Manufactured outrage

It's what all bullies do.  Every single one.  

Whether serial intimate partner abuser or totalitarian politician.

Harper has made this particular Karl-Rove-perfected tactic the centre-piece of his Politburo PMO propaganda communications strategy.

Reframe whatever criticism that is directed at you as an *attack* upon yourself or your party.

Wildly exaggerate what was said; prevaricate outrageously.

Shrieeek loudly to drown out any objections.

Discredit whoever had the temerity to express the notion that the Emperor might be prancing about, nekkid and weenie-wagging at small children.

Demand an apology.

Use the manufactured outrage and putative victimhood to elicit support from acquaintances or your political base.

The Parti Québecois' spin doctors are attempting to deflect attention away from their crass veer to the rightwing corporate agenda by demanding an apology from Amir Khadir of Québec Solidaire, the only progressive political party currently active in Québec.

Khadir related his personal experiences in Iran when left-leaning progressive activists and militants joined forces with right-wing traditionalist folks, to oust US imperialism and invite a leadership that spoke to the needs of oppressed Iranians.

The rest of that history is known: Ayatollah Khomeini took power; he and his fundamentalist islamist entourage established an anti-democratic, repressive, totalitarian regime in Iran.

From what Khadir stated, the PQ propagandists spun a tale that claimed Pierre Karl Péladeau was compared to the Ayatollah.  

The intended criticism was likely directed at Pauline Marois and her party, but the shrieeek potential there was not as meaty for the spin doctors.

Delusional fabulations.  It's what bullies do.

Added: Rob and Doug Ford. They use manufactured outrage not only as a political strategy, but engage in it as though it were an Olympic event.  More examples forthcoming.  Stay tuned.

I am not moving.

From The Galloping Beaver.

Watch it.

The Revolution Is Being YouTubed

Go to The Dish.

If You're Just Tuning In ...
The Dish has been live-blogging the latest phase of the Green Revolution through the night, since 11 pm EST last night. We recommend scrolling down to the bottom and reading up to get a flavor of how today unfolded in real time. The images and videos are among the most graphic to date, so be warned. Dish policy is to provide as much information on reality as we can. Readers should also know that these videos are by their very nature impossible to confirm beyond a very rough due diligence. So again: caution. But this is an historic moment, the culmination of the biggest story of the year, even though you wouldn't know it from the Sunday talk shows.

Amazing -- and yes, graphic -- vids, photos, and reports.

Go.

For all Fundamentalist Religious Zealots, Fear + Fury = Hate

Many blog posts written here deal with the hate generated by fundamentalist religious zealots. Much of it is directed towards women, but hate fuelled by religious bigotry has many other targets.

Sabini Amidi has been providing news items to the Jerusalem Post on the political situation in Iran, reporting from Tehran. Her latest piece has generated a lot of emotional responses, most directed towards the current regime, some at Moslems and, some attacking her for reporting what she does.

In a shocking and unprecedented interview [...] a serving member of the paramilitary Basiji militia has told this reporter of his role in suppressing opposition street protests in recent weeks.

He has also detailed aspects of his earlier service in the force, including his enforced participation in the rape of young Iranian girls prior to their execution. ...

In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard - essentially raped by her "husband."

"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," he said. Why the regret, if the marriages were "legal?"

"Because," he went on, "I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die. "I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over," he said. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her."

Such depraved physical and psychological violence against women in prison, is not limited to those who have been jailed for their political or religious beliefs. In the state of Arizona in the US, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is facing charges that his treatment of female prisoners is cruel and illegal.

The ACLU filed a motion in Maricopa Superior Court last week to stop the sheriff from requiring inmates who ask for abortions to pay up front for transportation costs to the procedure. “He can't ask people to pre-pay to receive these medical services,” ACLU Executive Director Alessandra Solar Meetze said. ... According to court documents, an inmate known as “Sarah Poe” requested an abortion.

A “Lieutenant informed her she would have to prepay for transportation costs," the documents said. Poe was charged $500 before obtaining a ride to a doctor’s office where an abortion was performed.

Meetze said the prepayment requirement violates a woman’s constitutional right to have timely access to an abortion. “The sheriff has an obligation to follow the law. He cannot pick and choose which laws to follow based on his political agenda,” she said.

The sheriff, who is pro-life, said his prepayment requirement has nothing to do with his personal feelings. ... The sheriff said women who cannot pay the transportation charge up front will still be driven to the procedure. ... However, the sheriff does not charge any other inmates for transportation. Sheriff’s deputies drive inmates to other medical appointments, hospital visits with ailing family members and to funerals for free. ...

The motion to stop the sheriff from requiring payment for transportation for inmates seeking abortions is the latest chapter in a five year long court battle. The ACLU first filed suit against the sheriff in 2004 for requiring women to get a court order for an abortion. The courts found the sheriff’s policy was unconstitutional.

Sheriff Arpaio's supporters and followers of his nativist ideology, in particular those who call themselves the Minutemen advocate taking violent, murderous action against Mexicans who attempt to establish illicit residence in the US. Some have been arrested and are awaiting trial for their criminal actions.

But since these are US citizens breaking laws, under the guise of an ideology based on christian fundamentalist rightwing bigotry, their actions are presumably acceptable to New Republic National Review online pundit Mark Steyn, who commented on the recent report from Iran in the Jerusalem Post: "Must be convenient to have a legal code that obliges all your pathologies."

That comment goes a long way in explaining why rabid rightwing, fundamentalist religious Republicans are writhing in the throes of fury and hatred, seemingly unable to establish the legislation that would enable them to carry out their gynophobic and xenophobic campaigns with impunity.

The Stoning of Soraya M.

There is a buzz happening around this movie. Part of it is the timing - it's an adaption of the eponymous book written by the Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam who was subjected to a fatwah declared by Khomeini's clerics.

The Stoning of Soraya M. is based on a true story; in fact, you may have read the bestselling book when it came out in 1994. Journalist Freidoune Sahebjam was traveling through Iran when he came upon the village where Soraya had lived and died. He learned about Soraya and her cruel fate from her aunt. Sahebjam’s book gave Soraya a voice from beyond the grave, making her a spokeswoman for all women who have suffered under radical Islam.

Soraya was 35 years old, a wife and mother of seven children, when her husband, Ghorban-Ali, decided to marry a 14-year-old girl. But it would cost him too much to support two families. ... Soraya’s only crime was being what was called “an inconvenient wife,” for standing in the way of her husband’s second marriage. For that crime, Ghorban-Ali determined, she had to die. He brought a false accusation of adultery, and with the support of their friends, neighbors, and family, Soraya was sentenced to death.

Soraya’s story shocked the world when it was published. At that time, little was known in the outside world about a system that said that an accused wife had to prove her innocence, but if a husband were accused, his wife had to prove his guilt. We must remember that these grave injustices, like what happened to Soraya, are still happening today.

The film was presented at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival: Director Cyrus Nowrasteh explained at TIFF that the act of stoning has created,

“Voiceless women, armed with only their innocence and dignity, are no match for the overwhelming primal forces that overrun their town."

The other reason for strong public interest in this film, other than heightened international awareness about Iran and current violent confrontations between religious authority and political forces, is the powerful critical and audience response that it has generated.

Saw this film recently at a special "pre-screening". The Stoning of Soraya M. is one of the few movies you will vividly remember to your dying day. It is almost unwatchable, yet you can't take your eyes off the screen. To think that women are still going through this today, creates a sense of obligation to see this movie. I can't stop thinking about all the women who encounter this type of injustice around the globe. Shohreh [Aghdashloo]'s performance is stunning and she surely deserves an Oscar nomination. She literally has pages of written text on her face, in one glance she communicates so much.

The above review from IMDb reflects the impact 'The Stoning of Soraya M.' has on many viewers. No indication yet on when it will be released on Canadian screens.

Will fundamentalist christian crusading zealots attempt to use this film as propaganda in their ongoing campaign to demonize muslims? Sadly, that would be a tactic typical of their odious hypocrisy and pro-lies spinning.

Iran: A Nation of Bloggers

I don't pretend to know much about what's going on in Iran but I'm finding it rivetting. Andrew Sullivan is doing a fabulous job of blogging on it.

I found this vid there.

IRAN: A Nation Of Bloggers from ayrakus on Vimeo.

Sullivan also reports that blogs and websites all over the world are going green in solidarity. Even the BBC.

I'm the resident TechnoDolt here and I believe the least technodoltish among us, deBeauxOs, is in a light-blogging phase. So while we are kind of green here at DJ! already, I'm not going to try to go greener in case I blow something up. dBO would not be amused.

ADDED: Pop over to Antonia's to see a mordant cartoon.

Rigged "election" in Iran cheated women.

That's the Christian Science Monitor's unflinching take on the recent electoral fraud.

Yes, that is the Christian Science Monitor, but it's not Blob Blogging Wingnut's type of Christian at all, along with all that rigour, factual, science-y information that SUZIE - aka fetus-fetishizing terrorism enabler - doesn't believe is worth disseminating.

For the first time in one of the Islamic Republic's controlled presidential campaigns, the women's movement was able to raise its demands clearly and independently – even though the unelected, 12-member, all-male Guardian Council did not allow any female candidates to run.

The movement's courage to confront the patriarchal theocracy (in which "morality police" still roam the streets looking for women with make-up) may have been a big reason why the regime rigged the vote count – and why supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was forced to make a show of ordering a probe of the fraud.

Iranian women do enjoy privileges that women in many Arab countries do not. But Iran's powerful clerics know that democracy's advance and the liberation of women go hand in hand. They've seen women recently elected in Kuwait and in Iraq's new democracy, while their proxy group in Lebanon, Hezbollah, lost an election. So they are trying to stop both the women's movement and open democracy in Iran in order to maintain their Shiite "revolution" and their own rule.

It will be interesting to observe how Harper's RepubliCons respond to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad election rigging, given all the sanctimonious bleating they've done with regards to women's rights in Afghanistan.