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#EthicalOilBullshit, the Sierra Club, and demonization: Where we juxtapose, once again | #astroturf #tarsands

Wow. Just … wow. I’ve seen talking dolls with those pull-strings on their backs respond more creatively than this. Where did she get the idea that evading a straightforward question and repeating talking points over and over again was the same thing as debating?

I never thought I’d see anyone make Ezra look good. Why hasn’t Sun Noise hired her yet?

Secondly:

… Klare provides a context for Oliver Oil’s comments about environmentalists and other “radicals.” If he and his cohort lump those opposed to domestic fossil fuel development in the same boat as an Iran threatening close access to the Persian Gulf, then we have a bit of a problem. Oliver’s rhetoric looks like a trial balloon for some interesting shifts in Conservative rhetoric. As I told a friend a while ago that they’d ring the Tar Sands in tanks and wire, forcibly relocate communities, rather than kerb development. A government quite happy to let the police lock up a thousand people on a secret law, no time for democracy, a serious martial fetish, and a fanatical allegiance to a petrol economy could be a serious threat to a lot of Canadians if it starts painting them with certain brushes.

Source here.

And finally:

A couple of wry observations from George Monbiot and Naomi Klein.

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Chris Hedges schools Kevin O’Leary | #uspoli #OccupyWallStreet

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Big h/t to Jymn and Dr. Dawg.

Chris Hedges, who’s been cited here before, calls out Kevin O’Leary for his snide condescension, name-calling and browbeating, all the while recasting the whole notion of conservatism versus radicalism in the context of discussing the Occupy Wall Street action currently taking place in New York. Several important points about what Hedges characterizes as the criminal nature of the parasitic banking class, and how it contrasts with traditional views of capitalism and productivity. Right toward the end, Hedges turns the traditional corporate-media analysis on its head by making a trenchant observation about who the conservatives are and who the revolutionaries are.

As Jymn points out, anyone who still thinks of the CBC as a left-wing propaganda outlet ought to see this. O’Leary does his best to channel the likes of Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity, complete with the insults, interruptions, sneering and red herrings, and Hedges pins the Fox comparison squarely on his forehead.

If we’re interested in preserving the quality of public discourse, if we value respect and civility, we could start by taking away Kevin O’Leary’s publicly funded soapbox.

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