sorry csis!

my bad for suggesting earlier that the montebello agents provacateurs were trained by CSIS. surete quebec stepped up and claimed 'em. that'd explain the stylish resister gear.

in case you've been under a rock for the past 48 hours, footage of the fracas in question.

"do not fall into their trap!"

amidst the growing uproar over the discovery earlier this week that agents provocateurs tainted montebello to the best of their CSIS training, details are emerging about an internal white house anti-protestors manual. thanks to an aclu access to information request related to the famed t-shirt case, we now learn what kind of pearly strategic advice is given to bush ground crews. the "presidential advance manual" directs white house advance staff to ask local police "to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed, preferably not in the view of the event site or motorcade route."

an unseen and unheard pig-pen for dissenters. how novel. and democratic. seems like more and more international admirers of the bush administration's approach of intolerance are ripping notes from the pages of this 2002 manual. harper knows all about it. forces at montebello established a distant perimeter for protesters (devotion to democracy was alive and well, however, as evidenced by the video link established for bush, harper, and calderon to be able to catch footage between photo opp-ing and reciting pre-determined talking points).

but The People wanted to snuggle up, and so marched onto the resort. peacefully.

enter the fracas instigated by so-called agents provocateurs. everyone's talking about how union leader dave coles tried to calmly urge three masked men to back away from the riot police, and how minutes later those three men were taken down - roughly - after being seen whispering to the police.

stunning, perhaps, that this sort of organized instigating goes on up in sleepy ol' canada. but it does. i mean, we certainly know we're watched and tagged by unidentifiable strangers. i can't count how many trench coat-sporting black boot-wearing mysterios i've seen hanging around the fringes of protests over the years. we know that infiltrators are among us at organizing meetings and gatherings, nudging things.

and this is certainly not the first time we've seen curiously unidentifiable people Made An Example Of at a major event. as if.

nonetheless, the gravity of the situation cannot be underestimated. it's obvious how dramatically the political climate is changing ever since the arrival of george w. more secretive. less tolerant. more polarizing. up here, we've seen harper tighten a muzzle on caucus members, clamp down the lid on media, information, and access.

WE, THE PEOPLE, have been put on a need-to-know basis. and they won't let us forget that. so it is significant that undercovers in oh-so-cliche fatigues would be ordered to stir things up at montebello - nothing but a quaint meeting regarding a secret agreement - oops, i mean "dialogue based on shared values" (says harper in defense of why the spp need not undergo parliamentary or public scrutiny).

in a strange irony, i'd say it was the agents provocateurs themselves who helped Make An Example Of the current administrations, the bush/harper era of insistence on suppressing dissent, beating down democracy. praise the law and order agenda.

"Remember - avoid physical contact with demonstrators! Most often, the demonstrators want a physical confrontation. Do not fall into their trap!" (presidential advance manual)

they were wearing the EXACT SAME BOOTS, y'all...

is air drying ok?

i have been known to swoon – swoon, i tell you – over a certain green-eyed dreamboat (look past the pencil moustache) by the name of terrence howard. but never has there been such a rapid deflating of a bubble in the history of absurd fan lovin’.

howard recently went on the record as saying it’s just “unclean” for a woman to use toilet paper, suggesting his future with any woman is pretty much entirely hinged upon whether or not she agrees to use baby wipes instead.

crush-killing interview here. no wonder mr. hygiene’s comments have resulted in a bit of an, ahem, shitstorm. some cooler-headed responses speculate about ocd, while others suggest howard’s baby wipes and celibacy are clear indicators that he is actually gay. whatever. i'm just glad we didn't get his take on feminine hygiene products. OR SHAVING.

[thanks to audra for being punctual with that sick tidbit]

in more timely celeb news, annie lennox's new song/video went up at amazon today and promptly slayed me what with all the Aching Beauty and also causing me to speculate that annie has some sort of cosmic shunt to my brain or journal because those lyrics, err, hit home (the one at the end of a dark road, indeed).

a little self-spanking will do you some good

back from vancouver and finally posted photos. actually, only pride pics are up. maybe only marketers of things gay who troll the web for poachable photos (because i have to admit, some of the shots are actually pretty good) will find them interesting. but hey, they’re here, they’re queer, i’m used to it. other holiday pics are likely to languish on the canon til god knows when. maybe tomorrow.

i’ve been thinking about this whole ‘blog for a year’ idea and wonder if it’s perhaps the dumbest thing ever. the people who are racking up bajillions of votes are the bloggers who are already sorta professional, however pro bono. they are people with actual Followers whose blogs have original design and are powered by wordpress or whatever. this here rinky dink outfit could never render a vote count high enough to make me a contender. so what the F is the point?

maybe not winning, but ah yes, discipline. that’s what. a routine. a regular place to write. the broader goal is to write anything and everywhere, as much as possible. so blogging is a useful exercise. sometimes i write as if it's for my life, like a violent heroin fix. why not here, too. the only way to do it is to just fucking DO IT. [evidently i'm having a go with the grittier, chain-smoking, cussing cousin of The Secret].

i think the key to being a grown up is effectively mastering the fine art of self-parenting. what’s big and shiny and downright intoxicating as a kid is the notion that grown ups can do Anything They Want. and it’s true! we can sleep in until after noon, eat ice cream for supper, sit too close to the tv, never make the bed. but then there are bills and taxes and RESPONSIBILITY. oh, and that little thing called accountability.

if you’re lucky, you assemble along the windy way a safety net of good friends and maybe a brave partner who will challenge you to do right or just better. but the best kicker of the truest ass is yourself. i'm so grounded.
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