Orbán accused of trying to silence all critics in Hungary with new law

Hungary’s leading civil society groups have accused Viktor Orbán of trying to “silence all critical voices” in the country after proposing legislation to create a “sovereignty protection office” investigating foreign influence.

For years, the Hungarian prime minister has promoted a narrative that external forces are trying to undermine his government and prop up his opponents.

In a speech this month, the longtime leader said “dark forces” would “continue to besiege the defensive lines of sovereignty, including those of Hungary”.

Putin Critic Navalny Steps Up The Pressure After Kremlin Crackdown

MOSCOW, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Opposition leader Alexei Navalny announced on Wednesday a series of rallies across Russia in January to press home his call for a boycott of next year’s presidential election, a move likely to draw a sharp response from the Kremlin and police.

Navalny unveiled his plan hours after President Vladimir Putin, who polls suggest is a shoo-in for re-election, registered his candidacy at the central election commission ahead of the March 18 vote.

Russia accuses the U.S. of ‘interfering’ in its upcoming election. There’s just one problem.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused the U.S. State Department of trying to interfere in its upcoming election after the U.S. criticized the Kremlin for barring a Putin critic from entering the presidential race.

Alexey Navalny’s candidate registration for the upcoming election was rejected by Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) on Christmas Day. The CEC justified his suspension because of a series of spurious criminal convictions Mr. Navalny has received, but his supporters claim barring him from the election is politically motivated.

Monitors Criticize Turkey Referendum, Erdogan Denounces ‘Crusader Mentality’

ANKARA/ISTANBUL, April 17 (Reuters) - A defiant Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan denounced the West’s “crusader mentality” on Monday after European monitors criticized a referendum to grant him sweeping new powers, won with a narrow victory laying bare the nation’s divisions.

Addressing a crowd of flag-waving supporters from the steps of his palace in Ankara, Erdogan told election observers to “talk to the hand” and said it would not be so important to Turkey if the European Union broke off accession talks.

The referendum that just brought Turkey closer to one-man rule, explained

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has publicly feuded with the US, likened the German government to Nazis, jailed more journalists than any other leader in the world, and arrested tens of thousands of his own people on suspect charges.

Now a slim majority of Turkish voters have just approved constitutional changes designed to make the strongman even stronger.

First they came for the comedians, and I did not speak out….

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

— Martin Niemöller

The new way police are surveilling you: Calculating your threat ‘score’

FRESNO, Calif. — While officers raced to a recent 911 call about a man threatening his ex-girlfriend, a police operator in headquarters consulted software that scored the suspect’s potential for violence the way a bank might run a credit report.

The program scoured billions of data points, including arrest reports, property records, commercial databases, deep Web searches and the man’s social- media postings. It calculated his threat level as the highest of three color-coded scores: a bright red warning.

Bill C-24: Harper Says Tories May Consider Stripping Other Criminals Of Citizenship

OTTAWA — A re-elected Conservative government might look to strip dual citizens of their Canadian citizenship if they commit other heinous crimes, Stephen Harper said in a radio interview Wednesday.

Harper was on The Andrew Lawton Show to talk about Bill C-24, a new law the Tories passed this spring that strips dual citizens convicted of terrorism of their Canadian citizenship.

Lawton asked Harper if he might strip other dual citizens in the future if convicted of other crimes, giving by way of example a serial killer, a rapist or someone who did something to children.

What Would Harper Do? Anything he wants, mostly.

Just when I thought I’d seen everything … along comes ‘Jesus’ Harper.

Not that the Cons haven’t made more than a few strange jumps in recent weeks. Dumping the traditional television debates. Agreeing to keep Elizabeth May from alternative debate venues like the Munk School (the Harper government gave that group $9 million in federal funding; I’m sure there’s no connection). Proclaiming that we haven’t slipped into another recession — even though we have. Retaining sanctions against Iran, yet still hoping for some of the Ayatollah’s business. All gobsmacking stuff.

‘The Harper government’ used to be a brand. It is now an almost literal description

In the Conservative TV ad, Stephen Harper is shown alone at his desk, late at night. The message: he’s working hard for the Canadian people. The other, unintended message: he’s alone.

No one else appears with him: not a minister, not an aide, not even a taxpayer. The ad is airless, joyless, illuminated only by images of terrorism and economic chaos. At the end, the prime minister turns out the lights and trudges wearily down the hall, his back to us. Alone.

Mr. Harper, you may have missed your true calling

‘We do not allow people to cover their faces during citizenship ceremonies. Why would Canadians, contrary to our own values, embrace a practice at that time that is not transparent, that is not open and, frankly, is rooted in a culture that is anti-women?” asked Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and I wonder if this question is keeping him up at night.

I worry he wakes at 2 a.m., paces the hall, gets himself a sandwich, comes back to bed.

“Laureen,” he says, “why would Canadians …?”

PMO leash on MPs might be tighter than ever

In a dark, crowded bar in Ottawa this week, several dozen Conservatives committed a small act of defiance against the prime minister.

Just a couple of months after Stephen Harper warned his caucus away from Hy’s — a warning prompted by last fall’s sexual harassment controversy on the Hill — the popular drinking establishment near the Hill was filled with Conservatives on Tuesday night.

To be clear, the MPs, ministers and staffers weren’t there to stage a show of defiance. They were bidding an impromptu farewell to their colleague, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, who had surprised them all by quitting his job that day.

Canada on fast track to a not-so-benign dictatorship

From the cold porches of January, 2015 stretches out like a thousand miles of gravel road.

The country is facing an election that will be nasty, brutish and long — from now until the vote occurs, whenever that may be. The writ period is essentially meaningless. Under the Conservatives, it is always political game on.

True to his word, Stephen Harper has transformed the country, largely by stealth. Canada is now a nation that spies on its friends, guests, and citizens. It accepts foreign intelligence even when there is a likelihood that it was obtained by torture. The government lies to the electorate on policy matters. It accuses veterans of exaggerating their injuries in order to take the taxpayer for a ride. It washes its hands of any stake in the fate of 1,200 missing or murdered Aboriginal women. It does not practise unite-and-lead politics, but divide-and-conquer stratagems. A government, by any democratic measure, in disgrace.

Harper ramps up his war on independent thought

In the conservative quest to shape public debate in recent years, no tool has proved more useful than the think tank. Nobody understood this better than the director of the ultra-right wing U.S.-based ATLAS Foundation, who once stated that his mission was “to litter the world with free-market think tanks.”

Mission accomplished. Certainly the Canadian landscape is cluttered with right-wing think tanks — the Fraser Institute, the C.D. Howe Institute, the Montreal Economic Institute, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, the Frontier Institute, just to name a few — all well-funded by a business elite keen to have its message packaged in a manner that makes it appear grounded in serious research.

Harper suspended Commons committee reviews of Gascon’s Supreme Court appointment in June: House documents

PARLIAMENT HILL—Prime Minister Stephen Harper suspended special Commons committee reviews in June of his nominations to the Supreme Court of Canada following an unprecedented public dispute in May over Conservative allegations that Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin had attempted to lobby against a 2013 appointment by the Prime Minister.

Documents show that although Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) scrubbed a House committee review in June of newly-appointed Justice Clément Gascon because there was “some urgency” in filling the position, the Prime Minister’s Office also suspected the review process had resulted in “breaches of confidentiality” during the 2013 elevation of Federal Court Judge Marc Nadon to fill a Quebec vacancy on the Supreme Court.

Is Russia a Block of Ice Floating Back Into the 16th Century?

MOSCOW -- If the recent coverage of Russia is anything to go by, the country appears not only to be stuck in the past but actually sprinting backwards. So seemingly regressive is contemporary Russia that, among Russian liberal intellectuals and Western commentators, even medieval comparisons do not seem too far-fetched.

"Russia is like a block of ice floating back into the 16th century," asserted controversial Russian novelist Vladimir Sorokin in a BBC interview.

Stephen Harper: No longer taking advice

OTTAWA—It was somewhat heartening to learn this week, via a new book on power change in Canada, that Prime Minister Stephen Harper looked to Jean Chrétien forlessons on leadership.

That’s someone, at least.

From the highest court in the land to lowly public servants, scientists, statisticians and staffers, it’s a perilous business telling this prime minister something he doesn’t want to hear.

Stephen Harper's '24 Seven' Show Has North Korean Vibes

If the medium is the message, should we be even a little bit surprised that Canada's sitting government is trying to control the former?

On Thursday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the launch of a new video series promising to keep Canadians “in the know” with a weekly ration of edited government updates to trumpet Tory achievements.

White House Reporters Question Limits On Photo Access At Press Briefing

White House reporters are riled up about restrictions placed on photos of President Obama, and they made no effort to hide it at Thursday's press briefing.

In a letter delivered to the White House on Thursday, journalists from a variety of media organizations protested limits that often prevent them from taking photos of Obama. The letter questioned why only White House-approved photos were the only ones of certain events allowed to be released.

Harper's Gag Orders Sweep While Canadians Sleep

The Harper government wants to hide all of its secrets.

While reviewing the latest edition of the federal government's little-known legislative bulletin, The Canada Gazette, Canadian Press reporter Jim Bronskill noticed a troubling detail: a new order is now on the table that would dramatically expand the number of current - and former - federal government employees under a lifetime gag order, potentially curbing the right to free expression for thousands of Canadians.