Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Wanker of the day: Stephen Taylor.
Shorter Stephen: "I can't technically, per se, as it were, you know, literally, come up with anything she did that was illegal, immoral or unethical. But I'm going to whine like a little girl about it, anyway."
A couple pieces of advice, Steve, so you can avoid making this much of a dickwad of yourself next time. First, when your party decides to treat the media like crap, you really don't have the moral foundation to start bitching when they make that extra effort to see what you're up to, know what I'm sayin'?
And, second, it's kind of amusing to watch you carp and moan about a reporter digging up political dirt about a conference at which one of the guest speakers discussed (you guessed it) digging up political dirt. The irony there kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it?
AFTERSNARK: Maybe it's just me but is anyone else amused by the thought of members of a political party that ran on a platform of openness and transparency now whinging on that "Civitas is a private gathering of conservatives to discuss politics and ideas without the inhibitive hind-thought of media scrutiny." [Emphasis gleefully added.]
Hey, Steve ... you folks keep using that word "transparency." I do not think it means what you think it means.
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2 comments:
Maybe there's a problem with the message if you gotta "massage it" to make it appealing to voters. Not so honest, is it?
Neocon parallels – north and south of the 49th, OR the story of Harper's shiny new Black Helicopter:
Let's start with PM Harper's new plan for a black helicopter, to be used to fly Liberal MPs around the country so as to discover the vast rightwing conspiracy. Harper was reported in May 9th Hansard as saying he will recommend buying such a helicopter for such a purpose. He was trying to deflect attention away from MP Mark Holland's question as to whether there was a connection between one Tory MP's (Vellacott) recent attacks on the Supreme Court, and Harper's membership in a group called Civitas, with the focus being on their common aim to "destroy the independence of our judiciary."
Nice quip, Stephen. A few chuckles, and the subject deflected. Perhaps. Perhaps not.
But is there smoke we see out there? And could that mean there is a fire?
Is there a concerted "act of working in secret to obtain some goal, usually understood with negative connotations"? (as Wikipedia defines conspiracy).
Perhaps not. But is there a concerted acting together of rightwing elements in Canada, with a view to promoting changes in the Canadian body politic of revolutionary proportions? Decidedly yes. And one does not need Harper's Black Helicopter to find it ...
• It is up to bloggers to follow this trail, and expose this concerted action of neocons to subvert the existing Canadian political system and replace it with an intolerant, theocratic neocon system.
• First thing: we should agree to follow the following people in Harper's brand new, shiny Black Helicopter, on our quest for the Harper Neocon Plot.
Start with some of the characters ("Round up the usual suspects", says the cop in Casablanca) – as Public Eye Online (http://www.publiceyeonline.com/archives/2006_05.html) says:
"Republican pollster Frank Luntz will also be in attendance to deliver a speech on "Massaging the Conservative Message for Voters." Other topics of discussion will include "Euthanasia: The Next Battle in the Culture Wars" and "Supreme Future: The Role of Courts and Judges in Modern Democracies." Members of Civitas reportedly include former federal Conservative national campaign director Tom Flanagan, as well as Atlantic Institute for Market Studies president Brian Lee Crowley and former Montreal Economic Institute president Michel Kelly-Gagnon. The group's current president is Lorne Gunter, a columnist with the National Post. Civitas was founded following the 1996 Winds of Change conference organized by Ezra Levant and David Frum. Civitas's 2003 annual general meeting made headlines when future Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a presentation suggesting the Conservatives would need to adopt a more "incremental" approach if they wanted to win government. No word yet on whether Civitas members will be sacrificing goats or nubile virgins at this year's meeting."
• Flanagan? Calgary School? How do they fit in with Harper and his shiny new Black Helicopter? Well, back in 2004 Harper was heading Alliance Party, and some people were talking about the future – the takeover of the old Progressive Conservatives, gaining power in Canada – those sort of things (see The Man Behind Stephen Harper: Tom Flanagan, The Walrus Magazine, October 2004):
"The looming power struggle is not only for the soul of the new party. It is also over Stephen Harper's political future: how much is he willing to water down the ecumenical wine required to win the PMO? Rick Anderson calls it "the defining question of his leadership -- whether he'll fudge the party's policies or not." But back in Alberta, Ted Byfield, the unabashed voice of the West since the Calgary School's professors were pups, sees it another way -- in terms Leo Strauss might have approved. "All these positions which Harper cherishes are there because of a group people in Calgary -- Flanagan most prominent among them," Byfield says. "I don't think he knows how to compromise. It's not in his genes. The issue now is: how do we fool the world into thinking we're moving to the left when we're not?" To those who are unnerved by that prospect, Byfield offers no cheer. "Those people who said they're dangerous -- they're right!" he says. "People with ideas are dangerous. If Harper gets elected, he'll make a helluva change in this country.""
Now, let's fly Harpers little Black Helicopter over Calgary, in May 1996, and hover over the Winds of Change conference. Here's what David Taras of the University of Calgary has to say in The Winds of Right-wing Change in Canadian Journalism, about that conference, summary first, quotes afterwards (see http://info.wlu.ca/~wwwpress/jrls/cjc/BackIssues/21.4/taras.html):
• the aim was to unite the right in order to achieve a merger of the Progs and Alliance so as to gain power and implement a rightwing agenda;
• the attendees were heedful of the success over years of the neocon movement in the USA to fund talk shows and think tanks and to take over the political agenda there, leading to taking over the government (via Congress and the White House) and implementing the rightwing social, cultural and political agenda);
• they would agree on steps to be taken to unite the right, win power and implement change.
In the words of David Taras:
"The Winds of Change conference, which took place in Calgary in May 1996, brought together approximately 70 leading right-wing thinkers and activists in an effort to bring unity to conservative forces before the next federal election, expected in 1997. The goal, according to organizer David Frum, was to discuss the prospects for a merger between the Reform and Progressive Conservative parties. The stark reality facing Conservatives is that a continued fracturing of the right-wing vote is likely to ensure not only a victory for Jean Chretien's Liberals in 1997 but that the Liberals remain in power indefinitely."
"Frum believed that a vigorous airing of views behind closed doors, steps to develop a common agenda, and the bon amie of personal contact would create the momentum that was needed."
And:
"The triumph of a right-wing agenda [in the USA] is not simply, one can argue, the result of liberal failures or flavour-of-the-month ideas that have caught the momentary fancy of the public."
"The legitimacy of conservative viewpoints is the product, rather, of a sustained and concerted effort. A right-wing information infrastructure has been built up over the period of the last 15 years -- an infrastructure that has the capacity to shape public opinion through a variety of means. Think tanks such as the Fraser and C. D. Howe Institutes, the conservative ideological tilt and corporate boosterism of Canadian newspapers, and the rise of right-wing talk radio are all evidence, one can argue, of the extent to which conservative institutions and ideas now dominate the public sphere."
"The Winds of Change conference in Calgary brought together some of the often disparate elements of this formidable infrastructure."
There, now: the seeds of the rightwing movement laid bare. Add top this Harper's speech of 1997, and in 2003. Mix this brew, stir well, and consider it carefully.
Now it is over to you, bloggers, to continue this story and tell the Canadian voters what really is happening in Ottawa right now, despite the muzzles put upon the New Tories by Harper.
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