Dude: Where's Punditman's Country?

punditman says...
Antiwar.com's Jason Ditz yesterday said it "ought to be shocking to Canadians" that their government issued a "collective yawn" regarding the Omar Khadr confession, and that "some reports had Khadr pleading guilty in the hopes of being returned to Canada instead of spending the rest of his life in military prisons." He thinks that this government "would generally act as an advocate for its citizens when they get detained by a foreign power..."

Ditz, a well-meaning American, is perhaps a tad naive when it comes to assessing the mindset of the Harper government, or perhaps, the country in general right now. Punditman suspects, unfortunately, that the Harperites are not alone in their yawns. The problem goes beyond the Omar Kadre case. It is cultural and crosses party lines.

In fact, there is a rather disturbing trend when it comes to the erosion of human rights in Canada in general. It has been happening for years but culminated in the appalling abuse of power and anti-democratic measures imposed by the Ontario Liberal government and the police and security forces hired during the G-20 last June. This spawned the travesty of justice that is the Alex Hundert case, and the ludicrous case of "Officer Bubbles" trying to sue people on Youtube for expressing their opinions about him being...well...a jackass!




That's an opinion by the way. Does punditman now get sued as well? How have we allowed this alarming erosion of our rights to happen?

Punditman is afraid the answer may be that many Canadians are actually cheering this anti -civil liberties trend that appears to be infecting the populace like a nasty viral infection. That's what a permanent War on of Terror does. First it turns citizens into cowards; then it sickens the body politic itself. Are basic human rights and free speech that fragile? Dude, where's punditman's country?

As Unlawful Arrests Continue, St. Paul Feels Like a City Under Siege for Some Residents

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted September 3, 2008.

"It's like we don't have rights. Like we don't even live here."

Sitting outside the Black Dog cafe in lower St. Paul late Tuesday morning, a lanky kid in dreadlocks and a black Bob Marley T-shirt stopped, asked me for a light, and sat down next to me. It was drizzly and gray, and eerily quiet. The night before, nearly 300 people had been arrested by Minnesota police in a sweeping display of brute force. Among them were journalist Amy Goodman and two Democracy Now! producers, both of whom were physically assaulted. With helicopters overheard and the National Guard out, it felt like a city under siege.

I asked the guy if he lived in St. Paul. "Yeah." It turned out he lives next door, in the building where I've been staying, an artist's co-op on Broadway Street. I was about to ask him what he thought about the scene here when he sort of laughed and said, "Yeah, you know -- I was just arrested."

Read on...

Peacenik likes the spirit of Punditman's previous post with the Rage Against the Machine video. Nice to see someone cares as the assault on civil liberties, freedom of the press, and the right to protest, continues unabated. Watch the video and read this story. Restoring the right of assembly and protest should be the first priority of an Obama administration, but unfortunately Peacenik hasn't heard much from the politicians on this. Peacenik thinks they like their "free speech zones".