GEORGE CARLIN: WE LIKE WAR!

What can I say? This is George Carlin! His "mind doesn't work that way."

"You probably noticed that I don't feel about that war the way we were told we were supposed to feel about that war?  How we were ordered and instructed by the United States Government how we were supposed to feel about that war? My mind doesn't work that way. I got this real moron habit you know, it's called thinking>  I am not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."

WE LIKE WAR!!!

Rest in Peace George. You would have far too much material to work with these days but we miss you ~~ and Bill ~~ more and more every day. Good philosophers are hard to find!


GEORGE CARLIN ON OUR SIMILARITIES

ON SAVING THE PLANET

HOMELESSNESS AND GOLF

THE AMERICAN DREAM

GEORGE ON 911 AND THE NWO

GEORGE ON CONSPIRACY THEORISTS

THE MODERN MAN

Sorry I could not stop at just one. George speaks it all and, colourful language included, nails it all bang on the head. Please enjoy! He is so completely outspoken and outrageous, I sometimes wonder, as I have regarding Bill Hicks, if his end was not pushed forward just a little. But no, I am being paranoid again......

OBAMA TO SELL US AUTO GIANT GM TO CHINA AS PENTAGON LOOKS TO COUP

 I do not agree with quite a few of the political statements and aspersions cast in this article, let me say that from the outset. But the information on the sales and attitudes we face are important enough to let them slide by. The attempts to push so much guilt onto Saudi Arabia does not ring true to me, however much the Saudis are among Israel's staunchest supporters. At most, they were involved somewhat but not so much as intimated below.

  

 September 29, 2010

PAKALERT PRESS

 

An interesting report prepared by Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade for President Medvedev for his visit to China this week states that United States President Barack Obama“agreed in principal” to sell the American governments 61% ownership of US auto giant General Motors (GM) to China’s SAIC Motor Corporation, who has been GM’s partner and instrumental in their success in that Communist Nation and who already owns half of GM’s Indian division. [photo above showing him bowing to Chinese Communist leader Hu Jintao] has.


The American based Gather Business News Channel reporting on this sale of one the United States most revered industrial icons states that Obama is “holding off” on the sale of GM to China until after the November mid-term elections due to the “political backlash” he and his Democratic Party would encounter from their citizens, and as they state:

“The sticky issue is the potential political backlash caused by selling an American icon, which was rescued from failure by the American taxpayers, to a non-American company. When the general public is allowed to purchase stock, buying is not limited to domestic investors. Anyone from foreign companies to sovereign wealth funds can purchase shares.”

More interesting, however, than this trade ministry report is the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) addendum attached to it warning that the United States Military may very well be mounting a coup against Obama to prevent not only the sale of GM to China, but also to protect the United States from what they believe is their current President’s effort to destroy their country from within.

 

Fueling the Pentagon’s fears over Obama’s selling GM to China is that they are one of the US Military’s largest defense contractors holding over 150 contracts worth nearly $70 million, one of the most important being the US Navy contract for GM’s Honeoye Falls plant to design and build a hydrogen fuel cell to work on Navy vehicles underwater and just awarded to them yesterday.

The Pentagon’s fears of China are being echoed today by New Zealand [the World's largest dairy exporter who signed the West’s first free trade agreement with the Communists] whose government has begun warning of the Asian giants plans for buying up their dairy companies and gaining control over all of their Nations natural resources.

Britain, also, is being faced with China’s growing appetite for foreign company acquisitions with one of their country’s biggest food businesses, United Biscuits, about to be taken over by Shanghai-based Bright Food.

Though the Pentagon has called for the restarting of stalled military relations with China they have been met with signs of a growing trade war erupting between the US and the Communists, made even worse today by China’s slapping a 105% import tax on all chicken being imported from America.

Fueling China’s anger against the American’s was the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this past Thursday denying the application by China’s largest credit rating firm, Dagone Global Credit Rating Company, to become a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) in the United States.  A move, China says, that was in retaliation for Dagone becoming the first International credit agency to strip from the American’s their AAA rating due to their staggering debt now estimated to be $200 Trillion.

 

The coup actions being made against Obama by US Military Forces, this FSB addendum says, is being spearheaded by the most feared Federal Prosecutor in America, Patrick Fitzgerald, who became an Assistant United States Attorney in New York City in 1988 and in 1996 was appointed as the US National Security Coordinator for investigating Osama bin Laden.

Fearing an attack upon the United States was “imminent”, the FSB continues, Fitzgerald was “placed” by his US Military backed allies in Obama’s home city of Chicago on September 1, 2001, just 10 days prior to the attacks of 9/11, a city that he had visited only one day in his life.

Now according to this FSB report, the US Military’s “placing” of Fitzpatrick in Chicago, just days before the attacks of 9/11, was due to their “growing worries” of what they called a “radical and powerful” Islamic terror cell being funded by Saudi Arabia and linked to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, elements of a 1960’s US terror group called the SDS, one of Israel’s Mossad most highly placed US agents, a labor organization named the Service Employees Union International (SEIU), and, most importantly, a seemingly obscure Illinois State Senator named Barack Hussein Obama.

Though we had covered some of these Obama “associations”, so to speak, with many of these FSB named elements in our August 26, 2010 report “President Barack Obama: Friend or Foe? You’re Going To Be Surprised!” it is important to note that the Israeli Mossad agent named is Rahm Emanuel, and who aside from being Obama’s White House Chief of Staff is also the son of one of Israel’s most feared Irgun terrorists operating in that Nation prior to their 1948 independence.

Unlike his father, however, Emanuel “turned away” from Israel, and her interests, and through his and Obama’s use of a newly created Israeli American lobby organization named J Street are said to have caused more damage to the Jewish state than all of her enemies have been able to do in the past over 60 years.

And in newly released documents J Street has been found to have been almost entirely funded by the Hungarian-American currency speculator George Soros, otherwise known as “the Man Who Broke the Bank of England” after he made a reported $1 billion during the 1992 Black Wednesday UK currency crises” and who stands to make billions more upon the predicted collapse of the US Dollar.

To fully understand the importance of this FSB report we are quoting from (which is 1,432 pages) it is, perhaps, best to paraphrase its conclusions of what the US Military so fears about Obama:

• 
  

  After the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 the Islamic Nation of Saudi Arabia began planning for an equal collapse of the United States.

• 
  

  Saudi Arabia’s plan for destroying the United States is based upon the model used against the Soviet Union, namely involving it an unwinnable war in Afghanistan so as to break it economically.

• 
  

  Thorough the funding of the Louis Farrakhan’s Chicago based Nation of Islam, Saudi Arabia could create within the United States a “fifth column” of Islamic, Jewish and American communist radicals to seize control of the government thus accelerating its downfall.

• 
  

  The “fifth column” to be created would comprise elements of America’s left-wing propaganda media outlets, powerful left-wing unions, and powerful banking and financial interests.

• 
  

  A catastrophic attack would have to be made against the United States. This attack happened on September 11, 2001 and was carried out exclusively by Saudi Arabia Nationals.

• 
  

  Once America was embroiled in war its Central Bank (Federal Reserve) would unleash upon the United States an unlimited about of money.

• 
  

  Within 5 years (it actually took 6) the United States, because of war and staggering debt, would be near the point of bankruptcy.

• 
  

  By the 2008 US Presidential election cycle the United States would be “primed” for economic collapse thus ensuring the election of the chosen “fifth column” President, Barack Hussein Obama.

• 
  

  Upon taking office the “fifth column” President Obama would accelerate the destruction of the current United States between the years of 2009-2010.

• 
  

  By late 2010 or early 2011 the United States would be “primed” for a rebellion which would be smashed by those forces loyal to the “fifth column” President.

• 
  

  Upon its successful suppression of rebellion, the United States would then move to take over Canada and incorporate its southern provinces into a new North America Union and giving their Arctic regions to Russia in exchange for a non-aggression treaty to stay out of the conflict.

  incorporate its southern provinces

  into a new North America Union

  and giving their Arctic regions

  to Russia in exchange for a non-aggression treaty to stay out of the conflict.

  Fortunately though, at least for the American’s, US Military Intelligence Forces loyal to Fitzpatrick intercepted the conversations held between Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this past week wherein Louis Farrakhan, and another US radical group called the New Black Panther Party, “solicited” the Iranian leaders “help” in Obama’s “fifth column” plan to stage another attack upon the United States, which, of course, Ahmadinejad declined to be any part of.into Russia in exchange for a non-aggression treaty to stay out of the conflict.

Most interesting to note about these FSB “conclusions”, though not contained in this report, is that Obama, during his 2008 campaign, claimed to have visited “57 US States with one left to go”, which seemed odd giving that the United States only has 50.

However, in a US government handbook being given out this year to all American students the picture of the United States Flag does, indeed, have on it 59 stars; the significance being that the stars of this flag represent their 50 States and when added to the 9 southern Canadian Provinces the US is said will take over (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island) brings this FSB report into a much clearer light.

I DON'T THINK SO! WOULD BE THE RESPONSE OF CANADIANS!

Even more interesting is this FSB report detailing the importance to this “fifth column”Andy Stern, who has been called “the most powerful labor leader in America” who without his help Obama would never have been elected President, and who along with Nation of Islam leader Farrakhan and the 1960’s radical SDS member William Ayers, have been the most frequent visitors to Obama’s White House. cabal of the Service Employees Union International and its leader 

But, not to what Stern has done in the past does this FSB report warn about, it is what he is doing now and could very well lead to the “end game” of this conflict being played out much sooner than anyone expects.

For according to this FSB report, since Stern’s resignation from his SEUI leadership position on April 13^th of this year he has been “instrumental” in planning the next attack upon the United States.

Fortunately though, at least for the American’s, US Military Intelligence Forces loyal to Fitzpatrick intercepted the conversations held between Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this past week wherein Louis Farrakhan, and another US radical group called the New Black Panther Party, “solicited” the Iranian leaders “help” in Obama’s “fifth column” plan to stage another attack upon the United States, which, of course, Ahmadinejad declined to be any part of.

Upon Fitzpatrick’s gaining this intelligence from the US Military he ordered immediate raids upon the terror cells orchestrating his attack, including Stern’s “right hand man” Service Employees International Union steward Joe Iosbaker and his partner, veteran activist Stephanie Weiner operating out of, you guessed it, Chicago.

To what intelligence Fitzpatrick has gained from these past weekend raids into the very heart of this “fifth column” this FSB report doesn’t say. What it does say, however, about the reasons behind all of these parties’ actions though, especially Saudi Arabia’s, is being secretly echoed the World over by those “forces” seeking to warn humanity of what is soon to come, and is, perhaps, best summarized by Germany’s Der Spiegel News Service’s September 1^st report which, in part, says:

“A study by a German military think tank has analyzed how “peak oil” might change the global economy. The internal draft document ~ leaked on the Internet ~ shows for the first time how carefully the German government has considered a potential energy crisis.

The term “peak oil” is used by energy experts to refer to a point in time when global oil reserves pass their zenith and production gradually begins to decline. This would result in a permanent supply crisis ~ and fear of it can trigger turbulence in commodity markets and on stock exchanges.

The issue is so politically explosive that it’s remarkable when an institution like the Bundeswehr, the German military, uses the term “peak oil” at all. But a military study currently circulating on the German blogosphere goes even further.

The leak has parallels with recent reports from the UK. Only last week the Guardian newspaper reported that the British Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is keeping documents secret which show the UK government is far more concerned about an impending supply crisis than it cares to admit.

According to the Guardian, the DECC, the Bank of England and the British Ministry of Defence are working alongside industry representatives to develop a crisis plan to deal with possible shortfalls in energy supply.”

To the final outcome of all of these events it is not in our knowing, other than to note, as we had in done in our September 26^th report “Obama Prepares For “Fortress America” As Global Food And Solar Crisis Near”, that we are not only living in the most perilous times of our lives, the clock is clicking ever downward towards the abyss.

SHOULD THE US SELL GM TO CHINA? 

Obama, China, and Wishful Thinking About American Jobs

GM unloads Hummer to Chinese buyer

CANADIANS: FREEDOM OF SPEECH? HERE? YOU SURE ABOUT THAT?

CANADIANS! WAKE UP AND SEE 
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO US! 

WHAT IS AND HAS BEEN DONE TO US! 

EVEN WORSE, WHAT WE ARE BECOMING. 

RECLAIM OUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH 

WHILE YOU REMEMBER SUCH A THING 

HAS ALWAYS BEEN A CANADIAN RIGHT 
TO BE CHERISHED.

NOW IT IS GOING, GOING,
~ ALMOST GONE. 

The following is a letter sent to Arthur Topham who was defending freedom of the press in the Supreme Court of Canada for daring to "cross the line". Then follows a recent newspaper article regarding the author. In this article you will read how the media shapes our ways of perceiving truths. 

January 5, 2008
Edmonton, Alberta

Mr. Topham,

RE:    KILLING THE HUNDREDTH MONKEY:The Battle for Control and Censorship of Canada’s Internet by the B’nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress

http://www.radicalpress.com/?p=628

“I don’t know where to start, Mr. Topham.  Your submission to the CHRC concerning the frivolous and vexatious charges against you by Abrams and his ilk almost brought me to tears.  Now I am incensed and extremely mad and disgusted and I want to help you.  I only wish I were 25 years younger so that I could defend you.  My cheque payable to you for $100.00 is enclosed.  I hope it will help in some way.

I was born 711/2 years ago in Edmonton, had my public schooling here and then went to the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, for my post graduate degrees in Arts and in Law.  They were the BEST five years of my life; I had the finest professors and went to classes with some of the finest Saskatchewanites in the world.  I graduated in 1963 and now I am retired, but I CEASE to be retired from life, from persevering, from writing, from criticizing and from asking questions.  

Why am I so grateful for those years at the U of S?  Because my professors taught me to THINK RATIONALLY (even though I tend to be an emotional person), they taught me debating skills and to critically examine issues from many perspectives.  I already knew how to criticize constructively and how to advance positive arguments and theses; they simply reinforced them for me.  And I will forever be grateful to those years at my alma mater.

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, before his untimely death:

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

I have never seen things as bad as they are now in Canada and, indeed, in the USA and elsewhere on this insane planet.  Not only have we become complacent, apathetic and silent, we have become silenced by sinister forces working surreptitiously to bring about our virtual downfall, to silence us from speaking out and speaking the truth about matters that concern all of us.  

We have become afraid of our shadows.  

We cannot speak out against iniquities for FEAR that the CHRC and their provincial counterparts will swoop down upon us, dig their talons into us and silence us forever.  

These commissions wield more power than our elected representatives.  

IN MY HUMBLE OPINION ALL OF THESE INIQUITOUS COMMISSIONS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED FORTHWITH!

The worst part about all of this nonsense is that even my friends and colleagues will not openly discuss these matters with me because of fear that the “walls have ears.”  Those that will I can count on two fingers.  Otherwise, if they don’t walk away they simply say that we don’t want to discuss it ~ a form of burying your head in the sand.  And that infuriates me!  But you know the old expression:  “You can lead a horse to water but….”

I see now that even Zundel’s young German female lawyer is being raked over the coals in Germany because she defended him at his trial.  She stands to lose her license as a lawyer and this is a crying, bloody shame.

John Bryant offered these words many years ago:

“The reason men are silenced is not because they speak falsely, but because they speak the truth.  This is because if men speak falsehoods, their own words can be used against them; while if they speak truly, there is nothing which can be used against them ~ except force.”

For years now I have been reading about how Abrams and his cohorts have silenced people by bringing forth unproven allegations of hate to the CHRC.  I have seen, as you so succinctly pointed out, how the CHRC convicted every Respondent and how that Commission uses its office to spy surreptitiously on an unwary public.  

Our inalienable right to speak the truth, offer opinions and observations are being eroded inch by inch not only by these Commissions but through the complicity of people like Abrams.  You have done much more research into these matters than I, but from what I have read and observed you ARE telling the truth and as Voltaire once said:  “I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY, BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.”  And at this point, Mr. Topham, I am one of your defenders and will assist you in any way possible!

This nation is no longer a democracy where the will of the majority prevails, but a dictatorship by the unconscionable will of the MINORITIES!  It was just last year that the Muslims in Ontario tried, unsuccessfully, to have Sharia law form part of the laws of our land.  

I thanked the legislature of Ontario for denying this outrageous request.  

We have had to BOW to the minorities for many years and I blame this all on Trudeau and his cronies but, more importantly, I blame the Canadian public generally for allowing this to happen.  At one time, Mr. Topham, on a scale of 1 to 10, I was an 8 on being a relatively proud Canadian.  

Today I am an Albertan (who also happens to be a Separatist) and about a -1 on being a Canadian.  There is no more mettle in Canadians any longer, but you have certainly shown it and you are worthy of being supported.  I wonder if I should weep for Canada?

“Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie ~
But rather mourn the apathetic throng ~
The cowed and the meek -
Who see the world’s greatest anguish and its wrong
And dare not speak.”

RALPH CHAPLIN
1887-1961

Please keep me informed and do NOT relent for I will stand beside you!

Yours truly,

AL ROMANCHUK

IN CANADA, AL ROMANCHUK "CROSSED THE LINE" 

http://revisionistreview.blogspot.com/2010/09/in-canada-al-romanchuk-crossed-line.html

Editor's Note: The populist, anti-usury Social Credit party of Canada is campaigning against an onerous sales tax known as "HST." One of the campaigners, Al Romanchuk, has had to resign after daring to speak favorably about former prisoner of conscience Ernst Zundel.

This is another indication of how farcial and infantilized is our public discourse in the vaunted western "democracies." As soon as anyone contradicts, in the least detail, the smallest portion of one of the System's quasi-religious hypnotic beliefs, they have to go, whether they question the tale of mass executions in gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau, or the story of how the Pentagon was damaged and World Trade Center Building 7 fell on Sept. 11, 2001. 

To doubt any aspect of these official accounts is to invite opprobrium, shunning, fines, even prison. Need we state the obvious? Only frauds frightened out of their wits by skeptics need to employ such enforcement tactics.

In the case at hand, all Mr. Romanchuk did was praise a heretic; that was enough to cause him to be ostracized and shunned by the witch-hunters. 

litical scientist Doug McArthur of Simon Fraser University dutifully reiterated the fundamental conformist principle (in case we forgot): "Basically, what they've got to do is, as soon as somebody crosses the line, you've got to cut them loose."

Yassuh, boss. May I ask a question? Who's next? What constitutes "crossing the line"? 

What happens to a society that stigmatizes and shuns doubters, dissenters and heretics? 

What if there were a Diogenes among them? 

Isn't this a loss to dialogue and democracy? 

Does any of this matter, or is the only issue that of absolute obedience to the Zionist thought police?

Note the cheap shot accusation leveled at Ernst in the Canadian Press report (below): "inciting hatred." 

Has any Zionist ever been prosecuted in Canada for "inciting hatred" of Germans? 

Telling the truth about the rabbis constitutes hatred, according to the halacha of rabbinic Judaism (memo to rabbis: I dare you to challenge me to produce the relevant citations); ergo it is "hatred" in the eyes of the Canadian media for Zundel to offer his version of the truth about Auschwitz.

We in the West are undoubtedly ruled by the rabbinic mentality, even as media-celebrated atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens make a lot of noise mostly about Christian influence. Christianity, and guys like Al Romanchuk, are easy targets for cowards.

Richard Dawkins was a student and graduate of the Frankfurt School of thought. As I result I have known from the beginning of his recent rise to in-your-face-atheism so prevalent today that he operates with and for forces that are less than spiritual in nature. Might I also add, just for fun, that the modern populist atheist movement is funded by the Chabad Lubavitch to a great extent hence their well advertised attacks against Christianity during the Christmas Season. Both groups wish the complete abolition of Christ in our society because Christianity is the moral background of the West. And that, folks, is part of what the Frankfurt School was all about.

~ Michael Hoffman, Sept. 28, 2010, www.RevisionistHistory.org

Resignation saves face for B.C. HST foes

Canvasser quits after defending 
Holocaust denier Zundel

The Canadian Press 
September 27, 2010

Anti-HST ("harmonized sales tax") movement organizers in B.C. say they can't be held responsible for checking everyone who lends their support, including people with potentially extreme political views. 

The Fight HST group got an embarrassing lesson over the weekend in the risks associated with grassroots campaigns after a local canvasser resigned for comments defending Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel of Toronto.

EMBARRASSING LESSON? The depths of this lesson are extreme, so extreme few even know they have been taught. This is a CANADIAN lesson in criminal behaviour, not just the HST group!

Al Romanchuk, listed as a lead canvasser in Kelowna for Fight HST's plans to launch political recall campaigns, stepped down after an interview with the Vancouver Sun. 'We don't ask people's political affiliations. That's why this organization has been so successful.'B.C. Fight HST organizer Chris Delaney. 

"My friend Ernst the bastards crucified him," Romanchuk told the newspaper. "The guy can't speak his mind in a democracy. What kind of country is this that you can't speak your mind?"

Zundel was extradited from Canada in 2005 and served five years in a German prison. He was convicted on 14 counts of inciting hatred for years of anti-Semitic activities, including contributing to a website devoted to denying the Holocaust, which is a crime in Germany.

Fight HST organizer Chris Delaney said he spoke with Romanchuk over the weekend, and Romanchuk offered his resignation on his own."We contacted him about it, we didn't have to tell him [to step down], he decided to leave," Delaney said in an interview Monday.

"We try and check people out, but you can't know everything about them. We don't ask people's political affiliations. That's why this organization has been so successful. We've got 7,000 volunteers and every now and again you're going to get somebody that's a little bit out there." 

Romanchuk was not available for comment.

The anti-HST movement, led by former Social Credit premier Bill Vander Zalm, has been fueled by anger across the province over the Liberal government's decision to implement the harmonized sales tax, which took effect on July 1.

The province announced the tax change shortly after last spring's provincial election campaign, during which the Liberal Party said it wasn't contemplating a move to the HST.

They gathered the signatures of more than half a million people earlier this year, which prompted the government to call a referendum for September 2011.

Until then, opponents of the HST are planning to use unique provincial legislation to recall MLAs beginning in the new year. The signatures of 40 per cent of registered voters in a single riding can force a by-election.

Romanchuk was listed on the Fight HST website as the lead canvasser for Kelowna -Lake Country. 

Vander Zalm said he didn't know Romanchuk and said it was a local matter.

Political scientist Doug McArthur of Simon Fraser University said this type of controversy is a risk for any grassroots movement that casts such a wide net for local supporters.

In this case, he said it appears the Fight HST leadership handled it as well as it could by quickly cutting ties with Romanchuk.

"Basically, what they've got to do is, as soon as somebody crosses the line, you've got to cut them loose," McArthur said.

McArthur said Romanchuk's comments likely wouldn't hurt the anti-HST movement, unless controversy surfaces among other supporters. The NDP, which has sometimes aligned itself with the anti-HST campaign, said Vander Zalm and his group appear to have handled the issue appropriately. 

"First off, there's no place for these types of comments in Canadian political discourse, they're just right out there on the fringe," said the party's public safety critic, Mike Farnworth. 

"But I think what it also says is, whenever grassroots movements start, particularly on issues that ignite people right across the political spectrum, you get the mainstream range but then you also quite often end up getting people on the fringes."

CANADIANS: AN OPEN LETTER TO CANADIAN JOURNALISTS

BIG BROTHER HARPER 

TELLS US WHAT TO THINK 

~ AND HOW TO THINK IT ~ !!!! ??? 

23 Sep 2010

Canadian Association of Journalists
 

A few weeks ago, many journalists nodded knowingly at this Tweet 

by Canadian Press reporter Jennifer Ditchburn. 

"My Friday giggle... a spokesperson who emails me "on background" and then says: I can't answer your question."

It's a bit of gallows humour about a problem that began as a minor annoyance for reporters working on Parliament Hill in Ottawa and has grown into a genuine and widespread threat to the public's right to know.

Most Canadians are aware of the blacked-out Afghan detainee documents and the furor over MPs' secret expenses. But the problem runs much deeper. 

Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, 

the flow of information out of Ottawa 

has slowed to a trickle. 

Cabinet ministers and civil servants 

are muzzled. Access to Information requests 

are stalled and stymied 

by political interference. 

Genuine transparency

is replaced by slick propaganda

and spin designed 

to manipulate public opinion.

The result is a citizenry with limited insight into the workings of their government and a diminished ability to hold it accountable. As journalists, we fear this will mean more government waste, more misuse of taxpayer dollars, more scandals Canadians won't know about until it's too late.

It's been four years since Harper muzzled his cabinet ministers and forced reporters to put their names on a list during rare press conferences in hopes of being selected to ask the prime minster a question.

It's not uncommon for reporters 

to be blackballed,

barred from posing questions 

on behalf of Canadians.

More recently, information control has reached new heights. Access to public events is now restricted. Photographers and videographers have been replaced by hand-out photos and footage shot by the prime minister's press office and blitzed out to newsrooms across Canada. 

It's getting tougher to find an independent eye recording history, a witness seeing things how they really happened ~ not how politicians wish they'd happened. Did cabinet ministers grimace while they tasted seal meat in the Arctic last summer? Canadians will never know. Photographers were barred from the fake photo-op.

Those hand-out shots are, unfortunately, widely used by media outlets, often without the caveat that they are not real journalism.

In the end, that means Canadian only get a sanitized and staged version of history ~ not the real history.

Meanwhile, the quality of factual information provided to the public has declined steadily. Civil servants ~  scientists, doctors, regulators, auditors and policy experts, those who draft public policy and can explain it best to the population ~ cannot speak to the media. 

Instead, reporters have to deal with an armada of press officers who know very little or nothing at all about a reporter's topic and who answer tough questions with vague talking points vetted by layers of political staff and delivered by email only.

In addition, the Access to Information system has been "totally obliterated" by delays and denials, according to a scathing report by the country's information commissioner. Requests are met with months-long delays, needless censoring and petty political interference ~ the most cringe-worthy recent example involves a bureaucrat forced to make a mad dash to the mailroom to rescue a report on Canada's real estate holdings after a senior political aide ordered the report "unreleased."

Politicians should not get to decide what information is released. This information belongs to Canadians, the taxpayers who paid for its production. Its release should be based on public interest, not political expediency.

This breeds contempt and suspicion of government. How can people know the maternal-health initiative has been well thought out or that the monitoring of aboriginal bands has been done properly if all Canadians hear is: "Trust us"? 

Reporters have been loath to complain about this problem. But this needs to change. This is not about deteriorating working conditions for journalists. It's about the deterioration of democracy itself.

Last month, reporters gathered in Montreal at the Canadian Association of Journalists' conference to discuss these issues. On behalf of our members, we are calling on journalists to stand together and push back by refusing to accept vague email responses to substantive questions that require an interview with a cabinet minister or a senior civil servant. We are also asking journalists to stop running hand-out photos and video clips.

We are also calling on journalists to explain better to readers and viewers just how little information Ottawa has provided for a story. Every time a minister refuses to comment, a critical piece of information is withheld or an access request is delayed, Canadians deserve to know.

Finally, we are asking editors to devote the time and money it takes to dig beyond the stage-managed press conferences to get to the real story.

This is not about ideology or partisanship on the part of journalists. Journalists aren't looking to judge the policies of the Conservative government. Rather, we want to ensure the public has enough information to judge for themselves.

Journalists are your proxies. At our best, we ask the questions you might ask if you had a few minutes with your prime minister or with Environment Canada's top climatologist. When we can't get basic information, we can't hold your government to account on your behalf. In order to have a genuine debate about matters of national interest, people need information. In order for citizens to be involved and engaged and make smart choices at voting time, they need information. It's time we got some.

Hélène Buzzetti
President, Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery

Mary Agnes Welch
President, Canadian Association of Journalists

Brian Myles
President, Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec

Kim Trynacity
President, Alberta Legislature Press Gallery

Christine Morris
President, New Brunswick Press Gallery

David Cochrane
President, Newfoundland Press Gallery

Réal Séguin
President, Quebec Press Gallery

Wayne Thibodeau
President, Press Gallery of the Prince Edward Island Legislative Assembly

Karen Briere
President, Saskatchewan Legislature Press Gallery Association

 

  

"Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you have to be without one, be without the strategy." General Norman Schwarzkopf

I posted a partial list of public servants who have run afoul of Stephen Harper, building on a list compiled by Jill Mahoney, in the Globe and Mail. I picked up a few more from Chantal Hebert, and now the Vancouver Sun has added several more.

And what were their crimes? They were under the mistaken belief that they worked for the public, hence the name.

But now that we are officially a fascist country, we need to change their name to Harper Servants. Although 'servants' gives a suggestion that they are free to serve others. Let's make it Harper Slaves, who answer to him and him alone. Harper of course, answers to Guy Giorno, as does God himself, but that's an entirely different matter.

The additions from the Vancouver Sun:

Adrian Measner: President of the Canadian Wheat Board since December 2002, his appointment was terminated in November 2006 by then-agriculture minister Chuck Strahl. Measner disagreed with the government's plan to end the board's monopoly over the sale of barley and wheat.

Sheridan Scott: Head of the Competition Bureau, she ran afoul of Environment Minister Jim Prentice over a brewery takeover. She resigned in December 2008 a few days early after being told her appointment would not be renewed. She was first appointed in January 2004.

Steve Sullivan: The first victims of crime ombudsman was not renewed after his three-year term expired in April 2010. Sullivan was critical of the "tough on crime" agenda of the government.

Bernard Shapiro: The first ethics commissioner was appointed in 2004 for a five-year term but clashed repeatedly with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He resigned suddenly in March 2007.

Jean-Guy Fleury: The chair of the Immigration and Refugee Board resigned in March 2007, about six months before his five-year term expired. The resignation coincided with government actions to assert more control over appointments at the board and a letter from then-minister Diane Finley that was critical of the board.

Robert Marleau: The former clerk of the House of Commons was appointed as the Information Commissioner in 2007 to a seven-year term. He resigned after only two and a half years for personal reasons — but he had made public comments about funding cuts to his office and was skeptical of the government's commitment to reforming the Access Act.

Arthur Carty: National science adviser. His position was phased out when he retired on March 31, 2008. Carty was critical of the government's decision to disband the office. He was first appointed by then-prime minister Paul Martin and reported directly to him. After the Conservatives formed the government, he was shifted to the Industry portfolio.

And Lawrence Martin added a new one:

Michel Arpin: CRTC vice-chair Michel Arpin is being ushered out the door. His term expires at the end of the month; he’d like to stay on, but his request is not being granted.

And let's not forget Sheila Fraser, who is currently the victim of smear campaign, orchestrated by Kory Teneycke and Sun Media, in preparation of some reports she will soon be tabling.

My list so far, includes:

Michael Arpin
Remy Beauregard
Arthur Carty
Marty Cheliak
Richard Colvin
Jean-Guy Fleury
Sheila Fraser
Linda Keen
Paul Kennedy
Kevin Lynch
Robert Marleau
Marc Mayrand
Adrian Measner
Jeff Monaghan
Kevin Page
Luc Pomerleau
Louis Ranger
Sheridan Scott
Bernard Shapiro
Munir Sheikh
Pat Stogran
Steve Sullivan
Peter Tinsley
Mark Tushingham
Dan Veniez
Konrad von Finckenstein

Let me know if you have others I can add to the list. I'm also compiling a separate list of those in the private sector who have been demoralized by the Harper goon squad. That one is even longer.

The lower echelon of those who matter to the Canadian Dictator.

And as Lawrence Martin has written regarding Harper's battle with the CRTC because they did not fast-track his bid to have Fox News North a mandatory station:

Observers of Mr. Harper have long noted that he doesn’t take kindly to commissions or agencies or anyone else who tends to get in the way of his wishes. It’s only necessary to look at what happened at, among others, Rights and Democracy, Elections Canada, the Nuclear Safety Commission and Parliament.


So the question naturally arises: Do the CRTC board members actually think they can get away with delaying or denying Mr. Harper’s wishes on Fox News North? Do they really believe they have some kind of independent power?


The CRTC chair is Konrad von Finckenstein, and his term doesn’t end until 2012. But insiders report that Mr. Harper now wants him out well before that date and replaced by a rubber stamper. The independently minded Mr. von Finckenstein, who did not respond to queries on the matter, is reportedly being offered judgeships and ambassadorships, one post being Chile. So far, he’s not biting. But the bait might get bigger.

And don't be thinking you're going to get out of watching the trash. Stephen Harper has appointed 11 of the 14 current members of the CRTC. That may be all you get to watch.

911: THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE: CUTE SONG

Yet Another "9/11 Was An Inside Job" Song

By Scootie Royale and his computer

OBSCENE ISRAELI BEHAVIOUR BEHIND THE SCENES AT UN

See more pictures.

Aktham Suliman, the representative of al-Jazeera to the 54 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference in Vienna and the chief of the al-Jazeera bureau in Berlin, did not surprise me with his news reported from the IAEA press room in Vienna about being physically assaulted by the bodyguards of the Israel envoy while he was doing his work reporting from the conference on last Sept. 24 2010.

I was also subjected to repeated and deliberate insulting gestures and obscene words by the bodyguards of the Israeli delegation to the IAEA. In my case the humiliations began on the evening of Sept. 22 and lasted until September 23, and only ended with the intervention of the UN security and after it became intolerable, was hindering my work and I could not keep silence anymore. (click on the pictures to make them bigger)

This is the first time I have seen “somebody” traveling as a diplomat but still violating the house rules at the UN which ensure a peaceful atmosphere for the people from many nations who work there to pursue their duties. The security staff at the UN appears to me to be very professional, they deal with all workers, diplomats, journalists and visitors with great respect. I was also very impressed by the objective manner in which they dealt with my case.

During the 54 IAEA General Conference, ONLY the conference itself was my interest, including the speeches of the representatives and photographing. I attended the conference as a representative of Rense Worldwide News Service which has about one million unique readers monthly. Most of diplomats attending the conference are known to journalists, and the journalists are known to them. Over time the same faces appear at conferences, meetings and special activities held in Vienna in various organizations, ministries etc.

Email of Israeli representative on the right.

On Sept. 22 I called the attention of one of the Israeli representatives, who asked me politely if I was a photographer. I asked him if he would like to have copies of his photos. He said yes and wrote me his e-mail address on a piece of paper which he tore from a notice block. Other diplomats were sitting nearby during this exchange. 

My working principles dictate that I deal with everyone with respect and politeness. But this appears not to be the case with the Israelis. That day during the afternoon session I started noticing hateful looks which frightened me coming from the Israeli mission. I left the IAEA conference for the day to attend another one at the UN.

I returned to the IAEA conference on Sept. 23 during the morning. I acceded to the demands of some of the present diplomats and members of delegations in the audience who asked me to take photos of them. Some of them asked me to stay in the conference room and photograph them, others came out for a chat whenever they had a short break or asked me questions about my work and photos, etc. All was going well with my work, which was developing in a peaceful and cordial atmosphere.

When the voting on the various resolutions started, I followed the conference team with the ballot to capture some pictures while the delegations were depositing their votes. When I arrived near the Israeli mission, the bodyguards started to taunt me with gestures of mockery, one was turning his mouth right left, opening his mouth and showing me his teeth. 

When I went to make a picture of the Irish ambassador while voting, the Israeli representative stood up, smiled in my face and sat next to his bodyguard and told him something. I made a picture of him smiling but suddenly his bodyguard approached me and whispered insulting words in Hebrew into my ear. I told him that this was improper and made a picture of him. I informed one of the ambassadors and also a security man from the UN who was present.

Later when I decided to leave for a break, I saw the Israeli performing his mockery show for me doing deliberate stupid acrobatic gestures. On Sept. 24, the mockery and molestation continued without interruption. I avoided the area where the Israeli mission was, despite the presence of important diplomatic figures in the same area who I wanted to photograph.

When I followed the Palestinian ambassador to take a copy of his speech, the Israeli bodyguard cut my way and cut insulting grimaces with clear intent to insult me. I asked him what he meant with his grimaces and crazy gestures. I then turned to the Palestinian Ambassador, I was unhappy and angry after two hours of deliberate provocations and stupid gestures. A UN security man wearing civil cloths intervened.

In the end the Israeli was warned off. This had immediate effect. A new Israeli delegation with another security crew arrived on 24 Sept. afternoon. They appeared to know about the incident and about me, and they kept their distance. I would like to thank the UN security for their high level of professionalism in dealing with this issue.

The questions are:

• Why are the Israelis the only mission among over 180 countries which needs to bring ill-mannered bodyguards while the UN has a very professional security team doing their work in a responsible, peaceful and friendly way?
• When will Israel understand that their irresponsible behavior and crimes only bring them a bad name and damages their reputation?
• Force and terror are not the right way to deal with the human beings.When will Israel understand that at the UN and in civilized countries they can’t go on rampage like in occupied Palestine and that they should start thinking to learn to behave like a human beings instead of as occupiers?

by Kawther Salam

FIVE REASONS TO PLANT TREES NOW ~ SIX (6) REASONS NOW

By Christine Patton

21 September, 2010

Peak Oil Hausfrau

To some people, planting a tree is the epitome of the environmental cliche. Planting a tree seems so simple, so easy, so... low-technology. In the midst of the economic upheaval we are experiencing now, in the face of massive challenges such as peak oil and climate change, why should we plant trees? What good could it possibly do?

  Sioux woman, carrying wood. 

For as long as people have had fire,

women have gathered wood for hearth and home.

1. We will soon urgently need trees for fuel.

Space heating uses 30 ~ 40% of the energy consumed in our homes. Our current heating sources are primarily heating oil, natural gas, and electricity (from natural gas, coal, nuclear, and hydroelectric dams).

Heating with these sources is dependent on having an affordable supply of these fuels as well as an economy with decent wages and a safe and dependable infrastructure (pipelines, roads, extraction operations) to deliver the energy around the country. All of these ~ supply, economy, and infrastructure ~ are becoming less reliable.

In most of the non-industrialized world, wood is still the primary source of heating and cooking fires, and has been for thousands of years. Certain characteristics of wood give it an advantage over other choices: it can be stored and used as needed, it requires little up-front investment or special technology, it can be produced locally in most places, it can be renewed, and before deforestation arises, it is often relatively cheap.

How to be successful with an outdoor cooking range. The fire is of the first importance. Start it with fine kindling and clean, dry, hemlock bark. When you have a bright, even fire from end to end of the space, keep it up with small fagots of the sweetest and most wholesome woods in the forest. These are, in the order named, black birch, hickory, sugar maple, yellow birch, and red beech. The sticks should be short, and not over two inches across. Split wood is better than round. The outdoor range can be made by one man in little more than an hour, and the camper-out, who once tries it, will never wish to see a "portable camp-stove" again.

As the production of fossil fuels wane, and their cost waxes, I believe that wood will eventually return to dominance as the heating fuel of choice in our part of the world as well.

Ideally, we would all have Earth-sheltered or passive solar homes that require little to no heating fuel. However, without proper initial design or timely retrofits, most people will heat with wood again in the long run ~ hopefully in a sustainable and healthy way, by reducing our need for heating fuel and by using efficient technologies and forestry practices.

If an area has an abundance of forests, wood from trees may be able to be harvested sustainably. If not, the area will likely experience deforestation (with all the problems that entails) and will have to import fuel, or may even be eventually abandoned.
 

  Sun-warmed peach jam during the icy winters.

2. Trees provide food.

Trees produce many different types of fruit (apples, peaches, pears, oranges, plums, figs) and nuts (pecans, almonds, chestnut, walnut), which offer an important source of fat, nutrition, taste and sweetness. Unlike annual crops, trees only need to be planted once, minimizing soil and nutrient loss, and are easy to integrate into an urban landscape.

Using permaculture techniques, a "food forest" can integrate trees with shrubs (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries), perennial vegetables and herbs (thyme, oregano, mint, rosemary, etc), and even annuals. This approach to food cultivation creates a more stable and diverse ecosystem, since the soil does not need to be plowed and planted every year. It also yields a significant amount of food per square foot.

More and more people are beginning to recognize that industrial agriculture is unsustainable due to the massive quantities of fertilizer and oil required to lubricate the system that is destroying our biodiversity, our topsoil and our wildlife. If we want to have fruit in a post-peak world, we may need to grow it in our own neighborhoods ~ or within a few miles.

3. Trees can be a source of income.

Local food and fuel are poised to return to the prominence they enjoyed for all of human history (except the last forty years). Someone will need to provide that food and fuel, but many people in densely populated cities don't have room to grow their own fruit, nuts, and firewood, or they simply don't know how.

People who have the space, the knowledge, and the foresight to plant now can help meet the critical need for non-fossil fuel subsidized food and fuel.

Trees can provide income year after year. A well managed forest can yield wood not only for personal use, but also for sale as firewood or lumber. An orchard can provide food for the family and for sale or barter. Anyone who plants trees for these purposes now could be investing in a source of income for years in the future.

The simple act of planting a $10 tree can yield hundreds of pounds (and dollars) of produce for years thereafter, with only a little yearly pruning, thinning and harvesting.

Trees offer home, a place of rest and security to any number of wild animals.

4. Trees can mitigate the effects of severe weather.

The effects of climate change are already being seen.

Well placed trees and shrubbery provide privacy as well as protection from the elements.

 
Scientists, farmers, gardeners, and people who live in canary areas (the poles, islands) are witnessing the effects of drought, habitat change, and ice melt. Over time, the changes will become increasingly more obvious, probably in the form of more severe weather.

Trees can help mitigate the effects of many types of severe and more extreme weather. 

They hold the soil to prevent erosion from downpours and flash floods. Holding the soil (and decreasing the soil temperature via shade) also prevents desertification and dust storms. 

The shade cast by trees decreases the effects of harsh heatwaves, and trees can usually survive drought much better than smaller plants. They can absorb carbon to help prevent the worst excesses of climate change, and they can provide habitat and food for other species that make up our ecosystems.

 This little sketch is worth blowing big.

5. Trees make an area more livable.

Our lives are going to become more local. Perhaps we should start to pay attention to what "here" looks like, feels like, and can provide; pay attention to whether the places we live are places worth living. Trees help cool an area, cut electricity use and cost, and soothe the eye - all while providing the benefits mentioned above.

One of the easily anticipated effects of an unraveling economy and a declining supply of oil is a need for cheaper modes of transportation, namely biking and walking. If we are to transform our urban areas to be walkable and bikeable, we will need to make them more pleasant than the baked scrubby Bermuda strips that now predominate (in Oklahoma City, anyway).

A helpful, but perhaps overlooked,

way to encourage pedestrian transport

is to plant trees.

Trees not only provide shade, but in groups and clusters, they cool an area down. The difference between walking down a shadeless street vs. a shady street in 100+ degree heat can be more than 10 degrees ~ the difference between walking and staying at home, in my experience. Various sources estimate that trees shading a home can cut air-conditioning costs by 30-50%, which will also decrease the strain on our aging electrical grid.

When air-conditioning becomes unaffordable (or electricity becomes unreliable), shade from trees could make a place bearable. And shade is not just a matter of comfort, as many people (elderly, infants, people with health issues) can suffer from heat distress, and even death from heat stroke in extreme cases.

Not only are trees useful, but they are beautiful. Their green soothes the eye. Their spring blossoms remind us that winter's harsh reign is almost ended, and their multi-colored fall leaves remind us that the baking heat of summer is over.

We will need beautiful places to live once we can't escape to info-tainment all day long and a seaside/mountainside/forested vacation several times a year.

Any one of these reasons should be enough, but all of them together make planting urban trees, food forests, and managed woodlots an important part of any resiliency effort. 

Trees aren't a cliche ~ 

they are a keystone of the environment,

and therefore, our future. 

Since trees take many years to reach maturity, we need to plant a variety of fruit, nut, and shade trees now, wherever we can feasibly and safely do so. For food security, for heat in the winter and shade in the summer, for income, taste and nutrition, for a place worth living, plant a tree this fall.

The person who wrote this article  left out a most important role of the tree. The tree in its natural state is home to birds and animals, insects, as well as food and sustenance. This owl is fully at home in his orchard apple tree.

Like every other 1950's child in America, 

the following was the first poem I memorized in grade 1.

THE TREE

By Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.