Six in the Morning

1. RABBLE JOURNALIST ASSAULTED AT LIBERAL CONVENTION: Derrick O'Keefe, an accredited Rabble.ca journalist, had his video camera ripped from his hand and was then knocked to the ground by Mario Cuconato, Paul Martin's former Director of Operations. The reason for the assault? O'Keefe dared to ask Paul Martin questions about his governments involvement in the overthrow of Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. O'Keefe managed to retrieve his camera with its footage of the assault intact. (rabble.ca)

2. NANNY CONTROVERSY UNDERMINES LIBERAL MP: Ruby Dhalla, Liberal critic for youth and multiculturalism, steps down amid allegations she mistreated foreign caregivers and paid them under the table. If true, well then, shame on you Ms Dhalla. Of course, there is the larger issue here of maybe MPs who are parents wouldn't have to hire live-in nannies at all if we had that national childcare program the Conservatives kiboshed. I'm just saying.... (Globe and Mail)

3. POLICE DROP CHARGES AGAINST BULLIED TEEN: Some background: a Korean/Canadian grade nine student in Keswick Ontario was confronted by a bully who insulted him using racial slurs and then punched him in the mouth. The Korean teen, who happened to be a black belt in karate, defended himself. The Korean teen had been trained (by his father) to never fight except in self defence and even then to only use his left hand. He did so: one left-handed punch which succeeded in breaking the bully's nose. (Bravo!) School officials and the police, however, suspended Karate Teen and charged him with assault, respectively. He was threatened with expulsion. The bully who started all this got off scot free. Anyway, after weeks of criticism directed at the police and school board, both have finally backed down and Karate Teen can now go back to school and not worry about going to jail. (Globe and Mail)

4. SEARCH ENGINE MOVING TO TVO: One of my favourite podcasts -- CBC's Search Engine with Jesse Brown -- is moving to TVO. In case you don't know the story of Search Engine, it's a fantastic internet culture and politics show that CBC took off Radio One last year as part of cost cutting measures. The show lived on as a podcast and became CBC's most popular podcast and one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes. TVO is now snapping it up. Hope that doesn't mean I won't be able to download it anymore. (InsidetheCBC.com)

5. CALLS FOR LINGENFELTER TO DROP OUT OF RACE: After some hinky business involving membership sales, Yens Pedersen is calling for Dwain Lingenfelter to drop out of the NDP leadership race. (Leader Post)

6. HARPER TO PENALIZE CZECHS TO KEEP ROMA OUT OF CANADA: To stem the number of Roma seeking asylum in Canada, Harper is threatening to reimpose visa requirements on Czechs coming to Canada. The government is claiming Roma refugees aren't actually oppressed people but rather economic migrants taking advantage of Canada's soft refugee determination system. Hang on a second.... Is it just me or does this sound a little like our Conservative government is saying something along the lines of "we don't want any sneaky gypsies sneaking into our country"? I don't know man, I lived a year in the Czech Republic back in the mid-90s -- so granted my info is a little out of date -- but as I recall the Roma there faced very serious racism. The government at the time was even threatening to revoke their Czech citizenships then force them to relocate to Slovakia. (A clear violation of international law.) I can't think of a more consistently oppressed people for Harper to be picking on, frankly. Way to stick a thumb in the eye of the downtrodden, Stephen. You prick. (Leader Post)