Robert Kennedy Jr. blasts Harper

Some days the news is so depressing, the hypocrisy so thick and motives are so murky that it is hard work to see any light on the horizon at all.

And then this inspired piece from Robert Kennedy Jr. made me smile for one of the few times in the last five years when I consider the state of this country under Prime Minister Stephen Harper's malign influence.

Kennedy sees what we have running the place and isn't afraid to say it.

"...[C}anada['s] regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada's right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news."

There is already considerable leeway on "ads" during election campaigns. Basically, you're allowed to libel and slander to your heart's content. The HarperCons have taken it to new heights. They've launched attack ads without any official announcement of an election, delicately circumventing the financing rules and probably using taxpayer money to do it. But if they aren't election ads, then the Cons should be prosecuted under libel laws.

In my dreams...

But Robert Kennedy Jr. comes to the rescue again:

"...[H]arper, often referred to as 'George W. Bush's Mini Me,' is known for having mounted a Bush like war on government scientists, data collectors, transparency, and enlightenment in general. He is a wizard of all the familiar tools of demagoguery; false patriotism, bigotry, fear, selfishness and belligerent religiosity.

Harper's attempts to make lying legal on Canadian television is a stark admission that right wing political ideology can only dominate national debate through dishonest propaganda..."

Music to my ears, heard as a long gloomy winter is finally coming to an end...maybe. Weather gurus are forecasting a colder than usual spring.

Harper starting to show true colours

Stack the courts? Go ahead, Mr. Harper, just like your buddies to the south in the Bush administration. Make sure your malevolent influence continues to poison the discourse long after your own minority administration is consigned to the rubbish bin of history.

Also, a very nice attack on Navdeep Bains, the Liberal MP whose father-in-law may, or may not, have been questioned concerning the Air India bombing twenty-two years ago. What was it all about? We don't know, but Harper is going to throw as much mud (I'm being polite) as he can, just like caged and enraged gorillas in a zoo.

Whatever political hay Conservative spin-doctors are trying to make of a recent poll about Harper's government, they show that he really hasn't made any significant gains in the polls. Within the margin of error, he's pretty much where he before.

The only place he achieved a majority was in the question of whether he had a strong vision for the country. He does, but it's one that two-thirds of the country doesn't share.