statism watch

Ellen Barry, New York Times
April 7, 2009

MOSCOW — A crowd of more than 10,000 young Moldovans materialized seemingly out of nowhere on Tuesday to protest against Moldova’s Communist leadership, ransacking government buildings and clashing with the police.

The sea of young people reflected the deep generation gap that has developed in Moldova, and the protesters used their generation’s tools, gathering the crowd by enlisting text-messaging, Facebook and Twitter, the social messaging network.

The protesters created their own searchable tag on Twitter, rallying Moldovans to join and propelling events in this small former Soviet state onto a Twitter list of newly popular topics, so people around the world could keep track.

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Recent: Pentagon fires Omar Khadr’s lawyer

Michelle Shephard, Toronto Star
April 7, 2009

A Guantanamo judge has reinstated Omar Khadr’s chief military lawyer, Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, ruling that his superior did not have the power to fire him.

The latest development, just five days after Kuebler was told he no longer represented Khadr, adds more confusion to an already uncertain trial.

Air Force Col. Peter Masciola, Guantanamo’s chief defence lawyer, said he plans to appeal the decision.

“We believe the military judge has erred as a matter of law,” stated an email sent from Guantanamo by deputy chief defence lawyer Michael Berrigan.

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Think this is just a mistake, an isolated set of incidents? Some bad apples?

Flashback: Police erased cellphone video of fatal shooting, witness alleges | UK: Calling the police to account for anti-photography law | Australian Citizen Journalist Charged for Filming Police under Anti-Terror Law | Charges laid after Winnipeg street blocked off for hours

Canadian Press
April 7, 2009

VANCOUVER — The B.C. Civil Liberties Association wants Vancouver police reminded that they can’t just seize photos and videos from witnesses.

The association said there have been three incidents where police have tried to seize cameras and video cameras — all three in cases of police-involved shootings.

In a complaint to board chairman Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, association executive director David Eby outlined his concerns that police officers are interfering with the rights of those taking pictures or video.

The police department doesn’t have adequate policy on when police can seize cameras, so officers are making mistakes, Mr. Eby said Tuesday.

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Oh, well – guess we’re just going to have to shut down the open Internet and get everyone to sign on to a new one. Sure, you’ll have to submit to secure identification before you can use it, and sign a massive EULA, but it’s going to be fast, and we promise you’ll be entertained. Just think! Funny animals in HD on Youtube!

Flashback: Should Obama Control the Internet? | Cybersecurity law would give feds unprecedented net control | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Do We Need a New Internet? | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | John Manley, committed globalist, to chair Munk Centre’s School of International Studies | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck

Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press
April 7, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon spent more than $100-million (U.S.) in the last six months responding to and repairing damage from cyberattacks and other computer network problems, military leaders said Tuesday.

Air Force General Kevin Chilton, who heads U.S. Strategic Command, said the military is only beginning to track the costs, which are triggered by constant daily attacks against military networks ranging from the Pentagon to bases around the country.

“The important thing is that we recognize that we are under assault from the least sophisticated — what I would say the bored teenager — all the way up to the sophisticated nation-state, with some pretty criminal elements sandwiched in-between,” said Gen. Chilton, adding that the motivations include everything from vandalism to espionage. “This is indeed our big challenge, as we think about how to defend it.”

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Flashback: In Australia, censored hyperlinks could cost you | Australian web censorship plan to begin trial despite house opposition | Do We Need a New Internet? | Britain unveils plans for nationalized internet service | Australia to Implement Mandatory Internet Censorship

Ryan Singel, Wired.com
April 7, 2009

The Australian government announced plans Tuesday to bring the future to the Land Down Under by spending up to $31 billion ($43 billion AUS) over eight years to create a nationwide fiber optic and wireless broadband network.

Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd promises that the “new super fast National Broadband Network” will stimulate Australia’s ailing economy and bring broadband to every Australian home, school and business.

“This historic nation-building investment will help transform the Australian economy and create the jobs and businesses of the 21st century,” the Rudd government said in a press release.

The government will create a new company that will accept investment from outside companies but will be majority-owned by the government.

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This is an excellent short article that should be of interest to anyone who may not have heard that there are alternatives to the usual way in which we view political issues. Ms. Selick reminds us of a conception of political classification that adds an additional dimension to the one-dimensional paradigm pushed by the media and thus transcends it. Clearly, viewing political issues strictly in terms of ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ is an outmoded view that channels political discussion away from alternatives which are not approved of by the cultural establishment. One qualification is necessary, however: while this journal obviously holds some views similar to libertarians in the political realm, it is not Libertarian in the strong sense. While Ms. Selick may not be a ‘libertine’ herself, this is not necessarily the case with every libertarian – libertarianism is exclusively a political movement (as she rightly points out) and has no explicitly defined view of ethics, epistemology, or metaphysics which all its adherents would unreservedly support. The problem is that those social/political movements that lack this foundation have no means by which to validate their own principles. The alternative is to consider them as properly belonging to the conclusions of a rational philosophy. It is our vision here to meet this challenge, by applying the methods and precepts of natural philosophy to the news of the day with verve and insight.

Karen Selick, National Post
April 7, 2009

The following is an edited excerpt from Karen Selick’s recent presentation to the Manning Networking Conference and Exhibition in Ottawa.

Perhaps the best way to explain libertarianism is to show you the graph developed in 1969 by an American named David Nolan. Nolan observed that the traditional political spectrum of “left versus right” is spectacularly unilluminating. There are simply too many nuances in political ideology to map the differences on a single dimension.

So Nolan said, “Let’s add a second dimension — a vertical axis perpendicular to the traditional left-right spectrum.” His political map looked like an L-shaped graph.

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Wondering why Obama is selling out his supporters to Wall Street and military concerns? You may want to screen a recent film entitled The Obama Deception. Got some comments about the film? Why not discuss it in our forums?

John Byrne, Rawstory.com
April 6, 2009

Wants case against NSA dismissed

President Barack Obama invoked “state secrets” to prevent a court from reviewing the legality of the National Security Agency’s warantless wiretapping program, moving late Friday to have a lawsuit that challenged the program dismissed.

The move — which holds that information surrounding the massive eavesdropping program should be kept from the public because of its sensitivity — follows an earlier decision in March to block handover of documents relating to the Bush Administration’s decision to spy on a charity. The arguments also mirror the Bush Administration’s efforts to dismiss an earlier suit against AT&T.

The Friday brief involves a lawsuit filed by the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is suing the NSA for the wiretapping program. The agency monitored the telephone calls and emails of thousands of people within the United States without a court’s approval in an effort to thwart terrorist attacks.

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