Liberal Party bloggers, gaze upon the zombie rictus grin of your party!

Once again, we are back on the My Blahg treadmill.  It's rare that I link to or even pay attention to the foul miasma that regularly belches forth from Warren Kinsella's virtual mouth, but his column today in the Notional Pest obnoxiously outdoes some of the worst that his slavish imitators have accomplished.  And it's even more rare that I link to the Pest, which, for my American readers, is the Canadian newspaperly equivalent of Faux News.

And we do not have to look far for signs of verbal putrefaction:

National Post - The NDP's blog blow-back [alliteration, how creative of the Pest headline writers!]:  One month ago, at an Ottawa gathering of the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA), Ed Broadbent stood before the hundreds of Jews in attendance, and wept.

The former New Democratic Party leader was present to receive the first annual David Lewis Memorial Award on behalf of his deceased wife, Lucille. As current NDP leader Jack Layton stood by to give support, Broadbent cried, thanking CIJA for recognizing the work of Lucille on behalf of oppressed Soviet Jewry. He, and Lucille, received a long standing ovation.

It was an extraordinarily emotional moment, and one that signalled -- some hoped -- the beginnings of a rapprochement between Canada's political left and those who support Israel. In recent years, and as the National Post has reported many times, there has been an undeniable and yawning gap between Jews and the left. As prominent NDP supporter and lawyer Clay Ruby has observed, "Some critics of Israel conveniently focus on Israeli wrongdoings to mask their blatant anti-Semitism." Too often, these days, this sort of criticism has emanated from the left.

The emphasis is mine.  Take a look at the utterly dishonest slight of hand he demonstrates right there:  Lucille Broadbent worked laudably on behalf of oppressed Soviet Jewry.  She won a posthumous award for this.  To receive this award is presented without evidence is a sign that Ed Broadbent is reconciling with "supporters of Israel."    "The Left" is personified in the figures of Ed and Lucille. Since Ed and Lucille accepted an award for work on behalf of oppressed Jews, we are expected to indicate The Left is now "supporting Israel."

Of course, we can take this further, and in doing so, we see that this is merely a repetition of the Standard Calumny.  What is this "support Israel" thing, anyway?  Why, it presupposes, in the standard lawyerly have-you-stopped-kicking-cute-puppies way, that The Left, that great unified colossus, previously "opposed" Israel.  Of course, any rational person would recognize that one does not "oppose" or "support" a geographical demarkation, such as Israel---any more than one supports or opposes the North Pole.  Instead one supports or opposes a political position and/or state ideology.  So what could Mr. Kinsella mean by this obviously calculated presuppostion?

He means, of course, that The Left, this single nefarious body represented by Emperor Layton and symbolized in the Broadbent Caliphate, is a Nazi.  And in doing so, he delegitimizes any robust support of the Palestinians in their plight, a cause to which Lucille Broadbent's laudable work is more similar than to the cause of the Israeli state.

The rest of the article is a hatchet job on the Canadian left blogosphere, which Warren Kinsella has always hated, even as he promoted himself as an anti-racist activist and a punk rocker---hilarious given the fact that he helped Jean Chrétien, symbol of The Establishment, retain power by performing the hilarious but trivial task of squashing Stockwell Day like a bug in a wet suit.  What McLelland said was clearly offensive---abusing Holocaust imagery in the case of Jews---but Kinsella takes what is a heartfelt negative reaction to McLelland's words and mendaciously turns it proof that The Left is recovering from its previous evil ways and will henceforth cast the Palestinians under the bus.

Finally, he reveals the hatred that certain brands of political operatives have for self-publishing media like blogs.  First of all, he makes a snide reference to pseudonymous bloggers.  That's because Mr. Kinsella has a deep love of destroying people, and it annoys him when their identities aren't ready on hand to destroy.  And then he describes his desire for the blogosphere to be controlled by organizations (he is also clearly aware that most blogs aren't party-endorsed, but he loves to smear the NDP even more than he loves to smear the Reformatories):

The McClelland incident is a cautionary tale, for political parties and the media alike: Each of these cases testify to the need for increased reputational vigilance. As the popularity of blogs has exploded, many corporations and political parties have scrambled to ensure their presence in the blogosphere. But they have not been as watchful as they should be.

Finally, in case my American readers don't understand the ways in which him and his adoring groupies like Jason Cherniak (who repeats an old slander against Noam Chomsky) are a pustulent boil on the face of Canadian politics:

For example, John Edwards' presidential campaign recently endured a withering blow when two women who contributed to the Democrat's campaign blog -- Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan -- attacked Catholics, and referred to opponents as "Christofascists." Unfortunately, Edwards did not ask for Marcotte and McEwan's resignations, although both apologized.

So whenever I hear that well-intentioned people join the Liberal Party in the belief that they are assisting progressive politics in Canada, I mentally welcome them to a front row seat at Warren Kinsella's lower intestine.

Comments

[skdadl]

You're angry, Mandos. I'm angry too. All the old slanders revived, and then that sick insinuation that some power-centres should start to watch what is happening on the blogs. It is to vomit.

[Dr.Dawg]

Well said. I wonder if there is something we can do about that foul NP piece--a group response or something. Maybe a complaint to the Ontario Press Council?

[janfromthebruce]

unbelievable. There has to be a response.

[Holly Stick]

Excellent post, Mandos, and the title is right on. What a bunch of smear weenies.

[AradhanaD]

That was an awesome analysis mandos. thanks.