Our new meme for the week: Harper's Gestapo

Ok, maybe it's hyperbole, but so what? These bastards play dirty. No point in playing nice with them. Time to kick 'em in the nads.

So tonight we have several accounts of hired muscle going through the audience at a Harper party rally in London, rounding up perceived Enemies of the State and tossing them out. Probably making lists of names and faces for later, too, when the time comes to assign said enemies for re-education.

(Thuggishness and clumsiness aside, this is not the sign of a well-run campaign. Again, we have a strategic opportunity here, and another means for wresting control of the message away from the Harper Machine. Another indication of the Aggressively Totalitarian mindset characterizing Harper and his {ahem} brain trust.)

Not as if this kind of thing wasn't foreshadowed by the way Sheenagh McMahon was treated yesterday. For trying to ask a cabinet minister a question that wasn't vetted ahead of time.

Kind of shows their real colours, doesn't it. Don't agree with us? You're out on your ass.

Pretty much sums up their view of the entire country, really, what with all the coded messages about human smuggling and that unfortunate slip about "you people." Also says something about their strategy in going after the "ethnic vote." Pretty useful, those ethnics, when they're forming a multicoloured background for one of Harper's staged events or photo ops. Not so useful when they have a picture of the wrong guy on their Facebook pages.

I'm reminded of a story, perhaps apocryphal, about Soviet Party Congresses during the Stalinist era. Apparently NKVD agents were routinely planted in the audience to monitor the "spontaneous" ovations during the Leader's speech, and take note of who stopped applauding first ...

So, memes for the week:

• Harper's Gestapo.
• Stephen Harper: Aggressively Totalitarian.

Have at 'em. (Fly, my pretty monkeys! Fly!)