statism watch

Felisa Cardona, Denver Post
November 7, 2008

When a Jefferson County deputy unleashed pepper spray at unruly protesters on the first night of the Democratic National Convention, he did not know that his targets were undercover Denver police officers.

Now the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado is questioning whether that staged confrontation by police pretending to be violent inflamed other protesters or officers during the most intense night of the four-day event.

The protest occurred Aug. 25 at 15th Street and Court Place near Civic Center. Police ultimately arrested 106 people, the highest number of arrests in a single day during the convention.

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This article has more information about why the Council on Foreign Relations’ intentions are suspect. Ask yourself this, at least – why, increasingly, are governmental policies written by thinktanks and legislative branches staffed by actors, playboys, beauty pageant queens, and other cult of personality figures? Is this not simply applied marketing?

Steve Watson, infowars.net
November 7, 2008

Meet some of president elect Obama’s leading foreign and domestic policy advisors and likely administration members, every one of them a prominent member of the Council On Foreign Relations.

Will these people bring about “change” or will they continue to hold up the same entrenched system forged by the corporate elite for decades?

Susan E. Rice – Council on Foreign Relations, The Brookings Institution – Served as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under Clinton from 1997 to 2001. Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright is a longtime mentor and family friend to Rice. Critics charge that she is is ill disposed towards Europe, has little understanding of the Middle East and would essentially follow the same policies of Condoleeza Rice if appointed the next Secretary of State or the National Security Adviser.

Anthony Lake – CFR, PNAC – Bill Clinton’s first national security adviser, who was criticized for the administration’s failure to confront the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and now acknowledges the inaction as a major mistake.

Zbigniew Brzezinski – CFR, Trilateral Commission – Brzezinski is widely seen as the man who created Al Qaeda, and was involved in the Carter Administration plan to give arms, funding and training to the mujahideen in Afghanistan.

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John Spears, Toronto Star
November 7, 2008

Despite complaints of too many taxes amid tough times, council approves big rate hikes.

If you live in Toronto, get ready to pay 9 per cent more for water next year, just as you did this year, last year, and the year before.

And just as you likely will every year until 2014.

Toronto councillors passed the hefty increase by a vote of 27-13. It will raise a typical household’s annual water bill about $47, to $567. And in a 24-11 vote, council also approved a 2009 solid waste budget that shifts the cost of garbage collection from the property tax bill to a user-fee system.

Councillors who opposed the water price increase complained that the combined effect of the water hike with expected tax increases, a new tax on cars and new fees for garbage disposal will saddle a typical Toronto homeowner with a tax boost equivalent to more than 10 per cent of the average property tax bill in 2009.

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