statism watch

How will carbon credits play into all of this? Just another sordid tax on human activity, or might they actually do something to help the environment? And just how closely would our emissions – and by extention, our travel habits, energy consumption, dining preferences, etc – be tracked? If the IMF gets its wish to become the mint for a world government, will some new currency or financial instrument be yoked to a carbon credit system?

Jasmeet Sidhu, Toronto Star
December 1, 2008

POZNAN, POLAND — Against a backdrop of global financial crises, the UN Climate Change Conference opened today with a call for a new climate deal by 2009.

At the same time, conference leaders cautioned that competing national interests and conflicting objectives should not trump the urgency of the climate issue and the need to reach a global agreement in time for the Copenhagen conference next year.

“Today, we are starting our two weeks of difficult work. Don’t let particular interests obscure objectives and the need to change the present direction taken by humanity,” said Maciej Nowicki, the conference president.

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Keith Leslie, Toronto Star
December 1, 2008

Ontario’s Liberal government stonewalled for months instead of answering questions related to a youth who claims he was beaten by guards while in provincial custody, Children’s Advocate Irwin Elman charged today.

Last week, Elman announced that he was being forced to take legal action against the Ministry of Children’s and Youth Services after provincial officials ignored repeated requests for information, some of it general and some of it specific to the youth who had turned to his office for help.

“There is one investigation report that I’ve asked for repeatedly over the past four months (and) unfortunately had to take step of pursuing this in court,” Elman told a legislative committee today.

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Dan Dicks, PressforTruth.ca
December 1, 2008

I recently confronted former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin during a lecture at Western University in London Ontario.

I questioned him on his Bilderberg attendance and the signing of the Security and Prosperity Partnership. I also gave him a copy of The Nation’s Deathbed which Martin promises to watch. Watch the video below:

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Canadians should keep the pressure on when it comes to these cards. Great as it is, this is but temporary victory as international interests press for the adoption of this technology. As it was laid out in the SPP’s June 2005 Report to Leaders, partners are required to “test technology and make recommendations, over the next 12 months, to enhance the use of biometrics in screening travelers destined to North America with a view to developing compatible biometric border and immigration systems.” It’s precisely this international compatibility that has led some commentators to worry that this represents the thin edge of the wedge towards a world ID card. With Canada, the US, Britain, and other countries adopting the technology, and agencies such as Interpol calling for shared facial recognition databases, these fears seem increasingly justified.

Jim Bronskill, Canadian Press
December 1, 2008

Ottawa has quietly dropped plans to let the United States house a database of personal information about Canadians who hold special driver’s licences aimed at better securing the border.

The move follows vocal criticism from federal and provincial privacy commissioners, who warned earlier this year the scheme could open the door to abuse of the sensitive data.

However, the office of federal Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart is still wary of the plan to share information on so-called enhanced driver’s licences with the United States, and stresses the passport is still the ideal travel document for Canadians.

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Or what? They’ll bomb them more?

Peter Walker, The Guardian
December 01, 2008

US secretary of state urges restraint as India raises security to ‘war level’ and blames neighbour for Mumbai killing spree

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, today called for “total transparency” from Pakistan over the Mumbai terror attacks as India’s government called the mass killings a “grave setback” to relations with its neighbour.

“What we are emphasising to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads,” Rice told reporters travelling with her to London, where she will meet David Miliband, the foreign secretary.

“I don’t want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that’s what we expect.”

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We’ll see our share of American troops in the streets here, too, should a ‘domestic incident’ occur, thanks to the troop sharing agreements that were signed earlier this year between the Canadian government and NORTHCOM. Next time, it won’t be to shovel snow in Toronto.

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
December 1, 2008

The Washington Post today reports on plans to station 20,000 more U.S. troops inside America for purposes of “domestic security” from September 2011, an expansion of Northcom’s militarization of the country in preparation for potential civil unrest following a total economic collapse or a mass terror attack.

“The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials,” reports the Post.

“Domestic emergency deployment may be “just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority,” or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU’s National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of “a creeping militarization” of homeland security.”

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An army of automated hunter-killer units would enable a discrete power base to maintain control of an insurgent population without all the fuss and mess of maintaining conscience-ridden human troops in a warzone. Something tells me we’re not talking about writing Asimov’s Laws into these mercenary droids.

Tim Shipman, Telegraph UK
December 1, 2008

The US Army and Navy have both hired experts in the ethics of building machines to prevent the creation of an amoral Terminator-style killing machine that murders indiscriminately.

By 2010 the US will have invested $4 billion in a research programme into “autonomous systems”, the military jargon for robots, on the basis that they would not succumb to fear or the desire for vengeance that afflicts frontline soldiers.

A British robotics expert has been recruited by the US Navy to advise them on building robots that do not violate the Geneva Conventions.

Colin Allen, a scientific philosopher at Indiana University’s has just published a book summarising his views entitled Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “The question they want answered is whether we can build automated weapons that would conform to the laws of war. Can we use ethical theory to help design these machines?”

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Perhaps a predetermined referendum is in order? It’s become quite clear that monetary and economic integration of global financial systems substantially predates the current economic crises. It’s essentially a pet ideology of those with global interests – so any crisis becomes a convenient opportunity to implement the kind of ‘interdependence’ and ‘governance’ desired. Watch your back, Canada – a similar model has been called for here as well.

The Guardian UK
December 1, 2008

Some British politicians considering signing up to single currency in bid to beat effects of global economic crisis, according to José Manuel Barroso

The UK is “closer” to joining the euro than ever before, according to the president of the European commission.

José Manuel Barroso said some British politicians were considering signing up to the single currency in a bid to beat the effects of the global economic crisis.

He told French radio station RTL: “We are now closer than ever before.

“I’m not going to break the confidentiality of certain conversations, but some British politicians [Ed. Note: Eg; Gordon Brown] have already told me, ‘If we had the euro, we would have been better off.’”

But Barroso admitted that the majority of people in the UK were still opposed to the idea of joining the single currency.

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Wojciech Moskwa, Reuters
December 1, 2008

REYKJAVIK – Iceland marked the 90th anniversary of its autonomy on Monday with its economy in ruins, its confidence fading fast and its future uncertain.

The country faces pressing problems concerning its immediate economic situation and more strategic, long-term questions over whether to stay independent or try to join the European Union.

Ravaged by the global financial crisis, Iceland’s three top banks collapsed in October, an emphatic end to an era of cheap foreign funding which had driven a decade-long economic boom.

“Our situation has never been worse in 90 years… and most people still don’t realise how serious it is,” said Vilhjalmur Bjarnason, a professor of finance at the University of Iceland.

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Malcolm Morrison, Canadian Press
December 1, 2008

Big losses in energy and financial stocks led to a morning retreat of about 600 points on the Toronto stock market as investors took profits from last week’s surge.

It was uncertain whether the political turmoil in Ottawa and the prospects of the ouster of the federal Conservative minority government had much of an impact on Monday’s stocks selloff. The dollar, however, fell nearly a third of a cent on currency markets.

Analysts noted that a big drop in oil prices and shares of energy, materials companies and the banks – the three main sectors on Canada’s stock market – were behind most of the selloff. The latest statistics Monday showed the economic slump is worsening.

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