Fox News network is reportedly one of the highest rated in the USA. I’ve never been a particular fan of it, I’ve generally found a lot of their reporting more along the lines of a national gossip show, sort of like the broadcast version of the National Enquirer. I’m a Canadian, so for the most part, what passes as news south of the border isn’t really my business.

I’ve grown up with an awareness that a lot of Americans have very little awareness of their neighbour to the north. I can remember as a kid encountering other children in Algonquin Provincial Park, (that’s in Ontario) and them asking me what ‘state’ I came from. When I told them I lived in the Province of Ontario, the usual response was “what state is that in”?

I well remember how strange I thought those kids to be that they couldn’t fathom that they were standing in the province I came from. It was later I learned that ignorance came from a lack of information about this country and even less interest in knowing.

Back to Fox News. One of their so called news shows is called “Red Eye” hosted by Greg Gutfeld. For the most part Gutfeld and the cronies who participate on the show with him think they are rather funny in their perspective. Sort of Fox’s answer to the Leno or Letterman. Read the rest of this entry »

Interesting article in the British paper Guardian comparing Steven Harper’s attitude to Richard Nixon’s. Now, before you’re thinking that the paper is suggesting Harper is a crook like Nixon (aka Watergate), that isn’t the gist of the article.

What the writers are comparing between the two men is their rather obvious utter contempt for the institutions which shape and form their respective governments. That contempt was evident before either of them arrived in office and became even more obvious through Harper’s rather long running war with the national media.

Sometimes even more so than the official opposition, the media can manage to hold governments to account simply through their willingness to dig beyond the facade and find out what is going on behind the scenes. Then they publish their results. I often rail against the media’s often clear bias in their reporting and selective quoting but at the same time, they are bringing to light what would be otherwise in the dark and allowing governments in particular to operate without rebuke. Read the rest of this entry »

In a move by Harper that appears to be a step toward actually forming a working relationship with the province of Ontario, money previously promised was released to the province by Harper. The $709million is to be used to boost public transit, hire more police and help workers in industries hit by the high dollar. The timing and the language used in the move seems to indicate that maybe Flaherty has been, at least for now, reigned in from his pugnacious attacks on the province and its elected government.

In a statement, Harper echoed that new feel-good tone, which contrasted with Flaherty’s claims that McGuinty is overtaxing Ontario into an economic slowdown.

“I want to congratulate Premier McGuinty and his government for developing programs that will use these federal funds to strengthen the Ontario economy, improve public safety, and expand the public transit system,” Harper said. Read the rest of this entry »

You know, I’ve often been of the opinion that if you don’t really have the courage of your convictions, or for that matter, any convictions — you keep a low profile and keep your mouth shut. That likely came about from my late father often commenting about keeping ones mouth shut rather than opening it and proving yourself the fool.

These days, Dion and some other Liberals are doing a real good job of proving the wisdom of that advice. This behaviour of mouthing to the media and anyone who will listen that the Harper Conservatives are the ‘worse’ government ever for whatever soapbox of the day topic and then either walking out or failing to even show up to defeat them is utter spineless crap.

Ok, the Liberals aren’t ready to fight an election. Fine, believe it or not, Canadians are adult enough to realize that. If the Liberals aren’t able to vote in favour of the government policies and aren’t bothered enough by the government’s actions to bring them down then bloody stand up and say so. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t normally pay much attention to American politics. I get a bit tired of it being spread all over Canadian media while our politics rarely grace the papers or airwaves in the US. I guess you could say I have a bit of a tit for tat attitude toward their politics. I have to admit though, this race between Clinton and Obama has caught my attention to a degree.

I really didn’t think that the Americans had yet progressed to the point that either a woman or a black person would even get past the gate toward running for President. I fully expected it would not happen in my lifetime. Now it is possible that when it comes time for Americans to make the final choice it will slide over to the Republicans simply because they are running a more ‘traditional’ candidate — that would be a white, male. Read the rest of this entry »

Some guy looking like, sounding like and claiming to be Stephen Harper appeared before the media yesterday to talk about Manley’s report. What made the media, and others question, who this guy was is that what came out of this guy’s mouth was a bit of humble speak which included sounding like someone who would compromise and work with at least one other party to make the Afghanistan mission work.

It is a side of Harper that I don’t know I’ve ever actually seen in motion. I know I’d like to see more of it, a lot more. Who knows, , I might even find myself moved to voluntarily vote Conservative for more reasons than Dion being an idiot on the Afghanistan file. What I watched in the video of yesterday’s press conference and read in the statement was a Prime Minister who was willing to step to the plate and act like one. Read the rest of this entry »

An independent media outlet in Afghanistan has launched, Afghan Press. The site’s objective is to be a free and independent source of otherwise unreported news of what is happening in Afghanistan. The success of projects like this are part of what goes into building a democracy.

As cynical as we sometimes get about how impartial or biased media is, the fact is that without a media that is not controlled by the government, democracy and freedom become limited. The sites authors write:

“We want to create a powerful Afghanistan through new media technologies. The internet is our only gateway to free speech and global outreach. We want to use digital media to show the world what currently goes unreported; things happening in Afghanistan’s remote villages, to people never given a chance to communicate with the rest of the world. In order to share a realistic portrayal of Afghanistan with the rest of the world, we aim to involve as many locals as possible in reporting the world around them, thus concretely enhancing the lives of Afghan people. We envision this taking the form of digital media, documentaries, podcasts, online TV, journalism, women blogging, youth empowerment via the internet and beyond”

I’m going to be keeping an eye on this site. I hope they succeed in meeting their goals.