Thursday, September 23, 2010

My apparent lack of outrage

Many of us of have commented with eminently justifiable outrage on the revelation that the Conservatives were completely willing to probably illegally dig into the confidential medical records of a veteran and spread that apparently secure information around to all and sundry, like a stallion's head in the bed.

I've had a number of thoughts on that, but I think I'm beyond the point of immediate shock and outrage at this latest revelation. Yes, they are a toxic spill and the fish are bloating to the surface, but at some point you've got to snap out of it, stop staring and start organising HAZMAT.

Time and time again, from Canadians like Abousfian Abdelrazik to our veterans, this government and often its ministers and functionaries have demonstrated only one way of behaving toward individual or groups of Canadians it or they do not like. They ignore protocol and statute, as well as the basic social norms of respect, and do their utmost to utterly ruin that person's life or prevent those groups of demonstrating their point.

I said sometime ago on this blog that this is a government that makes lists of enemies; lists and files containing whatever damaging or private information might be useful to them. At this point it would not surprise me in the least to find out that some minister's office is data mining bloggers, activists, veterans, or anyone else who has made a disparaging comment about them or stood in a line against them. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that some public money went to hiring "contractors" to spy on political enemies, either in office or private citizens, and gather information on their personal lives. They have already spent a billion dollars to use the entire state security apparatus, including the enacting of secret laws, to crush peaceful dissent at a level alien to just about every other parliamentary democracy in the world and Canada especially. It would not surprise me in the least to find out that the names and photos of the arrested or copies of their police files have made their way to Party offices.

This is simply how the Party operates. At some point we must get over the shock of what they do, recognise them for what they are, and set about the task of methodically taking them apart. The line of departure here it seems is the next election. The Cons just lost a major platform vote in the House. There's a new scandal every week. They are on the defensive.

When the election comes, get out to your all-candidates meetings. Get behind the microphone and very politely ask the concise embarassing questions about their record and their Party's. If the security people come to shut you up for asking the awkward question, have a silent friend record it and post it on the internet and send it to news outlets. If they don't, record the "answers" and "explanations" the Con gives. Post them.

In fact, record everything around them and make it public, blog, post it, send it to media. They do it us, so then we ought to turn the fucking tables. These people have difficulty with improv and they'll almost certainly step in it.

Push those minority polling numbers down into Opposition. They don't need to go far. Just a few points. We're not dislodging a majority at all. Deficit Jim shows us they are in real fear of losing now which tells us we have the advantage. Press it home.

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