statism watch

Welcome to the 13th century – what’s next, debtor’s prisons? Now that the economy has been blown out, the vultures are circling the herd.

Jon Ungoed-Thomas, The Times UK
December 21, 2008

The government has been accused of trampling on individual liberties by proposing wide-ranging new powers for bailiffs to break into homes and to use “reasonable force” against householders who try to protect their valuables.

Under the regulations, bailiffs for private firms would for the first time be given permission to restrain or pin down householders. They would also be able to force their way into homes to seize property to pay off debts, such as unpaid credit card bills and loans.

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Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press
December 21, 2008

OTTAWA – Washington’s plan to arm local tribes to take on the Taliban in untamed districts of Afghanistan is possibly “counter-productive” and not something Canada supports, says Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

The proposal, which the U.S. military will experiment with as up to 30,000 additional American troops surge into the country next year, has been routinely discussed by NATO defence ministers, most recently at meeting in Cornwallis, N.S.

“The tribal militia idea that has been around for some time now is controversial; we are not onboard with that,” Mr. MacKay said in a recent year-end interview with The Canadian Press.

“Our preference is to continue with this more formal training process that leads to a more reliable, more professional soldier and Afghan national security force.”

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Dean Beeby, Canadian Press
December 21, 2008

OTTAWA—Say goodbye to buck-a-bottle beer in Canada’s most populous province.

The Ontario government last month quietly hiked the minimum price that can be charged for beer, to $25.60 from $24 for a case of 24 bottles.

That 6.7 per cent increase in the floor price of a case, bottle deposit excluded, has nothing to do with supply-and-demand, production costs, overhead or distribution expenses.

Instead, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario sets minimum prices as part of its “social responsibility” mandate established in 1993. Translation: If alcohol is too cheap, you may abuse it.

But documents obtained under Ontario’s freedom-of-information law show that the Ministry of Finance, not the LCBO, pressed for higher beer prices — raising questions about the arm’s-length relationship between the two bodies.

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CBC News
December 21, 2008

Police clubbed, kicked and detained dozens of people in eastern Russia on Sunday as hundreds of people protested higher import taxes on used foreign vehicles.

Reporters said they saw officers in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok beat several people with truncheons, throw them to the ground and kick them.

About 500 people gathered in the city’s central square to demonstrate the government’s decision to bring in the higher tax on Jan. 11. The measure means all foreign cars more than three years old will be subject to a 54 per cent tax, instead of the current 48 per cent.

Police rounded up at least 100 people and put them in waiting vans during the unsanctioned protest, witnesses said. A television camera operator was among those detained, video footage showed.

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Flashback: Rove Threatened GOP IT Guru If He Does Not ‘Take the Fall’ for Election Fraud in Ohio, Says Attorney

PRNewswire
December 21, 2008

Michael Connell, the Bush IT expert who has been directly implicated in the rigging of George Bush’s 2000 and 2004 elections, was killed last night when his single engine plane crashed three miles short of the Akron airport. Velvet Revolution (”VR”), a non-profit that has been investigating Mr. Connell’s activities for the past two years, can now reveal that a person close to Mr. Connell has recently been discussing with a VR investigator how he can tell all about his work for George Bush. Mr. Connell told a close associate that he was afraid that George Bush and Dick Cheney would “throw [him] under the bus.”

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