Fern Hill Endorses Olivia Chow (WWWKD?)

So. It's official and launched this morning. Olivia Chow, my former city councillor and just-resigned MP, is running for mayor of Toronto.

Good.

I am not a partisan any more, but I did join the NDP years ago, principally to work to get Chow elected as MP over useless Liberal douchebag Tony "Trust Fund" Ianno*, which I did.

Before that I was an activist and as such consulted with her and her city councillor's office several times on behalf of my little gang and we always got a warm reception and helpful advice.

I like her and admire her. I think she'll be good for the city. And I will do my part as a wee blogger and tweeter to help get her elected.

But there's another fun angle.

From the link above:

Chow's campaign will be headed by veteran Conservative strategist John Laschinger, while her war room will be run by Warren Kinsella, a well-known Liberal.

Regular, long-term readers of DJ! may remember -- and others bored to tears by -- the history between Kinsella and me.

In the 2011 Ontario election, I came up with the tidbit that CONservative leader, Tim Hudak, had vowed to fetus fetishists that he would defund abortion.

Kinsella happily snaffled that meme, eventually crediting me with the discovery, and we worked a pretty good tag-team on the hapless Hudork on the topic over the election.

But then, something bizarre happened.

Kinsella had deemed me an idiot. Three times.

OK, then.

At first, I was confused that a wee blogger like me would attract such wrath. But soon I was mostly amused, especially when the kerfuffle occasioned absolutely magnificent blogging from Dred Tory, Dr. Dawg, and DJ's own Námo Mandos.

In ensuing Twitter exchanges, WK blocked me. (He is apparently quite quick to do so, something of a handicap, one would think, in trying to run a "war room" intended to attract perhaps obstreperous progressives.)

Over the upcoming loooooong mayoral campaign, which I plan to cover in my half-assed way, I expect that I will offer both kudos and razzberries to Ms Chow and her campaign.

I wonder how each will go over with the Lib-turned-municipal-nonpartisan attack dog.

I wonder if I'm still on his radar.

I guess we'll find out.

Stay tuned.

*In more recent news today, it seems that Christine Innes, wife of Tony Trust Fund, wants to run again in the Trinity-Spadina by-election caused by Chow's resignation. Chow beat her twice, but hey, these Liberals are pretty bouncy.

Well, bouncy until the bullying tactics of their classless husbands get their candidacies blocked by head office.

Fun times ahead!

Another Secret CON Fetus Fetishist

From Lisa Kirbie, Warren Kinsella's gf, we learn that abortion has become an issue in at least one of the upcoming Ontario by-elections.

Ali Chahbar, running for the Ontario PCs in London West, has garnered Campaign Life's highest rating.

Rating: Pro-life, pro-family
In a July 16th telco with a pro-life leader, Chahbar indicated that he is strongly pro-life and was raised with the value that human life is sacred.

Otherwise pickings are slim for fetus fetishists in the five elections: only three candidates (Chahbar and two representing the Family Coalition Party, aka Christian Taliban Party) rate the 'pro-life, pro-family' tag. The rest are 'pro-abortion' or unknown, with two amusing exceptions. Two, both Conservatives, are deemed 'educable'.

Here's the questionnaire (pdf) candidates are asked to complete though several did not.

Again, the zygote zealots are privy to information regular voters are denied. On Chahbar's website, there is zip zero nada about his anti-choice views. Ditto in the scant media coverage I found.

Well, I guess Chahbar is just following his leader. Remember when DJ! broke the story of Tim Hudak's support for defunding abortion? That information also came from a Christian Taliban source, in that case the Dominionist Association for Reformed Political Action, who then whined about the sudden interest in their machinations.

The information was news to the voters of Ontario and the story gained legs, as they say, when Liberal strategist and blogger Warren Kinsella picked it up and then the mainstream media took up the quest to get it confirmed or denied.

(Lisa Kirbie provides a handy Tim Hudak abortion refresher, with links to MSM stories at the time.)

Hudak weaselled and squirmed for days, eventually producing a tight-lipped Harper-esque pledge to 'not reopen the abortion debate'.

Are you a voter in London West? Do you know people in the riding? They might be interested to know this tidbit about Chahbar.

And about the continuing, um, unforthcomingness of Ontario Conservatives.

BTW, Kinsella has not mentioned Chahbar at his blog.

Dred Tory: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's Warren Kinsella*

Dred Tory: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's Warren Kinsella*

This is the most recent smackdown of a certain junkyard dog, whose most annoying yapping had previously been addressed here, in the manner one tweet described as being "the Beethoven's 9th of fisking".

And do check out this earlier post which may require that you settle down with your favourite potable to fully savour its amusing and scathing points.

No, he's not actually irony-impaired

A very strange third attack on our very own Fern Hill has emanated from the keyboard of one Warren Kinsella. Suffice it to say that we all know that his irony-impaired act is totally disingenuous, and this is hardly the first time he's used this sort of tactic. You can rest assured that he knows that "good friend" is uttered in irony, and that he's playing some sort of game.

My theory is that he thinks that he's responsible for giving Fern some credibility from the whole Hudak business, and that he thinks that Fern is somehow basking in pleasure from his attention, and now that DJ has not proven a reliable ally to a Liberal buddy, he feels obliged to take away what he hilariously thinks he's given. And, likewise obligingly, the tedious Liberal authoritarian followers unsurprisingly follow suit. Couple that with Dawg's awesome act of totally sucking the wind out of WK's sails, and now it's personal, about his ego.

These sorts of tactics might work with buffoons who care and who live and die by what other people think of them, like Stockwell Day (nice takedown, guy), but for us at DJ, this is mainly rubberneckishly instructive, though admittedly less so than the actual megafail trainwreck that was the ProgBlog response to M312. Warren is a bright and very successful guy, but ultimately he too is limited by the things that brought him success, of which he is a clear product.

But DJ comes from another place and has another end. I have been a part of the Canadian political internet since the time when babble, the grandmother of the Canadian progressive internet, was itself young, and, in fact, quite a bit before that. This was also before FD, a site of whose "qualities" and "character" I am intimately familiar. I know very well what sort of loathesome little toads inhabit it, that disingenuous enabler git Connie Fournier included, I know that they mean people like me no good, and worse than no good.

Our Fern comes from the selfsame political culture that existed before Warren was ever any kind of player on the Canadian political internet and will probably exist after he retires from it. She too is well aware of what is at stake, is not a child on the interwebs, and can handle herself thankyouverymuch.

But, as I said, we should all take this as an instructive moment when the political culture of the traditional media and Parliament Hill meet the culture of internet debate and are shocked to discover that it is full of ordinary people with ordinary human relations. Thank you, Warren, for obligingly providing us this little reminder. Have fun with your quixotic little campaign. All of us, Fern included, will sit back and enjoy our popcorn.

Sadly, not so much of a WTF moment

Apparently, I am still an idiot.

Riotously, though, look where he's screeching from now.

Yes, indeedy, from the very blog aggregator that booted DJ! a mere 5-6 days ago. I wonder when he applied because I've heard it can take a while to get modly approval. Maybe his smearing me is enough to prove his bona fides.

Meanwhile, my friend Connie (ever heard of Facebook, WK?) has come out to her flock with 'Progressive blogger "punished" by Kinsella for talking to me!'

Well, no, Connie that's not all I'm being punished for, but her account -- with, natch, different emphases -- is about right. (Do go read some of the flock's, er, odd reactions.)

In a related meanwhile, Orwell's Bastard is keeping a tally of the Progressive Blogger Exodus.

And an in-case-you-missed-it. Dr Dawg's masterful takedown of the original WK smear.

And because it is such a keepsake, WK's response.

You're a great writer, old chum.  But you've way over-analyzed this thing (which may explain why I started skimming it halfway through).

I just think she's (she could be a he, by the way, as I assume "Fern Hill" isn't his/her real name) an idiot, is all.  When he/she got chummy with the scumbags at Free Dominion, she proved it to the world.

Anyway, his/her 15 minutes are up.  Talk soon.

To which DJ!'s Niles replied:

ooh. snap. WK pulls a tl;dr while trying to show how 'white man's burden' clubby he is with the 'man' of the house.  he needs a passive/aggressive award.

There, I think you're caught up now.

Wait. One more thing. This is what it is really about: Woodworth's Wank, aka M312.

ADDED: Been thinking. Read his latest again. 'Time for Fern to learn a lesson, I'd say.' Is he threatening me? I'm beginning to feel very weird about this.

Today's WTF Moment

Linking without comment: Fern Hill, Idiot by Warren Kinsella.

MASSIVE BONUS: Go read Dr Dawg.

MASSIVER: Dred Tory's excoriation.