Golden oldies . . .

Evidence shows that Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party
exercised considerable influence over Hollywood,
including what films went unmade and what scenes were cut.

WHEN HOLLYWOOD HELD HANDS WITH HITLER. Really. That's the title of an article by Alex Kafka at the Chronicle of Higher Education. It's worthy of your perusal. According to Alex,

A debate is raging over Hollywood's alleged collusion with the Nazis. At stake: the moral culpability of Jewish studio heads during cinema's golden age.

The catalyst is a forthcoming book from Harvard University Press, The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact With Hitler, by the 35-year-old historian Ben Urwand. The book is still several months from publication, but emotions are running high after an early review in the online magazine Tablet, followed by an exchange of rhetorical fire in The New York Times between Urwand and Thomas Doherty, a professor of American studies at Brandeis University who this spring published his own account of the era, Hollywood and Hitler: 1933-1939 (Columbia University Press). The clash comes during a period of heightened scholarly attention to Nazi infiltration and counterinfiltration in Depression-era Los Angeles, complicating the story of Hollywood's stance toward fascism.

• • •

Largely through the Third Reich's vice consul in Los Angeles, Georg Gyssling, the Nazi-Hollywood relationship gave Hitler and his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, effectual power over what films got made, what scenes got cut, which stars and filmmakers were blacklisted, and which Jewish studio employees in Germany were fired. The Germans demanded say not just over American films shown in Germany but over those shown anywhere. Nazi emissaries visited theaters worldwide to report back on whether promised scene cuts had in fact been carried out. If not, the officials scolded the studios and threatened to close German production and distribution markets to them. The studios, year after year, would promptly grovel and comply.

Today's TV world has the NCIS institutionalized paranoia, of terrorists behind every bush. Might there be a similar lickspittle relationship with the powers that be in the American Reich?

The Glenn Beck Conspiracy Theory Generator

Fair and Balanced Paranoia, Delivered on Demand. Really. Lots of fun. (H/T to Helmut)

It's alive!

I have to admit, I did not think the Harper crowd was that stupid. For some reason, despite the unbelievable partisan hackery they display, I thought they were smart enough to let things die down and understand when they should.

Apparently, that is not the case.

The Harperites are blinded by a faith in their own infallibility and by their belief that everyone accepts heavy-handed authoritarianism. They accept no blame for any failing.

When the Chalk River nuclear reactor was shut down, they behaved as though it had been an orchestrated personal attack. They immediately politicized the event and turned it into a partisan attack on the independent nuclear regulator in this country.

And then they bypassed her with legislation.

It goes to their stupidity and their inability to actually deal with anything remotely difficult.

Harper and his disciples shot themselves in the foot the minute they started trying to blame anyone but the operators of the Chalk River reactor for its shut-down.

But beyond that, Harper, in his finest Daddy-knows-best voice, made an unqualified statement that, despite safety concerns of the regulator, there would be no nuclear accident at Chalk River, the site of the very first nuclear reactor accident - ever.

Still more was their uncomprehending attitude that the Canadian public would actually listen to this bunch when it came to nuclear safety.

In the end, covered in their own shit, they had accomplished what they had set out to do and the situation should have died a quiet death, only to be regurgitated during the next election campaign.

But, no. They couldn't leave things alone. Having taken an event, which was completely beyond their control and for which nobody would have likely blamed them, the Harperites took the whole thing personally and attacked the nuclear regulator.

That's just plain stupidity.

Instead of moving on to the next item on the list, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn took an unprecedented move to threaten the dismissal of the president of the CNSC.

Now, Linda Keen, in response to the letter sent to her by Lunn, which was leaked to the media, has fired a huge rocket back.

The question though is: What did Lunn think would happen?

These guys simply don't get it. Now, much to the good cheer of all opponents of the Harper regime, this issue, which had found its way to the simmering back burner is right back on the full-power front element.

An issue which might have slipped from the minds of Canadians is now going to receive a public and very messy airing. And it should make Canadians very very wary.

This is what the Conservatives are all about. They're so wrapped up in themselves and so paranoid that every little thing that happens is the result of a conspiracy out to "get them" that they don't know when or how to back away.

Now they've touched off a powder keg. Canadians might not pay attention to political infighting but they will pay attention when someone is messing with the process of something as critical as nuclear safety.

Gary Lunn just demonstrated what kind of idiot is sitting in the halls of power.

This is NOT open and accountable government, Steve

The G&M reports this morning that access to information from the federal government since Harper took office has turned into a cold porridge.

It's taking more than a year for some Canadians to obtain government documents because the federal Information Commissioner isn't demanding swift action from departments bogged down in increasingly lengthy reviews, critics say.

Several recent requests under the Access to Information Act have been returned to applicants with a notice that they require a 240-day extension - a delay three times the previous average, making information outdated and often useless when it is released.

Users of the system say Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has imposed so many layers of scrutiny that even the most benign material gets caught up in reviews for months, even years.

"The intent is to frustrate efforts ... and ultimately you're going to go away," said Michel Drapeau, a retired colonel and expert in access to information legislation.

We know that DND and the CF have imposed an additional layer of information blocking on the "access to information" system, but what's going on elsewhere?

The extensions are linked in part to additional checks by the Privy Council Office, which advises the prime minister and cabinet, and that now reviews most requests filed with the government.

Ah yes. The Privy Council Office... which visits TGB several times throughout the day. (Yes. We've noticed.)

That is a sign of outward paranoia. A government which is worried that something dirty will slip out and be used against them. The petulant little micro-manager wants to know what information you do get when you get it so he can cut you off at the pass... just in case you might use it against him.

And you can bet your bottom brass dollar that Sandra Buckler's little working group gets handed your Access To Information request if there is the slightest chance that anything in that request or the information associated with it might damage Harper's chance of locking down a majority government in the next election.

It's a part of the Conservative perpetual election campaign. Far from governing, the Harperites spend a majority of their time covering their own asses and that, in both the long and short run, is costing you.

And you thought the Dubai Ports deal was bad...

Let's see now. Istithmar is the investment arm of Dubai World. Dubai World is wholly owned by the Government of Dubai. Dubai World also owns Dubai Ports World and now, P&O Maritime Services.

In short, the Government of Dubai owns the works. They love to buy stuff.

You may remember there was something of an issue when Dubai Ports World, owned by Dubai World (on which the sun never sets), which owns Istithmar, the lot of which is wholly owned by the Government of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, purchased P&O Maritime and it looked like Arabs were going to be shipped over to operate six US port terminal facilities, including the P&O terminal in New York.

The Republicans in the US Congress went ape-shit and the deal was blocked. Well, sort of. DPW, subsidiary of DW, owned by the Dubai government, which also owns Istithmar, continued to operate the Port of New Jersey because New Jersey wouldn't let them sell it.

At the time of that information, it became obvious to anybody with a functioning synapse that these people with bad togas and funny headbands were more interested in the shopping aspect of acquisition. Got a port? I don't have one. Could I possibly buy it from you for more than its appraised value?

That sort of thing. Emiratis just really love to buy things.

Well, looky, looky what Blue Gal found!! And from the Toronto Star, no less.

The terrorists are now in a position to control the designer handbag Paris Hilton carries. Is there no end to this?

The solution is to get rid of phone booths

BC Ferries received a bomb threat over the weekend. That instantly turned into a Terrorist Threat. Why? Well, initial reports issued by BC Ferries president David Hahn contained the information that the caller, who has been traced to a Coquitlam phone booth, had a middle-eastern accent.

As Vive le Canada has noted, news reports which made that reference, apparently the part which elevated this from a run-of-the-mill bomb-threat to a threat of terrorism, have removed those words from their online reports.

Run-of-the-mill?! Yeah. Bomb threats almost always turn out to be hoaxes, just as this one did. This one however, caused the cancellation of 21 sailings. Because it was "credible".

The details we are being given? The call was made by a person unknown to the Delta police 911 line at around 3:30 pm on Saturday from a phone booth at the Coquitlam Centre Mall by a man with a middle-eastern accent.

How much does everybody actually know?

... finding the person who made the threat may be like looking for a needle in a haystack, said police spokeswoman Sharlene Brooks.

"Unless someone comes forward that has personal knowledge of the individual that may have made this call, identifying this suspect may be next to impossible," she said.

In other words, this could be a kid who's having an incredibly boring summer and the police have nothing.

That hasn't stopped the pants-pissing though.

B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall said security was heightened at terminals yesterday, but wouldn't go into detail. "We don't want to tell the terrorists what we're doing," she said. "Our employees are always vigilant. Their eyes and ears are the best tools they can use to see if anything is unusual."

Vigilant for what? Merchant mariners and terminal attendants aren't trained to spot terrorists. I defy BC Ferry Services to prove otherwise.

And to claim terrorists are behind all this is to ignore a single basic fact. By way of demonstration:

- 1972 Munich Massacre
- Cubana flight 455 bombing
- Air India flight 182
- Narita airport bombing
- Pan Am 103 Lockerbie Scotland
- 1993 World Trade Center bombing
- Oklahoma City bombing
- Khobar Towers bombing
- 1998 US embassy bombings
- Omagh, Northern Ireland
- Sept. 11, 2001 attacks WTC and Pentagon
- 2002 Bali bombing
- 2004 Madrid bombing
- 2005 London bombing

What does this sample of a long list of terrorist attacks have in common? NO WARNING.

Terrorists don't phone in an attack. They take credit for it after the fact.

Keep working on it people. You'll eventually get it right.

What's wrong with this picture?

From Cap'n Dyke we get this photo:

















This is a picture, taken by Tampen, of the new ferry terminal opened on the west side of Manhattan providing commuter service across the Hudson River.

What's the problem with the photo? Well, this:

There's no sign forbidding photography, however, and I wandered along the walkway snapping to my heart's content. Then a large security guard sprinted up the stairs and ordered me to halt.

Because taking a photo of a new (and impressive) ferry terminal is a threat to national security. Click on the picture for Tampen's whole story. The comments are also worth reading.

And in the category of You can't make this shit up, NetWizard points out that some US government departments are, in fact, making up their own rules, and they're not very good at it.