Where should one place, on the common-usage political left/right spectrum, a party that has a strong environmental platform (supports Greenpeace, opposes whaling and even the docking of dog’s tails), opposes any privatization of medical services or public sector institutions, supports the nationalization of important economic assets, calls for higher taxes on the rich, and sees its support coming primarily from members of the working class?
Why, the far right, of course. British blogger Simon Richards takes issue with this sleight of hand:

I lost track of the number of times the British National Socialist Party was referred to by BB journalits as ‘the right wing BNP’ on last night’s woeful Euro-election programme. The BBC has a track record on this. Whenever possible, it refers to groups it doesn’t like as ‘conservative’ or right-wing. It did this in the case of hard-line Communists in the Gorbachev era, who, in BBC-land, were always ‘conservatives’.

Many on the left will argue that being a racist makes you socially right – funny how that works – and that the BNP, despite their openly socialist policies, are on the opposite end of the spectrum from the left, over on the far, far right, alongside the National Socialist German Workers Party. This ongoing claim to the word “socialist” by parties whom the left insists on deeming the “far-right” remains a sticking/sore point: British blogger the Englishman noted “the perplex on BBC’s talking faces as ‘Far Right’ Andrew Brons’ extremist past was revealed to be founded on his membership of the National Socialist Movement.”
Let’s just call the BNP what they are: racist, authoritarian leftists. Anyone who would argue that the left cannot, by definition, be authoritarian, and that the term only applies to the right, must have slept through the last century.

More than two years ago, an activist lawyer in Ottawa made some grave accusations about how Canadian soldiers treated Afghan detainees. At the time, I noted with some cynicism that this lawyer was employing a classic ‘bait and switch’ strategy: making sensational stabs at Canadian soldiers in order to bring attention to his real grievance, which was the detainee transfer agreement. I was right.
Here’s what the Board of Inquiry found:

7. The members of this Board can state without reservation that the conduct of Canadian Forces personnel when dealing with detainees in the Afghanistan theatre of operations has been consistently above reproach. Indeed, Board members were able to conclude that the professionalism of members of the Canadian Forces in dealing with Afghanistan citizens is such that the Canadian public can have complete confidence in the manner their military representatives carry out operations in general, and in particular the manner in which they handle detainees.

Amir Attaran owes the men and women of the Canadian Forces an apology. I’m not holding my breath.
The kicker is that the ‘bait and switch’ worked.

MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer’s recent interview with L.A. radio host John Ziegler was as fine a display of passive-aggressive journalism as you’ll ever see. The segment started with a clip of David Letterman quipping about Sarah Palin’s “slutty” look; we begin a few moments into the interview:
Brewer: Let me ask you what Sarah Palin’s problem with Letterman was; what was it about the top ten list that hurt her feelings?
Ziegler: Well, I don’t know if her feelings were hurt — you’d have to ask her. Not only did he call her slutty, you left out the part where he also joked about her teenage daughter being knocked up by Alex Rodriguez in the middle of Yankee stadium while she was at the game. By the way, I also happened to ask her about Keith Olberman blatantly lying about her allegedly plagiarizing a speech which she didn’t do, I doubt that that will come up on this particular network….
Brewer: It’s certainly not going to come up other than your mention in this particular interview because I want to ask you about David Letterman and Sarah Palin. But again, if you’d like to talk about that, I’m willing to go forward with the conversation. (Long pause) Yes? (He heartily agrees) Perfect. Good. So in this case, it’s comedy, so talk about her real itinerary in New York — it’s kinda serious, not really funny — why did she take such offense — she called him pathetic, so she obviously took offense — why was she so offended by David Letterman?
Ziegler: Well, Contessa, since you’re a female, you might be a better expert on whether or not it’s appropriate to call public figures SLUTTY for no apparent reason, and to joke about her daughter being knocked up in the middle of Yankee Stadium while she’s at the game — how would YOU feel about that?
Brewer: John, that’s actually happened to me, and I’m fine, I’m still here, I’m, I’m, I’m…
Ziegler: Really. David Letterman joked about you being slutty?
Brewer: Not David Letterman, not David Letterman, but it happened-to-me-publicly, okay, and wuh…well, we’ll change topics….
(A bit later…)
Ziegler: I urge anyone who is interested in the real Sarah Palin to go to HowObamaGotElected.com, you can listen to all 16 minutes. One of the questions I asked her was whether she felt dissed by John McCain when he went on Jay Leno — also on NBC…
Brewer: WOW. Alright….
Ziegler: ….back when he was the host of the Tonight Show, and basically dissed her, and — surprise surprise — she gave an incredibly classy answer, showing far more class than — clearly — most people on this network have.
Brewer: I…don’t really know what to do with that. You know what, I was honestly, I’m here to to give you an opportunity, I consider myself a common-sense thinker, I haven’t attacked you, and for you to come on and use those sort of insults insults ME….thank you so much for your time, I do appreciate that.
Ziegler: Well, you guys are certainly deserving of all…
Brewer: CUT THE MIC PLEASE!!!

RCMP launch criminal investigation.

“The preliminary inquiry has been completed and we have moved into the next stage, a criminal investigation.”

Every ten years the U.S Census Bureau conducts a national census under the aegis of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Census Bureau describes participation in the Census as being “in the individuals’ own self-interest“, but there may soon be other interests involved: according to judicialwatch, the Census Bureau recently gave ACORN the opportunity to “ recruit Census workers,” which will allow ACORN, in its capacity as executive partner, to “organize and/or serve as a member on a Complete Count Committee,” which will in turn help it to “develop and implement locally based outreach and recruitment campaigns.”
ACORN, for those who are unfamiliar with it, is a community activist group that has been accused of everything from racketeering to covering up embezzlement to running a protection racket. Scores of ACORN workers have been charged with voter registration fraud. Anita MonCrief notes that through their involvement in the census ACORN will not only “have access to personal information of Americans, but this info may be distributed to others.” This is legitimately concerning, because ACORN is a decidedly partisan organization: an internal ACORN document states, in specific reference to a soon-to-be-open governor’s seat, “We…need to be a player in this race. We need to raise money for our political work…based on the redistricting that will happen in our state following the 2010 Census.” The larger goal, from ACORN’s point of view, is clear:

With a common voter file, ACORN will: Coordinate voter outreach and mobilization work with other progressive organizations to maximize the power of our resources….With a voter file, we will be able to target the neighborhoods we work in most effectively (in areas) where extra voter education and mobilization work would have a dramatic impact on turnout in strategically chosen legislative and congressional races. Using precinct walk lists…the canvasser knows if the resident is registered, how often the resident has voted in past elections, the resident’s name, and other demographic data that helps them to tailor the canvass message to the individual. In addition, we will be able to take the voter information gathered from this mass canvass and add it to the voter files in order to enhance the work of partnering progressive organizations.

In short: data from the upcoming federal census, which citizens are required by law to respond to, will be collected by ACORN and then used by ACORN to “enhance the work of…progressive organizations.”
Something tells me this was not the original or intended purpose of the national census.

The phrase “It would have been WORSE if we didn’t do anything” is nothing more than a politician admitting FAILURE

ht

…as government revenue tumbles:

California’s government risks a financial “meltdown” within 50 days in light of its weakening May revenues unless Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers quickly plug a $24.3 billion budget gap, the state’s controller said on Wednesday.

(…)

The state’s revenues from personal income taxes tumbled by 39.9 percent in May from a year earlier while revenues from corporate taxes fell by 52.1 percent…according to a report released by (Controller) John Chiang.”

(h/t R.H. Terry Tory)

The recent outrage over the election of the BNP — a racist, whites-only party — to the European Parliament has been propelled almost exclusively by the power of the word “racist.” The word is obviously an apt description of certain BNP candidates, but it is too pat to suffice as a description of those who voted for them or for the complex social forces in play. When it comes to the BNP’s gains, the proverbial elephant in the room is not race, but rather citizens’ concerns about a creeping Islamism; the BNP is functionally the only party that — perhaps by default, or incidental to their racist ideals — addresses the issue openly.
One need only read the endless chains of comments under online British newspaper stories to know that large numbers of Brits who, by their own word, didn’t and never would vote for the BNP, have had longstanding concerns about creeping Islamism on British soil, and are angry that the ruling classes, whether out of fear or complacency, have not only comprehensively refused to acknowledge or address their concerns in any real way, but have abetted in portraying those holding those concerns as pariahs and – yes — racists; the real concerns of the citizens, in other words, are illegitimate, ill-founded and dismissable.
BNP leader Nick Griffin was charged with incitement after the BBC secretly filmed him condemning Islam. Despite being utterly unrepentant in his view at the trial, a jury found him and his co-charged not guilty. This wasn’t acceptable to those-who-rule. Mick Hume:

On hearing of this disgraceful display of independent thinking by the jurors of Yorkshire, New Labour and the rest of the anti-racist establishment immediately threw all of its toys out of the pram. No less a figure than chancellor Gordon Brown, prime minister in waiting and a man not noted for hot-blooded political speeches, immediately intimated to the BBC that this sort of thing would not be tolerated on his watch. ‘I think any preaching of religious or racial hatred will offend mainstream opinion in this country and I think we have got to do whatever we can to root it out from whatever quarter it comes. And if that means we have got to look at the laws again, then we will have to do so.’

(….)

If there is one thing worse (and a lot worse) than the feeble far-right, it is the state using that little political faction as the pretext for another political clampdown on liberty and democracy. After all, it is not the BNP that is now planning to introduce new laws further to limit freedom of expression, laying down new rules about what we are allowed to say about religion, or floating ideas in high places about the ‘problem’ of jury trials. Griffin can only vent his illiberal prejudices at private meetings of his party activists. The government has the power to try to turn its illiberal prejudices into public custom and law.

When British police take to the streets to protect mobs of men calling for the death of Jews, or dhimmis, or the Pope, while opponents of Islam are in hiding, or are charged by the government, or barred from entering the country, a certain number of citizens are going to see their only chance for representation in whoever will address the issue, however vile their other views may be. As Richard Pendlebury of the Daily Mail put it:

Almost overnight, it is no longer a matter of what the BNP is – a marginal group with a rotten ideological core – but what it is not.

It’s a lesson that the ruling class in Europe is learning the hard way.

Hold onto those Canadian dollars and sell your US interests.

If you asked a global warming zealot about the cause of this, they would say it was global warming.

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Doug Saunders of the Globe and Mail:

In a startling flight to the fringes, the European Union’s 490-million citizens sent an amazing range of angry, racist, anti-European, anti-immigrant, separatist, protest and far-right parties and candidates to represent them in Brussels, a ragtag protest vote….

The Scotsman:

(BNP) leader Nick Griffin, newly elected to the European parliament, was pelted with eggs and forced to abandon a press conference.

Shouting “off our streets, Nazi scum”, demonstrators yesterday chased Mr Griffin and party colleague Andrew Brons away from College Green in front of parliament…

Demonstrators — hastily mobilised by text, e-mail and twitter — hammered on the tops of the departing cars with their placards and cheered as they saw the politicians off…