statism watch

Reprehensor, 911Blogger.com
November 30, 2008

Yesterday, Outlookindia.com reported that the CIA’s station chief in Delhi approached one of India’s intelligence agencies, the Research and Analysis Wing, and passed on a fairly specific warning;

“In mid-September this year, the CIA station chief in Delhi sought an urgent meeting with his counterpart in R&AW to pass on some critical inputs. This was part of an understanding that Indian and American intelligence had institutionalised in the aftermath of 9/11. From its assets in Pakistan and Afghanistan, American intelligence had come to learn that the Lashkar-e-Toiba was planning to launch a major terrorist attack in Mumbai, which would be carried out from the sea.“

Later in the article;

“By the middle of November, as Indian intelligence continued to check out further inputs, the pieces of an intricate jigsaw puzzle began to fall into place. Sources say they learnt that the attack would come from the sea and that the Taj Hotel would be a major target. However, it was not known whether this attack would be carried out by planting bombs in the hotel or by terrorists carrying small arms. Indian intelligence assessments were tilting towards bombs being planted and security at the hotel was beefed up accordingly to prevent terrorists from planting bombs inside the premises.”

But the Hotel eased these security enhancements the week before the attack, according to the Chairman of the company that owned the Hotel where took the brunt of the attacks;

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So the Tories want to paint their opposition’s contingency plan as some sort of covert scheming when planning for the potential fall of a minority government is in fact a kind of due diligence that Harper himself engaged in in 2004? Good luck with that.

Bruce Cheadle, Canadian Press
November 30, 2008

OTTAWA—A budding coalition between New Democrats, the separatist Bloc Quebecois and Liberals is an exercise in nation building, NDP Leader Jack Layton told his caucus in a conference call covertly recorded by the government.

Layton’s national unity musings were secretly recorded Saturday by the Conservatives. They held the tape for a day and then had an official from the Prime Minister’s Office deliver it to various media on Sunday.

“The ‘Coalition for Canada,’ I love the idea — (but it) could be a deal-breaker for the Bloc,” Layton is heard saying to laughter.

“‘The Coalition for Canada and Quebec?”‘ he adds, to more laughter.

Layton, however, appears deadly serious when he pitches the coalition as a potentially unifying force in federal politics.

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Julie Robotham, Sydney Morning Herald
Novmber 29, 2008

BABIES with a severe form of epilepsy risk having their diagnosis delayed and their treatment compromised because of a company’s patent on a key gene.

It is the first evidence that private intellectual property rights over human DNA are adversely affecting medical care.

Deepak Gill, head of neurology at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, said he would test at least 50 per cent more infants for the SCN1A gene – which would diagnose the disabling Dravet syndrome – if the hospital could conduct the test in-house.

But rights to the gene are controlled by the Melbourne-based Genetic Technologies, which has already threatened to stop public hospitals testing for breast cancer gene mutations, and the hospital will not risk a similar problem.

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CBC News
November 28, 2008

The British government bought control of the country’s second-largest bank Friday after current stockholders refused to take up billions of shares offered by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC.

The government will own 57.9 per cent of the bank’s stock after a recapitalization deal closed Friday, the bank said. The bank had offered 22.9 billion shares at about $1.25 (65.5 pence) each to its current owners, but they bought only a tiny fraction of the issue because the price was higher than the market price, about $1 (53 pence) on Friday.

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How secret can they be? Everyone from Jim Flaherty to the IMF itself are calling for centralizing power in the IMF’s hands.

Paul Joseph Watson, Infowars.net
November 28, 2008

Texas Congressman Ron Paul has warned that international forces are planning the creation of a global central bank that will see a new fiat monetary system come to dominate the world economy.

The 2008 presidential candidate also warned that Barack Obama’s administration will only represent a change in faces and not in policies.

Speaking about the recent G20 meeting Paul told Russia Today:

“I think something will come of it but you probably didn’t hear about it yet. There was some pomp and ceremony that the public knew about, but behind the scenes they were talking about the future and what they are going to do to try to internationalize all regulations, going in the opposite direction of free market and more towards international regulations. I’m sure they even talked about an international central bank.”

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On again, off again… on again.

Richard Blackwell, Globe and Mail
November 28, 2008

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says the government will “stay on track” and leave the cuts to political party subsidies in the financial package to be introduced in Parliament next week.

Speaking to reporters Friday after a speech in Toronto, Mr. Flaherty said the changes are “in the financial plan of the government of Canada” and will remain.

The changes are not included in Friday’s ways and means motion because they are not tax measures, he said, but they will not be removed from the overall legislation.

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See how that works? Too bad our elected representatives have not deigned to allow the commoners a vote on the Tory plan to economically integrate Canada with the EU.

BBC News
November 28, 2008

A committee of MPs in the Republic of Ireland has concluded that a second Irish referendum on the EU’s hotly disputed Lisbon Treaty is feasible.

Irish voters rejected the reform treaty in a referendum in June.

But the cross-party committee said “no legal obstacle appears to exist to having a referendum either on the same issue… or some variation thereof”.

The No campaigners insist that “no means no” and that there cannot be a re-run of the referendum.

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“I AM the law” – Judge Dredd

Kirk Makin, The Globe and Mail
November 28, 2008

Idea one of several to streamline lengthy trials recommended in new report

Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney-General will combat a plague of sprawling mega-trials by installing on-site prosecutors in police stations and creating superjudges to deal with pretrial motions early and swiftly.

“We are going to have our major-case Crowns located right in with the police, so that we have a close-working collaborative relationship with the police very early on in these major cases,” Attorney-General Chris Bentley said in an interview yesterday.

He said he has already begun to implement some of the 41 recommendations in a keenly awaited report on how to stop the spread of costly, runaway criminal trials – scheduled for release today and obtained by The Globe and Mail yesterday.

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Why are Chretien and Broadbent talking? They’re not elected representatives.  They have zero authority- Layton and Dion should be meeting if anyone.

Canadian Press
November 28, 2008

Conservatives back down over party funding changes after Liberals, NDP threaten to form coaltion

OTTAWA—The Conservative government says a plan to strip political parties of their public financing won’t be included in a confidence vote on the fall fiscal update.

Government sources said this morning that only tax measures will be part of the ways and means motion that parliamentarians will vote upon on Monday.

It’s a sharp reversal for the minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

When the fiscal update was delivered yesterday, government officials and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty expressly stated the party financing measures would be considered matters of confidence.

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A “conspiracy” to commit an act of misconduct in a public office? First, everybody knows that conspiracies don’t exist, the media tells us so. Second, although this breathtakingly cavalier move by UK PM Gordon Brown smacks of authoritarianism and parallels Stephen Harper’s simultaneous gambit to gut the Canadian opposition’s coffers, there’s nothing to be worried about, nothing to see here. Move along. Do not question your rulers. Big Brother loves you.

Andrew Sparrow, The Guardian
November 28, 2008

Brown says government ministers were not warned in advance of decision to arrest shadow immigration minister over leaked documents

Gordon Brown was accused of condoning “a contempt of parliament” today after he refused to be drawn into the row about the arrest of Tory frontbencher Damian Green by counter-terrorism police.

The prime minister said today that he supported “the independence of the police” and that government ministers were not warned in advance of the decision to arrest Green over the publication of leaked documents allegedly sent to the Tories by a government whistleblower.

Green, the shadow immigration minister, was held for nine hours before being released late last night. His Ashford constituency home and office in Kent, his London home, and his office in the House of Commons were all searched.

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