One Young Staffer is Not Enough

Conservative operative Michael Sona, is taking the fall for the voter suppression scandal and has resigned as a staffer.  What the conservatives would like us to believe is that he acted alone.  Give me a break.

Sona, in the background during Ezra Levant's sponsorship of Ann Coulter, is a product of the Manning Centre for Destroying Democracy, fashioned after Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute. 

Voter suppression is one of the courses taught.

Journalist Jeff Horwitz signed up for a weekend seminar and wrote an excellent article on the subject.

The students, strait-laced kids from good colleges, seem unconvinced. The lesson -- that with sufficient organization, the act of voting becomes less a basic right than a tactical maneuver -- doesn't sit easy with some students at first. Gourley, a charismatic senior from South Dakota and the treasurer of the College Republican National Committee, assures them: "This is not anti-democracy. This is not shady. Just put [the polling place] somewhere where you might have to put a little bit of effort into voting." The rest, Gourley explains, is just a matter of turnout.

Just a matter of turnout".

Sona was the young man who tried to steal the ballot box at the University of Guelph, forcing the rules to be changed, ending the practice of making it easier for students to vote.  Harper knew that he'd lost the youth vote, so had to make sure they didn't vote at all.

These are the kinds of things these young operatives are taught.  They don't dream them up on their own.

So how much is Sona's "resignation" going to cost the Canadian taxpayer?  Two decades ago, Ezra Levant and Jason Kenney claimed that $40,000 would buy a lot of silence, when they paid off Matthew Johnston.
 
In 2011, Christiane Ouimet, the Harper appointed ethics czar was given $500,000, when she promised to head to Florida so as not to explain why she ignored more than 50 ethics complaints against the government.
 
So what's the going rate for silence in 2012?  Enough for Sona to start his own firm, I'll wager.
 
Sigh!"

Larry Miller Needs to Stop Quoting the NRA and Ezra Levant Just Needs to STOP!

Last week, Conservative MP Larry Miller, compared support for the gun registry to Adolf Hitler and his apparent disarming of Germans.

Most people were shocked but they shouldn't have been.  The NRA uses this argument all the time and before they pried the gun from his "cold, dead hands", Charlton Heston declared:  "Any of the monsters of modern history such as Hitler and Stalin-confiscated privately held firearms as their first act."  Wayne R. LaPierre, the current executive vice president and chief executive officer of the NRA, similarly highlights the link between gun registration, confiscation, and the German experience." (1)

Miller uses his NRA material to challenge the statement that the conservative movement is determined to socially re-engineer Canadians.  Maybe instead of reading the American Rifleman, Miller should read a bit of history on his boss.  Tom Flanagan claimed that Stephen Harper wrote the Reform Party's policies on guns and only stopped short at calling it "a right to bear arms".

Scrapping the gun registry is being seen by the gun lobby as only an important first step.  They firmly believe that if we all carried guns there would be less crime.

I watched an interesting documentary Gun Fight, and in it Diane Sawyer, after receiving so many emails that if students could carry guns the Virginia Tech tragedy would never have happened, she challenged gun enthusiasts to prove it.

Recreating the scene, when the gunman came into view, those involved couldn't even get their weapons out in time.  The shooter had the element of surprise.  Had others been armed, I think there would have simply been more deaths.

Miller claims that his comments were taken out of context, but I'm curious just how he would like us to take them.

Then of course, Ezra Levant, tiring of performing his impersonation of an owl on crack, for Sun TV, decided to pen (type, scratch?)  his support for Miller.  Under the heading: Censoring Hitler — and the Past, he gives one of the most convoluted history lessons, using not only gun control, but free speech and concern for human rights; as ingredients for a return to Nazi tyranny.

However, Levant does not blame Hitler, but  "do-gooders" and the Treaty of Versailles.

The Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1918 and covered military disarmament.  The gun control law was passed a decade later, in 1928, by the Weimar Republic, to deal with the civil unrest after the war.

The Weimar government was attempting to bring some stability to German society and politics.   Violent extremist movements of both the Left and Right, were actively attacking the young, and very fragile, democratic state. A government that cannot maintain some degree of public order cannot sustain its legitimacy ... Gun control was not initiated at the behest or on behalf of the Nazis - it was in fact designed to keep them, or others of the same ilk, from executing a revolution against the lawful government. In the strictest sense, the law succeeded - the Nazis did not stage an armed coup. (2)

In 1938, the Nazis extended the gun control act, but by then they were firmly in control of Germany.

Levant's claim that attempts to silence Hitler had created the volatile anti-Jewish movement, are just as inaccurate.  I've written of this before.  It was actually the fact that the courts continued to rule in his favour, that accelerated the hatred and emboldened the Brown Shirts.

Sun media may be in dire need of a fact checker, but they also need a little reality check.  Levant's verbal attack on Irwin Cotler is not only unfair but untrue.

Mr. Cotler is a well respected human rights lawyer, who can count amoung his clients, Nelson Mandela,  Jacobo Timmerman and Muchtar Pakpahan.  Cotler also represented Natan Sharansky, who was imprisoned in the Soviet gulag for Jewish activism. After his release, Sharansky went on to become the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister. (3)

Ezra Levant sings to the choir of the deaf on his television program, and now attempts to write for the wilfully blind. 

As for Miller, he's obviously auditioning for a spot on the Friends of the NRA television program.  Maybe Winchester will throw a few bucks his way too.

1. CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON GUN REGISTRATION, THE NRA, ADOLF HITLER, AND NAZI GUN LAWS: EXPLODING THE GUN CULTURE WARS (A CALL TO HISTORIANS), by Bernard E. Harcourt, Fordham Law Review, Volume 73, Issue 2, Article 11, January 1, 2004

2. The Myth of Nazi Gun Control, by N. A. Brown, GunCite, July 21, 2001

3. Wikipedia

The Lost Boys of Neverland Have Been Discovered

In March of 2001, Rahim Jaffer, an Alliance MP, got into a bit of trouble when a hoax he had helped to perpetrate, blew up in his face.

Jaffer then owned a string of coffee shops in Edmonton, one of them set to open on the very day that he was supposed to do a radio interview with Peter Warren, on Corus Radio Network.

To solve the problem, Jaffer had his administrative assistant, Matthew Johnston, appear in his place.  However, when the show was aired, someone recognized Johnston's voice and called into the station to complain.

Peter Warren, the show's host, says the hoax was eventually revealed, but not before both Johnston and Jaffer tried to cover it up. Warren says his producer asked Jaffer directly if they had talked to him on the air.

"She reached him [Jaffer] at his cafe in Edmonton and said to him, 'Was that you on the interview with Peter Warren on the Corus Radio Network an hour ago?' and his answer was, 'Yes it was. I was happy to do the interview'."   Warren says they finally got an admission from Johnston and Jaffer when they asked them to put their version in writing.

Jaffer's friend, Ezra Levant, would later say that "Matthew had acted entirely on his own".

However, Preston Manning, leader of the Reform Party that had morphed into Alliance, gives a slightly different version of the story, one far more believable.  (Think Big: My Adventures in Life and Politics, p. 379-80)

After realizing that he had set up the radio interview on the day that he would be opening his new coffee shop, Jaffer made arrangements himself with Matthew Johnston, to appear in his place. Since it was radio no one would see him, and the Edmonton-Strathcona MP drilled his replacement on potential answers to specific questions.

When the media got wind of the hoax, Jaffer and "his team" went into damage control.  According to Manning:

Chuck Strahl, the House leader, first learned of all this from Jason Kenney at a strategy meeting at Stornoway. Chuck told Jason that Rahim's account had better be the whole truth, because the media would be looking for contradictions, and if they found any Rahim would be in even greater trouble. Jason [Kenney] then said "I wouldn't worry about that. $40,000.00 buys a lot of silence."

Apparently that was the amount of taxpayer funded 'severance' given to Matthew Johnston for keeping quiet.

The reference to $ 40,000.00 was made without elaboration. The next day the same statement about $40,000.00 was repeated by Ezra Levant to both Chuck Cadman and Deborah Grey, who at his time demanded an explanation. Ezra then said that it meant nothing, that he was just shooting off his mouth and it was no big deal.

I would say that fraud is a pretty big deal. Matthew Johnston was later named senior vice-president of Levant's magazine, the Western Standard.

Jason Kenney, Rahim Jaffer and Ezra Levant were once known as the "Snack Pack".  All young Reformers, all single (Jaffer later married Helena Guergis) and all products of the Fraser Institute.

A decade later the two remaining members, Kenney and Levant, have become more like the Lost Boys of Neverland, from J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan.

They are boys who fall out of their prams when the nurse isn't looking and were lost by their nannies in places such as Kensington Gardens. Having gone unclaimed for seven days, they were whisked off to Neverland, where they live with Peter Pan. There are no "lost girls", because girls are much too clever to fall out of their prams and be lost in this manner.

A little tumble out of a pram does explain a lot, and when we hear of another hoax involving Jason Kenney and Ezra Levant, it becomes clear that this pair simply refuse to grow up.

Bureaucrats working in Jason Kenney’s department posed as immigrants to pull off an elaborate stunt for Sun TV News, according to documents obtained by CP’s Jennifer Ditchburn. (Wait. What? How is this real?)  According to Ditchburn, what happened was this: Sun TV was supposed to film a citizenship reaffirmation ceremony in their studios, but the department could only find three people willing to participate. Instead of cancelling the stunt, they had federal employees, presumably on the federal clock, stand in for the rest of the crowd.

And in typical fashion, Kenney is blaming someone else.

" I want always to be a boy, and have fun. Come with me where you'll never, never have to worry about grown up things again " Peter Pan

American Magazine Calls Canada a Jingoistic Petro-State

Blogger Scott Tribe shared a link yesterday to an article that appeared in Slate magazine, which is owned by the Washington Post.

Saudi Arabia. Nigeria. Venezuela. Canada? Is our neighbor to the north becoming a jingoistic petro-state?

We think that Stephen Harper is only our problem, but like it or not, the rest of the world is paying attention and what they see us turning into is not something they admire.

It’s well known that America’s dependence on foreign oil forces us to partner with some pretty unsavory regimes. Take, for instance, the country that provides by far the largest share of our petroleum imports. Its regime, in thrall to big oil interests, has grown increasingly bellicose, labeling environmental activists “radicals” and “terrorists” and is considering a crackdown on nonprofits that oppose its policies. It blames political dissent on the influence of “foreigners,” while steamrolling domestic opposition to oil projects bankrolled entirely by overseas investors. Meanwhile, its skyrocketing oil exports have sent the value of its currency soaring, enriching energy industry barons but crippling other sectors of its economy.  Yes, Canada is becoming a jingoistic petro-state.

And Will Oremus, the author of the Slate piece is right.  It's pretty hypocritical that Harper is blaming "foreignors" for the opposition to the pipelines, when the damn pipelines and most of the Tar Sands are now owned by "foreignors".  

The U.S., French, British, Chinese, Thai, Korean and Norwegian interests have all bought stakes in oil-sands projects. According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), international companies have invested nearly $20 billion in the last three years through mergers, partnerships and outright purchases of projects.

While we were sleeping, the Harper government was selling us off.  The Northern Gateway pipeline is being built for China, Norway, Thailand and Korea.  The XL pipeline is being built for the Koch Brothers.

Again ... Ethical Oil?

The Ethical Oil Institute, is a phony grassroots organization, created by Ezra Levant and run by Stephen Harper’s current Director of Planning, Alykhan Velshi.  Velshi, as we know has close ties to Dick Cheney and George Bush.
 
Director of the Ethical Oil Institute is Kathryn Marshall, a blogger and sometimes columnist.  Marshall appeared on Power and Politics recently, where Evan Solomon repeatedly asked her if she was employed by Enbridge, but she refused to answer.
 
Kathyrn Marshall is married to Hamish Marshall, Harper's former strategic planning manager.  Terry Glavin writes for the Ottawa Citizen:  The real foreign interests in the oilsands:

While it's all good fun to play Spot the Freemason, something very serious is going on here. Last summer, John Bruk, the Asia Pacific Foundation's founding president, warned that Ottawa was ignoring the rapid emergence of Chinese government interests "in sheep's clothing" taking over Canada's natural resource industries. Bruk told B.C. Business magazine: "Are we jeopardizing prosperity for our children and grandchildren while putting at risk our economic independence? In my view, this is exactly what is happening."  As things have turned out, Bruk was more right than he knew.

When your currency is quickly becoming backed by a single commodity (not gold), the risks are enormous.  And when China and other foreign interests, have a large stake in that commodity, the risks become even greater.  Do they care if Canada's economy fails?  There is no vested interest, other than in profit.

Canadians’ increasing reliance on crude natural resources has economists on the lookout for symptoms of “Dutch Disease”—a phenomenon in which a natural resources boom strengthens a country’s currency, making its other exports more expensive and less competitive on the world market.

Oremus closes by saying:

President Obama’s rejection of Keystone XL is only as secure as his re-election. GOP front-runner Mitt Romney has called the decision “shocking,” and Newt Gingrich called it “stunningly stupid.” By 2013, the two North American countries could be on the same team again when it comes to oil. If so, it’ll be us against the world.

Newt Gingrich is now the front-runner, so it would be Newt and Harper against the world.  Imagine that.   Dumb and Dumber II.

New Item on Menu - The McFox Sandwich

My neighbour told us of an experience he had with the local McDonalds.  He was sitting in one having breakfast and found himself offended by a debate playing out on the television, that included racial slurs.

So he went up to the counter and asked if they could change the channel but was told "no".  Apparently, they were not allowed to do that, so instead he asked if they could just shut it off, but again "no".  Not allowed.

The following week, he avoided that particular place and went to a different McDonalds, but was surprised to find the same right-wing station, airing the same offensive dialogue.  Again, he tried to get the staff to change the channel or shut it off, and was told the same thing.  They were not allowed.

I asked him if it was Fox News or Sun TV.  He wasn't sure, since they are both pretty much the same.

My neighbour is not a political activist.  He is a retired educator and former military officer.  He wrote a letter to McDonalds, he said, the fist time he had ever felt compelled to do something like that.

I thought that maybe the local owner of the franchise was right-wing, and that it was he who decided what was being played, so I googled McDonalds/Fox News.  What popped up was a recent posting on Daily KOS, Is McDonald's in bed with Fox News?, citing a similar experience.

I asked a manager why one only had Fox News all the time, and she said they were told they had to leave it on that station at all times and were unable to change the channel. When I asked if customers had requested it, she said no, "Nobody likes Fox, we get a lot of complaints about it."

I thought to myself, I don't work there, so maybe I could change it. But fiddling with the channel buttons had no effect. That single channel was hard-wired into the set; like Big Brother on the telescreen in "1984," it is impossible to watch anything else. When I asked if it was a corporate mandate to have the TV on Fox News, the manager nodded yes. Apparently they were free to switch between various sports networks on the other set, depending on what sporting events were currently happening, but the Fox News TV was permanently set to only that station.  "Nobody likes Fox," she had said, but yet that's the only choice McDonald's was giving us, whether we liked it or not.

When my friend complained, in both incidents, several customers backed him up.

McDonalds is supposed to be a "family restaurant", but Fox News, on both sides of the border, is hardly family entertainment.  Fox and Sun like to boast about their viewing numbers, but how many of those "viewers" are being force fed this right-wing propaganda?

It is hate porn.  The only sensual experience many of their viewers and commentators have.  I swear every time Ezra Levant goes into one of his "white people" rants, he closes his eyes and smokes a cigarette.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else, who has noticed Fox/Sun as a McWatch.  I certainly wouldn't take children into that restaurant.  They need to post a warning on the door:  "Television content not suitable for the majority of viewers".

Canadians Love Chiquita Bananas so Consiga una Vida Levant

Ezra Levant really outdid himself on Fox News North, Stephen Harper's personal aping station, by telling Chiquita International senior vice-president Manuel Rodriguez, to basically go screw his mother ... in Spanish.

So much class.

What got Ezie in a tizzy?  Chiquita joined thousands, and thousands, (did I mention thousands?) of others who actually know that the Tar sands are the most polluting region on the planet.  Is Levant going to swing out at all of them?

Did Harper and his chimps really think that there would be no backlash to their decision to back out of Kyoto?  Does he think that Canada can survive on the Petro dollar?

Levant should stick to picking lice off Brian Lilley's back and leave journalism to the more advanced species.

As for me, I'm stocking up on bananas.  All Chiquita.

So Levant:  consiga una vida!

Ezra Levant's Rant Has a Ring of Truth, But His Din is Deafening

One of my right-wing friends asked me to watch Ezra Levant's take on the Attawapiskat crisis, feeling, I suppose, that he presented a compelling argument.

Levant is right when he suggests that it is hypocritical for Charlie Angus to use the photos of the devastation against Stephen Harper.  Angus has been the MP in the riding for seven years.  Why have we not seen these photos before?

In fact, the NDP MPP, Gilles Bisson has served the area since 1990.

In fairness, though, how often does any MP or MPP share images of the horrendous living conditions that many of our aboriginal people are forced to live under?  This should not be "a scoop".

HOWEVER, the rest of the 11 1/2 minutes on the video, is just noise.

Noisy false accusations.  Noisy skewed figures.  Noise, noise, noise.

Right off the top, the Harper government does not give $34 million a year to the band.  According to Âpihtawikosisân, for the 2010/11 fiscal year, the federal government contributed only $17.6 million.  The rest of their budget (which they post online) comes from other sources.

The five year, $90 million figure used by Harper, includes a school that had to be torn down because it was built over toxic waste.

Levant tries to make this about "white guilt" and reverse bigotry, because we don't have faith in native people to take care of themselves.  But he ignores the fact they are not given the same allowance for education and healthcare, as non-native communities.  Everything has to come from these allotments.

An important fact that many commentators forget (or are unaware of) is that section 91(24) of the Constitution Act of 1867 gives the Federal Crown exclusive powers over "Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians."  You see, for non-natives, the provinces are in charge of funding things like education, health-care, social services and so on.  For example, the Province of Ontario allocated $10,730 in education funding per non-native pupil in the 2010-2011 fiscal year. For most First Nations, particularly those on reserve, the federal government through INAC is responsible for providing funds for native education.

The federal payments are legal treaty commitments, not "hand outs" as implied.   If they spent it all on housing, how could they afford other basic Canadian rights, like the right to education and health services?

Levant also mentions the fact the De Beers has been generous to Attawapiskat, but they just don't appreciate it.  However, in order to mine in their backyard, De Beers had to sign an Impact Benefit Agreement, contractually obligating them to provide training and job opportunities, to the native community.  And the reason the Native workers don't return home to build a house is because as part of the Indian Act, they can't get a mortgage on a reserve.

This reduces them to children, depending on their father figures, Papa Harper and Papa De Beers, with no mention that Attawapiskat's "baby daddies" (???) are legally responsible for the things they provide.  How much profit is De Beers making from that mine, and the best they can do is send some old tin work shacks that they are no longer using???!!!  They should be ashamed, not congratulated.

Many of our aboriginal Canadians are living in Third World conditions, and this story only shone a light on Canada's shame.

It is rich that Harper is sending auditors to Attawapiskat, when he recently reduced funding to the Comptroller and Auditor General, whose jobs are to keep track of his spending.

Levant's rant was hate mongering.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Count how many times he screams "white people".  "White, white, white", as if it's a badge of honour and privilege.

Harper's base will eat it up.  Fortunately, Harper's base does not represent the views of the majority of Canadians.

And neither does Ezra Levant.

Mea Culpa: Thank You Reader for the Correction

On March 12, 2000; Pope John Paul II called for A Day of Pardon:

Let us forgive and ask forgiveness! While we praise God who, in his merciful love, has produced in the Church a wonderful harvest of holiness, missionary zeal, total dedication to Christ and neighbour, we cannot fail to recognize the infidelities to the Gospel committed by some of our brethren, especially during the second millennium. Let us ask pardon for the divisions which have occurred among Christians, for the violence some have used in the service of the truth and for the distrustful and hostile attitudes sometimes taken towards the followers of other religions.

I recently posted on the connections between the English Defence League, the Patriot Movement, that includes the Tea Party Express and Anders Behring Breivik.

I suggested that the media should not make this about religion, but hate.

However, one of my readers corrected me, by saying that it was very much about religion. An extension of the Clash of Civilizations, embraced by the Harper government and the neoconservative movement as a whole.

Because, while the Pope's confession did not specifically apologize for The Crusades, it was clear to most that that was his intent.

Political journalist Jacob Weisberg was invited to an event at the American Enterprise Institute, where Bernard Lewis was being given an award for articulating the 'The Clash" for the AEI.

Jason Kenney's former "assistant", Alykhan Velshi, was plucked from AEI, to make sure that Kenney stayed on track with immigration policies. He co-authored this piece with Andrew C. McCarthy, yet another advisor to the International Free Press.

Says Weisberg:

The term neoconservative has many meanings, including "former liberal" and "Jewish conservative." In recent years, however, it has taken on clearer definition as a philosophy of aggressive unilateralism and the effort to impose democratic ideas, especially in the Arab world. The neoconservatives are also a distinct group in and around the Bush administration, which includes Paul Wolfowitz, the former deputy secretary of defense, and Scooter Libby, the former aide to the vice president who was convicted last week on multiple counts of perjury. These men pushed for the invasion of Iraq and remain identified with hard-line positions on Iran, Syria, and North Korea.

This group of neocons were not impressed with the Pope's apology, choosing instead to rewrite history, by erasing a century of two, and laying all of the blame on Islam.

In his address, the 90-year-old Lewis ... spoke at length about the millennial struggle between Christianity and Islam. Lewis argues that Muslims have adopted migration, along with terror, as the latest strategy in their "cosmic struggle for world domination." This is a familiar framework from the original author of the phrase "the clash of civilizations"—made more famous by Harvard scholar Samuel Huntington.

I've never read Lewis's interpretation, but I would imagine it reads much like the Protocols of Zion, that predicted it was the Jews who were in a "cosmic struggle for world domination".

In fact Weisberg found it odd that the Jewish Bernard Lewis, would be opposed to the Pope's message, since it included Christian atrocities against Jews, during the Crusades.

The preaching of the First Crusade inspired an outbreak of anti-Semitism. In parts of France and Germany, Jews were perceived as just as much an enemy as Muslims: they were held responsible for the crucifixion, and they were more immediately visible than the distant Muslims. Many people wondered why they should travel thousands of miles to fight non-believers when there were already non-believers closer to home.

There had not been so broad a movement against Jews by Christians since the seventh century's mass expulsions and forced conversions. While there had been a number of regional persecutions of Jews by Christians, such as the one in Metz in 888, a plot against Jews in Limoges in 992, a wave of anti-Jewish persecution by Christian millenniary movements (who believed that Jesus was set to descend from Heaven) in the year 1000.

Crusader Godfrey of Bouillon, wrote: “... to go on this journey only after avenging the blood of the crucified one by shedding Jewish blood and completely eradicating any trace of those bearing the name 'Jew,' thus assuaging his own burning wrath.”

But Lewis wanted none of this. The Pope was wrong. The Muslims are to blame, Period!

The reader who corrected me, pointed out that the English Defence League "does battle", under the red and white flag of the Crusades, eventually claimed by England as the St. George's Cross.

And those in the the movement that is sweeping Europe, claim to belong to the PCCT Knights Templar. (the legitimate Knights Templar have no affiliation and have denounced the EDL and Breivik)

This modern adaptation was created by EDL founder, Paul Ray, who calls himself the "Lionheart of England".

Ray is a religious skinhead who formed the EDL, but who now lives in exile in Malta where he leads an anti-Muslim group called The Ancient Order of the Templar Knights. If you’ve been following the news recently, the name of Ray’s organisation should ring a few bells.

When the Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik’s 1,500-page ‘manifesto’ went public yesterday, it was full of the same Holy War rhetoric favoured by Ray. Amongst its hubris was the claim that “God will revive the ancient order of the Knights Templar”. Eerily similar, especially when you think about the claims Breivik has made about his close relationship with the EDL

A "religious skinhead". What an apt description.

My reader was right and I was wrong. This is a religious movement. The PCCT states that other religions and cultures can reside with Christians, but that they must follow Christian principles. No other churches. No other religious celebrations.

On the other hand, 'Christian' atheists and 'Christian 'agnostics' are OK. Breivik was not a Christian fundamentalist but apparently a Christian agnostic.

Ezra Levant, in his dismissing the Norwegian terrorist as a nut, wants it to end there. We're on a need to know basis.

And what we don't need to know is his close relationship with Geert Wilders, a hero to both the EDL and Anders Behring Breivik.

I spent several hours yesterday, researching, and have filled half a notebook. My stomach was a bit too queasy to blog on it yesterday, but I'm going to organize my research and continue the story.

This was not an isolated case. The actions of one "nut". It is huge. And it is the return of fascism.

Who said this?:

"By its decision to carry out the political and moral cleansing of our public life, the Government is creating and securing the conditions for a really deep and inner religious life. The advantages for the individual which may be derived from compromises with atheistic organizations do not compare in any way with the consequences which are visible in the destruction of our common religious and ethical values. The national Government sees in both Christian denominations the most important factor for the maintenance of our society".

Paul Weyrich?

Nope.

Stephen Harper?

Nope? Though it wasn't unlike his "theocon" speech to the Civitas Society, when he claimed they had to shift their focus to the social conservatives.

George W. Bush?

Nope.

It was Adolf Hitler.

A Closer look at Geert Wilders

The American Enterprise Institute is not the only group attempting to rewrite history. Harper government pal Geert Wilders, tells quite a fairy tale, in his speeches.

In Rome, on the invitation of yet another anti-Islamic group: The Magna Carta Foundation, he tells the adoring crowd:

Together with Jerusalem and Athens, Rome is the cradle of our Western civilization – the most advanced and superior civilization the world has ever known.

As Westerners, we share the same Judeo-Christian culture. I am from the Netherlands and you are from Italy. Our national cultures are branches of the same tree. We do not belong to multiple cultures, but to different branches of one single culture. This is why when we come to Rome, we all come home in a sense. We belong here, as we also belong in Athens and in Jerusalem.

I guess Egypt, the Incas, Mesopotamia, etc., were rank amateurs.

A continuation of the erasure of the contributions of ancient cultures, choosing only those of white skin.

And it is not just talk.

On the eve of the invasion of Iraq, a group calling themselves the American Council for Cultural Policy, met with George Bush and the Pentagon, with the request that they be allowed to have the ancient treasures housed in the museums. What couldn't be taken was destroyed.

It's as though Iraq had no history at all.

Wilders continues his blas-tory.

I am here today to talk about multiculturalism. This term has a number of different meanings. I use the term to refer to a specific political ideology. It advocates that all cultures are equal. If they are equal it follows that the state is not allowed to promote any specific cultural values as central and dominant. In other words: multiculturalism holds that the state should not promote a leitkultur, which immigrants have to accept if they want to live in our midst ... My friends, I dare say that we have known this all along. Indeed, the premise of the multiculturalist ideology is wrong. Cultures are not equal. They are different, because their roots are different. That is why the multiculturalists try to destroy our roots..

Again playing the victim. They are being persecuted simply because they belong to "the most advanced and superior civilization the world has ever known".

If these guys represent that "superior civilization", it clearly has "root rot".

Here's another group burning an anti-Nazi flag. Yep. The lost tribe of the superior intellects.



The Magna Carta Foundation even blame the Muslims for the right's denying Patriot Act.

All European countries have the equivalent of the ‘U.S. Patriot Act’, ours is ‘The Civil Contingencies Act 2004.’ Which allows the PM, or whoever happens to be in charge at the time to declare ‘Martial Law’ if they think Civil Unrest will, or might occur. When ‘Martial Law’ is declared we will be living in a Dictatorship and totalitarian rule will have been achieved, we will never get out from under it.

Islam is the virus they are using to bring the Act into force. It is deliberate and pernicious gerrymandering for the benefit of an agenda that has been hidden from us for many years.

Islam "is a virus". An "evil religion". Read the Old Testament lately?

The sad thing is that most Christians don't feel this way, and most Muslims are just as afraid of terrorism as anyone else. But a multicultural society that allows all faiths and cultures to live in peace, is being destroyed by this noisy and dangerous movement, in the name of "patriotism".

Just what the American founding fathers were afraid of, which is why they called for the separation of church and state.

Not to worry though. The neocons have that one covered too. They are rewriting textbooks, to remove Thomas Jefferson, replacing him with Billy Graham.

Did you ever think you would be seeing this in your lifetime? It's like the world has gone mad.

The difference is that in Europe and the United States you can read daily about the Tea Party movement, and the rise of fascism (especially in Europe).

All we get are photo-ops.

I have a few more postings on this 'Patriot' game, involving the Tea Party, Fox News, North and South, the Religious Right, the EDL, the Neoconservatives, and the Harper government.

I thank my reader for steering me in this direction, though I may never sleep again.

Because not only Muslims are on their radar.

Ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake: The multiculturalist Left is facilitating islamization. Leftist multiculturalists are cheering for every new shariah bank, for every new islamic school, for every new mosque. Multiculturalists consider Islam as being equal to our own culture. Shariah law or democracy? Islam or freedom? It doesn’t really matter to them. But it does matter to us. The entire leftist elite is guilty of practising cultural relativism. Universities, churches, trade unions, the media, politicians. They are all betraying our hard-won liberties.  Geert Wilders

The national Government will allow and confirm to the Christian denominations the enjoyment of their due influence in schools and education. And it will be concerned for the sincere cooperation between Church and State. The struggle against the materialistic ideology and for the erection of a true people's community (Volksgemeinschaft) serves as much the interests of the German nation as of our Christian faith. ...The national Government, seeing in Christianity the unshakable foundation of the moral and ethical life of our people ... Adolf Hitler

What Sun Media Doesn't Want You to Know About Anders Behring Breivik

When Ann Coulter came to Canada to speak, and fabricate a threat to free speech, her visit was sponsored by two right-wing organizations: The Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute and the International Free Press.

Clare Booth Luce is a conservative women's "think tank" with ties to the Republican Party and the Heritage Foundation.

It's very feminine, with lots of pink, and has little groups like 'Liberty Belles' and 'Luce Ladies', not to be confused with 'loose ladies', which is a different institution.

The International Free Press was created in 2009, as an extension of the Free Press Society in Denmark. It's founder, Lars Hedegaard, is constantly challenging Denmark's hate laws, to play himself as the victim of oppression.

IFPS has expanded internationally, hence the title, and even has a branch in Canada.

Their advisory board includes both Ezra Levant and Geert Wilders.

The IFPS is not really about "freedom of the press" or "free speech". It's only about the freedom to bash Muslims and multiculturalism (immigration).

If you stand on the street corner and claim that the Holocaust was a hoax, don't expect them to come to your rescue. Because they know that making such a false statement could incite hatred, just as most of their questionable statements about Islam do.

Breivik's manifesto was filled with diatribes against Islam and multiculturalism, the new catch phrase for "non-white".

Why has this become the rallying cry of the far right?

According to Harvard's Dr. John Trumpbour, it is part of the new right-wing foreign policy initiative: The Clash of Civilizations, which, as Lawrence Martin reveals in Harperland, is a philosophy that Stephen Harper prefers to peacekeeping.

As the cold war ended, the neoconservative movement, without an internal communist threat to combat, found a new enemy within, “multiculturalism.” The shifting of immigration patterns and the articulation of U.S. culture as diverse and contested created a backlash with a reified Western, Nordic, or “Judeo-Christian” culture threatened by allegedly unassimilable emigrants from alien civilizations. In a subtle and wide-ranging exploration of the use and abuse of theories of civilizational clash in U.S. society and politics, Trumpbour holds up the construction of the Muslim enemy as a mirror of our own society’s anxieties and fears.

Our "Judeo-Christian" heritage.

Since when?

Four hundred years ago when Samuel De Champain was residing at Port Royal, a companion, Marc Lescarbot, wrote in his journal of their little club, where men took turns hunting and preparing feasts. But he said "not the artisans because they were of a different sort".

They were from the Jewish ghetto at Pons.

The Social Credit Party, the forerunner to Reform-Alliance-Conservative, was based solely on the notion of a Jewish Conspiracy, not unlike the new Islamic conspiracy. They were going to take over the world.

When Hitler's propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, sent the SS St. Louis adrift, knowing that those countries who condemned Germany's antisemitism, would prove to be hypocritical, Canada was one of the countries who turned the doomed ship away.

Instead of rewriting history, we should try to learn from it.

Geert Wilders, has become the new face of hatred. He has inspired the English Defence League, part of the new right-wing "patriot" movement. In this video they wait to meet their hero (poor quality).

They claim not to be racist, but refer to all from the Middle East as "Pakis" and use the old "they're breeding like rabbits" line, used throughout history, whenever a new group arrives "threatening to ruin western civilisation".

In researching my own Irish heritage, I found many old newspaper accounts suggesting that the Irish "bred like rabbits" and would soon be taking over.

It's odd that when rabbits "breed like rabbits" they create more rabbits. But when people "breed like rabbits", they cease to be human.

The language of hatred.

The English Defence League has since been linked to Anders Behring Breivik:

British police are investigating links between Anders Breivik and the English Defence League, a group the gunman described as a ‘blessing’ in an online forum.

But is the nationalist group no more than a blip on the fringes of society, or is it part of a larger movement threatening to destabilise multiculturalism in Europe?

... ethnic minorities, are increasingly becoming targets of hateful ideologies as fascist movements such as the EDL gain momentum across Europe. And it is these movements Breivik is said to have been associated with. Dr Robert Lambert, co-director of the European Muslim Research Centre at Exeter University says Breivik’s target was a multicultural society. He shot Labour party activists and targeted the prime minister because they represented what he despised.

It doesn't matter whether Geert Wilders ever heard of the EDL or the EDL of Breivik. This is part of a larger movement, operating under the guise of "free speech" and opposition to "multiculturalism", instead of what we used to call them: white supremacists.

In the following video, Ezra Levant justifies the appearance of Geert Wilders at the National Arts Centre, by claiming that the federal government owns the building. But it does not.

We own the building, and we were not consulted. The Harper government approved and so it was done.



Levant interviews Wilders here and squeals when the Islamophobe is acquitted of hate crimes.

Now Levant wants us to believe that Breivik is just a nut and that his actions had nothing to do with the toxic atmosphere created by the neoconservative movement and their 'Clash of Civilizations'.

We are watching these civilizations clash, and it won't end well if we don't stop this now.

Many European nations are investigating this new radical right. The Obama administration tried early on, but were shot down by the GOP. They can't afford an investigation into the radical right, because all roads lead right back to them.

If Harper wants to investigate the radical right in Canada, he only needs to hold a caucus meeting.

The big news stories in the past week or so, are not unrelated. Rupert Murdoch's media empire that includes Fox News and their spawn, Fox News North (not owned by Murdoch but he helped to create it), inflames these movements. They provide validation. "We're on your side" they say.

Instead of denouncing their actions, people like Glenn Beck attack the victims, and Levant the media, who he sees dancing with joy that the latest terrorist attack was not perpetrated by Muslims.

How did we get to this point?

Hopefully, this will inspire a dialogue, that includes the influence of Canada's Religious Right (Jim Flaherty's pal Charles McVety also invited Wilders to speak at his Christian College), and this government's policies, that reflect those of the U.S. Neoconservative movement.

We are charting a very dangerous course.

Sorry Ezra. You Don't Get Off That Easily

Given that Ezra Levant attacks Muslims at every opportunity, I was curious what he would have to say about the Norwegian disaster, and he didn't disappoint.

First off, he's right to say that this was not a religious issue. Anders Breivik was not a Christian fundamentalist, but part of a "Patriot" movement, promoting the idea that multiculturalism is destroying western civilization.

However, Levant suggests that CBC "and their kind" are "positively relieved, even thrilled, the mass murder here was done by someone who wasn’t Muslim".

He's creating an "us vs them" mentality, where the left hate Christians, and will take the Muslims side over them every time.

The Patriot movement is not concerned with religion, though some will invoke God. They are concerned with color. The English Defence League calls them all "Pakis".

This is not a holy war, but a race war.

The Watchmen of the Patriot Action Network focuses on things like immigration, "commies", and "lefties", and the Tea Party Express is part of the Network.

The media needs to avoid making this about religion. It has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with hate.

Glenn Beck didn't play the religious card this time, but the poltical one. The "leftie" labour party, running youth camps, he compared to the "Hitler youth".

Speaking on his radio programme yesterday, he said the teenagers attending the Labour youth camp on the idyllic island were like the Nazi leader's infamous young followers, and branded any kind of political trip for youngsters as 'disturbing'.

He failed to mention that he himself runs right-wing indoctrination camps for youth, across the U.S., called the 9/12 Project.

Now that's disturbing!

I'm No Soothsayer But I Warned You

It doesn't take a genius to predict what will happen when hatred becomes policy. After the Norway attack became public, Peter MacKay suggested that it is still a volatile world.

It has been, and always will be, a volatile world, which is why it's the responsibility of governments to try to keep the peace. Unfortunately, the success of the neoconservative movement demands that people are kept riled.

I've been posting a bit on Fox News North/Sun TV, and how they use language, not to inform or inspire, but to incite. And while Harper will again stand back from this, remember, he was the one who went to Rupert Murdoch, with Kory Teneycke in tow, begging for our own Fox News.

And it was his government that allowed the Islamophobic Geert Wilders (above right with Anders Behring Breivik) to speak at the Tulip Festival. The Tulip Festival? I still can't wrap my head around that, because the last place you would expect to encounter hate speech is at a bloody flower show.

I'm not sure how the right-wing noise machine will spin this, but be sure that they will.

Terrorists? But They Aren't Islamic Fundamentalists!

On April 19, 1995, an explosion destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children under the age of 6, and injuring more than 680. And while the media immediately began to suggest that it was the work of Arab terrorists, an FBI profiler, Clinton Van Zandt, knew better.

He said that the perpetrator would be a white male, in his twenties, probably a military man and possibly a member of a fringe militia group. He took note of the date of the attack, coinciding with the Waco tragedy two years before, and occurring on Patriot's Day, the anniversary of the Revolutionary War Battle of Concord, which is revered by the militia movement. He was right and that is how they were able to catch Tim McVeigh, who was already in custody over a traffic violation.

So had Van Zandt immediately gone to believing that the bombing was perpetrated by an Islamic terrorist, McVeigh may never have been caught, and who knows what his next target might have been.

In fact, it is believed by many, that the biggest domestic threat in the United States, comes from these right-wing militia groups, which grew by 40% in 2009 and another 22% in 2010.

... by far the most dramatic growth came in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement — conspiracy-minded organizations that see the federal government as their primary enemy — which gained more than 300 new groups, a jump of over 60%.

Watch some of those Tea Party rallies, and see for yourself. Did the Koch Brothers know what they would be unleashing when they created this nationalism on steroids movement?

Maybe they did.

It's all about lowering corporate taxes (Stephen Harper wants to erase them), and getting government out of corporations' business, by ending demands that they protect the environment and not create dangerous products.

Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian "terrorist", belonged to the Patriot Action Network, which has branches around the world, including the U.S.

The Tea Party Express is listed as a partner, as well as "Commiebuster".

They also link to Concerned Women for America, the sister group of REAL Women of Canada.

(CWA) is the nation's largest public policy women's organization with a rich 30-year history of helping our members across the country bring Biblical principles into all levels of public policy. There's a cultural battle raging across this country and CWA is on the frontline protecting those values through prayer and action.

Anders Behring Breivik, has made public a manifesto. A game plan for getting rid of Muslims and Marxists.

So far, I've only read the highlights, but I've been researching the neoconservative movement for several years, and I've found the same language in almost all of the writings of neocons, and their many organizations.

Neoconservatism is fascism, and Islamophobia, the new anti-semitism.

The anger toward, and hatred of, Jews in Germany, did not take place overnight. It started with cartoons and hate speech in newspapers, and public gatherings.

The perpetrators were taken to court, but a clever and expensive lawyer had all charges dismissed. They got away with it so pushed the boundaries further.


One cartoon from the 1920s, showed a silenced Hitler, above the caption "He alone of two billion people on earth may not speak in Germany.”

He too cited the lack of "freedom of speech".

I keep asking myself what it's going to take to wake Canadians up. Will it be this? Or will the right-wing media spin the story so much, that it only again creates "shrugitis"?

Not in Canada you say?

Among those who saw a pattern of discrimination in the actions of the [Harper] government was Gar Pardy, the former head of the consular services section of the foreign affairs department. Opposition MPs were suspicious as well. Charlie Angus, an NDP MP from Northern Ontario, said he was told by an immigration official of discriminatory practices by his department. The department would periodically post photos of newcomers on advertising displays to promote immigration. "They identified who gets in these photos in terms of what ethnic groups they were interested in," said Angus. But one group, he was told, was deliberately left out of the promotion materials. "They said, 'No Muslims.' This came down from government orders."

(Harperland, Martin, Pg. 201)

Ann Coulter is Not a "Free Speech Heroine". She's an Idiot.

I must admit that I had never heard Ann Coulter speak, but have read many of the things she has written. Certainly no intellectual, but if I understand correctly, she is a comedian, akin to a shock jock.

Bill Maher had her on as a guest this week and my "shock" was not in her anticipated "hate speech", but in how ignorant she is, or at least acts.

Coulter was blaming the current debt crisis in the U.S., on medicare and social security. When pressed about the wars and the extension of the Bush tax cuts, she declared that they had nothing to do with the current debt.

WHAT???

No. Apparently, the sick and the elderly are to blame.

Not expensive wars or corporate tax cuts. Not the bailing out of Wall Street.

Ezra Levant, that chick magnate, is smitten with Ann Coulter, and interviewed her recently on Fox News North, opening the segment with scenes of an "angry mob", protesting Coulter's intended visit to the University of Ottawa.

Although Levant prefers to use the terms "Demonic Mob" and "Mad Mob".

In the photo above, the young man in the background, with the red eyes, is not part of a demonic mob", but young neocon, Michael Sona, a Conservative staffer.

Sona was the activist who tried to steal the ballot box at the University of Guelph.

The votes in that box were allowed to stand, but it had the desired effect, because Sona's actions resulted in a ruling that no other special ballot polling stations, similar to the one in Guelph, would be authorized anywhere else in Canada during the campaign.

Controlled controversy 101.



In the above segment Coulter and Levant discuss the mob mentality, with Coulter suggesting that the only violence, or threats of violence, come from the left wing.

Obviously she hasn't been watching the Tea Party protests, where one man carried this sign.



Coulter also claimed that only the left will compare right-wingers to Nazis and/or other dictators. Again she needs to get out more.




Even Canada's Sun Media jumped on the bandwagon.



Of course, the intent is not to have us believe what they are saying. They know it's not true but it doesn't matter. The devotees will believe it's true and they need to keep them angry and loyal. 'Don't be ashamed of those thoughts because we agree. We're just like you'.

Classic Karl Rove.

And Karl Rove's counterpart, Guy Giorno, has advised the same to Stephen Harper. Protect that "base" at any cost, even if it means appearing stupid.

Mob Mentality

In a bit of an intellectual aside, Coulter brings up Gustave Le Bon, a French social psychologist, sociologist and author of A Study of the Popular Mind. Without really going into his study, she simply suggests that he has the demonic left-wing mob mentality down pat.

Viewers swooned. She speaks French.

Le Bon suggested that the mob will take on the intellect of the lowest among them.

This very fact that crowds possess in common ordinary qualities explains why they can never accomplish acts demanding a high degree of intelligence. The decisions affecting matters of general interest come to by an assembly of men of distinction, but specialists in different walks of life, are not sensibly superior to the decisions that would be adopted by a gathering of imbeciles. The truth is, they can only bring to bear in common on the work in hand those mediocre qualities which are the birthright of every average individual. In crowds it is stupidity and not mother-wit that is accumulated.(A Study of the Popular Mind, By: Gustave Le Bon, Book One: The Mind of Crowds)

It should be noted that Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda mastermind, read Le Bon religiously, to reach to the lowest in Germany, and Mussolini kept a copy of A Study of the Popular Mind beside his bed.

Le Bon's biggest fears were realized, because he was concerned that in the wrong hands, the book could be used as a guideline to manipulate the masses for the lesser good, and indeed it was.

I can't help thinking that that is exactly what Fox News North and its big brother Fox News is attempting here. Reach out to the worst of people, and the worst in people.

Philosopher Hannah Arendt covered the Nazi trials at Nuremberg for the American press, and remarked on how "Unimaginative, ordinary and unthinking" they were.

Others may have hoped to see Bluebeard in the dock, she wrote, but for her, the horror lay in the fact that "there were so many like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic ... [but] terribly and terrifyingly normal." She was one of the first to refute the "monster theory" of less-than-human Nazis. ( Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History, By Erna Paris, Alfred A. Knopf, 2000, ISBN: 0-676-97251-9, P. 318)

And yet there were many PhDs in the party.

But to do what they did required ignorance, not intellect. A numbing of the masses, so the worst could dictate the actions of all.

In that atmosphere, hatred goes mainstream, and we all become desensitized to it.

Bombings, human rights abuses, war crimes.

Shrug.

“Crowds are somewhat like the sphinx of ancient fable: It is necessary to arrive at a solution of the problems offered by their psychology or to resign ourselves to being devoured by them.” Gustave Le Bon

"Thus inwardly armed with confidence in God and the unshakable stupidity of the voting citizenry, the politicians can begin the fight for the “remaking” of the Reich ..." Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)

Sun TV, Ezra Levant and Why the Danish Cartoons Matter

Ezra Levant, long time neocon insider and self-proclaimed stockaholic (one of 3 Stockwell Day fans), is among the bombastic characters on Fox News North (Sun TV).

He used to run a small magazine (now out of business), where he published the infamous Danish cartoons, knowing, or at least hoping, that they would cause a stir.

He has gotten so much mileage out of those cartoons with Canada's right-wing, that he chose that as the topic for his debut performance on Sun TV, and in his best helium induced squeal, cried about "freedom of speech" and his rights as a Canadian.



Of course, as always, the subtext is Muslim.

In 2007, Harper MPs Brad Trost and Andrew Scheer (now Speaker of the House), went after CBC for plans to air an independent satire The Altar Boy Gang.

And just as Ezra spoke of being hauled in front of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, these two MPs wanted CBC to be hauled before a Parliamentary committee.

TWO Conservative Members of Parliament will seek to have the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) answer to a House of Commons committee for a television program the Catholic Civil Rights League has described as blasphemous.

So where was Levant's high-pitched squeal then? Suppression of free speech in Canada in the 21st century. Censorship akin to that of China.

CBC promised not to air the series, despite the fact that it was highly unlikely that it would result in hate crimes against altar boys. Or hate crimes against anyone.

But it was deemed 'sacrileges'. So why not the Danish cartoons depicting Mohammad in unflattering frames? Why were they not deemed 'sacrileges'?

Without actually lying, Levant also misinforms his viewers, by stating that the protests resulted in 200 murders. The "murders" were of protesters, when police opened fire on them. An important point, because without that background we might assume that the protesters, or "terrorists", murdered innocent Danes.

I had initially planned to ignore Sun TV, but after being sent several clips by my right-wing readers, I decided that it would be wrong of me to do so.

They need to be exposed.

One follower said "He's completely right... Since when did freedom of speech become a Conservative cross to bear? I thought that liberals were all about freedom of speech... What interesting times we live in when Conservatives are more liberal than Liberals...",and another: "Long live the freedom to have an alternative to CBC!"

I might agree if the conservatives actually believed in "free speech", but they don't. They've brought in a censorship bill with the help of Jim Flaherty's pal Charles McVety, and Flaherty will now only fund art projects and cultural events, deemed "inoffensive".

And what does the Liberal Party have to do with this? I think they mostly ignore Levant. He's such a silly little man.

Silly but Dangerous


In the 1920s in Germany, another silly little man, Julius Streicher, created a newspaper Der Stürmer, to combat what was deemed a liberal press. Anti-semitism had been around for centuries, but this was the first time that it became so organized.

Streicher hired cartoonists, like Philipp Rupprecht, who drew the cartoon to the right, depicting an outspoken Adolfus Hitler, who had been forbidden to address public meetings in much of Germany. The caption reads "He alone of two billion people on earth may not speak in Germany.”

Like Levant, Streicher was constantly being charged with hate crimes, and was the target of many lawsuits filed against him by the Jewish people. They feared that his often vile cartoons would incite hatred.

The publisher had a good lawyer, Harms Krafft, who at 12,000 marks a pop, found something in the country's "code law" to get his client, a decorated war hero, off.

Krafft's principal client, moreover, was a man well able to make a favorable courtroom impression. The rhetoric of patriotism was a familiar defense in Weimar Germany for everything from petty theft to political murder. And Julius Streicher was an authentic war hero. (1)

Streicher's vile cartoons, many pornographic, were deemed to be little more than "healthy public opinion." He argued that the German people had a right to know.

As the follower of Sun noted: "Long live the freedom to have an alternative to CBC", I wish progressives would find an alternative to what now passes for television news and commentary.

We have a right-wing show, a further right-wing show, an even further right-wing show, and then Sun TV.

We need someone daily exposing this movement, along with its think tanks, AstroTurf groups, and especially the Religious Right, now dictating most policy.

And we need it soon, before Sun TV becomes the only voice Canadians have.

Sources:

1. Jews, Nazis, and the Law: The Case of Julius Streicher, by Dennis E. Showalter, Museum of Tolerance

Zombie Youth and the Canadian Property Rights Research Institute

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

In November of 2009, the Canadian Press learned that a government program designed to recruit the best and brightest from Canada's universities, had been politicized for partisan interests.

Before being granted an interview, those seeking to enter the Accelerated Economist Training Program, had to first write an essay on the Conservative ad campaign, labelled the Economic Action Plan.

"It smells a little bit," said Leslie Pal, professor of public policy at Ottawa's Carleton University. "It places an unfortunate implication of inviting people to write glowing things about the economic recovery plan."

Pal said he sees no rationale for asking people looking for a job with the government to comment on current government policy, especially when that policy is so contentious. "I think this is not a good idea."

A further indoctrination of Canada's youth into the neoconservative cult.

In his book Not a Conspiracy Theory: How Business Propaganda Hijacks Democracy, Donald Gutstein writes of a program that the Fraser Institute runs to catch them when they're young.

The Fraser Institute launched a program in 1988 that would have far-reaching impact on advancing the corporate agenda. This program, aimed at students, is actually a half-dozen initiatives through which the institute "is cultivating a network of thousands of young people who are informed and passionate about free-market ideas and who are actively engaging in the country's policy debate"

Some of those involved in the program include Jason Kenney, Ezra Levant, Danielle Smith (possibly the next premier of Alberta), Rob Anders and a young man named Matthew Johnston.

Johnston came to the public's attention for his part in a radio hoax, on behalf of his boss Rahim Jaffer.

Due to a scheduling conflict, Jaffir had Johnston take his part in a radio interview. Jason Kenney and Ezra Levant paid the man off, suggesting that "$40,000 buys a lot of silence".

But Matthew Johnston was also behind the formation of a right-wing organization: Canadian Property Rights Research Institute. Other members included Danielle Smith, a former student of Calgary School's Tom Flanagan, and Rob Anders, both members of the Fraser's youth program.

Rahim Jaffer had taken CanPRRI's case to Parliament when Revenue Canada refused to grant them non-profit, tax-exempt status. It folded soon after.

However, a look at one of their publications, shows more than a connection to the Fraser and the Harper government. They are linked to a network of think tanks and advocacy groups, many created under the guidance of Milton Friedman, Friedrich Von Hayek and other Chicago school alumni.

With a Harper majority and accelerated attempts to put his stamp on every aspect of government, will only neoconservative youth be allowed access into the halls of political power?

Will there be more tests?

When Carolyn Bennett was in Kingston recently to discuss our crumbling democracy, she spoke of the different criteria for those entering political life.

At one time, they got into politics to make a difference, often in their chosen field. As a doctor she was concerned with health issues.

But now she says that many Conservative candidates are only interested in party politics. They have no interest whatsoever in the betterment of the country, only in furthering an agenda. This includes their staff.

Bob Rae refers to them as "25-year-old jihadis", who often make the decisions for the elected MPs.

I shudder to think what kind of country we will become as a result.

Levant and Wilders. Who's the Loser Now?

Ezra Levant interviewed the Islamophobic Geert Wilders, on his popular (?) program 'I'm better than Glenn Beck Because...', and with all the feigned shock he could muster, exposed those darn lefties who were trying to muzzle the Dutch MP.

Levant did everything but weep.

I read Dana Milbank's Tears of a Clown, about Beck, and apparently he used to dab menthol ointment under his eyes before going on, to get the tear ducts flowing. Maybe I'll send Levant a jar.

Wilders spoke recently at a Conservative approved event, as part of the Tulip Festival. It was quite lovely. Everything a Tulip Festival should be.

But he may miss next year's because he's about to go on trial for hate speech. Guess the Dutch don't like him either.

One of Europe's most prominent right-wing populists, Wilders argues that his remarks comparing Islam to Nazism and calling for a ban on the Quran are part of legitimate public debate that is protected by freedom of speech. Muslim groups say Wilders is infringing their right to freedom of religion by increasing discrimination against them.

Ezra must be getting so excited.

His Danish cartoon story is getting old, but Wilders is giving him lots of fresh material.

I think I'll send him that ointment now.

A Harper Majority Means Canada Now a Haven for Haters

Now that the media can free themselves from the shackles of nonsense, and frame their stories around neoconservatism, welcoming Newt Gingrich, Anne Coulter and even the late Irving Kristol into our lives, we can start having serious discussions on what the success of this movement means to Canadians.

For starters it means that we will be free to show hatred toward anyone we decide we should hate. And for Harper's team they barely waited for the new to wear off their majority before heading in that direction.

This week the controversial Geert Wilders made an appearance at the taxpayer funded National Arts Centre. Billed as part of the "Tulip Festival", it was just another platform for this Dutch MP to spew his hatred against Islam. Neocons love him.

The radical International Free Press Society is a strong advocate for hate speech, and support people like Wilder and even our own helium sucking Ezra Levant. Levant returns the favour with a little Fox News North interview.

I can only handle about 2 minutes of Levant's nonsense but got as far as the "death threats" and the UK banning him from speaking. Gee, I can't imagine that happening anywhere, can you? And death threats? Shocking.

But as Warren Kinsella reminds us: "Wilders isn’t really the issue, here. A more salient issue, for Canadians, is the kind of government we can, and should, expect for the next four years".

It's gonna' be a rough ride.