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Archive for November 9th, 2009

U.S. dollar sags on global financial leaders’ omission

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Well, unless there were some backroom dealings we’re not privy to – a distinct possibility – it looks like Mr. Estulin’s sources were wrong.

Flashback: G20 Meet To Finalize Dumping Of Dollar This Weekend? | Dollar Reaches Breaking Point as Central Banks Shift Reserves | 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 | 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 | 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

Kevin Carmichael, Globe and Mail
November 9, 2009

Currency traders rid themselves of greenbacks with G20 meeting silent on dollar’s role in recovery

It’s what the G20 didn’t say.

Global traders pushed the U.S. dollar to new lows in a bet that leaders of the world’s major economies are unlikely to take steps to stem the currency’s long slide.

By omitting any discussion of the faltering U.S. dollar at a key gathering, global financial leaders effectively pulled the rug out from under the world’s reserve currency as it continues a months-long decline.

The U.S. dollar sank to new lows against a basket of currencies in the wake of a Group of 20 gathering in Scotland on the weekend, where finance ministers, central bankers and International Monetary Fund officials discussed policies aimed at nursing the global economy back to health.

Investors took the relative silence on foreign exchange as a cue to carry on ridding themselves of the legal tender of the world’s largest economy.

“Bottom line, the G20 and the IMF seemed nonchalant about the dollar,” said Marc Chandler, head of global currency strategy at New York-based Brown Brothers Harriman. “That gave traders a green light to do whatever they want to do, which is to sell the dollar.”

(more…)

Google’s digitization of books

Monday, November 9th, 2009

As Ontario’s privacy commissioner is so fond of saying – build privacy into the system. In this journal’s view, the benefits of a service that offers instant access to the printed totality of human knowledge – an explosion of access – far outweighs external considerations such as state abuse of process. And in terms of keeping books in the physical realm – well, that’s up to us, the book buying public. It’s very likely that the print market will contract, and many new publishers will take advantage of the substantial benefits of online publishing where ‘printing’ and distribution cost race towards zero. But if we keep valuing archival hardcopy when it comes to the most precious volumes, we can realize the benfits of both worlds. The only caveat here is that we need to build an open-source mentality into this process as much as we do privacy – so, ideally, Google should be only one part of a developing digital book ecosystem. To give Google an ‘effective legal monopoly’ over works they’ve already digitized where the rigths holders can’t be found – that’s a fail. What do you think? This future starts here: Google Books.

Flashback: Keeping Google out of libraries

CBC News
November 9, 2009

The Google Books settlement with U.S. writers and publishers, now scheduled for release Nov. 13, is the result of a four-year tussle over the question of whether the company has the right to digitize millions of books, both those in print and those out of print.

Google began its digitizing project in 2005, going to several major university libraries and digitizing every book it found there. The company said its aim is to increase the amount of knowledge available online. But the Authors Guild of America accused the company of “massive copyright infringement” and began a class-action lawsuit against it. Publishers later joined in. That class action has resulted in Google displaying only snippets of books not yet in the public domain.

A $125-million US settlement was announced in 2008 but was dragged back to court in June of this year amid accusations that it was unfair, following an antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. Although the deal is being worked out in a U.S. court, it will apply to everyone connected to the publishing business around the world.

Under the terms of the settlement, Google will have the right to digitize any book published up to Jan. 5, 2009, and available for sale in the U.S. This includes almost all Canadian books in print, as virtually all books published in Canada are available in the U.S.

(more…)

German Chancellor Merkel Calls For A “New Global Order” on Berlin Wall anniversary

Monday, November 9th, 2009

The symbolism of calling for a controlled and micromanaged global order of the sort currently being erected on this anniverary, when people tore their freedom from walls of stone, is unspeakably obscene.

Flashback: Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | IMF chief wants global bank tax | Obama tells UN new era demands global unity | A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government | Gordon Brown chooses pulpit as latest platform to push New World Order | US backing for world currency stuns markets | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Gordon Brown’s amazing patent cure-all globalization deal | Volcker sees crisis leading to global regulation | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Kissinger Calls for a New World Order | Kissinger Calls For New International System Out Of World Crises | Financial Times: And now for a world government | Gordon Brown calls for new world order to beat recession | Baron Rothschild tags along with Gordon Brown, expects new world order | Hope for Obama’s US and Europe to drive a ‘new deal’ for a ‘new world’: Barroso, Brown | ‘Stick together or sink together’: European Commission president invokes ‘global governance’ | Paul Martin calls for ‘global solution’ | Towards a new world order: Canada-EU trade proposal rivals scope of NAFTA | Paul Martin promoting a new League of Nations on the road | The Resurgent Idea of World Government

Steve Watson, Infowars.net
November 9, 2009

Chancellor Angela Merkel today called for the establishment of a “new global order” in remarks marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Speaking at a scientific conference entitled “Falling Walls”, Merkel brazenly told reporters:

“The most important thing, when attempting to overcome barriers, is: Are the nation states ready and willing to give competencies over to multilateral organizations, no matter what it costs?”

The German leader stated that world unity could only be possible if such “global corrections” were made.

“This world will not be a peaceful one if we do not work for more global order and more multilateral cooperation,” Merkel stated.

In the presence of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Merkel added that Americans would have to deliver over more authority to multilateral organizations such as the UN, just as Europeans have done to the EU.

(more…)

UK University student fined £80 for dropping matchstick on Oxford pavement

Monday, November 9th, 2009

So the power-tripping secret environmental minions pounce with their little badges, fine you 160 bucks, and this student actually rationalizes it. Because it’s a new world after 9/11, you see, and this is JUST THE WAY THINGS ARE DONE NOW, because dropping matchsticks is supposed to bring out the STASI, and we’re just lovin’ it. Don’t believe you’re going to be a serf? That is why you fail.

Flashback: Embryonic EU security office set up in secret talks under Lisbon Treaty | UK: Garbage spies alarm neighbourhood | US Homeland Security: Terror fight needs public’s vigilance | UK: Big Brother state wants even more spy powers | ‘AmeriCorps’ Domestic Paramilitary Propaganda Ad | Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More | London Police Encourage Citizens To Inform on Neighbour’s Garbage | UK Home Secretary unveils civilian anti-terrorism security force | Pre-Olympic transit ads encourage citizen surveillance | US Congress passes mandatory national service bill | New World Order Crony Gary Hart Calls for “Civic Duty” | UK: Civil servants attacked for using anti-terror laws to spy on public |Justin Trudeau introduces National Voluntary Service motion | US Democrats Introduce Public National Service Bills | ‘Environmental volunteers’ will be encouraged to spy on their neighbours | ‘Our People’ stand up for Putin | Vladimir Putin sets up nationalist Russian Youth brigade

The Daily Mail
November 9, 2009

An Oxford University student has been fined £80 by a street sweeper for dropping a matchstick on the pavement.

Smoker Demetrios Samouris, who was stopped while shopping with his girlfriend in the city centre, described the fine as ‘quite harsh’.

The 22-year-old said: ‘It was only a match. But I guess all rubbish has to be treated equally, whether it is a matchstick or a sandwich wrapper.’

However, environmental enforcement officer Natalie Hughes explained: ‘People just don’t think what they are doing is wrong. That is what we are trying to address.’

The student fell victim to the council’s ‘zero tolerance’ crackdown on clearing up Oxford’s litter-strewn streets.

The street wardens, aided by Police Community Support Officers and enforcement officers are in the middle of a campaign to clear litter off Oxford’s streets as part of the city council’s ‘Cleaner Greener Oxford’ initiative.

Speaking after being handed the fixed penalty, Mr Samouris described the fine as harsh but he said he understood why tickets were being issued to litterbugs.

(more…)

BC Native tribe will petition Ottawa to remove its Indian status

Monday, November 9th, 2009

The one thing that most people in Canada know about native land claims negotiations is that they’re a minefield. But we should be aware that they’re not only a minefield due to competing interests over broken Canadian promises to the First Nations (who rightly feel these historic treaties must be honoured). They are not only a minefield due to the resultant expropriation of land – land on which non-aboriginal people have now lived for generations, but also because the modern negotiation processes are also the subject of much debate and acrimony within aboriginal communities. Take the Ottawa Algonquin land claims case as an example. In a vastly oversimplified nutshell, the Algonquins claim much of the land Ottawa (including Parliament Hill) sits on today. The Ottawa Citizen in 2007 published an article on the general tensions that a report from the Ipperwash Inquiry set about mediating. In response, Chief Paul Lamothe subsequently wrote in to raise questions about the ‘land claims industry’, which in his view, existed to enrich the legal profession at the expense of any actual negotiation. He left the negotiations in protest, whereupon he was summarily replaced by a a Mr. Potts, who also wrote in with his perspective. The inimitable Mohawk Nation News, for it’s part, declares a pox on both their houses in no uncertain terms. And while this journal has no pretensions as to how to sort any of this out, it goes to show that what’s presented in the media in any land claim negotiation is suspect, for the people do not always support the negotiators that are speaking on their behalf. Therefore, the following story, in which the Gitxsan are petitioning to be stripped of their native status, must be read with a critical perspective. (Just go to the original article and read some of the comments from dismayed Gitxsan!)

Flashback: BC chiefs kill flawed aboriginal rights law | Akwesasne chief pushes for Mohawk sovereignty | Title law would undermine native rights, lawyers say | BC Court Tells Ottawa to Amend Status Rules for Natives | Quebec First Nations declare sovereignty, opposition to provincial development plans | Native leaders vow to fight mining law in Ontario

Justine Hunter, The Globe and Mail
November 9, 2009

Gitxsan people from northwest British Columbia willing to relinquish reserves, tax exemptions, Indian Act housing and financial supports in exchange for a share of resources

A delegation of the Gitxsan people from northwest British Columbia is set to meet with Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl next month with a groundbreaking proposal: That the 13,000 members of their tribe be allowed to abandon their status as “Indians.”

The group is willing to relinquish reserves, tax exemptions, Indian Act housing and financial supports in exchange for a share of resources. Unlike most contemporary efforts at treaty-making, it would also abandon the ambition of a separate level of government.

B.C.’s new minister of aboriginal affairs and reconciliation, George Abbott, has met twice with the Gitxsan treaty team and has put his senior negotiator on the file. Mr. Strahl agreed to the meeting after Mr. Abbott sent a letter to Ottawa last week urging him to take a look at the proposed governance model.

In an interview, Mr. Abbott said he has given his negotiators “a mandate to talk and explore.” He said the proposal still has many hurdles, including the question of whether elected chiefs or hereditary chiefs can claim to speak for the Gitxsan people. The concept is far outside of the standard treaty model, and it presents a series of constitutional questions about the possibility of taking away, even with consent, the rights accorded to status Indians.

  • Can you enfranchise a status Indian?
  • Can the government recognize the authority of hereditary chiefs?
  • Can you give them a share of resources beyond what’s been offered in the past?

And the proposal is by no means universally endorsed by the Gitxsan people, having touched off a power struggle between the hereditary rulers who trace their authority back thousands of years, and the elected band officials who have earned their power through a system created by the Indian Act.

The first nation’s treaty team, led by hereditary chiefs, proposes the Gitxsan would become regular, enfranchised Canadian citizens, governed by municipal, provincial and federal governments.

(more…)

Everyone in Britain could be given a personal ‘carbon allowance’

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Let’s call this for what it is – environmental fascism. You can be assured that your leaders will be under no such restrictions. The ability to tax carbon would result in every aspect of your life subject to taxation, cradle to grave. You breathe out carbon dioxide. Plants breathe it in. It’s part of the cycle of life on the planet.

Flashback: Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading as banker scam | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | 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 | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | Mobile phones to track carbon footprint using GPS | 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

The Telegraph
November 9, 2009

Everyone in Britain should have an annual carbon ration and be penalised if they use too much fuel, the head of the Environment Agency will say

Lord Smith of Finsbury believes that implementing individual carbon allowances for every person will be the most effective way of meeting the targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

It would involve people being issued with a unique number which they would hand over when purchasing products that contribute to their carbon footprint, such as fuel, airline tickets and electricity.

Like with a bank account, a statement would be sent out each month to help people keep track of what they are using.

If their “carbon account” hits zero, they would have to pay to get more credits.

(more…)

Big Oil makes case for carbon-capture subsidies

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Flashback: Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading as banker scam | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate, downgrades CO2 threat | EU agrees to pay developing countries ‘climate aid’ to pass Copenhagen | Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Lord Nicholas Stern: The world’s future is being decided this weekend | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change

Shawn McCarthy, The Globe and Mail
November 9, 2009

But companies unable to forge consensus on the best way to proceed with emissions reduction

Canada’s oil sands companies say they must adopt expensive carbon-capture-and-storage technology to meet environmental challenges, but will require major government subsidies to do so for at least the next decade.

While carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) will be expensive, the industry defends it as being competitive with wind power and biofuels in terms of the cost per tonne for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“CCS is vital to the sustainability of Canada’s oil sands development and the continued production and use of Canada’s fossil fuel resources,” says the report from the Integrated CO{-2} Network (ICO{-2}N), an industry group that represents Canada’s major oil companies and coal-based utilities.

“It makes environmental and economic sense to develop initial CCS projects within a vision of a long-term, large-scale integrated system.”

While the major oil companies all endorse the need for CCS, they do not agree on the best way to impose the price on carbon emissions that will be required to commercialize the technology.

(more…)

Canada commits to continental wilderness deal

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Further abuse of process – Canadians do not elect their public servants to give away the nation’s sovereignty over its resource decisions. We hire our public servants to debate and make those decisions for us domestically. While on the surface protecting pristine territory may seem like a good and reasonable thing, such decisions should not be made within an international framework since there is some reason to believe (see links, below) that this is part of a long term plan to hand sovereign control of these spaces to UNSECO and slowly relocate human populations into crowded urban centres.

Flashback: Canada sets aside its boreal forest as giant carbon vault | UK Ecotowns to get go-ahead despite local opposition | US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive | Prentice tables bill to expand NWT park under UNESCO | American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse | Rich countries, corporations launch great land grab | Beijing peasants bullied, beaten off of family farms by state-developer blocs | 40,000 sq km to be signed over to UNESCO | Canada expanding parkland at ‘extraordinary’ pace | Ontario places vast boreal area under protection, 22% of province off limits to development | Manitoba’s boreal forest touted for UNESCO status | Get set – the future starts now | Today’s suburbs, tomorrow’s slums?

The Canadian Press
November 9, 2009

The federal government has agreed to what’s being billed as an unprecedented commitment to wilderness conservation in North America.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice today announced he’s signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States and Mexico that binds the three countries together in defending uninhabited spaces.

Much of the recent debate over the environment has been framed around climate change and Mr. Prentice says the Conservative government and Canada as a whole have not received enough recognition for conservation efforts. He said Parks Canada has roughly 300,000 square kilometres of land under protection, a space bigger than many European countries.

It is Europeans who count themselves among the Conservative government’s biggest international critics on climate change, especially over its abandonment of the Kyoto Protocol targets. That conservation is thriving is something “Canadians need to crow about it a bit more,” Mr. Prentice said.

(more…)

UK Internet surveillance plan to go ahead

Monday, November 9th, 2009

This is the same as the Canadian plan working its way through the legislative process. You’d better write your MP to get it stopped now.

Flashback: Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | Case for Internet spying not closed | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | 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” | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck

BBC News
November 9, 2009

The Home Office says it will push ahead with plans to ask communications firms to monitor all internet use.

Ministers confirmed their intention despite concerns and opposition from some in the industry.

The proposals include asking firms to retain information on how people use social networks such as Facebook.

Some 40% of respondents to the Home Office’s consultation opposed the plans – but ministers say communication interception needs to be updated.

Both the police and secret security services have legal powers in the UK to intercept communications in the interests of combating crime or threats to national security.

But the rules largely focus on communications over telephones and do not cover the whole range of internet communications now being used.

The Home Office says it wants to change the law to compel communication service providers (CSPs) to collect and retain records of communications from a wider range of internet sources, from social networks through to chatrooms and unorthodox methods, such as within online games.

(more…)

UK soldier testifies comrades beat Iraqi to death

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Corporal Payne? Are you kidding me?

BBC News
November 9, 2009

A former British soldier has admitted for the first time that he saw two of his colleagues kicking and hitting an Iraqi prisoner shortly before he died.

Garry Reader told a public inquiry how, then a private, he had tried in vain to resuscitate Baha Mousa in 2003.

He said he had not told the truth previously, but did believe Cpl Donald Payne and Pte Aaron Cooper had caused Mr Mousa’s death that September.

Mr Reader said he had been afraid speaking out would damage his career.

Mr Mousa and nine other civilians were arrested at a hotel in Basra in 2003 and taken into UK military custody.

The father-of-two died the following day, having suffered 93 separate injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose.

Cpl Payne became the first member of the British armed forces to be convicted of a war crime when he pleaded guilty at a court martial in September 2006 to inhumanely treating civilians.

(more…)