Holy God, I love this band, this song. Vid here. Words:
Young men sent overseas, their names are in a lottery that kills.
There are social clashes, body counts, and rioting on TV screens.
A bullet put another Kennedy to sleep.
Cover your eyes: You think America’s recovered from the self-inflicted wounds it took in 1968?
Still Corretta led his people through the Memphis streets,
In spite of the nightmare that was made out of a dream.
I’m surprised, a bit, that The Walrus published online the entire piece I did for them. In any event, it allows me to share the link with you. Comments, as always, are welcome.
**
Davey and I and others had been attempting to convince Ignatieff that he desperately needed a winning ballot question. His late-summer promise to defeat the Harper government and force a general election had sent the party into a tailspin. Whatever popularity we had enjoyed was slipping away. Simultaneously, the government had been equivocating on ending Canada’s military presence in Afghanistan in 2011. Despite an all-party resolution favouring the conclusion of our combat role, it was clear that many among the hawkish Conservatives wanted us to stay.
Davey — the son of the legendary Grit rainmaker, Keith Davey, and a friend who had brought me to Ottawa to run the Liberal war room — thought an election fought on extending the war could end badly for the Conservatives. Even better, it would banish a few ghosts for the Liberals. Ignatieff had secured the leadership months earlier, and was still dogged by concerns from the party’s left wing. In his writing and media appearances, the former Harvard professor had been an enthusiastic proponent of the war in Iraq, unambiguously pro-American and, seemingly, an advocate of “coercive interrogation” with terror suspects. His position had put him at odds with others in the party. After nearly a decade in Afghanistan, some of us felt we had done our share, with too many Canadian lives lost. We thought it was time for other Western nations to step up. In the coming election, Liberals should be the ones favouring an end to the war. Let the Harper regime, with its bellicose military rhetoric and its willingness to give the generals whatever shiny new toy they desired, become the party that favoured war with no end.
“We can banish the pro-American, pro-torture, pro-Iraq war stuff in one move,” I had said to Davey and others in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition. “We’d pick up a ton of NDP and Bloc support. And Harper will be caught in the quagmire like John McCain was. It’s perfect.”
But Ignatieff wouldn’t do it. Not only would he not even discuss the notion, Davey said; he was angry that we had suggested it in the first place. When I asked Davey what he’d said to Ignatieff, he replied, “I told him we just wanted him to, you know, win the fucking election. That’s all.”
[One point: the Star favoured the Grits and endorsed the Dips. The overall point remains: the media in this country are massively conservative.]
That said, I think I have a pretty good idea how real reporters and editors felt when they heard about that speech by former Canadian Alliance Leader Stockwell Day at the Conservative convention last weekend. In it, Day more or less served notice the Conservative Party now regards the Fourth Estate as its real adversary. Not the New Democratic or Liberal parties.
Journalists.
I’m at my son’s lacrosse game. (We’re winning.)
Please give me Canucks updates. Please.
This morning, I was listening to fans on CBC radio chant “Go Canucks, go!”
It came out as “Coconuts, ho!”
There is probably some deep meaning associated with this, but I’ll be damned if I can figure what that might be.
I have a hard time squaring the CUPW I knew with the CUPW now allegedly on strike in the Summer of 2011.
They’re worried about public opinion, clearly. But is that worry undermining the effectiveness of their strike?
Sure seems like it. What’s your view?
Na na na na na!
“Went down” is right. The Miami Malpract-ice.
The Green Party leader came by to post a comment on my personal website the other day. I’ve never had a leader of a federal political party do that before. It was really weird.
I mean, I figured — like you do, perhaps — that the leaders of political parties have lots of better things to do with their time than lurk in weblog chat rooms. But there was May, chatting away.
Like I say, weird.
There are three types of folks who hang out in web chat rooms. First, there are the regular commenters I get on websites like mine — Conservatives, Liberals, New Democrats, the undecided. The ones I get, I like. They tend to be smarter than me and I often find myself relying upon their analysis when I’m thinking about a political issue.
Second, there is a less-intelligent group who pop by, too. We call them “trolls.”
They use false names and fake e-mail accounts and they regurgitate all kinds of hate and dirt. I don’t ever approve their comments.
Finally, there is a third group whose presence we feel online, but don’t often see: The lurkers. They skulk in the background, but never really offer any comments. They just lurk.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, I assume, is a lurker, which is kind of weird.
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