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	<title>Politics, Re-Spun</title>
	<link>http://politicsrespun.org</link>
	<description>De-Spinning the Political and Re-Spinning it for Social, Economic and Political Justice Because Journalistic Objectivity is a Myth</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:16:36 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Harper, Toyota Show How the Public Is Eager to Be Appeased</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Harper prorogues parliament, drops in the polls, then cancels House breaks, and rebounds. Toyota recalls a quarter million cars in Canada, apologizes and spins around the clock, then has a massive rebound in sales.
The public is apparently very eager for excuses to forgive corporations and conservative governments. Does this eagerness extend to groups not so [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/03/harper-toyota-show-how-the-public-is-eager-to-be-appeased/</link>
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		<title>Politics, Re-Spun on Coop Radio, 3.1.10: an Olympics Hangover Analysis with Budget Previews</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Imtiaz Popat on &#8220;The Rational&#8221; and I, along with former Green Party Vancouver Parks Commissioner Roslyn Cassells talk about the Olympics, democracy, protest, animal welfare, and a provincial and federal budget coming up this week.
The audio is weak in places, but the discussion is strong!
The video podcast of the conversation lives at Vista Video.
You can [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/03/politics-re-spun-on-coop-radio-3-1-10-an-olympics-hangover-analysis-with-budget-previews/</link>
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		<title>Unlike Premiers, Drunk Drivers Might Not Be Able to Enter Canada</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In doing some research into the emerging Olympic hangover, I found this piece about tourism in Vancouver. A good warning was about tourists with criminal records not necessarily being able to enter the country.
If that only applied to BC premiers, Gordon Campbell would have been stuck in Hawaii for the last 7 years and 7 [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/02/unlike-premiers-drunk-drivers-might-not-be-able-to-enter-canada/</link>
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		<title>CBC Treats VANOC Like a Crazy Drunk with a Gun</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Regardless of whether CBC should have put its logo on something that also had the Canadian flag, VANOC  pulled out its big Tonya Harding stick and hit the CBC on the kneecap because people were taking the flags into the brand-sterile Olympic venues.
&#8220;But we know that VANOC is very vigilant about anything related to the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/02/cbc-treats-vanoc-like-a-crazy-drunk-with-a-gun/</link>
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		<title>The HST Is Actually a Tax Cut?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[What do neoliberals like to do? Sell everything owned by the public. Reduce government operations through privatization. Defund the government so it can&#8217;t do much anymore. Marketize all things that rest within the realm of community.
So when we heard of the hideous, regressive HST coming to BC, people flipped out because it punishes the poor [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/02/the-hst-is-actually-a-tax-cut/</link>
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		<title>Healthcare Before Olympics: Michael Moore-Style</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We&#8217;re days away from the end of the $8 billion obscene Olympic party. Last year, BC&#8217;s health authorities were defunded by $360 million. Cut, cut, cut.
Soon the 16-day bash will be over, the guests will leave and we&#8217;ll return the empties. Then we&#8217;ll walk around the house and tally up the damage. Holes kicked in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/02/healthcare-before-olympics-michael-moore-style/</link>
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		<title>Danny Williams, Class War, and the Illusion of Choice</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I was going to write something about the Newfoundland and Labrador premier skipping to Florida for minor heart surgery. He said, &#8220;This is my heart, it&#8217;s my health, it&#8217;s my choice.&#8221;
I was going to write about how obvious the two-tier [class war] society is emerging in Canada.
I was going to write about how the private [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/02/danny-williams-class-war-and-the-illusion-of-choice/</link>
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		<title>National Housing Strategy Rally in Vancouver: Bill C-304</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Halfway through the Olympics on Saturday, February 20, hundreds gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery to call for a national housing strategy. NDP MP Libby Davies&#8217; private members bill C-304 lives on despite Stephen Harper&#8217;s cynical proroguement of parliament. Despite killing all his own pending legislation, the prime minister can&#8217;t kill private members bills by [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/02/national-housing-strategy-rally-in-vancouver-bill-c-304/</link>
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		<title>The Canadian Olympic Mentality: There is an I in Team</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Canada is turning into a place I don&#8217;t recognize.
The men&#8217;s hockey team just played a lame 1st period against the Americans. We&#8217;re losing 2-1 so far. Passing seems to no longer be a Canadian virtue. Players carry the puck past the blue line then try to score themselves. Where is the team mentality? Where did [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/02/the-canadian-olympic-mentality-there-is-an-i-in-team/</link>
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		<title>Understanding Violent Olympic Protests</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Friday&#8217;s anti-Olympics rally and march was a virtually fully peaceful event with some clear, powerful and coherent messages inserted into the global communication stream.
But then Saturday turned violent. But it is really not that simple.
Friday was the Olympics 2010 Welcoming Committee. Saturday was the 2010 Heart Attack, designed to stab the core of global corporate [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/02/understanding-violent-olympic-protests/</link>
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		<title>Protesting the Corporate-Debauched Olympics</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve spent the weekend reflecting on the success of various confrontations to the Olympic brand and the emerging global corporate feudalism.
I&#8217;ll start off with a recognition that I&#8217;m sitting here in my &#8220;I am a free speech zone&#8221; t-shirt, having celebrated Valentine&#8217;s Day and Chinese New Year and observed Vancouver&#8217;s Missing Women Memorial March, which [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/02/protesting-the-corporate-debauched-olympics/</link>
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		<title>VANOC, the Party-Poopers</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Once upon a time, VANOC&#8217;s idiocy was relatively new to us. Five years ago, they tried to prevent others from using the number 2010. You can read about its brush with the law here. 
VANOC is like the host of a party that you never meet. You have no say in how they plan the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/02/vanoc-once-tried-to-trademark-the-number-2010-remember-that/</link>
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		<title>CBC&#8217;s Annoying Olympics Boosterism</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday, the CBC&#8217;s annoying Olympics boosterism was complemented with weak reporting on agents provocateurs and missing an opportunity to nail the IOC on rule of law hypocrisy.
I have only slightly more ability to tolerate the CBC over corporate media when it comes to promoting the Afghan occupation and how amazingly, incredibly awesome the Olympics are.
But [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/02/cbcs-annoying-olympics-boosterism/</link>
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		<title>The Olympics: A Failure of Legitimacy</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There are many levels of debate about the value of Olympics: social, economic, cultural, political, etc. But one level seems to undergird them all: moral legitimacy, in which the Olympics is bankrupt.
For me it began crystallizing in late September, 1988. Ben Johnson won Olympic gold in the 100m, then lost it just days later because [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/02/the-olympics-a-failure-of-legitimacy/</link>
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		<title>Olympic Threat Mathematics</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Almost a year ago I wrote about how VANOC was exploring risks to Olympic corporate sponsors. People don&#8217;t like them because they have co-opted the Olympics and are pimping the athletes and glee-seekers for their own exposure, which is now most evident in Olympic logos all over the TV, skyscraper advertising condoms downtown and inane [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/02/olympic-threat-mathematics/</link>
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		<title>One Snapshot of #iPad Trending in Twitter</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Catch the global groove:

People who read this page, also read:Media Release: Stephen Elliott-Buckley Runs for BC NDP Vice-President to Lead Party Renewal]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/01/one-snapshot-of-ipad-trending-in-twitter/</link>
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		<title>PM Harper Understands &#8216;V For Vendetta&#8217;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It is quite clear that Stephen Harper clearly understands a movie like V For Vendetta. It&#8217;s not his arrogance that led him to prorogue parliament again by literally phoning it in to the governor-general. It&#8217;s his understanding of our collective apathy about democracy.

OK, maybe it was partly arrogance that led him to phone it in, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2010/01/pm-harper-understands-v-for-vendetta/</link>
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		<title>Seeing Social Movement Theory in Christmas Movies</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m hyper-attuned to building a social movement. In fact, I&#8217;m seeing it all over the place, from tight clusters of birds whipping around in their collective unconscious to Christmas movies.
Watching Polar Express tonight reminded me of my favourite part of the film near the end. Everyone&#8217;s waiting for Santa to come out and play. All [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2009/12/seeing-social-movement-theory-in-christmas-movies/</link>
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		<title>Economic Growth is a Cancer: Meet Steady State Economics</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
For decades I&#8217;ve been hearing about and studying how humans are living beyond the planet&#8217;s capability of sustaining us&#8230;and that we&#8217;ve been doing so quite unequally.
And what have we done about that? Embraced neoliberal, deregulated free market capitalism: the economic expression of rape and pillage.
Reduce, reuse, recycle neglects the real first R: refuse.
Our notion of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2009/12/economic-growth-is-a-cancer-meet-steady-state-economics/</link>
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		<title>The Blue Summit Declaration: A Companion to Copenhagen</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I was thrilled to read the Blue Summit Declaration that emerged from last weekend&#8217;s Blue Summit in Ottawa celebrating the 10th anniversary of Water Watch. As we head into Copenhagen in a few days, it is critical to assert companion declarations about the sanctity of core elements of life and the symbiotic relationship we must recognize with [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://politicsrespun.org/2009/12/the-blue-summit-declaration-a-companion-to-copenhagen/</link>
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