Hydraboss

So, there's apparently 9000 people on the call. And yet only 611 voted in the first poll question? Kinda fishy. Nope, never got a chance to ask him anything.

You and me both. Spends his time in Edmonton (bigger population) and never comes out to us "country bumpkins". And yet we continue to deliver him to Ottawa. If I manage to get my question on, it's gonna be a little uncomfortable for short-stuff.

Oh well, it beats the typical voice recording that usually calls my house.

The moron just blamed Peter Milliken for the gong show in the House. Said he should have kept order better. Bad move. Man, I hate this guy. Third and last poll question: Which political party do you support? 89% CPC with Stephen Harper 4% Liberal with Michael Ignatieff 6% NDP with Jack Layton (this is where I voted) 1% Green Party with Mary May (ha! had to correct himself) Do ya think that I MAY have been selected for this call, or do ya think it's random(????) Just got asked when the CPC will start defending Alberta and it's energy industry in Ottawa. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Equalization is at unfair level. "It's a valid point." Really no answer. Big surprise.

So now they're doing an interactive poll during this "townhall". Will give results in about 5 minutes. Quite the interesting approach. Been a couple of what I would call staged questions, but most have been really uncomfortable for the guy. Just got his ass handed to him on F-35's. Sticking to his guns though. (pun intended) poll results (611 responses) top priority in this election 36% economy and jobs 34% health care 11% safe communities 4% environment 15% deficit spending "Thank you SoandSo. That's a very good question." -- No shit Sherlock. God I hate that saying. What else is he going to say? "That's about the dumbest thing I've ever been asked!" Second poll How do you get your political news? 54% TV 11% radio 20% newspaper 12% online 3% personal contact with MP

Haven't seen hide nor hair from this guy since the last election. He's getting raked over the coals right now. Ha! Probably 75% NDP callers right now.

I just ended up in a live teleconference with my CPC MP (kinda cool). Since this is Alberta, he's a shoe in. Anybody want me to ask him a question? James Rajotte - MP Leduc, Edmonton, Devon This is gonna last about 20min

True. Except unlike the tobacco debate, there exists technology to prove what is being said. It's called ground penetrating radar and seismic. They do it before they drill a well and after. It's actually pretty cool to see the results...because it SHOWS the formations before and after. Fractures that cause changes to formations are very, very visible. Not to mention they're just a little beneath the ground water table. Example: If the water table is located at around 25m (82feet) and the oil/gas well surface casing is set at 250m (820feet) and the frac is at the bottom of the well at 1850m (6070feet), then there is about 5988 feet in between...that's FIVE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY EIGHT FEET. Not to mention that most wells are drilled to anywhere from 2000m to 5000m. Actually, his comment is accurate. Every court in western civilization recognizes "agreed statement of facts".

August, Let me tell you this: I have worked in the energy sector in Western Canada for 18 years. I fully understand the effects of higher O&G prices and how it directly relates to my job and that of the other 8800 people in the Canadian side of my operations (won't discuss the US side now). But all in all, here's the truth. Gas has gone through the roof again (2007 anyone?) and if I paid for gas for either of the trucks in my driveway, I'd be pissed off. When it costs $130 to fill a half-ton, it's just too much for some people. As for power (electricity) - I'm in Alberta. My little 1250 sq ft house cost me $207 last month for electricity...this month it's going up 66%. That's right...gonna be about $344 this month. Now tell me again how these increases are good for me. I UNDERSTAND the macroeconomics of energy prices, but that doesn't help pay my bills. People that are bitching about this and the only answer is some partisan crap, well, I call bullshit to the answers. People ARE hurting from these increases and a "nothing" answer from politicians would do nothing (unless their hot air can heat my house).

No they should not be removed. The NDP have as much right to their supporters as any other party.

I know. It always looks so odd when his results are released, but isn't this the company that everyone says ends up being the most accurate over the last several elections? I also don't really care for the "margins of error" in these things. Up to 10+% in Kwebek? Doesn't that put all four major parties in a statistical dead heat?

Okay, just looked at the site with it's neat little animated graphics under "What's fracking?" Ha! This is great! Notice that when they frac, the formation cracks go vertical? If I could figure out how to do that, I'd be the richest man in the world. This whole fake "controversy" is based on the assumption that when a company does a frac, it's just a little under poor Billy's house and pollutes his fishing stream (they should try to show it to scale and see what kind of reaction they get). Ever seen sandstone? Ever notice how the layers go horizontally? If you try to hit a large piece with a hammer from the top of the flat surface, it only breaks a little. Now hit it from the side and you'll separate it considerably. Exactly the same process with fracs. Formations fracture horizontally, not vertically. Their whole premise is screwed. Doesn't work that way. Thanks to the environmental movement, all the "hazardous" waste (you know, used oil/chemicals/water from car washes) has to be taken to disposal wells in Alberta. What the hell do you think a disposal well is? It's drilled exactly how I described it above (about 1800m+) and then frac'd so there's room to pump down all your nasty crap from home. They fill an exhausted formation with poisonous shit so everyone can feel better about themselves. Talk about your double standard. What about poor Billy's fishing stream??????????????

This whole thing is hilarious. I've personally been on too many 15Mpa fracs to count (the ground-shock is cool!), and at 4000m+ there is absolutely no chance of ground water contamination. None. First (just for the record) let me say that where I live (just south of Edmonton) lots of people have "ignitable tap water" when a well is drilled (water well). It's called surface gas. Total pain in the ass, but related in no way to drilling operations. Fracs don't cause surface gas - it's always existed. Does anyone actually understand drilling operations? Let me give you the two-second tour... Rig sets up in an area about half the size of a football field (for a single rig or a small double). They "spud" the hole (break ground) with a drill bit (not a "drill head"..god I hate the movie Armageddon!). It's called a surface bit and is typically about 13 3/8" in diameter (check the Hughes Christensen site....and look up "Hydraboss"). In almost all cases the oil company has to use a diverter and surface BOP (blow out preventer) because if surface gas were to get into the well it would likely ignite. I was on a well years ago where this happened and burnt a young guy to death - something I wish I could forget. In this area, they typically drill down to about 250m and then run 9 5/8" casing (steel surface pipe that screws together). A cementing company comes in and pumps downhole through the center of the casing until cement comes up the outside of the casing (the annulus). They push a "shoe" (basically a plug) down the pipe so that there is no cement in the ID. Once set, that pipe ain't going nowhere. You'd have to check the ratings on oilfield cement, but believe me, it's just a little stronger than your driveway. So now they're waaaayyyy below the water table and they haven't even started drilling the well for real. The "surface gas" is now prevented from entering the well bore. Now the main hole starts. Around here, they use a 7 7/8" bit to drill to about 1850m and then do the whole running casing thing again but with 7" casing. Remember, it's all cemented the same way as the surface casing. Once this is all done, they have to do the whole process over again with either 5 1/2" or 4 1/2" tubing (production casing). What you need to understand is that this is just the drilled well. Nothing's coming out of this for a very long time. They have to move the drilling rig off and move a service rig on to start producing, and it has to hang 2 7/8" (or 2 3/8") production tubing inside of all of that to get the gas out. Now when the well needs to be "stimulated", they bring in a perforating company to run down hole and set off charges that "perf" holes in the side of the production casing at the bottom of the well. THEN they bring in a frac company (there's lots of them) to pump chemicals and frac sand down the well, set bridge plugs, and then pressure it up. It causes fractures in the rock formation enough to let whatever it is you want to produce to enter the well and be brought to surface. That's a whole lot of cement, steel, cement, steel, cement, steel, bridge plugs, steel, BOP's, surface valves, etc. Chances of ground contamination....next to zero. Anyone going on a rant about this process causing "ground water contamination" is an idiot.

Does anyone else want to wave goodbye to this clown, or should I do it?

Come now Jack, we both know you can't even spell NEP. I actually like the fact that the Liberals have totally given up on Alberta. They are right in that they will never win a seat here, but I'm sure that I'm one of the people hoping that this kind of news spreads a province west of us and maybe a couple east of here. It would be a money pit for them to spend close to half their election budget ($10-$12 or so???) on a province where they are utterly rejected. We both know the Cons are going to win the election, but it would do my heart good to see them shut out completely west of Ontario. Just for kicks.

Welcome to the circus. Go here before you reach 5 posts and show the results in your signature. If you don't, you will be banned for no apparent reason. Don't know why, it just happens. That being said, Harper will fall on the budget. Good thing too. Makes the other idiots look like...idiots.

To continue this partial thread drift... I agree that some of the name calling gets to the level of grade 5 students from time to time, but I don't want to see MLW reduced to some university-politically-correct-debate club. I prefer to use the forum as I would if I were sitting at a lounge having a beer and discussing politics (memories of college). Every once in a while things get heated and words are said that "offend" someone else. Boo hoo. It's called discourse. It's the intensity of some of the arguments (not JUST discussions) that keep a lot of us coming back for more. If I wanted politically correct conversation, I'd join a mensa board. For instance: I can easily call Jack a complete friggin idiot that couldn't find his eastern ass with both hands. He wouldn't report me, but chances are he'd respond with something in the strain of "whatever, you traitorous Alberta inbred neo-con. You and your ilk should be found swinging from a rope from the tree in the center of that dirt path you call main street in the cultural desert you call Alberta. Now go earn me some more equalization money, you knave!" or something like that. I would say to you, lighten up and forget all but the most grievous of insults. This too shall pass.

Uhm, you mean "traitor in waiting" (kind of like our senators). Nice to know I'm "of note" to you Jack.

This "complaining to the mods" is so fucking juvenile. If someone can't take a little language, they need to go back to pbskids.org. This is an "adult" forum; some of the members need to grow a little thicker skin.

Well, any 12 good ones make that (combined maybe....)

Most of us doubt you could order a coffee at Starbucks by yourself, let alone design a car (or maybe a spaceship!!!!....) Yup. Not that that costs anything, right? Besides, I thought you wanted this to be 100% Canadian? Why would you buy a foreign company? Yup. That's it. Just materials. No staff. No aeronautical engineers that make $200,000 a year. Nope. Don't need them. And besides, how much can that grade of aircraft aluminum cost anyway? And I'm pretty sure Home Depot carries plexiglass that you can use for a windshield - should hold up to mach II without issue. Oh wait, Home Depot is a US company. Maybe UFA carries something. This is definitely the cheap part. I'm sure you won't need any CNC lathes or anything (like this one Modern Model BNC-35120 14" Bore CNC Hollow Spindle Oilfield Lathe I just put in one of the company's shops that cost $330,000 US - although we paid less). Absolutely won't need any of them new-fangled things. THAT must be where the 1.XX billion a year the company makes goes. The mystery is solved. Uhm, that would be Lockheed Martin. 125,000 employees worldwide, and yet there's 300 VP's? Really? Please provide cite. This I have to see. Again, who cares?

I take it that you are blissfully unaware that most everyone on this board thinks you're a complete idiot. Perhaps learn to spell if you plan on starting a political party (as you announced when you first arrived). You come on here and call people "scum" for "lying" when the only proof of lying you offer is some drug-induced inference you make from someone else's comment. Did I mention you're an idiot? Somehow you fell under the impression that if you string enough "complicated" words together that other posters would think you intelligent. I'm here to tell you that that is definitely not the case. You now officially rank right up there with Oleg in coherence of thought. And, no, is not correct. Look up the meaning of "them big words" sometime. Disestablishmentarianism is about being "an opponent of an established order, especially one who opposes state support of an established church". The Canadian federal government is not "religious".Fuckin' idiot.

GH, I think what Bill is trying to point out is that every time the words "Agent Orange" and "Vietnam" are used together in a statement, people start acting like the US was using a chemical weapon. It seems to be a very common misunderstanding - AO was only being used to kill off vegetation in large key areas so the enemy couldn't come-a-sneakin' without being seen. The assertion that it was used to "poison" people is ridiculous. The US had far more effective chemicals they could have used in place of a herbicide if they wanted to kill Vietcong. This whole situation is no different from Thalidomide. At one point, doctors were giving it to pregnant mothers. Now? Not so much.

The report, as written, shows how much Canada has bent over to accommodate immigrants. Guess we get a good mark. Yay. Woo hoo. However, to try to use the data supplied to state that immigrants "integrate" is purely junk science. As Scotty has pointed out MULTIPLE times in this thread, there is no data/statistics supplied that show integration levels for any aspect of life. Where are the numbers on the percentage of immigrants that have mastered the English language? What about (as Scotty stated) the second and third generation people? Where are their stats? Michael asked if how Canada goes out of it's way to offer everything under the sun to immigrants, does that not show that the system is working. I say a resounding "No". It shows only that Canada knows very little in the way of limits in what concessions they will give foreigners, even if at the expense of Canadians. The onus should be on immigrants to prove that they deserve to stay here, not for a nation to continually try to "bribe" them.

No. Electing someone that has a track record of making decisions that fall in line with what the electorate wish within the confines of the written law should be exactly the criteria for selection. For first-time electoral candidates, they should have a chance to cast judgements, and if they fall short of expectations (or are outright outrageous), then they should be recalled.