I have mentioned Greg Palast before on my blog.  Its my belief that hes one of the better journalists alive right now. 

In his latest article he talks about how the American media have become so indifferent to the truth that they dont even take the simplest steps to make sure their information is correct or to get at the bigger story. 

It seems like infotainment really is how all news today is spun.

From the article:

“IN AN E-MAIL uncovered and released by the House Judiciary Committee
last month, Tim Griffin, once Karl Rove’s right-hand man, gloated that
“no [U.S.] national press picked up” a BBC Television story reporting
that the Rove team had developed an elaborate scheme to challenge the
votes of thousands of African Americans in the 2004 election.

I’m
not going to argue with Rove’s minions about the validity of our
reporting, which led the news in Britain. But I can tell you this: To
the extent that it was ignored in the United States, it wasn’t because
the report was false. It was because it was complicated and murky and
because it required a lot of time and reporting to get to the bottom of
it. In fact, not one U.S. newsperson even bothered to ask me or the BBC
for the data and research we had painstakingly done in our effort to
demonstrate the existence of the scheme.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-palast27apr27,1,200401.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

How stupid are republicans?  Well this republican thinks he knows why immigration is a problem in the U.S., he blames the Devil.

The article goes on to say this republican has submitted a resolution that, well, read it for yourself.

From the article:

“In order for Satan to establish his ‘New World Order’ and destroy the
freedom of all people as predicted in the scriptures, he must first
destroy the U.S.,� Larsen’s resolution states. “[It is] insidious for
its stealth and innocuousness.�

Shouldn’t this sort of thing shock me? Hmmm …

http://kutv.com/local/local_story_116133225.html

Somehow Harper and his neo-cons think reganomics is the way to go with Canada, cut taxes for the already very rich and tax the middle class and poor heavily.

Here is a list of how corporations in Canada pay their taxs, that is if they ever do.

From the article:

“How do corporations do it? For Canadians who dream of paying tax
like a corporation, here’s a step-by-step guide to accessing the gravy
train:

• Step 1: Change your last name to Limited, Incorporated, or (best of all) Trust.

• Step 2: Instead of declaring wages like a normal working
  stiff, declare capital gains. Then you only owe tax on half of your
  income. Better yet, declare flow-through dividends, and pay virtually
  no tax at all.

• Step 3: Shrink yourself, and pay less tax. For some reason,
  smaller incorporated businesses face a lower rate than bigger ones.
  That’s worth $4-billion per year.

• Step 4: Find a valuable non-renewable resource that belongs
  to someone else, dig it up, and sell it. Then pay the owners a big fat
  one per cent royalty. That’s how it works in the oil sands — no wonder
  oil profits are so high.

• Step 5: Individuals have good years and bad years. But they
  have to pay tax when the good times are rolling, as if they’ll never
  stop. Businesses, however, get to carry forward losses to reduce taxes
  in the good years. That saves $5-billion per year.

• Step 6: Make friends in high places who cut your tax rates year after year — whether you need it or not.

• Step 7: When you’ve finished your return, open a bottle of
  really expensive wine to celebrate your successful tax avoidance. Then
  go back and write off half its cost as a legitimate business expense.

I wouldn’t be nearly so grumpy about the unprecedented decline in
corporate taxes, if companies were doing something useful with that
$18-billion. But they’re not: Business investment in Canada has been
utterly lacklustre since 2000, and business tax cuts have been
scandalously ineffective in motivating actual economic activity.”

http://www.rabble.ca/everyones_a_critic.shtml?sh_itm=204bc757aa55ba316251d0802fb58417&rXn=1&

This is a well made video outlining the war mongering side of Harper.

None of this suprises me.

We have to get rid of these neo-cons A.S.A.P., that is if justice, peace and equality mean anything to us.

“The Harper government knew from its own officials that prisoners
held by Afghan security forces faced the possibility of torture, abuse
and extrajudicial killing, The Globe and Mail has learned.

But the government has eradicated every single reference to torture
and abuse in prison from a heavily blacked-out version of a report
prepared by Canadian diplomats in Kabul and released under an access to
information request.

Initially, the government denied the existence of the report,
responding in writing that “no such report on human-rights performance
in other countries exists.” After complaints to the Access to
Information Commissioner, it released a heavily edited version this
week.

Among the sentences blacked out by the Foreign Affairs Department in
the report’s summary is “Extrajudicial executions, disappearances,
torture and detention without trial are all too common,” according to
full passages of the report obtained independently by The Globe.

The Foreign Affairs report, titled Afghanistan-2006; Good
Governance, Democratic Development and Human Rights, was marked “CEO”
for Canadian Eyes Only. It seems to remove any last vestige of doubt
that the senior officials and ministers knew that torture and abuse
were rife in Afghan jails.

The report leaves untouched many paragraphs such as those beginning “one positive development” or “there are some bright spots.”

But heavy dark blocks obliterate sentences such as “the overall human rights situation in Afghanistan deteriorated in 2006.”

It’s not clear why such internationally agreed and obvious
observations are blacked out of the Canadian report. No
national-security issues seem involved, nor are there personal privacy
issues, reasons often cited for excising information.

A comparison of the full text — parts of which were obtained by The
Globe and Mail — with the edited version shows a consistent pattern of
excising negative findings or observations from the report with
positive ones left in.

There was no explanation for blacking out observations such as
“military, intelligence and police forces have been accused of
involvement in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping extortion, torture and
extrajudicial killing.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070424.wdetaineereport0425/BNStory/Afghanistan/

Christians are funny.  There are all kinds of them, from well meaning nuts to dangerous evil nuts and all kinds of Christ cult members in between. 

Rarely do Christians talk about how they subtly work to attract members, like any corporation looking to strengthen its brand and have more customers the Christian churches work hard to attract “souls” and if that means making ridiculous claims (besides the idea of life after death or an uber-parent in the sky) Christians don’t have a problem with stretching the truth or using unethical approaches to attract fellow cult members.

From the article:

“Compliment them on whatever you can,” Kennedy said, “discuss what
they do, you’re going to find out what are their hobbies, maybe right
there in the living room. Then you’re going to ask them about what they
do, where they’re from, how long they’ve been there … something to
discuss with them … in doing this, you have made a friend.”

We
are told to “emphasize the positive” and “identify with your prospect.”
We are encouraged in the green “Evangelism Explosion” instruction
manual to use sentences such as “It is wonderful to know when I lay my
head on my pillow tonight that if I do not awaken in bed in the
morning, I will awaken in paradise with God.” We are told to paint
graphic pictures of personal tragedy that God has helped solve, such
as: “I had a Christian son killed in Vietnam, yet my heart is filled
with peace because I know he has eternal life. Even though he was
killed by an enemy mortar, he has a home now in heaven, and one day
we’ll be reunited there.” We are instructed to pepper our testimonies
with words like love, peace, faithfulness, forgiveness, hope, purpose
and obedience and remember to talk about how we have found, in our own
conversion, “courage in the face of death.”

Kennedy warns us not
to carry a large Bible, but to keep a small one hidden in our pocket,
saying “don’t show your gun until you’re ready to shoot it.”

Its nice to see an article directly address the rotten sales techniques that the Christ cults use.  Pass the article on if you see the danger these people pose to our society.

http://www.alternet.org/story/50934/

Great news!

One of my favourite news portals is now back online.  TheFilter collects the best in left minded (see intelligent) news articles and plucks the flowers out from among the thorns and posts it on their news blog.

Good to see that they are back online.

Check it out if you want the best in the latest news from Canada and the U.S.

http://thefilter.ca/articles/?p=132

“From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all”

More from the article:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy

2. Create a gulag

3. Develop a thug caste

4. Set up an internal surveillance system

5. Harass citizens’ groups

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release

7. Target key individuals

8. Control the press

9. Dissent equals treason

10. Suspend the rule of law

Make sure you check out the entire article, its scary and its happening.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064157,00.html