Desperate?

Who would coordinate a campaign of lies and disinformation aimed at implicating rank-and-file NDP members? Don't know what I'm talking about check this out.

Could it be the same Basi-linked boys of the Marissen team that Tieleman recently reported were core to the Dion campaign?

Or could it be the dirty Conservatives who proudly gloated about their convention shenanigans. Don't they know they are running a government now? I mean what kind of a government manipulates the press like this.

So, who is responsible for the recent fake anti-Jack news releases? It's certainly not the membership.

Elizabeth May and Helena Guergis: Social Conservatives' Women of 2006

Elizabeth May does not like abortion. I don't think that anyone really likes abortion but her comments on the subject, though they mostly seem somewhat harmless at first glance because of the skill that she employs in skirting around her actual viewpoint, are not helpful. The fact that she is the leader of the seemingly progressive Green Party, and she had the backing of prominent feminists, makes her a really effective ally for the hordes of pro-lifers that are constantly trying to re-open the debate on abortion. At a time when battles won long ago by women have to be re-fought, Elizabeth May has just added another one to the pile. It is not bad enough that we have to explain to the country again why we need the women's centres that Gordon Campbell and other regressive Premiers shut down, or the funding for the Status of Women that Bev Oda and Canada's New Government axed. No. We should be fighting for a woman's right to choose all over again as well.

Judy Rebick articulates the terrible disservice that May has done to the women's movement better than I possibly could in her letter to Elizabeth May posted on Rabble.

More evidence of the regression in terms of women in politics lately are the recent comments on a CPAC panel from Tory MP Helena Guergis. I cannot remember exactly what she said but it sounded a lot like the same old argument that you hear from women of privilege about how women need to earn their way into positions of power and that we don't need to help them within the party structures. Oh, thank you for your insight Ms. Guergis, of course we don't need to be proactive in improving women's participation in politics. Why would anybody think that? The leaders of all of the major federal political parties are white males and the only female leader leads a deservedly marginal party and speaks out against abortion. Women have never been more influential.

What time period have we been catapulted back to? The woman who defended Peter MacKay when he called Belinda a dog in the House is the Government's best choice for a panel on Women in Politics and the only female leader of a federal political party says things like "I don't believe in a woman's frivolous right to choose." That is scary. I mean actually scary. Not like Stephen Harper's Hidden Agenda circa 2004-05 scary. I am talking George W. Bush wins again in 2004 scary.

Hate to say I told you so...

So Northern BC Dipper posted an apology for his anti-Brad Lavigne rant. But not before this terrible article was published on Macleans. Let this be a lesson to all New Democrats that think that the blogosphere is a good place to put down senior party officials. There are consequences to your actions.

I only wish that I had posted this blog sooner so that a different viewpoint could have been included in the article.

The Brad Lavigne blog controversy

Another reason that I started a blog was because I was disturbed by the senseless bashing of NDP federal caucus Communications Director Brad Lavigne on NDP blogs. I commented on a few blogs, most notably on Northern BC Dipper, but I thought that having my own blog would help balance out future controversies where bloggers feel it prudent to rag on party staffers without any consideration of potential negative impacts their public scrutiny may have on the NDP.

I am not bashing Northern BC Dipper, we share a great province and an even greater provincial youth wing, but I do not agree with the way that Lavigne has been attacked. If party members do not agree with the strategy employed by caucus staff there are structures in place to criticize them. There are processes that one can go through that do not include publicly airing our dirty laundry.

Kudos to Devin Johnston for a more balanced look at the situation and for coming up with a pretty decent web strategy.

Ok. I am biting the bullet

So I have complained to my NDP friends many times, typically under the influence of alcoholic substances, about how there are not enough New Democrats with blogs. Instead of being one of those people who complains without doing anything about it, here it is. I am officially an NDP blogger now. Just great. Who needs to graduate from university? Not me apparently.

I am not sure if I will keep the name. The word 'chick' is typically demeaning towards women and 'dipper' is supposed to be the derogatory name for New Democrats. Its funny how New Democrats get a slur for a nickname while Liberals and Conservatives get to be Grits and Tories. Well for now, I am claiming both 'dipper' and 'chick' in hopes of taking some of the power away from these slurs.

So here goes the beginning of another excuse for procrastination. I feel like a martyr.