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.

CBC and its 'left-wing bias'

CBC newscast this morning features an item by Hannah Thibedeau, condescendingly dismissing a Jack Layton campaign event because it didn't feature anything new.

Everything he said, the report goes, has been part of NDP campaigns before. The clear implication is that no one really needs to take it too seriously - it's old, it hasn't caught on, nothing to see here, move along.

Uh-huh. Um ... folks? Just because an idea's been floated on previous occasions doesn't mean it's a bad idea. The fact that it doesn't fit into a lazy, ideologically circumscribed "two-way race" narrative is something else entirely.

Sent from my mobile device

A note from Sheenagh McMahon

The gutsy woman who got in John Baird's face yesterday has a message for us.

Follow the links. It's worth your time.

She's also very graciously allowed me to reproduce her e-mail messages to me. I can only stand back and applaud. While I wank on about citizenship and civic engagement from behind a keyboard, this lady's actually walking the walk. (h/t CuriosityCat)

Why electoral reform needs to be a central issue

There's good reason to be afraid – be very afraid – of a Harper majority. I'll defer to more eloquent and more experienced observers on that, because I'm not sure I can add anything to what they've already said.

But it does suggest a need for more focus on electoral reform. Indeed, electoral reform needs to be a priority for anyone who believes in genuine democratic governance, regardless of where you land on the political spectrum.

Cue the whining about the left-wing media

Not a good week for the Harper Machine, so, in keeping with the Rove playbook, watch for the complaints about media bias. I can practically hear the clutch grinding as they switch gears from swaggering bullies to whining victims.

This hot-oil massage from The Star should figure prominently.

Come on, now. Harper's no chicken

Stephen Harper is campaigning in a bubble.

He can't face audiences that haven't been pre-screened.

Are stories unflattering to Harper being pulled from corporate-media websites?

The Sixth Estate, Dawg's Blog, Lorne at PAID and Dammit Janet (twice) have flagged this. If it's true, it just underlines what many of us have been saying about the Harper Regime's aggressively totalitarian character.

Really, doesn't the prospect of large media organizations engaging in self-censorship raise a few red flags? Isn't anyone just a little disturbed at the prospect of instant rewriting of history?