at the end he's repeatedly saying "kill me". There's not a hint of a "p" sound between the words, whereas it's quite clear when he uses the word "help" in the first sentences at the beginning of the clip.

exactly what the "deal" is between the Bush administration and Harper's govt. Over and over again Harper supports Bush policies, however bizarre they appear. It's easy to just presume Harper is stupid. But he isn't stupid. Is he blinded by the religious fundamentalist thing? By his Alberta base? By some darkly held secret between them? What the hell is it?

through some sort of mechanism connected to think tanks. Something back-channel, existing in the quasi-official churn between business and government.

Some might characterize Harper as "being a true believer in an ideology that is larger than Canadian identity, and justifies action contradicting the national popular will".

If this were the early 1940s and that thing was "Fascism", or if it were the 1950s and that thing were "world Socialism", it would be easier to see as what it actually is.

I'm not sure where the train is headed but is this a first whistle stop....?

National Citizen's Coalition

SNIP

"The National Citizens Coalition is a Canadian libertarian-conservative lobby group. It supports privatization, tax cuts, and government spending cuts and opposes laws that limit spending by non-party organizations during election campaigns.

The NCC claims a membership of between 40,000 to 45,000 individuals, but has not released members' names. It reports an annual budget of $2.8 million.

The NCC holds no annual general membership meetings and provides no financial statements to its members. The organization's constitution distinguishes between 'voting' and 'public' members. Public members pay dues but do not have formal mechanisms for influencing the organization's policies or priorities. Public members are not entitled to be notified of or to attend any meetings, and they are not entitled to vote at any such meetings.

The organization has fought to keep information about itself confidential. The NCC opposed proposed amendments to the Canada Elections Act that would have required third-party organizations like the NCC to publish the names of all contributors donating more than $250.
...

Stephen Harper, the current Prime Minister of Canada, was at one time president of the NCC."

What a rat's nest of in-fighting and vitriol this blue-ribbon NCC turns out to be. Cranky little brains all confused with secrets and patriotism and Alberta First support. Mentally rooting around in their back yard feel a bit like doing a private dig at the dinosaur burial grounds in Drumheller.

The big bucks of the group seemed to have orginally flowed directly from founder Colin M Brown, (died 1987) wealthy life insurance dude, he of the "Colin M Brown Freedom Medal" awarded, this year, to Preston Manning. Brown orginally started the group to support private health care initiatives and wage a concerted attack on public health care in Canada, but when all those captains of commerce and industry hopped on board the agenda became broader and definitely more secretive.

Interesting .

It's been a long time since I recall it meaning anything more profound than "oh how I hate liberals".

Much of it doesn't even seem to have *goals* outside that any more.

I wonder why I don't hate conservatives?

the trouble lies in the fact that "pinko commie slime" flows so trippingly of the tongue for the anonymous mouth breathers. It's difficult to respond in kind with, say "Fascist pigs" because a) they wouldn't know what a Fascist is/was b) If they knew what it was they wouldn't recognize the spelling, and c) they wouldn't know how to pronounce it if they saw it, anyway.

"Mussolini sympathizer" seems dated and even more confusing.

"Retard" is, like, so yesterday, dude.

Do do we need to develop some new gutter invective to hurl at these intellectually challenged sloganeers?

Maybe not.

The great power of the internet prevails in that supreme moment when, in the hand of the discening reader, left click on cursor hits "X".