Category: Uncategorized

To leak, or not to leak

I’ve lived long enough to understand that most things in life are black and white.  There is a good; there is an evil.  There is justice; there’s injustice.  There’s pregnant and there’s not.  There’s almost never an “almost” anything.  There are people who do deal in endless shades of grey and so be it.  I find these people are mostly lazy, sometimes stupid and — far too often — both — a deadly combination.  However, every once in a while, a situation will hove up on the horizon that has enough nuances in it to make me stop and consider.  WikiLeaks is that kind of a two-handed problem.  On the one hand, it could be a good thing; on the other, it might prove to be bad.  But, in the end it has to be something because it can’t be both.

The good side of WikiLeaks is pretty obvious.  First of all, it’s nice to have somebody out there watching the workings of government – any government.  We need independent structures and institutions that keep a wary eye on the people who wield enormous power.  When this task falls into the lap of ordinary people, I’m always glad when they step forward, place the whistle to their lips, and blow, long and hard.  Secondly, I’m glad that the Internet is still the big dog on the planet.  Its democracy is going to save us — believe me.  It’s good to see that — despite every attempt to chain it up — the Internet’s numerical superiority seems to be able to carry the day – so far, anyway.  Finally, and way more important than everything else, I’m so relieved to know that the world’s diplomats are not as stupid as they always appear to be.   In one cyber-flash, the folks who are running the world went from bumbling dolts with PhDs in naive to hard-working men and women with a fairly astute grasp of the international situation.  I don’t know about you, but I’m as happy as a puppy with a tail, to find out that the powers that be are as worried about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons as I am.  It’s totally reassuring to me to know that everybody thinks Karzai is a crook.  And as scary as the situation in Iran is, I’m ecstatic that a whole pile of people realize just how godawful scary the situation in Iran is.  It’s great to have a no-holds-barred assessment; a genuine look at the world — unfiltered by Anderson Cooper or anybody else who has better hair than Barbie.  I didn’t know the real story before, but I’m glad I do now.  If nothing else, I sleep better.

 Of course, the first question is do we need to know this stuff?  The answer is no.  In the great scheme of things, regardless of how much superdemocracy we think we need, there is no reason for ordinary people to know any of this.  In a more civilized time, governments carried on their discourse behind closed doors.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  Looking over a mechanic’s shoulder while he fixes your car doesn’t do anybody any good.  Besides, one of the major problems of our democracy is that it’s currently getting micromanaged by lobbyists, activists and special interest groups.  The WikiLeaks are just going to add fuel to their power-grabbing fire.

The next question is why publish this stuff in the first place?  Some are favourably comparing WikiLeaks to the Pentagon Papers.   This is apples and oranges with a banana thrown into the mix.  Folks, the world has changed exponentially since the Sacred 60s.  The Pentagon Papers were an attempt to thwart the US government, who were actively lying to the American people.  The WikiLeaks are exposing nothing more than day-to-day exchanges between government employees.  No, I don’t want my government to lie to me, and if they do, I want to know about it, but in actual fact, I don’t care if they lie to folks like Karzai and Ahmadinejad – or Hilary, Bill and Chelsea, either.  Nor do I have a burning need to know about it.  In the real world, international diplomacy is a serious business, and everybody should know the rules.  There are no rules.  Get used to it.

Finally, does publishing this stuff do any good?  No.  In fact, it does a lot of harm.  Suddenly, private assessment and analysis is available to anybody with a mouse and a modem.  Even Hannah Montana knows that there are certain things the whole world doesn’t need to know.  She also understands that being brutally honest — even selectively — can jeopardize your whole way of life.  It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that when you do this on a global scale, you’re just asking for trouble.  I don’t want the people I’ve hired to keep my world running smoothly looking over their shoulders and mincing their words.  My personal thought is that Julian Assange is like that smarmy kid in high school who always acted like a jerk, for no reason, just because he could.

So, on balance, WikiLeaks is not that hard a problem.  On the scale of good and evil or right and wrong, it’s wrong – full stop.  Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m going to quit reading them.

Worst-Kept Secret

Regardless of your political affiliation, one thing Canadians do is honour the men and women who serve this country.  That’s why it’s so shocking to see one of our most public of public servants getting kicked around like a deflated football.  I’m talking about Michael Ignatieff.  In the three federal by-elections this week, the Liberal Party managed to pull one victory out of thin air.  Somehow, that wasn’t good enough for the Whack-a-Mike crowd.  For the last couple of days, they’ve been raggin’ on the guy something fierce.  Frankly, since Mike’s come back to Canada, he has taken more flak than a Lancaster bomber over Germany in 1944.  So hey, lighten up.  He’s just doing his job.

Let me set the record straight.  Number one, Ignatieff is smart; he wakes up in the morning smarter than most of us are going to be all day.  Number two, he’s got the second most useless job on the planet*.  And number three, because he’s so smart he knows all about #2.  But does he flinch?  Does he waiver?  Does he tell everybody to go to hell and then head back to Harvard?  No, he does his job for his country — without complaint and with little reward (except for that huge pension.)  I ask the question: how would you like to spend your most productive intellectual years serving as a place holder for Justin Trudeau?  See?  It’s not so easy to criticize Mikey now, is it?

I’m going to tell you a story, and make no mistake: this is pure fiction.  Mike’s sitting around Cambridge, Mass. being smart one day in 2004, when he gets a conference call from The Boys in the Backroom of the Liberal Party of Canada.  Things have not been going well.  They give him the scenario ‘cause he really hasn’t been keeping track.  Chretien has screwed things up so badly even Mother Teresa can’t fix it.  Furthermore, he only printable name people are calling his replacement, Paul Martin, is “Mr. Dithers.” In the last federal election, even “the right wing has a secret agenda” ploy didn’t work.  So, now, Stephen Hitler Harper and his knuckle-dragging Conservatives are clawing at the gates of power.  The Natural Governing Party of Canada is in peril.

“Mike, your country needs you.”

Ignatieff didn’t hesitate.  “Boys, I’ve got some smart things to do this afternoon, but after that I’m your man.”

Mike packed his bags and his books and came back to Canada.  End of story.

The cunning plan was Ignatieff would take over the Liberal Party and barricade it tight in the big cities.  He’d stash the Heir somewhere in Quebec, as a Padawan Learner to seek the ways of the liberal elite.  He’d wait until the Conservatives had worn themselves out or torn themselves up over stupid stuff like abortion and gay marriage.  Then, in the next election, he’d chase them out of Ontario, win a majority, form a government and make Justin Trudeau Minister of Don’t Touch Anything.  Eventually, he’d step down, pass the majority government safely on to Trudeau and go back to Harvard, happy in the knowledge that history remembers ex-prime ministers more than college professors.

Unfortunately, Bob Rae and Stephane Dion didn’t read the e-mail.  They thought the whole thing was real, and if Buggering Things Up were an Olympic event, those two would be on the podium.  Within two years, the plan’s in the toilet, Harper’s had time to show Canada he’s not a wingnut, and the Liberal Party looks like an episode from Family Guy.  At this point, Mike could say, “I’m outta here!” but he doesn’t.  He takes over the party, as planned, cleans up the mess as best he can and embarks on a journey of abuse that would have made Job himself slap somebody.

Here’s the deal: unless you flunked Poli. Sci. in high school, you know damn well Michael Ignatieff is never going to be Prime Minister now.  The game has changed, and that’s not his job anymore.  His mission is to lose a couple of elections so Justin has time to tone down the arrogance, win friends and influence people.   Do you think Michael doesn’t know that?  He probably wrote the textbook.  He understands that he’s just keeping the chair warm.  It irks him, but he does it.  The Liberals can’t just leave the seat empty.  Somebody’s got to be there, if, for no other reason than Harper might suddenly flip out and decide to attack Denmark or something.

So why is everybody jumping all over the guy?  Every time he opens his mouth, somebody, somewhere, has got something to say about it – from both sides of the floor.  Look! Michael Ignatieff is performing a valuable service to Canada just by being there, so leave the guy alone and let him do his job.

*FYI – Joe Biden’s got the most useless job in the world.

Sarah Palin vs Kim Jong-il

Sarah Palin is so furious with the North Koreans right now, she can’t think straight, and if she ever does get to be president, Kim Jong-il better find himself a rock to crawl under.  Our girl holds a grudge, and Kimmy is going to be Numero Uno on her whip-ass list.  You betcha!  So what did Kim do that was so terrible, aside from that whole nuclear weapons thing?  He stole Sarah’s headlines.   On Tuesday, Sarah Palin was all set up to launch her book, America by Heart, and her 2012 presidential campaign when along came Kim and started pumping artillery shells into South Korea.  Suddenly, the cameras were pointed east and Sarah was drinking tea by herself.  It was all a bunch of Jong-il bluster and “You’re not the boss of me” bull, but the damage was done and Palin is pissed – and so are a lot of other people.  This is the crux of what Sarah Palin is all about.  She represents a whole pile of angry people who are looking for answers – when nobody is listening to their questions.

In 2008, Barack Obama promised Hope and Change to just about every mammal on this planet (I’m sure some dolphins voted for the guy) and he hasn’t delivered.  History is going to write volumes on the wherefore and the why of that, but unless you’re keeping score, it was a pretty tall order in the first place.  Honestly, anybody without a halo was going to fall short on that one.  Two years later, voters from Codstomper, Maine to Extraflaky, California told him — point blank — “Shape up!” but so far it doesn’t look like he’s listening.  The Obama message is still the same with a “but” added as an explanation and a “you don’t understand” thrown in as an excuse.  Meanwhile, the Republican alternatives are so low profile you’d think they’d all just made the rude noise in the elevator.  Ordinary Americans, who’ve been taking a knee to the groin for a while now, are desperate to find a flicker at the end of the tunnel.  Enter Sarah Palin.

Like her or not, Palin is just saying the same thing a lot of people have been thinking for a long time (long before Obama, actually.)  “Hold it!  There’s something wrong here.”  The American middle class is just about fed up with getting kicked around.  They’re sick of being called names and told they don’t know what they’re doing.  They’re tired of working their asses off and then getting handed the bill.  They see themselves as used and abused and at the mercy of every wild-eyed committee with a cause and an outstretched palm.  They think special interest groups have kidnapped their government, and they’re the ones who have to pay the ransom.  They see their accumulated wealth being turned into diminishing returns, and they no longer see their tax dollars as a good investment.  (Does any of this sound familiar, by the way?)  The other thing that Palin is saying that a lot of people, including myself, agree with, is — “Hey!  How hard can this be?” Palin might not be the sharpest pencil in the box, but she’s captured the mood of the mob insofar as they speak with one voice.

Which brings us around to the essential question: how big is that voice, and can it turn 2012 into a circus?  Maybe.  America by Heart is Palin’s political manifesto.  In it she takes some healthy swings at Obama and the Democrats, but she also lays some right jabs into the Republicans, as well.  This isn’t just Tea Party propaganda.  She’s trying to reshape the political landscape.  You heard it here first.  The Republican Party can do a lot of things between now and the 2012 primaries — including finding a candidate who isn’t camera shy — but the one thing they’d better not do is ignore Sarah Palin.  She’s served notice that there’s a new kid on the block who’s not going to play by the rules.   Up to this point, she hasn’t had to because, for the last two plus years, she’s worked really really hard at doing absolutely everything wrong, but still nobody gets more media time than Sarah Palin.  Just think about it — it took a belligerent act of aggression by a maverick nuclear power to knock her out off the front page.  And speaking of Kim Jong-il, quite a few people around the world wouldn’t mind seeing Palin, or somebody like her, go Maggie Thatcher on his ass and beat the crap out of that little punk.