Sister Sage's Musings

Posts Tagged ‘Yellow Journalism’

While I have noticed more and more corporate media outlets becoming more Harpercon friendly; hell, let’s make it cheerleading “Steve is oh so dreamy!”  Hell, in 2008, about 90% of newspapers endorsed Steve, although, in the wonderful world according to Fagstein, every newspaper should endorse Steve; not endorsing any candidate, is apparently, “cowardly” (yeah, I know, he crossed it out, but it’s what he meant; otherwise, we wouldn’t have seen the crossed out word in the first place).   Maybe I’m old fashioned and believe that no newspapers should endorse candidates. And folks actually think that we need a Harpercon infomercial channel 24/7.

Anyway, The Montreal Gazette came out with an editorial yesterday, basically telling voters of the riding of St-Laurent to vote for the ADQ candidate, Jose Fiorilo in next week’s by-election, in no uncertain terms.  Naturally, this editorial is unsigned.  Hell, even Jane Taber signs her stuff.

But, man, does that editorial just ooze of sour grapes! Obviously, one of those Anglos, not only still stuck with the whining for more rights for Anglos than Francophones in a Francophone province, but also still hasn’t gotten over the fact that their precious suburbs are now merged with the ’rif raf’ working class of the City of Montreal.

You see, Jean-Marc Fournier will be running in the usually Liberal ‘safe’ riding of St-Laurent in next week’s by-election. He was the ‘star’  brought back to the National Assembly by Jean Charest to try, essentially, to bail the Quebec Liberal party out of its’ troubles with a dixie cup.

There is a problem electing this particular Liberal candidate. Following the forced mergers under the Parti Quebecois, the Liberals campaigned on referendums for the suburbs to demerge.  Fournier was the author of this demerging program. I don’t know all the details, but many argue that he, by extension, the Liberals made demerging near impossible or impossible.

Well, let’s take a look:

We wonder if Fournier even remembers how that played out in Saint-Laurent on June 20, 2004: Those who turned out to vote in the demerger referendum were 3-1 against remaining in Montreal, but the total “let us go” vote, at 28.6 per cent of eligible voters, fell below the artificial minimum requirement imposed by the government. Saint-Laurent remained part of Montreal.

The part of the bill where the demerger referendum results for Ville St-Laurent were nullified due to such a low voter turn out (only 28.6%) as mentioned above is actually something that makes sense!  A novel idea!   Why? Obviously, more than 70% must have been ok with Ville St-Laurent remaining merged with the City of Montreal if they didn’t bother to go out and vote in that little referendum, right?

Imagine if we had these minimums for all elections?  Maybe we’d be looking at different governments.

Look, I don’t live in St-Laurent, I don’t really know Jean-Marc Fournier as a candidate. As a blogger, unlike a corporate media outlet, I could give my opinion on who I would like to see  win in any given election or referendum, but in this case, I will abstain, unless, the fledgling Quebec Solidaire is running a candidate and then I would say vote for them; I would vote Quebec Solidaire.  But, that’s not the point of this excercise.

My first  issue with this shrieking editorial is the obvious bias which I have always felt responsible media shouldn’t have.  I don’t believe it should be mainstream media’s role to endorse any electoral candidates or parties, nor do I believe they should endorse a position on any side of a referendum so strenuously. When the biases in newspapers, on talk radio or tv news are so blatantly obvious from either side, how are we supposed to find the truth about anything?

Speaking of bias, this brings me back to my second issue with this editorialist’s problem with the 28% rule.  He/She mentioned that Fournier would more than likely get in with only  approximately 28% of eligible voters in St-Laurent actually showing up to vote.  Well, wouldn’t you like that minimum then? More to the point,  I bet this editorialist is one of those who leads the cry of of ” the majority of Canadians voted for Dreamy Stephen Harper! See? Our Electoral system works!”

Someone wrote a letter to the editor regarding a cartoon I missed. A rather graphic and violent cartoon of Jean-Marc Fournier.  I couldn’t find the cartoon to link to. But here’s the letter.

Gazette editors might think they can opine on the by-election, but there are limits in the manner of expression. Tuesday’s cartoon depicting Liberal candidate Jean-Marc Fournier’s image on a poster defaced with two knives, an axe, and a blob of blood is disgusting. We live in a world of violence. Such images might encourage fanatics or mentally unstable individuals to act out. Since when do you have the right to publish such visually shocking cartoons?

You may express your dissatisfaction about the Quebec Liberals and Fournier, but you certainly don’t have any right to depict violence toward a human being, a family man in private life.

I dunno, but this sounds awfully close to Sun Media’s editorial advocating the ‘locking and loading’ of Tamil migrant ships.  Now, that cartoonist. Is  The Montreal Gazette auditioning for the Kory Klan?

Yes, the height of Yellow Journalism; telling readers who to vote for and promoting violence.

As for the Montreal Gazette, why that didn’t fold instead of the Montreal Star in 1979 is beyond me.

Well, we all know about  Kory and Peladeau’s whining to King Steve to go knock some heads off at the CRTC to get their Category one license.

Now, thanks to a tweet from Liberal MP, Carolyn Bennett, it would appear that the ministry of Canadian Heritage and Official languages under James Moore has been funding a whole host of community papers and periodicals:

GODERICH, Ontario, July 14, 2010 – On behalf of the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, Ben Lobb, Member of Parliament (Huron-Bruce), today announced funding for 11 community newspapers in the Huron-Bruce region.

Ah, Can you say “Pork Barreling”?  I knew you could! I wonder how many other community papers the Harpercons are funding in their other ridings?

“These federal funds will ensure that these newspapers remain a vibrant source of information for years to come,” said Mr. Lobb.

Translation:  “News” that only praises King Stevie  and his flunkies all of the time; where journalism is one colour: yellow. Unbiased, responsible reporting with actual data and facts will simply not do here.

“The grant from Canadian Heritage is critical to the viability of small newspapers like ours,” said Dave Sykes, Group Publisher, Sun Media. “It ensures that people in rural areas have access to local news.”

BINGO!! Damn, shoulda read it twice! Sun Media. Shoulda known!

Well, well, well!  The take over of print media by Kory and Pierre-Karl Peladeau with the strong arm of King Steve: all paid for by the tax payers. And what do we hear from the Blogging SupposiTories and other Harpercon cheerleaders? Whining about the tax payer funded Ahem! (cough! Cough! Gasp! Wheeze!) ‘Liberal’ CBC??  Yeah, right…As you were.

After reading Dr. Dawg’s post, dripping with sarcasm,  a  take on the mentality of many Canadians regarding those four men arrested on terrorism charges earlier last week which included a Canadian Idol Reject and McGill University Med School Grad, Khurram Sher.  A very accurate take as Dr Dawg usually has with these things. DeBeauxOs drives it home in about ten words or less in Dawg’s comments section (sorry, I can’t link the Echo comment box for some reason, but you can find it at his post):

Trial by media.

The way things are going, Harper’s New™© Government can abolish the court system and send alleged criminals directly to their mega-jails.

Well, yes, that is more than likely exactly where Stevie Spiteful and Super Toews are headed. Trial by media; more to the point, trial by NattyPO,  Kory Klan, and other Harpercon friendly outfits.   Guilty until proven innocent is the mantra of the day being taught, particularly regarding non-whites, specifically, Muslims and accusations of terrorism and related charges.

And a devoted student following this order of the day is none other than Blogging SupposiTory, Ottawa’s Bimbo & Military trophy wife, Rightchik, Tammeee, the Tammy-Faye Baker look-a-like herself!  Yes, I caught her little open letter to none other than the Canadian Council of Immams.  Here goes. I will inserting my own quips in brackets in regular typeface, italics are her words ):

Gentlemen – it is time for you to speak out and condemn armed jihad (Translation, ex-communicate them and lock them in a dungeon if they don’t comply with this). Condemn all jihad that would use violence, deceit and threats to any and every non Muslim (I guess she means it’s ok if they use violence, threats and deceit on other fellow Muslims, though). Tell your congregations that the only way to convert someone is through dialogue (Really? Conversion? To what? Christianity?). Any other method is unacceptable. And if someone does not convert then it is the will of God (so you’re admitting that a die-hard jihadist who refuses to listen to reason from his Immam or community is in God’s hands?).

Preach a message of acceptance (They are! It’s you & your ilk that don’t accept them, or any other non-white for that matter!) . Every Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Pagan, Hindu, Atheist. Agnostic and everyone else should be loved and embraced as a neighbour, friend and brother (Really? Then practice what you preach, little girl. It seems to me you only love and embrace the God of Prada or Nine West or Gucci and faces that come from jars).

Issue a press release not only condemning the men who have been recently arrested – condemn their motivations and actions. Speak loudly and clearly as you denounce all violent jihad. (Ok, here is a classic example of what DeBeauxOs was talking about when she commented over at Dawg’s: trial by media; or in this case, trial by middle-aged barbie doll. Barbie ain’t alone, sadly. Classic example when shallow right wingnut  Barbie Dolls who have no life outside of being a military trophy wife are let loose with a keyboard. Dawg has links here and here of other wingnuts with their accusations and how they think these defendants as well as any other future off-white defendants should be handled.)

I’m going to let you in on a little secret – we’re not as stupid or gullible as you might think. (Really? Oh, this would take a novel, so I’ll just move right along here; remember, she thinks she’s no one unless she’s in 5 inch heels and 5 inches thick of make-up ) In spite of what our music, movies, politicians, liberal media (what Liberal media?) or guilt ridden lefties (guilt ridden? I’m a lefty, I can assure you, I ain’t guilt ridden! Why on earth for? I haven’t done anything to these folks or anyone else for that matter. I’m not the one preaching bigotry and injustice. Embarrassed would be a more accurate description of my feelings today)  would lead you to believe, most Canadians are very, very different (many, anyway, and not in a good way).

We’re tolerant, we’re patient and we will give anyone a chance (Really? News to me). You’re getting yours right now. But we’re not ones to be pushed around. Look at our history (Well, Tammee got one thing right; we did push Native people off their land, stripped them of their livelihood, forced them to assimilate,  kidnapped their children and hid them in Gawd awful residential schools under unspeakable conditions and forced them to convert to Christianity).

Do the right thing. Show us that you are truly Canadian (yes, do show Tammee and her friends and tough military hubby what a great ‘Canadian’ you are;  publicly humiliate and ex-communicate any member of your congregation even so much as having the same last name as someone on a terror watch list).

What I was trying to point out in the little excercise above was Tammee’s own hypocrisy and that of many who share her views, like those of the Blogging SupposiTories and other Harpercon cheerleaders.

Dr. Dawg did a fine job proving  DeBeauxOs correct  in his follow-up post, Oil on Troubled Flames, citing many of the right wingnut bloggers with links to prove this. This is troubling for Canadian society; a supposed democracy to say the least. Where would it end? Who or which group would be the next targetted? By the looks of things, it could well be the new Tamil refugees if they’re ever released from detention and allowed to stay.  Thanks to the Harpercon propoganda machine, bigotry is on the rise and now, since these kind of cases are being splashed in the media with all the  yellow journalim characteristics we’d find in some tabloid like the National Enquirer, more and more; each new case being reported with increasing degrees of sensationalism and innuendo without even hinting what evidence police or the prosecutors may have or may not have.

Those of us who dare to  vocally express our beliefs in “innocent until proven guilty” or allowing all criminal defendants, yes, including those accused of terrorism,  to a have a fair trial are given the label from these wingnuts, as bleeding hearts who would practically welcome Charles Manson in our homes.   No, gotta fill Uncle Steve’s mega prisons and how dare we speak against the great man. How dare we point out logic? In a Harpercon Utopia, I guess Defense attorneys, crown prosecutors and Judges would all end up on the unemployment line.

Over at wingnut, Jay Currie’s place of white worship,  he accuses Dr Dawg of being in denial. No, Jay, it’s just that these four suspects don’t really fit the terrorist criteria.  All four seem to be well adjusted, educated,  productive young men, who seem to enjoy life in Canada. It seems unfathomable that they would be sucked into even contemplate ruining  their lives; the lives of their families; everything they have for the sake of a terror group who doesn’t give a damn about them.   Haven’t we heard in the past that generally, the profile of  Jihadists are generally uneducated, disenfranchised youth who feel they haven’t much else to look forward to in life?

I’m not saying those four suspects are not guilty, nor am I saying they’re guilty.  We haven’t seen or heard all the evidence; the real evidence; not the vaccuum the right slanted media and the Blogging SupposiTories are only too happy to fill with their innuendo. Nor is it for me, or anyone else for that matter,  to judge.  That is up to a judge and jury of the defendants’ peers (if they can find an impartial one that is).  If they’re guilty, then let the judge assign the appropriate sentence. If they’re not guilty, then set them free and let them get on with their lives in peace, just like any other defendant in any other criminal case, be they white, off white, or yellow with purple polka dots.    I’m sure that statement to the wingnut element would  brand me as a Taliban sympathizer no doubt. Fine, so be it. They’re going to think what they like anyway, it’s what gives wingnuts  like Rightchik Tammeee  a reason to get up in the morning; far be it for me to begrudge them of that. There, some more of my lefty charity.

Another thing, I’m no legal expert, nor am I going to even attempt to pretend to be one, so, if there are any lawyers or even law students knowledgeable on the subject, please feel free to answer my following question in my comments section.  The defense attorneys for the accused must realize that their clients can’t get a fair trial with half truths and yellow journalism trying them before the court of public opinion, not to mention potentially poisoning a potential jury pool for the eventual trials; why haven’t they demanded a publication ban? Can they? Or has legislation changed on that too at the demand of  Kory and his Klan of Fox North?

Susan Delacourt is one of the few columnists who has been not only printing the facts about Iggy’s bus tour, but has actually remained positive about it. I only wish some of the more Liberal leaning columnist would have (and would) followed her lead rather than to continue nitpicking and lamenting him. After all, while Iggy may not be the first choice for leader of any federal political party due largely in part to his long absence from the country and many other reasons anybody could think of, he is here to stay and we should make the best of it. Anything less only helps keep Stevie spiteful in office longer to continue doing his damage; perhaps even get a majority.

If I may sidetrack for just a moment, his latest slap in the face to the civil service and by extension, to Canadians; particularly, vulnerable Canadians, he has just laid off 600 employees who work for Service Canada; employees who work for EI and Pensions. It becomes more ridiculous on the radio when we hear that the reason cited is because “the economy has improved”. No joke! The newscaster on the radio said that was the reason for the cuts. Never mind that folks are still losing their jobs. Never mind that the aging baby boomers are retiring, thus an increasing demand for CPP payments is looming.  Stevie Spiteful must gut the civil service for his own amusement.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, I had seen a poll from Harris Decima earlier yesterday reflecting that the bus tour has provided modest gains in Liberal polling numbers (they’ve broken 30% for the first time in a long time), but unfortunately, Iggy’s approval numbers have not improved, according to Allan Gregg.  Now, how could this be?  Michael Valpy over at the Grope & Fail has recognized changes in Iggy:

There’s no doubt at all that a new political Michael Ignatieff is on stage. And no doubt at all – after 27,000 kilometres travelled and 110 events staged across the country this summer, with more to come on a tour intended to reintroduce Mr. Ignatieff to Canada – that the people he meets are responding to him with what looks to be a lot like enthusiasm.

His robotic body language has gone, along with most of his leaden phrases. He speaks with a lively cadence; he has lost the faux dropped g’s. He can be genuinely funny. He shows a keen curiosity in what people tell him and feeds back what they say in his speeches.

He now sounds like the 17 books he has written, warm, engagingly anecdotal and authentic.

I tell him on the final day of the B.C. tour that he has changed so much since I first wrote about him as a politician four years ago. He says: “A lot of it is storytelling, a lot of it is connecting to something I always used to do. I’ve been a storyteller all my life, and I had to recover, get back to that stuff. Nothing else was working.”

So, who has Gregg been polling? Folks in Calgary West or in other Harpercon strongholds?  I realize that Gregg, like  John Wright of Ipsos-Reid, is nothing more than a Harpercon shill, but, as I’ve pointed out, time and again, at the end of the day, those polling numbers, along with those columns are pretty much all those politicians have to work with before they make decisions. It’s the reason why I suggest to folks to write their MPs.

It’s also the reason why I’m thankful for social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook and blogs. If not for social media, we would only get the skewed version of how much of a failure the bus tour was. We didn’t. We got to see crowds warmly receiving Iggy. We got to hear him answering questions without missing a beat.  We saw him more relaxed and yes, having fun. There are those from the Blogging SupposiTories and even some Prog bloggers still determined to hate him who chided him for not being himself, but yanno, I think he was probably more himself over the summer than he has been since he joined the Liberal Party. I got that vibe when I saw him at the Papineau event.

By the interviews Iggy has been giving as of late and the vibe folks who have attended events on the stops of the Liberal bus tour seem to have been picking up, it seems to be that Iggy is in no hurry for the tour to end.  I remembered the NattyPo’s Kelly McParland lamenting earlier in the summer about Stevie’s summer of needless crisis in his column.  He sort of gave some simple advice to Iggy, although, I think he meant it more as a joke; sarcasm at the time:

If I was Michael Ignatieff, I’d stay on that bus tour until Christmas and leave the government alone. At the rate it’s going, it should have completed its self-destruction by then.

After reading Susan Delacourt’s column last night, it looks like Iggy is, at least in part, taking McParland’s advice to heart and extending the bus tour into the fall.

“I’ve got a job to do in Parliament, I will do the job in Parliament, because that’s what folks pay me to do. But I will also be out on the road a lot, because I enjoy it and Canadians are responding to it and they want to see their politicians up close and personal and they want to ask them questions.” The Liberal leader has made no secret of his joy at being out of Ottawa over the summer, often calling it an antidote for the toxic, partisan climate of Parliament under Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government.

Oh dear, and now, given that Stevie spiteful’s pitbull, John Baird, is the new government house leader, count on the ambiance in parliament being even more toxic than before.  There is also the problems with the mass firings, demotions, potential firings and non renewals of contracts of public servants as of late. With such heated issues waiting such as Mullet-head Hoeppner’s scrapping of the long gun registry and the census scrapping (Liberals are introducing a new private members bill to reinstate it, minus the threat of jail time which is sure to pass among all three opposition parties) and of course, the threats of unreported criminals, Canadian Idol rejects and “Russian spy planes” in the north.

It’s great that touring the country, meeting and greeting Canadians suits him so well as the tour has achieved one of its’ goals; to prepare Iggy for the rigors of an election campaign.

If the tour is going so well for him and he is still getting positive responses, why not continue for at least awhile longer? Parliament doesn’t sit until later next month anyway.

Given the polling numbers that have improved the numbers for the Liberals, but not that of Iggy, maybe the strategy of Iggy continuing the road show and having his MPs do the politicking in Ottawa might have some logic to it on the surface.  However, like everybody else, he will eventually have to go back to work and yes, his true test will be how he handles himself once parliament is back in session. That, I suspect will be make or break for him. If  his newfound confidence can be seen in action in parliament, perhaps we may well see his approval numbers go up as well.  However, that is a two way street. It’s one thing for him to be more confident; to be more oppositional. However,  given the Harpercon friendly corporate media, with the latest addition of the wingnutty efforts of Fox North, as well as some of the nay sayers of the few more Liberal leaning columnists and opinion writers,  can he be more oppositional without getting smacked to the point where his polling numbers plummeting across the board to the point Stevie Spiteful’s  teeter around majority territory yet again?

Another test for Iggy will be how will he counter not only Stevie Spiteful’s attack ads, which as we’ve seen are doozies, and I’m sure, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet, but also those from the NDP;  Layton and Mulcair have shown to be more than capable of of attacking them sometimes (it seems)  even more often than attacking Harpercons, as well as those of Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc. While the Liberals may have begun to make some inroads in Quebec, given that Duceppe is slowly reviving the sovereignty movement with some modest degree of success and with the troubles of the Jean Charest Liberals as of late, I  wouldn’t be surprised to see Duceppe resurrect the Sponsorship scandal. That will be an uphill climb indeed. Dion couldn’t counter the attack ads, neither could Paul Martin before him.  Iggy had been lacking confidence to do so since that violent reaction from Jane and Joe Canuck and the pundits when he dropped the gauntlet last September.  Let’s hope he can draw from his new found confidence coming off the bus tour to effectively counter these attacks.   He will also have to go more on the offensive. Sadly, taking the high road will get him nowhere.

The Harpercon shill, Allan Gregg did point out an interesting fact I think we’ve all noticed:

Pollsters have discovered that the Conservative vote is much more resilient than the Liberal vote. That means when the Conservatives get in trouble, their support drops, but in the absence of trouble it springs right back again. The same isn’t true for the Liberals.

Why is that? Why are folks so much more forgiving of Stevie spiteful than they are of Iggy? It seems to me that Stevie Spiteful could put his own grandmother out on the street and most (from his own base, anyway) would hardly bat an eyelash, but the Liberals, with, or without Iggy can take forever to be forgiven for far less?

After writing all that, perhaps Kelly McParland was right all along: Iggy, stay on that bus and let your MPs take care of the rough and tumble in parliament.

Here is the latest sunshine the Kory clan had to pump today:

No sooner was the sanitizer flying off the shelf than we received a harsh letter from Liberal MP David McGuinty — brother of Ontario’s Pinocchio Premier — taking us to task for the tone of our critique.

“Maybe your newspaper(s) should give Ignatieff’s bus tour a chance instead of writing it off before it starts,” wrote McGuinty. “What’s required is a little less anger and a lot more journalism.”

Really? For here’s McGuinty’s assessment of the raison d’etre of Ignatieff’s mid-summer’s dream.

“Where the Conservatives want to build more prisons,” wrote McGuinty, “Liberals want to help more kids go to college.

“Where the current government wants to add another $6 billion in corporate tax cuts to their record $54-billion deficit, a future Liberal government wants to reduce the deficit and help caregivers care for loved ones at home.”

Quick, someone on the bus pass us their Gravol.

McGuinty can mix apples and oranges all he wants — prisons and schools, like corporate tax cuts and home care, do not belong in the same sentence — but don’t try to pass this nonsense off as if Ignatieff has answers.

Schools and home care. I thought that crowd was always criticising the Liberals of having no ideas.  Now they present some and they still get chastised. But things like schools and home care; things that real Canadians like Jane and Joe Six pack can really get behind, probably much more so than prisons and corporate tax cuts,  just ain’t what the Kory clan think is sexy enough for average Canadians (Translation: Prisons and corporate tax cuts are better for Joe and Jane six pack in Master Steve’s world than schools and home care).  Hell, who needs a long census form when we have Kory and Sun Media and not to mention, of course, the rest of the Harpercon cheerleaders doing our thinking for us?

He’s making it up on the fly. There’s no substance.

This six-week dupe show is all about Ignatieff’s image being in the tank, and the Liberal Party plummeting in the polls.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Ask any journalist on the bus.

This glowing optimist doesn’t even sign his/her masterpiece.

Rob Silver over at the Grope & Fail  actually picks out Brian Lilley’s name (whether it was really at random or not is irrelevent here; what’s more relevent is that Mr  Congeniality who wrote that drivel obviously doesn’t communicate with his own colleagues as Silver so astutely points out).

Here’s a quip from the new darling of  the Kory clan, himself:

“If the crowds and the stump speeches on the rest of this tour turn out as well as Monday’s, the Conservatives may want to start checking over their shoulder.”

As many of my readers know, I actually did show up at the Town Hall in Papineau when Iggy came with Justin Trudeau. You can read about my positive experience here.

It is because of this experience I tend to look at those who continue to view Iggy as the arrogant, condescending  professor who is disconnected from real Canadians;  and the even more shallow still who seem to think he’s just too ugly to be PM, as extremely judgemental.  It is also quite laughable. They would also be quite disappointed if they ever got the chance to meet him in person or at the very least, get the opportunity to share common space with him; to watch and listen to him in person.  He is actually a very engaging, personable and approachable man. You look at him in person when he speaks, one can tell he is well intended.  As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, he answered many questions as time constraints allowed for,  clearly and fluidly without stumbling.  He never missed a step.

People have been accusing Iggy of not being able to connect to real Canadians. Well, he is attempting to do that now on that bus tour. Now he gets chided by the Harpercon cheerleaders for attempting to do so. Is it because he may well be succeeding and they just don’t want him to?  Which is it?

Friends and family in other parts of Canada who have had the chance to see Iggy during his bus tour have told me the same thing about him and the mood of the people who showed up. Commenter, Penlan had a chance to see Iggy in her riding yesterday; catch her remarks here. and they were similar to mine as well as everybody else I’ve been hearing from.

We’ll see how this translate into polling numbers.

I also have heard many outside of Quebec, as well as inside speak quite highly of Gilles Duceppe. That he has the most integrity out of the leaders. That may well be true, and maybe not. Yes, he will do what is best for Quebec and you would get no argument from me. But if one really thought  outside the box, they would also see that he plays games with both the Liberals and the Harpercons and knows how to further pit them against each other as if they needed help with that in the first place. Not trying to nit pick, I’m just sayin’ that things aren’t always as they seem.

I have met Gilles Duceppe awhile back at another event and he is the least approachable man one could come across. He could barely utter the word “bonjour” if  he passed you.  A very anti-social man. One can have off days, but I was told by a few friends who had met him in the past that that is his natural demeanor.

In all fairness, I have never met Steve, but his policies and his actions do speak louder than words, thus proving he has ice water running through his veins; that he is a very cold hearted man.

In addition, Deborah Grey, who was his boss and did work closely with him said  a long time ago what we pretty much already know today:

“People skills? He was more fond of policy. Constituency work seemed like a grind for him.”
- Long-time Reform and Alliance MP Deborah Grey on Conservative leader Stephen Harper.

But before anyone calls me a hypocrite, if  Steve were to come to Montreal to an event that wasn’t members only or 500$ rubber chicken dinner, but an actual  event like a town hall, yes, I would make a point of going, not only to see for myself what makes him tick, but to attempt to ask him some very difficult questions.

Oh and Frmgrl, you shrieking shrew prude you;  average middle class men don’t earn 6 figure salaries  and do you call buying fighter jets and turning major urban centers into police states  relating to average Canadians?  Deborah Grey above ended your little argument there.

It goes without saying that I would also grab the opportunity to meet Jack and Dizzy Miss Lizzy.

The lesson, here folks, don’t believe everything the media and the pundits tell you. If your MPs and the Leaders of any of the parties show up in your town holding public events, make the time to go to them and meet them for yourself. At the very least, watch & listen to them in person. It’s a whole other perspective than watching them on the big TV screen or listening to them on talk radio; much less so reading about them.

And yes, from the questions Iggy and his MPs have been answering on the tour and in the speeches; there are ideas and policies. One just has to stop reading things like Sun Media and start listening to Iggy and team Liberal themselves.

Something tells me Steve is getting nervous though, regarding the census long form and perhaps even the positive response Iggy is getting with his bus tour; the attacks have resumed yet again; new ones.  I only hope Iggy can avoid falling in Steve’s trap for the rest of the tour.

What is with that magic year 1962 when it comes to comparing crime statistics in Canada? Better still, what is with this longing for the so-called ‘good ol’ days’?  I mean, with anything; be it crime rates; be it women’s issues; gay rights; immigration; etc.

Oh someone is sucking up to his new boss these days.  And Goldstein ain’t alone.  Apparently, it is now in vogue, among other things for wingnut columnists to write about how Canada is a dangerous place to be and how Canadians are just very bad people.  And they are all a comin’ out a swingin’ for Master Steve’s very expensive tough on Crime bills. And they all like to play amateur statistician to boot.  The rancid Dr jabba the Roy has so proudly compiled a few of them today. However, Lorrie Goldstein had to have come up with THE dumbest conclusion and comparison at the end of his already abysmal column. Besides, he’s long overdue for one of my bitch slapping rants.

Well, lowering crime rates are probably one aspect as to why Sweater vest Steve has zero respect for Statistics Canada. And these wingnut columnists playing amateur statistician with their confusing math as to raise the blood pressure of any math teacher must be oh so pleasing to the master.  Yet, they seem to enjoy harping on one common thread; our crime rates are still oh so much higher than they were in 1962. Ok, let’s look at this, shall we?

Since 1962, unwed women and girls, and only them were blamed for unwanted pregnancies no matter the circumstances; whether the sex that resulted in these pregnancies was consensual or not. The man/boy never ever shouldered the blame or very little of it.  Especially in the case of girls and young college aged women, they were whisked off to special homes for unwed mothers, generally convents, where they were forced to have their babies and put them up for adoption in a hush hush manner, while their families back home can pretend all was right in their world; that their daughters were simply away at college or visiting relatives across the country while they still kept up with the Jones’s. We have evolved since then. Pre-marital sex is no longer the taboo it once was.

Many of those pregnancies were also the result of rape and/or incest. Again, the victims were blamed; a very high stigma attached. No one, but no one reported those crimes. It didn’t mean they didn’t happen more or less. In fact, we hear more of adult survivors reporting their suffering either at the hands of their family members, clergy, teachers, aboriginals who had survived the horrors of  residential schools, etc.

I really don’t have to bring up abortion in 1962. Back alley flop houses done by non-medically trained crooks with unsanitary tools in filthy conditions.  Or old wives abortion methods such as knitting needles and wire hangers.

What about the men? Boys were raised at that time (many still are) that they didn’t cry and that they were to be tough; to be a man and fight back. Reporting a crime such as a mugging would certainly have gone against their male pride.

What about other crimes?  Surely being the victim of other crimes prior to 1962 must have had a stigma attached to them, thus preventing them from reporting them.

So, when I read the dumb argument from idiots like Goldstein saying the reason for the crime rates in Canada going down is that fewer people are reporting them, wouldn’t it stand to reason that perhaps many didn’t report crimes prior to 1962?

And what is the deal with these cons longing for the good ol’ days? And I’m not talking only about crime rates neither.

Our new Governor General is someone who stepped out of the era of “The Man in The Grey Flannel Suit”

We have columnists like Babs Kay who devotes her columns to lamenting the invention of  Birth Control and the sexual revolution and in an effort to spread her own misery, tries to force down the throats that not only was the sexual revolution and legalized abortions are immoral, but continues to try in vain to continue to convince readers that they too should be unhappy about this and feebly attempt her readers into longing for the good ol’ days’.

Back in the ‘good ol’ days, women weren’t on the work force as much and the fields of work women took on were more limited as were their post secondary education opportunities.  I remember Diane Finley making some offensive statement awhile back basically saying that two income households were not a necessity but a choice. I remember thinking that she was hinting at wishing for more to stay home.

Those are just some major differences between prior to 1962 and 2010. I didn’t touch on evolving technology.

My point is that in comparing crime statistics or anything else to 1962 or prior to that against today is comparing apples and oranges. The results would be flawed, no matter how hard they try as they might to skew it in their favour.

Back to Goldstein’s idiotic argument in favour of Master Steve’s tax payer paid big-assed prisons. It is a goody, indeed:

…the knee-jerk argument from the hug-a-thug crowd that a (slightly) lower annual crime rate automatically means we don’t need as many police or prisons, is akin to arguing a lower mortality rate automatically means we don’t need as many doctors or hospitals.

In other words, it’s painfully simplistic and dumb.

No, Lorrie, you’re painfully simplistic and dumb-assed. I have one word to respond to that idiotic quote: Huh?

Of course we need more doctors and hospitals because they are needed to heal the sick so people could live longer.  Doctors (in principle, anyway) not only treat the illness and the patient, but they do much research in an effort to find out what causes these illnesses as to be better able to prevent them in the future in addition to finding cures for them. If doctors can successfully prevent more illnesses, then maybe eventually, they would need fewer hospitals.

The same goes for crime.  Look at crime as a sickness. Try to find the causes so as to better prevent them to begin with.  We know of some of the obvious culprits; poverty and unemployment.  Why don’t we try to find the causes of poverty and unemployment (well, I think most of us know that too, but you get the idea) and try to fix that? Create jobs. Create better training programs. Find ways of getting to those who are most vulnerable to slipping through the cracks and offer programs to help them get on their feet like vocational training.  Educational programs for children at risk.  And yes, better community relations between law enforcement and its’ inhabitants because right now, especially in more impoverished neighbourhoods, distrust is strong.  These ideas are just crazy enough to actually work! If we were to implement just half of these ideas, then I think we would see crime rates slide even faster and there really wouldn’t be any need for those big-assed prisons; not that there was any need to begin with.

But of course, this is Stevie Spiteful, Vic Toews, the Colonel Sanders look-a-like and their wingnutty columnists like Lorrie Goldstein who for whatever reason, seem to get their kicks from watching people suffer, while their fat cat ‘friends’ continue to get fatter.

Also, let’s not forget, these are people that, if they had their way, we would go far back in time, using Maurice Duplessis’s Periode Noirceur as a model for their utopic Canada.  No, never mind that,  Duplessis was probably too liberal for them.

Woohoo! I can have a happy few minutes now! I can just imagine. Ezzy IrreLevant’s blood pressure must be shooting right up about now, hell he must be turning about 10 shades of purple about now.

The CRTC refused to issue a category 1 license to Sun TV.

In a private letter sent to Quebecor on July 5, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission rejected Quebecor’s request for a rare must-carry license. It would have guaranteed distribution by all cable and satellite firms – and the subscriber fees that come along with that distribution.

The license Quebecor requested – known as a Category 1, soon to be Category A – is rarely granted, and in March of this year, the CRTC announced that it would not consider any new applications for those licenses before October, 2011.

Quebecor applied anyway, asking for special consideration. Its reasoning, according to the letter, was that Sun TV News would be “an Information & Analysis channel,” and therefore different than its all-news competitors.

The CRTC rebuffed that claim. In the letter, Peter Foster, the director general of television policy and applications, suggested that there was little to distinguish Sun TV from other all-news services, since “news and analysis are sub-categories of the information programming category … news would be broadcast throughout the day … [and] in promotional material, the proposed service is referred to as the Sun TV News Channel.”

Read more about it here. Oh Kory & Pierre-Karl can’t be too happy about this right now.   But they appear to be quite stubborn and will continue plugging in spite of the fact that the CRTC is holding firm that they are weening away from issuing category 1 licenses. In fact they say that they plan to remove both CBC News Network and CTV’s News Channel off the preferred designation some time next year. So Kory, what makes you think the CRTC will see thing your way? You goin’ to go crying to your old boss man Steve? You goin’ to get Steve to break some heads over at the CRTC?

Many have said this before and I will say this again;  You hardcore cons preach the sanctity of not living of the government teat and the sanctity of free markets, do like other specialty channels and apply for the category 2 and do like the others and market yourselves. Not confident you’ll have enough suckers to pay to watch Brian Lilley have fun with math and try to play statistician on the Televised version of the blogging supposiTories? Then pack it in already and put all of us out of our misery. As it is, most of mainstream media is slanted to the right anyway.

You absolutely need the government teat so badly to have your wingnut channel? I never ever want to hear about the leaching CBC again. At least, we’ll know that if Steve pulls the plug on the CBC and somehow Fox North  manages to get that much coveted rare Category 1 license, lots of questions will be asked, because Steve saying there’s no money for the CBC just won’t cut it.

Oh dear, imagine that. Brian Lilley would have to go back to reporting the news.  He would have try oh so hard as he might to be neutral to the point the listeners can hear the nose bleed, and yet the news still came out slanted to the right.  He’ll have to shelve his homophobic fetus fetishist ways and keep them contained over at the Examiner.

Yes, the CRTC will unfortunately have to relent and many will surely be fired for refusing Steve’s old protege, but for now, let’s just celebrate the fact that the CRTC defied  Master Steve.

That is one lesson the Obama administration can teach us.

Remember when they were trying to hammer out Obamacare, back in the days when many hoped for humane things all industrial countries offered to their citizens like public options?  More specifically, when they were discussing covering end of life counselling such as help with living wills, decisions on whether or not to sign DNR forms, etc.; the basics everyone should have covered when that inevitable time comes so doctors and family members have no guess work; they’d know exactly what to do? We all remember the Tea-bagger hit parade’s  sweetheart, Sawah Palin came out shrieking about Government “death panels!” “They’re going to kill my  down syndrome baby!” (shows what kind of backward ditz she is; the proper term is trisomy 21)  and our favourite: “They’re going to kill grandma!” This insanity went on for what seemed like forever.  Sawah and the Fox News crowd went on painting these vivid pictures of government bureaucrats sitting in a row deciding who lives and who dies.  It got most Americans scared and livid. It was easy to do given it is a culture of paranoia and a culture with a short attention span with little patience for thinking outside the box or stopping to do research for themselves. Far easier to jump on that Sawah bandwagon.  We all know how that ended up; a heavily watered down health care bill with no public option and most certainly, no coverage for end of life counselling all due to the misinformation Sawah and her friends shrieked about.

Misinformation and confusion designed to keep Canadians scared is how Steve will sell his expensive insidious tough on crime bills  It is how he  convinces the aging baby boomers that they need to be kept safe from rif raf rather than health care when in reality, they will have better odds of dying from serious illness than of a crime.  In fact, anyone who bothers to check these things out for themselves would see that not only is crime in Canada not going up; many crimes are actually going down. However, you get someone like Steve’s former mentor, Tom Flanagan to play with the numbers a bit and attempt to dazzle readers with some confusing statistical methods to actually convince Canadians that Canadians are very bad people and Canada is a dangerous place to be.

This morning, again, I found on Twitter another statistic citing 2/3 of Canadians being  just peachy keen with the police brutality after the admission of Chief Blair being creative with the laws; the revelation of Dalton McGuinty’s sneaky underhandedness,  the fact that how the events from Saturday afternoon unfolded just don’t compute, more questionable events being revealed.  And folks wonder why I boycotted Canada day? Yes,  let’s manufacture some proof that Canadians as a whole are indeed bad people.

Chet Scoville cites a great example as to how Canadians get roped into supporting the police ‘actions’  at G20. A typical paragraph of the subject that is not dishonest, but can be misleading to most who won’t stop to read between the lines.  Sadly, most don’t. If they did, we wouldn’t be looking at  the above statistic.

More than 1,000 people were arrested during the protests, which saw vandals smash windows and burn police cars.

That kind of statement can lead many to believe that more than 1000, or at least, most of them engaged in smashing windows and burning police cars. Most of us who were either there or following the feed or have met and talked with detainee or those who just know better than to take whatever corporate media is telling us at face value  and we’re putting the pieces together and will continue to do so.

Chet Scoville mentioned something that I was discussing with a co-worker today; out of the 900+ who were arrested, none were charged vandalism. Come to think of it: no one was charged with arson (hello, setting fire to those ‘cop cars’?), as far as I can find. There were no theft charges, as far as I can find. I can think of at least two thefts that should have been easy to charge and convict in court, provided the cops behaved, of course:

When they emerged, they saw that a large crystal ball, which weighed about 10 kilograms and cost $299, had been taken, along with a crystal airplane from the hole in the front window.

They would continue going up Yonge with the crystal ball in full view under the cops’ noses. It came from the first Chinese gift shop they broke the window of. It didn’t strike anybody, particularly the cops as weird for kids with black hoodies and bandanas to be lugging a heavy crystal ball that they didn’t have moments before?

No, to date I, nor anyone I know have heard of any of those more serious charges like vandalism, arson and theft. There were just flimsy charges of idiocies like conspiracy, obstruction and resisting arrest. Very telling. I wonder if more  Canadians would stop to think and ask why that is?

Sadly, there will be more misleading statements and headlines in the media.

And then, you will have all out dishonesty. Yellow journalism 101. Yes, this is indeed a goody; click on that link and see how low Global’s 5;30 news has sunk just to make their video footage look more, well, exciting.  Suffice to say, on their July 10 news report of the G20, the scenes of Toronto’s windows getting smashed and car 766 burning just wasn’t cutting it for them anymore, so they inserted clips of the Vancouver Olympic protests, where newspaper boxes were being knocked down. One piece of advice? Make sure that the names of the newspapers printed on the boxes are not clearly visible in your pictures if you want to look semi-credible.  You judge for yourself.  Sadly, many won’t pay attention to the “Vancouver Sun” or “The Province” indicated on those boxes and will think they look like any newspaper box in Toronto.  I am glad that Norman Farrell, the blogger who caught this has complained about this to the Broadcast Standards Council.

Afterthought: That blanket statement of  “the police can’t win; some say they’re not hard enough; some say they’re too hard” is hardly fair. Too general. It also goes to that polling question whether or not Canadians feel the police handled the G20 protests appropriately or not.  In order to be fair, the question should be divided into two parts: Ask about the Saturday afternoon, when the cop cars were being burned and the vandalism was taking place under the watchful eyes of the police. Then ask if it was appropriate to round up everyone in sight after all the vandals disappeared.

Anyone going to correct me and have found some vandalism, theft, or arson charges? Lord knows there were more than enough eyewitnesses between the cops, merchants and those not sympathetic to protesters who would have only been too happy to fill out a report.

Really, I have a comments section and email links. Please, send me evidence with links that work that such charges have been laid and are sticking.

Because you and many of your compatriots in the corporate media sure ain’t doin’ it.

Blathering Blatchford strikes again! Read her miserable column if you can stand the pain.   The title just says it all:

‘G17’ defendants mostly white kids with good teeth

Boris at The Galloping Beaver already went through the pain of picking the article apart for us so we wouldn’t have to.

Well, I have do have one thing, to add, clucking Christie:  Meet Mr. John Pruyn: He may be middle class and he may well have good teeth, but young, he ain’t.  And, as you can see, he is missing a leg. Why don’t you ask your local super heroes in blue what they did to this poor man’s artificial leg, Christie?

And Christie, before you continue slamming bloggers and citizen journalists, it is thanks to bloggers and citizen journalists that John Pruyn’s horror story of police brutality and abuse of powers at its’ absolute worst is coming out.  Where are you and your corporate media compatriots on this file?

And, yes, in spite of it all, we kind of owe the clucking chickenhawk a thanks and I don’t think she even realizes why. Mike Brock of The Western Standard caught her little slip though:

The Globe and Mail has learned, independent of what was said in court yesterday, that Toronto police had an undercover officer who infiltrated the group and who, with a judge’s authority, recorded a critical planning meeting on June 25.

Further evidence of  those dastardly ‘Black Bloc’ being agents provocateurs and / or police corruption gone haywire, perhaps? Maybe we owe the thanks to Mike Brock for catching Blathering Blatchford’s little blunder.

Oh and Christie,  enlist to go to Afghanistan since you’re so gung ho as I’ve mentioned before. Have you done it, yet? If not, what are you waiting for?

We all remember what kind of a public spanking Clucking Christy, our chickenhawk of the Grope & Fail got when she jumped on heavily redacted documents and basically threw Richard Colvin under the bus.

But do you think she learned?

No!!! Of course not!! Old habits seem to die hard with our chickenhawk.

Go! Read Dave at The Galloping Beaver. He has all the sordid details of how Toronto’s  lying police chief Bill Blair getting the biggest war mongering columnist who will jump at any opportunity to defend that war, now, including taking certain shortcuts, like not researching facts to back up the questionable statements of a police chief who has already admitted to playing fast and loose with the laws and creative licensing with the truth.

Gotta luv how our clucking Chickenhawk columnist is willing to throw a credible man like Richard Colvin to the lions but believe a disgraced (ok, he ain’t…yet..but, he should be!)  police chief. Go figure!

Here’s a thought, Christy, stop blathering and actually enlist in the Canadian military; sign up for Afghanistan if you’re so gung-ho. It would be far more constructive than your columns, that’s for sure.