There will be no bargain, young Jedi. I shall enjoy watching you die - that is, if it's the Free Market's will. Come down and git some flapjacks at the House!

Further to the Green Party issue...
The Green Party is fairly new to the game, and is farther along in its development of a complete, coherent platform than a lot of parties have been in their infancy and adolescence. The NDP, bless their hearts, are still getting past the idea that the country can be run like a union; the Re-Al- (oops, it's hard to keep track) Conservatives are not yet past the idea that the country can be run like mom-and-pop corner store business. Their only question in the House in the Manning years was "but whAt abOUt the DEficit?" (I'm trying to mimic Presto's one-man regional regional accent.) That was a single-plank platform and look where they are now. Gawd help us all.
I can't believe that my MP is Jabba the Hutt in a Stetson.

Rumsfeld's war on the mind has civilian casualties

American propaganda document says US government doesn't really care if Americans receive misinformation intended for foreign audiences, so long as it doesn't specifically target them.

Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive at George Washington University and posted on the Web today, the 74-page "Information Operations Roadmap" admits that "information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP, increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa," but argues that "the distinction between foreign and domestic audiences becomes more a question of USG [U.S. government] intent rather than information dissemination practices."

Sweet bunch, they are.


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/m270 & /m271
Hm. Three things:

First, their "single plank" is also the sole plank that supports us all; you'd have to be a complete idiot to deny it. It's also a plank that the other parties give lip service to (and yes, that the NDP is better than the Libs or CAs on). And that plank is rotting. If it gives way, you can have all the social progression you want but it won't mean squat.

Second, I don't know who's spreading the rumours that the Greens aren't socially progressive (the NDP, maybe?) but I don't see it. Maybe I'm socially conservative (nah), but their platform dovetails quite nicely with my own views on a range of issues. More so than any other party. And in the absence of the necessity for strategic voting (I live in a riding where all non-Alliance votes are "protest votes," all other parties combined not coming within leagues of the winning party) I feel very good about having the option of voting close to my conscience.

Third, the Greens will never make up a government; they may not even ever make up an opposition. But a couple of Green MPs would go a LONG way toward pushing the other parties in the direction of more aggressive responsibility toward the environment. That tired old plank.... :)

/m271 - Fits nicely with #4 on the linked list.

The new culture minister?

"Culture" minister? I have my eyes tightly closed and am peeking through my fingers, horror film-style. Canada is the bimbo teen who just heard a noise down in the basement and decided to go investigate armed with a faulty flashlight and a wooden spoon, bare knees bent in and shaking. "Hello..? Who's down there..?"


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I wish more former NDPers who now vote Green would read the Green Party platform carefully. Not only are they one trackish, they're also not very socially progressive. And isn't there shit about meteors and stuff in there? Or maybe I made that up.

G

From what I've heard of the Green platform, whenever they get off their single plank, they're actually pretty reactionary. The leader of the NS Green Party divorced himself from the federal party because of this and told his supporters to vote NDP instead.

... on the upside, we had the largest percentage of Green votes. Does that count for anything?

No? OK, er... just checking.

What's up with the bizarre links, George?

Hey, Alberta! You suck!

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system before moving on. They say the arts flourish under conservative/totalitarian regimes, but how anything can flourish in that bloody desert of the mind, I'll never know. Dear American liberal friends: I'll can the high-and-mighty superiority complex now. I'm sorry, we let you down.


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In related news: Hey, Ontario! You suck too!

You know, I've always been ashamed that we inherit US policy the way we do. Partly because US policy sucks, and partly because we're so slow on the draw. Six years after Wubblewoo was appointed president, we get his kid brother. So sad. And I blame it all on World War II. You fucking baby boomers. Yes, I'm railing against my parents. This means you, Dad. I'm so gonna stony-silence you when I see you next. Crossed arms and heavy sighing. You just wait. It'll be 16 all over again. (From Bookslut)


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Edited by author 01-23-2006 12:15 PM
What separates me from you?

If every government in the world becomes extremely conservative in its world view, what does separate me from you? This is terrifying news, here. An Osama bin Laden backed book has become a bestseller. What can I say? Watch out Oprah? By the way, the author of the book, William Blum, is still having trouble getting to Cuba. Here's an interview with him on the topic of bin Laden's new talk show.

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NYT looks at Bush's ballast

What books has Wubblewoo been carrying this year? And what message do they send to the world? They say, Georgie-boy has arms strong enough to carry this book around. They say, this is what Uncle Dick's people say he should show around.


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Edited by author 01-22-2006 05:31 PM
Aw, c'mon, gorch, it ain't that bad. The judges'll hold him in check. And if they don't, I'm sure God will...

I heard somewhere that the arts tend to flourish under totalitarian regimes. I don't think I want to find out whether that's true.

Edited by author 01-21-2006 05:43 PM
Re /m259: Oo, oo, Education, teach, Stock, teach.

How'd They Vote
If you're still uncertain about which party to vote for in Monday's federal election -- "Hmm, am I evil? Good? Or just plain neutral?" -- then this site may help you.

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And if you are wondering who's working behind the scenes?

After the last election, the Conservatives cleaned house at party headquarters. Everyone there is now former Alliance, there are practically no Red Tories left.

This is why I never was upset when Stronach crossed the floor. This isn't the party she was trying to lead.

Edited by author 01-21-2006 02:52 PM
Vote with your mind not your wallet

The Harper Conservatives are hiding their loud mouth candidates. Harper has figured out how to appear 'bland.' Canadians like bland. We live for bland. The Conservatives have sequestered their anti-abortion, misogynistic, racist candidtaes and are trying to make this party look like a middle of the road, sensible choice for a good strong accounting-style government. It's got Margaret Wente fooled (who says you can't fool the fool?). It's got a lot of stay-at-home mums fooled (re: childcare policy). The truth is, with Harper we won't get what we want (i.e. bland), we'll get something far, far other).

Will America return to the culture that made it great, our traditional, Judeo-Christian, Western culture? Or will we continue the long slide into the cultural and moral decay of political correctness? If we do, America, once the greatest nation on earth, will become no less than a third world country.

Judeo-Christian? Hello? Get your heads out of the sand. These are the people who want Harper to win. Call your waffling parents. Call your culturally shielded aunt. Plead. On hands and knees. For the sake of bland, tell them, do not vote Conservative.

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Edited by author 01-21-2006 12:07 AM
Not hard to find with google. Here's one of many sites with the quote. You can link to the full conext if you'd like to offended any further.

http://www.stephenharpersaid.ca/

Did you know Stockwell Day believes the Earth is only 6000 years old, because that's whast he figgers from the Bible.

He could be the next federal minister of _________________.

Stop the insanity. People of Canada. Don't vote for the ignorant, biggoted pigs.

CHB, could you supply the rest of us with the source of that disturbing quote in your middle paragraph?

One thing that no one in the media has brought up, until Rick Mercer the other night, is the company that Harper keeps. Stockwell Day. Myron Thompson (he's my MP - please pick a deity and pray for us). Rob Anders. Others.

Yikes.

Edited by author 01-20-2006 01:29 PM
Stephen Harper is a sexist, a racist, and a homophobe.

We know he's a sexist because he belongs to a church that declares that women should be subordinate to men. If he didn't share this belief, he wouldn't belong to the church, would he?

He proved he was a racist when he said, "You’ve got to remember that west of Winnipeg the ridings the Liberals hold are dominated by people who are either recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from eastern Canada: people who live in ghettoes and who are not integrated into western Canadian society."

And, given his track record on gay marriage and gay rights, we know he doesn't believe that homosexuals should have the same rights as other Canadians.

Basically, Harper is a bigot and a pig who will sell us out to the Yanks faster than you could spit on him.

G&M article today alludes to this issue, in the words (from Nov 2001) of David Sweet, who introduced Harper at yesterday's news conference: "[M]en are natural influencers, whether we like it or not. There's a particular reason why Jesus called men only. It's not that women aren't co-participators. It's because Jesus knew women would naturally follow."

Cover of the Star yesterday had something about how Harper will run the country. Sorry, but is the election over or something? Geez...

I expect you're, ahem, preaching to the choir hereabouts, G. It is odd tho that some enterprising journalist hasn't dug this shit up. It wouldn't make much difference to his core of support, but it would definitely alarm any conservatives still clinging to the threads of "progressive."

The church of Stephen Harper

Ninja reader Paul pointed out some interesting tidbits on the website of the church (Christian & Missionary Alliance) to which Conservative leader, and presumptive Prime Minister, Stephen Harper belongs. Paul did a search on the term "women" which turned up this page of results . Click anything to have the Holy Bejesus scared out of you. But for a real scare click point #5 (Role of Women in Ministry - page 61) which will open a Word document that will knock your socks off. I pulled a couple choice quotes, in case you don't want to sully your computer with the download (emphasis is mine).

THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN MINISTRY

From its inception the Alliance leadership has interpreted Scripture to affirm the woman’s right in the apostolic church to be the channel of spiritual gifts for the edification of the local assembly. Furthermore, Alliance leadership has historically affirmed a restraint upon the woman’s role in the government of the local church. The Board recognizes that the Holy Scriptures teach the following principles.

BASIC SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES OF WOMEN IN MINISTRY

1. Authority and Submission. It is recognized that God has sovereignly ordained, in the order of creation and redemption, relationships of authority and submission. “Christ is the head of every man and the man is the head of woman and God is the head of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:3). The nature of authority is modelled in the humility and self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:5-11). The goal of authority is to build up the household of faith (II Corinthians 13:10). Submission to authority is noble and gives substance to unity (Ephesians 4:1-6).

4. Eldership. It is recognized that the historical and biblical pattern has been that elders in the church have been men. The weight of evidence would imply that this pattern should continue.

Why isn't this being reported on the national news? It would be interesting to see what other keyword searches turn up. If you're a swing voter and you go Harper, you're going to regret it. Mark my words.


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"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative."

--John Stuart Mill

Vote Canadian Arts

Nice website. Now let's get some votes. The stack of five dirty loonies really captures it, eh? (Thanks, Paul)


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"Actually, I'm pretty much Christian right. Pretty much."

Your middle name isn't, say, Kelly, is it? Kristin? Karen? Just checking.

Actually, I'm pretty much Christian right. Pretty much.

K

Hey, no. Many thanks for not attaching your name to ours.

G

And yet here you are.

Communism may have fallen in Cuba, but Cuba is now a dictatorship. Only a year or two ago it rounded up 20-30 journalists and threw them all in jail for no particular reason. I don't recommend Bookninja to people anymore because lately it has been occupied by such ignorant leftism as can be found in Kathryn's post.

Edited by author 01-12-2006 12:11 PM
It's my democracy and you can't have it

White House won't allow author, William Blum attend a book fair in Cuba. Ironically, his book is called Killing Hope.

Killing Hope, translated into Spanish and published by Editorial Oriente, is a detailed account of the involvement of the Pentagon, the US State Department and the CIA in diverse parts of the world spanning from the end of the Second World War until the mid-1990s.

It's weird, you know; the US government is rarely so short-sighted in these matters. Here's what you do, Mr Blum. You buy a ticket to Toronto and then fly to Cuba from here. You can even stop over and have dinner at my place; meet the kids, see my photos of Havana (nice town, btw, though a little run down what with all the sanctionsand the fall of communism).

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Regarding Kennedy's children's book...

Maybe "Splash" will teach children how to get a drowning woman out of the back-seat of a Senator's car.


(Splash is a Portuguese Water Dog and Kennedy's co-protagonist in "My Senator and Me: A Dogs-Eye View of Washington, D.C.")

I'm betting the dog won't talk about the five hamburgers, the quick stop at the intern's desk, and the briefcase full of non-sequential, unmarked bills...

I kid. Kid, because I love. I love my decadent Democrats. Ted Kennedy has "written" a children's book about a dog that follows his senator around for a day.


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Vote for him? I wouldn't spit on him if he were on fire! (Or maybe I would feel compelled to, because I'm one of the Devil's party, committed to massive redistributive programs...)

Edited by author 01-05-2006 07:51 PM
Don't you go voting for him now, Susan, just cause he tickled your nostalgia bone...

I got the joke (I assume your post was a kind way of pointing the joke out for me), but I still think that everything behind it is creepy and illustrative of a radical religious right perspective. Don't forget, there WOULD be prayer in school if he got his way. And you can bet your arse none of it would be done wearing yarmulkes or facing Mecca.

All of what he said in that old speech is still under there, it's just now got a PR team applying makeup before (and quite often after) every photo op. Frightening.

I would like to reemphasize one passage, in bold: "including some that would just horrify you, putting universal Medicare in our constitution, and feminist rights, and a whole bunch of other things." [emphasis mine]

Allow me to take Christianity back out of his oily paws for just a second. JESUS H. CHRIST! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?! I feel like throwing holy water on him and yelling, "The Power of Christ compels you!"

G

Edited by author 01-05-2006 04:23 PM
"As long as there are exams, there will always be prayer in schools," Harper declares. This is perhaps the only part of his speech that shows compassion and insight into the needs of his fellow Canadians. Indeed, I remember praying many times during exams: "Please don't let me fail, please don't let me fail, please don't let me fail."

P.S. Janine!!! Glad you're still out there.

Amen.

G

Not that I distrust Bookninja, of course - I was refering to the *other* blog. Bookninja = 'word of god' to me :-)

In case anyone is looking for context, the speech is from 1997 and the audience is the Council for National Policy, an "obscure right-wing American Organization" according the the CTV article from December that reported on the resurfacing of this speech. I thought I'd pass the verification along for anyone who distrusts the veracity of unattributed material appearing on blogs.

A Bookninja political moment

My fellow Canajuns. Thinking of voting for Harper? Leave now. But if you're a fence sitter, read this speech to an American Christian organisation. A few choice quotes:

"Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term"

"In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don't feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don't feel bad about it themselves, as long as they're receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance."

"the NDP is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in the affairs of men"

"The establishment came down with a constitutional package which they put to a national referendum. The package included distinct society status for Quebec and some other changes, including some that would just horrify you, putting universal Medicare in our constitution, and feminist rights, and a whole bunch of other things."

"As long as there are exams, there will always be prayer in schools."

Still not swayed? Leave now. If you're thinking he's changed, Nike and Starbucks would like to talk to you about some merchandise. (Thanks, Paul)


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The US government is spying on its peace activists

When will you people take to the streets with pitchforks and torches? Oh, wait, let me just check this database. I think the date is in here. (discuss ... at your own risk)


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Edited by author 11-25-2005 12:01 PM
Bin Laden from bin Laden

This'll make a great stocking stuffer. Musings from the great one himself, Messages to the World , published by Verso, is filling the world with more happiness. But does the world really deserve to be this happy?

The whole book seethes with simpering vanity and paranoiac self-importance. And some other feelings, too: "Who can forget your President Clinton's immoral acts committed in the official Oval Office?" I had, for ages. There must have been a shortage of interns around Tora Bora.

Surely there were POWs.

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Moonlighting on politics

As a novelist. Ew! If she sells used cars, she's got the unholy trinity of scum.


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White House lacks sense of humour as well as compassion and intelligence

The trifecta! We can now officially call the current administration "inhuman". The White House has asked satire newspaper The Onion to stop using the presidential seal. The Onion responds with, "Fuck You, Mr. President." But somehow it's funny when they say it.


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Buy my book of poetry or I'll commit war crimes on your lawn

I know they've called it dic-lit (as in dictator), but I think twit-lit might be both more inclusive and more accurate. (By the way, that headline wasn't in reference to this article... it was just a warning...)


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Politics affect publishing?

Heaven forefend!

Two years ago, when I agreed to write an afterword to William Kaplan's sequel on the Airbus affair (a book in which I have no financial interest), little did I imagine the pre-emptive pressures that high-priced and well-connected lawyers could put on publishers.


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Sharon Olds has nads

Not only can she write a mean poem, she's got the cajones to back it up. (From Bookslut)


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Edited by author 09-20-2005 10:26 AM
Tony Blair denies everything

Apparently, Lance Price, former spin-doctor, uh, media advisor to the Prime Minister, is a liar. Well, at least he's written a few things that have rather upset poor Mr Blair. Apparently, for instance, Blair did not "relish" sending troops into Iraq. Oh and in other biographical news, Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, do not practise voodoo with their toenail clippings.

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Edited by author 09-19-2005 10:52 AM
Indira Gandhi and the KGB

Great name for a rock band.

Russia's feared KGB spy service penetrated all levels of the Indian government under Indira Gandhi in the 1970s and became a major cash backer of her Congress (R) party, according to a book published on Monday.

The KGB operation in India during that period was its largest in the world outside the Soviet bloc and it even had to create a new department to handle it, according to The Mitrokhin Archive II based on the KGB's own secret files.

This seems less surprising the more I read about it.

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Don't you mean the anatomy of a gnarly cyst otherwise known as Giant Smell Brianoma?

Edited by author 09-14-2005 10:13 AM
Egg on face

But who threw it? Even a swell, upstanding guy like Brian Mulroney has regrets.

A spokesman said Monday that Mulroney was stunned to turn on his television and learn that his private and often R-rated reflections would be on store shelves this week in a book written by Peter C. Newman. "'I was reckless in talking with Peter C. Newman,' " Mulroney said, according to spokesman Luc Lavoie.

What goes around comes around. This book sounds like the anatomy of a narcissist.

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Salt in wound
Mark Kurlanksy, author of Salt, wonders why Bush is reading his book.

What does it mean that George W Bush, a man who has demonstrated little ability for reflection, who is known to read no newspapers and whose headlong charge into disaster after cataclysm has shown a complete ignorance of history, who wants to throw out centuries of scientific learning and replace it with mythical mumbo-jumbo that he mistakenly calls religion, who preaches Christianity but seems to have never read the teachings of the great anti-war activist, Jesus Christ, is now spending his vacation reading my book, Salt: A World History?

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Bushit!

I think we have to come up with a new term for the least harmful, most preposterous lies that come from the White House these days. I humbly submit "Bushit". As antecedent for this, I give you Bush's summer reading (or "carrying") list: Salt: A World History, Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar, and The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History. Three well calculated-to-make-you-feel-like-research-is-being-done books that this well-documented bozo is supposed to be able to finish in five weeks. Um, will there be puppet shows? And, wait: he gets five weeks of vacation? Hasn't he been on vacation a few times this year already? It would be interesting to calculate his vacation time in terms of Marines (much less others). In 2005, George W. Bush had __ dead Marines worth of vacation.


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Patriot Act

Well, a few bombings later it's official and we're not getting rid of it. The ALA thinks it's Kafkaesque. No shit.


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The administration and the fury
If William Faulkner wrote the story of the Bush administration.

Down the hall, under the chandelier, I could see them talking. They were walking toward me and Dick's face was white, and he stopped and gave a piece of paper to Rummy, and Rummy looked at the piece of paper and shook his head. He gave the paper back to Dick and Dick shook his head. They disappeared and then they were standing right next to me.

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9/11 publisher finally names charities

Norton will give 600 large to three charities. This is about 20% of the money they made off a public domain book. Pack of lies or not, the book really belongs to the American people. Where's the rest of the dough going?


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See George invade. Invade, George, invade.
Apparently books put Bush to sleep. Given the number of novelists in his cabal, he must be a narcoleptic. Which would explain a lot.

Bush presides over an administration chock full of novelists, particularly among the neo-conservative faction surrounding vice-president Dick Cheney. Lynne Cheney, the vice-president’s wife, has written three novels, as well as several children's books. Before becoming the vice-president’s chief of staff, Lewis Libby made his literary debut with a historical romance set in early twentieth-century Japan. And, Richard Perle, who has been a formidable advocate for an aggressive foreign policy as the erstwhile chairman of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board (DPB), is the author of a Cold War thriller. At the DPB, Perle shares the table with Newt Gingrich, who also has a thriller to his credit, an alternative history novel set during World War II. When the Bush administration sought the Pope’s blessing for the Iraq war, they sent over a special diplomatic delegation to the Vatican headed by Michael Novak, a prolific Catholic political philosopher and author of two autobiographical novels about his religious experiences.

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Booker winner a dissident?

The controversy over Ismail Kadare continues in a compelling piece at MobyLives.

No one stumbles to the head of the pile inadvertently. Kadare had to successfully lobby for himself among the powerful Soviet hyenas that called the shots with a fist of fury. Not a job for the fainthearted or the free–spirited. How many "dissident" writers, beside himself, did he protect and propel into the public eye? If he was anything like other heads of Unions of Writers in other communist countries, he did very well for himself, held active party membership, participated enthusiastically in expelling true political critics from the Union damning them to publishing oblivion, and knew all the right people up top intimately.


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Edited by author 07-19-2005 09:19 AM
Does Putin poop and scoop?

Not sure if this book'll tell you. What the heck is it with books told from the POV of dogs? Virginia Woolf did it. Paul Auster did it. ENOUGH ALREADY. Okay, now let's talk about my dog, my new cutey, wootey, mooty, sweetie babykins. Now a book from his POV, that'd be interesting...

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Edited by author 07-18-2005 10:51 AM
Oprah or Osama?

Australian officials concerned about national bookstores selling Osama bin Laden endorsed books.

Books endorsed by Osama bin Laden and discussing the effectiveness of suicide bombings are on sale in Australian bookstores - and authorities say they are powerless to act.

How the hell is bin Laden managing to endorse books? And imagine having a terrorist endorsed gold sticker on your book, wha?

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maybe people are allowed to take books out of libraries without being reported on, but not to talk about them in public classrooms. the 1950's commie-laws are still on the books and being re-introduced all around the states

http://www.alternet.org/wiretap/22230/

Refusing the Queen

Authors refusing to bow to HRM? Don't you think she's used to this? Come on, I bet Phillip says no on a regular basis... Oh my! (Just close your eyes, Philly. Think of the old nickel and do it for England!)


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Edited by author 06-17-2005 10:18 AM
Terrorist bookshop browsers and library users safe

US Congress votes to repeal an anti-terror law that allows the government to gather information of what people buy from bookstores and lend from libraries.

But Assistant Attorney General William Moschella lambasted the amendment in a letter to Congress.

"[Bookshops and libraries] should not be carved out as safe havens for terrorists and spies, who have, in fact, used public libraries to do research and communicate with their co-conspirators," he wrote.

All you inquisitive people, you think you're so smart. Line up against the wall and we'll see how smart you really are, huh?

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Edited by author 06-02-2005 10:40 AM
Rajasthani women's groups smoking

Has the world gone mad?

Over a dozen women's organisations have demanded the resignation of Rajasthan Minister of State for Tourism and Devasthan Usha Punia against the glorification of sati in a state government book.

Sati as a tourist attraction? Oh my...

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Speed reading with Bush

Bookslut points to a funny bit on Wonkette about Wubblewoo. Apparently he's STILL reading Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons. Sound it out, Georgie. Mouthbreather.


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Edited by author 05-11-2005 09:51 AM
US Officials have to wipe the crap off their faces

Protests turned violent in Jalalabad after reports of Guantanamo Bay interrogators flushing a copy of the Holy Koran down the toilet.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said U.S. officials are looking into the matter.

I just hope they look deep enough.

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Edited by author 05-09-2005 10:40 AM
The Jeanne D'arc of Islamic reform

Irshad Manji's call to arms; blatant self promoter or God's messenger?

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Edited by author 04-29-2005 11:39 AM
All of life's a stage

New book by Guantanamo Bay translator (Inside the Wire by Sgt. Erik Saar) details the length to which US security went to stage interrogational hoaxes. This is America imitating Hollywood imitating America at its best and simultaneously at its very very worst.

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Border clash

Will Ian McEwan get back into the US? Will he want to?


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Edited by author 03-23-2005 09:03 AM
Only in Canada, you say

Shaughnessy Cohen prize for political writing turns out to be named after, well

the outspoken and popular member of Parliament from Windsor, Ont., who died suddenly in the House of Commons in 1998 after collapsing from a brain hemorrhage.

Oh yeah, Jane Jacobs is nominated. I got a bit distracted by the visceral imagery.

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Edited by author 03-22-2005 08:08 AM
What are those little brown people saying

I can't hear through that weird accent. I went to a mesmerisingly brilliant katak/tabla classical Indian dance/drum solo the other night and on the bulletin board of the studio was a clipping saying "329 Dead, 0 Responsible". Turns out Canada knew the Sikhs were up to something but we didn't want to be racist. Or something. Ex-spy and former diplomat Maloy Krishna Dhar spills the beans.

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Campaign finance reform targets bloggers

Grassroots journalism under attack by law designed to promote grassroots politics and remove the influence of big (corporate) money from US elections.

How about a hyperlink? Is it worth a penny, or a dollar, to a campaign?
I don't know. But I'll tell you this. One thing the commission has argued over, debated, wrestled with, is how to value assistance to a campaign.

Corporations aren't allowed to donate to campaigns. Suppose a corporation devotes 20 minutes of a secretary's time and $30 in postage to sending out letters for an executive. As a result, the campaign raises $35,000. Do we value the violation on the amount of corporate resources actually spent, maybe $40, or the $35,000 actually raised? The commission has usually taken the view that we value it by the amount raised. It's still going to be difficult to value the link, but the value of the link will go up very quickly.

After almost three years working for the New York City Campaign Finance Board, I shudder to bring you this news. Mostly because I am scarred from knowing people involved in campaign finance reform. They all have the theme song from Law and Order playing in their heads as they strut around like hens in the yard. Oh, and what a small little yard it is... But that's neither here nor there. After how blogs were used in the last election, what I can tell you is this situation is going to get ugly. I've noticed the attacks on bloggers and blogging heating up these last few months, much at the same rate war chests are already starting to fill for 2008... (From DailyKOS)



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It's always the children's authors...

Arthur Ransome, author of kiddie book, Swallows and Amazons, was spied on by the British. The Red Menace made us all do crazy things in those days. Back then, we called turkeys "walking-birds" too -- eating a pair of drumsticks was called the hoochie-coochie two-step, and could earn you quite a thrashing.



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Let's get political, political...

Steve Almond's call to artistic arms on Moby.

What I am suggesting is that artists need not regard their political identities as wholly separate from their artistic ones — especially given our unique historical circumstance.

Look at what's happening: our country is being led down a path of almost unprecedented moral negligence, a kind of suicidal selfishness in which the civic discourse has been reduced to bumper stickers. Those in power stand ready to vilify anyone who threatens their power. The opposition has abdicated its duties to John Stewart.

Virtually every writer I know recognizes this. (I do not know Tom Clancy.) They are all deeply distressed.

My question is simple: when are we going to allow this grief to inform our art?



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Ever want to get wasted with, and argue politics with, Christopher Hitchens?

This guy did. (Thanks, Roland, for the link.)



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Edited by author 02-10-2005 09:30 PM
Quite the three-ring circus in the commentary on that article. I think Mathews would be chagrined if he was honest enough to get below the thin skin of his nationalism. Sure, we've got a better track record than the States. Not saying much. There was something on CBC's Ideas last night about just how big a gap has grown between our perception of ourselves as a nation and our actual conduct. As long as we view ourselves in relation to someone else--as Mathews, not just those he criticizes, seems intent on doing--we're not likely to get very far, either in literature or in politics.

Canada vs. U.S.
Are we a culture fighting for independence and freedom? Or are we a second-rate society blindly emulating our Yankee masters?

Most writers who want to say something meaningful, something truly descriptive about Canada and the United States, are defeated from the start. The reason is "history." The "history" is and has been a pattern of intense propaganda; of calculated falsification of events and ideas; and of an imperial/colonial relation, the nature of which is constructed upon falsehoods and is maintained only by the continuation of falsehoods.

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Jenna confesses to Uncle Tom

In honour of Wubblewoo getting his rocks off reading about his daughter's sex and drinking life,* Low Culture brings you the new Bush reading list. (From Maud)



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All good insights into W&Co's BushHell. For something rather more recent try, HOMELAND: A Novel (Other Press - New York; or Dewi Lewis - UK), by Richard Weber (me). From a recent issue of The Spectator, UK upmarket weekly magazine of politics (conservative, no less) & culture:

"... Weber's Homeland is for those who prefer to face the troubles of our times head-on. It is April 2008, and three people tell their stories. American professor Paul Vines simultaneously begins a new literature class at a Berlin university and an affair with a married German student. At Guantánamo Detention Camp, criminal psychologist Lara Ivans gains experience of interrogation techniques. And in JFK airport, FBI agent Dougherty investigates a suspicious tourist whose background is uncannily similar to his own. Each character is linked to the others in unexpected ways, and each faces moral questions of frightening contemporary relevance. Torture at Guantánamo is described in sickening detail, but the love relationships between the various characters are finally much more powerful. Caught in his or her own tangle of compromises, each hesitates between independence and insecurity. Weber's theme is fear: of loneliness, of guilt, of an invisible, malign super-power. Fear "oozes" everywhere, "like an invisible gas, a manufactured menace". Ample quotation from Koestler's Darkness at Noon, the text that Vines is teaching, underlines Weber's point in this dark, impressionistic novel: overshadowed by terrorism, we feel no safer nor have we any more control over our lives today than did Koestler's tormented characters in Stalin's Russia. "

The Tribune (UK) December 17th 2004 said almost the same, plus:
'... Weber excels at conveying the emotions of quiet shame and desperation among decent people.'

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

David Kipen examines Wubblewoo's speech writing.

Where once speechwriters used to strive for the rhythm, cadence and crescendo that would singe a line into everlasting memory, nowadays the perfect speech is the one so inert that we don't even have to forget it, because we hardly hear it the first time.

So it might be instructive to look at which of history's wordsmiths the president's outgoing chief speechwriter, Michael Gerson, has been cribbing from -- if only to get a baseline for comparison with former Wall Street Journal editorialist William McGurn, who'll take over for Gerson in the coming weeks as ghostwriter-in-chief. During all the fawning inaugural post-game shows last Thursday, only one commentator had the temerity to wonder over an open microphone whether it would be asking too much for the leader of the free world, just this once every four years, to write his own damn speech, without any help from the West Wing term-paper mill.

That commentator, I was just as surprised as anybody else to discover, was Dan Rather. In television as in politics, watch out for the lame-duck with nothing to lose.



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Is the EU better than the U.S.?
More books on my favourite question!

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Did you get the memo, FUKNUT?

Your American tax dollars, what you didn't get back, hard at work. The Pentagon's searing research into and iron-fisted terror-fighting control of acronyms.



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Where's a deus ex machina when you need one?
The Toronto Star finds some similarities between the Aegean Empire of The Iliad and the Bush administration.

Says Queen's University classics professor Caroline Falkner, "the fact that Troy is so relevant today is probably why the film was made. When Agamemnon talks about his Aegean empire, I see George Bush."

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Edited by author 12-15-2004 11:17 PM
Let your Giftmas dollars vote

DLJ over at Moby tells us about Buyblue.org, a site that tracks corporate political spending so Democrats (and conversely, one would suppose, Republicans) can buy at companies that supported their candidates.

For example, wondering whether to buy books online at Amazon.com or at BarnesandNoble.com? Does it make the decision easier for you to know that 98% of B&N's corporate political donations went to the Democrats, while 61% of Amazon's went to the Republicans?

Or maybe you'll be encouraged to get offline entirely and shop at an old–fashioned brick and mortar store upon hearing the news that Borders gave 100% or its donations to Democrats?

Hmm. I read this about ten seconds before buying something from Amazon. Good thing.



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George Bush: author

No, calm down. Not yet... And besides, when he finally gets around to it, it's almost a sure thing he'll use a ghoulwriter. But his ancestors are another matter entirely.

The censors at al-Azhar, Cairo's center of Islamic learning, have recommended the government ban a 19th century biography of the Prophet Mohammad by a scholar portrayed in the Arabic media as an ancestor of President Bush.

An al-Azhar official, who asked not to be named, said on Monday the ban applied to the original English version of The Life of Mohammad by the scholar George Bush, first published in 1830 and reissued in the United States in 2002.

Oh, come on... we all know illiteracy is genetic...



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Novelist full of opinions about opinions

Jonathan Franzen, inciting Maud to bust a verbal cap his ass, says writers oughtta shaddap about their political views. I think the quote may be out of context... At least in this article, it seems more like he's bemoaning the state of the author as public intellectual than pulling a Neal Pollack.



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fuck off. i mean really. who would say no to micheal moore. just speaking as the voice of non-bush america here. and there is a majority of non-bushes in america. just check out the non-mainstream media reapraisal of electronic voting.

Cleaning up for company

What happens when someone wakes you from your suburban slumber with a call asking whether you can entertain Michael Moore and assorted fans for a book signing on your dining table? Hypothetically speaking.



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did you learn to do that at blog camp? cool!

(posted by George)

The post-election tell-all killed by the mid-election tell-all

Next up, the pre-election tell-all. Watch for the 2006 release of Put a Little Muscle Into It: How the 2012 Schwarzenegger Campaign Wrestled America to the Ground like an Unsuspecting 1970s Gym Bunny.



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now, seeing that pic, i realise:

my bad. what was i thinking. it was just that crazy—objection to domestic and foreign death toll and torcher—talking.

thanks man~

I thought it was just me, and that I was being uncharitable about that smirk, but he really is saying, Hey, lookit this crazy getup, ma! isn't he? I've seen that before, that fratboy look of amusement with other cultures. What funny clothes! Hey, I could use this on Halloween!

G

Edited by author 11-22-2004 01:15 PM
Oh, come on, Anne, you can't seriously think that this guy is racist, can you?

Edited by author 11-22-2004 11:49 AM
george, i read my almost-15-year-old the news stories from your link. he asked me to print them to take to his high school. he's starting a peace group there and wants to get it going by bringing in this. too, i gave him a copy of this page of this bulletin board, and the poster from website kevin posted. opposition to the fascist, power-thirsty, racist, right-wing agenda is widespread. there is hope in the growing opposition, though it doesn't bring anyone back to life.

Haitian author's elderly uncle dies in US custody while seeking asylum

This story is utterly revolting. Edwigde Danicat's* elderly uncle dies in custody, WITH A LEGAL VISA and a family waiting to support him! I can't believe the Homeland security people are trying to defend themselves on this. They detained an elderly man, denied him his medicine and he died a short time later. Then they try to dismiss the importance of this by deriding the efficacy of his treatment (which they make out to be some kind of tribal witchdoctor potion). If the medication was so ineffectual anyway, why keep it from him? You're a bunch of rat-bastard killers. When is America going to wake up?



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for those interested in going to Ottawa to welcome Bush, this site will be helpful
http://www.nowar-paix.ca/

more on the electronic votes

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/Story.asp?ID=4688

Where are all the political American writers?
Well, if they have any sense, they've moved to Europe. Because they can't do anything here.

if you believe a Philip Roth book is going to change people's politics in 2004, then you might as well believe that Saul Bellow can melt metal with his mind. Any novel that doesn't feature a conspiracy theory involving the Knights Templar and a Renaissance cultural figure, a fat girl finding love, a pubescent male wizard, the apocalypse, or some combination of the above won't find an audience among the residents of that "foreign country" in the American center.

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I for one welcome our new French overlords
I've been saying all along that Canada should be trading with the EU, not the U.S. Now a couple of new books back up my argument.

Once you grasp that this transatlantic cold war is not only happening but rapidly intensifying — as Jeremy Rifkin and T.R. Reid, the authors of two almost simultaneous books on the European conundrum, agree — you see the major news events of the last year or two in a different light. Both the Iraq war and this year's presidential election, for instance, start to look like key symbolic episodes in the U.S.-Europe conflict.

What was the contest between Bush and John Kerry, after all, if not a proxy war between pommes frites and freedom fries, a referendum on Europe conducted among the American electorate? Kerry, we were told, spoke French and "looked French." These gibes might have played as humor on Fox News, but they were in deadly earnest.

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It's the end of the world as we know it
Richard Ford realizes he's been wrong about America all these years.

But with George Bush now re-elected, my disagreement with him and with most of my fellow voters, makes me think my country is not as good and as humane and as inclusive and as morally strong as I'd always thought it was; and that this leader, this majority, this set of values is how we really are over here now. Those who thought that the previous election was an aberration have now been proven to be entirely wrong. This is America now — which is quite hard to stomach if you love your country and consider yourself a patriot, as I do.

Humane? Inclusive? Has he ever met his fellow voters? Good luck, y'all.

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9/11 Report — literary thriller of the year!
Part of a proud tradition of "reconstructed nonfiction."

In retrospect, it's clear that the big group of authors and the highly charged subject matter contributed not only to the report's narrative emphasis (it's easier to get bipartisan approval for a story than for policy recommendations) but to the spare, Elements-of-Style quality of the writing, widely praised by reviewers. Every stroll away from just the facts would have made consensus that much tougher. Commission Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton told the New York Times, "Democrats pushed for adjectives to support President Clinton while Republicans pushed for adjectives to support President Bush. It was such a minefield that we finally cut out all adjectives and ended up with a sparse, narrative style."

No adjectives? That's my kind of book!

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Preaching to the converted
Jane Smiley is the latest writer to discuss the losing ways of the Democrats over at Slate.

The error that progressives have consistently committed over the years is to underestimate the vitality of ignorance in America. Listen to what the red state citizens say about themselves, the songs they write, and the sermons they flock to. They know who they are—they are full of original sin and they have a taste for violence. The blue state citizens make the Rousseauvian mistake of thinking humans are essentially good, and so they never realize when they are about to be slugged from behind.

Maybe we should just invade