A Challenge Launched by Another Blogger And Of Course…Other Media Failures

Cross posted @ Sister Sage’s Musings

Well, since the success of the rallies yesterday, many media outlets have covered this. Craig Oliver was impressed. Too bad CTV didn’t send anyone to many of the venues. I never saw them or Global TV at the Montreal event. I heard this was the case at other venues.

Blogging Tories and other Harpercon cheerleaders are scrambling trying to save face. Blogging Tory Craig Smith’s page was particularly ridiculous in explaining the events failed due to the proximity of the photographers when pictures were taken. A common refrain is that they would like to compare the  numbers of the anti-coalition rally (ies) of last year to our event of this year.  Stupid. Apples and oranges, really. Besides, no one can ever provide precise numbers of each and every event,  particularly those where a march and a rally took place. There are always stragglers. There are those who join in the middle of the procession and of course, those who only attend the main event at the end of the line.

Montrealers who listen to CJAD, how about we take bets as to Tommy Schnurmacher trying to  scoff at yesterday’s events and try to tout them as ‘insignificant’ or ‘just some Harper bashers’? How much do you want to bet he calls Canada hypocrites for not setting up and attending anti-prorogation events when the Liberals did it? Yes, I’m afraid Tommy is slipping in his old age and has become quite predictable.

After all, Tommy, like his other minions on the Gang of 4 appears to suffer from Liberal Derangement Syndrome ( I got the term from Pale Cold from A Creative Revolution puts it. Read her piece about Liberal Derangement Syndrome as well as other Conservative mythologies).

Will 1010 CFRB’s John Moore eat his words like he said he would in the National Posties if the rallies succeeded? Clearly, they have. When a veteran like Craig Oliver who has seen and heard everything over the years, uses words like ‘extaordinary’ to describe the events of yesterday, call it a bonus. Johnny boy, it was successful, so when can we expect to witness the event of you eating your own words?

Then, of course, they will call us liars for having promoted this as a non-partisan grass roots movement.

Hell, I love Blogging Tory Monte Solberg’s reverse guilt trip, saying the media spoon fed Canadians to things they just don’t care about. I would refute him directly, but, comments are disabled at his page. Why would that be?? Ok, Monte, here’s a comment, wishful thinking don’t make it so!

Ok, I’m going to give a kick start to your jobs for tomorrow; I’m feeling charitable today. I will speak for the Montreal Event that we did invite Conservative MPs, Senators and other Conservative party members to join us and to even even speak. They declined or didn’t answer our emails.

Another thing, it was a grass roots movement. If politicians were in attendance and speaking, it’s because we asked them to speak. All were offered equal air time. Not our fault if some either refused or didn’t answer.

Over at Section 15, Mark launches a challenge to con pundits, Harpercon cheerleaders and others like minded and other Harpercon minions. Launch your own cross country movement.  Launch a movement in support of prorogation. Set up rallies and marches equipped with colourfully designed signs with witty slogans in support of St-Stevie. Find a group like the Raging Grannies to put on a musical number showing support.

I will add this to Mark’s challenge though: just to keep things fair and to make sure we’re not comparing apples and oranges, but rather apples with apples and oranges with oranges: Same rules apply as our events did. It must be grass roots.  This means, only citizens getting together to organize their events.  No media types. Nothing even resembling Fox News’ 9/12 tea-bagger hit parade.  No politicians. Just citizens getting together and organizing.

Also, make sure to coordinate a date with other Canadian cities.

When you invite speakers, have civilians and different politicians speak.  Your invitations must include all of the MPs, senators and members and a paper trail would be required to proove this at any time if requested.

Then invite the media outfits. One thing though, make sure they’re there solely to cover the events and not promote them as Fox News seems to be guilty of.

Go ahead, tell Canadians how a Harpercon totalitarian regime benefits Canadians, because when Stevie says opposition parties bring down the markets , Jason Kenney saying they can get more done without the opposition, When Tommy, Kim and Don Crook said prorogation is best because ‘they do less damage, they won’t squabble like children’ on the Gang of 4 last Friday, Jan 22, and of course, who can forget last November’s by-election placard slogan in Hochelaga of “de l’action, pas d’election”? It  looks like ambition for a  totalitarian regime and for washed up buffoons like Tommy Schnurmacher and his buddies to say things like what they did on the Gang of 4 sounds like they’re also for it and are spoonfeeding that message to Canadians.

Tommy, Kim, Danny boy:  Do you support a totalitarian regime for Canada? How about the Blogging Tory Trolls: what say you?

Of course,  judging by only a 22 member pro prorogation group on Facebook,  compared to over 200 000 members on Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook group; I wish you all the luck in planning this event. Let me help you, your fellow Blogging Tory, Tamara of Rightchik, claims to be an event planner extaordinaire.  I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding that blinding near flourescant page of her’s.

So, I say let the games begin! So Harpercon cheerleaders and all other neo-cons who support prorogation, I put it to you. Do your worst! Let’s see your rally (ies).

Speaking of that Facebook group witht that rather paltry membership. Matt Gurney, the next time you feel inclined to whine about censorship  at  the Facebook CAPP group, I suggest strongly you keep that claptrap of your’s shut.  Apparently, over at pro-prorogation on Facebook,  potential members have to request to join, their wall and contents are invisible to all who are not members. I dunno, but that looks like censorship to me. The fact that they’re restricting membership proves they’re afraid of debate.

So, boys & girls of the pro prorogation faction, organize your events. Until then, shut the hell up and be good sports.

Here are some video highlights of the Montreal event from  Matness4dummies’ channel on Youtube. Thanks Matt!

Added Bonus: People outside Canada organized events to support us. Still think our events were a failure? Can you get outside of Canada support for your pro-prorogation events?

Canada 2.0

Today’s protests around Canada against the Conservative’s reckless abuse of power were a great success, look here, even the Globe and Mail is impressed.

So, how did a little ‘internet protest’ turn into over 25,000 feet on the ground in over 60 locations across the country today? Two reasons. First,  Canadians are awesome!  Second, Facebook is not some silly little internet toy in Canada. Di you know that around 45% of Canadians are on Facebook.  That’s not 45% of Canadians on the Internet…its 45% of all Canadians!  Think about that.  That mean half of Canadians can go look up this strange “Facebook group” thing the media talk about, in fact, they don’t even think its that strange or inconsequential because they’re on Facebook.  Twitter is another matter, apparently only about 1% of Canadians are on Twitter. But Facebook is a particularly effective way to reach out to a large number of Canadians.  Consider that if half the country is on Facebook, then every Canadian is either on Facebook or probably has a spouse, sibling, child  or parent on Facebook.

Look at the graph, its not just young people either. Half the Canadians on Facebook list their age as over 25. And its probably more than that because there are more Canadian 18-24 year-olds on Facebook than there are actual Canadian 18-24 year-olds, so someone is lying about their age, and they’re probably low-balling.  Regardless, statistically, if you are a child and have parents under 45, one of them is on Facebook.  You of course are also on Facebook.  And at least one of your grandparents is on Facebook.  So the reach of this tool in Canada is unparalleled.  There is no other way to reach so many Canadians so easily.

Maybe today, after the largest, decentralized national protests our nation has ever seen, people will wake up to that fact. Hopefully they’ll realize that its not actually that easy to create a Canadian Facebook group that has hundreds of thousands of members.  You have to really appeal to them, people think about what it will look like to their friends when they join a group.

Today we saw the impact of that. 200,000 motivated people, having discussions and sharing their support publicy online can have.  Each city spawned off a separate group and event. A call went out to get organizers. Only motivated people with experience and determination showed up and still many of these meetings had hundreds of people!  Each group independently organized events, sent messages to their followers with advice on clothing, how to behave and where to meet. Maps went up on Google to show the real, stunning extent of the protests. And it all went off without a hitch, no violence, no trouble and minimal partisanship.  It was a wonder to behold and it makes me so proud to be a Canadian.  It gives me hope that reasonableness is not dead in this country and that people are willing to take action to defend it.

Now it is up to us to continue putting the pressure on our ‘leaders’ to listen to us all.   The governing party thinks they only need to represent those who voted for them, a fundamental misunderstanding of representative democracy. One for which they will be punished. The opposition parties have been reluctant to commit too strongly to the cause of fixing what ails our democracy.  They each (sorry Green’s, I know you’re on side) make tame proposals and argue the real solution is that they should govern and they would never do this.  But they are missing the big picture.

At today’s rally in Vancouver there was chanting and applause and jeering for all kinds of reasons.  Anti-Harper, pretty loud jeeers.  Pro NDP? The NDP section of the crowd cheered loudly.  Pro Liberal?  The little official Liberal corner cheered loudly.  We failed the world in Copenhagen?  Good general applause and loud cheering from the Green and environmental section.  But I think the most widespread, consistent applause, where everyone was clapping and cheering and going “Yah!” was reserved for the following kinds of statements:

• “we need to fix our democracy”
• “our MPs got to get back to work”
• “we need proportional representation so the people who go to Ottawa have a real mandate”
• “we need to reform democracy so that the government actually represents the majority of Canadians”

Stuff like that, you know, crazy stuff. Crazy, democracy stuff.

Not at all the kind of thing a largely regional minority governing party with no possible allies wants to hear.  Not something a non-regional party with delusions of being the ‘natural governing party’ want to hear either.  Apparently not even something a pro-labour, pro-social justice party who’s leader thinks he’s “running for Prime Minister” wants to hear.  The NDP want to talk about specific solutions to the specific problem of prorogation.  Fine.  The Liberals want to talk about increasing voter turnout by improving the tone in Ottawa, which of course only they can do. Fine.

But those are not the real issues.

The real issue is that our democracy is broken and none you are listening to the people who hired you because they didn’t really hire you.  You know you only need a solid 40% of the country, spread around the right way to win an all powerful majority, and you just can’t turn down the possibility of absolute power.

Well, the time is past where the only people who can organize a crowd in this country are the political parties and labour unions.  We don’t have to stand for it anymore.

In Canada 2.0 around 45% of Canadians have a very convenient tool for organizing whenever they want to, and now they know it actually works for real world stuff.

So, national opposition parties, you’ve got a little time to work out a real solution that gets to the root of the democratic deficit in this country, before people start organizing new parties and coordinated voting to bring you all down.  A little time.  But remember, Canada 2.0 measures progress in internet time.

So, I figure, you’ve got about 2 months, or until the next election. Which, if you’re smart, will be the same thing.

Tomorrow’s Rally In Montreal and Media Failures

Crossposted at Sister Sage’s Musings

Yes! We have been blessed!!   Gracing Montrealers (& the rest of Canada who will see pictures &/or film footage for that matter) with their presence will be Marc Garneau, Liberal MP & the Quebec Lieutenant; Thomas Mulcair, the one and only Montreal NDP Mp, and Professor Daniel Weinstock of Universite de Montreal will be speaking.  Also, songs and dancing from the Montreal Raging Grannies. There is another group (I’m sorry, their name escapes me right now).

I am especially happy that Gilles Duceppe will be making an appearance. No, I’m not a separatist, but as most of my readers know, I had been concerned about the lack of interest amongst French Quebecers up until now. Whoever succeeded in reaching and inviting Gilles Duceppe, Thank You/ Merci beaucoup! C’est tres apprecie!

I was also concerned about the seemingly laissez-faire attitude of Gilles Duceppe, who at the time, only gave us a tweet of a reaction from his Twitter account. I always believed if Gilles Duceppe came out and reacted as he did when he announced support and cooperation with last year’s coalition government, all Quebecers would be enthusiastic about protesting. The rally for the coalition attracted quite a few folks, included separatists at Guy Favreau Centre last year.

That post did get quite a reaction over at noprorogue.ca.  Quite a bit of anger really. I (as well as others, I’m sure ) would have liked that anger channeled into what Stevie did, to all of us, no matter where we lived, what political affiliation or what language we spoke.

Now, it looks promising for tomorrow. I am now confidant we will have a great turn out. I also know there will be a great turn out at most of the venues, anyway. Sixty towns and cities is already a big thing.

Yah, Blogging Tories and Tommy “I like prorogation because it means no new taxes”  Schnurmacher, of CJAD 800am (Astral radio, naturally, just one of the right arms of the Harpercons & Tax-phobic Tommy & Chickenhawk Ric Petersen & his unabashed support for Blathering Blatchford are the cheerleaders) & Harpercon shill and others like him: get with the technology. This is the new activism. Most Canadians don’t want prorogation.

And Tommy, when you can’t spin, spoonfeed, or deflect and distract: move on to something else. Don’t berate, shove words down the throats of and call callers despicable who disagree with you, and don’t humiliate your co-workers, just because they joined a facebook group you don’t like. there, Tommy! Here’s a hint, you really should apologize on the air for your ill behavior as of late.

Speaking of  Conservative media against prorogation: I can’t believe I’m saying this: Congratz to Ryan Doyle for speaking on the air against prorogation. I sincerely hope that you will attend a rally near you.  As stated before, the cross country rallies need all affiliations; that means Conservatives welcome.  Quite a coup and a rarety: a conservative talk show host surely of a minority of  his brethren.

Speaking of Conservatives,  we invited Conservative MPs, local politicians and senators: they have not responded. I do not want to hear that this is an exclusively lefty movement.

Hope to see large numbers at all the venues tomorrow.

Esperons de vous voir nombreux a tous les evenements demain!

Today’s Corporate Media Hacks-Not Only Hypocritical, But Also, Sore Losers!

Yikes! Where do I start?  Pale and Montreal Simon wrote articles on this subject recently. There should be a whole anthology with a mass collaboration on the subject, especially since that Facebook group grew, demonstrations are being organized across Canada among other activities being planned. All this, thanks to social media; the blogosphere; blog aggregators such as Progressive Bloggers.

Today, we are standing up to Corporate Media hacks.

Now, hacks like Don Crook of  Blogolotics at the Grope & Fail, who  gets his math wrong and must humble himself to correct it. He posts the radio show of a fellow hack; the one & only, Chuckles Adler. Remember him? Let me refresh your memory: The one who referred to us as elitists who did nothing all day but suck on lattes in coffee houses?

You can catch the audio of Chuckles ranting alongside Matt Gurney of National Posties and of course, Christopher White, the founder and sole administrator of the Facebook group, Canadians against the Proroguing of parliament. I love how Gurney and Chuckles ranted at White about there being censorship on the site: that dissenting views being posted are being deleted  almosts as quickly as they were posted in the first place to hear them tell it. White at least pointed out what I hoped he would: that these folks may well have been deleting their own posts just to cry out censorship.

Chuckles would go on to poke fun at the site, as if it were nothing serious but a bunch of graphics and Nazi references.  I think what Chuckles doesn’t like (and I expect many others from that corporate media machine) is that it already started accomplishing something.  Conservatives and Centrists who had been pushed to Stevie’s hard right have joined us. These are folks who are particular fans of free speech.These people also tend to be for senate reform and thus, one of  Stevie’s promises that attracted them to vote for him in the first place was senate reform. Proroguing parliament in order to stack up the senate with his friends and cheerleaders, of course, would sour them toward Stevie.

Speaking of censorship hypocrisy; Guess who practises censorship on his blog? That’s right! The one and only Cook; comments are disabled. Like ol’ Stevie, Dan just don’t want to hear the opinion of other Canadians.

Just a note, it would appear that all of Don Crook’s blogs have disabled comments. Me thinks he protests too much. Hey Cook! Enable comments, will ya?

We are sharing information.

The Liberals are going to show up for work come January 25. With continued efforts our parts, we can perhaps get the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois to join them.

Canadians are writing Stevie, the opposition leaders and their MPs.

Up until now, Canadians had been apathetic. Now, they’re standing up and expressing their distaste for Stevie and the Harpercons’ lastest move.

Stevie runs away, and obviously, social media is  getting louder, making it more difficult for these  Harpercon cheerleaders to spoon feed Canadians what they want Canadians to think.

Here’s a thought for those who may still be struggling with their thoughts about the events of late and how they’re being covered:  and yes, hacks, pay attention. Everyone is free to follow whomever they like, it’s part of democracy, however, if average working Canadians with families and busy schedules are making the time to get Canadians involved or to inform them without payment (except for perhaps Google ad sense; never tried it, but I hear it really doesn’t pay much). We do this because we care. We care about our country and fellow Canadians. We don’t like the direction Stevie and the Harpercons are taking it with their actions and/or inactions as of late. May seem partisan, but we would be doing all of this if another leader were in charge and behaving exactly like Stevie has been.

Hacks, get used it! We’re staying and we will continue to make noise until Canada is steered back in the right direction. And even then, we will continue making noise in order to make sure our country continues in the right direction.

Mocking opposition for intentions of showing up to work? What are you all really afraid of? That they actually may find something damning in their unofficial investigation of torturegate?

Sidenote:  Speaking of  corporate media and the world of communications, guess who Stevie hired for a second time? Yup, none other than one of  his big ol’ buddy Georgie’s buddy, Ari Fleischer. More proof that he’s a Georgie wannabe.

Thank you Christopher White for founding the Facebook group. Readers who are on Facebook, please click the above Facebook link to join this group if you haven’t already. Contrary to what Chuckles, Crook and others have said, it doesn’t matter what usual affiliation you’re with.  You really do make a difference.