Rob Cottingham

Category: Politics

  • Pluck out my eyes! I read something I disagreed with!

    Leafing through my leaked copy of the right-wing playbook, I see on page 97 — just after “Start the day with a healthy meal of roast orphan”, and just before “End the day with a puree of at least five endangered species” — the headline “Attack any media outlet that has even a hint of balance for being biased”.

    You heard something you disagreed with on CNN? That must be because they’re a liberal mouthpiece. You read an opinion that didn’t jibe with yours on the op-ed page of the Globe and Mail? It must be an anti-conservative, anti-family rag.

    Hence this complaint to the BlogsCanada politics e-group:

    (more…)

  • Life and death in Florida and Texas

    While the Senate convulses and contorts to keep a patient biologically (if not meaningfully) alive in Florida, a very similar case reached its quiet, heartbreaking conclusion in Texas a few days ago.

    Republican talking points suggest that, with GOP senators taking on the Florida case, “the pro-life base will be excited…. This is a great political issue… this is a tough issue for Democrats.”

    Perhaps Wanda Hudson just didn’t test as well in focus groups as Terri Schiavo’s parents. Or maybe Ms. Hudson’s pleas didn’t make it past the gatekeepers in Republican Senate offices.

    About the only thing I do know is that I would rather die than be in their position.

  • Learning from the bad guys

    I love The Left Coaster. It’s thought-provoking as well as irreverent (a balance I suspect we rarely quite get right here at ODTAA, despite our staff of 200 researchers, 16 writers and 24-hour TiVO tech support) (ah, you knew I was making that up – you can’t get TiVO in Canada). Today was especially worth visiting, with Yuval Rubinstein explaining why, as repellant as Frank Luntz is, he still has a thing or two to teach us:

    A key aspect of Luntz’s evil genius is that he doesn’t just sit around talking about how he intends to frame issues, he just does it. I know that liberals are mere amateurs at this game, but this is something they’re going to have to learn.

    Damn you, Frank Luntz…but thanks for the tips.

  • Norm Spector, I salute you

    It takes a remarkable level of intellectual rigour to criticize someone who agrees with you for their dumb-ass reasons for doing so. Norm Spector, with whom I disagree on virtually everything (“Did you see his insane piece on what time of day it is?”), met that high standard today in awarding his Idiocy of the Day to fellow conservative Preston Manning:

    NORMAN’S SPECTATOR
    Preston Manning wins the award for his own commentary piece, in which he reads the minds of the dead, conflates 20th and 21st security challenges and descends into pure demagogy in his criticism of Paul Martin’s BMD decision

  • Day one on the new job

    For immediate release
    May 1, 2005

    Cellucci demands horse racing industry develop first-strike military capability
    Also suggests new missile defence scheme: horses to gallop toward incoming warheads

  • Technical difficulties

    404 – Liberal promises not found

  • Bully for Gordon!

    If nothing else, this should get PlaymobilFisher Price banned in British Columbia.

    It’s a brutal little stop-motion animation that takes you through the past four years of B.C. politics (a.k.a. “the tinfoil era”) in six minutes. About as subtle as a Lorne Mayencourt haymaker, but there are some funny moments, even if the ending kind of loses its way.

  • A chilling picture of global warming

    That photo you may have seen over the past few days – a balding Kilimanjaro, courtesy of global warming – comes from a new web site, North South East West.

    The site is worth a visit for an astonishing range of photographs documenting the impact of climate change on every facet of life, from human rights to city dwelling.

    But the photo of Kilimanjaro (here, have a close-up) is especially riveting, as is the text that accompanies it:

    THE VOLCANIC CRATER AT THE SUMMIT OF KILIMANJARO, AFRICA’S HIGHEST MOUNTAIN, AS IT HAS NOT BEEN SEEN BEFORE IN 11,000 YEARS. THE SNOW AND GLACIERS WHICH HAVE CROWNED IT IN ALL THAT TIME ARE MELTING AND BY 2020 ARE LIKELY TO HAVE DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY. THE FORESTS WHICH COVER KILIMANJARO’S LOWER SLOPES ABSORB MOISTURE FROM SURROUNDING CLOUDS AND PROVIDE LIFE-GIVING WATER TO PLANTS AND ANIMALS IN THE PLAINS BELOW. RISING TEMPERATURES THREATEN NOT ONLY THE ICE-CAP, BUT ALSO THIS ESSENTIAL NATURAL PROCESS.

    The site complements the printed compilation of photos and text, a project by The Climate Group. Dr. David Suzuki is the contributor (that’s the site’s term – I’m guessing the contributor is whoever wrote the interpretive text that accompanies each photo) on their Kenya section, which includes the Kilimanjaro photo.

  • Blame Lebanon

    As roughly a gazillion Lebanese take to the streets to tell Syria to get out of their country, Jonathan Dursi outdoes himself with a post on how the Lebanese right-wing would react if they were like the Canadian right-wing:

    Right-wing pundits would decry the childish Anti-Syrianism and deplore that the protesters define themselves in terms of being anti-Syria instead of pro-Lebanese.

    Read more here.

  • Here and there…

    Risk and security: Mark Schmitt at The Decembrist salutes the apparent collapse of Bush’s social security privatization scheme:

    For ten years or more, Americans have been asked to choose between risk and security, and every time, risk has seemed to win. Now, in the ultimate battle between risk and security, the first one in which the choice was made explicit, security won without a shot being fired.

    Especially interesting for those of us north of the border because of the habit of our conservatives (both those who use that label and those who prefer “Liberal”) of importing ideas from Republicans. Stephen Harper has been a big supporter of privatizing the Canada Pension Plan; the Democrats’ experience may yet prove useful for Canadians.

    Try very, very hard now: Glad as I am to see this survey from right-winger Glen Robbins — showing basically that anyone running for the Campbell Liberals in Prince George might as well start drafting their concession speech (and packing the ol’ moving van) right now — I’m a little mystified by the questionnaire.

    Take this, um, eccentric question: “Using your BEST efforts only, which of the following provincial parties do you most support at this time?” Exactly how is a respondent supposed to interpret “your BEST efforts”?

    We blog. You decide: Lindsay over at the Capulet blog has the mainstream media’s number. Commenting on a recent State of the Media study, she replies to former news exec Joe Angotti’s handwringing over how people won’t be able to distinguish between bloggers and The Real Media:

    Mr. Angotti isn’t giving the American public enough credit if he thinks they won’t be able to navigate the increasingly complex media landscape. Those who are reading blogs to gather information also likely read mainstream news sources, and are choosing a second source of information for a reason. As for legitimate news, considering the overwhelming popularity of networks like Fox News, I’d say blogs are the least of the American media’s problems.

    To their credit, a lot of reporters and even their bosses feel the same way.

    “When will the earthquake hit?” “Is it true you live on nothing but granola and boiled Birkenstocks?” (by way of Darren Barefoot) Got a question about Vancouver? Why not Ask Locally? For one thing, at the moment, your question won’t suffer from overcrowding. But that won’t be true for long… I’m guessing this place will catch on fast.

    You sure you want to pull at that thread? Fed up with shills at White House press briefings, bought-off columnists and phony TV news “stories” written and produced by PR flaks — not to mention just plain propagandizing by far-right media moguls — a liberal group has launched Stop Fake News. Their mission: to convince federal regulators to enforce regulations that prohibit broadcasters from airing government-produced material without identifying it.

  • Global Rich List

    By way of The View from Seymour:

    If you’re feeling down at heel today, drop by Global Rich List to see where your income stacks up against the rest of the world’s.

    It’s a clever idea from the BAFTA-winning folks at Poke. The link to make a donation to CARE International is a thoughtful touch, and I’m happy they’ve done it.

    (Cue curmudgeonly lefty.)

    But there isn’t a lot of context here beyond “You’re actually stinking rich compared to most of the world’s population,” and nothing to say to a visitor who says, “Funny. Between paying my rent and feeding my kids, I don’t feel very rich.”

    And there’s no real attempt to answer the obvious questions: why are there such huge disparities in income? And apart from the suggestion of donating an hour’s wage to CARE, what can I do about it? (You can start finding some of the answers if you click the (subtle) link to CARE International UK.)

    Now, whether acknowledging those questions helps drive potential donors to click the “donate” button is a legitimate question. But it would be nice to try to move folks who are shocked by their place in the world not just to give money, but to effect some kind of more lasting change.

  • Postcards from the wedge issue

    By way of the Torontoist: fab Magazine, the free Toronto mag for the gay community, is running a postcard campaign on same-sex marriage.

    One features a shirtless male model giving the reader the finger, and is meant for Stephen Harper; the other is the same model smiling and saying “Thank you, Paul Martin!”

    All very nice. You do wonder where the other postcard is, though. You know: “Thank you, Jack Layton, for heading up a caucus where you’re actually expected to vote in support of human rights. Thank you for supporting us before this issue became an attractive wedge for driving potential Conservatives into the Liberal column.”

    (And a more honest postcard to Martin might have been “What took you so goddamn long?”)

    Now, fab’s been good to Jack in the past, even devoting a cover story to him in the run-up to the last election. But this repeats a pattern that’s seen all too often in community groups and social movements:

    1. An issue is championed by the NDP, which makes common cause with an alliance of organizations.
    2. The issue finally achieves some kind of salience.
    3. The Liberals, having spent the previous several months or years deriding the NDP position as divisive and irresponsible, promptly adopt it, while the Conservatives (under whatever label happens to suit them this week) continue to oppose it.
    4. And the alliance of organizations flocks to frame the issue as a Conservative vs. Liberal question.

    Some of my colleagues gripe privately that it’s because said activist groups are dominated by Liberal party members, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. Activists are as vulnerable to media spin as anyone else. And with a national press that loves to cover clashes between two titans, it’s easy to get sucked into discussing issues in purely Liberal/Conservative terms.

    So forgiveable… but not helpful. fab’s campaign does in fact send a message to Layton and the NDP: “why did you even bother?”

    Not that the NDP (or any party) should be choosing its positions purely on the basis of political payoff rather than principle. But why force the party to see that inevitably as a tradeoff?