statism watch

You can’t just use the word ‘Capitalism‘ as an empty shell to insert any sort of viral ideology into that you feel like. But this is a battle with a very long history. You might say, without fear of hyperbole, that it is in fact the oldest battle.

Steve Watson, Infowars.net
January 8, 2009

Conference on future of Capitalism provides platform for luminaries to offer globalization as economic savior

The leaders of Germany and France along with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair have all called for a new global order in the wake of the financial crisis.

Blair, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy all made the tandem appeal at a conference in Paris on the future of capitalism.

Merkel criticized what she described as a lack of regulatory powers afforded to global bodies such as the IMF, stating that it has “not managed to regulate global capitalism”.

The German leader called for the creation of a new global economic body under the UN, similar to the Security Council, to judge government policy.

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This article somehow failed to mention the 7,000 troops that will be deployed in DC in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act and therefore illegal. Or it would be if George Bush hadn’t abolished it, subsequently repealed the abolition, and appended a signing statement saying he wasn’t bound by the repeal. How convenient. There’s a reason that the military wasn’t allowed to operate domestically in the past. Either in the US or in the Roman Republic.

Eileen Sullivan and Matthew Barakat, Associated Press
January 8, 2009

WASHINGTON — Police will block off all bridges crossing the Potomac River into Washington and a huge chunk of downtown when Barack Obama takes the oath of office Jan. 20, securing the largest area of the U.S. capital for any inauguration.

Some 3.5 square miles of downtown, including the business district and government buildings surrounding the National Mall, will be closed to traffic starting the afternoon of Jan. 19, the day before the inauguration, and remain closed until the morning rush hour on Jan. 21, Mr. Obama’s first full day as president. The Secret Service announced the closures Wednesday.

U.S. intelligence officials say they know of no specific, credible terror threat, but the celebration surrounding inauguration of the nation’s first black president remains an attractive target for international and domestic terrorists.

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It’s the print-and-spend… Liberals? Conservatives? We have these two labels, Left and Right, which are completely obsolete and meaningless, since both sides of this semantic pincer attack mix liberty with state control of some aspect of your life. The leftists want economic control. Those on the ‘right’ want social control, traditionally being associated with the church. But even these distinctions are now broken, since micromanagement is the order of the day for all of our political choices on offer. The real choice is – liberty or enslavement by degrees. The state’s only legitimate job is to protect our liberty, and to fulfill this mandate it is the state that must be chained, not the people. The fact that international banks engineered this disaster is no excuse to implement a police state. We will not be your wage slaves, taxed into neo-feudal serfdom through inflation.

Mussolini recognized that Fascism was the application of the state as an organizing priciple of a society that must be Imperial by nature. Revealingly, he began his career as a socialist. A quick survey of history reveals this to be a common career move. Harper and his cabinet, ironically, are taking it the other way round. Same outcome. You’ d better pull out your school texts again, Mr. Harper. Maybe you can sit down with Tom Flanagan and review your Hayek, since you don’t seem to have gotten the point. Leave the Strauss aside this time.

Bruce Campion-Smith, The Toronto Star
January 8, 2009

Strategic investments in big-ticket projects can create jobs, Baird says

OTTAWA–A massive infusion of infrastructure spending is emerging as the central plank of Ottawa’s economic recovery plan as federal Conservatives prepare to unveil “one of the most important budgets in Canadian history.”

With job worries mounting, targeted spending on roads, bridges and other big-ticket projects could help Canada weather the downturn, said Transport Minister John Baird, Ottawa’s point man on the infrastructure file.

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Why not throw another trillion on the fire? No one is going to buy US debt.

CBC News
January 8, 2009

The U.S. may not be able to recover from the current economic crisis unless immediate action is taken on a stimulus package, president-elect Barack Obama said in a major speech on the economy to be delivered Thursday.

“For every day we wait or point fingers or drag our feet, more Americans will lose their jobs,” Obama said in the speech he delivered at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

“More families will lose their savings. More dreams will be deferred and denied. And our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.”

“I don’t believe it’s too late to change course, but it will be if we don’t take dramatic action as soon as possible. If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years. The unemployment rate could reach double digits.”

Obama’s speech comes a day after the congressional budget office released figures estimating the federal budget deficit will reach an unprecedented $1.2 trillion US in 2009, up from $455 billion.

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CBC News
January 8, 2008

A United Nations aid agency is halting all aid deliveries to the besieged Gaza Strip because of Israeli attacks on UN staff and installations, a spokesperson for the agency said Thursday.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said it will suspend aid shipments until staff safety can be guaranteed.

“UNRWA decided to suspend all its operations in the Gaza Strip because of the increasing hostile actions against its premises and personnel,” said Adnan Abu Hasna, a Gaza-based UN spokesman, according to Reuters.

The announcement came shortly after Hasna said Israeli forces fired on a truck on a UN aid mission, killing the driver, during what was supposed to be a three-hour lull Thursday in the fight to allow aid to enter Gaza.

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Rory McCarthy, Mark Tran, The Guardian
January 8, 2009

Hezbollah minister denies militant group launched four Katyusha missiles as Israeli forces return fire

A minister in the Lebanese cabinet has denied Hezbollah was responsible for the firing of rockets into Israel earlier today, which led to the Israeli army returning fire and raised fears that the conflict in Gaza could spread.

The Hezbollah Labour minister, Mohammed Fneish, told the Associated Press the militant group was not aware of the rockets being fired.

At least three Katyusha rockets were fired from southern Lebanon, landing near the town of Nahariya and injuring two people.

The Israeli military fired back at the point from which the rockets were launched.

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