statism watch

Let’s be clear: The ‘loonie’ is skyrocketing against the US dollar because the US dollar is falling against international currencies. You won’t find any large moves in the Canadian dollar on international markets. And the reason that the US dollar is falling is because it’s being killed off as a result of the Fed’s policies.The US can’t be fully integrated into the new global system until it’s been gutted.

Flashback: Dollar Reaches Breaking Point as Central Banks Shift Reserves | Gold continues record-breaking run | Gold price rises to all-time high | Fisk: Nations to hasten demise of dollar in new world order | US dollar set to be eclipsed, World Bank president predicts | Bilderberg Wants Global Currency Now | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | IMF approves $13bn gold sale to boost lending fund | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | G20 agrees to continue economic stimulus measures; Geithner shops international reserve accord | China Set to Buy $50 Billion in IMF Notes | Medvedev Unveils “World Currency” Coin At G8 | China calls anew for super-sovereign currency | No one talking about dumping dollar: China minister | China explores buying $50bn in IMF bonds | Chinese economists deem huge holding of US bonds “risky” as Geithner visits | A Bigger, Bolder Role Is Imagined For the IMF | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | UN & IMF Back Agenda For Global Financial Dictatorship | U.N. panel says world should ditch dollar | IMF poised to print billions of dollars in ‘global quantitative easing’ | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | IMF may need to “print money”, act as “world’s central bank” as crisis spreads | Globalists Exploit Financial Meltdown In Move Towards One World Currency | World needs new Bretton Woods, says Brown | IMF prescribes state regulation of ‘global financial order’ | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda | Banks face “new world order,” consolidation: report

You don’t say. Well, isn’t this how empire operates? But it’s the blowback and human factor that keeps things… interesting. Next, we’ll be seeing some mainstream article saying something outrageous like, oh, Hitler was set up and funded by Euro-American banking interests or, oh, George Bush’s grandfather was the main American financier for the Nazis.

Oh, wait… that’s already been confirmed. Now, just for interest’s sake, why not try a search on ‘Prescott Bush OSS‘ (The CIA’s predecessor.) Well, go on – click it. Sapere aude – dare to know.

Related: Interpol and U.N. Back ‘Global Policing Doctrine’ | Headed to National Socialism | Secret report details Nazi plan to create a European Union | Geronimo’s descendants fight Yale secret society for their ancestor’s remains | Fascist America, in 10 easy steps | Project Paperclip: The US Nazi Amnesty | How Bush’s grandfather helped Hitler’s rise to power | The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics

Associated Press
October 14, 2009

This is a Jan. 14, 1939 file photo showing Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini standing between Italian Foreign Minster Count Galeazzo Ciano and British Prime Minister Sir Neville Chamberlain, right, at the Termini railway station in Rome. AP

LONDON – A historian says Benito Mussolini was well paid as a British agent during the First World War.

The Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday that Peter Martland of Cambridge University discovered that Mussolini was paid 100 pounds a week by Britain in 1917 – equal to about 6,000 pounds ($9,600) today.

The late Samuel Hoare, in charge of British agents in Rome at that time, revealed in his memoirs 55 years go that Mussolini was a paid agent. Martland found more details in Hoare’s papers, including that Mussolini also sent Italian army veterans to beat up peace protesters in Milan, a dry run for his fascist blackshirt units.

“The last thing Britain wanted were pro-peace strikes bringing the factories in Milan to a halt. It was a lot of money to pay a man who was a journalist at the time, but compared to the 4 million pounds Britain was spending on the war every day, it was petty cash,” The Guardian quoted Martland as saying.

The salary detail also was in historian Christopher Andrew’s newly published history of the British intelligence agency MI5, to which Martland contributed.

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Flashback: Military commission suspends torture hearings, gags witness | Torture probe delayed; Tories deny gagging witness | Federal court limits Afghan detainee torture probe | Watchdog rejects government bid to delay Afghan detainee inquiry | Ottawa moves to block Afghanistan detainee torture hearings again | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’

Murray Brewster, Canadian Press
October 14, 2009

Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin visited Kandahar’s Sarpoza prison, shown here in a March 2007 photo, before writing a detailed report a month later detailing his concerns about the possible torture of prisoners. Graham Thomson/CP

OTTAWA–A Canadian diplomat warned the federal government in writing early in 2006 that Afghan prisoners faced the possibility of torture – reports that have been smothered under a blanket of national security.

The politically explosive revelation was made in an affidavit filed by Richard Colvin – now an intelligence officer with the Foreign Affairs Department – to the Military Police Complaints Commission, which once again adjourned public hearings Wednesday.

The inquiry, which is looking at what military police knew, or should have known, about possible Afghan prison torture, has been put on hold for at least six months amid court appeals over its jurisdiction.

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“Television. The drug of the nation. Breeding ignorance, and feeding radiation.” – The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy | Video

Patrick Barkham, The Guardian
October 14, 2009.

Australia is planning to restrict TV for toddlers, because of adverse effects on the brain. How scared should we be?

Get out of our living rooms. This country is in danger of becoming a politically controlled nation closer to communist China. That’s all very well if you have three hours to wash the dishes, but some of us need to get things done. Gee, these toddlers are up to no good. What are they up to? Wait for it – they’re watching television!

The outrage that has greeted reports that the Australian government is to issue cautious guidelines advising parents and carers to prevent children under two from watching television seems remarkably acerbic. Across the world, however, the same debates flare up every time it is tentatively suggested that the electronic screens we began by placing in one room at home and now carry everywhere in our pockets may not be good for the development of children’s brains.

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Flashback: Higher instance of severe H1N1 cases in natives, women | UK: National Health Service frontline staff shun H1N1 vaccine | US: Hospitals fear ‘Flumist’ H1N1 nasal vaccine could spread swine flu | New swine-flu wave hits GTA: Provincial Health Official | Canadian taxpayers on hook for any H1N1 vaccine damages | 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
October 14, 2009

Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have added to the confusion about the H1N1 vaccine on Wednesday by appearing to hedge on whether he would get immunized against the swine flu virus.

But Harper’s comments come while the country’s top pandemic planners are trying to convince people they should take the shot and that the vaccine is safe.

Harper was asked whether he and his family will get the vaccination against the H1N1 influenza A virus that causes swine flu and when he would like the vaccine to be available.

“My plan, if it’s generally recommended for people to get the vaccine, my plan is to get the vaccine,” he answered at a news conference near Edmonton on Wednesday.

“But as yet, of course, we haven’t actually made a final decision or set a date. We’re, as you know, right now, waiting [for] final approval of the vaccine, but we expect that imminently.”

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Flashback: Troops get non-combat role in Afghanistan after 2011 | Obama rules out Afghanistan troop cuts | Conservatives claim ‘no decision’ made on leaving some troops in Afghanistan past 2011 | Obama considers new strategies for Afghanistan and Pakistan | U.S. commander warns of failure in Afghanistan, calls for more troops | ‘Regrettable’ if Canada quits Afghanistan: Chertoff | Selling Canada on Afghanistan | Canada should stay in Afghanistan: NATO head | U.S. military seeks ’second surge’ for Afghan mission | UK PM Gordon Brown plans troop surge in Afghanistan | Taliban flee new U.S. drive in Afghanistan | NATO agrees to Afghan troop increase | Obama adds another brigade to Afghanistan troop surge | Afghanistan needs 4,000 extra soldiers for elections: NATO | Canada, allies will never defeat Taliban, PM says | New Canadian commander in Afghanistan welcomes U.S. troop influx | Obama eyes 3 more brigades for Afghanistan | Top U.S. general boosts troop pledge to Afghanistan | Obama’s planned troop surge in Afghanistan could lead to more violence: ISAF | US faces downward spiral in Afghan war, says leaked intelligence report | Victory impossible in Afghanistan: senior British commander | ‘Some’ Troops to stay in Afghanistan past 2011: McKay | America to assume command in Afghanistan | Obama promises 10,000 more troops for Afghanistan

Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian
October 14, 2009

PM insists Kabul must take more responsibility

Gordon Brown has said the number of British troops in Afghanistan would rise by 500 to 9,500 in a move designed to end a dispute between ministers and defence chiefs and reassure sceptics that the military presence there is worthwhile.

Brown told MPs today his decision was “consistent with what the Americans will decide”. It was a clear hint that Britain was expecting Barack Obama to agree to increase the number of US troops in Afghanistan, though not by as much as the 30,000-40,000 requested by the US commander, General Stanley McChrystal.

The prime minister told MPs the reinforcements would be subject to three conditions: troops had to be properly equipped; Hamid Karzai, the president seriously damaged by allegations of fraud and corruption, must be committed to a programme of “Afghanisation”, including the security forces; and there had to be co-ordination with other Nato countries.

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This journal notes that questions of the RCMP’s jurisdiction over Robert Dziekanki’s rights were the furthest thing from their mind that evening, now some three years past.

Flashback: Canadian police adopt new TASER directive | RCMP actions ‘gratuitous, ‘violent,’ BC needs own police lawyer tells inquiry | Braidwood inquiry reopens, RCMP bickers over preplanned TASER use | TASER files court motion to quash Braidwood probe’s findings | Mounties have no choice but to comply with TASER ruling | Justice says changes needed in Taser use | Mounties discussed Tasing Dziekanski prior to altercation | Judge: B.C. taser probe can rule on Mountie misconduct issue | Mounties want to bar Taser inquiry from finding misconduct | RCMP spokesman told to hold off correcting false details of Dziekanski incident, inquiry hears | RCMP supervising officer contradicts earlier testimony in Dziekanski inquiry | RCMP to face no charges in case of TASERed Polish immigrant: Report | Mountie involved in fatal crash was supervisor at time of airport Taser death | Perjury: Is it different for cops? | Mounties censor Taser report | Witness blames RCMP, Vancouver airport for death of Tasered man

CBC News
October 14, 2009

The inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport wrapped up Tuesday with legal arguments from several lawyers about what conclusions the commissioner can legitimately reach.

Dziekanski died Oct. 14, 2007, after the RCMP fired a Taser at him five times when he was creating a disturbance in the international arrivals lounge.

But on Tuesday, the final day of the Braidwood inquiry into his death, the makers of the Taser stun gun rejected any suggestion the weapon figured in the death of the Polish immigrant.

The lawyers for Taser International argued in their final submission that there was no scientific or medical evidence linking the use of the Taser on Dziekanski to his death after a confrontation with Mounties. [Ed. Note: Shame there's no way to draw a big red arrow between this paragraph and the next boldfaced one below.]

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