premier Mike Harris, or perhaps from your stint as a candidate in the post-Harris provincial Tory leadership race – or, more recently, as the grateful beneficiary of your current department’s untendered largesse, which has subsequently commanded the attention of the federal ethics commissioner.

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ITQ Committee Lookahead Thingy – Thursday's highlights

By kadyomalley - Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 8:58 AM - 0 Comments

Justice is on the agenda this morning, but don’t get too excited — it’s not at the Justice committee (which set a new record for brevity yesterday afternoon, clocking in at just over seven minutes) but Official Languages, which is looking into the issue of access, with the help of Commissioner Graham Fraser and University of Moncton law professor Michel Doucet.

The Auditor General hits the committee circuit this morning as well, appearing before Public Accounts to discuss her most recent report, although ITQ predicts that opposition members will also be watching for an opportunity to get her to elaborate on comments she made before the same committee last week on an attempt by PCO to force her office to turn over its communications plans.

Meanwhile, over at Industry, it’s Irresistable Force Meets Immoveable Object Day, starring Canada’s patent and generic drug companies. Bring popcorn – name-brand, or private-label, it all tastes the same to ITQ.

Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon will be on hand to discuss his department’s main estimates, and can comfort himself with the knowledge that at least here, he won’t be facing a barrage of in and out-related questions along the lines of ‘What did you know and when did you know it?’ – at least, not ones that he’ll actually have to answer, which, of course, he’s managed to avoid doing thus far, even when said questions are posed by reporters outside the House, or opposition members inside.

Finally, remember the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee that made for such lively liveblogging yesterday? The one that made mincemeat of poor Peter Van Loan over his Prime Minister’s stubborn refusal to appoint new senators? The bill that would force him – the Prime Minister, that is – to do so within 180 days of a vacancy goes to clause-by-clause consideration this morning; as it only has two clauses, that shouldn’t take long, but regardless, ITQ will be on hand to record the deliberations. We love deliberations.

ITQ Committee Lookahead Thingy – Justice (Possibly) No Longer Delayed, and other highlights

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 11:00 AM - 0 Comments

First and foremost – and as previously announced with what some might see as unhealthy glee earlier this week – ITQ would like to extend a very special welcome back to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, back by popular four-members-of-the-opposition demand this afternoon, after a three-week hiatus. We can only cross our fingers that it won’t end up being a re-run – literally, in the case of chairman Art Hanger – and that the motion to investigate the Cadman Affair will finally be put to democratic vote; there is, alas, no guarantee that this will happen, since the government members may decide to spend the two hours of allotted time filiranting about the tyranny of the majority, which will leave the committee pretty much exactly where it is right now: smack in the middle of a Tarantino-style standoff between the Conservatives and everyone else.
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They haven't built the lockup that can hold me …

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at 10:56 AM - 0 Comments

Oh, wait – turns out that they have. Huh.

Anyway, I’m not sure if Sheila Fraser is quite as manic about her infoquarantine as, say, the Department of Finance, so I don’t know if my Blackberry will be confiscated upon arrival, but in any case, I’ll see y’all shortly after 2pm.

Free the world press!

By kadyomalley - Friday, May 2, 2008 at 11:34 AM - 0 Comments

Due to an afternoon full of luncheon-y goodness in celebration of World Press Freedom Day, followed by post-luncheon-y social whirlwinding in celebration of Friday, posting will be light to nonexistent for the rest of the day. Feel free to chat amongst yourselves in the comments.

ITQ Committee Lookahead Thingy – Update for Wednesday, April 30, 2008

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 11:16 AM - 0 Comments

Not much to add to the original lookahead, really (which is typical for a Wednesday, what with caucus taking up most of the morning):
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In case y'all were wondering

By kadyomalley - Saturday, April 26, 2008 at 8:16 PM - 0 Comments

Yes. And leave it to Steve to include the “sekrit”. For anyone who missed my account of the day’s events, the original post is still available here.

A note of warning: that link takes you back to the haunting grounds of the Ghost of ITQ Past, which means there’s a fairly good chance that it will eventually stop working. Don’t worry, at some point, I believe the plan is to ensure that all the archives, from the dawn of macleans.ca history until last week, make it onto the new platform.

If you need me …

By kadyomalley - Saturday, April 26, 2008 at 11:38 AM - 0 Comments

… just whistle.

We’re still in the process of migrating the macleans.ca family to WordPress, and although most of the heavy lifting seems to be over, there are still boxes and boxes of books left to unpack, not to mention the fact that we still haven’t figured out where to put the comfy couch and don’t even ask about the current whereabouts of the can opener. Or the corkscrew.

Or, as it turns out, the contact information that used to appear, like magic, at the top of every post, but hasn’t yet found its way through the intertubes. Next week, for sure – but in the meantime, you can drop me a note at the usual address.

Spring break! Whoo!

By kadyomalley - Saturday, March 22, 2008 at 8:35 AM - 0 Comments

Taking a day or two off from thinking about Canadian politics (I know! Is that even possible?) but will be back, full of opinions, on Monday. Even though technically, the capital will still be closed down until Tuesday, because we love our four day weekends here in O-town. Except for those of us who managed to lose our debit cards on Thursday night, and are now cashless for the next three days, since the banks are closed.

"You got technology in my politics!" – Recapping the Permanent Campaign conference

By kadyomalley - Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 12:41 PM - 0 Comments

So, as I may have mentioned once or ninety times, earlier this week, I donned my ninja gear, scaled the barbed wire fence and headed Outside The Queensway to attend a conference on politics, technology and the evolution of the so-called Permanent Campaign, which the organizers described as “a non-stop political battle for attention, momentum and influence.”

Hosted by the MaRS Discovery District as part of its “Emerging Technologies” seminar series, the afternoon event promised “a hosted interactive discussion with a diverse set of panelists,” which would anchor a more wide-ranging debate on “the influence of technology in general, as well as the impact and use of specific techniques and tools.”

Really, with a writeup like that, how could a notorious technophile and incurable political junkie resist? So I packed up my trusty rolling backpack and trekked off to Toronto to hear all about how the next federal election could be decided by Youtube views, Facebook friends and the collective chatter of the twitterati. Was it worth it? Definitely — but not nearly so much for what came out of the official program as for the dynamics at play on the floor.

The audience was billed as ‘diverse’ – but that doesn’t even begin to describe it. Self-satisfied hipsters sat cheek by jowl with alabaster-skinned coders, who stared with disbelief as academics waxed macrophilosophical, as though craving the ability to delete uncited claims, Wikipedia-style. Old-school party bagmen and campaign organizers glared impatiently at their BlackBerries, mentally calculating the billable hours being lost to esoteric discussions on ‘community’. Social media, Web 2.0, whatever. How does any of this help us raise cash and scare up warm bodies to deliver signs and lick envelopes?

Meanwhile, starry-eyed “internet evangelists” (to borrow a term from the bio of panel wrangler Jesse Hirsh) lauded the memetasticness of the now ubiquitous Yes, I Can video, and the Obamanomenon at large as journalists – yes, there were a few of us, although I think I may have been the only one who writes exclusively online – winced under the undercurrent of hostility towards the dreaded ‘mainstream’ – ‘old school’; ‘legacy’; ‘dinosaur’; choose your pejorative – media.

A daring social experiment, yes. But did it work? Not really. Before launching into the keynote presentation – an exploration of the Permanent Campaign theory by Infoscape director Greg Elmer – Hirsh acknowledged that the format for the afternoon was an “experimental alpha.” In that spirit, then, and to continue with a metaphor that likely left at least half the audience scratching its collective head in confusion, here are a few of the more annoying bugs to crop up in this build – as well as some features that should be included in the final version:

THE GOOD

THE NEEDS WORK

• Overreliance on technotoys – As much potential as the live twitterfeed, in particular, held as far as sparking a truly interactive exchange between the presenters and the audience, it became almost immediately apparent that only a handful of attendees had any previous twitter experience, which meant that most of the commentary came from the half dozen or so guys in the back row, sitting side by side tapping furiously on their laptops, and then looking up to see their words appear on the flickering screen on the wall.

  (Full disclosure: I attempted to join in the discussion, but annoyingly, had almost no luck getting a wireless signal, so was forced to wave my berry around, looking for all the world like a semaphore operator, and with about as much luck in getting my message out to the world.)

• Underemployment of human beings – The panel had serious potential for lively discussion, but seemed almost lost in the noise due to a deliberate decision to keep the format as open-ended as possible. Long rambling questions begat equally long, rambling answers, and there was very little back and forth between panelists.
• Not nearly enough focus on the practical application of campaign technology – This was, by far, the most common complaint from the political organizers and campaign runners who showed up to find out how they could harness the power of Facebook to raise funds, and get out the vote, not for a sermon on how user-created content will change the world.

Permanent campaign or not, it seems that, for those in the life who turned up at Tuesday’s conference, politics is about the practical, the actual – the hereandnowical. That’s not to say it pays no heed to emerging trends, but it does so from a point of view based entirely in self-interest. That doesn’t mean that there’s no overlap between geek and political animal, but when it comes to the logistics of running a campaign, the theories and speculation as to the possible influence of technology takes a backseat to hard data on how it works in the real world. It’s not quite a never the twain shall meet situation, but it takes work – and structure – to bring the two together under a common theme.

Inside The Queensway once more

By kadyomalley - Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 10:07 AM - 0 Comments

Just wanted to let everyone out there know that I did, in fact, survive my whirlwind visit to the Big City, and am now safely back in the capital. You know, I don’t think I’ve ever gone two whole days without posting before – not without being forcibly dispatched on vacation with strict orders not to creep online to share my latest musings with the world.

At the moment, I’m writing up a recap of that conference on politics, technology and the ‘permanent campaign’, so that should be up soon for your reading pleasure. I’m also trying desperately to get caught up on all the various bits of news that surfaced during my absence. That’s the thing about news; it just keeps happening, no matter how many times you might implore it to push the pause button for at least a few hours. Anyway, I’ll be back – and ramblier than ever – later today. Promise.