Democracy Needs YOU!

Watch this trailer (3 minutes of your life).





Voting rights are the essential fuel of democracy. If we can't trust that our electoral system is fair and properly overseen, we're screwed.

This is a non-partisan issue. And should concern everyone who gives a damn about the power of the people to scare this hell out of the elites.

Sensible people from across the political spectrum understand that bad laws and corrupted institutions can and will be exploited by ANY party.

The makers of this documentary have been busting their butts to get this done and distributed in time to inform Canadians what's at stake in the upcoming election.

Here's the blurb from the gofundme site.

Help us get this doc on the road before the election!

In a few weeks Canadians will head back to the polls without any clear assurance the last federal election delivered the results they voted for.

Documentary filmmaker Peter Smoczynski has just completed a 42 day road trip across Canada from Guelph to Whitehorse interviewing and filming recipients of the harassment, live and robo calls which took place in 234 out of 308 ridings in the 2011 federal election.

MPs, journalists, scholars, court challenge litigants, and experts on the Fair Elections Act, voter micro-targetting and professional voter suppression techniques imported from the U.S. also lend their voices and expertise to the film.

When the writ drops, Peter plans to have an abbreviated version of the full length film ready to tour across the country from church basements and libraries to movie houses.

This is where you come in.

The film is running on fumes here. 

We urgently need your help with post-production and editing expenses to get this doc out into the public eye before the upcoming election.

Please check back for details of our progress and information on future tour dates. 

Producer's overview of the film can be viewed here .

Thank you for your time.

PETER SMOCZYNSKI
The Script & Film Co.
Producer/Director/Writer
Documentary Filmmaker
Peter's profile.

People give dough to the damnedest things. But this project seems not to have the "right" kind of appeal.

Beats the shit out of me why not.

Please consider contributing. And/or pass the info around your networks.

Donate.

At the moment, $855 of the goal of $10,000 has been raised by 16 people in 15 hours.


UPDATE: Sunday, August 2, 8:30 a.m.: $1515 raised.

BAT signal ON!

“We can't stop here, this is bat country!” 

― Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"

Word is out that JJ may be (soonish, DJ! hopes) posting at her blog.  In anticipation of this, as well as the tentative arrival of springtime in Ontario  ―possibly in Manitoba and Yurp as well― this seemed relevant. 

In 1985, responding to an influx of mailers promoting insurance company interests in his district, Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) reportedly said, “A fellow from Texas can tell the difference between grassroots and AstroTurf.” He was referring to the difference between an actual, organic uprising among constituents and a manufactured movement often paid for by corporate or other interests to simulate the real thing. The name stuck, and since that time, the term “astroturf” has been used to describe these contrived public campaigns.

The Tea Party may be a movement that blossomed as a result of this kind of corporate astroturfing. A study by the National Cancer Institute found the tobacco industry paid millions to fund free-market oriented “grassroots” groups that were aligned with their interests against cigarette taxes, the Clinton health care plan and the EPA’s findings regarding the dangers of second-hand smoke. Many key players in the Tobacco-funded groups Citizens for a Sound Economy and FreedomWorks went on to play a major role in the formation of the contemporary Tea Party. Likewise, Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, and CSE are funded by the notorious billionaire Koch brothers, who have poured their wealth into causes such as abolishing social security, welfare and public schools.

Fortunately for astroturfers, costly forms of the practice, such as the building of physical crowds, are less necessary today now that so much of the public sphere has moved online. As a result, other forms of message control are blooming. Wikipedia is targeted by politicians, corporations and SEO advertisers desperate to improve their images on a neutral but participatory platform. The regularity of these editing campaigns can even be used to predict political appointments or running mates.

From here. Our emphasis.

It reminds us of the MASSIVE blogging fun we've shared, writing about the many failed efforts by the religious right-wing to appear significant to the majority of Canadians.

We're hoping for a scathing follow up to Marci McDonald's "The Armageddon Factor" or better still, an exposé by investigative journalists Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher on the complex range of CPC astroturf tactics, who directs them, how they're funded and if they're connected to Harper ReformaTories' electoral fraud and voter suppression strategy.


Grand merci to Námo Mandos whose hilarious post at the other place brought Gittlitz' piece to my attention.

Election Rigging for Dummies

Woo-hoo! Our bud Alison at Creekside just made this for DAMMIT JANET!

Aren't we lucky!

Self-Pitying Toews

What if Vic Toews threw himself a pity party and nobody came?

Oh. Wait.

While no laws were broken, the Conservatives want to learn if anyone else was involved and if Carroll is being used as a scapegoat to protect key staffers. [...]

Toews also wants the committee to look into Liberal MP Justin Trudeau's role in the affair. He was one of the first to retweet the volleys to his followers.

"It's very clear Justin Trudeau is in vikileaks30 up to his neck," said Toews.

Opposition MPs say the Conservatives are hammering the vikileaks issue to change the channel on allegations of election fraud.

Pretty loose and cheap talk for a serial adulterer and sexual predator. CONtempt of Parliament - it's how the CPC rolls. Attack others for actions that they're guilty of advocating and practicing.

I hope Trudeau sues Toews for slander and defamation.

The illustration was found here, also available in a larger format.

Bad times, good times.

As I wrote to a friend this morning:

"These times are tough indeed for CONs. Though a week late, I think the New Orleans jubilant exhortation for Mardi Gras is more than appropriate for democracy-lovin' folks who can't wait to see the back of those carpetbaggers: 'Laissez l'bon temps rouler!'

Ouais. Rouler all over them like a MASSIVE steam roller, though the CPC scam will leave a stain that'll never wash out. Good. Our history and collective memory need a reminder that democracy requires vigilant defenders."

On May 2nd pale at A Creative Revolution posted, with links to CBC news items, a report of the curious incidents of robocalls harassing and mis-directing non-reformaTory voters.

DAMMIT JANET! also raised the issue last May here, here and here.

Yesterday Dr Dawg noted the heavy silence of the Globbin'Fail with regard to the alleged CON robocalls. Sour grapes? Imagine being scooped by the NatPo!

The Toronto Star's Joanna Smith reminds the NDP sent a letter to Elections Canada in April.

The Montreal Gazette has the Liberals' response.

If the so-called 'mainstream media' overlords had allowed their journalists to be diligent and vigilant - as many of the bloggers are - this story would have emerged in May, before the odious, vote-suppressing, corrupt CONtempt Party started its wrecking ball on the Canada we love and cherish.

It appears even Radio-Canada is vulnerable to pressure from Stevie's Politburo. This week the director of news reporting, Alain Saulnier was fired. On his watch "Enquêtes" did ground-breaking investigative journalism that exposed the corrupt underpinning and religious zealotry of the CPC.

The best word on this vote suppression scam belongs to Stephen Lautens:

"It just goes to show that the only way a far right agenda can win in Canada is by cheating."

The last image: a smug, complacent PMSHithead at the Calgary Stampede.

The last words (from good cop John McClane): "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker."

USian-Style Dirty Tricks

My goodness. Actual indictments for voter suppression.

Two top aides to former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R) were indicted Friday for trying to suppress Democratic voter turnout by ordering misleading phone calls that discouraged voters from going to the polls. The Baltimore Sun reports that Paul Schurick, Ehrlich’s communications director, and Julius Henson, a longtime GOP operative, directed this deceptive robocall campaign targeting the state’s black voters during last year’s gubernatorial campaign.

(Erhlich lost anyway.)

Sound familiar?

Elections Canada investigates.

"Your concern about press reports of "robo-calls" providing false information regarding polling stations is of a different character. Your remarks will be considered in the context of an inquiry ongoing with regard to calls of this nature that have been reported to this office."

Well, if Merkin-style dirty-tricks are gonna come to Canada, let us hope for similar prosecutions here.

Yeah. Right.

Remind me, where are we with that In and Out Scandal?

Oh, yeah.

On February 24th, 2011, 4 senior Conservative Party members were charged in the In and Out Scandal under the Elections Canada Act with overspending over $1 million dollars in the 2006 election including allegations that Conservative election expense documents submitted to Elections Canada were "false or misleading" and attempted to fraudulently gain almost $1 million dollars in refunds from taxpayers. Senator Doug Finley, (the party's campaign director in 2006 and 2008, and the husband of Human Resources Development Minister Diane Finley), Senator Irving Gerstein, Michael Donison (former national party director) and Susan Kehoe (who has served as an interim party executive director) all face 3 months in jail, $1000 in fines or both.