Stephen Harper and Fox News North

This news story about Harper having lunch in New York City with News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and Fox News president Roger Ailes has people talking.

I didn't realize how bad Fox News was until I recently watched some clips from it during Obama's campaign. We've talked about media bias before but I certainly have no problem with them establishing a right wing news channel with Karl Pierre Peladeau called Fox News North in Canada. I just wouldn't watch it.

Let's face it, you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. That kind of abrasive "news reporting" isn't news it propaganda and it is so painfully distasteful it's difficult to watch. Bush's lies were serious.

I think the key thing to realize is that media outlets are biased. Their bias comes from their owners. Conrad Black was a media baron buying up all the newspapers in Canada and around the world. He was very right wing. He then exercised his influence over the editorials written and how the news was presented. Since he was sent to jail for another scam it appears that Rupert Murdoch has taken his place and is doing the same thing. Murdoch admits to supporting Bush and trying to influence the viewers to support him.

Once again the key thing to realize is that media outlets are biased and we need to base our own opinions on the facts not the propaganda. Info wars and Alex Jones have a media biased. Although Alex Jones sometimes gets carried away with dramatic conspiracies, I do listen to what he has to say because it presents the other side the main stream tries to hide. If someone is trying to hide something, human nature is inclined to wonder what it is they are hiding and why they are hiding it.

Micheal Moore has a media bias. I find him far more palatable because he's not so abrasive, is very factual and generally makes sense. I've had American friends claim that Michael Moore is a Communist Pinko and a traitor. That was when I realized all of a sudden I really had nothing in common with those friends any more. Bush was evil. So were his lies. That is nothing to be proud of and certainly isn't patriotic.

I guess you could say I'm half Capitalist and half Communist. If someone has an idea to start a business and wants to make a buck, they should be free to do so. Yet I really feel that if a homeless person is beaten and robbed, he should be able to receive free medical aid. A civilized society that turns it's back on the homeless is not a civilized society.

I don't see socialized medicine as a Communist plot to take over the free world. If socialized medicine is Communism, then I am a Communist. Yet I have inherit problems with the founding principles in the Communist Manifesto and I completely support religious freedom and human rights. Which many would claim, make me a Capitalist.

There is a lot about Stephen Harper's policies I support and endorse. Yet there are many other policies of his I do not support or endorse. He's too much like Brian Mulroney for me. Mulroney torn the right in half in Canada. His arrogance and abandonment of the democratic principles the right boats of caused a split and the rise of the Reform Party in Western Canada.

I liked Preston Manning. Everyone labeled him as a racist but if you really listened to what he was saying, he said balance the budget to save social programs not to eliminate them. Reform hated Mulroneyism. Although they swept Western Canada they couldn't make inroads in Ontario or Quebec because many saw reform as a separatist party for Western Canada. Many in the West felt if Quebec wants to separate, let them just as long as they take their share of the national debt. Let's govern ourselves and be more fiscally responsible.

Since their ultimate goal was to put an Albertan as Prime minister, they acted on a typo. Manning said Unite the Bright but the typo read Unite the Right and they ran with the typo. However, that was not the original dream. The original dream was to look beyond the left and right and look at the issues. Harper in his quest for power, merged with the Mulroney Conservatives and did in fact get elected as a result.

The sad reality is, Harper's idol worship of Mulroney has caused him to reenact Mulroney's arrogance and abandonment of democracy by railroading the HST like Mulroney railroaded the GST.

The dream has been lost and we are going to end up with more fiscally irresponsible idiots simply because the people we elected coveted power and abandoned principles of democracy.

Reform talked a lot about recall and referendums. Why don't we put the HST to a referendum? Bill Vandersalm is right wing. He opposes the HST. Do the math.