statism watch

Remember Bush Jr’s much derided signing statements? Apparently the authoritarian temptation to enact legislation by executive fiat is too much for President Barack Obama as well. Despite his campaign promises to the contrary. Now, this journal is by no means an expert on American politics, but if Congress isn’t going along with you, you’re pretty much expected to suck it up, since the three branches of government are coequal under the Constitution. Obama knows this. He’s a constitutional lawyer. Or was. But no one cares much about that “goddamned piece of paper” on either side of the border, apparently.

Flashback: The US budget: Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion red ink blueprint | Obama’s War for Oil in Colombia | Obama Information Czar Calls For Banning Free Speech | Obama Executive Order Stokes Martial Law Fears | Obama orders ’strengthened’ no-fly list after bomb plot | Taibbi: Obama’s sellout to Wall Street creates ‘permanent bailout’ | Obama sends 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan | Nobel Peace Laureate Obama Will Send 40K More Troops To War | Obama rules out Afghanistan troop cuts | Obama White House can’t find – or won’t release – millions of Bush emails | Obama Stands Behind Use of ‘State Secrets’ in Warrantless Surveillance Lawsuit | Obama tells UN new era demands global unity | Obama Backs Extending Patriot Act Spy Provisions | Barack Obama to cement new US-UN relationship, chair UN Security Council | Obama’s effort in Afghanistan ‘just beginning’: U.S. defence secretary | Guantanamo’s closure window dressing – overseas CIA ‘black sites’ to stay | Obama Administration Shuts Down 9/11 Families Lawsuit | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | Obama Nominates Globalization Advocates to Clinton’s State Department | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | Obama adds another brigade to Afghanistan troop surge | Obama administration: Guantanamo detainees have ‘no constitutional rights’ | Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets | Dismay at Obama plan to leave 50,000 US troops in Iraq after 2010 | Obama administration tries to kill Bush e-mail secrecy case | Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners | After Obama praises torture ruling, civil liberties group appalled | Obama eyes 3 more brigades for Afghanistan | Obama’s planned troop surge in Afghanistan could lead to more violence: ISAF | Obama requests Guantánamo Bay tribunals suspension | Obama appoints architects of economic collapse, financial globalism to economic team | Obama, like McCain, surrounds himself with elite CFR, Brookings powerbrokers | Hope for Obama’s US and Europe to drive a ‘new deal’ for a ‘new world’: Barroso, Brown | Obama promises 10,000 more troops for Afghanistan

Peter Baker, The New York Times
February 12, 2010

WASHINGTON — With much of his legislative agenda stalled in Congress, President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities.

Mr. Obama has not given up hope of progress on Capitol Hill, aides said, and has scheduled a session with Republican leaders on health care later this month. But in the aftermath of a special election in Massachusetts that cost Democrats unilateral control of the Senate, the White House is getting ready to act on its own in the face of partisan gridlock heading into the midterm campaign.

“We are reviewing a list of presidential executive orders and directives to get the job done across a front of issues,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff.

Any president has vast authority [Ed. Note: Recently and illegitimately] to influence policy even without legislation, through executive orders, agency rule-making and administrative fiat. And Mr. Obama’s success this week in pressuring the Senate to confirm 27 nominations by threatening to use his recess appointment power demonstrated that executive authority can also be leveraged to force action by Congress.

Mr. Obama has already decided to create a bipartisan budget commission under his own authority after Congress refused to do so. His administration has signaled that it plans to use its discretion to soften enforcement of the ban on openly gay men and lesbians serving in the military, even as Congress considers repealing the law. And the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with possible regulations on heat-trapping gases blamed for climate change, while a bill to cap such emissions languishes in the Senate.

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The Associated Press reports that a village elder stated most Afghan Taliban (itself a slippery concept, inclusive of much of the population, and open to interpretation of the way various warring factions interact within Afghanistan) left the area prior to the beginning of the operation, leaving behind mostly foreign fighters from Pakistan and elsewhere in the region to meet the ISAF pacification campaign.

Flashback: Marjah, Afghanistan: Countdown To A Battle | Afghanistan conference agrees on exit timetable, Taliban bailout | British and US troops to launch new Afghanistan offensive | General McChrystal indicates talks with Taliban to be discussed | US pours millions into anti-Taliban militias in Afghanistan | Taliban: Blackwater to blame for Pakistan attacks | UK ‘backs Taliban reintegration’ | How the US Funds the Taliban | Ex-diplomat says Afghanistan in ‘civil war,’ calls for US withdrawal | Ethnic hostility is a big, maybe the biggest, part of the Afghan war | Occupiers involved in drug trade: Afghan minister | Afghan leader’s corrupt brother paid by CIA, U.S. officials say | Pakistani Army working with ‘Good Taliban’ | French troops were killed after Italy hushed up ‘bribes’ to Taleban | Afghanistan Drug Raid Snares Border Police Commander | Afghanistan’s Hidden Heroin Addicts | Britain and US prepared to open talks with the Taliban | Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups | Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries | Taliban flee new U.S. drive in Afghanistan | Whistleblower Who Linked “Taliban” Leader To US Intelligence Is Assassinated | US arms sent to Afghan forces ‘in Taliban hands’ | Canada, allies will never defeat Taliban, PM says | Canadian troops could soon target Afghan drug trade: top soldier | Reports reveal concerns over drug use among Canadian military | NATO to let troops fight Afghan drug lords | Karzai’s kin linked to heroin trafficking | ‘Reconstruction’ efforts in Khandahar not apparent to Afghanis | Delta Force Officer: We Weren’t Allowed to Kill Osama Bin Laden | Afghani Narco-state Continues to Blossom under Puppet President | Report: U.S. Gave Green Light For Taliban Prison Attack | The Lies that Led to War | US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation

Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press
February 12, 2010

Canadian Chinook helicopters touched down in a Taliban stronghold Friday in Afghanistan’s restive south as coalition forces mount the largest air assault of the nine-year war.

American, British, Afghan and other coalition troops were storming the insurgent-held town of Marjah and the district of Nad Ali, said to be one of the the last major bastions of Taliban control in Helmand province.

The attack is called Operation Moshtarak — meaning “together” in Dari — and it is by far the largest offensive staged since U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to send 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan to try to quell a spreading insurgency.

Three Canadian Chinook helicopters were helping ferry some 1,100 coalition troops to Nad Ali, under the watch of four Canadian Griffon escorts.

The seven Canadian choppers joined 33 British and American helicopters in the assault on Nad Ali. Before the attack, military officials said their intelligence showed between 150 to 200 insurgents hunkered down in small pockets around Nad Ali.

The militants were believed to be armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft weapons and other light weaponry.

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Those idiots in the crowd throwing stuff are either cops, or are playing into the hands of the police by starting violence. Look at the picture below – these are the true protesters, families, men and women of all ages, kids. The ‘Black Bloc‘ – who have probably never read a a work of anarchist political philosophy in their lives – have to realize their tactics have no place in a protest of this nature, and are ripe for exploitation by agents provocateurs. And as for the CBC’s coverage of this issue – one guy is taken into custody in a crowd of 1,500 and their original headline is about the ‘police clash with protesters’?!? It’s disgusting.

Flashback: Protesters in Vancouver slum force Olympic torch off-course | Olympic torch delayed by Toronto protest | Olympic torch protested in Montreal | Protesters block Olympic torch relay in Vancouver

CBC News
February 12, 2010

Anti-Olympics protesters clashed with police in downtown Vancouver on Friday night as the marchers tried to approach BC Place, where opening ceremonies for the 2010 Games were underway.

Some protesters sprayed vinegar in officers’ eyes, threw sticks, and spit on officers, police said.

Two officers were injured with flying objects and one was sent to hospital with a shoulder injury but was treated and released, said Const. Lindsey Houghton.

The 125 officers assembled in two rows, along with six police officials on horseback and managed to hold back the crowd, estimated at 1,500.

No protesters were injured.

One man was taken into custody and is facing a charge of assault, Houghton said.

Protesters got as far as the corner of Robson and Beatty streets before being stopped at the police lines, about 200 metres from BC Place stadium.

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“Greece is a living example of why you should never give up control of your own currency,” said Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the British Taxpayers’ Alliance. “The British economy and public finances are in a bad enough state as it is, without dishing out yet more of our money to solve the EU’s self-inflicted problems.” Are Soros, Sarkozy, and Dominique Strauss-Khan listening?

Flashback: EU leaders reach secret Greek bailout deal | Will Greece set off ‘global debt bomb’? | The US budget: Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion red ink blueprint | EU cautions Greece about its deficit | Consumer debt loads are the new concern | No solution in dispute over Iceland deposits | IMF warns against retreat from stimulus spending | Why Did the ‘Stimulus’ Fail to Help the US Economy? | Could Greece drag down Europe? | Record surge in UK inflation | Iceland sets date for Icesave vote | ‘Significant chance’ of second financial crisis, warns World Economic Forum | Iceland says IMF aid likely delayed | Iceland blocks central bank debt repayment deal | Canadians struggling to dig out of debt | Can’t say if federal stimulus is working: watchdog | UAE markets dive on Dubai debt woes | Dubai’s ‘big pyramid scheme’ grounded by debt load | A world awash in debt | U.S. banking troubles far from over | Ottawa on track for largest-ever deficit | U.S. markets fall on Dubai crisis | 1 in 10 Americans delinquent in paying mortgage | Personal bankruptcies still soaring | Credit card debt balloons | US credit shrinks at Great Depression rate prompting fears of double-dip recession | Canada’s $1-trillion debt baby | Credit delinquencies up 24% in June | Bank of Canada declares recession over | Budget officer ‘can’t tell’ if stimulus plan working | More Canadians in arrears on credit payments | Canadian households $1.3-trillion in debt | Credit companies seek to avoid regulation, create global debit system | Canadian credit card delinquencies rising | Iceland’s government collapses | Iceland inflation soars to 17.1% | 5 injured during protest in Iceland over economic meltdown | Now the consumer crunch: falling credit limits, rising interest rates

Matt Moore, Arthur Max, The Associated Press
February 12, 2010

‘It will crack sooner or later, because it’s impossible to have a common currency for such a big, and diverse area’

Can the frugal and the profligate cohabit the euro currency zone?

With Greece overdrawn and no one eager to foot the bill, Europe’s messy debt crisis has exposed a fundamental weakness among the 16 countries that share the euro: Different and often diametrically opposed approaches to spending don’t make for a happy union.

By telling Greece they stand shoulder-to-shoulder as it struggles to rein in a runaway deficit and impose severe austerity measures, but offering little more than moral support, the European Union’s biggest hitters — Germany and France — only slowed the market contagion afflicting Greece, and did not cure it.

As a result, analysts, politicians and observers contend, that may brake momentum for countries like Latvia adopting the beleaguered euro. More broadly, it could force Europe, already in a winter of growing discontent, to reconsider how much of a union it really wishes to be.

Its spending rules — limiting deficits to 3 per cent of economic output — have turned out to be more an honour system than a fiscal anchor. Can they be toughened to stop funny business like that in Greece, which faked budget numbers for years?

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This article details a massive loophole that grants a free pass to any chemical that the sham of a Federal substances control bureau simply doesn’t get around to testing.

Flashback: Passage of Bill C-6 Imminent, Gives Health Canada Warrantless Search and Seizure Powers | Chemical ban targets toys, rubber duckies

Gloria Galloway, The Globe and Mail
February 12, 2010

Bureau charged with determining safety and handling of chemicals and organisms struggles to meet deadlines

Potentially harmful substances can slip into the Canadian marketplace because the federal agency that acts as a gatekeeper is unable to assess their safety in a timely fashion and does not count those that elude its grasp.

A recent internal government audit of the New Substances Assessment and Control Bureau, states the failure of the bureau to meet its deadlines “constitutes a risk that is not currently being tracked.”

The bureau, a section of Health Canada, was established to determine the safety of new chemicals and organisms being made available to Canadians, including those in drugs, cosmetics and genetically modified foods.

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There is a battle on for the soul of this country. It is not being conducted in our national legislature, blind and neutered by the Harper gang, but in innumerable councils and summits churning out a patchwork of treaties and accords safely insulated from accountability to the people. Now we know what Schwarzenneger was really up to in BC: to sit down and sign an economic and environmental treaty spanning BC, Oregon, Washington, and California. Under the auspices of the ‘Pacific Coast Collaborative’s most recent MOU, Gordon Campbell has once again signed away a little bit of British Columbia’s sovereignty by executive fiat. You can watch the leader’s brief video statements here. While specifics from within the summit are hard to come by – unless of course you’ve gone looking for the non-searchable PDF press release found here that calls for a ‘Pacific North America’ by 2030 – the general idea was summed up by the Governator when he said “More and more, the UN and the national governments recognize that the ’sub-national’ governments are really the ones that, in the end, can put the pressure on and create the action that is needed…” This is precisely the end run around federal sovereignty the UN called for in the days prior to Copenhagen’s failure. For green taxation, this signals a regrouping. For Canada, this spells the death of economic sovereignty by a thousand cuts. For more of the thinking behind this, see the Richard Florida article from 2007, Toronto part of ‘transnational mega-region’.

Flashback: Let the Olympic surveillance begin | B.C. to get license-plate scanning system | Cops with cameras future of policing: Vancouver chief | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Jim Prentice: Implement A ‘North American Climate Change Regime’ | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Think Tank Report: Obama Will “Press The Reset Button” On North American Union Agenda | Vancouver kicks off quest for ways to fund transportation system | Obama should rename the SPP, set up two speeds on integration with Canada and Mexico, says new report | 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 | Harper Govt. to push North American carbon market plan with Obama | 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 | CEOs call for ‘aggressive’ action on climate change | Vancouver to import road tolls from UK

Alixandra Gould, Huffington Post
February 12, 2010

Just hours before the 2010 Olympic Games officially kicked-off, the Pacific Coast Collaborative–established in 2008 and consisting of Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of Washington Christine Gregoire, Secretary of State of Oregon Kate Brown, and Premier of British Columbia Gordon Campbell–gathered in Vancouver to discuss issues of mutual interest. One thing was clear, if action is going to be taken on the environment, it’s going to have to start at the local level.

The four leaders had just finished a meeting in which they went over cap-and-trade systems, the hydrogen highway, ocean health, renewable energy, and high-speed trains. At the end of the press conference, the four leaders signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which committed them to collaborate with each other and federal officials to develop renewable energy and improve the air quality of their ports.

Alaska is also a member of the PCC, but was not able to send a representative to the meeting.

The star of the event was no doubt Governor Schwarzenegger, who ran with the Olympic torch through the streets of Vancouver earlier that morning. “We’re united, there’s no two ways about it. Politically, ecologically, we speak with one voice,” he said. Keeping with the athletic theme, he continued, “There’s no sports team that ever has won without being together and being one unit, and all running the same direction and having one plan.”

“We saw at Copenhagen that national governments and the national community has not yet been able to come to an agreement to reducing green house gas emissions. The UN and the national governments have realized that the sub-national governments are really the ones in the end who can put the pressure on and engage the kind of action that is needed.”

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Flashback: G20’s Metro Convention Centre location to bump baseball, pride activities | Harper confirms June G20 summit in Toronto | Is G20 more than Toronto can handle? | With only seven months to go, G20 site may be moved to Toronto | Top Mountie says Huntsville too small for G20 | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | G20 Police & Military Savagely Attack Peaceful Protesters In Pittsburgh Park | G20 decides to become world’s new ruling economic council | Military Police Kidnap G20 Protester, Shove Him Into Unmarked Car | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | Gordon Brown urges EU to back new economic order | A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | 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 | 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

Denise Balkissoon, Toronto Star
February 12, 2010

Police must protect politicians while limiting interruption of normal life

Ignoring city hall’s recommendations, the federal government has decided to hold the June G20 summit downtown, rather than at Exhibition Place.

“We’ve all been told it will be at the [Metro Toronto] Convention Centre,” said Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, although Ottawa has yet to announce officially the site of the June 26-27 meeting of national leaders.

G20 summits involve thousands of police and endless kilometres of security fencing. The relative isolation of the Ex would have made that operation almost painless, say Toronto politicians.

The convention centre, on the other hand, is within walking distance of Union Station, the financial district, the PATH underground routes and Rogers Centre.

Councillor Adam Vaughan said security will be much more severe than for the G7 summit held here in 1988, which he says caused King St. businesses to “lose a lot of money.”

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Flashback: ACTA Is Called An ‘Executive Agreement’ To Implement Restrictive Copyright With Less Hassle Than A Treaty | Swedish Justice Minister reluctant to store internet user’s data | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | ACTA One Step Closer To Being Done; Concerns About Transparency Ignored | Internet companies voice alarm over Italian copyright law | UK MPs frozen out of super-secret ACTA copyright talks | Reading Between The Still Secret Lines Of The ACTA Negotiations | UK: Telecom firms’ fury at plan for ‘Stasi’ checks on every phone call and email | Beyond ACTA: Proposed EU – Canada Trade Agreement Intellectual Property Chapter Leaks | New Leaks of Secret ACTA Copyright Law Reveal Oppressive ‘Global DMCA’ | UK Internet surveillance plan to go ahead | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’

Mike Masnick, Techdirt.com
February 12, 2010

Bas Grasmayer points us to a blog post by Christian Engstrom, an EU Parliament member (yes, from the Pirate Party) who notes that while he was in a committee trying to address whether or not an “IP Observatory” should be created, he discovered it already existed. The Observatory appears to have been set up not to promote progress or even to make sure that intellectual property was a net benefit, but instead it appears to just start from the unproven premise that of course it’s a net benefit, and thus it’s only focus should be on stomping out infringement. And, of course, it appears that most participants are actually from industry, with a few “nominated representatives from Member States” along for the ride to give the Observatory a sheen of legitimacy as a quasi-gov’t organization, even though it appears like just another industry association. Engstrom finds the whole thing baffling:

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Flashback: U.S. prods Pakistan to expand offensive | CIA admits Blackwater presence in Pakistan | US military may escalate ‘war on terror’ by striking deeper into Pakistan | Report: CIA runs secret bases in Pakistan | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Bush secret order to send special forces into Pakistan | CIA, Pakistani ISI have long, complicated relationship

PressTV.ir
February 12, 2010

A senior US official says the American military plans to expand new training centers inside Pakistan in a bid to boost its so-called war on terror.

The senior US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the centers would be used to accelerate and expand the training of Pakistani forces, AP reported.

Washington which invaded neighboring Afghanistan more than eight years ago to allegedly destroy the militancy says the Pakistani military is key to rooting out al-Qaeda leaders allegedly hiding along the mountainous Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

According to the official, the plan will build a number of smaller training centers in the Northwest. Senior US officials have said they hope to train more than 9,000 members of the Pakistani Frontier Corps paramilitary force. The plan will also slash their previous four-year training time by half.

This comes at a time when anti-US sentiments are running high in Pakistan. Indiscriminate US drone attacks have killed hundreds of civilians in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal areas, resulting in a surge in anti-American sentiments.

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So, the information wasn’t withheld due to a culture of suppression. MI5 merely wished to withhold information that might be used against the country. Right. It puts one in mind of the statement from Jim Judd, former head of CSIS, who when a CSIS lawyer questioned about Maher Arar averred that Canada wasn’t averse to using information obtained by torture, got in the media and insisted the lawyer ‘misspoke’ a day later. We all know this is a class of professional liars. There’s a lot of MI5 agents who, rather than operating smugly outside of the law, ought to be going to trial right now.

Flashback: UK Top judge: Binyam Mohamed case shows MI5 to be devious, dishonest and complicit in torture | Britain reveals details of Binyam Mohamed torture | UK: Rights watchdog reveals Pakistani spies pressed by British to torture detainees | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | UK: New evidence in Binyam Mohamed torture case | UK: Secrets of CIA ‘ghost flights’ to be revealed | UK: CIA ‘put pressure on Britain to cover up its use of torture’ | Revealed – the secret torture evidence MI5 tried to suppress | Guantanamo’s closure window dressing – overseas CIA ‘black sites’ to stay | ‘If I didn’t confess to 7/7 bombings MI5 officers would rape my wife,’ claims torture victim | MI5 faces fresh torture allegations | UK: Government makes ‘unprecedented’ apology for covering up Binyam torture | Obama administration: Guantanamo detainees have ‘no constitutional rights’ | Tortured Guantanamo detainee set free | UK agents ‘colluded with torture in Pakistan’ | Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners | U.K. resident held at Gitmo alleges Canadian involvement in torture | Senior judges attack US over ‘torture evidence suppression’

Daniel Nasaw, Richard Norton-Taylor, Ian Cobain , The Guardian
February 12, 2010

The head of MI5 has issued a strong defence of the security service, denying that his staff had withheld documents relating to Binyam Mohamed from the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) or sought to cover up its involvement in the torture of detainees.

The director general, Jonathan Evans, said claims by the Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, that there was a “culture of suppression” within the service were “the precise opposite of the truth”.

He also contacted the ISC to deny that the service had withheld documents relating to Mohamed, a former Guantánamo Bay detainee, the ISC’s chairman, Kim Howells, said last night.

Evans’s defence of MI5 came after documents released by the appeal court on Wednesday suggested Neuberger had criticised MI5 for having “deliberately misled” the committee.

In an article in today’s Telegraph, Evans writes that MI5 was trying to protect the country from “enemies” who would use “all the tools at their disposal” – including propaganda – to attack.

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