statism watch

It seems every time a rock gets kicked over in those rarefied corners of society where hierarchy and power are the currency, some pedophile guild is as likely as not to scuttle out. When the abuse extends to significant portions of oppressed populations – as it has with the Irish and native Americans – it serves as a collective trauma and helps keep them in thrall. Is this a deliberate policy or simply an emergent property of centralized power? It’s unlikely we’ll ever see the results of that study. This movie has actually been out for a while, but it’s news to this journal. You may view it on Youtube here.

Flashback: Pope Benedict calls for a ‘true world political authority’ | Abuse ‘endemic’ in Irish Roman Catholic schools: Report | Pope warns Italy in danger of returning to fascism

London Evening Standard
September 30, 2009

The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight.

In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church’s interests ahead of child safety.

The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated.

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Well, the Stormtroopers have their black body armour – and they’re two steps away from having a blaster. Great millenium this is turning out to be. Now all we need is for someone to design a laser sword and we’re off to the Clone Wars.

Flashback: G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | RCMP tests Tasers that record video | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | Sonic weapons used in Iraq positioned at congressional townhall meetings in San Diego county | UK: Police may be issued with new high-power Taser | TASER introduces 3-shot semiauto | Microwave weapon will rain pain from the sky | Safety Tests MIA for Taser’s Shocking New Shotgun | TASER launches new headcam for police – with ‘privacy mode’ | All officers need Tasers, police associations say | US police could get ‘pain beam’ weapons | Army Orders Pain Ray Trucks; New Report Shows ‘Potential for Death’ | TASER bracelets considered for airline passengers | ‘Peel and Stick’ Tasers Electrify Riot Control | Tasers: the next generation

Paul Marks, New Scientist
September 30, 2009

THE Pentagon’s efforts to develop a beam weapon that can deter an adversary by causing a burning sensation on their skin has taken a step forward with the development of a small, potentially hand-held, version. The weapon, which is claimed to cause no permanent harm, could also end up being used by police to control civilians.

The idea of the weapon is to “create a heating sensation that repels individual adversaries”, according to the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) in Quantico, Virginia, which develops less-lethal weapons for the US military and coastguard.

Tests with a rifle-mounted infrared laser, carried out at a US air force lab near Dayton, Ohio, have determined a combination of laser pulse power and wavelength that causes an alarming, hot sensation on the skin, but which stops short of causing a burn, says JNLWD project engineer Wesley Burgei.

The JNLWD says that tests at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s human effectiveness lab have established that the skin heating effect causes no permanent damage – suggesting it may have “military utility”. The tests also highlighted areas in need of improvement before troops can use it, says lab manager Semih Kumru – though what those features are has not been revealed.

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Let’s review – now border guards get to throw out your drinks – despite the fact it’s impossible to make TATP bombs in an airport washroom – force you to take your belt and shoes off, and look at your junk. And we don’t mean your luggage.

Flashback: Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’

Thomas Frank, USA Today
September 30, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Transportation Security Administration plans to install 150 security machines at airport checkpoints that enable screeners to see under passengers’ clothes.

The installation will vastly expand the use of the controversial body scanners, which can reveal hidden bombs and knives. But the devices have been labeled as intrusive by some lawmakers. The House of Representatives in June overwhelmingly passed a measure that would restrict their use by the TSA to passengers flagged by other types of screening, such as metal detectors. The measure is pending in the Senate.

TSA spokeswoman Kristin Lee said the machines are “critical” to stopping terrorists with homemade bombs that may elude metal detectors. The agency hasn’t decided which airports will get the machines, Lee said.

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The Federal Reserve needs to be audited.

Flashback: Judge Orders Federal Reserve To Disclose Who Received Bailout Trillions | Former NY governor Spitzer: Federal Reserve is ‘a Ponzi scheme, an inside job’ | Hands off the Fed, Bernanke warns Congress | US Senate Blocks Bill To Audit The Fed As Government Prepares For Second Round Of Looting | Congressman Ron Paul Slams Federal Reserve’s New Dictatorial Powers | Federal Reserve To Be Given Sweeping New Powers | HR 1207: Battle To Audit The Fed Has Only Just Begun | Geithner Said to Have Prevailed on the Bailout | Banks won’t say where U.S. bailout money going | Paulson, Bernanke defend change of plan: $700-billion now to be given directly to banks | Congress Accuses Federal Reserve Bagman Of Bailout “Bait and Switch” During Angry Hearing | U.S. government won’t use bailout fund to buy troubled assets | The Bush gang’s parting gift: a final, frantic looting of public wealth | Why Paulson’s Plan is a Fraud | Congressman Ron Paul: Bailout Will Destroy Dollar, World Economy | Congressman Ron Paul Schools Fed Chairman Bernanke on the Bailout Plan

Mark Pittman, Bloomberg
September 30, 2009

The Federal Reserve is appealing a judge’s order requiring the central bank to identify the financial institutions that benefited from its emergency loans, according to a lawyer representing Bloomberg LP.

The central bank refused to divulge details about the companies participating in its 10 remaining lending programs, saying that doing so might set off a run by depositors. The Fed had until today to seek a reversal of the Aug. 24 decision by Manhattan Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska, who ruled the Fed must release the identities, as well as disclose loan amounts and the assets put up as collateral.

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Because it’s so onerous to move your due date by four or five days either way and reformat the look of your bills to tell consumers how long they’ll be in debt. This is window dressing.

Flashback: Tight credit new threat to rebound, IMF warns ahead of Istanbul meeting | Credit card debt balloons | US credit shrinks at Great Depression rate prompting fears of double-dip recession | Credit delinquencies up 24% in June | More Canadians in arrears on credit payments | The next cellphone trick: transferring money | Canadian households $1.3-trillion in debt | Digital Money Forum Pushes For Electronic Currency | Obama signs U.S. credit card reforms into law | Credit card changes benefit families, Flaherty says | Credit companies seek to avoid regulation, create global debit system | Canadian credit card delinquencies rising | All maxed out? Budget measures would improve credit access | Now the consumer crunch: falling credit limits, rising interest rates | Coming soon to your cellphone: Your credit card via RFID chip | Bank of Canada adds $8B to credit markets | ‘Smart’ Credit Cards, Pilot Project set the Groundwork for Wireless Credit Wallets | New credit cards may shift unauthorized-transaction liabilities to the holder | $25B credit backstop for banks ‘not a bailout’: Harper | US mortgage firm bailout includes rider clause to expand police state: all credit card transactions now to be reported to IRS

Tara Perkins, The Globe and Mail
September 30, 2009

Measures ordered by Ottawa will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to implement, industry argues

New credit card rules that Ottawa published on Wednesday will cost the country’s banks hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when they are still recovering from the financial crisis, the industry says.

The rules are designed to give consumers more information about their credit card costs, but the banking industry argues that the added details may just add to consumer confusion.

“These are very complex regulations,” said Nancy Hughes Anthony, chief executive officer of the Canadian Bankers Association. “They have given us what we consider to be fairly unreasonable time frames to implement them.”

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Noooo. Really? The sad thing is that many of these professional economists (the honest ones that don’t feel it’s their direct responsibility to prop up confidence, that is) can’t see outside of the Keynesian monetary paradigm, and believe that you can always spend your way to prosperity, that you can always inflate the economy. The problem with that theory, though it works for a while, is that there are objective values that underly the economy, even when the money is a fraud – and once you’ve inflated enough of those values out of the hands of consumers and into the hands of the guys printing the money, you hit a breaking point and everything comes down. The Keynesian economy is what you might call an unsustainable ecosystem. If there aren’t enough inputs, if there aren’t enough resources to extract (or to plunder in foreign lands), then you hit a wall.

Flashback: Stephen Harper trumpets economic report card | Ottawa’s deficit plan would hike EI premiums | Canada’s $1-trillion debt baby | Flaherty sees deficit, debt, and timetable to return to surplus all expanding | Federal deficit hits $7.5B in April-May | Budget officer ‘can’t tell’ if stimulus plan working | Flaherty looks for way to end stimulus | Stimulus cash is flowing – down a hole? | Harper lays out stimulus spending in progress report | ‘Reduced pace of deterioration’ indicates economy on the mend: Flaherty | Federal deficit to top $50B | Harper government plans deficits as deep as $30 billion | Flaherty eyes sale of Canadian government assets | Flaherty lauds Keynesian global ‘economic stimulus’ strategies

Tavia Grant, The Globe and Mail
September 30, 2009

The Canadian economy was unexpectedly flat in July, a reading that throws into question the strength of the country’s recovery.

Gross domestic product didn’t budge in the month, Statistics Canada said Wednesday, dashing economists’ expectations of a 0.5-per-cent increase. Shutdowns at mines, lower oil-and-gas extraction, civic strikes and poor weather held back growth.

Economists – and the Bank of Canada – have said July marked the start of Canada’s economic recovery after a year of flat or declining growth. Wednesday’s report, however, suggests the economy was still in the doldrums at the start of the third quarter.

“This is a shocker,” said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns, who called the report “wall-to-wall disappointment on the goods-producing front.”

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You really have to wonder about the coverage of these cases these days, since for all intents and purposes the media has become complicit in selling the threat of ‘domestic terror’ – obviously an objective of this government. (‘Public Safety Canada’ is essentially our own centralized Homeland Security Department.) Why do they no longer provide the context that the entire terror operation – the camps, the recruiting, the outlandish suggestions to cut off the PM’s head, all of it – was set up by drug addicted (and thus, compromised and controlled) agents of the RCMP/CSIS? That’s just how these agencies roll, and the public needs to know it. To that end, StatismWatch will keep pressing on the nerve of power and attempting to explode *cough* the propaganda in whatever small way we can. Now the prosecutor doesn’t think they’ve messed with this kid enough. One can’t help but feel this appeal is politically motivated, since the idea is to present this kid as a hardened criminal, and seven years just doesn’t fit in to the narrative. really, it’s not going that well for the prosecution, even with their new laws, which ignore basic legal concepts such as intent.

Flashback: The making of a homegrown terrorist | ‘Toronto 18′ member handed 14-year sentence | 2-year term sought in Toronto ‘terror plot’ | Toronto 18 ‘terror’ accused signs confession, media retreads tales of planned chaos | Toronto 18 member pleads in bomb plot | How MI5 blackmails British Muslims | New York “Terror Plot” Another Government Provocateured Set-Up | Toronto 18 Terror case: RCMP agent Shaikh was instigator who broke law: defence | Five muslims face life for Fort Dix ‘terror plot’ orchestrated by FBI | IntelCenter Releases Video of Former CIA Employee Zawahiri Threatening America | American Intelligence Contractors Leak Canadian Toronto 18 ‘Terror Training’ Video to Web | Latest Toronto 18 ‘Terror’ Wiretaps Confirm Youths Goaded by Reservist, Paid Police Informant | Australian ‘Terror Plot’ Case Bears Remarkable Similarities to ‘Toronto 18′ | FBI Informant in British terror trial given immunity, proceedings raise question of what MI5 knew about 2005 London bombings | Terror accused refuses to discuss links to Pakistan secret service, family threatened

CBC News
September 30, 2009

The federal government began an appeal of the sentence given to Saad Khalid, a member of the “Toronto 18″ group that planned a series of bomb attacks on downtown buildings.

Khalid was sentenced on Sept. 4 to 14 years in prison, but was credited with seven years for time already served.

Khalid admitted [Ed. Note: As if he actually wrote the confession he signed] that he was a member of a group that planned to commit what he called a “despicable crime” by detonating bombs outside the Toronto Stock Exchange and the headquarters of CSIS, Canada’s spy agency.

Canada’s Public Prosecution Service said Wednesday Khalid’s sentence isn’t appropriate, given the gravity of the offence to which he admitted his guilt. It has filed a notice of appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal.

The Crown had originally called for an 18- to 20-year term during Khalid’s sentencing hearing.

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Flashback: Second wave of swine flu pandemic begins to hit US | Seasonal flu shots delayed for non-seniors on fears of increased H1N1 risk | Seasonal flu shot may increase H1N1 risk | Swine flu death rate similar to seasonal flu: expert | Swine flu unlikely to become superbug | UK: Half of all pregnant women will refuse swine flu jab, poll reveals | Flu vaccine plan will be too slow: CMAJ | Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America | Canada to order 50.4 million H1N1 vaccine doses – with adjuvant additive | Genetically modified Swine Flu hybrid may provide vaccine yield solution | Washington Post: Swine Flu Vaccine Will Contain Mercury | UK Government Swine Flu Advisor On Vaccine Maker Payroll | Fast-tracked swine flu vaccine will be safe, officials insist | Swine flu: How scared should we be? | Top Epidemiologist Slams Swine Flu Fearmongering | Legal immunity set for swine flu vaccine makers | Swine flu ‘related’ to 1918 pandemic virus – survivors exhibit resistance | Did leak from a laboratory cause swine flu pandemic? | Swine Flu May Be Human Error; WHO Investigates Claim | Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions | ‘Accidental’ Contamination Of Vaccine With Live Avian Flu Virus Virtually Impossible | Officials investigate how bird flu contaminated vaccines in Europe | Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic

CBC News
September 30, 2009

If there are lawsuits over the H1N1 vaccine, it will be the federal government, not the vaccine maker, that picks up the tab for any damages awarded by courts.

Contracts between governments and vaccine manufacturers usually include an indemnity clause that exempts companies if there are problems with a vaccine, Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, told reporters Wednesday.

The provision does not apply, however, in the case of malpractice — if a doctor injects a vaccine the wrong way, for example.

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Flashback: US military could strike Iran, but at what cost? | Iran to allow nuclear site inspection | Iran plays into Obama’s hands with disclosure of nuclear facility | UN approves nuclear ‘disarmament’ resolution | Obama scales back missile defence shield in Europe | Israel ‘will attack Iran this year’ if West does not cripple Tehran with sanctions | Brookings Publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to Trigger Iran Invasion | Netanyahu: We may be forced to attack Iran | Proposed Missile Shield seen as Provocation by Russia | Neo-cons still preparing for Iran attack | Russia threatens to ’strike’ Poland in wake of U.S. missile plan | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’ | Israeli official says attack on Iran ‘unavoidable’ | Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’ | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | U.S. sending third aircraft carrier to the Middle East | US aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | Former CIA Officer – US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

Paul Craig Roberts, Infowars.com
September 30, 2009

As there is no real case against Iran, Obama took a script from Bush’s playbook and fabricated one.

Does anyone remember all the lies that they were told by President Bush and the”Main Stream Media” about the grave threat to America from weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? These lies were repeated endlessly in the print and TV media despite the reports from the weapons inspectors, who had been sent to Iraq, that no such weapons existed.

The weapons inspectors did an honest job in Iraq and told the truth, but the mainstream media did not emphasize their findings. Instead, the media served as a Ministry of Propaganda, beating the war drums for the US government.

Now the whole process is repeating itself. This time the target is Iran.

As there is no real case against Iran, Obama took a script from Bush’s playbook and fabricated one.

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The sabre rattling continues. How dare Iran have a nuclear program and disclose an additional plant to the IAEA. Now, who wants to wipe whom off the map? Days after giving lip service to disarmament, the US is now seriously floating the idea of using nuclear weapons against Iran. Nuclear attack? ‘Yes we can’.

Flashback: Iran to allow nuclear site inspection | Iran plays into Obama’s hands with disclosure of nuclear facility | UN approves nuclear ‘disarmament’ resolution | Obama scales back missile defence shield in Europe | Israel ‘will attack Iran this year’ if West does not cripple Tehran with sanctions | Brookings Publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to Trigger Iran Invasion | Netanyahu: We may be forced to attack Iran | Proposed Missile Shield seen as Provocation by Russia | Neo-cons still preparing for Iran attack | Russia threatens to ’strike’ Poland in wake of U.S. missile plan | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’ | Israeli official says attack on Iran ‘unavoidable’ | Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’ | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | U.S. sending third aircraft carrier to the Middle East | US aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | Former CIA Officer – US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

AFP
September 30, 2009

The United States has refused to rule out military action against Iran if diplomacy fails but analysts and officials say bombing nuclear sites would carry high risks while setting back Tehran’s program by only a few years.

Military options often floated in Washington range from naval blockades, pre-emptive air strikes against nuclear-related targets or even full-scale ground assaults designed to topple the regime.

The most frequently cited scenario would involve an air attack that could damage Iran’s nuclear network while raising the danger of retaliation against US forces in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan as well as targets elsewhere.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates last week downplayed the possibility of military action, saying on Friday such a move would only “buy time” by delaying Iran’s suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons by one to three years.

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