OfficiallyScrewed.com

In a divisive turn of events, the Federal NDP is looking to reverse the decision to eject Buzz Hargrove from the party as a member. The Ontario branch had removed Buzz on constitutional grounds, and because of the way the party is structured, this effectively booted Buzz from the national party too.

Jack Layton called Buzz Hargrove last Friday, leaving a positive voice mail which indicated Jack was looking forward to working things out with Buzz to ensure he is on board with the NDP fully next election. They are even meeting today. The party is now looking at ways to reinstate Buzz nationally.

This begs the question: With Toronto being such a core support location for the NDP, does the decision to boot Buzz create a division between Ontario Dippers and the rest of the leftist group in Canada?

I don’t know. But I will say this. A large group within the party wants him out (including Judy Wasylycia-Leis). The leader sounds like he likes Buzz and wants him in. Sound familiar? It should. It parallels the Emerson/Fortier appointments.

Jack’s next move will be watched closely. How sweet would the irony be if he reversed the Ontario Dipper decision.

Today, Jack Aubry of the Ottawa Citizen, reports on the bilingualism within our new federal Cabinet.  The results are surprising, but again, show that the Tories are working hard to ensure Quebec feels like part of Canada.

The Tory Cabinet has 15 of 27 ministers who fall into the bilingual category (55.5%), whereas, the Liberal Cabinet under Paul Martin had 19 of 39 bilingual ministers (48.7%).

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

This supports my recent post about the diversity within the Tory ranks.

Well, in a sudden twist to their threat to pull out of the NPT, Iranian officials are turning their view around.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi urged a peaceful solution to the dispute over his country’s nuclear program. “We are still committed to the provisions of the NPT. But we can’t accept its use as a (political) instrument. We will co-operate in the treaty and the safeguards’ framework,” Asefi said at a weekly news conference.

A day earlier, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had hinted at a pull out.

Buzz Hargrove had his NDP membership revoked for endorsing an opposing party in the 2006 federal election, which is against the party’s constitution.

Well I can’t say that I am surprised. Buzz was three-faced this election and was scrambling to keep Tories out of office and it came back to bite him.

Garth Turner is staying put. There was hints that the brief kerfuffle surrounding his opinionated view of the Emerson appointment was creating enough tension to have him sever his ties to the party.

Garth has, unequivocally, denounced this prediction in his blog.

Well, loyalty’s needed there, as well. I am not going to abandon the party I walked so far for. I have no intention of seeing the caucus door close behind me. I will proudly take whatever seat I have in the House of Commons. And I will respect the leader, because leadership is hard. I have my conviction and I have my principles. They will not be compromised. But I also have my Conservative family. I told you before. In fact, I told the country this week. I am not a quitter.

I have been up and down on my opinion of Garth Turner over the years, but I am glad to have read this item today. I have always been a proponent of speaking your opinion. But where it is done is always the question. Sometimes it is best done behind party doors and once a matter is voted on, the party presents a uniform face to the public. Other times it is done in the public eye and creates a bit of news, as this did. In either case, the fact remains that not every issue will have a consensus within a party. In fact, I would go so far as to say that no issue would have a consensus within a party, but the compromise is made.

Many feel Garth may have been a bit upset about not getting a Cabinet post. I would rather give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he may have been a bit too vocal in the public eye on his view. But every issue needs a devils advocate to allow the issue to be vetted out in caucus at minimum, and within the EDA’s if necessary and not sensitive. That’s the whole point of free votes in the House.

Sometimes it just gets messier in the public eye than other issues may get. This one got too messy in my mind. I’m glad to move on to the Olympics, Rick Tocchet, and trying to take over number one in Need4Speed :Most Wanted, a past time my 13 year old son has got me hooked on.

Iran is alluding to an NPT pull out.

In a speech before tens of thousands in Tehran to mark the 27th anniversary of the revolution that brought a Muslim theocracy to power, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad focused on the building crisis surrounding Iran’s disputed nuclear program. “The nuclear policy of the Islamic Republic so far has been peaceful. Until now, we have worked inside the agency (IAEA) and the NPT (Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty) regulations. “If we see you want to violate … the Iranian people by using those regulations (against us), you should know that the Iranian people will revise its policies.

Well, I think we know where this is heading.

What were those countries Bush called the Axis of Evil??

Where are the socialists?? They used to have basketball sized cajones when it came to defending free speech. The Brooklyn Museum, in 1999, had an exhibit entitled Sensation. This exhibit had on display a picture of a black Virgin Mary, partial created with elephant dung. The picture was then surrounded by pictures of female genitalia. (Note: I had thought this was male genitalia, originally, but was wrong and stand corrected.). But in light of the recent Muslim caricatures, the biggest defenders of free speech have gone silent. They have traded in their basket’balls’ for ping pong ‘balls’.

Where is the National Coalition Against Censorship? There is NOTHING on their website about this whole cartoon affair. This is a site that prides itself on defending free speech. Their Executive Director, Joan Bertin, clearly felt a news release defending this “art” at the Brooklyn Museum was warranted. What sucks is that author Judy Blume sits on their Board. I think I am going upstairs and take the Judy Blume books off my kids bookshelves and toss em in the recycle bin. Maybe they will come out the other end of a recycling plant as toilet paper I happen to buy. Wouldn’t that be a stroke of luck.

“The entire arts community should be grateful to Director Arnold Lehman and the BMA’s Board of Directors for standing firm on the right of artists and museum-goers to make their own decisions without interference from the government,” said Joan Bertin, Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. “If the city chooses to fund the arts, it simply cannot pick and choose what art is ‘offensive’ and what is not.” “That judgment varies so widely and is so subjective that, if it were the test, publicly funded art institutions would likely have little of interest to offer beyond the most inoffensive and conventional art,” according to Michelle Coffey, Program Director of the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression. “Every major art collection contains something that someone will find offensive.” In this case, the Mayor and other critics may simply be revealing their own misinterpretation of the varied cultural and artistic traditions on which artists draw

Where are you now Joan? Or how about you Michelle? Not only did you defend the rights of this artist, but you defended the right for tax payers who were offended to continue to pay for displaying this art.

Then we have the World Socialist Web Site. This group also defended the Brooklyn Museum exhibit here, and then turnaround and blast the newspapers who showed the cartoon caricatures of Mohammad.

The World Socialist Web Site unequivocally condemns the publication by a series of European newspapers of defamatory cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist and killer. These crude caricatures, intended to insult and incite Muslim sensibilities, are a political provocation. Their publication, initially by a right-wing Danish newspaper with historical ties to German and Italian fascism, was calculated to fuel anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment.

This site lists 12 members on their Editorial Board.

I am sure there are dozens and dozens of other socialist oriented sites that would defend free speech one way but not the other. I urge commenters to point out these sights in the comments section.

I also encourage you to contact both these organizations and straighten them out. The WSWS can be contacted via their website Feedback Form here, and the NCAC can be reached by emailing them.