Of Badware and Blogging Tories

Has cyberwarfare come to the Canadian blogosphere?

It's a question perhaps best answered with a question: is this merely the first time we've known about cyberwar tactics in the Canadian blogosphere? It doesn't actually answer the original question, nor does it even answer the question of whether the reporting of BloggingTories.ca as a badware site is part of any such a campaign.

As it pertains to the matter of coincidence, perhaps the internet is one of the few examples where life truly offers any. It is, after all, a large and diverse environment, wherein many different websites, each featuring their own software, interact with one another in a largely unpredictable manner.

It's possible that may at play in an episode that has many visitors to the website encountering this in its stead:

It certainly seems bad.

StopBadware, an organization Google and Mozilla cooperate with to identify so-called "attack sites" define badware as "software that fundamentally disregards a user’s choice about how his or her computer or network connection will be used."

It doesn't sound like anything one would expect to be present on a Blogging Tory site. When one examines the Google diagnostic page, it seems that it isn't even a Blogging Tory site that is the source of the problem:

The website forgottencelebs.com is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a celeb news website. The more important detail is that it isn't listed on the Blogging Tories aggregator.

Considering that the Google diagnostic page explicitly states that BloggingTories.ca has not hosted malicious software, it's clear that the malicious code has been added by a third party: that BloggingTories has merely been used as an intermediary to disseminate malicious software seemingly hosted on ForgottenCelebs.com to Stephen Taylor's blog, The Secrets of Vancouver, Moose and Squirrel, and seven other sites.

Interestingly enough, none of the sites listed above have been identified by StopBadware as an "attack site".

The question remains: did some technologically-savvy member of Canada's online far-left community deliberately add some bad code to the BloggingTories site in orer to justify reporting it to StopBadware as an "attack site"?

There's no question that many of them are obsessed with the site and would like to see it shut down. Adding malicious code to the site has certainly, at least in the sort term, accomplished the next best thing.

There's no question that Canada's far left is frustrated. No matter what they do, they can't convince Canadians to thoroughly repudiate conservative values, and can't seem to win on their own.

There's no reason to assume that a denizen of Canada's left is behind this: but there's ample reason to ask the question.

Farce As Art...

In political blogging, as in anything else, there are good weeks and there are bad weeks.

When one specializes, as Kinsella does, in not-so-thinly veiled drive-by smears, bad weeks tend to be very, very bad weeks.

Kinsella's bad week began a few days early when his infamous "BBQ cat" remarks transcended the typical blogosphere controversy into the mainstream media.

That forced Kinsella to pony up this sincere (if worried) looking apology to the Chinese Canadian community.

In the days since, however, Kinsella has grasped at any possible straw to deflect attention to the wholesale discrediting of his mantle as one of Canada's foremost racism fighters.

On Wednesday Kinsella published a post claiming that numerous high-profile Conservative bloggers haven't donated to the Conservative party. Moreover, Kinsella insists that some of them are secretly recieving money from the Tories.

Kinsella insisted that Pierre Bourque, Stephen Taylor, Kate McMillan, Ezra Levant, Steve Janke, Craig Smith, Jarrett Plonka, Damian Penny, Gerry Nicholls and Victor Wong haven't donated any money to the Conservative party.

There are serious problems with Kinsella's post, however.

For one thing, as Raphael Alexander notes, the post isn't even correct.

As it turns out, Stephen Taylor has donated money to the Tories. He just donated less money than is required to be divulged to Elections Canada:

"I did in fact donate to the Conservative Party in 2008. Warren, you don’t appreciate that cheques for less than $200 are not publicly disclosed by Elections Canada. I suppose that Warren thinks that folks that write cheques for less than $200 aren’t 'putting their money where their mouth is'. I suppose Warren might say that only those that cut big cheques are allowed to have a voice!"

Taylor isn't alone amongst the bloggers that Kinsella has apparently smeared.

Victor Wong seemed positively bemused by the allegations:

"“As for this 'covertly paid' business, this is the first time I’ve ever heard of it. I certainly don’t get paid for blogging; and I suspect that few Blogging Tories (if any) make any sort of cash from writing on their own site. (It is somewhat reassuring, however, to know that somebody thinks I’m getting paid for the stuff I write.)"

As Damien Penny notes, based on what Penny's had to say about the federal budget, if he were really a paid hack for the Conservative party he'd probably have to return the cheque:

"…I can’t speak for anyone else on this list, but I have never been paid a cent by the Conservative Party (you’ve probably noticed how enthusiastic I’ve been about the recent Conservative budget), nor do I receive any blogging material from the Party or the PMO (unless spam e-mails count)."

Kinsella recently warned Tim Powers while appearing on CTV's Power Play that he has a very good lawyer, and recently claimed that the two of them have never lost a case.

If Kinsella wishes to maintain that distinction, he may want to avoid making comments that can be proven libelous with little more than a voided cheque.

A day later, Kinsella indulged himself in some art criticism, as he took the opportunity to skewer Borque over one of his paintings.

(If Kinsella were really qualified to criticize art as any kind of an expert, he'd probably recognize Borque's work as fusing abstract impressionism with minimalism. Whether or not Kinsella himself actually likes it is up to himself to decide.)

Kinsella's behaviour has proven to be so bizarre recently that it was even used against Michael Ignatieff in the House of Commons this week.

As far as farce goes, Warren Kinsella has made an art of it this week. One would have to think that Kinsella's sincerest hopes are that Canadians will have forgotten about his racist comments about Chinese Canadians.

Whether he has been this fortunate is one thing. Whether or not he should be so fortunate is another entirely.




Other bloggers writing about this topic:

Russ Campbell - "Liberal Mouthpiece Smears Blogging Tories"

Cry Fucking Harder, Bill

Former Weather Underground terrorist denied entry to Canada

In a blog post on National Post Full Comment, Stephen Taylor brings us the tale of Bill Ayers -- the former Weather Underground terrorist now famed for his associations with now-US President Barack Obama -- being denied entry into Canada.

“It seems very arbitrary,” Ayers complained. “The border agent said I had a conviction for a felony from 1969. I have several arrests for misdemeanours, but not for felonies.”

Not that he hasn't committed felonies. By his own admission, he's done that.

"I don't regret setting bombs," Ayers told the New York Times (on 9/11, no less!). "I feel we didn't do enough."

It may come as a shock to Bill Ayers that known terrorists are not allowed it Canada. It shouldn't.


Other bloggers writing on this topic:

Kevin's Woodshed - "Bordering on the Insane"

The Reaction - "Canada Denies Entry to Ayers"

Sense of Humour Not Included

In her quest to find something to bash her political opponents for, the Canadian blogosphere's mentally unbalanced (to a spectacular degree) Kate Blanchett wannabe apparently can find nothing better than this.

Maybe it explains why she's constantly vaguely threatening to kick people with really pointy shoes. Of course, it all goes downhill from there: