Toews rips into Free Press columnist
by Kevin Engstrom
As originally posted on: The Jerk
January 26, 2010
If there were any questions about Vic Toews' feelings towards Dan Lett, all doubt was removed last week.
Manitoba's senior MP and Canada's public safety czar took a strip out of Lett last Friday after the Winnipeg Free Press columnist criticized St. Boniface Tory MP Shelly Glover on his blog for not knowing who Tom Flanagan is (long story short: he used to be Stephen Harper's right-hand man). In an e-mail entitled "Who is Dan Lett?" that was presumably sent to many people, Toews pulled no punches as to what he thinks of the guy.
"In this column, after tripping through the cerebral jungle of trying to determine the winners and losers in the recent cabinet shuffle, and giving another colleague of mine a gratutious slap across the side of the head (in order to hopefully advance the career aspirations of a Liberal friend of his in that riding), he then turns his attention to the colleague who didn't know who Tom Flanagan is or was," Toews wrote.
"A more nonsensical analysis of that topic by Mr. Lett is hard to imagine. But I guess we should be thankful that Mr. Lett focuses his attention on matters that simply don't matter to the people in the street who do not share the concerns and indignation of the chattering classes that he identifies with. His comments are harmless and scattered, and as one prominent writer once noted, well-suited to wrap yesterday's leftovers on the way to the dump."
One word: wow.
Not since the days of Glen Murray declaring an unholy war against Tom Brodbeck and Charles Adler has a local politician taken such public umbrage with a journalist. I'm not about to join the normally affable Toews in a public lynching of the guy from the other paper (something about glass houses prevents me from doing so), although I'll agree Lett's assertion Glover committed "one of the great live-TV boners of all time" is a bit off, especially when you consider this, this, this, and this.
That said, here's some free PR advice for Toews: it's probably not to your advantage to get into an argument with a journalist who, by nature of his job, always gets the last word — even if that journalist angers you. Because when you give in and blast that person, you only validate that their opinion matters in the first place.
by Kevin Engstrom
As originally posted on: The Jerk
January 26, 2010
If there were any questions about Vic Toews' feelings towards Dan Lett, all doubt was removed last week.
Manitoba's senior MP and Canada's public safety czar took a strip out of Lett last Friday after the Winnipeg Free Press columnist criticized St. Boniface Tory MP Shelly Glover on his blog for not knowing who Tom Flanagan is (long story short: he used to be Stephen Harper's right-hand man). In an e-mail entitled "Who is Dan Lett?" that was presumably sent to many people, Toews pulled no punches as to what he thinks of the guy.
"In this column, after tripping through the cerebral jungle of trying to determine the winners and losers in the recent cabinet shuffle, and giving another colleague of mine a gratutious slap across the side of the head (in order to hopefully advance the career aspirations of a Liberal friend of his in that riding), he then turns his attention to the colleague who didn't know who Tom Flanagan is or was," Toews wrote.
"A more nonsensical analysis of that topic by Mr. Lett is hard to imagine. But I guess we should be thankful that Mr. Lett focuses his attention on matters that simply don't matter to the people in the street who do not share the concerns and indignation of the chattering classes that he identifies with. His comments are harmless and scattered, and as one prominent writer once noted, well-suited to wrap yesterday's leftovers on the way to the dump."
One word: wow.
Not since the days of Glen Murray declaring an unholy war against Tom Brodbeck and Charles Adler has a local politician taken such public umbrage with a journalist. I'm not about to join the normally affable Toews in a public lynching of the guy from the other paper (something about glass houses prevents me from doing so), although I'll agree Lett's assertion Glover committed "one of the great live-TV boners of all time" is a bit off, especially when you consider this, this, this, and this.
That said, here's some free PR advice for Toews: it's probably not to your advantage to get into an argument with a journalist who, by nature of his job, always gets the last word — even if that journalist angers you. Because when you give in and blast that person, you only validate that their opinion matters in the first place.
4 comments:
Ha ha ha ha! Nice to see you getting back to your roots. Stick it to those goddam tories!
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010
Bill Clinton, former U.S. President, reflects on America's historic hand in Haiti's poverty, and on changing the patterns of history: http://share.ovi.com/media/mebadgett.America/mebadgett.10676
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010:
http://www.we-forum.org/en/events/AnnualMeeting2010/clinton.shtml
P.S.
Declaration of the Tax Justice Network
http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/front_content.php?idcat=3
Part 1. "Only the little people pay taxes"
1. Large corporations and wealthy individuals are increasingly avoiding their obligation to contribute to society through taxation. With the aid of governments, they are shifting the tax burden further onto ordinary citizens and smaller businesses. Governments claim that revenues are too low to achieve social justice through decent public goods and services; privatisation and cuts in social expenditure are presented as the only solutions. Instead, we argue for tax justice: to restore the ability to tax the wealthy beneficiaries of globalisation.
2. Tax avoidance now occurs on a massive global scale. Assets held offshore, beyond the reach of effective taxation, are already estimated to equal one-third of total global assets.
3. Around half of all world trade appears to pass through tax haven jurisdictions, as corporations shift profits to where they can avoid tax. Networks of banks, lawyers and accountants create complex and secret financial structures, reducing transparency and enabling tax evasion. Claims of corporate social responsibility are undermined when low corporate tax payments are exposed. Such behaviour is economically inefficient, socially destructive, and profoundly unethical.
4. Developing countries are estimated to lose revenues greater than annual aid flows. An increased return of just half a per cent on global assets held offshore could yield sufficient revenue to finance the UN Development Goals for 2015, halving global poverty. Instead, such development is under threat from the huge tax breaks offered to attract large corporations, and from the vast outflow of funds from developing countries to tax havens.
5. These trends threaten democracy and development. A process of tax competition at the global level undermines the social contract previously set within the national arena, as states compete to offer tax exemptions to capital. Tax havens grow more numerous, the world's richest financial centres get even richer, taxes paid by large corporations fall, and ordinary citizens bear the cost. We call upon all concerned to meet this challenge, by building global and national campaigns for tax justice.
Source / More Information: http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/front_content.php?idcat=3
Declaration of the Tax Justice Network
The Future Is Now!
Peace Takes Courage
Together We Can Make A Difference!
Michael E. Badgett
217 W. Church St.
Mount Airy , NC 27030
336-786-2005
mbadgett@roadrunner.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/mebadgett
http://share.ovi.com/feeds/rss/channel/mebadgett.America
This is just fascinating!
This should be a required course of study in our school systems.
Testimony of Mr. William Schaap,
attorney, military and intelligence specialization,
co-publisher Covert Action Quarterly,
on the role of the U.S. Government in
the assassination of Martin Luther King
MLK Conspiracy Trial Transcript - Volume 9
November 30, 1999
Excerpts:
Q. Could you just cut through -- tell us what the Church Committee said about CoIntellPro reports and explain to the Court and the Jury what were the CoIntellPro activities.
A. CoIntellPro was Counter Intelligence Program, and that was the -- the major FBI program to counter what it conceived to be threats to American democracy. And it was, at least in my opinion, rather paranoid in what it considered threats. It had divisions trying to operate against communists, against socialists, against the New Left, against the Old Left, against what they referred to as Black Nationalists, what they referred to as hate groups. They had a separate section just on the Nation of Islam. They had a separate section on the Civil Rights Movement. They had a hybrid program on CommInfil which was to deal with the possibility that communists were infiltrating non-communist groups.
Q. (BY MR. PEPPER) Mr. Schaap, you've described an awesome power that exists in government influenced and controlled, sometimes owned, media -- print, audio, visual media entities -- and how that infrastructure gets focused on opponents of the United States such as Martin Luther King.
Do you see how this incredible power was brought against Dr. King and intensified against him during the last year of his life?
A. Yes. I think the -- the main reason for that was very, very specific. There was one speech that Dr. King gave in April of 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City where he came out against the war in Vietnam. And if you remember back to that period of time, this was a fundamental debate gripping every aspect of this country, the pros and cons of the involvement in Vietnam.
And when Dr. King came out against the U.S. involvement there, this was immediately accepted by J. Edgar Hoover as proof that he was a communist, proof that he was a terrible person.
Entire testimony: http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/MLKv9Schaap.html
The Future Is Now!
Peace Takes Courage
Together We Can Make A Difference!
Michael E. Badgett
217 W. Church St.
Mount Airy , NC 27030
336-786-2005
mbadgett@roadrunner.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/mebadgett
http://share.ovi.com/feeds/rss/channel/mebadgett.America
January 29, 2010
Message to all the greedy corporate bastards who have been a part of the decline of this Republic (The United States Of America):
http://cid-c51d833b5bbeb01a.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Peace%20Takes%20Courage/Bonnie%20Raitt%20-%20This%20World%20is%20Not%20Your%20Toy.mp3
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