statism watch

Military-style exercises, imported from Iraq, coming to America. And Canada, too.

Update (2009/02/21) : Apparently in response to national exposure, this particular drill has been scaled back.

Butch Heman, Carroll Daily Times Herald
February 17, 2009

The Carroll National Guard unit will train on urban military operations by holding a four-day exercise at Arcadia.

The purpose of the April 2-5 drill will be to gather intelligence, then search for and apprehend a [fictional] suspected weapons dealer, according to Sgt. Mike Kots, readiness NCO for Alpha Company.

Citizens, law enforcement, media and other supporters will participate.

Troops will spend Thursday, April 2, staging at a forward operations base at Carroll. The next day company leaders will conduct reconnaissance and begin patrolling the streets of Arcadia to identify possible locations of the [fictional] weapons dealer.

(more…)

Regulated culture is state-approved culture.

Flashback: CRTC to consider Internet regulation, invites public comment

Julian Beltrame, The Canadian Press
February 17, 2009

GATINEAU, Que. — Canadian cultural groups say the Internet and other new media should no longer get a free pass from regulation.

The groups say it’s time to make sure Canadian content doesn’t get squeezed out by mountains of material from around the world, especially as the Internet increasingly infringes on the terrain of conventional media such as television and radio.

The groups were speaking at hearings held by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on broadcasting in the new media.

The hearings aim to determine whether the regulator’s hands-off approach adopted a decade ago still makes sense.

(more…)

BBC News
February 17, 2009

A former head of MI5 has accused the government of exploiting the fear of terrorism and trying to bring in laws that restrict civil liberties.

In an interview in a Spanish newspaper, published in the Daily Telegraph, Dame Stella Rimington, 73, also accuses the US of “tortures”.

The Home Office said it was vital to strike a right balance between privacy, protection and sharing personal data.

It said any policies which impact on privacy must be “proportionate”.

Dame Stella, who stood down as the director general of the security service in 1996, has previously been critical of the government’s policies, including its attempts to extend pre-charge detention for terror suspects to 42 days and the controversial plan to introduce ID cards.

“It would be better that the government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism – that we live in fear and under a police state,” she told the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia.

(more…)

Liz Sidoti, Tom Raum, The Associated Press
February 17, 2009

DENVER – President Barack Obama put his own indelible imprint on the country’s distressed economy today, signing the huge recovery package into law, readying a $50 billion proposal to help homeowners fend off foreclosure and awaiting emergency restructuring plans from flailing automakers.

Obama said the sprawling legislation, which congressional Democrats pushed to passage last week over near-unanimous opposition from Republicans, would “set our economy on a firmer foundation.”

Obama’s first major piece of legislation, it’s a $787 billion mix of tax cuts and one of the biggest public spending programs since the Second World War.

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The Patriot Act, too, was rammed through in a crisis, unread, with consequences that will last for a very long time.

Steve Watson, Infowars.net
February 17, 2009

Texas Congressman Ron Paul has slammed the stimulus bill, passed by the House and Senate last week, as a blatant continuation of the destructive economic policy that caused the financial crisis in the first instance.

Paul, who is also a member of the House Financial Services Committee, pointed out that not one member of the House or the Senate has even read the bill.

“There were five copies available to the House and I think five to the Senate, and that wasn’t available ’til the House opened at noon time.” The Congressman told CNN viewers yesterday.

“So essentially it was not available to us and who can stay up all night and read a thousand pages?”

“So obviously it was done like business as usual. Things have been going on like this for a long time, but this one was a little bit worse, it was bigger than usual so it was not a very good day for America.” Paul said.

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