Blogs I Really Like Right Now

Some new blogs that have had some great posts about the renewal of the Liberal Party of Canada:

• Liberal Thinking
• Democratic Progress
• Trapper Keeper
• CalgaryLiberal
• Processing Politics

And some of my long time favorites:

• Far and Wide
• Impolitical
• CalgaryGrit
• A BCer in Toronto
• Scott's Diatribes

~BT

Turning Talk into Action on Liberal Party Renewal

There has been a considerable amount of discussion and interest in reform and renewal of the Liberal Party of Canada after the historic loss in the election last Monday.

All my conversations with friends and what I've been reading online has re-energized me in the face of the brutal election results. I am convinced that we as young progressive and liberal Canadians have a huge opportunity to make our mark on the Liberal Party and contribute in building a better Canada.

To start, I wanted to react to a number of things that have been already written on-line. To be honest, there have been so much activity online it has been hard to keep track of it all, but here is my first take:

Rob Silver seemed to start it all off on the right foot with a number of great blog posts at the Globe that scope out what's next for the Liberal Party. Of the four camps that Rob references, I am firmly with Rob in the 2nd group:

2. Reform everything about the Liberal Party. Top-to-bottom. New blood, new voting coalition – there’s not much that stays the same in this new Liberal Party. This is obviously my preferred option and I will discuss it in more detail in the days and weeks to come.

Susan Delacourt provides a decent summary in this weekend's Toronto Star, despite the headline, where she surveys much of the discussion in the media about the future of the LiberalParty. Unfortunately, most of it is about leadership and merger, both topics that I have no interest in talking about right now. I don't think it is the time to be talking about leadership. The Liberals continually get caught up in these leadership battles at the expense of focusing time and energy on building grassroots organizations and institutions both within and outside the official Party who would, similar to organizations on the right, help to support and ultimately get a Liberal leader elected Prime Minister.

I very much agree with Vincent St. Pierre who argues on his blog Calgaryliberal.com that centrism is an electoral strategy, not a political philosophy, and that the Liberals should now start listening more closely to Preston Manning. Manning uses an iceberg metaphor to describe politics — parties in themselves represent the 10 per cent above the surface, while ideas, movements and activism form the 90 per cent you don’t see. St. Pierre writes:

I fear the Liberals have become ice cubes — a party for a party’s sake, and an accumulation of people interested in being in a party and implementing a party’s vision. A party without a base of support, that is. Being solely ‘centrist’ will not get the Liberals anywhere.

I couldn't agree more and on the "centrism" point specifically, Jesse Rosenberg nails it with the ending to his recent blog post:

That’s why our plan has to be to rebuild, and re-learn what it means to be really liberal, so we can start the mission of convincing Canadians to join a project, not a party

The other point from Manning about parties being only 10% rings very true to me, especially given my experience while I was in the U.S. during the Bush years. I saw first hand and participated in the development of progressive institutions and organizations that emerged to foster progressive activism and support for the Democratic Party. Canadian Liberals should look at the example down south, with the emergence of groups like Moveon.org, the Center for American Progress, the Campaign for America's Future, Media Matters and progressive blogging communities like DailyKos, OpenLeft and others.

Conservatives here in Canada get it. They have adopted the Republican strategy and developed right wing think tanks like the Fraser Institute, the Canada West Foundation and others. They recently founded the Manning Centre to help train and build the next generation of conservative activists and now have their very own version of Fox News with Sun TV News.

Given all this, I think we need to move beyond just talking and take some action. LiberalThinking is a modest start and I encourage you to check it out and consider contributing something yourself.

In recent days, I've been part of a number of discussions about what we as young liberals and those outside of the existing Liberal Party power structure can do to reform and rebuild the Party. If you are interested in getting involved please let me know.

~BT

It's On!! Election 2008 on October 14

Stephen Harper has finally made it official: Canadians will go to the polls on October 14.

All the parties are launching their campaigns today. Dion is about to launch the Liberal campaign at a rally in Ottawa at 5pm and spoke earlier today from inside the Parliament buildings. Harper launched the Conservative campaign completely in French at a rally in Quebec City. Layton focused his attacks on the Harper government with the Parliament buildings in Ottawa as the backdrop. Elizabeth May continued to pound away on the inclusion of the Green party in the debates and was in Guelph today. Gilles Duceppe attacked Harper's conservative ideology today amid what is shaping up to be a disastrous campaign for the Bloc.

The NDP launched their first ad of the campaign on Harper's suppossed "strong leadership".

~BT

As an election gets underway, I'm leaving the country

Well, at least for the first half of the campaign. I will be going on a long-planned trip to Mexico and Texas, each for a week, and will be back in Canada on September 28. Just in time to witness the last 16 days of the election campaign before Canadians vote on October 14th.

I can't say that I'm too excited about the upcoming campaign. Conservatives have way more money, Stephane Dion has so far been unable to really connect with Canadians and the corporate media will be busy fawning over the latest poll instead of doing any real reporting on policy issues that matter to Canadians.

As a staunch Liberal, I am not looking forward to the endless leaks and self-inflicted wounds that we are likely to see during this campaign. It has been happening to varying degrees since Dion won the leadership. I really do hope I'm wrong, but if the recent past is any indication, we will see a parade of unidentified highly placed liberals talking off-the-record second-guessing and undermining Dion. Frankly, there are just too many people within the Liberal party that will benefit from a Dion loss in this election. It's sad but true.

On the brighter side,

• The expectations for Dion are so low that he is bound to surpass them and I hope he will surprise all of us with his performance
  
• Maybe the wave of "Change" in the US will have some impact in Canada. One can hope, right?
• I hope that Canadians take the time to find out what the Conservatives actually plan to do with a majority government. What's on their agenda? Other than bashing the Liberals, of course?

I will try to blog as much as I can. I will avoid discussing the polls and rather focus on the differing policy platforms of each party. In truth, I'm quite distracted with the Toronto International Film Festival so there will likely be a bunch of posts about the various movies that I will be seeing in the next week.

~BT

McCain's VP pick is reckless

I was in disbelief when I heard the news this morning that John McCain has picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin is an extreme right-wing self-described "hockey mom" who is currently embroiled in a scandal and who is completely unqualified for VP. She doesn't even know what the VP does! Given that McCain is 72 years old and has had problems with cancer, this pick is truly reckless and a completely political ploy with obviously no consideration for actually governing.

I'll have a more detailed post soon about my thoughts on Palin, but for now here is Obama spokesman Bill Burton's initial statement, which Obama has since distanced himself from, but nonetheless sums up how I feel:

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same."

Cross-posted at Progressive Dispatches

~BT

Today on the Blogs

I spend most of my time reading blogs and news online and find myself wanting to talk and link to so many items that I end up posting on none of it. I hope to make "Today on the Blogs" a regular feature that will provide a bigger picture view of what is garnering my attention online. Please post links to anything you have found of interest.

In the Canadian Progressive Blogosphere:

• Peace, order and good government, eh? discusses Conservative Government's misuse of franking privileges to send propaganda on the taxpayer's dime. This was previously mentioned over at Canadian Cynic, Impolitical and Scott's Diatribes.
  
• Lots of coverage of the "In and Out" electoral scheme. The ethic committee hearings are underway (liveblogging here) and on cue the Conservatives are using distraction and obstruction tactics to take away attention from the real story (h/t BigCityLib)
  

From our neighbours to the south:

• Good article in the American Prospect ask Are We Neglecting the Next Activist Generation?
• Matt Yglesias, one of my favorite bloggers, has launched his new blog at ThinkProgress.org after leaving his previous post at The Atlantic. Take a look at this timeline of Yglesias' career since he graduated from Harvard in 2002
  

~BT

Obama Hits Back

Barack Obama's new television ad "Embrace" addresses the numerous ways in which the special interests in Washington have embraced John McCain and how McCain has hugged right back, employing lobbyists in top positions and giving tax breaks to oil and drug companies, instead of working to ease the burden on middle-class families


Update: Matt Stoller at Openleft reviews Obama's seven negative ads that his campaign has released so far this summer.

~BT

Beijing Olympics, One World, One Dream

Scary

~BT

McCommunism

Naomi Klein offers her poignant view of China in an interview with Paul Jay from the Real News:

A hybrid of some of the worst elements of authoritarian communism—mass surveillance of the population, total lack of civil liberties, lack of a free press, lack of democratic rights, authoritarian central planning, all harnessed not to advance the goals of social justice, even in name, although there may be some lip service still paid to that, but to advance the goals of global capitalism. So it is Stalinism meets global capitalism.

Klein has also authored a recent article in the Huffington Post describing China's "Police State 2.0":

The goal of all this central planning and spying is not to celebrate the glories of Communism, regardless of what China's governing party calls itself. It is to create the ultimate consumer cocoon for Visa cards, Adidas sneakers, China Mobile cell phones, McDonald's happy meals, Tsingtao beer, and UPS delivery -- to name just a few of the official Olympic sponsors. But the hottest new market of all is the surveillance itself. Unlike the police states of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, China has built a Police State 2.0, an entirely for-profit affair that is the latest frontier for the global Disaster Capitalism Complex.

I am a huge fan of Naomi Klein and reading all of this has reminded me to finally start reading Klein's latest book The Shock Doctrine, which has been sitting on my desk for the last few months.

Klein's insights are far from anything you will see in the traditional media's Olympic coverage. For example, in today's Globe and Mail - The Revolution Below:

Even in the political sphere, there is expanded leeway. China now leads the world in the number of Internet users – 250 million – and cellphone subscribers – more than 550 million people, who send tens of billions of short messages a day. Despite censorship, they use these new tools to push for more rights and openness, and to challenge the authorities with rising success.

The government still interferes, still rounds up severe critics, and has made life harder for foreign reporters since the Tibetan crisis in March. But China's progress since 2001 has been largely along the positive trajectory of the past three decades.

The Chinese enjoy more freedom than at any time in recent history. Ordinary Chinese people enthusiastically support the Beijing Olympics, contrary to many critics who label the Games as a government propaganda showcase.

It will be exciting to watch the democratizing force that expanded access to technology and information will have on Chinese society. Regardless of that potential, we need to remind ourselves of the political machine behind the scenes who are orchestrating an incredibly scripted and sanitized show for the world.

Christie Blatchford has a great column in the Globe and Mail:

It cannot be considered unmannerly to note that as good as the show was, as smashing as the facilities are and as super-successful as the Games themselves probably will be, it all happened like this not only because of Chinese ingenuity, but also because the government could bulldoze homes when it needed land, put up walls whether or not they were wanted, dislocate folks at whim, spend like a drunken sailor, issue marching orders even about street-spitting and chest-baring and lock up, detain or 're-educate' anyone who dared whisper the mildest complaint.

As even Confucius said, in one of several quotations prominently displayed on screens at the ceremony, "The most valuable use of the rifles is to achieve harmony." Maybe he meant hegemony.

~BT

Olympic Cartoons

~BT

Olympics on the Mind

I've been watching Olympic coverage on four different channels: CBC, RDI (Radio-Canada), NBC and CBC Newsworld. CBC's online streaming and on demand video is pretty good so far although it only works with Internet Explorer :(

The opening ceremonies were orchestrated flawlessly and quite amazing to watch. So far the coverage on NBC has been much better than CBC. The NBC commentators are more knowledgeable and their explanations and analysis during the opening ceremonies put MacLean, Mansbridge and the CBC to shame.

The men's cycling road race has been my favorite because of the amazing aerial shots of Beijing and the surrounding area. Michael Phelps set a new Olympic record in a preliminary heat and battle for medals has started with China having 2 gold and the US with 3 medals total.

I have also been reading a lot of coverage online. Here are some of the best:

• Jetson Green reviews the many green buildings built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

• Chris Bowers at Openleft.com: China and the March of Nations

Before the ceremonies, I was generally of the view that, because of its environmental degradation, internal human right's and worker's right's abuses, it should not have been awarded the Olympics games. However, watching the march of nations, it became clear to me why hosting the Olympics was so important to China, and why there really isn't a good argument to deny them these games.

• CalgaryGrit discusses the lesser known "Political Olympics"

• The Real News: Naomi Klein on China and the Olympics “Security, central planning, surveillance state is an ideal cocoon for global capitalism.”

Almost all the coverage I have watched or read has talked about the air pollution problem in Beijing. What I would love to see happen is for environmental issues to gain prominence and attention after seeing these glaring pollution problems.

What have you been noticing? Let me know of any good blogs covering the Olympics from Beijing?

~BT

Beijing Olympics in Context

From the Los Angelos Times:

For the last seven years, through clouds of construction dust, thousands of meetings, millions of man-hours and an unprecedented political mobilization, China has waited for today.

At $43 billion, the Beijing Olympics, which begin today, represent one of the most expensive coming-out parties in history. And the belle of the ball has a lot to be proud of. China has risen from poverty and social chaos to engineer one of the most impressive economic success stories ever.

From Wired.com:

With a single day to go before the Olympics, both government and independent readings suggest that Beijing's air is getting worse.

And if the winds don't change, this could wind up being one of the most polluted Olympics in modern history, with more particulate matter in the air than Atlanta in 1996 or possibly even notoriously smoggy Los Angeles in 1984.

~BT

How Are You Seeing the Beijing Olympics?

Will you be watching it live? On your television or online?

Here in Toronto, live coverage begins at 7am with the Opening Ceremonies beginning live at 8am.

As I brace for the deluge of Olympic coverage from the Beijing Olympics, here are some questions that are on my mind:

• Have you noticed that it is the 8th day in August, the 8th month, 2008? Got to love your lucky numbers.
• How much did the exclusive television and web rights cost in your country?
• What technology platforms are being used to broadcast online coverage of the Games? Here in Canada, CBC is using Windows Media Player.
• How big will the global audience be?
  
• The US is making a huge statement by choosing a victim of violence in Sudan as their flag bearer.
• Will China be able to control the image of these Games? Details leak out.
  
• What will the 'story' be? So far Canadian and American coverage I have seen has air pollution and smog mentioned predominantly.
  
• Will Youtube coverage be available in North America?

What are you thinking about as we the world collectively turns its attention to China ?

~BT

Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization?

From Adbusters:

Ever since the Allies bombed the Axis into submission, Western civilization has had a succession of counter-culture movements that have energetically challenged the status quo. Each successive decade of the post-war era has seen it smash social standards, riot and fight to revolutionize every aspect of music, art, government and civil society.

But after punk was plasticized and hip hop lost its impetus for social change, all of the formerly dominant streams of “counter-culture” have merged together. Now, one mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior has come to define the generally indefinable idea of the “Hipster.”

I have to admit my enjoyment of the hipster scene back in Philadelphia as well as here in Toronto. Although I don't consider myself a hipster, I enjoy the dive bars, the young good-looking crowds and the often electronic music. Every time I go out to some hipster event, I think to myself about the opportunity to politically organize the crowds of intelligent, well-informed 20-somethings. The problem is that I haven't yet figured out how to inject progressive political activism into this hipster world.

Adbusters, whose cover story on Hipsterdom sparked this post, takes a unsurprisingly critical and pessimistic view.

Hipsterdom is the first “counterculture” to be born under the advertising industry’s microscope, leaving it open to constant manipulation but also forcing its participants to continually shift their interests and affiliations. Less a subculture, the hipster is a consumer group – using their capital to purchase empty authenticity and rebellion. But the moment a trend, band, sound, style or feeling gains too much exposure, it is suddenly looked upon with disdain. Hipsters cannot afford to maintain any cultural loyalties or affiliations for fear they will lose relevance.

An amalgamation of its own history, the youth of the West are left with consuming cool rather that creating it. The cultural zeitgeists of the past have always been sparked by furious indignation and are reactionary movements. But the hipster’s self-involved and isolated maintenance does nothing to feed cultural evolution. Western civilization’s well has run dry. The only way to avoid hitting the colossus of societal failure that looms over the horizon is for the kids to abandon this vain existence and start over.

Adbusters laments our "defeated generation" that is too afraid to create our own authentic counterculture. First, I can't disagree more with the fact that we are defeated. Have you seen the level of activism among millennials in the US? Our generation is well-informed, caring, and using the new tools at our disposal to effect real change, instead of feeding into some new counterculture movement that will inevitably be co-opted and sold back to us. Second, the whole notion of effecting change through some authentic counterculture has not worked for the last 20+ years. Remember all those culture jammers and anti-globalization radicals that Adbusters exemplifies? What have they achieved?

Instead of worrying about how Hipsterdom is growing into "a global phenomenon that is set to consume the very core of Western counterculture" we need to reevaluate what actual value comes from these countercultures. In my view, all of this focus on creating and sustaining these subcultures opposed to the "mainstream" is just a distraction from achieving real political change.

Cross Posted at Progressive Dispatches

~BT

Bringing this blog back to life

It has been almost a year since I last blogged about Canadian politics on this blog. I have spent most of my time blogging at Progressive Dispatches and focusing on the American presidential race.

Now that I've graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and have been back in Toronto for the summer, it is definitely time to start putting my accumulated thoughts down somewhere and this blog is going to be the place I will do that.

Having lived in the US for the last 5 years, I witnessed the huge growth of a vibrant and diverse progressive movement online. This growth of the "Netroots" has leveraged a number of new online tools and seems to me to be far ahead of anything I've seen here in Canada. The closest thing I've seen here is the online activism surrounding opposition to the awful Copyright bill (C-60). As great as that was, close to 90,000 people joining the Fair Copyright Facebook group, it pales in comparison to what is going on in the US.

One thing I definitely will be discussing on this blog is some of those amazing online campaigns in the US and what lessons can we progressive Canadians learn and implement effectively.

~BT

Loonie reaches parity with US Dollar

The Canadian dollar, known to us Canadians as the Loonie, has reached parity with the American dollar for the first time in 30 years. This has been a story Canadians have been following for years now as the Loonie has risen over 60% over the last 5 years. In real terms, that means that my Penn education now costs less than half as much as it did my freshmen year and that since my assets are denominated in Canadian dollars, my net worth has risen 60% relative to my American peers. Not bad.

This story here has to do with the US dollar weakness against all major currencies and will likely continue its decline as global current account imbalances work themselves out.

With oil closing at record highs above $80 and the mortgage crisis continuing to take its toll, things are not looking good for the US economy.

Cross-posted at Progressive Dispatches

~BT

DiCaprio Takes on the Environment, Gore-style

Originally posted at Progressive Dispatches

Leonardo DiCaprio is following in Al Gore's footsteps with his new movie, The 11th Hour. According to Warner Brothers,

The film explores how we’ve arrived at this moment -- how we live, how we impact the earth’s ecosystems, and what we can do to change our course.

It comes out in New York and LA this weekend and has a wider release on August 24th (which is when I will be able to see it when it comes out in Philadelphia). After watching the trailer, it's no surprise that the film has already received so much positive buzz online,

The film expands on the themes of last year's Oscar-winning doc, "An Inconvenient Truth," and even goes further then the global warming issue, which the film argues is just one symptom of humanity's overarching influence on the planet.According to Warner Brothers.

From a review at Treehugger.com:

The film is a collection of vivid imagery accompanied by commentary and meditation from an impressive collection of political leaders, designers, and visionaries—a proverbial team of environmental rock stars. Cast members include former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, scientist Stephen Hawking, and sustainable design authority William McDonough . . . to name a few. In total, the film features 50 independent voices, bringing expertise, experience, and emotion to the crisis at hand. Their words are informative, powerful, and inspiring—perhaps some of the great quotes of our time

Gristmill also has a review and an interview with DiCaprio and the producers of this film.

Leonardo DiCaprio premieres "The 11th Hour"

~BT

Young Liberals Fight Back!

The Young Liberals of Canada (YLC) released three great ads today, based on Apple's Mac vs. PC ads, in response to another round of Conservative attack ads. This is a much needed counter attack to the Conservatives ability to buy television and radio ads. (they have them running on Business News Network).

According to the YLC's press release,

“Look, it’s no secret the Conservatives are a wealthy party who can afford all kinds of fancy marketing executives and focus groups,” admits Pickup, “but within the Liberal family we’ve got talent, we’ve got dedication, and we’ve got a clear vision for Canada of which we’re proud.”

The three parody ads will be promoted through a multi-pronged approach that utilizes youngliberals.ca, Facebook, youtube.com, instant-messenger programs, and bloggers. This cohesive online campaign provides an opportunity for members and supporters to disseminate and share their messages quickly and affordably.

The ads have already garnered positive coverage in the Toronto Star, on CityTV's 6pm news, and much coverage throughout the blogosphere:

• A BCer in Toronto
• CTV's Politics Blog, Gauntlet.ca
• The Turner Report

The Facebook group has reached over 575 members and is growing fast.

(cross-posted at Progressive Dispatches)

~BT

Harper's EcoFraud Exposed!

In their own words:

We thought that http://www.ecoaction.gc.ca was a little too strong on the BS side, so we made our own.

Visit http://www.ecofraud.ca and raise awareness by spreading the word!

You need to check this out and spread the word!

Progessive Dispatches: 1 month old!

I was really surprised to notice that I have been blogging at Progressive Dispatches for 1 month now, mainly because it feels like I just posted And we're back! So, why post about a such a minor milestone?

Well, I had previously blogged for 3 months at Canadian Liberal @ Penn in the summer of 2005. True, I am only 1/3 of the way to my previous record in terms of longevity, in terms of number of posts, this is my 21st post so far, which is getting close to my previous record of 27. Unfortunately, I am not anywhere close to the amount of traffic I used to get, which is disappointing because the traffic provided me with active comments and conversation with others that made blogging more fun and meaningful. But last week's discovery of a burgeoning blogosphere at Penn has been pretty cool.

This time around, I found blogging to be both easier and harder. It has been easy because of the large range of topics that I want to blog about but tough because of the high speed and breadth of the constant flow of new information. The sheer size of the American political system allows for a sizable political chattering class of pundits, strategists, lobbyists, and has seen the emergence (pdf) of a vibrant progressive blogosphere that is fascinating to watch flex its muscle within the Democratic party. The progressive resurgence nationwide and the real notion that I could be part of this avant-garde progressive movement has been exciting. Most of all, it it the desire to bring this progressive infrastructure and success back to Canada that is most interesting me about US domestic politics right now.

In comparison, I was able to blog about Canadian politics at a much slower pace and there were less blogs and not much of an online opinion infrastructure. Granted, I was blogging within a nascent Canadian blogosphere dominated by well organized conservatives. Progressive Bloggers had just been founded and was quickly followed by Liblogs, both of which I joined and saw a steady traffic of around 50 unique visitors per day.

We find the the same thing at the early stages of the development of the US blogosphere. It started with conservatives having a powerful top-down infrastructure which has since stagnated. Meanwhile there has been an incredible growth of the progressive blogosphere with some asking whether it has reached its apex. This example shows how the Canadian right is able to effectively emulate their American counterparts and implement similar policies, strategies and ideas on a slight time delay.

In Canada, Conservatives have long mastered the art of borrowing from the US conservative movement and I don't see why Liberals shouldn't do the same thing on the Progressive side. Across the pond, British bloggers are similarly learning from recent progressive successes in America. From an initial glance, the Canadian landscape seems to have grown in size but I don't see Canadian blogs having the same sort of impact on politics yet.

(Posted at Progressive Dispatches)