I Would Have Left A Comment

It seems to me that if you want to discuss someone’s ideas with them, you should do so at their blog… says Joseph at Canada's Debate, over the Cherniak posts of late; Can’t we all just get along?

I wanted to leave a comment on his blog but unfortunately it was locked. Sorry, you must be logged in to post a comment.

So here it is.

Thanks for commenting at my blog. To reiterate my points about Jason. His argument came from the right, which I wanted to point out and I could do that with a blog article and links not something I could do easily in his comments.

He has a pathological hatred of the NDP and the left in general. Regardless of his specific arguments they are quickly invalidated by his partisanship.

He makes it personal when challenged, complaining about personal attacks, which in some cases occur on his blog in the comments, but then he moderates those so he could exclude them.

I have challenged him on my blog as a leading voice of Liberalbloggers, who consistantly speaks from the right, in order to point out that not all liberals are Liberals, not all progressives are Liberals and of course conversly not all Liberals are liberal nor are all Liberals progressive.

He is a self professed political pundit so he should expect to be treated as such.

After all I do claim that my blog is about Left Wing Comment and Analysis.

I also politically challenge BloggingTories , Green Bloggers, Dippers, etc. I disagree with on my blog.


See:

Jason Cherniak


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Ontario, Canada, NDP, Liberals, blogs, bloggers, Jason Cherniak,

Google Cherniak

In a pitiful whine on the Progressive Bloggers Diary page Jason Cherniak claims he googled himself and found he was wanting. All the negative press he has gotten over the minimum wage debate he ascribes to character assasination, claiming it is ruining his career potential.

To all you bloggers who think I am being a cry baby or something to that effect, I suggest you think hard about what is going on here. Every time NDP bloggers disagree with me, I seem to get at least five posts questioning my integrity, compassion, intelligence and/or honesty. Few other non-professional bloggers have to put up with that.

Please show some respect and recognition for the fact that what gets posted online really does affect my future, including job prospects. For a 27-year old, that is a DAMN big deal and I will never apologize for or regret saying so.


Well I googled Jason, lets see what shows.

What he is complaining about is the MyBlahg post appearing as item number seven in this listing on JasonCherniak under Google Search. Pretty standard stuff until you go to page two....then all hell breaks out, because of Jasons comments and the responses he garners.


There is also one news story on Google News And the page is blank.

Ex-preem MacLellan didn’t get to vote for his guy
ChronicleHerald.ca, Canada - Dec 10, 2006
The members include Colin Hebb, one of Mr. Dion’s Nova Scotia organizers, Jason Cherniak, the Dion blog campaign co-chairman, and Adam Lomas, now a student ...

Jason Cherniak Google Blog Search

Not much here that is different than reading the PB and certainly nothing that would draw attention to him.

So why is he all upset? Well as a self agrandizing politcal hack perhaps his posting this on his own blog;

I suggest you take a look here. Particularly if you are a reporter.

So if Jason is slagged in the press its not because of Blogging Dippers or any other bloggers it's because of his own big fat ego and his insatiable need to draw attention to himself.

Like this link to his photo under Google Images




And if he is wondering why those of us on the Left consider him a whining sanctimonious partisan hack well lets not forget this post of his that started it all.....

The NDP is sick

Why does the NDP exist? What is their purpose in Canadian politics? Should a political party be celebrating because they won less than 10% of the seats in the House of Commons? Should a political party be celebrating because the group most opposed to their ideology is now in government? Should a political party be kicking out lifelong members because they do not adhere to party policy? What is the purpose of the NDP?

I will admit that I am personally biased on this. Some readers might have noted that I have no NDP bloggers on my link list. This is not because there are no good NDP bloggers. It is because I do not tend to have much time for the NDP.

Except to constantly attack the NDP and Blogging Dippers.


See:

Jason Cherniak


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Ontario, Canada, NDP, Liberals, blogs, bloggers, Jason Cherniak,

The Enemy Of My Enemy

Is my friend. And it looks like Jason Cherniak has some friends in the Blogging Tories. Told ya he was a right winger.

Hackonomics: How Reality Is Lost On The Blogging Dippers
BC Tory | 3 Jan 2007 | 8:40pm EST
It is not very often that I agree with Liberal partisan Jason Cherniak; however, in his argument against the minimum wage being raised to $10 in Ontario, I have to say I agree wholeheartedly.

Say no more.

Of course Jason might want to reconsider the company he keeps....

From a Sexless Pig to a Sexist Pig
ThePolitic.com | 3 Jan 2007 | 11:42pm EST
Did you know?: Only sexist pigs say no to a $10 minimum wage Oink oink.

See:

Wages

Minimum Wage

Social Wage

Jason Cherniak


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Ontario, Canada, NDP, Liberals, minimumwages, wages, social-wage, living-wage, blogs, bloggers, Jason Cherniak,
daycare, childcare, public, Canada, Harper, government, baby, bonus, tax-credit, politcs,
single-mothers, Blogging Tories, conservative economics, Stats-Canada, Working-Mothers

Trotsky on Harper

The Reform Party of Preston Manning is Dead. The Canadian Alliance of Preston Manning is Dead. The New Conservative Government of Stephen Harper has liquidated it's Reform Alliance democratic populist ideology for the politics of the Strong Man.

Wait a minute...the Reform/Alliance party was always a one man show, it was never really a grassroots democratic movement after Preston consolidated power. It was always about the Cult of Personality.

Stephen Harper understood that, which is why he quit the Reform Party under Preston and came back to usurp the King and make the R/A/Conservative party his own.

Which is why since his election as PM he has personally dominated his party and the government. We did not elect a political party we elected a PM. The party may be in a minority position but the PM is not. Thus the cult of personality that is now appearing on the Conservative home page.

Stephen Harper - megalomaniac?

Fellow blogger Jeff Davidson made the observation today about the Conservative Party website which features endless pictures of Stephen Harper... Link to Conservative Site I agree, what's up with that? Is it a one man party? I have heard the stories about Harper being a control freak, but I think this says something about his character and the party; that it is about Stephen Harper. Link to Jeff's Blog Post

Ironically the Supreme Leader of Canada now appears to have done to his party what Trotsky accussed Lenin of wanting to do the Russian Social Democratic Party.....

The most prescient critique of Lenin's style and methods was contained in Trotsky's 1904 pamphlet, "Our Political Tasks":

"Lenin's methods lead to this: the party organisation at first substitutes itself for the party as a
whole; then the Central Committee substitutes itself for the organisation; and finally a single 'dictator' substitutes himself for the Central Committee."


And of course the result of Lenins 'dictatorship' was Stalin, the founder of the cult of personality, who seems to have a special place not only in Stephen Harpers library but in his view of the world.

See

• Post Modern Conservatives

• The Great Dismantler

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Canada, Government, PM, PMO, Harper, Stalin, Great, Leader, Autocrat, Conservatives,
ethics, accountability, autarch, autocrat, politics,

Golden Parachutes

Recently in my posts on CEO's pay, comments have been made to the effect that these fat cats get paid cause they make money for their shareholders. Most of those shareholders are either insiders with the company, ie. the Board members and executive officers, or institutional shareholders, mom and pop investors are relatively small beans in the world of high finance.

In the world of casino capitalism corporations are paying out golden parachutes to their CEO's whether they make money or lose it.

Well here is an example of a CEO NOT MAKING MONEY FOR HIS COMPANY BUT GETTING A GOLDEN PARACHUTE.

Embattled Home Depot CEO resigns By The Washington Post | January 4, 2007. WASHINGTON -- Embattled Home Depot chief executive Robert Nardelli, under fire from stockholders for earning hundreds of millions at the same time the company's stock fell and market share dropped.

AND HERE IS ANOTHER

Back in April, shareholder groups at Pfizer's annual meeting made it abundantly clear that they'd had enough with the rich payouts to then-CEO Hank McKinnell. Groups, led by the AFL-CIO, staged a raucous protest. As they handed out fliers, chanted, and held up signs to demand McKinnell return part of his pay, an airplane circled the company's annual meeting in Lincoln, Neb., with a banner reading, "Give it back, Hank!" The protesters were upset that one of the top-paid pharmaceutical executives was also going to be granted an $82 million lump sum if he ever stepped down.

But on Dec. 21, Pfizer (PFE) revealed that McKinnell, who did give up the CEO post in 2006, is getting even more money than originally thought. He'll receive a total of $122 million in retirement, as well as deferred compensation worth an additional $78 million.

The sum total of $200 million isn't going over too well among investors. "It's not reasonable to pay someone who failed as CEO this much; he's the poster child for pay-for-failure," says Daniel F. Pedrotty, director of the investment office of the AFL-CIO, whose member unions' funds hold about $568 million in Pfizer shares. "Unfortunately, once you've negotiated this and gotten it wrong, it's hard to fix."

And while the Corporate Bosses make fat salaries off thier losses at the tables of casino capitalism the newest scam, Hedge Funds, rake in even bigger winnings. Tax free of course.

Even these handsome rewards appear almost Spartan compared with the huge fortunes amassed so quickly by those who manage - and collect the fees from - private-equity deals:

In the midst of the junk-bond craze of the 1980s, the $500 million made by Michael Milken on his junk-bond deals was novel and shocking; but now, as hedge and private-equity funds have moved to the Wall-Street mainstream, rewards of such magnitude are closer to the everyday norm. For 2005, the two highest earners are reported to have been Steven Cohen who manages a $6.5 billion pool of assets for wealthy investors in SAC Capital Advisers and Stephen Schwarzman whose Blackstone fund handles private assets of a similar size. The rewards, mostly in cash, for their year’s work are calculated to be $500 million for Cohen and $300 million for Schwarzman. Milken’s takings were so huge that, in his day, it was thought that they must have been ill-gotten. Nothing of the kind is imagined today. “These big paydays are based on performance,” former hedge manager Andy Kessler is reported to have said. “For capitalism, it’s great these guys are taking a piece of the upside and saying we took the risk so we get the reward” (page 436).

Review: Capitalism Unleashed by Andrew Glyn

See

CEO

Criminal Capitalism

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
CEO, pay, goldenparachutes, Corporations, fatcats, rich, superrich, America,

Will Bush Blog?

Now that US President Bush has written his first newspaper opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal is blogging from the White House far behind? He could use this graphic as the header for his Victory Blog.

See:

Bush


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
George W Bush, Bush, President, US, blogs, blogging, WSJ, Wall Street Journal, newspaper article, Bush writes for WSJ

Bitch Bitch Bitch

I love Feminist bitching in the blogosphere. As they say, you go girl. They make the usual political infighting of the boys look just sooooo tame.

This is the intellectual equivalent of catfights.

And when it comes to so called Reality TV shows like Beauty and the Geek, not a word. Nada. But hey they do trash the Geeks when it comes to their actually profiling their favorite blogger babes.

Completely ignoring the whole sexist blog culture of 25peeps. (As in 25 cent peep shows, Adults only, come in and watch porn videos in our booths).

Or the sexist presumption of such mainstream shows like Beauty and the Geek, geeks being all guys women are never geeks of course, and blonde good looking dumb guys don't exist either.

Actually the sturm and drang over the Gizmogeeks posting of his favorite blogger babes, is wee bit over the top. He at least choose to pick intelligent women who blog and are not just models. Which seems to have been lost on the feminists critizing his post. Actually to be fair they are criticizing comments to his post.

Which is rather lame considering that this particular feminist blog has been trashed by other feminists because they promote themselves with provocative T-Shirts ads showing tits.

As I said ya gotta love feminist bitching.

I will now sit back and await the slap back.


See

Feminist

Feminism



Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Beauty and the Geek, 25peeps, feminist, feminism, bitch, feminst blogs, blogs, bloggers, blogging, women, sexist, sexism,

3000 Dead

The number of American soldiers killed in Iraq as of today. Which is why the troops are demoralized.

And this Times Union editorial hits it on the head....

It's closer to impossible to take note of the 3,000 casualties and not realize that's more than the Sept. 11 attacks, horrific events in their own right that President Bush cravenly and disingenuously tried to use as a rationale for invading Iraq almost four years ago. Some 95 percent of those deaths have come since the United States had supposedly won the war, but not the peace, barely a month after it invaded Iraq in early 2003.

And it's especially difficult to even try to absorb the larger meaning of 3,000 lost lives, of mostly very young soldiers, when Mr. Bush can't bring himself to dispell speculation that he wants to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, from a current level of 140,000, before he goes about bringing them home.

See: Iraq


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Bush, US, Military, Army, Marines, Iraq

Rachel Corrie Story Banned In Canda

The play about Rachel Corrie has been banned in Canada. Corrie was the American activist who was killed by an Israeli Defense Force Bulldozer. Compare and contrast these stories. The Canadian Israel Lobby again engages in censorship through the back door, as in the theatre's backers backed out.

Controversial Rachel Corrie play dropped in Canada

UPI

December 28, 2006

TORONTO -- The Canadian production of a play about an American human rights activist who died under the tracks of an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 has been canceled.

Daily Variety reported on December 23 that the production of My Name is Rachel Corrie has been pulled from the 2007-2008 line up in Canada's largest non-profit theater, CanStage. The play was originally produced last year at London's Royal Court Theatre.

A board member for CanStage said that in his view, "it would provoke a negative reaction in the Jewish community."

Variety said that philanthropist Bluma Appel, after whom CanStage's flagship theater is named, concurred. "I told them I would react very badly to a play that was offensive to Jews."

My Name is Rachel Corrie is based on the diaries and e-mails of Rachel Corrie, a member of the International Solidarity Movement who traveled as an activist to the Gaza Strip during the intifada. She was killed when she attempted to halt an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer from razing a house.

Rachel Corrie play nixed in Toronto
Cleveland Jewish News, OH - 28 Dec 2006

(JTA) - A Toronto-based theater removed from its upcoming season a controversial play about a pro-Palestinian activist's death.

Martin Bragg, artistic producer for the Canadian Stage Company or CanStage, said “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” was dropped from consideration because it was dramatically weak, not because of its political content. Bragg said he reached the decision after seeing a production of the play in New York that failed to engage the audience.

One blog claimed the play was pulled due to the influence of the American pro-Israel lobby. Corrie, an American activist with the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement, was accidentally run over and killed by an Israeli bulldozer as it tried to uncover arms tunnels in the Gaza Strip in 2003.

Rachel Corrie play: censored in Toronto

An echo of Nicola's fears north of the border occurred within the last couple of months in the Canadian Jewish News. Upon hearing of the possible staging in Toronto of My Name is Rachel Corrie, Alicia Richler, associate director of communications for the Canada-Israel Committee, according to CJC, "said that although everyone in Canada has the right to free speech, the timing of the news is poor, since an Israeli man was recently killed when a rocket launched from the northern Gaza Strip hit a factory in Sderot."

From the Toronto Star, Dec. 24: "The alternate version being told among CanStage insiders: Members of Bragg's board were alarmed by negative response from influential supporters of the theatre, especially in Toronto's Jewish community, who were canvassed for their opinion. Many were dismayed and openly critical when confronted with the prospect of the city's flagship not-for-profit theatre producing a play that could be construed as anti-Semitic propaganda, especially during a frightening period when Israel's existence is threatened by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas."

CanStage loses interest in controversial Corrie play

VAL ROSS

Toronto -- News of CanStage's cancellation of its plans to stage a controversial play about a 23-year-old American protester who was crushed by an Israeli Defence Force bulldozer made the New York Times this week. No wonder: That city has had similar battles over My Name is Rachel Corrie, for its perceived anti-Israeli content.

The play, created by actor-director Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner from the diaries and e-mails of the young Palestinian-rights activist, won a best new play prize in this year's Theatregoers' Choice Awards in London. Some British reviewers reported that they found the play revealed Corrie to be obnoxious and foolish, but some North Americans who have seen the play (and some who haven't seen it) say they sense anti-Semitic bias in the script.

A planned production at the New York Theatre Workshop was postponed; the play eventually found an off-Broadway home at the Minetta Lane Theater. The New York production's problems were echoed in Toronto: The non-profit (and currently money-losing) CanStage company was told by at least two prominent benefactors that they would take it badly if CanStage did a play that could stir up feelings against Jews. Although artistic producer Martin Bragg publicly confessed that he'd been "reduced to tears" by the script, and planned to put Rachel Corrie into his 2007-8 season, he said he lost interest after seeing it at Minetta Lane.

I guess Martin Bragg was only crying crocodile tears.

Toronto theatre won't stage My Name is Rachel Corrie

Toronto's Canadian Stage Company has decided not to stage My Name is Rachel Corrie, the controversial play about an American peace activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer.

It was a decision based on the play's merits, rather than the political controversy that dogs it, CanStage artistic producer Martin Bragg said in an interview with CBC.ca.

"It was an artistic decision," said Bragg, who saw the play in New York. "It just didn't work on stage."

It didn't work on stage, eh. Yep I call that real artistic integrity.

'Rachel Corrie' to Close in London, December 17

The show was originally produced at London's Royal Court Theatre, where it opened in April 2005 and returned for an encore engagement in October 2005. In Spring 2006, it played for nine weeks at the Playhouse Theatre in London's West End.

The play also received the 2006 London Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Play, Best Director and Best Actress; and was nominated for a Time Out Award (Best Actress), a South Bank Show Award (Best Production) and an Olivier Award (Outstanding Achievement).

And as this wag puts it clearly Martin Bragg claims to artistic integrity are so much bunkum.

I find it perfectly reasonable that a theater rejects a play because it's bad theater -- except why did they book it in the first place? Apparently they were greedily depending on its controversial reputation to sell tickets. In this case, it doesn't matter if the play is good or bad. They entered the arena for bucks. So to change their minds does, in fact, suggest pressure and political issues, not aesthetic ones. So the Toronto theater, it seems to me, is trying to save its ass and reputation here. If they book a play without deciding if it's good enough to do, well, what motives can they have other than greed? And something then happened to make them chicken out.

I don't see any tunnel here do you? But I do see the remains of a house.


Photos by an International Solidarity Movement eyewitness
show Rachel Corrie protesting earlier, and then later,
after she was hit by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza on Sunday.


Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice

Rachel Corrie ? Part 1
Rachel Corrie 23, was a young peace activist from Olympia Washington who was
tragically killed in Gaza by an Israeli Defense Forces Bulldozer in March 2003.
Her parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie now speak about their daughter’s legacy

See:

Israel

Palestine

Zionism

Theatre

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Can Stage, Canadian Stage Theatre, Martin Bragg, Bluma Appel, Rachel Corrie, Play, Canada, Toronto, Israel, Zionists, banned, playbanned, Corrieplaybanned,

La versus Le

Its my excuse and mes excuses.

Yep the spelling of La Revue Gauche is wrong. Note it should be La not Le. As in La Revue Gauche.

Somehow in the transposition of using a translator I put ' e' in place of 'a', too late now though.

Thanks to all the Francophones who have commented or emailed me about the tragedy of my linguistic ignorance.

However since this blog has been online for two years, and you only noticed now, well I ain't changing it. Live with it.

Consider it a play on words. Perhaps I should have called it L'eh Revue Gauche to be truly Canadian. In your mind say La instead of Le and lets leave it at that. La, la, la.

You say potato, I say potato
Lets call the whole thing off


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
La Revue Gauche, Le Revue Gauche, french, francophone, spelling, blog, blogging, blogs, bloggers, misspelling, language, translation, plawiuk, francophones, Canada