statism watch

The scope and context of this presently non-commercial journal would of course be impossible under the conditions outlined below. Naturally, newspaper companies own the newspapers they print. And they may charge for access to their services if they wish, though this poses problems for open dialogue and democratic debate. But it’s a long, long step from that position to assert that the media owns the news.

Flashback: Reuters Steps Up; Says Linking, Excerpting, Sharing Are Good Things For The News | Associated Press Tries To DRM The News | Should linking be illegal?

The Associated Press
September 10, 2009

IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and even Google respond to request by Newspaper Association of America for proposals on ways to easily, unobtrusively charge for news on the Web

Some of the world’s biggest technology companies say they can help publishers successfully charge readers for news online.

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Flashback: Flaherty chooses himself as authority on banking oversight | 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

Steven Chase, Justine Hunter, The Globe and Mail
September 10, 2009

Blaming ‘divergence of forecasts,’ Finance Minister pledges to put Ottawa back in the black but won’t promise to eliminate deficit by specific date

Putting the best possible pre-election gloss on forecasts of deeper red ink for Ottawa, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is assuring Canadians the light at the end of the deficit tunnel should be visible by 2015. [Ed. Note: Two years later than forecast a couple of months back.]

Mr. Flaherty refused to promise when the Conservatives might balance the budget – blaming a murky economic outlook – but insisted the Tories are the only party that can be trusted to bring Ottawa back into surplus without raising taxes or cutting transfers to provinces.

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Flashback: Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites | Warming oceans mean less cloud cover | Global Warming or Global Cooling? A New Trend in Climate Alarmism | Counterpoint: Climate skepticism for beginners | E-mails indicate EPA suppressed report skeptical of global warming | Polar bear expert barred from conference by global warming advocates | Global warming alarmists out in cold | Revealed: Antarctic ice growing, not shrinking | Scientists warn global warming accelerating | Top Japanese Scientists: Warming Is Not Caused By Human Activity | IPCC caught with false figures, doubt cast on accuracy of global temperature record

Matt Rogers, Washington Post
September 10, 2009

This Capital Weather Gang blog entry is written with considerable trepidation given the politically-charged atmosphere surrounding human-induced global warming.

I am a meteorologist with a life-long weather fascination. As I’m sure you know, meteorology is an inexact science due to the large number of variables involved in predicting and understanding the weather. I frequently say that weather forecasting is a humbling endeavor, and I have learned to respect its challenges. From this perspective, you might be able to better understand why I wince when hearing pronouncements such as “the science is settled”, “the debate is over”, or even the “the temperature in the 2050s is projected to be…” I realize that forecasting climate and weather are different, but both involve a large number of moving parts.

There are numerous reasons why I question the consensus view on human-induced climate change covered extensively on this blog by Andrew Freedman. But for this entry, I scaled them down to ten:

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Another global, multilateral initiative to strip you of any semblance of privacy. In Sweden. In the UK. In the USA, in Australia, France, Germany, and Canada (to date). Of course, national papers aren’t going to point that out. And if you don’t take steps to let someone else know – friends, family, anyone you’re comfortable talking with – the next generation may just grow up thinking it’s normal to be spied on 24/7.

Flashback: UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | Cybersecurity Is Framework For Total Government Regulation & Control Of Our Lives | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | 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 | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck

Omar El Akkad, The Globe and Mail
September 10, 2009

Federal, provincial privacy watchdogs express concern about proposed laws that would give authorities greater surveillance powers over Internet and wireless communications

Isn’t that convenient – suddenly, all these Western states want to institute a carbon tax to ’save the earth’. As though people aren’t taxed enough. As though, even if you hold truck with anthropogenic global warming, it’s going to do a lick of good. As though word won’t get out eventually it’s a shakedown to fund a centralized system of ‘global governance’ under the aegis of the UN. If Sarkozy and his antics don’t turn your stomach, surely the scope, the arrogance, the deception of this plan will.

Flashback: Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Google PowerMeter to track home energy usage in Toronto test drive | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Ontario joins continental WCI cap-and-trade scheme | B.C. carbon tax kicks in on Canada Day | They call it cap and trade, but it’s just another fuel tax | Quebec, Ontario sign historic climate pact | Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry ‘carbon ration cards’, say MPs | CEOs call for ‘aggressive’ action on climate change

Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian
September 10, 2009

French president vows to lead fight against global warming with tax to encourage cuts in fossil fuel consumption

Nicolas Sarkozy today vowed to lead the fight to “save the human race” from global warming, launching a carbon tax to encourage French families and industry to cut their use of fossil fuels.

From 2010, France will become the biggest European economy to levy a carbon tax, following other successful schemes introduced by Nordic countries in the 1990s.

The tax – initially set at €17 (£15) per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions – will be levied on individuals and businesses for fossil fuel consumption.

It means family fuel bills will rise, while businesses will pay more for factories run on fossil fuels.

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Mr. Siddiqui makes some good points, but misses the boat on the big one. It’s well enough understood that operations of this sort give rise to organic insurgency. And where such doesn’t exist, good results (at least, for would-be economic colonists) may always be obtained by funding and simulating it.

Related: Madsen: CIA collusion with “Al Qaeda” financiers and attack planners | A Sibel Edmonds Bombshell – Bin Laden Worked for U.S. Until 9/11 | Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups | Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries | Delta Force Officer: We Weren’t Allowed to Kill Osama Bin Laden | Low Level Driver Convicted Of Terror Charges While Bin Laden’s Senior Body Guard Was Let Go | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Report: U.S. Gave Green Light For Taliban Prison Attack | New Bin Laden Video: 100% Forgery | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation

Haroon Siddiqui, Toronto Star
September 10, 2009

Eight years later there is more terrorism in the world and we are paying the price in Afghanistan

Eight years after 9/11, we know that:

The war on terror spawned infinitely more terrorism worldwide than there was before this war.

The war on Iraq was launched even though the U.S. – contrary to its public assertions – knew that Saddam Hussein had no WMDs and no links to Al Qaeda.

The war on Afghanistan has been going downhill ever since the mission of toppling the Taliban, hosts to the plotters of the Sept. 11 massacre, was swiftly accomplished in November 2001.

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Flashback: Germany OKs Magna bid to acquire GM’s Opel | Auto bailout costs soar, contribute to $50B deficit | Fiat aims to be global powerhouse by acquiring Chrysler, Opel | US government may take controlling share of General Motors

CBC News
September 10, 2009

Canada’s Magna International Inc. seemingly won a drawn out auction for General Motors Co.’s Opel unit in Europe on Thursday by gaining the approval of governments and the trust overseeing the unit.

On Thursday, GM and German Chancellor Angela Merkel both confirmed that the U.S. automaker has picked a bid by Magna International Inc. and Russian bank Sberbank.

Under the terms of the Magna bid, Magna and Sberbank would get a 55 per cent stake in Opel. GM would hold onto a 35 per cent stake and Opel workers would get 10 per cent.

In siding with the Magna bid, GM’s board rejected a competing offer from RHJ International, a Brussels-based investment house.

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Ontario is appealing this, of course.

Flashback: Surveillance plane tagged wrong car, seized for street racing, woman says | Cops can now ‘take all your stuff’ | Justice Critic Brands Street Racing Vehicle Seizure Law as “Police State-ism”

Iain Marlow, Jason Miller, The Toronto Star
September 10, 2009

Speeding conviction violated 62-year-old’s human rights

Jane Raham admits she panicked when she pushed on the accelerator to overtake the tractor-trailer.

The 62-year-old grandmother of four was in a steady column of traffic along a desolate stretch of Highway 7 near Kaladar, doing 90 km/h where the posted speed limit was 80 km/h. An OPP officer in an unmarked car was gliding along behind her when she pulled out to pass and hit the gas.

The officer registered her speed: 131 km/h, more than 50 km/h over the speed limit – just enough to merit the grandmother, who volunteer teaches adult literacy courses, an automatic conviction for stunt driving under provincial law.

Now an Ontario Court judge has overturned her guilty verdict and ruled a section of Ontario’s stunt driving law is unconstitutional.

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