statism watch

A little frustrated? Talk back to an authority? Three months in the hole under the Patriot Act, slave. That’s the new freedom.

Ralph Vartabedian and Peter Pae, The LA Times
January 20, 2009

At least 200 passengers have been convicted of felonies under the Patriot Act, often for behavior involving raised voices and profanity. Some experts say airlines are misusing the law.

Reporting from Los Angeles and Oklahoma City — Tamera Jo Freeman was on a Frontier Airlines flight to Denver in 2007 when her two children began to quarrel over the window shade and then spilled a Bloody Mary into her lap.

She spanked each of them on the thigh with three swats. It was a small incident, but one that in the heightened anxiety after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks would eventually have enormous ramifications for Freeman and her children.

A flight attendant confronted Freeman, who responded by hurling a few profanities and throwing what remained of a can of tomato juice on the floor.

The incident aboard the Frontier flight ultimately led to Freeman’s arrest and conviction for a federal felony defined as an act of terrorism under the Patriot Act, the controversial federal law enacted after the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

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Reuters
January 20, 2009

REYKJAVIK, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Icelandic police fired pepper spray on Tuesday to control protesters demanding that the government resign for overseeing the country’s economic collapse.

A crowd estimated by police at more than 1,000, some hammering on pots and pans, gathered around the Althing parliament building in the capital Reykjavik.

“About 20 persons have sought assistance from medics, stationed by the Althing, to get treatment after having been sprayed with pepper spray,” Icelandic police chief Sigurbjorn Jonsson told Reuters.

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Flashback: Beijing peasants bullied, beaten off of family farms by state-developer blocs

BBC News
January 20, 2009

Five protesters and a police officer have been killed in a blaze that broke out amid clashes in the South Korean capital, Seoul.

President Lee Myung-bak has ordered an inquiry into the incident, in which 23 people were also injured.

The blaze broke out as police stormed a building occupied by some 40 people, who resisted, using firebombs and acid.

The protesters were demanding better compensation to leave the property, which is scheduled for redevelopment.

The incident threatens to spark a political controversy.

It comes just two days after President Lee replaced the country’s police chief, who had been widely criticised for being too hard on anti-government protesters.

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Torture is neither moral nor practical: it creates an incentive to produce false evidence. Case in point. Despite what you may have ‘learned’ from watching 24.

Michelle Shephard, Tonda MacCharles, The Toronto Star
January 20, 2009

An FBI agent’s claim that Omar Khadr had seen Maher Arar at terrorist “safe houses” in Afghanistan was severely undermined today when a military court was told that Arar was in North America during the time in question.

FBI Special Agent Robert Fuller testified Monday that Khadr said he recognized a photo of Arar during an October 2002 interrogation.

Under questioning Tuesday, Fuller said Khadr saw Arar in Afghanistan during late September or October 2001.

A Canadian judicial inquiry determined in 2006 that Arar was working in San Diego on a business trip on the day of the 9/11 terror attacks — and back in Canada in October. In fact, Arar first drew the interest of the RCMP when he met another man they were watching in an Ottawa cafe Oct. 12, 2001.

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Do you feel the spirit of the inaugaration is best captured by the phrase ‘Hope and change’, or alternatively, by ‘Change and hope’? Seriously, this journal can only hope that the salutory effect that the ‘World’s President’ has had on race relations won’t change once people realize how beholden he is to powerful interests – the messianic hype has been just incredible, and historically that hasn’t always turned out well.

Gregory Katz, Associated Press
January 20, 2009

LONDON—The arrival of a new American president triggered joy and jubilation in a world made weary by warfare, recession and fear.

Bulls and goats were slaughtered for feasts in Kenya, toasts were offered at black-tie balls in Europe and shamans in Latin America chanted Barack Obama’s name with reverence.

From Kenya and Indonesia, where Barack Obama has family ties, to Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, Obama’s inauguration sparked a volcanic explosion of hope for better days ahead.

The ascendance of the first African-American to the presidency of the United States was heralded as marking a new era of tolerance and possibility.

Nelson Mandela, the former South African president who also inspired millions, sent a letter to Obama shortly before his inauguration.

“Your election to this high office has inspired people as few other events in recent times have done,” Mandela wrote.

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Richard Blackwell, The Globe and Mail
January 20, 2009

TORONTO — Canada’s environmental and energy policy will be inextricably linked to that of the new Obama administration in the United States, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Tuesday.

In a speech to a group of CEOs in Toronto, Mr. Prentice said there must be a bilateral approach to North American energy and environment policy.

That means a common cap and trade system for carbon emissions, a shared target for low-carbon power generation, a common mandate for producing bio-fuels, and common fuel efficiency standards.

A key part of the common policy must be a concrete plan to reduce North America’s dependence on foreign oil, Mr. Prentice said.

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CBC News
January 20, 2009

Natural gas from Russia began flowing across Ukraine again on Tuesday morning, nearly two weeks after the key pipeline feeding parts of Europe had been closed.

The Russian gas monopoly Gazprom opened the flow around 10:30 a.m. Moscow time, spokesman Boris Sapozhnikov said from a metering station in a town in western Russia. Officials at another station on the Russian-Ukrainian border confirmed the gas was moving.

Millions of Europeans were left in the cold after Russia halted supplies on Jan. 7 over a dispute with Ukraine about a new contract on the price of gas. The old contract expired on Jan. 1.

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