Could the Right-Wing Threat Get Any Worse?

High profile Scotland Yard officers have been forced to resign over the Rupert Murdoch scandal and the whistle blower is dead.

An investigation is underway in Canada involving Fox News North/Sun Media and how THEY obtained a police file on Jack Layton and the massage parlour.

Toronto has a redneck mayor, Rob Ford. Harper has a majority and Mike Harris lapdog Tim Hudak is poised to become the premier of Ontario in October.

But this may not be the worst of it.

Michelle Bachmann could become the next president of the United States, serving simultaneously with Canada's weapons of mass destruction.

Heaven help us!

Bachmann's husband, who is handling her campaign, was caught on tape sounding like he was once a Reform Party member, calling homosexuals "barbarians", sharing the views of most of Harper's caucus and staff.



He claimed the tape was doctored, but apparently it wasn't. I could have told him the "tape was doctored" line wouldn't work. Eventually you just sound like a liar on top of everything else.

And remember all the uproar over Obama's Reverend Wright? Bachmann has a Reverend Wrong, who called the Pope the Antichrist.

It's like the world has gone mad.

This is why we need a separation of Church of state, a legitimate media, and non-morons running governments.

It's like a really bad episode of The three Stooges, where Moe is beating the crap out of all of us.

Nyuk, nyuk.

Right-Wing Media Moguls and the Buying of Politicians

In the unfolding scandal of Rupert Murdoch and his media empire, aside from phone hacking and the buying off of cops, there is another question emerging.

How did these media moguls gain so much political power?

The BBC asks: Who is more powerful - Murdoch or Parliament?

If ever there were a symbol of the uneasy balance of power between national governments and large multinationals companies, it is the spectacle of the British Parliament being poised to vote overwhelmingly (it seems) for Rupert Murdoch's News Corp to abandon its bid for British Sky Broadcasting - but being powerless to force him to abandon that takeover.

If Parliament is sovereign, there is something slightly odd about the idea that the vote can be passed and that Mr Murdoch can choose to ignore it.

Maybe Mr Murdoch will eventually abide by the revealed will of the elected representatives of the British government. But as of last night, Mr Murdoch appeared unimpressed that the prime minister and the deputy prime minister decided to throw their weight behind the leader of the opposition's motion calling on him to drop the takeover.

British prime minister David Cameron really has no choice but to at least give the appearance of standing up to Murdoch, but he would not have been as successful had it not been for this man's support.

The relationship between politicians and the press has always been a topic for debate, but simply supporting a candidate or party, through spin, has transcended to something far more alarming.

They are now being groomed by the media and even purchased.

Margaret Thatcher had a very close relationship with Murdoch editor Larry Lamb. He would even visit her home, giving her communication advice.

Says Murdoch biographer William Shawcross:

Thatcher was persuaded by advisers that tabloids like the Sun, the Mirror and the Daily Mail were far more important than the more serious papers in influencing voters. The Mirror would always be pro-Labour, but she was advised to cultivate the editors of both the Sun and the Mail.

... Mrs. Thatcher came to Bouverie Street. Lamb said she "accepted a glass of whisky, kicked off her shoes and engaged us all in spirited debate for several hours. We were all impressed, not least by the fact that she listened." Lamb also went to see her at her house "to talk about the kind of campaign she planned, who she felt might emerge as the star performers, and which members of her team we should stick close to.

... On Election Day, May 3, 1979, the Sun's massive editorial., covering the entire front page and continuing inside, was headlined "VOTE TORY THIS TIME. IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO STOP THE ROT." ... The editorial asserted that the Sun as a radical paper was urging a vote for the Conservatives.

Murdoch's papers appealed to what Shawcross called, "the lower-income group", and their massaging of the campaign was effective.

The biggest swing to the Conservatives was among the lower-income group, known to market researchers as Us, which included many Sun readers. A victorious Thatcher wrote Lamb what he called an "affectionate" letter and thanked him for his help.

It's rather ironic given that Thatcher's policies hurt the low-income group the most, but it didn't matter. Lamb was able to paint her as a champion of the lower class. (Source: Rupert: Ringmaster of the Information Circus, Shawcross, 1992, P. 153-155)

And he was later rewarded with a knighthood.

In Canada, Conrad Black was ringmaster of the media circus, before he went to prison for fraud.

Not only did he shift Canada's media to the right, but he also provided "communication" and financial backing to the neoconservative movement.

As a member of both the National Citizens Coalition (who ran an ABC: Anyone But [Joe] Clark campaign. (Loyal to the Core, Gerry Nicholls, 2009)) and the Fraser Institute, he helped to make sure that they stayed on track. He even allowed an employee, Peter White, to work with Brian Mulroney, to help capture the support of the Conservative youth movement.

Disillusioned with Mulroney, who he deemed not to be right wing enough, he switched his support to Reform, donating $20,000.00 to their 1993 campaign. According to the infamous James Keegstra, Preston Manning was often seen riding around in limos with Black, making him suspicious of the true intentions of the party.

Seeing perhaps more promise in Stockwell Day, as someone who could be manipulated, Black then went to work to create a charismatic leader. According to Trevor Harrison, in his book, Requiem for a Lightweight: Stockwell Day and Image Politics, Black hosted $1000 a plate dinners and allowed Ezra Levant to hold party fundraisers in his home.

Levant was a boyhood friend of Day's son Logan.

With a right-wing media firmly in place in Canada, thanks to Conrad Black, Rupert Murdoch trumped him after a luncheon with Stephen Harper, giving us the vile Fox News North.

So how did the media become so powerful, that they can defy governments, and yet so powerless, that journalists are not allowed to write the truth?

Wow! Isn't neoconservatism grand?

The FAMILY LEADER Drops 'Slavery was Good for Blacks' From Presidential Pledge, But it Changes Nothing

Historian Joseph Crespino has written extensively on Racism and the Religious Right, especially their aversion to the Civil Rights movement.

Paul Weyrich, one of the founders of the Moral Majority/Religious Right, made it abundantly clear that the movement was not in response to the Roe vs Wade decision, that legalized abortion, but the IRS decision to drop the tax exempt status from Bob Jones university, because of their segregation policies.

Weyrich and several of his cohorts got together and determined that it was time to take their country back. Right back to the 1950's, or more specifically 1954. (Backlash, Susan Faludi, 1992)

Why 1954?

Because on December 1, 1955, the wonderful Rosa Parks, a black woman, was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat to a white person. This launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which launched the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

Weyrich wanted a clean slate, erasing the years 1955-1968, and the Bob Jones decision gave him the opportunity. By using a reverse discrimination argument, they didn't sound quite so racist to those who might be afraid to show support for the "whites only" college. (Sarah Palin uses the same argument in her book)

In 1978, Robert Grant, Paul Weyrich, Terry Dolan, Howard Phillips, and Richard Viguerie found Christian Voice, to recruit, train, and organize Evangelical Christians to participate in elections.

By 1980, the Republicans were pledging to "halt the unconstitutional regulatory vendetta" against the segregation academies, and on April 29, high-profile Christians marched on Washington DC, in an effort to support Ronald Reagan's presidential run.

Citing "Southern alienation" they touted Reagan as the man who would right this wrong, and he did not disappoint.

Addressing students at Bob Jones University, he recycled the theme of 'reverse discrimination', arguing that the IRS policy was tantamount to 'racial quotas' and that: "You do not alter the evil character of racial quotas simply by changing the colour of the beneficiary". The blacks, he affirmed, had the run of the place, and he would do something about it. (In 1982, he restored the school's tax exempt status, but the Supreme Court slapped it down).

At the Neshoba fair in Mississippi (photo above) Reagan championed "states' rights (to deal with their own racist policies) and lauded segregationist Strom Thurmond, a failed 1948 presidential candidate.

Said Reagan: "If we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today". (Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s, Chapter Five by Joseph Crespino)

As I've mentioned before, Reagan lost the black vote, but it didn't matter. 90% of African Americans voted Democrat, but only 30% voted at all.

So this week, when it was learned that yet another branch of the Christian Right is working with Republican candidates, exacting pledges to uphold their beliefs, it should not have been a shock that the group, FAMILY LEADER, suggested that slavery was the best time for black families.

... a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.”

Forget that at any time, mother, father or child could be sold, traded or lost in a poker game.

They never had it so good.

After much public outcry, the group has dropped the slavery comment, but hopefully, the fact that it was there in the first place, will help to open people's eyes to the agenda of the Christian Right/Tea Party/Neoconservative movement.

It was founded on and is grounded in racism, which is now going mainstream.

Not unlike the Conservative Party of Canada and Harper's National Citizens Coalition.

And just as Weyrich's Heritage Foundation became a vanguard of the radical right, Canada's Northern Foundation, helped to draw in groups dedicated to creating a white Christian Canada, complete with rampant homophobia and misogyny.

"... the Northern Foundation was the creation of a number of generally extreme right-wing conservatives, including Anne Hartmann (a director of REAL Women), Geoffrey Wasteneys (A long-standing member of the Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada), George Potter (also a member of the Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada), author Peter Brimelow, Link Byfield (son of Ted Byfield and himself publisher/president of Alberta Report), and Stephen Harper." (Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada, Trevor Harrison, 1995, p. 121))

Many of the members are now with the Civitas Society, the policy arm of the Harper government.

If we had a legitimate media in Canada, they would be writing this narrative for the movement that will reshape our country and change who we are as Canadians.

But we don't.

Instead they insist on calling Harper's party "Tories" invoking an historic tradition.

Ironically, whenever I remind people that Harper's Reformers have nothing to do with the conservatism of Sir John or John Diefenbaker, I receive a lot of email from Harper supporters. Not to challenge my statement but to suggest that if he did have a link to the old Tory party, they would not be propping him up.

Oh, and the redneck that Reagan invoked as the saviour of American values, Strom Thurmond? Six months after his death, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a black American woman, revealed that she was Strom Thurmond's daughter, born to Carrie "Tunch" Butler, a maid who had worked for Thurmond's parents.

Hypocrisy, thy name is the Christian Right.

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

Art Imitates Life as Harper to Play Stupid Cop

Talk about type casting.

Stephen Harper has a small role on Murdoch Mysteries, as a "clueless" cop, who doesn't recognize a liberal prime minister.

Why would he?

He thought Art Finkelstein had destroyed all the liberals.

Anything for a photo-op.

Is Slavery Really the Best Thing for Families?

If you think keeping track of the myriad of think tanks and AstroTurf groups that prop up the neoconservative movement, is a challenge; try unravelling their Religious Right infrastructure.

Just when you think you've nailed down the Republican, Conservative, funding connections, dozens of new groups appear on the horizon, so you say a Hail Mary and go for another long shot.

The latest to rear its ugly head, is the FAMILY LEADER, started by a former Mike Huckabee campaign chair, Bob Vander Plaats, and while they focus on the same old, same old: abortion, gay rights and the free market, they have a twist.

FAMILY LEADER (they capitalize it) suggests that slavery was actually good for the black family.

“Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.”

And there it is. The "Roots" of the Religious Right and their problem with Obama. He's black. And apparently, black marriages only began to break up when he was elected president.

Paul Weyrich, one of the founders of the Religious Right/Moral Majority (and yet another American who has done so much for Stephen Harper's career) laid out their agenda at a Washington conference in 1990. Randall Balmer was there and reported:

In the course of one of the sessions, Weyrich tried to make a point to his Religious Right brethren (no women attended the conference, as I recall). Let's remember, he said animatedly, "that the Religious Right did not come together in response to the Roe decision." No, Weyrich insisted, "what got us going as a political movement was the attempt on the part of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to rescind the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University because of its racially discriminatory policies. ”

Bob Jones University had policies that refused black students enrollment until 1971, admitted only married blacks from 1971 to 1975, and prohibited interracial dating and marriage between 1975 and 2000.

Weyrich also worked on the campaign of Ronald Reagan, when he campaigned against the Civil Rights movement.

"With [Ronald] Reagan's outspoken opposition to the Civil Rights Act in 1964, Republican strategists knew that they would have to write off the black vote. But although 90 per cent of black voters cast their ballots for the democrats, only 30 percent of eligible black Americans voted. Republican ... strategist Paul Weyrich* stated "I don't want everyone to vote ... our leverage in the election quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down. We have no moral responsibility to turn out our opposition." (1)

Presidential hopeful Michelle Bachman has signed FAMILY LEADER's pledge to uphold their agenda and Sarah Palin promises to uphold "white" values.

If it's Good Enough for the Republicans

As with everything else, "white" supremacy is beginning to creep into the lingo of Canada's right-wing media.

Toronto mayor Rob Ford is said to represent the "angry white males". Fox News North calls the Caledonia land claim protests, a struggle between "Indians and white people", and Sun media congratulated Stephen Harper for appointing a "white guy" to act as Governor General.

Harper's Reformers were known for their racism, or what former MP Jan Brown called "the rampant racism of the 'God Squad'".

Just because he now keeps his 'God Squad' silenced, doesn't mean that they don't hold the same views. So unable to voice them publicly, they allow Fox News North to do it for them.

When is our media going to wake up?

Sources:

1. Hard Right Turn: The New Face of Neo-Conservatism in Canada, Brooke Jeffrey, Harper-Collins, 1999, ISBN: 0-00 255762-2, Pg. 22

Help Put an End to Rupert Murdoch's Criminal Empire

The ongoing scandal in the UK involving media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is making waves everywhere.

His stock prices are on the decline and citizens are beginning to mobilize against him.

AVAAZ has launched a petition to End Murdoch's Criminal Empire

Murdoch's Fox News North in Canada reveals the depths they will go to, in their bid to turn people off, while rallying hate groups. The scandals in UK, show the depths they will go to, to get a story.

Can we topple an empire?

Conrad Black destroyed Canadian media, by shifting it to the right. He ended up in prison, not for crimes against journalism, but for fraud.

Al Capone got away with his crimes, but was sent to prison for tax evasion. Whatever it takes to put an end to this.

This week, CTV's Quebec City Bureau Chief, Kai Nagata, resigned over the horrible state of the Canadian media.

Coverage of Will and Kate's visit stumped legitimate news, but there was so much more.

Stephen Harper is literally getting away with murder. Says Nagata:

Right now, there's a war going on against science in Canada. In order to satisfy a small but powerful political base, the PMO is engaged in a not-so-clandestine operation to dismantle and silence the many credible opponents to the Harper doctrine. Why kill the census? Literally in order to make decisions in the dark, without the relevant data. Hence the prisons. Why de-fund scientific research? Because whole branches of the natural sciences are premised on things like evolution, a theory the minister responsible made it clear he doesn't understand -- and likely doesn't believe in. Why settle for weak platitudes on climate change? Because despite global scientific consensus, elements of the Conservative base don't believe human activity could warm the planet. Centuries of rational thought and academic tradition, dating back to the Renaissance, is being thrown out the window in favour of an ideology that doesn't reflect reality.

When are we going to wake up?

Last night on my local television news (CKWS), they briefly discussed Harper's new border security deal with the U.S., which in part demands that U.S. Homeland Security be notified every time a Canadian citizen takes a flight to third world country, including Mexico, if that citizen flies over the United States.

This was news months ago, part of a broader shared "security", where Canada will relinquish its sovereignty.

CKWS provided little background. In fact they provide little of anything, when it comes to national coverage.

It's so frustrating that all of our news is now contrived, or spun to the point of not being considered news at all.

Time to take back our media from criminals like Murdoch and Black. We deserve and NEED better.