Free Thinking Film Festival organizer Fred Litwin is interviewed by The Propagandist Editor Jonathon Narvey.

This unique film festival presents documentaries that espouse the values of limited, democratic government, free market economies, equality of opportunity rather than equality of result, and the dignity of the individual. Find out how Litwin chooses films for the festival and what he thinks of Canada's state broadcaster.

The Propagandist Editor Jonathon Narvey interviews Ottawa Citizen Managing Editor Andrew Potter about his recent column in Maclean's Magazine, "The trouble with too much democracy."

Potter suggests the American system of government is broken, as witnessed by increasing intransigence in Congress and the Senate. It might be improved with a few less checks and balances on executive power.

Is too much democracy really the problem? Listen to the podcast.

The Propagandist Editor Jonathon Narvey talks with Contributing Writer Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi about the hard road ahead for democracy and dissent in Iraqi Kurdistan, long-held as a sucess story by the international media in the context of an Iraq still recovering from years of dictatorship, war and insurgency. We look at this issue in the context of the Arab Spring that has revolutionized the politics of the Middle East.

The decision was made long ago to give terrorists and brigands picked up in the wilds of Afghanistan and elsewhere the same rights as actual soldiers in a real army. Fine.

But did defense lawyers representing these jihadists go too far? It sure seems that way:

The Justice Department recently questioned military defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay about whether photographs of CIA personnel, including covert officers, were unlawfully provided to detainees charged with organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Investigators are looking into allegations that laws protecting classified information were breached when three lawyers showed their clients the photographs, the sources said. The lawyers were apparently attempting to identify CIA officers and contractors involved in the agency's interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects in facilities outside the United States, where the agency employed harsh techniques.

What next? Giving these prisoners the CIA agents' home address and phone number?

Oh well. It's not like these jihadists in Gitmo are returning to the battlefield after they're released.

Jonathon Narvey is the Editor of The Propagandist.

Last year, Starbucks helped more than 72,000 farmers in the developing world earn a fair living from their family farms with its Farmer Loans program. They're working with the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International to ensure that poor producers take control over their lives and get a fair price for their product. On the environmental front, they're helping conserve forests in the areas with their partner coffee growers. You could say that they set the standard for how an ethical company can operate.

Which explains why Starbucks is the target of choice for the anti-globalization movement's protesters. It's not that Starbucks is a symbol of American cultural imperialism or greedy capitalism. On the contrary, the way Starbucks does business and the good it does in the world is fatal to the protesters' world view. So they lash out against that which they cannot understand.

Join in solidarity with the poor and the downtrodden. Enjoy your grande latte.

The Propagandist was launched as a reaction to the surging conquest of the public square by political extremists. That includes the over-the-top conservative movement we call The Tea Party in the USA. We're for "thinking conservatives", not lobotomized reactionaries.

When we criticize extremists and demagogues, we don't just mean those on the left who talk of a worker's paradise in Cuba and Venezuela. We don't just mean those who say that Iran not only has a right to build nuclear weapons, but actually needs to do so. It's not just the Che Guevera T-shirt wearing, Hezbollah-flag waving weirdos.

The political right is infiltrated by kooks as well. The Tea Party billboard shown above represents something rotten with the trend of conservatism in the American landscape. It ain't helpful to our struggle; it helps the other side smear all conservatives as unhinged whackos.

Sadly, few Tea Party activists will get the irony of their advertising slogan, "Radical Leaders Prey On The Fearful & Naive" accompanying US President Barack Obama sandwiched between Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin.

The nonplussed shrug-your-shoulders response of the Tea Party organizer in charge of the putting up the billboard shows how clueless he is about why the advertisement was criticized. Talking about the replacement billboard he was planning, North Iowa Tea Party co-founder Bob Johnson said “It’s going to be little more bland... We paid for a month, so we don’t want to waste the money.”

A little more bland than comparing the Democratic President to Nazis and Communists? I suppose putting Obama's face between Kim Jong Il and Atilla the Hun might be considered taking it down a notch in some circles.

The sad things is that if the growing movement gets the revolution it wants, the deluded rank and file won't even realize the damage they've done to their republic -- all in the name of liberty.

Jonathon Narvey is the Editor of The Propagandist.

The latest theories about Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri are that he was kidnapped by the CIA or was a willing defector (and later, a double agent). But the facts don't seem to be matching up too well for either scenario.

So here's a conspiracy theory: Amiri wasn't kidnapped and he wasn't defecting, either. He's just an incompetent would-be traitor who wanted to sell out the Islamic Republic for cold hard cash (Editor's Note: We really have no great issue with Iranians selling out the Iranian regime -- we just wanted to note that Amiri's motivations may have nothing to do with any great love for the USA or opposition to the thuggish Mullahs back home).

Here's how the scenario goes. Amiri goes to Saudi Arabia to do his religious duty -- perhaps as pre-emptive penance for the treason he has planned. Possibly, he enjoys the company of some Russian hookers after he finishes up at the mosque. He then proceeds to enter the USA on a commercial airliner and wanders out of the airport.

Next, he hunkers down in the relative backwater of Tucson, Arizona while contacting the CIA to negotiate the turnover of sensitive nuclear secrets.

After a few days or weeks, the CIA decides that Amiri's information is utterly worthless. Thanks to technical universities that focus more on Koranic scripture and sycophantic student-professor vassalage than technical expertise, he can't tell the difference between plutonium and a pile of scrap metal.

They break off negotiations but keep tabs on the scientist for reasons of national security, tailing him into diners and strip clubs.

Fearing he'll eventually get tossed into Gitmo or just run out of money, Amiri decides he's better off heading back to Iran. But how to capitalize on a bad situation -- maybe even become a hero? Well, make a video suggesting he'd escaped the clutches of the CIA a la Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. Next, go back to Iran and tell wild tales about his cunning exploits, staying one step ahead of the CIA before reaching safety at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, D.C. -- in the very belly of the beast.

If it works, he's a hero. They make a movie about him (played by Cruise, naturally). He writes a best-selling tell-all book. And he gets a framed letter from President Ahmadinejad lauding him as a great hero of the people.

Hey, it's just a theory.

Jonathon Narvey is Editor of The Propagandist

My lefty comrades may get their backs up at this one:

Respondents were first asked to rate themselves on a scale of 1-10, with 1 signifying “left-wing” and 10 signifying “right-wing”, to assess how they perceive their own political beliefs.

These perceptions were then compared with indicators of the respondents’ actual ideological position, which was established by asking them whether they believed wealth should be divided more equally.

Dr Rockey’s paper concluded: “Individuals either choose not to, or are unable to, locate their ideological positions reliably compared to those of the positions of their compatriots.

“This is further evidence not just that voters are far from fully informed, but that somehow voters consistently misperceive where they lie on the ideological spectrum."

Not sure about the scientific validity of the study. After all, you could argue that an inflated interest in "the common good" and a more equal division of wealth is in one's self-interest, even (or perhaps especially) for capitalists. And it's certainly possible to have a high net worth and be a socialist. Still, it's awfully amusing.

Jonathon Narvey is the Editor of The Propagandist

Everything you think you know about Omar Khadr may be wrong.

Ezra Levant points out that the Canadian Bar Association, a "left-wing lobby group, has issued over 100 statements about Khadr". Meanwhile, they have totally ignored Canadian political prisoners held abroad like Huseyin Celil, imprisioned in China for the past four years. Why?

Khadrmania isn’t about a Canadian’s civil rights. It’s about left-wing lawyers trying to use Khadr as a way to undermine the war on terror.

Oh, and that child soldier stuff? And his rights as a "prisoner of war"? Totally bogus.

We used to have a word for fighting for the other side in a war where our troops are battling for freedom: treason.

Free Celil!

Seventy-six people dead in Uganda because Islamist fanatics didn't want to see people enjoying a Word Cup soccer game.

"This is really an unpleasant confluence of goals between the nationalist and international wing of al Shabaab," said Roger Middleton, a Somalia analyst at London-based think tank Chatham House.

Unpleasant? A cold shower is unpleasant. A taxi ride with a driver who doesn't wear deoderant is unpleasant. Non-alcoholic beer is unpleasant.

Seventy-six people dead? This is not the time for understating the case.

Things Have Gone Off The Rails When Commercials Remind People Not To Blow Themselves Up