My American Neighbours: Still Good Friends? It takes a lot of “moral imagination”
❝America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn’t standing still.❞ e. e. cummings
❝The American republic began with physical and economic assets as well as a rich intellectual legacy of enlightened ideas. It could afford to make mistakes, as it inevitably would, because the sheer potential of the continent would rescue and redeem blunders that would have proved fatal in a more constricted…contest.❞__________________________________________
I confess, I’m more than a tad discomfited by my old neighbours to the south, the USA. I’ve always taken for granted that certain values were common to both of our great societies: justice, peace, fairness, common-sense thinking; civility, rule of law. These things seem messed up in America lately. Can we still be friends? Can I find the “moral imagination” called for by President Barack Obama on 12 January 2011 in Tucson, Arizona, to embrace this strangely morphed nation? I wonder.
How did America get from its original state of grace and plenty to today, where she is almost always engaged in vitriol and incivility at home, and in perrenial bootless military struggle abroad? Edward Teller – the man who invented “The Super,” the hydrogen bomb – (hard on the heels of Robert Oppenheimer’s creation of the first atomic bombs) wrote dolefully in a personal correspondence in 1945, ” The things we are working on today are so terrible that no amount of protesting and fiddling with politics will save our souls.“
Though the traumatic birth of the atomic age 
is now 65 years behind us [yet still just as frightening, at one remove away from the immediate moment], today the soul of America still seems traumatized by its realization of its own destructive power in the world. It’s as if echoes of the awful bang of atomic bombs exploding reverberates in the soul of America all the time – never-ending. Danger is always near. In this post-9/11 era, America sees deadly foreign-sponsored terror hiding behind every tree and in every piece of carry-on luggage. On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, citizens pick viciously at their own skins, always finding that no administration - so far - is up to the vital task of nurturing a just and fair society while producing The Good Life that most Americans feel they deserve.
The national economy stumbles and sways, shedding jobs every way it turns. An unemployment rate that never falls below ten per cent is somehow tolerable! Insane fiscal policy continues to shower treasure upon the richest citizens while continually thumping the working and vanishing middle classes with staggering consumer debt, patchy health care [House votes to repeal health care law - click here]
, and entirely frightening futures. ←Privatized “Medicare”- solution? The federal government is going broke, while trying to go for broke!
What gives? Where is Ellis‘ “rich legacy” and “redemption” ? What about e. e. cummings‘ forward movement to a better tommorow? To return for a moment to the atomic metaphor, consider Robert Oppenheimer’s reported grim vision he experienced at Almagordo, N.M. upon witnessing the first awful fruits of his patriotic labours, the successful test detonation of the first atomic bomb. In horror, he took pen to paper and jotted down this passage from the the Bhagavad Gītā, the Hindu scripture, : “I am become Death. The Destroyer of Worlds” [click: to see first a- bomb & Robert Oppenheimer's tears].”
If viewed through that all-seeing eye of modern life – the TV screen – the American tableau of mayhem, murder, soul-deadening gratuitous sex, violent video games aimed at youth, gunfire and fear in the streets, casualities everywhere – a pervasive psychopathy all around – you must ask yourself whether this country, this United States of America, isn’t some kind of Death Culture?
Has America “become death” to herself and the rest of the world? How do we reconcile the promise of the American Dream with the imponderable accusation that the USA has become a terrorist state?
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Noam Chomsky
The website About.com says: “The United States is routinely accused of terrorism...” applying that accusation specifically to America’s providing armaments to Israel – weapons that Israel in turn uses in its terroristic attacks against Palestinians. Israel’s ceaseless rounds of deliberate slaughter of civilians in unprovoked, surprise bombing raids comprise real terrorism, says About.com. But even more harsh words have entered the public discourse in casting the USA as a terrorist state. For example, activist Noam Chomsky said to interviewer David Barsamian in Monthly Review : “The USA has become a terrorist state itself…the Reagan Administration set off a terrorist bombing [in Beirut] in 1985 that was very much like [the] Oklahoma City [bombing], a truck bombing outside a mosque timed to kill the maximum number of people as they left.“ Further on the topic of “American Terrorism, Chomsky continued: “I don’t know what name you give to the attack that’s killed maybe a million civilians in Iraq and maybe a half a million children, which is the price the Secretary of State says we’re willing to pay. Is there a name for that? Supporting Israeli atrocities is another one.“ Where has all the promise and wonder of the Republic gone? What about Peace? Whence prosperity?
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I’m critical of of the Pilgirms’ progess down south. Highly critical. America was a noble experiment. But a failed noble experiment, I say. It’s very complicated, having a lot to do with some obvious issues, but just as much to do with many subtle, socio-political issues. Very complicated.
I’m a Canadian, and so a North American. Just like every American is too. We all live on the same block here, so to speak.
But you know how, sometimes, a neighbour family on your block starts out being such an ideal bunch – they have shiny new cars, are well-dressed; they’re sociable, family-loving and proud… but over the years sometimes an ideal neighbour can mysteriously morph into something you don’t quite recognize as “desirable” in the neighbourhood anymore? You’ve felt surprisingly bothered by them after too many incidents involving them being loud, aggressive, untrustworthy, violent; police-incident-inducing, drug-addicted, paranoiac, or possibly so deeply buried in personal debt that, finally, one day they file bankruptcy and fly the coop. Whew!
But then their cold, empty, foreclosed vacant house remains behind, sitting indolently on your street, spoiling property values ? Well, that’s approximately what I feel has happened with my formerly EXCELLENT American neighbours just across the border. Except, of course, they haven’t gone away. They’re still there.
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º Two questions come forward: “What is Wrong With America Today?” and “How Can We Fix A Broken America? “
Since I’ve been writing critically from Canada about my neighbour , the USA, I’ve had every kind of invective flung at me. According to my detractors I am : a “Hater“, “Stupid“, “Jealous of Americans” ; “a Liar,” “an Idiot“, “a Vicious Totalatarian“ ←{!!!**!!!} …the list goes on… Clearly, I’ve hit a nerve. It’s a hard thing for a person of any nationality to hear the name of his country disparaged – especially for that particularly clamorous Proud Eagle Patriot whose LOUD singsong is always “U.S.A # 1 !” 
And for whom, no matter what the matter at hand might be – America is ALWAYS right. Period. The end
.
Some readers will accuse me of pushing my arguments about American transgressions far beyond what might be relatively inoffensive “disparagement.” They will say I am “attacking” America.
Please! Every Canadian knows: we are like a mouse sleeping in bed with an elephant.
c.a.n.a.d.a U.S.A.
When the elephant rolls over…well...!
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What is Wrong With America Today?
Hiroshima
(1) America has been, since 8:15 A.M. on August 6, 1945, the world’s most terrific terrorist state. America is the only state in human history to have used the atomic bomb – on civilians, no less – and celebrated the mass-murder. President Harry Truman was at sea on the day the first a-bomb reduced 75,000+ Japanese civilians to radioactive ashes at Hiroshima. Upon getting the “success” report from the Enola Gay, Truman reportedly almost levitated his way along the decks, humming a joyous tune in celebration of the mass incineration . [see "Bomb Power : The Modern Presidency and the National Security State" / by Garry Wills.] And shortly after that (a little-reported gem), with WWII finally wrapped up, Truman pulled out his big atomic tomato again! This time Truman threatened Russia with another a-bomb, demanding that Russia back away from a certain East European country that the U..S. had its own eye on for occupation. Russia complied. [ibid]
Fat Man & Little Boy: World’s first atomic bombs vaporized 150,000 Japanese civilians
From that fateful moment in 1945, when America unleashed her horrific weapon – WWII being “won & done” and thus rendered an irrelevancy on the spectrum of worldwide, historical terror – human civilization would never be the same again. The nuclear peril will be with us forever. It’s horror is unimaginable. [click: see recreation of Hiroshima nuclear bomb ] The estimated two-year death toll from the Hiroshima bomb, after counting deaths from “atom bomb disease” – nuclear radiation – is 500,000. This illustrates the essential American character: imperialist, aggressive and over-eager to use force and preemption to advance American power.
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(2) America since Bush Jr., and, perplexingly, the same under the Obama administration, has become a Rogue State. The USA defies International Law, she stirs up fear and hatred both at home and abroad.
In his infamous WAR blurt: “If you’re not with us, then you’re against us,” George W. Bush implied that MY country, Canada, was somehow an evil outsider. But Mr. Bush’s war in Iraq was illegal. And immoral. Bush foisted lie, after lie, after lie about Iraq upon U.S. citizens, egging along Americans’ patriotic fervor to attack. Ultimately, American citizens in uniform went off to kill or be killed in Iraq for NO VALID REASON. [see: What We've lost : Bush's War on Democracy and Freedom / Graydon Carter] America lies and steals to take what she wants, from whomever she wants it, whenever she wants it! (In Iraq and Iran, oil; on the American western frontier, the Indian Wars, to steal the traditional homelands of the First Nations peoples.) The USA can not be trusted. [see"Imperial America : Reflections on the United States of Amnesia"/ by Gore Vidal.]
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Madoff Jr. pays for Sins of his Father
But not every American today subscribes to biblical precepts.
Sons Pay for Sins of The Fathers?
Still, neither can secular thinkers escape the sins of the fathers. Consider Mark Madoff’s suicide: Wasn’t it the sins of the father that drove Mark to his own self-destruction? What else could it have been but the sins of Bernie Madoff ? Can anyone reasonably believe that Madoff fils had been a total innocent in the outrageous embezzling of $65 billion from investors? In this particular parable of American greed, generational guilt drills even deeper : Mark’s three children have been sued by the trustee assigned to pay back the investors. No, America can not just walk away from the unspeakable sins of its Fathers. There is no Free Pass Out of Jail for old sins. The one unceasing, unforgivable transgression shot through and through the history of America – racism – forever clouds the nation’s conscience, past and present.
“test” atomic bombs in the Nevada desert in the 50s and 60s. Were they all CRAZY??!! How long does nuclear radiation last in the atmosphere?[click here]. What effects can nuclear radiation have on human beings?↓ 
Un-reality over reality! It’s scary. It’s goofy. It’s Just Plain Stupid! America has become a society so neurotically unable to face the truth that now it leans on the alluring , illusory artistry of Hollywood-style leaders to support its countless hypocrisies!
Madonna – Worth it?
American Hollywood worship is infantile and out of control!. Movie stars: They’re not exactly rocket scientists! The social value of people is determined by their monetary value. Athletes, business people and movie and music stars are more highly valued than teachers, religious and political leaders.
Big Pig Banks!
(12) The US banking system nearly bankrupted the entire world! It may still finish the job. Time will tell. Read new book “MELTDOWN: The End
MeltDown – End of Age of Greed
of the Age of Greed” by Paul Mason. The author describes how the banking system “wrecked the world…”
Secrets finally revealed: “JFK & The Unspeakable”
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Fat America
How Can We Fix A Broken America?
gold
(2) On the economy scene: return to the Gold Standardof pre-Nixon years. The US dollar is no longer a viable world economic anchor. At the present time, especially, the government is printing money like mad and only cranking up inflation, or possibly deflation, or possibly “stagflation” – take your pick! Who knows which direction the American economy will go now? With each passing month the US dollar comes nearer and nearer to becoming $Monopoly$ 
money.
The Terror Alerts only served to terrorize citizens even more! [see above : "What We've lost"] The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have earned America only more enemies – secret, silent, creeping, vicious enemies. The War on Terror has made the world – and especially the USA – a more dangerous place.
STOP! electing actors and other various charismatic buffoons to positions of power. Yes, actors can 
make themselves – and by reflection citizens – look and sound just GREAT! But they’re ACTORS! Professional pretenders! Their calling in life is to fool and trick their audiences!Then there’s this sweetie-cakes, 
wannabe-in-power, Sarah Palin, the ultimate Buffoon-ette! She’s charismatic, yes! Sassy, perky. And brain-dead. She reads from crib notes scribbled in ink on her cutesy manicured little hands! She’s never been anywhere in the world. Do you believe she could actually find Iran or North Korea on a map? Palin’s latest “cross-hairs” caper associated with the most unfortunate shooting of US Congrresswoman Gabrielle Giffords reflects so evilly on the sway of charismatic snake charmers over American citizens.
(7)America must GET GREEN. You do NOT need that polluting Hummer, or that speedboat. Get a Smart Car, or a hybrid, and buy a rowboat. No more SUVs! Re-reverse Bush’s cuts to environmental protection. Your wild spaces need protection. Ban offshore oil rigs. Boycott McDonalds and Burger King.
(8) America needs restrictive gun laws. Congress should excise that execrable “arms” 2nd Amendment from the constitution:”A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Teach your children that guns and violence are not good for children and other living things.
(9) AMERICANS! Educate yourselves! That simple-minded parking space for incohate contrarians of multiple persuasions - The Tea Party – is no place to seriously exercise your citizens’ duty to participate in the politics of the nation. Writing recently about the American Debt Ceiling crisis, Canadian political commentator Mitchell Anderson said of the “Ungovernable Ignorance” of the American citizenry, in theTyee.ca : “It could be that democracy in America is working just fine. The problem is that the electorate has become so badly misinformed that GOP lawmakers trying to save their nation (and the world) from bankruptcy are hamstrung by the collective ignorance of their constituents they pledged to represent.“
(10) Finally, America could revolutionize the world by banning all nuclear weapons.
Hoorah for Obama for the recent “START” accord with Russia! That’sthe spirit of change the whole world hungers for! America, herself, should dis-arm first to set an example (No one is going to attack! The cold war is over.) Make pacts with all other nations to destroy all existing nuclear weapons, and enforce global supervision preventing any nation from ever again refining weapons-grade uranium or plutonium. Make WORLD PEACE.
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“More and more in our times Canadians have wondered just what kind of continental neighbour America, is, exactly. Where will it all end?”
That’s what this blog is all about.
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“Look ahead into the past, and back into the future…”
Canada’s Margaret Laurence (1926 – 1987)
…Margaret Laurence, “The Diviners” McClelland & Stewart Ltd 1966
✖
Canada’s ‘Three Monkeys’ Attorney General’s Office on Bush’s War Crimes: “Not appropriate” to pursue confessed Torturer. “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil.” Lawyer TALKS BACK!
Canada Lets ‘W’ Escape Justice when we had the PERFECT chance to ARREST BUSH!
(Here’s how the “1%” get away with Murder)
“LET’S TALK TORTURE, ROBO W….!”
Surrey, BC, Canada. October 24, 2011.
After successfully lodging a private torture prosecution with the British Columbia Provincial Court in the City of Surrey against former U.S. president George W. Bush as he visited Surrey for a paid speaking engagement, four torture victims had their pursuit of justice blocked by the Attorney General of B.C., Shirley Bond.
Click: the case details.
The four men, Hassan bin Attash, Sami el-Hajj, Muhammed Khan Tumani and Murat Kurnaz, each endured years of inhumane treatment including beatings, chaining to cell walls, being hung from walls or ceilings while handcuffed, lack of access to toilets, sleep, food and water-deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures, sensory overload and deprivation, and other horrific and illegal treatment while in U.S. custody at military bases in Afghanistan and/or at the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. While three of the men have since been released without ever facing charges, Hassan Bin Attash still remains in detention at Guantánamo Bay, though he too has not been formally charged with any wrongdoing.
One man currently detained at Guantánamo has been imprisoned there without charge for more than nine years.
Matt Eisenbrandt, legal director of the Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ), who submitted the case on behalf of the torture victims remarked, “Mere hours after a justice of the peace received the criminal information
Eisenbrandt, of CCIJ: "A slap in the face to men tortured by Mr. Bush’s government"
and the court set a hearing date for January, we received notice by phone that the Attorney General of British Columbia had already intervened in the case and stayed the proceedings against former President Bush, effectively ending the case…the legal basis for the case is exceptionally strong under the Criminal Code of Canada.”
This is a slap in the face to the four men who were brutally tortured by Mr. Bush’s government who have a right to have a court of law examine the evidence and hear the legal arguments,
wrote Eisenbrandt.
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This blogger wrote to the office of the Attorney General for British Columbia, Hon. Shirley Bond, requesting an explanation for the shocking summary dismissal of the 69+ page criminal indictment against Bush for war crimes (torture) presented to her office by the CCIJ. My request was stonewalled for several weeks. In the interim this blogger filed a Freedom of Information Request in search of possible dark politics at play protecting Bush from Justice in Canada.(Still awaiting AG’s response to my request. Check back here soon for results.) After a three week delay, Bond’s Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Robert W. G. Gillen, replied by email to my inquiry. The high irony did not escape this blogger that, while a serious criminal indictment presented to the court was dispensed with in a mere matter of hours in October, three weeks was the AG’s fastest turnaround time to respond to a citizen’s inquiry on the same matter!
Robert W.G. Gillen. ass't deputy attorney general for B.C.: "It was not appropriate to prolong the matter."
Gillen’s reply hardly comprised a reasonable explanation of why the Province of British Columbia was disinterested, when presented with a perfect opportunity to fulfill Canada’s sworn duties under the Convention Against Torture and the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act. The former is an international law, the latter a Canadian statute with application only in Canada. Both laws set out similar sanctions to detain and investigate a person suspected to be guilty of, among other things, torture, war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Bush, himself, admits in his own recent memoirs that he OK’d torture from the Oval Office and thoroughly approves of torture. That admission alone surely must comprise “appropriate” grounds to engage the machinery of criminal justice against a suspected offender! Still, “Not appropriate,” says Gillen. It appears the Office of the Attorney General for B.C. is populated by the three monkeys, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Speak No Evil!
"Not apprpriate" to arrest a self-confessed torturer in B.C.
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LET’S TALK TORTURE, ROBO W….!
Assistant Deputy Attorney General Contact Info
Robert W.G. Gillen
Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Criminal Justice Branch, Ministry of Attorney General
| Telephone: | 250 387-3840 | Email: | Not Available | |||
| Facsimile: | 250 387-0090 | URL: | http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/prosecution-service/ | |||
| Mailing Address: | PO BOX 9276 | |||||
STN PROV GOVT
Victoria BC
V8W9J7
CANADA
Click: Homepage.
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Mr. Gillen wrote:
Dear _____:
I am responding on behalf of the Attorney General to your email of October 26, 2011. As Assistant Deputy Attorney General, I am responsible for the Criminal Justice Branch within the Ministry of Attorney General, including the conduct and supervision of criminal prosecutions in British Columbia.
In your email you express concerns about the staying of charges against former United States president George Bush, charges which were laid in a private prosecution filed by the Canadian Centre for International Justice.
In British Columbia the Criminal Justice Branch is given the authority to conduct prosecutions. It is the policy of the Branch to assume the conduct of all privately initiated prosecutions. The case is brought to court when the charge assessment standard of the Branch is met. This standard requires both a substantial likelihood of conviction and that a prosecution is in the 
public interest. If the charges do not meet these standards, the case is terminated.
This policy is in place to ensure an equal application of justice throughout the province. That is, the same standard is used against all accused persons in all prosecutions. The policy also recognizes that both apparent and actual impartiality and objectivity with respect to every prosecution require that prosecutions be conducted by an independent prosecutor rather than on behalf of an interested party.
Under the provisions of the Criminal Code, the 
consent of the Attorney General of Canada is required to continue a proceeding of the nature of that which was privately commenced against Mr. Bush, and which involved allegations against an individual who is not a Canadian citizen in relation to events which took place outside of this country.
Section 7(7) of the Criminal Code states: “No proceedings …shall be continued unless the consent of the Attorney General of Canada is obtained not later than eight days after the proceedings are commenced.”
The parties seeking to bring the proceeding against Mr. Bush had not obtained the consent of the Attorney General of Canada and there was no realistic prospect that such a consent would be obtained. In the circumstances the Criminal 
Justice Branch concluded that there was no realistic prospect of that consent being provided in future and it was not appropriate to prolong the matter further.
Decisions to prosecute, stay proceedings or launch an appeal are made solely in accordance with legal criteria in a manner that, generally speaking, is independent of government.
You ask about written records related to this matter. The provision of access to court records in accordance with established policies is the responsibility of court registries. You may wish to contact the Surrey Provincial Court registry in this regard.
Thank you for writing about your concerns.
Yours truly,
Robert W. G. Gillen, Q.C.
Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Criminal Justice Branch
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Matt Eisenbrandt, of the CCIJ was kind enough to critique Gillen’s reply. Click: read Eisenbrandt’s “123 People” profile.
Now that we’re all familiar with Who’s Who, and What’s What…
Let’s slice and dice Robo’s Top Reasons Why George W. Bush is Above The Law:
Matt Eisenbrandt critiques Robo’s defence of confessed war criminal George W. Bush:
Mr. Gillen provides three different standards for the continuation of a private prosecution. First he says, “The case is brought to court when the charge assessment standard of the Branch is met. This standard requires both a substantial likelihood of conviction and that a prosecution is in the public interest.” We (CCIJ) received no information that the Attorney General analyzed either of these factors in deciding to terminate our case, and Mr. Gillen provides no evidence that the factors could not be met. (THE CCIJ) presented extensive evidence, including admissions by Mr. Bush himself, showing his involvement in torture. This does not guarantee conviction but it is a very sound case both factually and legally.
United Nations 'Convention Against Torture' - Canada and U.S. both signatories.
As for the public interest, the Government of Canada has committed itself, in domestic and international law, to the prevention and punishment of torture. The Criminal Code explicitly permits prosecution in Canadian courts for torture committed abroad. This provision was implemented when Canada ratified the Convention against Torture, which obligates parties to investigate any suspected torturer in their territory and submit a case for prosecution if the suspect is not extradited for prosecution abroad. Canada has repeatedly condemned other countries for torture and done so because the government clearly believes such a stance is in the public interest.
Second, Mr. Gillen says, “The parties seeking to bring the proceeding against Mr. Bush had not obtained the consent of the Attorney General of Canada and there was no realistic prospect that such a consent would be obtained. In the circumstances the Criminal Justice Branch concluded that there was no realistic prospect of that consent being provided in future and it was not appropriate to prolong the matter further.” While Mr. Gillen is correct that section 7(7) of the Criminal Code requires the consent of the Attorney General of Canada, that provision says that consent must be obtained within 8 days. Our case was stayed only hours after the Justice of the Peace received the criminal information. Though the BC Attorney General’s office may have believed that we had no realistic prospect of obtaining consent, we were not given the chance to do so in accordance with the Criminal Code. The proper option available to the Attorney General’s office was to wait the 8 days and then, if consent was not obtained, intervene in the case.
Mr. Gillen provides no evidence to support his assertion that we could not have obtained consent. I would like to know what evidence the Attorney General has to support that notion and what conversations she or others had with the federal government. The Vancouver Observer reported that the BC Attorney General’s office did not even consult with the Attorney General of Canada before intervening and staying the case. (http://www.vancouverobserver.com/world/2011/10/26/bc-intervened-halt-bush-torture-case)
Finally, Mr. Gillen says, “Decisions to prosecute, stay proceedings or launch an appeal are made solely in accordance with legal criteria in a manner that, generally speaking, is independent of government.” This is certainly the standard that should be followed. To say that the decision was done independent of government does not seem entirely correct. The Deputy Regional Crown Counsel who stayed the case did so at the direction and under the authority of the Attorney General of BC. The Attorney General’s office (or the Criminal Justice Branch operating independently) could not possibly have reviewed the substantial evidence in our case before intervening and staying the prosecution. As a result, the only evidence we have that “legal criteria” were followed is that the Attorney General relied on section 7(7) of the Criminal Code. However, the BC Attorney General’s immediate intervention denied us the opportunity to obtain the necessary consent from the Attorney General of Canada within the time permitted under the Criminal Code.
I would also like the Attorney General of Canada to state why he did not initiate a prosecution or provide his consent for our private prosecution to continue.
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This blogger writes: Could it be any more clear that corruption and sycophancy are at work in dark corners of the government(s) of Canada (and likely in other countries too) to save the hide of the disgraced Mr. Bush from the criminal prosecution he so richly deserves for his self-confessed war crimes?
"We do not torture." November 7, 2005. "Bush describes waterboarding as 'highly effective' " Quoted in The Guardian, Nov. 9, 2010
It’s an outrage that the Attorney General of British Columbia obstructed the due process of justice in October, blatantly waving away the indictment brought by the CCIJ against Bush in mere hours – a time frame that, as Matt Eisenbrandt points out, could not possibly have offered sufficient opportunity for the AG and her minions to read, research and fully consider the full 69+ pages of evidence, plus some 4,000 extra background pages made available for the asking. Bond may have given the indictment a cursory reading, or perhaps no reading at all, judging from the outcome.
Furthermore, in her haste to be done with the Bush file, the AG absolutely offended the CCIJ’s right to have up to eight days to convince the federal AG of the merits of the case. Eisenbrandt offers strong evidence suggesting that the AG for British Columbia didn’t bother to consult the federal AG before deep-sixing the Bush file. Dark politics are at work here.
And CAN WE TALK? Gillen: “[ Prosecution] requires both a substantial likelihood of conviction and that a prosecution is in the public interest.” What? How much more evidence does the AG NEED? Everybody in and around the Bush administration, and the cretinous creep HIMSELF says that he sponsored torture! And, Robo, wouldn’t slapping down the creeping fascist practice of TORTURE be very, very much in the PUBLIC INTEREST!!???
Bush describes waterboarding as "highly effective" - The Guardian, Nov, 2010
Good gawd.
Further light may soon be brought to bear upon this little corner of darkness, via my pending Freedom of Information request. Still, Marlane Moreno, Information Access and Privacy Analyst, Criminal Justice Branch Headquarters advises me that the FOI department will respond to only one of my three queries! (The least revealing of my questions). It’s a truism that information held by governments in these days of Homeland Security, Dixie-style - even in the most free democracies such as our Canadian version – is never really “free” anymore. The very act of this blogger requesting a peek through the AG’s credenza has doubtless sent more data flowing freely TO government about me than will be merrily flowing FROM government to me about the AG. That’s the chance we take, thanks to the very man we are so desirous to syncretise, the ‘Decider Hiz-Self,’ the ne’er-do-well former frat boy, George W. Bush! It’s a risk I’m willing to take. I will have the Truth.
George Bush’s luck will run out one day. And that will be a Good Day.
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“More and more in our times Canadians have wondered just what kind of continental neighbour America, is, exactly. Where will it all end?”
That’s what this blog is all about.
NO MORE BUSH ECONOMICS! Who Needs Yankee ‘DECIDER’-of-DESTRUCTION? Surrey Summit
Anti-Bush Signs on streets weeks after Bush addressed Regional Economic Development Summit in Surrey, B.C.
WEEKS AFTER W’s Speech in Canada on “Economic Development” Protest Signs Still Seen on City streets
This blogger writes: The most perverse political joke of the season came on October 20, 2011 in The City of Surrey, British Columbia. And it just won’t go away! Weeks have passed since Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts introduced George W. Bush as keynote speaker at the city’s annual Summit on Regional Economic Development, yet fresh anti-Bush protest signs continue to populate Surrey boulevards declaiming “NO MORE BUSH ECONOMICS.”
Surrey Mayor Watts and Bush - Dim son and Low watts.
Her Worship’s courting of Bush at the summit set loose howls of protest in the streets the day of the summit and, as evidenced by the protest signs still poking the city mother in the eye, reverberations of anti-Bush sentiment persist in the Vancouver suburb.
No more Bush economics.
Indeed.
Even as the City of Surrey’s sober captains of trade and commerce sat playing footsies under the table with the disgraced ex-president, economics analysts from sources as diverse as The Economist and Vanity Fair publish devastating condemnations of Mr. Bush’s disastrous botch up of the U.S. economy that led to the near-death financial crash of 2008. Should the man who nearly broke the world’s largest economy REALLY be lecturing Canadian Chamber of Commerce types on “economic development“? What could Watts have been thinking?
Economic development? George W. Bush? WHAT?!
The growing City of Surrey enjoys exceptional prosperity. Its 2010 Financial Statistics reports indicate a city always in the black. For more than three years Surrey’s annual budgets have produced significant cash surpluses accompanied by positive net growth, with level incurred debt. The city’s credit rating is ever-positive as well. Who needs the Yankee ‘Decider’-of-Destruction in town advising us on how to manage our money?
What could Watts have been thinking?
◊(Aside from the bad joke on October 20 of giving an audience to Bush’s ersatz economic advice, the worldwide Arrest Bush initiative the same day tussled with B.C. Provincial Court to act on a criminal indictment of Bush for alleged war crimes. This blogger is awaiting results of a Freedom of Information request to reveal how dark politics in the office of the Attorney General for B.C. may be protecting Bush from Justice in Canada.)
The 'Decider'-of-Destruction
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The Economist writes in its online article: “George Bush’s Legacy“:… “He inherited a projected ten-year surplus of $5.6 trillion and bequeaths a ten-year deficit of $6 trillion, assuming his tax cuts remain in place…[Bush's] policy of cutting taxes while increasing spending—of simultaneously pursuing big government and small government—dramatically swelled the deficit. Hardly the makings of a positive judgment from future historians.
“The most important legislation of his first year in office was a $1.35 trillion tax cut that handed an extra $53,000 to the top 1% of earners. At his farewell press conference on January 12th Mr Bush called his tax cuts the “right course of action”, as if they were an unpopular but heroic decision. They weren’t.
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Joseph E. Stiglitz in Vanity Fair magazine wrote: “The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush“…”the conventional wisdom has been that Herbert Hoover, whose policies aggravated the Great Depression, is the odds-on claimant for the mantle “worst president” when it comes to stewardship of the American economy. Once Franklin Roosevelt assumed office and reversed Hoover’s policies, the country began to recover. The economic effects of Bush’s presidency are more insidious than those of Hoover, harder to reverse, and likely to be longer-lasting…our grandchildren will still be living with, and struggling with, the economic consequences of Mr. Bush.“As many as 1.7 million Americans are expected to lose their homes in the months ahead. For many, this will mean the beginning of a downward spiral into poverty.
“Between March 2006 and March 2007 personal-bankruptcy rates soared more than 60 percent. As families went into bankruptcy, more and more of them came to understand who had won and who had lost as a result of the president’s 2005 bankruptcy bill, which made it harder for individuals to discharge their debts in a reasonable way. The lenders that had pressed for “reform” had been the clear winners, gaining added leverage and protections for themselves; people facing financial distress got the shaft.
“Decades hence we should take stock, and revisit the conventional wisdom. Will Herbert Hoover still deserve his dubious mantle? I’m guessing that George W. Bush will have earned one more grim superlative.”
This blogger can only say: “Who Needs the Yankee ‘DECIDER’-of-DESTRUCTION in our city?”
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“More and more in our times Canadians have wondered just what kind of continental neighbour America, is, exactly. Where will it all end?” 
That’s what this blog is all about.
Bush Skips Town on secret ‘GET OUT OF JAIL FREE’ Card – Canada’s Cowardly Legal Lions Protecting ‘W’ from Justice?
COVERUP : B.C. Attorney General Shirley Bond stays proceedings against Bush, posthaste! Without Reading It’s 69+ Pages First? **
Attorney General still has not given us any reasons in writing
: Senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights
George W. Bush was slipped a secret GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD from Canada’s cowardly legal powers on 24 October, 2011 allowing the former U.S. president to once again slip through the fingers of justice fighters aiming to bring him in for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Bush’s 20 October speaking engagement at a hotel in Surrey, B.C. closed down city streets, commandeered phalanxes of special police protection officers and attracted hundreds of highly-vocal, sign-waving protestors railing against war crimes widely believed to have been perpetrated by the Bush administration. Even while the protestors were raising their voices against Bush, a British Columbia court official in Surrey accepted delivery from a group of human rights organizations of a scathing 69-page criminal indictment against Bush, and duly set a hearing date for January, 2012.
Things fizzled out from there:
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Canadian Centre for International Justice - criminal indictment filed against Bush
Matt Eisenbrandt, legal director of the Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ), one of the intervening rights organizations, said in a press release the same day: ” Mere hours after a justice of the peace received the criminal information and the court set a hearing date for January, we received notice by phone that the Attorney General of British Columbia had already intervened in the case and stayed the proceedings against former President Bush, effectively ending the case.”
The indictment brought by the rights group, which comprises the New York based Center For Constitutional Justice, Amnesty International as well as the CCIJ lays out the harrowing case of four individuals who endured horrendous tortures including beatings, chaining to cell walls, being hung from walls or ceilings while handcuffed, lack of access to toilets, sleep, food and water-deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures, sensory overload and deprivation while captive in the hands of U.S. military forces. One of the men, Hassan Bin Attash, is still detained at Guantánamo. He has been imprisoned there without charge for more than nine years.
Eisenbrandt says the legal basis for the indictment is exceptionally strong, and the case should have been tried under the Criminal Code of Canada. ”A slap in the face to the four men who were brutally tortured by Mr. Bush’s government..” is how he describes the Attorney General’s underhanded scuttling of the case.
Shirley Bond is the Attorney General for the province of British Columbia. It was her office that intervened in the case and stayed the proceedings against Bush. Bond was named Attorney General on August 18, 2011. She serves as Attorney General on an interim basis. Bond’s assistant deputy attorney general,Robert W. G. Gillen, Q.C., has respsonded to this blogger’s enquiries regarding documentation and rationale behind her shutting down the case against Bush, but unsatisfactorily. Gillen’s letter is currently being reviewed and analyzed by a CCIJ lawyer. Click: link to the CCIJ critique.
◊This blogger is awaiting results of a Freedom of Information Request in search for possible dark politics at play protecting Bush from Justice in Canada.
Rookie, temporary B.C. Attorney General Shirley Bond - behind secret Stay of Proceedings against Bush - Spook #2 protecting Bush?
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While an attorney general of a Canadian province is not required to take instruction from the federal AG, Bond’s brief tenure in the position and the tenderfoot status of the provincial government of which she is a member causes speculation about what influence the federal Attorney General’s office might have played in her decision. Canada’s present Conservative federal government led by prime minister Stephen Harper is known to have had congenial relations with the Bush administration, even in times of Bush’s deepest unpopularity and impending political death.
Federal AG Rob Nicholson - Spook #1 protecting Bush?
Federal Attorney General, Robert Nicholson, has not responded to enquiries from this blogger regarding possible political interference and his stance on investigating and apprehending Bush based on the stayed charges.
It’s a deafening silence.
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Katherine Gallagher, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights said, “ The Attorney General still has not given us any reasons in writing for staying the case, but the speed with which it was done shows the case was not treated seriously.“
Gallagher brings forward the ever-present legal jeopardy that haunts George W. Bush these days. His world is shrinking around him :
“Mr. Bush will need to be exceedingly careful about where he travels. He has caused harm to so many – including those who were tortured in U.S.-run detention facilities – and he remains vulnerable to prosecution in any of the other 145 countries that have signed the Convention Against Torture, as long as the United States continues to breach its own obligations under the Convention.”
Canadian Maher Arar "renditioned" by U.S. sued and won damages from Canada
There is something that could explain why Canadian authorities are happy to let Bush breeze through with no fuss, no muss, and certainly no criminal indictments accepted. Canada itself has been complicit in Bush’s war ziggurat, and paid a price. Canada, like many other countries, once cooperated with Bush in various ways and now finds itself in a squeeze equally along with Mr. Bush. In 2002 a Canadian court awarded Canadian citizen Maher Arar $10 million in damages for the suffering he endured when he was illegally handed over by Canada to U.S. security forces, who then imposed “renditioning” on him – being shipped off to a third party country for torture. In a U.S. ‘black’ detention centre in Syria, Arar was beaten with electrical cables and held in a grave-like cell for 10 months. Arar is active now in investigating the U.S. and Syrian personnel who perpetrated these crimes against him.
Perhaps because of the heat raised by one case like Arar’s, now Canadian authorities feel shy, and sly, about not bothering with Bush.
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Let there be no mistake: the international hunt for Bush and his War On Terror cronies is real, widespread, and well-armed for Justice. More countries find themselves inexorably sucked into the Bush war crimes vortex. One big question to be settled is which countries ran secret, illegal prisons on their soil on behalf of Bush’s torture experts? Evidence girds the globe implicating Great Britain, Spain, Australia, Poland and Lithuania. Legal minds in those countries already are furiously cobbling together whatever legal defences they can muster against inevitable charges coming their way on this account.
Spanish prosecutors have already pressed criminal charges against six senior Bush administration officials who approved the harsh interrogation methods that detainees say were employed at U.S. military prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantánamo Bay and other sites.
Last November, Italian courts convicted a CIA chief and 22 other Americans - all CIA operatives – in the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric who ended up in a secret prison in Egypt. The Americans were tried in absentia and aren’t expected to serve jail time. Still…the noose tightens.
One puzzlement is that, while other countries prepare to face war crimes charges, the one obvious suspect is utterly blithe on the subject. One Miami Herald headline said:
Other countries probe Bush-era torture, not U.S.
Could America consider herself immune from prosecution? What is Liberty thinking?
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“More and more in our times Canadians have wondered just what kind of continental neighbour America, is, exactly. Where will it all end?”
That’s what this blog is all about.
Bush speaks in Canada, pockets $200,000, Smirks, Gives Justice the Slip!
♦COMING IN NEXT POST Breaking News: COVERUP: Canada’s Cowardly Legal Lions secretly shut-down criminal investigation into Bush war crimes. Leave no paper trail.
What did the 99% of Canadians who aren’t among the lucky one per cent at the top of the socio-economic ladder – but who turned out in their hundreds to give former U.S. president George W. Bush an energetic ”welcome he deserves” on October 20 - see of the man who some say is the world’s next war criminal overdue for a meeting with justice?
Bush, can you HEAR US? Too bad we're out here, and HE's in there. He must be in the one per cent!
The answer is this: George W. Bush slipped invisibly into the City of Surrey, B.C. accompanied by his fellow ex-president Bill Clinton, where the two were scheduled to speak at Surrey’s $650 per seat summit on regional economic development at the Sheraton Surrey hotel. Having slipped by the several hundred peaceful protestors surging around the hotel entrance, Bush immediately banned the media from the convention room; we can only guess what furtive peeks he might have taken outside at the chanting crowd.
Click↓ C’mon down to the demonstration. Get yer fair share of the noise:
Bush and Mr. Clinton spoke for about one hour to the summiteers. Bush then sortied out the front doors of the Sheraton towards a waiting car – waving like a rock star, (!!) likely still curious to get a closer look at the protestors. How many had he drawn? Such peeks at the outside world likely help confirm for Bush the timelessness of his draw as a celebrity, after so many years away from the White House. Like Paris Hilton, Bush is such an empty personality, he needs to know that someone notices him. It makes him feel like a real person.
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Insulting protest signs greeted Bush. Bush gave back "the smirk."
Why did Canadians give Bush “the welcome he deserved“: boos, taunts, insults and all manner of scornful signs decrying his administration’s war in Iraq? Why is Bush such a marked target for protestors?
Book: Bush On The Couch
This blogger is not alone in his cynical views about George W. Bush. Many books have been written trying to get inside the man’s head. The most accessible of them is “Bush On The Couch,” by psychoanalyst Justin A. Frank.
In his 2004 book Frank writes: “As a psychoanalyst I’m troubled by [the] president’s current and future mental health.” The author explores “the smirk heard around the world,” particularly in reference to how often “the smirk” was employed by Bush as governor of Texas when sending death row prisoners to their execution:
“Bush’s trademark smirk makes his sadism easy to spot…At once arrogant and cowardly [the smirk puts] the nation on notice that the act of inflicting pain – and the good fortune of having a job that allow[s] it within the laws of the land – brought Governor Bush a certain pleasure that he couldn’t quite stop himself from expressing.“
Bush’s strut to his waiting car at the Sheraton was spoiled by a loud protestor who shouted out at him: “Hey Bush. How does it feel to be a big fat war criminal?” In response, Bush gave his infamous smirk! Some things never change.
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Dear reader, when Bush is in the City of Surrey, he is on Canadian soil. When he deploys that sadistic Bush “smirk” on our streets, there is a problem. If you, dear reader are a citizen of the United States of America, I have faith in your individual acumen to recognize why Canadians hold the former president in such deep derision, and why we protest his presence here.
The "smirk heard around the world"
The “problem” is not Americans, it is George W. Bush’s America. His imperial arrogance and slightly moronic hauteur…never mind for the moment his war crimes …are justification enough for our antipathy.
We come by our national phobia for people like Bush honestly. Bush is, in fact, the very antithesis of his own folksy assessment of some people he meets: Bush himself is not “good people.” Russian demi-autocrat Vladimir Putin, however, garnered the “good people” seal of approval from Bush! So much for Bush’s self-proclaimed instinct for astutely assessing personalities upon first meeting.
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Bush is the kind of guest who can’t leave soon enough…
…He entered Canada commandeering vast Canadian security resources for his personal protection; he set about peddling such dubious expertise as he claims to have in the area of economics, of all things (this from the man who nearly wrecked the world economy)! He orders the media out of the room. Ultimately, Bush took off carrying a bag full of cash for his jackanape quickie-commerce. The City of Surrey refuses to reveal Bush’s speaking fee, but it’s estimated to have been in the order of $200,000. In fairness, Bill Clinton was likely paid the same amount. (Everything any member of the Bush family has ever affected is cloaked in secrecy, including George W’s own White House papers, so no big surprise here. But it is confounding that Bush’s paranoiac demand for secrecy should apply to a foreign country.)
Canadian Centre for International Justice - criminal indictment filed against Bush
The protest at the Sheraton was specifically aimed at outing Bush’s culpability in the perpetration of war crimes, specifically torture, associated with the War On Terror.
The Canadian Center for International Justice (CCIJ) filed a criminal indictment against Bush timed to synchronize exactly with the protest at the Sheraton, for his alleged criminal complicity in the torture of prisoners,
At the time of writing, disposition of the CCIJ’s indictment is unkown – over the weekend – but there is the possibility, though slim, that Bush may now be a fugitive from Canadian law.
But the Sheraton crowd’s anger over Bush’s alleged war crimes spills over into a broader unrest, a simmering stew of general gut-felt loathing of Bush’s Imperial America: its illegal wars, the bald-faced contempt for international law, broken treaties, bad faith trade pacts. And the startling spectacle of the top executive of the United States denying any responsibility for, or having had any inkling of a warning about the events on September 11, 2001. We all know now that Bush brushed off a clear warning delivered to him by a security briefer about an al Qaeda plot to use commercial aircraft as missiles to attack American tall buildings, imminently, a very short time before the awful events unfolded. Oh! The Humanity. Oh! The Stupidity!
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Bush lives now in a shrinking world. Everywhere he goes criminal charges await him.
Have you seen the little piggies? I saw so many at the Sheraton I felt dizzy. But Where Was George?
Chronology of the War Crimes Hunt For George W. Bush
Switzerland February 7, 2011
George Bush named in criminal complaint by two torture victims. At the last minute Bush cancels his speaking engagement in Geneva. He knows that in Switzerland no preliminary investigation can begin against an accused if accused is not present in the country. The complainants had no choice but to drop their complaint. Bush won’t be visiting Switzerland again.
Canada, October, 2011
A Gang of Four: the New York based Centre for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International, the Canadian Centre for International Justice, and four private individuals present Rob Nicholson, Attorney General for Canada, Jason Kenney, minister for immigration and refugees for Canada, Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada and (timed to coincide with Bush’s speaking engagement in the City of Surrey) the provincial court in the City of Surrey, B.C. with a 69-page criminal indictment against Bush alleging his authorization, condonation, oversight, aiding and abetting, and failing to prevent or punish acts of extraordinary rendition, punching, kicking, isolation in “coffin cells” for prolonged periods of time, solitary confinement, forced nudity, and water boarding of prisoners.
More piggies all in a row
So far Canadian leaders have lacked the political will to act on the charges brought against Bush. So Bush skipped the City of Surrey unimpeded with a rich pay packet for a one hour speech, and likely feeling some trepidation about another close brush with the law. ♦COMING IN NEXT POST Breaking News:
COVERUP: Canada’s Cowardly Legal Lions secretly shut-down criminal investigation into Bush war crimes. Leave no paper trail.
Cops and protestors kept their cool at the Sheraton
Shooters on the roof! George Bush must be one of the most nervous people in the world. What a production, for one ugly Texan!!
Mind you, not everyone here is happy to have you in town.
Remember these shoes? We got more....
Arrest Bush Day arrives today in Surrey, B.C. “Next Stage” of Anti-Bush Protest To Begin Today
Thurs,. 20 October, 2011: 8:47 A.M. PT
Bush - War Criminal
This blogger writes: 
Today’s the day, folks! We anti-Bush Canadians living in the Metro Vancouver area are only hours away now from the arrival of former U.S. president George W. Bush at the Surrey Sheraton Hotel, in the border city of Surrey, B.C., where Bush is scheduled to speak to the Regional Economic Development Summit. Bush will be joined by former president Bill Clinton.
Surrey Sheraton Hotel - hosts War Criminal Bush, target of protestors
Police say they are geared up to face-down what will likely be hundreds of protestors representing at least four organized groups surging toward the Sheraton. The REAL target is George W. Bush : liar, sadist, torturer, war criminal.
Occurring simultaneously with the protests at the Sheraton, the Canadian Centre for International Justice is asking a justice of the peace to approve a 69-page draft indictment against Bush, alleging he was behind the torture of four men who were detained in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
The group said it had 4,000 pages of documents supporting its case for trying Bush under the Canadian criminal code.
The legal manoeuvre comes in tandem with a letter signed by more than 50 human rights organizations and individuals, including Amnesty International.
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City of Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts has kept her silence over the past week while facing a barrage of letters, emails and tweets asking her to un-invite Bush from the city. Municipal elections are only weeks away, Watts’ election signboards are already up around the city and the mayor is playing it safe by staying strictly silent on the issue.
Surrey Central City - world class architecture - "We Don't Want Bush in our city!"
Not so inspiring a side of Mayor Watts, whose government has so dramatically transformed the former nondescript City of Surrey into a world class model city.
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The weather here is cold and rainy today, that might keep some protestors home. But not all of them.
Emotions run high about George W. Bush here in Canada. Following is a sampling of comments left on news bulletin boards locally:
- “Someone should kick Bush in the balls when he visits.. I think he deserves it.”
- “The Bush family are some of the most evil people on this earth, why would Canada ever want one of them in their country? Please turn him over to be prosecuted for his war crimes, so that the would will see some justice, and can begin to heal.”
- “Fascism is on the rise.”
- “George W. Bush: Liar. Sadist. Torturer. “Dry” Drunk. Psychopath. War Criminal. Undiagnosed adult ADHD case. His Yankee citizenship is the only thing protecting him from due legal process. America still gets away with murder with impunity in this world.”
“More and more in our times Canadians have wondered just what kind of continental neighbour America, is, exactly. Where will it all end?”
That’s what this blog is all about.
Bush News Flash – Amnesty International to Canadian Government: Detain, Investigate George W. Bush for War Crimes
Bush Must be Detained 
: Amnesty International to Canadian Government
“Arrest George W. Bush“: Amnesty International to Canadian Government
read full 24H Vancouver story online - select date Oct 7, navigate to p.6.
Metro Vancouver has been abuzz in recent days with rumours and hearsay of how Canada might arrest top officials of the Bush administration as they try to enter Canada in the near future.
Newspapers across Canada over the weekend carried front-page stories passing an urgent message to the Government of Canada from Amnesty International: Canada has a legal “obligation” to detain and investigate George W. Bush for alleged War Crimes. The former U.S. president will attempt to enter Canada on 20 October, 2011 for a speaking engagement at a regional economic summit in the border city of Surrey, B.C. The City of Surrey is a member city of Metro Vancouver. Former president William J. Clinton is scheduled to appear with Bush at the summit in Surrey.
Cheney's visits to Canada drew protestors
The upset surrounding the former American leaders began 26 September when former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney spoke to The Bon Mot book club in Vancouver to promote his recently published memoirs. At the posh Club Vancouver, protestors obstructed entry to the $500-a-plate event. The next day, in Calgary, Alberta, Cheney again drew protestors at a second promotional dinner and speech.
In the meantime, numerous human rights organizations have been bombarding the government of Canada with demands to apply its immigration laws banning or detaining persons who have been deemed by the government of Canada to be, among other things, “accused of international crimes, torture, war crimes, and crimes against humanity“ under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, sec 35(1) (a) equally to all people. To date, Bush administration officials have been given carte blanche to enter and leave Canada with impunity. Conservative prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, has always been sympatico with Bush and the controversial “War on Terror.” Before the Harper government (first elected in 2006), Liberal Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien refused to join Bush’s rush to invade Iraq in 2003.
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Water boarding torture - Trivialized by Cheney
A perfect storm may now be building head. This latest contingency places Mr. Bush exactly where human rights organizations have been waiting to have him: in the hands of a democratic foreign country willing to stand up to a leader who led the U.S. into an illegal war in Iraq, and is alleged to have approved numerous war crimes. Torture tops the list of the alleged war crimes.
At least four large organizations have been pressuring Canada to arrest or ban Bush officials: Vancouver-based Lawyers Against the War, The StopWar Coalition, the New York–based Center for Constitutional Rights, and London-based Amnesty International have all recently lobbied Canada’s immigration minister, Jason Kenney, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Dianne Watts, the mayor of The City of Surrey to insist that authorities apply Canadian immigration law to all persons equally.
At the present time one Canadian citizen serving time at Guantanamo prison in Cuba for killing a U.S. soldier finds himself right at the centre of the clash between the U.S. and Canada. Omar Khadr was “renditioned” – shipped overseas to a third world country for torture – by the U.S. and is now working with Amnesty International to try to get home to Canada. Progress has been non-existent for Khadr. The Americans show no inclination to repatriate a prisoner taken under the auspices of the War on Terror.
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Toronto Sun story
Read full Toronto Sun article online.
The Toronto Sun newspaper carried the story of the upcoming potential contretemps between the two countries in its October 9 edition.
Bryn Weese, of the Sun’s parliamentary bureau wrote: Amnesty Internatioanal is calling on the federal government to detain and investigate George W. Bush for war crimes. In fact, the organisation says the government has “an obligation” to do it…“The government of Canada has an obligation to start an investigation into former U.S. president George W. Bush’s alleged involvement in , and responsibility for crimes under internernational law, including torture, while he is visiting Canada on 20 October,” according to a press release from the organization sent out Thursday.
Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney has bristled at the growing pressures brought upon him by activists. He had a heated exchange of letters with Amnesty International over the weekend, in which he told the organization he is “disappointed” in their dogged pursuit of Bush officials. Kenney wrote that Amnesty International is “squandering” its own moral authority.
At the very least, October 20 is going to be a day of tensions in Canada as activists do their best to push Canadian government officials to action, while attempting to cause as much embarassment to both sides in the international squabble as they possibly can.
Based on the present Canadian government’s past close relations with the Bush administration, activists are facing an uphill battle in trying to persuade Canada to bring the Americans to justice.
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“More and more in our times Canadians have wondered just what kind of continental neighbour America, is, exactly. Where will it all end?”
That’s what this blog is all about.
In Canada Noose Tightens around Bush-era War Criminals – Cheney’s Visit Draws Protestors, Bush, Clinton Likely to Face Same Soon
City of Greenpeace, No Nukes, and anti-war - Vancouver, Canada
This blogger writes: 
The peaceful, green Canadian city that first officially opposed George W. Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003, that gave birth to environmental juggernaut Greenpeace, and that officially declared itself a Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone decades ago, gave former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney a war criminal’s welcome - “the kind of welcome he deserved,” in the words of one protestor – as the American leader most often referred to as a “war criminal” arrived in Vancouver to promote his memoirs and speak at a $500-a-plate speaking event on 27 September.
Vancouver protestors block entry to Cheney dinner & book event
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Cheney got "the welcome he deserved" in Vancouver - protestor
Police were called in to control hundreds of protestors who blocked the entrance to the posh Vancouver Club, making it difficult and frazzling for paid-up ticket holders to gain entry to the venue.
The promotional event was sponsored by The Bon Mot Club, and sold out almost immediately after tickets went on sale.
People do get a thrill out of seeing a real monster live and up close, in technicolor!
Cheney draws protestors in Calgary, Alta.
Cheney drew fire again from more protestors the following evening when he spoke to a Calgary, Alberta nosh ‘n talk crowd.
Click here to watch video interview with Katherine Gallagher and Matt Eisenbrandt of The Center for Constitutional Rights explaining why Cheney should be arrested, not celebrated.
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It’s not only Dick Cheney who is drawing heat in Canada recently. Former U.S. presidents George W. Bush and William J. Clinton are targeted continent-wide by at least four organized groups seeking to bring them to justice for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Mr. Cheney is only the most recent leader to face protests from angry Canadians. More showdowns loom on the near horizon.
Visit of George W. Bush on October 20, 2011: Canada must prevent entry or arrest and ensure prosecution for torture:
Bush tops arrrest list - activists
George W. Bush and William J. Clinton are scheduled to appear together in the border city of Surrey, B.C. on 20 October, 2011 at a regional economic development summit. Surrey is a member city of Metro Vancouver. Human Rights activists will be awaiting the arrival of both former presidents there in October.
Clinton of less concern - activists
Vancouver-based Lawyers Against the War, The StopWar Coalition, the New York–based Center for Constitutional Rights, and London-based Amnesty International have all recently lobbied Canada’s immigration minister, Jason Kenney, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Dianne Watts, the mayor of The City of Surrey to insist that authorities apply Canadian immigration law to the former U.S. leaders, just as the law is applied to all persons who have been deemed by the government of Canada to be, among other things, “accused of international crimes, torture, war crimes, and crimes against humanity“ under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, sec 35(1) (a).
The Hon. Don Davies, NDP critic for Immigration of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in the Canadian parliament also went public with a demand that Cheney either be banned from entering Canada, or must face a court of law upon his arrival in Canada.
But Mr. Cheney found a friend the same day. Prominent “reputation manager,” Doug Anderson, senior vice-president of marketing, research and intelligence for Harris Decima defended Cheney on the popular CBC TV News show, “At Issue.” Anderson inveighed against Mr. Davies’ remarks about banning Cheney from Canada, arguing: ”A lot of people in Canada don’t like Dick Cheney, don’t agree with what he did, but I think that might not strike people as being the way to handle that issue.” Vancouver journalist Charlie Smith called Anderson’s remarks “elite manufactured consent” in The Georgia Straight newspaper.
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The legal ammo the activists use against the former leaders are two important international laws: (1) The declaration proclaimed at the Nuremberg Tribunal following the Second World War that declared that launching a war of aggression was the ”supreme” war crime if it was not done in self defence. Many legal scholars argue that a war of aggression can only be fought with the backing of the UN Security Council. Bush’s “Iraqi Freedom” was not authorized by the UN Security Council…and….
U.S. disregards anti-torture UN law
(2) The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which the United States participated in drafting. The U.S., however, has neither signed nor ratified the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture. When the Bush administration dismissed United Nations concerns about torture, one judge observed: “America’s idea of what is torture … does not appear to coincide with that of most civilised nations.”
Cheney represents un-'Lawful Evil' to many
[As for himself, Cheney made the claim in Vancouver that the controversial water-boarding torture, which he called merely a "coercive interrogation technique" was used only three times under his watch! I wonder. Did Cheney's blithe, well-heeled audience actually believe that?
THIS blogger doesn't believe Cheney's claim for a minute. Three instances of water boarding by American interrogators are on the record. But were they recorded deliberately? Or were they instead leaked photos or recordings? Further, countless prisoners taken by the U.S. were subjected to "rendition" - the practice of shipping detainees away to third party nations where torture is regularly, routinely practised. Are we to believe that none of those other barbaric countries water-boarded "renditioned" U.S. prisoners, not even once, !?]
Water boarding torture causes victim drowning panic
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A spokesperson for the New York based Center For Constitutional Rights said that her group was calling for Bush’s arrest but not for Clinton’s, even though they’ll both be in Surrey in October, because Clinton’s 1999 leadership role in the joint invasion with NATO of the former Yugoslavia has already been before the International Court of Justice in the Hague. More seriously, Bush led America in 2003 into war against Iraq criminally, as defined in both international and domestic laws.
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American criminal lawyer Vincent Bugliosi (who is famous for his convictions of such notorious felons as Charles Manson for murder) makes the case for charging Bush with first degree murder under U.S. criminal law in his 2008 bestselling book “The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder.” 
In the book, Bugliosi proposes that Bush could, and should, be charged for “the most serious crime ever commited in American history” – the taking of America into an illegal war under false pretences, and therein perpetrating serious war crimes. The author writes with deep passion that Bush’s disregard for law and moral rectitude directly resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 human beings, including 4,000 young American soldiers, thus showing “reckless and wanton disregard” for the consequences and “indifference to human life,” terms that both would lead to a conviction for murder under U.S. criminal law.
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“More and more in our times Canadians have wondered just what kind of continental neighbour America, is, exactly. Where will it all end?”
That’s what this blog is all about.
Bush War Criminals Not Welcome in Canada: The Gloves Come Off. Vancouver lawyer seeks Dick Cheney’s arrest as War Criminal; Bush on No-Entry list too!
Ghoulish war criminal Cheney not wanted in Canada
This blogger writes:
Canadians are assailing federal minister of immigration Jason Kenney to BAN former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney’s imminent entry into Canada to address a speakers’ club.
But the anti-Cheney protest is just the first round. Canadians’ legendary meekness seems about to turn to fierce direct action against the entire George W. Bush administration. A group of Canadian lawyers has launched an initiative to have former U.S. president George W. Bush declared a War Criminal too, and to be banned from entering Canada.
The Vancouver, B.C. speakers’ club, “The Bon Mot” has the notorious former V.P scheduled to speak on 26 September. Ironically (and perhaps predictably!) the ghoulish Cheney’s address is already sold out. Morbid curiosity always attracts people to roadside crashes, doesn’t it?
So far, the following official parties have raised the alarum against hosting Bush and Cheney in Canada: Amnesty International, Lawyers Against the War, and the Hon. Don Davies, critic for Immigration of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. They want to stop Cheney from completing this engagement because of Cheney’s oft- admitted approval and oversight of torture against unindicted and illegaly detained civilians in the U.S’ “War On Terror.”
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This blogger wrote to minister Kenney regarding the scheduled appearance of Cheney in Vancouver:
Dear Minister Kenney,
Your portfolio encompasses the oversight and proper administration of certain Canadian laws relevant to Refusal of Entry to Canada of persons deemed by the government of Canada to be, among other things, “accused of international crimes, torture, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.” Impending, on 26 Sept, 2011, is a scheduled visit of former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney to the City of Vancouver to speak to a curiously blithe private club, the “Bon Mot Club.”
Ban war criminal Cheney from Canada
But this visit can in no way be seen as a “bon événement” for Vancouver, for the province of B.C. or for Canadians in general.
Canadian Minister of Immigration, Jason Kenney
Click the following link to read Vancouver lawyer Gail Davidson, of “Lawyers Against the War” on Cheney and Bush, in The Georgia Straight:
Vancouver lawyer Gail Davidson seeks Dick Cheney’s arrest | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com.
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“Lawyers Against the War” also produced a six-page legal brief sent to Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper and his top advisers singularly denying the appropriateness of allowing former U.S. president George W. Bush to enter Canada. Click here to download the document.
Canadians' gloves off. Ban Bush's War Criminals from Canada!
Here is a brief extract of the document:
George W. Bush is reported to be coming to Surrey, B.C. on October 20, 2011 at the invitation of Surrey Mayor Diane Watts. There is overwhelming evidence that George W. Bush as President of the United States of America and Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces aided, abetted and counselled the torture of non-Americans at U.S. controlled prisons outside the U.S. including but not limited to Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Bagram prison in Afghianistan and other places…
- We are writing to report that George W. Bush, former President of the United States, is inadmissible to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), sec 35(1) (a) because of overwhelming evidence that he has ‘committed,’ outside Canada, torture and other offences referred to in sections 4 to 7 of the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act (CAHWC).
- the George W. Bush administration is known to have engaged in systematic gross human rights violations, or a war crime against humanity within the meaning of subsection 6(3) to (5) of the CAHWC
- We request that you…ensure that the RCMP War Crimes Secition immediately takes the following steps:
- begin an investigation of George W. Bush for aiding, abetting and counselling torture between November 13, 2001 and November 2008 at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba…and
- acknowledge that the George W. Bush’s administration was a “government that has engaged in torture and other war crimes and crimes against humanity, and therefore GWB…is inadmissible under section 35(1) (b) of the IRPA
Click here to download the complete document.
Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper. Sympatico with Bush
Will the Conservative, Bush-friendly Canadian government really move to ban Bush and Cheney from Canada? Not likely. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is known to have been sympatico with the Bush White House, so, barring riots in the streets or some such violent eruption of public protest in Canada, Harper will make this issue just go away. That’s the sad realpolitik of it!
BUT…..
…meanwhile, local antiwar activists are planning to give Cheney “the welcome he deserves”. The StopWar Coalition is calling for a protest starting at 5:30 p.m. outside the event at the Vancouver Club. And Human Rights Watch has lately been bringing pressure to bear upon Canada to investigate Bush and Cheney for Crimes Against Humanity.
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“More and more in our times Canadians have wondered just what kind of continental neighbour America, is, exactly. Where will it all end?”
That’s what this blog is all about.
“If 6 was 9!” ‘The Undefeated Ticket Sales’ Faked-Up on Google. Palin-Propagandists Hoaxing America
“If 6 was 9″ PalinProp-aganda: Hoaxing America!
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Palin propagandists SPAMMING SEARCH ENGINES with suspicious ticket sales claims : “The Undefeated” premieres to ‘PACKED Atlanta THEATRE!‘… ‘Ticket Pre-Sales “ON PAR“ with “HARRY POTTER…!!!”
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This blogger writes:“If 6 Was 9″ is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1967. The iconic tune is noteworthy for making innovative use of technological studio effects such as slap, echo, fuzzbox, distortion, and reverb.
Likewise, desperate Sarah Palin boosters are using Internet FUZZ, DISTORTION, ECHO and REVERB to spam search engines like Google with dis-information. Their aim is to fool American voters, shilling them with ridiculous claims of blockbuster ticket sales of Palin’s vanity feature film The Undefeated.
If 6 was 9, or maybe if 2 was 12, or 3 was 8, then maybe the psychedelic claims held by Palin’s personality cult that her vanity movie has achieved boffo ticket sales on par with ‘Harry Potter might possibly, theoretically, perhaps, potentially, MAYBE have a tiny, infinitesimal crumb of truth to them……Naaaaaah!
Tea Party hacks hiding out in their spider dens of ‘conservatism extremis‘ such as Sarah.net, Newsbusters.org, Gary P. Jackson’s conservative blog, ” A Time For Choosing,” and – auspiciously - one particularly insidious web presence, “Vocus“ (an online PR machine with enhanced web presence, pouring out freebies for Sarey) have been busily posting, re-posting, re-writing-and-re-posting, and bombarding search engines with fuzzy disinformation about ticket sales for The Undefeated.
Don’t trust your Google, Bing, Yahoo, Dogpile and other searches about Sarah Palin, America. The former Guv of Wasila has a web team busily faking-up stories distorting the truth about ticket sales of The Undefeated. The “If 6 was 9 Team“ has been spamming mind-altering PR all over popular search engines in a massive public relations fraud. The dis-information campaign seems to be suspiciously connected to one conservative operator with deep web presence!
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TRY IT YOURSELF: Google: “Ticket sales The Undefeated”
YOU WILL FIND: hits just like these:
Immediately note the identical headlines, but differing url’s in the two hits displayed above. And THIS capture represents just two of dozens of clone hits to be found on all the major search engines! HOW did THAT happen?
Who is CRANKING OUT out this barrage of barely-disguised “clone news” ?
Neither of the above hits when clicked, offer any sales figures to back up their claims. They offer only airy hyperbole about boffo ticket sales over the weekend of July 16 & 17, 2011. They advertise that The Undefeated achieved sales “on par with Harry Potter.”
Oh, really? Harry Potter earned $168 million on the weekend. Is Aunt Sarey ReAlly that RICH already? Then her own war chest for the 2012 presidential campaign is already larger than that of all other candidates combined! And Sarey hasn’t even DECLARDED yet!
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Check out the following search hit:
PRWeb>Vocus>conservative web entrepreneur & blogger Rick Rudman
Note the top domain name from which this hit is broadcast: “www.PRWEB.com.”
Who is “PRWeb“? It turns out PRWeb is an online diseminator of news releases, not unlike any newswire: AP, ABC, Reuters, etc. etc. These PR companies supply “news” reports to news organizations: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. PRWeb is owned and run by one Rick Rudman. Rudman also owns PRWeb’s parent PR company called Vocus.
“Vocus” is another name you will find buried in dozens of your online searches for “Ticket sales The Undefeated.”
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Mr. Rudman prefers to work in the shadows.
If you search “Rick Rudman” on Google you will be presented with the following warning: “This site may harm your computer.“
Just for the hell of it, this writer went ahead and clicked the booby-trapped link to Rudman. [For your own safety I do not provide the risky link here.] The next Security Warning reads: “Continue at your own risk. For detailed information about the problems we found, visit Google’s Safe Browsing diagnostic page for this site.“
Rudman’s Google Profile is blank. Very nice, Dr. Evil!
Why is Rudman’s company, Vocus, behind searches for “Ticket sales The Undefeated”? What is Rudman’s link to Sarah Palin? Why is his company, Vocus, “getting more publicity” (as the company logo 
goes) for Sarey, in this subaltern manner? We may never know. Maybe the CIA has the poop on the connections between the Internet spook and Aunt Sarey.
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Another conservative boing you will find buried in your searches for “Ticket sales The Undefeated” is a blogspot entitled, “The Speech: A Time For Choosing.” This Big Fat Blog is multi-linked all over the conservative web, to: sarahnet, Newsbusters, Victoryfilmgroup, and more. Gary P Jackson, Executive Editor and Publisher of “A Time For Choosing,” spikes one over the net to the reader right off the top. In warning us to self-censor our comments, Jackson writes:
“Pretty simple, we are Reagan-Palin Conservatives. We strongly support the ideals that both Ronald Reagan and Sarah Palin stand for. With that said, we will not publish attacks on either. Simply not going to do it, SO DON’T BOTHER![my emphasis]
Friendly, open-minded chap, Gary sounds like, doesn’t he? Maybe not exactly the type you’d like for your over-the-back-fence neighbour, though. I can assure you that this Canadian neighbour is keeping well to MY side of the 49th. Who needs the Grief of Gary! Good Grief!
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America, if you’re thinking evil thoughts by now about Dear Aunt Sarey – STIFLE IT! Don’t make Gary have to throttle your stupid unpatriotic, liberal, pinko throat!
Just lean back, close your eyes and think of “The Spirit of America – Organizer Palin,” while you get S – - – - – D!
Is it just me…or is this air-headed Palin pest BUGGING you, too?
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For more revealing reading on the Palin Propaganda Machine read these blogs: “C & L” -”‘Crooks and Liars“ - ’ by David Neiwert, and ”Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid : The Palin Propaganda Machine,” by Sikivu Hutchinson on The Black Agenda Report - News, analysis and commentary from the black left.
“Retarded” is rude. “Idiotic” and “Imbecilic” too. But Palin’s loony bio-pic is being called “Dumb and Dumberer,” “Dazed and Confused,” and “Hopeless Sputtering”!
Sarah Palin calls herself "Undefeated" in her new movie. Is it a belated April Fools' joke, Sarey?
New York Times critic Kyle Smith was the first journalist to preview the new two-hour Sarah Palin movie “The Undefeated” on 4 June. He wrote of Palin’s turgid paen to Herself:
❛[The movie] is an excruciating combination of bombast and whining, it’s so outlandishly partisan that it makes Richard Nixon look like Abraham Lincoln.
“In one scene, we’re told she didn’t care about polls; in the next, she’s bragging about her approval rating (88%). So does her recent approval rating of 28% tell her that she must be doing something wrong?
“I’d sooner have watched a Michael Moore movie. Any Michael Moore movie. Even Canadian Bacon!
“If you’re hopeful (or worried) that this movie is the secret trigger for a Palin relaunch, don’t be. Even if you fixed the blaring soundtrack and took out all the symbols of the cataclysmic evil opposing Palin (barking dogs, disaster footage, a closeup of Rosie O’Donnell), you’d still be left with a hopeless sputtering jumble.❜
Palin "The Undefeated"?? What about 2008?
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TWEEEEEET! Anybody home?
Names of formally declared candidates appear in bold.
- Michele Bachmann, U.S. Representative from Minnesota
- Herman Cain, former Federal Reserve banker and businessman from Georgia
- Newt Gingrich, former U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives from Georgia
- Jon Huntsman, Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to China and former Governor governor of Utah
- Gary Johnson former Governor of New Mexico
- Fred Karger, political consultant and gay rights activist from California
- Andy Martin, perennial candidate from Illinois
- Jimmy McMillan, perennial candidate from New York
- Roy Moore, former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court of Alabama
- Ron Paul, U.S. Representative from Texas
- Tim Pawlenty, former Governor of Minnesota
- Buddy Roemer, former Governor of Louisiana
- Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts
- Rick Santorum, former Senator from Pennsylvania
- Jonathon Sharkey, perennial candidate from Florida
at the Tea Party to Palin’s hapless puss:
Poor Sarah might miss the milk bowl entirely!✖
Isn't THAT Special
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