RailGate Game-On!......PseudoLiveBlog....

AllTheTies
ThatBindVille

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Updated @ 8:00pm to correct for syntax and inadvertent mistakes of little consequence that arose due to fast typing while multi-tasking during day....I also bring up a point about previously published material of a very specific nature at the bottom of the post...would welcome any and all opinions on that matter....
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10:21am Tuesday May 18, 2010: Judge Ann MacKenzie has started to instruct the jury....SP Berardino should start laying out his 'case' soon....Hmmmmm......Will we finally get a more fulsome report on his RailGate 'Top 40' (of potential prosecution witnesses)?....

12:00noon Tuesday May 18, 2010: Terry Donnelly of CBC British Columbia is reporting that SP Berardino began his opening statement about 11:30am....Already, defense lawyer K. McCullough has jumped up twice to object vociferously....Judge MacKenzie has warned McCullough that he will be removed if he does it again....

1:15pm Tuesday May 18, 2010: Gosh, there sure are a lot of deflector spin spanners being thrown into the works over in Victoria today, eh....'lectronic Media has gone silent....Not a peep out of She-Who-Is-Related-To-Two-Of-The Crown's named potential witnesses...Here is a link to Keith Frasers' report of Kevin McCullough's outbursts and admonishment mentioned above....

1:40pm Tuesday May 18th, 2010: CKWX is reporting that SP Berardino says that $27K in cheques were written for A. Basi and that most ($25K) made it's way back to D. Basi...Does this mean that A. Basi is in the docket for a measly few thou?.....Eyewitness 'WX reporter Shane Bigham tells us the critical details of the defendents' collective couture and their placid demeanors in court...Did that kid get 'Media Accreditation' while Robin Mathews did not?....Sheesh.

1:55pm Tuesday May 18, 2010: Unless I'm mistaken, the only proMedia outlet running comments is CBC BC, here (but almost all the comments are context-free and are essentially irrelevant in the extreme)....

1:58pm Tuesday May 18, 2010: Neal Hall is the first ink-stained wretch out of the gate with details of the alleged 'bribes'....Essentially the same as what we heard, as noted above, from CKWX....SP Berardino alleges cash came from Liberal-Connected LobShop principal E. Bornman(n) to A. Basi with most then funnelled back to D. Basi....SP Berardino says witness list now culled to new and improved RailGate Top 30 (used to be 44).....And, get this!!!!!...There will be tapes played by SP Berardino involving first round 'bidding numbers'!....(can't wait until defense plays their tapes!....Will there be anything involving wolfian repasts?)...Also, an extra $20K in perks directly to defendents from OTrax alleged....Hall's story, (up first in the Montreal Gazette....say what?) is here....

2:05pm Tuesday May 18, 2010: notsoGiant98 runs RailGate 4th up, at the very back-end of their 2:00pm newscast....Eyewitness report from reporter M. Bernardo is useless....But news reader's tag at very end indicates prosecutions' first witness will be......wait... for.... it.....Martyn Brown!...Fireworks from Defense soon to come?....Something interesting going on though....Prosecution seems to be running an 'early taint' line.....This is interesting because it might be used later to cut-off any 'quid pro quo' strategy from defense (not supposed to talk about the latter, apparently* but you can always use the search box at the top left of this page if you are so inclined)....Here's a weird one.....Has anybody else but me noticed how similar the vocal stylings of C. Clark are to those Nardwuar The Human Serviette?.....

2:25pm Tuesday May 18, 2010: More fulsome report, after the initial one in M. Gazette (see above), from Neal Hall and Lori Culbert now up in VSun here.... In addition to the bribes and perks SP Berardino says he will also call Mark Marissen to talk about potential 'job opportunities' with FedLibs of Paul Martin... Meanwhile..... C. Clark on CKNW just keeps-on -keepin'-on with the Nardwuar impersonation (see above), this time focussing blindly on water distribution problems in Africa....Hey!.....Guess what?....SP Berardino also alleges that B. Virk didn't know about the $27 in bribes that E. Bornman(n) is supposed to have funnelled to the two Basis.....Crazy one, that... Another note to the the 'Supreme Court Media Accreditation Committee', headed by Mr. Hall.....Is the SP's name actually spelled Berandino....Gosh Spanky....Did you and your precious Gang just make an error in fact?....

3:20pm Tuesday May 18, 2010: Joe Schneider of Bloomberg (non-Lotuslandian-Ya!) News was in the RailGate House today and he is reporting that B. Virk is alleged to have provided E. Bornman(n) (acting, presumably as OmniTrax' agent) with the 1st round of bid numbers (presumably what the initial RailCobidders were willing to pay for our BC Rail 'assets') three days before the official BC Rail Restucturing Committee got them....Hey!....I think we know that committee....In fact, we know it's precise make-up, at least as it was constituted in late 2003, because we have, in our possession, an Organizational Chart that just keeps on giving....And no....We did not get the chart from a pre-Trial Hearing release or from a ProMedia Outlet........Instead, we the Brigade of so-called-useless amateur Bloggers collectively dug it up ourselves in a flurry of both online and offline communication that led to our hunting down of once-used-and-soon-forgotten 'Interim Fairness Report' on the BC Rail Sale (more on all this later)....Meanwhile, here is the chart itself.....Enjoy!....

6:00pm Tuesday May 18th, 2010....Missed it, because I had to pick-up littler e. from Tapdance class but......Mr. Gordon Campbell's Chief-Of-Staff Martyn Brown took the stand late in the day for prosecution....Said that D. Basi and R. Virk took oaths to serve the public trust and that in so doing they were not suppposed to take any gifts or renumeration 'beyond what you are allowed to do'....(Whatever the heckfire that means).....Alrighty then....Will Mr. Brown be cross-examined by the defense tomorrow?....


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*I am going through my old stuff carefully to parse what we, ourselves, discovered and/or gleaned back in the days, months and years in the run-up to the RailGate's fo' real opening today.....Why?....Because we have come to the conclusion that such information is fair game for discussion precisely because it is information that did NOT arise from a pre-trial hearing.....

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